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gamelpar · 3 years

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A Second Chance

Red Team origin story.

Jerome never stopped fighting; he just chose to fight for something else.

Characters: Douglas-042, Jerome-092, Alice-130, unnamed Spartan-II trainees, Dr. Haley (mentioned), Chief Mendez (mentioned)

Warnings: a little angsty i guess, death (minor unnamed characters), guilt, sorrow, suffering, my writing at its finest

a fanfic for my lovely Red Team babies and anyone else in the Halo fandom who adores them as much as me. they truly do not have the amount of content they deserve.

edit: read it on ao3

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A few years had gone since Jerome woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unknown facility on a planet called Reach, and a woman---Dr. Halsey---had gathered him and a big bunch of other kids his age in a room and told them that they were to become the protectors of humanity and Earth and all her colonies. Him and 74 other candidates were to be trained to become soldiers of the UNSC.

He’d resisted. Others had as well. Some tried to escape. Jerome tried to escape many times despite knowing Mendez and the other DIs would always be waiting for him, always using more physical force and different tactics to throw him off from attempting again each time. He refused to be intimidated, though, and there were recurring instances where his violence towards the DIs that tried to stop him exceeded way past the limits that other trainees generally didn’t dare attempt to reach. He’d managed to even send a few to the infirmary with injuries that required immediate medical attention. He swore to himself that he would never stop fighting.

However, he eventually came to accept this new life, this new responsibility that was put on him. There were people---Dr. Halsey foremost---who held faith in him. Who believed he was capable of so much more, and what if he was? He didn’t stop fighting, no---he just chose to fight for something else, and in the last months he’d risen quickly among the top candidates.

In the absence of his real family back on Minister, he’d become close and forged a friendship with some of the other trainees, and eventually they became a team---something like family---most of them no longer remembered the family they’d originally come from. They became Red Team, with Jerome as team leader.

------

During a game of Capture the Flag, Jerome and his team faced off against another team in which a certain trainee, Douglas-042, was a member of.

During one of the rounds he’d advanced for Jerome but Jerome had evaded his blows and moves and beaten him, and advancing further Red Team ultimately won the game. The anger that he’d seen blazing in 042’s eyes was something he would never forget. The anger was familiar. He’d felt that same anger himself. It is still there, seething around inside him but he has control over it. Something that 042 yet had seemed to master.

Jerome had watched him sometime afterwards, and it quickly came clear that it was a serious issue of 042 that he struggled to fix and control, and was often berated by Mendez and the other DIs for it.

You have to learn how to control it, Jerome told him once during lunch, after Douglas’ and his team lost another game. It was the first words he said to him. You need to adapt sooner or later. Like I did.

-------

Jerome-092 remembered pain---unexplainable pain, and crying and screaming as his limbs thrashed around and he tried to move, tried to escape. And then nothing.

He woke up high on painkillers; mind fuzzy, body throbbing with pain, skin dry and cold, insides burning like a blazing fire. He couldn’t breathe. Soon there were doctors and nurses all around him.

Washout. That was what they had called him. You have been washed out of the program.

You failed.

They told him his body had rejected the augmentation procedures but that he was lucky. He survived.

Many others didn’t. Jerome was the only member of his team who’d survived. His friends---people he’d known as family---were dead. Their deaths, slow and painful.

Gone.

A knife twisted its way into his heart and he felt broken.

They told him the procedures had crippled him but that he was lucky.

There were others who’d been crippled in worse ways than he had. Those who barely looked human anymore. The knife twisted deeper and waves of guilt, sorrow, anger---emotions Jerome couldn’t distinguish---hit him on and on.

33 survivors fit for duty. 30 dead. 12 crippled, Jerome included, and it all left him with a great sense of failure, guilt of a survivor, a soul and body shattered and wasted.

He’d accepted the new turn of events of being raised and trained as a soldier. He never imagined that something inevitable would happen to render him unfit for that purpose after fully committing his life to it.

He went into rehabilitation and a few weeks went by which were spent performing different types of exercises, scheduled for several medical appointments, undergoing therapy sessions and more, all as part of a scheme created to help him recover from the failed augmentations.

One day Chief Mendez had come to speak to him, curious of how he was holding up. Jerome had told the Chief the truth but didn’t express the sense of guilt and failure he was constantly tortured by. The Chief had nodded in response and told him his rehabilitation was going well. So well, he told him that he would be given a second chance.

A second chance.

A second chance to become a soldier, a second chance to become a Spartan. Become what he had spent his life since he was six training for. Jerome could hardly believe it, mostly because he feared it was false hope. Mendez explained to him that his failed augmentations hadn’t crippled him as severely as it had for others, and that the progress of his rehabilitation had been shown promising enough for a second attempt.

A second chance; he’d do anything for that. If it meant that he had to be re-trained and suffer through re-augmentations, then so be it. He’d dishonor his dead and crippled comrades if he didn’t take it.

Mendez had also told him that he wouldn’t be the only one. There were others like him who would be given a second chance. Jerome felt a bit uneasy by that. It still felt like only days had gone since he’d lost his friends---his whole team, and their deaths were still fresh in his mind. But perhaps building up a new team would give him something else to occupy his mind with.

------

It was during his first day of the retraining in one of the facilities that he had been joined by another trainee. One like him, who’d failed the augmentations but been given a second chance.

Jerome immediately recognized Douglas-042.

His gait was still a little stiff from the failed procedures despite having been through rehabilitation like Jerome, and his skin was paler than ever. His jaw was clenched and Jerome suspected he was still in some pain; Jerome’s own bones still ached and his mind was a little dizzy sometimes.

“Hey,” he greeted him.

“Hey,” Douglas greeted back, his gruff voice carrying a sense of wariness of the current situation.

“Jerome-Zero-Nine-Two,” Jerome introduced himself. He didn’t know if Douglas recognized him; it had been a long time since their first interaction when Jerome had offered his advice. And the air was tense with uncertainty and uneasiness. Just something small and simple to tone it down, maybe.

“Douglas-Zero-Four-Two,” he replied curtly, scratching his neck. Jerome scratched his arms, the silence pressuring in on them.

They remained quiet for just a few minutes when another trainee joined them. Alice-130.

Jerome recognized her as one of the most capable and determined trainees he’d ever faced off against in training. 130 had quickly become known among the 75 of them as being one of the few who didn’t seem as traumatized by the sudden change in their lives like many others were.

Rather, she seemed to thrive on it. The hard and difficult training had been a series of seemingly impossible challenges for all of them, but 130 had been as determined as always to succeed, seemingly taking each lesson she was taught to the heart. Jerome held no doubt that out of the three of them, she’d been first to embrace the new path presented in her life while Jerome had whole-heartedly refused to accept it and Douglas had struggled with the grave differences his new life presented in contrast to his earlier.

She was driven by her yearning for action and lived for the combat and challenges she faced. Never one to be driven and blinded by anger.

He admired her for that.

They introduced themselves to her and she did the same, before things went quiet again. The air was still as tense as before.

“So…” Douglas tried but quickly trailed off. None of them really knew what to say or do. It was scary to believe that they’d been given a second chance when the program had labeled them as washouts.

But they had that in common. They were washouts, who failed the augmentations, who were given a second chance while wondering what had gone wrong, why they failed the first time, why they survived when so many others of them didn't. It wasn’t fair.

Life hardly ever was.

Jerome fiddled with his fingers on his arm. The three of them would supposedly become the new composition of Red Team, and he would again serve as team leader. He better get comfortable leading a team consisting of members he hardly knew.

“They gave us a second chance,” he began carefully, eyeing Alice and Douglas, attempting to draw out a response from either of them to better understand their take on the situation.

“Neither of us wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case,” Alice replied hesitantly, her strained voice betraying the hopeful excitement glimmering in her green eyes.

Jerome took a deep breath; at least he wasn’t alone in this.

This had to be a second chance.

He’d lost people he’d considered family and he missed them every day dearly. The knife was there again and twisted into his heart. There was pain and guilt. Douglas and Alice probably felt the same. They’d lost something as well. The three of them had been through the same events with similar losses. The three of them were the same.

It was a second chance.

“Yeah,” Douglas said warily after a moment, then quickly cleared his throat and spoke again, this time with more confidence and optimism. “It has to be.”

“Despite everything,” Alice continued, her voice a little stronger.

Jerome nodded. They hardly knew each other; they were still in pain but despite everything they have a second chance here. They should take it.

“A second chance,” Alice voiced his thoughts. “I’d take it.”

“Yeah, me too,” Douglas said in agreement and Jerome nodded his. A second chance.

Alice let out a breath and when she spoke next her voice didn’t sound as strained as before, her tone more that of confidence and determination. “Then let’s make sure we make it count.”

Make it count. A second chance to create something for what each of them had lost.

Don’t waste it.

Jerome no longer felt as wasted as he did before.

“Agreed,” Douglas replied, eyes shining now with the same determination and he rolled his shoulders a bit to loosen them up. “I’d say we better get started then, eh?”

Alice nodded at his proposal, challenge burning in her eyes.

Jerome looked at them. Each of them had suffered and lost much but it didn’t mean it was the end of things. They didn’t know each other well, but that would change.

It was a new beginning, maybe.

“Yes,” he said, loud and clear with confidence. A second chance for something new. “Let’s get started.”

#my writing #halo fanfic #halo #halo red team #jerome 092 #alice 130 #douglas 042 #these three needs more content #theres not enough and you know it #and i will help with that #i love my red team babies #another try with my writing holy hell #i think i did pretty well tho #if i get to say so myself #anyways enjoy!

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rvmmm21 · 4 years

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. i think he likes you back .

summary : joohyun is tired of hearing seungwan go on and on about this wonderful, attractive senior she’s head over heels for. joohyun wants a name, and she knows exactly how to get it out of her, no matter how much Seungwan wants to keep it a secret.

requested : yes, by rvmmm21 to rvmmm21.

note : oh wow, is this my wenrene niche? do i have a soft spot for nervous, spluttering wendy and (big)tease, soft dom irene? oh, i don’t know... but this was ?fun-ish? smut practice nonetheless. i still cringed though, working hard on my plotless smut. i’ll proofread it like later or smth i’m gonna sleep now.

[(soft)dom!irene x wendy]

...

“… and I like him.”

“A name, Wan-ah, I need a name… come on…” Joohyun insists, dropping her pen and herself onto the bed next to the younger girl, incomplete pie charts and bar graphs surrounding them both.

I mean, yes, she could very easily bite the bullet and tell Seungwan that she, too, wishes to see them as more than just friends, that she’s been waiting for the chance to… deepen their bond. Or that she already knows that this infamous heartthrob senior Seungwan has an undying crush on is, in fact, her.

But really, what’s the fun in that?

They’d talked about crushes before. Far too much, in all honesty. Ask all the missed deadlines and turning up to class halfway through it. Oh, and Joohyun’s now a pro at flattening knowing grins and keeping her eyes from rolling skywards from all the times she’s had to do it when Seungwan was in one of her particularly ‘gushy’ moods. The senior she’s wholeheartedly in love with.

Senior as in a boy senior, of course, and definitely not Bae Joohyun.

“Oh unnie, he’s so good-looking… but – but you’ll never guess who it is.”

“His legs… his hair… he’s so pretty and… I don’t know, I think about what it would be like to… to kiss him and – and ugh, just kinda everything, you know?”

“… but – but seriously, you’ll never guess… I mean… so don’t even try.”

Joohyun could write a novel, at this point, with how much information she’s gathered on this mysterious senior no one else but Seungwan seems to know about. It’s the fine print, really. The little details like how smooth his fingers are when he tucks a spidery velvet lock of hair behind his ear, how she can just tell he’ll make a great partner because of how he well he listens; things that are far too in-depth and descriptive for someone who’s supposedly admiring from afar, for someone’s who’s never actually spoken to him.

Oh, and don’t even get her started on the number of times this ‘boy’ has been referred to as ‘she’.

“So?” Joohyun blatantly peers, head cocked and eyebrow quirked, “I’m sick of hearing about it. Are you going to tell me or what?”

“… I-I can’t, unnie, it… it’s a secret…”

There we go, that A-class excuse – ‘It’s a secret’.

Oh no you don’t, Joohyun thinks, not this time. She’s not letting Seungwan slither out of this one like she’s very poorly managed to slither out all those other times.

She casts the younger girl (who seems hell-bent on keeping her mouth shut) a look of determination, and receives one right back, doubled in intensity, if not a little fragile round the edges.

Fine, be like that, Joohyun thinks. She’ll pry that name from those lips… oh yes, she will… even if it has to come after a plethora of… other noises.

Joohyun sneers, edging closer to the girl who’s a few seconds away from releasing white puffs of steam from her ears. “Honestly, I kinda like how you try so hard. Unless you’re just playing dumb… Wan-ah, you don’t think I’m stupid, do you? This lover-boy of yours clearly doesn’t exist.”

Well… not like that. ‘He’ may not… but ‘she’, on the other hand, very much does.

Seungwan feels those very familiar cherry-blossom petals sear into her cheeks at how close Joohyun is. Suddenly, everything is amplified. Suddenly, she’s hyper aware of how she’s twitching, holding back from just leaning forward and connecting them both… or how she’s now caged in by her definitely-not crush, back against the headboard with absolutely nowhere to go.

She has to let out a nervous chuckle, if only to distract from her raging blush. “… unnie, I… he does exist… he’s –”

She’s cut off. Seungwan’s eyes bulge out before fluttering closed when she feels a pair of velvety lips against her own. There’s a lively tinge of strawberry-burst lip balm exchanged from Joohyun’s mouth to hers, and her lips are already tingling by the time the older girl pulls away.

“… w-wha – what was… that?” she finally manages, going stiff when she sees that sinful smile on her unnie’s otherwise innocent face.

“Now you know,” Joohyun replies, licking her lips, savouring the taste of inexperience and cherry liquorice – with a slight aftertaste of denial, of course. Although that’s nothing she can’t fix.

Seungwan couldn’t look more confused… or guilty.

“… know –” she gulps, not knowing how she could say anything that wouldn’t immediately give her away, “– know what?”

“What it’s like to kiss him.”

Seungwan’s eyes go wide again. Her brain short-circuits, and she jolts forward. “Unnie!”

But Joohyun splays a hand against her chest, gently easing her back onto the pillows. Seungwan knows the she intended the gesture to soothe her nerves, but it only succeeds in firing her up twice as much. Still, she’s mute, unwilling to believe this is actually happening.

“I bet you want to know everything about him, don’t you –”

Oh? Joohyun’s hands are inching their way under her skirt. Oh? What’s she doing?

“– I bet you want to know what he can do… to you. Hm?”

Seungwan whimpers down at the pretty fingers now caressing her against the damp fabric of her panties, stroking her slit with practiced precision. Oh no. No, no, no… this is so bad. She can’t possibly feel how wet she is, can she? That dewy heat had been radiating at her core the entire time, but she really didn’t think she’d have it revealed to the one person she was trying her best to hide it from.

Joohyun simply smirks up at her, poised as ever. “You’re thinking about him now, aren’t you?”

When Seungwan stays silent, Joohyun pushes herself up and leans over to give her a kiss on the cheek. And then her other one, and one on the corner of her lips, her forehead, her nose and her right ear. Her fingers never move from between her legs.

“Aren’t you?” she repeats, breath tickling the shell of her ear.

Of course I am, Seungwan confesses to herself.

It’s like an out-of-body experience, when Joohyun grasps her by the arms and scooches them towards the edge of the bed, grabbing one of the pillows and propping it up behind her. Ah yes, there’s that fine print in action again, in a very live setting, this time. She knows this can’t end well for her, but there’s something about Bae Joohyun, the girl she’s had very... descriptive dreams about, on her knees before her. It grants her the near perfect illusion of being in control.

But then that naughty shimmer in those flawless eyes reminds her she really, really isn’t.

The older girl smoothly hooks her fingers into the waistband of her panties, pushing her bottom up and giving them a swift tug down past her hips. Despite the scorching humiliation, Seungwan complies, shifting up so Joohyun’s job is easier. Her fingertips leave trails of warmth down her skin and she can only watch as her underwear is chucked gracelessly over her shoulder.

“You want to know what he’s like in bed...”

Even almost fully clothed, Seungwan feels more naked than she’s ever felt before. She inhales sharply when she feels a brief pressure on her clit, instinctively trying to draw her knees together, but with Joohyun in between them, it’s impossible to. So she resorts to laying back, resting her weight on her elbows, helpless to whatever Joohyun has in store for her.

“You want to know how well he can take you.”

A finger dips into the wetness it finds and the younger girl gasps, feeling herself leak even more when it draws lazy little circles around her clit. Not on it, just around it. If she didn’t know any better, Seungwan would think she’s doing this on purpose, deliberately not touching her where she wants – needs. It’s unfortunate that Joohyun’s maddening teasing rendered her unable to speak, because she really needs to ask for more.

“… p-please… touch… touch harder…” she tries, not caring at how pathetic that sounds.

Joohyun smiles.

“Touch harder where?”

The embarrassed squeak she receives in reply gives her a pretty good idea, though.

“Harder… here?” She asks, sliding her fingers back into her core. Seungwan whimpers. “Or… here?”

A thumb on her sensitive clit rubs slow, firm circles, and it’s the direct contact Seungwan’s been longing for since they began. She’s being filled and fucked so well, it doesn’t take long before it’s unravelling that knot in her gut and she can’t help voicing her relief, all her muscles tensing at the sheer pleasure. “… oh, oh – oh my gosh, unnie…”

“Feel good, Wannie?”

‘Good’ doesn’t do it justice, especially not after she’s been teased out of her mind like that. Her hips are rocking against the fingers pumping in and out of her, trying to get them to go even harder, faster.

“I’m going to make you cum, Wannie,” she hums, “unnie’s going to make you cum on her fingers, okay?”

She sure as hell is. It’s already bubbling to the surface. Joohyun’s about to make her spill over, tip her over that edge, have her falling apart with her two fingers hitting her g-spot perfectly, with her thumb against her clit, that wonderful ache clouding her sensibilities so she can’t think straight. “… I’m… oh, unnie, I’m gonna – I’m…”

“Uh, uh, uh.” Joohyun stops completely. She’s still knuckle-deep, but any movement, any friction is ceased. Seungwan’s would-be orgasm plateaus then plummets just as quickly.

And she barely stops herself from ripping her hair out. “Uh-unnie!”

“Tell me who you really like.” Joohyun resumes her unbearable teasing like she did at the start, brushing over her clit, never giving her anything concrete to hold on to for longer than a second.

Seungwan groans, dazed and obviously reluctant. “… huh?”

“It’s me, isn’t it?” Joohyun pries, holding the younger girl’s hips still when they try to grind onto her hand. “He isn’t real. It’s me. You like me. Say it, tell me.”

“… wh-what… no, please it’s n –”

She chokes back the rest of her sentence when Joohyun continues to pump into her at an agonizingly slow pace, keeping her orgasm painfully tethered. “You want to cum… you need to, don’t you? You need it? I want to hear you say it, so say it. Say it and I’ll make you cum. I’ll give you what you need.”

Seungwan wants to slap herself. She’s walked right into this. She’s just played herself – but Joohyun’s right, she needs to cum, she needs it so badly – oh god, her thoughts are everywhere. Joohyun tone is as sweet and as kind as she is, but her actions are utterly cruel, and Seungwan hates it that she wants everything she’s dishing out. It takes little more than a peer down at that searching gaze, inescapable, blinking innocently up at her like she isn’t driving her absolutely crazy with pleasure before she caves in. She’s broken and they both know it, all red in the face and choking out a weak – “… I-I like… I like you, unnie… you, it’s you, it’s you. I like you!”

To which Joohyun chuckles, playfully.

And then her fingers are moving again, plunging into her. Oh gosh. Oh my gosh, it feels good. Too good, it’s insane. Seungwan can feel herself clenching down intermittently on the fingers thrusting, curling against where she’s most sensitive. The pressure on her clit is nothing short of delicious, and she can finally hold onto the feeling for more than a second, but she craves it so badly that it only takes a second before it – it’s – it’s coming –

With a hoarse whisper of Joohyun’s name, she tenses up and goes limp all at once, slumping forward and clinging onto Joohyun for dear life, tiny shocks of electricity racing through her system as she twitches and convulses in her unnie’s arms.

Joohyun shifts off the floor and settles down next to her trembling Wannie, taking the opportunity to hum sweetly in her ear. “There, there now… see? That wasn’t so hard, was it? Was it really worth keeping it secret for that long?”

It feels like a millennium before Seungwan finds the strength to sit up and the ability to swallow. She flops lifelessly onto her side, letting those warm arms engulf her before looking Joohyun in the eye.

“I don’t know,” she half sighs, half pouts. “Wasn’t like I had much of a choice.”

Joohyun huffs fondly, leaning in to press a light kiss to a sweat-matted fringe. She lingers, and Seungwan can feel her growing smile. “Don’t worry, Wan-ah. He definitely likes you back.”

#red velvet #red velvet scenarios #red velvet imagines #wenrene #wendy #irene #smut #red velvet smut #unprompted rvmmm21 #fun fact i dabbed every time i wrote something dirty... so there was A LOT of dabbing #kpop scenarios #girl group scenarios

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fortune-fool02 · 4 years

Text

Love Thy Enemy

Kakyoin Noriaki x enemy female reader

Warnings: angst, bit of blood, fluff

This was just an idea that popped into my head. Please enjoy.

It was not her intention to lie to them. It was not her intention to watch them walk blindly into this little mission, battling fellow followers of Lord Dio. But it was not [Name]’s fault that they weren’t smart enough to notice the tiny little details that could save their skin.

As one of Lord Dio’s best servants, [Name] was given the mission of, not to kill the group of crusaders, but to learn everything she could about them; ranging from family and friends to their darkest secrets that they tried so hard to bury deep within themselves and pretend it did not exist.

That was [Name]’s job. Gather what information she could about them and send word to Lord Dio of their progress and -if possible without causing suspicion- lead them astray. There was something about [Name] that gave that sense of security, all she had to do was bat her eyelashes with that sweet little smile and people found it difficult to not trust her. The picture of innocent and sweet, concealing the serpent that laid in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike.

That was the irony of her own Stand, The Fool. Though, they were oblivious to the fact she had a Stand in the first place.

However, somewhere in this little adventure, something changed. [Name] would be sitting by the campfire, thinking about their next steps when Kakyoin would approach her, asking if he could sit beside her. She shrugged and he sat beside her. It didn’t take long before the two would be lost in small talk, discussing different topics and finding common interests such as an author they both read and drawing.

This didn’t faze [Name]. It was just harmless conversation between a fool and a lair, nothing more and nothing less. Though, if she was honest with herself, she did find Kakyoin’s company more interesting than the others.

***

Things began to spiral from her grasp as time ticked onwards. Despite what she did, she found herself growing to enjoy Kakyoin’s -as well as the other’s- company. The playful, childish banter they would all share, the carefree attitudes they had.

It brought back moments of her life that she had long tried to forget. Especially when she learned of their families. Mr Joestar’s daughter -Jotaro’s mother- was battling for her life because of Dio. Normally, this would have no affect on [Name] but when she saw the traces of concern that would flicker across Jotaro’s eyes whenever someone mentioned it, and how Mr Joestar would physically slump, it made something twist inside of her.

One night, whilst the others were sleeping, [Name] climbed from her sleeping bag and wandered off somewhere to think. How... How could she actually do any of this? The reason why she agreed to join Lord Dio was because she wanted to hunt down the man who put her mother into a coma -and who was still fighting for her life- and now, here she was, watching another family suffer the same fate. Except this time, [Name] was the bastard’s helper.

Could she really force another to suffer the same thing she was? But, if she didn’t then Dio would force one of his flesh buds into her head and then she would never see her mother again. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, dammit.

***

When the group had reached Enyaba’s hotel, the [Hair colour] female sent the old woman a cold glare. The old woman only smiled sweetly at her though she could almost sense the coldness behind it. Enyaba was fully aware of [Name]’s role in all this.

“So, what have you learnt about our little brats?” Enyaba asked when she and [Name] were alone. The [Hair colour] female turned her gaze to the unlit fireplace, “I’ve learnt more than enough.” she answered, refusing to look at the old hag.

“Wonderful. I’m sure Lord Dio will be pleased with you.” It was pathetic. [Name] knew that she was not a good person for siding with Dio but she didn’t think she could bare knowing that others were suffering more than deserved. What wrong had the Joestars done to Dio to deserve their entire bloodline to be crushed?

With a shake of her head, [Name] turned on her heel and walked out the room. Not moments later down the hall, she stopped. Kakyoin. She could hear Kakyoin’s voice from the room she was in moments ago. Crap.

***

“Excuse me, miss.” Kakyoin spoke as he pushed the door open, looking around the room. Enyaba looked over at him, the sweet facade falling back on as she smiled at him.

“Yes young man, what’s the matter?” Kakyoin looked around, his brow lightly furrowed.

“I’m looking for my friend, [Name]. I could have sworn I heard her in here.” he said, Enyaba waved her bandaged hand a little.

“Oh, that sweet girl? She just left.” she replied, “Why? Is something wrong?” He shook his head a little. Ever since they arrived here, he hasn’t been able to talk to [Name] as she was always off somewhere. It was strange but he wanted to ensure she was alright. The last thing he would want is for her to be hurt.

“No, I just want to know if she’s alright. She hasn’t been quite herself since we got here and I’m just worried.” There was a sprinkle of concern in his words that Enyaba noticed easily, as well as the slight furrow in his brow. The boy was worried about [Name]. An idea clicked in the old woman’s head,

“You sound as if you care about her.” Kakyoin looked at her, his emerald eyes clouded with surprise at that. He sighed softly, a sigh of defeat. Oh, how cute. The boy cared about [Name] and he had no idea of her true intentions. “You know, I think she went that way.” Enyaba said, pointing towards the door [Name] walked out moments ago. The second Kakyoin turned his back, her scissors emerged from her sleeve.

As she rose her scissors high, ready to drive them through Kakyoin’s flesh, the doors flew open; a force shoving Kakyoin out of the way of the scissors and sending Enyaba back. [Name] stood there, her body shielding Kakyoin as she glared at Enyaba.

“What the hell is wrong with you, [Name]?” the old hag shouted, her eyes wild with anger as she pointed her scissors at the [Hair colour] female. She looked between [Name] and Kakyoin, everything clicking into place. “You’ve gone soft, haven’t you? You had one job to do and you couldn’t even do that. Lord Dio will be very disappointed in you!”

With a yell, [Name]’s Stand materialised from the shadows beside Enyaba, taking the old woman off guard at the monstrous figure suddenly charging at her, giving her little time to react as the Stand threw her through the doors. [Name] didn’t stay to check Kakyoin, instead, she went after Enyaba. With a Stand like Justice, she had to be quick.

As [Name]’s Fool charged, a handful of Enyaba’s puppet corpses lunged at her. The Fool turned, abandoning its attack on the hag and moved to the corpses, giving Enyaba the chance to strike.

“[Name] watch out!” Kakyoin called to the [Hair colour] female. [Name] turned sharply, grabbing Enyaba’s hand and landing a sharp kick in her ribs before ripping the scissors from her hand and throwing them somewhere. As Justice formed behind her, Enyaba’s face strained, the colour fading from her skin as she heaved as if struggling to breath.

[Name] looked over to see Star Platinum inhaling Justice, clearing the air of the twisted fog and rendering Enyaba defenceless. Once the old hag collapsed, [Name] turned to Jotaro and was greeted with a punch from his Stand, sending her flying into the staircase. Blood trickled from her head as her vision swam slightly from the impact.

“This entire time, you were an enemy, [Name].” she heard Kakyoin say as his figure approached her along with Jotaro’s. She knew this would happen eventually. “Guess that makes us the fools.” [Name] shifted to get, at least, a little more comfortable, causing Jotaro to take a step forward, expecting an attack that didn’t come.

“I didn’t do it because I wanted to, Kakyoin.” she said, earning a scoff from Jotaro but she ignored it and continued. “You know what Dio is like, you yourself have been in his command.” the red haired male shot her a look that made her cringe on the inside.

“Because he had a flesh bud in my head.” [Name] nodded,

“Exactly. I did all this because I didn’t want to have that in my head.” she confessed, seeing no point in hiding anything any longer. If she was lucky, Jotaro would kill her before Dio could. She would rather die by his hands rather than Dio’s. “I wanted to go back to my mother, and he told me that if I followed his orders then I could see her again. If I didn’t, he would kill her and force a flesh bud into my head.” she lowered her head.

Kakyoin crouched down beside her, his eyes spinning with sorrow, “But why did you attack Enyaba? If she was working for Dio.” [Name] rose her gaze to meet his.

“Because I didn’t want to see you hurt, Kakyoin.” she admitted, suddenly feeling small and pathetic like a child. “I care about you and I didn’t want to see you get hurt because of this.” Whatever confessions she admitted to now would be pointless, they would only see it as a pathetic attempt to slip past judgement.

Confusion flooded her body when she felt Kakyoin’s arms wrap around her body, holding her close. “W-What’re you doing?” she asked. Kakyoin only held her closer before speaking.

“I believe you.” her [Eye colour] eyes widened, shock flooding them. How... How could he believe her after finding out she has done nothing but lie and deceive them? “[Name], I can look into someone’s eyes and know if they’re lying to me.” he said, leaning back slightly to look at her.

“When I look in your eyes, I can see the hurt and pain you have been through. I knew you weren’t all that you claimed to be and that was why we brought you along in the first place.” How ironic. The fool was fooled; who’s the idiot now then?

Despite what she did, Kakyoin didn’t hate her. If anything, he sympathised her. Tears pricked her eyes before she could stop them and Kakyoin pulled her into an embrace again.

“Don’t worry [Name]. We will save Jotaro’s mother as well as yours. I promise you.”

#kakyoin #kakyoin noriaki #jojo bizarre adventure #kakyoin x reader #kakyoin noriaki x reader #jojo bizzare adventure x reader #jojo #jojo x reader #stardust crusaders #stardust crusaders x reader #kakyoin stardust crusaders #fluff #female reader #reader insert

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roominthecastle · 5 years

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post--“620″ ramblings about stuff & things

so 620 picks up one week after the succulent goose incident. Despite those 7 days, our Red remains as angry and hurt as he was before (if not more), which is our first key point. “I can neither kill... nor trust... nor forgive.” It’s quite an unsettling thing to hear, to say the least, and Liz, unsettled, immediately counters w/ “You forgave Dembe.” This Liz vs Dembe thread that’s been earnestly pulled on since 618 gives us the second key. It reaches all the way back to the first episode of this season where it gets established why such a comparison is not working as an argument: “That’s different.”

In both 620 and 601 we have a moment where Liz and Red try to drag poor Dembe in between them as an “example” to deflect pressure, but each immediately rejects this stunt bc they both know that the nature of their relationship is different. The forgiveness of a parent (figure) is not forthcoming for Liz bc Red’s feelings for her are not really those of a parent. This exact issue emerged after her faked death, too, and Bokenkamp touched upon Red’s point of view already, i.e. how the parent figure would have to forgive but the romantic partner is, in fact, conflicted [x]. But I’ve already written a longer piece on this duality, so I won’t get into it here.

And Red’s been struggling. He is heartbroken again and not as a parent. A parent’s heartbreak is equated to “being impaled by a unicorn” and -- still barred from being in her life -- it’s little Agnes whom Red watches riding a unicorn on the carousel. :)

With Liz, Red is suffering through something else that 100% parallels what Liz went through w/ Tom re, love, betrayal, and forgiveness. She was in limbo where she couldn’t kill, she couldn’t trust, she couldn’t forgive. She lost control and cold fury was the only way to get some of it back. And then she gave in to hope and “forgave every lie and believed every promise” only to get betrayed again. Red describes his predicament the same way: she “has lied and deceived me and I've forgiven her every time” and “I knew but I let my hopes convince me that she wouldn’t betray me.” This ties straight back to the idea of being in love == being rendered powerless, which is part of a larger quote from James about self-deception vs true romantic love. Part of this had a cameo in S2 and another is echoed at the end of this episode (the greeting card bit).

The topic of appearance vs truth is the third key that slides neatly into the broader question of Red’s identity. We have two important scenes that poke this issue:

one w/ Ressler when he questions Dom’s story and Liz’s willingness to gloss over the holes to preserve a neat surface appearance: “But is it the truth? Does it make sense that this is the answer?”

and the other is w/ torture master Teddy who points out how Red lives a charade: “The code's like the suit and the hat. You feel good wearing it. Look good, too. Million bucks. But, and I gotta think deep down you know this, it's like lipstick on a pig. It can cover a lotta sins. End of the day, it's still trayf.”

and all this nicely echoes Dom’s words from the previous episode (the “architect of this charade” who’s “stepping into the lie”) and the way Red kicks off the whole show in 101: “Everything about me is a lie.”

Red wears a disguise, is the point. “Raymond Reddington” is a lie he’s been inhabiting for a yet to be fully uncovered purpose. But ever since he met Liz, he’s been longing to break from this. It’s clearly expressed in all those emotional moments he shares w/ her, e.g.:

“I haven't been home in years. But if anyone can give me a second chance, it's you.”

“Sailors have been navigating by the stars for thousands of years. Odysseus spent a decade at war. But his biggest battle was finding his way home. That's Polaris, the North Star. That's how sailors used to find their way home. When I look at you, that's what I see. I see my way home.”

“It may be hard for you to imagine, but I once had a relatively normal life... bills to pay, play dates, family, some friends, people to care about. Lost all that. // Lost how? // In Mexico, there are these fish that have colonized the freshwater caves along Sierra del Abra. They were lost. They found themselves living in complete darkness. But they didn't die. Instead, they thrived. They adapted. They lost their pigmentation, their sight, eventually even their eyes. With survival, they became... hideous. I've rarely thought about what I once... was. But I wonder...if a ray of light were to make it into the cave, would I be able to see it? Or feel it? Would I gravitate to its warmth? And if I did, would I become... less hideous?”

When Red looks at Liz and Agnes, the deep longing for that past self w/ a wife and daughter stirs in him. It surfaces when she tells him her simple yet distant dream of walking in the park w/ her husband and daughter. They want the exact same thing. This is consistent throughout the seasons. He’s been gently signaling this to her and she’s been fleeing from it bc he is just... too much and the idea of him in that role in her life is an attractive yet scary image (see her steamy dream of him in S2 that blends sensuality and dread as Red, having murdered her husband, stalks up to her bed asking what she really wants).

Red’s anger as a way to reestablish a semblance of soothing control and Liz’s refusal to face the truth to protect herself are what we have in that last scene in 620. “father figure” is a buffer zone, always has been, it’s part of the charade Red lives while wearing Reddington’s identity. Despite having pushed for the truth, she is now trying to lock him into this lie, telling him that that’s what he will always be. And if you keep in mind those quotes above that show how Red longs for a past life around her, then you can see how her words likely inflict more pain.

This brings another quote from Red to mind:

“You said something before. The truth doesn’t matter, that the only thing in this world that matters is just the appearance of truth. I fear you might be right about that. Lately I find that the truth has become… so elusive. Often imaginary. But in the end, it’s all that we’re left with, isn’t it? What is real, what you can taste and touch and feel. The words that pass between us as we look each other in the eye are… all we have to hold on to. The truth. I hold it dear.”

In their first scene where Liz talks about finally having the opportunity to be completely honest w/ each other, they sit face to face. And then promptly dance back from it all, esp Red. Then she soon admits to Ressler that she might be closing her eyes to the whole truth to keep things simple, safe and "sweet”. And so in their last scene, there is no eye contact at all as she tells Red that it doesn’t matter who he once was (never mind that months ago she was willing to put him in jail to find out) bc this fake identity is who he is and who he will always be, which apparently dictates that he must play father and grandfather.

The sheer arrogance and presumptuousness of this statement are already begging for a strong rebuttal but it also nicely reflects Liz’s tendency to make things about herself while brushing aside how others might feel or think. She did this w/ Tom when she refused to see who he really was and tried to convince herself he’d changed. And she does this to Ressler, too, when she tells him she knows he did everything bc he thought it was what was best for her, never mind that that was not Ressler’s motivation at all and he, in fact, said that to her already. Her last scene w/ Red has this vibe to it.

The fact that Agnes is part of this park scene is no coincidence, imo. Red is not comfortable w/ playing Liz’s dad. If he were, he wouldn’t have denied being her dad when she asked him in S1 (since wearing Reddington’s identity provides the wiggle room here), he wouldn’t have winced and cringed every time she referred to him as “father” in S5, and he wouldn’t have had the same reaction at the end of 620, either. He doesn’t embrace it, he doesn’t like it, he just endures it. There was a (sadly discarded) line back in S1/S2 about how he would be willing to play any role she wanted him to play but I believe something has changed since then. Even back in 102, he enthusiastically offers her the role of girlfriend and when she refuses, he flatly tells her that she can play daughter then. The preference on his part seems consistent but it will always be up to Liz to give the green light. Or the red one.

He wants to be a father to Agnes and he’s already confessed it in 319 (“I would give anything to be a part of that child's life... hold her... watch her grow.”). And the only time during the park scene when we can see the cold tension melt off him is when he sees the little girl. And when he hears Liz’s decision to bring Agnes home, his stony demeanor crumbles completely.

This is also where another part of that quote from James mentioned above seeps into the dialog: when Red remarks that Liz’s code is not a code but a greeting card -- confused, self-deceiving bullshit (just like Teddy called his code part of a charade designed to hide the scary truth). They are still not being honest w/ each other, they don’t look each other in the eye, they are still dancing around the actual truth at the core of their relationship. Red is deeply hurt, all his hopes seemingly dashed, which drives him to clam up even more and detach to mitigate the pain. He can’t kill but he can try and kill his true feelings for her, I suppose. And Liz is still afraid to face what it is exactly that fuels his intimate commitment to her, so she draws a line in the sand, declaring it permanent. But...

“You know the problem with drawing lines in the sand? With a breath of air, they disappear.”

James stated -- while talking about TBL -- that he’s not interested in material that doesn’t have a romantic/sexual aspect to explore. He also said that he is fascinated by Red and Liz’s relationship, that Red’s feelings for her are strong, complex, and complicated, and that neither is sure of the true nature of their relationship.

so bottom line (to quote Ressler who’s fast becoming the only voice of reason now that Dembe left): Red locked in the surrogate parent role just bc he wears Reddington’s identity for a different, still mostly unknown purpose -- is it the truth? does it make sense that this is the answer?

nope.

And I think it’s interesting that Cooper was designated as a “spokesperson” when he is in the dark about what happened between Red and Liz: the one who is mostly in the dark speaks about a family bond but his assessment (of love, faith, commitment) could easily pass for a wedding vow, too. It’s nothing but fitting, imo.

This latest fallout created a huge fracture in the Red/Liz relationship and I don’t expect them to repair it in the 2 episodes we have left this season. But Agnes is back and I think she will be the glue for these two idiots in the long run, allowing them to slip into a family rhythm that could potentially coax some buried feelings to the surface -- feelings both are trying to ignore at the moment.

#tbl spoilers #tbl spec #long post #lizzington

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maiji · 6 years

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Makai Unification Tournament matchups (with special focus on Hokushin and Kirin)

As we all know, Togashi didn't depict like 90% of the fights in the Makai Unification Tournament. But he actually went to the trouble of MAPPING OUT THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT BRACKET and making up names for every fighter. This means that if you pick some key people and follow them, you can see some really intriguing matchups (and also get names for your fics if you want hahaha). Which was possibly the intent - get readers all riled up and then not show anything lmao.

For fun, let’s walk through the tournament from the perspective of two powerful characters the series doesn’t really focus on - Hokushin and Kirin! OK I admit I just want to because I’m writing them a lot lmao

The handy tournament bracket chart thing

I was flipping through vol 19 and was reminded that many many years ago my sister had made these pencil notations on the two page spread of the tournament bracket. Basically she marked off where all the important people were, which is really helpful when you’re just staring at a sea of names. I've updated and transferred the notations to screencaps of the pages from MangaRock so you can see them too and be able to read them in English. A few names are rendered somewhat differently from what I’m used to, the most obvious being Rinku as Link and Kirin as Kylin. I’ve also noted a few bonus people below. Many thanks to my sis for doing most of the original legwork when we were kids lol

Blocks A and B

=^w^= Nekobaba appears in the anime as Nekotama, the size changing cat with the extra long claws.

LOL Zakuro is that loser who ran his mouth off in front of Yusuke and Hokushin about how how he was gonna take everyone down and plunge the Demon World into darkness, but then lost his first match. In the anime he also shows up with the gang on patrol in Mukuro’s territory.

Blocks C and D

(heart) Sasuga is the monkey-like demon girl Rinku falls in love with.

Also, I just have to say - DAMN, TOUYA, YOU LUCKY. He’s surrounded by (apparent) nobodies!! hahahahha. Except in the anime they changed it so he fought Kujo and gets his ass kicked. Oh well.

Hokushin and Kirin’s rounds

Here are the two surviving original generals of Mukuro and Raizen, two pretty big shots in the Demon World prior to this whole mess. Let’s see how they fared. (Ignore the stuff the announcer is saying in the images above about their block numbers, it’s irrelevant to the matchups below. These block numbers were for the mass eliminations during the prelims so that they could weed out tons of fighters at once. Both Kirin and Hokushin had to wipe out all opponents in their block in order to make it to the actual tournament bracket.)

Hokushin’s rounds

Round 1: Hokushin's first match is somebody named Himuro. Obviously my noodle husband kicks the ass of this random nobody with elegance and grace and moves on to Round 2.

Round 2: Here he meets Shishiwakamaru. Unsurprisingly, I'm of the opinion that Shishi is no match for him. But don't take my biased word for it - the animation team agreed. This matchup is actually depicted in the anime with Hokushin as the victor. (I'm not all that satisfied with how they did it, but again, they were busy plugging a lot of other gaps left by Togashi so I understand lol.) Yusuke's amazing nanny moves on to Round 3.

Round 3: Where he meets Raizen’s old beau Kokou and gets utterly massacred. I like to think he delays the inevitable with some ingenuity that forces her to put in a bit of effort to utterly massacre him. We know for a fact Kokou is the victor of this round because in the manga, Yusuke tells Kuwabara that Yomi was beaten by Kokou in Round 4, which you can see is the very next fight. In the anime, this conversation doesn't happen, so it was super funny to me when I watched the English dub for the first time and saw Kurama telling Yusuke (paraphrased) "Yomi lost to someone he had no business losing to" WELL EXCUSE ME ENGLISH DUB KURAMA, KOKOU COULD KICK YOUR ASS TOO. Anyways, this would've been a cool fight to watch, I think anyways.

Kirin’s rounds

Round 1: Some other rando named Nobusama 110% guaranteed bites the dust against Mukuro's badass general.

Round 2: This round’s interesting because, just like Hokushin, Togashi gives him a potential round 2 pairing with one of Yusuke’s friends - Jin. As much as I love Jin, I'd bet on Kirin just thoroughly mowing him down. In the anime, this never happens because Jin fights Souketsu (whom I always remember as “Raizen’s friend with the ugly hat” because of what Shu says to him lmao), but in the manga Souketsu was actually in Block A. If they just wanted Jin to get wiped out by one of Raizen's pals, Denhou already appears in Block D - though perhaps the animation team agreed that Jin probably would not have gotten past Kirin and didn't want to come up with attacks for the latter lol. Similarly, maybe they just did not wanna draw Denhou being cool, poor Denhou. Souketsu has to appear during the timing of the Yomi VS Yusuke fight anyways, so if we’re just thinking about resource allocation for designing and getting voice actors and whatever it makes more sense. ANYWAYS. Our sexy demon sorcerer moves on to Round 3.

Round 3: Wuh woh, there's Denhou. Kirin was probably annihilated here. That said, from a generous writing perspective, if I had to pick any single person in the series who is not Yomi or Mukuro as having a reasonable rat's chance in hell against one of Raizen's old friends, I'd probably pick Kirin. It's still super unlikely and definitely a surprise upset (for us readers who are fully aware of how powerful Raizen's pals are supposed to be anyways), but not completely unrealistic. But actually it doesn't really matter, because even if Kirin somehow made it to Round 4,

Round 4: He would then fight Enki. Where he would be confirmed screwed. The end.

That was fun, kinda like a fantasy football pool or something!

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