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#but i’m just gonna draw her with glasses in the nerd design sorry guys
boltgunkiller-archive · 4 months
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i wasn’t gonna talk about it yet BUT i am drawing a nerd santana design. i loooove loser santana we all already know. but something about the aus where she’s like outwardly an actual Loser. yes
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inoobwriter · 3 years
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Life At U.A High School: Part 1
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Summary: It’s you first day at U.A high school. And now you have to fight... everyone in class 1-A?! How will the students of class 1-A react to you? With they like you? Hate you?
Fandom: My Hero Academia
Main Pairing: Midoriya x Bakugo X Todoroki x Reader
Word Count: 2.4k words
Art Cover by Me
Next Part: (Click here)
*****
*Notes Before Reading*
1. In this fanfiction the MC is a female so if you're a male reading this please ignore the drawings since the MC is portrayed as a girl.
2.  I gave a canon design to the reader but obviously, if you don't like it you can imagine whatever you want to look like. 
3.  IMPORTANT: This is my first fanfic in a long time so the romance will start off really slow and if you wanted smut, well this is not it chief.
4. My writing isn't my strongest skill so feel free to tell me any mistakes you read during this story.
5. Because I don't want to spoil which character the MC (You) will end up with I decided to post at least the tags of the ships mentioned in this story.
6. This story takes place between season 2 and 3 right after class 1-A finished their first term exam.
***I, DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS EXCEPT MC READER***
***PLEASE DO NOT REPOST OR STEAL MY ART FROM THIS WITHOUT PERMISSION***
Well, that's it for now! I might update this in the future.
Please enjoy my fanfiction and see you later! :D
*****
Part 1:
It was another normal day for the students of class 1-A, first-term exams had finally been over and everyone was happy more than usual as their nightmares have finally ended. They finally had a short time to relax and not worry about anything. They all were looking forward to summer vacation as well as the training camp. Today was their last day before summer vacation started. Yet for some reason, as they were walking in the hallways of the school Iida demanded more than usual for everyone to head to class early. Obviously, everyone ignored him and took their sweet time. Eventually ten minutes before class started Iida started to yell at everyone who was walking in the hallway to hurry up.
"Come all now! As students of U.A, we should all be punctual to class! Even if it's the last day for the first term here!" Iida said while waving his right hand, "Midoriya! Hurry up but no running in the halls."
"Coming!" Midoriya said speed walking to the class, "Man, I should really start waking up more early." He wheezed
"Oh shut up nerd." Bakugo yelled, "And you! Why are you so much of a pain in the ass than usual."
"Bakugo!" Kirishima said, "You really need to calm down! You can't be saying that to our class representative!"
"It's alright Kirishima," Iida said as his glasses cracked from rage
'It's not alright.' Everyone except Bakugo thought, 'He's clearly mad.'
Iida then adjusted his glasses as Yaoyorozu walked right next to him. "I wished we had more time to talk about this," Yaoyorozu said looking at Iida
"Which is why I urge them to get here early." Iida stared at everyone, "Well can't be helped. Listen, everyone, we have something important to say!"
Everyone walked towards Iida and Yaoyorozu.
"To answer your question Bakugo." Yaoyorozu said, "We're having a new student!"
"Wait for real?" Midoriya asked surprised
"All right!" Kaminari said
"What really?" Ashido said excitedly
"Wait how come you didn't tell us before?!" Sero asked
"Forget that!" Mineta said as drool came out of his mouth, "I wanna know if it's a girl."
Almost all the guys were shocked as they have not realized this before. The whole class became excited and started wondering how the new student would look like.
"Aww, I hope they are one!" Ashido said excitedly
"Yeah it would be nice to have more girls in this class," Jiro added.
"You said that, not me," Mineta said as he had a stupid pervy look on his face.
'A new student.' Midoriya thought excitedly then suddenly he realized something, "Hey Iida." Midoriya said as he approached him, "I didn't know we could have a new student in our class."
"Hey, what heck!" Kaminari yelled at Midoriya
"Yeah! Why are you suddenly against it!" Mineta said, "I bet you want her all to yourself!"
"We still don't know if they're a boy or a girl Mineta." Tokoyami spoke unfazed
"No, it's not like I'm against it." Midoriya said, putting his hands slightly up, "It's just... don't you think it's strange?"
Everyone then looked at Midoriya and thought about it for a minute
"It's true."Uraraka said, "Normally you would take the entrance exam at the start of the school year."
"Yeah." Sero scratched his head, "Plus I never heard anything about entrance exams being taken during the school year."
"That's because it isn't announced publicly."
Suddenly the door to the class opened and Mr. Aizawa walked in and looked toward them. Everyone was already in their seats and stayed silent as they watched him walk up in front of the class.
"Alright listen up. Today we have a new student joining your class."
From being quiet and scared of Mr. Aizawa everyone started being loud and excited about it being true. Everyone was wondering where they are.
"Enough." Mr. Aizawa said with a stronger tone.
And just like that everyone had quiet down and went back to being afraid of him.
Mr. Aizawa then turned to the door, "You can come in now."
And just like that, you walked into the classroom.
"Introduce yourself." Mr. Aizawa said
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"Hello! My name is F/N L/N and it's a real pleasure to meet you all! You said as you had your hands on your cheeks.
Everyone was excited until they saw your face. 'Hah?' Everyone thought, 'Why is her face like that?'
 "You have no idea how excited I was when I found out I'll be in your class! The famous class 1-A who managed to witness first hand, the League of Villains and work alongside with the pros!" You said.
"Huh, you know about that?" Yaoyorozu asked you
"Of course! It was all over the internet and TV, I'm so honored to be here!" You said bowing down to them
"That's isn't necessary," Iida says embarrassed, shaking his hands around. Everyone was flattered by your admiration.
"Man I already like her!" Kirishima said putting his arms behind his head feeling proud of himself.
Everyone seemed happy to see you and so were you. You really admired how ordinary kids around your age got to do heroic things for others you wanted to become someone as brave as them. But you were more excited when you saw-
"Not to be rude or anything." Midoriya said, scratching his face, "But why do we get a new student? Shouldn't L/N have waited next year?"
"Right! As the class representative, I ask that you tell us why, sir!" Iida said as he stood up and raised his hand
"Sit down," Mr. Aizawa said then he turned to look at Midoriya, "As for your question, we normally don't."
Everyone sat there confused as they stared at him. Mr. Aizawa sighed and explained, "Every year we have an entrance exam to get into this school, the written and practical test. If you fail the exam you have to wait until next year to retake it. If you've been recommended then you have a different exam from the rest. However, not only do we accept students who get recommended but we also scout for students. Obviously, we tend to recruit them at the beginning of the year as well but sometimes we find gifted students later than others around the end of the first term."
Everyone looked confused on how the school managed the scouting for students part. Mr. Aizawa sighed again, "Basically if the school finds you worthy enough and you didn't participate in the entrance exam you get another shot to become a student here. Not only does U.A high school help its students become the greatest heroes, but we also let others know that they too are also worthy of becoming heroes if they chose to. "
Midoriya then soften his look and looked down at his table, 'Just like how All Might told me that I too can become a hero as well.'
"Oh so were you the one who picked L/N?" Aoyama asked
"No." Mr. Aizawa sighed, " They got scouted out by someone else and just happened to pass the exam and now they were assigned to me."
Mr. Aizawa said, defeated, "Another student to make my life miserable."
"WE ARE THE ONE'S SUFFERING! WHY ARE YOU SULKING!" The whole class yelled at him.
"Anyways." Mr. Aizawa said as he gave both the class and you a glare, "Let's go to the training grounds." He started to walk towards the door, "Since I know you guys are curious about L/N's quirk we might as well train while we're at it. Everyone go change into your gym clothes and meet me on the training grounds. Yaoyorozu you take L/N to the locker room and introduce her to her locker." He said as he walked out of the classroom.
"All right! I can't wait to see your quirk!" Ashido said excitedly as she was running up to you
"Yeah hope it's something flashy!" Kirishima said
"And elegant like moi," Aoyama added as he was all sparkly
Everyone gathered around you and you quirky got fluster.
'Omg everyone wants to know about me!' You thought
"Tch." Bakugo said as he got up and walked, "Hey loser!"
You looked at Bakugo as he pointed at you, "You may think you're all hot shit for being recruited by the school but just to let you know I'm going to be #1, so I'll crush you!" He said as he left with an irritated look on his face.
'Oh...my...god!' You thought as you stared at him leaving, 'I thought I was gonna die!'
"Sorry about him." Midoriya said as he walked towards you, "He can be really mean at times."
"I can tell." You said panicking, "He looked like he wanted to murder me!"
"Yeah, he does that a lot to us." Kirishima said, scratching his head, "But I promise he's a good guy after you get used to him!"
"I hope not." You said suddenly getting nervous, "I don't want to be yelled at for the rest of my life."
As you stretched your face out of fear Iida demanded everyone to hurry up, you then followed Yaoyorozu to the locker room along with the rest of the girls. Everyone was cheerful and were welcoming you to their class.
"It's so nice to have you here," Jiro said
"Yeah one more friend to have!" Uraraka said clapping her hands
"Another girl to hang out with," Asui said looking up as she was thinking about something
"After this let's all hang out together!" Ashido said raising her hands up high.
As you nodded happily Yaoyorozu led you to your locker to get ready for the spar, 'I can't believe I'll be sparring with everyone. The top class of first-year! I can't wait to see all their quirks.' You thought excitedly. Then as you were ready to close your locker and follow the rest of the girls you paused, 'I'll be sparring with him... I hope... he's really is as cool as he was online.' you blushed as you bit your finger.
After a while, everyone gathered up on the training ground and Mr. Aizawa stood in front of the class and started talking, "Ok." He said as he reached out into his pocket and pulled out an eyedropper and started to put some on his eyes, "Who wants to fight L/N first." He said as he put away the eyedropper.
Everyone started to shout and raised their hands,
"Me! I wanna go first!"
"No fair I called dibs first!"
"Pick me~" Mineta drooled
"Well before we do anything I will explain the rules of this fight." Mr. Aizawa said as he raised his hand to them, "Both of the students will have bandanas on their heads, and whoever steals the other one's bandana first wins."
"Oh so just like in the mocking battle at the sports festival!" Hagakure said raising her arm up.
"Heh," Bakugo said smirking as he stretched one arm up, "Too easy."
'Yeah too easy indeed.' Midoriya thought as he put his hand on his chin, 'There's has to be a reason why.'
"Well in that case I'll go first!" Kaminari said walking towards the center of the stage. You then walked to the other side where Mr. Aizawa was.
"I'll promise I'll go easy on you." He smiled
You smiled back, "Oh no, don't hesitate. Please give me your all!"
Kaminari blushed a little as Mineta got salty, 'I should have been first!'
Everyone went to the sides to get a better look at the fight that was going to happen.
"But Mr. Aizawa!" Iida raised his hand, "To fight with a beginner that's just-"
"Begin." Mr. Aizawa ordered ignoring Iida's concern over you
"Don't worry pretty girl I'll promise this will only sting for a moment," Kaminari said as he started to run towards you, quickly charging electricity to his right hand
Midoriya noticed what he was doing, 'He's changing his technique from the sports festival. During the festival, Kaminari went full-on and used his attack open wide without any calculations and lost.' He then took out his notebook and started to mutter loudly as always making everyone sigh around him, 'There he goes again.' Everyone thought
"Interesting even Kaminari can think enough to improve his skills," Midoriya said, "All he has to do is-"
'Is getting a closed range on L/N and she's done!' Kaminari thought getting closer to you, 'I'm almost close! Now I gotta make sure I touch her-'
As he thought about his sure victory a hole suddenly appeared under him and he fell. Everyone was shocked wondering where he had gone too. Suddenly Kaminari appeared falling off a hole in the middle of the air a few yards off the ground of the other side where you were. By the looks of it, Kaminari had used up his quirk and was now in his dumb state. You walked up to Kaminari and took his bandana off his head.
"Thank you for at least trying." You smile as you walked to Mr. Aizawa handing him the bandana.
Almost everyone looked at you with shock, others kept their straight faces, and one even looked like furiously writing something on a notebook.
"Well what did you expect?" he said as he stared at everyone, "Everyone wants to know about L/N's quirk and what better way than to spar." He then turned around to look at them. 
"There's a reason why they are here, to begin with." Mr. Aizawa said in a serious tone, "They were specifically scouted from school and passed all the exams. Including the first term exams."
Everyone stared at you widely and stared back at Mr. Aizawa
"Do you think we let just any beginner into your class late in the school year?" Mr. Aizawa said with a serious tone, "Well think again."
Midoriya then looked at you and got serious.
"In this school, we help all students become the greatest heroes, we also let others know that they too are also worthy of becoming heroes if they chose to work faster and harder to catch up with you guys."
'That's right.' Midoriya looked at you, 'If Y/N got accepted by the school and is already at the same level as us.'
"I waited for the day we got to meet! Please." You said as you looked straight at Midoriya.
'Y/N must be very strong.' Midoriya thought as he closed his notebook and responded back to your glare with determination in his eyes.
"Show me what makes you guys the talk of the school." You blushed slightly "...Midoriya"
1: The New Student (End)
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* Hope you like it and want to see more!*
*****
Chapter List
Part 2
*****
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alcheminary · 5 years
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uhhhhh yeaaaaaah I’ve got an order for some edwin featuring parental roy and riza, hold the royai?
merry new year, @bifullmetal, I’m your secret santa for 2018!! I’m sorry this is late, I was held up by some travel plans that popped off a little earlier than I thought they would
you asked for basically anything, so my plan going in here was to deliver a wintery and modern spin on the classic mermaid au fic. of course it ran away from me, so now you get a wip of a fic, and that just seems like a bum present so I draw art to make up for that, and gosh dude I just hope you like it
thanks to @fullmetalsecretsanta for putting this event together for 2018, you guys are awesome, for sure
anyway, here’s a sneak peek at the first chapter!
(edit: sorry for the extra late posting, I saved this to my drafts again on accident which is kind of the most embarrassing mistake I could possibly make)
“The Sea Bleeds Blue” Chapter 1 (prototype)
“... the man is reported to have been under the influence of alcohol during the time of his encounter…”
The tiny little TV blares throughout the house from its perch on the kitchen counter, a feat much more impressive in possibly any other structure that isn’t a cramped beach house. Like, seriously cramped. The kind of cramped where you can barely lay flat across the floor without hitting a wall.
It’s not like Winry Rockbell hates her grandma’s beach house. In a way, she gets it. You get older, your health starts to go, the warm weather is easy on your joints and the air is just so much easier to breathe compared to city smog. And everyone else your age has the same idea, too. When you have a nest egg and no other obligations, why not? Why not just live at the beach, wake up every morning to the soothing ebb of waves, sip your coffee on a porch overlooking the scenery, be a family vacation destination in and of yourself, and just wait to die?
That’s her whole bugbear with the thing actually, now that she thinks about it. People come to the beach to die.
She blinks hard, reaches for her wire cutters, and tries not to think about it much more than that.
“... officials like park ranger Jean Havoc however say the injuries are more likely to have been caused by a particularly territorial sea lion,” the newscaster on the TV continues, her voice tinny and distorted by the on-board speakers. Honestly, she could fix those if Gran would let her...
“He might’ve been feedin’ ‘em, harassin’ ‘em… Sea lions ain’t known to be gracious about their personal space, so all it takes is one loud, persistent jerkwad to ruin their whole day. Heck, mine too! Hahaha.”
“The man was admitted to the hospital this morning, and is expected to make a full recovery…”
Paninya scoffs, loud enough to startle Winry just as she’s threading the headlight through its socket. Luckily a less delicate part of this process. “Sea lion my butt. I’ve bounced frisbees off those things and they haven’t moved.”
She pauses as she considers that image. “Please tell me you don’t make field goals out of sea lions on purpose.”
“Of course not! They’re just… big. And bouncy. And all over? You can’t go down the boardwalk without tripping on them. Like, seriously, is there like a sea lion sanctuary nearby or something? Don’t they migrate?” Paninya asks, her nose scrunching up.
“Uh, I think Mr. Hughes might—”
“No, wait, that’s beside the point,” she interrupts. “And the point here is that I’m not buying what that park ranger is selling.” Her deep brown eyes watch Winry expectantly.
Winry puts down the wires she was futzing with and turns to give her a long-suffering smile, resigning herself to the next few minutes being completely unproductive. “Alright, detective, give me the scoop. What’s really going on in Brightly Cove?”
Paninya always gets this wild grin on her face when she does this. The corner of her smile lifts up just so, her eyes glint, and she squares her shoulders like she’s the hardboiled crime noir star the situation needs.
“Okay, so,” she starts, “You saw the gashes on the guy, right?”
Winry shrugs. “A little bit.”
“Okay, well, they’re completely inconsistent with a sea lion attack. We’d be looking for bites and puncture wounds, and he got approximately uhh, NONE of those. So either sea lions have mutated to have razor sharp claws in the past week, or it wasn’t a sea lion and the park ranger is bullshitting us to cover up what it REALLY was.”
“Right, I’m following so far.”
“So, let’s set the scene.” She stands up to stalk around the incredibly small kitchen table toward Winry. “You’re a dumb tourist that came to the beach in the winter. You’ve brought a brand new jet ski with you, completely oblivious that the water is way too cold for that right now. Because you’re a dumb tourist.”
Winry takes the cue. “I’m a savvy tourist because I’ve arrived when no one is here and none of the shops are open! Locals LOVE my business! Sure hope nothing happens to me without any lifeguards!”
“You’re out on the water when you get caught… in a current! Waves come and pummel you towards the shore, one by one! Before you know it you’re smashed up against the rocks,  no shore to save you. You’re stuck.”
She musters the most dramatic slump over the back of the chair that she can manage. “Woe is the fate of a tourist such as I.”
“But wait!” Paninya raises a hand to her forehead, shielding her eyes from some kind of indoor sun. “What’s that coming toward you? It couldn’t be, is it a person, come to save you in your darkest hour? But then it comes closer, and you realize fate has never been so kind… because there, in the distance… is…“ She leans in close to Winry with a grave look.
“Is…?”
“Bigfoot with a machete.”
“Bigfoot with a—?!” Winry sputters, pushing Paninya away as she absolutely howls with laughter. “Your idea of a more likely culprit than a sea lion is Bigfoot with a machete?!”
“Uh, yeah?” She lifts an eyebrow. “Come on Winry. The gashes. The rocks. The collectible shot glass he leaves at the scene of every crime. It’s totally Bigfoot’s m.o.”
Winry turns back to the mess of robotics on the table. “I’m done with you. Completely done. I’m kicking you out.”
“What? Noooo, come oooon, I’ve got nothing else to do today! I’m gonna be so bored, Winry, pleeease,” Paninya whines, flopping bonelessly onto the table with her best puppy-dog eyes. Winry is mostly unaffected.
“Why not just go hang out with Lan Fan?” she asks. “She puts up with you way more than I do.”
“Can’t. She’s out with her grandpa ‘scoring sweet holiday deals’ at the outlets.” The complaint comes with air quotes. “Besides, you’ve been talking about how cool this project is gonna be for like, mooonths. I can’t miss it after that kind of hype.”
“I have kind of been taunting you with it, haven’t I?” Winry sighs, curling a loose wire around her finger. “Tell you what. If you can be quiet and not so… Paninya the amazing living distraction on me, then I’ll let you come with me later to do the experiment.” Paninya’s whole disposition perks up like a labradoodle. “But! That means no distractions.”
“Aye captain, no distractions,” Paninya promises with a little salute.
~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~
Several hours in that ramshackle beach house kitchen, crammed around a table and dutifully trying to keep potato chip crumbs from invading her whole zone (which, to Paninya’s credit, does not technically count as a distraction), and it’s finally complete. Just in time for low tide, too. The thing she’s been dreaming of doing for months, the senior project that will launch her college applications from drab to fab, the thing that will get her out of this backwater beach town for good...
“Okay, so. No more secrets. Tell me what your project is, Win,” Paninya demands, handing her a roll up cord out of the backpack they brought with them. Winry beams at her.
“Wwwweeell, do you remember those guys from like, San Fran who started building an aquatic robot to explore a hole that was rumored to have treasure at the bottom?”
Paninya pulls out a half-eaten bag of Ruffles from the backpack. “No, but that sounds completely rad. Is that your project? Oh shit, are we gonna find treasure?”
“Probably not,” Winry casually admits, ignoring the way Paninya deflates. “But the robot, yeah. The one they built was a world-wide collaboration across the internet. They had a goal, and people would test their builds by building one of their own, tweak it, and report their findings on those tweaks. It was super cool.”
“Yeah, cool for nerds maybe…” Paninya mumbles around a chip.
“SO,” she presses on, “I built one of my own. With some tweaks. You know, in the spirit of the thing. Now I just need to test it out, record my success, and write a whole essay on it.”
“Which is why we’re in the spooky cave that you can only get to at low tide and has a mysterious bottomless pit in it? So you can see if your ‘bot dives or fries?”
“Yep!” Winry answers cheerfully. “And why not just use Ling’s pool to do this instead? My legs don’t get good traction in here. I almost slipped earlier. I almost died.”
“Because Ling’s pool isn’t saltwater, and you’re fine.”
“Wow. Cold. Is this what a shitload of free time your senior year does to you, or is it just the overachieving itself?”
“Both,” Winry chirps, and plugs the cord into the tablet. She moves to plug in the other end into the robot itself, but frowns. The waterproof chassis doesn’t look right, like it settled in transport, skewing the whole design just slightly enough that it kind of worries her. Just that tiny bit of pressure on the cable could knock it out with the right bump, or damage the whole port.
Oh well. That’s why a scout’s always prepared, right? She pulls a knife out of her pocket and carefully shaves the plastic away to make room. And just like that, the plug fits like a charm. Nice and snug.
She turns to Paninya, and nods. “It’s show time.”
“Wait, waaaait,” Paninya stops her, waving a cheese-dusted hand around as the other reaches into the backpack. “It’s bad luck to sail a ship without a name. Got one?”
“Uh… I’ve just been calling it Divebot mark 1?” she offers.
Paninya stops digging through the supplies to stare. “Come on, Win. I’ve taught you to ‘yes and’ better than that.”
“Ugh, fine, okay. Um… Divey Jones?”
“Better.” Paninya reveals a can of ginger ale, and at Winry’s own disbelieving stare, shrugs. “It’s not like I have champagne, dude. Ready?”
“Ready.”
Gently, Winry eases the newly christened Divey Jones into the pool of water in front of them at the same time Paninya starts vigorously shaking the can. It floats on top of the surface, gently bobbing, and Winry tosses a grin at Paninya. First success: buoyancy. Next: video feed.
She boots up the tablet, jailbroken to run an open framework because nobody wants you to sandbox their stuff anymore, and opens the custom app she programmed just for this project. One part video capture, one part robot controller. It saved her the parts cost of making a controller, but also? It’s just a little more impressive for whoever looks over her work. Look, she can engineer hardware and software!
When the window prompt comes up to sync the devices, she starts to get jittery. It was one thing to test out at the house, where everything seemed to work just fine, but this was it. This was what either made her winter break a vacation or a mad dash to troubleshoot whatever could have possibly gone wrong in her schematics. The only thing separating her from either possibility was the flip of a switch.
She picks Divey back up from the water, turns it over, and flips it from “off” to “on”.
Immediately, it begins whirring to life, humming in her hand as the battery does its work. She picks up the tablet and pulls out a notepad lined with little squares to check off as she goes through the boot up process: Video feed online? Check. Headlights? Check. A quick figure eight around the little pool confirms that the fins and motors are working, and she checks that off as well.
It’s time for the big moment. She and Paninya nod at each other.
She deflates the swim bladder a little bit, and as Divey Jones begins to sink into the black abyss, Paninya opens the can of ginger ale to a satisfying arc of spray across the cavern, whooping and laughing at the mess it makes. “Bon voyage!!” she calls down the hole, and Winry shakes her head, smiling and turning her attention to guiding the robot on its way.
The “bottomless pit” is an old volcanic magma tube of some sort, five feet in diameter at the top but quickly narrowing as you go down, and filled with water that pours into the cave at every high tide. The cave that contains it is only accessible on foot during low tide, and you have to be careful not to get caught in the cave during high tide. There’s a ton of warnings on a sign outside that attempt to dissuade tourists from trying to camp out in it, and for good reason.
She got stuck in here at high tide once, when she was a kid. Blacked out and woke up to an ambulance and her grandma freaking out. Couldn’t step foot into the place for a few years after that, partly because of trauma, and partly because the park rangers have tightened up their watch on the place ever since.
So. She and Paninya aren’t really supposed to be here. But, you know. It’s for science.
Paninya leans her head on Winry’s shoulder and watches the video feed on the tablet, the only indicator of where the robot is now that it’s turned a corner out of sight. She presses a chip to Winry’s lips, who mindlessly opens her mouth to accept it she’s so focused.
“How deep is this thing, anyway?” Paninya asks after a few more moments of watching video of dark gray rock walls float by.
“Hopefully less than fifty feet? The cable isn’t any longer than that.”
“Yeah, and you’re almost out of rope,” Paninya observes, looking at the coil beside them that grows thinner and thinner as the robot dives onward. “So now might be a good time to say you see the bottom.”
“Well, I don’t see anythi… wait.” Winry leans forward, bringing the tablet screen up to her face, her brow furrowing. There’s a small irregularity in the tunnels further down where it opens up a bit more. It’s like… what it looks like when an octopus camouflages itself against a rock. But the video on Divey’s tiny little camera is so grainy… and it looks so, so much bigger than an octopus.
Paninya leans in closer. “What? What do you see?”
“I… don’t know?” she answers honestly, and then something really startles her. “Oh fuck, it moved. It just moved—”
“What moved? Where am I looking?”
“Right here!” She points at the screen, at the tiny mass of pixels that is growing and changing and moving, even as the robot sits still, and she doesn’t know what it is. A thought occurs somewhere in her head that maybe she should start backing Divey up, but before she can do anything the mass surges forward in a terrifying blur and the feed cuts to static.
“Divey, no!!” Paninya squeals, and Winry nearly tosses the tablet across the room. But she’s cool. She keeps her cool. She’s smarter than to throw away the one thing containing most of the several past months of work.
“What the hell could…” She stops, the zippy sound of cord sliding across rock catching her off guard. That pitiful coil of cord that was slowly disappearing into the abyss with Divey is disappearing so much faster now, and with the tablet still connected to it.
“Winry, Winry Winry Winry, the tablet, you’ve gotta let go of the tablet—” Paninya babbles, scrambling to get onto her feet, and Winry doesn’t even think this time. She fumbles for the knife at her side, and in one swift motion, severs the line, just in time for the newly frayed end to get sucked into the hole like spaghetti.
Her mouth is dry as she looks up at Paninya.
“Run.”
259 notes · View notes
dkronpa · 5 years
Text
Chapter 3: Journey to Despair, Grave Secrets, Grave Lies ~Daily Life Part 1~
THE LONG AWAITED CHAPTER 3 BEGINS
My bad for it taking so long I had a bad case of writers block half-way through but I have the whole plot for this chapter totally ironed out now. I’ll write as often as possible and hopefully I won’t leave you guys hanging like that again
Enjoy~
-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Dream Sequence-
 It’s cold. Really cold. Winter, I think. No snow but the wind is biting at my skin. I’m staring at a car.
 No, I’m staring at what’s under the car. The blood coming from underneath and the hand stretching from underneath. There’s someone crying nearby. Where am I again? What am I doing?
 Why didn’t I do anything? Why? Why?
 Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy-
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life: Ryuu’s Room-
 “Ugh!” I jolted up in a cold sweat. What was that? A dream? No…a memory? But surely something like that would be easy to recall, but I don’t remember that kind of event at all…it must have been a dream. “Y-yeah, a dream.”
 I let out a shaky sigh and grabbed my E-Handbook. It was close to Monokuma’s morning announcement, so I may as well get ready.
 …but should I even bother? After what happened yesterday…we could all be out of the killing game by now if I hadn’t spoken like that. It’s my fault we’re all still in the killing game…Hachi-san killed Irunami-san so we could all escape and I made both of their deaths in vain.
 Even so…I should try my best to show face, shouldn’t I? Come on Ryuu. Pull yourself together.
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life: Short numbered-
 By the time I got to the cafeteria, I expected everybody else to be already eating breakfast though when I entered the room, there were a few people missing from the group. “Huh…? Is this everyone that showed up?” I asked everyone present.
 “Shinko and Yokozawa said the same thing, they don’t feel like they can trust anybody here. So, they’ve locked themselves in their rooms and are refusing to leave. They’ll probably leave later to get food; they can’t stay in there forever.” Sly-san answered.
 “Hmm? You went to check on them?” Asano-san inquired.
 “We need to keep track of the group in this situation. Don’t read into it when it’s nothing deep.” Sly-san said.
 “Graves-san isn’t here either…” Ram-san noted.
 “I met her in the hallway earlier. She said she was going to keep her distance for a while. Doesn’t know who to trust anymore.” Kurohiko-san answered. This group really broke up after last night. And with those three not present right now…it really feels empty in here than how it used to be…
 “Oi, Nagata. Did you sleep alright? You look exhausted.” Okanaya-san looked at me with worry. I instinctively touched the dark circles under my eyes. Ram-san looked over with concern as well.
 “It’s nothing. Bad dream is all, woke me up early.” I murmured.
 “One bad dream is not such a terrible thing, Nagata-sama. After all, it is better to get your bad dreams out of the way so that your eternal dream will be an enjoyable one.” Ishikawa-san smiled.
 “Jesus, do you ever talk about something less terrifying? You realise what situation we’re in, right? We don’t wanna hear you talk about death all the fuckin’ time.” Okanaya-san snarled.
 “I was not attempting to make anyone uncomfortable.” Ishikawa-san replied.
 “Well you are, so shut up already.”
 “Okanaya, that’s enough.” Sly-san said. Okanaya-san grumbled under his breath but dropped it. This group is starting to show cracks. Today it may only be three people that don’t show up, but what about tomorrow? What about the day after that? Will I even live long enough to see the day after tomorrow? What am I supposed to do-
 “N-Nagata-kun…” Ram-san put her hand on mine.
 “Sorry. I’m fine.” I lied with my best fake smile. I’m not sure if she believed it or not but Ram-san nodded slowly not letting her concern disappear from her expression. I wonder if anyone’s stealing glances at me? Do they hate me?
 “Geez, what’s with the tension in here? So gloomy, it’s like you guys lost your chance at something suuuuper important.” Monokuma said, doing his stupid sudden appearance shtick. I’m over it. “…not even a yell from the pansy? Alright then. I was gonna wait until everyone gathered to tell you, but it seems like this is about as good as it’ll get.”
 “Let me guess. Another building has opened up?” Sly-san said.
 “W…wow, you aren’t just gonna let me have my moment, huh…?” Monokuma looked down with a sad expression. “Yeah…you got a new building. Feel free to explore it at your own discretion. Or don’t. Doubt you’ll find anything useful there anyway.” Monokuma shrugged before disappearing again.
 “Eh? Why did he say that? About not finding anything useful there…?” Kurohiko-san asked.
 “Probably because we won’t find anything useful.” Sly-san said.
 “Or he is using reverse psychology in order to compel us all to investigate the new building. I feel as though that is a much more plausible answer. What shall we do?” Ishikawa-san said.
 “It’s probably for the best that we investigate. The more we learn about this place, the better. Shall we all head over?” Kurosaki-san asked.
 “Will you be included in that group? If so, I’ll pass.” Sly-san folded his arms and leaned back into his seat.
 “I suppose it’s just the rest of us then! Have fun, Herr Knives!” Kurosaki-san smiled and gave Sly-san’s back a firm slap as he walked past him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get so angry that quickly.
 “Don’t touch me so damn casually!” Sly-san yelled. There was a moment of shock seeing as he’d never lost his cool before. Though he regained his composure just as quickly as he lost it. “…if you start pushing everybody’s buttons then you’ll just end up dead.”
 “O-oi, Sly! No need to say stuff like that! I get your pissed, but…” Okanaya-san said warily. Sly-san crossed his arms and looked around the room.
 “If you all want to be around that then be my guest. Just don’t cause any trouble for me.” Sly-san stood up and made his way for the door.
 “Sly-sama, please wait-“ Ishikawa-san attempted to call out to him but he was already out the door by the time she found her voice. Even Sly-san is distancing himself from the group. Even though we said we’d all work together at the start of all this!
 “Ah…that’s a shame.” Kurosaki-san murmured. “Shall we? We should investigate the building now.” He made his way for the door. There was this lost look in his eyes as if a difficult thought was stuck in his mind.
 “I don’t think I’m ever going to understand what goes on in his head.” I said to nobody in particular. Ram-san gave me a look of concern, though she understood what I mean. I’m sure of it.
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life: History has its eyes on you-
 I walked to the building next to the Leisure building with Ram-san and Okanaya-san. To say the building exteriors differed would be an understatement. In contrast to the leisure building which appeared more like a fancy gym, this building was designed to appear like a medieval castle with four spires at each corner of the building and iron bars on the windows instead of glass and curtains.
 The only part of the building that seemed out of place with the rest of it was the front door. A card reader was attached to the wall next to a glass sliding door that had no handle for us to open it with. “A card reader to get into the building? How come the other buildings don’t have this?” Okanaya-san asked.
 “Are you wondering about my design choices?” Monokuma suddenly appeared next to us, me and Ram-san jumping slightly. “It’s a card reader, just use your E-handbook on it already!”
 “But why is it only on this building?” Okanaya-san asked again.
 “I like to give a unique thing to each of my buildings! The dorms are underground, the leisure building had the massive ventilation system…and this! The history building has a card reader to get in and out of it!”
 “History building?” Ram-san repeated.
 “Yep yep! This building has got all kinds of good stuff! There’s an archive filled to the brim with cool books to read! There are many exhibits throughout the floors for you to check out too! I’m sure nerds like Nagata will enjoy it!”
 “H-hey!” I protested.
 “Anyway, you guys get the gist, right? You gotta use your E-handbook to get in and out of the building! So…I’ll see ya later!” And with that, he was gone.
 Okanaya-san sighed and pulled out his E-Handbook. “What a pain in the ass. This is so unnecessary.” He held his E-Handbook up to the card reader. The LED light above the reader went from blue to green and the door slid open.
 The three of us walked in to be greeted by the discomforting atmosphere. The hallways were dimly lit by the fires of torches decorating the walls. I know Monokuma likes his themes, but this is way too much.
 “Should we look for those exhibits that Monokuma mentioned?” Okanaya-san asked. Ram-san and I silently agreed and began making our way through the hallway of the building. I stuck close to Okanaya-san, as did Ram-san, though she was holding onto his sleeve and looking around nervously at the walls. There were odd red stains here and there decorating the stone…I didn’t want to think about it.
 We entered the room at the very end of the hallway to find it decorated with displays of different weapons across the walls and in glass cases. It reminded me of a museum with how it was laid out. The head of Graves-san popped out from behind one of the displays and grinned widely at us.
 “Yo, dudes! Can you believe this place?! How cool is all this?!” She cheered brightly. “I dunno how Monokuma managed to do all this. Some of these weapons are can’t get acquired by the public and some I’ve only seen drawings of. I never thought I’d get to see these kinds of old weapons for myself!”
 “If that’s all true then I really worry about Monokuma’s sources.” I murmured.
 “Ah…like whoever’s running this killing game? Someone rich, for sure. They’d need billions if they wanted to set something like this up. Not to mention actually constructing this area for us to play in…”
 “Play?” Okanaya-san repeated.
 “Well, duh! You ‘play’ a game, right? Even if it’s a killing game, it’s a game, nonetheless. So, we’re the players and we’re playing…right?” Graves-san spoke so casually about it that it actually threw me off a little. I suppose she’s in the same boat as Sly-san and Kurosaki-san. They all seem to have been through a lot to get to this point, so I shouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t so easily phased by the situation.
 “Either way, the real problem is knowing who had the ability to set it up.” I jumped a little when Yokozawa-san spoke. How long had he been there?! He clearly noticed my surprise and formed a look of irritation. “Pay attention to your surroundings. I’ve been here the whole time.”
 “Oh yeah! I totally forgot I followed you here!” Graves-san said.
 “I don’t blame you. I don’t stand out, so it’s not like I’m worth remembering.” Yokozawa-san threw his arms up as if he were joking though I’m pretty sure he was being serious…
 “Yokozawa-kun, we heard you weren’t going to be leaving your room anymore. Why are you out here? In fact, we heard you were going to keep your distance from us too, Graves-san!” Ram-san asked.
 “It’s a new area. Even if I don’t wanna get involved with all of you, I should still investigate as new areas open up to us. Never know when we might find a hint about our situation. Unfortunately, I got spotted by Graves-san and now I can’t seem to shake her off.”
 “Hey now! I know you appreciate the company! It can’t be too fun being alone all the time. Plus I have the same reasons for being here as Junpei, so I thought it made sense to go about with him.” Graves-san said.
 “Speak for yourself. I don’t mind being by myself, in this situation, it’ll probably be better for my health if I keep my distance.” Yokozawa-san replied. “You’re all trouble for me…keep out of my way, alright? I don’t wanna end up like the others.” The blogger shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and strolled out of the room.
 “Hmm…he’s definitely lonely.” Graves-san nodded slowly.
 “You can tell?” Ram-san asked.
 Graves-san seem to take her time deciding her reply, “I guess…I used to be pretty lonely.” She muttered.
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life: Fields of Knowledge-
 We made our way up to the second floor and made our ways to the room marked with a book on the ElectroID maps. It was easy to predict that when we entered that the room in question was going to be a library, tall walls filled to the bring with books almost like an archive that was started as far back as the stone ages.
 “Th-this is incredible…! Did Monokuma prepare this for us?” Ram-san asked, taking in the view.
 “So many books…I guess we at least have something to occupy our time with. Though I’d rather find a clue to a way out of here.” I said. It was an impressive collection though; I couldn’t deny it.
 “These are all most likely history books if this is the history building…even so, I want to have a look around and see if we can find anything useful.” Ram-san said.
 “Good idea! Alright, Nagata, you take the centre part, I’ll take the left! Ram, we’ll trust you with the right side of the room!” Okanaya-san ordered out his instructions and without waiting for a response, ran off into the shelves of books.
 “At least he’s always prepared to work.” Ram-san said before walking to the other side. I walked down the centre aisle of books. They were categorised by subject. Middle Ages. Roman Empire. Medical Studies. Even some 20th century crime novels. Even if Monokuma placed these here to give us ideas for murder, I still might read them at some point.
 As I was nearing the end of the line of bookshelves, I felt myself step on something. Moving my foot out of the way revealed a polaroid photo laying on the middle of the floor.
 “Wh…what the heck…?” I murmured as I picked it up. The photo showed Kibe-san, Hachi-san and Irunami-san all sat in a line together holding up peace signs to the camera, a large window with the sun shining in was in the background and in the corner of shot I could make out what seemed to be a classroom desk.
 What the hell is this…? Did those three know each other before we came here? No, I’m sure Irunami-san would have mentioned knowing those two before coming here.
 “Whoops!” Monokuma suddenly dropped down from atop the shelves. “Can’t believe I left this lying around, silly me!”
 “E-eh? This belongs to you?”
 “Umm…in a sense! A-anyway, give it back!” Monokuma quickly snatched the photo away. “Memories are important, you know! I wanna keep this one, so stop being so selfish!” Without making any sense, he jumped atop the shelves once more, most likely disappearing as he always does.
 What was with that photo? The way Monokuma talked about it…is it a real photo? Not faked? A memory…
 “Oi, Nagata!” I snapped back up and saw Okanaya-san waving at me from the end of the line of bookshelves. “What’re you standing around for?! Come on!” Whatever that was…I have a bad feeling about its implications…
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life: Report back!-
 We all sat down in the cafeteria. Or…all those that were still coming here. “Ah…we’re really short on people now…” Kurohiko-san commented.
 “It can’t be helped. Plus without Tomoe-chan, we don’t have anybody here to give us maps to visualise our new locations…it sucks.” Amaterasu-san said.
 “If it sucks so much, try to show it, will you?” Kurohiko-san sighed.
 “If I may take the lead for our reports, please?” Asano-san waited to hear if there were any objections. “N…no? G-good. Shall we discuss our findings on the history building…? Myself, Kurohiko-kun, and Amaterasu-san all worked together when investigating however we could not find any such clue as to how we can escape.”
 “So, the usual.” Okanaya-san sighed.
 “That doesn’t mean there wasn’t cool stuff to see! On the first floor this had this amazing display of different weapons from across the ages! I’ve never seen anything like it! I love the history of weaponry!” Graves-san said cheerfully.
 “E-even though that was all put together so it would be easier for us to kill each other…?” Ram-san said.
 “Weapons can still be interesting, even if they aren’t being used.” Graves-san replied.
 “It’s definitely less jarring than the torture room on the third floor. Filled with different kinds of instruments of torture. Iron maidens, stretchers, pliers, saws…it’s nasty.” Amaterasu-san said in her usual monotonous voice.
 “T-torture stuff…?” Graves-san gasped. “I can’t believe I never went to check it out! I’ll need to rectify this mistake as soon as possible! The stretcher is one of my favourite torture devices, it should have been used in a Saw movie, for sure! I’ll take Junpei to see it!”
 “Something tells me Yokozawa-sama would most likely decline that offer.” Ishikawa-san said with a giggle. “It is clear Monokuma-sama is far more direct now about wanting us to kill each other if he’s put all of that together. He also gave us supplies to make murder easier to commit.”
 “What do you mean? There’s more?” Kurohiko-san paled a little. “G-geez…isn’t there already enough…”
 “A room also on the third floor contains things such as special poisons, common things people are allergic, trip wires, chemicals, and far more.” Ishikawa-san explained. She was silent for a moment before pursing her lips, “I…feel as though we should steer clear of that building at all costs. It is far too dangerous to go near…”
 “Oh…? I’m afraid I can’t agree to that. After all, that library is far too important to stay away from.” Kurosaki-san said. He was being unusually quiet this whole time, it was a little unnerving. “That library has a lot of valuable information if you know where to look. I plan on studying the contents there further afterwards…but I feel as though a clue to our situation is hiding in there. Somewhere in those books.”
 The photo Monokuma snatched away from me came to mind. I could say something right now, but if I do…would that have good consequences? People might suspect the people in the photo are suspicious. But we all saw their bodies…
 Kurosaki-san’s eyes flicked towards me. Does he know what I’m thinking? Do I look suspicious? How does he always seem like he knows what’s going on…?
 “Very well, the library may be okay…but perhaps we can board up the other rooms? We should at least take some defensive procedures.” Ishikawa-san said.
 “You think Monokuma would allow something like that? Don’t be an idiot. He’d change the rules in a heartbeat so that we aren’t allowed to block the entrances to the rooms in any of the buildings.” Kurosaki-san argued.
 “He has a point. Monokuma’s goal is to kill all of us. No way he’d let us block our own access to the weapons.” Amaterasu-san said. Ishikawa-san fiddled with the sleeve of her dress and silently conceded defeat.
 “If that’s all, are we done here? I plan on heading back into the library and continuing my studies…” Kurosaki-san stood up and made his way for the door. His hand resting on the door-handle, he looked back at the group, giving me a once over in particular. “We all have things we’re hiding…I wonder who’s hiding the fact that they’re the reason we’re here.” And with that, he left.
 “What a prick. It would so much easier if he was one of the ones who died.” Okanaya-san cursed.
 “Okanaya-kun, you can’t say something like that!” Ram-san puffed her cheeks out and glared at Okanaya-san. The tour guide took a moment staring at Ram-san’s face before letting out a sigh. Something about that expression seemed to stop him from arguing. “…ah, sorry, I just yelled at you like that!”
 “No, it’s fine. You’re right…my bad.”
 “…can I ask you guys something?” Kurohiko-san spoke.
 “Is something wrong?” Ishikawa-san said.
 “…if I’m honest, a lot is wrong. We’re falling apart as a group. Four of us are keeping their distance…Kurosaki-san…he just gives me a bad energy…I don’t know what to think anymore…”
 “Kurohiko-kun, that is not the attitude to have.” Asano-san said. “I will concede that our position as a group is less than ideal but if we act like that then our situation will never improve. For now, we should give those people space to collect their thoughts before we try to ask them to re-join us in our routine.”
 “…if you say so…” Kurohiko-san nodded.
 “You guys are something else.”- Graves-san folded her arms –“I only came here to see what everyone had to report…but now I just don’t understand you all even more. So frustrating…”
 “Graves-san?” I said cautiously.
 “…oh well. Nothing I can do about it.” She shrugged, making her way for the exit. Guess it was going to take more to get her to come back into the group properly.
 “She has a darkness inside her, do you not think? Right now, I would say Graves-sama is our biggest worry.” Ishikawa-san said.
 “She’s a secret agent. Other than Sly-chan, Karma-chan is the one who’ll have the easiest time killing someone. Scary.” Amaterasu-san added. Yeah…scary.
 -Chapter 3 Daily Life, The Cards in your deck-
 The usual. We stood in the gymnasium after Monokuma made his announcement. Even those who were keeping their distance had turned up, though clearly not happy about the situation. Shinko-san was angrily tapping a rhythm with his shoe.
 “That motherfucker barely even waits before giving us a motive. I’m sick a’ this shit!” He growled.
 “Shinko-sama, do not give into those emotions of yours. Us 12 have been able to resist the past two motives. I am sure we will all be able to do it again. If we have faith in each other and work together, we will prevail.” Ishikawa-san reassured.
 “God, that way you talk pisses me off. You can spout the same fuckin’ speech all you want, but if there’s a motive, someone will give into it. It’s just how it goes.” Shinko-san replied. Ishikawa-san pursed her lips and glared at Shinko-san. An unusual thing for Ishikawa-san to do but I suppose Shinko-san and Ishikawa-san have always been like oil and water…
 “Yikes! Such a thick juicy tension! Can I get a bite?” Monokuma laughed into his paws. “I’m kidding of course! Tension is way too full of calories for a bear of my size!”
 “Can you just quit with the jokes? They don’t even make sense now.” Amaterasu-san said.
 “Not my fault you stoic chicks don’t get humour.” Monokuma shrugged. “Anyway, guess what time it is, kids! Motive time! And for todays motive…” Monokuma produced a set of cards. Each with the name of one of us written on the front.
 “Ah…didn’t we already do something like this?” Graves-san asked.
 “No! This is different! Just take it!” Monokuma handed out the cards to the corresponding student. I opened mine up to find a list of names…a list of familiar names. The names of my parents, my siblings, and one or two of my close friends.
 “Oh…? It’s laid out like a polling card.” Ishikawa-san pointed out.
 “It sure is! Because this motive is a game of choice! You each have a list of the people who are closest to you on the outside world, your job is tick one of those names as a sacrifice!”
 “…sacrifice?” Sly-san’s expression clouded over in an instant. “That better be a joke.”
 “Huh? Why would I joke? In 48 hours, you gotta have a name ticked on that card! If you don’t pick somebody…everybody on that card is gonna be sacrificed instead! And, well…you know the method in which you can prevent it from happening, right? It’s pretty obvious how to save everyone on that list.”
 “E-everyone…?” I felt my hands begin to tremble. My family…? My friends…? One of them…or all of them…?
 “Hey. I said that you better be joking.” Sly-san stepped forward.
 “H-hey, Sly-kun…” Yokozawa-san warily.
 “What.” Sly-san spun around, glaring at Yokozawa-san who stepped back from Sly-san’s glare. “Monokuma-“ He turned back to find the bear gone. “…dammit.” He clicked his tongue.
 “H…how the hell am I supposed to pick…? H-how can I pick…?” Kurohiko-san whimpered.
 “If you don’t know who you’re gonna pick, don’t pick. Simple as that.” Graves-san said. “I dunno if I’ll pick. Would I be fair to pick one person over the other…?”
 “I can’t allow that…I can’t allow her to get hurt…” Sly-san murmured. “I won’t let her die. I’ll do what it takes…”
 “Oh-ho? Herr Knives is getting so riled up! How unlike you!” Kurosaki-san smirked.
 “If you’re gonna kill, try and kill me! I’ll give you a real good fight!” Graves-san said.
 “D-don’t just say stuff like that, no way Sly-san would kill, r-r-right?!” Kurohiko-san panicked.
 “I’ll kill anyone if I need to. I have no issues with killing any of you-“
 “Enough!” A hush fell across the room, Asano-san held her arm in the air to grab everyone’s attention. Her arm was trembling a little with everybody’s eyes on her. “…w…we cannot fight like this. It is exactly what Monokuma-kun wants us to do. I’m sure there is a way out of this without killing anyone…we have 48 hours to figure something out so please do not be so irrational…please. I am sorry.”
 “Haven’t you learned yet? There isn’t an alternative. Unless someone dies every single person on these lists is in danger.” Shinko-san said.
 “I choose to believe otherwise.”
 “Then you’re an idiot. Faith like that will get you killed.” Shinko-san shook his head. “…I don’t need this. I’m going back to my room.”
 “Shinko-kun, wait!” Ram-san tried but he ignored her call for him and left the gymnasium, Sly-san and Yokozawa-san leaving silently afterwards.
 Ram-san forced a small smile, “U-um…maybe we should cool off for the day…h-how about we all go to the pool or have tea-“
 “No!” Ishikawa-san suddenly yelled, “I…no! I won’t…” She mumbled to herself before shaking her head and powerwalking of the room.
 “E-even Ishikawa-san…I am sorry, I thought maybe I could help…” Asano-san sighed. “It seems my decisions are not helpful-“
 “H-hey now, don’t say that. Even if things don’t work out the way you thought they would, doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Those guys are all really scared…I am too, b-but hearing you trying to be optimistic helped me a little…s-so, um…wh-what’s my point again? I can’t even remember…heh…” Kurohiko-san rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
 “Yeah. Good work, Mami-chan.” Amaterasu-san added.
 “O-oh…th-thank you, both of you.” She bowed slightly. I noticed in the corner on my eye that Ram-san was staring at Asano-san with awe.
“Asano-san…is really impressive, isn’t she? Even though she was taught to do what others said…she had the courage to speak up like that when someone needed to say something. Hey, Nagata-kun, isn’t Asano-san cool?” She smiled up at me.
 “…yeah, she is.” I nodded. I think I wanted to be able to do what Asano-san just did.
3 notes · View notes
itsjesperfahey · 7 years
Text
modern soc au
inej: 
loves to dance !!! esp ballet but she can dance to whatever tbfh, she’s that good 
likes to wear caps, esp backwards. really loves bomber jackets too. 
has a couple, small tattoos dedicated to her saints 
is that one kid who loves to do parkour (both ironically and unironically) for instance is really good at it but sometimes just yells PARKOUR and steps over a rock
usually found eating lunch with her pals on the roof of the school 
is amazing at hide and seek like holy fuck ????? hid for 2 hours once and wasn’t found, came back the next day and was like “y'all losers SUCK" 
loves to study other people’s cultures, as well as history and is great as p.e (never has gotten a bad grade in the flexibility tests) 
likes to read poem books 
has a black cat as a pet named "saint" 
pronounced meme as "mehmeh” the first time she read it 
only has snapchat and instagram. is that kid who ALWAYS posts the sunset every day, esp from weird/high places and the comments are always “HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET UP THERE" 
cried the most during fox and the hound 
always braiding nina’s hair. Knows how to do all the super advanced onces as well
"I don’t know, CAN YOU?" 
 the best one at pushing people on the swings 
AMAZING AT JUST DANCE WITH JESPER 
"sorry I ran out of fucks to give try again later maybe?" 
gives the nicest presents. always knows what a person wants for christmas/their birthday 
the one who’s really into photography and is always taking aesthetic™ pics of Nina for her social media accounts 
Prefers tea over coffee
wylan:
bullied for not being able to read (at least up until high school), so is super shy 
loves drawing. the artistic™ one who takes anatomy to be able to draw people better 
MASTER FLUTE MUSICIAN. On the school band. Jams hard af when he plays it 
is in gem math and AP chem with kuwei. 
loves sweet. addicted to blue jolly ranchers. his tongue is always blue 
constantly pushing up his thick rimmed glasses (even if they ain’t on, which causes him to poke his eye)
looooves all the superhero shows on the CW 
V neck sweaters. always
always has his trusty satchel
only has tumblr. has like 10k followers because of his artwork. 
”‘illuminati’ ? is that a band?“ 
cat person even though he’s allergic to cat fur. absolutely adores inej’s cat. settles for owning a horned lizard named "shrek" 
secretly a huge fan of memes 
really gay for tom holland and ed sheeran (calls him "ginger Jesus”) 
gamer with jesper. they always play overwatch together, wylans better tho. a genji and Ana main 
cried the most during big hero six 
wylan, with blank eyes: “I like my coffee how I like my men” // jesper: *spits out his drink* 
matthias: 
sports fan obv. On the schools hockey team bc his fav is hockey. is extremely competitive when he plays it. Is constantly checking but never gets penalties (aka slamming the other players against the walls)
played basketball against jesper and surprisingly lost. jesper won’t let it go 
dog person. owns a pet pomsky (Pomeranian-husky) with nina who’s name is “bub" 
“long hair don’t care”draws inspiration from Harry styles 
really philosophical. takes all the philosophy/ethics classes available 
kind of sounds like Thor (thick and deep accent) 
a good™
"you’re all horrible trash”
“do we really have to be doing this now? I have to finish my homework" 
loves baking. bakes everything for the love of his life 
grey sweatshirts and adidas shoes 
wears contacts Because he hates how glasses look on him. only wears them when he’s home 
oblivious to all the women in love with him
"CAN YOU EVEN LIFT BRO? BECAUSE I SURE AS FRICK CAN” (doesn’t curse) 
real 👍🏻🤘🏻👌🏻life🤰🏻👼🏻🌱student📚✂️✏️athelete🏃🏼🥇🏆🥅🏒
has Facebook and Twitter only
cried the most during bambi and dumbo 
little spoon™ 
has a couple tattoos with very deep meanings
jesper: 
dancer with inej. dances like those ppl who look like robots ??? the ones who look like they freeze parts of their body while the others move. AMAZING at it 
loves jazz but also dubstep/edm and rap/r&b. Beyoncé is MOM/QUEEN. 
sometimes djs parties 
again, huge gamer with wylan. he’s a lucio and junkrat main for overwatch. loves like every video game ever 
loves all the marvel movies, in love with black panther (was team cap) 
dresses like a hipster but also sometimes a fuck boy (tank tops and shorts with a backwards cap style) 
favorite subject is business and debate. great negotiator 
cried the most during the lion king 
A+ cosplayer (especially his lucio cosplay) 
big supporter of human rights (LGBTA+, feminist, black lives matter, poc representation). Will LITERALLY get into fights over anyone who thinks otherwise. Fist fights, always supported by Kaz and Matthias. Got suspended for 3 days for breaking a kids nose who thought LGBTA+ people should **** ** ****) 
that one kid who has 50 fidget spinners and can do cool tricks with them. also manages to sell all of them 
skateboard pro™ 
always sends the blinking face meme, even if it’s out of context 
all the social medias. 
one tattoo only of a gun with a 'bang’ flag coming out of it 
nina: 
 PROFESSIONAL👏🏻 MAKE 👏🏻 UP 👏🏻 ARTISTS 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 HAS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS ON HER INSTAGRAM AND THE SAME FOR HER YOUTUBE CHANNEL 
Speaking of YouTube, she always does cute videos. Baking/cooking tutorial videos featuring Matthias, 'i do my boyfriends makeup’, 'my boyfriend does my makeup’, 'my boyfriend buys my makeup’, does make up tutorials obviously, challenges with her best friend inej like the 'whisper challenge’. everyone loves her and says her and Matthias are their otp 
loves fashion design, takes that class. 
loves horror movies/creepy things but also Disney 
great at roller skating 
always wins the best dressed awards ad school 
also huge fan of ed sheeran. loves little mix more than 5h. 
cried the most during 'up' 
Can speak like 4 languages (English, french, Latin and spanish) 
loves traveling and learning about new cultures too 
dancer!inej’s biggest fan and hockey!matthias’ biggest fan 
always breaks snapchat streaks 
likes to (friendly) debate with jesper, especially over stupid things 
amazing with kids. babysits all the time. calls “bub” (the dog) her and matthias’ baby 
big spoon™ 
notes are so fucking pretty. buys the most expensive stationary and notebooks 
also huge supporter of human rights. runs the feminist club. (Jesper is the Vice President) stresses loving yourself and your body, and makes sure to design comfortable yet GORGEOUS clothes for “"plus sized people”“ 
wins 'dynamic duo’ award with inej 
always eating lollipops 
has a few very small tatos of cute things like roses and crowns. has one quote written in cursive on her rib
kaz: 
prefers black coffee as well 
loves crime shows, whether they’re real or fake. for instance loves both 'Dateline’ and 'Criminal Minds’ also loves 'House’
 favorite class is psychology, learning how a person thinks and acts and feels
has the dregs tattoo on his arm * edge lord 9000™ * such a drama queen and diva like damn 
*deep sigh* "I think I’d rather go take a nap” *gets up and leaves* 
also loves computer science. knows how to hack shit like a pro 
always rough housing with jesper. broke a table once 
does walk with a cane. likes to slap matthias’ ass with it 
“bow down you fucking peasants" 
only types in lower case with 0 emojis and no punctuation marks. CONSTANTLY leaves people on read 
only has Twitter and snapchat. His posts on snapchat never have captions, yet somehow has a 200 day streak with Jesper and a 250 day streak with inej 
loves watching horror movies with nina 
 *in a fight* "oh I’ll sHOW YOU SOME DIRTY HANDS” *swings* 
gets second place for best dressed award 
always sending memes with no context in their group chat, as well as vines 
indie and alternative rock fan 
“does it look like I care because I’m sorry if it does I didn’t mean to give you that impression" 
head over heels for inej Ghafa like wow 
likes to read a lot of mystery books and non fiction books 
cried the most during finding dory 
can solve a Rubik’s cube under a minute and won’t let you forget it 
The one asshole who picks either Kirby or metaknight in super smash brothers brawl
 hates seeing the notification bubble so he always has all chats muted and notifications turned off for apps 
kiss ass to all the teachers to get them A’s
Kuwei: 
SCIENCE NERD. ALWAYS singing the bill nye theme song. Loves ASAPScience on YouTube. Master at chemistry and biology 
"hey did u know bill nye is, like, my dad" 
nina treats him like a baby 
loves everything to do with Star Wars while wylan loves star trek more. Fighting ensues. 
has a pet Siamese cat name sparky 
Used to have a huge crush on jesper and everyone knew it except jesper. 
knows the intro to the bee movie ("according to all known laws of aviation-”)
 jesper in the group chat: “gonna go shower be right back” // kuwei: “without me ;)?” // wylan: “KUWEI SWEAR TO FUCK” // kaz: “watch your fucking language wylan" 
obsessed with Pokémon go even if it died out (chose team instinct) 
"fight me on this" 
has Twitter, snapchat and instagram 
Always drinking ginger ale 
master at bop it 
the one kid who always forgets to pay you back for stuff 
is also into the CW super hero shows, so him and wylan are constantly talking about it 
loves cartoons and anime 
speaks fluent fuckboy 
God awful at comebacks 
"let’s take a selfie guys !!!” // “kuwei no-” // *snapshot sound* 
talks !!! Like !! This !!!! for,,, some reason ???????? 
huge nerd for other things too like lord of the rings and Harry Potter and game of thrones 
cried the most during inside out
 "do you think planes are scared of heights?“ // "for fucks same kuwei it’s 4am”
2K notes · View notes
esdeem · 7 years
Text
Anchors, an Overwatch Fanfic
Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying I’ve not done much revision work at all on this, so I apologize for any egregious errors in grammar, characterization, lore or quantum mechanics. I felt really inspired so I just let it flow. I might pick at it a bit and post it a few other places.
It’s inspired by this amazing artwork here and I hope this little fic tribute does it justice. Also there’s not nearly enough Lena/Emily stuff out there and I’m hoping we get to see more of their relationship in the future, as I think it’s really cute. (And yes, I really do think the two of them would be big Disney nerds.)
Author rambling out of the way, here’s the story. I hope you like it!
-----
Winston stopped marking the passage of time in hours, day or weeks. Instead, he counted how many jars of peanut butter lay strewn across his desk, and how many white boards he'd filled with calculations. Presently, those numbers stood at fourteen and six. Soon, he'd have to start raiding other offices to keep up with the workload.
“You are working yourself toward an eventual sugar crash,” a voice called out from the computer speakers.
“I'll deal with that later, Athena.” Winston mumbled, chewing on the cap of the erasable marker in his hand. “I don't imagine anyone's come up with any major breakthroughs in the unified theory in the last few days, have they?”
“There are currently no new academic papers to that effect,” Athena replied. “There is a man in Wisconsin with some new ideas, but in my opinion they rely too heavily upon Doctor Who and the Terminator franchise.”
“Which ones?”
“Genisys.”
“Ugh.” He scribbled a few more calculations, though perhaps Athena had a point. The details of quantum chemistry had grown fuzzy, and he noticed with embarrassment that he'd assumed a superfluid in the current design behaved as a Bose-Einstein condensation, which of course was foolish. He erased the details with his forearm and grumbled. Literally back to the drawing board--
“Winston,” Athena interrupted. “You asked to be informed when Ms. Oxton reappeared--”
She didn't even finish, as Winston dropped the marker and bounded out the door, and down to the main lab floor.
* * *
The gorilla rested his hand on one fist, a brow arched high. “Really.”
“Cross my heart, love. Saw him pull it out of the stone and everything.”
“And they couldn't see you?”
“Think they were all a little distracted, what with the whole next King of England being chosen. Funny way to pick a king that, don't you think?”
“Lena, you know the whole King Arthur story was a myth, right?” Winston smirked. “And if he really existed, he wouldn't have been anything like the old stories.”
“Okay, fine, you got me. It was just a field again, nothing really happened.” She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Y'know, a real friend would nod and smile.”
“I know, it's just... I keep hoping if I know when you're going, it would help me figure out a solution.”
“You don't want to hear it big guy, but maybe there's just... not a solution?”
“It's funny,” Winston said, ambling over closer to the containment field. “I seem to remember a member of Overwatch who believed in taking in a refugee from the moon and protected him from other people who claimed he was just a company asset. Someone who believed in his value, no matter what anyone else said.” He pushed his glasses back up and smiled. “You never gave up on me, Lena. I won't give up on you either.”
“Awww, you big lug. You're gonna make me cry.” She giggled, but then stood up and looked at a small table the others set up for her, where a simple picture frame sat. She remembered the day they took the photo, their first day in any of the six parks. The silver, geodesic  sphere behind them glowed in the Florida sun, but paled in comparison to the smile on the red haired woman's face. She'd dreamed of that vacation most of her life, and Lena hadn't told her until the day they boarded a plane for the United States. The trip had been almost perfect, save for the hurricane scare at the end. They'd not had a chance to see the Magic Kingdom itself, and to see the reveal of the majestic castle at its center. She promised to take them back one day....
She could close her eyes and see that smile, smell that perfume she always teased her about but secretly loved. If she tried, she could even remember the softness of her fingertips pressing against hers and the warmth of her embrace on a cold winter's day.
“You still don't want us to contact her?”
She reached for the frame, but her fingers passed through it. With a sigh, she reached into the pocket of her flight jacket, and her fingers closed across a small box, one of the few things she could still touch.
“She's better off not knowing about this, Winston. I'd rather she move on with her life, rather than keep holding out for a cure that might not happen.”
* * *
“It's safe?”
“Well, there's not really any guarantees, that's why they call the job test pilot, silly. But you know I've done a bunch of these already, right?”
“That,” Emily said, a crooked smile on her face, “Is a glorious attempt at sugar coating things.”
“I happen to know that someone likes their coffee with sugar and cream, so I tell her things the same way.”
Emily gave Lena's shoulder a playful shove. “You're terrible.”
“Guilty, but what does that say for you, then?”
“That I'm more attracted to your looks that your moral character?”
“How salacious!” Lena smirked, but then took hold of Emily's hands. “You know you're technically not supposed to know this, but if this works then we're going to save the lives of hundreds of pilots. And not just fighter pilots! Imagine if you put that in a commercial plane. They start to have engine trouble, they can just teleport it back to an airport for a safe landing.”
“Well then, Ms. Oxton,” Emily said, and squeezed her hands gently, “I shouldn't keep you from your mission to save the world.”
“Someone has to, right?” Lena reluctantly let go of her hands.“Oh, by the way? You might want to get dressed up while I'm off doing this. Someone might have scored reservations at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester.”
Emily's eyes grew large. “You must really be expecting this test flight to go well.”
“Just a hunch, love.”
“I'll be ready,” she said, and let out a soft laugh. “I'm glad you told me, though. Usually you love springing things like that as a surprise.”
“Oh, maybe I'm turning over a new leaf.” Lena said, and pushed one hand into her pocket, and let her hand close around a small box inside. Silly Emily, to think she didn't have another surprise up her sleeve.
Emily had almost finished getting ready when Jack Morrison called with the news that the Slipstream vanished without a trace. And as the light swallowed the plane and its pilot, Lena Oxton's fingers closed around that same box as she apologized to Emily for missing their date.
* * *
“It's Higgs,” Winston announced. “Or more precisely, the Higgs Field. Whatever happens to Tracer during the accident, it prevents the bosons in her body from interacting with the Higgs Field. It's amazing, actually, because we had no idea that mass affected how we interact with time, and that does lead to some interesting implications for future research--”
“Winston? Focus.”
“Ahem, right. Sorry. We know how it happens, now we just have to figure out how to fix it.”
Angela Ziegler pressed a finger to her lips as she looked over the notes. Winston had done his best to simplify things, but the baffling world of quantum mechanics still provided a powerful obstacle. Lena Oxton's condition stood at a complex intersection of advanced biology and theoretical physics, and thus far attempts to combine the two fields proved frutiless.
To say nothing of the more practical concerns, which McCree once less than eloquently summed up as the pair discussed it with him in the room.
“Hard to give a shot to a ghost, ain't it?”
Dr. Ziegler still wasn't even sure how Lena had survived, since she'd not eaten anything in months. Perhaps the phenomenon that unmoored her from time halted the biological processes of her body. It made little sense, but to be fair nothing about this situation made any sense at all. She'd run a variety of simulations, but none of them came close to duplicating Lena's results.
And just like a shot, it wasn't as though she could take a sample of Lena's blood to study, either.
“If we could just bring her back in sync with our world, even for a moment...” she said aloud.
“I've tried a few different things,” Winston admitted. “But we never even know how long of an experimental window we have. She's vanished in mid conversation more often that not.” He jotted another formula on the board, stared at it a moment then marked it out hastily, growling.
“We have to be patient, Winston. If we give it enough time--”
With a roar, Winston punched the white board, sending it flying across the room. His skin started to turn red, electricity flaring around his eyes. “You know the numbers as well as I do! It's not predictable, but the mean amount of time she spends in our world is decreasing. If we don't hurry, she'll... she'll...”
Dr. Ziegler put an arm on his shoulder. “I know, Winston. And I know what she means to you. But your anger won't help her. Just... please calm down. We can't do this without you.”
Winston slowed his breathing, and slowly his skin started to return to normal. “I... I'm sorry. But we can't... I can't lose her.”
“I know. That's why you need to control yourself.”
The gorilla walked over to the white board and picked it up again. “I only wish Lena could control this, like the others can control their abilities.”
“Have you asked her to try?”
“Of course, but it doesn't work, at least not consistently. She's been able to phase in enough to move things just a little, but it never lasts.” Winston sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if McCree's right, and we shouldn't just call in a ghost researcher.”
“I don't know what's scarier, that you're considering ghost researchers legitimate scientists, or the fact the words 'McCree's right' just came out of your mouth.”
“It's not like we're having any better luck with our science.” Winston stared at the board again. “Of course, they'd say she was haunting this facility, or was even some kind of haunted thing.”
“There are haunted things?”
“Oh, all kinds of haunted items. Usually really old, and associated with some kind of tragedy in the past. Usually it's stuff like paintings or dresses. Oh, and dolls. Lots and lots of dolls.”
Dr. Ziegler said nothing, and Winston finally looked up to see the incredulous look she was giving him.
“Look, it gets really boring some nights here, and they play a lot of those shows at night,” he said. “But it's not like Lena's haunting us. She's very much alive, and it's not like she...”
Winston stopped speaking, the marker leaving a long streak on the white board. “That's it.”
Dr. Ziegler waited a moment to respond. “You need sleep, doctor's orders.”
“No no, I don't mean we call in the ghost people. But maybe that's what we've been missing.”
“What's that?”
“We've been focusing on curing Lena, and maybe she's right. Maybe that can't be done.” Winston wiped away the calculations and, instead of writing more, he started to sketch out a design. “But what if we didn't have to? What if, like a haunted object, there was something that kept Lena here? Like... a device that served as an anchor, pulling the Higgs field back toward her?”
“Then we could try to figure out a permanent cure.”
“There's just one problem,” he said. “I might be able to extend the field once it activated, but... she'd need to be wearing it first.”
“Which would require a greater control over her state than she currently possesses. I don't imagine you have any ideas on how to help her do that?”
Winston stared at the sketch and tapped the marker against the board. He turned to the side, lost in thought. As fate would have it, he found himself looking at a picture he and Lena had taken together, one that always stood next to his work station. Slowly, a smile passed over his face.
“You know why all those silly shows about ghosts said that some people stayed behind to haunt things?”
“I can't believe we're having this conversation, but why?”
“Because they had a reason to stay.”
It took her a moment, but once Dr. Ziegler understood, she smiled as well. They had a second, more important anchor after all.
* * *
When she was eight years old, Lena broke her left leg and right foot leaping from the top of a playground slide pretending she was a super hero. It happened only a day after the end of her summer term, and she spent her entire summer holiday between her bed and the sofa in the living room while she could hear the laughter and excitement from her friends outside. She longed to escape the house and rejoin them, but her parents said in no uncertain terms that super hero games would be off limits when she did.
Well, they said no playing but they never said no dreaming. Armed with notebook, pencil and pen she started to document her adventures as a super hero that could do a whole lot more than jump off playground equipment. In her version of things, Lena could copy the powers of other heroes by touching them. Really, it just gave her an excuse to use whatever power struck her fancy in the moment. She never gave the hero a name, until a friend visited and saw a drawing she copied from one of the books.
“That's not really yours,” they teased. “You just traced it.”
“What's wrong with being a tracer?”
The name stuck, and Tracer even became her call sign as a test pilot.
Those memories came back to Lena often since the accident, since both times she found herself unable to do much. Sometimes she'd reappear in the dead of night and beg Athena not to wake anyone, since she might vanish. She rarely found herself anywhere interesting during her time jumps, and never stayed there long enough to even see much, let alone start a decent conversation. Maybe she didn't have a notebook to record it all, but she could still dream.
Of course, a lot of her dreams dealt with food. Instead of rushing into a burning building to save the day, Lena imagined dropping off by the pub for a quick drink or a favorite spot for a bite to eat. Today, she went back to an old favorite. She used to stop by her favorite chippy at least once a week, where they always fried the fish while you waited. Little spots of oil singed your fingertips even through the paper. Then we went to the condiment stand, where she added the right amount of malt vinegar... or as her friends put it, “nearly drowned everything in it”. The aroma of the beer batter mingled with the tang of the vinegar.. it made Lena's mouth water just thinking about it.
She'd been just about to bite into the imaginary plank of fish when footsteps echoed from behind her. With a soft sigh, she stood up. “Can't a girl have just a few minutes to dream before you start running more tests?”
“...Lena?”
She froze.
“Lena, is that really you?”
Her fists balled up, and she drew in a halting breath. For the first time since the accident she felt afraid, and it kept her from turning around or even looking over her shoulder. The uncertain future, the increasing doubts of Winston and Dr. Ziegler, even the days when hope all but faded away, she could handle that. But seeing a look of pain on her face, knowing something she'd done brought tears to that beautiful face...
“You can hear me, can't you?”
It still took her a minute to find her voice. “You're still wearing that awful perfume, aren't you?”
“The one you gave me a bottle of for Christmas last year? Of course.”
“Only because you like the stuff, and I was daft enough to support you.” The silence hung between them a moment. “I didn't want you to see me like this, Em.”
“Your doctor explained it to me,” Emily said. “I don't understand it completely, but... I'm here now.”
“Truth is, I really hoped you'd get on with your life. Forget about me, move forward, maybe even start dating again and find someone a bit more normal. I can handle this burden, but I... I wanted you to be happy.”
“Happy.” Emily's voice drew closer. “I thought I knew what that meant, but then I met you. Hearing you giggle at my silly jokes, or make fun of how my hair looked in the morning, or hugging me after a long day at the office. Lena, it's hard to move on with my life when you are my life.”
“Em...” She still couldn't bring herself to turn around.
“You remember how you always made me a cake from scratch for my birthday, and insisted on putting the candles on it? I hadn't done that since I was a little girl, but you always made me blow out the candles and make a wish before I could eat it? That's what you brought me. You made me realize how special, how magical life really is. I did it again this year, and I made a wish again. You know what I wished for?”
“You know if you tell me--”
“I know, but I'll give you a hint,” Emily said, her voice starting to waver. “You just need to turn around.”
Dammit. Lena looked to the ground and closed her eyes, then slowly turned to face her. With a deep breath to steel herself, she opened her eyes once more. To her surprise, Emily wore a beautiful emerald green dress, her red hair cascading around her shoulders. And while her cheeks shone with tears, there wasn't a hint of pain on her face. Instead, she rewarded Lena with that perfect smile, the one she dreamed about seeing so often.
“See? You just made it come true.”
“You look amazing.”
“You think so?” A flush of red splashed across her cheeks. “It's... what I was going to wear that night.”
“And suddenly, I'm even more upset about the accident.” She giggled, and even drew a small chuckle from Emily as well. “I've missed you.”
“It's really quiet without you around. Believe it or not, I'm starting to hate it.”
“You might regret saying that some day.”
“If I'm lucky.” Emily reached a hand out.
“You can't actually touch me, you know.”
“I know, but someone taught me that it's okay to just dream sometimes.”
Lena lifted her hand. Truth be told, she dreamed of this often as well. She missed the little things, like just walking down the street with their hands locked together. Like the rest of her, her fingers had taken on a blueish glow, translucent enough to just see Emily's fingers through her own. They drew closer together, as she tried to stop just enough to make certain Emily's hand didn't pass through hers, to provide a stark reminder of how desperate her situation truly was. Closer, closer...
They touched.
...they touched.
Emily's fingertips pressed gently against hers, and the glow faded. She trailed her fingers down Emily's, to her palm. Wrapping her hand around hers, she gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I'm back,” Lena whispered. “You brought me back.”
Somehow, Emily's smile grew even more radiant than before. “See? I told you I wasn't going to let go of you so easily.”
With one swift motion, Lena drew close and pulled Emily into a tight hug. Both women started to sob as they held the embrace, Lena's head resting on her shoulder as she cried. After a moment, Lena lifted her head up and whispered into her ear.
“There's something I need to tell you,” she said.
“I'm not going anywhere.”
“This is hard to admit, but...” Lena bit her lip. “It was a box mix. Every year. I'm a lousy cook.”
Emily kissed her cheek. “I think I might be able to forgive you.”
* * *
“We can make adjustments as needed,” Winston said as Lena pulled at one of the straps that held the bulky contraption in place. “After it activates, the field generator will route the bosons in your body to the local portion of the Higgs field. I call it a chronal accelerator because--”
“Winston, love, I know you find all this really amazing,” she said. “But you lost me way back at 'It's simple physics'. Pretty much, I turn on the Matrix of Leadership here and I'm anchored back in the real world full time?”
“Yes, and there might be some interesting applications we can test down the line. More importantly, after it's been activated you won't have to wear it all the time. As long as you're in close proximity to the device and it still has power, you'll remain connected to our time.”
“Good thing, that. Would've made showers and changing clothes really awkward.”
“I did make it waterproof,” Winston said and pushed his glasses up with one finger. “I know how much it rains in London, after all.”
“Well, guess we'll give this thing a shot.”
“You'll probably want Emily in here with you,” Winston said, and glanced back to the lab's control room. “I should--”
“Stay here. You're as much a part of this as anyone.”
“She doesn't know about me yet, Lena. She'll think I'm like the others, and be afraid...”
“And then she'll get to know you, and love you like the rest of us do.”
“Like Reyes?”
“Difference is, Emily's not a raging asshole.”
“Point taken. I just, um, don't want to ruin the moment.”
“Okay, let me put it another way,” Lena said and jabbed a finger into Winston's chest. “If you so much as think about hiding in that control room, I will kick your butt.”
He sighed and took a few steps back. “Fine.” He pressed a button on his wrist comm. “Dr. Ziegler, we're ready to activate the accelerator. If you'd sent Emily in please.”
It took only a minute for Emily to make her way into the lab. She walked over to Lena, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the massive form of Winston standing across from them. She stared, and Winston could only manage a weak wave.
“Uh, hello. I'm Winston.”
Emily finally turned away from him, and to Lena. “Amazing. You weren't lying about the gorilla scientist.”
“Wait, you told her about me?”
“Before the accident even. Oops.”
“You are a walking security risk.”
“Guilty.” Inhaling sharply, she looked down at the chronal accelerator. “So, shall we turn this thing on?”
“If you're ready.”
She grabbed Emily's hands and gently squeezed them, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Now I'm ready.”
“You should take a few steps back, miss,” Winston warned.
Emily nodded and walked beside him. Lena pressed the buttons in the sequence Winston told her, and the center of the accelerator sparked to life with a faint blue glow. Seconds later, she felt a strange wave pulse through her body. At first, everything around her seemed to move it slow motion, then sped up even faster than normal. After a few more seconds, a pulse from the accelerator bathed the room in blue light. Lena looked at the device, then to Emily and Winston. The gorilla moved to a nearby terminal and started hitting buttons.
“Am I supposed to feel any different?”
“I don't know, but all the readouts seem good. Did you experience anything strange when you turned it on.”
“Like the real world acting like I hit rewind and fast forward on a movie?”
Winston grinned. “The blink and recall functions worked at start up! You're going to like those, but we can talk about them later. Now that you're stable, I'm sure Dr. Ziegler will want to run a few tests. You might have to follow her around, since your blood will be just as unstable as the rest of her, but it shouldn't take too long.”
“Fine, but first things first.” She threw her arms open. “Hug time!”
Emily ran over and fell into her arms. Winston turned away to give them privacy.
A second later, he heard Lena clear her throat. “Winston?”
He turned to see both Lena and Emily with their arms stretched out to him.
“Huh?”
“You're the one who brought her back,” Emily said. “So you're a part of this hug too.”
“But I--”
“You're my best friend, you big lug. So get over here before I drag you into it.”
With a smile, he walked over and gently wrapped his arms around the two. It would be the first of many he'd share with his new family.
* * *
She'd booked the trip only a week after the accelerator tests proved successful, though this time she let Emily in on their plans a little sooner.
“I decided maybe Ducasse wasn't really our speed,” she said as she showed Emily the plane tickets to Orlando.
“Not surprising me this time? You're losing your touch, Ms. Oxton.”
Silly Emily, underestimating her like that.
Getting her out of bed that morning proved the most daunting challenge, as Emily hit the snooze button at least five times before Lena finally gave up and pushed her off the side of the bed. A few beignets from the food court bought her forgiveness. Emily didn't even bat an eye as a private town car pulled up in front of their hotel and whisked them away to the park, long before the gates opened to the public.
“Commander Morrison knows some people,” Lena said, and Emily accepted it without question.
Save a few cast members, it was empty as they walked down through the gates and turned the corner. Lena didn't take her eyes off Emily's face as the castle revealed itself in the distance, framed by the shops of Main Street. Lena squeezed her hand softly.
“What do you think?”
“It's amazing!”
“We should get a picture, shouldn't we?” Lena said, and winked to the photographer behind her.
“Oh, of course!”
She never saw it coming, maybe because Lena just hugged her for the first two pictures. The photographer directed them for the next show, getting Emily in just the right position.
“And Ms. Oxton, I think you know your pose.”
She reached into her pocket, for the box she'd held onto since the day of the accident. She pulled it out just as she dropped to one knee and opened it to reveal the ring inside.
“Surprise,” she said with a sheepish grin.
The next picture was Emily answering that question with a kiss.
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