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maliceinborderland · 3 years

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Hey! On the topic of kids, a thought: how do you think the AiB main cast would act and what would they do if they found a young kid in the Borderland?

I’m answering this hella late, but I’m finally in a place where I don’t feel cautious about going into my ask box, sooooo here it is!

Arisu, the shining poster child for all things moral, would 100% take the child under his wing and do all he can to protect the kid from any dangers, and quite literally do anything that he can to make sure the child lives because, let’s face it, no one wants a child’s death on their hands. The child would probably have a lot of questions and Arisu would do his best to answer them whilst doing everything he can to not scare the kid.

Usagi… if we’re talking about Usagi at the beginning, she probably wouldn’t think twice and leave the kid behind. She has one goa in mind and one goal only: survive. She doesn’t care who has to die as long as she lives, even if it’s a kid. They’d just have to tough it out. As the series progresses, Usagi’s sense of unity seems to grow, thanks to Arisu’s presence, and she’d probably go along with anything he decides. She’d initially be hostile towards the kid but eventually develop a sense of responsibility towards the child and look after it.

Chishiya, I honestly don’t see him bothering to care for a child. He’s an “every man for himself” sort of person and a child is no exception to the rule. A child is too much responsibility and too much of a hassle to take on in the Borderlands. If others are around he might feign interest and care for the child, but if it ever came between his life and the child’s he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice the kid. Hands down. Despite being a resident at a hospital working to become a full fledged doctor in which you are required to swear and take an oath to protect human lives, Chishiya isn’t one to really care. Keep in mind, this a man who took a dying man’s final letter to his family, promising to get it to them, and threw it in the trash. This is who Chishiya is.

Kuina, like Arisu, is a person with a strong sense of morality and quite sensible. Since she is her mother’s caretaker outside of the borderlands, so being a caretaker comes naturally to her. She’d shield the child from any harm and offer to care for it. Despite having spent a lot of her time with Chishiya, Kuina is shown to have a stronger sense of right and wrong, and is works as a conscience for Chishiya, often expressing her dislike for his cold decisions, so this would greatly reflect when taking care of a child. She’d probably try and teach the kid some self defense moves, just the basics, enough to survive. I feel like out of all the women, she has the strongest maternal instincts of them all.

Hatter, this dude would 10/10 mold the child in his likeness. Take it under his wing, take it along with him in every game, making sure the militants protect them both. Hatter had a close relationship with his father, so he has a strong paternal instinct, as well. The child would be at his side at all times, even when showing “justice” to immigrants at the Beach so that the child would know that despite being cared for, that there was a hierarchy to follow.

Aguni… [SPOILER ALERT]if you’ve read the manga, you’d know exactly how he’d act if he came across a young individual in the borderlands, he’s not one to sugarcoat things and will call out childlike behavior as a nuisance and a disrespect for the lives that have been taken while the young individual remains. Aguni is a man of power, so he’d train the kid in order to gain more power and leverage in the games. Aguni had a tough childhood, and no real father figure, so I don’t think he’d be a perfect picture father figured but he was an SDF officer, and there’s a strong sense of camaraderie in the military.

Niragi, this may come as a wild card, and as shitty of a man he might be, I don’t think he’d stoop so low as to kill a kid or to leave it to die. Niragi is aware of the circumstances they’re in and if anyone belittles the kid and shoves them aside with little to no importance, I think Niragi would snap. He knows what it’s like to be cast aside and over his dead, charred body if anyone mistreats the kid under his watch. Niragi’s never really had friends and his relationship with his parents is quite strained, so he’d be flying blind when taking care of the kid. In his mind food, water, and a place to sleep we’re all the essentials to taking care of a kid. If they were old enough, he’d teach them how to use a gun, but not so that they’d be a militant. It was only to be used if they really, really needed it. In case of emergencies, ya know? He’d probably lose his marbles if in the middle of a game, he was stuck with a losing hand and fighting another player, and the child shot the other player. It’s not the fact that the kid fired the gun that has Niragi losing his shit. It’s that the kid fired it with their eyes closed and without even aiming properly.

Last Boss… sigh. What do we do with you, Takatora? This man gives no fucks, okay? 10/10 would slash the child up like butter. No fucks given. He lost any sense of human feelings after clearing his first game in the borderlands, this is something he himself admits.

Karube, I feel like he’d be like Usagi. Initially, I’d feel like he’d be a bit apprehensive about looking after a kid in the borderlands, but with Arisu’s intervention he’d probably give in and help watch over the kid. Would probably teach the kid how to use a switchblade or a Swiss Army knife, just for defense. I don’t see him wanting to establish any sort of emotional ties to the kid, though.

Chouta, we all saw how he warmed up to the schoolgirl from the first game and how he reassured her when she was scared. I like to believe Chouta wasn’t a total creep(as for manga Chouta, well…), as he seemed to show genuine concern for her, so I feel like he’d demonstrate similar concern towards a child.

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gem-rewatch · 3 years

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SU rewatch- S1E11- Arcade Mania

Hey, long time no see!

I’m desperately bored in solitary quarantine at university right now, and decided to try and pick this SU rewatch series up again for fun. It’s been a while since I’ve watched through the show in order. Plus, now that this show is completely finished, there’s plenty more connections to make. I can’t promise I’ll be consistent with this, but at the very least I can have fun trying to make a few more posts at my leisure.

Anyways. With that business out of the way. Let’s get right on to the show!

We begin with yet another mission Steven’s guardians have brought him along on! I believe this is the fifth mission we know of that he’s accompanied them on so far. (Lunar Sea Spire, Inverted Pyramid, the unknown mission he returns from in Tiger Millionaire, the desert, and now this one.) It’s really sweet seeing the Gems begin to trust him tagging along more often. There will come a day in the near future where missions become routine for Steven, but in these early episodes, you can really tell that each and every one is a brand new adventure.

In terms of plot, though, this episode is honestly Future Vision: The Prequel.

We learn a lot about Garnet’s abilities and her role in the team here, even if all of these details aren’t spelled out word-for-word quite yet. Hints towards her future vision we see this ep include:

Garnet moving ahead of the group to be in the perfect spot to catch Steven when he falls.

Her flawless moves while fighting and dodging the monsters.

Her becoming a master at the rhythm game later in the episode.

Like, damn. Look at this.

Look at her go.

My Q U E E N!

I had to gif all of this just because it’s such a beautiful and smooth sequence of animation.

If there’s one thing all of the Crystal Gems can 100% agree on, it’s that Garnet is friggin’ amazing.

Garnet: “Let them go. They’re just parasites. If they want to be a problem, they’ll have to answer to me.”

So, does this statement mean that- at this present moment- her extended stay at the arcade was entirely beyond her future vision? That the only futures she saw were ones where she was actually present to deal with containment of the Gem parasites? Given that later scenes insinuate she’d never been to the arcade before, and would have no “data” about its games to factor into her internal understanding of the world, this seems likely.

I adore the gradual palette change here, from shadow, to setting sun. It’s a nice detail that adds so much more life to what could otherwise be a rather mundane transition scene. It seems like unique palettes were more common in early SU- I wonder why Crewniverse stopped implementing these as often later on?

Pearl, entering the arcade: “Humans find such fascinating ways to waste their time.”

Thanks, Pearl. Love you too. <3

This sequence of Pearl failing at playing a car chase/road rage game hits so much different knowing what happens in Last One Out of Beach City. It’s genuinely radical how far she grows in confidence from this point, because here, she seems so shackled to rules and guidelines. Now that we know about her rebellious past, it might be tempting to write this characterization off as “early series weirdness,” but... I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.

Instead, I wonder if she’s working through grief-related regression.

Think about it... the pain of Rose’s passing is still so fresh for her. She was a rule breaking rebel once, yes, but she spent all of those days at Rose’s side. And I get the sense that she’s poured so much of herself into keeping Rose safe, into the rebellion against Homeworld, that without those, she’s caught in a vacuum. What IS her purpose now, when the very person she rebelled for is gone?

So she slips back into old pearl-like habits. Chronic rule following, and a fear of deviating from norms. How familiar. Thankfully, much of her arc throughout the show is her directly growing beyond these habits to live boldly as her own Gem.

The friggin video game when Garnet knocks its head off: “TELL MY WIFE I’M SORRYYY!!!”

Yo, what the fuck. This line is both hilarious and messed up, all at once. Please tell me the game isn’t sentient.

Aaaand here we finally introduce Garnet to the video game sensation that is Meat Beat Mania! This game is perfectly suited to her and her power of foresight because its patterns are algorithmic and not vulnerable to spontaneous deviations, and thus easy to predict, with enough input. She’s probably getting a quick rush of satisfaction with every correct move, and she barely has to exert any energy with her future vision to get that rush. After years and years of wading through endless possibility at every avenue, this video game’s patterns must be a rejuvenating breath of fresh air.

It’s addicting.

...Kinda makes me think of how I get sometimes when I play solitaire on my phone for an hour straight. After a while, I barely even think, I’m just shuffling through my deck and moving cards almost on automatic. I don’t have to use much energy to play, and it gives me animated fireworks every time I finish a match. It’s a win-win.

Amethyst: “I’MMA WIN AN AIRPLANE!”

I don’t know what it is about the way Michaela Dietz says the world “airplane,” but this makes me laugh every time. Does... does she think she can win a genuine airplane here because she saw Onion win a tiny motorbike from the ticket booth?? Amethyst, oh my god. XD

She’s got the spirit, this wild child.

So, moving on- we meet up with our crew later the next morning, Garnet nowhere to be seen. There’s an interesting exchange I’d like to highlight real quick-

Pearl: “If we’re supposed to fight a giant foot, Garnet would let us know.” Amethyst: “Yeah, Garnet’s the boss!” Pearl: “Well, we’re all a team. Garnet just has heightened perception that guides us towards our mission objectives.”

Considering the specific phrasing Pearl uses here- “heightened perception” instead of “future vision-” did Garnet outright tell the two of them to not explain her powers, just like she told them not to mention she’s a fusion? Because I’m pretty sure no one ever uses the phrase “heightened perception” again in reference to her powers.

Given the fact that Garnet chose to keep the knowledge of Ruby and Sapphire under the table until she felt Steven could understand her better, my guess is that this is a similar scenario.

Ahah, I genuinely can’t tell if this is Steven being gullible, or just impulsively playing along with Amethyst’s antics. Still- gross, kid. Don’t wipe your wet cereal face on your shirt! Ew! :O

When he goes outside and starts to use a kiddy metal detector to scan for quarters... so THAT’S where he finds his arcade money! Because I can’t imagine Greg is financially able to give him that much to spend on non-essentials at this point in the show.

Okay, so... I just want to bring light to the fact that Garnet has literally been in this arcade ALL NIGHT LONG.

It was evening when she first arrived here- the sun was visibly setting in the background, and when Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl left, the sky was dark. But now it’s morning. Steven was just seen eating breakfast. And Garnet is STILL HERE.

Does this mean Mr. Smiley locked her IN? I have so many questions... Did he try to get her to leave, only to be intimidated by her complete lack of response? I would kill to know more about this interaction. Poor Mr. Smiley. That man deals with so much bullshit in this town, huh?

Geebus, is Garnet a solid wall. Previous episodes have shown Steven forcibly shoving whole tons of food, and swinging a mini-freezer over his head, and yet he can’t get her to budge even an inch.

I absolutely adore how he climbs up her frame like a koala, though, ahah. Cute.

Meat Beat Mania announcer: “That’s rare!!” Steven: “Oh my gosh...!”

I take these two lines as evidence that this is the first time Steven’s ever seen Garnet’s eyes. Specifically, the fact that there’s three of them. Which, makes sense- since Garnet is still really reserved emotionally at this point, and is only begins to get in the habit of taking her visor off to show Steven her full face later on in the show.

This expression deeply hurts me.

Steven’s so distraught here- because the others are in danger, the town is in danger, and he doesn’t have his trusty, dependable guardian who catches him when he falls and beats up scary monsters for him. Without her, the whole team is vulnerable and blind.

He feels alone. He feels... powerless.

And so he responds to that confusing, powerless feeling by trying to compensate with his own power. When all other routes he can think of fail, he smashes the video game console.

It... uh, it works... but once again, Steven entirely fails to consider the consequences, huh? He experienced a little bit of character growth in this regard in the episode Serious Steven, but even past that it’ll remain an recurring issue for him. Hell, his impulsiveness is a general character flaw even stretching into SUF.

In summary, though:

Poor Mr. Smiley. He works so hard, and doesn’t deserve this BS. ;-;

#su #su meta #steven universe #arcade mania #garnet #amethyst #pearl #mr. smiley #jen rewatches su

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maxineswritingcenter · 3 years

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You Saved Me - Derek Hale x fem!reader part 17

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That night, Scott and I were meeting with Derek to discuss what our next plan of action was. Scott had said that he had found Jackson walking around downtown where there was an old abandoned warehouse that was primarily used for raves. The only problem was tickets were sold out and way out of Scott’s high school budget.

“What’d you get from your dad?” I asked Stiles over the phone.

“We figured out that all of the victims knew each other in some way, Harris’ class.”

“What about Isaac’s dad?”

“We think maybe it has to do with Isaac’s older brother.”

“Camden right?”

“Right, he was killed in active duty but he would be the same age as all of the victims.”

“What does that have to do with Jackson though?” I asked, parking outside at the same time that Derek had pulled up with Isaac in tow.

“Not sure yet, but I’ll keep looking.”

“Alright, keep me posted.” I hung up, getting out of the car and walking with Derek and Isaac to the front door. Scott finished unlocking it, staring directly at Isaac.

“What’s he doing here?” Scott asked suspiciously.

“I need him.” Derek said.

“I don't trust him.”

Isaac scoffed, “Yeah, well, he doesn't trust you, either.”

“(Y/N) is indifferent.” I said, rolling my eyes.

“You know what? Derek doesn’t doesn’t really care.” Derek said sarcastically. We made our way inside the lobby. Isaac sat down in a rolling chair in the corner of the room. I was happy just leaning against the front desk while Derek was content with staying annoyed.

“Now, where’s the vet? Is he going to help us or not?” Derek asked.

“That depends...” The veterinarian came around the corner, crossing his arms over his chest, “Your friend, Jackson... Are we planning to kill him, or save him?”

“Save him.” Scott and I said while Derek said: “Kill him.”

Scott stared Derek down, “Save him.” He looked back at his boss, “Save him.” Happy with that answer, we were brought back into the operating room. He placed small bottles in front of us on the operating table. Being back here reminded me of the day Derek almost died. Sensing my distress, Derek pulled me closer to his side.

Ever curious, Isaac reached out to touch one of the bottles. Instinctively, I reached out and grabbed his wrist before he made contact. Both alphas stared him down.

“Watch what you touch.” Derek warned. Isaac backed away, turning his attention to Deaton.

He leaned against the table, “So, what are you, some kind of witch?”

“No.” Deaton said drolly, “I'm a veterinarian.” He went back to searching the cabinets for more vials.

“Unfortunately, I don't see anything here that's going to be an effective defense against a paralytic toxin.” He said.

“We're open to suggestions.” Derek sighed.

“What about an effective offense?” Isaac asked.

“We already tried. I nearly took its head off, and Argent emptied an entire clip into it. The thing just gets back up.”

“Has it shown any weaknesses?” Deaton asked. Derek and I shared a glance.

“Well, one: it can't swim.” He said.

“He acted like the water burned.” I added.

“Does that go for Jackson as well?”

“No. He's the captain of the swim team.” Scott said, leaning back against the wall.

Deaton looked over all of us, “Essentially, you're trying to catch two people: a puppet, and a puppeteer.” He pulled a metal medallion from a drawer, holding up and flipping the sides. He placed the medallion on the table, “One killed the husband, but the other had to take care of the wife. Do we know why?” Deaton was referring to the latest victims. A married couple, pregnant with their first child. While the husband had been killed on the scene, the wife had been killed in the hospital.

“I don't think Jackson could do it.” Scott said, “His mother died pregnant too, and she was maybe murdered. I think he couldn't let the same thing happen to someone else.”

“How do you know it's not part of the rules?” Isaac asked from the corner of the room, “The Kanima kills murderers. If Jackson kills the wife, then the baby dies, too.”

“Does that mean your father was a murderer?”

“Wouldn't surprise me if he was.” Isaac said grimly.

“Hold on-” Deaton interrupted, “The book says they're bonded, right?” Derek nodded Deaton grabbed a glass bottle of black powder, the label read Mountain Ash, “What if the fear of water isn't coming from Jackson, but from the person controlling him? What if something that affects the Kanima” He opened the vial, making a circle around the coin with it, “Also affects its master?”

“Meaning what?” Isaac asked.

“Meaning we can catch them.” Scott looked back, mostly at Derek, “Both of them.”

Walking through the halls after lacrosse practice, I didn’t think I would see anyone. But when I heard the sound of an angry individual, I wanted to check it out. I turned the corner, seeing Coach Lahey with a young kid backed against the wall near the boys bathroom.

“You didn’t say anything, did you? Huh, you little punk.” He said through his teeth.

“No...” The kid whimpered. This wasn’t right. Why the hell was Coach Lahey getting in this kids business.

I rushed up to them, “There you are.” I grinned. Coach Lahey and the kid looked at me, “C’mon, mom’s waiting for us in the car.” I held a hand out of the kid. He looked between Coach Lahey, then me before quickly taking my hand.

“Thanks for finding him, Coach Lahey.” I smiled, tilting my head to the side, “My mom’s been really worried.” Coach Lahey stood up straight.

“Well, you’re welcome.” He mumbled, turning on his heels and walking towards the pool. I held the kid’s hand tightly, walking him through the school.

“You okay?” I asked, looking down at him. He nodded, keeping his eyes towards the ground. He was practically trembling.

“Lahey’s pretty scary, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah.” I leaned over to look him in his eyes, they were pale blue.

“Well, if he ever corners you like that again, just tell him that your big sister is waiting for you with Coach Finstock. Lahey might be mean, but Finstock is crazy.” I smiled, “What’s your name, kid?”

“Matthew.”

The next morning, Stiles drove Scott and I to the high school seeing as my car was still in the shop. We looked over and saw Matt locking his bike to the bike rack. Matt for sure had tickets. We got out of the car, walking towards the building.

“There's got to be some other way to get tickets, right?” Scott asked.

“It's a secret show, there's only one way, and it's a secret.” Stiles said, gripping the shoulder of his backpack.

“Even if it wasn’t a secret, we couldn’t afford them anyway. I would get them but my parent’s estate isn’t settled yet. If it was, do you think I would be working as an assistant coach?” I said. Working with Coach was a blessing and curse.

Matt walked up to us, “Hey... Either of you guys know why no one's getting suspended after what happened the other day at school?” I had completely forgotten that Matt had been there for the attack too, but he seemed to miss seeing Jackson as a lizard man.

“Just forget about it. Nobody got hurt.” Stiles said evasively.

Matt narrowed his eyes, “I-I had a concussion...”

“Well, no one got seriously hurt.”

“I was in the ER for six hours!”

“Hey, do you want to know the truth, Matt?” Stiles snapped irritably, “Your little bump on the head is about this high on our list of problems right now.” He bent over, holding his hand above the ground. I rolled my eyes, grabbing him back the strap of his bag and pulled him back up.

“Are you okay?” Scott asked sincerely.

“Yeah, I'm fine now. So, you didn't get any tickets last night either?” Matt asked.

“Are they still selling?”

“Uh, no, but I managed to find two online. You should keep trying. Sounds like everyone's gonna be there.” He started to walk away.

“I’ll tell coach to take it easy on you at practice!” I called, he held up a hand, continuing his walk inside.

“I don't like him.” Stiles grumbled, staring daggers into the back of Matt’s head.

It was time for afternoon practice, which meant explaining a few things to Coach.

“Where in the hell did you go last game, (Y/N)? You just disappeared.” His eyes were somehow even wilder. I should probably tell him to look into an endocrinologist. We hadn’t gotten a chance to talk this morning since morning practice was about drilling new plays and him asking where Jackson was every fifteen minutes.

I rubbed the back of my neck, “I’m sorry, Coach. It’s just a little hard to explain.”

“No, having to explain to your wife that you lost her favorite testicle is hard, explaining where you went during the semi-finales? not hard.” At this point I think Coach was just a little too comfortable telling people things.

After processing and hopefully blacking out what he just said, I came up with a lie that would definitely make him drop the topic.

“I uh started my period.” I lied. Finstock closed his mouth and nodded.

“Say no more.” I gave him an awkward smile, putting on the eye mask and heading out into the locker room. It was easier to find Scott and Stiles than it was before since I could pick out their scents.

“Hey, are you sure about this?” Stiles asked.

“Last time, whoever's controlling Jackson had to kill somebody because he didn't finish the job. So, what do you think he's going to do this time?”

“Be there to make sure it happens.”

“Can anyone tell me where the hell Jackson is and why he missed morning practice?” Coach Finstock’s door flew open, slamming against the wall.

“I thought I told you to keep an eye on him!” Stiles leaned in to Scott.

“Stilinski!” Coach shouted, “Jackson?” Was he not aware of the restraining orders?

“Sorry, Coach... I haven't seen him since the last time I saw him...” He said nervously, causing me to elbow him in the side.

“Oh, and when was that?”

“Last time I saw him... was definitely the time I saw him last...” He said evasively.

“Yeah. Again, Danny, tell Jackson no missing practice this close to the championships, okay?”

“Sure, Coach.” Danny was near, maybe a couple feet. I hadn’t really “seen” him since he was attacked at the nightclub. He was another victim that didn’t make any sense. Danny hadn’t seen anyone get murdered by Jackson, while I had definitely watched Jackson attack people.

“That goes for all of you.” Coach’s shoes squeaked against the floor as he turned back to his office, “I should be coaching college.” He mumbled under his breath, slamming his door shut.

“Sooo Danny.” Stiles said in his smooth voice, or at least I think he meant for it to be smooth, “Got any extra tickets for the secret party this weekend?”

“Sorry, but I only got two myself.”

“What-- do you even have a date yet?” I smacked Stiles’ in the back of the head blindly. Still accurate.

“I'm working on it.” He said, clearly offended.

“Okay, okay... Hear me out. You give us the tickets, and you devote your life to abstinence, and just-” Danny walked off.

“How do you two losers even survive?” Isaac’s voice appeared.

“What are we supposed to do? No one's even selling.” Scott said. Two players were walking by, talking about the tickets they scored.

“Isaac,” I grinned, “Be a dear, would you?” I motioned my head towards the players’ general direction.

“...Wait here, boys.” Isaac walked off.

“What is he gonna-” Scott said before being cut off by the sounds of scuffling and shouting.

“Ow. Oh, my-” Stiles commented, ”Yup, that's excessive....That'll bruise.”

“Ow.” Scott winced.

“Wow, okay...” Stiles said grimly. I heard the sound of paper against their jerseys when Isaac came back.

“Enjoy the show.” Isaac said, walking back to his locker.

After practice, we made a stop by the vet office. We were inside the operating room, watching Deaton grab a vial of clear liquid from a cabinet and a syringe.

“Ketamine?” Scott asked.

“It's the same stuff we use on the dogs, just a higher dosage. If you can get close enough to Jackson, it should slow him down enough to buy you some time.” He set the syringe and vial on the operating table, turning back to get the familiar bottle that held the dark mountain ash.

“This is some of what you'll use to create the barrier. This part is for you, Stiles-- only you.” He set the bottle on the table in front of Stiles

“Uh, that sounds like a lot of pressure... Can we maybe find a slightly less pressure-filled task for me?” Stiles looked at me.

“Don’t look at me, I can’t do this.” I held my hands up.

“Why can’t she do this?”

“It's from the Mountain Ash tree, which is believed by many cultures to protect against the supernatural. This office is lined with ashwood, making it difficult for someone like Scott or (Y/N) to cause me any trouble...”

“Okay, so, then, what?” Stiles asked, “I just spread this around the whole building, and then either Jackson or whoever's controlling him can't cross it?”

Deaton nodded, “They'll be trapped.”

“Doesn't sound too hard.” Scott shrugged. I leveled him a look. Wasn’t he the one to say don’t say something was too easy?

“Not all there is...Think of it like gunpowder-- it's just powder until a spark ignites it. You need to be that spark, Stiles.”

Stiles started at the vet in bewilderment, “...If you mean light myself on fire, I don't think I'm up for that.”

“Let me try a different analogy. I used to golf. I learned that the best golfers never swing before first imagining where they want the ball to go. They see it in their mind, and their mind takes over. It can be pretty extraordinary what the force of your own will can accomplish.”

“Force of will...” Stiles whispered.

“If-if this is going to work, Stiles, you have to believe it.” Stiles hummed and exhaled loudly.

After getting a few more things ready at the house, Stiles and I were about to get into Roscoe when Uncle Noah pulled up in the driveway. I paused, watching him get out. He seemed down and lost. The other thing I noticed was that his sheriff badge was missing.

"Hey! Can't talk gotta run." Stiles said without looking. I grabbed the back of Stiles’ shirt, causing him to be jerked back. He looked at his father, taking him in.

“Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait-- what's wrong?” Stiles’ voice stopped Uncle Noah from going further up the driveway.

“Nothing.” Uncle Noah said evasively, not meeting either of our eyes.

“Oh...Where's your gun?”

“I left it at the station... along with my badge...” He breathed out. My mouth dropped open, then closed quickly.

“What?” We asked in unison.

“It's all right. You know what? We'll talk about this later. You both seem like you’re going somewhere.”

“Dad-”

“Don't worry about it.” He started walking towards the house again.

“Dad!” Stiles shouted. Uncle Noah stopped and turned back towards us.

He sighed, “It was decided that the son of a police chief stealing police property and having a restraining order filed against him by one of the town's most respected attorneys did not reflect well on the county...”

“They fired you?” Stiles asked, stunned. I looked down at my feet, I couldn’t look at either of them. Stiles was going to blame himself for everything and that wasn’t a Stiles that I ever wanted to see again. But what were we supposed to think? This whole situation with Scott was starting to affect home life. He shouldn’t have asked Stiles to steal that van.

“Nah. Look, it's-it's just a leave of absence. It's-it's temporary.”

“Did they say it was temporary, or...?”

“Actually, no.” He sighed, “You know, I- It's fine. Don't worry about it, though.” He started walking back towards the door when I looked back up at him, “Hey. We're going to be fine.”

“Dad, I don't get it... “ Stiles was beginning to feel overwhelmed, “Why-why aren't you angry at me?”

“I don't know. Maybe I just don't want to feel any worse than I already do by having to yell at my son in front of my daughter who I’m sure is tired of any violence...” He didn’t yell, but his words still stung. Not intentionally though. We watched him walk into the house, a broken man.

“Oh, shoot.” Stiles mumbled.

After picking up Scott, we parked outside the warehouse of the party. There were a bunch of people outside waiting to get in, oblivious to the events that were going to take place. Stiles opened the back of the Jeep, pulling out huge sacks of mountain ash that were given to him by Deaton. He didn’t look okay, he had been tense our whole drive over here.

“You okay?” Scott asked.

“Yeah, why?” He avoided the question.

“You just didn't say anything the whole way here...”

“No, I'm fine. Just grab the other bag.” Scott and I shared a glance.

“I can't.” Scott said sheepishly, “Remember, Deaton said you have to do it alone...”

“Okay, this plan is really starting to suck!”

“No. Not here. Not now!” Scott groaned.

“What?” Stiles asked as Scott ran towards the main entrance. I followed close behind.

Scott and I went our separate ways once inside, apparently Allison was here which completely ruined the plan because she really wasn’t supposed to be. While he was talking with Allison, I kept Matt distracted.

“Hey.” He smiled, “You got tickets.”

“I did! Took some convincing but I’m pretty good at getting what I want.” I smirked.

“Really?” He said, narrowing his eyes in a playful way. I inhaled deeply, getting the familiar scent of spearmint gum.

“Yeah. Like I can get a stick of your gum.” I held out my hand. He dug in his pocket and produced a stick of gum.

“Not bad, not bad at all.” I took the gum from his hand and started chewing it. I looked around him, seeing Allison coming back. She seemed a little upset, so I decided to bail.

“I’ll see you around.” I waved and walked back into the crowd. I walked around the best I could, pushing through sweaty bodies, grabbing a water bottle while I was walking through. I hadn’t seen Jackson yet so that was both good and bad. We needed a visual of him. Soon enough Isaac and Erica were supposed to be here, Derek probably wouldn’t though.

“Derek definitely isn’t a party person.” I took a long swig out of the bottle.

“But I was.” I froze, looking over my shoulder. Michael... but how?

“Don’t you remember?” He stepped forward, “Hm? My parties lasted well into the early morning and we always had a good time, didn’t we?”

“Am I? You wouldn’t know, would you? Because after your little mutt boyfriend clawed my jugular and left me to die, burying me under the dirt, you didn’t check, did you? DID YOU?!” I decided now was the time to run. I don’t know if I was drugged or if he was really there but I wasn’t waiting to find out. My heart felt like it was going a million miles a hour and my eyes burned with tears. This wasn’t like Michael’s apartment, Derek wasn’t outside in the parking lot to save me. Even when I was supposed to be so powerful, why did I still feel so helpless? I found a corner of the warehouse and pressed my back against the cool bricks. Trying to regulate my breathing. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to calm down.

“You’re dead...” My voice trembled, the water dropping from my hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I shook my head, “Just thought I saw someone.” As a group, we found Scott, going into a secluded area where he showed us the syringe filled with ketamine. Since Scott had to keep the hunter’s at bay, it was Isaac’s job to stick Jackson.

“(Y/N)?” A soft voice asked. My eyes shot open, seeing Isaac and Erica staring at me.

“Are you okay?” She asked. Letting out a shaky breath, I nodded.

“Why me?” He asked.

Scott sighed, “Because I've got to make sure that Argent doesn't completely ruin the plan.” Isaac didn’t look completely convinced, “Okay, look-- you better do it intravenously, which means in the vein. When you find him, you pull back on this plunger right here. In the neck is probably going to be the easiest. So, you find a vein, you jam it in there, and pull back on the trigger. Be careful.” He added intently.

Isaac scoffed, “Oh, I doubt it'll even slightly hurt him.”

“No, I mean you. I don't want you to get hurt.” Scott took off through the crowd to find the Argents. I sent Isaac and Erica off to find Jackson, keeping behind them at a safe distance. I made sure to check all the surroundings as I walked, making sure that Michael didn’t show up again. No, he wouldn’t. He’s dead. Very dead.

Pain in my side made me wince, squeezing my eyes shut.

Derek slammed his body into the side of a concrete beam outside the warehouse, keeping Boyd close to him. Hunter’s gunfire ricocheting off the concrete.

Gasping, I opened my eyes, looking over in the direction that Isaac and Erica had gone. They had found him. Erica was using her looks and her body, grinding against Jackson’s front. Isaac came up behind her, dancing with the two.

“Keep your eyes on Isaac and Erica.” Derek’s voice echoed through my head.

“What about you and Boyd?”

“We’ll be fine.” I guess that answered that question. As I began walking towards the group, I tensed up. The familiar pain of electricity shocked through my system. But it wasn't’ me who was getting the zap, it was Derek. When I opened my eyes again, Isaac and Erica were on the ground. Jackson still stood there, staring at me with eyes that were solid like stone.

“You won’t stop me.” He growled in a disembodied voice. Jackson took off quickly. I rushed forward to Erica first, who was breathing erratically. She had this reaction before to Jackson’s venom, it seemed that it triggered her epilepsy. I kneeled down beside her, turning her on her side.

“Erica.” I said, trying to get her to look at me, “Erica, you need to breathe. Look at me.” Isaac reached out, trying to make a grab for the syringe that had been dropped, but it got kicked away. Isaac struggled through the crowd, trying to grab the syringe. Once Erica’s breathing regulated, I helped her to her feet.

“Come on, you’re okay.” I said, reassuring her and myself. I watched Isaac finally inject the ketamine into Jackson’s system. In the chaos of the party, no one saw Jackson drop and get dragged away. We followed Isaac into a small room of the main.

“You get out to Stiles, I need to help Derek.” I ran out the back door, seeing a hunter taking aim at Derek. I roared, knocking the weapon out of his hand and shoving him to the ground. I looked back to see Chris and Gerard staring. I was breathing heavily, fangs poking from my lips. Chris was holding a gun on me, one of my father’s guns. We seemed to have a silent agreement as I ran to reach Derek and Boyd.

“Why didn’t you shoot?” Gerard glared.

“It jammed.” Chris said, his voice hardened.

I found Derek and Boyd’s cover, seeing the blood on their clothes. In the distance, I picked up a voice, one I didn’t recognize.

"They're going to think it was an accident. Like you had an asthma attack and couldn't get to your inhaler in time. Your school records shows that you have a very severe case." Scott was in trouble, Derek and I shared a look.

"I think I stopped healing." Boyd swallowed thickly, holding a bleeding wound on his side.

“The bullets. They're laced with wolfsbane. You gotta go. Take the car.” He handed me the keys to the Camaro.

“What about you?”

“I have to find Scott. Go. Go!” He shouted, I helped Boyd to his feet, helping him across the parking lot away from the hunters and out of sight. I helped him get inside the backseat and got into the driver’s seat. As I was about to start the engine my blood went cold.

"Jackson, is that you?" Stiles’ voice. I looked back at Boyd in the rear view mirror. He was in rough shape and needed to get back to the depot. But Stiles.... Goddamit, I hate stupid trolley cart problems. I would hate myself forever if something happened to him but Boyd needed help now. I started the engine and sped out of the parking lot.

“Boyd? Talk to me, buddy.” I glanced at him. He seemed drowsy, his eyes fluttering shut.

“Come on, stay with me!” I pressed my foot down on the gas, going well over the speed limit.

I screeched to a halt outside Deaton’s clinic, the vet was already outside, ushering us both inside.

“I think you got more wounded on the way.” I huffed, laying Boyd down on the operating table.

“That’s why I’m always prepared.” He said, grabbing a pair of long pliers and a bottle used for flushing out wounds.

After listening to Boyd scream out for a while, he was finally free of all the mountain ash so he was able to heal himself. I sent him back out to the car to sleep. I decided that in between the chaos, I could ask Deaton about the bottle.

“That is definitely the spell and it was meant to stick.” He pointed to the lock of my hair inside the bottle, “By adding your hair, it made this spell specific to you in a powerful way.” He handed the bottle back to me, “It’s probably why you haven’t gotten your memories back.” He rolled up his sleeves and started washing his hands.

I sighed, “Great.” I leaned back against the brick wall, “So there isn’t anything I can do but live like this.”

Deaton looked back over his shoulder and sighed. He turned off the sink and turned around, wiping his hands on a paper towel.

“The supernatural world works in mysterious ways. You never know, they may come back slowly or all at once.”

“I’ve gotten bits and pieces. The name of Derek’s mother and a girl I was friends with but that’s not enough. And it’s not just me who’s suffering because of it. I can’t imagine how Derek feels.”

He for thought a moment, “Maybe he can share some of his memories with you. Werewolves are able to do that, you know. With just the simplest touch.” The door to the clinic brought both of our attention towards the lobby, “We’ll talk later.” We both rushed out to help Derek who was carrying a very unconscious Scott.

“Wolfsbane gas.” Derek said, laying him down on the operating table. Deaton worked hurriedly, grabbing a gas mask hooked up to an oxygen tank. Eventually, he started breathing again. I let out a smile of relief and brushed his curls off his forehead.

“Thank you.” Derek said to Deaton.

“You’re gonna give me a heart attack.” I sat back in a chair beside Derek. Deaton excused himself from the room. Derek was tense and rigid, his emotions running high. I rested my head on his shoulder, hoping my touch would make him breathe a little easier.

��Erica and Isaac okay?” I asked, looking up at him through my lashes.

“They’re okay.”

“And Stiles?” He nodded.

“I told him to go back home.” He glanced down at me, “I know it was hard for you to leave him there. But I’m sure Boyd is grateful to be alive right now.” He paused, “It was Victoria Argent who attacked Scott.”

“Allison’s mom?”

“I bit her.” The confusion on my face made him elaborate, “She lived through the bite.” For a hunter, the bite was always a death sentence. Whether it killed them, or their group did.

“I know you did it to save Scott... But something tells me you did it on purpose, as a battle strategy.”

A small smile pulled at his lips, “That wasn’t my intent. But I would be lying if I said it wasn’t good for our side.”

“Good? Derek, Chris was the only person who was holding back. Now that they have to kill his wife... I don’t think he will follow the code either.”

He turned to look at me, “Then it’s time we teach you how to fight. Unleash the beast.”

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

Read part 18 here!

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bestintheparsec · 4 years

Text

The Same Coin - Part 2

Masterlist

Pairing: Javier Peña x Reader

A/N: The pace is ~slowly picking up for these two😌 I didn’t allow any pining yet but it shall come soon and I hope you like the mild softness in this part😏 I hope you like this one, and as always thank you so much for any feedback!

Words: 3.0k

Warnings: a hint of angst, slow roast burn?, a crumb of Tender™

You roll your neck and shoulders, trying to relieve some of the aches from the day. As of late, you’ve been sedentary at work, and it’s starting to have an effect on your muscles. You look across the desk at Steve, who’s been in the same boat. This new management is really starting to get on your last nerve. Lately they've been restricting the amount of time you're in the field. Before anything makes it to your desk, it has to first collect dust on the ambassador’s, then the colonel’s, then Messina’s. They’ve claimed all this funneling of information is for “efficiency”—you’re not entirely sure they know what the word means. By the time any intel makes it into your hands, it may as well have never been reported at all. You can imagine the laughs this system has given Escobar as he continues to be a free man from one day to the next.

Steve puts out his cigarette and meets your tired eyes. “You good for the day?” he asks, the same exhaustion in his own voice.

“I’m going to try to get ahead on some of tomorrow’s bullshit before I head out,” you say with a sigh. “Can you take some of Peña’s stuff to him if you get home first? I’ll bring the rest after.”

He nods and stands up, tucking his gun behind his back before grabbing the files and heading out. Your desk lamp is the only thing lighting up the space as you work quickly to get the files sorted. You’re the last one here, but you’re nearly as alone as you are during the day, with only your thoughts and the messy stack of papers keeping you company.

“That’s all we had for today,” you say, dropping the heavy stack of files onto the marble countertop. The large red stamp that says “CLASSIFIED” across the top of each folder is deceiving in its urgency; it’s more than likely just another pile of useless leads that Escobar’s already one step ahead of. But it has to be sorted through nonetheless, much to Javier’s annoyance—another long night of mindless paperwork awaits.

Javier’s off his crutches and back to work now, but only to an extent. He’s still unable to walk fully without a limp, and is currently assigned to working from home unless absolutely necessary—though he’s convinced that this is less about his safety and more about preventing him from going on another undisclosed mission. He’s only been back at the embassy a handful of times since getting shot, but if he can’t be involved in the action out on the field he may as well stay in his own place and let you and Murphy deal with the assholes that hover over everything you do.

He skims the stack of documents before looking up at you. “This is all?” he jeers sarcastically, raising his brows.

“Hey, you didn’t have to deal with the shit that Steve and I had to look over today,” you remark. “Consider yourself lucky.”

Yeah. Another fucking wasted day. Real lucky, he thinks, huffing quietly as he flips the first folder open.

He observes silently as your eyes dart to the medication bottle on the counter, then to the kitchen. You carry the same tension in your posture every time you come over here—always making sure things are in their place, even off-duty. He almost rolls his eyes, but unconsciously stops himself before you turn back to him.

You don’t say anything, but he knows you’re just itching to mention the excess bottles of liquor, or the lack of any real food on his shelves. He’s been taking his meds and cleaning his wound like he’s supposed to, if only so you would leave him the hell alone about it. Or maybe you were starting to get to him, more than he thought—and certainly more than he’s allowed.

“Do you need anything else?” you ask, tapping your fingers on the counter. It’s all become routine now—you ask if he needs anything, he replies that he’s a functional adult again and therefore should just be left alone. The usual. Though he’s recently noticed you don’t fidget with your hands or the fabric of your clothes as much anymore, for a reason he doesn’t know—why he’s caught on to this, he doesn’t know either.

Javier shakes his head, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lighting one.

“Well, then...I’ll leave you to it,” you continue. He watches as you leave his apartment for what has to be the thirtieth time, quietly locking the door behind you—as if he can’t do it himself—the familiar sound of metal clicking into place followed by your footsteps fading away.

As you drop off today's documents, you wonder if Peña notices the slight change in your voice, the growing darkness under your eyes. Steve certainly had. “You look like hell,” he'd told you at the office today. Truthfully, you’re just tired. Tired of running in circles and chasing someone who might as well be a ghost; a ghost that leaves chaos in its wake and haunts you at night. Tired of bosses who don't seem to have a sense of urgency about any of it. So you probably do look a bit rough. But you’re too preoccupied to care.

“Murphy told me it was a long day,” Javier comments, breaking your momentary reverie. You look up at him.

It's been longer than that.

He takes a sip from his glass and gestures up and down at you with his free hand. Your hair’s a mess and your blouse is untucked and unbuttoned all the way, revealing the tank top you’re wearing underneath. “Have you, uh, slept recently?” he asks with a smirk on his face, his tone laced with teasing. You’re not in the mood for it.

“I don't want to fucking hear it, Peña.” You say it in such a way that it wipes the grin off his face.

If he’s bothered by your remark, he makes no indication of it. Instead of responding, he leans against the counter, waiting for you to continue.

“Work was work, but the ambassador gave us hell,” you explain, abruptly slamming today’s files down on the counter. “I don’t know what anybody’s problem is anymore—do they want to catch these bastards or not?”

Javier meets your eyes, speculating when the last time you actually got some rest was, if you slept as restlessly as he did. He quickly pushes the thought away—why should he be concerned? But he nods anyways, knowing the feeling well.

“I have access to better CIs than the bullshit we're given,” he remarks. “You're the one who won’t get on board.”

Your mouth twitches, and you can't resist. “Another informant? Jesus, Peña, doesn’t your leg hurt?”

He glowers at you. "Not that kind of informant," he quips, muttering under his breath.

“Anyways, I don’t know what’s worse, mindless paperwork, or busting our asses while trying not to get killed out there,” you say under your breath, mostly to yourself.

A brief silence passes. “I know,” he finally says with resignation. He rubs the area over his brow bone, seeming to contemplate what else to say. “I know how those assholes are,” he adds, and you’re surprised that it sounds genuine.

The lack of a sarcastic response is unexpected. It’s almost as if a silent but mutual understanding has materialized between you, and you’re not quite sure how to feel about it. For now, at least, it’s a somewhat nice change.

Your lips curve into a reluctant smile. “But I have to deal with those assholes, and you, too,” eliciting an eye roll and soft chuckle from him.

Another few ticks of the clock go by before you both turn to the stack of documents. Peña sighs.

You don’t know what overcomes you when you speak again. “I can help you go through it...if you want,” you offer with a shrug, though it sounds like a question.

He looks at you, a brow raised. “Why?”

You want to answer but you’re not too sure yourself. “The faster we can get this shit done, the sooner we can get back on the field.” Just this once, you think. If Peña’s thrown off by your suggestion, he doesn’t let it show.

Without another word, you each take half of the pile and get to work.

There are many things you’ve never noticed about Peña’s apartment before—you ponder this as you sit on his couch, leaning over the coffee table perusing today’s documents. You’ve been here too many times now, but have never paid attention to the smaller things. The frames that line his wall don’t contain photos of other people, but of a few dogs; presumably his, but it makes you wonder if he’s not close enough to anyone to have a picture of them. There’s a lot of books stashed away on some shelves, covered in dust but worn as though they were once well-loved. A month ago you would’ve thought the only books Peña read were those titled How to Be an Asshole 101. But most of all, you realize his apartment is just about as empty as your own; minimal decor and just the essentials. The years have gone by here in Colombia, but you have never bothered to make the place feel more like home. A job is a job. Things may change by the minute when you’re DEA, but somehow the days are all exactly the same. A heavy conscience is all that fills your empty apartment, and that’s more than enough clutter for you.

You snap out of it when he comes out of the bathroom, having just changed his bandages. The bullet wound has mostly resolved—that's what he tells you, anyways. But he still walks with the limp, and you can tell he hates it; you know he’s not someone who can sit still and do nothing for such long periods of time. Fortunately—or not—he can do some work at home. Somehow you’ve found yourself staying over more often to help get the work done; much more than the one-time occasion you'd convinced yourself it would be. At first it’s just a few spare evenings, quiet nights that would have been dull anyways; a few extra hours after work here and there, slowly making a dent in the piles of busy work you’re given. Steve comes over occasionally, but he actually has someone to go home to so it’s never for too long.

Several times you argue over the correct method to go about hunting down a new lead—conventional versus methodical, straight-forward versus roundabout. You bite the inside of your cheek when he doesn’t agree and he groans with exasperation. But how much of it actually matters? you wonder. At the end of the day, Escobar still walks free. The last time you were on the field together, La Quica slipped from your fingers, and then some.

At some point, you attempt to explain your thought process; the reasoning, the logic. It’s not the first time you’ve tried to, but for some reason, Javier listens. Really listens. And, even stranger to him, he starts to understand. His world doesn’t turn and he won’t change his mind anytime soon, but he slowly figures you out. And somehow, the few hours you spend in his flat have slowly turned into longer evenings that go well past midnight.

It takes you longer, but down the line you unwittingly start to understand him, too; not a lot, and not completely by any means. But for the first time since working with him, you no longer have this urge to shoot daggers with your eyes when you look at him.

Tonight looks to be another one of those long nights. You rest your chin on your hand, watching as Peña plots out a map of the city, narrowing down the potential hideouts of Escobar’s men. These late nights are getting to you, and you let out a big yawn without noticing. He stops mid-sentence and meets your eyes, and for a second you think you see a hint of amusement; it’s quickly replaced by his usual stoic expression.

You take a moment to stretch your arms and back, and Peña gets up to walk over to the kitchen. You decide to move to the floor for a change, crossing your legs on the cold, hard tile. He comes back with two glasses and a bottle of liquor he didn’t even have to read the label on before grabbing.

“Drink?” he asks, setting the glasses down and joining you on the floor.

You nod and push your hair out of your face, taking a glass as he pours the clear liquid into it.

“Do you think we can find them?” you suddenly ask, swirling the drink around. “Any of them?”

He looks surprised by your question; not because it’s a strange one but because it’s not something that’s ever discussed. Plans are put into place, actions are taken, orders are followed. “We’ll get him”, is the only thing spoken, a motto repeated in the face of defeat. “One way or another.” For a long time you’ve all been running on autopilot, simply chasing down one chance after another. More losses than wins, yet everyone refuses to back down. It’s the sort of thing that starts to wear a person down when they’ve been doing it long enough.

He must be lost in the same train of thought, taking a few seconds longer to realize you’re waiting for an answer.

“I wouldn’t stay here if I didn’t,” is all he says, raising his glass.

It’s nearly the same thing you tell yourself, especially on nights when it’s harder to sleep. You purse your lips and nod, turning your attention back to the files at hand.

Javier turns out the lights and pulls himself under the covers, letting out a heavy sigh as he runs his hands over his face. He needs this damn leg to heal itself soon—every day he’s not on the field is another day he can’t go after those assholes. He considers contacting one of his CIs again, but for a second he feels a sensation he can’t explain. Doubt? It’s not guilt—he can’t feel something that’s already made a home in the back of his mind. It’s fleeting, gone before he can think anymore of it. He thinks of you and wonders if it's the same things that keep you up, because it’s obvious that something does. When he finally lets himself close his eyes, he realizes he’s thought of you too often for his own liking. In his defense, you have been at his place more frequently. But so has Murphy, to some extent, and it’s not like he’s been thinking of him in his free time.

He groans and rolls over onto his good leg’s side and moves into the middle of his empty bed, waiting for the images that fill his thoughts every night to lull him into another restless slumber.

You’d come over straight after work tonight, not bothering to drop your stuff off at your own place first.

Recently the higher-ups passed a new lead into your hands—a good lead, and a usable one, for once. Finally having something interesting to follow, you’ve spent many more hours poring over the details.

You haven’t even so much as looked up from the pictures on the table for at least an hour. Javier blinks the dryness out of his eyes as he leans back and massages the back of his neck, tempted to have another smoke. The clock reads 2:03. It’s later than he thought.

He stands up, putting the papers down on the table. “I’ll be back. Gotta change this dressing again,” he says quietly.

Somewhere between the complete silence and the sound of Peña shuffling around in his bedroom, you toss your pen down and lean back against the couch. Your back aches and the back of the couch is cool and comfortable. You uncross your legs, trying to relax for just a minute.

It's a while before Javier walks back out into the living room, about to say something when he sees you leaning against the side of the couch with your eyes shut. You’re holding your hands close to your body, as though you didn’t mean to let yourself get comfortable. He initially resists the urge to smile at the sight, but lets out a chuckle when it becomes obvious you won’t catch him. He debates waking you up, assuming you’d rather not stay overnight at his place. But after a few moments he decides against it, turning to go back to his room.

You’ll just be grumpy if he wakes you up. Best to save himself the trouble of dealing with it. Javier tells himself this as he pulls a spare blanket from the closet, then limps back out towards the couch. He gently shakes the thin blanket out and drapes it over you. It smells faintly of mothballs, but it’s clean and serves its function—his other guests usually share his blanket. He’s about to go back to his room when the loud roar of the AC suddenly brings a cool breeze into the room. He looks at you again, readjusting the blanket and pulling it up over your shoulders.

He pauses before turning off the lamp beside the table, his gaze lingering on you. You haven’t moved; it must’ve been a longer day than you let on. You’ve still got those tired lines under your eyes, but when you’re not nagging at him, you almost look peaceful. It’s such a marked disparity from the world outside that, just for a moment, he feels a bit at ease himself.

When he sees you like this, Javier decides that maybe you’re not so bad after all.

TSC tags: @yabby-girl @mytinybaguette @mrpascals @dindjarindiaries @synystersilenceinblacknwhite @pascalesque @lady-sigyn @bel-13 @positivelife3000 @larakasser @buckstaposition @watsonwise @irishleesh93 @gigilame @lostingoogletranslate @kristalhi @supersonntag @lcandothisallday @keeper0fthestars

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#javier peña x reader #javier pena x reader #my ff #non sw

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p5youllneverseeitcoming · 3 years

Text

Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble

So! I finished the story of Persona 5 Strikers and I wanted to share my thoughts as I have soooo much to say but cannot share with my friends due to spoilers :’) I am currently playing on a New Game+ as, ya girl wants the Platinum Trophy :o

I will talk about some of the things that I really liked here (Spoiler free don’t worry) AND include spoilery things under the cut so I won’t ruin the experience for anyone else!

The Plot

Obviously this takes place after the original Persona 5 story finishes and as opposed to a whole year, you just get 1 month with the Phantom Thieves. I really liked exploring all the cities you travel to and the character interactions were so cute!! I really like the two new characters introduced (Sophia and Zenkichi Hasegawa). Both of them fit the story so well and their interactions with the other Thieves are honestly so good and pure! Also?? Their outfits? Amazing T_T It was such a nice change seeing everyone in casual outfits as opposed to their school uniforms!

I also loved the fact that you could choose to play with characters that get introduced late game like Haru for example straight away. I for one, always have her in my party as soon as she’s available so having her for the whole game was like a dream come true haha. I’ll talk about Sophia and Zenkichi a bit more under the cut but I will say that it’s so fun to play as them! I personally prefer Sophia more as she has healing skills which are always really useful and she uses yo-yo’s for her weapons which are so fun to use. Zenkichi uses a great sword which is very Final Fantasy of him and I am loving it. I love their Phantom Thief outfits! Sophia looks super cute in her floofy coat and boots and Zenkichi just looks so cool! His hat is goals, I want one T_T

The anime cutscenes in the game are also... Omg... I just can’t help but fangirl over how everyone looks... ESPECIALLY SOPHIA OML, she’s so... Bby... And of course, the dialogue options you can choose are so funny, then again what else can you expect from a game that had the option to say “you jelly?” to Ryuji.

I won’t spoil the main plot but this game works similarly to Persona 5 in the sense of, you still go into dungeons but these ones are a lot shorter and when you leave the dungeon, the days don’t actually move forward, only specific story points advance the days. So essentially if you wished, you can stay and grind for as long as you like!

The Gameplay

I won’t lie, as expected from a hack-and-slash it gets quite chaotic at first if you don’t fully know what’s going on but you get used to it pretty quickly! The game gives you tutorials whenever anything new appears and you get the hang of it pretty well by the first dungeon. You still only have 4 characters in your party and Akira must always be present but here you can actually run around as the other party members when the battles are over! Also? Morgana gets comical sound effects when he does things like jumping and running and I was LIVING for it.

The other thing that changed is, obviously it’s not turn based so if you were like me and wore the SP restoring accessories to get 7SP back each turn, you’re in for a last surprise! In this game you actually use your items quite a lot as there isn’t a limit to how much you can use as you access them mid battle by pausing. Later on you get specific skills that restore your SP after each battle or by performing All Out Attacks and 1 More’s so honestly, SP isn’t really a problem for regular battles. I mainly found it running out quickly when I was fighting some of the optional bosses but I always had SP restoring items so it was all good hehe.

You still do things like All Out Attacks and 1 More’s in this game but you also do something called ‘Showtime’ which is very similar to the ones introduced in Royal only in Strikers it’s for one character, you basically build up the showtime gauge as you battle enemies and, once activated, you deal significant damage to stronger enemies like bosses as well as all of the enemies in the area. The All Out Attacks also have their own little animation with your party posing and just looking really good!

Yusuke being so extra is honestly such a mood omg... Also Mona T_T So smol.

Every party member has their own special quirks such as Ann and Makoto applying Fire and Nuclear affinity respectively to their regular weapons, Morgana turning into the Mona car and so on. I personally always had Haru and Yusuke in my party and kept switching between the other Thieves to see what I like best. Personally, I really like having Morgana or Sophia as they’re really good healers, Morgana obviously having the more powerful skills such as Mediaharan and Salvation.

Also... The menus... Omg... If you thought the Persona 5 menu was stylish then you will LOVE the Strikers menus. They’re so stylish! And I love that all the Phantom Thieves are there too, it’s so cute T_T

The only thing I don’t like is the game doesn’t pause when your controller dies so uh... I may or may not have died during a boss battle when I was like 2 hits away from winning and then just... Stopped moving letting the boss hit me with a killing combo :)

To be honest though the party that I had pretty much all the time was:

But as I said, I liked to change Morgana and Sophia around every now and then.

The Music

Omg the music. Atlus really just said: Hey what if we made Persona 5 music again but like... More epic?

The song that plays right as soon as you have control of Joker is SO. GOOD. I legit had to pause for like 5 mins just to jam out. I don’t think it will come as much of a surprise but in my opinion, Persona 5 definitely has one of the best video game soundtracks, I absolutely love all the songs!

I will discuss some of the dungeon themes in the spoilers but I absolutely love the soundtrack for this game. Every dungeon theme is so fitting for said dungeon, I genuinely listen to them all the time, especially when doing my research for my essays!

The battle music is really energetic as opposed to the jazzy feel from the original Persona 5 soundtrack but it’s very fitting for the actual battle as you often fly all around the area instead of standing in one spot. I will say, Last Surprise made an excellent comeback despite being an already amazing song which is just, amazing, incredible, fantastic...

Other things

Well, I can’t go into detail due to spoilers but they deadass put a JoJo reference as well as a character in the game :’) The moment I saw them I was fangirling so hard!!! Also? The villain designs in this game??? Amazing. Beautiful. Very creative!

The Phantom Thieves interacting with each other is also really cute! I ESPECIALLY liked the fact that Morgana and Ryuji got along a lot better! They still had small fights here and there but they pretty much apologised to one another straight away which I really liked! Also? Ryuji protecting his friends, especially the girls? Amazing. Wonderful. Cannot help but stan.

Well, that concludes the non-spoiler section which.... Is kinda long haha, Below the cut I will talk about the spoilery things so I advise looking at it AFTER you finish the game!

The Plot

The plot of this game is really fun if you ask me. You travel around Japan defeating Monarchs in Jails AND you get to experience the joys of summer vacation with your friends and your new Persona dad. I really like the fact that you don’t advance time when you leave the Jails because this gives you the chance to grind as much as you want before tackling harder fights like some of the optional bosses. The boss designs themselves were so good! Especially Alice?! My God? She’s beautiful?? Look at her!

Persona 5 Strikers said you can be horny on main... Just this once o_o. She literally steps on Joker in the Jail which o_o Ma’am... Plz but she ALSO steps on her manager in the real world.

I really liked all the bosses in this game because they felt so... Real? Obviously I don’t agree with them for brainwashing people into worshipping them, but I really like how the game gave them backstories that showed why they strayed away from the right path. The fact that the Thieves tell them that they understand their struggles because they themselves went through the same thing (Like Ann and Yusuke) honestly made me appreciate the story that much more. I really liked Haru’s little arc in Sapporo because not only did she help Mariko Hyodo and show her that despite mistakes you can always stand up and start again, but she also got to have more screentime, like that cute fountain scene she has with Akira! ALSO? The Hee-Horde?! I was laughing for a solid 5 minutes when I saw it! It was so cute how Haru, Sophia, Ryuji and Yusuke were so into it while Futaba was just there like: ????

I think my favourite Jail out of all of them will definitely have to be the Kyoto one, a.k.a. the Jail controlled by Zenkichi’s daughter, Akane. Despite how short it is, you can learn so much about her. The overall aesthetic of the jail shows her love to the Phantom Thieves and in the actual Jail theme you can hear fragments of ‘Life Will Change’ and ‘Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There’ which I think is absolutely amazing! The boss fight for this jail honestly took me 3 tries to beat as the first time, I died due to not fully getting how Shadow Joker worked, and the second time, I was about 2 hits from beating him but then... My controller died :’) By the time it turned back on I was already c-c-c-c-comboed to death so :’) This is also the jail where Zenkichi awakens to his Persona and honestly? I found the little segment where he has to sneak around in his usual everyday attire so cute, bless him, he really did adopt 7 teenagers, their cat and an AI daughter.

ALSO?! They deadass put Dio in this game? Like when I first saw Natsume’s shadow I was like: Hm looks kinda familiar...

BUT THEN?!

Needless to say I was fangirling pretty hard.

I liked Akira Konoe, very much vibing with his Power Ranger aesthetic however, I have to say, his boss fights was surprisingly... Easy? At least it felt easy to me which was kind of... Disappointing I suppose for him supposedly being “the final boss” HOWEVER, I very much liked how his calling card was delivered, and the fact that Zenkichi could finally get his revenge was very satisfying!

Now, let’s talk about the end game, mainly the Abyss Jail. I did NOT see it coming (haha) that it was Ichinose all along! As I’m currently replaying the game, the fact that she doesn’t want to look at Sophia despite specialising in AI technology should have been my first clue that something is not quite right here!

When she forces Sophia to attack the Thieves, it honestly broke my heart. The fact that she recognised Joker and Skull... And she threw herself off the ledge just so she can’t hurt them anymore... Yo, I love her so much T_T That’s why her awakening to her Persona (her true Persona) was such a satisfying scene! Her Persona (Pandora) has a really cool design, I especially like the fact that she represents the Hope Arcana (as there was hope left at the bottom of Pandora’s box) and that Pandora herself kept the box-y design from her original “Persona” Pithos. I found it quite funny that all the skills Pithos has ended with a “?”. Anyway, the scene where she tells Ichinose all the things she learnt, and that Ichinose herself has a heart despite believing that she doesn’t for so long was so touching. It showed that Sophia deeply cares for her, despite the fact that she literally said she’s the reason so many people are getting mind controlled by EMMA. The ending scene with the two of them laughing and holding hands... My heart T_T

Now then, let’s talk about EMMA.

I. Loved. The. Final. Boss. Fight.

The fact that the game makes you use ALL the characters for the final fight! As I usually switched out characters here and there, my reserve party members weren’t severely under-levelled which made the fight pretty okay! I had quite... Strange groups I would say as I had Makoto and Zenkichi being a team, Morgana, Ann and Ryuji being a team, and Akira, Haru, Yusuke and Sophia being the final team. The final boss itself, has an absolutely beautiful design. I especially loved the angel like wings because it really showed that EMMA saw herself as a saviour. The cutscene that plays after with all the Thieves dealing the final blows before watching all the desires fall around them was honestly so pretty... Man, this game series is just so aesthetic!

When the credits rolled and all the photos started appearing I couldn’t help but start crying. It really felt like you were actually there, living through all the memories and the fact that Sophia called the photo of all of them together “Treasure”... T_T

The Gameplay

I already pretty much said all I wanted for the gameplay in the non-spoiler section but I will say, the Showtimes and the Master Skills each character learns are so good! I love that once you master all of them you’re bascially unstoppable, I especially love Haru’s and Akira’s as it allows them to deal damage even if they’re a safe distance away from the enemy. The fact that you can learn Bond skills that restore SP with every All Out Attack and One More is honestly so helpful because it saves you going back and forth between the real world but then again, by this point you probably have way too many HP and SP restoring items!

I really liked that Zenkichi has no weaknesses and uses Almighty damage but I find the whole Fury/HP consumption combination a bit weird. After a while you get used to it and obviously you don’t have to activate fury at all but as I said before, I prefer playing as Sophia. Although, I will say that gun wise, I think Zenkichi’s are a lot more fun to use than Sophia’s blasters, but then again that’s just my personal opinion!

The Music

As I said, the music was so fitting for each Jail, I absolutely love it.

The first Jail, you honestly can’t help but bop your head to the beat. It really gives you the impression that you’re in some kind of twisted theme park which really fit the overall aesthetic of the Jail. I loved the vibrant neon colour scheme in such a dark looking place.

The Okinawa Jail... My God that theme was so good. I can’t really explain it but the song really made you feel like you were... Alone, like the place was truly abandoned and forgotten. As soon as the violin started playing I couldn’t help but just stop and listen to it. The overall jail was just so... Creepy. The Shadows there resemebled the shadows you would usually find in the previous Persona games, just this black mass slithering around. I think it was very fitting that they put the Reaper in this Jail.

As I mentioned before, the Kyoto Jail theme is my absolute favourite. The fact that it has elements of other Persona 5 songs due to Akane being a big Phantom Thieves fan was such a good choice! I love how when you take a closer look, you can see the Phantom Thieves logo on the lanterns and the fact that Shadow Akane herself made a Phantom Thief outfit for herself... Big mood. I loved how all the Thieves encouraged her to try and get along with her dad better AND that they taught Zenkichi how to cook just so he can make curry for her, especially when you remember just how much curry means to someone like Futaba.

I really liked the remix of Rivers in a Desert, then again what did I expect from a Persona game? The battle music is ALWAYS amazing. I really liked how this played when you fight Konoe as it parallels when you fight Shido in the original, supposedly the final fight, only to find out that there is something MUCH bigger than them.

Other things

This post is already way too long and if you read all of this... Thank you so much. Sadly, I cannot share this with any of my friends as it’s spoilers so I hope you guys don’t mind me sharing this here! I would love to see your opinion of this game!!!

Also? Yusuke and Akira are now canonically dating and I think that’s beautiful

And then that scene later on

Why do you think we came here with Yusuke, Morgana?

TL;DR: I love this game

#p5s #persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 strikers #persona 5 scramble #p5s spoilers #persona 5 scramble spoilers #persona 5 strikers spoilers

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harry-sussex · 3 years

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I have sent this statement to one of the Harry fan blogs claiming that "His family was going to stand by and let his pregnant wife kill herself." This was one of the narratives resulting from the Oprah interview that I really hate. I'm also particularly disappointed that the memoir could possibly result in this narrative being perpetuated further.

Didn't Harry say he didn't tell his family about Meghan's suicidal tendencies? He said in the Oprah interview that he was too ashamed to admit it. So how can his family stand by and let his pregnant wife kill herself when the same family wasn't even informed that Meghan was taking all the criticisms that badly in the first place? I blame the BRF in particular for failing to rally behind Meghan. Little things would have count - an engagement here and there, reports on a jewel from the vault gifted to her or something. Anything to show that she has been embraced fully and has their backing in this criticism barrage from the press. But it's not as if they were told that "Hey, Meghan wants to kill herself" and they replied with "Oh, good to know".

What Harry did to remove his family from the toxicity in the UK (which apparently followed them even to the US) is admirable (although I don't agree with how he went about it) but it's not enough to put him on a pedestal and blame everything on everyone else but him. He knew his wife was taking things badly, couldn't he have sought help from other relatives he trusted? I know Charles and William are probably out of the equation but what about the Queen, Eugenie, his Spencer aunts, Earl Spencer? Harry was influential in the UK as well and there was so much more he could have done other than hugging his wife and letting her cry her eyes out. He has admirably defied royal protocol in defense of Meghan but we have to believe that he couldn't have defied them at the time when she needed it the most to get help for her? To use the words of my favorite baby niece, "get real".

That notion really is disgusting, and I hate that people think it's true. Harry said himself that he was TOO ASHAMED to ask for help for Meghan. There's a lot of context to that phrase that is missing and that I can't be bothered to look up but he did say that, more or less word for word. I took 7 pages of notes when the interview aired. That's what he said. These people are not monsters nor television villains. That's a complete bastardization of what's actually been said to have occurred and they can't do that when they cry every time someone does that to Harry and Meghan. That's horrible. Absolutely horrible.

They told us, too, that the infrastructure of the palace did nothing. While that may very well be true (and disgusting, if it is), the family is not the institution. The family is the boss, sure, but you're telling me that the Queen of the United Kingdom does employee reviews and checks their emails and has that much of a grasp on what's going on? No way, and nor should she. Meghan deserved the help - everyone deserves help - and it's so, so horrible that she didn't get it. I don't know if the infrastructure of the institution could have gotten her the help she needed, but I can one think of one major person who could have, the one whose priority it should have been to do so, and didn't, because he was ashamed, even though he went and got it for himself not three years earlier.

Imagine if she did get that help? What could have been? She'd have been so much happier, so much healthier, could have basked in the joy of her first pregnancy, maybe learned to let the press bullshit roll right off her shoulders. Harry would have finally chilled out and he probably wouldn't be as traumatized as he clearly is now. They could have been at peace much, much sooner - like they both deserve.

And, on a much shallower note, would they have left? My money's on no.

The family needed to do more, and I've always argued that the small things carry much heavier weight than the grand sweeping gestures that some expect. Engagements, jewelry loans, polo matches are much bigger than statements chomping at the bit to go after every single bad article or rumor floating around. I'd have like to have seen more of HM's earrings, for example. Charles and Meghan, Camilla and Meghan, Kate and Meghan engagements. Inviting Meghan to do things privately so it'd leak to the press, because it usually does. Harry and William playing polo while their wives and the gaggle of kiddos sit, chat, and play. Coming out swinging is simply not an option in an institution that is bound to the public and forced to cooperate with the media. Harry, of all people, should know that - but he doesn't. He never learned it. There were things that would have worked for both sides that could have been done to show their support and imo it was not done enough, which is a large part of why they left. Meghan deserved better.

I think he could have consulted anyone, really. When I needed help I certainly didn't call my mom, dad, sister, cousins, aunts and uncles... I googled providers until I found one that I liked, and went with that strategy until one stuck. Granted, I know Prince Harry can't just hire any old random on the internet. But he had a therapist and we know for a fact that he was getting some kind of help. They must have been vetted and proven themselves to work with discretion. You're telling me that they had no recommendations? That the only avenue was to ask a 95 year old woman, her 72 year old son, and the company they essentially work for for help for your suicidal, pregnant wife? Or was it that Harry didn't even do the basic level of research that he could and should have done? Used his connections to do what he had to do for his wife who he dragged into this mess to begin with, clearly without preparing her for what it was really like?

I don't think it's right that the institution didn't have the infrastructure or was otherwise unwilling to help but that's a problem to address after every other alternate avenue was pursued to go get it for her. Then they could have made heads roll within the institution if they wanted. The no. 1 priority should have been getting the help at whatever cost and deal with the bullshit later. Instead, he tried one single avenue, got stuck, and got ashamed, and let it fester until they clawed their way out. I cannot and will not understand how it just... stopped after that first roadblock. You keep going until you find something and then you deal with everything after. The priority should have been the help, not the revenge. And I will never understand why Harry, who very clearly loves his wife more than anything and everything, didn't make sure that happened. I will never understand it.

#ask #anonymous #prince harry #duke of sussex #meghan markle #duchess of sussex #phmemoir

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annes-andromeda · 3 years

Text

Hoo boi, here comes a rant:

So when I watched the WandaVision finale, I was honestly left disappointed by it. I didn’t like a lot of things, which other people have talked about. Not that I regret watching it, but it’s not free of problems

Spoilers for Episode 6 under the cut

But today, I have watched the tfatws finale and...wow I’m disappointed. Yet again. What a shocker.

Some things I didn’t like about the finale and the show in general:

I don’t like that they killed off Kali. I don’t like that the other Super Soldiers didn’t flat out tell her off or have a chance for redemption. Yes Kali was an extremist and although her message was right, her actions were wrong, I hate how they couldn’t think of another ending for her and her teammates so they just killed them. Jesus marvel, how lazy can you get?

God I hate what they did with Lemar. In episode 4, I literally screamed at my phone “LEMAR, STOP BEING THE BLACK FRIEND”. But nope. He was killed off to fuel the white mans pain and he never got any agency of his own whatsoever. He never even got his abilities from the Power Broker like in the comics.

If they wanted to have Walker snap, they could’ve had it that the adrenaline of the Super Serum was getting to him. Lemar would notice this change and try to calm down his BFF. But Walker says something like “I’m gonna complete this mission no matter the cost” or “You’re not the captain here”. He kills that one guy in front of everyone, which shocks Lemar. Walker comforts him, but is distant because he can see the sudden change in his friend. Val confronts Walker and let’s say he meets with the Power Broker or something. Lemar gets his abilities, but betrays Walker and joins Sam and Bucky.

There. It could’ve been so easy, but Marvel just had that need to remove the agency of yet another POC character.

Speaking of the Power Broker: wow what a weak ass plot twist. So they were basically building up the PB as this huge antagonist who was essentially a mafia boss of sorts and SPOILER ALERT...it’s Sharon.

That...That is some Game of Thrones season 8, Star Wars “somehow Palpatine has returned” type of bad writing. Again, there was this whole set up about the PB being this alpha level type of boss, but it’s just...Sharon.

The loud ass external groan I let out was incomprehensible to say the least.

And speaking of Sharon, wow did they do her dirty. Like, so fucking dirty. So instead of giving her some emotional depth and some basic good writing, she’s once again only there to support the male leads and be left behind simply because she’s not a love interest. And I guess she’s an antagonist now so...yaaay🙄

When I said I wanted more Sharon content, boy was this not what I meant.

The last complaint that I have is how they treated Sam. I really don’t like how practically every character was trying to vilify him for giving up the shield.

Yes I know Bucky apologized, which I really appreciate instead of just having the conflict never be addressed again, but was it really necessary to try and make it seem like Sam giving the up the shield was bad?

Also-and you can disagree with me on this-, I felt like they hardly gave Sam any emotional depth. Compared to Bucky, who had that whole flashback of him with Ayo and his whole arc about TWS, to me it felt like they used Sam to explore other characters stories.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the talks with Karli and Isaiah, they were incredibly well done. But it seemed like Sam was just used as an outlet for them. We barely got anything about Sams past aside from Sarah, his nephews, and a few sentences about his parents and his home.

Where are his flashbacks? Where’s his big emotional moment? What about Riley and the accident that literally traumatized Sam?? Ya know, when Sam lost his best friend and could only watch as he fell to his death and do nothing about it?? It’s literally never mentioned again after TWS!!! There wasn’t even any attempt to try and give Sam his bird powers!! For god sakes, he’s supposed to be the main character!!!

And for people who say that not everything needs to be comic accurate: I agree, but if it took Marvel seven years to acknowledge Wanda as the Scarlet Witch and give her magic and it took them practically an entire goddamn decade to give Loki magic, then they could’ve given Sam his powers.

Yes I like how Sam acknowledged some of his struggles as a black man, which was well handled, but by god it seems like the writers just skimmed by him until he became Captain America. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

Also: what a wasted opportunity to have Torres come in as the new Falcon. I mean we got to see the Sam Cap suit, the US Agent suit, but no Hispanic/Latino Falcon?

I don’t regret watching tfatws. I enjoyed seeing more of Sam and Bucky, but I’m still gonna acknowledge some of the questionable creative choices that were made.

Cause at this point, Marvels bad writing is getting very hard to ignore.

#marvel #tfatws #anti mcu #well kind of #tfatws spoilers #mcu criticism #mcu critical #anti tfatws #well just in case

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sazc94 · 3 years

Text

If These Sheets Were States

Chapter 2

Words: 1.2k

Warnings: A bit of violence, swearing lots of sickly sweet fluff.

A/N Anything Blue, Bold and Italic is a flashback,

Chapter 3

…Collisions of a finer love, I'd kill for one more way To tell you how you make me better every day

22:30 New York

You padded out of your en-suite into the bedroom your fluffy warm towel wrapped around you, your hair was hanging loose around your shoulders, blow dried just enough it would not soak your pillow in the night but still slightly damp. Steve may be an Avenger, but he was also pretty good with his hands. He had ripped out your old bathroom after a year of dating, he had completely done it up installing a new bath with jets, a shower that had different settings. He had done it up with help from Bucky and Thor when you were back in England visiting one of your closest friends for their wedding. Steve had been unable to attend with you as he was on a mission with the Avengers when you had left. The mission had ended early when a suspect had made a stupid mistake allowing the Avengers to sweep in and capture him. As a result of the mission ending early Steve had decided to surprise you with the bathroom renovations. You chucked your hair up into a messy bun so you could do your skincare routine, grabbed one of Steve’s T-shirts and a pair of boxers from his draw. You had lots of cute sets of PJs some a bit more lingerie than PJs but as you’d had one hell of a day and were missing your boyfriend you decided to wear these as it made him feel closer. “F.R.I.D.A.Y engage intruder alarm” you said “Alarm engaged miss L/N” the AI replied. You grabbed the giant stitch plus sat on the chair in the corner of your room. Somehow it always smelt like Steve. He hid his aftershave whilst he was on missions because he knew you would always use it up when he was away spraying it on your pillows etc. Unbeknownst to you he had worked with Bruce in Starks lab on putting a scent disperser of his aftershave in your Stich this one slightly more high-tech then ones you could get in Build A Bear. He had enlisted Natasha’s sewing skills to ensure the seam wasn’t noticeable.

It was Natasha who had introduced you to Steve. Natasha had been undercover in your old Law firm in the UK investigating some ties between your old boss and Hydra. During her 6-month mission she had gotten close to you as a way to gain access to your boss. The pair of you ended up hitting it off as friends outside of work. She was actually the only one there for you when your mum died suddenly. It turned the whole company came tumbling down after it turned out at least two of the named partners of your old law firm had ties to Hydra so the whole company collapsed. Natasha returned to NYC but stayed in touch. After a year She got word of the opening at Nelson and Murdock Attorneys at Law (due to ties she would not disclose) she told Matt Murdock all about you and sent across your CV.

“I don’t know Nat. I mean its NYC I would have to relocate my whole life across the world for a job” you said. “Listen Y/N, you said to me yourself just last month how the pay in this new job is almost half of what it was at Lawson LLP, you hate working there. Your ex-boyfriend Tim is engaged, and you don’t have any family ties. This could be a new start at an amazing job in an amazing city with an even more amazing Best friend” She smirked. Natasha had face timed you after Matt had informed her that he was offering you the job after you had wowed in the interview (even if it was by zoom). “Besides Wanda wants to meet you too. And you know your accent will get all the boys” Natasha said. Natasha made a point, there wasn’t really much keeping you in England. You didn’t talk to your dad and your mum had been cremated, her ashes scattered in one of her favourite natural beauty spots. You let out a deep breath you didn’t even realise you’d been holding. “Okay, okay you win. Ill accept the job” you laughed “But, you have to help me find an apartment and go to the viewings for me and show me them by video chat” you said. Natasha agreed and 6 short weeks later you arrived at JFK airport greeted by Natasha and two of her Avenger “colleagues” Thor and Wanda.

“Y/N this is Thor, and you’ve spoken to Wanda” Natasha said. You were not prepared to meet Wanda let alone Thor, so you just stood there like a deer in headlights. Wanda, oblivious to your anxiety over being in the presence of a literal god, threw herself at you in a welcoming hug. “Y/N!!! its so good to finally meet you in person” Wanda exclaimed. Natasha informed you she was throwing you a small and lowkey welcome to your new home party the coming weekend where you would be able to meet some more of her team, Steve, Bucky and Clint were all intrigued by the infamous Y/N Natasha spoke so highly off so were more than happy to come to Natasha’s little get together.

“Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y, play if These sheets were states by All Time Low would you?” I’m lost in empty pillow talk again

You crawled into bed, whilst All Time Low played, you always found yourself coming back to this one song when Steve was on a long mission, you smiled to yourself knowing that Steve didn’t really understand your love for Pop Punk, but you had played this song enough that he had started to learn the lyrics. You took out your messy bun, turned out the lights and curled up with your kindle and personalized, Steve smelling Stitch.

22:00 Texas

“Well, I think that went about as well as anyone could have hoped for. Miss Lewis, nice to make your acquaintance, but do you mind telling me what the fuck was so important to fury that I had to leave Pepper and Morgan for almost 8 weeks? Said Tony. “Oh sure, I don’t mind, but Mr Fury told me not to tell anyone and he kind of scares me, when someone pisses him off” Darcy Replied. The mission was a success. Clint had hightailed it out of there and now Steve and the rest of the mission crew were on the Quinjet. Steve made his way to the front where Natasha was piloting. “Hey Nat, thank god that we managed to get out of there relatively unscathed” Steve said. “You’re only saying that because Y/N can hold a grudge, she almost killed you last time she thought something had happened to me on a mission I wasn’t even on” Nat chuckled. “Oh god, don’t remind me” Laughed Steve. He thought you were mad when he did something reckless, but when it came to Natasha you were fiercely protective of the Avenger who had essentially changed your life, everyone found it funny that you felt the need to protect a former Russian spy. One who was more than capable of taking care of herself, and half the team.

#steve rogers #captain america #captain america fanfiction #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x yn #avengers #captain america fluff #captain america x reader

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shhh-go-to-sleep · 3 years

Note

Bella Swan: [voice over] Childhood is not from birth to a certain age. And at a certain age the child is grown and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.

[as Renee gets Bella’s wedding invitation]

Renee: Phil! It’s happening!

[Bella is trying on her wedding shoes]

Alice Cullen: Um…you just have to break them in.

Bella Swan: I’ve been breaking them in, for three days. Can I just go bare foot?

Alice Cullen: No! Absolutely not!

Bella Swan: I’m just thinking it’s a little much, you know? The dress and the shoes and all of this.

[she looks at the Cullens setting up the wedding decorations in the backyard]

Alice Cullen: No, it’s exactly enough. Tomorrow will be perfect.

[as they are setting up the wedding decorations in the backyard]

Emmett Cullen: Where do you want ’em boss?

Alice Cullen: On either side of the isle.

Rosalie Hale: What isle?

Alice Cullen: Does no one have Vision?!

[Bella is in her bedroom looking at her dreamcatcher when she suddenly feels Edward behind her, she turns to face him]

Edward Cullen: I’m just checking for cold feet.

Bella Swan: Mine are toasty warm.

Edward Cullen: It’s not too late to change your mind.

Bella Swan: What, now you’re having second thoughts?

[Edwards looks down]

Bella Swan: You are.

Edward Cullen: I’ve been waiting a century to marry you, Miss Swan.

Bella Swan: But?

[Edward looks down again]

Bella Swan: But?

Edward Cullen: I haven’t told you everything about myself.

Bella Swan: What? You’re not a virgin?

[Edward laughs]

Bella Swan: Look, you can’t scare me away now.

Edward Cullen: A few years after Carlisle created me, I rebelled against him. I resented him for curbing my appetite. So for a while I went off on my own. I wanted to know how it felt to hunt, to taste human blood.

[flash back to 1920’s when Edward bites and kills a man following a woman leaving a movie theater]

Edward Cullen: All the men I’ve killed were monsters. And so was I.

[referring to the men Edward had killed in the past]

Bella Swan: Edward they were all murderers. You probably saved more lives than you took.

Edward Cullen: Bella, that’s what I told myself. But they’re all human beings. I looked into their eyes as they died and I saw who I was and what I was capable of.

Bella Swan: And what I’ll be capable of. Why are you telling me this tonight? Did you really think this was going to change my mind about you?

Edward Cullen: I just wondered if it would change your mind about yourself and who you wanna see when you look in the mirror a year from now.

Bella Swan: I know I can do this. Let me tell you why, because you did. You should give yourself some credit for that. And hopefully a year from now I’m gonna look in the mirror and see someone like you. Someone capable of courage, sacrifice and love.

[Edwards leans in and kisses Bella]

[hearing Emmett shouting from outside her window]

Bella Swan: What is that?

Edward Cullen: I’m late for my bachelor party.

[suddenly Emmett jumps leaps up to Bella’s window]

Emmett Cullen: Send him out, Bella, or we’re coming in after him.

Bella Swan: So this party, will there be strippers?

Edward Cullen: No, just a couple of mountain lions, maybe a few bears.

[suddenly Jasper leaps up to Bella’s window]

Jasper Hale: Don’t worry, Bella, we’ll get him back in plenty of time

Bella Swan: Okay, go. Before they break my house.

Edward Cullen: I’ll meet you at the alter.

Bella Swan: I’ll be the one in white.

Edward Cullen: That’s very convincing.

[he leaps out of her window and joins Emmett and Jasper]

[as she’s putting on Bella’s make-up]

Alice Cullen: What did I say about beauty sleep?

Bella Swan: Sorry. Bad dream. Maybe it’s wedding jitters.

[to Alice as she’s helping Bella get prepared for the wedding]

Rosalie Hale: Do you need some help? I could do her hair.

Bella Swan: Really?

Rosalie Hale: Please. I’m not offended by your choice of groom.

Bella Swan: Just my blatant lack of respect for mortality.

Rosalie Hale: Essentially.

Alice Cullen: Weddings! They bring everyone together.

[as Charlie is looking at the Cullen’s wall of graduation caps with curiosity]

Renee: Hey, so did you find your daughter?

Charlie Swan: Are those graduation caps?

[Renee turns and looks at the caps]

Renee: Hah! How creative!

Charlie Swan: Or weird.

[as she sees Bella all made up]

Renee: Oh, my gosh! You’re so beautiful. Oh, honey.

[she starts crying]

Renee: Crap! My mascara.

[Alice gives her a handkerchief]

Renee: Thanks. Charlie, get in here!

Charlie Swan: You sure? I don’t wanna…

[Charlie walks into the room wearing his wedding tux]

Charlie Swan: I know, I look awful.

[Bella and the others laugh]

Renee: We thought you needed something blue.

[Charlie opens the gift box containing a jeweled hair comb]

Charlie Swan: And something old, besides your mother.

Renee: Nice!

Charlie Swan: It was grandma Swan’s.

[Bells picks up the comb]

Renee: But we added the sapphires.

Bella Swan: It’s beautiful you guys. Wow! Thank you so much.

[Bella gives it to Alice to put in her hair]

Renee: It’s your first family heirloom. Pass it on to your daughter, and her daughter.

[Renee starts to cry again]

Bella Swan: Um…I love it.

[as she goes to kiss her parents Alice stops her]

Alice Cullen: No! No smudging my masterpiece.

Renee: Oh, she’s right.

Alice Cullen: Okay, time for the dress!

[as they are waiting for the wedding to begin]

Jessica: So um…do you think Bella’s going to be showing?

Angela: Jess, she’s not pregnant!

Jessica: Okay. Who else gets married at eighteen?

[Bella is very nervous as they are about to walk down the isle]

Charlie Swan: You ready?

Bella Swan: Just don’t let me fall down.

Charlie Swan: Never.

Minister Webber: Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here on this glorious day to witness the union of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.

[turning to Edward]

Minister Webber: Please, repeat after me. I, Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen: I, Edward Cullen.

Minister Webber: Take you, Bella Swan.

Edward Cullen: Take you, Bella Swan.

Minister Webber: To have and to hold.

[the voice of the minister fades out and we only hear Edward and Bella say their vows]

Edward Cullen: To have and to hold.

Bella Swan: For better, for worse.

Edward Cullen: For richer, for poorer.

Bella Swan: In sickness and in health.

Edward Cullen: To love.

Bella Swan: To cherish as long as we both shall live.

Edward Cullen: I do.

Bella Swan: I do.

Edward Cullen: I love you.

Bella Swan: I love you too.

[they kiss and everyone stands and claps]

[after the reception, Jessica and the others are staring at the gigantic wedding cake]

Jessica: I just thought it’d be bigger.

Eric: Yeah.

[Alice walks over to them]

Jessica: Hi!

Alice Cullen: Hi guys.

Jessica: We were just saying how pretty everything is. We were all just saying.

Alice Cullen: Thanks so much. You don’t think it’s too much?

Eric: No!

Jessica: No.

Kate Denali: We’ve heard so much about you.

Eleazar Denalir: Welcome to the family.

Bella Swan: Thank you.

Carmen Denali: Irina, come meet Bella.

[Irina is staring at Billy and Seth, she turns walks over to Carmen]

Irina Denali: I can’t do this.

Tanya Denali: You promised.

[referring to Seth being a werewolf]

Irina Denali: They invited one.

Edward Cullen: Irina, he’s our friend.

Irina Denali: They killed Laurent.

Edward Cullen: He tried to kill Bella.

Irina Denali: I don’t believe that! He wanted to be like us. To live in peace with humans, with me.

Edward Cullen: I’m sorry.

[Irina walks away]

Carmen Denali: Irina!

Eleazar Denalir: Um…let’s not monopolize the bride. Congratulations.

Bella Swan: Thank you.

Tanya Denali: Sorry.

[they walk away]

Edward Cullen: Well, what’s a wedding without some family drama?

Bella Swan: Yeah.

[giving his wedding toast]

Emmett Cullen: I’d like to propose a toast, to my new sister. Bella I hope you’ve got enough sleep these last eighteen years, cause you won’t be getting anymore for a while.

[he laughs and everyone looks at him awkwardly]

[giving her wedding toast]

Jessica: Well Bella was just like everybody else, totally mesmerized my Edward, or the hair, as I call him. Um…and then suddenly, Edward is all about Bella. Even though she’s not the captain of the volleyball team.

[she laughs]

Jessica: I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Or the president of the Student Council.

[giving his father of the bride speech to the guests]

Charlie Swan: Edward will be a good husband. I know this because…because I’m a cop, I know things. Like how to hunt somebody to the ends of the earth.

[giving her wedding toast]

Alice Cullen: Now that you’re my sister, you’ll have to get over your aversion to fashion.

[continuation of Charlie’s wedding speech]

Charlie Swan: And I know how to use a gun.

[giving her wedding toast]

Esme Cullen: I’d like to thank, Renee and Charlie for bringing such a wonderful person into the world and into our lives. We will cherish and protect her forever.

[giving his wedding toast]

Edward Cullen: It’s an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to and accept you for what you are. I’ve been waiting, for what seems like a very long time, to get beyond what I am. With Bella I feel like I can finally begin. So I’d like to propose a toast to my beautiful bride. No measure of time with you will be long enough. But let’s start with forever.

[after Edward has told Bella another wedding gift has arrived, he walks her away from the crowd]

Bella Swan: What’s a wedding present doing out here?

Edward Cullen: Just a little more private.

[suddenly Jacob appears ahead of them]

Jacob Black: The best man didn’t have time to get a tux.

Bella Swan: Jacob! Jacob!

[she runs towards him and jumps into his arms to hug him]

Bella Swan: Hey.

Edward Cullen: This is kind of you.

Jacob Black: Kind is my middle name. I’m sorry I’m late.

Bella Swan: It doesn’t matter. Everything’s perfect now.

Jacob Black: Dance with me?

[she steps closer to him and he picks her up to twirl her and then they start dancing]

Bella Swan: Where have you been? We were gonna put your face on a milk carton.

Jacob Black: I was in Northern Canada. I think. It’s so weird to be back on two legs again and clothes. I fell out of practice with the whole human thing.

Bella Swan: Well are you okay? Being here?

Jacob Black: Why? Afraid I’ll trash the party? You’re not the only one.

[as they continue to dance]

I'm convinced that you're high 😟

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a-singleboat · 4 years

Text

Just for Laughs

Word Count: 2.7k

Request: Could you do a Noah fanfic with either the sixth or eighth prompt on Fake Family!? :) - anon

There were three things you knew about living in Los Angeles. The first was to never walk anywhere alone at night. Between the constant tourists and the fact that you were vertically challenged, it was easy for you to get lost in the crowd. The second was to never forget to bring your pepper spray with you--which you had. It was an honest mistake. In between rushing out of the house that morning and spilling lukewarm coffee on yourself, you figured you could allow that one slip up.

The third thing you knew about living in Los Angeles, however, was that you could always call on your best friend to get you out of a sticky situation if you ever needed.

So now, at two in the morning, you called him up and explained your situation. After wrapping up the closing shift at the bar, you realized that you had let the time slip away from you yet again. The trains stopped their service at one am, you knew that, but the tourists in the area didn’t.

“Again,” you said, drawing your black cardigan closer to your body. “I’m really sorry about this, Noah. There were some late customers and Phil had already left for the night so I didn’t really know what to do and by the time I actually managed to kick them out, it was two.”

“It’s fine, Y/n,” he assured you over the phone. You heard the jangling of keys on the other side as a door closed, his car starting up not even a second later. “But you have to make this up to me.”

You shivered slightly in the November chill. While the weather during the day wasn’t terribly cold, the nights could prove hypothermic.

“Fine,” you said, rubbing your arms to generate what little heat you could. “I’ll do whatever, thank you.”

“I’ll be there in ten,” he promised before hanging up. You slipped your phone back into the small bag you carried and drew your keys. If you didn’t have your pepper spray, you’d at least be able to defend yourself with the semi-sharp pieces of metal.

Thankfully, you didn’t have to stab anyone that night. True to his word, Noah arrived ten minutes later, honking his horn twice.

You clambered into his car, apologizing and thanking him profusely yet again. He waved you off, signaling to pull away from the curb.

“It’s really okay, Y/n,” he said, setting off toward your apartment. “Besides, mom would kill me if I just left you to fend for yourself.”

You giggled. Mom. He was of course, referring to his own mother. After yours had died when you were very little, you had bonded with the strange boy that brought you flowers the day after the funeral. And while Denise couldn’t truly replace your own mother, she acted enough like her to gain the title.

“So you know how I said you’d owe me?” Noah asked, finally pulling into his assigned parking space.

You nodded.

“Well…” he rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re doing recording for a Smosh Pit video next week and Courtney’s bringing her sister and I was thinking…”

“You want me to be your sister for the video as well,” you guessed, getting out of the car. He killed the engine and got out as well, locking the doors before the two of you headed toward the building.

It was lucky that the two of you had managed to find a place with two vacancies. You were separated only by an older woman named Barbara and her three cats, which neither of you minded considering you were both avid cat people.

The two of you walked up to your floor, the elevator being out of service for the time being. He told you a little more about the premise of the video, in which you and Courtney’s sister would essentially be going through embarrassing moments and videos of the two from their childhood.

“So basically I get to make fun of you to your fans while they all think that I’m your biological sister?” you asked, key already in the door. You already knew you were going to say yes, after all, you owed him. You twisted the handle and removed the key, opening the door. “Am I getting paid?”

“Uh, yes,” Noah said. “If you agree to it, Ian, my boss, will send all the information to you and the paperwork and stuff as well.”

You propped the door open with one foot, reaching in slightly to hang your keys on the hook just inside your door. You held your hand out to the man, who gladly shook it.

“I’ll be there,” you promised, inching into your apartment. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I wish to no longer reek of alcohol.”

Noah laughed. “Yeah, and other things.”

You hit him with your bag, not hard enough to hurt, and laughed as well.

“Goodnight, Noah,” you said, waving to him.

“Goodnight, Y/n.”

A week later and you were really feeling the nerves. You’d gone to the address that Noah had sent you and after a brief reunion with Keith, you were buzzed in and brought up to the studios. There, you said hello to a few people you remembered from an event Noah had hosted in his apartment before being directed to where Noah’s desk sat.

It wasn’t long before your best friend came and gathered you, wrapping you in his arms and messing with your hair. You swatted at him, telling him to back off before using your phone’s camera to fix the rat’s nest that he had created atop your head. You were’;t really annoyed, having spent no time doing your hair. The most you’d done that day was put a bit of product in to contain the frizz.

Humidity really was not your friend.

“You ready to go?” he asked, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. “They’re pretty much ready for us.”

You stood up from his seat, grabbing your phone but leaving your bag. “You never told me exactly what you guys were filming today, Noah. Like, you said it was a Smosh Pit video but didn’t really explain what it was.”

Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, there was a reason why I told you to bring an extra set of clothes.”

Right. Last minute that morning, Noah had texted for you to bring an extra set of clothes. Just in case, he had stressed.

“Basically, it’s like newlyweds but with sisters,” he explained, weaving through various equipment pieces and clothing racks. You’d worked in entertainment before, you know how chaotic behind the scenes could get. This was clean for a production day. “Sarah, one of our producers will ask us questions that we’ll try and answer. If we answer the same, we get a point. If we don’t, we don’t get a point.”

You tried to think back to who Sarah was. You knew Keith and Courtney, two of Noah’s work friends, but knew none of the rest of them. Sarah… She must have been the bubbly half American, half-Korean producer and Social Media manager that appeared in videos from time to time.

“Seems simple enough,” you replied, bouncing on the balls of your feet as you waited next to him. You had stopped outside of the studio doors to wait for Courtney and her sister, Kari. Between the two of you, Kari had more Smosh appearances under her belt than you did--not that you had any to begin with.

It didn’t take long for the sisters to arrive, Courtney greeting you with a massive hug while you and Kari settled for the, “hey, we just met but this is polite,” hug.

“You never really explained why I needed to bring an extra set of clothes,” you said, poking Noah in the side. They had allowed you into the studio at that point.

“The losing team gets pied,” Courtney supplied, looking at Noah. “Why didn’t you tell your sister that you were getting pied?”

You looked over at Noah with an incredulous look. “Noah! I think that would have been important to know.”

“It just slipped my mind!” he defended himself, laughing as you swatted at him. Neither of you bothered to correct Courtney’s claim that you were siblings. You figured she knew and just referred to what everyone else called you.

You chatted a bit longer, just getting to know each other and get more comfortable with each other when someone came over to attach microphones to your person. You let them do their job, thanking them when they backed away.

Another woman came over, this time dressed a little more like a show hostess.

“I’m Sarah,” she introduced herself, holding out a hand for you to shake. You gave her your name, laughing at the comment she made about how you and Noah had different last names.

“It happens sometimes,” you joked, shrugging your shoulders. You figured that at this point, if they didn’t know you weren’t actually related, you wouldn’t try to correct them.

Soon enough, filming started and you were handed a whiteboard and a marker, an eraser sitting on the table between you and Noah. You listened as Sarah explained the rules of the game. In order to gain a point, the answers had to be correct, or had to be similar or even the same. If you don’t answer it right, you didn’t get the point. At the end of the game of three rounds, the losing team would be getting pied.

“First question is for the Grossmans!” Sarah announced, turning slightly so she was facing you and Noah. “What is their star sign?”

You scribbled ‘Aquarius,’ knowing it right off the top of your head. You kept your eyes on your own board, only looking up at Sarah when you were finished. She called time and you both revealed your answers.

“Aquarius,” Sarah read, looking at your board before moving to Noah’s. She read out your star sign, which you confirmed was correct, gaining the two of your a point. You gave Noah a high five as you went to erase your board.

The game continued on, you getting almost every question right while Courtney and Kari practically tied you at every question.

“Okay!” Sarah said, setting her cards down. “Here’s a tie breaker for the two teams. Whoever wins this will not be getting pied and, in fact, will be receiving this ten-dollar gift card to Starbucks that I stole from Matt Raub’s wallet earlier today.”

You laughed at the joke, laughing even harder when Matt Raub himself yelled, “Hey!” and then, “Not sponsored!” from off-stage.

“Our last question is…” Sarah opened the glued-together piece of paper, reading the question before saying, “What’s a secret that only the two of you know?”

You looked over at Noah, silently asking how that was a question valid to the newlywed game. He just shrugged and picked up his marker, writing down his answer. You picked up your own marker and jotted something down as well.

A few moments later, Sarah called time and you recapped your marker, setting it down on the table.

“Okay,” she said, clapping her hands together. “Since we started with Noah and Y/n last time, we’ll let Courtney and Kari go first this time.”

You watched as Kari turned her board around first, her secret scrawled on the whiteboard.

“Um,” she said looking down at her answer. “I said a secret that the two of us shared was a time when we were exploring one day and Courtney had dropped her phone over the cliff. We told our dad that she’d actually just dropped it while walking and didn’t tell them about how we scaled the cliff to get it back.”

“No!” Courtney cried, flipping her board. “I said the time when I drove into the fence and you lied and took the blame for it because I didn’t have my license yet!”

All five of you laughed as Courtney told the story, playing up the humor for the cameras.

“Well, Courtney and Kari,” Sarah said, frowning, “sadly you did not answer this correctly so we’re going to go to Noah and Y/n.” She turned to face the two of you. “Noah, Y/n. If you get this right, you will be crowned the winners. Are you ready?”

You nodded nervously, picking at the corner of the whiteboard.

“I’m ready,” you affirmed, looking at Noah who replied the same.

“Okay,” Sarah said, holding a hand out to you. “Y/n, please reveal your answer.”

You flipped the board, letting the cameras and the room read the words written there.

“What?” Sarah asked in disbelief, reading the board. “Is this real?”

You laughed. “Yes, this is real. Noah and I aren’t actually siblings.”

Noah turned his board around too, revealing that he had written the same thing. He laughed as Sarah fanned herself, playing up her disbelief for the camera.

“We always joke we’re siblings, but someone didn’t realize we were joking,” you explained, laughing. You set the whiteboard down on the table. “So we were seeing how far we can carry this out and apparently twenty years is the answer.”

“We would’ve kept it going but we thought you guys had already caught on,” Noah said. “Sarah even made the last name comment earlier.”

“I was joking!” Sarah said, laughing. “I thought Y/n was married or something, I don’t know!”

You shook your head. “Marriage will not be anytime soon, but I appreciate you taking it with stride, Sarah.”

Everyone laughed, Courtney and Noah doing part of the video’s outro before the video cut out so they could rearrange the room so they could pie Courtney and Kari.

“Wait,” Sarah and Courtney stopped you from moving too far away from them. “So Noah and you aren’t really related?”

You laughed. “No, but his mom is basically my mom. We grew up next door to each other and instead of falling madly in love I got a really cool older brother that brings me to his job and gets me into videos.”

They called for Courtney and Kari to stand on the tarp in the middle of the room, setting up the pies on the table in front of them. You met back with Noah, who had disappeared to use the bathroom, and linked arms with him, standing to the side.

“Can I just say, I am so glad we’re not the ones getting pied today,” you joked, watching as Courtney and Kari were given ponchos that would try to save their outfits.

“Same here,” Noah said, grinning as Courtney looked upset as she slipped the plastic poncho over her head.

When they were finally set, Sarah waved Noah and you back onto the set. She handed each of you a pie, positioning you both in front of the sisters.

You were paired with Courtney while Noah was put in front of Kari, pies at the ready. You listened as they did a mass countdown, squeaking out an, “I’m so sorry,” before pushing the pie into Courtney’s face. You held it there for a moment, moving it back and forth before letting it fall off her face.

It splattered onto the floor, getting a bit on your shoes. You kicked the pie away from yourself, laughing as Courtney tasted a bit of the whipped cream.

“This is really good,” she joked, scraping a bit off her cheek and sucking her finger into her mouth.

You helped her clean the pie off her shoulders while Noah pied Kari, both of you laughing when the entirety of the pie somehow fell out of the platter and over Kari’s shoulders.

“Thank you for watching!” Noah said, still laughing as he tried to clean some of the pie off Kari’s shoulders. “You can find Kari on Instagram at Karimiller and you can find Y/n at [instagram handle]!”

“Thank you guys for coming and hanging out with us!” Courtney said, reaching over to hug her sister. Noah grabbed you in for a hug as well, waving at the camera as Matt Raub yelled, “cut!”

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diyunho · 4 years

Text

The Joker x Reader - “Ghost Driver” Part 2

When The Joker says you’re his, it means you’re essential to him because he needs your services for his own gain; it literally has zero affectionate connotations. Turbo is The King’s Ghost Driver and although she’s a legend, her life is far from perfect.

Part 1

Four Days Afterwards, 7:47pm

“Good evening, madam. I am tonight’s entertainment,” Frost blurs out as soon as you open the door and instantly regrets his pun. “Sorry, that was stupid to say,” he apologizes.

The reason why you look puzzled is not his joke, but another motive: you never saw Jonny wearing anything else besides a suit or military gear; the fact that he’s standing in front of you wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt is quite intriguing.

“Hi,” you move aside so he can come in.

“Did I wake you up?”

“I fell asleep watching a movie,” Y/N smiles at his comfortable attire. “No big deal. Did Mister Joker send you?” the subtle question indicates you want to find out the reason for his visit.

“No... I was just thinking… maybe we could… and it’s entirely up to you, no pressure… maybe you would want to go and watch the fireworks with me. I have food and sleeping bags, plus an ice chest with drinks in my truck.”

You seem confused.

“Mmmm, you know what? Forget about it. That was completely idiotic to suggest,” Frost realizes that asking a freshly divorced woman to get out of the house after she was kidnapped and starved into her ex’s basement only four days ago it’s not the most brilliant idea he ever had.

“You had me at food and fireworks,” you wink at his insecurity. “The drinks sealed the deal. I’m confused on one detail: do I have to change or can I come in my PJ’s?”

“PJ’s are perfect.”

“Awesome!” you grab the keys from the coffee table. “Where exactly are we heading?”

“Fire Creek Hill, it’s one of the best spots to enjoy the view,” Jonny replies.

“Isn’t that closed to the general public?” Y/N inquires and his logic makes you laugh while exchanging your socks for flip-flops.

“I doubt we’re considered the general public. I had to pull some strings though,” he admits, overjoyed you actually agreed to accompany him.

Not that he shows it in any other way besides the invitation he barely mustered the courage to extend towards The Joker’s Ghost Driver.

*************

9:03pm

“Oh, it’s starting!” you excitedly nibble on your Alfredo pasta.

The first fireworks bloom in the distance and Frost opens the cooler, pointing out the goodies he salvaged from the liquor store.

“Pick your poison: we have a bottle of premixed margarita, wine, whiskey, tequila and…,” he fumbles around,”…try to contain yourself: water!”

“You definitely bought some of my favorites , including the food. How did you guess?” the bubbly Y/N smiles.

“I pay attention,” Jonny mentions. “So what’s gonna be?”

“Margarita please,” you hold the plastic cup and can’t help snickering as he pours the liquid.

“What?” he suspiciously bites on his cheek.

“Nothing really… I was imagining you without the beard,” you decide not to keep it a secret.

“Damn!” Frost snorts. “I had it for years; didn’t consider shaving because our employer would freak out. Stop giggling, it’s not funny! He totally would!” Jonny elbows you.

“I bet you have a baby face underneath all that facial hair; if you shave I can promise a new nickname will arise: Baby- Face Frost.”

“Shut up!” he chuckles at your quirky proposal. “Yet I can’t deny it has a certain ring to it.”

“See what I mean? It might work!... Oh my God, that’s a huge one!” you gasp, distracted by the sparkling night sky. “What are they celebrating? 150 years since this piece of crap town was founded?”

“Apparently,” Jonny sighs and watches Y/N bundle up in the sleeping bag.

“Thank you for the feast,” your tone changes to a serious one. “I didn’t have this much fun in the back of a truck in a long time. Go ahead, laugh!” you pout at his reaction. “I’m aware how it sounds like; I didn’t mean it that way!!!”

“Still funny as hell!” Jonny is getting a kick out of the conversation.

“Psst! Hey, Casanova!” The Joker’s mop of green hair pop up from behind the car’s high railing.

“Mister Joker!” you get startled by his unexpected presence.

“Boss, what are you doing here?” Frost utters in disbelief.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone, huh?” J ignores his henchman’s inquiry.

“It’s in the glove compartment, sir. I’m enjoying the…”

“Pardon me for interrupting your date,” The King of Gotham huffs.

“We’re not on a date,” the attempted explanation gets cut short.

“Sell it to whoever wants to buy it,” The Joker growls at Jonny’s words. “I had to follow the signal from your cell and trace your location; what a marvelous bonus to find my Turbo also!”

The eerie grin makes you finally speak up:

“Do you need help with anything Mister J?”

“Do I?” he plays dumb. “Probably.”

Why does he have to ruin the night? Frost reflects, annoyed.

Nobody knows, but if he could spend ages in your company, he believes it would be an eternity well spent.

And The Joker had to ruin it.

Goddammit!

“Can you patch me up?” J takes of his jacket, revealing a blood stained shirt.

“What happened?” you and Jonny jump off the vehicle.

“I got myself in a little bit of a situation,” he grumbles. “It’s a clean wound; the bullet came out on the other side.”

“We should take you to the doctor, boos; you need stitches!”

“Thanks for your concern, Doctor Frost,” The Joker sassily remarks. “I’ll go in the morning. I have more important matters to take care of tonight.”

You peel off his garment and assess the damage; he can’t hold it in:

“I bet you wanted to do this after I texted you my nudes, huh?”

You have to admit he caught you by surprise with his statement and the best solution in this situation is to cooperate:

“Been dreaming about it quite often.”

“Ha! I knew it!” The Clown cracks up. “Were you dreaming about it during your date?” he teases more.

“We’re not on a date,” you frown at the blood gushing from his wound.

“Interesting,” J expands on the subject. “At least you two have one thing in common: you’re both delusional.”

Frost rolls his eyes without J noticing and you signal him:

“Can I please get the whiskey? I need to disinfect this.”

“You have whiskey on your date?! Excuse me, non-date,” his majesty’s obnoxious temper emerges again.

You don’t engage for the moment, just open the bottle that Jonny gave you and splash a generous amount on the laceration.

“Jesus Christ!!!” The King shouts. “Be gentle woman, I’m fragile!!!”

“Sorry Mister J,” you mutter and Frost is certainly approving your tiny revenge scheme. “Can you please turn on the lights on your car? It’s getting dark and I can’t see what I’m doing,” you address The Joker’s sidekick. “Do you have a first aid kit in your vehicle Mister J?” you gesture towards his SUV parked a few feet away.

“I should,” a demented smirk flourished on his lips. “In the trunk!”

“Take a seat in the grass Mister J; I’ll go get it,” you urge the patient.

“Boss, are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the doctor?” Frost offers and instead of obliging your request, J pursues your steps because he doesn’t want to miss Turbo’s reaction.

“It’s fine, I’ll survive until morning time.”

You lift the trunk and gasp, stunned: your stellar ex-husband is tied up in there, duct tape over his mouth, clearly enjoying the repercussions of a confrontation due to bruises you can discern at a first glance.

“Oops, forgot about him,” The Clown yawns, bored.

Adam starts wiggling and mumbling whilst you can’t react.

“The fucker shot me!” your employer hisses. “Had the nerve to try killing me when he’s the one sleeping with MY girlfriend!”

“What’s the plan, sir?” Jonny intervenes, worried at your stunned attitude.

“The plan is simple: since Y/N is intimately acquainted with our guest, I’m willing to work out a deal. I don’t wanna to be accused of not listening to my associates.”

Adam keeps struggling and you finally reach and remove the duct tape.

“Honey, honey please!” he immediately rambles on, panicked. “You know I was joking about your weight, right? You don’t have to lose a few pounds! I admit locking you up in the basement was a huge mistake, ok? OK…? I’m sorry! I swear I’ll never cheat on you in the future. We can work things out, can’t we?” a glimmer of hope alleviates the somber perspective of his imminent demise once you begin searching his pockets.

He has the false impression you’ll untie him when in the matter of fact you are hunting down for his house keys so you can reclaim all the items you bribed him with when he signed the divorce papers.

Bingo! Treasure attained.

“So do you know him or not?” The Joker taps his fingers on the cold metal of his gun.

You take a deep breath, place the duct tape on Adam’s lips and sneer:

“I never saw this asshole in my life!”

“The lady has spoken!” J slams the trunk, unnerved. “Frost, you can go home; Y/N will take me to the warehouse on 8th street: she can borrow a car from there and split. I’ll send someone in the morning to bring it back.”

“Boss, we can leave your SUV here and I can drive you both…”

“DID I STUTTER?” The Clown growls, unhappy with Jonny’s shenanigans.

“No sir.”

“Mister J,” you distract his menacing temper. “Do you want me to bandage your injury now?”

“Nah, you can do it at the warehouse.”

More fireworks illuminate the skies and none in the small group is watching them anymore: the show is over for everyone involved.

You wave at Frost and hop in The Joker’s car as he positions himself in the passenger’s seat; you can tell something is off, besides the obvious of course.

If you’d have to speculate, you would say that his behavior is of a man who wasn’t hurt just physically, but on a different level he doesn’t understand yet: J went after your ex-husband alone when he doesn’t take unnecessary risks; enough proof to indicate he loved Ella and sought revenge for her betrayal without any of his team’s help.

You wonder what he did to the woman: did he kill her? Or worse?... You won’t dig to find out regardless.

The truth is you are The Joker’s Turbo and the statement works in reverse too: he is your Joker who undeniably needs cheering.

And you always deliver. That’s why you’re his.

That’s why you appreciate he made an effort to compromise on Adam’s predicament even if he didn’t mean it.

You steadily drive on the trail until you arrive to the main road, then suddenly accelerate with a specific purpose in mind. You take a sharp turn on Morrison Avenue, already at 100 miles per hour.

“What are you doing?” J bitterly enunciates.

“Why am I your Ghost Driver Mister Joker?” you reply with a question.

“Nobody can catch up with you.”

“Yup, the car to catch up with me hasn’t been assembled. Here they are, Gotham’s finest!” Y/N boasts at the lights glistening behind. “They always have a nightly patrol on Morrison Avenue ready to catch law un-abiding citizens,” you exclaim and J’s smirk widens at your proposition. “What do you say we make them work for their donuts, hm?”

“That’s my girl!” The King gives his blessing while Turbo speeds up the street in a frenzy.

************

11:58 pm

You barely returned to you apartment after the random factors which cut your rendezvous short when the cell chimes: a message from Frost.

“Did you make it home safe?”

“Yes,” you text.

“I’ve been busy. Wait, I’ll send you a picture.”

Downloading picture…

“Holy… shit!!!!!” you yell at your phone because the image depicts a portrait of a freshly shaved Jonny Frost.

“Do you like it?” the sentence appears on the screen concomitant with a knock at the main entrance.

“Who is it?” you drag your feet on the carpet.

“Me.”

As soon as you are standing in front of him, Frost hides his nervousness the best way he can; and he’s not a nervous individual per se.

“I thought you might want to take a closer look…,” he enters the hallway and you slowly lock the door behind him.

You don’t say anything, just touch his face and he pecks your wrist, confessing a secret he kept bottled up for years:

“Do you know I’ve been in love with you from the first second I saw you?”

Y/N doesn’t have to calculate in order to whisper:

“That’s a long time.”

“What’s the verdict?...“ Jonny insists. “You approve the change?”

“Yes,” you kiss him and he holds you tighter, thinking that if he could spend ages in your arms, it would be an eternity well spent.

Also read: MASTERLIST

You can also follow me on Wattpad and Ao3 under the same blog name: DiYunho.

#the joker fanfiction #the joker x reader #the joker imagine #the joker suicide squad #the joker jared leto #jokerleto #joker imagines #joker fanfiction #Jonny Frost #joker suicide squad #mister joker #Mistah J #mister j #dc #dcu

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Avengers #223: of Robin Hoods and Roustabouts

September, 1982

Apparently a “roustabout” is an unskilled or casual labor.

And lets admit the obvious that if Hawkeye is either of the two things, he’s a robin hood. And its not inaccurate but be nicer to Scott Lang.

Even if he manages to be even more hapless in this issue then in modern takes that leans into him being a fuck-up.

As for the cover? Pretty striking cover. I’ve been waiting for Hawkeye to shoot Ant-Man at someone. Its apparently an Iconic Avengers moment and to think it first happens in a filler.

Because I’m pretty sure this is a filler. Its written by David Michelinie alone instead of Jim Shooter getting a plotter or co-writer credit. It doesn’t really have anything from the dangling plot threads of Hank Pym or the Masters of Evil.

Between this and and the filler with the immortal child who badly wanted to die and all of the plotter or co-writer credits, you just really get a sense that Jim Shooter did not have time to devote to Avengers anymore.

So what kind of filler will this be? Weird? Impactless? Good Actually? Let’s see!

Well, apparently Hawkeye is going to the carnival so at this point, it could go either way.

I like that Hawkeye has a H belt buckle because that’s the kind of thing that he would do and that I can make fun of him for.

I know that it’s been a while since he’s mentioned kewpie dolls but Hawkeye came from the circus. He and his brother ran away to one when they were little and the Swordsman taught Hawkeye archery. The point being, “he’s come home.”

As in, this is specifically the carnival he used to work before he became very briefly a superhero, and then for slightly longer a supervillain, and then for much much longer a superhero for real.

Point is, he’s been away for a while. But he received a flyer in the mail and decided he just had to come.

Because someone wrote HELP! on the back.

Hawkeye figures that the previous owner’s daughter and current owner Marcy Carson sent it as a goof but heck if she’s going to go to that trouble, he’ll be happy to visit.

So he breezes past the workers outside the owner’s trailer and-

Actually they beat the shit out of him for trying to breeze past them. Goes to show.

When Hawkeye threatens to beat them up for this rude treatment, they get ruder and call him a rube. Can you believe! Him, a former employee himself being called a rube! Also they pull a fancy sci-fi gun on him.

So Hawkeye does buzz off. So he can change into his hawking eye duds and buzz right back on.

Roustabouts carrying laser pistols is very suspicious. And I guess Ant-Man isn’t the roustabout of the title. He’s moving up in the world.

MEANWHILE, Perfectly Ordinary electronics technician, ex-con, and Ant-Man Scott Lang is having a night out with his daughter Cassie. And they’re having a bit of a disagreement.

See, Cassie, future superhero, wants to ride the really cool roller coaster the Spin-’n-Heave. Scott Lang, dad with dumb views on gender apparently, insists that a roller coaster just isn’t ladylike enough and she should ride something more refined like the pony ride or ring toss.

Also, Scott is carrying the Ant-Man suit with him, loose in his pocket. And the helmet just drops out of his pocket and the damn fool would have lost it if Cassie hadn’t spotted it and mistaken it for a marble.

Geez, Scott! I stood up for you!

Scott’s attempts to dad by restricting what his daughter can and can’t do based on his own views on what is ladylike get dropped when he spots Hawkeye hauling ass across the carnival and decides that This Cannot Stand!

Scott Lang Ant-Man may not be an Avenger but dangit he can’t leave a fellow hero in the lurch! He must offer unsolicited aid!

So he caves on the Spin-’n-Heave issue because its a way to keep Cassie occupied for the length of exactly this issue.

Scott gives the operator a bunch of money and tells the operator to let Cassie ride until it runs out and then takes off.

Cassie is thrilled.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye has returned to the owner’s trailer but Marcy is gone and so are the two goons that were guarding the door. But he spots them marching Marcy through the crowd.

The goons are complimenting Marcy on being so cooperative but also say that if she’s not cooperative, her star acts are gonna get fed to the lions. And that might happen anyway once everything is said and done because their boss be like that.

Anyway, that’s when the two get hit by a KRAK THUBB arrow. Punch arrow? It looks nerf-y.

Hawkeye grabs Marcy and runs off with her into a tent so she can explain it all.

But first: he has to notice that she is beautiful. He has been gone a while so, y’know. People grow up or whatever.

Hawkeye: “There, that’s better! Now maybe I can get to the bottom of -- hey! You’re beautiful!”

Marcy: “I’ve waited a long time for you to notice that, ol’ buddy.”

Hawkeye: “Yeah, well, it’s hard noticin’ anything when you’re bein’ tripped into a pile of elephant dirt -- which, as I recall, used to be your favorite pastime!”

Marcy: “People change, Clint.”

Young Marcy sounds like a really interesting person. She certainly gave Hawkeye the business.

Anyway, she explains that it was pure luck that she was able to sneak that message out to him. And that the carnival has been taken over by some freak with powers.

Marcy: “Why, if he even suspected I was in touch with you he’d kill me deader than a Monday night in Des Moines!”

Off-screen Villain: “Nicely put, dumplin’! Should make you a dandy little epitaph!”

SCENE CHANGE TO PRESERVE SUSPENSE

Scott Lang has ducked behind some circus carts to change into Ant-Man.

Except he still has the whole shrunken costume piecemeal in his pockets so the process is one of slapstick. Scott goes digging in his pockets for the suit and accidentally drops it all in the straw.

Then he has to go digging around for the incredibly teeny pieces of gear while realizing that this was a stupid plan.

Maybe he should keep the suit in a tin. Like a mint tin or something.

But he finally gets all the pieces together and uses a safety pin to trigger the enlarging gas to full-size the outfit so he can put it on.

Huh! Enlarging gas! Early days in Avengers, they were all about the logistics of the shrinking and growing for Ant-Giant and the Wasp but it hasn’t been talked about in a long while. Wasp just changes size without the how being discussed.

But if it is Pym Particles, then I guess Scott isn’t at the point yet where his body naturally produces them so he has to use the gas canisters on the belt.

Scott does get dressed in his ant duds and uses the helmet to command some ants to find Hawkeye. And this is a carnival with a lot of dropped funnel cake and cotton candy so you know that there’s plenty of ants available.

SCENE CHANGE because we can only preserve suspense so far.

The mysterious off-screen villain hits the lights in the tent that Hawkeye and Marcy were talking in. Which reveals a bunch of gym and training equipment. It’d be nice if carnivals could provide such robust gym benefits to their workers but I feel that this is actually suspicious, finding this here.

Especially the combat flight simulator.

Hawkeye: “This place looks like a training ground for World War III!”

Off-screen villain, about to be onscreen: “And what better setting for the world’s greatest trainer? Namely... the TASKMASTER!”

Heyyy its the Taskmaster!

I forgot that he was a loose thread. He got away after the THREE-PARTER that introduced him. Then again, I guess since he’s the explanation for where villains get their armies of mooks, he didn’t really need to be tied up because that would defeat the purpose.

Anyway, Hawkeye wasn’t on the team for that three-parter but thankfully, the Avengers take thorough records.

Hawkeye: “Yeah, I remember readin’ about you in the Avengers’ files! You’re some sorta goon peddler!”

Taskmaster: “Watch yer mouth, bow-bender! What I am is a teacher!”

And then he recaps his goon, mook, henchman training business for the audience. He even clarifies that his series of secret academies are going great, thanks, but he’s trying to branch out with a mobile recruiting center.

Aka, this circus. And heck, according to Taskmaster, carnies already come off unscrupulous so having a bunch of goons hanging around won’t stand out.

THE PERFECT CRIME.

Actually. I don’t know if this is a crime? It’s not illegal to do combat training or learn how to fly a plane, probably. Then again, when 100% of your alumni wind up arrested for helping steal the Statue of Liberty, a legal goon school would get a lot of unwanted scrutiny. So best keep it secret.

And of course, extorting the owner and workers of a circus is definitely a crime. Pretty sure.

Anyway, the mobile recruiting center scheme is helped by Marcy telling anyone who asks that the new people hanging around are a new act that isn’t ready to open yet.

Hawkeye is sick of Taskmaster’s smarmy smarm and tries to shoot a grabber arrow? at Taskmaster.

Who just blocks it with his shield.

And takes the opportunity to brag about his photographic reflexes, where he only needs to see a sweet move once and he can do it perfectly.

He shows off by doing some Cap moves and then doing a Spider-Man move. Which he seems to do just to do.

And by Spider-Man move I mean hanging upside down from a line. Which, yes, Spider-Man does do that but it doesn’t really seem that necessary or helpful here and you’re totally doing it just to show off but really you look a little ridiculous.

Taskmaster even shows off some Tigra moves by kicking Hawkeye in the face. Its fun to me that he shows off Tigra specifically. Its for some acrobatics like flippy kick but there’s gotta be other acrobatic heroes. Like Spider-Man.

But Tigra was on the Avengers recently and briefly and dammit, he’s gonna show off what he learned!

Anyway, Taskmaster beats up Hawkeye until he gets bored of it and then just takes Marcy hostage to get Hawkeye to surrender.

He just really wanted to show off some of his sweet moves. And as soon as he ran through five different hero movesets (Cap, Spider-Man, Tigra, Daredevil, and Iron Fist) he’s just like ‘k I’m done’.

Meanwhile, back to Ant-Man ant-again.

He’s lurking around a corner trying to be inconspicuous while children are pointing and asking if he’s a clown. Perhaps realizing that he didn’t need to put on the full costume to use the helmet and that he’s just made himself look foolish.

But some of his ants report in that they’ve found Hawkeye so Ant-Man shrinks down to ride an ant into action.

Wait. Yeah. You could have just shrunken down and perched somewhere to wait for ant reports. You’ve made yourself look a fool and you fully had the power to avoid that in so many ways.

Meanwhile back to Hawkeye yet again, Taskmaster knows that killing an Avenger would attract notice so he’s going to make it look like an accident.

So he’s locked Hawkeye in an electrified cage with a lion, a normal situation that can accidentally happen to anyone. So now when Hawkeye gets mauled to death by the lion, nobody will suspect it was anything but an accident.

Taskmaster walks away because its villain tradition that you don’t watch the heroes you lock in the death traps. That’d just be gauche.

The lion sizes up Hawkeye and decides that he’s food and leaps for the kill!

And Ant-Man grows out from under the lion and throws it into the electrified bars, knocking him out.

Pretty good timing Scott! And that poor attempted man-eater lion! That poor five hundred pound lion! WOW SCOTT, do you work out?

I also feel that Republic Serial has aged poorly for more than just lion tossing.

Ant-Man and Hawkeye get each other on the same page. As it happens, Ant-Man actually has more experience with Taskmaster since he was actually in that three-parter. That’ll give them a tiny, tiny, tiny edge.

They’re still stuck in a locked cage and Hawkeye is like ‘gee whiz shrinking hero guy how can we possibly get out?’

Would you be surprised that Ant-Man just shrinks Hawkeye? Scott does muse that he could probably have picked the lock if he had the tools for it but shrinking just saves time.

Hawkeye does not care for it though.

I don’t know what he’s complaining about. Big sleepy cat even bigger now. You could live in the mane at that size.

You could be a tiny man living in a lion’s mane. Imagine.

Anyway.

Over in Taskmaster’s private tent, he’s telling Marcy she done fucked up calling for Hawkeye and she’s going to wish she was getting mauled to death by a lion in an electrified cage like Hawkeye was.

And Hawkeye does the equivalent of clearing his throat and saying ‘hey dingus, not dead’

Taskmaster reaches for a magnesium flare like he used against the Avengers but Ant-Man’s expert knowledge of meeting Taskmaster one time lets him warn Hawkeye who shoots it out of Taskmaster’s hand.

Taskmaster just questions why they didn’t go for a killshot when they had him surprised and then calls a goon squad on the heroes.

Of course, goon squads being called on heroes is just a setup to make heroes look really cool showing their stuff on some expendable targets.

“While the Taskmaster’s troops have been well-trained for normal combat, they fare woefully poor against these super-normal foes!”

And show their stuff they do. Like Hawkeye leaping around firing net and bola arrows!

And Ant-Man... shrinking down really small to punch a guy’s earlobe.

Look. He’s trying.

Also, Marcy is braining people with a juggling pin like some manner of alien clown because she is exceptionally irate at Taskmaster and his goons.

While the three beat up this crowd of goons, Taskmaster runs off to set up his “escape insurance.”

Ant-Man and Hawkeye chase him into the big top where there’s already a crowd watching the show. And waiting for the human cannonball act.

BUT! Taskmaster is apparently a cartoon villain because he’s replaced the human cannonball with a dummy full of explosives and he’s going to shoot it and blow up the grandstand, killing a couple hundred innocent lives.

Taskmaster tells them they can capture him or they can stop his ridiculous scheme.

Taskmaster: “Have fun decidin’, chumps!”

And then presumably he runs off giggling.

Hawkeye wants to go after Taskmaster and have Ant-Man take care of the nothuman cannonball bomb.

Ant-Man: “No, Hawkeye! There are too many lives at stake! And it may take both of us to stop that cannon!”

Hawkeye: “But we can’t just let that psycho walk! We can’t -- .”

Ant-Man: “Hawkeye! Think about it! Think! Please... !”

Hawkeye: “Yeah, I guess you’re right... blast it.”

Scott Lang has his heart in the right place to be a hero even if he is a bit of a goofus about it. I like you, Scott Lang.

Hawkeye runs back into the tent and shoots the goon manning the cannon with a bola arrow. he gets the goon but the goon falls on the button.

Fortunately, its the elevation control, not the fire button.

Unfortunately, there is no firing button, so the firing cycle is automatic.

Fortunately, hitting the elevation control accidentally made the cannon point up instead of at the grandstand. So the bomb is still going to fall and blow everything up but they have time and Ant-Man has an idea.

He has Hawkeye nock his fastest arrow and jumps on it.

Hawkeye shoots the arrow and hits the explosive filled mannequin in the neck right as it reached the top of its trajectory and hung very briefly in the air.

As the bomb starts to plummet, Ant-Man crawls up the arrow onto the bomb-man and to the detonator.

All too soon the bomb hits the ring

but doesn’t detonate.

Ant-Man managed to defuse the bomb!

And he also managed to survive the fall because of course! He’s not destined to die for a long while and only then in a really dumb way.

Thanks to Scott’s experience of watching Raiders of the Lost Ark twenty-seven times he’s a real expert on jumping from one speeding object to another.

Aka, from the falling bomb to a flying ant. Sure.

The heroes see that Taskmaster has escaped while all this was going on but Hawkeye decides he’ll get him next time.

Also? The audience has thought that this was part of the show the whole time so they’ve loved every second of this.

Soon the other Avengers arrive, too late to take part in the plot but in time to help clean up the goon operation.

Also, She-Hulk is in her tattered white dress outfit again. I really think there was some miscommunication here. Like with having her dressed like that on the previous cover and having her dressed like that here in this filler issue.

She doesn’t wear that anymore but its the Iconic outfit for her so if an artist needs a ref to draw her, they’re probably looking at a picture from her Savage She-Hulk series.

And Scott Lang gets the last page because whoops, he left his daughter on a roller coaster the whole time and forgot her in the heat of the adventure. DAD OF THE YEAR!

Scott runs to find her sitting outside the Spin-’n-Heave looking down, head in hands. Scott is worried that something is wrong with her but

Cassie Lang: “I’m a little tired right now, daddy *yawn* but can we come back an’ ride the ‘Spin-’n-Heave’ again t’morrow?”

Scott Lang: “Tomorrow? Again? *sigh* Kids.”

Hah, she tuckered herself out riding the roller coast over and over again but is game to keep doing it again tomorrow. That’s the Cassie Lang that will grow up to join the Young Avengers!

So, Avengers filler but it wasn’t weird or inconsequential. It doesn’t do anything with the ongoing plots but it feels like it does since Scott Lang has come back into the books recently because of the Hank Pym plot. And it follows up on Taskmaster who has gone unaddressed since his introductory stories.

Its just a nice story and by focusing on a guest star and one of the Avengers doing an impromptu team-up it has some fun energy.

Good times.

Hey. Follow @essential-avengers�� maybe? Its better than the Spin-’n-Heave! ... I can’t actually prove that. But also like and reblog this post because I’m a cool person. ... I can’t actually prove that either...

#Avengers #Taskmaster #Hawkeye #Ant Man #Scott Lang #some roustabouts #some robin hoods #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #some avengers in a one panel cameo in their own book #ant man and hawkeye make a good team weirdly #i'm weirdly fascinated by the Spin 'n Heave #it has a waterfall

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hargreeveslftv · 4 years

Text

The Occult: DOOMSDAY | an umbrella academy series

chapter five | word count: 2,729

CHAPTER FIVE | off button ( song | dead to me - kali uchis )

Melanie felt bad.

While like all the other Hargreeves children, she had a strong streak of self preservation built into her, she also had more empathy than she could handle, which made waking up, opening the store and pretending she was happy to be there all the more harder when her mind could do nothing but wander back to the academy.

After what happened the night before, she was worried. Why would they want Five? Would they come after everyone again? And who were they in the first place?

The questions circled through Melanie’s mind on loop as she smiled to customers, the grin never quite making it to her eyes as she charged the occasional customer who came in for a reading or a handful of crystals.

She was well aware the “readings” her boss gave people were generic cold readings to give people false hope, but Melanie had bills to pay, and a store discount on things she could use for legitimate purposes.

“Darling, I’ll be off for the day. I’m afraid my last reading just took too much from my poor soul today.” Her boss sighed, draping themselves across the counter dramatically in front of her.

“Do you mind running the shop for a couple hours til closing?” They ask, battering their long lashes as they speak.

“Of course. You know I’ve got your back.” Melanie smiled, playing along with the act for her own benefit.

“Thank you so much, I’ll see you in the morning!” They say as they basically run out of the door, leaving a trail of silk scarves and essential oils in their path.

The smile instantly dropped from Melanie’s face as they left, a sigh slipping from her as she sat down on the small stool behind the register, reaching for her heavy tote bag and the contents inside.

While she was worried about everyone because of last night’s events, she was also still shaken herself, and not ready to throw herself back on the rocking boat just yet. Instead, she pulled out her grimoire, and the dogeared book that hadn’t left her side since she left last night.

Leaving her grimoire on the counter, Melanie wandered to the back wall of bookshelves, picking out a couple hardcover copies as she drifted along in front of the shelf.

It had been years since she had made a hollow book, but she believed her skills still remained after around fifteen years of disuse.

Holding the book up to various hard copies, she finally decided on one that she thought would work, a deep blue leather bound book on native flowers of South America, and turned around to walk back to the counter.

But upon seeing someone standing there, Melanie’s defenses instantly went up, cautious as they stood so close to the closed grimoire sitting beside the register.

“Hello there, how can I help you?” Melanie says kindly, placing the books in her hands on the display cases behind the counter.

The man returns a friendly smile, hands resting in his pockets as he glanced around the store.

“I heard this place had really pretty cards, none of that hallmark kinda thing, and I was looking for something to give to my girlfriend as congratulations.” He explains, calming Melanie slightly as she realises he’s just a regular customer.

“Oh, we sure do. A lot of them are blank, but it gives you a lot more room to write something personal while still having something nice to look at. They should all be on the shelf by the reading room door down there.” She instructs politely, the man thanking her with a nod before walking away down the back of the store.

Taking the moment to herself, Melanie slips her grimoire into the tote bag, along with the two books from behind her, and places them under the counter for safe keeping.

Busying herself with some new stock, Melanie glances up to the man as he looks through the cards for a few minutes, before walking back to the counter with one in his hands.

“It’s like you guys knew exactly what I’d need.” He laughs, pulling his wallet out as she glanced at the cover of the card while ringing it up, a violin made out of flowers and vines across the front.

“She’s a violinist, huh?” She asks, making casual conversation as he hands her the money needed, responding as she sorts it into the right compartments.

“Yeah, she is. Amazing one too. She’s auditioning for first chair of her group soon and I might be a little optimistic about it.” He jokes.

Melanie smiles, handing him the card in a small paper bag to protect it from the changing New York weather.

“Well speaking as someone with a violinist for a sister, I know how hard they work, so I’m sure she deserves it."

The man nods, agreeing with her statement before turning towards the door, stopping in his tracks for a moment.

"Do those things actually work? I mean I haven’t really delved into the spiritual kinda thing myself, but I’ve always been curious.” He asks, pointing to the tarot card packs Melanie had previously been sorting.

“Well,” she shrugs, “it really depends on how much you believe. Or how much you chose to believe that is."

"Very true. Anyways, thank you.” He smiles, making it to the door before Melanie calls out to him, the man’s drivers licence in her hand after she picks it up from where he left it on the counter, Melanie assuming it fell out of his wallet.

“Excuse me! You left this!” She calls, the man spinning around and hastily walking back.

“Ugh, long day.” He groans, taking it from her hands. “Thank you so much."

"No problem, Leonard. I hope your girlfriend makes it to first chair!” She responds, using the name she glanced at for a moment as she handed him the card.

He sends her a wave of thanks as he walks out of the store, and once again, the smile falls away from Melanie’s face.

Once again alone in the store, Melanie pulled out the blue leather book from her tote bag, writing down the book’s name as a stock removal on the sheet under the register that she saw way more often than she’d like to admit.

As the day went on, and Melanie finally felt comfortable in her seclusion again, she pulled her grimoire out from where it sat, opening to the pages she wrote after her intense visions.

For hours, she sat searching through previous writings as well as books in the store to find something that even came close to the incantation she heard, but, to no luck.

With her mission fruitless, Melanie packed up the shop as usual, shutting off the neon sign, turning off the lights and locking the door behind her before turning up the street and walking home to her apartment.

She hoped that maybe Klaus would be inside when she got back, feet kicked up on the coffee table and every light in the apartment on, but was quickly learning it wasn’t the smartest thing to have hopes when it came to her best friend’s location.

Instead, after showering and making herself some dinner, Melanie sat alone, waiting for him to show up.

It wasn’t til around midnight that Melanie finally heard a knock on her door, a smile on her face as she got up from the couch, abandoning her rewatching of season three of drag race all stars, and pulling her red cardigan closer around her as she opened the door.

“About time you lil sh- oh.” Melanie stops, frowning as she sees Allison standing in front of her.

“Allison, hey.” She greets, freezing for a moment before stepping aside, ushering her in.

“Hey. I uh, I know it’s late, but somethings happened-"

"Allison,” Melanie says tiredly, “look I feel bad about walking out last night, I do, but I’m not in the right space to handle whatever the hell is going on with everything at the moment."

"I get that and I don’t blame you, but it isn’t about what’s going on, it’s about Mom.” Allison explains quickly, before she can be cut off again.

Melanie frowns, closing the door behind her.

“What about Mom?” She asks.

“Those people, last night. Melanie, they killed her."

Allison is met with silence as Melanie looks back at her, the information sinking in slowly. Without saying a word, she walks past her, Allison hesitantly reaching out but pulling her hand back as she watches Melanie walk over to the wall where the hallway begins, reeling back before slamming her head forward into the wall, her passed out body limply falling backwards.

"Jesus.” Allison sighs, walking over and carefully picking up her body with a groan at the dead weight.

Allison carries her down the hallway, before kicking open the first bedroom door she sees, frowning as she sees her skirt stolen by Klaus thrown over the end of the bed.

Moving down the hallway, she kicks open the second door, finding dark purple scarves covering the ceiling and plants lining the bay window, correctly assuming it’s her room and gently laying her down on the bed.

“I’m too drunk for this.” Allison comments down towards her sisters passed out body, knowing she shouldn’t be entirely surprised at her reaction and also knowing she wouldn’t be getting a reply.

Melanie had done this a couple times before, though Luther, Five, Vanya, Ben and Klaus hadn’t witnessed it as it happened like Diego and Allison had.

The whole “off button” wasn’t something she did often, but Allison instantly regretted not foreseeing it as her reaction to the news and stopping her before she could do it.

Instead, Allison walked around the bed, eyes glancing around the room while she waited for Melanie to come too.

Looking up at the walls, she was met with pictures of herself, and her other siblings, when they were teenagers, memories of the disposable cameras Melanie would hoard anytime they left the academy flashing through her mind as she looked through all the photographs taped to the wall.

Allison felt a twinge of guilt as she looked around, realising she didn’t have any pictures from her life before she left hanging in her own home.

She doesn’t know how long she ended up staring at the pictures, but she does know that by the time she’s inspecting the symbols drawn in chalk on the floor, remnants of candle wax scattered around the area, Melanie is finally waking up.

“For your sake and mine, please don’t do that again.” Allison asks her, as she hands her a bag of peas from the freezer.

Melanie, now sitting at the dining table, looks up to her with a raised eyebrow as she accepts the bag, holding it over her face.

“No promises.” She replies.

Sitting down beside her with a sigh, Allison rests her head against her hand, elbow propping her up as she looks to her sister.

“How long have you had those pictures in your room?” She asks after a moment, Melanie moving the bag so she could look at her as she spoke.

“Well, I got them developed when I left, and I put them up when I moved in here, so a few years."

Allison nods, looking down at her hands as she laughs lightly.

"You’ve got some pretty good ones. I didn’t even know there was evidence of what Klaus did to Diego’s blazer when we were fourteen.” She smiles, the woman beside her letting out a scoff of her own.

“Teenage boys and drawing dicks on things. A match made in hell.” She jokes, before realisation washes over her and the bag of peas is dropped to the table.

“Shit,” she says, getting up and running down the hallway, “Diego."

Allison looked on in confusion as Melanie disappeared into her bedroom, coming back out not long later with a mixed matched outfit consisting of leggings, a black turtleneck, green longsleeve and orange patterned dress thrown over all of it on instead of the Hufflepuff shorts and Cure t-shirt she wore moments ago.

"I gotta get to the gym, does he know?” Melanie asks as she pulls her coat on, looking to Allison for an answer.

“I, uh, Luther went to tell him I beli-"

"Oh come on. Anyone he could hear it from and you decided Luther was the best option?” She asks in disbelief, finding her keys and shoving them in her pocket along with her wallet from the table beside the door.

“There’s a spare key under the doormat, lock the door and put it back when you leave.” She instructs, annoyance strong in her voice as she opens the door and slams it shut behind her.

The sun is slowly starting to rise as Melanie arrives at the gym, feet burning from all the walking and wishing she had taken the time to put on her skates instead.

With a nod to the old grumpy man behind the counter, Melanie knocks twice on Diego’s door, before opening it and letting herself in.

“Diego- wait you’re not Diego.” She frowns, seeing Luther sitting in the room instead of the brother she was actually looking for.

“And neither are you, what are you guys doing here?” Melanie asks, spotting Five sitting on the bed and closing the door behind her as she walks down the stairs.

Before anyone can answer though, Diego is kicking in the door and muttering to himself as he storms through the room towards the trio.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?” He asks angrily, eyes set on Five as Luther grabs him before he can reach him, Diego instantly trying to kick out of his grasp.

“Get your ape hands off of me!” He yells as Luther lifts him off the ground.

“I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down.” He replied calmly, Five watching on while Melanie stands off to the side with a frown on her face and mouth hanging open.

“What the fuck is going on.” She whispers to herself, thinking she might have hit her head harder than intended.

“Fine.” Diego agrees, Luther setting him back on his feet.

“Now,” Luther asks, “wanna tell us what you’re talking about?"

"Our brother’s been pretty busy since he got back.” Diego spits bitterly, looking between Luther and Melanie.

“He was in the middle of that shootout at Griddy’s, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the academy, looking for him."

Diego stares daggers into Five as he points to him, fury obvious in every fiber of his being.

"None of which is any of your concern.” Five comments carelessly, only fueling the fire more.

“It is now.” Diego replies, “They just killed my friend."

If it wasn’t for the overwhelming tension in the room, Melanie wouldn’t hesitate to pull Diego into her arms, seeing the hurt on his face only making her want to more, but instead, she steps forward from the wall, making herself more known and ready to jump into action depending on how the situation was about to turn.

Luther looks down to Five expectantly, shrugging as he asks the question all the siblings want the answer to.

"Who are they, Five?"

Five swallow nervously, looking down to his feet before his eyes drift back up to the three standing in front of him.

"They work for my former employer. A woman called the handler.” He confesses reluctantly. “She sent them… to stop me. Then, soon as Diego’s friend got in their way, well, fair game."

"And now they’re my fair game. And I’m gonna see to it they pay.” Diego replies lowly, the wheels of revenge plots already turning in his head.

“That would be a mistake, Diego. They’ve killed people far more dangerous than you.” Five tries to warn him as he turns, walking away and towards the door.

“Yeah we’ll see about that.” He fires back over his shoulder, walking out with determination in his stride.

Melanie takes one glance around at the faces of her brothers, both of them looking to her expectantly.

And fulfilling those expectations, Melanie turns on her heel, following Diego out of the building.

chapter six coming monday, sep 28th

#Umbrella academy #tua #the umbrella academy #umbrella academy fanfic #umbrella academy imagine #tua fanfic #tua imagine #ben hargreeves #ben hargreeves fanfic #ben hargreeves imagine #klaus hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #luther hargreeves #allison hargreeves #Diego hargreeves #five hargreeves

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chrismerle · 3 years

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what’s up i spent way too long typing up a post about my thoughts on P5S, and it isn’t even all encompassing. i guess if you’re curious about anything i didn’t mention in this trainwreck just ask.

my spoiler-heavy thoughts/pseudo-review below the cut

THINGS I LIKED:

The characterization, broadly speaking. If you, like me, loved the Thieves in P5/P5R then you’ll be pretty happy with them here. There are a couple moments that made me roll my eyes (lookin’ at you, hot springs) but on the whole, the main cast are unchanged.

The new characters. Sophia and Zenkichi are great. Sophia is precious and Zenkichi straddles a very fine line of ‘realistically out of the loop, but gives as good as he gets.’ I don’t even care how silly their costumes were. Sophie looked like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, though I did like her little emoticon visor, but also she had no pants. Wolf’s mask was badass but the fact that his stupid pointy hat was riveted to the top of his stupid disco high collar killed it and I wanted to see someone grab his hat and pull it back to see it fling back into place like a drinky-drinky bird. Even so, the characters were great, and when I noticed that all the attacks for Sophie’s initial pseudo-Persona had question marks after them (Kouga? Dia?), it made me laugh, and Wolf’s a good all-purpose party member because he hits like a fucking truck and nothing is immune to Almighty. Plus in some of his post-battle dialogue he calls them all ‘kiddos’ and they consistently call him Gramps.

The gameplay. I mean, yeah, it’s VERY different than P5, but you all know that. And hey! The game no longer immediately ends if Joker gets knocked out (unless he’s the only one left in the party, obviously). It ran pretty smoothly, there’s something weirdly charming about the other Thieves showing up perched on cover points, and the only consistent issue I ran into is that in segments where the camera gets forced into a certain angle, it can switch back so abruptly at the end that you accidentally go walking right off a ledge.

I’ve never really played a Dynasty Warriors-type game before, so it took me a Jail or so to get used to it, but then I was just cackling as I mowed down swarms of Jack Frosts like a weed-whacker in a flower field with a knife the size of Joker’s torso. Honestly, it took me the longest to get used to the fact that the circle button became the all-purpose ‘interact’ button than anything else.

Actually, that’s a lie. It took me the longest to get used to the fact that if I left a Jail, I wouldn’t be losing any time. I’m very used to Persona games having the calendar constantly counting down, which wasn’t the case here.

The story, broadly speaking. It had some hiccups and some issues, which I’ll get into, but for the most part, it was fun. I’m...not going to outline every detail of the story here, but it felt very P5-y and I enjoyed it.

THINGS I LIKED BUT THAT NEEDED WORK:

The writing. It was a little inconsistent, beyond just the usual weirdness that I have accepted comes along with Persona games. (//patiently clicks through numerous conversations of the gang going ‘did this super obvious thing that this memory threw in our faces happen? Let’s debate about whether the most likely answer by a huge margin is the answer’ and several conversations of ‘are we sure this person is bad? We saw them playing nice, like literally every other villain we’ve faced’) A lot was great! Like, the bit with the Okinawa locals breaking into the RV while the kids hide in the bushes? Genuinely unsettling! Akane’s Jail and the fake Thieves was fun, and seeing Zenkichi scuttle from hiding place to hiding place without Thief powers was funny, and his Shadow’s glowing eyes watching him before becoming his Persona was both badass and unsettling. The realization that EMMA was actively lying to Konoe was nice. Character interactions were great and I loved that Sophia went with Ichinose at the end. There was a lot that was good. But there were also a lot of missteps.

Like, it kind of felt like the direction for the writing changed partway through. It started out as if each member of the Phantom Thieves was going to get their own time to shine, identifying and empathizing with a Monarch. Ann realized she could have been Alice. Yusuke realized he could have been Ango and also saw redeeming him as sort of like redeeming Madarame by proxy. Mariko was a link to Haru’s childhood and her father. The ghost Jail on Okinawa lured Sophie in and by the end she realized how much she meant to her friends ryuji said fuck. Akane was Zenkichi’s literal daughter. And then it went to Konoe and then EMMA, so Ryuji, Futaba, Morgana, Makoto, and Joker didn’t get a chance to shine in that regard. The switch from ‘a Jail for everyone to identify with’ to ‘whelp here’s the decoy and the end boss’ felt like they came from two separate drafts of the script, and it’s not like they had to watch the time; I got through P5S in about a third the time it took me to get through P5R. It took me about 35 hours. Considering the game kind of relies on you having played P5, they already knew their target audience has a longer attention span than that.

Owada was talked up as kind of a big deal, but he had like two scenes on-screen and otherwise was an entirely off-screen character. There’s a lot of mid-combat dialogue that is very difficult to focus on, which was sort of annoying when some of it was actually relevant. Ichinose’s reveal as a villain is very info-dump-y.

Plus, Joker wasn’t utilized particularly well as a silent protagonist. He’s got more implied personality than basically any other Persona protag. Which means he’s actually pretty expressive throughout the game, but I can probably count his lines of dialogue outside of combat with fingers left over. No one expects Yu Narukami to actually react to anything, so it doesn’t feel odd when he doesn’t. But the combination of Joker being reasonably expressive and having a demonstrated personality means you’re perpetually EXPECTING and WANTING him to say something about the shit going on, and when he doesn’t it feels like mentally missing a stair.

THINGS THAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The cut corners. Like, a lot of things just seem lazy. There were scenes that really should have been included that weren’t, like how the Thieves escaped from the hotel after the police showed up; it cut from Zenkichi warning them and getting arrested to them arriving at the temporary hideout, so we never even got to see how the Thieves reacted to realizing the cops were outside. Requests to bond with the other Thieves only got a couple of text boxes, when they could have shown a tiny scene of them hanging out like they had all over P5. Rather than having Sae actually on-screen for her brief scene, the camera instead very unnaturally switched to an angle as if it was from her point of view, which was literally the only time the camera did that in the entire game. All of the Sentries look the same from Jail to Jail, instead of being unique to each Jail. Igor is completely absent for the entire game, and other than a throwaway ‘my master can’t be here’ from Lavenza it’s just not really acknowledged.

The missed opportunities. Like, there is no way to look at this except to assume that Joker was a horrible friend to literally everyone in this world state. Like, I can pass off the fact that everyone has their baseline Personae as being because they haven’t had access to their powers for a while, but when you combine it with the fact that NONE of Joker’s other confidants show up or even know he’s back in Tokyo, it leaves little to assume except that in this world, no confidants got maxed out. On top of that, the Personae are all basically pointless. They could be Pokemon or Stands or Digimon or fucking YuGiOh cards, and it wouldn’t make a difference; NOTHING about the game says ‘these entities are integral to this world and important to these characters.’ Also they could have had Akane actually realize who the Thieves were and it would have been hysterical, but that’s just my personal sulk.

The Requests. I liked the Mementos missions in P5/P5R. They felt like they had a point. Requests in P5S are all basically just fetch quests. ‘Go to Location A, fight so many of Enemy B to get so many of Item C. Turn in Request.’ Hell, one of them bugged out on me, I swear. There’s a Request to teach Zenkichi how to cook a simple meal, and Haru gives you a recipe including beef. I had no beef on me at the time, because if you want SP restoratives you gotta cook a fair amount and I used it, and I could find literally no beef in the city I was in at the time so I had to abandon the Request. On top of that, outside of getting food or a few moments where another character specifically asks for Joker’s attention, character-specific Requests mostly replace the ability to bond with the other characters individually.

The restoratives. Or, more specifically, the disparity between HP restoratives and SP restoratives. There’s essentially one cookable recipe to restore SP for every four recipes to restore HP. Even if I stopped at every store and vending machine, I’m pretty sure there were a couple cities where I could find NO SP restoratives for sale, while most stores and vending machines had at least two or three HP restoratives. And while it is true that you can go in and out of a Jail whenever you please to restore SP, that doesn’t help you if you run out during a boss fight you weren’t expecting (mini-boss encounters are virtually identical to regular monster encounters) or during one of the times where you CAN’T leave the Jail for reasons XYZ.

The final boss, and not just because I died and had to start over a few times. As a concept, EMMA could be cool, but in reality she just seemed like the writers threw Yaldabaoth and Maruki in a blender and poured the results into the game. Like Yaldabaoth, she is a false god who seeks to control humanity, claiming it’s what they want. Like Maruki, she seems genuinely deluded into thinking it’s for the best and that she’s not doing anything wrong. Her Jail looked like a slightly sci-fi reskin of the Depths of Mementos. The shtick with the multiple platforms and getting to actually SEE an all-out attack at the end were nice, but for the most part the fight itself was nothing special. Ultimately, EMMA had nothing unique going for her except her name.

Plus, EMMA’s entire rationale was that the majority of humans want someone else to control their lives for them, essentially out of convenience. And she’s presented as being more or less right, but that just being one of the hurdles of being human. It seemed a little dour and far-fetched. Like, the Thieves repeatedly point out that struggling allows people to grow, and they’re right, but in my experience, I’ve never actually met anyone who, upon hitting a roadblock, decided ‘Jesus take the wheel.’ Considering the greed with which her weird tentacle arms snatched up the solidified Desires, the pettiness of the complaints she used as a “gotcha,” and the fact that she just kind of reiterates her ‘people want to be controlled’ point over and over, I think it would have felt a bit more true to life and given her more agency if, instead of presenting her as largely correct, it instead acknowledged that everyone at some time or another hits a wall and wants someone to tell them what to do and had her capitalizing on those individual brief moments to hook people in, despite her having reams of data that for most people, those moments are temporary.

#persona 5 strikers #persona 5 strikers spoilers

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bleachanimefan1 · 3 years

Text

Turtles Forever Part 68

Mission Of Gravity

A helicopter flew into a base. Hun, Stockman, Karai, and Saki stepped out of the copter and Dr. Chaplin walked over to them.

"Dr. Chaplin," Saki spoke. "I trust what you have to show me will justify the excursion from the city?"

"Believe me, Master," Chaplin answered. "You're gonna to dig it big time." They entered the base, walking inside of it. Inside, was a giant blimp.

"You brought us all the way out here for a blimp? What pea-brained half-wit authorized this project?" Stockman asked, in disbelief.

"I did," Saki answered, narrowing his eyes. Stockman turns to him, nervously.

"Oh! Well, I'm sure you have your reasons, oh wise and revered master," he replied.

"Indeed," Saki answered. He turned to Chaplin. "Excellent work, Dr. Chaplin."

"I installed that Triceraton force field override mechanism that you recovered, just as you requested, sir," Dr. Chaplin said as they began to walk. "This baby will breach the atmospheric shield around Beijing and retrieve desired cargo, no problem!"

"And just what does this boy genius thinks he's retrieving?" Stockman questioned.

"A Triceraton anti-gravity generator," Saki answered, smirking.

"But Master," Stockman pointed out. "removing an antigrav generator from a city floating 20 miles above the Earth's surface is a virtual suicide mission!"

"Yes, that is why I have selected you for this operation," Saki answered.

"Me?" Stockman answered, nervously. Karai walked up to her father.

"But, master, what if the millions of innocents that will perish when Beijing comes crashing to Earth?" She questioned, wondering.

"They are of no concern to me," he said her.

"How dare you question the master?" Hun scolded Karai. "I am behind this plan 100 percent."

"Good," Sami replied. "You will have the honor of accompanying Dr. Stockman on this extremely dangerous mission."

Hun's mouth dropped in shock. Karai stared at the group, silence. She was internally debating herself on what to do. If she let her father's plan proceed, innocents will suffer. But, she couldn't go against her father's wishes. However, maybe there was several people who can...

The three brothers and four girls follow Raph as they jumped across the rooftops. Through the night vision goggles, that they were wearing, everyone saw some Foot collecting more alien tech.

"Here it is, just like told ya," Raph said. "another one of the Shredder's alien tech garbage picking goon squad."

"I wonder what he's collecting all this stuff for," Donnie murmured.

"Intergalactic hard sale?"Mikey joked. Raph smacked him on the back of the head with his hand. "Ow!"

Leo looked again with his night vision goggles. "Hm, no police security around this time around. Just be something really important buried down there if the Shredder doesn't want the authorities to knowing about it."

Suddenly, Donnie's shell cell ringed again. He answered it using his headset. "Hello?" Donnie groaned as he only heard static again.

"Oh, not that stupid fax call again," Raph groaned.

"Only this time, I came prepared with my palmtop to trace the signal," Donnie explained, pulling out his palmtop. As he did, a download message appeared on the screen. "Download in progress?" He asked, confused. "Impossible."

"Don, figure it out later," Leo told him. "we've got something much bigger moved here." Everyone looked and saw a giant Triceraton ship being lifted under the bridge.

"Whoa, a Triceraton supply ship?" Donnie asked.

"Let's take a closer look." Leo said.

Hun and Stockman were standing in the blimp's control room, complaining.

"All of our loyal service and this is the thanks we get?" Hun spats. "Pushed aside by the new blood."

"Perhaps, it's time we started pushing back," Stockman suggested. The two looked at the double doors as Chaplin came in.

"Hey, I just wanted to say, no matter how bad the Shredder treats you, I'm still honored to be working with the legendary Baxter Stockman...even if you are a freakish brain in a jar of your former self," He praised. Stockman frowned. "The truth is, I can't seeing someone I admired reduced to such a pathetic existence. So I've decided to put an end to your suffering," Chaplin begins to inch towards Stockman, who backs away in shock. Chaplin picks up Stockman's jar.

"Wait, what are you-no! W-What are you doing?!" He pressed on button and the hologram shuts off. Hun watched as Chaplin took Stockman away.

Everyone hid behind a tractor, looking around for scouts or any Foot ninjas. But, they saw that there weren't any around.

"Hey, no foot goons," Mikey pointed out.

"Where did they all go?" Donnie asked.

"I don't like it," Leo said. "Keep your eyes open."

They stopped in front of a ship. "You think they're in the ship?" Raph questioned.

"Only one way to find out," Leo said as they all walked in. They were carrying flashlights to help see.

"Nothing in here of any value to the Shredder," Donnie replied. Suddenly, the doors closed behind them. Everyone ran to the doors and started pounding on it, except Mikey.

"Nothing except us turtles and girls!" he exclaimed, nervously.

They tried to get the door to open, but it was closed shut. Then the lights suddenly turned on, a dark figure emerged from the shadows.

"Karai?" Leo questioned, taking off his goggles.

"We need to talk," She tells them.

"Talk to the sais, cause the ears ain't listening," Raph retorted, pulling out his sais.

"Raph, wait," Leo stops him. "Let's hear her out. She helped us last time remember?"

"And she tried to kill you the time before that, remember?" Yuuki reminded Leo.

"I apologize for the elaborate set up, but I knew of no other way to contact you," Karai explained. "I need your help."

Back on the blimp, Chaplin was still carrying Stockman as he walked up to a large robot body that was standing next to the elevator. Hun crossed his arms as he watched Chaplin took Stockman's brain from the jar, placing it into the robot. The hologram of Stockman turns back on.

"Release me at once, you-!" He paused, looking at his new body. "What the?"

"What do you think of your new bod?" Chaplin asked.

"I have limbs," Stockman laughed. "powerful limbs!"

"I figure you'll need them to survive the big mission," Chaplin said, proudly.

"Ah, yes, the mission," Stockman turned to the young scientist. "Pity that you'll be miss out on the maiden voyage of this incredible vessel of this ship that you designed and built with your own two hands. Not to mention witness firsthand as an entire city crashes down from the stratosphere!" He slammed his hands on the panel.

"Man, that'd be so cool," Chaplin said in awe.

"Yes," Stockman smirked, evilly. "Of course, you could decide to go behind the Shredder's back and join us, but that would be wrong, wouldn't it?"

"Hey,...what the boss doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" The young scientist asked, hesitantly. Hun rubs his chin in thought.

"True, and naturally, I would assume full responsibility for your well-being throughout the entire mission. After all, we wouldn't want you to call victim to some...unfortunate accident." Stockman said to him.

"And so if they remove the antigrav generator, they will be sending millions to their doom. I need you to prevent this from happening," Karai said as she finished explaining.

"So does this finally mean that you come to your senses and turn your back on the Shredder?" Leo questioned.

"I am duty-bound to serve the Shredder, as always," Karai told him. "I just...do not wish to see millions suffer."

"Even if we agree to help you, what's to stop the Shredder from coming back for the antigrav generator the next time? It's not we can shut it down," Donnie pointed out.

"Actually, I might be able to provide some assistance regarding that particular technical conundrum," a familiar voice answered, from Donnie's bag.

"Whoa, am I hear things?" Mikey said. "That sounded like Professor Honeycutt!"

Donnie opened his bag and pulled out his palmtop, revealing the professor on the screen. "Hello?"

"It IS Professor Honeycutt!" Donnie exclaimed as everyone leaned in.

"Professor, you're alive! No way!" Raph exclaimed in shock.

"It can't be," Leo shook his head in surprise. "We saw you sacrifice yourself." He took the palmtop. "You saved the world."

"Oh dear, I'm a afraid I don't remember that," the Fugitoid replied. "Thing last thing I was that I was on the rooftop with Donatello, broadcast a signal to make me invisible to the Triceratons. What I didn't tell you was that I also uploaded a back-up of my memory code into the satellite communications network, set to contact you in the event of my destruction. Which I'm assuming must have happened."

"So you were the one making those calls to my shell cell," Donnie concluded. "And the download, that was you sending your memory core into my palmtop."

"Well, most of it," the Fugitoid answered. "your hard drive was lacking capacity, so I had to forego some non-essential information."

Mikey the palmtop from Donnie's hand. "Who cares, professor? I'm just so happy to see you!"

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" the Fugitoid questioned, confused.

"Michelangelo," the palmtop beeps. "Mikey," the orange masked turtle received no response. "The Mikester," He still received no response. "Wait, so I'm non-essential information?"

"Anyway, I couldn't help overhearing you dilemma, Miss?" Mikey turned the professor to Karai.

"Karai," she bowed to him.

"With my knowledge of Triceraton technology, I should be able to assume control of the antigrav generator gently lowering the city of Beijing back to Earth," the Fugitoid explained. "In theory."

"Saving millions of lives in the process!" Leo exclaimed, taking the palmtop from Mikey. "That's brilliant, professor!"

"So are we to assume we have a deal?" Karai pondered.

"Deal," Leo answered. "Okay, now how do we get into Beijing?"

"Leave that to me."

As everyone began to leave, Yuuki turned back, looking at Karai. Leo noticed.

"You coming?" He asked.

"I will in a minute," Yuuki answered. "I need to have a little chat with our companion."Leo stared for a moment then followed after his brothers. Yuuki approached Karai as she was making a phone call.

"You got a minute?" She asked. Karai glanced over at her then hanged up.

"Yes, sure. What is it?" Karai asked.

"I just wanted to say one thing: If you put one foot out of line, do anything, and I mean anything, to hurt Leo or my family then you will have to answer to me," Yuuki threatened as she glared darkly. "It will be the last mistake that you will ever make, permanently." Karai stared at her in shock as she stepped back.

Yuuki silently walked away leaving the stunned woman in standing where she was.

The blimp was preparing to leave as cargo was being carried inside by a forklift. Karai stopped the driver as she instructed them to lower a large crate.

"What's in the crate, Karai?" Hun asked, curious. "And why are you suddenly joining this mission?"

"That is none of your concern," Karai told him. Hun growled as she walked away.

Chaplin and Stockman watched as several strange machines was being loaded onto the blimp. "What exactly is all of this?" Stockman demanded.

"Uh, uh, uh, that'd spoil the surprise," Chaplin answered, placing his hands on one of the strange cargo. The sun was starting to rise as the blimp took off.

"Hey, attention all hands, welcome to China," Chaplin announced on the speaker. "The floating city of Beijing is dead ahead. Pretty cool, huh?"

Karai sneaked quietly to the Cargo Bay, looking around until she saw the same box that she was keeping a close eye on. She tapped on it. "Stand by, we are approaching Beijing," she whispered. The four brothers and girls were inside, with hang gliders strapped to their backs.

"About time," Mikey said. "I really gotta go to the little turtle's room."

As the blimp advanced closer towards Beijing, Chaplin was steering it towards the sheild. "Activating force field override," He pressed a button and the blimp went right through the shield. Back in the Cargo Back, Hun had stalked Karai, realizing that she was up to something and saw her next to the box, talking to it.

"I knew you were up to something," He backs away and pressed a button on the wall with his elbow. "Oops. Happy landing, Karai." The floor suddenly opens underneath of Karai, along with the box, falling towards Beijing.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted Karai!" Raph shouted.

"We can argue later!" Leo said. "Everybody brace!" Leo kicked the crate open and everyone fell out. They pulled the lever on their hang gliders opening them. Donnie looks down and saw that Leo hadn't opened his glider yet.

"Leo!" Donnie called out. "What are you waiting for? Deploy!"

Leo catches Karai before she hit the ground. "Gotcha!" He opens his glider right before the two was about to hit the top of a building.

"We made it," Leo said in relief.

"Of course," Karai replied. "Now land, Leonardo. We have much work to do."

"Just about to touch Tiananmen Square," Chaplin reported. "Where's Karai?"

"She got bumped from the mission," Hun explained as he walked into the control room. "apparently, she had a little falling out with the organization."

An old man was driving a bike, that was attached to a wagon. He runs away as he sees Leo, along with the others as they land behind him.

"Hey, what was with the instant skydiving lesson?" Mikey demanded.

"It was an unforeseen event," Karai said, flipping her hair. "But, I have my suspicion as to who is responsible."

"You know what your problem is, lady?" Raph growled. "You can't decided whether you want to help us or kill us. Make up your mind already!" He pulls out his sais.

"Ditto!" Yuuki agreed, pulling out her fan. Leo stops them.

"Not now, guys. We're miles off target and we need to get to Tiananmen Square!" He tells them.

"Hey guys," Donnie called out, climbing into the wagon. "How about this? Low tech, but effective."

"Hop on, Karai," Leo suggested, only to find that she had vanished. "Karai?"

In Tiananmen square, there were Beijing soldiers guarding the antigrav generator. They spotted the blimp above them.

"Great, nobody warned us we'd be having an welcoming committee to contend with," Stockman commented.

"No sweat, doc," Chaplin said. "Time to unleash my surprise." He pressed a button and the strange cargo began to fall into the city of Beijing. The troops ran away as the strange contraptions began to open up revealing to be mousers, only bigger and more upgraded.

"Mousers version 2.0," Chaplin explained. One of the guards fired a laser, however, the mouser was not affected by it. "I took your basic concept and gave them a little upgrade. Cool, huh?"

Stockman scoffed. "Upgrade? More like a side grade,"

One of the mousers destroyed a search light. Another guard gasped and ran away as another search light was destroyed. Eventually, the mousers overran the guards sending them running. The robots chewed through the fence and the blimp stopped right above the generator. The crane locks on, with Chaplin on it. He jumps down and climbed down the ladder.

Mikey wheezed as he peddled the bike. "Integra...generator dead ahead,"

"Ready to work your magic, professor?" Donnie asked from his palmtop. Stockman sees the group from the blimp.

"What! How on Earth did those meddlesome freaks get here?!" he demanded.

"I got this one, Doctor Stockman," Chaplin offered. He turns on the voice control. "Mousers, attack!"

"Funny, Karai never mentioned anything about overgrown mousers!" Mikey exclaimed. Everyone jumped down from the wagon, bracing themselves.

"Nothing fancy, guys," Leo called out. "Just clear a path for Don and the professor!"

Leo jumps up, landing on a mouser's head before cutting it off. Donnie leaps and smacks a mouser with his staff. The mousers soon began to surround everyone. Chaplin looks down at them from above and starts to head back to the control panel. "Commencing shut down sequence. Get ready to haul me up when this baby rips free from the pavement."

Donnie jumps onto a mouser and managed to leap towards the generator. Chaplin chuckles at him. "You're too late, green guy," The generator starts to shake, to his surprise, then a blue light begins to emit from it.

"What the shell?!" Raph asked.

"That's not supposed to happen!" Chaplin panicked. The city was dropping at an fast rate, plummeting towards the Earth. Everyone screamed as they were lifted up, as well as the citizens, due to the gravity. The blimp shakes as Chaplin managed to get to the rope.

"Pull me up. We're gonna have to ditch it!"

"Oh, that's not all we're going to ditch, my boy," Stockman answered. He released the rope from the blimp and Chaplin fell back onto the tower. Stockman took the blimp, driving it away from the city. Everyone tried to steady themselves, with difficulty.

"Way too much free fall for one day," Mikey commented. Donnie hanged onto the generator opening his bag.

"Showtime, professor," the palmtop drifted up towards him. Donnie catches it and aims the palmtop at the control panel.

"Now, carefully regulated circuitry of the gravity flux capacitor should gradually decrease the decent at a rate of 12.6 phraxos per trigon," the city begins to float safely down and everybody lands on the ground.

"Yes!" Mikey cheered as he kisses the ground. "Back on solid ground."

"Unfortunately, so are they!" Raph exclaimed, pointing at the mousers as they land. Everyone began to fight with them as Chaplin lands safely in front of the tower.

"I'm alive!" he cheered. "I'm alive!" A mouser hits him on the back of the head and he falls to the ground, unconscious, groaning.

"How are we holding up?" Donnie asked.

"I'm afraid I'll have to divert power from the atmospheric shield," the Fugitoid explained. "Although, the wind resistance may work in our favor."

The wind starts to pick up as the turtles and girls fight the mousers. "As if we don't have enough problems," Leo groaned, as the mousers started to advance towards them. Suddenly, Karai flips, landing in front of them, fighting off two mousers.

"About time you showed up," Raph commented.

"I could not afford to be seen coming to your aid earlier," Karai started as she kicked a mouser. "If the Shredder were to find out..."

"Enough talk!" Leo shouted. "Let's do it!"

He jumps up and faced against to mousers. Mikey jumps up and climbs on one. "Yeeha!" he shouted. "Get along, little mousers!" he uses his nunchucks to steer the robot. A mouser was climbing up towards Donnie. He turns around getting ready to attack, but, Venus jumps up onto the generator and kicks the mouser off.

"Hurry up!" She called out. Donnie turned back to the control panel.

"The city's almost back on Terra firma," he said. Mikey looses control of the mouser he was riding and it throws him off into the fence. Two mousers began to advance towards him. Alopex notices and jumps in between them trying to fend the robots off, struggling. Two mousers, Leo was fighting against, slammed into him with their heads, knocking him to the ground. Raph tackles one and another robot grabs him and throws Raph to the ground. Mona and Yuuki both get knocked down as the robots pinned them down. Karai gets tackled by one as it pinned her to the ground.

"I hope you know what you're doing, professor!" Donnie exclaimed. The antigrav generator turns back on, frying the mousers. The city of Beijing began to slowly drift back down into place.

"That electromagnetic pulse should have burned out this device, while simultaneously nullifying those awful metal ruffians," the Fugitoid explained. Leo looked around, seeing the destroyed mousers.

"Then it is over," Karai said, starting to leave.

"Not until you walk away from the Shredder, Karai," Leo called out.

"You know I cannot do that," she told him. Leo places a hand on her shoulder turning her around.

"This is the perfect opportunity. They think you are dead. You can disappear. We can help you start a new life," Leo explained. Karai looks away, pondering for a minute before looking back at Leo.

"Could you so easily turn your back on your father?" she responded. "Even if you knew the things he did were wrong?" Leo frowned, looking at his brothers. Donnie had a strange look on his face, like something was bothering him.

"Is something wrong?" Venus asked.

"What are you looking at?" Raph questioned.

"Isn't the Forbidden City supposed to be north of here?" Donnie asked.

"And isn't the sun supposed to rise in the East?" Mikey pondered, as the sun began to rise on the left of the generator.

"Oh dear," the Fugitoid said. "Did I set the city down facing in the wrong direction?"

In the Shredder's lair, Hun and Stockman were walking onto the base then into the elevator, heading towards the lab.

"The master will be disappointed that we came back empty handed," Hun pointed.

"Not to mention, the unfortunate demise of Karai and young doctor Chaplin," Stockman answered as the doors open, entering the room. "We'll blame it all on them, just follow my lead." They stop in front of Saki, who was looking at them, with a dark look in his eyes.

"Master, we have unfortunate news," Stockman started. "Karai and Doctor Chaplin are-"

"Wait," Saki interrupted, walking over to a control panel. Hun and Stockman, looked in confusion. "Perhaps, you would like to share your news," He turns on the video cam, revealing Karai and Chaplin on the other end. "with Karai and Dr. Chaplin."

"Hi, Dr. Stockman!" Chaplin greeted. "Everything's okay, we made it!"

The two hesitantly glanced over at Saki, who crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes at them.

"B-B-But, sir, we can explain-" Stockman protested, nervously as the two backed away. Saki began to advance slowly towards them.

"Noo!" the two shouted as their screams echoed throughout the city.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2003 #fanfiction

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