#no cause if that doll monster got them because they took several minutes to get through a confession | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nautiscarader · 3 years

Text

Nautiscarader’s Wendip Week day 3: Prank War

geez, this one took a while. I apologise, and let’s hope next one will arrive faster

(ao3)

============

Someone standing outside of The Mystery Shack might have thought that the living room contained a very predictable lighting bug, or at least that someone inside was broadcasting a rather boring Morse code message using light signals.

In reality, it was just Wendy and Dipper, slouched on the sofa, surfing TV channels, giving each of them at most three seconds to entertain their bored minds. So far, none of them stood up to the challenge.

But as Wendy continued the only physical activity she had the energy for, i.e. pressing one button, something finally caught their attention.

- "What's up everyone? It's your boy, the Prankster Prancer!"

A loud, obnoxious, blonde man in his twenties, wearing spiky, gelled hair rode into the shot on a fake unicorn, face-hugged the camera, filling the wide-angle lens and made both Dipper and Wendy jump in their seats as loud horn noise shook the air around them.

- Wait, I thought this guy was only on the internet! - Wendy raised her brow - Did he escape to the real world?! - Come on, who in the right mind would give him a show? - "So, first of all, thanks to our station, The Cheese Network, for giving me the chance to entertain you guys..."

Dipper and Wendy groaned in collective understanding.

- "...and for giving us some cheese to pay for our last week's prank!"

The screen dimmed and the camera changed to an aerial shot, containing not only fires and flood, but also several military helicopters.

- "So last time we did some EPIC prank during the gender reveal party and we've made a hole in the ozone hole!"

The man made extra effort to extend every vowel in the last word, to an equally obnoxious collection of sound effects.

- Wow. That looks... bad. Even by our standards. - Wendy watched the footage. - Yeah. Good thing this dude stays away from us. - "And now it's time to reveal the next place for our EPIC PRANK!"

The man took a baseball bat and unceremoniously smashed the unicorn doll in half, and stuck his hand in the fake guts, revealing an envelope.

- "And this one is a suggestion from my top commentator on-line, that girl leaves comments under every single one of my videos, so I could not ignore her request".

The envelope was opened, and suddenly, a girl's voice began reading it.

- "Dear Prankster Prancer. I love your videos, and how creative your calamity can be..." - Wait a minute - Dipper sat up, as his eyes widened in horror - Is that- - "My name is Mabel Pines, and I am staying in a small town called Gravity Falls, in Oregon...".

Dipper and Wendy looked at each other and understood each other at once.

- Barricade the doors!

But it was too late. As Dipper ran towards the lobby, the door were smashed to the ground, seemingly under the power of the air horns, and flooded the Shack with lights. The same blonde man walked inside, as if he owned the place, leading with him Mabel Pines.

- What's up birches? Is that how you call people living in the middle of a forest? - he shoved his face to the camera again. - More like, in the middle of nowhere! - Mabel added, high-five'ing him - Thankfully, me and my Prankster Protégé are gonna rock this place! - he shouted.

Dipper Pines stood up and cleaned himself from the dust and debris, watching as the two rock their heads to some aggressive tune.

- Hold on a minute! Mabel, why did you invite him here? If anything, there's too much going around in here! - Ugh, this is my little brother, Dipper. - Mabel rolled her eyes - I'm-I'm not little! - Dipper stomped in place - We're twins!

Somewhere behind him, Wendy snickered.

- What, you just look adorable when you're angry.

Dipper turned back and stormed towards his sister.

- Mabel, do you have amnesia or something? Gravity Falls is full of amazing things! We've been on treasure hunts, found all sorts of monsters in every lake, glade and a cave... You wanted to date a zombie on out first day here! - Yeah, sure, kid, as if I could just walk into a forest and find a dead body... - the Prankster took a sip of soda, looking somewhat nervously. - Mabel, we've seen living dinosaurs here! - Yeah, like I can see one now!

The Prankster pointed to the kitchen and very confused Grunkle Stan in his pajamas.

- What in the DMV is going on here? - Check this out, a living fossil!

The Prankster jumped towards Grunkle Stan and unceremoniously took a selfie with him.

- Oh no, my eyes! The light is coming towards me instead of the other way around!

Stan cried when flash of light blinded him, and with a sleigh of hand, the blonde man undid his belt, causing Stan to nearly trip and fall, if it wasn't for Wendy.

- Hey, you! You're not a prankster, you're a jerk!

At the sound of those words, the man stopped laughing and turned his attention, as well as cameras, towards Wendy.

- What's that? We've got ourselves a HATER!

An air horn was about to blow her hat off, but Wendy swiftly grabbed it and twisted it.

- Yeah, that's what I've said, you're a jerk. I like pranking people, but not to hurt them. - And watchu gonna do, leave a mean comment? - No, we're gonna prank you. - Wendy reached and brought Dipper towards her. - Cos we've done some pranking together ourselves! - Like what? - Like... when we've made our friend think his inflatable tube could talk!

The Prankster shot them with a dead stare.

- You know what, I don't even have time to play the "wah-wah" soundbite. But if you want to lose, your call. Tomorrow, we're gonna get an EPIC PRANK-OFF!

And he shot a pose in front of the camera.

- Right, now tell me where's someplace to eat. And they better have unlimited refills. - Lazy Susan is neat. And there's water tower nearby...

And with that, he and Mabel walked off, leaving the small destruction behind them.

- Wendy! - Dipper turned at once towards her - Are you crazy? He has entire film crew! And money! And very little empathy! He's gonna plough through us! - Chill out, man, we're gonna trick him, one way or another.

And she gently smacked the edge of his hat.

- Er, I know you guys like to babble all the time, but I still can't get up. - Grunkle Stan grumbled from the floor.

=============

The next day, Wendy woke up at the break of dawn with unbridled optimism. Dipper less so, and he was a bit nervous when Wendy gathered him and her crew in the small lumberjack shack in the woods to explain the plan of action.

- So, any questions? - she asked

At the same time, every teenager in the small room raised hands.

- So, how does exactly the can of whipped cream is supposed to work with the rake? - Tambry asked - And what do we have to do with the rat-shaped balloons? - Thompson asked shyly. - And can't we just... punch him? - Robbie suggested, mimicking the action. - Ugh, you guys!

Wendy groaned and hid her face in her hands. hearing the murmurs of doubt across the room, Dipper quickly stood up and continued.

- Guys, this jerk is giving us, pranksters, a bad name! We gotta prank him in a way that shows we are better... Because we can do better!

He watched as faces of the older teenagers brighten with his speech. Several of them even smiled.

- Plus he could, like, sue us for millions of dollars, so we gotta stay clean.

With newly gained optimism, the gang rushed to Thompson's van and readied themselves for the prank.

- Thanks, man, for giving me a hand. - Wendy suddenly patted Dipper's back. - Oh, no-no problem. - Dipper spoke, wondering if she noticed his blush.

=========

- Alright, we're all in places.

Wendy spoke to her phone, and observed the places, leaning from behind the wall. Her eyes moved from Robbie, hidden in the abandoned ice-cream stall, to Thompson, on top of a tree, to Tambry, pretending to read a large newspaper, and finally, to Dipper, holding a bag of provisions.

- We-Wendy, I'm not sure if this is gonna work. - Now!

She commanded, as Prankster walked nonchalantly out of the store. He thre away the half-eaten sandwich he just bought and was about to walk into the string that would have activate the whipped cream... if he didn't make a sudden jump.

He then threw something into the stall.

- Oh, crap, it's a grenade!

Robbie stormed out, tripping on the same wire he helped setting up, which resulted in his black hair covered in white goo and sprinkles.

Tambry was supposed attack next, but Prankester was already next to her. He took a bucket of soapy water and dumped it over her, destroying her diguise that covered her pruple hair.

For Thompson, he didn't even have to do much - he threw a mouse toy into the air, and listened how the boy tumbles down, shrieking.

And finally, he took something big and colourful out of his backpack and tossed it onto the street, watching as Dipper and Wendy rush towards it.

- Limited edition Giraffeoala!

They realised the two were after it when it was too late. Their heads collided with each other, just as the elusive plushie was yanked from their hands, back into his bag.

- Seriously, guys? You wanted to outsmart me? There like five of you and you couldn't do it. - Ha! That was a good one! - Mabel emerged from behind his back and did another high-five. - But I couldn't do it without you. - he pointed at her. - Me? But I didn't do anything... - Of course you did.

The Prankster lowered his sunglasses.

- Last evening at that stupid bar. You told me you were friends with everyone here. You told me how one of them likes gloomy, dark places. Like another one is afraid of mice. Like another one never looks away from her phone...

Mabel's ecstatic, radiant smile faded with each word the Prankster spoke, and her eyes, widened from excitation began to fill with tears.

- And, well, you told me what these two dorks are obsessed about... amongst other things. - Mabel! - Wendy and Dipper cried at the same time. - But-But I didn't... - Aw, really? You feel sad for them? LAME. - he pushed her aside and waved for his crew that followed him anyway.

For quite a while, all the small town could hear was Mabel Pines sobbing, until someone closed his arms around her.

- There, there, sis. - Dipper spoke quietly. - I guess you see why were so angry now. - I-I didn't know he would...

Dipper hugged her, letting her cry as much as she wants into his vest.

- It's not your fault, Mabel. - Wendy added, taking a knee and gently patting her. - But-But it is! - Well... Kinda... - Robbie added, and received a cold, piercing stare from Wendy. - Jerks like that like to... use people. And they know that the best ones are those, who are most trusting and kind.

Mabel's sniffing stopped, as Wendy continued.

- But you know what? - Dipper spoke suddenly - I think I got an idea...

He let go of his sister rushed to the Prankster, sitting on one of the toy unicorns, tossing quarter after quarter, while two children in queue began to tear up.

- Hey, you! - Ugh, you again, twerp. What, want me to reveal more secrets about you and your stupid hobbies? Or, like, who is your biggest crush after a toy plushie from the 90s?

Dipper's face reddened, but he remained unperturbed.

- We're not done yet. Tomorrow we're gonna prank you for good. Double or nothing! - Ugh, sure, fine. - the Prankster didn't even look at him - It's not like I can do anything until my lawyers clean up the whole "gender reveal party" fiasco. Like, who cares if the whole state is now inhabitable for life?

==============

By the next morning, the battleground was set. Cameras and tons of equipment surrounded the small grassy meadow in front of the Mystery Shack, where Dipper and Wendy were sitting in their chairs with their arms crossed, both wearing much more confident smiles. And the fact that Mabel was with them added them extra layer of morale.

When the clock struck 12, a mighty roar shook the place, as monster truck drove from behind the tree line, smoking and setting nearby branches on fire. The Prankster Prancer jumped out of it, and, drowned in the flashes of cameras, walked into his place.

- So, are you twerps ready for the FINAL PRANK OF YOUR LIFE? - he roared into the microphone, rolling his tongue back and forth as if he was about to eat it. - Nah, we're not gonna prank you. - Wendy shrugged - But someone else will.

The newly reinstalled door to the Mystery Shack opened, and a new figure appeared. An elderly woman walked out, being led by Grunkle Stan that gallantly helped her, for once not sneaking his hand into her purse.

And when she looked up from behind her glasses, the confident smile on Prancer's face disappeared at once.

- Grandma?! What-What are you doing here?! - Oh, don't you know? - Grunkle Stan rushed with explanation - We, old folks, all know each other. And I simply couldn't let her miss her grandson's grand day! - I'm so glad I can see you, Archibald!

The elderly lady used her cane to hook him by his neck and brought him into his arms, despite his best efforts to avoid any interactions.

- G-Grandma, don't- don't call me that! - Why not? - she continued, seemingly ignoring her grandson efforts to escape her tight hug. - I am your grandma, and I will call you by your full name, Archibald Roderick Sebastian Eugene!

Somewhere behind them, Dipper, Wendy and Mabel were having the time of their life, trying to hide their laughter.

- So, wait, his initials literally make him an... - Grandma! Make them stop! They-they are laughing at me! - Nonsense! Those young folks told me all your fans would love to see me talk about you. So I've send them some photos via the eclectic mail!

The blonde man looked to the side at Wendy and Dipper's faces. Their wide smiles told him everything, and in the act of ultimate desperation, he gently shook his head, silently mouthing his plea. He then looked at Mabel's, but hers was filled with spite.

In response, Mabel simply pressed a button.

The enormous screen behind them lit up, showing an adorable newborn blonde boy in diaper, giggling at the baby rattle.

Several more followed, showing his equally naked body in progressively embarrassing positions.

The screen changed, and the same boy was now three-years old, wearing a strict haircut as well as a bowtie. And the worst part was, he looked happy.

The Prankster Prancer fell to his knees, as tears began rolling from his eyes, which his grandma quickly dried with her handkerchief.

- Oh, yes, I do tear up a little at this one too. Oh, but the next one makes me so proud!

Prancer's eyes widen, if possibly even more, and throwing away all the pretence, he rushed to Wendy and Dipper and began begging them for mercy. But it was for nothing. He knew they have seen the photo already.

And with another press of a button, a seven-year old Prancer was shown, wearing a blue cardigan, sitting in an armchair with a big book in his hands, smiling at the camera, proudly showing his braces.

The scanned photo displayed a title, written in crayon over it.

"I love school!"

Flocks of birds flew into the air from the nearby trees in response to the shriek that reverberated the air, full of remorse, despair, and unmistakably, defeat.

- Nooooo!

The Prancer hit the ground with his fists, for which he was quickly reprimanded by his grandma ("You're going to make them dirty!"), while Wendy and Dipper high-fived each other, before giving Mabel a warm hug.

=============

- So I guess that will teach him? - Dipper asked Wendy as the two lay on the sofa, flicking through the channels again. - Pfh. I wish it did. - Wendy reached for her phone and showed Dipper a familiar blonde man waving his arms uncontrollably. - "What's up Prankster Pros? It's ya boy, and I've got this sweet book deal full of my MOST EMBARASSING photos! Look at that baby bottom! Only for $99.99..." - Geez, I guess they never learn. - Nope. But at least he's not here...

For a while the room dimmed every few seconds, as Wendy searched for anything interesting, but something else was on Dipper's mind.

- So... about those Cuddle Buddies...

The remote fell out of Wendy's hand.

- Uh, yeah, so, I just...

She shied away and mumbled her answer, until she saw a polite smile on Dipper's face.

- So, like, remember ever since you wanted to win that Duck Panda for me? I... kinda got into them, you know. Not like, obsessively collecting them, but... you know. - Yeah, I do. For cuddling.

The two looked at each other and exchanged the same, warm smiles.

- So which generation you like the most? - Well, gen 2 obviously - she rolled her eyes - What? Five is the best. - The best as sucking, perhaps. - Come on, they had changed the lead designer and everything, but they're still Cuddle Buddies...

For quite a while, the channel stayed on, as neither of them bother to change it. And when the night fell on, Wendy and Dipper realised that they might have discovered something new to talk about.

#nautiscaraderfics #wendipweek #wendip week #wendip #wendy corduroy #dipper pines #gravity falls #prank war

14 notes · View notes

freshouttaparsnips · 3 years

Photo

You finally got the upperhand.... a blushing Papyrus at your very words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this is the first chapter for a fic for Sins_of_the_Scruff on ao3!! its Female Reader/Slim, so have fun XD

tags: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Flirting, Pre-Relationship, Reader Is Not Chara, Reader Is Not Frisk, Female Reader, Slim is a dork

read it on Ao3

or read Chapter 1 below!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being in the cold, unforgiving Underground wasn’t so bad, once you’d gotten used to how things worked. Yeah, if you didn’t wear your disguise and monsters took more than a single passing glance at your stats, they’d try to kill you, but so far that’d only happened in secluded areas where a fight was happening anyways.

It was always your damn luck that some asshole would try to get you cornered, then find out that you were actually human.

You hated that the boys had to kill whoever found you out, but the alternative was you dying a horrible, painful death at the hands of the Queen, so you went with it.

Whatever reason Papyrus and Sans had for taking you in, instead of taking your soul then and there where they found you, was beyond you. All you knew was that Sans was very anal about making sure you ate, and Papyrus was very uh. Protective was a decent word to describe it, but over protective might have fit better.

You assumed it came from a life of having to fight to stay on top, a literal fight for survival, the fact that they were brothers being one of the few things keeping them together.

But you were grateful. You’d been sitting shivering in the icy snow, leg broken and blood dripping from your nose and you knew that no matter what else happened, you were no longer going to just take the hits. That was when Papyrus had found you. You’d growled at him, mimicking the different monsters you’d met along the twisted path that led you here, but he’d just chuffed a laugh.

“You’ve got a lot of spunk fer someone half dead, human.” he’d said, and there wasn’t much for you to disagree with.

So you’d settled for trying to bite him when he picked you up, swatting at his back as he carried you back through the forest and through the back alleys of town, till you got to a house that would have put the Addam’s Family to shame.

All black paint and locks and general bad vibes but he just hefted you up a little better and strode straight through the front door.

The inside was much nicer than the outside, whoever else lived with him obviously keeping it cleaner than he kept his own hoodie.

But the next thing you knew you were on the couch, bouncing from the fall and wincing as it jostled your leg.

He looked sheepish, at least, citing that “My brother will be here later… don’t piss him off and he’ll fix you up.”

And that was how you’d met Sans, the Captain of the Guard that would rather sneak a human around than give her to the Queen.

Some of it was probably your age; most other humans that fell had been children, and hadn’t survived even because of natural causes. You were an adult, which meant a strong soul, but also meant you were harder to kill.

And they both had a severe hatred for the Queen, so that might have played into it.

So you fashioned up a couple of horns and a face mask for yourself, as well as a pair of gloves that Sans had lying around, and you looked like any other weird ass monster.

Papyrus had always accompanied you at first, any time you headed out for any reason. They’d collared you, which made sense in the long run but since you hadn’t had a choice at the time you were still a little salty about it.

But Papyrus? He followed you around like a dog would, always right at your heel and always posturing for anyone that even thought to give you a second look. It worked (except when it didn’t), and you were fine except for the nasty scar some jackass had left when he’d tugged on your collar a little too hard.

Sans and Papyrus had been... upset about that. To put it lightly.

But your relationship with Papyrus had always been fuller, more vigorous and teasing and well.

That led to today.

“I’m just sayin’ doll, we could go home and watch a movie ‘er something, Sans wouldn’t know.”

You sighed, leaned back against the counter of his station. The thing seemed like it was made out of cardboard, but it held up under your weight okay, so you kept doing it. “Sans would absolutely know, dumbass. He checks over here every thirty minutes, you know he’d find out!”

Papyrus gave you a dubious look, but before he could open his traitorous mouth you continued.

“And do NOT say ‘Yeah well I c’n teleport y’know, its not like we couldn’t time it.’ cause you would forget!”

Now Papyrus was giving you the puppy dog eyes, which… didn’t always work, but didn’t always not work either.

“C’mon darlin’, its boring out here and its nice an’ warm at home, don’t you wanna cuddle up under some blankets and watch Napstabot kill something?”

You rolled your eyes. “That just sounds like a date or something, you big sap.”

There was silence, for a moment, before a strange choking sound came from beside you, your heart pounding as you turned to check on him…

Only to find Papyrus, the big lug, blushing furiously and staring off into the woods as if you weren’t there anymore.

It made the most shit eating grin come across your face, but you hid it quickly before he could see it and think you were making fun of him. “Oh, babe, if you wanted a date you could have just said so.” And with that you leaned forward, leaving a chaste kiss on the side of his warm, bright orange face before hopping up and heading back home.

You didn’t see Papyrus staring after you in shock as you left, or the way he fell off his damn chair when Sans stormed up demanding to know where you were.

That was great blackmail, Sans thought, and some that he’d share with you, seeing as how you and his brother seemed to be getting along so well.

Yeah, he’d have to push things along a little. You both deserved some happiness. And he deserved some goddamn alone time.

#fresh writes #undertale #swapfell papyrus/reader #female reader #flirting #fluff

10 notes · View notes

quicksilversquared · 4 years

Text

The Wavering Peahen: Chapter 4

When Nathalie started feeling oddly ill again, both she and Gabriel were worried that the Peacock Miraculous might somehow (impossibly) be to blame again.

So naturally, they pick someone else to be the Peacock for a bit. You know, as a test subject. Except the new Peacock… doesn’t exactly know that.

links in the reblog

Two more battles passed with Pavona's role reduced to the sidelines only, her only contribution to the battles being her amok. The restriction still chafed at her, of course, but since her cold had only gotten worse Lila had to admit that maybe it was a good thing that Hawkmoth wasn't expecting her out. She felt absolutely drained and exhausted by the time she detransformed after each battle, and it was only because she was fantastic with make-up that she managed to hide how terrible she felt from her mom and everyone at school.

Normally she wouldn't hesitate to jump on the opportunity to get even more sympathy and help, but who knew who Hawkmoth was? He could be anyone and have eyes anywhere, and she couldn't risk her poorly-timed illness getting back to him. A minor cold was one thing, but this whatever-it-was was out of hand. That didn't mean that she was an invalid or something- she could still participate via her amok, obviously, since that was the only way that she had been participating for the last several fights- but he might decide that her judgement would be impaired by her being sick or something ridiculous like that and take away the Peacock.

At this point, Lila was scrambling just to keep the Peacock in her hands at all. Having some power was better than none at all, especially when it came to Ladybug and trying to defeat her.

(At this point, Lila had to see Ladybug defeated. Her blood boiled more and more every time she saw the stupid bug- how dare she be so smug about beating the akumas and sentimonsters? She should be- what, Lila didn't know for sure, but every time she and Chat Noir defeated the supervillain's monsters, Ladybug had this stupid little smirk on her face and Lila just wanted to wipe it off.)

Still, even with Pavona operating from the sidelines, Hawkmoth hadn't been happy with her. He had snarked about how bad he thought her amoks were- as though he had a leg to stand on, considering some of his akumas in the past!- and acted as though they were super-weak, even though he and his akuma were definitely hiding behind her amoks and making them do all of the hard work. If Lila hadn't been worried about losing her Miraculous before, she definitely was now.

And then Hawkmoth showed up at her window again, late at night, and Lila's heart dropped straight into her stomach.

No! No, she hadn't gotten enough of a chance to prove herself! She hadn't gotten to really fight Ladybug and get under the superheroes' skin. She just needed a little longer, another week or two and some advice to get back on track so that she could be a strong partner for Hawkmoth. It wasn't- it wasn't like she was actually incompetent!

Hawkmoth rapped at the window again, looking less than impressed with the delay. Lila startled out of her thoughts, then scrambled to go get the window and let him in. She didn't have much of a choice, really.

If this was the end of her time as Pavona, hopefully- hopefully- Hawkmoth would at least keep akumatizing her so that she could have more chances to defeat Ladybug. Hopefully she hadn't screwed things up so badly that he was going to decide that he wasn't even going to have her as an akuma anymore.

"Good evening," Hawkmoth said stiffly once he had crawled through the window and straightened up inside of her room. His eyes flashed to her neck, where the Peacock pinned to her shirt. She had had it under a scarf earlier- thankfully her cold made for an easy excuse as to why she had suddenly started wearing scarves- but it was annoying to wear scarves for longer than strictly necessary and she had taken it off as soon as she went to her room for the night. "I trust you are well?"

"I- yes, thanks," Lila managed, vaguely puzzled by the inquiry. Hawkmoth had never asked after her before. She was there to be a tool and a help, not to be coddled and watched after. "A-and yourself?"

"Good." Hawkmoth glanced around her room, then back at Lila. "I came to give you an update. I'll be out of the city soon, starting this upcoming Saturday and extending for at least a week. It's unfortunate, but unavoidable. I figured that I should probably let you know so that you wouldn't wonder why there weren't any akumas, and to let you know that you are not, under any circumstances, to try to battle the superheroes during that time. And that includes sending out amoks." He fixed her with a long look. "And I will have a very close eye on the news, so I will know if you disobey orders. And if you do..."

The silence hung in the air, threatening and ominous. Lila quashed the urge to gulp and glance towards her door, towards the room where here mom was sleeping.

"I won't try to fight them," Lila said hastily. "I promise."

"Good. We both know that it would end in disaster anyway." Hawkmoth's voice was curt, clearly not about to waste time sparing her feelings. Lila thought that that was rather unfair, really- disaster was such a strong word- but she would probably feel a bit on edge without the assurance of both Hawkmoth and one of his akumas. "I hope to send out a couple more akumas before I leave. With any luck, one of them will be successful."

Lila nodded, refraining from saying anything. Luck didn't exactly seem to be the supervillains' thing, but maybe they had been wearing down the superheroes more than they realized and a strong sentimonster and akuma combo would finish them off.

A supervillain could only hope.

"Anyway, that's all I came about," Hawkmoth added when Lila didn't say anything. "Continue to stay out of battles but be ready with a sentimonster, that's all I ask."

Lila nodded again, feeling like a bobblehead doll. "Of course. I can manage that."

"I should hope so. I'm hardly asking for a miracle." Hawkmoth sneered at that, then headed out the window. Lila stayed where she was for a minute before hurrying to close the window and lock it, pulling her blinds shut so that Hawkmoth couldn't spy on her.

And then she rolled her eyes. Seriously, that was all Hawkmoth had to say to his partner? He could have given her tips to help her improve her skills as Pavona for her to work on while he was gone, or ideas that he wanted her to implement! She might not listen to all of them- after all, he had been failing for a lot longer than she had- but it would be useful information to know, at least, and then she could come up with her own ideas based off of his.

It was like he wasn't actually interested in improving her abilities as Pavona before Mayura took the Peacock back over again. Like he wasn't actually interested in winning.

(Or like he had given her up as largely a lost cause, but Lila wasn't going to think that way. No, the entire problem laid with him, not her.)

Still, she wasn't about to lay down and let Hawkmoth's incompetence spoil her opportunity. Lila could practice fighting while Hawkmoth was gone- not with an opponent, of course, just by herself, that would have to be enough- and then maybe she would be good enough to rejoin him on the front lines and try to kick Ladybug's butt again. She could make her excuses with her mom and head out after dinner- not that she really needed excuses, as if her mom would ever stop her from going out- and then do a bit of jumping around and kicking in the relative privacy of some abandoned warehouses or something. There were bound to be a few around Paris, right?

...maybe she would just practice in her own room after school or something. Actually searching out warehouses and walking over to them sounded like too much work. Maybe the neighbors downstairs would complain, but really, who cared?

(And if they said something to her mom, then Lila would just say that she had take-home exercises for gym that she had to do to help catch back up to where they were meant to be after the school was closed for so long, or maybe she could say that she still felt very behind the other students after transferring and so was trying to get in the same kind of shape that they were in. Her mom would eat up either excuse, Lila was positive, and ta-da, problem solved.)

Maybe Paris was going to get a week off from akuma attacks, but Lila wasn't going to let the week go to waste. She was going to train, and prepare, and-

Lila's thoughts got cut off by a round of painful coughing, her throat pulsing in pain with every cough. She grimaced, reaching for her water bottle in an attempt to sooth the ache.

Well. She would train and prepare and all that, as long as this stupid cold went away.

Three days into her akuma- and Hawkmoth-free week, Lila decided that really, hand-to-hand combat was overrated.

After looking at more than a few at-home training videos, it became very obvious that getting to a level where she would actually be able to hold her own in any sort of fight would take a lot of time (and effort, which- ugh. No, thanks). It would be impossible to put in that sort of work and make any sort of meaningful progress before Mayura reclaimed her Miraculous, or at least Lila assumed so. She hadn't exactly been told when that might happen, but Hawkmoth had made it clear from the start that this wasn't going to be a long-term thing.

Besides, Hawkmoth had made it clear during their final fight before their break that she wasn't going to be returning to the front lines as Pavona anytime soon, not even on a trial basis. So Lila abandoned that idea.

(The attempts at exercise were also wiping her out in- in minutes, really. Sometimes even only a minute of moving fast was making Lila struggle to catch her breath. It was starting to get a bit concerning.)

That didn't mean that Lila wasn't going to do anything with the Miraculous while Hawkmoth was gone. No, she wasn't going to put up with Duusu in return for nothing. Even if she wasn't allowed to send out amoks to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir, there was so much more that she could do with the Peacock. It hadn't occurred to Lila before, but the amoks could look like anything- or, more importantly, like anyone.

Maybe Marinette had finally shut up with trying to call out Lila's lies for the time being, but it never hurt to have some evidence on her side. She didn't have to be transformed for her sentimonster to stick around- she had learned that after several battles- so she could put up some poster backgrounds, make some sentimonsters that looked like the celebrities that she had claimed close connections with, and ta-da, she would have bought herself a good year's worth of no questioning of her stories. Maybe she could even sneak into the school over the weekend with a Marinette-sentimonster and take photos of it breaking into Lila's locker or otherwise acting absolutely terrible. That should be enough to get even Adrien to abandon Marinette's side, which. Well.

If she couldn't get her revenge on Ladybug while she was Pavona- as much as Lila hated to admit it, that was looking increasingly unlikely that they would defeat the superheroes any time soon- then at least Lila could get some revenge on Marinette for being such a pain in the butt.

Lila smirked to herself. That was such a good idea, and she was glad that she had come up with it. She would have to brainstorm more to hammer out the details of what she would make "Marinette" do- maybe stealing from Lila's locker and then cornering Lila in the bathroom and yelling at her?- but it was definitely something that she had to do while Hawkmoth was away.

Things were really looking up, pieces the puzzle falling into place. And after feeling so crummy for the past several weeks, it was about time things went her way. With a little luck, the ugh feeling from her cold would leave soon, and then everything would be perfect in Lila's world.

Or maybe not perfect, since of course Ladybug would still be out and insufferably smug, but close enough.

The photos, Lila decided after a bit of thought, could wait until Saturday. Her mom was going to be gone all day, so Lila would have all morning to do her transformations, and she would have the rest of the week for her to gather up her posters and other props so that her pictures would turn out perfectly. And- making it even more perfect- the class had been talking about getting together for a group picnic in the park on Saturday afternoon, so Lila could show off her photos right away. She could scope out the school, too, and figure out how she could get into the building on Sunday with her senti-Marinette without being noticed.

Once school let out on Thursday evening, Lila patted her pocket to make sure that she had her wallet and detoured off of her path home, towards the bus stop to head across the city to a poster store she had been to before. Her wallet was going to take a hit from the stop- posters weren't cheap, which was annoying since really, anyone could point a camera and print a picture out- but her mom had given her more money on top of her allowance to buy hot drinks for her throat all week and she hadn't spent it because her classmates were bringing her hot tea, so at least she had gotten a bit extra to spend.

"Ooh, are you getting decorations for your room?" Duusu asked eagerly from her collar as Lila stepped inside the shop thirty minutes later, fully fed up with Paris traffic. "There's some pretty ones! Do you even have space on you walls? Or you could rotate stuff, maybe-"

Lila tried and failed not to sigh as she did her best to tune out her kwami. Honestly, as much as she didn't want to give up her powers, she really couldn't wait to be rid of Duusu. Clueless and naive were both excellent ways to describe the peacock kwami, and it was pretty irritating to deal with.

Seriously, after being with a supervillain for who-knew-how-long and then with Lila for several weeks, one would think that Duusu would actually get used to a less-than-honest way of thinking. Sure, it might also be annoying to have Duusu judging her outright all the time, but the idiocy...

Gritting her teeth, Lila prowled down the aisle that was most likely to have the posters she was looking for. Honestly, the idiocy was worse. Then she had to decide if she wanted to even try to explain- which sounded annoyingly like justifying herself, which she didn't have to do- or just ignore Duusu's increasingly bewildered and off-base questions.

"Ooh! What about this one? It's a lovely flower field!"

Lila spared the flower field poster a glance before continuing to scour the shelves for the scenes she wanted. There were a couple specific city streets that would work perfectly, and then maybe some generic backstage scenes. If she could find some that were set inside a mansion or a palace then she could do some poses with sentimonster royalty. Since no one in her class had seen the inside of Prince Ali's castle or Buckingham Palace, it wouldn't matter if she couldn't get posters of the insides of those places.

Thankfully, the shop was well-stocked. Lila found everything she needed- she was going to get to take a lot of pictures, her evidence was going to mean that people's trust in her would be absolutely unshakeable- and checked out, trying not to grimace as the price tag mounted up.

She would just take the pictures and then return the posters, but apparently the store had a no-return policy when it came to getting a bunch of posters and then trying to bring them all back. It was annoying, but if she had to pay to keep her lies in place, then she would. It was worth it.

(Besides, she could always sell the posters online or something once she was done with them. It wouldn't be all of her money back, but it would be some, and that was better than nothing.)

Lila tucked her posters deep in the bag that the shop provided- she didn't want to risk anyone she knew seeing her with the posters, and they were all too big for her school bag, even all rolled up in the poster tubes- and headed out, eager to get home. While she didn't exactly need to rush back to her apartment to work on homework- several of her classmates had been 'helping' her by sending her either the answers or pictures of most of the work required for the problems, so several hours of homework ended up taking about half an hour instead, just copying things over and scanning whatever reading Ms. Bustier had assigned- Lila didn't exactly feel like dealing with Paris rush hour.

Besides, the longer she was out with her posters, the higher the chance that someone would see her. Maybe most of the class wouldn't think anything of it- Lila could always lie and say that she was getting the posters for her mom, showing places that she had worked, since it wasn't like the outside of the tubes showed the pictures- but she preferred to not have any trails at all, in case that brat Marinette tried to claim that she was in front of posters and that was how she got the pictures. If one of the classmates saw her now and then heard that then...

Well, she was no Max, but Lila figured that the chances were at least 9/10 that they wouldn't think anything of it. But she didn't want to risk anything.

Not when she was so close to cementing her reputation for good.

Lila set up her room on Saturday as soon as her mom left for work, sacrificing her weekend lie-in. The posters came out and got unrolled, and Lila tacked them up around her room, one after the other. She set up some lamps to mimic the light sources in the photos- something she had learned to do after one of Marinette's none-too-subtle comments about the shadows not matching up during one of her video calls- and then set out changes of outfits for between pictures. She had spent the previous evening coming up with poses and figuring out what clothes she should wear with what setting and which celebrity, so all she had to do was follow her checklist- complete with reference photos- and it should go smooth as butter.

(She also had a bowl heaped with fruit for Duusu set out and ready, to recharge her kwami in between goes. Once she got going, she wasn't going to stop for anything, and that included her kwami's annoying appetite.)

Duusu had watched the entire proceedings with his head tilted to the side, the picture of confusion. He had been incessantly asking questions at the start, but finally- finally- fell silent when Lila snapped at him to shut up already. She didn't need his input, as absolutely useless as it was. All she needed was his powers.

"Duusu, transform me!"

Blue light flashed and Pavona smirked from her spot in the middle of the room. She hadn't transformed all week, and the feeling was even more amazing than she had remembered. She was powerful, she was fearless, she was invincible. Her confidence in her plans- well, obviously they were foolproof, and she was a genius for coming up with them.

It was pretty obvious that being sick had been muting how incredible transforming felt, or maybe she had just been feeling so miserable that she hadn't been able to truly appreciate it.

(Pavona coughed a few times seconds later, then scowled. Seriously, couldn't her cold be over yet?)

"All right, let's make a Jagged Stone!" Pavona announced to no one in particular, grabbing a button off of her bed. She had grabbed them from her mom's emergency sewing kit that morning, in case she couldn't recall the amoks once she was done with the sentimonster (after all, before now, they had all been purified by Ladybug) and had to simply smash the possessed item. With a grin, Pavona called up her power and the first sentimonster bubbled to life.

It was a perfect replica of Jagged Stone, though the eyes were perhaps a little blank. That was fine, though- the rock star was a little on the strange side anyway, a bit spacy and distractible. If he didn't seem 100% there and people could see that in the pictures at all, they would probably assume that he was just thinking about a new song that had popped into his mind or something.

"Detransform me," Pavona ordered as she strode forward, snagging senti-Jagged as she passed him and dragging him along with her. "Come on, we're taking some photos!"

"Pho-to," senti-Jagged said slowly, stumbling after her. Clearly it wasn't smart like an actual human, but that didn't matter. All she needed was his face. Lila shoved it into position, maneuvering its arms and face into a happy pose before hitting the timer button on the camera that she had set up and taking her position next to senti-Jagged.

"Look at the camera!" Lila demanded, pointing at the camera. She glanced to the side- good, it was listening, or maybe it was just coincidence- and then leaned close and beamed at the camera. One click, two, three photos, and then she could relax. "Okay, now a selfie!"

Click, click. Click, click. Lila snapped the photos, one after another, then looked through them. There were a few that just looked a touch unnatural, but the rest were fine.

"Okay, we're done," Lila told senti-Jagged. "You're dismissed."

It didn't move. It hadn't understood.

Of course it hadn't understood, that was dumb for her to even think for a moment that it might. Senti-Jagged was as dumb as bricks. Besides, telling it to vanish obviously wasn't going to work. She had to use her powers to recall the feather somehow, unless she just wanted to stomp on the button.

She transformed, and then Pavona looked towards senti-Jagged again. She didn't have any more of an idea of what to do to recall the amok then she had had the first time, so she just stomped on the button and snagged the feather out of the air. Senti-Jagged let out a surprised shriek as it dissolved, but Pavona ignored it in favor of getting another feather out and ready.

Prince Ali was going to be next, Pavona had decided. Then it would be Clara Nightingale next, followed by Ladybug, then a couple other celebs that she had claimed connections with. One after the other, no problem at all.

Was it going to be a lot of work? Maybe. But it was well worth it. And with every new character she made, they seemed to have more life to them. There was more of a spark in their eyes, they understood French- to some degree, at least- and their poses came completely naturally, and she had even been able to take a few short videos. That was pretty nice, but it did mean that they seemed to recognize that they were going to stop existing before she stomped on their button and begged her not to make them go. That was a bit annoying, but it wasn't about to deter her at all. Their pleas fell on deaf ears as Pavona wiped them out of existence and reclaimed their feathers.

She didn't have time to cater to their whines or try to explain to them why they couldn't stay, nor did she want to even bother with it. It was a waste of time.

After all, they were gone now. Why bother caring about their feelings? They were a tool, not a living being.

"And done," Pavona said happily once she had reclaimed the last of her feathers. She was feeling pretty drained and tired now, but that was hardly a surprise. She had gotten up earlier than she normally would on a Saturday to get everything ready, and then she had been going full-tilt ever since. She would have to keep working, honestly- she had to go through the photos and pick out which were natural enough to keep- but the transforming and set-up and staging was all finished. "Detransform me."

Duusu spiraled free of the brooch, making a beeline for the remaining bit of fruit left in the bowl. Lila barely spared him a glance as she headed for her computer, eager to dive right in and see what she had. Another coughing fit gave her momentary pause, but Lila wasn't about to let that deter her for long.

Some photos had to be cropped to hide the exposed edges of posters because she hadn't quite gotten the camera angle right, but that wasn't much of a problem. Others she cropped just to change things up and make the photos not quite so similar. The videos turned out to be useless, unfortunately- listening to them back, it was very obvious that there was outside noise from the street and from the neighbors above her- so they had to be benched until she could figure out how to edit that out. Or, more likely, until she had time to transform again and re-do those clips, hopefully while Bigfoot upstairs was out instead of stomping around.

For now, Lila had to get going or else she was going to be late meeting with the rest of the class.

As soon as her photos were loaded onto her phone, Lila snatched it up and stuffed it in her pocket, pushing herself to her feet and heading for the door with a spring in her step. She knew for a fact that Marinette was going to be there, so with any luck the photos would be enough to thoroughly ruin her day. Maybe they would be enough to start the process of ruining her friendships, too, since Marinette was hardly going to start believing Lila even with the photos and that would make her look pretty bad in her friends' eyes. That was going to be great-

Lila's progress was brought to an abrupt halt by a hacking cough before she reached the apartment door and she was forced to pause and lean heavily against the wall as a wave of lightheaded dizziness passed over her.

Ugh. How was it that her cold was coming back, but worse? She hadn't gotten any dizzy fits since the previous weekend, and certainly none as bad as that. Lila grimaced as the wave of dizziness and nausea passed, then pushed herself back up straight.

It didn't matter. Lila had her fabricated evidence in hand, and she wasn't about to let something as inconsequential as germs stop her.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #The Wavering Peahen

29 notes · View notes

theprincesslibrary · 3 years

Text

#4: Baleful - Close your eyes

Warning: violence, past trauma, mention of abuse, mention of rape, domestic abuse, blood, torture

He’s waking up.

He doesn’t remember much. He was coming home after a night out, drunk and alone, the girls weren’t receptive to his charms. And then nothing. Just darkness and a violent pain at the back of his skull. He’s fully awake now, though his reality looks like a nightmare. His reflection is staring at him from the ceiling, eyes wide from fear. He is strapped to an operating table, naked, unable to move. He doesn't understand why he's here.

I’d feel bad for him if I didn’t know any better. But I do.

I know what he did to his wife, to his previous girlfriends. I know what type of monster he is. But I’m worse. The saw in my hand is itching to cut, but I can’t start yet. Everything must be done to perfection. So I step out of the shadows and move closer, tape his eyelids open, so he can't close his eyes. Putting that mirror on the ceiling was a real pain in the ass, it’d be a shame if all that work went to waste. I wouldn’t want him to miss the show.

*****

When Thancred reaches the scene everything looks like it did for the previous murders: they still don't have the crime scene, just the dumping area. A godforsaken place where nobody cares what you do or say: welcome to Ul'dah's low town, where the jewel city doesn't shine so brightly. Here only the rule of the three wise monkeys applies: see nothing, hear nothing, and above all shut the fuck up. The perfect place to get rid of a body.

These corpses are not your typical murder victim though: no crime of passion, no hit-and-run. Everything is clean. It’s the third case of the type to end up on his desk, and it's a fucking nightmare. Let’s be clear, the modus operandi is dirty as fuck: shallow cuts all over the body, severed limbs, head cut off… all of that ante mortem, a fucking slaughter. But the scene is fucking spotless, perfectly ordered like a freaking Mog Station warehouse. They don't really have a corpse, more of a human puzzle: the organs and the head sit in separate jars, the limbs are all wrapped up mummy style, personal belongings in a cardboard box... And the cherry on top: not a single witness.

That’s when Thacred's expertise comes to play. See, a regular cop would harass the lab, call them every 5 minutes, pressure them day and night… be a pain in the as. But not detective Thancred Waters. Nah. He has his way of doing things. He lets the lab rats alone, especially with a scene like that which is as much of a nightmare for them as it is for him. If puzzle number 3 is like its friends, CSI can’t do much for him right now, they need to unpack all that shit, literally. So he leaves them the fuck alone, they’re happy, and when they have something conclusive they call their favorite detective: how far one can go by not being an asshole is astonishing.

Instead, Thancred likes to interrogate people. Relatives, of course, that’s police work 101, but he pays extra attention to the little monkeys on the streets: the guy no one notices sitting in the corner, the drug dealer in his vintage car, the homeless lady who sleeps here at night. He just knows how to make them talk. It must be his lucky day because he saw his favorite monkey when he arrived at the scene. It would be rude not to check on his old friend, although “friend” might be a bit of a stretch. He met Theodric in Limsa Lominsa, back when he was still a street urchin, stealing purses from unsuspecting passersby. They were in the same band of petty thieves, followed the same path, except one day Thancred targeted Louisoix Leveilleur. Instead of turning him in, the man saw his potential, and took him under his wing. His life changed that day. Theodric wasn’t so lucky. He got involved with the wrong crowd, took the wrong drug, and ended up here, in one of Ul’dah’s worst neighborhoods where not even the refugees dare to come.

Yeah, not really friends, and considering what he's about to do to him, it's better that way.

*****

Thancred’s fists hurt from punching Theodric’s ugly face, he needs a break from all that “friendly catching up”. He reaches for a cig and lights it up. Gods, how he loves the taste of tar… finally some stale air to help him breathe. He spares a look to the little monkey slouched against the tainted wall of a shabby restaurant. His face is covered in blood, but he’s not talking. He hates when they stay quiet, he’ll just have to be more explicit.

“You know Theo, I can call you Theo, right? You know… it’s the weekend for me too. As you can imagine that I have other things to do besides fucking up your hideous face. I'm not asking you to share every tiny detail of your sad existence, I’m not your therapist. I’m not even asking for the name of your dealer. Just tell me who the fuck threw away the mummy. That would make me incredibly happy, I’d be able to go home, have a nice bath, you know, normal people shit.”

Thancred takes another puff from his cigarette and looks down at the man who was once his partner in crime. It’s almost like staring at a twisted version of himself, at the man he would have become without Louisoix. Six months ago, he might have gone easy on Theodric, might have tried to help him out. Six months ago, he would have been the man Louisoix wanted him to be, but that guy died in Lahabrea’s basement. All those months of sequestration and torture did a number on him, fucked him up so bad, his soul died back there. Now he's just this empty shell, pretending to be alive out of spite. Just to say “look at me now, I’m still there”. But he's not, not really.

He draws the last puff from his cigarette and crouches next to Theodric, his face on the same level as the junkie's. The little monkey has one open eye, just one, the other is too fucked up. There’s fear in that one eye, but he’s still not talking. Thancred gets his cig close to Theodric’s good eye, so he can understand what’s going to happen next. He likes to let people understand the rest on their own, it stimulates communication.

“You might think I hate you Theo, but I don’t. I don’t give two flying fucks about you. But you see, my shrink told me I had to externalize my rage. When you don't talk to me, it pisses me off, so I have to externalize. On your face. You’re not a bad guy, a little drug here, a little dealing there, it’s not that bad. I’m a whiskey guy myself so really who am I to judge? Just tell me who threw this corpse, so I can calm the fuck down. I don’t need to externalize as much and we both go on our merry ways.”

Thancred punctuates his question by crushing his cigarette's butt on Theo’s arm. His screams echo in the empty street so loudly dogs start to howl, not that anyone cares. Noone would come to his aid, not in this part of town, not when a cop is the one making him scream like a pig. The wise monkey rule reigns supreme. But now he’s in enough pain for Thancred to believe whatever he’s gonna say next.

“Fuck Waters, I swear I don't know anything. You know me, I'm not that brave, if I knew anything I’d be singing like a fucking canary right now. Please let me go, I promise if I hear something I'll tell you. I swear Waters.”

*****

Theodric looks sincere.

It pisses him off, cause now he’s gonna have to resort to a more classic approach and act like a regular cop: talk to the wife and relatives. He hates to act like a regular cop, hates to talk to the wives. He doesn’t know how to deal with crying people. He used to be good at people skills, he’s not anymore.

He needs a drink.

He ends up at the Quicksand like always. It’s a second house for all sorts of human trash: bikers, dealers, pimps, him...

Thancred likes the atmosphere, and the barmaid, Lya. Lya is good. It sounds dumb, but she is. She smiles all the time and listens to everyone’s bullshit without judging. She’s pretty too, beautiful even. When she smiles it's a bit like a breeze blowing over a field of poppy, it shakes him to the core. It shakes up any guy. They all want to throw themselves in her arms and let her lull them to sleep as a mother would. She could turn the most vicious wolf into an obedient little lamb with just one smile. All the guys here come for her: the alcohol tastes like piss, the food is barely decent when it’s not expired, and the walls grow mold. But she's here. They all want her, but no one touches her. She’s broken, they all know that. They might be a bunch of heartless assholes, but they have principles. And Lya is off-limits. Her last boyfriend used to beat her up to a pulp, she still has a scar running down the side of her face. It doesn't take away from her beauty, but it drives him mad with rage.

One night he was taking a piss behind the bar – mind you the alley’s hygiene is better than the loo inside – he saw the guy slap her, and felt the irrepressible urge to externalize his rage on the asshole’s face, so he did. Repeatedly, until he was the one lying on the ground, pissing himself. They’ve been friends ever since. She listens to his stupid jokes, gives him the best food, stops pouring drinks when she thinks he’s too drunk and smiles at him. She smiles so brightly he feels like a little boy in a candy store, hopeful and fearless.

She looks out of place in this dirty joint full of heartless assholes, like a porcelain doll forgotten in a construction site, but she’s one of them: damaged. They don’t want to break her, they can all see the cracks in her porcelain skin, so no one touches her. They just pretend, pretend they have a chance, pretend they’re good enough for her. They even play this game where the last guy standing can ask her out. They drink until they either pass out or leave, and only one guy is left. The winner never asks her out, but still, they come every night to drink and dream.

*****

I always start with small incisions, quick and superficial. It stings just a little, but not too much. The most important thing is not the pain or the screaming, it’s the fear, the anticipation. It’s a wholesome experience: he gets to feel, see, and smell all of it. People often forget to mention the smell, iron and urea, blood and piss. The mix elicits a primal reaction: run, it says, run. But he can’t.

*****

It’s Monday and Thancred has an appointment with the third victim’s wife. She looks vaguely familiar, must be from the file or the guy’s belongings. The murderer never bothered to hide his victim's identity. Hell, they even leave a special box for passports and other personal stuff. So yeah, she looks familiar, but he’s been in Ul’dah for a while, so it’s not a surprise. What he can’t stand is the way she's fidgeting on her chair.

Thancred doesn’t like when the witness fidgets because a regular cop would think ‘hum, that’s suspicious'. Thancred tried being a regular cop once, wasn’t for him, so he stopped, started being an asshole instead with some instinct sprinkled on top, it was a wholesale price. Still, the fidgeting is annoying. And she still looks familiar, more than she should from just a file picture. Thancred can’t put his finger on it. Maybe he fucked her once. He was kind of a womanizer before his life went to shit, before Lahabrea. It doesn’t explain why she’s so nervous, or why she keeps nervously rubbing her arms. Nor does it explain the five layers of clothes. It’s at least 35° out, and she’s out in the sun with a freaking turtleneck. The outrageous makeup has to be the icing on the cake.

And that’s when it hits him. He knows her, but not from the file, or a one-night stand. She’s from Lya’s support group for battered women. That’s why she’s nervous. Not because he’s her former lover, not even because he’s a cop, but because he’s a man. That’s why number 3’s dead: he was trash like the rest.

"Excuse me for a few minutes."

Thancred gets up and exits the room, leaving the widow alone. He spots Minfilia across the room and strides towards her.

"Hey Min, I'm gonna need you to take this one."

"Why?", she teases, "finally found a widow impervious to your charms?"

"Pretty sure our so-called victim wasn't the loving husband he owed to be."

Understanding flashes on her face, she drops the file she was reading on her desk and follows him to the interrogation room. Relief washes over the widow’s face when she sees Minfilia.

“This is my colleague, Detective Warde. She’s going to take it from here.”

Then he’s out again, leaving the two women alone. He goes to his desk while Min does her thing, and looks for the victim’s name in the database. He doesn’t need to watch Min do her work, he trusts her to get the answers they need. The petite blonde has great people skills, and she’s one of the good ones. She's so good, it's hard not to hate her. He doesn't though, never did, never will.

She’s one of the few friends he has left, one of the few people to put up with his bullshit after Lahabrea's "incident". He loves her like the little sister he never had, and more than anything he respects her. She's a good friend and a good cop, something this city sorely lacks. Rhabdan runs a tight ship as chief of police, but there's always a few bad apples in the bunch, not Min though. She's one of the good ones, not some disillusioned asshole like him. It's hard to be hopeful in a city like Ul'dah where being rich means one can escape any form of responsibility. Like number 3 here. His wife's medical record is a testament to his behavior: bruised face, broken ribs, even lacerations. It's a miracle the woman is still alive. But her in-laws are rich, and influential: Lolorito's people. That's why Thancred is not so sure he wants to catch the killer, not when they're doing what he's not free to do himself.

When Minfilia is done with the interrogation, she motions for him to join her in the break room. She confirms what Thancred already knows: the guy was an asshole.

He needs a fucking drink.

*****

First I remove his dick, not like he’s gonna need it anymore. I do this slowly, very slowly. I want him to suffer. This is also what the mirror on the ceiling is for, and the tape on the eyelids, no escape. He must see everything and especially hear everything, the slightest tear of his flesh, the sound of his blood dripping on the sanitized tiles, the scalpel cutting his flesh, my slow breathing. The shock of emasculation makes him pass out. It’s okay, we have all the time. I cauterize his wound, I don't want him to bleed out and die. Not yet.

*****

Another corpse: emasculated, dismembered, and wrapped up like his buddies.

Thancred lights another cigarette and crouches down in front of the jar containing the head. He knows this face, he broke that nose: Lya's ex. Suddenly the crime scene doesn't seem ugly anymore, it shines with glitter and shit. It makes him happy to see that stupid face in a jar, means he won't be a problem for Lya anymore. He's also the second "victim" who likes to take out his anger on women, there has to be something there. Thancred needs to take another look at the first three victims, they can't be all that clean.

He ponders whether he should tell Lya about this. Would that make her happy? It might make her feel better, safer. "By the way, the asshole who used to beat you up is dead, a serial killer took care of it."

Yeah. Maybe he needed to work on his speech.

It’s just him and the old Bernie now, playing that secret game of theirs. The old man sends him a dirty look before finally getting up. Thancred wins tonight, and he plans on taking her out for real, not just in his head. It's a lucky day after all, maybe she'll say yes.

The bar is empty that time around. ‘Good’ he thinks, 'Her smiles will all be mine.'

She’s smiling more than usual, she looks happy even, so he decides not to say anything. She smiles, but she’s seldom happy, no point in ruining the mood. The asshole will be just as dead tomorrow. So he sits at the bar to be closer to her, and drinks while he tells her stupid nonsense. One drink, then a second, and finally a whole bottle.

*****

He waking up again, and we’re back in business. Killing a man isn’t easy work, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. My mom used to tell me: “When things get hard, just put them in different boxes and deal with them one at a time.” So I do just that: I cut him into small pieces, wrap them up, put them in nice little jars.

First his right arm, the one he used to slap his women. I cut just below the elbow, he screams like a piglet being bled out. Then his left arm, all the way up to the shoulder, his legs, and finally his head.

*****

He wakes up to an empty room. Of course, she’s not here, why would she? She’s in his fantasy, not in his reality. It was such a vivid dream, it left him hard and wanting. He buries his face in the sheets, and he can almost smell her. As if dreams could leave a scent behind. Fucking morning wood. He needs release and a shower, but first, he wants a smoke.

He dreams of Lya that night.

She's riding him like a fierce amazon, her breasts moving to the rhythm of their bodies. Everything about her is erotic, her hungry gaze, her mischievous smile. That smile excites him as much as it soothes him. Fuck, he doesn't want to get out of this dream, but his alarm rings, and the dream is gone.

He walks to the kitchen naked, he lives alone and doesn’t give a fuck about flashing his neighbors. She’s standing in his kitchen, a coffee mug in hand. She’s wearing one of his shirts; it’s a bit too big for her, but too short to be decent. She’s so fucking beautiful wearing his clothes, if he wasn’t hard before, he certainly is now. And then he remembers everything.

She kissed him outside the restaurant, he wouldn’t have dared, but she kissed him. They ended up at his place. They made love on his couch, in the shower, in his bed. He didn’t fuck her, no, he worshiped her: kissed every inch of her skin, licked every freckle. He prayed to her body like a mad man, as much as he could, as much as she let him.

She said yes.

All the alcohol made his brain soft and mushy, but he remembers now. He helped her close the bar, and they went to that new place near his precinct. The one that stays open until 3 am. They talked, he told her he was a cop, she said she knew. It was written in the way he moved, in the way others moved around him. They talked all night long, and she smiled. Gods, that freaking smile got him good. They talked so much, they got kicked out.

He must look like a fucking idiot now, with that surprised look on his face and his hard cock because she bursts out laughing. A laugh that explodes like fireworks and ricochets against the walls of his apartment, leaving notes of bright colors everywhere. It's crazy how beautiful she is when she laughs. He wants her, needs her.

He strides towards her, lifts her off the floor, and drops her off her gently on the kitchen table. He doesn’t want to break her, doesn’t want to worsen the cracks in her porcelain skin. Then he makes love to her, in the middle of his kitchen, with the blinds open for the world to see. Because he can, because she wants him as much as he wants her.

*****

His instinct about the victims being trash was right.

After some heavy digging in the first two victims’ past, he finds what he needs. Victim number one’s a serial rapist: used to slip roofies in women’s drink, raped them, and filmed the whole thing, threatening to release the tapes if they tried to report him. Not that they would, the guy was filthy rich, another one of Ul’dah’s “cream of the crop”, these women knew they didn’t have a chance to see justice. If it wasn’t for his “barely legal” deep dive in the guy’s personal belongings - he might have stolen his computer after breaking into his parents’ house - Thancred wouldn’t even know about it.

Victim number 2 was no better, he had a long history of domestic violence and child abuse, but no open case, not even a complaint. Now adding number 3 and Lya’s ex to the list… these guys all deserved to die like pigs. He should say it, should even think like that, but he does. He doesn’t even want to catch the culprit, for all he cares they should be free to rid the city of these predators. Should even get paid for doing public service.

Looking at the so-called victim’s file drives him mad with rage. He wants to drink, but more than anything he needs to see Lya; He can even pretend to do police work while he’s at it. She knows at least one of the women, she’s a victim herself, maybe she knows more.

The Quicksand is packed. He has to share her smile and his time, it annoys him, but it's okay. Tonight she will be his, and his alone. He sits at the bar, she smiles at him, and he’s not mad anymore. He orders whiskey, then another, and another. After the third glass, the rush finally dies down, and they can talk. He tells her about his investigation, and tells her about her ex. She's a little shaken up, but it's okay, she is strong.

He shows her pictures of the victims, not the one from the autopsy, he’s not that stupid, pretty pictures with happy smiles and perfect lives. Moments of happiness he knows to be fake. He asks her if she knows the victims or their wives, through her support group, or by word of mouth. She nods. She knows the wives of 2 and 3, she talks to them often. She recognizes the last victim, of course, he was her monster.

Thancred’s curious to know what she thinks about all this, that’s the cop in him, but he’s also worried about how it’ll affect her.

“I don't know… well I do. I know I shouldn't be happy, but I am,” she admits. “I'm a little less afraid.”

He hates that she feels guilty.

“I’m glad he’s dead,” he states, hoping she’ll feel relieved that those words are coming from him. “Now, I know he won’t prowl you around anymore.”

She smiles softly, and he has the urge to make love to her on the bar, in front of everyone. But he won’t, Lya is a goddess, not a girl who gets fucked in a bar. He’s going to buy her flowers, and maybe a nice bottle of wine. He might even light some candles to set the mood, then he’s gonna make love to her, again and again until they both pass out in blissful exhaustion.

*****

I dispose of his body in one of the city’s garbage dumps. It’s the perfect place to get rid of a body. And this open sky trash dump is perfect for me: exactly what this trash deserves. The people who live here all look dead, the only thing that sets them apart from my guy is the steady movement of their hearts. That, and the fact that they’re all in one piece, for the most part.

*****

Reports come back on Lya’s ex.

Toxicology’s clean, no head trauma either, he wasn’t drugged or incapacitated like the others. He might have known his assailant. The rest of the report looks similar at first glance, cuts all over the body, severed limbs, emasculation, beheading. It’s the same MO but somehow it feels messier: the body shows hesitation marks, the cuts are deeper, meant to hurt... it feels more personal, like an act of revenge.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

*****

He opens up his flat’s door and practically runs towards the kitchen. He needs a drink before seeing Lya. It can’t be her, when she smiles the ground shakes, she turns wolves into lambs. She’s so small, with soft porcelain skin, tiny hands… It can’t be her, yet his guts tell him otherwise.

He’s halfway in the kitchen when he spots her. She’s waiting for him, his backup gun in those tiny hands of hers. When he dreamt of coming home to her that’s not what he had in mind.

She’s smiling at him, a sad little smile because she doesn’t want to kill him, not really. He might be an asshole but he doesn’t hurt women. Maybe she likes him too. She’s crying now, tears rolling down her beautiful face. It’s stupid but he still wants to throw himself in her arms. It’s stupid because she’s going to kill him.

She’s gonna try anyway.

*****

Gunshots echo in the room, followed by the loud thud of a lifeless body hitting the ground.

#FFxivWrite2021 #FFxivWrite #ffxiv fanfiction #FFxiv #my writing #Thancred Waters #wolcred #wolnpc

1 note · View note

scarletwillowtree · 4 years

Text

The Soldier and The Artist ch4 (soulmate AU)

Pairing: Bucky x artist!reader

Warning: slight angst

Word count: 2,146

Summary: In a world where your soulmates first words show up on your skin once you meet, it’s not entirely common to actually meet the one you’re destined to be with. Though you’ve always held out hope, you never believed you would meet them, especially after you got your words but haven’t seen the man since. Now, working closely with The Avengers for a project Tony Stark himself requested you for, you’re closer to your soulmate than you ever expected.

A/N: Yes, hello! I am aliiiiive! My apologies to my readers, it’s been rough going for me for a while, but I have returned. Originally this chapter was VERY different, and the way I wrote it honestly made me hate the direction the story went, so I scrapped it and now I’m much happier. Chapter five is being rewritten as it’s the epilogue I had planned, but we’re almost there! I hope you enjoy my lovelies.

masterlist

As I watched Bucky walk off the jet, I could feel my heart speeding up. My face flushed as I felt my lips part and a harsh inhale past my teeth must have been heard by Steve still standing next to me as I could see his head turn to me from my peripheral vision. But none of that mattered. Not Steve, not the fact that I was standing on the roof of the compound still, not even that I was still dressed in my paint stained clothing.

All that mattered was Bucky, the man from the coffee shop, my soulmate. I couldn’t peel my eyes away from his steely blue ones as he made a beeline for me, never looking away from me. Once he finally reached us, I expected him to move for Steve, his life long best friend.

Surprising everyone in the area, Bucky reached out and pulled me into his arms where I immediately melted into his embrace, feeling him press his face into my hair with his mouth near my ear.

“I’ve been waiting so long for you, doll.” He whispered gently, his arms squeezing me slightly tighter as he did. We stood there for what could’ve been minutes or years, before a throat clearing to the side of us caused me to pull back enough to see who it was, Bucky’s grip loosening enough for that to happen but not letting me ago entirely.

“So uh, you two know each other?” Steve shifted awkwardly as he looked between me and his best friend, still wrapped in each other’s arms. Beyond Steve I could see who I guessed to be Sam and Thor standing there, both wearing teasing smiles while looking at the group that had gathered.

Looking back up at Bucky, I felt a warmth blossoming in my chest as my next words spilled from behind my lips with no fight or filter.

“We’re soulmates.”

***

After a lengthy talk in the communal kitchen, several cups of coffee, and a very awkward walk from the hangar, Steve sat across the bar from Bucky and myself. Everyone else had cleared out already after the initial announcement, too tired to unpack the full story yet.

“Gotta say, I’m happy you two found each other. Bucky here wouldn’t shut up about what you’d be like when we were younger (Y/N).”

“Alright punk, that’s enough about that. Why don’t you get lost for a while?”

Steve raised his hands in mock surrender as he stood and moved to leave the kitchen. At the last moment, he turned to face us at the bar, a genuine and soft smile on his face.

“Hey, (Y/N), treat him right okay?”

I smiled and gave him a nod in response before he finally left the room. I turned back to Bucky to see him shaking his head as he grumbles under his breath too low for me to understand.

“What was that, Buck?”

His face flushed as he looked up at me, his words only coming out barely above a whisper as his eyes darkened from their brilliant ocean blue.

“It’s not you he should be worried about.”

“What do you mean by that Bucky?” The worry in my chest began spreading quickly, hoping this wouldn’t be one of those instances where a soulmate rejects the bond.

“I’ve...I’ve done a lot of bad (Y/N). I could understand if you choose to leave, I’m damaged and I’ve hurt so many people...it wouldn’t be fair to you to be stuck with someone like me...with a monster.”

I felt my heart crack at his words, a few tears building on my lashes as I took a shaky breath before softly saying his name. When he didn’t look up, I placed my hand gently on his chin and raised his eyes to finally meet mine, the pain in his shining bright as fear mixed with it.

“James Buchanan Barnes, what you did as another person was beyond your control. Being damaged is part of being human, you just got a really bad lot in life. But look at what you’ve done to turn it around! You save lives and prevent wars now. From what Steve has told me of you, you are an incredible person with an amazing heart and you’d give anything for those you love. You. Are. Not. A. Monster. Okay?”

By now a few tears had fallen from your eyes, and his as well. He grabbed your hand from his chin, placing a kiss to your palm before letting out a shaky sigh.

“So...you’re not leaving? You’re not scared?”

“Bucky, the only thing that scares me is that I won’t be good enough for you. I’m just a normal person who loves to paint. I’m not skilled or super in any way.”

He laughed lightly at you, shaking his head as he stands and hugs you where you still sit, placing a gentle kiss to the top of your head.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, doll.”

***

As the weeks flew by, I continued the portraits and spent every spare minute with Bucky I could. I had been saving his portrait for last, even though I’d already had it mapped in my head from the first conversation we had that day in the kitchen. He’d tried to sneak peeks of the other paintings, but hadn’t been successful as I wanted them to be a surprise for everyone.

Now that I’d finally come to his portrait, my time at the compound was almost at an end. I had spoken with Tony and was welcome at any time, and I planned to stay an extra two weeks at the compound before flying back to DC. Back to my life.

As my mind became lost in the strokes of greys, steely blue, and streaks of gold I thought back on my time here. I had come to view these people as good friends, maybe even a second family. Thinking about having to leave them caused a weight in my chest that made it hard to breath.

Finally finished with the final painting of the collection, I set my brushes aside to be cleaned, knowing they wouldn’t dry too soon with the oils smeared across the canvas and my hands. With a heavy sigh I moved to a nearby table and grabbed my phone, knowing it was time for my weekly update with Hannah.

She’d been so excited for me when I told her about Bucky, nearly exploding at my over the phone in typical her fashion. For someone so small, she sure was one hell of a force of nature all her own.

“You better be calling to tell me you’ve finally slept with that fiiiiine hunk of man you get to call your soulmate, lady.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but we are actually taking it slow and he’s been a perfect gentleman, Hannah.”

She snorted into the phone before I heard the telltale sound of the bay doors in the workshop we shared back home. Didn’t feel like home anymore, not with Bucky being here.

“So, judging by the timeframe I guess you’re done and coming home soon, huh?”

“I’m planning on staying an extra two weeks actually...not ready to say goodbye just yet.”

“I can understand that boo. Good thing we run our own company then, right? No need to ask for the vacation time!”

“That’s true. I miss you Han. I hope things go well while I’m still gone.”

“Well, as it happens it’s vacation time for me too lady, so no need to worry about the company! Just relax, and in to weeks we can both come back refreshed, okay?”

“Alrighty. Thank you! I gotta go, but I’ll call soon okay?”

“Love ya, ya weirdo!”

With her final affections given in her typical fashion, Hannah hung up. I gave a sigh before heading out of the studio and to my designated room, which had been moved to the one next to Bucky’s once he came back. I hopped in the shower, letting the nearly scalding water pour over me and wash away the paint and stress of the day.

Soon enough I had to face the music and get out, wrapping myself in a large and fluffy towel before padding my way into my room. Over my weeks here, the room had really become personalized to me, I even had an easel in here near the window overlooking the city. I quickly dressed in some leggings and a longer tshirt, aiming for comfort more than appearance.

I headed back to the studio, cleaning my brushes first in the sink in the corner, laying them next to it to air dry before making my way back to the easel with the latest painting. I smiled softly, this was truly a masterpiece in my eyes, whether it was because of the subject of because I poured every ounce of emotion I had into it I wasn’t sure.

I began moving the paintings into the common area where Tony intended to hang them, moving fast to get them all up. I managed to somehow get all 10 hung before anyone came out, no small feat in this place since they were all back from missions for the moment.

“FRIDAY, could you ask everyone to come here please? Non-emergency though.”

“You got it, (Y/N).”

***

Not long after they’d been called, I watched as all 10 of my friends stared into their portraits. The emotions written on their faces were enough of a response for me, I didn’t need them to voice how they felt.

Tony’s was in brilliant and bold colors, reminiscent of a peacock. With vague white lines indicating the iron man mask overlaying his face and the arc reactor in his chest glowing with leds embedded in the canvas from behind.

Wanda’s painting was a black and white portrait of her smiling wide, a red stream flowing through the background as a ghostly transparent silhouette of her brother Pietro framed her position on the canvas.

Steve’s painting was a mix of charcoals and paints, his pose of him mid laugh at some silly story he’d been telling me of him and Bucky as kids. He looked carefree and relaxed, years younger than his guarded self.

Vision had a black and white painting as well, with silver and gold foiling filling the background and a few lines in front of him creating an intricate circuit board that seemed to stem from the resin crystal emulating the stone in his head.

Clint’s painting had been done in various darknesses of coffee, as nothing could fit him better. He was pictured mid sign, his hands blurred to capture his swift and erratic speech as best I could in a slice of time.

Nat was the only one with a full body, necessary for the ballet pose her body was held in. Reds and black dominated the painting, a peaceful smile on her lips as her body contorted in a graceful way. The tulle attached to the canvas gave depth to her painting more so than I had expected.

Bruce had another black and white portrait, his shy smile painted on his face and his glasses sliding down his nose. Behind him stood a whiteboard with equations I could never make sense of filling the space, though the shadow he cast on the board was undoubtedly that of the Hulk.

Thor had a greyscale painting too, with a pale blue and lavenders accenting it as the edges of the lightning surrounding him and flaring away from his eyes. He was dressed in his royal armor as always, but he wore a cocky smirk on his face, the same he usually sported.

Sam’s painting was made of varying metallic materials in the colors I needed, the textures letting lights shine off it in various ways depending on which angle you viewed it from, making it look like he was composed of fireworks. Like Steve, he was also laughing in his picture, that mischievous twinkle to his eye you’d seen plenty after he played one of his many pranks during your week together.

Finally was Bucky’s painting. His eyes were full of warmth and love, the unending depths of that steely blue leaping from the mostly grey painting. His face was framed by his long hair, and from behind that extended a halo of glittering gold. In that same gold paint a golden heart rested on the sleeve of the Henley he wore stretched tight across his muscles.

There were no words they could find to truly express how the paintings made them feel, but the tight hugs and repeated thanks I received were more than enough to tell me.

Now to enjoy my time before I have to go home. Before I have to leave Bucky.

************

next chapter >

tag list: @aireka-frnc @katgirl05 @beep-beep-quarterfool @ladifreakingda @huffleasfluff @thequirkypeach @courtmr @doublephoeenix @38leticia @gennyld @londelle @loving-life-my-way @lostnnot2befound @catsandbooksinafarawayplace @just-a-little-bit-of-everything @aurorawitchcraft @buttercup337 @theseulehurricane @thejourneyneverendsx @tommyhoe @milady-mira @lyricalstella @cutiepiemimi13 @unknownuserhasjoined @rinthehufflepuff

Strike through means the tag doesn’t work

#bucky barnes x reader #Bucky Barnes #bucky x reader #bucky imagines #bucky #soulmate au avengers #bucky x soulmate!reader #soulmate au

43 notes · View notes

post-itpenny · 3 years

Note

I thought I'd seen a ghost

Some long awaited Slasher AU

Mother, Mother

“Now just why on earth would such a little thing be out here alone?”

Maeve quietly hummed in amusement as she stalked the child down the trail. Always a good distance behind so she could hide, but never so far that she lost sight of the little one. She recognized her, the child from the diner that one time.

A little girl in a jacket with a bunny tail and ears. It was rather adorable, but there was something feral about her. The way she had acted in her small movements.

And then there was that thing in the forest.

Maeve hadn’t been able to get a good look at it, but it was big- bigger than her artist.

Speaking of.

Maeve grinned, but it was more of a nervous one. They were close to her territory. Maeve had come with another offering of bread, and finding the child had been an accident. But something… something felt off… felt...

...So lonely, yet Maeve had never felt so watched...

Maeve blinked and looked around. The child was gone.

Her grin grew wider as she crouched down, scanning the undergrowth.

A twig snapped behind her.

She sprung up, spinning around and pulling a kitchen knife from her satchel all in one swift movement.

A man stumbled back in surprise, “take it easy! Didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Maeve gripped the knife tighter. She was never this jumpy, not once had she slipped like this. She would have to-

Something rushed past her, the child now clinging to the man’s leg and hissing at her. “Stranger!”

Maeve wasn’t smiling now. She needed a plan, needed… needed.

Something.

The man gave a small wave, “are you ok miss? I’ll be honest I thought I saw a ghost, walking around the corner and spotting you.”

Maeve gave her head a small shake, she had to pull herself together and focus for five seconds. What was her plan?

Did she need one?

The man watched the knife in her hand but didn’t seem too frightened. Rather he was concerned.

Maeve blinked, well then.

She smiled and stashed the knife away. “I’m not a stranger dearie, we met once at the diner yes?”

The girl hissed and her hair puffed up. But she didn’t say no.

Maeve smoothed her skirt and took one step forward. The man staying still and the child gripping his pant’s leg tighter.

Maeve took another step forward, “Forgive the startle dears I”m just looking for a friend.” Maeve watched the child, remembering the thing in the woods waiting for her.

Perhaps….

“Well I’m afraid my granddaughter and I are the only one’s out here miss.” The man explained. “Maybe-“

“A bird,” Maeve explained, “I’m looking for a great bird.”

At this the man fell quiet, eyeing the woman intently. The child poked her head around her grandfather’s leg. More interested then scared now.

Maeve grinned, “her name is Maggie.”

……………..

The next day, Cecilio held Ama’s hand as they walked up to the woman’s front door.

She said her name was Maeve Blackwood. Ama did recognize her but the meeting had been brief. Cecilio cleared his throat as he knocked on the front door. Not sure what to expect of the strange woman. She seemed very proper, or at least she tried to be. Her old fashioned dress and sickly sweet mannerisms felt both genuine and an act. Like a possessed china doll.

Maeve opened the door at the first knock. She was, surprisingly, in jeans and a sweater, her white hair down in loose curls.

As they walked inside Ama froze, grabbing her grandfather’s hand as she sniffed the air. Cecilio leaned down for her to whisper something in his ear.

Cecilio sniffed the air as well for a moment but said nothing, standing up to find Maeve watching them intently despite the bright smile on her face. There was a “ding!” from inside as Maeve’s head whipped around. Demeanor shifting as she practically skipped down the hall humming to herself. He thought back to how distracted she seemed yesterday, was she always this flighty?

Maeve was found in a kitchen pulling something from the oven.

Fresh baked bread

Amaranthus gasped at the smell causing Maeve to turn with a grin.

“I wondered if you would recognize it, I’ve left loaves for our friend in the past.”

Cecilio sat down at a small kitchen table where tea was already laid out. “You’ve left her baked goods?”

Maeve nodded with a small hum as she carefully sliced the loaf and set it on the table with a small plate of butter. “Best way to anyone’s heart is their stomach, yes? I wanted to try and slowly build an acquaintanceship with her but she’s so weary of strangers I worried I wouldn’t succeed. But… well, here the two of you are.”

Cecelio took a sip of tea, “why are you so interested? No offence ma’am, but you don’t seem the type to enjoy long hikes in the woods with a monster.

Maeve took a sip of her tea with a small smile. “No, she’s not a monster. An artist yes, but not a monster. She is a person of interest to me however. Would you be so kind my dear in sharing what you can about our friend?”

Cecilio arched an eyebrow at the “artist” comment but did not say anything on it. “Well ladies first, I have a feeling you know something I don’t if I’m being honest.”

Maeve gave a warm smile with the tilt of her head. Humming quietly as she pulled something from her pocket and set it on the table.

A police badge.

Maeve gave a wicked grin, “lets try this again hmm? Tell me what you know.”

Cecelio stared down at the badge in disbelief. It was a good minute before he could muster up a dry chuckle. “Well son of a b-”

“Language!” Maeve snapped.

Both Cecilio and Ama jumped in their seats, startled by the first real sign of aggression Maeve had given them, a deep frown on her face. For just a moment Cecilio thought back to what Ama had whispered to him.

Cecilio cleared his throat, “my apologies miss. You just threw me for a loop there. Let’s make a deal huh? I’m here because I’m worried about Maggie, and you clearly know something I don’t. So let's all be honest to each other.”

Maeve tilted her head, “have I lied? I mean, in this room?”

“Well you weren’t forthcoming about being a cop.”

“Our dear one here met my brother and I at a diner,” Maeve replied with a nod to Ama, “we showed her our badges.”

Ama wasn’t paying attention, she hadn’t touched the bread or tea either, she was still sniffing the air. “Why does your garage smell like blood? I could smell it from outside.”

Maeve and Cecilio both froze. When Ama had whispered this piece of information to him, Cecelio was concerned but driven in the want to help Maggie. But now here was Maeve with a blank expression on her face. Watching him as she slowly leaned to one side.

“She’s got a weapon under the table”, Cecilio realized.

“Hey now if we’re all being honest I can honestly say that's not an issue.” Cecilio said with a casual wave of his hand. “Ama sweetheart, I think you can take your hoodie off.”

“But-”

“Eh, she's ummm…. Our new friend here is kinda like your dad. “

Ama watched Maeve in uncertainty before slowly pulling her hood off to reveal a tiny set of horns.

Maeve gasped in surprise, but there was no fear. She grinned like a kid at Christmas.

“They’re so darling!” She cheered as she clasped her hands together in delight. “I wondered if there were more than just our artist. This is splendid!”

Ama stared at the older woman dumbfounded. “Your not gonna-”

“Oh no don’t worry sweetheart I won’t say a word to anyone.” Maeve promised before turning to Cecilio, “As long as we’re all honest with each other, there is no need to be a tattle tail.”

The badge went away and all three of them calmed down after that. At one point a small dachshund entered the kitchen much to Ama’s delight and Cecilio’s relief since she didn’t see Maeve pick up the butcher knife from under the table and casually deposit it in the sink.

Cecilio shook his head, remembering the knife from yesterday. Guess she had an M.O.

Ama pulled the dog into her lap as Maeve returned with a plate of cookies and several manila folders. “Trouble can’t be at the table when there’s food my dear,” she instructed as Ama set the dog down with a sigh.

“Now then,” Maeve began. “I am technically a part of an investigation regarding several ritualistic murders in that part of the forest. When I couldn’t copy the M.O. myself I realised the killer couldn’t possibly be human.”

Cecilio nodded as he bit into a cookie, “but I think she is- or at least was.”

“You’re correct.” Maeve agreed as she flipped open a folder. Inside Cecilio was shocked to see photos of two older women. One with frighteningly familiar red hair.”

“Are they?”

“Her oldest sisters yes.’ Maeve confirmed, “did you know Maggie is in her fifties? She wouldn’t look it would she?”

“She doesn’t age?”

“I don’t think she could if she tried. But picture this, nearly fifty years ago twelve children were found on the side of the highway. Oldest was fifteen and the youngest was six. You won’t believe the leg work I had to do to track down these two.”

Cecilio nodded, “I’ve been teaching Maggie to read. We became friends after Ama wandered into her territory by accident.”

Maeve nodded, “she won’t kill children.”

“Yeah, I got a free pass as well I guess. But in her cabin there’s a photo of all these kids plus a number thirteen.”

“Maggie.”

“Yes. Where did they come from?”

“About three miles from where most of the killings occurred there are the remains of a compound. From what the sisters told me their community worshiped whatever it is Maggie is bound to serve. Think of her as an unwilling high priestess. The honor was supposed to go to the eldest sibling.”

“So they were runaways? Why leave Maggie behind?”

“It wasn’t their intention. But we are talking about two teenagers organizing a mass breakout. Their mother was the old Huntress and the community had no choice but to use Maggie.”

“So she's been like this since she was a kid? What happened to the compound?”

“Abandoned.”

Cecilio leaned forward, the writer in him sensing a plot twist, “what do you think happened?”

Maeve gave a grim smile, “No child would be able to perform such a complicated kill. It takes too much strength and dexterity. I suspect until Maggie was capable, the entity turned to the only food source available.”

“It ate them?”

“I suppose.”

“Maggie said she feeds it so whatever that thing is would get out of control and eat everyone else. How much do you want to bet she’s protecting a village she doesn’t even realize is empty?”

“Maggie’s job is to share visions and directions she is given to her people in exchange for her work.” Maeve explained. “I guarantee you she knows and is trapped in her contract. But I have a suspicion this thing isn’t nearly that powerful if it needs a host.”

“Wait,” Cecilio choked as he hastily swallowed the cookie he was eating. “Host?”

Maeve nodded, “it needs someone to kill for it. It’s shaped our girl into the thing that she is but according to the sisters Maggie is just a glorified puppet.”

“She’s not the monster-”

“She’s it’s first victim. At least in my investigation. The sisters gave me the impression this has been going on for several generations.”

Cecilio nodded, processing all this new information. “Maggie is out there alone, she stays quiet and follows that thing’s orders.”

“Not very well if she’s letting the three of us live whenever we visit,” Maeve commented with a sip of her tea. “From my understanding this thing is rather glutinous.”

“What will it do if it gets angry with Maggie?”

“Maggie is apparently not allowed to live for herself but she's not allowed to die either. Not until a suitable successor is given.” Maeve explained, “her sisters told me that the last time a hunter was belligerent their free will was stripped away entirely.”

“Maggie hasn’t been allowing Ama or I to visit in months,” Cecilio stated. “We’ve been trying but she won’t have it. And yesterday-”

“Didn’t it feel like something was wrong out there?” Maeve asked.

2 notes · View notes

caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma · 4 years

Text

Map of the Soul, Chapter Six

For the @btswritingcafe‘s Map of the Soul: 7 Workshop

Pairings: OT7 x reader (kinda); Taehyung x reader; Seokjin x reader

Series Summary: If you give a piece of yourself to everyone you love, at some point, there will be nothing left for yourself. While feeling lost and alone in your adult life, a strange box falls onto your head in your own closet, and you take an unexpected walk down memory lane wondering where everything went wrong. Was it the romances that fizzled out, the friends & loved ones you left behind, the “what could’ve been” moments, the brush with Fate that never quite connected? Could the strange map you find have the answers you are looking for? Determined to feel complete once again, you embark on a journey to reclaim the missing pieces of your soul.

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut

Word Count: 7K+

Warnings: cursing & vulgar language, anxiety issues, bad puns & cheesy jokes (it is a Jin chapter after all), mutual oral sex (69), fingering, unprotected penetrative sex (please be safe, darlings), creampie

Chapter Six: The Dish Who Ran Away With the Spoon

March 23rd, 7:07pm

You and Taehyung pulled up to your cousin Seokjin’s house and you hesitated after you parked. He caught on to your mood quickly and placed his hand on your thigh reassuringly. He knew where your head was at, and he waited patiently for you to speak.

“Tae, tell me I can do this,” you begged softly. “Tell me I can get through one night with her and not ruin my cousin’s graduation party.”

“It’s been three years, babe,” Taehyung replied. “Maybe things will be better now? Either way, I’ll be right here with you.”

Your head fell back against the headrest and you took a deep breath, trying to release any nagging bitterness toward your cousin’s wife. When Seokjin started dating Aeri four years ago, you were adamant that he rethink his life choices. You knew from experience just what kind of girl Aeri was and you told him on multiple occasions that she was just using him because his family had money. Aeri was well-known among your graduating class as a seeker of wealth, and she’d barreled through several of your friends in pursuit of their trust funds. You tried to reason with Seokjin, but he kept laughing it off as a joke and he insisted that she was nothing like that.

They announced their engagement after a year of dating, and you cornered Aeri at a family gathering and gave her the typical “if you hurt my cousin, I will hunt you down and make sure they never find the body” speech. You may have used some especially colorful language in the middle of your well intended speech, and who would’ve known that the phrase “selfish gold digging bitch” would cause such a violent reaction? Aeri had a breakdown in the middle of the gathering and Seokjin swooped in to save her, as always.

He’d been furious at you, accusing you of jealousy and threatening to uninvite you to his wedding. Blinded by fury, you assured him that you no longer wanted anything to do with him or his “conniving bitch wife to be.” Needless to say, in that one evening, you’d driven an unintentional stake between you and your closest cousin. The damage appeared irreparable.

The wedding came and went without you in attendance, despite your mother’s incessant pleas to make amends with Seokjin. There were a handful of family gatherings where you were all in attendance, but things always soured whenever you and Aeri neared one another. Tonight was no exception, but you really wanted the night to continue without incident.

I just need to avoid her, and everything will be ok.

“Ok,” you breathed out in a huff. “Let’s do this. If you see any indication of an impending kerfuffle, Tae-bear, you need to get me the hell out immediately. I will not ruin this for Sana.”

“I’m on it,” Taehyung responded while taking your keys. “Was Sana the weird little girl who would melt her Barbie dolls with a lighter and then fuse them together?”

“Yeah, that’s her,” you confirmed. “Now, that weird little girl is a certified welder who is going to be doing an internship at NASA this summer. With her skill, she’ll probably end up getting a full time job welding things for the space program.”

“Damn,” Taehyung remarked. “Whoever said trade schools were a waste of time were seriously mistaken. Good for her!”

You both made your way to the backyard, where a huge buffet table laden with food awaited the guests. The backyard was decorated in fairy lights and small tasteful centerpieces. Upon further inspection, Taehyung noticed that the centerpieces were actually small welded art pieces.

“These are so cool!” Taehyung proclaimed. “I want one!”

“You should see the ones I have at home,” came a surly voice from the end of the table. “You’d love them.”

“Sana!” you exclaimed. “Congratulations!”

You met her halfway around the table and pulled her into a quick side hug. Sana wasn’t really one for a lot of affection, so even the little hug you gave her flustered her a bit.

“I’m so proud of you,” you beamed. “I heard about your internship, it’s so exciting.”

“Thanks,” she murmured. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Sana gave Taehyung the once over and rolled her eyes playfully.

“You’re still hanging out with this jerk?” she teased. “I figured you would’ve ditched his pathetic ass a long time ago.”

Taehyung gave his best rendition of mock offense and stepped back slightly to “recover” from her insults. After catching a sliver of a smile on her face, he stepped forward to offer her a fist bump, which she gladly reciprocated.

“It’s good to see you, Sana,” Taehyung said. “I’m very happy to hear you’re doing well as a welder and not making headlines as a serial killer.”

“You never know,” Sana shrugged nonchalantly. “Could still happen.”

After several minutes of entertaining antics between you, Sana, and Taehyung, you realized you needed to use the restroom. You assured Taehyung that you could, indeed, go to the bathroom on your own, and you left him talking to Sana about her welding exploits.

You quickly made your way inside, careful to avoid the watchful eyes of your mother and your crazy aunts. You found the downstairs half bath easily enough, and you were so thankful that you’d avoided any drama on the way inside. Hopefully, your escape would be just as uneventful.

You were almost to the end of the hall when you were suddenly pulled inside a darkened room. You wanted to yelp, but the person who pulled you into the room held a hand over your mouth. You glanced at the immaculate manicured fingernails and gaudy wedding ring, and you knew exactly who’d accosted you.

“Please don’t yell at me just yet,” Aeri breathed out quietly. “I just need to talk to you, and I really need you to listen to what I have to say.”

You resisted the urge to snap at your loathsome cousin-by-marriage, but when you looked at her in the soft light coming in from the windows, your heart softened considerably. Your confusion increased as she flicked the switch on a small lamp in the room.

Aeri was a mess. Her makeup was a little smeared around the edges of her red rimmed eyes, her hair was slightly disheveled, and she looked genuinely distraught. She lowered her trembling hand and wrapped her arms around herself, as though she was trying to hold herself together.

What the hell happened to her?

“I know you hate me, ok?” Aeri began gruffly. “It’s no secret that you think I’m a stupid, spoiled whore who stole your cousin Jin from you. However, it was never my intention to come between the two of you.”

You started to speak, but she held up a hand to stop you. It was obvious she had more to say, so you nodded and held your tongue.

“When Jin and I first got together, I will admit that I didn’t have the best intentions,” she conceded. “However, it only took a few weeks for me to realize that Jin wasn’t like every other guy I dated before. He was so wonderfully different and sweet and caring. He made me feel beautiful and loved and I didn’t know how to handle it.”

You remained silent, and nodded your head knowingly. Kim Seokjin always gave off an air of arrogance and confidence, but underneath that facade of self-absorption was a genuine ball of marshmallow fluff that thrived on support and encouragement for the people he loved and cared about. He truly was a selfless person, and you always loved that about him.

“You knew what I was like before Jin,” she continued. “I was a monster, for lack of a better word. I was selfish and manipulative, and you had every right to assume that I was going to get my claws into Jin, just like I had with everyone else I dated. When I realized how amazing Jin was, I actually tried to break it off with him because I was worried that I would hurt him and I thought I didn’t deserve to be with someone like him.”

You recoiled slightly. You were almost certain you’d misheard her, but the look on her face expressed the truth.

Aeri tried to leave Jin?

“It didn’t matter how hard I tried to leave him though,” she pouted. “He refused to accept my breakup speech as anything but nonsense. I kept trying to break up with him and he kept telling me no. It was actually a little frustrating.”

You stifled a giggle at your cousin’s ridiculous antics. Seokjin had a flair for the dramatic, so you empathized with Aeri’s frustration.

“After a while, I stopped trying to break up with him,” Aeri explained. “And Jin, he just...he just made everything in my life so wonderful and simple. It felt like my heart was finally awake, and I was over the moon for him.”

You smiled softly at her confession.

Leave it to Jin to transform a vicious monster into a cuddly ball of fluff.

“When you confronted me at the engagement party, I didn’t handle things very well and I apologize for that,” she admitted. “I was afraid of losing the only man I ever loved, and the two of you were so close that I was sure you’d convince him to leave me. I panicked and I lashed out at you because I didn’t know what else to do.”

She stepped forward and took your hand into her own. You were shocked at her sudden tenderness, but you allowed her to continue her unexpected confession.

“Jin is the one who convinced me that I was deserving of love, and he taught me how to love myself,” she explained further. “What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was monopolizing him from the rest of the family, particularly you. I caused the rift between you two and I never made any attempts to remedy that. Losing Jin would devastate me, so I would panic whenever you were near him. I’m genuinely sorry for that.”

She took a deep cleansing breath and reached for something on the side table in the room. When she lifted it, you saw it was a very recognizable fork.

“I found this the day of the engagement party,” Aeri explained. “I didn’t know what it was at the time, but after that argument you had with Jin, I found out what it was. He told me about this fork that belonged to your grandparents. This fork was yours, and he had the spoon, the only pieces left from the original set.”

“That’s right,” you confirmed. “Jin and I are the foodies in the family. We were always cooking together, so those utensils were entrusted to us as family heirlooms.”

Aeri simply nodded and examined the fork more closely.

“I heard you guys arguing that night,” Aeri admitted. “I was just inside the door. I know you said some pretty despicable things to each other.”

“I called him a fucking idiot,” you cringed. “I said that you were going to ruin his life and that I wasn’t going to stick around to watch that happen.”

“I remember,” Aeri said. “I also remember that Jin said that if you really felt that way, then he would no longer be your cousin. Then, you threw this fork at his head and told him to “go fork himself.”

“I don’t know what hurt him more,” you smirked. “The fork or my terrible pun.”

“You know Jin,” Aeri smiled weakly. “He loves your puns. They’re just as bad as his dad jokes.”

You both shared a small giggle. It was enough to lighten the mood somewhat.

“Since that day, I’ve had this fork in my possession,” Aeri informed you. “Jin can’t seem to find the spoon though. When he found the fork in my jewelry box this morning, he was pretty upset, to say the least. He knew you were coming to Sana’s graduation and he’s been trying to find a way to talk to you these last few years. When he found out I had the exact thing he needed to get that conversation started, he yelled at me for the first time in our entire relationship.”

Your jaw dropped. Kim Seokjin never raised his voice at anyone in anger. Yeah, he was loud and rowdy most of the time, but it was never sincere or aggressive. If he really yelled at Aeri, then something must’ve snapped his composure.

“He accused me of keeping you guys apart all these years,” Aeri sobbed. “He said that if I was hiding this fork from him all this time, then that must mean that what you said about me was true. He really thinks I’m trying to sabotage his relationship with you, and that just isn’t true.”

The tears streaming down her face made your heart ache tightly with empathy. Aeri genuinely seemed to love your cousin and now this fork was calling that into question.

“Aeri,” you asked softly. “Why did you keep the fork? Why didn’t you give it to Jin sooner?”

“I was afraid,” she cried out. “Afraid of losing him to you and your assumptions about me. He loves you and trusts you more than anyone else in the world, you know. All these years, he’s questioned that night in his head. Whenever your name is brought up in conversation, it hurts him because he misses you so much. I saw it in his eyes every time, it’s like there’s a piece of him that’s gone. I didn’t know how to handle all of that, so I was a coward and I hid the fork. Now, he thinks I’m also hiding the spoon.”

Your brain pulled on yet another string of Fate and you thought back to the mysterious spoon in your purse.

The fucking spoon! I spent so much time with the fork, I never thought about the matching spoon.

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” she explained. “I need your help to fix this. I know that you’re the only one he’ll listen to, and I will do anything to make this right. Will you please help me? You’re the only one who can.”

You took another look at Aeri and your mind cleared. This was not the same girl you used to see stomping on men’s hearts after sucking them dry financially. The love in her eyes was pure, and the affection she had for your cousin was genuine. There was real remorse and suffering seeping out of her pores. You felt an immediate sense of guilt for all your prior accusations against her, and you decided to remedy her unfortunate situation.

“Where is he?” you implored. “I’ll talk to him.”

Aeri took a moment to absorb your words and then rushed forward to embrace you tightly. The sudden show of affection was unnerving, but you accepted it with grace. If you were going to settle this whole thing with Jin, you should at least start treating his wife cordially.

“He’s in the kitchen,” she informed you. “I’ll go in there and chase everyone else out so you can talk to him alone. Just give me a few minutes, ok?”

“Ok,” you agreed. “I just need to get something from my bag.”

You split up in the hallway and you quickly retrieved the spoon from your purse in the car. Once you made your way to the kitchen, Aeri was waiting at the entrance for you. You could hear Jin asking for help from within.

“Thank you again,” she whispered. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

She squeezed your arm gently and then retreated down the hallway as you stepped into the brightly lit kitchen, taking a moment to appreciate the impressive wingspan of your cousin Jin’s shoulders in front of the counter.

“I hear you need some help, Jin-Jin?” you announced with a smile. “Maybe I can be of assistance?”

Jin’s shoulders ceased their motion and he set down the knife he was using to chop vegetables. He was cleaning his hands on his frilly apron when he turned around to face you. His face was unreadable, but you knew he was nervous about seeing you. The twitch in his right eye and the tension in his lips told you everything you needed to know.

“Hey,” he murmured with uncertainty. “I didn’t know you were here already.”

“Yeah,” you said nonchalantly. “So, do you need help getting that vegetable tray ready? You know I’m good with a knife.”

Jin’s lips settled into a polite smile and he reached over to the hooks on the wall to grab another frilly apron. He tossed it at you and you put it on while he pulled out another cutting board and knife for you to use. He settled the vegetables and tray between the two of you on the counter, and you started slicing away at a cucumber while he continued prepping the carrots. Neither of you spoke for a few minutes, but you took note of the subtle glances he tossed in your direction. After he exhaled with a sigh, you took mercy on your poor cousin and decided to break the ice the only way you knew how.

“Hey, Jin,” you smirked. “I know this cucumber is cool, but should I chop it like it’s hot?”

You swiveled your hips slightly as you continued to slice the cucumber, and Jin’s eyes glowed with amusement. He was trying not to show how pleased he was with your silly pun, but you could tell he was gearing up for a joke of his own.

“Do whatever you want,” he shrugged. “I don’t carrot all.”

He lifted a carrot stick and chomped on it to punctuate the sentence. You both tightened your lips to contain your laughter, but ultimately you both exploded with giggles a few seconds later. You and Jin put down your knives to lift your aprons up to dab at the tears collecting at the corners of your eyes. The two of you had a ridiculous sense of humor, but man, there was nothing you enjoyed more than hanging out with him and telling stupid jokes that only you and he would laugh at.

It was a relief to feel the tension in the kitchen dissipating so naturally. You missed having your favorite goofball around, and as you finished slicing the cucumber slices, you agonized over the time that you’d already lost. You arranged the sliced cucumber on the tray and grabbed the nearest crown of broccoli.

“Oh, good,” Jin commented. “I haven’t chopped the little trees yet. I’m glad you’re going to do them. You always know how to cut them the way I like them.”

You smiled brightly at his praise, and made quick work of the “little trees” Jin loved so much. Once the “forest” was arranged on the tray, you grabbed the multicolored cherry tomatoes and poured them into the corner slot. Another sigh from Jin captured your attention and you glanced over to catch his gaze as he leaned forward to arrange the carrot sticks on the platter.

“I’ve really missed this, you know?” Jin chirped. “Us, in the kitchen, making food and stupid jokes. I almost forgot how much fun this was.”

“Well, it’s been a while since we last did this,” you reminded him gently. “Actually, the last time I can remember was at your engagement party.”

You paused to gauge his reaction, and you had to give the man some credit. He was getting much better at concealing his emotions, but you were the one person who knew that the tips of his ears were about to flush pink from anxiety. Just as the blood rushed to the sides of his head, he released the breath he was holding. You almost smirked at his reaction, but you didn’t want to ruin the moment.

“Yeah, about that,” Jin gritted out while rubbing the back of his neck. “I think we need to talk about what happened that night.”

“I know,” you nodded. “Jin, I just-”

“You were right,” he cut you off. “About everything. Aeri really is selfish and a liar and manipulative, and I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner.”

“No, that’s not-” you started to say.

“She’s been keeping secrets from me,” he interrupted once again. “Hiding things from me, and all I ever did was love her and trust her and give her whatever she needed. I thought I could help her become a better person, you know? Really learn how to love herself so she could see the wonderful person I saw inside of her. I thought she’d changed, but, I guess it just wasn’t possible.”

“She isn’t hiding anyth-” you tried again.

“So, yeah,” Jin huffed out sadly. “That’s it. That’s my life with the woman of my dreams, or I guess it’s more of a nightmare now. I don’t know how I can stay married to someone who lies to me and-”

“Will you shut up for one second?!” you cried out.

Jin paused his monologue and tilted his head to look at your fuming form. The gloss over his eyes made you sad, and more than anything, you wanted to relieve the melancholy oozing from his full lips. You lifted your hand to reveal the fork Aeri had given you earlier. His eyes widened, but his emotional grid just shifted from woe to fury.

“You see?” he pointed out. “That’s your fork! I couldn’t find it after you threw it at my head that night. I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to talk to you after our fight and I knew that fork would be the perfect conversation starter. Aeri was hiding it from me and I found it. She probably has my spoon hidden somewhere in the house, and I promise you, I’m going to find-”

You pulled the spoon out of your pocket and his heated rant came to an abrupt stop, and you saw confusion creep across his temples and down to his befuddled expression. You could tell he was trying to work out the equation you’d laid before him, but he was having trouble solving it. You put him out of his misery and placed both utensils on the counter and then wrapped your arms around him.

Jin returned the embrace without a second thought and you both settled into a comfortable and soothing silence, only interrupted briefly by the occasional heaving sigh from one or the other. You patted his back and stepped away to hold up both the fork and the spoon in front of his face.

“Aeri didn’t have your spoon,” you affirmed. “I did. Before you even ask, I don’t know why I had it. It just appeared in my things and I found it completely by accident. She did have my fork, but she had her reasons for not telling you about it.”

“How do you know that?” Jin pouted slightly. “What? Are you and Aeri friends now or something?”

“Or something just about covers it,” you nodded. “She just pulled me into a dark room without warning and spilled the tea about all of this, and you know what I realized as she was crying her eyes out over this?”

“What?” Jin muttered grumpily.

“That girl honestly loves you,” you stated simply. “Like hand over my heart, grab a bouquet of flowers, and gag me with that stupid spoon of yours LOVES you. I was so blinded by my hatred of her back then, I never gave her a chance to be anything but the conniving witch I knew her to be. But all of that was before she met you, my handsome charming cousin.”

Jin’s expression softened considerably, and he leaned back against the counter, dropping his gaze to the floor. You took that as a sign to continue.

“I underestimated you, Jin-Jin,” you admitted. “I should have trusted your choices and put more faith in your judgment. Before Aeri, I never questioned anything you did. It was unfair of me to judge her so harshly, especially since you were so sure of her fidelity and loyalty.”

Jin lifted his eyes to meet your own, and he offered you a small smile. He reached over to take the spoon into his hand and his smile widened.

“Do you know why people never bring spoons to a party?” he asked. “It’s because they cause quite a stir.”

You groaned loudly and threw your head back to stifle the impending chortle from escaping. You should’ve been ready for one of Jin’s lame dad jokes, but they always caught you off guard.

“Come on,” Jin demanded. “Laugh! You know you want to.”

He poked your side with the spoon and you released the laughter you’d held hostage after he delivered his punchline. It took a few seconds to stop his incessant spoon attack, but he eventually wrapped his arm around your shoulder and kissed the top of your head affectionately.

“Oh, 고구마/goguma (sweet potato),” he sighed. “What am I supposed to do with you? How many times must I tell you that I am always right and I know what I’m doing? How could you even doubt me for a second? You really should have more faith in me.”

“You’re one to talk, 감자/gamja (potato),” you teased. “I wasn’t the only one who lost faith here. You never called me after that night, and you were always the first one to apologize and set things right whenever we got stupid.”

“Well, I would have” he argued. “But I couldn’t find your stupid fork. I couldn’t make anything right without giving that back to you, even after you threw it at my head and told me to “go fork myself.” That was a good one, by the way.”

“Thank you,” you giggled, while picking up your fork. “It just came to me in the moment.”

You heard a commotion behind you and you both turned around to see Aeri lingering in the doorway. She was shifting nervously against the door frame and biting on her lip. She looked like she wanted to speak, but didn’t know how to begin. You looked up at Jin who nodded at your silent request. You hugged his side and then walked over to Aeri.

Before she could say a word, you wrapped your arms around her and gave her a big hug. She was flabbergasted and immediately started sobbing against your shoulder. You tried to pull away to calm her down, but she melted against you, dripping tears and snot all over your shoulder. It was hard not to be grossed out by it, but you endured the discomfort for the sake of the moment. You were trying to mend the relationship between all three of you, and pushing her away for covering you in disgusting wetness would just have to be overlooked at the moment.

“Aeri,” you murmured against her head. “I have something to say to both you and Jin. Why don’t you go over to the counter so we can talk?”

She looked over to Jin and she hesitated, but he opened his arms to her and beckoned her forth.

“Come here, 여보/yeobo (honey),” he cooed. “It’s ok.”

She flew into Jin’s arms and buried her wet face into his broad chest. It was adorable how small she was against your cousin’s side, but somehow they fit together perfectly. It made your heart soar to see the love pouring out of Jin’s face and reciprocated in Aeri’s.

How did I never see this side of them?

“Well, I feel like I owe both of you an apology,” you said. “I was unfair to both of you, and I regret not giving either of you my blessing. I’m a horrible cousin, and I entirely take the blame for this family drama. I started it, and now, I’m finishing it.”

You stepped forward and took one hand from each into your own. They smiled at you and Jin’s eyes were sparkling with happiness.

“I’m sorry for everything,” you stated. “I hope that we can move forward from today and be cousins, the way we should have been from the moment Jin decided to marry you. From here on out, I want us to be friends.”

“Best friends,” Jin agreed. “I won’t even bother to say something silly like soulmate. I’m sure Taehyung would kill us if we even dared. Speaking of which, how is he?”

“He’s-” you started to say.

“TTALGI!” came a loud screech from outside.

“Loud,” you groaned. “And annoying. Did I mention the annoying part?”

You all laughed at that, and you noticed that the two of them were getting restless against each other.

That’s probably my cue to leave.

“I’ll give you two a moment alone,” you suggested. “I need to go wrangle my ridiculous soulmate before he causes any trouble.”

“Wrangle?” Jin mused. “Or did you mean to say strangle?”

“Either,” you quipped. “Both of them will get the job done.”

You stalked your way outside, leaving the two lovebirds to make up in the kitchen and wandered around the side of the house to find Taehyung slumped against the brick exterior, seemingly distraught.

“Tae?” you worried. “What happened? Is everything ok?”

Taehyung’s eyes were glassy and his serene expression was reminiscent of a drug addict riddled with chemical euphoria.

Fucking Sana! Did she get him high again?!

Your cousin dabbled in edibles, and she was crazy good at making them. She knew everything there was to know about the different strains and their medicinal and recreational applications. If she wasn’t so damned good at welding, she probably would’ve opened her own dispensary.

“Tae,” you reasoned cautiously “Please tell me you didn’t eat a gummy or a Rice Krispie treat again. I don’t want to have to explain your condition to your mother while you’re trippin’ balls.”

Whatever high Taehyung was riding, it seemed to be smooth, and as he focused in on your face, the haze seemed to clear and his pupils dilated further, which only fueled your drug theory.

“My beautiful, beautiful soulmate,” Taehyung gushed. “You have no idea how happy I am right now and I have you to thank.”

“Me or Sana?” you snapped. “I swear to goddess, Kim Elizabeth Taehyung, if you don’t start explaining yourself right fucking now, I’m going to fucking kill you.”

He took a deep breath and stepped forward to cup your cheeks with his gorgeous hands. There was a sparkle in his eyes you’d never seen before and you started to rethink the drug theory. Taehyung’s thumbs softly brushed across your cheeks, soothing your fears away with each stroke.

Before you could ask any questions, Taehyung dipped his lips and pulled your face to meet his own in the softest kiss he’d ever given you. He held you in place while he continued to caress your lips in a sensual waltz that only he could hear. The affection he lavished upon you left you trembling with anticipation, and the heat between your thighs increased with each languid suckle.

When he finally ceased his assault on your lips, he leaned his forehead against your own and released a satisfied hum. He then pulled away to show you his phone. There was a voicemail message on it and he played it on speakerphone for you.

“Hey, Taehyung, it’s Yoongi. I don’t know if you were actually serious about that marketing job thing, but it turns out I will have a full time position opening up soon. If you’re really interested, give me a call. I know your work pretty well already, and I think your style could bring something unique to the team. I won’t be back in town for another couple of weeks, but my cousin Namjoon is available to go over the details with you. Call me back when you get a chance. Later.”

Your jaw couldn’t drop any further and your eyes were reaching maximum width. As the information gradually coalesced into solid news in your brain, the rhetorical questions bubbled to the tip of your frontal lobe.

Yoongi wants to offer Taehyung a job?! What?! And did he say Namjoon...Kim Namjoon?

Taehyung’s grin was so wide, you were afraid it would split his skull in half. He broke out into his celebratory dance and started grinding up against you in the process. You were still reeling from his big news, and your brain felt like it had short circuited.

What the hell was happening right now?

“Tae!” you gasped. “What does this mean?”

“It means,” announced your soulmate. “That I, Kim Elizabeth Taehyung, may soon be working with the one and only Min fucking Yoongi.”

“I don’t understand. How did this happen?” you questioned him. “What about the job you already have?”

“Ttalgi,” he grinned. “If Min fucking Yoongi is seriously offering me a job marketing his music, then fuck that other job. This is my dream job, babe. I will be the Ultimate Director of Marketing, or DOM, if you will.”

You rolled your eyes at his crude innuendo and tried in vain to find something to say to him that might appeal to his sense of rationality, but you came up short. Taehyung was far too engrossed in celebrating this amazing turn of events to notice your growing apprehension.

Why were you suddenly feeling uneasy about this?

“Isn’t this a little sudden, Tae?” you argued. “I mean, we literally just saw Yoongi like a day ago. Do you think his offer is real? How can you be so sure that this is a legitimate offer?”

“If it’s legit, how can I say no?” he shrugged. “This is a huge opportunity for me, not to mention for my career. I can’t second guess anything right now, ttalgi, not if the reward is something I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a kid. You’ve seen my sketch book. How many album covers did I design? How many posters? How many times have I seen marketing campaigns for musicians and said that I could’ve done better?”

“I know, Tae-bear, but you shouldn’t make any hasty decisions. You didn’t already call him back, did you?” you asked. “Please tell me you’re going to think about this first.”

“What’s there to think about?” he responded. “I already called him back and I’m meeting with his cousin and lawyer, Kim Namjoon, in a few days to discuss the job. If I like what I hear, then I’m putting in my two weeks notice and starting a new job with Genius Labs, Inc.”

“When and where are you meeting him?” you scowled. “Are you ditching me during our soulmate spring break, Elizabeth?”

“No, baby, I would never,” he smirked. “Namjoon is going to be in town to meet with the university about a fundraiser. After we get back to your place, I’m supposed to go by the new Genius Labs studio office across town. Apparently, they set up a local office to help coordinate all the philanthropic work the company does with the university. That’s where I will be working if they hire me.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Yoongi and Taehyung working together? Kim Namjoon suddenly reappearing in your life again? What kind of twisted reality were you living?

I don’t know if I’m ready to have so much of my past and present mixing together.

“I hate to kill my own buzz, babe,” Taehyung interrupted your thoughts. “But I just heard Jin announce that the food is ready and I’m starving. I am going to need a lot of energy if we’re going to celebrate later, yeah?”

You snapped your head up to look at his devilish smirk and the sinful glint in his eye. Seeing that hunger building in his mind tugged you away from your anxiety monster and pulled you closer to your hormone demon. You reached up and slid your fingers into his hair and then pulled back slightly, just enough to make him hiss. He pushed your back against the brick wall in response, caging you with his strong arms.

“Then let’s finish family dinner,” you purred. “Then we can go home for dessert.”

Taehyung reached down and slapped at the side of your ass, making it jiggle slightly. He bit on his bottom lip and then gazed deeply into your eyes. His dilated pupils were teeming with lust and you knew you were in for a wild ride.

“Careful, ttalgi,” he warned. “Don’t start games you don’t intend to finish.”

He planted a heated kiss on your lips, complete with a teasing swipe of his tongue and a nibble on your bottom lip. Before you could get carried away, Taehyung pulled you away from the wall in the direction of the party. The two of you walked to the backyard hand in hand and enjoyed the rest of the evening with your family.

After dinner was served, Sana managed to escape to go see her girlfriend at some point, and Jin disappeared inside with Aeri. You and Taehyung saw that as an opportunity to dip out gracefully as well. You stealthily discarded your plates and sneaked out the back gate.

You decided to go back to your house, since your parents would be at the graduation party for at least a few more hours. You and Taehyung made sure to get fully inside your locked bedroom before going completely feral on each other and tearing clothes off each other like crazed sex maniacs.

You were in the middle of a 69 position when Taehyung thought it would be a good time to talk about the future. With his fingers dipping steadily into your drenched core, he started up a casual conversation.

“Babe,” he mused after suckling on your clit. “If I get this job, I’ll need to find a place to live. Any suggestions?”

You moaned around the tip of his swollen cock and released it with a popping noise. He hissed at the sensation and started twisting his wrist with each slide into your swollen pussy.

“Ah,” you moaned. “I guess...ah...you could always...ah...stay with me until you...ah...found a place.”

You started stroking his quivering length and you dropped your head down to lick at his balls with each stroke. He groaned wantonly and thrust up into your hand to increase the speed.

“That’s a good idea, ttalgi,” he gritted out. “You’re so fucking smart.”

His tongue snaked its way into your folds and started penetrating your tightening hole over and over again. His stiff pink muscle slid up and down your fleshy walls collecting every ounce of arousal it could.

Your second orgasm was approaching and Taehyung wasn’t interested in edging you out this time. He started stimulating your clit along with his tongue fucking and it rapidly ruined any composure you had left. You barreled across the climax finish line and fell forward into Taehyung’s lap, convulsing slightly from the overstimulation.

Taehyung planted one last kiss to your dripping entrance and rolled you around so he could spoon you from behind while also slipping into your soaked pussy in one fluid motion. He started a steady rhythm against your hips and pulled you against his chest so he could play with your stiffened nipples.

“I’d really like that, babe,” he admitted. “You and me finally living together? Think about all the fun we could have. It will be amazing.”

“You’re amazing, Tae,” you purred. “Always fuck me so good.”

“That’s right,” Taehyung agreed while increasing his pace. “I know what you like, when you like it, how you like it, where you like it. I know everything about you, ttalgi. Just like I know that you’re about to cream all over my cock in just a few seconds.”

With one of his hands pulling on your nipple, one stimulating your clit, and Taehyung’s teeth biting down on your collarbone, you felt another orgasm careen over your skin, leaving you a moaning mess. Your moans only increased in pitch when you felt Taehyung releasing hot spurts of cum inside of you just a few moments later.

You laid in each other’s arms, cuddling while his erection softened inside of you. Taehyung pressed another kiss to your temple and sighed happily against your ear.

“If this all works out,” he pondered. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other. Are you sure you’re ready for that, ttalgi?”

Taehyung’s voice was laced with concern and you couldn’t blame him. This wouldn't be a silly college roommate situation for the two of you. Both of you were working adults with adult responsibilities and you’d never lived together before. You’d both had roommates before, but they were basically strangers to you. This would be starting a new chapter of your life with someone you’d known since you were a small child. The looming history between you and Taehyung had pervasive possibilities.

Can Taehyung and I live together without any unintended consequences?

Looking at his hand cupping your breast, you smiled and twisted your face to kiss at his fingertips. You turned in his grasp and tilted your head up to pull him into another kiss. The unprecedented worry in his eyes surprised you, and you wanted to allay any concerns he might have.

I shouldn’t worry about something like this. This is Taehyung. Good or bad, we always figure out a way to make things work.

“I’m not worried, Tae-bear,” you told him. “As long as I have you in my life, I know everything will be divine. I’m always going to be here for you, my gorgeous soulmate.”

Taehyung’s face lit up and he hugged you tightly against his chest. You both released a sigh of satisfaction and then settled into the pillow, his face inhaling your hair as he drifted off to sleep. You relaxed in his hold and smiled. Even though the future was filled with unanswered questions and lingering doubts, you were confident that everything would turn out well, especially if you had your Tae-bear to rely on. You snuggled against your soulmate and breathed in his comforting scent as your mind drifted into slumber.

I don’t know what you’re up to, Universe, but you might have some explaining to do.

Author’s Note: Thus ends the chapter with Mr. Worldwide Handsome himself, THE Kim Seokjin. Things are definitely spinning out of control with Tae, Yoongi, and Namjoon making an appearance in the last chapter. I hope you’re all ready to see who she ends up with in the end. Any guesses?

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Chapter Five: There’s Still Sunshine When He’s Gone

NEXT CHAPTER

Chapter Seven: Too Many Keys, Just One Door

MAP OF THE SOUL MASTERLIST

@caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma‘s MASTERLIST

#btswritingcafe #Map of the soul #kim seokjin #kim taehyung #eat jin #dad jokes #bad puns #bts collab #bts smut #bts fic #bts fanfic #bts fluff #BTS au #bts angst #soulmate #ttalgi #bangtan #bts bangtan sonyeondan

28 notes · View notes

mock-star-aq · 4 years

Text

Supermonster Dinner Party: a Dragula fic.

Happy Holidays y'all! This is my fic for the @rpdrficexchange for Wolfie, aka Wolfie @thepastpresentandfutureofdrag !! I hope you like this darling! (For some reason I can't tag you in this?)

This is a weird cannon divergent style where they are their drag personas but dragula and drag race still happened, (if that makes sense) so make of that what you will.

Edit: Thanks to @hellobiqtchlasagna for helping me come up with the surprise at the end. I forgot to credit them in my rush to get my fic up and I feel bad😅

"Do you know anything about him?" Vander asked, pulling a batch of cookies out of the oven and sliding them onto a cooling rack. Biqtch was leaning against the wall, nursing a mixed drink.

"Just that he's Boulet approved, same as you." Biqtch drawled. " Swan actually told me to be nice, as if I would be mean to anyone who wasn't mean first, or a Republican."

"You can be a bit crass at first. Drac told me to be mindful of not coming across too snooty, but she's one to speak."

"Oop, I'm snitching! I'm going to tell her you said that!"

"Oh, she knows, she makes fun of herself. And she would just brush it off. I can tease her a little since I know her relatively well."

"Yeah that's fair, Lord knows they talk shit about us all the time in private."

"I'm pretty sure it's mostly good things, but yeah, they absolutely poke at our screwups with each other. "

"Because they want the best from us, cause we're super monsters and all that." Biqtch pushed herself up from the wall, crossing over and rinsing out her cup to use again later.

"And also because we have to work together from now on, so we have to be at least cordial to each other." Vander said, pulling out her phone to check the time. "He should be here anytime now. I told him 6, and it's 5:55."

Just as Vander stopped speaking, the doorbell rang.

"Speak of the devil, that should be him." Vander motioned for Biqtch to follow her as she went to the door, smoothing out some wrinkles from Biqtch's shirt before opening the door wide.

"Hi, nice to finally meet you! Landon, right?"

"Yup, Landon Cider. Nice to meet you too." He affirmed, holding a hot bag. Vander waved him inside and relieved him of his dish, allowing him to hang his coat up as Biqtch closed the door.

"Nice to finally meet you, I'm Biqtch Pudding, and that's Vander Von Odd. You're hot as shit." Biqtch introduced herself, leaning against the wall as Landon took off his outerwear. The most prominent thing about him was how chiseled he was, even his face. The Boulets weren't ones to choose supermonsters based on conventional standards of beauty, but Landon was certainly very attractive.

"Ah yes, you two are infamous. The first two supermonsters!" Landon smiled, slightly blushing at Biqtch's remark.

"I hope our fearsome reputation precedes us." Biqtch flexed, her arm about half the size of Landon's.

"Landon, does this need to be warmed up at all?" Vander asked, holding up a casserole dish from the hot bag, interrupting before Biqtch could embarrass herself more.

"Maybe? I pulled it out of the oven before I left, so it should still be warm." He crossed over and took off the top, holding his hand over what appeared to be a lasagna. "Oh it's fine. It probably needs to cool down a little actually. Biqtch, I know you're a vegetarian, so this is just cheese."

"Yasss thanks doll!" Biqtch cheered. "What do you want to drink?" Biqtch led Landon over to Vander's drink cart as Vander pulled together the last little bits of the meal and set the table. She put the basket of rolls down as Landon and Biqtch came back, and Landon immediately put his drink down to help Vander put the last few things on the table.

"Thanks babe." Vander said as they all sat down at the table and started serving food. It was quiet for the first few minutes while they ate, but then Vander started asking Landon questions, since the main point of the dinner was to get to know him.

"So tell us about yourself Landon, where are you from, what do you do outside of doing performing .."

"Are you single?" Biqtch interjected. And Landon chuckled before responding.

"Well, I'm from Long Beach, and I have a Hispanic background. I am happily married, sorry Biqtch." He apologized, and Biqtch pretended to be upset, pouting and snapping her fingers before sitting up and shoving his shoulder, indicating that she was joking.

"We fucked like the all of the drag race winners do when they win but neither one of us liked it, so she was hoping to get a second chance." Vander explained, and Landon spit out his drink.

"And you know that HOW?!" He spluttered as Biqtch clapped him on his back.

"Sasha told me. She doesn't love the tradition, but I have a feeling she'll change her tune if Shea wins an allstar season."

"So they haven't fucked?"

"Oh no, they have. And they'll take any excuse to fuck. They're just rarely in the same place at the same time anymore. Trust me, Sasha's an open book once you get to know her well enough. So are most of the other RuGirls. Several of the other winners have offered to include us in the tradition, but unfortunately that probably ends with you. At least the sex part, most of them would probably be willing to makeout with you or cuddle with you."

"Fine by me!" Landon declared, wiping his brow. And they all started laughing.

"Yeah, we all saw you make out with Evah!" Vander teased, and Biqtch hooted appreciatively.

"Neither of you can talk!" Landon retorted, and they all started laughing harder. "Biqtch is a dick pig and Vander handled a pup during her final floor show. Hypocrites, both of you!" He wheezed out, clutching his stomach with one hand while pointing with the other.

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black!" Biqtch screeched.

The rest of the night dissolved into hysterics, scream laughing at each other so loud it was a wonder they didn't get a noise complaint. The food was barely touched and cold, but no one cared.

"I was inside so I couldn't see, but you could just hear her screaming! FUCK THE BIG PICTURE CLINT!!!"

"That's better than Loris's temper tantrum. "NoT tOnIgHt!"

"Well we didn't have any fun catchphrases like y'all did!"

"Bitch the fuck you mean? Everything that came out of Disasterina's mouth was fucking iconic! "Attention human males? She's murdering my pussy?" You just gotta think!"

"Ooh ooh! I know! "You're just a trigger happy alcoholic that's what I said bitch you gotta pop a xanax every 10 fucking minutes!" That's the closest thing Dragula has to the sugar daddy speech so far!"

"Ok, you both are right. What can I say? I just a dummy ass thick Biqtch." She joked, standing up slightly to twerk slightly to the amusement of Vander and Landon, who laughed even harder.

The doorbell rang, interrupting their laughter. Vander got up to answer it, and came back carrying a white box, slightly damp from the snow.

"What is that?" Biqtch asked as she and Landon got up and walked over to the counter where Vander sat it down.

"No idea, but it's addressed to me and it's from a really nice bakery." Vander replied, cutting the string tied around the box off with a pair of scissors and opening the box. All of their jaws dropped as the lid fell back and revealed what was inside. Biqtch came to her senses first, hunching over laughing and clutching the counter. Vander covered her mouth and started wheezing as Landon chuckled and pinching his forehead as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

"That is not what I think it is."

"It is." Vander and Biqtch said in unison. Biqtch pulled out her phone and took a picture, still laughing.

"I'm sending this to her right now. It's so lifelike, and I should know, I stared at her mug for weeks!" Vander laughed, kneeling to get a better look.

"Did she send it?" Landon asked, taking out his own phone to take a picture. Vander plucked up an envelope that was beside the cake and opened it, laughing harder when she read it.

" It's from the Boulets." She wheezed.

" Happy Holidays uglies. Hope you don't mind if Meatball crashes your supermonster dinner party. We truly are proud of you all. XOXO. Dracmorda and Swanthula."

"Swan wrote that." Biqtch said, looking over Vander's shoulder. "Drac has chicken scratch."

"Ooh! I'm snitching!" Vander mocked, and Biqtch doubled over again while Landon laughed in a confused way.

"So who wants to do the honors of cutting Meatball's head and seeing what flavor her brain is?"

"Landon should do it, welcome to the family bro. " Biqtch said. Vander nodded and handed Landon a knife, which he took.

"Alright, cheers Meatball." Landon said as he sunk the knife into the cake shaped like her head and cut away a piece.

"It looks like Red Velvet." Vander said as she held out a plate for Landon to put the cake piece on.

"That's clever as fuck!" Biqtch smiled, watching as Landon cut the next piece.

"Now I know how the Boulets feel, this is a powerful feeling, slicing someone up."

"Oh he's definitely one of us!" Biqtch cheered, high fiving Vander. Biqtch high fived Landon as Vander's phone went off and she unlocked it.

"Swan's glad to hear we got it and Meatball sent a bunch of grave emojis."

"That tracks." Biqtch said as Vander put her phone away and went to grab wine glasses and a bottle, uncorking it and handing them all a glass of red wine.

"A toast." She said as she held up her glass. "To the Boulets, to Dragula, to good food and good times, and to the supermonsters, past, reigning, and future. Cheers."

"Cheers!" Biqtch and Landon echoed. And they all drank.

"Now let's go eat our cold food and our Meatball head cake." Vander directed. "This is a dinner party after all."

"A holiday dinner party! Where's the mistletoe?" Biqtch joked.

"I am not kissing you again! Once was enough!"

"Spoil sport. Landon will make out with me, won't you Landon?"

"Umm, we'll talk. "

"That wasn't a no!"

Landon rolled his eyes and laughed at Biqtch's perseverance and Vander's apologetic face. This family was strange and weird and unconventional, but he loved it and wouldn't have it any other way.

#the boulet brothers dragula #thepastpresentandfutureofdrag #fic exchange #vander von odd #biqtch puddin #landon cider #my fic #m #mock star #dragula fanfiction #dragula fanfic

14 notes · View notes

mca-attack21 · 5 years

Text

DALEK

This is my first Doctor Who Imagine. It is based off of Season of Season 1 episode 6 with the 9th doctor and the Reader taking the place of Rose. Though I suppose you can imagine it with any of the Doctors. Word Count: 2827 This is my Masterlist where you can find more doctor who imagines.

Traveling with the Doctor was a truly indescribable experience. He took you on adventures to places that your mind couldn’t even begin to fathom. Today though, your destination was not by choice. The TARDIS had been drawn by a signal and you wound up six miles under ground in Utah. The year: 2012. The Doctor knew that it was never a good sign when the TARDIS was forced off course. This whole situation was giving him an uneasy feeling. He however decided that it was best that he hide his concern until it was proved warranted.

“So what exactly are we doing here?” you asked as you exited the TARDIS and looked around. It appeared as if you were in some sort of museum.

“I don’t know yet,” the Doctor said as the lights came on. It was then that the two of you saw that this was no ordinary museum. The artifacts were entirely alien. The doctor reached for your hand with a smile, “Shall we?”

As the two of you explored he reminisced and explained to you what the different artifacts were. He stumbled slightly as he saw what was unbeknownst to you the head of a cyber-man. “Doctor what is it?” you asked pulling him from his state of disbelief.

“An old friend- well enemy of mine,” he muttered. He reached out to touch the glass surrounding it and set off the alarm system. Within seconds the two of you were surrounded by guards with guns. The Doctor pushed you behind him protectively. “Gentleman, what can we do for-” the doctor started before being shoved forcefully to the ground and handcuffed.

The guards led the two of you into an office where a man was observing more artifacts. “I wouldn’t hold it like that,” the Doctor explained to the man.

“Why is it dangerous?” the man inquired.

“No, it’s just wrong. May I?” the Doctor said moving towards the artifact. As he did the guards re-positioned their guns.

“Stand down and give him use of his hands,” the man said before handing over the artifact. The Doctor took it from him and turned it around before using it to play music. “Who are you?” the man questioned.

“I’m the Doctor. Who are you?”

“Like you don’t know. I’d like to know how you managed to get 53 floors down in one of the most secure places on earth. Quite a collector yourself, your accomplice is easy on the eyes,” the man continued gesturing towards you. This comment had made you feel uneasy and you wished you could have left.

“So you are an collector of things you can never understand. And because you can’t understand these incredibly remarkable items, you lock them up,” the Doctor decided.

“And you claim greater knowledge,” the man scoffed

“I don’t need to make claims. I know how great I am,” the Doctor replied.

“And yet I captured you, right by the cage trying to see my one living specimen. And now you and the pretty lady are at my mercy.”

“And what is it that you’ve got down there?” The Doctor asked

“Oh you will see,” he answered, and then turned to the guards, “inform the cage we are headed down and take the girl upstairs,” he then turned to the Doctor, “and you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet.”

The doctor was lead back down the hall to where the two of you were captured earlier. He hated being separated from you and having no idea of where you were. But there wasn’t much he could do, after all the two of you were severely outnumbered and outgunned. He was brought out of his thoughts when the annoying man began to speak again, “We have tried everything to get it to speak. While the creature has shielded itself, we have seen definite signs of life inside.”

“Inside what?” The Doctor questioned. Before the man could answer, the door opened and revealed a Dalek. The Doctor was completely caught off guard. He didn’t even entirely understand what it was that he was feeling. Just seeing the Dalek had brought it all back- flashes of the time war-the screams. He didn’t even notice when the chamber door was sealed behind him.

Then it came to life, “The-Doctor-Enemy-of-the-Dalek-Exterminate-Exterminate,” it said as it started functioning.

The doctor sprinted to the door and started banging on it. “You’ve got to let me out!” he cried. Defeated, he turned around to face it again. And then he realized it wasn’t working, “It’s not working,” he declared in disbelief before laughing. “you are powerless. Nothing more than a glorified paperweight, You can’t kill me, you can’t kill anything. You have no purpose. You are nothing,” the Doctor taunted. He turned away for a moment to regain his composure. “What are you here for?” he asked.

“I-am-awaiting-orders,” the Dalek explained.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” asked the Doctor.

“I-am-a-solider-I-was-bred-to-receive-orders.”

“You are never going to get any. Not ever. Your race is dead. They burned in the time war. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second,” the Doctor beamed.

“You-destroyed-us?” the Dalek asked.

The Doctor’s face softened. He had to turn away, For a split moment he thought he had imagined hearing emotion in the Dalek’s voice. He had done it. He had destroyed an entire race. But what had it cost him? Everything.

The Dalek seemed to pick up on this moment of weakness and asked, “What-of-the-timelords?”

“Dead. They burned too. The end of the last great war,” the Doctor answered reluctantly.

“The-coward-survived,” the Dalek commented

“Oh, but I caught your little signal, ‘help me’, poor little thing, but no one else is coming. There is no one else left,” the Doctor explained before the weight of that statement fully sank in.

“I-am-alone-in-the-universe,” the Dalek realized.

“Yep” the Doctor confirmed.

“So-are-you,” the Dalek returned. And this caused the Doctor’s face to fall. He was alone. The last of the timelords. It was then that the Doctor was escorted out of the room. He tried to warn them that it was not safe to keep the Dalek down there. But the man ignored him walking into the room to speak with his prized possession.

The doctor was taken to a room where he was chained up. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” he demanded. He tried to break free, but to no avail. They removed his jacket and placed him against a metal table of sorts.

The man entered the room with a team of what appeared to be scientists who he ordered to begin running tests. “So now I have a second Alien, last of his species,” he said. The doctor was shot with a beam and shrieked in pain. The man was staring at a screen. “Two hearts- how clever. Let’s see what else we can take from you,” he muttered.

“So that’s it, you're not a collector, just a scavenger.” the Doctor shouted

“What I am is brilliant. I take the alien trash that appears here and use it to make advancements in science. Just last year we were able to cure the common cold. Of course we didn’t spread the cure- only private investors with deep pockets,” the man grinned as he began to walk away.

“At least the Dalek is honest,” The Doctor said.

The man turned around, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“The Dalek does what it was born to do. For the survival of its species. You on the other hand are just a monster,” the Doctor answered.

“Then I will just have to live with that won’t I?” the man said

“It’s going to get out. It will kill all of us. I’m the only one who can stop it. It’s woken up and knows I’m here. It’s going to get out,” warned the Doctor.

“Well then, my men will handle it,” he said while hitting a button that shot a ray into the Doctor’s chest causing him so much pain he could not speak. “And I wonder about that doll you brought here with you? I guess I’m just going to have to run tests on her too,” he laughed.

“Don’t you dare,” the Doctor screamed before being hit again with the beam. The pain was too much and he blacked out momentarily.

He vaguely heard the man shouting at his men “What do you mean she is gone, find the girl?”

-------------Meanwhile-----------

You had managed to duke one of the guards and hid in a locker room. It was here that you found a uniform and badge of one of the other guards, who must have been showering. You changed quickly and headed towards the TARDIS. On your way you heard the screams of something. You went towards the noise flashing your badge and hoping no one would realize that you didn’t belong there.

You were let into the vault and there it was. You had never seen anything like it before. You walked up to it and whispered, “Hello there, my name is Y/n, I’m with the doctor, we can help you. Are you in pain? Tell me what to do.”

It was silent for a minute before responding, “I-am-dying.”

“We can help you,” you answered.

“I-am-the-last-Dalek. My-race-is-dead-I-shall-die-alone,” it explained.

You reached up and touched the Dalek, not knowing the consequences that would follow. It immediately came to life and broke free from the chains. The scientist ran into the room and tried to force it back into the cage. The Dalek didn’t hesitate before killing him. You were pulled out of the chamber and it was shut. You heard the Doctor’s voice from over the speaker’s system. “You’ve got to get out of there. It will not stop until every single one of you is dead. Y/n listen to me, you have to run. You have to run the fastest you have ever ran in your life. You can’t look back. I’ll find you- I’ll get you out of here. RUN!” he all but screamed through the PA.

You listened and tried your best to ignore the screams and gunshots echoing behind you. You found a staircase and started to run up it. You thought that this would stop the Dalek seeing as it had no way to climb them. But then it started levitating and chasing after you. You ran into a room full of more soldiers. They ushered you away before opening fire on it. You looked back and caught a glimpse of it. It was like it was looking into your soul.

You continued to run up more flights of stairs when you got a call from the Doctor. “Now’s not a good time” you huffed as you continued to run.

“Where are you?” He demanded.

“I’m on the 49th level running up” you answered.

“We have no choice but to seal off the bunker. You have to make it to level 46.”

“Can’t you stop them from closing?” you objected

“I’m the one closing them, it can’t wait. For the love of God just run. Your life depends on it!” he ordered.

As you rounded the last corner you saw the door closing. You gave it your all, but it wasn’t enough. You fell to the floor utterly exhausted. It was then that you heard the muffled sounds coming from your pocket. “Y/n! Y/n did you make it? Say something!” the Doctor panicked.

“I’m so sorry” was all you could manage back. You turned and saw the Dalek closing in. “It wasn’t your fault. Remember that, it wasn’t your fault. I wouldn’t have changed a thing” you said before hearing the dreadful word “Exterminate” followed by a blast of electricity.

Meanwhile:

The Doctor pulled the phone from his ear not wanting to hear your last painful screams. His dreams would already be haunted by you. Regardless of what you said, it was his fault. He should never had brought you here. He should have fought to stay with you. “It killed her” he muttered in utter disbelief.

“I’m sorry” he man offered.

“I said I’d protect her. She was only here because of me. And I could have killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me.” the Doctor continued.

“It was the prize of my collection!” the man exclaimed.

“Your collection? Well, was it worth it? Worth all those men’s deaths? Worth Y/n? Let me tell you something, mankind goes into space to explore. To be part of something greater. But you, you want to drag the stars down and stick them underground and label them. You’re about as far from the stars as you can get. In your own right you may be a genius. But no one will ever remember you, it will never get any better for you than this and now you have nothing” the Doctor fumed.

“And you took her down with you. She deserved so much more. But no one will know her or how wonderful she was. It’s over now” he whispered to himself, just starting to feel the pain in his chest. He was going to walk out when the transmitter screen came back on.

“Unlock-the-Bulkhead-or-Y/N-will-die” the Dalek demanded. Sure enough there was video feed of both of you on the screen.

“Y/n! I thought you were dead” the Doctor rejoiced.

“Can’t get rid of me that easy” you replied trying not to get too hopeful.

“Unlock-the-Bulkhead-or-Y/N-will-die” the Dalek repeated before adding “What-are-the-use-of-emotions-Doctor-if-you-will-not-save-the-woman-you-love?”

The Doctor battled with himself before ultimately unsealing the bunker. He couldn’t stand the idea of losing you twice. He ran down to alien exhibits to find some sort of weapon and the raced back up to where you were. “Y/n. get out of the way!” he demanded.

“No, I won’t let you do this” you said standing protectively in front of the Dalek.

“That thing has killed hundreds of people. It killed my people. I have to finish this.” he said.

“Funny Doctor it isn’t the one pointing a gun at me” you answered.

“I’ve got to do this. I have to kill it before it hurts anyone else” he yelled.

“Look at it doctor” you instructed moving slightly out of the way. “It just wants to feel the sun.”

“But it can’t” he said lowering the gun.

“It couldn’t kill me, it felt my fear. It’s changing Doctor. What about you? What the hell are you changing into?” you questioned.

The doctor placed the gun on the ground and started towards you. “ I couldn’t...I wasn’t...Y/n, they’re all..they’re all dead,” he struggled.

“Why-do-we-survive?” the Dalek asked.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor replied.

“I-am-the-last-of-the-Daleks,” the Dalek stated.

“You’re not even that. When you used Y/n’s energy to regenerate you started mutating. That’s why you couldn’t kill her. Why you can’t kill me, You are turning into something new. I’m sorry” the Doctor explained.

“There-is-so-much-pain-so-much-darkness-Y/n-give-me-orders-Order-me-to-die” it pleaded.

“I-I can’t do that” you answered glancing back at the doctor. It was an impossible thing to ask of someone. You’d be responsible for it’s death. In a way you already were. And for the deaths of all of the soldiers.

“You’d be showing it mercy. Daleks can’t live as mutations it goes against everything they believe.” the Doctor spoke up trying to help.

“Okay-just do it then-I order you to” you said turning away so you didn’t have to watch.

“Thank-you” was the last thing it said. The Doctor quickly ushered you out of the room and the two of you heard the explosion. He was talking to you, but you couldn’t make out what he was saying. You barely registered being lead into the TARDIS or her whirling off into neutral space. You didn’t remember the doctor taking you to your room and didn’t realize he had come back to check on you.

All you could think about was how alone the Dalek was. The last one of its kind and you had made it die. You ended a species today. There would never be another Dalek. And then you thought of all the people it had killed. They all had families that they were supposed to go home to. But they would never see any of them again. It was your fault. You could’ve died today. That could have been it. And the Doctor. You never thought about how alone he truly is. His entire race is gone. And yet he is so kind and brave. He has saved so many.

The tears continued to stream down your face as everything continued to race through your mind, The Doctor pulled you into his arms. He had never seen you cry before, it scared him and made him feel horrible at the same time. He wanted to assure you that everything would be okay. But instead he just held you, glad that you were safe in his arms. For now, that was enough.

#doctor who #doctor who fanfic #doctor who x reader #doctor who imagines #doctor who imagine #dw imagine #dw x reader #9th doctor #9th doctor x reader #9th doctor imagine #9th doctor imagines

151 notes · View notes

velathetanager · 4 years

Text

Child’s Play

Chapter 8: Revealing

It's been three days. Why haven't they dropped this? Delly asked Isa.

I guess because I’m an only child.

Do you want to do a loop?

Nah, the ceiling’s too low.

Okay. Delly would have pouted if he could. I wish I could move around. It's scary not being able to move.

I could leave the room

I'd appreciate it.

She waited until everyone was distracted and left the room.

Delly stretched. "You know, you never did explain why that one guy was afraid of me."

“Which one? Uncle Pancakes?”

"Yeah. All I did was put his hammer at the site. I didn't hit him with it or anything."

“No, I’ll show you,” She got a movie from one of the shelves called Child’s Play.

"A movie? Do you want popcorn?"

“Yeah,” she put the movie in. Not long into the movie, Delly realized why Pancakes was scared of him.

He flinched when Chucky was set on fire. "...That looks painful. You know I wouldn't do that to you, right, Isa?"

“Yeah. But the others don’t know,”

"It isn't fair," the doll pouted. "And I can't prove it because some of then don't believe!"

“Kind of hard to believe, even in this kind of world. Roseflame would likely believe.”

"I checked some memories. How is an evil eyeball, a reality warper cartoon, and a dragon lady believable but I'm not?" Delly whined.

“Because nothing like you has existed yet. Come on, let’s go find Roseflame! I’ll be like an adventure that the others talk about having,”

"I hope she believes."

“She should, There was several living dolls in our world.”

"Cool," Delly grinned, sitting on her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Intelligent was looking over the video feed from Jennifer's fight. "Yeah, it does seem pretty incriminating. At the very least she isn't human."

“Look at the ground. The blood there isn’t the same color,” Pancakes pointed out.

"I've noticed. Of course, she can chalk that up to bad editing. If she really is Hero, she's good at keeping it on the down low."

“Yeah, let’s hope none of her enemies notice this. Ya know. Besides Brutal.”

"Two-Face still has it out for her after that thing with Grave. Didn't she fry him?"

“I think so,”

"I'm still thinking about what Gentle said about that doll," Spyper commented. "Alive my a**."

“I dunno, I saw some freaky sh*t in Slender Fortress,”

"Like Chucky?" Intelligent asked, switching to a document to take notes.

“Yeah. I think he was on- no. That was the ‘winter’ pack as Roseflame called them,”

Spyper shrugged. "She would know. Think it's evil?"

“I dunno, Isa isn’t dead yet,”

"To be fair, Chucky never wanted to kill Andy if I remember right."

“I dunno, I hate watching that movie.”

"Gentle is convinced it's like that movie."

“Yeah. I just don’t know what to think. It’s one eye turns red at me,”

"It tried to frame you, so I don't think it's fond of you," Spyper quipped.

“Yeah. And I know Rudra ain’t a huge fan of me. I was afraid she was gonna snap me like a twig,”

"She scares almost everyone. That one Scout wasn't too worried about her."

"That Scout gets on my nerves," hissed Spyper. There was a knock at the chapel door. "Special delivery for an A** Pancakes?"

Pancakes walked up to the door and retrieved his package.

Inside was enough Bonk to make a soda lover faint and a small paper with a blue smiley face drawn on it.

“Maybe the doll ain’t as evil as I thought,”

Delly stared at the Winged Star. "That thing looks funny."

“Her mode of transport is here, but she isn’t,” Isa looked around the woods. “Maybe it’ll take us to her!”

"Wait, is it alive?"

“It’s a portal, but it always acts like it’s mind is connected to Roseflame’s. It’s hard to explain,”

"...and a living doll is hard to believe," Delly groaned.

The Star took the pair to Roseflame, and Delly froze up.

Wait, if she'd believe, why am I frozen?

She doesn’t know you yet.

That's fair.

“Isa? What are you doing out here by yourself?” “I’m not by myself,” Roseflame looked at Delly for a moment. “Why are you two out here by yourselves?”

Delly was unfrozen. "Isa told me you would believe."

“Well yeah. The question is why are you two out in the wilderness. You two can’t defend yourselves,”

Delly frowned. "Excuse me?"

“I’m out hunting. One of the monsters got loose again. Trust me you two would be dead in seconds,”

Delly scoffed. "I'll take you home, Isa," he said, picking her up via telekinesis.

A creature let out a paralyzing screech. “There he is,”

Delly stared. "What is that?!?"

Roseflame pulled out her Atomizer and waited for the creature to attack her directly. “Come on out Rake!”

"Yeah, that's our cue to leave," Delly decided.

Isa was paralyzed. “Isa, stay close. No sudden movements,”

Delly froze up, eyes glowing bright red.

The Rake tried to go for Isa only for Roseflame to pull her close, pulling out her winger and attacking the Rake.

Delly noted that Isa was scared. Calm down, Isa, we got you.

Roseflame picked up Isa and hopped on the Winged Star. “Now would be the time to prove yourself,”

Delly grinned. "Sure thing," he said,

A few minutes later, the three returned to the chapel.

Roseflame cursed a bit. “I’ll have to go back and get him. Before he causes any damage,” she then walked into the Chapel. “Hey Jester! Your child went for a little adventure!”

"What kind of adventure?" they called, flying down to the first floor.

“A ‘lets go find this person and get ourselves in life threatening danger’ adventure,”

Delly's eyes flashed red. Not our fault!

She has a point. Roseflame, because she was the first to escape, now has to be the anchor of the two worlds. Which means that if a creature escapes, she has to capture it.

That's too bad. Wait, why didn't you mention this earlier?

I honestly thought she’d have things under control.

"Life th- What the hell happened!?" Jester gasped, scooping Isa up and checking her for wounds.

“My guess is she wanted to see if I knew anything about her doll, so she went to me because we both come from the same world. Unfortunately Rake got out an hour or so ago,”

"THE RAKE!?"

“She’s fine. But yeah.. He got out, I figured I’d return her back home before I finally captured him. Prevent accidents,”

Jester looked ready to have a heart attack.

“... Let’s sit you down before your sugar habits catch up to you,”

What's the matter? I got it away from you, right? Why are they scared?

Parental instincts and knowing how close I was to danger without them knowing.

Delly would have shrugged. Okay.

"What's going on down there?" Pure questioned, coming down the stairs.

“I’ll explain when Jesters heart rate goes down,”

Delly noticed Brutal and Gentle there, and as Isa was tended to by Jester, he fixed them with a red-eyed stare. When Gentle noticed this, he threatened the doll with a knife and a voodoo fall he had in his pocket.

The stare didn't change except for the glow dimming somewhat. However, Delly did decide it was appropriate to say, "Back in France!"

RED paused, looking up. “That’s not the full line! That doll is trying to talk!”

"It looks damaged," Intelligent noted. "Probably a voice box malfunction."

“Didn’t Rudra say it’s just stuffing inside it?”

"Yeah. She also said there was energy coming off it. Maybe the energy functions as a voice box."

“Maybe...” Delly could tell that RED believed he was alive.

After a brief second, the eye glow returned to its original brightness. Spyper looked at it. "I wonder what it would say to me."

Delly seemed to hesitate. "That Sniper's a Spy!"

"Eh, I mean, that works," decided the Freak.

Spyper picked up the doll and put him in front of RED, and Delly snarled, "You snake!" When he faced Delly towards Brutal, the doll said, "That there just ain't the place you oughta be standin'!"

The eye glow seemed to brighten.

"Well, he clearly doesn't like you," Spyper said, tossing Delly back to Isa.

Isa nearly dropped him but Roseflame caught him and handed him back to Isa.

I don't think I like that guy.

Which one? Spyper, RED, Gentle, or Brutal?

That Spyper. Being thrown is terrifying!

Delly dropped the topic, though, in favor of going back to staring at Brutal, Gentle, and RED.

#Child's Play #Christian Brutal Sniper #Delly #Isa #Count Jester #Spyper #Intelligent Heavy #Gentlespy #RED Spy #Roseflame

2 notes · View notes

addytheheartbreaker · 5 years

Text

"Meet Carmelo the Ice Cream"

Name: Carmelo Jerato

Age: 22

Height: 6'1 ft

Weight: 59 kg

Mask singer belong to: Tyler "Ninja" Blevins

Friends with: Doll, Dog, Rabbit, Egg, Monster, Penguin, Hippo, Skeleton, Ladybug, Rottweiler and Unicorn.

Appearance: Ice cream person, blue mint ice cream hair with chocolate sauce and sprinkles with a single strawberry ice cream top fisish with a cherry on top (if he could turned into a human, his hair would be obviously light blue). Light skin, kitsune no me (also known as "Fox eyes" or "Shifty eyes" in English or people who always closed his/her eyes), sky blue eyes (made out of ice cream, if human his eyes are sky blue eyes), the OwO smile (because he is adorable), blushes and slender and tall body type.

Clothing style: Ice cream theme with ice cream related decorations and accessories (flavor color and various of toppings), jacket or hoodies, sweater or printed shirts, his bandana and formal suits (main clothing). Casual clothes, ninja uniform (only for battle competitions or in gaming dimension).

Fun facts about Carmelo:

•Carmelo is a Americans-Japanese boy living in America his whole life.

•he can speak and understand English and Japanese, his mother taught him japanese which he learned very quickly in young age.

•he has a collection of anime (old times and modern times), he can also watch anime on his spare time.

•Ice Cream can let Egg borrowed his anime since the two loves watching anime. There are times when they watch anime together at the Masked Singer 2 mansion.

•Carmelo is a huge sweet tooth, he often must eat sweets after meals or when he is still live on twitch gaming.

•A successful professional gamer/streamer, has claimed many titles like Ninja, a billionaire and a well known generous philanthropist.

•as a famous streamer star and a philanthropist, he is generous to do a charity for mental health issues support, suicidal prevention, cancer prevention and child depression treatment support.

•Carmelo is a very friendly, energetic, enthusiastic, cheerfula fun, child like, and wonderful guy to meet with.

•he is friendly to children and has time to hang out at the child depression treatment support center to cheer and play with depressed children.

•He is an associated of the group called the "Night Streamers Joy".

•Ice Cream has been controlled and trolled by his boss who challenging each other while doing charity.

•Ice Cream can go through different dimensions. His main dimension where his group are in is the "Gaming dimension", a huge unknown island like battle field for him and the group with many people to play. (Fortnite reference).

•The only way he can go to that dimension is actually out of the body experience like. His real body still stays while controlling and expressing emotions while playing as his mind and soul entered the visual dimension as a player. (Inspired by the movie Sucker Punch, loved that movie its awesome)

•Carmelo secretly owns many weapons that looks like the game or fortnite weapons that came to real life. He knows how to use it and it is highly unknown how he managed to use it but some believed that he had been practicing on playing games his whole life.

•His family, a mother and father, an older brother and younger sister, he is a middle brother but treated like a child to him.

•owns so MANY games at his bedroom and gaming room. He remembers what the games instructions and stories about and he basically remembered every game titles.

•Ice Cream couldn't go outside without drinking nitrogen liquid.

•Nitrogen liquid is a family traditional everyday medicine because his family are all ice cream or frozen dessert people. He needed to drink nitrogen before going outside is because of the sun heat exposing if he stays outside for too long.

•the only part that would melt first is his eyes and hair. The eyes melts faster then his hair and it gave him a terrifying melting eye look that scares everyone.

•but that's alright, he can refilled his eyes by going to the "Comfort room" (aka the Freeze room), stay there for 10 minutes before putting 2 scoops of ice cream to his eyes.

•if he had a human form, Carmelo has asthma from overheat and couldn't stand heat very seriously.

•He plays video games and do streaming and live charity 24/7. He is also takes breaks but didn't take vacations because of his melting pressure.

•his hobbies are playing soccer, playing more video games (on or off streaming), hanging with friends or the children, going to the mall to play arcade games then get a lot of prizes and going through cafes, candy and bakery stores to eat sweets.

•he doesn't have any stomach problems or any illness after eating a huge amount of sweets. Its because as an ice cream man who is born with a family of frozen desserts, sweets is a resource power and energy.

•his hair, hair accessories?, eyes and outfit changes flavor and toppings according to his mood and emotions. However, the black licorice/charcoal black ice cream flavor is the most expensive looking ice cream you ever seen.

•the black ice cream is not shown on public. There are rumors on public that causes everyone on craving to wanting to tastes it but couldn't reach and trigger his black ice cream. It remains mysterious to unlock that flavor.

•the only person who Carmelo already showed and letting them taste the black ice cream is his closest friends who are willing to keep a secret, Bezai (Egg), TJ (Monster) and his family.

•Egg and Monster knew the taste of the expensive looking black flavor, if asked they both wouldn't revealed it.

•the only way to trigger the Black Licorice/Charcoal Black Ice Cream are two things; someone with a very HUGE amount of money donating on his lives streams or someone who is a billionaire and in ready battle or in fighting mode.

•the Black Ice Cream is called "Killer Ice Cream" or "Dark Time Ninja flavor". Because people are Dying to get that type of flavor and this killer ice cream is only active when he faces a fighting challenged or wanting to murder someone (but too soft to commit such crime). It only showed at the Gaming dimension only.

•He is friends with Marshmello. Ninja introducing to him and he has been on his concert for fun.

•He has his bandana, Ninja made it for him so they could match together. He only wear his bandana when he feels like fighting, when he feels serious on playing fair and on Killer Ice Cream mode.

•A huge fan of Naruto, him and his group did the running ninja which he had a lots of views of the random video on youtube.

•his powers is nitrogen fog or frost powers (it is different to Ice power to Frost powers).

•his fighting style is karate, taekwondo and military skills. He professional learned taekwondo daily at high school when he was just a teen, he won 3 gold medals and 5 silver medals from first to the end of high school years.

•as for his military skills, he got it from the game and learned all further constructions which is explained on why he knew how to use a gun and other weapons he possessed.

•Carmelo suffers on depression. In addition onto how he got depression is when he was just a teen where he first got his own twitch.

•age 17-18, he is a victim of toxic fans and was a victim of a certain person on twitch who ruined him into giving his fans a negativity on live streams. Ninja notices the changes and decided to stop the manipulator by exposing him with a help with his friends. Carmelo is grateful that his mentor/friend helped him for everything, but he still suffers to depression still.

•he took medication and support on his long break from twitch before he had finally continue to play.

•his has the same views and followers as Ninja's. Ice Cream is still in the same number of views today.

•He left twitch after Ninja decided to leave twitch. Which means he had left his group, the reason behind it is not just about Ninja. Carmelo: the real reason I left is because its time for me to moved on to the next level and get out from my comfort zone. It was fun after everything I've been through and I had a lots of good memories and bad memories here on twitch. I'll leave the guys who are now my former group to keep it up.

•he can draw anime and cartoon, he only draw it on spare time.

•his room at the Masked singer 2 mansion. His room is literally the freezer room obviously located at the kitchen, the room walls are all covered with crystal ices but in light blue, it was dark but his room are filled with neon lights, his complete desktop, a bathtub filled with ices, his bed, a mountain of ice cream containers and several frozen desserts and a room with his clothes there (Bezai: It bothers me that you put your clothes at this freezer room as your room Carmelo. Carmelo: why bother? I'm an ice cream man, I need to be at least chill to cool myself enough.) (see what I did there 😉 )

•He always played loud music every weekends because he wanted to practice dancing. The song choice are Marshmello's songs, electric soundtracks, 8-bit songs, and Japanese songs (mostly vocaloid).

•Ice Cream once played Family feud because he is a fan of that show since teenage years. Him and his group played together then won the money.

•his partner Bezai, Carmelo always been beside him and always go with him around for no reason. Because they are partners together, Ice cream and Egg are food related which is why he always have to follow him.

•he is Addy's playmate when he is out streaming. When he isn't playing on his desktop, they go play on the couch play video games on TV, PC and go to the mall to play arcade games to get prices.

•Ice Crean respectedly and acted politely to woman and young ladies. Since he knew about Ninja banned to play with a female player, he followed his advice onto not playing with a female player but he would act courteous when out of streaming or gaming.

•He met Egg when he went to have an interview together before the Masked Singer season 2.

•He can't say any swear words since he never swear in his life. He did hear people swearing but for him, he remains clean to his mouth especially in front of children.

•since his eyes remain close all the time and everyday, he has a emoji that looks exactly his look. His emojis are actually OwO but closing eyes: —w— , ^w^, UwU, ~w~, >w<, XwX, =w=

#the masked singer human au #the masked singer #masked singer #carmelo jerato the ice cream #carmelo jerato

7 notes · View notes

magicplanetanime · 5 years

Text

Let’s Watch HeartCatch Pretty Cure, Episode 1

I fully admit, I am a recent convert to the Pretty Cure cause. It’s not like I was never interested--I’ve loved magical girls since I first saw Sailor Moon as a kid--but it never quite seemed like the right time. I eventually picked up the currently airing Star Twinkle Precure at the start of its run, and I’ve been loving it! It’s a great series, and I highly recommend it.

It is also not what this blog is going to be about for the forseeable future. I’ve decided to take the plunge into the 49-episode Heartcatch Precure, and I will be using my blog over the coming weeks (and months?) to liveblog the experience.

I was interested in Heartcatch Precure for several reasons. Mostly the art style, and some whisperings I’d heard about one of the main characters. Nothing really prepared me for how the series starts though. To provide some context, Star Twinkle, the only Precure series I’m really familiar with, starts on a pretty lighthearted note. So I was really not expecting what I got out of the first scene here.

Because Heartcatch starts with someone dying.

Episode I - “I’ll Change! I’ll Show You I Can Change!!”

I took my first screencap 14 seconds into Heartcatch, and I say that without shame. The show looks absolutely gorgeous--even moreso in motion, I may end up forcing myself to figure out the arcane art of the gif recorder to fully convey what’s going on here visually. I expect this to drop off at some point, anime are often prettiest in their earliest and last episodes after all, but still, it’s one hell* of an introduction.

This introductory sequence captures a battle between the mysterious, beautiful Cure Moonlight, and what is presumably her evil counterpart. I knew nothing about any of these people watching this sequence and it was absolutely enthralling. The art strikes me as kind of Utena-influenced? I may be drawing off of a limited knowledge pool, though.

Moonlight is killed by her assailant, and the lone Precure’s last wish is that her fairies find successors worthy of succeeding where she failed.

No joke, this is a gutsy way to start a show aimed at kids. Children have capacity for the full spectrum of human emotion, and I do appreciate when a kid’s series treats them with the respect they deserve. Is it still for girls in gradeschool? Sure, but, right off the bat, Heartcatch seems genuinely interested in telling a story in the heroic tradition.

All this before we’re even introduced to our actual protagonist. Who was dreaming the scene we just saw.

I have a deep, genuine love of mahou shoujo protagonists. In my mind, none have ever done anything wrong. But this girl? This girl’s extra great, I can tell. Look at that character design! She’s so round!

Before we can learn much else, this girl (who we’ll shortly learn is named Tsubomi Hanasaki) arrives at the end of a roadtrip, and at her grandma’s house. Cut to OP.

The OP is very pretty as well, and seems to not-quite-spoil quite a few things. I want to give a nod to the fansubbers here (if you’re going to yell at me for piracy you should quick google “Precure, watch legally, English” and see how far you get) for the lovely subtitling done with the OP song.

Cut back to the episode and after a brief title card thanking the show’s sponsors (the only one I recognized was Yamaha, I suppose this was prior to the Precure brand’s partnership with McDonald’s) we get the long and short of Tsubomi’s backstory.

More importantly, we learn something that’s kind of surprising. I’ll let Tsubomi speak for herself here.

The general rule of thumb in magical girl series (including many of the other Precure shows), the character associated with colors like red, pink, and magenta is the brash, energetic one. Tsubomi being reserved is an interesting flip of that trope, she seems rather bookish, and is prone to embarassing herself. There’s a really funny bit just after this where she spots a 4-leaf clover in a flowerbed and asks it to grant her wish that she become more outgoing and friendly. Then she realizes she’s doing this in front of a bunch of people on her way to school, and, flustered, hurriedly scurries off.

Tsubomi introduces herself to her class. Trying to put on a bold face but failing, and then, after writing her name in a barely-legible size on the blackboard, this happens.

And that’ll be our second protagonist. This is Erika Kurumi, who is charming in her own way, and if I can confess, the main reason I became interested in this series, for reasons we won’t get to for several more episodes if I had to guess.

Tsubomi is a very relatable lead, but Erika even in these few introductory minutes, seems like a character a lot of young girls would identify with too. I know this was sometimes me as a young’n.

Random aside here, their teacher is quite nice too, and also pretty easy on the eyes in a soft butch sorta way. Is this how I know I’m getting old? Being attracted to anime characters’ teachers?

In any case, the (unintentional?) teasing leaves poor Tsubomi a little flustered. Though she quickly recovers when her class seem genuinely happy to get to know her.

Then it turns out that the only free seat in the classroom is next to Erika, to which Tsubomi’s reaction is, well, I’m not sure I could fish up an apt adjective for this particular splash screen.

The two have some lovely interactions during class. Including the shot that’s currently serving as my banner over on Anilist, but mostly, they banter, and the classic “clashing personalities” device is really put to good effect here. It’s almost a given that they’ll become close friends later on--possibly quite soon--but for now, you definitely get why they wouldn’t jive with each other.

10 minutes--goodness, we’re only that far in and I’ve already said so much--into the episode, we get to the main conflict. Namely, well, once again, a screencap summarizes it better than I could.

Erika is the last remaining member of the school’s fashion club, and needs someone else to join it. She attempts to recruit Tsubomi, who isn’t having it. Something of a rift having sprung between the two, they end up walking the same way home.

Like, all the same way home.

In a delightful convenience of plot, Erika and Tsubomi are neighbors.

A surprisingly pumpin’ pop-rock track swells in the soundtrack as Erika drags Tsubomi next door, promising to help her with the personal change she so desires. Erika’s the daughter of fashion designers, and it shows.

Still, despite her little smile here Tsubomi stands up for herself and tells Erika to basically cut it out. We’re also briefly introduced to Erika’s older sister Momo, who lightly scolds her younger sibling. As sisters do.

Erika, realizing she’s caused an issue, has something of a temper tantrum after Tsubomi leaves. All this miniature kid-drama, charming as it is, is enough to make you briefly forget that you’re watching a magical girl show, and a series as esteemed as Precure can’t have that, now can it?

Smash cut to these little ones.

These are the fairies that Cure Moonlight was beseeching in the intro. There’s no telling at this point how many years later on we are, but the evil Desert Apostles seem to still be at work, and the fairies seek out one Cure Flower, to alert her to their presence.

Below, Tsubomi is hanging out in a field, getting some fresh air after the earlier awkwardness and musing on the recurring dreams she has about Moonlight.

I think dear reader, that we all know the answer to that question.

The fairies, in distress and fleeing from the Desert Apostles, promptly do something they could not get away with on a similarly age-targeted show on American television, and hide by jumping down Tsubomi’s shirt. Which leads to a pretty dang weird segment where Tsubomi hides the fairies from this lady.

By….well, you can see the picture. This manages to be reasonably funny and only a little uncomfortably weird.

The Desert Apostle lady comes across Erika, sulking in a nearby park, and we get an immediate demonstration of how the whole “sad person-->monster for the protagonists to fight” flowchart works in Heartcatch. It is to the show’s credit that despite not really “showing” anything (remember: kids’ show), the transformation from person into a flower manages to look *incredibly* uncomfortable. Erika shouting her lungs out doesn’t help.

And about here, any even mildly-seasoned watcher of mahou shoujo series will know, is where things start to pop off.

To her credit, Tsubomi does try diplomacy.

But it doesn’t really take.

So we’ve got Tsubomi and the fairies being pursued by a vengeful, possessed, mustard-colored muppet doll. Something we learn is called a Desertian. Bonus points: being powered by Erika’s “flower of the heart” means that she yells half-coherent jealous nonsense about her sister.

As far as starter monsters go, this is a pretty effective one! It draws on an inner life of a character we already know a bit about, so the struggles that she faces that are reflected in the dolls ramblings make sense. There’s also some exposition here about heart flowers being separated from their hosts weakening the Great Heart Tree, the thing Cure Moonlight was defending in the opening scene.

Tsubomi promptly outdoes several anime airing at the time of this writing, and takes a brave stance against magically-induced slavery.

And then, the magic starts.

There’s some brief beating around the bush in a bit of the self-effacery that’s become common in the genre, but thankfully just enough to be charming and silly instead of over-the-top and forced.

But Tsubomi has the right idea.

And it’s here that I thank god for both youtube and the Pretty Cure fans that have gone before me, because there is nothing that needs to be seen in motion more than magical girl transformation sequences.

youtube

There is no one cooler than a magical girl who’s just transformed for the first time, and I firmly believe that in my maiden’s heart of hearts.

With Tsubomi’s first transformation into Cure Blossom, the episode ends, on quite the cliffhangar! I’m sure both Blossom and our pal Erika will be alright in the long run, but goodness, talk about a great first impression!

I didn’t really expect to devote this much text to just one episode but it was so impressive it was impossible not to. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series.

I doubt all my posts will be this long, and I intend to combine multiple episodes into a single post in the future. Especially when we get to filler, since it’s hard to fill almost an entire day’s worth of video footage without putting in at least a few time-killers. Still, I’m loving this so far.

Tsubomi is a great protagonist. As someone who was also pretty shy and bookish in middle school, I really feel like a lot of girls must’ve really looked up to her. It’s a hard thing to measure, but I wonder just how many little girls she helped be just a bit more confident in their daily lives?

Such lofty musings aside, I’m excited to get to the next episode. Until then, you can peruse the promotionals after the final cut here. See you soon!

-------

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy my other anime-related writing. I have a weekly anime column at The Geek Girl Authority, and write occasional full-series reviews for Anilist.

If you wish to support my critical endeavors, you can support me on Patreon or Ko-Fi.

I can also be found on Twitter.

------

*I don’t think many actual kids use tumblr, but I will attempt to keep swearing to a meaningful minimum, just in case~

#heartcatch #precure #pretty cure #heartcatch pretty cure #Heartcatch Precure

3 notes · View notes

themurphyzone · 5 years

Text

Absolutely Disastrous Ch 8

Ch 8: Lost in the Woods! Another Costumed Weirdo?

“I think we’re lost.”

“We’re not lost. We’ve taken a slight detour from the recommended path.”

“So we’re lost.”

“Think of it as the scenic route,” Milo suggested, looking at his map again. Before he could show Melissa and Zack their current location in the Petalburg Woods, a Linoone snatched the paper out of his hands and disappeared into a clump of berry bushes.

Unfazed, Milo brought out a second map. “Okay, so we’re near a bunch of Oran trees right now, so if we head north we should see some birches and hang the second right.”

Zack groaned, resting his back against a mossy rock. “Too bad everything looks the same.”

“I also have a topography map, a latitude map, and a map of Silph Co’s ventilation and teleporter system,” Milo said. “Never really understood their teleporter thing. Seems kinda bad for employee morale.”

They’d been wandering around Petalburg Woods all morning, and so far they’d had little luck making sense of their surroundings. Every tree looked the same, packed together so densely that it was almost impossible to tell where one tree ended and another began. He’d heard ghost stories of a forest in Sinnoh. According to the tales, it was always nighttime because the sun’s rays never reached the ground, making it a prime spot for ghosts to lure unsuspecting travelers to their dilapidated manor.

Dr. Magnezone fans loved using Sinnoh’s folklore and ghost stories as inspiration. Milo once saw Sara cry over a fanfic where Dr. Magnezone had to search for a Lunar Wing to relieve Time Infernape of a Darkrai-inflicted nightmare before the stress killed him.

“Hey, let’s break for a bit,” Melissa said. She laid down on a large protruding root. “I can’t wait to get out of forest territory.”

Milo found a cozy spot next to a fallen log, and Zack reclined against a tree trunk.

“Zack, there’s gotta be some spooky tales in Johto,” Milo said. “You should tell us one!”

“Yeah, spill!” Melissa prodded Zack in the arm.

Zack winced and rubbed his arm. “Do you cut your nails into claws or something?”

Melissa shrugged. “I jab hard, Underwood. You gonna tell us a ghost story or what?”

“Neither of you are gonna let up until I tell you one, huh?” Zack sighed.

“Nope!” Milo and Melissa chorused. Diogee looked up from his water bowl, red eyes boring expectantly into Zack.

“Fine,” Zack said. “This one isn’t for the faint of heart, so be warned.”

Milo and Melissa leaned forward in anticipation.

“Two millennia ago, a beautiful maiden fell in love with a soldier. One day, the soldier had to go fight in a distant land. As the maiden watched him disappear over the horizon, she swore she would never fall in love with anyone else, and that she would always look towards the ocean in anticipation of his return.”

Milo’s eyes started to water. Melissa gripped her skirt tightly.

“The years passed, but she still waited. Every suitor was turned down, all attempts to coax her away from the cliff failed. Eventually, a deity took pity on her. She agreed to be transformed into a statue atop the cliff so she could continue watching the horizon. The deity also appointed a messenger Pokémon to maintain the house and keep the maiden’s soul company while she kept her eternal vigil. To this day, she continues to wait and pray.”

Milo wiped away a stray tear, and Diogee had to carefully nudge him a few feet so a tree didn’t crash on top of him.

“That was…sad,” Melissa admitted. “How ‘bout something in the horror department to even it out?”

“Gimme a minute,” Milo said, burying his face into Diogee’s fur to calm himself down. “I got one.”

He took a deep breath, holding a flashlight under his chin for added dramatic effect. Zack drew a sharp breath.

“Once there was a little girl who lived in a cottage. Her mommy and daddy scrounged and begged and pleaded for scraps of food, for they were poorer than dirt,” Milo began, keeping his voice so low that Melissa and Zack had to strain to hear him.

He paced as he continued the story, feeling three sets of innocent eyes processing every word and movement. Milo smirked and continued. “One day, the little girl was left alone in the house. As she did her daily chores like any good child would do, she looked out the window. A doll laid in the dirt, its seams torn and one of its button eyes missing. It was ugly and nobody would’ve spared a second glance. But the little girl took pity on the doll and fixed it up with the only bolt of spare fabric her family had.”

“Oh no,” Zack whispered. Melissa elbowed him.

“When the last seam was closed, the doll offered to grant three wishes for the little girl. First, she wished that her family would never go hungry again. That night, her parents came home to find a feast fit for a royal banquet waiting for them. The little girl showed them the doll and explained what she’d done, and her parents were too grateful to question her any further. But trouble arose when the mother didn’t have material to make new clothes with, so the little girl asked the doll for endless wealth so her mother could purchase the finest and rarest silks and wool. The doll granted the second wish, and the family lived happily for many years.”

“The little girl grew into a beautiful woman, and she attracted the attention of a prince. They courted for a while, and the woman showed him the doll who’d saved her family from poverty. Disgusted by its horrible appearance, the prince broke off their engagement and rode away into the night. Because she still loved him, the woman asked the doll to grant her final wish: have the prince fall back in love with her. Once it was granted, the woman laid the doll on her childhood bed and went back to the castle. She planned to never return to the cottage and sever all ties with her poverty-filled life to make sure the prince stayed in love with her.”

Milo paused. The tension was thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

“The woman married the prince and forgot all about the doll. But the doll never forgot her. It granted all her wishes without complaint. It kept her company for ten years. And now it laid in a dark room, never to see the sun again. Anger consumed its mind. Oh, how it thirsted for vengeance. It flew to the castle on an otherworldly energy, and there it spotted the woman, brushing her hair…alone.”

He could see the whites of Zack’s eyes, and Milo crept closer, curling his hands into claws and looming as best he could.

“It crept closer…closer…closer…” Milo punctuated each word with a silent step until he hovered over Zack. Zack pressed himself against the tree with a strangled yelp.

“-and then it POUNCED!”

“AIYEEEH!”

Milo pulled Zack to his feet, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe. “Oh man!” Milo doubled over. “That was, ha! Got you real good!”

Zack just stared at him. “I didn’t scream.”

“Wasn’t me either,” Melissa said. “Believe me, you would know if Zack screamed cause he sounds like a plucked Swellow. Whoever screamed a few minutes ago has more of a tone-deaf Loudred combined with a sick Swablu frequency.”

“I don’t sound like a plucked Swellow,” Zack mumbled.

“NO! DON’T TAKE MY PAPERS!”

Everyone jumped to their feet as a terrified businessman rushed past their resting spot and tripped over a large root. His briefcase spilled open, papers fluttering all around him. He dazedly shoved them back into the briefcase, muttering several curses to himself.

“Hand over those papers, old man!” another voice snarled.

The other man was dressed in a lava-red uniform, a stylized ‘M’ emblazoned across his chest. His hood had two strange horns on top. Milo stared at him, wondering why someone would choose to wear a thick red onesie in Hoenn’s tropical climate.

Diogee growled menacingly, only backing off when Milo gestured for him to stand down until they figured out what happened.

“What’s going on here?” Melissa asked.

“He’s trying to rob me!” the businessman shouted. “I swear, all I did was stop to take pictures of a Shroomish-I’ve always liked that Pokémon, you see-and Hoodie there jumped me and tried to steal my documents!”

“How many times have I told you to quit calling me Hoodie? It’s Ignacio! I-G-N-A-C-I-O!”

His protests went ignored as the group collected all the stray papers and put them back into the suitcase.

“Thank you, children,” the businessman gasped breathlessly. “I’m just gonna be going now and-“

Ignacio scowled. “You aren’t going anywhere! Hand over those papers or face the wrath of Team Magma!”

He posed dramatically, which would’ve looked a lot more threatening if he’d chosen a target without knowledge of meme culture.

Ignacio released a Zigzagoon and Koffing. “You’ve trampled on Team Magma’s dreams, and that’s unforgivable! For I am the Magma Grunt Ignacio who stands for humanity’s brighter tomorrow! In the name of Groudon, I shall incinerate you!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be saying love and justice or something?” Melissa asked.

“I wanted to, but it was copyrighted,” Ignacio admitted. “Seriously, I’m not a monster. I respect copyright law.”

“Whatever. I’ll sit this one out, boys,” Melissa said, dragging the businessman out of the way. “While you kick his butt, I’ll be organizing my photos.”

“I don’t remember you taking photos,” Zack said.

Melissa smirked. “I work in mysterious ways.”

“Enough babbling!” Ignacio sneered. “You fools will know the wrath of the 27th ranked Magma goon!”

“That’s supposed to be a bragging point?” Zack scoffed as he sent out Treecko.

Treecko chewed on his stick placidly as he sized up his opponents. Diogee moved into position, eyes fixated on Koffing.

Living near Mt. Chimney had long acquainted Milo and Diogee with the local Pokémon and their habits. Machop liked to test their strength by weightlifting Geodude, and one should never disturb their contests unless they wanted 44.1 pounds of living rock hurtled at them. Numel preferred sand baths, and Torkoal could only distinguish between light and dark.

On the Murphy Ranch, they sometimes had to announce the Purple Protocol in the event of a Koffing wandering onto the property. Its smoke and poisonous gas was harmful to the developing lungs of young humans and Absol, so all minors were to stay inside until the adults had gotten rid of the smoke and contained the Koffing until it could be relocated.

And it had the only type advantage on the current battlefield.

This was gonna be interesting.

“Create a Smokescreen cover!” Ignacio ordered. “Zigzagoon, Quick Attack on Treecko!”

Black gas spewed out of Koffing’s pores, obscuring it from view. Treecko braced himself, eyes trained on the smoke.

There was a slight rustle in the bushes behind Treecko, and a blurred shape shot out.

“Look out!” Zack yelled.

Zigzagoon knocked Treecko off-balance, though Treecko managed to dislodge it with a Pound. Soon the two were engaged in a high-speed Quick Attack fight.

Meanwhile, Milo and Diogee were trying to locate Koffing inside all the black haze with no luck.

Ignacio smirked. “Use Sludge!”

“Diogee, watch out!” Milo warned, but it was too late. Diogee’s eyes were covered in an inky material. Rearing back on his hind legs, Diogee unleashed several Cut attacks in random directions. One of them hit Koffing in the middle of its skull pattern, and another clipped Treecko’s tail. Zigzagoon emerged unscathed, though it panted heavily from exertion.

A pile of splintered wood and apples crashed to the ground. There were some indignant squawks from bird Pokémon above, but none of them came down to disrupt the battle.

Zack snapped his fingers. “Use Mega Drain on Zigzagoon and get your strength back,” he said.

Zigzagoon was too dazed to follow Ignacio’s instructions to dodge, and a bright green glow lit up its body. The energy flowed into Treecko’s fingertips, rejuvenating him instantly.

“Great! Now grab those apples and stuff ‘em into Koffing’s pores!” Zack exclaimed.

Upon hearing his command, Melissa stuffed her unfinished scrapbook into her bag and hauled the businessman to his feet. “Zack, you do realize-“

Zack had a gleam in his eye.

“Uh, Melissa, I think your battle style’s rubbing off on him,” Milo said awkwardly.

Treecko grabbed a handful of apples and weaved around Koffing, easily outmaneuvering the Poison-type. Within minutes, Koffing’s pores were plugged, Treecko dusting his hands triumphantly.

“C’mon, blow those apples out!” Ignacio screeched.

Koffing groaned, eyes squeezed shut as it tried to blow the apples out. But Treecko had jammed them tightly, and only minuscule amounts of gas leaked into the air. With one last inhale, a glowing Koffing dropped into Treecko’s arms.

Treecko blinked for a moment, then tossed Koffing at Zack and hid behind Melissa, who backed away slowly.

“ACK!” Zack screamed and tossed the Poison-type at Milo.

“It’s using Self-Destruct!” Milo yelped, striking Koffing with a two-handed serve that would’ve made a professional volleyball player proud.

The Koffing landed in the businessman’s arms. The man paled immediately. “GlorytoArceusinthehighest,” he muttered a prayer rapidly in some ancient language Milo wasn’t even sure existed in their dimension.

“Quit being a baby!” Melissa snapped, yanking Koffing out of his arms and hurling it at Ignacio’s face.

But since Melissa was Melissa, she only managed to toss it one foot.

Koffing unceremoniously fell to the ground, its glow almost blinding.

“Diogee, follow my voice!” Milo yelled, grabbing Diogee’s horn once he was close enough and guiding him out of the blast radius.

“COWARDS!” Ignacio shook his fist as everyone fled the immediate vicinity. “WE IN TEAM MAGMA ALWAYS STAND OUR GROUND! FOR WE ARE PILLARS OF HUMANITY, UNYIELDING IN RESOLVE AND PUTTING OUR FOOT DOWN ON ALL MATTERS AND CRUSHING THOSE WHO OPPOSE US!”

“We should put him and Patchy in a room together,” Melissa remarked. “Who needs primetime television when you’ve got them?”

“You might want to reconsider your foot position,” Milo called to Ignacio.

Ignacio glanced down, his eyes widening to comical proportions.

“Well, crud.”

Koffing exploded in a glorious blaze of white light.

“Don’t worry,” Melissa told the trembling businessman, who seemed convinced that he would be arrested for environmental disturbances and manslaughter. “It’s just his pride that didn’t survive.”

AN: Ghost of Maiden’s Peak took place in Kanto, not Johto, but they share the same landmass so what the hey.

Using Koffing as a beach ball is ill-advised.

And now Team Magma is on the scene! Things are picking up!

#absolutely disastrous #milo murphy's law #melissa chase #zack underwood #diogee #oras au

6 notes · View notes

disrepairhouse · 5 years

Text

Chapter 23 - It Begins

Itara’s ear flicked again, as it had been for the past half hour of the tour. She was still up on Metal Sonic’s shoulders, attempting to escape, but between the twitch and the heavy dread returning so suddenly and violently she was finding it hard to focus on escape plans. At first she attempted to rationalize it away as a combination of her dreams and the worry that she may not be able to get to the manuscripts, but it was quickly feeling like much more. Frowning, she reached up to flick the offending ear, though cringed at her own assault and returned to pouting.

“Sparky.” He ignored her, prompting her to hiss sharply, “Sparky.” Finally she got a slight shift from the robot that was likely drowning the world out. Once she was sure she had his attention, however, she continued in a hushed tone, “Something’s wrong.”

“Something has been wrong since RK plotted against me to force me on this trip,” the unamused bot growled.

“No, I mean something is… actually wrong. I… I don’t know what… but…,” she trailed off, looking around. They were at least back outside, crossing from one building to the next, headed from some classrooms to the main building, but Itara felt no relief. It meant she was finally closer to the museum, but she couldn’t shake the dread and neither could she pinpoint the problem.

“If this is your attempt at a ruse,” Metal sighed, but was quickly cut off.

“As if I’d be so obvious. No, something is happening… I just don’t know what.”

The robot looked to the trail of children before coming to a stop, scanning the immediate area. It was difficult to pinpoint anything specific in such a crowded area, not that he knew what he was looking for to begin with, but figured he would pick up on a major energy signature if there was one to find. After an initial scan, however, nothing came up and he peered back at the hedgehog child with a sharp gaze. “My scanners are picking nothing up, what are you scheming?”

“Look, Metal, it’s….” She stopped herself, however, and sighed instead. Leaning heavily against him, she motioned towards the group that had yet to notice their stop. “Forget it. Just go back to the group.” To be fair, not even she knew what was wrong. Maybe it was just her dreams getting to her. It was hard to tell anymore. Not even she was oblivious to her loosening grip on reality lately and was finding it increasingly difficult to trust her own judgement. She was growing paranoid.

Metal eyed her suspiciously for a moment longer before continuing on to catch back up with the group, though three of his much longer strides put them right back with the group of tiny, shuffling legs easily. Itara remained silent for several minutes afterwards, though whether it was from her apparent concern or because she was still plotting to escape, Metal didn’t know. She’d tried several tactics between the dormitories and the classrooms, none of which being overly successful, so her silence and stillness now was suspicious to him.

As they entered the main hall of the largest building, however, the tiny hedgehog let out a long, quiet sigh of relief, prompting another glance from the bot. To his surprise, he felt her lean further against him and tightened his grip ever so slightly on her ankles. The children and guide in front of them continued on, utterly unaware of the disquiet behind them.

Until the mobian children and chaperones stopped rather suddenly, ears perked, as they looked in several directions. Their human classmates and tour guide stopped with them, turning curious glances on their animal companions before exchanging looks with one another. The movement hardly went unnoticed by the two at the back, either, as Itara’s ears perked and Metal Sonic’s radars alerted him to an enormous amount of building energy, both organic and robotic in nature.

“Is something wrong?” the tour guide questioned, unsure of the mobian reactions.

“Do you guys not hear that?” one of the mobian children asked, turning to a human friend.

“Hear what?”

“I suggest you vacate this area immediately,” Metal stated flatly, showing little genuine concern for those around him and barely keeping the grin off his face as he pulled Itara up and off his shoulders.

“Sparky,” Itara warned, having a decent idea of what might be coming, at least one source.

“That includes you,” Metal added, eyeing her.

“What are you picking up, exactly?”

“Anomalies… and a substantial electric power with familiar readings.”

Itara’s brows furrowed as she considered what he meant while her classmates grouped up and talked in hushed tones with each other. Once the realization hit, however, her eyes widened as she moved closer to him again, “Do not.”

“You plan to stop me?” The towering, red-eyed robot was already loosening up to fight the encroaching enemies with little reserve.

“Are you insane? You can’t engage with badniks, Sparky.”

“Badniks?”

Itara glared over her shoulder at the approaching scorpion, “not now, Sceira.” Turning back to Metal again, she hissed a final warning, “Do you want to get caught?”

“That implies anyone can catch me. No one is faster than me.”

“What are you two planning, exactly? You don’t intend to actually fight whatever’s coming, do you?” Sceira questioned, shocked. “If a Robotnik robot is near we need to vacate immediately, as you said.”

With the mention of Robotnik an all-out panic struck the group of school children, a cacophony of distressed questioning erupting and causing a chain-effect throughout the university halls as it reached student and faculty ears. The panicked tour guide, in an attempt to keep them under control, suggested going to find the rest of their class and taking the blue hedgehog’s suggestion to leave. Metal and Itara watched the chaos ensue for all of a second before returning to their own argument, though were interrupted again by Sceira grabbing Itara to drag her over to the retreating group of children.

“We need to leave, come on.”

“Sceira, release me this instant. You may flee if you so please but I have business here.” She wrestled her way out of the scorpion’s grasp and back over to Sparky, only for the commotion to finally reach the university campus. An echo of snarls and roars erupted first, followed by terrified screams from the students that had been outside. Sceira stared off in horror, likely listening to the chaos outside, while Itara sighed and glared up at Metal. “You can fight the monsters, but stay out of sight of the robots. I mean it. Don’t forget the last time you ignored my warning about this.”

Metal had initially only rolled his eyes at her tiny demands, but finally stopped to consider her warnings with the final one. The last time. One of the many filled-in memories from the reset timeline, the source of a majority of his upgrades and, ultimately, his recapture by Robotnik. According to the tiny child, she had warned him of his imminent failure to defeat Sonic before the fight, and was proven right after he ignored her. But that was all also filled-in by the time traveler, not even RK could verify that memory, as he’d been inactive at the time.

But he had no more time to debate it, either way, as the monsters crashed their way through the university walls. Sceira screamed at the noise and attempted to run, though was caught up in the rubble and nearly crushed if Metal hadn’t been much faster than the destroyed wall and moved both mobian children out of the way of the attack. Itara only cursed but Sceira curled up in fear.

“Get out of my way,” Metal growled back to the children, glaring at Itara specifically, “neither you nor he control me. I fight who I please.” And with no more words, the robot turned back to the towering, deep purple monster rampaging through the university halls, wasting no time planting a boosted foot in the side of the creature’s head. If Itara didn’t know any better, she would have thought she actually saw a smug grin on the blue bot’s face. But he was right, there was nothing she could do to stop him. On the one hand it was infuriating that he was risking being seen and recognized when they could easily just escape. On the other hand, however, his insistence to fight meant he now also had no control over her and the panic from the monsters guaranteed an empty museum. She could reach the manuscripts.

“Kipper.” It took little time for the doll to fade his way out of the backpack and float next to her, scanning the area before his eyes fell on the cowering scorpion. Itara followed his sight and debated leaving her there. An opportunity to get the manuscripts and get rid of Sceira in the same day? What luck.

However, as she turned towards the now empty hallway, she stopped, frowning. That infuriating pseudo-scorpion. What did she care if she got crushed by a collapsing wall? Sceira had been nothing but a thorn in her side since she met her. She should leave her there to die. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d left someone to die. She’d done it numerous times, in numerous timelines. What did one classmate matter to her now? But even as she mulled this over, even as she told herself she didn’t care, she found herself turning back and pulling the infuriating girl to her feet.

“Kipper, find the museum and locate the manuscripts. I’ll meet you there,” she growled.

The doll stared at her, a look of disgust touching his blank features for all of a split second before returning to normal. “Don’t die on the way. Though I bet your soul would be quite the power source, if you do.”

“I’m sure it would, shame you’ll never have it,” Itara noted flatly, shooing the doll towards the museum while she dragged Sceira to the nearest exit, “I still hate you.” Sceira, however, remained unresponsive, much to Itara’s amusement. The less the scorpion talked, the less likely Itara was to come to her senses about leaving her to die.

They exited the broken wall at the front and Itara scanned the area for both monsters, robots, and one robot in particular, before moving further out. In addition to Gaia’s Nightmares, there were once again Iblis Biters, as well as the bird-forms of both monsters diving in from above. There was one larger golem smashing through the buildings and that was where Itara spotted Metal Sonic again. The university grounds became a monstrous hunting ground and, even more concerning, was the harsh buzz of electrified robots not far in the distance. Robotnik wasn’t far.

But why?

Why now? Why today? Why here? There were attacks happening everywhere, why was the university a sudden hotspot? Unless…

Itara hissed at the realization, hurrying Sceira along, though having to skirt around much of the square to avoid the monsters, in addition to her own slowness. She wasn’t even sure where to head the scorpion off to, either. Everyone scrambled during the attack and the bus they’d arrived in laid, halved, in the center of what used to be the fountain. Maybe she should have kept Kipper with her to help her search. But getting those books was more important. But if Robotnik was coming for them, too, would Kipper be able to handle it on his own?

Luckily, she finally caught sight of a familiar face in the running form of one of her teachers and called out to them, seeming to get Sceira’s attention for the first time in several minutes.

“Itara?!” There was as much confusion and shock as there was panic in the other girl’s voice.

“Sh-shut up.” She called out to the teacher again, grabbing their attention over the chaos and waved wildly to call them over. Once they were, however, Itara moved away from Sceira immediately and took off in the opposite direction. If she stuck around, the teacher would insist she stay with them, and even if she had to crawl her way back to the museum halls, she would. She vaguely heard both Sceira and her teacher’s calls after her as she stumbled back towards the university square, but ignored them and continued on. She was so close. She just had to get there before Robotnik. She couldn’t let him get them, not after everything she went through. Sceira was enough of a distraction, she couldn’t afford more.

However, in her attempt to vault over a fallen bit of rubble, she drastically overestimated her ability to clear it and tripped instead, only managing to avoid going face-first into cement by curling up and rolling halfway across the clearing. Her backpack suffered the worst of the damage, at least, tearing open and spilling everything, creating a trail to her final stopping point, where she had to sit and stop her head from spinning for a minute. As she was shaking her head clear, though, the screech of a phoenix echoed above her, hardly giving her a second to dive out of the way before it slammed beak-first into the pavement where she once sat.

She scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible, only glancing back at the bird, which was attempting to right itself again, before taking off for the university building again. Or at least, that was her plan. Her shaking legs, however, had an entirely different plan as they sent her stumbling back to the pavement, raising a string of curses from the small hedgehog. She didn’t have time for this! Even as she attempted to pull herself back up, or even crawl away, the heavy thud of a line of warbots shook the ground, opening fire on the various monsters rampaging on the path.

Itara curled up tightly, covering her ears and crying out in utter terror, wishing she hadn’t sent Kipper off, wishing Metal had stayed with her, wishing RK was with her, anything. She could feel her crystals spiking again but didn’t have the energy to care, she was too scared of dying to worry about letting people see her crystals. No one remembered that timeline, anyway, it didn’t matter. She just wanted out of there! She should have gone with Kipper to the museum. She should have left Sceira where she was. Why did she bother?!

But as her panic hit peak, she realized the gunfire had stopped and there was a voice near her. She could hear sparking robots behind her and screeching monsters above her, causing the voice to be nothing but garbled nonsense, but just the sound of a voice was a source of comfort for her at the moment as she reached up to grab onto whoever it was.

“Whoa! It’s okay, no need for tears! I’m here now!”

It took longer than Itara was comfortable with to recognize that cock-sure tone but much less time to regret her choice to cling to him. Unfortunately, she could do nothing about it, despite her best efforts. Her body was still shaking violently and even he was more protection than she had previously. She could hear someone else shouting in the background, but didn’t recognize the voice, and thus could only focus on the hedgehog awkwardly attempting to pat her head despite the jutting crystals.

“Come on now, calm down. It’ll be alright. I gotta finish kicking butt, though, so why don’t we get you to safety? You’re gonna have to loosen up that grip, though.”

Itara had to take several deep breaths before her arms unlocked enough to do so, though kept her eyes shut tightly. Sonic gave a slight sigh of relief when she did, but as he was moving to pick her up, a light clack rung out nearby and stopped him in his tracks.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“It’s been awhile, Sonic.” That voice, Itara recognized immediately causing her eyes to shoot open. Robotnik was right there! What was he thinking?!

“Man, not long enough. Though I suppose with a wide scale Egghead attack, I should have expected you to be here, too, Metal.”

“Hmph, I no longer work for that idiot.”

“You don’t say.” There was a brief moment of silence before Sonic turned back to Itara, seeming caught off-guard for a moment when he looked down at her, before shaking his head. “You may wanna move back. Are you gonna be okay to move on your own?”

Itara had no idea how to respond. She knew she needed to stop Metal, but knew that was an increasingly impossible task. Stopping him from fighting a random monster was one thing, even with all his pent up aggression, but stopping him from fighting Sonic was a beast all its own. She doubted she could even stop RK from fighting Knuckles if they met face-to-face again, let alone Metal and Sonic. All she could do was nod, glance towards Metal, and back away from the fight. What was she supposed to do? What if Metal got caught? What if he got too damaged and couldn’t get back home to get fixed? She didn’t have anything to fix him here.

She had to call RK.

She had to tell him to stop Metal.

As the battle continued, she searched frantically for her phone, only then realizing that her backpack had been torn open and she lost everything inside. Throwing the remains of the straps off and searching frantically for the phone, she had to retreat before long due to the continuing battle. Between Metal, Sonic, the monsters, and the badniks, her search was only getting more dangerous. She had to get out of the way. She couldn’t chance it. But then what did she do?! Maybe she could find Kipper again.

Looking towards the half-collapsed university building, she cringed as she realized there were already badniks heading in to retrieve what Robotnik was after. She couldn’t outrun them. Even if half the entrance wasn’t covered in rubble, she wouldn’t be able to reach the museum before the flying bots. But she could at least maybe find Kipper. Maybe he got the manuscripts first, but more importantly, she didn’t want to be alone right now.

Keeping to the edges of the grounds and skirting around the monsters again, she continued towards the building, knowing at least the haunted doll would be safe from the chaos. Even if he ran into monsters or robots, he could turn incorporeal and be fine. She just had to find him again. She just had to reach the building.

But once again, long before she ever got to the entrance, something picked her up by the back of the shirt and stopped her trek short. A number of possibilities of who it was ran through her head before they turned her towards them, to the point that she didn’t know if she should be panicked or relieved and only went back into a defensive curl. She couldn’t take much more of this today.

“You again? Why do I always find you at the center of this?” It was none of the voices Itara had initially expected to hear and opened an eye to look up at the tall, blond-haired red robot. “There is more to you than initial appearances suggested.” It wasn’t a question and Itara could only stare in confusion, too frantic from the day’s events to fully process what he was saying, or the fact that he was walking away from the university with her still in-tow. “I have questions and I feel as though you may be able to answer some of them, so I’m bringing you back for questioning. I have no intention to harm you, so long as you don’t attack first, but I want information.”

Itara shook her head to try and clear her thoughts, the sounds of battle growing distant much quicker than she expected, and attempted to look back to find out. The university grounds, with the monsters and robots and fighting hedgehogs, were far behind them now, causing enough minor panic. Now that she was thinking more clearly, she realized they had gone behind the line of warbots and were headed towards a far-off, distinctly egg-shaped aircraft hovering nearby. Robotnik! He was taking her to Robotnik! She couldn’t go there!

Panic set in full again as she thrashed around, attempting to escape or call out for Metal or Kipper, causing Zero to stop and fix his grasp to keep her from simply slipping out of her shirt. “Keep still, as I said, I won’t harm you. I only want answers.” His voice was flat and harsh, despite his attempt to reassure her, though luckily she was used to that dealing with robots and Gods. What she feared was the hovercraft in front of them.

“D-Don’t ta-take me to… Robotnik!” she begged, still attempting to escape his grasp, though was getting nowhere. “I c-can’t! He can’t! I… I…!”

There was a moment of silence as Zero tightened his grip to keep her from squirming, getting the much smaller hedgehog in a lock, but remained in place. “Do you fear Dr. Robotnik?”

“I-I fear n-nothing!” Though the tremble in her voice did little to convince him of that.

Another silence.

Then, “Do you have reason to fear the Doctor?”

“No! He’s nothing to me! Nothing! I just… I… he…” She couldn’t explain this to him. Not only did she know next to nothing about this bot, no one even remembered the past timelines, and in Robotnik’s case it was best kept that way. If he was working for Robotnik, explaining that he’s a bad person was meaningless, and explaining his potential of wanting to harness her power was even worse. “Please… just… ask me what you want… just please don’t-.”

But her begging was as meaningless as her attempts to reach the museum as Robotnik, himself, walked out from hovercraft to meet Zero. “How goes the retrieval, Zero?” Though once he spotted the tiny, crystallized hedgehog in the robot’s grasp, his eyebrow rose, “what is this?”

Zero looked between Itara and the Doctor, suddenly unsure how to answer. He’d had his suspicions about the Doctor for a while now, but hadn’t found anything concrete just yet, nor had he found anyone else with the resources to help him. Without details on the situation, he decided to remain on-mission, and explained, “A child that I have crossed paths with a couple times before. I found her at the university. Though she appears different from your normal mobians.” Itara whimpered, attempting to curl in on herself further. Stupid, stupid crystals!

“I’ll say,” Robotnik muses, walking closer to inspect the young girl, “bring her inside for now, we’ll… talk to her later. For now, how goes the retrieval of the Gaia Manuscripts?”

“Unsuccessful. It seems they were stolen from their casings before we arrived. Also, Sonic arrived, just as you predicted, though someone else has attracted his attention.”

“Who?”

“I believe Sonic called him ‘Metal’.”

“Metal? Are you certain?!”

“Yes.”

With another whine from Itara, the doctor huffed and crossed his arms, turning back towards the hovercraft, “Draw back for now. We’ll leave some scout-bots behind to keep an eye out for those manuscripts. We need to revise our plans in the meantime.” Zero nodded, looking over the silent hedgehog in his arms before following the doctor inside. He would be keeping a personal eye on the hedgehog while she was in their company. Both to ensure no harm befell her, but also to see what answers he could get from her.

“Humph, are you slowing down with age, faker?” Metal grinned over at the blue hedgehog as he attempted to pull himself up out of the rubble. Though they had both received considerable damage throughout the fight, Metal easily enough noticed the slower movements from his organic counterpart halfway through and took quick advantage of it. He didn’t know if it was the upgrades, or how long it’d been since ‘the blue blur’ had a true rival in terms of speed, but it satisfied the robot far more than he expected. Having been out of commission for so long, even missing limbs for several months after reactivation, it was vilifying, finally fighting Sonic again, and even winning for once.

“Who me?” Sonic grinned, his legs visibly shaking once he pulled himself back up, his grin never leaving his face, “Nah, I’m just takin’ it easy on ya to make you feel better. What with always getting beat down and destroyed time after time.”

“Is that so?” Metal grinned, taking off after him again, planting a foot firmly in the hedgehog’s chest, sending him flying once more. As he watched with amusement, even going so far as to outwardly laugh, a floating, half-visible orange figure floated over.

“Aren’t you supposed to be babysitting?” the doll reprimanded, his usual amusement ever-present, his bright red gem glowing considerably stronger than his half-corporeal body.

“Leave me, ghost. I have no time for your mockery,” Metal growled, not taking well to the interruption.

Kipper only laughed and shrugged, scanning the area before adding, “Have it your way. But I won’t be around when you face the wrath of Mama Bear.” The doll slowly floated further away, giving Metal enough time to sigh heavily and stop him.

“Why?”

Kipper continued floating for a moment before stopping and looking back with a fang-filled grin, “Because the little hedgie just got nabbed by Robotnik.”

A string of curses escaped as Metal scowled back towards where the line of warbots had disappeared to. Scanning the distant hill, he noticed the easily recognizable hovercraft taking off and looked between it and the struggling Sonic with a seething hatred. If she had just been badly injured or disappeared, it would have been one thing. RK would have been pissed but he could deal with that. But being taken by Robotnik was an entirely different story. Not only was being in Robotnik’s hand’s a worse fate than being dismantled, but it put them all in danger. She spent so much time warning him about being caught by Robotnik, but then it ended up being that reckless child!

Growling furiously, he threw one final threatening look at Sonic before turning on his heel and taking off after the hovercraft, haunted doll following close behind. She would regret this, once he got his hands on her again! Distracting him from finally fighting Sonic again! That selfish brat! He no longer cared about this stupid trip of hers, as soon as he retrieved her they were both going home.

1 note · View note

my-one-love-is-music · 6 years

Text

Sing, Little Bird Ch. 7

Also on AO3!

It was almost like a brick wall slammed down between Wally and Dick when he stepped through that door and it shut behind him. He sighed and turned to face the hallway, surprised to actually find his uncle standing there in his Flash uniform.

He looked up at Bruce standing next to him. “I thought you were just using him as an excuse to get me out of the room.”

“I don’t need an excuse to get you out of the room when a conversation is happening you don’t need to be privy to,” Bruce said.

“Fair enough,” Wally grumbled and shuffled over to his uncle who pulled him into a quick hug.

“Come on, Kid,” Barry said, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Let’s go for a walk and have a chat.”

“Uhhhh sure,” he said, letting himself get pulled down the hallway. “What’s up?”

“How’s Robin doing?”

Wally glanced over his shoulder, half hoping he’d get to see some sign of him or that he’d be chasing them down with a huge grin on his face like usual when they ended up in the same place because of their mentors. But there was a not so shocking lack of his favorite boy wonder chasing after him.

“He’s…god I don’t even know, Uncle B,” he sighed, turning back to face the hallway in front of him. “He thought that me rescuing him was a dream and that he was still trapped in the basement of that housing complex. I still think he’s not entirely convinced he’s free from that nightmare and I don’t know how to help him.”

Barry squeezed his shoulder. “You’re doing the best you can to offer him your support. Things aren’t going to get better overnight. And you can’t be expected to be the only person responsible for helping Robin get better. It’s going to take time and a lot of people.”

“I know that,” Wally groaned. “But there has to be something that I can do!”

“You’re already doing it,” he murmured. “You’re staying by his side and giving him comfort and something concrete to hold onto.”

“What if it’s not enough?” he whispered. “What if I’m not helping at all?”

Barry chuckled. “I’m sure you’re helping so much more than you realize. The two of you have been joined at the hip practically since you met. If there’s anyone who’s going to help him get back on his feet, it’s going to be you. Batman will do what he can, but parents aren’t always the best source of comfort and I know that you have an extra interest in making sure he’s okay.”

Wally felt himself flush and cleared his throat. “Yeah, about that…” he started. “Rob and I…we’re kind of dating now I guess?” He scratched his cheek. “We haven’t really talked about it much, just kissed a couple of times though,” he added in a rush.

Barry grinned. “Way to go, Kid. I’m proud of you.”

Wally’s flush deepened. “God when you say it like that it sounds so wrong,” he groaned.

He chuckled. “You were crushing on him long enough that I was worried you’d never work up the guts to make a move and tell him how you felt.”

Wally nodded sagely. “That’s because I didn’t.”

Barry raised an eyebrow.

He sighed. “Rob kissed me, which wouldn’t really worry me, except for why he did it.”

“Because he likes you?” Barry asked.

“No, I mean yes, but that’s not the point. Rob kissed me because he thought he hadn’t really been rescued and was making all of this up. So, he wanted to give himself as much happiness as he could before being dragged back.”

Barry sucked in a breath.

“Yeah…how…how am I supposed to help him deal with that?” Wally asked softly.

“I’m sorry, Kid, that’s…neither of you should have to be experiencing something like this. Just give him as much support as you can.” Barry tightened his arm around Wally’s shoulders and kept him pressed against his side.

“Is that all you wanted? I know Rob is still talking to Black Canary, but-“

“There was actually something else,” Barry interrupted gently. “I’m not sure how you would feel about seeing him, but…look, the man who hurt Robin is down in the holding cells. I don’t know what you’d say to him or if you even wanted to say anything, but if you wanted to see him I could take you down there.”

Wally froze mid-step, the hold Barry still had around his shoulders almost causing him to fall forward.

“What?” he asked when Barry straightened. “You want to take me down to see the man who…who did that to Rob?”

“Only if you want to. I know it’s going to be tough for the whole team to move past this because of how it happened, but if it offers you some closure…” he trailed off and sighed. “It’s only if you want to though. Robin might want to go down and see him later and I thought it might be best if you saw him first to help with that if it happens. But if it’s not going to help you at all then you don’t even have to be in the same room as him.”

Wally’s gaze dropped to the floor as he thought it over. He hated the man for what he’d done to Dick and he never wanted to come face-to-face with him, more than he already had anyway, but if it could help him give Dick support later then he’d do anything it took. He squared his shoulders and looked back up at his uncle, lips thinning into a line. “I want to see him.”

Barry nodded. “Let’s go, Kid. I’m sure it’s going to be a long day for all of us with what’s coming.”

“It’s already been a long day,” Wally muttered as they wove through the halls.

He barely paid attention to his surroundings, his mind filled with thoughts of Dick and what he was going to say when he faced the man who’d caused him so much pain. What was he going to say to Dick when he had to tell him that he’d stood face-to-face with the man who’d hurt him?

He swallowed as they descended the steps towards the holding cells. Barry’s hand tightened on his shoulder and Wally took a shaky breath.

“You can still turn back if you want to,” Barry murmured.

“It’s just,” Wally said, slowing to a stop. “Have you seen him yet?”

Barry closed his eyes and nodded. “And it’s not pretty.”

“Not pretty how?” Wally asked.

Barry squeezed his shoulder. “I don’t feel right comparing him to the Joker, but…”

“Shit,” Wally breathed. He hadn’t thought it could be that bad. Dick had told him about some of his experiences fighting with the Joker and there was no rhyme or reason to anything he did other than to cause pain and chaos. And to think Dick had been subjected to something like that for so long.

“You can still back out if you don’t want to see him.”

He shook his head. “No. I…I need to do this. I need to be prepared to be there for Rob.”

“If you’re sure,” Barry said, nudging him forward.

The first few cells were empty, and Wally wasn’t really sure what he’d been expecting. Maybe some huge monsters or maniacal villains too dangerous to be kept on Earth so they were locked up tightly in space. Then they got to the fifth cell where a man was sitting serenely in the center of the floor. He was cross-legged, wearing a garish grey jumpsuit that had obviously been provided by the heroes of the League.

There was an inhibitor collar around his neck, but Wally new the only reason that was there was to subdue him with shocks if they needed to. He tilted his head and grinned when Wally stepped into view.

“Oh, I recognize you,” he said, rocking backwards and forwards once before settling again. “You were the boy who took Robin away from me.” He tutted. “I don’t like it when my playthings are taken away.”

Anger surged up inside Wally and he practically pressed himself against the glass, a bloodlust he’d never experienced before taking over every thought and feeling in his body and mind.

“He’s not your plaything,” he growled.

The man laughed. “Not anymore thanks to you. And I was having so much fun breaking him in.”

“Kid,” Barry said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down. You’re vibrating.”

Wally fought to reign in his temper and slow his breathing even when his anger threatened to overtake him. It took several minutes before he was able to calm himself enough that he stopped vibrating. It did nothing to dissipate the fire blazing in his chest and the thoughts screaming for revenge and his blood after he’d hurt the person Wally cared about most.

“Are you gonna bring the pretty little birdie down here?” the man continued, something dark glinting in his eyes. “I want to see the results of all my wonderful work. Does he look like a sewn together doll? I hope so, then he’d really belong on my toy shelf.”

Wally tried to breathe through his nose and maintain his composure even when an angry red started to cloud the corners of his vision. He felt Barry’s hand tighten on his shoulder, but every part of him was screaming to protect Dick and hurt the man that had caused him so much pain. He wanted to see his blood spilled, the crimson covering the floor of the cell until it was scrubbed away.

“Kid…” Barry started when his form began to vibrate under his fingers.

Dick would’ve thought that Wally would’ve been back at his side once he saw Dinah walk out of the room. But if Barry had been out there waiting for him, there was a good chance they were still talking and getting caught up on everything that happened.

But the longer he was alone, the more Dick started to fidget and feel claustrophobic in his hospital bed. It wasn’t so much that he needed Wally to be there with him, there were plenty of times that he was without Wally, but all those other times, he wasn’t injured and hurt and mentally broken. And mentally broken was the only way he could describe his current situation even if someone else tried to convince him otherwise.

He finally pushed off the bed when he grew tired of waiting as was getting anxious. He gingerly got to his feet to keep from accidentally jarring or pulling at his wounds and the stiches that littered his arms and legs. He was careful as he approached the door to his room, keeping his distance in case anyone was in a hurry and decided to burst through. The only person who was at risk of doing that was Wally, but since Dick had no idea where he’d gone, it wasn’t likely to happen.

Dick pulled open the door, peeking around the side before he pulled it open fully. Bruce immediately looked up from where he was talking with Dinah, bringing a stop to their conversation.

“Robin,” he said, striding over to him. “Is everything alright? Did you need something?”

He glanced at Dinah before staring into the lenses of Bruce’s cowl. “I’m fine,” he said. “I was just looking for Wally.”

“You really shouldn’t be out of bed when you’re still healing,” Bruce started.

Dick raised an eyebrow because that was the most hypocritical thing coming out of Bruce’s mouth since he was bad about trying to get back into the field before his wounds had even started to clot.

“I was getting restless,” he said slowly. “Can you tell me where Wally went? I’m not going to hurt myself just by going for a walk.”

Bruce hummed. “He’s with the Flash right now.”

“Are they having a private conversation?” Dick asked, trying not to let himself become impatient since it was obvious Bruce was trying to avoid or deflect his desire to find them.

“I’m…not sure,” he admitted.

“Can you tell me where they went?” he asked again. He almost wanted to radio for Wally himself, but he didn’t have his comm with him.

“I believe they were headed in the direction of the holding cells…” he said slowly.

Dick swallowed, trying not to let his anxiety and the sudden spike of fear that shot through him show on his face or through his body language.

“I can take you down there once I finish speaking with Black Canary,” Bruce said quickly.

Dick shook his head and tried to force a smile onto his face. “No, that’s fine. I’ll be fine to go down and find them. And I’m sure they’re done with whatever conversation they had and are on their way back up anyway, so I’ll probably run into them in the hallway.”

“Robin-“

“I’ll be fine,” he said quickly, knowing that Bruce probably didn’t believe that scenario would play out and neither did Dick if he was being honest.

He skirted around Bruce before he could stop him and took careful steps down the hallway. He wanted to run and sprint around corners, but that would be a surefire way to cause himself senseless pain and get him strapped down in a hospital bed while he recovered.

He kept out of the way of any other heroes that were passing through and most of them didn’t notice him since he was so small and stayed pressed against the walls. Those that did gave polite nods which he returned. He was glad they didn’t ask after his health and he hoped most of them had no idea why he was in the Watchtower dressed in hospital pajamas.

The stairs leading down to the detention level were eerily quiet and left him feeling like the walls were pressing in, creating a new sense of claustrophobia that was different from when he was getting anxious in his room. Dick swallowed and pressed a hand against the wall as he descended, hoping it would lend some support as he keept his steps light so as not to alert anyone to his presence.

He slowed his pace further as he got closer to the bottom of the stairs and strained his ears to try and pick up any new sounds or voices that might indicate someone was close by. It wasn’t until he was almost around the last corner that voices exploded in the silence.

“Kid, stop!”

Dick blinked, realizing it was Barry who’d spoken.

“He hurt Rob,” Wally hissed, voice tense and sounding a little off like it wasn’t coming through correctly. It reminded him of when someone was talking through a comm and were being buffeted by wind because of a bike or the weather. Or when Wally was running without his cowl, leaving the wind to slip over his form.

“He hurt, Rob,” Wally grit out, sounding angrier than Dick had ever heard him.

“Someone’s angry,” a third voice said, shrill laughter filling the air.

Dick swallowed, immediately recognizing the voice. His whole body threatened to seize up as panic quickly overtook him, constricting his breathing and making him feel colder than should be possible. A wave of dizziness and nausea swept through him and he braced himself more firmly against the wall.

He wanted to run and hide. He wanted to get as far away from that voice as possible.

But Wally was in the next room. And Dick knew he wanted Wally more than he wanted to flee to the furthest corner of the Watchtower.

“Kid, calm down. You don’t need to get in there and hurt him,” Barry said, voice tight.

“He needs to be punished,” Wally swore, voice low in the back of his throat.

“And he will be,” Barry agreed. “But this isn’t how it should happen.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” he practically cried. “You should do something instead of letting him sit here in this padded cell while Rob fights to get better!”

“We are going to do something, but we just brought him in last night,” Barry said, voice tight.

Dick swallowed and stepped around the corner. He blinked when he found Barry with his arms tightly wrapped around Wally who was vibrating in his arms, a fierce expression of anger written plainly on his features as he struggled to get free.

From where he stood he couldn’t see the man who hurt him, but he didn’t matter in that moment. Not when Wally was on the verge of doing something that would change him forever because he wasn’t thinking rationally.

“KF,” he said calmly when neither of them took notice of him.

Wally froze, his vibrations halting as his head whipped to the side, eyes wide behind his goggles as he looked over Dick standing at the bottom of the stairs. Barry looked relieved when Wally stopped fighting against him and he let out a sigh.

“Rob…” he said, voice breathy. “What are you doing down here?” He pulled at Barry’s grip, trying to get out so he could walk over to him, but he held fast. Wally looked up at him curiously.

“Sorry,” he said, letting him go.

Wally sped to Dick’s side and took his hand, linking their fingers together. “I thought you were talking to Black Canary?”

“I was,” he said. “And I’m done. I was worried you got into some trouble without me to watch out for you so I had to make sure my partner in crime was still free,” he added with a sly smirk that exuded more confidence than he felt considering the man who’d hurt him was only a few feet away behind a thick partition.

“Oooh,” the Punisher called from his cell, making Dick’s throat tighten. “Did the little bird finally decide to come out and play?”

“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to,” Wally said immediately. “We can go back up to your room and you never have to see his ugly face again,” he said gently.

Dick tightened his hold on Wally’s hand. “I dunno…Black Canary thought it might be good for me to see him. You know, to ground me in the present and all that and help to dispel the notion that this is all made up.”

“Only if you want to,” Wally reassured quickly.

Dick smiled up at him. “I know, I know,” he said. “And I know that you’re going to be there for me no matter what, right?”

“Of course,” Wally swore. “I’ll always be here for you.”

Dick took a shaky breath, his smile faltering at the realization of what he was about to do. “Just,” he started as he took a step forward, Wally pressing against his side. “Don’t leave me,” he whispered.

“Never,” Wally agreed.

Dick took a deep breath and flexed his hand in Wally’s grip before he took a step forward. The first few movements forward he made were the hardest but having Wally next to him helped and he glanced up at Barry who was watching them both intently, no doubt keeping an eye on Wally to make sure he didn’t try to break through the glass again.

His heart beat faster when he stood in front of the cell. The Punisher was on his feet, hands pressed against the glass as he eagerly waited for Dick to stop in front of him.

“Hello, little birdy,” he greeted, lips pulling into a chilling grin.

Dick squeezed Wally’s hand tighter, fighting against the rising terror that threatened to incapacitate him.

He titled his head when Dick didn’t respond. “How would you like to play a game with me?”

If you enjoy my work, please reblog or consider buying me a ko-fi!

#birdflash #molim writes #fic update #fic: sing little bird #wally west #dick grayson

9 notes · View notes