#it was really weird hearing his roar and theme in rise

[musings-of-a-rose]

Ok but I'm kinda obsessed with the TF hogwarts au and I loved ravenclaw reader but I just kept thinking about Gryffindor Frankie with a Slytherin reader? Maybe she plays quiddich too and they just think they're supposed to hate eachother until they realise the don't.

The Other Side of the Pitch

Pairing: Quidditch Seeker Frankie Morales x f!Quidditch Seeker Slytherin student

Word Count: 1900+

Rating: Mature - 18+ ONLY!

Warnings: Just like ao3, “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the age to handle mature themes. Also by clicking Keep Reading, you understand warnings may not be complete in order to avoid spoilers for the story. 

Notes: I hope this is what you were expecting! Sorry it took me a minute to get to it. This wasn’t beta’d - all mistakes are my own.

**If you want to be added to the taglist, join here or let me know!

Main Masterlist

Keeper Of My Heart

Frankie Morales Masterlist

Frankie loved flying. It was the only thing that he felt like he was skilled with. It’s not that he was bad at school, but he wasn’t going to be Head Boy anytime soon. But flying? That was as natural as breathing to him. He loved flying, loved playing quidditch, and he loved being a seeker. He could fly up high, way above the other players and sort of drown them all out, focusing on looking for that dash of gold. It was peaceful. It was thrilling.

Unless they were playing Slytherin.

As much as Frankie hated to admit it, their seeker was smart. Her nickname was Cobra and she definitely lived up to it, biding her time and making her move quickly and efficiently. Every time she speeds past him, circling him, she makes little jabs. Nothing major but enough to try and rattle him. And that was on the field. Off? She was just the same, staying quiet until she found an opportunity to toss something at him. But sometimes she sounded as if she were trying to compliment him with an insult and it just confused him. Girls were so weird. Even at 17, an adult in the wizarding world, he didn’t understand a thing about them.

It was the last match before the semi finals and of course, Gryffindor was playing Slytherin. Frankie groaned, thinking about tactics to go against Cobra. But if he was being honest with himself, this time felt different. He was..was he excited to see her? No he couldn’t be. He was a Gryffindor, she was a Slytherin. They were supposed to hate each other. But still…

Frankie shakes his head, trying to clear it of thoughts of the way the wind whips through her hair when their captain calls them to line up. Everyone grabs their brooms and heads to the pitch, waiting for Madame Hooch to blow the whistle. Frankie scans the Slytherin team, scowls on all of their faces. Then he finds hers and to his shock, she was already looking at him. She gives him a wink and Frankie feels himself blush, looking away from her so she won’t see as the whistle blows. Kicking off from the ground, Frankie rises through the air quickly, settling into his mid air perch above the pitch, eyes scanning for a flash of gold.   

“Hey Morales - with eyes that big and round, you should be able to catch the snitch first this time.”

Was that an insult or a compliment? Girls.

“At least I don’t resort to putting others down in order to up my game.”

He hears her laugh and it stirs something inside him that definitely wasn’t hate. “I can outfly you anyday, Morales.”

The crowd roars below them and she chances a glance down to see what happened. Frankie takes the opportunity to fly away from her, although he didn’t really want to. What was wrong with him?

He circles the pitch a few times, seeing that Cobra was mirroring his movements, scanning the pitch herself. Eventually they pass each other and she tosses something else his way.

“Maybe those beautiful curls will catch the snitch for you - although they do look too soft to hold onto anything.”

“My hair is not too soft!”

“Looks it.”

He stopped flying, turning his broom to face her. “Not soft.”

She scoffs and Frankie shuffles on his broom. “It’s true!”

“How would I know Morales? You gonna let me run my fingers through it or something?”

Why did he shudder at that thought, wanting to feel her fingers in his hair? He pushes that thought down and fixes her with what he hopes is a hard look. 

“Yeah if it gets you to shut your mouth.”

The grin gets wiped from her face, Frankie’s response having caught her completely off guard. He takes the opportunity to fly up next to her, getting close enough she could touch him. 

“Go on.” 

“I-”

Now it’s Frankie’s turn to smirk. “What, can’t act on what you say? Scared?”

“Not scared!” But her body language says otherwise. Tentatively, she reaches her hand out, the exposed tips of her gloved hands sliding through his hair. It sends a shiver down Frankie’s spine and he gasps slightly, noticing that she did the same when she touched his hair.  

“W-well?”

She massages his scalp for a moment, her eyes unfocused. A roar from the crowd below snaps them back to reality and she jerks her hand back, shaking her head briefly and putting on a smirk.

“Too soft to hold a snitch.” Her gaze drops to just above his shoulder, and she takes off, flying after whatever she saw - which was most likely the snitch.

Frankie swears as he turns, speeding off behind her. He sees it and he knows she sees it too - the snitch was hovering near the bottom of the goalposts on the opposite side of the pitch. Both of them flatten their bodies to their brooms, racing towards the snitch. They stretch out their hands, both reaching for it when SLAM! They both hit the ground, rolling and flipping over and over each other. They come to a halt, Frankie on top of Cobra, breathing heavily with the snitch in his closed fist, wings poking out of the sides. The crowd erupts in cheers, but Frankie continues to look at Cobra.

“Are you alright?” He asks, concerned he’d hurt her.

“Y-yeah. I’m ok. I think.”

She bucks her hips and Frankie’s cheeks redden before he realizes she’s flipped him over, straddling him herself. She leans down to speak in his ear. 

“Nice moves, Flyboy.” Smiling down at him, she winks before she moves, fixing a look of upset on her face before her team lands around her.

Frankie just catches a glimpse of her face, wincing as her captain grabs her arm, pulling her towards their locker rooms, his angry face inches from hers. But before he can follow, his team lifts him on their shoulders, celebrating their defeat of Slytherin.

—----

He’s the last to leave the locker room, practically begging everyone to leave him be so he could change from his robes. They’d all left, promising to hold him a seat at the table in the Great Hall. He quickly changed, stowing his quidditch robes in the bins where house elves would later come to clean them. He slams his locker door and leaves, heading back towards the castle, when he hears yelling from the other locker room - Slytherin’s locker room. The door opens and he freezes, a few feet away from it.

“-don’t let him win next time, Cobra! Live up to your name and stop letting that prat win!”

“He’s an excellent flyer, Flint! I don’t know what to tell you-”

“If you’d stop flirting with him long enough to see the fucking snitch I wouldn’t give 2 shits who you want to snog!”

“I-I don’t want to…to…how dare you!”

“Get your shit together. I’m tired of this. Snog him but don’t let him win or I’ll kick you off the team!”

“Good luck finding someone to replace me that’s half as good as me!”

“At least they wouldn’t want to fuck the Gryffindor seeker!”

Frankie hears something smash, but before he can even react, she storms out of the door, slamming it before turning away from the castle and running smack into him. She lets out an “oomph!” as Frankie grabs her, attempting to stabilize her.

“I-M-Morales!”

He gives her an honest smile. “It’s me.”

“I- I thought everyone had gone.”

“ ‘m late. But…are you ok?” Frankie sees the tears on her face and she starts to wipe at them. 

“I’m ok.” She pulls from his grip and walks past him, back towards the deserted pitch.

“Hey wait!” Frankie runs after her, catching up with her by the Gryffindor locker room door. He grabs her arm and tries to slow her down.

“What do you want, Morales?”

“I…does he always treat you like that?”

The expression on her face drops as she realizes he must have overheard the conversation. “I..I mean…not always but he..he…”

“He shouldn’t talk to you like that.”

“No, it’s ok. He’s just trying to help me be the best I can b-be.”

“Why do you stay on the team if he’s always yelling?”

“Because it’s a privilege to have even been considered. And because my parents would probably kill me. They’re already pissed because of the games I’ve lost.”

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

A few moments of silence passes between them before she speaks, barely above a whisper.

“How much did you hear?”

Frankie blushes, a furious shade of red betraying his words. “N-nothing. I just h-heard the-the yelling.”

She rolls her eyes, which is a familiar sight to Frankie. “You don’t have to lie to me to spare my feelings, Morales.”

“Fine. I heard it all.”

“And?”

“And..what?”

“Nevermind. It’s stupid anyway.” She turns on her heel and heads towards the pitch quickly, Frankie’s slow moving brain catching up. He runs after her and keeps pace as she continues to the pitch.

“What’s stupid?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s ok.”

“No, Cobra please. What-”

She stops suddenly, turning to head into the stands. She walks a few paces before plopping down on the hard wooden benches. 

“You can leave me, Morales. I’m a big girl.”

Ignoring her, he climbs into the stands and sits next to her. “He shouldn’t talk to you like that.”

“Yeah well…he’s right. All of it. But it doesn’t matter because nothing can happen anyway. Plus it has to be reciprocated-”

“I like you.”

Frankie has no idea where the confidence to admit to himself and Cobra that he’s actually harbored a big crush on her for years. She looks up at him, her eyes extra wet with tears that haven’t fallen.

“You don’t have to do that, Morales.”

“Do what?”

“Try to make me feel better.”

“I’m not-”

“I appreciate it, but you don’t have to. Just go back inside and I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Because he’s an idiot, he nods, standing up and turning to leave the stands. He makes it to the end of the row when he hears a quiet sob break from her and that’s all it takes. He has to show her he’s not lying or trying to make her feel better. Frankie turns, quickly striding back over to her and sitting next to her.

“Morales, what-”

His lips find hers, soft and chaste, his hand coming up to cup her cheek, thumb brushing away the tears that had fallen. She kisses him back for a moment before breaking the kiss, but keeping her forehead against his, eyes closed.

“We can’t-”

He nods and she feels it against her skin. “We can.”

“But I’m a Slytherin and you’re a Gryffindor.”

“So?”

“Aren’t we supposed to hate each other?”

He chuckles and she feels his breath on her lips. “To be honest, I don’t really give a troll's fart about that.” 

They kiss again, this time moaning into each other’s mouths, her hands winding into his hair and tugging while he holds her head in his hands. A few moments later they separate, staring into each other’s eyes.

“Promise me one thing, Cobra.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t ever let me win. I want to beat you fair and square.”

She laughs and he smiles, loving the way her face lights up with it. “I promise to not go easy on you as long as you promise the same to me.”

“That’s a deal.”

—----

General Taglist:

@frankie-catfish-morales @chaoticgeminate @janebby @astoryisaloveaffair @balekanemohafe @softpedropascal @greeneyedblondie44 @hoeforthefictional @marvelousmermaid @hauntedmama @giuliarogers-blog @icanbeyourjedi @diaryofkali @sunnshineeexoxo @livingmydreams13 @adventures-of-a-noodle @sara-alonso  @theewokingdead @punkerthanpascal @giggly-otter @f0rever15elf @phandoz @dirtytissuebox @jadore-andor @gallowsjoker @lovesbiggerthanpride  @sarahmilesbendrix @booksarekindaneat @mrsudontknowme @swol-bear @charlispersonallyhell @xoxabs88xox @amneris21 @gooddaykate @alindeluce @avengers-fixation @paintballkid711 @harriedandharassed   @ladykatakuri @marrianena  @practicalghost @withakindheartx @batdarkladyvampir @justanotherkpopstanlol  

#frankie catfish morales #frankie morales #triple frontier #pedro pascal #frankie morales x reader #frankie morales x you #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal character fanfic #pedro pascal character ff #pedro pascal character fanfiction #frankie morales x f!reader #francisco catfish morales

[marypsue]

Ahh I’m so excited to see what’s cooking up with former heroes especially bc I know some of the things that bothered you with season 3 were some of the plot points I have the most so I’m excited to see how you change them. Also I’m excited to see the rise of Joyce Byers, love triangle fiancée who is on fire ! (And hopefully not with a hopper that was s3 Hopper) Robin and Steve still scooping maybe?? Nancy and Mike being peak siblings and also Lucas hopefully getting some time shine.

Also I was wondering you hand any sneak peeks available for the Bodyswap AU or the Vampires+Steve pt3 fic!!

Hello hello nonny!

First and most importantly, I am fistbumping you through the computer screen over season 3. I'm really hopeful that this AU version is going to be satisfying, and avoid the major issues I had with season 3 without being unrecognisable from the canon. While I was considering what changes to make and how, I tried to tie it back more meaningfully to the themes of seasons 1 and 2, and I'm pleased with how that's coming through in the outline so far. Hopefully it'll work in the finished product! (Also, I can promise considerably more Peak Sibling Nonsense, and considerably less of season 3 Hopper. Although I am not making any promises at this time on the matter of dumb teenage romance bullshit.)

Also, because you asked so nicely, from the third and (hopefully) final chapter of don't let the sun go down on me:

“Did you hear? They found the Byers kid.”

Steve doesn’t have any kind of a response to that, beyond a blank stare. It’s too fucking early in the morning for how fucking early in the morning it is. He was up way too late last night, again, thanks to Nancy and Jonathan. The last thing he’s prepared to process is Tommy Hagan’s weird enthusiasm about knowing some piece of gossip Steve doesn’t.

Ordinarily, Steve wouldn’t rise to the bait. He’d play it cool, like he doesn’t actually care. Tommy will fill him in eventually, whether he cares or not.

But ordinarily, Tommy isn’t casually dropping a bombshell that could decide the future of Steve’s sanity. If they’ve found Will Byers – then there’s no reason left for Nancy and Jonathan to stick around. “What? Where?”

Tommy’s shit-eating grin gets even wider, and he slings an arm around Steve’s shoulders, steering them both deeper into the crowded, noisy halls. “Floating facedown in the quarry. Sounds like maybe whatever took a swipe at you decided to go after easier prey.”

Tommy keeps talking, but Steve barely hears him. There’s a weird roaring buzz rising in his ears, drowning out all but the pitch and cadence of Tommy’s voice. Suddenly, the crowded hallway is suffocating.

Steve barely manages to mumble out some halfassed excuse before shrugging off Tommy’s arm and breaking for the bathroom. He tries not to look like he’s running. He doesn’t know if he’s succeeding.

He’s no sooner made it into a stall than he’s hitting his knees on the grotty tile floor, clutching the porcelain bowl as his hasty breakfast makes a surprise reappearance. That bagel hadn’t tasted like anything special on the way down. It’s not improved the second time around.

When his stomach seems to be finished turning itself inside out, Steve sits back on his heels, coughing out the last lingering flecks of vomit as he wonders what the hell just happened. It’s not like he ever actually met Will Byers. Or like he’s known Jonathan for more than two days. And Steve had spent part of one of those days thinking Jonathan was a murderer.

Except. He’d been so angry when he’d thought Jonathan was a murderer. Like Jonathan had personally betrayed him. Steve’s not sure what that means. If it means anything. He’s not sure he wants to think too much about it.

Whether or not Steve actually cares about Jonathan Byers and how hurt he’s going to be by this, though – still. Still. That’s a kid. Will is just – was just a little kid. And – Steve’s memory, unhelpfully, decides to play him the highlight reel of that monster’s teeth, his dad telling him there were bites missing, Tommy saying easier prey, the excruciating pain in Steve’s stomach where the monster had slashed him open –

He wonders, with fresh horror, whether that thing got Will while Jonathan and Nancy were busy taking care of him. Even though that timeline doesn’t make any sense, he still has to dry-heave over the toilet again.

“Stevie?”

It’s the last voice Steve wants to hear right now. He groans as he twists to look over his shoulder at Tommy, and it’s only half exasperation.

Tommy ignores him. “Hey, man, you okay?”

“You look like shit,” Carol says, with a pop of her ever-present gum, following Tommy into the boys’ bathroom like she belongs there. “Rough night last night, Steve-o?”

She’s giving Steve an out. A way to save face. He flashes her a grateful smile, and hopes he doesn’t have bits of upchucked bagel stuck in his teeth. “Guess I must still be hung over.”

“Aww,” Carol tuts, with a sarcastic pout, as Tommy leans over to offer Steve a hand up off the disgusting floor. “And you didn’t invite us?”

“Hey, I know what’ll make you feel better,” Tommy announces, like he’s about to put a man on the moon. “We skip first period and hit the diner. Get you something hot and greasy to fill that bottomless pit.” He thwaps the back of one hand against Steve’s stomach with a grin.

Steve’s stomach gives another lurch. He swallows bile.

“Thanks, man,” he says, when he trusts himself enough to open his mouth. “But the diner’s been closed since Monday, remember? The owner killed himself?”

Tommy’s face falls. Steve swallows around a stab of guilt. Tommy’s his friend. He’s trying to help.

He just – he has no fucking clue what Steve’s gotten himself into this time. Neither he or Carol do.

And it’s gotta stay that way.

“Good idea, though,” Steve offers, an olive branch. “Skipping. Think I’m gonna ditch for the day.”

Tommy doesn’t totally lose the kicked-puppy look, but he does try for a smile. “You want us to tell Sanderberg you’re out sick? Sorry, sir, he was throwing up all morning,” he says, to the absent first-period teacher, voice pitched up and eyes wide in a mockery of innocence.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Steve says, knowing Tommy will at least get a kick out of winding up the notoriously suspicious Mr. Sanderberg. “Thanks, man.”

“Don’t mention it,” Tommy says, slapping Steve on the back just a little too hard.

“Are you actually sick?” Carol asks, or maybe ‘demands’ is a better word. “You’re acting weird lately.”

Steve forces a smile, hoping it doesn’t look too much like a grimace, as he shuffles over to the sinks to rinse out his mouth. “Nah. Told you. I’m just hung over. Gonna head home and sleep it off.”

Carol, in the mirror behind his head, does not look convinced. But she doesn’t say anything more, either.

Steve does feel a little bad about leaving her and Tommy behind, as he heads out to the parking lot and his car. But they’d never understand. They’d never believe him. Hell, in the cold, bright light of day, Steve barely believes himself.

And, he thinks, as he peels out of the high school lot, there’s no way he could bring Tommy and Carol with him where he knows he has to go now.

#chatter #this is mary's fic tag #stranger things #figuring out that the themes of seasons 1 and 2 included both 'what happens when love becomes stronger than fear' #AND 'things are not always as they seem' #really brought it all together imo and I do have to thank season four for providing me with clarity on that front #(also a bit of plot inspiration which I have blatantly stolen) #writing the vampire fic at the moment feels kind of like speeding down an icy hill in a car that is on fire #we're going somewhere and we're going FAST and things keep happening! but if I am not careful to keep in control #the wheels are going to come off #I think it is going to need a lot of editing to turn what made it onto the page into something that has the impact it had in my head #sometimes you get possessed by an idea that is SO COOL that you forget not everybody can see all the cool parts inside your brain #and you write it down very very fast and then have to give it a little while to cool off before you can look at it with a stranger's eyes #and go 'oh yeah I totally forgot to explain why that bit matters didn't I'

[celepeace]

Oh boy the b52 bomber plane is back

#i wonder if he retained the annoying af behavior too #by which i mean gravitating towards you every time you start a fight with a different large monster #monster hunter #at least his armor is really good for gunlance. i don't play gunlance but i respect it #it was really weird hearing his roar and theme in rise #because most unique themes get a bit of a remix with each game but bazel's is nearly the same #so i was like wait... this isn't world wtf is happening

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 21: Khezu, the Blank Stare

When I reviewed Basarios, I made a joke about how the devs likely gave it human teeth over sharp teeth because the latter might not give children nightmares, but I don’t actually think that the devs ever intended Basarios to be more terrifying than any other monster in the game. This monster, however, is literally the stuff of nightmares, and I’m not misusing “literally” here. This may be the longest review I’ve written yet, so buckle up. Time to get spooky with Khezu!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter Rise)

Appearance: I think there’s been a mistake here; last I checked, Capcom wasn’t making Silent Hill games. Seriously, this thing would fit right into that series, and not just ‘cause its phallic neck lends itself well to metaphors. The pale, veiny skin, the leech-like mouth, the complete lack of eyes...Khezu’s unlike any other monster in the series because it’s the only monster that’s meant to be horrifying to look at. It’s got flabby, tattered wings and gecko-like feet, but its main characteristic (other than the head) is its tail, the tip of which can open up into a suction cup that allows Khezu to stick to ceilings.

Obviously, Khezu’s an abomination that came from a really dark place in someone’s mind, but that’s just it: Khezu is a monster that appeared in an MH developer’s nightmare either before or during the production of the first Monster Hunter game, and said developer (I don’t actually remember who) decided to put it in the game. I learned of this from the Twitch streams of a streamer called DuncanCan’tDie, who’s a huge MH fan that’s on great terms with Capcom. Unfortunately, I can’t find any other sources for this claim, but I don’t think he’s lying for a few reasons; firstly, like I said, he’s on great terms with Capcom. He’s friends with some people who work there, and he even has a tattoo designed by someone on the MH team he called “Kaname-san” (who didn’t actually give him the tattoo, but drew the design that a tattoo artist used) and the only person who could go by that name is Kaname Fujioka, the man who literally directed several MH games, including the first one, and who was the art director for Monster Hunter World. So yeah. Duncan and Capcom get along great, and if he was spreading false rumors, they’d probably know about it.

The second reason I believe Duncan about Khezu’s origin is that someone once came into one of his streams (and I was there at the time) and started spouting “lore” about two monsters that looked like they could be related, but actually weren’t. Duncan flat out told this person that what they were claiming wasn’t mentioned anywhere and asked for sources...which the loregiver did not provide. In fact, after Duncan started getting on their case, I don’t think they said a word for the rest of the stream. Duncan believes that this person was just making stuff up to sound like they knew a lot about MH and weren’t aware that he was an MH expert, and I doubt that someone who would call someone out on that would do the same thing, especially if he had a reputation to uphold.

I apologize if I spent a lot of time talking about that, but I didn’t want people getting on my case because they couldn’t find anything to support my claims. But in conclusion, I believe that Khezu truly was born of a nightmare, and that’s awesome. It makes the Silent Hill comparison even more fitting since the enemies in those games are basically projections of the protagonists’ psyches. Disturbing enemies are much more effective if they scare(d) the people who created them, and Khezu is certainly disturbing. Because of that, as well as its ominous origin, I’m giving it a 9/10.

Behavior: Khezu mostly inhabit caves, jungles, and swamps due to the need for their skin to be moisturized, though they usually only leave caves to hunt, which they don’t have to do very often due to the plentiful fat beneath their skin, which also keeps them warm. Their favorite hunting strategy is to ambush their prey from a location usually concealed by darkness, which is made easier by their extendable necks. However, their reliance on darkness, as well as their preference to dwell in caves, has made them completely blind and reliant on their other senses; despite not having visible nostrils or ears, Khezu have great hearing and a very good sense of smell. Back to hunting, while they need to subdue larger prey, smaller ones, like Kelbi, are slowly swallowed whole...which is apparently something you can actually witness in the games, according to TV Tropes (I normally stick to the wiki and what I already know for resources, but I went to the “Monster Hunter / Nightmare Fuel” page while searching for another source for Khezu’s origin as a nightmare). As if this thing needed to be more disturbing, it doesn’t always kill its prey before it tries to swallow it, so the Kelbi you can see it eat is constantly struggling as the Khezu swallows it bottom-first. That’s...that’s messed up. But it gets worse.

Practically every monster in this series isn’t any more intelligent than what we consider a normal animal to be. Aside from Lynians, which are people, the smartest monster I’ve talked about is the Velociprey, which might not be as smart as, say, an irl crow, which is very intelligent by the standards of nonhuman animals. What I’m getting at here is that most of the monsters in this series don’t really take any sadistic pleasure in killing and eating prey; they just do it to survive. But Khezu is different. In several MH games, including Rise, the first time you go on a quest to kill a specific monster, the gameplay is preceded by a cutscene that shows off how powerful or intimidating that monster is (and in Rise’s case, you also get a poem). Here’s Khezu’s intro, and I want you to pay attention to what Khezu does from 0:24-0:30:

That’s right: this thing “looked” right at the monster it was going to eat, and smiled. That isn’t just me anthropomorphizing it, either; I’ve seen what Khezu looks like outside of that cutscene, and even with its mouth closed it has a neutral expression, so it smiling actually means something, and considering the context, it’s obvious what the devs wanted us to take from it: Khezu likes killing. It enjoyed the prospect of swallowing that monster whole while it was still alive and struggling, which means that this is the first monster I’ve talked about that we can definitively say is evil rather than just an animal. Rather fitting for a living nightmare, I would say. And if you thought all that was disturbing, I have some...unfortunate news. I hope you aren’t eating anything right now, ‘cause this next part is just gross.

Y’know how some wasps lay their eggs inside other bugs so the eggs have incubation they can eat when they hatch? Well, uh...Khezu do that, too. And they’re hermaphrodites that, from what I can gather, don’t need to mate, so any adult Khezu is capable of injecting another monster with its “whelps” (not saying that Khezu are always “pregnant,” just saying that any of them can be). And you know the really crazy part? After everything I said about Khezu, there are still people in the MH world that tame them and keep them as pets. Why would you want to have a slimy, flabby, sadistic, parasitoid, 14-to-40-foot abomination as a pet!? God, people are so freaking weird.

EDIT (05/07/2021): My older brother reminded me that I forgot about one of the odder aspects of Khezu; when you enter a fight with a Main Monster, its battle theme plays (don’t know if every monster has a unique theme, but several do, to my knowledge), but Khezu has no theme to speak of. I don’t know if this is true in every game, or even if it was intentional at first, but it’s still both funny and eerie at the same time. There’s no background music until you get in a fight, so if you somehow tick off a Khezu without seeing it, then it can sneak up on you. “But Zaph, the moment a monster enters ‘fight mode,’ it roars! So the Khezu will give away its position!” See, you’d be right about that if it wasn’t for the fact that, according to TV Tropes at least, Khezu’s roar sounds just like wind--howling wind, yes, but wind all the same. I don’t know if there’s any howling wind SFX in the areas where Khezu live, so for all I know you’ll still be able to identify it in a hurry, but just imagine what that’s like in-universe! Imagine that you’re walking around in the Frost Islands or something and hear a chilling wind from out of nowhere. Unless you’re an experienced hunter, you’d likely have no idea if that was a Khezu or not, so you wouldn’t know if it’s too late to run or not, or even if you should run at all. Going back out of universe, the details I just described are very nice touches to a monster that was already horrifying in behavior, so I’m bumping the score here up from the 7 I initially gave it to 8/10.

Abilities: All of the “Flying Wyverns” I’ve talked about so far have had a lot of trouble with the whole “flying” part, and Khezu are no exception; they’re better at it than Diablos and Gravios, but they still need to flap really frantically to stay in the air. They’re great at jumping, though, and their gecko-like feet allow them to scale walls and stick to ceilings, something that their tails also allow them to do. Khezu are Thunder-element monsters capable of discharging electricity in a manner of ways, including shooting balls of it from their mouths and emitting it all around their bodies. Since Khezu like to spend time around water, their attacks are even more dangerous, as everything near them will likely be wet and therefore more conductive. This also applies to Khezu themselves, which may be why they stick their tails onto the ground before discharging electricity; they ground themselves so that they don’t shock themselves. Finally, Khezu saliva is very dangerous; we don’t know if it’s electric or acidic, but anything that gives off smoke when it touches something probably isn’t good for your health, which is why owning a pet Khezu is so dangerous; their drool can literally kill you. 7/10.

Equipment: Most Khezu weapons are as interesting as you’d expect them to be, considering the monster they’re made from. Most of them have a horror aesthetic, like this Great Sword called the Khezu Shock Sword:

I just noticed that the skin is actually stretched over the blade, rather than being what the blade’s attached to. Gross, but I never expected Khezu weapons to look pretty. There are also weapons which emphasize the monster’s electric aspect, like this Gunlance called the Full Voltage:

It still has Silent Hill vibes due to its “rusty hospital” aesthetic, and looking at it long enough reveals little details it inherited from Khezu. Speaking of hospitals, there are a couple of weapons based off of syringes, such as the Khezu Syringe, which is a Light Bowgun, and a Lance from MHFG that’s literally a giant hypodermic needle, but I didn’t want to show those off in case they triggered anyone with needle phobia. The last weapon I’m gonna show will be very familiar to those of us who’ve played the Rise demo a lot: the Insect Glaive known as the Bolt Chamber!

I like the green tube running from the sac between the blade and the shaft of the glaive; according to the Bolt Chamber’s in-game description, it uses that “pulsating device” to steal energy from its targets. If you mentioned that to me before I grabbed its image for this review, I probably would have asked how it did that. If you then pointed out the mouth at the glaive’s end, I would have thanked you for cursing me with the knowledge of its existence. Seriously, I’ve used this thing probably more than 20 times, and until I saw this render, I never noticed that. As for the armor, here’s the Blademaster Khezu Armor from MHGU:

The male armor here is almost identical to the one from Rise--which sadly doesn’t have any pictures on the wiki yet--and yes, it does look like the main character from Assassin’s Creed. The female armor, on the other hand, looks almost like a nurse’s outfit, especially with that metal thing on the woman’s head with the cross. The more I look at this equipment, the more I feel like they wanted people to think of Silent Hill, and if so, that’s pretty cool. I’ve got another armor set to show you; the Gunner version of the Khezu R Armor from MHGU:

Jesus, is this an armor set or a medical emergency? I can’t imagine bandages are very effective at protecting your body from physical damage, but thankfully it looks like most of them are just covering actual armor...meaning that the people who designed this stuff in-universe wanted the people wearing it to look like they were in an accident. Not sure I get why, but I’m not here to--actually, I am here to judge, so never mind; it’s gross. Also the female set has Khezu mouths as arm coverings, which is someone’s fetish, I’m sure. The equipment as a whole is macabrely interesting (TIL that macabrely is a real word) and calls to mind a fascinating horror game franchise, so 8/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: I figured that Khezu was gonna be interesting, but I didn’t know how far the devs would take the horror theming. Everything about this monster is creepy; it looks disturbing, it acts even worse, and its equipment makes me feel like I need a tetanus shot just from looking at it. But that’s not at all a bad thing...unless you’re really squeamish, in which case you were likely cringing this whole review. I’d apologize, but you made the choice to stick through ‘till the end. 8/10.

#monster hunter #monster hunter rating #monster hunter rise #zaph1337

[stillness-in-green]

Idk if anyone told you but the MVA OST leaked, with themes for both the League and the MLA. If you haven't listened to it yet, please do! And if you have, what are your thoughts? I think Mine Woman and RE-DESTRO slap for 2 characters that got shafted hard by canon so I appreciate them a lot.

I have listened to them, and I like several of them! I feel like I need to lead with that, because I'm about to add some criticism about my previous responses to BNHA's score for context, so it's important to know that I genuinely do enjoy quite a few of these.

So, I haven't listened to a lot of Yuki Hayashi's scores, but he's definitely done work I've liked! He composed the music for several of the more recent PreCure shows, including their movies; I particularly loved his finale for the 15th anniversary film, which prominently featured a truly delightful medley of every team's opening theme. I'm also very fond of some of his pieces for Kiznaiver and Welcome to the Ballroom.

His BNHA work, though, I feel like suffers from two main problems: the tracks are too short to work up a good head, and yet, despite that short length, they sometimes feel exhaustingly over the top. (Did Shigaraki's theme really need crying children to get across the point that he's bad news?) I've long felt that the BNHA anime wants me to feel like everything is way more Epic and Stirring and Dramatic than I actually find the material to be, so curiously, the music winds up having a distancing effect rather than drawing me in. This is frequently compounded by placement choices that feel so staggeringly poor that I'm often left wondering whether the staff chose the music out of a hat! (Seriously, why does a fairly rote test of character in Nighteye's office warrant doom choirs?)

As to the MVA tracks specifically, I wish there could have been tracks that sounded a bit more fun or heroic, given that the League in MVA really are the heroes for the arc, complete with Shigaraki suddenly having access to Shonen Nakama Tropes and getting all these little comedic reaction takes. It'd be nice if the music could cue in and let the League have some aural triumph without being all doom all the time ("Oh, no! The villains are winning!" Yes, they are; let them have this for one arc, would you?)

But that said, I do rather like most of these! There are some that I do suspect will fall prey to the This Is Too Much Drama, Would You Please Ratchet Back? problem, but there are also some that I can imagine playing better in the context of the show than they do in isolation, and some that feel like they could even be exactly what I was dreaming about, if they go where I hope they will. For some individual thoughts, see below:

The Mission of the Stealth Hawks: A reasonable enough little tense atmospheric piece. Doesn't jump out at me.

Different Ability Liberation Army: I always approach the MLA as styling themselves as an army, but in reality being more of a sect--far more cult than militia-- I appreciate that if they can't have a good dramatic march despite having Army, like, right there in the title, I'm glad I could get church bells instead. On the whole, though, this is a good example of the first problem I mentioned having with Hayashi's work for BNHA--his pieces tend to be pretty short, and it takes them so long to land on a melody that by the time they find one, there's hardly any time to develop it before the song ends. Even a lot of the hero pieces are like that, and the villain songs, even more so. That said, I do like the horror strings that creep in around the 1.25 mark, blossom at 1.45, and float on through 2.10. I just wish they went on longer. Admittedly, "erratic church bells and horror strings" is still not the choice I would have made for the MLA's main theme. I really would have preferred something with a more militant air; as it is, this sort of feels like it scores a creepy prologue that plays before the opening credits kick in and then the episode proper starts. Which isn't a bad description for the way the dinner scene played in the manga, but thanks to the anime's decision to reshuffle everything, I don't think that dinner scene's going to maintain that feeling of "prologue" when we finally get to it.

My Villain Academia: Better on the melodic front; I enjoy the drama at .43, the dancing tension at 1.05, and particularly the minor strings from 1.25 that just keep climbing until everything else drops out around 2.10. I do wish it found a better place to end rather than noodling on for a further thirty seconds, but the melody will get a more central, and more bombastic, treatment in the final track, so it's probably okay for it to trail off here. (It's also apparently a reprise of a villain theme from the very first season's OST, which is rad. More on that in the Track 11 blurb.)

Second Coming: This is a bizarre one because, while I complained that Hayashi's BNHA tracks are usually short, this one is a full six and a half minutes--except that it falls clearly into movements of about a minute each, with clear lulls in between. I wish it was twelve minutes and everything was twice as long! As it is, I'm highly doubtful that we're going to hear this one played in its entirety anywhere, since I can't imagine what scenes would require this specific sequence of musical passages at this length. 0.00 - 1.01: I love that the song kicks in comparatively quickly; the first minute's passage has a great, thrumming drive that very nearly hits major key towards the end. 1.02 - 1.53: The drive picks up pace in the second minute before the chorus arrives, and for once, I am very prepared to love a BNHA choir piece. I hope this is what plays when Deika's going up in ash. 1.54 - 3.01: I love the melodic line being carried by the intentionally hard to distinguish violin and whatever brass instrument the violin's trading off with in the third minute. It's bit out of place with the rest of the track, but I like it quite a bit on its own, and it does have a similar sound as some of the "dirty" brass in RE-DESTRO and Mine Woman. It's probably too long for RD's childhood flashback, but I wonder if it'll play for an MLA character somewhere? 3.02 - 4.07: The fourth minute has some very fun drums, but otherwise doesn't jump out at me as much of the rest of the track. I'm very curious to know when this will play, though. 4.08 - 5.32: The fifth minute, god bless, has some proper march drums--I like this passage a lot, particularly when it come back in the sixth minute accompanied by the choir. I like this because the key is minor but it's not "oooo scaaaary" minor; it's more dramatic, a bit tragic, but triumphant too--pretty much perfect for Re-Destro, Spinner and Machia's moment of revelation in the crater. I wish it were longer. 5.33 - 6.36: And here for the end we're back to the driving guitar and some fun low-thrum strings and percussive chain sounds. Like the fourth passage, it's fun, but jumps out at me less, particularly as the song's finale.

Gigantomachia: This is an extremely boss kaiju song. Seriously, that brass in the opening could come right out of a Toho flick. Extremely good walking calamity number, love that distorted synth stuff towards the end. It's going to sound great when (if) it plays over Machia leaving the villa, the hand rising up through the floor behind Toga, Momo and the other students surveying the desolation left in his wake, and so on. (I know that's all Season Six material, shhhh. I hope they use this piece there.)

Mine Woman: This is so fun. And so extremely superior that that awful Christmas insert song! I'm glad Curious got this at least, and I love the moment the beat drops at the one-minute mark, and that interwoven sax. So good. It's hard to imagine the fight between Toga and Curious being paced to this song, mind, but it's real good, anyway.

TOGA's Nature: This one showcases the other problem I have with Hayashi's BNHA work, especially his stuff for the villains: it feels very on the nose in a way that tips over into being Too Much. The birdsong, I think, is on the nose but in an effective, playful way, with the natural beauty of the birds undercut by the lovely but ominous piano/synth melody. I am considerably less kindly disposed to the creepy child laughter, which just feels on the nose in a thuddingly obvious way--though I do like the way it slides in when the birdsong fades. I like, too, the sort of cloudy roaring reprise of the melodic line that kicks in around the 1.10 mark. It feels like an effective echo of Toga--cute but creepy as a young girl, and then, after she snaps, creepy in the same way but now you can't ignore it.

Symbol of Fear: The beginning doesn't do much for me, but I enjoy the howl that gives way to the organs at 1.15; while it's too action-heavy to be Tenko, the transition does still put me in mind of Tenko wandering the streets, internally crying for anyone to help him, and the person who finally does is--well. I like that the organ nurtures that howl into something considerably more dire, though you still get a return to that guttural cry periodically. While it is, again, difficult to imagine this scoring the scenes between AFO and Tenko's first meeting and Tenko being formally named Tomura--it's much too bombastic--it does still feel like an excellent representation of AFO sculpting Tomura's formless, aimless rage into something that really could tear down the world.

I Don't Kill My Friends: It would have been really nice if they'd let the most significant, unadulterated personal triumph of the arc sound actually fun. Why does the Sad Man's Parade song sound so upset?? @aysall predicts that it'll play over Twice's confrontation with Hawks and death scene, and I can see it working extremely well there, but it's a pretty weird call for the Dead Man's Parade bit, if that is indeed what this is intended to evoke. Quibbling about the title aside, I do like the way this pulses and throbs, something like an exposed wound, which is not a bad description of poor Jin's mentality. I still hope this isn't what scores his breakthrough, though. As I said previously, the villains are the heroes for just this one arc, and it'd be nice if the score could reflect that at least a little.

RE-DESTRO: I like this one a lot. I love the interwoven layers of that dirty sax and the Big and Dramatic orchestral strings + brass, but both of them undercut with that regular, machine beeping that could almost be a heart monitor, but mostly isn't--right up until the long beep at 1.52/1.53. It feels like a strong illustration of the titular character's different personas--his attempts at casual, friendly villainy (like menacing Giran or chatting with Shigaraki on the phone), him when he's thundering full-volume about the weight of his legacy at people (THE BLOOD OF DESTRO FLOWS THROUGH THESE VEINS I AM RE-DESTRO), and, beneath it all, the constant little thread of stress that Rikiya can never escape (right up until Shigaraki). I probably wouldn't love it so much in isolation, but I'm easy to win over with the right character association. XD

Paranormal Liberation Front: Very fun grubby guitar intro. It also has much the clearest melodic throughline, which inclines me towards it. What inclines me to it even more is the knowledge (per @aysall again) that it's the same main melody as the track Villains Theme from the very first season's OST. That track already having used its allotted Doom Choir quotient, this track makes do with less synth and a lot more orchestra and chunky bass backing, which is much to its benefit, I feel. I do wish it had any of the MLA's theme in it, to represent the merger, but admittedly, it'd be hard to make that very audible when the MLA theme has…next to no central melody, percussive rhythm, etc. Still, as an evolution of the League to something bigger, classier, and far more dangerous, it's real good--just long enough to develop into itself and explore its central leitmotif. Probably my favorite track simply on its own merits.

Thanks for the ask, anon! I'd listened to the tracks once driving around for work, but sitting down with them properly gave me a greater appreciation for them, and now I'll definitely have an ear out for them when we get to this material in the anime…

….whenever that winds up being. *sob*

#bnha #music #stillness answers #my villain academia #reviews? #league of villains #meta liberation army #shigaraki tomura #yotsubashi rikiya

[gffa]

Star Wars - Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scot There’s a fascinating thing going on with Dooku: Jedi Lost that’s not remarked on directly, but is surprisingly consistently shown--that half-trained Force users are legitimately dangerous to themselves and others more than we might think, that exposure to the dark side of the Force (whether from within themselves or from an external source) can be disastrous if they don’t have the experience to control themselves. --> It starts when Dooku feels a tug through the Force, to find his biological sister Jenza and they tour through the Serenno Assembly Hall together, when he’s drawn to one of the sculptures, the connection he makes with it tears through his mind, the Tirra’Taka growling and he can’t look away from it, doesn’t even seem to hear Jenza when she calls for him not to touch it. But he does and the entire Assembly Hall collapses on them, trapping them underneath the rubble.  Whatever was calling to him through the Force, he wasn’t trained enough yet to deal with it and he and Jenza are both badly hurt and need to be rescued.  It tore through his head and made him scream in pain, not from the collapsing hall, but having that thing in his mind. --> Later, Dooku and Sifo-Dyas sneak into the Bogan Collection in the Jedi Temple, because they’re curious (and Lene Kostana tempted them into it, by leaving a few pages of a Sith bestiary out for them) and Dooku is drawn to a particular object, he’s fascinated by it.  Another roar starts up in his head and he sees the Tirra’Taka again, this time not just in his head, but in front of him. In panic, he flings outward with the Force, shattering every cabinet in the room and knocking Sifo-Dyas into a wall of artifacts hard enough that his arm is broken. --> After that, Dooku is convinced that Lene Kostana is actually a Sith herself and goes to confront her.  She dances around the subject, throwing out deliberate mild barbs and he can feel the dark side roiling off her.  So he rushes at her, lightsaber drawn and she continues teasing him, testing him, taunting him a little. Then his attacks turns serious, he gets swept up in the furious rush of it, and she says, okay, that’s enough, let’s calm down.  But he can’t stop, not until Yoda’s forced to intervene, and when things calm down, Dooku realizes the darkness he felt wasn’t in her, it was in him.  He'd been so turned around by that anger and darkness, so frenzied by that darkness, that he couldn’t tell what was real in those moments. --> Awhile later, after Dooku attends his biological mother’s funeral on Serenno, it basically all goes pear-shaped and he’s deeply upset by it and Jenza’s rejection of him at the time.  Because of this instability, when he and Lene and Sifo-Dyas continue their mission, he kills an entire group of smugglers in a rage, so deeply affected by the dark side on the planet that even Lene worries that he’s going to turn his blade on her, too.  Dooku, relating this in the holo-entry says, "Perhaps I would have, blinded by emotions I could barely control, emotions she had stirred by bringing me to Asusto.” --> Then they’re then trapped in a special moss that that bombards them with mental images of war and fighting and the return of the Sith, all of this done so a weird cult can use them to generate visions of the future.  This torture caused Dooku to lash out with Force lightning to kill them, which further slid him down a dark path.  Because the Jedi Council would not approve of Lene exposing the Padawans to the dark side, she insists that they keep this all a secret and instead of dealing with it properly, she teaches them an ancient ritual that uses soaked bindings to help infuse them with the light side. --> Once Sifo-Dyas is Knighted, Lene continues to work with him because his visions are so severe that he still needs help, the burden of them so great that it’s caused him to develop a stutter.  Still, Lene keeps taking him out to help her look for Sith artifacts that are out there in the galaxy that she wants to hunt down, because she’s convinced the artifacts are the key to telling if the Sith have returned or not. Ultimately, the missions that Lene was taking him on, the visions that she was encouraging behind the backs of the Council (whom she hid them from) and the missions he was in the middle of cause him to have a vision so strong that he writhes on the ground and his sanity fractures, damaging him even further beyond repair, it seems. All of these together, in just the one book, paint an incredibly clear picture of how the dark side affects Force-sensitives, how it takes so much discipline, an entire lifetime of it, to be able to handle it.  That if users aren’t properly trained and take incredible care, they can end up hurting themselves and others, sometimes in ways that can’t be fixed. The Force is vast and mysterious and brilliant and wonderful and amazing and connection, but it’s also unfathomable and endless and dangerous if you push too far or get drawn into something you don’t have a lifetime of training to handle. This is why a Jedi needs the most serious of minds to commit to this--because the Force can and will wreck you if you’re not incredibly careful.  It thoroughly wrecks Sifo-Dyas in this book.  It sinks its claws into Dooku, who cannot move beyond it and we all know his fate. This is why the Jedi are so damned careful about the dark side--not that you can’t show darker emotions, because they did that all the time, but that you cannot just let them run wild in you--because we are given an entire series of events in this book that show us exactly how much damage the dark side can do and it’s really bad.  It doesn’t mean that every single one who uses the dark side, who acts out of anger, will automatically be driven down that path, the Jedi would never have kept Anakin Skywalker around if that that were the case, because he acted out of anger a lot.  And he was told to learn to control himself better, because it’s about disciplining yourself to turn away from the dark, as George Lucas says about how the Force works.  The Jedi know that it’s part of everyone (they teach it to their children in the creche, as Qui-Gon says).  The Jedi knew that of course it was possible to come back from the dark side, that’s why they help Quinlan and Prosset. But it does mean that the Jedi are absolutely right that the dark side is dangerous and, once it starts getting its hooks in you, it’s something you have to watch out for always.  That it’s a lifelong challenge not to go down that road, to discipline yourself away from it. Not just because that’s a good lesson for all of us, according to the narrative themes of Star Wars, but because Dooku: Jedi Lost shows us multiple instances of how the danger level of that lack of control SKYROCKETS in Force-users.  It causes visions to appear before them.  It makes them doubt their psychic senses.  They can’t tell if it’s the other person’s anger or their own.  Those feelings linger with them and swoop around their heads until they’re lashing out because of the psychic empathic overload, sometimes killing people in that rage that’s shrieking in their heads.  Dooku is frequently in screaming pain from the dark side invading him, because that’s what the dark side does. TL;DR:  THE DARK SIDE IS REALLY DANGEROUS AND WILL WRECK YOU IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.  HALF-TRAINED FORCE USERS WHO DO NOT HAVE THE LEVEL OF MASTERY OVER THEMSELVES ARE SUPER SUSCEPTIBLE TO THIS AND CAN GET REALLY, REALLY HURT.  AND DO GET REALLY HURT. (Quotes from Dooku: Jedi Lost for context under the Keep Reading!)

Dooku and Jenza in the Serenno Assembly Hall:

     JENZA: (EMBARRASSED) We should probably get back. We’re not even supposed to be in here. (BEAT) Dooku?      DOOKU: (NARRATION) A carving had caught my attention—an immense beast, larger than any malosaur, crawling up toward the domed ceiling. The creature’s crested head was thrown back, jaw stretched wide, roaring at the stars that were painted across the apex. Spines ridged its powerful back, wings spread wide as if ready to take flight.      And then there were its eyes…eyes, though fashioned in stone, that burned with an intensity that was all too familiar…      DOOKU: What is that?      JENZA: The Tirra’Taka? Just another legend. “The dragon that holds the world together…”      DOOKU: It’s beautiful.      DOOKU: (NARRATION) I couldn’t look away, walking toward the sculpture as if in a trance. It looked so alive, so vibrant, as if any minute it could spring from the wall to crash through the columns that held the domed roof in place.      I could feel the creature’s heart beating in my own chest, its roar echoing at the back of my mind…      We also hear the roar of the Tirra’Taka. It’s distorted, low, rising in volume beneath the following exchange.      JENZA: Dooku, what are you doing? Don’t—don’t touch it, okay? It’s supposed to be bad luck.      DOOKU: So beautiful.     The ground shakes, dust falling from above.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) I barely even noticed the ground shifting beneath our feet, flakes of paint falling from the ceiling high above…     JENZA: What was that?     DOOKU: (WHISPER) Tirra’Taka…     JENZA: Dooku—don’t!     DOOKU: (NARRATION) My fingers brushed the stone…and the world was torn apart…     A groundquake hits, shaking the foundations of the assembly hall.     JENZA: What did you do?     DOOKU: (NARRATION) I snapped from my reverie, cracks snaking across the polished marble before us.     DOOKU: Me? Nothing? What’s happening?     Another rumble, stronger this time.     JENZA: It’s a groundquake.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) But it wasn’t the scrape of tectonic plates that caused me to clasp my head in pain, but an impossible bellow slicing through my mind as easily as plasma carves through flesh…     The beast roars in his head.     DOOKU: (SCREAMS IN PAIN)     JENZA: Dooku!     DOOKU: So loud.     Another roar. More rumbles.     DOOKU: I can’t—(SCREAM)     The full force of the groundquake hits, the walls cracking.     JENZA:We need to get outside!     Masonry tumbles from the domed ceiling, crashing to the ground nearby. All the time, the monster bellows in Dooku’s head.     DOOKU:(PAINED) Make it stop!     JENZA: Dooku! Please. We need to move before the roof comes down! Dooku!     The assembly hall collapses on them.

Dooku and Sifo-Dyas in the Bogan Collection:

    DOOKU: Hey. Look at this.     SIFO-DYAS: Seriously. That’s what you want to look at? There’s all these…scrolls and weapons and whatever that creepy mask thing is, and you want to look at a lump of old metal?     DOOKU: There’s something about it…something I’ve felt before.     SIFO-DYAS: Doo. Look at this. I think it’s a parang. We start to hear a noise inside Dooku’s mind, a growl like he heard in the assembly hall on Serenno. Low. Ominous.     DOOKU: (WINCES)     SIFO-DYAS: Dooku?     DOOKU: Can’t you hear it?     SIFO-DYAS: Hear what?     DOOKU: The beast below.     SIFO-DYAS: Okay. Very funny. Drop the act. This place is spooky enough as it is.     The growl intensifies.     DOOKU: It’s coming.     SIFO-DYAS: What?     DOOKU: Coming for us. Coming for me.     SIFO-DYAS: Okay, now you’re freaking me out. Let’s look at something else, shall we?     The growl becomes a roar.     YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION) And then it was in front of me, Jenza, fangs bared, wings outstretched. The same creature you showed me in the Assembly Hall. The Tirra’Taka. I can’t explain how but I could see it, feel its breath against my skin, its spines bristling, ready to attack, ready to tear us apart.     DOOKU: (SCARED) No.     SIFO-DYAS: Doo, calm down.     DOOKU: Stay back!     SIFO-DYAS: Dooku, there’s nothing there.     DOOKU: Can’t you see it? Why can’t you see it?     Sifo-Dyas goes to grab Dooku, as—in the young Jedi’s head—the monster prepares to attack.     DOOKU: (CRIES OUT IN FEAR)     YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION) I pushed out with the Force, every cabinet in the Archive shattering at once. Sifo-Dyas was thrown back, smashing into a wall as artifacts tumbled to the floor.     SIFO-DYAS: (GRUNTS)      Alarms blare.     SIFO-DYAS: (GROANS) Why did you do that?     DOOKU: It’s gone. The creature.     SIFO-DYAS: What creature?     DOOKU: You couldn’t see it?     SIFO-DYAS: I don’t know what you’re talking about. (WINCES)     Dooku scrambles up, running to his friend, glass crunching beneath his feet.     DOOKU: Are you all right?     SIFO-DYAS: (WHIMPERING) My arm. I can’t move it.     DOOKU: That doesn’t look good.

Dooku and Lene Kostana’s Confrontation:

    LENE: Why would I be testing you?     DOOKU: To see if we’re like you.     LENE: Like me? What about me?     DOOKU: I can…feel it inside you. Frustration. Anger.     LENE: Is that so?     We hear the roar of the Tirra’Taka in Dooku’s mind. Distant, but insistent all the same.     DOOKU: (WINCES)     LENE: Initiate?     DOOKU: I sense the dark side.     LENE: You do?     Another roar.     DOOKU: It must be stopped.     LENE: And you’re the one to do it?     DOOKU: Yes.     YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION) I launched myself at Kostana, my lightsaber slashing through the air only to be blocked…     LENE: Not bad. Tera Sinube said you showed promise.     They duel more, lightsabers crackling.

[.....]     DOOKU: I knew it. [STRIKE] You are a Sith.     LENE: There haven’t been Sith [STRIKE] for a thousand years.     DOOKU: They haven’t been discovered, you mean? [STRIKE]     LENE: Ha. I like you, Dooku. A good fighter. [STRIKE] Brave. Willing to go toe-to-toe with a [STRIKE] Dark Lord. Or should that be Dark Lady? [STRIKE] I never know.     DOOKU: [STRIKE] I won’t let you win.LENE:And what exactly will you do? Summon the beast you heard in the collection? [STRIKE] The beast you hear now?     DOOKU:(SUDDENLY UNSURE) I…I didn’t hear anything.     LENE:Are you sure? [STRIKE] You’ve locked it away. [STRIKE] But it’s still in there. In your memory. I can feel it.     DOOKU:Stop it. [STRIKE] You’re evil. [STRIKE] And I will stop you.     The fight intensifies, Dooku forcing Lene back against the railing as he strikes again, and again, and again.     YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION) I don’t know what came over me. I’d always been so careful to keep my emotions in check, just as I’d been taught, but…I couldn’t control myself. I hacked at her time and time again, forcing her back to the edge of the balcony. All I could feel was her anger. Her rage…at least, I thought it was her. I couldn’t think, I could only act…and all the time, her convor flapped around our heads. Cawing. Screeching. Ready to claw out my eyes, anything to protect its mistress…     LENE: (DROPPING THE ACT AS SHE REALIZES HE’S LOSING CONTROL) Okay. That’s enough, Dooku.     DOOKU:No, it isn’t.     He’s becoming frenzied.     LENE:Dooku. Stop. [STRIKE] Stop! [STRIKE]     YODA:(FIRM) Stop.     Yoda’s sudden appearance stops the fight dead. [.....]     DOOKU: She admitted it herself…She was talking…about Darth…Darth Sakia…     YODA: Sakia? There was no such Sith.     DOOKU: How do you know? We can’t have known them all.     YODA: But know Kostana we can. Reach out with your feelings.     DOOKU: I did.     YODA:  No. Reached inside you did.     DOOKU:  What?     Lene extinguishes her lightsaber.     LENE:  Go ahead. I won’t resist. Tell me…have I been touched by the dark side, Initiate?     We focus on Dooku’s still-ragged breath for a beat and then…     DOOKU: I feel…I feel nothing.     YODA: Dooku. Your lightsaber.     DOOKU: I’m sorry. I…     He extinguishes his own blade.     DOOKU: I was so sure.

Lene & Dooku on Asusto:

    DOOKU:  (UNSURE) Okay. Eyes closed, it is.     LENE:  Now reach out with your emotions. But this time, open your mind to everything, not just the light. Remember how you felt on Mantero.     DOOKU:  What?     LENE: The anger you felt. The betrayal. Remember how your sister looked at you. Remember her fear. [.....]     DOOKU: (NARRATION) I burst through the foliage, my lightsaber flashing. The Abyssin drew their pulse-blasters, but I was too fast for them, slicing through first barrels and then limbs. But then…I couldn’t stop. I don’t know what it was, my shame over what had happened on Mantero or the dark side amplifying my fury as kyber focuses plasma. By the time my companions reached the clearing, the Abyssin were dead. I’ve read that the lumbering aliens can regenerate limbs, but there was no coming back from these injuries.     Cautiously, Lene ignited her own lightsaber, as if wary of me…     LENE:  Dooku. It’s over. They’re done.     DOOKU:  No. Their evil remains.     DOOKU:  (NARRATION)I turned, slicing down the piled crates, cleaving the nerve disruptors in two.     We hear Dooku breathe hard for a few moments before extinguishing his lightsaber.     SIFO-DYAS: You feeling better now?     DOOKU: No. Not while scum like this still exists. This is what we should be doing, Sifo. Not meditating, safe within Temple walls. We should be out here, restoring balance by whatever means possible.     LENE: (WARNING) Dooku.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) It was as though she feared I would turn my ire upon her. Perhaps I would have, blinded by emotions I could barely control, emotions she had stirred by bringing me to Asusto. But I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to. None of us could. The moss Sifo-Dyas had first noticed had been slowly creeping into the glade, smothering the Abyssin’s corpses, rolling over our boots… [....]     DOOKU: (NARRATION)I could barely hear Lene screaming at me to stop, couldn’t even hear the squelch of the moss as it traveled up my legs and over my back, drawing me into a cocoon.My head was ablaze with voices, ghosts of the past and echoes of the future.     The ghostly voices assault him again, repeating, overlapping, becoming a cacophony.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (JENZA) Brother.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (YODA) Padawan.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (ARATH) Idiot.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (ANYA) Son.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (GORA) Freak.     GHOSTLY VOICE: (SAVAGE) Master.     DOOKU: (STRAINED) Stop them!     LENE: (PAINED) Padawans…this is an illusion…the dark side…     DOOKU: You can hear them, too?     SIFO-DYAS: The Force is with me. The Force is with me. (SIFO-DYAS REPEATS THIS OVER AND OVER AS A MANTRA, ADDING TO THE CACOPHONY.)     DOOKU: Lene. I can’t block them out. Help me.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (JENZA) Help him.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (YODA) Help him.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (ARATH) Help him.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (ANYA) Help him.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (GORA) Help him.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (SIDIOUS) Help yourself.     DOOKU: Lene! I can’t block them out.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) But Lene was gone, consumed by the moss. Sifo-Dyas, too, was swallowed up, the moss pouring into his eyes, into his mouth. My lightsaber was sucked from my hands, the lichen numbing my skin. I thrashed and twisted, trying to free myself, but there was no escape…     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (JENZA) No escape.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (ARATH) No escape.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (YODA) Escape.     OVERLAPPING GHOSTLY VOICE: (GORA) No escape.     DOOKU: (CHOKING) Help me. Somebody, please. Help—(GAGS AS HE’S SMOTHERED)     The moss squelches.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t even breathe. I was completely cocooned, consciousness slipping away… [....]     Dooku’s scream dies in his throat like a man waking from a nightmare. He breathes hard as he finds himself back in the cavern. All is quiet. The chanting has stopped. Only a few of the torches are still burning, the others having gone out.Force lightning crackles over the rocks.     LENE: (COMING AROUND) Dooku? How did we get down?     DOOKU: (SHAKEN) I don’t know.     She pushes herself up.     LENE: (DISGUSTED) What’s that smell?     DOOKU: (NOT SHOCKED) The Presagers.     LENE: They’re…They’ve been burned to a crisp. But how…?     Dooku turns.     DOOKU: (SCARED) Master…I…     LENE: Dooku. Your hands.     DOOKU: (NARRATION) I looked down at the indigo light crackling around my fingers… [....]     DOOKU: But…what are we going to tell Master Yoda?     LENE: Nothing.     DOOKU: But this isn’t like Mantero. The things we saw. (ASHAMED) The things we did.     LENE: Dooku, listen to me. Yoda already has doubts about my work. He tolerates what I do, but if he found out I exposed two Padawans to the dark side…     DOOKU: He’d shut you down.     LENE: In an instant. This has to be our secret. Do you understand?     DOOKU: It doesn’t feel right. He’s my Master.     LENE: And it pains me to ask you, Dooku. But the work is too important, to the Order, to the galaxy as a whole. You see that, don’t you? Especially now. You’ve seen the dark side. You know what it’s capable of.     DOOKU: What I’m capable of, you mean.     LENE: No. No, I don’t. The visions. (DROPS HER VOICE) The lightning. That wasn’t you. It was that place. But you’re stronger.     DOOKU:“The Force is strong.”     LENE:“The Force is strong.” Don’t worry. Please. The future you saw, whatever it was, won’t come to pass. I can guarantee it. You’re a good man, Dooku. A good man.

Sifo-Dyas’ exposure to all of this causes him terrible damage:

    BRAYLON: While I cannot get involved, I have a friend who doesn’t give a damn what the Council thinks of her.     Footsteps approach.      LENE: Hello, Dooku.     DOOKU: Lene. Sifo-Dyas.     When he speaks, we realize that Sifo-Dyas has developed a slight stutter.     SIFO-DYAS: Your shuttle awaits. [....]      RAMIL: Increase the voltage!     The shocks intensify, as does Dooku’s resolve.     DOOKU: I am Jedi! And I am not alone!     The action moves back down to the ground…     JENZA: (NARRATION) Below, on the ground, Dooku’s blade buzzed in my ear, while Sifo-Dyas writhed on the ground beside me, his mind aflame…     SIFO-DYAS: It is now. Coming into focus. The future.     And then, belowground, the Tirra’Taka howling.     JENZA: (NARRATION) And beneath our feet, Lene struggled to hold Dooku’s beast in place.     LENE:No. You must remain calm.     JENZA: (NARRATION) For that was exactly what it had become. One mind.     LENE:(HORRIFIED) No.     JENZA: (NARRATION)Two bodies.     LENE: Dooku! Don’t!     The Tirra’Taka roars, louder than ever. [....]     Deep below, the Tirra’Taka erupts into the air, bellowing.     JENZA: (NARRATION) The creature burst from the shattered ground, scaled wings blocking out the sun. Sifo-Dyas laughed as he saw it, his sanity fracturing forever, as the droids looked up in confusion. But I knew what it was, a legend made terrifying flesh. Our savior. I sprang up, barging into the droid that held Dooku’s lightsaber, knocking it back.     JENZA: (SHOUTING) Attack them! Now!     JENZA: (NARRATION) The refugees snatched up the weapons we had stolen from the fleeing Abyssin, blasting the droids before they could regroup.     We hear the sounds of battle, and the roar of the monster.     SECURITY DROID: Attack the creature! Attack the—     Force lightning swamps the droid before it can finish its sentence.     JENZA: Energy burst from the Tirra’Taka’s maw, washing over the security droids. The monster swept down, snatching the melting droids from the ground, crushing their bodies between its hooked talons like magella nuts.A figure clung to its serpentine tail, fingers curled around obsidian scales. She jumped when she saw Sifo-Dyas curled in a ball in the dirt.

#count dooku #lene kostana #yoda #sifo dyas #jedi order #jedi #dark side #meta #novels #long post under read more

[plus-ultra-oneshots]

World War Dodgeball {BakugouXMale!Reader}

World War Dodgeball

BakugouXMale!Reader Oneshot

"There is nothing normal about it."

.:+:.

"Quiet down and listen up." Mr. Aizawa muttered lowly, the usual unkempt mess of a man standing before the assembled class that had, previously- been talking amongst themselves without ever realizing their Homeroom Teacher had made a reappearance. The conversation and whatnot died in instant obedient silence, everyone snapping to attention and turning toward the Erasure Hero, who grumbled at the 6 seconds too long that it took to gain their full attention- but he let it be.

Your eyes moved passed everyone else and to the front- all of you in your gym uniforms and (of course) in one of the gyms the school owned. However this gym in particular was stacked, the floor rising up in several places and sunken in in others. There were also raised bits of wall that were freestanding, some tall and short, and beams and places for cover and higher ground... Some of the walls had weird little gates in them that were closed, and several placed along the floors too......huh...

Knowing Mr. Aizawa, he had planned something exhausting and maybe even a bit unorthodox to put the class through... Or maybe it was less him personally, than it was all of the 'exercises' were just par for the course of the Hero Academia.

"Today you will be playing Dodgeball." Mr. Aizawa said simply, the class as a whole seemed to stiffen in surprise.

"Dodgeball...?!" Several people hissed under their breaths,

"I haven't played that in a long time, ribbit." Asui murmured aloud,

"That's so normal!" Kaminari trilled almost instantly with Mina saying near the same thing. You couldn't help but agree- but the strange layout gave you pause, as it did a few of your classmates.

"There is nothing normal about it." Mr. Aizawa muttered dryly, cutting off the sudden chatter that started. "You will all be split into two teams. The objective is the same as it normally would be- hit the members of the rival team out by sending the balls toward them. Any contact with a ball sent toward you by another student, without catching it- will get you disqualified. Both teams have full range of the entire gym. There's no boundaries you need to stay in, use the space in full and to any advantage you can." Mr. Aizawa continued, "In order to disqualify someone, you must 'throw' the ball- either by actually throwing them, kicking them, whatever way you want as long as it leaves you and hits them. There is no 'tagging' someone at close range. You can use your Quirks as you see fit." The older man grumbled, "The game continues on until all members of one team are hit out- or otherwise you all become too exhausted to continue." His hand shifted from his pocket, pulling out a small remote as he clicked one of the buttons on it- and there was a mechanical buzz that echoed over the whole gym. "You will also be disqualified if you get hit by any of the automated machines hidden all around the area."

You tensed as one of the many little gates in the walls and the floors suddenly popped open behind Mr. Aizawa and a red ball shot from it and toward the whole class at breakneck speed. The people in front of you scrambled out of the ball's path, flinching backwards and parting like the Red Sea before you as you stood there, seeing the coconut-sized red bullet inching ever closer by the nanosecond.

So that's what those Gates are for

Your hand shot up from being in your pocket, a resounding SMACK echoing over the gym as the smooth plastic surface made contact with the skin of your palm with so much force a painful jolt ran through your bones. You grumbled under your breath, aware that Hagakure behind you let out a relieved sigh- probably thankful you had caught the ball instead of stepping aside like everyone else and leaving her to potentially get nailed with it instead.

"Nice catch, (Y/N)!" Mina chirped brightly, you lowered your hand and the ball with it.

"I try." You smiled coolly,

"Tch, like it was hard." Came the low grumble from Class 1-A's resident hothead, and your eye twitched slightly though you didn't deign to glance his way. Your grip around the ball tightened as you kept up a small smile, and pretended you didn't hear him say a thing.

Because lord knows, once you said something, he'd say something snarky back, and then both you and Bakugou would end up at each others throats, that's how it always ended up. And you usually couldn't give a damn if you were fighting- you fell into the conflict as quickly as Bakugou did- but right now you stopped yourself. If you two went at it right in that instant it would only piss off Mr. Aizawa... And besides-

We're about to be in the middle of a dodgeball game more aimed like a warzone. I'll just kick his ass, like I'm expected to be doing so for the assignment.

"Give him a break, man." Kirishima sighed in exasperation toward Bakugou, who scowled. "You guys are always bashing on eachother over just about everything, and then you go back to being cool with eachother out of nowhere- why fight at all?"

"Shut it Shitty-Hair, it's none of your damn business." Bakugou snapped lowly, "And all you idiots are losing your minds for nothing, I'm gonna show every one of you losers who you should be paying attention to." His palms slammed together in a flurry of booming little explosions flicking from his skin and sending up smoke.

"... So it's just you two trying to one up each other over everything, huh...?" Kirishima sighed, though Bakugou never heard him say anything.

"Rivalry among comrades." Tokoyami murmured quietly,

"I'm gonna wipe the floor with all of you. You'll be dust by the end of this." Bakugou growled, both you and him oblivious to Kirishima and Tokoyami saying anything.

"You do know we're gonna be on teams right?" Jiro sighed,

"Why the hell do I care?! If any of you get in my way I'll blow you to kingdom come!" He snapped back hotly, temper flaring in no time at all. People all around either sighed, or shook their heads at him. You just stood there with your jaw clenched, biting down on your tongue to keep yourself from saying anything.

"I've never lost a game of Dodgeball in my life. This is my playing field, the rest of you idiots don't stand a chance."

You failed to keep your mouth shut this time around, and you were saying something before you could remind yourself not to.

"Oh really?" You smirked wryly, shooting Bakugou a sideways glance and your tone nothing but taunting. " 'Your' playing field, huh? You so sure about that?" You saw the vein tick on Bakugou's forehead right on cue as you casually tossed the ball in your hand up into the air and caught it again. "Never losing a Dodgeball game in middle school doesn't mean much nowadays, and especially not here."

"Oh yeah?! You think any of you idiots is gonna be challenge for me?!" He snapped back, you smirked.

"Yeah, and you're looking at him." You replied with ease,

"The hell you are!" he roared, you chuckled and it pissed him off even further. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHING FOR, ASSHOLE-?!"

"Enough!" Mr. Aizawa interjected coldly, scowling as his Capturing Device shot forward and latched around Bakugou and his mouth- silencing the blonde who struggled against the bonds instantly. "Save it for the exercise. Everyone come and draw a lot for which team you'll be placed on."

You shot the still gagged Bakugou a sly smirk as you stepped forward to grab a slot from the box of ribbons Mr. Aizawa had gestured to. There was a fair amount of muffled cursing around the Capturing Device that never formed full words when Bakugou caught the look you gave him- oh it was so easy to set him off.

"Heh~" you scoffed lightly, looking away from him again and hearing the muffled cursing grow louder and more angry. You ignored all of it, easily pulling a ribbon out of the box- it was blue in color, which contrasted against the other team color of red.

"We're on the same team!" Mina grinned, the girl practically bouncing up to you as you knotted the ribbon around you wrist like everyone else had.

"Hell yeah!" Kamimari smirked, "We've got in this in the bag with you on our team (Y/N)!"

"Yeah, your Quirk will be easy to use as an advantage for this game." Midoriya smiled, the green-haired boy appearing on your shoulder with Asui in tow. "Kacchan can get a lot of power and speed behind his throws, but you can do that and keep a better track of dodging incoming balls too. Plus your aim will be a lot more accurate than his, and pretty much everyone else's!"

"Oh yeah~" you smirked, casting a glance over your shoulder just in time to see Mr. Aizawa tie the last available ribbon into the blonde and bound boy's hair- it was red.

"Hehe, Bakugou isn't gonna know what hit him." You hummed, eyes gleaming as the members of your team around you smiled a bit- enthused to have you on their team, of course- their chances of winning seemed higher with you around. But some of them looked a bit exasperated anyway, because you and Bakugou were on opposite teams, and if history of habit proved constant, this Dodgeball game was about to become a battlezone between the two of you.

Team Red:

-Katsuki Bakugou

-Ejiro Kirishima

-Ochaco Ururaka

-Tenya Iida

-Toru Hagakure

-Minoru Mineta

-Kyoka Jiro

-Mezo Shoji

-Hanto Sero

-Momo Yaoyorozu

-Fumikage Tokoyami

---

Team Blue:

-(Y/N)

-Mina Ashido

"Oh man they got (Y/N) and Todoroki!" Hagakure whined,

"Yeah but we got Tokoyami." Sero told her,

"Bakugou too." Kirishima grinned,

"And we also have more people than they do." Jiro murmured, her finger twining around one of her Earphone Jacks absentmindedly. That was a common enough theme though, given the odd number of 21 students in the class.

Both teams split apart slightly, and Mr. Aizawa let Bakugou go so he could walk away and distance himself a bit.

"Come on guys, we got this!" Kaminari grinned ahead of you, shifting into a battle stance as everyone else on Team Blue did the same. You smiled, completely at ease as you kept hold of that ball that you'd caught earlier and continued to toss it up and down leisurely.

"I'm gonna destroy all of you." Bakugou growled darkly, his still furious stare landing on you.

"Take it easy on everyone will you? We're not in a full on battle-" Kirishima attempted to calm Bakugou down a bit, even though he knew well it wouldn't work.

"That's where you're wrong, Shitty-Hair." Bakugou growled, red eyes flashing as he caught yours- the air shook with the series of explosions popping off his arms and shoulders. You simply held the glare, tossing the ball in your hand up one more time, and it never came back down.

"This is war."

How very right you are

"This is an exercise in teamwork, precision- and most of all, maneuverability." Mr. Aizawa muttered dryly as he took up his post on the sidelines. "Begin." His hand moved, clicking another button on the remote as a storm of red balls fell from a container suspended overhead.

Everyone in the gym stiffened, preparing themselves to dash out and grab one as they got closer to the floor- others already jumping to grab one and get ahead of the game. Sound of a cannon firing gave indication for the dodgeball that Yaoyorozu had made even before the rest were released, and Kaminari barely missed getting hit. You watched Bakugou launch himself upward off the floor, the air shaking in his quake as he moved up among the rain of red balls, and set to work in an instant.

"DIE!"

There was a line of orange red heat and smoke that swept out overhead, the wave of pure force and explosive power ramming into the group of dodgeballs and sending them hurtling downward like bullet-rain. Team Blue stiffened, eyes wide and jaws dropping as they struggled to get out of the way. Todoroki erected a wall of ice that blocked himself from getting hit, and Midoriya only managed to avoid getting pummeled by dodging in and out of the balls at top speed, his body covered in flickering green. Asui and Ojiro were good in terms of agility, so they had little trouble getting out of the way of the attacks- no surprise there. But in the span of five seconds, Kaminari, Mina and Kouda all get hammered by a multitude of red balls and were disqualified before the game ever really started. They hit the floor from the force of being hit, groaning under the impact and the failure right out of the gate.

"Kaminari, Ashido, Kouda- Disqualified." A mechanical voice came over the speakers in the gym.

"Damn it..." Kaminari mumbled,

"That really hurt..!" Mina whined, Kouda looked on the verge of tears.

You on the other hand sighed, your other hand finally leaving your pocket as you swept them upward- palms open and fingers curling slightly as the number of balls falling fast toward you either suddenly veered around you, or halted altogether and became suspended in air. Your eyes snapped left, your hand following suit as you gestured toward Aoyoma and Sato both, your Quirk flaring and your hair shifting slightly in an invisible breeze as you saved them getting hit out by the balls they didn't manage to dodge themselves. You felt a small prickle of pain flash through your temple- you had about fifteen different dodgeballs suspended under the will of your Quirk and your mind, and light as they were, they'd been moving fast (thanks to Bakugou) and stopping them full like that wasn't as easy as you made it look.

Speaking of Quirks, yours was as simple as they came, but no less useful. 'Telekinesis'- the ability to move objects with one's mind, and for you that meant objects and people. How well you could move something, and how many depended on how heavy they were and how much momentum an object had when you grabbed it- fast moving objects were easier to alter the path of, instead of stopping it dead. And heavy objects were hard to do anything with, and get too many for your head to keep track of, the less control you had over each individual thing. And distance between you and an object, of course, that always had an affect on how well you could manipulate something.

"Thanks for the save, man." Sato called,

"Merci, monsieur~" Aoyoma called, winking at you. You nodded at both of them and shot the three who'd been disqualified an apologetic smile,

"Sorry you guys."

"It's fine..." Mina and Kaminari mumbled, Kouda simply sighed.

Your attention moved from them and toward where Bakugou was, the apology in your smile wiped away as your lips pulled in a smirk, and you swept both hands forward. Every single dodgeball you had under your control launched forward at breakneck speed- ten of them reserved for Bakugou alone while the others went for Hagakure (or at least where you guessed she was...), Mineta, Sero, Shoji and Jiro. It was little a surprise that those latter few all managed to dodge them, you weren't really focused on them to start with, and you didn't pause either.

There were red balls being thrown and shot out in every direction, the 'game' going into full swing around you and the automated gates activating as the class split apart and started moving about the whole area. People jumped in and out of cover and between thrown projectiles- scooping up abandoned balls and doing their best to hit someone on the other team out. A quick throw of a ball via Asui's tongue sent the ball slamming into Mineta's stomach hard enough to knock him over.

"Mineta- Disqualified."

You flicked your wrist and diverted the path of a ball sent out from the wall, your attention still locked on to Bakugou as he easily blew the ten dodgeballs you had launched toward him into smithereens.

"YOU REALLY THINK YOU'RE GONNA BE A CHALLENGE FOR ME?!" Bakugou roared at you, his foot slamming into a ball and launching it toward you. You spun out of the way and sent a few more out toward him, each ball arching in all different directions and coming from all sides toward him.

"Of course, I'm the King of Dodgeball!" You shot back with ease, "I'm gonna pummel you into the ground, 'Lord' Explodo-Kills!" His jaw clenched hard enough to crack teeth and a vein ticked on his forehead with a fervor. "Lords always bow to Kings!"

"IT'S KING EXPLODO-KILLS YOU ASSHOLE!"

There was something akin to a nuclear detonation that went off where Bakugou had been standing on a higher slab of floor than where you were. A massive cloud of smoke and orange rose up, dazzling you slightly- your mental hold on all of those dodgeballs you'd sent his way dissipated as they were reduced to ash.

It's just too easy to set him off

You smirked though, because as much as he could irk you- you generally enjoyed messing with him, and handling his (overzealous) anger wasn't something you were shy of. You could handle his anger issues and his potty-mouth. And the competitive side of you genuinely enjoyed the rivalry and butting heads, even if the competition was about something small. But right now the competition was real and it wasn't trivial either- you two were set up to be pitted against one another by the exercise, and you both fell into the role of rivals with ease. And in many ways, both you and Bakugou jumped in head first because you both wanted the competition. You both enjoyed it, deep down, and even if neither of you would never admit it out loud.

Bakugou didn't really seem to like other people, and you really doubted he truly liked anyone in this class (or even the school), let alone you- but despite that he did tolerate you pissing him off to some extent. You figured if he actually hated you, he'd have made it pretty clear by now and probably would have clocked you in the face with the intent of true harm... And don't misunderstand- he'd certainly punched you before, and hard- but it hadn't been outrightly malicious. You'd pissed him off, as he had you, so you two had your bout of exchanging fists, and you both stewed about it for awhile- but then the next day it was like it hadn't happened. There was no grudge, or lasting anger about it, and even if you two got into another fight, it was about something else entirely.

You let out a breath, eyes narrowing as you caught sight of the shadow that was Katsuki Bakugou coming out of the cloud and toward you, your hand waved to bring a few more dodgeballs up from behind you. He was getting close so he could throw something at you and give you less time to dodge, and less a window to Telekinetically curve the ball out of the way or simply stop it. After the amount of times you two had gone at it from the start, he had quickly figured out you lacked a bit in the close-combat category.

So you backed off again, thrusting a multitude of dodgeballs forward toward the blonde in the same instant you jumped to a lower platform and kept a good distance between you. A red blur swept passed your face by about two inches, the plastic of the ball melting from the heat in the hand that had thrown it- the ball popped as it hit the wall, and fell to the floor in a heap.

"Hagakure- Disqualified." the mechanical voice continued to announce,

You noticed Sero ducking around a corner ahead of you to avoid Asui, and with a flick of your hand, a dodgeball zoomed through air and around the corner he was behind in a 90 degree angle. There was a satisfying SMACK as the ball made contact and Sero groaned.

"Sero- Disqualified."

You heard the sound of a high-pressure blast of air that came with one of those gates hidden everywhere shooting off a dodgeball again. It was a sound that came about every thirty seconds from somewhere in the gym, giving life to the constant stream of dodgeballs flying through air in no particular direction- but frequent, fast and spread out enough anyone would get hit by one if they weren't careful.

"Jiro- Disqualified."

You couldn't see her, so you hadn't a clue how she got hit out- and it hardly mattered, Bakugou was still pursuing you even after you broke away for a few seconds to throw something at Sero.

"COME BACK HERE AND FACE ME YOU LITTLE-!" Bakugou roared, only for the last portion to get cut off by the overhead.

"Ururaka- Disqualified."

"Looks like my team is winning!" You called loudly, spinning around toward the blonde and sending off an array of dodgeballs toward him. He dodged the bulk of them and rolled, grabbing up three more balls in the small frame between being on the floor and getting to his feet again. You had to break your eyeline on him for a few seconds as you ducked under a ball coming toward you from behind,

"YOU LOSERS AIN'T WINNING A DAMN THING!"

You looked up again to find Bakugou wasn't aiming those dodgeballs he'd scooped up at you- his sights had turned back to the rest of the class and you blinked. All three dodgeballs were thrown in quick succession, and at about a hundred miles an hour toward Midoriya, Todoroki and Ojiro. You tried to mentally grab the balls before they hit their targets- but you were at too far a distance and they were going way too fast.

Damn it-

"Watch it!" You warned, but it was way too late. Midoriya got slammed in the face by the speeding projectile so hard he fell flat on his back, and Ojiro wasn't much better off as he got slammed into a wall. Todoroki tried to place an ice wall between himself and the incoming dodgeball- but wasn't quick enough to reinforce it, and the ice shattered as the ball went straight through and slammed the half-and-half boy in the gut.

-Ouch...

"Midoriya, Ojiro, Todoroki- Disqualified."

"Nice going Bakugou!" Kirishima called, wearing a toothy grin as Bakugou huffed as his only reply.

Your eyes trailed out over your surroundings- both the people and the dodgeballs littered across the floor and currently being unused- about 25 or so. You could see Asui jumping around here and there, keeping well out of the way of what was being thrown at her by the other team- mostly by Shoji and Tokoyami (or rather, Dark Shadow).

You growled a little, shooting Bakugou a look as he dodged out of the way of another machine thrown ball, for the moment still not paying attention to you.

Your fingers twitched, ignoring the small pickle of pain in both temples and behind your eyes as your reach extended out over the area in a good fifty foot radius around you. You pulled up the spare dodgeballs, fighting with gravity to lift them up and keep them in line as you simultaneously halted the few launched at you from the hidden machines close enough to be an issue.

"It's not gonna be that easy, Bakugou." You muttered under your breath, panting slightly as you brought up about 45ish different dodgeballs all at once. Relatively light as they were, that was still a lot for the range of your Quirk, and the prickle of pain in the side of your head sharpened a bit and then became something like a throb... you'd probably have a headache by the end of this.

Worth it though, if this works out-

You smirked, your eyes flashing as you lift your arms up on either side of you and the mass of spherical red all around rose in tandem. By now your actions were gaining attention, and you saw Team Red's eyes widen as their heads tilted upward.

"You're not the only one who can hit out a bunch of people all at once." You huffed, casting a sly smirk at Bakugou, who smiled wryly, tensing as his eyes glittered.

"Give it your best shot, loser." He challenged lowly, his palms sparking and smoking. Your arms swept out and down in one fluid motion, your fingers moving and twitching almost like you were playing on a keyboard. The dodgeballs rushed forward, spinning in and out of each other and making unnatural angles and paths in air as they raced out toward who was left of Team Red. Between the wave of projectiles you sent forward at impeccable speed- and the other various ones sent out by Asui, Sato, Aoyoma and the machines all- there was suddenly not near a foot of space for the other students to really move in without getting hit by something.

Momo attempted to ward off the attack with a shield, but with a flick of your wrist you sent several of the balls around and easily evading her attempts to block. They bounced roughly against her back and back to the floor in the same instant the overhead announced her disqualification. Dark Shadow was warding off your attacks efficiently as Tokoyami moved himself around- but they were both too distracted by your actions go take note of Asui. With a snap of her tongue she sent a ball hurtling at Tokoyami from above, and it made easy contact on the back of his arm.

"Tokoyami- Disqualified."

Bakugou naturally sent off an array of explosions all around him to avoid being hit by your attack, and you left him to do just that as you focused more of your attention on taking Iida out for the time being. Iida was zooming about the whole of the gym and had been evading everything with ease- mobility and speed were his two strengths, so like you- this game had played well with his skills. And you had already figured that, and knowing you couldn't possibly make the balls move any faster or even as fast as the Class President, you decided boxing him in on all sides was the best plan. The balls bore down upon Iida with a fervor, your fingers working away and mind too as you clustered them all together and surrounded the Class Pres, and then he had no way out.

"Iida- Disqualified."

Hell yeah

You rounded on Kirishima next, your hands swiping forward and coming down on him with the last of what dodgeballs you had picked up, and a few more added to the mix. They made contact with his body a bit more roughly than was needed maybe, but disqualifying a large portion of the other team was the aim.

"Kirishima- Disqualified."

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SOME BIGSHOT CAUSE YOU KNOCKED OUT ALL THOSE WEAKLINGS, HUH?!"

Bakugou gave you no time at all to move your attention back toward him before he was upon you again, and you barely managed to roll out of the way of the ball he threw at you so hard the pavement shattered under the impact and the ball popped, loudly.

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOCK THEM OUT ALL ON YOUR OWN! FROG-GIRL TOOK OUT THE BIRD!"

You rolled backward over the ground, your hand grabbing hold of a spare ball and using it as a guard against the next ball he threw at you- the force of the two connecting sent you stumbling backward, but you weren't out yet.

"This is also an exercise in teamwork, remember?" You puffed, smirking despite being pushed back rather violently now. You jumped to a lower platform and picked up what dodgeballs near to you that you could. You heard the heavy sound of his feet not far behind you, so you whirled around and your hands went with you, one altering the path of a ball incoming fast, and your other hand directed several balls out toward Bakugou in all directions, attempting to catch him off guard... somewhere.

As much as you might hesitate to admit it, it had become clear that Bakugou was incredibly good at just about everything. That included fighting and dodging and school.... teamwork not so much, but that mattered little when the Team Dodgeball turned to a more one-on-one between the two of you.

"SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCUSE TO ME!"

"Oh, we are extra annoyed today huh?" You chuckled, "Is there anything I can do, my 'Lord'?" you quipped, your voice dripping with teasing and the jibe. You didn't think his face could go anymore red, and your ears rung with the sheer loudness of the explosions he set off around him in his anger with the comment.

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"

A waft of heat rushed upward and against your face, the dodgeballs that were still airborn got knocked backward by a wave of force and those on the floor near the raging blonde got melted. You backed off again and pushed yourself up onto a higher platform, vaulting over a low wall and then up higher still, your eyes glittering as you smiled toward the still red-faced boy behind you.

"Hehe, then who would you compete with, if I was dead?" You called easily, your fingers twitching at your sides as you pulled more ammunition toward you. Bakugou didn't garner a proper reply, he just let out an agitated yell and started throwing balls at you left and right- each one set off with a small blast formed from the palms of his hands. You could imagine the thoughts in his head as he threw each one being something like;

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

Any sense of the other students still in the game or their whereabouts around the gym got lost entirely as you and Bakugou went at it harder and harder. You were both dodging around and over walls and across the stacked floor, throwing dodgeballs at one another at insane speeds. Bakugou was making a complete mess of the gym- the walls, the floors, the roof even- and you probably weren't helping much either, because you were egging him on.

"Getting a little slow, Bakugou?" You called,

"SHUT UP, YOU'RE THE SLOW ONE LOSER!"

"I dunno, you haven't managed to hit me yet~"

"YOU HAVEN'T HIT ME YET EITHER YOU IDIOT!"

You grimaced, your smirk failing you as you barely managed to step out of the way of the next ball he threw at you. It passed nearly a centimeter passed your nose, and so close you smelled the burning plastic.

You were getting slower, though. You were panting and the more you used your Quirk to guard yourself and throw things, the more strained you were getting. And with it, your head was throbbing pretty badly, and you were relying less on your Quirk and more on your hands to throw things... somewhere along the line you lost track of how long the game had been going on and you were sure Bakugou had too. And even Bakugou was getting tired, you could see it in the way he was panting and the way his arms were shaking- his skin bruising slowly but surely around his hands and along his arms from extended use of his Quirk.

Another close call after what felt like years of moving and dodging, and you stumbled a bit, barely missing the next throw and grumbling as you stepped backwards and off the platform you were on without meaning to. You met thin air and lost your balance, tumbling down to the lower floor and groaning as your back slammed against the ground.

Owww...

You lost sight of Bakugou for a few seconds, coughing as the breath got driven from you with the impact, stunned. You stayed that way only for about three seconds, before you gritted your teeth and pushed yourself back on to your feet. You felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up in the same instant your heart skipped a beat, instantly aware of the shadow that cast down upon you from overhead.

C-Crap...!

"YOU'RE MINE NOW!"

You jumped backwards as hard as you could, your mind reaching out for something to throw in retaliation as you locked gazes with Bakugou in the instant he jumped from the platform you had just fallen from and into air. His arm was behind him, dodgeball in hand and it swung forward in the same second you swept your arm out toward him.

"Not a chance!" You retorted out of instinct, the sharp pain in your temple growing sharper as you willed the one ball you had grabbed hold of to travel forward at a speed you scarcely believed you could move anything.

BAM

Pain seared through your body, originating from your nose as you heard a sickening crunch and snapping sound soon after the ball Bakugou had thrown made direct contact with your face. You lost your footing and fell flat on your back, your hands moving to hold your now bloody nose and jaw clenched against the pain.

In the same instant you got hit though, the ball you threw smashed against Bakugou's jaw and sent him falling backward to hit the ground with an audible thud. The both of you lay on the floor, winded and stunned in Bakugou's case- he hadn't seen you throw anything, and you were too busy trying not to moan you didn't notice him laying there.

"Bakugou, (Y/N)- Disqualified."

Oww, owwww...! That freakin' hurt...!

You pushed yourself up slowly, sitting cross-legged and holding your nose with both hands as your shoulders hunched, eyes scrunched closed against the pain for a few seconds before you shot Bakugou a look. He was laying on his back still, staring up at the roof and quiet, and you huffed.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure ya just broke my freakin' nose." You mumbled around your hands, you saw him stiffen slightly and pick himself back up, his hands propping himself up behind him as he glanced toward you, expression neutral. Your eyes noticed the already dark, and darkening bruise stretching up along his jaw and cheek where you had hit him- but you ignored it for now.

"You could have pulled up a little, ya could have taken my head off with how hard you threw that thing."

"Tch, don't complain." He huffed, "A broken nose'll be an improvement for that ugly face of yours." You blinked, eye twitching as your teeth gritted a bit.

"Don't be an ass, you're just pissed I hit you first." You shot back lowly, his face twisted.

"Like hell you did!" He snapped,

"Oh I definitely did."

"Not a chance!!"

"Actually you two tied, ribbit."

Both you and Bakugou glanced to the side and to the new voice, seeing Asui drop down onto the floor with the two of you and the rest of the class not far behind.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Bakugou snapped hotly, Asui simply nodded.

"You two have been going at it by yourselves for awhile now, everyone else was just waiting to see who would win." She explained, "But both of the balls you threw made contact at the same time, so you got Disqualified at the same time too. It was a tie."

"THAT'S BULL-!"

"But that's how it is. Don't complain." Mr. Aizawa muttered lowly, interjecting and repeating his earlier action of gagging Bakugou with his Capturing Device- but this time binding the boy from moving for good measure too. Your teacher sighed, keeping one hand on one end of the Device and stopping at your side, exasperated as he took in the state of you, and the blood covering your hands and face. "Go to Recovery Girl and get yourself cleaned up." The Erasure Hero instructed flatly,

"Okay." You mumbled, grumbling as you removed one hand from holding your still bleeding nose and pushed yourself off the floor.

"Are you okay?" Asui asked, you smiled.

"Yeah, no worries." You assured lightly,

"Man, you and Bakugou were going at it like super hard!" Kirishima beamed,

"The whole fight was so intense! I felt like we were watching a professional event!" Kaminari grinned, the whole class looked somewhere between enthused, or exasperated.

"It was only a game you two, you didn't need to be so rough." Yaoyorozu sighed, there was some muffled yell from Bakugou but you simply shrugged again.

"Probably, but oh well." You chuckled, wincing soon after when it jostled some broken thing in your nose. "Glad you enjoyed the show, but I'm gonna go and see Recovery Girl."

"Good idea~"

"We'll see you later, (Y/N)!"

You waved a hand over your shoulder and headed out of the gym, casting a last glance over your shoulder to see Bakugou looking disgruntled as Kirihsima bent down by the blonde and told him something you didn't catch.

We tied, huh...? Guess that's better than losing...

You glanced ahead again and sighed, shaking your head at yourself and not being able to help the small smirk that passed across your lips.

... hehe... it was fun though, I haven't gone that hard in a game in a long time... totally worth a broken nose and a headache...Oooh, Lord Explodo-Kills is gonna be sore about that tie for awhile...!

.:+:.

"Alright Deary, you're all fixed up now! Do take it easy for the rest of the day, and get a good night's rest!"

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

"My pleasure."

You let out a weary sigh as you adjusted the tie to your school uniform. Tou'd changed into it after Recovery Girl had done her thing and fixed your very much broken nose. And after wiping off the muck and the blood, you'd done away with the gym clothes and cleaned up before you headed back to class, which was now. There had been some unpleasantness of popping the bone in your nose back into place before the Old Lady actually used her Quirk, and now the bone itself was fixed and the bruises faded, but there was a bandage stuck across the bridge of your nose regardless. But other than that, and the invisible, yet persistent throb of a headache, the bandage was the only outward reminder of what had gone on in the gym.

You made your way down the hallways and passed windows that were letting in orange light from the setting sun, your shadow following you on your right as you placed your hands in your pants pockets. Your head tilted back as you took in a deep breath and your eyes dropped closed, your steps slow and soft and not rushing to be anywhere. School was almost done for the day so you'd only be stopping by to check in with Mr. Aizawa before heading home.

Your shoulders sagged, weariness dragging at your heels in accordance with how much energy you spent in what absolute war made up of dodgeball that had raged, and the effects of Recovery Girl's Quirk sapping your strength. You were probably gonna black out the minute your body hit your bed... You just hoped when you woke up this headache would be gone. You maybe might have overdone it with your Quirk today... oh well.

Fresh air hit your face as you moved out of the building and headed across the empty courtyard outside and toward the building opposite. The cool breeze ran across your skin and through your hair in a perfectly pleasant sensation that counteracted the throb in the base of your skull.

"Oi, loser."

Your head dropped back down as you blinked your eyes open, jumping in surprise when something got tossed at you out of nowhere. You struggled to lift your hands out of your pockets and catch the foreign object, blinking several times in question to find what had been tossed at you was a can of soda.

What the...?

"... what's with this?" You asked slowly, your eyes moving from the drink and toward the one responsible for tossing it your way, and probably the most unlikely of persons.

"You got the Old Lady to fix your face." Bakugou mumbled lowly, ignoring your question altogether as you paused.

"Of course. You did break my nose." You muttered dryly, he clicked his tongue.

"Tch, stop complaining about it, you sound like a whiny girl." He grumbled, you let out a silent breath. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked away from you, the sun washing across the bruising along his jaw- courtesy of you.

Your head tilted at him, brow quirking at the sudden silence, and the very unexpected... what do you even call it, a gift? And what was with stopping you out here? Shouldn't he be in class?

"Your face wouldn't have looked much different with or without a busted up nose." Bakugou muttered lowly, his eyes dropping closed as if he was refusing to look at you. "But I guess I was wrong, it looked worse the other way. You're lucky the Old Lady fixed it, otherwise you'd be even uglier than you are just all on your own." Your jaw clenched, a vein ticking on your forehead as your grip around the can tightened.

"Tch... are you trying to start another fight?" You muttered, before you smirked, coy and mocking as your eyes flashed and you fell right back into the side of you that is always trying to egg him on and irk him (as he was surely irking you right now...). You couldn't help yourself and you didn't even pause to do it, "Cause if you are, I can give you one-"

Bakugou glanced sideways at you and what small pause worked its way into your words at the end there, and they narrowed when the sly smirk appeared on your face.

"-my Lord."

Bakugou went stiff as a board, his expression contorting and face and ears turning bright red in the span of a single second after you said that- a joke, a tease, something to piss him off- and he looked pissed, but he also looked... holy shit.

He looks flustered.

FLUSTERED

Is he blushing...?!

Your jaw snapped shut, eyes wide and rigid in your place as he rounded on you, still so very scarlet in the face and his hands balled into fists at his sides.

"ITS KING YOU GOD DAMN- Y-YOU...!" He snapped hotly, his voice breaking as he failed to come up with a proper insult, and his stammering only seemed to piss him off further. You on the other hand just stood there, blinking several times over and smiling crookedly, nearly as flustered yourself- but more stunned than anything.

"UUUUUGHH! YOU'RE SUCH AN ASS!" Bakugou snapped, "QUIT SAYIN' SUCH STUPID SHIT, TAKE THE DRINK AND SHUT UP!" You blinked, your eyes narrowing and biting the inside of your cheek when the loudness of his voice made a sharp flash of pain run through your already aching head. Your crooked smile softened a bit as you let out a small sigh, crushing the urge to laugh- lest you piss him off further and give him more reason to yell.

He's totally flustered

He jammed his fists into his pockets and turned his back on you with a huff, still fuming as you twined your fingers around the can and let out a small breath.

Did his face get all red like that earlier in the middle of dodgeball because I said 'my Lord' then too? Because I know it annoyed him... but it seems like it embarrassed him too?

You tried your best not to smile in amusement, but your lips wouldn't listen and it was painful trying to keep them from moving. Your eyes traced the line of his shoulders and his back, before dropping to the can in your hands, tapping your fingers along the edge.

"... so what is this, a peace offering?" You asked lightly, holding up the can a bit as you tilted your head toward it. You saw him stiffen, shooting a glare over his shoulder and cheeks still flushed even as he scowled at you. "Maybe your way of apologizing to me for breaking my nose, huh Bakugou?"

"I already told you to shut up!" He snapped back, you hummed and shook your head slightly. "Quit making a big deal out of it and just drink the damn soda!" He rounded on you again, pointing an accusatory finger and his anger flaring as the flush in his cheeks finally died away. "And don't go thinking you won anything today, that 'tie' was complete bull! Next time I am gonna blow you to pieces!"

So defensive... Where did all this come from, hmm, Bakugou?

"Hehe, I'd like to see you try." You quipped with ease, he let out an aggravated growl. "Shouldn't you be in class though?"

"Tch, don't be stupid- Eraser walked off to go to sleep about half an hour ago, everyone else was just sitting around in class being loud and 'talking'." He muttered sourly, you quirked a brow.

"... So you avoided talking, just to come out here and talk to me instead?" You asked coolly, you saw a vein tick on his forehead.

"Quit making it sound weird!" he shot back hotly, you winced at the sudden increase in volume again, though your smile didn't go away.

Touchy, touchy... Though maybe I am sort of surprised

"What's weird about it? I'm better company than most of them anyway." You chuckled, he frowned at the words- but didn't argue, and though you didn't react outwardly- that surprised you too. He glanced away from you again, his shoulders hunching a bit as he grumbled lowly under his breath.

"... Grr... You're at least tolerable." He muttered, your eyes widened.

Such high praise!

"Hmm, I guess you're tolerable too- even if you're so damn violent, and loud." You murmured lightly, he stiffened at the words. "And thanks for the soda. Though maybe a bit unnecessary since, even though you broke my nose, I gave you a pretty nasty bruise there huh?" You hummed, gesturing toward said bruise. "I'd say we were pretty even-"

"If you don't want the damn soda, give it back!" He muttered roughly, cutting you off slightly as you smirked.

"Didn't say I didn't want it." Was your easy reply, and his eyes narrowed at you. "And I already said thank you, didn't I? Why would I give it back now?"

"Dunno, you can be pretty dumb." Was the flat answer, and the expected sort of reply too- but it maybe lacked a little bit of the fire it needed to be a true insult, or even his regular sort of insult. In fact this whole exchange was out of the norm- if turning bright red like that had been any indicator- and even now with that gone, he was being so evasive and refusing to meet your eyes... This was a Bakugou you hadn't seen before, and you weren't sure what to make of it, or what prompted it's appearance.

And in his own way, you were entirely convinced this whole soda thing, catching you alone, and even redacting what he'd said about a broken nose boosting your appearance- was all his way of trying to apologize to you. You couldn't imagine apologizing for anything came easy to that boy, and it certainly didn't now if that was his real aim. But his attempt at it was interesting, as well as amusing. And avoiding the risk of really setting him off you decided not to press it any farther and just continue on. You had the feeling he might appreciate moving to a different topic, and for once you didn't feel like arguing.

So, just like the two of you always did, you moved on and never held a grudge even after every little fight or argument. 'forget it ever happened'

... Well, maybe I won't try to forget this part happened. But I'll still keep it between us... Probably best, if I mention it he'll get so worked up he'll give himself an aneurysm.

You smiled at the thought and Bakugou shot you a small glare when he noticed, "What the hell are you smiling at?" He asked lowly, you shook your head.

"Nothing in particular." You replied with ease,

I suppose if I'm 'tolerable' that means he likes me just a tiny bit, huh? Even with us at each other's throats all the time.... Who'd have guessed?

You certainly hadn't- even if you hid it well, this was all very unexpected- but you managed a way to roll with it, and do so with much more tact and calm than Bakugou.

"Well, if Mr. Aizawa's ditched the rest of the day, no use heading back to class." You announced, "So I'm headed home, you heading out too?" Bakugou paused, letting out a low breath as he glanced away again and shrugged- bored almost, but more calm too.

"Might as well, I ain't got no reason to stay here." He muttered,

"Hehe, then let's go, yeah?" You asked, tilting your head in the direction of the main gate and starting that way before he ever answered. He seemed to falter at the question, his eyes narrowed to slits as you kept walking and cast a smirk over your shoulder, and the fact he had yet to move. "Who's slow now, Bakugou?"

He scowled, his temper easily inflamed again as he started stomping after you. "SHUT IT LOSER!"

"Well then hurry up." You replied, he reached your shoulder in little time and kept on at a brisk pace.

"Tch... you wanna walk with me, fine. You gotta keep up though, I ain't waitin' on you." He muttered indignantly, and you smirked, casting him a sideways glance. He was more or less refusing to look at you now, and you noticed, and found it even more amusing.

I totally hit a nerve with the 'my Lord' thing.... But a different sort of nerve than usual, huh? How odd....

You glanced ahead and nodded, easily matching his pace as the two of you headed out of UA.

"Of course~"

.:+:.

Not totally sure if the Reader is ever specifically referred to as male in this one, but that was the intent. >w<

Like and Comment if ya can, feedback is always appreciated. Thank you~

.:+:.

MasterList Right Here

#my hero imagines #my hero academia #my hero academia oneshot #oneshot #bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugo imagine #katsuki x y/n #bakugou oneshot

[swiftwind3]

Everything We Lost

ao3 link here

Ahem endgame who

So, Infinity War destroyed my crops, murdered my family and spat in my face. So, I tried relieving myself with this sadkdfkshs. I don’t read the comics so,,,beware you hardcore ultras.

Also disappointment about how no one's torn The Winter Soldier theme from CATWS apart FNAF style is ruining my life as well. Heavy dialogue (i think) and lots of hyphens lmaoo. Enjoy. and don’t plagiarize of course

Summary: Bucky wakes up in the Soul Stone.

Insp: Nothing Lasts by Taska Black ft. Pauline Herr

Back to the other end, when we fell down

We could not believe we would lose it all

Now the dreams are gone, and faith has drowned

Everything we lost and we never found

Everything we lost and we never found

Uh, Steve…?

Bucky had been expecting one of two things: either the scorching flames of punishment and retribution or the gentle white of warmth and peace, maybe even forgiveness. Definitely not orange. Definitely not a reflective, watery floor under a similarly hued sky that radiated a gnawing hunger and desolation. At least, that was the aura this realm gave off to him.

The sky was full of arriving ashes. They swirl and plummet, becoming people. So many people. So much noise.

The crowd swells around him, people flickering in and out of sight like glitching ghosts. Some cry while hugging themselves. Others stare at their limbs; Bucky having done the same once he stood up. Their cries and shouts drill into his head, and for a weird minute, he thought he was in Hell.

"Cassie, where—Cassie!"

"Darcy! Jane!"

"Bill? Bill, what's happened—where are you?"

"Harley?"

"Excuse me—"

Before he can start his own calls, he whirls to face an elderly woman.

Like him, she seems dazed, eyes wide and watery.

"I'm looking for my husband, I—"

He chokes on a scream. She dissolves into ash, his own being following suit.

There's no description for being pushed out of existence, but that's how he would word it.

Time freezes, and it was like he didn't have to breathe, he couldn't. He couldn't see, or hear, or feel and it felt bad. But how could he be sure of that if he couldn't feel at all? Yet, in a split second, it was seemingly…over. He stands, palpable as ever. He almost heaves over the poor woman, holding her slash leaning on her.

"My God," she wheezes. "What was that?"

"I'm…not sure. But, sorry about that," he shakes his head. "What, uh—does your husband look like?”

Stuttering, she catches her breath. Her eyes flick past him and widen. "Ava!"

A younger woman bursts through the crowd, spinning almost comically. "Yes? Bill?"

The elder woman raises her arm and the girl freezes, recognition steadying her face. "Van Dyne..."

The woman looks her over frantically. "Are you okay? Are you alright? Are you in any pain?"

"No, not exactly. What's happening?"

"I'm not...sure."

"Janet," an elderly man shoves through, held by a young woman. “Janet!”

"Mom?"

"Hank! Jellybean," she cries. Before bolting, she places a hand over Bucky's. "Found them. Thank you."

He tries his best to smile. "No problem."

Ducking his head, he tries to move away, eyeing the sky, the people.

Ashes clump and disassemble, and he remains silent, calling no one. He only stares as he pushes through the groups of people, tripping to a stop before he ran over a poor man as he plummeted just in front of him. Muttering a few 'excuse mes', the world seems to shift. Again, his being, along with everyone else, crumbles into ash. His lungs disappear, and he chokes in momentary oblivion.

Yelping makes him spin.

A girl falls to her knees next to him, her voice hoarse. “What—what—no—what’s—Brother?"

Bucky’s stomach vanishes. “Princess.”

Large, wet eyes snap up to him, revealing the stricken face of Shuri Udaku.

“Bucky?”

Her orange blouse almost camouflages with the light, torn in a few spots. Her trembling hand rises, and he meets it, helping her up.

They hold each other as they crumble into nothingness. When they reform, she sobs.

“What is happening? What is going on?”

“I don’t know,” he rubs her back gently. “Are you okay?”

“No, I—I’m sorry—this is all—insane,” she hiccups. “First, those things got in while I was working on Vision and I got hit, so I pretended to stay down—”

“Wait, they got to Vision?”

Her head shakes. “He—he escaped. I shut down the extraction. I couldn’t get it out in time. My guards couldn’t take the—the thing that got to us and I had to leave it in. I tried fighting back, but I got hit. I heard the window shatter—and then, when I tried hiding, everyone started turning into this and—”

She jumps at him again with a cry.

Silence rings in their minds, the whisper of air hissing in their ears as they resurface. Falling back down into actuality, they gasp for air.

“We really need to get out of here,” they chorus.

With a wet chuckle, she holds his left hand. “Are you okay? I’m sorry—there’s…a lot going on.”

“Yeah, I’m having trouble processing all this, too,” he glances around. “And I’m…okay. For the most part. Got blown back by Thanos, but I lived.”

She nods with a hum, turning his hand. “Working okay?”

He smiles, squeezing her hand lightly. “Perfect. Even…wherever the Hell this is.”

As the ashes rise around them, he tries to hold them both together, failing spectacularly. But as they came back together, he accidentally made them stumble back into someone.

"Man, watch where you're going..."

He wheezes, red goggles and a flight vest intruding his vision. "Wilson?"

“Falcon,” Shuri’s grip is tight.

Dark eyes brighten. "Princess. Barnes," Sam pants. "Just my luck. Guess this is Hell. Well, maybe not since she’s here, but."

Bucky smirks. "Too bad. Was really looking forward to take a dip in a lake of sulfur.”

"Hilarious—"

The air hisses into a deafening silence as they fell apart again. They tried latching to each other, ice overriding their senses as they dissipated in one another's grasp.

The cluster of people phases and glitches. With a crack, their forms break into ashes and reassemble hauntingly.

"Man, what the hell is going on?" Sam stumbles into him. Shuri helps steadying him as he hugs himself for a moment, rubbing his arms roughly. "What the hell is this place?"

"Beats me," he grits.

“It’s not Earth, I think.” Shuri trembles. “I don’t have any of my scanners on me—”

She gasps, whirling. They crane their necks just as the air hissed and hacked above again. Ashes rose, voices becoming distant. Snapping back into arrangement, two women in red appeared before them.

A Dora Milaje holds the hand of another collapsed, young woman, shouting into the air.

"Ayo," Bucky and Shuri chorus.

The warrior turns, startled.

"White Wolf, Falcon—Princess!"

The young woman on the ground peers dejectedly over her shoulder, conceding to Ayo's pulling.

They speed to each other, staring warily at the sky.

"Well, I'm not quite sure if it is safe to say that I'm glad to see you here," Ayo addresses, dried tear tracks on her face. She cups Shuri’s face, bringing her in for an embrace.

"Well," Sam glances around. "It's not exactly Hell, so I think we're safe. You haven’t found Banner or anybody else?"

“Yeah, maybe he could tell us where this is.” Bucky nods. “Or what is this.”

"We are far from that," the young woman's voice is thick. "Hell, that is. And Banner’s…not here."

"Maximoff," Sam says gently. "You know what it does?"

"I know some of what it can do. This is the Soul Stone. I'm closer to the Mind Stone, but I know that this," she lightly spins her hand, churning ashes. "Is just the start of its work."

"In any case, I don't want to be here when it finishes its warm-up, " Ayo snorts. She turns and lets out another call, listening, hoping.

"What else can it do?" Sam leans forward.

"Nothing,” she shrugs. “At least, I think that’s it. The Soul Stone grants its user control over all souls in the Universe. We’re inside the pocket dimension inside it. Like a storage facility.”

"Got it," he says. "Anything on Vision?"

She flinches. "He’s…his consciousness is in the Mind Stone. He won't be anywhere in here."

"So, this is the Soul Stone. It eats souls basically," Bucky provides. "And it’s not going to use us to amplify its power or anything, right?"

"That’s the Power Stone," she shrugs again, weakly. “And…it might. Using our souls to amplify the other Stones’ powers doesn’t sound too absurd.”

He sighs through his nose. She’s lost a lot. All of them have, and he lets his heart ache momentarily.

The tired, perplexed look on Steve face flashes across his mind and he blinks it away.

“Don’t give it any ideas, Barnes.” Sam mumbles.

Bucky hears it, along with the manic whispers of some guy walking behind him.

“It’s okay, Sebastian. You just got a little bit too drunk. God, I just hope I don’t get mugged…”

He wishes he could live with that level of ignorance, for a little while longer anyway. His desire got swept away as a blobby…elf…person landed tripped beside him and immediately stumbled to its feet, resuming its foreign yelling.

"Well, one thing's for sure. This ain't no afterlife." Sam stares after it. "Pretty sure all languages would be mutually intelligible under Father God's roof."

“So, we know what’s happening,” Shuri hugs herself. “But the only why I can think of is…the worst.”

Wanda rubs her eyes. “Yeah. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

All of them flinch when a wave of ash crashes above them, assembling into human shapes.

“O Great Bast,” Ayo almost doubles over. “We’ve lost.”

"Okay, okay, but let’s keep it together,” Sam goes to help her. “If Thanos did this with the gauntlet, then I’m assuming the only way to reverse it is doing the same thing. But…I don’t how he did this.”

“He snapped his fingers,” Wanda glared at her watery reflection. “I saw him do it. Thor landed his ax in his chest, but the bastard was still alive and—"

They freeze at the sound of roaring and trumpets filling the air and Bucky frowns at the massive cloud above.

"Wanda,” Bucky utters. “When you said all souls—”

Shuri follows his gaze. “Oh, Bast.”

“No,” Sam breathes. “Is that—are those—"

Bucky snatches Shuri, practically tearing Sam’s arm off. “Move, move, move!”

Animals fall from the ashes.

People scream and scatter.

With red light at her fingers, Wanda dissuades the lions, wolves, bears, hippos, and cassowaries that run too close. Elephants were the most obvious, and the roars from lions and tigers were loud enough to tell anyone where not to run.

She and Ayo run at a crowd, the water rippling from the stampede of horses and wildebeests people parted to let through.

“Make a force field,” Ayo yelled. “Sayefa! Sayefa!”

“I’m tired, you know,” a wall of red still rises, her face wincing. “I might hurt them…”

“They might hurt us,” Sam pants behind them, rolling his shoulder before clutching his knees. “Almost tore my arm off…”

“Sorry,” Bucky sets Shuri down.

"It's raining cats and dogs," his voice breaks with a bitter wheeze, gaping at the cascade of hooves around them. "Man, this place is something else."

As more people and animals appear, Bucky feels the air.

It’s not becoming...crowded. There definitely are a lot of people here, but there's also a lot of space. Too much.

A series of distant trills rise into the air, echoing.

"Sayefa! Ha hoo! Sayefa! Ha hoo!"

Shuri gasps, whirling as Ayo lets out a sharp sigh. "Oh, thank Bast.”

“Wakandaaa!"

"Sayefa! Ha hoo! Sayefa! Ha hoo!"

Bucky stumbles back as the atmosphere snaps again. His ashes fly in a brief, stormy sea.

The neighing and groaning of the animals was distant, as if he were underwater. And then, the roaring of humans was loud enough to startle him back into clarity.

Wanda and Sam flank him firmly. Wanda's hand grips his arm, face pale, perturbed.

Ayo wanders out of the shield as they see T'Challa emerging from a crowd, his warriors, along with some Jabari, following closely.

With a holler from T’Challa, a group of them charged, blanket shields flickering. Together, using nothing but their bodies and voices, they herd the poor beasts into small groups.

A few mares, foals, and stallions break away, only to be met with more men and Dora Milaje. Even the hollering of some civilians rises into the air as they seemed to join them. Expertly, they dodge both species’ bucking and rearing, their shouts scattering as they corralled them. 

Crowds of people cheer and clap from a distance, relief warming Bucky’s chest.

The King commands, “Yibambe!”

“Yibambe,” they all echo.

“Yibambe!”

“Yibambe!”

Shuri bolts in his direction and Bucky barely makes out the King’s soft, “Oh, no.”

"My King," Ayo calls, tailing the Princess.

T'Challa takes them for a brief embrace, and Bucky hears the clicks of isiXhosa.

"You fought well, Dora. You fought well for me and your country. We must now regroup. Find out what we can do. Be strong. Bast’s presence and power reside in me still. However, it feels...different. She is closer, but She is farther."

"Do not lose Her, Your Highness," Ayo pleads. Her arms cross over her chest, head bowed.

"Your Highness," Sam holds out his hand.

"I am not quite sure if I am glad to see some familiar faces in this place," T'Challa takes their hands in a strong shake. "But I suppose it tells us what we all feared," he looks around, face saddening at the sight of his warriors. "We have lost. And we are in a place beyond our current understanding."

"I am Groot," an odd, tree stump-like head appears behind him. It blinks at them with large, dark eyes.

Bucky was sure he'd seen it all after spinning a bipedal raccoon like Julie Andrews on the mountains to shoot a barrage of aliens. Said raccoon trying to buy his gun and his arm afterward. But now, he was completely sure he was done. Apparently, the talking tree from Pocahontas was real, too.

"And here is something else beyond my understanding," T'Challa sighs. "I don't know what it's saying."

"I am Groot," it seems to complain.

“Yep,” nods Sam. “Not an afterlife.”

“Wow, Brother,” Shuri smiles wetly. “You were meeting aliens without me? That’s unfair. Hello, Groot?”

"I am Groot," The tree nods at her and proceeds to poke T'Challa's suit. "I am Groot."

"Uh, it is vibranium,” the siblings chorus. “It is a very strong metal."

The tree points at Bucky. "I am Groot?"

"That is vibranium as well," the king's lip twitches.

"I am Groot," it taps his suit, gesturing and shrugging. "I am Groot. I am Groot." It looks at Bucky again, pointing at its own arm. "I am Groot?"

Bucky's head shakes. "I'm sorry?"

"I am Groot?"

"I'm sorry—your name is...Groot?"

The tree face deadpans at him. And he has to stomp on the embarrassment as everyone else also throws him blank looks.

The tree roars, "I am Groot!"

Sam pushes his shoulder. "Man, stop pissing off the tree alien!"

"Don't touch me—look, I don't know what it's saying, I just wanted to make sure—"

"I am Groot," Groot sighs exasperatedly. "I am Groot." It points at his arm and Sam's wings. "I am Groot. I am Groot."

"I'm—I'm Bucky." Confusion trickles through him.

The stump head shakes. "I am Groot. I am Groot. I—am—Groot."

"He's warning you about your arm and your wings," Wanda blinks with a small frown. She steps away, breathing shakily. "He says Rocket will try to buy and steal them."

"I am Groot,” it—he, apparently—gasps. “I am Groot—I am Groot!"

"I am, but this landscape is—it's amorphous. They could be at the very ends of it for all we know. I can't even sense how far it reaches."

The tree sags. "I am Groot..."

"Who the hell's Rocket?" asks Sam.

"The raccoon," it clicks in Bucky's head. "We helped each other out a while ago. And," he takes a breath. "He already tried."

Groot shakes his head again. He seemed to be smiling with what Bucky thinks is fondness. "I am Groot."

Sam gives him a glare he'd gotten used to. "Think I missed you fighting aliens with a rodent."

He shrugs. "Fine. Don't believe me."

"I am Groot," Groot chastises.

"Not a rodent, " Wanda's lips twitch. "Got it."

The air shakes violently and they cling to each other.

"I am Groot," he shrieks. "I am Groot!"

"I wouldn't want to die a second death either," she grits. "But—"

Around them, the shape of people flickers briefly, ash crashing in waves. They break and fall apart. And when they come back, on the watery surface, a small pagoda appears in the middle of them all, a rectangular, shimmering, translucent wall encasing it.

"What now?" Sam growls.

"There's…someone there," Bucky narrows his eyes.

Wanda leans forward. "A little—girl?"

"I am Groot? I am Groot! I am Groot!"

"’It’s Gamora’?" She stutters. "Who’s Gamora?"

Ash falls, and then, people were in front of the structure, yelling the name inside. A man's yell rises above the rest.

"Gamora—Gamora, it's me! It's Quill! Sweetheart, please..."

"Quill, you will not get to her," a woman with large eyes and antennae pulls on his arm. "There's too much pain—I can't do anything about it!"

"Mantis, come on, please—"

The little girl only stays with her back turned to them.

And then, Groot was yelling and running. "I am Groot! I am Groooot!"

"Groot," a larger man turns.

At least, Bucky thinks it’s a man.

Biped, broad, skin color wasn’t human though. Different culture, maybe?

Regardless, that man spins, looking in all directions. Red eyes land on the running flora-alien and his hand rises, pointing in their direction.

"Groooot!"

Wanda starts at a fast pace. T'Challa shouts an order to his soldiers and keeps pace with her as Shuri, Bucky and Sam follow.

"The large man," Wanda sniffs. "Is Drax. The woman is Mantis. And the man is Quill."

"And the other dude in red?" Sam cranes his neck.

"He didn't say."

"What dude?" Bucky frowns.

"He's," Sam stutters. "I just saw—man, this place is messing with my tech, too! There was another guy. Right there…Princess, do you think you check these out? I know you don’t have tools or whatever, but maybe you can figure out the wiring maybe?”

“Uh, sure,” Shuri squints as his goggles, pouting slightly. “How come you got to keep your tech…”

"Sorry,” his lip twitches. “I don’t know. But I guess we got more allies?"

Bucky shrugs again.

"Let us hope so," T'Challa says.

Groot sprints ahead of them. "I am Groot! I am Groot!"

Quill spins, sprinting with Drax and Mantis. "Groot? Oh, my God!"

"Groooot!"

Bucky relaxes his fist as Groot collides with them in a large embrace. Their questions drown each other's, and it occurs to him that this was a family.

"My God, what happened—"

"—I am Groot—"

"—Are you okay—"

"—Where is Thor—"

"—What about Rocket—"

"I am Groot! I am Groot!" Groot sobs, clinging to the man Wanda called Quill.

"Man," he breathes. "What the hell is happening?"

"That's the million-dollar question," Bucky says.

Quill looks up and narrows his eyes. He glances between him and the rest as they approach, a faint recognition lighting up his face.

"Quill, right?" Sam tries, sticking out his hand. The man eyes it for a moment before eyeing his goggles. "Name's Falcon. I also go by Sam."

The man in the red coat peers over his group and the woman Bucky noted was Mantis smiles, nodding.

With another quick once-over, he takes Sam's hand. “Yeah, I'm Quill. Let me guess. You guys are the Avengers, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Sam pulls him up.

"Don't sell yourself short," Bucky shakes his hand next. "Everybody who fought today might as well be an Avenger, too. Name's Bucky."

Quill once again blinks rapidly, frowning at his prosthetic. "Thanks. And sorry about lookin' at you like that. That's—that's just gnarly to look at. Oh, wait is gnarly an insult now? I don’t know. I meant to say your arm's cool and stuff—God, sorry, Buck. But, nah. See, my group here, we got our own thing. That's Drax, and Mantis, and I guess you've already met Groot."

"We," Drax gestures. "Are the freaking Guardians of the Galaxy."

"We kick names and take ass," Mantis puts a proud arm around Groot.

Bucky elbows Sam when he snorts, stepping away with a blank face as the man's eyes narrow dangerously.

Quill winces as he finishes taking Wanda's hand and takes T'Challa's. "Jesus, she's working on that. But, quick question. Did Thor, Groot, and Rocket ever make it to you guys?"

"Yes, they did." T'Challa nods. "And they made quite the entrance, too. They all fought valiantly alongside us. I am T'Challa, King of Wakanda."

"Whoa—King?" He stiffens. "Do I—do we gotta bow or something?"

"I am Groot—"

"—We don't do that," they chorus.

"Of course Thor fought valiantly," Drax sighs, crossing his arms and looking forlornly to the sky. "To underestimate that sculpture of a man is an act of utmost sacrilege."

Bucky glances at Sam, the other man's brows knitting together and studying the air.

"Technically, he's a god but—you know what, okay. Aight. That's fine."

"Rocket tried to buy my arsenal," Bucky mutters, glancing down.

"Yeah," Quill's lips twitch again. "He does that—"

"I am Groot! I am Groot!"

"Yeah, but I don’t really know what that is. Say it again; vibra—what? Vibrium?”

"I am Groot," Groot shrugs. "I am Groot. I am Groot."

Quill stares at T'Challa. "Huh, that’s cool. He says your suits made out of it but—" He glances between Bucky's arm and T'Challa. "They look so different. Rocket’d kill to get his hands on this stuff. ‘course, he’d usually just steal them when you’re not looking—oh, wait. Avengers. Hey, Spider-Man! Spider-Man, come back! We found your Avenger buddies!"

"Spider..." Bucky stiffens.

"Wait, Avenger bud—he's not..." The words die in Sam's mouth as the lanky figure makes its way out of the crowd, the white patches widening.

"Hey, look who's here." Quill points. "You know these guys? And did you find him?"

"Uh, no, nah, I—I didn't see him anywhere," the voice broke, clearly shaken. "And Quill, I couldn't find a way in. I even tried digging—"

"'ey 'ey 'ey, relax. Calm down," Quill grabs his shoulder, glancing at the pagoda. "We'll get to her, too, eventually. We just gotta…we just gotta cool it. Steady, alright? We'll get her. But, uh, here. Here's Falcon—Sam, and Bucky and King T'Challa, his little sister Shuri and Wanda. Did I get that right?"

They all nod and he elbows Spider-Man. "Better at names than you are. By the way, don't you have a cool, superhero name, too, Wanda?"

"Scarlet Witch," she choruses with Spider-Man.

The Spider manages a weak chuckle. "Hey...Mr. Barnes. Mr. Wilson."

"Eh, just Sam's fine, man."

"Yeah, just Bucky's fine." Bucky holds out his hand.

The guy takes it, grip light.

It sort of freaks him out, and he didn't know why. Until his mask retreated downwards, and Bucky remembers.

The tear-stricken face of a young boy meets his eyes.

"Just Peter's fine for me, I guess."

With a shared glance, Bucky and Sam's gazes soften.

"Oh, so I share my name with the Footloose hater?" Quill shoulders him again gently.

Peter forces another smile, wiping away tears. "I thought your name was Star Lord? Or...Quill?"

"My real name, or earthen name, or whatever, is Peter. Peter Quill. You can just...you can just call me Quill. That way, no one gets confused."

"Yeah," Peter nods, sniffling. "Good idea."

"So, you got roped into this, too, huh?" Sam crosses his arms. "Was it Stark again?"

Peter's eyes water even more, and he shivers. "I—"

He falls into ashes and the rest follow suit.

"Damn it," Peter grits, clinging to Quill. "Damn it, I hate this place."

The girl under the pagoda answers him. "I hate it, too," her voice is small and sad. It cracks, but booms over the billions and billions of people they were trapped with. “But we can only leave if someone outside sets us free. Try as much as you want to use whatever magic you have, try to dig as much as you want, but you’re not getting anywhere. Thanos was granted control over our souls, and he trapped us here to fulfill his plans. Half of all life in this universe has been removed and placed where we are now. We’re trapped. And there is no escape. This Stone does not have cracks. And it will not release a single soul, no matter how far you wander, or whatever wall you try to reach. You're better off where you stand.”

"Oh, Gamora," Quill says forlornly. "What did he do to you..."

The little girl merely looks up at him, a darkness far too painful in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Quill. Nothing can really hurt you here."

Quill shakes his head. "I'm already hurting, sweetheart..."

The Guardians flank him, squeezing his hands, and his shoulders.

“What did she mean by this universe,” Bucky turns to Wanda.

“I’ve…never denied the possibility, but she might have been referring to the multiverse.” She pouts. “It’s more of a theory than anything concrete, I think.”

Shuri chimes in. “The multiverse? What does that have anything to do with here?”

“She just said this universe. I thought it was weird. Do you believe it?”

“I don’t exactly dispute it,” she gazes at the ground. “That’s not my area. But thinking that our universe is just one of an infinite number with infinite variations in between is sort of fun to think about every now and then. At least, to me. Maybe we can try asking her?”

“You can go,” Wanda shakes her head. “I’m still…I’m still trying to get my grip on things.”

Sam sighs again. "Spider—whoa. Peter. What can you tell us on Stark?"

Lead weighs in Bucky’s chest as the kid's eyes darken. It was a look no child should have on their face.

"Mr. Stark..." His head shakes. "I... We... I didn't mean to—"

"Peter," a female voice interjects. "I think Ned and MJ are here."

"Ned and...MJ? How—how do you know?"

"I picked up Ned's biometrics when he first found out you being a superhero. I picked up MJ's during the elevator incident."

"Oh. Where are they then?"

"South of here, behind Barnes."

They all turn.

"Ned?"

Ashes flying into the air before falling back down and another two teenagers stumbling past the crowd.

"Holy—MJ. MJ, look—there," a boy shakes the arm of the girl next to him. "I told you he'd be here—Pete!"

"Ned!" The boys crash into a hug, Peter wrapping his legs around the other boy.

"Hey, asshole, " the girl waves, sauntering. She starts conducting with her middle fingers and Sam snorts.

"Jesus," Wanda blinks. "So vulgar."

"What'd you do to her?" Bucky mutters.

"Nothing! She's—she's just like that—MJ!"

"She really is just like that, Mr. Winter Soldier, sir." The round-faced boy peers up at him, eyes wide, but not necessarily frightened. "You kinda get used to it."

"You really do," says MJ, coming up and clapping her hands slowly. "Way to go, champ. A for effort."

"For—what?" Peter tilts his head.

She nods her head. "You're Spider-Man, right?"

Ned freezes and Peter's eyes blow wide. "What—no—"

"—He's not—"

"—These aren't—these—"

"—That's not his—"

"—Yeah—no, these are—this is—these are just—"

"—his PJs!"

"My PJs."

MJ presses her lips together. "So…You brought your Spidey-PJs with you...for the trip?"

"Yep,” he hums.

"Come on, MJ. We're seniors."

"It's not weird. I—I'm allowed to have a thing for superheroes."

Sam coughs while Bucky bites his lip and MJ's eyebrows go up.

"Oh, okay."

"Nope," Peter shakes his head. "That’s not how it was supposed to come out..."

After a moment of odd glancing, she shrugs. "Alright then. Honestly, if anyone had half my mind, they'd just assume what you were up to by the third week of school."

"Nobody just assumes somebody's Spider-Man, MJ."

"You know what theorizing is, Ned, come on. It wasn't hard putting two and two together anyway."

"What do you mean?" says Peter.

"You weren't even trying to hide it, were you?"

"I was," he pouts. "Um...I think I was pretty subtle about it actually."

"Yeah, but you can't really call doing the most clichéd secret superhero shit in history subtle."

Peter splutters, blinking. "What—how was I being cliché?"

She counts her fingers. "Disappearing whenever there's aliens around, leaving your best friend at the party that's bound to boost your popularity, and blowing off your date, literally the prettiest girl in school, at homecoming prom because of something really important. Just those three pretty much fit the bill, but if you don't think so...go off, I guess."

Ned winces.

"Not to mention, you jumped out of the bus, probably thinking everybody was distracted and or apathetic enough to not notice you jumping out of a damn window," she shrugs. "It's pretty amateur stuff, Parker. I've seen better porn."

Peter sags as Ned coughs out a laugh.

"Damn, she has a point..."

"Also, you talked about stealing Captain America's shield during PE once. I was sitting," she pops her lips, rolling her eyes. "Right behind you."

“You were reading,” adds Ned.

“Said who,” she smirks.

Ned lets out a grunt while Peter winces.

"Now, that's just being reckless," Sam snorts quietly.

Bucky's mouth twists and Wanda twitches beside him, a weak smile on her face.

"What, you think you could do better or something?" Ned shakes his head, suddenly defensive.

"I could," she replies easily. "I can beat you at lying. That’s no contest."

Ned gives up. "That's fair."

“Well, sorry,” Peter rolled his eyes before flinching. "I—no. I really am sorry, you guys—I couldn't—we failed—"

"Whoa, hey, whoa whoa whoa. Relax. I'm chill." Ned shakes his head.

"Same,” she smiles. “And literally, we couldn't have done any better, Parker. If I'd put that thing on, I'd probably die instantly. That is, if Stark programmed it to your biometrics—ooh, hang on, can I try it?"

Peter steps back. "What—no."

"Buzzkill," she clicks, strolling up to Bucky.

"You're the Winter Soldier, right?" She holds out her hand. "Michelle Jones, or just MJ."

"Nice to meet you," he says automatically.

"You can still feel temperatures and fabrics with it, right?" She eyes his arm and Bucky smiles. He liked her forwardness.

"To a lesser extent than a regular arm, but yes. I can also still feel pain."

"Oof," she blinks. "That's still cool though. Does it bother you it can't produce body heat? Learned some stuff about trauma in my AP Psych class."

Holding it out, he shakes his head. "It used to? I didn't exactly have enough time to process the trauma. Nor did I let myself really. But she’s the one that can catch you up on the technological details," he nods at Shuri. “She knows better than me.”

“You made this,” MJ’s eyebrow quirks.

“Sure did,” Shuri smiles.

“Lit.”

She presses her fingertips against his and he smiles. He notes her eyes aren't exactly pitiful. They're more...annoyed.

"Nice. Oh, and thanks for your service, by the way. You, too, Falcon."

"You're welcome," they chorus.

“You’re quite relaxed for having technically died,” Sam smirks. “You done this before?”

“No,” she chuckles. “I think I’m just still in shock or something to be honest.”

Bucky nods. “Yeah, join the club.”

Ned trembles, tugging on her. "MJ, quit distracting the Avengers—I'm so sorry, Mr. Winter Soldier, sir, she has no self-control—MJ, you're going to get us killed."

"She's fine, man," Sam shrugs. "Not like we got any leads on what the hell we should be doing."

"You guys got anything?" Bucky smirks.

Ned stutters and MJ shrugs.

"Not the slightest fucking clue. We're just plebs. It's a hard-knock life for us," she sings. "It's a hard-knock life for us—"

"—'Steada treated," Ned joins.

"We get tricked," Peter’s voice is thick, but he joins with a wet chuckle.

"'Steada kisses,” the taller teen beams.

"We get kicked, it's a hard-knock life," the three of them finish.

"How did we get kicked, by the way? What exactly happened?" MJ peers up at Bucky. "Or is that—you know, classified?"

"Uh," he glances with a sigh. "Would you believe me if I said some purple alien overlord wanted to erase half the universe by getting six magic stones and succeeded?"

Her eyes glance away with a tentative hum and her lips press together.

It was an amusing thought when said aloud, and Bucky was afraid she’d straight up shut him down, but after a moment, she shrugged.

"Probably," her eyes flick to Peter. "You're more trustworthy than some people.”

"Hey," he complains.

"Alright, kids," Sam claps his hands with a large grin. He steps besides MJ and chokes on his own amused chuckle. "Let's not try and start fights here. I don't think the school nurse is gon' like the idea that Falcon couldn't keep some rowdy kids under control."

"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Wilson. We can both take down Ned instantly," MJ provides. "Peter would probably just knock me out or something—"

"MJ, no."

"MJ, yeah, sure, why not? By the way, is your suit different or something? I've seen videos of you—yeah, it's definitely different."

"Yeah, it is," Bucky says. "The one you had in Leipzig was—I don't know, softer?"

Sam hums, nodding. "This one's shinier."

"Yeah, uh, Mr. Stark. He...he made it for me." His voice quiets. The white patches shrink and removes his mask again, revealing the tears falling down his face.

“Oops, hit a nerve.” MJ nods while Peter bows his head, Ned putting a hand on his shoulder.

"We, um...God. God, why...why didn't I listen to him?"

His shoulders shake and Bucky taps Sam's arm, averting his gaze.

He nods, giving yet another sigh. "Look, Peter—"

"Peter!" The horror-stricken shriek makes them whirl around. "Peter Parker!"

"Oh, shit," MJ bolts behind Bucky. “Ned,” she hisses. “Hide!”

“What, why—"

Bucky almost falls with the breath of the stone this time, feeling his being split apart and drift back together. He picks up MJ before she crumples to her knees, letting her lean on Shuri.

A woman in a cream apron bursts out of the crowd.

"May..." Peter's tears fall without restraint as he stumbles forward. "May!"

"Oh, my God! Pete!" May's arms wrap tightly around the boy. Peter could only let his sobs go as he shook and shook, sobbing and blubbering May's name.

"I was so scared, May...I was so scared."

May presses kisses to his head, muttering reassurances before hugging him to her chest.

"Ugh, I'm going to kill that Stark," she snarls, rubbing Peter's hair.

"No—no, May, please, it's okay..."

"I would strongly advise against that, Miss Parker."

Bucky tenses again as a man walked up behind them, the red cloak on his shoulders hovering behind him.

"I understand your concern, but our fates rest with that Stark now."

“What—who are you?” May glares.

"Dr. Strange..." Peter sniffles. "What—what was it that you saw?"

"I tried to see as many paths to victory as fast as I could," the sorcerer answers as he grabs a woman's hand behind him, pulling her gently to his side. "I saw one."

"Stephen, did we—did we just die?" The woman frowns up at him, a hand around his waist.

"Not yet really, Christine. Not quite that lucky either."

"What was the one?" Sam pipes up.

Stephen takes him in, tilting his head. "Oh, more Avengers made it in here. Oh, boy. You're Sam Wilson, correct?"

"Yeah."

"And you must be Bucky Barnes. You must desperately miss the forties, no doubt."

Bucky sighs. "You have no idea."

Stephen smiles. "Your Highness, King T'Challa Udaku."

"Doctor," T'Challa nods.

"Sorry opening the borders brought you into the heat of things. I suppose power attracts chaos."

"That is very true—"

"Straaange!" Drax roars as he speeds back to them. He descends on the man, swinging. "Why—did you—give Thanos—the Stooone?"

The cloak on Stephen's shoulders rises. It wraps around Drax's fist when he jumps, pulling him away.

"You again? The Blanket of Death! I'll tear you at the seams—"

"—Drax, no! We're not fighting anyone here—"

Quill slams into his front, having Mantis jump on him from behind.

"Sleep! Sleep!"

"I will not sleep here, Mantis," Drax spits. "Both the man and his blankie are in serious need of retribution!"

"First of all, why did your buddy Star-Lord start attacking Thanos right when we were almost had it? And second of all, what if I told you that the reason I gave Thanos the Stone was so that we could win? More specifically, so Stark could win? So he could get us out of here?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't shoot me with your magic," Quill holds his hands up, wincing. "But how the hell is that even going to work?" he pants, pushing Drax back as he attempted to stomp forward. "Stark's still on Titan. And he's with Nebula! Who knows what she'll do to him?"

"She'll probably kill him," Mantis cries as she swayed with Drax.

"I am Groot—I am—Groot!"

MJ moves a little way apart where May is prodding Peter. “You know all these people?”

“Sort of,” he croaks sheepishly. “I don’t know Quill or all the alien guys that well yet. I met them in one of Thanos’s ships while heading to Titan with Dr. Stranger and Mr. Stark and—"

“Wait wait wait. Stark took you to an alien planet?” May shrieks. “Without telling me—no, that’s crossing too many lines, Peter—”

“Aunt May—May, please—”

“—insane—Peter Parker, I’m supposed to be protecting you—”

“I know, but—”

“—looking out for you—under my watch—”

“I know and I’m sorry!”

His sudden volume increase calls even the attention of nearby crowding civilians.

He gasps and bows his head, voice cracking. "God, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. He told me to go home but I didn't listen—and then I blamed it on him and I tried to take it back and—and—he warned me, May,” his hands hold hers tightly. “And he said that he didn't want my death on his conscience and now it is and you can't be mad at him, you can’t,” his voice breaks, tears streaming down. “He was trying to protect me, too. All the way to the end!"

May holds him close again, glaring flatly. "Okay—okay…fine," she sighed. "I won't—I won’t sue him or anything, alright? But he’s still getting a piece of my mind.”

Peter lets out a wet chuckle, hugging her tightly. "That's...that's better, I guess. But wait—" he wipes his face. "Will Nebula really kill him?"

“No, she won’t,” Stephen looks at him and May gently. “What I saw was the best outcome: all of us back, with minimal sacrifice. And Nebula won’t kill him because number one: she has no reason to. They’re fighting on the same side. Against Thanos. Two: they’ve both lost to him and now that they’re stranded together, they’re going to use each other to find a way of Titan and back home. And three: Nebula has no reason to lay off a human and waste energy when she knows a human body will just off itself after food and water deprivation.”

"You better elaborate on that, sorcerer. Director Fury's going to want to hear all about that."

A woman in a dark uniform appears behind them, hair in a neat bun.

"Agent Hill," Sam greets, voice dry. "Not glad to see you here."

"Likewise, Falcon." She smirks bitterly. "You must be Bucky Barnes."

Bucky smiles, holding out his hand. "You're with SHIELD, right?"

"That's right," she grabs his hand. "I'm Agent Maria Hill, second-in-command to Director Nick Fury. More detailed introductions can wait until we're out of here. First and foremost, on my agenda right now's gathering intel."

"Well, we can give you all the intel we have," T'Challa bows his head.

"Your Highness," she nods.

"—fucker, son of a bitch, what the hell happened this fucking time—"

"Good Lord..." Maria jumps a foot in the air as she bumps into none other than SHIELD Director Nick Fury.

Snorts come from the kids, meanwhile Bucky dampens his own chuckle as Agent Hill helps him stand.

"Hill—you're here? What the hell's going on—"

Fury takes in the faces of the Avengers, the sorcerer, and the Guardians. Rubbing his face, he sighs, settling down on the rippling floor.

"What?" Maria's smirk widens. "Thought Hell'd be nicer?"

"No, Agent Hill," Fury huffs with no venom, resigned. "This is much worse."

Wherever the Hell Bucky was, something in him loosens, his shoulders relaxing.

The shock was fading, people were getting their grips on things.

While everyone wasn’t here, they were still in one piece. For the most part. As long as it stayed that way, he could let himself relax. Just a little bit.

#avengers #marvel #bucky barnes #sam wilson #peter parker #shuri udaku #black panther #michelle jones #ned leeds #may parker #doctor strange #peter quill #starlord #drax #mantis #guardians of the galaxy #gotg #groot #wanda maximoff #rocket raccoon #gamora #thanos #steve rogers #tony stark #sebastian stan #anthony mackie #tom holland #benedict cumberbatch #zendaya #robert downey jr

[bibimbureizu]

On the Run.

- ✧ ♢ ✧ -

ft. Do Kyungsoo, various EXO members, possibly Taeyong (NCT) at some point but idk.

wcount. ~2500

warnings. Strong language! Possible hints at drug use, possible sexual themes, etc.

comments. Heed the strong language warning lmao there’s a lot of cursing bc i was feeling edgy when i wrote this. Sorry the exposition is really really weird. I’m stuck. If you have any ideas for this, please let me hear them! I would like to start writing an actual series but I just struggle with story telling/boarding.

insp. Somebody Else - the 1975

image found on Exo-L amino.

                                                      - ✧ ♢ ✧ -

I don’t want your body,

  Wind took wisps of hair and let it ride the air. A bleak sky and a somber night surrounds you.

But I hate to think about you with somebody else.

  You stood just outside the doors to a once happy home. Though happiness seems rarely permanent. Faith always fades.

Our love has gone cold,

  It was torture, waiting and waiting. It felt as though a thousand eyes were on you, some curious and some judging. Discomfort arose in the pit of your stomach, manifesting itself as a burn in your esophagus, and you could feel the pang of emotion and disgust, from reliving those short moments in your mind, bursting through tears that you refused to let fall. Yet you were alone

You’re intertwining your soul with somebody else.

  Thoughts of him seemed to haunt you; thoughts of the two of you rode alongside you in the backseat, whispering things in your ear that you didn’t need to hear. You would never be free. Everything, and nothing at the same time, drained you of your emotion, your spirit. There was no more will. There was no afterlife. Nothing could ever make you you again.

  You had had enough. Enough of the pain and heartache. Enough of him. Taeyong. You wanted to start over. Everything about this life was over. You would never be sure of what came over you that night, what compelled you to just run. Leave everything behind. You went for what seemed like ever, you could swear days went by as you drove off. Nothing mattered anymore. The death of this life only leads to the beginning of the next one.

  Though as you continued to drive, your shoddy little 2001 Toyota Camry’s tank just couldn’t take anymore and had officially fucked off. However, you weren’t paying attention to the tank. You just wanted to keep going. As far away as possible. You were possessed by the urge to just keep moving. That was until some asshole had swerved in front of you to pull into the gas station, causing you to do the same.

   As he left his truck to pay for gas inside the store, you pulled into the pump next to his, ready to give him a piece of your mind. You exited the car as he came back outside and stormed over to him, immediately shouting. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!? Driving like a fucking maniac out there, you nearly fucking killed me!” It had been a rough night. In fact, it had been a rough few months. Nothing seemed to go your way, as if the universe was punishing you. But tonight, it had given you the greatest blessing you’d ever received.

  He looked annoyed with your presence. Ignoring your words as he plugged the gas pump into his truck, but never once gave you the satisfaction of acknowledgement.

  “Are you just going to sit there, and fucking ignore me?” You ranted. “I should call the damn cops on you, you fucking rat. I wish you had hit my fucking car.”  He glanced at you, highly unamused with your attitude.

  “Save your breath, hag.” He spouted. You were livid. In your heated state, you approached him slightly and brought a fist down onto the hood of his ’98 Chevy Silverado.

  “Who the fuck,” You started, fuming and pointing a furious finger at him, as he turned to you with narrow eyes, suddenly full of passion and hate. It almost startled you, but you wouldn’t give it away. Not to him. You huffed momentarily. “You must be braindead if you can’t get the fucking point –“

  “Eat shit,” He spat at your feet. You jumped back slightly, only to look back up at him and throw a fist directly at his face to which he backed off to dodge, barely. His hand instinctively swung upwards to catch your wrist, and as you moved again to retaliate he caught the other in his other hand as well. He pushed against you, only to shake you up a bit so he could talk.

  “What’s your fucking problem?” He growled. You hissed back.

  “You, dumbass”

  “What do you want from me? A fucking apology?”

  “That would be better than this shit you’re pulling.”

  “You swung first, you know.”

  “Fuck off.”

  “Fine.” He let go of you, turning around to move back to the gas pump.

  “No, I’m not fucking done with you yet.”

  “I’m sorry, Jesus fucking Christ, will you piss off now?”

  “Give me your wallet.”

  “Eat. Shit.”

  “Give me your fucking wallet.” Your mind was practically blank as you were blinded partly by rage but mostly by adrenaline. Doing and saying things you characteristically wouldn’t. As he returned the nozzle to its home and turned to you he shoved his hands into his front pockets and glared, eyes narrow yet burning with frustration. He opened his mouth for a moment, as though he was about to retaliate though his brows knitted together even harder as he looked past you, clenching his jaw. His piercing gaze focused back on you for a second then returned to the position it was in before – you nearly turned to follow his gaze, but his rough voice caught your attention.

  “Don’t look.” He said. In your confusion, you could only mouth the word “what?” Before he continued.

  “Get in the truck.”

  “What?” You said in disbelief. What caused this sudden change of heart?

  “Just. Get. In.” He looked rather stressed out as he mouthed the words to you between gritted teeth. He moved around you, grabbing at the door handle and opening it slowly as you moved out of the way. As he opened it wide enough for you his hand gently rested on your back and ushered you to get inside of the vehicle. After he closed the door he moved to the other side and climbed into the truck as well. Resting one hand on the clutch and one on the wheel, he lowered his head slightly and pointed out the window to two black cars, seeming to move in tandem, heading for the gas station. He said nothing as you followed his gaze, but after a brief pause he turned the truck on and began to move. The roar of the engine made you remember about your own car and all of the belongings within it.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Away.” He uttered.

  “Well – what about my car?”

  “We can come back for that.” His voice was flat as he continued to drive towards city limits.

  “What the hell!? How can you expect me to just get in your truck without an explanation and then tell me we’re going away and not be asking questions? You could be a fucking rapist or a murderer— actually, let me out of the fucking car. Right now.” You demanded, furious and worried for your life.

  He merely glanced at you. “You don’t know who they are do you?”

  “No, and I don’t fucking care – let me. Out. Of. The car.” You emphasized each word with punctuation.

  He sighed and made a u turn at the nearest intersection, coming back to the gas station and pulling over to the curb for you to get out, before speeding off again. You looked up towards your car to see two men breaking in and rummaging through it, in the middle of this gas station where surely someone would have called the police by now.  As you approached them, you could feel more anger building within you, venomous words rising to your throat as they violated your poor car – a smashed window, luggage strewn about as they looked for anything of value. Thankfully nothing – except your ring.  

  Your hands flew to your pockets, patting each one down on your pants and hoodie as you searched for your phone, but it was no where to be found. You’d had it earlier, though – you remember that much. It must have fallen out when you sat down in that guy’s truck. Fucking Christ, this night couldn’t get any worse. With a huff, you continued to approach the men, storming through rough and shaggy bushes that lined the perimeter of the parking lot. One of them retracted himself from the inside of your car, standing tall and looking down at something in hand. He gazed downward, examining whatever  it was he’d had in hand then looked up towards the other man, nudging him nearby with an elbow – he was shorter, elf-like in his features but he had a serious aura about him.

  Though without much delay. You honed in on what was in the taller man’s hand as he grinned down on it. Of course, it had to be your fucking ring. Nothing could go your way, could it? How could you have been so stupid to hope that it was something else.

  “No-“ You uttered hopelessly to yourself before finding resolve and clenching your fist. “Hey!” You shouted, demanding their attention. “Put the fucking ring back!”

  Their gazes fell to you as they looked towards the noise. The tall one looked shocked, though the other looked nothing but annoyed. He sighed then glanced up to his partner, whispering what looked like an order to him briefly before leisurely moving towards you. He stopped about 5 ft from you. He said nothing. He merely stared you down.

  “What the hell are ya’ll doing to my car!?” You interrogated.

  “Exactly what it looked like.” He was shameless and blunt in his response.

  “Fuck you!”

  He laughed through his teeth. “Its not like you had anything worth shit in there anyway.

  “Fuck you.” Was all you could mutter again. You were too tired to fight much right now.  “Just give me the ring god dammit. I don’t care about anything else.” His brow quirked at you as he shoved it deep into his pocket with his thumb while the rest of his hand rested there at his hip, the other hanging low at his side.

  You felt weak, seeing it vanish into the fabric. “Please,” A shaky, meager response to the sight. He grinned evilly, as his shorter cohort stepped up beside him. He opened his mouth the speak but was sharply interrupted.

  “Give her the ring.” A commanding voice. You looked past the two men standing ahead of you to see the same one who picked you up before. He held a gun pointed towards the thieves. The tall one scoffed as he turned, though his shit-eating grin quickly faded as he laid eyes on the gun – dark and serious. He, too, opened his mouth to speak though the sound of gunshots rang piercingly through the area as he shot the ground in front of him. Once, twice. That’s all it would take to at least maim the both of them.

  “Just fucking do it.” The shorter one, looked towards his partner, a stern and commanding look in his eye. The tall one scoffed once more to hide the startle before he inched backwards, towards you. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled the ring out and handed it over. You mouthed thank you towards the Chevy guy as you took the ring in hand, and the other two males scattered back to their car almost immediately and sped off.

  He lowered his gun, and approached you, as you examined the ground  before him before he moved past it. There was no damage, and no bullet shells. “Thank you…” You said again. He reached into his pocket, whipping out your phone and handing it to you.

  “Hows your car?” He asked, turning his head to look at the beaten up car behind him. This was a change of heart, it honestly caught you off guard.

  “Fucked.” Was all you could say in response. The air between you grew cool, as his gaze returned to you. He raised a hand to rub the back of his neck.

  “We got off to a rough start. I’m sorry about nearly running you off the road.” He uttered, his hand dropped back down to his side as he approached you again, closing the already short distance between you, although this was more comfortable – a friendlier distance. “I’m Kyungsoo.”

  You admired him under the florescent lights of the station, the way shadows fell delicately on his face, and perfectly sculpted his almost ethereal beauty. It was breathtaking. “(y/n).” You uttered in response.

  “We should get going.” He said hastily. Looking as though he was about to say something else before you stopped him.

  “We?”

  “Uh…” He started. “Yeah, is that a problem?”

  “Well….”

  He blinked at you before moving over to your car, doing a quick walkaround and then looking back up at you. You could tell he had bad news. “It’s not in a condition to be driving in. Unless you’d rather stay here.” He side eyed you as he turned and began to walk towards the gas station, heading around the back of it. You weighed your options, checked your phone – 3% – glanced at your car. The mess made of it reminded you of him. But mess was an understatement.

  With a sigh, you followed Kyungsoo around the back of the station, his truck was parked again on the side of the road with the hazard lights flashing. He stood at the curb waiting for you and glanced up at you from his phone when you came into view out of the darkness.

  “Good choice.” He said shortly. You nodded in response and watched as he turned to open the door for you. “Where are you trying to go?”

  You thought for a moment. You were aimless. No where to go. Yet there were so many options ahead of you. “Anywhere but here.” You said as you slid into the truck, leaning your head against the rest. You knew you must have been at least a few hundred miles from home by now.

  He blinked at you as he got into the car as well. “I was thinking about heading north.”

  “Fine with me.”

  Without another word, he began to drive. The ride was silent. We’re weren’t interested in small talk anyway.

  The silence left you to your thoughts. Wondering what had gone wrong in your relationship of three years. Why suddenly he was unfaithful, and mean. Taeyong had changed. Wondering if it was your fault, tears welled up in your eyes and began to fall silently. The world was laughing at you. You turned towards the window, bringing your feet up onto seat and curling your knees. You could hear Kyungsoo’s head turn to look at you, but no words were exchanged and he continued to drive.

#exo #Kyungsoo #do kyungsoo #kpop #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #fic #Park Chanyeol #baekhyun #taeyong #sm entertainment #smut #angst #fluff #bias #BiasWrecker #wrecker #scenario #scenarios #d.o #On the Run #p1

[dailyaudiobible]

11/26/2018 DAB Transcript

Daniel 2:24-3:30, 1 Peter 4:7-5:14, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 28:15-16

Today is the 26th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today. I’m buckled in here in the Daily Audio Bible chair with the Daily Audio Bible mic in front of me and a nice steamy cup of Windfarm coffee just sitting here to my left, being kept warm by Daily Audio Bible Clean Canteen. It's all things Daily Audio Bible. And off we go into a new day and a new work week. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. And we started the week, which was yesterday, we started the book of Daniel. And, so we will continue Daniel chapter 2 verse 24 through 3 verse 30 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in our reading today from the New Testament we concluded the apostle Peter's first letter. And it will be hard to not notice that the theme of endurance was like running throughout the whole letter. And we've spent plenty of time discussing the fact that a lot of the letters in the New Testament were written to marginalize believers who were trying to avoid persecution, right? Unrest. So, it’s interesting when we’re talking about a topic like this, it just kind of goes by us. Like, we think back on how those people were under pressure and then we may even take it a step further and think about the persecuted believers who are in the world today, but we don't really have a grid to understand what we’re talking about, not really, because the truth is, I mean, the majority, the vast majority of us haven't faced any kind of persecution. We may have phrased marginalization for some reason or another and so we know, kind of, what that's like, but like out and out full-blown persecution we don't really understand the grid. So, let's just take a minute because this theme of endurance, as I've said, like, a lot of times, it's not gonna let go. This is going to follow us all the way to the end of the year. And there's a reason for it. I mean, the message of endurance and staying true was the message that was given to people who were being persecuted. So, it was a message of encouragement to tell them to hold on. And that's a message we still need to hear. So, during the earliest years of the church it was not illegal to be a Christian in the Roman Empire, but Roman society and the culture in the Empire were polytheistic. In other words, they believe that there was a plethora of many god's. So, for them, god's were everywhere and they were involved in all kinds of human activity, right, for good or for mischief. And people could worship whatever gods or goddesses that they wanted. It was expected that the gods of the Empire, right, the ones that made Rome great, these were to be worshiped by all in the Empire. And Christians wouldn’t do this, so, it immediately made them stand out. Now, Jewish people, they wouldn't do is either, they would not worship the gods of the Empire, but they were tolerated because they were following a very ancient religion. And, so, for a time, since Christianity, since The Way, right, following Jesus, came out of a Jewish context, for a while Christianity was perceived basically as just a sect of the Jewish faith, right, like the adherence to a specific rabbi. But as we will recall through the letters of the apostle Paul in the book of Acts, there was a rift in the early church about Gentiles. And when that got settled in favor of the Gentiles, right, like an inclusive gospel that welcomed anyone who believed, then this didn’t work with Judaism, which was very exclusive. So, plenty of Jewish people were believing in Jesus, but they wanted anyone coming in from the outside to convert to Judaism and then follow Jesus. So, when that's not how things shook out then the Jewish community denounced the message of Jesus and then Christians no longer had sort of this protection of Judaism, right? Like, they were no longer considered part of the Jewish faith. So, they didn't have the cover of this ancient religion in the Roman Empire anymore. And, so, they were expected to begin to worship the gods of the Empire, which they wouldn't do. And, so, they came under a lot of pressure to conform and a lot of marginalization and thus we see why in the early church writings the message of endurance. So, our earliest brothers and sisters in the early years of the formation of the church were in a real, true struggle with stereotyping and the harsh realities of bigotry and slander. Like, they were in a constant struggle and they didn't have any way to fight back. So, the only option was to rise above the noise and let their lives speak louder than the accusations no matter what happened to them. And some pretty terrible things were being said about them and, you know, some of that stuff is still contained in ancient writings. For example, we call each other brothers and sisters, right? Part of the family of God, the body of Christ. We take these things for granted and it's just the language of the church, it binds us together. But if you're outside looking in it looks very weird. So, like, they call each other brothers and sisters. And this has been written about. Like, this was in incestuous religion were people love each other when they meet each other and they immediately call each other brother and sister. And then, you know, what happened in a church service was under speculation. And the rumor was that, you know, they would come into like a church service in this already incestuous situation because everybody thinks are brothers and sisters and then they go away and they close the door and that they…basically things turn into a meal that turns into a terrible orgy and they worship the penis of their priest. And it's like…a lot of pretty horrible things were being said and these people, like, they're being hit from all sides, they’re being hit from marginalization in the Empire, just in society itself and they’re also being…all kinds of stories are being told about them from the Jews. So, like, there's nowhere from them to go. So, when we see things in like some of Paul's letters about the Eucharist, like communion service and how it had turned into like a drunken meal. And Paul is like, eat at home. Like we can see now, all of the stuff that's swirling around about these early believers. So, we just have to think like, what would that be like? What would that be like for us? And I mean, you know, it's very easy go, well, it's getting that way. You know, I’ve been hearing that my whole life. We are not facing what they were facing. But what if we were? What if culture shifted and the persuasion of the culture in the country that we live in toward our faith began to marginalize us in the ways that I've just described? Ike, if you were a nonbeliever, how quickly would you be running to sign up for this religion? And if you had put your faith in Jesus and you were walking with God and like the transformation that comes from following Christ was happening inside of you and you knew that the distortions of your culture were completely false, like, how do you respond? Endurance. What else is there? So, having a better understanding of these challenges helps us understand why this encouragement is so prevalent in the New Testament, which makes, you know, some of Peter's closing thoughts like come into crystal clarity for us. So, you know, in light of what we've just talked about in terms of the circumstances that our early brothers and sisters were facing, understanding Peter's words have to make perfect sense. So, I’m quoting Peter, “it is no shame to suffer from being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name for the time had come for judgment and it must begin with God's household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's good news? And Peter's encouragement, which is one of the most famous quotations in the Scriptures, “be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. You must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith. You know that all over the world the Lord's followers are suffering just as you are.” So, you know, gotta talk a lot about endurance in the final days of the year because the Bible talks a lot about endurance. And now we know why. Like we understand the context of what our brothers and sisters were facing and why these letters were written the way that they were. And like I said earlier, like not very many of us have ever needed to endure like the early believers did, but if they did not stay true, it's pretty unlikely that we would be here. Our faith was handed down by the few who chose to stay true and it is our calling to do the same thing. It's easy enough for us to get self-absorbed and focused on all the things that we’re having to endure in our lives and lose sight of the fact that we are enduring for a reason and that is to carry the gospel forward to its conclusion and that conclusion is that our Lord Jesus will rule and reign forever. You are as much a part of that story as they were. So, the question just becomes whether or not we’re going to endure and stay true because future generations are depending on it. Our brothers and sisters that we’re reading about from the early church, they didn't know. They didn't know the impact of staying true. They didn't know what it was gonna do to affect future generations. They had no idea that this was gonna spread all over the world. We have no idea what our staying true is going to bring but staying true is more than us just reaching the end of our journey and finding union with God. Everything we do is going to reverberate in our family line and affect the branches on our family tree. So, we need to do our part and we do our part by overcoming. And how do you overcome something if you have not endured?

Prayer:

Father…I mean…this is not the first time that we come into your presence on this topic and it’s none of our favorite. We have subtly been told over time that, you know, that us coming into a relationship with you should mean that we don’t have to endure anything…things just progressively get better and better and better, rather than the fact that we’re being transformed from the inside out and the way that we look at things is completely different. And, so, we continue to look through the world's eyes at what you are supposed to provide for us as if you are the magic product that will make our lives complete. And, so, when we encounter seasons where we have to endure and we’re facing suffering or hardship we feel as if you have left us, and that we’re all alone because we think that we’re not supposed to have to endure anything, that you're just gonna fix everything. And yet the Scriptures are so clear, and we are encountering it every day now as we move into the end of the year and the final books of the Bible. Our brothers and sisters who were there when this all started, they had to endure. We look at your life Jesus and you had to endure. We look at people like the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and they had to endure. But somehow, we think it’ gonna be different for us and we don't. And yet endurance is a part of our human experience and it is not purposeless. This is how we become strong. And, so, we have to confess, yeah, we want to be strong, we just don’t want to go to the gym. We want to be healthy, but we just don’t want to eat right. And this is the story of our lives. And, so, it spills over into our spirituality. We want union with you. We want intimacy with you. We’d like to walk around 6 inches above the earth, but we don’t want to endure anything. Forgive us Lord for choosing to stay week. Come, Holy Spirit, help us to become strong even if this means we must endure. Come, Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Song:

To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice – Keith Green

To obey is better than sacrifice

I don't need your money

I want your life

And I hear you say that I'm coming back soon

But you act like I'll never return

 Well you speak of grace and my love so sweet

How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat

And I can't help weeping of how it will be

If you keep on ignoring My words

Well you pray to prosper and succeed

But your flesh is something I just can't feed

 To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights

Cause if you can't come to Me every day

Then don't bother coming at all

La, la, la

 To obey is better than sacrifice

I want hearts of fire

Not your prayers of ice

And I'm coming quickly

To give back to you

According to what you have done

According to what you have done

According to what you have done

[benyavin]

your favorite breaking benjamin album!!

MARIA!!! How dare you??? (I love this I love you but w h y would you EVER ASK ME?? TO C H O O S E ?????? Between ALL SIX (((SIX!! There’s a new one!!))) BEAUTIFUL BREAKING BENJAMIN ALBUMS WHEN LITERALLY ALL OF THEM ARE SO BEAUTIFUL WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME)

Clearly you must have known you were asking for an essay on Breaking Benjamin albums. So I shall humor you, as there is nothing I love to talk about more.

Saturate - 2002Okay okay okay if I had to pick a /least/ favorite it’s probably this one. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN I DO NOT LOVE IT OR THAT IT ISN’T AMAZING. Ahem. Disclaimer over. This was the first album, figuring stuff out and getting their name out there. It doesn’t have the polish of more recent recording techniques or the wisdom from years of experience of what’s going to resonate with people. It’s young. It’s raw. It’s reckless and edgy in that I’m-in-my-early-20’s-and-trying-to-be-grown-up way. It’s mouthy and sexual at times (Shallow Bay, No Games). It’s strange and weird at some points. (Skin, Sugarcoat, Natural Life, Polyamorous, I’m looking at all of you). But it has a lot of strength. From | out of the ground, I rise to grace; nobody knows it’s just a phase | to | come and take my breath away, look me straight in the face | to | what I want from this world, what I want to resolve: well, I want you to stay, so I want you to wait | to | you said you’d love to see the end; the long, hard road that I have been | to that soaring triumph at the close of shallow bay, | you live, you learn, you’ll live | as the guitars fade and the strings sing for the last few seconds. The building rumble and screeches and melody of Natural Life. The long slow hand drum intro to Phase. The cheery pace and melody of Skin. The stripped back, questioning, Forever. There’s a lot of bright moments and beautiful details, but the biggest thing about it is all the potential it reeks of. It’s a solid album and deserves more love. 7/10

We Are Not Alone - 2004FORGET IT!!!! EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND GO LISTEN TO IT IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!A more than satisfying successor to Saturate’s potential, WANA showcases the maturity Ben’s songwriting has achieved in just two short years. Every song was written with the same amount of intent - he doesn’t write singles and then filler, he writes every song to be single-worthy and then cherry picks the singles out of the bunch, and the quality-centric approach is evident. The cold selfish rage of Believe, the detached broken-heartedness of Break My Fall, Sooner Or Later, Away, the soft folded up sadness in Forget It and Rain, the driving desperation of So Cold, the self-deprecation of Firefly….| Cold am I; I’m beside myself because there’s no one else | | I’ll be there for you till my heart is black and blue | | is it you I want, or just the notion of a heart to wrap around so I can find my way around? || and now I find you’ve left me behind, I don’t know what to say, so never mind || never mind, forget it, there’s nothing to lose but my mind and all the things I wanted |It’s very good and very solid. A lovely album. Not quite through with it’s mouthiness, the sexual edges toned down a bit more, everyone knew they were going places with this album. As a whole it has a coldness to it. It’s a dark picture of life it paints, but it does so in beautiful, if sometimes somewhat sloppy, strokes. And, well. To be human is to be messy. WANA is, at its heart, a very human album. 9/10

Phobia - 2006Their big break!! The album most fans discovered them through, many of whom swear they never have and never will top it. Phobia begins a recurring theme of touching on mythical ideas, sprinkling angels (evil ones, in this case) and the devil as characters in the familiar, gritty, determined narrative. Driving and melodic music and snappy drum tracks carry some of Ben’s best vocals yet along on a sweet sweet ride. It’s not as dark as WANA or as immature as Saturate, displaying a bit more hopefulness and intention to carry on despite the difficulty and pain, and the last bits of overtly sexual themes play themselves out in Topless, a song from 2002 that never made it onto previous records. It’s gripping and cohesive and sonically just a pleasure. The iconic The Diary of Jane and Breath, the steadfast Until the End and Unknown Soldier, the rage of Had Enough, the brokenness of Here We Are, You, and You Fight Me, the desperation of Evil Angel and Dance With the Devil. It’s a wonderful album and deserves all the love. | forgive me, my love; I stand here all alone and I can see the bottom | | hiding, betrayal, driving the nail, hoping to find a savior || so clever, whatever, I’m done with these endeavors || flat on my lonely face I fell, finding in the end, I live well || it only hurts just once; they’re only broken bones || I believe in you; I can show you that I can see right through all your empty lies |Fantastic 9/10

Dear Agony - 2009IT’S MY ALBUM!!! MY BIRTHDAY ALBUM, MY LOVE LIKE NO OTHER!!! (Okay so yes you could make an argument that this is indeed my favorite. And I would probably agree, but I’d feel really bad about it because all of them are good!!! Most flat out fantastic!!!! DA just holds a really special place in my heart that nothing can ever displace.)It’s tight, it’s sound, it’s cohesive and raw and all the growth of the previous albums honed to perfection. It’s a masterpiece. It’s beauty, rage, and heartbreak. It’s so cold and emotional. From the sharp anger of Crawl, Lights Out, and What Lies Beneath, to the hopelessness of Hopeless (hehe) and Fade Away and Dear Agony, the grief of Anthem of the Angels and Give Me a Sign, the indomitable will of I Will Not Bow and Into the Nothing, the catharsis and mourning of Without You. This one has it all.| falling forever, chasing dreams; I brought you to life so I can hear you scream || all in all, you’re no good; you don’t cry like you should || days go on forever, but I have not left your side; we can chase the dark together, if you go then so will I || stay with me, you’re all I have left, I know we can make it out alive || now you wanna take me down, as if I even care; I am the monster in your head ||no longer the lost, no longer the same || holding the hand that holds me down; I forgive you, forget you, the end | | carry me to heavens arms, light the way and let me go, take the time to take my breath, I will end where I began |In conclusion, go buy it and force it in your ears right now 11/10

Dark Before Dawn - 2015I waited FIVE YEARS for this. FIVE Y E A R S. And it was worth every minute. DBD has huge nostalgia/dream come true status for me that it will never lose. I was there for this one. I experienced everything going on around it and there’s nothing like the first time. It’s a solid album, the theme of the title played out wonderfully with the intro and outro tracks, Dark and Dawn respectively. This album incorporates a new element, a feeling in the music I can’t think of any other way to describe than as spiritual/uplifting. This element even gets lyrical recognition in the marked departure from their usual style, Ashes of Eden, as well as in The Great Divide and Defeated. The anthemic Failure, Angels Fall, and Never Again, the brokenness of Hollow and Close To Heaven, the pain of Bury Me Alive and the clunky, bright Breaking the Silence. It’s a lovely album given cohesion by the fine details. The intro track is a compelling slow song into soft moans and a trademark roar over echoey tapes of a man describing the human response to rage, fear, and pain. The outro track starts with the soft pattering of a recording of his infant son’s heartbeat, followed by gentle vocalization from Ben and his wife. The album art is a solar eclipse against an ocean, a tiny island barely visible in the crashing water; in the clouds in the dark where the moon blocks out the sun, you can see the outline of Ben’s son’s sonogram. It begins in a dark place and ends in bliss. It’s the happy ending we’ve all been dreaming of after a life of struggle. It’s full of love and beauty for all the pain in the music itself. It’s a precious thing.| I’m coming home; release me, my love | | we bury the sunlight || I’m chasing the righteous, becoming a part of you || never surrender, out of the embers, save a space inside for me || are you with me after all? Why can’t I hear you? || stay alive; heaven holds a place for us tonight | | divided, I will stand, and I will let this end || leave all the lost souls behind; show us we’re worth forsaking |Absolutely incredible 10/10

Ember - 2018Okay so I wasn’t so excited about this album for a number of reasons. One being I have been way too busy to pay a lot of attention and the songs they released before the album as a whole were good but not quite what I was hoping for, another being the betrayal and loss of a close friend and the association of her with the thing we both loved and became friends because of. So I judged it rather unfairly at first. BUT on hearing the album as a whole the first time all that was blown out of the water. It’s absolutely beautiful and it both breaks my heart and makes me stronger. The heartbreaking out of left field piano and thunder track, The Dark of You, moved me near to tears. Tourniquet and Down fill me up with rage and determination to conquer the things that have held me down these last months. The sheer desolation of Feed the Wolf and Red Cold River, the strangely optimistic Torn In Two, Psycho, and Open Your Eyes, the self-destructive Blood. Some people complain that it’s too repetitive in terms of things they’ve done before but I would like to again remind everyone that there are now, with this album, four people who are not Benjamin who are trying to write Breaking Benjamin songs. Of course they’re drawing off older themes. They’re trying to be true to the sound and they’ve done an amazing job and honestly all of you need to shut up and stop being so ungrateful. Give them some time to figure out how to be more “original” while keeping in line with the core of what Breaking Benjamin is. This album is still amazing and is one for the books.| and now the weak that fall, return to ash, defeated after all || I will fight this war for you, and let the dawn of love survive | | I can’t feel anything at all; this love has led me to the end || carry me o’er the ground, heavy won’t hold me down || love will tie the tourniquet and suffocate me || I am the warm embracing || and all that I regret, I have before, I will again || with my dying breath, I keep this prayer alive |Go buy it RIGHT NOW!!?!! 10/10

In conclusion: *screams endlessly into the void* I’M A MESS AND CANNOT MAKE DECISIONS. EVERYTHING IS AMAZING I AM JUST OVERWHELMED BY ALL OF IT. NEVER ASK ME THIS QUESTION AGAIN (unless you want another rant/review post, in which case, please do!)

[doomedandstoned]

Rise of the Wizard Union!

Part I: Seek & Ye Shall Find

By Billy Goate

Ceremonial Smoke by Wizard Union

After The Great Wizard Fight had scattered what was left of our clan to the four corners of this God-forsaken orb, it was believed that the Great Hoary Ones of Olde had all but disappeared from the land. Yet, in the progress of time, rumors passed by me -- whispers at first, faint as baby's breath, but slowly they crescendoed into a wyvern's roar. The Wizards were back, one traveler said feverishly before collapsing. His last words: "They have gone underground. Look to the barren wasteland of Michigan." Impossible, I muttered, as this region was long thought to be uninhabitable, cooked to a crisp after the nukes had done their worst.

Having heard good enough of these annoying anecdotes, my apprentice and I ventured forward into the vast unknown to find out whether this congress of baked mages was one of myth or of mischief. With cloak, staff, and Geiger counter in hand, we set out for the Forbidden Zone. As we crossed its borders, we begin to pick up on the trail of blunts and faint wi-fi signals. We did cross paths with Wild Savages and broke bread with Bubak, Blue Snaggletooth, and the Bison Machine. We did ride the Cavalcade to the dank steps of the Temple Of The Fuzz Witch, where we were compelled to partake in the bizarre Stone Ritual.

This unlikely fellowship with barbarian hordes led us ever closer to the fabled irradiated thaumaturges. It was said that after the blast, they had become both one and many and that these diviners could, through their strange alchemy, compel rocks to roll until they were transformed into an altogether different substance, something the smiths were wont to call "heavy metal." An enchanted guild had become responsible for crafting this heavy metal. They called themselves the WIZARD UNION.

Notes stealthily changed hands, leading us to close associates of this Wizard Union, both present and past. With care, I crossed the Laserbeams Of Boredom, walked over the husked remains of Lizerrd and Lord Centipede, followed the scent of Bladder and Verminous Scum. Nearer, still nearer, until my companion and I chanced upon the Wizard Union's lair.

There, my eyes could scarce believe, lay the very manuals of the Wizard Union containing the secrets of their magick. I tore eagerly through them, from 'Smoking Coffins' (2014) to 'Phantom Fury' (2016), finally partaking of the 'Ceremonial Smoke' (2017) itself. My eager apprentice could bear it no more and excitedly ventured forth into the cavernous dwelling of the Wizard Union in hopes of speaking with them. Meanwhile, I sent word to the skies by way of my trusty raven, declaring with a shriek: "Our brothers yet live in the frigid armpit of America!"

Art by Unexpected Spector

Part II: Knock & The Door Shall Be Opened

Interview by Shawn Gibson

Today, we're visiting with Samir Asfahani of the band Wizard Union from the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. Samir, maybe start by telling us who all is in Wizard Union and the album you just released, 'Ceremonial Smoke.'

Sure, sure. We have me on guitar and main vocals, Aaron (or "A Ron" as we like to call him) on bass and backup vocals, and there's Larry on drums. Though A Ron didn't record vocals on this particular record, we had special contribution from sound engineer JC and his girlfriend Lindsay, who recorded the special effects you hear in the album's title track.

You guys have a really good stoner-sludge sound -- vocals are harsh as hell.

Yeah, even though I run the Super Dank Metal Jams blog and my co-writer, Brandon, covers a lot of the doom and stoner stuff, I've kind of stuck with the sludge and now into more grindcore and death metal stuff. In Wizard Union's last album, Phantom Fury, we were experimenting more with hardcore-punk type vocals, and then things progressed from there. I approached the guys and said, "Hey, would you mind if I did it this way, to add something new to the mix? I'm not saying we need to tweak anything else at the moment, but this is kind of what I'm into." They said, "Yeah, go for it!" Anything to make us a little different or even just to be a little weird is good.

It's certainly refreshing for the genre, whether it's straight-up doom or some death, black, grind, or sludge combo. Really heavy, crazy shit turns me on! Go for different, go for unique, because far too many bands sound the same.

I don't really fault bands for that, though. When we started out, we definitely were just like, "Let's play slow and heavy music. This is the stuff we know and like." From there, we spent a lot of time exploring whatever we happened to be into at the time. I dropped the idea of having more of a collective, which is kind of developing into its own record label now. We're going to be dropping a lot of stuff that encompasses side projects, not being anything Wizard Union-related.

Going back to not faulting bands, you start out with what you like. It might be knocking off like, Electric Wizard, Sleep, or Sabbath. I think from there, you're there three or four albums in, you kind of have to make a choice and ask yourself if that's what you want to be, just a knock off band or do your own thing and find your own sound. We're still exploring that. Our last jam on Sunday, we were playing what sounded more along the lines of "Give Me That Amulet, You Witch!" I don't know if in the future we're going to have a regular release, then a companion release with more stuff like that to follow it up. You get two different sides of Wizard Union there, so we'll see!

I've been digging a lot of Konvent, Cavurn, and Spectral Voice, so it's awesome to hear what you've been doing with those Wizard Union vocals.

Yeah, I really like the death doom lately, definitely more old school sound, not anything super technical. On top of that, I'm not a technical player. I don't know too many bands that mix the death, doom, and sludge thing. That's something I wanted to explore more. There's definitely more bands out there that mix grind and sludge, I've been digging more of that. That's probably where many of my side projects will go once they've picked up steam.

Yeah, I'm really into Dragged Into Sunlight, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire, bands that like to blend grind and sludge, playing heavy and fast.

I don't think we'll get there with Wizard Union. I have Verminous Scum, a project with Clay, the drummer from Mutalatred out of Toledo. So there's a lot of blasts on that coming up, whenever we get our first recording mixed. It's a little like if Wizard Union had blast beats; it still has that core sound to it. That's what I've posted lately on my blog.

You've been involved in the heavy scene around Ann Arbor for a while now, haven't you?

We've been playing shows with bands from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. Ypsilanti, for people who aren't familiar with the area, is the next city over from Ann Arbor and that's where Eastern Michigan University is. It's kind of like a shared area almost. Because of Ann Arbor being gentrified, you're seeing the price of things going up and a lot of people are moving out of Ann Arbor to buy houses in Ypsilanti, especially artists. We usually play in Ypsi. I actually used to be in a band called Lord Centipede. We put out a vinyl called Centipede Up Your Ass. It's a kind of doom-tinged stoner-hardcore-thrash album, came out in 2012 or 2013. After we broke up, it just kind of sat there. I decided I wanted to do something with it, put it out again -- it will be up for download as soon as it's done mixing. Now the drummer is in a new band we've just booked a show with, called Bubak.

Cool!

Then there's Temple Of The Fuzz Witch, a Detroit band we're playing with, as well. There's Wild Savages, not really a doom band but they've got that stoner vibe, as does Bison Machine. There's Stone Ritual, those guys are pretty good. Cavalcade is a band out of Lansing we liked playing with recently. There's Blind Haven, who play the Toledo area -- they're really good. There’s Hung From The Rising Sun out of Northern Ohio. Those guys also play in the noise rock band Wax. I don't want to miss anybody on this. I know some people will get upset if I do! (laughs) Anybody we played with, if I didn't mention you, you're awesome!

Phantom Fury by Wizard Union

So you edit Super Dank Metal Jams and you’ve organized the Burnout Society Film Club, as well?

I started the Burnout Society Film Club on a suggestion from Joe Eldridge from Shade Beast Records. We were talking about cult films and he said, "Oh, yeah! Somebody should start a group about this." I was like, "Shit, I'll do it right now!" I immediately thought of a random name that had the initials "B.S." so Burnout Society was born and it's actually becoming more of a real life thing, not just something on the internet. It's turned into a local group in Ann Arbor. We have movie nights and just chat about film.

Nice!

We screen movies and it's usually themed. The first movie night was The Wild Life (1984) with Chris Penn, Sean Penn's brother, and Eric Stoltz. It was kind of made by the people who made Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982). The theme of the night was films that are still stuck on VHS. That was a film that was obscure; a lot of people didn't know about it. Then we watched another film, Dudes (1987) , that hasn't made it to DVD or Blu-ray. For whatever reason, they’re kind of like obscure, even though they're good movies, so I thought it'd be a cool first movie night. The second event we held was holiday themed: we had Black Christmas (1974) and The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978).

Star Wars holiday Special that was a rare thing.

We had a bootleg copy we were watching and it had the original commercials that aired, which were probably more entertaining than the Star Wars Holiday Special itself! (laughs) The next one I think is going to be Bigfoot themed. We're also going to do an actual screening at a bar for a film that's been passed on to us that we'd like to show people. We'd like to do public screenings for DIY filmmakers whenever possible.

We are all into the cult movies -- weird, strange movies. I've always been into 'em. I think it really took off when I was working at a Hollywood Video in high school.

Lucky!

Yeah! You got three movie rentals at a time. I'd just grab whatever I could find. It didn't take long before I started getting into Troma movies.

Lloyd Kaufman! Man's a fucking genius.

Have you ever met him?

Not yet, I bet that's wild.

I've met him three times.

So what's Lloyd Kaufman like?

He's really weird. He's really eccentric. He was really cool, too. Around the time that I met him the first time, he was showing Citizen Toxie (2000) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I volunteered to be Toxie at those events. (laughs) Have a friend who volunteered to be the Noxious Offender from Citizen Toxie, but we hadn't seen the movie yet, so we had no idea what we're getting into. Lloyd gave me a screener copy and was like, "Here, just watch it before you come out or whatever." I remember my friend and I were at my parents’ house watching it until 3 am, just laughing. My parents woke up screaming at us, "Be quiet!" (laughs)

That's awesome! I got started with The Toxic Avenger (1984). I'd get my grandma to take me to the video store and I could rent anything, she didn't check. We got back home and I started to play it around 8 pm. My grandma walked in on the locker room scene with topless women. "Nope, nope, nope!" she said. I was like, "Goddammit!" So I waited until midnight or so, snuck out of bed, and watched the rest of the movie.

Shame on you! (laughs)

Then I rented that Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) , Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (1990) , and other Troma flicks.

I feel you on watching The Toxic Avenger while you're young. I was a product of the times, when they were pushing R rated movies onto kids by making them cartoons. There was a Rambo cartoon, as well as a Robocop, Toxic Crusader, and Police Academy cartoon. The original Police Academy, remember, was rated R.

Right.

I recall being three or four years old and watching the Rambo cartoon and just begging my mom, "I know there's a movie based off of this -- you've got to let me see it!" I remember how devastated I was when I brought it to her at the video store and she was like, "No, you can’t get that, it's rated R!" It was the same thing with The Toxic Avenger. I was like, "This was a movie? Oh my god, I've got to see it now!" So then, a couple years later, I go and find it -- same thing. One night I was able to persuade my mom to let me watch The Toxic Avenger: Part II (1989). That finally happened and then I realized somehow it was connected to Class of Nuke 'Em High, just like looking at the covers. It wasn't until years later that I realized what Troma even was. They used to have those marathons on the USA Network.

I remember them well!

I know they had the Up All Night series, where they'd play all the movies -- Nuke 'Em High 1, 2, 3, and what not. They did a Toxic Avenger marathon during the day -- it was the weirdest thing. I don't know of any other time where this happened, it was a rare moment for USA, sometime in the mid-'90s, so I got to watch all three back-to-back.

Smoking Coffins by Wizard Union

What's a damned good book you've read lately?

See, the thing is I only read non-fiction.

Me, too.

Last fictional book I read was Ready Player One (2011). As far as fiction goes, I would recommend that totally. Anybody who wants to go see the movie, Spielberg is directing it. The premise takes place in a dystopian future, where everyone's doing this virtual reality thing. It’s not unlike Facebook, if Facebook was VR. Every bit of information comes to you in VR format -- movies, stuff like that. Everybody’s creating avatars for themselves to portray TV and film stars. That'll be cool translated on the screen. From what I've seen of the trailer, unfortunately, it's not going to be as literal as the book. The fact is it's being put out by Warner Brothers and Amblin. I think whatever properties those two production companies own is probably what you're more likely to see on screen. There are plenty of obscure references made in the book, though. It's a very entertaining read. As far as non-fiction, I recommend The Disaster Artist (2013).

Cool. I've seen the trailers for the movie. I didn't know it was a book as well.

Yeah, that's what it's based on. I do most of my "reading" through Audible. It's one thing I've learned, to be more productive, is actually listen to audiobooks if you can versus wondering, "When am I going to have time to read, anymore?" I got an Audible account and started doing books that way. I get through two books in like a month. I don't feel bad about it, I still read what I need to -- blogs, articles, and stuff like that. The one physical book I'm reading at the moment is The Tao Of Bill Murray (2016), which I got my wife. That's a really entertaining book.

I bet. I love Bill Murray!

Trying to think of one more book -- a random one -- it's All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan (2005) from Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia. I'd recommend that to anyone who's having financial issues or trying to figure out how to get their financial troubles back together. I think after going through that book I was like, "If she ran for president, I'd 100% vote for her." She could get this country back on track. (laughs) If she's able to get the middle class to figure out their finances there has to be a way. She's got a plan! (laughs)

I’m not too confident in the one we have in office now. I don't think he's made it so great again. I don't think it was great in the first place. Just my opinion.

Well, I'm not going to go into that, just for starting a comment thread about who's on whose side. I'm sure that readers can figure out where we align politically. I feel like when Cheeto came into office, there were a lot of people who felt like this'll make music great again or whatever. It'll make people angry again. I haven't really noticed much of that. (laughs) There's always been angry music; there's always been politically charged music. Whatever gets you motivated to create, go for it, you know? That's one thing I want to encourage people, that's what I push myself to do. Everything I do is to create, to keep going and make more whatever it is and not to question yourself or hold yourself back. That's why I do the blogs. Burnout Film Society is going to starting a blog soon, with reviews for movies.

Cool.

The members of Burnout Film Society are all people that, as far as I know, haven't written for a blog before. I want to show people that you don't have to write for something. If you love something, if you have a passion for it, obviously you know what to say.

It exudes!

That's what it was for me when I wrote Dank Metal Jams. I thought, "If I were in a band, I'd want someone to write a review for me." Not that I'm doing these guys a favor, but I truly want the people to listen to their music! I'm going to write what I think about an album and just put it out there. Hopefully, I can get some other people on board that feel the same and agree, "Yeah you're right!" That's the only reason I have the blog around. It gives me something to do, while constantly introducing me to new music. It keeps me open to new ideas and fuels my creativity, especially when it comes to song writing. "Oh I can do it this way, I didn't even think about that way, or I can mix this with that."

What’s in the crystal ball for Wizard Union this year?

We've been around, this is going to be our sixth year now, and we're still kicking! We know we're not quitting anytime soon and we've got more ideas we want to put out there. I have another kind of stoner side-project I'm working on that doesn't have a name yet. It's me and Aaron, the bass player. Actually, we switched it up -- I'm doing bass and he's doing guitar. Then we have a local drummer who is in a one-man band called Laserbeams Of Boredom. We're working on that and finish recording in early spring. We still haven't settled on a name for that one, either. I don't want to drop any names or suggestions yet before it happens. I don't know if it will be out by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, but it's definitely something we're working on right now.

Samir, thanks a lot!

Oh yeah, thank you!

Follow The Band.

Get Their Music.

#D&S Interviews #Wizard Union #Ann Arbor #Michigan #Doom #Death Metal #Death Doom #Doom Metal #Shawn Gibson #Doomed & Stoned

[revivedxfighter]

Drabble: Demons

Note: This is a vent drabble that I felt may help me feel better by putting it together. This isn’t to make anyone upset in any way and certainly not to scare people. I won’t go into explicit detail about what brought me to write this. It’s mainly because of problems that occurred over the past few weeks. It’s something I dealt with for years, it’s just became worse as of late. The weird messages and calls only add to the mounting problems. I never know where they come from or who is saying words that make no sense or ugly things. This has been going on in the past few months. I can’t shake off the thoughts I have. I thought just writing them down will help. 

 Part of it is to explore more of Har’s mind. I never openly expressed possible mental disorders like PTSD and depression because I fear I would never do them justice. Mental health is a very serious topic and should be handled as carefully as possible. It’s not an easy theme to write about, even if the writer has mental illness themselves.  I hope this won’t cause panic or make people afraid or not continue to communicate. This is not my intent.

I will have this under read more and tagged. I decided to post this this late in the night so no one will be forced to see it on mobile. I know they remove read more cuts on mobile and I wish I could fix that so you wouldn’t have to see. 

Please do not feel required to read the drabble. It’s not an official headcanon because of the sensitivity of the subject matter. 

Triggers: suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression, PTSD, anxiety

  Tap tap tap…

The rain on glass breaks the silence in the dark apartment. Low rumbles of thunder rolls over the dark clouds outside, much like the storm in Harmony’s mind.  Her tired eyes glance at the clock hanging on the wall across from the powder blue sofa.

2:15 am… She didn’t realize she stayed up this long. Usually, it would be from getting lost in stories of adventures in distant worlds painted in her mind by printed words. She has been falling behind on her reading and it was not her recent plans. Instead, Harmony fails to sleep. How can she when the monsters in the shadows lurk. Lightning lights the living room for only a moment. Thunder roars shortly after the flash.

Yet the storm is not all she hears. Visions playing her head whenever she closes her eyes.  Flames climb higher and higher with flashes of white, orange and green. The stench of burnt earth and rotting flesh fill her nostrils. Faint sounds of explosions, fire, and the screams of souls burning into nonexistence for mako repeat in her ears. They’re soft, like the distant memories from years ago, but the impact is as strong as ever.

“You failed…You didn’t do enough…” These words are unspoken, yet repeat in her mind from invisible demons that ravage her quiet moments when Harmony should be at peace. Arms encircle her knees and she brings them to her chest. The glass of hot chocolate sits on the glass top coffee table near the sofa. She couldn’t bring herself to drink it and its welcoming warmth dissipated a long time ago.  The night of the explosion was not the only thing that haunts her memory.  

Sinister smirks from a sadist with the labs in his complete control. He was a gruesome tormenter under the guise as a scientist. Harmony’s body was not restored for the sake of kindness. No, Hojo would not even know or comprehend the very word itself. He was so cruel, malicious, and he enjoyed every moment of it, just like the demons in her own home.

“You could have done better, but you failed...” A voice hisses in her head.

“You are not good enough. You will never be good enough.” The voice appears in her mind, “No one missed you. No one will ever miss you, and Gaia will be a better place if you are gone.” Harmony’s close her eyes tight and she tucks her head in, all in a futile attempt to hide from these demons.

“You are better off dead...”

That’s a lie, Harmony thought to combat the words.

“You make everyone miserable.”

Stop it.

“Freak.”

“Ugly.”

“Repulsive.”

“No wonder no one likes you.”

That isn’t true.

“You make people run away. They are all sorry that they ever met you.”

“The people you all friends ditched you. They don’t care about you...No one cares about you.”

Hands grip tighter, but she is numb to the pain inflicted by the pressure from her mechanical hand. How dare do they bring the people she loved into this? No. It’s unacceptable. Not again!

No. I am loved. People care about me as I care about them. They wouldn’t leave me behind!

“How do you know?”

That question always leaves her stumped.

“Can you prove it? How do you know that they care about you? They don’t return your calls. You don’t hear from them. Is that how people treat their loved ones?”

Her mind is blank for a moment.

“Of course not. They have left you. You are alone, as you should be. You deserved it.”

What makes you think anyone would not want anything to do with me? This internal questions is only answered with heartbreak.

“Because you are alive.”

Icy claws grip her aching heart. The world around Harmony feels colder, darker, and heavier. She forgets the storm outside. All she hears are these heinous monsters. Could these words hold any truth to them? Did the people she loves leave her? How many more will leave her alone? Did she really fail all the victims from the incident at Reactor Three? Could she have done better to save everyone? Does her own survival mean anything?

Anything at all?

“Life would go on without you. Gaia will be so much better without you wrecking everything.”

I told you to stop it!

“Admit it. No one gives a damn. You are an ugly freak who people feel sorry for. Disgusting.”

Stop!

Heat blooms in her body. Her heart pounds harder and harder. Fury wells in her inner being.

“Everyone is happier and healthier, all because they threw you out of their lives…”

The demons continue their jeers and her temper rises as memories erupt in her brain. The bombing, the lab…The escape. The fight for her life still continues today. Their ugly faces smirking as they continue their torture.

“Do the world a favor.” One dark voice echoes in Harmony’s head.

“Why don’t you just kill yourself? Die.”

“Just die already.”

“ENOUGH!!” Harmony opens her eyes as she shouts on top of her lungs. Darkness is in her sight. The room is exactly the same as before. She grits her teeth as she digs for memories, both old and new to counter the negative words. Of times with friends from crossing paths on the streets of Edge to the visits to Seventh Heaven. The smiles and laughter, and the loving words both spoken and typed in messages. They are real. It’s reality.

I’m sick of you lying to me. The dark thoughts cease. The inner demons, dismay, self-loathing, regret, and shame, all of them are gone. The sounds of rain and thunder return and somehow, she feels a little lighter. They set her free for now, but the pain still remains in her chest. She’s not completely free, but at least it’s better than moments before. Harmony forces herself off the sofa and crosses her living room to the kitchenette where she fills a glass with water. She really needs it, but it’s a shame she didn’t touch her first drink. A soft sigh escapes her to find a bruise on her left forearm. That was from her own doing when she lost herself in a battle of wills.

But the war is far from over.

Harmony isn’t sure where to go from here. Everything in her life is in disarray from uncertainty in the future and sense of being alone. She wants to believe that these thoughts are lies. She tries so hard to fight her inner demons. So far, she never succumbs to their tyranny. All Harmony can do is keep fighting and never forget one truth:

You are not alone.

#tw: depression #tw: PTSD #tw: suicide #tw: suicide mention #tw: suicidal thoughts #suicide #tw: negative #negative drabble anyways #tw: venting #venting

[onelastfic]

Halloween Fun (Hamilsquad x Reader)

Prompt: “May I request poly!hamilsquad x reader, Halloween addition? (like their costumes and if they’re going to a haunted house or maze or something like that) Thanks so much, love your blog!!”

A/N: My first requested fic! Hope you enjoy~

“C'mon, (Y/N)! We’re going to be late for the Halloween Harvest Carnival! I wanna get a caramel apple before they sell out!” pleaded John from behind the door.

You knew that your boyfriends were waiting for you in the hallway, already in their costumes. You stared at yourself in the mirror, already feeling self-conscious about your costume.

“How did I end up with this costume again?” You yelled to your boyfriends.

“You got outvoted remember.” stated Alex. “Besides with these costumes we’re sure to win the costume contest! I can’t wait to rub it in Jefferson’s pompous face—”

“Enough, Alex. We’ve heard this already.” interjected Hercules.

“Oui, everyday for the past mois.” added Laf, a hint of annoyance in his voice. All of you loved Alex to bits, but sometimes his constant feuding with Jefferson got old. “Please come out already, mon ange. There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Yeah, I worked hard to make these costumes for us. Do you not like yours?” You could feel Herc’s sad expression through the door, you couldn’t disappoint your big teddy bear.

“Fine, but if any of you laugh I’m going to punch you.” You sighed before straightening the tiara on your head.

Opening the door to be greeted by your costumed boyfriends. You had to admit they looked good. They were all dressed up as members of the Justice League 2017 version.

Alex was Batman, Laf was Superman, Hercules was Cyborg, and John decided to be the Flash, which left you to fill the role of the sole female of the group. Wonder Woman.

You played with the short blue skirt, feeling embarrassed about the length. “How do I look?”

John gave you a tight hug. “You look absolutely Wonder-ful!”

You and the others groaned at the horrible pun. “I’m going to be hearing those jokes all night, aren’t I?”

“Yep~” John smiled. “Now lets go already! I want my caramel apple!” ———— “Did I have to come?” You whined to your boyfriends as all of you made your through annual Halloween Carnival. You were freezing in your costume and your feet hurt from the shoes.

“It’s Halloween, babe. Lighten up.” John says playfully, nudging your arm as he chews on his third candy apple.

“Easy for you to say. Your not it heels…”

“C'mon this is fun. Did you see Jefferson’s face when we won!” Alex said, showing off the blue ribbon we’d won. “Besides all that’s left to do is the haunted house.”

“Hmmm… You’re right. But can we go home after this? I can’t walk in these boots for much longer.”

So you made your way to the haunted house line, and they hear screams inside.

“All of you coming to the haunted house?” Peggy asks as she lets them in. Yes, the sweetest girl you know worked the haunted house.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Herc says resulting in Laf and you grabbing his hands in comfort. Hercules didn’t do so well with horror.

“Then I’m required to warn you. This haunted house is known to cause fainting and traumatic experiences. Enjoy the attraction~” Peggy says with a smile.

“I won’t.” Herc said back.

The five of you made your way inside the haunted house, and they approach a long hallway with blood slowly dripping down the weathered walls.

“I hate Haunted Houses.” Herc says nervously.

“It’s okay, mon beau. We’ll protect you.”

“What’s happening?” Alex asks as the five of you make your way down the hall. At the end of the hall, it reveals an madman with a chainsaw.

“WHO DARES TRESPASS ON MY HOME!?” he roars. John and Herc scream, as Alex just looks at the madman’s outfit.

“That outfit makes you look fat.” He says.

“GET OUT!” the madman shouts.

“But we just got here.” You say and everybody laughs. But then you see that the chainsaw works.

“GET OUT!” the madman roars once again chasing them into another part of the attraction.

“It sort of looks like a living room, but…” You say looking around. “A really weird one.”

A little girl is handcuffed to a dead little boy. Of course, all of you know that he’s just acting, but it’s still terrifying and horrific. The girl is pleading and crying as you approach her.

“Save yourselves!” the little girl pleads. “I couldn’t save my brother, but you all have to get out of here!”

“W-Why?” Alex asks frightened.

“She’s coming soon!” the little girls says terrified.

“Who’s coming soon?” You ask.

And all of a sudden, the lights go out. A scream fills the room instantly, and the lights go back on again revealing that a few people are missing.

“Where’d the petite fille and garçon go?” Laf asks.

“JOHN!? HE’S GONE!” Herc yells dramatically as he falls onto his knees and roars.

“Calm down, Herc. This is a Haunted House remember. We’ll probably see him at the end munching on another caramel apple.” You say nonchalantly.

Another scream erupts from a door in the corner. Blood drips on the floor, and Alex examines it closely.

“I can’t tell if this is jam or tomato juice.” Alex says as the door slams open.

“Not another room.”

The room inside appears to have nothing inside, except a bed. They looks inside to see a girl sobbing under the covers.

The group of friends approach the girl, and notice that it’s Angelica who’s acting tonight. She looks like a cross between a zombie and a beautiful princess.

“Angelica? What’s wrong?” You asked.

“My name isn’t Angelica. I’m Sleeping Beauty.” she says as she wipes her eyes… Only to cry harder.

You don’t get how this is supposed to be scary, but something was bound to happen.

“What’s wrong?” Laf asks.

“My prince never came to rescue me, so I died waiting for him.” she cried.

“Then why are you awake?” Alex asks, paying attention to logic.

“My prince never came to free me out of my slumber, so death came for me,” she stated, and then her attention focuses on Alex.

“You!” she says angrily.

“What did I do?” Alex asks, not understanding why.

“You left me to die! Because of you I’ll never be satisfied!” she shouts and a flash of thunder gives her a creepy look. She almost looks… Scary. Crazy, even.

“I’m sorry?” he says wondering what was going on.

“I died because of you! Now, it’s time for revenge! You’re gonna pay! Your little friends too!” she yells and then she does an evil laugh creepy enough to send chills up your spine.

“Little? We’re all taller than you.” Alex protests. Only he could focus on height in this situation.

“Quiet! You’ll all pay! You’ll see!” she says maniacally.

And then the lights go out, and a scream erupts through the air once again.

The lights go back on and Herc and you see that Laf and Alex are missing, along with Angelica. All that’s left are blood stains on the bed and the faint cackling of Angelica left behind.

“S–So we’re the only ones left, huh?” Herc asks, clutching your hand.

“Yup. Let’s get out of here.” You say, opening a nearby door, which revealed a small cemetery.

“What now?” Herc asks, squeezing you tighter.

“I don’t know. Zombies, probably?” You replied calmly. “It’s a basic horror theme.”

All of a sudden, everything gets quiet. The scary music stops. And then…

“Yep. Zombies.” You says as the zombies rise from the graves. As Hercules grabs you in fright.

“You guys are great actors.” You say, as Herc picks you up and runs away.

The zombies chase Herc and you into a room. It’s a small room. It doesn’t have anything in it. Just a mirror.

“You know this costume is really well made, Herc. Didn’t move out of place at all.” You checked yourself mirror.

“This is it. We’re going to die. Game over.” Herc muttered, obviously scared out his wits. You quickly silenced him with a kiss.

“Calm down, honey.” You cooed, pulling away. You were about to comfort him so more.

When all of a sudden, the lights go off again.

And there was a loud scream.

You heard a thud and the lights came on. Lying on the floor was an unconscious Hercules and the Grim Reaper was standing in front of them wielding a scythe.

“YOU ALL SHALL DIE- Oh my god! Is your friend okay? Did I scare him that badly?” the reaper said.

“Umm… Is there an exit around here?” You asked awkwardly, trying to lift up your unconscious boyfriend. “Can I get some help carrying him?”

So the Reaper showed you to the exit as he helped you carry Herc out by his shoulders. Once you exited the attraction, you saw the rest of your boyfriends waiting near the exit, eating cotton candy and candy apples.

“How was the house?” You asked, as Laf slung Herc’s arm over shoulder. Thanking the helpful worker.

“I had a good time.” John says with a childish smile, his mouth filled with cotton candy.

“Of course you did.” You snicker.

“The little girl, boy, and I ended up in some cage hanging over cauldron. The kids were supposed to be demented version of Hansel and Gretel. Then I saw the madman chasing Alex and Laf. Turns out it was Eliza in the costume. She was super pissed at Alex for calling her fat. You should have seen Alex. He was—” John reported.

“We aren’t speaking of it, John!” shouted Alex. “What about you two do? Why did the Herc faint?”

“I think our Cyborg overloaded his system.” You joked, looking at your big teddy bear. You gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Next year let’s skip the haunted house.”

#hamilton x reader #hamilsquad x reader #hamilsquad #hamilton #hercules mulligan x reader #lafayette x reader #john laurens x reader #alexander hamilton x reader #hamilton an american musical #hamilton imagine #hamilsquad imagine #poly hamilsquad x reader #poly hamilsquad

[bullymagnetweek-blog]

Hitball: The Musical - Bullymagnet Week Day 5

AN: so this is like super late and hardly even bullymagnet but *shrug* i listened to high school musical on repeat for six hours for this so here we go. i apologise in advance for the cheesy lyrics. also again the formatting bc what. - KindleSpark

SUMMARY: Retelling of the hitball arc, but everyone’s singing and it’s even more dramatic than it already was. Suzy has a blackmailing song. Johnny and Max have a theme. Jeff’s monologue is now a villain number. Enjoy. (I’m sorry).

Max is expecting a huge trumpet fanfare to start what is apparently a high stakes middle-school dodgeball game, but instead all Coach Oop does is blow a small ‘toot’ on his whistle

It still has everyone sprinting as fast as they can to get to the middle of the court, though. Max lingers back as Johnny and Isabel lunge for the balls, pulling off stunts no middle-schooler (or anyone for that matter) should be able to do. Someone’s already in the bleachers in the first two seconds.

Everyone’s taking this pretty damn seriously, Max realises. A ball comes spinning his way and he quickly side steps it. Well, at least dodging is his forte.

Thump. Thump Thump.

Speaking about forte.

Squeak thump.

Max should’ve seen this coming.

Thump. Thump thump.

Sneakers hit the floor, and balls whiz past rhythmically. There’s a beat humming through the gym.

“Burnhounds.” Menacing whispers come from the other team.

“Shockodiles.” The response is immediate, perfectly in rhythm.

Max suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. Of course Mayview is dramatic enough to have a song for a middle-school dodgeball game. He feels the beat instinctively, feet slipping side to side in sync. Sure, songs happened all the time, and he wasn’t against them or anything, but they usually only started up when it came to something significant. He vaguely wonders if it’s just a well-known hitball theme… but no, hitball was only introduced today. He shrugs. It’s probably just a Mayview thing. The drama never ends.

“Burnhounds!”

“Shockodiles!”

The chanting continues. Swung quavers and a shuffle-likebeat, Max notes. He shouts along as the music reaches its peak.

Thump. Thump thump.

“HITBALL!” The gym cries in unison. Max spoke too soon. Those were definitely trumpets.

He leaps to the side, dodging and twisting past the balls. Songs always push his movements along, it’s so much easier to step and move when there’s a beat driving you forward. The melody surges inside him, and he’s buzzing with expectation. 

Isabel starts up, and Max grins. Most people have a specific style or instrument their songs most occur in, and she’s perfect for this. Of course, she wouldn’t be singing if she wasn’t, but he’s still impressed.

“Hey Burnhounds, we’re gonna tear you asunder, 

‘coz us Shockodiles are lightning and thunder.

Hey Burnhounds, get ready to stop drop and roll,

‘coz the flames you’re holding’ll be reduced to coal.”

Max watches as she dances her way across the court, singing all the way. At the end of her verse, she pelts the Golden Switch she’s holding directly towards Lisa, hitting her just as she’s distracted by Ed. 

“Haha, yesss! We’re stacked.”

Thump thump.

The chorus starts just as aggressively as the verse, and Max finds himself singing with the rest of the team as they taunt the other side, balls bouncing and stomps shaking the floor as the music roars at a peak.

“Get ready, get ready for hitball,

Burnhounds vs. Shockodiles!”

Max feels the title drop resonate through him. Ah man, he can’t deny he’s having fun. Max hides a grin as Johnny’s verse springs up from the other side, responding to Isabel’s threats in perfect rhyme. 

“Hey Shockodiles, hope you’re ready for this game,

‘coz you’ll need more than water to put out this flame.

Hey Shockodiles, you’re up for a treat,

‘coz us Burnhounds ain’t afraid to turn up the heat!”

He whips two balls out in sync, and Max grimaces as he watches both of them hit their mark. The chorus comes back in, and now both teams begin to sing the chorus, lines whipping back and forth as fast as the balls are. Somewhere in between the chorus and the next verse, Max hears the raspy voice of… was that kid levitating? 

“Dag, sons! These burnhounds are wiggity wiggity worse than homework!”

You know what, he’s just gonna ignore that one. The music pauses just as the bridge comes in, and Max finds himself itching to sing. Oh man, he’s one of the main vocalists? The songs hadn’t stopped coming since he moved here, and he much preferred background vocals. 

“Hey Matrix, try contributing! The game’s not called dodgeball!” Isabel shouts at him.

Oh good, it’s a private conversation. He sighs in relief. At least these parts usually play underneath the main song, with the rest of the singers are often oblivious. 

“Stop deflecting!” Isabel roars.

A ball collides perfectly into the one he’s holding, ricocheting to the side.

Max deadpans. “But clearly that is an important part of the spor-” 

Isabel shoves the ball into his face. The music quietens, and the beat disappears, something more lyrical starting up.

“Max, are we clear on what I said on the train?

I hope I didn’t mislead you, I mean, I’m trying to explain…”

Max baulks. Nope. He’s not talking about this now. Thankfully, the music complies and his lyrics quickly interrupt hers.

“Most ghosts really can’t-“

“Looks like someone needs me over there.” Max shouts awkwardly, edging his way out of the song. “I’m just gonna go-“

“HOW DID YOU KNOW??”

The music screeches to a halt as Max comes face to face with a terrifyingly delighted Suzy.

———

Oh my god, she has a blackmailing song.

Collin’s slumped shoulders tell him this isn’t just a one-off melody, it’s an actual honest-to-god theme. Max cannot believe his own eyes. Or ears. Jagged string lines bounce eerily off each other, dissonant and harsh. Suzy sings along delightedly, and Max has a sense of incoming doom as she rattles off high-pitched lines and exposition. He tries not to let the panicky music get to him.

“You know what that means, Max? Don’t hold your breath.” Suzy sings, music stopping just before it reaches the final note. Max is sweating “It means jumping through a school bus is now punishable…” 

Silence. Max is pretty sure he knows what’s coming.

“BY DEATH.” He was right.

“Suspension.” Collin interrupts. Max’s brain has zoned out, and he’s imagining all the horrible ways his dad’s gonna sacrifice him in if Max gets suspended. 

“No, no! My Dad’ll kill me…!”

Suzy lets out a cackle. “I’m always right in the end, see?”

The song, unfortunately, doesn’t end there. 

“Now now, Max, it’s okay, don’t be so hyperbolic.

It’s not like anyone knows you did it, I’m not that vitriolic.

No one has a clue, it’s just been rumours, don’t you see?

It’s not like anyone knows you did it… Well. Nobody…”

Oh. Max hates everything. “but y-“

“But me!” Suzy’s smile holds six different layers of evil, and Max is ready to embrace death.

———

“I hate people like you!

And you, and you!!”

Max recoils as Nega-Jeff actually begins to sing. There’s something different about his voice too, an underlying tone that doesn’t sound right. The accompanying music is all wrong and twisted, not like Jeff at all. Something’s very wrong.

“Self-centered, without a scrap of ambition, 

Warriors of whim, without proper cognition.

You’ve still yet to reach your brains’ higher functions!

Honestly. What a waste of good violence.”

Max watches as Johnny flinches back, and he can tell that particular line was in one of Johnny’s songs as well. He scowls. Low blow.

“Kindness without a code, cruelty that isn’t calculating,

can’t you see it serves no purpose, your stupidity is infuriating!

The true power of violence isn’t just to entertain,

I hope you’re ready to learn a lifelong lesson in pain!”

Isabel’s up to something in the background, and Max really hopes she can come up with something while this Jeff imposter is singing. He lights up as Isabel flings balls their way, hope rising within him, well. Until Johnny catches one and sends her to the bleachers. Ughhh.

———

Max smirks. Johnny was pretty selfless when it counted. I mean sure, dismissing his friends did leave the two of them stuck with Jeff, but Max wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Hey, don’t let Nega-Jeff get too deep under your skin, okay?” Max says. “Everything else aside, caring about your jerk friends isn’t a flaw. It’s your sole redeeming quality.”

Johnny chuckles, smiling. “Heh.” 

Something swells inside Max, and it takes him a second to realise it’s the beginning of… a theme. Just an instrumental, apparently, but it still surprises him. He doesn’t even have a proper theme with the activity club yet, and yet the moment he’s alone with Johnny… Weird. Stagnant ostinatos, melody on the bass, and… was that the sound of clashing metal as the beat? Unconventional, but it worked. It fits perfectly, and Max already loves it. He can feel himself buzzing with anticipation for the showdown, comforted with the thought Johnny was by his side. He makes a face. Oh man, that was cheesy. Songs really brought every embarrassing thought to the forefront.

“Ready to win this, Johnny?” Max barks, spectral energy igniting on instinct.

Johnny grins, all teeth and resolve. “Let’s show Jeff what-“

“That’s not Jeff.”

The music halts abruptly as Cody shoves the Golden Switch into Johnny’s hands, face dark and angry. Thunder crackles between them, and Max instinctively steps back. Something about Cody’s posture screams danger.

“Punish him.”

Thump. Thump thump.

Max’s eyes widen in realisation. A reprise. This was it then.

Squeak thump.

Johnny sends him a look, face determined. Final showdown. The people on the bleachers begin to whisper softly.

Thump. Thump thump.

“Burnhounds!”

“Shockodiles!” 

Johnny jumps into the verse, lines reprised as Johnny lets out his anger, determined to bring Jeff down. Meanwhile, Max’s brain is racing, trying to piece together a plan as fast as he can. The likelihood of actually hitting Jeff is low, but there’s no way they could catch one of his throws, unless… No, that’s too dangerous. He grits his teeth. Well, that’ll have to be the back-up plan if this doesn’t work. He vaguely registers Jeff singing, but ignores him, grabbing Johnny quickly and dragging him back.

“Grrr, all I need is a single ball, 

Just one, and I can finish this farce,

What the- there’s none at all?

Why, Guerra, ever a thorn in my-“

“HEY, JEFF!!” Max interrupts, breaking up his verse. “HEADS UP!!!”

He sprints up, bringing back his arm and aiming…

“PSYCH!!” 

… for the ball golem. Max honestly has no idea why she’s still on the court.

It hits her perfectly, and the rest of the class cheer, music starting up again and launching into the chorus. The beat, with a lack of people on court, is picked up by the thumping of shoes and fists on the bleachers. 

“Burnhounds vs. Shockodiles: Final showdown!”

“Not.” Jeff rises slowly, and Max tenses. He turns, and Max grimaces as he shows off the Golden Switch. Plan B, then. The background vocals are shocked into silence, and the music thumps silently as Jeff launches into his villain song again, this time with leitmotifs from Burnhounds vs. Shockodiles. Yikes, he really liked the sound of his own voice.

Max remains alert as Jeff walks along the court. The likelihood of him throwing the ball before his verse ends is low, but he watches anyway. Somewhere in the middle of it, Max perks up with incredulity, recognising the counterpoint. That was his and Johnny’s theme! Jeff hasn’t seemed to notice it, thankfully, and Max glares him down. It’s not over yet.

“Ha, you think I’d miss?

LET’S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THIS!”

Max grits his teeth.

“Johnny!!” He cries. Their theme breaks free from the harmony, playing high above everything, and overwhelming Jeff’s at the final note. He grins. “Look up!”

The music pauses.

Krak.

Foom.

Thwack.

SNAP!

The ball ricochets off his arm, arcing high over the court. He doesn’t need to look back to know Johnny caught it.

Max has a split-second to acknowledge darkly that the throw was in rhythm, before pain bursts on Max’s left arm, and he tears up, hissing as he tries not to cry. This doesn’t work. 

“RRRRGGGHHHHH!!” He groans, curling up on the ground. Flippity flippin’ flip! His arm is on fire. He didn’t think it’d be this bad if Dmitri had somehow survived it, but it was.

“WELL WHATRYA WAITIN’ FOR?!” Johnny shouts. “LET’S GET ‘IM!!”

“YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!” comes the cry, and the music starts again, playing a victory instrumental to accompany the cheers.

Thump. Thump Thump.

Well, almost an instrumental. Lisa steps up unnoticed behind Jeff, pinning him with a vice-like grip.

“Hey Shockodile, here’s some advice:

In this school, you should really learn to think twice.

Hey Shockodile, don’t make this a trend,

There are scary people here you don’t want to offend.”

#kindlespark #prompt: the musical #submission

[i-am-a-teenage-author]

Rise Of The Others: Chapter Five

"It's the same old theme In two thousand eight-teen In your head, in your head, they're dyin'"

I put the phone down, placing it back in my pocket. I began to look at the soldier, holstering my rifle. "About Seattle, has it been contained?"

"We're still doing our best to contain the outbreak there. It's nothing too serious," the soldier responded, putting away their rifle.

"Well, I just hope the infection doesn't spread anywhere else," James mumbled, sitting down on the nearest chair.

I began to hear something on the radio Caden was carrying. "Hey! We're done getting all the supplies, get back to the chopper!" I heard Max say into the radio.

"Come on," Lincoln whispered." We have to get back to the colony."

As we began to move back to the helicopter, the soldier began to go with us. "Where are you going?" They yelled, taking out their rifle.

"Back home, what do you expect?" Caden said. "We have room for one more."

"The helicopters leaving in 5 minutes!" Lincoln reassured us, running out the door.

As we left the shithole people called the hospital, I could see a helicopter, but it wasn't ours. Odd.

I could see the helicopter's blades begin to spin, the wind circulating around it. The air was hard to go through, Caden even being pushed to the ground by it.

"Come on!" Max shouted from the chopper. "We don't have time to wait!"

We all jumped in the helicopter, it began to slowly fly up in the sky, I could see smaller explosions coming from both inside and outside the hospital.

Skulls were surrounding the hospital shooting at the military, gunfire went back and forth, explosions ruining the streets. "I'm glad we left when we did," Caden said, crossing his arms.

"Oh well." I looked up at my phone, seeing a text message from Nate.

Nate: Hey Liam.

Liam: Hey.

Nate: I'm surprised you actually survived this long... Tell me your secrets, Liam!

Liam: Step one: stay away from populated areas, more people means more zombies.

Step two: if necessary, gather supplies in groups, especially in populated cities.

Step three: set up camp in a good spot. Bonus points if it's a quarantine zone.

Step four: always stay clean!

And that's how to survive a zombie apocalypse! (Well, actually any type of apocalypse but whatever :p)

Nate: interesting . . .

Liam: yee

Nate: btw, I'm not too far from Kelowna. I'll be there in about an hour.

Liam: I may or may not be having a mini panic attack right now--

Nate: same here xd

Liam: I wanted to see you for such a long time, it feels weird to actually think that you're just an hour away.

Nate: I know, right? It feels like forever since I last saw you, Liam. I just can't stop thinking about you.

Liam: I know, I'm really anxious to see you again since a year can change a person a lot.

Nate: Yeah, since because before I saw the emails, I genuinely thought you... died. For all that time, I've been telling myself lies. But now, it feels like my life has been turned around.

Liam: Well, I'll see you soon. I love you.

Nate: I love you too.

I put my phone back in my pocket to see everyone looking at me. "Welcome back to reality," Caden said, giving me a soft smile.

"I'm detecting another helicopter going our way," Max shouted, pointing at the radar in front of him. "Its right behind us."

"Oh, shit," was all I could mumble back. I began to look outside, seeing the ruins of what used to be hotels, shopping centers, even homes.

All I know is that we were the lucky ones. Everything was calm, except the roaring blades of the helicopter above my head. I could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of people walking the streets mindlessly, and I could see that they were human. But their clothes were ripped up and torn apart. I could see that Shaun's theory was correct.

Within all of the piles of dead bodies and other people, I couldn't see much, if any zombies anywhere. "Max, we can walk from here. I don't see any infected," I pointed at the streets. "All human."

"We can't hold that many people!" Max shouted, looking into my eyes. "We can barely hold the people inside the damn colony!"

"We can just set up some bases near the colony, eventually, we can take back the region!" Caden excitedly said. "I mean, Shaun said that the virus would die out within a year, right?"

"Yeah, but that's like thousands of people!" Max insisted.

"Just land the fucking helicopter!" I shouted at the pilot.

I could feel the helicopter come to a halt, landing at the nearest building. Seeing all of the people jumping in excitement, waving their hands around, was so uplifting to me. It was so hopeful to see so many people just being happy, being themselves.

Within all of those people, I could still see some infected. If I had remembered, sometimes, the virus doesn't die, it instead, resonates in a host. That's what I remember from the countless lessons on diseases or stuff.

The door to the downstairs of the building was right in front of me, being boarded up for some reason. It gave it some sort of odd feeling, like if I shouldn't go in, but most buildings have that oddness.

Still, I took Caden's hammer and took out the nails and opened the door, looking for any traps or mines. Caden, Max, Lincoln, and Susan came with me. Looking inside the hallways of the building, which I assumed used to be apartments. I could hear pounding on the doors, people yelling for help. As we checked each apartment, there were multiple families we all had encountered. The smell of rotting and mouldy food was all I could smell.

When we got to the ground floor, about 50 different people, mostly children, were following us. I could hear the infected's screeches and groans from inside the office of the building.

I told the kids to hide, as I unlocked the doors to the complex. Noticing a baseball bat down in the floor beside me, I took it, clenching my hands.

I kicked open the doors, hitting a zombie and killing it. This had alarmed all of the infected within the entire block, which was few and far between.

It wasn't too much of a hassle, because there was maybe about two zombies left. I bashed their heads, killing both of them.

After killing the zombies, I gave them a speech about the Skulls. Still, despite having the entire city on our side, the Skulls imposed a greater threat.

After the speech ended, I went into the helicopter and back inside the colony.

As I left the helicopter, I could see there were no civilians around. Guess it's lockdown time.

While going into my room, I could feel the humid air inside the cabin, the fire crackling, as the radio was playing. I leaped on the bed, curling up in the sheets and blankets.

The next morning, I heard a faint voice. "Liam?"