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dirtywrestling · 9 days

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Vampire Cult - Damien Priest Ft. Roman Reigns (18+)

Commission: @thesimonkshow

Pairing: Vampire!Damian Priest x Vampire!Simon x Vampire!Roman Reigns

Summary: After fully transitioning into a vampire Damian introduces Simon to the head vampire.

Warnings: 18+, Smut, Oral, Virgin Sacrifice, Minors DNI

Word Count: 6,468

Follow My Backup Blog!: @dirtywresling102

At first I hated Damian for what he turned me into. Turning me into a vampire without my permission. As realization hit me, I broke down knowing everyone around me would grow old and die while I still live and be forever young. I had no idea how I was going to explain this to my parents but I’ll get to that bridge when I cross it.

Being so upset toward Damian I ran, I didn’t even speak with Vince about a vacation, I just took it. I had no plans on coming back to wrestling life. I wanted to be alone and hope that this was all a bad dream. Months later, Damian found me in a cabin deep in the woods, living off of animal blood. But that was even rare to get because I felt bad for killing the sweet creatures, but I had to survive.

I knew why Damian was there at the cabin, he wanted to help me. I didn’t want or need his help, even though I was putting myself through starvation because I didn’t want to hurt innocent people or creatures.

“Then how about we hunt the non innocent people?”

That’s what got me to agree to go with him.

I didn’t know what was worse, the tranissioning or drinking blood. Murdering the people that deserved it wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be, especially drinking their sweet blood.

The cold night air hit my face as I stood across the street, leaning against a brick wall in a dark alleyway. I watched as a woman was being stalked by some creepy guy. Poor girl was on the bad side of town and it was pretty late. My eyes never left her as she started to pick up the pace, her heels clicking loudly against the sidewalk. “Come back here, pretty lady!” The man slurred, his steps increasing, still on her tail.

“I said leave me alone!” She barked back, trying to be strong for herself. My eyes darken as I heard her heart pumping a mile a minute. Her breathing was shaky and heavy at the same time. She was scared and out of breath, the poor woman was basically running in those uncomfortable shoes. I of course wasn’t going to let this fuck hurt her. My black jeans hugged me tight as I started to move. Leaving the dark alley but made sure to stick in the shadows as I walked on the opposite side of the street. My leather jacket over my shoulders, hands shoved into the pockets.

Looking at the helpless woman across the street in the corner of my eye, she took a quick left turn. Mistake. It was a dead end. I watched as the drunken man stumbled into the same dark deadend. Show time. “Finally, I have you.” The man chuckled. “Oh you’re going to feel so good on me.” The man disgustingly grabbed his dick through his pants.

“And you’re going to taste so good to me.” I mumbled to myself as I picked up his words. Crossing the street I was standing tall behind the man.

“Please leave me alone!” The woman begged once seeing me.

“Huh?” The man turned around, startled by my appearance behind him. “Hey! Beat it.” He snarled. “I saw her first, she’s mine.”

“Go.” I told the woman. She was frozen in place. “Leave!” I said louder, my voice echoing off the walls. The woman sobbed, trying her best to get out of the alley way as quickly as possible in her heels and clutching onto her purse.

“What’s the big idea, man.” The drunk’s nose was red, his face flushed. I grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it. “A- Ah!” I heard his collar bone snap. “Please- stop!” Tears spilled down his cheeks. Using my speed I pinned him up against the brick wall, slamming his head hard that he blacked out. Thank goodness too, I didn’t want to hear him squealing, it was so unpleasant hearing them cry while trying to feed.

Opening my mouth, my fangs extend outwards. Leaning forward I sank my teeth deeply into the man’s neck, suckling his thick blood. “Must you always get the intoxicated ones?” I heard a voice say. Getting one last gulp in, I ripped my fangs out, blood squirted into the air while it was also pooling around my lips, smirking showing my red stained teeth.

“But they taste bitter sweet and I at least get a little buzzed.” I pouted to Damian who was at the entrance of the alley, leaning against the brick wall. I turned my back onto Damian once more, sinking my teeth into the blacked out drunk’s neck. I shut my eyes, moaning as his blood hit my tongue.

“Don’t you think that’s enough, Simon?” Damian asked.

Ignoring him I kept sucking away. Hearing Damian’s footsteps against the loose gravel, he grabbed onto my shoulder and pulled me off. Before he could push me off the man I gripped the man’s jaw and gave it a hard twist. His neck snapping from my forcefulness, his lifeless body slugging to the ground. “Happy?” I snarled, wiping the blood off with my leather jacket.

“No, I’m not happy.” Damian huffed. “You’re out of control. You’re leaving bodies all around the city.”

“Cities.” I corrected him. “Nobody is going to find out it’s us, we’re wrestlers on the road, different cities every night, different assholes I’m drinking out of.”

“And killing afterwards.” Damian pointed out. “When I said to go after the non innocent I meant also, drink their blood and put some fear into them so they would rethink their life, giving them a second chance.”

“Hmm.” I pretended to think about it. “I like killing them afterwards, no need for them anyways. Plus, they’re just going to go back to their old ways and try to harass women, beat their children and kill others. I’m like Dexter Morgan.” I teased.

“Your life isn’t a TV show, Simon!” Damian huffed as I walked out of the alley. “And he didn’t eat people!” He added.

“Then call me Hannibal Lecter.” I corrected myself over my shoulder, smirking. I licked my teeth, getting the extra blood. I stopped as Damian was all of a sudden in front of me.

“You’re doing this sloppy. All of it. I turned you into a vampire-”

“Which I didn’t ask for.” I rudely snapped at him.

“But you’re loving it, aren’t you?” His eyebrow twitched in amusement as I didn’t say anything or argue. Being a vampire truly did have its perks. Being immortal, never getting into trouble, super human strength and speed. I felt ten times confident as ever and comfortable in my own body for the first time before I hit puberty. It also helped with my mental state of mind, first becoming a wrestler with depression was slowly slipping in, being away from my family and friends was doing damage to me.

I turned my head, looking away from Damian knowing he was right. “Whatever.” I grumbled.

“Don’t make me have to punish you.” Damian warned. “Watch your attitude or you won’t be coming in weeks.”

I blushed, hiding it from Damian. After Damian found me in the cabin and fed me,l we had passionate sex. He whispered how much he missed me and promised me to never run away again. After the hot passionate sex he did punish me for running away and treating my new vampire body poorly. He gave me one-hundred spankings, fed me his come and didn’t let me come for weeks on end until I proved to him I wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’m sorry sir.” I showed off my best pouty face so he would forgive me easily.

“It’s okay.” Damian ran his fingers through his long dark locks, falling for the puppy dog eyes I gave him. “Now. I want you to meet someone and I want you to be on your best behavior.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, this sounded important. “Okay.” I started to walk by his side.

“No, no ‘okay’.” Damian huffed. “I mean it, Simon you better be on your best behavior.”

“Okay, fine! I will.” I promised. Damian was really freaking out about whoever we were going to see and it had me worried a little.

“Don’t you think you should’ve dressed a little more proper? I told you business casual” Damian huffed, straightening his black tie around his neck. I followed, dark jeans, a v-neck shirt and a leather jacket. After becoming immortal my taste of fashion became more ‘edgier’ and dark.

I shrugged, following behind him to the front of the door. “Last time I let you pick anything during something so important.” Damian mumbled under his breath. Even with my super hearing I chose to ignore the comment. Damian raised his fist, knocking loudly against the wooden oak door.

“There’s a doorbell.” I pointed out.

“Must I bend you over my knee after this?” Damian sneered lowly, not liking my sassiness.

I bit my lip, keeping my snickering to a minimum. Hearing heavy footsteps coming to the door, the knob twisted and pulled open slowly. “Ah, Damian, welcome.” The man smiled.

“Hi, Roman.” I smiled, waving at him.

“Please forgive me, sir. He’s been kind of… disrespectful ever since he became fully aware of his powers.” Damian’s dark eyes slid over at me with a glare set. I twisted my lips, tongue rolling against my cheek, it was my turn to be nervous.

Roman flashed a smile, his white teeth showing. “No need to be asking for forgiveness, we’ll show the young man the right way of vampire life. Come, come.” Roman opened his door wider. Following after Damian, I looked around the large house. There were heavy dark curtains hanging on the windows, and leather furniture in the living room. As I was admiring the rich dark taste this stranger had set in his home a scent of blood hit my nose.

My eyes dilated, my mouth started to water. I quickly rushed myself to Damian, hooking myself to his arm and not letting go. “I smell blood.” I mumbled under my breath.

“Simon, please.” Damian begged, hoping I won’t go on a blood craving rampage like I did with that drunk last night.

“It’s okay Damian.” Roman chuckled, his long dark hair flowing over his shoulders. As the Samoan man guided us around the house I peeked inside a room, seeing a few wrestlers I knew sitting on a sofa with a few women naked, dancing around them. I saw the Uso twins, their hands resting on the hips of the women that were grinding against them. I swallowed hard. Was this a orgy party Damian invited me to?

I gasped loudly to see Jimmy and Jey open their mouths wide, fangs extending out and biting the women. “T- They’re vampires?” I choked out, pulling away from Damian.

“Simon, please.” Damian hushed, pulling me close to him once again. It was as if he thought I wouldn’t be surprised.

Roman smiled, showing his fangs towards me. “Not just any vampire, I’m the one that made you all.”

I looked over at Damian. “He turned you?” I asked.

Damian nodded. “He’s the one that turned the ones in the group.”

“Group?” I squinted.

“We have a group, we’re trusty towards one another and we help each other out.” Damian explained. “After Roman turned me I too ran away.” Damian smiled at me. “Sound familiar?” He teased me. “Anyways, after Roman found me he introduced me to his little group. He provides for us all, he helps us get through the good and the bad.” Damian wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

“If you want to join my group all you have to do is ask-”

“Can I join your group?” I instantly asked.

Roman laughed at how eager I was to be a part of the group. “Yes, but you have to do a ritual hunt with me and Damian before you can join.”

“And that is?” I arched my eyebrow.

“We have to kill and eat the blood of a virgin.” Roman licked his lips, his eyes darkening.

My eyebrows furrowed together, staring at him. Killing an innocent. “I won’t do it.” I quickly turned on my heel and left the room without a word.

“Simon.” Damian was about to run after me but Roman grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.

Days have passed since we visited Roman’s house and after him saying we had to kill and drink the blood of a virgin I instantly refused and left. “It’s not like they’re forced into it. These virgin’s are willing to do it.” Damian was sitting on the sofa, watching me. “These women and men beg us to feed off of them and to-”

“They’re willing to get killed afterwards?” I rubbed my face, this sounded so fucking crazy. I only killed the non innocent and fed off them, not innocent, virgins after all.

“Yes!” Damian huffed, tired of explaining it more than once.

“I don’t think I can do this.” I mumbled, my stomach turning at the thought or maybe because I haven’t eaten anything in awhile. All this talk wasn’t making me hungry after all.

“Simon, if you don’t do this hunt then you won’t be able to get in the group and I really do think you should be involved in this group. Roman can teach you so many things that I can’t teach you.” Damian defended.

“I’m fine the way I am.” I hissed.

“No, you’re not! You’re not the Simon I fell for, you’re not the Simon I wanted by my side for all eternity.”

“That Simon died when you stuck your fangs in me.” My fists balled up, my nails digging into my palms. I didn’t want to think back to that time, I was happy when I was human, yes. It took awhile to be happy in my new form as well.

Damian stood up with a hard frown on his face. “Well if you think that then don’t bother coming Friday for the ritual hunt.”

Night of the ritual came so fast, I was sitting on the sofa as I saw Damian passing by wearing all black. “I won’t be coming back, Simon.”

I frowned, looking away from the television. “What do you mean you won’t be coming back?” I asked.

“Roman invited me to stay at his house with the other vampires in the group. He wants us all close just in case something happens, like a hunter is near.”

“What if a hunter comes hunting me down?” My doe eyes looked up at him. Damian did his best not to make eye contact with me. The television sound in the background as it was silent for a few seconds.

“Then, you should’ve thought about doing the ritual hunt so you could have a pack to protect you.” With that Damian left, closing the front door behind him.

My blood boiled, who does Roman think he is? Just because he’s the head vampire he thinks he can steal my boyfriend and have Damian live with him. I gritted my teeth, soon worrying about what Damian said also. I was aware of hunters but never ran into any since I tried my best to live a normal lifestyle.

Midnight struck as I walked along the forest floor. Twigs and sticks snapped underneath my feet as I had my hood up. Owls hooting high above in the trees, a coyote howled in the distance. I checked my phone one last time, no missed calls or texts from anyone. Looking up I saw a dim light ahead, knowing that’s where the ritual was being placed at. I didn’t want to use my speed to approach. This whole thing still is not sitting right with me.

Walking closer to the looming light, I appeared out of the tree lines to see other members of Roman’s group in a large circle around the fire, their hoods up. Everyone looked at me. “Simon.” I looked in the direction of the hushed whisper, recognizing the clothes it was Damian with his hood up.

I swallowed, maybe this was a mistake.

“Simon. I was worried you wouldn’t show.” A smirk appeared on Roman’s lips as he was in the middle of the large circle, next to the fire. “Come, come.” He waved his hand towards me. I gulped, looking at Damian one last time. Damian nodded his head yes, giving a small smile to show me everything was okay. Looking back at Roman, my feet slowly started to take me to him.

“Everyone! I’d like you all to welcome our new member of the group, Simon!” Roman gripped the back of my hood and pulled it down. I squinted slightly as the brightness of the flames blinded me.

“Welcome, Simon.” They all said in sync.

I gulped. “Hi.” I said softly, giving everyone a small wave.

“To make Simon an official member of the group he will be doing the ritual of sucking blood from a virgin and killing them!”

I exhaled a breath, trying to not show my nervousness towards Roman. I wasn’t doing this for him but for Damian so he wouldn’t leave me and maybe to get some protection just in case a hunter does end up finding me and trying to kill me.

“Bring out the virgin!” Roman’s deep voice echoed throughout the woods. Two members came out from the woods, holding onto a young blonde male he looked to be in his mid twenties possibly fresh out of high school. “Simon, this is Nate.” Roman introduced me to the young man in a robe. His bare chest slightly exposed showed me that he was naked underneath. “Nate, this is Simon. The vampire that’ll drain you.”

I gulped, feeling queasy. I had a frown settle on my lip only to be surprised by Nate shaking my hand. “Hi! Man, I can’t wait to be sacrificed by you Mr. Simon.” Nate shook my hand overly excited.

“Simon is fine.” I corrected him. “Nate, how’d you hear of us?” I looked over at Roman, seeing if he’d get upset at me for asking questions.

“Well, my girlfriend is a goth chick, super into this stuff. Group of her friends mentioned it to her and well, she was sacrificed by you guys last week.” He had a large smile on his face as he spoke about his girlfriend.

“What are you getting out of this?” I arched my eyebrow. Did someone brainwash this poor young adult or was the kid was on something.

“Well, it’s really not about me.” He laughed. “You get to be in the pack and I get to be with my girlfriend in the promised lands. It’s a win, win.”

I looked at Roman who only nodded. I looked back at Nate. If vampires existed then why wouldn’t this ‘promise land’. “And you one-hundred percent want this?” I whispered, looking into the boy’s eyes to see any fear or any signs that he wanted to change his mind.

“This is more than I ever wished for.” He said just as softly back to me.

“It’s time, Simon.” Roman mumbled. “The moon is at its peak in the night sky! It’s time for Simon to officially become one of us!” Roman announced loudly.

Looking up at the night sky, dark clouds slowly rolled and the large moon shone down on us. I looked back at Nate who became more excited and had me gulp once more. “Thanks Simon.”

“I hope you find your girlfriend.” I nodded to Nate.

“Trust me, I will.”

I looked around seeing the vampires around us with their hoods up and fangs showing with a dark smile on their lips. I chewed the inside of my cheek, something still not setting right about killing a virgin.

“Simon, you’re running out of time.” Roman growled as he watched as the moon slowly moved away.

My eyes settled upon Damien in the crowd, his eyes wide. I needed to decide and fast. Kill this boy, be in the group and have Damian or let the boy live, don’t have a pack and Roman gets my boyfriend.

Gritting my teeth, the thought of Roman having Damian made my blood boil in my veins. I looked over at Nate, gripping his shoulder and pulled him close not even thinking. Pushing Nate’s head roughly to the side, exposing his neck I sank my teeth into his flesh and bit down harshly.

The boy screamed loudly as I sucked his blood harder. My eyes closed as I moaned lowly at the taste of his blood hitting my tongue. “That’s enough, Simon.” Roman announced.

Nate’s eyes slowly shut as I drained the life out of him. “Simon enough!” Roman roared. I ripped my fangs out of Nate’s neck. My eyes darken, blood dripping from the corner of my mouth. I heaved in and out breaths as I stared down Roman. Nate slowly rocking side to side next to me, his face pale from the lack of blood in his system. Staring at Roman made me even angier, how dare he try to steal my lover away from me.

The crowd gasped loudly as my fist punctured through Nate’s chest, exiting through his back, his heart in my hand. I ripped my hand out of him, I tossed his limp body into the bond fire. His flesh and clothes caught on fire. The smoke engulfed upwards as the terrible stench of burning flesh flooded the forest.

“What the fuck was that?” The door slammed shut.

I didn’t say anything, sitting down at the foot of the bed. “What? You wanted me to do it so I did it!” I snapped. “I’m in this stupid pack with you.”

“You won’t think its stupid when Roman saves us from hunters.”

I snarled. “What is it with you being obsessed with Roman?”

“Nothing! He’s the head vampire, Simon! He’s the one who changed me.” Damian argued back.

I huffed, looking away. A knock was at the door. “Great, because of us yelling they probably don’t want us to stay.”

I knew all the vampires in the house could hear us arguing about Roman but I didn’t care. Hearing the door open I heard a voice that made me grit my teeth. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine.” I spat.

Roman looked at Damian, not saying a thing Damian opened the door wider, letting Roman in. “Ever since his transition, he’s changed.” Damian explained.

“Hmm.” Roman hummed to himself, walking towards me. My eyes glued to the floor, watching Roman’s feet come up to me. Roman gripped my chin and forced me to look up at him. I slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch me.” I barked.

Roman smirked, his tongue darting out over his lip. “I see the problem here.”

“You do?” Damian’s tone was full of worry.

Roman nodded. “Someone forgot to be grateful for his powers and become immortal.” Roman explained.

“So how do we get rid of his attitude?”

I looked up at Roman, he was still looking down at me and gave me a wink. “Just a bit of dominating will change him right up.” Roman grabbed the button of his pants and popped them open, slowly tugging down his zipper.

“You wouldn’t dare.” I snarled, glaring up at Roman.

“Anything to get you back in line.” Roman threatened back. His pants lowering down his hips along with his boxers. His already hard cock springing up. He wrapped his hand around his cock, slowly stroking himself. “You know, Damian came to me about you. Saying how you’ve been miss behaving and being sloppy about leaving a trail of bodies.”

I glared over at Damian who wouldn’t meet my gaze. I looked up at Roman. “Yeah, so?” I huffed only to let out a small grunt when Roman gripped my jaw tightly.

“In my pack, we don’t do that.” He growled. “You obey, listen and clean up after yourself. I think you’ll understand once I’m done with you.” His other hand never stopped jerking his cock. “Now open.” He let go of my chin.

I glared over at Damian, how dare he get Roman involved and now I have to suck him off to be good? I let out a snort by accident.

“Something funny?” Roman asked. “I said suck my cock, nothing funny about it.” His tone was more serious.

Doing as he said, I dropped off the bed and down to my knees. Groaning as Roman’s hand gripped my hair. “Open wide, I’m pretty big.” He laughed, pushing the tip of his cock against my lips. I hissed at him, giving him the opportunity to shove his thickness in my mouth. Roman wasn’t easy either, slightly gagging against his thickness. My hands gripped his waist, trying to push him away with my super strength but he wasn’t budging. “Don’t fight it.”

Glaring up at him, I stopped trying to push Roman away, easing up my throat I let him fuck further down. Trying my best to breath normally and not choke on the alpha’s cock I kept calm and let him face fuck me. “Hmm, you’re lucky to have Damian. If you were mine you wouldn’t be coming for weeks after that little stunt you pulled, running away.” Roman tisked.

Roman’s large hand gripped my hair as he kept pumping his cock in and out of my hot mouth. “Hmm, he sure does know how to take cock.”

“His ass is even better.” Damian blurted out, watching in the corner. Damian touched his cock here and there at the sight of his master taking his lover.

Roman smirked. “Is that an invitation?”

My eyes snapped towards Damian, eyebrows furrowed. He better fucking not.

“Anything to get him to listen.” Damian shutter.

“Perfect.” Roman purred. “Looks like you’re going to be my little cock warmer.” Roman laughed, his dick twitching in my mouth. Roman was obviously getting harder at the thought of fucking me. Roman pulled his cock out fully, making me gasp for air.

Roman gripped me by the hair once more. “Ah fuck!” I hissed at the pain. Roman pulled me up to my feet, bending me over the bed. “Lube?” Roman asked Damian as he started to pull down my pants. Hearing Damian walk around the room Roman said ‘thank you’. The lid popping off, Roman squirting a decent amount on his fingers. Clicking it shut, Roman tossed the lube on the bed.

I exhaled a soft breath as Roman pressed two fingers against my hole. “Fuck.” I whined, pressing my forehead against the mattress and gripping the sheets.

“Hmm, you’re only good when you want things. Huh?” Roman slowly kept pushing his fingers in.

“Fuck you!” I spat.

“Ah, ah.” Roman pulled his fingers out.

“N- No, I’m sorry please.” Pushing my hips back I was hoping his fingers were still there.

“Be nice, Simon.” Roman’s free hand came down on my ass, spanking it.

“I’m sorry, I will!” I squealed.

Roman swirled two tips of his fingers against my hole. “Fuck, look at this greedy hole.” Roman moaned as he pushed two fingers deeper inside of my ass. “Damian, don’t just stand there. He has another hole open.”

I swallowed thickly knowing he meant my mouth. Damian walked over to the bed, pushing down his pants he was bare below. His cock hard from the sight in front of him. “Open. Now.” Damian growled. I didn’t hesitate, opening my mouth I wrapped my lips around Damian’s cock, bobbing my head up and down.

“We’re making some progress.” Roman pointed out, seeing how willingly I was to take Damian’s cock. Roman’s fingers slowly fucked my ass, not going deeper than I wanted. Soft whines and moans escaped my mouth along with Damian. My cock rubbing up against the soft fabric of the bed.

Pulling away from Damian’s cock I spoke. “Please, my cock- I- I need to come-” I choked as Damian grabbed the back of my head and forced me to take his dick once more.

“You come when we tell you to.” Damian grunted, pushing his hips against my face.

“You’re getting the hang of it.” Roman chuckled seeing the dominant side of Damian. Roman’s fingers pulled out of my fucked ass making me whine softly. I pushed my ass back, trying to get him to come back and keep fucking me but I heard him walk away from the bed.

“Don’t worry about him.” Damian said, noticing I was trying to figure out what Roman was doing. “Focus on my cock.” Damian kept pumping his hips more into my face, his cock thrusting in and out of my throat. Grunts and moans escaped Damian’s lips as he gripped my hair and fucked his cock further.

Roman came back behind me, setting a few items on the bed. I tried to look to see what they were but it was out of my vision. “This’ll get him to be the good little sub he was once before.” Hearing the bottle of lube open again and some being squirted I jerked my hips to feel a plug being pushed into my ass.

“Fuck!” I muffled against Damian’s cock as the plug was pushed fully inside of me.

“Now for the next thing.” Roman hummed, reaching around my waist my eyes widened as I realized he was placing a cock ring around my stiff member.

“Fuck, he looks so pretty stuffed full.” Damian sped up his thrusting, his large dick twitching deep in my throat. My eyes watered as his large load erupted. Damian held my head tight, forcing me to stay still and swallow every last drop of his come. He slowly slid his cock out of me, my lips numb and swollen.

Reaching down to get the cock ring off, Roman quickly grabbed my wrists and handcuffed one, threading the chain through the bedpost and cuffing my other wrist. “What the fuck.” I hissed, my cock throbbing for attention.

“Until you realize you’re not the one in charge here we’ll let you free.” Roman pulled out a remote, clicking the top arrow the butt plug started to vibrate.

“Fuck!” I cried out, arching my back. My cock brushed up against the fabric of the covers.

“We’ll see you in two days.” Roman smirked.

“Two days!” I yelled.

“Yes, you’ve been a pain in my ass, Simon.” Roman growled, gripping my hair. “I’ve had to postpone things because of you and clean up your messes. So yes, I’m leaving you here for two days until you realize that you should be grateful for me and Damian.” Letting go of my hair he straightened up. “Lets go.”

“Damian don’t you dare!” I snarled.

My sexual appetite overcame my actual hunger. When Roman said ‘see you in two days’, he really did mean two days. Not one person came into the room and offered me a blood bag or to see how I was doing. My ass was still full, the plug vibrating for two days straight. I hoped and begged for the batteries to die and for it to stop but it never did. My cock still hard like a cock no thanks to the rubber ring wrapped so tightly around it.

Hearing the door unlock and swing opened I hoped it was Damian. “Fuck, Damian. Please its been two days.” I whimpered, giving the cuffs a weak tug.

The door closed. “Indeed it has been two days.”

I growled. “Roman, I want Damian.”

“Not going to happen, he’s requested for me to finish the procedure without him.”

“Why?” I quickly began to panic.

“Because, Simon, he loves you too much. He doesn’t want to see you like this.” Roman huffed, explaining the situation. “Now, do you think you’ve learned anything?”

“Y- Yes, just please let me go.”

“And what did you learn?”

I swallowed, stepping down from my big ego I spoke. “That you’re the one in charge and I should listen to you and clean up my way of hunting for food.”

“Good boy.” Roman came around and unlocked the handcuffs. I quickly gripped my aching red wrists and rubbed them.

“Thanks.” I mumbled.

“We’re not done yet.” Roman walked back to the foot of the bed. He rolled me over onto my back, my cock resting against my stomach, nearly a different color. Roman admired my struggle, plug vibrating in my ass along with my tied up cock.

“C- Can I come, please?” I swallowed, being near to tears I would do anything for my release.

“Let’s just see how a really good boy you are.” Roman hummed, grabbing the base of the plug and slowly pulled it out.

“Fuck.” I whined, arching my back.

“Such a sight to see.” Roman purred. “But let’s see if you can take bigger.” He teased me. Hearing his pants unzip, Roman fished for his cock. Roman’s pants slowly hung below his waist, only allowing his cock to be exposed. He pushed his mushroom tip against my two day fucked hole. Soft whines spewed from my lips as I gripped the mattress. “Shh, you’re taking my cock so well.” Roman mumbled, pushing inch by inch slowly.

“Fuck, your hole is still dripping with lube.” Roman moaned, pulling out and pushing his cock back in. Roman grabbed both of my legs, placing them over his shoulder. His hands rested upon my waist.

“P- Please.” I whined, my cock bouncing with each thrust Roman gave. “C- Can I touch myself.”

“No.” Roman grunted. “Not until I tell you.”

Pouting, I huffed. Trying my best to show Roman how much of a good boy I really was/turned into. “F- Fuck, Ro.” I arched my back as his pace started to become faster.

“Yeah, that’s it. Sing for me, let me hear you.” His grip on my waist became tighter, his nails digging into my flesh. Small pricks of blood appeared from the indents. “You really are a good little cock slut.” Roman chuckled, each thrust his balls slapped against my ass.

“R- Roman, please. I need to come.” I begged once more. My body is exhausted from staying up for two days in a row and not being able to come.

“Almost, fuck almost there little sub.” Roman’s movements became slightly sloppy as he sped up. His cock nearly exited out and slammed back in making me cry out in pain and pleasure. His cock was slightly larger than Damian’s but both felt amazing.

“Fuck, I’m coming.” Roman grunted, he paused his thrusting, his load bursting inside of me. Roman grabbed the cock ring, tugging it off. “Come little slut.” He wrapped his hand around my shaft and already had me coming. Just the touch of his hand had me coming undone.

“A- Ah, yes! Fuck!” My eyes squeezed shut as my orgasm washed over me. As I came down from my high, panting, my cheeks became red. Realizing from Roman’s littlest touch made me come.

Opening my eyes I saw Roman looking down at me with a wide smirk. “I hope you learned your lesson, Simon.”

Nodding my head quickly. “I- I did, I learned my lesson. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Simon.” Roman slowly pulled his cock out from my ass, making me whence. “You know, you remind me of myself when I became a fresh vampire.”

“Really?” I whispered.

“Yup. I too ran away from my master.” Roman hummed. “He wanted me to be her personal sex slave. Sex, killing people and more sex.” He frowned. “I was fifteen at the time. I didn’t know any better. I heard that he could make me immortal so I took it.”

“What did you do?” I asked, sitting up.

“Well, I killed him.” Roman looked over me. “I took his place, becoming the head vampire. I promised myself I wouldn’t be like him. I’d protect my people and have a pack. We all look out for each other.” Roman said. “I was worried about you, I didn’t want you to end up like me and kill for fun or out of rage.”

I nodded. “I guess I really was getting too cocky.” I looked down.

“Hey.” Roman placed his hand underneath my chin and had me look up at him. “All is forgiven.” Roman placed a soft kiss upon my lips. My eyes slowly closed at the tenderness. Roman pulled away, standing up he went to the bag in the corner. I didn’t even notice he was brought in. He pulled out two blood bags. “For you.” He handed them to me. “Once you finish, come on out. Damian would love to see you.” He flashed a smile.

I ripped the bag open with my teeth, about to devour the blood. I stopped, looking at Roman. Slowly placing the bag on my lips, I suckled away the blood at a normal pace. I wanted to show Roman that I wasn’t some blood crazed maniac like I was before. He nodded, proud of my change. “I’ll see you in a bit.” Roman ruffled my hair and kissed the top of my head.

Roman walked towards the door as I suckled the blood bag away. The blood cleared my dizzy head and filled my empty stomach. “Oh and Simon?” Roman stopped at the door.

“Hmm?” I looked up at him, the bag still connected to my mouth.

“Welcome to the group. I’m glad to have you.” With that Roman shut the door leaving me in the room where I was stuck in for two days. Maybe this group will be good for me.

Damien Priest's Masterlist

Roman Reigns' Masterlist

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mazegays · 9 months

Text

could've followed my fears all the way

Chapter 7

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Tina seems content to keep the silence, but it’s more comfortable with just her than it was with Michael and Lily nearby. Thomas sets a faster pace—he wants to get there before nightfall tomorrow—and she keeps up easily.

“We could run, you know.” She suggests. “I can handle it. I can tell you want to, anyway.” He glances at her before nodding.

“If you need to slow down, just let me know. We shouldn’t get too far from each other with just us.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep up.”

It feels good to run. Like he’s finally back on steady ground. He’s pushing himself— pushing harder than he should, probably. Tina matches him step for step.

Nightfall tomorrow?

They’ll be there by midday.

“I found something!” Tina is digging out a small corner while Thomas checks the propeller-based generator.

At least, he thinks it’s a generator. It takes a minute, but he finds and clears out the section that’s clogged.

There’s hardly any breeze, but with him giving it a few good spins, it’s enough to keep it going.

If it were smaller, he’d bring it back.

“What did you find, Tina?” He jogs over to her.

“Another blood tester for Anya.”

“She’ll be glad to have that.” It’s in decent condition; it should still work. “If this generator were smaller, I’d say we should bring that back with us.”

“Is there anywhere else we should check today?” Thomas glances at the sky.

“No, let’s call it. We can keep going tomorrow morning. Hopefully by then, if there’s anything still connected to this generator, it’ll be powered up. Give us more of an idea what this area was used for.”

That, and if a computer turns on, he’ll be able to access the files.

“Thomas, why are we really out here?” Tina pauses to take a bite of her food. “Sure, having a generator would be nice, but we don’t really need it. We’ve got power.”

They have some power. Enough for the kitchen in the common house, at least. And the grow lights in the greenhouse. But they haven't experienced a winter out here yet. It might get to the point where they can’t leave their cabins, and while they all have fireplaces, most of them are used to constantly temperature-controlled buildings.

“We do.” He agrees. “It’s more about having enough power. Only the common house and the greenhouse are powered. None of the cabins are. This winter wasn’t too bad, but we might need more than a fireplace can give at some point in them. Or a storm could knock the main power out. It would be nice to just store the extra power, too.”

“How could we do that?”

“Well, the best solution would probably be to build a dam and use the power initially to pump water upstream behind it. When we need the power, we open up the dam.” There are other ways, but they all need more tech than they have.

A dam will also take a lot of time and probably more of their other supplies than they can afford.

He’ll have to discuss it with Jorge and Vince. It’s possible they may be able to salvage enough from the other tech to make a rudimentary power storage grid without having to build a dam.

Thomas knows they were relatively new technology before the Flares, and were hardly useful after as the wiring fried, but they shouldn’t have that problem.

WCKD should have files on that, as well.

“What else is there?” Tina speaks up again, startling him. “We’ve found medical supplies, tech, but what else can we hope to find that will help us?”

“Plants are helpful. We have some, yes, but mostly what we’ve found in the forest. We don’t have corn, wheat, rice, anything that could be a staple crop. Or animals. WCKD probably kept some, maybe for food, more likely to experiment on. If we could get livestock, then we have that many more options for food. We can’t risk overhunting anything in the woods. There’s a lot to be found out here. We call it Paradise—and we’re safe from all Cranks, safe from the effects of the Flare, but we have to work to make it functional long-term.” Vince had given him a long talk about what other things he needed to find. As if Thomas didn’t know already. He’d been there for most of the initial discussions.

They’d had animals in the Glade. Proper crops, too.

“I hadn’t thought about that. I’ve mostly just been enjoying all the new people, not having to worry about the Flare at all.”

“It seems simple, in theory. In practice, it’s a lot harder.”

“What if we do find animals?”

“We won’t be able to bring them back right away. We’ll need to make sure we have a space for them and then capture them. The exception might be chickens. If we find any eggs and can keep them warm, we might be able to travel with those and get them back before they hatch.”

They’re not going to be finding chickens around here, though. That’s another supply run, somewhere much farther away.

“What else do you think we’ll find here?”

“More tech, probably. If we’re lucky, there are remains of a power storage grid. That would really solidify sending a team out for the generator.” He lays down, stretching his arms to the sides. “Night, Tina.”

He’s asleep in minutes.

finish on ao3 or continue reading

It’s been four days, and Thomas still isn’t back. Wherever they sent him, it must be pretty important. Vince and Jorge haven’t given any answers as to where he is.

“Get your group together.” Jorge leans over during lunch, speaking quietly. “Bring them to the back of the common house. We’ve got something to talk about.”

“Are you finally going to tell us about Thomas?”

“Yes, Gally.”

He pulls the others from their work, or tells them to come as soon as they can.

“Michael and Lily were with Thomas and Tina. They went on a supply run through the Flat-Trans.” Vince starts. “Thomas sent them back to update us. He and Tina went to the farther ruins.”

“We told Thomas not to tell any of you. He was not allowed to have you on the initial run.” Jorge adds. “Now that Michael and Lily are back, we want to send out another group. We can’t send all of you. Four, at most.”

Gally and Minho step forward immediately. Aris looks at the girls and steps back. Frypan does the same.

“Harriet and I will go, too.” Sonya says. “What should we bring?”

“I’ll take you for your packs. You won’t leave until tomorrow morning, and you probably won’t see them for a few days.”

How far would they have gone? Thomas wouldn’t take them too far out from the building, right?

They don’t know what’s out there, and from what’s in his pack, Gally doesn’t know that Thomas and Tina will have enough food left for the trip back.

With the main area of the ruin cleared, they get to work on the edges. Thomas does find the wire-weave for a power storage grid, but some of the wires will need replacing before it’s usable.

Honestly, he’s surprised any of it is usable at all.

He also finds a working computer. Accessing WCKD’s files is almost painfully easy. He turns everything over to the little system they’ve got cobbled together in the common house, and saves it to the device he’d brought, just in case. He has no idea how well the connection is working, after all.

As soon as that’s done, Thomas closes out the files. He has no desire to read his own.

On the other hand, he absolutely wants to find out where they were running certain things. It could be useful in their search. He spends a few minutes looking through files and records. He and Tina compare findings at lunch: She’s got another intact piece of a storage grid, and a full medkit, not a field one.

It’ll be the best medkit they have. Anya will be thrilled.

“Where should we search next?”

“Let’s each try a new section. Get a good look at what’s here.”

They don’t find much else that they can carry—not with their small packs. Michael and Lily should be back by now, so hopefully they’ll have more people coming out soon.

Gally stares at the Flat-Trans. He doesn’t really want to go back through, but Thomas is out there, and who knows what he’s remembering. What if something’s happened?

Mostly, though, he’s angry that Jorge and Vince would even ask Thomas to go out on a supply mission. They know he hasn’t been okay lately. Why not ask any of them instead? Or go themselves?

There are adults who would have gone. Gally really doubts that Thomas’s ‘knowledge’ of the area is enough that it’s super helpful. The building was collapsing, and they’d been running for their lives.

“You won’t be gone too long.” Jorge promises them. “Just go and meet Thomas and Tina where they are, and bring back what they’ve found. A few days at most.”

That’s what he’d told Thomas, too.

Do they even have enough food?

“Was this really worth it, Jorge?” Harriet asks softly. “Yes, we need supplies, but not so urgently that we couldn’t have gotten a group together. You didn’t have to send them secretly.”

Not to mention that it doesn’t work so well in such a small community. He doesn’t know what Michael, Lily and Tina told their friends, but Thomas had just told him not to worry if he didn’t see him for a few days.

“Let’s just go.” Minho’s face is set; Gally recognizes it from Gatherings. When he looks like that, there’s no use arguing with him.

The first thing Gally sees is the skeletal hand.

“Oh, stick.” Sonya whispers. “Is that…”

“Teresa’s.” Minho confirms. “Thomas had to know. There’s no way he didn’t.”

Gally doesn’t pretend to understand Thomas’s relationship with Teresa— in the Glade, they’d seemed like they were old friends. From what he’s heard, in the Scorch Teresa tried to kill him. And realizing she’d been working with WCKD all along, only to have her sacrifice herself for him— Gally wouldn’t know what to feel about that. It’s easier for him. He never really liked her. Never knew her. Thomas had her in his head, sending thoughts to each other or whatever it is that he and Aris do sometimes.

Michael and Lily would have mentioned if Thomas had a breakdown, right? They would have left.

Thomas is smart enough not to stay out here when he’s just had a panic attack.

He’s also unfortunately convinced that if he’s not doing something, then he needs to be.

So, no, Thomas wouldn’t have come back. He would have stayed here, and kept going, because he’s an idiot.

They follow Thomas’s blue markings.

“We’ll get there sooner if we run.” Harriet says. “And we won’t miss a mark. Sonya and I ran our Maze, I know Minho ran yours. We don’t have to go top speed.” Gally wasn’t ever a Runner for a reason. Minho and Thomas both have slimmer builds than he does. He can run, but he spent years hauling wood and it shows. He was bulkier even when they first got to the Maze.

“Sounds good.” He agrees. Anything to get Thomas and get back as soon as possible.

The most intact section, Michael had said. The farthest out.

“We have a lot of ground to cover.” Gally stares at it, like he’s going to be able to see Thomas from here.

It takes them the better part of three days to make it to Thomas and Tina. Their things are still set up, but they aren’t around.

“Probably out looking for more stuff.” Harriet says, nodding a pile of wiring. “We’ll see them tonight.”

They don’t.

The next morning, they split up, Gally going with Sonya and Harriet going with Minho.

“Where do you think they are? They wouldn’t just leave all their stuff here. Thomas knows better than that.” Sonya says. “They knew someone was coming, too.”

“I don’t know. Maybe they just got caught up in something and spent the night out there.” Gally knows that’s not what happened, but he can have a little hope, right?

They don’t stray too far from each other, but if there’s no sign soon, they’ll have to move farther.

“Should we go back for lunch, see if Harriet and Minho found them?” Gally doesn’t want to. It’s time away from searching, time they don’t have.

But there’s also no point in looking if Harriet and Minho have them.

It would be much easier if they had some way to communicate with them.

“Yeah.” Sonya says, but she’s scanning the landscape again for any signs of life.

A young woman—Tina, it must be—is sitting on the ground, wrapped in a blanket when they group back up.

“Where’s Thomas?” Gally asks.

“We don’t know.” Minho snaps. “Tina says they split up to cover more ground. She misjudged her time yesterday and didn’t get back at all. Thomas went in your direction.”

“We didn’t even find chalk marks.” Sonya says, quiet. It’s so different from her normal that Gally has to stop himself from staring at her for a minute. “We’re going to have to keep looking.”

Tina comes with them after they eat. It’s clear she feels like it’s her fault.

It’s not, Thomas is stubborn and does what he wants to, and he was technically in charge of her for the supply run.

Gally is still pissed that Vince and Jorge even put him in this position. They’re supposed to be done with shit like this.

They’re supposed to be safe and happy here, and they’re not.

It’s better than WCKD, Gally can even recognize on some level that it’s better than the Maze, where they had been slowly sacrificing sanity for safety and sustenance.

“I found something!” Harriet calls. “Looks like part of his shirt.”

Gally jogs over to look, nearly crashing into Minho in his haste. “It is.”

It’s actually part of his shirt—Thomas must have kept one of them. Minho, however, stares at the wall it was found by. There’s nothing unusual about it, it’s just a wall. Plain white, looks completely untouched by the debris.

“What’s up, Minho?”

“They kept him alone in a white room for days after the Scorch.” Minho explains. “It was part of his trial. He hated it.”

“Of course he did. Do you think the wall upset him?” Gally doesn’t know much about those trials; given how much social time Thomas needs now, he can’t imagine that it did anything but possibly make him spiral.

“Not enough to run off. Not if Teresa’s body didn’t.”

“So what did?”

“What if he didn’t run off? What if he was attacked?”

“By a Crank?”

“Or by someone from WCKD who came back to check the place out. There’s no way we destroyed WCKD entirely. They’re too powerful for that.” Sonya says. “Think about it. Paige and Janson might have been the leaders, but they weren’t the only ones.”

“So we keep looking, then.” Gally says. There are footsteps on the ground as it changes from mostly-intact flooring to dirt. It’s the only thing they have to follow, but it’s better than nothing.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Tina asks Gally, whispering.

“I hope he is.”

Knowing Thomas’s luck, he’s not.

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blametheeditor · 4 months

Note

Just read the perfume/smell stories and all I could think about was either “you didn’t wear deodorant today/you haven’t showered, have you?” Or someone shrinking and just getting hit with hella enhanced smell like imagine getting shrunk and being face to face with a shoe. That’d smell horrid. One of the added challenges of tinies, especially newly shrunken tinies. Or like they shrink and you finally notice the amount of perfume David wears, and almost dying.

Anon, I am so sorry I took so long with responding to this!

I took some creative liberties, there was a literal tug-of-war, but I hope you enjoy it because I genuinely loved the idea and I hope it shows! Thank you for sharing!

The Finer Things

Content Warnings: Cursing, treating those as lesser than, mentions of dehumanization. Mentions of threats and violence

Not me writing for a week and walking out covered in blood, sweat, and tears

____________________________

Scott learned that every human has a distinct smell to them.

The first time he told Vincent his revelation, his best friend immediately began to endlessly tease him about it. And yes, looking back, it was a slightly weird thing to just announce. Of course Vincent didn’t hold it against him or make a giant deal about it, but did the older really have to constantly lean over to quietly ask the smells of anyone who walked by as well as random inanimate objects?

Vincent would say yes. He would also say it’s because of him that Scott realized that while humans do have different scents, it was only able to be noticed when Scott shrank.

Because of course Scott is a size shifter. And of course he didn’t know how to control it to keep from randomly shrinking and growing. He’s just thankful Vincent had been the one to walk into the backroom when he shrunk down to just under three inches tall in the middle of his shift. Because anyone else would have snatched up off the ground to look him over, or put him in a pocket to take home, or even crush him. Instead all Vincent did was slowly sit on the ground in front of the door to keep anyone from barging in as he laughed.

“This is how you keep disappearing on me, Scotty?”

That moment had been filled with terror and relief. But the main thing that stood out was it was the first time Scott was shrunk while around a human who knew he was. A trustworthy one who smelled like a fire burning fresh maple wood in a chimney.

Then information just started pouring in. The realization he could smell the solution they use to clean the tables and reheated pizzas made of nothing but chemicals as they clung to Vincent’s uniform. That while humans are loud, their voices also rumble through the air like thunder rather than just boom. And he knew just how big they were compared to him at that size, but nothing prepared him for the undeniable fact he didn’t even stand as tall as Vincent’s first finger.

The most important take away however was to never give Vincent another opportunity to have a dubbed ‘pocket Scotty’ in his possession again. One that Scott miserably failed at. Especially once a certain someone found out that leaping out from behind corners at the end of their shift to scare the shorter was a sure way to earn a shrunken Scott to take home.

“It’s called training, Scotty. It’s not my fault you’re not taking the lessons to heart!”

“Th-The only lesson is to avoid corners and certain j-j-jerks, Vince!”

Vincent might’ve been grabby, clearly enjoyed it when Scott would shrink down, but he knew when to keep his hands away. Didn’t bat an eye when one day his scaring tactic didn’t acquire a form that had been pocketed numerous times before, he instead had to look up at a giant hunched down to keep from accidentally destroying the hallway.

“So it is tied to emotions.”

“Vince!”

Scott should have known there might have been something more going on based on such a comment. It was too on the nose, and it almost sounded like the older was researching him. But he had been a little panicked someone would find out he could become a giant at any moment to really think about it. Didn’t question why Vincent’s first priority was to make him take deep breaths. Could only focus on the genuine relief as he managed to get control of his shifting enough to stay at 5’ 7”.

Surprisingly, there was actually a period where Vincent stopped scaring him after that. Instead of appreciating the break for however long it was going to be however, he only felt trepidation. Fear that his best friend was actually afraid of him due to the incident. Worried it just dawned on Vincent how dangerous it is to be friends with a size shifter.

Either Vincent was a mind reader, or he had Scott down to a science, because the day the thought he might’ve scared off his best friend was the day the routine of getting scared in order to have Scott shrink got reinstated.

“What do I smell like again?”

Scott looked down from where he stood on the back of Vincent’s couch, heart racing at amber eyes locked on him from where the taller laid. Did a once over to locate where the hands that had a habit of snagging him were until he spotted them being used as a makeshift pillow, safely tucked under Vincent’s head and therefore unable to grab him with total surprise. Knew he was safe with this particular human, but there were times when his instincts demanded he run away as fast as possible.

“Are you, uh, g-going to tease me about it?”

A Chesire grin immediately spread across Vincent’s face. “Me? Tease you? Scotty, I am clearly above such childish things.”

“Clearly,” Scott snorted. “You’re like...a fireplace. And d-don’t say a word.”

Vincent made a show of snapping his mouth shut before he offered a curious look. “When do you smell it?”

“Uh, right now?”

“Just right now, or anytime you’re around me?”

Scott couldn’t help having taken a few steps back from the questions. “W-Why do you want to know?”

Up until that point, Vincent hadn’t pried too much into the details of Scott shrinking or growing. He asked when there were genuine protests about too tight grips or getting lifted up too quickly. There were questions on if Scott felt okay or if he needed anything, but those were asked long before the reveal he was a size shifter.

That day was the first time it felt like an interrogation, and Vincent immediately winced.

“My mechanic side is showing, isn’t it?”

It took Scott a moment to realize it wasn’t an interrogation. Because his best friend did always ask questions about something he didn’t know on the biases of wanting to know how it worked. When that didn’t get him what he wanted, then Vincent would resort to taking whatever peaked his interest completely apart because he’s a mechanic through and through.

Of course Scott was safe from last resorts, but it left Vincent needing to rely on questions. And that realization made him relieved on how and why his best friend had picked up on so much due to observation. Though it was guaranteed he’d start avoiding screws and wrenches at all costs in the future.

“How long have you been suffering?”

“Every day, Scotty. This entire month has been agonizing.”

That was why he trusted Vincent. And Scott hoped that maybe having his best friend in the loop would make things easier for him. At the very least possibly gain a few pity points that could earn him a few ‘scare-free day’ cards to use as he saw fit.

“Alright, st-start at the top.”

“Explain your theory on why people have individual smells.”

“I guess I really only notice when I shrink, but I, uh, a-also notice a lot of things when I’m at this size. Like the reason you hate the coffee you make here is b-because there’s burnt grounds stuck in the machine.”

He was blinked at for a few moments until the dots connected. “You only tell me this now! You explored the kitchen weeks ago!”

“You’d use me a-as a bloodhound! And I was mad at you f-for trapping me under a cup!”

“Damn straight I will, and I’ll trap you again!”

Vincent didn’t, both using him as a bloodhound and trapping him under a cup. If anything he got better at being a giant, keeping his voice soft even when they got riled up. Assumed correctly being three inches tall means getting cold easily. But what Scott will always be grateful for was his best friend converting everything into odorless products both for personal use and around the restaurant. Scott never realized how much the scent of bleach mixed with chemicals meant to smell like lemon made his head feel foggy.

Then it all...disappeared.

He lost his best friend. Afton got a hold of Scott. Over ten years passed, and Scott was completely on his own when it came to shrinking or growing while in public, though it only happened once a month if ever rather than the previous minimum of once a week.

Afton was never told Scott was a size shifter. He figured it out, of course he did, but Vincent wasn’t the one who gave away such crucial information. Didn’t write down all of the data he collected over the years into a nice file to send for Afton to do whatever the hell he wanted with. And maybe that was why there weren’t many...experiments when it came to his abilities. Or maybe he was using a new tactic and wanted to wait to see how he could use it to his advantage without making it obvious.

Because there was no way Afton didn’t know. Just because they never discussed it doesn’t mean the cruel man doesn’t already possess full knowledge.

But through it all Scott is...grateful for what Vincent did in the short amount of time the man acted like his best friend. It had been fun while it lasted.

And then the guards came into his life.

There hadn’t been any, he’ll say, bumps in the road when it came to Scott’s emotions getting the best of him. He wasn’t sixteen years old anymore, Afton did a number on him, so he was just numb. Unaffected by everything around him. Almost as unemotional as Vincent.

Who knew someone like David would make his temper flair up immediately? And who knew Scott would’ve immediately grew multiple inches because it had been years since such an emotion ever rose up in him.

Scott didn’t, David certainly didn’t, that meant the newly hired owner of Fazbear Entertainment Center had an upper hand over his ‘supervisor’. One he constantly dangled over Scott’s head to get things he wanted but would previously receive too much resistance for.

But it wasn’t just David. Mike standing toe-to-toe with the animatronics who would kill him as soon as they got the chance had Scott also growing to yank the young man away from certain death. Eggs pulling a Vincent by jumping out from behind a corner made Scott lose several notable inches because his mind needed a few moments to fully register the blond hair and blue eyes.

It got so bad Vincent noticed. Somehow brought out the man he once knew before everything. It wasn’t perfect, Scott knows he’ll never get his best friend back, but there was a spark of life hiding within the deadpan voice that greeted him to state the purple man was joining in the routine inspection.

“When was the last time you shifted, Scotty?”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m fine.”

“Me hearing about Eggs planning something big for you tells me otherwise.”

That forced Scott to remember why hiding his abilities was so important. David might not know that if he pressed the rights buttons he’d have Scott literally in the palm of his hand, but Eggs does. And it sent a shiver down his spine thinking what the younger man’s end goal is.

“...it’s been a while.”

“I suggest you practice a bit this week and brace yourself. Mikey did say he’d like to see you pin Eggs down, though.”

That was all Scott was given. Because Vincent knew he wasn’t trusted anymore and any offer to join on a shifting night would be denied firmly and immediately.

He’ll admit, it might’ve been entertaining to watch Eggs’ attempts to make him shrink get foiled. The best part is that it wasn’t even because Scott held a tight grip to keep himself from shifting. Mike caught onto the blond’s plan at the restaurant he guards and cleaned it up when it was only halfway complete. David didn’t hear any excuses for why buckets of water were lying in wait on select doors after Fritz pointed them out and issued a nonnegotiable ban until further notice that even Eggs knew better than to try and challenge.

Scott should’ve known he would’ve been his own undoing. Should’ve paid more attention to how much sleep he was getting, how distracted he was, and how attached he was getting to the guards.

But no, he’s an idiot. One who can’t help himself growing to ten full feet when Mike admitted that instead of helping Jeremy defend against the toys how it’s normally done, the man apparently thought punching Marionette in the face was the best idea.

“Michael!”

“Phone Guy, you should’ve heard the shit he was saying! The bastard was fucking asking for it!”

“And he would’ve happily killed you!”

Mike hadn’t responded back. And somehow Scott knew it wasn’t because of an overwhelming fear of what the giant could do in retaliation. It felt like he was talking to Vincent, growing with every word because he was upset and couldn’t control it. As if Mike understood this wasn’t a threat and instead a literal representation of his anger and terror.

He was more than happy to put his hands in his pocket, the perfect picture of nonchalance, silently encouraging the lecture to continue. But without Mike wanting to defend himself and only admitted he was at fault in his own little way, Scott felt nothing but exhaustion. Couldn’t help but glare at the ceiling getting too close for his liking. He can only yell for so long until he’s forced to hunch over. The dining area’s clearance might be tall but not that tall.

“I swear, Michael, you are going to be the death of me.”

Mike smirked when it was clear he’d only be receiving a warning this time. “Could just fucking pocket my ass and solve all your goddamn problems.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“Is this a bad time to ask what would constitute being pocketed?”

Scott felt his heart skip a beat at Eggs’ voice. Whipped his head around to stare at the blond looking up at him with wide eyes. Had done a terrible job of hiding his fear as he stayed within the safety of the hallway.

There was no stopping his drop from ten feet all the way down to just under three inches. Not when he could picture Eggs running to everyone to say Scott was a monster. Give Afton the proof he was waiting for before trapping him underground for the rest of his life. aybe even Vincent would finally agree he’s too dangerous to treat like a human being.

But shrinking the smallest he could only made it so, so much worse.

“Fuck he shrunk!”

Scott crumbled to the ground at the loud shout that shook the very ground, clamping his hands firmly around his ears in the desperate attempt to keep them from ringing. Couldn’t help but instinctively flinch away when trembles began to announce someone was getting closer and closer, everything screaming for him to run but unable to make his limbs obey. Gasped for air not just from blinding terror he was about to be crushed, but from the nauseating wall of chemicals slamming into him from when the floor was mopped a few hours ago.

It had been too long since he shrunk around humans, in a place not meant for those like him, and this time Vincent wasn’t there to save him.

“I’ve got you, asshole.”

Scott couldn’t grasp the words, his mind racing too fast and in too many different directions to even comprehend someone spoke. But he did smell what could only by alleyway sludge. Felt warmth wrap around him. Became completely frozen at the smell of chamomile tea.

It was so sudden and unexpected his eyes opened in time to see fingers curl underneath him before he’s lifted up to quickly, his stomach protesting as vertigo crashed into him. Tried to move away from the thumb that rubbed his side. Realized that was where the smell was coming from.

“You okay, Phone Guy?”

Scott stared up at Mike, the only comprehensive thought that managed to gather was never expecting the young man and chamomile to go together. Eggs then appeared in his line of sight looking frantic. “You didn’t fall from that height did you? You just shrank down to where you stood?”

That should’ve made him feel better. That instead of accusations shot toward him, there was only concern. But that didn’t ensure he wasn’t going to be kept. Or that he wouldn’t be passed around for everyone to give him a piece of their mind. Or the questions were only asked out of guilt for possibly being the reason why he got hurt.

Scott couldn’t find the words his was looking for. Didn’t even protest as a finger nudged his leg and arm. “Doesn’t look like shit got broken.”

“Should we tell James we might’ve given him a heart attack?”

Scott felt like he had been electrocuted by the suggestion. Both to tell others about his abilities, and willingly handing him over to a doctor. Yet he still couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t even breathe.

He felt betrayed, and overwhelmed, and for the first time in a long time he wished Vincent was there even if it did end up having him land directly into Afton’s hands.

He didn’t remember passing out. It just seemed like in one instance he was in Mike’s hands as Eggs made the air rumble, and the next he was blinking up at James’ soft smile.

“Hey, boss. Heard these two gave you a heart attack.”

“You said we didn’t!”

“Don’t fucking tell Purple Guy.”

Scott could only feel dread settle over him like a blanket. Aware they were at Fazbear Fright. Flinched when he realized James smelled sterile.

He tried to scramble away, because that could only mean receiving a treatment reminiscent of Afton. Hesitated when he felt something course on his skin and looked down to see he was on a towel of all things. Glanced back at James who held his hands up and a safe distance away where it’d be hard to make a sudden grab.

“Mike was the one who checked for broken bones. I just made sure nothing would require a visit to the hospital. We won’t be handling you anymore.”

“Well, unless you say-”

Scott actually felt better at Eggs’ comment making it clear they were curious. Even more that Mike elbowed the blond to make him shut up.

But he still hunched in on himself when James slowly lowered his hands where they couldn’t be seen. “How do you feel, Scott?”

Confused. Hopeful. Genuinely worried what happened in the time he was out considering Mike and Eggs carried him all the way to James. “F-Fine. What, what did they tell you?”

“That if we step out of line we might receive more than just a whack on the head.”

Scott waited for the accusations. The questions. The demand of answers to why he kept something like that from them when clearly he’s a danger to them.

They didn’t come. Yet he knew better than to fully trust them. Trust himself to be a good judge of character. “Are you g-going to keep me?”

James made a soft, almost sad sound. “We're not keeping you, Scott. And no one will be under our watch. I still need someone to sign my paychecks.”

He couldn’t help but smile at that being the reason he now had three allies who might even be willing to ensure David isn’t able to get within grabbing distance. He wanted this to have been a one time thing, but knowing his luck, it was almost guaranteed that wasn’t the end of it.

Especially not when Eggs inched his way closer in order to give a little too harsh of a poke. “About the whole ‘getting pocketed’ thing.”

“One poke earns you one hour.”

“Lame rule, unfair, boooo.”

“That was a bit of a cheap shot. We should all get one freebee.”

“Can you pocket Jerber’s ass even if he doesn’t fucking do shit?”

Because his employees were all problem children. Despite James being a widely respected doctor, and Eggs managed to earn Afton’s respect. Because of course they were.

Thank God he was able to grow to his normal height after Mike’s question, but of course it didn’t stop there. Eggs wasn’t satisfied until he had a complete list of what would guarantee earn him having to deal with a giant. James asked a few questions regarding if shrinking or growing took a toll on him and if there were certain things that would help. Mike said he was walking Scott home whether his mentor liked it or not. At least they all swore not to tell anyone else about him being a shifter.

But that was the only time they really pestered him about it. The only change in Eggs’ behavior was a small hiatus from pranks. James didn’t ask about his abilities again. Mike had only demanded to walk Scott home that one night.

It was odd not having one or more of them trying to make him shift sizes. Not make a single comment unless they were completely alone and wanted to make a jab. In all honesty, it was...nice. To have those he, for the most part, trusted to watch where they stepped if he suddenly disappeared.

He knew it wouldn’t last forever. They were only three of the six who he’s in charge of and foolishly got emotionally attached to. Though when it came to David it was mostly rage and annoyance. It was only a matter of time all of the guards knew and he’d be unable to dodge questions strictly from the need to keep it secret.

Scott wasn’t prepared for that, not in the slightest. So he watched how much he slept. Didn’t take the risk of going too long without shifting.

Yet he didn’t take into account the sure-fire way to make him shrink had always been surprising him, making something as simple as someone ‘appearing’ around a corner to make him let go of control just long enough to have devastating consequences.

Pair that with the fact he never enjoyed being at David’s restaurant for multiple reasons, there should have been a shifting incident long ago. And not one where he only grew or shrank just a few inches.

The worst part was that it was a good day. Not to mention that ever since David won the argument over getting Fritz transferred over to his restaurant, there was no longer an obvious amount of distain directed toward Scott. They finally seemed to agree they were fairly even, with Scott technically being a supervisor, and David knowing he’s not entirely human. They had a balance.

But then his heart skipped a beat seeing Lefty helping Fritz balance on his shoulders in order for a broken stage light to be reached. Didn’t back down when he demanded the teenager join him in David’s office despite the bear making a big show of how annoyed he was that was where the line was drawn. Because apparently tall animatronics who could decide at any moment to just walk away is better than a sturdy ladder that should be watched by those more responsible.

“He promised I wouldn’t fall, Scott!”

“I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

“...is that one inch or two?”

Scott hid his smile from the backtalk as he turned to whack the teenager who needed to choose better animatronics to trust his life with. The only issue was that he misjudged just how closely Fritz was following. Hadn’t expected for them to collide. Hadn’t noticed the door to David’s office opening directly behind him.

“Scott.”

The man in question jumped. Thought it was Lefty. Wasn’t able to grit his teeth in time when the feeling of falling enveloped him.

It was a miracle he wasn’t immediately stepped on, grateful Fritz’s first instinct was to back away. Caused the floor to shake as if there was an earthquake and therefore impossible for Scott to run to safety, but it gave him a moment to process the world around him. No immediate booming voices. The familiar odorless cleaner on the tiles.

But David wore cologne, and that left him stumbling back because admittedly Scott rarely encountered it when he shrunk. He would’ve been impressed by its potency if it didn’t make him forget his own name, none the less the fact he was going to get killed if he didn’t run.

“D-Did he just disappear?”

Fritz’s voice was what forced him to finally move. Had nowhere to go, but toward the wall is always a good option. Unable to do anything but pray.

A shoe landed directly in front of him, Scott barely able to stop himself in time to not collide with it. Stared for a good minute as he gasped for air until he concluded it wasn’t going to move.

“Don't tell me.”

Scott trembled at David’s voice. Wanted to do nothing more than sprint away from the sing-song tone stating he’s been caught. Couldn’t stop himself from following the expensive dress shoe up, past the towering slacks, locking onto hazel eyes watching him as if he’s a brand new toy to play with.

He couldn’t move as the business man knelt down before laughing. “I can’t believe it. You complete and utter dumbass.”

There was a lot said in that sentence. The confirmation Scott was going to pay for whatever David deemed was wrongfully committed against him. That he wasn’t going to get out of this alive.

Yet they both completely forgot about Fritz. “Scott, is that you?”

Scott’s head jerked toward his left, half expected a hand to already be grabbing him. He hadn’t at all expected the genuine worry, or the redhead hunched in on himself in the attempt to be as small as possible.

“It’s him.”

David grabbing him left Scott coughing as he was choked by the cologne, the smell invading everything. It didn’t help when the grip became too tight and he struggled to breathe from being crushed on top of everything else.

“Mr. Harrison!”

“How am I supposed to pick him up, he’s no bigger than a roach.”

“You’re hurting him!”

The last thing he heard was a scoff before he tumbled into what was unmistakably a hand, but one void of chemicals that made him wheeze. It also didn’t curl into a confining fist. That was all he needed to accept his fate and go completely limp. He should’ve fought harder, but he couldn’t think straight and anyone was better than David.

“See? He’s fine.”

“I wonder if Mike would agree...”

“If you tattle on me to that goddamn thing-”

It took too long for Scott to recover enough to fully process the world around him. He wanted it all to be a nightmare, but the distinct smell of baked bread that became stronger every time a finger stroked his back told him it was real. As well as his how his lungs protested due to what transpired.

He finally forced himself to sit up despite how much his arms shook. Looked up at Fritz looking even more concerned than before. “Are you okay?”

Scott opened his mouth only for a hacking cough to escape. He was quick to bat at the fingers that wanted to offer help but didn’t know how to. “N-Need a mi,i,inute.”

“Do you need us to get you to James?”

“Just...gi,i,ive me a few. I-I'll grow ba,ack soon.”

Scott felt like he was lying through his teeth, because there was no way he’d be able to calm his heart down enough to shift again with David within easy snatching distance. No offense to Fritz, but he was just a teenager. It was a surprise he had even won an argument in which Scott was forfeited. Who’s to say David won’t pull the ‘I’m your boss’ card and demand his rightful toy back.

“Told you he was fine.”

Scott didn’t have the energy to say he was anything but fine. He didn’t want to be carried between restaurants again, though.

He had missed the look Fritz shot at David. “Do you need any water or food, Scott?”

There was no missing the immediate reaction of the promise he’ll be taken far away from David’s office, the redhead offering a smile before he obediently turned to walk out the door.

“Where the hell are you going?”

“We’re just getting water, Mr. Harrison!”

They both heard grumbling and the sound of the chair being pushed away. Fritz might’ve heard David’s footsteps confirming they were being followed, but Scott could hear the distinct stomp indicating the tall man throwing a tantrum. At least there had been no yelling. And he stayed far enough back the cologne didn’t suffocate him.

He had to admit, Fritz seemed to be taking it a lot better than Scott was. Ignored David’s glare as he went through the kitchen with one hand. The redhead satisfied when he found a bottled water and filled the cap up. Laid his hand on the counter so Scott could walk off on his own despite it being incredibly ungraceful.

He couldn’t help perking up when the coffee machine that was tucked away in the corner was turned on, though it had the opposite effect on David. “I haven’t finished my mug yet.”

“I always make him coffee when he comes in.”

“The dumbass won’t be able to drink a full mug at three inches tall.”

“He’ll finish it when he grows. Or if you finish yours before he does then you can finish it.”

Scott hadn’t realized just how experienced Fritz was at wrangling David. It had been a few months since he was transferred, plenty of time to learn about the business man’s habits, but this amount of knowledge was impressive. Made him feel a lot better there wouldn’t be any attempts to swipe him off the counter. Watched in awe as David growled before he stalked off in order to grab his unfinished coffee solely to spite Scott.

“Are you hurt? If you really need to see James, Mr. Harrison wouldn’t be able to catch up until we’re already there.”

That would guaranteed end with Fritz getting punished for leaving his station despite the fact the waiter should have been sent home along with the rest after the restaurant closed. It would also give the teenager a chance to pocket Scott to simply take home and they never make it to James. But someone wouldn’t keep him safely away from David and make him coffee just like he always had if the end goal was just to treat him like something to keep.

Scott didn’t know how to thank Fritz for the water that allowed him to speak without coughing anymore. “It was mostly his cologne that was suffocating me.”

The green eyes got wide with interest, clearly wanted to ask more questions. Opened his mouth before physically restraining himself. “I won’t let him pick you up, then.”

He didn’t know what exactly made his shifting level out, but Scott grew just in time to swipe the full mug of coffee away from the machine right as David reentered the kitchen. Looked quite upset he hadn’t managed to win the race of who would get to it first.

“Were you just being dramatic earlier?”

Scott glared up at the business man as he walked out of the room. Intended on pretending nothing ever happened in favor of getting the reports Afton requested so he could leave as quickly as possible. Made sure to tell Fritz he appreciated all the redhead did but didn’t hold back on his glares toward David.

The only problem was that wasn’t the end of it. He never expected it to be, but he wanted it to. Just because David saw the full extent of what he could do didn’t mean anything. The business man would just hold it above his head just like he had before. There was no reason to have a conversation about it.

If anything, Scott was upset that was the treatment he received. He wasn’t human, God no, but he was a person who deserved to not be treated like some pest despite being the size of one. It was as if David didn’t remember that anger made Scott grow. If he can shrink that small, then he certainly can grow much taller than the few inches he did during their first interactions.

He could take the degrading comments. Got better at dodging David’s questions when he was forced to physically go to the restaurant under Afton’s direct orders. Greatly appreciated that Fritz never pried nor let anything leak to the others despite almost everyone having knowledge of his abilities.

It didn’t matter that he became paranoid Eggs, Mike, and James had been planning on something in the time he was passed out. Refused to practice at home because it had only seemed to cause a larger shift than if he didn’t at all. Made sure he was never alone in a room with David now that he knew the hatred aimed toward him could turn fatal.

Vincent immediately noticed. Made another appearance while Scott was hunched over the desk at Mike’s location. He couldn’t even focus on the documents in front of him he was in so much pain.

“Scotty.”

“I’m fine.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t.”

It was the teasing ‘gotchya’ tone that made him look up to spot the purple man was watching him with the rare emotion of true concern. “...well I am.”

“When was the last time-?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

They both knew it did. That his mind and body couldn’t take the stress anymore. That his brain felt like it would explode and he constantly felt fatigued. Taking an entire week off and just sleeping would only make it worse. He needed to shift. But he couldn’t.

“Talk to me, Scotty.”

He wanted to scream at Vincent. To tell him he didn’t deserve to just waltz back in and pretend like nothing happened. That his trust hadn’t been betrayed. That the reason why Scott wasn’t okay was because of him.

“They think I’m a monster.”

Scott couldn’t hold it back. Not when he could clearly see Eggs terror from when he grew that night in his mind’s eye. Could picture David’s cruel smile when it became clear he really wasn’t human.

Vincent hummed as he thought. “Do they?”

Scott sputtered. “Of course they do!”

“You’re telling me they’ve been treating you like something to lock up.”

David did. There isn’t one exchange that doesn’t make it clear just what he thought should be done to someone who can become handheld in an instant.

...Mike didn’t blink when Scott grew ten feet despite the anger being directly toward him. James didn’t bring him to the hospital while unconscious to trap him and see how he worked. Fritz saved him from David’s grasp and made coffee as if it was any other night.

“Did David find out?”

“I shrunk when it was just him, Fritz, and I a few weeks ago.”

Vincent winced. “That sounds like it was a disaster. How has he been since then, though?”

Scott was not going to give the egotistical asshole the benefit of the doubt. But he did start to become courteous. Stopped hounding him with questions after the fourth attempt with no answers other than the comment of being glad a certain someone didn’t get stepped up. And he did notice when the cologne started to only be applied to the neck instead of on both wrists.

“Not all of them have seen me grow. Not to mention Jeremy’s been left completely out of the loop.”

“And yet I have a feeling he still won’t use the word ‘monster’ when he does see you shift.”

When, not if.

Scott didn’t see the distinction as a bad omen. It was just the last nail in the coffin he built himself. And he felt his grip slowly but surely being lost. It didn’t help Vincent was right there and had used to mean safety. He wanted to do nothing more than collapse and let the purple man decide what was best while he couldn’t.

“Phone Guy?”

Mike was no more than a blurry shape as the younger man peered into the office. Scott hadn’t realized just how much time had passed, and couldn’t help but groan when his phone read 11:30pm.

“Sorry Mike, I’ll-”

A strong arm sat him back into the chair as blue eyes watched him. “You look like shit, asshole.”

“Scotty hasn’t been shifting.”

Scott wanted to whack Vincent for outing him like that to Mike of all people. But it was too late, the damage done as soon as it was figured out what exactly shifting meant in that context.

“Shrink right fucking now. I’ll pocket your ass and make sure Purple Guy doesn’t fuck with you.”

It wasn’t his choice when the world started to stretch around him. He didn’t even get to adjust to his surroundings when a hand swept him up. Would never admit he felt a thousand times better just allowing himself to shift after he held it in for so long. Didn’t struggle at Mike’s smirk as he gently lowered Scott into the chest pocket of his uniform.

Scott couldn’t help but completely relax when Mike and Vincent made the air rumble with soft voices. Knew he wasn’t supposed to think about the good things that could come from shifting without holding back when he was around the guards.

Yet he didn’t hesitate to think about growing in order to offer Jeremy a hand down when he got lost in the vents at Fazbear Fright and somehow managed to make his way into the ceiling. It left James concerned about tinnitus. David observed a fall would end in disaster considering the ceiling had a height of fifteen feet. They all knew there wasn’t a ladder for miles.

“Just go back the way you came!”

“I want to join him in the ceiling!”

“H-H-Help!”

Scott had only sighed as he passed his clipboard that Afton gave him about everything that needed to be inspected. Didn’t even glance at David’s confused look as he accepted it. “What are you-?”

He heard shouts and curses as he grew while taking a few steps forward so no one would get hit on accident. All that mattered was Jeremy squeaking as he ducked back further away from the opening they found him peering out through. “Sc-Sc-Scott?”

“It’s okay, Jeremy, I’m just going to get you down safely.”

Scott didn’t know what to expect. Possibly the kid would try his hardest to get away to get lost further into the ventilation system. Or the drama of the panels sudden fall to the floor and needing to quickly catch him.

There was hesitation, but then arms were shakenly raised to silently request help down. Curled into a ball as hands bigger than his torso carefully extracted him from the ceiling. Clung to Scott once he saw they were still fairly high. Didn’t want to let go until his feet were firmly on the ground.

“You were supposed to fucking pocket the goddamn Jerber.”

“No he w-w-wasn't!”

“If he tries to pocket anyone-”

Scott scoffed as he slowly shrunk back down. The snatch of his rightful documents from David left the business man speechless. “Step out of line and I really will pocket you.”

“Wait, Scott, put me in the ceiling!”

“Does this mean you’ll be growing around us more?”

It did. Especially with how noticeably quite David would become when Scott grew even just a few feet taller because Eggs decided to throw himself off something. Though surprisingly, the few times he found himself shrinking for one reason or another, most of them kept a respectful distance away.

Though that might’ve been because Vincent started making more appearances once it was clear Scott wasn’t going to force himself to not shift whenever it was after operation hours. Didn’t say anything except sit at the table Scott was deposited on by whoever snagged him first. The amount of time it took from being saved from the floor to being left to his own devices, though, was entirely up to the guard who found him.

At least there was a pattern on who earned him shrinking or growing. Knew to stay away from David because it was honestly a chance how he’d shift with the business man within proximity. Couldn’t help the genuine joy that there were never flinches when he grew or the appearance of malice intent when he shrunk.

“Scott!”

Eggs didn’t hesitate despite the look Vincent shot at him when the blond plopped into a seat. Only continued with delivering a gentle poke. “That’s why you came over here?”

He didn’t actually hate such a greeting. It came with the territory of hiring someone like the blond. And James. And David...but if he didn’t act offended they would assume it was the only viable way to say hello.

“Come on, you’re so pokable! Impossible not to.”

It was also impossible not to pick up on the distinct smell of cinnamon coming from Eggs. It was the first time he didn’t pick up a distinctly chemical smell of citrus he’d come to associate with their mechanic.

“Are you not wearing deodorant today?”

Eggs’ eyes went wide before he took several steps away. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t even think I was just running out of my apartment and forgot!”

Scott was certainly glad that was the reaction, but that didn’t mean he wanted it this time. “No, I swear I’m not upset. I mean obviously when you’re doing extraneous activities-”

“Scotty likes the way we smell.”

It was a miracle he didn’t blush from Vincent’s intervention. And that Eggs was too confused and focused on attempting to pick up the scent nonexistent to a human’s nose to register the opportunity to tease about it.

“Is it like a good smell?”

“It’s...unique. You smell like cinnamon, Mike smells like chamomile. I just can’t usually pick it up under the numerous odors everyone tends to wear.”

He was blinked at before Eggs leaned in with curiosity. “What does James smell like.”

“I couldn’t tell. He smelled as sterile as the hospital he works at.”

“...does that mean certain things, like, suffocate you?”

Vincent beat him to a response. “Yes. Every time he shrinks.”

“Why didn’t you tell us! I needed an excuse to hide away Harrison’s cologne!”

That wasn’t what he expected to come out of the conversation. Eggs bringing it up to James who then asked him about it a week later, that he expected. But it wasn’t for the reasons he thought.

“What also affects you when you shrink or grow?”

“Honestly it’s fine. I rarely stay on the ground for too long before someone picks me up.”

“Humor me.”

“...it’s mostly sounds that make my head hurt when I grow. Especially when I’m surrounded by all of you. It’s smells that hit me the hardest when I shrink. Though if you yell it’d guaranteed destroy my eardrums.”

He had not expected them to...care that much to change not only their interactions with him, but also their habits. David had changed how he wore his cologne, but the others had most of their products switched. Apparently Mike was sensitive to smells as well and had a few suggestions that were easily accepted. Not to mention Eggs no longer sprinted around when Scott grew because he apparently took it was a challenge. No more unnecessary shouts.

It was everything he ever wanted but knew he could never have.

Of course he could do without the demand to hold him. The demand he’s the one holding them. Questions of if he shifted, can they join on a shifting night, what kind of pranks can safely be pulled on him so no one’s in danger. He became a safety net when he was put on party decoration but the others said he’d need their help. The one who would retrieve items lost ideas from hard to reach places.

“Smell me.”

Scott never expected David to ask the question. James had when he had a day off at the hospital to establish he smelled of mint. Though after he immediately had a theory they didn’t actually have a ‘scent’ and Scott was only interpreting a non-tangible smell into something he’s familiar with, which did not end well when Eggs found out and ended with the doctor getting attacked randomly over a few weeks with spritzes of something that smelled like mint as retaliation. Jeremy asked about his own smell once he understood what happened and beamed at the proclamation of a chocolate shop.

But there was never a day David went without his cologne. Meaning it was impossible for Scott to pick up what the business man himself smelled like without the chemicals acting as a solid barrier.

Tonight was different. And one look at Fritz and Jeremy’s excitement told him there had been quite a bit off begging to get to where they were. Which was impressive, but Scott didn’t exactly enjoy the hand being held as if he was a dog needing to sniff someone and confirm they weren’t a threat.

“Please.”

That single word made his entire year. “You smell like warm clothes.”

David looked confused. “I what?”

Scott could only shrug. Up until then, he tried to keep the specifics out of how he described what scents the others possessed. Because it was hard to explain the distinction between chamomile and chamomile tea. One was just a flower while the other has warmth and a more calming feeling. It wasn’t just spearmint, but rather the wild kind that is sharper than it would taste. It’s not just cinnamon, but the spice that a topping to another drink that is always different and always sweet.

“Like clean clothes that came right out of the dryer.”

“Oh.”

It was one of the few times David didn’t have something to say back. Though it was the first time it was out of genuine intrigue.

And it was the first time Scott felt like he was finally home.

#thank you Anon!#and Happy Holidays!!#hope everyone has had a good week!#and those who celebrate did/are/will enjoy it!#seriously though #we're blaming how long this took on the guards deciding this was this hill they wanted to die on fighting over the story #g/t #giant #tiny #FNAF bois #BTE writing #cw #content warning

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cf8wrk4u-us · 2 years

Text

Grimm/ Transformers Prime Crossover Characters

Name: Jack Darby

Type: Wesen/Manticore

Summary: Jack Darby appears to be a typical teen living in the sleepy desert town of Jasper, Nevada. What others might not know is that he and his mother are apart of the secret community of Wesen living in the city.

What sets Jackson apart from most Wesen is his species, being a Manticore, which is an especially dangerous Wesen.

From when he first hit puberty and woged into his Manticore form for the first time, his mother June made it a point to coach Jackson to always keep a cool temper and not allow his emotions to get the best of him. Knowing that if Jack were to ever get to aggressive he could potentially harm someone using the venom of his tail.

It was a struggle sometimes, trying to keep his anger under control, especially with dealing with bullies like Vince. But he knew if he ever hurt anyone it would just negatively effect himself and his Mom. So he learned to control his Wesen side for the sake of his families peace if mind.

That peace is shattered of course with the introduction of Autobots and the Grimm they brought with them. When he first woges in front of Miko he was overcome by how her eyes turned pitch black, blacker than even the darkest abyss, before suddenly remembering the old stories that his mother used to tell him.

Legends of a certain type of human who could see Wesen for who they really were and whose soul purpose was to kill any Wesen they've come across.

This immediately put Jack on alert which didn't help when Miko made a move to confront him. The only reason things didn't get more serious was due to the intervention from one of the Autobots.

He had grown up hearing the horror stories of Grimms so he wasn't about to let his guard down around this one even if they were the same age. But still seeing Miko breakdown over the confusion of what she was seeing, learning how ignorant she was of they're world, and how lost she felt over everything.

So he and Raf took pity on her and told her all about the Wesen world, what kind of Wesen they are, and what Grimms were.

Miko really begins to grow on Jack as does Raf, their one of the few people to ever have seen him fully woged, even complementing how cool he looked. Hearing those words really warmed something in the teen, for years he's been told to restrain himself and his woge less he scare others and lose control but to hear someone say he actually looks "cool" really renewed a sense of pride in him.

While Arcee may be new to the whole Grimm and Wesen dispute she can understand the concept of a century long feuds. Meeting Jack she was taken aback by his appearance but admitted that it was kind of impressive, especially his tail. Arcee makes it a point to introduce Jack to some fighting style that could prove useful. As far as being a Wesen allie Jack proven himself to be a competent and strong member of the team.

Abilities: Jack superhumanly strong on a level impressive even by Wesen standards, able to easily lift and throw/kick full-grown men across a whole room with great force. Though that always doesn't translate well against a Cybertronian opponent, as while Jack is stronger than most humans and Wesen he'd have a difficult time out matching a Decepticons grip. Jack also possess great agility, able to make lion-like leaps over a distance of several yards, giving him a chance to out run most enemies. The teens durability is also impressive thing as well.

Much like his legendary name sake Jack posses a black scorpion tail that extends from his spine. He's able to move and control hid tail and can often use it in combat. His tail is capable of delivering powerful blows if need be, and it contains a dangerous poison with high amounts of neurotoxins and nerve inhibitors that are similar to the venom of scorpions. While his tail is strong enough to pierce flesh and even wood, the force is limited to Cybertronian metal and his venom has no effect on them.

#transformers #transformers prime #tfp #jack darby #grimm nbc #manticore #wesen

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pseudoneiiric · 1 year

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@deathwis / @e1dest asked:

it's late by the time he gets off, always pushing his hours until something else comes up ; or when the overtime pay ain't cuttin' it. at least that's how it used to be, how it mostly is, though he can't deny that there's other reasons now. ones tangled and knotted within the old ones, completely inseparable despite his worn but honest efforts. his hands are scratched by it, bitten and pinched rough in areas they weren't before 'cause of the damn split-end ropes he's been dealt with. but he can't do nothin' except endure it -- so that's what he does. quiet on the sites he's sent to and falling into simple rhythms : feeling the stretch of muscle in his arm that flexes with hammering, a sun that doesn't compare to arizona's beating on his back, with the rays soaking into the white of his shirt, and the occasional rustle of his tool belt when he's gotta twist a certain way to reach for something. it's things he's spent decades getting familiar with, yet the issue is that now there's a new beat trying to wiggle in where it don't belong. jamming into the middle and screwing everything up, disrupting any workflow. it's … kinda in his stomach, he thinks, this incessant pull. this ache that tumbles down his arched back. the sensation has even managed to shoot straight into his bad leg! tyler ain't stressed and he isn't cold, so having that already risky prone limb randomly hurt and seize up is stupid. feels that tightly stretched pain fresh in his heart too, like he's half a minute away from kneeling over. he hasn't exactly figured out what it is, though it's similar to something he's felt before, so he's got some notion.

the door opens easily enough, tyler making it in with little trouble ; the sharp flick of his wrist to turn the key practically routine at this point. there's still a pause between him slipping said brass key into his jean pocket, but the holt doesn't waste time on it. knows he'll get the hang of it eventually. so he enters the place ( his place ) with no greeting on his tongue, quick to toss his hard hat on the closest surface and make his way to the bedroom. blue eyes don't linger on the area like they normally do, having darted towards the hall the second he stepped foot within plaster-covered walls. every step makes him feel that smothering nothingness in his belly tenfold, growing -- or is it slowly easing? all he can really understand is that the presence expands more obviously inside, raking gently along acid lining and making his rib cage shudder. rocking bones within, making tyler's towering posture sway ever so slightly. it doesn't take long to stand before the bedroom, the door slightly ajar, a fact that still prods at his chest each time he's confronted with it. remembering all too well how it would be completely shut and locked and then … this happened. cheeks burn slightly at the drifting thought and he abruptly leaves it unfinished, foundation always laid but never furnished. settles to open the door with a gentle, short push of his dusted palm ; not stepping back when the wood nudges forth with no fanfare. there's no loud noise of it slamming against the barely dented wall that's built around it, no screeching creak of rusted hinges ( tyler regrets fixing that, it'd be easier to hear anyone comin' that way ) … it just opens. and leaves enough room for the younger to slip in, even when it begins swiveling back to its proper place.

he shouldn'ta come in yet. still needs to change clothes and shower so he doesn't drag any chippings, mulch, or anythin' else that's too jagged into layered carpet. but the second he arrives beside the bed that dumb heartache floats right into grasping fingers, rational mind hazed over with something that outweighs any logic or self-consciousness. the very strings slicing through his stomach guide him to hover close, situated right above vince like he's an inch away from the decision of whether to suffocate him or not. hand stopping right before a peaceful face, fingertips trembling with the force of that action, and tyler pinches his lips and sighs through his nose, the noise more of a huff because of it. he takes a stolen second to think of orange and beige blending together, how coarse fibers would brush against his skin, before he redirects his arm towards the other man's shoulder. molding it beneath his hand and his chest compressing with the sturdiness he finds there. greedy grip tightens, and then tyler gives vince a rough shake. “hey.”

there's a softness that pushes at the edges of his scruffy chin, eating away at the exhaustion that lives permanently on tyler's face. shadows intense eyes with a want that makes the corners smoother, bags ebbing. the second he gives vince another aggressive shake to wake him, however, that's all hidden behind wooden beams and concrete. expression hardening once again into a slightly irritated, tired look. when the same shade of blue meets his gaze, he grunts, pushing past the rush of uncomfortable fondness that leaps up his throat at the sight. “move over. that's my spot.” it wasn't up for debate that tyler would sleep on the side closest to the door. after all, one of them had to play it smart. yet as he ghosts in place he begins losing that nervous jitter in his body, and he doesn't gotta be a professor to know why. ears flare with the realization, a sudden shyness dipping into his slumping shoulders. as he waits for vince to come to, tyler awkwardly looks away, and his heart isn't any better for it ; not when it's stabbed with that ache again.

there’s a bone-deep exhaustion that follows vince most places, one he valiantly tries to ignore for the sake of getting out of bed most mornings. michelle was never exactly patient with that sort of thing, and he never could blame her for that. she married him wanting someone ... who could care for her. provide for her. start a family with her and be her companion. and vince tries his hardest to be those things, tries to ignore the viscous smear somewhere deep in his chest and settling murky in his belly that reminds him how much it takes out of him. how bad that accident at the airline had been for him. it doesn’t help that this very black spot had driven her out of the very same bed he’s sleeping in now, moved from sacramento to st. louis with only a couple scratches to show for it. he recalls waiting up at night, cozy in bed with reading glasses on as he pores over a romance novel michelle had been reading, one he’d been sneaking peeks at too when she was gone. he knows she probably wouldn’t have minded him borrowing it, reading it... but back then, he had always been testy around her, worrying about how he might fail her next. a suspicion that proved right, when he heard the keys in the door and he hastily turned the lamp off, placing the book back on the bedside table and his glasses somewhere nearby, holding his breath because he didn’t want her to know how worried he’d been. he could see the light click on behind his closed eyelids, hear her humming pleasantly, smell the wine and perfume on her.

staying up late for tyler, though vince doesn’t want to admit it, feels much the same. though he knows that tyler doesn’t have many options, what with him being one of america’s most famous fugitives, vince can’t shake the paranoid imaginings. tyler taking overtime so he can chat with one of his coworkers... a really tall, handsome guy, built and slender. vince squeezes his eyes shut and refocuses when the mystery man ends up looking like tyler’s twin, imagining instead someone a little older — tyler likes older, he thinks sourly — maybe a manager or something, someone that can bend him over the desk and make him choke on his own moans.

vince squeezes his eyes shut, tries to chase the thoughts away and tell himself tyler would never risk it. but he can’t help but turn the bedside lamp on, rolling onto the other side at the scattered clothes on the floor. mostly his own, since tyler’s always been neater than him. his gaze falls on the hamper, and he hesitates. is it... weird, to smell your boyfriend’s clothes because you're scared he’s having an affair even though he’s probably just working overtime? his toes flex, and he braces himself for his bare feet to touch carpet. goes to rifle in their stuff until he finds a shirt he likes, burying his nose in the fabric and taking in a long breath. it smells like him, earthy and reliable. vince can’t help but feel that longing lance up in him, and he wants to drop the shirt back in the hamper out of reflex, but he doesn’t. can’t. it takes him a while to be able to wrench it out of his hands, chiding himself all the while for the bad idea. way to make himself miss tyler more! making his mind whir and wander, wondering who could be smelling that woodsy scent on his boyfriend right now. with a beleaguered sigh, vince clambers back into bed and clicks the lamp off. tries to still his breathing enough to will himself to sleep.

next thing he knows, there’s a hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake. “huh?” murmurs vince, blearily looking up at the intruder. he doesn’t remember what’s going on for a solid minute, blinking until he can finally muster up a, “tyler?” there’s a warmth that blooms in his chest then, one hand fisting into the sheets like he’s imagining it’s tyler’s shoulder. “what time is it?” it’s only then that vince realizes what tyler’s asking of him, and he awkwardly shuffles back over to his side of the bed. still, his hand is poised over the covers, waiting for tyler to come on in so he can wrap both of them up.

#deathwis #e1dest #answered.#✎ . . VINCE WALKER — ❛❛ cool. ethereal. thermostat controlled. it's a/c by vince ❞#okay this isn't proofread but i was thinking a lot about late night v/ince and im like. this is what he's like! he's lonely #anyway i hope you enjoyed. batsmirk moment

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sleepy-achilles · 2 years

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Call of Duty/Zombies au-

-Hunter and Shawn are 100% like Woods and Mason. Basically they are brothers from another mother. Will gladly die for each other. Will not leave the other behind.

-Shawn is 100% Woods. Cocky and dumb but incredible at what he does.

-Taker is like Bell, mind controlled, a weapon.

-Taker is the one to join Shawn's team of misfits and he does not fit in at all, but he has no choice.

-Shawn instantly takes an interest him and taker already knows he's going to be trouble

-the kliq like to have dumb challenges, especially when fighting zombies. Stupid things like, slide tackling zombies, jumping over them, who can exploded the most. Taker honestly does not understand it. Nor do the other members (dx lot) but unlike taker they gladly join in (except Chyna)

-Shawn loves modifying and customising the squads guns. Which they don't mind until they upset Shawn who will ruin their guns paintjobs or remove an upgrade he gave them until they apologise.

-Shawn, Scott and Sean love trash talking enemies. Which does get them into a lot of trouble. Especially Shawn and Scott who are a bit too good at it and Sean who's a bit too passionate.

-Kevin and Chyna are the parents of the squad. This does cause Taker to question why Shawn is squad leader, which he later finds out why, shawn is good at what he does and has been doing it for a long time.

-Taker finds this out for himself when him and Shawn are trapped with no way of contacting base. Shawn manages to get the objective done and get them both out without either getting harmed.

-Taker begins to have a great respect for the blond after this. He respects how Shawn can go from lively, goofy and well a douchebag to smart, sensible and careful.

-The squad know when somethings wrong the moment Shawn goes from joking to quiet and watchful.

-Takers brain had been recovering really well since joining the team. Almost completely healed until a mission comes up.

-His so called dead brother, isn't dead and well is the center of a bad experiment which Vince has sent them to shut down.

-Shawn instantly notices a shift in Takers behaviour as soon as they get to the facility. Taker starts to have blackouts and experience memories he forgot he had.

-This mission does end with Shawn putting a bullet in Paul's head. (Not that it's the end of Paul's terrorising though) and with them taking kane in and making both men get help.

-Taker and Shawn become closer after this and shawn ends up telling Taker about his history. The missions he's been on. His past lover and how badly that ended.

-the team notice their feelings before they actually do. Especially when the pair start taking bullets for each other.

-hunter is pissed. He does not like the idea of this man getting close to Shawn, his captain.

I love this. I love it very much. I've been obsessed with these games for years, my father owns all of them and would play them with me growing up. So yeah. Kinda glad I could mix my two passions.

#wwe #shawn michaels #the undertaker #wwf #hbtaker #triple h #undertaker x shawn michaels #shawn x undertaker #kevin nash #scott hall #chyna #x pac #kane #paul bearer #cod #call of duty #zombies #au #headcanon

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umbrahighpriestofgiratina · 1 year

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Heroes After All Bonus Chapter 3:

Ahahahaha! Happy Hallolween, one and all! It's time for a spooktacular bonus episode of Heroes After All, featuring a very special guest star! Who is it you ask? Find out in:

Bonus Chapter 3: HAAlloween

It was Murkrow season again.

Every year, in the fall, the Murkrow descended upon Time Flower Abbey. Every year they were impossible to get rid of. They infested every corner of the abbey - rooftops, courtyards, even getting inside from time to time. After multiple attempts to get rid of them, the residents of the Abbey had learned to just deal until they eventually went away.

This Murkrow season was a particularly bad one. Aaron, Riolu, and friends were moving through a flock of them trying to get back to their rooms for the evening from class, and they keept screeching at them and delivering sudden pecks.

"I hate these thi-OW!" said Louis. He brushed away a Murkrow jabbing at him.

<They can hear you....> said Rook.

"I for one think they're cute!" said Callie. <I DON'T,> said Munchkin.

Aaron shook his head. Riolu scowled in the Murkrow's general direction.

"We, uh. Probably shouldn't irritate them..." said Aaron.

He looked over to Vince and Terrence nearby, who weretrying to communicate as best they can with Henry and Zawisza.

"Are you SURE you can't get them in line?" said Vince to Henry.

Henry simply gave a squaky laugh.

"You can't either? Seriously?" said Terrence to Zawisza. Zawisza just shrugged her wings.

~The adults aren't having any luck either, human OR Pokemon...~ said Riolu.

"Can we eat them?" said Atta. <I can poke them to death!> said Stabby.

<I doubt that...> said Iuroidea.

"Then what DO we do?" said Eve.

Aaron put his hand to his chin and pondered a bit. Then a large open-mouthed smile crossed his face.

"I've got it! If I make a large enough bang with my Aura powers it'll be sure to scare them off!"

"Wait, Aaron, that's crazy!" said Eve. Too late. Aaron was already charging a ball of aura.

~Aaron, don-~ Riolu started to say.

Too late. Aaron had generated an exceptionally loud bang.

The Murkrow initially responded by all flying up in the air and cawing raucously. Then they all started divebombing and attacking Aaron and Riolu specifically. Aaron and Riolu screamed as the Murkrow started chasing them further and further away from the others.

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

Eventually, after much running and screaming, the Murkrow dissipated, flying off in various directions. Aaron and Riolu swerve left to tend to sore peck spots and brush off feathers.

~What were they chasing ME for?~ said Riolu. ~YOU made the noise!~

"Maybe they could sense our strong friendship?" Aaron said with a sheepish grin.

~...Yeah, sure. Whatever,~ said Riolu.

He looked around. ~Where ARE we anyway?~

Aaron looked around. They seemed tyo be in some heavily wooded area. "I... Don't know."

~So you mean we're lost?~

"...Yes." ~This is your fault you know.~ "...Yes, I know.~

Riolu huffed. ~Well we'll just have to find a way back I GUESS.~

"Y-You're right. I-it can't be far!" said Aaron.

The two started searching through a path in the woods.

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

A couple hours passed. It had gotten dark out at this point. The two had made no headway.

~Gah,~ said Riolu. ~I can't find anything, even with my Aura sense...~

"Me neither..." said Aaron.

Riolu kept scanning and scanning for traces of something that could lead them back. But then he picked up something. Strange.

Reaching out further he was able to tell it was big. -

And it was moving.

Moving this way.

~Aaron we should get moving,~ Riolu said frantically.

"I thought we already we-" Aaron started to say.

~We need to do it FASTER,~ Riolu said with growing panic.

"Uh, okay, okay!" said Aaron.

They started moving through the woods faster. It was then the two could hear the rustling of something very large.

Not too far behind them.

Aaron opened his mouth to scream but Riolu immediately covered it with a paw.

~Just run,~ said Riolu.

Aaron immediately did, Riolu not far behind.

The rustling continued to follow them.

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

The two kept running. And running. And running. Until they finally ran out of breath, panting and wheezing from their efforts.

"Do you think..." Aaron said, gasping for breath. "...We lost it?"

More rustling.

~Apparently not!~ said Riolu in a panic.

"What do we do?!" said aaron.

Riolu looked around until he spotted an embedded tree hollow, sticking out of the earth. ~In there!~

Aaron and Riolu ducked into the hollow and peeked out.

It was dark. Very dark. But the two could see pointy blue feet sticking out from the underbrush. They pierced into the earth in front of the two's hideaway, moving around as if they were in search of something.

The pair quickly realized it could be them.

Eventually, the creature left. Aaron and Riolu waited, and waited, until they were sure it was gone. Then they removed themselves from the log.

"What WAS that?!" Aaron said in a panicked whisper. ~I don't know,~ said Riolu.~But I suspect it wants to eat... Us~

"EAT US?!" said Aaron. ~Whatever you do., don't scream. It'll just come back.~

"R-right..." said Aaron.

~Listen, I've been in this situation before,~ said Riolu.

"You have?!" said Aaron.

~Yeah. And what I've found is you have to keep running until you find someplace safe... Or a place with something stronger and tougher that won't also eat YOU.~

"...So we gotta get back to Time Flower Abbey then?"

~...Right, before that thing gets US.~ said Riolu. ~The adults can handle that thing hopefully maybe.~

"Right! To-"

More rustling.

~Oh no! It's coming back! Move it!~

And the two bolted for it.

--------

Eventually the trees started thinning. More moonlight started peering through the leaves.

But the rustling in pursuit continued.

Aaron and Riolu were running out of breath. Their steps were faltering.

Finally, Aaron tripped. Collapsed.

~Aaron!~ said Riolu.

It was then the creature emerged from the bushes. It bore a vague resemblance to a Wobuffet, but with a long, spindly form and a strange tail. Its mouth briefly opened., showing massive pointy teeth.

"N-No...." said Aaron. "I... don't want to die...."

Riolu froze, looking between Aaron, then the strange Wobuffet creature. Then determination set in his eyes and he charged forward, putting himself between Aaron and the monster.

~If you're going to eat him then you're going to have to get through me!~

The Wobbuffet creature leaned in closer. It opened its mouth to show its teeth again, then closed them. Its faced scrunched up into a look of... Concern? ~...Are you two quite all right?~

~...Huh?_ said Riolu.

"You... Don't want to eat us?" said Aaron.

~Of course not,~ said the creature with a distinct Galarian accent. ~I may be a Kwazai but I'm not so uncouth!~

~Kwazai?~ said Riolu.

~Yes! Said the creature. ~We're a rare evolution of Wobuffet, that happens in a region far from here, I was born in Galar before moving there... We come in two forms! Anyway, my name is Eustace Francisco Kwazaichum, Esquire.~

"Nice to meet you Eustace!" said Aaron, getting tol his feet.

~My pleasure as well.! I am here because I was looking for directions to Rota, my Trainer is there... but all the local Pokemon are too scared of me to help!~

~We were trying to get back to Time Flower Abbey. Maybe the peoplemons there can help,~ said Riolu.

~A marvelous idea! Let us go posthaste!~

"Let's go then!" said Aaron.

And the very unusual party continued onward.

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

Eventually they encountered not the monastery but certain people and Pokemon from it. "Aaron! Riolu! All the Aura Guardians have been looking all over for you" said Polly."Thank Lugia you're allri-"

She noticed Eustace. "Behind you! Duck for cover!"

~You won't touch them, Kwazai. Remember the Vow.~

<Yeah they're no lunch!> said Dunsparce.

~Guys, relax, he's with us,~ said Riolu.

"Yeah he helped us find you!" said Aaron. "Eustace is great!"

~Oh dear, sorry to startle you...~ Said Eustace.

"....It's all right," said Polly. "Thank you so much for bringing these boys back to us... Especially after those damn Murkrow chased them into the woods."

Eustace immediately perked up.

<Murkrow? Why I love the taste of Murkrow! Gamey but with just the right amount of juicy tenderness!?>

Polly paused, then looked at Metagross with a snide grin. "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

~Of course I am, we're psychically in synch, said Metagross~

<Uh... yeah, Polly, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?> said Dunsparce.

"Good. Let's escort this Kwazai to the Abbey," said Polly.

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

The Murkrow were up to their usual mischief at Time Flower Abbey. Pecking, shrieking, stealing, the works.

Eventually, however, a contingent of Aura Guardians emerged from the mountain forest near the abbey.

Followed by Eustace.

The Murkrow stopped to stare at this new visitor.

Eustace bared his teeth in a wide, hungry, grin.

And lunged.

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

The Murkrow never bothered Time Flower Abbey again.

***

And there you have it! The Kwazai species belongs to Sike Saner! You should check out her fics! They have more Kwazai in them! Yaaaaaaaaay!

#pokemon #fanfiction #lucario and the mystery of mew #sir aaron #riolu #original characters #heroes after all

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markstucker · 2 years

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YCBK 255: Under big demand, UC aims to grow by 33,000 seats

In this episode you will hear:

Mark and Vince discuss two different articles that appeared in the LA Times that address the number of students at the nine University of California schools. Both articles were written by Teresa Watanabe. The first article Mark and Vince discuss is that UC’s break a record for the most California students that have been admitted but they intentionally have cutback on the number of of out of state students. Mark and Vince talk about why the UC’s are talking less out of state students; is this a good or bad thing? This article was written on August 10th, 2022

(32:00) Next Vince and Mark discuss a July 23rd article by Terese Watanabe entitled, “Under Big Admissions demand, UC Aims to Grow by 33,000 seats” Vince and Mark talk about the pros and cons of the UC’s adding this many students. They also ask, who are the students that are going to get these 33,000 seats.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-10/uc-admits-record-number-of-california-first-year-students-narrows-entry-to-nonresidents

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-23/under-big-admissions-demand-uc-aims-to-grow-by-33-000-seats

(49:15) For our question from a listener, it is bonus content time. Lisa leads Mark with a discussion about what parents can do if their own child is feeling devalued because they may not be admitted to an elite college. This is a two-part question that will be answered on episode 255 and 257.

(01:15:08) Our interview is with Heath Einstein, the Dean of Admissions. In Part 2 of 3, Mark and Julia discuss the following:

Preview of Part 2

Tell us about your core curriculum and how it impacts a TCU education?

How does Greek life impact the TCU experience and culture?

Is TCU a conservative college?

Let’s talk about some of the programs that TCU is known for, I will mention the program and take a couple of minutes to tell us about what makes TCU special

Career services

Your Honors college (include admitted student profile)

Business,

Communications,

Nursing, Pre-Med, Biology and Health Sciences

Fine arts, Dance and Theater

The TCU interview with Dean of Admissions, Heath Einstein will also serve as our college spotlight.

(01:30:10) The recommended resource is https://www.studentloanplanner.com/blog/ This is the work of Tyler Hornsby, who we have interviewed on our podcast. This is the best source Mark knows of to follow the student loan forgiveness and all other student loan options.

Please send in your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab (this is our preference) or via email at [email protected] for the 27 admissions interviews we are doing in the summer and fall. Our interviews are with the following people at the following schools:

Confirmed interviews you can still send in questions for our guests: Bard-Mackie Siebens Mercer-Kelly Holloway Rice University-Tamara Siler American University-Andrea Felder Pitzer College-Yvonne Berumen Chapman University-Marcela Meija-Martinez Connecticut College-Andy Strickler* Trinity College-Anthony Berry* College of the Atlantic-Heather Albert* Spelman College-Chelsea Holley* Scripps College-Victoria Romero* Saint Louis University-Daniel Wood-(Interview is about transfer admissions, Daniel is a transfer counselor) Colby College-Randi Arsenault* University of Georgia-David Graves* Washington University St Louis-Ronne Turner

To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our free quarterly admissions deep-dive, delivered directly to your email four times a year, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign up on the right side of the page under “the Listen to our podcast icons”

Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news, and updates about the podcast before they go live. You can ask questions on Twitter that he will answer them on the podcast. Mark will also share additional hot topics in the news and breaking news on this Twitter feed. Twitter message is also the preferred way to ask questions for our podcast:

https://twitter.com/YCBKpodcast

To access our transcripts, click: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/transcripts/

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We would be honored if you will pass this podcast episode on to others who you feel will benefit from the content in YCBK.

Please subscribe to our podcast. It really helps us move up in Apple’s search feature so others can find our podcast.

Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: [email protected].

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If you want to help more people find Your College-Bound Kid, please make sure you follow our podcast. You will also get instant notifications as soon as each episode goes live.

Check out the college admissions books Mark recommends: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/recommended-books/

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Check out this episode!

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starlightswitch · 2 years

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Grew Up Together

(for Writer's Month day 18 prompts bridge and secret garden)

“It’s right up around this corner.” Lacey was almost dancing through the woods.

Carter grinned and followed. His girlfriend was a happy person, yes, but he didn’t often see her this excited. The whole day had been her idea, to show him her favorite places around her hometown, and now they were in the woods of a park she loved, where she wanted to show him a bridge she said was amazing.

It wasn’t what he expected, the kind of bridge he could imagine getting excited about– he’d been picturing a bridge shaped like the Golden Gate Bridge, or a covered bridge maybe. It was a tall bridge over the creek, but a simple one, with just a railing on either side held up by posts, and steps going up to it from the trail, and probably steps going back down on the other side.

But Lacey ran up the stairs, so he joined her on the bridge. It was a pretty view, trees lining the creek until it went around a bend, little rocks in the tea-colored water running under the bridge. It had just rained a couple days ago, so the creek was flowing nicely.

“I love bridges,” Lacey said happily, and Carter put his arm around her as they stood by the railing.

“So did you come here a lot when you were a kid? It’s not that close to your parents’ house.”

“Yeah, this was our adventure.” Lacey giggled a little. “Where we went when we weren’t really going anywhere, but it wasn’t something we did all the time. Maybe once a month, in the summer? And usually on a weekday. I feel like maybe once or twice we did a picnic on the weekend and our dads came, but mostly it was just us and our moms.”

Carter tried not to react to the us. He hadn’t realized this had been a us. “Who’s us?” he said, even though he was pretty sure he knew.

Lacey’s eyes dimmed a little. Then she rallied, with obvious effort. “Me and Vince.”

“Oh.” Carter wanted to say something normal, to move past it, but he couldn’t think of anything normal to say. “Did you guys… hang out on this bridge?” That was supposed to convey see, I’m totally comfortable with the idea that you stood on this bridge with another guy! Instead, it sounded like he was trying too hard.

Lacey grabbed onto it as if it meant what he’d wanted it to mean, even though she didn’t seem to quite believe that. “Not really. Sometimes if the water was high we’d throw sticks in and stand on the bridge to watch them go under. Mostly we’d play on the shore over there.” She giggled. “We used to look to see if our garden was growing. One time we had watermelon for a snack so we took some of the seeds and buried them there to see if they would grow. And we started sneaking out fruit from our houses, strawberries and blueberries and stuff with seeds in it, so we could have a whole garden. Vince even brought a potato once because he heard they didn’t grow from seeds.”

“So you buried a whole potato?”

“No. He couldn’t have gotten it out of the house whole. He snuck it out in the yard with a knife and cut it into pieces and brought some of those in his pocket. He was so proud.” Her smile was appreciative but slight amused, as if she was talking about a little kid. Which she was.

He wanted to ask her if she’d ever had feelings for Vince. If she thought he might have feelings for her she’d never mentioned. Except he had asked her both of those things, when he first found out she had a close friend who was a guy who she’d known since they were kids, and she’d answered them. No, she’d never had feelings for him, unless you counted a month or two in high school where everyone else had crushes so she pretended she had one on him and kind of talked herself into it. No, she didn’t think he had feelings for her, because if he did, believe me, he would have said something.

So he couldn’t ask her again, because it would sound like he didn’t believe her, and there was no point in asking her again, because he already knew the answer.

If only he could fully believe it.

2020 day 17: A Leap (myth)

2021 day 18: A Treat from Another World (key + role reversal)

#writersmonth2022 #my writing

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anciientboosh · 4 years

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For your traveling drabbles Why vince cant drive ❤

Hello there! Thank you so much for this wonderful prompt, it was really fun to work with. I hope you don't mind a tiny bit of angst, but with a lovely bit of comfort on top!

"It's really not that scary."

"I'm not scared." Vince insists. Though his fingers are gripping the steering wheel a lot tighter than Howard thinks is strictly necessary.

"Okay, well," Howard clears his throat, reaches across his own body to buckle his seatbelt. "Whenever you're ready then."

It is not the first time he had made that sentiment known. Initially, when he had brought Vince to the car park of an abandoned supermarket, the boy had giggled at him and queried, "You're not gonna off me are you?" but the joy had soon died when he was persuaded into the drivers seat.

Just getting him to stop trying to get back out of the car had been a headache, trying to get him to listen to any of the instructions Howard had then given him was asking for a miracle.

Forty minutes later they were still here, waiting for Vince to be brave enough to turn the engine on.

Honestly, Howard wouldn't even mind if he wasn't getting so tired of ferrying Vince around. Having passed his test almost two years ago now, he had become a taxi service for the slightly younger boy. Whenever he needed to pop to the hairdressers, or needed someone to get him from a gig after the buses had stopped running, it was Howard he called.

Which was fine, right now. But they had talked about moving away together, potentially to London, once Vince hit adulthood-- and Howard was going to be a musician. He wouldn't have time to chaufer his best mate everywhere when he was busy making jazz music and being seduced by beautiful women.

So Vince would just learn to drive, easy.

Not so easy. Vince takes another steadying breath, for all the world looks like he is preparing himself for something a lot more dangerous than driving a few meters in an empty car park, and Howard thinks they might finally be getting somewhere.

Nothing.

"Vince?"

"I'm getting to it!" Vince snaps, grips his fingers impossibly harder and forces his eyes shut. "I will, I'm just preparing myself."

Much too startled by the outburst to do anything besides gape at him-- Howard just nods. "Right. Okay."

Waiting isn't even the worst part. Howard Moon has the patience of a Saint. You have to, to be friends with a personality like Vince. He is happy to perch by his friends side for as long as it takes to gather his courage and do something.

What bothers him is that Vince is clearly terrified.

Somewhere along the line the boy has started trembling, his wirey arms giving him away. His lower lip is pulled almost painfully between his teeth and his eyes... Normally so bright and joy filled. They're the size of saucers and they're panicked. It's like watching a rabbit face down the bright beams of a truck the way he's staring off into the road. Like he's waiting for something terrible to happen.

Howard doesn't need to hear him say it. This isn't going to happen today. "Come on then, swap back." he sighs.

Vince turns a startled expression on him, blinks those misty blue peepers like he really doesn't understand what Howard is saying.

"I'm not going to force you, little man," Howard comforts. "If you don't want to do it then I'll take you home."

More than anything he could have said, that seems to set Vince off. Tears spill down his cheeks without his permission. He doesn't even make a sound. Just cries silently until the heartache of it all makes Howard lean over the console and awkwardly wrap an arm around him. "Hey," he breathes, astonished at the open expression of sadness from a usually happy teen. "Don't be doing that, you daft nutter. Did you really think I'd make you?"

Vince shakes his head where its buried against Howard's side. "No, I just--" A shuddering breath. "I know you think I'm hopeless."

"I don't think that,"

"You do." The Boy draws away. Tiny hands pried from the wheel scrub at his reddened face. "I-- What if I muck it up?" The meaning doesn't click for Howard, not until Vince elaborates. "It's such a big thing to control and there's so many different things to remember and you know what I'm like for learning things. I still barely know the alphabet Howard, I don't retain anything that good."

Which, all things considered, is a valid concern from Vince. Howard wants to offer more comfort past the awkward weight of his arm over the lad's shoulder but Vince isn't stopping long enough to let him.

"All the time growing up we'd be told to stay away from roads too-- but animals they just go sometimes. You know?" Howard does. He had purposefully never told Vince about unfortunate cases of rabbits or squirrels alike darting in front of his car along winding country roads. "What if I couldn't stop? What if I mess it up."

And suddenly it makes so much sense.

Vince wasn't exactly an animal but his first family was. He'd always preferred the company of the furry to those that walked on two legs and the chance-- no matter how small-- that he could potentially hurt anything with something he did was too much.

He wasn't refusing to learn out of laziness he was scared of the potential damage he might inflict on the world if it went wrong for him.

"Swap back." Howard orders gently, reaches for his door. "I'll take us to see the ducks at Roundhay before your foster mum wants you home."

Howard never tries to make Vince learn to drive again.

#All the feelings #Though this was fun to write #And let's be honest #Vince growing up in a wood?#Bet you they told horror stories about cars man #Poor baby!#Hope you enjoyed #the mighty boosh #Travel drabbles #My writing #Howince #Vince noir #Howard moon #ficlet

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a-flickering-soul · 3 years

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EverymanHYBRID And Deer In Media: In Five Parts (click for individual comparisons)

Deer are both a symbol of fragile purity and the untamable wild–here, we examine deer in the context of man, where deer come to represent the urge within us to abandon the conscious ego for the subconscious id. The deer is a symbol, too, of rebirth, of transformation, of shedding and regrowing its weapons each year. To kill, to be reborn, to choose to be monstrous through our proximity to humanity. Is there not something pure in surrendering to animal instinct? If deer are the twin themes of innocence and wildness, then we in turn are the juxtaposition of humanity and monstrousness–our actions made monstrous by the attempt to temper them with humanity.

(transcript, analysis, and sources below cut)

1: The Secret History & EverymanHYBRID--Bodies

The Secret History, on the killing of a man in a hallucinatory bacchanal:

"'Henry,' I said at last. 'Good God.' "He raised an eyebrow. 'Really, it was more upsetting than you can realize,' he said. 'Once I hit a deer with my car. It was a beautiful creature and to see it struggling, blood everywhere, legs broken ... And this was even more distressing but at least I thought it was over. I never dreamed we'd hear anything else about it.'"

EverymanHYBRID, "Ryan and the SEVENTRIALSOFHABIT":

A shot of a deer's dead body at the side of the road at night, looking crumpled and not quite right. The captions read: "Jeff: It's a fucking deer, dude. (Evan: See it?) Yeah. Something cut its belly open. (Evan: It cut its belly open the wrong way.)"

Parallels drawn:

Consider this one an amuse-bouche. Henry draws comparisons between a man he killed to a deer he accidentally hit with a car, mildly naming the incident ‘distressing’. There is a lack of human empathy, of guilt over killing a fellow man. In comparison, Jeff, Evan, and Vinnie at this point in the EMH plotline have not yet become hunter or hunted–they have not yet been warped by their roles in this iteration and can acknowledge the upsetting nature of the events that befall them. Henry has tasted that amoral nature and is less human for it, more visibly willing to shed that veneer of attempting to care about other people. Jeff, Evan, and Vinnie have not yet reached that point.

2: “Whoso List to Hunt”, EverymanHYBRID, and The Secret History--The Chase

"Whoso List to Hunt", on hunting a fabled white hind:

"I am of them that farthest cometh behind./ Yet may I by no means my wearied mind/ Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore/ Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,/ Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind./ Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,/ As well as I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain/ There is written, her fair neck round about:/ Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,/ and wild to hold, though I seem tame."

EverymanHYBRID, "Slushpops and Surprises”

A shot of white text on a black page, "[Enter the tragic hero and his unattainable companion.]"

The Secret History, on hallucinations experienced during the bacchanal (bold for emphasis):

“‘Camilla said that during part of it, she’d believed she was a deer; and that was odd, too, because the rest of us remember chasing a deer through the woods, for miles it seemed. Actually it was miles. I know that for a fact. Apparently we ran and ran and ran, because when we came to ourselves we had no idea where we were.’”

EverymanHYBRID, “December & early January”:

A shot of Vinnie, hand covering his face in shock, as he sits and listens to Jessa’s last voicemail before she went missing. Jeff can be seen in the background, listening in silence. The captions read “[Jessa’s voice, recorded]: Steph, that thing you were talking about, I saw it...he’s real, he’s right here. What the hell does he want? I think he’s following me.”

Parallels drawn:

The deer symbolizes wild nature, something that man cannot obtain, touch, or capture without abandoning something of his own humanity. Similarly, deer represent the unattainable prey. Noli me tangere, says Caesar’s unattainable deer– touch me not, no matter how hard you may attempt to catch me. Jessa of EMH is deemed the unattainable companion and Jeff’s driving force to discover the truth behind the situation they’ve been placed in–it is Jessa, dangled in front of him after she goes missing, that leads Jeff down the path that inevitably leads to his own death after uncovering too much. The deer is to be chased, to be hunted, and never captured. Camilla from The Secret History believed herself to be a deer during the same hallucinatory bacchanal that cost a man his life, and led her brother and friends on a chase spanning miles. Jessa was hunted by an unknowable force, then used as bait to draw her partner down the path to his own death. Unattainability, the shape of something fleeing in front of you, elicits a powerful reaction to follow, to hunt, to chase. Jessa fell victim to that reaction. Camilla, and the white hind, did not.

3: The Myth of Diana and Actaeon, EverymanHYBRID, and The Secret History--Madness

The Diana and Actaeon Fountain at the Caserta Royal Palace:

The detail of the fountain shown depicts the pivotal scene in the myth of Actaeon and Artemis, where Actaeon, mid-transformation into a stag, is killed for the slight of viewing the goddess Artemis nude.The sculpture shows the transformation in no mercy, plain in its depiction of Actaeon’s pain and terror, and the simple ferocity of the hounds that surround him.

EverymanHYBRID, “May & June”:

A shot of Jeff, blood spattered across him, speaking with a shocked and angry tone. The captions read, “Jeff: Why were we doing that? That was...that’s not what we were looking for. We knew damned well that wasn’t what we were trying to kill. (Vince: Close enough.) It was a deer! It was a fucking deer! I tried to pull you off, you tried to punch me in the fucking face!”

The Secret History, on the Greeks’ view of beauty and terror (bold for emphasis):

“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful to souls like the Greeks or to our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripedes speaks of the Maenads: head thrown back, throat to the stars, ‘more like deer than human being’.”

Parallels drawn:

Most depictions of Actaeon, sculpture or painting, usually show him with antlers or a deer lower body, leaving his head and face a recognizable human shape. However, the sculptor here decided to subvert expectations and leave his body human, giving Actaeon the animal head of a stag. The loss of control and the descent from human to animal is not glorified or made palatable by the mere addition of a crown of antlers--there is only the one constant, fear, that follows him all the way down. Madness may be defined as a loss of control, and there may be something beautiful and terrifying in feeling your sanity slip through your own fingers. Jeff, Evan, and Vinnie are overtaken by brief, inexplicable madness and tear apart a deer as they come dangerously close to uncovering exactly who and what is hunting them. They skate close to seeing soemthing they shouldn't see. It is only Jeff who looks up, shocked by the blood on his hands, and voices his fear. Vinnie, apathetic, lets it go. But Evan, houndlike and irrational, defends his kill.

4: EverymanHYBRID & Hannibal--Warnings and Temptation

EverymanHYBRID, “May & June”:

A shot of Evan, spattered heavily with blood, standing with shoulders caved in protectively. His left hand is raised to his mouth, with his hair covering his eyes, and he is licking the blood off of his fingers.

“Shot Through The Hart, and Hannibal’s To Blame” (bold for emphasis):

“In my post about ravens, I talked about how it’s not always easy to tell what the Ravenstag really means. Is it evidence of the Hannibalesque elements of Will’s soul? Or a warning of those parts growing within him? Does the Ravenstag urge Will forward on his journey, or warn him of what’s to come?”

Hannibal, Season 1, Episode 1 “Aperitif”:

A shot of the Ravenstag, staring directly into the camera with one hoof up, as if to approach. There are black feathers interwoven with its pelt and its eyes have an uncanny shine.

Parallels drawn:

On a naturalistic note, deer are skittish creatures. They have thin legs and a sleek body, made for running. A small head and big eyes, placed wide-set to see coming predators. Keen ears. They are ready at any moment to sense danger, warn others, and flee. When a deer does not move, it is either safe or sizing up its options, either accepting where it is or preparing to run. Deer, staring directly at the viewer, come as a sympathetic warning to flee or, in its dark eyes and firm stance, a temptation. Me tangere, they say. Come closer. We are one and the same. In Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, the commanding presence of the Ravenstag serves as both a warning and a beckoning temptation to turn his feet down the darker path. It is otherworldly, black-furred and feathered, and yet a warning of events rooted in the real world--does Will understand what danger he is in upon meeting Hannibal and take the warning, or will he ignore it, sensing that same darkness in himself, that same potential for corruption? In EverymanHYBRID, it is that same killing of a deer that hints at that same potential for darkness growing inside Evan. He licks at his fingers, animalistic, fully ignoring his own Ravenstag warning signs for the delight of the hunt. Is he Evan anymore? Or is something else growing inside him?

5: EverymanHYBRID & Hannibal--Predator and Prey, or the Final Act

EverymanHybrid, “:D”:

A shot of HABIT, looking up a set of stairs with one foot on the bottom step. In one hand down by his side, he is holding a knife. His posture is tilted forward, poised, ready to spring into action, like that of a hunter.

“Shot Through The Hart, and Hannibal’s To Blame” (bold for emphasis):

“The idea of deer as symbols of rebirth also stands out to me. Hannibal is a series obsessed with becoming and transformation. People start one way, and are reborn as something completely other by the end of the show. There’s even a character sewn up into a deceased pregnant horse in the hopes that when she’s released, she will be literally reborn as something different. It’s thus a neat fit, this significance of deer with the themes of the show.”

EverymanHYBRID, “:D”:

A shot of Jeff, looking up and to the side with an expression of caution and fear. His eyes are unnerved, squinting as, from offscreen, HABIT’s hand plays idly with his hat.

Parallels drawn:

The first and final incarnation of the deer is, of course, prey. Beyond and before any symbolism of innocence and wildness and warnings, deer are prey animals, to be hunted and devoured. And yet, in keeping with the concept of contrasting symbolism, deer are not helpless. Yearly, they shed and regrow their antlers in a transformation of horn and blood. At the climax of EverymanHYBRID, the final reveal, the final transformation, comes to fruition. HABIT, formerly Evan, takes its place as the Hunter, the archetypal predator, with Jeff shown most prominently as the Prey. Jeff’s luck has run its course, with him in the chair as the sacrificial prey-victim to fall to HABIT’s knife. HABIT, reborn, reiterated, made incarnate through Evan’s unwilling transformation, is poised to start the hunt. This is the big reveal, the crux of the transformation, Actaeon caught mid-transfiguration and the bloody sloughing-off of velvet humanity to reveal perfect and gleaming antlers. This is what it comes down to, time and time again. The hunter and the hunted. The wilderness embraced and the wilderness captured, and the monstrosity in that act.

Works Cited

Callimachus. Actaeon and Artemis. C. 220 BC

Fuller, Bryan. “Apetirif.” Hannibal, season 1, episode 1, NBC, 4 Apr. 2013.

Koval, J., Caffarello, V., &; Jennings, E. (Directors). (2011, July 12). May & June [Video file].

Koval, J., Caffarello, V., &; Jennings, E. (Directors). (2012, October 9). :D [Video file].

Tartt, Donna. The Secret History. Penguin, 2006.

Uhminuh. “Shot Through the Hart, and Hannibal's to Blame.” Read the Rude, Wordpress, 19 July 2020.

Wyatt, Thomas. “Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind.” c. 1530.

Honorary mention to this fanart by @/rrhaes that started this whole spiral

#emh #everymanhybrid #flickerthoughts #flicker wrote this #i'm serious when i say this has been brewing in my head for a calendar year #i finally pieced it together at the beginning of this week and it's STILL incomprehensible but i think the vibes are there #emh my beloved emh and the themes and motifs and symbolism that exists in my head #i have a love hate relationship w the secret history but i put it all in here #also i am two eps deep in hannibal but i think i got the gist idk #anyways i want you all to know i REALLY wanted to work in the iphigenia/steph parallels but it just didn't make sense in this context #maybe i'll post it later idk but!!! here take this #in keeping with the theme of my best literary analysis showing up when i'm at my breaking point wrt life #this :handshake: reylux parallels post -- created under emotional duress #i rly wanna do one that's like 'slenderverse women + being followed' bc that's a FEELING.#if i am saying the emh boys are actaeon torn to shreds by their own dogs after they hunt the wrong prey.....that's my business lmao #should i tag the other stuff? here i'll tag em here so they don't show up in search #hannibal #the secret history #flicker's meta

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joeygoeshollywood · 3 years

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My 25 Favorite Films of 2020

Well, this was quite the crazy year, especially for movies. While many films that were slated to be released this year were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year still provided some laughs, tears, and thrills both in theaters and in the living room.

(NOTE: Due to the delayed awards season calendar and postponed Oscar bait films that are unavailable to be seen before the end of 2020, this list will eventually be updated after having seen the following films: The Father, Minari, News of the World, Nomadland, One Night in Miami, Pieces of a Woman, Promising Young Woman)

Here are my 25 favorite films of the year:

25. Kajillionaire

Quirky filmmaker Miranda July is back with her first feature in nearly a decade. Kajillionaire is a bizarre but captivating tale about a family of criminal grifters and how the daughter reevaluates her strained relationship with her parents after an outsider is welcomed into the fold. Evan Rachel Wood takes what could have easily been dismissed as a goofy caricature in Old Dolio (yes, that’s her name) and turns into a heartfelt portrayal of a woman whose lifestyle of freeloading dictated by her parents (played by Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) becomes her own crisis. In many ways, Kajillionaire feels like a fantasy that keeps people asking, “What on earth is going on?” And this time, it’s for the best.

24. Freaky

Revamping decades-old plots like the body-swapping antics from Freaky Friday can either result in a predictable failure or a surprising success. Thankfully, Freaky falls into the latter category. In this horror comedy, a deranged serial killer (played by Vince Vaughn) swaps bodies with his victim, a timid teen girl (played by Kathryn Newton). What makes the film work though are the dedicated lead performances, particularly by Vaughn, who is pretty convincing as young girl trapped in a grown man’s body. With a few good laughs and decent thrills, Freaky is worth the watch.

23. The Outpost

The Outpost is an intense film about the real-life story of small group of US troops isolated by surrounding mountains in Afghanistan, under the constant threat of the Taliban, which ultimately comes to a head in the Battle of Kamdesh. The film captures the harrowing experiences of these soldiers with heart-pounding action sequences, which are fueled by a solid cast including Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom.

22. Uncle Frank

Paul Bettany may be best known for playing The Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he should be celebrated as his title character in Uncle Frank, a touching dramedy set in 1973 about an NYU professor who returns home to his estranged family for his father’s funeral while his niece, played by rising star Sophia Lillis, idolizes him for teaching her to be her authentic self while he keeps his sexuality a secret. Bettany brilliantly balances the coolness of his stature with the internal agony that ultimately hits a boiling point, which is counterbalanced by Peter Macdissi’s fun performance as Frank’s happy-go-lucky lover who accompanies him back home despite his wishes.

21. Hillbilly Elegy

Hillbilly Elegy was panned by critics over politics that had absolutely no role the film. Based on the best-selling memoir by J.D. Vance, the newest feature from Ron Howard shows the journey of a boy who despite all odds growing up in a poor family that constantly struggled with abuse and addition managed to get into Yale Law School and achieve the American dream. While both Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos hold the film together as the younger and older Vance in the present and flashback scenes, Amy Adams as the impulsive, irresponsible mother and an unrecognizable Glenn Close as the no-nonsense inspiring grandmother that turn Hillbilly Elegy into an acting tour de force.

20. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin sits in the director’s chair once again in this courtroom drama about the real-life protesters who showed up in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. With themes that resonate today, The Trial of the Chicago 7 benefits from its sharp screenplay, well-paced editing, and an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Yahoo Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Keaton.

19. Yellow Rose

Broadway actress Eva Noblezada makes her film debut as an aspiring country singer on the run after her mother, an illegal immigrant, is obtained for deportation. Yellow Rose presents a nuanced depiction of US immigration, but at the heart of it is a heartbreaking story of a young woman who struggles between putting her family or her dreams first. Between Noblezada’s powerful performance and solid original music, Yellow Rose hits all the right chords.

18. Palm Springs

Move over, Groundhog Day. While the Bill Murray classic has largely monopolized the time loop film genre, Palm Springs gives it a run for its money. Andy Sandberg and Cristin Milioti star as the unlikely duo who are stranded reliving the same dreaded wedding day involving mutual acquaintances and their desperate efforts to escape the seemingly inescapable. The Hulu comedy stands on its own two feet for the good laughs, the chemistry between the two leads, and the film’s emotionally-grounded plot.

17. Let Him Go

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane reunite on the big screen after playing farmer parents in Man of Steel to rancher grandparents in Let Him Go, although this time they are able to display their full acting chops. In this period dramatic thriller, they set out to find their only grandchild following the death of their son only to discover that the widowed daughter-in-law remarried into an infamous crime family. While both Costner and Lane tug at the heartstrings, it’s Lesley Manville, who plays the ruthless matriarch of the family, that really takes command of the screen. Ultimately, Let Him Go is all about family and the lengths one is willing to go to protect it.

16. Unhinged

In a year plagued by the pandemic, Unhinged led the way to the revival of movie theaters back in August and perhaps in some ways it was meant to be the film to do so as the themes of a rage-fueled society and the lack of human connection carry weight. Russell Crowe stars, as the title suggests, as an unhinged psychopath whose road rage torments a woman and her adolescent son. Unhinged is the epitome of pure entertainment and is why we go to the movies. While it’s not quite the most sophisticated thriller of the year, it’s still one helluva ride.

15. Emma

Anya Taylor-Joy has had quite the year with both highs (The Queen’s Gambit) and lows (The New Mutants). But it began before the pandemic with the release of Emma, which she stars as the iconic Jane Austen title character, a socialite who meddles in the love life of others while refusing to acknowledge her own shortcomings in that department. Supported with a strong ensemble cast, beautiful production design, and comedic charm, Emma is not to be missed.

14. The Invisible Man

ln the era of remakes and reboots, very few are as good as Universal’s latest monster flick revival of The Invisible Man. Elisabeth Moss stars as a woman who believes she’s being haunted by her abusive ex-husband, someone she becomes convinced faked his own death and is stalking her without being able to be seen. Filmmaker Leigh Whannell, the writer behind the Saw and Insidious horror franchises, generates good thrills and high-wire tension with the help of high production value and a terrifyingly-good performance from Moss.

13. Dick Johnson is Dead

Documentarian Kirsten Johnson filmed a beautiful, intimate tribute to her father Dick Johnson, who has been suffering from Alzheimer's in the final years of his life. However, instead of dreading his death, both daughter and father embrace it by having him acting out several scenes of his over-the-top demises. Dick Johnson is Dead may focus on the subject manner of death, but this documentary actually celebrates life and the laughs that happen along the way.

12. The Wolf of Snow Hollow

Perhaps one of the littlest-known films of the year, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is not your conventional indie comedy horror flick. Writer/director Jim Cummings stars as an overly-heated police officer who attempts to get to the bottom of a string of murders in his small, snowy Utah town by what appears to be some sort of werewolf, though he remains unconvinced. Featuring one of the final performances from veteran actor Robert Forster, The Wolf of Snow Hollow uses its quirky sense of humor to stand out from the rest of the pack.

11. The Gentlemen

The Gentlemen is a fun, action-packed, crime caper from Guy Ritchie about the London turf war of drug kingpins. Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Goulding, Michelle Dockery, and Colin Ferrell all round out the strong cast, but its Hugh Grant that really steals the show as the comedically manipulative Fletcher, whose only allegiance is to himself. If you like a stylish film with well-choreographed violence and a fast-paced plot, The Gentlemen should be your cup of tea.

10. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Some of the best play-to-film adaptations are the films that feel like you’re watching a play, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of them. Produced by Denzel Washington, Viola Davis gives a transformative performance as Ma Rainey, known as the “mother of the blues” and the clash she had with a pair of White music producers, but she also butts heads with her trumpet player (played by the late Chadwick Boseman), who also has his own music ambitions. While Davis obviously gives other Oscar-worthy performance, it was Boseman who was able to show how incredibly gifted he was as an actor. And while the world lost him far too soon, at least his last role ended up being his greatest.

9. The Kid Detective

One of the biggest surprises of the year was how good a movie starring and produced by Adam Brody was. Brody plays a washed up former kid detective who attempts to revive his once-celebrated career of solving mysteries by getting to the bottom of a murder in his hometown. The Kid Detective is a brilliant dark comedy from newcomer writer/director Evan Morgan with good laughs, plenty of plot twists, and a career-best performance from Brody, who proves he’s more than just the pretty face from The O.C. we all know him as.

8. Mank

Citizen Kane is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and Mank is a worthy tribute. Gary Oldman stars as the title character Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind the iconic film. David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl) managed to capture the epic scale of the 1941 classic that would make Orson Welles proud.

7. Soul

Soul is one of those rare existential Pixar films that goes beyond being children’s entertainment. Following in the footsteps of 2015′s Inside Out, Soul depicts what happens to the soul of a jazz musician who’s convinced his time on Earth isn’t over. While the universe created to explain how souls work and the plot that went along with it falls short of its emotions predecessor, Soul is still high-caliber among Pixar films and a great movie for both kids and adults alike.

6. Another Round

Perhaps the greatest work from Swedish director Thomas Vinterberg to date, Another Round follows four unsatisfied middle aged men who decide to take a theory of task from a Norwegian psychiatrist, who concluded that maintaining a blood alcohol level of 0.050 will enhance their mental and psychological state. Mads Mikkelsen, who’s best known to American audiences as Hannibal Lecter in the short-lived NBC series Hannibal and the Bond villain in Casino Royale, offers a strong, nuanced performance as one of the four educators who embraces this drinking challenge in a film that provides an equal balance of chuckles, cringes, and emotional gut punches.

5. I’m Thinking of Ending Things

From the crazy mastermind of Charlie Kaufman, the writer behind Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Anomalisa, his latest on Netflix is too a mind-bender. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a surreal, zany, and at times disturbing examination of the human condition as the nameless female protagonist played by an incredible Jessie Buckley mulls over breaking up with her boyfriend (played by Jesse Plemons) while visiting his parents’ house. Accompanied with a stellar production design and a crazy-good performance from Toni Collette as “Mother,” Kaufman newest cerebral feature lives up to his iconic reputation of filmmaking.

4. Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee is one of the few genius filmmakers who is able to blend multiple genres together and his latest film is no different. Da 5 Bloods is an action adventure, buddy comedy, dramatic character study, and war movie all wrapped up into one about a group of Vietnam War veterans who return to the former battlegrounds to find the remains of one of their fallen soldiers as well as some treasure that they kept hidden years ago. With a strong ensemble cast that includes the late Chadwick Boseman, its longtime character actor Delroy Lindo who steals the show with his powerful performance. Da 5 Bloods is easily one of Netflix’s strongest films to date.

3. The Assistant

One of the first #MeToo-era films, The Assistant offers the day in the life of a low-level female staffer of a production company who is haunted by the presence of her Harvey Weinstein-like boss (who never actually appears in the film). However, rather than depicting the dramatics of sexual misconduct, The Assistant uses the common subtleties and nuances of the workplace yet maintains the same tension and heartbreak. Anchored by the remarkable, devastating performance by up-and-comer Julia Garner (Ozark), The Assistant is as important as it is well-done.

2. Sound of Metal

Riz Ahmed gives the performance of his career as a heavy metal drummer and former addict whose sudden battle with going deaf upends his life. Sound of Metal is an incredible experience that gives a rare glimpse in the American deaf community which is enhanced by the remarkable sound design that helps the audience actually hear what the musician is going through. It’s truly one of the most rewarding films of the year.

1. The Climb

The Climb takes the generic “man sleeps with his best friend’s fiancé” storyline and turns it on its head. In his feature debut as writer and director, Michael Angelo Covino leads as the not-so-apologetic adulterer Mike and Kyle Marvin, who co-wrote the film, is the good-hearted Kyle who struggles to whether or not to forgive his best friend’s ultimately betrayal. Not only is The Climb is quirky and hilariously written, it’s a remarkably well-made comedy with some of the year’s best cinematography. Between a strong cast, a superb screenplay, and the extremely-high production value, The Climb is at the top of the mountain of 2020′s best films.

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endlessly-cursed · 2 years

Text

FBAWTFT- Vincent Somerset

"𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙪𝙣𝙮𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩."

Name: Vincent Alexander Somerset

Nicknames: Lord Yaxley, Vince

Birthdate: 20th of March, 1901

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Personality Type (MBTI): tbd

Blood Status: Half-blood

Nationality: British

Physical Appearance

Hair: Dark brown with some blonde strings

Eyes: Blue

Height: 1′88m

Weight: 85kg

Body Type: Strong

Skin Tone: Caucasian

Distinguishing Marks (scars, birthmarks, etc.): tba

Background

Hometown: Winbourne Estate

Vincent grew up lacking nothing. He had a loving household, loving and devoted parents who doted on him and loved him and he also loved his life there.

Family

Mother: Viscountess Primrose Somerset-Burke

Vincent and his mother have an unique bond, for he is her only son and heir (not that either of them think of his sisters less!) and he was her firstborn. He loves his mother very much and has her idiolized, even after the incident. He regards her highly and never tried to take power from her.

Father: Malcolm Stolberg-Burke ( @gaygryffindorgal )

Vincent and his father have an unique relationship, being his son and heir. He taught him what it meant to be a man and was his role model growing up, painting him as his hero. He aided him in Harrendale affairs thiugh he never meddled too much, for Harrendale was his sister Alix’s inheritance, being the second-born. The two of them always held each other in high regard until Malcolm’s death.

Sisters: Alexandra ‘Alix’ Victoria Somerset

Vincent loves his sister very much, and is the closest in age, and also heir of an estate, which helps him relate more to her. The two of them shared an unique bond and were always together, and she was the one to take over his estate duties until he was fit to come back as the Lord Somerset. The two of them were inseparable and he always wore his pocket watch that was commissioned by her as a wedding gift to him that read ‘Frater Vincent and Soror Alix, 04 & 06′ which meant Brother Vincent and Sister Alix in Latin. They remained close until Vincent’s death in 2001. Alix would follow two years later.

Lenore Callista Somerset

Vincent, though he clearly loves Lenore, has a harder time relating to her, for she is very much like their father. They often argue and don’t see each other much, but he keeps her in his thoughts.

Jocelyn Cassandra Somerset

Joce and Vincent have a special relationship. He loves his sister dearly and the two of them, though with different ages and goals, are supportive of one another and she’s the one who’s always on his side.

Gia Estelle Somerset

Vincent and Gia are a more of a second parent and youngest daughter kind of relationship. He sees her as his baby and that she needs to be protected and often forgets that she’s his sister, not his daughter. He looks out for her and loves her dearly.

Hogwarts

House: Slytherin

Best Class: Defence Against the Dark Arts

Worst Class: History of Magic

Boggart: Losing Winbourne

Riddikulus: Winbourne turns into a circus

Patronus: tbd

Patronus Memory: Both his parents spoiling him rotten when he was a boy

Mirror of Erised: Making Winbourne thrive

Amortentia (what he smells like): leather wood, sandalwood, wine, fresh pine

Amortentia (what he smells): vanilla, eau de cologne, tbd

Career

11-18: Hogwarts Student

20-25: Viscount of Winbourne

26-29: Participant in the FB events

30-38: Philantropist

40-58: Visount of Winbourne

50-65: Viscount of Winbourne

65+: Retiree

Personality & Attitude

Priorities: His viscounty, his family, his friends and the wellbeing of his people

Strengths: Skilled dueller, good with numbers, loyal, fair and with a good heart

Weaknesses: Ambitious, has quite a temper (like his mother lol), hard to impress and picky like his parents

Stressed: During the FB events, OWLs and N.E.W.T.s, during a crisis in Winbourne

Calm/Comforted: With his sisters, when eating his comfort food, with his mother (he’s a mama’s boy) and when he’s at the fields of Winbourne alone

Favorites: Help his parents with Winbourne, when playing with his sisters, when running around Winbourne, at his dorm with his friends.

Colors: Royal blue, grey and black

Weather: Rainy

Hobbies: Pool, art club, quidditch, try to beat Mina Stagg (@kc-and-co ) to a drinking game, football and playing the violin.

Fashion: Vincent’s dress is always according to his status, and it’s the rare occasion that he dresses in another way. The only time he’s not on an elegant suit it’s with his Hogwarts robes, and most of the time he’s always looking like the future Viscount Yaxley.

Relationships

Significant Other/Love Interest: Clarice Renaux (ex-wife)

Lord Somerset met the Beauxbatons student when they visited Hogwarts and quickly fell in love, getting to the point of eloping. But soon their respective parents found out when the priest of Gretna Green wrote them a letter informing them of the clandestine nuptials, regretful of his deed and both of them made them divorce, for the two of them were too young (eighteen by then) and as an apology and restorance to Miss Renaux’s virtue, Viscountess Yaxley payed a handsome dowry for the disturbance and vowed to make sure their children never met again.

Margaret Taylor (second wife) @camillejeaneshphm

Lord Yaxley met Miss Taylor on a ball his mother threw as a celebration of his anscension as viscount. It had been five years since his secret and scandalous divorce and soon this woman caught his attention. The two met in several quiet, cute dates and dated for a year until Vincent proposed. Though his family was at first reluctant, after the interrogation of his eldest sister Alix and his parents, they agreed to the match and married on a lavish ceremony.

They did not have children until a bit later, which resulted in five equally beautiful children, the oldest, Lawrence, being the next heir of Winbourne. Their marriage was a loving one, and he never took important decisions without his wife and lived a content life. Though he wanted to fight in the WWII, the family agreed that, with an infant son, they couldn't risk him and instead sent some of his men for the war.

The rest of their marriage was quiet and private, away from the overwhelming paparazzi and raised their grandchildren and nephews and nieces happily.

Friends: Toby Brokenshire (@cursebreakerfarrier )

Toby and Vince met on theit first year at Hogwarts after being in the same dorm. In there, they found out their parents (especially Toby’s famous grandfather) and, though very different, they were good friends nevertheless and even joined him for a while on his shenanigans in New York, fighting Grindelwald. The two of them still corresponded and visited one another often.

Rivals: tbd

Trivia

Before his elopment, he was considered the best option to inherit Winbourne and had been trusted to pick the right Viscountess Yaxley

His mother forbid him to marry until the estate affairs were in order because of the scandal

Even after the scandal, he was still a reasonable option

His first kiss was when he was 16, rather late for the boys of his era

He was picky when it came to love

He was Nadia Seymour’s godson

He was very good at pool and football

When preparing for his role, he read the story of his family (the Somersets) in order to see where he could do right and where he could do wrong and where he’d do right for his people

He dislikes chocolate.

He’s a coffee addict

He doesn’t like the charleston

He doesn’t like being the center of attention but he adapts just fine

#character profile #oc: primrose sabrina gray #fantastic beasts #fbawtft #fantastic beasts oc #slytherin #house of slytherin #toby brokenshire #oc: vincent somerset #vincent x margaret #marcent

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silvercrystalwhump · 3 years

Text

Taunting Terror

This is my Day 3 for @whumptober2021 (I forget the specific prompt, just the theme)

Vincent Shield belongs to @ashintheairlikesnow

Tag List: @finder-of-rings @whumpitywhumpwhump

TW: implied past noncon, Owen Grant, disassociation, intimate whimper, noncon touch (nonsexual), derogatory language, etc

Vincent idly listens to Han speak, his mind wandering miles away from the studio. Han practically prances from one topic to the other, half of everything he says has nothing to do with the project.

Ana looks just as bored. Her nails tap quietly against the table next to a beige coffee mug, “Han… our meeting was supposed to begin 15 minutes ago… we’re all here, so why the stalling?”

“Oh but we are,” Han says, waving his hand vaguely towards the door, “A representative from the producers needs to be here before we begin.”

“Why is Marie late,” Ana asks, “She is never late.”

Han, if the uncanny valley was a 50-year-old man, Williams leans back on a heel and watches the door, “Not Marie, someone else.”

Vincent glances down at his phone, 11:47 stares back at him. Before this new setback, he was going to meet Dmitri for lunch. The one thing he was looking forward to today more than likely is going to be postponed.

How in character.

The door opens and a pair of footsteps steps in, “Sorry I’m late, Marie wanted me to have everything on paper first.”

No.

Vincent does not turn around, why would he need to. The air in his throat grows claws and racks a passage down the back of his throat. Suddenly, his shirt is too tight and the air in his lungs is pressed far too much.

A pair of hands, familiar in cursed ways, slide around the top of the chair next to him. Only in his periphery does the tan suit jacket flick into view. Vincent focuses down on the scene and story papers in front of him.

Why?

Han’s lips start moving, but Vincent cannot hear him. Just his breathing… and Owen’s.

Then, the hand on his thigh.

The meeting doesn’t feel real.

Why this… why now?

Even the breathing falls silent. Just the silent drum of fingers on his thigh. The fingertips gently dig into his pants.

Please, leave me alone.

“Vincent!” Ana snaps, ripping Vincent from the brink. They’re standing outside the board room. Ana, face full of concern, watches him tentatively, “Are you alright?”

“Um, yes.” Vincent answers, shaking his head and the icy shards that sit behind his eyes. Glancing down at his phone, the number 12:31 stares up back at him.

“Are you sure,” Ana asks, eyes washing over him. “You went on full autopilot at the meeting the second Owen walked in.”

“I was just tired… and the wait was far longer than it should have been,” Vincent justifies, turning towards the corridor back to where his dressing room is situated. A ghostly hand curls up his leg and brings along with it a shudder.

“Are you sure?” Ana presses one final time. “You don’t seem well, did something happen?”

“No.”

Ana pierces her lips and looks across the hall, “Alright, I’ll see you on set tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to it,” Vincent responds as his mental script closes its curtains.

His mind stays closed as he walks, everything feels numb around him. As if every sense had pins and needles. Every edge is softened, so is how he thinks.

His hand reaches up and barely touches the keypad on the side of his room before.

“You know it’s incredibly rude to ignore someone, right?”

Vincent freezes. The realization takes far too long to settle in before Owen is almost pressed up against him.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Owen says, breath touching the back of Vincent’s neck.

“I didn’t hear you,” Vincent responds, impossibly grateful for the quiet footsteps that echo around them.

Vincent pulls his hand away from the keypad and forces his legs to turn around, panic strangling him from within.

Owen raises an eyebrow and leans the tiniest bit forward. “You’ve never been an unobservant person Vince? Are you sure you just didn’t hear me?”

“I have a lot of things to do,” Vincent mutters quickly, eyes flicking from one end of the corridor to the other, “Just… occupied.”

Please leave me alone. Please.

Owen leans in closer, nearly pressing his nose against Vincent's, "I said what was it like."

“What?” I can’t move. Why can’t I move!

Owen’s voice drops both quieter and more possessive. Vincent begs his muscles to move but the ice chaining them together refuses to budge. “Being someone’s fucking whore.”

“I beg your pardon,” Vincent says as he presses himself against his door. The wood panels against his back feel like a cage. A finger pokes into his sternum.

“Almost everybody has seen it Vince, pretending it was experimenting is only going to get you so far,” Owen growls, pushing into Vincent, “I’ve seen it.”

A pair of heels echo down the hall in their direction and Owen nearly flies off of him.

Vincent rights himself spins around to cover the keypad with one hand and type the code in with the other.

Marie walks past and says a few words to Owen, giving Vincent just a few seconds to slip inside his dressing room and lock the door.

As the heel clicks get quieter, a knock sends Vincent to the back of his dressing room.

“You’re mine Vincent, no somebody else fucking whore. Remember that.”

With bated breath, he listens to Owen walk away as well.

Vincent glances up at the clock on the wall, 12:43. He is supposed to meet with Dmitri in less than 2 minutes.

Instead, he curls into a corner of his dressing room, sinks to his knees, and cries.

#forgotten to found #dmitri o'brian #vincent shield #whumptober #whumptober2021 #whumptoberday3 #whump #whump community #intimate whumper

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writingsbychlo · 3 years

Text

smoke and fire (07a)

word count; 8511

summary; a chemical fire brings chaos, and the card system is initiated as multiple firehouse come together to try an save the staff trapped within the building.

notes; I split this one up again, just because the sum total of the part was over 15,000 words, and it had a convenient divide point, so it just made sense to do so.

warnings; chemical fires, reference to injury, reference to death, gore, burns, vomiting, reference to panic attacks.

As soon as you were stepping out of the ambulance, the stench of chemicals on the air was making your eyes water, the heat from the plant that was over a hundred metres away could be felt all the way from here, and there was a barricade being set up around you to hold the crowds back. As you stood before the building, you lifted your arm, staring up at the blazing inferno and resting your face into the crook of your elbow, breathing through the material as your throat already began to sting.

There was the unsettling sound of emergency alarms ringing out from within the bullying loudly, glass shattering and the sound of splintering wood and foundations from inside, and the trucks of fire engines who had arrived before you were already unrolling their hoses. Looking around for your own team, you found them, Gally immediately unhooking the hoses and handing them out, and you watched as both Chuck and Winston hauled the reel up and over their shoulders, darting away towards the closest hydrants they could find.

The blond head of your Chief came into sight, hopping down from the SUV he drove as the lights on top went out, sloppily parked as he rushed to the scene, and as he moves, he was pulling back strands of longer hair into a bun, and pacing away towards the crews. Your feet were moving underneath you before you could control them, falling into step beside Newt as he let out a rough sigh, scratching at the stubble growing along his jaw that he hadn't been able to shave before the alarm went off, a look on his face that was a mixture between irritation and worry.

It wasn’t often that Vince came out to calls too, your Chief often spent his times at the station, making calls from within, keeping everything under control and making sure that every piece of executive work that needed to be done was completed. He only ever came to calls that required every member of personnel available, when there would be multiple different firehouses to answer a call, much like this one, where decisions would be made by the Chiefs rather than the Lieutenants, and as he paced away to meet the other high-ranking men, you arrived with your group.

Flicking your gaze over both Gally and Thomas, you tried to assess how they were feeling. Something within you told you that neither of them was all that fond of giving up the control in a situation, and while Gally would often listen to what Thomas had to say when it came to a call, it still made it tough. Thomas wasn’t looking at the crew; he was staring out at the chief, watching Vince walk away to meet with the other’s and his eyes narrowed a little, unable to decipher what any of them were saying.

The shaking of your arm caught your attention, a larger hand with spindly fingers hooked onto your bicep, and you followed it up, finding Newt’s gaze, and raising a brow at him.

“I think we’re going to be put on a card system, I’ve only done one of them before, but I hate doing it.”

“I’ve never used the cards before. I don’t even know where we keep them.” You mumbled, and Newt shrugged, his eyes flicking back over to the white van that the two of you had arrived in.

“They’re in the second-cabinet over the bed, top shelf, in a storage box.” He frowned a little as he sighed, shoulders slumping a little, and your own mood was dwindling. “I like to keep them hidden away, I don’t like to see them.”

You could only nod, remembering yourself years ago as you’d been doing your emergency field training, reaching your crisis events stage, and this definitely qualified for that. An explosion within a chemical plant, fumes going up into the air as the fires continued to burn, and the population inside were unable to get out at the current moment. The card system was something that always brought a sour taste to your mouth when you thought about those lessons, the pictures and examples you’d been given, the other paramedics who had come in on those days to discuss their own experiences, it was all extremely saddening.

Four colours of cards; red, yellow, green or black. Too many patients to possibly get into ambulances and get to the hospital, and so you were tasked with the excruciatingly difficult task of making the calls yourself, of taking every life into your own hands and risking making a decision on their health, how strong you thought their chances of survival were, and when you would be forced to give up on them.

Green for patients you came across that would be fine, the ones who could wait for treatment, may not even have to go to the hospital at all, or could be taken by the surrounding public. Yellow cards meant more in need of care, not to be ignored, but certainly capable of waiting if it came to it, and red, those who were in a critical condition and needed urgent care.

Then, there were the black cards. The sombre shade on a string for those who were injured beyond relief, who wouldn't make it to the hospital, or the extent of their injuries would mean surgery was deemed impossible anyway. Those who simply had to be made comfortable, because there was nothing else that could be done for them.

You hated the card system.

Vince was making his way back over, and the team behind you was already beginning to suit up, the rows of chemical hazmat-style suits that lay in neatly stacked rows within the chambers of the fire trucks, stacked up for use that barely ever came, kicking off their boots to try and tug the protective plastic covering up and over their suits, making sure they were sealed at their ankles, before redressing themselves once again. You perked up a little as the Chief arrived, looking a little frazzled already, but it was evident that was the mood of the day, and the other trucks began to fire up the water to spray at the flames that could be reached.

“Alright, ‘21, listen up.” His hands rubbed together, silence falling over the group as mumbled whispers hushed, ready for commands. “Firehouse ‘17 and ‘22 have already started on the outer works, they have hoses set up and are working on the rubble and gaining us entrance. We will be going inside, along with ‘24 who are already beginning to sweep the lower floors.” Thomas only nodded, turning to confirm with his team, and Gally began to instruct the truck crew on their positions, the sounds of zippers and helmets, slamming of doors and the hiss of the engines as the fire trucks were powered down.

“And us?”

Vince turned to look at you, glancing over his shoulder at the scene, looking around, before his eyes were fixing onto a patch of grass, shaded by a few trees, the general public lurking on it as news broadcasters began to arrive and begin to set up. “I’m going to clear you some space, pull up your ambulance, the other three are going to join you. The two of you will stay here, you’re making the most calls, the paramedics from ‘17, ‘22 and ‘25 are going to be doing hospital runs. I want cards, quick and fast, there are over three hundred people trapped in that building right now.”

The confirmation was all you needed, before Newt was jingling the van keys in his hand, a promise that he would get the truck and take it over to park, if you accompanied Vince to begin clearing civilians and broadcasters from the space. You would need to start blocking it off from the public eye and the cameras as best you could with the vehicles, knocking that it would be distracting to your work and distressing to the victims if they were constantly being watched, and you nibbled a little on your lower lips as you looked over the scene.

Vince was already pacing away from you, Newt too, leaving you standing in the middle as your eyes flickered over it, and the only van that would be permanent there would be your’s, every other ambulance being used to make hospital journeys, as you hoped that someone had managed to call up the local hospitals, because they were all going to be preparing for an influx of new patients soon.

The sudden slamming of a door to your side made you flinch, turning to look at the brought red vehicle as you were shocked from your thoughts, and your eyes flicked over to the scene once again.

Thomas was only a few feet in front of you, his foot lifted onto the edge of the van as he redid his laces, the plastic material of the chemical-proof covering sitting undone around his waist, and you made your way over to his side, clearing your throat a little, and he finished doing his laces, turning to look at you silently with a questioning gaze as he stood to his full height. Pushing an arm through one sleeve, he waited for you to speak.

“Is there any chance you could move your trucks over to the edge of the grass for me?”

He turned to look, his gaze sweeping across it, along the sides of the road, before he was looking back to the burning building, seemingly doing the equations silently in his head as he thought it all over, of what equipment they might need, of access that might be impeded, all while adjusting the suit he wore and lifting his helmet onto his head. “I guess so, why?”

“I don’t want the crowds and the media to start gathering around when the wounded start coming out, it’ll give us a little more privacy, make it easier to work, and make the people coming outta’ there feel a little less like tonight's headline news, and more just a person who needs help.” You shrugged a little, hand pushing into the pockets of your jacket as you stared up at him, his lips flicking up at the corners as he stared right back, licking over them to wet them as he nodded.

“I can do that, for you. Give me five minutes, and I’ll get both trucks to move, just tell Minho and Fry where you want ‘em positioned.”

“Thank you, Thomas.” A breath of relief left you, Newt sounding the sirens once as he passed you by in the ambulance, as you gave him a brief nod, stepping away from Thomas as you made to follow the slowly moving vehicle and begin to prepare for the survivors who’d be delivered to you. Spinning on your heel as you went, you found Thomas already watching you go, and your lips pursed, considering your words for only a second, before releasing them; “Be careful in there, okay?”

He seemed surprised for only a moment, swallowing thickly and ducking his head, before he was giving you the same nod you’d given him, and trying to give you the best reassuring look he could in this stressful situation. “I will be.”

He offered you a cheeky smile to follow up, one eye dropping in a wink, before he was twisting on his heel to face away, and picking up a job as he set off to do his job, saving the lives of those who were trapped inside. He paused only for a moment to instruct both of the drovers on their current diversion from tasks, the three glancing over to you for just a second, and Minho offered you a thumbs-up as he did. The truck beside you hissed as it came into action, the tyres slowly inching along the concrete as they were beginning to be repositioned.

Taking up a quick walk as you arrived at the pavement, a space left on either side of the ambulance as Newt already began unloading the belongings from inside that would be needed. There were other paramedics beginning to arrive, the pair from house ‘24 was beginning to lay out neat rows of plastic linings along the grass, pinned down as best they could be to makeshift spots for patients to be placed within, a system that would keep it as organised as it possibly could be, channels moving vertically and horizontally that were wide enough for stretchers to be wheeled through.

Parking one truck on each side of the ambulance, the other vans sat along the opposite curb, not nearly parked as tightly as your house’s vehicles were, all ready for their departing as they were loaded up with victims to be taken to the hospital. The radio inside of your ambulance was crackling as you clambered inside to help, the firetrucks engines powering down before the men were dropping down from the cabins and bolting away after the rest of the team, towards the inferno of flames that had once been a building and business.

There was chatter on the other end of the device, the nurses desk at one of the hospitals, left running as an open line was held in preparations for the emergency barrage that would be arriving soon enough, and you took a deep breath, trying to calm yourself down. A hand knocked on the metal casing the inside of the door, and you glanced over at Newt, before you were opening up the locker with your med bag in, and lifting it onto your shoulder as he raised his brows at you.

“You ready to go?”

“Is anyone ever really ready to start carding people?” You sighed, hopping down from the vehicle and letting Newt hand you a stack of the cards, a collection of strings to hang over their necks that were at least a hundred thick, an equal divide of every coloured card, and you could only hope that the only issue you’d have today was running out of green cards for the people you’d be helping.

There was a twisting feeling in your gut, something making you feel like there was a bad cloud hanging over an already terrible event, a crawling and scratching kind of nausea that made you want to itch at every inch of your skin and squirm where you studio because something felt wrong, and it wasn’t just the smell of chemicals on the air that you’d already grown used to, or the sting of your eyes from the copious amounts of greasy smoke curling up into the air and clouding out the sun in patches of the sky.

Newt’s gaze was still fixed on you, and he offered his hand, tugging you forwards a little and holding onto you as you hopped down from the van, before an arm was wrapping around your shoulders, and you were behind tugged a little closer to his side as he tucked you close to him.

“Fry added a few little extras to the food delivery this week, we can have hot chocolate when we get back.” You huffed a laugh at his words, the two of you turning to face the building as the few minutes of silence that formed the quiet before the storm dragged on into what felt like hours of anxious waiting. “C’mon, everyone loves hot chocolate. It’s a feel-good drink.”

“I never said it wasn’t!”

“The tone of your scoff said it all. There was attitude in your exhale.” He teased, squeezing you a little closer, before letting you go, and moving to talk to the other pairs that were lingered about. As you and Newt were the team assigned to stay at the scene, presumably because your team was the only squad team, and would therefore be here the longest, you were left in charge. Your mind was already spinning, and you were grateful to have Newt, the man already on his toes and beginning os et out a system for how each other house team would begin to take patients to the hospital, to make sure that everyone got there in their due course, and that nobody in need of emergency attention was left behind.

Just as you were waiting, pausing the nibbling of a lower lip that was growing sore for just a second, a pulse of energy washed over you, a second later, glass shattering and stonework cracking as chunks splintered away, and the flames went up louder as your ears rung at the explosion that had taken place. Something unstable seemed to have ruptured within, because sirens grew a little louder, the chatter of the crowds that were being held back, crying mother's and screaming children to accompany the wails of the building, and it was overwhelming every one of your senses.

The silence that followed it lasted only for a minute, everybody in the area going silent for a split second, before more chaos than before was bursting up. Crying relatives and concerned civilians became hysterical as news teams began to gather, the vans pulling up and cameras begging assembled as teams prepared to start covering the disaster.

The logo on the front of the building was almost hidden, charred and disguised by roaring flames, but it had been a well-known company, something in cleaning and industrial usage, and you were sure that it was going to be a big lawsuit that would make lots of lawyers happy within the next few days.

You didn’t recognise the first firefighters to emerge, belonging to another team, but as soon as they began to come out, the first wave of people who had been trapped inside was following. They didn’t seem too the worse for wear, a lot of surface skin wounds and first degree burns, smoke inhalation and dizziness as you sat them down, but the worst it ever got was a few yellow bands for wounds that may want to be checked at the hospital, and a gash across a woman’s head from where she’d fallen in shock, a concussion threatening her, and so you’d dismissed them all.

The first ambulance had left soon after, while you had been kneeling in the grass beside a man who was shaking violently, unable to string words together in his shock as the bottom half of his tie was burned off, still smoking a little, with a burn across the side of his face that you tried to attend to. You forced yourself to let out a sigh of relief, the temperature in the air cool just a little as the jets of water blasted from the colony of firetrucks managed to tame the flames leaving the windows, but there was an ominous orange glow from inside, the huge building nowhere near being under control yet.

Settling onto your knees beside him, you cupped a hand on the other side of his face, nervous eyes finding yours as his jittering died down just a little, before they were welling up with tears instead.

“I’m just going to clean up your injury a little, alright?” He took a minute, nodding his head, and trying to swallow down thickly, before he was tearing himself away, a wrack of painful sounding coughs leaving him, and he gasped for breath between bursts, the smoke inhalation making his throat raw and swollen, struggling to breathe.

You rubbed at his back gently, easing him through it, wishing that there was more that you could do for him, and thinking about everything you needed that you didn’t have on hand. You knew the burn of smoke in your throat, the painful stinging it caused, scratchy, like standing too close to the steam coming from a pan, and burning the inside of your mouth all the way to your lungs. When he finally managed to compose himself, it was with a whispered apology under his breath, and you brushed it off, a sweet smile offered to him as you did, before you were flicking the catch on your med kit once again, and letting it fall open as you prepared to tend to him.

“It’s a surface burn, not too bad. I know it stings right now, but it’ll only take a few weeks to heal, and there shouldn't be any scarring, as long as you don’t mess with it, alright?”

“Is it going to get a scab?”

“I shouldn't think so. It’s going to swell up a little and get itchy, just like a bee sting, but don’t scratch it, alright?” You dabbed carefully along the spot with a cooling wipe, the skin under your fingertips searching hot as it was deep shades of red, even towards the edges, before meeting his natural tan skin tone, and you could feel the trapped heat just from the touch, even through your gloves. “It may develop a blister, but if you take care of it, that shouldn't happen either.”

Swapping out the wipe and tucking it into the main compartment of your bag, empty but beginning to grow with a collection of used materials to be disposed of, you undid the cap, an ample amount of white paste onto two of your fingers, and you used your thumb to smear it across the tips and make it a little more malleable.

“If it gets too itchy, you can take off some of the inflammation by holding something chilled, not iced, up against it. Try running a cloth under the cold tap, wringing it out and putting it in the fridge for a while. Don’t sleep on this side until the skin has healed over, though, that’ll irritate it and make it worse. Any drugstore burn cream should work pretty well for it, okay?” He ran the words back to you, slowly and surely as he tried to commit the advice to memory, and you nodded your head as he got it. “You got someone you can call to come and get you, I don’t want you driving anywhere yourself, but I don’t think this is a hospital case.”

“I can call my neighbour. She works from home.”

“That’s great, there’s phones being passed around for use if you don’t have yours.” Grabbing your bag and sealing up the med box, you didn’t bother closing your bag, just swinging it over your shoulder as it accumulated rubbish, and standing up to your full height, stretching your knees a little as they began to ache, and yet, you knew that by the end of it all, you wouldn't even be able to feel them. You probably wouldn't get out of bed at all tomorrow, though, you’d be so sore after it all.

“Excuse me, sir, do you have time for a few questions?”

You jumped a little at the sudden voice behind you, turning to find a smartly dressed woman, pencil skirt and a blazer, with freshly highlighted hair and manicured nails wrapped around a microphone, and her cameraman only a few feet behind her, fiddling with the switched on the device as he waited for confirmation, half of his face hidden from you as he peered into the lens.

The man on the floor fumbled a little, the plastic sheet underneath him crinkling as he moved, and you watched him gape slightly, the woman balancing on her heels on the grass raising her brows a little, a ridiculously fake smile plastered on her lips to be polite, and she didn’t acknowledge your presence at all, even when you cleared your throat in a points manner.

“We aren’t taking any interviews.”

“I just need a segment for my channel, that’s all.” She hummed, glancing at you over her shoulder, her eyes dragging up and down your body in a way that would’ve made you insecure had it not been for the fact that the bulky uniform and professional hair you wore wasn’t for screen views and attention, but for practicality and saving lives, and that was enough for you.

“Yeah? Well, you’re going to have to find them somewhere else. This is for victims of the fore, not your next interview. Get off my grass.”

She turned to stare at you, straightening up to her full height and standing a few inches taller than you, her eyes narrowed as she tried to seem intimidating enough o get her way, and had it not been for the adrenaline of the situation surging through every cell in your body, you probably would’ve caved under their harsh stare.

“In fact-” Your voice raised a little, enough that Newt and the other patients, paramedics, and news broadcasters that were walking the faintly marked pathways to find their next interrogation victim could hear. “All the news channels can step the fuck off the grass and get behind the vans with the other civilians. We’re treating trauma victims here, you can wait and get your interviews if any steps forward to speak, on the other side of that barrier.”

You raised an arm, pointing at the trucks that Thomas had arranged his men to purposefully park for you, but never taking your eyes off of her, raising a single and challenging brow, and she held your gaze for only a second longer, before she was huffing out, stomping away and back to where you’d commanded her to go. The other pairs of cameramen and hosts followed suit, all of whom were glaring, peering around like vultures and offering interviews out to everyone they passed, trying to tempt the wounded to cross the threshold and set themselves up on-camera.

The next person up was someone who was hunched over a little, a hand clutched around their stomach as they supported themselves on the sheet, another victim retrieved from within the flames was sitting beside them, the two huddled together, one older and one younger, and as you knelt down beside them, their attention flickered to you.

From your initial assessment, you hooked a green card over each of their necks, leaving the handful of coloured plastic necklace slips to the side in order to ensure that they were there, in case more serious problems began to arise. Newt was working along the aisle beside you, his eyes catching yours for only a second, a swift nod, before he was taking place beside a man who’s family seemed to have already found him, a young girl kneeling beside him as another crawled into his lap, and your heart warmed at the sight.

The waves of patients came and went, your focus on the women in front of you being your primary concern, but it didn’t stop the white noise around you from making itself known every so often. There wasn’t a second of break, the second you cleared one plastic sheet, whether it be sending the patient to the hospital or straight home with medical advice, it seemed to be being refilled. Glimpses of your team hidden amongst the similarly clad strangers of other houses kept a soft smile flickering on your face occasionally as you scanned them over, diagnosing one with smoke inhalation resulting in dizziness and nausea, and the other with minor burns and a possible concussion, both being sent to the hospital with a family member who was called to come and collect them, and to give their coloured tag back to a member of staff before leaving.

There were still news reporters buzzing around the edges flashes of cameras and heavy video set-ups lance don shoulders as smartly dressed presenters wandered with perfect hair and microphones to stick into the faces of anyone who would stop to give information for even a second, your blood boiling at the idea of it all. It made you nervous, to know that these people had already been through so much, that you and your team were under so much pressure, and you were being projected live with your actions under scrutiny as it was all making tonight's headlines, ready to be printed on tomorrow’s papers and on the evening’s Twitter trends.

Just as you were searching for your next location, eyes flickering over the patients at who you’d already seen, who Newt had visited, searching over chests and necks for strings that led to coloured cards, before a hand landed on your shoulder, making your jump. Heavy and large, and you sighed a little with irritation as a voice came to follow; “S’cuse me, ma’am, do you have a second to answer a few questions?”

You scowled, shaking your head and squeezing your eyes shut as you tried to contain yourself. The anger was already too much, the stress within your body left you bubbling over on an overly emotional high that could topple in, either way, these kinds of big events always made panic rise up within you, and you’d be emotionally destroyed by the end of it all, frazzled and drained, with nothing to help but some peace and quiet, and comforting yourself with the company of your favourite movie or your bed. “I already told you all, no fucking interviews unless the patients come to you themselves, so unless you’re one of the injured workers from inside, get off my damn grass.”

Spinning on your heel to face the man, your eyes widened, someone much taller than you were was all but towering over you, an expression on his face that was somewhere between amused, confused, and concerned, and he looked around the scene, the uniform shirt on his chest shifting with a rustle of material as he tucked his thumbs into his belt, brows raising a little.

“Officer. Right, sorry, my bad. I’m just a little..” You waved an arm out around yourself, the low groans and cries of pain, a chaotic clamouring of voices, the wails of sirens on trucks and ambulances, the sounds of fire and shouts of teams as their radios crackled, it was enough to give anyone a headache, and there was already a throbbing behind your eyes that was only going to get worse.

“Overwhelmed?”

“Understatement.” You mumbled, and he chuckled a little, your head rolling from side to side, a collection of pops and clicks sounding as you eased yourself out a little. “What can I do for you?”

“More like what can I do for you, actually.” He shrugged a little, looking around over the crowds, and you twitched a little at a particularly sharp cry, knowing that people were needing your help. “Looks like you and the other paramedics have things under control, as far as the chief’s over there say, you and that chap over there-” His head nodded towards where Newt was standing, a sullen look on his face as he hooked a red card over the neck of a young woman who couldn’t be any older than mid-twenties. “-are organising everything here. So, just tell me what you need.”

“What we need?”

“What we can do to help, we just want to offer what we can. It’s a freak accident, and that building is still on fire, so we can’t exactly start investigating anything yet,” You nodded, nibbling on your lower lip as you began to catch on. “So, just tell me what I can do to make things a little easier for you.”

“Okay, well, where to start.” You had no idea, trying to clear your thoughts as to what they would be able to do that would benefit everyone here. “Let’s start with a real barrier, there’s a lot of people beginning to gather, and it’s loud. It makes it hard to work, there are news channel vultures everywhere, and it’s distressing to the injured being brought out, makes them feel like zoo animals or something in a circus. Push ‘em back.”

“You got it, we’ll set up some boundaries. What else?”

“On the topic of the crowds, though, you could start sifting through for family. A lot of them are calling for family members and friends to take them home or to hospital, to take the pressure off of the ambos’.” He nodded as you spoke, and you twisted to look away from him, hands on your hips as you tried to think clearly, a list of necessities beginning to form. “If you can, start going around and getting anyone capable to fill out forms so we can get the right families over, we don’t need more people wandering around and making it too busy to see what’s happening, we need to get exact families there accurately.”

He only nodded, letting you speak on, before you were letting out a sigh of relief as you finally got some support in place.

“Collecting up the cards when people leave, so we don’t run out. We’re on a coloured band system, so if you bring them back to us, we can redistribute them.” His eyes flickered down to the pile of plastic cards in your hands, observing them for a second, and nodding his head. “Lastly, I need some water bottles. A lot of them, these people have smoke inhalation, and they need to be taking slow and steady sips of water, and we don’t have any to give out.”

“I can definitely take care of all that.” He beamed, chest puffing up a little, and he lifted the radio on his shoulder to begin speaking to the rest of the officers that you could see wandering around. “If you think of anything else, come and find one of us.”

“I will. Thanks, Officer, uh..”

“Officer Paris.” You dipped your head, giving him your name in return, and he repeated it to memorise it, before the radio was crackling with a response, and he set off to complete the tasks you’d given to him.

What you would term as the second wave of patients was worse. Despite the constant trickle of what were mostly skin wounds and minor injuries, with the occasional severity coming through, the more serious issues were beginning to arise now. Deeper from within the bowels of the building, those with serious injuries, dripping blood and flesh so raw it looked agonising, and wounds that would make anyone with a faint stomach pass out. The ones who’d been closer to the danger, trapped longer, wounded more severely, and the pressure was beginning to grow overwhelming with a whole new wave of crowds, not enough space for them all as your rush became even worse.

Minho was leading a group out with Brenda and Winston at the rear, and these seemed to be a crowd from deeper within the blaze. Suddenly the once empty and quiet grasses were filled, writhing bodies, spills of blood and raw flesh, dazed patients who could barely remember their own names and tear-stained cheeks. The green cards were a distant memory, yellow running out as you were moving through your stacks of red, and every time you turned, there was another person calling out for your help, another paramedic ready to make a run to the hospital, another family member searching for an employee with concern and stress written into their features.

“Ma’am, I just need you to hold still for me, alright?” It was as though she didn’t processed your words at all, going in one ear and out of the other as she twitched relentlessly, jerking away from you a little more each time as you tried to tend to the injury on her forehead, watching as she whipped around, frantic eyes searching the scene as the trauma she’d witnessed and been a part of.

“Sorry, it just stings, is all.” She let out a sigh, attempting to hold herself still as you worked carefully at the grazes and burns along her skin. It was a simple gash, easy to fix and not much of a concern, the blood no longer beading along her hairline where the cut lay. Her skin was flushed with a pink tinge around the edges as you wiped it clean, pushing back her hair as you tried to judge whether or not to put paper stitches on it and pull the skin back together. She jerked again, hissing under her breath, and you mumbled an apology under your breath, but she only frowned. “I don’t have any right to be in pain, it’s just a stupid cut, there are people hurt worse than I am.”

As if on cue, you watched as a stretcher moved past only a few aisles over, the rustle of plastic and the pained groans of someone who had a red card dangling from their fingertips was rushed past, jostling over the dips and bumps in the grass as they tried to hold it as steadily as possible. “You have every right to be in pain! Just because you aren’t as hurt as them, doesn’t make your pain any less valid.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” You mumbled, settling on leaving it as it was but rubbing a dollop of healing gel into the wound carefully as the second tube of the day was already moving towards its end, and you were utterly exhausted. You weren’t sure how much time had passed, or how many people you’d seen. It could have been minutes or hours, tens or hundreds, but your head was spinning, no time to focus on anything except for the wounded before you. “These cuts can sting like a bitch, I hate them myself, they’re in a sensitive place.”

“Thanks for helping me.” Her voice cracked, tears beginning to build in her eyes, and you let her hair fall back down into place. She couldn't be much older than you were, a charred and torn blouse on her shoulders with a pencil skirt that was tattered, and you hated that she wouldn't be able to look at a smart skirt or a pair of heels here without having traumatic memories of this day again. “I don’t know what happened. One moment I was trying to find a new packet of staples in the storage cupboard, and the next moment, the floor was crumbling in on top of me.”

“I know, these things just come on very suddenly. It can be terrifying.”

She sniffled a little, a breathless and empty laugh on her lips before she was wiping at the edges of her eyes gently. “I couldn't breathe. There was so much dust, and I was trapped, it was dark, and then it wasn’t. Suddenly there were flames overhead, and my ears were ringing, silencing becoming loud silence and screams and-” She hiccuped, and you pressed a water bottle into her hands, encouraging her to take several deep gulps of the cool liquid as the tears now flowing from her face cut tracks in the grey littering of dust on her cheeks. “Oh, God, the screams. It was awful, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget them.”

“It gets easier, don’t worry.” Her eyes found yours, searching you for honesty, and there was no lie to be held. You’d been in many of those situations yourself, and eventually, it got easier to live with, to know you may have survived when someone else didn’t, or simply to know that you did the best you could but it wasn’t enough. “You can’t control everything, and it isn’t your fault. Once you accept that, the guilt leaves you, and it’s easier to live with, because you know you were just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Is that how you cope?”

“Well, yes. That and having people around me who make it easier. You need people like that.” As you swung your bag up onto your shoulder, you stood from where you were crouching, her eyes darting across the crowds as she presumably waited for her next of kin. “You got someone coming to get you?”

“My girlfriend is on her way.”

“Good. Clean that cut once a day, no hairspray of makeup in it until it’s totally healed over, and keep an eye on it for infections. You’ll be all good.” She repeated the words, memorising them, before offering her thanks once again, and just with that, you snapped out of your bubble with her, the noise that had been tuned out to become faded and muffle background noise was suddenly overwhelming again, and you couldn't focus on any one thing.

As you’d tended to her, it was like everything else fell away, each case being given your sole attention, and yet as you slipped between victims to find the next person in need of help, you were dizzy with the commotion once again.

It all became a flurry of movement, time slipping away around you as you tended to one person after another, the green cards you’d been growing familiar with and running out of were now in abundance, each one returned to you was like a kick in the gut, a sea of yellows and reds to represent injuries as victims from deeper within the catastrophe came through. You weren’t sure how long it had been, or how many people had passed you by.

There was mud stained onto your knees and legs from where you leant by the side of patients in the dirt, and there was blood staining your gloves and sleeves, no longer clean as loose hairs fell free from your up-do as you tried to keep it out of your face. There was grime and blood crusted into your hair, smears on your skin and you were feeling the extent of the forming headache beginning to take its toll on you. Your head felt like it was being squeezed tightly, the stress of it all making your hands shake each time you tried to steady them to give stitches, or to hold yourself still to be able to run an exam.

Every person you came to had a different story, and the day was tickling by in a blur, the firemen finally beginning to make a move on the fire itself and the containment over just finding survivors within the walls, your heart thumping with relief and concern each time you saw a member of your team flash by, far too quickly to even exchange polite nods, but at least it just confirmed to you that they were all okay.

As you locked up the backdoors of one ambulance, the pained groan of an older woman who had just handed you back her red card could still be heard from within, and you banged your hand on the vehicle to signal them to leave, the rumbling engine carrying them away from you, sirens flicking not long after they left the curb. You were only given a moment’s reprieve, before footsteps were coming toward you, thudding against the ground behind you, and your eyes slipped close for a second in your exhaustion. With a hand on your arm and a force that pulled you around a little to face them, you tried to focus your eyes on the person before you, doing an initial sweep over them.

You recognised the uniform, matching to your own, identical in everything except for the house number stitched onto the fabric, and you let out a little sigh, at least a little relieved that it was just another paramedic, which would give you a second to gather yourself.

“Who's next?” Their brows raised, a little blood smeared on her shoulder in the vague shape of fingerprints and the strands from her hair was beginning to fall out from her braid, messy and undone, clearly pulled back up in a rush and you could only imagine how the sights at the hospitals must be. There were plenty of people who’d be injured externally from the fire and explosion too, civilians and those who had been passing by at the time, as well as anyone who had removed themselves from the building before a firefighter found them. “I need you to tell me who to take next.”

You blinked a little, unsure of when you’d gotten stuck in your thoughts, and cleared your throat, trying to offer a nod as you processed a catalogue of everybody you’d seen so far. “Uh, yeah. Right.” You looked around, your eyes locking on the person you were looking for, and nodding your head towards them. “There’s a man over there, red card, head split open from the rubble, losing blood fast. I put him in a neck brace and managed to close his wound but it’s going to need stitches and surgery. Definite haemorrhaging.”

She offered you a nod, the House ‘17 paramedic dashing away from you quickly, calling out the name of her partner and you wished you could remember it but it felt as though it had gone within one ear and out of the other, never once stopping to process it or memorise it.

Running a hand over your face, you took a split second, the racing of your heart in your chest was beginning to ache, and your throat was raw, and you forced yourself to take at least one slow breath, holding it before letting go, and feeling your heart calm from it’s rapid thudding, even if just for a moment.

You were caught up taking a moment to yourself that you missed the distressed call the first time, the sound of it rattling around in your brain for a second, and your brows furrowed, eyes cracking open to look over the scene before you as you tried to discover if it had been real. Nobody was looking at you, nobody was calling again, and so you are certain that the familiar and panicked calling had been imagined.

However, when it came again, your entire body stiffened. It was clearer, far more easily recognisable and a lot closer. His voice trembled, deep and rasping and distorted only by the mask that would be on his face, and your head whipped over the scene, before spinning on your heel to search further. “(Y/N)?”

Then you saw him, emerging around the side of an ambulance, head twisting frantically as he searched, a body slung across his arms, burned and bloody and flopping almost lifelessly within his hold, and the water bottle in your hands shook a little as it fell away, half-empty and rolling away from you across the grass with your shock. “Thomas!”

He turned, shoulders relaxing a little as his gaze set on you, and he took rapid steps towards you. Searching for the closest empty plastic-lined bay to him, finding one with the sheet flapping a little in the wind, and pointing it out to him. He paused, your feet already moving underneath of you as you went to meet him, and he twisted to a new angle, meeting you at the bay as he sunk down to lay the body delicately into the grass.

Whoever it was writhed as soon as they were placed down, curling in on themselves and groaning, arms wrapping up, and something between a pained yell and a sob left them, your heart cracking at the youthful sound of their voice. Dropping to your knees, a painful shock ran over numbed nerves, sparking you up in pain from where you thought you’d lost all feeling whatsoever, but that wasn’t where your mind was at.

Setting down your bag, Thomas dropped to his knees on the opposite side of you, and you stripped off your gloves, swapping them out for a fresh pair as you looked at the extensive injuries this boy held, looking to be even younger than Chuck was, barely even eighteen, possibly even younger, perhaps just an intern, as you rolled him over onto his back slowly. Stripping off his helmet, it clattered and rolled in the grass, the mask following, and then you were catching sight of panic-stricken and worried eyes, flecked with golden speckles that seemed dulled in his fear, and his brows were pulled tightly together.

“I-I dug him out of burning rubble. You can help him, right?”

He swallowed thickly, and you ran your gaze over him, pursing your lips, and taking a deep and steadying breath as you prepared to speak. “I’m gonna’ do everything I possibly can.”

“I should have done more. I should have found him sooner, I should have checked sooner.” His voice rose a little higher with each criticism he gave himself, and his eyes were fixed on the boy, you weren’t sure if he even knew if he was speaking aloud or whether those were thoughts he’d been intending to keep secreted to himself, attacking himself within his own mind, accidentally exposed.

The boy wretched, a heaving cough that was dry but splattered blood across the ground, beside him as he twisted to turn over, and you brushed back the hair out of his head, picking up a simple and cleansing wipe of aloe vera to begin wiping at blood and soot-stained skin, to be able to see what you were doing. The boy was in and out of consciousness, and Thomas lifted an unstable hand, gaze flicking to you for permission for only a second, before he was placing a hand on the boys shoulder softly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner, kid.”

“Thomas..” He shook his head, unwilling to meet your eye, as though he knew the pitying look that would rest there. He needed help, he needed comfort, the same way that you had done not so long ago after your own traumatic incident. His hands were covered by thick gloves, the ones that he could scarcely feel anything through anyway, and he was covered almost head to toe by protective equipment, save for the helmet and mask he’d removed, the only skin that was visible to you.

Resting a hand on his jaw, your thumb swept over his cheek softly, feeling the tick of the muscles underneath as you slowly guided his face back up, sad eyes meeting yours, and his head tipped into your hand as his chin trembled. “I should have found him sooner.”

“It’s not your fault. I can take care of him from here, I promise. You found him, you saved him from that building.” He sniffed, nodding his head a little, and he brought up a gloved hand to sit over yours on his jaw, rubbing his thumb over the back of your palm as your fingers ran gently over his skin, scratching lightly enough to be soothing. “Go save more lives, and let me save his.”

He paused, before he was picking up his equipment again, and nodding his head. “Thank you.” His lips flicked up at the sides, no real joy in them but it was a token of his gratitude, and you returned the empty gesture, everything inside of you feeling empty, and you choked back the emotions within you as he left, and you didn’t dare to move until you’d seen him fade into the cross to returned to duty.

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