#i feel like just a giant sandbag

[puranami]

✿ It's The Little Things - 4 ✿

A/N: I wish I knew how to write for Katakuri because he'd be right at home in this big boi edition ksdjh Rosi makes me cry ilhsm (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Summary: Little relationship things with a couple big bads, and Rosi who has never done anything wrong in his life and doesn't die, bc i said so ✿

Characters: Crocodile, Rosinante (Corazon), Doflamingo

Content: SFW, G/N reader (though Croc calls you doll... but I think he'd do that regardless,) fluff on toast ✿

(Part 1 - Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji) (Part 2 - Buggy, Shanks, Mihawk) (Part 3 - Franky, Robin, Law, Kid, Killer)

Crocodile

✿ It goes without saying, being with Crocodile means you are surrounded by luxury; he is a very materialistic man with a very specific image he has cultivated, and that extends to you. All your clothes, jewellery, any makeup, even down to your perfume and shampoo are carefully considered to make sure you compliment him perfectly. He is particular, but not unreasonable, giving you options so you can make your own decision, and he will not force something on you that you hate - can't have you walking around sulking. Really though, he values your opinion, he just sets the parameters and you chose how to meet them. In fact, if you simply went along with everything he said, giving no input of your own; he'd get very bored, very quickly.

✿ When you aren't in public, basically acting as the power couple of Alabasta (before that goes awry,) and then of the Cross Guild; he allows himself to be much softer, and generally just more human with you. Work will always be his priority, but he's not against sleeping in and having a lazy day, or part day, depending on what's going on in your lives. He'll hug you randomly, catch you in his hook if he wants your attention, and just generally manhandle you, but in the gentlest way. Crocodile also enjoys cooking with you, and is not above throwing ingredients, or flicking water at you, especially if you start it, and he will throw a tea towel in your face if he wants to. It's very endearing seeing such a powerful, and feared man being a little silly, and it's only for you.

✿ His sense of humour is as dry as he is, and either you get it and laugh along, which is nice, or you find it so painful that you can't help but groan, him laughing at your suffering instead, which is even nicer. Crocodile's laugh is basically a low rumble that you can feel reverberating in his chest, which is the nicest part of all. He always drops jokes unexpectedly, in a way where you think he's just going to comment on something, or maybe flirt with you; "You know what makes me smile, doll?" - "Could it be the fact you get to spend a quiet, relaxing day with me, hmm?" - "Facial muscles." It's either the funniest thing, or you will genuinely want to throttle him. He doesn't hold it against you if you slap him over it, the impact barely registers with this living sandbag, and he takes it as a sign that the joke was a particularly good one (in his opinion.)

Rosinante (Corazon)

✿ An absolute sweetheart, and a gentle giant. He treats you like spun glass, at least to begin with, afraid he will hurt you with either his general size and strength, or his clumsy nature. It will take time for him to relax into things, but he will; humans are naturally rather resilient, and him giving you a strong hug, or falling over himself onto you is not going to break you. It still won't stop him crying over it, especially if you end up with any bruises, but you'll hold him gently as you stroke his head, soothing him while you explain that it's alright, and that these things happen; "I got a bigger bruise from accidentally kneeing the table the other day. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last either. Everything is okay, I promise." Poor guy just loves you so much, he can't stand the thought of you being hurt in any way!

✿ He absolutely adores it when you snuggle up beside him, under his massive coat. It feels like the safest place in the world, and it's so warm - nothing bad can happen under this fortress of feathers! Rosi in general is just a cuddly guy really, holding you at every opportunity, taking your relatively small hands in his giant ones, carrying you whenever and wherever you'll allow him to; always by his chest though, so when he inevitably slips, he doesn't land on you. Being your resident tall, he prefers to pick you up to reach things as opposed to grabbing those things for you, as it means he can hug you at the same time!

✿ Rosinante is absolutely ride or die with you! Whatever your dreams and ambitions, he will do everything in his power to try and help you achieve them. The only caveat is that he will also do the same for his own mission, and sometimes that overtakes him, and he will unknowingly, and definitely unwillingly overlook you at times. He keeps you completely separate from that part of his life - because it's so dangerous, and he never wants to put you in harms way. It can be lonely when he's so focused, or not around, and that's what spurs him to attach himself to you whenever he can.

Doflamingo

✿ The fact you managed to catch his attention at all is honestly a feat in itself. He's a man who has everything (until he goes to jail,) and he always gets what he wants, no matter how he has to go about it - so there must be something that he cannot buy, threaten, or manipulate out of you, or anyone else. There is something about you personally, a fearless spirit, the right kind of sass, the patient and forgiving nature of a god, just something more; you're like a unique treasure, one that he refuses to allow in the public eye, as he is a very selfish man. He basically puts you on a pedestal, catering to every little whim or desire. At least to a point. He won't prioritise you over his machinations, and he can't be soft and tender with you on command. He'll have is moments sure, but they're on his time, and only when you are alone.

✿ He loves to loom over you, manhandle you, generally just manipulate your body, all to remind you just how small and delicate you are. The man is a predator, let's be real, and you will never forget that while you are his favourite, you are still prey in his eyes. While he likes the look of you being the small, timid thing he expects from prey, he adores your looks of defiance, refusing to cower before him. It's part of what proves that you are above everyone else, excluding himself of course, and that you are worthy of his attention. You can sass him, and tell him "No," so long as you do what he says where it matters. He won't tolerate blatant disrespect and insubordination, that's a one way ticket 6ft under. Your relationship is a delicate balance of accepting your place beneath him, but not being so beneath him that you may as well not exist.

✿ In those longed for times when it's just the two of you, he will give you whatever affection you desire, even if it's not something he can really reciprocate. He likes you happy, and his pride means he will not accept that there is something he cannot get or do for you. That's not to say he doesn't love you, he does in his own way; he's just buried that part of him deep down, so deep it may never be found. Perhaps, as time goes on however, with you being a consistent presence in his life, showing him what genuine kindness and compassion are, he may remember somewhat and be able to offer it back to you. Don't hold your breath, though, if it's happening, it's not happening fast. He's certainly a convincing actor, and his mimicked affections feel real enough.

#one piece imagine #one piece x reader #one piece x you #sir crocodile #donquixote rosinante #donquixote corazon #donquixote doflamingo #crocodile x reader #crocodile x you #rosinante x reader #corazon x reader #rosinante x you #corazon x you #doflamingo x reader #doflamingo x you

[demonbunny5]

Just beat Bayo3

Think I might have hated it? Very conflicted. Spoilers under the cut.

The Luka stuff was dumb as fuck. The Singularity/Sigurd stuff was dumb as fuck. Having Bayonetta 1 and 2 show up at the end was neat but felt like a “I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW IT” type deal to distract from how fucking stupid the entire ending was.

Mechanically I feel like this one is even cooler than the first two but its massively sandbagged by the fact that all of the big bosses are fucking warioware minigames that don’t actually let you use the normal combat systems.

Thule felt like fucking Unity asset store levels with how often they recycle the same like 4 objects you can interact with. All the levels have way too much negative space, there were probably like 20+ times I went off exploring and found some little nook or ledge that I thought would have a collectable or something only to find that there was nothing fucking there because the devs decided to just make giant empty maps for no reason.

All of the homonculi are design trainwrecks (aside from maybe the jellyfish one) None of them are anywhere near as cool or iconic as the angel/demon designs. They all look fucking identical which I guess might have been what they were going for since they’re all part of the singularity so Congrats! You made 95% of the enemies in the game bland and forgettable.

Playing as Viola sucks cock. Her kit is boring as fuck to play with. In a series that has always been about being able to mix and match cool weird weapons she gets a generic katana and nothing else. It sucks extra hard because she’s fun as a character from a story perspective but the gameplay makes me hate her. I remember watching a dev commentary Kamiya did for bayo1 and he specifically said he didn’t like having a guard button in his games because it slows everything down and makes gameplay much more passive and then the first fucking alfheim you get as Viola makes you do exactly that since you can’t even do damage unless you wait for an attack and then parry. Probably spent a solid 1/3rd of that fight just standing there doing nothing waiting for the dipshit AI to try to attack me. 

Speaking of the AI another thing that was in that Kamiya dev commentary was how they specifically designed Bayo1 so enemies won’t attack you from offscreen without very obvious sound cues, and idk if its because I was playing on expert or if they just fucked that up, but I felt like I was constantly getting hit by shit from offscreen with no warning.

Idk like I said, as far as the combat mechanics go I think I like this one better than the first two, which makes it even more infuriating that there’s so much dumb shit in this one. Bayo1/2 have individual levels that I groan about when replaying them (looking at you Space Harrier bullshit levels) but at least the overall experience of replaying them all the way through is fun. 3 has so many fights and even entire levels where you aren’t actually playing the fucking regular game that I don’t ever want to go back through the whole thing again. 

Pretty fucking disappointing all things considered. 

The only saving grace is all the monstergirl Bayos we got.

#bayonetta 3 #bayonetta 3 spoilers #rant

[cheerfulnihilismqualitysuffering]

this, too, belongs

Last night I had a trauma trigger and my brain was flooded with intrusive thoughts depicting the intense scenes from the various domestic violence incidents that I have experienced in the house that I own. It wasn't just my children's father. I had a series of violent intimate relationships leading up to being with the kids dad.

These violent scenes, from childhood to just a few years ago, were flashing through my brain like a flip book. I tried breathing exercises, but it felt like trying to stem a flood with three sandbags. I took a hot shower. I listened to music. I took a cold shower.

Finally, what worked to ground me, was something my therapist mentioned in our bimonthly check-in... instead of saying "it is what it is" I am using a new mantra - "this, too, belongs".

Every time a scene passed through my head, I said, "this, too, belongs". I grabbed my mala and used a bead for every thought. After a while, some intensely beautiful memories came to the surface. I remembered giving birth to my 2 children, the intensity of childbirth without any pain medication, the powerful feeling I got from being able to nurse them and be the sole source of their nutrition until they started solid foods - and how much HARD WORK went into meeting that goal because I was effectively a single parent (their biological father - to this day - randomly shows up to destabilize everyone and then disappears again).

I remembered being blackballed from academia for reporting my advisor for research ethics violations, and losing all hope as I gave up my lifelong dream to be a researcher, to come out of the other side embracing absurdity and finding comfort from the belief that life is meaningless. If I believed everything was imbued with deep meaning, then that would make any god who decided that this life was a good way to teach me a lesson a horribly abusive and cruel god.

When life is meaningless, I can create my own meaning. It doesn't have to matter or make sense to anyone else. It's the one thing that is my own, when I have had everything else taken from me, including the safety and sanctuary of my own physical body, I still have that meaning I created for myself. No one can take it from me.

I got to the end of the mala, having made one giant circle of 108 beads, and I was calm. Even happy. All of these things happened to me. All of these things belong in my life - the horrific and the joyful. I'm still learning to let go of the deep shame that comes with CPTSD. I want to make this year a year of radical acceptance.

#cptsd recovery #absurdism #trauma release #grieving

[aneenasevla]

Heavy Bakery - Chapter 17

MasterList / Kanami’s Profile /Previous Chapter

Chapter 17 - Six Months Later...

“That's it, girl, go, go!” Sekibayashi cheers, while Kanami did the leg day exercises “get that skeleton moving, is the iron making you slow? You can't, come on, one, two!” He smiles at her excitement.

Actually, Kanami was frustrated, although giving her best. She didn't want to give in, with weights on her legs, she was jumping from circle to circle, sweat dripping in every corner of her body, but that was no problem, she loved that feeling. The problem was, the frustration of having to go too long to just punch someone was exhausting.

Never in her life Kanami really wanted to hit someone. She was always thinking a lot about defense… blocking blows, countering, dodging… and protecting. She was never the type to strike first. She wanted to be a wall between danger and those she liked, never someone who was defiant.

But those punches in her arms that day gave her a hard lesson. Screw it if she was defending her position, fuck if she was even the slightest bit interested in that guy… fuck Ohma, in that case. It was not that, definitely.

She could take many things, but never breaking her personal barrier, carefully erected to avoid being hit again. Barrier that had taken years of extensive mental training. She was perfectly fine until that… that uninformed big guy showed up.

Speaking of him, she hadn't seen him in ages. Hiro had even asked about him once, but she had no idea where he was hiding. He never appeared again, not at the bakery, not anywhere. And yet on that subject, she had discovered a while ago that she knew next to nothing about him. Not even age - even though she was sure he was an adult, come on - not if he had any fights planned “behind the scenes,” if he was having a hard time looking for that organization… not even she knew where he lived. One or two things because of observation, okay, but, not much else.

“Hey, Kanami” Sekibayashi catches her attention “Hey, look here, oy, focus, girl!”

She stops  “ah… sorry. I'm just catching my breath.”

“Hnm… is something worrying you?”

“No… nothing… just things from… work” she raises her fists again, assuming the pose, to start the series of kicks “I can handle it.”

"Okay…" He raises an eyebrow. She clearly wasn't comfortable talking, so he respected her space.

Side kicks… mid kick… high kick, front kick. She repeated the blows to the sandbag, one set on each leg. She couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened, was he really busy? He could have taken her contact, the card she had left in the thank-you-cake had the card… although he might not have taken the card… so maybe Mr. Yamashita?…

Hell… they were friends and she didn't even have his number… maybe he didn't even have a cell phone?! 

“Okay, stop”, the giant stopped her leg, releasing it for her to balance “You’re doing really bad today, Kanami, let's stop.”

“But already? What was my problem today?”

“You're not focused, it's not going to happen”, he puts his hands on his hips, “what's going on at the bakery? Financial problem?”, he looks at her, genuinely concerned.

“Oh, no, that's not it… we're fine“ she then closes her mouth when caught in the lie.

“That's what I thought. Usually on training days you get really excited, but today you look like you woke up on the wrong side of bed, hehehe.”

“No, I… I'll get better… just a few worries, that's all.”

“Of what nature? Do you want to talk about that?”, that was Jun Sekibayashi. She looked like a grandmother when it came to his students. And Kanami turned out to be no different, after showing some interest and competence in training.

“I don't know… I'm feeling a little down. My motivation is low today too…”

“Got it”, he looks to the side of the entrance “Oh, hi Ohma…”

Kanami practically jerked her head to the side where he was looking, but when she saw that there was no one, Sekibayashi burst into thunderous laughter.

“Ahahahaha, I knew it!”, he smiles a lot, “You haven't seen him, right?”

Kanami frowned. She hated being read so easily.

“How do you know?” she gives up, blushing a lot, the damage was already done.

“Well, he didn't show up here at the Dojo to visit us either. He just texted you asking if you were making progress…”

“He did?”, Her eyes opened again.

“No” and he laughed again with her reaction, “ok, ok, I’ll stop” he then takes a bottle of water and gives it to Kanami, choosing one for himself too. “Seriously now”, he drinks from the water. Kanami imitates, “I think he's fine, but I've been a little worried some time ago. He said a few months ago that his heart felt strange…”

“What?”, she asks, almost choking on the water, “his heart? Like, pain...?”

“You still don't know?”, he then clears his throat, “Ohma, in the past, had serious vascular problems, due to the high load he gave when he was at the height of the fights, one after another, no stop…” she didn't need to know about the Advance, so he hid it, “so much that... he practically died.”

“Wha-?”, she widens her eyes, “He… died?! How come he is still alive?”

“That's it, we all thought, but in fact, the medical crew managed to receive a heart transplant, since the previous one was detonated…”, another sip of water, “For two years, he was hidden from us while he was recovering, among the Kure.”

“That's why he's like that... along with them…”

“Yes, in short, after Ohma had defeated Raian, the most powerful of the Kure, in the tournament, Erioh, the patriarch of the Kure, really liked him, and he was who, at the request of a doctor partner of ours, hid the guy from everyone. Even from Kazuo.”

“Even from Mr. Yamashita?! But why?”

“From what they told me, it was because they didn't know if his heart was going to be rejected by his body or not. But apparently not, and then he appears to us alive, completely recovered and healthy, after two years. Of course, all of us, and even some of their friends from the “backstage” fights, cried with emotion when they learned that he was alive. It even had a party, because after that tournament, he had become very dear to us, he only lost in the final, because of the injuries he had.”

“Wow…” she smiles “so he really marked all of you…”

“For sure! He was a debutant at that time, a bit of an asshole and immature at first, but then he started to get higher and higher in the ranks, win after win, and started to open up more to us. The Ohma you met last semester is much better, and more mature, than the asshole when we first saw him.”

Kanami smiled, remembering him. So she starts to worry as she remembers what he said.

"So does that mean he might be in trouble? His heart and all?”

He sighs.

“I don't know, Kanami… I tried to send him a message, but he seemed busy… he didn't even see it” Sekibayashi shrugs his shoulders, “Kazuo is the one who knows more about him. You can look for him, after all, his office is very close to your bakery…”

“I… I think I'll look for it. He's still my friend, after all. And I would hate to know that the guy who helped me through my hardest moments was suddenly put in a hospital bed, intubated…”’

“Turn your mouth away… I would hate it if any of my students got into such a rut. Even more my  Ken… eh… Backstage friends.”

“Fine, I'll look for him.”, she decides, “so… the training is over for today?”

“No, there's still stretching, then we're done.”

“Alright…” she was still embarrassed “sorry if I ended up making the training finish early…”

He starts to laugh audibly. When Kanami frowns he says, “sorry, it's just that it's rare for a student of mine to be sad because training is over. Usually it's like children when they leave school, running.”

She smiles, “yeah... I like training. It's an old flame of mine…” she laughs softly, “It's still too early for me to go home, though… Do you want help making dinner for the guys?”

“With your talent in making food? There are only two answers: “yes”, or “of course”!” He smiles, “go clean yourself, I'll meet you later in the cafeteria.”

She runs out to the locker room to take advantage of the time it was empty.

Sekibayashi sighs. It didn't feel right to say that, in fact, Ohma was doing very well… so much so that even, in those six months, after knowing from Kazuo, he learned that the fighter had returned to participate in Kengan matches… After all, she was still a civilian, it wasn't good for civilians to know about the clandestine matches.

He didn't want to keep it a secret from her, after all, she had practically become one of the family. But she had to, for her own sake.

…

“Aaaaaaannnd… we have a winner!” the judge announces the end of the match with a sign up, indicating the victorious fighter “And the winner is TOKITAAAAA OHMAAAA!”

The roars of the fight participants were quite agitated today. The legendary Ohma was back, and pulled out ten good wins in the last ten matches he played. He leaves the middle of the circle made by the people, towards a corner of the abandoned port warehouse where the match was being situated.

“‘Hey, man, congratulations!” Koga approaches, and slaps the other on the shoulder. He had a towel over his shoulders, shirtless, as he'd been the first one that night, and he was still kind of sweaty.

Ohma smirks “You’ve been evolving well, boy.”

“Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better too,” he makes some fake punches, while smiling “and everyone is talking about you after that Purgatory tournament…”

"Like I said, I'd fight again if I felt like it." He smiles, sitting on a crate.

“Yeahh! Congratulations Ohma!” Kazuo approaches, with a towel “You two actually managed to get great victories!”

“Ah… Yamashitakazuo” he accepts the towel “thank you.”

“But, Ohma, I just have a question”, Koga crosses his arms “you could have defeated that jerk in just one well-placed punch… Why did you want to extend the fight?”

“Yeah” Kazuo confirms, adjusting his glasses, “He didn't have half the training and condition that you have. Did you want to extend the fight?”

“‘Yeah, I did that”, he drinks the offered water too, “what's the problem with that?”

“It's just... it's not like you, doing that kind of thing”, Koga comments, “it even seemed like you were out of your mind…”

“The strangest thing is that you love to fight, but never take it lightly”, Kazuo approaches, “is something happening?”

“Nothing's going on”, he almost growls, “I'm great, stop pestering me…”

Kazuo takes a step back. He looks at Koga and jerks his head away from the scene, looking to the boy, who clearly got the message.

“Okay, soooo... I'll see if I'm on the corner, sorry. And congrats again, dude”, he scratches his head, as he walks away, muttering.

Kazuo watches the fighter. He was physically as strong as ever, really in his prime, and knowing the man, he was training practically every day, then his physical conditioning couldn't have been better. He was even more tanned, because of the time in the sun…

But therein lay the problem. He looked overtrained… like he was almost in a fever pitch, before he went down for good.

“Are you… feeling yourself going down, Ohma?”, Kazuo askes carefully.

“Wha, me?” He looked at Kazuo, who was serious, his glasses flashing. He sighed. Yamashitakazuo was the last person he could lie to. Even more, considering how long he'd have known the manager “Not exactly… I just… lost some of the excitement… I don't feel so excited to fight anymore, even with absolutely everything the same. My fists still hit…”

“So… if it's not physical, what bothers you? he sits next to the fighter, on the crate “Is there something wrong?”

“You’re right, as usual”, he finishes the water from the bottle, talking a little about the heart problems he had discovered with Hanafusa.

“So… you have this problem, and you didn't say anything to us.”, he gets up in a jump, “how do you hide these things, Ohma?! If you passed out in the middle of the fight, what do you think I would think?!”

“Hey, calm down, Yamashitakazuo…”

“I won't be calm!” he had to control his voice not to scream “after that shit on the island in the Annihilation tournament, I'm not going to stand by watching you ruin this heart again because of pride!”

“No, wait, it's not physical…”, Ohma almost flinches at the elder's scolding.

“Uh? Eh? Is not?”, the old man disarms “what do you mean, it's not physical?”

“The guy said it was psychological, something in my head, so I went to focus on what I have, you know, forget about this… para-nods…”

“You mean… paranoia?”

“Yeah, this... And it happened, for a while, but then I was... sad…” he sighs, “I know she's fine, but I'm worried…”

“Worried? With her? Who?”

“Oh, it's Kanami. She is the cause of my uncontrolled heart. So I walked away, I don't want to go through that again…”

Kazuo then lowers his shoulders, starting to chuckle softly, and the laughter builds, until it almost bends the old man in half, tears of relief running down.

“Heeey, What's so funny!?”He frowns, grimacing. He didn't like not understanding.

“Ahhh… oh”, he tries to stop, now almost out of breath, “huff, that was really good. Ohma, let's get out of here, have a beer and some meat. I prefer to say this with a little alcohol in my blood.”

Ohma is confused, but it was food, so… he was always willing.

…

Koga had been sent home, and now only Kazuo and Ohma were alone, the fighter now clean and freshly dressed. The ember was strong enough, so the fighter took the lead and put the meat to roast on the grill in Yakiniku's restaurant. Kazuo had ordered a beer, and when asked what Ohma wanted, he decided on a fruit cocktail.

“Well… what did you want to tell me, Yamashitakazuo? I still don't understand what you were saying.”

“I guessed that” Kazuo says, taking a sip from his beer mug “but first, tell me, how exactly this has been feeling.”

Ohma then tried to remember what had happened, as he drank his cocktail, giving the details to the old man, who nodded and listened with an air of interest, but strangely serious.

“So… I thought it was serious” he sighs, “I was… avoiding them, because of that.”

“So that's why you've been showing up very little there in the office”, he takes another sip of his mug “is because you've been avoiding Kanami.”

“Yeah, but… I miss the cakes. Seeing the bakery, listening to the atmosphere… and talking to her. I don't understand why this has happened.”

“This reminds me of you avoiding Karla at the tournament-”

“No, it's different…” He interrupts, and finishes drinking the third glass, at that stage, already feeling a little sleepy, but his voice was looser, more comfortable, while eating the meat “I don't find her annoying, like Karla, on the contrary. She doesn't jump on me or approach me suddenly, or… or undress in front of me, wanting perverted things, or look at me like she wants to devour me. She listens to what I have to say… I feel like talking back, and I like her presence… I think even more than Kaede and Rin. But then my heart feels strange, and that… Well, we have to recognize our priorities, and preserving my health was the best thing to do.”

Kazuo smiles. In fact… the old manager was almost ecstatic, but he couldn't think of anything yet. In fact, he wondered if he would ever be alive to see it. He eventually found out he did.

“Look, Ohma”, Kazuo smiles, tenderly, like the father he is “I understand your thinking, and I even think it's a good idea, but… you're not sick.”

Ohma blinks “I’m not?”

“No. That's what you've been feeling, all the "symptoms"... are completely natural. There's nothing wrong with you.”

“I remember Hanafusa said it was normal, but I didn't believe it… and I don't know if I believe it now…” - He grimaces.

“No, listen to me”, he touches the fighter's arm as if he was going to leave, even though the guy hasn't moved a muscle, “That's alright, Ohma, it's just love.”

Ohma continues to stare at the old man, even more confused, wide-eyed, looking at Kazuo as if he was the one who said he had heart problems.

“Huuh?”, he made that face… he really didn't understand anything anymore. The old man laughs.

“Yeeeee…”, the old man was also already tipsy, “that's it, Ohma, it's love, you're in love with Kanami-san. It's weird, you've never felt something like this before, but… listen to me, listen to me…aaand tell me: did you by any chance… think about her at this time you were avoiding her?”

“Yea.” The fighter was cautious “She haunts me whenever I start listening to music… and eating sweet things, or when I'm watching something on TV. Mainly the women's league in MMA… I've recently started to get interested.”

“Does thinking about her comfort you? Knowing that she's there, at the bakery, safe, with people around helping her… Does it make you happy?”

Ohma nods, the amazement passes and a smile starts to appear in his corner. Kazuo was feeling his hope rising.

"And is there something about her that you think bothers you?"

“Not exactly…”, he chews the ice left over from his glass, “except that she refuses to really fight… says she wants to protect who she likes… even though she has some talent for the thing… I don't understand that. It's just that… she herself, no.”

“Do you think it would be a good idea to teach her?”

“Yes, that's why I suggested to Sekibayashi to train her as she was one of his students, as you indicated to Koga when he started.”

“And why don't you do it yourself?”

“I…” he thinks a little “I actually don't know, I think I suck on that.” He thinks some more, “But as I start to think about it, the motive I suggested she train was because… the scene of her, in that alley, when I called you to help me, keeps coming to my mind. I was… afraid. I don't want to see her the same way again…”

“Hmmm…”, He smiles, now more excited, “My boy, you filled in all the answers. And passed the test.”

“Huh? Test?”, He raises an eyebrow.

“It's a force of expression… but all the facts indicate. You like Kanami. Love her. Not just as a friend. I'm really happy for you, honestly. In fact, it was a bit late “spring”, and I thought he was not interested in women, which is, okay, I learned that is normal… but it was just a matter of…”

“But what were all those symptoms?”

“Nah, relax”, the old man finishes his mug, “you were just nervous… from what you described to me… you were wanting to approach her, but you can't, because you don't know if you're allowed to do that, right?”

“ …”, he takes a moment to answer, recapping the scene, “Yeah, it… makes sense.”

“And you get anxious, lighter, more agile, when you realize you're close to the bakery, both from the perspective of the cakes-”

“As of seeing her” he nods “Yeah... Wow, everything makes sense now…” he holds his head, running his fingers through his hair “And the fact that I'm down…”

“It's because you miss her. Bingo.”

Ohma couldn't believe it, at least not right away. It was all very new to him, now that he thought about it. He didn't remember Niko ever saying anything like that, other than "Talk to her if you think a girl is nice, and always be polite when talking to women." He had never thought he might actually have any interest, even more because of bad experiences...

But his mind had never been clearer, had never felt so good, since he'd regained his memories of Niko's style, his primary style of combat. He smiled, as if he'd solved the world's hardest math problem.

“Yamashitakazuo… “

“Yeah?”

“Thank you…” he sighs, “I… feel like a weight in my mind is practically gone…”

“Well, you're welcome”, Kazuo laughs “but it's understandable, m’boy, especially considering the fact of the place where you've lived all your life…”

“There's only one thing now…” he sighs, turning the meats on the grill, now returning to his usual half-disinterested self.

“Hey, what else is missing?”

“It's a thing between two people, right?”, he looks at the old man, seriously, “And if it's not the same with her?”

Next Chapter Here

#heavybakery #kengan ashura #kengan omega #kenganverse #ohma tokita #tokita ohma #kengan oc #fanfiction #yamashita kazuo #yamashitakazuo

[thesoftestpunk]

Co-Aquatainenceship 1.

Summary: You're just two ex-assassins trying to navigate your way through normalcy, but you're also huge idiots. In an attempt at getting Bucky out of his shell, you offer to catch him up on everything he's missed. Including trashy YA novels.

Pairing: cw!Bucky Barnes x female!Reader

Word count: 3168

A/N: Definitely not my first fic, but it is my first bucky and reader type fic. This loosely follows the events after civil war but after that it's pretty non-canon compliant. Steve stays with his bestie and they all have good times <3 I'm trying very hard to not use descriptive language when it comes to reader because I usually make up oc's so I'm trying my very best (y'all I'm so nervous)

Series masterlist

On nights you can’t sleep, you go on runs. The compound offered tracks and plenty of machinery, but there was just something about running in the brisk night air that helped calm you down. When you were first brought on to the team several years ago, you found yourself frustrated constantly. You used to smoke a lot more back then, but Sam never liked that you picked up the bad habit years ago. Steve helped a lot, Sam even more so when you had trouble voicing what was wrong, but Steve taught you to box. To take that anger and frustration and put it somewhere better. Sam offered to run with you and then all three of you ran together. For the most part. The team should have an officially branded track team with how much you all run.

On top of never really having a proper sleep schedule from becoming an avenger/agent, nightmares and anxiety plagued your mind. A full eight hours was never really your thing anyway, which made having a constantly changing schedule easier. It probably wasn’t a good thing that the deep chill helped ground you most nights, but with how frustrating your week had been, the run isn’t helping. The pain of hitting sandbags wasn’t any better, but you healed quickly with some forced experimentation you had endured. The gym was always empty in the early hours of the morning, so you jog your way up to the building, walking through the quiet halls to find the gym occupied for once.

“Steve,” you’re breathless still, trying to even them out. “I didn’t expect to see you up this early.”

“Neither did I.” He swung a bag around, hooking it up to the chain with no effort. All the men in this building were giants, while you were perfectly average sized in your mind. It pointed a lot of jokes your way, and jealousy toward them. They always seemed to shut up when your strength either matched their own or exceeded it. “Nightmares again?”

“More like avoiding them.” Turning, you ignore his bright blue eyes. The same ones you saw when you were promised you were safe, and actually believed it. There wasn’t going to be any convincing him to let you stay and be even more sleep deprived. “You can’t say anything, Rogers. You’re awake too.”

“Yeah, I’m starting my day. What’s your excuse?”

“It’s only--” checking the time on your watch, it’s nearly five in the morning. Had you really been at it that long? Your legs were only just starting to burn. “Jesus, I think you wake up earlier than my grandpa.”

“Hilarious,” he deadpans. “Have you slept at all?”

He put his hands on his hips, and you know you’re in trouble. Those kind eyes burrow into your soul, past your perspired skin and tired muscles. Through your own tired eyes that felt heavier by the second. You knew you wouldn’t be able to get away with lying. You can feel how tired you must look. Steve’s been dealing with you for too long to know when you’re lying, a heavy sigh from him making your chest tighten with guilt when you only respond with silence. Sometimes you’re afraid the stress you put him under is going to actually make him look like the hundred something year old he is. You know you can be hard headed, but you couldn’t help it. For years you had fought back against the man who kidnapped you, so you weren't suddenly going to stop with Steve.

“I can’t make you sleep but I’m just asking you to get some today.”

“No, yeah, of course,” you mumble, only half promising.

“Y/N.” His voice is stern now, wanting a full promise.

You groan and roll your eyes. “Fine. I’ll get some sleep today. Promise.”

“Thank you.”

Quickly, you pack the rest of your things away in your duffle bag before bidding Steve a good morning. Sleep hadn’t really been on your agenda today but you supposed you could squeeze it in somewhere. Maybe between training and your college level lessons. Getting taken so young, you hadn’t been able to finish high school or start college. Your kidnapper, who you only call Kirsh, had given extensive lessons in multiple languages and forced you to learn many fighting styles to become his own personal assassin, but that was all you learned for years. So you eventually got your GED and took online classes. It was easy when you could butter up to Tony about wanting to expand your mind. He really didn't need any convincing since he knew you were extremely smart. What truly convinced him, though, was when you called geometry arbitrary when you first arrived, which nearly made his heart stop (again), so he threw as much money at you so you’d never say something like that again. Even if you still sort of hated math.

Before returning to your room for a shower and to check your loose schedule, you stopped by the kitchen for some food. Running as long as you did had worked up quite the appetite. You find you aren't alone when entering. At the dining table is Bucky, a book in one hand and a spoonful of oatmeal in the other. The sight of the mush makes you want to gag, so you quickly turn away to the fridge. There isn’t much in terms of breakfast items in there, so you swipe one of Natasha’s yogurts. You’ll pay her back after letting her know so she doesn’t wrongly interrogate someone. As you pass by him again, you try stealing a glance at what book he’s reading, and you realize it’s one of your cheesy romance novels.

“Where’d you find that?” Nearly six months of working around him and that’s the first thing you end up saying of your own volition? It sounded way too accusatory in your own ears.

But Bucky just hums thoughtfully, eyes stuck on the words, and spoon halfway to his mouth. “Coffee table.”

The two of you are friends but somehow entirely not at all. A better word would have to be co-workers. You have Steve in common, and your work. Your past as well and despite everything you had been through, Bucky can’t wrap his head around how you’re so bubbly all the time. He hasn’t voiced this concern, but Steve can always see it on his face, trying to reassure him that you’re just trying to appear okay. It only annoys him more that he comes off so grumpy, but it never seems to phase you. It nearly took you three months to realize Bucky actually didn’t hate you. There was a long adjustment period when you were brought in, making you empathize and your endless patience gave him a lot of leeway. He avoided most of the team as much as he could, so your interactions were fairly limited.

“I thought Sam was kidding about your lack of social skills.” You can’t help but tease. All you’ve seen from him are deep glares or bored neutrality. You’re actually unsure if he can make more than two expressions.

“Funny, Steve said something similar about you.” There’s a slight pull on one corner of his mouth, making your face burn in both embarrassment and annoyance.

“I guess we’re both rusty, then.” You mutter, crossing your arms over your chest defensively. In the short few years that you’ve been mostly on your own, you thought you’d gotten better. Apparently not. New people like this were still hard. “Maybe we could… help each other out.”

Placing the book open faced on the table, Bucky's eyebrow raises a fraction, and you take it as him being intrigued.

“I mean,” you straighten your posture, his words totally not getting the best of you. “I’ve gotten more practice in than you have. You’re more than welcome to come by my room any time and grab anything you’d like. I actually own a lot of books. Almost too many.” Having been given free will, you had gone a little crazy on the book buying. It was a comfort you remembered from before it all. “It’ll help catch you up on pop culture.”

“Sounds like I'm just getting help. What’ll you get in return?” He didn’t want to be someone’s project.

“I dunno.” You shrug noncommittally. “A friendship?” He doesn’t look too pleased by your wording. “How about acquaintances?”

“We’re hardly even classified as co-workers.”

“Look, just think about it, alright? I’ve got shit to do before this meeting and-“ you brave looking him right in the eye. “What’s so bad about a few books? Learning cool new slang, or references. You’d be a hell of a lot cooler than Steve. He’s catching on, but still the old man around here.”

Before he can give you a straight answer, you leave him to think in the kitchen alone. You felt for Bucky. Adjusting from nearly a decade of grooming and murder had left you feeling lost, so you can only imagine what several decades of re-programming felt like.

After your shower, you sit on your bed, a linguistics textbook in your lap. Picking school back up in your early to mid-twenties proved difficult, but after a lot of work, you passed a lot of the random classes you signed up for. You weren’t necessarily an official student at any college, more of a constant auditor. Tony told you a million times if you wanted to get a degree, it was never too late, but you’re a part of the team. It didn’t make sense getting a degree when you saved the general population as a full time job. Sometimes the world.

Several paragraphs later, your eyes begin to feel heavy and you’re regretting trying to study on your bed. The worry seems to disappear as you slowly let the needed sleep take over. Like you’re laying down for the first time in days. It’s warm and comforting, your limbs growing heavy until you’re completely gone.

It’s a sharp knock on your door followed by the soft voice of the AI that startles you awake. The textbook that had previously been resting on your lap gets flung onto the floor with a loud thud. It doesn’t help your racing heart as you stumble out of bed, no idea of the time or why you’ve been interrupted from sleep.

“Everything okay?” Sam asks, more curiously amused than concerned as you open the door.

“Yeah, I-“ rubbing sleep from your eyes, you glance behind yourself. “I accidentally fell asleep, I guess. What’s up?”

“You’re late for the briefing.”

“Fuck!” Your eyes widen, realizing you had completely slept through lunch. Now you can see the worry starting to bloom over Sam’s features. “Seriously?”

“If you need to sit out on this one—“

“No,” you say firmly, closing the door behind you. “No, I just needed some rest. I’m fine.”

Steve is in the middle of his spiel when you two walk in the conference room. He gives you a brief nod before returning his attention back to the rest of the team. The only seat left in the room for you is beside Bucky, who always chose to sit as far back as possible. In his lap is your book, facing open as he subtly reads it from being hidden underneath the conference table. You cover your smirk behind your hand and when you look back over to him, he’s looking right at you. Moving, you pretend to zip your mouth shut and throw away the key before trying to focus on what Steve was saying. You know Bucky hasn’t been out in the field since his return, so he got bored during these meetings but Steve sometimes gave him something to do.

“That should be all,” Steve concludes after a while. “Any technical or tactical questions can be directed to Bucky.”

When he doesn’t seem to react to his name, you kick the leg of his chair subtly, bringing his head back up. He blindly nods along to whatever Steve said and the meeting is adjourned. The room empties quickly but you hang behind to grab a few words with Steve. It’s stuff you already know, having been planning this mission for awhile, but you don’t want to disappoint him. As he leaves, you find Bucky still sitting, patiently waiting for you evidently as he doesn’t follow his best friend out. Slowly, he stands and walks around the table, never breaking eye contact. He slides the book toward you, glancing down at the same time as you before looking back up.

“I have conditions.”

“Of course.” You hadn’t expected any less, but his silent stare had left you feeling a little intimidated. “But I’m not here to torture you, Barnes.”

“You put me on that tiktok app, I’m breaking your phone.” Just as you open your mouth to ask how on earth he knows about that, he continues. “No social media. I want my privacy.”

“You at least should do the big three. Ya know, Facebook, insta, and Twitter. You don’t even have to use your real name. Make a fake account.”

“No.” He’s unamused.

“Okay, fine. Facebook’s for old people anyway. Two and I won’t even follow you on them.” Folding your arms across your chest, you don’t back down, but he stands his ground further by deepening his scowl. “God, one and you don’t have to follow me either.”

His eyes soften at your tone, the guilt of being a grump coming back. It’s hard to put his trust in someone he barely even knows. Someone who is being way too nice and patient with him.

“Fine.”

“Alright. Lemme see your phone.” You hold out a hand expectantly.

He blinks once.

“I don’t have one.”

“What?” You balk. “In all the buildings in the world, how do you not have a phone here? I at least assumed Tony made it a living requirement.”

“Haven’t needed one.” He shrugs a shoulder, indifferent to your shock.

“Alright, let’s go.” There’s an attempt at pushing him along to the door, but he doesn’t budge and you don’t feel like wasting too much physical energy. “Come on, encino man. We’re going to order you a phone. Consider this lesson number one: the magic of online shopping.”

It isn’t much of a lesson as you do all of the shopping, picking out the best phone for him, while he peruses for a different book. The large bookshelf is pressed against the farthest wall of the room, but you own so many books, you’ve had to resort to stacking them on the floor next to it. He focuses on what’s shelved, knowing there’s time to get through them before moving to what’s on the floor. When you place the order, he argues with you about you using your own money to buy his phone, but you put your foot down, refusing his offer of paying. Eventually he leaves your room, grumbling about how hard headed you are, but you were just happy to see him leave with a book. Before you can revel in your victory for too long, F.R.I.D.A.Y. reminds you to get ready for your upcoming mission, even though it isn’t for another day.

It fucking sucked to say the least. Everyone’s cover got blown pretty quickly, meaning someone got word of your arrival. You get your ass kicked good, but you keep the heat off of Steve long enough to get what they came for. Back at the compound after a debriefing, you promise to fill out a more detailed account of what happened when your head isn’t throbbing anymore. He lets you go with a pat on your back and a ‘you did good, kid.’ You rush outside, pulling out your secret stash of cigarettes at your secret spot, and take the large drag you desperately needed. Fuck, you think as you breathe out, what a shit show. Just as you get halfway through, you hear a door open nearby, causing you to curse under your breath, and try to stub it out quickly before tossing it far. Trying to get rid of some of the smoke, you wave your hand wildly in the air. Bucky turns the corner and you play it off as if you were waving to him.

“Steve said I’d find you out here.” He’s got a jacket on even though you’re positive he doesn't need it.

“Just…” clearing your throat, you try to come off as natural as you can. He probably wouldn’t care that you smoked, but he doesn’t know that you do it in secret and then accidentally rat you out to someone. “Decompressing with some fresh air. What’s up?”

“Well,” he reaches inside the pockets of his jeans and holds out a phone. “I’m here for your number.”

“I thought you used to be all Mr. Smooth.” You tease with a shit eating grin and if it wasn’t so dark, you’d actually believe there’s a blush dusting his cheeks. Taking the phone anyway, you start adding your information. “Surely you can do better?”

“Ah,” he laughs sheepishly, and runs a hand through his hair. When he looks up through his eyelashes, you see how he was such a ladies man. “Could I?”

“You know when you text you don’t have to be all formal?” You double check while handing his new phone back, instead of answering lamely with the same sheepish laugh. “You know something like ‘my dearest y/n’ and ‘with love, James Buchanan.’”

“Just for that, I’m changing your contact name.” He pockets the device, while trying to look annoyed but you can see the brightness in his eyes. You feel successful that you made the grump smile.

“Oh, you know how to?”

“Okay, I get it.” Both of your laughter dies down, and you’re left in heavy silence, Bucky clearing his throat as his lips dip into a frown. “You should take care of that.” He gestures to his own forehead, but you know the gash he’s talking about.

“Should take care of everything, really.” The longer you stand, the more aware you are of how sore your body is. As he nods, you start to head back to the building but turn back at the last second. “Hey, um, you’re doing good, you know?”

All he can do is nod, avoiding your eyes, but you know it was something you wanted to hear that first year. You don’t know everything, definitely haven’t experienced everything he had, but you have enough in common that you desperately want him to get better. Hope that you can make him smile just like he had. He looked like the Bucky from the photos you had seen. It made you feel like a huge sap, trying to feel so hopeful. With a soft smile, you turn for the building and leave him outside, missing the soft smile he gave in return.

#bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes x y/n #my writing #co-a

[loulikesyansim]

Yandere Kun x Taro

this ones dark

CW: Murder, Death, One-sided/Unhealthy crushes.

(Also, this is my first fic to break 1k words and I half planned out a pt. 2!)

Taro forgot his book. It wouldn’t be a problem in most places, but in a school with no phones allowed and for a person whose main source of entertainment was reading, this was a severe disruption in his schedule. So now he was wandering around outside of the gardening club, trying to distract himself from his boredom and everything else that could be going wrong - that was going wrong - in his life right now. Clearly, this wasn’t working because the first thing he noticed was the poster on the wall. A picture of Kizana Sunobu, reading Memorial Service: Gymnasium, 16:30. A perfect reminder of everything terrible happening around him. He walked away from it, and his brain whirred trying to find a new topic - something else, anything else - to think about. 

It eventually landed on the only other new development in his life - a new friend. Oka Ruto, leader of the occult club. He ignored her for most of his time there. She was shy and kept to herself, so he had no real reason to. But earlier that week she approached him in the plaza and asked him for recommendations on mystery books, and he gave them. They’d kept talking after that, and he learned that she was a really sweet girl under the shy persona. 

He really knew he shouldn’t. Not with what was happening now. The whispers in the hallways, ‘I bet Yamada did it, he knew all of them.’ ‘It’s always the quiet kid.’, it was all lies. Osana was his best friend, Amai was the sweetest girl in school, and Kizana - well, Kizana wasn’t the best - but he really needed a friend then. Hell, he still did. Luckily, most people believed they were all badly timed accidents. Hair caught in a fan, poisoned food, sandbag falling on a stage - it could all be played off. He just hoped nothing happened with anyone else, or the rumors would spread like wildfire.

Taro was knocked out of his thoughts by another student exiting the gardening club area. He was walking quickly, clearly not paying attention to his surroundings. He held a large blue bucket filled with who-knows-what. Not too weird, it was cleaning time after all. But why would he need a bucket in the grass?

Upon noticing Taro, the other boy’s feet stuttered under him. He immediately seemed somewhat… embarrassed? Or shy? But before Taro could think more, the boy’s feet flew out from under him and he - and his overlarge bucket - went catapulting in Taro’s direction.

Taro tried to back away in time but he wasn’t fast enough. He looked down, sensations not hitting him just yet, expecting to be soaked to the bone with water and suds. That was the reasonable answer, but he instead saw bright red covering his black uniform jacket. He looked up at the kid, still shocked from… everything that had just happened. He looked down at himself again, then back at the kid. He seemed terrified of him, glancing back and forth, trying to force words from his mouth. He also looked incredibly suspicious, with a guilty, ‘I could not regret this more if I tried,’ look on his face.

“Was that… blood?”

He stuttered for a moment, seeming almost incapable of speaking. “I’m in the art club, it’s just red paint, I promise,” he said defensively.

Okay, he was definitely creeped out now. The liquid looked and smelled like blood, and he’d never seen this kid in the art club. Besides who would fill a giant bucket with red paint? And who would bring it outside of all places? And hadn’t he been coming from the gardening club? They had just finished re-painting their shed, and everything else had been done over the summer. 

But there were too many questions and too little time. He saw the gym teacher approaching around the corner and realized his opportunity. But did he take it? He really should, but what if this was a terrible mistake, what if he was blamed for this? He looked back and forth between the two and with a split second left made a decision. 

“Taisho-sensei! I - he - blood!” he said desperately.

She jogged over and looked them both over before furrowing her brow. “Aishi is an art club member. It’s just paint, yes?” she said, looking at the kid - Aishi - for approval.

He nodded quickly, “Yes, and I told him that. He didn’t believe me.” Oh hell no. Aishi did not just blatantly lie to this teacher. Well - it wasn’t really a lie - he had said that. Taro had every reason to believe that he had just been doused in blood, and now he looked like the bad guy. It was sneaky - the exact kind of manipulation he could expect from someone who kept buckets of blood lying around.

“Yamada, go change in the locker room. Aishi, clean the rest of this up.”

“Of course,” Aishi said, giving a light smirk as soon as she looked away.

“But he-”

“Both of you, be more careful not to spill next time,” she interrupted.

“I - alright.”

Taro scurried off to the locker room, trying to put together the pieces. He shoved the bloody clothes into his locker, he could clean them another time, now he just needed to think. Even after a long shower and the walk to the gate, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

--

Late the next night, Taro was still reeling from the event when he got an alert on his phone. He shook the bright screen light out of his eyes and clicked on it. 

New-Age Akademi Massacre Continues

Oka Ruto of Akademi High has been proclaimed missing. She is presumed to be dead, but no body has been found.

Taro collapsed back onto his bed, shaking like a leaf. He tried to steady his breathing and practically threw his phone down onto his bed. This couldn’t be happening. This shouldn’t be happening, he shouldn’t have let this happen. If he said more to the gym teacher, tried to get him to the guidance counselor, he knew, he knew. Just maybe then this could stop, he knew. But there was nothing he could do with his knowledge at this point. She was already dead, and he was already gone.

#TW: Murder #TW: Death #TW: Yandere #ayato aishi #yandere kun #taro yamada #taro x ayato #yansim #fanfic

[santoggui]

one big thing I fear

being sandbag-sized by people in this DR community because of my behaviour.

I always was in a smaller fandom community before and if I do something wrong,(what you say and what you draw, the things you say you like..,,,)people in that community will just nicely correct my behaviour and I would do the same thing to the other people in a nice way

im just afraid that one day I'll mess something up(I don't know what I'll mess up but still) and this giant community will literally break me down into pieces

so if I post something sensitive or mean or whatever that makes you guys feel uncomfortable, feel free to dm me to correct my behaviour!!!

[tamatoashiny123]

A Day In The Life: A Kim Possible Story (Part 1: Morning)

Here’s the story pitch: what if you followed a day in the life of Doctor Drakken and Shego? Here’s how I think it’d go:

8 AM:

Having just woken up, Shego yawned, stretched, got out of bed, put on her robe, and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast. Her boss, Doctor Drakken, was already at the table, holding a cereal box.

“Good morning, Shego,” he greeted.

“Good morning, Doctor D,” she said back. “I’m gonna make some toast. Do you want some?”

“No thank you. I’m gonna have some of this cereal.”

Shego looked at the box as Drakken poured some cereal into a bowl. It contained Dino Pebbles, a very sugary and colorful cereal. “Are you sure? My teeth are hurting just looking at those flakes.”

“They’re pebbles, Shego. And I need some sugar. I’ve been suffering from an evil schemer’s block for a week now and getting some sugary energy flowing to my brain might be just what I need to overcome it!”

“Mmm, sure it will, Doctor D,” Shego replied, rolling her eyes

“Don’t give me that tone this early in the morning, Shego! Just watch! I’m gonna come up with something diabolical right now!”

Shaking her head, Shego began to make herself a cup of coffee as Drakken took several big spoonfuls of the sugary cereal. Already feeling his heart going a mile a minute, he looked at the cereal box closer. On the front was a cartoon of a green T-Rex. Staring at the cartoon, an idea began to form. “DNA cloning!” he exclaimed.

Shego sighed as she sat down at the table and took a sip from her ‘#1 Partner in Crime’ coffee mug Drakken had given to her last year for Christmas. “Again with the cloning? Haven’t you failed at that, like, seven times already?”

“Not human cloning! I’m talking about dinosaur cloning!”

Shego took a very long sip from her mug. “Huh?”

“Yes, it’s perfect!” he said to himself. “I’ll steal some dinosaur DNA, inject it into a lizard or whatever, have it breed, then blast the offspring with a growth ray! I’ll have a giant dinosaur at my disposal that no army can take down, leaving me primed to take over the world! MUAHAHAHAHA!”

Shego took in his plan before responding. “I hate to rain on your sugar-fueled parade, but there are a few flaws with your plan.”

“Oh? Such as?”

“Well, for starters, where are you getting a growth ray? Cuz I’m pretty sure Smartymart doesn’t carry them.”

“Mere semantics, Shego. I’ll simply steal one from a top-secret government facility when we get closer to that phase of the plan.”

“Uh-huh, right. Second, this is sounding a bit too like that time you tried to woo DNAmy into helping you create a mutant army and wound up creating a giant dinosaur creature-thing that nearly devoured us whole.”

“Ah, but this time, I won’t rely on those crazy machines Amy uses to splice DNA samples together. It’ll be simply injecting the lizard with DNA, then hitting its offspring with the growth ray I’ll steal.”

“And how will you ensure it’s obedient and won’t immediately eat you?”

“I…I don’t know! A giant spray bottle or dinosaur-controlling whistle should do the trick, I suppose. I’ll just hit them with the growth ray as well.”

Shego shook her head. “That’s not…whatever. Also, you do know lizards aren’t just tiny descendants of dinosaurs, right?”

“They aren’t?”

“No! Birds are their descendants.”

“What?! You’re making that up!”

“I can assure you that I’m not.”

Not believing her, Drakken pulled out his phone and consulted Google. “Huh, it appears you’re right about this ‘bird’ thing, Shego. Very well then. The first step will be me catching a bird to inject!”

Before Shego could respond, Drakken stood up from the table and ran out the kitchen. Sighing, Shego finished her cup of coffee and walked over to the toaster. “It’s way too early for this…”

9 AM:

After finishing breakfast, Shego took a shower. She exited the bathroom with a towel around her waist and her hair when an excited Drakken ran up to her, holding an object behind his back. “Shego! I need to show you what one of the minions found on the island!”

“Can it wait until I have clothes on?”

“Just check this out!”

Drakken revealed he was holding a birdcage. Inside was a seagull, who cocked its head at the sight of Shego and squawked.

“…do I even want to know why you have that thing?”

“Well, you said that birds were the descendants of dinosaurs. And a seagull is a type of bird, is it not?”

“I mean, yeah…”

“Exactly! Now say hello to Barry!”

“You named the seagull ‘Barry’?”

“Yep!”

“Why?”

“Because I thought the little guy looked like a Barry. Now, say hello to Barry, Shego.”

Shego crouched down to meet the bird at eye level. “Uh…how’s it going?”

The bird turned around and began to raise his tail feathers. Realizing what it was about to do, Shego pushed past Drakken and ran towards her room. “Drakken, I just took a shower! Don’t let that thing near me again unless you house-train it!”

“You know, in some cultures, it’s considered good luck for a bird to do its business on you,” Drakken shouted as Shego slammed her door shut. Sighing, he looked down at the seagull. “Don’t worry, Barry. I understand you. Come on, let’s go find some dinosaur DNA for me to steal.”

11 AM:

After getting changed into her green and black jumpsuit and doing her hair and makeup, Shego went into her training room and was wailing on a sandbag with her nemesis Kim Possible’s face taped to the side.

“This is for smudging my lipstick! And this is for breaking my nail two weeks ago!” Shego grunted as she unleashed a flurry of fists and kicks. Stepping back, she lit her hands up with plasma energy and unleashed a diagonal swipe that created a tear in the bag, causing sand to begin to pour out. As this happened, Drakken entered the room.

“Shego!” he barked. “I thought I told you to stop doing that to Sandbag Kim Possible! Do you think those things grow on trees?!”

Shego rolled her eyes and brushed the sand off her shoulders. “Did you find your dinosaur DNA yet?”

Drakken pulled out his phone and opened a webpage. “I’ve been doing some research into that. Turns out, there’s a big scientist convention being held in Palo Alto today!”

“And they didn’t invite you?”

“I assume my invite got lost in the mail. But one of their big presentations is some archeologist presenting a DNA sample of a T-Rex they found on a mosquito that was frozen in amber.”

“So, we’re gonna crash that convention and steal the DNA to further your hair-brained scheme?”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘hair-brained’, but yep, that’s the gist!”

Drakken yawned. “But not this minute. I think I’m *yawn* coming down off that sugar high from this morning. I’m gonna take a nap now. I’ll call you when I’m ready to go.”

With that, Drakken left the room. Shego walked over to a giant locker, opened it, and pulled out another sandbag with Kim’s face taped to it. She unhooked the torn bag and attached the new one.

“Alright, Princess,” Shego said, cracking her knuckles. “Time for round two…”

TBC…

#kim possible #doctor drakken #shego kim possible #fanfic #kim possible series

[dimensionwriter]

Hammer Away

Gender Neutral! Orc x F! Reader

Word Count: 2,756 words

Warning: None

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So, hi. So big news, I'm working on a way to start up commissions. Since I have some free time, I would be able to do them now. So watch out for that post if you are interested. For now, enjoy this beautiful story.

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Moving to the city was a big deal for you. It was your first step towards that adulthood freedom you always heard about and creating yourself for the future. It was your time to shine in this world.

And things seem to be going great. You got this cute contemporary apartment that was high up, so you could see the sun rising over the city. You got this cool job at a retro cafe and worked at a library on weekends. Things were looking up in your life.

That was until the lot next to you got sold and all of a sudden a hotel was going to be built there. You really didn't think much of it since it didn't block your beautiful view. But your opinion changed really quickly.

You got into the habit every morning to walk past the construction site and peak over the wooden fence to see what was going on. There would be a bunch of orcs working with a bunch of construction equipment. The way they just move so easily with such massive objects just captivated you.

At first, they didn't notice you, but around the 5th day, they did. It shocked you to peek over the fence and see a group of talking orcs stop and wave at you. You were not prepared for that and embarrassingly, you may have ducked down while running away.

You didn't peak over the fence for the next two days. You knew it was a dumb thing to do, but you were too scared of them getting mad at you for always peaking over. You didn't want to seem like one of those creepy humans that was always staring at other creatures like they were some type of zoo animal.

On the 8th day, you grew curious again when you heard what sound to be wielding. You went to a new part of the fence, a few feet from your normal spot, and peaked over. A small one couldn’t cause any damage, right?

The foundation of the building was already built and they seemed to be working on the exoskeleton of it. Bars of metal were being lifted up by cranes along with orcs carrying them around as if they weighed nothing.

You noticed that one orc was staring at you. As soon as you made eye contact, his eyes lit up and he turned to an orc carrying an arm full of sandbags and tapped them. The working orc turned around with a confused look before their eyes landed on you. They seem to jump at seeing you, causing their hands to release the sandbags…right on their foot.

You ducked down at the scream that got ripped out of their throat. You were quick to run to your job after that. There was no way they weren't going to be mad at you now.

A full week went by with you avoiding the construction site like the plague. You were too scared to even go near it. You were expecting a manager to come up to your door and yell at you for distracting and injuring his workers. What if that orc tried to make you compensate them? You can't afford that. How much does damaging someone’s foot cost?

The Monday of the third week, you walked out of your apartment building to see that the wooden fence had changed into a wire fence. The amount of dread that overcame you felt like a tsunami. Whomever was watching over you was finding a huge amount of humour in your suffering?

You walked as fast as you could past the construction site. But you weren't fast enough.

"Hey! Human! Watch out," someone yelled. You turned your head towards the construction site to see a small white object speeding towards you.

You didn't have any time to move. By the time you would've moved your leg, the ball would smash into your face. If you tried to dodge it, your body would move too slow since you just used precision time standing here and thinking.

You flinched as you saw it get extremely close. But instead of feeling your skull getting knocked into next week, a thick arm wrapped around your waist. You were dipped slightly and spun. What?

You open your eyes to see a figure above you. They seem to be a sort of shadow as the early sun creates this giant glow around them.

They tilted their head to the side allowing the sun rays to reach their face. You were met with a dark brown eye and a light green eye. Their hair was flowing down and seemed to encase you within them. The left side of the hair was pitch black while the right was pale white. They were really cute.

They opened their mouths to speak, but nothing came out. Their tusk was jutting out and touching the infinity ring dangling from their nose. A dark green forest was painting their skin as they stood still.

You leaned your head back and saw their muscular right arm was sticking up above you. Wrapped tightly in their fist was a softball. So that's what the white object was.

"I-I-I," they stuttered out like a broken record. You lifted your head back up and looked into their eyes. Their green skin was turning a dark blue colour and was spreading fast. Were they okay?

"You can let me up," you mumbled. Your legs were starting to cramp from being at this angle for so long. Most of your weight was in their arms, which you were kind of grateful for.

"Sorry," they yelped, yanking you forward. Everything blurred for a second before you were slammed into a stop. Their giant hand was gripping harshly on your shoulder as they held you up. You think you may have gotten whiplash.

"Thanks for the help. I gotta- I need to go to work," you slurred out trying to regain your being. Everything felt like it was still spinning.

"Of course. Sorry for being a nuisance," they squeaked out, shrinking into themselves. In your state of dizziness, you barely manage to give them a thumbs up before stumbling away to your job.

The next day, you felt kind of scared to cross past the construction site. You thought about it yesterday and began to wonder why a softball was flying that fast through a construction site. You may know nothing about the job, but you're pretty sure it doesn't require a softball.

You walked at a fast pace as you got closer to the construction site. This time you were going to keep a close eye out. No softball is going to catch you off guard this time.

As you walk past, you realize orcs work a lot faster than humans do. The exoskeleton of the building, which looked to be 7 stories, was already done. Except for one long metal bar that was extended a little over the fence. There were a few orcs on it that were yelling at someone on the ground.

"Bro…she's right there…just talk…okay fine." You looked down on the ground to see who they were talking to. You recognized them instantly.

It was the orc that saved you yesterday. Today, their hair was pulled into a high messy bun that looked like it was going to fall apart if someone blew on it.

They glanced over at you and seemed to jump up high like a cartoon woman seeing a rat. You blinked slowly at them and waited for maybe a wave or something. But they just stood there with wide eyes and seemed too afraid to move. Were they frightened by you? Well, they probably were since you probably damaged their hand because you were too slow to move, and now that you looked at them, they looked like the orc that you caused to drop that sandbag. Yeah, they definitely had a reason.

You turned your head away and was about to walk away. When you hear a voice above you scream," Whoospie. Oh no, human!" It was so sarcastic and insincere that you thought maybe they were making jokes about what happened yesterday.

It was until you saw a wall of green running towards you. You barely had time to turn your head before you felt a pair of arms wrapped around your waist. You were wrapped into a ball full of muscles. A strong wift of cinnamon and pine flooded your senses. They smell really good.

Something cold and wet splashed on your arm causing you to jolt in surprise. The thing around you let out a shiver from that weird substance splashing onto it. It seems that they took most of the hit instead of you.

Slowly, the arms unwrapped from around you and you were pulled straight up. You glanced up to see a pair of brown and green eyes staring down at you in slight panic. Water slowly dripped down the front of their face into their soaked shirt.

"Sorry-dry-um," they let out a low cough before starting again," You didn't get wet, right?" They scanned their eyes briskly over you as their eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"I'm fine, but you're not," you yelped, taking in their soaked form. The white shirt they were wearing was completely see through now and they're jeans were a very dark blue. It wasn't cold, but it would still be uncomfortable standing there soaked. "Stay here."

You turned around and ran as fast as you could to your apartment. You felt so bad for always getting in this orc's way. This poor orc has had their foot smashed in, hand probably bruised from that softball, and now they're soaking wet.

Maybe it would be better if you took a different path to work. You're like a bad omen to this site. Yeah, that's the plan.

You returned back outside with two pairs of towels. The orc wasn't standing where you previously left them. You did tell them to stay there, right? So, where did they go off to?

"Dude, that was so smooth. The way you slid in and wrapped yourself around her," a squeaky voice whispered nearby. You realized that the talking was coming from a portable building.

"It was anything but smooth. Didn't you see how she ran away?" Another one sighed out with a small whimper at the end. You held the towels tightly as you tiptoed closer to the building.

"She probably was too flustered from how awesome you are! I saw her whisper something to you before she ran away. Spill it," a deeper baritone voice cheered on. The sound of a loud hit followed by coughing came from the building.

You stepped towards the building and noticed a small window. It would hypothetically be the perfect height to peak in through. But from all your previous tries, it always ends up in something bad.

But, if you only do it for a few seconds, you should be fine. A few seconds peak won't change anything. Yeah, just a tiny peak.

Tip toeing over to the window, you took a deep breath to calm yourself. You just want to make sure that the orc is okay then you will leave. They have been taking a lot of hits for you and you never got a chance to repay them.

You slowly stood up until your eyes were leveled with the window. Inside of the room were a bunch of chairs around a small table. All the chairs were filled with orcs, but one orc was sitting in the corner balled up. You could see their soaked shirts from all the way over here.

“I wasn’t paying attention to what she said. All I was thinking was that she smelled really really good. Then I blinked and she was running away. Guess my monstrous size scared her,” they mumbled out in defeat. Their hand slowly went up into their hair and started gripping it harshly. The others in the room started to instantly express their disbelief.

“If she was scared of our size, then why has she been coming by here for the longest time. People don’t tend to frequently visit something if they fear it,” the orc closest to them spoke, patting them gently on the head. Their hands untangled themselves from their hair allowing the black and white strands to fall over their face.

Since you were so busy staring at the orc in the corner, you didn’t notice the female orc across from the window staring at you. She bumped the shoulder of the man beside her and flicked her head towards you. Putting a hand over his mouth, he whispered for everyone to glance at the window. It was loud enough for everyone to hear but the poor orc in the corner and you.

“Maybe you should just plainly ask her out,” the female orc in the corner said with a smirk. The orc jolted straight up and stared at her in bewilderment. They furiously shook their head as they squeezed themselves into the corner. “Andy, I’m telling you, you’re just overthinking it.”

“Trust me, she wouldn’t go for someone like. I’m not going to shoot my shot, if I’m in the middle of the ocean, millions of miles away from a hoop,” the orc, who you assumed was Andy, rambled sliding down the wall. The other orcs shook their heads at him and you felt that some of them were glancing at you. Have they already noticed you?

“I am telling you that the hoop is right there, I mean right there,” an orc turned his head so he was staring right at you. Instead of ducking down, you stayed put. You were kind of liking where this was going.

“I’m nothing more than a lump of sea grass floating through the ocean,” Andy whined out balling up. One orc stuck his hands out and pretended to strangle him in frustration. After a second, his rage dissipated and he just sunk into his chair.

The female orc let out a low groan before yelling,” Forget it.” Andy jumped a little and their pretty eyes were widening in panic as they looked around confused. “Ay, human up there. Are you interested in going on a date with this orc?”

Finally, Andy’s head lifted up and spotted you through the window. You had given up a while ago after figuring out they could see you, and was standing at full height. You are kind of surprised that Andy didn’t notice you before. It’s kind of adorable how clueless they are.

“I’ve been standing out here for a while hoping for one,” you joked, sending them a wink. Andy’s face exploded into blue as his brown and green eyes sparkling with happiness. They jumped up and tripped over the chair in front of them, but recovered quickly. Within a quick second, they were staring you dead in the eyes with so much hope.

“Are you free this afternoon? Or is that too soon? I can go with any schedule of yours,” they babbled out rocking on their feet. Their hair was floating around them like some sort of halo. Gosh, this adorable hunk of orc has had a crush on you this entire time. You feel that it should have been the other way around.

“This evening is fine. I should be able to meet you right here around 6. How does that sound?” you asked tilting your head to the side. Their eyes melted slowly and you swear small lights of hearts appeared on their eyes.

“It sounds perfect,” they whispered, giving you a giant smile. You leaned forward and pressed a swift kiss to the window. Even though you didn’t touch them, their face hued darker and their eyes were shining so hard.

“Now, I better get to work before my boss gets mad. See you in a couple of hours,” you yelled jumping off the ledge and running to your job. You just hoped your boss wouldn’t mind you being so late. But whatever was facing you at work, you felt you could deal with, especially when you have a date with such an adorable orc.

As you ran down the sidewalk, the last thing you heard from the construction site was,” I guess you can still make the hoop from the ocean,” followed by loud laughter. A smile made its way to your face as you turned the corner.

See you at 6, Andy.

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Once again I am creating these soft orcs. I promise, one day I will create something better.

Anyway, please leave a Like and Reblog. I love it so much when you guys Comment, I think i reread them like 20 times. It's nice to see that people actually see this content instead of it just passing by in this overwhelming source dump.

Thank you so much for reading. As said earlier, keep your eyes out for a post about commissions from me.

#monsters #monster x girl #monster love #monster romance #orctober #orc #orc boyfriend #orc x reader #orc x human #monsta x #orc boy #orc romance #exophilia #exo #tetro #dimensionwriter #hammer #hammer away #oc x reader #x reader #my oc stuff #my writing #my art #monster writing #monster boy #reader x oc #reader insert #reader #dnd #au

[hola-ninos]

You II Part 5

Summary - You and the crew finally rescue Nico, but as the saying goes, everything comes with a cost.

Word Count - 1.5k

Warnings - spoilers for Mark of Athena, lil but of dragon fighting, reader is a little emotionally scarred. That ending is angstyyyy so lookout luvs

A/N - Hey y’all! So here’s part 5….thank you for sticking around this long, I really do appreciate it. Just a lil warning, Part 6 may not be out for a while because it’s gonna take a while for me to start on House of Hades. I’m in the middle of a re-read, so please don’t get mad! Thank you again for supporting my page!

...

“Nico,” you breathed out, watching him spill out of the bronze jar. He wasn’t moving, except for the small rise and fall of his breaths. Releasing a sigh of relief, you focused your attention on the giants. Ephiliates stood in front of Nico, blocking off your direct path towards him. You glanced at Percy, watching your brother think. Watching his eye movements, you realized he had come to the same conclusion as you. You had to wait to attack until Nico had gotten a safe distance away from the giants, or they would kill him. Keeping your eyes locked on him, you urged him to wake up and crawl away. The giants were monologuing, so Piper and the boys were egging them on, also catching onto Percy’s plan. Nico slowly started to come to his senses, and although you noticed, so did Otis. His snake feet started flicking around Nico. Luckily Piper noticed and started talking about ballet, which clearly interested the lonely giant. The twins kept going, and you caught important parts like “Gaea is rising in a months time” and “We are not just a warm-up act”and something about circuses, wonder bread and letting us go. As confused as you were, you kept your gaze on Nico. With shaking arms, he dragged his lifeless body across the ground. You gave Percy the ’ok’ and he looked to Piper and Jason. “I’m getting tired of this guy's shirt,” he said. “Yeah, it’s too flashy,” you bad mouthed. “Combat time?” Piper asked, pulling her cornucopia out. All Jason said was “I hate Wonder bread,” before charging at the giants. You immediately split off from the group, determined to get the son of Hades away from the fight. Sprinting towards him, you gazed back to see the anti-Dionysius’s disappearing in a cloud of smoke before reappearing on the other side of the room. Turning your head back towards Nico, you saw two leopards coming towards him, and he had no idea. You pushed yourself to go faster, getting to Nico just as the leopards closed in. Slashing your knife, you realized you had no chance against these beasts. That was until Piper blasted a pot roast over their heads, which must’ve smelled a lot better than two demigods, because they went running after it. You saw Percy ducking a hydra, while Jason sparred with Otis. Piper was nearby, fighting off the leopards that were coming towards Nico. You got down on your knees, spotting no immediate threats, and shook Nico’s shoulders. “Wake up Death Breath!” you yelled, trying to get him out of his daze. While trying to wake him up, you didn’t realize your idiot brother was aiming a bazooka towards the hydra. He yelled “Duck and Cover!” before vaporizing the hydra. You watched as the other shots went all over the room. One exploded over Ephilates head, which was good, but one brought sandbags down on you and Nico. They rained down as you tried to pull Nico to safety, wanting to keep your promise that you would stay alive for him, but it was not enough. A sandbag landed on your shoulder, knocking you down while also leaving you and Nico helpless. Tears slipped down your cheeks as you watched the sandbags come fall, knowing that this was it. You squeezed Nico tighter, hoping he knew how much you loved him. That was before you heard a noise that you thanked Zues for. “Y/N!” Jason yelled dodging sandbags and running towards you. He hoisted you and Nico up, dragging you out of the sandbag pile. You quickly stood up, while Nico finally got out of his daze. Piper pointed out the controls to Percy, who destroyed the masterboard. Percy was turned, but not fast enough. Ephilates clobbered Percy in the chest with a spear, knocking him to the ground. Jason ran to his side prepared for a fight, while Piper, Nico and you watched, too injured to put up a good fight. The boys stood shoulder to shoulder watching the giants circle them. They threatened the giants, big words for such little people. Otis and Ephilates had waited long enough. They were going to attack when a voice spoke up. “Well, that’s a shame,” the new voice said. “I’d hate to think I made a special trip for nothing.” You watched as the god Bacchus walked forward. Deciding that he and the boys could destroy the twins, you paid attention to Nico. He had finally woken up, and was watching intently to the scene unfolding before him. You lunged at him, pulling him into a hug. He seemed confused at first. Maybe it was because he was just kidnapped by giants, you didn’t know. But he was safe now, and that was almost all that mattered. It didn’t last for long. Soon, you were in a stadium stand, holding onto Nico still. You surveyed your surroundings to find Piper and Bacchus next to you in the stands. In the middle of the stadium stood four figures : Two giants and two demigods, who you assumed were Percy and Jason.You watched as a nymph attended to Piper's arm, and another spirit gave Nico a Happy Meal from McDonald’s. One offered some ambrosia to you, and resisting was not something you were good at. So here you were, munching on ambrosia while Percy and Jason fought the giants. Bacchus assured you that he wouldn’t let them die, but you were getting a little sus. You watched as Ephilates swept Percy off his feet, and then dragged his spear tip down Jason’s chest. Piper cried out, as did you, but there was nothing you could do. You watched as the giant put his arms up to take the final strike, when a column of Greek fire blasted him. The Argo II came flying into the arena, landing in the center before 3 people came off. Leaning forward in your seat, you saw Hazel, Frank, and Leo rush towards Percy and Jason. Bacchus appeared too, destroying their giants with a flick of his pinecone staff. Before you could do much else, you were on board the ship and flying towards the Emmanuel Building. Percy looked over the railing, clearly worried about his girl. You scooted closer to him, wanting him to feel better. He and Annabeth would be fine. He turned his head to observe you, then gave you a side hug. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you too Perce,” you responded, seeing the gray building grow bigger and bigger. You went below deck to find Coach Hedge, knowing he would want to fire the ballista straight into the ground. After you sent him up to the main deck, you went to the weaponry to get some ammo for the destructive weapon. You squatted down to the lowest shelf, finding the better explosives there. A squeaking floorboard alerted you of Nico’s presence. You spun around to find the Ghost King face to face with you. He looked you up and down, as if looking for something, when his eyes landed on your neck. There sat his ring, that you had put on a chain. It was his promise that he would make it back to you. “I guess I needed your help to finish my promise, huh?” he said, voice shaky. He looked up at you, and you couldn’t help but cry. You crashed into his arms, and cried. Your tear stains soaked his shirt, but he only held you tighter. He pulled away, looking at you once again. “It’s going to be ok now, alright?” he assured you. You nodded your head, feeling a weight lifted from your shoulders. You grabbed the explosives and headed up the stairs that led to the main deck, ready for a fight. You loaded up the ballista, watching Nico lean over the rail. Percy sharpened Riptide, with a grim expression covering his face. This was it. Coach aimed the ballista, and BOOM! There was a hole in the ground. Leo drifted the ship closer, only stopping when he was by the ledge Annabeth was standing on. You threw down the rope ladder, letting Percy down first. You frantically followed behind, needing to see Annabeth. Nico, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper, and Jason were quick to follow, wanting to help Annabeth as best as they could. Although they didn’t have much time for that, the crew did everything. You raced to the ladder, climbing up a couple of rungs to make room for Annabeth and Percy. But when you looked down, you saw Annabeth being dragged to the end of the pit. Percy held onto her, his feet dragging into the earth. You watched as your older brother screamed what may have been his last words. “Meet me on the other side!” he screamed. You didn’t have enough time to respond before you watched your big brother and your best friend tumble over the ledge, falling straight down to Tartarus.

I know I am bad for doing this, but here is the taglist -

@mariesunflowerchild

#pjo #nico di angelo imagines #nico di angelo x reader #percy jackson #annabeth chase #jason grace #piper mclean #hazel levesque #frank zhang #leo valdez #mark of athena #percy jackson imagines

[littorella]

Wounded Animals

CW: harassment

One of the first things you learn as a pet owner is that animals don’t show signs of illness until they are extremely sick or wounded. Having lived threatened existences, they have evolved to hide their weakness until they no are longer able.

Women are like this too, particularly minority women.

I was and am sometimes still like this.

We are taught to endure and please or suffer the consequence of having a reputation for being difficult. Dragon lady. Angry black woman. Spicy latina. Whoever you are, there is a bad stereotype to avoid.

Every job I have worked, I have experienced bad behavior from male colleagues and hid my discomfort until I was no longer able. I have never quit simply because the job was bad. It has always been accompanied by unbearable harassment.

My first job, a male manager treated me like a secretary (I was not). He also asked me constantly if I had a good day watching porn and shopping on ebay. I didn’t say anything because no one else ever said anything, and being a squeaky wheel is a one way ticket to never getting a promotion. I finally got so irate that I wrote a giant letter and went to the company president with it. She yelled at me for an hour about how the young women in the company were so catty and such complainers. He got a promotion and a raise, I didn’t. I talked to the CEO, he yelled at me too, “What do you want? Don’t you get paid enough?!” I didn’t know what to say other than “no and I quit.”

My last job, a male colleague asked me out to lunch all the time. I felt I couldn’t say no because I needed him to do work for me (he’d sandbag work for people he didn’t like.) He often said things like “I’d do anything for you.” I always tried to teach him better, “that’s weird, don’t say that.” Because I am supposed to be a nice, patient person and sometimes awkward men really just aren’t self aware. That, and the last woman who was overly vocal was fired for being “toxic”. He would take photos of me without permission even though I made it explicit that was not ok. He never did learn. His wife saw a photo and started to harass me too. I went to HR, but they didn’t do anything. She’s not an employee. I quit. I now get terrible anxiety when I walk by that office building in case he sees me.

We’ve all got to speak up sooner. If only few do, they’re just difficult people. If everyone does, the problem is real. Come on, we all know bad behavior when we see it. There’s the urge to endure, to make excuses and allowances, to feel sorry for people who behave badly and not want to destroy their careers. 

But if that’s what it takes for them to learn, that’s what it takes.

We’re not wounded animals. We don’t need to hide.

#personal #cw harassment

[dajaregambler]

HeliosR - Oscar Bale Card story “Teaching of the Muscle Methods”

Translation of Oscar Bale’s initial 3* card story from ‘Helios Rising Heroes’.

Oscar: Huff, huff….

Oscar: (Looks like I’m able to wrap up my workout routine pretty well today. Next is training the pectoral muscles and I’m done.)

Akira: Huff, guh, huh….

Oscar: (Impressive to see that Akira is quietly concentrating on his own training.)

Oscar: (....Mh, suppose I’ll rest a little.)

Oscar: (I ought to change my shirt since I’ve been sweating a considerable amount.)

Akira: …….

Oscar: What’s wrong, Akira? You’re staring….

Akira: Ya body’s amazing

Oscar: That’s sudden?

Akira: I’ve been training without missing a single day, and yet I’m nowhere close to you

Akira: Teach me how I can get a body like that. ‘Cuz I don’t think I’m getting it right

Oscar: I see…. Give me a demonstration

Akira: Yes!

Akira: Huff, fuh, guh…

Oscar: (.....Hmm. The big movements he’s making causes his strength to be unbalanced, it might be diminishing the efficiency of it.)

Akira: So, what’cha think?

Oscar: Right…. Imagine, that there’s a giant tree in front of you….

Akira: A giant tree?

Oscar: Yes, a giant tree. And then, you will...

Akira: Hold on, why are we suddenly talking about giant trees now. I don’t get it at all

Oscar: ….I was trying to explain in a way that’s easy to understand.

Akira: Ah, well whatever. It’s nothing new that the way ya go about things is difficult to get

Akira: Hey, tell me your training methods instead

Akira: You got some amazing muscles for real man, you gotta know some kind of super effective technique for it, right?

Oscar: I have my way of doing things but, it’s more that it’s deeply ingrained into my body…. Trying to explain it is difficult.

Akira: Then, you can show how you do it

Akira: I tried copying ya but there’s much I don’t get from just watching from afar

Oscar: Hmm…..

Oscar: Showing you shouldn’t pose a problem. If there’s anything you notice while watching, feel free to use it as a reference 

Akira: Yeah, thanks

Oscar: Huff, huff, huff….

Oscar: (Normally I’m concentrating during training, but it’s a strange feeling to be watched.)

Akira: Huuuh, like that….

Oscar: (Seems that he is getting something out of it. I suppose a demonstration like this counts as guidance too….)

Akira: Say, Oscar. What are you actually training like this for?

Oscar: I’m using martial art techniques to fight. Your body is a weapon, so to say.

Oscar: Thus it’s necessary to always train. If you slack off, your body will weaken before you can realize it.

Akira: I see. I fight with my firsts so it’d be better to concentrate on improving my arm muscles, right

Oscar: What about your serratus anterior muscles

Akira: My...what now?

Oscar: Muscles that are compatible with your style of fighting. If you were to build these you’d be able to unleash quick and powerful punches.

Akira: Huuuh….! Are there any others?

Oscar: I suggest building the quadriceps and rectus abdominis muscles too. Both are necessary for how you fight, the more you train them the more your offensive capability will improve.

Akira: Kwa-dree-seps… Rekt-us ab-domee-nis….

Oscar: You’ll remember these eventually

Oscar: It’s a good thing to be interested in muscles. The more you build them, the better they’ll respond to your actions.

Akira: Had no idea…. So, how do I go about working on these muscles?

Oscar: For the quadriceps, it’d be efficient to do like I did now

Oscar: And this machine will do for the rectus abdominis 

Akira: Hmm, hmmm. And for that something-something muscle you mentioned before?

Oscar: Most convenient and efficient would be a sandbag

Akira: I see…. ah, you have one in your room. Right, so that’ll be good to use

Oscar: Mhm. ….You can use it from now on if you’d like to?

Akira: Oh, hell yeah!

Akira: This will definitely make me the strongest, muscly hero out there

Akira: Heheh, I’ll get stronger than ya in the blink of an eye. AND while becoming a Major Hero too!

Oscar: Don’t get too carried away

Oscar: (Still, it’s good to be positive. I’m looking forward to see his growth….)

---

Oscar: Huff, huff….

Brad: Oscar

Oscar: Ah…. sorry, was I being too loud while training?

Brad: No, I don’t mind it. There’s just something I’d like to ask

Brad: ….Actually, you’re looking quite happy. Did something happen?

Oscar: Am I letting it show? To tell you the truth, I had trained with Akira 

Oscar: I was thinking about how nice Akira’s ambitions are, and I shouldn’t fall behind either….

Brad: Which is why you’re striving more than you usually do, huh. Seems that training with him was quite the good time for you. 

Oscar: Yes, I sense that I’ve gotten a bit of a grasp on my own way of teaching. As you know I am bad with explaining but, it proved to be efficient to put it into practice instead.

Oscar: He was also determined to beat me. I’m sure that one day he’d be able to topple a giant tree down. 

Brad: A giant tree? ….What kind of bizarre training have you two been doing now

#heliosR #helios rising heroes #oscar bale #akira otori #brad beams

[youllallriseintheink]

Broken Strings, chapter 3: Showdown

Broken Strings is a story meant to complete the Showdown Bandit narrative and give it a proper ending. You can read the first part here and the second part here.

---

To Penny, there was a certain nostalgia to coming back to her shop. She could vaguely remember, months ago, going to sleep in the room above her store as she had every night since she’d come into existence, and somehow waking up outside of it on the streets. A sign reading “permanently closed,” was on it. After that, it didn’t take Penny long to figure out that her role had been changed slightly- from here on in, she had never had a shop and would have to ignore her previous memories of having one. Role changes like that simply didn’t happen anymore, thankfully. Hers had been the last one.

Putting now slightly-chewed eyes back in her sockets, she could see that the store was exactly as it once was- the equipment meant to forge weaponry in the corner, the supplies lining the shelves, the guns hung up on the wall behind the counter. It was time for Penny to go back to being the Penny she was supposed to be, back then. Rough and tough. A gunsmith and a tailor. Bandit’s trusty sidekick.

Firstly, she counted up the guns. There were eighteen in total. Not great, but… she checked in the forging area and found two partially complete guns that she’d been working on before her shop’s closing. Maybe she could complete them before the horde arrived.

“I need the twenty best shots we have here,” Penny said. “We have barrels and barrels of ammo, please make sure we know for sure. Without being too wasteful, that is.”

The puppets began testing their skills by shooting at a target at an outside range. A while later, Bandit strode in. His thinned, bitten wooden joints had been replaced with brass ones, and his paint had been redone. The leftover bites on his limbs didn’t seem to be holding him back any. He asked for the best gun she had. “No. You’re a Bandit, but that doesn’t mean you have the shooting skills of the Bandit. You’ll have to compete just like everyone else. Shouldn’t be a problem for you, though.”

“Ah mean, it won’t, but don’t you owe me one for fetching yer eyes?”

“Yes, and for that, I’ll upgrade your gun. For the invasion if I can, afterwards if not.” Bandit grumbled, but left without a fuss. Shooting a bullseye with his eyes closed was a good way to relieve his frustration, and Penny awarded him with a golden handgun- the best handgun she had.

---

Outside, Miss Lorelei and a few other puppets were positioning sandbags and other items for the combatant puppets to hide behind.

“You feel like helpin’?” she asked a farmer-looking puppet who was sitting back, drinking tea, and watching them.

“Nah. You’re a bunch of crazies as far as I’m concerned. I’m just enjoyin’ the show.”

Miss Lorelei rolled her eyes and kept working. When Doc Carver saw this, he immediately dropped the sandbag he was carrying and ran off.

“Where are ya goin’?” Miss Lorelei asked.

“To make sure someone I love will survive this,”

---

Doc Carver found Banker in his office- unsurprising as he never left it. “Banker? Did you hear the town meeting?” Banker’s office right at town hall. The only real reason he wouldn’t have seen it is if he were asleep.

“Y-yes. Do you believe all of that stuff, Doc?”

“Yes. I came here to make sure that you would be able to get out.  When… is the last time you’ve been out of there?”

“N-not for a few weeks. I know I should try to stretch my legs more often…”

“This isn’t about your legs! Your legs are stiff wood!” Banker started shaking. “What?”

“You shouldn’t say that. You could be punished for breaking your role.”

Doc shook his head. “This is exactly what I was afraid of. Please, come out with me. I’ll ease you through it, but you need to break every rule if you’re going to survive.”

Banker stepped out of his building.

“Okay. now let’s look up together. That’s the most sacred rule of us puppets- if you can do that without losing your mind, then Bandit really is right. The rules aren’t real.”

This served a purpose other than to ensure Banker’s safety: Doc was rather afraid of having other puppets look up. They didn’t need more widespread insanity in Showdown Valley. So, having a relatively fragile puppet do it now instead of having numerous puppets do it later was simply practical.

The two looked up. Their box did indeed have a ceiling- not a good thing. Worse, it was made of metal. Doc could see the tops of their strings, held to the ceiling by magnets. If only he’d done this sooner, he could have healed so many puppets that he’d considered incurable. He looked over to Banker, who had dropped to his knees in reverence.

“We’ll find a way out,” Doc promised. 

Banker snuggled up against him, tears falling from his eyes. "I know you will.” There was nothing that Doc couldn’t do. He was more crying over the sudden realization that the rules didn’t exist. Banker looked nothing like the puppet he was supposed to. He was too cowardly to properly fulfill his role. Most puppets thought that the punishment for that was insanity, but he’d always believed it had to be worse than that- some sort of awful retribution by whatever had forced them into their roles in the first place. Even if he died in the showdown, he couldn’t help but feel relieved and very overwhelmed at the thought that he didn’t need to be anyone but himself.

---

By evening, the puppets had everything in place for the Showdown. All in all, there were twelve puppets armed with handguns, and eight others armed with shotguns. Penny had swapped out the barrel and on Bandit’s gun so that he could shoot larger bullets- she figured that a slightly shorter-ranged but very deadly weapon would be just his style. In addition, four brave souls had agreed to stay and fight with only melee weapons, including Miss Lorelei and her trusty shovel, which she’d sharpened until it could cut a sliver off her arm. Doc Carver had given up on escape, but he’d found shelter for the defenseless puppets in a cabin as far from the Happy Mines as possible, guarding the door with a butcher’s knife and alongside two miners with pickaxes. Ten or so puppets had still refused to believe that anything was happening, and were wandering the streets or tucked into their homes.

According to Penny, the stringless weren’t coming until sunrise, so they all settled down behind their bunkers to sleep, while taking turns keeping watch.

Then, it happened.

A wave of enemies appeared from the happy mines- around three dozen puppets of all sizes, all packing melee weapons such as clubs and spears. None of them packed guns, but a sizable amount of them had sticks of dynamite hanging from their belts. The shotgun users began to shoot once the stringless puppets came into range, knocking off limbs but not stopping a single puppet’s advance.

“Big ones first,” Bandit yelled at the five handgun-wielding puppets he was hiding with. “Let’s overwhelm them one by one!” They obeyed this plan, filling one large, club-wielding puppet with lead until he fell to his knees and then focusing in on another. A group of eight stringless noticed this and charged Bandit’s hiding place.

“Aim for the legs!” he yelled. They managed to cripple two of the advancing hoard before one puppet lit a stick of dynamite and threw it into Bandit’s hiding place. The six soldiers of Showdown Valley dispersed, one having his legs and one arm torn off. Bandit lay in shock until Miss Lorelei appeared, using her shovel to stab a stringless who’d been about to club Bandit. She helped Bandit to his feet. With the horde upon them, Bandit was finally able to use his secret weapon. Putting those giant bullets into the joints of stringless, he crippled three while Miss Lorelei watched his back and drove away his would be attackers with her blade. It was as though the two of them were in a violent dance, dodging the dynamite, keeping themselves aware of their surroundings lest they be the ones crippled. Crippled puppet bodies became like landmines- ready to drag an agile puppet to the floor. Had this not been a matter of life or death, it would have been the time of Bandit’s life.

The only problem was that they weren’t winning. Bandit hardly had the time to count, but he saw so many causalities- many stringless, but a horrible number stringed. The horde was still advancing, the soldiers of Showdown Valley beign pushed back. Then, Bandit saw it- coming out from the Happy Mines was another horde- a smaller one-maybe a dozen strong, but a horde nonetheless when they were already outnumbered.

“Should we retreat?” Bandit asked Lorelei.

“Yes.

“RETREAT!” Bandit screamed.

---

Lookout had come with the horde. Too small and weak to fight, he was only there to carry in and hand out dynamite and matches. As soon as the last of the soldiers took off, he grabbed five sticks of dynamite and a match and took off. He ran past the village while everyone was fighting, giving the combatants a wide berth and slipping through the window of Penny’s general store. She was there, guarding the village’s store of munitions with a shotgun. He offered her his small donation of dynamite, gave her a regretful look as though he knew it wouldn’t be enough, then left.

Moments later, Penny was tearing through the streets, intent on taking Lookout’s gift to the only place it could be used. The coverage once given to them by the city streets gave way to an empty field. Penny looked back and saw the retreating puppets behind them, only a half a minute’s run away. The horde was nearly as close. The cabin guarded by Doc Carver grew closer.

Once Penny reached the cabin, Doc opened the door to let her in before coming in himself. “Alright. Banker- you know what to do with that dynamite. Do it quickly. Help Penny lead the others to safety. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

Doc opened the door. This time it was the fleeing rebels who crowded in before Doc could step outside.

An explosion sounded behind him. The butcher knife was heavy in his hand. Within seconds, the horde was upon them.

---

Penny led the escapees to an empty box. They were a truly pitiful sight- many of the combatants had lost limbs, or received substantial scratching to their faces. Miss Lorelei had had half her face scratched out. The soot from the explosion that coated many of them was harmless, but only accentuated the fact that there was nowhere to wash off here. Nowhere to do anything, really- just a dreary, empty expanse.

Bandit returned. “I saw Doc Carver,” Bandit said somberly.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Banker croaked. He’d been crying in fear for Carver’s safety.

“Ah saw his body. It was ripped in two, with the limbs gone and the head ten feet away.”

Banker froze in shock. Penny and Miss Lorelei came over to comfort him, but to no avail- he still broke down crying.

“Did you find out anythin’ else?” Miss Lorelei asked.

“Sort of. I saw the stringless. They were just... makin’ themselves at home. I don’t think they’re gonna come after us. Ah think they just wanted our stuff.”

The room went silent except for Banker’s cries.

“Well...” said Miss Lorelei, “Ah guess we’ll just have to try an’ find their old village. It had enough stuff in it to make it by. And we can try to sneak in and take stuff back occasionally. Just like they used to. We can’t invade them- there’s even less of us now, and  we have no Doctor to fix us.” Miss Lorelei pensively stroked one of her strings. With no magnetic ceiling to hold them up, they were dragging on the ground. “And ah guess we don’t need these anymore.”

Just as Miss Lorelei was about to pluck her string, Bandit interjected. “Hold up! We are not gonna live like them unless there is absolutely no other option. You know what I saw out there? a chink of light- like I was looking under their door. I’m gonna to see what else is out there. I’m gonna see if ah can get us some help.”

#showdown bandit #my fanfiction #bandit #penny hemsworth #miss undertaker #doc carver #banker

[classsictrash]

watching things: phantom of the opera (2004)

I am officially 3 spicy margs down and am ready to revisit some personal PEAK preteen angst lets’ do this sh*t.

god this movie stressed me out but every song SLAPT

how tf is Madame Giryl still alive looking younger than Raoul. This movie makes no fucking sense

wait... the chandelier is lot 666? you know that shit is cursed.

lmao Raoul’s just riding in here like “whats up I got a big horse”

Patrick Wilson was actually a great choice for this role but jesus christ I forgot how much I full on hate his hair in this movie. who did that?

MINNIE. DRIVER. I swear they could not have casted carlotta better

SCRAP METAL!!!!!

sandbag bishhhhh

 And until you stop these things from happening this thing DOES NOT HAPPEN! GET MY DOGGY AND MY BOXXY!!

tag yourself im the guy who’s like “fuck this shit I'm going to australia”

all the men in this movie have whack ass hair. 

Christines’ whole look for Think of Me was on point and that’s the tea

catch me fist pumping to phantom of the opera

wait- WHERE DID HE GET A HORSE

oh my god those candles. I forgot about the candles

this is a fire hazard sir

he’s literally trying to feel you up. that is NOT your dad

Im sorry but Christine has to be the dumbest bitch alive.

prima donna is a whole bop

ohshit he really just did that

All I Ask of You!! this is a personal childhood bop and probably my fave track in the whole music 

Sidenote: I know I may be in the minority here but i’ve been #TeamRaoul since I was 10 but that was mostly cuz he wasn’t always trying to kidnap her and stuff.

I need another margarita 

masquerade? cultural reset

he really just snatched her giant ring I would be pissed

he did not just jump in there

then again I might jump in there if someone stole my giant ring

fuck I hate this part

Christine no..

does she still think this guy is her dad or....?

this sword fight is completely uncalled for but i’m here for it

so uh.... just a thought. but maybe you could just not perform Don Juan and like ... leave with your rich boyfriend? sounds much safer tbh

Point of No Return rocks my socks.

fuuuuuuck

ohshit I just remembered what’s about to happen

womp there it is 

Raoul... so pretty and so f***ing dumb.

sir this is literally stockholm syndrome

fuckfuckFUCK

HOW the fuck is the phantom still alive. Raoul’s easily like 70 here and im pretty sure he was a good 15 years older than them so..... we’re just gonna accept this? ok.

in conclusion ....this was not a movie it was a fever dream

#watching things #the phantom of the opera #phantom of the opera #poto

[peacefulrevivalteen]

Exam day

@taiyuu-high-oct

3.7k below,  Refrenced/used in it: Tokachi Ameko (refrenced), Suzuki Popi, Ogura Svetlana, Masaki Sako, Gakusa Oh, Yamazaki Yui, Kottoba Kiru (actually named), Crona, Kenzou, Koatsu Arakan, Jane Watson, Fujimoto Anika

         Stepping off the train Ozen finds herself shuffling around the docks trying to find where she is supposed to go. The main gate into Taiyuu proper is shut with a big arrow pointing applicants to go further down the dock. While Ozen is early she’s not the only one, some rabbit girl seems to be angrily going at it with a girl with pigtails and the most shit-eatiest of grins. Workers shoo them along as they are disrupting the “Feel better” area. “Feel better” is repeated on the sign they put up that has a happy dog design on it. Odd but whatever, Ozen continues down the dock stopping when she sees a giant cave opening, multiple lit signs pointing to it a clear indicator she found the testing location and heads in.

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

More applicants have shuffled in at this point, Ozen thankful for her stature and don’t fuck with me aura, as her sister describes it, is able to take her place in front of the raised stage. The volume of the enclosed space almost gets to be too much when the abrupt loud sound of a microphone silences the room, everyone looking towards the direction from where it originated, the stage. The man, who Ozen parsed as having a deer mutant class quirk, stood stock-still, like a... deer in headlights, obviously not expecting the sound or the sudden attention of everyone in the room.

The Deer man seemed to get over the blunder, shaking himself off and introducing themselves to the crowd, “A-apologies for that. I’m Buckskin, the Vice Principle of Taiyuu, and I would like to start by congratulating you all for passing the written exam you took off site and earning a spot here in today’s entrance exam. Anyone bringing outside equipment or gear, must have it approved by our head of support, situated by the cave’s entrance. While that finishes up, Lacca-daisy our principle will explain the exam.”

With his part done, the hero moved to the side of the stage to give room to the principle who… wasn’t there. If this bothered the VP, he was great at hiding it as the crowd started to get uncomfortable with the lack of speaker, eventually giving his watch a slight scowl.

The roof began to shake as a small opening forms popping out said late principle who landed on the stage with a flourish. Not perturbed by her own tardiness, Lacca-daisy decked out in her hero outfit and looking like she had been using her quirk all morning if the faint layering of dirt is any indication, grabs the mic. “Welcome prospective students!” she may be covered in dirt but the smile she gives the crowd is blinding “This portion of the exam will be an obstacle course the likes of which other hero schools could only dream of!” She motions to the previously blank screen behind her as a diagram pops up of what appears to be a 2d view of the island, the room cavern they are currently in blinking to show where they were.

“Instead of being some linear race, the exam is split up into separate layered rooms! Once the exam begins each room will have one gate in it and your goal is to get through it!”

An animation pops up on screen of what appears to be pixel versions of the VP, the head of support, and two other heroes Ozen didn’t know in a final fantasy styled battle against a giant version of a dog she faintly recalls seeing around.

“Everyone is competing to get through a gate, even if they have to work together against obstacles”

The animation continues with the unnamed Mohawk pixel fighter choosing to attack the enemy which the animation portrays as giving them a tummy rub, defeating the boss. Pixel VP’s turn has them selecting the “bound” ability resulting in them jumping through the once blocked gate, a stone door shutting right after them.

“Once an applicant is through a gate, they pass! It isn’t over for the rest though!”

Black holes open up under the remaining pixel fighters surprising them as they fall through.

“Anyone not through a gate falls to the next level and the struggle to get through a gate starts anew with new competition!”

The previous diagram pops up showing the initial room spider webbing down into more rooms that do the same, representing the theoretical progress of applicants during the exam.

“The exam gets less difficult as you descend levels, getting through a gate whether at the top or the bottom is treated equally because of this!”

Murmurs of confusion are heard throughout the crowd

Smirking as if expecting this type of response she continues “Just like in the heroing world, if you can end a situation quickly you should do so, and if you can’t, endure till you do!”

That garnered a more positive response as just the mention of actual heroing psyches some whoops from the crowd. Her smile shifted eerily quick, carrying a serious presence and tone that halts the excitement.

“Physically harming other applicants on purpose will result in immediate disqualification. The only exception is if you make it to the last room which will be denoted by green lighting, your final chance to get through a gate at that point…”

The switch back to her ray of sunshine smile is as sudden and abrupt as the previous

“Alright! Before we get started I just have to go over some procedures!”

  This is actually going okay Kazumi Shunsuke aka the hero Buckskin aka the vice principle thought, switching between watching Chikyu and scanning the crowd.

The start could have gone better leaving me hanging like that but it’s going okay! All these applicants brimming with potential, Taiyuu is in go-

Kazumi’s thoughts are cut short when his gaze lands on a particularly affectionate display and in the front row no less!

Wha- kids these days are so forward! No shame, don’t they know they’ll be separated in the exam now? Growing a slight blush he turns to his tablet, taking quick note of the applicants.

What an interesting take on an entrance exam, will definitely be more interesting than UA’s Ozen thinks listening intently to Lacca-daisy’s explanation on how to resign if you are in a room.

It’s at that moment that she catches movement from the VP in the corner of her eye,

Huh? What spooked him?

Her attempts to follow his gaze only makes her realize he is staring at HER. She tries to turn and its then that she notices someone is

Playing

With

Her

Hair.

She makes eye contact with the blue pink heterochromatic girl. . . .

There is only silence between them as the shorter girl continues to smile, unperturbed from her previous task of playing with the taller’s hair.

Ozen just turns back and continues to listen, catching the smaller girl doing so as well albeit hair still in hand. Well Kasumi did mention I should be more friendly.. At least attempt to make friends…

  Buckskin gives Lacca-daisy a thumbs up from his side of the stage.

Ah that’s the cue, time to get this show on the road.

“Seems like everyone is checked in, so before we let you off to your starting rooms I’ll leave you with this, the great hero Napoleon Dynamite-“

Murmurs spread through the crowd and an audible face palm come from the VP’s direction

“Once said… ‘True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life’ break a leg out there! But not literally cause I lied about the starting rooms”

Oh no her scary face has returned as she holds her hand up

“the exam starts.. NOW!”

There is a snap, and the floor beneath the crowd crumbles.

Ozen swears she hears maniacal laughter as she falls.

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

         The room is pitch black and while she is unaffected by the drop she can hear others expressing their thankfulness for the soft soil cushioning their fall. It seems the entire pool of applicant’s share the first room, but what will the obstacle be Ozen thinks standing up.

It’s then that a blip of light pops on in the distance, then another, two more, blips start to fill the room as the lights for the room itself turn on revealing a robotic army separating them and the lone gate behind.

Quirks are lighting up, while others get into a fighting stance in preparation for the upcoming clash.

A speaker comes to life “Your first challenge is robo inferno!!!” a smack and a “that’s patented” is heard as well, “Ah I mean uh robo tsunami!!! The first and greatest challenge of the exam!”

Yup she knew she heard maniacal laughter as it repeats over the speaker.

Everyone is up now as a line of those itching for battle take their place up front.

They take a step and the robots do too and that’s when everything..

Turns off?

The robots powering down surprise everyone, even the speaker gives out a surprised “huh??”

Ozen has to squint but she spots the culprit, behind all of the robots, standing in the gate way waiting for the door is someone who resembles a gargoyle.

After getting over the initial shock of the sudden end, the stone door crashes closed. Not even two minutes since they first fell, the ground crumbles again.

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

         Instead of landing in another large room, Ozen finds herself staring down a long corridor and not one to tarry she follows it. Coming up to a narrow bridge with swinging sandbags Ozen starts to wonder where the others on this level are, not once giving any mind to the bags slamming to a stop on her.

The sound of slicing catches her attention coming around the next bend.

There they are it seems she found the other applicants. Amidst of what appears to be a broken robot, a small boy slices at the crystalline door in front of him, a much taller boy leaning on the wall beside him looks up as Ozen makes her way closer.

The taller boy sighs, “you’re too late, someone made it past the riddlebot, and this kid here” he motions with his thumb to the determined boy still having at it, “Decided it was a good idea to attack it.”

The knives in the smaller boy’s hands appeared to have disappeared by now as he turns with a huff “hey I thought it would help!”

The taller boy rolls his eyes at the asinine observation, “Now this basically diamond like boulder blocks us from continuing till pinky out there gets through the gate.”

Ozen takes all this information in before reeling back her fist and crashing it into the boulder resulting in… Nothing.

“Feeling better?” the taller boy remarks with a raised brow.

“Just making sure..” Ozen comments staring at her fist.

The stress of the situation seems to have gotten to the short boy as he lashes out at Ozen’s display, “What did you expect?! Diamond is like the strongest material in the world, it takes more diamond to break diamond, everyone knows that, and that’s what I was trying to do right when you arrived before I ran out of time…”

Stepping off the wall the tall boy places his hand on the boulder, eyes streaming code he interjects “that’s actually a misconception, diamonds are known for their hardness which only denotes resistance to scratching, their toughness which is their ability to resist breakage from falls or impacts is only fair to good, meaning we just need to hit it harder to get through.”

The two blink at the tall boy whose eyes return to normal as he scratches his cheek “It’s my quirk.”

“Well that’s good to know I guess but you saw her punch it, it didn’t budge.”

Ozen interjects herself “Earlier you said you ran out of time; what did you mean by that?”

Surprised she remembered that the shorter boy elaborates, “my quirk conjuring, allows me to make any material I have access to but if it’s not something I’m used to I can really hold it for a minute before having to wait—“

“Make me a gauntlet” Ozen interrupts the boy

“I-I can’t, all the material that maybe would be strong enough is on cool down…”

A low whistle comes from the taller boy “guess we’re just waiting then.”

As the smaller boy slumps down in defeat Ozen looks down at her chest the necklace, of course..

“Can you make it with this? It’s titanium.” She holds out her family’s necklace to the boy, his defeated frown slowly turning back up

“I-I can try! You’ll only have around a minute from the start of my quirk so you have to hurry!”

Ozen nods as he touches her necklace and then.. his eye? If it works it works she can see the forming what is definitely not a gauntlet and more of a crude bludgeoning device which once finished falls to the ground with an audible thud and impact dent.

“Hurry there is only 40 more seconds”

Ozen doesn’t have to be told twice, picking up the crude device she reels her arm back and— CHING the sound of metal on crystal is second only to the cacophony of cracking gemstone,

“tw-wenty seconds!”

Again! Reeling all the way out annnd— KWSHHH still not enough!

“Hurry! Seven seconds!”

This is it, disintegrating weapon in hand she reels her arm

One.

Last.

Time.

And—BWSHHH the sound of broken gemstone raining down fills the floor, even the pink participant who was taking their leisure pace to the gate turns around in shock.

It appears after passing the riddlebots test contestants were to jump down into a pool of water which didn’t seem like much to two out of the three still at the top.

The smaller boy with conjure appeared absolutely elated at their raised position, “huh, maybe you two aren’t plebs after all!” he says before making a running jump off the cliff, finger saluting as wings started to materialize on his back.

Even with the huge head start the pink applicant wasn’t able to match the speed wing boy had garnered from his take off, only barely losing as a rush of feathers and wind make it past them and through the gate, door slamming in their face.

The tall boy Ozen shared a knowing look before they were swallowed in darkness to their next room.

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

         Gah I lost a lot of time on that last one, I doubt I’ll even see the gate this level, no green lighting so it’s not the end at least there is that

Ozen doesn’t seem to notice any obstacles but she can pick up… bickering off in the distance?? The corridor provides no alternative paths and so she continues on down, the noise getting louder and louder until she rounds the corner and is totally unprepared for what she sees.

Six other applicants are here, all in varying states of distress, two pretty boys appear to be the source of the bickering she heard as she then notices a girl knocked out on the ground at least she hopes she’s knocked out cause there is also a hooded boy kneeling over her baptizing them in fire. The girl Ozen remembers from the pier with the blue and pink pigtails sits with her knees up to her chin, back to the rock that appears to be the only direction out.

Last but not least is the one person who actually acknowledges her presence there, “oh great, Mount Miku has arrived”

wa-was that supposed to be an insult?

“It seems another one has joined our merry band of misfits.. I’m Kottoba, welcome.”

“Name’s Ozen, what is the situation?”  

It is at this moment rock girl make her frustration known to all,  “Ughhhhhh, if I could only get up to it. I could take it out!!”

Kottoba-san continues “Where do I start? Behind the rock is a turret that keeps beaning anyone that pops their head out, bubblegum punch over there, MCR fanboy and hippie masterchef can’t do anything from here while tweedledumb is either ‘healing’ tweedledumber for trying to shield her way through or cremating her for the dumbassery.”

If those descriptions weren’t already spot on, Ozen could have used the trailing flinches that followed Kottoba-san’s explanation, at least the flinch from floor girl indicated she wasn’t dead.

Glares sent her way had Kottoba raising her hands in apology “Whoops my bad, can’t control that.” Ozen moves to take a look around the rocky outcropping “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” she hears from Kottoba in a tone totally expecting Ozen not to listen to her.

Oh yeah THWACK There it is THWACK Seems the gate THWACK is blocked THWACK can’t just THWACK walk around THWACK I’ll need THWACK their help Ozen takes the situation into consideration in her mind as pellets keep hitting her face and falling to the floor.

A low whistle comes from Kottoba “Looks like we have an actual vanguard now, unlike little miss spikey ba—“

Green hood interjects “STOP SHE’S ALREADY DEAD”

“i’m not dead.. -cough-”

Ozen nods at the display, seems the two boys have begrudgingly come to a truce as well “Let’s get going then—ghurk” a pellet goes in her mouth and has her coughing it loose, making sure to aim her face away from the turret –cough- “Let’s get going then.”

They form a line behind Ozen as she leads the way noting how the speed of the shots seem to increase as they get closer. Blocking the turret from shooting them allows the girl with pigtails, passion renewed, to punch a perfect hole through it!

The group lets out a combined cheer before their eventual mad dash for the exit, it seems someone even started to sing! Huh.. why it doesn’t sound like anyone there, who could it be? Before she could get answers her vision is plunged into darkness.

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         Consciousness comes flooding back and Ozen finds herself in another corridor with.. green lighting, this is the final level. While she wants to know what happened at the end of the last level she can’t afford to lose time thinking about it, and makes her way to the center.

There it is, the gate way is at the opposite end of the circular room she just entered, another corridor opening to this room is not far from hers. The room is devoid of life it appears, Ozen is the first one here, guess the other contestant is still in a previous level.

Making her way carefully across it seems like…

Is this really how her exam will end? Not in a bang, but a whimper?

She is already in the gate way when she hears it, the pitter pattering of footsteps of someone rushing to find out it didn’t matter they already lost. She should keep walking and finish it but her curiosity overcomes her when she hears the footsteps come to a stop leaving only the labored breathing of the individual.

She turns around and Oh it’s her, the girl from the audience that was playing with her hair, her smile now replaced with the façade of one trying to keep it together.

They just stare at each other in that moment, both of them know there is too much distance to cross so they just stare letting the whole situation sink in.

Having had her fill of the moment Ozen turns to continue down her path, she notices the small girl take a step forward before realizing there is no chance and casting her gaze downwards.

One, two, three steps in is all it takes for the stone door to come slamming down. She never realized how deafening it could be, this close to it.

. .

.

         The smaller girl jolts from the sound, maybe it’s just louder when it was your last chance. Finally looking back up she isn’t prepared for what she sees.

         One, two, three steeps in is all it takes for the stone door to come slamming down, Ozen juts her arm out to stop its descent, she never realized how deafening it could be.

The smaller girl finally looks up to see Ozen holding the stone door. Getting in a better position under it, Ozen motions to the smaller girl to come here.

It takes a minute for the smaller girl to get over her shock before shaking herself out of it and jogging over. One last look between them assures the smaller that Ozen isn’t joking and she walks under the doors.

Smaller girl safely through Ozen lets the door fall the rest of the way, and the two walk down the corridor together.

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         Opening the door to her house Ozen is met with her sister slamming into her with a hug.

“nee-chan you’re home!!! How’d the test go? Blow it out of the water? Kick some major ass? Huh HUH??? Did you.. kill god?!?”

Plopping her hand onto Kasumi’s hair with a ruffle Ozen not rattled at all answers her sister in order, “It went fine, not really a chance to, didn’t have to fight anyone, and you know we agreed we would do that together.”

Looking up with an over the top pout Kasumi separates herself from her bigger sister and motions down the hall way “I’m glad you didn’t forget, anyways mother has dinner ready and mom is done grading so we are just waiting on you!”

A soft smile escapes from Ozen as she gets ready to go upstairs “give me a moment, have put my stuff away real quick.”

Kasumi nods about to turn around to head back into the living room when something catches her eye, “nee-chan where did you get a balloon animal?”

Looking down at the masterly crafted balloon animal then back to Kasumi, Ozen nonchalantly lets out “Oh, a friend made it for me.”

Crashing can be heard from the kitchen as “FRIEND?!” is shouted from multiple sources in the house.

#Ozen fujinuma #bnha oct #writing #text #long