#<— some of you may want to filter those last three tags considering that i post about them semi regularly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

misc-obeyme · 6 months

Text

THE THREADS THAT BIND

EPILOGUE

MASTERPOST for summary/info/chapter list

a/n: This spicy epilogue is dedicated to @silverrings-n-prettythings who offered to bare knuckle box an alligator for it... twice lol. Fortunately, no alligators needed to be fought, but without Silver's encouragement, it might not have happened. So thank you for always leaving such amazing feedback in the tags, it truly means so much to me!

PLEASE NOTE: Don’t read the epilogue unless you’ve read the rest of the story.

I also feel the need to mention that this is very feelings heavy because of the whole relationship build up that had been happening in the main story. It just felt right, since they just kinda recently admitted their feelings for each other.

Anyway, this is the last of the story for real. Thank you for coming with me on this journey!

GN!MC x Barbatos | word count 1,910

NSFW MDNI

Warnings: oral and penetration (reader receiving), pet names, uhhh definitely also some cheesiness, I'm sorry I can't help it lol

You startled yourself awake. Moonlight filtered through the large windows in Barbatos's room, casting shadows beneath the plants and in the corners of the staircases. Beside you, partially bathed in that silver light, Barbatos was slumbering peacefully. You watched as his expression grew concerned, as one of his hands reached out for you in his sleep. Between you, the bright teal of the thread glimmered gently.

It was so rare for you to see him at rest like this, hair disheveled, expression soft in sleep. And yet the last few days, you had seen more of it than he had ever shown you before.

Barbatos shifted slightly, as though he could sense the cold space next to him where your warm body had once been. His hand stretched even further, seeking your presence.

You took it and brought it to your lips.

Barbatos blinked his eyes open. You were confronted with the unguarded feelings that filled them when he focused them on your face, as he took in the sight of you with his fingers pressed to your lips.

Where so much was normally kept hidden, you saw only openness now. Here in the quiet of night, silver splayed and teal tinged, Barbatos looked at you as though everything he had ever cared for in his long life had culminated within your heart. He looked at you as though even when that thread was gone, he would still be irrevocably tied to you. He looked at you as though that was a choice he had made for himself, come what may.

No words passed between you because everything was held in his eyes and in the thread that lingered still.

As he watched, you spread his fingers and kissed the pads of each one, holding his gaze as you did so. His hand was so perfect, despite how often it was used to scrub dishes and pull weeds. The long elegant fingers stayed limp in your grasp until you had finished bestowing your kisses. And then they reached out, his palm resting on your cheek, warm and soft.

There had been a sort of unspoken caution between you as you learned your way through the new reality of honest love. A hesitancy that you both felt to ensure that you didn't make any rash choices, that you took your time, that you learned the nuances of each other.

All of that seemed to have vanished now. Because when you looked down into those eyes, there was only one thing you wanted more than anything else in the three worlds.

Barbatos likely saw that desire in your eyes.

He sat up to meet you, one hand staying on your cheek, the other going to your waist, as he kissed you softly in the moonlight.

You considered letting it stay soft. That despite what you were feeling, it might still be too soon.

But then Barbatos bit gently on your lower lip and any caution you had been about to employ was immediately abandoned. You opened your mouth for him, felt his tongue tracing your lip before entangling itself with yours. The grip on your waist tightened. Your hand flew up to grip the edge of his slightly unbuttoned pajama shirt, fabric twisting in your fist.

You felt the hand on your waist move to slide up your own shirt, fingertips tracing lightly across your skin. You broke away with a gasp, pulling your shirt over your head before undoing the buttons on Barbatos's shirt and pushing it off of his shoulders.

Barbatos followed your lead, helping you to remove the rest of your pajamas and his, before pushing you back gently on the bed.

Barbatos paused, poised above you. The longest strands of his hair brushed softly against your cheek as you looked into his green eyes. The slight glow of the teal thread stretched between your bare chests.

"MC," Barbatos said. His voice had a reverence to it and if he wasn't a demon you would have thought it sounded like a prayer.

You didn't have a chance to respond properly because Barbatos was kissing your neck, his lips pressing down your chest, his hands rubbing down your sides. He continued until he was tucked between your thighs, at which point he looked up at you, a question in his eyes. The thread trailed across your body, a tiny path down your chest and stomach, an almost perfect outline of where his kisses still burned against your skin.

You reached out your hand, nestling your fingers into his hair. "I'm ready," you said. "I trust you."

Barbatos waited for a few moments, as though he was giving you a chance to change your mind. When you didn't, he kissed your thighs, making his way to the throbbing space between your legs. You gasped when you felt his hot mouth on you, the expert way he used his tongue to make your limbs shake.

You couldn't prevent yourself from tugging on his hair as your fingers twisted in it, the feelings washing over you too intense for you to stop it. Barbatos didn't seem to mind, not even pausing although you were certainly causing him some pain.

"Ah, Barbatos-"

At this, Barbatos did stop, looking up at you from his position between your thighs. Your hand dropped to your side, letting go of his hair as he propped himself up to look at you properly.

"I-I'm sorry," you said, blushing slightly at his intense gaze.

His expression softened. "You needn't apologize, my love. All I want is to please you. Tell me what you would like me to do."

My love.

These words caused an echo in your mind, an echo of something Barbatos had once said about someone else -

It seems my love has found us.

You were reminded of that insecurity, the small piece of doubt that still remained, that couldn't be completely eased even though Barbatos told you how he truly felt about you. Even though he had also said -

I have never loved anyone in the same way that I love you.

He had said that to you, directly. Not in a vision of a future yet to come, not to a person whose identity he still didn't know.

Barbatos seemed aware that something was passing through your mind. He sat up, pulling you up with him, wrapping his arms around you, pressing you into his chest. Your eyes were so close to the entry point of the thread as it spilled out from his skin, creating a small U before looping back into you.

"Shall I find a different term to call you?" he asked.

The tenderness of his tone filled you with a softness unlike anything you had ever known. "Like what?"

Barbatos chuckled, his breath ruffling your hair. "My darling, my dearest, my everything, my sun and my moon…"

You laughed. "Okay, okay, stop, please!"

"My cupcake," Barbatos went on. "My muffin, my sugarplum…"

"I shouldn't be surprised that you have so many pastry options," you said.

Barbatos hummed contentedly, kissing your temple. "All you have to do is tell me your preference."

You sighed. "I don't have a preference, you can call me whatever you like."

"As you wish, my little tiramisu," Barbatos said.

You shook your head, laughing because you couldn't help it.

Barbatos pulled away enough to meet your eyes. "MC, if you will allow it, I would like nothing more than to finish what I have begun." His fingers trailed down your stomach, hovering just above the heat of your arousal.

A thrill ran through you when you saw the desire that had taken over Barbatos's expression. Where one moment he had been all softness, now he was all fire, a passion blazing there that ignited the need inside you as well.

You reached up, putting your hand flat on his chest right where the thread emerged. "I want you inside me, Barbatos."

Barbatos wasted no time. He was almost methodical in the way he retrieved some lubrication from the bedside table, using it and his fingers to make sure you were fully ready. You squirmed beneath his ministrations until you couldn't take it anymore, practically begging him to put his cock in you.

Barbatos's pace slowed significantly as he lined himself up, slowly pressing himself into your heat. You trembled beneath him, the exquisite feeling of him filling you up and making you shiver. You moaned once he was fully inside you and the expression of bliss on his face let you know that he was feeling just as good as you were.

You barely registered him asking you if you were okay, all you could do was wrap your legs around his hips, your hands clutching at his shoulders, as you moaned and gasped.

You were sure you said something, likely begging him to continue, but it was all lost in the heat and the feelings.

Barbatos was slow and sweet as he began to thrust, mumbling in your ear about how much he loved you. You mostly responded with moaning and gasping, but eventually you couldn't take how slow he was going and your words turned into begging him to speed up.

Barbatos didn't hold back for long, taking his cues from you and increasing his speed as you requested. You held onto him as he hit that perfect spot inside you over and over, the feeling of him moving inside you so sweet and so good, building and building.

Barbatos pulled away from you just a little, propping himself up to look down at you. You saw that blazing passion in his eyes and the reflection of the teal thread, that bounced now as it stretched between your chest and his. Your hands clutched at his arms. You cried out his name, your back arching, as you came hard, the feeling bursting within you from deep in your gut, exploding through every nerve in your body.

You watched as Barbatos came, too, his normally calm expression running riot with how good you made him feel.

Both of you gazed at each other, breathing heavily as you came down from the highs of your orgasms, feeling the warmth of the room settle around you, the gentle sweetness of intimacy bringing you even closer.

Barbatos kissed your eyelids, your cheeks, your lips, that place on your chest where the thread still connected you to him.

You found that neither of you needed to say anything more then. Barbatos was as efficient as always, taking care of cleaning things up before coming back to the bed. The moment he was beside you, you found yourself pulling him into your arms, pressing him against you, like you were scared he might disappear if you didn't feel him close enough. He sighed against your skin and wrapped his arms around you, tucking himself into you perfectly.

You didn't know it that night, but forever after Barbatos would use random pastries as pet names for you. It was almost always something different and it made you smile every time.

Sometimes, long after the thread had finally faded, often in the night when the silver moon cast its light into the darkness of his bedroom, Barbatos would speak gently and softly into your ear, making you shiver and reminding you of a truth he was determined to make sure you never forgot. In those quiet moments, he only ever called you my love.

masterpost | chapter one | chapter thirteen

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

#obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me shall we date #omswd #obey me smut #obey me barbatos #om barbatos #barbatos obey me #obey me barbatos x reader #om barbatos x reader #barbatos obey me x reader #obey me barbatos smut #om barbatos smut #the threads that bind #misc naughty times #misc writes

157 notes · View notes

werevampiwolf · 1 year

Text

I posted 39,420 times in 2022

That's 9,773 more posts than 2021!

6 posts created (0%)

39,414 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@flange5

@luidilovins

@spongebobssquarepants

@bloodfetcher

@renthony

I tagged 928 of my posts in 2022

#toh spoilers - 24 posts

#hot damn - 18 posts

#stained glass my beloved - 12 posts

#youtube - 11 posts

#i don't go here but - 11 posts

#flashing lights - 7 posts

#hell yeah - 7 posts

#mochi - 7 posts

#i love her - 6 posts

#owl house spoilers - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i got distracted trying to decide if i'm too tired to make myself dinner or if i should just eat a snack and go to bed because it's 9pm lol

My Top Posts in 2022:

My roommates are throwing a party and it's so fucking loud and I can't sleep and this is a fucking autistic/PTSD sensory hell

3 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

Fun fact, blaze posts ignore tag filters. Also I'm not sure how well Tumblr screens blazes before they post.

@staff

[Brief image description: a tumblr blaze sponsered post to a fic that is tagged with both "dead dove: do not eat" and "incest"]

3 notes - Posted April 28, 2022

It's my birthday today

4 notes - Posted June 19, 2022

Mr. Man got his first-ever tag today and is very proud of it!! I’m so in love with the tags we got all 3 of my dogs (they’re the same but Milo’s is blue, Laika’s is gold, and Loki’s is black) that I’m gonna get 3 more with their names to use as keychains lol (I have no idea why I call him Mr. Man, it just came out one day and now I can’t stop lmao)

Those are amazing tags and now I want one for my dog lol. I want to get my dog a collar with a matching bracelet for me

Also I'm now going to accept that Man is his last name (or middle name if you consider your dogs to have your last name)

4 notes - Posted March 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@niuniente

Here’s what my dumb questions were leading up to. I present: bubblegum Death-Head with extra eye and makeup. She’s a half-face tuatara, which have an extra eye on the top of their heads, though I took some liberties with the placement. She can’t see details with it but she can sense light and dark, like a real tuatara. She doesn’t have human ears, just little earholes like a lizard, so her glasses are actually magnetically attached to piercings she has right there. Her spikes go down her head and they’re naturally green, but she paints the ones on her head with nail polish. She used to always wear pink eyeshadow on all three eyes, but with her mask and all, now she only does the middle eye. She’s also got a tail that’s hidden in the shawl, because I cannot draw a lizard tail that doesn’t look terrible. And while I didn’t draw any teeth details, they’re very sharp, and she will not hesitate to bite.

I think I’m gonna call her Anahera, which is Maori for “angel“ (since tuatara are from New Zealand)

Made in Inkscape, and I did it pretty fast, at least for me, so the anatomy isn’t exactly amazing lol.

(also the model I found to reference was already wearing the glasses, so I figured it was fate since it matches Alrick’s)

30 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

1 note · View note

hydrus · 2 years

Text

Version 492

youtube

windows

zip

exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

I had a good week mostly cleaning code and adding some things for advanced users.

highlights

If you are in advanced mode, the file sort and collect controls now have a 'tags' button. This lets you determine which tag service that particular sort/collect applies to. If you are this tag-clever, let me know how it works for you. This tag button is the same thing that autocomplete dropdowns use, and I expect it to soon get a 'multiple location' makeover like the file button did with multiple file services.

The archived file delete lock (under options->files and trash) gets a pass this week. If you try to delete files that are currently locked, it now makes a popup with a button to see those specific files, so you can decide what to do. The duplicate filter also handles the different situations (like 'archive both files' + 'delete the worse file') better.

The duplicate filter also now shows if one or both files have an ICC profile.

The shortcut actions to 'move page selection home/left/right/end' now try to stay on the same level if you hit them several times. If you use these actions, try them out through a mix of page of pages and you'll see how it works now. It remembers the current level within three seconds of the last move event. This was requested by several users, and there isn't a nice way to do it so I hacked an answer, so let me know what you think.

full list

sort and collect updates:

for big brain users, the collect control now has a tag domain button. it only shows if you are in advanced mode (issue #572)

the sort control also has a tag domain button hidden behind advanced mode. it applies to system:num tags and namespace sorting

the collect control now appears on all import pages

archived file delete lock:

the duplicate processing action code now no longer archives files that are due for deletion right before that deletion. this was hitting the archive delete lock

if archive delete lock is on and the 'other' file in the duplicate filter is archived, the option to 'this is better, delete the other' is now disabled

if you attempt to delete a delete-locked file during normal browsing, or if an automatic system like export folders wants to but fails on some, a popup is now made with a button to show the files that were filtered out so you can review the situation and fix it if you want

I am considering adding a dialog to say 'hey, this is locked, want to send back to inbox?' to fix these situations in a nice way, but I think this is probably a bad idea in terms of workflow, design, and my sanity given all the edge cases and potential future expansions of lock rules. maybe I'll add a simple 'delete and override lock checks' option, but a lock is a lock tbh. for now, I will focus on this better UI feedback of currently delete-locked files and make it simpler for humans to remove any locks

misc:

using black magic, I have made it so the shortcuts for 'move left/right one page' 'and 'move home/end' do not dip down to the lowest level of a neighbouring page of pages for the next command. it now stays on the current tab level for three seconds after the most recent move command. this works in testing but may be jank in some IRL situations, so if this matters to you, let me know how it works out

fixed a bug in 'do a full metadata resync' that meant unprocessed row orphans were not being deleted, which lead to lingering 1950/2000-style processed gauges that didn't actually cause any work to be done on 'process now'

the duplicate filter now shows if one or both files have an icc profile. for now the score for this is always 0, neutral

I think I have reduced general lag on some busy clients

code cleaning and minor fixes:

refactored file viewing stats management to a new database module

refactored file physical storage management to a new database module

cleaned up an ugly bridge that made inbox/archive work and moved it all to a clean new separate database module

improved some client file physical storage repair code, both in how it repairs and how it recovers in the current boot

updated the yes/no dialog texts when you apply 'not related' or 'alternates' to a selection

added a bunch of tooltips to the 'speed and memory' options panel. also clarified the example image sizes in number of pixels

improved how my grid layout propagates tooltips from the widget to the text when the widget is compound and in its own layout

consolidated where the delete lock test occurs to just one location for db, gui

added infrastructure to filter and report delete-locked files. callers no longer care about specific lock rules, opening this up to future expansion

cleaned and simplified some duplicate action processing code

cleaned up some file collect code, optimised it a bit too

the sort control now only changes sort type on mouse wheel events if the mouse is over that button

renamed 'tag search context' to 'tag context' across the program, mirroring a recent change with the location context, and gave it some bells and whistles. in future, the tag context will hold multiple tag services

wrote a new button to edit tag contexts

next week

Next week is small jobs. I have a bunch of different things piled up that I want to get to, and I'll see if I can catch up with some longer term bug reports too.

#release

0 notes

beewolfwrites · 3 years

Text

An Iron Box - The Eternal Rocks

Apologies for the late update! My life has become a little hectic, so I haven’t been on Tumblr or AO3 as much. Hopefully I can make it up with new scenes that weren’t in AWIAF :)

If you’re still following this fic, thank you for reading. It means the world <3

The AO3 link is here if you prefer reading it on there.

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

I had stumbled across the copy of Wuthering Heights shortly after becoming an executive member. When I first moved into my room, it was tucked away in a drawer, and judging by the curled pages coated with dust, it had been there a while. I’d never cared enough to discard it, nor had I cared enough to read it. Until now.

The noon sunshine filtered through the windows as I sat on my bed, legs stretched out and book in hand. So far, it was a trivial mess – a ditsy story of childhood friends turned teenage lovers. Of course, this was the kind of book she would read. And if she really did have a Masters degree in literature, chances are she had already read it.

Yesterday, when I was called to the meeting room, I had an inkling as to what the fuss was about. And sure enough, there she was, dragged in like a stray by Niragi of all people. What terrible luck.

Well, for her at least.

Things had panned out just as I expected. If only she had come with me when I’d asked, she wouldn’t have had to deal with Aguni’s militants. They had given me the whole rundown of her Eight of Hearts game... how she’d solved it a little too late... how she’d accidentally set herself up by mentioning my name.

And now, I finally knew her name.

After showing her to her new room yesterday, I’d rolled it over on my tongue, memorising the foreign feel of it, the way the vowels stretched and consonants collided. It suited her, in a way. However, it seemed it would be a while before I could call her by it. According to the grapevine, she had disappeared into her room and hadn’t been seen since.

This morning, when I went downstairs to get breakfast, my eyes had instinctively scanned the crowded room, hoping to catch a familiar doe-eyed stare. But she was nowhere to be found.

‘Who are you looking for?’

Kuina had appeared beside me, balancing a bowl of cereal in one hand.

‘Nobody,’ I told her.

She wagged her finger, and through a mouthful of cereal, insisted, ‘don’t even think about lying to me. I can read you pretty well by now.’

I tried to ignore her noisy chewing. ‘I met a girl in a game.’

Kuina had wiggled her eyebrows at this, and something inside me instantly turned cold. If she thought I was involved in a petty romance then she could think again. I had no interest, and besides, this was hardly the place.

‘I believe we can use her in the plan. Niragi brought her in after a game yesterday.’

‘And there I was thinking you actually had a heart, hm?’ Kuina paused, her spoon dangling between her fingers. ‘I did hear there was a new girl, but nobody’s spoken to her yet. Do you want me to try and talk to her?’

I had mulled it over, but there was no point in rushing things. There was every chance she would emerge in her own time. It was like tempting a frightened animal out of its den and straight into a snare.

‘Not just yet,’ I said. ‘Let her feel hungry.’

‘You think she’ll come down for lunch?’

I smiled. ‘Probably not. But she’ll be hungry enough that when you do pay her a visit, she’ll want to trust you.’ Surveying the busy room, I added. ‘Keep an eye on the rumours. If she doesn’t come down in a few hours, bring her some food.’

‘Why me?’ Kuina scowled. ‘Why can’t you do it?’

Surely the reason was obvious. ‘She’s here because of me. I’m the last person she wants to speak to.’

Kuina had looked uncertain. But she couldn’t argue against it; we both knew I was right.

Now, several hours later, the sun was sinking and Kuina was probably about to pay (name) a visit. But I would leave that up to her. If Kuina befriended her, she would be much more willing to join our plan. Stretching my legs, I focused on the page in front of me.

‘It’s about life and finding meaning and purpose in everything.’

Her words from the pharmacy. Even now, they still rang clearly, haunting every recess of my mind. I didn’t care about finding meaning in life. I didn’t care at all. But I was curious about her obsession with fiction and poetry. What was it that drew her to books?

What meaning does she see that I can’t?

My eyes landed on the words before me.

“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”

How could love be necessary? It wasn’t food or water. It couldn’t be quantified, had little value in life, and if anything, it was a weakness in the games. I had never once needed it myself, and here I was, still alive and breathing. The whole story was trivial, melodramatic and utterly pointless. And yet, my gaze was drawn to the next line and the next.

I suppose I could read it, even if only to ease this perpetual boredom.

“He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being—”

A bang rattled the windows as the door to my room flew open. Kuina was standing breathlessly in the doorway, that fake cigarette of hers clenched between her teeth.

‘You,’ she said, inviting herself in and moving towards the chest of drawers. ‘I need to borrow one of your hoodies.’

I flipped over to the next page. ‘Why?’

She yanked open each drawer one by one, plundering through the contents before slamming them shut. ‘I need a spare hoodie for (name). Or, you know, anything that’s not a string bikini.’

‘I see, so that’s why she was hiding.’ I smiled, eyes drifting over the page of my book. ‘What a stupid reason.’

Kuina glowered and jabbed a finger at me. ‘Oi, just because you’re too confident for your own good it doesn’t mean everyone else is. Tell me where your hoodies are now.’

I nodded at the cupboard. ‘The grey one on the left-hand side.’

She opened it up and pulled out the grey hoodie. Out of the three I owned this was the smallest. It was also the newest, having never been soiled by blood in a game before. ‘Are you sure?’

I shrugged and turned back to my book. ‘She can keep it.’

It may be useful to create a debt.

I expected Kuina to simply take the hoodie and leave me to read in peace. But she didn’t. She clenched the fabric in her fists, staring at it. Her jaw tightened around her plastic cigarette.

‘Chishiya, she’s nice. She’s really nice.’

‘Everyone’s nice until you pit them against each other.’

She grimaced, fingers gripping the hoodie. ‘I don’t think... she’s not like that. What did you have planned with her anyway?’

‘We need someone to find the safe where the cards are kept. A guinea pig, so to speak. I’m going to set her up and we’ll take advantage of the distraction.’

Kuina looked uncomfortable with the idea. ‘I’m just not sure about this.’

Sighing, I gave up trying to read and snapped the book shut. ‘If you’re not sure, then drop out. I’ll leave with the cards and you can stay right here.’

Of course, Kuina was smart enough to know what the Beach would descend into once it became apparent that the cards were missing. And if I went missing along with them, she would be the first person they’d turn to. Judging by the look on her face, she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

‘Fine,’ she agreed at last. ‘But of all the people to choose, she really doesn’t deserve this.’

I smiled, thinking back to Niragi’s overdramatic retelling of their game. Apparently, it was a game of laser tag with handguns. She had shot a teenage girl in the chest and emerged without a scratch.

‘Perhaps you’ll think differently if you see her in a Hearts game,’ I said. ‘It’s human nature to be selfish.’

It’s human nature to kill in order to survive.

With a small hiss of disapproval, Kuina trailed out of the room and left me alone, taking the grey hoodie with her.

Finally.

Picking up the book once more, I scanned over the words on the page. The entire plot made no sense. Cathy’s choice was obvious right from the beginning – Linton offered protection and financial security. It was everything she needed to live comfortably, so what was the issue? Why would a person be so caught up just because of a childhood sweetheart? Heathcliff was equally as ridiculous, running away like a brat just because she said a few words behind his back. This was a book for naïve idiots.

No wonder she likes it.

And yet, I read and read until the sun slunk behind the skyline, the darkness creeping in slowly through the curtains until it became too dark to read. I could have easily turned on the bedside lamp and continued, but perhaps it was time to see how things were going with Kuina and (name).

The sooner they were friends, the easier this would become.

Getting up, I left my room and headed downstairs. It was right before the games began – the time when the Beach was at its most lively, and everyone was busy living in the moment just in case these turned out to be their final moments.

I passed by a couple furiously groping one another behind a pillar.

People are all the same.

Stepping outside onto the patio, I scanned the throngs of drunken idiots stumbling around in a haze of skin, sex and drugs. And then I caught a glimpse of that familiar face, standing by the bar and dressed in my hoodie. A man was beside her.

And you are just like them.

For a moment, I simply watched on as the man – one of Niragi’s troupe – tried to make conversation with her. Considering the sheer volume of the music and her self-taught Japanese, I wondered if she understood him. Taking her drink from the bartender, she smiled and said something undecipherable before taking a step away.

Bad move. A gun glinted, pressing into her side.

Oh?

The look on her face told me everything. She wasn’t flirting with him after all. And now it was all too clear what this man wanted from her.

Such an unpleasant welcome.

Perhaps I should have just left her to it, since this was the true face of the Beach, the drop of cold hard reality hidden behind the façade of a utopia. Perhaps I should have her deal with the situation on her own, for better or worse. But how could I? This was a perfect opportunity to regain her trust.

I sidled up to the bar, glancing between the half-drunken idiot and (name), who was standing there wavering like a ghost. Her expression was detached yet poised, like a rabbit on the verge of fleeing. But she couldn’t – not with the hand wrapped around her wrist and the pistol set just below her ribs.

‘What’s this?’ I leaned against the countertop. ‘I see you’ve met our newest member.’

(Name) blinked, only just noticing my presence. I glanced down at the pistol, the barrel half-hidden in the fabric of her hoodie. My hoodie.

‘You should probably put that thing away. Hatter won’t be too happy if you start messing with her. He’s got high expectations of her.’

The militant only pushed the gun further into her torso, standing up straighter in a useless attempt at intimidating me. ‘You know, Chishiya, I’m pretty sick of you interfering all the time. You should stay out of militant business.’

I almost smiled. This man wasn’t even an executive member. ‘Militant business,’ I said slowly. ‘It’s fascinating what you guys do. You take out the trash and dish out the sentence, but you never check the evidence.’

He bristled, his finger tightening over the trigger. ‘What the hell are you talking about? Just shut up and stay out of this.’

Typical. Do I have to spell things out to everyone?

‘What I’m saying,’ I replied, ‘is that you never bother checking to see if the ‘traitors’ are actually traitors. It’s surprisingly easy to slip a few cards into someone else’s room.’

I met his gaze pointedly, watching as he finally started to come to an understanding. He squeezed (name’s) wrist until her fingers blotched white and purple, before finally letting go.

Pushing his face close to mine, he whispered a slurred mess that sounded a lot like ‘threaten me again and I’ll end you’, before striding off into the crowd. It wasn’t much of a threat, coming from someone who couldn’t quite walk in a straight line. But no matter, I wasn’t here for him.

I was vaguely aware of (name) watching me as I turned back to the bar. The bartender was wiping glasses, unbothered by what had just happened. He saw worse every day.

‘お水をください,’ I said. Water, please.

A glass was placed in front of me, and I calmly sipped my water, waiting patiently for the inevitable. About now, she was probably itching to thank me, but wondering how best to do it. An over-thinker, that’s what she was.

When she finally spoke, it was so quiet I could have easily missed it, if only I hadn’t been expecting it. ‘Thanks... I’m guessing stuff like that’s pretty common around here.’

You catch on fast.

‘Well, there are only three rules,’ I said, assessing the grey hoodie. It had been slightly too small on me but was oversized on her. ‘Right now, you’re not allowed to go roaming the city alone because you’re still new, and that makes you a liability. But the next time you’re in a game, you’ll be paired with one of the executives, or someone else with a high rank. If you ask, they’ll go with you to find new clothes.’

She looked mildly surprised. Had Kuina not mentioned that it was mine? If so, I wonder how she would react once she found out. Perhaps this was a tidbit of information I should keep to myself for now.

Speaking of Kuina, I could see her now, watching me nervously through the crowds from a recliner on the other side of the patio.

‘Of all the people to choose, she really doesn’t deserve this.’

Perhaps not. But that’s what made her perfect for the job.

#alice in borderland #aib #imawa no kuni no arisu #chishiya #chishiya shuntaro #chishiya x oc #chishiya x reader #chishiya alice in borderland

42 notes · View notes

youvebeenlivingfictional · 4 years

Text

Don’t Treat My Love Like a Habit Part Three

Previous Part | Next Part | Masterlist

Pairing: Santiago Garcia x Reader Rating: Mature (this may change) Warnings: Cursing

Notes: Set before the movie. Not beta-read. Reina is Spanish for Queen. Also I am not a native Spanish speaker, so I am sorry for any mistakes! *Cutie

Summary: It was hardly the first time Frankie had hinted at the possibility of something between yourself and Pope.

“I get that he’s frustrated, I mean, fuck, I am, too, but we can’t just jump on every single bust Diego throws our way,” You said into the phone. “Well he didn’t hop on this one,” Frankie pointed out from the other end. “Right, because I was able to talk him down. If he hadn’t listened to me, who knows what the hell might’ve happened?” “There’s no need to worry about the what-ifs, Q. C’mon, you’re both in one piece.” You sighed, shifting the phone from one ear to the other. You’d kept in contact with the team when they’d returned home, and you’d grown closer to Frankie since you’d started working with Pope. He and Pope had been the close to one another, so Frankie understood acutely what you went through with him day-in and day-out.

“Look, Pope’s got his impulsive moments, but he’s not an idiot. And he trusts you. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t hold your opinion so highly,” Frankie added. You were quiet for a few moments, considering this. You and Pope spent most of your days together going over data, fragments of recorded conversations, picking apart stories from less-than-reliable leads; you were in one another’s faces all the time. You drove one another crazy sometimes, but at the end of the day, Santiago looked to you for your expertise. It had been your skill that had found the doctoring in Hernandez’s photo, and it had been Pope’s trust in you that had kept him out of that bust.

“I guess so,” You conceded begrudgingly, glancing toward the office door. Pope hadn’t been in, and you weren’t sure he would be, but you weren’t sure you wanted him walking in on this particular conversation. “I mean it’s not all the time, obviously,” You added, “but when things go wrong, I mean especially with that...Fucking Isabella situation...Ugh.” You meant that both ways. “Sure you’re not jealous?” Frankie asked lightly. You tipped your head forward, frowning as if he was right in front of you. “What? ... Frankie,” You warned. “It was just a thought!” He laughed on the other end. “Yeah, well, I love you, but it was a bad one, *chulo.” It was hardly the first time Frankie had hinted at the possibility of something between yourself and Pope. It wasn’t that you didn’t find Santiago attractive. When you’d first met in the service, you’d felt some... Pull to him. But at the time, you were determined not to get mixed up with any of the guys that you worked with. You’d slipped up once or twice, but never where Pope was involved. Even if Frankie hinted at the two of you being a ‘good fit’ almost every single time the two of you spoke, you were resolved not to go there. These past two years had shown you a completely different side of Pope than you’d known in the service. You’d seen him at his brightest moments and at his breaking points; he’d seen you at yours. You didn’t want anything to change the relationship the two of you had developed. While it felt like you never saw the guy for anything but work, you knew that there was no one in the world that you were closer to. You didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. Jealousy over Pope’s ... Flings? Trysts? Whatever they were-- with the informants he used would definitely do that. So whenever you felt even one unwelcome, unwanted, ugly feeling about it creeping up on you, you’d just slap it down. It was like emotional whack-a-mole. Not that you’d ever in a million years tell ‘Fish that you felt jealousy over those incidences (because hey, was it really jealously if you only let it last, like, ten seconds?). “Did I lose you, Q?” Frankie asked. You cleared your throat. “What?” You asked. “I said, ‘I’ll keep my thoughts to myself next time’.” “No you won’t,” You chuckled a little. You glanced back as you heard the door open. “I got a ‘Fish on the line,” You said, smiling at Santiago. “Gimme,” Santiago ordered, holding his hand out for the phone. “I’m passing you off to Pope,” You warned Frankie before holding the phone out for Santiago to take. “Hey, Frankie,” Santiago’s face brightened instantly, and you couldn’t help your smile at the look on his face. You turned your attention down to the coffee maker. “Make me some for me, too, would you, Reina,” Santiago leaned in to murmur against your hair before he stepped away to set his things down at the desk. You rolled your eyes a little bit, choosing not to respond as you added more coffee grounds to the filter. You let yourself zone out as Santiago dipped into Spanish. Your ear caught on every few words, but you weren’t really paying attention; he knew better than to gossip about you in English or Spanish when you were nearby. You poured yourself and Santiago steaming mugs of coffee, adding two sugars to Santiago’s. You set his aside for him before you picked your mug up, blowing on the coffee lightly to cool it. “Frankie had to go, his shift was starting,” You heard him say as he came up behind you. He tucked your phone into your back pocket before he leaned against you, resting his hands on either side of you on the counter. “You’re not gonna drink your coffee?” You asked as his forehead rested on your shoulder. " ‘m gonna let it cool down,” He muttered. You reached up, lightly scratching the top of his head. “You alright?” You asked gently. “Fine.” He lifted his head, nudging his nose against the hinge your jaw. “Have I told you that you look beautiful today?” He murmured. “What did you hear from Diego?” You asked, seeing right through his flattery. Pope groaned, straightening up and leaning back against the counter after picking up his coffee cup. “He’s bringing in a specialist. Someone that he worked with on the Benavides bust a few years ago.” You frowned. “Benavides, that was Lorea’s... Godfather?” “Ten points to Gryffindor,” Santiago nodded as he brought his mug up for a sip. You rolled your eyes. “That’s not my house and you know it,” You grumbled. “Anyway,” Santiago went on, “Just...” He pushed a breath out through his nose, turning his head to look at you, “I just wanted to give you a heads up that someone else is gonna be around, you know? We’re gonna be expected to share our intel with someone else.” “... I think this is bothering you more than you thought it would bother me,” You said carefully. Santiago’s jaw clenched, and he looked into his mug. “This isn’t the worst thing in the world,” You added, “We can always use another set of eyes on something.” “Our eyes are just fine,” Santiago grumbled defensively. You looked him over for a moment before you set your mug down and turned to him. “Come on,” You held your hand out to him a hand out to him. “What?” He asked. “I think a spin around the office would do you some good.” Santiago’s face broke into a smile then. “No, it’s alright,” He chuckled, “But I appreciate the offer.” He pushed away from the counter, heading for his desk, and you sighed in relief. Thank fuck. You really weren’t in a dancing mood. Tag list: @justanotherblonde23

#Don't Treat My Love Like a Habit #santiago pope garcia #Santiago Pope Garcia x Reader #Santiago Garcia x Reader #Santiago Garcia x You #Santiago Garcia/Reader #Santiago Pope Garcia x You #Santiago Pope Garcia Imagine #Santiago Garcia #Santiago Garcia Imagine

159 notes · View notes

bao3bei4 · 3 years

Text

kpop music videos that gave their fans sexual brainworms

OR accidental fetish pop and its fringe fanbase: meditations on gendered desire

large warning here: i am someone who has been into kpop for the past 10 years. however, i have always been an extremely casual fan. i do write fic, but not rpf. if any of that makes you not want to hear me talk about kpop rpf (or you don’t want to hear about it in general), please keep moving.

anyway, obviously pop is corporate, soulless, and manufactured. but sometimes some truly bizarre shit gets past the committees and destroys a generation. these are their stories.

the video that started this is all is got7’s just right, released july 10th, 2015.

yes that’s all 7 members of got7 (one is out of frame) shrunken down for your viewing pleasure. they live in your room and tell you you’re just right.

this sheer fetish power of this video is nerfed only by how utterly sexless it is.

they’re styled like and dance like this. it’s a totally unironic sendup of the seminal work that preceded it by four years, “what makes you beautiful” by the white kpop group “one direction.” the chaste energy of the whole thing makes you legitimately wonder if the good people at jyp have just never heard of microphilia. (during a dramatic reading of this piece, here a friend interjected seriously, “i think it’s korean culture not to talk about things like this, fetishes in the workplace.”)

it’s for the best, honestly, though because the actress in the music video is lee ja in, who was 11 when the video was shot. considering that the members themselves ranged in age from 18-23 at the time, i think it’s actually very impressive that we only have to cancel one.

you receive absolutely no prizes for guessing that it’s jackson wang we’re sending to social justice prison. why’d he do this? no one asked.

at any rate, got7 fans, or “gans” (they actually call themselves igot7s which is too twee for me), have much to think about here: all 7 very small members of got7 sneaking into their room, possibly weird age play, and jackson wang eating a very large cake.

let’s see what they actually did.

twitter was actually very tame. the most charged thing i found was (unsurprisingly) from a bts fan (“ban”). i don’t actually know what it means, but i think it means something.

so, of course, i turned to the internet’s last bastion of free speech, where you can say whatever the fuck you want and receive cheers, or as the kids say, “kudos.” that is, i read fanfiction.

for those of you who don’t know your herstory, i started my journey at Asianfanfics.com, where, at the time of writing, there were 12,067 got7 stories. i want to start this by saying that i think feminism won, because someone was paying real human dollars to advertise their irene/wendy fanfiction on a banner ad, which is quite possibly a win for women for everywhere.

anyway, Asianfanfics.com’s search engine sucks ass (i kept on finding stories about different combinations of bts members worrying about their weight and being reassured by another member that were entitled “just right”), so i decided to look through all got7 stories written between july 2015 and december 2015.

but, alas, not a single got7 microphilia fic to be found.

also, some genre commentary while i’m here: i think the stories i respect the most are the “[y/n] is a ordinary girl who’s assigned to be got7’s manager! can she make them into superstars? as sparks begin to fly, can she keep it professional?” like fuck yeah that sounds like a kickass dating sim. it almost definitely already is one. i salute all the teens around the world for buying into the fantasy of dating a boy band member that they themselves sell you.

however, i don’t think i respect the “[member a] and [member b] are mafia/jocks and nerds/college students/high schoolers” concepts. in my opinion, the whole fantasy of boy band member is their personas, their hidden real personalities, their celebrity, and the show business setting. find a different intellectual property if you wanna write about school. i even respect the “yugyeom drank girl juice [not estrogen] and turned into a sexy girl” story more, because at least it knows exactly what it wants, and also because they’re all still boy band members. well, band members. shout out to yugyeom.

so, anyway, i looked elsewhere. at the time of writing, archive of our own only had 11,645 got7 stories, but it does have a better search, so it effectively has more. as an aside, i think it’s so funny, and mildly disorienting at first, that archive of our own separates the “music & bands” section from the “celebrities & real people” section. boy band members aren’t real people.

the first problem i encountered is that only 20 or so stories were written within a year of just right’s release. absolute cringe gans. don’t you care about your boys? there were zero stories tagged “vore” or “microphilia” either. stories containing the word “tiny” that were rated either “explicit” or “mature” were all normal (“normal”) size fetishization rather than, you know, just right.

however, i learned my lesson from twitter. i realized that what had happened was that watching this video had created sleeper agents, just waiting for their activation phrase. that activation phrase? bangtan boys. and yeah, lo and behold, there was one! unfortunately (fortunately?) it had nothing to do with got7, let alone just right, so i’m not going to talk about it.

basically what i learned is that this video may have actually been very normal, and my brain has just been destroyed by being too online at a young age.

however, there are plenty more videos in this genre. i present to you exo wolf, a banger from may 30th, 2013. i say banger, because in a comedic inversion, it’s actually fucking terrible.

this video is pretty self-explanatory in terms of why it might induce certain responses.

let’s get the formalities out of the way. this video, the member who’s getting cancelled is kai. he has braids in this video :/

also skating on thin ice: xiumin and chen. guys what was up with the whole exo-m thing? like, we’re gonna have a cpop subgroup, but it’s going to be part chinese members and part korean members that we’ll give a chinese name? unsurprisingly, the three exo members who have departed from the group are all chinese. they weren’t able to stand the microaggressions probably. but xiumin and chen remain uncancelled as an official chinese apology for five thousand of years of on-and-off invasions of korea. sorry guys that was kinda fucked up. our bad!

anyway, there are basically three avenues for exo fans to take: 1) humans with wolfish characters (usually wolf pack dynamics, which even wolves themselves don’t fucking use so i think all of you should shut up. the real omega here is your brain), 2) werewolves (duh), and 3) wolves with human characteristics (i.e. standard furry fare).

exo themselves let all these possibilities exist at the same time, superimposing them over each other, which is very woke and egalitarian of them. let’s see what the people decided. awoo.

Asianfanfics dot com had many stories in this vein. i feel very validated that this time i was able to correctly predict a fetish. that said, briefly returning to my earlier comment regarding alternate universes: it’s intense psychic whiplash reading about these vampires and werewolves, and going okay okay luhan is a vampire this that whatever, and then seeing the actual real performance photos the author attaches at the bottom of each chapter. bro i forgot these were actual people.... it breaks immersion so bad... i’m sorry, i just can’t believe that any of these dancing boys are having weird vampire sex with wings or whatever.

archive of our own also had many stories in this vein. and i think there are some important difference between the two sites worth talking about.

first of all, i think the higher engagement rate of archive of our own really enables some of the authors to get super bold. it makes Asianfanfics.com seem a little quaint, actually. like the wordcounts are waaay longer, for one. it’s uncommon for a story hosted on Asianfanfics.com to be more than a few thousand words long (most of them could easily be published in the new yorker), whereas some of these archive of our own people have written full length novels about if the members of exo were werewolves. i guess it’s just intensely demoralizing for the aff.com crew to get, like, three comments per story.

the second big difference is that i’m noticing more common themes between the ao3 crew’s writing. like stan intertextuality, or plagiarism, or whatever, but they seem to be implicitly engaging with each other’s characterizations, storylines, and tropes. i think it is because they probably all follow each other on twitter. (i have been active on twitter for three weeks now so i am an expert on fanfiction twitter.)

anyway, like not that i am a particularly big gan (cannot even list all the members), but these people seem to have reached a very specific consensus on how jackson wang, for instance, would react in a variety of situations that really surprises me? if i were to sit down and write a got7 story, i think the fuckboitude, the douchebaggery is a big part of his charm. not to be nationalist or anything, but for god’s sake, he’s from hong kong. but these people have him as very sensitive, lots of protective instincts. not that i understood what anyone on aff.com was doing with his character either, but they did all seem to be doing different things. “kudos” to that, i guess.

but: exo. wolf. i searched the “wolves” tag. this filtered the list down from 33459 stories to 52 stories. and the “wolves” tag was very different from the aff.com “wolf” tag. for the most part, aff.com liked stories where a member was a wolf (usually shapeshifting), feral boy, lots of y/n, lots of y/n dating a feral boy who is secretly a wolf.

ao3 really, really, really likes alpha/beta/omega stories. sorting by the most popular stories, only five on the first page weren’t a/b/o. and one of them was a cis f!baekhyun story, so i think the intended effect was communicated. anyway, let’s talk about some of the themes.

first of all, i’m disappointed. today’s bonus cancellation is of ao3 “wolves” writers. why the fuck are you drawing so heavily from european wolves?? there are wolves in asia!! you don’t need to keep giving their packs and ranks weird latin names. i will kill you. i hate italy. korea literally has a native wolf. i hate all of you!!! if you want to write caucasian wolves go watch that dumbass cw show!!!! my god.

the second theme (the first one was white supremacy) is that no one wants to be a wolf who fucks. i think that we need a sex positivity movement, or something, for omega rights. like, are all of you doing okay? you’re queering misogyny by inventing new genders to oppress. another level to “no one wants to be a wolf...” is the “who fucks” part. there are so many consent issues. and not even in like, a sexy intentional way? in a “i genuinely do not think this author understands how their writing comes off” way. unfortunately i am sensitive to untagged sexual coercion, and there was a lot of that.

at any rate, the aff.com wolves were at peace with being wolves, very self-actualized. the ao3 wolves know that every minute they spend alive on this bitch of an earth is suffering, and also sex.

the third theme is the evolution of y/n. y/n, who, in a startlingly woke move for aff.com, is almost always korean, is a girl main character stumbling into love, boy bands, and wolves (i think it’s because aff.com is oldschool kpop fandom, so therefore heavily asian itself in userbase). but y/n is not the main character in ao3 stories. she is the straight best friend. in what i think is a hilarious move, ao3 authors invert the gay best friend paradigm to give the gay main character a straight girl as best friend. she usually calls him “a gay,” she has lots of thoughts on boys, and she knows his sexuality better than he does and before he does. (sidebar: if all the men are gay, and all the women are straight...)

there’s a really fun twist to this, though, because the main character is always a self-insert in fanfiction. but where older fanfiction like aff.com was at peace with this and literalize it via y/n shenanigans, modern fic writers who haven’t finished distangling their complicated relationship with wanting to be a man who loves other men instead simply imbue their main character with their essence. a little voodoo doll sehun, with a lock of y/n hair.

this creates a deeply ambivalent relationship with gender in these stories. the main character is usually an omega, but one who resents being an omega. their body and its parts is usually described, if at all, as ostensibly intersex (except more offensively), but in practice, these discourses inscribe a trans body. (nb: i think cis writers approach this in a really fucked up fetishizing way, but i hope by this point we know that that goes without saying) it’s incredibly straightforward to read this, and see the underlying desires and fears in a heady cocktail of unfiltered writing that’s deeply confessional. you know when freud had people say whatever the fuck they wanted and figured they’d eventually free associate into releasing their subconscious into reality? yeah.

okay, and while we’re on the topic, let’s talk f(x) nu abo, released on may 4th, 2010.

this is a blitzy, maximalist, amped up dance hit that even has its own applause and cheers built in. it’s so fucking annoying, and i love it.

this song is on here because the second most popular kpop a/b/o story on ao3 is called “nu abo” except it’s about bts. that’s offensive enough in its own right. write something about f(x) (702 works). when will women win the right to have their own self-lubricating holes.

anyway, even though f(x) is probably innocent in all of this, i’m still cancelling amber liu.

for queerbaiting. who told her to look like ruby rose but hot? and for what? i’m also cancelling her for racism, but that wasn’t in this video.

moving on to a double feature: vixx voodoo doll and vixx chained up, released november 19, 2013 and november 9, 2015 respectively. this is because while voodoo doll is more formative, i think the fans who write fanfiction today got into kpop more recently, so we are casting a wide net.

anyway, voodoo doll is jam packed with weird pseudo-medical imagery, blood, vivisection, bondage, puppet shit, femdom, sharps, piercings, asphyxiation, dollification, stabbing/penetration metaphors, and a really sick and catchy dance. god that looks like the list of tags on the a/b/o wolf stories.

for this song, we’re cancelling you, for being way too into this song when you were 13.

vixx voodoo doll made me goth i guess! insert that pic of the your music saved me sign, except it saved me from getting into emo or pop punk probably.

chained up, comparatively, is much more tame. the only thing of note about it is that there are around 10 completely different chokers and choker looks the members wear in this music video. also they’re singing about being chained up, but that seemed a bit obvious.

we could argue that voodoo doll is gay while chained up is gay (derogatory); that voodoo doll is queer while chained up is gay; that chained up is a sensitive masterpiece of omega4omega sexuality. but we’re not going to.

we’re going to talk about what voodoo doll fanfiction was and was not. first, Aff.com had plenty of it. however, i was extremely disappointed to see that much of it did not hew to the spirit of vixx voodoo doll. my god, the voodoo doll becoming the one preying upon you disgusts me. the fantasy of the voodoo doll is that of absolute power. the idea that the doll itself has agency? instantly breaks the fantasy. i’m even not into voodoo dolls and i’m offended.

i also don’t think it’s part of the voodoo doll fantasy to release the doll. the only story on there that involved Y/N kidnapping vixx members like in the music video was unavailable because the author deactivated their account. come back qxeen what did you see.

i think this got off track, actually, in that i was mostly wondering why these people imprinted differently onto vixx voodoo doll than i did. like i don’t think you’re supposed to actually like straightforwardly absorb the morals and aesthetics of music videos like it’s propaganda. however, it’s more entertaining if you do. i hope ao3 doesn’t let me down.

out of the then 5932 works in the vixx fandom (the least out of every group so far, excluding f(x) because they’re women), 59 of them included the word “voodoo” somewhere. that’s 1%. i legitimately can’t tell if that’s high or not.

after some more cursory reading through the first page of popular results, my big takeaway is that people watched that video and wanted to be tortured and enslaved? but not, like, in a sexy way where the torturing is the point, the way where the point is to suffer bravely and beautifully, to endure the world’s harms like jesus on the cross, and then to fall into the arms of a beautiful boy who may or may not be the one hurting you in the first place.

there’s a certain predictability to these fantasies. like it’s not even masochism, which would be fun at least, it’s literally just like the desire to be beautiful, even as you suffer. and i do find that a little boring. (but, i mean, you can’t help being a woman!)

sidebar: on chained up. what’s interesting about chained up, is that most of the then 38 “chained up” works (likely because the video has no storyline) are about the members fucking during chained up promotions. no one’s ever actually chained up, but whatever. it’s fine. it’s fine!

anyway, here, more than ever, the nature of desire is stripped bare. i’ve written before [elsewhere in the unreleased tshirt cinematic universe] on how kpop boys are, through fandom, re-formed as white, or more strongly, i guess, blank slates. it’s really interesting to me how so much of this dynamic of projection is enabled by the fact that they’re asian men. they’re infantilized, feminized vessels; they’re seductive, but childlike, oblivious to their own charms, so nonthreatening; they have uncontrollable desires for sex, they’re scared of sex. and above all else, white women submit themselves to them, insert themselves into them. basically kpop fans tend to rework old school yellow peril and emasculation fantasies to reenact their own desires, often white, often cishet on them.

what i am saying is that there’s another thesis about forced feminization and its racialized subtext in here. obviously gender is a racialized construct to begin with, but like it’s fascinating to argue that when white women remake asian men according to their own desires, that is, into themselves, they (hopefully) unintentionally echo these old fears about the sexual order.

it illuminates, it seems, the underlying dynamic in the denigration of asian men, which is of course the fear of miscegenation. now, my breathtaking ability to make everything about me aside, miscegenation is interesting because it presents a racial synthesis, beginning to collapse and trouble the artificial designations of purity. so we make asian men into white women, and end up with an unsettling hybrid. i’m sure this has deep implications for me personally.

but i think we already knew that quite a few of these people had yellow fever, so let’s talk about the gender dialectic at play. basically, the above dynamic, of making men into women (whether literally, in body; or subjectively, in mind; or even relationally, as they are objectified into passive vessels for your desire) coexists with the ostensibly converse dynamic, in which the straight women desires to be a gay man. these aren’t necessarily in conflict: it could easily be that these are different writers writing different stories, that both are ways of expressing discontent with existing in a raced, gendered body, or even that the end product of both is the same.

it’s been a while without a picture. all of you now have the legal right to hunt and kill me for making a d&g joke.

anyway, what i want to talk about is how these two fantasies can coexist. that by making a man into yourself, you can speak on your own desire in a passive way. my normal interest is analyzing forced masc fantasies (albeit in chinese opera lol), and they bear little to no resemblance to this kind of fantasy. this kind offers plausible deniability, of course, because wanting things is embarrassing. but also the fantasy isn’t about wanting to be a man, it’s about having no choice but to be a failed one. the gender pessimism running through these stories is palpable. basically andrea long chu wants what wolf fanfiction writers know: everyone is an omega, and everyone hates it.

at any rate, this racialized dynamic is one that i wasn’t sure how to bring up throughout this piece, mainly because there is no definitive way for me to tell the race of any individual writer, beyond just like the clear and present vibes that i receive. but i think it structures a lot of the fantasies contained in this essay. (i felt more comfortable bringing up the gendered dynamic, because it was fairly trivial to find out the current gender of the person writing each story i was reading.)

obviously we should return to the specter haunting this conversation: the very much alive david eng. i think this sort of argument is familiar to readers of racial castration, especially his chapter on m. butterfly. btw sorry for mentioning that play 2 out of 3 posts on this blog. i have problems.

let’s talk about the parallel imagery between the depiction of gallimard’s final speech and the fanfiction i’ve described above. in it, gallimard makes himself into his own dream woman, dressing in yellowface and robes, the costume of puccini’s original madame butterfly. and he laments his lost love:

there is a vision of the orient that i have. of slender women in chong sams and kimonos who die for the love of unworthy foreign devils. who are born and raised to be the perfect women. who take whatever punishment we give them, and bounce back, strengthened by love, unconditionally.

in that, i see the self insert, and i see the sufferer of vixx voodoo fic. the fantasy that gallimard has about asian women is repeated, this time about asian men and a helpless identification with them. and on some level, gallimard’s women do have something very compelling to identify with: they suggest that there’s a way to endure white male violence without sacrifice, and even more potently, to enjoy it on some level.

but onward to the titular racial castration. eng argues that gallimard’s wilful ignorance of song’s true gender is a psychic castration -- song’s masculinity is diminished so that his own can be enhanced within their relationship. this, eng believes, acts out “richard fung’s contention that in western imaginary ‘asian and anus are conflated.’” this process stabilizes the relationship between the asian man and the white woman: they occupy the same place within the sexual dyad.

this is, i think, why some people are addicted to writing from the bottom’s perspective. again -- not implying that irl bottoms don’t exist or that bottoms are psychically castrated lol -- but rather that you can fantasize about this ideal asian man that you can come to embody. in kpop rpf, rather than it being between a white man and an asian man (unless someone’s started writing chad future fic), it’s between two asian men. so this transformation is performed. whiteness is always intruding and so i think eng is helpful here to making it visible again.

this essay isn’t a callout or actual cancellation or anything like that, i do wanna be clear. i guess i just like talking about fantasies, even the embarrassing ones, and where they come from. i think oftentimes in fandom spaces, we write a lot of stories off as idfic, and i think virtually every single one of the stories i referenced to write this fairly uncontroversially fall into that category. but i think calling something an “id” something or the other naturalizes the satisfaction it gives as purely instinctual and unconscious, when i do think there are deeper narratives at play. while i didn’t ever actually reference the base here (sorry), i do think it’s worth talking about how real world power shapes & maintains the superstructure, and thereby our fantasies.

anyway in conclusion, maybe i was the one with sexual brainworms the whole time.

80 notes · View notes

evilvarric666-archive · 3 years

Note

This is gonna be long, so sorry in advance, but as someone who enjoys long fics here are my two cents:

I get why some ppl may not want 75 tags in fics, but this is gonna hurt long fic writers. On a long fic there are probably gonna be more relationships that are central to the plot that aren't the main ship. And side pairings that may be a squick to some ppl. Not to mention trigger warnings and tone tags.

For example: a long fic with the pairing Y x Z. Z had an abusive relationship, and that's gonna be explored. So the author tags abusive relationship, bc that's a trigger, but an explanation next tag saying "not current ship" or smth.

Then Y has very important friendships with some of the cast. These are central to the plot so they're tagged too.

Turns out, character W is controversial in the fandom, but they're central to the fic too. The author is gonna tag after the character tag W positive/negative; so ppl who don't wanna see positive/negative things about W can skip this.

And guess what? Ship A x B appears in this fic too. Maybe it's not that central, but this ship is also disliked by some people, so the author will tag it, so ppl can filter through.

Another problem is with media that has different mediums, like, the media Y, Z, etc are from has movies, and books, and games and a tv show. All these things actually have different stories, different enough at least that ppl may only want to see fics written for the movies! But the author wants to take plot from the movies and the books. So instead of just tagging the all media tag for that media, they also tag media (movies) and media (books)

These tags end up accumulating. And especially in long fics. The author could make the first chapter a list of tws and stuff that they keep updating, but that destroys the purpose of ao3 tags: you can't filter content like that, you can only filter tags.

I honestly think they should just find a way to delete the fics with the trolling tags, or make a readmore thing so it doesn't hurt the browsing. At the very least make the tag limit longer.

sorry in advance that this is going to be rambly and weird. I have a lot of thoughts.

I get where you're coming from but I also still disagree. Like it's definitely going to change the way longfic writers tag, but I really don't think it's going to hurt them. I think it's going to encourage more effective tagging and that that's going to be better for everybody in the long run. If anything, I think that overtagging is what's hurting longfic writers, it makes their works look unappealing, and actually important information gets buried in a wall of text.

i will admit though that I do understand better now why less room for trigger tagging is going to be an issue. My preferred tagging style is "General/umbrella warnings in the tags, with whatever elaboration/specifics the author deems necessary in an author's note/author's notes at the beginning of each chapter" (example: "animal death" in the tags, so that the filters catch it + people who can't handle the subject At All know to keep scrolling, and then the author's note specifying that its in the context of game hunting & not a pet death, so that people who were uncertain and needed more info could click in and get the specifics.) and I thought that preference was pretty universal? But apparently a lot of people use the tags as an exhaustive list of warnings, which I didn't know because when I see a work with more than, well with more than 75 tags, I just start scrolling until it's gone.

(this is a tangent and I get that my experiences are not universal. but I genuinely dislike full warning lists in the tags because, for me at least, it makes it harder for me to figure out if the story is something I can/want to read. The things I Really Do Not Want To Read about are rare, and rarely tagged the same way twice, so the exclusion filter isn't really helpful for me. I have to actually read the full list of warnings and if the things I'm looking for are sandwiched inbetween a bunch of trope/character tags in a big wall o text I am going to miss it. This has happened to me multiple times.)

I think that that's an ineffective tagging style, basically. Lots of tags is kind of the opposite of useful tags, imo. Short, to the point and consistently worded warnings are better and I think having less space will encourage people to do that. I understand why people do this other style, though, and also why it would frustrate them that they can no longer do that. I think it really sucks that ao3 let everyone wild west their website for so long that it managed to spawn like three distinct groups of people who all use the website in completely incompatible ways, and now it's at the point where any new rule implemented is going to screw a lot of people over no matter what. But I digress.

Anyways, as long as someone isn't putting Revolutionary Girl Utena levels of warnings in their tags (and if your fic needs that much... maybe you should just put yur top 10 biggest warnings on there and slap a Dead Dove Do Not Eat on the end there, yknow?), I think that 75 tags will fully accommodate them. I get that tags start adding up, but also I think a lot of people are underestimating how many tags 75 tags is.

Like to just add up how many tags are used in your example: three / pairing tags, lets go crazy and say three more & pairing tags, tag every character tag in those pairings that's twelve, #abusive relationship + #not main pairing tags, three fandom tags bc multiple source mediums, a #[controversial character] positive tag... that's 24 tags. Like all the necessary character & pairing tags are handled in less than a third of the space given (and personally I consider this slightly over tagged. I think the only character tags you should put on a fic are the very mainest/pov characters, but yknow) and honestly if you can't then figure out a way to communicate the rest of the necessary information about your fic in 51 tags and a 1250 character summary then I really don't know how to help you. I personally would have to really push myself to figure out how to put more than 75 tags on one fic, regardless of the length of the fic. And I can't help but notice that a lot of the fics I could find with over 75 tags while searching last night had a lot of... unnecessary duplicate tags, often for information that could've been easily otherwise intuited (tagging #mandolorian #mandolore #mandolorian character and #mandolorian culture on a Jango Fett pre-series fic, for example)

I do have some criticisms about the current change though. I think it would've been better to have individual tag number limits for each individual field (x number of fandom tags, x number of character tags, etc.) instead of a 75 tags over all limit (or make a "warning tags" field that's separate from "additional tags" but that's a separate essay and would... probably mean overhauling the whole site. so not very practical.) A readmore option would be good too, and I'm not sure why they didn't go for that? I also think that this change will be most effective if done in combination with other changes. Like posting very loosely or not at all enforced official tagging/style guides for the site. I really think that even a tepid attempt at standardization will increase the site's usability like, A Lot.

I'm not sure how cohesive that was. TL;DR I appreciate hearing your thoughts, mine are that I still think this is a step in the right direction. And that cutting back on overtagging will lead to more concise, effective tagging which will make browsing and filtering easier in the long run.

#ao3 tag

10 notes · View notes

ad1thi · 4 years

Text

@starklysteve me?? spamming you w recs because i love talking about my ships?? more likely than you think :)) (here’s some rhodeytony to get you started on what is objectively the best tony ship)

i place your hands around my neck: @fanfictiongreenirises

"Rhodey could practically feel his lungs getting heavier again, weighed down by roots of plants that he’d thought would never take hold in him again."

Or: the one where Rhodey's been pining over Tony for much longer than either of them realised and develops the Hanahaki disease

Pretend We’re In Love (The Heartache Still Hurts): @marvelingjules

Rhodey's dad is dying, and what he's always wanted is for Rhodey to be happily married. Tony and Rhodey were best friends, and haven't spoken in years. But after a chance meeting at the airport, and a desperate, insane idea on Rhodey's part, they end up pretending to be engaged.

But how much of it is really pretend?

i can’t seem to get a grip, no matter how i live with it: @psikeval

Tony knows he's got no business being a father.

A Million Shades of Blue: @notfknapplicable

“I just know that if I could get to wherever he is, I could find him. Dead or alive, I'd bring him back to us.”

James Rhodes will never stop searching for Tony Stark.

Twenty Five Years: @notfknapplicable (part of a series)

Nobody knows how long this has actually been going on. (Tony Stark has pretty much been in a monogamous relationship since he was 18 years old.)

Leave The Light On: @notfknapplicable (part of a series)

He was never doing this for fun. He'd just wanted to stay awake. And whatever you do, please don't tell that guy he's been fucking. He kinda likes him.

coloured in sun: @heleus

The one in which Anthony Edward Stark, having just reached the warm age of seventeen, realizes that he's in love with his best friend.

(The idea is terrifying.)

the planets that bend us: @deathsweetqueen

When Antonia Margaret Stark wakes up on her sixth birthday, it’s to the words: I didn’t get any sleep last night after that fucking lawn mower decided that 7 in the morning would be a perfect time for him to start his day, right outside my room.

She runs a thumb over the long string of words, wrapping around her wrist like a thick leather band.

She smiles.

She’s fourteen when she meets James Rupert Rhodes for the first time.

Written for the "more than a partner" square (S3) for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 and the "soulmate" square for the Iron Husbands Bingo 2019

we rattle together in a bed of honey: @deathsweetqueen

Toni first met James Rhodes in Cellular Neurophysiology and Computing, when she was fourteen and trying very hard to stay in the shadows. She stumbles into the classroom, clutching her books and binders and pencil case close to her chest, as she stares at everything, wide-eyed and hungry and terrified. She seizes on the contempt, the confusion, the incredulity of the other freshman who look at her like she’s an incongruity – she’s used to that look, all that hate and derision.

She eats it up like chocolate cake.

Much to her luck, all the seats are filled, all except for one towards the middle of the row, a table shared only by a tall, handsome black boy, sleeping on top of the counter.

a winding road that stretches to the truth: @/coulddaughter (this author ostensibly has a tumblr but im unable to locate it -- so if anyone knows what their tumblr is please let me know so i can tag them!)

“Why do you need a date? Also, no offence, but why did you come to me? I stole, like, four of your girlfriends and at least two boyfriends, remember.”

“I do remember that, Tony,” said Jim, pinching the bridge of his nose. “No, I need you to come on a date with me.”

Love in the Eyes: @child-of-sunshine

The moment each of the Avengers realized Tony and Rhodey were in love.

The Curious Case Of The Discarded Condom: @/AssvengersArsemble

Natasha, Clint and Steve get just a little nosy about Tony's love life. Tony finds it extremely amusing they can't see what's right under their noses.

takes a lot of love and compliance: @gyzym

She's born breech, feet kicking out before the rest of her screams free; she's born breech, and never stops running. (Rule 63!Tony)

Targeted Persuasion: @galwednesday

Jim opened Tony's most formal closet and started pulling out tuxedos. "Put one of these on.”

"Why?"

"We're getting married."

Tony froze. "No, we're not."

"Oh yes we are." Jim tossed three tuxedos onto the bed. Three was a good number of options, enough for Tony to make a choice, but not so many that he'd get lost analyzing the ramifications of navy pinstripes vs. charcoal paisley. Tony did best with clear, specific expectations rather than an unlimited universe of possibilities that he would inevitably filter through his neuroses and obsess over, and Jim was really kicking himself for not considering that, oh, ten years ago when they’d first started this, but there was no point in beating himself up about it now when he could put that energy towards solving the problem instead. "You brought this on yourself, Tones. Pick a damn tux."

Five thousand roses: @/forestgreen

She is broken and all the more dangerous for it. The world should tread carefully around the shards of her former self lest they cut themselves on Antonia Stark's sharp edges.

A Guide to Handling the Unhandleable Tony Stark: @/nightrider101 (this is ab a/b/o verse)

Written for the following prompt on the Avengers Kink meme: The rest of the Avengers assume Tony is an unbound Omega by the way he acts. He's reckless and carefree and does what he wants. Imagine their surprise when they find out that Rhodey is Tony's Alpha. They're all confused at the way Rhodey lets Tony act and how they can be away from each other for long periods of time and Rhodey's just like 'He didn't want to give up his career and I didn't want to give up mine. And I gave up trying to tell Tony what to do years ago.'

It’s Not Bacon Until It Ceases To Be Bacon: @sobebold

Tony has lived with his best friend Rhodey for fifteen years, and everything is perfect.

Until Rhodey finally gets a boyfriend, and Tony's world gets turned upside down.

by any name: @machi-kun

Tony calls him ‘mine’, sometimes.

And he also calls him platypus, honeybear, sugarplum, all those stupid nicknames; but James’ favorite will always be ‘mine’.

Tutor Me: @wisiaden

Tony really wants James Rhodes to be his math tutor. The guy was hot, and if he had to play dumb, well, he can say he hates math.

run and hide: @/starksrhodey

Tony may or may not have a crush on football captain James Rhodes.

Or, Tony is extremely insecure, Pepper knows best, Steve likes to bake, Bucky loves red heads, and Rhodey keeps trying to talk to Tony.

This Is The Real Life: @blancheludis

It takes doing the laundry for Tony to realize he is completely, irrevocably in love with Rhodey. Who knew that the way to Tony Stark's heart is to teach him how to wash his clothes.

Anything For You Darling: @areiton

Tony is sitting on the balcony of his palace in Malibu, and Rhodey hates it, more than he's ever hated anything, watching his best friend stare at the water, limmed by the sun and utterly alone.

"She's dead," Tony says, before Rhodey can ask and he feels his breath catch, his heart stumble.

There's--

Grief. For pretty, troubled Maya with her big eyes.

Heartbreak. For a sweet infant who will never know the mother who gave him up, whose life will never be exposed, now.

Relief. Because Harley is safe. Safe. Gods, he's safe.

Rhodey helps Tony raise his son.

it goes like this (just like heroin): @quandongcrumble

He’s twenty-six and you’re twenty-eight and you get a midnight phone call from Obadiah and between the two of you, you manage to beg and bully until you can fly back to the States and sit beside the white hospital bed while they say words like heroin and accidental overdose and that Tony should pull through but Tiberius might not wake up.

It goes like this—for almost sixteen years Tony’s addiction problems are a blight on Rhodey’s relationship with him. Friendships crack and trust is shattered, over and over again.

motor oil and coconut oil: @/halfasgoodasanything

James loves his best friend. He's entirely supportive of his friendship and his almost relationship with Steve Rogers. He is! He is. Carol and Pepper seem to think otherwise, but he's cool. Loving Tony doesn't mean no one else can. Even if he wanted to.

lost and found: @starkslovemail

“Are you lost?”

Tony jumped at the voice cutting into his thoughts. Turning around, he saw another teen, maybe a year or two older than him, decked out in Team USA gear. He shook his head, flashing what he hoped was a disarming smile, “Nope.”

“Are you sure about that?” The athlete raised a disbelieving brow as he stared down at Tony. “You’ve been walking up and down this hallway for the past ten minutes, and the least embarrassing reason why is being lost.”

The blunt honesty startled a laugh out of Tony. He grinned cheekily, rocking back on his heels, “Guess I’m lost then.”

Written for the RhodeyTony Mini-Bang! Art can be seen on twitter here!

two boy geniuses walk into one frat house: @starkslovemail (part of a series)

There were too many white people at this damn party.

The Other 'Mr Stark': Iron Man’s Mysterious Paramour: @presidentrhodes

Clint leans over to Tony and whispers. “For the record, I know you’re lying. You’re describing the perfect man and he doesn’t exist. You might as well say you’re dating Superman because at least Christopher Reeve was a looker.“(Based on this prompt: Tony keeps telling the avengers how awesome his husband is but they don't believe he exists because it has been months and they still haven't met him yet and then finally, Rhodey comes home.)

#adi's rec list #rhodeytony #ironhusbands #james rhodes/tony stark #james rhodes x tony stark #this got long 😳#but all of these fics are so worth it #twenty seven recs #I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM RHAE

67 notes · View notes

silhouettecrow · 3 years

Text

This is the last part of me providing my Thoughts™ and Feelings™ about Shadow and Bone as I watch it 'cos this one is about the finale:

They brought back Alina and Mal reaching out for each other, and oh, boy, was that heartbreaking! It’s so well done yet so painful

Mal's turn-around of "Time will do it for me" to "Your past will do it for me” when he let the volcra get the Darkling was so good. I literally clapped, even though I knew the Darkling would, obviously, live

Also, the ending of the Darkling emerging from the Fold after Alina and Mal saying he’s dead was a great yet predictable (in a good way) transition. And the way the Darkling said, “Follow,” and the merzost just came with him was chilling. That was a perfect way to end the first season in my opinion

Not to brag, but I said three things before Jesper, one before Kaz, and one before Nina. I think my theory about absorbing the Crows' personalities is more true than I initially thought it was

Remember how I mentioned how the ugliness and asymmetry of the antlers in Alina’s collarbone was such an amazing parallel to the pain she is in? Well, her absorbing the antlers altogether after releasing herself from the Darkling’s control and realising the stag chose to give her its power is just. . .WOW. I honestly don’t know how to express how beautiful that was

Also, my best friend did bring up a good point: where did the antlers go? Did they just go further into her body? Did she legit consume them into her body and they’re just gone? What happened? 😂

Can I talk about Nina and Matthias for a hot second? I honestly don’t think I felt so much for Helnik when I read the Six of Crows duology as I did in this last episode, so I have a lot to say. The chemistry is straight from the pages of the books, but it’s so much different physically seeing them interact than just reading about it. It’s also different ‘cos we are seeing the relationship develop between them than being thrown in the middle of it with backstory being sprinkled throughout the progression of their story. The two of them flirting and being cute was so lovely, but the fear in Nina’s eyes when she knows she has to make a horrible decision between Matthias being arrested or being killed and then the betrayal that is written all across Matthias’ face in that cell on the ship was just devastating

I know this isn't about this episode, but I realised I forgot to mention it attached to episode 6 (I think), but Ivan threatening Jesper with him knowing what he is was dastardly. Like, I know you have to have read the books to know what Ivan was saying 'cos Jesper cuts him off, and I love little Easter eggs like that for us, but the foreshadowing of that shit was good. Leave the people who haven't read the books with questions and the people who have in anticipation! God, I love that!

Jesper still missing Milo is so precious and, I hate to say it, a mood ‘cos me too. I wanted to see a surprise appearance from the darling goat, but I will take Jesper bringing him up twice as compensation

Speaking of Jesper being a mood, Jesper begging for the reassurance that Kaz has got their backs with a plan was so painfully relatable. Bro, I would have done the same thing in that situation

It hurts me on a spiritual level to be aware that five out of the six Crows were on that boat at once. I need Wylan. Y’all, season 2 better happen 😭

And I want more interactions between Inej and Alina and between Inej and Zoya. That shit makes my Sapphic heart go berserk. You can’t look me in the eyes and say there isn’t the least bit of gay tension between these women. And that means I am so looking forward to Inej and Nina interacting; I may pass out

In addition to that, Kaz saying he needs Inej added five years to my life. And I think the happiest he looked all season was when Inej said she’d go with him to pay off Heleen and then decide what to do from there. And Kaz being a believer is ✨bonkers✨ in the best way possible

Lastly, to end with something about my boy, Jesper saying that he still couldn’t shoot Ivan’s pretty face was fucking great. I also died laughing at him saying that the true wealth was the friends they made along the way ‘cos of course Jesper is going to be the one to make a real-world meme reference and, on top of that, make it about the goat! Amazing, beautiful, wonderful. As always, I love him dearly

My final thoughts on the show as a whole is that it is a great adaptation of the books, especially with the blending of the storylines from the trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. The pacing was something I honestly had to adjust to, considering I know so much of the source material, but I think it worked and was a good choice to help viewers unfamiliar with the books understand what is happening. And even though I’ve read the books, I was pleasantly surprised with the numerous twists and turns; I was invested in the show as a whole, not just for the familiar characters and storylines (that was just a bonus, tbh). I genuinely love this show and am willing to say it is now tied for my favourite television show with Orphan Black and Good Omens. I’m hoping desperately for a season 2, not just for Wylan and Nikolai, but because this was truly so beautiful and brought me a lot of happiness and peace during one of the scariest and most stressful times in my life

I just want to thank anyone who has read any of these things I've written about the show. I truly didn't expect anyone to read them or even really care about what I thought or felt, but it does mean a lot that some of you are willing to read them at all and then even give them a like. This is just the adaptation of my favourite book series and knowing other people are caring about and even enjoying my reactions is so pleasant and comforting. Thank you 💕

If you want to check out my other Thoughts™ and Feelings™ about this first season, here are the links to those posts: Episode 2, Episodes 3 and 4, Episode 5, and Episodes 6 and 7

I'm now excited to remove spoilers from my filtered tags and to dive into what other people have been posting about Shadow and Bone! See y'all on the other side! ✌

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #netflix shadow and bone #sab #six of crows #soc #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone netflix spoilers #sab spoilers #s&b spoilers

7 notes · View notes

cordonian-literature · 4 years

Text

The Aftermath - Ch. 15

A Not-So-Brotherly Argument

SUMMARY: When Liam returns to the capital, Leo is waiting for him

Word Count: ~3.6k

Warnings: Language, mention of character death

*All characters belong to Pixelberry, except those that are unique to my story (I’ve also used some characters and fictional instances from Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”)*

Catch up here!

Tags: @captain-kingliamsqueen @marshmallowsaremyfavorite @gkittylove99 @lovablegranny @loudbluebirdlover @mom2000aggie @kingliam2019 @queenrileyrose @shanzay44 @cordonianroyalty @hopefulmoonobject @hopelessromanticmonie @cinnamonspongecake @queenjilian @kuladekiwi @twinkle-320 @iaminlovewithtrr @charlotteg234 @amandablink @texaskitten30 @tinkie1973 @louiseingram1208 @queencatherynerhys @pens-girl-87 @missevabean @ladyangel70 @sanchita012 @cordonianprincess

I hope I got everyone tagged! If I missed anyone, or anyone wants to be added/removed, let me know!

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

- Liam -

When Bastien informed Liam that his brother was waiting to speak to him, the words went in one ear and flew out the other. Liam was lightheaded with happiness, and he embraced it — though he was unaccustomed to the feeling, since he had gone years thinking happiness was the last thing he deserved. But now, with Riley and the children almost in Cordonia, what was there not to be excited about?

Riley’s husband had died, and it was like the family had lost a piece of their puzzle. Liam had convinced himself that he was that replacement puzzle, and if he wasn’t, he would become it.

When he walked into his office and saw Leo waiting for him, Liam hugs his brother. When they pull apart, Leo has an eyebrow raised.

“Everything okay?” Leo asks as they both take a seat.

“Everything is wonderful,” Liam responds, a broad smile pulling the edges of his face, holding such deep emotion that Leo’s face falls further into confusion.

“How’d your New York trip go?”

Liam blinks a couple times, images flashing through his mind: Riley in the hospital, Gabriel in the DNA lab, Eleanor crying in front of her brother’s room. He wondered if he should tell his brother everything. “Eventful,” Liam says plainly. He wanted to keep the news of his little family to himself for now.

Leo persists: “Really? I uh... had a conversation with Regina yesterday. She said that you weren’t coming back alone.”

Liam’s heart freezes for a moment, and the bubbling excitement subsides as he looks at his brother. Leo’s shoulders are tense, his mouth is in a thin line, and his eyes are wide; staring profusely at Liam, waiting for him to make a move or say something.

He clears his throat, then lets out a forced laugh. “You seem to have been talking to Regina quite often as of late.” Liam forces his facial features to tense, making himself look serious. He wasn’t going to be kind to Regina, or anyone that had anything to do with her. Not after everything she did.

“Well, huh, yeah.” Leo runs a hand through his hair and shifts in his seat. “I did my best to be subtle when I came to the tea ceremony, but Regina caught me and we had a little chat. She told me you were abroad and then invited Katie and the kids to dinner a few days after. The dinner was last night, actually.”

Liam raises his eyebrows. Even though Leo had been married for a long time, he had never brought back his wife or kids for Liam to visit. Liam had seen them once when he visited their home on the twins’ birthday. That was almost three years ago. “Katie and the children are here? In the capital?” he asks.

“Yeah, we got a hotel a couple miles away. So...” Leo shifts in his seat again, then smirks at his brother. “About this other person.”

Liam chuckles. He doesn’t want to tell Leo much about Riley and the children, but Leo was his brother. He’d never kept anything from him before, why hide anything now?

In a low voice, heavy with love and longing, Liam manages, “I brought back Riley. Riley Brooks.”

Leo’s face falls. Liam notices the expression, and his brow bends with worry. Was Leo not happy for him? Was Leo not glad that Liam finally reunited with the only woman he had ever loved? Why wasn’t his brother happy for him?

Leo rubs his chin and scoffs. The sarcastic sound sends a dagger through Liam’s heart. Why isn’t my brother glad that I’ve found my love?

“That’s great, Liam. But...” He trails off.

“But what?” Liam pushes him to continue, desperate for an explanation that would douse the fiery anger that was building within him.

“But...” Leo stares down at the floor, carving patterns in the wood with his eyes. “Is this really the best thing for the both of you?”

“What does that mean?”

“Liam, I’m just saying—”

“You said you spoke to Regina? Does she have anything to do with this?”

“Yes and no. We talked last night over dinner. And then we talked again over the phone after I returned to the hotel. We did talk about you, but—”

“Since when did you become so frank with her?” Liam chuckles, finding the prospect of Leo and Regina attempting a civilized conversation amusing. He stands and goes to pour him and his brother some scotch.

Leo doesn’t move or laugh, waiting for his brother to retake his seat. He grabs the glass that Liam hands him and takes a sip.

“It’s not that we’re close or anything,” Leo starts. “I was just worried and decided to ask her if she knew anything, since she sees you more often than I do.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t ask her about situations that involve me. You’re my brother, I deny you nothing.” Liam smiles genuinely, but it falters as he continues. “That hag believes that she has my best interests at heart, but she doesn’t.”

“Woah,” Leo exclaims. He takes another sip of his drink and laughs. “Never heard you refer to Regina so brutally. I like it. What happened?”

Liam leans back in his seat. “She pushed Riley away during Bertrand and Savannah’s wedding. Forced her onto a jet. Onto one of my jets.”

Leo raises his eyebrows, but doesn’t look at his brother. “How’d she do that?”

“Duchess Olivia told me that Regina knew Lady Riley had visited Europe a little after the Homecoming Ball. How she knew is beyond me. Regina made her guards keep an eye in every corner.”

Leo shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Liam stares at him.

“Did Regina tell you she did that?” Liam asks his brother.

Leo rubs his temple. “Nope. Didn’t tell me anything about Riley during the Duke’s wedding.” Leo stares down into his drink. Liam waits for him to continue the conversation, and the fact that they both slip into silence unnerves him.

“So what did she tell you?” Liam asks. He felt his blood boil, thinking about his brother siding with Regina. “You both talked about me during your little dinner. What was mentioned?”

Leo sits up in his seat, leaning forward. “Liam, c’mon, don’t involve Regina in this. She has nothing to do with my opinions about Riley or your relationship with her.”

“Really?” Liam downs the rest of his drink and goes to pour himself more. “Then what are your opinions of Riley? If they’re not filtered with Regina’s criticism, tell me.”

“Liam, calm down. I’m just trying to look out for you, okay? I know you, brother, I know you can handle whatever you’re going through. You’ve been having a hard time but you’ve kept your priorities straight, you’re a hard-working monarch—”

“Don’t...” Liam’s fist grabs the glass so tightly that his arm shakes. “Don’t change the subject, goddamnit. What the Hell did that bitch tell you about Riley?”

“For goodness sakes, Liam, calm down. She didn’t tell me anything alright?”

“Then why on Earth are you so interested in that topic? Why are Riley and I recurring topics in your and Regina’s discussions?”

“Because I don’t think that bringing her back is the best choice for either of you! And considering that you’re the king, I just want to make sure you’re doing what’s best for Cordonia. That’s why I left our country in your hands, because I knew you would—”

“So now you confide in Regina every time you begin to worry about the country and people you left behind?”

Leo puts his head in his hands. “Liam, please. Regina just did what she thought was best for Cordonia and for you.”

“‘Thought was best’?” Liam scoffs. “Tell me, brother, is keeping my son away from me best?”

Leo’s eyes go wide as he leans back into his seat. “Liam, I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know, and neither did I.” A shadow falls over Liam’s eyes, and it doesn’t lift.

“C’mon, Liam. I bet Riley had her reasons.”

Liam looks up at his brother. “What?”

Leo pauses before continuing. “I said she must have had her reasons to keep your son away from you. Before Regina’s involvement.”

Liam stands, a sense of shock and pain overtaking him. “Really? You believe that? Tell me, brother, if Katie had been pregnant before you married, and she had run away and you didn’t know you were a father for more than a decade, would you feel her actions were justified?”

Leo gets up from his seat so he’s at eye level with his brother. “No, because my situation with Katie and your situation with Riley is different.”

“Then who are you to say that she had her reasons?” Liam shouts. “Who are you to say that she was justified in keeping my son away from me? Don’t you understand? He’s the heir to the throne. There is so much that is due to him but wasn’t given because his mother kept him away. And then when his mother tried to bring him back, Regina kept them both away.” Tears begin falling involuntarily down Liam’s face. “All I had ever wanted a was a family, and instead of taking my side you say she had reasons? How on Earth would you even know—”

“Goddamnit, Liam!” Leo shouts, interrupting his brother. “Because she told me her reasons, okay? She told me!”

Liam feels his body go numb. His throat aches, but he pushes out, “What?”

Leo gives a sigh, falling back into his seat, burying his head in his hands. “Liam, I’m not here to fight with you. I’m not here to hurt you.”

Leo lifts his face to look at Liam, and finds his brother staring down at him, a wild look in his eyes. For a moment, Liam feels that he may just jump on Leo.

He begins to explain: “A couple of years ago, some time after the Homecoming Ball and all the shit with the Sons of Earth, Katie’s sister’s film won an award. There was a ceremony in Sweden, and Katie wanted to go and support her. After she got the award we went into this restaurant.”

The animal look in Liam’s eyes doesn’t falter. Leo locks eyes with his brother, trying to silently keep him calm.

“So we were eating, talking, whatever, right? Katie’s sister’s talking about all the hard work she and her friend put in, how grateful she is, all that. Behind her, there’s a group of people eating at another table, and I notice Riley. At first I thought I was fucking hallucinating. I had a little too much to drink, so I thought I was out of it. I remembered her from your Coronation and all the bullshit with the press after. You had told me she’s disappeared, and I— I just... I didn’t really believe it could’ve been her.”

Neither man’s gaze falls. Leo takes a breath.

“I wanted to go check it out, but she was in a small group. Two other guys, and a woman with three kids were all at the table with her. Then after a while, one of the men stands and goes to the bar. I follow him. He’s got a Russian accent when he orders a few drinks. I order something, too, then I ask him his name, what he’s doing here... I was trying to be casual, y’know, not make him suspicious. I tell him that I recognized the lady at his table, and he gets defensive. I try to tell him that it’s nothing like that, I just know her from an event we both went to, but he keeps yelling at me in Russian until the other dude comes up from the table and asks what’s going on.”

“Did you catch their names?” Liam questions.

“The Russian guy’s name was Boris, and the other one was... Thomas? Theodore? Yeah, Theodore. So, Theodore comes up and asks what’s going on, and I tell him that I noticed Riley and thought it was a big coincidence. I was kinda shocked that Riley never came up to the bar, even though we were all yelling.”

“Then what happened?” Liam prods Leo to continue.

“So they’re being defensive and I ask them if they know about her scandal and whatever, and Theodore tells me that he does, and they’re trying to keep her away from the royal family because she doesn’t want anything to do with them anymore. I tell them that the best thing she could do for herself was change her name, move far away, and don’t do anything or go anywhere in the public eye.”

“You bastard!” Liam screams. “Instead of telling me where she was, you help her stay away?”

“Yes, because fucking damn it, Liam!” Leo jumps up from his seat. “I know what it’s like to want to leave the royal bullshit behind. From the moment I heard everyone’s phones go off during the Coronation, I knew some poor girl’s life was going to be ruined. This place, this court, it’s a toxic shithole.”

“So you’re connecting your position with her’s?” Liam scoffs. “Don’t. You pushed yourself into a situation that was none of your business!”

“And how is it your business, whether she wants to stay or not?”

“Because she was pregnant with my son!”

“But you didn’t know that!” Leo yells. “You didn’t know! For the last ten years, you didn't know but you kept persisting! Why? You can’t be serious, Liam, you’re the fucking king. You could have any woman you want and you chose one that didn’t want anything to do with you?”

Liam stands rooted in the spot, unable to speak.

“Don’t be naïve, Liam,” Leo tells him in a softer voice. “I know you’ve had a hard time in the love department, especially after everything with Riley, but you can’t be serious. She doesn’t love you. If she did, she would have stayed, she would have endured. Love surpasses—”

“Shut. UP!” Liam screams. “Shut your mouth! Stop talking!”

“No, you, Liam, are the one who needs to stop!” Leo yells in Liam’s face. “You aren’t in love, you’re obsessed! Ten years, man, that’s nearly a fourth of your life that you’ve spent pining away on one woman!”

The men take a moment to stand in silence, staring at one another. They breathe heavily after all the yelling.

Liam’s voice breaks when he continues. “Because I was in love with her. Am. I would have done anything for her, and I still would.”

Leo scoffs and sits down.

“I’m not talking about lust, Leo.” Liam leans over his desk, trying to find the words. “It was like... like our souls were pieces of the same fabric. That everything I lacked, she was. Why can’t you understand? You said that your love for Katie was what motivated you to abdicate, to do what—”

“Stop comparing your situation to mine and Katie’s. There’s nothing similar. Stop grabbing at something that’s not even there! That’s what you did with Riley. You never got over her, yet you had every woman in Europe ready to make you feel better!”

Liam falls back into his seat. “And you think I want other women to help me through the pain? Leo, I grieved when Riley left. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. She was the best part of me, and she disappeared like that.” He snaps his fingers. “God... and every woman that pushed herself in front of me put me deeper into the grief. None of those women would be doing such things if Riley was here. And they never would have made me feel better the way Riley could have. Whenever I thought about marriage, I thought about how happy my life would have been with Riley. Everything reminded me of her. Leo, I was ready to abdicate for her, I was ready to leave my country for her. She was the very essence that made life worth living. Every day during the social season or the Engagement Tour, whenever I saw her, the world would become a little brighter. She taught me that there was more to life than just...” Liam trails off, his heart heavy.

After a moment, he continues, “If she had even told me that she didn’t love me, I believe I would have been fine with that. If she had married someone else but would have still allowed me to see her regularly, I would have dealt with it better.”

They sit quietly for the next few minutes, but the tension makes it feel like hours have gone by. The air feels thick. Leo can’t bring himself to look up at his brother, while Liam feels like his skin is boiling.

Both lean back into their seats, staring out at nothing. Leo finally glances up at his brother, looking at Liam’s red eyes.

Liam feels his brother’s gaze, but doesn’t make eye contact.

“So you,” Liam tries to speak through the lump in his throat. “You knew her whereabouts and asked Regina to help you in keeping her away?”

“Liam, it wasn’t like that,” Leo tries to convince his brother. “I just wanted to help keep her safe. I didn’t know she was with child or that Regina would do something so extreme—”

Liam puts up a hand, and Leo abruptly stops talking. “Don’t continue. I don’t want to hear the excuses. Just leave.”

“Liam don’t do this—”

“Leave.”

Leo stares at his brother, willing Liam to look up at him. But when Liam doesn’t move a muscle, he gets out of his seat and leaves.

Liam breathes out when he hears the door close, thinking about what his brother said. Did I truly act as if I was obsessed with her? I merely grieved her, and grief is nothing like obsession... is it?

No. It’s not obsession. Drake, Maxwell, and Hana had all felt the same way. We weren’t obsessed. We were... depressed. Our strength was Riley, and Riley had left us when we had needed her most.

But can we blame her? Did I ever blame her? I hope not. She was in pain. She had been humiliated. She had loved me with everything in her. Did that take up so much of her energy that she couldn’t keep herself emotionally stable? Perhaps she was right to leave. Out of all the people in the world who are worthy of love, I am the most undeserving. And I especially didn’t deserve the significant amount that Riley gave me.

The frustration burns in the back of his eyes, and in a flurry of anger, Liam pushes the piles of papers and books off of his desk. Hearing everything tumble onto the floor was satisfying, and his release of anger was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Who has the nerve to bother me? Don’t they know I just returned from my trip?

I have to address whatever concerns they have. I’ve been away for a while. I can’t fall further behind.

“Come in,” he allows.

“Your Majesty,” Madeleine greets as she closes the door behind her. “Welcome back.”

Liam internally rolls his eyes. She was the last person that he wanted around him. “What is it, Countess?”

She begins putting down a pile of paper on his desk, pretending not to notice the mess on the floor. “Here is a proposal by some Cordonian economists about the recent economic issue in Southern territories. I’ve looked over it and found some exceptional points, but I’m sure you could change it to be better.” She pauses and stares at him. “Your Majesty, are you alright?”

Liam doesn’t look up at her. “Yes, yes, Countess, I’m fine. Is that all?”

“Yes,” she says, and takes half a step to leave, but then turns back. “Actually, there’s also this.” She pulls out a folder that was on the bottom of the pile and opens it for Liam to see. “Lesson plans. For Lady Riley’s son, of course.”

Liam shoots up from his seat. His nose inches away from Madeleine’s. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment before spitting, “You will stay away from my son, understood?” His voice is low and thick. “If I see you interacting with him in any capacity, whether it be instructional or disrespectful, I will make the rest of your time in my country a living Hell. Stay away from my family. Understood?”

Madeleine’s eyes go wide and she stops breathing. She takes a step back to bow. “Of course, Your Majesty.”

“Leave me.”

She rushes out of the room.

Liam wonders at the audacity of the woman while flipping through some of the “lesson plans.” They’re surprisingly adequate.

His phone rings and he closes the folder. Taking it out of his pocket, his heart jumps when he sees that it’s Maxwell calling. They must have landed.

“Hello?” Liam says into the phone.

“Yeah, hi, Liam, it’s Maxwell.”

“Yes, I know, Maxwell. How was the flight? How are Riley and the kids?”

“Oh the baby blossoms are fine, yeah. Bartie rushed in to give them and Rowan a tour, but... uh...”

“What is it Maxwell? Is Riley alright?”

“Riley... she, uh...” Maxwell’s voice breaks a little. “I think she got overwhelmed when she got out of the car and saw everything again. She... she passed out.”

#the royal romance #trr fanfic #choices trr #choices fanfiction #trr liam x mc #trr liam x riley #the royal romance fanfiction #trr fandom

60 notes · View notes

hoboal87 · 4 years

Text

Elastic Heart Chapter One

Characters: Y/N Y/L/N, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, John Winchester, OFCs

Pairing(s): None

Summary: Y/N Y/L/N sees a familiar set of eyes in the crowd, and remembers the first time she saw them and how they changed her life.

Word Count: 4300+

Warnings: Show level violence, cursing, pre-Stanford era Winchesters

Notes: Series will be mostly canon compliant, taking place during season 8/9. Also, for purposes of this fic Sam was born in '84 instead of '83.

Please give a comment or reblog and let me know what you think!

Elastic Heart Masterlist

Chapter One - Senior Year

“Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N”

I don’t hear my name being called, I’m in my own world, looking out into the crowd for a set of familiar eyes. I spot them three rows back and smile. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them, and I miss the days where I would see those eyes nearly every day.

Life as a nursing student consists of going to class, lab work, interning at a hospital, and occasionally sleeping. I’ve spent the past two years doing nothing but that. I’ve always been one to do things early, but this was the one thing that, for once, I was on par with my peers. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. From the first time I saw those eyes, they altered my life, sending me down a path that I never planned to be on. Taking longer than we had thought, but eventually, I got back on track.

Finish school and get my fresh start. That had been my goal for the past two years. Move on, with or without those eyes in my life. I wanted them, but I knew that logically, it couldn’t happen. Our lives were too different, especially now. I lost my chance of having them with me always; now, I could only cherish the holidays and long weekends that allowed us to be together.

“Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N,” the announcer’s voice contains a bit of urgency this time, drawing my attention. I step across the stage, shaking my supervisor’s hand, and receive my metaphorical diploma. I look back out into the audience and connect with those eyes again, wide and filled with joy. I take my seat and think back to the first time I saw them and how they changed my life forever.

Fall, 2002

This was it, the first day of my senior year. This is the year I will prove to everyone that I am no longer a kid. This is the year, mom and dad will see that I can act like an adult and make ‘good choices’ but, I’m determined to have just a little fun.

For the last two years, mom and dad have insisted that I take extra courses and go to summer school to ensure I graduate not only with good grades but early. I’ll graduate in the spring and be off to college in the fall. All I really want is to wait, take a year or two, experience life outside of my parents’ house.

I make the point to do as many high school activities as I can. Activities that they discouraged me from doing for the last two years; choir, volleyball, anything that will get me out of the house but still considered a school activity. I joined the decorating committee, wanting to participate in homecoming as much as possible. I know as long as I do nothing life-altering, I’m gonna be free in May.

“Be mindful of your grades, Y/N,” dad said, reading over all the consent forms, “if they slip, you will need to cut these extracurricular activities.”

“They won’t slip, dad.” I roll my eyes. “It’s my last year, let me have a bit of fun, please?”

“Your average drops below an A, and I’m pulling you out of each one of these clubs, understood?”

“Yes, sir.” I mull over telling him the other part of my plan. “I was… thinking about getting a job.” I look down, not wanting to make eye contact. “Something part-time?”

“I don’t think that’s the best idea, Y/N,” mom enters the room, “You’re going to be so busy already, tell her Rob.”

“Your mother has a point, and if they accept you to all these clubs, when will you even have time?”

“I may not even end up in the choir or the volleyball team,” I argue, “and if I don’t I’ll have a free period every day, I can talk to the counselor about making it my last class and—it’s my Senior Year, please, don’t you guys think I deserve a little more credit than this? I should get to experience a little bit of independence, don’t you think? I’m gonna be away at college in a year, I’m probably gonna have some on-campus job, I need to learn how to balance between the two.” I catch my breath, hoping that they will agree.

“Fine,” dad sighs heavily, “the same deal goes. Your grades slip, no more working. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes!” I throw my arms around him, “Thank you!”

“Maybe you could get a job at the clinic,” mom chimes in, “get some experience in the field?”

“I don’t think anyone wants a sixteen-year-old working at the clinic, Sarah. Maybe at the drugstore, though?”

“Yeah,” I sit on the couch, “maybe.”

I discreetly start looking at apartments that could be for rent after graduation. I look on the outskirts of town and find a garage apartment that a very sweet older lady agrees to rent to me if it is still unoccupied over the summer. Finding a job gets put on the back burner as the school year moves into full swing. It turns out I can’t sing, and I suck at volleyball, but the coach offers me the position of manager, allowing me to still participate with the team at pep rallies and travel with them on away games. As the season comes to a close, and with Thanksgiving break around the corner, I decide it’s time to actively look for a job.

The trouble is finding someone willing to hire a 16-year-old high school student with no experience. I try some local retail stores, but I know that mom and dad will never go for the hours they want me to work. I walk into Joe’s Burgers, my favorite place to get some dinner and continue looking through the classifieds.

“Hey, Y/N/N,” I look over and wave to the man behind the counter.

“Hey, Dan, can I get a Bacon—"

“Your usual?” he cuts me off, smiling.

“Yes, please,” I look down sheepishly, handing him the exact amount of money without being told the total.

“Whatcha got there?” he nods towards the paper that’s now on the counter as he hands me my receipt.

“Oh, I’m just looking for a job,” I tuck the paper under my arms. “Need to earn some money so I can get outta this town after graduation.”

“What’s wrong with the town,” his face grows serious, “I’ve lived here my whole life.”

“Shit—I mean, n-nothing. Fuck."

“Y/N/N!” Dan bursts into laughter, “I’m just messing with you! You think you’re the first person who hates living here? We’re a small-ass town in the middle of nowhere.”

“You’re such a jerk,” I say, relieved, “I’ll be in my spot, okay?” He tries to contain his laughter as I walk away, making my way to my usual table. I flip through the pages, seeing nothing that would really work for me.

“You know Joe has been talking about hiring another cashier,” Dan says, bringing my food over, “and you’re practically here all the time anyway, you may as well make some money while you’re at it. You want me to talk to him?”

“Really? Do you think he’d hire me? I can’t stay late on week-nights because of school, mom and dad would kill me.”

“Yeah, we need someone to work the register, Jana can’t do it all herself. Whaddya think?”

“Oh, my god Dan, that would be amazing!” I get up and throw my arms around him to give him a hug. I watch as Dan walks to the back of the restaurant, after a few minutes he returns, giving me the thumbs-up. Before I leave, he gives me paperwork to fill out and a uniform, telling me to return the next day for training.

For three days, I train, working with Jana on the register. She is a few years older than me, with absolutely no filter. She always has me hunched over, laughing at something she has said or done. The lunches are busier than usual with the break. On Friday, she decides it’s time to leave me on my own, ‘best way to learn,’ she quips.

I’ve never been a social butterfly, and the thought of having to deal with customers on my own genuinely terrifies me for a few moments. After giving myself a small pep talk, I turn around to see three large men waiting for me.

The shortest of the three looks at me, and leans over the counter, “I’m here, what are your other two wishes?” he asks, flashing me a wink.

“I’m sorry?” I can’t believe this guy is serious.

“My brother and I were wondering,” he gestures to the tallest of the three, “if it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

“W-what?” I feel the heat pooling in my cheeks.

“Dean, knock it off, we’re here to work.” the older man behind him smacks him upside his head, and I have to stifle my laughter. He offers a sympathetic smile toward me.

“Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a baby?” I shot back; it was the only thing I could think of, albeit an awful comeback.

“It’s okay, just blink if you want me,” I stare straight into those green eyes for a solid 10 seconds before turning away.

“Dean, leave the girl alone, how old are you doll?” he asks, turning to me.

“Sixteen,” I say, watching as he rolls his eyes at the other two.

“See, are you trying to go to jail, son?” he says, looking at me apologetically “I’m sorry my sons are two walking hormones.”

“I didn’t even say anything!” the tall one huffs. Green-eyes shrugs and rubs the back of his head.

“Don’t even Sam, I heard you when we walked in.” Their dad grabs them by the shirts and drags them both to stand in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes, this man grabbing his two grown sons like they were pre-teens, “Now apologize to…” he looks at my name tag, “… Y/N.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, didn’t mean to offend you,” Green-eyes says insincerely.

“That’s fine, it’s part of the job, learning to deal with frat boys who love to mess with townies,” I smile back curtly.

“What the fu—” green-eyes is clearly trying to contain his anger, but his dad chuckles at the remark, and his brother can hardly control himself.

“Yeah, frat boy, don’t mess with the townie,” the younger one laughs, pushing his shaggy brown hair away from his face, revealing gleaming hazel eyes flecked with hints of green and blue surrounded by dark full lashes.

“Listen, Y/N,” green-eyes looks at my name tag again, “we ain’t no frat boys, in fact, we’re here becau—”

“All right, Dean, that’s enough.” His dad gives him a stern look that is clearly a silent conversation. “Since we’re off to such a wonderful start, let’s start over, yeah?”

I nod politely. These guys are clearly passing through and will be gone in a matter of hours or days, but Joe wants us to make all people, even the ones we’ll probably never see again, feel welcome.

“I’m John, you already know Dean,” he reaches his hand out towards the tall one, “and this is Sam. We’re actually looking into the recent animal-related deaths,” he says, producing a Fish and Wildlife Badge. I study it for a moment before handing it back. “We’re interviewing some of the local business owners and residents in the area of the attacks. Have you heard or seen anything usual, smelled anything weird, anything that comes to mind?”

“Oh.” I look at the three men; here I was being a bitch to the people trying to help. “Um, I just started working here a few days ago, animal attacks?” I look back up to John, who nods. “The only animals around here are coyotes, but even they’re pretty rare. I haven’t heard anything, but I keep to myself. Joe might know something, he’s the owner and knows everything about everyone.” I offer a smile.

“Is Joe in today?” John asks. His grey eyes hold so much pain as he looks at me.

“Um… yeah. He may have a few minutes now that we’ve slowed down. I can see if he can come talk to you?”

“That’d be great, thanks, Y/N.”

“Please, Y/N/N,” I say, blushing, covering my nametag, “No one really calls me Y/N.”

“Y/N/N,” he repeats, “I’d really like to speak with Joe if it’s not a problem.”

“Yeah, shit. Let me go get him,” I say, walking towards the back. “Hey Jana, I’m gonna go get Joe. Watch the register?”

“I got it,” she hollers back.

“Dude! She’s 16!” I hear who I assume is Sam whispering loudly. “Shut up! How was I supposed to know that?!”

“Dean, she’s obviously not 18. Stick to girls your own age,” John responds. “Sammy—.”

I can no longer hear the men as I reach the door to Joe’s office. Jana and Dan had both told me that his door usually stayed open, today it was not only closed, but it was locked as well. I knock, waiting for him to answer. He looks a little frazzled when he opens the door, but smiles at me, “Hey, Y/N/N, what’s up?”

“There’s a guy from Fish and Wildlife; he’s looking into the recent animal attacks? He’s asking about strange occurrences or something? I don’t know, but I know you pay attention to that kind of stuff, so he wants to talk to you.”

“I—shit, yeah, let him know I’ll be out in a few minutes,” he straightens his shirt and closes the door behind him.

I nod and head back to the front of the building. I watch as the boys and their father seem to be in deep discussion. Turning away when I realize Dean has caught me staring. I gather their food, and as I walk towards their table, I can hear that for some reason, I am the current topic of discussion, specifically, my age.

“Actually, I’ll be 17 in a month,” I quip, dropping their food, unsure of why I am engaging with this odd group of men.

“Huh?” Dean looks at me curiously.

“Well, for some reason the two of you are overly concerned with my age, I’ll be 17 next month.”

“Still illegal, Dean,” Sam smirks.

“Yeah, but right up your alley, Sammy,” Dean winks at him.

“Boys, stop treating this girl like she’s a piece of meat,” their father doesn’t even look up from his plate.

I can’t help myself, I’m usually not this brazen, but something about these outsiders coming in, I have to say it, “Well, here in the Great State of Texas the age of consent is 17, it’s not technically illegal,” and before I can stop myself I wink at Dean.

“Oh, Y/N, you are killing me here,” he says, bringing his hand to his chest. “Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to pass, but Sammy here,” Dean grabs Sam by the shoulders, “may be able to help you out.”

Sam blushes furiously; it’s actually adorable. I can feel the heat coming up in my own cheeks, and know if I stay any longer, they will see it very clearly.

“Joe’ll be out in a few minutes,” I say, turning to go back to the register. I walk away, adding a little sway in my hips as I know the younger men are watching. “Lemme know if there’s anything else I can get you,” I shoot another wink, this time in Sam’s direction.

“Thanks, Y/N/N.” John’s baritone voice carries through the restaurant.

I watch Joe take a seat with the three men, the younger boys listening and observing their father very carefully. I watch John grab something—a fork?— out of his pocket and discreetly place it in front of Joe. Why would he do such a thing? Joe and the men continue to speak for 10 minutes until the dinner rush starts, and Joe excuses himself.

The three men finish their burgers and leave the restaurant; concern etched on their faces as they have a heated conversation.

Throughout the dinner rush, I notice that Sam is stationed outside of the building. It looks as though he’s watching somebody. But every time I look up, his position has changed. After it grows dark, I can no longer see him outside; I realize I shouldn’t let him occupy my mind. Jana and I work furiously until a few hours later when we finally close.

“First day on your own,” Jana says, letting her hair down and hopping onto the counter. “You did good Y/N/N, only a couple mistakes.”

“Thanks, it’s not always gonna be like that, right?” I say, sighing, mimicking her actions with my own hair.

“Nah, I mean, the Friday and Saturdays will be, but unless it’s a school break, the nights are not usually too crazy,” she reassures me.

“Thank God,” I laugh, “what about the customers? Did you see those guys earlier? The ones talking to Joe?” I ask, hoping that she doesn’t pick up on the fact that I am blushing at the mention of the men.

“Oh, you mean the green-eyed one who was clearly hitting on you?” She smirks at me, “With the older guy and the really tall guy?”

“Yeah… you have an excellent memory…” I laugh, “he was so cheesy. ‘Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?’” I mock him. “I mean, he can’t think girls really fall for that? Even the tall one knew it was a bad line.” I blushed a little, thinking about them.

“Oh my god, you like him, green-eyes.” She gasps, “You wanna jump his bones,” she sang mockingly at me, “you love him!”

“Shut up,” I threw my apron at her playfully, “I do not want to jump his bones. Besides, I’m jailbait. He’s at least 21 or so.” Jana raises her eyebrow at me. “He basically told me he couldn’t.”

“So… you’re saying you would if he was younger?” she giggles.

“Jana! No! He’s not my type. He’s way too cocky—he probably thinks he’s God’s Gift to Women,” I mock him again.

“What about the tall one? He was gorgeous,” she offers, “And the dad? He’s hot, like I will so call him Daddy. Let him just—."

“That’s way too much information, Jana. Anyway, if green-eyes is too old, how on earth is the dad not even more wrong?”

“That’s what makes it so hot… like, the wrongness of it…” she says mock fanning herself. “Okay, so clearly, the giant is the one you’re gonna have to do. You can just climb on top—" she says, moving her whole body onto the counter, “and take him for a ride.”

“Jesus, Jana.” I try to suppress my embarrassed laughter. But I blush furiously at the thought of Sam, especially with the image that Jana just planted in my head. I cover my face with my hands as I try to compose myself.

“Oh my god, you are so red!” Jana laughs, “It’s the giant! He’s the one you lo-ove!”

“I don’t even know him! They’re just passing through. You know the type, no one actually moves here. Not for real, at least. They’ll be gone in a week.”

“Y/N/N, that’s why it’s perfect. Hook up, get all that pent-up frustration out of your system, and then you’ll go your separate ways,” she offers. “Wham-bam-thank you-ma’am.”

“I’m really not into that one-night stand stuff,” I say, “I mean, what’s the point?”

“Come on, Y/N/N, that’s the point. Sometimes you just need a release. It’s not like you’re gonna fall in love with some guy you just met and hook-up with once. I mean, you’ve hooked up with guys before, right?”

I shrug my shoulders.

“Oh, my God. Y/N/N, you’re not a virgin, are you?” she whispers so that Dan and Joe won’t hear. I nod, I didn’t have a problem with my own virginity, but other people did. I know I have plenty of time. And with how busy mom and dad keep me, I have no time for boys. “Oh, okay, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I know. Besides, mom and dad don’t even like the thought of me dating; they’d make the guy ask for permission. It’s not that I would ever have time for it anyway. Either way, it’ll happen whenever it happens, and it will probably not be great the first time,” I laugh, trying to break the serious look on Jana’s face. “I have very low expectations, especially if he’s never done anything either. Most boys my age don’t know what they’re doing anyway.”

“Not to be all romantic or whatever, but you know it doesn’t have to be like that. Your first time doesn’t have to suck. It can be really nice if you get the right person.”

“I figure it will either be awesome or okay,” I laugh, “hope it’s awesome, but it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Okay, I’m gonna have one more mom moment with you, and then we can leave, okay?” she grows slightly serious, and I nod my head. “Bring condoms.” I choke out a laugh. “I’m serious. Don’t count on the guy to do it. And don’t trust the ‘pull-out’ method. Dudes always think they can time it right, and half the time…” she makes a gesture I don’t quite understand, I look at her confused. “Inside. Or at least not all the way out. And I’m sure getting pregnant isn’t a part of your grand plan.” She smiles softly. “If you ever need someone to talk about this stuff with, you can come to me, okay?”

“Thank you, if and when the day ever comes, I’ll be sure to tell you.” She raises her eyebrow. “I swear. Don’t count on it being anytime soon, though.”

Jana finishes counting the tips, and I count the register. We grab our bags, say goodbye to Dan, who’s still closing down, and Joe, who’s in the office looking at receipts.

Jana and I live about a block away from each other, and close enough to the restaurant that neither of us bothered driving. Every week it’s getting colder, and I know by the first week of December it will be too cold to walk home at night. But until then, Jana and I walk together, her house off of the main road that leads to mine.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you all the way home?” Jana asks as we reach her street.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Then you’ll have to walk back by yourself.”

“Yeah, but I’m prepared.” She pulls mace and a small knife that’s attached to her keychain out. “If someone or something tries to get me, stab stab.”

“Jesus, Jana,” I laugh out of shock. “No, I’ll be fine, how about tomorrow before work I get me one of those and then I’ll be prepared as well.”

“Fine, but call me when you get home,” she jots a number down and waves goodbye, “I’m serious Y/N/N, call me. If you don’t, I will call your parents.”

“I will,” I yell, turning back to head home.

I feel that I’m being followed. Paranoid, I know. I swear I can hear footsteps behind me, but every time I turn around, there’s nothing there. Freaking Jana, this is her fault. I’ve never had issues walking home at night before, but now I’m hearing things that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t put “I’m prepared,” in my head, now feeling like a taunt. I’m less than 5 minutes away from my house; what could possibly happen?

I hear a growling, something inhuman; it grows louder as I try to will myself to move faster. I turn the corner, and that’s when it happens, someone, something, jumps out of nowhere and starts running towards me. I try to run, but my legs won’t move, “fuck.”

I hear yelling, but I still can’t move, the creature is getting closer to me, and I get a good look at it. Claws, it has fucking claws. Its eyes are yellow, and its teeth are huge. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was a werewolf. But werewolves don’t exist. This must be the creature that John was looking for.

‘It’s some kind of rare species of bear,’ I tell myself, ‘a bear.’

It’s only about a foot away from me; it looks like something out of a horror movie. It’s on its hind legs, unnatural noises leave its body, and before I can even move, it's swiping at me. All I can do is close my eyes and pray it doesn't kill me. A loud bang forces my eyes open, I stand there, still unable to move. I look up to see a set of familiar eyes before me, ones I hadn’t expected to see ever again. Sam.

Chapter 2

#sam x reader #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester fanfiction #supernatural #supernatural fic #Elastic Heart #Elastic Heart 1

94 notes · View notes

isazulabaeorwhat · 4 years

Note

Spill the tea, what's the deal with you and the BSG group (avatar-chang and her squad in particular)?

Ok anon, sorry for taking so long! I wanted to get everything right and honestly collecting the posts took a longass time xD

Anyways, the only ones I have a problem there are avatar-chang, hexful/dykesia/bizukos, catrademption, cardboardseagulls (never seen interacted b4) and bizulas (also never interacted b4).

I’m going to be really transparent about this whole thing so it’s gonna be long as there’s gonna be several links and I’ve included the dates so it’ll be easier to understand. Since I’ll be fully transparent about this, i’ll probably get hate or whatever. Honestly, I just want to put everything out there without being biased or hiding anything. I’m going to disclose everything here.

So, the whole thing between me and avatar-chang started off with this post I made last year on 10 March 2019. Afterwards, she PMed me on the same day and this was the conversation:

After that, I thought the argument was over because she blocked me lmao. The only ones I spoke to about this was nbw and my real life friends (who had nothing to do with ATLA lmao I just ranted to them).

And then the next incident I think was on 16 March 2019 when I made this post about Azula’s abuse of her friends. I was new and 16. I genuinely wanted to know why people labeled Azula as an abuser. It was dykesia who responded to me at the time.

Now, unlike avatar-chang, I had a few conversations with dykesia (who was bizukos then) that was generally civil. I first interacted with her when she made a post calling out Zucest shippers or something?? I was very new. Like fresh newbie baby ATLA tumblr fan new lmao so I thought what she said was too aggressive. I didn’t realize that there were actual Zucest shippers until after some time. And then she PMed me on 13 March 2019, saying that she doesn’t always agree on characters with me but I do write some interesting pieces on Azula— that she’s a huge fan of Azula but she just tends to stay away from her fandom. I apologized about the previous incident of the Zucest thing and it was fine after then. We talked about zuko, the fandom, the comics, Mai etc etc. I thought we were on fine terms.

And then I made a post about the cliff scene in the comics on 16 March 2019. Avatar-Chang made a post that was pretty directed at the post but it seems like she’s deleted it.

On 17 March 2019, I received an anon mail telling me that avatar-chang was talking shit about me behind my back. I censored her name then because I didn’t want to believe without any evidence. No one sent me any screenshots about it so I just dismissed it.

On the same day, avatar-chang answered an anon and talked about the 13 child post theory I made on 9 March.

On 23 April 2019, I received another anon mail about avatar-chang, asking if I’d seen the post she made about Azula. I censored her name again cuz I didn’t want to start any shit over having differing opinions. I’m assuming this is the post the anon was referring to.

On 28 April 2019, dykesia/hexful/bizukos PMed me to ask if I was talking shit about other people behind their backs, and her. I denied this because I hadn’t. This was how the conversation went:

Yes, I didn’t censor any name because as I said, full transparency. I have afp blocked because we’ve clashed several times and he’d still come for my posts last year despite already being blocked. If you’ve followed me long enough, you probably would’ve rmbered that time lmao

Anyways during then, I don’t think I realized that dykesia was actually being passive aggressive. It’d been barely a year since I started the blog and I just didn’t want to full out make enemies. Reading the messages now tho lmao she really was passive aggressive. But yeah then she said this in bsg so I don’t even know why she bothered to ask me if she wasn’t even going to consider believing me.

The 9th of June 2019 was the last time she messaged and it was to ask if I mind her discoursing this Zuko post while ‘hard and drunk’. It was the first time she could apparently agree with me so it was I quote a ‘Yay??’. Afterwards I don’t know when she did it but she blocked me lmao

On 17 July 2019, I received another anon mail telling me that avatar-chang publicly called me a bitch when she was answering an anon about me posting the scans of the EK Chronicles. She mentioned this in bsg again on 19 April 2020 lmao (she’s that petty) it seems:

On November 8 2019, an anon (one of avatar-chang’s friends actually) asked about my thoughts towards the allegations against Aaron Ehasz. I still believe in the system of ‘Innocent before proven guilty’, so I didn’t side with anyone. I tried to be as objective as possible. When I said that I hoped men would also come forward, I said that because I don’t want men to just sit on the sidelines and let the women get the heat if they were telling the truth. At the end of this whole thing, I concluded that Ehasz was a dick of a boss to the girls. Being called an abuser carries more weight than just being a dick. Everyone has been a dick at one point, but being an abuser is something else. Just because Ehasz was a dick doesn’t mean I’m going to stop watching TDP or dismiss his involvement in ATLA.

The next day, BSG brought the issue up despite both avatar-chang having already blocked me by then lmao

On 5 February 2020, after Legacy of the Fire Nation came out, I made a post calling out Iroh’s bs to Azula (guy literally blames Azula for everything that happened to Zuko (something which avatar-chang agrees with apparently, and Iroh even sees Ozai in a better light).

That’s so far what I’ve remembered that involved avatar-chang and dykesia.

Moving on to the next three attackers: catrademption, cardboardseagulls and bizulas.

I’ve seen catrademption around, but I don’t remember if we’ve clashed before. We must have though cuz she’s got me blocked lmao and I mostly only debate back to people when they reply to my posts. For cardboardseagulls and bizulas, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them them before but obviously they’ve seen my blog and misinterpreted everything I’ve written.

But according to them, I’m apparently a Azula apologist, extremist, irrational, toxic, coddles and woobifies Azula, justifies everything she does and invalidates abuse victims.

You can see the posts I’ve made to judge whether I actually am an irrational Azula apologist who blames everything on Zuko. One of the most recent posts I made about Azula’s character is this, and there’s still several more posts like that. Just search #meta or #analysis in my blog search and all of them will just pop up. I can assure you, I have never acted as if Azula has done nothing wrong or did everything right or whatever lies these people are spewing.

If anyone has proof that I’ve talked shit about people in the fandom to other people before, please, present your evidence. I highly think this is impossible because I actually don’t have many friends on Tumblr, nor do I usually initiate conversation because I’m awkward af.

I’ve also tried approaching those I recognized in bsg to find out more about the situation (and at least give my side of the story). Most of them have chosen not to speak to me LMAO but one of them who’s chosen to remain anonymous for their privacy, admitted that dykesia (hexful) forced them to block a blog before (after realizing they were interacting with said blog) and if not, they would be blocked themselves. I can’t post the conversation publicly because they’re afraid their speech mannerism will give away their identity. @space-sword has also shared his experience with avatar-chang on his blog and was pressured to cut off ties with ppb21 just to join the oh so magnificent Ba Sing Gay.

There’s absolutely no reason to judge someone based on their sexual orientation, race, color or age either. They rant about being discriminated against or being generalized or stereotypes but they’re the ones hypocritically committing these actions, and then justify their actions by saying ‘we’re oppressed, they’re not, so it’s not racism or discrimination’. And yet people still wonder why discrimination is still rampant LMAO

I can’t speak for the blogs they victimized in bsg, but I personally don’t agree with talking shit about them on a public server and then criminalizing them as if they’re actually predators. I also don’t agree with involving the blogs’ friends simply because of their association. I also don’t agree with demanding people to block blogs they don’t like because that’s just pure manipulation. That’s wrong and marginalizing people. Unless someone has actually been harassing or literally preying on people, then there’s no reason to actually go around warning blogs about them unless they’re asked about it.

If they feel uncomfortable about something? Then avoid that blog, filter their tags or even block that blog if they’re that uncomfortable—BUT they shouldn’t demand others to do the same just for their own benefit. It’s not up to them to decide what a person can or cannot see or who they can or cannot interact with. They’re not their parents, and they obviously have no right to pressure people into doing things they don’t want to. If they think it tactless that I shared the conversations? Oh honestly, a line was crossed when they spread shit about me so idc. If they actually feel terrible for being called out? GOOD. That’s what they should feel, because in no way was any of what they were doing right or justified. If they’re going to shit on me then expect to be burned because I’m not someone who’ll just shrivel in fear because they have a bigger following.

#ba sing gay #bsg

46 notes · View notes

all-time-logan · 4 years

Note

I don't know if your still using the prompt list but if you are, #7 immediately followed up by #4 with Prinxiety please :)

Hello!! Sorry for the delay in getting this out, but as we’re all aware, the world’s been pretty crazy and I haven’t had much energy to write. I’m kind of considering this a 2.5 to my By Any Other Pet Name verse, though it’s honestly long enough to be a part three. Thank you @angelablue for the request, and I hope you enjoy!!

Part 1 - Part 2

Warnings: None that I can see, but please let me know if there are any!

Word Count: 1252

***

Virgil sighed. “I’m bored and I’m blaming you. How did you convince me to do this again?”

“I convinced you, Sour Puss-in-Boots,” Roman started, tapping one of Virgil’s combat boots with his own shoe, “because I wanted to make Patton and Logan confess their undying love to each other and I needed help.”

“They’re already dating, though.” Virgil said, watching Patton and Logan from the top of the stairs. The two were in the living room, quietly talking as Logan watched Patton knit, his book closed in his lap.

“I’m well aware of that, Virgil, I lost a bet to you about it.” Roman muttered. He leaned forward, and Virgil had a short burst of impulse to tug Roman back to keep him from tumbling down the stairs. He ignored it, knowing Roman had better balance than that.

“However,” Roman continued, “Dating does not equate to true love. Their cutesy nicknames and endearing honeymoon phase are admirable, but it doesn’t make up for the drama and flair of a true romantic affair!”

“I don’t think Logan and Patton are ones for dramatics.” Patton giggled below them, and Logan grinned at him, leaning over to kiss Patton’s forehead. Roman cooed at Patton’s blush, not deterred by Virgil’s doubts.

“They may not be, usually, but when one is in the throes of love, they do crazy things,” Roman threw his hands up, gesturing around has he talked. “They will go to great heights, defeat terrible foes, put themselves in embarrassing positions, preform wonderful deeds, just to look at their love and say, ‘I love you!’”

As he said the last line, Roman turned towards Virgil, making eye contact as he said the last three words. For some unknown reason, Virgil felt his face flush, and Roman’s eyes widened. His cheeks turned pink, and Roman cleared his throat before turning away.

“Uhm, yes, they will do many things to show their devotion.” He ducked his head for a split second, and Virgil couldn’t make himself look away.

“What we need to do, though, is make the two glasses-wearing lovebirds admit their undying love to each other, however we can!” Roman seemed to come back to himself, turning to Virgil with a bright grin. Virgil felt his face, which had been cooling down, get hot with a blush again.

“Will you help me, My Chemically Unbalanced Romance?” Roman asked.

Virgil furrowed his brows, huffing out a breath as he thought. On one hand, it could go terribly wrong, and Logan and Patton would get upset with them and possibly break up. On the other, more likely, hand, Virgil and Roman would simply embarrass themselves and the other two might tease them for a while and stay together. As Patton’s giggles filtered up to them from below, Logan’s quiet laughter underneath it, Virgil shook his head.

“Why not? It may be fun to watch you make a fool of yourself.”

Roman sputtered, and Virgil snickered. This was going to be fun.

***

Their first course of action, apparently, was to figure out the other’s schedules.

“We already know L’s though.” Virgil said, leaning against the counter. “He has it posted on his door so that we don’t bother him when he’s working.”

“Oh, I never pay attention to that, he’ll answer my questions whether he’s working or not.” Roman said. He was sat at the table, furiously writing something into a notebook, a few pens scattered around him. He glanced up at Virgil with a slightly sheepish grin. “To be fair, my questions are usually about scripts and stuff, so that may be why Specs doesn’t mind, but my point stands. We may know his work schedule, but we don’t know his schedule outside of that, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t make sense of what Patton does in a regular day outside of mealtimes and movie nights.”

Virgil snorted, pushing off the counter to join Roman at the table. He looked down at the notebook, seeing that Roman had been making a master schedule of what the four of them did during the day. He grinned when he saw the largest purple section was just labeled “Nap?? Existential dread??”

“First off, Pops doesn’t really have a set schedule.” Virgil plucked the light blue pen out of Roman’s hand, marking out a few of the lines Roman had. “He mainly monitors Thomas’s emotions as a background function and will manage the short-term memory hall while L manages the long-term memory hall with you.”

“I know all of that already,” Roman said, just short of whining. “But what does he do outside of that?”

“As far as I’ve gathered, chores around the house or hanging out with one of us. Or just chilling in his room. I think he takes as many naps as I do, honestly.”

Roman hummed, idly crossing out the “Existential dread” of the largest purple section and rewriting it to be later in the day. “Ok. I might have to watch him for a few days to see if I can get anything concrete, but if not, this will work.”

“What’s this for anyway?” Virgil asked, doodling some swirls in the corner of the notebook page. “And shouldn’t you have Janus’s and Remus’s schedules on here too?”

“This is so we can coordinate our plans better, so they have a higher chance of working.” Roman added some zigzags on top of Virgil’s doodles as he spoke, “Logan’s attempts at giving Thomas a schedule might not be working, but it is useful. I don’t have the other two’s schedules because I frankly don’t think Remus has one and Janus is too sneaky for me to even want to attempt to figure his out.”

Virgil laughed quietly, shaking his head. “Don’t be fooled, Janus has less of a schedule than Remus does. Remus’s is just full of chaos and pranks though, so it balances those two out.”

Roman hummed, picking up the red pen to add the little amalgamation of shapes they were making in the corner of the page. He overlapped the swirls and zig zags, giggling a bit when their hands bumped into each other. Virgil snorted, dropping the light blue pen and grabbing the navy one to outline the swirls he had already made.

They got so invested in their little creation, that it wasn’t until Roman leaned forward and knocked heads with Virgil that they realized how close they had gotten. Roman laughed again, apologizing, but Virgil was too distracted by the way the kitchen lights, as bright and slightly yellowed as they were, were catching Roman’s hair and lighting it up in a halo. His face flushed, and he swallowed roughly.

Roman smiled at him, his cheeks slightly pink from laughter, and shook his head a bit.

“I didn’t knock you to badly, did I?” He asked, and Virgil silently shook his head no. Roman hummed, seeming pleased.

He began to gather his stuff up, sliding the pens into the bright red and gold pencil case they had come from. “Good, don’t want to hurt you too bad and make you lose the few braincells Logan was willing to share.”

With that, he gave Virgil another bright smile, and headed out into the living room. Virgil stared after him, the image of Roman laughing, bright and happy and beautiful, stuck in his brain. As the last descriptor he had used registered with him, Virgil felt his face warm even more, and his heart start racing.

Oh.

Oh no.

***

Tag List:

General:

@irrelevantbutfabulous

@thelesbianspoon

@nonbeenary-enbee

@bernedmylimsoff

By Any Other Pet Name:

@thelowlysatsuma

@thelesbianspoon

@pheonix-inside-reblogs

@thefightisntoverme

@katie-the-noble-fangirl

@lovayatothemoonandback

@irrelevantbutfabulous

@mmd-ask-italy

@bubblycricket

@bernedmylimsoff

Let me know if you want to be added or removed!

#angelablue #prinxiety #virgil sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides #gozy writes #ask #thank you for the request!!#also i tried putting it under a read more but asks don't like that

26 notes · View notes

apex-academy · 3 years

Text

Chapter 5: Caring Is a Hazard to Your Health (#27)

We keep shuffling through the room, and I make sure to check behind the file cabinet with Mahavir’s help, but nothing new is turning up. That’s all right. Wasn’t really expecting anything.

“So, we good?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve checked everything.”

“Thanks for tagging along.”

“No prob, brah.”

“...”

“Are we going to rejoin the others? I’d like to rest for a bit, but that still requires a group, so to speak.”

“I wouldn’t mind settling down for a while.”

“Like, I still got sports ‘n’ stuff to talk about?”

“I might stick with that side ‘f things.”

“Okay. Guess we’re moving the groups around after all. Think you can make it to the gym, Mahavir?”

“Yes.”

Awful lot of trouble, but off we go. Yuki and, surprisingly, Aidan end up joining our “group” to split up in the dorms. All very exciting.

“...”

Guess I’ll be spending a lot of time in here. It’s roomy, at least. The bath’s fine. Conditions could certainly be worse.

Aside from the killing game.

It’s fine. I can’t see everyone respecting the lockdown rules 24/7, but if the opportunities to kill are still harder to come by... we shouldn’t have much to worry about, right?

...

Yuki, Mahavir, and I have our last cooking lesson for a while, with Tsunyasha hanging around to round out the arrangement. I’d like to think I’m getting better at this, but...

Considering where I started, that may not mean much.

...

“Hello, students! It is now nighttime, so, um! Don’t try to go in the cafeteria or anything, and don’t sleep anywhere but the dormitories! I-I’ll see you in the morning…!”

...

“Um, hello! Good morning! It is now 7:00, so the off-limits areas have been reopened! And, um! You have three days left if you want to save your loved ones! Everyone do your best today…!”

Don’t appreciate the countdown to death there. But I guess it’s also our countdown to going back to normal.

Well, whatever counts as normal in this place.

Kind of have to wonder what “normal” would even be for us without all of this happening. Considering the people in this class, I doubt it would be any closer to “ordinary”. I can only wonder who’s supposed to be in that resident director office. Are they used to managing crowds like this? I’m sure Apex Academy has turned out its fair share of eccentrics, but it’s hard to imagine this class isn’t full of top runners.

Anyway. I’d better get to breakfast.

I ready myself for the day and head out. Guess I put the speed on today, because I’m the first one in the hall. Then again, half of us are seriously injured, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I start for the main set of doors and reach for a handle. My usual amount of hesitation may be a boon today, because there’s a holler from behind before I can touch it.

“Hey, hey, hang on!!”

I pull back and turn around.

“Good morning to you, too?”

Aidan, still only halfway through his door, pants for a second before wheeling himself farther along.

“Er, yes, that, too, thank you.”

“Anyway, I believe I stated we would all gather before leaving the dorm area for breakfast, so if you don’t mind...”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”

I step back just in time for more of us to start filtering in.

“Goooooood morning, everybody!”

“Good morning...”

“Everybody ready to have A Day?”

“Do we have a choice?”

Tsunyasha, when she comes, attempts to shoulder past me.

“Excuse me?”

“If you insist. Consider this a pardon.”

“...”

“What? Do you truly expect me to kowtow to some sinner’s demands?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Goodness.”

“The foolishness in this building is even worse than I had imagined.”

“As fair as that might be, do you mind staying back for one more minute?”

“We only have one more person to wait on.”

“The legless one, yes? I’ve no particular need to greet him.”

“Rude.”

A sudden ripping noise makes me turn around. Aside from Aidan guarding the door with his back to us—guess it’s easier than trying to wheel himself around the other way—nothing seems off.

“Is everything all right...?”

“I think so?”

“Yes, as far as I can tell. At any rate, we might as well keep up conversation.”

“Okay! Does anybody wanna play a game?”

“I spyyyyyy...”

“There’s nothing to spy except doors and each other.”

“Yup!”

Well, he’s sure not disappointed, somehow.

Before he can try to stir up a rousing game of I Spy regardless, Tsunyasha goes over to Kaichi’s door and knocks loudly.

“Fool! Are you yet slumbering?”

So she... is cooperating?

For now. I’m sure she’ll give it up soon enough.

“Let the dude sleep if he wants.”

“Not an option at the moment, I’m afraid. Even if Mister Riseiin will have to go off notes, he is needed at the meetings.”

“Are we discussing x-rays today?”

“My ankle is fine.”

“I doubt that’s the issue.”

“Er, no, I only mean that everyone needs to be present. We’ve gone over this, haven’t we?”

“Uh...”

“I think so!”

Just before Tsunyasha tries to rip the whole doorknob off, Kaichi’s door opens.

“ ‘s there a fire ‘r something, brah?”

“No, you’ve a while yet before you face the pits of Hell.”

“Sweet.”

“Are all of the notes on your door intact, Mister Riseiin?”

Kaichi ducks back to check.

“Looks like?”

“Good. Are we all ready to go, then?”

“Ummm-hummm...”

She heaves a sigh. “At long last, yes.”

The procession heads to the cafeteria, then halves for the kitchen. Apparently Kaichi and I are the guest chefs today, with Yuki and Mahavir at their normal stations. Better than everyone trying to cook in here at once.

And certainly better than trusting Tsunyasha and Ichiriki to make my food for me.

Eventually we settle down for the meeting. Still have a lot of cooking to do after we get through the agenda, though.

“...”

“Are we... starting the meeting at some point?”

Aidan looks up from his toast.

“Of course! Excuse me.”

He clears his throat.

“All right! Is everyone ready to get down to business?”

“I do wonder, do you even intend to ask anyone besides yourself for announcements this time?”

“If you have anything that goes against our current emergency plan, then no, I would prefer you not announce it or otherwise go through with it!”

“But if there’s anything else of importance, by all means, feel free to announce it!”

“Hmph. What a farce.”

“Kay, if we’re, like, done bashing on each other for no reason?”

“IT’S SPORTS DAY, BABY!″

“A whole day, huh.”

“That’s correct! We’ll begin in the gym, with the possibility of moving on to some other rooms depending on how long the event lasts!”

“You don’t know?”

“We’ll pretty much have the event until one or more of us need to leave, so it’s hard to be sure, yes.”

“Considering certain parties, I’d like to hope we’ll at least be able to start on those terms.”

“By ‘certain parties,’ you mean Tsunyasha, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Yo, Tsuntsun? If you screw this up for us, like, I will beat the crap outta you. Just sayin’.”

“No threats!!!”

“Oh? Don’t you wish you could do such a thing, whelp.”

“Dude, I don’t care what kinda assassin you are, you’re totally not invincible.”

“Like, with all the fancy holy stuff prolly at least mostly? But not totally.”

“How impious.”

“It would be nice if you cooperated, though...”

“We don’t have that many opportunities... to have fun like this, you know?”

“Hmph. I need not bend to your whims.”

“Do you want some dorayaki...?”

“...An exchange could be suitable.”

What a trump card.

“Okay! Once we’ve prepared all our food for the day, we’ll return to our rooms for a few minutes before the sports begin.”

“So we doing, like, Jap’nese school sports festival stuff ‘r what?”

“That would be, like, super fancy?!”

“A bit ambitious for our current situation, I’m afraid.”

“We’ll just have some games that should be manageable for those interested in participating.”

“And plenty of room for those who prefer to watch.”

“Oh, oh!!! Are you gonna do the color commententating?”

“No. He is not.”

“...”

“Aw...”

“But yeah, we got, like, a list of stuff to try and go through?”

“Should I read ‘em off, or should it be a surprise? Hmm...”

“Considering the high likelihood we won’t get through all of them, it may be less disappointing to keep it a surprise.”

“Tru.”

“Is there any setup beforehand?”

“Not really. At least, not for the first event. There may be some setup after that, but we’ll have time to work on it then without keeping everyone waiting.”

I was more concerned about a group going off ahead of time, but I guess that answers the question.

“Any more questions?”

“...”

“All right! We’ll have a good deal of time left in the meeting to get the rest of our meals prepared, so if there are any other concerns or announcements, feel free to bring them up anytime!”

“Until then, that’s all I have to say.”

I turn back to my breakfast.

Sports Day, huh? I have to wonder what most of us can do in our condition. But I guess it’s not a bad idea. Get some team spirit going, or something.

Better than sitting around alone thinking about that little sliver of a possibility Monochap’s going to follow through on his threat if no one dies.

“...”

Well, it won’t do me much good to think about it surrounded by people, either. Let’s just keep moving.

[BACK] [NEXT]

#apexplot #apex5 #fanganronpa #selfnote

2 notes · View notes

tisfan · 4 years

Text

The Works

Title: The Works Written by: @tisfan (3023) Square: R2 - Hydra Won (swapped square) Rating: Mature (for horror) Triggers/warnings: Tags: Hydra Won, ambiguous ending, incomplete Created for: @tonystarkbingo Word count: 2346 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753566/chapters/59696779 Summary: It had been his last act, getting the sleep-pods onto the ship and launching it, the whole time, holding Hydra at bay, keeping her here, keeping her distracted. And then she’d struck, casting some evil magic over him, over--He couldn’t remember.

__________

¬░▒╛┐z░¬ date ┴╗╣⌐g__d morning soldier ▒¬º╖ç

The old AI wasn’t working.

Which had been the plan, Barnes, get it together.

The man above him -- well next to him now that Bucky had sat up -- was something like a vision. They exchanged names, greetings. The man. Tony. Had asked some questions.

Bucky’s lips were warm. Tingling.

Tony had kissed him. To wake him up. To break the spell.

“Hydra won,” Bucky said. He wasn’t even sure he was speaking out loud, but he must have, because Tony was responding.

“That’s long since over,” Tony said. “There’s no Hydra anywhere in this sector.”

“She’s sleeping, because I was sleeping,” Bucky said. “I shut her down by shutting myself down. She might be back.”

“I didn’t see anyone else on this ship, except you and an awful lot of rabbits.”

“Rabbits?” Kobik had had some pet rabbits; a whole hutch of them. Part of the experiment. Could a space station become truly self-sufficient? The answer still looked like no, but some hutch and farm animals did function pretty well. There’d been goats at one time, too, but in the last days of the war, Bucky thought they’d all been eaten.

“They’re all over the place. My AI tells me they’re rabbits. I’ve never seen one, honestly.”

“Where th’ hell’d you grow up you ain’t never seen a rabbit,” Bucky wondered.

“I did mention the part about three hundred years, right?”

“Right, yeah,” Bucky said. “Uh, is there anything to eat?”

“There’s some mealpacks back at my ship,” Tony offered. “But unless your stuff is in permastore, I don’t think anything from here will be safe.”

“Water?”

Tony pulled out a canteen. That, at least, hadn’t changed much in form or function for centuries. Spout to put liquids in or to drink from, a standard filtration system, and a strap to carry it with. Why improve on something that was already perfect? Filters would, of course, adapt over time to whatever contaminants were in the water. “Human physiology hasn’t changed all that much,” Tony said. “I don’t think my filters will hurt you. But you have to be careful. Don’t drink from a Centurian’s canteen. They add in a lot of stims and endorphins to their water. Warrior race, but it gives the rest of us a twitchy stomach.”

“Good to know,” Bucky said. “How will I know who they are?”

“Don’t worry, they’ll usually tell you,” Tony joked. “They’re blue-skinned marsupials, with a red crown of-- head spikes, for lack of a better word.”

“Marsupials?”

“They carry their young around in a stomach pouch until they’re old enough to walk around. It’s a convenient arrangement,” Tony said.

“Okay, then,” Bucky said. He took a few sips of Tony’s water and then returned it to him. The nanites in his system would filter anything harmful out, and if he could eat soon enough, would get him back to fighting fit. Otherwise, he might possibly go into a cyber coma. He didn’t see the need to alarm Tony just yet. It wasn’t urgent. “We can check the mess, see if there’s any supplements left. They won’t go bad.”

Worst case, he could probably chase down one of the rabbits and skin it for food.

The whole station was both dead and alive at the same time. The hydroponics bay had escaped containment; there were vines and plants everywhere.

They’d probably grown, at least somewhat, in the remains of the dead. Bucky shuddered.

The rabbit colony hopped in and out of the dense plant growth. Unafraid, and why would they be? A rabbit only lived nine or ten years. There had been generations of them, since they last saw humans.

“Did, uh, did the colony ship get away?” Bucky asked.

It had been his last act, getting the sleep-pods onto the ship and launching it, the whole time, holding Hydra at bay, keeping her here, keeping her distracted.

And then she’d struck, casting some evil magic over him, over--

He couldn’t remember.

»£┼¬░▒-▒¿╟┼longing▒░┼╝º

“We never came across any ships from the Ring,” Tony said, as if apologizing, “but if you can give us mass and trajectory, I might be able to track it down for you.”

Sleep pods would last. If Bucky’s lasted, theirs would last.

He shook his head, wondering. Maybe they’d gotten out, maybe they’d gotten away. Away from Hydra, locked in her cold sleep with Bucky.

He wondered where she was.

She might still be on the station. He turned his gaze on Tony. That would be a strange form for her to take; Tony seemed sincere. But then, witches always seemed sincere, didn’t they?

“Sir, I’m reading some strange energy spikes in the station,” a voice said, coming from-- from Tony.

“My AI,” Tony said, as if apologizing. “Anything hazardous, Jay?”

“Not as yet, but you might want to consider retreating in the next few hours. Radiation levels are rising.”

“What’s the plan with the bunnies?” Tony asked. “Can we evacuate them to a planet?”

“I’ve already sent out a beacon pod, locating the station. Hopefully it will be able to float through the Ring, and broadcast from there.”

“Good job.”

“Of course, sir.”

“You’re worried about the wildlife?” Bucky asked, incredulous. Definitely not the witch, then. She wouldn’t have cared about the life of a bug, beast, or boy.

“They’re alive,” Tony said. “There’s no point in killing them. We’ve got biologists back on the various Initiative ships that can relocate them somewhere that they won’t be an invasive species. Well, technically, they’ll be invasive, but a careful selection will make sure they will fit in with the local ecosystem. Worst comes to worst, we can sell them as pets and novelties on Knowhere Station.”

“We do have cargo space in the lower deck,” JARVIS pointed out, “if you’re not planning to salvage much.”

“Salvage, right,” Tony said, snapping his fingers. “I got so carried away by Sleeping Beauty here that I forgot I was looking for valuables. What say you, hot stuff? You got anything worth selling on this floating coffin? Split it with you, 50/50.”[]

¥ƒ▀¥▒╜┼┼pжавыйÉ»¥┼╟╞─rusted▒╗▓

Bucky shook his head. “I think it’s all salvage now, rules of the drift,” he said. “Do you have policy in place for survivors?”

Back in his day, anyone found on the drift in space -- hypersleep accidents happened often enough that people could outlive their assets, their grandkids, their governments -- that some effort was made to track down any remaining property, they got a six month high intensity sleep-learning degree, and sent off into the world with a small stipend.

Bucky’d known a couple of them. Steve Rogers had done a Big Sleep, seventy years or more. Gone to sleep as a Private, cook’s assistant during the war and woke up as a Captain through time in rank.

Strange thing, really.

“You might be considered the longest standing prisoner of war,” Tony said. “Not that it matters, there’s a fortune to be had on this station. Split it with me, you won’t have to worry about it. This is all approved salvage. I have a license.”

He knew his way around the station, even with the plants and the rabbits. The rabbits were freaking him out a little; they kept following-- sticking their curious noses out of the underbrush. He wondered how they’d lived so long. Usually life support shut down when no one was breathing it.

Which meant Hydra had to be on the station somewhere.

“Why split it with me, then?” Bucky wondered. “License for salvage, you don’t need to--”

“Because I may be an asshole a lot of the time,” Tony said, “but I am not one hundred percent a dick.”

╜£Éëδ╗»╟┼╞─┬┴seventeen╜╝╗▒»▒┼

“If you want,” Bucky said. They finally made it to the messhall, and the sub-freeze was still reading green, so Bucky used his thumb print to open it. “I can recon some of these food packs.”

“You call this stuff food,” Tony said, incredulously. “You, my friend, you have been suffering. Recon has come so far since your day. Jay, can you dish up a four course for us?”

“Of course, sir,” JARVIS said.

“What’s considered a high value item?” Bucky wondered, picking out a few recon packs. He added water to the cooker, stuffed the packet in the slot and watched as the not-particularly interesting, but high calorie, high vitamin cereal poured itself into a reusable cup. The spoons were a little iffy, so Bucky added more water, and then drank it as a gruel. Yuck, but it would keep his systems intact for a while longer. Just a little while longer.

He just needed to know what happened to Hydra.

Where was she?

Not in the messhall, that was for sure.

Tony was still running down a list of items -- elements that could be repurposed. Titanium, protactinium, thorium. They’d had those in ample supply at one point. Potable water, preferably in ice form, which was easier to tow.

“Wait, what was that last thing?”

“Etherium gas,” Tony said. “Might as well as for unobtainium, or wishalloy.”

“What, why?”

“As far as we know, stable etherium is a fantasy,” Tony said. “We’ve got plausible theories, but no one’s ever gotten a hold of the stuff before. I was spinning castles in space.”

“Um.”

╟S│ªS▒»░▒O1█┼daybreak▒»╟╗╣╕ë

“We have a tankful, at least,” Bucky said, “if nothing’s changed. That’s what we were mining, here--”

Tony was staring at him as if he’d said the moon really was made from green cheese.

“A-- let me get this straight. A tank. How much is in a tank?”

“It’s not really my department,” Bucky said, “but last I checked, about twenty thousand gallons of liquid etherium.”

Tony stopped moving, he seemed to stop breathing.

“I think we just became the richest men in the galaxy,” he said, finally. “Show me where this tank of yours is. Can we detach it for hauling?”

Bucky nodded. It was the gas, he thought. That attracted Hydra. She’d come because of the gas, and they’d fought her over the gas.

Witch.

Monster.

╟╗▒░ªÜfurnace▒»½▒╟┼╣

“Tony--” Bucky said, reaching out his hand. He caught hold of the other man’s wrist. “The gas--”

“Perfectly safe, cupcake,” Tony said. “We’ll make sure there’s no leaks, then we can just haul it away. Easy peasy, nice and cheesy.”

Bucky was pretty sure the phrase didn’t go that way.

And it wasn’t safe.

If Hydra was still on the station, that would be where she was.

Hibernating, maybe.

Or just waiting. Lurking.

He wanted to speak, it was like he’d forgotten the words, and so instead of saying anything, he just turned and led Tony deeper into the station. Down into the Works, the mag-engines and the hydropods, the storage and the plumbing, the fuel cells. It was dark there, wet and heavy somehow. The plant life stopped, which wasn’t surprising, and while there were a few rabbits down this deep, they didn’t seem… normal.

Mutations, perhaps.

Bucky shuddered the thought away.

Tony had said he’d sent out a beacon.

Help-- someone could help them.

Maybe someone would come.

I don’t have to run faster than Hydra, I just have to run faster than you.

Not true, and everyone knew it. Hydra was so fast. She was there before you even knew it. She wasn’t a sight, or something to touch. A witch, some sort of presence.

“Here,” Bucky said. “This is the shut off station. We’ll need to disconnect, and run diagnostics. That can take a few hours--”

“Don’t worry, Jarvis is already in the works, he’s a lot faster than your old systems,” Tony said. “We’ll be on our way back to civilization before you’re even sleepy.”

╟»▒░½Ü¢Ö▒»╟┼nine┼»Q▒»░▒╟┼

“Do you hear something,” Bucky said. He took a few steps down toward-- he didn’t even know. Something was down there. Calling him. Like a magnet that he was too pinlike to resist. A flame, to draw away a moth. It would burn him up, and he knew it, but he could not--

“Hey!” Tony’s hand was hard on his wrist, the fingernails biting lightly into his skin. “Hey, Bucky. You okay?”

“No, I don’t think I am,” Bucky said.

“Jay, how’s it look?”

“You may come back to the ship at any time, sir,” JARVIS said. “I can handle the disconnect from here.”

“Gotta be sleep-shock,” Tony was saying, “I’m so sorry, you seemed okay, let me just--”

Tony was leading him away.

Away from answers.

Away from--

▒┼╟╗╦Ñ▒»╟benign▒┼╫D░▒½¬

“It’s all right, you don’t have to do anything else, I’ve got you,” Tony said.

And he did. Somehow, this man was… carrying Bucky. Like he was a sleepy child. Bucky blinked.

“Nanites,” Tony said. “They’re pretty amazing. I know you had ‘em back in your day, my scans show you’ve got some yourself. I think there’s something interfering with yours, though. Maybe they’re just old. We can do a filter, get you fixed up. It’s all right, just let me take care of you.”

That was nice, somehow. The idea of just letting go. Of letting Tony take care of things. Letting him take care…

Of Hydra.

Would it even be possible? That the witch could be defeated by something as simple and small as human technology?

“Jay, get me a stretcher, would you, buddy?”

Bucky couldn’t see anything; everything was getting cold, frozen. His eyelids were frozen shut. Winter--

Winter was coming.

The winter.

He remembered climbing into the sleeppod, knowing she was right behind him, knowing--

He’d known something, once.

What was it--

▒┼╟»ª╣╝»homecoming▒»╣¥╝¡☺”

Static in his head, like snow. Freezing. He was so cold. Tony’s hands were on him, but he couldn’t see, and if Tony was talking, he couldn’t hear it.

She was coming.

Hydra was coming.

They’d woken her up, somehow, and she was on her way to claim him.

“You need to run,” Bucky said, hoping Tony could hear him. That he could do something. Anything.

Live.

Run.

▒»╟┼┴▒½¡╝one▒ªñªú┼╝│

“Tony, run--”

“Freight car.”

Bucky closed his eyes and went away.

The Winter Soldier was here.

“Hail Hydra.”

A/n - @27dragons wouldn’t let me post this until everything was resolved, so, I have written 2 more chapters and I will post them in the next 2 weeks or so.

#tonystarkbingo2020 #winteriron #horror #space bunnies #not mutually exclusive #apparently

31 notes · View notes