#id be more likely to believe in fate or destiny or something even than that really | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twst-kumi · 3 years

Text

Children of secrets Chapter 1

In the great library, Crowley searched for the group's country but couldn’t find anything. They even showed him their ID, student card and currency, so it wasn’t a lie. The problem was, he couldn’t find anything in his book and maps about a country named Japan. It didn’t exist. At least not in this world or planet.

_There is nothing, Japan doesn’t exist here. Then how did the black carriage took you? (Crowley)

_If we knew how we would have left long ago. (Sano)

_Then could you come from another dimension or planet? (Crowley)

‘There that option, yes’ The group looked at each other before looking at the poor director. Truthfully they already knew they were not in their world. But in a world where they didn’t know if they were hostile to Yokai or not, it was better to act clueless and like they were human. Deep in thought, Crowley looked at them, two boys and six girls. He could shelter the two boys but what about the girls? It’s an all-boy school, he can’t let girls stay here. But… he also couldn’t leave them without a place to go.

_This is quite problematic, while the two boys could stay without a problem, you young ladies can’t stay in a school full of males. That's dangerous. (Crowley)

_Ah, I understand. After all, boys are more dangerous than being homeless without anyone to protect or help you. (Aoi)

_What? No, I will make sure you stay somewhere and are taken care of. (Crowley)

_I see, thank you. I suppose putting us in a stranger’s care while separating us is the best option. (Asano)

_Ah… I’m sorry but I rather live on the street than be separated from our group. (Yuuken)

‘Wait! It sounds like I’m heartless and irresponsible.’ Crowley thought while sweating at the situation. Maybe they are more dangerous than the boys in this school. If word of that incident were to get out, that would be bad for the school. And their reputation would be stained forever.

_ Of course, you will stay, until I find a way to send you back! (Crowley)

He hurriedly blurted the word out before seeing the small smile on their face. Ah, so he got tricked. They knew what they were doing when they played with his word. And he couldn’t come back on his word.

_Well since I am a kind teacher, I will provide you with your needs and shelter. Of course, you will have to work to earn your bread. (Crowley)

Turned toward the door and left with them. He continued talking about what they would be doing from now on and a bit about the school. They followed him listening carefully. As their new home came into view, their eyes grew a little bigger. This dorm was practically run down.

_Thankfully we didn’t demolish this old dorm, this is Ramshackle dorm. Students tend to avoid it so you will be safe here. (Crowley)

_Does that mean we can do whatever we want with it? (Asano)

_I… well, yes. I was planning to destroy it so I suppose you can. Although… What are you planning to do with it? (Crowley)

Yuuken laughed when he saw the man growing worried. He patted on his shoulder before reassuring him.

_Don’t worry, we were just planning to renovate it a bit. (Yuuken)

After a quick tour of the dorm and a “warm” welcome from the ghost, the group settled their thing and started to examine every still usable element in the dorm. They still have electricity, clean water and a stove working. Finding a broom and a bucket, they started to divide the chores among them. Yuuken and Kaiba would do the heavy lifting and important repairs like the stair, Sano and Haru would take care of the small repairs and mending the furniture, Asano and Aoi the bedrooms, Alice and Yume the cleaning. Everyone was laughing as they started and soon the place was more livable. They still had more repairs to do but it was far more than enough for a start. After they would finish, if they could completely modify the dorm it would be even better. Thankfully, they had the acknowledge to renovate the dorm themself. This was the perk of being a century-old (or more) yokai, from the most rudimental house to a traditional Japanese house to a slightly more modern house. They had the time to learn and use those skills and their power helped a lot. Putting some buckets out as they heard the rain pouring outside, they were starting to make a list about what was left to repair or change. They could hear the rain leaking from the roof.

They were still chatting when Crowley came back with their meals. First, he was surprised to see the dorm almost fully repaired. Even with his magic, he couldn't be that fast. Hard to believe it was a run-down building. He could also feel something strange. Something was strange here, almost as if something unbeknownst to him was there. He could feel but he couldn't point it out.

_How incredible, you repaired that place fastly. If I leave this place to you then maybe we could open this dorm again. (Crowley)

_ Or not, we prefer keeping your Territory untouched by strangers. (Sano)

_I’m sorry? (Crowley)

_Sano is right, we don’t know if we will be able to return to our world. So we may as well claim this place as our own until we find better or you take care of your mistake. (Yuuken)

Those kids were talking fearlessly or carelessly in their case. This confidence made him question them a bit. They were talking out of habit like they are used to it,he could see that. They weren’t even scared about the situation, rather… they enjoyed it? They were hiding something from him, it was carefully hidden but still there, hiding beneath their smile. Like small predators ready to bare their fangs if provoked.

_Well, you sure know how to work together. Maybe it was destiny that you got here… (Crowley)

_To clean your school? (Asano)

_How humorous! It seems like we have funny students this year!! (Crowley)

Muttering to herself a small “I wasn’t joking tho”, Asano crossed her arm and huffed a bit. She could definitely feel that chore coming their way.

_But yes, I want you to work as a janitor and in exchange, we will provide you with your meal. (Crowley)

_Ugh! No way I rather go to class than clean. (Aoi)

_Unfortunately, only a magician can go. A magicless kid like you can’t. (Crowley)

Before she could even do anything, she was stopped by Sano. But as foolish as the director looked, he was still a powerful magician. And fastly caught on to what was happening. Now he was sure, they were hiding something. Dropping quickly the kind act, he looked at them seriously.

_You! What are you and what are you hiding ?? (Crowley)

Looking at each other, they sighed and let the ginger head wrap things up with her skill as they acted guilty. Aoi’s species were known for their skill to deceive the living, she was after all a Kitsune. One of the most famous Yokai species alongside Sano and Kaiba as an Oni and Yuuken who are a Tengu.

_Ah…. I’m sorry, the truth is with actually have magic. (Aoi)

_Nonsense! The mirror said you didn’t have any! (Crowley)

Showing him a part of their actual power and revealing her fox ears, she shed tears crying pitifully. She could see the man calming down before trying to soothe her.

_We hid it because we didn’t know if you guys would be hostile to us or not. You see, the world we come from is quite hostile toward magic and mystical creatures. If found, we could get killed at any moment. I remember that witch who used her power to help someone, and she was burned alive! I’m sorry if it seems like we were deceiving you director (Aoi)

That begin said the witch was burned 200 years ago, but he didn’t need to know that detail. After all, the best lie is when you tell a bit of truth in it.

Not finding any lie, Crowley calmed himself and even felt a bit sorry for them. Because this world wasn’t hostile to magic it didn't mean that was the same for them.

_I see, I’m sorry for forcing you to reveal such a traumatic matter but as your kind educator, I must know what happened. (Crowley)

Crowley smiled at them trying to be as reassuring as possible.

_But if it’s that hostile, why do you wish to return? (Crowley)

_Huh? But we never said we wanted to return, you’re the one who said that we must return. (Yume)

_That true (Alice)

Thinking carefully about it, Crowley felt like he couldn’t let them simply go. They had magic so they could technically enrol in the school. The problem was most of them were girls, and with the incident that happen today, he didn’t know how he was supposed to cover it. They didn’t want to part and that was understandable in an unknown world. Resigned to this fate, the masked director decided to do an exception and let them all enrol in the school.

_Tomorrow come to my office after you guys cleaned the main street. (Crowley)

_Huh? We are still cleaning? (Aoi)

_Of course! I may let you guys be as students but you will still be this school janitor. And until I prepare everything you need plus work you all can along with your studies. (Crowley)

Aoi truly wanted to burn this man to crisp. She didn’t want to do those kinds of works. She hated that to be real but at least they had a place to sleep so she couldn’t complain.

The next as promised, they gathered at the main street with the cleaning tool. They laughed while chatting about what they wanted in their new dormitory and made some jokes. Reaching the alley, they looked surprised and a bit amazed bit the statues. No matter how they looked at it, this was a Disney villain’s alley, right? They started the cleaning not daring to bring the matter out. At some point, it was Yuuken who brought it up.

_I wonder who they are… I mean, they look like Disney characters but that it, right? (Yuuken)

_What you don’t know about the queen of hearts? (Ace)

‘Like in Alice in wonderland?’ Yuuken looked at the redheaded boy behind him. He was soon joined by Haru who wasn’t far from him.

_Queen of hearts? It’s my first time hearing about it. (Haru)

_In the past, she was the queen who lived in the Rose Maze. She was someone who valued rules and discipline above all, strict in all things from the march of the card soldiers to the colour of rose bushes. It was a land of madness where all submit to her rule. (Ace)

_Wow, she was really strict. (Haru)

_Even me, I’m not that strict in the kendo club. (Yuuken)

Ace laughed putting his hand behind his head. He couldn’t help but throw small glances at the petite girl’s skirt. She was truly a girl in an all-boys school.

_Yeah, no one can compare to her in that. Why do you ask? Because it was off with your head! (Ace)

_Who’s the other then? (Haru)

_No you should ask about who he is first, don’t you think? (Yuuken)

Haru pouted as she felt like she begin to be scolded by him.

_Ah… It’s alright! I’m Ace. A fresh-faced first year. Nice to meetcha. (Ace)

_I’m Yuuken, and this is Haru. The other are Kaiba, Yume, Sano, Aoi, Alice and Asano. (Yuuken)

_You….What? (Ace)

_Just call me Yuu. (Yuuken)

_Hey Ace, what about that lion? (Haru)

Haru grabbed his sleeve as her eyes shone with curiosity. The young male blushed, she was so cute. He could die from it. She was almost like a kid, Yuuken noticed Ace's reaction and couldn’t help but laugh silently. The poor first year was a blushing mess.

_S… Sure! This is the king of the beast who rules the savannah. However, he was not born to be king, but he took the throne through effort and elaborate planning. After becoming king, he even allowed the loathed hyenas to live in his kingdom without discrimination. (Ace)

_Well You can’- (Haru)

_Haru! (Yuuken)

_What about the octopus woman? (Haru)

Swallowing her sarcasm, Haru changed the subject by pointing to the next statue.

_That’s the sea witch who lives in a cavern in the deep. Her purpose was to help all unfortunate merfolk. As long as you could pay the price she could transform you, help you find love, anything. If it was within her power there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do. They say her prices were pretty high though.

Ready for another sarcasm, Haru opened her mouth and looked at Yuuken who shook his head to say “no”. She pouted before turning her attention to the fresh year.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst x reader #twst oc #leona kingscholar #floyd leech #jade leech #ace trappola #twst yuuken #enma yuuken #ruggie bucchi #malleus draconia #azul ashengrotto #deuce spade #jack howl #silver x reader #Children of secrets

31 notes · View notes

starrynyxa · 3 years

Text

omega dream hcs, pt 2

-Omegas tend to have more sensitive noses than other secondaries. Any strong/powerful scent can be somewhat overwhelming and make omegas feel nauseous, i.e Dream and coffee.

-Dream is the type to keep a messy nest. He likes piling up pillows and blankets on his bed, but he also has a tendency to overheat, so the house’s AC is on blast almost constantly.

-Traditional communities usually only differentiate alphas and omegas on the basis of dominant vs submissive, extroverted vs introverted, masculine vs feminine, etc. Because of this, Dream was expected to present as an alpha when he was younger even though really, many of his behaviors were very indicative of being an omega. Stuff like being protective of siblings/personal belongings are just as much omega-like behaviors as they are for alphas.

-The discrepancies between stereotypical omega behavior versus his own behaviors coupled with same secondary attraction causes Dream to feel somewhat of a disconnect with his dynamic. He knows for certain he does not feel like an alpha or a beta, but he also has uncertainties about fully identifying with his presentation. Over time, he becomes more comfortable with being an omega, but also comes to ID partially as secondarily agender.

-I said in part one that Dream is well aware of the falsity of the “True Mates” narrative (though he does believe in destiny). Originally, he Did believe in true mates—the fated pairings between alphas and omegas—which fed into his rejection of his same secondary attraction as he saw it as something incomplete/imperfect.

#omegavrse #sfw omegaverse

8 notes · View notes

lunarkittens · 3 years

Text

now you’re on your own (won’t you come back home?) (1/?)

Word Count: 2,760 (In this part)

Rating: T

Pairings: Gen

Summary: Dean doesn’t believe in fate. But it is a strange coincidence that the one time Dean is ever in California, pointedly trying not to think about his little brother hours away in Palo Alto, he gets a voicemail saying Sam’s in the hospital. Pre-Series.

Dean doesn’t believe in fate. He can believe in a lot of other things, sure. Ghosts, ghouls, demons. Those are things he’s seen, things he can’t deny because they’ve been right before his eyes, have even tried to kill him a few times, but fate? Destiny? Give him a break. If any part of Dean’s life has been fate, he’s gonna need to talk to the guy in charge and maybe knock a couple of his teeth out, the fucking asshole. How’s that for fate?

But it is a strange coincidence that the one time Dean is ever in California, pointedly trying not to think about his little brother who’s hours away in Palo Alto, he gets a voicemail from Sam.

The mere shock of seeing his name on his phone makes him blink hard, like he must be imagining it, but he closes his eyes and opens them and pinches himself and it’s still there, still says Sam on the screen, still says he left a voicemail and all of a sudden Dean feels sick, his heart rate skyrocketing into the triple digits easily. He considers ignoring it. Sam left, after all. Looked Dean right in his eyes and still left, slamming the door behind him, like Dean never meant anything to him at all. Screw Sam.

But this? Two years into it?

Sam wouldn’t call him unless it was an emergency. The voicemail is from half an hour earlier, when Dean had been wiping sweat off his brow with his sleeve while a fire roared in a dug grave. Bye bye, bitch, he’d muttered, lingering a bit longer than he normally would. So this is California, he thought. He closed his eyes and felt the night air. Closed his eyes and wondered if he could maybe feel Sam somehow, his energy distinct in this great expanse of a state that crawled down so much of the West Coast. He came up empty, no energy, no little brother, and got in the car.

He didn’t want a motel, he wanted to gun it out of Cali ASAP and get the hell away from redwood trees and mountains and dry heat before he did something crazy like show up at Sam’s dorm or start crying. As far as he was concerned, California had stolen Sam from him.

There was no wanting to see the sights after that.

And then he’d gotten back in the car and seen the voicemail. Shakily, Dean presses play.

“Hey Dean.” Sam says. Dean shifts in his seat, ready to focus, to absorb. It’s been two years since he’s heard this voice, heard it say his name. However angry he still is, however sad, he wants to savor it.

Sam says his name the same way he always has, the exact same intonation, but he’s sighing it this time. “I don’t know if....Hell, I don’t even know if you care, or if you’ll even listen to this...and you don’t have to call me back, but well...You used to get pissed if I didn’t tell you stuff like this, so here goes. I’m at the hospital.”

Dean tenses, fists gripping the steering wheel tightly. “They’re gonna have to remove my appendix. I was really sick all day and my friend rushed me here. I’m fine,” Sam rushes to say.

“But I just thought...I don’t know why I called. Be safe out there, okay? I know you know what you’re doing, but just- God. Stay alive, okay?” And then there’s a silence that hangs in the air, just waiting to be filled before Dean hears Sam sigh and the voicemail ends.

Okay, fine. Palo Alto, it is. Dean puts the car in drive and intends to fully ignore the speed limit the whole way there, letting Led Zeppelin keep him awake.

When he gets there, and fuck it took a while. Why is California so fucking big? What if he had been on the East Coast? He calls three hospitals and finds the one Sam’s at, pulling into the parking lot and going inside.

It’s weird, when the receptionist asks his name and there’s nothing fake this time, no fake ID to pull out, nothing to lie about. He’s just...just himself. Dean Winchester, here to visit his brother.

“He finished surgery earlier.” The lady says to him.

“I’ll go ask the doctor if you can see him, but I’m sure he’s unconscious.”

“That’s fine,” Dean says. “It’s just kind of my job to look out for the kid, you know?”

Dean doesn’t know what it is, but something in his voice makes the lady look at him more intensely than she had a minute ago.

“Yeah,” she says, voice full of a meaning Dean can’t understand, the way that sometimes happens with strangers. “I do.”

She comes back a few minutes later while Dean sits in a rickety waiting room chair made of wood and she tells him where to go to find Sam. He wonders what friend of his took him here, can’t help but think that it should have been him instead. Him taking care of his brother, and no one else. Where is this friend of his, anyway? Who dumps someone at the hospital and doesn’t still around?

Dean distantly remembers as he makes his way to Sam that Christmas is soon. College kids go on break, leave for the holidays and come back after. He’ll have to ask Sam about it, if he’s been all alone. He won’t ask Sam to come back, already knows how that’ll go.

It doesn’t stop him from wishing for it.

Dean gets some of the worst coffee he’s ever had and pairs it with a plastic wrapped sandwich and some chocolate chip cookies from a vending machine he sees on his way to the room. Odds are Sam is gonna be unconscious for a while and Dean might as well have something in his stomach while he waits for Sam to wake up.

The doctor is around, greets Dean, says Sam is gonna be just fine, just needs to rest undisturbed, spend some time recovering at home. Says if Sam had gotten there any later, his appendix would have burst. The thought makes Dean shudder.

Sam looks young. 20 but to Dean he’ll always look 15. His hair is still long, his face serene in sleep from pain medication, and as much as it hurts to admit, he doesn’t look like a hunter at all. His features are too soft, not angry or hardened enough. It’s all Dean can do to not reach a hand out to stroke Sam’s hair, caress his forehead. That’s his Sammy. He thinks back to the voicemail, back to Sam saying, I don’t even know if you care. Of fucking course, Dean cared. How could Sam even think that? It was Sam who’d left-

And then his father’s voice, hard and absolute, comes booming through his head like a crack of thunder.

“If you walk out that door, don’t you ever come back,” And Sam’s eyebrows furrowing, as if he’s holding back tears, and Sam’s look at dean, it hadn’t been angry after all, now that he thinks about it, it had been- Oh, Sammy. Never.

Never.

Dean hangs his head and leans forward. He can’t tell in this hospital gown, but Sam looks okay. A bit skinny, hair a little too long, but hey. That’s Sam. At least California hasn’t changed him that much. He’s got a nice tan about him, a glow that looks sallow in the hospital lighting but Dean knows would look glorious in the sunlight.

Dean falls asleep in the hospital chair an hour into it, stomach full and head at an angle that’s gonna pinch later, but he had a long drive and Sam is here right where he can see him and that’s more than Dean’s had in a long time, and some restless part of him that never lets itself lay down and sleep is actually at peace for once, so he closes his eyes.

He tries not to think of Sammy all sweaty and shaky, sick and pale and clutching his abdomen, and then it hadn’t even been Dean who was there for him.

Dean wouldn’t have even know about this, not ever, not if Sam hadn’t decided to call, and why did he? Dean intends on finding that out when Sam wakes up. Why now?

Did Sam ever miss him? He sure missed Sam, when he’d let himself admit it. There are ghosts like the ones he sees every day, but there’s another kind of ghost too. Ones that are entirely human and still alive but haunt him all the same, and Sam’s been one of them ever since he left.

And there’s no bones to burn, nothing to salt or destroy, just Sam with him every step of the way, just haunting him all the way from California.

Sam wakes up not long after Dean does, groaning and blinking hard, squinting as his eyes adjust to the light, rubbing them. Dean almost laughs, the familiarity of the expressions. Sam’s woken up the same way his entire life, and Dean tries to get rid of his smile. he’d almost forgotten how awkward this was gonna be, having to interact with each other. Dean had gotten used to seeing Sam, had been sitting here for a while, but Sam was probably still stuck in yesterday, hadn’t expected Dean to even care, if his voicemail was anything go by, let alone be sitting next to him.

Sam looks around and when his eyes fall on Dean, he startles, hand on his chest.

“Fuck,” he breathes. “You scared the hell outta me,” he says, and Dean laughs.

“It’s not funny.” Sam says. “I thought you were a ghost or something.” Dean puts a hand on Sam’s shoulder with careful pressure.

“Not dead yet, Sammy. got a few years left in me.”

“You got more than that,” Sam says, stretching in bed and wincing slightly.

“And what about you?” Dean says. “Your appendix just decide to go AWOL?”

“Ugh,” Sam groans. “Dude, yeah. I was doing some reading, trying to get ahead for next semester, you know? And then I just felt this...pressure, on my side. Whatever, I just ignored it for a while. Then I started throwing up, and I just couldn’t stop.”

“Dude, gross!” Dean says, making a face to offset how bad he feels for Sam. Sam smiles at him, and they’re silent.

“How’d you get here?” Dean asks after a minute.

“My buddy Kyle hadn’t left the dorms yet so I called him and he dropped me off. It’s a lot cheaper than an ambulance.” Dean nods.

“And where’s Kyle at now?”

“Home. Everybody’s gone home for break. Believe it or not, it’s almost Christmas.” Sam says, smiling and shaking his head, mostly to himself.

“I know it doesn’t look like it, though.” Sam says, and yeah, no white Christmases here, that’s for sure.

“Where the hell are you staying?” Dean asks. Sam shrugs.

“Same place I did last year,” he says. “Pay extra to stay over break. I’m not the only one there. There’s a lot of international students who can’t get home.”

“Who’s gonna take care of you?”

“I am,” Sam says. “It’ll be fine. It’s pretty basic stuff. I am an adult, you know.”

“Sam, cmon.” Dean scoffs.

“What?” Sam says, defensive.

“We’re not doin that, okay? You just got surgery. You’re not gonna be by yourself.”

“Well, who else is gonna take care of me?” Sam asks. Really? Dean wants to ask. Is he really asking that?

“Really, Sam?”

“No, tell me. What- You’re just gonna put off hunting for a month and nurse me back to health?” Dean swallows hard.

“What if I did? Huh? What if I came down here just so I could do that?” Dean holds his gaze defiantly, jaw clenched, and Sam raises his eyebrows. He deflates, catching Dean off guard. It makes him raise his eyebrows.

“Dean, come on.” Sam says gently. “You can’t do that. There’s people out there who need you.”

“That’s really rich, Sam.” Dean bites out.

“That’s really rich coming from you. Just shut up, okay? You’re damn right people need me. One of them just so happens to be sitting in this room, and he just got a piece of his body cut out of him a few hours ago. I’m needed here.”

“Dean-”

“No, Sam! Okay?” Dean says, standing up now.

“Come on...Tell me. If you don’t want my help, say it. Tell me there’s not a part of you that wants me to stay and wants me to take care of you like before.” Dean swallows hard against a growing tightness in his throat, a burning in his eyes. He stares at Sam with a focus and intensity that could start fires.

“If you tell me that you don’t want me here, I’ll get right back in the car and leave. You won’t ever have to hear from me again. But you have to say it.”

Sam’s eyes are wet. He’s losing the same battle Dean is fighting right now.

“I’m not gonna say it,” Sam says softly. “You’re not gonna hear it. Not from me. I can’t...”

“I mean, you- You left us, Sammy,” Dean says more gently, more open and devastated than he ever wanted sam to hear him sound. He sits down now, posture nonthreatening.

“I mean, how am I supposed to-“

“Dean,” Sam says, firm enough to cut Dean off but not angry, not enough to start a fight. “You don’t understand.”

“I think I understand just fine-“

“No, Dean. I’m not gonna let Dad do this to us anymore! Do you see what’s happening? No more misunderstandings. I left him. I never wanted- I didn’t want to leave you. But then Dad said I couldn’t come back, and you didn’t say any different, and I thought you didn’t want me around anymore either, so I never called, never texted. I didn’t expect you to come, okay? I thought you’d delete the voicemail without even listening to it.”

“I thought you’d washed your hands of me, Dean. I was alone.” Sam scoffs.

“I mean, really alone. I used to always have you. If I didn’t have anything else, I knew I had you. And then I didn’t. So don’t say that- Don’t act like I ran out on you. I wanted to take you with me.”

Dean turns that over in his mind, can’t believe it’s true. It’s too much, gives him too much hope. He knows all too well about the dangers of hope. It’s too heartbreaking and amazing in equal measure. He thinks about going back in time and leaving with Sam, working a job and sharing an apartment with him in California, drinking cold beer on the beach and quizzing sam before tests, eating ice cream and going on summer road trips.

“Sam,” he says, pushing away those thoughts. “You know I would never leave Dad.” Sam nods, a tear falling onto the sheets.

“I know.” He sounds defeated.

“And you also know,” Dean begins. “That I’d never abandon you either. I got the voicemail and I-” Dean scoffs. “I must have broken every traffic law out there trying to get here in time, and- and you’re staying with me, got it?” he says, pointing a finger at Sam.

“We’ll find a place for the month and get you better. You gave up your right to argue when you started crying all over your little hospital dress.”

“Asshole,” Sam snorts. “Now I really don’t want you to take care of me,” he jokes.

“Too bad! It’s gonna be Nurse Dean all month long, surgery boy.” Sam lets out a little laugh, and Dean relaxes a little bit.

“Dean,” Sam says, serious again. “A month. How are we gonna pay for a month? And dad- How are you gonna explain this to dad?”

“Dad doesn’t bother me much about hunts.” Dean shrugs. It’s the truth.

“He just calls, asks if I finished ‘em. Always tell him I did because I do. He’s not gonna press me for details. And payment, well. I know a guy who’s got us covered.”

Before Sam can even open his mouth to ask, Dean’s pulling out a fake credit card and showing it in all its shiny and fraudulent glory.

“Burt Maximoff is a very generous man.” Dean says, grinning. Sam snorts again, shaking his head, but he’s smiling fondly all the same.

A month.

#spn #supernatural #sam winchester #dean winchester #long post #sorry i don’t have a new ao3 acc to post on yet so it’s on here...LMAO #i have more parts the second one is almost done i haven’t finished it yet though :’) but i will #i love sick!fic...#it’s 100% gen too! so no worries #this is set when sam is 20 and dean is 24!! so two years before the show starts #i hope everything makes sense i wrote this in my notes app and i cant reread it anymore i cant see #come back home fic

66 notes · View notes

anika-ann · 4 years

Text

The Best Mistake of My Life - Pt.1

Type: One-shot/ch1 of a series

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 4100

Summary: A soulmate AU. They say having a soulmate is a blessing. Who wouldn’t love the idea of star-crossed lovers, right?

Neither Steve Rogers nor you consider yourself lucky though. It probably has something to do with the lines written on your skin. Because if the words are anything to go by, you’re not sure you want to meet each other.

Warnings: swearing, light angst, FLUFF

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

Steve Rogers was born a sickly baby.

Born a sickly boy to a single mother in the time of great depression, money thin, his health even thinner and having a pathetic number of friends; though that never really bothered him. What his friendships lacked in quantity was hundred times compensated by quality. Bucky Barnes’ loyalty was everything Steve could ask for.

And what Steven Grant Rogers himself lacked in height and strength of body was made up for by the strength of will, amount of determination and a great compassionate heart, ready to welcome anyone sans bullies there.

Perhaps God had seen that Steven would grow into a man carrying his heart on his sleeve and decided that this man should be blessed with a love so magnificent they would tell stories about it; people always had. People were always telling tales about soulmates.

Having a soulmate wasn’t necessarily rare, but not everyone was bound to have one. Being one of the lucky ones was an amazing gift; a promise of a connection as unbreakable as the thread of fate, a promise of an unconditional love.

To know person had found the one, their soulmate, those who were blessed with one wore a brand on their skin, a clue to allow them to recognize their destined partner; a set of words.

It was the set of words what was troubling Steve Rogers the most. Despite Bucky’s reassurance, despite his mother’s last words, despite Steve willingness to fight everything else the world would kick into his way, he found moments in his life he cursed the words written on his skin, reminding him how weak he would always seem to people.

Above the visible line of his collarbone, sticking out on his rather skeletal frame, there sat the words of doom:

‘Oh no, there must be a mistake.’

The very first time his soulmate would spoke to him… they would be disappointed and silently praying that whatever force was behind bounding souls together made one hell of a misstep. A mistake.

That was what Steve was going to be to his soulmate; a mistake. A failure. A disappointment.

And why wouldn’t he be? Ninety pounds of rattling bones, list of illnesses longer than his birth certificate…. Every girl Bucky had ever tried to set him up with out of pity (which Bucky would deny until his last breath) had been disappointed.

“Maybe she’ll be more into brunettes. Maybe she won’t believe her soulmate is blond at first,” his friend would say, “or she’ll be from Queens and wouldn’t get over the fact you’re not, but once you’ll show her the true Brooklyn charm, she’ll fall to your feet.”

Then he would always pat Steve’s shoulder, pulling him into a one-arm hug and tried to get him a date once more.

Steve didn’t believe him. He never did, but recognizing his friend felt better if Steve played along, he would smile and poke his ribs in return.

“Whatever you say. Jerk.”

…

Much later, when he said to Peggy Carter that he was waiting for the right partner to dance with, he was starting to admit to himself that he wasn’t thinking about his so-called soulmate as the one. After all, he went against all odds, against rules, against destiny itself when he had been accepted to the army regardless of his fragile body. Maybe, just maybe it meant that not ending up with his soulmate was what would happen one day.

When he crushed the Valkyrie to the ocean, not even having taken a chance on Peggy Carter despite her obvious interest, he must admit he had been lying to himself.

His last realization concerned his soulmate; despite wanting to fight against the whole world, he couldn’t make himself to take a chance on Peggy Carter, a brilliant woman who was not carrying the right set of words.

His last regret was that he would never meet his true love.

His last thought was that maybe, his soulmate never had a set of words spoken by him on her skin – her first words to him might as well be the ones spoken when reading his obituary, somehow knowing he was supposed to belong with her.

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

The moment you were old enough to understand the meaning of the word ‘soulmate’, you were intrigued by the concept; it probably had everything to do with the fact that you too were supposed to have a person meant to be your other half.

Every parent was bound to be delighted when their child was born with that kind of blessing, but the older you were getting, the more you understood what kind of a shock might occur when a kid had rather strange line supposedly spoken to them by their universe-chosen partner for life.

There were people who had words like ‘shit’ on them; literally. Not very delightful. Sometimes there were general lines like ‘Hello, how are you?”. Good luck hunting down the right person. In contrary, some people had a name on them; ‘Hi, I’m Peter Cameron.’ Lucky bastards.

And then… then there were people like you, whose words were just… weird.

“But I really am 95,” you mumbled under your breath, tracing the handwriting right under your collarbone subconsciously, the first thing you did in the morning if you remembered – which wasn’t every day, not by a long shot.

“This is the stupidest thing ever…”

You shook your head and started to get ready for your day at the office.

Your opinion on your soulmark had been changing during the years. You had had a period of fascination, simply being proud of carrying it. Then you had understood the meaning of your words, and you had been horrified and desperate at the idea of meeting your soulmate at such age or worse, having one that old while you would be thirty or something when encountering them.

Then had come the phase of how could I avoid having a grandpa as my soulmate. Maybe the number meant something different – your soulmate’s weight (you really wouldn’t care for that, you reasoned), his temperature (he might be hypothermic at the moment, no?), his hotel room number, the number of a seat in a theatre perhaps… there were so many possibilities, right?

Now, you just tried not to think about it too hard. You had had boyfriends, never lasting longer than few months sans the one exception of George, who had turned out to be the biggest asshole in the world despite your belief he had might have been the one; until you had caught him in bed with another girl.

Maybe it was that deep inside you had never believed in the relationships you had, because the guy never said the right first words. Or maybe you were full of shit and you couldn’t keep a guy interested, god only knew – hence not thinking about it too hard, going on with your life and taking it as it was.

You might meet him, you might not. It wouldn’t be the first case of never encountering a soulmate. Life was funny that way.

Best not to let it ruin your day. A rather nice day it was, today. If you only didn’t have to spend it in the crowded office with people demanding their licences and taking out their frustrations on you. Well. You were a grown-up; you had to be okay with things not always being okay. Which sucked. But that was life.

…

You had a chance to have a shortest coffee break to exchange ‘hello’s with Ryan – your actual favourite person in the world, your platonic ‘soulmate’ (not in the ominous sense of the word), your boss who never really acted like a boss – and that was it. Apparently, half of Manhattan had gotten their licence this very date years back, so the office was ridiculously crowded. Thank god for the glass between you and the jungle; it shielded you at least partly.

You grabbed the file of request no. 57 that day – you were like a machine, okay, you couldn’t remember the office ever managing to deal with so many in only three hours – pulling out the documents and the licence to make another driver happy.

Your hands were acting on autopilot and you didn’t even glance up when an ID was pushed to you through the small space between the glass and the counter, checking the renewed licence first.

Your first thought was ‘oh wow’. That guy on the photo was gorgeous. You couldn’t help but snap your head up, checking out the real-life thing.

OH WOW.

Scratch the ‘gorgeous’. Replace it with ‘unreal’.

You were tempted to ask if he was made by an ancient sculptor and then brought to life, because his body was as incredible as his face; the broadness of his shoulders begged for a touch. His muscular arms were not so hidden in the sleeves of his dark green shirt. The shoulder-waist ratio was clearly a God’s mistake, a one you were thankful for.

Forget ancient sculptures. His face must have been sculptures by angels and they left him with a halo of blond hair as a reminder. And his eyes. Oh god, such pretty eyes…

He gave you an unsure smile, opening his mouth to probably accuse you of staring and you quickly dropped your gaze, returning to check the licence before you would give it to him.

Your hand froze hovering above the date of birth. You hesitantly looked up again, biting your lip guiltily despite not being the one who had messed up. You felt kinda sorry for him waiting the line for nothing.

“Oh no, there must be a mistake…” you half apologized, half said only to yourself, meeting his suddenly alarmed gaze.

You put on your most apologetic face, hoping he wouldn’t be too mad. How had someone messed it up again? The birth dates were with typos all the time. How?! There were only numbers for God’s sake! It wasn’t like the person inserting the data to the computer had to spell Buchwald or Mxyzptlk or something like that!

Damn you, Sheryl or Kira or you whoever have done this!

The man – Steven Grant Rogers, as you had learned from his sadly valueless driving licence – was staring at you, speechless. You were honestly getting worried, though you weren’t sure if you were more scared for him or for yourself in case of his reaction escalating.

So you went to explain.

“Uhm… I’m really sorry, mister-“ You quickly eyed the name ID he had given you, checking if the office got the name right at least. “-Rogers, but there seems to be a typo in… in your birth date. I apologize for the mistake our institution made, even though I wasn’t the one to-- you don’t need to know that, it doesn’t matter-- I’m so sorry you have to come here again, but I can’t really let you walk around or rather drive around with a licence claiming you were born in 1918, so…”

You had become so flustered, your cheeks burning, talking and talking without being able to stop, not making any sense even, until-

“But I really am 95,” he admitted sheepishly and you wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of that statement, when something in your brain clicked.

The click was about as loud as an atomic bomb falling on Hiroshima. You were sure everyone had to hear it.

It shut you up immediately. Your whole body froze, your mind buzzing uselessly, not a single thought staying long enough for you to actually understand it. Until two words got stuck, shining in red letters like a neon sign in your brain.

Holy. Shit.

“Excuse me,” you squeaked, grabbing his useless licence and mechanically rising from your seat, walking away.

The moment no one could see you as you got into a hallway, you broke into a run. You acted on instinct. You ran and you ended up in front of Ryan’s office, stumbling in without knocking and without an atom of oxygen left in your lungs.

Ryan’s neatly combed hair swayed as he snapped his head to the door, his eyes strict until they took the newcomer – hint: you – in, widening instantly.

He quickly jumped to his feet, pacing to you.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, voice filled with worries.

You weren’t able to answer, because—holy shit. Your eyes frantically scanned the room, unable to meet your friend’s gaze. “I-- I-“

A hand landed on your shoulder, your eyes immediately falling on it on instinct. Shit, you couldn’t breathe. Could you?

Ryan’s free hand found you chin, tilting your head so you faced him. “Hey, baby, look at me! What happened? Was someone too much of an asshole to you?”

“I’m not-- he’s-“

Ryan’s face screamed concern, but he had fixed it in a second, soothing smile on his lips. He led you to his sofa, the calming blue cushions enveloping you.

“Sit down on your ass and gimme that,” he maneuverer the document off the steely grip of your fingers, sitting next to you as he looked it over. “Huh, quite a looker this guy. So what did he do?“

“I—the- the licence says he was born in---in 1918,” you stammered, finally able to breathe in properly and speak.

Ryan squinted at the date and then rolled his eyes.

“Oh jeez, again? Why is it so hard to just get it right? I swear I’m gonna have to fire Sheryl, she’s a disaster. What’s wrong with her? It’s not like they would be making a licence for someone that old! There’s a photo goddammit!”

“Ry-Ry… he said he was 95.”

Another eye-roll was his answer. “Yeah, I can count. He would have been if he was born in 1918 instead of 1981.”

“No, you don’t-“ you licked your lips and swallowed against the lump that grew in your throat. Your voice was as shake as your hands. “He just told me that. That he really was 95.”

Your friend observed you silently for a beat, not following. And then realization hit him like a train.

“Oh. OH. No shit?!”

It was your turn to stare silently, your mind loud enough to make noise and fill the space of Ryan office.

“Damn, does he really look like that? Lucky bitch!”

“Ryan!” you yelped in surprise when his fist bumped your shoulder, almost knocking you off balance.

It worked though. It grounded you and threw you back to reality. You tried your best to calm your breathing, but damn. This guy… he was your soulmate. You just met your soulmate. And he wasn’t a grandpa. He didn’t weight 95 pounds either. You weren’t in a hotel, neither in a theatre.

No. The number was only about one tiny mistake— oh, ohhh shit, what was the first thing you had said to him? Oh fuck. Way to go, girl!

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked rubbing the spot he had punched.

“No!” you shot back immediately, your mind racing.

“You know what I mean. You look better now. Though I gotta say, so is he. His face really is quite easy on the eyes. How about the rest of him?”

Ry-Ry, your bi-side is showing.

You chuckled at the easy talk, the tension from your shoulders falling a bit.

“Well… yeah, he’s like a model. So out of my league…” you muttered, remembering your ogling. This guy was your soulmate? Wasn’t it a mistake?

Ryan was suspiciously quiet; normally you would expect him to scold you for selling yourself short. Instead, he was staring at the licence, his lips parted in silent shock.

What now?

“What?” you demanded, following his line of gaze.

Ryan just chuckled, the incredulous sound ringing, echoing in the quiet space. “Girl, I hate to break it to you, but I might not fire Sheryl just yet.”

Your eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“Remember that one time aliens were falling from the sky?”

You blinked in surprise at that question, not following his train of thoughts. “Uhm… yeah? Pretty hard to forget that…?”

You were lucky you hadn’t been smashed under a building that day. Many people in Manhattan were, some sadly not. So yeah, you remembered.

“You remember the waitress from the café talking after the incident?”

“Oh my god, Ry-Ry, just spill it! I’m not following!”

Your friend huffed in exasperation, shoving the licence in your face, his finger on the name.

Steven Grant Rogers. Yeah, you could read too.

“That name should ring a bell, you dumbass! Would you say that this guy is handsome enough to be Captain America?” he hissed, making your heart stop.

Oh. Oh shit.

OH SHIT.

Your brain short-circuited.

“Oh my god. He really is 95,” you breathed out, your brain somehow choosing the least logical reaction to this whole revelation.

Ryan laughed. “Ding-ding, we have a winner! Holy crap, baby, I think you just got yourself a superhero soulmate!”

And just like that, you started panicking again. You gulped, watching the driving licence as if it could blow up.

“Shit, Ry-Ry! What do I do?” you whispered, desperation soaking through. What were you supposed to do upon that revelation? Captain America was your freaking soulmate!

Ryan smiled at you reassuringly, patting your cheek. “Not coming back to your spot behind the counter today, that’s for sure.”

“But-“

“I’m going in. I think this place won’t blow up if I fill in for once. I sure hope I remember the process, though I’m probably not gonna be as efficient as you are.”

You didn’t know what to say. Hell, you didn’t know what to do! But yeah, not coming back to the jungle sounded good, especially given your frantic escape.

“You really would do that?” you asked hesitantly and Ryan just rolled his eyes. “But… Ryan, what the hell do I do?!”

Your bestie gave you a lopsided smile and a wink, patting your cheek patronizingly once more before heading to take over your workplace.

“Whatever you want, baby. Whatever you want.”

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

While you were having your own freak-out, Steve was standing at the counter, dumb-struck.

He couldn’t believe it. You had actually said those words. And judging by your reaction to his own, he must have said yours. Which… yeah, congratulation, Rogers, you had given your Universe-chosen dame an amazing note on her skin. To be fair, so had she.

Incredible.

Impossible.

His soulmate was in this century. In this millennia. That was what he got for ever thinking he could escape fate; a slap right in his face.

Because while for several cherished moments, he basked in the light on his soulmate not considering the pairing with him the infamous mistake the words on his skin claimed… he soon learned that it didn’t mean no heartbreak for him.

You had taken an abrupt leave to the back of the office and never came back.

Few minutes later, a man emerged from the door you had disappeared into, taking your seat and without a second look on Steve’s ID, he explained that Steve would have to come here again.

Steve didn’t care for the process of getting his driving licence renewed in the slightest, barely listening. His gaze was at the door to the hall, opened ajar, the door you didn’t return from after learning he was meant to be your partner.

When he had seen you behind the desk, he had considered you a beautiful dame, certain his heart had skipped a beat when your eyes met his. The sight of you was burned into his brain, now forever as a painful memory.

Clearly, you didn’t want him. Not because he was sickly, 95 pounds or 5’7’’ or all bones. Not because your words to him were about a mistake. Not because he was from Brooklyn. No. Honestly, Steve didn’t know why, what could scare you off so soon. He just knew you had escaped at the mere sight of him.

With his mind fuzzy, he walked out of the building into the bright nearly midday sun, blaming the sharp rays for the sting in his eyes. He sighed, running his hand down his face, suddenly bone tired.

“Mr. Rogers?” a shy female voice addressed him, instantly making him turn around to its source.

His lips parted in awe. There you stood, your airy floral dress reaching your knees, played with by the softest breeze. Hesitant smile on your lips. A tiniest spark in your eyes as he subconsciously took two steps to you, just to prove you would still be there if he came closer. You didn’t disappear.

“Y-yes?” he stuttered, actually feeling like the small man he had used to be before the serum.

You quietly introduced yourself, meeting his eyes once more, effectively stopping his heart again. You offered your hand for him to shake and he, feeling like he was dreaming, something else possessing his body, kissed your knuckles as he would have done if meeting you seventy years ago.

The most adorable heat warmed your cheeks at the gesture and you casted your gaze down; but Steve did catch a glimpse of the earlier spark shining brighter before you hid yourself from him

“I… I believe we have a lot to talk about,” you whispered and he instinctively gave your hand a gentle squeeze before letting go and shifting a half step closer to you. The corners of his lips unwittingly turned up, something warm building up in his chest as you returned the smile with hesitance.

“Yes, I think we do.”

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

Nicolas J. Fury was sitting in his office, waiting for the door to finally open. There was something bugging him – and that something was about 5’7’’ tall, had red hair and was doing whatever it wanted, messing with his business. On top of that, she left him waiting; he had requested her ten minutes ago and she still hadn’t arrived.

He couldn’t help but let his sarcasm show when she came eventually.

“Agent Romanoff. Thank you for coming. Now, care to explain me why did you insist on Rogers getting his driving license renewed in person when we have done it for him already?” he demanded, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his desk.

The agent just shrugged. “He needs to meet people.”

“Don’t give me this shit, Natasha! What are you not telling me?”

Slow smirk spread Natasha’s lips, perhaps a bit smug, but she didn’t say a word.

“Romanoff-“

“Alright! Jeez, Nick, you have to work on your patience when it comes to Rogers, I swear…” she teased him. However, at least she started talking. “I might have run his… words through the system Stark provided us.”

Realization dawned to Fury. There was only one system she could be talking about. The soulmate matching one. Insert the words of a person and it would search the database for a possible match; everyone’s words were being put into the database at their birth. It made SHIELD’s work easier in case criminals happened to have a soulmate; the connection was so unique it usually offered a weak spot even for the rotten people.

Nicolas Fury raised his eyebrow expectantly, while Natasha just watched him, amused as she had the upper hand. The man rolled his functioning eye and sighed exasperatedly. Why was he keeping her around again? Oh right, she was his best agent.

“Fine. Did you find a match?”

Natasha snorted. “I didn’t even have to look for a match. There aren’t many women with ‘But I really am 95’ written on their skin,” she explained dryly and Fury just wanted to growl, cursing mentally.

How had no one thought about using the database in the first place?! It had cost them a lot of money, okay? They had it for a reason!

“She clean?” he inquired instead or swearing out loud and Natasha scoffed.

“Like a whistle, not even a speed ticket, which is rather ironic. She’s boring, really – she’ll be perfect for him. Can I go now? I have an ass to kick.”

“…Rogers’?”

“Barton’s, actually. Have a good day, Director,” Natasha spun on her heels and headed to the exit gracefully.

“Hey, I want her file!” Fury complained, already knowing he wasn’t going to receive it from her.

“Find it yourself!” she threw over her shoulder cockily, her red hair swirling with the sudden movement of her head.

The director of SHIELD tried to keep his amusement in check, controlled by the irritation, but he lost. The corners of his lips twitched as the door clicked behind his best spy.

Why did he keep her around again?

He started the search for the words Natasha had said, sinking into his chair comfortably.

Alright, no doubt future Mrs. Rogers. Let’s see how boring you really are.

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

Part 2 (originally this was only meant a one-shot)

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

Tags: @cxptain @mermaidxatxheart @smilexcaptainx

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

If you wish to be tagged/untagged, let me know - either via an ask or a message :)

Thank you for reading!!

658 notes · View notes

ms-interpretation · 3 years

Photo

Going through the screenshots I’ve taken I realized that Lee Gon literally meets a different version of each of his parents in episode 14 & 15. When he travels back to the Night of Treason there’s this moment of him kneeling down taking in the sight of his dead father, even closing the former King’s eyes. This takes place right after he has saved his younger self and ambushed Lee Lim and the other traitors (which ensured that they didn’t get hold of the piece of the Manpasikjeok his young self was hiding). The ensuing emotional beat of Lee Gon’s grief is something the drama quietly let’s play out. There’s no big dramatic scene of the dying King talking to him while dying in his arms or a meaningful inner monologue of Lee Gon reflecting on this moment (while spelling out what he feels). No, there’s only the still emptiness of loss as the snow keeps falling over them. Not to be all poetic about it but that calm emptiness is fitting, since Lee Gon was left an orphan by this event and his life has therefore been marred by absence. It becomes more and more clear to me the more I think about it why young Lee Gon would naturally start to obsess about the ID-card left by his mysterious savior. He has since grown up as an orphan and thus seeing his father like this now must be akin to seeing a ghost (insert Hamlet reference here). We already know from the flashback in episode four that his father’s death left an emotional scar, as the room had been left empty and untouched until that moment when Lee Gon decided to return to retrieve the Four Tiger Sword to embrace his destiny (while clearly still grieving, remembering his father, as he did so). After traveling through time and managing to return to the present and being reunited with Jeong Tae-eul he then meets his doppelganger’s (Lee Ji-hun’s) mother.

Their encounter is strangely moving. They are both incredibly affected by simply only seeing each other, which is not that strange given that they are each in essence looking at the ghost of a loved one. Lee Gon is seeing whom his mother could have been had she not passed away due to illness and Song Jeong-hye is seeing what her son would have looked like had he been allowed to grow up. Ghosts in literature have been metaphors and/or symbols for different things throughout the years. Sometimes they are regrets, at other times memories, or they might even be the physical manifestation of trauma (this occurs in ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’, the ghost of the protagonist’s ex-boyfriend who died in such a way to traumatize her literally ‘haunts’ her for the first few episodes). In this scene and in TKEM the doppelgangers are essentially and paradoxically living ‘ghosts’. Jeong Tae-eul even went looking for her mother’s counterpart in episode six, hoping that things were different enough in the Kingdom so as to mean that she was alive and well. Doppelgangers become ghosts for the ‘world-crossers’ since they are nearly quite literally the physical manifestation of ‘what could have been’ if the world-crosser’s loved one was still there.

I’m no expert on grief nor loss but I know that a defining aspect of losing someone is of course the experience of the fact that they - to be literal - are not there anymore. The living are left with only the memories and this horrible heartbreaking emptiness i.e. the experience of the lack of that person. I would actually also argue (and contradict myself) and say that the living may also be left with the love of that person. We see this in how Lee Gon remembers and embraces his destiny by remembering his father in episode four. There is of course still that emptiness of loss left behind. Lee Gon and Song Jeong-hye are however suddenly each in turn confronted by a ‘living ghost’, by the living doppelganger of whom they’ve lost. It is regret and the horrible sight of what could have been, what should have been, for Jeong-hye and a physical reminder for Lee Gon of the absence he has grown up with (as he is confronted with the parental grief of someone who deeply loves their child, who is a different version of him). At this point Lee Gon has not only lost his parents but also his uncle Prince Buyeong, whom Lee Lim killed precisely because he wanted to break his orphaned nephew’s spirit. Both these characters, Lee Gon and Song Jeong-hye, have in common how Lee Lim almost completely wrecked their lives one fateful night. They have both suffered terribly due to his greed and have both had to live with that trauma for the last 25 years. Lee Gon, being the hero of this narrative, being currently in the process of confronting and stopping him, once and for all. They also have in common how they are haunted by the fact that there was that one person they couldn’t save. For Lee Gon it is his parent(s) and for Song Jeong-hye it is her son. And it is strange that in a way, the people they’ve lost is suddenly right there, in front of them. They are confronted with a living, breathing, thinking person who in some ways actually is the person they have lost. We don’t know much about Lee Gon’s mother, but we do know that he takes after her by being scientifically inclined and being someone with faith (episode 12). We do know from seeing Song Jeong-hye that she is also someone with faith (being Catholic) and we can determine from watching her that she is open-minded and curious as she takes the time to listen to FateKid, exhibiting the traits which probably made her counterpart become a scientist. Lee Gon thus have in common with Song Jeong-hye the traits he inherited from his mother, which are his only remaining link to her.

The doppelgangers of the TKEM universe are intimately connected, they are not simply random people with the same faces. We see this (as previously stated) in how Song Jeong-hye is, as Lee Gon’s mother was, a Catholic and in how several of Jeong Tae-eul’s work colleagues are police officers in both universes (beliefs, values and certain choices remaining the same between the two worlds). After Lee Gon resets the universes we meet a grown-up Lee Ji-hun who is in the military. Like Lee Gon he chooses to be someone who puts himself forward to protect people/the nation and very likely certain ideals. We see this brave impulse in them both early on when they are each in turn confronted by Lee Lim. Perhaps in the case of Lee Ji-hun it is also a consequence of growing up in an abusive household. Of course there’s Luna who is seemingly very different from Jeong Tae-eul, but similarly to our heroine she does actually have a good grasp on right and wrong. She is shown believing in the concept, not being amoral and she keeps herself to a sort of moral code. She knows that what’s she’s doing is wrong. Talking to Fate/FluteKid she expects to be punished for what she’s about to do (infiltrating Tae-eul’s life and possibly killing Lee Gon) and while she feels like she has been dealt an unfair hand she doesn’t (I think) ever claim that what’s she’s doing is right. Does that make her a good person? No, no it doesn’t, since she still chooses to do horrific things to innocent people. But it reveals that she is more similar to Tae-eul then what the hardened criminal/righteous police detective contrast might at first suggest. This makes the meeting of Lee Gon and Song Jeong-hye more tragic in a way, because they are almost family. The “details” of life however do, in the end, make all the difference. Our circumstances, choices and relationships play a huge part in who we become. Neither Lee Gon nor Song Jeong-hye however did tragically get to spend much time with their loved one, and therefore the people they miss do actually come closer to being each other than what one might at first think. They both miss a person, who in a sense, never existed (a Lee Ji-hun and doppelganger of Song Jeong-hye who survived). Not to become too philosophical but an identity defining difference between Lee Gon and Lee Ji-hun is the fact that the latter didn’t grow up while the former did. Similarly a defining difference between Song Jeong-hye and Lee Gon’s mother is that the latter died due to illness. There are other incredibly important differences as well, they are importantly of course separate people with different relationships and histories, which is why Lee Gon and Jeong-hye end up being closer but not close enough to what the other person is missing. I do however believe that it is good to when confronted with characters and scenes like these to truly reflect and question what it is that makes us who we are - which is what the very concept of doppelgangers invites us to do.

Song Jeong-hye’s grief is almost palpable in this scene and Lee Gon, the survivor confronted with his dead counterpart’s grieving mother, is also unsurprisingly deeply affected. He is clearly broken up about her fate, but is stopped when he tries to apologise. It is absolutely heartbreaking when Jeong-hye unfairly blames him for Ji-hun’s death. I do however believe that her parting words “I’m not your mother” and emphasis that he should not die for her reveals that parental love, as in the case of the romantic love between Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-eul, can also extend across universes. She could have been apathetic to his fate and she clearly isn’t. Lee Gon is later also quietly devastated by her death. This being a modern fairytale the story will end with Lee Gon doing what seems impossible, saving Lee Ji-hun and Song Jeong-hye. He rights the wrongs his uncle’s greed have caused and is partially able to do so thanks to Song Jeong-hye’s love for her son, which extends just enough as to move her to help Lee Gon. Love ends up conquering greed by extending beyond the latter’s reach through one mother who lost her son choosing to help a ‘stranger’. This after Lee Lim has been using doppelgangers’ love (or lack thereof in the case of Luna) for their families against them.

The fact that this meeting takes place now, so soon after Lee Gon has re-lived his father’s murder is absolutely soul-crushing. It also creates a dark and tragic context for what comes next. Lee Gon comes to believe that the only way to end it all is to travel back in time, once again but this time risk his past self dying to make sure that Lee Lim is finally stopped. That is a very drastic and dark plan, but because we have these scenes of Lee Gon with Song Jeong-hye and him literally revisiting his trauma (taking in the sight of his dead father) we can easily believe why Lee Gon is so sure that this is how it has to play out. That and the fact that he has grown up as a King in a monarchy where the monarch’s chief responsibility is to ensure the safety of their people. We can tell that he suffers badly from survivor’s guilt as he sneaks away to travel back on his own, only bringing Jo Yeong when the latter intercepts him and insists, as Lee Gon hesitates, that he will accompany him. Then when they are back in time Lee Gon’s new plan consists of Yeong being back-up, making sure that Lee Lim is stopped if he himself would fail to do so. Even then, he chooses to rather risk himself than putting his friend in danger. Unsurprisingly however Jo Yeong pales when he understands Lee Gon’s plan and simply refuses to abide by his King’s request, choosing instead to prioritize saving the young Lee Gon.

At some point I need to make a post about how all the protagonists’ heroism takes form in the choices they make and in how they are either/both saved and/or moved by the love of others’. I do hope people don’t mistake my emphasis on Lee Gon as an orphan as me invalidating his familial relationships with Prince Buyeong and Lady Noh. Lee Gon is an orphan in that he lost both of his loving parents who cared for him, not because he lost his parents-by-blood. There is also this guilt of Lee Gon’s towards Prince Buyeong because the latter had to choose between taking care of young Lee Gon or being with his immediate family. It doesn’t strain their relationship but it does in the case of Lee Gon make his remaining familial relationship heavier. In the case of Lady Noh he also feels indebted to her, as she is someone who remained in the Kingdom to look after him rather than trying to get back to her world (or simply choosing to leave the palace) after his father’s violent death. It is important to point out that of course these characters’ all freely choose to do what they do, it is part of what makes them feel truly human and heroic. Lee Gon is not to blame but of course he is still thankful and understandably, given his trauma, he still experiences some guilt. Love makes us do things for each other and as the fragile human beings that we are we might at times not feel deserving of it. Lee Gon, on his way to quite possibly sacrificing his life for everyone else, describes himself as selfish when taking leave of Lady Noh. This because he didn’t immediately return her to the Republic when he found out that that is where she’s from, being scared that she would leave. Lady Noh, unsurprisingly is not at all bothered by this revelation (and given that Lee Gon earlier asked her to ask him where he went definitely knows that he would eventually tell her) and is only concerned that he won’t be able to come back. The scene reminds me of when Lee Gon said that he won’t let Jeong Tae-eul leave, which they both knew he didn’t actually mean even for a moment. It was simply him admitting to and expressing his loneliness and fear. The consequences of Lee Gon’s trauma, being afraid to be abandoned and experiencing survivor’s guilt, is thus shown through these kinds of emotional beats and helps inform us of as to why he acts like he does. Thankfully Lee Gon is in the end able to save the two worlds, is saved himself and can even save young Lee Ji-hun and Song Jeong-hye. This due to the courage and love which moves him, Jeong Tae-eul, Jo Yeong, Kang Shin-jae and Song Jeong-hye, and which in the end causes them to prevail against the darkness Lee Lim unleashed in their worlds and in their lives.

#the king eternal monarch #lee gon #the king: eternal monarch #the acting in this scene is heartbreakingly good #ghosts and doppelgangers #tkem meta

40 notes · View notes

alittlenarnian · 4 years

Text

Can I buy you a book?

Edmund x Reader College AU! This is inspired by that post about normalising buying books for cute people in the bookstore because that would 100% work on me. Please buy me books.

Edmund had noticed her. Of course he’d noticed her. They were in the same year, doing a lot of the same subjects, and honestly? She was definitely his type.

He’d first noticed her back in their first year. She was quiet then. Shy. Slow to come out of her bubble. She often wore a thoughtful expression, like there was more going on in that brain of hers than she let on. She didn’t speak much in class, but when she did he could tell he was right. There were great things going on in that brain.

Since then he’d noticed her often.

He loved all the things her face did. The way her forehead crinkled when she was confused. The cheeky grin she wore when she made a comment to a friend in class. The way her whole face lit up when someone cracked a joke. Or when she cracked a joke. He loved that little happy dance she did whenever she found food.

He’d tried to speak to her. Once, back in first year he’d approached her, but he’d chickened out and ended up asking something about the homework. In second year he’d borrowed a pen off her. When he’d finished with it she was gone, and by time he saw her again he’d lost it. He didn’t dare look at her for a month. In third year she’d left some notes behind, and he had jogged after her to return them. He’d wanted to say something else, but she’d thanked him hurriedly, and run off to her next class.

They were in fourth year now. She wasn’t quite so quiet now. She’d grown in confidence. She had opinions and she was no longer afraid to defend them. He’d seen sides of her come out that he hadn’t noticed at first. She was competitive, determined, hard-working, funny. She liked to know things, liked things in order, liked to be right.

Edmund still hadn’t gathered the courage to speak more than four words to her. He found them hard to string together. What would he even say? Hey, I’ve been watching you for three and a half years, can I take you out? No, that wouldn’t go over well. He would sound like a creep.

So he said nothing. He was aware that time was running out. He’d graduate at the end of the year, and so would she. They’d go in separate directions and he wouldn’t see her again. But saying nothing at all was better than being rejected right?

Edmund was browsing at the book store on campus when he noticed her yet again. She was standing in the general fiction section, pulling out books, reading the blurbs, smiling, putting them back. Every now and then she’d pull out her phone and make a note of the title of a book before slotting it back into place.

Edmund wasn’t sure what possessed him then. Fate? Destiny? True love? Adrenaline? The ghost of some guy with a name like Chad? Somehow he found himself sauntering up to her, tilting his head, and heard his voice say hey darling, can I buy you a book?

At the shocked look on her face he snapped back to reality.

“Oh my goodness that was so weird of me, I’m so sorry! I just think you’re cute but I didn’t know what to say, and now I’ve made it weird! But you know, I’d still like to buy you a book. You know, if you want one?”

As he spoke he could tell she was trying not to laugh, and before he finished she was grinning ear to ear.

“That was so damn smooth, and then…” she burst out laughing.

“And then I ruined it, damn it.”

“I’m kinda glad you did though. Smooth people make me nervous. Like how are they so confident? This version of you is much easier to talk to.” She was still smiling that gorgeous smile of hers, and Edmund felt himself relax.

“I’m so glad you like this version better because I would not have been able to keep that up for long.” She laughed, and Edmund thought he wanted to hear that sound all the time. “I’m Edmund. I think we’ve had some classes together?”

“Y/n. Yeah, I’m sure I’ve seen you around.”

“So any books you’ve got your eye on? Because the offer still stands.”

Y/n pointed out one of the books she’d just added to her wish-list and Edmund went to the counter to pay for it.

Y/n and Edmund stepped out of the shop in lively discussion about one of the classes they shared. They wandered aimlessly across campus, not running out of things to talk about, before Y/n looked at her watch and realised she had a meeting with her course advisor. They parted with the agreement that they would meet up again on Saturday for coffee and cake.

Lucy looked at the caller ID and smiled. She swiped the green button and put the phone to her ear.

“Hey Ed!”

“Hey Lucy-lu, you’ll never guess what happened,” Edmund all but sang down the phone line.

“What? What happened?”

“I’ve got a date. On Saturday.”

“…”

“Lucy?”

“I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

“I-what?”

“Or maybe you’ve been replaced by aliens?”

“Lucy!”

“What, I’m just supposed to believe Edmund Pevensie talked to a girl?”

“Stuff you.”

“I love you too. So who is she? Do I know her? Did you ask her out or did she ask you? What’s she like? When can I meet her?”

“Seriously Lu, calm down. It’s just a date. She’s a girl from my class. She’s great; I’m sure you’d like her. And yes I asked her. Do you really think I can’t ask a girl out?”

“I mean…”

“Rude.”

Edmund couldn’t decide if Saturday had come too fast, or not fast enough. On one hand, he was really looking forward to seeing Y/n again. On the other, he was a nervous mess. He’d put on a nice shirt and slacks. Changed to a nicer shirt because he wanted to impress her. Changed to his nicest jeans because he didn’t want to be too dressed up – you’re just getting coffee, Ed, chill. Changed to a more casual shirt, and immediately back out of it – you don’t want to look like a slob. He finally settled on a shirt and jeans combo that he was happy with and glanced at his phone.

“Shoot, I should have left five minutes ago!”

Edmund grabbed his keys and stuffed his wallet in his pocket and dashed out the door.

Y/n had started getting ready earlier than she needed to. Her hair had cooperated nicely today, and she still felt good about the outfit she’d picked out the night before, so she popped her book in her bag and headed to the café where she’d agreed to meet Edmund. Y/n arrived ten minutes early, so she grabbed a table and pulled out her book.

Edmund arrived at the café out of breath, and saw a familiar h/c head of hair bent over a book.

“Hey cutie, whatcha reading?” he asked, pulling out the chair opposite her.

She looked up, smiling.

“Oh, just a book that this really good-looking guy bought for me the other day,” Y/n said, cheeks flushing.

“Oh, a good-looking guy, huh?” Edmund was beaming.

“Oh yeah. Real handsome. Not a smooth talker, but–”

“Hey! I was real smooth. The smoothest. Smooth as a…as a…”

“See what I’m talking about?” Y/n giggled. “It’s okay though, because I’ve just used up my flirting ability for the rest of the month in one conversation.”

“Oh good, because I used some the other day, so I was struggling to keep up.”

Y/n and Edmund ordered their hot drinks and a slice of cake each, and fell right back into easy conversation. They talked about everything from their favourite books, to their families, to their hopes and dreams, and Edmund wondered why he’d been so scared to talk to Y/n. He should have offered to buy her a book years ago.

#do you like the rose I drew #edmund pevensie #edmund x reader #edmund fluff #narnia #narnia fanfic #honestly what even am I meant to put in the tags again?#also can't remember how to edit my masterlist lol

85 notes · View notes

new2otomelol · 4 years

Text

Maid to the Rescue - A KBTBB Fanfic

I have not posted in a looong time, but miss it! I will be going back, fixing some of my older posts (fix my writing, lol) I’m still not a great writer and being a teacher takes a lot of work, but this is a nice escape from the world every once in a while. This is for one of the awesome people that have read my stuff and liked it (a thousand thank yous!)

This story is developing and this is the first part. I don’t own the rights to Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, Voltage does. This is a fanfic for fun!

It has been a year since that fateful day in the lobby. God, my life was so different back then. I was always at the beck and call of “the boys” as I called them. My saviors as well as my proverbial pains in the rear. There are times I miss them, and others when I wish we could have all met under different circumstances.

You see, more than a year ago I use to be a maid at a famous hotel called the Tres Spades. A hotspot in Tokyo and one of the many business ventures of my former supposed boyfriend, Eisuke Ichinomiya.

My life was put in danger more times than what I would’ve liked during our pretend relationship; a situation that also opened up backlash from some of the employees at the hotel. Eisuke decided he didn’t want to see me suffer and thus ended our affair in grand-fashion in front of the staff and clients. This gesture alone successfully put an end to relentless bullying in less than a few seconds.

Even though I completely understood the situation and told myself countless of times that I was fine, it still hurt. Eisuke and I had gotten close during our time together and even felt like barriers he had put up were beginning to cease. But enough was enough, I was tired of being labeled “plain,” “stupid,” and other things by people. I wanted to feel like a person of worth that could stand on her own two feet. I took Eisuke’s breakup announcement as my chance to run and do what I have always neglected to do, self-care and growth.

That day, I stood up my co-worker on a date, packed my bags with only my essential needs, emptied my savings jar and fled. I tried to be smart about it, ditched my identity, left the money Eisuke had deposited in account untouched, destroyed my phone, you name it. I knew the boys would eventually seek me out, but I needed time.

I had made a friend through Chisato who helped me create a new identity and assisted me with finding a small place to live in that was well hidden. Eventually, Gage, as he called himself, had me join a few of his friends. Together we formed a small “gang” of sorts. Our activities may have not always been on the legal side of things, but they are just and necessary.

We have become a family and enjoy working with each other, but I know that eventually I have to go back to my old life and start anew. I’m no longer that shy girl who followed others blindly and gave up so much of herself. I’m strong, in fact, I always was; I just never could find the time to build my confidence. Those days are gone and I’m ready for what I must face.

I wipe the sweat off my brow as I wait on top of this old, dilapidated roof and stare at my computer screen. Enough reminiscing, time for action. “Siren! It’s time!” I hear the command through my earpiece and enter a code in the computer. “Entered, security systems are down, including firewall. Lucy, begin download.” I give the command and hear “roger!” from my friend Lucy. A beeping sound goes off on my computer 2 minutes later and I know our time is up. “Alright everyone, it’s 2:00 a.m. and as planned they have caught on. My location has been made, initiating cleanup sequence, let’s roll!”

I pull a tab on my computer that I had installed to a small little bomb, which I had put together and crafted into my laptop’s hard drive earlier in the day. My 20 second countdown begins as I reconnect my harness to the rope and slide down to another rooftop across the way. I enter the stairs through the roof access and quickly make my way down. Through the windows of the stairwell. I can see dark figures running towards the building I just had been in. Goodbye jerks! I’m gone and out of sight.

I take dark alley ways and finally make it to my scooter and drive away. I’ve gotten so used to the adrenaline rush of it all that I don’t panic anymore. A few minutes later I make it to the warehouse with all the others.

“Siren! Great job girl! We got the assholes!” Gage comes up to me and high fives me as I dismount my scooter. I take off my helmet and breathe in the air, letting that wonderful feeling of accomplishment settle in.

“I can’t believe that we were able to pull it off this time! Did Lucy download all the files we needed?” I ask and Gage smiles widely, “that and more my friend. We found that the company has a connection to a crazy cult-like organization called AID. We will unleash the company’s doings to the media and let that fire start and take over. We have finally avenged Nyx!” He starts to do his little victory dance around my scooter as the rest of the gang shows up.

Nyx is a fellow member of ours that had been employed by a major corporation. She was great at her job and handled the accounting for her employer. Unfortunately, the corporation went under new leadership and things went awry quickly. Looking for a scapegoat, they shifted the blame on our friend that we refer to as “Nyx” and she was arrested and charged. Tonight, we took the information we needed to clear her name and set her free.

We all move to the day room area and take a beer in celebration relaxing on our old worn-out couch. “Siren, I think it’s time for you to also clear your name and face your destiny.” Gage whispers to me as he takes a seat next to me. Of course, the others pick up what we are talking about and quickly get excited. “Yes Siren! It’s time for you to conquer your love!” Lucy states happily. I laugh and throw a pillow at her from the couch. “I know, I know and I feel ready to go back and face it all; but remember, I must do it on my own."

We continue to talk about plans that we’ve all made since we got to the sanctuary. Gage is a computer programming specialist and professor in real life. He took us in, taught us everything we know about computers, hacking, etc. Some of us in the group specialize in other things and so we learned from each other how to fight (thanks to "Net”), weaponry (thanks to “Lucy), languages (thanks to "Nikia”) and the hotel industry/customer relations, thanks to yours truly.

We’ve kept our names a secret from each other in order to teach ourselves to protect our identities. Not once have we ever revealed our real names, except to the professor, Gage.

Each one of us had a rough patch in life and ended up here. Once we solve our past issues and restore our names, we move on with our lives with the promise to help others along the way. A “pay it forward” if you will.

After an hour of celebrating we begin to head out to go home and rest. Gage taps me on the shoulder and asks me to stay behind to talk. “Lisa, listen, it’s been a year for you already and I agree with the rest of the family, it’s time for you to face your past.” I had a feeling he wouldn’t let the topic slide. “I know Gage, and trust me, I’ve been working on it.” Gage smiles and motions for me to follow him to the kitchen area where he makes some coffee for the both of us. “I’m sure you have researched your friends plenty and have prepared."

"Yes, I sure have. With the information from tonight, not only do we have evidence to free Nyx, but I have evidence to help out one of my friends and expose some of the corruption in his workplace. I also have found some other information about my ‘ex’ that tells me there is danger up ahead.” Gage sits back and sighs. “Oh sweetheart, there’s so much going on with each one of those men. In fact, I just found out something…” he’s cut off by the sound of the ringer coming from my burner phone. I gasp and look at the professor. “Answer it, quickly!”

Chisato’s ID appears on the screen and I immediately pick up. “Siren! Listen to me please. They’re all gone. Eisuke, Mamo, Baba, Soryu and Ota. We all thought they were on a trip, but it’s been two days!” The news hit me like a cold shower. “Chisato, please, calm down. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. Take the chip out of that phone, break it and the phone and throw it away. Don’t worry.” The call ends abruptly and I take a deep breath and look at Gage.

“Told you Lisa, it’s time. Do you know who you are up against?” Without a doubt I do. I feel my blood rush and my fists tighten. “Gage, I can do it. The masked man, AID, many of these people that the guys have come up against have one person in common, the Prime Minister.” Gage smiles and leans forward holding my hands. “We’ll help you with the evidence to take him down. Your friends won’t see the connection because they’re dealing with the middle-man again.” “Gage, I don’t want to get any of you in trouble…” he pats my hands. “Lisa, you know we’ll be completely anonymous when releasing the information and helping you. We’ll all be worried about you going in to the line of fire, but you’re the most skilled in sneaking around and fighting. I know you can do this!” The professor stands up, gives me a kiss on the forehead and puts up our empty coffee cups.

“Gage, I can’t ever begin to pay you back for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you, thank you so incredibly much for taking me under your tutelage and helping me grow.” I bow to him and he laughs. “Lisa, you’ve helped many people while being in this group and this isn’t goodbye dear. I may be in my 50’s, but I’m not dying yet.” I laugh and attack him with a hug. “No one will die, I’ll make sure of it.”

He pats my back and releases me from the hug. “Okay sweetheart, go get some rest and get ready, tomorrow is another day!” ************************************ Back in Tokyo…. “Eisuke! Wake up, come on! Shake it off! Damn this shit!” Soryu curses as he struggles against his tight restraints. “S…Sor… what the fuck is going on?” States Baba as he begins to wake up from his drug induced stupor. “I don’t know, but it looks like we were all drugged at the party and here we are. Who the fuck could havd done this?”

“Maybe it was one of your gang rivals Sor” said Ota as he licked his dry lips and shook his head in an effort to re-stabilize his sight. “Not one of mine; this is not their typical ammo.” Rustling noises come from one of the corners of their dark enclosure. “Nah kid, at this stage, it could be either Baba or Eisuke’s enemies. What the actual fuck did they give us? My head is 'bout to rip the fuck open!” Groans come from the center of the room as Eisuke comes to. “What the fuck?” Soryu rolls his eyes, “we just established that part. Do you have any bad deals going on right now? Anything we should know?” Eisuke shakes his head and tries to re-moisturize his dry mouth. “The usual. Maybe that masked freak is at it again? Whoever it is, I wasn’t anticipating this, and usually I can see it a mile away. This is bigger.”

“For sure it wasn’t me. I’ve been in France for a month” said Baba. “Well, whoever the fuck it is, they have a flair for the dramatic. They should have just taken us out of the equation if they were able to get all of us.” stated Eisuke. The lights turned on and the mens’ eyes sting with the introduction of the harsh brightness. “So you are awake, perfect! I’ll notify the boss soon.” Said a man with a familiar voice as he entered the large warehouse area. The men re-adjust their sight and look upon their captor. “I called it! Masked dude it is!” said Ota. “Oh buddy, I’ve been nothing but a pawn in this and will continue to be to fulfill my boss’s every desire. Unfortunately, he’s been a busy body, so I will entertain you until he’s ready. Continue to enjoy your accommodations men, you’re here for the long haul.” The man laughs and quickly walks away leaving the bidders in their metal chairs with what seems to be mechanized handcuffs, the likes they had never seen before.

#kbtbb #kbtbbfanfic #eisuke #soryu #mamoru

13 notes · View notes

yandere--stuck · 5 years

Note

Ooo~ Trencil? Then how about some yandere Trencil headcanons?

GOD BLESS YOU ANON ID DIE FOR YOU

🥀 Now, it's well known that Trencil is a man of solitude - he prefers shade, quiet (but, the subtle sound of background noise will do just fine in silence's place), his flowers, and his daughter (and, perhaps, a stick or two of gum). He is a simple man, with simple likes and needs. Though, no matter how easily he contented he believes himself to be, he still found himself within the confines of The Habitat, along with his daughter. Not being able to make himself happy was one thing, but Nat, too…? He felt himself a failure of a father. A part of him had hoped the stay at The Habitat would bring stitch bis and Nat's relationship back together, but… Oh, it seemed to have only made everything worse. She avoided him constantly, with no mention of him to anyone! And he knows, knows within his heart that pre-teens hated being seen with their parents and often were annoyed or felt smothered by them, but… Goodness, how he missed the "I love you"'s, the welcome-home hugs, how Nat would share with him everything and anything… It all left a hole in his soul… He felt so lost, alone, unwanted and unloved. Not even the flowers in the courtyard would bloom under his touch, especially due to how the sunlight would hit each plant differently. God, it felt as though he was cursed! (And not just the type of curse that left him craving the taste of lifeblood).

🖤 But then… You arrived. He spotted you, coming across the courtyard. He payed you no mind at first, watching you interact with the others, the soft melody of your voice mingling with the ambience of the courtyard. And then you approached him, seemingly intent on…. Helping him? He had hidden it, but he was surprised. Someone, you, wanted to help him? Cared about his needs and wants? In that moment, it felt as though something… Something bloomed within him. He took a moment or two (perhaps longer than normal, even), to process your inquiry and the emotions it brought upon him. Then, he explained his current problem, besides the one he faced with Nat - the flowers in the courtyard simply were NOT blooming, and it made him feel even lower than he had prior. To his shock, you didn't shrug off his issues or tell him that he was overreacting - you listened, gave a nod, and told him you'd be more than happy to help. A warmth bloomed within Trencil's body, from his stomach to his chest. When he tried to sleep that night, all he thought of was you…

🥀 A part of him actually didn't expect you to come through with you promise - but he found you, everyday, working hard in the courtyard. He had watched as you observed the shadows and sunlight before planting each of the flowers you had given him. You had come up empty the first few tries, but you kept trying. Your determination and persistence to help him… It filled Trencil with such a feeling of gratitude. He couldn't help but smile (though tried to keep it hidden. Pesky fangs!), feeling prickles of happiness spark within him - something he thought he'd never feel again.

🖤 The next morning, as Trencil made his way from his room down to the courtyard, he had spotted Nat talking with you. He hid in the staircase, peeking out from the wall - he didn't want to scare his daughter away! His eyes widened in surprise. Nat was… She was smiling! She was happy! His surprise was soon replaced by joy, smiling so wide that his fangs peeked! Nat was happy, his daughter was happy and… And YOU were making her happy. You had made his Nat, the most important thing in his life, happy… He blinked. He felt something, something indescribable blooming within his chest. His cheeks flushed slightly. He watched as you walked away, and to his joy he watched as Nat remained smiling!! She was smiling all on her own! She was happy! God, it made Trencil so happy he could cry. Trencil moved into the hallway, waving at Nat and flashing her a smile. Sorrow filled Trencil's heart as Nat turned away, smiling falling and a look of annoyance replacing it. What had he done wrong…?

🥀 When Trencil arrives in the courtyard, he finds you by the entrance, beaming at him - and he soon sees why. The flowers! They were blooming! You… You had done it! Trencil was in slight disbelief, but… No, of course. Of course you had done it. If… If you could make his Nat happy, you could do anything. You took his hands (you were so warm, you made him feel so warm) and asked him if it made him happy. Trencil smiled sadly, saying that he would have been over the moon… But, his daughter, Nat, has been avoiding him as of late. It made him so depressed, he just… He just wanted to know if she still loved him, and if not, what he did wrong. Instead of being disappointed or angry, and justifiably so Trencil might add, but instead you once again offered you help with renewed vigor. You left Trencil abruptly, leaving him once again surprised at your kindness and willingness to help. It was as though… You were sent into his life for a reason. Something akin to destiny, even…

🖤 "...I love my dad…" Trencil jumped in surprise as Nat's voice boomed throughout The Habitat. He blinked, taking a moment to process what he had just heard, to realize that what he heard was real. It was real… It was real! Nat loved him! His daughter loved him! His smiled wide, dancing in place, holding his potted plant to his chest. Nat still loved him! He must be doing something right as a father, oh Thank God! His eyes darted to the entrance to the courtyard, spotting you. It was then he knew - this was your doing… You… You absolute angel! In that moment, everything clicked within him. He- Trencil needed you! You made him so happy, both him and his daughter. He watched with joy as you dashed towards him, you laughed as you asked if he was happy. He certainly hoped that him sweeping you into a tight hug and his toothy smile was answer enough… And, oh my, you smelled so wonderful… So intoxicating…

🥀 Trencil found himself thinking of you almost constantly. You and Nat. He'd watch you two talk together, and God, it made him light up with joy knowing that Nat had someone besides himself to confide in and look up to! He thinks of you before he falls asleep at night, and dreams of you and he and Nat as a happy family together…

🖤 But when Trencil watches as you go out of your way to help the other Habiticians, Trencil's filled with a sudden rage. His body quakes with anger. No! No, no, no! Why were paying attention to them?! You… You were HIS! No one… No one else deserved you, your kindness, your love! They didn't need you like he needed you, like Nat needed! No! He… He had to stop this. You were too kind and helpful for your own good. But… Trencil would show you, help you realize how much you needed him, too. And he knew just how to do it. If he weren't a vampire, convincing you would be a much harder task. Luckily, his powers made formulating a plan much easier.

🥀 As curfew approached, he watched as the other Habiticians made their way to their rooms from the courtyard, leaving only you and him as you exited the carnival. He called your name, waving you over. You approached him, eyes locking with him. Gotcha. He smiled as he watched your eyes go dull, your limbs slackening and mouth dropping open slightly. "There we go, beloved…" Trencil cooed, cupping the side of your face, before bringing you into a hug. Oh! How he had missed your scent, how it comforted and soothed him… He separated from you, yet held his hand in yours. He softly told you to follow him, and you obeyed, walking robotically beside him. With each step closer, Trencil became more and more elated! The vampire talked animatedly about how happy he was, how bright your futures were - A wedding, with Nat as the flower girl, of course! Oh, how happy his Nat would be to know that you would be her parent! And don't be nervous, dearest! Trencil knows you'll be the perfect spouse and co-parent. Your meeting was fate, he was certain of it. You'll be absolutely perfect. You already WERE perfect.

🖤 He gets you situated in his room, explaining that he'll bring Nat to see you and to explain everything in the morning. And don't fret! The mind control wasn't permanent. It was only to make sure you wouldn't panic in public or reject him before he could make sure you wouldn't run away. He'd undo it right now!... Or, Trencil supposee, after this. He pulls you close to him, looking deeply into your dull eyes. His eyelids are down to half-mast, a soft smile upon his lips. He pulls into a kiss. He pulls away for a moment, "kiss me back, beloved", before going back in to deepen the kiss with you returning his affections. Oh yes, he'd undo his spell… In a moment.

#yandere x reader #smile 4 me #trencil varnnia #smile for me x reader #smile for me #s4m x reader #smile 4 me x reader #sfm trencil #smile for me trencil #smile 4 me trencil #trencil x reader #trencil varnnia x reader #s4m #s4m Trencil #sfm x reader #yandere

143 notes · View notes

chaniters · 4 years

Text

Reaper and the Fiend- Epilogue.

Epilogue for @kruk-art‘s Awan Cormac’s second series.

As usual, looking back id the realization that the more characters and elements you add up, the harder it gets for the plot to keep cohesion. Many times I almost call it quits, but somehow I pulled trough to the end.

Hope you enjoy it!

Awan and “The Question”, the precognitive surviving member of the Phoenix Rangers, reflect on the aftermath of it all before Ortega joins them.

Spoilers inside too, for Rebirth.

_______________________________________________________

The first rays of sunlight touch your Sidestep mask, as the cloud begins to recede. Ashfall and Sentinel have been working together to try and ground the toxins into a nearby landfill for hours now.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” The Question comments.

“I think it’s working,”

“Me too” He says while checking the air analyzer’s readings. “This is the real miracle”

“You still believe in miracles?”

“Magical miracles? No. But miracles made true by people with flesh, blood, and bone? Of course.”

“Interesting way to put it”

“When you’re like me, it’s the only way to put it”

“Right, I forget you’re supposed to know the future or something?” You didn’t forget. His mind is a maze that rivals yours, but he’s got a truly calm attitude about it that’s making you envious.

“It depends. Do you believe in fate?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you believe our lives have been predetermined from before we were made? That, someone, decided who you’re supposed to be for the rest of your existence and that’s that?”

That’s a very specific question to ask to you…

“No. I don’t believe in fate”

“Good. Me neither.”

“But you see it. The future, I mean.”

“I like to believe we are masters of our own destiny”

“That doesn’t really answer anything.”

“Well there’s a reason I didn’t call myself ‘The Answer’, you know?”

“Shut the fuck up” you laugh, unwrapping a candy bar. “I just came here to lie down, not to have a philosophical debate”.

“You really aren’t going to ask me about your future? Everyone does.” Is he baiting you? You get the impression he knows a lot more about you just by looking. He knows too much about... everyone. You are just another speck of dust in a sea of information.

“No. I won’t ask” you say pulling your mask above your mouth and taking a bite of candy.

“Huh. That’s probably wise”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. Once I tell someone how their future will look like, then it’s set in stone for them and not even I can change it. I really don’t like doing it”

“But you would have.”

“Oh, I would. I do it, more than I probably should, you know for people who need it”

“Do I look like I need it?”

He gives you a long look.

“No. I think you’ll be just fine without it. I mean, you won’t of course, but you will.”

“That’s both ambiguous and terrifying. How do you know the future’s not set in stone even before you look?”

“I really try not to think too hard about that. I think you didn’t want a debate?”

“Fine. I just want to relax” you say retreating and straightening an overturned sunbathing chair. “It’s been a shitty day”

The door to the staircase leading to the top opens, and Ortega comes in, in full suit.

“Sidestep. I see you’ve made yourself comfortable up here. You know, Steel could have really used your help with all the angry civs though.”

“Funny way of showing it. He said I wasn’t part of the team when you asked me to stay.”

“Yes but… well, you know he didn’t think you would actually walk away… he thought you wouldn’t listen and help anyways like you always do.”

“Well I guess we all learned something new from that experience, didn’t we?”

“You just wanted to piss him off that badly?”

“Ugh… no… well, maybe I did, but you know I don’t do well with crowds with strong emotions, and I had more than my fair share today. I need some peace”

“Fine. I understand… But just so you know, you did a darn good job in there”

“... a lot of the people who got killed might disagree” you point out.

“And a lot of people who lived will be thanking you. We saved them. You saved them. No one could have predicted how this would go”

“I could. I did” the Question states while looking at the analyzer he’s been fiddling with.

“What? You did? The only thing you did was call us! Why didn’t you say shit? A lot of executives died” Ortega points out.

“If I had told you, you would have saved them, and those are the ones who would have voted not to open the Archology to the civs, and we would be having a civil war right now. Thank me later”

“You let them die!”

“I didn’t do anything. You’re the ones with fighting powers, It was you who couldn’t rescue them, remember?”

“Wow. you really are full of shit” You interject.

“Look I lost my team to that monster ok? Could’ve lost the entire city too. I don’t like it but it’s how my stupid powers work, I’m not a fighter like you two, so give me a fucking break.”

“... fine” you say, too tired to argue with this jerk.

“Good. Ashfall’s plan is working, pollution levels are coming down… I’ll go coordinate some stuff, If you’re staying here seek me out once it goes below 33% alright?”

“We don’t work for you!” you complain.

“We’ll do it” Ortega interrupts you.

“Ugh. Whatever”

The Question nods and leaves, letting you two alone up here at the zenith of the Arcology. The monotonous beeps of the analyzer repeat intermittently over the strong winds.

“Funny guy” you comment

“Don’t get me started on that asshole.”

“I was just finished with him anyways.”

“So it’s working?” he says changing the subject and looking down at Sentinel and Ashfall working in the distance.

“Seems like it” you answer.

“Nice to have some good news, finally,” he says approaching the edge.

“Join me. Nothing compares to sunbathing under a toxic cloud with your suit on.” you offer.

“Receding, toxic cloud you mean” he clarifies taking the chair next to you and laying over it.

“Right. Receding” you snort.

“Not going to lie. This is the biggest fucking mess I’ve ever been into since I got into the capes business”

“Same here” you agree. Nothing you did for the farm compares to this clusterfuck.

The aftermath wasn’t pretty. Not by a longshot.

Letting Catastrofiend into the core worked, as the beast consumed enough of the gas to allow the scientists to stabilize it somewhat, and turn the lights back on essential systems through the facility. The computers were toast, however, as Charon wiped all data and OS before erasing himself, commiting digital suicide upon it’s master’s death. Everything’s working on manual overrides right now.

There was a big scare when the Fiend came out of the core’s container, glowing like it had the power of an evil purple sun ready to burn you all, but to everyone’s surprise, it didn’t survive long after saving performing its single heroic feat. The glow became blinding, and then it disappeared, only the echoes of its roars remaining as a reminder of its presence along with a pair of purple footprints.

You caught a glimpse of your least favorite asshole, The Void, holding some sort of gun and hiding back into it’s cloaking device, walking away. Whatever it is he wanted, you’re sure he got it, and if your scans were to be trusted, he left the arcology immediately after that.

Your work to convince the remaining executives to let the people in was much easier now that all the surviving scientists were focused on having the building not explode. They couldn’t afford combat on the outside when their tech was unreliable, and Reaper managed to remind them of their own mortality by dusting a couple of them. All it took was a small nudge on the mind of the deciding vote and the gates were reopened.

“We lost Psychopathor” Ortega says laying down on a chair next to yours. “A lot of the crowd still backs him and he just got lost among them.”

“We’ll get him next time” you reassure him. “We couldn’t fight him in the middle of this civilian mess anyways or it’ would be Halloween with Catastrofiend all over again”

“... Too soon man. Too soon” he says bending his arms and putting his hands behind his head, relaxing.

“Sorry.”

“You’re right. Not a damn thing we could do about old shitface, so It’s time to lie down and wait”

He stretches, crossing his legs as he looks up, just as you were doing earlier.

“They’re doing a fantastic job” you comment.

“Sentinel I had no doubts about, but Ashfall? He really came through working with those creepy scientists about the sand-whirlpool shenanigan”

“It was a good idea” you say peeking down. As the polluted air comes down into the landfill, it goes trough a series of sand walls of that Ashfall keeps raising, coming clean on the other side. Several trucks come in with sand refills while others take the polluted compounds away.

“Good for him. His publicity wasn’t very good before this”

“What about your publicity?” his mask looking your way

“My last publicity stunt with you guys was with Reaper and he turned to be a homicidal maniac so I’m thinking I’ll give that a pass from now on. Please don’t get me into that shit again?”

“That’s fair” he concedes.

“... anyways… they stole a bunch of tec shit from the lower levels and left. Some sort of targeting device and many plasma weapon prototypes”

“We’ll get him” you repeat.

A news helicopter flies by, taking pictures. It turns to take one of you two. Fuck. That’s tomorrow’s cover right there...

“I know what you’re thinking… but we’re not going to be the top news tomorrow.”

“No? Who is?”

“I talked to my agents… Reaper, and The Fiend it is. Geni-Tech’s minimizing company’s responsibility for the toxins and making them the focus.”

“They kind of had a lot to do with it anyways”

“True…”

“That’s not what’s bothering you tough?”

“How do you know?” he asks turning towards you.

“It’s pretty obvious. What happened with Elyise?”

“... mierda. You’re good. You sure you can’t read my mind?”

“I can read Idiot easy enough. It’s my favorite language”

“... she left. I can’t find her. Didn’t want to talk to me”

“Understandable. Her mother just died for real this time”

“I just… I didn’t see another way... “

“That’s because there wasn’t.”

“And now she’s going to hate me forever for it”

“Yup, pretty much” you add looking into the distance.

“Would you had done the same?”

“You’re asking me of all people?”

“Yeah. I want to know”

“Would I sacrifice a lab monster to save countless human lives…” Shit. That should be the farm’s motto. Would you sacrifice yourself to save lives? That’d be a better question. “Yeah. I guess I would… Look, just because you do the right thing doesn’t mean people can’t hate you for it”

“Ha. The right thing…. What even is that”

“Good question,” you say closing your eyes. “So fucking tired”

“Me too. You should get those cuts checked...”

“Later. It’s just a scratch really. And you know I don’t like”

“Hospitals, yeah I know”

“Good”

He doesn’t reply, and you both stay silent for the longest while, just listening to the wind as Sentinel keeps the small inverted tornado pulling the cloud into the landfill with Ashfall grounding the chemicals in it.

When you finally open your eyes again, the sky has shifted and there are large patches of open sky in the cloud. Checking your watch, you realize it’s been almost an hour since you sat down here.

Ortega’s still next to you, so it was both of you who fell asleep.

Since when are you so careless? Lowering your guard so much next to the Marshall’s a recipe for disaster. Standing up, you take a final look at the Sentinel’s work, and the deserted streets of the city below.

“We should get back down” you add tapping Ortega’s shoulder.

“Eh… what’s the rush?” he asks looking up.

“Air toxicity’s down 30%,” you say pointing at the analyzer the scientists gave you, your main reason for staying up here. “I’d bet GeniTech’s going to kick everyone out in minutes”

“Yeah… at gunpoint probably.”

You open the door, letting him in first and follow up to the elevator. He makes a call with his intercom to let The Question know.

The floors of the Arcology are packed with people from Phoenix taking refuge from the cloud. Just as you see them, they can see you too inside the glass elevator. Without warning, they explode in a thunderous roar of...cheers?

There are some boos in it as well, possibly Psychopathor’s fans, but overall it’s just deafening hero worship.

The kind Reaper talked about. The kind that makes more people take hero drugs. Focused on you and Ortega. You’re not sure how to feel about it anymore.

The next few hours go really quickly, and you barely manage to say goodbye to the Rangers before leaving back for Los Diablos on the first bus you can get. You need to get back to your place and rest for a couple of days while you heal up. You definitely lied to Ortega, Catastrofiend left a bit more than just a scratch and the wound is itching all over even after you disinfected it.

Being a hero is exhausting and you’re taking a brief small vacation while you consider what to do with the mess that your life’s become since you decided to mingle with the Rangers.

__________ Somewhere, in a parking lot in Phoenix____________

“I’m sorry Dr. I couldn’t recover your disintegration gun” The Void states while studying the small weapon in his hand. “It wasn’t in their labs by the time I got there, and with all the city going upside down it was just impossible”

“Disappointing, but not unexpected. I thank you four your services anyways and…”

“Dr. I’ll return my initial fee to you.”

“That’s not really necessary”

“I care about my reputation. I won’t take payment on something I failed to deliver.”

“That is surprisingly refreshing to hear in this line of business. Very well Void.”

“Of course. Once again, I’m sorry”

He hung up, setting the gun back inside the briefcase, before calling another number, with the San Francisco area code upfront.

“Who are you? Who gave you this number?” a female voice asked.

“They call me, The Void. And I know all the numbers”

“That’s very unlikely. So you say your name is Void?”

“No, I’m not just ‘Void’. There’s a THE before it. The. It’s ‘The’ Void, you hear me?!”

“Alright, alright, calm down you freak, I got it the first time.”

“And don’t you forget it”

“Whatever. What do you want THE VOID?” she made a point to pronounce it in a very passive-aggressive way.

“I need to arrange a meeting with Big Fire about a business proposal. I think I have something he could definitely find a use for” Void added looking at the shining red dot on the disintegration gun.

“Big fire has a use for lots of things, but no time for everything. What am I supposed to say you’re offering that’ll make him call you back?”

“Oh he’ll call me back, you can bet on it.”

“I don’t like betting honey. Now speak or fuck off”

“Well, you’re no fun. Ok, tell him I have… a fiend in a bottle,”

“A fiend in a … wait what does that mea-… “

Void hung up without answering, a smile on his lips as he closed the briefcase.

____________________________________________________

My Fanfics: https://chaniters.tumblr.com/post/181692759294/my-fanfiction-for-fallen-hero

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and the setting of the Fallen Hero: Rebirth and upcoming Fallen Hero: Retribution games written by Malin Riden. I do not claim ownership of any characters from the Fallen Hero wold. These stories are a work of my imagination, and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. These works are intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by the author. I am not profiting financially from the creation of these stories, and thank the author for her wonderful game/s, without which these works would not exist.

#fallen hero: rebirth #fallen hero spoilers #Awan Cormac #Fanfiction #epilogue

12 notes · View notes

shizekarnstein · 5 years

Note

Remember way back when Eren was on trial for being a titan shifter after Battle of Trost? He screamed that he's willing to "bear it all". What if that foreshadows Eren replacing Ymir in the Paths? What if the bittersweet ending for Eren is finding the purest form of freedom in an entirely different plane of existence? If Eren stays there with his independence intact, he might even have full control on who gets Titan forms and not too.

That's a possible interpretation anon. After all there are some panels in the current chapter that seem to at least hint at that development.

When Eren sees Ymir in paths, he's horrified. That all powerful goddess appears to be nothing more than a mindless puppet, not that different from a pure titan. Basically a slave trapped forever doing her work for all eternity, in a realm where time seems to be frozen.

Shortly after that Zeke reveals that he was testing him so see what he truly wanted to do, and commands Ymir to chained him up.

As you said, this isn't the first time we've seen Eren in chains. After Trost the military decided to locked him up just as Ymir herself is trapped. He was a prisioner just like her.

The both of them are locked up by people fearing them and their power. Seen as nothing but monsters. You certainly can draw that parallel.

Eren declares that instead of restraining him tho they can use his power. He agrees with the SC and wants to fight with his monstruos abilities for the betterment of his peoples lives. I can't help but wonder if Ymir Fritz originally wished and did something like that.

But Eren was freed of this shackles not only due to his will to fight. I find it beautifully symbolic that the ones who lifted those shackles in part were people wearing the Wings of Freedom.

Curiously that wasn't the last time someone put chains on Eren. And just like in chap 120 the person who did it is someone after the power of a god and bearer of royal blood.

Rod Reiss did the same thing as Zeke. He even triggered his memories to try to show him the sins and montruous nature of Grisha. By the end of it he tries to manipulate Historia to make her eat him. He tells both of them that only someone with royal blood can master the power of the FT, and that only that someone would be able to save humanity. At first Historia agrees, filled with grief and pain at the loss of her cherished sister.

But after seeing that Eren agrees to this sacrifice for the greater good, she pauses.

Eren is utterly convinced of the necessity of this sacrifice. He even mentions it as a relief and freedom bc he can't bear all the deaths that happened until now. He's devastated by the prospect of his father essentially having doomed humanity by stealing what wasn't his. He agrees to let Historia eat him and lay down his life in a last attempt to help humanity as a whole.

But Historia, thanks to Frieda's memories and the advice of her Ymir is able to see clearly through her fathers bullshit. She chooses her friends and herself and tells Eren that she will never stand and let people think they have no other choice but to die, bc that's no true. And she frees him.

Ymir Fritz and our Ymir and Historia have been paralleled time after time in the story. Our Ymir as a false goddess who even at the end did the best for the people she loved regardless of what it would meant for her. Historia as a literal Krista who did the same thing, always looking out for others. But in Historias case that was in part a mask. She is really a kind girl by nature, but also someone able to being selfish and looking out for those she cares about without giving a damn about the greater good. This Historia frees Eren and tells him that his life has meaning, that he doesn't really have to meassure it in terms of how useful he is.

She also is the first one to note how the apparently devious Grisha Jaeger may have actually saved them all, or at least gave them a fighting chance, by stealing the FT power from the royal bloodline. She says is a good thing bc they were missusing it. They enslaved their people and couldn't do a single thing for them due to the First kings vow. Zeke is trying to repeat the same mistakes of the royal bloodline all over again. Look at how casually he referes to Ymir as a mere slave, at how he has no qualms deciding for himself what's the best destiny for his people.

But just as Rod, Zeke is destinated to fail. Trying to show Eren the memories of Grisha is backfiring on him at an alarming pace, thus giving Eren the chance to retake control of their little journey.

Anon you mentioned that it seems that Eren freeing Ymir and replacing her, by his own choice and with his will intact, would be a way to finally gained not only his freedom but that of his people. Placing those chains on himself by choice, bearing the burden onto his shoulders. That's definetly something Eren would do. He has said so many times. But I think we shouldn't dismiss what hapened at the Reiss chapel either. Back then Eren willingly chose to exchange his freedom and accept those chains for the sake of humanity. And it was Historia, formerly known as Krista Lenz, the one who showed him a way out of it. In a philosophical sense, choosing to chain yourself can be really be considered freedom? There are many who would answer yes, and just as many that would reply with a rotund no.

One last thing: if chaining himself would give Eren the absolute power to command the fates and destiny of how the titans opperate and as you said, controlling how those powers are used and in whose hands they end up... is that really in line with this statment?

Maybe this is only wishful thinking, but to me this is more in line with a more absolute solution to the curse that infects the eldians. As long as there's a Founder and the ppl of ymir are being bounded together through paths, the mere existence of this reality would never change. One way to do it is to end the existence of the eldians, as Zeke wishes to do. But Eren himself said that's a stupid and foolish plan, as it denies their right to live. So if he's not going with that (pfff as if, only people with less than two braincells could believe that), what's left? It's the ability to turn into monsters and their ties to paths realm. Can those be altered or severed? If it were so easy as to go to paths and command Ymir to change any aspect of their biology then why the curse of ymir still exists?

If Ymir Fritz herself ended up imprisoned then why was her will lost? What happened to her? The only thing that her current state tells me is that this isn't the way to go. Our Ymir tried to live as a goddess and lost everything. Historia put the good of her ppl first and all it brought her, at least for now, is nothing by despair. These three incarnations of Ymir have miserable fates. Maybe this is all in order to tells us to not travel this route after all.

I have little doubts Eren is going to eventually die for the good of his people. But Id like to think his solution would be a little kinder to him at the end. Im sorry but being forever bounded to the paths realm sounds absolutely horrible to me, free will or not.

#anon replies #snk #snk spoilers #snk 120 #snk meta #eren jaeger #ymir fritz #zeke jaeger #rod reiss #historia reiss #ymir

113 notes · View notes

atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine · 4 years

Text

Fire Emblem: Awakening Thoughts

As of the date May 20th, 2020, I finished my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening on its one year anniversary of when I got it. It is now June 5th of writing this. This post will be my thoughts and feelings on Awakening, much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post last year. Let's get into some history between me and Fire Emblem before I go into Awakening.

As I've said before, Awakening was both my first Fire Emblem game and my first Tactical RPG. Smash Bros. was where I had heard of Fire Emblem but it wouldn't be until Ultimate came out that I would start to get interested. It was because of my friend's preference for Lucina that got me into playing as her in Smash and that's pretty much how she became both one of my mains and a favorite. It honestly wasn't till I listened to the Smash remixes of Id, Conquest, and Lost in Thoughts All Alone that I decided to play Awakening and then Fates. So thanks go out to both Smash and my friend Eric for converting me to Fire Emblem trash!

Much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post, I'll be going over every aspect of Awakening I can think of, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. I'll even include a Best/Worst Girl and Boy of both generations because that kind of thing seems to matter to some people, along with my reasons for why X is Y. Keep in mind that whoever I choose as those categories, it is just my opinion and you're free to disagree with me. I say this because I know that, no matter what I say, some diehard fans will get pissed at me and come at me for daring to shit on their favorite character. I already know some people are gonna get mad because they think X should be Best/Worst and that'll be fun to see (You can interpret that as sarcasm if you want).

Listed below are Awakening spoilers, so if you want to play the game and don't want to be spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. I know Awakening came out in 2013, meaning 6 or 7 years ago, but there may be some people who haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I want to be courteous to them. Here are my thoughts on Fire Emblem: Awakening!

First off, the graphics. I think they looked really nice for a 3DS game that came out in the early 2010's and I believe this was Fire Emblem's first fully 3D game as well so that's really impressive. The in-game models were nicely detailed, the in-game sprites were nice looking, and the prerendered cutscenes were beautiful. This doesn't mean they're not without their faults, though. I wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated because it's easy to tell when an animation's been used over and over again, I feel as if the in-game sprites have some dissonance with official art, and there are times where expressions or animations for the prerendered cutscenes have looked pretty awkward. In terms of the first and last point, I'm giving IntSys some slack because, as I stated earlier, they were developing a game for the 3DS, a powerful handheld device but it's still a handheld, and this was FE's first 3D game so there may have been issues transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D models. I'll explain what I mean by my second point. I've looked at Cynthia's official art and when I see her face, I tend to see what I'd call a baby face, pudgy cheeks and all. Her in-game sprite, however, her face is sharper, more mature, if that makes sense. Maybe it's the pigtails throwing me off or it's just a difference between two art styles, I don't know. I'm not an artist so there's not much weight behind this but I'm just saying there's somewhat a dissonance between official art and in-game sprites.

Secondly, gameplay. I loved how easy it was and how I could switch between a simple and complex UI if I wanted to see which attacks could hit or what the enemy's stats were. This may sound stupid but I honestly thought it'd be way more difficult due to this being a Tactical RPG. I know strategy's a big part of Fire Emblem but strategy's not a big problem if you're like me and you grind to hell and back. Speaking of which, I played on Easy Casual mode so that might be why it seemed so simple from the get-go. Just to give you an idea of how much I grinded, I put in 200+ hours and that mostly consisted of buying a shitton of Reeking Boxes, spawning Risen on some of my favorite grind spots, and fighting them over and over again. I went through the 3 basic classes each character could have, maxed out their default class one last time, promoted them to their advanced class, and maxed out those classes 2-3 times over. I have a video on my Twitter that shows the stats of these characters and most of them are over 220 (The shapeshifters 300). Needless to say, I loved each and every fucking crit I got. Cordelia even got what I call a miracle crit, which means she got 2 crits in one round and after the enemy attacked, she got another 2 crits. Level grind ain't a joke in this game.

Thirdly, the music. Considering it's part of why I got into this game in the first place, I loved it. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the OST and it sounds so much better when you don't have the ambient sounds and you're not listening to it through the 3DS speakers. The song that hit me the most and just gave me the overwhelming feels was Id~Sorrow as it played in Chapter 21. It fit so well with the tone of the scene and I just sat there for a few minutes, letting it play in the background as I did shit. Other notable mentions are Id~Purpose, Destiny, Conquest, and the song that is just ellipses. If the music is this good in Awakening, I can't wait to see what's in store for Fates!

Fourthly, the voice acting. For a game where most of the voices come in forms of clips, I thought they were good. Each of the actors tried their best to convey their characters in the clips they were allowed to have and I think it shows. The only critique I have, and it's not the actors' fault, is that some of the characters' voices don't fit them. I'm not saying they miscast these characters, it's more like the direction was off, if that makes sense. Let me bring up Cynthia, Kjelle, and M!Morgan as examples. I don't think it's a stretch to say that, sometimes when you look at a character, you kinda imagine what they'd sound like before you hear their actual voice, right? I already brought up Cynthia's looks so I imagined her voice to sound very high-pitched and maybe a little childlike. I hear her voice and, while she's high-pitched and some of her voice clips do go into that childlike territory, she's nasally sounding and more mature. Kjelle is a complicated case in that, her voice fits her appearance (minus the armor) but not her personality. Her personality is similar to Sully's so I figured her voice would sound gruffer and not...cute, if that's the right word. M!Morgan's, I think, everyone can see the problem with. He's supposed to be the youngest of the kids, right? Since he's the only third generation character and all that? I think he just sounds a little too old for the supposed baby of the kids. Again, I'm not saying the voices are bad or that the delivery/emotion was bad, I just think the direction in which they were voiced don't fit some of the characters. Maybe I'm just thinking in terms of archetypes or something.

Now we move on to the story. I can't say as to whether it was good or not, mainly because I spoiled myself on it way before I decided on playing Awakening, so I don't think I can say much to the quality. The least I'll say is it's serviceable. I'll admit, the one thing I was shocked by was the appearance of the Grima Avatar because I thought Grima was inside Robin the whole time and I didn't think he'd have a separate vessel. I straight up thought Grima!Robin was either my mother or a twin I wasn't aware of so I'm giving credit to the writers for surprising me. Anyway, I think the only flaw I have with the story is with the pacing. I thought the first half was fine, it wasn't too fast or too slow. It was the second half that the pacing couldn't find a middle ground. Now I'm going to say that this half was stretched out over months of my playtime so whatever I say next might be exaggerated because of my procrastinating ass so... I feel like the Valm arc was way too slow and the Grimleal arc had so much trouble finding a middle ground. The beginning of the Grimleal arc was quick but Grima himself decided that I had to finish 2 and a half chapters before I finally got to beat him and you have to deal with constant reinforcements before you kill off the target. I think if it weren't for my overleveled as fuck units, I wouldn't have finished Awakening in time for my birthday.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna say what I picked for my choice with both Luce's judgement and Grima's fate. I picked the self-sacrificial choices, which means I accepted Luce's judgement and allowed her to kill me and I dealt the final blow to Grima so Chrom didn't have to. While I knew the outcomes of both choices and them ultimately not meaning anything, I wanted my Robin to reflect what I would've done and I'm a very self-sacrificial person. Because I made Chrobin happen in my playthrough, which meant Luce was my daughter, I believe that, if my child who came from an apocalyptic world told me I was the reason for that happening and that she came back through time to stop that future from happening so she and the others wouldn't suffer, I would've let her kill me. Parents would and should do anything for their kids and if my death possibly gave my daughter the chance for a better life, I'd take it in stride. As for me dealing the final blow to Grima, if it was to save everyone I loved, I would've done it. Although there's some feelings of wanting to give a big "Fuck you" to Grima and to permanently end the problem so any future descendants wouldn't have to deal with it. This section may sound more philosophical and personal than I usually write but I think it deserved it.

Now we're on to Supports and who I chose to be together. I don't think it's wrong to say that this is where the characters really get to shine and it's because of the Supports I love these kids and how much I'm going to miss them when I move on to other FE games. As for the "canon" couples, I mainly went with characters that I thought would complement each other and this was one of the few things I tried to choose for myself. I tried my best to go for pairings that weren't fan favorites but I'm also not very connected with the fandom as of writing this so I may be completely wrong in which ships were favorites or not. So here are the pairings I got for my playthrough!

Chrom-Robin

Frederick-Sumia

Virion-Miriel

Vaike-Nowi

Stahl-Sully

Lon'qu-Cordelia

Ricken-Lissa

Gaius-Maribelle

Gregor-Cherche

Libra-Panne

Henry-Olivia

Lucina-Inigo

Owain-Cynthia

Brady-Nah

Kjelle-Laurent

Severa-Yarne

Obviously, there are some characters missing from this list and I can explain why. I didn't recruit Kellam and Tharja and it's because your girl is a dumbass. Kellam, I thought, was already on my team, he was just labelled as an ally so I didn't need to recruit him. They really should've made that clear. Tharja, on the other hand, was an even bigger dumbass than me because she decided to charge after Robin, who happened to be in front and was way overleveled, and got her ass promptly beaten with a crit. I regret not getting Kellam but after hearing how awful of a person Tharja is and how many fans are willing to put aside emotional abuse and stalker-like tendencies to have a chance to fuck her, she can stay buried in the sand where I electrocuted her ass. Unfortunately, this does means Noire didn't pop up in my recruitment list and that fucking sucks. The only characters left I didn't have a pairing were Gerome and Morgan. I think Gerome wouldn't really care for a romantic partner because he's all about not wanting to create ties in this time and shit and, since I see Morgan as the baby of the kids, I figured he'd be a little too young to be in a relationship. Despite that, I wish I got him and Nah together because I found out after she was shipped with Brady that Morgan's the only S-Support she'll say "I love you" to and I was immediately filled with regret.

Before I move on to the Best/Worst contest, there's something I need to bring up because I can see what sensible fans have shown now. This game is HELLA gay. Like, holy fuck, how many instances are there where you have two characters of the same sex and they have dialogue that seems to have been written with romantic intent but the writers decide it's meant to be platonic? Maybe I just have this weird line of thought on how straights are because there's no fucking way some of these gay moments would be a thing with even the most accepting straights. Maribelle calling Lissa darling and other pet names, Robin blushing from some of the girls and even mistaking Flavia's proposition for a marriage proposal, Severa looking at Kjelle's abs, the list goes on. I'm not straight because I'd be doing some of this shit with a potential girlfriend if I could! Why did it take IntSys until 3 Houses to implement LGBT+ pairings when this game is right here?! At least this game doesn't have the weird student/teacher relationships 3H has and believe me when I say that, if it weren't for the fact I could give less of a fuck for 3H, I wouldn't play that game for that reason! Anyway, Awakening is hella gay and it should've been the first LGBT+ FE game instead of 3H.

The Best/Worst contest... As I said in the beginning, there'll be a Best/Worst Boy and Girl for both generations because that's fun and it seems to matter a lot to some people. Repeating what I said, this is just my opinion and you're free to agree or disagree with me. One rule I'm putting in is I will try my best to not pick fan favorites. Don't get me wrong when some of the crowd pleasers are good but there are other characters that deserve just as much love as the fan favorites so this is why I'm putting in this rule. Without further ado, here are the rulings!

1st Gen

Best Boy-Lon'qu

Best Girl-Panne

Worst Boy-Virion

Worst Girl-Miriel

2nd Gen

Best Boy-Owain

Best Girl-Cynthia

Worst Boy-Inigo

Worst Girl-Severa

Let's see how many people I piss off with these judgements. So, my reasoning: Best Boy for 1st gen was a big toss-up. I kept wanting to choose between Chrom, Frederick, Stahl, and Lon'qu because they really endeared themselves to me but I chose Lon'qu in the end because he's honestly such a dork (I mean, all of them are) and I gotta admire how he tries to overcome his fear of women and try being there for his wife and daughter if he happens to have one. There's also the fact he has to literally psyche himself up to talk to women if you check in with him in the Barracks and I'm just like "Fucking hell, that's adorable and I GET it". Best girl is Panne because believe me when I say that the moment I see this woman and hear her voice, I'm immediately gay for her. Then she transforms into a giant rabbit, kicks so much ass, and I'm in love. Funny story, I'd talk to my friend about my progress in Awakening on Discord and the moment he asks me who best girl was and I answered Panne, he called me out for being a furry. Granted, I would've automatically said Luce but I'm trying not to pick fan favorites so I get his criticism. If a woman like Panne existed in real life, bunny ears and tail and all, I'd probably become a furry for her, no questions asked. As for worst boy and girl, Virion and Miriel are characters I honestly don't give much of a fuck about. Not that they're bad, I just don't care about their archetypes, if that makes sense. Miriel I found to be boring and Virion's of the Casanova archetype and I've always kinda hated that archetype so that's why they're on the ranking.

Oh boy, 2nd gen. So, best boy being Owain. This boy is going to kill me. He's so adorable and sweet and he's just a good boy. There are literally Tweets on my Twitter where I just gush about him and he deserves so much love. He's just a sweet boy who loves his parents so much and is so proud to be their son and how he manages to rope his cousins (Luce and Morgan) into going with his fantasies and how they just go along with it! Owain is a cinnabun and I want to protect him and love him. Anyway, best girl being Cynthia is sorta the same reason as Owain. She's just so bubbly and happy and just adorable. Yeah, she may get carried away with showboating but I just love her earnest desire to be a hero. I think everyone can see why I paired Owain and Cynthia up. Now for the worst. Inigo and Severa are probably the only characters in this whole game that straight up got on my fucking nerves and for different reasons. Outside of his supports with Olivia and Henry, Inigo's constant flirting with the girls and Robin and inability to take no for an answer just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually put out a Tweet saying how Inigo's like an r/niceguy and I still think he is one. Course, this doesn't mean I didn't have my fair share of laughs from him. I fucking died at his and Gerome's A-Support where he ends up pathetically crying after the emo loner got more game than him and Gerome has to comfort his ass, that was hilarious. It also helped the fact that Liam O'Brien, who I've only heard him as the brooding emo loner role, voiced Inigo as the complete opposite of that and I had a blast. Severa, on the other hand, was...really unpleasant. There's a reason I hate Tsunderes with a passion and it's because they're unnecessarily bitchy towards everyone they know, even if they have no reason to be. Severa, however, was somehow worse because she went out of her way to be horrible to people. My dislike for her was cemented the moment I saw her and Cynthia's C-Support and she chose to make fun of her, despite Cynthia minding her own business and Severa just going "fuck it". However, I should express that I understand why Inigo and Severa are the way they are and that's why I'm not being as harsh on them as I could be. They still have their good moments and I can appreciate them while also raking them over the coals.

So that concludes my review/experience of Fire Emblem: Awakening! Despite some moments of frustration and annoyance, I had fun playing this! I mean it when I say I'm gonna miss these kids but I had plenty of time to spend with them so it's time to move on to newer lands. Next up on the list is Fates and I think I'm siding with Hoshido first. It's funny how, despite me spoiling the story for myself 3 separate times, I still can't remember much, if any, of it so that may say something about the quality. I also know Fates is pretty divisive among the fandom but the thing I know it for is the weird pseudo-incestuous ships it has so that's going to be fun! Hopefully, I'll get around to playing as one of my other mains in Smash, my water horse dragon Corrin, sometime soon and I'll be sure to let everyone know when my journey will start!

#fire emblem awakening

4 notes · View notes

cats-obsessions · 4 years

Text

Mark Your Love in Ink Part 2

A Geraskier soulmates au

Part one - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Rating: T

Chapters: 2 of 5?

Notes: I decided to split this up into 5 parts, but on ao3, I posted parts 2-4 in one chapter. So, if you want to read ahead, read on ao3

It turns out, Geralt can run from ‘fate’ but not Jaskier. Somehow, Jaskier worms his way into his life. Forcefully. And deeply. What he expects to be shared milkshakes and parted ways turns into Jaskier following him to the warehouse, determined to set his eyes on some monsters- lucky for them, the ‘monsters’ weren’t werewolves or noonwraiths like he had expected. Nope, they were elves. Angry elves that captured Geralt and Jaskier, bashed the starving artist’s guitar and kicked them both in the gut. Geralt was able to reason with them, and Jaskier was given a lute for his troubles, but he didn’t get any money for his troubles.

As the sun began to rise over the city, bright lights reflecting off of the buildings, they parted ways. The younger man smiled at Geralt with sunshine in his eyes and said “I’d offer you my number, but I suppose you already have it,” which was true- even if it weren’t on his body, Geralt’s had it memorized for years. He was surprised, though, when the musician added “This was fun. Let’s do it again sometime,” with a genuine warmth that told Geralt he wasn’t lying. He was sure that misadventure would have driven the boy away, but he didn’t seem deterred. If anything, he seemed more interested.

Geralt practically passed out once he got home, eager to sleep rather than focus on the situation. He was more alarmed to find the familiar number texting him once he awoke. How did he even get his number?

It didn’t seem to matter much. The next thing Geralt knows, he’s getting roped into going for coffee or drinks, then just hanging out doing things he’d never bothered spending time on before, like playing video games. Then, Jaskier starts showing up at his apartment whenever he wants. Geralt tried to argue, but Roach, his cat, loves Jaskier almost as much as she loves Geralt, which is odd considering she scratches up most strangers.

Every step of the way, he tries and tries to push back against this odd little human that seems set on getting close to him, and every battle he picks, he finds himself losing. When Jaskier starts following him to jobs, he knows he’s gone too far to turn back.

That he was not fond of, but Jaskier is the most persistent thing he’s ever met- like a weed. At first it was just local jobs, things he knew Jaskier could watch without getting in the way, but then he started following him on longer jobs. And, well it’s kind of nice to have someone to camp with, especially when he can convince the musician to stay at the camp while he hunts. He even proves to be useful once or twice. Six months later, Geralt finds himself with an intrusive friend with blurred lines and a lack of respect for personal space.

But it’s not bad, surprisingly.

Geralt finds himself smiling more. Jaskier is tactile and unafraid to show emotion in a way that’s almost frightening after so many years of being a loner. And Geralt, he puts up with it- at least that’s what he says. In reality, he does his best to keep his emotions from spilling out of ‘friends’ and toward something more.

Because he doesn’t believe in fate or destiny.

A soulmate bond is a social concept made up to explain magical connections that only go skin deep.

That’s all it is.

So, he doesn’t fall for Jaskier as if he could prove how fake Destiny is by refusing to feel.

Geralt hums some song that’s been stuck in his head for days- certainly not because the dumb musician had been playing it last time they saw each other. He’s cooking dinner one late evening when he hears his apartment door handle jiggle followed by several knocks. Does he really expect it to be unlocked for him all the time?

As soon as he unlocks the door, it’s being opened by the musician on the other side. He’s a little flushed and his hair is messy as he complains “If you gave me a key, this would be easier.”

“If I gave you a key, you’d never leave me alone.” Geralt rolls his eyes. “Did you bike here in the middle of the night?” he asks, noticing the helmet in one of his hands, a duffle bag in the other, and his lute thrown over his shoulder “and what’s all this?”

“My stuff- for our trip.” Jaskier answers as if it were obvious. He throws his bag down, slips off his shoes, and begins to make himself at home. Geralt watches as Jaskier moves to the living room, stopping to pet Roach on his way. The brown tabby shoves her head into Jaskier’s palm, meowing happily to greet him. Geralt does his best not to smile at the sight.

Their trip. Geralt had tried to convince him to sit this one out to no avail. It will be a week-long trip at the least- granted he can even find the beast. He got reports of a possible griffon terrorizing an isolated town a few days north of them. They’ll have to drive part way, then hike through the forests and camp there for however long it will take to find and defeat it. But Jaskier hasn’t seen a griffon yet, and he’s enamored with them- that’s probably Geralt’s fault, though.

“We don’t leave for two more days, Jaskier.” Geralt reminds him.

“It’s better to be prepared early, isn’t it?”

Geralt lets it go, turning back to his cooking. Jaskier can entertain himself if he’s so set on showing up unannounced. Though, Geralt throws an extra pork cutlet on the pan; the gods know the boy doesn’t eat enough real food.

He can hear the musician talking to Roach in the background. He’s almost surprised Jaskier hasn’t pestered him about his day yet. But, he doesn’t refrain from taking advantage of the momentary silence. With the meat on the pan, crackling and popping while it cooks, there’s nothing to do but wait. So, he pulls out his phone and scrolls mindlessly through the local news. He doesn’t care much for politics, but occasionally things will pop up that point to creatures, monsters, and jobs.

‘Local YouTuber Dies in Attempt to Catch Kikimora’

A dark figure can be seen in the background of what he assumes is a screen shot from the recording. “It’s an Ekimmara, you morons.” Geralt scoffs under his breath. Typical. Mankind has been chasing after monsters since the dawn of time. The widespread use of cameras only made things worse. He scrolls down further, and another headline pops out to him.

‘Local Dive Bar Found to be Drug Front: Shoot Out Between Owners Leaves Renters Evicted’

Also not terribly surprising; humans are always doing these kinds of things. Over his near century of a life, he’s seen more deaths from greed than monsters could ever cause. But, wait… he looks closer, picking up the details of the image provided. Isn’t that-

“Jaskier, what the fuck?” he barks, turning to face the man now sprawled out on his couch.

“What did I do?” he asks innocently, though the cringe he’s trying to hide tells the witcher he knows exactly what he did.

“You didn’t think to start with ‘Penellie’s had a shoot-out.’!?”

“Ah,” Jaskier starts uncomfortably. “Right- well, you know, it didn’t seem like the most important thing.” he looks down to fidget with his nails- a telltale nervous habit.

Geralt bites back his urge to press for more information “Are you okay?” He asks, finding himself out of his comfort zone.

“Of course! I’ve seen a lot worse.” Jaskier shrugs.

“Wait, were you there when it happened?”

“No, no, dear witcher. I was in my apartment. Apparently,” He starts with renewed energy, “the whole building has drugs in the walls! Those possums that were always making racket- Probably thugs shoving drug packets into our shared walls. I guess Penellie and James had a disagreement about how to split the funds. It wasn’t so much as a shoot out as shooting each other in the close confines of their office.” Jaskier makes a gun shape with his hand as he says it, pretending to shoot at Geralt. “Guess renting from your boss isn’t that good of an idea, huh?”

“Who woulda thunk.” Geralt murmurs flatly, remember the exact words ‘don’t rent from your boss’ coming out of his mouth when Jaskier moved to that dump six months ago. Of course, Jaskier was working as a bartender, and Geralt expected him to get fired and evicted in one go rather than an unknowing renter of drug lords. “They didn’t make you ID the bodies or anything, did they?” he pushes. He’s not sure why it matters to him.

“Oh, come on now. It’s very nice of you to think you have to protect my innocence, but like I said- I’ve seen worse. Specifically, I’ve seen you do much worse. You know, most people have never seen the intestines of anything much less helped dig a liver out of a cave troll or pull teeth from a foglet while brain matter is splattered around them. You’re quite lucky I’m so well adjusted.” Jaskier rambles, accentuating his words with wild gestures of his hands. Geralt ignores it, though.

“You’ve never seen me kill a human.”

“Well, you haven’t recently, right?” he says nonchalantly like he wouldn’t be bothered if the answer were yes.

Geralt shakes his head “Not supposed to, though I’m tempted often,” he grumbles, shooting Jaskier a glare. The musician sees the fondness behind it though and chuckles a little. Somehow, he seems to know Geralt’s only so exasperated because he cares- against his best efforts not to, of course.

Geralt finishes up in the kitchen and pops the caps off two beers, handing one to Jaskier along with a plate of food.

“Oh, thanks! You don’t have to, though,” Jaskier smiles, a little blush tinging his cheeks. Geralt pretends he doesn’t notice.

“Had extra,” he murmurs, shoving Jaskier’s feet off the couch so he can sit and eat as well. After a few bites of food and a long drink of beer, he finally asks “What now?”

“Well, the place across the street will probably have a drop in price,” Jaskier smirks.

“Seriously? Should live somewhere safer.”

“I would, but you know I can’t afford that… I suppose I could get a roommate” Jaskier says, biting his lip as he stares at Geralt.

The witcher grunts. He knows exactly what Jaskier is asking even without the words leaving his mouth.

“Come on, Geralt! It’d be fun!” He pesters “You live in a dump, too. Roach deserves better than this! Don’t you, Roachy?” he coos, the cat mewls at him as though she’s agreeing. Traitor. “We could afford something a bit nicer together. And I promise I won’t get in your way more than usual. No jam sessions late at night or early in the morning. I’ll even cook sometimes. Please… Unless, you want me to find some stranger from Craigslist to live with me… But hm, isn’t that how the Craigslist killer found his victims?”

Geralt grimaces. “No- he killed a masseuse he hired through craigslist.” Is Jaskier even old enough to remember when that happened?

“Ah, I thought he asked them on dates,” Jaskier muses.

“No, you’re thinking of the Grindr- no, the Tinder killer.”

“Ah, so Grindr is a safe app to find roommates with then?” Jaskier asks, tilting his head as if it were an innocent question; he bites his fork as if he were thinking- fucker even flutters his long eyelashes. Geralt does his very best not to stare at his over obvious flirting. He knows exactly what Jaskier is doing, yet that doesn’t seem to prevent it from working.

Geralt groans, pinching the bridge of his nose “Mac n’ cheese doesn’t count as cooking. No unannounced guests, and do not touch my swords when I’m gone.”

“Really?!”

“Don’t make me regret this, Pancratz.”

“Yes! You won’t- I promise.” Jaskier beams.

A silence falls over them while they eat before Jaskier pipes up again “Wanna watch the Monster from Brokilon? it’s the one with the Leshen!”

“Witchers don’t even know that much about Leshens; I can only assume what kinds of inaccuracies are in this movie.”

Jaskier smirks, “You can lecture me about it afterwards.”

It has become somewhat of a past time for Jaskier to find various old and horrible horror movies to force Geralt to watch. At first, he was simply curious if there was any truth in them, but once he found Geralt ranting about their atrocious and uneducated portrayals of even the simplest beasts, he seemed determined to put the witcher through more.

For some reason Geralt puts up with it. Jaskier usually ends up talking over it half the time anyways, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy having someone to share his monster facts with. There’s something that lights up in the musician’s eyes whenever they talk about creatures and adventures; he doesn’t shy away from it like other humans.

So, he hums contentedly as Jaskier sets up the movie. When it starts, Geralt rests his arm on the back of the couch as he always does. It’s not his fault if somewhere in the night, Jaskier scoots closer and closer until he’s pressed up against the witcher. He’s just like that. And if he falls asleep, his head drooping to rest on Geralt’s shoulder, the witcher only lets him because Jaskier’s had a rough day.

#geraskier #geralion #geralt x jaskier #geralt x dandelion #soulmates au #tattoo au #oh gosh I hope the read more button works #fic #geraskier fic #fic rec #fluff #modern au #geralt of rivia #jaskier #my stuff #roommates

4 notes · View notes

xehanortsreport · 5 years

Text

wakes up in a cold sweat

ok but xehanort’s fate is kind of terrifying when you take into account YX and Ansem’s last words (Xemnas is more of his own person than either so I’m not counting him in this)

inb4 YX has always been a bit of a fatalist, resigned to whatever direction the Big Script points him in. even at his very youngest, babiest self not obsessed with KH, he’s stuck rigidly to “Darkness will prevail”. when YX fades in KH3, he talks about how he’s simply going back to his own time, and taunts Sora on not being able to avoid his own fate. on the surface this is simple name calling, but diving a little deeper, YX truly, sincerely believes Sora has no chance of defying his fate.

neither of them do.

the mockery is because they are both bound by chains neither of them can break, in YX’s mind, and Sora being so clueless and so bold as to assume he can makes YX laugh.

to Xehanort, he never had a chance of defying it.

and so we go to Ansem, who, with the Terra/Guardian reveal, we know truly Is the essence of Xehanort’s heart, completely. who, when he fades, says he so strongly wanted to defy his fate...and yet gave in, and said he couldn’t feel anything when the others betrayed him, resigning himself to the whims of destiny.

this is an older xehanort, technically the same age as MX or around it if we take into account that he is the embodiment of xehanort’s heart and its darkness and as such has been there since the beginning. this is MX’s id, his desires without barrier, and that exposed self...mourns. he mourns his lack of control over his own fate, his own destiny, and sends off our heroes with a gesture to go out and explore what he couldn’t.

both of these last words point to one thing: that xehanort never thought he had any control over who he was to become. he played out his role like a puppet on a string even as some part of him desperately wanted to break free from it. he effectively brainwashed himself into becoming the ultimate villain because he thought destiny, whatever was written for him, while not left to chance was ultimately still something he was subject to.

perhaps this is part of what drove him to try and rewrite the world itself, to try and simultaneously fulfill destiny and throw it the middle finger.

this is not to excuse any of his actions, of course; many of them remain inexcusable no matter what drove him to that point. and neither is this an attempt to make him look more sympathetic. but it is a very interesting look into what may have motivated him even beyond wanting to rebalance the world.

#xehanort is an interesting character and the death they gave him in KH3 kinda sucked #text heavy #KH3 spoilers #thonkin

203 notes · View notes

1358456 · 4 years

Text

Review Response, Dec 22 - 28, 2019

“28″, but I’ll be including the reviews that came in this morning. Because hey.

And... there are a lot. The most this year.

Legacy Prologue - Kalos

1) That first part DEFINITELY reminded me of the XY chapter, except Y is being the Hikikomori (shut-in) and X is trying to drag her out... It’s a good role-reversal!

I also wanted it to be like the time in XY where Y found out what happened to her mother and she got super depressed. Except this time, X tries to do something about it. Finally.

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

Legacy #008

1) LOVED IT!

Thank you!

2) Poor moon. I loved this chapter

Hey, it’s you! <3 Thank you kindly.

3) WoW cool chapter. So blue confessionele next chapter hopefully? Lol have been waiting on that for the entire story so Lets hope its the case

Haven’t we all. ... Except for those that don’t like this pairing...

4) It’s nice to see platinum trying to help blue move things was a good chapter with nice interactions with the juniors and seniors all under the same roof

It’s like a big Dex Holder family! ... But not too big, since there are far too many of them nowadays! And despite Platinum not really wanting to get involved, she helps out anyways, as “foretold” by the Headcanon Chronology!

5) While Moon really should rest, the idea of her getting that Spirit of Vengeance team you posted about on your Tumblr sounds way too awesome. ...Also Umbreon bias since it's my first (and only) shiny, but yeah.

Poor Blue - it really is probably only going to hurt her the longer she keeps it in. Wonder how that is going to play out, since I guess Platinum's now put things in motion. I think the first scene in this chapter is the one I enjoyed the most.

Damn, for Moon's Pokemon to die like that...that's gotta be traumatizing. I have to admire that determination though, even though she's shaping up to be a revenge-obsessed character from what I see.

Awesome chapter as always and can't wait for the next one!

Hehe. Spirit of Vengeance. The amount of curse in that team would be quite terrifying. Hehehe... ... Only shiny, you say? Aww...

Platinum has gotten the ball rolling despite not really wanting to. MVP of the confession? Hehe... Sisterly bonds, indeed. Now, will it work out in favor for Blue??

Moon can’t be filled with a lust for vengeance if none of her friends and Pokemon have perished. And so now she rises from her agony with ice cold determination for blood to be spilled for the blood that had been shed. ... Or does that saying go the other way around? Heh. Regardless. She’s pissed, has a bow, lethal poison, and soon to be a team packed with ghosts (and Dark types).

Thank you as always! And you won’t have to wait long~!

6) Eh lucky really isnt my cup of tea but the way you write stories is pretty awesome keep up the good work!

I could tell by the anon ID you picked. To each their own. And thank you!

7) Awww blue being so shy hahahaha. Its like the roles have reversed since the first time they met thats so cute! Anyway Great story as usual

Hehe. Timid Blue~! It’s new and very cute, isn’t it? And thank you.

8) Hey man Great story looking forward to the next chapter

Thank you. It’s coming very soon.

9) Wow this is A really underrated story I really like how you keep most characters so in character!

Still underrated... in comparison to my previous stuff. But that’s to be expected, I guess. And thank you.

10) Well Colour me surprised ! A Pokemon story thats not forcing crack pairings! Anyway Where is green in this story?

Heh. Crack pairings... Only once in a solar eclipse. And... who? Heh. He’s in Kalos and thus off screen.

11) Wtf did moons Pokemon just die? Great story but damn thats fucking dark

Yes they perished in the fire. “Die, insect” and all. ... And one of them was an insect! Heh. Ahem. ... Dark? That’s not dark. Have you seen the stuff I did in SA and Destiny? Heh...

12) I mean I kinda like the story but isnt specialshipping canon? Also this is really really dark

No, it’s not canon. What is canon is that Yellow has a crush on Red. What’s also canon is that Red is uncomfortable with the idea. And of course he is. He thought she was a guy the whole time and then suddenly found out all at once that she was a girl and had a crush on him. His response is not going to be positive. And again, this is not dark. ... Though I guess that depends on your sensitivity.

13) hey sorry for not leaving A review for so long but I still really like the story lol!

Hey, you’re back. ... Then... who’s the anon with the v2 of your ID?

14) I love your writing style!

Thank you!

15) I somehow found Pearl smacking Black across the face to wake him up funnier than it should’ve been. Haha

I wonder if Blue really will confess to Red today. If so, I wonder how the opportunity would present itself.

Its quite sad that Hau, Lillie, and two of Moon’s Pokemon died. I guess this is where Moon’s overhaul comes in. I cant wait to see Moon’s viciousness unleashed when she inevitably meets the guys responsible for all that.

I look forward to more!

Hehe. Black always getting smacked around in my stories, literally and figuratively.

Will Blue truly confess on that day (which is a day before the stuff in Alola happens), or will she fail again due to anxiety? And will it end well for her??

Moon’s overhaul is happening now, yes. For that, she’ll have to go to Galar too. And I don’t know sh*t about that region, so... that’ll be difficult. Hehe. And much later in the story when she meets her foe... oho, Rage Unleashed Moon!

16) Moon and Lillie sure get burned really bad. Also, what about the kid with the malasadas? Hopefully, Blue will confessed to Red soon...

The local boy with the malasada had the same fate as Lillie. Two stretchers with a body on top, with the white blankets pulled all the way up.

17) I figured that now would be the best time to give a review for one of your works. therefore, I should review my personal favourite.

I been a consistent and long-time reader for numerous years now without ever leaving a review. I simply didn't have an account until recently just so I can give my thoughts on some of the series that you make.

Regarding Legacy as a whole, it truely showcases your ability to take the wide variety of dexholders and thiee different personalities and place them in situations that would absolutely never occur in the actual story. I have always loved the way you portray each individual character, improving thier teama and strategies and having genuine character growth. Although Sun and Moon are my uncontested favourite characters so far, I adore the way you use Platinum B in your stories, giving her a genuine personality and character traits.

You also generate a wide range of different and creative settings for each of the characters to go through. Legacy is the perfect example of this in terms of one truely coherent story setting. by using the opportunity of the highest stakes that these dexholders may ever face, you use the opportunity to explore all of the aspects of each character amazingly and how they would face this danger.

Since Sun and Moon are my favourite characters, the wait for this chapter absolutely killed me. Although it sucks that due to the lack of reviews for these characters I will get few opportunties to read your way of presenting the characters What I am trying to say is that the way you write your characters makes them feel REAL. I genuinely believe that these are the actual characters as they personalties are replicated and refined to perfection The way both Sun and Moon react in this chapter is exactly the way I would have expected them to. Being a Deliveryshipping day 1, seeing even the slightest interactions in any media, especially in your stories always brings joy to me. I have regulary reread most of your works such as Special Chronicals and Distinct Events becuase each story is chapter is amazing in its own right.

Your amazing work has inspired me to possibly start my own project one day. I am sorry for the stress that you have gone through this year and the issues with the Discord. It will get better this year. Seeing as you use reviews to indicate the popularity of a particular series, I had to write this review so that this series can get the update it deserves so that we can all see how this fantastic story ends. Thank your for all of the amazing work you have done.

Whoa, hello. Haven’t gotten a review this long since a certain someone stopped with Destiny reviews back in July.

Accounts aren’t necessary for the reviews. Guest reviews exist! And if you use the same anon ID, I’d know it’s you. But thank you for going through the effort! It’s much appreciated!

Aww, thank you very much! <3 And while I don’t know about Sun, but Moon is going to be in the spotlight quite a lot, so enjoy it! Since Platinum is my uncontested favorite, she gets plenty of development in my stories, with new character bonds, teams, battling style, etc. And unlike in DPPt, she actually gets to do things against the enemy.

Of the three major stories I’ve written (SA, Destiny, Legacy), Legacy has the lowest stakes. But I think it’s also the most personal, which I guess means it’s much more important for individual Dex Holders. Well, we’ll see as time passes. And yes, these are kind of things that would never happen in the actual arcs, so the Dex Holders get to be stress-tested. How would they react given their personalities, tics, relationships, etc, in a realistic situation?

Oh. ... Ahem. Sorry for making you wait 7 months. Ehehe... And while it’s true that Sun and Moon currently have the lowest “viewership”, that changes as time passes. Like Black and White in SA and X and Y in Destiny. As the “meh” torch is passed down to Sword and Shield, Sun and Moon might rise in popularity, thus increasing the chances of them appearing in my stories.

I don’t really know if this was how Sun would react though. But I also don’t know how he would’ve actually reacted, so this might not be outside the possibility range. I kind of had him act like Black, really, but without being as sweet... or loud. Well, there will be more Sun & Moon interactions for you to enjoy in the upcoming chapters, so... there you go!

You should start your own project! Go for it! And eh, Discord. Sh*t happens. I wouldn’t call that stress. Anyways. Yes, I use the review count as an indicator of how many people have finished the chapter. Of course, there are plenty of people who read the chapter to the end without reviewing, and the number of people who review after reading tends to fluctuate. But if there is a trend, that indicates a trend in viewership as well. And that is what I look at. Hence the charts. And yes. We’d all like to see how the story ends. Me included. Keep up with the reviews and we’ll all see it by 2021.

And thank you so much for the review and the... sweet talking. Hehe <3

18) Just found this story and am enjoying it thoroughly. Big fan of your Blue characterization as well, I used to enjoy shipping Red with Yellow, but recently, I've come to enjoy Blue with Red.

A small nitpick - Did none of the juniors comment on Red and Blue sleeping in the same room/bed while they stayed in Red's house in the last two chapters? I would assume the female juniors already know Blue likes Red and so won't say anything unnecessary, but I guess the guys are a little more tactful than we give them credit for?

Looking forward to me. Cheers.

Red with Blue works very well. And it’s cute! Hehe... ... biased.

Heh. The girls... already know, since the girls who are in the house were Platinum, White, and Y, and they already know of Blue’s crush and all that. So White and Y would just snicker at the fact that Red and Blue are sleeping on the same bed, while Platinum would just smile. As for the boys... Diamond might notice something if he spent more time talking to Red and Blue before and after. But I doubt Pearl or Black would notice anything odd. They’d probably just assume that Red and Blue are sharing the bed because a ton of guests were sleeping in the living room, so there were no other options.

Of course, all that’s assuming that the juniors know that Red and Blue are sleeping on the same bed. I don’t recall having Red and Blue give them a tour of the house, so as far as the juniors know, there might be another bed upstairs. ... Though a house tour is generally the first thing you do, but... heh. Ambiguity. No one knows for sure.

And I look forward to seeing more reviews from you!

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

Well well. Would you look at THAT. Way above the average now. So... looks like I’ll have to keep my word and update Legacy again before this year ends in 3 days. Heh. Of course, I did notice a few things but... well... whatever.

18. That’s the most reviews I’ve gotten in a chapter in all of 2019. Or 2018. ... And vast majority of 2017 (Legacy Prologue - Kanto was in January 2017). If this kind of thing happened much more frequently, I would be updating Legacy like once every two weeks, instead of 3~4 times in a year.

But, there you have it! New record in almost 3 years. As a result... Legacy update in 3 days.

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

DE #031

1) Sun and moon are so cute. I love them

Support the new...ish pairing!

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

And with that, DE #031 is no longer in the top 4 least reviewed. Yay!

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

SC #017

1) Awesome story.

Thank you.

2) Well that was...brutal alright. Thugs deserved it though. I'm mildly surprised no one died, but I think that's more because I'm used to seeing that from your old "doom hammer" chapters.

I admit the Santa part was an amusing touch, and I guess that explains why you needed to release this by the end of the year. Heh, Blue's gadgets are useful as always and very effective - that's a nice disguise. That action scene was awesome and easily the best scene in this chapter. The situation aside...it was nice to see Red be a hero even without his Pokemon.

You were right - this is an enjoyable chapter and I like this "brutal Red" experiment. Can't wait for the next chapter!

Heh. The doom hammer is for serious stories. Not comical ones. So no one dies in the hands of Santa Claus. This time.

Ahem. Well, there’s the inspiration for the chapter, and the reason behind the line of “Or Santa will go jolly on your naughty asses with a candy cane axe”. Hehe. Cheers, everyone, Santa has come to town!

And the duo of Red and Blue becomes much stronger. Mercenary Red with technological support!

Hehe. Much more serious brutal Red (instead of comical) to come up later as the experimentation continues. Ohoho!

3) holy crud, santa beating up a gang is greatest thing ever

Yep. Santa going to town on their naughty asses with a candy cane bat. What’s not to love?

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

And with that, the latest SC chapter is now in the top 4 least reviewed. For now?

... Looks like the “A Day at Work” chapters are failing miserably, since they’re at 1 and 3 reviews respectively. So... I guess I won’t be doing that again.

And with this, the longest review response post of 2019 has come to an end.

#qna

3 notes · View notes

kickstartmyheartmc · 5 years

Text

Revival: Chapter 3

Word Count: 3,646

Taglist: @public-enemy-sixx @fastnfearless @fandomshit6000

Eighteen was a big number for you. It meant legal freedom from anything binding you to your past, and the freedom to move out of Dottie’s apartment without worrying about a cosigner. She helped you get a credit card in order to raise your credit for the very purpose of moving out. She loved having you around, but she missed living alone for the simple things in life: day drinking, eating two bowls of spaghetti without judgement, and the occasional date brought home for fun. She felt constricted with you around, as if she needed to be the best influence upon you and your young life. Once you moved out, she could go back to her destructive habits without a worry.

“Happy birthday, Y/N!” Dottie yelled from the kitchen right before emerging with a two-tier chocolate and vanilla ice cream cake covered in strawberry frosting with little decorative pink sprinkles at the base of each tier. A chocolate ice cream cone was perched on top, tilted to the left, with the ice cream dripping down the side of the top tier.

Your eyes lit up. “Dottie, you’re amazing!” It was beautiful and the best cake you ever saw. The only birthday cakes you had with your family were single-layer chocolate cakes with overly-sweetened fudge icing that would get stuck to the roof of your mouth if you weren’t careful. Dottie put a lot of effort into this cake and the two of you were going to end up in a sugar coma, you just knew it.

The two of you dug in, and it took an entire hour to finish the cake. It wasn’t humongous, but the sheer amount of sugar within one bite took some time to process and finish. The amount of time it took to finish the cake allowed for you and Dottie to have a deep conversation about what you wanted to do with your future.

When she asked the question, you had to stop and think for a moment. “I actually… am not sure. I never finished high school, so in order to go to college I’d have to get my GED.” You shrugged. “I could try to work in advertising or on movie sets, but those require experience, and to get experience I need to go to college, and to go to college I need a GED.” Your head hurt just from thinking about it. “I really don’t know. All I want to do is move out and start my life alone. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Dottie, but it’s time I start looking for apartments.” You gave her a soft smile.

She returned the gesture, rubbing your back. “Hon, you’ve been a wonderful addition to my life the past seven months, but I cannot wait to get you out.” You both laughed and started to clean up your messes. “Now that you’re eighteen, I’d be more than happy to show you the ropes as a manager at Donny’s if you want more hours and a higher wage when you’re working hourly.”

You didn’t look back at her, but you replied, “You’re the best, Dottie.”

She was quiet until you walked through the kitchen door to go to your room. “I know.”

You opened the door to your room and Emily came bursting out. “Hi, baby!” You crouched down to let your dog kiss you and cuddle up, happy to see you again after only an hour. “I’m sorry I had to leave you in there; you would’ve tried to eat my ice cream cake if I hadn’t!” You patted her on the back and led her out the front door, taking her for her daily walk. The sun shined down, heating up the cold ground beneath Emily’s feet. It was November 16th, 1977, the day you were waiting on for years. Your eighteenth birthday. Nothing had actually changed, but you felt a new sense of purpose, as if you could actually make a difference now.

Just then, Emily growled and darted away from you. Your fell to the ground and were able to un-loop the leash from your wrist before she dragged you down the Sunset Strip and tore your clothes—let alone your skin—apart. “Fuck,” you muttered, pushing yourself to stand back up. You sighed and watched as she chased someone on a bicycle, almost causing them to fall off and crash in front of a truck. Before she could go anywhere else, someone grabbed her leash and kept her in place. The anonymous hero petted her as she stood up on her hind legs to reach up and lick their face.

“Thank you so much,” you huffed. “She’s never done that before; she caught me off-guard.”

“No problem, Y/N.” The stranger looked up with a small smile, revealing himself to be Nikki.

You were taken aback; it seemed as if you two were drawn to each other by fate, destiny, or luck of the draw—all you know is that whatever it was kept trying to tell you Nikki was supposed to be in your life. “Hi, stranger.” You smiled, taking the leash from him. “Fancy seeing you around.”

Nikki shrugged, popping his collar as if he knew he was cool. “Yeah, well, I get around.”

“I don’t know if that’s something you should be bragging about in that way,” you giggled, crossing your arms. “What’re you up to today, anyway?” You turned your chin upwards a little bit, giving off the illusion of disinterest.

Nikki mimicked the movement. “Just browsing apartments.” He shrugged. “I’m picky, it takes a while.”

Eyebrows raised and lips puckered, you said, “Funny. So am I.” Maybe this was it. “Would you want to, I don’t know, search together?”

“Um… I don’t see why not.” Nikki didn’t think you were going to say that, but he was glad you did. “Where do you want to start?”

You dropped Emily off at Dottie’s apartment and introduced her to Nikki now that you two were “bona fide buddies” (as Nikki described the two of you). The first apartment was a small studio fit perfectly for someone always on the run. The manager just about talked you into buying it right away, but Nikki stepped in and showed you the ropes on how to make a deal. The next complex featured a few one- and two-bedroom apartments that were a bit pricey for your serving job. Nikki grabbed two applications, one for him and you, despite the suggestion from the landlord about sharing one and living together.

“Oh, no, we’re not together,” you nervously protested. “Thank you for the thought, though.”

While you and Nikki strolled towards the last destination, which was right around the corner from the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, he nudged your arm. “You know, I wouldn’t be opposed to living with you. I know we aren’t that close, and haven’t spent, like, any time together, but you seem like the kind of person I could vibe with.” He cleared his throat and rubbed his neck. “Just a thought.”

Your cheeks lit up. “I mean, I’ll have to think about it… but thank you for the offer.”

“Thank you for your time today, uh, Y/N and… Nikki?” The landlord eyed Nikki as if she didn’t believe that was his real name. “I’ll process these papers, get your information in the system, and then you’ll be all set to move in!” She shook both of your hands before you two left.

“I don’t know how you convinced me to do that, but it was nice doing business with you!” You laughed and held your hand out to Nikki, who gladly shook it.

“No problem, Y/N. Now, how about I take you out on a celebratory date?” He swiftly intertwined your fingers with his. “My treat. You’re the reason I’m getting off the street for the first time in three years.”

That was news. It never occurred to you that he was living on the street and that was the reason why he was home-hunting. What else did he keep hidden away from the world? Was he putting on a show to convince you to move in with him just to find a place for his lady loves? These questions crossed your mind as your body reacted in a positive manner to his loving gesture: bright smile, sparkling eyes, a gentle nod. “Of course I will.”

7:13 P.M.

“How do I look, Dottie?” You strutted to the middle of the living room, posing in front of the television she was watching.

That caused her to grumble, “Fine, now move,” and she waved her hand to the side, indicating you to move to the side.

You pouted at her. “Thanks for you support, Dot. Not like I’m nervous or anything. Not like it’s my very first date, like, ever.” You slid on the nicest pair of shoes you had, a pair of black boot heels. “Just going to end up tripping over my own two feet anyway.”

She waved good-bye as you ran out the door, ready for your date at the Whiskey with Nikki. He promised to be there, but he gave you no other details. The blind trust you had in him was phenomenal, and it surprised you more than it shocked him, especially considering everything that happened between Mom and Dad back in Florida.

The cool evening air brought you back to reality. There was a line forming in front of the club, but it wasn’t too long so you were able to get in relatively quickly. The bouncer looked at you for a few seconds, squinting as if he was unsure about whether or not he needed to check your ID. With a small shrug and a quick head tilt, he gestured for you to go inside. You let out a quick sigh of relief. It felt nice being able to get into forbidden places, almost as if it was a secret society.

The atmosphere inside was unlike anything else you’d experienced. There were women with skirts riding as high as the bottom of their ass cheeks. Their breasts swayed to and fro from the lack of support from a bra, and they were dancing alongside tall, handsome men. They ranged in size from under six feet tall to towering at almost seven. There was a wide range of skin tones and body shapes, but each and every one was interesting to you and your inquiring eye. You moseyed over to the bar to order a jack and coke for yourself while you waited on Nikki to arrive.

7:56 P.M.

The blonde woman on the opposite side of the bar top pushed her chest out towards the handsome man she was speaking to. She twirled her fingers in her hair, biting her lip. You ordered your third jack and coke as you observed. Something about her seemed familiar, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on why. When the bartender put the drink down in front of you, a random man slid a $10 bill on the counter towards her. “Keep the change, darlin’.” He winked at the bartender before looking at you. “Hi there.”

You cleared your throat. “Hello.” Hopefully he would go away if conversation was short and snappy.

“What’s your name, beautiful?” He reached his hand up and held your jaw between his thumb and index finger. The feeling of his hand on you didn’t feel right.

“Y/N,” you answered shortly. “What’s yours?”

He chuckled, running his other hand through your hair, causing you to jolt back. His smile faded as he tried to touch your hair again, this time tightening his grip so you couldn’t move as much. “Lizzie Grey.”

You snorted. “It’s original, I’ll give you that.” You reached up and grabbed his wrist, digging your nails into his skin. He hissed and let your hair go.

“Bitch,” he sneered, shoving your face as he let go of your jaw. You watched as he walked away towards the back of the building through a door with “Employees Only” on it. Whether or not he was allowed back there didn’t matter to you as much as finding Nikki was. His absence came as a surprise, especially since he seemed so adamant about the date. It came only as a mild shock but brought more disappointment than expected.

You sighed, downed the rest of your drink, and stood up from the stool. While you flattened out your clothes and prepared for a way to get home safely, a crowd surged past you to the stage that was empty just a few minutes ago. Now that you looked up at it, you saw five men on stage in dark leather clothing with big hair and platform boots. It wasn’t uncommon in 1977 for men to dress in such a way, especially because of the ever-growing rock-and-roll scene; what shocked you was the sight of Nikki on stage with Lizzie Grey, the man that just tried to assault you in public, while holding a bass guitar. If it hadn’t been connected to your head, your jaw probably would have dropped to the floor. No fucking way, you thought. This new information meant that a closer look was inevitable.

9:17 P.M.

Your body swayed to the music, feeling the bass from Nikki and the drummer send vibrations through your bones. Nothing was better than dancing—the freedom to express emotions without words; the ability to show off to anyone willing to lay eyes on such beauty; the raw energy released through such a creative outlet. The drink in your hand helped too… just a little.

You were so wrapped up in dancing all night to notice the diminishing crowd, with less than fifty people left to snicker and laugh as you drunkenly stumbled around. Dancing might have been a creative outlet, but it had no control over how people treated you at your happiest. Fortunately, you did not notice; unfortunately, Nikki did.

As soon as the song ended, Nikki said something into the singer’s ear. The crowd booed, wanting more music. The bassist flipped them off as he left the stage and went through the Employee Only door, only to come back out almost immediately. You didn’t notice him grab your hand until he pulled you to the side of the bar, into a corner where nobody was at in order to get some privacy.

“Hey, Y/N?” he asked, helping you sit down in a booth.

“Hm?” you replied, eyes half closed and glazed over, a wide grin adorning your face. That made Nikki laugh.

“While I normally love getting shit-faced to forget my problems, I think I need to take you home.” He reached to help you stand, but you smacked his hand away from you.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” you growled, accidentally spilling your drink all over your outfit. “Shit.”

Nikki stepped back and looked around. The band got off the stage a couple minutes earlier, deciding they couldn’t continue without a bassist (which made Nikki feel good, he was not going to deny that; it was just odd because this was not how they usually operated). He sighed, pursed his lips, and grabbed a couple glasses of water from the bartender. He gave one to you and made you drink before he sat down beside you. “While you sober up, I guess we can talk about the set. Did you like it?”

You would have loved to answer, but your mind was going a million miles a minute. This was your first time being drunk. The fire that graced every inch of your skin made you feel crazy, as if clothes were unnecessary for survival in that very moment. They would have come off if Nikki didn’t stop you.

He cleared his throat. “While I can’t wait to get you in bed, I would rather you not show every man in here what you have.” It took everything in his power to not rip you from the booth and drag you home.

“The music was supendipular,” you giggled, leaned on Nikki’s arm. Hiccup. “The singer is an asshole.”

“Wait, what?” Nikki sat you back up and held your shoulders so you could look at him directly. “Why would you say that?”

You pouted. “He grabbed my jaw like this—” You demonstrated on him. “—and put his hand like this.” Your other free hand snaked up his neck and behind his head in order to grab his hair and pull it, but he stopped you before it happened.

He was fuming. Before he could get out of the booth, the four other band members appeared to check on him. Lizzie was the first to talk. “Hey, man. Oh, shit! It’s that bitch I was telling you about.” He turned to his bandmates for unspoken backup. “She refused to let me touch her, but now I can see why.” The band laughed, but Nikki was not taking it. He looked at you one last time, winked, and turned back around to stand up and place an untrained punch on Lizzie’s nose. While it didn’t break, he still stumbled backwards and screamed.

“What the fuck, dude?!” He looked at his fingers after feeling his nose only to find blood. “I think you broke my fucking nose!”

One of the guitarists tried to step in and retaliate at Nikki, but the drummer grabbed and stopped him. “It’s not worth it, Randy.” He kept a tight hold of Randy until he promised he wasn’t going to hit Nikki.

“Fuck you,” he snarled. As the singer and guitarist left (per the drummer’s instructions), Lizzie stared Nikki down.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you’re fucking fired.” He touched his nose again, only causing it to bleed more.

Nikki clenched his jaw. “Lizzie, you’re a disgusting person. Why don’t you show a little more respect?”

“To who? You or the tramp?”

This time it was the drummer who threw the punch and broke Lizzie’s nose. The man fell to the ground, unconscious.

From the booth, you stared at them in shock. It was only a few moments until you slurred out, “What the fuck was that?”

Nikki turned to his band mate. “You didn’t have to help, man.”

“Of course I did, dude. You’re my brother.” He patted Nikki’s back. “He’s an asshole anyway.”

“Thanks, Dane.” He shot him a smile before turning back to you.

After your declaration of not knowing what the fuck was going on, you slumped over and passed out in the booth, completely worn out.

10:24 P.M.

Nikki knocked on the door to Dottie’s apartment. She opened the door to find Nikki’s shy smile, you slumped on his back snoring, and a few flies buzzing around. She had no idea how to greet him, so she just moved out of the way to let him in. He asked where your bedroom was, and she pointed him in the direction. When he crouched down to let you off his back and into your bed, you woke up.

The world was groggy, and nothing was in focus, but the familiar scent of incense and dog hair was an indicator of home. You groaned and wiped your eyes.

Nikki found that exponentially adorable. “Good morning, sleepy head.”

You stopped in an instant. Everything came flooding back and the pounding in your head became ten times worse. “Oh my god, what happened?” You let your back rest on the wall. The alcohol was still heavily coursing through your veins, intoxicating and addictive.

Nikki kneeled down in front of you and placed his hands atop your knees. “Well, one of my former band mates decided to call you a few not-nice words and I beat the shit out of him.”

You stared at him in disbelief. “I know I’m drunk, but I think I would’ve remembered a full-out brawl. What really happened?”

Nikki sighed and asked to sit by you on the bed, to which you complied. “Let’s just say that I stick up for my friends, and he decided to use a few choice words in front of me. You also told me how he tried to force you to be physical with him.” He clenched his fists and you noticed. “I always felt something was off about him, but I never knew he was that kind of person.”

You noticed the hurt in his eyes. “Nikki, it’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it, I’m a big girl. I can handle my own problems.”

That made him chuckle, but only in an endearing way. “I would love to agree, but your alcohol tolerance is garbage.” That made both of you laugh this time. “How about, instead of me trying to surprise you with my amazing bass skills next time, I take you to a restaurant and we actually enjoy each other’s company? Hm?” He slowly reached up and cupped your cheek in one of his hands, smiling gently.

Your heart began to beat faster, and you could not tell if it was because of the booze in your system or the sweet gesture by Nikki. Either way, there was no way you were going to turn him down.

“Okay,” you whispered. Your hand covered his, slowly intertwining your fingers. “Can I sleep now?” You didn’t need his permission, but it was an open invitation for him to stay the night rather than sleep on the streets again.

“Whatever you want.” He scooted closer to you, as close as he could get, and gently placed a peck on your lips. Your heart fluttered, this time for sure caused by him. You let out a quiet sigh, unsure how to process the affectionate act. However important it was, that discussion would be saved for another day. Headaches don’t go away fast enough; sleep is the only answer now.

A/N: I was so worried this was going to be too short of a chapter, but it’s the longest one yet! I decided to stay up late and get this one busted out because a) it’s been more than a week since chapter 2, and b) I work at a Mexican restaurant and this is Cinco de Mayo weekend, so I literally won’t even be on tumblr on my phone let alone my computer to upload a chapter. Wish me luck, and I’ll see you guys in chapter 4!

#revival #revival: chapter 3 #chapter 3 #the dirt #the dirt fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #motley crue #nikki sixx #vince neil #mick mars #tommy lee

14 notes · View notes