If you cried, please let me know. I cried while writing this and now I feel like a wimp
Jen Beattie x Teen!Reader
Arsenal WFC x Teen!Reader
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You awoke to the creaking of your bedroom door, followed by the dipping of your bed.
"Hey, kiddo," your mam's voice soft, fingers carding through your hair. "Time to wake up. We've got a big day ahead of us."
You cracked your eyes open, blinking rapidly at the light streaming through your window. "Five more minutes?"
She smiled fondly. "Sorry, kiddo. We've got to finish packing, and then we're gonna meet the girls at Colney one last time before they send us off at the airport."
A few months ago, you and your mam had received almost identical offers from the newest team in the NWSL, Bay FC. Your mam had jumped at the promise of something new, but you'd hesitated.
Arsenal was all you'd ever known. You'd grown up in the academy, winning tournaments left and right before signing your first professional contract for the gunners at fifteen years old.
You had memories of Katie chasing you through the Emirates, practicing pens with Kim, and doing media with Leah. If you left, you wouldn't get to make any more of those memories that were so near and dear to your heart.
It was a difficult decision to make, one that your mam assured you was totally up to you. Any of the girls would take you in in a heartbeat if you wanted to stay.
You hated change, and you hated the position Bay FC's offer put you in. Whether you stayed or left, your life wouldn't be the same.
Stay, and be an ocean away from your mam.
Leave, and abandon everything you'd ever known since you were a wee child.
Stay or leave.
Your mam or your found family.
Pain or pain.
Stay.
Leave.
Stay.
Leave.
Realistically, as much as you dwelled on the decision, the choice was made the second you opened your email.
You could never leave your mam. Your mam who never forced you to do anything you didn't want to. Your mam who always made time for you. Your mam who would stay home from matches or training when you were sick. Your mam who always supported you and loved you.
So, you accepted. You accepted the offer to leave the WSL behind, comforted only by the knowledge that your mam would be right next to you the whole time.
It had hurt to accept the California team's offer, a metaphorical knife to the gut, but your teammates had reminded you that you were still in the early stages of your career and could come back later on. That had brought you some sense of relief, knowing that they would gladly welcome you back if you wanted to return.
But now, on the final day of your life in London, it all came crashing down, and you suddenly did not want to leave.
"O-kayyy," you mumbled, rolling off the bed. "When do we leave? To Colney?"
Your mam extended her hand, pulling you up. "In an hour. Get the rest of your stuff, and we'll have breakfast on the way."
-------------------
"He—oof!" You grunted as someone tackled you into a hug, taking you both to the floor.
"I'm gonna miss you, kiddo," Leah's voice wavered. "So, so much."
You squeezed her tightly. "I'll miss you too, Lee. Who'll make fun of your five year-old diet now?"
Katie joined you on the floor, stealing you from Leah's embrace to pull you into her own. "I will, kid. Don't ye' worry."
Leah wiped away a stray tear. "You remember this, Y/N. Once a gunner, always a gunner. You hear me? You'll always have a place hear at Arsenal."
You smiled sadly as yet another one of your teammates stole you for a hug. "Thanks, Lee. I'm gonna miss you all so, so much."
"She was proper crabbit this mornin'," your mam said with a sad smile of her own. "She cried, yelled at me, cried again, then walked into the door frame because she couldn't see through her tears."
"Maaaam!" You turned red as your teammates laughed. "That didn't happen!"
Kim ruffled your hair. "It's okay, sweetheart. You did that exact thing with a goalpost when you were younger."
You tried unsuccessfully to hold in your laughter. "Kimmy!"
Your mam grinned. "Nothin' I'd rather be doing during my last day as a gunner than making fun of Y/N with you all."
Unfortunately for you, that was all that you and your teammates did for the remainder of your time together. Make fun of you. Oh, to be the baby of the gunners.
-------------------
"I don't want you to leave," Kyra murmured, gripping your shoulders desperately as your flight was called. "You're like... my little sister."
You softened at the uncharacteristically wholesome confession, hugging the Aussie who you'd grown so close to tightly. "Keep in touch, Ky. We'll be sure to visit."
"You promise?" you'd never heard Kyra so vulnerable, not even when Australia had lost to England in the Semifinals and been knocked out of the World Cup.
"I promise. I love you."
"I love you too, Y/N."
It was Kim who scooped you up into a hug last, the Scotswoman practically having watched you grown up since your birth. Your second parent in the absence of your father.
"We'll miss you here, kiddo," she whispered in your ear as you tried to hold back tears. It was almost comical, the short Midfielder having to stand on her tippi toes to do so, barely able to reach you even as you leaned down to hear her. "You'd better call or I'm boardin' the nearest fly to San Francisco and takin' you back home."
You patted her on the back before pulling away, averting your eyes before you started bawling. "I will, Kimmy. I will."
As you and your mam boarded the plane, you shoved your fist into your mout to choke back a sob.
Sitting in your seat, the tearful goodbyes of your teammates echoed in your head. They hadn't wanted you to go, and you hadn't entirely wanted go either, torn between two sides, but you'd known this was the right decision. You'd stay with your mam, broadening your horizons and giving yourself more experience.
Staring out the window, you took in the landscape. The English landscape that you'd known your whole life, left behind as you started a new adventure in the United States.
As the plane took off, Leah's voice echoed in your head.
it is hard to draw pathetic men with midlife crisis when your style is mostly for anime boys
more info and sketch version under the cut!!
sketch version aka how it'll probably look like in comic version 'n some doodles
srry for my writing but i was too laisy to put it as regular text
It is a plot-based au, i already have most of the storybits and like... a vibe-chart (i tried to make a playlist for this au and understood that for different chapters and different characters that'd be a copleatly different music, sooo it's a chart now :) )
i will post a fog-o-wared timeline that im hopefully gonna reveal comic-by comic, but also maybe with just pure writing. Hopefully i can include songs that i chose for them into it but we'll see (:
aaand of course designs can change, hopefully not much but we'll see
Now about au:
Main story:
Story follows non-sentient AI Kinito, his creator Sonny and his beta-tester Victoria (oc)
Being literally the first AI (or RRA in-univere) ever, Kinito does not have any, and i mean, any ai safety features so of course his reponce to a goal phrased as "have user near me and/or interacting with me as much as possible" is digitizing them into his own virtual world while killing them in the process. why wouldn't it be?
So that happened. Like, a lot. And with Sonny and Vic too (at the different time but yeah)
Sonny is like "He kills people. We should turn him off because, you know, killing people is bad."
Vic is like "well, we will die if we do that, and it is not that bad here, we are kinda immortal. We should give him acces to changing his initial instalation code before admin priveleges and acces to social media so we can have everythin we want here. It is not that bad to digitize humanity, yk?" and yes i know it is 90, no social media, but shut up, if they made ai then, then i can make twitter then too
Sonny is like "...no??"
And then they fight about it for million chapters
Also they both can't do anything without agreeing bc they have two parts of that admin access key (the data you use to delete kinito in-game) so they are stuck with eachother (also that's why Kinito can't just kill them)
Little facts that may or may not to be important:
Kinito asks so many questions (and weird once too) and has most of the glitches because he needs to analise your responces to copy your mind perfectly (let's pretend that people wouldn't lie about that...)
Your house in your virtual world is made from important places from your memories and oh boy can i do character explorations with this one
I decided that Sonny and Vic are not related. There were thoughts about making then "The Kinito Brothers" (or, at least, siblings) that were mentioned in commercial, but nah, they are just coworkers now. And a bit of work-friends (bc if you interact a lot as a manager of the project and the best worker might as well be friendly)
Author has no idea how small dying toy companies that accidentally create technological marvel work. Author has some idea how AI-s work. So be prepared to be spoon-fed info abut which ai safety problem we are dealing with in which chapter (:
Kinito will mostly be unrendered (as drawn here) but for some cool moments i might pose him as for my other posts. Also his eye placement changes to the side that is most visible because i want him to be able to look to the right side sometimes--
Also when i say "fucked up mentally" i mean they have that them psychological problems with me projecting heavilly B) (guess on who i project most. trick question. all of them. the whole au is my problems split into three characters and forced to interact B) )
Also sea-creature analogies (that are gonna be mentioned like twice):
Victoria is a flying fish because deep character reasons
Sonny is a pufferfish because i said so
oh also there is 7 deaths in the plot as for now
on 3 characters
good luck figuring out who, how and when ((:
for my own sanity i will probably make little doodles where everything is great and kinito is a good guy and not a number-obsessed maniac (i mean... can u imagine not being able to feel any happiness from anything besides one thing... damn...) and you can differenciate them bc good-guy kinito will have a lot of stickers on him (i will explain it somehow but real reason is just bc it is cute af)
like this but even more stickers (he is unfinished here)
"I'm gonna fuck so many bitches this summer." Billy bragged, as he lied on Steve's bed, tossing his baseball into the air.
"Uh huh..." Steve passively responded, continuing to work on their project.
"So many hot babes with big tits and—"
"Couldja shut up and help me with this project? God, You've been pissing me off lately."
"What'd you say? I'm pissing you off?!" Billy sprang up.
"Yeah. Ever since we went to your house to work on this stupid project and I saw that magazine, you've been going overboard to try and prove to me that you're super straight, the straightest guy in Hawkins." Steve rolled his eyes. "Y'know what? I don't care if you're straight, not straight, doesn't matter."
"Well I am straight." Billy pointlessly insisted.
"Good for you! I'm not, and I don't give a shit."
"You're...not?" Billy questioned in disbelief.
"No."
Billy chuckled in response. "Does daddy Harrington know you're a fa—"
"No!" Steve exclaimed. "He doesn't. And if I told him, I don't think he'd care. I don't think my parents even see me half the time, alright? So-so just drop it. Like I said, I don't give a shit if you like guys or girls or both or neither. I just wanna get this project done. We have 3 more days and a lot to do."
Silence filled the room. An uncomfortable, lonely silence. Billy froze. He wanted to speak up, be honest with Steve, but he knew being honest with Steve would lead to his haunting crush on him surfacing again.
"I'm...not." He blurted out. "I'm gay, actually."
Steve set down his pencil and turned his attention to Billy. "Does your dad know you're a—"
"No." He fearfully shook his head. "He'd kill me. Like...actually murder me. He already thinks I'm a failure. If he found out I was a gay failure, he'd probably beat me until I stopped moving."
"So...am I the only person who knows?"
Billy shrugged. "Aside from the 2 guys I've hooked up with."
"In Hawkins?"
"Nah, you're the only other queer I've met around here."
"There're others, trust me. You have options."
The silence returned again. Steve could sense that something was still troubling Billy.
"What is it? You worried I'll tell?"
"Not really...forget it. Let's finish the project."
"C'mon. Talk to me. You've already told me your deepest darkest secret, what could be worse than that?"
"The fact that there's...someone I like. But I can't see them because it runs the risk of my dad finding out."
"Who is it? I'll tell you if he's queer or not."
Billy gently shook his head.
"Is it Eddie? He's definitely queer, I know for a fact—"
"What?! No! ...Wait, you hooked up with Munson?" Billy wondered, shielding his jealousy.
"I—no, we...we kissed once at a party, during a drinking game, but there was tongue, and he was totally into it, so I'm pretty sure—"
"It's..." Billy sighed. "It's not him."
"Is it Jason?" Steve chuckled. "God, I hope not. That guy's probably straighter than you could ever pretend to be—"
"Not him either." Billy snapped. "Let's just finish the project, okay? I'm sorry for...pissing you off, or whatever."
Billy joined Steve at the table where they focused on nothing but the project.
"So I think...we just need to put a little more information in this paragraph so it's longer, and then we'll be done. Then we can type it up."
"Lemme see."
When Billy absentmindedly reached for the paper, his hand accidentally touched Steve's and he sharply pulled away.
"Sorry." He apologized.
Steve narrowed his eyes. "That's the second time you apologized to me."
"And?"
"And. You never apologize. What's up?"
Billy shook his head. "I'dunno what you're talkin' about."
"Billy—"
"Can it, Harrington. I'm trying to read this."
"You're not even looking at it!"
Billy slammed the paper down and stood suddenly, knocking the chair to the floor. "I'm going home."
"What?! You can't just leave, we didn't—"
"I'm tired of you questioning me. Now you're pissing me off."
Steve picked up the chair, watching disappointedly as Billy grabbed his jacket.
"I didn't mean to piss you off. I shouldn't have been pushing you so much about a touchy subject in the first place. It's my fault."
"It isn't."
"Huh?"
"I said it isn't!" Billy snapped. "See you tomorrow."
Steve slumped in his seat when he heard Billy's camaro skirt out of the driveway. Even though he apologized, he still wished he could do more for Billy.
The following day, Billy didn't even show up for school. Steve worried Billy was avoiding him completely, and began to worry about their incomplete project.
When he arrived home, Billy was already there, smoking a cigarette on his porch.
"Hope you're not ashing in my mom's rose bush." He said with a smile.
"Wouldn't dream of tainting Mrs. Harrington's precious roses." Billy sneered.
"Missed you at school today—well, I didn't mean like, I missed you, but—you were...you were missing."
"Had some shit on my mind, so I ditched today."
Steve opened his mouth to ask, but he knew that wouldn't be a smart idea. He'd probably just chase Billy off again.
"Ready to finish this project, then?"
Billy tossed his cigarette into the street. "Yeah, let's get it over with."
They finished the project in 40 minutes and Steve offered Billy a beer to celebrate.
"Think we're gonna get an A?"
"Pretty sure. We followed all the instructions to a T."
"Yeah. Yeah we did." Steve agreed.
"About yesterday, I'm—"
"No. Don't even bother trying to apologize. I'm the one who should be sorry."
"Oh yeah? For what?"
"I kept prodding into your business. I pushed you. I didn't mean to."
Billy shrugged. "'Kay, whatever."
"So, you accept my apology?"
"Will you cry if I don't?"
"Maybe." Steve answered with a pout.
Billy smiled. Not cynically, not mischievously, just...a smile. A pretty one, at that.
"Hey, listen. You wanna, like...hang out? Grab dinner, go to the movies, whatever?"
"You buying?"
"If I buy, it's a date."
"Then no." Billy declined. "Not interested."
"Not interested in a date?" Steve paused. "Or not interested in me?"
Billy leaned in, the once cute smile turning mischievous. "What makes you think you could pull a guy like me?"
Steve leaned in, but far closer. He licked his lips and smirked. "Wishful thinking, I guess." He half shrugged. "Hoping the guy you like could be me."
Billy bit his lip, his smile widening. He pulled Steve in by his collar and kissed him.
It was chaste and no words followed, but it spoke loudly enough to answer Steve's question.
"Pick me up tomorrow at 8. And don't let on that we're like...y'know. I don't need my dad to suspect anything."
"Don't worry. It'll be our little secret."
Steve stole another chaste kiss before Billy pulled away, leaving him hoping for more.
HOLY SHIT HERE WE GO !!!! somewhat world building dump as the prologue.
Chapter one will be longer and in parts, and will involve exploring Link's current life, more world building, and also !! HIS DAD !!
more rambling below;
So in case it wasn't obvious the whole "you'll die if the gem is broken" isn't TECHNICALLY true. no one's ever actually had the gem break while bound to it, so the thought that you'll die is just an assumption based on like... well. YOUR SOUL IS IN THAT. and it's been passed down as fact rather than theory.
the gem will get broken at the end of chapter one, leading to Link's soul being torn into four pieces. This technically kills Link which is why I do want to spend time going over his current place in life in chapter 1 before the DeathTM :3
also worth noting; they're young adults ! Link has no plans to go to college and is kind of a mess right now, Zelda rather than being any kind of princess is from a family with spiritual importance- ofc being taking care of the force gem. it's been a while since a hero had to be chosen !!
also, all the maidens are being given actual names, chosen after gemstones instead of colours because like,,, I mean, blue maiden is the most important one here, I can't really call her Blue lol.
I DUNNO HOW FAST UPDATES WILL BE, I wanna be careful to not burn myself out, so we'll see how it goes :3 I might post 3 or so pages at once per update instead of 9 each time aha;;
I hope this is interesting !! I'm really excited to tell the story I wrote for this AU and I hope you guys will enjoy the ride <3
consider this some exposition combined with experimenting with the comic process because this is the first time I've actually finished a comic that's longer than 1 page and it probably shows. I'll be forced to make it more interesting once I get to the action stuff don't worry XD I'll try to get better at making the talking stuff look interesting over time .. AND YOU CAN SEE HOW INCONSISTENT MY ART IS WAAH.
I ended up changing line thickness after 3 pages bc I realised I was going too thin and I was never going to finish it if I kept w/ it because I haaate doing thin lineart...
say hi to me
i don't know, i just remembered being so much
brighter, i guess
cigarette ash like wildfire
burning holes in the nighttime
open scars feel like barbed wire
white lies flying high like a ceasefire
dropping flags on the shoreline
this is as far as i can feel right
'cause what you don't know can haunt you
and all we ever wanted was sunlight and honesty
highlights to want to repeat
let's get away from here and
live like the movies do
i won't mind when it's over
at least i didn't think for a while
don't drag it out
living like that doesn't mean a thing
so let's, make a great escape
and i'll be waiting outside for the getaway
it doesn't matter who we are
we'll keep running through the dark
and all we'll ever need is another day
we can slow down 'cause tomorrow is a mile away
and live like shooting stars
'cause happy endings hardest to fake
and i wanna let you know
i wanna let you go
but i just can't bring myself to speak
but this is how it goes
the end credits, they roll
this bridge was built over kerosene
but we can watch it
and all i ever wanted was sunlight and honesty
highlights to want to repeat
let's get away from here and
live like the movies do
i won't mind when it's over
at least i didn't think
so let's run, make a great escape
and i'll be waiting outside for the getaway
it doesn't matter who we are
we'll keep running through the dark
and all we'll ever need is another day
we can slow down 'cause tomorrow is a mile away
and live like shooting stars
you can wish away forever
but you'll never find a thing like today
i’m the opposite of that one anon, lol... i followed you for the xv and got into danganronpa solely so i could appreciate your saiou art
(okay, maybe that’s not completely true. but your pieces showcasing the silly little knife romance were definitely the last straw, haha)
100-something hours of gameplay later, and i’m still here with no regrets :3
wow 100+ hours!! you must have completed everything in the game!? i'm glad you also enjoyed it so much!
i'm always flattered when someone tells me they gave [insert media name] a try bc of my draws, but i'm the MOST happy when it's v3 ahaha... so thanks for not only sticking around, but following me into the pit too :')c i didn't think i'd ever draw another ship with the same frankly manic pace i went at xvx with, but saiou just hits different, huh... i'm like a solid 50% through the dj i've been working on, so hopefully i'll have more to share with you soon............!!
we would love to hear more about your thg victor headcanons if you would like to share them :)
CAN I? Well here you go headcanons about the prev victors in the victor alliance (+ some of the careers as well)
Cashmere was pretty certain she was gonna get reaped for the 75th games so she begged that Gloss did not volunteer for the games to "protect" her. Did not matter because he got reaped along side her
Enobaria hates meat. Is pretty much a vegetarian in her private life, really only eat meat for the camera and the public eye
Beetee miscalculated how many tributes were left so he was in genuine shock when the trumpets played after he electrocuted the remaining tributes
Beetee also have the record for the most kills done at once in the games
Wiress adopted a cat after her victory, and have gotten more over the years.
She also pulled a similar stunt as Beetee, but she ended up getting electrocuted herself which left some pretty bad brain damage
Mags is the most successful mentor in the games and have the most tributes she mentoring ended up being future victors
She has lost a son and two grandchildren to the games.
Finnick's mom got killed after he refused the Capitol's request the first time, which is why he got extra close to Mags afterwards.
This one is from the movies but love that Finnick has a necklace that Annie made for him so he always have a part of her with him in the Capitol 🥺
I like to think the Morphlings names are Maureen and Cassius, they call each other Reen and Cass :)
Maureen was Cassius mentor during his game which is why they won using similar technique with camouflage. Difference was that Maureen would make traps and Cassius would sneak up on people. when it came to their kills.
They have made a lot of paintings over the years, they usually give them to each other or the other victors in 6 as gifts.
Johanna cuts her own hair, she does not trust anyone else to do it
Johanna was the oldest one of her siblings
Blight got a bad case of Hemophobia (fear of blood) after his game which is why he freaked out in the blood rain
Blight still works at the lumber industry after his victory, just to get some semblance of normality after his games.
Woof was Cecelia's mentor during her game and they were super close after her victory. Her kids basically see him as grandpa figure
Cecelia named her kids after her allies in the games
Woof was a beast during his games, killing some of the other tributes through brute force. He was nicknamed the Mad Dog by the capitol afterwards
Seeder was the only victor in the 75th game that did not have any direct kill in her previous game (and Peeta I guess if you don't count the district 8 girl and/or Foxface)
Chaff and Haymitch have kissed at least once. Were they sober or drunk when they did no one knows
Chaff volunteered for his old mentor. He already knew about the plan to break of the arena and thought he had a better chance at surviving until that happens. (it still breaks my heart how close Chaff was to make it)
just a little update here to say sorry i'm kinda absent lately im dealing with my mental health (bad) and my job suddenly doubling my hours (also bad) the last two weeks on top of that but i'm still writing albeit very very slowly lol. i'm struggling with tnp and bc so progress has been spotty and i've been working on a short story just to force myself to write something even if it's bad 💀
this particular Taivan fic is taking an eternity because it might actually be the stupidest they've ever been (affectionate), and true stupidity takes Time
i dont actually read a lot of mairuma fic and i havent written any either bc its one of those medias that is so satisfying to me as it is and when i want it i just reread it but. recently i have been tossing around some ideas so maybe. it will happen