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mecachrome · 4 months

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pre-mclaren oscar piastri primer (ft. maxf, landoscar)

0. introduction

for a few months now i've been wanting to make both an oscar primer and a timeline of pre-mclaren landoscar moments, but i couldn't figure out which one to prioritize… then after some deliberation i finally realized i could just combine the two things together! so. here is an oscar-centric timeline that is mainly about his racing background, moving to the uk, and how he became acquainted with other members of the rfm pack—aka lando, maxf, and logan. i don't know whether any of this information is useful or even vaguely interesting, but i mostly just wrote it for myself and thought i'd share what i had in case anyone else wanted to check it out. please feel free to comment or shoot me an ask if anything here is egregiously incorrect; i've checked and linked as many sources as i could but it's of course possible that some errors remain :)

1. background, rc racing, early karting days (2007-2015)

oscar piastri was born on april 6, 2001 in brighton east, a suburb of melbourne not far from albert park circuit, as the son of chris and nicole and to-be oldest brother to 3 younger sisters. a love for all things automotive ran deep in the piastri family: both of his grandfathers were mechanics and his father had also co-founded his own vehicle diagnostics software company, hp tuners, aka oscar's sponsor throughout his racing career. thanks to his father's business, oscar's family was objectively well-off and managed to contribute a fairly substantial amount of support toward his junior career, but they also weren't swimming in cash by multi-millionaire motorsport standards either.

(L-R) mae, edie, hattie, and oscar, from nicole's twitter — each sibling is ~2 years apart (source)

while most drivers on the current grid were introduced to motorsport through go-karting, usually at or before the age of 7, oscar's path to single-seaters differed slightly. he first developed an interest in racing via remote-controlled cars at the age of 6, when his father brought him a monster truck as a souvenir back from a business trip in america. oscar began racing them that same year, eventually moving to safer electric track vehicles and even winning the second class of the national titles in 2010, at the age of 9. he was so small then that he often needed to stand on a milk crate to see the cars on track, and the next-youngest competitor at the time was twice his age. (source)

youtube

oscar on the podium at age 8 (nov 16, 2009)

oscar with his father chris, who often competed alongside him in a separate class (dec 21, 2010)

by 2011, oscar and his father were seriously considering his potential of pursuing rc racing as a viable career path, but things changed when he was introduced to karting via a friend's daughter in the rc community and his aspirations slowly shifted toward racing from inside a car. oscar was an unsurprisingly sporty and competitive child growing up; he'd played some cricket and aussie rules football and knew that all he wanted to do was race professionally, full-stop, at the time thinking along the lines of australian racing categories like v8 supercars. he was still competing in remote car racing as late as 2013, but he began karting seriously within australia in 2014, placing respectably in the junior categories of several regional karting series against relatively senior and more-experienced racers, and even going to france for a one-off event where he finished on the podium of the iame international junior x30 final. this outing affirmed his potential to his father and motivated the two of them to split time between australia and europe in 2015 as they juggled his karting future; plans for two more european events that year fell through, including the cik-fia world championship at the kfj level (which logan sargeant would go on to win), but at this point they were officially looking to take his career to the next level and commit fully to european karting in 2016.

this is when ricky flynn (and the hypothetical idea of lando norris!!!) comes in. before we get into rfm and karting professionally in europe, it's important to note that the defining aspect of landoscar's junior careers is that their pathways never once intersected. in fact, they don't even seem to have met properly before oscar entered the f1 grid as alpine reserve, although they'd spoken over social media and oscar was familiar with several people around lando's life—for example, maxf, logan, guanyu, and even lando's older brother oliver, who had also raced for rfm.

in short, you could say that landoscar's biggest hindrance was their parallel excellence. oscar was good enough to catch up and even surpass everyone else at lando's level, but lando remained untouchable throughout the years. oscar is only 1.5 years younger than him, but their f1 careers are offset by 4 years (2019 vs. 2023 debut) because of exactly two things: oscar's 2022 gap year in alpine and his two attempts at formula renault eurocup. on the other hand, lando sped through all of his junior categories in blistering fashion, falling short of the championship only once: the year he placed 2nd in f2 behind george russell. this is significant because many talk about the clinical nature of oscar's rapid single-seater ascension and three b2b2b victories (still very impressive, especially given his limited karting career!), but all of that speaks equally to the illustrious nature of lando's junior success and the sheer magnitude of faith placed in him as mclaren's "golden boy" coming up the ranks. to put things into further perspective, lando was teammates with maxf and jehan daruvala at rfm until 2014, jehan competing in the same class and max one below, yet by the time oscar was racing max and jehan—in f3 in 2020 and f2 in 2021, respectively—lando was already into his 2nd and 3rd years of f1. here's a chart that hopefully makes a bit more sense:

majorly simplified timeline showing lando, guanyu, maxf, logan, and oscar's junior careers + the karting classes they primarily competed in each calendar year. maxf did not complete his 2nd f3 season and many of them contested multiple/different formula renault series, but this is just a rough overview of their feeder series experience.

2. moving to europe, rfm, regional formulae (2016-2019)

back in australia, oscar was a member of the oakleigh go-kart racing club and being actively mentored by james sera, a multi-time australian karting champion and fa kart dealer who worked with young karting talents alongside his cousin david. in late-2015, he presumably helped oscar and his father reach out to ricky flynn, who ran ricky flynn motorsport (rfm) and whose team was at the time enjoying exorbitant success in the karting scene; lando had won the world championship at the kf level the year prior, and logan would soon clinch the kfj title in 2015, results which further drew oscar's interest toward the team. ricky flynn agreed to take oscar on and have him and his dad move out to europe, and by november 2015 oscar announced on social media that he would be joining rfm the next year. in january of 2016, he and his father moved to hertford, uk, so that oscar could begin a 100-day karting program and travel extensively around europe to attend races. this is where he met logan sargeant, who was in his final year on the team but competing a class above, now at the ok (previously kf) level. oscar himself was only competing in the okj class.

not oscar-related, but as you can see guanyu, logan, and maxf were already acquainted before oscar and logan met, since the three of them and lando had been in rfm together as of 2014 — (may 11, 2014) & (feb 6, 2015)

oscar and logan in 2016

in an interview published on june 7, 2023, oscar reflected on leaving australia and committing to his racing dream, saying:

"i think if there was a turning point, it was probably when i started finishing towards the front in australia, and i started winning a couple of races here and there and finishing in the top three of championships and stuff, and then went to europe and fully committed to going down that route. [...] there's obviously a very big commitment at that point when you move halfway across the world without family and stuff. so i knew at that point that i really wanted to become a professional because, firstly, that's what i want to do anyway, but, secondly, now i'm sacrificing seeing my family, and stuff like that to be able to do this — which was a sacrifice i was more than willing to make."

like the majority of oscar's karting career, his time with ricky flynn can primarily be summarized as decent. none of his performances were particularly stellar, and in november 2016 he placed 6th in the fia world championship final behind the likes of victor martins and théo pourchaire (he mainly competed against guys like them, dennis hauger, caio collet, etc… once again logan was a class above and lando/maxf had already graduated to single-seaters), but he showed promising racing foundations and a great capacity for improvement, especially given that he'd moved to europe the same year and was still adjusting to life and racing on the opposite hemisphere. about 6 months into his new karting venture, oscar had settled in reasonably well and his father decided he would return to australia to continue on with his life, so they made the joint decision that oscar was to begin boarding at haileybury's uk campus and continue racing in europe entirely on his own. uk and australian school years are misaligned, so my personal understanding is he moved to europe after finishing year 9 in australia, attempted online school/took a few months off (he says he did online coursework here, but mentioned here that he was out of school, so it sounds like it must have been a very half-hearted effort…), came back to australia over the uk summer to do some more karting, then began boarding in september 2016 as a year 10 student. he spent ~4 years there and eventually received his a-levels in 2020, except his final year was disrupted by covid and he never sat his exams. (blog post mentioning his a-levels + btg transcript excerpt about his exams; his website says he attended haileybury from 2016-19, but i think this mainly encapsulates his boarding period, as he was still doing remote work in april 2020.)

oscar in f4 with his gcse revision guide, 📸 sebastiaan rozendaal (may 20, 2018)

2016 is also when oscar began his well-documented super-liking of several of lando's social media profiles. i think understanding oscar's time in rfm and his extremely british single-seater origins helps better paint his history with lando and maxf; my personal understanding of pre-mclaren landoscar is that while oscar never formally met lando or maxf during his karting days, he knew of them quite well through rfm and thus followed them on instagram/twitter after moving to the uk. of course, oscar has a fairly active social media presence in general, so young oscar quietly liked instagram posts and tweets from many different people, but i do feel compelled to note that in the early days he liked lando, maxf, and logan's posts with seriously impressive frequency compared to anyone else on the grid (or anyone in general, really); after creating his twitter account in may 2016, some of the very first tweets oscar liked were from maxf, and he also liked a multitude of mundane lando tweets from 2016 until… today, while on the other hand he didn't start liking george's tweets—another similarly-aged young british talent—until late 2017. (he does have some fun george-admiring moments though, but that can wait for another time!) outside of rfm, other people oscar was familiar with during his early racing years were british f4 teammate ayrton simmons, to-be series champion jamie caroline, and old australian karting friend christian pancione, who appears to still be one of his best mates (if not his best) as of today. fun fact is that christian raced for the carrera cup as a support event to the australian gp in 2023; here's oscar allegedly checking the quali live timing at lunch during his own media day.

so, to conclude, oscar's early lando focus basically traces back to the motorsport path he took at the behest and guidance of his early rfm connections in the uk. the thing is that despite growing up in australia and vaguely admiring several aussie drivers in f1 as a child (read: mark webber and eventually daniel ricciardo), oscar has never had a specific driver he consistently mentions when pressed for his racing "idol," likely since his personality inherently resists idolatry and he instead views successful people more as actionable benchmarks or reference points for self-improvement rather than as unattainable paragons of accomplishment. as a kid forced to grow up almost entirely on his own, the majority of his racing aspirations were molded independently in the uk—he completed his karting career in the uk, boarded at haileybury for 4 years (fun fact: other drivers to attend include jehan, callum ilott, and clément novalak; callum was a few years above oscar and finished school in 2017, but the two would later become quite talkative over social media anyway), raced in british f4, became a brdc member, contested eurocup under a british license and therefore had the british flag raised and british national anthem played during his wins, stayed in the uk even at alpine since the factory is based in enstone, etc. oscar basically moved to the uk from australia without having really met anyone significant in the racing scene (other than jack doohan, or more importantly jack's father mick, but jack is younger and did an extra year of karting) and pretty much didn't have anyone specific to "look up to" at the time. oscar's first acknowledgement of lando's online existence was in december 2015, when he liked one of lando's instagram posts prior to moving to england, so it can be assumed that lando basically functioned as his most accessible reference point in the junior ladder as a 14 year old dipping his toes into the european racing scene for the first time. that is my highly subjective analysis of the situation!

select quotes re: oscar's inconsistent responses to his motorsport "hero" (or his favorite driver / a driver he looks up to in general):

(f1fs; mar 9, 2022) "i started watching f1 in… 2009 was the first season i properly watched. so when brawn came in, obviously mark was the only aussie on the grid at that point, so i was kind of naturally going for him. then joined by daniel, so obviously going to support the aussies, but i think watching lewis has been nothing short of spectacular, and a very good role model. [...] i think when i was first watching, i supported mark, but, you know, and i hope he takes no offense to this—vettel was winning everything at that point. so i was supporting mark, but vettel was doing most of the winning. i think now that i understand more about racing though, i would say [the driver i look up to the most is] lewis, mainly. the way he goes about things on and off the track is quite exceptional."

(mcl youtube; mar 29, 2023) sporting idols mentioned: ayrton senna, alain prost, michael jordan (see also ultimate athletes list)

(p1; aug 10, 2023) "i would say i never had like one specific idol. when i was growing up watching mark webber was at red bull, and obviously being australian, red bull being very quick at the time, i kind of naturally followed him. i mean—even like some of the guys in the junior ranks above me. like lando was always kind of two, three years above me, winning… most things on his way up. so i guess kind of him in some ways?"

(eff won; dec 4, 2023) "i don’t really have like one specific [idol]. i think what lewis has been able to do in terms of getting to seven world championships was incredibly impressive. i think what max is doing now is also very impressive…"

the first lando post oscar liked on instagram (dec 21, 2015)

the first maxf posts oscar liked; instagram (feb 26, 2016) & twitter (may 9, 2016)

anyway, back to british f4! despite his initially unconventional foray into motorsport, oscar's journey progressed in a much more orderly fashion once he stepped up to single-seaters. his actual debut was in f4 uae, which he ran 3 rounds of between 2016 and 2017 (another fun fact: this is where he briefly acquainted himself with mclaren indycar driver david malukas, who would later recall him being very intelligent and whom zak brown allegedly spoke to oscar about before appointing to their indy team). after cutting his teeth on actual car-racing for the first time, oscar decided against moving up to the ok class as he felt confident in his ability to be competitive in single-seaters. his first full season was therefore the 2017 british f4 championship, during which oscar signed with arden while logan went to reigning champions carlin (lando had won with them in 2015, then maxf in 2016). oscar made his way to the top step 6 times in the season and placed just barely above logan for 2nd in the championship, finishing behind the considerably more experienced jamie caroline. arden was also founded and is currently owned by red bull team principal christian horner, so it was during oscar's time there that christian took note of and interest in his talent; oscar reportedly did a few runs in the red bull simulator but was passed over for joining the academy, which christian later voiced regret on. (source)

maxf, logan (center), and oscar (to max's right) on a day maxf was visiting the 2017 british f4 grid (april 11, 2017)

linus lundqvist, oscar, and logan on the podium at snetterton (jul 30, 2017)

jamie and oscar, who were… er, mathematically in the main championship fight. for some reason they made them take these photos (sep 30, 2017)

after a successful f4 outing with arden, oscar returned to the team for his first season of formula renault eurocup in 2018, a renault series that ran in its specific configuration until 2020 before merging with the parallel regional series frec to become what is today known as freca. this season proved to be less competitive for oscar, as arden was relatively inexperienced in this series and oscar's three teammates were afflicted with what can colloquially be referred to as a "skill issue," making it difficult to collectively develop the car throughout the season. (blog interview) the series was thus returning driver maxf's to lose, who at the time was racing for reigning champs r-ace with teammates that included oscar's fellow rookies logan and victor martins.

despite the unideal environment, oscar managed to prove his worth by placing a respectable 8th in the series, scoring 110 points as a rookie driver and capping the season off with 3 podiums and a top-finish of 2nd place—a jarring contrast to his teammates' joint total of 12 points. this result attracted the attention of r-ace and granted him a seat with them for the 2019 season, at which point maxf and logan both graduated to f3. thankfully that wasn't too much of a concern for oscar since he'd always intended to do two seasons of eurocup, and now he finally had a chance to win the first serious championship of his racing career with an established racing outfit.

oscar, max, and yifei ye on the hockenheim r2 podium (sep 23, 2018) [full gifset]

oscar's second season of eurocup is when he truly started proving himself as a driver, or at least to the people whose names, money, and opinions mattered around the paddock. his main competition in 2019 was again victor, who was now racing for mp and had been made a member of the renault sport academy back in 2018 after a strong performance in french f4. despite a close title fight, oscar managed to hold him off for the championship in the final race of the season, kicking off what would soon become an impressive string of consecutive single-seater series titles. even sweeter was the fact that all eurocup champions were awarded a renault sport academy spot that could be left or taken as they pleased, and of course—while the finances weren't nearly as impressive as alpine would later proclaim in their baseless smear campaign—oscar's connections in the racing world were limited as an australian driver almost exclusively managed by his father, so he gladly accepted the offer for the many venues of support renault presented to him.

see also: bby oscar briefly mentioning lando after winning eurocup in 2019 (@ 1:10)

oscar being lifted by his team (r-ace) after placing 4th in the abu dhabi finale and winning the title by 7.5 points

3. renault sport academy, lockdown, f3 (2020)

many things happened in 2020. one: oscar became an official member of the renault sport academy, joining the likes of max (who'd been picked up on merit after winning british f4 in 2017), guanyu, christian lundgaard, caio collett, and fellow new recruit hadrien david (victor had been strategically demoted after oscar's win because renault is a notoriously unserious organization, but again this is not the post). two: by the time oscar was ready for f3, moving up the ladder proved to be exorbitantly expensive, and he realized he needed better funds and managerial support to sort his career out. he'd been offered a spot in prema's f3 team by team-owner rené rosin at the end of his eurocup season, who'd named him for the post-season test before the championship was over and stressed that the spot was his no matter where he finished. (source) prema is unquestionably one of the top—if not frequently the top—teams one can drive for in most junior series (though there is also somewhat of a self-selection bias; if you ask oscar he is not a significant beneficiary of prematax!), having absolutely demolished the f3 competition that same year and achieved a clean sweep of the drivers' standings with rob shwartzman, marcus armstrong, and jehan at 1-2-3 consecutively. oscar completed post-season testing with them in spain alongside to-be teammates logan and fred vesti in october (source), before confirming on jan 26, 2020 that he would be joining them for the f3 season as a renault junior.

so, where does mark webber come in here? apparently mark's trainer from red bull and wec had also been oscar's trainer since 2016 (i'm pretty sure this is australian physiologist simon sostaric), and it was through their joint connection that oscar was introduced to mark. according to mclaren's 2023 season preview, "the pair hit it off, and webber took his countryman under his wing," signing oscar to jam sports management, aka the management agency he runs with his wife ann. mark's support would become a major factor in helping oscar progress through the feeder ranks and establish himself in f1, mainly because he had actual connections and could help oscar network with sponsors and negotiate his way during future signings. of course, more on this later.

as an aside, here are a few things mark has said about oscar:

"he’s got that white line fever when he puts his helmet on and turns into a different character, which is sensational." (mar 1, 2020)

"one of oscar’s biggest strengths by a mile, compared to everyone he is competing against — and this will be a huge string to his bow when he makes it to f1 — is his composure. he has immense levels of composure. [...] if you are weak mentally you won’t make it. he was on his own from an early age. he did brilliantly with his studies. but the racing disease would not go away, he wants it very much." (sydney morning herald; dec 11, 2021)

"he’s a prost, mate. he’s such a thinker and so calm. at first i thought i needed to inject a bit of urgency in him, but actually no, he’s got his own frequency. that’s just where he is." (the race; oct 7, 2023)

estimates provided by chris piastri on the cost of oscar's junior career, stressing the million-dollar commitments of running a single season of f3 or f2 (source)

anyway, back to the chaotic events of 2020. i think something that's good to keep in mind when discussing oscar's time in the renault sport academy is that he was actually a relatively new recruit, as in he only participated in a single training camp with the other juniors in 2020 and most of them (max, christian, guanyu, the temporary ghost of victor) already knew each other before. oscar essentially met with renault's factory team in early 2020, filmed promotional material with other juniors in january before attending the season opener together in february and then heading to winter training camp later that month, after which he and max left early for f3 pre-season testing in bahrain on march 1—a blessing in disguise, seeing as caio, hadrien, and christian remained behind and would soon be stuck quaranting in a hotel in tenerife—then briefly spent a week at school before returning home for what was meant to be a quick pit stop at the australian gp, which at the time had yet to be canceled.

then, of course, lockdown happened.

simplified breakdown of renault junior stints, notably showcasing the academy's struggles to meaningfully promote any of its juniors

oscar at the 2020 renault season opener alongside then-academy director mia sharizman, then-tp cyril abiteboul, alain prost, f1 drivers esteban ocon and daniel ricciardo, and the other academy juniors: fewtrell, lundgaard, zhou, david (feb 12, 2020)

oscar and maxf behind the scenes of the same event (feb 12, 2020)

stuck in australia for three months, oscar would end up participating in two fia virtual races, one for f2 and another for f1 (jun 7, 2020). a fun landoscar tidbit is that he finished 5th in the virtual gp right behind lando, so they technically had raced each other before 2023, depending on... well, whether you count a 2020 sim race wherein george russell and alex albon lead the pack as a real race. nevertheless, this was a time when drivers were becoming much more active online, seeing as streaming was the best way to keep their images relevant and connect with fans, and despite oscar expressing little interest in streaming on twitch he would still experience a considerable uptick in his online activity and twitter reach that year.

racing resumed on july 4 at the red bull ring in austria; oscar had been granted an exemption to travel to the uk and complete a 2-week quarantine back on may 27, a reassuring indicator to the motorsport world that the f3 season would run after all. now that he no longer had to attend school, having received 2 b's and 1 c for his maths, physics, and computer science a-levels, oscar relocated from hertford to oxford in june to be near the renault facilities, which he visited nearly every day to train at, and began living independently (as in in a flat) for the first time since 2016, rooming with fellow renault junior caio collet.

as i said before, this season is when oscar's online presence and "memeability" began to really conceptualize, enabled primarily by the fact that he was a) finally living outside of a school dormitory, and b) now, of course, signed at prema, a team notorious for its social media visibility, literal family atmosphere, and frequent youtube pandering. according to this f3 article, his twitter followers jumped from 795 at the start of the season to 11.6k by the time he won the championship, an audience built significantly off the self-deprecating string of jokes he used to tweet regarding drs and general reliability issues faced throughout the season.

what i guess i want to touch on here is how oscar's online presence has always been concentrated around the bare fundamentals of his personality: dry humor, candid words, sparing emojis, a few humorous photos detailing the mundane reality of his everyday routines, and at most the occasional inopportune meme or reaction gif (#thepiastri 🤷‍♂️, f2 in baku, jetpack guy, so on). he's bantered frequently with callum on twitter and near-obsessively liked memes, videos, and other updates lando shares with his audience, but he also has seemingly little interest in building up his own "brand" the way lando so smartly has with ln4 and quadrant, and quite frankly seems viscerally incapable of wanting to engage one-to-one with fans or otherwise leveraging the popularity of his material image. basically what i like to say is that oscar enjoys being adjacent to "lad humor" and will happily enable it, but he really has no interest in being the one to initiate it himself!

"there's some things you want to share, some things you don’t. in today's age and sort of having the profile that us drivers do, we kind of just have everything shared,” piastri said. “but (social media) can be used for good, certainly within the profiles that we have. but in some ways, it can be negative, and there's always going to be people out there that don't like you for being you.” piastri tries to write as many of his posts as possible, and he checks those written by his team to be sure they sound authentically him. (the athletic; jun 29, 2023)

along these lines, oscar does enjoy the spotlight, only he seems to prefer it concentrated in a specific lens toward a specific productive end. he's endlessly capable of seeing the objective upside of a situation, joking after he was made a meme in baku following his f2 sr1 collision that he was all for it if it got him popularity. after his eurocup championship he also said: "i think everyone loves a bit of spotlight on them. i think that's just human nature, so a bit of attention's always nice." which is interesting to me!

but back to racing. this season would unexpectedly become two things: maxf's last competitive season in motorsport—especially disappointing considering that he'd gone into the championship expecting to put on a second-season title charge, instead failing to gel with the hitech team to the point that each increasingly poor weekend made him spiral mentally—as well as oscar and logan's last season racing against each other before f1, since logan would later encounter financial difficulties that left him stranded in f3 as oscar catapulted himself to f2 victory. 2020 was obviously a weird season in general because of covid and the gap from pre-season testing, so it also meant that oscar had gone into the season fairly rusty; he managed to win the first race of the season, but on top of his drs rollercoaster he did struggle with middling results in qualifying and was met step-by-step throughout the championship by logan.

maxf's last race in f3 was the barcelona sprint race on august 16, with three rounds left to the end of the season. he dnfed in an unfortunate first-lap incident mere moments after oscar charged his way up from 5th on the grid to the front of the pack, where he would eventually breeze his way to victory and pull himself near-level with logan for the championship lead. i recognize that this is an oscar post and not a maxf post, but i think their time in f3 during an extremely isolated and covid-affected period speaks to both an interesting dynamic between them (the little kid who always lagged a series behind you suddenly beating you on merit) and their respective temperaments toward racing. while at renault, max reportedly lived with jack aitken during the week but would return to his family home on weekends, so it makes sense that he struggled to adapt when covid hit and drivers were collectively forced into very regimented sporting bubbles. mark webber, who worked for channel 4 as a commentator and had access to the f1 paddock, basically couldn't see oscar in person and instead spoke to him over the phone every day on race weekends. maxf said of his decision to quit:

"normally [...] i’m able to stay calm under pressure and i don’t let many things get to me but when you have a bad qualifying result and you see guys up there that you know you’re capable of beating, it definitely takes a dig at you inside and it’s been a lot to process throughout the year." (source)

while then-academy director mia sharizman, who worked closely with the renault juniors, spoke of oscar's inherent propensity for independence and how he adapted well to the pressures of living on his own:

"if you look at oscar piastri, he has been living on his own, [away] from his family who are in melbourne for the past five to six years. because he has been living on his own in boarding school, he learns how to live on his own, and he thrives in that. we have to force him... 'have you spoken to your father?!' it's just things like that, but he thrives in that. that's why he thrived in those weekends racing. he loves being on his own without anybody. on the other hand, we had max fewtrell, for example, who can't – he couldn't survive the 11 weekends racing, because he always needed his family to be around him. so those are the things that suddenly you see and, i think that that we see now, after a few years a driver who is quick, a driver who has the talent, and then the driver who is stable." (source)

2020 is also when lando and oscar spoke to each other on twitter for the first time. yay! after lando went semi-viral for having a meltdown over a hornet on three separate social media platforms, oscar first joked with him about it on august 24 (this was incidentally also the day maxf announced his functional retirement, which oscar liked as well 😭), before referencing the incident again a few weeks later in september.

(aug 24, 2020) / (sep 10, 2020)

outside of drs tweets and trying desperately to banter with lando norris, oscar's popular tweets at the time included several food-related mishaps and home appliance tragedies. while this isn't actually a lando moment, he was also slandered by the LN4 twitter account a month later on october 17 for reasons that remain a mystery, resulting in this set of interactions:

(oct 17, 2020) / (oct 19, 2020)

bonus: maxf's tweets @ oscar (when you aren't close enough to just text him.......)

but back to f3. similarly to his second season of eurocup, oscar would go on to clinch the title in only the final race of the year, this time even more stressfully—he never got pole that season and won arguably off of consistency, benefiting from errors and unfortunate collisions involving his primary competitors. after a hectic qualifying and string of contentious grid penalties set for the before-last round in monza, he began the feature race 15th on the grid but put on an impressive performance to finish on the podium, buffing his points lead after logan was tapped by clément and put out of the points. he, logan, and fred all dnfed in race 2 (read: the novalak pendulum swung away from oscar's favor to maintain stringent cosmic equilibrium, while logan and fred threw away a points opportunity with a teammate4teammate love tap), and oscar went into mugello with only an 8-point lead over logan and a 24-point lead over pourchaire. this weekend proved equally hectic, as is frequently the case with f3 racing standards, but in short oscar and logan entered the final sprint race level on points, with théo approaching terrifyingly near in their rearview mirrors. logan was unceremoniously taken out of contention on the first lap after contact with zendeli, and oscar managed to squeak his way to 164 points in the championship by placing 7th in the race; théo finished 3rd, with 161 points, two positions away from claiming both the race and the championship title.

a succinct summary of an eventful season! (posted jun 30, 2021)

despite winning the f3 championship in far-from-dominant fashion, oscar's career was now steadily on an upward trend. on october 30 he was rewarded with a private test in the r.s.18 at bahrain alongside christian and guanyu, and a month later confirmed that he would be racing for prema again in f2 (december 1, 2020). as a rookie f3 champion there was a moderate amount of interest in him, but no one really expected him to carry home the f2 title on his first try and so one of the main favorites going into the next season was his second-year teammate and 2019 f3 champion rob shwartzman.

4. f2, alpine reserve duties, #piastrigate (2021-2022)

at the start of 2021, fernando officially took daniel's place at renault and the team rebranded itself as alpine, parting ways with team principal cyril abiteboul and functionally replacing him with new ceo laurent rossi—part of a no-tp management structure, frankly a self-evident infrastructural faux-pas from a million miles away. the renault sport academy was then also renamed to alpine academy; again i know that this is an oscar post so i won't get too into the details of Alpine Being Alpine, but understanding how the academy functioned does help better contextualize the inevitable unfurling of piastrigate.

the main issue, really, would always be laurent rossi, or at least the values laurent rossi had been hired to represent and which he willingly peddled during his controversial tenure at alpine. after rossi's appointment it was reported that "the renamed alpine academy was now being tugged in two directions between director mia sharizman's ideal as a creator of future f1 drivers and alpine's chief executive officer laurent rossi's commercially-led preferences." (source) mia directed the academy from january 2016 until may 2022, and had been the one to restructure its recruitment process by demanding better funding and robust testing programs to cyril:

"when we first restarted the team in 2016, it was, we didn't even have a two-year-old car program at that time. we had to use a 2012 program using the [lotus] e20. [...] then in 2018, i went through it, and i said to cyril abiteboul, "look, let's try and do this." we needed financial resources. i needed a head start with financial resources to kick start the program whereby you entice drivers, and you offer [a place] to the academy drivers. it was more to see how they are... it was more of an evaluation process... that was what the first idea was. then we developed the program to develop the drivers to suit their formual 2 program." (source)

(note: mia also believed that 2020 was a disappointing year for all of his juniors save for oscar's performance in f3, which is a whole other thing. but rossi's greatest shortcoming was that he had singular, insulated vision, and he resisted any external input to the detriment of reactionary business decisions, a fact that alienated alain prost and soon led to his exit from the outfit in 2022. not a good look!!! prost would later call rossi "the best example of the dunning-kruger effect, that of an incapable leader who thinks himself able to overcome his incompetence with his arrogance and lack of humanity toward his troops." 🤌)

so basically, the cracks of mind-boggling incompetence within the team's leadership structure were long evident. on a brighter note, oscar's 2021 f2 season would quickly become his strongest single-seater contest ever (f1 youtube has a good summarizing video of his season, if interested); because of covid, f2 was experimenting with a three-race format this year in which quali set the reverse grid for sr1 and sr1 results then set the reverse grid for sr2, which essentially meant high qualifiers were rewarded for simply maintaining composure in the first sprint and running cleanly in the top 10 in order to secure a favorable grid spot in sr2. oscar adapted well to this format, building off his reputation of smooth, consistent driving on top of slowly improving his qualifying results over the course of the season, finally breaking through with his first feature-race win in monza.

oscar with mia sharizman

this is also around the time when lando mentioned oscar in official f1 media for the first time, reading off a question about him to daniel in an interview posted in october:

"this one's not even about formula one. it's about oscar piastri. oscar pias-tree! [...] he's been on it this year." — (full video) (oct 1, 2021)

of his own f2 campaign, oscar said:

"i thought that i could challenge for race wins, but i probably wasn't expecting to be so consistently at the front. consistency is something that i’ve had as a trait throughout my career, and i was expecting to be consistent in my results this year — but maybe a bit lower down!" (source)

not only did he end up being consistently at the front, he became virtually unstoppable in the second half of the season. on december 11, oscar clinched the title in abu dhabi with two races to spare, ending the season with 5 consecutive poles and 4 consecutive feature wins, 60.5 points above his previously-favored teammate in the standings. #notbadforashitqualifier!

by now oscar was a hot commodity in the paddock; the only problem was that alpine didn't really care, mainly because rossi had enthusiastically re-signed ocon to a three-year deal in 2021 and held zero intention of actually promoting any of its juniors to one of the race seats, plus the one open spot at alfa romeo had instead gone to guanyu and his considerable financial package (though oscar has always been vocally defensive of guanyu's appointment to his detractors). instead of moving to another series, such as indycar or super formula, oscar recognized that he'd proven everything he needed to prove within the feeder system and opted to remain on the grid as alpine's reserve driver, mainly so that he could embed himself in an f1 team environment and—most crucially—avoid being left "out of sight, out of mind," because once you go to america you usually don't come back.

i'll keep the rest of this post brief since i feel like everyone already knows What Went Down, but a quick highlight for fellow landoscar enjoyers was the 2022 australian gp on april 10, during which oscar accompanied rosanna tennant for the post-race show and awkwardly participated in a chaotic lando & alex interview. as far as i know, this was landoscar's first time interacting on-camera!

o: "i haven't raced either of them, no." l: "not yet!" o: "not yet. hopefully soon." — (full video) (apr 10, 2022)

then silly season started, and everything was thrown into disarray when sebastian vettel announced his imminent retirement and fernando subsequently took his place at aston martin; alpine scrambled to recover from this blindsided move and prematurely promoted oscar to an f1 seat, to which oscar eventually posted The Tweet—claiming he'd never signed a contract with alpine and would not be racing for them in 2023, thus kicking off #piastrigate. or the piasco, or whatever you prefer to call it.

here's a good article that properly summarizes the crb ruling, but tl;dr: mclaren and alpine had come to an agreement back in march to loan oscar to mclaren's stable of reserve drivers after daniel contracted covid; mark webber, who was close to andreas seidl from their time at porsche in wec, quietly negotiated a contract with mclaren for 2023 that oscar would then sign on july 4, which was reportedly initially a reserve deal with an upgrade clause to a full-time drive given a dr buyout; alpine's legal team turned out to be essentially one overworked legal director who mishandled the situation thanks to a lack of organizational support, while a concrete williams deal never actually existed no matter what people continuously allege, and any proprietary right to oscar's services that alpine purported to have for the 2023 season would soon be voided by crb rule on september 2. in other words, they dun goofed.

because tumblr dies when i try to include it in this post, here's a link to a condensed chronological timeline version of this post.

that's it for now. i'm sure you know how the rest goes!!!

#oscar piastri #*m #quite possibly the dumbest thing i've ever written and most likely of no use to anyone at all. but i had fun so no flames pls 🥲☝️#there's so much more i could have said this is quite frankly the condensed version... scrapped a whole separate section on just his psyche #i need 2 be normal.........

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clockwayswrites · 1 year

Text

Like Betta Fish Do - Part 15

Masterpost of ao3 link and all parts.

WC: 4225 (Ch 12 when on ao3: Chs 1-10/Parts 1-12 are there already and are better than here btw.)

“The ghosts’ King?”

Danny hummed in agreement and placed one of the trays of food on Jason’s lap.

“Seriously, you’re a king?”

“Mostly. Now eat you Pho.”

Jason did as he was told.

He shot Danny purposeful looks throughout dinner, but Danny refused to give. He kept his attention fully on the TV even though Jason knew that Danny was incapable of keeping his full attention on any show— much less one they were only watching for Jason’s sake. When the food was gone and the trash had been thrown away, Jason leaned over and paused the show. He figured that Danny was out of excuses.

Danny was still hovering in the doorway between the kitchen and living space, refusing to look at Jason. It made Jason sigh. He pulled himself off the couch, wincing slightly at the cuts on his feet. Now that he was clean and full the minor hurts he’d gotten from the episode bit at him, but he pushed the matter aside as he walked over.

Gently, Jason cradled Danny’s face. The wrapping around his split knuckles felt rough against the soft skin, but Jason simply soothed the path with his thumb.

“Danny.”

The sigh Danny let out was impressively resigned. “I didn’t mean to tell you about the king thing yet. I just didn’t want you to worry about hurting me.”

Jason hummed softly. “But it’s true?”

“Mostly.”

“You’ve said. That doesn’t explain anything, fish.”

Danny just closed his eyes at another brush of Jason’s thumb.

“Fish… I can’t say this won’t change how I think about you, because it feels like every time we meet you’re telling me things that shake me world view, but it’s not going to scare me away. Danny, you’re…,” Jason had to pause to swallow thickly. “You’re here. You saw me in a Pit Rage where I tried to scare you away and you’re still here. You’re here and… and you’re not flinching when I touch you.”

Bright aqua flashed as Danny’s eyes flicked open, intense in their severity. “I told you, I trust you.”

“Then trust that this won’t scare me away, just like I didn’t scare you away.”

Danny sighed and caught Jason’s hand. Instead of pulling it away, though, Danny just twined their fingers together and rested his cheek on them. “So, yeah. Ghost King.”

“Mostly,” Jason said, teasing a little. It worked to pull a slight smile out of Danny.

“Mostly. I can’t take the crown fully until I’m done living. As halfas we’re constantly in change and flux in a way that full ghosts aren’t. There are also some concerns the power that come with the trappings of royalty would be too much for my human half. So right now I’m seen as… too turbulent, basically, to be fully in charge. That means the monarchy is a regency under my council. I’m king in name, but I’m more of a princling right now.”

Jason nodded slowly, absorbing all of that information. It left him with a hundred questions: how did the ghost court work, who made up the council, what were the trappings? As with every conversation with Danny these days there were more questions than answers. He went for the one he felt the need to know most. “How were you chosen to be king?”

“Would you believe right of succession through combat?” Danny asked with a wounded smile.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Yeah, fuck about sums it up.” Danny said. “So I can hold my own. Even if you end up a really strong ghost, you’re not there yet. I don’t think you’re even strong enough right now to land a hit if I went intangible.”

“Right, intangible.” He’d forgotten that was a thing. “You went right through the door after—”

“Ghost stuff,” Danny cut Jason off. “I’ll teach you once your develops. Invisibility, intangibility, and flight are all really basic ghost stuff.”

“And then there’s the not so basic stuff like the core powers?”

“Mhum. And whatever else you might get. I picked up a lot of things from fighting my rogues.”

Jason jerked back in surprise. “Your what?”

“My rogues. That’s what you all call them here, right? The villains or nemesis or anti-heroes or whatever that fight the Bats.”

Danny had rogues. Jason closed his eyes and took a deep breath. If he hadn’t worn himself out already he would have been terrified of the green surging up. “Fish— Danny, are you a hero?”

“Officially retired,” Danny said. “Being King helped solve a lot of issues. And it turns out a lot of them just wanted to brawl so I’ve scheduled times for the ones not actually out to hurt any one. And I’ve destroyed the portal and most ghosts can’t make their own.”

“But you were a hero,” Jason choked out.

“Yep. The portal gave a way to get ghosts through and someone had to do something. My friend Sam convinced me of that— Jason, are you okay?”

Jason forced through a breath. “I’m fine, fish.”

That was a lie, but how could he explain it? How could he explain the knife that was twisted in his gut at the idea that Danny had died and been forced to become a hero. He couldn’t without revealing a lot of secrets that weren’t his to share.

“Just hate thinking of you in danger.”

“It’s— I’m fine. I mean, it sucked, a lot, but I’m fine. A lot of them weren’t that bad. Like Boxy’s whole thing is about wanting to amass boxes. He’s a nuance but not really a threat,” Danny rambled as he fiddled idly with Jason’s wrapped knuckles. “He’s really calmed down too since he married Lunch Lady who, yeah, went a little overboard with things but mostly just want’s to feed people. Their daughter Box Lunch is just the cutest little blob too.”

“Wait.” Jason squinted his eyes open at that. “Ghosts can have children? How does that even work?”

Danny grinned. “Well you see when one ghosts loves another ghost very much—”

“Fish.”

“Okay, sorry. I mean not sorry, your face was too great, but sorta sorry. Um, let’s talk ectoplasm and Ancients. It’s— all of it is a whole thing. Come one, I’ve got some candy in my bag we can open,” Danny said, dragging Jason back over to the couch.

Jason let himself be pushed down to sit and have his feet propped back up. Really, Jason just wanted to pull Danny close and make sure he was alright and go kick the ghost tails of whoever left scars on Danny, but this didn’t see to be the night for it. Right now, Danny wanted to look out for Jason, so he’d let him. There would be time for the other stories later— maybe once Jason could explain why it impacted him so much.

For right now there was candy to eat and ghost biology to learn about. Because apparently not every ghost was alive once— and wasn’t that, as Danny said, ‘a whole thing’.

“Are you sure that you’re okay to do this?” Danny asked. Again.

It had only been two days since Jason had come out of the Pit Rage. Danny had stayed through the night and most of the next day. Finishing ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ was the excuse (and it was pretty good for a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ adaptation), but Danny knew that Jason knew it was a weak excuse. Still, Jason let it slide and didn’t try to push Danny away again.

It was after a very late lunch that Danny made himself leave. He didn’t want to push his luck or make Jason feel trapped; he didn’t want to give Jason a reason to lash out like that again. As much as Danny understood that Jason was doing it out of fear and that Jason couldn’t seriously hurt him, it didn’t change the fact that Jason was a little terrifying in that moment. Worse than the spike of fear that had run through Danny was knowing that Jason was terrified of himself. And so to try and fix that they were walking in, substantially after hours, to a gym that Jason knew. Danny would prove to Jason that the other didn’t have to be afraid of hurting him.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Mr. Wayne,” the brick house of a man who was tidying up behind a small reception desk quipped.

Wait. Wayne? Danny’s gaze flickered between the two.

Seriously?

“Fuck you for making me sound like a smarmy creep by saying this,” Jason shot back without any heat, “but Mr. Wayne is my father. Seriously, there’s one the Mr. Wayne and it sure as fuck will never be me. Tim and Damian can duke it out over the that title when the old man goes.”

Oh fuck, seriously a Wayne.

The brick house clutched a dramatic hand to his chest. “I don’t know man, you don’t write, you don’t call, whatsa man to think but you moved up in the world? Gotten too good for little ‘o Sal’s.”

“No one in your family was ever named Sal, Joel, so fuck off.”

Jason was a Wayne. Tucker could never get wind of this.

“That’s between you and me, bub.”

“And half the clientèle that’s known you since you were in diapers.”

“Eh— same diff,” Joel said, shoving a folder file into a gym bag. “Gym is all yours, Mandy’s already gone. Be sure to lock up after yourself and clean up any mess you make.”

“Will do, Joel. Thanks.”

“Sure, Jason,” Joel said, heading for the door. He turned around at the last moment and give them a smirk and a sloppy salute. “And no having sex on the mats!”

“Joel!”

Danny knew he was blushing, but he bet it wasn’t as bad as Jason’s bright red cheeks.

“I’d apologize for him, but that’s just the way he is. He’s good people though, let’s me use this place after hours so I can exercise in peace… why are you staring at me like that?

Danny made himself blink. “You’re Jason Wayne.”

Between Tucker’s love for technology, Sam’s connection to the rich elite, and Vlad’s jealous Danny knew more than he wanted to about the Waynes. Just apparently not actually enough.

A frown tugged at Jason’s mouth. “You still hadn’t put it together. Shit. I get that I’m not in the spotlight as much as Tim or even Damian but— will this, I mean…”

“Won’t change a thing,” Danny was quick to assure Jason. “One of my best friend’s family is rich and the guy who’s, like, technically my godfather is rich too. I’m just surprised? You don’t exactly—”

Danny paused, one hand frozen in waving reassuringly as the rest of what Danny knew about Jason Wayne snapped into place. “Oh, fuck. You really did die, didn’t you? I mean, duh, I know you died, but Jason Wayne really died. That’s what you meant about cover story when we first met. Ancients, I am such an idiot! No wonder you thought I’d know you.”

“It was kinda endearing that you didn’t,” Jason said with a little shrug. “And I’m not the most recognizable Wayne.”

Danny’s eyes flicked obviously up to the white tuft in Jason’s hair.

Jason just shrugged again.

How did he keep ending up knowing rich people. Was he just cursed somehow? “Right. Okay. Promise, this won’t change things. I just needed a moment to re-compartmentalize you.”

‘Re-compartmentalize’, Jason mouthed.

Danny just sighed. “Shut up, my sister is a shrink— shrink in training I guess. You live with her long enough and you pick up on things.”

“Okay, sure. Can we stretch while you re-compartmentalize my existence?” Jason teased as he locked the front door.

“Yes we can stretch, dead boy.” Danny had to pause again. “Um, is Gotham going to draw and quarter me for calling you dead boy?”

“Maybe, but don’t change,” Jason said, leading them into the gym proper. “It’s…”

“Good to have someone who doesn’t make a big deal out of your death?” Danny offered when Jason fell silent.

“Yeah.”

Danny got that. As thankful as he was for Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, none of them actually got how was best for him to deal with his death. Sometimes you needed to joke about it. “Your family knows then, that you really died?”

Jason nodded.

“How do they think you’re back?”

“It’s Gotham, fucked up shit happens,” Jason said. His voice caught in that way that Danny had come to learn meant Jason was struggling with the topic.

Danny let it drop. “Okay.”

He followed Jason through the stretches. He still didn’t really think he needed to stretch, but even Pandora insisted on them and she was dead, so he behaved and worked through the motions. It did, at least, work out some of the kinks from being hunched too long over his laptop and textbooks.

When Jason finally asked ‘how do you want to do this’, he sounded normal again and the last bit of tension Danny was holding drained away.

He answered with a smirk.

“Well,” Danny drawled. “I can’t show you all of what I do, since it would be too destructive. But I figure we just start sparing and I’ll ramp up until you get the point.

“And what aren’t you showing me?” Jason asked, shaking out his arms.

Danny paused, having to think about that. “Ghostly wail. Pyrokinesis, electrokinesis… though cryokinesis should be fine if I’m careful. None of the ghost ray or ectoblast stuff. No overshadowing… I don’t… I only do that if I don’t have any other choice.

“That’s… quite the list, fish,” Jason said. He looked a little startled when Danny glanced his way.

“It’s like I said,” Danny said. He was trying hard not to be nervous about this. “I’m strong. I wasn’t kidding when I said that. So, you know…”

Danny took a breath and let the rings of light wash over him. He didn’t need to say it any more, but ‘going ghost’ still ran through his head out of habit. He let gravity’s control slip away and floated just a few inches above the floor.

Another breath. He fixed his glowing green gaze on Jason. “Come at me.”

Jason lunged.

Danny flung up a shield, grinning as Jason’s punch bounced harmlessly off of it.

“Too scared to let me get close?”

Danny laughed. “You know what they say, the best offense is a good defense?”

“Other way around, actually,” Jason mocked. “Can you actually throw a punch.”

“Oh I can punch,” Danny said. The shield flickered away with a wave of his hand and a grin stretched over his face. He wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand, green flickering around them. “But can you catch?”

The hand flicked sharply forward.

Jason had just a moment to look confused before he was ducking the weight that Danny had flung off of the rack from across the room.

Alright, so Jason could accept that maybe he underestimated Danny a little, but this was still manageable. Telekinesis and barriers were pretty standard powers. He dodged another dumbbell, rolling through the motion to spring up in range of Danny.

Or Dannies.

Because now there were three of them standing there, arms crossed, and smirking at him.

That was… well, it was a sight for sure.

Jason cleared his throat. “So, that’s quite a power you have. Illusions?”

“I don’t know,” the middle Danny said.

The one on the right shrugged. “Not a clue. What do you think?”

The way the left one grinned was feral. “I think he’ll need to figure that out.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jason said. He shifted a half step back— just far enough. He caught his toe under the bar of one of the dumbbells. As he kicked it up he twisted, catching the bar and continuing into his twist to fling it at the Danny on the left.

Who caught it.

Fuck.

“Oh, look at that,” the Danny said, studying the dumbbell before smirking up at Jason from under his bangs. “Guess we are solid after all.”

Well, fuck indeed.

The Danny on the right shifted, warping like a shimmering mirage. “And that’s not all we can do.”

The rippling became more intense before the duplicate’s whole form shifted. Suddenly a massive black and white wolf with glowing eyes leapt at Jason. He let himself fall, leaning into the drop only to push off and dart forward. He caught the dumbbell being thrown back his way and sent it towards the wolf.

He stepped low, pushing off the ground to dart towards the middle Danny— the Danny he was pretty sure was the real one.

Two steps in and suddenly he lost his footing, sliding on a now ice slick floor— forward and right through the intangible cold spot that was Danny’s body. Jason was barely past when Danny turned solid, grabbed Jason’s wrist, and twisted.

Jason was seeing the ceiling as he was flipped up and over Danny’s hip. His breath was knocked from his lungs as he landed hard on his back. He tried to push through the momentum, but Danny twisted faster. Knees landed on either side of Jason’s hips and hands wrapped around Jason’s wrists. Frigid cold spread through him as his hands were iced to the mat.

The other Dannies popped out of existence as the real one loomed further over Jason.

Jason swallowed heavily. “Well, I guess you do have some tricks up your sleeves.”

“Mmmhumm.” The smirk had somehow gotten even more feral.

“The more you show me, the more I’ll learn and the easier you get to fight.”

“Sure, dead boy,” Danny dismissed with a roll of his eyes. He shifted, settling to sit on Jason’s stomach. “But I think I still proved my point. And that’s without anything actually dangerous. If I wanted to down you, I could down you.”

“Think you managed to put me down pretty well tonight,” Jason rasped. He tried (and failed) to not think too hard about how Danny was sat on top of him like that.

Danny snorted. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do,” Jason said. “I still… I get it, but I still don’t know if I’ll… if I can have you around next time without panicking, but I get I can’t hurt you.”

“Okay. And my promise holds, I’ll leave if you tell me to. Just,” Danny leaned forward, resting his forehead against Jason’s with a soft thunk. “I just ask that you consider letting me stay, so that you don’t have to go through that alone. I just want you to try.”

“I’ll try. For you fish, I’ll try.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Now let me up, I want to go another round.”

“Your funeral.” Danny rolled fluidly off Jason before he paused, smiling down at him. “Oh wait. Been there, done that, right?”

Jason couldn’t help the bark of laughter that ripped out of him.

He wasn’t sure he had ever laughed so soon after a Pit episode.

“Oracle,” Dick started, activating his comm when there was a lull in the chatter. Batman might not like the chatter, but even he knew there was no stopping it. Besides, the Big Bat wasn’t even on tonight— Brucie duty called. “Has Hood checked in tonight?”

“No, but you know that he still doesn’t always ping when he’s out.”

Dick hummed softly through a frown.

“What is it?” Tim asked.

“Just, it’s been a few days since I’ve heard anything about him being active.”

“That isn’t unusually,” Babs pointed out, ever the voice of reason.

“Yeah, sure. But he missed a meal with Red and me too.”

“That also isn’t unusual,” Tim pointed out.

Dick sighed. Why didn’t anyone get it. “But all together?”

At least the silence felt a little more considering than judging.

“I think I’ll just swing by his place real quick, get eyes on him,” Dick said, twisting midair to change the direction of his flight. He silenced his comms again from his side, letting Oracle lead the Bats and Birds where she needed them. It wasn’t a busy night, at least, so Dick didn’t feel bad about taking a sidestop to check on his little wing.

He wanted to think that it was nothing— that Red Hood had just been quiet or, less likely, Jason was just taking some time for himself, but something was bothering Dick. It wasn’t one solid thing that was making Dick nervous. The bathbomb thing had been weird, but apparently it had been a case of mistaken identity for a joke. Which was odd, but it was Crime Alley. Finding Jason sick had bothered Dick more than it should have, but the other recovered easily enough. It was just that also… Jason had seemed a little different.

It was a good different! Jason has been thinking about going back to school. He had even been meeting up with parts of the family more casually and often. Dick didn’t want to be concerned about things like that, but something in his gut told him there was more going on. And as a Bat trained Bird, he couldn’t ignore his gut.

He landed, silently, on the roof top across from Jason’s as he caught the other stepping into the building.

“Well,” Dick said, turning back on his mic once he had settled into the shadows. “Seems Jason went to the gym.”

“Like Hood isn’t swole enough,” Steph chimed in. There was a heavy grunt from her end of the comms. Guess she caught up with the robber.

“Nothing weird about training,” Tim said. “I believe that he’s said there’s some gym he uses after hours? And it is still early, Hood isn’t off the table for the night.”

“No, that’s true. I guess—” Dick froze, almost jolting out of the shadows in surprise at what he was seeing.

“Nightwing?” Babs demanded.

“Jason has someone with him.”

There was silence for a beat before the line erupted in overlapping voices.

“What the hell?” Dick murmured.

“What’s happening Nightwing?” Tim demanded; words clipped and anxious and loud enough to be heard over the others.

“The twink just took Jason down. Dropped him like it was nothing.”

“Get in ther—”

“No, no that’s— okay that’s pretty weird, but that’s not the weird part. Jason swept the guy’s legs out from under him right after. And now, just… he’s laughing. They both are. Jason just flicked the other guy off.”

The silence on the comm line was heavy.

“Confirm that Nightwing?” Babs asked as Dick watched Jason pry himself up off the floor. He must have said something because the other man dissolved into harder laughter, curling up on his side as he flicked Jason off right back.

“There’s a stranger in Jay’s place and Jay is laughing,” Dick repeated.

He tracked Jason as he moved to the door and picked up the messenger bag the other man had dropped. Jason rooted through it and pulled out a small kraft paper bag. He raised his brows at whatever it was. And then he did something that Dick didn’t know Jason was capable of anymore.

He smiled. It was soft.

“Guys, he’s… smiling. Like….” Dick gave up trying to explain it and snapped a still of it with the body cam to send through chat.

“Oh,” Babs whispered. “He looks… so happy.”

“I can’t get an I.D. on the guy. Just somewhere around Jason or Tim’s age best as I can tell. Black hair. Lean but he’s obviously got some muscles,” Dick said when he had gathered himself. The guy basically oozed off the floor and onto the couch. He was twisted to watch Jason, which left his back to Dick. “I think the other guy got him tea. Jason’s making it for them now.”

“Tea? Like, a present?” Steph asked.

“Yep.”

“Huh.” That was a dangerous sort of ‘huh’ to hear from Tim. That ‘huh’ had layers— dangerous layers.

“No, Red.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Tim defended at the same moment as Babs chimed in with, “He has a point.”

“Thank you, Oracle,” Tim said.

Steph snorted. “I thought you didn’t say anything.”

“Oh shu—”

“No,” Dick interrupted. He poured every bit of authority he had learned leading his own team into the word. “I mean, it: no. I’ll stop by tomorrow to visit him and see what I can learn but no hacking, no looking at his cams, no checks.”

“Nightwing—” Oracle started.

“No. Guys, I’m serious. When was the last time Jay had someone he was close to outside of work and family?”

The silence really said everything.

“Yeah, exactly. So we’re not going to do anything to fuck this up for him. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yeah, yeah, crystal, no need to be so fucking dramatic,” Steph said, cutting through the tension as easily as she always did. “We have enough of that in the family. ‘Have I made myself clear’— who do you think you are? A bat shaped furry?”

Tim groaned. “No, we are not getting into this debate again—”

Dick tuned out his family as he watched Jason settle down on the couch across from the stranger. He was still smiling.

No, Dick was no Bat, but he’d still look after his little wing.

-----

AN: HELLO MY DARLINGS it has been a long time since we’ve had fresh fish here- a month to be exact. But we are back. Danny really wanted to throw a lot at this chapter. Danny, bby, we weren’t supposed to go into the King thing yet. But here we are. Also, Jason cluing in about how much he likes Danny? Could it be?

If you asked to be tagged on a part older than 14 or 13, I’ve probably missed you and you can ask again, but PLEASE be sure you’re not already on the list. Also when the new post editor becomes the only option in a few weeks, expect to see tags coming from my side account clockwaysadmin to get around the issue of too many tags stops things from being postable. That also might break tags less, we’ll see!

Stay delightful, darlings!

Tag horde:

@fisticuffsatapplebees @thegatorsgoose @wolfeyedwitch @lazy-bouqet @confusedandghostly @glomsk @kailithiel @bahfev @d4ydr34min9 @claudiashq @someonebored0100 @samgirl98 @angelheartgamer @lehana37 @spiteismymiddlename @rosecinnamonbun @demon-cat-goes-woof @violet-catsarelife @avelnfear @undead-essence @basilf1res @amillionandonefandoms @stealingyourbones @sarcastic-yami @bun-fish @aconitewolfsbane @dontfightmecauseillcry @omgnectarina @vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff @the-blind-one-speaks @wolfe-marvin @learning-to-fly-on-my-own @multplelifes @yurijay @bae-graphomaniac @fan4rt1st @weirdestarrow @wolfjackle @allulily @onyxlightdragon @zotinha456 @wwwwyamd @river9noble @starscreamlover @michealawithana @robinmedea @spideypoolalways @jesus-camp-the-sequel @persephoneblackrose @f4nd0m-fun @mady-is-ace-trash @ascetic-orange @renwilson @ace-aro-as-shit @rangerhorsetug @thatrandomsarahchick @holygoldfish @mlpizza @chrysanthemum9484 @justwannaseesomebrozawa @newgraywolf @crazylittlemunchkin @fire-glass @autumnrosnor @the-nerdy-fangirl @faithblob-says-things @a-star-with-a-human-name @winged-scaly-attic-dweller @mistermetalmaker @apersond @mustachebatschaos @joaniejustwokeup @that-dumbass-on-a-horse @plainly-colorful @blackcatsandhaunteddolls @booklover223 @alice-hazelwood @answrs @enbydemirainbowbigfoot @felicityroth @wanderingrutabaga @seraphinedemort @write-it-right-2 @my-mom-calls-me-rat @01101010-01100001-01111001 @arc-777 @crystalice067 @phoenixdemonqueen @icedbluesoul @itsparadoxlacuna @spikedlynx @redhoneysugarorange @russetfur1128 @mutable-manifestation @stargirl1331 @chaoticchange @living-on-borrowed-time @orshie @britcision @littlefeather345 @sunflowershine03 @aro-acedumbass @thefanficcup @shibanoh @icefirecrystal @thatonejumbledmess @cy-ella @kobol1 @metal-sporks @tired-yet-awaken @currant-owo @firegirl108 @stupidlovepurplepeace @drowningroane @imagineshazamlokimight @immakittybear @justalittletotheleftofnormal @chrysanthemum9484 @kawaiikenna @imaginationmademanifest @a-salty-sal @mentalcarebear @mj-arts-n-stuff @xysidhe @cottonscrambles @manapeer @yjfk @ryisc @666deaddash999 @nutcase8691 @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @dr-syko-pharm-4 @i-have-opinions @ballzfrog-blog @mysoulspiralbound @istillhavenosociallife-blog @gin2212 @annabethchase0 @basementloser @plotwholls @minnowmarsh @neverlandingbird @rootsmudge @fandom-reblog-central @serasvictoria02 @mnemovoid @taniaundertaleau @kirineo-kiki @ironicvixen @violetfox2 @redhoneysugarorange @phantom-dc @naluforever3 @horribly-lost-and-gay @babblingbat @kyrianclawraith @caspertheloudassghost @the-forgotten-dragon-anankos @lyra689 @v-inari @terzatheunderscorerima @fallenangle67 @aarinisreading @job-ross-the-second @smol-book-nerd @sara0055 @goldenstripes001

#dp x dc #dead on main #danny fenton/jason todd #danny fenton x jason todd #like betta fish do

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our-happygirl500-fan · 1 year

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From what we know about the original plans for season 3 of Rise was that the general outline of the plot of season 3 was that the Turtles find out that they have two more siblings & the family then each split up into two teams to go look for them.

There has been a lot of speculation on which turtles would go with Draxum & which turtles would go with Splinter but there are two members of the Hamato Clan that we should also possibly consider

Karai: Thank you my young Hamato’s, we will always be with you

At the end of season two Karai thanked the current generation of Hamato’s for finally defeating the Shredder & from Karai’s perspective the latest generation of the Hamato clan was made up of Splinter & the Turtles, Draxum, April & Casey. Meaning if the Hamato clan fully split into two teams to look for the missing Turtle siblings, there is a possibility that April & Casey could have each been on a team as well.

Though we can only speculate which two Turtles would have gone with Splinter & which two Turtles would have gone with Draxum, we honestly could have gotten any combination but my theory is that the teams would have been Raph & Donnie going with Splinter and Leo & Mikey going with Draxum.

And as for the humans of the Hamato Clan there is a possibility that April could have gone with Splinter & Casey could have gone with Draxum.

April: You aren’t important to me because of your teach! You’re important to me because of you. I don’t think mystic powers is better than science, if anything they’re stronger together! Just like us, right?

Donnie: Right!

I kind of think that April would have been placed on Donnie’s team due to their close bond throughout the series but it would also make sense for April to be placed on a team with Splinter & Raph as well.

Throughout Rise, Splinter & April have often been a duo with several episodes even focusing on their dynamic. Due to their close relationship it seems possible that Rise would continue Splinter & April’s dynamic within season 3 as well.

April: Relax big guy, what’s going on?

In Rise April & Raph have a dynamic as the two oldest siblings of the Hamato Clan however we have yet to really have an episode of them having a full adventure together the way we have for multiple episodes with April & Donnie or the way we have with April, Leo & Mikey in the episode The Gumbus.

If April was on a team with Raph in season 3, it would be a good opportunity for an April & Raph adventure that we are due for.

I think it would have been possible for Casey to be placed on Draxum’s team as not only are they both the redeemed villains of the Hamato clan but Casey & Draxum also need an opportunity to find resolution after Draxum betrayed Casey’s trust in the episode How to Make Enemies and Bend People to Your Will

Draxum: I have accomplished with one assistant what you couldn’t accomplish with an entire clan!

Casey: Assistant? But I thought we… were partners?

Throughout the episode Draxum works with Casey & quickly earns her trust & respect only to cast her aside once he had gotten what he wanted, it would be interesting if season 3 took the opportunity to give them some resolution from that incident while also having Draxum acknowledge the people he hurt in season 1 in his quest for power.

Mikey: Nice work Frenemy

It also seems possible that Casey could have been on a team with Mikey as not only does Casey have a connection with Mikey due to her first appearance in the episode Hot Soup the Game being about Mikey’s first solo mission but Mikey seems to have considered Casey a sort of friend even when she was still in the Foot Clan.

Raph: Dad!

Mikey: Draxum!

Donnie: April!

Leo: Foot Recruit?

It could also be interesting to see Leo & Casey on the same team as well not only as a slight link to how the future version of Leo trained Casey’s son but also the fact that it could be interesting to see Leo on a team with the two redeemed villains of the Hamato Clan when Leo is one of the more skeptical members of the Hamato Clan

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #leonardo hamato #raphael hamato #april o'neil #casey jones #cassandra jones #hamato yoshi #michelangelo hamato #donatello hamato #baron draxum #rottmnt #tmnt

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skyward-floored · 2 months

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Febuwhump collab day 12 — semi-conscious

This one’s been on ao3 for a bit I just sort of forgot to put it over here XD This one was suggested by @zeldathusiast, I hope you all enjoy!

No specific warnings apart from a mentioned kidnapping/being held captive, and a bad headache.

Today’s lovely art

Ao3 link

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“He has to be here somewhere, right? That tip we got said he’d be here, but maybe they were wrong, Dad kept being vague on where he got it so I don’t know if we can totally trust it, and we should be prepared to get out of here if it’s a trap and if it was wrong we should plan to check that other—”

“Green, we’ll find him, alright?” Twilight reassured for the fifth time in as many minutes. “Don’t worry.”

Green’s mouth clicked shut, and he gave Twilight a tiny nod.

Twilight watched him turn away, the shadows under his eyes more prominent in the harsh artificial lighting they were sneaking past, and felt a familiar squeeze of worry at the similar expressions on the other colors’ faces.

Four had been split almost a week now, and with Red gone missing during a fight, he couldn’t reform.

Four had never been apart for so long, and that along with the panic of not knowing what was happening to Red, he was acting more and more strange, the remaining pieces of him veering more sharply towards what they represented.

Green had been getting more jittery, obsessing over Red’s whereabouts, and acting overly protective over the other two, which was driving them both crazy. Vio had turned to research and often closed himself away, poring over what information they had, and Blue would blow up at even the smallest slight, face red with tears in his eyes.

Twilight could only imagine the state Red was in.

The behavior grew more severe with every passing day, and while nobody said it, as they watched the colors fall apart they all silently wondered how long Four could even be split.

Did he have a limit? Was he nearing it?

And if he reached it..?

Nobody wanted to find out, and their efforts towards locating Red had only gotten more desperate as the days ticked by. All of them were worried and frightened on Four’s behalf, and Twilight knew he wasn’t the only one who was thinking back to that first terrifying week when Sky had gone missing, and stayed missing.

But Time had finally gotten some information that narrowed down where Red could be, to only a few places as compared to the entire city they’d been scouring before.

Which is why Twilight was now sneaking down a harshly lit hallway with a handful of his brothers, trying not to be consumed by worry while they searched.

“We close?” Twilight asked, and Legend nodded, gesturing to an upcoming split path.

“He should be in one of these hallways somewhere, but they’re pretty long. It might take us a while to actually find him,” Legend said with a frown. “...With time we don’t have. We should’ve brought Wild.”

“Well it’s too late now,” Blue snapped from beside him, his hands tightening into fists. “Why didn’t you think of that before we left?!”

“Well sor-ry, Wild’s checking that other place with Dad and Wind, twerp, I didn’t know we’d need him,” Legend snapped back.

“Guys, knock it off,” Twilight said sharply. Good grief, we’re all running on way too little sleep. “We’ll just split up into groups of two.”

“There’s five of us,” Vio pointed out.

“I know that Vio, I meant you and Legend and Green and Blue can pair up, and I’ll go by myself.”

“That seems like a bad idea,” Vio continued with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you always saying it’s better we stick together?”

Twilight took in a steadying breath at his snarky tone, ignoring the urge to be sarcastic in return. “Yes, but not in this case.”

“Why don’t we three just go together, and you and Legend team up?” Green suggested, and Twilight and Legend exchanged short glances.

“...No. Better we do duos,” Legend said, and jerked his head towards a hallway. “C’mon. Let’s get going. Come with me Blue, Green and Vio can check the opposite end from us. Twi can check the other hall.”

Twilight nodded when nobody argued, and they all split off, Twilight grateful that Legend would be able to see all of the colors from where he was.

There had been an unspoken rule as of late not to leave any of them alone. Not with how they’d been acting.

Twilight ran down his assigned hallway, peering through every door that had a window, and opening the ones that didn’t. They’d “borrowed” a keycard to use to get into the facilities, and managed to make copies so they could all get past the doors.

Twilight methodically checked every door, working steadily down the hallway. His worry grew the longer he didn’t find any sign of Red, and he picked up the pace, looking more frantically. He was nearly at the end of the corridor, and there’d been no sign anybody was down this way.

Are we sure that info was real? he thought as he approached the very last window in the hall. Mom hasn’t contacted us yet, so her group hasn’t found him... or maybe it was all faked just to give us false hope...

Twilight looked inside, and relief washed over him, intense and thick.

A little figure sat huddled against the wall inside, red clothes bright against the dull color of the room. His blond head was pressed to his knees with such an air of sadness that Twilight’s heart ached, and he quickly ran to the door.

It slid open with a quiet swish, but the figure didn’t move even with the sound, or when Twilight stepped inside.

“Red?” he called.

That made his little brother’s head snap up to stare at him, eyes wide and startled. His gaze landed on Twilight’s face, and his expression turned even more surprised, Red letting out a gasp as he jumped to his feet.

“Twilight!” he shrieked, and bolted, throwing himself into Twilight’s arms with a sob.

Twilight hugged him back just as fiercely, Red crying into his shoulder, and he quickly clicked a button on his radio four times, the signal they’d all agreed to use for “I found him”.

“We found you Smithy, you’re okay now, I got you,” Twilight soothed, his shirt steadily growing damp. “It’s okay. Are you hurt at all?”

“N-no,” Red hiccuped, face still pressed to Twilight’s shirt. “Th-they mostly left me alone, I d-don’t think they even wanted a-a hostage.”

Twilight squeezed him tighter. “I’m so sorry Red.”

Red didn’t reply, aside from another hiccuping sob.

Twilight knew they should get going, but he couldn’t bring himself to make Red move just yet, so he held him a little longer and just let him cry. Red’s louder sobs eventually petered out, and Twilight gave him a comforting pat on the back as Red finally sat up a little, still sniffling.

“Twi, is e-everyone else here?” Red finally asked, letting out a hiccup. “I-I don’t want to be separate anymore.”

“Yeah they came, they’re close by,” Twilight reassured, and Red visibly relaxed, though he still looked upset.

“It was awful being away from them so long,” he whimpered. “It felt...”

He swallowed and didn’t continue, and Twilight gave him a squeeze.

“Well if we want to get you back together, we should get going,” he said, and Red eagerly nodded, wiping his sleeve over his face.

Twilight helped him up, and then turned into a wolf, gesturing for Red to hop on. He gladly did, and they ran went back the way Twilight had come, opting less for sneakiness and more for pure speed. Twilight didn’t want Red to have to wait a second longer than necessary to be back with the other parts of himself, and he loped down the hallways as fast as he could without slipping on the shiny floors.

Red in turn clung tightly to his fur, his head not quite buried in it. Twilight could just barely feel Red’s tears dampening his fur as he sniffled again, and his stomach clenched, even with the relief pounding through him.

The part of Twilight, the more wolffish part of him that longed to protect had been going haywire all week, and even now that he had Red secure on his back, it still bayed for justice.

Twilight ignored it. He was pretty sure Red’s captors were long gone, and going after them now wouldn’t be productive in any way. Even if he wanted to demand answers as to why they’d grabbed a nine year old and locked him in a room for a week.

No. Red safe and secure on his back was plenty for now, and as he firmly told himself that, the wolf began to calm.

Though he knew it wouldn’t completely settle until they were all back together and safe at home again.

Twilight turned a corner near where he and the rest of the group had split up, and Red sat up and shouted, pointing excitedly down the hall. The rest of the colors were already making their way towards them, but they all zeroed in at Red’s shout, relief on all three faces.

“RED!” Blue yelled, and all three of them bolted, Red leaping off Twilight’s back and crashing into them with a happy cry.

All four of them began chattering simultaneously, asking questions and crying and in Blue’s case, giving Red a punch on the arm that wasn’t as hard as it could have been.

Twilight smiled in relief as they huddled together, turning back into a human, and realized that the rest of the team they had brought was coming up behind them, Legend Hyrule and their mother all looking extremely relieved.

“Red— never do that again,” Green said as they hugged, and Red nodded rapidly.

“I won’t! I won’t, it wasn’t even on purpose, they just grabbed me, a-and I couldn’t get away, and nobody heard me yell,” Red said in a watery voice, and Vio gave him a soft pat on the head.

“Well you’re okay now, you don’t have to cry,” Blue grumbled, but his arm didn’t leave Red’s shoulder.

The colors didn’t talk any longer after that, only hugging a few moments more before they began to glow, unable to wait a second longer to reform. A pulse of multicolored light shone around the hallway, bouncing off the pale walls, and Twilight had to look away until it began to dim.

Four stood alone, his eyes closed as the last of the glow faded away.

Then he doubled over with his hands clenched to his head, face twisted up in pain. Twilight darted forward and caught him before he fell, and Four whimpered in his arms, eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“Four, hey, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, trying not to panic.

Four flinched at his words, and the sound of the others running up as well, and tried to curl into a ball, still clenching at his hair.

“What’s wrong with him?” Legend asked with wide eyes.

“Four, are you okay?” Hyrule asked, and Four only let out another whimper.

“Give him some space,” Malon said, and they slid back a bit, giving her room to kneel by Four. She placed a gentle hand on his back, and rubbed it as Four let out a pitiful groan. “Four? Honey are you okay?”

Four only groaned again, and Hyrule scooted over and set a glowing hand on his head, eyes closed in concentration. But he withdrew after a moment, gaze slightly bewildered.

”His head is fine, I didn’t see anything,” he said, and Twilight frowned.

“Did they do something just to Red then?” Twilight asked, trying to keep his voice calm and only partially succeeding. “That would hurt him when he merged?”

“I don’t... think so?” Hyrule said. He sounded uncertain though, and wrung his hands a bit.

“Seriously? We would have noticed if they’d done something,” Legend shot at Twilight.

“How do you know?” Twilight answered just as sharply. “It might not be physical!”

“Well maybe he’s just—”

“Boys shh, you’re hurting him,” Malon said a bit sharply, and they went silent, another quiet whimper from Four the only noise. “Four? Can you tell us what’s wrong?”

Four dragged his eyes open, and Twilight stared, the normal blue of his eyes completely overrun by jagged swirls of red, green, and purple, blue scattered throughout. As he watched, the red got larger, and Four flinched, once again slamming his eyes shut and falling mostly limp in Twilight’s arms.

“Four, we can’t help unless we know what’s wrong,” Twilight tried, running a hand through his hair.

Please Four, can you give us something?

A few long moments ticked by, Four’s shaky breathing the only sound in the bright hallway. Finally Four breathed out, the noise hitching in the middle, and his fingers tightened in his hair.

“T-too— much,” he finally bit out, voice hitching and wavering. “M-Memories, different—”

Four pressed his head tighter against Twilight’s chest, his breathing trembling. He let out another small groan, and Twilight ran a helpless hand over his hair as he tried to curl himself up even tighter.

“Oh. I get it,” Legend said quietly, and they all looked at him inquisitively. Legend sighed. “Look, he was split all that time, right? Normally getting back together is no big deal for him, even if it’s been a little while. But his experiences as Green, Blue, and Vio this time were so vastly different from Red’s that when he reformed...”

“...all of those stark different memories got put in one head,” Malon finished, and ran a gentle hand through Four’s hair again. “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

Twilight wasn’t sure if Four even heard her, with the way he was curled up in a ball, hands still clenching at his head, face screwed shut in a wince.

“Can we help him?” Hyrule asked, and Malon looked uncertain.

“I don’t know, hon. It looks to me like he’ll just need some time to adjust,” she said, gently running her hand through Four’s hair. “Is there any way we can help, Four?”

Four didn’t say anything in reply, but he gave a tiny, pained shake of his head.

“We should get him home then, right?” Twilight spoke up, trying not to sound overly worried despite how fast his heart was still pounding. “If he just needs to adjust. He’ll be able to rest better there, and we need to get out of here anyway.”

Malon nodded, and Twilight scooped Four up into his arms, relieved his brother was fairly lightweight. Four curled into his hold, face still drawn with pain, and Twilight held him tight as they worked their way back towards the exit.

Somehow zero alarms had been triggered by their presence, and Twilight was starting to suspect the place had been abandoned what with how silent and empty it was. The fact that that meant the people who’d kidnapped Red had basically abandoned him here all alone was enough to reawaken the protectiveness in Twilight’s chest with a snarl, and this time he only half-heartedly reeled it in.

For their sakes, they had better not show their faces again anytime soon.

“Tw-i..?”

Several minutes of the trek had gone by before the whisper came from Twilight’s arms, and he looked down at Four, still limp in his hold.

“Yeah bud?”

“Thanks,” Four whispered into his shirt, and though he didn’t elaborate, Twilight knew what he meant.

“You’re welcome,” Twilight replied gently, and Four tucked his face against his neck, the pained creases on his face slightly eased.

#Incredibles au #linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu four #lu colors #lu twilight #lu legend #hyrule and malon are there but don’t do much #linked universe fanfic #febuwhump #day 12 #semi conscious #writing from the floor #Incredibles au fic

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yeeehwa · 7 months

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Shock and Awe {1}

Mafia!ot8ateez x fem!reader

wc: 2,523

warnings: blood, violence, mc is a badass who does injure ateez, swearing, guns, splinters, gunshots, if i forgot anything please let me know

a/n: This is a post from the result from the poll i posted last week, and i honestly had a lot of fun writing this. this is severely unedited and will be edited either once it's done or the poll decides that i do it. I prefer everyone to go in blind, so there will only be a warning and no summary before every chapter.

✼　 ҉　 ҉　 ҉　 ҉　✼ ✼　 ҉　 ҉　 ҉　 ҉　

Forks of lightning split the sky, illuminating a shadowy figure for a moment. San jumped, seeing the silhouette out of the corner of his eye as he silently stalked the hallway. A clash of thunder and another flash of the brilliant light illuminated the same space. He stood there for a moment, gun in hand and pointed at the shadows. His pulse quickened as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. After a moment, he shook his head, convincing himself that it was just the dim lighting of the sconces on the wall and the storm playing tricks on him. It doesn’t help that tonight was a big night for all of them.

“Clear,”his voice echoed down the hallway after his moment of hesitation.

You smirked from the shadows, relieved that he didn’t register he had actually seen you. Perched on one of the wooden beams on the ceiling, you observed as more men slunk into your home through the windowed double doors, silently pushing them open. The water pooled on the floor as they shook off their clothes, jackets being shed and left out on the balcony that the doors led out to.

“Let’s get in and out, okay? I hate being here.” Goosebumps erupted over Wooyoung's arms as a gust of wind burst through the room as the doors were silently shut. “That’s not ominous or anything,” silently joking to the others.

The tall man next to him smacked the back of his head, causing Wooyoung to wince a bit and rubbed his head. “Unnecessary.”

“Your commentary is unnecessary. We should’ve left you back with Hongjoong and Yeosang.” Mingi retorted dryly.

Yunhos voice came over their communication link. “I had the urge to shoot you just now.” His eyes looked through the scope of his sniper as he perched from a building across the street. “I almost did.”

Something had tickled the back of your mind at the mention of the names. It was like an itch you couldn’t scratch, familiar yet not. You shook your head free of the distraction. It’s something you couldn’t dwell on with intruders in your home.

The group of men, five of them you counted, fanned out, slowly making their way to the intricately carved wooden doors at the end of the hallway. You noted that they knew exactly where they needed to go, and watched as they entered the room, stupidly leaving the doors wide open behind them.

A slight static noise sounded in your ear. “Eyes on the targets?”

Thunder rumbled, making the house shake and giving you the opportunity to respond. “Five of them. Came in through the East wing balcony. Heading towards the Boss’ office.”

“We have eyes Y/N. We know they do too. Stay in the shadows. They’re watching” a pause. When he spoke again, you could hear the smile that he had on his face. “For now.” The static noise was gone after that, contact between the two of you cut for the time being.

Soundlessly, you rose from your concealed position and moved deftly across the wooden beams, mirroring the movements of the men below. Your steps were calculated and precise as you trailed them, keeping pace until they disappeared into the doorway to the other room. As they left your sight, you reached up, extracting the vent cover that opened into the network of air ducts.

“What the fuck are you doing?” HaJoons voice crackled once more, tinged with static.

“What does it look like?” Came your retort, an edge of annoyance mixed in with your response.

A sigh from him triggered a smug look from you. “It looks like you’re about to cause a lot more trouble than you need to.”

You hoisted yourself into the ducts, waiting for another roll of thunder to place the vent back in its proper place. “I’m just following orders.” you began your short military crawl through the ducts. You had the layout of them memorized for years, always using them to your advantage, which is how your family found out you had a natural talent for spying.

Another sigh. “Your orders were to watch and report.”

“I am watching, and I am reporting. I’m not making contact unless told.” You reached your destination, grunting quietly as you maneuvered yourself into a crouching position and expertly removed the vent. “I wait for your signal.” You pressed a button on the side of your comm link and cut contact, until he decided to reestablish it.

“You’re a pain in my ass Y/N, I hope you know that.” His exasperated voice came back.

You rolled your eyes, opting to stay silent and observe, watching as the tense atmosphere of the room under you rose up to your perch. “Boss said if they find the door, you go in and I cut their camera access. Got it?”

Slightly huffing, you nodded slightly, knowing he’d see it, and you heard the background static of HaJoon disappearing, signaling he was gone.

Your head tilted, eyes narrowed and calculated as you watched them examine the room. Large, expansive bookcases lined the walls. Books you knew were all for a show of wealth and knowledge. You had been the only one to really touch and enjoy the books in years. The only sound came from the thunder of the storm that raged outside and the slight shuffling of feet on the floor and them moving things around.

You subconsciously tensed up as you saw one of them get closer to the bookcase that held all your family's secrets. Behind it sat a safe, where endless information about the goings ons in the family, all your safehouses, informants information, etc. were all locked in that safe. You knew countless other organizations were looking for it, trying to take you down and topple your control of the city. These men were no different. Only this time, they succeeded in opening the bookcase. A clicking noise after moving a certain book had you moving into position, and flashing a smile at the cameras, knowing whoever was watching you would see, and pulled your neck gaiter up over your nose. You stood, half of your foot hanging over the edge of the beam, and you let yourself fall.

Yeosangs eyes narrowed at one of the monitors that held his access to the security cameras. “Capt-”

“I know.” Hongjoong walked up behind the younger man, hands resting against his control panel. He examined the monitors that had gone black. “Can you play it back?”

A nod followed, and a series of rapid keyboard clicks resulted in the restoration of the image. The screen displayed their team members. Seonghwa, his demeanor almost nonchalant, kept a watchful eye on the group, his attention caught when Jongho uncovered a false-shelf, showcasing a safe behind it. A series of exchanged glances ensued, but in a small, shadowy area near the ceiling, he saw movement. It was slight, but his heartbeat sped up as his gut told him something was wrong.

He gestured to Yeosang, who promptly put a small earpiece in his outstretched hand. He swiftly inserted it in his ear, ready to give a warning. “Someone is in there with you.”

Yunhos voice came over their link. “Are you sure? I haven’t seen anyone Joong. Even from here.”

“I’m sure. Yeosang and I saw something move on the cameras. You’re being watched.” His eyes stayed on the monitor that he saw the movement in, and he saw it move again, a pair of eyes staring right into the camera, crinkled, almost as if giving it a smile. “Fuck” and then, as if scripted, the screens went dark.

“Get out of there.” Hongjoongs command echoed through all 6 of the links. “Eyes went dark.”

“What about the-” the youngest tried to ask.

“I don’t care about that shit right now! Get out! Retreat! Whatever word I need to say to get it through your thick skull!" Hongjoong's order cut through the tense air, driven by a mixture of worry and exasperation.

All eyes locked on Seonghwa, who nodded once, determination on his face. “Okay. We go. Be ready for anything.” He locked eyes with each of them, and reached for his pistol. The others followed suit, eyes shifting around the room, senses on high alert.

Clashes of lightning briefly illuminated the room. Yunho was having trouble keeping his scope on the others, carefully keeping watch, when the lightning illuminated your figure quickly dropping from the ceiling. His finger was quick on the trigger, and a muffled crack echoed in the air.

Seonghwa jumped, feeling the wind of the bullet whizzing past him. “What the hell Yunho!?”

“Hongjoong was right. Someone is in there with you.” He stopped as he watched you land on Mingis shoulders, wrapping your legs around the tall man and using your weight to propel you both forward. You flipped the large man over, dazing him momentarily, gun clattering somewhere into the shadows.

You used the same momentum to roll yourself into a standing position, which ended up with you face to face with a man with very cat-like features, holding a gun aimed at your stomach.

Your eyes scanned him up and down as everyone froze, the atmosphere tense, and they tried to figure out what to do. Your eyes locked with the man in front of you. The next words that came out of your lips were muffled, but they heard them all loud and clear. “Hey Sannie.” Looking into his eyes for that second, had made that connection click in your mind.

His eyes widened, showcasing confusion at your greeting. You decided to act fast, bringing your knee up in between his legs and wrestled the gun from his grasp in one fluid motion. You turned your back to him as he fell, groaning in pain and holding himself.

The only parts of your face that was left uncovered lit up when a series of thunder and lightning lit up the otherwise dark room. A wicked smile painted your face as you saw the eyes of the others widen.

“Way to make an entrance,” Wooyoungs snide remark made him your next target. You feigned left, and swiftly diverted right, foot making contact with his arm as he swiftly blocked it. His hands wrapped around your ankle, smirking at you as you felt arms wrap around you from behind. They had you locked in an iron grasp, but you smiled, realizing that the person behind you slightly lifted you off the ground, making the foot you had stood on, free to kick.

You kicked Wooyoung in the stomach, eliciting a loud "oomph" as he released your leg and bent over in pain. The arms around you remained locked, but you swiftly dropped to the ground, shifting your weight. This movement loosened the iron grip around you. Thrusting your upper body forward, you flung the other man over your shoulder, and he crashed into one of the expansive bookcases lining the wall. You couldn't help but grimace, silently apologizing to your future self for ruining one of your favorite sections of books.

The hair on your arms stood on end, and a gut feeling urged you to move. You obeyed, and not a second later, a whizzing sound indicated that a bullet had just been fired where you had stood moments ago. You tsked at your assailants and quickly assessed the last remaining man, recognizing him as Jongho. A small knot formed in your stomach as you heard the distinct sound of a gun being cocked, its barrel now aimed at you.

"You're going to step aside and let us through," Jongho said with a cold, unyielding expression that tugged at your heart momentarily.

Ignoring the feeling, you rolled your eyes and decided to taunt him. "What's wrong, Baby Bear? Can't face me like a man?"

Internally, Jongho winced at the nickname, a moniker he hadn't heard in years. After they had parted ways, he had made it clear to the others that anyone who called him that would regret it. They had wisely complied. His current objective was to keep you focused solely on him. Your back was turned to the other men you had subdued, but they were slowly getting back on their feet. San was making his way toward the safe behind you.

You smirked at Jongho and lunged at him. Shots were fired, and a stinging sensation coursed through your right bicep, but you pushed through the pain. You had a job to do. Attempting a right hook, you caught him off guard, allowing you to wrap your legs around his neck as you propelled yourself upward. You brought both your hands down onto the top of his head, trying to stun him. He staggered slightly and then slammed your back into the wall, causing books and splintered wood to rain down on you. Gasping for breath, you were momentarily winded by his maneuver, which gave him the opportunity to strike again, this time successfully stunning you.

Behind you, you heard movement and the unmistakable sound of a lock being clicked. Turning your head to look over your shoulder, you saw Wooyoung and San rushing out of the safe, carrying bags slung over their shoulders. They also supported Seonghwa and Mingi, helping them make a swift exit while Jongho remained to deal with you.

Jongho reached up, landing punches on your side and back, causing excruciating pain to shoot down your spine. A slight buzz of electricity had you bracing yourself. The shock never came, but the sensation of being slammed onto a massive desk made the edges of your vision go hazy, and you were certain you blacked out for a moment.

You lay on the shattered desk, feeling tiny pinpricks of pain running down your spine, convinced you'd have dozens of splinters in your back. At some point, your mask and hood had fallen, revealing your face to the men.

Your eyes fluttered open slowly, meeting a pair of large brown eyes. Jongho held his side, supported by San, waiting for the others to rush out the door and onto the balcony from which they had entered. Recognition briefly flickered across his face before he turned his back on you, leaving you behind as he limped out the door, favoring one leg.

As the members returned to their waiting van, the atmosphere remained tense. Adrenaline coursed through their veins as they grappled with the aftermath of the fight. San broke the silence, asking, "How did they know my name?" The question hung in the air, intensifying the uncertainty.

Seonghwa spoke up, his voice carrying the weight of realization as he stared down at his hands. "It was Y/N."

The van's engine roared to life, the sound of tires squealing on the wet concrete serving as background noise. Each of them was lost in thought, pondering the mention of your name. The rain picked up again, and Seonghwa watched the raindrops slide down the window, wondering how Hongjoong would react to the news that they had finally found you.

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ijustreblogcoolshit · 24 days

Text

CW: injury description, I felt sad so decided to make the LU boys suffer. But it ends with fluff. Enjoy !!

To say it had been a hard battle would be a severe understatement. Sure, fights were never easy, but often the heroes were left with only a few scrapes and bruises. Not now, though.

Half of the Chain were rendered unconscious and now being carried by their brothers. But the conscious ones weren't without their woes- Twilight's femur had snapped out of his skin, for Hylia's sake!- so he's stuck riding on Epona. But only after Warriors had reset the bone and force-fed him a red potion. His trousers are still ripped and sticky with drying blood and tiny scraps of his flesh. Though, having one of the sturdier members on horseback has it's advantages, as Wild would tell you if he was awake. Which he isn't, his self preservation died alongside his body 100 years ago, and now he's slumped against his brother's chest, basically sitting in his lap. Wild's face is pale enough to rival fresh snow- hell, it's whiter than the bandages that wrap around the majority of his body. Though no broken bones, so that's a plus.

Sky's seated at Twilight's back, his head resting on the Rancher's shoulder. His arms are tied around Twilight's waist with rope that came from somewhere. Sky's stamina had failed him midway through trying to take down a particularly vicious Hinox, which kindly kicked him into a tree when he crumpled to the ground. The one moment Hylia decides to bless them is when Sky smacks into the tree arm first. Sure, his whole arm basically shattered, but a broken arm can heal; a shattered spine cannot. He didn't get so lucky when his head also hit the tree with considerable force and several ribs cracked from the initial kick. Needless to say, the boy is still knocked out cold even after two fairies and Warriors' first aid skills.

Speaking of Warriors... he's fine. Physically, at least. The War has made sure he can't be outnumbered in a swarm. Mentally? Well, about as fine as someone caked in blood can be. None of it belongs to him; it's a disgusting mix of monster and his brothers. His eyes hold a haunted hollowness, and though his legs keep marching and his arms hold Legend securely, he's somewhere distant.

Legend's no better off than Wild or Sky. In fact, he's arguably the worst off out of all of them, though not in terms of physical wounds. The Veteran Hero has his nickname for a reason, and his nimble fighting style merely highlights it. No, the idiot forgot to keep track of how much magic his items used and insisted he was fine without any green potions, Hyrule needed them more so he could heal the others. He wasn't so fine when the magic exhaustion stopped his heart. And it took 10 minutes of CPR and two broken ribs for his body to resuscitate. He barely stayed awake long enough to have a green and a red potion poured down his throat. His limp body in Warriors' arms is the reason the Captain periodically ducks his head down to see if the boy's still breathing.

Four had been the last to fall, and boy did he fall hard. With no other options, he'd had to split into his colours to guard the others and fight. It wasn't going terribly until their brains and courage got knocked out. A moblin's club took Vio down, and a Lizalfos took Green down with a cut across his legs. This spurred Red and Blue into a panic, which then led to more reckless injuries. What makes them reckless is that they tried to hide it, not knowing that all the wounds the colours sustained would all show up on Four's body. Who knew Red was the type to hide a stab wound? So now the Rainbow is passed out on Hyrule's back, occasionally muttering something incoherent to himself, but otherwise staying dead silent.

As for Wind and Time? The Sailor had been the one fighting that Hinox alongside Sky, and he'd been the one to cry out when Sky got kicked into a tree. But what does a Link do when in a panicked situation? Start throwing bombs, because that's logical. But Wind's barely a teenager, and so throw bombs at a Hinox he does. It's just a shame that the ugly thing fell on him and broke his legs. And that he couldn't even cry out for help until Time found him silently sobbing to himself. When Warriors reset his legs and Hyrule healed them, Time held him close like he'd done for Twilight.

Time's injuries are superficial, in his opinion. A few slashes here and there, a broken nose, a heavily bruised foot, nothing compared to what the others- his boys- had been through. Now he leads the group since Warriors is hidden away in his own mind, Twilight is fighting to stay awake, and Hyrule has no sense of direction.

But thankfully Time knew the path back to his ranch like he knew the exact time down to the second. He could find his home even if he was beaten within an inch of his life and on the verge of death... that was quite the scolding he'd gotten after waking up. But enough about the past, he needs to focus on the now. It doesn't matter how much he'd love to just collapse onto the grass and sleep, he needs to get his boys to safety.

And in time, that's what Time does. The lights of LonLon ranch have never held so much hope before, neither does Malon's voice as he shouts to them in surprise.

"Oh, you poor things! Come on, come inside, we need go get y'all in bed!"

The following minutes of getting everyone inside and comfortable is a blur to say the least. Somehow, everyone awake has been given a warm mug of chamomile tea with a generous amount of honey, and everyone who'd been unconscious is resting amid fluffy pillows and blankets.

Hyrule drops off to sleep beside Legend and Wild not long after, his body finally giving in to exhaustion after running on fumes for hours. Malon gathers Time and Twilight into her arms- though Twi's more on her lap than anything from his position laid on the couch. Time manages to relay what happened to his wife, but Twilight can't fight sleep any longer. Especially not when Malon carding fingers through his hair reminds him so much of his mother... he misses her....

Warriors sits silently on a chair, his mug of tea forgotten without a sip. He stares into nowhere while trying to claw his way back into some form of awareness. His brothers are safe. They're safe. They aren't going to die. So why is he still so... paranoid? Absent? Afraid?

He doesn't notice when an older man takes a seat on the chair beside him. "Son? Ya gonna wash all that blood off you or what?" He asks, his accent similar to Malon's in a way Warriors' dazed mind can't comprehend.

When the Link doesn't respond, the older man's bushy eyebrows knit together in worry. "Link? Ya with me?"

No response. The man- Talon- sighs.

"Yer friends are safe, kiddo. See?" He points over to the pile of blankets. The blonde man follows the motion with his eyes. "They're all breathin', all still livin' and kickin'. You ain't got nothin' to worry about." The man keeps his voice as soft as it can be, and filled with quiet patience.

"Y'all are safe here in my ranch, no ugly so'n'so's gonna beat y'all up. You can rest now, Link."

And that's what breaks the dam.

Warriors gasps for air, his mind catching up and reeling. He breathes heavily for a few moments, all the while tears stream down his face. They leave pale, clean streaks in the blood coating his cheeks. Talon takes a cloth and gently wipes it away, muttering words of assurance.

"You back with me, sonny?"

"Y- yes. I... sorry."

"Don' worry, boy. Go get changed outta those bloody clothes and join yer brothers, yeah? Yer gonna be all okay."

Warriors just nods, still a little numb, and walks off.

He returns a while later, his hair and skin damp and his undershirt clings to his torso a little. His eyes are weary and bloodshot as he looks around at his brothers, all safe...

Legend and Wild both huddle into Hyrule. Four and Sky are still out cold but wrapped around eachother. Wind's somehow cuddling into Twilight's side where he's sprawled out on a couch. Time's nowhere to be seen, but if the snoring is anything to go by, he's in his own room. With Malon.

Warriors sighs deeply, the tension in his shoulders unwinding for the first time all day. Suddenly he's exhausted and slipping under a rouge blanket before he knows it.

Everyone's safe now. Not uninjured, not healed, but at least they're safe.

This is kind of shit but I was sad and really tired so here's the boys being horrifically injured but with a happy ending! I don't really know how to write Talon, but I imagine him and Malon have helped Time through a lot so he knows how to help a traumatised Link. Anyways, if you're reading this, thank you, and have a wondeful existence !

#lu #tloz #linked universe #lu twilight #lu legend #lu time #lu wild #lu warriors #lu four #lu sky #lu wind #lu hyrule #writing #fanfiction #this is kinda bloody #you've been warned #there's injuries galore

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doctorcanon · 5 months

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A little obsessed with the potential brotherly dynamic between The Captain and Mask. I know there are lots of other characters from the series in HW but hear me out okay?

Imagine being The Captain:

You take the strangest kid under your wing during the war. He's mostly unobtrusive. Mature for his age, quiet, but generally churlish. Can barely read (ill explain this HC one day) but fights like a demon and is clearly immensely troubled but doesn't know how to express himself.

You eventually connect over a shared burden and become rather attached to the kid. You're the only one he actually speaks to. Moreover, people have started calling you "the twins" even though he much younger than you. You teach him practical things like improving his reading, clothes mending and social graces. He teaches you about the natural world, herbalism and orienteering. You even give him a nickname "Mask" that he reluctantly answers to. But as the war wears on and the battles get harder, the boy has to rely on his masks more and more. Save for the one he calls Oni. He says its his failsafe and mentions nothing else.

Until one day, during the penultimate battle, you and your battalion are overwhelmed. Grievously injured, you call for Mask to get to safety. The next thing you remember is hearing "dont worry, captain, I'll protect you, i promise." Then flashes of a hulking demon laying waste to the battlefield with a helix shaped sword. You also remember a great and terrible silence and the sensation of being carried.

When you wake, Zelda informs you that the battle has been won but Mask along with several others, are missing. Even when the war is won and over, you search that battlefield, all surrounding areas and lists of the dead for any sign of Mask. You find nothing and eventually your duties as Captain must be seen to.

Three years later, you follow up on reports of an aberration found around the area Mask disappeared. The portal drops you unceremoniously into a Hyrule you don't recognize. You meet 8 others just like you, all named Link, each bearing the Mark of Destiny and honestly kinda sick of all this shit. The Oldest One - face heavily scarred and blind in one eye - holds your gaze for a little too long. When you ask him about it, he only apologizes awkwardly.

Needing some space during a particularly raucous night, you decide to check up on your party's resident Old Man who just so happens to be reorganizing his things. And you see it: Oni, the Fierce Deity; the War God that nearly won them the war but not the little boy who carried it.

"Where did you get this? Who gave it to you?" You ask. When he doesn't give you an answer, you insist. "That mask is one of a kind, and only one person I know had it, what happened to him."

The silence that follows is so thick, not even the Master Sword could cut it. The Old Man - Time, they call him - is taller than the rest of them, but his stature is bent by bone deep weariness. The scars on his face pull his features in different directions, the bridge of his nose is split, the remains of his empty eye socket droop painfully without his eye patch, the left corner of his mouth peel back to show more of his teeth - two of which are missing. But his remaining eye - bright, alert and unnervingly blue - pleads with him and the realization dawns on him before Time turns away, almost timid but mostly ashamed.

"He kept fighting, Captain. He kept fighting until he couldn't anymore and kept going. Until..."

You embrace him before you can stop yourself. He's just as surprised as you are. But he doesn't throw you off or scold you. Instead, he sinks into the hug with a long, shuddering sigh of relief. He's so tall now, he nearly bowls you over. Then quietly, through tears Captain can't see, he says

"I'm sorry...I thought you be disappointed." Your heart that was frantically picking up the piece just a moment ago breaks all over again. You can still hear that little boy buried in somewhere the gruff baritone you've grown accustomed to. Something bittersweet festers inside you, a melange of emotions you can't possibly unpack in this moment. But not one of them is disappointment. You pull away, taking him by the shoulders and giving him a little shake.

"You are so much more than I could've ever imagined. Whatever you've done, you survived and I couldn't be more proud."

#its like 3am #i cant sleep.#this got way out of hand.#time has way more scars in my mind #perhaps a bit more violent than Wild's #in my head i think he's already been the hero's shade and come back to life #idk im still working on it.#linked universe #time lu #lu time #hero of time #ocarina of time #lu warriors #warriors lu #hyrule warriors #legend of zelda #links meet au #fierce deity #called Oni because the form link takes is called Oni Link in the Japanese version and prima guide...

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orpiknight · 3 months

Text

Good Omens FAQ Index

Good Omens FAQ Links: Main / Season 1 Doc Main / Season 1 Spreadsheet Season 2 Doc Wait-and-See List Extra Asks

Rebloggable FAQ Tumblr post

The Good Omens FAQ is a compilation that I put together of questions Neil Gaiman has answered on his own personal Tumblr blog. For more information, please check out Orpiknight’s FAQ FAQ.

*This FAQ covers questions for the full content of both the book and TV series. There are spoilers.

#good omens faq #neil gaiman faq #just an organization post #I know it's several links but it did need to be split up.#The wait and see list is kind of a little bonus though.

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thegreatestsandwich · 1 year

Note

OMG! YOU ARE WRITTING FOR WEDNESDAY ADAMS? PLEASE DO THIS WITH XAVIER THORPE

“What are you doing?”

“Something terribly immoral and almost definitely illegal... Care to join me?”

Love you to the moon and to Saturn (Xavier Thorpe x f!reader)

Masterlist

Pairing: Xavier Thorpe x f!reader

Word count: 1.5k

Summary: Xavier loves you way too much to deny you your midnight snacks

Warning: Fluff, just that, fluff

A/N: My baby

Coments, Reblogs and Asks are happily received! I love to read your lovely coments :)

“Baby, what are you doing?” Xavier Thorpe was looking at you with amusement. You were hiding behind a bush, it was way past your curfew when he found you.

“I could ask you the same thing.” You grabbed his hand and dragged him to crouch next to you, Xavier was smiling as you were looking at the entrance. “So, what are you doing out here stupid?”

“Well,” He kept smiling, even after you hit his shoulder. “I was going back to my room, needed to paint, y’know?”

You didn’t listened as you pushed his head down when one of the teachers passed your bush, your hand quickly went to his mouth, trying to keep him quiet as he began laughing. “Stop it.” You hissed. “They’ll found us and we’ll be dead.”

His hand grabbed yours to take it off his mouth, not after softly kissing your palm. “I don’t think director Weems would kill us, babe.” He shrugged. “Maybe detention for eternity.”

“Don’t call me babe.” You huffed. “I imagine a giant humanoid fetus and it’s weird.”

Xavier stared at you. “Your mind is so weird.”

“Thanks, now goodnight, text me when you arrive to your room.” You hugged him and sprint to another bush.

Xavier couldn’t help but sighed, standing up and walking calmly to you, crouching at your side. “I’ll ask again bab…” You glared at him. “baby, what are you doing?”

“Something terribly immoral and almost definitely illegal... Care to join me?” You offered your hand and he took it without even thinking about it, linking your fingers together but he kept staring at you like you were crazy.

“Does it involve drugs?” He asked you amusedly. “Because I’m totally in if you split the profits 20-80, me having the most of it obviously.”

You gasped completely offended. “First, this is not about drugs, this town is too boring for that and second, why in the world would I give you the most of my profits if I’m doing most of the work?”

Xavier shrugged, “Because you love me and want to keep me happy and satisfy?”

“You are an idiot, I regret saying yes to this relationship.” You tugged him to the gates and tried to shake off your hand from him but he began huffing and throwing a tantrum. You sighed. “I’m just opening the gate, big baby, now give me my hand.”

“Lies.” He said but still let go of your hand. “Hey, you call me baby, this is a huge step in this relationship, y’know?”

You rolled your eyes, as you placed your hand over the lock, trying to concentrate into unlocking it. You heard a small click and smiled, pushing the gates open. Xavier grabbed your hand again and intertwined your fingers.

“Where to boss?” He began walking, not really knowing where you were heading.

“Not telling you yet, you will judge me.”

“Baby, I could never judge you, never you.” He smiled, trying to kiss your cheek but you moving away. “I’ll judge you when I’m on my own so you can’t hear it.”

“Ass.”

“Love you more, sweetheart.”

“So you are telling me,” Xavier began, watching emotionless at the store in front of him. “That you went into so much trouble, hid behind several bushes, used your powers on the school’s lock, drag me all the way to the town so you could go into the store and buy a ramen?”

“Yes.” You happily stated as you dragged him inside. “Well, not really, I brought you so you could buy me the ramen.”

“Unbelievable, so all your love is fake and you are dating me for my money?”

“Yes, now c’mon I’m hungry, whoever decided to offer salads for dinner will burn in hell.” You dragged him inside. Xavier threw his head backwards and groaned as you didn’t let go of his hand as you stared at the several packets of ramen. “Which one?” You asked him.

“You’re the one who wanted ramen, why should I know?” He looked at you emotionless.

“See the way you threat me?” You grabbed a pack of ramen and examinate it before shaking your head and returning it, grabbing another one and repeating the action. “Horrible, I’m seriously considering breaking up with you.”

“Because of ramen.” He stared at you amusedly. “You would break up with me because of ramen.”

You hummed, frowning when you read the ingredients of what appeared to be a tuna-mayo ramen. Why? “Yep, a good boyfriend would choose the correct pack of ramen for their girlfriend.”

“So now I’m a horrible boyfriend?” He huffed, walking behind you and hugging you, placing his chin on your shoulder. To others, the image was really funny as he needed to bend a little to be able to do this. “I should sue you for emotional damage.”

“Cool,” You put another packet back. “Which one sounds more delicious, spicy seafood, hot chicken carbonara, hot curry with chicken or nuclear hot chicken 2x spicy?” You asked him, turning slightly to look at him, he was frowning completely disturbed at every single option. You couldn’t help it and kissed his cheek.

“All of them sounded awful, why can’t you choose a normal one? Like chicken, meat or shrimp?”

“Because I’m not a pussy.” You retorted. “Now choose one, we are sharing.”

“Neither.” He pouted.

“Nuclear hot chicken 2x spicy it is.” You grabbed the packet, smiling happily at how disgusted he looked. “It’ll be fun, I promise. Now c’mon, you are paying.”

“Wait, no.” He stopped you. “You are not eating that without any milk, go grab a bottle of chocolate one.” You stared at him, ready to say no. “Nope, not hearing it, that thing will kill your stomach, now go, also grab a few ice cream bars.”

“You are overreacting, y’know?” But you went anyway and he followed you as he was hugging your neck from behind. “This can’t be that spicy, it’s just the marketing and the extreme color of the plastic bag.”

Xavier scoffed, finally detaching himself from you, walking towards the other side of the store. “I’m grabbing a few sandwiches and those funny triangle rice thingys.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Xavier stared at you as you carefully walked with a huge plate with ramen, two sets of forks on your hand. He was sitting on the ground, his back resting next to his bed. For some reason, you wanted now to have an almost midnight picnic on his room. And he was too whipped for you to deny it.

“Eat the ice cream bar first, prepare you stomach and shit.” He handed you one of the bars as you sat down next to him, placing the plate on the floor and kissing his cheek, he smiled and gave you a proper kiss on your lips. “You will die if you don’t do it.”

“The point of this ramen is to suffer and beg for death after eating it.” You took the bar anyway, opening it and taking a bite of it. Xavier grabbing your hand and dragging it to his face so he could bite it as well. “We should like experience it.”

“Masochist.” He told you before frowning at the ramen, “It’s way dark, are you sure you prepare it correctly?”

“The marketing is shit.” You grabbed the plate after finishing the bar, you smelled it and frowned. “Doesn’t smell good.”

“I’m not eating that.” He crossed his arms. “I’m really happy with my life now to die.”

“Oh yeah?” You smiled cheekily. “Because I’m the sunshine that illuminates your days?”

He hummed, grabbing a fork and twisting the ramen on it. “Obviously, my love for you burns with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.”

You stared at him. “Did you just…?”

“Quote the greatest love line of the whole world?” It was his turn to smile, wiggling his brows playfully “Fuck yeah I did.”

“You are so corny.” You grabbed your fork, doing the same thing that Xavier. “I’m seriously doubting my mental capability of taking good decisions.”

“Well, you make me this way baby, so it’s your fault.”

“Yeah, yeah, ready?” You raised your fork full of ramen, Xavier doing the same, bumping yours on the way, you quickly put it on your mouth, him doing the same…

Both of you spat it out, coughing wildly. “Jesus fucking Christ!” Xavier exclaimed, quickly grabbing a bottle of milk. “Threw that shit out of my room!”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Your eyes began tearing up. “Why did you let me buy this?!”

#xavier thorpe x y/n #xavier thorpe wednesday #xavier thorpe imagine #xavier thorpe blurb #xavier thorpe oneshot #xavier thorpe #xavier x reader #xavier thorpe fluff #xavier fluff #xavier thorpe x you #xavier wednesday #wednesday netflix #wednesday adams fic #wednesday adams imagine #this is pure fluffiness

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whitebookposts · 1 year

Note

Um question

during one of my “endlessly scrolling through tumblr looking at people’s opinions on Sky lore” nights I noticed one of your posts about a Valley Priestess? Several other people had drawn/talked about Valley Priestess and I am incredibly confused as to who she is

*RUNS FULL SPEED AT YOU *GRABS YOU OH MY DEAR FRIEND YOU HAVE **NO** IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE JUST AWAKENED. PRIESTESS IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EVER AND MY HYPERFIXATED ASS WILL TALK ABOUT HER JUST GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY.

SIT DOWN FELLA THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE.

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Let's go back in time, circa 2017-2018, when Sky was still in development, and was yet to hit the shelves. During that time, TGC presented their pre-release concepts of what was back then known as Sky: Light Awaits, at CAFA GAME ART 2018 exhibition, held at Cetral Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China from september 8 to October 7. In that exhibition, TGC presented the crowd with a bunch of concept art, story directions and ideas, and some world-building of their upcoming game. If you are interested in seeing the exhibits TGC put up, you can check those links:

1. Layout 2. World overview 3. Storyline 4. World Map 5. Character Designs 6. Level designs 7. Interaction and customization 8. Journey comparison 9. Bits and pieces

However, for the specifc question you asked, we need to focus on number 3. Storyline. More specifically, this bit right here:

You see this? Right here? "Descendants summon and challenge and ancient (priestess)" YUP, THERE SHE IS, RIGHT HERE!! That is one of the first, and frankly, the last times she gets officially mentioned. Why? Because she was replaced by the Valley twins. That is also why the twins share one name: Samekh, because they used to be one elder, to whom this name belonged. How do we know this? Because in the concept art where the twins start to appear, they are both labeled Samekh... Just like in this very little and crunchy concept art:

You see her? In the corner?

There she is! As we can see, this singular figure is also labeled Samekh. And since we know that Samekh is the name of the valley elders and the singular Valley elder for the Priestess, we can conclude this is a concept art of her :) if you want to know more about elders' names, you can always check out Grandpa's (@grapeless-seeds) very neat doc right here!

Now, you may be asking: "If she is just a scraped elder that was already replaced by other elders, how did she resurface again?" That is a very good question! And it has a VERY long and VERY interesting history behind it.

Despite her being in the concept art, not many acknowledged her existence, moreover being anyway related to the current Valley elders. Even though many asked themselves the question "Why were there two Valley elders, and why are they so much younger than the rest of them?", a big part of the fandom agreed on the headcanon that the twins were simply two parts of one being who got split. And so, Priestess laid dormant in the discarded concept art. But things were about to change.

Let's jump into the future, circa 2020-2021, when the fandom's love for lore and elders was at it's height. Theories were flowing left and right, and as you know, Sky lore enjoyers often dig through countless concept art for crumbs of lore we usually don't get in the game. And one of said concepts through which a certain group of people dug through was the concept of Priestess. Unconciouslly, her image rooted itself in the minds of elder lore enthusiasts.

In 2020, Grandpa, who was a pretty influential Sky artist and theorist on Skyblr and the western Sky fandom, posted this headcanon on her twitter:

This, as far as I'm aware, was one of the first instances of the idea that not only the twins aren't just two halves of one being, but that they are actually children of an elder long gone: the Priestess.

Soon enough after it, a sketch by @artificial-radiance Was posted on Skyblr, featuring this idea yet again.

While the headcanon was still really obscure, it did manage to trickle down into the hearts of some very passionate (and lowkey insane) people, like me. I mean, How could it not! It was a perfect setup for drama, mystery, and the "dead mom" trope! It could finally give a much spicier explanation for the twins being younger than the rest of the elders than the "split theory" we knew beforehand. And a few more fan arts and headcanons started showing up, here are some examples:

(two old sketches by me, inspired by artificial radiance)

(a short comic by @dogedepan also inspired by artificial radiance)

As you can see, back then the design for her was really close to the single concept art piece we had - a hooded silhouette with not a lot of unique features.

The awareness of Priestess and the idea of her being the mother of the current Valley elders rooted itself stronger. But you know what really made it bloom?

Eldertwt.

Eldertwt was a joke roleplay a bunch of sky fans started on Twitter dot com, where each created a profile after an elder or a Sky spirit, interacting and making a bunch of shenanigans. The whole thing was filled with deez nuts and gay jokes, and it really didn't seem to be going anywhere serious...

Until, Grandpa, yet again, dropped a priestess bomb. In a, surprisingly, heartwrenching Eldertwt storyline (no I'm serious, you HAD to be there when it went down), Grandpa introduced Priestess again, finally forever basing Priestess as an existing character and the mother of the twins. With Grandpa drawing her in her style, a change in the way she was drawn was done

(credit to @grapeless-seeds)

And many who proceeded to draw her for Eldertwt based on Grandpa's design really hammered it down. Here are some examples

(credit to @dogedepan)

(credit to @fiomeras)

(credit to @krillcandles)

(credit to @thatskymoz)

As you can see, Priestess went from a hooded silhouette in a crunchy concept art into a full-fledged character with hair, face, and personality. With Priestess stopped being an obscured piece of concept art, she found her way into the hearts of many.

Before long, the simple little headcanon grew into a full-fledged fanon, with fanart, theories, ships, and fanfics being produced with priestess as a character in them. And honestly? This perhaps was one of the most favorite things I got to experience in Sky fandom. How a bunch of strangers came together and out of pure love and interest took a piece of concept art and a little text that never made it past development, and turned it into a full, recognizable character. And yes, this fanon might not be the most popular, and most people still go by the "split elder" theory for twins. But Priestess is THERE. She is no longer a forgotten and discarded piece of art. She is a character who holds importance to many, including me.

And you might say "Well, isn't it silly, to turn a character that doesn't even exist in the final game into a full-fledged fanon?" And you would be right, it is silly. But it's fun. And in a game like Sky, where most of what we know is through concept art, is it really a stretch to give importance to a piece of it?

Besides... Once you learn about Priestess...

You start to notice that perhaps, she isn't gone from the game entirely 😉

Anyway, I hope I answered your question! SOryy for making this SO long, it's just I love this character so so so so much, AND the history behind her is fascinating!!!

#sky: cotl #sky: children of the light #sky cotl #sky children of the light #thatskygame #that sky game #sky: the more you know #sky lore #thatskygame lore #priestess my beloved #sky priestess #valley elders #valley of triumph #valley twins #samekh #priestess samekh

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thefreakandthehair · 7 months

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@eddiemonth prompt, oct 5th: Role Model | Slow Down — Ozzy Osbourne | Brave a/n: hospital setting, dustin & eddie heart-to-heart, post-s4 canon, implied pre-steddie if you squint. un-betaed because I’m challenging myself to write these in under an hour. read on ao3 | link to masterpost on ao3

Eddie’s always hated the color white.

It’s too… empty, still, plain. Is it even a color? Or is it just the absence of color? He’s never been sure. Maybe he should’ve paid a little more attention in his art classes instead of going off-task and drawing Hellfire and Corroded Coffin designs. What matters though is that he’s always hated the color white and now, in what can only be described as adding insult to injury, he’s connected to several beeping machines surrounded and draped in nothing but white. Sterile, boring, useless white.

The beeping is at least a solace, both in its predictable rhythm and as a sign that he’s still alive. Maybe he’ll eventually feel more comfortable with his survival but it’d been touch and go for awhile there so for now, he’s glad to have some sort of reminder that his heart is, indeed, beating.

Another welcome reminder is the slew of visitors he’s had since waking up, some of whom have apparently been in and out since before he’d been brought out of the medically-induced coma. Wayne, of course, was no surprise. Steve, and Robin, and Nancy, and a few of their friends from California were something of a surprise but he supposes it makes sense. They’d nearly gone down together and Eddie’s sure they’re splitting time between his room and Max’s down the hall.

Dustin Henderson though? Dustin surprises him.

Not necessarily that he’s been there, waiting, probably giving the nurses the worst headaches of their lives with his questions and suggestions. The little shit loves him, he knows that without a shadow of a doubt now, but Eddie’s shocked that he’s not angry. Since waking up, Eddie’s just laid there, watching cartoons on the tiny TV bolted into the corner of the too-white room with the kid, his own casted leg propped up on the side of Eddie’s bed. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think he was just at home in the trailer. It feels too normal.

Finally, one day, Eddie asks. Maybe it’s the latest round of painkillers that loosen his lips, but he has to ask. He has to know.

“Henderson?” Eddie asks, keeping his eyes trained on the television.

“Yeah?” Dustin responds.

“Are you like… are we like… are we good? Are you not pissed at me?” It’s hard for him to choke out, stumbling over his words. The opinion of a kid shouldn’t frighten him so much but goddamn, it’s like asking his little brother if he hates him. He’s terrified of a Yes.

Silence sits between them, Dustin surely burning a hole into the side of Eddie’s head. He can damn near feel it. Scooby Doo drones on though, and Eddie hopes that maybe Dustin just didn’t hear him. He’s on the good shit, so maybe he’d only asked in his head.

“I was, a little bit, yeah.”

But was is past-tense, and that just makes no sense. Dustin deserves to be mad at him, he’d gone off the plan and nearly died in front of him. Why isn’t he mad? What changed?

“What changed your mind?” Eddie still doesn’t look at him.

“Dude, look at me for a second. This is way more important than what closet the ghost ran into.” Dustin’s tone is annoyed and a little pushy, just the way he’d been before all of this.

Eddie sighs and turns to face Dustin, who’s looking at him with pinched eyebrows and wide eyes.

“I was so goddamn mad at you, Eddie. You almost died. Well, technically, you did for a minute there but that’s besides my point. You didn’t need to go back, and I was mad that you, someone I look up to, did something so stupid.”

Dustin takes a breath– it’s shaky, and Eddie nods him on encouragingly. He doesn’t speak though, doesn’t want to interrupt something that’s clearly not done.

“And then… well, Steve sat me down and explained what you said when he was carrying you out of there.”

Eddie’s heart monitor speeds up at the mention of Steve, and the mention that he’d apparently been talking before he blacked out and has absolutely no fucking memory of what he’d said. Dustin, genius and all that, notices and places a hand on top of Eddie’s which he only distantly recognizes is gripping the edge of the bar.

“Hey, you alright?”

Eddie nods again and makes a gesture with his free hand to continue. If he opens his mouth, he might vomit. Or panic. Maybe both, and neither is conducive to the conversation at hand. He’ll have that conversation with Steve later.

Dustin eyes him with uncertainty but continues on regardless. “So, yeah. Steve told me what you said about making sure that I was okay, that you were bleeding out all over him and couldn’t shut up about my stupid ankle, that you were so sorry and it wasn’t supposed to happen like that, that you were trying to help however you could but you couldn’t let the bats get out. Or get to me.”

Eddie sees the way Dustin’s throat bobs and his eyes begin to gloss over. If he starts crying right now, Eddie might lose it himself. He’s about to make some joke and deflect like he always does, but Dustin steamrolls on.

“And that’s just– Eddie, do you know how brave that is? That’s the stuff of D&D heroism. That’s insane, and don’t ever do it again, but how could I stay mad at you for caring about me? And about all of us? I’m not a complete asshole.”

Dustin calls him brave and Eddie's chest tightens, his jaw clicking with the effort it takes not to burst into tears. A few deep breaths later and he’s able to open his mouth without humiliating himself.

“Well, not all the time, at least,” he teases, his laugh weak and his smile wide.

“You know, Eddie, we were having such a nice moment there and you had to go and ruin it.” Dusin retorts, rolling his eyes and settling back into his chair. “Actually, you’re the asshole because you haven’t even asked to sign my cast yet. I’ve been telling everyone else who’s asked No because you get first dibs.”

Dustin fishes around in his pocket, twisting in weird ways that Eddie can’t imagine he’ll ever be able to again, before coming up with a black Sharpie. “Do your worst.”

Eddie takes the Sharpie and stares down at the cast. It’s white, just like the bed sheets and the painted cinder block walls, and curtains, and stupid hospital gown that doesn’t close in the back. But Dustin’s cast doesn’t feel sterile or empty.

It just feels like canvas, and maybe the walls of this hospital room can be the same blank slate on which Eddie can rebuild his life.

#dustin henderson #eddie munson #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #st fic #myblurbs #eddie month prompts

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agentwhiskeysdarlin · 2 years

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Kinktober Day 3

Hunter Play with Din Djarin (Mando)

Pairing: Din Djarin (Mando) X F!Reader

Rating: NSFW 18+ (minors dni)

Warings: this fic is so feral and if I got every warning here it will be a miracle: hunter & prey fantasy, use of binders (star wars handcuffs), dom/sub relationship, dom!Din, sub!reader, naked reader & fully clothed Din (not for long), several sweet little moments, oral (male receiving), Din fucks reader’s mouth, so much roughness, rough sex, unprotected sex (wrap it up), squirting, pussy slapping (it’s just once), Din is so sweet after it’s ridiculous

Word Count: 2.3k

Author’s Notes: Day three coming in hot and heavy whew. This one is intense and feral but oh so much fun. I love writing Din letting loose a bit. I hope you all enjoy! Thanks to @clint-aww-no-barton as always

kinktober masterlist

ao3 link

Everything was dark, almost too dark. The only light came from one of the moons that sat in the starry sky above your head. It did little for you. The chill bit at your skin and turned the breath from your lungs into clouds as it escaped your nose rapidly. Your back was against a tree, the bark digging in to you, but you hadn’t heard him in several minutes. You probably wouldn’t. He would be on you in seconds and you would never know. The man may have been bigger than you and in heavy silver armor, but he was also a hunter.

Thinking about it sent a shiver through your entire body and made your heart pound. You closed your eyes, trying so hard to keep your breathing soft and slow. You needed to move and soon or he would have you. Even though you knew that’s how this whole thing would end. The idea sent a puddle to your center and you tried to make your brain focus. He wanted the game to stretch, to play with your mind first before he took your body. A snap of a twig to your right made your head shoot up and then you were running.

You knew he had done it on purpose. The man knew how to hunt and he would never have been so careless. He wanted the chase. He wanted to chase you. He wanted to corner you like one of his bounties. Have you begging for mercy as he captured you and took you to his ship. It was intoxicating.

You had asked Din about the fantasy one night after the two of you made love. You had been with the Mandalorian for over a year now and he had made it very clear you were going nowhere anytime soon. It had taken him several months to trust you, but you were patient with him. He had lit up at the idea. He had a side he kept under wraps with you, until you encouraged him to let it loose, and gods did he. His dominant side was unleashed and it left you a mess every single time he laid his hands on you.

Now you sprinted through the woods of some unknown planet, running from him as his prey. It had been the most exciting thing the two of you had done yet. You found another darkened hole in the forest and once again found your back against a tree. You let your head fall back, eyes closing for a moment once, trying to catch your breath. You needed to move again, not stay in one spot too long. As you rounded the tree you almost smacked into a silver chest plate. The moon reflected off it and you could see just a bit of your reflection starring back at you. You gulped before, in a split second, binders were snug over your wrists. Finally you looked up to the black visor that hid Din’s eyes.

“Caught you.”

You could hear the smugness in his voice, the smirk you knew was on his lips. He had won and now it was time for him to drag you back to the ship. He did just that, pulling you along with him with roughly. The ship was closer than you had thought and every step he took against the metal floor made your heart pound in your chest. You gulped, feeling a bit of fear run down your spine. You jumped when you heard the massive door shut behind you.

“I’m going to pat you down and make sure you have no weapons on you.”

You didn’t speak just nodded your head, as he stepped toward you. You had to make yourself stay in place. Din’s hands fell to your hips and patted up your torso and over your breasts. You could feel his eyes on you as he kneaded at them pulling a soft gasp from you. You pulled your bottom lip between your teeth, trying to keep the moan inside. He stayed there for a moment before he started to pat his hands down. He bent as he let his hands go down one leg before jumping to the other as he slowed. He looked up at you, and you down at him, already panting.

“No weapons but…”

Again the smugness was evident in his voice. His gloved hand brushed over your clothed center, before he let his thumb rub circles over your clit. Finally you let the moan go, your eyes fluttering closed. Just as your body started to give in he was gone, and was up and in front of you again. He pulled you suddenly with him and you moved awkwardly on your weak knees. He stopped you close to the cot you normally shared.

“I’m going to unlock these and you’ll follow all my orders or it won’t end well for you.”

“Yes Sir,” your voice was a mess and almost too soft.

The click of the binders undoing was the only sound around you, other than the pounding of your heart in your ears. Din didn’t speak another word as his hands wandered and your clothes began to be discarded slowly to the ship floor. The slight chill hit your burning skin and you let out a whimper. Now you stood in front of him completely bare, while every last bit of his armor still covered his body.

“Take off my gloves,” his voice was low and soft but it held that dominant edge to it.

“Yes Sir,” you did as instructed slipping the gloves off and let them drop to the floor.

One of Din’s hands came up to your cheek, taking ahold of your face, and turning it up so your eyes connected to where his were hiding behind his visor. The other one snaked back between your legs, and the feeling of his bare fingers on your clit made you moan out and your eyes roll back. He circled your clit hard and fast for only a few moments before he was gone, and you whimpered.

“Now you will remove all of my armor putting it up the correct way and then you will remove the rest of my clothes. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The whole thing was leaving you a dizzy mess. The thought of serving him like this. Being completely vulnerable, and removing his armor was something that didn’t normally happen. You weren’t going to make it through this little session. The man was going to be the death of you. But what a way to go.

You focused on removing his armor one piece at a time, and setting it aside just as he did when he took it off. You saved his helmet for last, the small hiss echoing as you pulled it off. You were met with messy brown locks and lust blown eyes that were normally a brown as well. You couldn’t stop the gulp at the look you were being given by him. He watched every single last move you made and it was terribly hard to focus on the rest of his clothes. You had no idea your hands were trembling until he caught them after you were finally finished.

“Are you okay?” The scene broke for a mere moment, Din wanting to be sure you were okay to keep going.

“Yes Sir. I’m okay,” you breathed out, trying to collect yourself.

“Good girl,” his fingers brushed your hair and then finally his lips collided with yours.

You melted into him, wrapping yourself around him so there was almost no place not touching you. The skin on skin contact made you moan against his lips and tears almost sprung in your eyes. It was a big deal. The first time he allowed you to see him and it was still something that took you by surprise every single time.

Din’s bare hands wandered from your face down your shoulders, before skipping over to your breasts. He kneaded at them before taking your already hard nipples between his thumb and pointer finger and pulling. You let out a yelp, making his lips fall from yours. You were panting as you looked down, watching as he pulled your nipples, his eyes watching your reaction in turn. You stepped forward slightly and he released them. He dipped his head swirling his tongue around them before sucking them between his lips. Biting them and repeating the same action he had done with his fingers. Your hand flew to his hair and your head went back with a moan, as you arched your back into him.

“Please Sir,” you sounded so pathetic even to your own ears.

“What do you need little one?” Din looked up at you, before returning to his full height over you.

“Please. Fuck me please,” you were not past dropping to your knees and begging.

“Ah ah now. I caught you. Which means I get to do what I want to you, how I want and however fast or slow I want to do it to you.”

The gleam in his eyes was almost evil and it made you shiver.

“Yes Sir,” defeat laced the words.

“Go to the wall and face me then get on your knees.”

“Yes Sir.”

You did as told, going to the wall just behind you and then turning and dropping to the cold floor, which made you gasp. He stalked to you.

“Open your mouth.”

You did as you were told, opening your mouth as he stroked his already hard cock. Then he was slipping past your lips. He didn’t let you suck, instead holding your head in place as he fucked your throat. You looked up at him with blurry, tear filled eyes, saliva running down your chin from his assault. You moaned around his cock and he was pulling away. He jerked you up by your hair, and roughly bent you over the table you normally ate dinner on.

“Trying to make me cum early, huh? You know I like being buried inside of you when I cum.”

He all but growled the words in your ear, hands still tangled in your hair as he entered you to the hilt. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head and you were unable to even let out a noise. The pleasure swept over you so intensely you didn’t know how you would make it through him pounding into you.

“So fucking wet. Did me chasing you turn you on little one? The idea of me catching you and doing what I please? Hmmm?”

“Yes Sir,” you squeaked out, just above a whisper.

He kept one hand in your hair before taking the other and pulling your arms behind you, holding your wrist in one hand. You were flat against the cold table, and then he started to move. He slammed into you so hard you swore he was going to break the table. He never let up for a moment, giving you no mercy as he sent you reeling with pleasure. His thrusts got quicker for a moment, fucking you the fastest he ever has, before he was completely and utterly gone.

His hands left you along with his cock, and you were left squeezing around nothing, even with your high not quite there yet. He was panting behind you and you looked behind you not daring to move an inch.

“Sir?”

He didn’t answer, just looked at you with eyes so fierce it made you visibly shiver. Then before you knew it you were on the floor laying over the discarded clothes. His and yours mixed together under you. He lifted one of your legs up to his shoulder, before he stuck two fingers inside of you, fingering you so quick and fast that you were screaming and squirting in a matter of seconds. He removed his fingers and gave you one single slap to your pussy, which made you scream out. And then he was back inside of you to the hilt and pounding away. He dropped your leg, hovering over you as he railed you almost through the ship. His forehead fell to yours and he held deep eye contact.

“I’m… Sir please…may I…”

You couldn’t finish, you were too far gone for more words.

“Cum now,” the last word came out so loud it made you jump.

You snapped and your body shook and then went rigid. He kept going, until his thrusts got sloppy and he was pulling out of you, cumming over your stomach. His fingers found your clit, working you through your high, until orgasm after orgasm blended together. You drifted in the aftermath of the bliss coursing through your body, the world going soft and fuzzy around you.

“My love I need you to come back to me,” Din’s voice, gentle and soft came to you as if from somewhere in the distance.

You forced your eyes open a few moments later, and you swore your entire body was numb, like you couldn’t breathe.

“There she is,” he smiled down at you and brushed your fingers through your damp hair, moving it from your face. “Are you okay?”

“Din I’m perfect,” you breathed out with a smile.

“You think you can make it to the fresher? We both need to clean up.”

A simple nod of your head and he was picking you up bridal style. The fresher was small but you managed to get clean, helping each other, Din keeping you up on still shaky knees. You were soon dressed in just a shirt and curled into him in your cot.

“That was amazing…and intense,” you looked up at him, your fingers brushing over his chest and then his face.

“It was definitely both of those things,” Din chucked. “I wasn’t too rough?”

“Not a bit. I would have said the safe word if you were.”

He simply nodded, his eyes still watching you and you caught them smiling. He bent to kiss you, this time gently.

“I can’t wait to hear your next fantasy,” he spoke with a smirk.

“Oh Din Djarin you might regret saying that.”

Taglist: @jimmythegirl @arcadianempress @discogrrl @immundusspiritu @someplace-darker @thisis-theway @ohpedromypedro @scribbledghost @fioccodineveautunnale @spookyold-saintjm @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @princess-and-pedro @phoenixhalliwell @littlevodka @all-hallows-evie @mack4676 @perropascal @audreyshepbvrn @mswarriorbabe80

#agentwhiskeysdarlinkinktober #din djarin #mando #pedro pascal #din djarin x reader #din djarin x female reader #din djarin fic #din djarin smut #mando fic #mando smut #mando x reader #mando x female reader

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journey-to-the-attic · 2 months

Text

3rd anni req 2: [DRAGON AU] mammon / first encounter

ao3 link

note: requested by @whensam! i have to admit, i was hoping this'd pop up. i know i can write what i want, but i always feel i need an excuse anyway. you didn't indicate a preference for pov and i also just ended up wanting to do both, so this is a little longer than expected as a result!

∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎

Baker's children don't make good hunters. We’re used to carrying sacks of flour, not sprinting across fields with pitchfork-wielding mobs in hot pursuit. We don't make good kindling, either, but that hasn't stopped about half the adults in the village - for shame, I'd say, if I had the breath to speak.

Here's the thing. Our village isn't exactly a popular spot by any definition of the term. We're too far from any big cities to make good business, we don't make much worth selling, and the people certainly aren't charming enough to warrant a detour.

More important, though, are the creatures we share land with. Through the grassland that border the crop fields, there are invisible lines drawn in the soil - ones that no one crosses.

These lines mark dragon territory, and everyone knows that a dragon would sooner eat you for breakfast than stop for a reasonable conversation. Reasonable conversation is not something I have the luxury of at the moment, which is why I’m already several hundred paces over the line.

Just fifty already takes you into the forest. I don’t hear footsteps in pursuit anymore - they’d have to be mad to follow me so far in, which is exactly what I'd been banking on. The issue now is that, rather than being pitchforked, or burnt at the stake, I’ll probably just get eaten instead.

I pick my way through rotting leaf litter and ridged roots before collapsing against an old oak, wondering if the moisture dripping from overhead is safe to drink - or at least to wash my mouth out with. Gnawing through rope seems like a clever idea until your teeth start bleeding.

I can’t stay here, I think. Dying now would be like letting them win. Then Dad will have smacked the alderman for no reason.

Just as I get back to my feet, something whooshes overhead. I freeze. Those wings were larger than any bird I’ve ever seen.

Surely it couldn’t see me through the leaves. I crouch low to the ground and try to hide in the undergrowth - the wingbeats disappear until all I can hear is distant birdsong.

At least they’re having a nice day. I duck my head and trudge through a hedge - and come face to face with a dragon.

“Argh!”

I leap backwards. Bad move. The sunlight falls across its pointed face just in time for me to watch its pupils expand into full moons, like a cat on the hunt.

It doesn’t pounce. It doesn’t charge, snap or growl. It creeps slowly, eyes fixed on me the whole way forward, as if making sure I know that I can’t escape.

Nowhere to run. I press my back against a wizened old pine and shut my eyes tight - throwing out an arm, as if that might shield me.

Nothing happens. Then something cold presses into my palm.

My eyes snap open. The dragon blinks down at me. Its eyes are such a deep shade of blue that it’s almost dizzying. Oh. Oh, okay.

Its - his? I wonder, noting the ridges on his nose - snout rests carefully in my palm. He seems to register me staring at him, and snorts. The hot air is just on the brink of scalding, but not quite enough to hurt.

Then, almost experimentally, he opens his mouth - a yawning chasm of teeth, poised as if to ever-so-gently bite off my head. Except he doesn’t do that. There’s no pain - no crunch of broken bone or split sinew - far from it. The dragon leans down, carefully hooks his teeth into the collar of my shirt, and takes off.

I’d have screamed if it wasn’t for all the air leaving my chest at once. The forest shrinks to a dark blanket beneath us faster than I can even register it happening, and I realise very quickly that I’d be dashed to bits if I so much as slipped.

Wyvern, says an unhelpful voice in the back of my head as we soar. The dragon’s white-and-gold wings blot out the sun, but they’re so brilliant that it’s hard to tell the difference. They’re good fliers.

Before long, the dragon lands - legs first, digging his talons deep into the soil as he skids to a stop. After a moment, he huffs, then (strangely gently) drops me in a heap on the stony ground.

There’s a rumble, a swoosh - then several thuds, a swoosh of wings. I watch a shadow fall over my field of vision, then slowly raise my head.

Oh, I think a little faintly.

All sorts of colours, all sorts of demeanours. One in particular steps forward - dark, with crimson eyes, and the sort of air about him that tells me he's the leader. Boss, I'll call him, if only to settle my own nerves. The dragon that brought me here (Goldie, I decide, still trying to settle my breathing) steps forward with a sort of chirrup in greeting.

It's a spectacle, if nothing else. Here are seven dragons, horns and wings and all. I've heard cautionary tales and horror stories, but they never really tell you how majestic they look in real life - scales shinier than any jewel I could imagine. Marvels of creatures, really. If only I had the wits to appreciate it.

Boss is growling now - there's a sort of heat rolling off him in waves. Some of the feeling coming back to my numb legs.

If only I knew what they were saying...

It isn’t often that the forest bears treasure - usually it’s all very boring things, like meat and berries and leaves. To be fair, Mammon's used to treasure of the shiny, golden kind - not this weird little critter crouched against a tree.

It smells faintly of smoke and burnt wheat. He stalks closer, but he's testing it more than anything - it doesn’t look like any prey he’s familiar with.

When he gets close, it sticks out a little starfish-shaped appendage and closes its eyes. He smells bitter fear now.

Is it greeting him? Telling him it isn’t a threat? That’s smart. He thought only dragons could be smart, but it’s not behaving - nor does it look - like any dragon he's ever met.

So he returns the greeting with his snout. He half expects to be stung, like the time Asmo brought that little spidery thing home, but all the critter does is look up at him fearfully.

Interesting. On a whim, he scoops the little round thing off, and decides to take it back home.

The weird not-prey goes still as soon as he takes off. Once home, he lets it disembark (drops it on the floor, though he tries to be gentle), then looks up to face his brothers as they land around him.

The others decide to keep their distance. Lucifer is the first to plod forward and investigate.

He sniffs carefully at the air, then makes a crackling noise somewhere at the base of his throat - which isn't usually a good sign.

“That’s a human, Mammon," He says, glaring at the little critter. It’s still sitting, frozen.

“It’s a what?”

“What’d you bring that for? Stupid.” Belphie settles back on his haunches, blowing out a puff of frost. “Can’t go around snatching humans. We’ll get hunted. Stupid.”

“Shut up,” He grunts. “And I didn’t snatch it. Found it walkin’ around in the forest.”

“That’s impossible,” Satan says nearly immediately. His tail swishes back and forth - slow and deliberate, an analytical glint in his clever eyes. “They don’t let their young anywhere near us.”

“Well, whaddya call this, then?”

The human - apparently - suddenly seems to regain use of its limbs. Springing to its feet (Levi shrinks back, crest flattering over his head), it stumbles for a moment, then abruptly ducks under one of Mammon's wings.

The rest of his brothers - who'd similarly drawn back - relax again with a simultaneous murmur of vague confusion. Mammon blinks. Then his tail starts flicking at the end - like it always does when he's pleased.

“...you are not keeping it,” Lucifer says, looking as if he'd very much like to fly off into the sunset.

“It might have a disease!” adds Asmo.

“I don’t care what any of ya say,” Mammon says stubbornly, snapping at Beel when it looks like he might creep in for a bite. “I’m not sendin’ it back to the forest. It’ll be dead in a day.”

"It might be dangerous," Levi hisses. "It's totally giving me the evil eyes."

"Stop scaring it, then,” Mammon says loftily. “Relax, ya big baby - You’ve got teeth bigger than its whole head.”

“You are not keeping it,” Lucifer says again, as if repeating himself will make him sound more in charge.

“Pfft. Can’t tell me what to do.” He snaps at Beel again. “Oi! No bitin’! Go raid your stash or something.”

Beel’s horns seem to droop a little. “...fine. C’mon, Belphie.”

“I was busy,” complains Satan with a huff as the twins flap off. "This is boring. I've seen deer carcasses more interesting than that weird little thing."

"Go look at your stinkin' carcasses, then," Mammon shoots back, fighting the impulse to spit something at him.

Satan does exactly that. Levi soon slinks off as well, apparently still intimidated - and Asmo seems to have disappeared as soon as he decided the human wasn't going to make a good accessory.

Lucifer, meanwhile, stands his ground. His tail is beginning to lash in agitation. If Mammon’s lucky, maybe he’ll even start spitting fire.

“I'm not gonna eat it,” He says stubbornly.

“I wasn't going to tell you to,” Lucifer replies, but he sounds very much like he’s considering it. “Belphie was right. If a hunter sees us with one of their young, they’ll take it as a threat.”

“Like we wouldn’t win,” He scoffs, sitting down with a thump. "Anyway,don't ya smell the fire on it?"

A single scarlet eye narrows a little. Evidently he hadn't - though Lucifer's always smelling smoke, by virtue of the literal furnace in his chest, so he can't really be blamed for not noticing.

The human is peeking out from beneath his wing with a little more bravado now. Lucifer eyes its round little face as if it might start spitting poison at him.

"...humans don't usually try to set fire to their young," Lucifer says after a moment. "You're sure she doesn't have anywhere to go?"

"Wouldn't've been in the forest if it— uh, she did." He glances down. "C'mon! Not like we don't have the space."

Lucifer is silent. Then he gives a long-suffering sigh - sending a plume of dark blue smoke into the sky - and bends down to the human’s eye level again.

“Will you behave?” Lucifer asks her severely, as if she can understand dragon-speak.

The human child blinks up at him. Then she reaches up and plants a hand on his snout.

Mammon holds his breath. After a moment, Lucifer’s wings flutter, then settle.

“I’m not having any part in this,” He announces, stepping back. “This is to be your responsibility only. Don't make any trouble for your brothers. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, yeah,” He says dismissively, occupied with keeping his triumph from showing in his tail. Got it.”

Lucifer glances down at the human one final time. “...take care of her.”

And off he flaps - to attend to his usual nighttime duties. He says he's keeping watch for danger, but mostly they seem to involve gazing darkly into the sunset.

With his brothers dispersed, Mammon takes a moment to actually consider his situation. He doesn’t actually know what taking care of a human child involves. He doesn’t know much about humans in general - it’s not like he usually pays them any attention. Maybe some of his brothers could give him some advice… if any of them were interested in the kid’s well-being, at least.

They’ll come around, He decides after a moment, unfurling his wings and attempting to nudge the human in the general direction of their living caves. First, I gotta figure out what these things eat…

#3rd anni event #obey me #writing #dragon au #i mentioned this in the ao3 notes but it's crazy to me that it's been two years since dragon au started #like woa. time passes #jtta aus #obey me mammon #jtta ik #obey me brothers #(won't tag the others individually since they're not as prominent)#whensam

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