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darling-answers · 8 days

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I BEG YOU Ana Amari with a injured reader, maybe she sick or dying of a illness idk just make it angst, I saw that talk about wanting more Ana Amari fanfic so idk I feel like letting people suffer and cry.

“ oh Gibraltar were had the time gone?”

This will be pre-fall I would like to say when Overwatch was still in best working order, just right after the omnic crisis

Warning! There may be inaccurate deceive of AML, I have done my best at researching the topic but doesn’t me my accuracy on knowing aml is good because I have never experienced before. Ana may be a little off topic because no matter what, you should always respect the choice of someone body. Death! Is implied and mention. this isn’t a happy ending. Blood! Is mentioned, noise and mouth bleeding Mentions, Oppression and violence. There also mention of symptoms of cancer effects with chemotherapy, chemotherapy is mentioned multiple times. Fainting is mentioned

Thank you for all who reads my stories and showed there support i appreciate it greatly

REQUEST ARE OPEN I WRITE FOR VENTURE TOO SO SEND THEM SOME LOVE.

The warning signs were there but you couldn’t expect it to get this bad? how could anyone know how bad it gotten when it just happened. Being a overwatch agent and putting civilians as your top priority before your own health problems wasn’t uncommon. It comes with you being a soldier and wanting to do what right. Sticking up for the weak even if it comes with your own life. So why must this situation be different.

The First warning sign happen when you were out on a mission to help civilians who may have been lost or trapped under the rubble, it was going according to plan, nothing seem out of the ordinary until the next thing you had known was blood was coming from your nostrils and mouth. Wiping it off on your sleeve painting it with fresh blood made it easy to forget about, it could happen to anyone so why must your situation be different, there still civilians need help, so pick yourself up soldier and help the others, You tell yourself over and over again.

Helping civilians get to safety and back to there family had made you smile, but the comfort of the ship that would be leading you back to your home and the people you call family is just a different feeling. When sitting down in your designated seat, Reinhardt was right infront of you, talking (yelling.) about how well his mission did, talking about the tiny children who he got to flex his arms to. Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes carried on their conversation about the on going crisis in the rest of the world, torbjorn talked about his family showing Reinhardt picture of his newly born daughter Brigitte but always the mother hen Ana had taken notice of the blood.

“ habibati, where did such blood come from? Had there been anyone seriously injured? On the catalog I did not seen any reports of very serious injuries?” She mumbles setting her sniper down, the way the sniper aim was up relaxing in the wall of the aircraft, safety was on and the eye of the pistol was up. She leans over to grab the coat of your overwatch outfit and taken a look of the sleeve.

“ I’m fine Ana, I promise, there is nothing to worry about just some blood no need to fuss.” She gave you a serious look Almost crinkling her brows. “ you tell me if anything is wrong. Alright? I want you to be alright.” She looks serious pointing a finger before she lets go from the topic when she felt satisfied.

The Second warning came when in training with Cassidy, you felt you’re whole body zap out of energy, the room was so dizzy and fussy, your brain felt slow and sluggish, you’re arms and legs felt like a ice about to melt into a puddle. Your body gave up and slammed itself to the ground. Waking up in the infirmary with Angela Ziegler talking about your body and health, noticing the way your body seems to be weaker than before. You lost incredible amount of weight which for a normal person would feel happy about it, the weight your body was dropping was to dangerous to not start trying to figure out what was wrong with you.

“ i thought you would’ve told me if something was wrong. The fact you tried hiding it makes me think it might be time i took over your position and put you’re mission on hold until i feel everything is better.” Ana mumbled kissing your forehead as she gently placed her hand on the top of your head.

Angela returned with a chart, writing your vitals and simple questions she have asked you such as, how long have these symptoms been going on, how severe have these conditions been. She clicked her pin shut as she looked up from her notes. “ if you don’t mind I would like to request and recommend we run a few test on you. I’m thinking running a Blood test on you, we will be analyzing it using a microscopic evaluation of the blood, or by using flow cytometry to try and figure. This will all be done if we get your consent so would you mind if we do this?” Angela tilt her head at the last part as she hears the exact words she needs to hear to start preparing for the blood samples.

After gathering the blood sample, she sends you and Ana on your way as she tells you the test results will need 2-3 weeks to be able to fully confirm the diagnosis. Ana made sure throughout the week to make sure that you would rest and not strain your already fragile condition. Every night Ana would lay in bed making sure her arms were around your body and start whispering stuff in Arabic. More symptoms started popping up which caused Ana to get worried even worse than before. Bruising would form out of nowhere not even you could remember how you got those bruises, night sweats became one of the worse causing the lack of sleep, hot flashes and the urge to not eat anything were evidence that something definitely wasn’t right.

“ Oh, how I know it hurts habibati, let’s try and get some rest.” She would mumbles as she made sure the bed only have loose sheets. The way you could barely hold down anything or even get out of bed made her concerns grow even worse. Sometimes you would wake up with her right besides you and other times you were alone in bed. Days and nights started to blur in your memory as you laid in bed, not being able to fully move or walk without assistance.

“ we have gotten the test results back and it might be best. If you sit down ana this is difficult for both of you.” Angela pulled up a chair and sat down in a chair crossing her legs as she looks over at Ana then comes back to you. “ after throughly examining the changes in you’re body we have confirm the diagnosis of you have a form of leukemia that is very hard to treat. It is called Acute myelogenous leukemia. It a common aggressive form of leukemia that affects your bone marrow and blood.”

The face of exhaustion from you and the horror of Ana Face was like no other, how long had it been since you see Ana so hopeless..? This isn’t what you wanted to see.

“ There is good news and bad news, we may be able to start treatment to help fight off the leukemia but with the illness being around the bone marrow most medicines may not be able to reach the place the leukemia is resting, it may be long and hard but you have some chance of survival if you would like to start that I can get it prepared.”

“ What are the chances of me surviving..? I don’t want to live my life in fear that this illness will come back, I don’t want the exhaustion and agonizing treatments, I don’t want to be stuck in a hospital wasting away the only time I get pure entertainment is if someone come visit me. Please Ana, i’m scared and I don’t want to leave you alone but I don’t want to deal with this heartache.” She clutched her wife hand as she leans over weakly giving a kiss to her wife forehead as she comes to rest her sweaty face on that of her wife.

“ I have seen a lot of people survive AML and I also scene some who not, a man in December survive the AML with a few rounds of chemo and some rehabilitation and now he living his life with a wife and few kids. I’ve also scene some people not wish to fight this agonizing battle. So why I might not suggest not taking treatments I will accept whatever you would like us to do.”

Angela Zeigler nodded her head towards you before looking at Ana, Ana somberly looked at the hands which were neatly folded in her. The struggle to make the choice or even express agreement or disagreement weigh ever on her shoulders. “ if you would not like to start chemo and pass away in your home with me and our family by your side I will respect your wishes. I’m so sorry you were even given these choices.” Ana closed her eyes and cried in her hands chocking out her answers as she leans to rest her head on your shoulder.

“ don’t cry Ana, this battle has been long and hard, I was given a purpose on earth and that was to protect the people around me, I made my choice and now I may be rest in the peace of the afterlife knowing I have saved lives. You have to be strong for Pharah and Overwatch.”

The weakly smiles that adores both you and Ana face made it way to accept the idea more easily. The decision to not go and do chemo was not selfish in the eyes of Ana, she knew of the effects of chemo, Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, Hair loss, Skin dryness and rashes the effects almost seem limitless.

“ so if I’m to confirm You ( state your name.) are refusing to take chemotherapy, which may have help you live a few years longer. You understand the negative side effects that may come with this. You may also always come back to wanting to do chemotherapy but the more you wait the more will not be likely to have the cancer be eradicated.”

Ana looked over and nodded at you, “ I will accept whatever you say or think. Please speak what you need to.” Ana looked into your eyes. “ I accept to refusing treatment for chemotherapy and know the harms and risk that may come and the outcome.” The weakly sound of coughing finishing off the statement.

“ alright, I will notify strike commander to take you off of all mission briefs and when you are ready please notify whoever you would like about what the future is going forward.” Mercy nodded politely leaving you and Ana alone in the room. Ana looked over at you, brushing your cheekbone as the weak sound of raspy breath came in and out. “ Thank you for letting me have a choice, I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t sure the outcome would be the same.”

Ana nodded to your words helping you settle in bed. She weakly clutches the clothing near her heart as she looks at you. She tried to take a deep breath as to not let the tears follow but it getting harder looking at your weak state. She started walking towards the door to give you room only to be stopped by the croak of a voice. “ Ana…” Ana turned around and looked at you walking over and kneeling down near your bed side.

“ I love you and Pharah so much.” You mumbles as Ana whisper some words of praise before getting up and leaving the room. Days become even more of a blur as your visited by most of Overwatch agents besides a few. Even Moira O’Deorain made her presence known as she commands great respect and recognition for how you saved lives and great combat skills.

The day came, one year and a day after you first got the symptoms of something wrong that you passed peacefully by your besides, laying beside you was Ana who was on your left. Pharah who birthday just came a few weeks ago making her 10 and one of your best friends who also supported you think through thin, Reinhardt. A day that would’ve been sad wasn’t sad, they knew you would of beat there ass if you found out they weren’t lighting up the party with some shots as you’re lowered into your casket. Your funeral which played one of your favorite songs, “Dreaming of you” by Selena Quintanilla was a mother and daughter dance for ana and pharah.

You were given a gravesite with the soldiers who had fallen in the war adored with flowers and so much love and care from military units all across the world. Some left Quarters, some left penny, dimes and nickels. You were known around the world and a statue as a memorial in your home town was placed to honor the dedication you had to fighting for what right and standing up for communities who may have been oppressed.

As time gone on and the state of Overwatch went into shambles Winston recalled woke up a different side in Overwatch agents, instead of doing stuff how Jack Morrison would do, the Overwatch hero’s knew who to look up to in the end.

Pharah looking up into the sky hoping that maybe she would see you there looking down and protecting her.

#overwatch #overwatch x reader #darlingfics #overwatch imagine #Ana x reader #Ana Amari #Ana Amari x reader #Pharah #mercy #sick! reader

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belost-the-watcher · 3 months

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Since @steel-and-fire mentioned developing designs it got me thinking....

Belost through the years! :D

Belost's original armor design!

He had the tall ballistic collar with the open front, metal clasps to connect the front and back armor halves, a spaulder, and two plates of extra armor to cover his stomach. I wanted a light armor look to those massive suits that the galra wore- while protecting the one spot they all left completely exposed XD

The armor design for his short-lived agent AU

Pretty similar to the original but sporting a small gorget on the front to protect his throat, a fixed pauldron, and a more official looking pair of eyes. The eyes on his non-agent armor always look kind of messy because he has to get them repainted constantly from a mix of damage to his armor, dirt, and camouflage paint. The cleaner design here is because it wouldn't be getting damaged as often. It also sort of morphed into a MK2 for his main verse armor eventually.

Then his third design!

It's mostly going back to the first design but going a more modern route of just being one piece and larger, it technically covers less than it did with the two extra plates but it covers more on his sides and makes far less noise. He's back to the spaulder and has cushioned shoulder straps on top along with a wrap around ballistic collar. I wanted to go more realistic with this look and around this time was when I really started separating Trackers from the Navy and made them an Army unit. That way I could explain the heavy, semi-impractical Galra armor from the show as a Navy / officer thing where the enlisted in the Army used more functional armor to stay relatively light.

Fourth design!

It really is a back and forth between spaulder and pauldron, isn't it? This is his RIC design (Republic Intelligence Committee) where his role is much more official with a mix of spy work and skirmishing. Other than the paulron and RIC replacing the Empire's eyes, we have the introduction of gloves and a gorka-style BDU. I still kind of like this one but it's a little too official for my tastes.

His 5th and current design!

We're back to the spaulder but we kept the gloves and gorka! This mostly introduced his camouflage poncho for all weather along with some gaiters to further reduce water from getting into his boots and bugs from getting into his pant legs. The addition of that poncho makes him feel a bit better to me. He always paints his armor based on the environment he's going into before deployments, then re-paints it red when he gets back into the fleet, but the poncho makes him look the part a bit more. Plus it's just nice to have when you're out in the field! We also have the introduction of his TAP pistol and his custom rifle. And while we're comparing development, here's the development of the TAP Special (Tracker Automatic Pistol).

From uncomfortable to hold and super long to ergonomic, (relatively) short, and integrally suppressed!

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buttercantpickaname · 8 months

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Here is a oneshot that I have made, based on Far Cry 5, or more specifically, the events after the Collapse.

The idea came from @simplegenius042 :)

WARNING: This fanfiction will contain spoilers for Far Cry 5 (surprise surprise) and some dark themes, I guess?

(Also I’ll probably change the deputy’s gender depending on story, or if it’s preferred I CAN stick to a gender neutral deputy, but I think for every story it would just be repetitive)

Oki enjoy :D

“You are free to stand now, my child.”

Joseph took off the cuffs around the deputy’s wrists, allowing him to move around. At this point, he had finally stopped struggling. He now seemed to realise that no matter how much he fought, he couldn’t get out of the situation he found himself in. Struggling wouldn’t get him out of the cuffs, screaming wouldn’t open the doors of the bunker, and crying wouldn’t reverse the damage done by the Collapse.

And it sure as hell wouldn’t bring Dutch back.

His lifeless body, which had now been shoved into the corner of the room, had started to decay, and the smell was repulsive.

Joseph studied the deputy as he stood up, looked around the bunker… and made his way to where the weapons were stored.

Joseph didn’t stop him. He simply followed him into the room and watched as he stood before a pistol. He raised his hand, letting it linger over the weapon.

“You know there is no use, Deputy.”

The deputy flinched as he turned around to see the Father standing in the doorframe. He sighed.

“Tell me, my child, if you were to kill me, what will that mend? What will that change?”

The deputy lowered his hand, and watched as Joseph approached him.

“I understand your anger, my child. You have lost… everything…” His attention is caught by something on a nearby table. It appears to be a small model of an AdjudiCor FBW, painted to look like John Seed’s plane.

“And believe me, so have I…” Joseph picks it up and spins the propeller. “My people… my Faith… my brothers…”

He spins the propeller again, showing a sad smile as he does.

“John loved this plane,” he looks over at the deputy as he speaks, “I gave it to him when we first arrived in Hope County, as a gift. A gift to say thank you. To thank him for his help, and for his devotion to this project.”

His smile fades, and he looks momentarily at the deputy.

“With this gift, I also made a promise. A promise that his devotion would pay off. That he would join me, and our brother Jacob, in waiting out the Collapse. That when this was all over, we would walk arm in arm, to see the New Eden.”

He sets the plane down back on the table. He then sits on a nearby folding chair, and pushes his head into his hands. The deputy can hear him let out a long sigh.

“But now, that promise has been broken. Shattered. The promise I made to help him, to protect him. I’ve failed him… again. My baby brother, who I had promised to protect with my life. I’ve failed him.”

Joseph lifts his head up to look at the ceiling. The deputy can see that his face is now red, his eyes glistening with tears, and he sniffled as he spoke.

“I’ve failed them all. John… Jacob… Faith… and I’ve failed God.”

Joseph’s voice starts to quiver. A tear starts to run down his cheek.

“I was chosen by God, because He believed I was worthy. That I could complete this mission. He believed that I would be capable, that I would lead my flock towards a new life. A new hope. A paradise.”

He takes a deep breath, and wipes the tears from his face.

“…Or maybe this was God’s plan.” He turns to look at the deputy.

“Maybe my brothers were never supposed to make it this far. They were not meant to survive the Collapse. Instead…”

The old folding chair creaked as Joseph stood up. He stood in front of the deputy, resting his hands on his shoulders.

“It was only meant to be you, child. Maybe it was only meant to be you, and I…”

He pauses.

“What if I don’t know God’s plan after all? This might have all happened as it was meant to…”

He lets go of the deputy’s shoulders.

“But… that’s impossible...”

Joseph reached behind the deputy, and took the pistol from the table. He moved it away, placing it on top of a shelf. He stood there for a moment, his back turned to him. He sighed again.

“You’re all I have left now, Deputy.”

The deputy slowly steps closer to Joseph, as he turns around again.

“You are my family… my child… and the only thing I have left. And I know I’m the only thing you have now, too.” Joseph reaches out to the deputy again.

“And my child… I have saved you. Even when I couldn’t save anyone else. Not even Faith. Not even John. Not even Jacob.”

His voice drops to a whisper.

“I saved you.”

Joseph turns away, and leaves the room, leaving the deputy alone. He turns back to the plane model, and picks it up. He spins the propeller as Joseph did.

Was it the right thing to do? He wondered to himself. Was any of this the right thing to do? The Collapse is upon us, and Joseph has saved me… and who have I saved? Who have I saved from the end of the world?

Am I really the hero after all?

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #fanfic #writing #far cry 5 #far cry five #far cry games #far cry fanfiction #far cry fandom #fc5 fandom #john seed #joseph seed #faith seed #jacob seed #fanfiction #oneshot

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jaws-and-canines · 1 year

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Burying the Last Man

A Count the Days story. Contains mentions of death.

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I hate Wednesdays. Midway through a long week, too tired to feel fresh from last weekend, and not close enough to the next to make an effort. Not least this one, because we’re burying one of the Councillors. It’s so cold.

The priest reads over a passage from the New Testament and looks around as if he’s expecting one of us to do a reading as well. None of us will volunteer, none of us planned to, because we don’t want to put ourselves at risk like that. We’re all painfully aware that the coffin below our feet is State-issued, and the man inside it was put to death by the State- and although in some way, the Council is the State, we all know the Department is really in charge. Not a single one of us wants to cross the Department with any particularly impassioned speech in defence of a dead man. Not even me- possibly even particularly me, given they could do far, far worse to me.

The priest gets the message and motions to the soldiers with their shovels to start filling the grave back up. The simple coffin is quickly covered up. As it stands, Berkov was lucky. A Department man who crosses his employers puts himself in the sights of at best, a quick death before a firing squad.

Berkov was not amongst the luckiest, being shot on his knees for the part he played in betraying an entire submarine to the Euros. To die on your knees is a small humiliation in the grand scheme of things, but he was not nearly the unluckiest out there. He died with good grace, shaking hands with the man with the pistol before they put his hands behind his back, quietly refusing to be hooded, but kneeling of his own accord and staying perfectly still. He went easily and he went in a dignified manner. I can respect that. That’s why I’m even here in the first place. I wouldn’t go to the funeral if I didn’t respect him.

I watch the clergy leave, walking back to St George’s, still following my train of thought. On the other hand, for the most disgraced amongst us- the murderers, the spies, the war criminals- the Department simply washes its hands of them and hands them over to the civilian courts. And invariably, they end up hanging for it.

I was asked- by Berkov, somewhat ironically- to act as a witness to a hanging after the whole Ambleby affair, and if you could describe something as impressive and horrifying at the same time, that was it. It was all over in a matter of seconds. The man was sentenced to die at eight, and he was dead at the bottom of the pit before the hour had finished tolling. Not a single fucking word was said in the whole thing. I bought the hangman a pint of beer the same evening, shook his hand, made my excuses and left. I drove home in silence, the resounding bang of the trapdoor opening and the man falling through still echoing in my ears.

All in all, Berkov was lucky to go with his honour as intact as it could be.

I’m pulled back to the current moment by the chiming of St George’s- the bells of the refrain of the alleluia and then the chiming of the hour. Eleven in the morning and I’m already tired. My scars sting and I get headaches from turning and squinting at things out of my view. I’ve still not gotten used to it.

Sometimes my eye aches as if it’s still there. It’s not, of course, but it still hurts.

The whole thing hurts, really. I should be out there beyond the Meridian, being useful. Instead I’m here, at a funeral, out of polite obligation more than anything else.

I dig my hands into my pockets and brace myself against the bitter wind, staring at the wooden cross lain flat on the ground. I look at the pitiful crowd of people standing around the half-filled grave and wonder if the Councillors blame me for Berkov’s death. In the end, I was the one who took his office. Amongst other things, that surely doesn’t paint me in a fantastic light.

As the grave slowly fills, and the end of the ceremony really sets in, the crowd of Councillors begins to morosely disperse. A scattering of strained conversation starts up, stifled by the Department officials spread around the grave. Myself probably included. The wooden cross is dug into the ground by one of the gravediggers. I look up to the sky and realise I’ve forgotten how to pray for the dead. Some Catholic you are, Haveter. It’s a good job I remember the fucking Creed at this point. Though I think I’d struggle to tell you the difference between the Nicene Creed and the Apostle’s Creed off the top of my head.

Chairman Kay wanders over to me. The white haired herald of a disagreement. He’s taller than me, but his bulk is all fat from years of drinking. I have no fear of him. “You should have taken that off,” he says, flicking the enamel Department insignia pin on my lapel. He knocks it off centre. No introduction, no pleasantries, nothing. Prick.

I tut. “I’m not supposed to, this is a formal event.” I turn the badge back around again so the double white slash insignia is facing the right way. “Uniform regulations say so, under the non-combat personnel section.” If I was in uniform, he’d pick at me in a different way- commenting on my haircut or my ironing or an imagined piece of fluff. It’s constant. He has zero respect for me.

“You’ve no respect for the dead, then?” he says. He knows exactly what he’s doing, trying to set me up between a rock and a hard place to then brandish my response as a weapon against me.

“I’m not supposed to take it off, Kay, leave off,” I snap, and brush off my jacket where he touched me. “I have my rules, you have yours. I follow mine.”

“Don’t start on me at a funeral, Haveter, Christ,” he says, holding his hands up. He backs away as if he isn’t the one who started this. I think about punching him in the face and sending him flying into the open grave but that would really only prove his point- not to mention the military police milling around Memorial Park, as usual, would probably put a very swift and decisive stop to any physical altercation we would have. A very swift and decisive stop that would end up with the two of us being marched down to the guardhouse and thrown into two separate cells to wait for General Davies to come and deal with us.

But still, a quick shove into the open grave remains tempting. For now, I resist the urge, scowling. “Fuck off, Kay.” One day, one day, I’m going to hurt him. I know I am. I’ll probably regret it, and he’ll probably make my life hell afterwards, but what can he really do? I’m with the Department. He’s not. He can’t lay a fucking hand on me in any way that really matters.

“Oh, so you are going to start on me at a funeral?” He laughs quietly, incredulously throwing his arms wide. “Are you really going to start an argument in front of a grave?”

Yes, yes I am. I’ve started arguments in worse places.

“None of us even fucking knew Berkov! Let’s stop pretending we did!” I say, raising my voice- not at all loud, just above the hushed mutterings of the rest of the Councillors. Everyone’s staring at me now. I have that effect, apparently. In the Council Chambers and outside, when I speak, people stare. “He sat in his office, chain-smoked, barely spoke in meetings- because he was fucking taking notes to sell them to the highest bidder.”

“A man has just died-”

I interrupt him, poking him in the chest, driving my point home. “And yet here you are, playing the funeral card left right and centre. Whoring out his memory to get your way. You’re spineless!” I throw my arms apart. “You are absolutely spineless,” I hiss.

“Don’t make yourself unpopular,” mutters Kay under his breath. I turn around. Everyone- and I mean everyone- is looking at us. All the Councillors are staring at me. Hell, even the gravediggers are looking at me between shovels of dirt.

“What are you all staring at?” I say, and shoo the Councillors away from the grave. “Get back to work, go on!” Whilst they slowly start to disperse I turn back to Kay. My turn to threaten him. My fucking turn. I draw myself up to my full height and stare him in the eye. “I might be unpopular, Kay, but don’t think for a single fucking moment you’re the one in charge here. I am. And if I can’t work with you, you’ll be the one to go. Not me.” I smile a shark’s smile at him. “So make your fucking choice. Grow up, or move on.”

“We’re not burying the last Chairman, Haskell,” he says. “We’re burying the man whose office you just took. I’d bear that in mind that you don’t end up the same way.” He looks at me for a moment longer then just walks by me as if I’m not there, trudging back towards Council Halls.

“Is that a threat?” I call after him. He says nothing. I watch him go, and straighten my tie, brushing down my suit. “Asshole,” I mutter to myself.

#count the days #oc writing #writeblr

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masschase · 1 year

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hi hi!!! for the boss ask meme, 18 19 20? :D

Hi lego! Big fan! 😊

18. Do they have a best/closest friend? Probably not unexpectedly it's Johnny. They are surprisingly platonic considering I'm a huge fan of GatBoss, but that's how it works out with this character. She still had a crush on him when they first met and sleeps with him when they reunite due to having a false epiphany about the two of them but that is the jumping point for them to realise it felt wrong as they have more of a brother/sister love. Johnny will always be her stock answer.

But realistically when Johnny was supposedly dead she split her attentions between Pierce/Shaundi/Kinzie. She was not as close with Viola and Oleg post-SRTT but becomes closer friends with Viola during her presidency. I think she gets a little scared to get too close to Shaundi in case of previous feelings for her returning because they were pretty strong and she's so apprehensive about relationships. So overall Pierce is probably who she's closest with during this time due to being her second, perhaps also partly due to their pseudo-relationship for the press. Not long before the destruction of earth he steps back from that responsibility due to having a partner he wants to settle down with.

Post-SRIV she ends up confiding with Matt over Nyte Blayde an awful lot. They have a very different friendship to her and Johnny. Less shooting together and more snacking, watching Nyte Blayde, painting of nails, eventually cuddling. She kind of compartmentalises that hour or two every Friday in her head so she takes a long time to admit how close they are. She kind of only admits it to herself when she breaks it to Johnny. (spoilers for my next ff chapter but who's actually reading lololol):

Pre-SR she has a best friend named Mori (Moriarty Alleyne) who is quite an interesting character but I've not had a chance to draw him for his intro post.

19. Does your Boss have a favourite gun or other weapon? She always reaches for her .44 Shepherd/45 Shepherd/Heavy Pistol (game dependant) first. She has a gold plated one once she has the money to do so. In more serious combat she likes the AR-55 (much debate with Johnny who prefers the Krukov. She did name her virtual pony Krukov though.). Post-SRIV/GOOH she is also very fond of the purple thumpgun, plus a new restraint gun.

20. Do they have any tattoos? Are they from the game or something you created? She has the single bullet from sr2 on her right shoulder and the huge cobweb from sr4(might also be in 3?) on her left side. I want more on her right arm but I want to come up with some good designs for that.

Some time in the White Crib era she gets the fleur-de-lis on her neck- in game it's like a quite bright purple but I generally draw it black and a little smaller/curlier. That's part of a whole headcanon of her encouraging all the Saints to get fleur-de-lis tattoos during that time (apart from Matt and Asha who get theirs later; around 1 and 2 years post SRIV respectively, and Johnny who already had one)- I do have hcs about where most of them have them but that's a long one and there's a few I'm not sure about.

#thank you for asking #asks #saints row #saints row boss #casey boss #this post was not spellchecked

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dritapower · 2 years

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Jupiter hell developer

You could say that the perk trees are organised in three tiers – basic, advanced and master perks. For example, while Hellrunner (improved dodge and faster movement) is available to both the marine and the scout, the scout is likely to employ that perk in many more builds, because dodging is his primary defensive measure. There are some perks that are shared among the classes, for example all three gain access to Whizkid, which improves equipment modding, but the potential for using those perks differs significantly among them. So like I said, a bit all over the place. His perks, on the other hand, let you hack bots from a distance (or even summon them), become the toxic avenger, improve the passive skills, entrench with automatics or heavily specialise into pistols. Apart from that, the technician uses inventory items (such as grenades or medkits) faster and can dismantle modified gear to extract modpacks from it. His class resource is power, which lets him activate a smokescreen around himself for a quick getaway, and it’s replenished by collecting power orbs from destroyed mechanical enemies. The technician’s theme is hard to define, and his abilities are a bit all over the place. The scout’s perk tree includes all manner of abilities that leave you safe from harm – increased dodge chance, shooting on the move or long-range sniping – but also utility talents that mark places of interest on your minimap upon entering a level. Stealth is on a cooldown and requires energy to activate, which you replenish by opening supply crates. His special ability is stealth, which makes him invisible for a short while and turns all attacks into critical hits – though attacking will typically break stealth. The scout focuses on avoiding getting hit. Other than that, the marine’s perk tree focuses mostly on taking a beating and not dying – through damage reduction, increased health, better healing and so on. But perks can unlock more uses for fury, such as a short burst of speed. By default, consuming fury will heal you a bit and remove all pain (more on that later). His special ability is ‘fury’, which is a resource accumulated as you kill stuff. The marine favours brawn over everything else. All three differ very significantly in terms of gameplay due to their exclusive special abilities and perk trees. The classes are marine, scout and technician. First you choose one of the five difficulties, from easy to nightmare, then one of the three available character classes, and you’re good to go. Starting the game doesn’t offer too many headaches. Now grab your minigun, there are demons here to smite. You are a lone marine blasting through an otherworldly invasion on the moons of Jupiter, while your ultimate objective is to go to hell and kill Satan. To offer a brief introduction into the game at large, you can just assume that everything in Jupiter Hell is a variation on Doom. Note that, as I said above, DoomRL is my only real experience with roguelikes, so I can’t tell you how Jupiter Hell fits in the genre at large, and most of the comparisons I’ll be making here will be with reference to its predecessor. Now the time has come to subject it to a critical examination. This was very much to my liking, because frankly speaking, DoomRL might be the only roguelike that I ever really enjoyed, so having more of it in some new fashion was a very welcome perspective.Īfter spending some time stewing in early access, it was finally released for real in 2021. Its development followed a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016, which was started because the Polish fellow who made the original, freeware game, decided he would like to finally earn some potato from it.Īnyhow, everything seemed to point that Jupiter Hell would be little more than DoomRL with a new paint job. Jupiter Hell is the successor to the acclaimed Doom, the Roguelike (or, depending on whom you ask, DoomRL D**m, the Roguelike or DRL – trademark infringement is a hanging offence these days). Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Dev Diary #1.George Ziets on RPG Design and the State of Digimancy at GameBanshee.Dungeons of the Amber Griffin is a dungeon crawler about Ancient Pomeranians.Retro RPG Nox Archaist getting Lord of Storms expansion pack next March.Swords and Sorcery: Sovereign resurfaces, tentatively releasing in Q4.Underrail: Infusion Dev Log #5: Character Model Customization.Colony Ship Early Access Update: New Location - ECLSS.THQ Nordic Showcase 2022: Gothic Remake and Jagged Alliance 3.Broken Roads now being published by Versus Evil, coming in 2023.Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord releasing on October 25th.Pentiment releasing on November 15th, now available for preorder.Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - The Treasure of the Midnight Isles DLC Released.Lost Eidolons releasing on October 13th.

#Jupiter hell developer

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mapleridge · 4 years

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Zero Pistol and Magic Moon

#zero pistol #magic moon #won these in live events!#pistol is my first paint :D #rival stars horse racing

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heyitsjay03 · 3 years

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I saw request we’re open for RE8. Could I please have a fem! reader who tries to get rid of Ethan Winters because he keeps causing distress to her wife, Alcina? Please and thank you.

yes. yes you most certainly can have this.

i have been DYING to write about some alcina x fem!reader for the sole reason being that i have NEVER questioned my sexuality so hard since this damn game came out so yeah.

ps: wrote this in first person hope that's okay!

pps: there is some major plot deviation because.... i felt like it. idk. it fit??

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to own Resident Evil or its characters or plot. CAPCOM please don't come for me.

here you go love >:)

word count: 1.57k

"Girls!" I call, closing the door behind me. "My darlings, I'm home!" Shifting the grip on the parcel of items from the village, I look around.

Usually one of the girls would've answered by now. Bela is usually here to greet me.

She's probably with her mother.

I shrug off my fur coat, handing it to one of the maids. She takes it and lays it over the back of a chair. I can tell by the large, gnarled scar on her forearm who she is "Marienna," I mumble, staring up the stairway. "...where're the girls?"

Marienna's face pales as she stares back at me. Her mouth opens and closes like a trout. "Well?" I snap, "D'you know where they are or-?!"

A crash resounds down the hallway. Alcina's voice tears from her bedroom, followed by a shuddering sob.

I'm hurrying up the stairs in seconds, abandoning the parcel. My body collides with the door- forcing it open.

Our bedroom is destroyed- the vanity broken to pieces. Alcina's soft hands cling to the golden wood, thumb rubbing against the varnish. Slowly, her eyes trail up to me. A smile nearly as broken as the vanity crosses her painted lips. "...I loved this damned mirror," she mumbles, eyes turning down to the broken pieces again.

"What happened, darling?" I coo, stepping over the pieces to stand beside her. My hand on her shoulder, I turn her face gently towards mine. Tears are streaming down her face- leaving jagged streaks of mascara. "Are you alright? What happen-"

Alcina's body tenses under my touch. Trembling, her grip tightens on the wood. It cracks before being wrenching in twain in her hands. "It was that stupid manthing!" She hisses, standing back up to her full height.

"...what 'manthing'?" I ask, "Your brother?"

Alcina ignores me, leaning back down to pluck one of the larger fragments before throwing it across the room. "He laid his filthy paws on our daughters!"

My mind races as it struggles to understand what the hell is happening.

Manthing.

It's not Heisenberg. He'd never lay a finger on the girls.

Some brutish village slug- that's got to be it.

But why? Why on earth would they...?

It doesn't matter.

As Alcina leans down to grab another bit, I grab her hand. "...are... are the girls okay? Where are they?"

A shuddering sigh passes her lips. "...they're all together," she whispers, wiping tears from her face hastily. "Bela... she was... that disgusting beast, he nearly killed her!"

"What?" I mutter, eyebrows drawing together as I step back. "...what... well is she okay? What happened? Is she going to be alright?!"

Alcina sighs again. "...she'll be alright," her hand wraps around mine gently. "Her sisters found her. Brought her to me."

"Where is she now?," I ask, tightening my grip around her finger. "My baby girl... where...?"

Alcina smiles warmly, getting down onto one knee. Her fingers brush back the hair from my eyes. Tears fall quickly down my face as I realize what could've happened if Cassandra and Daniela weren't nearby. "She's with her sisters," she answers gently. "Resting... waiting for her mother to get back with the flowers and silk from the village."

A cold laugh passes my lips before I sniffle. "...her mother should've been there. Should've never left."

Alcina's face tightens. "You can't blame yourself, darling," she mumbles, turning my chin up so I can face her. "No one knew this... Ethan Winters... would be so hideously vindictive."

I nod slowly, wiping the tears from my face. "...can I see her?"

"Of course, my love," she says, leaning in to press her lips to my cheek. "Of course."

The two of us walk down the halls to the center of the house. 'Safest place for her' Alcina had told me.

She had spoken to me the entire way over here, trying to get me out of my own head.

Bless my beloved wife for trying.

But that name. It just keeps buzzing around my mind.

Images of my hands, covered in thick blood, gripping the handle of a sickle play through my head. The blade going through the jugular of this 'Ethan Winters' and popping out the other side. Him desperate for air, choking on his own hot blood, as he watches me loom over him.

His last words will be for mercy.

His last view will be my blade.

My breath is bated as I watch him stalk through the darkness of the courtyard. In the moonlight, I can see is head is down, eyes wary as he keeps a fair grip on his pistol. The cool air lets me see him regulating his breathing- keeping him steady, keeping his pistol steady.

He's experienced.

My grip on my own weapon tightens as he stops in the gazebo. His eyes narrow as he turns around, his pistol raised. I watch in mild amusement as he whirls around, looking for something to shoot.

He's experienced, yes, but still not experienced enough.

I tug the fabric around my face higher along the bridge of my nose. Gripping my sickle, I balance on the balls of my feet.

Ethan finally relaxes, dropping his arms with his back to me.

A small smile creeps along my lips under the mask. A foolish move made by an even more foolish man.

My body slides underneath the stone railings for the stairs leading into the center of the courtyard. Untucking one of the smaller knives from my belt, I pinch it between two fingers and flick my wrist forward.

The knife goes flying- landing right between Ethan's shoulder blades. A guttural yell comes from him as he spins around to face me. In a blink, I'm up in front of him, nose brushing against his.

I can see the fear in his eyes.

I can't help my smile growing beneath the dark fabric.

Ethan raises his hand, pistol in his palm. With a tut of my lips, I shake my head and stab his hand through with my sickle. "...no, no," I mumble as he continues to scream and thrash against my hold. "There'll be none of that, I'm afraid, Mister Winters."

His teeth gritted, he hisses as my sickle is pulled from the inner part of his wrist. A bitter laugh bubbles up from my gut as he stumbles back onto the floor of the gazebo, now holding the pistol in his shaky left hand. "You can't be serious!" I giggle as Ethan pulls the trigger.

A wet squelch hits my ears as the bullet tears into my stomach. I sigh dramatically, looking down at the gushing hole in my dress. "You didn't think I was human- did you?" I ask, twirling the sickle in my hand.

"Wh- what?" Ethan mutters, eyes fixated on the bullet wound in my torso.

"I'm not," I continue, stepping closer to him as he tries to back away. Another gunshot echoes through the courtyard- the bullet landing in my left shoulder. "Not entirely, anyways."

"What the hell are you?!" Ethan yells, firing three more shots. One in the crook of my neck, one just barely grazing my temple, one lodging itself in my hip.

My jaw tightens as I hurry forward, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him back into the center of the gazebo. "I!" I snap, grabbing him again and gripping his wrist. "I... am the mother of the girl you almost killed!"

I pull another knife out of my belt. Trailing it down his lips, I smile. "And the wife... to a woman scorned." With a single swing, the knife digs into the flesh of his palm and nails it to the gazebo.

Ethan yells in pain. As I step back, his other fist cracks across my face. I stumble back. Grabbing at my cheek, I chuckle darkly. "Oh, Ethan," I coo coyly, grabbing my sickle. "You really shouldn't have done that."

I swing and watch with what could only be described as 'glee' as the blade pierces his throat. Covered in blood, the blade glistens crimson in the pale moonlight. Ethan's choked pleas are drowned out by my laughter.

"Why?" is the only word able to leave his lips without being smothered in a gush of blood.

"Because, Mister Winters," I hum, my nose brushing against his as I watch the life in his eyes flicker. "You should never have touched my family."

BONUS ENDING:

"What is that delicious smell?"

I turn around to see Alcina bending down to peek outside. A smile crosses my lips as I gesture to the mutilated corpse with the end of my sickle. "Dinner, my love," I hum, wiping off the blade with the fabric I had used for a mask. "Sorry it's not the cleanest."

Alcina scoffs and waves me off. "It's fine, _________. I'll just go let the girls know their mother brought dinner...," she pauses, eyes flicking over the gushing body. "...who was that? He smells... familiar."

"Just Ethan Winters," I answer nonchalantly.

"...y-you..." Alcina stammers, eyebrows weaving together and lips pursing. "You... when did you-?"

"He must've been tired," I continue with a small smile. "He was not nearly as difficult a kill as I thought he'd be."

"...I'll... I'll be going now."

"Okay, love," I chirp, "I'll drag him in in a second. Love you!"

Alcina's eyes are still wide, mouth slightly agape as she steps away from the doorway. "...love you too... darling."

can you tell i had a lot of fun with this?

yeah. because i did.

i hope you enjoyed! writing lady d is so much freaking fun i kid you not.

big vampy lady make brain go brr

#lady dimitrescu x reader #lady dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x fem!reader #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #anon ask #anon #resident evil village fanfiction #resident evil village #resident evil 8 #ethan winters #manthing (derogatory)#had way too much fun with this #it was supposed to be like 500 words tops #it ended up being over 3 times that

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flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash · 3 years

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Irresistible Danger - Part 63

Synopsis: After being caught outside the compound on your own, Negan decides to punish you in the best way possible ;)

Words: 3,178

Warnings: nsfw, smut, swearing

ID Masterlist can be found HERE

Masterlist of all my fics can be found HERE

Author’s Note: Omg, I can’t believe that we’re so close to the end! There will be two more chapters after this one, and then I can mark this fic as officially complete :D

Good Riddance

You woke up bright and early the next morning, thanks to Negan pressing kisses down the back of your shoulder. You typically weren’t an early riser, but damn if he didn’t find the best ways to wake you up. When he whispered in your ear that he needed to shower before going to meet his men, but didn’t want to do so alone, the subconscious started beating the brain with a foam noodle to help it wake up, and you all but tripped over the sheets in your scramble to follow him into the bathroom.

An hour later and Negan had left for his meeting, leaving you to unpack the few belongings you’d brought up last night. Once that was done, you wandered back down to your room with the empty sack, planning to wash the dirty clothes you had left behind and then pack them to transfer upstairs as well. It felt a bit aggressive to just move every single personal item up all at once, but if you brought a sack of stuff up each day, it somehow felt less intimidating. Yes, you were very aware this made no logical sense, but no, you weren’t going to question it.

You later ran into Ben while on the way outside to hang up the clean, wet laundry, and he decided to join you since there were still a couple of hours left until dinner prep. The two of you sat side-by-side at the picnic table while you quickly brought him up to date on the drama of the evening before, to which he responded with the appropriate amount of outrage and threats to string Amber up by her perfectly painted toes. Once that was out of the way, you turned to more mundane topics, such as Ben's confusion over Simon acting cagey that morning.

“He said he had a surprise for me tonight, but he wouldn’t give any other clues, other than to keep over emphasizing how sweet it was going to be.”

You had a feeling you knew what the surprise was, though you had no idea how the hell Simon had found ingredients and a recipe for homemade fudge brownies. Not wanting to give anything away, you acted perplexed as well, though internally you had second-hand butterflies for Ben and his quirky, yet lovable, mustachioed Savior.

About half an hour later, the two of you were idly chatting while watching others with outside work duties walk back and forth completing various tasks. However, the conversation came to an abrupt halt when the front door of the Sanctuary burst open and none other than Negan stepped out. You both watched as his imposing form strode away from the building, community members dropping to their knees as he passed by. At first you thought something looked off about him, and then quickly realized that he once again didn’t have Lucille up over his shoulder. Instead, you saw what looked like some sort of pistol in a holster at his hip.

Before you could spend more than a few seconds wondering about it, you saw more figures exiting the building behind him, and one of them was Amber. You inhaled sharply at the sight of her in jeans and a t-shirt, rather than the usual fancy clothing the wives previously wore. She also had a backpack on her shoulders, and there was a husky man of average height walking beside her, also with a backpack. Two of Negan’s Saviors walked behind them, to round out the procession.

Just as you were wondering who the man was, Ben whispered, “That’s Mark, her boyfriend from before.”

It was then that you focused in on him and were able to just make out the edges of scarred tissue on the side of his face furthest from you, the remnants of a past iron punishment when Negan found out that he and Amber were still hooking up behind his back. You couldn’t tear your eyes off the scene, wanting so badly to get up and go over there to see what was going on, but you instead sat silent and waited to see what would happen.

They made it to the fences, where Negan gave the signal to the guard on duty to open the front gate. Then he turned to Amber and Mark and it looked as if he said something, though it was impossible to tell what the exchange was from this distance, and Mark replied with a nod. Then he and Amber walked past Negan and out the front gate without looking back. Negan and his Saviors stood there watching for a minute or two before he gave another signal to the guard, and the gate was shut.

He started back across the asphalt towards the front door, but happened to glance over and saw you sitting there. Making an immediate detour, he turned and walked in your direction, the two Saviors following obediently behind. When he reached the table, you gave a welcoming smile, to which his lips curved up slightly in response. He glanced behind you at the pieces of clothing hanging from a nearby line, drying in the sun.

“You know there are people whose fucking job is to do that.” The words were more statement than question.

“I know,” you replied with a quirk of your brow, daring him to say more.

Instead, he gave a stern but slightly exasperated, “Of course you fucking do.”

You swore you saw Ben fight back a grin out of the corner of your eye, and gently kicked the side of his foot with your own.

“So,” you said and gestured back towards the gate. “Did you kick them out?”

Negan’s eyes widened in mock-offense, his Mr. Broadway face back on since they were in a more public space with nearby eyes and ears to witness. After his PDA moment last night, you had a feeling he’d be playing the psychotic, quick-to-threaten-bodily-harm role around others more than usual today to make up for it, just in case anyone got the incorrect idea that he was soft or a pushover.

“I’m wounded that that’s your initial fucking assumption, doll. Contrary to the apparently popular fucking belief, I do give people choices around here. Ol’ Amber and Cheese Grater Face decided they wanted to leave all on their own. They seem to think they’ll find a better fucking community than this one. Real fucking stupid theory if you ask me, but then again, the less stupid people we’ve got here, the better. I was just giving ‘em a personal sendoff to make ‘em feel real fucking special, ya know.”

Somehow you now had a feeling that whatever Negan had said to Mark during his “personal sendoff” was some sort of threat, probably along the lines of not changing their mind or thinking they could return once they made the choice to set foot outside the gates.

You wanted to banter with him, maybe tease a bit, but remembered that this wasn’t a private moment between the two of you and so refrained. Instead, you nodded approvingly and gave a slight smirk as you said, “Good riddance.”

The two Saviors behind him were watching you closely. The one’s face was stoic and impossible to read, but the other one’s mouth had twitched slightly in approval at your comment before he caught himself and put his serious, blank expression back on. Well, at least you’d impressed one of the two. A fifty percent approval rating wasn’t a passing score, but at least it was odds you could work with, and improve. You had been considering what Negan said about you standing at his side, and one of your new goals was to learn who each of his Saviors were and make it a point to earn at least some of their respect.

Standing from the bench, you walked over to the three men, unable to resist placing a hand on Negan’s leathered forearm for a couple of seconds and giving him a warm gaze of affection before turning to the others.

“I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced,” you said in a clear, calm voice while making direct eye contact with each of them.

The one who had shown a reaction to your earlier words let slip another moment of emotion, his eyes widening a bit in surprise. He was a Black man who looked to be in his late 20s or early 30s, tall and broad with closely cropped hair and an approachable stance. He was the first to respond, giving a respectful nod of his head and introducing himself as Dennis.

Turning to the second man, you took in his appearance. He was slightly shorter and leaner than Dennis, a White man with dark red hair. The deep lines around his eyes put him at least in his late 40s, and he wore an intimidating presence and stern expression like armor. You silently stared at each other for a few moments before he gave just a one word response of his name, which was Craig.

Deciding to meet tit for tat, you stared back at him and also just said your name, nothing else. You could almost feel Dennis trying not to smile at the “me Tarzan, you Jane” interaction. After a few long moments, Craig gave the slightest nod of his head in acknowledgement. Knowing that was as much progress as you were gonna make with him today, and taking a mental note to put “win Craig over” on your to-do list, you turned away from them and back to Negan.

His expression was neutral, except for those eyes that always gave him away, if one knew how to read them. The hazel depths were brightened with flecks of gold and pride as he looked at you. Quirking one eyebrow back at him, you turned and returned to your seat on the bench, where Ben had been watching the entire exchange with wide eyes.

“I’ll bring up two trays when the dinner rush is over,” you said to Negan. “It’ll be peanut butter stir fry. Your favorite.”

While your tone was mild and unassuming to the others, you knew the jab landed. Negan never failed to make fun of some of your more strange and experimental meals, and that one was at the top of his “what the hell is this” list, even though he still ate it happily each time it was served.

Biting the inside of his cheek as if physically trying to hold back a sarcastic retort, he instead said, “Sounds fucking delicious. Later, doll. Benny boy.”

He said the last with a glance and nod in Ben’s direction, which made him jump a bit in his seat and reply, “Sir,” with a quick nod back.

After the three men had turned and walked back across the front yard and into the building, you finally let loose with the laugh you had been holding in and turned to Ben.

“Sir?!” you couldn’t help but tease.

Face flushing, Ben exclaimed, “I got nervous! Apologies that I don’t speak fluent Savior, which apparently consists of about 90% head nodding.”

You laughed even harder at that, but quickly sobered when Ben asked what you thought about Amber and Mark leaving. You couldn’t deny a sense of relief, especially after how spiteful Amber had acted last night. And while Negan was a good deterrent for her to try anything else, you still would’ve been constantly watching over your shoulder, waiting for either a metaphorical or literal knife to stab you in the back. However, with her leaving there was also the worry about if she’d go to another community and try to start an uprising against Negan.

When you voiced this fear to Ben, he reminded you that Amber couldn’t even figure out how to use a stove to boil water, let alone motivate a group of people to go up against Negan and his men. Not to mention her only ammo was that she was angry he had stopped sleeping with her, which wasn’t something one would want to advertise to other communities. Once he laid it out like that, you realized he was right, and that Amber was way more bark than she was bite. You almost felt bad for Mark, but also it was his choice to give up a safe and secure community for a spoiled and selfish woman, and you hoped he didn’t regret it in time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once the laundry had finished drying, you brought it back inside to fold while Ben headed down to the kitchen to get an early start on the prep. You joined him not long after, and set to work preparing the sauce for the stir fry, while others chopped vegetables to saute and kneaded dough for the rolls.

The first round of noodles had just been dumped into boiling pots of water when out of the corner of your eye the kitchen doors swung open. Looking up, you were surprised to see Maria standing there, looking uncertain and out of place. Gesturing for a nearby staff member to take over stirring the sauce, you walked over and gave a cheerful greeting, which seemed to ease a bit of her tension.

After a bit of hesitation, she finally voiced the reason for her visit.

“I was wondering, if it’s not too much trouble...if maybe there was an open position here for me to work? It’s okay if there’s not, you can say no, I just-”

Her ramble was cut off by you wrapping an arm around her shoulders in a quick squeeze and smiling brightly as you said, “Of course there’s a spot for you! In fact…” Trixie chose that moment to walk by, and you motioned her over. When you introduced her to Maria as the one in charge of dough prep and roll distribution, and asked if there would be an open spot on her “team” for Maria to join, Trixie puffed up with pride. She immediately took Maria under her wing, guiding her over to the ovens where other staff were unloading the first trays of perfectly baked rolls. She was chatting her ear off the entire way, instructing about the ideal flour to yeast ratio while Maria nodded and listened intently.

Surveying the kitchen, you felt a sense of pride bubble inside your chest as you watched the kitchen staff finish preparing the initial round of food and take it out to the cafeteria. Soon, the space was filled with happily dining community members, and it was all due to you and your amazing crew. Your subconscious grinned while stuffing its face with large bites of stir fry, while the brain congratulated you on a job well done as it delicately twirled noodles onto its fork.

It was almost impossible to believe, but you had a job you loved, friends you loved...and even a man you loved. Smiling to yourself, you gave a little huffed laugh under your breath at the realization that maybe it really was possible to have it all.

And who knew that all it would take was a little ol’ zombie apocalypse.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Later that evening, after the two of you had finished dinner and were pleasantly stuffed, you convinced Negan to break out the chess board. At first you had suggested playing for a chance at more outings in the woods, trying to sweeten the deal by fluttering your lashes and smiling innocently. He had huffed in response, obviously seeing right through the fake demure act.

“Doll, I’ll take you on as many fucking outings as you want, so long as you don’t ever sneak out on your own again. Do I make myself fucking clear?”

His serious growl was ruined by you wrapping a hand around the back of his neck and pulling his mouth down so that you could give him one hell of a thank you kiss. You just hoped he realized that you were going to reference this moment many, many times in the future, as there was a lot of woods left to explore.

With that out of the way, the stakes lowered but didn’t disappear. Since both of you were too competitive to play a game with no rewards system in place, you came up with an entirely different, and more risqué, set of rules.

Over an hour later and you had both won two rounds, which resulted in Negan being shirtless and bootless, while you found yourself missing a bra and pants. You had taunted him for removing only his boots after losing the first game, while he argued that they counted as an item of clothing. Huffing in disappointment, you turned the tables and got revenge when you lost the next game and decided to take your bra off under your shirt.

It had been a smart choice, Negan watching with an expression of both desire and confusion as you deftly pulled the garment out one of the sleeves of your t-shirt. He had grumbled something under his breath about “women” and “dark magic” and replaced his pieces to start the game over, though he found it increasingly difficult not to stare at the hardened nipples now obviously poking through your shirt. He had upped the ante when losing that next game made him take off his shirt, rewarding you with a wonderful view. Your second loss ended in the removal of your pants, and just to further rub in the earlier jab you also took off your shoes at the same time. This earned you a scowl that quickly faded when he realized all that was left between your body and his gaze was a pair of white panties and thin t-shirt.

The fifth round concluded with another win from Negan, your brain murmuring in agitation and blaming its lack of concentration on the subconscious, who kept making obscene remarks about Negan’s bare torso and all the things it wanted to do to him.

You pulled the shirt up over your head and swirled it around your finger playfully before slinging it across the room. His eyes zeroed in on your bare breasts, watching with rapt attention as they jiggled with your arm movements, a muscle ticking in his jaw at the sight. Next thing you knew, he had rounded the table and lifted you up over his shoulder. When your back hit the mattress seconds later, you couldn’t help but laugh in delight while wrapping your legs around his waist.

“What’s so fucking funny, doll?” he murmured into the valley between the breasts he had been so avidly admiring.

“I’m just happy,” you sighed, breaking off into a moan when his lips found your nipple. “Very happy.”

Much later, when the two of you had settled into the mattress to sleep, satisfied with limbs entwined, you thought back over the evening and couldn’t help a little chuckle as you drifted off into unconsciousness.

Who would've guessed that an evening of Negan, strip chess, and utter happiness would go together so well.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#negan #irresistible danger #negan x you #negan fanfics #negan x reader #ash writes #twd #the walking dead #negan x oc #slow burn #negan fanfiction #negan fanfic #fanfiction #fanfics #jdm #jeffrey dean morgan #twd negan

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theprocrastinatingredkitty · 3 years

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If you’ve been reading Sweetener Series since May 2020, I’ll just let you know I’m keeping tabs on which events in my fics happened way before PotN Season 2 started in July 2020

1) Seungho gives Na-Kyum sweet snacks everyday when he finds out that Na-Kyum likes sweets (Sweetener)

2) Seungho got angry at Deok-Jae for putting a fishbone in Na-Kyum’s meal; punishes him and the entire male staff on the first try (Unbridled Bride)

3) Na-Kyum stops Seungho from beating Deok-Jae up, and gets sedated; Seungho kills Deok-Jae after seeing him attacking Na-Kyum; Na-Kyum gets hurt on the neck for being choked (Unbridled Bride)

4) Seungho eats Na-Kyum out; Na-Kyum’s actually really kinky and wants to be tied up and filled with Seungho’s D even in sleep (The Warbler’s Honeysuckle)

5) the kidnapping happened (albeit through different circumstances in canon) (Unbridled Bride)

6) Seungho doing the aftercare for both of them when Na-Kyum’s asleep (Warmth of the Aftermath)

7) Seungho bathes Na-Kyum on a regular basis; carries him all the time when they’re done (Warmth of the Aftermath)

8) Min expresses desire to take Na-Kyum before Nameless kills Na-Kyum off (Unbridled Bride)

9) Jihwa had a mental breakdown (The Tainted Lamb)

10) Nameless hauled Jihwa over the shoulder after making a ruckus in public (The Tainted Lamb)

11) Na-Kyum was found near the end of the village, passed out (Unbridled Bride)

As of Chapter 64 in the manhwa:

12) The Yoon servants and Seungho turned the village upside-down just to find the missing Na-Kyum (Unbridled Bride)

13) The villagers all think that Seungho had gotten a female bride-to-be (Unbridled Bride)

14) The kisaeng who raised Na-Kyum appears and gets to know the relationship between Seungho and Na-Kyum (The Wildflower’s Thorn)

15) Na-Kyum’s kinky side gets unleashed the longer he’s with Seungho (Warmth of the Aftermath).

16) The tailor accidentally blabs to Min that Seungho has chosen a bride (The Worshipped Shrine) (interchanged in the manhwa as of c64 with Heena)

As of Chapter 65 in the manhwa:

17) Seungho and Na-Kyum have sex outside while standing up as they make their way to the bathroom (Sweetener: Tangy)

18) After the kidnapping, Seungho has made sure the doors to his room have guards to keep Na-Kyum safe (The Tainted Lamb) (interchanged with c65 so Na-Kyum couldn’t escape)

As of Chapter 66 in the manhwa:

19) Min goes to Seungho’s residence after the kidnapping, without any other noble with him and downplays Na-Kyum’s ‘disappearance’ and possible death as trivial (The Tainted Lamb)

As of Chapter 67 in the manhwa:

20) Seungho hides Na-Kyum behind the folding screen while Min is present in the room to lure Min to his death (interchanged with the manhwa where Min and Jihwa hide behind the folding screen to avoid the rampaging Seungho) (The Tainted Lamb)

21) Jihwa, in fear for his life after being spared by Seungho, but at the cost of his sanity and a face beaten up by Nameless, flees to Hanyang to seek Lord Song for help (An Innocent’s Duality)

As of Chapter 68 in the manhwa:

22) Seungho proclaims adoration and complete worship of Na-Kyum; asks him to be his family (Sweetener: Tangy)

As of c70 in the manhwa:

23) Seungho asks Na-Kyum to have a bath with him and Na-Kyum accepts; they wash each other thoroughly. They take baths together since then. (Warmth of the Aftermath)

As of c71 in the manhwa:

24) Seungho teases Na-Kyum about his smooth legs while in the bathroom; reveres Na-Kyum through body worship in the bedroom afterwards and reaffirms his confession through words and lovemaking (The Worshipped Shrine)

25) Seungho takes sheer pleasure and relishes in eating Na-Kyum out (Winter Heat; The Warbler’s Honeysuckle)

As of c72 in the manhwa:

26) Seungho asks Na-Kyum to call his name in the middle of worshipping his body; confesses to Na-Kyum that he loves him in a roundabout way the morning after (The Worshipped Shrine)

As of c73 in the manhwa:

27) Seungho fulfills Na-Kyum’s painting of Na-Kyum, blindfolded, with his hands tied up and his phallus wrapped up with the sash from his robe (Winter Heat)

As of c74 in the manhwa:

28) Seungho dines with Na-Kyum and starts showering him with sweets (Warmth of the Aftermath)

29) Seungho comes to Na-Kyum’s quarters at dawn just to check in on him every day (The Warbler’s Honeysuckle)

30) Seungho showers Na-Kyum with new clothes and brings him to the talkative tailor all the time (The Worshipped Shrine; The Wildflower’s Thorn)

As of c75 in the manhwa:

31) Seungho makes no attempt at putting In-Hun in any government post, but decides to halt all chances of him getting into any job despite passing the state exam (The Wildflower’s Thorn)

As of c76 in the manhwa (Season 2 finale):

32) Seungho gives Na-Kyum a lacquered box for his paints as a present (The Worshipped Shrine); gives Na-Kyum a foreign item (the mittens) from a merchant, and expands his horizon in acquiring Western items from a merchant (the matches, slingshots, pistols, rubber) (The Wildflower’s Thorn)

Imma keep updating this as the story progresses in canon XD

#potn fic #painter of the night fic #yahwacheop fic #seungho x nakyum #ao3 fic #potn #yahwacheop #painter of the night #sweetener series

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raindancer2004 · 3 years

Text

Unloved and Unwanted?

Word Count: 3,628 Felix x reader Part Three - Final Part Warnings: Fluff Angst

The following day Y/N goes to the carnival with Felix, Demetri and Heidi; the twins tagging along “We like a good Carnival and as it’s overcast outside so it’s perfect for us” Jane says smiling taking Y/N’s hand in hers as they all make their way out of the castle. “What do you like about Carnivals Y/N?” Alec asks falling in step with his sister and Y/N “The rides are cool especially the Haunted House. Another thing I like is Candy Floss, it’s really sweet but also really nice” She replies smiling, Felix listened paying attention to Y/N’s response. “What about you guys, what do you like about Carnivals?” “I like the Rollercoasters” Alec replied “I like the Waltzer ride and it’s funny to see the humans looking sick afterwards” Jane replies smiling.

Once at the Carnival Felix and Demetri headed straight for the ‘Shooting Gallery’ booth “This is where the competition begins Y/N” Heidi says as they follow them. Felix hits eight of the nine ‘targets’ whereas Demetri hits all nine ‘targets’ winning him a prize; Demetri chooses a ‘Minion’ toy dressed in a Maid’s outfit and hands it to Heidi “Another one for your collection cara” He says smiling “Thank you Demetri” She responds taking the toy. Next they head to the ‘Water Pistol’ booth and again Demetri knocks down more ‘targets’ than Felix “You’re making me look bad D” Felix says to Demetri as he chooses a stuffed Dog toy “Can’t help that Fe” Demetri replies handing the toy to Jane “The next prize is for you Y/N” Demetri points to her, giving her a playful smirk and a wink; Felix growls “Oh behave Fe” Demetri says tapping his friend’s chest. “Let’s go on some rides, you two can resume your competition later” Jane says as she gently pulls Y/N towards the Waltzer; Jane bursts into a fit of giggles when she notices the humans looking queasy once the ride is over “You’re mean” Y/N says smiling to Jane “I know” She smiles back. Felix smiles watching his mate get along with the Terror Twins.

They all go on a few more rides before Felix notices a ‘Test your strength’ booth “Watch me kick your ass at this one” Felix says to Demetri “We’ll see Mr I’m the World’s Strongest Vampire” Demetri says smirking; Y/N chokes back a laugh. Demetri goes first “I’ll show you how it’s done” He wins and true to his word he gives Y/N a stuffed Tiger “For you cara” He smiles at her and winks at Felix smirking “Thank you Demetri” “You’re such a wind-up” Heidi says shaking her head at Demetri.

Not to be outdone Felix steps up next and beats Demetri’s strength score winning a bigger toy, he picks out a white and grey bear “This is for you Y/N” He says softly handing her the toy “Th-Thank you Felix” Y/N gave him a smile “Show off” Demetri snorts “Just showing my strength can be used for other things than just my job” Felix says smiling at Y/N “You going to have a go Alec?” Heidi asked “Er no! Especially as Felix has just set a new high score” Alec replied “Wuss” Felix coughed out causing the others to laugh.

Next Felix decided he was going to the ‘Hit-The-Bell’ booth so he could show off his prowess further to Y/N. “Won’t he break it? You know because he’s…so strong?” Y/N asked “Not if he’s careful and reigns it in a bit” Heidi answers. Felix couldn’t help laughing at the human man in front of him when he took his go and the ball only made it half up to the bell “Alec would you like to go before me, surely you can do better than that” Felix said low to Alec, nodding in the human’s direction “Get fucked!” Alec said “Oi! Language. There are kids about” Heidi scolded lightly; Alec didn’t answer, he just glared at her. Felix took his go and of course hit the bell with ease winning another prize; he chose a Penguin in ski clothes and handed it to Y/N “For me?” She asked “Yes…Y/N” He replied softly “Thank you.” Demetri took his turn next and won a prize too; he selected a ‘Minion’ in a Hawaiian outfit “Another for your collection cara” He handed it to Heidi “Are you two together?” Y/N asked “Ha…no. We’re just friends. I have a mate, her name is Corin” Heidi replies and Y/N nods. “I don’t have a mate of my own to spoil so I tend to help Heidi with her Minion collection” Demetri added “That’s really nice of you Demetri” Y/N says smiling at him. “’Nice’ is my middle name Darling” He smiled and winked at Y/N “Sure it’s not ‘flirt’?” Alec asked “Oh shut it you” Demetri replied.

“Let’s go to the Haunted House next for Y/N” Alec says and they make their way over to the ride. On the way Alec notices the ‘Coconut Shy’ booth “Do you mind if we make a quick stop?” He asked Y/N “Not at all. Good luck” She replied as she and Jane followed Alec “Watch her D. I’ll be back in a minute” Felix said and then walked away before Demetri could respond. A few minutes later Felix returned and walked up beside Y/N “Here I bought you a bag of Candy Floss. I wasn’t sure what one you’d prefer so I got you a mixed bag of blue and pink” Y/N turned to Felix and gave him a small smile “Thank you Felix. You didn’t have to” “I know Y/N, but I wanted to” He replied smiling “Well done Fe” Demetri said to Felix too low for Y/N to hear. Alec knocked over all the coconuts and won a prize, he chose a Tamagotchi “Here you are sister. I know your last one broke” Alec said handing the retro toy to Jane “Thank you Alec” She hugged her brother.

They waited in line for the Haunted House and Y/N ate some Candy Floss “Did any of you want to try it?” She asked after she noticed them eyeing the bag “It smells weird” Jane said wrinkling her nose, but took a small handful anyway “Urgh! It’s so sweet but the texture…oh my god” Jane said clearly displeased “How can you eat that? It’s revolting” Alec added; Y/N laughed “It’s nice…but in small doses” “May I try some Y/N?” Felix asked “Oh yeah, course. You did buy it after all” Y/N could tell by his facial expression that Felix didn’t like it either. Demetri and Heidi both politely declined after seeing their friend’s reactions. When it was their turn to get seated; Demetri and Heidi quickly sat together knowing the twins would want to sit together, this left Felix to sit beside Y/N “Are you ok if I sit here or would you rather sit next to someone else?” Felix asked turning his head in his friend’s direction “I-it’s ok, you can sit there” She replied quietly “But you have to hold one of the toys for me” “Of course little one” Felix smiled and took the bear from her.

They arrived back at the castle to find Afton hanging around near reception, despite the fact Gianna had finished for the day. “Been on a group outing I see. Guess that means you still need Demetri and Co to babysit you when you’re around your mate?” Afton asks in a teasing tone; “Get lost” Felix growls and Demetri moves Y/N so she is standing behind him, safe just in case a fight breaks out. “I’m only asking because…well…you couldn’t be that stupid to think that a pathetic little human wouldn’t be scared of the big bad executioner?” Afton continued to tease “Don’t start something you can’t finish” Alec warned as Felix growled again “What’s he going to do about it?” Afton asked nodding in Felix’s direction “He can’t risk scaring her any further” Afton adds smirking and taking a step in Y/N’s direction; before Afton knew what was happening Felix flashed forward and pulled one of his arms off then used it to smack him round the back of the head causing him to fall flat on his face, Y/N couldn’t help laughing at the sight, the sound was music to Felix’s ears. Demetri looked over his shoulder at her “What?” She asked innocently “It was funny. Felix using the guy’s own arm against him” She continues to laugh; the guards watching her, a little surprised Felix’s actions hadn’t scared her. “Hey Felix” Y/N called stepping out from behind Demetri “What are you going to do with his arm now?” “I’m not sure. I’m open to ideas” He had a wicked grin on his face as he looked down at her “Oooh I have an idea, but I can’t say whilst he’s listening” Y/N replied looking over her shoulder at Afton. “Let’s all go back to my room and hear your idea and I’m pretty sure Jane has a few ideas too, judging by the look on her face” Felix says and Jane nods “I have many ideas for both arms” She says smiling and swiftly removed Afton’s other arm. They left Afton on the floor and made their way to Felix’s room.

“What is your idea little one?” Felix asks Y/N, she blushes a little at the nickname “Well I thought we could glue on some fake nails and paint them so they’re really girly…” Y/n gets cut off by Heidi “Fab idea Y/N, fake nails last for weeks” “I like her idea. It’s the gift that keeps on giving too” Demetri smirks, Y/N looks at him confused “We can tease him about the nails for ages afterwards” Demetri explains, Y/N nods in understanding “I think we should definitely go with Y/N’s idea” Felix says smiling at her “I’ll go get my nail polishes if you grab the fake nails Y/N” Jane says excitedly. By the time Y/N and Heidi are finished, Afton’s right hand is sporting fake nails; all of which are painted a different colour and there is a gold love heart sticker applied to his ring finger. “That looks…wow…that’s so…” “Girly” Y/N finishes for Felix; who just nods smiling at her “Bless them. They’re bonding over pranking Afton” Alec says low to Demetri “As long as they are bonding over something, that’s all that matters” He replies.

Meanwhile, Jane had glued fake nails to Afton’s left hand and painted them ‘Barbie pink’ and painted a small picture of a dick onto the thumb, adding unicorn stickers to the index and ring fingers. “What do you think?” Jane asked smirking “Wow! That’s...different” Demetri said trying to hold back a laugh and failing “I think he’ll hate us more after this” Alec added. “You know what you should do when you return his arms…put the left one on the right side and vice versa” Y/N said with a mischievous glint in her eye “Now that sounds like a plan little one” Felix said grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Demetri volunteered to return Afton’s arms to him and Felix asked Alec to go with him and film Afton’s arms being reattached the wrong way round. Heidi and Jane left to do their own thing leaving Felix and Y/N alone together in his room “I’ll go too, you must have other things to do” Y/N said as she got up from the sofa “NO” His reply was louder than he planned “I mean…you don’t have to go. I have nothing else planned. I’d like it if you stayed...for a bit” He said softly “O-ok I’ll stay” She replied sitting back down. They spent some time getting to know one another; Felix finding out Y/N’s favourite colour, favourite animal, her hobbies, likes and dislikes. Y/N found out the same information about Felix. By the end of the evening Y/N was starting to feel at ease around him, although she wouldn’t admit it to anyone just yet.

The following afternoon Demetri, Alec and Jane left for a mission; they said their goodbyes to Y/N and Felix separately. That evening after dinner Y/N was on her way to Felix’s room when she heard voices “I take it Felix won’t be joining ‘boys’ night tonight, opting to spend time with Y/N” Santiago said to Josh “Actually Felix is joining ‘boys’ night, guess he had enough of the human yesterday; I mean they did spend the whole day together and most of the evening” Josh replied. Y/N felt her heart break a little hearing that and decided to spend the night alone; something she had gotten very used to. She cried her to sleep thinking ‘he’s changed his mind about wanting me…after spending just one day together. There must be something wrong with me…something that makes me...unlovable.’ Y/N stayed in her room the next few days only seeing Gianna when she bought her meals to her room. Felix was on guard duty and covering other duties for his friends whilst they were away.

Demetri, Jane and Alec returned to the castle; Jane going straight to see Y/N “Hi Y/N we’re back” She said entering Y/N’s room, noticing the stuffed toys Felix had won her were no longer on her bed “Hi Jane. Everything go ok?” Y/N replied “The mission went well, the problem was dealt with swiftly. How are you and Felix getting on?” Jane responded “Er…we’re not. I haven’t seen him since the Carnival. It would appear he has changed his mind about me….” “I’ll kill him” Jane growled cutting her off “No need for that Jane. He is allowed to change his mind. I’d like to be on my own...if you don’t mind” Y/N said not looking at Jane “Of course sweetie. I’ll see you later” Jane made her way to the door and unknown to Y/N Jane heard her mumble “It’s my own fault…I should never have thought someone like him would want someone like me” Y/N had her back to Jane so she didn’t see the tears that had started to fall.

“I’ll kill him!” Jane growled loudly as she slammed Demetri’s door shut behind her “Dare I ask who?” Demetri asked “That stupid idiot friend of yours. That’s who” She replied “Why? What’s he done now?” Demetri was curious “He has rejected Y/N whilst we’ve been away…” “WHAT?!” Demetri yelled “Are you serious? After everything she’s been through? After everything we did to help him?” Jane nods in response “I’m going to kill him!” Demetri growled, storming from his room to find Felix in the training room, Jane hot on his heels. He flashed up behind Felix catching him off guard and threw him into the wall; Jane used her gift to keep Felix subdued. Demetri flashed over to him grabbing him by the neck and squeezing so hard that cracks started to appear; he growled into his friend’s face “You don’t deserve her!” He shoved him away, Felix hitting the wall again “He’s all yours” He said to Jane as passed her on his way out of the room.

Demetri ran to Y/N’s room to check on her as he had become fond of her; he entered her room to find her lying on her bed crying, he closed the door behind him and made his way to her, pulling her gently into his arms “I’m so sorry cara” He said low in her ear “D-don’t be…I-it’s not y-your fault” She sobbed “It’s mine” “And how did you work that one out?” Demetri asked “T-there’s some-something wrong…with me. I-I’m unlovable” She was sobbing harder now and he held her closer “You are not unlovable Y/N. You just need to find the right person” He said softly “Ha…That’s a joke right? I mean I’m mated to a vampire…a vampire that doesn’t want me. Just bite me and lock me away” “Y/N I will do no such thing. If that idiot doesn’t want you…I’ll speak to the masters and ask if they’ll let you leave. Let you live out your life away from here” He replied “Thank you Dem…you’re a good friend”

Back in the training room “What’s going on? What’s he done now” Santiago asked “He’s rejected Y/N whilst we’ve been away…” “No he hasn’t or at least not that I’m aware of” Santiago cut her off “Then why does she think she’s been rejected? Why is she crying in her room?” Jane asked forgetting about Felix for moment “S-she th-thinks I d-don’t w-want her?” Felix asks, the cracks on his face and neck making it hard to talk “Yes. You idiot. You haven’t seen her since the carnival and that was five days ago” Jane replies glaring at him “You prat” Santiago says shaking his head “You better go set things straight” Felix nods and flashes to Y/N’s room.

He walks in to see Y/N lying in his best friend’s arms “What the hell’s going on?” Felix shouts “I’m comforting my friend after her stupid mate rejected her” Demetri shoots back “I haven’t rejected her” “Don’t lie Felix. I heard your friend say that you had had enough of the human after spending one day with her” She said low “That is not true...honestly little one. I have been working, covering Demetri and Alec’s shifts too in their absence” “B-But you’ve not come to see me” “I didn’t know if I’d be welcome or if you’d want to spend time with me without Heidi or Demetri around” He replied “If you’d bothered to come to my room and talk to me you’d know whether you’d be welcome. We spent time alone together after the Carnival did we not?” “Yes, but…” “But what Felix? I came to your room…well I was on my way there until I heard your friend and…” She trailed off “I’m going to leave you both to talk” Demetri said as he left the room “Fix this” He mouthed to Felix.

Felix made his way over to the bed and sat down “I’m sorry. This is new to me…” “It’s new for me too Felix” Y/N says “I know…it’ just after everything that happened I didn’t want to scare you away…but it seems I’ve pushed you away instead...which is rather unfortunate as I have planned something for you…for us…for tomorrow night, knowing that Demetri would cover for me” “You’ve planned a surprise…for me?” “Yes…little one. Don’t sound so surprised and I figured with Demetri being back in the castle you’d feel more comfortable being alone with me, knowing he was around if you needed him. I know you’re more comfortable with him than me” “There’s a reason for that Felix” “I know. So how about we put the misunderstanding aside and continue getting to know one another?” “O-ok, I’d like that” She replied quietly and he smiled at her “Wh-where are the stuffed animals I gave you? Did you throw them out? Felix sounded a little hurt “No. I-I shut them away in the closet” She replied quietly. “I’ll let you sleep, I have a few things to finish sorting out for tomorrow and I need to speak to Demetri. I’ll come by about six o’clock tomorrow evening, wear something nice but make sure you’ll be warm too” “Ok, I will. Goodnight Felix” “Goodnight little one”

Felix left Y/N’s room and went straight to Demetri’s and explained everything to him “You Felix are a bloody idiot, romantic but still...an idiot. For what it’s worth I’m sorry for how I reacted” “Don’t apologise D, you were just defending Y/N and I get that, you’re friends after all” Felix replied “I’ll always defend her and kick your ass if needed” Demetri replied smiling.

Felix had planned a sunset picnic on the castle roof for him and Y/N; he laid out two large blankets on the floor and placed the small hamper to one side. He then placed some cushions down and another two blankets folded neatly beside them. He then went to collect Y/N for their first date.

“Y/N you ready?” “Yes. I am” She replied “Wow...Y/N” Felix was left breathless at the sight of his mate; she was wearing black skinny jeans and a fitted blue jumper, the outfit hugging her curves in all the right places “Thank you” She blushed taking her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched him eye from head to toe and back again. He gently took her warm hand in his cold one and led up to the castle roof.

Looking around at the rooftop she spotted the blankets, cushions and the hamper “Y-you did all this for…for me?” She asked feeling tears build behind her eyes “Yes” He whispered into her ear “I thought we could have a picnic whilst watching the sunset” “Oh Fe, it’s perfect. Thank you” She replied smiling. He led to the blanket and reaching into the hamper he pulled out a single red rose “For you” He smiled handing it to her. He reached back inside the hamper and pulled out two glasses, a bottle of prosecco for Y/N and flask of blood for himself. They talked as they watched the sunset and as the evening went on Felix noticed Y/N had moved closer to him so he decided to take a leaf out of Demetri’s book and wrapped an arm around her gently and pulled her into his side; he felt her relax and snuggle into him as he covered them both with blankets. After a while he noticed Y/N’s breathing had evened out and that she had fallen asleep in his arms “Goodnight little one. I love you” Felix whispers and kisses her hair holding her a little closer finally happy to have his mate in his arms, where she belongs.

#felix volturi #demetri volturi #jane volturi #alec volturi #aro volturi #marcus volturi #caius volturi #heidi volturi #volturi

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saintheartwing · 3 years

Text

Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2: Rage of the Forgotten Ones

Author's Note:

Regrettably, this time, I'm not accepting OCs for the story. Though you may spy a cameo here and there for certain...persons. ;)

Anyhow, on with the tale! And feel free to tell me what you like and dislike about it. :D

BREAKING DAWN, PART TWO RAGE OF THE FORGOTTEN ONES

If you're reading this, then again...thanks. I'm glad somebody bothered to check out my blog. I'm surprised you're checking it now, though. Shouldn't you be more concerned with the fact that hundreds of planet Earths are floating around in the sky above, defying all physics? Even the average ignorant idiot can tell: something is seriously wrong.

And I know you want to know how this happened. Maybe you heard about me. Remembered I was the "crazy kid" for a long time, that I had all of these "insane" theories about aliens and the supernatural, and now that this is happening, well, you turn to me for answers. I've got answers, alright...I've got answers.

It all ties back...to him. To an alien named Zim.

His species is called the Irken race. They're like reptile-esque bugs. Their bodies are organic shells, their REAL selves are attached to their backs in robotic backpacks called "PAKS'. They're generally proud, vain, narcissistic, selfish, dangerous, in a word...evil. I knew from the moment Zim entered my classroom in his pathetic disguise that fooled everyone but me that he was bad news, I swore to expose him.

But something happened over the years. Zim and I began to...

Well...

...I can't call it friendship. I really can't. It's like...we were rivals. And we always wanted to stay that way. To outdo each other. It was a "same time next week" kind of deal we had: he'd try to make some world-enslaving or world-destroying plot...I'd stop him. It was a great game we played. And I think we began to develop...well...a kind of respect...a kind of trust. We kinda mellowed, in a sense. Heck, we even applied to the same colleges. I guess that my life fell into a rhythm I intended to ride for the rest of my life.

...but before all that happened, there was...a period that I think back on with shame. It was kind of like the turning point. When we looked back on what we did, something changed in us. I think we kinda were forced to change.

See...I wasn't the only one who knew Zim was an alien. My sister knew, but she didn't really care much. Zim had another Irken living at his home, named Skoodge, but Skoodge wasn't really too much of a threat. He wasn't actually too bad, as far as Irkens went. But I did tell my classmate Gretchen about Zim, and I think she wanted to believe me.

And then there was Nick.

Nice kid from down south. Slightly annoying accent. Little bit dumb. Okay, maybe more than a little bit.

But friendly. Helpful. And Zim had experimented on him before. Made him REAAAALLY happy with this strange device he stuck in his head. Twice. I asked him for help, knowing he knew the truth.

I TRIED to train him. I really did. I tried to help him get smart and savvy the way I was. We planned...we calculated...a few missions went by, we did well.

He wasn't my friend, but...but he was a good comrade. Yes...a comrade. And that day, on March 23rd, six years ago...Zim did the worst thing he'd ever done.

And he did it to Nick.

...I own that. Because he was my soldier. My comrade.

...my fault.

I don't know if he...remembers it all. I kept wondering "Was he afraid? Was he begging for me to save him in his head? Was he crying all the while as Zim..."

Now I know how he felt. I'm feeling that way too. Because someone showed up at our front door. They forced a very dangerous, very powerful ring on me. A ring that can turn the imagination into reality. Chosen for me because I can overcome great fear.

And yet...

All I want to do now...

Is SCREAM.

At first...it was a spiritual experience. Exhilarating. Almost transcendental. He felt invincible. He felt...like he could face anything. Anyone. Dib Membrane wasn't afraid of anything or anyone, and he knew, in that first few moments he KNEW he could have taken on the entire world and WON. For those first few moments...the ring upon his finger showed him a world just in front of his fingertips, a world of potential.

And then...then it was not HIS will that controlled the power. It felt like he was being tugged around by slimy strings, his flesh was not his own...he was lost in his own spirit...and he knew what was at fault.

"Get this thing OFF me!" Dib yelled out, yanking on the white ring on his finger as best he could, gasping as the Irken with the golden eyes looked on in pitiless amusement. Two sets of antennae, one teal, one black slightly raised in amusement with gloved hands and a blue vest across his chest, with dark blue pants and boots of black...black to match the gloves...black to match his heart. "GET IT OFF!"

"It's no use." The Irken with the golden eyes said, waving his hand in the air. "I was the first one to touch the Exemplar Ring you wear on your hand. It might be powered by your Will, it might think you're using it, but really...it's MY will that matters now. It might as well be on my hand. And you're going to do everything I tell you to do. You won't have a choice." The Irken said.

Dib's sister bellowed angrily, punching the ground below and seething, frothing at the mouth. Unlike Dib, who was dressed in a fine outfit of black and green, she was all red and black, with a form that looked vaguely machine-like in its design, a fury dripping off her facial features as the Irken snapped his fingers and she panted slightly, slowly calming down.

"You...fix us...NOW." Dib snarled angrily, summoning up all his willpower, leveling the ring on his finger squarely at the Irken. "You FREAK."

"The NAME...is Zerinim Two Jookiba." The Irken with two sets of antenneas said, putting one gloved hand on his chest before growling fervently, a burning red fiery blaze of energy forming in his hands, sizzling like he was holding a miniature sun in his palms. "But don't call me "Two" like my closest loved ones do. Call me...MASTER."

He immediately launched the wave of energy squarely at Dib and Gaz, knocking them to the ground, Gaz taking a blow to the head, unconsciousness settling in as Dib felt the thing's grip on him relaxing, and now the many sledgehammers he kept imagining should be beating into this thing actually manifested in a bright green glow, energy constructs that struck at Two over and over as Dib kept the manifestation up, intent on one thing and one thing alone...

MAKING...HIM...PAY.

"I'm gonna make you sorry you ever came to my planet!" Dib yelled out, stepping closer and closer to Two as the Irken held his gloved hands forth, a sonic blast of red construct energy knocking Dib back as Two snapped his fingers, a surge of power rising from his form as a bow popped into his gloved hands. Dib jumped back up, quickly firing off blasts of energy from his ring like a cowboy desperately firing his pistols at an oncoming posse, but Two calmly stood still, the blasts missing him as he notched an arrow of burning red.

It launched through the air, impaling Dib through his left side and he screeched in pain, falling to the ground as his grip on his body faded, and he swam in and out of consciousness, struggling to stay awake, Two chuckling coldly as he approached the human and his sister.

"Ahhhhh, I NEEDED that. I'm in a such good mood right now...now you go home and power down and get some rest. Dream peacefully...it'll be the last happy sleep you ever have, I'm afraid." The Irken said, kneeling by Dib and lifting his head with one claw. It wasn't a mocking tone...it just said it. A statement of fact. Nothing personal. "You've got a busy day tomorrow, after all." He added with a slight smile, clapping his hands as Dib and Gaz found themselves returning to their normal clothes, getting back up and returning inside the house of their own accord, the will of their master, the being named Two, echoing in their minds...

Mercifully, Dib could feel his wounds healing. But this was cold comfort. All Dib could think about...was what this thing was going to do the world he loved.

...

...as Dib rested in his bed, snuggling up beneath the covers, shivering slightly, he grit his teeth and grounded them together. He was mad. He was furious. He couldn't even fall asleep without feeling like that...that thingwith the double set of antennas was watching him. It had loosed it's control over them...just barely. It was allowing them to rest, but that was cold comfort considering Dib knew the thing would be up to no good.

What would it do to his world? What would it make himdo to his world? What would it make him do to the people he loved?

Simply trying to imagine talking to his father or anybody else about what had happened was giving him a headache...no doubt another part of that being, "Two", inflicting his will on him. What would happen if he actually tried to tell his father what had occurred, get him to simply analyze the ring that he was unable to take off? Would it be some "Battle Royale" kind of deal? Would a collar manifest around his neck and take his head off?

Gaz. What was Gaz thinking, Dib wondered as his eyelids slowly beginning to drop, genuine sleep mercifully setting in. Was she scared? Was she indignant about being used? Or was she just...angry?

Well, as it turned out, Gaz was none of those things. She had long since fallen deep asleep to dream of a world that shaped and shifted by her will, brought to life by a giant red pen, floating upon a rubber piggy and laughed giddily at the new world she was making. She liked seeing things in red...yes, yes, she wanted to paint everything in red...

She knew this power would help her do it. She was aware it was bringing out her most violent desires and attitudes. But she knew she could channel it. She just had to wait for her chance.

She could take control of this. She could prove stronger than the thing on her finger.

"That idiot thinks he has me. But I've beaten worse things before." Her dream-self said as she raised a chainsaw high, cutting through a swath of imaginary Twos. "AND YOU'LL FALL, JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM!"

...

..."Oh great. Two is here. Help me put my clothes back on."

"Why did you ask me to bring HER along? I could understand Lilo, but…"

"I want her to understand what we're…willing to do to break her. Lilo, do you know HOW the Minor Arcana was formed? How the…application process is undertaken?"

"..."

"Well, in exchange for very, VERY large amounts of power and the ability to remain eternally young…you've got to kill family. Close family. One member, to be precise."

"Samael approached me and told me that if I wanted into the Minor Arcana…if I wanted the ability to be immune to control and to control reality, I'd have to kill a family member."

"No, please tell me you didn't…didn't kill them…Kila, Zim, you…you didn't?"

"No, of course I couldn't, I…I love my parents. I…I chose Green, my sister from the past."

"If Kila and Zim ARE your parents, the ones I know so well, then they would have been horrified at the idea of you working for the person who made them suffer so much! They wouldn't have raised you to be so cruel!"

"They didn't raise me to be cruel, but we never could stay in one place long…do you know how some kids move around city after city, state after state, never really making friends, or worse, constantly leaving the friends they DO have? For me…it was TEN TIMES WORSE. I had to move from world to world and whenever we got REMOTELY settled into the hotel or other temporarily dwelling, we had to leave! Working for Samael meant he wouldn't hunt my parents anymore and…It's not like I know Green. She's my sister and I understand mentally that the whole thing is…sad."

"..."

"I OUGHT to know her. I should have spent my childhood with my big sister being there, we should have blown stuff up in the backyard together or played gorka-ball or "Toss the GIR"…we should have been siblings but…but we weren't. Aren't. It IS sad, but…I just don't really know her, and so I don't have many qualms about killing her, though MIYU had NO qualms in killing MALIK! And to get to her mother, she killed her dad too!"

"Azazel has yet to kill Nick, his dear, beloved Grandfather. So perhaps he'll kill his originator instead, he was so close to Nick, In his reality, his "Pee-Paw" was so PROUD of him…he even gave him his-"

"..."

"As for Frequency, lobotomizing Sari, whom he cared for greatly, was his act. Samael was happy to allow him to do the act, it allowed Miyu to replace Sari, who had refused to kill her parents and had taken Samael's gift of immortality. Such a pity…she would have gained Miyu's incomparable battle skills but instead she lost most of her brain."

"And now let us come to the point. You are not going to be rescued. You are going to be tortured here by us, one at a time, and when TWO finishes with you, I…will begin."

"Question: Who shall start?"

"I'll be the first...my power will be good for torturing you-"

With that, Dib awoke from the strange dream. It had felt real. FAR too real. And that person...Two. It had definitely been him. What was going on? Were Two's memories of the past somehow crisscrossing with his slave's head? Possible, he supposed. The Irken could control him from his head, but that meant his mind was open, at least when asleep, to Dib's own...

How strange...

"How odd..." Dib mumbled as he scratched his head, sweeping his legs out of his bed and onto the floor as he made his way to his bureau to get his usual attire out. Dark jacket? Check. Blue t-shirt with a "Meh" face on it? Check. Dark pants? Also check. Glasses...shoes...belt for said pants...check, check, check-

"...is the ring still on my finger?" Dib mumbled, looking down at his hand.

Check.

"...crap." He muttered. "You JERK." He growled, turning his head to look out the window at a cheerily grinning Two, who pushed the window open, letting in the sunshine to the dark blue walls of Dib's cluttered-up bedroom.

"Nice place, it really is...except for the smell." Two admitted as he looked around the bedroom. Indeed, over the years Dib had gotten slightly more advanced equipment from his father for birthday presents...yes, Birthday. Dib's father refused to celebrate Christmas due to his undying hatred of Santa Claus, so he always wasted that day searching for signs of Santa. And beating up Santa's Helpers in the street.

Yeah, it was weird.

A sophisticated computer system on a desk with what appeared to be three dozen drawers, many of them stuffed full of papers on Bigfeet, ghosts and aliens...a pile of laundry in the corner, all dark clothes, blue t-shirts...and several dozen paranormal posters littered the walls, including one of a flying saucer. And not just ANY flying saucer. "Is that from the X-Files series?" Two found himself asking, an intrigued expression coming to his features.

"Yes, the original one. I got it off of Ebay. Cost me two month's allowance too." Dib added, not taking his eyes off the alien scumbag. He wanted to jump through the air and do a karate kick to his head, hey, years of fighting with Zim meant he'd picked up a couple of tricks. But no, no, it was like he was rooted to the spot, and he knew EXACTLY why.

He tried to yank the ring off anew...hopeless. Two chuckled slightly as he snapped his fingers. "I used to watch the show when I was younger. Ahhhh, memories. Moving from dimension to dimension it's still nice to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Wait until I tell you about the second movie."

"Second movie?" Dib remarked, blinking stupidly.

"Oh, right, you don't know. Guess this world will never see it once I'm...well..." He chuckled coldly. "Once WE'RE finished. Go on, my little puppet. Eat breakfast. Say goodbye to your father with your sister. Then we begin, and I think I'll start by doing you a favor, and doing what all children dream of doing at one point or another...burning down your school."

"Why would you want to do that?" Dib growled angrily, fingers clenching almost like claws, eyes alit with fury. "What could you POSSIBLY gain from-"

"Do I look like a Bond Villain, my boy? I'm not TELLING you." The Irken chuckled. "But I'm in a good mood, so being the nice person I am, here's the deal. You get until Lunch Period's over. Then I'll take full control...and have you and your sister burn down the school and everyone and everything in it."

The Irken was suddenly up in Dib's face, smiling coldly, one hand gripping his chin, the other tapping Dib's ring. "You have until then to convince the others to get out, and don't bother trying to use your ring to convince them, I'll put it under a lock that won't open until it is finally time to BURN, baby, BURN." The Irken laughed. "Hey, you've been failing to get your classmates to listen for years. Maybe today's the day they'll finally listen!"

"You don't have to do this." Dib said, trying another tack, remembering the dream. Normally he wouldn't EVER negotiate with an alien, not even try, but...this was different. "You don't need to hurt anyone."

"But I do." Two whispered, raising his gloved claws up and clenching them. "...I DO."

Letting off cold-hearted laughter, the Irken jumped back out of the window, strolling off. Dib cursed under his breath. This was one of the few times an alien was out in the open! NO disguise! Why, WHY was nobody outside? Or LOOKING outside? What had their attention? Were they all still ASLEEP?

"So then he shot her, it was weird." The newest arrival on the "Okrah" show said to the titular host, Gaz munching on some cereal as the tall and weirdly surreal Prof. Membrane adjusted the goggles over his eyes, looking at the screen.

"This PULP is what the people are interested in?" He inquired.

"Yeeeeep." Gaz said nonchalantly through a mouthful of "Choco Frosted Sugar Bombs".

"And it's on every morning from 8 to 9? Without fail?"

"Yeeeeeeeeep."

"...what next, dancing panda bears?" Prof. Membrane mused sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he poured himself some coffee. He was getting better at this, he TRIED to be there during the day for breakfast if nothing else. And to think, it only took him a little over 10 years to actually start being somewhat of a good father figure.

"Mornin', Dad." Dib said, entering the kitchen and going to the fridge before shrinking away. Every time he tried to open the fridge, weird things happened. Last time he was SURE he'd heard a sneeze, and the mayonnaise had started yelling "The ketchup did it! The ketchup!" And ANOTHER time his father had left an experiment in there. Something had been living in the fridge.

"...is...the thing still in there?" Dib asked Prof. Membrane, inching away from the fridge and reaching for the knife drawer by the sink, pulling out a large carving knife as Gaz watched with interest.

"No, I'm fairly certain I moved him to the freezer." Prof. Membrane said, shaking his head back and forth. Smiling in relief, Dib wiped his brow and opened up the fridge...and was then forced to hack back several dozen tentacles before slamming the fridge shut. "Or maybe I forgot. Who keeps track?" Prof. Membrane added a moment later, putting a gloved finger to where his lip might have been...it was hard to tell, the white labcoat that he wore had a loooong collar that reached up high. You couldn't even see his nose!

"I'll just make some toast."

"SUPER-Toast?" Prof. Membrane asked expectantly.

"...er, I was thinking cinna-" Dib began to say, before he saw his father's slowly drooping expression. "SUPER-Cinnamon Toast." He quickly changed his mind, nodding enthusiastically.

"EXCELLENT choice, my son!" Prof. Membrane agreed, clapping Dib on the shoulder and moving to the cupboard to get the cinnamon sugar for his boy. "I can only spare 110 more seconds but I'd be HAPPY to get your cinnamon toast started!"

"...thanks, Dad." Dib said quietly. "I...I really appreciate it. And...appreciate you." He murmured.

"What will that thing make me do to the ones I love?"He thought sadly to himself, sitting in the chair next to Gaz as she quietly looked over at him, a faint flicker of genuine regret passing over her face for an instant.

...

...the Beautiful Angel clutched his mother's paw, looking down at her closed eyes. She looked so...worn and tired. So sad...so lost...so forgotten. She was a sad little doll that had been tossed into a closet to be forgotten about. She lay there in the ornately-draped bed inside of the crystalline palace that hovered high above the clouds, hidden from all sight not by ignorance on behalf of humanity, but by carefully-constructed machinations, creations of Zerinim Two, and of the robot that calmly watched, her face solemn before she turned her red-helmed head away from the sight of her beloved kneeling by his dying mother.

"C'mon...just a few more days, momma." He whispered, his golden/amber eyes gazing down upon his beloved mother. "...just a few more days and maybe we can end all of this...get our world back...and bring all of us back to normal."

"Is she...any better? Any worse?"

The Angel looked up. Zerinim Two's face was normally a window...behind his eyes you could tell he was barely suppressing a furious rage within. Now that window was cracked, but not showing rage...but deep, deep concern and sadness...

Personal loss...one of the greatest causes of rage in the world.

"No. And...and I've been talking with her and...she kept asking about the plan." The Angel went on, sighing as he stood up, brushing his thick slightly-light-brown locks of hair back. "You know that this base Earth is very...unstable. It's got the seeds of potential for all the other stories, but if this plan works, I'm worried what'll happen to the other-"

"Who GIVES a rat's ass?" Two snapped angrily, cutting his hand in the air to shut him up. "Azzy, these people are awful. AW-FUL. I might have been petty and selfish but when it came down to it, I ALWAYS put doing what was right for the ones I loved and for the world I loved at the forefront! Do you think ANY of the so-called "cornerstones" of this Base Earth would?"

"...I don't know." The Beautiful Angel admitted softly, honestly. "...I'd like to believe that some of them would."

"I'm sorry that "some of them" isn't enough." Two spoke quietly, folding his arms. "You know...I saw into Dib's mind when I controlled him. He has a family. He has a father. He has a sister. And his life's been slowly getting better for the past five years. Zim getting more considerate, Gaz becoming more tolerant, his father's actually eating BREAKFAST with them!"

That made the woman in the bed chuckle slightly. "Brekkie? N-no kiddin'? Ame kef, never thought he'd actually..." Her chuckling dissolved into pained coughs as she held her paw over her mouth and Two gently patted her forehead. "I'm...sorry I'm so friggin' useless now."

"It'll be alright, maneem." Two whimpered, kneeling by his mother and kissing her paw as a blue-furred being entered, Two rubbing his eyes as he left the room. The blue-furred being took off his cap, letting his hair fall down as he nervously chewed his lip, gazing at his aunt.

"...are we really gonna go through with this? I want the world back but..." He sighed. "...what he's making Dib do isn't...it isn't right."

"I want you to have this." The Beautiful Angel said, giving the blue-furred bounty hunter a pad of paper he had in a pack slung around his shoulder. "It's notes that mother took. I've read it five dozen times..." He trailed off, taking his mother's paw again.

The blue-furred being chewed his lip again, walking out of the room as he went to stand on a balcony, reading the journal as the robot stepped out on the balcony to join him.

"I shall be meeting with MY personal inductees today." She said in her emotionless tone, holding up the rings she would be using. "They shall join my Corps and I will then bring the two up here so that they may understand why we do what we do. I think he would go along with it anyway...a chance to destroy this world? Have "fun"? How could he say "no"?"

"Will you bother to tell him that once enough of this world's been destroyed by the Cornerstones, he'll get folded into the historical fabric?" The bounty hunter wanted to know.

"That's on a "need-to-know" basis." The robot said, a flicker of amusement passing over her metallic features as she sauntered back into the crystalline palace, leaving the bounty hunter alone on the balcony as he reached into his pocket, pulling out two small rings of his own. One was shining slightly, a chosen partner found, but the other...it's light was dull.

"...why isn't it lit up? What's it missing? WHO is it missing? I might have been the first to get ahold of these, but...can't do this alone..." He murmured, putting them back in his pocket, his paw going over the journal to his side, over an entry stained by teardrops.

...

...Dib nervously gripped his pants pockets as he looked out the window of the bus, sitting in the back with Gaz as she looked over at him. "Any ideas?" She asked sarcastically.

"...I thought about offering twenty bucks to everyone to leave school right after lunch...but my allowance isn't THAT high." Dib admitted, pulling out his wallet and opening it, a tiny moth fluttering out as Gaz rolled her eyes.

"And just TELLING them the truth won't help either, will it?" She asked. "They'd never believe you. Well, they might if you tried to use that thing in front of them, but-"

"It's not working." Dib mumbled, shaking his fist angrily, the ring uselessly dull. "I'm trying and trying...but he meant it...he shut it off. And after lunch, it turns on...and I turn into a living weapon. He'll drive me like I'm a BATTLEBOT."

Gaz looked around the bus, eyes narrowing darkly. "...Dib...what's wrong with this picture?" She asked quietly, dangerously.

Dib looked up from his lap, glancing around.

"Notice anything...missing?"

Suddenly it hit him. Zim. Skoodge. Gretchen. Nick. All four of them were gone. How strange...how very, very strange...

The bus came to a stop as everyone headed into the school, their new guidance counselor greeting the children at the door. He saw Dib's clearly sullen expression and his gentle green eyes softened. A hand reached out, placed squarely on Dib's right shoulder. "Dib, is something the matter?" Mr. Thildari inquired, one eyebrow raised high over a head with perfectly-combed grey hair.

"...nothing you could help with, sir." Dib told him as Gaz headed inside. "You've been more help than the last guidance counselor I had, but...you can't help me with this."

"Aww, why not try me?" Mr. Thildari asked, moving Dib inside and sitting him down at a bench by a water fountain. "First period bell doesn't ring for a whole seven..." He checked his watch. "...six whole minutes!"

"...I need to get everyone out of the school before lunch. And I mean EVERYONE. Even that creepy janitor." Dib told the guidance counselor, leaning back in the chair, Two's smirk lingering in his mind. "Or else something terrible is going to happen."

"Dib, did a friend of yours say they're going to blow up the school?" The guidance counselor wanted to know, his darkened skin paling slightly.

Dib's eyes went wide.

There it was...

...hope. Why hadn't he seen it before? It was such a simple solution.

"Yes, yes." Dib said fervently. "...except he's not really a friend, he...he said he was going to blow the whole school sky-high after lunch period, Mr. Thildari." Dib informed the guidance counselor, shaking him by his shoulders, back and forth, back and forth.

The guidance counselor looked deep into Dib's eyes, mouth becoming a taut line as if "reading" him. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully before closing his green eyes and letting out a soft, long sigh. "I believe you." He told Dib. "I'll inform the principal and vice principal about this, and I'll have everyone escorted out of the building until the police can search the grounds."

Dib inwardly cheered for joy as Mr. Thildari stood up and headed for the staff wing, punching the air as he headed off to class. He won. He'd WON.

Or at least...so he thought.

"I should have KNOWN you'd cheat." Two muttered furiously, sitting in a tree outside of school, his fists clenching tightly as red energy swirled off his body like sparks off a fire as his own ring swirled around him like a tiny fly, buzzing, buzzing.

"Calling in help like that, you great big cheater...well, you're about to find out that I'm just as petty and immature as you, Dib Membrane..." The Irken chuckled darkly. "I suppose the saying's true. If you want something done right..."

He hopped down from the tree, making his way towards the school as red energy seeped off his body, his footprints leaving behind burning indents within the ground as he chuckled coldly.

"You have to do it yourself."

#invader zim #zim #superhero #superheroes #Dib #Gaz #Two #Zerinim #action #adventure #fanfic #fanfiction

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wherevermyway · 4 years

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step out! do what you want (chapter four)

pairings: reader/bang chan, reader/han jisung  side pairings: established changbin/minho, reader/bang chan/han jisung rating: explicit | 18+ warnings: shit gets sour real quick in this chapter, so hold on to your butts. violence, graphic descriptions of said violence, use of firearms, gunshot wounds, injuries, blood, profanity, use of drugs (mild), mention of sex, drug dealer!au, organized crime!au. also, holy fuck, so much angst. word count: about 8,100 also posted to my AO3 here! chapter/series navigation

chapter four: laugh now, cry later

recommended tracks (it’s not all kpop/jpop this time): laugh now, cry later by drake, levanter by stray kids, the next best american record by lana del rey, burn it by agust d & max, sorry mama by dkb, 일곱 번째 감각 (the 7th sense) by nct u, 불면증 insomnia by stray kids, lost by desired, ta by stray kids, fake love by bts, shc by foster the people, yeah right by joji, don’t touch me by 3racha, spring day (bts piano cover) by smyang piano. playlist can be found here!

note: this chapter is fucking nuts. there’s a shift in my writing style for this one; it’s a lot more passive and descriptive for the first bit, so I hope it doesn’t bother you too much. thank you for tagging along with this wild ride so far, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

disclaimer: any reference to persons in this work of fiction are purely coincidental. the characters referenced from Stray Kids are interpretations loosely based on their personalities in the group and do not represent the real people behind the personas. if this, or any of the content included in the warnings above make you uncomfortable, please stop reading now.

side note: for the love of minho’s cats, don’t mix party drugs or drugs with alcohol.

The elevator softly touches down with the first floor of the building. Felix and Jeongin step out first, cautiously looking around the building. Jeongin waves at the three of you in the elevator, motioning for you to keep moving. Christopher squeezes your hand so hard, you think it might pop off. He pulls you along as he methodically steps out of the elevator, Jisung following you both and he is resting his hand on the small of your back.

You make your way to the front door, the younger men holding the doors open for the three of you. A black SUV sits in the street right in front of the door, and you can faintly make out Changbin’s features through the dark.

“Let’s fucking go!” He shouts at all of you through the open passenger side window. Felix opens the middle side door, throwing the duffel bag into the back seat. He waves his hand for you to get in, helping you up with his hand. You head for the very back of the van, seating yourself in the middle of the row. Jisung is the next in behind you, crawling in and sitting down to your left.

Jeongin opens the front passenger door, climbing in and taking one of his pistols out of its holster, holding it in his lap as he scans the perimeter through the windshield.

For a moment, time feels like it’s a paradox: going so fast that you can’t anchor yourself down, but also going so slowly that you swore that you could see the individual particles of light travelling around you. Everything gets quiet for a second as Christopher turns to the car, his head craned over his left shoulder, eyes meeting yours, and time completely halts.

The space-time paradox you find yourself in renders itself inert. You study all of the details of his face, how each individual strand of hair lightly curls from the top of his scalp, how the ambient lighting reflects in his eyes and illuminates his face. His face was gorgeous, but his side profile captivated you.

That’s when it happens.

Everything gets blisteringly loud and bright, and you stay frozen. The way that Christopher’s face contorts to the noises and sounds isn’t right; he’s grimacing in pain and anger, slowly turning to where Jeongin and Felix are shooting.

Shooting? When did you register that they were shooting?

Jisung had leaped forward to the black duffel bag, ripping it open and pulling out a semi-automatic rifle, hanging himself out of the door, shooting in the same direction.

It’s grotesquely incredible, really, in a dark, disturbing poetic way. In this moment of time, everything freezes. Nothing truly exists; you are living in a still photo, but you can still move your eyes. Changbin is loading a pistol in the front seat, Jeongin in the seat next to him, leaning out of the window. Jisung is standing completely upright, half of his torso hanging out of the door, his left shoulder anchoring him to top of the car as he holds his rifle up to his right shoulder. Outside the window, you see the nearly-white hair of Felix, aiming his pistol out to something - or someone - in front of him.

However, you don’t see Christopher anywhere, which is peculiar, because he was right there just a second ago. Where did he go?

You manage to lift yourself off of the seat, feeling like all of your limbs are weighted down with cement. The men around you don’t notice, still moving in slow motion. As you get past the seats in front of you, you turn to your right, and that’s when you see Christopher. He’s on the ground, leaning on the car, gripping his right shoulder.

That’s odd. When you left the apartment earlier, you don’t remember seeing his shirt so… red? You could have sworn it was a soft grey.

Why was water dripping on your arms? How could it be raining inside the car? Why did Christopher look so uncomfortable? How come his face was scrunched up in pain?

Pain? Did he fall down?

No. No, of course he didn’t.

Suddenly, it was like a mute button was turned off, and it felt like you were a tape left on fast-forward, stuck in a VCR. Things were zooming past you, and you could have sworn that there were blurry lines taking over your vision. Things came back, all at once, and the first sound you could hear was the sound of your own voice, screaming out in primal despair. Everything was so blisteringly loud that you couldn’t focus on a single thing. Reality came crashing down on you, like a tidal wave colliding with the coast.

Christopher wasn’t wearing a red shirt.

He didn’t fall down. It wasn’t raining in the car.

He was shot in his right shoulder, bleeding profusely, and you were screaming and crying because you knew.

Christopher was shot. Christopher was going to die.

You were no longer living in a still photo; you had become the still photo, unable to move. Jisung tosses the rifle he was holding onto the sidewalk, yelling something at Felix, getting him to try to move Christopher. He turns to you, motioning for you to move, saying something to you in a foreign language.

Why was he yelling at you in a different language? Why couldn’t you understand Korean anymore? Jisung was suddenly in the car now, right in front of you, grabbing you up from under your underarms and pushing you on to one of the passenger seats behind you. He says something to you, directly in your face, but you still can’t understand him.

Jisung jumps back on to the sidewalk, helping Felix lift Christopher into the car. He’s yelling something over his shoulder to Changbin, and Jeongin is trying to get your attention. He’s talking to you too in this peculiar language, pushing his hands down repeatedly in a steadied motion, trying to calm you down.

As soon as both Felix and Jisung are completely in the car, Jisung reaches out for the rifle on the ground, pulling it in as he slams the door shut. You feel the vehicle shift as it speeds down the street. Jisung and Felix have moved Christopher to the very back of the vehicle. You turn to look at him, and his face is soft, his eyes open, glossy, and staring at you. He reaches his left arm out towards you, weakly and softly whispering your name.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he breathily says, a weak smile curving at the corner of his mouth. All of the words being thrown around the car suddenly making sense again, as if someone flicked a switch. “Just a scrape. I’ll be okay. I promise.” He punctuates his sentences with short, shallow breaths. You grab his hand, holding it to comfort him. There was no way you could bring yourself to look away from him.

“I need another shirt or something to pack this,” you hear Felix’s voice, realizing that he’s taken his sweatshirt off and is holding it up against Christopher’s wound.

“I’ve got it,” Jisung says, ripping his jacket off, bringing it down to Christopher’s chest to help Felix control the bleeding.

There’s just so much blood everywhere.

You remember a fact that someone told you once in university: the human blood has between four and six litres of blood in it. Losing 750 millilitres is enough to cause the human body to start to go into hemolytic shock. Two litres of loss, or 40% the body’s total volume, was almost always fatal.

The sight of seeing how much Christopher’s blood has been painted over the car nearly puts you into shock. It’s on the floor, on every seat in the vehicle, even on the ceiling, and on Jisung and Felix. His blood is on you, too, starting to dry on your exposed skin.

“How much longer, Changbin?” Jisung is yelling at the top of his lungs, looking past you to the front of the car.

“Five minutes,” Changbin says, trying to sound calm, but there’s a slight wavering in his voice. “How is Chan doing?”

“I can’t tell,” Felix says without looking up, “he’s conscious, but disoriented. I don’t like how much blood Bang-hyung has lost. I can’t find an exit wound, either. I’m not sure if it’s a cluster of veins or an artery, but this isn’t good.”

Christopher coughs, sputtering up some blood. The dark, viscous liquid spills from the corner of his mouth. His eyes are gazing past you, starting to cloud up. “I’m sorry,” he manages to groan out. His eyes roll back a bit, as his hand loses its grip on yours, suddenly turning his entire arm into dead weight.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Jisung shouts with urgency, digging underneath the seats in the vehicle, clearly looking for something - anything, really - to help him stabilize Christopher.

You feel paralyzed, holding on to Christopher’s hand as it grows clammy and lukewarm. This wasn’t happening, there’s no way. It had to have been a dream.

You were dreaming. Right?

After your shower the second night you were at Christopher’s, both of you were laying in bed in the dark, waiting to fall asleep. He had given you an oversized, worn t-shirt of his to sleep in, and it was comfortable. He had mentioned how much he loved sleeping in that shirt because it was so soft. It wasn’t long after you both got in bed that he reached out to you, snuggling right up to your back.

“Isn’t it the best shirt?” His voice was tired and calm. He rubbed his thumb back and forth on your shoulder, enjoying the feel of the fabric on his skin. You hummed in agreement, scooting yourself back into him to get closer. “I remember wearing this all the time when I was in high school. I would put it on right when I got home. It was always way more comfortable after wearing a stuffy, itchy uniform all day. It took a couple of years of wear to get it to be this soft. I’m glad I kept it, because you look really great in it, almost like it was meant to be.”

Your face felt like it was burning up as you became flustered. “What? Meant to be?”

Christopher sleepily hummed in response, nuzzling his face on your shoulder. “Yeah. Since we’re going to be stuck with each other for a while, we might as well at least enjoy our company. Make it feel as natural as we can, hmm?”

The prospect of getting closer to him didn’t bother you, not at all. After all, he did have a point. What would the point be in making yourselves miserable and trying to make the situation worse? Someone in university once told you that “fake it ’til you make it” mentality had actual positive results in psychology, so why not apply it here?

“Hey, Christopher?”

“What’s up?” His voice sounded even more tired and soft. In a way, it was endearing.

“Have you ever had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, or something?”

“Mmm,” he sleepily moaned, “yeah, I dated this girl back in high school, but it never worked out. Kinda had a few flings with people here and there, but nothing ever stuck. I’m too flighty because of my career, so I can’t really commit. The fewer people you get close to, the fewer things you have to bargain for if someone wants to hurt you.”

“Oh,” you whisper. It made sense, honestly, but it felt like there was a pit in your stomach.

“How come? What about you?” He says, shifting himself up so his chin is resting at the top of your shoulder.

“Ah, that story about the washroom in the nightclub? That was my last boyfriend. We were together for a few years, but we split. He got some big new job that was taking up too much time for him, and I was really busy with my modelling career. We didn’t make time for each other.”

“That sucks.” Christopher says, his breath tickled your cheek as he spoke. “Good for me, though.”

You couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

The bright lights of the hospital rip you from your daydream. Jisung and Felix carry Christopher from the back seat of the van out through the side door. Your hand falls from Christopher’s, leaving his arm out to hang limply to his side, lifeless and cold. Changbin’s voice rings in your head, distant, off in another world. It’s like he’s on the shore and you’re stranded in the ocean; you can hear him, but you can barely make out what he’s saying. You can’t even fully comprehend it, just barely able to tell that he’s telling you to stay back, not to follow Christopher into the hospital.

Your legs are moving by themselves, shaking as you drop from the vehicle, treading your way through to the emergency doors of the hospital as if you were trying to wade through a shallow pool. Jisung’s silver hair and Felix’s blond hair bounce beams of light around, as if each strand were a mirror, brightly guiding you along the way through the hallways of the hospital, until they stop.

Hands are grasping on to your arms, holding you back as you see Christopher wheeled away by emergency personnel through a pair of sterile-looking doors. “Baby,” you hear Jisung’s voice bring you back to focus. “You can’t go with him. None of us can.”

You try to fight against him, to scream, to plead and sell your soul to the devil in exchange to save Christopher, but nothing works. Your body is rebelling against your mind, not allowing you to push yourself any further, forcing you to your knees. The only thing your body will let you do is cry, collapsing within yourself to weep deep, body-racking sobs.

Jisung kneels down to you, lightly gripping your shoulders, pulling you to his chest. “It’s okay,” he whispers into your ear, rocking you back and forth, trying to shush you. His hands run through your hair, trying to help you calm down.

“Felix,” he calmly says, “I need you to get Changbin-hyung. We need to get her out of here.”

“Understood, Han,” the younger man says, footsteps quickly fading from earshot.

“I need you to calm down,” Jisung’s voice is right up next to your ear, arms wrapping you into a tight embrace. “Christopher can’t heal if you’re panicking, okay? Please calm down, baby. He’ll be okay, I promise.”

He’s lying. There’s no way that he promise that, you know that in the back of your head. Nobody could promise that.

Regardless of if it’s true or not, it does make you feel somewhat better. It’s not enough to get you to stop crying, but it’s enough to allow you to catch your breath.

“That’s it,” you hear Jisung whisper into your ear. “We’ll get through this together. I’ve got you.”

You feel as if you’re glued to Jisung’s chest for an eternity. The sound of footsteps and Changbin’s voice grasps your attention and causes Jisung to shift behind you. As he moves, your entire body feels weighted down with lead, heavy and rendering you incapable of moving. You’re not sure when exactly you stopped crying, allowing the sinking, numbing feeling to take over you.

“Here,” Changbin’s hushed voice is close to you, and it sounds so soft and calm. “Give this to her. Half a gram. Should be enough until you both get to the safehouse in Incheon. There’s more there; I’m sure you’ll both need it.”

“You sure about this?” Jisung whispers, barely audible enough for you to hear it.

“I can’t have a scene here, Han. Not now.” Changbin quietly says, sighing and sounding beyond exhausted, “I’ll send you the specific location over text, just take the SUV we brought. I’ll have Seungmin take care of the rest later. Eventually.” Another deep, heavy sigh comes from him. “Shit, this is bad. First Hyunjin, now Chan. Fuck.”

“Alright, hyung. Understood.” Jisung says, bringing a hand in front of your face. He slips his fingers to your lips, a small object touching them. “Baby, I need you to trust me and take this. It’ll calm you down. Just leave it on your tongue until it’s gone, okay?”

You don’t really want to take whatever it is he’s offering, but you don’t have the energy to protest. You part your lips, sticking your tongue out just a bit to the foreign object, taking it in and allowing it to rest on your tongue. It starts to dissolve, a bitter flavour enveloping all of your tastebuds. As you open your mouth to protest leaving again, everything starts to get two-dimensional: muted and really heavy.

Jisung scoops you into his arms, and you somehow wriggle the limp pasta noodles you have for arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry for all of this,” he says; his voice sounding as if it’s coming through a low-quality mono channel, muffled and one-note. It doesn’t even sound real. It almost feels like his voice drags and blends in with the blurry surroundings, as if sound and sight could be merged.

You open your mouth to speak, but it’s like there’s a cord from your brain to your mouth that’s severed, preventing you from operating your jaw muscles. You want to tell him to stop, turn back, that you both needed to be there for Christopher. You desperately want to tell him so many things, but your eyes grow heavy and you lose all motivation to even try as your head collides down to his shoulder with a thud and everything goes black.

When you were fifteen, celebrating your acceptance into senior high school, you remember your mother pulling you aside, telling you to never settle for a partner that viewed you as less than royalty and to always put yourself first. She would tell you how she appreciated how hard your father worked to provide for the three of you, but how she always wished she would have gone back to the workforce when you started to get older so she could make sure you had all of the financial support you’d ever need and so she had more purpose in life. You were their only child, and your parents loved you so much.

You couldn’t help but wonder what your mother would think of you being caught up in the chaos of an organized crime ring, with two men caring for you and protecting you, one of which literally taking a bullet in front of your eyes. She never approved of you leaving your stable corporate job in Japan to become a model in South Korea, but she knew that there was no way to stop you - you had her stubbornness, after all. There was absolutely no way she would ever approve of this, not with how violent everything was, even if both men were actually willing to take actual bullets for you.

“Baby,” a voice rings in your ears, but you can’t quite place who is calling for you. It’s like your brain hallucinates a strange combination of your mother’s, Jisung’s, and Christopher’s voices. “You need to wake up.” The voice illuminates a light in the distance, drawing you into it. “Come on,” the voice is louder now, sounding more and more like Christopher. That couldn’t be right. Could it?

“Baby, you gotta get up. I need you to get up.” A warm hand is on your shoulder, shaking you gently, and you’re suddenly more conscious of your body. You flutter your eyes open, their dryness causing a stinging pain from corner to corner of your eyes. The scenery around you starts to come into focus from a blur. The sky is warm as dawn is breaking behind you, illuminating the cars flying past you on both sides of the vehicle. You’re on a highway, but your surroundings aren’t familiar.

“Hey,” the voice is clear, and you recognize it: it’s Jisung. “You’re back. I’m sorry, the Xanax knocked you out pretty hard after I gave it to you. You’re probably going to be out of it and feel like shit for a while.” He moves his hand from your shoulder to your thigh.

You groan, turning your head to look at Jisung. “The fuck?” Your voice sounds foreign: low and gravelly. “Where are we?” As much as you want to crane your head to the window, resting your head against the headrest in this position is too comfortable.

Jisung takes his hand off of your thigh, swiping the back of his hand up against his cheek, sniffling once. “Sorry, bunny,” he says, returning his hand to your thigh. “Changbin-hyung ordered us to head into Incheon. There’s a safehouse out here. Actually, we’re just about there.”

You blink a few times, trying to shake the haze out of your head, and failing to do so. Incheon? No, that couldn’t be right. Christopher was still in Gangnam, all the way in Seoul. “No,” you slur out, fumbling to sit upright. “No, we can’t be in Incheon. Christopher is still in the hospital, isn’t he?”

“Baby,” Jisung grips your thigh tighter, stroking his thumb back and forth. “He won’t heal if we’re hovering over him. Besides, it’s too dangerous for all of us to be there with him. We’re a bigger target if we’re in a large group. We’re only a half hour away, it’s okay.”

“But,” you open your mouth to protest, and Jisung brings his hand up to your face.

“I need you to trust me. Please.” He doesn’t look at you, his eyes still trained to the road. He bites his lip back, face wincing in pain. “Fuck, I don’t know why I’m doing this.” You’re still fuzzy, frustrated that you’re so far away from Christopher in case something goes wrong, but seeing Jisung so upset doesn’t sit well with you either.

You sit there for a few minutes, watching Jisung in silence. He pulls the car into a residential parking garage. He stops in front of a gate at the bottom floor, fumbling around with storage unit in the centre console, pulling out a handful of cards. He shuffles through them with focus, until he pulls one out that has “Hagik-2” scribbled on it in permanent marker. He rolls the window down, flashing the card in front of the card reader, and the gate opens.

Jisung unceremoniously tosses the card on top of the others in the centre console, proceeding through the gate slowly and rolling up the window. He turns into a reserved parking spot, shifting the vehicle into park and turning it off. “We’re here. Are you going to be alright enough to stand?”

You unbuckle your seatbelt and rub your face tiredly, hoping it will wake you up. “I’m gonna need your help moving, but I think I can stand.”

“I can work with that,” Jisung says softly, unbuckling his seatbelt, lifting the armrest up, leaning over to you. He gently grabs either side of your face, tilting your head up to meet his for a soft kiss. “Let me be strong for you. Alright?”

You weakly nod your head, and Jisung pulls away. “Good,” he says, grabbing his phone off of the dashboard holder, opening the door. “Let me grab this bag and I’ll help you out of the car.” Everything feels so heavy, but your emotions are still dampened, which, honestly, is a good thing for now. You let your head rest on the seat, closing your eyes for just a moment.

What time was it, anyways? It was four when Changbin called, you remember Christopher grumbling about it very vividly. It was probably 40 minutes from where you were in Seoul to where you were in Incheon now, and the sun was already up over the horizon when you woke up. Maybe it was six now?

The door opens next to you, pulling you away from your thoughts as you open your eyes. “Trying to nap again?” Jisung says with a smirk, offering his hands to you, duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “Come on, once we get inside, you can sleep all you need to.”

Your brain blurs the time from exiting the vehicle to entering the safehouse. It’s almost as if you blinked, and you were on another foreign bed, staring up at the ceiling. Jisung’s voice trails in from the doorway, talking to someone on the phone. You don’t really focus on it, only paying attention for a brief moment when he says your name a couple of times.

You let your eyes close again, drifting off into the same headspace you were in before. It was insane to think that, just a few days ago, you were rolling around in bed with a stranger, having the time of your life. Now you were here, in some random apartment with your ex-boyfriend, who is maybe no longer your ex-boyfriend, with your maybe new boyfriend’s blood all over your hands and arms. Was boyfriend even a good word for either of them right now?

The situation was so absurd that, if you weren’t living through it now, you wouldn’t believe it; dismiss it as some stupid movie plot or some elaborate lie. Maybe you would laugh about it later, years down the line. You can hear yourself telling Jisung and Christopher, “Wow, remember that time we all slept together and then you got shot in the shoulder just a couple hours later? How crazy was that?” Minji would laugh about it too, once she got over the fact that you were knee-deep in crazy kkangpae shit. She’d laugh about it if you made it out alive. If you ever saw her again.

It doesn’t occur to you that you’re wildly cackling until Jisung is shaking you, yelling your name in your face. You snap your eyes open and look directly at him, feeling the smile on your face fade as you see Jisung looking at you with serious concern. “What is happening with you? How can you be laughing right now?” He says, tears welling up in eyes.

“Jisung,” you manage to coherently spit out, still feeling hazy from the Xanax Jisung gave you. “Isn’t all of this ridiculous? How was it that the three of us had such a good night last night, and now we’re being hunted down? Why is Christopher in the hospital with a bullet in his shoulder? Why is any of this shit happening?”

You don’t realize it until you stop babbling, but tears are falling from your eyes in a steady stream. Jisung jaw twitches as he furrows his brows in anguish. He tries to say something, strained noises leaving his throat, but the words never totally make it out. Something in him cracks, and his head sinks down, crying full-blown sobs. He collapses down on top of you, wrapping you tightly in his arms.

Both of you stay like that for a while, completely exhausting yourself from crying.

Jisung had always been a good person; he was kind-hearted and soft with the people he was close to, but would stop to help a stranger if they needed it. You started to notice it about a couple months after you officially started dating, a month after your initial drunken escapade. You were about to head back to Japan for two weeks for an important shoot for a big name company, excited that you had finally landed a gig with them.

He had surprised you the night before you left, coming to your apartment with some takeout, a bottle of cheap sparkling wine, and flowers. You remember he literally jumped on you when you opened your door, excitedly congratulating you. “I’m so proud of you, bunny!” He had shouted over and over again. He had helped you pack, both of you taking intermittent breaks to eat and sip on the really terrible wine he brought.

What would have taken you a half hour ended up taking you three hours because you couldn’t peel yourselves off of each other. You should have packed up your clothes and demo shots, but you just couldn’t stop yourself from pouncing on Jisung when he was sitting on the couch, looking positively delectable. Naturally, he couldn’t turn you down when you came on to him.

He had taken you right there on the couch, taking his sweet time to devote all of his attention on you, making sure you came a couple of times. When he was deep inside you, he grinned at you with a coy smile, something so innocent and cute, whispering to you that he loved you, he loved you so much. It had taken you aback, just how bluntly he had admitted it for the first time. His eyes were full of excitement, and he had the biggest grin on his face. You couldn’t help but tell him how much you loved him, too.

To see him here, now, so broken up and upset shattered your heart into pieces. The Jisung you knew would never have gotten involved in this, never would have hurt another living creature intentionally if he could avoid it. That’s likely why it looked like this entire situation took all of his energy out of him.

Jisung turns up to look at you with bloodshot, tired eyes. “Why is this happening?” He says, his eyes threatening to tear up again, then rolling onto his back. “I never wanted any of this, you know. I only joined the family to help get my music career going. If I knew any of this would happen, I never would have done this. I would go back and stop myself from getting involved with this, even if it cost me my entire career.”

He sighs heavily, bringing his hands up to cover his face. “I always thought that if I gave it time, I could become strong and tough like my hyungs. I regret doing all of this because I know I’m not tough enough for this. I didn’t do this because I wanted to, I did it to survive. Can you ever forgive me for all of this shit?”

Everything in your brain is frazzled and dull, but you somehow manage to turn all of your attention to the silver-haired man beside you. “Sungie,” you whisper, reaching out to touch his face, “I could never blame you for any of this. Nobody could have expected this would turn out the way it would. I promise, I forgive you.”

“I’m so sorry,” he says, wiping tears from under his eyes, “I said I would be strong for you, but I just can’t, not right now.”

You couldn’t really blame him, honestly. He wasn’t made out to be a part of the violent criminal life. As far as you knew, he was always good in the middle of chaos, but once things would calm down, it would hit him like a tonne of bricks. You reached out to Jisung, pulling him into your chest.

You wanted to reassure him that everything would be okay, but you knew better. There was no way you could even remotely promise something like that. So, you settled. “I’ll be strong for you now, okay? We can be strong for each other when we need to be.”

Jisung grips your arms tightly, snuggling his head up against your chest. “I’m so worried about Chan-hyung. I called Changbin-hyung after bringing you to bed and he told me he’s in surgery.” Your heart skips a beat for a moment, breath caught in your throat. “He lost a lot of blood. I think he said Chan-hyung went into shock. The bullet hit his, ah, what was it called? It was one of his arteries - I think he said axillary?”

“Did Changbin say if he was going to be okay?” You didn’t want to know the answer, fearing the worst possible outcome, but you needed to know anyway.

Jisung is quiet for a moment, loosening his grip on your arms. “He didn’t know. Changbin-hyung did say it wasn’t looking good, but we wouldn’t know for a while. He’s donating some of his blood, since they’re the same type, and he’d call me once he was done and knew more.”

You roll your head back and breathe out a slow, controlled sigh. This entire situation was an absolute mess. You needed to know, though, how this happened. Everything was going so blissfully well until it wasn’t. It all happened at the drop of a hat.

“Jisung,” you say, pulling back a bit from the man in your arms to look at him. “What happened out there? We were getting in the car, and all of a sudden, bullets were flying all over the place.”

Jisung looks up at you, a look of discomfort on his face. He lets go of your arms and sits up, folding his legs, resting his elbows on them so he could rest his head on his hands. “I don’t know how it happened. Before I grabbed the rifle from the duffel bag, I just saw these two guys coming at us from down the street. They were in all black, so when we saw them, it was too late. Their first few shots missed us, but Chan-hyung must have been an easy target. Maybe it was deliberate, like he was their target from the start.”

“Are the other guys, you know,” you pause, not really wanting to know the aftermath of the altercation, “are they dead?”

The silver-haired man reaches down to the comforter beneath him, inanely plucking a strand of string poking up from it. “Dunno. We shot quite a bit at them, and I saw one of the guys go down, but once I realized that Chan-hyung was hit, I just kind of stopped paying attention to them. I think Jeongin got the other guy; he’s always had good aim as long as he’s been with us. It was too dark to see much else.

“I hope they’re not dead. I’m already freaking the fuck out over knowing that we were in a gunfight and I shot at them. I don’t need anything else on my conscience.” Jisung quietly sighs, then turns to look at you, his face void of any strong emotions. “I never thought I’d ever have to shoot a living person. The guys taught me well, sure, but it’s so much more different than shooting in the range.”

You sit up and scoot yourself up next to Jisung, resting your head on his shoulder. “I hope we’ll get through this alright.”

“We will." Jisung rests his head on yours, reaching his hand up to stroke your hair. “At least, I think we will.”

The two of you sit like that in silence for several minutes, staring off into the comforter as your eyes start to hallucinate patterns in the fabric.

The ringing of Jisung’s phone scares both of you, causing you to jump. You lift your head off of his shoulder as he pulls his phone out from his back pocket. You see the name on the screen and you subconsciously hold your breath. It was Changbin.

It takes a couple of rings before Jisung answers his phone. He pulls it up to his right ear so that you both can hear the conversation. “Hyung,” he says with a tremble in his voice.

“Han.” Changbin’s voice is calm, tinny from the small speaker. “Chan is going to be coming out of surgery within the next hour. Once he’s out, Seungmin will be covering for me. I need to come over and talk to you both about what Minho found out.”

“What happened?” Jisung says with a concerned tone to his voice.

“I can’t talk about it over the phone, it’s not safe. Felix is coming with me and will be staying with you for protection. Until this shit has been sorted out, nobody gets left alone.”

“But I’m here,” you interject.

Changbin sighs. “You’re not trained to handle this. Do you even know how to fire a gun?”

Your lips pull into a firm line. Changbin was right: there was nothing you could do to help, even if you wanted. You had no experience with weapons or combat in general; you would just be a hindrance if something happened.

“That’s what I thought. Anyway, as much as I don’t want him to be, Minho is back in. He’s with Hyunjin now, who is doing much better. He should be released tomorrow. They’ll be in another location once I can pin some things down.”

“What do you need me to do?” Jisung looks focused, sitting upright.

“I need you to stay there. Your ex-girlfriend is a liability right now and I can’t have her out of our hands, so I’m entrusting you to keep an eye on her. Tell her to turn her phone off, too.“

A liability?

Jisung must have had the same thought as you, because he looks at you in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Not now, Han. I need to go. I’ll keep you posted on any updates. If you need me, call me. Understood?” Changbin sounds annoyed and tired, even over the phone. All of this had to have been taking a toll on him, but he was the leader of the group, so it was just something he would have to deal with.

“Understood, Changbin-hyung.” Jisung says, and the line goes quiet. He pulls his phone away from his face and just stares at it. “Why are you a liability? Is it because you’re a civilian?”

In all honesty, you were just as confused as him. You flop onto your back and stare at the ceiling.

“Where’s your phone?” Jisung says, turning to you.

You reach into your back pocket and grab it. It was strange, you hadn’t been looking at it for the past day or so. Minji had texted you so many times, her messages flooded the screen when you expanded them.

Oh my god Hyunjin was shot

Eonni what the fuck do I do?

Oh my god he’s in the hospital. There’s a guy here that said I’m not allowed to see him.

Fuck this guy. He won’t leave me alone. Keeps telling me to get out.

I am so mad

Why the fuck did he get shot???

Eonni where are you? I don’t believe you at all

I know you’re not sick

You’re still with Bang Chan, arent you?

are you even alive anymore

I need you eonni please tell me youre ok

That was the last text you received from Minji. You open the text messages to respond and tell her you're alright, but Jisung snatches your phone from your hands, powering it off.

“Sorry,” he says, tossing your phone on the dresser next to him. “I gotta follow Changbin-hyung’s orders. There’s gotta be a reason he wanted your phone to be off.”

You frown in response, but understand. Minji will just have to wait for now, as much as you didn’t want to leave her alone. She had to be really scared and confused. Sure, she and Hyunjin weren’t together anymore (as far as you were aware, at least), but you knew from firsthand experience it was to watch someone you were starting to get close to get shot.

A deep sigh escapes your lips, and your bring your hands to your face, groaning in frustration. “This sucks,” is all you can manage to say. The Xanax was wearing off, and your emotions were starting to surface again, the crushing feeling of dread becoming more and more apparent, enveloping you in discomfort.

“Yeah,” Jisung flops down next to you. “I don’t know what to do or where to go from here.”

“Is this the first altercation you’ve been in since joining them?”

Jisung brings his hands behind his head and bites his lip. “Not really, but this is the first one that was actually serious. The first one was when I was taking care of a protection fee collection with Seungmin in Songpa-gu, back when I was still really new.

“Seungmin had gotten a call from Chan-hyung, so he had to step out for a minute. One guy that we were meeting with was feeling pretty testy, didn’t want to give up the entire payment that was due. I think he had a feeling I was new.” Jisung rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Tried taking it out on me. He practically jumped over the table as soon as Seungmin stepped out, but I was faster than him.

“His fist just barely passed my face and I managed to step to the side just in time. The guy managed to grab me and throw me to the ground. He punched me once, right in the jaw, so I kneed him in the stomach. My knife was in my back pocket, so I couldn’t reach it. I just let my instincts take over and I beat the shit outta the guy.”

Jisung smirks, obviously proud of how he handled the situation. “Anyway, Seungmin heard what was happening and when he came back in, he gave the dude a swift kick to the ribs. We ended up getting double the protection fee we needed, plus a little extra as an apology.”

“Holy shit,” you feel your jaw drop as Jisung finishes his recollection. “When the fuck did you learn how to get into a fight? Who are you?”

You both sit and stare at each other for a moment, then both of you break out into giggles. It was nice to be able to laugh for once today, after how hectic the past twelve hours have been.

“You know what?” Jisung says, taking in a deep breath, then making a pointed effort to stare directly into your eyes. “I don’t want to go through this at all, but I’m glad it’s with you. If it was just me here, alone, in this situation? I don’t know how I’d handle it.” He reaches out to your face, cupping your cheek in his hand. “I really hope Chan-hyung makes it out of here. I hope that we all make it out of this mess alive.”

You didn’t really know what to say as you looked into Jisung’s deep brown eyes. The otherworldliness of your plight melted away, if only for a moment, as you both stared at each other. The familiar feeling of waking up next to him for so many mornings is strangely close to the front of your memories, but it also feels so distant and foreign.

The Jisung you knew back then was so soft and gentle. This Jisung has his soft and gentle moments, but there was a new air of mystery to him. The new persona of his wasn’t bad, it was just such a stark difference to what you were used to. Seeing him so stoic and serious when you all were getting shot at and with taking care of Christopher was strange.

“What?” Jisung’s voice pulls you from your thoughts. “Something on my face?”

“No, nothing like that.” You look down and frown. “It’s just weird that you’re the same Jisung I knew a year ago, but you’ve also changed so much.”

There’s a tense pause between you for a moment.

“Is that bad?” Jisung says so quietly, it’s almost like a whisper. He’s obviously pensive about how you’ll respond to him.

“No, it’s just different. It’ll take some time to adjust to, that’s all.” You look back up to Jisung, and his face relaxes into a soft smile with your words.

“That’s good.” He stretches his arms into the air and rolls on to his back. “Well, since it’ll be a while until Changbin-hyung and Felix come by, I think I’m gonna take a nap.” He tilts his head in your direction and opens his arms in offering. “Come here.”

A faint smile comes up on your face, and you bring yourself close to Jisung, resting your head and your arm on his chest. “I think that sounds good. We didn’t get much sleep, did we?”

Jisung scoffs, wrapping his arms around you. “Yeah, we really didn’t. Who knows how much sleep we’ll get in the upcoming days, so might as well get it when we can.” He mindlessly strokes your hair, breathing in a slow, even cadence.

You let your eyes fall heavy, enjoying the warm embrace of Jisung’s arms. There was nothing more that you wanted, however, than to have Christopher here with you both.

“Han?” A voice comes from outside the bedroom, startling Jisung awake. He panics for a moment, clearly not recognizing the voice, bolting up off of the bed. “You didn’t answer your texts, so I let myself in.”

“Changbin-hyung?” He tentatively says, readying his stance.

“Yeah,” Changbin answers, walking into the bedroom. “you’d know if you checked your phone.”

“Ah,” Jisung relaxes and sighs. “Sorry, we were taking a nap. Didn’t get much sleep.”

Changbin shoots his junior a disappointed glance, then rolls his eyes to you. “Where’s your phone?”

“Hi, Changbin, nice to see you’re alive,” you sarcastically grumble as you sit upright. Changbin isn’t amused by your quip, his expression falling flat. “Sorry, it’s on the dresser over here.” You scoot over to the dresser was on Jisung’s side of the bed, and grab your phone.

Changbin wastes no time snatching your phone from you as soon as you grab it. He sticks his thumbs in the middle of the screen, pulling both ends together and popping your phone in two with a crinkle and snaps.

“What the fuck?” You shout in frustration. That wasn’t a cheap phone, and there was no reason for him to break it in two.

“You’re being tracked.” Changbin tosses your phone to the floor, stepping on it with his heel for good measure. He folds his arms and looks at you with a glare. “Or you’re working with them. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will. If you’re working with them, I will kill you right here.”

“Hyung, what the fuck?” Jisung snaps, getting in between both of you. “How dare you?”

Changbin rolls his eyes and scoffs. “What? You haven’t talked to her in a year, what do you know?” He shifts his weight on to his right foot, eyeing you down again before pulling the pistol out from the holster on his hip, pointing it directly at your head.

“You need to be honest with me. I don’t miss from this close.”

#stray kids fic #skz fic #bang chan x reader #han jisung x reader #chan x jisung x reader #skz smut #stray kids smut #bang chan #chris bang #han jisung #step out do what you want

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eloarei · 3 years

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Okay, I’m going to babble about Greedfall under a cut. I just have to. tl;dr, you should have been able to romance Petrus and Constantin, no I am not taking critique. Under the cut: 1500 words of basic Greedfall explanation, and then me lamenting ships that didn’t happen; includes spoilers (noted).

So. Greedfall. Basically, I had never heard of this game until it was free on Playstation Plus a few months ago, and I was like “yeah okay sure, I’m not doing anything else”, so I played it. I had no idea what to expect. I don’t recall watching the trailer. From the icon, I expected maybe pirates? As it turned out, no pirates ...exactly? But kinda. They’re mostly just colonists with pistols and big hats. Lots of big hats. There are a faction of characters that live on ships, but they’re not pirates. I don’t think they’d appreciate being referred to as such. Anyway, it’s a rather Dragon Age-like game. I don’t mind saying so, since everyone else has. It has its similarities and differences, but it definitely feels familiar in that way. It’s definitely not a copy, just... inspired, I guess. You play as Lord or Lady de Sardet, (that’s a silent t, btw), who’s tasked with representing her people on the ‘new continent’ of Tir Fradi-- mostly to the other countries that settled there in the past few years, but also to the natives, who’ve lived there for ever and ever and actually respect the land, unlike you dumb colonizers. The factions are real pains in the ass, but in a way that’s a litttttle bit charming. Theleme is full of propagandizing Catholics who aren’t above a little witch hunt now and again. The Bridge Alliance are all science-obsessed atheists who think progress is more important than basic morals. The natives are VERY in touch with nature, and have cool Russian accents, skull-like face paint, and sometimes branches growing out of their heads. (The natives have the most diverse opinions, so they’re the least annoying. In fact, they’re rather likeable, except that sometimes they hate you, and don’t bother with pretending they don’t for diplomacy’s sake.) There’s also the Nauts (the pirates), the Coin Guard (mercenaries, but they kind of work for your country?), and the Congregation of Merchants, aka your country, which are basically neutral ground capitalists that everyone sort of doesn’t hate. (Theleme and Bridge Alliance despise each other, roughly a little more than they hate the natives.) You’ve got one companion from every faction: Siora from the natives, Kurt from the Coin Guard, Vasco from the Nauts, Petrus from Theleme, and Aphra from Bridge Alliance. They’re all representatives of their people, but also (as you might guess) non-extremists. Because otherwise you’d want to murder them. Siora isn’t desperate to kick out the foreigners, she just wants her people to be safe and respected. Kurt and Vasco are basically just following you because it’s Kurt’s job and Vasco’s boss told him to. Petrus is a conniving old man, but he doesn’t shove God down your throat too much and seems to respect the natives, sort of. And Aphra has enough morals to agree that killing for science ain’t cool, and maybe the natives aren’t just savages. All in all, they’re all pretty reasonable. Compared to Dragon Age, none of your companions (or other NPCs) have a ton of personality, but somehow they still manage to have a good bit, and I ended up really liking them. SO LETS TALK ABOUT SHIPPING You can romance Kurt if you’re playing a woman, Aphra if you’re playing a man, and Vasco and Siora in either case. But, oh my god?, getting the romance to happen is practically impossible. Save first. I romanced both Kurt and Siora (in different saves; can’t do ‘em both in one), using a guide, but by the time I had thought about romancing, I’d already said one wrong thing to Vasco and screwed my chances hahaha. There’s basically 3 specific conversations you have to have with them, and each time you have to pick the right thing to say, out of three choices. If you offend them at all, there’s no going back. Wow. They’re not very intuitive, either. ANYWAY. The romances aren’t all that interesting, but they add a bit to their stories, so it’s cool. I think my ship preferences with these four characters are Kurt, Siora, Vasco, and Aphra, in that order. But you KNOW WHAT? I wanna romance Petrus. Yes, the old man. The bishop. And yeah, I know why you can’t. (It’s spoiler time!) You can’t romance him basically for the exact reason you should be able to romance him: he was in love with your mom. Your birth mom, who was a native, which you never knew about. He pined for her after she was captured and taken from her land, and when she was in pain and wanted to die, he didn’t help, and now he’s like “woe is me, I’m flooded with guilt”. Which is partly why he’s following you/ de Sardet around. So you can’t romance him because he sees you as his kid... kinda?... ish?... I guess? Sure. Ok. I mean, that’s cute. I like it. He makes a pretty bad dad, to be honest, because he’s more like that one slightly morally corrupt uncle who lets you drink hard alcohol when you’re a teenager but only under his supervision. But he cares, and that’s the important thing. I don’t dislike dad-Petrus at all. But you should still be able to romance him because of the good old classic “you’re so much like your mother”. Problematic? MAYBE. =D But a real missed opportunity. Also he’s my favorite companion. He’s a real manipulator. Gets excited about blackmailing politicians. Sounds like he’s smoked a pack a day. I just like the guy a lot. (And you know how much fanart he has? Like none. Le sigh.) (Also very few ship fics with him; I’m not surprised, but of course I must remedy this. I’m 4k in already and it’s a lot of de Sardet thinking, and her friends poking at her.) BUT ALSO, to move on from Petrus. There’s a character I neglected to mention at all, because he’s not a playable companion (except for a tiny while in the beginning, iirc). He’s perhaps my real favorite character... or maybe tied with Petrus. Yes, it’s Constantin, de Sardet’s “dear cousin”. Oh my lord, Constantin. What a cutie??? He’s basically the prince. He’s been appointed as the governor of their city on the new island, and he’s precious. Genuinely a puppy. And I think you should be able to romance him. (It’s less crazy than you might think!) MORE SPOILERS TIME So, as it turns out (well, I already sort of spoiled it up there), because de Sardet is actually a native, s/he and Constantin are not actually cousins. They love each other immensely. The game makes no mistake about this. They’re absolutely besties. I think Constantin calls you his lucky star. He’s always so flattering, and seeing de Sardet just makes his day. And since it turns out you’re not really cousins, you should be able to romance him. And do you know why? I mean, because they love each other, clearly. But also, that ending. Good lord that ending. I mean, if you didn’t think that they loved each other that much, the ending basically says, “HEY ACTUALLY they totally love each other more than anything”, which makes it terribly depressing either way, because you can either... well, stay with him forever, to the detriment of literally everyone else, or, you know, not stay with him, in order to kind of save everyone. It’s already very heart-wrenching, but letting them literally be in love? GAWD. Talk about pulling heartstrings. It would have made the ending like... an actual choice. (BIG SPOILER BELOW although you probably already guessed.) Yeah so you have to kill Constantin to save the island. OR, you two can become the new gods, and everyone fears you and it’s terrible. Lordy. Just terrible either way, because there’s no way you played the game and didn’t end up loving Constantin somewhere along the way, even when the red flags started going up that he’d gone power mad. (Because even when he’s power mad, he still obviously loves de Sardet SO MUCH, OH my god...) So. As I said. You should be able to romance Petrus because, well, I want to. Need me that problematic ship, c’mon! And you should be able to romance Constantin because the whole plot is literally written that way??? It’s like the romance that is set in stone, you know? And it literally drives the plot. The whole “Constantin gets native powers and decides he wants to be a god” thing was sort of predictable (as soon as it started happening, because shit, I didn’t have a clue what was going to happen before!), but overall I thought the game and story were pretty good. I recommend playing it if you’re got 40 hours free and it’s really on sale or something. I give it an 8.2 out of 10. (Higher if it didn’t start to feel kind of grindy at points. Lower if I’d had to pay for it. Much higher if they let you romance your pseudo-dad or pseudo-cousin, hahaha.)

#elo talks #Greedfall #elo rambles #not a coherent review actually just me giving a rundown of the game and characters #and then babbling about ships that didn't happen #long post

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theirrationalzone · 3 years

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Yakkin ‘bout Games: Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yakking ‘bout Games is a series where I talk about games that I’m currently playing or have just finished. It can be new or old, console or PC, good or bad, it really doesn’t matter. If it’s a game worth talking about, you’ll see it covered here.

I think it’s fair to say that the FPS genre has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance over the last decade and a bit. The modern military shooters that dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s have become less common. We have seen the return of classic franchises like Doom and Half-Life, and we have also witnessed the influx of “boomer shooters” like Dusk and Amid Evil. A lot of cool stuff indeed.

With that being said, let’s take a trip back a few years. 2014 to be exact.

This was the first year of the (then) brand spanking new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The two consoles were not off to the best of starts though. Their early exclusives like Killzone Shadow Fall, InFamous Second Son, Forza Motorsport 5 and Dead Rising 3 had failed to impress. The only games picking up the slack were multi-platform releases like Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. The only FPS games available at the time (other than Killzone on PS4) were Call of Duty Ghosts (dull as dishwater) and Battlefield 4 (I enjoyed it but it was completely broken on release.)

Not exactly the most exciting of times for an FPS fan on console.

Wolfenstein: The New Order finally came along that May. It had been announced the year prior but it didn’t have much fanfare behind it. The initial E3 showing didn’t really impress anyone and there wasn’t really a great excitement for the game’s release. Perhaps it was because the previous Wolfenstein game was largely ignored by people or maybe because people were skeptical due to the game being MachineGames’ (the developer) first effort. People needn’t have worried though. The game turned out to be a massive surprise. It ended up being one of the best of that year.

Why am I covering this now? It’s because I recently got the urge to play it again after all these years. Plus I wanted to see how it would function in a post modern Doom world. So with that in mind, let’s get psyched and see how the game holds up.

Never has a smile brought terror to my heart so fast. Well this and my last dental appointment...

The New Order is set in an alternate universe where the Nazis won World War II due to their advanced technology being too much for the Allied forces. After an operation to try and assassinate the spearhead behind this growing technological evolution goes horribly wrong, Captain William “B.J.” Blazkowicz ends up taking a piece of shrapnel to the back of the head which puts him into a vegetative state. He ends up spending fourteen years in a Polish mental asylum before finally being awoken again due to witnessing a horrible atrocity committed by the Nazis. B.J. is now in the alien world of 1960 where the Nazis rule over the world with an iron fist. It’s up to B.J. to link up with the remnants of the Resistance and take the fight back to the Nazis once and for all.

The story was and still is one of the most surprising elements of The New Order. It paints a brutal picture of a world controlled by an evil and ruthless force who will stop at nothing to assert their dominance. The cast as well are very memorable. You have the plucky and likable Resistance fighters who you get to spend quite a bit of time with. You then have some memorable encounters with the evil figureheads of the Nazi regime at certain parts of the story. Anyone who has seen the train sequence in this game knows exactly what I’m taking about. I have to give MachineGames credit as well for the characterisation of B.J. himself. They managed to turn a character who was known for being a badass Nazi killer to a very sympathetic and likable Nazi killer. B.J. in this game is weary and tired after years of fighting evil and tyranny at every corner. The man wants nothing more than for the war to be over so he can hang up his guns and finally settle down. How could you hate the man after hearing something like that?

B.J. is such an upstanding guy that he would infiltrate a Nazi controlled train just to get you some coffee. Liberation and a Cappuccino, you can’t beat it.

The real bread and butter of The New Order though is the gameplay. It has held up fantastically for the most part. Combat is a blast thanks to the very meaty arsenal at your disposal including assault rifles, shotguns, marksman rifle and a Laserkraftwerk which allows you to blast enemies to smithereens. You’ll have plenty of enemy types to cut through including rank and file soldiers, big mech suit soldiers with heavy weaponry and robots that have massive lasers. B.J. has a few abilities though to help turn the tide of battle. Leaning is one such ability and it’s implemented very well. How it works is that if you hold the L1 button, it locks B.J. in place and you can then use the left stick to lean at different angles. It’s super useful. Earning a well placed few shots at a Nazi from a very awkward angle never gets old. B.J. also has the ability to dual-wield certain weapons to deal even more hefty damage to his foes. Press up on the d-pad and prepare to bring the carnage. While this is a pretty fun feature, it does limit your movement speed and it can result in you burning through ammo quite quickly. It also is restricted to two types of the same weapon. You can also find upgrades for weapons which give them different ammo types and fire modes. The Laserkraftwerk, for example, can be used to cut through certain boxes and materials which is pretty nifty.

In terms of how health works, it’s a hybrid between classic pick-ups and regeneration. You can recover health by picking up health packs and food throughout the game. Armor can be found as well to allow you to take some extra damage. If you take health damage and managed to find cover, you’ll eventually get 10 health points back. You also have the ability to overcharge your health. How this works is that if you end up picking up a health item that takes you over your max health, you get higher health points for a brief period which is quite useful. You can increase your max health by finding hidden health upgrades throughout some of the levels.

AI is decent for the most part. They will attempt to find cover in the heat of a firefight and they do try to flank you. Some of the heavy soldiers will also attempt to rush your position. I certainly didn’t notice any unusual behaviour from them. Boss fights are a bit unremarkable for the most part. The game pretty much spells out how to take them out and they don’t really put up much of a fight. The main exception being the final boss but even then, it really isn’t that hard.

The secret painting boss fight was an interesting idea though. Definitely a canvas for them to work on in the future. (Apologies for the bad pun and joke.)

The game does have a basic stealth system and it works fine. When you enter most of the areas in the game, you will be informed that there are two commanders in the area. Take them out without being spotted and you can sneak through the area without having to worry about reinforcements if you get spotted by an enemy. You can take down enemies stealthily by using a silenced pistol, throwing knives or by sneaking up to them and performing a takedown. Stealth can feel a little overpowered during some of the early sections because the pistol is super accurate and it only takes one headshot to take some of these enemies down. The game does balance this a bit better later on as areas are populated with more elite enemies that harder to kill without being spotted.

Being a Wolfenstein game, you would expect exploration to be a big part of the gameplay and it does play a part for sure. There are hidden areas to be found with collectibles such as the Enigma codes which can unlock new difficulties and cheat codes. You can also find hidden max HP upgrades and other stuff as well. Maps can be found in each level which will indicate possible hidden secrets with a question mark. Levels are definitely more linear than some of the prior Wolfenstein games so don’t expect huge hidden areas or levels.

Key and item hunting still exists of course. You will find doors that require a key or a tool needed to progress which requires a bit of skulking around to find that key or item. You see this especially in the Resistance HQ sections which occur after most of the levels. In these sections, you will be tasked with finding a certain item for a character to progress to the next level. There are also side missions where you can do the same thing for other characters in the HQ and completing these unlocks extras such as artwork. I’m mixed on the Resistance HQ sections overall. On the one hand, they’re good from a lore perspective because you can overhear conversations from some of the characters and there are newspaper clippings and notes to find which do a good job of building up the world. On the other hand, they do feel a little bit like filler. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose...

I don’t really have many issues with the gameplay as a whole. My only real gripe is how the weapon wheel works. Weapon wheels are commonplace on console because a controller doesn’t have many buttons when compared to a keyboard. Makes perfect sense. The New Order’s one however can be such a temperamental thing to use. How it’s supposed to work is that you hit the R1 button to bring up the wheel and then you use the right stick to pick the weapon you want. Sounds simple enough. In reality what happens is that the game ends up giving you the wrong weapon time after time. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times that I tried to switch to the assault rifle and the game switched me to the dual-wield pistols instead. It can be a bloody nuisance. Part of this is down to how sensitive the stick is when using the wheel. It’s way too fast. Also why do the dual-wield options even need to be there? You can already hit up on the d-pad to dual-wield a particular weapon plus I didn’t really need to dual-wield all that much so it’s just clutter. They could have cleaned this up a lot better. I also had issues with swapping back to the previous weapon. It would sometimes default back to the Laserkraftwerk even though it wasn’t my previous weapon. Thankfully these issues didn’t get me killed but they certainly got on my nerves a little bit.

Textbook schadenfreude here from one of the villains. Shouldn’t be that shocked really...

From a graphics point of view, Wolfenstein: The New Order still holds up remarkably well. It runs on the same idTech engine that powered Rage before it and it certainly looks great. Character models are well detailed and they animate well. Cutscenes are well framed and the angles are perfectly done. Environments are beautifully crafted with amazing detail so whether you are in rainy soaked London or even the friggin’ Moon, you feel immersed in the world of the game.

I wasn’t kidding about the Moon. Look Ma, I’m in space! (In a video game...)

The game is quite aliased on the consoles. You definitely see sharp and jagged edges at times. Plus the textures look a bit low-res when viewed up close, but the game still looks great, and I imagine the PC version cleans up most of this stuff anyway so there’s that.

Tumblr’s image compression doesn’t do this environment justice. Oh well. C’est la vie, I suppose...

I can’t fault the game’s sound though. All voice performances are pitch-perfect with Brian Bloom (the voice of B.J.) being the standout. The music is incredible too with a great balance between atmospheric tracks and hard edged ones when the action really kicks off. It’s composed by a guy named Mick Gordon. Don’t think he’s done anything of note since though.

In terms of length, you’re looking at about roughly 8-10 hours for a first time playthrough. There is replay value with the collectibles and the Timeline system. To briefly explain, the Timeline system is related to a choice you make at the start of the game which changes some of the characters you encounter during the game. It doesn’t drastically change much. The events remain the same. You just get some unique dialog and a scene or two. Not much else.

So as you can see, I think that Wolfenstein: The New Order is still a bloody good time. The shooting still feels great with some really meaty weapons, the story and characters are super engaging, and the presentation and sound still kicks some ass. It has some minor issues here and there, but this game is well worth experiencing. You can pick it up pretty cheap nowadays on most of the platforms and it does go on sale quite often.

It’s nice to go back sometimes and revisit a classic, isn’t it?

Check back here soon for Part 2 of this where I take a look at The Old Blood. Until then, stay safe, folks!

#wolfenstein #ps4 #video games #yakkingboutgames

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