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ben-talks-art · 1 year

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Thoughts on Ben 10

I've seen that some people started doing reactions series of the original Ben 10 show on Youtube, and seeing their reactions got me kinda nostalgic and in the mood to talk about it a little since I honestly really, really like this show.

So I figured, why not just make a post about my feelings towards the franchise, characters, aliens, storylines, and overall just sharing what I liked about it?

Guess I should start with the obligatory "For those who never watched the show or know nothing about Ben 10..."

Basically, this series is about this one kid who has a watch that allows him to turn into a bunch of different aliens for a short period of time, and uses it to help people and fight bad guys while going on travels around the country with his grandpa and cousin.

At first he starts with only ten aliens (thus giving the show its name) but as time goes on he keeps adding more and more to his list trough different ways (thus completely invalidating the show's name). Sometimes he will unlock a new alien at random, sometimes he will meet someone that will use a code on the watch that will unlock it for him, and other times he will collect the DNA of other aliens he fights.

The aliens the kid turns into are the highlight of the show.

Each one has its own unique design, ability, voice, body behavior, way of moving and other little things that make all of them feel distinct and unique. (You can check out one of the official artist's DeviantArt page to see some of his comments on many of the designs and how hard they were to animate.)

What was cool about the show is that you never knew what alien Ben was going to use to save the day so it made the experience feel fresh and exciting as you kept wondering what was going to happen, kinda like when you play a gacha game and you don't know what you're gonna pull out.

It's like having an entire Justice League or Avengers team inside one person. You had all these great characters that you knew little to nothing about and you would just watch and wait to see what was cool about each of them, and the show always did the best it could to make each alien feel as cool as possible... Except for Ripjaws, it was clear that after a while they had no idea what to do with him.

Everyone had their favorite aliens who they hoped would get used in the episode, but it was also nice to see other aliens you might not think you would like also getting the spotlight and making you realize everyone can be useful if given the chance and used in the right way.

It promoted the idea of experimenting with new things and exploring untapped potential.

Aside from the alien roster, the show also had fun playing around with its premise. Usually Ben would do something that affected his normal human form and that would have some effect on his alien forms as well.

For example, one episode Ben got showered by the fountain of youth and turned into a kid, so all his aliens de-aged as well, other time he went inside a videogame so his aliens started to wear gaming clothes like Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2. Another episode had Ben get a cold so his fire alien turned into an ice alien, another had him be stuck for one alien form for the entire episode, another one had him break the watch and anytime he transformed it would randomly combine two aliens.

It felt like the writers were trying to do anything they could with the idea of a watch that turns you into different creatures, like they were trying to have fun with its own premise.

Like, you would see the episode where the aliens get younger or older and you would go "well, now I want to see what all of them younger or older look like!" and that would just make your imagination go crazy.

Same thing for the episode where they mix two aliens together, imagine the massive amount of fanart that this episode inspired!

There were also episodes where Ben would turn into Halloween creatures like a werewolf, a mummy, or a ghost, but each of them still had the "that's an alien not a monster" theme around them, so again you would go "What would a vampire alien look like? What would a demon alien look like? What would a dragon alien look like?"

It just kept building and building on top of different possibilities.

Ben 10 was so good because it made you feel rewarded for being a kid, rewarded for being curious, for having creativity, for enjoying weird and out-of-the-box ideas.

It rewarded you for wanting to have fun and wanting to play around with different ideas.

Even the villain. You could teel that the creators were trying to have fun with what they could come up for Ben to fight with.

They had a guy that was some sort of abomination that combined all of Ben's aliens, a dude with the head of a squid that could turn off Ben's powers with the touch of his finger, a mad scientist that always kept trying to steal the DNA from Ben's aliens and fusing it with animals, and even one of Ben's own aliens who managed to come to life and escape from the watch.

Watching this show was basically a game of "Okay, what idea are the writers gonna explore this time? What crazy thing will they do now?" Like, they later make it so his cousin can use magic spells, and they also later reveal his grandpa was a secret agent who happens to have a lot of high-tech, and they would mix all this stuff while fighting crime and saving the day.

It was just fun. This was just a really fun show.

But... It wasn't perfect...

The biggest problem of the series was that the sense of character development was non-existent.

This series had three main characters, Ben, his cousin, and his grandpa, and the relationship and chemistry between then is pretty much the same throughout the whole thing.

Ben is always immature and jumping into things without thinking, his cousin is always nagging and butting heads with him, and his grandpa always has a pretty good lesson to teach that everyone is just going to forget in the next episode.

There are so many times that I'm watching this and going "Ben should know better than this" because he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and it gets really tiresome after a while.

Same thing with his cousin, they keep writing scenes where her and Ben just keep bickering and arguing for no reason and it just makes them feel so annoying to watch.

I never got why animated shows think watching people bickering is fun, to me it's just obnoxious. My least favorite part of any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show is when Raph and Leo just start fighting because the plot says so. I guess you could say it's realistic that teens would argue but... Just because it's realistic doesn't make it enjoyable.

There is also the fact that I never felt the show truly dived into why we should root for Ben or why he wants to be a hero.

For instance, there is a scene where Ben sees a city getting attacked and he just starts smiling as if he's glad he gets a chance to be the hero and fight bad guys.

I never felt Ben wanted to help people because he cared about people, honestly it felt like he just wanted to feel the joy of being a superhero. Which, again, he's a kid, so probably it's realistic, but realistic doesn't instantly means good.

For a show about a kid that could turn into ten heroes, they never really sold why Ben had what it takes to be a hero.

That's not to say they didn't had episodes about Ben being humble, noble, or heroic, they actually had a lot of them. They had episodes about him facing his fears to save his cousin, learning the value of teamwork, learning to put others' needs before his, learning to let go of personal desires for the greater good... But these things just never stacked on.

I never got a sense that Ben was growing from his experiences, it felt like he was just learning some random lesson to get through the episode, which is a shame because a lot of those were some really good lessons, and good lessons for kids no less, but they would just be forgotten by the time the next episode started because... I don't know, I guess they just liked Ben being very flawed and immature.

But honestly, even with this tiny problem, it's still a really good show. It has a lot of creative action, some really inventive designs, and like I said, It just does a great job promoting the idea of having fun.

I particularly love the scene where they show Ben inventing "diamond surfing", like, how can anyone look at that and not think this is gonna be a fun show?

So yeah, small lack of character development aside, I still recommend this series.

I also want to talk about the other pieces of media that also take place in this series' timeline.

"Protector of Earth" is a licensed game that came out around the Ps2/Ps3 era and I remember being honestly a lot of fun. It was a beat-em-up where you could play as five aliens while having access to some honestly really creative attack combos. It was also how I, a non-English speaker, finally found out why the alien "XLR8" was named like that.

"Secret of the Omnitrix" was a movie that had a premise of the watch accidentally going into self-destruct mode and had Ben travel through space in order to find the inventor of the watch so he could ask him to turn it off. Really good movie overall, just wish they had tried to be a tiny bit more creative with the action scenes. There are way too many "laser shooting" fights and the final battle is basically Ben getting an "I win" button. It was kinda anticlimactic tbh.

"Destroy all Aliens" is another movie but this time done in 3D. I actually liked this one a lot. They had Ben be stuck with some sort of randomizer feature so he keeps shifting from alien to alien every couple of minutes while fighting a guy that can teleport, so we get some really creative action scenes with all the aliens as they keep going from one part of the globe to the other.

There is also a live-action movie called "Race against time" that... Surely is a movie that exists...

Honestly, the most I can say about it is that I'll never understand why they didn't give the title "Race Against Time" to the movie about the watch going into self-destruct mode, kinda feels like a no-brainer to me.

Then we have the sequels, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien...

And I'm going to sincerely apologize to all of its fans right now but I really don't like either of these shows.

I don't want to talk about them too much since my feelings towards them are mostly negative and I don't want to dunk on what could possibly be someone's favorite show... But they just did so little for me.

Now, I'm not saying they're bad, just saying that I myself didn't like either of them very much... But while I don't like these shows, I do like certain things in them.

Alien Force is about Ben, who's now five years older, teaming up with his cousin again, as well as one of his former enemies now turned ally, and getting a new set of ten aliens.

The idea of ten new aliens seemed cool at first. Honestly, when I first heard about the show I thought the new aliens were like fusions of the old aliens, like one looked like a fusion of an ice alien and a ghost alien, one looked like a fusion of a cloning alien and a small alien, and another looked like a plant and fire alien. They looked really cool and they had some really creative designs.

The plant/fire one and the ghost/ice one actually became some personal favorites of mine. They had some really fun and creative powers.

The ice one in particular apparently got really popular with fans due to the idea of being a moth that rested its wings in the shape of a cloak, kinda like they used to do in Gargoyles, and because they gave it an interesting episode where it gives birth to a ton of babies... That, as far as I know, we never see again. 🤔

As for the others aliens... They were there... I'm sure they all have their fans, I'm just not one of them.

Ultimate Alien was basically more Alien Force, except now some of the aliens could "Mega Evolve."

And again, a lot of the evolved forms didn't really do much for me, except for the ultimate form of the clone alien, which legit felt both really cool and really creative. I just loved that design.

Aside from that though, not really much positive I can say about these two shows. It just wasn't for me.

And finally, there was Ben 10 Omniverse, by far the most ambitious Ben 10 show.

They ditched the whole evolution thing but Ben now had access to basically every alien he ever had in the entire franchise, as well as every villain he ever had before, and they were a lot more open about the idea of exploring other planets and seeing different alien worlds. The world-building (universe-building?) took a major focus in here.

They also kept trying to push this odd gimmick of going back to the original 10-year-old Ben.

Sometimes Ben would travel back in time, or flashback to when he was a kid, sometimes he would switch brains with his body from the past, sometimes he would shrink into a kid, and other times he would visit another dimension from when he was still young and see how he would have turned out if he had no grandpa.

Basically, the name of the game changed from "how can we explore the idea of a person with access to ten aliens in a creative way?" to "how can we tie back to the original show?"

It seemed like they were trying to go back to its original focus of exploring the potential of its premise, but this time going a lot more out-of-the-box than ever before.

Getting to see every single past alien again was really cool but many of the new aliens added kinda felt like filler.

There is like one or two that I really liked, like this one alien that's like a living planet with its own gravity, but most of them just looked lame to me.

But, again, every alien from the past is here, so even if had an episode where you don't like one or two of the aliens used, you would still have five or six of the classic ones to enjoy, which was always refreshing.

The writing still didn't have that big of a sense of progression but I liked this Ben a lot more than the old Ben from the first show. I actually think this series had the best character writing out of all of them. Everyone here has great chemistry and is a lot more charming than before.

Sometimes the tone was also hit-and-miss. It would often try too hard to be humorous and end up losing a sense of stakes, making you feel like you were watching a cartoon instead of an animated show, but still had plenty of things to like.

They tried a lot of new things (sometimes way too many), most of them I liked, some of them I didn't, but I still appreciate them taking the risk to try.

Ben 10 is overall a very interesting franchise and I'm always curious to see what they try to do next with it.

#ben 10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 desstroy all aliens #ben 10 protector of earth #ben 10 secret of the omnitrix

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ask-hunterxhunter · 3 years

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Helloo royal Guards as yandere please

But without the presence of Meruem because I find it difficult for them to fall in love with Reader while serving the King.

Mmmh, Neferpitou with a Reader male because my headcanon is that she is a infertile female uhhh I dont know how to explain it but I think that in the ant castes there are infertile females that are workers

Yeah, as far as I know, that's how it is with ants... I'm not an expert, but I think the female workers are infertile and care for the queen. Their development depends on how much food they receive when they're larvae. If there is abundance, some larvae will be "princess ants" (fertile and will leave the colony to start their own once the time is right).

Hmm... The Chimera Ants, however, seem to work quite different. Besides the whole "Ant Giving Birth to an Anthro Lion" and what not, they didn't end up starving once the queen died (which I read happens because there are no more larvae and the ants need them to properly feed) and many of them left to try starting colonies of their own (even some of the males seemed to want that, not just females like Zanzan)...

Perhaps this is more like some species of wasp? I've read that the queen produces a pheromone that keeps the others infertile. Once she dies, they battle for dominance in order to become the next queen. With the Chimera, however, they left for new territories rather than stay and fight...

...

Is there an entomologist in the house?

Neferpitou

The royal guards, regardless of Meruem’s presence, are not exactly easy to deal with even in their normal state (and I don’t think this is simply because they are not humans). Take them to Yandere level and, well, let’s just say it is not a pretty picture…

Pitou is not someone whose interest is easily aroused (she is the kind that “knows several people but regards only a few of them as her actual friends”) and, in a sense, the opposite is also true: It’s not easy to lose such interest, either. With her in Yandere-mode, well, it’s basically impossible. Once you’ve realized what is going, taking the usual measures to try dealing with it (such as moving, contacting the police, so on), don’t waste any time hoping she will “move on” or “change targets” as some stalkers do. It's not in her nature (both due to her personality and instincts).

Not that you would certainly realize what is going on right away. It would depend on her mood and how she decides to deal with her feelings (and she can’t change this decision): She may just go for the straight, extreme actions or keep a convincing facade of normality for a while… Regardless of whether this “normality” is you trying to kill each other or being friends (or she at least living in peace among humans)...

In the “enemies” case, Pitou would not spend days brooding about having fallen for an enemy and trying to get rid of those feelings. She would just shrug the situation off and start to debate whether it’s best to kidnap you right away or try to court you. If she’s working with other Ants for whatever reason or they just happen to be in the area, she would make sure everyone knows you are not to be hurt (and may God have mercy on whoever doesn’t listen). Her attacks would still be convincing from your point of view while being harmless playing in Pitou’s mind. After all, she lets you escape with no injures!

The “convincing facade” is more regarding how deep (and unsettling) her feelings are. In both scenarios, she would confess soon and, being what/how she is, likely act on it. No matter how much you explain you’re not interested or what arguments you use, Pitou would just wave her tail, perhaps ask what you mean exactly in that “innocently curious” tone of hers and… Completely ignore what you just said.

Well, okay, maybe you need to remember she isn’t completely human, so you can’t demand that she behaves like one, right?

Oh, boy, are you making a mistake… Not being human doesn’t mean that Pitou doesn’t understand that there are limits.

She understands.

She just couldn’t care less.

Remember when she probed Pokkles’ brain with him still alive? When Gon and Killua saw her for the first time? This is nothing next to how she can be when she’s obsessed with you.

I mentioned she would act on her feelings, right? Here’s another thing: She is also likely to do so in the manner of an animal trying to attract a particular mate. And because we’re talking Yandere-mode, I don’t mean the “bird dancing” or “penguin offering a pebble”. Not even the “cat giving you a dead prey”…

If you’re friends/she’s living in the human society, there would be some restraint at first, to the point her insistence would seem innocent… Then she would either grow impatient and kidnap you, or things would escalate, giving you hints to the darkness of her feelings until you’re forced to accept that this friend is a threat to you. Maybe after returning home, you find a note in your bed in which Pitou wrote that she loves how soft your bed is, how your home’s security is lacking… And, by the way, that person seems to have a crush on you… Hmm… Should she break their hands or their legs? The playful tone of the note only makes it darker.

Somehow you know she is not kidding.

If you’re enemies, well, she has no reason to restrain herself from the start. Her interactions with you would become far darker even if she miiight not kidnap you right away (for whatever reason) especially since she wouldn’t waste time playing by human rules. Pitou would find a way to make a claim (pinning you down, rubbing herself against you like a cat, and even leaving a love bite/hickey on your neck are very much on the table) or say it loud and clear in battle when there are other humans around. This isn’t just for the other humans, but for you as well: You’re hers, now. There is no room for discussion.

Also, in this scenario, it’s not impossible that Pitou’s “love” started with her deciding to make you her pet. Collar and all.

It should be said that Pitou is a cat in almost every sense, so the tendency to “play with her food” is very much present... Yes, she sees you as a “mate” rather than “prey”, but your attempts to avoid/hide from her consist of an opportunity that is far too good to miss! You change address and, after a few days, start to relax… Only for her to leave a new “present” at your door! It’s both funny and cute how you thought something so simple would keep her away! Awww, you’re so adorable!

Again, it’s true that some of her actions (such as this) have no malice whatsoever behind them, but I repeat, don’t let yourself be fooled: She is very much aware that what she is doing is creepy and wrong and why. I’m repeating this because Pitou can be as charming and cute as a cat… And as devious and sadistic as any human.

While some yanderes give you time (perhaps hoping you’ll eventually come around or because chasing you is so much fun), Pitou is among those who won’t take long before deciding to “take you home”.

Pitou loves having you all to herself and will be very affectionate, especially when it’s just the two of you. Maybe this sounds a little cute on principle? Yeah, trust me, it is not. It’s terrifying! Even when you reject her and she caresses your head saying you’re cute, you can see the insanity in her eyes, mixed with a sick infatuation.

It doesn’t help that, at times, her being “affectionate” involves brushing your hair, cuddling and even bathing together. Not only this invasion of space can already be uncomfortable, something about how Pitou does it makes you feel too much like a pet, especially when she talks about how much she loves you, how lovely you are, and how she is never going to let you go. In this situation, and the way she speaks, those words make you feel cold.

You should have realized by now that there is no reasoning with her and this isn’t because she is not human. Pitou is likely to twist your arguments or make points that would frankly make you think she learned from Illumi or Hisoka (and she only does that because she thinks it’s funny, anyway).

As for Pitou, well, she can’t say she is happy that you’re uncomfortable, but she believes it’s just temporary and you’ll get used to your new life… Hey, humans capture animals all the time to put them in zoos or circus. She isn’t that bad in comparison, now, is she?

She’s easily the kind of yandere that responds to pleas for freedom by caressing your head and saying you’re cute. How could she possibly let you go? You’d run away! Besides, she can keep you well-fed and protected. You say such silly things, love!

That’s not to say Pitou doesn’t have a limit to how much rejection she can take or her patience. And this is a line you don’t want to cross. It’s hard to say if Pitou would get to the point of physical punishment, but this doesn’t mean she wouldn’t make use of other means.

Menthuthyoupi.

It’s not easy to catch the attention of any of the Royal Trio, each for their own reasons. In Youpi’s case, it’s partially because he doesn’t have any human DNA on him, so despite being able to communicate and all, he doesn’t usually pay that much attention to people. It’s almost like he’s an alien (or we are, in his view). Even in a scenario when he is living in peace with humans, he doesn’t have exactly a clear opinion about them. They just exist. Maybe a few of them are okay enough, but that’s it… And in a scenario when he is still fighting them, well, they are the enemy. It’s pretty simple.

Youpi is direct, both in personality and as a Chimera Ant (in that he follows his instincts without hesitation). As such, like Pitou, he wouldn’t avoid his feelings once he comes to understand them. It’s a little strange, yes, but he accepts the fact that he loves you and that’s it. That said, Youpi would be initially confused (especially if you’re an enemy. How on Earth did he develop this sort of feeling for someone he’s supposed to kill?), and he wouldn’t make a move until he is sure of what he is feeling and what he wants.

Sadly, because this isn’t him in a healthy state of mind, this doesn’t mean anything good for you. This isn’t a shy monster-boy finding a human he considers special. This isn’t even “enemies falling in love” or “dark romance”. This is an “already dangerous individual” developing an equally dangerous obsession.

At first, Youpi starts to stalk you (if you’re his enemy/if you’ve never spoken before) or try to find excuses to spend more time with you (if you’re on friendly terms) in this attempt to understand exactly what is going on with himself. During this time, his feelings for you become stronger along with his desire to know everything about you. He’s curious. He’s fascinated. He wants to see you more often. He wants to talk with you… He just wants to be near you…

It’s pretty disturbing because, despite his size, Youpi will find the means to stalk you without anyone realizing it, just like an animal hunting. You may notice a shadow here and now, feel a chill up your spine, but it won’t be enough to make the danger clear enough. If you two are enemies, there are chances you’ll realize that there is something is wrong, as he either avoids fighting you (no issues with anyone else, though) or that he doesn’t seem to be actively trying to hurt you as much as before… Despite this, you’ll never, ever imagine he is in love with you.

Well, disturbing as it may be, it sounds almost as harmless as he can be in this scenario, right?

Not the case. You can’t forget how obsession grows, how it affects a person, and that it gets to the point when merely stalking isn’t enough. There is no such thing as a harmless yandere/stalker. So even if Youpi, at first, is satisfied with merely watching you from afar and making sure you aren’t hurt, it starts to not be enough. He sees you with your friends, smiling at them, hugging them, laughing… And he starts to imagine how it would be to have you doing these things with him, to be the one who makes you smile, to be the one holding you… And he realizes he wants it.

He loves you. He wants you.

And there is no reason to not act on those feelings.

Regardless of the circumstances between you, he seems to take the rejection well (if you manage to control the shock, act calmly and explain your reasons for it). At first, he thinks about your points and may even understand them… Only to find out that he doesn’t care. He can’t forget you. He can’t let go of you… And honestly, he doesn’t really want to. That you don’t feel the same now doesn’t matter. Don’t some couples start not feeling the same for each other, only for those feelings to change later?

In the case of “peaceful existence”, it might be easier to get a glimpse of his instability than with the Neferpitou, but it doesn’t make much of a difference. Even the precautions people normally take in those situations would only work for a certain time… The myth of the animal that “will pursue its prey to the ends of the Earth once it has its scent” is true when it comes down to Youpi (literally even).

Now, while Youpi is less likely to resort to kidnapping (at least right away), he would still find ways to inject himself into your life, so even then, you can’t say you’re free. He may not go straight to threatening your loved ones (and it’s hard to predict if he would follow with it), but there are many other tactics that he could and would use.

And being less likely to kidnap you doesn’t mean he wouldn’t if he didn’t decide it is the better course of action. After all, no matter how strong you prove yourself to be, it doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It doesn’t mean you can’t be hurt. If he keeps you, he can’t make sure you’re safe.

Either way, there is no way to be free of him.

If he kidnapped you, Youpi wouldn’t go so far as to place you in an actual cage or chain you up, but he would find means to make sure you can’t leave.

He is easily the most patient of the trio, including with your rejections and attempts to escape. It doesn’t please him and nothing can convince him to let you go, but at least Youpi doesn’t get angry, condescending, or twist things around. In fact, it gets to the point when you can lose control and try hitting him that he wouldn’t even raise his voice. He would just hold your wrists (carefully) and try to calm you down…

Now, just because he isn’t human, it doesn’t mean Youpi is unable to understand that what he is doing is wrong and why you’re so unhappy. Hey, animals also don’t like to be taken from the place they consider their home like that. He can relate, he can understand. But his obsession is too great for him to let you go and, instead, he hopes that you’ll adapt with time.

Not having human genes and understanding even less about humans than Pitou and Pouf, in his desire to make you comfortable (and make you accept him), Youpi would likely try to learn what he can about humans (probably even asking for Pitou’s help).

For Youpi, your presence alone makes him feel good. While he wouldn’t force you into things that make you uncomfortable or excessively invade your personal space the way Pitou might, there would still be times when Youpi would want to show you some affection. Chances are, he would enjoy holding you close (especially because, next to him, you feel so small and cute) and nuzzling you, which is not only a common expression of affection among animals, but it also gives him an extra opportunity to enjoy your scent.

Youpi might be less cruel than most of yanderes, but this doesn’t mean much. At the end of the day, whether he has kidnapped you or not, the situation is still essentially the same. You’re being hurt either way…

Shaiapouf.

Even in his normal state of mind, for all his apparent calmness and self-control, it’s been showed several times that Pouf can be actually quite intense with his emotions, to the point they cloud his thoughts (and that’s a polite way to say it). Well, multiply that by a thousand and you’ll only scratch the surface of how he becomes as a Yandere.

Even if, by some miracle, this is a scenario where Pouf lives peacefully with humans it doesn’t mean he likes them. It’s more that he “tolerates” and “accepts” their existence as an unpleasant fact and it’s very much unlikely he would have human friends (he would probably find a way to live with comfort and luxury while having as little contact as possible with them). In a sense, you can compare him to some yokais in Inuyasha… He doesn’t go out of his way to antagonize humans (and risk a fight), but he sure as hell doesn’t care for them.

Until you, that is.

Pouf will never be able to say when his feelings for you started to grow and it will take a long time for him to understand them. By the time this happens, well, he is way into “Obsession Land”. Once he can no longer deny what he feels and it hits him that he loves you, his first reaction is… Well, pretty much an emotional tantrum, followed by self-despise and intense fury. How could he ever fall for a human? Disgraceful! Terrible! How could he fall so low? He even tries to hate you for making him feel that way, only to realize he can’t.

This lasts for a while, with him trying to convince himself to bury those feelings, no matter what it takes. If you two are enemies, be prepared: Pouf may consider killing you as the only way to “get rid of this shame”. He soon realizes he can’t bear the idea of you being hurt, let alone by him (well, like this, I mean)… But at least you’re not having to deal with his obsession yet.

Sadly, it doesn’t mean this will last long enough for something to happen before things get out of control. Pouf can’t get you out of his mind, possibly deciding to “observe you” in order to “remind himself” that you’re just a human: Flawed, inferior, and unworthy. This evolves into stalking and has the opposite effect: He becomes more and more infatuated, as well as worried that you might get hurt. You’re so beautiful, so gentle… You should not be fighting! At all! Oh, you’re an angel. No wonder he fell for you! You’re perfect for him!

If this is the “peaceful scenario”, the course of events is still pretty similar, no matter how you’ve met. At first, wanting to get you out of his system, he may be cold whenever you meet and even a little nasty, but it won’t work. He will start to long for more of your presence and if he manages to spend time with you, to consider you only of the few (if not the only) human who is better than the rest of the masses.

Either way, once he accepts that he loves you, you’re screwed.

In the “enemy scenario”, Pouf may try once to convince you to come with him, speaking highly of you and how much he loves you… In his mind, it’s poetry. In reality? The words may be pretty, but the way he says them, the shine in his eyes, the way he insists to hold your hands between his… Well, it’s creepy. Pouf may accept you denying him for a while, but it won’t take long until he seizes the first chance he has to take you. He was just being polite, offering you the chance of doing so by choice (if he does that when you’re gravely injured in a battle, he will use that frequently to point out he saved you and how you need him to keep you safe).

In the “peaceful scenario”, again, it’s not that much a different course of events. Your attempts to make him understand you’re not interested are ignored and there is precious little that anyone can do to keep you safe and, yes, including the Hunter Organization. He would do everything to get you.

In his mind, he is not doing anything wrong. If anything, his actions are almost heroic and proof of his devotion to you.

When you wake up in an unknown location and start to freak out or try to escape, Pouf reacts as if this is just adorable, then going on about how he loves you and wants to keep you safe. And let me tell you, this isn’t a “flowery speech” or like his funny moments in the anime. At this moment you realize you’re in a lot of trouble and that the chances of Pouf ever letting you go are non-existent.

It's not easy to determine exactly how deep his delusion goes; if it’s only about the “perfect life” you two will share or if it includes you. It’s not impossible that Pouf isn’t really in love with you, but rather an idealized version of you. He may also believe that, deep down, you do love him and just need time to realize it.

Pouf is the “adoring” kind of Yandere. He would love to spoil you, care for you, and would want to lavish you with gifts. Perhaps you’d expect him to be the less dangerous of the trio, or at least the most manageable, right? You’re dead wrong. Pouf is actually the worst of them, maybe even on the list of the worst yanderes of all Hunter cast.

His personality also means Pouf doesn’t believe anyone is worthy of your attention and if there is anyone you like (or that he thinks you like), it’s just because they’re manipulative and toxic. It’s his sacred duty to keep you safe from such scum! Perhaps the better term for him, rather than “jealous”, would be “possessive”. As far as he is concerned, you have no need to get in contact with another human ever again.

You thought he hated Komugi? Trust me, that was nothing compared to this.

He would lock you in a room, which you’d only leave while accompanied by him (he can’t have you trying to run off, can he?). Actually… If that happens, you should be glad. This guy isn’t above placing bars along a corner of his chambers (they are certainly large enough), turning that area into your “room” (bed and all). It certainly would appeal to him, especially since it gives him more chance to watch you.

There are stories about how excessive love can be suffocating, the “The Chaser” episode from the “Twilight Zone”… Well, Pouf’s love wouldn’t follow this line. This would be just tiresome. His adoration is frightening, even for a Yandere. The way he’s so sweet to you is mixed with a certain darkness, not letting you forget you’re dealing with an unstable person.

He understands this is a time of adaptation for you and this change of life is a shock, but he wouldn’t be happy if you asked him to let you go every day. In the same sickly-sweet way of always, he will mix subtle (or not so subtle) threats with words of adoration. Maybe he should chain you up… Maybe you’re thinking about that person who (he believes) has a crush on you? Maybe he should make sure you never think of them again…

There is also the fact that Pouf is among the Yanderes who would have almost no respect for your personal space. For all his adoration of you, he can be quite manipulative and controlling: If he wants to hold you in his lap, brush your hair, have you sleeping next to him, dance with you, well… There is little point in fighting. You would have to choose your battles wisely and keep in mind that Pouf isn’t above tying you up if you “start to be difficult”. Some Yanderes are happy enough with having you with them and may have enough patience to “wait for you to love them back”… Well, with Pouf, it depends on his mood.

There would be times when his behavior is all “patient and loving” (more like he just smiles when you try to get away or lash out)… And times when he would basically “demand” that you love him. Not with words, though: You’d learn that there are times when it’s safer for you to act a little more loving towards him (within reason) rather than antagonize him.

#I'm sorry if this was too long #Got carried away #Now I'm wondering about how exactly the Chimera Ants work as a colony #Anyone has a theory?#hunterxhunter #hxh #headcanon #hxh headcanon #yandere #Royal Guards #chimera ants #shaiapouf #pouf #menthuthuyoupi #youpi #pitou #neferpitou #hxh yandere #Somehow I imagine Pouf would be like The Tragedy of Chateau Cepage

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crystal-moon-101 · 3 years

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So I’ve got three AUs here with The Secret Generator 10 Trio, and I drew them all together because they are all connected based on the same idea. In these AUs, instead of receiving their powers from something, they are what their powers are. Basically, Zak is still Kur reborn, but was born a dragon who disguises himself as human, Rex is the Omega (His design is based off of my sentient Omega AU), and Ben is the Omnitrix who decide to become a living being, choosing a human body as his main form. I’ll go into a little more detail to explain each AU, and I hope you enjoy! If you have any questions about any of these AUs, don’t be shy to ask. 🧡 💙 💚 -Zur AU- In this world, Doc and Drew never had any biological kids, as Drew found she was unable to bare any. This did distraught the pair, as it had been one of their long life dreams, but they stayed strong and decided to focus on their work for a bit, deciding on future family stuff later. Eventually, they came across the Kur Stone with the rest of the secret scientists, and as the story goes Argost snatched it, and the secret scientists rushed into Weird World to retrieve it, losing many of their teammates in the progress. But things take an interesting turn when taking the stone back to base. You see, as the scientists were discussing what to do, now understanding what the stone really was, they all suddenly heard a faint crack...then another, then a few more, and before anyone knew what was happening, the Kur stone slip, breaking open into four pieces as a tiny, baby, serpent-like dragon crawled out. That’s when they realized that the stone was not a stone, but rather an egg, and putting two and two together, the group assumed that this was Kur’s child. Of course, they freaked out, not wanting something tied to the being said to desire to kill all humans to be wandering around the lab, but their panic caused the little infant dragon to panic too, and a chase sparked, with the little dragon rushing around the labs to hide and keep away from these strange people. The young dragon was confused, as it didn’t understand what was wrong, why these people seemed so scared, though one of these people did catch his eye, the woman with white hair. He had seen her first when hatching, and developed this strange attachment to Drew. She ended up being the one to corner the baby, who came up with a...odd idea somehow. Reaching deep within himself, he found the ability to shapeshift into a human form (Albeit with dragon like features), basing features off of Drew and Doc. This caught the two off guard, especially when seeing bits and pieces of themselves in this child. At first they thought he was trying to trick them, but when they started clinging to Drew, something sparked in the two, this need to protect this young one, who had clearly bonded to them so fast (Drew was quick to scoop them up and be ready to tell the other scientist to a back off). It was a longgggg discussion with the others, many having concerned and worries, but eventually it was agreed that they could not place Kur’s blame onto his offspring, as it was unfair, and since Drew and Doc handle cryptids for a living, it was best that they looked after him. So, they gave him the name Zak, and their little family began. Now, Zak is very well aware of what he is and who he is, and is very grateful for his parents for taking him in, despite what he was. The main plot of the series would most likely be the same, with a few differences, like people like the Nagas and Argost eventually thinking that Zak is Kur’s son too. But then the twist eventually comes in that Zak isn’t Kur’s son, he is Kur himself, just reborn like a phoenix. This leads into Zak’s anxiety crises about who he really is and what he could do, just like in season 2. Zak can also switch between his human form, and real dragon form, though he is able to summon parts of his dragon form, like wings or his tail, if that’s better to use at the moment. He’s quite the magpie too, often collecting ores, gems, jewelry and anything that catches his eye. His loves the outdoors quite a bit, and spends a lot of his time out in the woods or grass fields around his home, connecting with the local wildlife too. He’s also known to straight up hiss and growl, even in his human form. -Omega Rex AU- After the failures of the Alpha project, the crew on the nanite project eventually moved onto the Omega project, which was being lead by not only Caesar, but his parents as well this time. Based on Alpha’s designs, tweaking them quite a bit, they eventually made Omega, a much more friendly and kinder version of Alpha. Omega started off as mostly robotic, being tested on and merely hanging around the labs until needed for something. But like all of Caesar’s project, things started to change, and Omega started to become something more. It was little things at first, Omega asking little questions, curious about the world and people in it. Then Omega started mimicking people, copying human mannerism and even style of speech. People caught on quick, and become a little nervous, given Alpha was kind of the same when he started to change and eventually go rouge. They kept an eye on Omega, making sure nothing went down hill, but instead they went an opposite direction, taking a more wonder filled out look on life, wanting to know a lot about life and what it meant to be living. There were mixed responses to this, some telling Omega that they were just a robot and nothing more, others wanting to see where this would go. Omega seemed to follow three people the most, Caesar, Rylander and Van Kleiss, each peeking his interest in different ways, each one seeing and treating him differently. Caesar often regarded him as one of his great inventions, and was enjoying seeing where Omega was going, and how they were growing, and while there were moments that Caesar treated him a little more human they he would admit, he tried to keep it professional and just say Omega was a tool. Rylander was the kindness to Omega, and would be happy enough to answer their questions and let them understand life a little better, often thinking he saw a spark of a soul in Omega’s eyes from time to time. Van Kleiss was intrigued by Omega, especially when Omega seemed unphased by Van Kleiss’s off putting nature. Like Rylander, he was fine to answer him questions about the world and life, though his negative views on life due to past issues made things a little sad for Omega to hear, even trying to ‘comfort’ the man despite Van Kleiss telling him not too. Then, the nanite event happened. It all happened so fast, but that didn’t matter in the end as Omega awoke with no memories...not even their own name. Left wandering the world now being infested with EVOs, he eventually ran into the Hong Kong Gang one by one, where he started to developed a more teen like personality, and even got the name Rex from them. This made that desire to be something more, something alive, stronger, and that feeling stayed with them even after he left the group, lost his memories again, and got picked up by Six and Providence. At first, they had assumed he was an EVO, but once they realized he was something else, a living nanite it seems, they kept him around in hopes he could help, especially after seeing he could cure EVOs and talk to other nanites. Rex is very curious, and still mimics quite a bit, you often seen him copying gestures from Six and Holiday. Not in a mocking way, but more so like a little kid taking after the adults around him. He’s still learning a lot about being ‘human’ so he does stumble quite a bit, doing things like saying a phrasing wrong, not understanding latest trends, and sometimes forgetting the body limits of a normal human. -Omni-Ben AU- While Azmuth was alone, isolating himself in his work for the Omnitrix, he eventually managed to complete it. However, while he was having it do some test runs and look overs to make sure it was ready, he came to find that the AI may have been a little more advance than he was expecting, for the next thing he new, the Omnitrix shapeshifted into the form of a 13 year old human male. Of course, being highly confused, Azmuth questioned his creation, and the Omnitrix explained that, after looking through the DNA is had, seeing all the different speices in the galaxy and seeing how they live, how they work, they wanted to be like that too, wanted to be alive and real. They had picked a human as their man form as they enjoyed the idea of how humans grow, how individualized they are as a species. Azmuth thought about it, but finally agreed to let the Omnitrix try this out. For the next two years, still living in isolation, Omnitrix and Azmuth started up a simple life living together, Omnitrix even calling him father, which Azmuth was fine with and grew accustomed to. However, Azmuth never let Omnitrix out of the lab/base, for he feared what was out there that could try and use his creation for awful things, and with the Omnitrix alive and sentient, it made that fear worse. But, of course, things couldn’t stay the same forever, as one day Vilgax came knocking and demanded the Omnitrix. Azmuth was quick to tell his creation to flee, despite the Omnitrix’s hesitation. But, unable to deny orders from his father, the Omnitrix fleed as Vilgax followed after, taking Azmuth as his prisoner just in case. Needing somewhere to hide or run too, the Omnitrix thought back to some of Azmuth’s stories, recalling the tale about a human called Max Tennyson, who had once defeated Vilgax, and was well known by the Plumbers. Given the Omnitrix had a human form, and knowing Max’s history with the Plumbers and Vilgax, he decided to find him, making his way to earth and crashing there. He had been following Max’s Plumber signal (Which was in the rust bucket), and ended up being found by Gwen, who took him to Grandpa Max. After explaining his situation, Max agrees to help, and after some debate, Gwen could come too. The three begin to travel across the USA, going to old Plumber bases to collected needed weapons as Vilgax was on their tale, and looking for help in the matter. Needing to blend in with humans, Gwen helped Ben get an outfit that could hide him (Not quite the one up above), and used some make up along with an eye contact to cover up anything he couldn’t remove from himself, and eventually gave him the name Ben. Ben is quite...alien, for lack of a better term. Given he was isolated with Azmuth his entire life, there’s a lot he needs to learn and understand. He is quite smart and quick to pick up on things, but does stumble up in the moment. He’s found that the world outside it quite big, bigger than he realized, and now he’s experience so much, even new emotions he thought he never had, but...he does wanna see more of the world and what it has to offer.

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forestlingincorporated · 3 years

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Teen Titans #29

So, one of my favorite types of fics to read is Different First Meeting fics between Jason and Tim. I looooove reading Enemies To Caretaker, of which I fed handsomely on fairly recently. Big Brother Jason fics give me warm fuzzies, and Tim Drake needs a hug, and I feel like if these two actually got to know each other and worked past their preconceptions, they’d get along surprisingly well. And Still A Jason!Robin Fanboy Tim Drake is just a fun concept.

Also, it just FEELS right for the middle siblings to band together after Damian comes along, lets get those abandonment issues in the party.

So, for mysterious and very secret TimKon Week 2021 reasons, I was rereading some Teen Titans, and I stumbled over the Original Tim+Jason First Meeting, and I just sort of wanted to talk about some interesting things I found in there rereading it after several years.

First thing right off the bat, when reading fics, normally it’s either the Core Four at the tower that Jason puts to sleep, or it’s Tim alone for the night. In the comic, none of Tim’s close friends are even at the tower, Jason waits for Bart and Cassie to leave, and Conner actually hasn’t come around for an in-universe month, because this is after the Superboy’s Birthright arc where Lex mind controls Conner.

The people Jason knocks out were his own teammates when he was a Titan. He specifically says he never got to work with Beast Boy or Cyborg directly, so he doesn’t feel bad electrocuting them, but he feels bad putting Raven under much more gently because she used to worry for him.

Tim has just gotten off the phone with Bruce when Jason shows up. It seems like Bruce might’ve been picking Tim up, but something’s come up with Martian Manhunter going missing, so Tim tells him he’ll catch a ride with Cyborg.

This is actually really interesting to me, because it’s a small moment of Bruce letting Tim down. It’s a conversation he’s probably had with his biological father many times when Jack’s canceled on him.

Gonna acknowledge this abomination real quick. This is So Stupid, and I’m glad as a fandom we just all agreed Jason didn’t do this. It makes me ask so many questions. Where did he get that oversized Robin costume? Why’d he tear off his perfectly good clothes? Why did he do this? Why the yellow tights? WHY?

A lot of things are actually happening here that are actually Really Interesting if you just look past the stupid fucking outfit. Because this comic actually flew really close to greatness, they just ended up dropping the ball by not continuing to do more with it.

First off, Jason doesn’t beat around the bush. He’s immediately like “yeah, yeah, yeah, Red Hood, whatever, I’m Jason Todd, bitch! Fight me.”

Secondly, Jason’s done his homework. He knows A LOT about Tim. He knows his name, he knows he has a dad, he knows he went to prep school, and he knows the story of how Tim became Robin. How he GOT that last bit of information, I’d honestly like to know. But even HAVING the information isn’t enough; he’s still letting his preconceived ideas get in the way. The surface level information about Tim’s life only served to fuel his jealousy and anger (thanks, Lazerus Pitt!). He’s so focused on Tim’s privilege that he’s looked past evidence of hardship; if he’s done this much research on Tim, he’s no doubt seen records of multiple boarding schools, lengthy travel records, news reports, a death certificate.... He can’t even bring himself to BELIEVE parts of Tim’s story that aren’t lining up with his world view, like HOW he became Robin.

Jason has convinced himself that what he’s discovered about Tim and the period of time when Jason was dead - the fact that Bruce was spiraling after his death, that his family mourned him, that Tim had to step up to the plate at a weird suicide prevention buddy system - is all a lie. Despite the fact that he’s beating Tim’s ass, he speaks to him with the assumption that Tim’s a child who’s been manipulated and lied to.

Meanwhile, it must be SO PAINFUL for Tim to hear Jason say these things: I bet he said the same thing to you he said to me, didn’t he? That you have the talent to make a difference in Gotham. That he needed someone he could trust in his war on crime. That you were one of a kind. The light in his darkness.

Bruce never said any of that to Tim. Bruce rejected Tim, he didn’t want Tim, and begrudgingly accepted Tim.

Going back to Jason waiting for Tim’s other young teen friends to leave the tower before going in, only drugging his own former teammates, is much of his anger seems directed at THEM, not just Bruce. To Jason, it looks like they didn’t mourn him either, he has no statue. I find it interesting that he smashes Donna Troy’s statue, who died after him, and I believe she came back before he did.

Unless he was keeping track of the news from the League of Assassins, to Jason, Donna never died.

And most importantly? Tim shuts Jason down. Tim “Bitch, Please” Drake out here like: you’re a fucking idiot, he loved you to death, he barely let me audition for the role.

Tim shows some deep resentment towards Jason in this scene. I mean... earned, Jason literally came into his house and starting hitting him, but Tim’s relationship towards the Idea Of Jason has gone through a few changes. At first Jason was ROBIN! THE BOY WONDER! And if maybe Tim thought Bruce wasn’t AS happy with Jason as he was with Dick, there was still SOME hero worship early on. But it only takes Bruce and Alfred and Dick using Jason’s death as a cautionary tale a few times to get Tim to see Jason AS a cautionary tale - the kind of Robin NOT to be. But the more Tim craved Bruce’s paternal attention and approval, and the more Bruce withheld it or made Tim work for it, knowing that Bruce did that, in part, because of his love and grief for his dead son (Tim having an actual living breathing father plays a part, too), and those feelings towards Jason have started to fester.

Jason can’t let it go, though, he thinks the concept of Robin was a mistake and had always been a mistake, and if he can hurt Tim, so can Scarecrow, Penguin, The Joker.

This is a good time to bring up that one thing I think Jason probably doesn’t know is Tim is injured. It is a little over a month since since Conner shattered Tim’s right arm. Tim is still healing from a comminuted fracture in his forearm. And looking at this picture that is - ah, yes, that is the injured arm Jason is swinging Tim by. Tim is probably healed by now, the cast IS off and he’s a child, but bones don’t fully return to full strength for 3-6 months.

Jason is conflicted. This is clearly, in part, a fucked up way of “protecting” what he sees as a manipulated child, to convince him to leave Bruce. But there’s also clearly some deep, deep jealousy thrown into the mix to complicate matters and cloud his judgement. Ultimately, Jason isn’t there to kill Tim. Tim would be dead if he was. He’s there to “beat some sense into him,” and he ultimately fails, and fails badly.

Tim is found by the older Titans, awake by now, though it seems Jason knocked him out to, uh, fuck with the memorial chamber, and Tim... does not beat around the bush. No secret identities here just “yeah, Jason Todd beat the shit out of me.”

And their reactions are HILARIOUS.

One more little sidebar, in the comic, Jason gets in with a D.N.A. check that never removed him from its permissions. Usually in fic this is a unique pass code. I’m not sure which version I like better, honestly. There’s something about Jason physically inputting a code that accepts him even though he’s supposedly dead that I really like, and just feels better than a dna scan. A dna scan sounds SAFER, sure, but there’s something about the Titans leaving in an honest SECURITY RISK out of sentiment that I like.

Lastly, I really like how it ends. Jason honestly thinks Tim IS a good Robin, and it seems like Jason’s done some research on the core four, mentioning Tim’s “real friends” again while the “camera” is on Conner and Cassie, suggesting that Jason KNOWS about them and possibly that targeting the tower while they were gone maybe wasn’t an accident or out of convenience, but fully intentional. And again, Jason’s real problem is highlighted: he feels alone, forgotten, unmemorable, no family, no friends.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

#Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Teen Titans #Teen Titans (2003-2011)

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twh-news · 3 years

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Despite nearly 600 voice roles in her prolific voiceover career, Loki star Tara Strong still had to audition for her fan-favorite character Miss Minutes. Strong was initially tasked with bringing the Time Variance Authority’s animated mascot to life in its Jurassic Park-inspired orientation video, which brought Loki up to speed on his current predicament. But in episode two, Miss Minutes even took the form of a hologram that briefly interacted with Loki. So despite her vast resume, Strong was more than happy to audition for such an enigmatic character.

“It’s actually quite surprising for many people to learn that most voice actors — even ones who’ve been in the business for 30 or 40 years — often audition for parts they’ve already had,” Strong tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You have to constantly keep proving yourself in auditioning for new studio people and new showrunners even though they may have hours and hours of tape on you for a character you’ve already done. So I’m happy to audition, and thankfully, it worked out.”

While she can’t say much about Miss Minutes’ future, Strong can confirm that we haven’t seen the last of her.

“I can cryptically tease that you’ll see her again,” Strong shares. “There’s much more to be revealed, and it’s fun to watch that unfold. The beautiful thing about this character is you don’t really know who she is, where she’s from, what her origin story is, how sentient she is, if she has a horse in this race at all, and what her intentions are, if any. Like any good, exciting adventure, TV or film, you are left wondering that all the time. So she’s an intriguing character, and that will continue.”

When Loki director Kate Herron revealed to THR that Miss Minutes’ introduction video was inspired by Jurassic Park‘s Mr. DNA cartoon, most viewers assumed that Strong’s Southern accent was paying homage to the Southern accent of Mr. DNA, but that wasn’t the case.

“I didn’t even know that until I saw Kate Herron talking about it in an interview,” Strong reveals. “I didn’t even make that connection initially when I first started seeing some of the footage. But it is a fun comparison because they both have this juxtaposition of very high-end, modern technology with very basic, classic ’60 and ’70s animation.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Strong dives even deeper into the audition process for voice roles, and then she explains why she wants more synergy between live-action and animated comic book properties.

Since you have a few voice roles [nearly 600] under your belt…

(Laughs.) Just a couple.

I have to imagine that you just got a phone call for Loki‘s Miss Minutes.

I had to audition! It’s actually quite surprising for many people to learn that most voice actors — even ones who’ve been in the business for 30 or 40 years — often audition for parts they’ve already had. You have to constantly keep proving yourself in auditioning for new studio people and new showrunners even though they may have hours and hours of tape on you for a character you’ve already done. But this character, since it was new, needed an entire audition process because I think they were in search of what felt best for this character. So I’m happy to audition, and thankfully, it worked out. (Laughs.)

How much did they tell you?

Normally, for an audition, they’ll give you a drawing of the character, a character description, sides and some backstory into their world, but we really got very little information. I called my agent after I received the packet, and I was like, “Um, can you tell me anything else about this character? Is she sentient? Is she A.I.?” And my agent was like, “I don’t really know.” So nobody knew what it was because it was so top secret. In fact, I didn’t know what it was until I booked it, which, of course, was very exciting. So based on the information that I had, I laid down three different versions in my home studio. I always do the preliminary audition in my home studio. Sometimes, it’ll take me 5 minutes, and sometimes, it’ll take me 3 hours to get it exactly right, knowing that there’s hundreds or thousands of people vying for one role. So I’ll think about what’s going to separate me from the other people and how I’m going to give them something special that they’ll glom onto. For this one, there were three different versions: one of them included an accent, one was a little bit more A.I and one had a little more emotion attached to it. Obviously, once I saw what it was, it made sense that they were keeping it on the DL.

Did they inform you at some point that they wanted an homage to Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park?

No, they didn’t! In fact, I didn’t even know that until I saw Kate Herron talking about it in an interview. I didn’t even make that connection initially when I first started seeing some of the footage. But it is a fun comparison because they both have this juxtaposition of very high-end, modern technology with very basic, classic ’60 and ’70s animation. So it’s this beautiful mix of things that just somehow seem to go together to create this visually stunning and exciting world, as well as the voiceover behind it. It just all seems to go together to create this enigma. Who is she? Where is she from? What’s her origin story? Why does she look like she’s from the ’70s but she knows everything from the future. It’s really cool.

When it came time to record in earnest, you must’ve been baffled by what you were reading, but then again, you’re probably used to it.

Yeah, and I’ve done several voices with similar descriptions and similar varying levels of A.I. I was the voice of the singing refrigerator [Bridget] on an episode of Modern Family, and initially, they wanted it very Siri-like. And then we added a little more attitude to it. So I’ve done that sort of thing several times, and I know how to manipulate my voice enough to sound like A.I. It’s that sound where you question whether there’s actual emotion behind it. Miss Minutes is such an interesting character because initially you think she’s just someone who’s giving exposition on what happens to you when you get to the TVA. But by episode two, you realize she’s got a little attitude. So she’s a lot of fun to play with.

Before live-action comic book stories became a global juggernaut, animated comic book movies and shows were a primary frame of reference for a lot of these characters. So I’ve always felt that there could be more synergy or crossover between live action and the animation/voice acting community. Are you hopeful that your role as Miss Minutes can help bridge that gap?

That would be pretty wonderful. It is true that voice actors and legacy voice actors — who’ve been at it for so long and are so brilliant at bringing characters to life just with their voice — get passed over for on-camera celebrities that maybe the casting director wants to meet or because someone thinks they’ll bring big box office. If you were to record two very big animated features, one starring on-camera people and one starring people who’ve been doing voiceover for a while, you would definitely hear the difference in the little idiosyncrasies and other things that we know how to do in order to bring this action to life. Overall, there certainly is plenty of crossover when you look at someone like Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, or my favorite, Mark Hamill, who’s brilliant at doing both on-camera and voiceover. But then you do have the A-list celebrities who will come in for an animated session and freak out when they see what everyone else does. Of course, it’s still acting, but it’s a different form of acting. It’s like asking a tap dancer if they do ballet. It is wonderful that the Internet has given voiceover actors a lot of love that maybe their predecessors never knew existed. Now, people can look up who their favorite voiceover actor is, and when I go to a comic con, I’m treated like a superstar who people know. It’s wonderful to be able to give back to those fans, and give hugs, and hear stories about how shows shaped their childhood or brought their family together or got them through a depressing time. So that kind of stuff has been really nice. I certainly didn’t anticipate Loki being so huge, and the reception to Miss Minutes being so wonderful and so loving right out of the gate. So maybe this will give networks [and studios] pause, so they think, “Hey, let’s give one of the voiceover actors a shot at this role. Maybe it’ll be more fun than so and so from The Office. Just for this time, let’s see how this goes.” (Laughs.) If somebody suits the role and does a great job, they should be granted that role regardless of how many Twitter followers they have or how many episodes of an episodic they’ve done.

Loki director Kate Herron said that Miss Minutes is about to go on an “interesting” journey. So what can you cryptically tease about Miss Minutes moving forward?

Well, I can cryptically tease that you’ll see her again. (Laughs.) There’s much more to be revealed, and it’s fun to watch that unfold. When you see the first episode, you think perhaps that she’s just a recording on a screen, but in episode two, we see that she can become a holographic form and interact with Loki. He even responded to her and asked, “Are you a recording, or are you alive?” And we still don’t know. The beautiful thing about this character is you don’t really know who she is, where she’s from, what her origin story is, how sentient she is, if she has a horse in this race at all, and what her intentions are, if any. Like any good, exciting adventure, TV or film, you are left wondering that all the time. So she’s an intriguing character, and that will continue.

She got her own character poster, so that’s usually a sign of importance.

She did! And she has her own Twitter! She also has the cutest emoji hashtag I’ve ever seen in my life. (Laughs.)

When Morgan Freeman gets hired for voiceover work, he’s hired to do Morgan Freeman. So what percentage of your jobs ask you to invent a voice, versus using something that’s trademark Tara Strong?

That’s a very good question. Like I said before, they’ll give you a drawing of the character and some backstory into who they are. And then you, as the voice actor, have to try and imagine what production had in mind for this character. With that said, you have to be free to let something organic come to you and take chances. Sometimes, things don’t happen until the very last minute. My favorite example of that would be Teen Titans. When I first read for that, I was already doing five tragic teenage girls: Batgirl for the same network, Ingrid from Fillmore!, Kylie from Extreme Ghostbusters and Shareena Wickett from Detention. I was like, “Gosh, I have to make each character different, but I’m not sure how to make Raven stand apart from the other similar descriptive personalities.” So when I read for Raven, I just put myself in the acting mindset of where she was, and I read the part. And when I walked out of the studio, I passed the booth where the engineer, director and writer were sitting. So I turned to [casting director] Andrea Romano, who I’d been working on Batgirl, and said, “I just had this other idea. Can I try something else?” And she said, “Sure.” So I went back in and that’s when I had this idea that Raven had this weird little roll every time she spoke. So that was not something I planned when I first walked into the studio. You have to be unafraid to try something new and different, and to also be malleable to what production wants. Sometimes, they’ll really love what you did, but then they’ll want her to be older, or missing teeth, or have headgear, or Southern. (Laughs.) So you have to be ready to jump right in and try all kinds of different things until it lands right into the pocket of what works for that voice.

Would you perform your voice roles the same way in live action? Or would you use less inflection?

More than likely, it would be less broad because the cameras are there. On an animated show, if the line is “Whoa!” and your character sees a hot guy or is falling off a cliff, you have to know how to bring that action forth with your voice. When you’re watching something on-camera unfold in front of you, you don’t have to tell the audience so much with your voice. If you’re doing a sitcom, it’s going to be bigger than if you’re doing a single-camera drama. I just worked on a series for 6 months in Toronto, and my character was basically an on-camera Harley but as a drug-dealer mom. It’s a show called Pretty Hard Cases. And it wouldn’t have worked if I played her as broad as animation. With that said, if I got to play actual Harley Quinn as a mom, it would be bigger than that, but probably not as big as an animated thing. It would be somewhere in the middle. Even within animation, you tweak your level of performance based on the world. For instance, I’ve done many iterations of Harley where she’s the high school girl, or in some cases, she’s even darker than Joker. So you have to know the world around you. Some of the best actors that sustain long careers are very highly aware of what environment they’re in at each moment. So the show or the movie really dictates the level of performance.

#loki #loki series #tara strong #interview #miss minutes

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clonemando · 3 years

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Had a bad day and am stressed out so I wrote some Father/Son Jaster and Jango hurt comfort to make me feel a little better. Please enjoy!

Jango hasn't been eating like he should after hearing rations are low and Jaster isn't pleased to find out.

Jango smiled as he sat next to one of the foundlings being looked after by the Ha'at after the last campaign and offered them a second bowl of tiingilar. "Shh, just a secret between us." He said with a wink at them when their expression lit up amd he took the empty bowl in exchange. Jaster couldn't know he had been giving his portions away or he'd be furious but Jango knew what it was like to be new and hungry and too scared to ask for food. Especially when their rations were as low as they were at current. Death Watch was targeting any settlement that traded with Haat they could find and it was leading more and more to turn them away and refuse to trade with them. That with all the crop burning and more foundlings being left behind with no where else to go meant slim pickings for food. Jango was older than most of the others. He was used to missing meals while out on the field with Jaster. Plus the less he ate the easier it got to ignore the slight pains of hunger that would occasionally pop up. It was fine. He wasn't starving himself. He still ate midmeal. He just only at midmeal and whatever snacks Jaster occasionally would share with him.

He got up and walked around to another new kid and snuck them a ration bar that was supposed to he for his breakfast. They smiled at him in thanks and he nodded back before heading to turn in the empty dish.

"You finished that off fast Alor'ika! We should enter you in a competition." Bari said with a bright grin that showed off some fangs she had inherited through mixed genetics. She looked mostly human but so did most Mandalorians, years of adopting any species or race into their own had played with all of their DNA in weird ways. Jango himself was certainly some sort of mash of things as well but it's never really mattered since he was human enough.

"I guess the mission earlier just really had me hungry. I'm all filled up now though. Delicious as I expect from the best cook in the camp." he said kindly but she just raised a brow.

"You really are Jaster's ad with a tongue that smooth Alor'ika. Speaking of which, I haven't seen your buir yet. Take him his portion for me? He's probably still going over those maps." She asked handing him another full bowl and Jango nodded.

"Of course. Honestly how he got anything done before I was here to remind him life exists is a mystery." He chuckled and headed back towards his father's room getting nods from a few verd as he passed them. He felt good about his position. He wasn't cocky enough to think he was special or anything like that but he hot along easily with the other Haat'ade and most seemed to think he belonged with Jaster. It felt nice to be wanted and to have other people confirm his place with them. Even if he didn't become Mand'alor after Jaster, he'd always belong there.

"Buir! Bari sent me with your food. You get lost in that romance novel again?" He asked teasingly as he set the bowl down on Jaster's desk after clearing some space.

Jaster jumped a little in his chair glasses askew on his face before he relaxed at the sight of his son. "I actually think I fell asleep after calling a few more friends to make sure Tor hasn't bothered them." He admitted ruffling Jango's hair fondly and picking up the bowl and sniffling the stew inside.

"Mmm. This smells great. Bari really is a miracle on this whole operation. Only she could manage Tiingilar on such a meager budget." He chuckled and Jango nodded.

"Yeah. It's great! She's an amazing cook." He said clearing his throat when his stomach growled at him to cover the sound.

Jaster took a few bites while Jango looked over the list of numbers Jaster had been going through.

"Hmmm, something about this tastes different." He said after a while and Jango hummed absently.

"She said earlier that she ran out of the normal spice paste she used and started using Clan Rook's stuff instead." Jango said surprised when Jaster choked on his bite causing him to pat Jaster's back.

"Clan Rook's? Are you sure? And you ate it?" Jaster asked eyes fluttering over Jango with concern.

"Of course! It's not like I'm going to turn down Tiingilar! What are you scared Clan Rook is out to poison me or something?" Jango asked playfully though he was trying to understand what had Jaster so upset.

"Jango... Clan Rook uses vash nut powder in their spice mix." He pointed out and Jango winced. Right. Of course they did. And he just happened to be extremely allergic to that particular nut.

"Well... I... Actually wasn't that hungry tonight and didn't want to worry you. I'm sorry Buir. I shouldn't have lied about it. I'm fine though. It's a good thing too it seems since it saved us me swelling up and needing to go to medical." He tried to joke but Jaster was staring at him with a considering gaze now that made him uncomfortable.

"Well you still have your breakfast rations right? You can have that tonight and I'll talk to Bari and make sure there's no more surprises like that again." He offered and Jango reached into the empty pocket head ducking.

"I... uh... I don't have my breakfast ration anymore buir." He said letting his hair fall forward to hide his eyes feeling heat burning his face in shame.

"What happened to it? Did you drop it?" Jaster asked and Jango cleared his throat as his stomach growled again but this time there was no hiding it.

"I'm really not hungry Buir! Really. I'm fine." Jango said knowing he couldn't lie and especially not to Jaster.

"Jango, what's going on? Why aren't you eating? Are you feeling sick?" Jaster asked setting his bowl aside to feel Jango's forehead but Jango pushed his hand aside.

"No... I just... gave it to the foundlings. They need it more. Many are too nervous to speak up and rations are low right now. I don't mind. When things pick up again I'll eat more. I promise." he admitted quietly.

"Jango... why didn't you say anything? You... How many meals have you been skipping? How long?" Jaster asked looking concerned.

"I've been giving away my breakfast rations and late meal. I still eat with you obviously. It's enough. I'm used to it. It doesn't even hurt anymore." He said quickly then regretted it.

"Anymore?! It doesn't hurt anymore? Oh no. No no no. Come on." Jaster stood and grabbed his arm gently but firm enough he couldn't jerk it away easily and started dragging him out of the room.

"Buir! Buir wait! You're overreacting! It's really fine! Some of the verd were even impressed by how good I'm looking!" He said and Jaster almost growled.

"Looks don't matter! None of that matters! You haven't been eating Jango! You're a child! If anyone should he cutting portions it would be the adults and even that there are ways to manage it so we all take turns so no one misses meals the way you have. If you had just said something I could have been giving you extra breakfast rations to give to the others if they're too nervous to ask. You shouldn't have been starving yourself! Do you have any idea how it feels to hear you talking like this? Like you deserve to eat less for some reason? You're my son and I've failed you by not even noticing you were doing this to yourself. I thought maybe the weight loss was because of a growth spurt coming on. I never had an ad before but you... You've been hurting yourself. We're going to medical. They're going to run tests and we're going to figure out how badly you've thrown your diet out of whack. Hopefully not too badly. Then we're eating every meal together until I'm certain I can trust you again." Jaster ranted and Jango just stared at the floor fighting tears. He had just wanted to help.

Jaster took a deep breath and let it out. "Jango, ner ad, you are a good boy with a good heart. But you matter just as much as the new foundlings, you know that right?" he asked more gently as he knelt and tipped Jango's face back up.

"Of course I do. But I'm going to be a leader one day and I have to make sure that our people are all taken care of first. You would have done the same thing!" He argued feeling the tears start to spill down his cheeks and hating it. Being eleven sucked.

Jaster wiped the tears away with his thumb. "Jango, if that was true why am I still eating normally? We have plenty of food Jango. Yes it's a little tight, but nothing to where you need to skip out on everything besides midmeal. And I'm your leader. So, again, it would be me or the other adults, who would be responsible for figuring out how to ration. Which we would need you to be honest about how much you need to eat to be able to do. You're my son. I love you and want you to be living a happy healthy life. Something not hurting anymore, is not a sign of you being happy and healthy. It should never hurt to begin with. You're not in trouble. I'm not mad. I'm scared and upset with myself for not noticing and fixing this sooner." He murmured more calmly and Jango wrapped him in an embrace he eagerly returned.

"Do you promise to actually eat all the meals I give you and tell me if you or anyone else needs extra from now on?" Jaster asked and Jango nodded from where his face was tucked into Jaster's shoulder.

"Good. Then let's get you examined and then I think we both deserve a treat tonight. After you eat a proper latemeal." He said firmly but lifted Jango up and carried him to medical.

#star wars #jango fett #jaster mereel #fanfic #star wars open seasons #young Jango #tw food scarcity #Jaster is a good dad #Jango is a good son #Being at war is hard

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allforbtsu · 4 years

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On eachother we rely- Chapter 1

Ot7 Werewolf X Werewolf Reader (eventually)

Summary: In a world where werewolves are known to exist and are being hunted down for science reasons, y/n has to regain her freedom after being captured. What she didn't know was that a new beginning was looming, new people entering in her life. Will she be able to find a new home in them? Has all she been through help her protect her new family?

Word Count: 3.5k

Warning: Mention of breeding and kidnapping.

She knew what was happening the moment she heard the screams. The sound of a skin being slayed, the sour smell of blood mixing with soil, the whimpers of the little ones and the bright eyes of a mother being taken away from her pups. As hard as she wanted to fight, to send them away, she couldn't. She knew the alpha was killed first, then the females and younger ones, there was no back up if she decided to strike.

Surely but slowly, y/n peaked from behind the bushes she slept, the moonlight that once brought comfort and security, was blooming a scenery she never wanted to see in her life. The corpses of her loved ones layed on the ground, as if they had never woken up from their sleep in the first place, being shredded from life in an instant. She had to run far away from there, but her body was unable to respond to her pleas, few whimpers left her mouth, as her legs trembled from anxiety, and as she looked up she stared into the hard eyes of one of the killers. “Here you are, little thing” The man whispered, as she felt something poke her neck, a tranquilizer dart. y/n tried to stand up, to fight against the uneasiness, but her body collapsed on the ground with the last view of the forest she will have in a long time.

Her parents have warned her about the consequences of being found by scientists. Years ago, after being publicly announced to society that werewolfs did in fact exist, the remaining packs were obligated to leave the cities and abandon their human ways to save their lives. Whole families traveled deep into forests and stayed in their wolfs forms so as to not get captured, as people have no way to distinguish normal wolves from werewolves. Even all of the advances the packs tried to do to maintain the species, hundreds of packs were killed across the globe, and the ones that are left are trying to be hunted down.

Awoken amongst all the fear of knowing that werewolves exist, curiosity developed. Wonder of what the supernatural holds, and what makes these beings so unique. Facilities have been built to study this species, so one day humans can control them and use them as weapons. Diverse studies are done day by day, torturing werewolfs all over the world. Whole committees made to be in charge of this new ramification of science. Auditoriums were cramped of people wanting to hear the new discoveries being made, as if they were talking about plants or space, not beings that are as human as they are.

The studies being done nowadays are two, the one being done at labs, where they inject or extract things from werewolves, just to get a glimpse of what is going on inside of them, and the behavioral section, where biologists study werewolves behaviors in different scenarios. They are usually left in cages of two, males can be paired with males, females with females or mixed, randomly, and how each werewolf reacts upon their partner and taking into account the werewolf position in a pack, Alpha, Beta or Omega, biologists try to understand their behavior.

Not everyone in a pack is chosen to be captured and taken. The fact that the hunters came during the night and killed them all skilfully leaving y/n only alive, means they had been tracing them for a while without them noticing. Usually when a pack is mostly formed by older and weaker members, and offsprings of said beings, they are not taken into account as valuable. Labs only wanting the best of the best, as they can reproduce those whose DNA is the strongest. If they had been watching them, they would know y/n position in the pack, right hand of the alpha and the strongest one after him. The rest of the members were all female, her mother, weakened by stress and desperation of her family well being, her two sisters, and three little kids, being y/n three nephews. All killed. It was winter, animals had migrated, the pack was unable to hunt together, as someone had to take care of the little ones, and unable as well to migrate, as the pups could not walk big distances, made the pack eat less and weaken their senses.

All lead to this, to y/n waking up in an unknown bright white room. She laid on one of the beds on the left, while on the right another bed layed. She looked around and found that the fourth wall was a see through glass, outside of it, in what seemed like a hall she could see other rooms, or cages we may say. Right across from her a girl laid on the floor staring at the ceiling, while another one was prompted against the wall reading a book out loud. She stared a little while longer, till the girl who was reading catched her gaze, and stared right at her eyes in what seemed as understanding, a little smile tried to shape into her lips, but a grimace came out. The girl on the floor poked her leg, prompting her to keep reading, and without a second thought she did.

y/n stood up from the bed and put both hands in the glass, as if she could push it and look for more information. If she turned well enough and leaned into the glass, the cage next of the two girls could be seen, there a male seemed to be staring out at the hall as she was doing, his black hair and cupid like nose catched her attention, but before he could catch her gaze on him, he rapidly parted from the glass, as if it was burning him. Steps could be heard getting closer, and the two girls who were across from her stood up rapidly and hid behind the duvet cover of their beds. On instinct y/n decided to copy the other werewolves and parted as far away as possible of the glass, sitting down on her bed once again, squatting down near the back wall.

A woman with a white rope accompanied by two men came near her cage, but her stare fell somewhere else, the male that was handcuffed in the mens grasps. A gasp left y/n lips when she realized that they were going to put him with her, inside this little room, a male, a werewolf male, from another pack, that could hurt her to pieces if he wanted to. Had this humans learned nothing, or was this another test to see if she was gonna be mutilated or not. The boy's eyes did not part from the floor as they took the handcuffs of him and threw him inside. The woman, who y/n must believe is a biologist, stared at her and smiled. “Hello, welcome.” She said as if she was talking to a baby, making y/n hairs on the back of her neck stand up in anger. “We are so lucky to have you here, you have no idea. It will take awhile for you to get used by him” She pointed to the boy who was already in the room with her. “But when you do, we cannot wait for the moment you will help us advance in this science, the both of you” Firmly she said. “ I will leave you to it” Gracefully she and the two men left her view.

y/n was paralysed, not knowing how to react to anything, but most importantly right now, to the threat that was in the room with her. The boy lifted his head, and stared at her from under his eyelashes. Right behind him, she could see the two girls from the cage across looking at her in worry. “I'm not going to hurt you” Her gaze fell back to the boy, both of their bodies stiff. “I swear, I'm not like others”. y/n nodded. “Stay away anyway” She answered as the boy tried to get closer to her bed. “Stay on your side” The boy looked surprised at her, but followed her orders, and sat in his bed facing her. “My name is Hoseok, you can call me Hobi. What 's yours?” He looked at her with a kindness she was not expecting, and as she stared into those eyes she could not not give in to his question. “y/n...It will be nice to meet you if you don't hurt me though '' Hobi looked at her and quietly laughed. “I won't hurt you, I promise” He crossed his heart with his fingers. Even though he knew y/n was not fearing for her life anymore, he decided he will take baby steps as to not scare the female wolf.

"When did you arrived?" He asked, playing with his fingers, trying to look as small as possible, his back hunched. "I guess yesterday night. I woke up minutes before they brought you in here" Hobi nodded. "I have been here for a while now" He looked up and stared at her. "I guess they were waiting for someone to macht me up" He smiled sadly. Y/N's thoughts went a mile per minute trying to understand what he meant by that. If her thoughts were correct and they were Indeed in the behavioral section, this pairing could mean one thing…"Yes, I think they want us to breed"

Y/N let out a big sight, her eyes looking out to the see through glass as if it would open up and allow her to escape. "I'm not going to do anything you don't want, I promise. I'm as scared as you are” "Do you think they will have as do other stuff? Have they done something to you?" Y/n didn't care if what she was asking was too personal or delicate, all she wanted was to gather as much information as possible and run away from there. "They have made a few tests on me, but nothing too crazy, I guess it was only as a check up. They will probably do it to you as well, don't worry when they do. I have been in a really secluded area since I arrived a few months ago, they probably do things differently here, I don't know, sorry"

Hobi's kind and soothing way of speaking brought some sense of comfort in y/n even thought what he was telling her was nowhere near, but truly frightening. She began believing she had a great amount of luck to have been paired to someone so respectful, but her werewolf side not fully allowing her to trust him just yet.

A Big blast sounded through the speakers on the walls, the girls across from them stood up from their bed excitedly, and the sound of shoes hitting the ground and banging against glass became louder by the second. Y/N swallowed, nervousness creeping in, not understanding what was happening. "Is time to eat" Hobi said delicately. "I'm sure they will give us a portion each. You must be hungry" He went and stood up against the door on the class, taking his hand out of a little hole big enough for a plate to pass through. As a little petite old lady gave the girls across their food, she went to their side and filled one plate with a small stake and a few little potatoes and put it in Hobi's awaiting hands. He stared at it in disdain. "That's all we got" Rattled the old lady. "But we are two" He pointed with his head to y/n's small quivering body on the bed. "All cages are getting one portion to share, we are short on foundings. Be thankful we give you food" The lady said meanencely.

Y/N couldn't take it anymore. The death of her family, being captured, being deprived of freedom and now of food, made her stand up from the bed, walk rapidly to the glass and smash her fist in it, not breaking it one bit. "You pieces of shit! You lock us up in here and don't even have the amount of money to feed us! I don't see it lacking when you have to stick a needle up our…" Hobi quickly put down the plate and put a hand on her mouth. The old lady did not seem amused, as if this happened every day. She took a hold of her stroller with food and kept strolling away to the next cage. "You have to behave" Said Hobi. She pushed his hand away from her face. Her eyes looking through the hall once again and to her surprise, there were the cupid like nose werewolf used to be, now a dumpling like cheeks boy stared at her with amusement in his eyes, as if her shouting was the best entertainment he had in a while. Behind him an arm reached and fed him a little bit of meat, making him smile and part his eyes from hers. The arm was owned by the cupid-like nose boy, who ate the rest of the meat in the plate, leaving it cleaned on the little table on the door's hole.

"Come eat, you need it. I'm strong enough, I can wait for tomorrow. You have to gain your strength back after probably all you've been through." Hobi sat on the floor staring at her, plate on the ground right in front of him. Slowly y/n went closer and sat across from him, Hobi smiled, what she thought was the brightest one she had ever seen. "Come on, come on, eat!" He pushed the plate closer to her. She grabbed a piece of the meat and broke it in half. "Not if you don't have a little bit of it as well. We can have two potatoes each '' Hobi seemed released and nodded enthusiastically.

After eating, time seemed to slow down and left them staring at the walls, waiting for something to happen, passing time. While Hobi entertained himself singing softly and moving his hands to the beat, y/n bit her nails, their surroundings becoming red and puffy. Her leg moved up and down in anxiety, her eyes focused on the cage across, her only way of entertainment. As her thoughts wandered back to her family and her longing of freedom, she began thinking about all the work she will have to do to get out of there. Would it be possible? Will she be able to leave hobi behind? She knew him for half a day, but he seemed like a good dude, and she had no one else, they could help each other. Y/N”s thoughts were disrupted by the sound of the room”s door opening.

“Come on girl, you have to come with us” Said a tall man, two other guys behind him.

Y/N whimpered, her body closing open itself on the bed. “It's okay, y/n, they are probably gonna do the check up” Hobi informed her, a soft smile on his face. He looked up to the three guys as if looking for confirmation, they didn't say anything. She nodded and stood up and went toward the door. The guards put handcuffs on her and closed the door, leaving Hobi behind, who sent her a last smile before they took her away. The hall seemed endless, the cages holding distressed werewolves inside, but before she knew it they were turning in a corner, showing a door leading to another section of the facility. These new corridors had windows showing the outside, trees surrounding the building, and as far as her sight went, it was all woods. Perfect for hiding after scaping, she was thankful this facility was not in the middle of the city.

After taking the elevator and listening to its sad loft music, they entered another section, the labs. It was a long white room, filled with werewolves girls and boys who were being checked by doctors. Some were poked, others were studying their reflexes, their eyes, others were being fed medication and so on. She was led by the three men to a bed in the middle of the room, two doctors already waiting for her beside it. “Oh, there you are” Said the woman who she recognised was the one who brought Hobi to her cage. “Sit down” She did as ordered, scared. One of the guards tooks the handcuffs off her and stood by her side, the other two helping take other werewolves to their respective cages. “You probably already know why you are here, so let's skip that part shall we?” The sweet stupid tone this woman used on her sent her on edge, her rage building up, but as much as she wanted to rip her neck off, she was too petrified to do so.

“May I know your name? Mine is Minji” She pointed to her chest. “He is Jaebong” Her head nodded to the male doctor beside her. Y/N swallowed. “Y/N” She said almost in a whisper. Jaebong scribbling it down on a piece of paper. “We will be your two head doctors” Continued Minji. ”We will be here for you during the gestation time until the birth. All our goals go to protect your health.”

Y/N”s head began spinning, not believing what she was hearing. Gestation? Birth? These people were crazy, out of their minds, sick and twisted. Her body began shaking, leaving out in the open her emotions. “Don't be scared” Now commented Jaebong, his voice deep and without modulation. “Countless females have gone through a pregnancy with us and have come out perfectly fine. But now, what you have to understand” He standed in front of her, his stare piercing through her head, her gaze set on the floor. “If neither you or your cage partner cooperate and do the thing on your own way, we will have to intervene, and I know how sacred is mating and child bearing for you animals, so enjoy the freedom we allow you.”

Pregnancies and mating were big deals for werewolves, all the love and trust that is embodied in one single act, enlarging the pack or starting a new one. Bringing a child for werewolves is as sacred as howling to the new moon. So the fact this people decided to take this sacred act for werewolves in their own hands, disgusted her, hitting way too close to home, where all this morals and culture were integrated into her, as all the werewolves in this building.

“Understood?” Asked Jaebong. She nodded her head. “Your cage partener already knows this, and he will be granted more liberties if he helps us, and he knows. So don't get scared when he does something you don't like” Laughed Minji.

Y/N was shaking through the whole check up, her mind somewhere else. She needed to go back to the cage, to that little safe place. She didn't believe Hobi could do something like that, right? He was too kind, she wanted to go back to him. She needed comfort and he would give it to her. Tears were already weling up in her eyes during the last moments with the doctors, who sended her away as fast as they could, having other werewolves to take care of.

As soon as the guard who escorted her to her room opened the door, she flew inside of it as fast as she could. The lights in the halls were lim as well as inside of the cages, night time approaching and nothing else to do, but sleep, sended everyone to bed. Hobi laid in his bed in fetus pose, holding his pillow close to him. She looked at him and let the tears come out. “Hobi” She mumbled standing in the middle of the room. Sensing no response, she went closer and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. “Hobi” He startled awake. “It's okay, it's me”. He opened one of his eyes and looked at her. “Took you long enough” He stared at her once again, worry in his eyes. “Are you crying?” She nodded and sniffled. “Do you want me to hold you?” She fell beside him in no second, Hobi draping the duvet over her quivering body. “They had the talk with you, mhm?” He looked her in the eyes. “Yes, I'm scared” He caressed her hair. “I will try to get us out of here before we or them can do anything about it” y/n eyes shoot open. “You can do that?” “I have been here for way too long, it's time to leave, and I'm getting you out of here with me” Her lips trembled. “How?”

“I know two boys who know the facility like the back of their hand. We will leave with them” He paused. “It will take a while for that to happen though. One of them is badly hurt, we will have to wait for him. You will like them! They are really sweet” y/n had already closed her eyes, Hobi”s sweet promises lulling her to a much needed sleep. “Rest now, we will have each other to rely on tomorrow as well.”

Chapter 2

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darylandbethfanforever9 · 3 years

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Devil’s Backbone

Chapter 7

Story Rating: Explicit, 18+

Warnings: Smut, violence, past flashbacks of sexual assault, and descriptions of torture. Racial hate, and forced abortion. Not Tony Stark friendly.

Relationships: Bucky/OC, Steve/Natasha, Billy/Wanda/Grant, past Clint/Laura, and Sam/Sharon. Eventual Clint/Yelena, and rank/Karen.

Summary: In the aftermath of the Blip, Bucky struggled to find his place among the world and the Avengers. However, when he is sent on a mission to Madripoor to investigate a young woman, he starts to realize that maybe his past isn’t too far behind him. Co-Written with WalkingPotterGirl14.

Natasha wanted things to go back to how they were with Steve before the Accords and before her miscarriage. There was a part of her that felt like she was betraying Alexei, Melina, and Yelena by loving Steve, but the other side wanted to retire from the spy life. Wanted to retire from everything. She was tired of the jobs, of keeping secrets from the people she considered family. She didn't even hate Bucky or resent him anymore, unlike Alexei, Yelena, and Melina. She just wanted Steve and the rest of this to go away. She wanted life to feel remotely normal again. She didn't want to lie anymore to any of them. Everyone had been lied too so much. She was only added onto the drama. Natasha ran herself a bath, pouring in her jasmine scented bubble bath, mixing it with the water. She sighed tiredly, trying to settle into the water, when she felt her phone vibrate. As she looked at it, she saw it was a text message from Melina. 'I need to talk to you, Alexei and Yelena tomorrow in Zagreb, Croatia urgently. It's about her!' The text message said cryptically. Natasha felt a sense of dread wash over her at the text. 'I'll need to make an excuse to Steve, Tony, and the others first,' she texted quickly. Melina replied four minutes later. 'We are your family, Natalia, not them!' Melina had messaged back furiously. Natasha closed her in frustration, breaking down in tears at her dilemma.

"Whoever hired that team to assassinate the mystery girl really wants her dead. Tell Barnes and Carter to get a blood sample from her so we can test it for DNA. Maybe she's in the international database," Fury recommended sternly. Everyone nodded but Tony shook his head. "We need to send someone else to watch over Barnes, Fury. I personally believe that he's compromised. His judgement is skewed because he's convinced that this girl might be the dead girl from the files. Who knows what he might have done with her if she was in the Red Room," Tony insisted harshly, causing most of the people to look at him in disapproval. "We can't send Belova or Romanoff? They've been sent on a mission in Zagreb, Croatia to track down a few remaining Flag Smashers. Who else can we send?" Grant asked quietly, his face bruised from his fight with a Flag Smasher during a mission in London, Great Britain. "Send in Steve. He's become really good at working undercover and Bucky trusts him," Sam suggested diplomatically. It couldn't be him, seeing as the Smiling Tiger was in Madripoor. Ross had an expression of disdain, while Tony was cold but grudgingly agreed to the arrangement. "Try not to mess up, Capsicle," Tony said coldly, before walking out of the conference room. Steve sighs a bit before nodding. "I can do that. I'm sure Bucky hasn't gotten super far. I could help him out together."

Morgan Stark was determined to make her daddy happy. He'd been sad ever since Captain America's best friend, Bucky Barnes, had been pardoned by the government and found not guilty at his trial. Her dad had gone into a rage, shouting that Barnes was a monster and anyone on Steve's side was to blame for Thanos winning. So she was going to somehow make him smile again. She was going to build an AI, like he did. She already had a name picked out for him as well. Her dad had explained to her that he had created Ultron to protect the world. Maybe she could do that again, and somehow bring him back to make not only her daddy happy but the world happy. All she knew was that she was tired of hearing him fighting all the time with the Avengers and she wanted to somehow change that. Maybe a new Ultron could do that? She had found his memory core not that long ago. Maybe if she followed his blueprints from years ago…she could, do it? She didn't want any more arguing or yelling…all she wanted was for this to end. So that was that. She was going to do it. One way or another. Daddy had a lab always near him. It would be the perfect time to do it. Maybe they could finally figure out how to end all the fighting. Maybe she'll be the cause of it. Daddy would be happy. They would see they were wrong about him. Somehow.

When Steve had arrived in Madripoor, it looked the same as it always had from before, with bright lights and big neon signs drawing in anyone from a mile away. However, his eyes were more focused on trying to get to Bucky's place. He had talked with Sharon about where to go and she had directed him willingly, leading him towards midtown where a lot of the higher ups in the crime world lived. It was also where the mystery woman lived, apparently. Hopefully they would be able to get through to this quickly. He had knocked on the door, and for a moment there was silence. He had been expecting that, considering Bucky was most certainly not expecting anyone to come by and greet him. But he slowly opened the door, and when he saw it was Steve his eyes widened.

"Where the hell did you come from?" He asks as he lets him in, giving him an embrace. When Steve stepped back, he closes the door behind him, turning to Bucky. "Lot has happened at the base while you were gone," Steve states with a raised brow. "I'm not longer in charge of the Avengers. Ross gave it to Tony." Bucky's brow raises. "You're serious?" "He did. They were upset about our choice in operation of sending you here." Bucky lets out a long sigh, going to sit on the couch at that. "We defended you the best we could, but at the end of the day, they had the last call. Sam suggested I come over here to fill out their needs." Bucky's brow raises once more. "Which are?" "Keep an eye on you." Bucky feels himself groan before standing. "How the hell am I ever going to be an Avenger in their eyes?" He asks, his voice rising a bit in anger. "Everything I do now, even after all the amends and everything I've done, it'll never work…all I want is to prove myself. I know I'm a piece of shit but…I'm fucking trying." "I know you are, Buck," Steve says gently, letting his hands rest on the man's shoulders. "I know you are. And trust me, we all see it. There are some that are just stuck in their ways that I don't believe are going to change soon. Those are the ones that, when they do inevitably open their eyes, they'll see the most change in you." Bucky snorts a bit. "That one of your little political speeches?" he asks. "No," Steve answers, shaking his head. "Trust me, I highly doubt I'm going to be doing much more than you are here. If anything, while I know how to stay undercover, if I get recognized here, it's game over." He gestures to you. "At least with you, not a lot of people know your face. Even this girl doesn't." He glances over at Bucky's hands and notices there seemed to be dried blood on it. "Speaking of that…" Bucky glances down at his hand and feels his cheeks turn red. "It's not on me, I swear – Maria wanted to interrogate the men that came, and she ended up killing them. Turns out they were sent by a woman named Melina Vostokoff. She wants to end the woman for some reason." "Well, we knew about the attack but your…hands?" Bucky sighs a bit. "I went over to help her a couple of days ago after she was attacked. Try and get more info on her. I guess I just didn't clean off all the blood afterwards." He looks up at Steve and shakes his head. "She is a mystery woman…definitely likes to keep her identity a secret." Steve nods before going to sit down next to him. "I want to ask you a question, and just respond the best you can." Bucky nods. "Are you sure that you don't know her from back then?" Bucky sighs, swallowing a bit. "I…feel like I do." He glances back at Steve. "If you saw the way she moves, and what she had – I mean, she's like a carbon copy of Nat but she's ruthless. She even had some of the same weapons. She had to be trained in Red Room…but I can't recall her for the life of me. That's why I'm trying so hard to figure out if she's truly Ana or not. Maria seems like a reasonable name but…don't know." Steve nods quietly. "Didn't you and Nat have a thing back when you were there?" Bucky quietly nods. He didn't like to think about it often. There was so much pain involved in everything there. "Do you think you might have known this girl like that?" "I genuinely can't remember," Bucky answers honestly, glancing at him. "At this point, all I'm looking for is for some way to figure out if she's truly who she says she is. Maybe after I can search more." Steve sighs but nods. "We got a lot of work ahead of us, then."

Natasha had waited patiently, her arms crossed against her chest with Yelena. It seemed it would take hours for Melina and Alexei to arrive, but when they did, it felt like ages. "You two are worse on time than I am, and that's say something," Yelena mutters. "Quiet, you two," Melina states, looking between them. "We have a serious problem, and I believe you two know what it is."

Natasha and Yelena exchange an uneasy glance, as they look at Alexei who thankfully didn't know what was going on. If he found out Melina had been lying to him for all these years then things would get bloody. "Why did you call me here, Melina?" Alexei asked suspiciously. He hadn't aged well, and it was clearly showing. Despite having the Super-Soldier, it was a far weaker version than the one Bucky and Steve had running through their veins. The woman ignored him as she drank from her glass of red wine, her eyes cold and emotionless. Sometimes Natasha wondered if the woman did genuinely care about her and Yelena, like Alexei did, or if she was just using them. "I believe that despite our best efforts to purge the Red Room, it still exists. Over in Madripoor, a young woman killed the Power Broker, before taking over the city. She's killed several people who tried to break the new rules she implemented as some shot way of a moral code. I refused to acknowledge the bitch, and I tried to kill her…but she defeated me," she said sourly, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "What did you do, Melina?" Natasha asked warningly, praying that the woman hadn't compromised Bucky. If she had, then Steve would go ballistic and raise hell if Bucky were hurt. Not to mention the others. Her surrogate mother regarded her with a cold expression that would have terrified anyone else. But she wasn't frightened of her anymore, not after seeing what she was afraid of. "I hired a death squadron to kill the little whore. She won't survive against them," Melina said confidently, causing Natasha to stare at the woman in shock, before her gaze breaks. Fuck. She had enough and was about to leave, when Melina grabbed her right wrist in a tight grip. "Remember where your true loyalties are, Natasha. I don't want you to end up like her…who chose HIM over us," Melina said meaningfully, her grip tight. Natasha nodded coldly, ripping her arm away and started walking back to her car, refusing to be intimidated. 'What have I done, god?' She thought bitterly, climbing into her car, and turning on the heating.

Ana had cleaned up her apartment after she disposed of the bodies. She had dumped Diego's body in Low Town, knowing that someone would post it on the internet. The other three remaining bodies had been dealt with. She hated the Red Room and what they had done to her. but at the very least the teachers knew how to teach all of them in how to dispose of a corpse after killing the individual. She used a luminal torch to see if any bloodstains remained, relieved when she didn't see any. Despite being near people, she desperately wanted a few furry companions. She needed something to keep her company, other than the people she would meet. She wasn't naïve. Ana knew that they would be targets but she wouldn't let anyone hurt them. She was going to ask X-Con Security Consultants if they would be willing to install security at her house. She decided to take a shower and rest up for the night. She wasn't taking any chances now, considering that Melina had tried to kill her twice now. The older woman still thought she was the same, useless, naive, and helpless little girl all those years ago. She sighed heavily as she trudged upstairs, taking off her bloody, filthy clothes and threw them on the floor. There was no salvaging them. She'd burn the clothes tomorrow. She stepped into the en suite bathroom, turning on the hot water, as she looked at herself in the full body mirror. Scars decorated her body, mainly on her chest, her right arm and some were on her back, and left leg.

Bullet wounds, knife wounds and there was a faded scar on her stomach. She touched it hesitantly, feeling a strange sense of heartache and loss for no apparent reason.

Bucky had gone into the Brass Monkey club, taking Steve with him as they saw Sharon was there. She gestured for them to join her, as they went to a table at the back, where they wouldn't be disturbed. "So, I did some asking around and apparently the woman calling herself Maria Kapitonova is using another woman's name. This is the real Maria Kapitonova. And she's been dead for the last six years, Bucky and Steve." Sharon explained grimly, showing them a photo of a young woman with red hair, brown eyes, and a scar on her throat. Bucky had known that the woman was using a false identity, but this just proved it. Deep down, he knew that she closely resembled Anastasia. Maybe they were related? "So, she's using the identity of a dead woman whose been dead for the last six years. What else have you got, Sharon?" Steve asked intrigued. They were finally getting a fresh lead. "Yeah, I was hoping you'd ask me that question. I did some digging, and Fury emailed me these files that he and Hill found at an abandoned HYDRA base in Voronezh, Voronezh Oblast. Turns out, HYDRA and the Red Room were both working closely together on a project," she said meaningfully. "Something we should talk about elsewhere." Bucky and Steve got her point and left with her to go to her house, leaving behind the bar. Once they arrived, Sharon continued from where she left off, and handed them copies of the files, closing the door behind her. "The Red Room and HYDRA discovered that the girls at the Red Room who had the Super-Soldier serum were far more able to carry a child of the Winter Soldiers. There are lists of names who were chosen for the program. The project began in the 1990′s, and a lot of the pregnancies resulted in the women dying from complications due to the babies developing quicker than a normal baby," Sharon explained gravely as Bucky read the file. He recognized a few of the names, but felt his blood run cold when his eyes drifted to two familiar names. 'Red Guardian and Black Widow - viable pregnancy. Scans confirm that Vostokoff is carrying twin daughters. No complications detected so far into the pregnancy. Vostokoff has confirmed that she has suffered no cramping, or any sign of miscarriage.' "Holy shit, Steve. What if Alexei and Melina were the parents of Anastasia and her twin sister?" He asked quietly. Steve's expression was of grimness and concern. "That's more than likely, but Natasha never mentioned that Alexei and Melina had kids," Steve said hesitantly. Bucky knew the man didn't want to think Natasha had lied to him again. "There's more. On the second page, according to Dr Lyudmila Kudrin, only three women survived carrying the pregnancies to full term. Vostokoff ended up giving birth on June 18, 1995. It says here that she delivered two twin girls," Sharon said wearily, causing Bucky to frown. Bucky read more of the file, feeling his stomach roll in disgust, seeing that the project had been a partial success. They had put the project on hold in order to try and create more of the Super-Soldier Serum. He felt a cold sensation run down his spine, as he thought of Ana then. Maybe she was Alexei and Melina's daughter…possibly.

When the rest of the team had heard back later on what Sharon had discovered regarding the mystery woman, that had sent them on a trip to try and figure out who exactly her family was. Having Sharon reveal that there was actually a twin sister to the girl was an amazing lead. So, one of the Avengers took it into her own hands once she heard that – namely, Wanda. She knew what it was like to lose a twin, and if the young woman that they were looking after really did lose one, there was most likely a hole there that would never be filled. The least she could do is find out if they were right.

After that, they had searched all over the internet, from typical shit to the dark web, trying to see if they could find some sort of league to get them in the right direction. And soon, it wasn't long before they discovered something. The last name Liukin was associated with a Russian cemetery. Instantly, Wanda had assembled the team to fly to where it was, Fury agreeing to it nonetheless considering that it was for a mission. Thankfully the quinjet was quick enough to get them there a little faster than the normal airtime. Even so, arriving had Wanda shaking to see if this was real. They had showed up to the cemetery, stepping in and searching for her name. And it wasn't long before they did find it. Wanda had stood in front of it for a moment, feeling Clint let a hand rest against her shoulder. 'Angelina Aleksandrovna Liukin.' This was it. This was the twin. They were right. They had looked all over to see if there was even a possibility of another Liukin, but funnily, there were none under the names they were looking for. It was mainly strong Russian names that had been attached to it. "I can't believe it," she whispers, looking down at the grave, kneeling down. "There's a lot more to this woman than we realize…she was buried so deep." Clint sighs softly before nodding. "Sometimes that's the case with these things, but…this is good in a way." Wanda looks up to him. "Now that we know for sure that she exists, we have a DNA match-up. She is most likely in the International Data Base if she was dead. We were able to find her originally. If we can somehow get a blood sample from Maria, we can see if she's really Ana or not." Wanda stands, pulling her jacket around her tightly. It was still freezing cold here. "Don't you think that's a bit…sketchy? I mean both Steve and Bucky are there. I don't know how they're going to just get a blood sample off of her." "I'm sure they can figure it out," Clint assures. "We have two of the best super-soldiers in the world. They're not that dumb." "They're also not that smart," Wanda mutters. "True," Clint chuckles before helping her stand. "Come on, let's take some pictures and get this to Fury."

As had been expected, they had gotten the proof to Fury as quickly as possible of the life of Angelina. And as they had expected, Fury had requested to Bucky not that long after to somehow get a blood sample from the mystery woman. To which both Bucky and Steve had sat down for hours, trying to figure out the best way to do so. Because who can just…do that? Eventually, though, they had settled on something that might spurt up one. "How about you just take her out on a date?" Bucky's brow raises in response. "You're serious?" "Yeah, why not? I mean, there's a high probability that you'll most likely get attacked because she has so many bounty's out for her right now. It's the best option you have that's legal in our eyes." He shrugs a bit. "Or you can just attack her mysteriously." "No," Bucky instantly states. His quick response surprised Steve a bit. "I mean, I…I don't want to hurt her more than she's already been hurt. You can tell from a mile away that she has gone through some shit." "Okay…don't worry, we won't do that," Steve reassures him, rubbing his back. "But we still need to get that sample, one way or another…I believe you'll be able to do it" Bucky sighs a bit before glancing up at him. "I haven't been on a date since the 1940′s." Steve snickers. "I think you'll be fine."

After their conversation, it wasn't long before Bucky had asked Maria to come with him on a date, something he had surprisingly been quite nervous to do. Again, it had been so long since he had done something like this, but he knew that it was needed for what they were planning on doing. And she had agreed after a little bit, deciding that they would head out to a smaller restaurant in Madripoor, one that wouldn't attract so much attention. When he had come to pick her up at her apartment, he had waited downstairs for her to come. When she arrived, he felt his mouth drop slightly. You know, it was getting really damn hard to do this mission when the subject was so goddamn gorgeous.

#bucky barnes fanfiction #dark!bucky barnes x reader #dark bucky barnes/oc #dark bucky barnes #steve rogers/natasha romanoff

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arsonistvoyager · 4 years

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A Jedi for a Clone Pt. 4// Captain Rex x Reader

Pairing: Rex x Reader

Summary: Late night talk with Rex leads to unforeseen actions.

a/n: My first time writing slightly heated content in a few years and in my second language. I hope you’re all not cringing at this I really enjoyed writing it!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

taglist: @starflyer-104, @mangoberry43, @kaminobiwan, @persaloodles, @painkiller80, @passionofthesith, @mackstrut, @greyjediism, @depressedchilipepper

“Come on what are you, a sloppy seppie?” You fingers dug into the back of Rex’s hand as you focused your eyes on his face. He was concentrating – you could tell from the way his brows furrowed and he bit down onto his lower lip. Your eyes glanced towards them, while you were watching a droplet of sweat travel down from his temple all the way down to his neck until his disappeared beneath his blacks.

Of course he was having a hard time beating you in a round of arm wrestling. Years of Jedi training hadn’t been for nothing – especially since at least 3 of them were spent fighting an intergalactic war.

While you were distracted by the intensity in his eyes, Rex took the opportunity to momentarily overwhelm you and push your hand down a few inches.“The dooming arrogance of a Jedi”, he laughed as he looked up and right into your eyes, which is where he swore he saw a flame ignite.

“Not so fast, Captain.” You slammed your other hand down on the table and pushed his hand towards the wooden surface with raw, brute force.

Rex was baffled by the time he realized how fast it had happened. Not soon after he pushed his lower lip out, lifting his defeated hand up and stretching the fingers. “Not fair. You probably used Jedi magic.”, he mumbled, his eyes following their movement.

With a barely noticeable lift of your right lip corner you regarded your hand as well, but to admire your nails. “If you’re talking about the force – then no. That’s not even how the force works.” Then you turned towards him. “This”, you said as you moved your hand and seemingly effortlessly lifted Rex off the small barrel he had been sitting on. “is the force.”

For a few seconds you cherished the startled, scared expression on his face, before you let him fall again – not back onto the barrel but onto his bottom on the ground. “That hurt!”, he groaned, rubbing his back and you chuckled quietly and lowly to yourself, before remembering that the trooper had been injured because of you.

“Oh I forgot-” Before you could finish Rex lifted his hand and silenced you. He then grabbed onto the wooden table you two had used for your arm wrestling match and lifted himself back onto the barrel, huffing air out after he successfully sat up again. To your surprise he was smiling. “Don’t worry about it. I was a bad loser, maybe I deserved that.”

An awkward silence erupted between the two of you. With Rex staring at his gloved hands and you, staring right into his face.

“Why are you so kind to me?” Rex dared to look up. Fascinating. It had only been the second night and compared to the first time he had approached you, the clone now spoke in full sentences, looked right into your eyes and held his ground.

“Did you not hear the rumors? I killed my clone battalion and I cut the heads of every clone I see with my lightsabers.” Your eyes showed no emotion. Had it been the first moments he met you, Rex might have believed you. But his gut feeling told him that wasn’t true.

“I don’t think you did. For one I still have my head. Also my brothers tend to exaggerate a lot – and not just when it comes to our own victo-accomplishments.” Calling the rumor about you killing his brothers a victory had him feel the bile come up his throat.

Your eyes wandered to his hands. His right one had gripped his left wrist and was rubbing up and down the black fabric that covered it.

In your mind you recalled seeing him do the gesture already. Odd detail.

He was joking with you – not out of guilt or fear it seemed – no out of sincerity. Maybe you were moving too fast for your own pace to trust this man and his brothers. But your gut told you to keep pushing. “Rex.” He lifted his brows encouragingly, signaling you to continue and that he was listening.

“When Master Krell died... I returned to the temple.” Nothing in his face indicated disdain for your mentions of your past. You continued. “Do you know how fast word of my masters betrayal spread? When I stepped out of the shuttle and walked Coruscant that day I felt the eyes of several dozen of clones on me, even from behind their helmets.” You paused. “The force is a curse sometimes I’ll tell you that”,you mumbled loud enough for him to hear. “They didn’t think I would hear but – I know they called me clone-killer.” A pause again. This was harder than you thought. “And I hadn’t even done anything. The tear stains on my cheek were still wet when I saw the Coruscant guard point and whisper at me.” Your eyes were focused on his hands again but Rex had stopped moving long ago.

“I was knighted 2 days after that. Without my master present. I don’t even remember the ceremony. It was a blurry mess of cloaks and blue and green light. And then they started calling me General instead of Padawan and I realized he would never return.” Your own hand clenched together. “That night I went out and wreaked havoc over the lowest levels of the underworld – then I asked Master Windu to not assign me any clones. Not because I knew I would lose control and collect their helmets like trophies but because I knew they would never want to follow orders of the clone-killer. Rumors are an awful thing.”

How long had you been sitting there with Rex? The campfires outside of the tent had almost all been put out so the only thing giving off a dim light was the small holoprojector between the two of you. It illuminated Rex’s face in a soft but cold blue hue, unlike the warm red tones of the campfires. But Rex himself didn’t have a trace of coldness on his face. He had furrowed his brows, yet relaxed his posture and observed you intently, waiting patiently for you to continue.

“I know I am wrong to hate you and your brothers for what you did to my master. It’s not the Jedi way to hate, to despise and to harbor a grudge. I’m trying to understand your reasoning...But how can I betray my master – who raised me and showed me the world. Who taught me to see the good in everything. Why couldn’t he just...Why did he have to do that! Why did he have to leave me behind like that!” Your sorrow had turned into anger without you even noticing it.

The only thing that alerted your mind of the anger that was flowing through your body was the light pain that you felt, as your fingers dug deep into the palm of your hand. “He betrayed the order! He- he betrayed the Republic, he betrayed the men that trusted him and he betrayed me!”, you yelled out in frustration. Rex grabbed your hand and wrapped his fingers around it before you could draw blood with the way you were torturing yourself.

You hadn’t noticed the way your breathing had gotten out of control either. The Captain squeezed your hand while your irregular panting normalized back into a soft exhale of air from your nose. When he was sure that your mind was back in its place he cleared his throat and started speaking softly to you.

“War... changes people. War tears people down to their most basic and animalistic instincts. War destroys lives. I won’t pretend that I support the way the Republic is leading this war, nor can I say in the slightest what goes on in those senators kriffing heads. Me and my brothers were born to follow orders, not question them but I know the way things are happening now they won’t bring the everlasting wonderful peace we’ve been taught to believe in. So I try my best to – to do a little part of bringing peace.” His thumb was gently rubbing up and down your hand. It felt nice. It felt warm.

“Sometimes we can’t control the greater things in our lives and it frustrates us. Letting go is difficult and it tears you apart from the inside. Trust me I know the feeling. It’s not fair and it makes the world seem like a horrible place. I like to remember the small things in times like that. Remember what I’m fighting for.” Before you could stop yourself, your lips had formed into a gentle smile, which had Rex looking away, albeit still holding onto your hand. “But what do I know, I’m just a clone, eh M’am.”

It was the first time he saw you genuinely smile – it was beautiful. And immediately he felt like he wasn’t supposed to see it. He felt your hand pull away gently from his grasp and turned his eyes back to you but you were no longer sitting opposite of him. Instead he felt your presence on his side, quickly turning to the right to see you in fact standing close to him. Jedi and their superpowers, he thought while swallowing.

“That was horribly sentimental. But I appreciate it.” Oh this clone trooper was different than any of the others you had seen in your life. He was unique. Maybe some DNA had gotten mixed up when he was created? You didn’t care, when you gripped his chin between your thumb and index finger and placed your lips on top of his.

They were dry from the conversation you two had had but you hardly cared for that either, as you felt his hands come up to hold your cheeks softly.

Then all of a sudden he parted from you and pushed you back far enough so you could look him in his eyes.

“But the Jedi Order says-” The roll of your eyes silenced him.

“The Jedi Order says a lot of things. Many of them are bantha breath.” You would not let the Captain of General secret-wife himself lecture you on what you could and could not do as a Jedi. Swinging one leg over his thighs you lowered yourself on his lap, still holding onto his chiseled chin. Without warning him you pressed your lips back onto his.

A few seconds passed in eager awaitment until you realized Rex had no idea what to do with his arms. Lips still pressed on his you grabbed them and slid them down your middle and towards your hips, where he placed them tenderly at first. Not long after you licked over his lips with your tongue did he grab your waist more firmly and pull you closer to him, deepening the kiss.

Master Yoda himself could have stepped through the tent in this moment and you would not have cared.

When the two of you parted to take a breath he stared at you with shiny, innocent eyes and it felt like a fire inside you was ignited once more. “Be quiet now, Captain.”, you whispered, before your fingers wrapped around the neck of his blacks, pulling them down slightly. You waited no more before you attacked the soft, tan skin with your lips, sucking and licking his neck and leaving Rex breathless and panting.

As soon as you bit down a particularly sensitive spot he let out a low groan, trying his best to follow your orders to be quiet. You knew how to tease him just right, when you slid your free hand underneath the Kama that adorned his belt and all the way up the unarmored parts of his leg till you almost reached his groin.

You noticed him tense underneath you just like you felt his hands grip onto your waist tighter.

Such a tough soldier on the field, yet such a soft mess to your touch.

One of Rex’s hands traveled up your back and found a place on your hair, holding firmly, but not tightly, onto it while you lifted your head back to face his. He was growing impatient and you decided to tease him even more, hovering your lips just above his, while you felt his hot, ragged breath on your skin.

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #swtcw #tcw #clone wars #the clone wars #clone troopers #captain rex #captain rex x reader #rex x reader #captain rex x you #reader #star wars rex #clone wars rex #star wars x reader #clone wars x reader #reader insert #a jedi for a clone

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thetravelerwrites · 4 years

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Dr. Maël Halvorg (Fae)

Rating: Teen Relationship: Male Part-Fae/Female Part Fae Additional Tags: Exophilia, Monster Boyfriend, Fae, Naga, Reader Insert, Anthropology, Genetics Content Warnings: Children, Pregnancy, Incubation, Infertility Words: 4723

A commission by @ivymemnoch! With Amai and Yenuno's children getting older, they need a teacher, and Amai calls a friend to help out. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

“Amai, it’s great to hear from you!” You said, sitting back and sipping a coffee. You were typing up reports at your desk when she called. “God, it’s been forever since we last spoke. How are Yenuno and the children?”

You were surprised to get a call from your old friend while you were working overseas. You and Amai had gone to college together, and while she was getting a law degree in civil rights, you were studying anthropology. You were both in fields specializing in non-humans, which is why you were studying together.

There was a college that offered specific studies in exology, or the study of non-human sentient life, Exanian University. It provided classes in medicine, law, sociology, politics, cultural exo-anthropology, and many other subjects that focused solely on non-humans.

It was established in the early 1890’s and originally only taught humans about the nine Established races. The Established were allowed to attend school in the 50’s, and during the Neogon rights movement in the 80’s, the campus and curriculum was expanded to included education on the newer races that had begun to emerge as well as open its doors to non-humans. In addition, they began to petition and encourage other colleges to offer exological studies. Many alumni of E.U. were now teaching exological studies at other colleges.

You were now a research professor for E.U., studying newly emerged races and reaching out to those shy about integrating. When you first started your career, Amai and the firm where she worked would often help draw up protection papers for the new races until they were formally recognized as a Neogon race and therefore protected under the Neogon act, which granted them the same rights as humans and the Established. Though, as time went on, new races were much rarer, and you hadn’t needed their services. The surprise call was the first time you’d spoken in months, and you hadn’t seen her face-to-face in eight years.

“They’re well, thank you!” She said. “Whereabouts are you these days?”

“Portugal,” You replied. “We’ve had reports that the Encante people may actually exist, and we’ve been attempting to locate and make contact with them. Unfortunately, because they’re underwater creatures, they’re ability to shapeshift, and their reputation as seducers in the mythology of the region, it hasn’t been an easy task. Although, several people in the local villages claim to have Encantado ancestry, so we’re running blood tests to determine the legitimacy of that claim. If they’re blood comes back with unidentified DNA, we can start the protected race process. I assume that’s why you’re calling? You must have heard the news from Song. I sent him an email about drawing up papers a few days ago.”

“He did tell me, yes, and that’s wonderful news,” She replied. “But that’s actually not why I’m calling.”

“Oh?” You’re head rocked back, surprised. “To what do I owe the pleasure, then?”

“Well,” She sighed heavily. “The older children are at the developmental stage enough now where they should begin school, and the younger ones could use some help with supplemental skills. But both Yenuno and Dr. Halvorg don’t think putting them in a normal school a good idea, so I’ve been outvoted. At the very least, they need a tutor. I’ve done what I can on my own, but I’m not a very good teacher. At least, not for fifteen children. Soon to be eighteen, actually.”

“You’re carrying a new clutch?” You said, excited. “That’s wonderful! Yenuno must be very happy.”

“He is, and so am I,” She said, sounding please but tired. “Although we think this might be the last one. My body isn’t recovering as quickly as it used to and Yenuno worries about my health.”

“Understandable. So why did you call me?”

“Well, Yenuno doesn’t know anything about the educational system, having grown up in the wild, and Dr. Halvorg wants to hire some stuffy colleague of his who will bore the kids into a drooling stupor. Halvorg won’t accept anything less than the best, which I mean… I guess it’s nice that he wants the kids to have nothing but the utmost quality, I just wish he wasn’t so damn rigid. He needs to get laid, honestly,” She huffed, and you stifled a laugh. “Do you have someone you could recommend?”

“To get him laid?”

She snorted. “No! You know what I mean. Do you think any of your colleagues at the university would be interested in educating the children of a rare, endangered race? That’s got to have appeal to you academic types, right?”

“Hmm,” You hummed, sitting back in your chair and contemplating. “I’m not sure. You know, it occurs to me that I’ve never even met your children. Or your husband, for that matter.” You sat up and looked at your calendar. “You know what? I’m due for a vacation. Why don’t I come back state-side and meet all of your little ones? I can get a better idea of who would be a good fit for them. I know several people in early education who could be great for tutoring a large group of children at different development levels.”

“Ah, you’re a lifesaver, thank you so much,” Amai said. “I’ll owe you one big time.”

“Just find me a man and we’ll call it even,” You said, laughing. “I’ll text you when my schedule frees up and we’ll make some plans.”

Two weeks later, you stepped off the plane of the airport in Coleville and rented a car. Willowridge was an out of the way town that had the E.U. campus where you and Amai had gone to school. It was a little bit of a drive from the city to get there, but Coleville had the closest airport.

You arrived at the research facility sometime around mid-afternoon, greeted out front by Amai and her youngest child, Yenu. Yenu was a 50/50 hybrid between naga and human, which was unheard of; all other hybrids were a 95/5 percent split since the males both created and fertilized the eggs. Females were simply incubators in the breeding process. Yenu was a curious mix between Amai and her father, from her stubby little legs to her long snake tail and the blue scales running down her neck and back. From an academic perspective, it’s no wonder this Dr. Halvorg was so keen on keeping her and her siblings in the facility for study.

On the other hand, she was adorable, and the entire world needed to know about it. You wondered how many specialists actually knew about her existence and why there wasn’t more published about her in scientific literature. You’re fairly sure there was only one article based on her, and it was authored by Dr. Halvorg. They were likely keeping her under strict protections until she was older, to spare her the media circus.

“It’s so good to see you!” You said as you scooped her into a hug. Her belly wasn’t big yet, but you could feel it’s hardness against your own belly. Yenu squealed happily in her arms as you squished the two of them.

“You, too!” She said, kissing your cheek. “How was the drive?”

“Scenic, as always,” You said, following her as she went inside. “I got the email from Dr. Halvorg last night about accommodations. You’re right: he’s a little abrupt, but in all honestly I’ve yet to meet a geneticist that isn’t.”

“Believe it or not, he’s way less uptight than he used to be. The children really help lighten him up.”

“He likes kids?” You said, your opinion of him rising slightly.

“Oh, very much,” She said, then her voice lowered to a sad whisper. “He can’t have any children, apparently. His kind are bad breeders, he says.”

“His kind?”

“He’s part fae,” She replied.

“Oh,” You said, frowning. “That’s odd.”

“What is?”

“Well, I’m part fae, too, and I have three brothers. And I know of several subraces of fae that are prolific breeders, several of which I helped integrate myself. Exogenetics is still an evolving science. Perhaps he has been so focused on his current work that he hasn’t checked recent literature in the field. He’s been working in conservation for several decades, didn’t you say? I’ll make some calls and see what I can find.”

“I forgot you were part fae,” She said thoughtfully. “What subrace are you, again?”

“Russian Bereginya,” You replied. “What is he?”

“I’ve never asked,” She said. “He very rarely talks about himself at all. Honestly, it seems like a sore subject with him, so I’ve never brought it up. Even Yenuno seems hesitant to ask, and he gets along better with Dr. Halvorg than I do. The only reason I know his first name is because I’ve seen it on official reports. Only the children are allowed to say it, even if it’s to call him ‘Uncle Maël’.”

“A hard nut to crack, huh?” You asked as she led you into the public lobby and fished out a personnel I.D. badge.

“You could say that,” She said. “He and I don’t always see eye to eye, at least.” She swiped her card in a card slot and pressed her thumb on the printpad. “I’ve got a temporary I.D. waiting for you in the back. It’ll be good for the next two weeks. Let me know if you decide to stay longer, and I’ll have the expiration extended.”

“Sure, thanks,” You said.

“You’re about to meet the man himself,” She said as she walked though an automatic sliding door. “Plus my man, and my children. You remember their names?”

You nodded. “It’ll take me a while to match names to faces, though. You always were an overachiever.”

She laughed.

The two of you walked into what looked like the receiving room of a warehouse, except it was empty. There was a large, rolling aluminum wall that was raised and led to a forested area outside. There was an enclosed greenhouse type thing that had several nests built, as well as a cottage at the far end.

Each little nest had a small body with blue scales and warm almond skin lying in it, curled up into a coil, eyes closed and breathing softly. The cottage at the far end also had a movable wall, which was up, and a large, blue naga with long, straight, black hair and pale skin was sitting there, typing on a laptop that was perched on a standing desk.

“Yenuno is a bit socially shy, so he connects with others through the internet,” Amai whispered. “It’s about as much social interaction with the outside world as he can tolerate sometimes.”

“It must be naptime,” You whispered back, nodding toward the kids.

She laughed softly. “The older ones only need to eat once a day now, depending on the size of their prey, and they get tired after hunting and feeding, so we schedule it for noon. They should be up soon, though.”

She waved her hand to get Yenuno’s attention. He looked up and smiled, closing the laptop. He slithered down the ramp, over to Amai to plant a kiss on her lips, and then took Yenu in his arms, tossing her up once to make her giggle before squishing her in a big hug and blowing a raspberry into her cheek. Amai shushed him.

“Let’s go to the lounge to talk,” Amai said quietly. “Yenuno, this is my friend I told you about, the professor from E.U.”

“It’s nice to meet you finally,” Yenuno said as the three--no, four--of you went to a sitting area nearby. Half of the room had chairs and a couch, while the other side had cushions with a table in between. “Amai has told me many stories about you.”

“Most of them are true,” You said, sitting. “But I won’t say which.”

He laughed and set Yenu on the floor in front of him, watching her carefully as she scooted her way across the carpet. “Dr. Halvorg will be around soon. He usually talks to the children after their naps about their hunting experiences.”

“Jeez, I thought I was a workaholic,” You said. “Does he ever relax?”

“Not that I’ve ever seen,” Amai said, handing you a cup of coffee from the bar behind the couch. “If he’s awake, he’s in research mode. He even works through meals.”

“Well, I’ll hope he’ll make some time so I can discuss the children’s developments with him.”

“Oh, if it’s for the kids, he’ll make time,” Yenuno replied. “He’s practically adopted them.”

“I swear, if he thought he could get away with it, he’d forge our signatures on adoption papers,” Amai said sardonically.

“Speak of the devil,” Yenuno said, jerking his head at the open loading space near the greenhouse. A man stood there, surveying the sleeping children for a moment before heading over to the lounge area. He was thin and tall with long, white-blonde hair in a sleek braid down his back. He was pale complected and had a sharp, angular face with bushy eyebrows and vivid, amber colored eyes. His ears had a definitive point to them.

Yep, definitely Celtic fae heritage; you could spot it a mile away. It’s true that the Celtic fae populace had dwindled over the years, though you hadn’t really considered why. You chalked it up to interbreeding with other races or being edged out of their territory. Historically, since fae were immortal, or at least very long lived, they often didn’t feel the biological incentive that mortal creatures felt to procreate. Could their long-held disinterest in breeding have eventually rendered them infertile? That was a startling thought.

“Is this the professor I’ve heard so much about?” Dr. Halvorg asked as he approached. Yenu toddled her way over to him on her short little legs and he picked her up, popping her onto his hip like a pro.

“Yes,” Amai said and introduced you. Dr. Halvorg used his free hand to shake yours.

“Lovely to meet you,” He said. “I look forward to working with you. You have an impressive reputation. I’ve actually been following your progress for quite a while.”

“Really?” You asked, surprised.

“Oh, yes,” He replied, shifting a squealing Yenu to the opposite hip. “You’re the foremost anthropologist in the field currently. You and your team are responsible for integrating over thirty percent of known Neogon races in the last ten years. As a geneticist, as a scientist, seeing the steady expansion and confirmation of known non-human races happen in my lifetime is pretty incredible to watch.”

“Wow,” You said, stunned. “I didn’t realize I had such a reputation.”

“Well, you’ve been in the field for a long time,” He said with a smile. “It’s not surprising that you might not be aware of the impact your work has had on the world.”

You may have blushed, but you’d never have admitted it. Thankfully you were spared from finding a way to follow up that statement by a range of sleepy groans issuing from the enclosure. One by one, the children began to stretch and yawn and make their way over to their parents, the first of which was one of the youngest.

“Mommy!” He said, his curly hair bouncing as he slithered over the lip of the carpeted lounge area. “Who’s that?” He pointed directly at me.

“Osan, it’s not polite to point!” She said sharply. “This is my friend who I told you was coming to meet all of you. Wait for your brothers and sisters to get over here before we start introductions, okay?”

Osan shot across the enclosure to rudely awaken the rest of his siblings. His excited hollering echoed throughout the empty enclosure.

“Ah, youth. I’d love to siphon some of that energy and drink it like an espresso,” Amai said.

“Girl, I hear that,” You replied, chuckling.

A small army of nearly identical naga children came following Osan, curious about you, chattering and craning their necks to get a better look at you.

“Kids, line up, line up,” Yenuno said, wading out into the sea of small clones of himself. “These are the five year olds: Keenai, Tani, Fuma, and Amaia. The four year olds: Nenish, Tahara, and Sadji. The three year olds: Jinsa, Ishni, Chidil, Itheti, and Dashu. The two year olds: Osan and Khuzho. And little Yenu is eight months old.”

“I don’t know how you tell them all apart,” You laughed.

“I have a mole!” Sadji said, pointing at it. “See!”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” You said, bending down to pat his head. He shook off your hand but laughed. You tickled his chubby cheek and he giggled, trying to fend you off.

“So what would you like to do?” Amai said. “I assume you already have a plan.”

“Yes,” You said. “I’d like to interview each child with a behavioral therapist and get a sense of their development levels myself, and then Dr. Halvorg and I will compare notes. I can make my determination then.”

“Sounds good,” Amai replied. “But it doesn’t have to be today, does it? You just got into town. I’d love to take you out for an early dinner, if you haven’t eaten. Yenuno hunted with the kids, so he likely won’t eat again until morning.”

“Sure, I’d love to,” You said. “Dr. Halvorg, do you have dinner plans?”

“Oh, no, I have a lot of work to do,” He said. “Besides, I’m sure the two of you will want to catch up. Please, enjoy yourselves. If you all would excuse me, I have a report to write.” He kissed Yenu on the cheek before handing her back to Amai and tousled a few of the kids’ hair as he passed. “Come along, children. Let’s do our interviews and I’ll take you all out to the playground.”

The kids cheered and followed him down the hall to the offices.

“You weren’t lying, Amai, he is really good with kids,” You said.

“Between him and the volunteers, we never have to hire a babysitter, which is nice,” Yenuno replied.

“Some days, it’s his only redeeming feature,” Amai said with a sour smile. “I still haven’t quite forgiven him for what happened when I was pregnant with Yenu. If I sit too long, thinking about it, I get mad all over again.”

“Think of the eggs, my love,” Yenuno said patiently, patting her belly. “He’s apologized many times since then. You can’t hold a grudge forever.”

“I absolutely can,” She said churlishly. “I understand his job is conserving and repopulating your species, but our marriage is an entirely separate thing and he can keep his nose out of it.”

“Well, let’s get a cheesecake and forget all about it,” You suggested.

“Sound good to me,” She said. She kissed Yenuno on the lips and waved goodbye to him. “There’s a new Italian place that’s got really good reviews.”

“No seafood! Or wine!” Yenuno called after her.

“This ain’t my first rodeo!” She called back.

The Italian place was as good as Amai said it was, and the two of you went to Tumble’s Cafe for dessert and coffee. Tumble had actually been a client of Amai’s when a hate crime had been committed against him. Now his wife and kids had two shops open in town and were doing very well for themselves.

Lucy, Tumble’s wife, was a few years your junior and a mother of three. Amai and Lucy had become close friends over the years and they were both in an interspecies mommy group. You knew of her, since you’d both grown up in the same small town, but you hadn’t actually met her before. Amai told you that the triplets often played with her children at the park, and you had to stop for a moment and contemplate the strange image of bunnies and snakes playing together.

“Is this the professor?” Lucy asked as you came in with Amai.

“Did you tell the whole town I was coming?” You asked Amai.

“I didn’t need to,” Amai replied with a laugh. “Word gets around.”

“What can I get you guys?” Lucy asked, a big smile on her freckled face.

“Coffee and cheesecake to go, please,” You said.

“Oh, no coffee for me,” Amai interjected. “Can I have a decaf iced cinnamon chai instead?”

“You got it. Whipped cream on top?”

“Yes, please. Where’s Tumble?”

“Putting the kids to bed upstairs,” Lucy said. “Such a good daddy. We’re talking about having more.”

“More than three?” You asked as she handed you a steaming cup of coffee. “I can’t imagine having more than two, at the most.”

“I guess it comes with having a non-human partner who’s used to the idea of having many children,” Lucy said, nodding at Amai, who tilted her head in agreement. “Not all non-humans have litters or clutches, but the ones who do always want more kids. At least the girls are in school now andTumble gave me a good five years before asking for another litter, unlike supermom over here. How’s that going on your end, by the way?”

“That’s why the professor is here,” Amai said, bumping you slightly with her shoulder. “She just got in today. The evaluations start tomorrow.”

“Well, good luck.” She handed you a box that contained two generous slices of cheesecake.

“Thanks, Lucy,” Amai said as the two of you left. “I’m sure I’ll be back in here soon. Tumble’s pastries are the best in town.”

“I’ll tell him you said that!” Lucy said with a laugh, waving.

The next morning, you began setting up for the individual assessments when Dr. Halvorg entered the room.

“Good morning,” You said. “Are you observing with the behavioral specialist?”

“I am the behavioral specialist,” He said. “I have a PhDs in child psychology and clinical psychology.”

“How many degrees do you have?” You asked, impressed.

“A few,” He admitted. “I’ve been alive for quite a long time, so I go back every once in a while to get another, or for a refresher. The education for each degree is much different now than it was fifty years ago.”

“How old are you?” You asked. “I know you’re part fae.”

“Amai told you that, eh?”

“Maybe,” You replied. “I mean, I’m part fae, too, so it’s not like I’m bothered by it.”

“You are?” He asked, looking at you keenly. “That wasn’t in your dossier. European?”

“Russian, and it’s not really a secret. I’m surprised you didn’t already know; I figured Amai would have said something. I was actually thinking you and I should have a conversation about that.”

He looked at you with an indecipherable expression and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, one of the eldest children came in the door.

“Later,” He said. You nodded.

The evaluations were interesting. The children were advanced for their ages, though Dr. Halvorg told you that was normal among nagas, who had to mature quickly in the wild. Watching them problem solve during the assessment was actually fascinating. They grasped new concepts relatively quickly and were wildly curious. They actually seemed happy to learn new and unusual things and kept asking you about your work with new races. You imagined they got a lot of that exuberance from Amai. Yenuno seemed a great deal more anxious and withdrawn.

The assessments took the entire day, and Dr. Halvorg asked you back to his office to compare notes when they were done.

“I think Ishni is slightly behind the others in his age group, or rather his brothers are more advanced. Honestly, it’s hard to tell with nagas. Their development is so unusual.”

“I would agree,” Dr. Halvorg said. “With Ishni being behind, that is. But it’s nothing some focused work won’t fix. The rest of them are advancing well, based on the available statistics for their age groups.”

“Yes, it’s shocking how quickly they pick up new things. I wouldn’t be surprised if they completed a full curriculum in just a few years.”

“Based on today’s evaluations, do you have a candidate in mind who would work for them?” He asked.

You sighed heavily. “I do,” You said. “I actually know of several that would be good fits. Unfortunately, all of those people are currently under contract.”

“Oh,” Dr. Halvorg said. “I thought you said you knew someone who would be perfect for this job.”

“I said early development!” You replied. “But these children don’t need early development. That’s shapes and colors and numbers and things like that. All of these kids can already read. Even the two year olds! They need more advanced tutelage, and I didn’t realize that when Amai first asked.”

“So what would you recommend?”

You sat back in your chair. “Give me a few days to think it over and make some calls and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, just go about things as normal. I’d like to observe how things run here naturally.”

“Is that in reference to the search for an educator?”

“No, it’s for my own personal observations,” You said, smiling. “I am still an exo-anthropologist, after all, and quite honestly, the last couple of days have been riveting.”

He grinned. “A woman after my own heart.”

Two nights later, you walked into the enclosure after dinner to a strange sight: Dr. Halvorg reading the kids a bedtime story. He was sitting on the ground in the circle of nests and reading from a big book of non-human fairy tales. Race appropriate ones, of course. It was so unusual that all you could do was lean against the doorframe and listen.

When he finished, he helped settle all of the children and wished them a good night, and set the lights to starlight, with little pinpricks of light shining through the ceiling. When he saw you, he walked over.

“So, no good,” You said. “There aren’t any teachers who can come in on short notice.”

He sighed unhappily. “Well, what now?”

“I’ve decided that until they make contact with the Encante people, I’m not needed, so I might as well make the most of my time here and be the kids’ tutor until I need to go back or a teacher is made available.”

“Really?” Dr. Halvorg said, surprised. “Well, the kids like you, and you’re certainly well-educated. Have you ever taught before?”

“Briefly at E.U.,” You replied. “I taught one year of anthropology. It was nice staying in one place for a while, and the students seemed receptive to me. I only left because I was needed for a first contact situation.” You looked around. “Where’s Yenuno and Amai?”

“Date night,” He said. “They’re off… doing whatever people do on dates these days. I haven’t dated in decades, so I’m not certain what that entails anymore.”

“I could fix that, if you like,” You offered.

He smiled, but tilted his head. “How do you mean?”

“You could go on a date with me,” You said. “Since I’m going to be staying a while and working with you, it’ll be nice to get to know you better. And… maybe more than that.”

He looked like you’d hit him with a brick. He was still smiling confusedly, but his mouth was open and he couldn’t seem to speak.

“You okay there?” You asked.

“Ye--yes,” He stammered. “Forgive me. I… I appreciate the offer, but… I... I, uh…”

“It’s okay to say no, Maël,” You replied, laughing a little. “You don’t have to find an excuse. ‘No’ is a valid answer.”

He laughed a little self-consciously. “I’m sorry. I’ve been married to my work for so long that I just haven’t considered the possibility of dating. It’s… not something I’m interested in. I hope you understand.”

“Of course,” You replied. “That’s completely fine. And if you change your mind, that’s fine too. You know how to get in touch with me. No pressure. We’re both adults, after all.”

“Yes,” He said, adjusting his glasses. “I appreciate that. Thank you for the offer.”

“Think nothing of it,” You said. “I should get back to work. See you tomorrow.”

“Yes,” He repeated. You waved and walked away, unaware of his curious, piercing gaze on your retreating back.

Since my work is no longer searchable, please do me a favor and reblog this story if you enjoyed it. Help me reach a wider audience! To help me continue creating, please consider buying me a Kofi, becoming a Patron, or donating directly to my PayPal!

Thanks for reading!

My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

#Exophilia #Fae #Naga #Reader Insert

209 notes · View notes

crossoversfics · 3 years

Text

Boy Genius (Chapter 3)

(Spencer Reid x Malcolm Bright)

He had seen them arrive and when JT went over to greet the FBI agents Malcolm stayed put. Making nice with the agency just wasn’t on his to do list today. That did not, however, mean he hadn’t begun to profile their new coworkers the moment they showed up. It was less than a minute before JT was calling him over, but it was enough.

Malcolm turned and walked over to them, making sure to keep his micro expressions in check. In a matter of seconds he would learn whether these agents knew about him or not, and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

JT introduced him, “Agents this is Malcolm Bright, NYPD profiler. Bright this is-.”

“Agent Morgan,” Malcolm stuck out his hand, and Morgan shook it firmly, “And Dr. Reid”. He did not extend his hand to the doctor, but nodded instead, to which the doctor replied with a small smile.

A sideways glance told him JT was confused, he sighed, “Detective, I’m not deaf, I heard your conversation when they arrived.”

The response was a massive eye roll from JT and a chuckle from Agent Morgan. So far so good. Neither of the agents had seem startled by his presence.

“All right, smart ass,” JT grunted, “Let’s get to work then.”

He led both agents over to the dump site with Malcolm following just behind.

“Both bodies were found lying in this hallway. It had been closed due to construction so that’s why the bodies hadn’t been found before we were called.” JT explained.

“Did the Unsub leave anything behind? Footprints, fingerprints, DNA?” Agent Morgan crouched looking up and down the hallway.

“Nothing that we have identified yet. What did you mean by Unsub?” JT inquired folding his arms.

“It means Unidentified Subject of the Investigation.” Dr. Reid said absently as he walked down the hall a bit, “Have we gotten anything from the CCTV footage?”

JT shook his head ruefully, “There was no footage. The techs said that the cameras had been disabled just before the phone call came into the station.”

Agent Morgan stood, “Surprise surprise, but all the same we should have it sent to our tech analyst Garcia. She might be able to make something of it.” He put his hands on his hips, “This hallway is a dead end, so the only way he could have dumped the bodies here was through the entrance we just came through. There would have been too many people.” He stopped and called out to Dr. Reid who had wandered down the hallway, “Hey, kid what’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

“Just a hunch.” The doctor replied.

“If you’re looking for the trapdoor it’s not above you,” Malcolm spoke after watching them for awhile. He made his way down the hall and gestured to the large tile squares beneath them, “Its below.”

He knelt down and ran his finger above the cracked sealant around one of the squares, “I haven’t pulled it up yet because the forensic team needs to go over it but I’m sure this is how he got in.”

“He most likely made the phone call from here too and then he could reconnect the cameras and watch us find the bodies.” Reid surmised looking down at him.

Malcolm nodded, “That was my thought as well.” He turned to JT and Morgan, “He spent a long time planning this.”

Neither of them replied. Malcolm swiveled back to Dr. Reid who was looking at him intently.

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

Malcolm felt his temperature rising, but the very next second he willed himself to remain completely calm, “I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure, doctor.”

Reid nodded slowly, his mouth slightly agape, “Yeah, sorry must just be my brain mixing you up with someone else.”

Malcolm forced himself to smile, “Not a problem.” He brought himself to a standing position and shoved his right hand in his pocket, “Is there anything else either of you would like to see?”

Agent Morgan shook his head, “I think we’re good for now, how about you, kid?”

“Yeah, all good here.” The doctor replied still glancing at Malcolm.

“All right then we’ll meet you guys back at the station.” JT said to Agent Morgan.

“Sounds good.” He replied.

Reid finished rereading the last of the case files they had on Dr. Arthur, and glanced at his watch. It had taken him thirty minutes and forty-six seconds which was a lot longer than it normally took him. His gaze drifted to the same thing it had been ever since they had arrived at the station. Or rather the same person.

“This is Malcolm Bright, NYPD profiler.”

Bright was sitting across from him going through his own stack of case files, seemingly absorbed in his work. Reid wasn’t sure what it was that bothered him about the man, but there was something, off. At first, he’d thought it was some sort of vanity on his part. It was overtly apparent that Bright was the NYPD’s darker, more worldly version of Reid. The way he read a crime scene without much more than a glance spoke of immense talent and he was clearly intelligent, probably more than he let on.

The more he thought about it, however, the more he didn’t think it could be all excused away by something as petty as jealousy. The one thing he was sure of, Bright did not care for the FBI. Reid had watched Bright bristle in a conversation with Rossi over why he hadn’t applied at the BAU. It was the smallest clench of his right fist that gave it away. There was something there...

“Dr. Reid?”

A voice floated past him and then echoed in his head as he realized someone was talking to him.

“Yes, sorry.” Reid blinked and his eyes focused in on Bright’s questioning expression.

“No problem. I just wasn’t sure you heard Dani say they got ID’s on the two victims.” Bright handed him another file.

“I did not, thank you.” Reid took the folder and opened it. Time to focus, he chastised himself. After he finished, he looked up to see see Bright eyeing him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve never actually met someone with an eidetic memory before. I’d imagine it would be very useful.”

Reid smiled slightly, “Yes, along with its fair share of drawbacks, and the statistics for an adult having an eidetic memory are-”

“Less than one percent,” Bright finished for him.

Reid pressed his lips together and nodded. He didn’t try to contain his surprise that Bright knew the statistics, instead he moved back to the case.

“Speaking of memory, all of the victims have a lot of background in research or the study of memories. All of them were highly educated, successful, and popular.” A thought struck him, “You know, early on in this case we theorized that Dr. Arthur wasn’t his actual name and that he was most likely not from the same pedigree as his victims.”

Bright nodded while he massaged his right hand, “That could lead to a couple of possibilities. He could have been undereducated or poor and he resents those of a higher social, educational, or economic status than him. The problem with that theory is all of these victims seem, specific. They don’t read like targets of opportunity.”

Reid agreed, “So he must stalk them then. In all cases, the victims weren’t missed for several days and that takes extensive planning.”

“Yes, but why?” Bright stood up and inspected the board, “There’s no criminal history, no dirty laundry in the families, and none of them are involved in any type of ground-breaking research or controversial studies. The last two, Tate Medford and Juan Santos, were still working on their PhD’s.”

Reid tapped his finger on the table as he thought, “The torture clearly makes him a sadist, and we established that he is a pyromaniac just based on his obsession with fire and explosions.”

“So its safe to say he was probably abused, probably by a male figure, a father maybe. I’d say an intelligent one too.” Bright mused.

“What makes you say that?”

Reid glanced over his shoulder and saw that Hotch, Lieutenant Gil, Detective Powell, and JJ had come in. It was JJ that had asked the question.

Bright was now facing them too, “Well, just based on the victims he chooses. They all scored in the thirty’s on the ACT or over 1100 on the SAT, they all went to Ivy league schools or were enrolled in one, salutatorians, valedictorians, debate team champs, editors of the school papers, top athletes, they had scholarships, and I could go on and on and on. It looks like he is obsessed with what society deems intelligent or smart.”

Reid licked his lips, “I agree. It all points to him being angry or at the very least needing a substitute for someone in his life that was very smart.”

“Well why does he need two of them then?” Detective Powell asked with a frown, “and then why does he just go bomb random buildings?”

“That’s the part that just doesn’t make any sense.” JJ replied, “You would think that if it was intelligence he was targeting then he would be bombing schools and museums, but its just old warehouses or apartments.”

The Lieutenant sighed, “I’d say there is a whole lot more that doesn’t make sense besides all that.”

A phone went off and everyone turned to look for the source of the sound. It seemed to be coming from Bright.

He pulled out his device, glanced at the screen, and frowned, “Sorry, I have to take this.”

Reid noted a look that passed between Lieutenant Arroyo and Bright before he left the room but it was gone as quick as it appeared.

Hotch sat down in a chair next to Reid, “A bomb will be going off without warning any time now. If we want a chance at stopping it we need to complete this profile so the police know what they are looking for.”

Everyone nodded and got to work. As he started reading the file on the two new victims again he realized that the uncomfortable feeling he had about Bright had temporarily disappeared but that phone call had brought it back. He needed to know why.

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pyroclastic727 · 4 years

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Owl House Predictions 1-B

Created before The First Day premiered. If I get at least ten of these right, then I get a cookie. Information comes from the trailer, the episode descriptions, and the minigame relics on the Disney website. If you want proof for each theory, ask me in the comments.

The First Day

Luz samples each track at first and can’t decide. She tries to pick potions but mixes magic to end up in the Delinquent Track

Viney uses magic from the blue track with the DNA hand in order to become the monster shown in the trailer.

Luz looks up to Viney and tries to mimic her actions

At the end of the episode, Luz is forced into one track.

Really Small Problems

Luz, Willow, and Gus hang out together in the marketplace. King feels left out and devalued because of his height.

King gets a potion from Tibbles, that’s supposed to make him tall. It’s a trick, so it ends up making Luz, Willow, and Gus into miniature versions of themselves

At first, the three get lost. Then, instead of King finding them, Tibbles does.

Tibbles kidnaps Luz, Willow, and Gus, intending to use them as entertainment and sell them. Eda and King have to rescue the three of them, returning them to normal.

Understanding Willow

Willow and Amity fight over their past. Luz wants to understand it, but neither girl goes into detail. It gets to the point where Luz has to choose between her friendship for Willow or her crush on Amity

Instead, Luz steals a magical artifact from the school: the tweezers that extract memories. She uses them on Willow.

Memories are shown as windows on trees. A person crawls through a window in order to watch a memory.

We are shown pieces of all their memories, one at a time.

Luz’s memories are of her family and schooling. We see how badly people treated her, and how much of an outcast she felt she was. We also see how her relationship with her mom is strained: sometimes they get along, and sometimes her mom hides creativity, almost as if she’s keeping a secret from her.

Amity’s memories are about her family and pressure. We might get hints at the half-human theory, or the Eda-is-her-mom theory. We see her parents hurting her emotionally, and how any slip-ups were treated with cold disapproval.

Willow’s memories are of bullying and depression. We see how she started as a cheerful, optimistic kid. Then Amity left her, and she became insecure about her abilities. Then Amity bullied her, and she let it get to her. She joined the Abomination Track because either she or her parents wanted her to be cool like Amity. But that isn’t what she’s good at.

Willow and Amity are ex-friends, but it’s written like they’re the type of exes where they had mini-crushes or platonic crushes on each other, but they were too young to recognize them as such.

Luz damages one of Willow’s memories when they’re in her brain. Amity is panicked because they messed up, and this is her second rulebreaker adventure with Luz, after “Lost In Language.” Luz and Amity have to repair her brain. They see something they shouldn’t see.

Luz and Amity have to take Willow to Eda, searching for a solution. She helps them heal Amity. Gus is there, too, because that’s the promo picture I’m basing this off of.

Willow and Amity make steps towards making up.

Eda hints at her tragic past. Luz asks about it, but doesn’t press it, because she has boundaries.

Enchanting Grom Fright

It starts with a lunch scene, where Willow and Gus tell Luz about Grom. She thinks it’s like Prom. Either they tell her what it really is, and she’s shocked--or they assume she knows what it is really like, and she never learns.

Her next step is to get a Grom date. She tries to ask Amity, but doesn’t know if Amity is interested. So she stalks Amity, hiding in lockers and peering around corners, trying to build up confidence.

Grom turns out to be a dance and a competition. It’s like prom, except it’s not a popularity competition. Witches have to show off their powers, and whoever is the least powerful is given the Grom Tiara. The Tiara shows the wearer their worst fears.

Or, Grom is a trial contest. Only the bravest witch volunteers to wear the Grom Tiara and face their worst fears.

Amity knows what Grom is really like, and she’s nervous. She aims to be the best, and reap whatever reward they give the best witch--or to survive the Grom Tiara. So she’s worried, which Luz probably misinterprets.

Luz messes up asking Amity out. They don’t go together, even though they clearly want to.

Or, Luz asks Amity out, and Amity is shocked because Grom isn’t like that. Luz thinks it’s a lack of interest and she’s upset.

Throughout the Grom, they dance and switch partners. Luz has snippets of conversation with Amity, where each person realizes that they might have misunderstood. Before Luz can figure out what’s wrong, a contest is declared.

If Grom is a power contest, Luz loses the contest. She has to wear the tiara, and she must face her fears.

If Grom is a trial, Luz volunteers to wear the crown, not knowing what it does. She experiences the same problems.

Luz’s fears are about losing what she has. She sees her mom coming through the gate. She sees herself losing King and Eda and Amity. She is stuck at camp, or at her old school, and they’re missing. She stares at a picture of her, Eda, and King. She listens to songs that reminds her of Amity. She draws pictures of her friends and found family, with her in the middle. Her mom finds them and takes them away.

Amity helps her snap out of it. Later, Luz is upset, and Amity has to comfort her. Amity slips up and says something gay, and Luz teases her.

Wing It Like Witches

This is the Quidditch Episode

It starts with Luz, Willow, and Gus talking about Owl House Quidditch. Luz is excited to try it.

Eda is less enthusiastic. She has a bad experience with it, and encourages Luz to not do it.

Luz learns about Boscha’s claim to beat her. Then she has to do it.

The game has a deadly twist: if she loses, she can actually die. She is dismayed to find that Amity is on the opposing team.

I literally don’t know sports so that’s all I’m going to speculate about this episode

It ends with some important thing that sets up the main conflict for the last two episodes. Probably Emperor Belos or Lilith doing something sketchy

Agony of a Witch (this is where I would say my predictions are not at all accurate)

The class goes on a field trip

Luz hangs out with Amity at first. Then she gets distracted, as she does, and wanders off

Luz finds something she shouldn’t see: the Emperor’s Coven’s magic system.

The Emperor’s Coven collects all the magic that other covens can’t use. It harvests the magic, making Emperor Belos more powerful.

Luz tries to stop it but gets trapped. She is temporarily successful. Her uniform becomes multi-colored to signify this.

Eda goes there to rescue her. She has to enlist Lilith’s help. Naturally, it’s a trap

Eda and Lilith get in a fight about their past. Before they can reconcile, Belos finds them and fuses them.

The three-headed Hecate monster from the trailer is comprised of Eda, Lilith, and one other person. It is either Emperor Belos, Camilla, or a secret relative of Eda and Lilith’s. If it is Camilla, then the previous episode would be when she crosses over into the Demon Realm. If it is a secret relative, then the previous episode would reveal that identity

Young Blood, Old Souls

Luz has to defeat Emperor Belos’s big plan

She has to enlist the help of Willow, Gus, and Amity. Amity’s parents tell her not to do so, since they’re big donors to the Emperor’s Coven. She rebels against them for the first time in her life.

Edric and Emira help, somehow. I feel like Tiny Nose will reappear as well

Luz and her mother meet, and Luz has to choose whether to stay or go. It’s not an easy decision

Lumity is not confirmed, since they have a new season

Defeating the big plan reveals something far worse. I don’t know what

#the owl house predictions #the owl house #toh #predictions #this is how i'm coping with anxiety #luz noceda #eda the owl lady #luz #eda #the owl house king #toh king #originalpost #long post

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lemonsandstrawberries · 4 years

Text

Avengers in Pandemics

fandom: Stony (Steve x Tony), og6 Avengers

summary: After months of living during quarantine, someone had to finally snap. But why, much to Steve’s horror, it had to be Tony?

length: 1 406 words

a/n: this fic is a part of my 8th Stony Anniversary and is based on a prompt I understood wrong, but then wanted to write it anyway ;D please keep in mind that this is just fanfiction - it is just a light hearted fic about a serious topic, so if you think it might upset you, feel free to not read. my only intention is to make you smile after reading it. that being said, hope you enjoy the fic, likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated and needed!

—————

Avengers in Pandemics

"Okay, I am done."

The words immediately sent off warning signals in Steve's brain. He turned around, and watched Tony, marching into the living room at Avenger's shared floor, face set with a determined and sullen look. Steve feared it would happen and someone would break. His bet was on Thor, though, who since the coronavirus pandemics had started was strictly forbidden to leave the compound, because Thor might claim he was a god, but for most, he was an alien, and coronavirus was new and unknown as it was already, there was no need to mix alien DNA into it. Too much of a risk and Thor was cooped up, banned from leaving the compound, and instead spent his days grimly staring into the window, some sparks of electricity crackling around him from time to time.

Ah, pandemics...

Steve remembered polio outbreaks back from his days. When he woke up to a polio-free world, it was great news, but the 21st century had its traps. Flat-Earthers, parents declining to vaccinate their children, and a new, unknown virus, spreading all over the world. The Avengers team was known as the Earth Mightiest Heroes, but pandemics wasn't a time for heroics. It was a time to put down their armors and give an example. The Avengers' social media has never been fuller. Photos of movie nights, game nights, group training, even domestics things like Thor washing the dishes, or Steve doing the laundry, as all cleaning services had to be canceled (Tony made sure that all providers were paid a year in advance, just to be sure and not deprive anyone of a job). The Avengers tried to stay in and be safe and give an example. Just... It wasn't their thing. A month had passed, stretching into more months, and the situation was not getting better and everyone was at the end of their wits, handling it better or worse.

It had to happen and someone had to snap. Just, why, oh why, it had to be Tony? Steve thought about many scenarios. How to stop Bruce if he would Hulk out, how to contain Thor if he would rage out and throw tables, but Tony had this unstoppable energy Steve was never good at handling. Sure, he tried to throw some distractions in his husband's way, but Tony was so good at deflecting it was crazy. Once Iron Man set his mind on something, he had to achieve it. It was quite admirable, but in the current times, just frightening.

Steve saw that Tony walked straight to Natasha and Clint, engrossed in a game of chess because once all the good games were either destroyed in frustration, or just were put aside, played one time too many, it was back to basic. To everyone's surprise of everyone, Clint could stay extremely focused, which shouldn't be a surprise as archery wasn't spitball. Something Clint was very good at too, but in a very bad way for everyone.

"One for you," Tony said, handing Natasha a cuff bracelet, and then passing one to Clint. "One for you."

"What's that?" Natasha asked, looking at the piece of jewelry and Steve held his breath.

"Since my labs are still running and trying to find a safe vaccine," Tony explained, and Steve felt a wave of love going through him - since pandemics started Tony redirected all his factories to produce surgical masks and hand sanitizers, and later on, even toilet paper, because that was an unexpected thing to run out during pandemics, but it had been happening all over the country, "I made something else," Tony said, putting a bracelet on top of Bruce's head, who remained still, deep in meditation. "It is still a prototype, but safe enough for a smaller group of people. Kind of protective gear, I took the design of the quantum suits and tweaked it a bit. It is not for combat one, just something to keep you and people around you safe. And I don't mean it in an 'I am gonna go out and happily jump in the field!' way!" Tony added in a harsher tone, just to make it clear that his work shouldn’t be treated recklessly. "We are going to visit hospitals and deliver face masks, go to retirement houses, anywhere people need support," Tony nudged Thor, who turned around from the window, still looking angry at the whole world, but minimally cheered up after he got his bracelet. "I matched all the suits to your personal styles, you will like yours, it is very stylish."

Steve listened to Tony's explanation, feeling that he got anxious for no good reason. He should trust Tony more and know that everything his husband did was for the greater good.

"And this is yours," Tony walked to Steve, putting the bracelet out for Steve to take it. "So, what do you say? I know I kinda overstepped without consulting you first, but-"

"It is a great idea, Tony," Steve smiled, really meaning it, accepting the bracelet. The wonderful thing was that Tony, probably expecting some kind of protest from the captain of the team, looked surprised for a split of second, before smiling back.

"Oh, I already scheduled an appointment at the veterans' house," Tony snapped his fingers, pointing at Steve. "All your peers were pretty excited that you will come to visit."

"Alright," Steve chuckled lightly, taking the playful jab. Visiting veterans' houses was a big part of his volunteering program before the pandemics and a great starting point for Avengers' new mission.

“And some schools contacted us, they want you to do some pep talk for the kids -”

“Oh, yeah, I know,” Steve perked up, “I already handled that and scheduled some zoom calls,” he said, excitement hearable in his voice. Talking with kids and visiting schools was always great. It was much better than those PSA videos he had filmed once in bulk for schools, that his teammates liked to rub in his face. There is one thing that will give you an edge - a hot lunch. That line never got old, especially during mealtime.

Tony made a thoughtful face, his eyebrows drawing together until a small line appeared between them. “I didn't know that you know what zoom is,” he said in all seriousness, but the humorous spark in his tired eyes gave away that he was joking. Steve grinned, puffing his chest out proudly. Tony liked to think he had to teach Steve about every modern piece of technology, but after being introduced to basics, Steve navigated himself pretty well.

"So, everyone suit up! We are leaving in 30 minutes!" Tony hollered, and for the first time in many weeks, the team looked lively, eagerly listening to the order. "By the way," Tony turned back to Steve, lowering his voice, "I put some extra time into your suit's design," Tony murmured and it would be sweet if he didn't add, "the neckline goes down to here," he said putting his finger against Steve's chest and sliding it down almost to the belly button.

"W-what?" Steve stuttered out, his eyes widening. No, it had to be a joke. He imagined himself with an almost naked torso, his chest wrapped in some sheer material. It wasn't a protective suit, but something a male stripper would wear. "You said that suits are very stylish!"

"No, I said that Thor's suit is very stylish," Tony smiled impishly, meaning the impressive design he came up with for Thor that included some mean broad shoulder pads and lighting patterns, "yours is more of eye candy. Nurses and doctors deserve some fun too, right?" Tony winked and even dared to lightly smack Steve's butt. "Get a move on, baby!" he advised, turning around and joining the rest of his team, answering questions about the upcoming event.

Steve stayed still, looking from his bracelet and back to Tony over and over again. There was no way Tony would make him a suit that would leave him half-naked, right? It had to be a joke. Something Tony did to let go off the tension. Surely, it was a joke.

Or...

Steve sighed, clasping the bracelet around his wrist. Today showed that he shouldn't doubt his husband and trust him. With a smile, Steve walked after Tony and wrapped an arm around his husband, joining in listening to Tony's instruction about using the suit and following Iron Man's orders.

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at the end I just want so say thank you to people who put themselves out there and allow the rest of us function normally, especially health care workers and teachers! please, all stay safe!

#stony #steve rogers #tony stark #superhusbands #og6 avengers #clint barton #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #Thor Odinson #team fic #fanfic #fanfiction #don't take this too seriously #just a fic #but yeah #we need avengers to step up #HOPE YOU ALL ARE STAYING SAFE #no tickling #8th stony anniversary

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wellhalesbells · 3 years

Text

as i no longer sleep (apparently), let’s do this awesome thing @yodas-yo-yo tagged me on!! thank you!!

Rules: Tag 9 people who you want to know better/catch up with and then answer these questions.

3 SHIPS

i’m going with not necessarily my all-time favorite ships but the ones i’ve been reading like crazy lately

stiles and derek, as i’m sure we’re all well aware. those’re my boys. the dynamic they have just cannot be beat; it’s all shades of gray and built rather than plopped down without foundation. derek, who has been betrayed and abandoned and is neglected at every turn by every other character in this universe, and stiles, who - importantly - doesn’t have pity for him but pragmatism: ‘you’re a useful dude, and so i am going to use you regardless of how everyone else would just like to write you off.’ it’s not an immediate, ‘ah, you’re perfect for each other,’ moment, it’s kind of a, ‘shit, dude, that is not a guy you should use because he’s suffered that too many times already and this is bad.’ but only through that does it become less about using derek and more about relying on each other, trusting each other’s judgments, and being the first call rather than the last. i’m so emotionally tied to it because it’s freaking earned and no one is... pure. stiles’ motives aren’t pure, derek’s actions aren’t pure, no one is a one-dimensional hero who can abide by a concept as infantile as good vs evil, they’re more real because of it and i’m more attached to them because of it.

okay, weirdly, lately..... clark and lex (and after i was just talking about one-dimensional good vs evil characters, lol), preferably with the smallville backstory of once being besties. it’s just like the best of the best when it comes to tropes that do it for me. they’re baked in and, unless it’s an au, unavoidable. epic pining, best friends turned enemies turned lovers (or some variation thereof), a betrayed character (love when that’s lex and it’s post-belle reve), a morally gray manipulative genius who if they are depicted as not having ulterior motives is considered WILDLY out of character, a fucking canonical son made from both their dna, parallel universes in canon, not to mention there’s sex pollen in canon as well with red kryptonite in the mix. (there’s nothing better than fics where clark is dosed so he’ll finally kill lex luthor only to fuck him practically down to his soul instead.) i never even finished smallville and while i was always a fan of the ship, it was sort of more of a ‘ships in the night’ kind of ship, like: oh yeah, i know you *waves as you cross my dash* and nothing more. then i read (and read and re-read and read some more) reconcilable differences and.... there is not enough fic for them out there, friends. there just isn’t, and i’m sad.

merlin and arthur from bbc merlin. again, i really like what’s often baked into this pairing: a scenario that comes up with some regularity is a betrayed or banished!merlin and arthur realizing too late what merlin means to him and having to go after him and prove himself. i live for that shit, okay? i live for the character who seemingly has everything realizing they have nothing without this other person (especially if said person is often mistreated or sidelined in canon - thank you, fix-it fanon!!!!). i never was big into merlin fanfic UNTIL ao3 came up with the ‘exclude’ part of the search function. i don’t want modern merlin pretty much ever and somehow that fandom is about 50% modern aus???? so i never read fic for it because it was so hard to find what i was looking for. literally the day i saw the exclude option, i started reading merthur fanfic. i wish there were more percival/merlin fics (i am SO FUCKING INTO size difference lately and i do noooot have a pair that i LOVE that has that, some that i casually read like jaskier/geralt but none that i can’t live without yet and i NEED IT), especially ones featuring a jealous arthur that endgames into merthur but that’s, er, a bit specific? haha, and i have less than zero desire to write for either this fandom or the one above it sadly.

LAST SONG I LISTENED TO

clairo - sofia, i love how hard my radio station is fangirling over clairo, she has such a nostalgia-inducing sound for me.

CURRENTLY WATCHING

okay, well, i actually just finished the shows i was watching: prodigal son, which was like a less avant garde, less horny, less gay, less people-eating version of hannibal. instead of a guy who was too unstable to qualify to be an actual fbi agent and who has a loose relationship with reality and mental health, and maybe also a darker side, and a cannibal who definitely does, both of whom badly want to bang each other, it’s a serial killer father who has a darker side and a guy who was fired from the fbi for being too unstable, who maybe has one of his own, in addition to a loose relationship with reality and mental health. i mostly enjoyed it. i really liked the actors, the morbid and understated humor was hilarious (seriously, some of those one liners, both the delivery by the actors and the offhandedness inherent to them were just perfection), but.... they fridged the love interest (very VERY predictably) and they’re clearly shoving together the only unattached (”normal”) vagina and penis on the show because HETERONORMATIVITY!!!!! (i expect more of you, greg berlanti, tsk.) i’m hoping for more edrisa in the future because she is a fucking GEM (and it’s just SO NICE to see lane on my screen again!!!!), more jessica who might have the best sense of self and humor in the whole dang show, more michael sheen (because i just love the man in anything and everything), and about that finale (even though i saw it coming WELL in advance) i’ll just say: AINSLEY, MY GIRLLLLLLLL!!!!

the other i finished was the crown, season four. this show never really wows me tbh. i watch it mostly for a) the performances and b) my mom and dad, who love it immensely and love to talk about it with me. if not for them i could easily zone out for an entire episode without even realizing it, with all the quietness and sweeping landscape shots, there’s just nothing grabby in there for me. it’s very uppercrust british, y’know? haha. where a comment about your lilac drapes is really a dig about how you’re bringing down the entire commonwealth, which i love to read but watching? it doesn’t really pull me in. the high point of this season for me was gillian anderson’s portrayal of margaret thatcher, just the way she would contort her face was amazing to me, and the episode with fagan because hey, i totally knew about that already (which never happens, lol) and i love that actor from preacher and it was just really well-written and acted. but, overall, pretty much i spent the whole season wanting a violent and bloody and embarrassing death to befall charles, that entitled and cruel little piss-ant, while knowing it wasn’t going to happen. it’s one of those shows i watch where i’m glad i watched it, but i won’t remember any details about it in a week’s time.

and as for what i soon will be currently watching: i’m starting the great tomorrow!

okay, tagging: @livthelion, @ohlookagaydraco, @grimmypuff, @clotpolesonly, @midnightisquiet, @urban-barbarian, @callunavulgari, @hrast-ika and @i-sveikata!!

#meme answers #meme #uh oh i've found the keyboard again

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in-class-daydreams · 4 years

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Parlay | (Kuroo x Reader) | Chapter 7

- Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader (ft. Roommate Kenma)

Word Count: ~3,800

Genres: Fluff, angstiest chapter thus far, general buffoonery

CW: Swearing

Summary: (Y/N), a first-year student attending Tokyo U, is living with her best friend, Kozume Kenma. Little did she know, her life would be turned upside down after being exposed to Kenma’s volleyball teammate and close friend, Kuroo Tetsurou. One wrong move, and the parlay’s stakes only get higher each time.

Chapters: First | Previous | Next

Kuroo tried. He really did. For his best friend’s sake, he wanted to distance himself a bit from (Y/N) and her feminine wiles. Earlier that day, he’d lounged at home watching TV. The news reported that a serial mugger was at large around Tokyo U. Kuroo, being a rather large male, didn’t think much of it. Besides, all he had on him was his phone, his notebook, and a wad of gas station receipts, and a boatload of student debt that he’d love for someone to take off his hands. To him, it wasn’t really a big deal.

What was a big deal was that today was Tuesday, and it was also the first day he resolved to stop walking (Y/N) to work. She was a big girl, she had pepper spray, and he shouldn’t be giving people the wrong idea. But that plaid yellow skirt was making him nervous.

Despite his reservations, he managed to choke out that he wouldn’t be able to walk her to work that day, and (Y/N) gave no indication that she minded. They talked as normal before going their separate ways after class.

Kuroo Tetsurou was a weak human being. The girl hadn’t gotten more than 20 steps away from him before the memory of that god-awful news story got to him, and he was sprinting after her.

“Kuroo-kun? I thought you had somewhere to be?”

“I-- Uh, I have a little time?”

“But I don’t want you to be late! I can text you as soon as I get there?”

Kuroo hesitated. He really needed to put some distance between them, but could he really leave her to walk by herself? It was getting dark. Would he be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her?

“Look, a dog!” she excitedly pointed out a woman walking her corgi across the quad.

“He’s super handsome!” she called out to the owner, who offered to let her pet him. (Y/N) wore an expression of pure joy as she played with the little dog who was basking in the attention. Kuroo looked from her, to the dog, to her pretty yellow skirt, and he cursed himself for being so weak. Standing up, she thanked the owner, and brushed the nonexistent dust from her skirt.

“Please, Kuroo-kun, I’d never want you to be late because of me.” She was too sweet for her own good.

Kuroo meant to say either, “You’re fine, don’t worry about it,” but decided to say, “It’s a pretty short walk.” Then, he made the mistake of looking down at the tender look she was giving him.

The next thing he knew, he had mixed the two and said, “You’re pretty.”

‘Welp, I’m gonna curl up under than bench over there and never move again.’

“Oh! Ahh,” (Y/N) cupped her cheeks in her hands. Avoiding eye contact, she stared down at her shoes, “Well, ah, Kuroo-kun, you’re not bad looking, yourself… Okay, I’m walking away now! Come with me or don’t,” she squeaked and walked briskly in the direction of Chisai. On instinct, Kuroo got his legs to follow closely behind.

‘At least she’s flustered too. But that’s not the point! Come on, Tetsu. Fix this!’ he scolded himself.

“Sooo… about that test next week--”

“Yes! I meant to talk to you about that! Okay, so what I was thinking is--”

Kuroo was bewildered by the sudden shift in mood. She’d been passionate about school since day one, but right now she was… radiant.

“--and since your notes are so objective, I think it would be a huge help for me if we studied together!”

“(Y/N)what’syourmajor?” he rattled out.

The girl beside him quirked an eyebrow, “Pardon?”

Kuroo cleared his throat, “What’s your major? You just-- You just are so obsessed with--! Wait, not obsessed, I didn’t mean that! I just thought--”

“Kuroo-kun, it’s alright,” she chuckled. “I get what you mean. I know I can be a bit much when it comes to school.”

“It’s really--”

‘--endearing’

“--not a bad thing, though!” She waved him off with an easy laugh. They observed the setting sun over the horizon. The shining light of golden hour hit her just perfectly to give her face an angelic glow. She looked stunning against the autumn leaves.

“No, it’s not a bad thing, though it can be a bit troublesome sometimes. I’m undeclared.” That wasn’t the answer he expected. If she had said, ‘criminal justice’ or ‘neuroscience’ or ‘making people adore me,’ he would have accepted any of those answers as legitimate majors he could see her in.

“Undeclared? But you’re so… So…”

“So, what?” she looked up at him expectantly.

“So… passionate. About learning. I thought you’d thrive in whatever major.” In fact, her insatiable thirst for knowledge was one of the things that drew him to her.

(Y/N) gesticulated wildly with her arms, “That’s just the thing! There are so many things I want to do, I think I could be happy with anything! But there’s so much to worry about, like whether I’ll get a job after university, how long I’ll have to be in school, how much money I stand to make. There are a million things I have to take into account, but… I dunno, I don’t want to make the wrong choice. I don’t want to wake up one day, and wish I could go back to where I am now and make a different choice. Does that make sense?”

Kuroo stared at her with wide eyes. He never would have guessed that the sweet, caring girl who could make friends with a pebble would be feeling so uncertain about her future. Strangely, though, he quite liked it. The fact that she was having such a crisis made her more human, for lack of a better term. Right then, she wasn’t Kenma’s perfect sweetheart of a girlfriend. She was just (Y/N). She must have taken his silence for confusion, as she broke into his thoughts.

“Ahh, Kuroo-san, I’m sorry for going off on you like this. I think pre-finals week is frying my brain, and I’ve just been babbling like an idiot all day,” she recomposed herself.

Kuroo grabbed one of her hands and clutched it in both of his. The taller male looked deep into her eyes.

“No! Don’t apologize. I’m glad you shared this with me.” “That’s sweet of you, Kuroo-san, thank you for--” “And you don’t have to go back to calling me Kuroo-san. Use -kun or you can even just call me Kuroo. I don’t mind.”

Realizing the position they were in, he dropped her hand abruptly. Their walk continued in embarrassed silence. They bid each other farewell at the front steps of Chisai Tea House, and Kuroo made sure he saw (Y/N) get through the shop’s doorway. His amber eyes lingered at the spot she was standing for a moment longer. At peace from his time with her, he turned his back on the shop and decided he might as well be late for this one practice. Behind him, the front door jingled. He turned.

“Good, you’re still here,” (Y/N) panted, “I was serious about studying together. Are you free tomorrow?”

“All day,” he heard himself say.

She made a face like she was trying not to smile too wide, “Great. I’ll text you later this evening. Have a great night, Kuroo,” and she was gone. He ended up not being late to practice at all, and his teammates were commenting on the stupid shit-eating grin he wore the whole time.

Kuroo’s eyes snapped open. When had he fallen asleep? The last thing he remembered, he was on (Y/N)’s bed poring over lecture notes and study guides reviewing the concept of binary fission and how DNA is read from the 3’ end to the 5’ end. If the pastel yellow walls were any indication, he wasn’t in his own bedroom, and the comfortable weight on his chest was definitely not normal. His heart nearly stopped when he looked down at his chest and saw a familiar head of sweet-smelling hair. The girl’s cheek was pressed against his muscular chest and she had one hand over his heart. One of their binders was wedged under her thigh and Kuroo felt a couple highlighters digging into his back. She was breathing softly, and Kuroo couldn’t help but notice how comfortable he felt in that position. Through the door, he heard plates and bowls being shifted around, but if (Y/N) was here, then who was out there?

It suddenly hit him, “Shit,” Kuroo hissed, ‘Oh my god, this isn’t Bro-Code, this is the exact opposite of Bro-Code. Crap, she’s so cute and-- No! This is my best friend’s girl! What happened to distance, Tetsu!? I fucked up I fucked up I fucked up.”

As gently as his haste would allow, he lifted the girl’s head and shuffled out from under her. Deciding he could come collect his stuff later, his mind went into overdrive, and he made a break for the door. He stopped mid-way and looked back at the girl’s sleeping form. Against his better judgement, he found himself removing his Tokyo U team jacket and draping it over her before making a swift exit.

“Hi, Kenma. Bye, Kenma.”

“Kuroo,” Kenma’s quiet voice stopped him from throwing himself out the front door. The middle blocker turned sheepishly.

“Yes?” he squeaked.

Kenma looked up from his breakfast, “Relax. Really, it’s not something to freak out about.”

“You saw that?”

“The door was open this morning.”

Kuroo sighed, “Kenma, I--”

“Stop,” his best friend cut him off, “You’re not a bad friend, Kuroo. Actually, about (Y/N)--”

It seemed the universe had a way of hitting Kuroo with the worst timing possible when the girl that was currently turning his emotions into a jumbled mess waddled down the hall sleepily, draped in his jacket with his name emblazoned on the back.

‘Nope. No, absolutely not,’ he could not have walked out the door any faster. It slammed closed behind him.

“Was that Kuroo that just left?” she yawned.

“Mhmm.”

“Thanks for your jacket, Ken-Ken, I was cold this morning.”

“(Y/N), that’s not mine,” he said through a mouthful of cereal, “It’s way too big.”

(Y/N)’s brow furrowed into her signature look. After a look of realization crossed her face, she raised her hand to her mouth with a quiet ‘oh.’ Her eyes drifted towards the door.

“But why would he--”

“Lately he’s been coming to practice sweaty and completely out of breath,” he told her.

“What does that have to do with me?”

“It’s only ever on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Kenma… What time are your practices?”

“5:30.”

(Y/N) gasped.

“You mean he--?”

“He’s never actually late if that’s what you’re worried about. I just thought you might like to know. Can’t you see how much he cares about you?”

(Y/N) slid into the nearest chair. She sat in stunned silence for a long while, with his jacket still wrapped around her, processing what Kuroo had been doing for her. Kenma waited a while before bringing her back to reality.

“I think you need to tell him about the bet,” he advised.

His roommate nodded, “I will. He really did all that for me?”

“Honestly, (Y/N)? I think he’d give you the moon, if you asked for it.”

“Do you need something, Tetsu-chan? Or are you just admiring my handsome face?” the setter asked. Kuroo’s stare had been burning holes in Oikawa’s back all practice, and it was really starting to get old, which is why the brunette waited until all the other guys had exited the locker room before rounding on his teammate.

Kuroo jumped in surprise. “Don’t-- Don’t be so full of yourself, bastard,” he grumbled. The boy hadn’t realized how long he’d been starting at his teammate.

Oikawa clicked his tongue. He waggled his finger at the taller male.

“Ah, is that any way to get the answers you want? You want to know about my relationship with (Y/N)-chan, don’t you?” Aoba Johsai’s former captain smirked evilly.

“Fine. Yes, I do,” Kuroo growled, “But I didn’t think it was any of my business.”

“That’s definitely true, my dear Tetsu-chan, but because I am a man so pure of heart--” Kuroo rolled his eyes, “--I can’t blame you for being curious about the ex-boyfriend of the girl you have feelings for.”

“I don’t have feelings for-- Wait, what? You two were together?” the taller of the two asked in disbelief. It just didn’t make sense. He understood how anyone at all could fall for (Y/N), but he couldn’t understand how (Y/N) could like the shallow, dramatic man-child before him.

“Yup! For a whole two and a half years,” Oikawa crooned. Two and a half years was a long time. Was it possible the two of them still have feelings for each other?

“I still love her, you know.”

‘Well, that answers that question.’

Honestly, Kuroo was disappointed, but not one bit surprised. If she and Kenma fell through, (Y/N)’s handsome and talented ex-boyfriend still had feelings for her. It wasn’t like he stood a chance when kind, doting Kenma and passionate, charming Oikawa were options.

“I hear you’ve been avoiding her lately. Is that true, Tetsu-chan? Because I know (Y/N) very, very intimately,” he purred that last word, “And I know for a fact that if you distance yourself from her, she will not chase after you. The choice to be in her life is one you alone have to make.” Oikawa’s chocolate eyes were dead serious, his tone was nothing like anything Kuroo had heard from him before. But he was right. After that disaster in her bedroom, Kuroo had been dead-set on cutting contact with her until he could keep his emotions in check. He ignored her texts, stopped walking to work, he even hung out with Kenma at his own apartment instead of theirs. Every minute of it made his heart ache. Her texts increased in frequency as she grew more and more concerned until one day: nothing.

“I can’t do that to Kenm--”

“Get your head out of your ass, Kuroo,” Oikawa snapped. “You wouldn’t be on this team if you didn’t have a good head on your shoulders. So tell me, has anyone explicitly stated that (Y/N) and Kenma were dating?”

Well, it was-- Wait. Kuroo cycled through a hundred different conversations with the two of them and could not come up with a single utterance of the words ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend.’

“You don’t know, right? Okay, have either of them hugged, kissed, or done anything that cannot be anything except romantic?”

Now that Kuroo thought about it… No. Not once. But what was he trying to say? Oikawa walked over and got right in the blocker’s face.

“If (Y/N) still wanted to be with me, she would be. But, she doesn’t look at me the way she used to. Now she looks at you the same way she used to look at me, so you need to stop acting like a middle-schooler with no problem-solving skills and actually talk to her!”

“And who are you to tell me all this?” Kuroo bit back. “I thought you still loved her. Why are you telling me to go after her?”

Oikawa took several deep, shuddering breaths and looked up determinedly. Kuroo was taken aback by the tears shining in the Grand King’s eyes, “I promised I’d do anything to make her happy. Apparently that involves you now. So, what’ll it be?”

The shorter male backed off first, “Are you going to face whatever the hell you’re so afraid of, or will you keep ignoring her and punish her for your own insecurities?”

With that, the brunette snatched up his belongings and stormed out.

The bonfire burned brightly and it felt like the entirety of the Tokyo U student body was there. After that conversation with Oikawa, Kuroo wasn’t sure what to think. Were Kenma and (Y/N) dating or not? Did (Y/N) have feelings for him? Did he have feelings for (Y/N)? He had spent so much time either being freaked out by her general existence or vehemently denying that he thought about her very much at all, that he hadn’t been able to work out his own feelings.

From: Kenma [9:36 pm]: Where r u? (Y/N) wants to talk to u

Kuroo wasn’t quite sure what he wanted. If he entertained the idea of being with her romantically, all he could picture was him giving her his heart and her deciding she doesn’t want it. Now, he was at this dumb bonfire watching (Y/N) party it up with her friends while he sat at the water’s edge getting sand all over himself. He felt the sand shift beside him and taking the drink offered to him, he said, “Whatever it is, I don’t think I’m in the mood right now, Kou.”

“Oh no, Bokuto-san’s been over there doing keg stands with his frat brothers,” said the absolute last person he was ready to talk to right now. Glancing over, he was met with moonlit eyes and a gentle gaze.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

(Y/N) set her drink in the sand beside her. Leaning back on her hands, she tilted her head backwards and stared at the stars. They sat silently in the cool night air for several minutes, each waiting nervously for the other to make the first move.

“Kuroo-kun? Did I do something wrong?” she asked quietly, as if she hadn’t meant to speak aloud.

He sighed. This wasn’t what he wanted at all.

“No, it’s-- It’s not you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why have you been avoiding me? It’s been three weeks, Kuroo-kun.”

The boy beside her ran a hand through his unkempt hair and exhaled harshly through his nose.

“I know, I know, it’s just. I thought we needed some distance. I was just thinking about you and Kenma, and I don’t know what the hell is going on with that confusing mess of a relationship, and I recently found out that you and Oikawa were together for fucking two and a half years.”

‘That’s enough.’

Kuroo couldn’t stop. All his confusion and frustration was coming to a big, ugly head.

“We were getting close and Kenma is smart and basically internet famous, and Oikawa could have whoever he wants on this campus and he’d get back with you if you just said the word.”

‘Why am I saying this?’

"Every single one of my teammates has commented on how cute you are at some point and I just-- I didn’t want to be involved, you know?”

‘(Y/N), I don’t mean that, I swear.’

Beside him, he heard a loud crunch of plastic. (Y/N) had her red solo cup clenched tightly in her fist. The ripped plastic had cut into her palm and cheap beer was mixing with blood and dripping all over her exposed legs. Her jaw was clenched tight and the girl was shaking with rage.

“What the fuck, Kuroo?!”

“Huh?”

“You got all that crap about me and my relationships with Tooru and Kenma, and you’ve made all kinds of assumptions about me from shit your teammates say about me? Are you kidding me right now? You haven’t bothered to ask me shit! You’ve been skirting around me, asking the men in my life all about me and my relationships, and you say that I’m soooo cute and soooo smart, but apparently not cute and smart enough for you to come to me about stuff that concerns me!”

‘I didn’t know you felt that way.’

“And you know what? You should be fucking confused about me and Kenma because we’re not dating.” (Y/N) snapped to her feet and glared down the bridge of her nose at Kuroo.

“What, you broke up?” Kuroo asked, bewildered.

‘Shut up, shut up!’

“No, it was a bet, okay? Kenma and I made a bet that if we didn’t correct you, you’d never notice we weren’t actually dating.” It was Kuroo’s turn to stand up.

“I-- What-- You--? (Y/N), you made a bet over me?” he fumed.

“Yes, we did, and I admit, it was sort of shitty, but you know what? It wouldn’t have been a problem if you didn’t think you were so damn clever and actually ask me instead! If you were so confused, then why didn’t you just ask, Kuroo?”

He threw his hands up and huffed.

‘You’re right. I’m sorry.’

“I didn’t think it was any of my business!” he yelled back.

“Oh yeah? But my relationship history is your business? I try to be kind and friendly and keep out of people’s way, and my kindness somehow gives people the impression I’m like some shiny handbag that someone may-or-may-not ‘deserve’ to have, but guess what? I’m a human being, and you know what else? I can make my own damn choices.”

If Kuroo was in his right mind right then, he might’ve thought she was right. He might’ve said so and the argument would have been over. Sadly, his mind was reeling from the anger and betrayal over a bet that had him in emotional turmoil for months now. He couldn’t stop now.

“Well, if you hadn’t--”

“I’m not done. I thought you liked me, Kuroo-san, and I can’t believe you think I’d run back to my ex at the drop of a hat. You think I’d go back to Tooru, what, because he ‘could have anyone on this campus’? It fucking blows my mind that we could spend so much time together and, you still think I’m that shallow?”

‘No, you’re not. I’ve never once thought that. I don’t know what I’m saying right now. Why? Why? Why can’t I stop?’

“Well--” he began.

‘Please don’t. Just apologize.’ Kuroo hated feeling so trapped in his own body. It was like he’d been possessed.

“--you were with Oikawa Tooru for over two years. You know what they say about birds of a feather.”

‘No. Anything. Anything but that.’

The (Y/N) he knew, or thought he knew, was gone. She’d completely lost her composure and she gaped at him, wide eyed at his audacity. He thought since she was subdued most of the time, that meant that she only had one layer to her personality, and that was a mistake. The girl in front of him was all fire and passion and burning hot rage.

“How fucking dare you? You barely know him. You just know him by the mask he shows others and the way they treat him. Just like me. You don’t know either of us.”

(Y/N) stormed off towards the parking lot. Her friends tried to intercept her, but they soon pulled back after seeing the irate expression on her face. Kenma reached for her hand, which she snatched back. Looking over at where she was coming from, the dyed blonde locked eyes with his childhood friend. The setter shook his head in disappointment and took off after his roommate.

Taglist: @joyful-jimin @nekomas-kuroo

#haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsurou #bokuto kotarou #kozume kenma #oikawa #oikawa tōru #oikawa tooru

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