#but at the same time his whole body language went through a Huge transformation already in the span of 15-20 seconds

[astromaki]

part 3 of second choice ; ceo!shoto todoroki x gn!reader (x ceo!katsuki bakugo) (1617 words)

part 1. part 2. (previous) part 4.

tw ; angst, arranged marriage, toxic relationship, degradation, divorce, mention of alcohol, bad language, slightly suggestive ?

EXTRA INFOS ;; all the characters are aged up obviously (they are 30 here), the point of view of this third part is from shoto todoroki !

confrontation. [7 : 16 pm]

a week has passed since he came home that night drunk. that he had begged momo to stay with him. that he had accidentally seen those divorce papers crumpled by your hands.

momo had seen them too that night, and yet she and shoto had not commented on them. good, he wasn't in the mood anyway.

it had become almost official, even the media had it on their front pages. "one of japan's richest couples on the verge of divorce?", "billionaire todoroki single again?" "y/n, will the heir.ess of their father's company return to being a lawyer?"

he would have liked to say that he cared what you thought about it. if you cried, screamed, were you hurt ? but that would be lying, you were the least of his worries.

and then, wasn't it what he wanted from the beginning ?

that you would end up hating him so much that you would leave him. that he could finally be free of the weight that you represented every day.

and yet his signature was still missing.

"you can't even love your partner properly, and now i hear through the media that a divorce is on the way ? you're pathetic son. i knew i should have married them to touya. " enji's heart-attack voice echoed terribly through the phone, which made shoto sigh. he was even pretty sure he could hear it from across town.

"calm down." shoto said in an annoyed tone. "your marriage isn't a success either, so keep your remarks to yourself. bye. "

"you idiot, don't you dare hanging up on me. i don't care if you can't satisfy your s/o, i don't care if they feel bad about this arranged marriage either. but y/n y/l/n comes from a very famous lawyer's family, so get a divorce and the amount of money you have to give will be huge. "

"i manage them, it will not be a problem. i have to go now. "

the young man finally returned to your room, looking exhausted, his tie loosened and ready to down a few glasses of whiskey.

however, he was surprised to see you. dressed in a beautiful versace dress/suit, you were glowing. well no, he meant that you looked... good.

though, it was the first time he took the time to look at you. to admire you.

the young man finally met your indifferent gaze through the mirror you were standing in front of. that gaze that was so joyful and sparkling at the beginning of your marriage, full of hope to transform this purely financial union into a love marriage.

but that look, devoid of emotion, almost made shoto, Japan's most ambitious ceo, doubt himself. almost.

"i'm surprised you're still using my card to splurge. how much is this one? $1000 ? $2000 ?"

he was tired, exhausted. nut the truth is he was in the mood to be a pain in the ass tonight.

"$ 8,330. plus the $800 pair. " you replied coldly.

your answer was like a slap in the face to your husband. not because of the price, he didn't give a fuck about this.

but this tone right there. it wasn't like you. you were normally so gentle, patient even with the worst of the crap he put you through. that naive kindness that made him want to vomit was completely gone. he didn't expect such a turn of events.

"so you decide to divorce me, but first you want to empty my bank account? you're exactly as I imagined." his look that used to reflect nothing but fatigue was now full of contempt for you.

you finally faced him. shit, he couldn't help but find you beautiful.

"here todoroki, let's talk about the divorce. " you began, quietly walking over to the cabinet and pulling out a stack of documents. "i've signed it, sign it, and i'll take it to my lawyers first thing in the morning.

he snatched them out of your hand and threw them across the room. you didn't even flinch, you even held his gaze. poker face.

a loud silence fell between you. a long silence, uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. heavy and light. sensible and meaningless.

"what's all this about ? who put you up to this ?"

a wry laugh escaped your lips. your new behavior puzzled shoto. he loved and hated what he had in front of him. a challenge.

"you think i need someone to make me realize that i deserve better than an asshole like you ? fuck, let me laugh. "

your hand went to retrieve a piece of paper from your purse. and it was slammed hard against his chest. bakugou’s business card.

he found your face inches from his, your warm breath gently caressing his cheeks. a scent of whiskey filled his nostrils. you were not sober.

"how many drinks are you on? " he asked quietly.

"so now do you care if i downed a whole bottle or not ? oh please shut up. because now that you mention it, your friend bakugou katsuki may have hired me. to be his company's business lawyer. isn't that funny? "

you turned your back on him, unaware of the state you'd put him in. but damn, it was like he'd just been slapped in the face. nausea took over his whole body, his legs became heavy and weak in few seconds only. and he knew damn well it wasn't fatigue.

so you were leaving him, but on top of that you were going to work for his number one competitor ?

he didn't know what hurt more, the knowledge that bakugo had won one of the most competent lawyers in the field or that you were leaving him for him ? was he jealous ? surely not, it was another feeling that repulsed him. he didn't even know.

"have you lost your tongue todoroki ?"

todoroki ? since when did you call him by his last name ? where are the darlings or my heart that used to annoy him so much ?

you finish getting ready, now wearing your long jacket. he had lost his tongue indeed, he didn't know what to say to you. what to do.

y/n y/l/n, you had succeeded in putting your husband to the wall.

but it was only for a moment. he quickly, too quickly, pulled himself together. his usual irritated expression returned.

"you don't see that he's using you to get ahead of me ? i thought you were smarter than that. "

he took a step forward, slowly but surely. like a predator approaching its prey.

"he doesn't care about you. just like no one has ever cared about you, not me, not him and not your bourgeois family. that's why they put you in a loveless marriage so easily. "

a mirthless laugh escaped from his lips.

"y/n, this bastard doesn't give a damn about you. "

you tried to move towards him, ready to slap him, but the alcohol made you capsize and stumble on your carpet. he arrived just in time to support you with his muscular arms. an annoyed sigh resounded in the large room when your sob reached his ears.

nevertheless, a petty smile stretched his lips. there you were again, the fragile and unassertive y/n finally in his arms.

that bakugo had managed to turn your brain inside out. yet shoto knew you better than anyone else. he knew you. better than you knew yourself. you were that puzzle he had managed to decipher long ago.

"that's not true. kacchan wouldn't do that...", you whisper.

"you know i'm right, sweetheart. you know i'm the only one who's honest with you. my love for you is all you need. "

his muscular hand gradually, peacefully, came to caress your back to take off the buttons of your dress. his lips came to meet yours, to draw you into a long, languid, unsentimental kiss. your lips asked for more, your whole soul asked for more of shoto. more of this man for whom your heart never stopped beating. even if his was vibrating for another woman.

you wanted to feel his lips making love to you sensually, sincerely.

you just wanted him to love you for one night. one fucking night.

shoto was ecstatic. he could already see himself opening a bottle of champagne with his father, to celebrate the divorce that would never happen. tonight, shoto had brought out his best acting skills. millions were at stake. he had brought out his best kiss. he had never touched you like that. so gently, so carefully.

he had never called you by any affectionate nickname.

he has done too much to keep you around.

and you were drunk, not stupid.

you finally stood up, moving away from him, reluctantly. nothing he said was true. from his love for you, to his accusations against katsuki.

awkwardly, you put your dress/suit back on properly.

"i have a meeting with my future employer mr. bakugou tonight. i'll be late. don't wait for me, i'll sleep at the hotel tonight, with your card. "

a red color came to his cheeks. anger ? sadness ? jealousy ?

he had never seen you so determined, so proud. and that attracted him. he was going to lose millions, no matter what. but it was you who was going to escape him. for that bastard bakugou katsuki.

the nice little y/n was no longer shoto todoroki's.

AHHH omg sorry sorry i told you i can't do a fluffy end!! >< (comments and reblogs are appreciated <3)

🔖 tag list ; @nveusii @angelofthorr @missmolliemoo @jazzylove @loki-an-idiot @deepestranchgoopdeputy @mhasimp666 @shotorozu @chscklvr @devilsbooksworld @marshmallow12345 (ones in bold cannot be tagged)

#bnha scenarios #bnha x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #todoroki shoto x you #todoroki shoto x reader #shoto x y/n #shoto todoroki x you #shoto x you #shoto x reader #todoroki x you #todoroki x y/n #todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki angst #bnha shoto #bakugou x reader #bakugo x self insert #bakugo x reader #bakugou x you #bakugo katsuki x reader #katsuki x reader #katsuki x y/n #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugo x y/n #bakugou katsuki

[darkacademicfrom2021]

The Dark Team (part 6)

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Join the taglist in here (Taglist: @lucywrites02, @louieboo87)

“What did you fuck up?”, you heard Loki’s sharp whisper through the earbud, while you frantically searched through papers and papers and some more papers.

“I didn’t fuck up. I have the guy. I have information”, cleared Bucky. “Hey, DON’T MOVE”, he shouted at the kidnapped, cocking his gun. He cleared his throat before talking again. “Good and bad news”.

“Must be Christmas”, you said.

“No, Christmas is when you only have good news”, said Bucky.

“Not in my family. Generally, there was only bad news and food. Food was the good news”.

“I love how professional and focused on the mission you two are. Stark would be so proud”.

“Wait, I’m invested now. Tell me more about your family, y/n”.

“For the Norns, I don’t have much time. The information, Barnes”. You could hear Loki's footsteps resonate. According to plan, he should've been walking through a hall full of burocrats, so he was right; he did not have much time.

“Okay, so, I know who has the stick”.

“Good”.

“He’s dead”.

“Not so good”.

“Not really, no”.

“What do we do now?”.

An alarm on the building had set off and every door locked down, with a man on a speaker announcing the disappearance of an important object followed by an awfully accurate description of the three of you.

“We run, that’s what we do now”.

You didn’t have to say more. Bucky threw himself off the window before it finished closing. You looked around desperately, trying to find a way to free yourself from that office. Two security guards entered the room screaming for you to get on the floor, and instead you made an unstable wall with the desk and chairs, avoiding getting shot and giving you enough time to figure out some sort of weapon to take them down.

The watch was already used, the knives were useless if they had guns, you didn’t have a gun yourself (silly you), and the parachute was apparently not working anymore, so you couldn’t jump off the window like your teammates. Damn.

“By any chance”, you whispered through your microphone “could you tele…”, but Loki gave you no time to finish the sentence and teleported himself to the office, still in the shape of a security guard.

“My dearest friend”, he said to one of the shooters, opening his arms welcomingly, “how’s the family?”.

“What the fuck, Robert?” asked angrily one of the real guards. “How did you…”.

Loki kicked off his gun and touched his head with a halo of green lights, making him fall unconscious to the floor. He looked up and down at the second security guard and formed half a smile.

“And what about your wife? Is she well?”.

“You ain’t Robert, ain’t ya?”.

“Mmh, nah”.

You grabbed the second security guard from behind and made him trip, immobilizing his arms and legs, and held his own gun to his head. Loki watched you amused, and then transformed back into himself.

“Oh, there you are”, you greeted him. “Did Buck say anything about the walking dead?”.

“The… what?”.

“The man with the stick. If he’s dead, who activated the alarm? Someone has to have it”.

“He didn’t say anything else. Can’t you track it down?”.

“If I could, why would we have done all of this for?”.

“Point made”.

“I need to get back to our room, take some things off the checklist before going all in for a new plan”.

“Alri…”, he started saying, but his gaze fell back on the immobilized guard you were holding down. “What are you planning on doing with him? He saw our faces”.

“If you let me live I won’t talk about this at all”, he pleaded, face squished against the floor. “I have kids, please”.

“He’s lying, he has no kids”, he said with a neutral face, and you looked at him trying to tell him to communicate telepathically. Surprisingly, he understood. “What?”.

“I’m not killing him, what do we do?”.

“Just kill him, what’s all the fuss about?”. You looked at him horrorized and he rolled his eyes “alright, just threaten him enough”.

You let him go, still pointing the gun at him, and gestured to the door so he could leave. When he reached for the door knob, you shot twice at the wall, mere inches from his head, and he froze in place.

“Talk and I’ll find you”, you threatened.

“I won't say a word, I promise”.

You looked at Loki and he nodded, letting you know the man was telling the truth. You kept your eyes fixed on him while he ran away, terrified. Must be new, you thought. Loki grabbed your waist.

“What the Hell are you doing?”, you pushed him away.

“Teleporting us, as you asked”.

“You have to grab me to do that?”.

“I don’t have to. It’s so you get stability”.

“Oh. Give me a big bear hug, then. No, better, let’s cuddle” you spat with sarcasm. He sighed annoyed, massaging his temples.

“Fine. I’m not even touching you”.

As he teleported both of you, you felt your whole body tear its own cells apart and dissolve, and then regenerate them. Your head spinned like it never has, and something hit your head; but you weren’t sure if it was the floor, a wall or the roof, for your sense directions were nowhere to be found. You took a few seconds to compose yourself before opening your eyes once everything stopped moving. When you finally managed to realize where your head even was, your eyes met with Loki’s, who was holding back a smirk with his arms crossed.

“Reconsidering that cuddle next time, are you?”.

“That was… hilarious. Such a shame I missed the previous part to give me context, though”, said Bucky from the counter of the hotel room, munching on some chips. “Look, the tiny fridge had these. You were right, they’re actually great”.

“Yeah. Grab whatever, they’re on Stark’s”, you said, still with your head a bit fuzzed. Loki offered his hand to help you get up but you did it yourself. He sighed.

“How do you fit your clothes with that huge ego of yours?”.

“I don’t, I walk around naked”, you answered, opening the nearest laptop and starting to work on the checklist.

That night was like the last one. Dark, silent and with your head full on the work. Bucky was barely snoring, and Loki was sitting on his bed reading a book. Every once in a while you glanced up your work to look at how painfully beautiful he was. You hated every thought about it, of course, but you couldn’t deny his sight grew on you a bit. He was an asshole, of course. A parasite on your head. An inconvenience. A distraction, sometimes. But the warm light of the bed lamp and the shadows it formed on half of his face enhanced his features, almost like a sculpture, a piece of art.

While you thought of that you checked on his expressions, making sure he wasn’t listening to your highly embarrassing thoughts.

After a few hours, Bucky had already woken up and you were still spread on the floor, surrounded by the files and laptops from before. The light conversation had caught half the attention of the God, who was still reading peacefully. He seemed so calm you wondered what kept him up anyways.

“You think he still has it on him?”, asked Bucky, changing his shirt.

“I think it’s a possibility. I’m tracking his body down. Should be in the morgue by now, maybe they haven’t taken off his clothes yet. But if not, the security cameras would have recorded who took it from the body”.

“Groovy”.

"Oh my God, James".

"What?".

"What does groovy even mean?".

"You know... it's like saying cool beans".

"Coo... alright".

After a while, you collected all the data you needed for tomorrow. You were so exhausted your eyes were getting dry and blurry. Loki was still reading in that same place, not even fazed by the amount of hours that had happened. You got up to clean the dishes from the last meal, and he lifted his gaze up from the book.

“Wait”, he stopped you. With a wrist movement, the dishes got as clean as they could get and arranged on the shelf. You chuckled.

“I wish I had that ability”.

“Are you going to sleep now?”.

“A few hours”.

“Sleep here”, he said from his bed. You looked at Bucky’s; he fell asleep back again.

“You haven’t slept yet. I don’t want to occupy your bed”.

“I won’t, don’t worry”, you nodded, kind of worried he might pass out of tiredness in the middle of the mission. Why the hell was he not sleeping? “If it doesn’t bother you, I’d rather finish this book on here too”.

“I think there’s enough space”.

He moved and gave you space for half of the tiny bed, and you laid by his side with your arms crossed and a leg on top of the other. He went back to his book, and even though he was sitting and your sight couldn’t reach the pages, you were sure it was in Old Norse.

“What are you reading?”.

He didn’t answer right away. Doubtfully as in to share it with you or not, he then proceeded.

“Hamlet. It’s a translation in Old Norse from an author I adore. I’d say it’s an even better version than Shakespeare’s”.

You felt yourself about to smile. You tried not to, but you probably did. That was your favourite piece of literature of all times. You wondered how could that have gotten to Asgardian hands, and why would he (certainly a Midgardian hater) want to read Earth’s literature. You were so curious in that version. Was it really that good, that would be better than Shakespeare himself? Sadly, you didn’t even know how to say hello in that language.

“Do you like it so far?”.

“I’m re-reading it. Brings good memories”, he said with a subtle smile he had hoped you wouldn’t notice. But you did. Something in your chest warmed up a bit and you shook it off. No, no. Not feelings. Don’t confuse your physical attraction, don’t feed your touch starved soul. No. You had to repeat to yourself a couple of times. You were just very, very tired.

“Brings good memories to me too. I love this book”. You figured it was alright to open up a little. The situation was relaxed enough. He wasn’t snarky or avoidant. He looked… melancholic. Sad, even. Like a facet of himself he didn’t allow everyone to see.

You connected with that. Maybe you could even relate to him in some way. For years, you had a feeling of something not adding up quite right. A longing for something you couldn’t exactly pin up. Melancholy for a blank space.

But there you were, barely knew him for three days yet felt close enough. Not too much. Just a feeling. Just the traces of something that maybe happened in another life. But in this one, you would get the mission done and leave. So don’t get attached, you ordered yourself.

“It’s a really good version”.

“Wish I could read it but I don’t know Old Norse”, you said slower than you intended. Loki chuckled at your tiredness. Maybe you could push your curiosity a little further. What was the damage? That he could just say ‘piss off’ or something like that? “What good memories does it bring to you?”.

He sighed and muttered almost to himself “I used to read it to my beloved”.

You almost gasped, surprised he actually answered you. You didn’t ask for more. It was already a lot he had just trusted you with. He told you he had a beloved. You didn’t even know he had a lover, but of course he had. He was nearly a thousand years old; why wouldn’t he? Did he lose that lover, in past tense?

Curiosity grew bigger on you, but fear pushed you aback. But the questions floated around in your head as a lullaby. Your head started to weigh a little more on the pillow and everything happened slightly slower. Loki closed the book and left it resting on his lap. He whispered “I feel you have questions”, and you denied it with your head. Your eyelids fell heavier than before.

“I’m mmnmnnhnm”, you managed to sort of say before getting knocked down by sleep. You heard his laughter, but nothing more after that.

#loki #loki of asgard #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #loki x reader #loki mcu #loki x gender neutral reader #loki x y/n #bucky barnes is an old man omg

[shihalyfie]

Ichijouji Ken, his future, and Kizuna

Having talked about Kizuna’s extremely deep relationship to 02 as a series, it’s only natural that I should probably spend some extra focus on its main central character, Ichijouji Ken. It’s no secret that, although Daisuke was the protagonist of 02, Ken was the central figure to the series itself (after all, the series was founded on the concept of deconstructing the supposed “genius kid”), and so Kizuna having such a deep relationship with 02 means that it does, inevitably, have a deep relationship with Ken in particular.

The last twenty years have been full of a plethora of meta analysis on Ichijouji Ken as a character within 02 to the point I feel anything I could possibly come up with would probably be redundant, so today I’d like to place extra focus on his development after 02 (in terms of both canonical materials and general analysis), and how it leads up to his portrayal in the recently released Kizuna. (Naturally, spoilers for the movie will be below.)

We’ll start this analysis by looking at where Ken left off during the final episode of 02.

Thanks to his interactions with the rest of the 02 crew (especially Daisuke), Ken was slowly putting his life back together, but he still had a long way to go. As late as episode 49, we learned he still had suicidal ideation tendencies in regards to his deeds as the Kaiser, and although the rest of the team did get through to him in the end, it was clear that there was still a huge path ahead of him as far as coming to terms with himself and bonding with the rest of the team went. This was especially because he ended the series with the Dark Seed still in the back of his neck -- supernatural forces may have assisted his initial downfall, but it was going to be entirely on him to make sure that he never went back there again for the rest of his life.

One thing that’s really important to put in perspective is the actual chronology this ordeal took place in. Although the Kaiser saga spanned a little under half of the yearlong series that 02 was, Christmas skewed the schedule a little bit, so a good chunk of the second half of the series actually took place in much more condensed time than the first. Taking into account the official statement that everything before Christmas roughly aligns with the time of the year the relevant episode aired, and given the exact dates in December that we know episodes 38-50 take place in, within the course of 02, Ken’s reformation from being the Kaiser and bonding with the group spanned around only four months. That is not a lot of time, especially compared to the roughly two-year period Ken went through the trauma of his brother’s loss and his transformation into the Kaiser, so in actuality, Ken made a huge amount of progress considering how little time he had to do so.

Before we continue, I should make clear that I generally count pretty much everything in the Toei-esque fashion of “everything is canon, don’t think about contradictions too hard” (which is generally their modus operandi with pretty much any franchise), so pretty much everything here is fair game. That said, obviously, contradictions and other outliers do exist, so occasionally I am going to have to omit stuff that really, really doesn’t track...so for the sake of this analysis, I’m skipping Armor Evolution to the Unknown for two reasons: one, because it takes massive liberties with characterization for the sake of crack (it’s pretty hard to believe Ken would be this degree of flippant about the Kaiser persona in a more serious situation), and two, because it was written before 02 finished airing (it was released between episodes 43 and 44) and doesn’t reflect a lot of series and characterization development that happened later in the series. (Armor Evolution to the Unknown was released during a time period when the drama CDs were really, really big on the crack -- the three Adventure mini dramas are the same -- and it wasn’t until later that actual “serious” ones would start coming out.)

Given that, our next canonical point we can work with is Diablomon Strikes Back, which takes place in March 2003.

At this point Ken’s recovery is at a little around six months, and he’s making massive progress -- even if you’re not sure about counting the actual events of this movie as canon, it’s an excellent character study in terms of watching Ken’s emotional recovery at this point in time and his relationship with Daisuke, now that he’s not directly dealing with issues pertaining to his own past trauma.

It’s already a very different Ken from the one we’ve seen in the original series, where in episode 38 the idea of him laughing was such a huge shock, but here we already see a much wider emotional range from Ken -- light cheerfulness, playfulness, and at times even a bit of petulance. His actions and dialogue still have Ken’s trademark “softness” -- being kind and gentle has always been said to be his core inner trait, after all -- but, nevertheless, he’s a lot more willing to show “superficial” emotions, especially compared to how closed up, shy, and sometimes standoffish he would be within 02 proper.

Even Ken’s own body language indicates a lot -- he’s much more relaxed and  natural. Observe how he slouches here.

In fact, if you listen to Park Romi’s delivery of his lines throughout this movie, she voices him with a significantly higher-pitched and “lighter”, soft tone through all of it, which really gives off the impression that he’s much less emotionally uptight.

We get a glimpse of Daisuke and Ken’s future dynamic and how they’ll continue to be such tight friends in the future -- Ken is someone who can keep the infamously chaotic Daisuke in check (especially since prior to Ken coming into his life, Daisuke’s closest friend was probably Miyako, and while the two certainly got along very well with each other, they had a tendency to enable each other’s chaos a bit too much at times).

But despite Ken obviously trying to be more sensible than Daisuke here, it still manifests as a much greater show of emotion than the kind you’d be used to within 02 proper. He’s much more assertive with putting his foot down in keeping Daisuke under control, which indicates not only a more comfortable relationship with Daisuke in particular, but also a general increase in his ability to be assertive.

In one of his most famous scenes in this movie, he actually outright taunts Daisuke in order to spur him on. He’s doing it totally affectionately (it’s specifically to give Daisuke more motivation to keep running), but nevertheless, he’s taunting Daisuke -- not really something you'd expect from Ken in 02 proper. The original line in Japanese even has him use the very super-casual and aggressive end particle ~ze.

He even snarks about Daisuke’s convenient bouts of luck in ways that aren’t exactly complimentary (the literal phrasing of this line has “baka mitai ni” in it, in this context "some kind of ridiculous incredible power”).

And, near the end of the movie, when he starts to lose hope, it only takes a single line from Daisuke to get himself back together -- this kind of thing would have probably taken a whole speech in 02, even from Daisuke himself, but by this point Ken’s got a much better emotional grasp on himself.

And in the end, the movie ends on both Daisuke and Ken laughing together -- very lightly.

It’s easy to pass off Ken’s characterization in DSB as an incidental thing simply because this is a “side story” movie from 02 -- especially since it was technically produced during 02′s airing -- but in fact, this portrayal is consistent with what Ken has to say about himself during his next known point in canon, Spring 2003.

Given that Takeru’s track is apparently set “three months” after Christmas, and Miyako’s track talks about having just entered middle school, I assume that this means Ken’s takes place in around late March or early April 2003 (almost exactly a year since 02′s start), but in actuality nothing really “happens” during Ken’s track. Nevertheless, it provides a lot of information on Ken’s state of mind during this time and his own self-reflection on his past...and defines in very clear words what it is that Ken needs to move away from.

You were always in a bad mood and you were cold to me, but now that I think about it, maybe you really wanted to be nicer to other people. I don’t know what happened to you that made you act like you did, but now, I finally feel like I understand a bit. You were demanded to grow up fast, weren’t you, Brother? Because we were always being evaluated and compared by someone, we didn’t get a chance to have more freedom. We didn’t have any chances to run down an alley because we felt like it, or pull up weeds, or tumble around… meaningless things, things that didn’t bring any value to us at all. Just like the cat napping on the roof… we weren’t able to fully enjoy any everlasting freedom.

02 -- especially its latter half -- dealt largely with the concept of parents imposing too many expectations on their children, acting “proud” of them but actually using them to inflate their own self-worth, and in the end effectively robbing their own children of their right to “be children”. While we don’t know a lot about Osamu based on limited information about him, Ken’s parents also lament that they might have robbed Osamu of the opportunity to be a “normal boy” in 02 episode 23.

Once Ken took the role of the “family genius” after Osamu’s death, Ken was thus likewise robbed of that “normal childhood” due to all of the expectations put on him -- and Ken’s words in his track imply that it extended to before Osamu’s death, because just because Osamu was the favored one at the time didn’t mean that Ken wasn’t subject to the same kind of expectations to at least some degree, even if not as much. (Note how he really didn’t seem to have any kind of friends at all prior to Daisuke and the others.)

Thus, Ken’s ideal trajectory is to become “a normal child” -- one not subject to expectations as a “well-behaved genius child”. That applies not only to things like his academic or sports performance, but also even his core manners -- being a “normal person” in this context meaning being allowed to show emotions, be petty, have emotional range that extends beyond just being deferential and polite, and generally do things because he enjoys them and not because others expect him to. This is consistent with his portrayal in DSB, as in said movie he really does come off as a “normal boy” -- a young child who, while certainly less chaotic than Daisuke, is still enjoying himself and interacting with the world in “his own” natural, relaxed way rather than holding himself to obligations.

Another interesting thing about DSB is that it has Ken refer to Daisuke by given name. This is particularly intriguing because up until the end of 02, Ken consistently referred to Daisuke as “Motomiya” (he did use given name in episode 39, but it wasn’t something he really followed up on). This despite the fact he went with given names (plus honorifics) for everyone else in the 02 team, but it seems like Ken was still trying to figure out his very complicated feelings about Daisuke as someone who was his Most Hated Person™ during his Kaiser days and yet is now trying to aggressively reach through his barriers that he’s constructed out of self-defense.

And yet, extremely notably, almost every single post-02 material is consistent about the idea that Ken switches to given name basis with Daisuke after 02. (The only exception is Armor Evolution to the Unknown, which, as stated before, was written and recorded during 02′s airing and not after; notably, Daisuke is also on surname basis with Ken during that drama CD, even though he permanently switches to given name basis after episode 39.) That includes “out-of-hard-canon” things like Xros Wars episode 78.

Yet they still couldn’t remember to put the highlight back in Ken’s eyes, among other things.

Honorific and surname-given name basis fluctuated quite a bit in both Adventure and 02 (especially whenever canon material changed hands between writers), but for all intents and purposes, there is no reason Daisuke and Ken should not be on mutual given name basis after 02. This is especially when you take into account the more naturalistic relationship they have as of DSB -- there’s no standoffishness at all between them anymore.

This ties very deeply into how 02 portrayed its characters. One thing I’ve very, very often pointed out was that it was always an explicit point of contrast between themselves and the original Adventure team was that the 02 kids were not only “friends” in terms of fighting together on Digimon cases, but “friends” in the sense of actual social-life friends who clicked well in personality and adored each other’s company. (Part of this was because of the core theme of the series; Jogress being such a huge motif, “understanding your friends” took precedence over Adventure’s “understanding yourself”.) These are the kids who hung out together in the totally-not-related-to-any-Digimon-incident (at least, not at first) picnic in episode 6 and Christmas party in episode 38, a stark comparison to the Adventure kids who infamously started drifting as early as Our War Game!.

(Note that this isn’t meant to diminish or drop shade on the Adventure kids’ bonds in any way -- I feel like their bond is more of one that’s a “transcendent” one that crosses space and links them through their shared experience, but, nevertheless, is simply not the same in nature as the “social life” bonds the 02 kids had where they were very casual and yet intimate with each other in almost all daily life respects.)

As a result, Daisuke and Ken’s relationship ended up very different from that of their predecessors Taichi and Yamato -- it’s actually hard to imagine them getting in all that many highly heated fights in the same way their seniors would be prone to, and they’d generally be on “mild banter” terms for most of it. In fact, they come off as pretty casual and in-sync with each other, and it’s to the point where it really does feel like -- especially by the point of DSB -- staying on “standoffish” surname basis really is unwarranted.

And while it’s tempting to limit Ken’s relationship to only Daisuke, this did involve the rest of the 02 group, after all -- we got significant episodes defining his relationship to the others (Miyako got a whole episode in 25, and 30′s entire events kicked off because of an attempt to get him to better socialize with Iori!), and the 02 kids as a cohesive “overall group” were integral in getting Ken to open up and show different sides of himself. Although his relationship to certain team members ended up closer than others (Daisuke and Miyako, the ones who tried most aggressively to reach out to him, ended up getting the most out of him), nevertheless, it was important that Ken ultimately cultivated a relationship with a group of friends, and not just one.

This, of course, brings us to Kizuna, which takes place in the summer of 2010. This is a massive leap of time we don’t know a lot about, and for all it’s worth, this means we have, compared to the approximately two years Ken spent suffering under the influence of the Dark Seed, a whole eight years dedicated to potential recovery. There’s a lot that could have happened during that time, and what happened in between, we can only really guess.

Well, for one, he cut his hair.

The reveal of Ken’s design for Kizuna was a huge shock for those watching, because, among all of the twelve main human characters in Kizuna, he probably has the biggest and most drastic design change -- especially because his long hair was so iconic that even the epilogue depicted him with it (and even longer, at that). Were it not for other important identifiers like Wormmon’s presence and the fact said hair is at least still indigo blue, you’d almost wonder if it’s the same character.

(I do have to at least give props to this Animedia poster, though -- that soft and concerned expression is textbook Ken-chan, so it absolutely nails the vibe that it’s the same character despite the massive design change, and it even has a small cute detail that, despite clearly trying to calm Yamato down in haste, he’s still tidy enough to lay his chopsticks neatly on the bowl. That Ken has a habit of doing this while eating hot ramen is a very specific minor blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail in 02 episode 36, and while I’d normally pass this off as coincidence, Kizuna and its PR has had such ridiculous attention to detail that I’m not entirely willing to.)

Not only that, his actual outfit in the movie is rather unassuming -- it’s just a black shirt, pants, and a belt, compared to the more distinctive/fashionable or setting-immersive outfits everyone else has. I mean, it sure beats that godawful grey gakuran he was constantly wearing during 02, but there were certainly a lot of complaints about how...well, unassuming and plain he looks.

The thing is, though, this is very much in line with how Ken would most likely want to present himself. When you think about it, Ken himself would probably not really appreciate his fanbase status as the “sad pretty boy”; having been scrutinized, evaluated, and put on uncomfortable pedestals through all of his early life, “blending in” and coming off as an average, unassuming person would be right up his alley.

Anyway, before we get into Kizuna itself, we have the drama CD that came with its BD, Where Should We Go? While it was released after the movie, in chronological timeline, it serves as a slight prequel, and what we learn about Ken in it is certainly...interesting. Namely, that he’s apparently a hardcore fan of Japanese hot springs. And not just a hardcore fan of them, but also a complete nerd.

The hot springs *obviously* must have free-flowing water. If possible, I think I’d prefer a quiet, rural flowing hot spring that’s surrounded by a moss-covered garden. Then I want to stay the night at a historical inn that focuses more on tranquility and wabi-sabi rather than wildness or beauty. I’m not looking for a lot on the food options, but the portions should ideally be neither too large nor too small. If we’re just going to relax our bodies, then I’d like it if there was a variety of hot springs to choose from. The water quality that I recommend for the ladies would be the hydrogen carbonate spring or the alkaline simple hot spring (these are otherwise known as simple hot springs with a basic pH of 8.5 or above), but my personal favorite is the hot sulphur spring! Incidentally, the hot sulphur spring is said to treat arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. If it were possible, I’d like to take my time there… At least stay for two nights! Ahh… Hot springs… Hehehe…

I cannot stress enough how much the audio delivery for this depicts him as being terrifyingly into it. It’s also...not exactly the most fashionable thing for a nineteen-year-old to be into (actually, it’s more of a stereotype old man thing, what with the fixation on traditional Japanese aesthetics and health nut aspects), but we have Ken being very shameless and assertive about his personal interests, even if they’re a bit unusual.

Funnily enough, this isn’t actually the first time he was demonstrated to be a huge infodumping nerd -- it’s just that the last instance was questionably canonical, but tracks extremely heavily with what was just demonstrated here. Namely, Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol:

Listen, the thing about Christmas is that it's one of the most important days in the world... It was the day the Savior was born... So, you go to church and pray... Of course, you knew all of that right?

Or in other words, he interrupts Daisuke’s wistful thoughts with The Actual Nerd Facts, because he’s a nerd. He even has a bit of a smart-aleck atmosphere...and then he cheerfully and sassily dumps all of the work on Daisuke thereafter. While the canonicity for this song is hard to place since it was released during 02′s airing (and 02 itself depicted a very different Christmas), plus the ambiguity of character song canon in general, it’s interesting how Ken’s portrayal here is pretty surprisingly in line with what we’re learning about his future personality.

The rest of what we see of Ken in the drama CD is what we generally knew about him already -- he���s kind, he dotes on Wormmon (he even indulges Wormmon’s request to take him skiing!), and he still keeps up with being into intellectual studies, and even soccer (he’s described as actually keeping up with soccer to the extent he does training camp), because he was always interested in those kinds of things -- it’s just that now he can indulge in them in ways he personally likes instead of being held to other people’s standards.

But he’s also very emotional, passionate, and openly assertive -- something he could be in 02, but only when it was something he really, really cared about, because most of the time he was a little more on the shy side with others. Not anymore. And he’s happy to indulge in the chaotic trip planning and enable the others, and, at the end, gives some sentimental words to Daisuke, his best friend.

Anyway, onto the movie itself!

Notably, they do not mention Ken’s past trauma nor his deeds as the Kaiser throughout the entire movie.

That might surprise people, given that this was...well, central to the entire plot of 02, so it’s arguably a glaring omission that despite having the 02 cast here, it’s not even brought up once. The only real “reference” to it is this scene, where Ken happens to be the one who knows about Menoa’s background as a child prodigy -- and even then it’s uncertain whether this had anything to do with said traumatic events (Menoa was admitted to Liberica in 2002 itself) as much as it’s a meta nod to Ken having a suspiciously similar background and the fact he and Menoa were based on the same real-life story (the nine-year-old boy who skipped grades into Columbia University).

But, again, recall that Ken has had eight years to move on from the events of 02, more time than said events had actually spanned over. That doesn’t mean he’s easily going to forget that trauma, nor that said events don’t still have an impact on him, but rather that a true positive development for him should have him not having to consciously dwell on it if it’s not necessary, and that his friends of now eight years should probably not be still holding it over him at a time like this.

After all, 02 itself was dedicated to scolding this kind of behavior -- not being “stuck in the past” (which, well, also happens to be a very pertinent theme when it comes to Kizuna...) was basically the entire point of the latter half, and so it stands to reason that Ken, and by extension the rest of the 02 cast, would be more focused on what they’re doing now instead of what happened back then.

In the absence of any references to said past, Ken in the actual movie ends up coming off as a bit unremarkable and plain compared to the three friends who end up surrounding him, all of whom have much more extreme personalities (the chaotic and exuberant Daisuke and Miyako, and the comically poker-faced Iori). But you get the feeling that he’s perfectly fine being that way -- rather, he’s enjoying getting all of his fun from his exciting friends, without feeling a need to spice things up himself.

So when we finally do meet Ken for the first time in Kizuna, he’s cheerfully eating ramen with Daisuke and Iori in New York (which, for all it’s worth, is probably really questionably legal, considering that Adventure’s world of 2010 likely still hasn’t figured out how to deal with that whole thing with “immigration and customs” as it pertains to Digital Gates.) Emphasis on cheerfully. He’s as tidy as ever (note how he still properly keeps his chopsticks between his fingers and cleans up after himself, albeit not as well as Iori), and he’s obviously more straight-laced than Daisuke or Miyako, but he isn’t really hiding the fact he’s also totally enjoying this. He didn’t even know why they were there for ramen in New York in the first place, but he just rolled with wherever Daisuke took him.

Recall that, according to their official profiles, these three go to completely different schools now -- Iori’s in high school, Daisuke’s at vocational school getting a chef’s license, and Ken’s in university studying psychology. (Which, by the way, is not brought up at all throughout the movie nor the drama CD! It’s easy to glean how his past experiences might give him an interest in the topic, and it’ll certainly be a valuable background to have for his future known career in criminal investigation, but despite Ken previously having had a reputation for being studious, it’s not brought up at all -- almost as if hanging out with his friends and having fun with them is more important and pertinent.) The drama CD even points out that Ken would normally be busy with soccer training camp. Yet they’re hanging out. In New York. Eating ramen. So, Yamato, what were you saying about how “choosing your own path can sometimes mean being alienated from friends”? If anything, these friends seem to be going out of their way to make sure they’re staying tight.

And, as you’d expect, Ken refers to Daisuke by given name, following DSB’s precedent. Again, given the nature of their relationship right now, this should be expected. There’s other evidence that Kizuna does use DSB as reference in certain other respects as well (Takeru calls Yamato “niisan”, which had previously been exclusive to that movie), and it’s very possible that Ken as portrayed in that movie was used as reference for his potential trajectory here.

Note that he seems to be even more outwardly affectionate with Wormmon than before (which is, shockingly, apparently possible) -- he still feeds his partner before feeding himself (similar to what he did in 02 episode 37), but now he also shamelessly carries Wormmon on his head, which he never did in 02. Perhaps it’s because he’s tall enough to carry the weight, but unlike with Takeru and Patamon, Wormmon is big enough that the sight is honestly comical -- yet Ken couldn’t care less, and while we don’t see him in his own school, it’s a sharp contrast to how Taichi and Yamato scoffed at the idea of bringing their partners to school because they “have their own lives to live”.

(A nice touch is Ken carrying Minomon from his arm, which actually comes from a very obscure piece of 02 concept art -- you can find it in the Character Complete File or the Animation Chronicle -- but was never depicted in the series proper. The Kizuna design works in the April 2020 edition of Animedia actually recreated that piece of art with Ken in the exact same position, only as a nineteen-year-old this time, which was an incredibly welcome thing to see.)

He greets Miyako upfront when she arrives, which doesn’t look like much on its face, but recall that this probably wouldn’t have happened during 02 proper -- not even with Daisuke! -- and, at the very least, not with this very casual “hey!” tone. It means a lot in terms of how much more casual of a person he’s been able to become in the last eight years, and how much more casual he is with this group (well, at least with Miyako). Takeru also greets Wormmon in the drama CD, and Wormmon seems pretty unusually happy to see Hawkmon when they meet each other there, certainly implying a lot of interpersonal interaction since.

Miyako meets up with them (and, going back to how tight these kids are, Miyako would come in all the way from Spain to meet her friends even for the exact same job that she dumped on her seniors), and they end up infiltrating Menoa’s office. He gets in a line of snark, especially because the Shueisha Mirai novel indicates he’s deliberately “looking the other way” in regards to worrying about security -- looks like he’s developing some Lawful tendencies, but in the end, his friends and getting to the bottom of the real truth take priority.

And, also, it’s still pretty clear he’s totally taking the opportunity to enjoy this.

So what does this all mean, really? He’s taking a fairly passive attitude with his abundantly more chaotic friends, but he’s also not protesting, and he’s enjoying everything he can out of it. He’s a bit quieter than he was in DSB, but that could easily just be from being older and a bit more mature, and he hardly comes off as reserved, either (it helps that Daisuke doesn’t quite resort to any antics nearly as ridiculous as he did in DSB, so there’s no need to keep him in check -- yep, even Daisuke got a bit more mature himself). And he’s joining these kids in being possibly some of the most chaotic disaster adults (near-adults?) on this planet, in a sharp contrast to their seniors.

I mentioned earlier in my analysis of Kizuna’s relationship to 02 that Ken is actually a “hidden” foil to Kizuna’s main antagonist, Menoa -- they were both conceived from the same idea Producer Seki had regarding the real-life “genius boy” who ended up going to Columbia University at a young age and, in her opinion, was going to be robbed of a proper childhood experience. 02′s Dark Seed children arc was a major indictment against parents forcing this kind of pressure on children, not only in the sense of pushing them academically but also quashing out their more “childish” dreams for the sake of a more “dignified” outlook and future. Through the events of 02, Ken learned a very personal lesson on not losing his “true self” to the pressure of those expectations, and the meaning of valuing his family and friends instead.

Ken and Menoa, effectively, were originally on the same path, but thanks to the circumstances of 02, Ken managed to avert Menoa’s fate and ended up following his own way. Nevertheless, Ken was largely robbed of a normal kid’s childhood up until the age of eleven, and it stands to reason that, even at the age of nineteen, he might still be trying to make up for all of those fun experiences he never was able to have.

Funny thing about his haircut, too -- this isn’t the first time Ken’s had this haircut, actually. You know when was the last known time he did?

Hm. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

But unlike Menoa, who decided that it would be better to trap herself in her own distorted view of what “childhood” is, or Oikawa, who ended up clinging dearly to the last reminder he had of what he’d lost from his childhood, Ken ends up dealing with it in a very forward-facing manner. In fact, he’d elucidated his feelings on the issue back in Spring 2003:

There are still a lot of times when I think about how I should have “done this back then.” But I discovered that there are many things I can do over afterwards. I’ll stop counting the things that I can’t do. Because I’m sure there are many things that I can do.

Instead of living in regrets about the past, Ken simply chooses to move forward by making new fun experiences and memories with his friends, befitting those he couldn’t have when he was a kid, and perhaps even enhanced by his newfound freedom as a nineteen-year-old.

During the final battle, we get a few more emotional and assertive shows from Ken -- his concern about Miyako is pretty frantic-sounding, and the fact he steps in so quickly and frantically to help her out by his own will is pretty impressive. And then he definitively declares that they can’t afford to give up -- which is certainly in line with the nobility he had even during 02, but remember when, even in DSB, Daisuke had to be the one to remind him of this? Now he’s the one reassuring his teammates about this, all on his own. When it all comes down to it, his sense of awareness of what he wants and what he wants to do is stronger than ever.

I mentioned in my analysis of Kizuna in relation to 02 that the 02 kids are in a fairly unique position in the movie, thanks to having already practically gone through a lot of the lessons in both 02 and Kizuna, thus leading them to become very lacking in susceptibility to potentially losing their partners anytime soon (and in fact are deliberately portrayed as such). I would say of all of them, Ken is the most representative of this -- being such a direct foil to the movie’s main antagonist, one who actually came dangerously close to making some of the exact same mistakes she did and emerged with his own trauma as a result, the lessons and warnings imparted by the movie are already deeply embedded in his being.

He’s one of the most openly affectionate and intimate with his partner, having already learned the very, very hard way of what happens when you don’t treasure your partner properly. (He’s taking Wormmon jogging with him, which has got to be an awfully uncomfortable setup, but, goddammit, he’s gonna make it work. And if ~With~ is to be believed, he’s been doing this for years now.) He’s still got a Dark Seed in the back of his neck as an eternal reminder to remember who he is, and to acknowledge the love from his family and friends around him instead of succumbing to arbitrary societal expectations. Remember what I said in my earlier analysis about the true reason for partnerships dissolving, and how deeply it was tied to throwing yourself away for the sake of arbitrary standards of adulthood? Ken’s experiences and extremely painful trauma are like a giant do not do this stamp on his face, and although everyone in this cast is naturally human and may have ups and downs or relapses, Ken is possibly one of the last characters one could imagine succumbing to that kind of mistake again.

So we make it to the epilogue, and although Ken’s technical job title as given in the epilogue is literally “police officer” (keisatsukan), his form of dress (plainclothes, not uniform) and his the Character Complete File indicate he’s from the Digimon Special Investigations Unit (tokusoubu), or, in other words, he’s actually a public-servant detective. (So no, the various dubs also going with “detective” are thus not “changes” in this respect.) In short, he investigates scenes of crimes after they happen, and the Character Complete File provides an example in the form of him investigating a dead body found at the river.

This is probably why Kizuna has him major in psychology, because forensic psychology would be a pretty useful skillset for this kind of job, and a university education in general would most certainly be helpful. (The job requirements as per the Japanese system also require a very high level of athleticism and aptitude.) On the other hand, considering what we know about Ken up to Kizuna, there aren’t any indications that he treated this like any kind of major aspiration, and the psychology major makes you think he might have just fallen into this career by a series of accidents -- he took an interest in psychology (and mental health) due to his own experiences, and then decided that “discovering the truth behind things” was up his alley (much like Iori). Even more notably, his position isn’t really described in any history-making terms, not even ones like being “the first” of anything (like Jou), and it feels like he’s doing this to contribute to society in a way he prefers more than he’s trying to accomplish anything world-shattering.

But on the flip side, it’s probably no coincidence that the 02 epilogue portrays him with such a big family. Of course, it also fits with his and Miyako’s family backgrounds (they’d probably want their kids to have siblings, given their own experiences), but since the Dark Seed was described as having its effects countered by acknowledging how much you’re loved, Ken is clearly surrounded by love -- his wife is one of the most openly affectionate people out there, and his kids (or at least his middle child) use the same “Mama” kind of affectionate language Ken shared with his own parents. Once the events of 02 came to a close at the end of 2002, Ken went on a journey of discovering his own self-assertion, personal desires, and fun -- shedding the expectations and societal standards others had of him, and learning to enjoy life in ways he personally enjoys, for his own sake.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #ken ichijouji #ichijouji ken #shihameta #kizuna spoilers

[shadowsfiguresfigments-blog]

A good place to die Chapter 26 (smut)

Warning: Harsh language, violence, smut

He was all over me, literally. Whilst he kept my lips and tongue busy with his, his hands roamed across my body, gently caressing every square inch of it. The last tattered remains of my clothes fell off, but his silken gloves kept me warm against the cold air. I sucked on his lower lip to encourage him further, and in response he leaned into me. The sensation of his touch multiplied, and during a breath pause to draw breath I opened my eyes. Penny had sprouted another two pairs of arms, giving him a slightly spider-like appearance.

Whilst he played with my hair, he simultaneously worjed my erect nipples, kneading them; pinching them just enough to illicit a sweet stinging pain. And all the while his hands wandered down further, along my hips, in between my thighs. I pressed harder against him, the familiar desperate yearning overcoming any sense of self-control I had left. There needn’t be any more barriers between us, nothing to separate us – I had been inside him, literally, for fuck’s sake – and I tore at his clothes, fighting against the last veil of silk that stood between us.

His chuckle was barely audible, more of a deep rumble that went through his body right into mine. The hands in my hair disappeared and the pressure against me lessened, but before I could protest his fingers slipped inside me. My insides clamped down on him in an unconscious effort to pull him further along, and their effort was rewarded; Penny’s finger went deeper and deeper into me, as if they were growing in length. The weirdest sensation filled my stomach – his gloves, he must have popped his gloves – and a heartbeat later he touched that sweet, sweet spot.

I screamed as the orgasm hit me like a sledge hammer, but Penny was nowhere near done. His body pressed back against mine, finally rid of clothes and all decency, and he held me so tight I was no longer able to breathe properly. He was still mercilessly working my pussy, but another hand made its way between my ass cheeks. I briefly and very feebly thought about protesting, but in response he pressed against my G-spot again. Whether it was because I was dripping wet or by some transformation of his, his fingers quickly spread some hot liquid around my asshole. Then he inserted one.

One moment, there was the sensation of having soiled myself; then he pushed through the barrier and there was some pain. It didn’t last long, though, as having him inside both front and back quickly overwhelmed me. Still, it wasn’t enough for him. His tongue swelled up, almost forcing my jaws apart, and picked up the rhythm of his fingers as it thrust deeper and deeper into me. As he had swallowed me whole, enveloping me completely, he now filled my up with himself in every way possible. I no longer could feel any ending to my body, nor the beginning of his; all of my senses were filled with him alone.

Again, there was a brief pause as he withdrew his fingers from my pussy, then he shoved his dick into me. I came immediately, and this time it lasted. Wave after wave hit me, eroding my sense of self further and further. Something was different from all the times we had had sex before – something inside me had changed. It resonated with Penny in a way that was difficult to understand – like two sound waves with just the right frequency to suddenly amplify each other.

That resonance almost tore me apart, and I screamed on the top of my lungs as Penny shuddered and came.

The following week was entirely governed by the last minute preparations for both Bee’s return as well as the store opening, which would coincide. With Auntie’s help I fought my way through the rooms and seemingly unending layers of garbage and dirt. Thankfully Bee had already declared her intentions to renovate the whole apartment by herself, and she had spent countless hours picking colors and some new furniture from catalogs. The little insurance money she got wouldn’t allow for much more, but her DIY-attitude had significantly improved over the last days. We just made sure the dirt was gone and that the facilities worked; which they did. Still, by the time I was done every evening I did little more than hit the shower and fall into bed.

Penny found his own way to keep me company – he usually waited in my room, made good use of the phone I had gotten him, and occasionally accompanied me on my ways in the form of a big orange tabby. At night he would cradle me in his arms, making our fight seem like nothing more than a bad dream.

I didn’t have the energy to discuss it any further, either; nor could I bring myself to tell him I still felt rather overwhelmed by the sex we had had. It was a weird, uncomfortable balance that I just couldn’t deal with.

He had carried me home that night, wrapped into silk-like sheets he had miraculously produced, and he had washed me in our tiny shower. I was still entirely beside myself – I didn’t even spend a thought on auntie – and just stood there as he rinsed away his cum that poured out of my body.

He even tucked me into bed.

When the big day finally arrived, I was too tired to feel the least bit excited. I almost fell asleep twice during school, but fortunately no one noticed. It was Friday, and I was excused for the last lesson (P.E.), so I got to leave early. That also meant there was no chance of any potential bully waiting for me, and I didn’t bother checking my bike for any manipulations, as there hadn’t been any for quite a while. Of course, that didn’t turn out too well – somebody had opened the valves of my tires, and by the time I got to the shop, there was no air left in them. I didn’t care, though, as I had to prepare the little buffet auntie had organized for me (nothing major, just some tea and coffee, and some cupcakes she had surprised me with in the morning). After I finished that, I went through the registry and my documents for the last time, in a desperate attempt to not think about Penny and focus on the task at hand.

A quick glance at my watch told me that I had about fifteen minutes left before the official opening hours started. I briefly wondered whether anyone would show up at all – Auntie and I had invested in some flyers, and we had distributed them both at her working place as well as my school. I had also thrown the remaining ones into random mail boxes on my various ways. Despite that, my reputation might very well end up keeping any potential customer from actually seeking the store – my store, I reminded myself – out.

For the first time in a long while I thought back to Yaneesha, Shot and the other idiots that despised me so much. The reason for their unwavering hate was still very much of a mystery to me, but I couldn’t bring myself to wish them harm. After all, they had ultimately suffered bigger losses than I did, and ever since Yaneesha had left school, I hadn’t been physically attacked anymore.

At least not by humans.

I sighed and unlocked the doors.

To my big surprise a couple of people entered while I was putting out the huge board I had painted. They roamed around the shelves, and a tiny silver-hair lady even told me how happy she was that the store was open again. I vaguely remembered her face and came to the conclusion that she was one of the very few somewhat regular visitors. Didn’t she have a fondness for novels? I directed her towards some new arrivals, which prompted my first successful sale.

It was somewhat difficult to believe, and the whole situation felt unreal. Something about the ordinariness was quite at odds with the crazy circus my life had become. I answered questions, recommended books, and made a couple of other sales. It wasn’t much, but still a whole lot more than what I’d expected – nothing.

Auntie joined me after I had been open for ninety minutes, and I could tell how tired she was. We both forced smiles, and despite my best efforts, she insisted on staying with me, though her face grew paler by the minute. Just when I had convinced her to sit down and stop fussing, her face lit up with recognition.

“Oh, you didn’t tell me he was coming. How nice!”

I whirled around just to see Benny-Penny standing outside the store, a red balloon on a string in his hands. For some reason that really touched me – I was just glad auntie sat behind me, so she couldn’t see the stupid smile spreading across my face. I rushed out and grasped his hands.

“I’m so glad you’re here”, I gushed. “I can’t believe you’re willing to go through this… Are you okay?”

He nodded, a familiar twinkle in his eyes, and handed me the balloon. It even read “Congratulations” on it. After quickly wiping my eyes I ushered him inside, ignoring the weird vibrations that built up in my stomach.

Penny looked utterly out of place, a wonderful mixture of awkwardness and otherworldly beauty that was just a tick off – probably not enough for anyone to realize but enough to cause the other visitors to show signs of unease. It was almost comical – a guy in a rather fancy suit started fiddling with his tie, a young girl put her jacket back on, and a group of teens moved closer together. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a good thing unnerve the people who I was supposed to sell to, it was still entertaining to observe. And I couldn’t help myself but marvel at his human form; the way his muscles visibly moved beneath the thin, tight sweater he was wearing; the way that ass looked in that pair of jeans; the way his movements were still the same as in his clown form.

I quickly went into the back room and tied the balloon to my backpack, not wanting to leave Penny alone for too long; but by the time I had returned he sat beside auntie and they chatted away merrily. He laughed – that wonderful, over-the-top crazy laugh of his, and shook his head. Auntie smiled, said something and started chuckling. For a moment she looked much younger, the stress lines fading, and my heart started hurting again.

How I wished I could see her like that every day.

I joined them, but I admittedly didn’t pay much attention, nor contribute much to the conversation – I was just content to see auntie and Benny-Penny happy. My odd behavior wasn’t noticed, though; Benny told one joke after another, and soon, my costumers had circled around us, joining in on the laughs. From time to time I could have sworn I saw a glint of something in Benny’s eyes, but it always disappeared so quickly I couldn’t be sure.

It was a rather pleasant experience to have him around. Time flew by quickly, and making sales felt like something I did on the side whilst I was mainly focusing on Benny. Finally the last pulk of people left the store, and I waved after them. Auntie stood up and started cleaning the buffet table; throwing away crumbled napkins and stacking plates. I offered to help, but she refused me; so I started counting the money I had made. When she left to bring the plates upstairs to the apartment, I dropped all pretence and threw myself into Benny’s arms.

“Thank you for coming”, I whispered, somewhat at a loss at how to convey the deep gratitude I felt.

He just patted my head, but I could feel how exhausted he was. I understood all too well – being around other humans and having to act normally was difficult enough for me, and I was part of their race. I reached up and cradled his cheek in my hand.

“I will make this up to you, I promise.”

Benny’s head shot up so fast I didn’t realize he had moved for a second.

Something was wrong.

His face had become devoid of emotion, the smile that had just been there completely gone, and there was an orange hue in his eyes. He stood utterly still.

“What’s the matter?”

“One of them is coming closer.”

“Who?”

“One of them.”

It took me a second to put his words and his behavior together.

“You mean… the ones that hurt you?”

He nodded, his eyes turning ever more orange. I took his hands and pulled him around to face me.

“Listen, if you need to get out of here, go. But I don’t think you’re in danger – you look like a human, you’re in a fucking bookstore, and besides, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, okay?” That had absolutely no effect whatsoever. He was still as tense as before. “Penny, I promise, you’re safe.”

He slowly lowered his eyes, exhaling loudly. Not even a second later, he tensed up again. This time, he was watching someone outside. I turned around and saw two young men walking down the street. They held brown paper bags and yelled loudly, pushing each other constantly. My somewhat rusty instinct for bad situations told me they were trouble.

“They want to trash your shop.”

I didn’t even question him; I was too focused on the fact that they had changed direction and were now clearly walking up to us.

“I won’t allow that.” I reached into my pocket for my phone, with every intention to call the cops, but this time, Penny grabbed my hands. He had the weirdest little smile, and his left eye started drifting to the side. For some reason, I got goosebumps. I could only watch as he left me and stood in front of the duo. They shouted something, he replied, and the three of them walked away.

What was I supposed to do? I still had my phone in my hand, and I contemplated dialing 911. But what should I say? That I had possibly evaded big trouble? That my killer clown boyfriend had just left with the troublemakers and they’d better start searching for the leftovers, if there would be any? And that Pennywise might be in danger? Hello officer, you know, there’s this creature that kills and feeds on humans, and I love him very much, and he got spooked, so could you please start an investigation, and by the way, clean up after him?

“Where’d he go?”

Auntie had come back to me and looked out the door. I shook my head, gathering my jumbled thoughts.

“Oh, his mom called, he’s supposed to help her with something.”

“It was nice of him to stop by.”

“Yeah, very nice.” I still stared at the corner around which they had disappeared, as if I could make my gaze bend around it to follow them and make sure everything was okay.

“Is everything alright? Did you quarrel?”

“Oh no, I guess I’m just… a little overwhelmed with everything.” My attempt at a reassuring smile was bad at best, but somehow auntie bought it.

“Oh well, it’s been some hectic weeks for both of us.”

I nodded. A quick glance at my phone told me it was time to close down. That, thankfully, wouldn’t take long. However, there was still-

“Look who’s come!”

For the second time that day, a very welcome visitor approached the store. This time it wasn’t my favorite alien killer clown, it was Bee; with a large suitcase in hand and a warm smile on her face.

#pennywise #pennywise fanfiction #agptd

[barnes-dameron]

I Think of You

Chapter One: The Beginning

Soccer player!Cassian Andor x physical therapist!reader

Summary: You came to this country to learn the language and find work to pay off for school, nothing else. Getting a job as a physical therapist for the National soccer team was a plus and getting to see the star player, Cassian Andor, was a major plus as well. But what happens when your visa expires and immigration is on your tail? Your only hope resides in Cassian, who is more than willing to marry you until you can get your green card. What can go wrong?

Word count: 3.1k

A/N: This is going to be a series but I don’t know how long will it be. I didn’t explicitly say what country this is taking place in because I want everyone who reads this to feel included. So for example, if you’re from the U.S., you can pretend it takes place in Mexico since Diego Luna is from there. Or if you’re from Mexico, you can pretend it takes place in the U.S. or another country. I want all readers to feel included instead of being excluded. Big shout out to @tintinwrites for helping me think of a name for the series. I hope you all enjoy!

***

You’ve never gotten used to the weather since you moved to this new place a few years ago, and frankly you were happy about it. It was a different feel altogether, one that shouldn’t be taken for granted. In the past, mornings like these would’ve repulsed you but now you couldn’t wait. You’re life was seemingly perfect, and you wanted to keep it that way. Who could blame you? You’ve worked hard to get the job you have now and moved to an unfamiliar place and learn a whole new language. Others would’ve called you crazy or a dreamer, but really you were an achiever; something you always prided yourself on.

You couldn’t wait to get into work, even if you were at your current job for going on three years now. But it was never dull working as a physical therapist for The Rebels, one of the popular soccer teams in the country. Their fan base was huge, so naturally it’s difficult to find a position working for them. But yet again, you didn’t take things lightly, and worked hard to get where you’re at. Mon Motha, one of the owners of the Rebels, knew about you only because you treated so many of the players and they regarded you with high esteem. Apparently, you heard through the grapevine that she jokes around saying you play a part in the backbone that keeps the team together. You try not to think about it from time to time, but it does place a smile on your face.

Upon entering the building where you set up shop, you passed by Coach Draven, another key member of the team that knew you well. He gave you his usual quick “good morning” and a nod of his head. Practice started early as always, and he never took things lightly. He constantly drilled the players so they were always prepared for everything, since there were teams that prefer to play dirty. Because of this, many players from the Rebels face injury and then have to go through physical therapy. That’s where you come in. But more often than not, it was usually one player...

As you entered the office, Cassian Andor was already sitting in a chair in the waiting area. Cassian was the team captain, and took his position seriously; enforcing his teammates to take the coach’s orders and carrying the burden of a loss on his shoulders. He played with passion and left everything on the field when the game was done. Due to this, Cassian always found himself with some sort of a minor injury. It was mostly his knees. After years of playing, it was the only thing that ever caused him real pain. He would come almost everyday, before and after practice, to do special exercises in order to prevent pain while playing. You never minded, in fact you enjoyed his company in a way. He’s much different when he was alone compared to when he’s around his team. You smiled at Cassian; punctual as always.

“Good morning, Captain Andor,” you greeted, the native language of this country flowing off your tongue after years of practice.

“Good morning,” he replied, a small smile playing on his lips.

Cassian knew the drill by now. Once you set your things by your desk, he heads to the room in the back and lies down on the cushioned yet paper clad table. He brought his feet to rest on the surface so his knees were in the air. You entered the room, asking questions about how’s he doing and how his knees feel as you thoroughly wash your hands before touching him.

Cassian’s skin was always warm, probably due to the weather outside. It was soccer season, so of course it would be warm. But a part of you wondered if he skin was just like that. You performed the same exercises as always, stretching his legs and counting while doing so. After three years of doing this every morning, it never grew old either.

“So,” Cassian said after finishing another stretch. “Any plans tonight?”

He always asked that question, and you always gave the same response. After years of living here, you never ventured out to see what the country truly had to offer. Every once and awhile, your roommate, Jyn, would drag you out to a bar or club, but that’s the farthest you’ve gone.

“The usual,” you replied. “Just me, my couch, and a book I’ve been meaning to read.” 

You heard Cassian let out a huff of laughter. 

“You really need to get out more,” he sighed as you put some pressure on the side of his knee.

“I know,” you sighed in return. 

It was a thought that always plagued your mind. Despite everything you achieved, you could no longer lie to yourself. At times you have felt a little lonely with the lack of a dating life and your roommate being out on most nights. To be completely honest with yourself, you thought of asking Cassian to accompany you to a new place. However, you didn’t want to mix work with your personal life, and threaten any friendship you may have with the captain of the team. 

“All done,” you announced. Cassian got up from his position, sitting on the edge of the table. You watched fondly as he moved his arms about, and swinging his legs like a child. Cassian hopped down, and gave you a boyish grin, one you only saw within these four walls. “Good luck at practice today.” 

“Thank you,” he said. 

You watched as Cassian left the office, your heart falling a bit as he disappeared. You couldn’t help but let out a sigh. That’s a line you certainly didn’t want to cross. 

*** 

Cassian always scolded himself when he showed up too early to your morning sessions. He hated how excited he was to see you, and he hated how you could break down all his inner walls, something he so carefully put together throughout the years, with a simple smile. But ultimately, he hated these foreign feelings that have been three years in the making. 

Cassian has never felt this way about a person, ever. Heat blooms throughout his body causing his palms to go sweaty. His mouth becomes the Saharra desert as his mind transforms into a whirlwind of thoughts. He’s never felt so off guard before. On the soccer field, he was cold and calculating, focused on one thing...winning. With you, however, it was the opposite. He was a bumbling mess of a human; something he tries to hide whenever you’re around. 

There has always been a part of him that wanted to ask you out. He couldn’t deny it, but he saw something more with you, but was never able to take those first steps. Every time he asks you for your plans that night, he chickens out last minute replying with plans of his own. It’s like he see the goal open, but could never kick the ball in. 

Cassian shook away any thoughts of you. He couldn’t let them interfere with his performance. Cassian stepped on the field, and went to work. 

He listened carefully to Coach Draven’s orders, taking mental notes to carry out the actions with perfection. He ran as fast as he could, and handled the ball with control. Maybe one day, after a win, the adrenaline would give him the fuel to ask you out. No, he scolded himself. Not now. Don’t think about her now. 

The sound of Draven’s whistle pulled Cassian out of his thoughts. He looked up to see it was the signal for a water break, something he desperately needed at that moment. He didn’t notice it until he looked at the sun, but they’ve been practicing for hours now. He was slightly amazed on how transfixed he was that he lost track of time. Cassian sat on the bench, chugging down as much water as he could, before an anxious intern from the offices bumped his back. Cassian coughed from the unexpected action, and gave an icy glare at the baby-faced intern, who looked like a deer caught in head lights. 

“S-sorry,” the intern stuttered out. Cassian watched as the boy played with the ends of his long sleeve shirt, looking around nervously, before returning his gaze back to him. “Do you know where Y/N L/N is?” 

Cassian was taken aback upon the mention of your name. He lifted his hand, pointing to the building where your office was, closer to the practice field than any other building on the campus. 

“Second floor, third door when you get off the elevator.” 

The intern nodded his head, and began a brisk walk to your building. Curiosity bloomed in Cassian, but he quickly shook it off. He couldn’t think about you, not now. 

***

Anxiety washed over you as you sat outside of the conference room. Thirty minutes ago, an intern burst into your office with an urgent message for you to come and meet with the team’s board of members, including the owners. Your stomach felt like it was put through the ringer, and your head pounded with the force of a thousand drums. You didn’t think you did anything wrong throughout your three year employment, but still every wrong thing you’ve done since childhood flooded your mind. 

You turned your whole body towards the door when the click of the lock being opened reached your ears. Mon Motha stuck her head out and motioned for you to enter. 

The floor felt uneven and difficult to navigate as you entered the room, a dozen pair of eyes peered into you as you sat at the only empty seat, the one across from Mon Motha. 

“Miss L/N,” her calm voice filling the silence in the air. Tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. “Do you know why you are here?” 

No words could come to your mouth. All you could do was shake your head. 

“Miss L/N,” Bail Organa said, taking the lead. “There have been rumors going around, and if they’re true, it could cause possible damage to the Rebels.” You remained silent, staring at the co-owners intently with a wide gaze. Rumors? About you? “It has been heard and said that your visa has expired for some time now and you’ve been residing in this country illegally. Is this true?” 

Your wish for the earth to open up and swallow you whole has never been stronger than this moment. Your heart pounded against your rib cage, the air leaving your lungs, and the sound of blood roaring in your ears. You looked down at the wood pattern of the table, not bearing to match their gazes. 

“Yes,” you murmured. “They’re true.” 

“Explain,” Mon Motha commanded coldly. 

You took a deep breath, trying to tame your wild nerves. 

“Well,” you began. “I never meant for my visa to get expired. It’s just that I’ve been so enthralled with my job and the Rebels, that it slipped my mind. Plus I only got one notice, a couple of days before the expiration date. Besides, it’s only been a few months-”

“A few months is long enough,” Bail sighed, rubbing his forehead. “If our rival, the Empire, gets a hold of this information they could destroy our credibility. Sponsors will pull out, attendance will dwindle, and the Rebels would cease to exist.”

“I’m so sorry,” you said. Tears threatened to spill from the anxiety that built up within you. You can’t cry now, not in front of all these people. “I’ve never meant for this to happen, and I didn’t think that it could hurt the team. I love this team!”

“We know, Y/N,” Mon Motha said. “But we need to take action before the media finds out.”

“Miss L/N,” a man said, gaining your attention. He looked clean and sleek, didn’t seem like the type to mess around or go out to have a drink with. “My name is Charles Anderson, the team’s attorney. I’ve analyzed your situation carefully and have came up with a few possible solutions.” You nodded your head, hanging on his every word. “Now, you could return to your country of origin and reside there until you have been cleared for a new visa.” 

“Which is ridiculous,” Bail interceded. “We’ll need you for when the season starts and we won’t know when your new visa will be approved even if we pulled some strings-” 

“Or,” Anderson said, rather loudly, cutting off Bail. “We can have you applied for a marriage license here so your spouse’s citizenship could protect you until either the season is over or you apply for citizenship yourself. Of course with this, you’ll have to apply within the next month or so.” 

“But,” you interjected, trying to gather your thoughts and bearings. “I don’t have a boyfriend or anything. How can you expect me to meet someone and marry them within a month?” 

“Actually,” Bail said, arching his eyebrow towards you with his hands clasped right in front of his face. “We were thinking that you’ll marry someone on the team.” 

Your stomach twisted at that thought. For so long you didn’t want to cross the line between work and a personal relationship, but now it seemed you didn’t have a choice. 

“What?” you asked, disbelief and shock gripping your mind and heart. 

“Think about it,” Mon said. “We’ll get ahead of any allegations that the Empire might make. We’ll say you and a player on the team were having a private relationship and make it seem that you two have been together longer than a month. Plus, with the player’s popularity, nobody will even begin to question your status in the country, and even root for the marriage. You’ll be protected in the eyes of the public. Anderson will draw up a contract for the two of you to sign so that after a year or so, you guys can divorce without raising any eyebrows and you’ll be able to stay in the country.” 

You heard every word, but after awhile, it sounded like you were underwater. Muffled noise mixed together into nonsense. You were still in shock. Married for a year to someone you didn’t know well? Plus you’ll have to make the marriage look believable. And then divorce? You never saw yourself getting married so soon, much less divorce. But this was your only viable option. What else could you do? 

*** 

Cassian wiped off the remaining droplets of water off his chest as he stepped out of the shower room. A cold shower was something he needed after today’s rigorous training and how his thoughts of you slightly got away from him during it. 

Cassian approached his designated locker and began to dress. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t sweaty and smelly before going to meet you for the after practice therapy session. Cassian watched as Bodhi took a seat at the bench in front of his locker. Cassian liked to think of Bodhi as his second in command when guiding the team on the field. Bodhi always followed orders even if he doubted himself at times. He’s a good teammate, as well as being one of Cassian’s best friends. 

“So,” Bodhi began, running his towel through his wet hair. “Did you hear about Y/N?” 

Cassian stopped his movements for a split second at the mention of your name. He kept his eyes trained on the locker wall, not wanting to look at Bodhi in effort to hide any indication of his feelings toward you. But Cassian had to admit, he was intrigued. Especially since there’s been an intern that was looking for you earlier that day. 

“No,” Cassian said, leaving it at that for now. 

“Well, I talked to that young intern... you know the one that disturbed our practice earlier? Anyways, apparently the team’s board had a sit down with Y/N.”

Cassian looked back at Bodhi upon hearing that. He tried to keep his voice steady, even if panic threatened to break through. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Apparently,” Bodhi said in a low voice just above a whisper, leaning on his forearms that rested on his knees so no one else could hear. “Y/N’s visa is expired, and the board is saying she has to marry someone quick so she can stay for the season.” 

Cassian’s heart fell through his chest and landed on the floor, nearly breaking. Your visa expired? You were always so responsible, he couldn’t believe that a perfect person like you could be in a situation like this. He needed to see you. 

Cassian rushed to put on the rest of his clothes, shoving his feet in his shoes before leaving the locker room, not saying another word to Bodhi. The only thing that he had on his mind was you. 

*** 

Your head still ached, even after leaving that dreaded conference room. You wanted to go home, talk about this situation with Jyn, and wallow in your sadness until you fall asleep. But deep down, you didn’t want to go home, not yet at least. You still had your therapy session with Cassian. To be completely honest, you wanted to see him; as if he could solve everything with one simple smile. That’s what you needed, his smile. 

As if he read your thoughts, Cassian walked into your office, a look of urgency traced in his eyes but quickly replaced with relief upon setting his gaze on you. You got up from your desk and approached the door to the exam room. 

“Hey Cass,” you sighed, trying to hide anything that might give away your awful situation. 

“Hi,” he replied nervously, which you decided not to look into. 

You washed your hands as Cassian laid down on the exam table. You had him perform the usual exercises for his knees, the silence in the room deafening. It was a little more difficult to get him to cooperate today for some reason. You felt the tension build up in his knees, something that only ever happened to him when there was something bothering him. After three years of physical therapy, you could tell if there is something off. His words might say otherwise, but his body told the truth. You let out a sigh. 

“What’s wrong, Cassian?” you asked, making eye contact with him. 

“Nothing,” he replied, shaking his head before resting it on the table surface. 

“Come on, Cass,” you urged, squeezing his knee gently. “I know there’s something on your mind.”

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. 

He did his final stretch before moving to get off the table. You turned around and approached the sink, washing your hands and preparing yourself to listen to what he has to say. Maybe he’s stressing about “the secret weapon” that the Empire supposedly has. Taking a paper towel, you turn back around to face him, wiping your hands dry before looking up to him. 

Or down... 

“Y/N L/N,” Cassian started, kneeling down on one knee. “Will you marry me?”

To be continued...  

#cassian andor x reader #cassian andor #x reader #rogue one #star wars #diego luna #diego luna x reader #fanfic #series #sw #fluff #angst

[nazario-sayeed]

Bare body, bare soul (Nik x F!MC; N*FW)

Author's note: Some of you are probably thinking "what? you already tagged me on this fic, are you going crazy?" or whatever. Here's the thing: I was stupid using my tags and tumblr took down my previous post as a punishment for me being a whore. Anyway, I noticed it yesterday and now I'm posting it again because I'm stubborn. How I always change some stuff when I edit on tumblr for the last time, this isn't exactly the same as my last one, but there aren't any major differences. English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes. I'm shitty at naming my fics, ignore that. Also I don't remember which gif I used last time, which is irrelevant so I don't know why I'm saying this.

Summary: In case there's someone new here, I wrote this fic after chapter 9 when we were cockblocked. It left me wanting more, so I decided to write what should've happened. The initial dialogue is basically the same. My mc's name is Brie. 

WC: around 5,100 (sorry) 

Rating: definitely +18 for explicit sexual content. Do not keep reading if you're not comfortable with this kind of writing. 

I don't have the tag list for that fic so I'm basically using my Jaime one, I'm sorry if I got anyone wrong (please let me know if you don't wanna be tagged): @nazariortega  @duchess-ash-flame  @lahelalove @poeticscolt @donutsgirl36 @queenkaneko @msjpuddleduck @quinnskelly @flyawayboo @brightpinkpeppercorn @choicesarehard @jlpplays1 @desiree-0816 @sibella-plays-choices

When Nik starts stripping down to his underwear, Brie can't look away. She observes in awe the healed scars on his ripped torso, his muscular body under the soft candlelight... She feels her stomach do a funny flip inside of her, and a heat slowly spreads through her body despite of the cold air of the mansion. 

"Uh... Nik? Explain?" she says, trying really hard not to bite her lip at the sight of him exposed like that.

"Vulnerability magic, rook. Some of the most powerful kind there is. You want to see The Fate, you've gotta bare your soul" he explains.

"By stripping down to your skivvies? You sure this is lore and not wishful thinking?" Katherine questions him, raising an eyebrow.

"Summoning is all about symbolic gestures, Katy. Get with the program"

"I've got nothing to hide" Brie chipper says, already reaching behind her back to unzip her dress. "One ceremonial nudity, coming right up!" she lets her dress drop to the floor.

"That's the spirit!" Nik encourages her, trying not to stare as she undresses. Brie blushes a little under his gaze as they smile at each other.

They small talk as the group follows Nik's lead and strips down to their underwear. Brie catches a glimpse of everyone else, almost naked, and feels her face heating up. They form an incredibly attractive group, she can't deny it. She lets her eyes find Nik's frame, and can't help but notices the way the candlelight dances on his skin, lighting up every inch of his sculptured body. He catches her eyes before she can look away, and smirks.

"Like what you see, rook?" he teases her; she feels her whole body flushes with his commentary and the way his eyes are watching her right now, but she tries to play it cool.

"Hm? I don't know what you're talking about" she looks him up and down once again, letting her gaze drop on the only piece of clothing on his body, noticing the nice volume there. She licks her lips, imagining what's inside...

"Sure you don't" he smirks, before slowly scanning her body from head to toes, letting his gaze lingers a little longer on her breasts before turning away. Brie looks away, face red, and her gaze lands on Cal's bare form. She has seen him like that before, but she can't help but observe his large, strong body under the flattering light. He catches her eye and smiles, before hungrily scanning her body in a way that makes her feel like she is his next prey- and right now she kind of wishes she was.

Next to them, Nik notices the way they are looking at each other and his pulse quickens, a unsettling feeling cursing through his veins as he scowls and clenches his fists. He clears his throat to catch everyone's attention to the ritual, but mostly to stop whatever was going on between Cal and Brie.

After exposing themselves in more than one way in order to get help from The Fate, each of them goes to their own guest bedroom in the mansion, trying to escape the thoughts and emotions that their confession brought up. Every one of them is feeling overwhelmed and more vulnerable than they can remember, and the creepy air of the mansion doesn't help at all.  

Brie feels terrified even before closing the door. Even though Nik reassured her this is the safest place they could be in right now, she can't shake off the weird feeling. The shivers on her body are not from the insistent, loud wind, but from something that creeps her from the inside, and she knows she won't fall asleep.  She is feeling too lonely, exposed and guilty to sleep. 

Brie tries to think about anything other than the sounds that echo in her room, or that feeling on her spine that there's someone- or something- watching her even when she's alone. Absently, she lets her mind go back to the moment before they met The Fate.

She thinks about how that was the first time Nik ever looked vulnerable next to her, when he was talking about Elijah's death. How even though he is her bodyguard, in that moment she knew she would do anything to protect him. Her mind goes back to that brief moment when their eyes met after he had told the group about Elijah, and they both knew they were here for each other; one simple look could let her know- could let her feel- how deeply he cares about her- and she hoped he knew and felt it too.

Then, she reminisces about how his eyes went wild when she admitted she was in love with someone there. She didn't even know what she was going to say until the very moment when the words left her lips, and for the first time, she knew they were true. In so little time, she knew he had found a way into her heart- not easily entered after so many heartbreaks.

Tired of wishful thinking, Brie gets up in one movement and exits the room, letting her feet carry her to knock on Nik's door before she can think twice about what she's doing.

"Brie? Thought you were hitting the sack?" he seems surprised as he opens the door, but also amused; his lips curving up in a tiny smirk.

"Couldn't sleep. Looks like it's going around, huh?" she teases and he laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. He can't help but think about the restless things he wants to do right now, and it doesn't help that she came to his door in the middle of the night.

"Sure does. Wanna come in for a nightcap? These digs are pretty swanky, I'll give the fate that" he invites her in, trying- and failing- to ignore all the inappropriate thoughts crossing his mind.

"I'd love that..." she says, and he can swear there are at least fifteen intentions on her tone.

Nik swings the door open, welcoming her in, and she slips by him, letting their arms brush lightly against each other, feeling her skin on fire with the brief touch.

"Home sweet home… for the moment, anyway. Can i get you a drink?" Nik asks.

"Yes, please! I'm dying to unwind a little"

"You can say that again. What a night, huh?" as he pours bourbon, he thinks about all the ways he wishes he could use to help her unwind right now. All of them involve her screaming his name. 

He hands her the bourbon and electricity sparks where her fingers brush against his for a second. They clink their glasses, smiling, and they both take a sip, enjoying the warm feeling settling on their bellies.

Nik walks over to the window frame, leaning against it. He lets his gaze find Brie for a long moment and she feels her whole body warming up; she tells herself it's the drink, but she knows it's not. He notices the light blush on her cheeks, and interrupts her thoughts with a question.

"So what do you think, about all this? That was a lot to take in..."

"Honestly? I don't know. I'm glad we have a name, that's huge, but now… It just…" she trails off.

"Feels more real, right? Even more unnerving than before, somehow?" he finishes her thought.

"Yes! That's it exactly" she admits. "I know it sounds weird but when The Fate said 'Cassiopeia', all I could think was, hey, that's a pretty name." Niks snorts at her comment, looking amused, but she continues with a sigh "Too pretty for someone who makes bloodwraiths and zombies. Ridiculous, right?" she asks him, feeling a bit embarrassed but also glad to be sharing this with someone, especially him.

"Nah. I get it. The mind's a tricky beast, alright" he says, as Brie moves to his side by the window and leans on her forearms, taking another sip and letting the wind smooth over her face. Their bodies are close now, too close. She can feel his heat next to her as the wind swipes over them.

"What about you? That thrice-cursed son stuff… What do you think she meant?" she asks, trying to distract her own mind. He shakes his head, his face transforming into a scowl.

"I can't be sure- I mean, who knows what all goes on in her head- but I think it means that the three people who loves me most in the world are dead" he bitterly admits, finishing his drink.

Her first instinct is to think "But you have me". She manages to hold it back, bitting her lips shut. 

"That's a terrible thing to call you" she thinks out loud.

"Not wrong though. I always make it out by the skin of my teeth, lucky me. The people who love me? Not so much" he furrows his brow and clenches his fist at the side of his body, letting the anger get to him.

"You make it sound like you're the curse…" she says, softly.

When he doesn't answer, she turns to Nik and cautiously wraps her arms around him. He stiffens for a moment, before pulling her closer.

"Sometimes... I feel like I'm as bad as the Reimonenq touch. And…" he admits, but she cuts him off.

"Don't say that, Nik. You've lost so much, and it's not your fault" she tells him, with a firm but gentle voice.

Nik sighs deeply, stirring Brie's hair, before he presses a warm kiss to the top of her head. She can feel her heart pounding inside her chest, and his too where her head lays on his chest.

She pulls back and looks at him, and he gives her a wry smile.

"...You promise?" he asks, his voice softer than she has ever heard him.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't even be standing here if it wasn't for you! And I bet I'm not the only one who owes you my life. You risk yourself every day, to keep other people safe. That's not a curse… That's a gift" Brie reassures him, trying to make him understand just how grateful she is and how deeply she cares about him.

The atmosphere between them becomes charged, electric with tension. Hesitantly, Nik reaches out and trails his knuckles gently down her cheek. She feels her breathing stop.

"I don't know what it is about you, Brie, I swear I don't, but you make me feel…" he trails off.

"What? What do I make you feel?" she insists. After gazing down at her for a few seconds, he continues:

"You make me feel like a real person"

She feels her chest bursting with affection and an indescribable need to protect him. In that moment, she doesn't care about anyone else. She's unable to look away from him, his face just inches from hers, the air between them charged with intensity.

Brie leans forward, her breath quickening. The time seems to stop while their lips come closer slowly, until the gravity is just too much and they crash against each other. 

Nik sighs wordlessly against her lips, seeming overwhelmed at first, then he pulls Brie hard against him, one hand clutching the back of her neck.

"Nik..." she moans against him, feeling the desire taking over her body and pooling by her stomach.

"You taste so good, Brie" he breathes into her mouth, and she gasps.

He trails searing kisses down her neck, all the way to the hollow of her throat, and she shudders as he runs his tongue over the sensitive skin.

"I've been thinking about this for so long..." he admits.

"Me too… Please don't stop..." Brie begs him, as she remembers the kisses they've shared before this one. Neither of them came even close to the way their mouths fervidly explore each other now. Neither of them made her longing for more like this. The kiss, which began slow and soft, quickly heats up and they don't seem to be able to get enough of each other.

Nik tugs her clothes over her head, then pulls off his own. Brie runs her palms down his sculpted chest, now face to face with the scars she was admiring earlier. She wants to kiss each one of them, learn their stories, protect him from getting any new ones. He draws a ragged breath under her light touch and pulls back to look at her.

"You're gorgeous, Brie. So damn perfect" he breathes, before guiding her onto the huge bed and pulling her next to him. He captures her mouth in another long, lingering kiss as she drags her fingers through his hair...

"Nik… I-" she moans, but a furious, icy gale from the window washes over both of them, interrupting her.

"Oh, that is chilly" Brie says, a shiver running down her body. Nik quickly gets up from the bed and closes the window with more strength than necessary, making sure it won't open again. When he turns back to her, his expression is changed and it sends a tingle down her spine, almost like a warning. 

“I don’t care what happens. Wind, rain… This whole goddamn place could go up in flames and I wouldn’t give a fuck. I need you, Brie. Ever since I saw you in your underwear earlier, I couldn’t stop thinking about ripping it off your body”. Her breath catches in her throat at his bold statement, and she can already feel her arousal pooling between her legs. She watches as he walks over to where she is laying on the bed, while he looks at her like he's about to devour her. She hopes he is.

He lays on top of her and pins her hands on each side of her face, looking down, his eyes darkened with hunger.

“Nik… I have wanted you since the moment I saw you. Take me. I’m yours.” she breathes, and he smirks almost wickedly. His faces lights up a fire inside of her, one that she hasn’t felt in a long time. Nik has never seemed so protective of her, and so ready to deliciously destroy her.

“You’re mine, rook? Then why the hell you kept looking at the wolfman today? Or do you think I didn’t see it?” he lets go of her wrists and sits up next to her, flipping her onto her stomach with one easy, swift movement, making her gasp. "You think I didn't notice the way he was practically eating you with his eyes? Like you were his next prey..." She doesn’t even have time time to answer as he pulls her to sit up on her knees in front of him, standing behind her, his chest to her back "You think I didn't notice that you were enjoying it?".

Nik runs one calloused hand up the front of her body, over her stomach, chest, stopping at her chin, as he strains her arms between them with the other. He lets go of her chin and grabs her hair, pulling her head back roughly. She lets out a moan while his mouth moves next to her ear.

“Tell me, rook. Are you thinking about the wolfman now?” he presses himself against her back, letting her feel how hard his desire for her is. She moans with need again and closes her eyes, incapable of thinking clearly, intoxicated by the feeling of him. She never thought Nik could be so animalistic, and she's loving it; her whole body needs him.

“I- I… Oh, Nik”

“That’s right, Brie. It’s my name you’ll be moaning- no, screaming tonight. When I’m done with you, you won’t even remember who the werewolf is” he says, and brutally pushes her on all fours on the bed, making her gasp with pleasure and surprise.

Nik runs his hand down her back, earning shivers from her body. She can feel the heat from his body behind her, and the thought of him taking control like that is driving her absolutely mad with lust.

He reaches her soaked panties and pushes them to the side, running his fingers along her sex. Brie is already grasping at the sheets, trying to get some kind of control over her own body. He plunges two fingers inside without warning, and she yelps. Nik lower his body so his mouth is against her ear.

"The way you're soaked right now… Whenever you're starring at shirtless Cal, I hope you remember I am the one who made you feel like that, rook." he bites her earlobe and increases his speed, hitting that spot with every plunge.

Brie is incapable of forming coherent words right now. She is so high on the pleasure he is giving her, and she prays she'll never feel low again. Brie can feel her legs shaking, getting closer and closer with every movement of his hands. When she is almost there, her whole body writhing with desire, he removes his fingers and she immediately misses them, letting out a groan of frustration that amuses Nik.

"Not yet, Brie. Be patient. I'm nowhere near done with you" he says, and flips her onto her back, hovering over her body. He leans in to kiss her passionately, his hands exploring the sides of her body as she pulls him impossibly close by the neck. Brie wraps her legs around his waist grinding on him, trying to feel any kind of friction between her legs, desperate for relieve.

Nik begins to descend his mouth on her body, sucking at her neck in a way they both know will leave a mark. That's what he wants: to let everyone else know she is his, that she spent the night giving herself to him and him only. Nik wants to wake up tomorrow and let the wolfman smell him all over Brie's body.

His mouth founds her chest and she arches her back as he reaches out behind her to unclasp her bra. He quickly takes it off her body and tosses it across the room, pulling back to admire her curves.

"God, Brie… You're breathtaking. No fucking wonder everyone else in that room couldn't take their eyes off you." her cheeks blush a little at the way he is devouring her with his eyes, and she can feel every inch of her body responding to him: her heart is pounding, her breath is quickened, and it feels like her skin is on fire.

"But I am here, Nik. I came to your room." Brie reaches out to touch his cheek gently and he once more crashes his lips into hers. He quickly moves his mouth to her neck and collarbone, nipping and not-so-gently biting his way down, until he is licking the valley between her breasts, while his hands run up her sides, stopping at the curve of her chest. He takes one nipple in his mouth, while works on the other with his fingers. His mouth and hand work together, licking, flicking, pinching until she is crying out, grasping his hair. He moves one hand inside her panties and she feels like she is going to pass out with pleasure as he nips the flesh of her sensitive nub with his teeth.

Nik lets go of her breasts and moves his head lower, trailing a path of kisses down her stomach, until he finally reaches the waistband of her underwear. Before taking it off, he kisses her above the damp fabric.

"God, Nik. Please, stop teasing… I need you" she moans, craving release. He smirks at her and pulls her underwear down her legs, leaving her completely naked on his bed.

"You have no idea of how long I've wanted to have you like that, Brie. No clothes, in my bed, at my mercy." he says, running his fingers through her body. His eyes are dark, full of yearning, lust at its most natural state.

"And now that you have me, what will you do?" she asks, almost daring him to answer.

He responds by lowering his mouth into her sex, making her moan instantly. She throws her head back and grabs his hair with one hand and the sheets with the other.

He's been teasing her for a while now, so when his mouth connects with her body, she's already close. He devours her expertly, like he has been starving and she is the most delicious meal in the world. At that moment, he can't think of anything that tastes better than her.

Nik works his mouth and tongue on her, and with every flick of his tongue he can sense the pleasure building inside her. He inserts a finger, then two into her core, making her moans grow louder. She bucks her hips against his mouth and fingers, trying to feel him closer as possible. He pulls back and she almost screams in irritation.

"You want more, rook?" he asks, still working his fingers, but slowly, barely enough to keep her on the edge.

"Yes, Nik. I want more- I need more" she whimpers, eyes closed with need.

"I wanna see you beg" his voice is a low growl, and it turns her on even more.

"Please, please, please… Nik, oh god, I need you..." the beg leaving her sinful lips is like music to his ears. He dives back in.

His mouth once again finds her center, and he wastes no time sucking her clit into his mouth, thrusting his fingers harder and faster. She cries out, arching her back, and it only takes one more flick of his tongue for her to fall apart around him in pure bliss, the feeling so strong she is sure she has reached heaven. She doesn't even notice she is screaming his name. He doesn't let go until every single drop of ecstasy has left her body, until she's ridden every wave of her orgasm. Her legs are shaking and she's covered in sweat, panting, trying to pull herself together, but never again wanting to come back down from the high. 

His mouth finds its way back to her lips, capturing them in a passionate kiss while she recovers.

"Can you taste how delicious you are, rook?" he asks, pulling back with a smirk to admire her flushed face.

"Right now, I would rather taste you" she admits, and he growls. Nik captures her lips again, wrapping his arms around her and flipping their position, getting her to straddle his hips. His hands find her ass quickly, and he gives it a small slap before squeezing it. Brie begins to run her hands down his muscular torso, enjoying the feeling of his ripped abs underneath her fingertips. She reaches the waistband of his underwear, still kissing his mouth, and lets her hand drop lower, caressing him over the fabric. He bites her lower lip and digs his nails on the flesh of her hips as she squeezes him, making him moan into her mouth.

Brie lets go of his lips to kiss his stubble jaw, then his neck and the spot right below his ear. Nik reaches her hair and wraps it around his hand, applying a bit of pressure on his hold. She begins to trail kisses down his chest and abs, taking her time kissing his strong frame, covering every scar on his torso with her lips. Unlike him, she takes no time teasing him when she reaches his waistband, quickly rolling his underwear down his legs and off his body. She runs her fingers through his strong thighs, kissing it, licking it all the way up to his groin.

When she finally reaches his shaft, she gives it a few slow strokes and runs her thumb in circles on its tip, as Nik's breath quickens. She gives it a tiny kiss, still running her fingers up and down, before taking him into her mouth.

"Christ, Brie..." he moans, holding her hair while she expertly uses her mouth and tongue on him; kissing, sucking and licking the exact spots she knows will drive him mad. As she swirls her tongue around his head, he grips her hair tighter and pulls her up "Are you trying to make me lose my mind, rook?".

She smirks at him, but it quickly fades as he roughly pulls her by the hair to his mouth, kissing her hard. He moves his head to her neck and sucks it before releasing her.

"Get on all fours" he commands, and she is too turned on to deny him anything. She gets on her knees and forearms, facing away from him, and she looks over her shoulder to see him going through his pants and reaching its pocket for his wallet, pulling out a condom.

While he fumbles with his pants and catches her looking over her shoulder at him, Nik thinks about how lucky he is. Brie could knock on anyone's room today and they would happily let her in; they all wished to be in his place right now, and there she was: on all fours on his bed, her glistening core waiting and wanting him.

He positions himself behind her, between her legs after rolling down the condom, and guides himself until his tip is touching her folds. He gives her ass a playful smack, and the sound she lets out makes him even more turned on, so he does it again, harder this time, earning a louder moan from her lips. She holds her breath with anticipation while he runs his tip up and down her entrance, teasing her. She lets out a frustrated groan after a few seconds.

"God, Nik, aren't you tired of teasing me? Just fuck me alr- ohh!" her complain is interrupted by a moan as he enters her with one hasty movement.  

"You were saying?" he teases, as he grabs her hips and thrusts hard into her, quickly creating a rhythm.

He doesn't hold back. He uses one hand to hold her hip as the other wraps around the hair on her neck and pulls her head back, making her moan loudly. He swears that the feeling of her walls around him is the most exquisite thing he has ever experienced.

Nik isn't one for second dates, he has never been jealous before, but Brie managed to wake feelings and sensations he never knew existed. He feels so protective of her, and it shows in his movements, as he tries to claim her as only his. He pulls her hip impossibly closer, hitting even deeper inside her, making an animalistic grunt leave her mouth.

"That's it, Brie. Louder. I wanna hear you scream my name so loud this whole damn fancy house knows I am the one making you lose control like that." he says, giving her all of him, driving deeper and harder with every slam of his hips, and she does exactly as he tells. The sensation of Nik filling her up is so overwhelming that she has no choice but to scream, trying to let out some of these feelings.

"Nik, oh god, harder!" she begs, not even realising what she is asking for, not even sure she can take more. Right now, he hits the perfect balance between pain and pleasure with every thrust. She has never felt so filled before, she has never been fucked like that before and she knows that now she has tried it, there’s no going back. He delivers harder, his nails so deep inside the flesh of her hips they are breaking the skin, but neither of them seem to notice or care. Tears of pleasure mixed with pain glisten in the corner of her eyes, and she is holding onto the sheets like it’s life itself. "Nik, I'm so close!" she moans, trying to breathe.

Hearing his name being screamed by her lustful lips makes Nik bucks his hips forward in a way that hits her most sensitive spot, and she comes apart around him, screaming his name so loud that he is sure she’s heard all across The Fate's mansion. Her walls clench around his length but he doesn't slow down, feeling his own release coming close. Brie is too worn out to react, so she just stays in front of him, moaning and crying out his name as he fucks her senseless. She squeezes him inside of her, and he feels the electricity beginning to rise in his body. "Brie, I'm close" he cries out, never stopping neither slowing down.

Catching him by surprise, Brie removes herself from his hold and quickly turns around, facing him. Nik is too surprised to react before she kneels in front of him, pulling the condom off him and taking him into her mouth once more. At the moment when she wraps her mouth around him, Nik’s head falls back and he lets out a groan. More gentle then he has been the whole night, he holds her hair back as she works on him. As he feels his ecstasy approaching, he tries to pull her head back, but she doesn't let him, working even harder. He has no other option but to spill inside her mouth as pleasure washes over him, and he moans her name for only her to hear.

Brie licks him clean and moves up, they both kneeling on the bed, facing each other. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and he thinks it's the sexiest thing he's ever seen. They lock eyes and smile before he pulls her by the waist for a delicate kiss.

Her body is covered in bruises, her hair is a mess, and they both are covered in sweat, but they also have that unique face of someone who has just reached the peak of pleasure and satisfaction. 

“Do you think The Fate will me mad at us?” Brie teases, as they crawl under the covers. He snorts and pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her and letting she rest her head on his shoulder.

“I dunno, rook. And I don’t care” Nik says, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“Me neither. Even if she does, it was worth it. Sooooo worth it” she says with a wide smile, kissing his chest. He absently runs his hand through her hair, smiling.

The way he’s feeling right now, not only completely satisfied but also safe, tells him he is in trouble. A lot of trouble. Looking down at Brie, comfortably snuggled with him, he feels his heart skips a beat and he can’t help but smile, but it quickly fades as he thinks about what usually happens to those who get close to him.

“Yeah, it was. Sleep tight, Brie”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure I will…” she teases again, her eyes already closing as she drifts off to a peaceful sleep, and follows her, never wanting to let her go again.

What has she done to him?

#nightbound #nightbound fanfic #nb choices #choices fanfiction #fanfiction #ff #fanfic #nik x mc #nik ryder #nik x f!mc #n*fw #nik ryder fanfic

[karl-jenkins]

HPCC London Cast 4 First Impressions

I saw London cast 4 for the first time on Sunday (26th May 2019) and wanted to put down some thoughts I had while watching. These are just my interpretations and what I took from their performance. Overall, I had such a great time watching them, I have very high hopes for this cast and I can’t wait to see them again and see what else I learn about their interpretations of their characters. While five of the main seven were the same, most of the ensemble had changed which gave the show an entire new feel and along with the changes made, it felt like watching the show for the first time all over again. I only really noted things that had changed and about the new cast members so there’s not much about the remaining cast members even though there were some little tweaks.

Dominic Short as Albus Potter

Dominic’s Albus came across very anxious and insecure, very unsure of himself. He was absolutely exasperated with James. When he got onto the train he very much relied on Rose to lead the way, he had no idea how to approach this new situation and was perfectly happy to follow her lead. The moment that he decided to stay in Scorpius’ carriage was the first time that he was sure of himself, confident in his decision.

He is expressive and excitable when he’s around Scorpius. He uses a lot of hand gestures. He thrives when he’s got a plan. He gets so excited! On the train, he has such a thirst to prove himself and it gave me big Slytherin vibes. After the argument in the library, when detailing his lake task idea, after he said “sparkly surprise” he acted out exploding fireworks. In Godric’s Hollow, you see the pieces fall into place as he watches Lily leave and he is so excited when Scorpius finally understands him. In the Slytherin dormitory, he is so interested to hear everything that happened with Rose. It was just a really nice friendship, that felt very much like two real teenage boys.

He is mostly just anxious and uncomfortable around Harry, not really knowing how to speak to him. It is the scene before the third year Hogwarts when his anger first comes out. When he says he knows he’ll hate Hogsmeade because it will be full of Hogwarts students, he delivers this angrily, glaring at the permission form and crumpling it in his fist as if it’s one of the students he hates so much. The anger reappears in the blanket scene. It starts off with him sat uncomfortably, leaning away from Harry. Not outright aggressive yet but wanting to be pretty much anywhere else. Even before he holds the blanket, he is done with the conversation. During the argument, once his anger comes out, he picks up the blanket and Jamie reaches out wanting to take it back, clearly afraid that he’s going to do something to it in anger.

His friendship with Scorpius is really lovely and has the potential to become more. The hugs that he initiates are very tight squeezes, Albus really just needs his friend in those moments. In their final staircase scene, when Scorpius hugs him, the “What’s this?” is really pleasantly surprised. When Scorpius said about the new version of them he had in his head, they stand, eyes locked and go to hug again but it becomes awkward so Albus blurts out about asking Rose and the moment passes.

Staircase ballet was also extremely heartbreaking. Dom does this thing when Albus is preparing to respond – he sort of fidgets on the spot as if he wants to step forward and opens his mouth as if to say something – and he did a version of this on the stairs too. When they met at the top of the staircase, he was so anxious and unsure about what to do, he just completely froze. When they were on the separate staircases facing each other at the end, Albus was staring into Scorpius’ eyes so sadly. As the stairs stared to roll off, he stepped down onto the next stair and looked like he wanted to say something. There was such desperation and sadness in him in that moment.

He has a lot of feelings that he doesn’t quite know what to do with. He’s so insecure and used to teasing that when he is complimented, he doesn’t know how to react.  He ends up panicking and making jokes as his defence mechanism. Examples of this were:

-        When Scorpius says he’d choose him as a companion for the return of eternal darkness, Albus just does not know how to react to that properly. He panics and blurts out the “no offence” line because he can’t bring himself to think about it more deeply and believe it to be true.

-        When Harry tells him he’s becoming quite some wizard, it’s kind of a huge moment. This is a genuine compliment from his dad, something he’s wanted for a long time and he just doesn’t know how to react now it’s finally happened so turns to joking about pigeon racing.

There was a lot of other things I took from his graveyard scene. When Harry says his childhood was a constant struggle and Albus replies “so was mine”, it’s a joke. The first time he is jokey around Harry. Humour had been so natural with Scorpius but never with Harry until that moment. He’s still not as open or as comfortable as he is with his mum or Scorpius but he’s much more receptive. He’s actually really happy at the possibility that Harry thinks that he’s like him, that maybe he does live up to his expectations after all.

The way he talks about his Slytherin side is a nice moment, he’s finally opening up to Harry about something, letting himself be vulnerable around him. You can tell by the way he said it that ever since he was sorted into Slytherin, he has been fixated on the idea that the Sorting Hat must have seen something ‘bad’ in him. He’s spent all this time examining himself, putting himself down, looking for the things about him that’s bad enough to warrant him being in Slytherin and convinced that Harry is disappointed that he is.

The embrace at the end was very sweet, for me it embodied the stage direction of the two of them ‘melting together’.

I was a big fan of Joe’s emotionally closed off Albus, he reminded me of a younger me. Dom’s Albus reminded me of me now. I am loving seeing these interpretations of Albus that are teaching me about myself as I learn about them. I really enjoyed getting to meet Dom’s Albus and took so much from his performance even after seeing it only once. I’m so excited to see him again and see what else he can teach me over the coming year.

Jonathan Case as Scorpius Malfoy

He changed up the Slytherin dormitory scene. He would previously lie at the end of Albus’ bed and pop up shouting his name. This time he crouched right near Albus’ head the whole time and shouted there. I really liked that change. He was very excitable about being back with Albus, he even did a little dance to celebrate being Scorpius the Dreadless.

Michelle Gayle as Hermione Granger

I really liked her with Tom – Ron and Hermione didn’t even need to speak a lot of the time, they communicated through expressions and gestures. The marriage renewal scene was lovely. She went all giggly and girlish while usually she was very calm and collected.

Her polyjuiced Delphi was spot on – she mimicked Madeleine’s body language and gestures perfectly. While she was watching Albus and Scorpius transform, she had the biggest excited grin on her face. Inside Hermione’s office, she sat down at the desk, every bit Madeleine’s sweet, goofy Delphi pretending to be the minister. Even her walk changed – she swaggered around and looked like Delphi was having the time of her life.

I really enjoyed her Act 2 AU Hermione – the DADA teacher. It was almost like she was one of the kids, bullying Albus along with them. Whenever she joked at his expense, the rest of the class were laughing and exchanging gleeful looks. It was just another way to make Albus feel truly alone in this world. He can’t speak to Harry, he’s being kept away from Scorpius and his Uncle and Aunt that he might otherwise have gone to are unrecognisable.

She stays angry for most of the class, her voice doesn’t crack. It’s only when she jinxes them all out of their seats that she suddenly looks so much younger, vulnerable and sad. She walks off just shaking her head. During the staircase scene, when Ron says he doesn’t mean ‘mine, as in…’ she snaps “I know” quite harshly, cutting him off to stop him from hurting her any further.

In the dark AU, Granger is very slow to trust. It takes a long time for her to lower her wand from Scorpius. It was her that indicated to Ron that his wand was the wrong way, rather than Scorpius. When she finds out she’s Minister for Magic in another world she is surprised but when Ron indignantly says, “She’s Minister for Magic?!” she shrugs as if to say “yes, of course I am”.

One of the things I really enjoyed about her Hermione was that she is absolutely in her element when she’s forming a plan. This is applies to the time turning plan in the dark AU and the plan to use St. Jerome’s in Godric’s Hollow. When she’s planning, she gets a spring in her step and smiles a lot more, you can tell that she loves having a strategy, something to work on and get her teeth into.

Rayxia Ojo as Rose Granger-Weasley

Rayxia’s Rose is a boss. 11 years old and already so sure of who she is, a natural leader. She has a bossy, confident walk and is fondly exasperated by Ron, quite similarly to how Hermione reacts to him. There was slight aggression in her tone when she said “That’s putting it mildly. Your mum and dad are Death Eaters”, I definitely got the impression that she’s heard a lot about Draco Malfoy from her family. Rose is so done when Albus doesn’t know the rumour about Scorpius being the child of Voldemort, has he been living under a rock? She blurted out the Voldemort rumour then had a moment of realisation that that was probably insensitive and span round to try to explain herself. During the next Hogwarts Express scene, she is so excited about the time turner. Proper nerdish excitement, you can definitely tell she’s Hermione’s daughter. She actually seemed quite hurt when Scorpius asked her what did she smell of. After she leaves and goes to sit with James, you see they have a much more natural relationship. They hit each other playfully and tease each other and it’s nice to see. When they are eavesdropping on the staircase when Albus and Scorpius are in McGonagall’s office, she looked so excited to hear the gossip, she thinks the whole thing is quite funny. Until she hears her name, realises they’re talking about a timeline in which she didn’t exist. After that she seems very conflicted and confused. It must be such a shocking thing to hear. I was glad that James and Karl were there to be supportive! James put his hand on her shoulder and Karl turned to put his on her knee. Her Scorpion King line was flirty but then she immediately broke into laughter because she couldn’t even pretend to keep up that act.

Emma-May Uden as Polly Chapman

I loved her. She was the ultimate mean girl; her resting bitch face was on point. Her delivery was so sassy. I especially loved her dark AU scene. She was girlish and flirty while talking about torture and killing. In general, she gave me proper Queen Bee vibes; Polly, Yann, Karl and Craig really did seem like a real group of friends with Polly as their natural leader, but she also spent a lot of time pursuing Yann. Just before the Scorbus staircase scene, Yann and Polly cross the stage and Emma-May and Luke did this hand in hand, Yann had clearly stopped playing hard to get at this point. Also, while I sort of missed the blonde bob, her new wig is gorgeous. Emma-May is every bit the notorious beauty.

Ronnie Lee as Craig Bowker Jr

In the Act 3 dormitory scene, his Craig was confident and in charge. He knew the rules and he was going to enforce them. This boy knows what he’s about. When Professor McGonagall says “Craig, we’ve work to do” he tightened his dressing gown belt with such resolve, ready for action. His death was quite dramatic, he flinched with the force of the spell hitting him which made me flinch too! Then again, being in the restricted view seats, I am quite used to not being able to see his death.

Kathryn Meisle

She did a lot with Petunia that I absolutely loved. In the lighthouse dream, when Hagrid mentioned Hogwarts, she moaned. As the scene continued, she was poised to cover Dudley’s ears. She was so conflicted about Dudley hearing about Hogwarts, it clearly brought back a lot of memories for her. Her Petunia was very emotional whenever she remembered Lily, something I really appreciated when I saw Kate Russell-Smith as Petunia, but it felt like Kathryn took it even further. During the under the stairs dream sequence, when she said that Lily didn’t even have time to scream, her voice cracked. During the Godric’s Hollow graveyard scene, she first looked at the grave when Harry asked why there were so many flowers. She let out a little shocked “oh” and sounded so heartbroken to be seeing her sister’s grave, covered in flowers from so many people. At the end of the day, Lily was her sister and I felt she showed so much sadness and regret and that is something that I love to see in a Petunia.

I also really enjoyed her Umbridge – whenever I reread Order of the Phoenix I end up doing impressions of her saying “hem hem” to draw attention and she did that perfectly! She definitely looked the part of Umbridge. She was brilliant at that false sweetness while really, she is dripping with threat and danger at every moment. When she said Scorpius had been checked for hexes and curses, she looked Scorpius up and down very deliberately. It was very tense, like you were on edge waiting to see what she was going to do. After the dementors take Ron and Hermione and Umbridge finds Snape and Scorpius in the grounds her “hem hem” was so sudden that she actually made me jump.

I reach Scorpius levels of geekiness when Bathilda appears, so I was very excited to see Kathryn do this, even though it’s just one tiny moment. Kathryn as Bathilda was unreasonably cute. She did a sort of whoop of excitement and trotted off stage and it was extremely sweet.

Blythe Duff

Really liked her Trolley Witch, she did a cute little waddle through the train. On top of the train, I loved the way she made use of the spikes. She did a lot of hand gestures and advanced closer to Scorpius and Albus than I’ve seen any Trolley Witch do before. After they jumped from the train, her screams of anger were so extra. She screamed “No! Nooo! Noooooo!” and kept one hand free and grabbing the air the entire time the train was rolling off stage.

I’ve been trying really hard to work out how to explain how I felt about Blythe’s McGonagall. To me, she just encapsulated the spirit of McGonagall. She was sensitive and kind but stern and full of authority. It really did feel like Professor McGonagall had stepped off the pages of the books and straight onto the stage. Her sadness when Harry threw it back in her face about not having children made me want to fight Harry. In the library scene, she is very pleased to have found that little loophole about not being able to see them. This way she doesn’t have to separate two friends, but Harry also can’t blame her, such a result. One cute little moment was that when Ron enters from the kitchens with his napkin, he doesn’t pull it off. As the scene ends, McGonagall is the one to rip it off in exasperation.

Lucy Mangan as Moaning Myrtle

April had left big shoes to fill and Lucy was completely different. She only had to say her first line and I was saying “I love her!” Her Myrtle was very flirty and excited to have boys in her bathroom. She gets quite aggressive when Scorpius called her Moaning Myrtle, she is clearly very fed up of that nickname. She was dramatic to a level that I can only aspire to. Her look at Albus on the “and boys” was very pointed. When she was talking about the weeping after Cedric was taken, she did two separate wails while the taps ran. Then Albus tried to continue speaking and she held out her hand to stop him before doing a third wail.

The way she placed her leg in front of Scorpius was very funny, she got right up in his face. When she went back down into the pipe she giggled and did an excited little wiggle. She was really enjoying getting so many visitors that day. She said “Hello Harry” in a flirtatious, husky voice. Each time she tries to flirt with Harry and fails, she would sigh in annoyance.

From the restricted view seat that I was in, I couldn’t really see her during Lily’s appearances so will have to keep an eye out for those bits next time I see the show.

Madeleine Walker as Delphi

Madeleine’s Delphi is sweet and awkward. She popped round the stairs saying “helloooo!” and she wins you over straight away. She is so enthusiastic and excitable about everything. When she leaves Albus to go back to Amos, she curtseys to Albus. During the blanket argument when Albus says “Shall I bow now, or will a curtsey do?” I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d inspired that.

She’s super sweet and endearing and makes awkward noises that reminded me of Jon’s Scorpius. I’ve said before that if I were to play Delphi, I would try to take on some of the characteristics of Scorpius to win Albus’ trust. I felt like this might have been something that Madeleine was trying to portray too as many of her little gestures and excited or awkward noises really did remind me of Scorpius. I need to remember to ask her at stage door if I see her again whether this was what she was going for – just someone that Albus would trust in general or whether she was mimicking Scorpius specifically. I will also be interested if she changes it up when there’s a cover Scorpius on.

During the expelliarmus scene, she is so goofy and enthusiastic. She only has eyes for Albus, she doesn’t even look at Scorpius, even when she throws his robes at him. Her reaction being told she couldn’t come it incredulous, the way she says “What?” is quite sad. She insists “he’s MY cousin” pleading not to be left out.

When she finds Scorpius on the staircase she is so excited by Hogwarts, she has such an enthusiasm about everything which is infectious.

When she arrives in the owlery, she still seems so sweet, she’s so understanding about destroying the time turner. When Scorpius tries to interrupt her monologue about Euphemia’s augurey, she thrusts out a hand to shut him up and let her continue, once more her eyes on Albus alone. Scorpius is nothing to her but a tool to manipulate Albus. When Scorpius continues to question her motives, she turns towards Albus and acts like Scorpius is mad, indicating to him as if to say, “what’s with him?”

On the Quidditch Pitch, she’s quite physical, but only really with Scorpius. He’s expendable but she needs Albus. She’s great at the manic laughter, she sounds like a fanatic. She got right up close to Scorpius and even kissed him which honestly was such an intense moment, you kind of felt violated along with him. She was really enjoying herself as she ran at Scorpius, liking to watch him so scared of her and how worried that makes Albus; it makes him all the more likely to do her bidding.

In St. Jerome’s she sounds like she doesn’t want to admit that Voldemort is going to lose the Battle of Hogwarts, she hesitates before finishing the sentence. Is this through slight fear of his reaction or because it pains her to admit her father doesn’t always win? She has great facial expressions throughout the battle – we were only 8 rows back but could clearly see the whites of her eyes and she looked quite unhinged. They’ve added an echoey effect for her voice and she now moves around the stage more. This means that she has to be hooked back up before she flies back up which does draw more attention to her wires, though this might become smoother as they get more used to it.

When Harry can’t kill her, she laughs, finding it funny that he can’t even do that. But she is genuinely desperate when she begs him to take her memory. She would genuinely rather lose her mind that have to live without her father. As she is levitated upwards for Voldemort’s arrival she keeps mouthing “father” and looks as if she is fighting to free herself. She is extremely compelling, and I really enjoyed watching her. I can’t wait to see what else she does with Delphi over the coming year.

I also noted a few of the changes and new dynamics that a new cast has brought. One change is wand dance, though it hasn’t changed as much as I expected. The choreography started the same but sort of broke off and there was more focus on crowding around or teasing Albus. At the end, they all step forward to the front of the stage and cast their spells simultaneously. I really liked the changes and felt that they really highlighted Albus’ feelings of inadequacy and isolation from his peers but kept a lot of the fun choreography. Dom’s robes were flying all over the place.

St Oswald’s was definitely the biggest change. It will for sure take me another few watches to work out exactly what was going on! Didn’t quite know where to look because everything about it had changed. I think it may have changed to be the same as Broadway, but I don’t know for sure as I’ve never seen that production. It involves a biscuit palace, a teacup on fire and Karl on work experience.

Other little changes included: Lily’s line changing to comment on the Granger-Weasley’s always being late, switches between the Yann and Karl tracks (which I think may be to match Broadway?), after the green smoke explodes from the potion, the class all lean forwards and cover their heads with their robes instead of leaning backwards in slow motion, during the under stairs dream sequence, all three of the Voldemort hands reappear at once at the end and young Harry has new trousers which look like he’s wet himself. This seemed slightly unnecessary to me, as did the new ‘wet-look’ wigs for the lake which just made it look like Scorpius’ wig in particular had gone a bit wrong.

One of my favourite scenes to watch is always the first task scene because it’s a chance to watch the entire ensemble interacting with each other and it’s always full of fun little touches and dynamics. This is a scene that can differ a lot each time, so it’s definitely a fun scene for the regulars. In cast 3, it was the Slytherin boy swing track that would fight his way through the crowd to reach Craig Bowker Sr but this year, they’ve switched. So, it was Ronnie crawling his way through the crowd. He burst out triumphantly between the Hufflepuffs first and they shoved him back into the crowd and he finally found his way over to the Slytherin boy. They fist bumped and then through the whole scene were basically all over each other which was funny to watch. Lola in the Hufflepuff girl swing track started tearing up and fanning her face when Cedric was announced, and I loved that because honestly, same. I’m a big Cedric fan. It’s now the Ravenclaw girl in Myrtle’s track that swoons, rather than a teacher. All in all, this scene was very fun already but has potential to be even more fun as this cast get more used to it and find new little things to try out.

I left the show with a huge smile on my face and very much looking forward to the year ahead. I am sorry that this isn’t formulated in the most logical way, I did want to go through in chronological order but when I was putting it together, it made more sense to me to do it by character and group scenes that gave me the same thoughts and feelings relating to each actor’s interpretations. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense. If anyone wants clarification on any specific points, please do let me know!

And of course, this is all only based on one show, in their very first week. I’m sure there’s a lot more that I haven’t noticed yet and I’m really looking forward to seeing them more, so I can find new things about their interpretations and watch them grow over the next year. This is my first cast change with this show and I’m feeling very optimistic and excited for a new year which is a great feeling. Honestly, I’m just so happy that I still feel as in love with this show as ever and I can’t wait to keep seeing it for as long as it still makes me feel like that!

#ccsquad #cursed child london #cast 4 #thoughts and observations #posting this before i get too anxious and never post it #dominic short #albus potter #jonathan case #scorpius malfoy #michelle gayle #hermione granger #rayxia ojo #rose granger weasley #emma may uden #polly chapman #ronnie lee #craig bowker jr #kathryn meisle #petunia dursley #dolores umbridge #bathilda bagshot #blythe duff #minerva mcgonagall #trolley witch #lucy mangan #moaning myrtle #madeleine walker #delphi #so many tags

[meshugana1]

"On Halloween night a where it's full of scares and fright, one soul wanders to find some 'treats' of his in the form of women he likes to bone. But as this holiday has taught us that girls can carry a lot of tricks especially one group which which usually are ideal for sorting out these kinds of pricks." To clarify, all the girls turn one man into an anthro Black cat with 6-breasts,green eyes,a slutty witch costume but just hat, toe/heel showing witch stockings and jack-o-lantern bell collar.

   William zipped his pants up and left the young princess to tidy herself up in the bushes. How he loved Halloween. Even the stuck up girls put out. Must be the full moon or that escapist feeling in the air this time of year. It was the perfect time for a guy like him. He didn’t even have to put much effort into his costume. Just a white t-shirt, a pack of cheap cigarettes rolled in the sleeve, his hair slicked back with pomade, and jeans with a pair of cheap boots. It was the total Brando package, and he didn’t even have to spend thirty bucks. It already paid for itself, that was the third bimbo so far that wrapped her lips around his seven inches and the sun hadn’t even set yet.

   As he rounded the corner, he already spotted his next conquest. The first thing he saw was tits, huge juicy ones. They were attached to a pretty face too, beautiful tan skin, really sexy eyes, and hair like a wildflower. Her costume didn’t hurt her figure either. Pink, nearly transparent silk, covered her fabulous tits and even her goofy airy silk pants couldn’t hide an ass that went on for days. God love the genie look. William sauntered over with his usual confidence, the bulge in his jeans was obvious and warned of exactly what he wanted. “Sup pretty lady? You seem like you need some company, my night is free if you like what you see,” William said. The woman looked William up and down. ‘What was it about this night that made it so easy?’ She thought. This would be the forty-third boy she came across trying to take advantage of her, it was too easy really.   “Well thank you, young Master, I am but a humble genie, and I would love to repay you. So, your wish is my command Master,” She said. She held her hands in front of her chest and popped her hips slowly to a rhythm William could not hear.   “Well then, I think first I’ll wish for you to give me a little pussy, then—”   “WISH GRANTED!” She said snapping her fingers. There was a flash and a surging of smoke from her feet. William coughed and waved the air clear, and spotted the crazy girl’s ass bouncing away.   “All you had to do was so no, crazy bitch,” William said. He did what he usually did when he was rebuffed, he reached he’d down to readjust his semi-turgid best friend. He patted his left leg, where it usually rested but felt only thigh. He checked the other but found nothing still. He gulped, jamming his hand into his jeans. He felt skin, on a night like tonight he would always forgo underwear, it just got in the way. But as he rubbed his crotch, he didn’t feel his shaft, nor his balls, nor his head. He just felt a little…tingly? He didn’t give up searching, but then, on a downstroke, his index finger slipped inside him. His knees shook, his finger was wet, and when his nail grazed a sensitive little bud of nerves, the mystery was solved. “MY COCK TURNED INTO A CUNT?!”

   William ran hard, pants dangling by an ankle and dripping pussy exposed to the nippy air. He gave no thought to his direction, his eyes stared ahead blankly. He rounded the corner and struck something soft, then two bodies crashed into the ground. His bare ass rubbed into the ground and the long grass tickled his pussy.   “What the hell dude? *Pbbbrrrbbtt* Watch where you’re going!” The woman said. William looked at the victim of his panicked dash. The first thing he saw was an enormous round belly attached to an incredibly sexy woman. Her breasts were glorious and her ass was the stuff of legends, if she could lay off the burritos, she would’ve been another fine woman he would love to let suck him off if his circumstances were different.   “Uh, sorry,” William said. He tried to raise himself off the ground, but the shock from his sudden transformation was setting in and they remained rooted to the earth.   “Oh! I’m so sorry, *fffwwweeeeeenn* I guess ‘dude’ is a bit offensive huh? My bad, *Splorttt*” she said. Why would she say that? He thought. Then he remembered his state of dress, and what he was unintentionally exposing to her.   “Wait, NO! I’m not trans, I was cursed or something, I don’t normally look like this I swear!”   “Cursed? *Brrrrrrrbbbb* Really? *Flablatch* No way! I can totally help! I’m Stacey and I’m a witch in training,*fffffffffffffffffffffffffffp*” she said. Fifteen minutes ago he would’ve thought she was some crazy pregnant chick, but now the scales had fallen from his eyes and he would grasp at any straw.   “Really!? Oh please help me, I’ll do anything!”   “No problem. *Rrrrrppppppttttt* I understand what you’re going through too, just brace yourself. *Ppppppppppppttttrrrr* I probably can’t fix all off this but I think I can put one thing back to normal at least,” Stacey said. William was a smidge confused. There was only one thing wrong with him so how could she miss? Stacey began speaking, and letting out a long, high pitched fart, in a language William had no hope of knowing. Her rate of strange words increased along with her gas. Then she just stopped, and William felt a twinge in his chest. He pulled up his shirt and saw his nipples had become puffy and erect, and his pecs started to look a little fatty. He then felt a tremendous sense of vertigo and the ground rapidly approached him. Then his chest trembled and surged forth with such force that it knocked him off balance. He had fleshy bags attached to his chest topped with large, puffy nipples. He couldn’t say the word, he wouldn’t say the word.   “Well, *Blort* that’s all I can really do without making it worse. You got a doozy of a spell on you. *Sprrrutut* I hope that get’s you back to normal a bit, bye! *Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*” Stacey said. She turned and waddled away, the sounds of gas still echoing into the night.

   William shambled against a fence. Twice, how could the same thing happen to a guy twice in less than an hour? It was like being struck by magical lightning, then getting hit by a magical meteor. He felt his…chest, dangle and bob with every step. He knew this fence, it was some recluse middle-aged ladies. He used to be tall enough to peer clear over the top, now thanks to that gassy bitch he was a foot too short. William didn’t even have the will to put his pants back on. What was the point? All people would see of his living nightmare was a costume of a gender-bent freak. He continued on his hopeless march when he rubbed himself against a soft pair of tits coming around the corner.   “WHAT?! How dare you touch me so casually!” William heard, he didn’t care. What else could happen to him. Going to jail would be an improvement at this rate. “Are you ignoring me you little bastard? You think you can fondle a goddess and get away with it? I know your type little man. You think you’re just a real tomcat, don’t you? I can tell you’ve already been given a few lessons, but they clearly aren’t enough for someone like you,” The woman said.   “What? Oh god no, no! Please don’t, it was an accident! Leave me alone!” William said. He didn’t wait for an answer and turned to run. His shorter legs pumped as hard as they could but nothing was moving around him. The woman held her hand out, suspending him in the air.   “You want to be a little Tomcat? Fine! One little change though, I’d hate to erase your progress!” She said. William flailed in the air. Three times, three fucking times! His clothing dissolved into nothingness, exposing his new breasts and pristine pussy completely. His short body began to contract even further, reducing him to just barely above four and a half feet. What remained of his masculine form began to melt away. His arms became supple and graceful, so did his legs. His waist contorted into a tiny shape, his legs became slender at the calf but tremendously thick in the thigh. His ass tingled, then it felt like it was falling out, becoming a tight, round fanny. All his muscles faded away, his facial features softened, going from the hard face of a rugged man to a supermodels visage. No trace of him was left. Then it got worse.

   The hairs on his arms having nearly gone were returning with force. Same with his legs. Before this evening, he was gifted with very light flaxen hair. But his hair growing in now was black as black. It was probably the same on his head, he could feel it coming down his neck and slipping past his shoulders. It was getting thicker and thicker, soon it coated his arms and legs so entirely that he could see no skin beneath any of it. His new fur shined glossy. There was a pinch atop his head as pointed ears, much better suited for his new shape. Another pinch came above his engorged bottom as his spine lengthened nearly four feet. Unceremoniously he dropped toward the ground. He twisted and distorted his body on the way down without effort. His arms and legs hit the earth first, catching him.    “There, now you look the part, Pussy. Maybe you’ll think better of trying to cop a feel on a goddess with your filthy paws,” she said. She turned aggressively on her heel, then left down the sidewalk leaving William to lick his magical wounds.

   He sat there a while, squatting, feeling his tail flick back and forth. “FUCK! FUCKFUCKFUCK! Why?! Why me?! I didn’t do anything and now the universe has fucked me FOUR FUCKING TIMES! Now I’m a big tatted cat bitch?! Of fucking course! Why not? Who cares?! Is that all you got? Can’t get any worse so bring it the fuck on! What’s next? Antlers? A cock on my forehead? How about a whole buncha titties? Could always use more of those right?!”   “Well, now that you mention it that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” came a small voice behind him. Every hair on Williams body stood on end. Every muscle tensed and he shot into the air nearly fifteen feet, landing in the recluses yard. The hair all over his body stood on end and his arms and legs remained stiff and outstretched.   “Holy Titania, sorry didn’t mean to scare you kitty,” the voice came again. William turned and saw something he both feared and begrudgingly expected. It was a tiny blonde woman, no more than six inches tall, floating there in a green dress. “Let me guess, you’re gonna change me too? Fucking great, FUCKING GREAT! Well, get on with it you little freak. Do your fucking worst!” William said.   “Hey! Don’t you yell at me you little bitch! I know you’re having a rough night, fella, and maybe if you were nicer, I would’ve helped you out. But now? Well, you reap what you sow!” She said. Yellow light shot from her hands and struck William below his breasts. He felt a cramp, followed by three others. Then his shoulders slumped as four new pairs of breasts, each one equal to his first set, weighted him down so much he was forced nearly to all fours. “There, enjoy what being an asshole gets you,” the fairy said. With that, she turned and left in a blinding display of speed.

   William plopped down on his round bottom and grabbed one of his middle tits. They felt so heavy. His chest began to heave, then the tops of his original pair of jugs began to moisten with his tears. It was so unfair. All he wanted to do was get his dick a little bit wet, that’s all. What was so wrong with that? Now he was a freak, a six titted cat freak. What was he going to do? Where could he go? His family wouldn’t recognize him now, none of his friends would care beyond wanting to fuck him. He was screwed. Stuck crying in the cold and the grass. “Perfect!” He decried.   “I’ll say,” a sultry voice said behind him. He wasn’t surprised this time. His new ears picked up the creaking of the porch ages ago. The woman was simply stunning, beautiful olive skin, a voluptuous figure and a sexy as hell witches costume. “You look like you’ve had a rough night,” she said.   “Oh yeah, sniff, how can you tell?” William said.   “Well, the tits give it away. Come on up here, no need for tears.”   “Like hell there isn’t,” William said as he sulked up the steps of her porch, “Look at me! I’m practically a monster.”   “Hardly, I’ve seen monsters before and you are quite far from that. I’d even say you look pretty cute.”   “Oh what, are you a witch too or something?”   “Yeah, isn’t the costume obvious?” She said with a smile.   “Oh.”   “Don’t worry little kitten; I’m not going to hurt you.”   “Might as well, everyone else with magical powers is.”   “Actually, I was going to ask if you might want a job.”   “A job?”   “Yup, interested?”   “What kind of job could I do like this?”   “Well, most witches have familiars, but I’ve never really gotten around to it. I’m not exactly proactive, but when such an opportunity lands in ones lap it is unwise not to take advantage.”   “What does a familiar do? I don’t have to do anything crazy or satanic do I?”   “Satanic, really? I just run a little store of oddities and antiques. I guess you’d run the counter sometimes, organize, anything else I need, maybe test out new magical items I acquire, that sort of thing. And of course, you’d be living here with me. What do you think?”   “You’d want a giant titted cat monster running the store while you’re at lunch?”   “I have a myriad of items at my shop kitty; they’re almost all of a magical nature. There are more than a few that would change the way you look to something a bit more socially acceptable. So, what do you think?” William didn’t need much time to think.   “What choice do I have?” William extended his hand to her, “I’m William.”   “Pleasure to meet you, I am Saveta, but you’ll call me Mistress when it’s just us from now on,” Saveta said as she clasped his outstretched hand. William felt a surge coming from her hand that left him weak in the knees.   “I don’t know about that Mistress, sounds a little too kinky. Wait what? I just called you Mistress instead of Mistress. Oh crap, is this magic again?”   “Yeah, sorry. It’s best you don’t think too hard about it until you’re used to it. But here, a little welcome home present,” Saveta said. She lifted her hands and seemed to produce a choker from nowhere. It looked expensive. It was jack-o-lantern shaped, of course. Saveta placed it around Williams’ neck, it fit perfectly. The moment she clasp was locked it disappeared, and William was bathed in a blue-hued light. A witch’s hat, nearly identical to his new Mistress’s appeared on his head. It even had holes specially placed for his ears.   “A hat?” William said.   “The bell has a pretty nice feature too,” Saveta said. She curled her finger and flicked the bell, sending the ring into Williams’ ears, then she did it again. The bell began to glow, then Williams world seemed to collapse in on itself. Where he was once sitting, he now was suspended in mid-air. As he fell to the chair, he contorted, catching himself on the seat cushion. He felt claws, whiskers, and warmth from the fur now covering his entire form. “Mrrow?”   “Useful right? Just for when company is over. And two more hits to change back,” she said striking the bell twice. William popped back into his human-ish form.   “That feels so weird!”   “You’ll get used to it; you can do it yourself too you know, should the need arise. Now come along inside, I’d like to take those tits for a test ride before anymore trick or treaters arrive,” Saveta said delivering a swift and sharp smack to Williams’ bottom, that answering more questions about what she meant than anything else.

The End. Hope Y’all like it!

#Halloween #MTF tf #TF #anthro tf #anthro cat tf #multibreast #breast expansion #ass expansion #animal tf #request

[ahouseoflies]

The Best Films of 2017, Part II

Part I can be found here. I should have mentioned the films I haven’t seen, which include BPM; Faces Places; The Square; Coco; Thelma; Last Flag Flying; Roman J. Israel, Esq.; Wonder Wheel; Jane; and I, Daniel Blake. Long-time AHOLs also know that I’m in the fifth year of a self-imposed five-year break from superhero culture, so I haven’t seen Logan or Thor or whatever else. With that: ENDEARING CURIOSITIES WITH BIG FLAWS 87. The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou)-  Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall has a lot in common with Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster. Both are high-concept international co-productions that bear just enough of the filmmaker's signature but feel unfortunately cut to ribbons in the editing room. Computers have made us all a little worse at our jobs, Zhang included, and his spectacle is achieved despite CGI, not because of it. I liked watching a boulder's journey through the stages of being catapulted, even if it eventually landed into a physics-negligent pit of cartoon monsters. By the end, the picture is more bloodless, sexless, and simplistic than a game of toy soldiers, which makes it seem just as child-like. It's a forgettable sort of fun, but it is often fun. 86. The Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders)- A bit more comprehensible than the original but far less beautiful. It's a shame that visions of future exteriors haven't improved or at least changed since Blade Runner. Big advertisements. Got it. (Also, we have telepathic walkie-talkies, but people sleep on the floor?) There are a few good ideas drizzled around. If people can basically toggle back and forth between languages, why not hire a famous actor who doesn't speak English for one of the supporting roles? Speaking of acting though, Johansson is pretty bad in this, hamstrung by the whole playing-a-robot problem. (She looks as good as she ever has though, which is saying something.) She could have taken some notes from Michael Pitt, who brings some edge and skitter to his cybernetic replicant or whatever they call it. 85. Wilson (Craig Johnson)- It hits the notes that a Daniel Clowes property usually does: misanthropy, formlessness, begrudging acceptance at the end. I laughed a few times and appreciated the huge left-turn at the two-thirds mark, but I didn't think it amounted to much. 84. Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper)-  Other than the Basterd character, there's nothing really broken about this movie, but I'm selling on anything with double-digit dream sequences. 

83. Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo)- The ending, both the final act and the final note, went a long way to save what was a tedious sit for me. I appreciate the big swings that everyone took with this budget and material--Sudeikis once again gets to show impressive range. But this is an hour of material stretched to an hour and forty-nine minutes. 82. Rough Night (Lucia Aniello)- Hide-the-body movies never work, but what makes this one disappointing is that there's a daring, original corrective somewhere on the margins. You can tell from the comparatively tame bachelor party or the unexpectedly positive threesome that this movie has refreshing ideas, but both the Machine and TV visuals from a TV director shaved the edge down. No one wants to hear such a thing about a sorely-needed female-driven comedy, but Paul W. Downs is the funniest thing in this. 81. Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)- Shout-out to the morons protesting this movie's gayness but not realizing that the original was always an allegory for AIDS. These live-action remakes are all around the same quality, but this one feels especially bloated, with really dicey CGI. Things get borderline boring in between the musical numbers, but, man, do those numbers hold up. There's the title track obviously, but songs that would be throwaways in something else--"Gaston," "Be Our Guest," "Something There"--are BANGERZ here. The real IP is the music, and Disney is just going to get each generation's Josh Gad to sing them forever. 80. Darkest Hour (Joe Wright)- This movie reminded me of The Imitation Game in the sense that it's a staid presentation with a solid structure that feels cheap whenever it zooms out beyond its back rooms. The grander version of this, which Joe Wright in some ways already made, is probably just as unsatisfying, but it wouldn't have the pinnacle of goofiness that will hereupon be known as The Underground Scene. I’m a bit bored of this type of film. Darkest Hour might be worth seeing for Oldman's performance, which is a true transformation, absent of any actory vanity but invested with some real myth-making. Churchill gets introduced with just his hat, then lit by just a match, then lit by a shock of sunlight. Oldman is very good in his scenes with Scott Thomas, so it's a shame that her character disappears for a half-hour at a time. The more troubling thing to note is that there are many men in this film who are so English that they can't pronounce their r's. If you catch it eawly, it's a weal distwacting pwoblem. 79. The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray)- Since some of the dumbest stuff is some of the best stuff*, I'm not going to get caught in the web of assessing how much sense The Fate of the Furious makes. But I can say that this entry is the least intentionally funny of the series, and other than "the White girls' soccer team is the Monarchs," it loses some of the class undressing of 6 and 7. From the endless scene-setting to the overstuffed character roster, this is now more of a comic book than a movie, an exercise in being a plot without being a narrative. *- See: the "make it rain" sequence, Statham swinging the baby carrier through a gun battle, Rock redirecting the missile with his bare hands.

78. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (Brian Knappenberger)- The first hour, centering on the Hulk Hogan/Gawker case, is compulsively watchable, even if it doesn't shed much extra light for anyone who followed it when it happened. Terry Bollea explaining that his penis is shorter than ten inches while Hulk Hogan's, the character's, is not: That's what I signed up for. When that case veers into the bizarrely vengeful, pretty much when Peter Thiel comes in, Nobody Speak becomes something else. The final third pits the sensitive, diligent bullpen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal against billionaire liver spot Sheldon Adelson, who bought their paper to suppress it. Then, of course, the doc expands to Donald Trump's vilification of the free press. If that sounds like a straight line, it doesn't come off that way in the film. The Hogan/Gawker stuff, which takes up the majority of the running time, feels unresolved after all the tangents. 77. The Reagan Show (Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez)- I'm cringing for the next five years, in which I'll have to judge a movie's success based on how subtly it invokes its mandatory Donald Trump comparisons and allegories. They're coming. In general, it's kind of sad to see how much more literate people were even thirty years ago, even as they populated a medium we all agreed was low culture. This documentary feels sharp at first, understanding something essential about the way Reagan owned his own persona. With the American Right treating him like some patron saint, it's also helpful to remember how much pushback he got at the end of his second term, for something that would be, like, the fiftieth most controversial thing Donald Trump would have done already. (See?) When the doc gets to its own fascination with Reagan's Star Wars program, however, it basically loses its thesis. As lean as it is, it still sort of stumbles to the finish line. 76. Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta)- I appreciated this portrayal of a culture clash way more than I liked it. For a while the characters are highly specific. (The delivery of "It's 6:13, Kathy" made me laugh out loud.) Then the plot turns into "Oh, so we're talking about Trump's America, right?" (See?) Here's a critique that's catty every time: This film has great ideas about class and race if you've never thought about class and race before. 75. I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)- Oscar is calling...for the fat dude playing Shawn Eckhardt and no one else. If Allison Janney wins for doing the thing she always does over Laurie Metcalf's fully realized human, then it's a huge mistake. Successful in some of its comedic goals, especially in its depiction of northwestern goons, the shame of the working class, and period detail. (I laughed out loud when I saw the Girbaud tag on Gilooly's jeans.) Unsuccessful in most of its other goals--if I'm even reading the film correctly in my assumption of those goals. The most obvious one is the slippery nature of the truth, and that idea is handled clumsily. Gillespie goes to great GoodFellas-aping lengths to grapple with perception--having characters break the fourth wall even though there are already voiceovers and to-camera interviews. That talking to the camera comes up a few times in the disturbing scenes of domestic violence, which do humanize the characters because the other elements of the film can't, but they distract the viewer with their blitheness. The most puzzling angle of the film is the Hard Copy reporter, played by Bobby Cannavale in yet another example of his agent not knowing how famous he is. It's a missed opportunity in a movie full of them. 74. It (Andy Muschietti)- I don't get why people went nuts for this. The ensemble avails itself pretty well, despite all the sitcom-y dialogue. (Dialogue that, based on the Stephen King that I've read, is probably faithful to the book.) Some of the visuals nail the distinction between surreal and unreal--my favorite is the children's TV show that sporadically drifts into the murderous. But the movie just kind of hangs there, all the way to its interminable ending, satisfied with its own literal presentation of events that seem to be metaphorical. As I understand, It--however It manifests itself--represents the death of childhood and the emergence of an adult banality of evil. But the movie engages with that level as little as possible, and maybe that's why people are going nuts for it. This is a scary movie if you're a child, and most of the moviegoing public seem to be children. 73. Before I Fall (Ry Russo-Young)- I mostly watched this because I think Zoey Deutch is a Movie Star, and if I'm going to be there for her Speed, I have to be there for her Love Potion No. 9's as well. I appreciated Before I Fall's brevity, but the premise offers a lot more fun than the film is willing to have. In the end the balance was off: It had to be either more moralistically PG-13 or go way darker. For example, just like in Groundhog Day, the character realizes that she'll live out the same day no matter what she does, and it triggers a nihilistic phase. But rather than going on a shooting spree or stealing stuff from a mall, she just, like, wears a sexier dress and talks back to her parents. Good swing, kids, but I'm waiting for the crazier version.

72. War Machine (David Michod)- There are some standout moments in War Machine, many of which are thanks to its impressive cast, but I don't think the film is cohesive enough for me to recommend. I know what Michod is against--counter-insurgency, military hubris--but it's harder to figure out what he's arguing for beyond some sort of level of transparency. The war sequence near the end feels at odds with the tone of everything else, even though it benefits from the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis score. In a similarly frustrated vein, I feel as if I know exactly who Glen McMahon is, and the script's greatest strength is how sharply it draws him, but Pitt's studied performance adds distance to it. It's as if all of the film's comedic nature is supposed to come from how people revolve around his straight man, and that expectation is too much to put on his shoulders. There's more than a little Bud Turgidson in the voice Pitt affects, but the difference is that, as mean as this sounds, I always believed George C. Scott when he played a smart person. 71. The Trip to Spain (Michael Winterbottom)- Diminishing returns. 70. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)- There's a meta-effect to the structure of Downsizing. Its characters decide to shrink themselves, finding unpredictable challenges in the process, and the film similarly gets more problematic as it focuses further into each of its four legs. The first part, the outside world, is when the film is at its most cutting and well-observed. It still lays its points on thickly--dude at the bar asking if downsized people should be able to vote, for example--but the questions are worth asking. The second part, Leisureland, the bourgeois subdivision lil' Damon lives in, is more satirical and less satisfying. (I do love that downsizing ends up being such a gauche pursuit though. Payne has always had his finger on the pulse of people with poor taste.) The third part, which takes place in the downsizing slums, is a sharp, unfunny left turn that discards characters but at least develops the protagonist further. And then the wheels come off in Norway. At least we got to hear Udo Kier say, "I do love my boat." 69. Okja (Bong Joon-Ho)- Since Okja is such a unique movie, I feel as if people will overpraise it as a way to brand themselves: Its poster is probably going to be in a lot of dorm rooms. But there's a lot that you have to look past in order to recommend it. In general, I find that Bong's English language work has a bizarre mixture of muddled themes being presented in direct ways. There is some sweetness here--most of it due to the amazingly detailed rendering of the pig--but too much of the comedy doesn't work, and the ending feels a bit easy. I liked most of the stuff with the Animal Liberation Front, and I kind of wish they had been the focal point of the movie. Can I say, as my main takeaway, that I'm worried about Jakey G? He is so big here, so out-of-tune with the rest of the film, that I blame Bong for not reining him in. At the same time, I keep making excuses for Gyllenhaal, claiming that his parts are under-written, but at a certain point, you have to point the finger at him if there's such a pattern of bad performances emerging. I didn't see Everest, but this is his fourth brick in a row. Help us, Dan Gilroy. You're our only hope. 68. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)- An interesting swing that ends up missing for me. Excepting The Lobster, Lanthimos's works seem obsessed with family dynamics, and he plays some interesting games with this family's perversions. Farrell's character's story about his father dovetails with his somnophilia, which seems to inspire the way his daughter offers herself to her object of affection. From Anna's medical past to Steven's alcoholism, these characters seem to have full lives that have been in motion long before the events of the story. But I kind of suspect I'm worshiping at the altar of auteurism, and I wouldn't have half the respect or patience I do for this film had I not known who made it. The dialogue and performances are purposefully flat and stilted, thus creating an off, eerie quality before we know why we should be unnerved. But what if the performances are just, you know, bad? The film also creates a premise that concludes in an inevitably unsatisfying way. I don't know what I would have done instead, but I'm not a genius filmmaker who gets the benefit of the doubt.

#film #lists #Movie Reviews

[wyntersriddle]

Characters: Barry Allen, Leonard Snart, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Lisa Snart, Wally West, Mick Rory, Hartley Rathaway, Mark Mardon, Shawna Baez, Ray Palmer, Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen, Joe West, (more characters to be added as more chapters are added)

Additional Tags: Inspired by Miraculous LadybugAlternate Universe - College/UniversityAlternate Universe - Different PowersBarry Allen is a cinnamon rollBarry Allen & Leonard Snart are the Same AgeThief Leonard SnartCisco Ramon is so DoneLeonard Snart is chat noirBarry allen is ladybugNew Ladybug Miraculous HolderI Will Go Down With This ShipFluff and SmutEventual SmutEventual Happy EndingPre-RelationshipOther Additional Tags to Be Added

Language: English

Summary:

When Barry Allen finds a small black box he ends up getting superpowers of creation from a little red bug called a kwami. Similarly, Leonard Snart steals another box and gets his own superpowers of destruction. Together, they must fight through evil monsters, awkward lunch dates, and save Central City while still trying to graduate college.

Inspired by the show Miraculous Ladybug

Barry huffed out a breath when he finally collapsed in his seat for first period a few minutes past 10am.

He was already late as it was and lugging around his thick textbooks and laptop did nothing but hurt his lower back. The class was a good size, not too cramped or empty, the lecture was interesting enough, and all Barry could do was squirm in his chair the whole hour and a half. College life was sure could be exhausting.

Central City Academy housed the greatest legends to date and Barry wanted to meet them all. Teachers like Martin Stein, head of the criminology department, David Singh, head of the detective agency, and Sara Lance, the Dean for almost 15 years, were all on his list to attend their seminars. The creme of the crop though was Doctor Harrison Wells, the lead field expert in all technology and science. If Barry could somehow meet him, he would be on the top of the world and could die happily. Even if nothing else came from today, at least he could say he walked on the same sidewalk Dr. Wells drove past every morning.

Barry’s first class was taught by Martin Stein, an older gentleman with white hair he could see a mile away. He took notes diligently, asked questions, and before walking out introduced himself. Professor Stein was elated to find out Barry’s major was in Forensic Science, the “modern prosperity of the future” as the professor put it, and even went so far as to invite Barry back for coffee in the next coming weeks to discuss participating in some experiments of his own.

Barry basically skipped out of his class, not bothering to look forward until it was too late and he collided head first into someone wearing huge glasses hiding half their face. Something hot spilled all over Barry’s jacket and he shrieked, dropping his textbooks and messenger bag in a heap on the floor.

“Ow! Omg I’m so sorry—“

The person reached forward to prevent the hot drink from spilling any further, instead knocking the sunglasses off her face. She dove into her bag and brought out a napkin.

“Here, let me help you with that. I’m such an idiot for forgetting the lids.”

“That’s alright,” Barry said, already peeling his hoodie away from his body before his t-shirt could get wet. The smell of coffee hit him head on. “I didn’t like this jacket anyways.”

Truth be told it was his favorite jacket, the only memento Barry had of his dad in prison and his mom before she had passed away from cancer in the beginning of the year. By that time, Barry had already graduated high school, done his first two years of college, and moved to Central City to start his Bachelors that fall, wanting to put his past behind him and start from scratch somewhere new.

“Hey, wait.” The lady put her hand on Barry’s sleeve when he bent to get his stuff. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

The young woman could have come out of a fashion magazine with her dark skin, long black hair, and dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. Now that Barry looked at her, like actually looked at her, she was familiar too, even if he couldn’t place her from where.

“I don’t think so?” Barry said instead, reaching for his bag and wincing where he heard something shift. “I’m sorry but I really gotta get to class.”

“Right.”

She helped stack up the remaining books into his arms, watching out of the corner of her eye so Barry didn’t topple and fall from the added weight.

“Wait a second.”

Barry was pushed forward and then he almost did land on his ass. The books held up in their pile and he shot the woman a look of exasperation.

“Barry Allen? Like as in the Barry Allen? It’s me, Iris.”

“Iris?”

Barry was finally able to cram the textbooks next to his laptop in his bag and watch as Iris grinned back at him.

Oh...that’s why he had thought she was a model.

“Hey, it’s you, Iris.” Barry rubbed his neck, fighting a blush. “Long time no see.”

“It’s been forever,” Iris chatted. Barry could now smell the sweetness of her perfume. “How are you? Last time I saw you you were pushing the swing behind me and making those really weird experiments in middle school. Damn it’s been forever.”

“Yeah...It really has.”

Iris West, Barry’s childhood crush was staring at him and only remembered those lame volcano projects he had done. How convenient she didn’t remember all the valentine letters or the chocolate bars for Secret Santa he would leave at her desk, not to mention all the time he had spent staring at her yearbook photo before he had given up his freshmen year when she had transferred schools.

“You look good,” Barry continued, his heart in his throat. “You go here?”

Iris did that cute hair flip she had perfected at the end of 8th grade where her hair had only gone up to her shoulders. Long hair really worked for her.

“Yeah, I’m majoring in journalism so I can finally run my own news stand in the future. Still haven’t given up just yet.”

Ah yes, Iris had always been obsessed with journalism and creative writing, even making her own club in middle school. Barry had wanted to join but never had the guts to ask.

He really had to go before he fell further into the rabbit hole that was Iris’s big brown eyes.

“I...Uh,” Barry stuttered, motioning with his hands. “I gotta—Class.”

Iris must have gotten the message because she moved back to give him space. “Right.”

Barry nodded.

They said their goodbyes and Barry retreated out of there faster than a cheetah on steroids. Iris had promised coffee one of these—something he would have to psyche himself up for later—and he had said yes, like an idiot.

Although it had been good to see her...

Barry snapped his brain back to the real world. Iris was unattainable. She was attractive, bold, smart, the total package. Never, in a million years, would she want to go out with someone like him, neighborhood geek whose ideal date was staying home marathoning Stranger Things on Netflix and taking a nap.

A breeze swept leaves up into the late September air, carrying the scent of fall. The tree colors were changing from their typical green to golden brown and burgundy, Barry’s favorite time of year. It was automatically calming, even without the thin protection of his jacket the autumn sunshine turned his hair light brown.

The next class was short, a lecture on the introductions to the psychology of the human brain. It wasn’t as interesting as Barry would have thought with a lot more PowerPoint explications then talking, but he would make do. He also made sure his laptop wasn’t cracked or broken before placing it carefully back in his bag and jogging to the food court to find something to eat.

Barry had the all in one meal plan since he lived on campus. Having the ability to eat anything he wanted without gaining too much weight always had its perks, especially when he ordered the juiciest burger he could find and munched on it in one hand while holding a large vanilla shake in the other.

It was around 2pm and the food court was a bustle of activity. People gathered to sign up for clubs or talk to their peers about their assignments. Jazz music filtered from a sit down Italian restaurant, while across from it a huge crowd waited their turn for homemade pizza slices. There were vending machines, snack stands, and even an ice cream parlor tucked in the corner. At the center of it all the library stood proudly, the only place where food wasn’t allowed past a certain point. There was even a system to rent entire rooms for the day for people to sleep, study, or scream because of finals.

Barry moved onward, trading the shouts and loud noises for the quiet outdoors where again another breeze caught his attention. A blue bird twittered down at him from its nest, a squirrel chittered, and lizards liked the lips from across the treetops.

Barry had to seriously watch where he was going because for the second time that day he collided head on with another person, this time a young dude heading the same direction.

“Whoa, I’m so sorry. Wasn’t payin’ attention.”

“That’s okay, man. It’s cool.”

The stranger regarded Barry with a smile. He had long, wavy hair all the way to his shoulders, and a pair goofy 3D glasses balanced on the tip of his nose. The vintage Revenge of Sith t-shit and paint splattered jeans made Barry feel at ease.

“Is that real?” Barry asked when his gaze fell to a NASA pin on the corner of the stranger’s collar.

“Limited edition, baby,” the guy said. “Got it at San Diego Comic Con last year. 25th Anniversary Apollo 11 pin in the flesh. Had to trade my complete Star Trek playing card set just to even be considered bidding for it.”

“They make Star Trek playing cards? For real?”

“They make playing cards out of everything.” The stranger held out his hand and Barry shook it. “I’m Cisco by the way. You catch my vibe?”

Barry grinned. “Bartholomew Henry Allen. My friends call me Barry since it’s shorter and a lot faster.”

“Like Barry Sonnenfeld,” Cisco exclaimed, and then persisted to sing and snap the Addams Family theme. Barry snapped with him in the last chorus. “Far out, man. That’s wicked cool.”

Cisco’s good mood was infectious, Barry couldn’t help grinning and walking in step with him.

“Where you headed?” Cisco asked. “I got one class left and wouldn’t mind talking to someone with good tastes.”

Barry laughed. “Same here, then I get to unpack. I’m in G66, at the Northside.”

“Awesome-sauce, I’m there too! Is this a match made in heaven or what?”

They continued to walk and talk under the trees, Cisco describing his schedule in details even Barry could barely wrap his head around, but they still laughed and talked about stupid stuff like they hadn’t just accidentally head butted each other.

Barry’s phone chimed, signaling he had only 10 minutes to get to his next class before he would be considered late, and he blanched.

“I’m gonna be so late,” he groaned into the sky.

“No you’re not.” Cisco’s cheeky grin lit up his face. “I know a shortcut. This way.”

They cut through the grass to the other side of campus toward the statue garden Barry had been meaning to check out. Crossing two things at the same time always had its perks.

The statues of past teachers and deans stood proudly among the foliage. Their perfect white skin was like marble and so lifelike Barry had to breathe out a sound of wonder. He recognized Professor Stein among them, a younger version of himself, and Dean Lance with her stern expression. At the center stood Doctor Harrison Wells in all his glory, a perfect replica. It was hard not to stare.

“He’s a legend, ain’t he.” It was Cisco standing next to Barry.

“Beyond a legend.”

They grinned, going in through the back of the building where the auditorium was already packed with people. There were only two seats left in the front row facing the doors and Barry made a beeline straight towards him, Cisco on his heels. They sat down just as the clock stuck 2:45 and the lecture started.

The place felt like a can of sardines, and Barry had to fight to put his laptop on the table in front of him. The auditorium easily housed over 200 people and everyone held their breath at the same time waiting for Professor Rip Hunter to walk through the doors.

Barry looked around for a few seconds, catching the faces of others doing the same. The place even had a dark corner where the more reserved students sat. Barry could feel one of their eyes on him now, hidden enough so when he turned his head he slightly could only make out a navy blue jacket.

People exclaimed when the doors opened and instead of the walking Professor Rip Hunter, Professor Harrison Wells rode in on his wheelchair. People gasped and some clapped. A girl even fainted, falling out of her chair with a heavy THUMP on the floor.

Doctor Wells was here, in the flesh, in front of Barry!

Barry almost squealed from his seat, only stealing his breathing when Wells clapped his hands to have everyone’s attention.

“Good morning, students.”

There was more cheering and snippets of disbelief.

Professor Wells chuckled. “I’m sure you all know who I am. I will be subbing in for Professor Hunter for today. Rest assured this is a treat for all of you as well as me, in fact I’m a little rusty with my teaching so forgive me.”

Wells cleaned his glasses on his sleeve. Even the gesture made Barry’s eyes go wide. He could practically see the individual stitches from where he was sitting, the slight wear and tear of the professor’s shoes, and even the individual hairs on Well’s perfect head.

“I will be here if you all have any questions, but for now let us begin.”

XXXXX

College life sucked ass.

College classes sucked even more.

College professors, now they were the real dicks.

Leonard Snart rolled his eyes for the fifth time that hour. If he rolled them any further back he could probably find not only his brain, but the professor’s too.

The class was beyond drab, History of the Assembly Line, and the poor bloke who had to teach it was even older than the source material. Rest assured, Len would be skipping this class and probably the next one, and if he had a third he would skip that one too.

Math and science had been his forte since diapers, that was why he’d ended up in this stupid college in the first place. ‘The home where lawyers and DND geeks could party like the days of yore.’ Leonard had to laugh. Whoever thought college was fun clearly hadn’t seen the bill at the end of the semester.

At least the campus wasn’t all that bad. With its slick rooftops, starch white walls, and peaceful serenity that seemed to envelope whole environment, Leonard could see himself staying there until the late hours of the day, ducking into the library or one of the swinging tables littered across the greenery. There was also a garden in the middle of campus where all the famous crack heads and hippies could mingle and smoke until they passed out for the week. It was a paradise for some, a prison of books for others.

The nerds were lively this year. Leonard had passed at least 7 clubs all asking for his vote to sign this or end that. He had given his favorite finger to most of the people that passed him, saving his breath for whoever tried to chase him down when he speed walked away. A piece of paper wasn’t going to abolish world hunger anytime soon, even with Len’s signature mixed in the middle.

His next class was halfway across campus so he took the long way, making sure to breathe in the chilling air and watching the leaves dance as they fell from the trees. People didn’t appreciate nature as much as they should’ve, but this campus showed the importance of clean air. The grass was green from the constant sprinklers, the smell of dirt intoxicating in its own way.

Leonard arrived at class too early for his liking, deciding to stick around for a little while longer as a few people passed him by. He had missed lunch, wasn’t hungry, but a girl holding a sandwich made him stomach churn so he looked away and headed inside to hide his appetite.

There was still 32 minutes and 15 seconds left for class to start so he surveyed the area, stopping to tie his shoe to look under the tables too. No one paid him no mind as he made his way to the back, swiping pens and pencils and the occasional phone he would misplace later so the person could find it. Leonard never kept what wasn’t valuable, even now in a college setting when most of these students could afford the best of the best.

A shiny black jewelry box caught his eye from another student sitting next to him, next to an expensive looking leather wallet. The blond boy smiled, all hearts and roses, but when he bent to take out his laptop for the lecture, Len swiped the box and wallet off the table and pocketed it without anyone noticing. Jewelry was always worth a pretty penny and the extra cash would certainly help pay for dinner.

The professor walked in through the double doors, or rather rolled in. He practically screamed pretentious asshole in Len’s direction with beady eyes behind his designer glasses, his Prada suit pressed without a wrinkle, his wheelchair spotless. The lecture started like all the other classes, boring and dull while Leonard tried not to drool in his sleep.

For being such a random topic like quantum physics, the class was beyond packed with some students standing on the sidelines and others pausing by the door while they mixed up their schedules. Whoever this professor was, he was clearly a big shot. In fact, if Len squinted he could see all the nerds in the front row hanging onto his every word, writing things down so fast their hands would fall off.

Leonard tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. He got what he paid for, all for a degree in engineering that would be obsolete in a few years when tablets or smartphones would take over mankind or their jobs would be taken over by machines.

Time ticked at a snails pace and he caught himself glancing at his watch more than once every minute. It really sucked that he could barely afford lunch, much less a laptop. Maybe if he played his cards right he could get a loan or steal some other sucker’s when they weren’t looking. Writing on his hands would have to do for now.

The professor asked question after question only the people in the front row understood. The whiteboard was wiped clean by another student and soon Leonard’s head rolled to the side.

Class ended and he woke up with a jolt. People were already heading out and half the auditorium was empty when he decided to get up and stretch. A few stragglers had stayed behind to fan over the professor, each more wide eyed and excited than the last. Len didn’t need to stick around for that snooze fest, he quietly saw himself out, dumping the wallet in the trash when he saw how many credit cards were in there. There was over $200 in cash.

It was past 6 when he kicked off his motorcycle and rode home, past the slums and the trailer homes to his little modest house on the outskirts of Central City. It was a good 40 minute drive but Len didn’t mind, not when he had the open dirt road all to himself and the wind drowned anything from reaching his ears.

His house wasn’t anything special, just a roof over their heads until Len could move out and take his sister Lisa with him. He had left once in his lifetime and the look of betrayal on her face told him she would never get over it, and he would never let himself forget it.

Lisa had two moods: absolute flirtation or extreme anger. With the first one she could charm even the moodiest king cobra, seduce them into marrying her, and then promptly have them cut off their own head off with the bat of her eyes. The second mood was so bad the devil himself could come down and Lisa would smite him with her glare.

There was one final secret mood only Len knew about and once he entered the house he immediately tried to beeline to the door, knowing the onslaught of questions would want to make him donate his ears to charity.

“Lenny,” Lisa called in a sing-song voice. “I know you’re here, big brother. How was your day?”

Rather than answer, Leonard stuffed his collar in his mouth and bolted up the stairs. He didn’t get far however, because Lisa smacked the door to his room wide open before he could lock it.

“Come on now, don’t be like that.”

“My day was fine. Classes are fine. Everything is peachy.”

Lisa hid her grimace with a tight smile. “Make any new friends? Got a hot date and that’s why you won’t tell me? Come on, Lenny, I’ve been cooped up all day slaving away to rich pricks and exchanging fake numbers I’ll have to burn in my memory. How was your first day?”

Lisa worked at the Saints and Sinners Dinner, an appropriate name considering it was in the sleaziest part of town where their father did most of his gambling. The customers were asshats, but at least the tips were good, letting Lisa finish her last year of her GED so she could hopefully follow away from Len’s footsteps and make a name for herself one day.

Her super short skirt covered little to the imagination and her makeup was always as pristine and flawless as her hair. Today she wore a modest coverup over her work uniform, the last birthday present Len had gifted her when she had turned 18.

“Where’s the old man?” Leonard asked instead of answering. “If you behave I’ll tell you all about it over dinner.”

It was a rhetorical question, they both knew where he was. Leonard also knew his father, Lewis Snart, wouldn’t be back until the early hours of the morning, long after Lisa had gone to work and he would make himself scarce.

“What’s for dinner?” His sister asked, smoothing down Len’s leather jacket with her fingertips.

“Pizza. My treat.”

“Pizza?” Lisa wrinkled her nose. “I can’t pay tonight. All of my tips went to the electric bill this month.”

Of course they did.

“My treat,” Leonard repeated. “I said I’d pay last time. Now, do you want to go get it or have it delivered?”

Lisa didn’t hide the way she stared hopefully at the door. That told Len everything he needed to know.

He took the jacket from her fingers. “Come on then.”

Even through all of Lisa’s pestering, she was silent most of the ride to The Tower of Pizza diner, a locally owned business that knew both siblings by name. They could also get a discount on the best garlic bread in Central City.

The diner was practically empty when they arrived, only a few customers milling around the checkered red and white booths. They said their order to the cashier and piled into a single booth, Lisa going first and Len facing her.

“So,” Lisa started. “Now are you going to tell me how your day went?”

“If you want, fine.”

Leonard told it like it was, he didn’t sugarcoat anything anymore for Lisa. She was a big girl, wiser than most people in their 30s, and she knew the law of the land better than anyone. Len described the open campus and the even more open people with their clubs and their acronyms and their frat parties. Her eyes went wide with every description, picturing it all in her mind’s eye. Before long there pizza arrived, half Hawaiian half veggie lovers, and Lisa stuffed her face while Len continued.

“The library is bigger than anything I’ve ever seen, a whole 9 stories of books and computers. You can find anything you want in there.”

“Are there any sororities? What were they like?”

Len shrugged. “How should I know? You want me to join one and tell you about their slumber parties?”

Lisa sighed into her pizza even though she did chuckle at the joke. “I wish I could join a sorority. Do you think it would be fun, Lenny?”

“Matching clothes and banging the school mascot. What’s more fun than that?”

Lisa shoved her crust into his mouth before he could say anymore. The pizza almost choked him but Leonard swallowed it whole, coughing it down.

“You’re a jerk you know,” Lisa snapped. “You didn’t even want to go to college and yet here you are, taking it for granted.”

“Jesus, Lize.” Leonard drowned his watery soda. “If you’re so hurt about it why don’t you go in my place? The classes are fine, I just...”

His voice trailed off and Lisa said nothing. The garlic bread was starting to taste bitter.

“Are you going to leave me too, Lenny? Is that it?”

Leonard almost choked again. “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t stand your little sister anymore because I hold you back. Come on, we both know you didn’t want to stay in Central. You only stayed because of me!”

“That’s not—“

Lisa waved the last slice of her Hawaiian in his face. “Don’t you lie to me, Leonard Snart. I’ve been getting lies all my life.”

Len said nothing, couldn’t say anything to that statement. Lisa was right in a lot of things, but he didn’t want to believe her.

“Let’s just go home.”

He left a hefty tip because he could and they were off, this time the ride less comfortable. Lisa only held on when she had to and Len purposely turned harder in order to feel the contact. They got to the house and before he could even put his helmet away he heard the sharp closing of the door to Lisa’s bedroom.

Leonard didn’t bother, letting his sister cool down was the best option, even if it took a week for her to talk to him.

He threw his jacket against the wall, punched the dresser, and watched as an angry gash formed on his knuckles. He punched the wood again and again until the pain was so bad it was no longer grounding.

Leonard fell to the floor, head in his hands. He would have to clean up the blood from his clothes before his dad made it home, but for now he just sat there, wallowing in his self pity. It wouldn’t help anything and yet he still did it.

Something nudged his foot and Len opened his eyes slowly to spy the little black box he had swiped in his last class. It was barely the size of his fist now that he looked at it, hardly special.

Yet something was calling him to open it. He needed to open it. BADLY.

He took it in his hands and the wood was polished against his fingers. The blood had stopped flowing from his cracked knuckles, but Len still managed not to get a spec on the black box.

Opening it was...normal. Actually it made him feel worse. A single sterling silver ring blinked up at him and he almost, almost threw it aside to continue to sulk.

Except a small voice that was not in his head spoke next to his ear and almost half scared him to death.

“If you get blood on the ring I’ll kill you.”

XXXXX

Barry was high as a kite when he left Well’s class. Cisco had excused himself to go to the bathroom, claiming he almost peed himself when the professor had rode in like a knight in shining wheelchair parts, and if Barry was honest with himself he had probably peed himself from excitement too.

The walk to his dorm room was shorter than he could have imagined, but then again he had skipped the whole way.

Barry’s dorm room was a modern, quaint apartment complex that had a basketball court on one side and a pool on the other. It was the kind of place frat parties would be thrown on one night, and then the other would be the annual board meeting where all the professors would gather over coffee on the bottom floor. There was complimentary breakfast, rose shaped soap, and even towels that looked like swans when Barry wheeled his luggage in and dropped it at the foot of the bed.

The room was a good size, single bedroom like he had requested with another person across the hall where he would share a kitchenette and bathroom. The window overlooked the campus, all the trees changing colors right before his eyes. There were clean sheets in the closet, simple and white, and the walls were burnt orange to contrast the dark furniture.

Barry threw his hands up and whooped loudly. Today had been amazing, even if his jacket was stained with coffee and his classes gave him more homework than he could imagine, he had met with his idol, his world.

Barry unpacked his photographs and camera equipment first, taking the time to organize them on the shelf overlooking his bed. Then he hung the few science posters on the wall he had managed to stuff into his bag and left his high school soccer trophy on his desk next to his laptop and books.

There wasn’t much else to put away besides clothing and enmities so Barry let them be, instead fishing for his phone in his messenger bag. He came up empty so he turned the whole thing upside down on his bed and watched as a bunch of pens, papers, and a notepad flew out. Still no phone? What was wrong with this bag!

Barry dug his hand until he felt a hidden pocket where his phone had been lodged in between two zippers. He also felt something else in there, foreign to his fingers, but it felt small enough that he pulled both objects out at the same time.

The thing turned out to be a small black box that when it caught the light had swirling designs on the sides. Barry started at it and opened it without a second thought. A set of simple black earrings stared up at him, two little dots against the cushioning.

Where had these come from? Barry had never worn earrings in his life besides the one time he had dressed as a pirate in grade school.

He was about to toss them aside to take them to lost and found, but a bright light exploded from inside the box and Barry helped, taking cover under a pillow.

“Hello there, master of creation. My name is Tikki and—“

Barry screamed and fell face first onto his bed, slamming his head on the wood. It hurt like hell but it didn’t matter, he lay still.

He must have passed out because a knock on his door almost caused a Barry to knock his head a second time on the floor.

“Yo, dude!” There was more knocking and Barry half stumbled half crawled to the door to open it. “Everything okay?”

It was a boy younger than him, dark skinned with curly hair, wearing only a towel around his waste. Water was still trailing down his face.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Barry averted his gaze politely.

“I heard screaming.”

“I...slipped.” It was such a lame excuse. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”

The boy looked him up and down, clearly not buying it, but didn’t press.

“Alright sure. If you need anything I’m Wally by the way.”

Barry nodded. “Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.”

Barry shut the door without another word, then he groaned. He hadn’t given his name!

Barry opened the door quickly just as Wally was closing the door to the bathroom, probably going to change.

“I’m sorry, that was rude. I’m Barry.”

Wally cracked a small smile and they went their separate ways.

The door being shut made Barry’s skin crawl. He looked around the room and everything seemed normal enough. His books and laptop were still on his desk so there hadn’t been a break in. His clothes were still unpacked, the bed was messy where he had fallen.

He could have sworn he had heard a voice. Barry checked under the bed, in the dresser, but found nothing.

“That was quite a scare,” a frilly voice said. “You should be more careful.”

Barry yelped, grabbing the nearest object to defend himself. It happened to be the desk lamp and he yanked it out of its socket, plunging half the room into darkness.

Just great.

“Whoa whoa. Please don’t hurt yourself.”

Barry could barely see but from what he could make out there was a tiny bug-like creature floating close to his face. An alien. Oh he was so screwed.

“I’m Tikki,” the floating thing said—hadn’t it already said that? “And you’re the new master of the miraculous.”

Barry could faint, or wait maybe he did faint again. The Tikki bug thing was talking to him. It was a real alien!

“You’re...YOU’RE—“

“Tikki. And you are?”

“Barry Allen?”

“Barry Allen.” Tikki nodded their head—her head? Its head?

“What are you exactly?”

“I’m a guardian of the miraculous of creation, a kwami,” Tikki supplied, zipping over to and on the desk. “You were chosen to wield my powers and become a superhero.”

“Superhero?”

Tikki nodded. From the looks of the little antenna poking out of her reddish, almost pink head, and her trill voice Barry could guess she was a girl. She almost resembled a little ladybug.

“Are you ready to transform and see what I’m talking about?”

Transform...?

HOLD THE PHONE.

Barry stumbled to Tikki, dropping himself in his rolling chair.

“Wait wait, start from the beginning. You’re a miraculous. What even is that?”

“Miraculous are beings of pure energy sent to guard the hope and virtue of humanity. We have existed for centuries in secret with only a few people in the history of time that have ever documented us. Those are called guardians, and there is one right here in Central City. I was sent to find you so you could help him save the world.”

“Save the world.”

Apparently Barry was a dumb idiot because all he could do was repeat whatever Tikki was saying. He was probably getting pranked, yeah that was it! Pranked by Wally across the hall to usher him into his new year at the university.

“Thanks,” Barry said slowly. “But I’m good. I’m no hero. Cue the cameras, this prank is over.”

Tikki’s gaze darkened, her blue eyes turning bluer. “This is no joke, Barry. I really am a miraculous. And you’re my new master. We should start your training immediately.”

“No. What you are is a figment of my imagination!” Barry threw his hands in the air and whirled around. Maybe if he closed his eyes he’s wake up from this dream.

He ended up finding Tikki poking his nose when he opened them.

“Come on, come on,” she rushed. “Your partner must be waiting for you.”

“Partner?”

Tikki nodded like it was obvious. “You wield creation, your partner wields destruction. Together you are ying and yang.”

“Right...”

Barry chewed his bottom lip. On the one hand he could turn in this little bug creature over to the authorities and be done with it, maybe put it to good use. The lab always needed to resources to find cures for cancer or the common cold, maybe this was it. On the other hand, he could see where this was going, stick it out for as long as he wanted. Hell, he could be a superhero according to this thing.

“Okay.” Barry nodded slowly, then more firmly, deciding his mind. “Okay, I’ll do it. What do I have to do exactly?”

“I have to pierce your ears. Please hold still. I’ll explain everything once you have the earrings on.”

If Wally heard a Barry scream again he didn’t knock on the door a second time.

If you want more let me know!

#coldflash #legends of tomorrow #wip #dc comics #dctv #leonard snart #barry allen #coldflashforever #the flash #alternate universe #fanfic

[tumblunni]

I had such a weirdly detailed dream!

I remember feeling convinced this was a videogame, and like it had an aesthetic like a mixture of The Bouncer and Parasite Eve? There were a bunch of characters who could all turn into some sort of super form, and I just remember that all the ladies looked super similar and boringly sexualized and one was named Candy. And also i think one of them could turn into a 80s punk style dinosaur man? The gameplay was some sort of thing where I was playing a leader or strategist or something, and I didnt actually get to see any of the battles but just picked various teams to send off to fight different threats and then it played out automatically. It was just more about time management cos certain teams could defeat certain enemies faster.

I had the general sense that my protagonist was quite heartless and sarcastic, but also that there was no consequences if someone died. Like... we were fighting alien kaiju things, and we all had the same powers as them. And we were some sort of government experiment to create controllable aliens who could fight the aliens? But then we weren’t really just humans with the alien powers, we were some sort of.. like.. framework robots..??? We looked like those posing mannequins you use in art, except plastic/metal instead of wood. So like it was a situation where all the ‘characters’ were sorta costumes we put on? For some reason in order to use various powers we had to download some sort of ‘life data’ of various human characters, and then inhabit their personality and stuff. I think all these ‘characters’ were people who were part of the original experiment to create us, and they all died and we were the only successful experiments. But I don’t know if we were robots or if like we were once human too and suffered a complete erasure of identity into like.. full alien but just capable of sentience and understanding human language, and under the control of the human troops thanks to microchips or something. So probably all the kaijus were also these weird living metal mannequins too? And like their monster forms were.. ships?? They could also ‘wear’ various shapeshifts, and these big scary ones were like their equivelant of military warships. The stolen shapes of other alien species who could survive in the vaccuum of space, like trophies of their conquest of that other planet..

Anyway so we were a lil crew of strange mannequin people! And like any of us could become any of the ‘characters’, and we’d take turns and stuff. And tease each other for not playing them right, and swap tips on how to use punk guy’s powers and etc. It was like we were living a game. But also I think we really believed we were that person while we had them ‘installed’? Even if we all sorta interpreted each person differently based on our real personalities as the robot alien things. So like the punk guy would be really confused why he has a bunch of conflicting memories of all his previous lives, and like ‘man i used to like this ice cream flavour last week why did I completely forget that??’ Tho I think it was like at first we were lucid and knew who we were and then getting overwhelmed by the human personality was a bad sign from staying transformed too long. And we all had different stats in how long we could transform before that happened? And it was like a bad status effect cos that person would freak out and start acting weird or disobeying orders. Like punk dude running away from the battlefield and trying to find his still-living girlfriend and then the HUGE DEPRESSINGNESS of when it actually happened! Cos like ‘you’re not acting like him, you look like him but you’re not him’ and then being SO CONVINCED that you’re him, and you try and remember something to prove it but you just... can’t?? And she’s saying you’re dead and you were part of some experiment?? I just recall a really sad scene of someone who was 100% convinced they were human getting some sort of gash on their arm and seeing nothing but white metal, and then tearing off their own face to find nothing else but a blank mirrorlike orb. And the rest of the party found them all curled up in the corner of the bathroom half-transformed and like.. still making sobbing noises, all glitched up through their speakers, even though they didnt have any eyes to cry with. And then like all the human higher ups would just be mad at you for causing a scene, and making them have to explain to the girlfriend that her boyfriend had donated his corpse to science and this was just a machine using his parts, and then having to pay her off to keep it secret. So no sympathy whatsoever for the poor alien robot people who were suffering huge PTSD from having to switch identities so often. Being shoved full of someone else’s memories and having to come back from that over and over again, and remember what they really were...

So like.. all the mannequin people had formed a very close little family to support each other through all this hell. And they all still had sort of an aspect of innocence even though some of them were older models than others and took parental roles in the group. They tried to just think of the whole thing as a game and make Relateable Jokes about how punk guy’s range stat is terrible, so they could deal with the whole thing. And they also tried to see it as like.. secondary to their happy family life. Just a job that they had to do to keep food on the table. And they tried to only make the older models do it, and spare the newbies as much as possible. Which caused some conflict cos at least one of the kids was all ‘waaah but i wanna fight, i wanna be a hero, i wanna prove myself!’, not fully understanding the horror of it all. Maybe they were the one who had that freakout with the girlfriend? And I think they lived in some sort of old abandoned house that they were renovating into a liveable space. Tho they were robot alien mannequin things so they could live comfortably there even before they fixed it up, they just really wanted to pretend that they were a regular normal family. Reading all this stuff in books they’d scrounged from trashcans, and idealizing the concept of humanity...

But then the protagonist leader character was really cynical and hated all this, and kept being like ‘focus on the mission!’ and stuff. It would really wound their ego if they could realize the blatant truth that they were only promoted to leader because they were the most obedient and manipulateable... And then like the actual content of the dream was about some sort of day where there were too many alien attacks at once, and all of them had to suit up, even the kids. And like they’d already lost a bunch of the ‘characters’ in battle, and everyone was having to switch between forms over and over and getting really worn out both mentally and physically. And they were all getting pissed off at leader protagonist guy, cos apparantly they’d never actually gone out to fight in battle before? Like a ‘I’m too important, I need to stay behind’ ego thing. But then today they finally broke down and confessed that they were terrified of shapeshifting and losing their identity, and it was like a really vunerable moment of such an unapproachable asshole and the moment where they really became part of the family. And i think there might have been something about the leader bot being ‘defective’ and having human memories even before using any of the ‘characters’? Like they were born already remembering being one of the scientists who created these creatures. The first person who was used as a prototype experiment, the forbidden ‘secret character’... Like.. even though they were android things they also had some sort of biological element inside their core, alien cells that were necessary to run the whole thing. And all the ‘characters’ were humans who died in the experiments to try and give these powers to humans, before the scientists gave up and started making artificial people who could use these powers instead. But like they used the dead bodies of the failed experiments sorta as petri dishes? They had to cultivate more of the alien material if they were gonna build an alien from scratch. And this particular android was made from an alien core extracted from the first prototype- that one scientist who was dying of cancer and volunteered himself as an experiment. Apparantly something actually went right in that failed attempt, and the scientist’s soul or conciousness was successfully transferred into the alien core. He survived even if his body decayed away, and while they thought they were just injecting the spark into a machine to acivate it, they actually brought him back to life. ....or this is just a machine mafunctioning because the core was defective. Leader guy is really terrified of shapeshifting because he doesnt know which answer is true. He’s scared of finding out that his memories aren’t real, if all these fake memories end up feeling exactly the same as them. Maybe they’d just fall away as easy as sand through an hourglass, and then nothing would be left except the life he leads today. And he’s not as optimistic as the others, he can’t believe that they could ever make a ‘real family’, let alone someday defeat all the aliens and get to be free. I mean the humans will probably just execute the android division after the job is done... And all the other androids hug him as he sobs and assure him that even if he isn’t human he’s still a person, he’s still real, he’s still their beloved grandpa, yknow?

And then he finally used his powers and went some sort of super form out of Love Power, and kicked all the alien ass and saved the day! But the dream ended before I got any answer as to whether the ghost of that scientist within his soul was actually real or not. I’m sure he’d be okay either way, though.

#like wtf so much detail #i wanna watch this as a tv show #netflix when will u do adaptations of everyone's dreams

[anatemori-dughter-of-art]

Twins of Olympus

the ice and the fire 

chapter 3

Last Chapter: as she was handed the marble ball it started glowing, one second I was on the training ground the next Lana and I are in the air “whaaaaaaa!!??!?” 

I was asleep well I thought I was, but not at all in front of me was a dark cloudy beach with tsunamis and tidal waves and what almost looked like a hurricane was forming. Dang, this screen could make The Great Galveston Hurricane look like child's play, I then noticed the most beautiful, majestic black steed that I’ve ever seen and one of my uncles is a horse breeder/trainer. 

The beautiful steed was walking towards a field of high grass with old dead looking trees, I think, around the field where old, broken gravestones it was a graveyard sitting on the largest gravestone were two crows? One was huge, as big as a cinereous vulture but I was too far to see just how big, underneath its wing was a white crow, the way the big one was covering the little one was as if they were protecting it. 

The three animals seemed to be arguing, but once again I was too far to hear, a strong tidal wave blow by surprising me, the black steed then races back into the ocean leaving the two crows behind, suddenly I was flung out of the field/beach to a cage of iron in a dark cave, there was a small opening at the top of the cave I looked up to see thousands upon thousands of stares. “Whoa…” I said awed at the beauty of the states “there beautiful, aren't they” said a voice, I turned around in the cage I finally noticed a person inside it, “wha...sorry ma'am I didn’t see you” I sheepishly said knowing how rude it was to ignore people

 “It's alright little one, you were captured by the beauty of the stars,” she said happily the lady, she was sweet-looking and beautiful in an unpretentious way, with an honest smile, and black hair that framed her face in ringlets.

 I couldn't tell what her eye color was because they were closed, but I bet they were beautiful just like her, she held a jar of some kind in one hand and a fire that burned a more alluring red than any fire that I have ever seen in the other, “who are…” was all I could get out before being flung out the cave again. 

But this time I was flung around like crazy like I was in a washing machine till I gasped out waking up in my coffin bed, looking around I realized that Nico want there, I got up and noticed that they had brought all our luggage here, I opened my suitcase and grabbed some brown shorts, a white collar shirt and a navy vest and change in the bathroom.

********

I get out to see Lance had already gotten up he was waiting by the door looking half asleep, getting out of the way I left to get him something to wake him up, as 

I was about to open the door “hold up” he said knowing this was going to take awhile I start looking through our stuff, to see what Mom had packed in here for us everything was normal toothbrushes, sines we lose them easily, hair brushed, we break them, don't ask Lance's makeup, at least he has the Aphrodite kids to do this with, and a black rectangle with a white ribbon tied around it like a birthday present. 

Wait, what?! I go back to the rectangle box I take it out of the suitcase net and place it on my coffin bed, as I look through Lance’s things to see the same box but it was a black square with a sea blue ribbon around it, just like mine a black box and blue and white ribbons that sounded like what Mom did for are birthday presents, she would do this theme for years.

 Where these are...are...why did...why did... before I know it I was holding Lances gift in my arms crying, Lance must have heard me because not a second later did he thrust open the bathroom door “what's wrong?” he asked all I did was show him his blue ribbon box instantly understanding, he walked and knelt down to me giving me a hug, “it’s ok, we were going to stay here the whole summer, so of cores she had it all planned out” he tells me as I calm down and stop my tears “know come on don’t want the entire camp to now you're a big crybaby” he teased. 

As we get up I noticed he also wore ice blue pants and an old brown jacket with a “is that the camp t-shirt?” I asked him “yes, I found it beside my bed” I then looked over my bed and found my own “I already changed, I ain't doing that again,” I tell him as we grab the boxes and head out to the pavilion. 

As we walked we passed by some campers till a group of them came and stood in front of us, “hi” Lance said happily “so, your the twinadoes” said a boy with caramel skin, dirt brown hair, and brown eyes with the build of a wrestler I look closely at them at their body language, way of talking and the glint in their eyes “Ares?” I asked them I guess I was right because they all had shocked looks on there face “h-how did you?” one of them asked “we saw some Ares kids walking out of there cabin yesterday, and your body language was just like there’s” explained Lance as we walked past them. 

As we made it to the Pavilion we found Nico sitting with Will at the Apollo table, looking at Lance we agreed not to bother them as we made it to our table with our breakfast served “I wonder..” started Lance as he was looking closely at the black box. “no” I tell him knowing what he was thinking “but she left it behind what if it's some cool magic weapons, like in the stories” he said trying to justify why we should open the black gift. “I don't think it’s a good idea,” I tell him “well I'm opening mine.”

 He as he pushed his tray aside as he Netley untied the box, then tying the ribbon on his hair as he opens the box to reveal two rings, they were resting under a navy blue holder the rings had a black ring with small white gems decorated on both sides with a sodalite gemstone on both rings. “Beautiful,” we said together looking at the amazing craftsmanship and design it definitely suited Lance I guess he agreed with me because not only a second letter did he try them on, one on each thumb.

 “Wow, this is so cool, open yours,” he said happily as I also opened my gift gently untying the ribbon then tying it in my hair as well, as I opened the box what was in it was a pen and not just any pen but a Conway Stewart Westminster Teal Pen. Those things are the world's most expensive and lavish pens in the world “holy” I started “shit” Lance finished the pen’s design was a rose like carving around it in silver behind a black background. 

“Whoa, Mom...she really went all out huh” he said as I grabbed the pen as I uncapped it a flash of light and in its place was a 5 '7 silver sphere with a black bald at the top of it “wha..” just then another light which came from Lance “wha…” he said looking over his rings turned into a Beretta m9 9mm military grand the other was a .44 desert eagle they were the M9 had a silver setting with sea green lines well the Eagle was black with silver lines around it.

 “What!!” we shouted as we looked at the black weapons “calm down,” said Nico as he and Percy came running towards us “what happened? where did you get these” he asked “ummm…..are Mom left them behind as a gift but we were just looking at them” I explained “mine where two rings and Lana's was a pen, then she opened the cap and  there was a light and the spear came out of nowhere and then my rings turned into guns after I closed my hands together and holy Hare I am holding a freaking firearm, HENRY HELP??!?!?!” Lance dramatically yelled as he released his hold on the guns causing them to transform back into rings. 

“How did you” I was about to ask him “I have no idea” he tells me I looked at the spear and in my hand was the cap I placed the cap on top of the spear and it turns back into a pen "good you figured out how to work them but can you refrain from using them around the other camper." 

Chiron said as he walked towards us "why?" Lance asked he simply pointed at the other campers who had all ran out of the pavilion the only ones left where some older campers from each table and "are those the hunters of Artemis?!" I said as I saw them all staring at us but somewhere shaking "what's wrong with them?" I asked Chiron. 

"It's your weapons has Stygian Iron that emits a dark and terrifying aura that scares others" explains Nico we both looked down at the black and silver gifts Mom left behind "wow," we said together.

*******

The rest of the day was uneventful just the normal camp schedule except when some of the Area kids from before picked a fight with me. Let's just say half the camp thinks Lance and I aren't really twins, but other than that everything was normal, in a camp filled with demigod funny right so it was around after dinner we had captured the flag which was a daily game.

 But today sins the huntresses where hear it was them vs the whole camp, which at first didn't seem fair but I was told that the camp has only won twice in the past hundred years that must hurt someone's pride. We would have joined but Percy said not to he thinks the Area kids would jump me or Lance, either way, there will be an ass kicking, but he still said no so here we are with a hellhound yes guys a hellhound at first I thought it was Nico's  but really she was Percy's we played with her and the black pegasus that caught Lance, blackjack was his name.

 "I wonder who's winning," he said as he placed more wood onto the campfire which was dying down unusually fast, "my money's on the huntresses, you?." He thought for a moment before saying "yeah, your right they'll win" we both laughed in agreement of the fact that the camp couldn't win this "dang you two are curl" we stopped and looked around "did you…." I tell him he nods "umm Lana I think it came from blackjack," he said as we both looked at the horse in question, but instead of words we only heard horse noise "what is going on," I said, "maybe we should tell Chiron." 

Lance said nodding to him agreeing to that plane just when a horn was played and all the campers and hunters came rushing out of the woods with, dang it, a camp-half blood flag held by Percy and Jason. As everyone sat down with their siblings around the fire which sins we got there looked alive “excellent battle everyone” said Chiron looking proud I guess this is a rare moment for him, “now I know you all might already know I wish you to welcome Lance and Lana McClain descendants of Lord Hades.” 

As he said this we stood up as everyone was looking at us I heard a noise, I turned to see where it came from and it was from the woods. “Does anyone hear that?” I loudly asked interrupting Chiron “hear what-” started Percy but was interrupted when a girl with red curly hair like a lion's mane stood up gasping and her eyes shifted to a smoke green she then said. 

“Sea and death shell bare twins.

That will rise above creations sins, 

shell travel south with the youngest son of the sky's

and find where the eldest goddess lies, 

Sea and death shall find the key but 

loses sight of what they truly see 

for a choice, they shell mack,

 for love or heartbreak

 and may they find themselves in a bind

For a friend Shell meat there end

As if that was the signal just as she finished the noise from before got louder to the point everyone heard it. “HELLHOUNDS?!?!” Yelled Percy as he got out his sword, so did everyone else good thing they were in armor the fight broke out “look out!” one yelled “behind you!” another shouted “duck!” Shouted another that's what I heard throughout the fight campers and hunters working together fighting, sins Lance and I were new to this we were protected along with the younger campers “SHAY!!” we heard Rex shout in a panic I turned to see the second worst scene of my life. 

It was Shay she lost her weapon and a hellhound on top of her….it was to closes…..too close...too close no, no no it was going to kill her, monsters eat demigods….it was going to eat her...eat her...h...her {Mom} “NOOO!” Screamed a voice it took the sourness of my throat to realizes it was me, I felt warm like I was raped in blankets but also cold, not painful needles digging into my skin cold but a chilling cold like how Mom always felt, warmth yet cold home?.

 I then open my eyes I see a faint light I look up green….it was a green triton and a gray feathers. “wha….?” Is all I get out before Chiron starts saying something “Laura Amara Nyx Aleja and Lorenzo Alejandro Nicholas Calisto Erebos McClain Descendants of Thanatos, reaper of souls, Holder of the doors of death,  children of Poseidon earthshaker, Stormbreaker and crater of horses king of the seas we welcome thee” just as he finished my vision went black.

********

As the twins fainted two older campers closest to them caught them before they fell onto the ice, yes the ice that covers every part of where the hellhounds and camp members were. Which in some cases somewhere in cast the hounds or even pierced right through them some of the campers were protected in domes of clear ice or flaming skeleton hounds that when summoned started ripping the other apparat as well as keeping the campers worm.

 “They did this?” asked Thalia “yup, they did” replied Leo “this is amazing” said Piper “and dangerous, they need to learn control before they get themselves hurt” added Annabeth as the ice melted and the flame hounds returned to earth “let's get everyone inside” orders Chiron as everyone got up and walked back to their cabins the two boys caring Lance and Lana looked around confused. 

“Umm...sir, where do we take them?” he asked as Chiron thought for a moment “take them to the Hades cabin” he said as everyone finally got back into their cabins, the twins sleeping soundly in their beds mostly “it's them isn't it” Percy said just as the last counselor enters the meeting room “yes” said Chiron Percy just sighed excepting the fate of his now half siblings he then starts walking out the door. 

“Where are you going?” asked Jason “I need a minute” is all he said as the door closed behind him. 

*******

#Heros Of Olympues #voltron #Lance and Lana #Twins Of Olympus

[sweetwriting]

Tim Drake Week 2017 - Day 6 (part 2): Crossover

Category : Gen

Genre : Angst / Murder / Mystery

Fandoms : DC Comics, Slayers! (Anime)

Continuity : Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint

Summary : Young Justice finds itself face to face with The Greatest Witch in the world and her friends.

Author’s notes : At first I wanted it to be Young JusticexAnimaniacs, but then I realized I didn't not have the experience or ability or mastery over the english language to do that yet. But one day I will (I want Impulse to meet Slappy and Whacko).

Anyway I have little memories of Slayers! as I haven't watched the anime in 7 years nor read the books in over 10 years. So my memories are fuzzy at best. Most of my memories come from the anime so most of the names I think of use the french translation for it rather than the english one I learned when I read the book. I hope the spelling isn't too far from the english version. I wrote this on the subway so I didn't have internet to verify my sources and, honestly I barely managed to keep it around 1000 words which was actually one of the goals I gave myself for this Tim Drake Week (1000 words or less) which was already failed for 3 stories and I know that if I tried to research (and rewatch/reread the series because I'm like that), I'd go way overboard with that....As for the Animaniacs, one day I will do it (actually there’s way more chances than for the Animaniacs)

Word Count : 2918

To read it on AO3

Day 6 (Part 1) : AU

Tim couldn't believe it. He was supposed to go on a date with Steph in the morning and here he and his team were, faced with a red-headed girl wearing a strange red and yellow outfit with a black cape (not that he had much room to talk), some sort of fire dancing in her hands, a really tall man with long blond hair wearing some sort of blue overall and a breast plate, a sword seemingly made of light drawn toward them, a man with green, rock-like skin with his own sword drawn and a young girl who seemed to belong in any other place rather than this one due to being as normal looking as they come (not that Tim would make the mistake of underestimate her if she wasn't fazed by them appearing out of seemingly nowhere…not that it meant anything). They were in a pretty standard forest. He could go on and on about the different trees but he would probably get bored just thinking about it. He still noticed a path parallel to the one they were on, if smaller and that the trees seemed tall, wide and strong enough to stand and run on as well as to use his grappling hook.

"Hello hum sorry to bother you but…where are we?" Anita's presence was a life saver, as always.

The red headed young woman looked at them suspiciously before sighing and making the fire disappear from her hands.

"Alright guys stand down", she started saying before the other girl pushed ahead and took Superboy's hand into her own, effectively interrupting the red head who seemed to look increasingly more annoyed by the second.

"I see that you are wearing quite colorful uniforms! Are you part of a drama troupe? Are you playing Hero minions?"

She then surprised everyone present, with the exception of her three companions, by jumping onto the branch of one of the trees and started screaming:

"I am Amelia Will Tesla Seilune! Princess of the Kingdom of Seilune! I am the bringer of Justice of the land! I am…"

Tim stopped listening as Superboy and Impulse leaned toward him and started whispering:

"Guys do you think that she's like a mix between Batman, Nightwing and Robin's girlfriend?"

"Shut up Kon" Tim answered while Kon and Bart stifled a laugh and only stopped when the girl, Amelia, started falling but was luckily caught in the air by Wonder Girl.

Their four hosts looked at the flying blond with surprised, Tim realized then that they could very well be in a dangerous place for metas. He should have thought to tell his friends not to use their powers in unknown places until they were sure it was safe or unless absolutely needed. Here Cassie could have waited until the girl was almost on the ground.

"Are you a dragon? No but you didn't transform. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MISS LINA ? This girl flew without using a spell!"

Or not, apparently it's not flying itself that was a problem for them. The red head still looked suspiciously at them even if saving the girl seemed to have slightly helped their cause. She looked at their group before asking:

"Where do you come from? Are you even humans? Or Demons?"

Tim tried to take the time to think his answer through but before he could Bart beat him to it:

"We're from a parallel universe or something like that and most of us are humans, some of us are just have special abilities!"

Tim couldn't help the fingers that started massaging the bridge of his nose. Neither could Superboy, Wonder Girl and Empress. The red head smirked before she started staring at us. She then shared a look with the rock skinned man who nodded then turned back to us and said:

"You can't be from Dark Star's world. Are you from Chaotic Blue's or Death Fog's?"

"Who? What?" was all Tim would think to answer the man.

"They're the Demon Lords of two of the four known worlds that stems from the Sea of Chaos. Each world has a Demon Lord and a God", the red head explained with a detached air, "I suppose none of you are from there then?"

"Yeah usually the different universes we can go from and to are linked through hypertime nothing called the sea of chaos…It could be just a different name due to different cultures but the principle of the Demon Lord vs God doesn't really exist in those…Unless" he turned to his friends "Do you guys think Darkseid and the Highfather could be that?"

And that was it. They started talking amongst them, then talking with the group of four. Trying to find a way. After a while the only ones left in the conversation were the red head and rock-skinned man, whom they learned were called Lina Inverse and Zelgadis Greyword, Kon, Bart and himself.

As they reached a point of understanding (there's little chance of their own world coming from the same "Sea of Chaos", however it was possible that they came from their own sea of Chaos which would suggest that Hypertime was actually a being? It was confusing), a light surrounded Tim's group and they were back at the mansion.

Tim turned toward his friends who were making sure they were whole by patting their body. They all turned to each other and kind of shrugged at each other deciding unanimously that Robin was the one who would write the report as the others all went up to their rooms.

Dejected Tim went to the main computer and started writing the report about the alternate world they went to for about 10 minutes and just seemed like a weird dream. When he reached "his" room (there was nothing of his in there) he couldn't help the smile at the small Superboy memorabilia Wonder Girl had left for him on his pillow after they had come back from watching Cissie at the Olympics (and their baseball game far far away) as a thank you for calling Kon out on his machismo. His night was filled with strange dreams of a weird man with a huge mustache wearing clothes strangely similar to that of an eccentric young girl, spouting a similar speech to what Amelia had yelled earlier.

Author’s Note 2 : Here it is. I'm honestly underwhelmed by it. It ends too quickly with little description of what's happening and I barely used the characters (then again there are way too many characters. at first I thought of placing it before the girls arrive in YJ but I wanted to place Anita).YET I still like it and honestly wanted to post it if only because of Amelia. But mostly because I love that universe and even if it's barely there, just writing about it felt pretty great and made me want to rewatch and re-read it.So I I hope you were at least entertained by it because I know I was :)

#DC Comics #BrOT3: TimKonBart #Tim Drake #Tim Drake Week #Kon El #Bart Allen #Cassandra Sandsmark #Anita Fite #Lina Inverse #Zelgadis Greywords #Amelia Wil Tesla Sailune #Gourry Gabriev #Slayers

[magicalmischel]

Something to Look Forward To

fandom: Merlin

oneshot

Merlin/Arthur AU fanfic, alien!Merlin and astronaut!Arthur

also on fanfiction.net      /      AO3

summary: Arthur is an astronaut on a station that's been observing a strange anomaly that's been circling them for weeks. Now it's finally time to go explore from close and Arthur's the lucky boy who'll have the chance to finally leave the station. When he's in his spacesuit, getting closer and closer to the anomaly, something surprises him and his team. That thing is no anomaly. It's an alien. And when that alien transforms into a handsome dark-haired boy, well... that's something Arthur certainly hadn't prepared himself for.

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO

After weeks and weeks of observation and endless waiting, it was finally time for Arthur to put on his spacesuit and get out there into the black nothingness. He was excited. As a part of a team, it was a privilege to be the first one to go to outer space and try to communicate with the being they've been observing all this time.

No one knew what or who it was, if it was alive or just some strange anomaly, or if it was dangerous or peaceful. So far, it has been circling around their station, doing nothing and just... watching them, while they were watching it too.

Arthur was the most successful member of the team. Whenever he had a shift, the strange being stopped being boring and started moving around. That was probably the reason they selected him as the first one to go examine it from close.

Arthur took a deep breath and fastened his helmet, giving a thumbs up to Lancelot. The door finally opened, sucking him out until the whole world was spinning for him and he couldn't even see their station. When he touched his stomach though, the rope was still there, his safe ride back home. If the rope broke... he'd be lost.

"Everything's fine so far." Arthur reported. "Oxygen on maximum, no problems detected. Over."

"Fine." Gwen answered. "Try to locate the anomaly. Over."

"On it. Over." Arthur nodded and tried to look around. He couldn't see it. "Station. I can't find it. Over."

"It's right above you, Arthur." Morgana told him. "You'll need to turn around. Over."

"Copy that. Over."

He kicked his legs and moved around his arms awkwardly, until he was finally (but slowly) moving around. But he didn't have to turn around all the way. The being started moving towards him. It was bigger than he thought it would be and it looked like a floating... sort of dusty... jelly? It had a strange transparent blue colour and it immediately stole all of Arthur's attention.

"It's getting too close to you, Arthur. Over." Gwen told him, worried.

"It's okay." Arthur answered, smiling as he was looking at the thing in front of him. "It's alright. It's not dangerous, I can feel it... over."

"Are you sure? Over."

"I'm sure. Over."

"Okay. Try to find out anything useful. Over."

Arthur sighed as the being stopped in front of him, as if trying to decide if he was dangerous. It was constantly changing shapes and it seemed very interested in him. Now Arthur was sure it was alive. It was not an anomaly.

"Hello." He said, hoping the thing could hear him.

For a second it was silent, and then suddenly it formed into a shape of a human. Arthur gasped and before he knew it, the being changed into a young dark-haired boy in blue jeans and a red hoodie and blue eyes. It blinked a few times and then suddenly smiled.

"Hello." It answered. Its voice sounded young and through the helmet it almost made Arthur think the being was whispering, scared to talk to him for the first time. Just like Arthur was, but with every second he was more excited than scared.

Arthur's eyes were wide. "What are you?" He continued.

"I'm lost." It answered and changed back into a huge blue piece of pudding. Then it transformed again and looked just like Arthur in the spacesuit. "I'm here." It added.

"Are you an alien?" Arthur narrowed his eyes, a bit uneasy to be looking into his own eyes.

"I was. I am. I will be." It replied. "I'm not like you. I don't have a face. I can look like this. Or like this." It transformed into Gwen and Arthur frowned.

"Please don't steal my or my friend's faces." He said.

"I don't have a face." It repeated.

"What about the boy you were before." Arthur said. "I liked him, can you transform back?"

"That was not my face." It said and transformed back into the boy with blue eyes. It smiled again. "I like you too." It said, making Arthur blush slightly.

"Thanks." He smiled. "What are you doing here? Why have you been circling our station for weeks? Why don't you just continue where you were headed."

It was silent for a while and then it said, "I saw you." As simple as that. It saw Arthur and decided to stay and give them all something new to observe. Arthur felt strangely touched.

"What's your name?" He continued with his questions. "I'm Arthur."

"I call myself Merlin." It said. "I'm not headed anywhere. Please take me with you. I'm alone." It added and flew closer to Arthur.

"Arthur, be careful. Over." He heard Gwen say. She was the leader of their team and could make him go back any time she wanted, but he was glad she didn't do that yet.

"I am. Over." He replied.

"Your people are worried about you." Merlin told him."They think I want to hurt you."

Arthur pursed his lips, but then nodded. "Yes. They do."

"I don't want to hurt you... Are you going to hurt me?" Merlin asked with a frown on his young face.

Arthur knew the answer. He would never hurt something so unique and beautiful. "I'm not." He said with a smile. "I don't want to hurt you either." Then he pondered for a while and asked something else. "How come you speak our language?"

"I've been watching you." Merlin told him. "Please take me with you. I'm alone here."

"I can't." Arthur told him. "Not yet. We don't know enough about you and-"

Suddenly a little rock hit Arthur's spacesuit and made a hole in it. Arthur's eyes widened and he grabbed his rope.

"Hole in a spacesuit!" He called Gwen and his team. "Get me out of here! Oxygen is escaping into outer space! Over!"

He didn't hear what they replied, but he felt the pull of the rope and he himself tried to move towards the station. And then, suddenly he could see Merlin in front of him. He changed back into the blue jelly and moved towards him, getting into his spacesuit and scaring the shit out of Arthur.

"Arthur!" He could hear Gwen's voice from the comm inside his spacesuit, but instead of hurting him like he promised he wouldn't do, Merlin gently wrapped his body from the inside of the spacesuit and filled the little hole, saving Arthur's life and keeping there enough oxygen for him.

When Arthur finally got inside the station, he was speechless. Once the pressure was stabilized and the room filled with air, Arthur took off his helmet and gasped, not quite believing what he just witnessed. The blue pudding was still wrapped around his body, but as soon as he looked down at it, it started moving away from him, transforming into the boy again.

"Thank you." Arthur told him.

The boy smiled at him and nodded. "Will I talk to you again?" He asked. Suddenly, without the helmet between them, his voice sounded sweet and shy and also curious. It made Arthur smile at him too.

"Hopefully." He told him.

Merlin smiled again and nodded. Then he slowly backed away, walking through the wall as if he was nothing and disappearing into the space again. Arthur was looking at him through the window, already missing his presence and the chance to talk to him. Merlin transformed back into the bluish transparent thing and flew away, just when his team opened the door and got to him, hugging him and asking him if he was alright. But all Arthur could do was nod and keep watching the alien, who was now only a little blue dot among the stars.

That night, Arthur couldn't fall asleep. He left his bed and looked through the window at the stars, noticing that Merlin was still there, circling their station like before. When he noticed him, he stopped though and flew closer to the window. Arthur smiled at him and waved his hand. He wasn't afraid of Merlin disappearing after he walked through the wall. He knew Merlin would stay with them.

Because he saw Arthur and chose to stay. And Arthur would gladly become his friend if it meant they could talk again. Merlin told him he was lost and wasn't heading anywhere. Well, if Gwen allowed it, he could stay with them, couldn't he? And Arthur would be able to find out more about him and tell him more about himself. Because this experience, that excitement he felt when he first heard his voice, that was something he never wanted to lose.

Merlin changed into the dark-haired boy again and waved back, probably not understanding what it meant, but the smile on his face was a good sign. Arthur nodded and went back to bed with a smile of his own.

Maybe he could be looking forward to the next day, for once. Every day on this station was the same and waking up in the morning was something he had to do rather than something he wanted to do because he was excited. This time though, he knew what he'll be doing tomorrow.

And god, how was he looking forward to that.

#my fanfiction #my merlin fanfiction #merthur #AU fanfic #oneshot

[mouldedweapon]

Recollections of a Forgotten Past (Epilogue)

Epilogue

{ They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world:

someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.}

― Tom Bodett

She was in her mother’s arms.

It was so soft, so gentle; it held her close like it was afraid to lose her again.

Why did you let me go, Mama?

She grasped those arms tightly, snuggling against her mother’s body.

A mother’s warmth, that was what she yearned for. Her lips curled up into a satisfied smile – everything else was forgotten. She smiled happily, blissfully. She hadn’t worked those muscles in such a long time, she was afraid they wouldn’t work for her anymore. For a long while, she was content in just hugging her mother and listening to her calm breathing. Everything was serene. And for the first time in a long time, she was happy.

Mama, let’s be together forever. She mumbled, burying her face into the nape of her mother’s neck.

It was then her body froze, her iron-made instincts screamed at her to get away. She jerked away, suddenly noticing that her mother’s skin had turned ice-cold.

Mama…? She asked uncertainly, staring into her mother’s eyes. In a second, those laughing brown eyes turned into deep pools of black holes, and her mother began to transform into something twisted.

She screamed, kicking as she backed away further and further from the monster which was transforming in front of her. Her mother’s limbs broke apart one by one, until no more than a stub was left; and her hair started falling down like leaves during autumn. Her skin changed into angry pink, and her face morphed and morphed until it looked like something strikingly familiar –

Mother…

“No… Get away, get away from me!!” She wanted to get on her feet and run, but somehow they turned into dead weight. She could only drag herself away from the figure who was calling her, her eyes already wet with tears.

Mother…. Why are you running away…?

“No… please…” Knowing there was no way out, she covered her face with her hands, her hands full of blood. And suddenly everything turned red, everything was painful, and everything was a nightmare.

She was the mother now. She was the one who turned her child away. She was the one who ran away from her son.

She had yearned for a mother’s warmth, yet she had never given it to her own son. She was hurt at her mother for letting them take her away, but that was the very thing she let happen to him. She had once blamed her mother for not protecting her, but she could not even protect her own son.   It was not fair , she cried, she never had a chance, she never had a chance, she wanted to, but she just never had a chance .

The figure continued haunting her, taunting her, driving her to the corner where there was nowhere else to back away and screamed, and wept and accused her of everything she had ever accused her mother of.

And she sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed.

*****

When she woke up, the first thing she realised was that she was lying on something soft.

It took her awhile to register that she was lying on a bed. She had almost forgotten how it felt like, and it was so comfortable she could forget about the pain for a moment.

It was dark, save for the moonlight shimmering in from the windows of the room she was in. She couldn’t move, so she tried to make sense of her surroundings using what she could see in her line of vision.

“You’re awake,” said the dark-haired teenager who was sitting on a chair near her bed. The shadows cast by the trees outside played across his face, obscuring his facial features from her vision.

Seven opened her mouth and tried to talk, but her throat was so dry she ended up coughing instead.

“Here.” Water was placed against her lips, and she managed several small sips. The young man then removed the glass and put it on the table again.

“Where–” She started, but the man in black shook his head and told her not to speak.

“You are safe now.” He said simply, giving her what she supposed, was a smile. It seemed like he was feeling rather uncomfortable, or more appropriately, awkward. It seemed like he didn’t know what to say or what to explain for his actions.

She couldn’t understand it either. She was more confused than happy at her survival. Why was it her who survived? Why did she survive, after she had decided to give up? Why was he there? Why did he save her?

All those questions remain unanswered, he did not give her any answers, and she did not ask.

After a few days of resting, she soon found out from the nurses that the young man’s name was ‘Emiya Kiritsugu’. Despite having no relationship to her and having no reason to save her, he visited her every day at the hospital, paid for her medical fees, asked the doctors and nurses about her condition.

She could not fathom why he would go to such lengths to help her. Being mistreated and tossed around for so long, it was the act of kindness that struck fear into her heart, her mind struggling to find a reason for justify his actions. She found none. Every day she waited for him to provide some sort of explanation, even as he only visited for a few minutes each day. She did not know where he was from, as he spoke her language with a foreign accent. There was no problems with communication, since he hardly spoke to her anyway. Yet, it was this man of few words that made her nervous - as if she was about to pay a huge price for the kindness she had received.

And she was anxious to find out what it was.

The day before she was discharged, he sat down beside her bed.

“I need an assistant.” He said simply.

Those four words seem to make everything fall in place. Seven nodded for him to continue. She was right, there was a price to pay. After all those days of guessing and waiting, she was finally going to hear it. Even though the doctors and nurses have been nothing but gentle and kind to her, there was always an underlying suspicion that they were going to do something awful to her after the initial caring treatment. She had never been treated like this before, and the confused soldier was simply at a loss of what to think.

“I am an assassin.” The man named Kiritsugu said. “If you are willing to kill for a living, I can train you.”

What surprised Seven the most was not that he was an assassin or that he was offering to train her.

It was the fact that he was giving her a choice.

She blinked, unsure of how to react. He was allowing her to say no? Wouldn’t that mean that everything he had done for her would be in vain? She had been ready to become a slave, to be sold, or even to suffer a worser fate, but all her was asking her was to do what she had been doing her whole life - to kill for a living. And she was free to refuse.

“Why me?” She asked, the questions finally pouring out of her mouth. “Why did you save me?”

“It was too late to save anyone else.” He shrugged. “You were the only one who was still breathing.”

Seven stared. His answer seemed to make sense, yet it left her with more questions. Why was he there? Why did he wander into a bombing zone? Who was he?

She kept her mouth shut. It was against the rules to ask questions, she remembered. Only she wasn’t in the barracks anymore. She was with a man named Emiya Kiritsugu and was about to become his assistant.

She wondered if he would whip her the same way they had if she asked him those questions.

“I will follow you.” She replied.   She had a purpose now , she thought. She had nowhere else, no one else to go to.

Emiya Kiritsugu nodded solemnly. “What is your name?”

“511207.”

He frowned. “I meant your real name.”

Confusion swept across her face again. “That is my n ― ”

It was then she remembered.

Emiya Kiritsugu is his name.

Her name was a number.

I meant your real name.

A wave of panic rushed through her veins as she struggled to answer his question. She had a real name , she reasoned. She had just forgotten it because they were all commanded to forget their real names. But that wasn’t all, there were more things that she had forgotten. Her past. What was she doing before she arrived at the barracks? Where was she living? Who was she living with? Her family? Did she have a mother ―

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp sting that seemed to slice through her head. She whimpered, clutching her head in agony as pain engulfed her soul, blocking her from retrieving her memories. Like a blade, it sawed through her skull over and over again, the pain getting worse when she tried again to access her locked memories. Her fingers tugged at her hair as she curled herself into a ball, shaking and groaning as she forgot about Kiritsugu and the hospital that she was in, and everything in her world was pain, only pain.  

She couldn’t hear Kiritsugu yelling at her, telling her to calm down. She couldn’t feel his steady arms on her wrists, trying to pry them away from scratching harshly at her scalp. She couldn’t see the doctors and nurses rushing in, lifting up her sleeve to insert a needle into her right arm...

As her mind slowly became numb, and her body lost all energy, she felt someone gently laying her down on her bed. Looking up with a rather hazy vision, she could somewhat make out the face of a stranger with dark hair, the man who saved her life, now her mentor.

“We’ll just have to think up a new name, then.” He said in a low voice.

Watching the way he tucked her in, the way he spoke to the doctors urgently about something that sounded like ‘post traumatic stress disorder’, and the way he looked at her not of pity, but of purpose…

She silently pledged her life to follow him wherever he went.

And then all was black.

*****

She was given a passport shortly after.

Her name was Hisau Maiya.

#my fanfic #recollections of a forgotten past #hisau maiya #emiya kiritsugu #reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!

[bigbadwolf619]

Bheriya Smokes/Tawagoto

Age: 48 (Physically looks 21 as she does not age)

{Bheriya: The Ladies love it}

Race: Wolfman/Demigod

{Bheriya: hey don’t mention the God part}

Gender: Male

{Bheriya: You better believe it}

Occupation: Supernatural Hunter/Hired Pirate/Wrestler/Demon Hunter/Mercenary/Universal Hunter

{Bheriya: Does being a sexy dog count?}

Personality: Overconfident, cocky while being a big womanizer, tends to make out with many attractive dangerous women of different races, especially ones he rescues, loves to fire guns of many types, especially his 2 special gun, can be sadistic towards his enemies in fights, doesn’t take life seriously and tend to joke around, quick to anger especially when drunk with Devil’s Rum, loves Remnant for having so many attractive women of different type, even evil ones, he is actually very honest for a killer, loves to get paid and then have sex with women, most of the time does not react to his pain if he gets impaled or hurt as he just walks it off quite quickly while regenerating, gets excited if an attractive woman attacks him and teases them dodging or blocking, falls for Queen Alpha and doesn’t care about her status, dislikes Kurai but cares for her as a sibling, respects Muetre for his power and strength along with his sly ways, even as a killer he is very smart and knows many languages thanks to Muetre and Gus, talk to his imaginary wolf a lot who somehow came to reality so others can hear and see while able to pet him, doesn’t care if the racist term “doggy” or “dog” is used on him, hates his other 6 half-siblings, hates his Father Rougarou the Wolf God

{Bheriya: Eh he was a dick anyway}

Skills/Power: As a Wolfman, Bheriya possesses claws and agility as well as good hearing and sniffing like his kind , but as a Demigod he has many powerful abilities along with being physically super strong and nearly invulnerable regenerating body that most of the time cannot take damage and when he does take damage he mostly shrugs it off as if it was nothing and carries on attacking, he can actually tear time and space and pull out a crazy weapon out depending where he is, it is actually random whatever he pulls out, even he doesn’t know what he is pulling out but does so anyway, Bheriya can move really fast while able to take on any punishment, his power lets his body generate thunder whenever his angry, he has knowledge on the Devil’s Tongue and can speak in it to cause destruction, Bheriya also knows curses and Reaper abilities thanks to Muetre, he can tear an enemies soul out with his bare-hand, use Reaper Vision to see into the past or little of the future, of an area or someone, Reaper Storage where can store anything in another realm and summon when he wants to, Reaper Travel that lets him click his fingers to instantly teleports wherever he wants to go, his greatest power is his Wolf God form which makes him take on the form of a dark wolf that changes appearance randomly whenever he triggers it, something it would be bigger or smaller, sometime it has extra limbs or can even cover the whole sky, he has the ability to summon many spiritual wolves to aid him and when he howls to the Moon he will become stronger and more wild with his senses enhanced, he has the ability to copy the powers and weapons of his enemies he kills quite like Megaman/Skillfully he can uses both blades and guns while able to withstand their effects as Gabriel’s Rage was so powerful  in destroying in it’s shot that it could tear the users arm off, but Bheriya’s strength can withstand it, Joker’s Laugh drives the user to insanity making them laugh so much, but Bheriya’s already insane nature makes him already adjusted with the SMG, Bheriya is very skilled in using in Hooksword which he can duplicate and throw many times as he wants, he can even enlarge the blade to huge or small sizes, this isn’t the blades ability, it is actually Bheriya doing this somehow

{Bheriya: Why have 1 when you can have 100?}

Weapons/Tools: Many supernatural firearms Gus has made for him, Gabriel's Rage Handgun that can decimate a target or object, Joker’s Laugh SMG which starts off weak but then gets stronger from continuous shooting shredding through the enemy and objects rapidly, this depends on the users sanity, if the are mad then the SMG is stronger, the Hooksword Bheriya took from 1 of his Slavers which are used to torture and discipline Slave Wolfmens, he has 2 on him usually as he can duplicate the blades, he has weapons that he also collected from the Demon Lords and Devils he killed along with other enemies

{Bheriya: If you can do it in video games, why not real life?}

Backstory: {Bheriya: I’m narrating my on Bio here, Ahem...}

I'm Smokes, Bheriya Smokes, before I became a badass or the member of Smokes Enterprise I was a slave, like every other Wolfman, in Ravage Wolfmens were common, nothing like Remnant or fuckin Conton, there were also Gods, 5 Gods to be exact who watched over the world and made sure Hell remained closed, though they weren't really Gods they were seen as that as the real God the Creator was basically the "do your owns shit while not helping sort of guy", but besides that the world, was alright, had nothing to worry about...well 500 years ago anyway, something happened, it wasn't only Ravage, but other worlds

Though Ravage got most of the shit put on it, most of the Gods were somehow killed by an unknown force, only 1 survived, the Wolf God Rougarou, but because the Ethereal World was destroyed he could not use his full-power, so he went mad and sort a vessel to use so he can use his power again, to do this he would need to plant his seed in a poor woman's womb to have a child to take over, but to be sure this works, he raped 7 women, 1 had me, her name was Yorokobi from the East, a woman of the Church a pretty woman...but a bitch, I mean I can't blame her she got raped by a mad dog, out of anger and being kicked out of the Church for having me, she threw me away and I ended up in a Slave Camp of Wolfmens Now the reason why the Wolfmens were getting all the shit was because the God that supports a.k.a the asshole Father of mines was causing trouble and they blamed us for the shit he's done, assholes

Because of that we were hunted or enslaved, we were all scared and weak...well except me, I was rebellious, our slavers were 3 Orc Lords, Jason, Grayson and Mason had as builds stuff for them and lift away things, we were only given rest if we did a decent job, we'd get tortured if we did not do well, when the Orcs found me they named me Tawagoto and to all you Japanese folks you might know what that means, I use to try to escape or not listen, so I use to get most of the punishment, this carried on for 10 years of my life, yet I wasn't scared, at all, just pissed, during that time a voice in my head started talking, and I saw a Wolf made of black smoke, he talked to me and made me feel better, I realized he wasn't real after a while, but that didn't matter

I was still there doing shit, I couldn't take it anymore, the cruel treatment, seeing your own kind killed and raped in front of you, it was driving me insane, so I tried escaping again, but once again that bastard Orc Lord Mason got in the way and because he was a fat muthafucker, he was strong but this didn't make him slow, he beat my ass again but said instead of taking me back that he would kill me instead Of course that failed miserably as my anger and desperation woke something inside of me, I saw Wolf again, I thought he couldn't do anything but he somehow bit Mason's leg and not only that Mason is able to see him, I thought I lost my mind and seeing things, but he tells me "Do it! Do it now!" I wondered what he meant before my hand transformed into a dark monster like hand and I slashed the bastard's eye out, while he was in pain I ran as fast as I can in the distance and cried in joy being free finally

I had no idea what happened to me but I broke out after all those years, after that I came to the City of Jibana, the place they claim God watches over, yeah right, he's pretty much left this world to rot what with the Demons broken loose and some living casually in the criminal underworld, sadly the Apartheid was here too and no one liked seeing a Wolfman civilized, so bad that some kids started chasing me for no reason and wanted to kick my ass, I ran but ended up in a dead end, I told them to leave me alone then they end up beating the living shit out of me, 1 even had a bat smashing my skull, they pissed me off so much that my Monster side woke up again and I shredded all those little shits up, now I know how Lucy feels, I ran from there and saw what I'm able to do, this sort of made me more crazy...but happy at the same time I realized with this power I can kill those who wrong me, I picked up a pipe as back up while trying to Master my power, I then went on killing people who tried getting at me, I even killed slavers and rescued some of my kind, of course this meant that the heat would be on my ass

The Order noticed my activity and wanted to stop me, to be honest I was kinda scared, these guys were the hunter of beasts I knew these dicks would be too strong for me, but trying to escape them was impossible, in the end I had to fight them head on with my lead pipe and claws, I managed to beat them and kill them, then put their heads on spikes to spread the word of me, after that I became known as the Butcher of Jibana killing any fools getting in my way, but the Order didn't give up in hunting me and sent their living weapons the Silver Maidens, a bunch of woman who all seem to be attractive, likely because the woman in charge of their transformation was a desperate lesbian or something, they are fused with powerful Demon Blood becoming the ultimate killing machines in Jibana, once they attacked me I thought I could beat the easily...how wrong I was

The girls turn out to be a challenge for me as I take them all on with their speed, strength and power combined, they weren't messing around, I got badly hurt but it only just pissed me off to the point that I started to kick their asses hard, I managed to overpower them but 1 of them went berserk and became an Awakened Being, I nearly got killed but my Wolf side just made me go crazy and I defeated her with my power, this stopped her healing and weakened her, I then shouted to the citizens that Jibana is mine and that no one could mess with me, no one Jibana then became my playground, I could do whatever I want and no one could stop me...except him

The man with the hat, smokes every minute with a cigar that smells like death, Muetre Smokes, during 1 of my time messing around I raided a shop and killed some people while the others ran off, I ate all their stuff and gave some to Wolf too since he was my only friend then, but when I was having fun, in comes the old man himself, it turns out that the Order couldn't actually beat me, so they got him instead, I attacked but only managed to scratch his arm, the old man was tricky and after an intense battle, he beat my ass, I then couldn't take it anymore and waited for him to kill me, but he instead offered me something, offered me a job

After a while I accepted when he mention I could be a free citizen and that I will be treated equally like everyone else, it sounded like bullshit to me but it was either accept that or be put down like a common dog, after being known as dead and renamed to my sexy name the ladies know me by, Bheriya Smokes, during my time with the old man I met up with that blood bitch Kurai, the daughter of Vlad who I hear was the big time of Ravage but got his ass handed to him by Muetre,  I hear that Vlad scared Heaven and Hell so I wondered how the old man killed him and how he kicked my ass easily, I was trained by him and overtime I started to understand how to use firearms and other weapons, made by Muetre’s Engineer Gus who never shows his face, he might be fuck ugly but damn the stuff he makes is crazy, I hear her can make things in his sleep

At first I sucked, I sucked badly at my jobs, my first job was in the world of Remnant where I was suppose to find a Demon posing as a Huntsman in their world, bastard was skilled and kept cutting me up but thanks to my rage I barely managed to kill him, this was too crazy for me, when I did a job in Ravage I was attacked by another Silver Maiden but this 1 was actually tough and powerful so bad she nearly killed me by cutting off my head, I thought it was over but I wake 2 weeks after back in my new home with my head fully regenerated, Muetre had been waiting for me to wake up to say that I was fuckin up, so he said he will join me in a job, the job was to kill the 3 Orc Lords Jason, Grayson and Mason

Something in me pulsed, I felt excited, I was gonna murder the bastards who made my life a living Hell, after getting ready we went to the La Vanille Manor, the Master of the place was a half-human and half-demon named Joie Vanille who own many Wolfmen slaves as workers and maids, the prick had 10 Wolfman women dressed as maids around him all bowing at us, he found it weird that I wasn’t walking around in chains, Muetre explained to him that I was a citizen and I was his adopted son, which he found funny, a dog let off his leash, but after negotiating, Vanille had 1 of his maids show me around the barn behind the Manor where the other Slaves are, I waited for Muetre while he was talking with that dick, I then asked where the 3 Orc Lords were and the maid showed me

I saw them all, doing their usual, Jason the eldest of the brothers and the brains, he usually tortures his slaves to the point where they want to die, he breaks them badly, I would know because I’ve seen the shit he’s done, especially to me, Grayson, the middle brother who usually forced the Slaves even if they’re exhausted or tired he’d make them carry on or kill them brutally, the last and youngest 1 of them Mason, the dick who’s been tormenting me the most, being the strongest of them he usually crippled the Slaves, especially those who tried to escape, I can see the scar I gave him when I escaped, I saw Jason do the usual and attempted to rape Slave that tried to escape, I still remember what he said to me during my torture, “The only thing you will know is pain and agony”, I confronted him

While Jason pulled his pants down I called him out asking if he remembers me before I pulled out a little gun Gus put in my watch and fired at him, it wasn’t any ordinary gun, once it goes in you, you’re already dead, but before he died I said to him, “The only thing you will know is pain and death” before he bursted like a bloody balloon, Mason came out and saw me, because the gun was a 1 shot, I ran out, but I wanted to face him head on, we fought each other and he cut my pipe but I used the cut pieces to stab his knees and took his Hooksword and started cutting him up with it while smiling, it was the best moment of my life, finally payback, then I took his gun and shot his head off killing him, panicking that dick Grayson tried to escape with his bike, but I couldn’t fire at him since the gun at poor range but then I saw Graysons torso get shot off clean, I see behind me that Muetre shot him, of course the douche Vanille wasn’t happy with what we did but Muetre clicked his fingers and we disappeared

I finally felt clear and happy, they say revenge won’t make you feel better, but I felt fuckin great, after that I wanted to get better, I wanted to get stronger, so over the years Muetre has had some old friends show me how to fight, use a gun, know how to use weapons, he even tutored me shit you learn in school, taught me how to be charming, well I can be charming, in my own way if you know what I mean, he taught me how to speak and interact with people along with making me learn many languages just in case our client was foreign, I hunted many bastards down and done many jobs, I started making a rep for myself, becoming the Big Bad Wolf

During my time as a teen, my visit to the strip club when Muetre had to do talk with owner was great, I was glad a Demon was gonna attack the place because during Muetre’s meeting with the client I was kept company by many girls of different races, even Faunas, they showed me many great things and because of that I just love hot babes regardless of what race they are, so long as they’re sexy it’s fine by me, I’ll go for 1 that might try to kill me while looking gorgeous, sexy times are the best time for me, along with killing and getting paid

I found the bitch that cut my head off when I was younger, she actually had my old head on her wall, I was still pissed for that fight, so I fought her 1 more time and boy was she surprised when I ended up mutilating her ass, it was so satisfying, especially when her bravado broke, I didn’t hate the Silver Maidens after that, in fact that 1 I fought and went apeshit actually managed to turn back human, Muetre cured her when she had to be contained out of hospitality, in return she chose to become our maid, I kinda felt guilty for what i did to her by cutting her arm off, so I said to her that if she ever needed me I’ll be there to back her up

1 of my missions involved me saving a newborn baby from a sacrificial ritual in Yharnam (yes the Bloodborne world, I have been there too), but this was no ordinary baby, oh no, it was a humanoid squid baby, no-no I’m serious, I’m not bullshitting you, I mean he was kinda cute but annoying as hell, very clingy, he seem to like me so much and he kept wrapping around my head and you can imagine how much of a pain it is to shoot while that’s happening, I had to protect the little bastard, but was it over when I got him back home? No, the client then paid us to babysit the little bastard until he grows up, apparently he is a Deity, a newborn God meant to take charge of Ravage and fix it, but the problem was he only becomes 1 year older every century, so you can imagine how long he’ll be with us...fuck

You guys wonder why I hate my Dad so much right, not only did he abandon me and Mum and got her to dump me, not only did he make the Wolfmens take all the shit, he tries to fuck me over, you know how? He finds me doing a job and then tries to take my body away! The only reason he wanted to have us was he needed a vessel because unlike him, me and my half-brothers and sisters can use our power without the Ethereal Realm, because of that I hated him so much that I wanted to kill him myself and 1 day I will!

But just when you think that’s the only bad shit happening, what happens next, I get Satan interested in me, because he recognizes my Dad’s power in me, he thought that he could use me to take over Heaven, but everyone he has sent to take me has been killed by me and sent back, 1 day I was visited by my Mother who wanted to start over, she said that her insanity made her do wrong things, apparently she had another child and wanted me to join the family, but after everything I was thinking about it and after while I kinda accepted, a dumb move but I did, i told Muetre I’d retire and finish, surprisingly he was calm about it and let me off

Before I went to my Mum’s new place I was ambushed by the Demon Lords who wanted to take me to Satan, but I killed every last 1 off them, however this was actually a distraction as they actually were targeting my Mother and baby Sister’s home, I panicked and tried to get there in time, but they were butchered and killed, even after my Mother dumped me, I still got enraged for what they did to her and my sister, I was told who was responsible, a Vampire named Edward Black, after that I searched for the fucker causing a rampage around Ravage

After months of searching I found his place and wrecked it killing and butchering his army and guards, then we fought each other, he was a tough bastard and actually gave me a hard time but I ended up mortally wounding him, oh so I thought, it turned out when his blood spilled on me, it actually took control of me, he had me shoot myself with my own gun and then sent me to Hell, that dick set a trap on me, I later woke up trapped with the Chains of Judas, I couldn’t use my power or strength, Satan had his bitch Tormentum torture me until I swore to serve the bastard to help him raid Heaven, this carried on for weeks but it felt like years, I was losing my mind and getting crazy while resisting, I was even talking to Wolf in my head to calm me, but that wasn’t enough

I then realized destiny and fate can really fuck you over, that it can mess with you if it don’t like you, eventually I thought, fuck fate and fuck destiny, this is my life, I can do whatever I want my way, Chains that drains my power, fuck it I don’t need to abide by the rules or follow logic, I got so pissed that I broke out of my chains and became a Wolf God, using my new form and power I caused a rampage in the whole of Hell and killing many Demons including that bitch Tormentum, after turning back I wanted payback and hunted Satan within Hell, in the end and I found him and after our intense fight and when he tried to use the Godkiller on me, I managed to beat him and murder the son of a bitch, I took his gun and his Chariot, which turned into a Monster Truck for me and got me out of Hell

Muetre was actually waiting for me outside knowing I’d kill Satan and win in the end, after that I joined him again and started to hunt more and more, years passing by I was known by my rep and killed so many fuckers that I have the 2ND highest body count on Ravage, close to Muetre’s, after some time Kurai got kidnapped by her Uncle and the bastard that set a trap for me, I went to confront myself and save Kurai, I found Black and finally killed him, after that I became known in the other worlds too, this wolf wasn’t going to die anytime soon, badass in the hunt and sexy for the babes, oh yeah, Awooooooo!