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generalllimaginesss · 4 months

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"Every morning I question why I moved in with you." Can you write an older Hughes sister one where she moved in with Jack and then Luke when he started with the Devils and they’re always asking her to do things for them. Like waking her up in the morning to make breakfast because only she knows how to make pancakes like their mom used to when they were kids. She pretends to hate it but loves to be able to take care of her baby brothers. I imagine they’d all be obsessed with their sister if they had one.

Hughes sister has a chokehold on me and I make no apologies for it. I hope this is something along the lines of what you were thinking!!

••

It had been a long week at work, major changes in the computer system that your office used was causing you to work overtime, so you looked forward to sleeping in on Saturday.

However, Jim and Ellen both agreed that the youngest Hughes boys could benefit from having their big sister live with them as they adjusted to life without their mom and dad. Luckily you had a job where you could work from home and were able to move to New Jersey with ease. At least with ease regarding your job. Your brothers were anything but ease...

With there being a three year age gap with Jack and four with Luke, they looked up to their big sister, relying on you a little more than they should at their age. Most of the time it didn't bother you, but you just wanted this one morning to yourself.

The sound of pots and pans banging revealed that you had wishful thinking, causing you to groan when you rolled over and saw that it was only 7:00 am.

You could tell that the boys were bickering back and fourth about something, but you would let them work it out like the adults that they were. Or at least the adults that they should be.

The walls weren't thick enough to block their argument out though.

"Dude, no that's not how she did it. She added more flour."

"Are you dumb? We're not making waffles. It doesn't need that much flour."

"Well it doesn't need that much milk. It's pancakes, not soup."

"Go get her, we clearly have no idea what the fuck we're doing."

Footsteps, you determined as Jack's, began to come closer to your room, causing you to put a pillow over your head, wishfully hoping it would suffocate you into a deep sleep that wouldn't be disturbed by your brothers.

Three knocks on your door let you know that your wishful thinking was to no avail. You didn't understand why he even bothered knocking when he barged in and jumped on the bed, landing right on top of you, momentarily knocking the breath out of you.

"Jack, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?!" You yelled, shoving him off the bed, the thud resonating throughout the room.

You watched as he winced in pain, holding his knee as it took the brunt of the fall.

"You realize that I have a job that requires me to be healthy?" He groaned as he stood up, causing you to throw a pillow at him while rolling your eyes.

"Don't jump on me and you wouldn't be in this predicament, now would you?"

"Whatever....me and Luke can't remember how to make mom's pancakes. Can you help with that?" He asked, sitting on the side of your bed and falling back onto you.

"You two are hopeless..." You trailed off as you hit his stomach, trying to get him off of you. He swatted your hand away from his stomach, but moved enough to let you out of bed.

As you walked into the kitchen, Jack trailing closely behind and Luke sitting on a barstool on his phone, you noticed that it was an absolute disaster. There were egg shells scattered across the counter, way more than they should have needed. The flour bag was busted, a trail of flour showed where the boys had carried it around the kitchen. There was now only a half gallon of milk left from a previously unopened jug.

You groaned, wiping the sleep out your eyes as you recalled the way that your mom made pancakes your whole life.

"I feel like kids would be easier to raise than the two of you," You said under your breath, pouring the bowl of goop that the boys made down the drain.

"Jack is supposed to know how to make pancakes," Luke spoke up, not tearing his attention away from his phone.

"You watched her make it the same way we did, Luke," You pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm the baby. I've got you all to do it for me," He smirked, watching you as your glares sent daggers towards him.

"I don't think the argument of being the baby of the family is valid after the age of 18. If it has to be brought up after that, then something's wrong," You rebutted, measuring out the ingredients and mixing them together.

Jack snorted, finding amusement in his oldest and youngest sibling arguing. He wasn't safe from your attitude though.

"You have no room to be laughing over there, Jack. You're older than him and still have to ask me to cook. It's funny...I've never had to do anything for Quinn," You knew when you said it that they would groan, and they did.

"Why don't you go live with him then?" Jack proposed, trying to sit next to Luke who shoved him away.

"Why the hell would you say that while she's making our pancakes, dude?"

"Trust me, I would get a lot more work done because he wouldn't be bothering me nonstop," You flipped one of the pancakes, a golden brown reflecting back at you.

The three of you were quiet as you finished flipping and plating them. You had made enough for the boys to have three and you two.

"Thank you," Jack snatched the plate from your hands, causing you to snatch them back.

"You will not snatch these from me when you rudely jumped on me at 7 in the morning. Take them nicely. We use easy hands in this house," You didn't budge, not giving him his pancakes until he slowly took the plate back. If looks could kill you would be long gone by the look he was giving you.

"Yeah, Jack, easy hands," Luke mocked, trying to grab the plate you held out to him. You brought it back closer to you and out of his reach, preventing him from grabbing it.

"What do we say?" Talking to him like a child elicited a glare from him as well, but he said his 'thank you' and you gave him his plate.

They ate quickly, mentioning that they were running late for a meeting. When they put their plates in the sink, you realized that they were leaving you with the mess that they had made.

"Who do you two think I am? Your personal maid?" You asked rhetorically.

"Love ya, Sis!" Luke called as he walked out the front door.

Jack didn't bother to say anything, only throwing up a peace sign as he followed Luke.

"Every morning I question why I moved in with you," You muttered under your breath as you rolled your sleeves up to clean the kitchen.

As you went to load the dishwasher, your phone vibrated on the counter, Jack's name flashing across the screen.

"What do you need?" You sighed, knowing he had forgotten something.

"I forgot my suit for the game tonight...can you bring it when you get a chance? Preferably before lunch?" You could hear Luke chuckling in the background.

"What do you say?" You were bound and determined to teach him some manners while staying with them.

"Oh my God, just bring it-"

"Do you want the suit or no? Because I'm not the one that has to wear it tonight..." You trailed off as you rinsed a bowl out before loading it onto the top shelf of the dishwasher.

Jack sighed, causing Luke to laugh.

"My wonderful sister that I love so much, would you do me a favor and please bring me my suit before lunch? With my Air Forces?" Sarcasm seeped from his voice, your eyes rolling in response.

"I don't appreciate the sass, but since you said please I will," He didn't bother saying thank you, hanging up immediately when you finished your sentence. He would learn one day.

You would never admit it to them, but you loved being able to help them. The early mornings and late nights that they caused you were inconvenient in the moment, but you would hate to miss out on the opportunities to spend so much time with them. They were, after all, your baby brothers that you loved so very much.

But unbeknownst to anybody...Quinn was still your favorite.

#nhl imagine #nhl fic #jack hughes #nhl fanfiction #quinn hughes #trevor zegras #alex turcotte #cole caufield #jack hughes imagines #nico hischier #Luke hughes #nj devils #hughes brothers #jh86 #lh43

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diorsluv · 4 months

Text

feather , part 21

“ send a pic ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

_quinnhughes

liked by jackhughes, mackie.samo, yourusername, and 61,963 others

_quinnhughes went out with jack and our luke replacement 🙏

tagged: jackhughes, yourusername

view all comments

trevorzegras sleepy girl lmaooo

→ _quinnhughes fr this kid brought a whole body pillow in my car

→ yourusername they dragged me out of my bed at 5 in the morning 🙄🙄

rutgermcgroarty “luke replacement” is wild

→ _quinnhughes she agreed and he didn’t

→ yourusername more like they could drag me into their car but they couldn’t drag him

→ lhughes_06 i’m just a little hurt

username13 their relationship with her is the cutest thing ever

yourusername photo proof that jack enjoys my “green juice”

→ jackhughes yeah yeah whatever

→ markestapa HEY YOU NEVER MADE IT FOR US

→ mackie.samo YEAH WHERES OUR GREEN JUICE

username45 the sleeping mask is so relatable

username98 quinn’s pics are so cinematic

adamfantilli does she just sleep in everyone’s car

→ _quinnhughes yes

→ markestapa sprawls all the way out in the backseat

→ jackhughes sprawls out in shotgun too

→ trevorzegras she’s like a starfish

→ _alexturcotte she smacked me in the face once

→ yourusername I DID NOT.

→ mackie.samo she’s fallen asleep with her legs in my lap too many times 😒

→ lhughes_06 she’s fallen asleep with her head in my lap too many times 🙄

→ edwards.73 ok luke i see u

username34 jack LMAOOOO

username11 don’t do my girl like that she’s more than a luke replacement 🙄

→ yourusername 🗣️🗣️

luca.fantilli lil drizz needs to give us the fit check rn

→ _quinnhughes don’t obsess over her in my comments 🙄

→ yourusername shush quinny

→ yourusername and also it’s mark’s hoodie, target sweatpants and my sleeping mask 😈😈

→ luca.fantilli that’s not a fit check send me a pic

→ yourusername no

→ lhughes_06 MARK’S hoodie??

markestapa yo that’s my hoodie ask her where she got it from

→ jackhughes she said and i quote “your dresser”

→ yourusername oops

→ lhughes_06 YOUR hoodie??

dylanduke25 hughesy is no bueno

→ jackhughes i’m muy bien

→ _quinnhughes estoy más o menos

→ yourusername don’t use google translate that’s cheating _quinnhughes

→ lhughes_06 muy mal, no me gustan mis hermanos ni uno de mis mejores amigos porque ellos son pendejos y los odio

→ yourusername lukey babes we know you used google translate too 😭😭

→ jackhughes he and quinn are the same

yourusername

liked by dylanduke25, edwards.73, rutgermcgroarty, and 82,964 others

yourusername adam fell asleep questionably and luca straightening my hair should prob be a fire hazard but i finally spent sum time w my fav boys 🫶🫶

tagged: adamfantilli, luca.fantilli, rutgermcgroarty, mackie.samo, edwards.73, dylanduke25, markestapa

view all comments

luca.fantilli oh my god i’m a fav boy

→ yourusername only because you didn’t burn the house down with my straightener in your hands

trevorzegras where’s moose

→ yourusername gone

→ edwards.73 he ditched us 😒

→ missseraphina with me!

→ trevorzegras please god no

_quinnhughes i don’t understand how my brother can get what he’s wanted for years while also simultaneously fucking it all up

→ yourusername fr it’s crazy

→ jackhughes LMAOOO he showed me ur comment and started whining

rutgermcgroarty i really struggled carrying you down that street

→ yourusername are you saying what i think you’re saying 🤨

→ rutgermcgroarty WHAT NO

→ yourusername i think ur just weak! 🙄🙄

→ rutgermcgroarty I WAS RUNNING

username67 i love these little dumps when she hangs out w them

username9 the titanic recreation is amazing

username27 if you really think about it we could ship her with any of them

→ username12 mcdrysdale??? IT SOUNDS LIKE A MCDONALDS MEAL LMAOO

→ username78 drystilli

→ username35 drystapa ofc

→ username66 dredwards 💀

→ username90 dukedale (or drysduke??)

→ username4 dryskevich.. wth why does it sound like a normal last name

→ username51 dryshughes 🔛🔝

adamfantilli IT WAS REALLY COLD

→ yourusername so u disregarded the blankets on the other couch and stole everyone’s pillows

→ adamfantilli yes

→ yourusername i understand

→ luca.fantilli she has a soft spot for u she replaced all the pillows and gave u like three blankets 🙄

markestapa eddy the jack to my rose 😘😘

→ edwards.73 marky the rose to my jack 😘😘

→ yourusername stop flirting and get out of my comments 😐😐

→ markestapa no i don’t think so ‼️‼️

→ edwards.73 stop being a hater yourusername 🙄🙄

→ mackie.samo i feel left out i wanna join 😞😞

→ yourusername aww ofc mack 🤗🤗

→ dylanduke25 me too 😊😊

→ yourusername i mean i guesssss 🙂🙂

→ lhughes_06 can i join too 😇😇

→ yourusername no 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️

lhughes_06 damn wish i could’ve joined

→ dylanduke25 😐

→ markestapa 😑

→ edwards.73 😐

→ yourusername is that supposed to be the emoji blinking

→ mackie.samo 😐😑😐 yourusername

→ missseraphina yeah but you had more fun with me!

missseraphina 🙄

→ username63 uh… you do realize you’re PUBLICLY commenting right 💀

colecaufield is that girl harassing you

→ yourusername no it’s so funny lmfaoooo

→ jamie.drysdale bro she’s dming ME

→ yourusername u should see my dms 😭😭

next chapter notes ) yes seraphina is a certified delulu girl! i don’t wanna antagonize her terribly but she needs to cause enough drama so we’re going down this road and ik i haven’t been uploading recently but i’m too busy being an academic weapon 🙏

tags: @aliaology @hockeyboysarehot @absolutelyhugh3s @jackquinnswife @freds-slut @love4ldr @blueeyedbesson @43hughes @v1olentdelights @dancerbailey3 @random-human02 @ho3forfakeguys

#luke hughes #luke hughes fanfic #luke hughes fic #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes x y/n #quinn hughes #jack hughes #cole caufield #alex turcotte #trevor zegras #jamie drysdale #ethan edwards #mackie samoskevich #dylan duke #mark estapa #adam fantilli #luca fantilli #rutger mcgroarty

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ladyluscinia · 6 months

Text

Ok, I think I might be exiting the "are you fucking kidding me?" period and ready to make a real argument, so lets talk about Three Act Structure!

Is OFMD S2 just the "Darkest Hour"?

A very common explanation I've been seeing for some of the... controversial... aspects of S2 is that it's meant to be that way. That the middle act is where the protagonists hit their lowest point. Where we get the big failure point. Where everything looks kind of shit.

S2 is supposedly just that point. It's The Empire Strikes Back. People have been making that comparison since before the first episodes even dropped, telling everyone to expect something that could be disappointing or unsatisfying - it's just a matter of needing to wait for S3 to pull it all together.

It's not a baseless framework to consider the show through - I'm pretty sure David Jenkins has mentioned it in interviews (or at least mentioned he planned for three acts / seasons) so it's certainly worth asking how he's doing at the 2/3rd mark.

So - quick summary of Three Act Structure:

Act 1 introduces our characters and world. It includes the inciting incident of the story and the first plot point, where a) the protagonist loses the ability to return to their normal life, and b) the story raises whatever dramatic question will drive the entire plot. Act 2 is rising action and usually most of the story. The protagonist tries to fix things and fucks them up worse, in the process learning new skills and character developing to overcome their flaws. Act 3 is the protagonist taking one more shot, but this time they are ready. We get the climax of the story, the dramatic question gets an answer, and then the story closes.

If you want examples, the Star Wars Original Trilogy is a very popular template. And, hell, he said it was a pirate story... the main Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy also does a solid job with their three acts.

Let's compare. (Spoiler: I'm not impressed 🤨)

---

First thing I need to establish... Wait. Two things. First is that Three Act Structure is flexible, so we can't really analyze success or failure by pulling up a list of necessary plot beats that should have been hit in X order. Second is that if you tell me you are writing a romance with a Three Act Structure - where "the relationship is the story" - the first thing I'm going to do is ask you how you are adapting it. Because while there's not necessarily anything preventing you from applying this to a character driven plot, most people are familiar with it as plot structure for externally driven conflict.

Unless there's a reason the status of the main relationship is intrinsically tied up in the current status of the war against the evil empire, a standard Three Act Structure is going to entail either an antagonistic force that absolutely wants your main couple apart being the main relationship obstacle OR the romance aspect being a subplot to the protagonist's narrative adventure. None of those sound like how the show has been described.

So how is OFMD adapting it?

---

Act 1

(Can't figure out how well Act 2 is doing if we don't start at setup.)

Right out the gate, OFMD breaks one of the main "rules" for a story where the Acts are delivered in three parts. Namely the one where the first Act is treated as an acceptable standalone story, with it's own satisfying yet open ended conclusion.

In Star Wars, A New Hope ends with the princess rescued, Luke finding the Force, Han finding his loyalty, and the Death Star destroyed. The Empire isn't defeated, the antagonists still live... the story is not over, but this one movie doesn't feel unfinished.

Similarly, Curse of the Black Pearl gives Jack his ship back, Elizabeth and Will get together, and Norrington has the English Navy let them all off the hook and give Jack and the pirates one day's head start.

OFMD's final beat of S1 being Kraken Arc starting is not that, even if Stede returning to sea is still a pretty hopeful note. Now... I don't necessarily think this was a bad call. At least, not if the story is the relationship. It's easy to close on a happy ending and then fuck it up next movie if the conflict is external and coming for them. Not so much if you're driving the story with your protagonists' flaws, in part because it should be really obvious at the end of setup that your main characters need development and can't run off together right now. I actually like that they were risk-takers and let S1 look at the situation clearly vs doing a fragile happy end, because it takes into account the difference between a character-driven and plot-driven narrative.

I think OFMD's Act 1 actually ends at maybe the Act of Grace? Well, there through the kiss on the beach, counting as our "first plot point" before everything goes wrong, basically.

At that point, they have setup the story and characters. We've been introduced to Edward and Stede's current issues. Signing the Act of Grace does make the intertwined arcs between them real - it's no longer a situation that either one of them could just walk away from like it was in 1x07 - and we narrow in on the (alleged) driving question of the show:

It's not about "Will Stede become a great pirate?" or "Will we develop a better kind of piracy for the crew?" - the show is the relationship and the big question is "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?"

Act 1 ends on their first solution, being together and making each other happy and admitting it's more than just friendship. Act 2 starts, appropriately, by saying both of them are currently too flawed for that to go anywhere but crashing and burning.

Now... looking back, what does Act 1 do well vs poorly?

I think it's really strong on giving us the foundation for BlackBonnet's characters and flaws. We aren't surprised Stede goes home or Edward goes Kraken (or at least... we weren't supposed to be surprised. There are still a lot of holdouts blaming Izzy for interrupting Edward's "healing" despite how at this point in the story it doesn't make sense for Edward to have the skills to heal... but I digress). The relationship question is compelling at the end of S1, the cliffhanger hooks, and the fandom explosion of fics did not come from nowhere - the audience was invested.

I also think Act 1 does a great job of settling us in the universe. We understand the rules it abides by, from how gay pirates are just a fact of life to how there's no important organs on the left side of the body. Stede has a muppety force field. Rowboats have homing devices, and port is always as close as you want it to be. Scurvy is a joke. The overblown violence of pirate life is mostly a joke, but we are going to take the violence of childhood trauma seriously.

Lucius's fake-out death, while technically part of Act 2, works well because Act 1 did a good job of priming everyone to go "obviously this show wouldn't kill a crew member for shock value, and we're 100% supposed to suspend disbelief about how he could have survived getting flung into the sea in the middle of the night." And we do. And we get rewarded for it.

Regarding antagonists - a big focus of any setup - the show is deliberately weak. The one with the most screentime is Izzy, and he's purposefully ineffective at separating our main couple. Every antagonist is keyed to a particular character, and they function mostly to inform us of that character's flaws and development requirements. The Badmintons tell us about Stede's repression and feelings of inadequacy, and Izzy tells us about Edward's directionless discontent and tendency to avoid his problems. Effectively - the show is taking the stance this will be a character driven narrative where Stede and Edward's flaws are the source of problems and development the solution. No person or empire (or social homophobia) is separating them...

...which leads me to something not present - there nothing really about the struggle of piracy against the Empire. Looking at Curse of the Black Pearl... we see piracy is in danger. The Black Pearl itself is described as the last great pirate threat the British Navy needs to conquer. Hangings are omnipresent - Jack is sentenced to die by one almost as soon as he's introduced to the story, when his only act so far had been to wander around and save Elizabeth from drowning. OFMD tries to invoke this kind of struggle in 2x08, but there's no foundation. Our Navy antagonists are Stede's childhood bullies, and so focused on Stede the crew isn't even in danger when they get caught. The Republic of Pirates is getting jokes about being gentrified, not besieged.

Even the capture of Blackbeard by the Navy is treated as a feather in Wellington's cap but not a huge symbolic blow against piracy... because we just do not have that grand struggle woven into Act 1. You only know the "Golden Age of Piracy" is ending if you google it, or have watched a bunch of pirate shows.

Overall, a solid Act 1, well adapted to the kind of story they've said they were looking to tell - a romance in the (silly-fied) age of piracy, instead of a pirate adventure with a romantic subplot.

---

Now, Sidebar - Where is the story going?

The thing about the dramatic question - in OFMD's case: "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?" - is that a) there's normally more than one question bundled up in that one + sideplots, and b) while you aren't supposed to have the answer yet, you can usually guess what needs to happen to give you the answer.

Back to our examples... Luke's driving question is "Will the Empire be defeated?" Simple. Straightforward. Also: "Will Luke become a Jedi?" The eventual climax of our story from there is pretty obvious... the story is over when Luke wins the war for the Rebellion in a Jedi way. That's the goal that they are working toward.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a bit more complicated. We're juggling more characters and have a less defined heroic journey, but there are driving questions like "Is Jack Sparrow a good man?" and "Is Will Turner a pirate / what does that mean?" and even "Will the British Navy defeat piracy?" They get basic answers in Curse of the Black Pearl, and far more defined ones in At World's End. Still, this is another plot-driven narrative. They've laid the foundations for the Pirates vs Empire struggle, and when that final battle turns into the trilogy climax then you know what's happening.

OFMD is not doing a plot-driven narrative. To judge how they are doing at their goals, we have to ask what they think a happy ending entails in a character sense.

Clearly it's not the classic romantic sideplot, where the climax is the first kiss / acknowledgement of feelings. They've teased a wedding in Word of God comments a lot, so that's probably our better endpoint. Specifically, though, a wedding where both of our protagonists aren't ready to flee from the altar (big ask) and where they've both grown enough that their flaws / mutual tendencies to run away from life problems won't tank the relationship.

In Stede's case it's still massive feelings of inadequacy and being too repressed to talk about his problems. Also he ran away from his family to chase a lifelong dream of being a pirate - "Is Stede going to find fulfillment in being a pirate captain, or will the real answer be love?" Edward meanwhile expresses a desire to quit piracy and retire Blackbeard, but we also find out he's struggling with massive self-loathing and guilt from killing his father - "Is retiring what Edward wants to do, or is he just running away?"

If they are going to get to a satisfying wedding beat at the climax of their story, what character beats do we need to hit in advance?

Off the top of my head - both characters need to self-realize their flaws (a pretty necessary demand of anyone who runs away from problems). They are set up to balance each other well, but also to miscommunicate easily. They have to tell each other about or verbally acknowledge that self-realization so it can be resolved. Stede has to decide how much being a pirate means to him. Edward has to decide if he's retiring and what he wants to do. They both need to show something to do with getting past their childhood traumas given all the flashbacks. Through all this, they also need to hit the normal romance beats that convince the audience they are romantically attracted to each other and like... want to get married.

Oh, and this is more of a genre-specific sideplot, but once they demonstrate a behavior that hurts the people who work for them, they need to then demonstrate later how it won't happen again. Proof of growth, which is kind of important in a comedy where a lot of the humor is based in them being massively self-centered assholes. Stede doesn't earn his acceptance in the community until he kicks Calico Jack off the ship, making up for causing the situation with Nigel in the first episode. A workplace comedy can get a lot of material from the boss as the worker's antagonist, but if you want the bosses to stay sympathetic you have got to throw them some opportunities to earn it.

All that sounds like a lot, but like - the relationship is the story, right? If we spend so much time on establishing flaws big enough to drive a story, we also have to spend time on fixing them. Which is where the turning point hits.

---

Act 2: How it Starts

This is where the full story reality-checks your protagonist. Glad you saved your boyfriend and embraced new love in Act 1, but his repressed guilt means he's about to completely ghost you, and your own abandonment issues and self-loathing are about to make his dick move into everyone else's problem.

Again, it's a non-conventional choice OFMD has this start at the very end of S1 rather than with a sudden dark turn in the S2 premiere, but it's still pretty clearly that point in the Three Act Structure.

In Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back opens with a timeskip to our Rebellion getting absolutely crushed and hiding on a miserable frozen planet. The Empire finds them as the plot is kicking off and they have to desperately flee. They get separated. Han and Leia try to go to an ally for help and end up in Vader's clutches. It's a sharp turn from the victorious note that A New Hope ended on.

Pirates of the Caribbean's Act 2 starts dark. Dead Man's Chest opens with our happy couple Will and Elizabeth getting arrested on their wedding day for the "happy end" escape of the last movie. Jack has not been having success since reclaiming his ship, and we'll soon find out he's being hunted by dark forces. As for the general state of piracy, we get a horrifying prison where pirates are being eaten alive by crows, and a new Lord Beckett making the dying state of piracy even more textual. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed... The world is shrinking."

The key here is making a point that our heroes aren't ready. This is the struggles part - things they try? Fail. The odds do not look to be in their favor.

Now, OFMD apparently decided to go all-in on flaw exploration, especially with Edward. The first 3 episodes of S2 are brutally efficient in outlining Edward's backslide. In S1 you could see he had issues with guilt and feeling like a bad person. S2 devolves that into a destructive, suicidal spiral where Edward forces his crew into three months of consecutive raids, repeats his shocking act of cruelty with Izzy's toe offscreen (more than once!), escalates it with his leg, and finally they state directly that Edward hates himself for killing his dad so much that he fears he's fundamentally unlovable and better off dead.

Stede's struggles are subtler, but most definitely still there. He's deliberately turning a blind eye to tales of Edward's rampage, half from simply being too self-centered to care about the harms Edward causes others, and half from being unable to face or fathom that he had the ability to hurt Edward that much. Upon reunion he wants to put the whole thing behind them, not addressing why he left in the first place. Very "love magically fixes everything" of him, except Stede is no golden merman.

Interestingly, here, BlackBonnet's relationship dysfunction has very clearly been having a negative impact on the surrounding characters we care about. Make sense, since it's the driving force of the story, but that also adds a lot more relationships we need to make right. Like... Edward is the villain to his crew. The show focuses on their trauma and poisoned relationships with him. And then draws our attention even more to Stede taking his side to overrule their objections to him.

For a story where the conflict and required resolutions are primarily character based, and the setup had already given the main couple a good amount to work with, dedicating a lot of S2 to adding more ground to cover was... a choice. Potentially very compelling on the character end, certainly challenging on the writing end... but not a complete break with the structure.

Bold, but not damning.

---

Act 2: How it Ends

Now it is true that Act 2 tends to end on a loss. Luke is defeated by Vader and loses his hand, and Han has been sent away in carbonite. Jack Sparrow for all his efforts cannot escape his fate, and he and the Pearl are dragged to the locker.

But the loss is not the point. The loss is incidental to the point.

Act 2 is about struggles and failure, but it's also about lessons learned. There's a change that occurs, and our cast - defeated but not broken - enters the final act with the essential skills, motivation, knowledge, etc. that they lacked in the beginning.

Luke Skywalker could not have defeated the Empire in Return of the Jedi until he'd learned the truth about his father and resisted the Dark Side in The Empire Strikes Back. (Ok, confession, I'm using Star Wars as an example because literally everyone is doing so, but frankly it's a better example of formulaic Three Act Structure repeating within each movie because on a trilogy level - relevant to this comparison - it is a super basic hero's journey in a very recognized outfit and as such the Act 2 relevance is also... super basic "the hero tries to fight the antagonist too early" beat where he learns humility. Not really a lot going on. So, for the better example...)

Dead Man's Chest has a downer ending with the closing moment of the survivors regaining hope and a plan against an enemy now on the verge of total victory - a classic Act 2. But in that first loss against Davy Jones we get Will's personal motivation and oath to stab the heart, Jack finally overcoming not knowing what he wanted and returning to save them from the Kraken (being a good man), Elizabeth betraying Jack (being a pirate), Barbossa's return, and Norrington's choice to bargain for his prior life back. The mission to retrieve Jack from the World's End is the final movie's plot, but things are already on track to turn the tables back around as we enter the finale.

Now, relevant sidenote - one major difference between Three Act Structure within a single work vs across three parts is that Act 2 continues into Part 3, and only tips over into Act 3 about midway through. This is because obviously your final movie or season cannot just be the climax. That's why both movie examples start with a rescue mission. They have to still be missing something so they can get the plot of their third part accelerating while they go get whatever that something is.

But if you wait until the 3rd movie / season to get the development going at all - you're fucked.

Jack's decision in the climax of At World's End to make Elizabeth into the Pirate King goes back to the development we saw in the Pearl vs Kraken fight in Dead Man's Chest. So does Elizabeth's leadership arc. Will's whole arc about becoming Captain of the Dutchman gets built upon in the third movie, but it starts in the second. Not just as an idle thought - he's actively pursuing it. Already consciously weighing saving his father vs getting back to Elizabeth as soon as he makes the oath. Everyone is moving forward in Act 2. Their remaining development might stumble for drama, or they might be a bit reluctant, but I know that they know better than to let it stick, because they already faced their true crisis points.

I'm not sure we can say the same about OFMD.

S2 does a good job of adding problems, yeah, but there's not really any movement on fixing them. Our main couple stagnates in some ways, and regresses in others.

Stede opened Act 2 by running away in the middle of the night back to his wife without telling Edward anything. We know he did it because of feeling guilty and his core childhood trauma of his dad calling him a weak and inadequate failure. Now in S1 he actually speedruns a realization of his shitty behavior with Mary, but what about S2? Well...

He continues to not talk to Edward about... pretty much anything. My guy practiced love confessions galore but Edward only finds out about going back to his wife via Anne, and it gets brushed aside with a love confession. He seems to think Edward wants him to be a dashing pirate, or maybe he just thinks he should be a dashing pirate. Idk, it doesn't get examined. Regarding his captaincy, they give him an episode plot about Izzy teaching him to respect the crew's beliefs, but this is sideplot to a larger arc of him completely overruling their traumas and concerns (and shushing their objections) to keep his boyfriend on the ship so. That.

Stede kills a man for reasons related to his issues, shoves that down inside and has sex with Edward instead of acknowledging any bad feelings. At least this time Edward was there and knows it happened? Neither Chauncey's death nor his dad have been mentioned to anyone. He gets a day of piracy fame that goes to his head, gets dumped, and ends on a complete beat down by Zheng where he learns... idk. Being a boor is bad? He's still wildly callous to her in the finale, and spends the whole time seeking validation of his pirate skills. He reunites with Edward, kisses, and quotes Han Solo.

Where S1 ended on a great fuckery, his S2 naval uniform plan after they regroup is ill defined except to call it a suicide mission - and we don't get to see what it would have been because it devolves into a very straightforward fight and flee. And gets Izzy killed. Quick cut funeral (no acknowledgement of his S2 bonding with Izzy), quick cut to wedding (foreshadowing), quick cut to... innkeeper retirement? Unclear when or even if BlackBonnet discussed Stede's whole driving dream to be a pirate and live a life at sea, but I guess that got a big priority downgrade. Despite the fact he was literally looking to Zheng for pirate-based compliments in the post-funeral scene.

I guess he's borderline-delusionally dogged in his pursuit of love now - so unlikely to bolt again - but he's also got at least a decade of experience mentally checking out in a state of repression when he's unhappy. And he's stopped being as supportive and caring toward the crew in that dogged pursuit, while arguably demonstrating a loss in leadership skills, so, um, good thing someone else is in charge?

And if Stede is a mess, Edward's arc is so much worse.

As established, they devote the Kraken to making Edward worse. He literally wants to kill himself and destroy everyone around him in the process because Stede left, and this is fixed by... Stede coming back. That's it. The crew tries to murder him and then exiles him from the ship (and Izzy takes the lead on both, indicating exactly how isolated Edward has become), but it's resolved in half a day by Stede just forcing them to put up with his boyfriend again. Like they think he murdered Buttons and still have to move him back in???

The show consistently depicts Kraken Era as a transgression against the crew, but they also avoid showing Edward acting with genuine contrition. He admits he historically doesn't apologize for anything, and then mostly still doesn't. It's a joke that he's approaching probation as a performance (CEO apology), and then the only person he genuinely talks to is Fang - the one guy cool with him - and the only person who gets a basic "sorry" is Izzy - the guy he really needs to be talking to. Edward's primary trauma is guilt, but apparently he only feels it abstractly after all that? He's only concerned with fixing things with Stede, despite Stede being about the only person around who hurt him instead of the reverse.

Speaking of primary traumas, Edward hating himself doesn't really go anywhere after the beat of self-realization. Apparently Stede still loving him is enough of a bandaid to end the suicide chasing, but he doesn't like. Acknowledge that. Edward is maybe sorta trying to go slow so he doesn't hang all his self-worth on Stede again (you can speculate), but they a) absolutely fail to go slow, and b) he doesn't make any attempt to develop himself or another support structure. Just basically... "let's be friends a bit before hooking back up." And then we get the whiplash that is Blackbeard and/or retirement.

Kraken Era is Blackbeard but way worse, like no one who has known Blackbeard has ever seen him. In the Gravy Basket Edward claims he might like being an innkeeper, before destroying his own fantasy by having the spectre of Hornigold confront him over killing his dad. The BlackBonnet to Anne & Mary parallel says running away to China / retiring makes you want to kill each other - burn it all down and go back to piracy. Stede rightfully points out prior retirement plans were whims. Edward gets sick of the penance sack after a day and puts his leathers back on to go try "poison into positivity". But also claims to be an innkeeper (look - two whole mentions!) when trying not to send children to be pirates after teaching them important knife skills.

Killing Ned Low is a serious, bad thing that prompts ill-advised sex and then going hardcore into retirement mode - leathers overboard, talk about mermaid fantasy, get retirement blessings from Izzy, end up dumping Stede for a fishing job instead of talking about how he's enjoying piracy. The fishing job, however, is also a bad thing and a stupid decision because Edward is a lazy freeloader fantasizing about being a better person. We have an uncomfortable, extended scene of "Pop-Pop" weirdly echoing his abusive dad and then sending Edward to go do what he's good at - disassociate, brutally murder two guys, fish up the leathers, rise as the Kraken from the sea. He continues with comically efficient murder but also he's reading Stede's love letters and seeking to reunite with him so... wait, is this a good thing? Post makeout / mass slaughter he's trading compliments on his kills with Zheng so. Yeah. Looks like it. Murder is fine.

Wait, no, skip ahead and Izzy is dying and Edward suddenly cares a whole lot as Izzy makes his death scene about freeing Edward from Blackbeard. Now being a pirate was "encouraging the darkness" because Izzy - a guy who had little to no influence over Edward's behavior - just couldn't let Blackbeard go. Murder is bad again, and he is freed. Minus the little detail that the murder he explicitly hates himself over was not related to Blackbeard or piracy whatsoever, so presumably haunts "just Ed" still. Anyway he's retiring to run an inn with Stede now, as the "loving family" Izzy comforted him with in his dying moments sails away from the couple that can best be described as the antagonists of their S2 arc. Also Edward implicitly wants to get married. It's been 3 days since making out was "too fast". He's still wearing the leathers.

So most of the way through Act 2 and Edward's barely on speaking terms with anyone but Stede, who he has once again hung his entire life on really fast? Crushing guilt leads to self-hatred leads to mass murder and suicide, but only if he's upset so just avoid that. He's still regularly idealizing Stede as a non-fucked up golden mermaid person (that maybe he personally ruined a bit) because he barely knows the guy. His only progress on his future is "pirate" crossed out / rewritten / crossed out again a few times, "fisherman" crossed out, and "innkeeper ?"

Just.

Where is the forward movement?

It's not just that the inn will undoubtedly fall apart - it's that the inn will fall apart for the near-exact same reasons that China was going to at the beginning of Act 2, and I can't point to anything they've learned in the time since that will help them. I guess Stede realized he loved Edward enough to chase after him, but that was in S1! They should be further than this by now. You can't cram another crisis backslide, all the Act 2 development, and the full Act 3 climax into one season. Certainly not without it feeling like the characters magically fix themselves.

If they just fail and keep blindly stumbling into the same issues because they don't change their behavior, then Act 2 doesn't work. You're just repeating the turning point between Act 1 & Act 2 on a loop.

---

Where Did They Fuck Up?

Actually... lets start on what they did right.

The one consistent aspect of S2 that I praised and still think was done well in a vacuum (despite being mostly left out of the finale) was the crew's union-building arc.

With only 8 episodes and more to do in them than S1, side characters were going to get pinched even if the main plot was absolutely flawless. That was unavoidable. With budget cuts / scheduling issues, we regularly have crew members simply vanish offscreen outside of one scene, meaning cohesive arcs for your faves was not likely. Not to say they couldn't have done better - my benefit of the doubt for the TealOranges breakup and Oluwande x Zheng dried up about when I realized he was literally just her Stede stand-in for the parallel - but something like Jim's revenge plot from S1 was realistically not on the table without, like, turning half the crew into seagulls to afford it.

The union building works around this constraint really well. They turn "the crew" into the side arc, and then weave Izzy's beats in so that they aren't just about Izzy. The breakup boat crew working together to comfort each other and protect him turns them into a unit, and Stede's crew taking it upon themselves to address the trauma vibes while the captains aren't in the way solidifies it across all our side characters. The crew goes to war with Stede's cursed coat and wins, they Calypso their boss to throw a party, and they capitalize on a chance to make bank with an efficiency Stede could only dream of.

We don't get specific arcs, but Frenchie, Jim, and Oluwande are defaulted to as leaders in just about every situation, and Roach is constantly shown sharing his inventions with different characters. Individuals can dip in and out without feeling like the sideplots stutter. Any sense of community in S2 is coming from this arc - even if there are cracks at the points where it joins to other storylines (Stede and Edward, Zheng, etc.)

So why does it work? Well, because it's a workplace comedy, and you can tell they are familiar with working on those. They know where the beats are. They know where to find the humor. They know how to build off of S1 because they made sure the bones were already there - an eclectic group of individuals that start as just coworkers, but bond over time in the face of their struggle against an inept boss who they grow to care for and support while maintaining an increasingly friendly antagonism because, you know, inept boss.

OFMD does its best work in S2 when it's being true to its original concept... and its worst work when it seemingly loses confidence in its own premise.

"The show is the relationship," right? It's a romance set in a workplace comedy. The setup of Act 1 was all about creating a character-driven narrative. So given that... where the hell are we getting the dying of piracy and a war against the English Navy?

That's not a character-driven romcom backdrop, it's an action-adventure plot from Pirates of the Caribbean or Black Sails. It's plot-driven, creating an antagonistic force that results in your characters' problems. Once the story is about the fight against the Empire, the dramatic question becomes the same as those adventure stories - "Will the British Navy defeat piracy, and will our protagonists come out the other side of the battle?"

Forget the wedding. The wedding is no longer the climax of the story, its back to the happy ending flash our romantic subplot gets after winning this fight.

Except, of course, trying to pivot your story to a contradictory dramatic question near the end of Act 2 can be nothing short of a disaster, because either you were writing the wrong story until now, or you've completely lost the plot of the real one. I shouldn't even be trying to figure out if they are doing this, because it should be so obvious that they wouldn't.

And yet.

What do the Zheng and Ricky plots add to the story if not this? Neither of these characters have anything emotionally to contribute to Stede and Edward - they truly are plot elements. It's a hard break from the S1 antagonist model, but it also takes up a lot of valuable screentime. This was considered important, but still Zheng's personality and motivation only gets explored so far as it's an Edward-Stede-Izzy parallel with Oluwande and Auntie, and they only need the parallel for Izzy's genre-jumping death scene. Which follows a thematically out-of-left-field speech about how piracy is about belonging to something good (workable) and how Ricky could never destroy their spirits (um...?). And then David Jenkins is pointing to it and saying things about "the symbolic death of piracy" and speculating S3 might be about the crew getting "payback"??? An idea floated by Zheng right before our temporary retirement, btw.

Fuck, the final episode of S2 didn't have time for our main couple to talk to each other because it was so busy dealing with the mass explosion of Zheng's fleet and Ricky's victory gloat. We get lethal violence associated with traumatic flashbacks until they need to cut down enemy mooks like it's nothing, at which point we get jokes with Zheng. The Republic of Pirates is destroyed outright, and it feels like they only did it because they got insecure about their "pirate story" not having the right kind of stakes. Don't even get me started on killing a major character because "Piracy’s a dangerous occupation, and some characters should die," as if suspending disbelief on this aspect makes the story somehow lesser, instead of just being a fairly standard genre convention in comedy. Nobody complains about Kermit the Frog having an improbably good survival record.

Did someone tell them that the heroes have to lose a battle near the end of Act 2, so they scrambled to give them one?

Just... compare the wholly plot-driven struggle in 2x08 to Stede and Edward's character-focused storylines in 1x10 and tell me how 2x08 is providing anything nearly as valuable to the story. Because I can't fucking find it.

At best they wasted a bunch of time on a poorly integrated adventure plot as, like, Zheng's backstory or something, and just fucked it up horribly by trying to "step up" the kind of plot they did for Jim. In which case the whole thing will be awkwardly dropped but damage is done. Otherwise, they actually thought they could just casually add a subplot like this because they've done something wildly stupid like think "pirate" is a genre on the same level as "workplace comedy" and can just trample in-universe coherency while you draw on other media to shore up their unsupported beats.

Bringing us to the most infuriating bit...

---

"...end the second season in a kinder spot."

If this was the goal, the entire season was written to work actively against it in way that is baffling and incompetent.

The really ironic thing is that the reason that the Act 2 part typically gets a downer ending is because of the evil empire that OFMD did not have to deal with until they pointlessly added it. A plot-driven story has an antagonistic force - a villain - that the heroes need to defeat. Something external working against them. The story ends when they beat the thing, and it's not much of a climax if they do most of the defeating before you get there. Ergo, they have to be outmatched up to the climax. Ergo, the second part cannot end on them feeling pretty comfortable and confident going into the third.

The same rules do not apply in the same way to a character-driven arc.

We already established Edward and Stede declaring their love is not the end of the story. Nor, necessarily, is both of them confidently entering a relationship. Even once they've developed a bunch they will have to show that development by running into the kinds of problems that would have broken them up before and resolving them better.

David Jenkins keeps talking about this idea that S2 is getting a hopeful open ending and S3 will get into potential problems, and like... I don't see any reason why they couldn't have done that successfully. They didn't, but they could've.

If S2 grew them enough as characters and then had them agree to try again in the last minute of the finale, they absolutely could have had a kind and hopeful ending where you were confident they could do it. And then a potential S3 can show that. It's a bit rockier than they were counting on, but they have learned enough lessons to not break up. And then the overall plot can build to proposal (start of Act 3) and wedding (the romantic climax). It doesn't have to be a blow out fight to be emotionally cathartic.

(Hell, the main rockier bit that they overcome in the S3 Act 2 portions could be marriage baggage. I'm sure they both have some. It would work.)

In the same way focusing on our character's long term flaws and character-driven conflict makes an Act 1 "happy ending" more difficult, I suspect it makes an Act 2 "happy ending" easier.

Instead they wrote an Act 2 that failed to convincingly start development and got confused on its direction, and then presented a rushed finale ending in a copy of the predictable disaster from S1 as though it's a good thing. They yanked the story at least temporarily into an awkward place where a romcom is trying to sell me on a bunch of serious drama / adventure beats that it has not put the work into, and inviting comparisons to better versions of those same beats in other, more suited media that make it look worse. The need to portray everyone as reaching happy closure overrules sitting with a major character death and using it for any narrative significance, while still letting it overshadow those happy endings because a romcom just sloppily killed a major character with a wound they've literally looked into the camera and said was harmless.

If I'm being entirely honest, Dead Man's Chest ends effectively at Jack Sparrow's funeral and then cuts to the British Navy obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, and it still feels kinder and more hopeful just because I leave with more faith the characters are actively capable of and working toward solving their problems.

OFMD S2, in contrast, has half-convinced me our main couple would live in a mutually obsessed, miscommunication-ridden horror story until they die.

---

Additional Reading

Normally I link stuff like this in the post, but that requires more excitement than I'm feeling right now. Here's my alternative:

Where I thought they were going with Edward - really outlines the mountain of character development they still have unaddressed

Where I thought they were going with Izzy - touches on a lot of themes that might be dead in the water & also context that's still probably relevant to why Izzy got a lot of focus in S2

My scattershot 2x08 reactions

An ask where I sketched out the bones of this argument, and another where I was mostly venting about the fandom response

This one, this other one, and this last one (read the link in op's post too) about genre shifts and failure to pull them off

The trauma goes in the box but it never opens back up - the whole point of Act 2 is that they needed to start opening shit like that - and also they focus so much on needed character growth and so little on following through

They can't even carry through on character growth that we got last season???

Why Izzy's death feels like Bury Your Gays ran smack into shitty writing

EDIT: Oh and this post is REALLY good for outlining the lack of change in way less words than I did

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #three act structure #character arcs #blackbonnet #genre #blackbeard ofmd #stede bonnet ofmd #my meta #ladyluscinia #ofmd critical

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devildom-moss · 7 months

Text

Mephisto's performance

(Mephisto x gn!MC)

(NSFW) (angst) (NSFW tags: very slight dom!top!Mephisto and bottom!MC; "office" sex, semi-public/risky, no condom, creampie, hate-fucking, "use me" dynamic, consent - but with a lot of regret so maybe dubious?, slight degradation with backhanded praise, Mephisto calling MC a whore and a slut, so slutshaming, pain, slapping, fingering light bondage, half-clothed, no orgasm for MC sorry)

(other tags: religious undertones, one-sided enemies to ?who knows?, sad/bittersweet ending)

Word Count: +2,200

To say you admired Mephistopheles was an understatement; you were absolutely smitten. Granted, he had a reputation for being a pompous asshole whose presence left a bitter taste in Lucifer’s mouth – the same mouth that warned you about spending time with the likes of Mephisto and questioned your recent attention to “a demon whose attitude and pride might be excusable if it was offset by actual wit and usefulness.”

Clearly, Lucifer either hadn’t seen the version of Mephisto that you had – the small slips in his bitter façade – or he had, and Lucifer simply refused to acknowledge it. You didn’t care what anyone else said about Mephisto. He had watched over Luke when he fell asleep in common places multiple times. As much as he protested, when you really needed him, he offered his assistance in whatever form he could – especially when it would aid Diavolo. If nothing else, Lucifer should have remembered that Mephisto was right there with Diavolo and Barbatos, tending to him and his brothers on the day they fell. You knew better. Mephisto was sweet.

He was adorable. You remembered the precious smile he had on his face while staring up at the new blossoms forming on the trees one early morning. It wasn’t the only time you had caught his face softening, entranced by some natural beauty. Mephisto still blushed when you would pay him a genuine compliment, covering his mouth with a gloved hand.

Sweet. Adorable. And so, so sexy.

Lust and affection had motivated you to pay Mephisto a visit in the RAD Newspaper Club room – another attempt to get on his good side. This time, you brought gifts to appease the bitter old demon: hot coffee and sweets that you and Luke had baked yesterday. However, the second you walked through that door, Mephisto let out an annoyed sigh.

“Why are you bothering me?” he asked, sparing you a second glance – but not a third.

“I wanted to cheer you up,” you admitted, setting your offering on his desk. “Diavolo told me that he had seen you working nonstop in preparation for the upcoming event. I figured that might be why you’ve been frowning every time I’ve seen you all week. I brought you coffee and sweets that Luke and I made.”

Part of you had an inkling that Mephisto actually enjoyed your company more than he let on. Maybe you were just clinging to a deeply engraved hope that he wanted you. Maybe you read into signs of his kindness towards you. Perhaps wishful thinking turned a two-second glance – maybe even a judgmental glare – into a longing stare. You wanted to break through his defenses if he’d let you. Well, you had certainly broken something.

Your act of kindness pushed Mephisto over the edge, and he looked up from his work and raised his voice at you. “I have too much on my plate to keep drilling this into that thick, fucking skull of yours. I don’t like you, you won’t change my mind, and that pathetic hopeful look on your face infuriates me.”

You didn’t fully believe him – as desperate as that may sound. Perhaps it was selfish, but you didn’t want to leave him alone in that room.

Mephisto waited for you to turn around and walk away, but you didn’t budge. He sighed and got to his feet. “What? Why are you still here? Why are you bringing me things hours before any of your classes even start? What do you want?”

Most classes hadn’t started yet, but if you hadn’t arrived before everyone else, you wouldn’t have been able to see Mephisto alone. Barbatos had mentioned that Mephisto was an early riser in passing once, so you figured you would find him overworking himself that morning. As for what you wanted, you wished it was more obvious to him.

“I want you to love me,” you confessed. Mephisto circled his desk so he could sandwich you between himself and the desk, blocking your path to the exit.

“How do you want me to love you? With my boot on your neck? With my fingers buried inside of you? With my hips pressed against you? What do you want? How do you expect me to love you? I could ruin you, but love?”

You shuddered. Was this a rejection or an invitation? You forced the words, and they fell out in a clumsy mess. “I don’t expect it – you loving me. I just want it, but you could ruin me instead if you wanted.”

Mephisto’s eyes widened; he retreated slightly before narrowing his eyes. “What are you saying?”

“Use me – if you really can’t love me.” Shame burned in your cheeks, but you continued. You were determined to call his bluff. “Take out your anger and hatred on my body. Do whatever you want.”

Maybe he truly hated you. Maybe he would be disgusted by your offer. Maybe he would refuse because he did love you. Or maybe he would agree to use you – to ruin you – without a trace of affection. Even then, at least you would finally get to be with him for however long you could manage to be entertaining. The possibilities ran through your head, just quick enough to fill the brief moment before Mephisto responded.

“Turn around,” he demanded. His voice was cold. In truth, you hadn’t expected him to take you up on your offer. Your heart sank as you watched Mephisto remove his tie. A low, growling sigh left him when you remained immobile. He took your arm and forced you to turn. “You offered. So, do as you’re told.”

Your voice caught in your throat. Mephisto made quick work of knotting his tie around your wrists and up your forearms, binding them behind your back. Fear washed over your body as you felt Mephisto tug your pants and underwear down to your ankles. Was this really what you wanted?

Mephisto reached over you, pressing his chest firmly against your back as he did, and pulled a bottle of lube from his top desk drawer. You didn’t question why he had it there, but you did have a question for him: “Why are you using that on me?”

The answer was obvious, but you were begging for some kind of affection from him, wishing for the words “I don’t want to hurt you” to leave his lips with enough sweetness to sate you, but they didn’t come. Instead, Mephisto removed his glove; tugged on his tie, bringing you closer; and shoved his glove into your mouth to shut you up. You felt one cool, lubricated finger plunge into you – quickly followed by a second. You bit down on his glove as he began to stretch you out.

“To answer your question, I’d be in a world of trouble if anyone found out that I hurt you. Everyone seems to think that you’re so fucking precious. Besides,” Mephisto paused, using the last word to soften the spite in his voice before he continued, “you’ll feel better if I do this first.”

You couldn’t tell if he meant that you would feel better for him or if he wanted you to feel some kind of pleasure from this too, but you hoped. However, that hope wasn’t enough to ease the heavy aching in your chest. Even through the bits of pleasure you felt when Mephisto’s long fingers curled into your body, you knew that this wasn’t how you wanted it. That truth sat rancid in your gagged mouth – somehow more unsavory than anything. Even the realization that you would die (for good) one day was less distasteful than this.

It was almost a comfort when Mephisto pulled his fingers out. You heard his pants drop before he tugged you violently towards him. Your ass was flush against him. There was a filthy relief in knowing that he was hard. At least you had aroused him a bit, then, right? You wished you could have suppressed the dirty, joyous hope you felt. Maybe he wanted you just as badly.

Mephisto entered you slowly. It almost felt intimate: the way he ran his gloved hand through your hair before tugging at it, the way his lips found your neck before it was all teeth and marks, the way his hips rocked slowly into you before he stopped holding back. He almost made this feel like affection before the poison left his mouth between panting and groans. “Not so useless anymore, are you?”

How did he know exactly how to give you a gentle touch that left you hoping before he stripped it from you? He said he didn’t want anyone to know he hurt you, so of course he would figure out how to break your heart. At least that was a pain you could never show anyone. It would live in you – and he would be the only other person who knew that such a haunting beast was hiding inside.

You choked back tears as his thrusting picked up speed and intensity, forcing your thighs against his desk repeatedly with each buck of his hips. This was going to bruise. It was just enough to slosh some of the coffee out of the cup you had brought him earlier. A small puddle pooled towards the edge of the desk until it grazed your thigh, burning for a moment before all you could feel was a numb ache – a small punishment for your foolishness.

This time, you couldn’t hold back a groan. You had tried so hard to disguise any sign of pain or pleasure, but this was too much. Your muffled noise alerted Mephisto to the mess you had both made. It was a small one with no casualties. It hadn’t even reached any of his documents. The only thing left damaged was you, and yet Mephisto dragged you back by the tie around your arms, his cock still buried in you, with an angry, “fuck.”

Did he not want you to get hurt? No.

Mephisto tugged your hair up until you were standing upright – as upright as you could be when you were still impaled on him. He took his glove out of your mouth before he forcefully bent you over towards the edge of the desk. “Lick up the mess, whore.”

You did as he told you. The coffee was still hot, and it stung on your tongue, but you were distracted by a firm slap to your ass. When you managed to clean up the mess, Mephisto brought you upright again with a rough tug and shoved his glove back into your mouth.

“There’s a good little slut,” Mephisto chuckled before he continued to fuck you – even more violently than before. He called you good, at least.

You were choking back tears when he snaked his gloved hand tenderly around your neck. Mephisto used his index finger to guide your chin up. Staring at the ceiling, with your eyes to heaven, you felt that you owed something – someone – a prayer. You wanted to thank some god that Mephisto’s hand was there around your throat – as if the slight pressure was the only thing keeping the sobs and moans inside of you. No. It wasn’t a god that you were grateful to. It was Mephisto. Even as he used you for his amusement, your desire still burned. Your love blazed steadily. Through the pain and emptiness, you still adored him. How pathetic.

Even more pathetic was the contentment you felt as Mephisto sunk his teeth into your shoulder, muffling his moans as he came inside of you. He didn’t pleasure you enough for you to cum; you got the smallest taste of it, and somehow you were content.

Mephisto was quick to pull out of you and get his pants back up. You stood there, trying to reel yourself back into your body – too slowly for Mephisto’s liking. He tugged your pants and underwear back up for you. His glove slipped from your mouth and onto the floor as you attempted to protest with a feeble, “wait.”

His cum had already started to leak out, and the feeling of it sickened you – a shameful sickness. This felt awful and wrong and disgusting, but the most resentful part of you quietly wanted him to bend you back over his desk and fill you up all over again.

Mephisto pulled you in by his tie around your arms and leaned close to your ear. “Keep it in you. I want that sensation to stick with you all day and remind you how much I despise you. Now get out of my sight.”

You felt his tie slip from around your arms. Mephisto dragged you towards the door and shoved you out into the hallway. You heard the distinct sound of the door locking behind you.

Mephisto waited for your hesitant footsteps to fade away down the hall before he sunk his teeth into the back of his ungloved hand. Tears streamed down his face as he dropped to his knees on the floor. Had he finally given you a convincing performance – persuaded you to stay away from him?

In that dim room on a dark Devildom morning, on his knees, Mephisto felt that he owed something – someone – a prayer. Unsure if he was even allowed – or who would hear it – he prayed that he had finally shown you what a monster he was. The cruel, wicked beast he housed had spit its parasitic DNA into you and waited to consume you. He was a demon, with his hands clasped so tightly together that they trembled, brought to his knees. His prayer – half-confession – found no purchase. It lived only inside of him, and even you would never know. It was a small, lenient punishment.

#mephistopheles #gn!mc #spice tier #obey me #obey me mephistopheles #I hope all the mephisto lovers will like this one even though it's kind of messed up #I feel like I have done too much bottom MC stuff now but it was necessary for this one #enjoy a nice little mid-day snack #obey me smut #mephistopheles smut #mephistopheles x reader #mephistopheles x mc

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corinthianism · 3 months

Text

everything has changed | dean winchester (1)

pairing: dean winchester/f!reader additional tags: reverse isekai, fluff, crack, meet cute, slight angst

summary: once again, dean lands in the reality where he’s just a fictional character played by jensen ackles. it’s annoying the hell out of him and he just wants to go back home, until he doesn’t.

masterlist | next chapter | ao3

CHAPTER ONE: A SIMPLE NAME

Today was supposed to be a normal day. It was your day off and you were on your way to check out a new shop that had opened downtown. They sold a bunch of fandom merchandise, which wasn’t special or anything, but you were hoping they had a nice keychain that you could clip onto your bag. The paint on your old green lightsaber keychain had flaked off, leaving behind an ugly gray rod of steel instead of Luke Skywalker’s iconic weapon.

The shop wasn’t far; in fact, you could’ve walked it, so you did. It was nice out today, and it was one of the rare opportunities you had to actually get out and get some sun, what with work eating up all of your hours. You’d barely made it a few blocks when you noticed a man lying face-down on the ground, his cheek smushed directly against the hot concrete.

You panicked, not sure if you should rush in and help or run away. Very far away. While you were busy in your own head, the guy in question rolled to his side, revealing a very familiar face.

No fucking way.

“Jensen Ackles?”

Jensen groaned, pushing himself up from the ground, “What’d you say, lady?”

You swallowed and repeated what you said, “You’re Jensen Ackles, right? The actor?”

The man in front of you was no doubt Jensen Ackles, from the green eyes to the freckles that were dusted all over his nose and cheeks. It’d been years since the media last heard about him; him and Jared Padalecki basically shut down Supernatural when they quit out of the blue, after Misha Collins was murdered. Their representatives all said the same thing: that they were just having a hard time mourning their friend and that they needed to take some time away from the limelight.

But neither of them came back or at least, no one had heard from them since. Until now, that is. And for some reason, Jensen was all dressed up as Dean.

“No, I’m… Goddamn,” he winced as he tried to stand up, clutching his side with one hand. When you approached him to help him get up, you saw the crimson liquid that oozed from underneath his clothes and all over his hand. “I’m… I’m fine, lady, don’t worry about it.”

“Jesus Christ!” you staggered back at the sight of blood, the starstruck feeling suddenly replaced by shock. “You are not fine, dude, you need to go to a hospital!”

“No, I don’t,” his voice was gruff, more so than when you heard him in person the last time there was a Supernatural convention. That was years ago, back when you were still in braces and listening to Panic! at the Disco. Now, he sported a somewhat-noticeable Midwestern accent and asked you question after question that you weren’t really processing, all while keeping a mostly straight face despite his heavily bleeding wound. He spoke again, “What year is it?”

The question was odd enough to finally snap you out of staring at the bloodied patch on his jacket and out of your inevitable freak-out, “What?”

“I said,” he planted his feet firmly on the ground. “What year is it?”

“It’s… 2024?” you raised a brow, but your primary concern was getting him somewhere safe so he could be patched up. “Sir, I think you need to get some help.”

He fully ignored you, opting to instead frantically look around and march away to God-knows-where. You weren’t sure what to do except follow him, worried that the wound on his side was much worse than it looked. Judging from how much blood there was, it had to be deep. Probably a stab wound.

You really didn’t wanna think about it.

Following Jensen led you to a newspaper and tabloid stand, with him haphazardly flicking through today’s newspaper to find whatever it was he needed to find. You debated on whether or not you were gonna call 911 because of the wound, but he seemed entirely unaffected, or if he was, he did a good job of not showing it.

You both just stood there for a few minutes, and you couldn’t help but notice how he became more aggravated the more he read through the papers.

“Um, sir?” you cleared your throat, trying desperately to calm the panic rising in your chest.

He didn’t listen.

“Mr. Ackles… can—” you took a deep breath, “—can you please calm down and tell me what’s going on? Sir?”

He only frowned even more, clenching his jaw as he tried to absorb the words on the pages, instead of listening to you. Christ, this man was stubborn. Not at all what you thought he’d be. Then again, celebrities weren’t your friends.

You were getting frustrated, too. Then, an idea struck. You weren’t sure if it was going to work, it was stupid as hell, but you had to try.

“Dean?” you said the name softly.

He finally looked at you, though in all honesty, it was more like a side-eye. But it was something, so you kept going.

“Dean,” the name felt weird on your tongue as you repeated it. You were calling an actor by his character’s name. Who does that? “Can you please tell me what’s going on? I only want to help.”

“Sweetheart,” he gave you this big charming smile which you could only assume was a bit mocking.

“Dean…” you returned the favor, saying his name as sweetly as you could but the pettiness in your tone vanished as soon as you saw him wince again in pain. It would’ve been easier to let him go and to just go home, but you couldn’t leave him alone like this. He didn’t seem to have a car or even a working phone. “You’re clearly hurt. Please, just let me help.”

He let out a sigh of defeat, accepting that yes, maybe he needed some help, “If you want to help… where’s the nearest burger joint? And do you have a first aid kit?”

So there you were, sharing a burger with Jensen Ackles, except he only answered to the name Dean. You led him to a small diner, which was becoming increasingly rare in the area. The sign outside spelled out SMITH’S BREAKFAST DINER in a retro font, though the lights didn’t work anymore. The place had been operating since the late 80s, and never really got around to keeping up with the trends. Regardless, you kept coming back. They had good food, good music, and Suzanne always called you “darlin’” in a sweet Southern accent every time you came in for a quick bite.

You chewed your burger slowly, your mind wandering to the crazy possibility that you were actually sitting in front of Dean Winchester, not Jensen Ackles. If that was the case, you hoped the diner would bring him some comfort. From what you saw in the show, him and Sam always frequented places like these. The thought that he might actually be the character and not the actor was still so insane, to the point where you couldn’t even really enjoy your food like you normally would.

He was also munching on his burger, shamelessly groaning in delight. His eyes were even closed… which was definitely a good thing because you’d been staring at him the whole time. It took him less than two minutes to chow the whole thing down.

You knew some people who’d met Jensen at conventions, back when those were still a thing. They always said he was nice and considerate, and all that. Or that he smelled nice. Sitting here in front of him, there was only one thing that was stuck in your head.

This man, whoever he was, Jensen or Dean… he was incredibly attractive. But that wasn’t the point.

The point was, he looked like he needed help and honestly? You didn’t really know why you wanted to help. Perhaps you just had nothing better to do. Maybe it was something deeper than that. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have “saved a celebrity” on your resumé.

“Dean” took a big gulp of the Coca-Cola in front of him, letting out a refreshed sigh. Then, without warning, he pulled out whatever was lodged in his side. The suddenness of his movement, combined with his pained groan, startled you. A few of the other patrons of the diner cast confused looks your way, which you tried to play off with a nervous smile.

A sharp clunk caught your attention and when you looked back at the table, there was a bloody shard of glass right next to your iced tea.

“What the fuck?!” you whisper-yelled, quickly covering up the glass with some napkins before someone else could see it. You turned your attention back to “Dean”, who was taking a few breaths to calm himself down as he began discretely disinfecting his wound. You wanted to be mad, you really wanted to, but your fourteen year old self would scream at you if you did not help this man. And the way he flinched every now and then as the hydrogen peroxide pricked at his wound certainly earned him some pity points.

“So… uh, do I really call you Dean?” you started lamely instead of reprimanding him for his callousness, still trying to wrap your head around the possibility that this might really be Dean Winchester. “Like the guy from Supernatural?”

He groaned at the mention of Supernatural, briefly stopping his movements to cast an unimpressed look at you, “Yes, you call me Dean, ‘cause it’s my name, lady.”

You steeled yourself as he went back to treating his wound, “Yeah, well, you don’t have to be a dick about it.”

Dean stopped again, his brows relaxing into a more neutral yet somber expression, as if you’d just hit him with a sobering truth, “...Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”

The two of you simmered in an awkward silence for a few moments.

“I just want to help,” you spoke first, trying your best to convey your sincerity to him, “but if you are who I think you are then I understand why you might be hesitant to clue me in on what’s going on.”

“And who do you think I am, exactly?” he spared you an intrigued glance, unflinching as the needle pierced his skin.

You popped a fry in your month, chewing slowly as you eyed him up and down, “Well, I doubt Jensen Ackles would get himself injured like that and walk around in broad daylight where the paparazzi could see him and say all sorts of things. Dean Winchester, on the other hand…”

He shifted in his seat to fully face you, a smirk playing across his lips.

“So what? You’re just gonna believe that I'm Dean Winchester?” he raised a brow, squinting his eyes at you accusingly as if to test you. You had to give it to him, it made you waver in your belief, but you stayed firm.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” you offered with a small smile, feeling that the quote described your thought process pretty well. It made you feel smart in the moment, even if you knew full well that it was your teenage self’s delusions resurfacing.

He nodded in understanding and laughed, “Ha! Nice Velma quote.”

You were the one to raise a brow this time, “It’s a Sherlock quote.”

“Oh,” his smile faltered. He cleared his throat, avoiding your gaze out of embarrassment, “...Yeah. Yeah, I knew that. Totally.”

You held in your laughter, biting your lip as you watched the faintest blush spread across his freckled cheeks. The moment sizzled out after a while, leaving you two in a semi-comfortable silence. You noticed how guarded he was, sneaking a glance at you every now and then as he patched up his wound. You understood why; he didn’t wanna be vulnerable in a room where it was only the two of you, so as weird as it was to have a man bleeding out in a breakfast diner, it was still much safer.

It wasn’t like he was the only one with doubts. For all you know, Jensen Ackles had just gone crazy after Misha Collins died. Same thing might’ve happened to Jared Padalecki. You still wondered what on Earth happened to them, but there was something about the man in front of you that made you feel safe. Your first instinct was to trust him, and that had never happened before. It scared you.

Whatever it was, you just had to give this a shot. Maybe it was the feeling that this whole thing was a lot bigger than you could’ve ever imagined.

“What will you do after this?” you asked him, eyeing the needle in his hand.

The question seemed to upset him, even if he was trying his best to hide it. Something shifted in his gaze, his resolve seemingly faltering for a split second. It only intrigued you even more, getting caught up in his every little move like he was a movie you’ve never seen before.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” he offered you a tight-lipped smile, finishing off the stitch with a secured knot, “I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

That answer didn’t make you feel any better. Then, something clicked into place.

When Misha Collins was murdered a few years ago, a “script” for Supernatural was leaked by someone on Tumblr. It spread like wildfire then and you remembered the amount of hate comments the poster got. People assumed it was a weird fanfic to explain how Misha died since the case was never solved and for the longest time, people just stuck with that. A chill ran down your spine as you tried to recall what was in that leaked script.

Sam and Dean were sent to the “real” world by Balthazar using a spell. They were being chased by some angel whose name you couldn’t remember. Misha was killed while the brothers ran away from the angel. You racked your brain to figure out the last piece of the puzzle.

“Wait…” you started, doubt blocking you from saying the rest of the sentence. It was crazy, fucking insane, but if your Supernatural knowledge was as solid as you thought it was, then there was only one explanation for his sudden but subtle change in demeanor. “Please don’t tell me you’re stuck here.”

The frown on his face told you everything you needed to know. He was stuck here until someone from his home universe managed to bring him back.

“Oh my fucking god.”

He chuckled, “Right on the money there, sweetheart.”

“I shouldn’t be believing you just like that. Why am I believing you? You’re not real. I’m going crazy,” you said out loud, half of it going towards yourself and the other half going towards him. “Monsters aren’t real. Hunters aren’t a thing—”

He frowned, “Hey, I know we got off to a bad start but you can’t just be saying that I’m not real.”

“Prove it to me, then,” you hardened your gaze. “Prove to me that you’re Dean Winchester.”

“What?”

“You heard what I said.”

“Dean” sighed, shifting in his seat so that he was sitting a bit more upright and was fully facing you. Then, he tugged down on the collar of his shirt, revealing a very real anti-possession tattoo on his chest. It was blurred around the edges a little bit, having faded with time. A small gasp left your lips as you took it all in.

“That’s…” you looked back up at “Dean” and for the first time, you noticed how much older he was compared to the last time you saw him. Or the last time you saw Jensen Ackles. His wrinkles were deeper, his eyes more tired. There were a few tiny scars littered across his face, nearly invisible if you weren’t watching them so closely. His mousy brown hair had a few grey strands that poked out, as well as some grey peppered around his clean five ‘o clock shadow.

He chuckled once he saw your shocked expression, tapping on the tattoo, “Yeah. Got this bad boy in 2007. Probably saved my ass more times than I can count.”

“What do I even say to that?” you stared at him dumbly.

He realized that you were right. As weird as it was for him to be in a world without monsters and magic, it was probably weirder for you to find out that the world from a TV show was real. He smacked his lips and avoided your gaze, “Um. Yeah. Weird, I know.”

“Weirder than weird, dude,” you sighed, wiping your face with your hands. “I mean, I wanna help, but how the hell am I supposed to help you? You fight like… demons and vampires and stuff. I work from home! On my laptop!”

He looked back at you, smiling awkwardly as you had a mini-existential crisis, “I just, um… Do you have some cash? I got like, twenty bucks in my wallet right now. I just need to get to a motel and you’re never gonna have to see me again.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best way to console a woman in the middle of an existential crisis, but to be fair, the sooner he was gone, the sooner you could get back to your life.

He put back all of the stuff he used from your first aid kit back into its bag, pushing it towards you as he wiped his hands clean with a tissue. He called for Suzanne with a smile, his charm dialed up to a hundred, “Hey, sweetheart, can you pack this up for me? Thanks.”

“Oh, sure thing, sugar,” she beamed at him, before leaning towards you to not-so-quietly whisper, “You done good, hon. Your date right here is such a looker!”

Dean only chuckled lightheartedly at her comment. Suzanne sashayed away with a satisfied giggle, and you had to fight the urge to explode right then and there. You couldn’t believe what was happening to you right now.

You mustered up the courage to speak again, “He shot you a curious look, “What?”

“I…” you deflated. “You can stay at my place. I’m sure I have some clothes there that can fit you.”

“Sweetheart, I appreciate the offer but it’s not safe. Something could’ve come back with me, for all I know,” he leaned back against the faux leather. “I don’t wanna lead it right to you.”

“You’ll keep me safe,” you affirmed, moreso to yourself than to him. “And I’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re comfortable and fed and not in a motel in the middle of nowhere. You don’t have your brother with you.”

He nearly forgot that you knew a lot about him because of Supernatural, scoffing a bit at your words, “What am I? A child?”

“No, you’re a hunter and I’m not,” you reminded him. “I can’t fight against anything that decides to break into my home, but you can. It’s not just about you, I already shot myself in the foot by staying with you this long. Granted, I thought you were some actor who’d gone crazy but—”

“I get it, I get it,” he took a deep breath in, cutting you off. He processed your words, feeling a sense of protectiveness wash over him. It was still risky, yeah, but he couldn’t think of a counterargument. You were right, you were a civilian and if there was something that came after you, it was unlikely you’d survive. “Okay then. You got a deal then, lady.”

You couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, “Well then, I guess we’re roommates, Winchester.”

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

author's note: and that concludes the first chapter of everything has changed! unlike last kiss, i won't be publishing all the chapters all in one go (since i'm still writing them), so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! of course, reblogs are much always appreciated. see y'all for chapter two <3 p.s. should i start a taglist? let me know as well!

#dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #fem reader #supernatural #reader insert #supernatural fanfic #spn #spn fanfic #jensen ackles

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empressgeekt · 7 months

Text

batfam meets the justice league fic idea, where Nightwing convinces the JL that the batfam is the last of the race Gotham bat demons...

made on moble so sorry in advance.

Okay so it starts with Batwoman and Nightwing hanging around the watchtower. Eventually someone (most likely either hal or barry) asks how they are related to batman. Batwoman claims to be his sister, and Nightwing obviously says he's his son. When the question of who Nightwing's mom comes up (along with some of the league thinking that Nightwing was an accident, cause they can't see bats settling down), Batwoman simply says, "he doesn't have one."

The convo sudden shifts to the topic of the 'history' and 'biology' of the bat demon race. How they were nearly eradicated by a war with the Amazon's, and Atlantis, only a few really surviving and finding refuge in the caves below Gotham. Hwo they used ancient forgotten magic to remove all memories of this 'war' to keep themselves save. And finally how they reproduce asexually, by reviving the souls of children who were wrongfully killed. Taking the weak dead spirit and carrying them in their own soul until it could put itself back together.

When asked if this was how Nightwing was born, they confirm it.

BW: oh yeah. Actually 'wing was kind of a surprise you could say.

Hal: surprise?

N: YEP! You see I was kinda of dad's first so he really didn't know what he was doing...

BW: and it ended with bossy big brother screaming his head off in an emergence of a batling that he didn't know he was carrying.

Barry: screaming his head off?

N: oh...well the process of soul splitting, emergence, rebirth, whatever you want to call it, includes the host's soul breaking down enough to allow the younger newly revived soul to detach. It's very painful, So I've heard.

BW; so you've heard? Kid please I know you've heard your father when it came to your siblings rebirth.

Needless to say everyone (especially hal and barry), look at Batman the same way for the next few days.

when Bruce confronts his son and cousin, he honestly can't say he hates the idea. UT would throw off any suspicions sound hus true identity. Not mention give him a new way to mess with hal.

The rest of the batfam (let's say standard webcomic cast, with Terry and Matty McGinnis [time traveled/dimensionhopped], along with flashpoint!batman, because they deserve to be in the safe place rhay is the batfam too, for funies), also find this cover story hilarious, and spend all of dinner adding to the bat-demon mythos.

Thomas would've been the last surviving member of the demon army, who retreated and sought refuge in Gotham, along with his human turned immortal companion of Alfred. Bruce, Kate, and Luke (batwing) would his 'children'.

The normal children would all still be Bruce's. Inculding spoiler, as why she claims she isn't Bruce's daughter, she isn't passing up the chance to mess with the JL.

Eventually the idea gets suggested that they should trick the JL into believing that Batman is pregnant with a new batling. The prank idea slowly snowballs from there and Bruce is unable to stop it. So he agrees to join in, ans rhe prank planninf begins. Matty immediately volunteers to be the new batling, because he technically the youngest and doesn't have a vigilante alter ego yet.

The prank starts out slow. Batwoman and Nightwing increase their visits to the watchtower? Specially when batman is there and they are usually in the same room as him.

Bruce pretends to be more tired often, even pretending to take a nap, where the JL can find him. He also fakes head aches.

Eventually Clark asks him if he's alright. And Nightwing responds with

N: of course he's not. He's working too hard.

B: Nightwing...

N: there's a reason me and aunt BW following you, and it's so you don't over do it!

B: nightwing...

N: even grandfather is worried.

B: Nightwing. I have been through this 8 times already. I think I know my limits. Besides your grandfather has always been worried over the thought of a new spawn in the house.

Clark: !!!!

Once more things around batman grow awkward for the next few weeks.

The end of the fic would be the JL visiting the "bat domain" to meet Matty dressed up in a mask and brightly colored suit. And finding out about the literal small army that batman's been building. Not to mention cameo of Thomas in his bat suit scaring the living crap out if the justice league, and having the time of his life.

Edit: Alright its official, this is going to be my holiday special for this year. So, around Christmas time I'll post a link so yall can read this.

Edit 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51963331/chapters/131402920

Happy holidays! hears and early present!

#justice league #batfamily #humor #crack fic #Justice league meets batfamily #batfam #batdad #batkids #I don't know why my brain came up with this #thomas wayne #terry mcginnis #matt mcginnis #flashpoint batman #Let these guys be a happy family that enjoys screwing with their dads coworkers

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to-thelakes · 2 months

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Luke confessing his love for reader during a screaming match/fight after confronting an unsub went wrong and reader being confused as to why he's telling them that now

faltered

pairing; luke alvez x fem!reader

summary; after you put yourself at risk, once again, luke finally snaps but the argument doesn't go in the way you expect.

warnings; fluff, angst, love-confession, happy ending, not proof-read

notes; is this proof-read? hell nah, is it good? honestly, anyone's guess, i am so so so so so bad at writing characters being angry because i just... honestly forgive people WAY too easy and i can't stay mad at people for long. i can probably count on one hand the amount of times i've actually been mad so this was a little experiment for me. and honestly, this little request/ask/whatever had me inspired and i wrote the dialogue last night and then finished it today so here is my little drabble/1.3k word one-shot about this scenario

“What the hell were you thinking!” Luke raged as he closed the hotel door behind him. You clenched your jaw, turning back to glare at him. You couldn’t believe this.

“I saved her life!” You snapped back as you looked up at him. He scoffed, throwing his hand up to gesture at your wound.

“Look at your face! You put yourself in the line of fire unnecessarily,” He argued back. You stared at him, in complete disbelief.

“I did what I thought was right,” You said, voice still loud but not quite shouting at him this time. You could feel the rage bubbling and you felt guilty enough that you didn’t need Luke shouting at you like your cheek hadn’t been slashed open.

“You knew that wasn’t the right call,” He responded, crossing his arms over his chest. You turned around briefly but his words stopped you in your step. You turned to face him.

“I had to do something!” You raged, anger jumping back to the surface within seconds.

“And letting the Unsub get you was the way of doing that, huh?” He questioned, venom lacing his tone. He couldn’t believe you had been so reckless and you didn’t understand why Luke cared so much.

“Yeah! I needed her to get away and if that meant I got hurt, oh well because she’s alive!” You argued, throwing your arm out as you spoke. Luke shook his head, disbelieving.

“No, we had a plan. You put that plan in jeopardy!” His voice raised at the last word, anger morphing his features. It would have bothered you if you weren’t equally as fired up, “If JJ hadn’t been there, you’d both be dead!”

“JJ was there, Luke. So, don’t give me this shit!” You shouted back before you turned around and grabbed your to-go bag. You wanted to get back to the team. You weren’t even sure why you let Luke come with you. Maybe you thought he’d be a comfort but he wasn’t. Of course, he wasn’t. You should have known.

“And what if she hadn’t been, huh?” He asked, voice levelling out as he stepped towards you. His arms still crossed over his chest.

“It doesn’t matter,” You retorted as you glanced over your shoulder. You were stuffing your clothes into the bag haphazardly, hoping that you could just leave this alone. But Luke wasn’t willing to give up it seemed.

“Yes, it does!” He practically shouted and you threw your last piece of clothing into the bag before you whirled on him.

“Why! Why does it matter so fucking much?” You were at your wit’s end with him. You were in pain, you were upset and you didn’t need this, “I’m alive, I’m here, I’m part of the team still! Prentiss isn’t mad at me so what gives you the right!” You were shouting again, rage bubbling over as you stepped towards him. You met his gaze defiantly.

“Because I love you!” He shouted back and you fell silent. Luke’s face suddenly morphed from anger to regret and he stepped back. You just stared, the silence permeating between the two of you. You didn’t know what to say. You were speechless and you just stared.

“What?” You asked softly. All the anger had flooded out of you like the plug pulled out of sink and all that was left in its wake was confusion.

“You put yourself in the line of fire, again,” He tried to swerve away from his confession, ignore it. He tried to go back to what the argument had been about but you cut him off;

“Luke,” You tried to say something but you words seemed to falter. He looked at you for a moment and you opened your mouth before you frowned, “What do-?” You wrapped your arm around yourself, stepping back from him.

“You-” Luke faltered for a moment before he tried to inject the anger into his tone, “That is the second time you’ve put yourself in the line of fire. You can’t-” But the anger seemed to falter again. You were looking at him with an expression he couldn’t read and his words hung heavy on his tongue. Your mind was whirring with thoughts and you were trying to pick them apart, make sense of something.

“Why would you say that now?” You asked. He had never heard your tone so soft and guilt reared its ugly head in his chest. But also, that familiar sting of rejection began to creep in.

“What? What do you mean?” He replied, frowning down at you. You sighed raggedly.

“You can’t just throw around a confession like that,” You mumbled. Luke stepped back again, his face fell and you wrapped your arms tighter around yourself. You didn’t know what to think. You had loved Luke for so long. That’s why you had trusted him to come with you to the room but this, this was unfair.

“I wasn’t trying to-” But you cut him off with a soft; “I know.” Realistically, you did know that he wasn’t trying to use it as a guilt trip but it still felt so cruel. Why couldn’t he have said it some other time? Why now?

“I don’t understand why you’re so reckless,” He said after a beat of silence. You scoffed.

“It’s not recklessness, it’s a calculated decision,” You responded, wanting to shut this argument down before it even started again. Your anger wasn’t clouding your thoughts anymore so you thought you might as well explain it to him, “I knew JJ was behind me. I knew she’d be able to catch him. We had the profile wrong and I realised that. I didn’t have a choice. He was about to kill her.” Your gut twisted as you held yourself tighter. The sting of the knife against your cheek was still so fresh to you. You were lucky.

“And you got hurt,” He responded. You shrugged.

“But we’re both alive and I’m not gonna apologise for doing what I thought was right.” You said simply. He nodded and he stepped towards you. It felt hard to swallow as you stared down at the floor, unable to meet his gaze.

“I don’t expect you to,” His words were a simple reassurance but it made you feel a little lighter. You sent him an awkward half-smile, mumbling;

“Good.” There was silence for a few beats before you took a deep breath. You just had to say it, “But for what it’s worth, I think I love you too.” It was Luke’s turn to be silent this time and he stepped towards you. There was quiet for a moment and you chanced a look up at him. The frown had been replaced with a cheeky smile and you rolled your eyes at him, turning to look away.

“Huh,” He let out, the smile turning into a smirk as he stepped towards you. He wrapped his arms around your waist tugging you closer and you let him. Your arms wrapped around his neck as you looked up at him.

You knew what he intended to do and you were quick to put your finger against his lips, stopping him from leaning any further, “Don’t even think about it, Alvez. Take me on a date first,” You stated. A grin began to spread across your face and you wished you could stop it but you couldn’t.

“Then let’s go out tonight,” He suggested. You hummed in thought before you nodded and pulled him against you.

“Okay,” You said. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face as he pulled you into a hug, holding you tightly, “As long as you kiss me goodnight,” You whispered against his skin. He chuckled and nodded his head against your hair.

“I can do that.”

#luke alvez x reader #luke alvez #luke alvez x you #luke alvez angst #luke alvez x reader angst #luke alvez fluff #luke alvez x reader fluff #reader-insert

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so-long-soldier-writes · 10 months

Text

drabble #3 - can’t help that i love you

kai parker x reader

summary: while you and kai aren't necessarily in a relationship, no one can ignore the way you are together. it started with kai's nightmares, bringing you to his side for nightly comfort. soon, gentle touches on his back led to full blown hugs and forehead kisses; simple conversation turned to long talks, and you're only getting closer every day. kai feels safe with you, and you're falling for him. maybe he's falling for you, too. this is why your "thing" needs to stop. right now.

tags: fluff, parker siblings meddling in your business, soft!kai

word count: 463

a/n: i have been totally MIA bc life has suddenly gotten so, so chaotic, and i feel awful that i haven't posted, and sad bc there's nothing i love more than writing, but here's a little gift (🫱🎁🫲) {*hands you gift*} in the meantime. 😘 ily all and i'm sorry for my absence. though I'm going on vacation next week, so hopefully time off work and life gives me time to write! (it's a family reunion {urghhh}, but i wake up at 5:30 and everyone else around 9, so i'll be tip-typing away!)

The moment you wake up, you feel a presence in the room with you. Flipping onto your back, you focus your eyes on one blurry, exasperated, Luke Parker. He speaks before you can even ask what he wants.

“This thing with Kai needs to stop.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. Your thing with him - whatever is it.”

You internally groan, knowing this day would come.

“You’re gay, right?”

“What?”

“Aren’t you gay?”

“Yeah, why?”

Without further question, you take off your top to reveal your bare chest, before putting on a bra and a new shirt. You slip on a pair of panties under your sheets, then proceed to walk around the room to find a pair of shorts to wear. Luke half-watches while trying to explain “your thing” with Kai, and why it “needs to stop.”

“-just, you’re in danger, and you’re putting other people in danger, too.”

Now dressed, you give him your full attention. “I’m pretty sure I’m one of the only people to ever give him any attention in his life, so how would that put me in danger?”

“Because he’s a sociopath and doesn’t know what to do with attention. The minute you take it away, you’re dead.”

“Well I’m not going to ‘take it away’.” He sighs, but you’re not finished. “Listen, Luke, I can’t stop feeling what I feel for him. And as long as I…” you pause, getting a taste of your words before saying them, and wondering if you should. Your eyes drop to the floor.

“As long as you…?”

Looking directly at him, you decide to admit it. “As long as I love him, everyone’s just a tad bit more safe now, don’t you think?”

Love. The word dances in the air above your heads.

Luke is speechless, and doesn’t even follow you out of the room. You pat his shoulder on the way out, giving him a small, victorious smile.

Unbeknownst to you, Kai heard the whole conversation. Right before you opened the door, he managed to sneak away unheard.

As soon as you come downstairs, brotherless, he surprises you by wrapping his arms around your waist. His head rests on your shoulder and a deep breath exhales his body.

“Hi, puppy,” you greet, kissing his head. “How are you?”

If it’s even possible, he melts even more. “Good,” he mutters.

“Good. Want some coffee? You can still hug me while I make it.”

A contented groan falls from his lips before he can stop it. Part of him expects you to push him away because of it, but instead you just pull him closer for another forehead kiss. As promised, you let him koala-style hug him during your whole coffee-making process. He’s never felt more at peace in his life than when he’s in your arms.

#malachai parker x reader #kai parker x reader #kai parker fluff #tvd fanfiction

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raffe156 · 1 year

Text

Breakaway state Part 1

Pairing - Price X Female OC “Tank”

Summary - The 141 is formed, Price and Tank can't get their shit together, bad timing, things go pop and we all hate the Dr.

A/N - Shorter but wanted to get something out, this arch is gonna hit hard (at least I hope)

Warnings - Angst. Language, Age gap Price (39) reader (25) Violence, Weapons war/fighting stuff basically injury, pregnancy mentions, medical stuff

I really appreciate all the recent feedback and asks! Please keep em coming! It only spurs me on haha

Tags: @irnbru32 @shuttlelauncher81 @mildlyhopeless @mentallynot-here @deadbranch @soapyghost @fluffysmiko @bangirl134 @mortallyscrumptiousmilkshake @boomtowngirl

If I've missed anyone, please let me know

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Call of duty characters - Only Tank, Luke, Dredd and Mckinley

Masterlist link here

_______________________________________

Kyle had belled your phone out for 2 days straight, but you didn’t know what to say to him. What could you say to him? You eventually had to answer him when his last voicemail threatened a call to your mum. Low blow Kyle.

“Hello?”

“Care to explain yourself?”

“What?”

“What do you mean what? Why did you leave? What the hell happened Tank?”

“Nothing Kyle, I just needed to head home early”

“Bullshit! I wake up Price looks like shit and I know he didn’t drink that much and your gone?Never seen Price look like that….he looked done in…what happened Tank?”

Price looked done in? He caused this, he made the call to stop whatever this was! You could feel your skin prickling now, you were getting angry.

“Kyle honestly nothing happened”

“Why are you lying to me? Was it to do with that Luke guy? Seen Price talking to him the morning you left, he didn’t look happy, he seemed a bit off with him in the pub too”

Oh god what had he said to Luke? You felt sick.

“Do you know what they were talking about?”

“Nahh couldn’t hear them…so it was to do with Luke?”

“No…well yeh Price took the funnies, saying he doesn’t know how it will work with me and him..”

“You and who? PRICE!? What?”

Shit.

“Noooo me and Luke! He doesn’t know how it will work between me and him, Luke thinks PRice is a Truck driver and I work in Logistics at the depot”

“Ohh right…oh I get what you mean now, thought you meant you and Price…”

You could hear the insinuation in his voice, Kyle wasn’t daft, but he played along for your sake.

“Anyway Ill see you soon…”

“Oh ok, il see you at base yeh?”

“Yeh, Thanks Kyle by the way don’t threaten me with calls to my mum you forget I have your mum’s number too”

“I wouldn’t have to make threats if you answers your dam phone! But you should call my mum she likes you better than me.”

********

It had been 2 weeks since the weekend away an 1 week at base. You had to get it together as your little squad of three now had two new members and the base was flooded with rookies from other teams. You recognised Simon or Ghost as he went by from years back when you were still a rookie yourself that and the obvious skull mask he wore. Johnny or ‘Soap’, however was a new face to you, not a bad looking one at that but you had a feeling he knew he was good-looking. He had watched you walk in with Kyle as if weighing you up and down. You could feel his eyes on you.

You had seen little of Price mainly because you were avoiding him. But that morning you had a training exercise an easy smash and grab two teams. You and a hand full of rookies had been paired with Ghost. Soap and Kyle the same.

Price shuffled a few papers about giving a quick glance round the room avoiding your line of sight. Kyle gave you a quick look he knew something still wasn’t right.

“Today is just a simple training exercise, so we can get a feel for each other's skill set see where we are at etc. A smash an grab job I’m sure your all familiar, so let’s not waste any time and gear up any questions?” He made his way out the door, not waiting for anyone to ask any.

You all exchanged looks an followed to the gear room.

*******

Ghost helped you with your tact vest, checking you over.

“All sorted kid” He slapped you on the back, nearly throwing your forward. You half smiled at Kyle, who was holding in a laugh, but then you noticed his eyes flick to something behind you and his expression changed. He rolled his eyes, that wasn’t like Kyle? You turned around. You wish you hadn’t instantly. Why? Why was she here? Why had he let her come here? Price was stood with Dr O’Brian, Helen. Was he taking the piss?

He had his hand on her cheek, giving her that eye-crinkling smile that would make any woman weak.

“John…enough Ill see you later tonight for dinner”

“No worries love, I'll see you then”

He placed a kiss on her other cheek, making her blush.

“Stop it you!” She faked a slap to his chest. The Rookies all burst out into wolf whistles and cheering. You stood still, your mouth dry, heart racing, anger crawling over your body, your jaw set tight, blood rushing in your ears, were you going red? Fuck.

Ghost brought you back down to earth.

“Tank? Are you ready?”

“Ye….yes…Yes Lieutenant!” You barked, taking him by surprise. You couldn’t look at Kyle, but you knew he was looking at you. You wanted the ground to swallow you whole.

The Training session started, but your mind was a storm cloud. He really hadn’t waited long had he? Bet she was round the next day! He probably didn’t even mean what he had said “It didn’t mean anything,it was a one-time thing!” One time thing my arse! Dickhead! You were raging, Soaps rookies didn’t stand a chance against you. They were simply in your way, God knows where Kyle was. Ghost was egging you on in your ear he was impressed, he hadn’t expected anything less from you however, he knew what you were capable of. You ploughed through them taking each room by storm your rookies struggling to keep up. As you came to the target room you headed in taking out two more rookies instructing yours to grab the main target.

“Slow down Tank, your getting too cocksure of yourself” Price had tuned into your channel. His voice an even tone.

Fuck you, you thought.

“With all due respect Captain, I know what I’m doing done enough smash an grabs to last me a lifetime”, you almost spat down the line, you caught a rookie looking at you as if you had gone mad.

No reply back. Just silence. Good. you thought that shut him up.

As you made sure the rookies had done their part, you made for the open window of the training house it was a 2 story abseil down. Easy you had done it hundreds of times. You wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. You motioned to go first attaching yourself to the line, but as you got about 8ft from the ground the line came away causing you to plummet the rest of the drop. The white-hot pain flooded your system. The wind knocked out of you you tried to claw your way onto your front, but your right shoulder wouldn’t support you, in fact it wouldn’t even move, you glanced over only to see it hanging down level with your chest, it had been dislocated. The pain was blinding, Ghost voice was in an out of your ear.

“Tank? What the fuck happened? Did you check the line before going down it?”

The line? The Line? As if you hadn’t checked the line, Price was going to love this. Fuck.

Kyle came into view as you felt yourself being scooped up from the floor mats.

“Kyle, slowly put her arm across her waist…eyes on me love” Ghost manoeuvred you so Kyle could do as instructed, as he did you let out a gut-churning scream. You would of rather taken a bullet again than this.

“Fuck sake Kyle!!!” You could feel the slight sting of tears. How pathetic you must of looked, cradled up crying in your Leuitants arms. Through your blurry vision, you spotted Price looking almost worried, but it must of been for only a split second as when your tears fell, clearing your sight he went back to looking pissed off. It took everything in Price not to take over you were in pain, he should be the one carrying you, consoling you not Ghost, but he had to take a backseat.

“Take her to see Dr.O’Brian…” He motioned Ghost to follow him.

No anything but that, you would rather Ghost try to pop it back in, shit you would rather be shot than see her, but you were in too much pain to even speak and as Ghost carried you to the med bay you wished you had just checked the line.

*********

“Oh deary me…what’s the matter with you?” Dr. O’Brian was rolling her eyes at you like you had scrapped your knee not pulled your shoulder out of its socket completely. Ghost answered for you like it was an actual question.

“Fell out a window, well abseiled down without checking the rig line…shoulders gone POP!” He even made a hand gesture.

“What you like? Not the first time you haven’t checked the rig, is it? John told me he always has to check your strapped in right” She glanced over at Price who was standing at the foot of the cot arms folded face stern. She was still talking to you like a child, you hated her sing-song voice. John told her? You wondered what else John had told her? Or better yet what he hadn’t told her…

“Anywho going to have to ask you a few routine questions before I can administer any strong pain relief I'm afraid, Keep on the gas and air while I do then we can give you the strong stuff”

You glupped on the air, taking it deep into your lungs and nodded.

“Okie dokie…On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being low 10 being extreme how would you rate your pain?”

You flared your nostrils was she being serious? Ghost answered for you again.

“Im gonna says she at a 10 Doc”

“Very well, are you taking any other medications?”

You shook your head.

“Any antidepressants or other pain relief?”

You took another deep drag of the gas and air shaking you head again.

“Any allergies?”

“Surely this in on file, Helen?” Price sighed he knew this was being dragged out, but he didnt know for who’s benefit.

“Let me check…. oh yeh it is, ok last few questions Tank…Are you Sexually active?” The room went silent, had she really just asked that? The bitch. You quickly glanced over at Price, who was looking at the ground. She had clocked it.

“Yes” you mumbled teeth clenched around the mouthpiece.

“Ok when was the last time you had sex?” Her face was like stone now, she was fishing for something, and you knew exactly what. So fuck it you thought, you’ll bite. You pretended to count in your head. Prices ear pricked up.

“A few weeks ago, maybe 3….” you took another big gulp of air as her eyes flashed she was doing the math in her head. She knew you were at Prices 3 weeks ago. Plenty of opportunities for you and him to go at it.

Price looked at you he knew you didn't mean him, so amused you meant Luke. Which was also not true. He looked slightly affected. Good. Let him think about that. Helen was writing down some notes on your chart, probably SLAG in big red letters!

“Ok last question, any chance you could be pregnant? Need to know before we give decide on what to give you” She had scrunched her face up into a fake smile, it was hideous.

“Nope, not pregnant, so can we get my shoulder popped back in and get me some strong pain relief?” You were getting lightheaded on the gas and air now and it was becoming harder to control your temper.

“Ok If you're sure you're not pregnant, we can give you some morphine, but you're going to have to go to the adjoining base as we don't have the supplies to pop it back in.”

Your eyes widened. She really was playing you now. Even Price was looking at her in disbelief.

“Fuckin hell Doc! All that an she still has to wait for transfer? Fuck that ere I'll pop it back in myself! Price hold her legs down” Ghost moved round to your shoulder as Helen jumped up.

“DON'T YOU DARE! I won't allow that! Not in my med bay you can drag her out and pop it back in elsewhere, but not in here!”

She had stepped in front of Ghost but had her eyes on Price, he was dead if he touched you. You and Ghost exchanged looks nodding in agreement. He stepped around her, leaning forward for you to place your good arm over his shoulder.

“Easy does it love, I'll carry you over my shoulder so you can dangle your arm, might be more comfortable, I'll get this popped back in no time.”

You took one last big drag of the gas and air, it had taken full effect now, you were still in pain, but your mind was swimming as Ghost lifted you over his shoulder, the tight grip of his huge hand on your inner thigh sent a shiver up your spine. He would destroy you, the guy was a mountain, but the thought still did laps in your brain. You let out a little giggle.

“You good love?” Ghost patted your backside with his other hand. It sent a shock through your system causing another chuckle you felt tipsy.

“Ready when you are L.T.” you were still giggling to yourself. O’Brian was in utter shock. Price was pinching the bright of his nose.

“Ghost, put her down…your not popping anything back in, she's going to the main wing, I'll call for transport…” He hadn’t even looked up. He couldn’t, seeing Ghost handling you like that wound him up, but he would never admit that.

“Noooooo fuck that Ghost don't you dare put me down, I want you…no in fact I demand you to pop it back in, let's do this battlefield style!” You were getting giddy now the gas and air making you a bit loopy. Ghost chuckled, patting your backside again. He could see the anger in Price’s eyes, he was still his Captain.

“Easy Love, think we are going to have to listen to the Captain on this one, but if we are ever out on the job and it happens again I’ll gladly sort you out” His words caused a little flurry in your stomach. What the hell?

“You can wait outside, take the Gas and air with you…” Helen was fuming she slammed the canister into Price.

“Wont she be better off lay down Helen while we wait?” Price was looking at her confused. She whipped her head back round.

“John she can lay, hang, sit, god she can even dangle from anywhere else other than in here I don't care…get the transport called for her to go to the other base” she handed him your tact vest an walked off. You were still on Ghost's shoulder, but could see him looking after her his brow furrowed, his lips slightly downturned. You felt a pang of guilt, deep down you still cared for him and your being here was making things difficult for both of you. You would never be able to go back to normal as it wasn’t even normal to begin with.

*******

“I'll see you when your back love” Ghost gave your leg a quick squeeze as they loaded you into the truck.

You knew he wouldn’t, you weren't coming back. It was a shame, Kyle would be fine…eventually, but you needed a change, you couldn't keep this up. You looked to Price, your eyes only meeting for a second, but it was enough, enough to cement your decision. You had both been kidding yourselves thinking this would work you were only hurting each other so you had to be the one to cut the rope that had you both hanging.

Price watched as they hooked you up to an IV, he had so many things he had wanted to say to you, one of them being sorry.

He decided he was going to have a talk with you when you got back, he wanted you to be happy he really did, but his pride had been hurt that night he saw you with Luke and he had turned to Helen to try and get you out of his head, but it had only buried you deeper.

There had been some truth in your words ‘how would it work between you and him?’ He reminded himself he was 15 years older and maybe you were better of with Luke he was closer in age to you at 32 and Helen to him at 38, but he didn't want to accept that and you needed to talk properly. Speaking of Helen he had seen a different side to her today and it didn't sit right with him, but maybe that was because of her attitude towards you. He couldn't help it, no matter how much you appeared to hate him he still wanted you by his side…it was where you belonged. As the van pulled away, he made his plan and you made yours.

*******

“Well I look forward to you joining us Tank, Squad 8 needs someone with your skill set and Dredd has told me your one of the best”

“Thank you Sir, I look forward to meeting the rest of the squad, it will be nice to work with Dredd again me and her go way back”

“I must say it was a surprise your transfer request coming across my desk? Straight from the top didnt even need approving from Price? Im sure the 141 will be losing a valuable asset…which im more than happy to take” Captain Mckinley winked as he reached over his desk to shake your hand.

“You sure Price won't miss you?”

“No…I'm sure he’ll manage Sir”

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ritens · 7 months

Text

[wf] Nothing Is As It Was 5. Spoonful of Sugar Makes The Poison Go Down

[previous] - 2.8k words

It’s been three weeks since Kyn and Lane’s stint through the resurfaced smelly shores of Earth, since the time drifter was last seen outside a warframe. He hasn’t been able to figure it out and whatever Kyn had suggested Lane try, has bore no fruit. The operator even attempted to push the drifter out of the frame with force but instead ended up controlling Lane as though he were an unoccupied warframe. Just like Kyn had already suspected. At this point they’re certain it’s not transference.

Though Lane has managed to break doors, vases, cups, chairs and even bulletproof glass, he appears to be an otherwise useless warframe with no abilities. He looks like a Limbo Prime but lacks the wit of one. It’s no surprise. He’s a stranger to the rift and the best he can do is use the improvised sword fighting techniques that he’s picked up in his foggy life. Luke has taken it upon himself to teach the drifter at least something regarding the potential that riftwalkers normally possess despite the drifter’s lack of mathematical understanding. In the end he seems to be best at wielding melee weapons. So Kyn and Luke made sure to provide him with a pair of Kronens and the Nepenthe Ogris for some ranged action.

Because of this Kyn had to bring Lane to an acquaintance’s Helminth to have the drifter slash warframe patched up. They had to take care of the hopefully temporary vessel no matter how inconvenient it may be. The injuries mattered.

It was a nightmare to get Lane to sit still in the chair. Confused, scared and unaware of his own strength he caused a lot of damage. All for nothing too, because the fix was so quick he didn’t even notice it.

—

“There should be a registry of some kind. A list of all the classes and pupils. We could start by asking Melica.” Luke narrates the course of action as they get out of their landing craft and onto the floating corpse of the Zariman Ten Zero.

One evening after Lane has gone to bed, Luke pulls Kyn out in the camp before their orbiter to put forward a previously untested idea - they should try and search for answers regarding the story of operator Lane on the Zariman. It could give them an idea on how to help the drifter with his current predicament, and perhaps, eventually reverse the change. Of course Kyn isn’t a big fan of this. Luke’s reasoning is sound, it makes sense. It’s just outside Kyn’s comfort zone.

The last time they wandered through the abandoned halls and classrooms of the Zariman they cleared up Kyn’s own questions. He was finally able to put the memory of his own parents to rest.

They had sent him on the ship alone on purpose and stayed behind themselves. And the whole time he thought they were around, just didn’t want to see him. He grew up resentful. Back then he didn’t understand why. He still doesn’t. What kind of monster sends their child alone to Tau? That failed and afterwards they still didn’t put in the effort to check if he’s even alive. No matter how he looks at the past, his parents still end up being pieces of shit in his eyes. Truth hurts.

Luke chuckles at that. “It’s not like we have anything else to do.”

Kyn follows his warframe, with hesitation in each step.

“This would take forever. There are so many tenno out there. So many classrooms.” he sighs, “Lane doesn’t exactly look unique either. He’s pale and has almost white hair. Many kids looked like him.”

Both of them walk up to the first cephalon console they see. Melica lights up when they come close enough. The cephalon immediately addresses Kyn and tells him to stay out of trouble. She lives in the past and still sees him as a pupil despite him being all grown up. This means that she’ll likely avoid giving him any background information on other ‘schoolmates’.

The Limbo Prime waits for his operator to walk next to him, then takes the other’s hand in his own. “I miss having a purpose. Try to think of this as a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle. There’s a pretty picture to be revealed.”

“How do you know it’s pretty?” Kyn looks into Luke’s glossy blue orb. He sees his own reflection staring back at him and pulls his hand out of Luke’s grasp. “How do you know none of the pieces are missing?”

“I don’t. But we’ll find that out. We don’t necessarily need the whole picture, just enough to understand what’s going on.” Luke blinks his imitation of an eye and Kyn turns away to hide a hint of a smile. Luke has always been good at convincing him.

Luke pats him on the shoulder and speaks up. “Cephalon. How many students by the name of Lane are aboard the ship?”

“Greetings, director of advanced biomechanics development unit 3. There are 57 Lanes on the Zariman.” Melica responds.

“Oh that’s less than I expecte- DIRECTOR?” Kyn stares at Luke in disbelief. “I thought you were a mere volunteer with a slight background in biology??”

Operator and his warframe exchange looks at that. Both of them are thinking the same thing. Lane is not their guest’s original name.

“Hush.” Luke waves Kyn away and continues interrogating the cephalon. “Do you have full body scans? How many of them have heterochromia and three moles on their left cheek?”

Melica’s light dims for a moment as she runs through her data. “There are no Lanes whose appearance would match your inquiry.”

“That makes things a bit more complicated.” Kyn crosses his arms thoughtfully. “Maybe try asking how many students share physical details with him. I hadn’t thought of the moles myself.”

Luke nods. “He has a couple scars on his upper body from what I saw during our first meeting but those are unreliable and likely timeline specific.”

“Cephalon. Same details but black hair.” Luke makes another order. Kyn raises his fake eyebrows at that. Smart. The warframe variant of Lane has a black ponytail. Maybe there’s more to that.

The warframe turns back to the cephalon. “How many students have blue and green heterochromia, three moles on their left cheek, one on their right, white to grey hair.”

“Apologies, director. There are no matches.” Melica responds quicker than anticipated this time.

Melica runs through data once more and then lights up with a promising response. “There are two students whose appearance matches your inquiry.”

“Names.” Luke’s tone remains commanding.

“Leander Coeth and Elna Warren.” Melica states as well as provides a helpful hologram of the two students. Kyn feels like a rock has been shoved down his throat upon hearing the name of one of the two pupils.

“Cephalon, coordinates to Leander Coeth’s dormizone.” Luke intends to inquire Kyn about what went down between the two tenno later.

“How could I miss this. The eyes and the strange curls of hair. Leander is Lane. We were classmates.” Kyn frowns.

Luke turns to Kyn. His operator sports an aura of discomfort. “One of the kids you bullied?”

Kyn nods. “The one I singled out. It’s complicated.”

—

The dormizone is a ransacked mess and provides no meaningful information for the two investigators to collect.

“I remember Lane lived together with his cousin and her parents. He had no family of his own.” Kyn ponders out loud while rummaging through some trash in a desk drawer. He briefly stops to look at a couple half-decent drawings of kavats and other creatures. He and Lane shared similar hobbies it seems. Art has always been a passion of Kyn’s.

“What’s the cousin’s name? Maybe we can find her and learn more about the fate of operator Lane that way?” Luke suggests. He’s not particularly interested in going through the junk in the dormizone and instead has opted to stand guard by leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

“Yeah. And they were probably teenagers. Unless they weren’t put into stasis for whatever reason.” Kyn furrows his brows in barely contained disgust. He closes the drawer he was going through and presses his hands onto the surface of the desk.

“About that… I realised something about the locket I picked up from the cave under the truck where we found warframe Lane’s body.” Kyn turns to face the slacking warframe. “It has an old picture of the cousin in it. Kadden Ria in her Zariman getup.”

Luke blinks. “Oh… Nurse Ria of the Temerarious clan. That’s… less than ideal. So both of them were turned into warframes. And both died in the same war.”

Both go quiet for a moment. Then suddenly they get up and straighten themselves out as if their minds got linked. Both have the same question in mind.

“Are there records of the tenno who slept on Lua?”

—

There are. And they found no mention of Ria nor Lane in them. So the two were either taken in as volunteers in the warframe infestation manipulation project shortly before the time the tenno were placed in their pods. Or maybe turning Lane and Ria was some kind of a last ditch effort during or after the fact. If only Luke was able to remember his life before he was turned. They may be investigating Lane right now but taking his chances with Melica brought forth information confirming that he had a hand in what he himself has become. Director… How many souls has he tormented?

Struck by another dead end Kyn and Luke are now contemplating making leaflets of the warframe Lane to ask around if anyone knows him. They’re sitting in the camp outside the orbiter when Lane catches them in the act and tells them to quit it. After all, his body is not his mind and no matter what contacts he may or may not have had in the timeline of the body he now possesses is of no consequence to his being as a whole.

“It’s fine. I will… figure it out. But if there is no way back, then I’m ready to live with this steel flesh.” Lane sits down by the fire between Kyn and Luke. The two put away their unfinished leaflets.

“Do you have any plans of your own yet?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know how to make plans.'' The drifter mumbles in response as he picks up a stick and begins drawing spirals in the ashy sand before the fire pit. “With survival necessities like food out of the way. I suppose I could work on things I’ve always wanted. I would still like to have a home of my own. Maybe join a crafts club or something. But that doesn’t exist in this timeline anymore. Who even has the time to knit when you have enemies to fight off all the damn time?”

The taller Limbo Prime observes the shorter one with renewed interest. Was he meant to stay this small or did he really not get the chance to grow up? The human body of the drifter was equally short, but it’s not known how the other timeline worked with all the looping going on.

“We received a dormizone from the Holdfasts who take care of the Zariman Ten Zero. We’re not utilising it, so if you’d like a place away from us, we could give it to you.” Luke proposes.

The operator immediately butts in. “That’s not a great idea… But.. ugh, if anything, know that you have a place here. Since you’ve already cleared out our dusty storage room and made it liveable.”

Drifter remains quiet. It may be haunted but it’s a different Zariman, right? Nothing of his past is there. At least that’s what he’d like to believe. He is undeniably curious though and could use more time away from this haywire couple. One moment they’re bickering, the other they’re scheming, and the third their hands are suddenly all over each other. Yeah, Zariman sounds fine. It’d be an adventure to explore and shape the dormizone into a cosy little place.

“You’re going to have to drop me off though.” Lane’s response is short and straight to the point.

—

The warm shower has got to be the new best thing Lane has ever experienced. To think he said the same thing about chilly river water just 5 weeks ago when he fell from the sky. Of course, Kyn and Luke’s place also had its perks, but he had to let the two guys know when he needed the bath so it could be prepared in advance. And that caused some level of discomfort and lack of personal autonomy.

Lane spends the next night on the Zariman. He wakes up hungry, with hair in his eyes, and a major need to have a leak. He’s back in his human body without a clue as to how that may have happened.

He flushes water down the toilet and looks at himself in the bathroom mirror. He looks the same as he did before the merge. The seaweed smell on his clothes is still ripe. So this body went into some kind of stasis while he was a warframe.

Speaking of personal autonomy.

While cooking up a meal for himself Lane thinks about how convenient the warframe body was regarding basic human inconveniences. No hunger or thirst, no sweat, no getting numb cheeks from sitting too long in a dumb pose.

Quickly he looks down at his legs to make sure he’s still in his shorts. All is as it should be. It’s just the arms that have shifted. “Huh…”

“Fuck!” he shouts as he steps away from the stove with oil bubbling in the pan. Some of the hot oil has landed on his exposed hands. Immediately he thinks about how this would be inconsequential if he had warframe hands.

The drifter snatches a towel to wipe the oil off. When he puts the cloth back he notices his arms have changed to steel flesh out of nowhere.

Instead of panicking Lane decides to make use of the situation by cracking a condroc egg and tossing the contents of it on the pan without any fear of receiving more oil burns. He does the thinking about the hows and whys while scrambling his egg on the pan with a fork. The change can’t be random so now Lane is backtracking his thoughts that might have triggered the event.

With a sigh of disappointment he tosses some salt onto his lazy scrambled egg, stirs it some more and then plops it onto a clean dish. The drifter brings his breakfast to the table and sits down. He picks up the fork but now his hands feel inconvenient to eat with.

“I wish I had the hat.” he attempts to summon the hat that his alternate body has. Nothing happens.

“Hat, please.” Still nothing. Lane even touches the top of his head to make sure, just in case the hat ends up being somehow weightless.

“It’d be useful to have the human hands now…” Lane thinks to himself as he shoves a piece of egg into his mouth. Just then his arms briefly lose feeling, and visibly shift to a human form. The fork falls to the ground with a clatter.

The drifter swallows his food and gets up from his seat. “I got it! I think I got it?”

The fork will now do its part in being a willing test subject. Lane looks down at the metal utensil and steps on it. In his mind he is focusing on the requirement of protection and as a result the fork ends up being flattened by a metal sole rather than a fleshy pink foot.

Suffice to say drifter Lane hardly gets anything done this day as he spends most of it by coming up with reasons to shapeshift. It’s a useful skill he feels he should hone to perfection.

The drifter shouts an enthusiastic “WHOO!!”

“It’s not about what I want. It’s about what I need.” he comments and bends down to touch his metal knees, as well as to pick up the poor fork. When he gets back up, his legs then quickly shapeshift back into human ones. In his mind he justifies it as needing comfort.

Other than that he manages to get rid of all the dust in the dormizone and unpack some belongings that Kyn and Luke have so kindly provided him with, including the locket with Ria’s portrait. He’s not sure how or why Kyn thought it’d mean something to him but he’s thankful nonetheless. His mother’s shawl and now the locket are all that’s left of his family.

He may be alone now, but he feels like things aren’t impossible to wrangle into place anymore. And that’s worth something.

[previous]

#this is an unpolished scramble + the drawing is a play on the void. we're all juiced up on the stuff #ritens-art #ritens-writing #warframe #wf oc #wf-lane #wf-devan #wf-kyn

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