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bluecoolr · 1 year

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Creeping Death

Episode 4: Stained Scarlet [Part 1]

Warnings: MINORS DNI! descriptions of nudity, gore, body horror, and swearing

Featuring Percy @the-pinstriped-hood , Skulk @probably-a-plant-thing , Red @damien-mlm , and Scarlet @kalid-raven

A/N: Some of Percy’s parts were written by the lovely @the-pinstriped-hood!

Having lost all leads and what little support they had from the local police force, Reinhart and Angel were forced to return to New Orleans disgraced. They were assigned to new, less high profile cases, after Brody Morgan’s mogul father publicly condemned the Police Department for its inefficiency. The case was quickly growing cold, and the boys seemed to have been ultimately swallowed by whatever Beast it was that haunted Devil’s Peak.

Reinhart, however, was not yet ready to let it win.

Angel watched him string together conjectures, contrivances, and conspiracies on the bulletin board of their shared office; like a tireless spider spinning a web - and at the very center of it was Darrell Todd.

—

Ever since that day at the bar, Darrell had craved distractions. He felt like an overturned tortoise with its underbelly exposed. He was trying very hard to roll right-side up. The time he spent off work and away from his partners was devoted to compulsive cleaning. He scrubbed, brushed, and polished all that he could get his hands on in his trailer.

He was twice as agitated since he found that his magic 8 ball was missing. He had his keys, yes, but it was nowhere on the keyring.

“Where’s your magic 8 ball now?” that awful man had jeered.

Darrell could feel the weight of him, like a stuffy scarf draped across his shoulders, now that the one thing that kept him in check - kept him at bay - was gone. He was free to roam around, bury his toes in the crumbly earth, and let himself soak in the ice cold rain.

He was talking louder these days. Boredom made him gab.

Worse, exhaustion and hypervigilance made Darrell feel like he was slipping, as though he was nodding off at the wheel. His greatest fear was that one day he’d find himself locked in the trunk and Bright Eyes with the keys to the car.

Presently, Darrell was trying to reset the dent Cristabella had driven into the side of the trailer.

“I don’t care ‘f it rains or freezes, long’s I got m’plastic Jesus sittin’ on the dashboard o’ my car…” Darrell hummed as he tapped the aluminum wall with a wooden meat mallet. “Come in colors pink and pleasant, glows ‘n the dark ‘cause it’s iridescent-”

The unpleasant voice spoke up. Put your back into it or we’ll be here all day.

Can’t or I’ll drive a hole into the bedroom wall.

Darrell continued with his little ditty and hammered away. Bright Eyes made a little miffed sound and grasped the handle tighter.

Oh, let me do it!

He slammed the wall back into shape, knocking several posters and pictures down from where they hung. Hurling the mallet to the side, he crab-walked around to gather them up. “Goin’ 90 I ain’t scared, long’s I got the Virgin Mare tellin’ me that I won’t go to hell-”

Bright Eyes stopped to inspect the polaroids in his hand. The subject of the photograph was facing away. Her shapely bottom, scantily clad in a paper-thin thong, was obviously the focal point of the shot. Tastefully erotic.

“And you let that ass go?” said Bright Eyes aloud.

He put the polaroid in the back of the stack and admired the next. The same woman, now facing the camera, was sitting on a velveteen couch. The back of her black dress had been undone, and it lay bunched around her hips. Dark hair spilled over her slender shoulders. Bright Eyes’ stare strayed to her breasts, but it lingered long on her face.

Her pretty face was turned slightly to the left, but her eyes were looking away. There was a playful glint in them, and there was a blur of white where her teeth bit softly into her pierced lower lip. Scarlet. He wondered where she was, how she was doing.

His phone was buzzing somewhere.

Bright Eyes went down the hall into the kitchen, set the sheaf of photos on the table, and picked up his phone. Percy had sent him a message.

Hey! You forgot your magic trinket, mind if I drop it by?

Fuck. Just when he thought he’d seen the last of it.

A few moments went by and Percy got a reply;

- My 8 ball! I was wondering where that went! Where’d you find it?

- You can thank Mac for that. I’m packing a bag now, I’m gonna try and get a hotel.

- There’s room in the trailer. If you don’t mind tight quarters, that is.

Bright Eyes glanced around in a panic. He really had the gall to have her over when the place was in this state? Too late. She’d taken him up on his word.

“Do we even have food to offer? S’matter o’ fact, I’m starvin’.” Bright Eyes opened the fridge and the pantry. He figured they had time to run to the store and get a few things and straighten up the place.

Percy called Darrell when she was half way to Devil’s Peak. “Hey, baby boy! Almost there. Making good time.”

There was a delay before Darrell voiced a reply. Bright Eyes cleared his throat, moistened his lips. “Hey, ma’am.” God, he sounded so hoarse. “Good to know. Head on over, but walk the clear path. Don’t stray from the old trail. Cristabella stalks for stragglers.”

Something had changed. She noticed right away. His tone. It was different - cold, tactical. “Alright. See you soon, sweet boy! Say hi to Cookie and Chili Pepper for me!”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

—

The car ride was lessened by Percy’s music as the Benatar cruised into Devil’s Peak. The vandalized sign she passed read "Prick", however. No doubt the work of some troublesome youths. Driving up the mountain, she found a suitable place to park in a gravel clearing meant for hikers and campers back when the trail was still in use.

It was empty now, with barely readable signs and rotting picnic tables. The whole lot was wrapped in a rusting chain link fence, with large tears here and there.

Thank God she didn’t wear heels. Sneakers crunched on jagged gray gravel and the hard earth of the mountain trail. She had to leave her Benatar for a while. The lock chirped and she began her ascent.

She found the trailer in the middle of the woods. Just as she stepped through the underbrush, she heard the loud squealing of a pig. In a flash, her back slammed against the trailer wall, heart hammering and eyes staring down who she could only assume was Cristabella.

The large black razorback, jowls hung with slobber, huffed at the supposed intruder until

Psst!

Percy shot a glance where the sound had come from. “Who’s there?” she cried.

By the door, tall and imposing, was Darrell. He bared his teeth at the inhospitable hog and barked, “Get!” with the ferocity of a predator. Cristabella trotted off.

Her face softened as she ran towards her son and into the trailer, the door closing behind her. “Oh sweetheart, thank you!” she sighed as she hugged him.

“Don’t mention it.” Darrell locked the door, looking through the glass for any more signs of the hog. “Sorry ‘bout that. She’s been real rude lately. She’s up for the matriarchy, ya know? When the time comes, she’ll take over from her Ma.”

Darrell looked her over, afraid she had been injured. “You alright, ma’am?”

“I’m fine sweetheart.” She looked up into his eyes. Something different for sure. She sat down on the dinette sofa. She was looking for something. She looked away and pulled the 8 ball out of her purse. “Here,” she said, “You can thank Macavity for playing with it while I was trying to vacuum under the couch.”

Darrell smiled at her, bright eyes crinkling. “Oh, no harm done,” he cooed, genially enough. Percy caught the little look of disgust he gave the trinket before he tossed it somewhere on the counter.

She studied him, eyes washing over him in contemplation. “So, I heard you got caught. Bo told me everything.”

"Chh!" Darrell scoffed. “Yeah. Ain’t gonna lock me up that easy.”

Percy’s attention fell on the stack of pictures on the table. Darrell gathered them leisurely and continued, “I got a whole contingency plan for things like this. Still in motion, but, yeah.”

His brown leather jacket hung on the back of the sofa. He opened the lapels and tucked the polaroids of Scarlet in the inner breast pocket.

He kicked back and crossed his legs. “Ain’t nobody ‘round here gonna put me away.”

“Something's wrong."

Darrell's brows shot up in intrigue.

"I could have sworn I was speaking to a stranger." Percy narrowed her eyes. “I've heard of it happening but… Who are you, really?”

The cockiness. The disregard for the 8 ball. That wasn’t Darrell. It was all slowly coming together; The mysterious dismissal from the Marines, the blatant god complex when he hunted, the infallibility that washed over him when he pursued travelers; Like he was a completely different person.

She remembered speaking with Red. "Bright-eyed bastard," she recalled him saying. "I thought Red was joking…"

Darrell sat still, kept quiet, drummed his fingers on the table.

"Is that what they call you? Bright Eyes?"

Percy felt like she was staring into the eyes of a dangerous animal. In fact, she felt no safer than when she had been looking at Cristabella. Darrell grinned and batted his pretty lashes.

"Ya really are a smart lil somethin', ain't ya, ma'am?"

Percy watched him.

"Guess ya can't make great detective novels if ya ain't." Bright Eyes studied her expression. "Don't be scared… Momma." The word was new to him, and he let it roll off his tongue delicately. "We've met before."

"It's me, Darrell."

Percy held his chin in the palm of her hand, face shining with the glow of motherly fondness. “So, it is,” she said, “Hello, darling.”

Ducking shyly, Bright Eyes peered through his lashes and smiled.

Percy hooked the magic 8 ball with Darrell’s keyring and slid across the table it to the young man - whichever of the two. His left hand remained clenched tight, but the right one reached for the ball and he wore the ring around his forefinger.

“Now,” Percy put her hands together. “The long drive sure made me hungry. Know anywhere we can grab a bite?”

“I know just the place.”

Arm in arm, the pair made the lengthy walk to the clearing, since Percy insisted on taking her car to town. She was thrilled by the thought of seeing Red again at the diner he worked at. “Oh, sweetheart,” she said, getting out of the car. They had parked in front of some shops a couple of blocks from the diner.

“Yeah?” said Darrell, smoothing the front of his jacket. He whipped his hair out of his face and accepted Percy’s hand.

“You think I could maybe meet Skulk while I’m in town?” asked Percy.

Darrell rubbed his dry nose with the knuckle of his forefinger. “Heh. If I know Skulk, He’s already met you. You just don’t know it yet.” He glanced around as they walked, hoping to spot him in some queer hiding spot. It wouldn’t be the first time he stalked Darrell.

But someone else caught Darrell’s eye, someone he had never seen in town before; A man with a greasy, pockmarked face, wielding a hefty camera. “I see him, too,” whispered Percy. “You’d think he’d hide better. God, I hate paparazzi.”

The man kept taking pictures. Darrell could hear the shutter clicking incessantly. Beside him, Percy’s voice sounded distant and discordant. “I shouldn’t have sent the publishing house that headshot. It’s so much better to be a faceless author.”

Oh, but we both know it isn’t her they’ve come for, now don’t we?

Darrell grew rigid, like a deer bathed in headlights. The shutter kept clicking. Darrell felt a tremor in his eye.

Big smile, now. They’ve caught you.

—

He was distracted for most of the meal. So when Red came to their table to catch up with Percy, Darrell excused himself and stood in the twilit parking lot, the frosty air nipping his skin and bruising his already sensitive nose. His eyes darted from one dark shape to another. One sick thought kept running circles in his mind. It didn’t work, they’re onto us.

“Hey.”

Darrell spun around with such violence that he stumbled. Red reached out to steady him just in time. “Hey! Hey, it’s ok. It’s just me.” Red caressed his cheek. “You seem out of it, man.”

“I’m fine. It’s just… allergies.”

It was a poorly thought up excuse, really, but Darrell didn’t want to alarm him. Not now when he wasn’t sure whether the photographer was a P.I. or a mere paparazzo. He faced Red and tried to lose himself in his familiarity.

It dawned on him then how haggard Red looked. There were dark circles around his eyes, and his cheeks were pale and hollow.

Darrell held him at arm’s length, floored by how he had only noticed the state Red was in. “Are you alright, Red? Like, really.”

There was a flash of alarm that made Red’s eyes grow wide. “Yeah. Just… tired. I guess,” he said meekly.

“I’ll come stay with you when Momma goes home, ok?” said Darrell, gaining a hasty nod.

“Don’t… worry about me.”

They heard the diner door rattle closed and saw Percy fixing the contents of her purse. “I went ahead and paid the check, Darrell dear. Is there somewhere you wanna go before we turn in for the night?” She turned to Red. “Do you want us to wait, sweetie? I can give you a lift.”

“Oh, no! You’ll be here a while if you do. I’ll be fine. You two go on ahead.”

They said their goodbyes and Darrell and Percy started the journey back to the trailer. After much persuasion, Percy agreed to take Darrell’s bed. She wouldn’t be half as comfortable on the pull-out couch, he insisted.

Darrell fell asleep with a dry, scratchy feeling in his nose. It was as if the cold had burrowed in the soft space under the cartilage like a furry, white mouse with tiny claws.

—

There was a tree in a glade.

He was in the woods behind his parents' house. He knew without looking.

There was a tree in a glade and he was standing right in front of it.

What kind of tree was it? He forgot.

But it was big, with parasitic branches that reached out and tangled themselves with their neighbors and covered the world in shadow.

The earth grasped by the roots was dark, damp, pungent. That meant it was fertile, which was strange because all around the trees were dying. It was autumn.

There were wounds on the trunk. Red sap spilled out in dark viscous rivulets, staining the roots and the ground.

The tree was staring back, which was a weird thing to think because trees didn't have eyes.

But then again trees shouldn't bleed either.

The ground reeked of iron and suddenly the trunk began to crack. Splinters flew and a purple arm tumbled out of the fissure. Black hair obscured where the arm met the shoulder as the body it was connected to slumped like a discarded ragdoll.

But in the way of nightmares, the body spasmodically changed from slumped to sitting. Glassy gray eyes stared blank and wide, mouth slightly open. Black rot like tar stuck the hair to the skin.

There was a tree in a glade and Red was in it.

Darrell woke in the small hours with the front of his shirt glistening, his lips slick with his own blood.

—

Hiya! I'm back with more canon!Darrell content! This was getting too long so I took Damien's advice and cut it in half.

Tagging some moots that might enjoy this: @rottent33th @slaasherslut @kalid-raven @vincent-sinclair-deserved-better @immortal-velociraptor @allthingsblood @goldrose-star

Every part can be found under the creeping death tag if you wanna start from Episode 1 btw <3

#darrell todd #slasher oc #oc writing #creeping death #bluecoolr.txt #tw gore #tw body horror #tw nudity

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grasslandgirl · 1 year

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1, 14, 24 for any, 48, 49!!

mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

sfjkvnksjfbs this is so difficult bc i feel like so much of what i write is impossibly niche and only for myself and a handful of my friends skjfvnsk so i have no idea what an effective introduction to my body of work would be. my figayda coffeeshop au, maybe? just because i think it's really solid and a good demonstration of my narrative style/rhythm? alternately, my figfabian lounge singer au for similar reasons? i dunno ksjfnksjf

honorable mention jamie @gilears and my 2nd pov figgorgug fic we wrote last year bc its some of my favorite and best work and one of the things i've most enjoyed writing-- and i think it's a really solid hook into figgorgug, which i have not been able to stop writing since kjsfnbvksfjbn

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer?

i really only read oc-heavy if i really trust the author!! as a genre/style of fic they don't usually hold a lot of appeal for me unless i know the person writing it/ the backstory and process of the oc/ trust the author to build and integrate appropriate and interesting ocs (a really great example of this is santeri @fearlessjournalism 's brushfire, and also casey all of your clsoc fic <3)

24. Are there any easter eggs in [insert fic], and if so, what are they?

idk if it's really an easter egg but jam and i have a running joke about a handful of beats/moments i keep putting into my figgorgug fics, with varying amounts of intention; including but not limited to: diners, pancakes, (fig) sitting on counters/tables, sunflowers, stolen clothes/sweatshirts, and kissing hands <3

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

i was looking around through the zuko/sokka tag and read a modern nye get together fic and it was. fine. readable but not something i'd bookmark or send to people like "oooh i really liked this"

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

working on a fig/gorgug right person wrong time fic rn 😵‍💫 having many thoughts in my silly little head about it <3

There’s something rotting inside of her. Fig’s always been a little on the wrong side of selfish; Sandra Lynn says she gets it from her, but maybe it’s the hell influence too. She wants to be happy for her friends, the freedom from Aguefort and school and childhood thats burning on the horizon for all of them. A whole class of peers ready to stumble forward into the real world all together- college and work and more adventures and quests ready for the taking. Fig wants to be happy, wants to glow with a vicarious joy when Fabian talks about learning specialty knots and sending letters to Garthy and Jamina on the Leviathan. Or when Riz rolls out his conspiracy board and talks through it to them with tapping fingers that itch to get back on the road- with Penny, this time. Fig wants to join in on the excitement when Gorgug and Kristen make plans for finding a cafe on campus that’s theirs and trying to convince the dorms to let them room together. But she’s not. Because Fig can’t help but feel like everyone’s moving on without her. Like it’s the last weeks of eighth grade all over again and her horns are finally getting too big to be covered by her hair and all her (ex) friends have stopped pretending to make plans for the summer or for freshman year with Fig, anymore. The Bad Kids have been Fig’s roots, and her wings, and all the other metaphors she’s shoved into her songs all these years, and she doesn’t really know what she’s going to do with herself without them. Now that it feels like they’re all going their separate ways, with no school year starting in the fall to drag them back together. It’s just Fig, and the band she started because she wanted to scream and hear Gorgug slam on the drums- only this time it’s really just Fig.

send me numbers from this fic writer's ask list!!

#asks #mwah mwah mwah mwah caseyyy #welcome to sav fg fic number ??? eighteen??? including all my wips ???#i love being crazy and insane ksfjnsfb

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uncanny8ellen · 2 years

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How I fell for the bastard,

Karl Heisenberg

I remember the exact moment I fell in love with our all time favorite, showy, ill-tempered metal engineer. I was watching YouTube videos, cuz that's what I do for pastime activity when I got no brain power for books. I watch game plays mostly. I was watching Markiplier video, and yes, him gushing over the infamous 'Lady dimidom' was cute. Mark u simp lol.

Anyway when he first showed up I wasn't that interested. His voice was good,kinda familiar, then I realized it's Neil Newborn. I realllllly liked Elijah Kamsky from dbh, so I was glad to know he voice acted in the game.

Back to our mechanic. His vibe? Cool. Smoking cigar, giant metal hammer slung over shoulder, kinda military look. Oh, nice sunglasses, dude. His speech too. "Well, well. Didn't think anyone was left! You must be preeetty tough, huh." My immediate thought was, 'oh he's got a showman's vibe!' All the metals levitating in the air, and I knew he was trouble for our guy Ethan. Duke only confirmed my suspicion later. After Ethan got dragged to the trial I laughed at "-and if a man's dick is cut off in the castle blah blah blah.", also at the "nothing like fresh American ground beef!"

Then after Ethan's murderous journey to get his ikea furniture equivalent of daughter, a TV crackles. And I was like, oh? Deja vu? But he was different from Lukas Baker. Much less chaotic, for one. He didn't seem that psychotic compared to that guy. More put together. I saw the whole, 'landing a hand' coming from miles away. Duke did say he's the most dangerous one, after all. And I had a feeling that he wasn't just referring to his mutant power.

With all the purring and threatening, it was more amusing if anything. Testing the person who murdered 3 Lords, Vârcolacs, Lycans in the village all on his own with guns, bombs and some herb juice, by sending him to the lycan infested stronghold. To me Ethan was just one hell of a guy. Sure we all suspected he's not human, but imagine a normal computer engineering guy going through all that. Damn. And Heisenberg was ballsy enough to test him. That or he really was the strongest. Either way, I liked his style. "See you, Ethan." Bless ya Neil Newborn.

And really, when Ethan got to the factory (I absolutely love industrial vibe. Didn't really know he was a metal-welding, real mechanic sort of guy until Ethan got to the factory. REAL ASS ENGINEER WHO OWNS A BIGASS FACTORY), I was a bit excited. Even from outside, the building was big. And just like him, the place was unpredictable. After all the hype, I wanted to see this guy's deal.

Then comes the 'proposal scene'. Yes the one where Karl confesses his undying love for Ethan and asks him to marry him.

Kiddin. That voice clip still cracks me up. All hail Neil Newborn.

When Ethan pulled the cloth away and BAM! conspiracy board showed up, I was smiling. Then the devil pops outta nowhere, walking n talking like a showboat he is, and although I was sure the guy had quite a temper, considering his earlier outburst at the church, his movements seemed.....weirdly calculated. When he slammed that chair down and told Ethan to take a seat, that move seemed calculated too.

That made me actually pause the video and think. Everything about him exuded pride. From the very moment he's introduced in the game, he was nothing but charisma and confidence. 'Most dangerous Lord'. A recluse. Huge factory.

And I wondered. Is that enough for him?

The main reason I didn't find him that great of a character was because at first, I felt the villians were a bit flat. Actually, I found all of the Lords a bit...boring up until Ethan escaped the gauntlet. Everything felt cliché, a heroic father looking for his daughter and defeating monsters. Just another fairy tale. Another bad vs good.

Then I saw how Lady Dimitrescu cried for her daughters. Daniela saying she doesn't want to die before she turns to ash, although she did try to murder Ethan. Shocking reveal of Donna lying in the place of Angie, eyes vacant, blood trickling down her face. And yes, I noticed the bloody hand prints she left at the door frame and wallpapers as she was running away from Ethan. That was heartbreaking. Letting her gardener see his loved one again. Claudia Beneviento...

I don't know much about Moreau, but I do know he got multiple cadous implanted. Maybe that's why his mutation was unstable. Cheese loving, cheesy romantic movies loving, cheesy guy that got effed in the head and is a kid looking for his mommy. That was just...sigh. He had to be put down. Damn Miranda.

Then there was this guy who was clearly smart and ambitious. I started to get excited. I resumed the video. "It's a test. To see if you're strong enough to be apart of Mirander's family." 'You're way off the mark, pal,' I thought. But that was a valid guess.

"Neither did I, but here we are!" Being forced into a 'family'. That was interesting. Of course this wild man could never tolerate the confines of his laughable 'family'.

"Kill me, move up the chain, well fuck that!" Yeah! Fuck that! Fuck the cult bullshit! I got reeeally excited. Here I also noticed his voice sounding a little weird. Slightly distorted.

Then the revving started up again. It dawned on me why my intuition was screaming at me about that chair slam. 'DANGER!!!' The guy seemed all brash and brutish but he had a plan. This guy was smart. Not booksmart or wisdom smart, but the way he acted. The chair was directly in front of that hole.

Take the outsider to Mother dearest. Brownie point + avoid suspicion. Waiting until Ethan takes out other Lords. Strong guy? Potential ally. Negotiation first, if fail, down you go. I personally like the headcannon where Heisenberg was the one who painted yellow all over the village. The ammo crates, levers, everything. Makes sense too, he did write those 'papa' signs with yellow paint.

"You and me, Ethan. Together we go save Rose, and we can USE her, to grind Mirander into paste." I immediately knew Ethan was gonna say fuck no to that. What father would agree to use her daughter like that?

But it was at that moment. That moment, my heart just stopped. Yes I died. In my mind, such pleasant realization just poured into my chest. Oh. Oh, he was a rebel. Up against the control freak of a cult leader.

Hey let's go kill my bitch of a surrogate mother. I'm sick of her cult bs, she insane. Imma gon blast her wanna join?

As soon as I realized he's not one of Miranda's pawns, but an unhinged individual planning to take her down, a person, not some toy soldier, I wanted nothing else other than shaking his damn hand. I wanted it so bad. So bad. Why capcom. I get that Ethan wouldn't take that deal. But goddammit.

I fell hard. Been simping ever since. Anything else after that were just cherries and fruit cocktails on top. His maniacal laughter, complaining on speakers while Ethan fights for his life, experiment logs, 'interesting body', HE HAS A CYBORG UNDEAD ARMY?!?!? Heart eyes motherfucker. Production line of soldiers. 'Heisenberg's quarter' but Karl it's a workshop. Where's bed Karl. Karl. Do you sleep on the fucking floor? You doze off sitting in chair?

Stepping down that floating metal stairs with ease. SKILL. Bullet deflected, again, deflected, oh what's this? That distortion from earlier. His voice changing. HIM MUTATING. "Don't, come, hmm Back!!" Just cutting off the platform so Ethan falls in water. Could've killed him right there. Do you like the guy Karl? That why you spared him? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Rain pours and it's so fitting. God. That metal colossus. I shouted, "Fuck didn't know I'm into that shit! Guess I'm a monster fucker then!" And I loved the fight. His theme song. Even his crystal was beautiful.

Miranda's boss fight was anticlimactic compared to his. It was just so intense. Ethan needed a freaking tank and just some luck (Karl turning himself into a fan/grinder and exposing his main reactor. Ethan managed to get back on tank in the air and fire the rpg one last time) to beat him. His boss fight is actually the most difficult out of all the bosses in the game, and if you try village of shadow difficulty, he's almost impossible to kill.

Capcom please, show us that man doing many bad but kinda cool things in DLC I love that man. Please. Let him kill the witch and be the true maniac he is! Come on! Free the rabid man! He belongs in the wild!!!

#resident evil village #karl heisenberg #lord karl heisenberg #resident evil 8 #ethan winters #mother miranda #alcina demitriscu #donna beneviento #salvatore moreau #iron steed #rant #midnight rants #A wild horse running across the field in abondon. What's wrong with wanting to see that?#i need death or coffee #I love you bastard #mad engineer

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mushtoons · 2 years

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Meefis

#(/lh)#*slams my conspiracy board* what could this mean?!?!/j #(no but really wait whats this mean lmaoo/hj)#wood wide web

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mirkwoodshewolf · 2 years

Text

A dark bloodline; Matt Murdock x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Okay so this part of the GUARDIAN DEVIL series is gonna be a bit more graphic so fair warnings here. Also the ending was just randomly thought of (I’ve been playing with the idea of revealing the reader’s father but never knew where to go with it until it hit me like lightning). So enjoy this insane fic and the ultimate PLOT TWIST TO EXPLODE YOUR MINDS!!!

WARNINGS: Descriptive murders, blood, dead bodies, major angst and some fluff? LOTR references (that’ll be a constant thing in this fic).

NEXT CHAPTER

Taglist:

@your-not-invisible-to-me

@queensdivas

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@queen-paladin

@peter-parkers-cullen-nerd

@austynparksandpizza

____________________________________________________________

“No, no, not true.” Peter said.

“Come on Peter it’s right there in color.” Ned tried to reason with him.

“Dude there is no way. Everyone knows that Han shot first.”

“Then why make Greedo shoot first?”

“More importantly why would Greedo miss on the first shot at close-point range for that matter!”

“Ned you do realize that when Lucas re-released the films he added all the unnecessary bits and pieces to help the film look more in the times and added CGI that didn’t really need to be put in.” I spoke up.

“Thank you! See at least (Y/n) gets it.” Peter said pointing to me as we took our seats for advance chemistry.

“What are you losers talking about now?” MJ said as she came over and sat down beside me.

“Ned’s trying to convince us that Han didn’t shoot first.”

“Really Ned? Even I don’t like Star Wars and I know Han shot first.” She said leaned over her seat to look at Ned.

“Why must you all gang up on me like this?”

“Then don’t say stupid conspiracy theories that aren’t true.” I sassed at him which made Peter hide his snicker while MJ held out her first and we fist bumped each other.

“Alright class take your seats.” Our teacher Mrs. Warren said as she walked in and began writing our daily equation on the board.

Class went on as normal. Every now and then I would look up at the clock to see just how much closer it was to lunch. I was almost late this morning and had to skip breakfast this morning, I couldn’t even meet up with Uncle Foggy at our usual donut-shop meet up we do every Tuesday.

“Ms. Perry? Ms. Perry!” I snapped out of my trance and I turned to her. “Are you still with us?”

“Uh-yes Mrs. Warren, sorry.”

“Next time you space out in my class I’ll have you be writing out the class assignments on the board for the next month do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly ma’am.”

“Now then, as I was saying—” suddenly the door opened and there stood Detective Mahoney along with three cops. Everyone stopped what they were doing and just froze as they stared at the cops. “Excuse me but can I help you?”

“We apologize for the intrusion ma’am but we’re looking for someone.” He said handing Mrs. Warren a piece of paper as the cops slowly walked in the classroom.

Some of the students were absolutely terrified as they tried to lower themselves down behind their backpacks or in their textbooks. Others thinking they’d get busted for having their phones out, hid them in their sleeves or under their shirts. That’s when the cops came up to me and MJ.

“Ms. (Y/n) Perry?” an old, white male cop asked me. MJ looked at me perplexed and I slowly answered.

“Yes?”

“Please stand up and place your hands behind your back.” My heart sunk and my jaw slowly dropped.

“What? What did I do wrong? Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Stop it!” the other two cops slammed me to the table and forced my arms behind my back.

“Hey get off her!” MJ exclaimed as she gripped one of the officer’s arm.

“Stay out of this ma’am less you want to get arrested too.” Another younger white male cop seethed at her.

“Can you at least tell her why you’re arresting her!?” Peter exclaimed.

“Yeah. Aren’t cops supposed to do that? And she’s not resisting there’s no need to hurt her!” Ned said in the same panicked yet angry manner. I was forced back up and Mahoney came up to me with a solemn expression.

“Mahoney, what’s going on here?”

“I’m really sorry about this. Believe me never did I think I’d do this but—(Y/n) Perry, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of one Chuck Benedict, and the murders of former police officer Lt. Richard Marks and Iroh Saki. As well as evidence tying you to the disappearance of one Michelle Young and her husband David Young.”

My heart sunk. The first three names I knew of, the first one being the man that Fisk framed as my mother’s killer last year. The other two were my first practice killings while training under Fisk but the last two names……I don’t even know those people.

The two cops gripped my arms tightly as they escorted me out. All the while the kids in my class all whispering to one another.

“Don’t worry (Y/n)! I’ll call your uncles they’ll think of something!”

“Don’t say anything that they’ll use against you! They cannot pass through you!” Ned cried out.

I was escorted down the halls and students who were either going to the bathroom, at lunch or skipping class all saw me handcuffed and being escorted out by the police as well as Mahoney. We left the school and I was put inside a police cruiser, however instead of the passenger seat (like I was given when I went to ID my mom) I was in the back caged like a common criminal.

The cops shut the door and Mahoney got in the passenger seat while one of the cops got in the driver seat and started the car up before driving onward.

“Mahoney please. At least tell me what this is all about?” he sighed solemnly.

“I already told you. You’re lucky it was me to tell you and not some random detective from Queens. These cops however—.” He turned to me and whispered, “Just cooperate and try not to make a scene. I know Nelson and Murdock are your legal guardians but you are your Mother’s daughter and I liked your mother more than anyone at the precinct. So don’t make this any more difficult than this is already.” I nodded and leaned back against the seat.

“Are you the Detective working this case?” I asked him.

“Unfortunately no. Since I knew your mother personally I’m more of a liability to the case. I only offered myself to be the detective to deliver the warrant for your arrest for Hell’s Kitchen.” God I knew this would happen one day.

I knew deep down inside that Chuck wouldn’t keep his mouth shut about what I did to him. Uncle Matt could visit him as many times as Daredevil as he could, but after what I did, what I threatened to do to him had uncle Matt not intervened—no one stays quiet from that.

Wait—oh my god what if this is Fisk? Is this his way of getting me to go back to him? Damnit! It had to be that, he still owned over half the police force, he must’ve interrogated Chuck much like I did to confess my crime to the cops.

And the only way this is ever gonna go away, is if I go back to him. The Kingpin always gets his way, always.

It was a grueling process, and one I hoped I never wanted to go through. I’m just grateful that mom isn’t here to see her daughter like this. Keeping fingerprinted, swabbed for DNA, and of course the famous mugshots.

I was then put in an interrogation room in handcuffs just sitting there waiting, and waiting and waiting in the dark blue room with a single red door. I don’t know how long I waited in there for before two detectives came in and set their folders down.

“Ms. Perry. My name is Lt. Kenda and this is my partner Detective Demery. We’d like to discuss with you about the murders of—”

“I want a lawyer.” I interrupted them. They both looked at me skeptically.

“Very well. We’ll get you one.”

“And I deserve to have my guardians here. By law since I’m still a minor they must be here in here with me during the interrogation process.”

“You know your laws Ms. Perry.” Detective Demery said with an impressed nod.

“Mom was a lawyer.”

“Explains your quick wit.” He spoke again. The door suddenly opened and immediately coming in was Matt and Foggy.

“(Y/n). Don’t you dare say another word to these guys.” Foggy immediately told me.

“Detectives are you aware that it is illegal to interrogate a minor much less arrest them without proper notification to the defendant’s family?”

“Are you her attorney’s?” Lt. Kenda questioned.

“Oh we’re worse Lt. We’re way worse. We’re her Guardians.” Foggy said. A slight smirk came at the corner of my lips.

“Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson.” Uncle Matt introduced themselves to the detectives.

“Of Nelson and Murdock. The attorney’s that worked the Frank Castle case?” Lt. Kenda said. “Now I hope you gentlemen don’t plan to use your position as lawyers and guardians to defend this young woman here.”

“We know. We’re just here as her Guardians. Her attorney will be along shortly.” Uncle Matt said with that head tilt of his towards the door.

“And who’s my lawyer?” I asked.

“That would be me.” Soon a familiar head of long blonde hair walked in wearing a black suit and heels clacking with each step. “(Y/n) Perry?” she said to me. I nodded and she introduced herself (even though I didn’t even need to know her name) “My name is Marci Stahl, I’m your attorney. Now gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to uncuff my client we can get this over with.”

“Ms. Stahl she has been identified as a capital murderer. We can’t simply uncuff her.” Detective Demery said.

“To my records she was arrested in the middle of class, and three eye-witnesses saw firsthand of my client being forced face-down on her own desk as Queen police rough-handled her to cuff her. All the while she showed no resistance. My client is a young, vulnerable, and terrified 17 year old girl. If she wanted to kill or attack anyone in this room she’d put up more of a fight. Plus I doubt she’d try to hurt her own Guardians, don’t you?”

With a brow raised and a challenging look in her eye, Detective Demery unlocked my cuffs and I took them back trying to rub the numbness away. Uncle Matt stopped me before proceeding to do it himself but with a more gentle touch.

“Now then. The charges that my client is facing. How exactly did they get brought up?”

“We received an anonymous tip from someone who was at the warehouse where Chuck Benedict was found over a year and a half ago. Nearly beaten and gutted like a fish.”

“The anonymous tip also provided pictures of Iroh and Marks.” Detective Demery added.

“In over 30 years on the force you think I’d seen it all. But when I heard the account from the witness at the crime scene of Mr. Benedict, and the pictures that were sent to us…..I would’ve thought a professional serial killer was behind all of that. Never did I think a teenage girl could be capable of such masochist.”

I felt uncle Matt give my left forearm a comforting squeeze while Foggy placed his hand over my shoulder, giving the detectives a glare.

“And what about this young couple that went missing? There’s no proof that my client had anything to do with their disappearance. For one there’s no connection between them and my client.” Marci said.

That part is true. Like I said; while I know I’m guilty of the three murders/attempted murder, but the names of Michelle and David Young doesn’t ring a bell at all.

“That may be true, until we saw this. Found alongside the parking lot at the last known place Michelle and David were last seen.” Lt. Kenda pulled out an evidence bag and inside of it was my mother’s Evanstar necklace she gave to me the night of Liz’s sleepover to give me comfort. My heart sped up and I gripped my jeans tightly in my hand. Uncle Matt moved his hand over to my clenched fist and I felt his thumb gently stroke the back of my hand trying to lessen my grip.

“It was her mother’s.” Foggy answered.

“(M/n) Perry. Your old partner?” asked Lt. Kenda.

“Yes. Her killer was never found. And this seems to match the killer’s sick motive of chopping up bodies. It would seem you need to relook into (M/n)’s case instead of hassling a young girl who never got closure for her only parent’s death.” Marci stated.

“We’ll look into it. For now we’ll have to keep you in until your bail is paid for.” Detective Demery said.

“Already taken care of. I paid for her bail. We’ll keep her under our watch and she’ll be sure not to leave town.” Foggy replied firmly. The detectives nodded and told me I was free to go but to stay in town in case they needed me for further-up questions.

They stood up and left the room taking my mother’s Evanstar necklace with them back into evidence. As the door shut Marci let out a heavy sigh.

“You’re lucky I did this out of my good heart Foggy.” Marci said.

“We really appreciate it Marci, thank you.” Foggy said. She nodded.

“Well this isn’t over. These are some serious charges against you (Y/n). You better have not be linked to any of these otherwise this case is as good as solved. I’ll do whatever I can if they can prove anything behind these murders and the random disappearance, but they’ve got a solid case against you if they wish to proceed further on.” She gathered her stuff and walked out of the room.

“You’ve been quiet (Y/n), everything okay?” Foggy asked me. My lip trembled and I felt tears build up in my eyes and I buried my head in my arms as I wept softly.

God this was insane! This had to be Fisk, it had to be! He’s finally making his move to try and get me to come back to him, and if I refuse he’s going to kill not only me but everyone I love.

I felt two hands gently grip my shoulders and I looked up to see uncle Matt looking down at me. He lifted his hand and gently wiped my tears away and he whispered to me.

“We’re gonna figure this out. I promise you won’t spend a single second inside a jail cell.”

“Foggy, do you have a piece of paper? I wanna give you guys my friend’s Peter, MJ and Ned’s number. As well as May Parker, Peter’s aunt.” Foggy looked at me puzzled but he handed me a notepad from his pocket as well as a pen. “Tell them that I won’t be in school for a while, and hell maybe even call Midtown High themselves and drop me out. I doubt anyone’s ever gonna want to see me back there again.”

As I spoke, I quickly wrote a name down on the notepad and slid it over to Foggy and rolled my eyes over to Matt to tell him what I wrote.

FISK!!!

I wrote in bold letters and underlined the name three times. Foggy whispered to Matt and uncle Matt answered to me.

“I don’t think there’s any need for you to drop out. How can you be so sure that the school will think to expel you?” Foggy wrote down below my response to what Matt was trying to say through subtext.

You think he’s making his move against you now? Why do it this way? Out in public.

“You know as well as I do that Midtown High is one of the most prestige high school in Queens. Only those with the IQ’s and the scholarships can get in. And I had to work my butt off for a chance at getting in. All because mom wanted me to be the best I could be.”

He wants the Bobcat to be known. He must’ve found the guy he framed for mom’s death and got him to squeal behind the scenes, allowing me to take center stage. Just like when he tried to ruin your reputation as Daredevil.

“We’ll take care of your school. For now I think it’s best that you stay with Matt for a while. At least until this whole thing blows over and is solved properly.” Uncle Foggy said.

“Hey,” uncle Matt cupped my cheek and had me look towards him. “We’re gonna figure this out. That I can promise you.” He pulled my head closer to his and our forehead gingerly touched one another’s before he gave it a kiss. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

We all stood up and Foggy pocketed his notepad back into his suit pocket and he placed his hands on my shoulders giving them a good old comforting ‘Foggy-bear massage’ as we walked out of the precinct.

Later that night the news was now starting to pick up on the disappearance of the young couple but not mentioning my name. This has got to be Fisk, he’s getting the story out there but not quite naming me. He’s planting the seed before he makes his next move.

“You sure you’ll be alright by yourself? I can always call Foggy or Karen. In fact I think I should.” Uncle Matt’s voice said from his bedroom.

“No, No. Uncle Fog is spending time with his family and Karen’s working overtime, probably trying to make sure my name doesn’t get into the Press.” Uncle Matt came out in his full red Daredevil suit but held the mask in his hand. He came over, set the mask down on the table and knelt down in front of me. “This is all my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play coy uncle Matt you know exactly what I’m talking about!” I snapped angrily. His eyes widened slightly as he leaned back away from me a bit. I sighed heavily, “I’m sorry.”

“Not the first Perry who’s snapped at me like that.” He said with a nonchalant shrug before giving me a slight grin.

“I-I should’ve just talked to you. Or to Foggy or even Karen. Hell a counselor for Christ’s sake! Sorry but……” I buried my face into my hands. “Why did I sign up for that underground fight ring? If I hadn’t then none of this would’ve happened. I never would’ve met Fisk, I never would’ve became the Bobcat, and I wouldn’t have killed those people. I wish none of this had ever happened.”

“So do all who live to see such times but that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” I looked at uncle Matt as he gave me a soft smile. I smiled back at him and embraced him.

“Thank you Aragorn.”

“I thought it was Gandalf that said that line.”

“It was. But you’re not old enough to be Gandalf.” He softly laughed as he embraced me tighter. “Promise me you’ll be safe out there. Whatever it is Fisk has planned.”

“I promise my little Hobbit.” He kissed the side of my head and put on the Daredevil mask. The blood red eyes staring at me as he gave me one last loving smile. He stroked my cheek and he placed his forehead against mine once again before giving me a soft kiss at the tip of my nose.

He then ran up the steps to the roof entrance grabbing his clubs and left me alone in his apartment.

*Matt’s POV*

The first thing I wanted to look into was Chuck Benedict, the man Fisk framed as (M/n)’s killer. Much like (Y/n) had suspicions, the anonymous tip had to be from Chuck himself.

I followed him after sensing him coming out of Josie’s, his body reeked of whiskey and bourbon. Seems this guy really couldn’t get his life together, even before Fisk kidnapped him he’s been a lousy worm of a man. Could never really hold down a job, divorced, practically a nobody.

As he stumbled his way into an alleyway, I made my move. I silently scaled down using the drainpipes and landed behind one of the large dumpsters before coming towards him. I grabbed him from the back and slammed him into the wall. Just before he could scream, I covered his mouth with my hand and hissed at him.

“Scream and I’ll break every bone in your body before you can utter a single word. Nod if you understand what I’m saying.” He nodded, his eyes immediately showing that he was starting to sober up. “I’m gonna remove my hand from your mouth, if you scream or cry for help. The promise still stands.” He nodded again and I slowly removed my hand from his mouth.

“I—I thought I got rid of you.”

“You should’ve thought of that before you decided to go back on your promise and talk to the cops about the girl who was convinced into killing you.”

“What?” he asked.

“Don’t lie. The girl who Wilson Fisk trained to kill you thinking you killed her mother, she was arrested by the police by an anonymous tip about your kidnapping and attempted murder. Did Wilson Fisk come back for you and try to get you to frame her?”

“I-Dude I honestly don’t want to talk about this…..” I cut him off with a punch to his gut. He immediately groaned and fell to the ground. I picked him back up and slammed him to the wall.

“I told you this is what would happen if you snitched on her to the cops. Now tell me. Did Wilson Fisk get you to rat on her?”

“No one came to me. I swear on my life I didn’t go to the cops about that girl!” His heartbeat. Although it was racing out of fear, there was no fluctuation in how a heartbeat sounds when it’s lying. He’s telling the truth.

But if he didn’t talk to the cops, and Fisk didn’t get to him, who is trying to get to (Y/n)?

“Didn’t take you for harming the innocent there Devil-man.” A female voice spoke up. I turned in the direction of where the second heartbeat was.

“Jessica.” Taking his chance, Chuck made a break for it whimpering like a dog. “Why are you here?”

“Same as you apparently. Where’s the girl?”

“What girl?”

“Don’t lie Daredevil, you know who I’m referring to. (Y/n) Perry. Where is she?”

“What do you want with her?” I asked defensively.

“I have a couple of questions I want to ask her about the young couple that disappeared.”

“She has nothing to do with them!”

“Not from what I was given.” I tilted my head at her before trudging up towards her.

“What were you told and by whom?”

“Probably from the same person that tried to put whiney Chuck Benedict back under your radar. Listen, I’m not gonna arrest the kid. I know you’re her Guardian and her mom was your business partner/best friend. I just wanna get her side of the story before I do anything.” She responded to me.

Her heartbeat (as hard to read as it is. Jessica Jones likes to keep things bottled up, even fluctuate her heart at random points just to throw me off) she spoke the truth.

“I’m your best you’re gonna get Devil. You’re lucky it was just the cops, next time the FBI could be involved.”

“What is it you know?”

“I’m not talking until you tell me where (Y/n) Perry is.” I breathed in sharply as I kept my eyes in her general direction.

*My POV*

“(Y/n). (Y/n) wake up.” A voice spoke up as I felt a hand gently shake my shoulder. I groaned and opened my eyes to see uncle Matt sitting at my bedside, mask off but Daredevil suit still on.

“What is it?”

“Come to the living room for a moment. We need to talk.” There was a bit of urgency in his voice. He got up and stood at my bedroom door waiting for me to follow him. I took his arm and he led me to the living room where surprisingly Jessica Jones sat there on one of uncle Matt’s chairs with a beer bottle in her hand.

“You (Y/n) Perry?” she asked me. I gave her a hesitant nod. “Have a seat. There’s something you need to tell us.” Confused and starting to get scared I clung to uncle Matt’s arm.

He guided me over to the living room and we both sat down on the couch.

“Where were you the night that the Young’s disappeared?” she asked me in a stern voice.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know who the Young’s are. I’ve never met them before in my life. Listen if you’re working with the cops you can arrest me for the other crimes I did. I already know I’m guilty of those—”

“I could care less about those guys. I’m focusing on this couple right here. David and Michelle Young.” She took out a photo from her jacket pocket and held it out in front of me. The young couple that the cops were hounding me about.

“I already told you. I don’t know who they are.” I turned to Uncle Matt. Even though I know he couldn’t really see my pleading expression, I knew he could hear my heartbeat.

“She’s telling the truth Jessica.” She hummed lowly and put the photo down on the table. She then unzipped her backpack and pulled out a manila folder and placed it down in front of me.

“Then explain this to me.” I took the folder and unfolded the two silver prongs upward and opened the slip of the folder. I pulled out a series of photos and my heart sped up.

“What is it?” uncle Matt asked me.

“These photos appeared at my desk by an anonymous tipper. It’s photos of your partner’s daughter with the couple the night they disappeared.” Uncle Matt turned to me in shock.

“Uncle Matt I swear I don’t remember this encounter. I-I don’t remember meeting them. I—why is this happening? Why can’t I remember anything!”

“Kid I’m gonna need you to calm down.” Jessica warned me.

“Calm down? Calm down!? How can you expect me to calm down at a time like this!? It’s bad enough I was arrested today for crimes I know I committed but for a crime I don’t even remember doing!” I ranted on as I anxiously paced back and forth across the living room. My heart racing and my breath growing sharp and frantic.

That’s when my head suddenly felt like it was being split in two. Flashes came through my vision, like how back in the old days when the TV’s would do that jump scare no signal static thing, that’s basically what was going on in my head now. Until I saw a brief vision of the Young’s as well as me at what appeared to be the docks right next to their car. I collapsed to my knees gasping and panting heavily.

“(Y/n), hey, hey look at me. Look at me, deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths.” Uncle Matt came up to me placing his hand close to mine but not encompassing it. I looked to him and followed his breathing and I looked up at Jessica and told her.

“The docks.” She took back the pictures and put them back into the folder. “I don’t know how I remember, but I remember the docks. And—I was with them. But this doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t I remember before? And why is it coming back to me now?”

“We’ll figure that part out later. I say in the morning just before dawn, we head over to the docks and see what’s there. Hopefully we can find who’s really behind this.” Uncle Matt said.

“I’ll pick you both up in a few hours then.” Jessica said as she gathered up her stuff and walked out of uncle Matt’s apartment.

“This isn’t Fisk, is it?” I asked more in a general statement than a question. But a hint of fear was in my voice as I asked uncle Matt.

“No.” he replied. I let out a soft whimper as I huddled myself inward like a turtle. Uncle Matt brought me into his arms and lay my head on his chest, his other hand gently cupping my ear so that all I could hear was his heartbeat.

There was nothing he could say at this moment that he hadn’t already told me all day. For now all I really wanted was to just disappear into his embrace and hope that by morning everything could go back to normal as normal could be here in Hell’s Kitchen.

By morning like Jessica promised, she arrived back at the apartment with her car and we arrived at the docks just as the night sky was starting to turn light with color.

“That’s it. That’s the car.” I said to Jessica and uncle Matt as Jessica slowed the car down once we spotted a 2016 Kia Rio just ahead of us.

“You’re sure?” uncle Matt asked me from the backseat.

“Yes, the license frame around the plate. All glittered with hearts and even the date. 8-22-12.”

“Must be their wedding anniversary or when they first met. Something of significance.” Jessica said as she turned off the engine and we all got out of the car. I walked around but nothing was coming up.

No flashbacks, no visions, not even a memory. I walked up to the car hoping that something would come back to me but there was nothing.

“Don’t touch the car kid. If the police find this car and your fingerprints are all over it, you’re even more screwed than you already are.” Jessica warned me.

“I don’t plan on it.” I notice how Uncle Matt was walking around, his cane skipping back and forth around the docks until he suddenly stopped and his face grimaced. Jessica turned to him and asked.

“Whatcha sensing Devil-man?”

“I can taste and smell blood in the air. And there’s lots of it.” He said grimly. My stomach dropped. Jessica turned to me as did uncle Matt and they both told me.

“Stay here.” Before walking off.

*Matt’s POV*

I walked along as I tucked my cane into my jacket with Jessica right at my side.

“How much blood are we talking about here?”

“Too much.” I merely replied as I kept following the smell of blood in the air. I stopped and asked her, “What’s in front of us?”

“Not much just some old wooden crates, a crane lift, and some fishing material like old nets and shit like that.” She replied. I walked around sniffing the air every now and then as well as softly licking my lips. The taste of cooper was so strong, stronger than I’ve ever tasted before. Something happened here, something bad.

I placed my hand on what I assumed was the crane lift and used my hand as a guide to walk around it. Then I was hit by it.

“Jones!” I called out to her. She came over and her heartbeat slightly quickened.

“Oh fu—” that’s when we both heard (Y/n) scream. A scream that she had never made before, not even when she was dealing with the nightmares. We quickly raced back to her, I feared that the real person responsible for this had gotten to her but as I honed in at her location, she was the only one there besides us two.

She let out another horrified scream as we finally came up to her and I was once again hit with another blast of cooper in the air.

*My POV*

While Jessica and uncle Matt went off to do their own detective work, I was in a panic. My heart was racing frantically as I slowly backed away until I backed into a metal crate. I jumped back with a gasp and saw that one of the crates had a small sticky note that said.

OPEN ME

The top was unlocked just pleading for someone to open it up and see who was curious enough to look inside. I took the note and crumbled it up and pocketed it in my jeans and slowly opened the lid and inside it was a large grey tarp that was tied up in the middle and at the very bottom with rope. I know something inside of me was telling me to not do it but there was also a command telling me that I should unwrap the tarp.

As I finally unwrapped what was inside; my stomach churned, my heart raced and I let out the most terrified scream I could muster. I screamed again as Uncle Matt and Jessica Jones came running in hot towards me.

Jessica covered her hand over her mouth as Matt stood there in shock. For what was wrapped in the tarp was a human body. A naked Asian male with claw marks all over his body particularly his chest, ribs, and face. To anyone else it would’ve looked like a rapid animal got to him but I knew better—those claws were caused by one thing and one thing only.

But that’s not what had me horrified, what got to me was what was the bitemark on his neck. The very area where I would bite my opponents in the ring back at the Fight ring whenever I truly unleashed my fighting name.

“IT WAS BOBCAT!!” I cried out. Jessica and uncle Matt turned to me. Jessica confused while Uncle Matt’s was of worry and concern. “It was me!!” I sobbed hysterically as I gripped my hair and sunk to my knees crying hysterically.

Jessica covered up the bodies of David and Michelle with a tarp far away from us while Uncle Matt and I talked.

“It had to be someone else (Y/n). Maybe even the same person who killed your mother.” He tried to suggest as he paced in front of me.

“No I did this! We both know it!” I exclaimed. I bent forward with my hands on my knees as I tried to calm myself down but the tears felt falling and my heart wouldn’t stop racing.

“No.” he stopped his pacing with one hand at his hip and the other one touching my shoulder. “Frank Castle was scrutinized by the media for what he had done. Though I don’t agree with his philosophy, I still stood by his side to defend him in court. I am not gonna let you go down like he did!”

“Frank Castle never killed the innocent. I have!”

“I know who you are (Y/n)!” his hand cupped the back of my neck forcing me to look in his direction. He raised his red shades to rest on top of his head, allowing me to look directly into his eyes. And even with his unfocused gaze, I could feel uncle Matt staring into my very soul. “Even if you’ve lost sight of it.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I killed this young couple and I don’t even remember doing it.”

“Guys, maybe we should move this discussion in the car.” Jessica piped in. We looked around and soon saw the dock workers coming in to start their day. Pointing over and talking amongst themselves wondering why we were here and what was underneath the tarp.

“It’s okay, I’ll handle this.” But just before he could take a step forward I cried out.

“No! Lock me up!” my eyes narrowed and filled with self-hatred. Uncle Matt turned towards me, his brow raised in worry. “I know you’re trying to keep a promise to my mother but it’s time to face the music. I don’t need to be protected from other people Uncle Matt, other people need to be protected from me!” I sniffled as Jessica cautiously placed her hands on my shoulders.

“You’re sure about this?” she asked me uncertainly.

“Arrest me Jessica Jones. I killed David and Michelle Young. I won’t fight back. Lock me up and throw away the key. Chain the doors if you have to. I don’t know why I can’t remember doing this but if I can’t, that means I must be even more dangerous than ever before.”

Even through her harsh look, there was a hesitance to her as she reached into her coat and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“Alright kid. We’ll do it your way.” She gently took my hands and put them behind my back.

“(Y/n)—”

“I’m sorry Uncle Matt. I need to pay for all that I’ve done. I just—” I trailed off trying to take a deep breath as I felt the two clicks of the handcuffs around my wrists once again. “Wanna thank you. For always giving me the love I needed, even when I felt like I didn’t deserve it for the past year and a half. Tell Foggy and Karen I’m sorry. And tell my friends—good luck in college.”

I turned to Jessica and asked with a single look if I can just get one last hug from him before I go. She allowed it and I walked over to Uncle Matt and cuddled close to him, burying my face into his chest. His arms immediately wrapped around me as his head rested on top of mine.

“I’ll find the answers. I swear it. I won’t rest until I find out what’s really going on.” He drowned my face with kisses until Jessica said.

“Alright Murdock, people are starting to get suspicious. I’ll take her to the precinct and I’ll watch over her.”

“You better Jones.” Jessica took my arms and gently pulled me away from uncle Matt and we both got back into her car and she drove us back to the prison.

With some careful rearranging with Mahoney and the chief of police, I was able to at least get my own cell away from the adult prisoners, although I still had to sport the traditional orange suit.

I swear if mom saw me like this—she’d have a fit and would probably be bawling her eyes out. Hell she might be doing that right now up in God’s court. Seeing her only daughter that she raised single-handedly now be charged with four counts of 1st degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Like she promised, Jessica stood outside my cell door as well as another officer. I heard the hatch at the middle of the door slide open and Jessica’s voice said to me.

“I gotta say—for a 17 year old, you’re pretty hardcore owning up to this.”

“You’re actually supporting a murderer?” I asked confused. She sighed solemnly.

“Look you may have done this, but I don’t think you did it by choice. I’ll work with your uncle on this and we’ll figure out what’s really going on. Cause anyone who could do that, memory or no, they would not have reacted the way you did when you found David’s body.”

I heard the static from the cop’s radio. Muffled voices about a riot happening in the cafeteria and that all guards needed to report to break it up. The cop immediately raced off with his grenade gun leaving Jessica and I alone.

We waited for what felt like hours when suddenly the power was cut out. It was pitch black in my cell and the red lights from the other side of my cell was the only sign of light I could see.

“Hey mini-Perry, you alright in there?” Jessica asked me as she opened the hatch up again.

“Yeah. What’s going on out there?”

“Power’s off. Can’t be because of a circuit break or the weather.” I heard the sound of a door opening and Jessica swore under her breath. “Kid get as far back to your cell as you can. And you may want to cover your ears.” I did as she told me to and slowly sunk into the corner of my cell.

I heard the sound of men roaring and their heavy footsteps stomping on the tile floors outside. Grunts, groans, punches and bodies slamming against the walls and my cell door was all that could be heard outside. Then all went silent.

Deathly quiet I might add. No more sounds of a struggle, no more grunts, not even Jessica trying to call out to me to see if I was still far from the cell. I heard the door being unlocked and it soon opened up and I saw three oversized men covered in tattoos wearing orange jumpsuits just like me.

“Step aside will yah you’re scaring the poor girl!” a Scottish accent spoke up. The men immediately backed away and there stood a fairly tall man with dark hair wearing a purple suit. He was fairly handsome but there was a dark look in his eye as his head gave a slight tilt towards me. “Aww look at you. Fallen so far in such a short time. Well no matter, I’ll soon remedy that.”

As he walked right towards me, I tried to scoot away from him but he told me to stop. And right as he said that, my body froze. I couldn’t move a single muscle.

“Well at least that still works. Teenagers especially need to be taught firm discipline.” He knelt down beside me. His face scrunched in disgust as he fiddled with the shoulders of my jumpsuit. “Orange is definitely not your color, think I prefer the red and black. Just like when we first met.”

“What? Who-who are you?” I whimpered fearfully. He hummed in confusion as he tilted his head again.

“Oh right yes that! Forgot that’s the thing when you get older sometimes things just go….” He waved his hand over his head and made a brief raspberry sound. “Right now. I’d like you to remember. Remember back to when we first met so long ago. Shortly after you met Wilson Fisk. And everything we ever talked about.”

Suddenly my head felt like it was splitting open. I held my head in my hands as flashes of memories kept pouring into my head and they were all about this man that stood before me. Flash after flash kept zipping pass my vision and with one last splitting headache, my head suddenly went calm. Slowly I raised my head up and looked at the man that stood before me more carefully.

I remember. I remember him now.

“Father?” a slow, wide smile came across his face as his hand cupped the bottom of my chin and he lifted it up so that I could look at him.

“That’s my Evanstar.” He helped me up and we walked out of my cell together, his arm wrapped tightly around me gripping my shoulder. I looked down and saw Jessica unconscious on the ground, her forehead bleeding. I wanted to help her but dad told me. “Leave her, she’s fine.”

“She’s fine.” I repeated back to him. We walked through the prison where all the prisoners and guards were out cold. “Did-did you……”

“They’re just resting. I’ve got a car waiting for us outside. We need to get out of the city. You like camping.”

“I haven’t gone in so long. Let’s go camping.” I found myself saying.

“There’s an old cabin your mother and I once stayed in. Nice, secluded and isolated. Think it’s time I showed it to you now.”

“Yeah. Let’s go, I wanna see the cabin.” Dad opened the doors and there like he said was a car ready for us. He opened the front passenger door for me and I got inside. He came around and got into the driver’s seat and started the car up.

“Care to go off on an adventure?” dad asked with a smirk.

“Like Bilbo when he joined Thorin Oakenshield’s company.”

“That’s my girl.” He revved the engine and soon he hit the gas and we drove off far out of Hell’s Kitchen.

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kittydemon9000 · 3 years

Text

The Beginning of Heatstroke, aka Red's Villain Origin

* crashes down from the ceiling * I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED ONE OF MY 5+ CURRENT WRITING PROJECTS! BEHOLD, A WRITTEN VERSION OF THE 'Red's Villain Origin AU', also known as RVO / Heatstroke AU

To summarize the AU for SPBNR for those that don't now it:

“Who'd be the biggest conspiracy theorist out of the M!Ninja? The one who drinks 5 hour energy at 3am and spits off the craziest theories and then actually gets it right but nobody gives the theory any merit because the rest of the theories are too crazy?”

The answer: Red / M!Kai

Red: Okay hear me out: Smith is actually an alternative version of one of us sent here from another dimension.

The other M!Ninja: You’re just saying that because Smith’s cool and you want him to be your counterpart

Based on the M!ninja making red cork boards trying to figure out ‘What Is Up With Smith’: Red gets increasingly accurate and nobody will believe him (all pre shogun reveal) and he eventually snaps and takes up a secret villain persona to fight Shogun like 'if they won't believe me I'll do it myself' and it gets awkward when he accidentally does too much damage and catches not only Shogun's attention like planned, but also the rest of the Ninjaforce, and now he has to keep his own identity a secret

So, without further ado, I present... Heatstroke

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

Red blamed the 5-hour energy coffee blend at 3:00am for this.

It was no surprise that between ‘Operation: What’s Going on with Smith’ & the sudden appearance of Shogun that the resident Bounty red-stringed ‘joke’ cork-board doubled in size and seriousness. It also was no surprise that Red had a corner all to himself and that his theories were… in the words of the others, ‘wildly inaccurate and implausible’.

But this time, he was sure he’d gotten it right.

Smith is Shogun sent here from another continent/planet/dimension with the goal of protecting Ninjago City.

The latest string of laughs and scoffs at his theory was the last straw. He’d show them. He’d prove it!

Which was why he was currently standing on the roof of a noodle house, awkwardly adjusting the spare motorcycle helmet he’d ‘borrowed’ from Nya and painted black and orangey-yellow (red had seemed too obvious). He’d exchanged his Ninjaforce outfit for a soot-burned cross between a bomber jacket and a leather jacket. Down his back jutted a row of flames like the spines of a monster, courtesy of one of Nya & Jay’s unfinished inventions Red had modified- surely nothing bad would come of that!

For tonight, the Red Ninja was off-duty. For tonight, it was Heatstroke’s turn.

He fiddled with one of the weapons he’d ‘lent out’ from Master Wu. It resembled a small arm canon, like a smaller version of the Ultimate Weapon. The plaque under its post had read ‘Elemental Focuser’, which, in cryptic Wu speak, probably translated to ‘you can use an elemental power like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender’. So far he’d only figured out how to activate a focused jet of fire. Well, at least it was on brand. He hoped it would help him catch Shogun’s attention so he could unmask him.

He’d tried confronting Smith at school, of course. But there were only so many ways of saying ‘are you the new vigilante helping the ninjas’, and Smith has a genuine talent for dancing around the topic. Red could confront him with the name Shogun to get a proper reaction, but that would mean explaining how he knew the name and outing himself as the Red Ninja.

So fake villainy really was the only way.

His plan was to use the Elemental Focuser to cause some minor petty damage, just enough to attract the new vigilante. Perhaps set a trash can on fire, block an alleyway with rocks (if he figured out how to change the setting from fire to earth), small things that could easily be repaired.

Of course, plans were never actually stuck to. One way or another, something was always improvised.

Red’s improvisation just happened to involve him accidentally setting the entire alleyway on fire.

He’d only been aiming for one dumpster, honest! And maybe he’d spotted a couple fliers for a SoG meeting on the ground and happened to burn those too. And a newspaper article blaming Lloyd for the recent Garmadon attack, again. And an article about those ‘Damn Ninja Menaces’ by a S. Sonah Sameson. And-

Okay, so maybe Red had aimed the fire at a few small targets. But just a few! And with good reason and good care, but…

Well, fire liked to burn. Give it enough kindle and it’ll continue to grow, stretching like reaching branches towards each other to join in a massive bonfire.

So now the entire alleyway was on fire, and Red was panicking.

He’d luckily chosen an abandoned part of town near the beaches where Shogun sightings seemed most frequent, but with the stupid Elemental Focuser not switching from fire mode to water mode or ice mode or something that didn’t have the potential to burn Ninjago City to the ground, Red had no way of stopping the flames.

And more flames meant more destruction which meant a bigger audience.

Which was why his previously muted comm suddenly flared to life, the only warning Red had before Nya’s water strider mech slid around the corner.

Red scrambled onto a roof as the mech drove past, spraying water at the bonfire to dose it. His sigh of relief was just as quickly dosed as Lloyd’s voice came over the comms; “Status, Grey?”

“Flames are out,” Nya replied. “Pursing the joker that set it ablaze.”

Uh oh. Red took off across the roof, leaping from building to building. Tiles creaked, pebbled and dust scattering underfoot. The sounds of the mech’s engine roaring behind him echoed through alleyways below to create the illusion the mech was everywhere at once.

As the chase grew on, more mechs started to join in. Red ducked into a narrow avenue to avoid Zane’s tank, then under a cafe overhang to throw off Jay and Lloyd. His heart hammered in his chest and he groaned, filling the inside of the motorcycle helmet with steam. Saying this was going ‘bad’ would be the understatement of the century.

What had he been thinking? Oh wait: he hadn’t. Seriously? ‘Oh I’ll just pretend to be a villain real quick, that should get Shogun’s attention and not the attention of literally my entire team of fellow ninjas!’ Stupid, impulsive, this was why everyone was always calling the red ninja the ‘hothead’ when he really tried not to be- Lloyd’s voice over the comms snapped him from his thoughts. “I can’t catch them! It’s like they know our every move!”

Red winced as he climbed up a banister and leapt from balcony to balcony. Sorry, Lloyd.

He didn’t miss how the others asked Nya where Red was. And how she made up excuses the others bought so easily- granted, he’d told those excuses to his sister before setting his plan into motion, but still, ouch. They acted like he was simply being at best too busy and at worst lazy and selfish.

He just wanted them to know the truth! Why couldn’t they at least try to believe him when-

Of course, that was when Shogun dropped out of the sky and tackled him.

Red shouted with surprise as he tumbled down from the second floor, slamming into a few softer bags of garbage to break his fall before rolling and slamming into the unforgiving concrete. A crack formed in his vision as the visor of his motorbike helmet smacked into the concrete ground. One of the fire jets on his back sputtered and sparked, sending a thin wisp of smoke into the air.

Shogun pinned his wrists to the ground and growled. “Who are you?”

Red tried to break free, agony turning his muscles and bones to fire with the movement after his fall, but the vigilante was too strong. Damn, how often did this guy train?

“Who am I?” Red said, a nervous tinge to his voice. He quickly smoothed it over with faked confidence. “Who are you? Who are all of us, really?”

Shogun narrowed his eyes behind his hood. “Did Garmadon send you? Or someone else?”

Red sputtered. Really, the nerve! Garmadon? The thought turned his insides to disgusting mud. “Nobody sent me!”

“Then why are you here?” Shogun spat.

“Why am I here?” Why was he here again? Oh right, the bright idea on how to reveal that Shogun was Smith. “It’s, uh… a valid reason! That I don’t have to tell you!” He tried for a villainous laugh. Stay in character, don’t blow your cover, you got this!

Shogun was unimpressed. “Nearly burning down my home was a valid reason?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to set everything on- wait, WHAT?” Uh oh. “You LIVE here?”

Now it was Shogun’s turn to look uncomfortable, though the expression was quickly wiped from his face. “Nothing wrong with this district.”

Red nodded. “‘Course not. Uh, sorry about that… wasn’t my intention, I swear.”

Shoot, he could hear Jay’s jet getting closer. He had to get out of here, but Shogun, annoyingly, didn’t seem to be in the mood to simply let him go. “Then what is your intention?”

“Well, for starters, it’s getting out of here. This really isn’t going to plan and I’d rather just be home right now, or even inventing a time machine like in that book ‘Hands of Time’ to slap my past self in the face for even thinking about this stupid idea in the first place-“

Jay wasn’t the only one that could ramble under pressure, it seemed.

Shogun leaned closer. “What idea?”

Red shrugged as best he could with how he was pinned to the ground. “Well, for starters, I just wanted to prove to my friends that you’re Smith, and things just kinda escalated from-”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said.

Shogun lurched back, letting go of him. His eyes betrayed a kaleidoscope of emotions; surprise, worry, suspicious, hurt, fear, realization.

“…Kai?”

Well, f!ck.

“I-“

Red was about to badly attempt to bullsh!t his way out of his identity reveal before it suddenly dawned on him that Shogun had not denied his theory.

Which meant Shogun was Smith.

And it also meant Smith instantly recognized him as Kai, which, considering his disguise, was aptly concerning. Sure, he was the first one in his group of friends people would think to do something this extreme but give him some credit! Zane was a regular detective, he’d do the same if it meant answers! Or, well, at least something similar. And Nya could be an adrenaline seeker. And Lloyd- well, maybe not Lloyd. Or Jay, either. Cole had his head just enough on his shoulders that he probably wouldn’t do this either.

But come on, instantly guessing it?

Well, at least Smith/Shogun didn’t know Kai was the Red Ninja. That would be a catastrophe.

Right. Back to the current catastrophe at hand.

Shogun- Smith- still had a look as if he’d been slapped, and Red hated it. He hadn’t meant to hurt his friend. Shogun… Shogun hadn’t wanted them to find out his identity. And then Red had gone and done it, just to prove that he could be the smart one, or a leader, or the protector so they didn’t get hurt, or literally anything but just the ‘hotheaded one’.

…And he’d done it in the most hotheaded, impulsive way possible.

He really was an idiot.

The cracked helmet hid the look on his face, a twisted mess of distraught and shame. But it didn’t help hide how he took stumbled to his feet and away from Smith, nervous that any second he’d spill another mistake and mess up again, like how he always freaking messed up on everything. Don’t pick this fight, interject there instead, no, not there, idiot, there, FMS why are you so useless-

Focus, focus.

Lloyd’s voice, sharp in the intercom and full of static from his tumble, snapped him from his thoughts. “Anyone got eyes on the arsonist?”

Red caught Smith’s eye as he raised his hand to his own communicator. He was so screwed, so busted, so doomed… Smith would report it, and the others would know, and they’d think he was just messing around in an alleyway with some stolen devices and weapons out of curiosity or rage, - and-

“None yet, still looking.”

…What?

Smith stared at him, gaze searching. He looked shaken, more so than Red- who’d just taken a fall from a second story, mind you, it was a miracle he wasn’t more injured than a couple small scrapes and some future bruises-, yet everything from the set of his jaw to the softening of his furrowed brows suggested a change in emotions. Well, not quite change; more like repress and replace.

“You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you.”

Red flushed, hand instinctually clamping into a tight fist at his side. The still-working fire jets on his back ignited without him pressing any buttons; faulty activation from the fall or something.

Palms up and hands raised, Smith silently asked to defuse the situation. “Didn’t mean it as an insult. This wasn’t about venting some anger, was it.”

Red’s lack of response only confirmed it. Smith continued. “I won’t say anything about this if you don’t tell anyone my identity. Deal? I know finding it out was important to you, but-“

“Deal,” Red interrupted. Guilt ate away at his core, like a wave of water dousing a candle. “Smith, I-“ He swallowed hard and stared at the alley floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to…”

Smith’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched before relaxing as Smith didn’t move further, nor did the grip tighten. “I’m a little hurt, you’re right. But I’m not mad. And I won’t tell the others, so you can relax. But you better get out of here and get yourself an alibi. We can talk at school or something.”

Wow, he was handling this rather calmly. Red was struck by the sudden memory of- what did Jay call the word? Right. Compartmentalizing. That… wasn’t healthy. But at the roar of Lloyd’s mech somewhere nearby, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he shot Smith a grateful nod and ran down the alley, sticking to the shadows and blind spots of the flying mechs and the tight alleyways where the land mechs couldn’t reach him.

When he got home, miraculously without further incident (though Shogun leading the others on a wild goose chase over the comms certainly helped there), he ditched the outfit in a bag hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. He’d return the weapon to Master Wu’s ship later, and… well, hope Nya never searched for the missing supplies. There wasn’t a way of fixing it without involving her or Jay, and neither was an option.

Heatstroke was back off duty, and so was the Red Ninja.

For now, he could just be Kai Smith. And there wasn’t any issue with that.

…

Right?

—————

yooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THIS IS AMAZING REHJJGFHDESFXJVZ

and ah yes, good ol trauma and compartmentalizing, we love to see it

#We love ourselves some good ol aus #same people but not really #Spbnr #spbnr aus

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albatris · 2 years

Text

hello uwu. rental car update time

sorry for not tagging anyone in my last update, I am acting normal again now <3

anyway you know how I said yesterday I wouldn't give you That Excerpt? well. here's That Excerpt!

I have no fun news this week. except. I'm gonna buy a biiiiiiig fuckin pinboard to map out this trilogy in the most serial-killer-esque conspiracy board way possible. microsoft excel and I are no longer on speaking terms

this week's mood is this week's jam which is "villainous thing" by shayfer james and this week's jam is this week's mood which is the shrill, endless wail of my blood glucose meter's alarm as it reaches into my brainspace and haunts me in my dreams and slumbers

this week's excerpt! Feral Quinn Moment. immediately preceding a fun scene where Quinn and Zeke get to fuck shit up in the Ethel house a little bit. just a little bit for now. as a treat. mostly Zeke does the fucking shit up bc Quinn is. Quinn. too pretty <3 and also not FANTASTIC when it comes to holding their own in a physical fight

this is not AS actiony a scene as I wanted to post today (but at least it's not all dialogue!)...... I'll carry on writing this part of the story so hopefully you'll get some cool Zeke fight scenes real soon :3

tw for. a finger being bitten off. a bit of blood and grossness. one sentence of vomit. and a good handful of swears

Corinne laughed this time, rough, joyous, rattling. Like one of them, like one of them, like one of them.

Quinn's hand snapped round her wrist and their head snapped forward, lunging and wild and animal, their teeth sinking deep into whichever of her fingers they could find first. They brought their jaws grinding to a close with every ounce of power they had in them. Something cracked all at once, the splitting of skin and bone ringing through Quinn's head like a gunshot, and their upper teeth met their lower ones through the stretch of the rubber glove. Quinn ripped their head back, snapping free, the momentum of that final tear sending them crashing back onto the people behind them.

Corinne screamed. Not like one of them. Terrified, agonised, human, human, human. Weak. Vulnerable. Prey. Blood bubbled from the stump of a forefinger she had left and she jerked her arm back out of the cage. Zeke plummeted, dropping to the floor and doubling over herself, wheezing and choking, her fist slamming into the floor in alarm as she struggled to suck in breath.

"Motherfucker," Corinne raged, and clutched her bloodied, pouring hand to her chest. She was bustling around the room now in a panicked frenzy, bouncing from shelf to shelf and cupboard to cupboard, her body seemingly wanting to jerk in every direction at once as she struggled to figure out what to do next. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" She whirled on Quinn. "You bitch. You fucking dogshit piece of—fuck, fuck, fuck."

The weight on Quinn's tongue was alien and warm and gushing, still adorned partly with thick rubber. Quinn's stomach flipped in revulsion, and they doubled over and released the severed finger from their mouth onto the floor, blood and spit following in a slow, meandering dribble. Vomit lurched up their throat, then changed its mind, then changed it back. They craned to the side and threw up, managing by some miracle in their compromised state to avoid doing so on their—their trophy.

"Gross," someone nearby mumbled under their breath, then let out a small oof as the presently-not-dead Zeke's elbow found their ribcage and acquainted itself with considerable force.

Corinne floundered about the room a few more moments, footsteps rapid and rabid and jittering. In the grasps of hysteria, in her leaping and her fluttering and hopping back and forth in wild-eyed indecision, she looked amusingly like she was almost dancing. Some kind of morbid, butchered quickstep. An irrepressible and frantic salsa. No longer merely the omnipotent director in this theatre of horrors, but thrust onto the stage itself to twirl and dance with the rest of them, with the face full of dread and shirt full of blood to match.

Corinne flooded out the door and into the body of the house.

"Encore, encore," Quinn mumbled bitterly after her, and dragged the back of their forearm over their mouth to drag away the worst of the mess. God, they felt gross, they felt gross, they felt so gross. That sensation still echoed in their jaw, itched in their teeth. The pressure, the crack, the pop. The squelch. The taste. A good vicious bite was enjoyable to watch, but rather less so to partake in.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Zeke croaked, finding her voice again at last.

"It was an honour to be here tonight," Quinn said, still woozy. "I'd take a bow if I thought I wouldn't just keel forward and faint."

@chaotic-queer-disaster @gnome-boi @polyacery @tracle0 @goosemixtapes @valence-positive @the-one-who-makes-negative-noise @ambiguousfiction @afoolandathief @thepotatowriter @mecharose @vellichor-virgo @flapuflapu @distortion-heart @multi-lefaiye @writeouswriter

#quinn: we should lay low until the perfect opportunity to make a break for it presents itself #quinn as soon as corinne is a dick to zeke: *chomp*#they're both somewhat helpless while they're all locked up and kept prisoner except for. yeah. one chance quinn gets to Bite #upon release from being imprisoned quinn is like oh wait no i don't actually do any fighting lmao idk i usually just have #other people do violence on my behalf hahaha <3 #while zeke is just like. lemme at em. lemme at em. I'm gonna go feral. I'm gonna slit throats and rip arms off. i am 4'8'' and full of rage #anyway.#corinne is human but is a fuckin horrible powerhouse of sheer muscle and she's fuckin terrifying #corinne is also just as awful as the ethels lmao <3 we hate her too <3 #a rental car takes a left down rake street and disappears #rental car updates #sorry for gross excerpt lmao i didn't get a shot to write funky action scenes today #next up 4 you is zeke fight time :3 we love one (1) unhinged murderous vampire hunter

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river-bottom-nightmare · 3 years

Text

bruce wayne week day 2: gala rated T, no archive warnings apply, tagged: past bruce wayne/harvey dent, implied/referenced violence, brief suicide mention

how was it, bruce thought to himself, that he could withstand torture both physcial and mental without any lasting damage, but the one thing that had him trembling and ready to crawl out of his own skin was an itchy suit?

he’d grown out of them, was the thing. when he was young, alfred had ensured that he’d always dressed properly for any occasion, be that a wedding or charity event or board meeting. before that, his parents—well. they had made sure bruce was presentable enough for their friends to pinch bruce's cheeks instead of awkwardly patting his shoulder.

but now, newly returned to gotham with a thousand new scars and a hardened grip, bruce realized he had lost his tolerance for finely pressed and ironed fabric. none of his old suits had come remotely close to fitting him, and alfred had manhandled him in front of a mirror to take measurements, sending them off to his favourite tailor. bruce thought he'd cried out all the tears his body had left to give the day he came home, hugging alfred's frail body far too tight, but his eyes still managed to get all hot and uncomfortable when alfred's fingers hesitantly mapped the broad expanse of his shoulders, trying so hard to ignore the slashes, the stabs, the burn marks, the brands.

his shoes were too loose, the pointed style apparently a new trend in the gotham elite. bruce and alfred had worked on a pair of dress shoes together, ones that wouldn't fall off the minute bruce moved at anything more intense than a brisk walk, but bruce still longed for the comfort of his thick-soled boots.

those same shoes were tapping on the ground, making far too much noise, but bruce forced himself to take a breath and let the flower-scented artificial spray calm him down. logically, it made no sense at all, but bruce had always placed gotham on pause in his mind. he'd expected to come back older and harder and fiercer to find gotham exactly the same, waiting patiently just for him.

instead, bella revero had cut her hair and dyed it blonde, and was wearing a long, flowing, glittering pantsuit instead of a long, flowing, glittering gown. tom thompson's hair was a healthy salt and pepper when bruce left, but now the man was two tufts away from being completely bald. thicky-applied makeup somehow accentuated wrinkles instead of hiding them, no manner of well-cut suits could hide a growing potbelly, none of the waiters that had given bruce snacks and orange juice were working anymore, and most everyone bruce remembered being roughly his age had moved far, far away from this wretched hole of a city.

there were times when bruce slapped himself upside the head for the absolutely moronic decision to come back to gotham and announce ta-daaa! not dead! he should have just been batman and let bruce wayne's useless name and dishonored legacy be swallowed up by gotham.

footsteps behind him. bruce had tuned out most of his training, knowing that it would only hinder him as brucie wayne, only make him look suspicious. but he'd kept a basic background awareness, unable to turn that off, and these thuds were heading right for him. bruce tensed, his false smile probably turning brittle, two seconds away from whirling around and grabbing his attacker's arm so hard, the bone would shatter.

a heavy hand slammed down onto his shoulder, but right before bruce made a move, a voice spoke right next to his ear, smooth and low and capable of making his entire body relax without any input from him whatsoever.

"what the actual hell are you doing here, you motherfucker?"

"harvey," bruce sighed, turning around to give the man a relieved smile. "thank god. i thought i'd have to go through this all by myself. you didn't tell me you were coming?"

harvey's mouth pulled into a painful grin, one that didn't look the least bit friendly, and there was a bulging vein on his temple, a nervous tick that bruce knew he didn't have before.

"you alright there, harv? you're looking a little—," bruce gestured vaguely to harvey's face, "—red."

harvey's grip on bruce's shoulder tightened, fingers digging into muscle and sending painful twinges up bruce's shoulder, and bruce tried not to show his surprise. he was two seconds from shoving off harvey's hand himself, but just decided to grit and bear it. harvey wouldn't ever hurt him.

"you have been gone," harvey said, enunciating every word, "for years. i didn't know where you were. i didn't know if you were ever coming back. then i hear that you're home from a goddamn newspaper, and you just showed up to this party without telling anyone."

"i was on the guest list," bruce pointed out, automatically putting up a simplified version of his brucie wayne facade. he widened his eyes, putting a little cluelessness into the fluttering of his eyelashes, just enough to keep his cover in case anyone was recording him, just enough so harvey believes him.

"what the fuck are you doing with your eyes," harvey said flatly.

so apparently harvey knew him better than he thought.

"look, harv, i was gonna call you, i really was—"

"i thought you were dead," harvey hissed, and his best friends eyes have more lines on them than bruce remembered and he doesn't have to tip his head up just to see harvey laugh anymore and there's too much broken love in harvey's voice for them to be standing in between a gilded trash can and a spiked bowl of punch.

"harvey,,," bruce started, not knowing exactly where to go from there. he'd taught himself to prepare for any possible attack, any possible conspiracy or unmasking or targeted hit, but he'd completely forgot about his own friend. he'd forgotten he had a friend.

luckily or unluckily, harvey interrupted him before he had the chance to fumble his words. "i thought you were dead, i thought my best friend had finally fucking followed through with what i tried so hard for years to stop."

it hit bruce like a punch to the gut. he wasn't aware harvey had ever been trying.

"and now,,, what? you're just fine? you're dressed like a poser and your hair's all neat and trimmed and you're smiling at people like the only thing you care about is getting into their pants. plus, that's the fourth glass you've had tonight."

"we're already an hour in," bruce replied automatically.

"we're only an hour in," harvey said.

there was a pause. not an uncomfortable one, because it had been years since him and harvey were ever uncomfortable with each other. it was like harvey couldn't decide whether or not to reach out and strangle bruce for worrying him or break down for hurting him or hug him for coming back home.

bruce couldn't tell him. harvey worked too closely with commissioner gordon; daring bruce to steal mary jane from the principal's stash and shotgunning it out of his mouth was leagues away from keeping the secret that bruce was a dangerous, trained vigilante from everyone he knew.

"it's okay, harvey," bruce said, his voice completely sincere for the first time this night. "i found other ways to cope."

"i don't like those other ways," harvey sneered, eyes the glass in bruce's hand.

"other ways," bruce said. "you don't have to worry. i'm fine."

the photographer for the gotham gazette had snapped a picture of him entering, and no one would notice if he left now. bruce wayne couldn't be beating up pedophiles in the narrows if bruce wayne was getting drunk at a high-class gala. he'd planned to leave three hours in, a respectable amount of time, but meeting harvey had thrown him off balance.

he brushed past harvey, heading towards the butler's exit in the back of the ballroom. "enjoy the party!" he called behind him as he left, eyes wide again, clueless and fluttering and oh-so blind to the devastated way harvey watched him leave.

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @catxsnow @pricetagofficial @bikoncon @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridge @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy @red-hood-redemption @capricorn-stark @batshit-birds @comics-observer @buticaaba @brucewayneweek

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kashikore · 3 years

Text

𝙈𝙃𝘼 𝘽𝙊𝙔𝙎 𝙈𝙀𝙀𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙄𝙍 𝙁𝙐𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀 𝙆𝙄𝘿𝙎

ᴾᴿᴱᵛᴵᴱᵂ: 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙔𝙎 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙔 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝘼 𝙆𝙄𝘿 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙐𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙇𝙔 𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙄𝙎 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝙒𝙃𝙊?

chαrαctєrѕ íncludєd: в��kugσu, ѕєrσ, ᴀɴᴅ ízuku,

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐠𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞)

x ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

𝐈𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐔✪

Poor baby would be so confused

He was going to his dorm from training exhausted as one can be

He closed his door and saw a little green flash run across the room

My dude had war flashbacks to when Aoyama was on his balcony and shit 😂

And Deku was NOT FUCKING WITH IT he ran into the common room faster than Iida ran to go kill stain

And of course the first people he went to were Todoroki and Bakugou

Deku was crying and when he cries you can’t understand ANYTHING so he took Todo and Bakubitch to his room

And they checked the closet and they saw a girl who was about 5-7 and she was hiding in the closet she had 2 big curly green puffballs and some features that Deku couldn’t place

D-daddy the little girl cried and jumped into Izuku’s arms

Todoroki SPRINTED for his conspiracy theory board and Bakugou just stood there like wtf 🧍🏾‍♀️

After some questions and some All might shaped fruit snacks the boys had came to the conclusion that the little girl is D/n (daughter name) and she is undoubtly you and Izuku's daughter

It turns out she was hit with a time travel quirk when she followed you on your patrol

Izuku being the honest person he is he decided to tell you

He told you everything he knew and you were just as shocked as him

But ya’ll took care of D/n until the quirk wore off which was about a week and when you and Izuku woke up and saw a poorly written but cute note saying “bye mommy and daddy see you later”

It’s safe to say Izuku cried a river and your eyes were sweating just a little bit

Izuku finally mustered up the courage to ask you out and you were estatic not only because he asked you out but because you know you have a future with him.

𝐁𝐀𝐊𝐔𝐆𝐎𝐔✪

The boys of Class 1A were just chilling in the common room when a blue portal popped up out of nowhere

A small little girl with red eyes and y/h/c (your hair color) curly hair with a familiar scowl on her face

Everyone was stunned

The girl then turned said “Fucking bastard couldn’t even fight me like a real man just used his stupid quirk fucking extra”

She then looked around and said “woah that little bitch sent me back to the past huh”

“Who the fuck are you” says Bakugou

“D/n Bakugou Old man” the girl responds

“OI WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING AN OLD MAN AND WHY THE FUCK IS YOUR LAST NAME THE SAME AS MINE” yells Bakugou

“Are you that dense or just fucking dumb I’m your fucking daughter” the girl retorted

Bakugou didn’t need confirmation to know that was his kid

“Wait” Sero pauses “BAKUGOU GETS MARRIED” he screams

“Yeah I was shocked too” says the girl

“Who’s the unlucky- I mean lucky woman” Denki asks

“My mom is-” D/n began before she was interrupted by the sound of a slamming door

“WHO THE FUCK ATE MY MOTHERFUCKING POCKY(if you don’t like pocky substitute it or smthn)” you busted through the door fuming

“Oh wait that was yours” Kiri said

“Ejirou Kirishima you have 5 seconds to write your funeral guest list” you said

“Well as you can see that woman over there is Y/N Bakugou aka my mother” D/n says

“Your who? Sorry hun you must be confused I don’t have kids and I never will have kid that pregnancy shit scary asf” you said

Meanwhile Blasty bitch is frozen with a very apparent blush on his cheeks

It takes a minute but the 1A boys finally stop buffering and they all scream in unison “YOU MARRY Y/N”

Soon enough you find out that D/n is your daughter and she came here because a kid called her weak and she tried to fight them but they used their quirk and she ended up here

After everything is resolved and the quirk wears off and D/n returns to the future you recieve a text:

𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐎✪

When a blue portal appeared in his dorm room dropping a child Sero was generally perplexed

“Daddy” the little boy says

Now Sero isn’t dumb

He doesn’t need confirmation that the little (dark/brown/light-skin) boy is his

Not to mention the wide smile that was on his face

He was surprisingly calm that he had a kid for someone who says FUCK THEM KIDS on the daily

He just needed to know who’s the mom

Then the little boy finally said “Can we go to the park dad”

Sero looked at the kid quizzically and said “Uh sure bud let go”

Now Hanta would be lying if he said he didn’t like the fact that he has a family when he gets older

He was more excited to find out what hottie he married tbh 🙃

Him and s/n (son name) are on the swing set at the park when Hanta gets an idea

“Hey kid” Hanta starts “What’s your mom like?” He asks

The boy responds “ She’s really tough and pretty and funny and her skin is soft”

“Do you know her name?” He asks

“Yes I do but why don’t you remember mommy’s name daddy” the boy inquired

“I do I’m just testing you” Sero responds a little too quickly

The boys says “ Y/n Sero that’s mommy’s name”

This man almost broke his neck when s/n said your name

There is no way he copped a baddie like you

With your beautiful skin and how it’s shines like gold in the sunlight and your sexy ass enticing smile

Hanta then decided that he was gonna tell you that this is your son too

He was nervous but then again he a smooth dude he has a way with words like no other

So they go back to the dorms

And he knocks on your dorm

You open the door to see Hanta and a little figure behind him

“Mommy” the boy says excitedly and jumps on your leg

You look up at Sero like nigga wtf 🤨

Hanta laughs at your expression and explains everything to you

When your kid returns to the future you and Hanta started talking

Eventually he grew balls and asked you out

He did it so casually too

You were just talking about how hot Toji Fushiguro is (HAVE YOU SEEN HIM 😩😩😩)

And Hanta was like yea ok cool great but will you be my girlfriend tho 👀

Mind you you were still rambling about Toji so you literally choked when you processed what he said

But nonetheless you said yes and that hunk of a man named Hanta Sero was yours

And thank you @izukus-deku for helping me decide who had what gender go follow her right now 🍀

#mha x reader #mha x black reader #black y/n #black reader #izuku x black!reader #bakugou x black reader #sero x y/n #sero x black!reader #bnha fanfiction #bakugo x reader #izuku mydoria #zumiasks

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izusun · 3 years

Note

ALRIGHT I HAVE SOME CRACK FOR YOU

Consider: mom genes are dominant in BHNA. Theoretically Midoriya Hisashi can look like anyone. So Izuku told Todoroki about how his father left early on, he and Kaminari (you know Kami would also be a conspiracy theorist) went wild. Everyone from Sir Nighteye to Stain was under contention (except for All Might, Izuku shot that one down pretty quick), and once they revealed their conspiracy board to the rest of Class 1-A, everyone got excited at the prospect of gaining Izuku as a possible cousin. The mystery was afoot: who was Midoriya Hisashi?

BUT THEN one day Aizawa invites Inko to visit UA campus to clear up the mystery once and for all because its distracting his class. Not only was all of Class 1-A gathered on the campus lawn, the entirety of UA's staff was there because there was a betting pool among all the teachers.

And Inko reveals the BOMBSHELL that one of the reasons that Midoriya Hisashi left was because Izuku wasn't actually his son, and that Izuku's father was ACTUALLY a random hook up. This makes everyone freak out, because now quirk can be disregarded, which means it's anyone's game.

But THEN Inko is like "I do know who Izuku's father is" then looks over to Izuku and is like "Are you sure you want me to do this in front of everyone?" And Izuku just sighs and is like "You might as well at this point."

Inko goes up to Yagi and says "You are the father"

Everyone fucking riots.

- Goblin anon

IM IN LITERAL TEARS GOBLIN!!!!

PLEASE WRITE THIS?? LIKE?? YOUR AU DUMPS ARE ALWAYS GODTIER IM ROLLING!!!

BUT TO BRAINWORM WITH YOU, HERE’S ME RAMBLING AGAIN

first: KAMINARI AND TODOROKI FRIENDSHIP AAAHHH

after midoriya opened up that hisashi left, todoroki rushed to kaminari’s room because new shit to imagine with his best bud

just him slamming the door, not even batting an eye at kaminari’s surprised shout and the mini electric static that filled his room. todoroki shuts the door close, and heads to kaminari’s closet where they keep their mini rolling whiteboard. kaminari sees him and jumps up in excitement because oohh new thing to theorize with todo

kaminari watches as todoroki erases the previous theories they had (it was if aizawa had a minor telekinetic quirk because of the way his hair floats. and then it branched to aizawa having a MENTAL quirk where he just makes people believe that their quirk is gone because how is it possible to block off the quirk gene??? ANYWAYS) and writes with his clean penmanship.

it went:

MIDORIYA’S DAD?????? underlined thrice with red marker

kaminari is instantly excited because of all the things they theorized, familial bonds were always the best ones to tackle (i.e. that one time they were convinced that amajiki was midnight’s son)

AND THE MONTAGE OF THEM TRYING TO PIECE WHO IT IS LAJDLAKS

kaminari proposed all might but todoroki, as you said, shot it down.

why nighteye is the dad? green hair and the mutual fanboying for all might

stain? (todoroki opened up about the case and kaminari stuck to his word to not tell anyone) kaminari’s the one pushing this because think about it, roki. why was stain against both you and iida but not mido? he probably knew that mido’s his son!

enji? “i’d love to have midoriya as my brother” - todoroki shouto, xxx2

theorizing midoriya’s dad got too exciting that they shared it to their separate class gc (lovingly called “deku’s fanclub,” of course it was a secret from midoriya) and everyone got into it. EVEN BAKUGOU

they started theorizing who of them have any inkling relation to midoriya.

uraraka? they both can float (bakugou pretends to be into this theory too to protect ofa’s secret)

asui? green hair

tokoyami? midoriya’s black whip resembles dark shadow (again, bakugou pretends to be sold even though inside, he’s cackling because he knows how far from the truth that was)

the teachers’ betting pool were on uraraka’s family. only a handful (aizawa, all might, and nezu) don’t put in their bets.

and so it goes on and on and on. and aizawa breaks because he’s had enough. he hates hearing from both his colleagues and his students alike about midoriya inko’s escapades that led up to the birth of his problem child. it’s because of that reason that aizawa invites inko to end this once and for all.

“mrs. midoriya inko-“

“ms.,” inko corrects.

“ah, yes. ms. midoriya inko, i apologize for calling you on your weekend, however, i think it is imperative that we know who is the father of your son simply because i no longer wish to hear about this topic from any of these people’s mouths. not only is it disrespectful to you and your son’s virtues, but it is the greatest displeasure i’ve ever had the opportunity to hear.”

a beat of silence passes before inko laughs, light and beautiful and happy. she looks at izuku who’s sheepishly rubbing at his nape, looking far more embarrassed than the rest of 1a and the other teachers who realized that their bets and theorizing were actually discourteous.

so to save her son, she explains that izuku was the fruit of a random hookup during her youth. everyone (including both katsuki and izuku) explodes at the news. inko laughs again, waving her hand as if to dismiss everyone’s reaction.

“i do know who it is though,” she says, mirthful, however izuku knows her enough to see that she was also nervous. it was in the way she fiddled with her fingers, eyes shifty, bouncing her weight from one heel to another.

“can we know who it is?” todoroki asks from beside kaminari, notebook open between them.

“well, if izuku’s alright with that,” inko answers. everyone turns to izuku before she was even done answering, eyes ranging from pleading to borderline desperation. he gives his ascent.

they watch as inko straightens her back, face void of emotions and crosses the room towards-

to-

holy shit.

“you’re izuku’s dad,” she says, clapping yagi from his back.

what the fuck.

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favoniuscodex · 3 years

Text

intergalactic au w/ zhongli, childe, and xiao

prompt: futuristic/intergalactic!au w/ zhongli, childe, and xiao for my 1.5k follower event pairings: zhongli x gn!reader, childe x gn!reader, xiao x gn!reader, word count: 2.8k words (i really like this au, ok?) a/n: haha oh jeez ok my knowledge of intergalactic stuff is an amalgamation of different stuff so this is gonna involve a few different types of space stuff! some of these are longer than others, apologies for the discrepancies in length! i had to stop some of these from becoming full fics hhhh

ZHONGLI

“so,” you state, unceremoniously slamming your hands down on the metal lunch table in front of you. “rex lapis. discuss.”

the two colleagues sitting in front of you differ in reactions to your noisy gesture. the shorter and angrier of the two, xiao, jumps slightly at the sudden intrusion, despite the bustling noise of the starship’s cafeteria surrounding the three of you. at his side, zhongli sits, regal as ever, sipping on a cup of tea that fails to shake within his grip. the brunette sets the drink down on the table before him and looks at you patiently.

“what do you wish for us to discuss?” zhongli asks while xiao scowls at you in annoyance.

“there’s nothing to discuss,” xiao grumbles, cutting up cubes of the low-grade tofu in front of him with the side of his fork absentmindedly. “he died. the end.”

“did he?” you challenge and xiao lets out a heavy sigh of a man worn out by your mere existence. “alright, zhongli, hear me out on this. what if it’s just a coverup by the liyuean fleet? none of us really even knew what he looked like, who he was, et cetera et cetera, y’know? so like... he could very well be alive.”

“indulging in conspiracy theories,” xiao mutters. “how mature of you.” he grouchily stabs some of the decimated remains of the tofu cubes in front of them and takes a bite, wincing slightly at the low quality texture. however, zhongli’s honey eyes shine with mirth at your proposition.

“i believe that such notions are never beyond the realm of possibility,” zhongli confesses, causing xiao to sputter and choke on his cafeteria meal.

“you have to be kidding me. that’s the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard. they could’ve just said he retired or something. why would the fleet cover up his existence with a falsified death?” xiao challenges, his gaze flickering between your smug expression and zhongli’s entirely placated one.

“some people say rex lapis turned into a dragon and flew away. oooo~! watch out, xiao, he’s going to come for you, oooo~!” you mimic the sounds of a ghost as you flap your hands in a wing-like motion, leaning in closer to xiao, who leans away in repulsion and fear. xiao shrieks slightly as you breach his personal space and he hides behind zhongli’s figure, whose intense gaze causes you to stop your teasing and sit up straight, despite a soft smile gracing his elegant features.

“(y/n),” zhongli questions in a soft tone reserved only for you. “did you finish your review of the engine room’s oxygen and sediment filter?”

you look sheepishly down at the tray of food in front of you. “no, but... nobody’s allowed in the engine room right now. some dumb intern got his keycard stolen so the whole room is on lockdown while they reprogram everyone else’s.”

“well, if you have no other tasks to complete today, would you like to assist me with my research?” zhongli asks and, with no hesitation, you nod in response.

“of course! do you still need help with analyzing how to best redirect flow of air in the suits of the astronauts traveling to planet 48-ab-9?” you say, looking to make sure you and zhongli are on the same page. he smiles at you, which gives you the answer you need before the words even fall from his lips.

“yes, but there may also be possible diversions to other planets and air pressure within the spacesuits on one planet may cause ruptures in the other and-” zhongli begins, but is interrupted by xiao standing up abruptly, the tofu on his tray barely touched.

“i am full!” xiao declares, which causes you to narrow your eyes at him in disbelief. zhongli, however, buys xiao’s blatant lie. “which means, like every upstanding worker of the liyuean fleet, it’s time to return back to the contractual chains of coding hell!”

you can only watch as the green-haired man scurries off without waiting for your responses, far too eager to return to the cybersecurity job he always seems to complain about.

“so, where were we?” zhongli asks, capturing your undivided attention once more. you let out a soft huff of amusement at the situation and flash a smile in return.

---

zhongli is a consistently overlooked member of the liyuean fleet, residing as one of the few interplanetary geologists on board. to put it simply, zhongli works alongside you, an environmental engineer, to help ensure the safety of liyuean fleet explorers as they venture into unknown territory. you develop the products and do routine maintenance on various air quality-related machinery within the massive mothership of the liyuean fleet, while zhongli studies previously-recorded information about other planets in order to provide hypotheses about what potential new planets’ geological systems may be like and what needs to be done for astronauts to acclimate to them.

the talkative geologist is polite to all, but talkative to few, one of whom is you. while the two of you work side by side, the man has a tendency to ramble about the compositions of different planetary soils and what they means to human life should they encounter it. if you’re being honest with yourself, the topic nearly puts you to sleep, but you find it adorable that he can talk so passionately for so long on such a mundane topic.

you let zhongli ramble for three reasons. one: you don’t have the heart to tell him to stop. two: you have a massive crush on him that only seems to worsen the more you see his amber eyes nearly glow with passion whenever you ask questions about his work. finally, three: you’re waiting for zhongli to slip up and reveal why someone of his talent finally got assigned to the mothership immediately after the supposed death of rex lapis.

as he launches into another rambling session, you can’t help but zone zhongli out as a startling idea pops into your head about the calming man who loves three things in life (history, tea, and rocks, in that order).

could he be...? you push the thought out of your head and decide to accept the liyuean fleet command’s announcement at face value. commander rex lapis is dead and there’s absolutely, certainly, definitely no way that zhongli is the man who once brought the tsaritsa’s warships to a crumbling halt.

right?

CHILDE

the dashing rogue with a heart of gold is certainly one of the most respectable men in the galaxy. he saves damsels in distress and redistributes wealth to the poor. he’s perfect in every manner -- don’t you see his charming smile? how could you not trust him? he’ll lure you in with sweet words and false affections, brushing your hair behind your ear as he makes you giggle and flustered due to his flirtations. the illusion pops when he waltzes away from you with a wink and you realize you’re missing your wallet a few minutes later.

childe, a man of many aliases ranging from the theatrical tartaglia to the mythological ajax, is one of the galaxy’s most wanted thieves. he’ll insist he’s not a kleptomaniac, but feeds off the golden veins of wealth he steals from others as if he is a vampire, a primal instinct he can’t seem to control. no target is too big or small for the man, especially if a rival is involved.

in this case, it’s you. he finds you at a bar, in which grating electronic music blasts overhead and rainbow lights paint his skin in different colors as they flash to the beat. childe is forced to yell over the music, yet none of his signature charm is lost as he does his best to cozy up to you, buying you a drink and warding off any unwanted suitors, especially the alien with eight hands who wont stop insisting that he just wants to hold one of yours.

you almost let yourself get swept away in his radiant baby blues and his wispy, ruddy brown hair, but you’re smarter than that. you can see the intelligence in his eyes and you wonder if he can see it in yours. despite his kindness and his genuine enthusiasm to hear what you have to say, he holds an arrogance in his posture that shows that childe is underestimating you. you know what he’s after: the keycard to the liyuean fleet engine room, one you had swiped off some unsuspecting intern earlier in the day to deposit in your own safekeeping, in hopes to one day sell it to likely nefarious evildoers who would pay a pretty penny for an access key like that.

but buyers have never been one to keep secrets and you’re far too aware that loose lips sink ships -- or in this case, the main starship of the liyuean fleet -- and childe is far too aware of the card that lies within your possession. you smile as you feel his hand gently tug your wallet out of your coat pocket, an action that would have gone unnoticed if you weren’t a master thief as well. you let him walk away as he winks at you and promises to see you again, a blatant lie on his behalf.

you’re gone from your seat before he realizes the keycard isn’t in your wallet -- nothing is. it’s empty, aside from a faded business card offering the services of your thievery, with a smiley face drawn on the back and two words: duped ya! emblazoned next to the face that taunts childe. a rush of adrenaline ripples through him and he’s not sure whether it’s due to rage or excitement. as he reaches into his pocket, he decides it’s the former as childe realizes the keys to his ship are missing.

childe can’t help but smile when he sees his ship missing in the public dock nearby. after all, he had a new goal: tracking you, his treasured spaceship, and that damned keycard down, even if he would have to scour the entire galaxy just to see your eyes once more.

XIAO

“hey,” a familiar voice barks, which xiao ignores as he nuzzles his face further into his elbow, having fallen asleep at his desk. “hey!” the voice is more insistent and he feels fingers dig into his shoulder, shaking his slumped over form and moving xiao’s wheeled office chair slightly. “get up. you’re sleeping on the job and night shift is coming soon.”

as the voice continues to not leave him alone, xiao finally realizes who is speaking to him. its you. upon this realization, xiao concedes and sits up, wincing as he adjusts to the harsh fluorescent lights that illuminate the room.

“there is no night shift. we’re in space. that’s not a-” xiao complains, but upon seeing you and realizing what you’re holding up in a bag in your hand, ceases his whining and instead chooses to look up at you with wide eyes. “holy shit, is that surface almond tofu?! how did you get that?!”

“sheesh.” you begin, waving the bag slightly back and forth. “i didn’t think you would get this riled up over it.”

“i would sell my soul for a bag of that after suffering through the eternal misery that is the food on this godforsaken ship.” xiao deadpans and you can’t help but think he’s almost serious. he extends his hands to you and you can’t help but note the way the sleeves of his uniform are pushed up to his elbows, especially since his forearms showcase a plethora of scars that you rarely get to see. they signal that the man is an outsider to your legion of computer nerds (and that his well-defined forearms are really hot, but that’s beside the point).

you quickly snap out of your daze as his hands crinkle the bag you’re holding and you lightly swat his hands away from the bag, glaring at him. a scowl crosses his features at your actions and he slumps against the back of his chair, swiveling to fully face you.

“the tofu is yours, but i need something in exchange,” you bargain and you watch as xiao’s eyes narrow at the horrid implication held within your tone. “a lot of my cybersecurity guys are out trying to rework the engine room’s login mechanism... it’s a long story. anyways, i was wondering if you’d find it within the kindness of your heart to pick up one of their shifts.”

“you’re not paying me for this shift, are you?” xiao asks and you can feel your face scrunch up in irritation.

“listen, i went to hell and back to try to get you this tofu so you would say yes and you’re worried about payment? they cover lodging and food when you work he-” you begin to rant, but a rare smile from xiao makes the words die on your lips as you feel heat rise to your face.

“i never said i wouldn’t. you’re always so quick to judge.” his tone is condescending as he smirks smugly at you, reaching to take the bag of tofu from your now slackened grip as you stare at him, visibly flustered by his haughty tone in tandem with a grin you scarcely see.

“oh... uh, alright,” you try to recover, readjusting your posture to stand up straighter, willing yourself to stay composed. his golden eyes stare directly into yours as he plucks a cube of tofu out of the bag with his index finger and thumb. without breaking eye contact, he pops the tofu cube into his mouth and, after swallowing, licks his lips. “let’s um... let’s get started!”

---

xiao is a former yaksha, an elite fighter who served as part of commander rex lapis’s most trusted squadron of soldiers. after an injury rendered him unfit to return to battle, xiao decided to look for other ways to help defend the liyuean fleet, which resulted in him joining your group of cybersecurity experts, who protect the fleet by making sure all systems remain secure and that there are no electronic security breaches.

at the beginning of his job, xiao was fairly terrible with technology and would have been fired nearly immediately for his incompetence if not for his direct recommendation from rex lapis himself. unfortunately for you, you were assigned his superior and nearly lost your mind when the man had to stare at the keyboard in order to know where the keys were as he typed. xiao’s attitude was initially offputting, both sardonic and angry, but he eventually sheathed his bitter defensive weapon of haughtiness and condescension in order to ask you for help outside of work hours to help him learn how to be better at his job.

now, several years later, the two of you are fairly good friends (as good as one can be friends with xiao, you think) to the point where he whines about his dumb bumbling friends (zhongli and some other person you had yet to catch the name of) who run in circles around each other, despite the fact that they blatantly like each other. each time he complains, you scratch your head in confusion, because you and him do the exact same thing.

you’re not entirely oblivious. you’ve realized that xiao acts... different around you than he does around most people. he’s softer and more open, but you don’t want to get your hopes up, so you’ve made yourself more open in return, hoping that he’ll realize your interest. often times, your flirtations will leave him flustered and reeling, but on rare occasions, xiao will take the opportunity to fluster you instead, which is far more effective than any way you could try to charm him. you’re fairly sure he can read you like an open book, so you wait for him to confess his emotions to you.

little do you know, xiao feels the exact same way about you as he awaits your confession. no, he’s not scared of rejection. he’s a former yaksha, do you know how many people he’s taken down? why would he be scared of heartbreak and the utter agony that follows as he’s forced not only to deal with rejection but report to you at work every day? ... oh. maybe he is a little scared. just a teensy, tiny little bit scared.

but hey, if the two of you are lucky, maybe you’ll both confess at the same time after the tension between the two of you nearly suffocates you both.

#fun fact: the intern who lost the dumb keycard is xiangling #she saw some food and got distracted #zhongli x reader #xiao x reader #genshin impact x reader #childe x reader #zhongli #childe #genshin impact #//writing #//zhongli #//xiao #//childe #//1.5k event #xiao

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