#what more did he feel. jesse was actually on the ledge for so long. how much did mike know abt that. more than he let on?? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

katmaatui · 7 months

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omg hal for this ask game AND the other ask game!!!

You didn't give me a number so I may have done all of the second one? So read more. Tw for suicide attempt mention under the first ask game, favorite moment (its not hal)

First Ask Game

First impression

I actually have a screenshot of me, last january, going I think Hal would be cool but I've never read anything with him in it. Uhhh I did use to think he's scared of the bats which eww.

Impression now

How can I put him down to a single sentence? A single paragraph? He's literally everything to me. He's so complex. He's insecure, he's suicidal as hell. He's flawed, he hates himself and he makes that other people's problem, he takes so much onto himself, he wants to be the shinning knight of the stories, he's inspired by old tales of knights and fair damsels and good and bad and black and white. He thinks himself as right and those who disagree with him as wrong and i just love him.

Favorite moment

It's like telling me to pick a favorite child. You're talking to someone who has a 200 issue long hal rec list, but I want to do a more neglected moment beyond the popular issues like emerald twilight and gl 0.

I would have to say Spectre #23, I love the dynamic between Sinestro and Hal there and the way it harkens back to older comics and how it can make later comics make so much sense???? Hal always reaching out to Sinestro, despite Sinestro not wanting his help. It's such a good way of showing Hal's character of reaching out to those he once trusted even once they betrayed his trust!

Another favorite of mine is action comics #615? I want to say. It's after the Hal gains his ability to feel fear back arc, but only directly. He's barely able to fly he's so unused to feeling fear, but he has to. He has to because there's someone on a ledge about to jump, and he's able to work through his fear just because he wants to help someone else, and that's who Hal Jordan is to me. Someone who deeply, deeply wants to help others, even at the expense of himself.

Idea for a story

Hmmm, I want to do one I haven't talked about here so none of my fifteen million different Parallax wips.

I haven't really thought it out much beyond oooh wouldn't it be fucked up if this the guardians did this, but we know from silver age comics that the guardians can see the future, and we know from all comics that the guardians are controlling bastards, so what if in an attempt to be even more controlling than usual, the guardians kinda um kidnapped younger gls, once whatever that happened to put them on their track had happened.

The original idea focuses mostly on Hal and John years and years afterwards, trying to rebuild the lives taken from them. They don't really remember their names from before, they're trying to find their family, trying to find out who they would be if they weren't green lanterns, if the guardians hadn't taken them, and the scene floating in my mind is Hal, Jack, and Jim reuniting. Hal's been missing since he was 10 years old, and none of them know how to react.

Also I want a fic where Hal and Jess compare their experiences with possession but I don't want to write it myself so I'm stuck there.

Unpopular opinion

oh god so I'm like blocked by like half of Hal blogs for some reason???? I honestly don't really know why, it's like half of them are my mutuals and half have me blocked :(.

okay my biggest one in the circles I'm in is that I feel like the parallax recon could be done well. Geoff was a little coward with it, but if tweaked slightly, relying on the amount of inconsistencies even within issues that Geoff wrote, let alone the amount of different writers tackling it, it could be fixed. (Like both Hal and the space bug say they don't know what stuff Hal did versus the space bug, and Hal says he murdered the green lantern corps before becoming parallax multiple times).

Also I have fun with Hal and pals. It's not the best comic (especially at the beginning with Soranik) but the last 20 or so issues are enjoyable and I've read everything 30 on multiple times.

Favorite relationship

See the favorite child comment above. Okay, so my top three romantic relationships are Hal and Carol, Hal and Sinestro, and Hal and Ollie. I discussed Halcarol in the carol post so I'll focus on the other two. Hal and Sinestro...Hal and Sinestro like actually make me fucking insane. Its the homoeroticism of killing someone while calling them your best friend, your best enemy. It's about being so similar that you hate and love someone at the same time, its about wanting them by your side, no matter the cost, but it can never truly work, they'll never truly be on the same side again. But, but, but, the tragedy of all this is that they'll always be friends, that they're the same underneath the skin (cries).

Hal and Ollie are opposites who want the same thing, in comparison to hal and sinestro who are very similar but want different things. Halollie to me is about nostalgia and rose tinted glasses and a past you can't go back to, a truck you pulled out of the river but its never the same, they're not the same. Plus they also have the whole murdering each other and resurrection thing going on and I have well demonstrated my love for a good murdering each other story.

Platonically? oh god. I love Hal and Kilowog and then i love Hal and John. Hal and Kilowog are so...like they also have the murdering thing going on. Like issue 40 of gl 2011???? Its complete insanity. The devotion the two of them have towards the green lantern corps??? also the scene in gls where Hal goes I would have done the same for Kilowog to Simon who had let jess go free??? I love the little mentions like that.

Hal and John are so interesting because Hal is an absolute shit friend and sector partner to John and John says that explicitly in story and still forgives Hal anyways, still says he loves him, still says they're best friends. Like my brain is mostly spitting out !!!!!!! for them but its a very excited !!!!!.

Favorite headcanon

Undiagnosed adhd Hal for the win! Like he suffers for it too, his relationship with his dad shows a lot of his dad doesn't understand him and doesn't want to. He can't focus, he can't stay still, he can't keep his feet on the ground and his head out of the clouds. It's just very much something I project on him based on canon evidence.

Second ask game. You didn't send me a number so I did all of them.

a fun headcanon

Okay I actually did this last because I have a lot of sad headcanons? But um, I really like the idea of Hal and John having a lot of inside jokes. They will reference random things during jl meetings and sometimes they're true sometimes they're not. The justice league sure doesn't know.

a sad headcanon

His father's jacket was destroyed in Coast City along with all of his stuff. The one he has now is one made out of his memories, which is why its different than before post emerald twilight.

Also I have a headcanon where he gets invited to do a speech at the 10 year anniversary of Coast City's destruction. He cries during it.

a headcanon that canon doesn't disprove

He's using his ring to cover up his gray streaks. They never really went away, Parallax wouldn't let him go that freely, but he covers them up because he's too scared to see everyone else's reaction.

a headcanon to spite canon, specifically

I don't do a lot of headcanons to spite canon? Like I genuinely think that canon is fun and something we should work with. The closest I got is my joke that current gl hal is the ring suppressing his emotions again because that ain't my hal.

a headcanon that's all but canon, and that's a hill I will die on

See the undiagnosed adhd headcanon above. Also the fact that he has some sort of genderfuckery going on, I saw your she/he pronouns spectre hal, I know what you are <3.

a headcanon about their family

I have so many. oh god one of the biggest I would say would be that Jack and Hal were specifically pitted against each other. We see this sometimes, with in a few flashbacks Martin saying why aren't you more like Jack, but I would like to see more of it. Hal hates Jack because he was the perfect one and then he went to college and Hal and Jim were left behind in the suffocating house.

In my head, Jim was very young when Martin died and does not remember him, and Jack was almost in college already and he left, leaving Hal to really baby Jim. He saw Jim as his responsibility, his little brother to protect, which is why he still calls him his kid brother, even when Jim has two kids of his own.

Also Jim really looks up to Hal which is basically canon. I mean he counts down the hours in between Hal leaving and returning and his security password is Hal's birthday.

a pre-canon headcanon

He and Jim used to go to baseball games together, sneaking into the coast city angels baseball field. He always thinks of Jim when making his baseball construct.

a post-canon headcanon

hmmmm. My biggest one is that due to the amount of ridiculous bullshit that he dies and comes back from, he's functionally immortal. He physically can't die. He's stuck here forever, even after all those he loves are dead. He becomes a legend, the man without fear, the man he never wanted to be. He wanders out in space, only coming back when he's needed, which these days are few and far in between. Eventually the legends morph to him never having existed, a story made up and embellished over all the years. He just wants to sleep.

a missing scene that definitely happened

Okay so something had to happen in between Spectre and gl rebirth that made hal go from going I don't deserve to be human to I have to have my life back and geoff does not show it. I usually have something happen with Helen that makes Hal have to erase both of their memories, which is why she isn't there in gl rebirth, and pushes Parallax, the entity into being.

I recognize canon has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it (+ what should have happened)

The fucking Hal is younger than Roy post resurrection thing. Literal hatred in my heart, that man is in his 50s and everytime dc makes him younger he gains a year.

something [other character] believes about them that isn't true

This is basically canon but specifically Guy and Ollie most believe that he wasn't in control during Parallax. Hal himself "tries to forget" who was in control and that interests me so much.

something they believe about [other character] that isn't true

He genuinely believes that the other founding jlers, especially Superman doesn't think much of him. He projects his own insecurities onto them, while they do think he's capable, they don't think he's going to go evil again.

their happiest memory

This is basically canon, but to me the memory he's most nostalgic for is being on the road with Ollie, just the two of them. That's what he thinks of when he thinks of home, and it'll never return again.

their worst memory

People like to say its his father's death, but he barely remembers that these days. It's not even coming back from space and learning what happened to Coast. No, it's his older brother looking at him and snarling that what happened was his fault, that he murdered their mother by the crime of existing.

a secret

oh uh. Well, I do really love some variation that Parallax happened later then people think and that Hal had some hand in parallax being unleashed, so something about that.

favorite canon relationship

Answered above.

favorite fanon relationship

He doesn't really have any fanon relationships? Like besides bruce but I can't stand fanon's version of that. Ummmm, fanon makes his and barry's relationship a little less boring but that's not hard to do because a sock is more interesting than them.

Oh wait! Okay my fanon version of Hal and Arisia (not romantic). I basically jumble up all the different versions and recons and plus put in some of my own extraplations to make a good friendship there. Arisia looks up to Hal and holds him to high standards but she doesn't hero worship. She's still holding a grudge for the beating up Kilowog plot.

favorite should have been canon relationship

Seeing this as romantic so sinhal. I mean if one of them was female they would have been mainline canon years ago. Morrison is the only dc writer who gets me (made sinhal canon in an alternative universe and I'm eternally grateful for that). They're such good parallels and if they got together??? Insanity

[blank] / dealer's choice

When in space and lonely, Hal will make a construct of those he loves and just talk to them, and then cry.

#Ask Reply #kyleraynered #Hal Jordan

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dyed-red · 1 year

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phyn! happy wincest wednesday! I am thinking about how Sam and Dean are both not great at sharing their feelings. they're inconsistent and bottle everything up until they blow up at each other. do you have anything to share about FEELINGS and the ways the brothers are similar, and different, in how they handle theirs? not sure where I'm going with this but have at 'er

mmmmmmm feelings. they taste so good when they're all suppressed and thorny. this is all opinion and initial thoughts and a super long post but here we go:

Similarities

Compartmentalization is the big one, to me. Although there are some differences in what and how they compartmentalize, both of them are masters at it. Dean is a bit more blunt about this, especially early on, although I'd argue the pendulum sort of swings at a certain point and we've got Sam with more boxes of unacknowledged shit he's placed in carefully organized rows down in the depths somewhere.

they're also both far more likely to use problem-focused coping, sam especially in the early seasons despite how he tries to get others to acknowledge their emotions. from seasons 1-4, at least, possibly including s5, sam's main (only?) coping skill is to Solve The Problem. this often looks like identifying the issue, researching it, finding a solution, committee 200% to that solution no matter how insane it might be, and putting that plan in motion.

(see: driving the impala into a derelict house in the pilot, the entire episode of Faith, the way he throws himself at finding dad and then at the yellow-eyed demon all to the detriment of saving others and his own life until dean pulls him back from whichever ledge it happens to be this week, the way he approaches the special kids stuff, then the entirety of season 3, and especially how this manifests in both mystery spot and the period we see in 'i know what you did last summer' when dean was dead, and it's part of what makes him so susceptible to ruby who promises solutions, and part of how he ends up rationalizing blood drinking and the kill lilith at all costs attitude)

and i put this under similarities because while dean is actually honestly genuinely better at emotion-focused coping than sam is in those early seasons, he is very solution-oriented in how he tries to approach feelings and emotional issues. this is most especially true for the big things as well: he wants to solve sam's grief in season 1 and he wants to do it by throwing him at women, he decides to solve sam's death by selling his own soul, he even attempts to (re)solve dad's orders to kill sam if needed by trying to convince sam that they should maybe give up hunting early in s2 (it's a weak and half-hearted attempt but worth noting).

and then of course there is just straight-up suppression. play through the pain, push it down and let it come out through bouts of alcoholism and violence, Do Not Talk About It even if you acknowledge its impact on you (sam and his grief over jess, both of them over john's death, dean eventually and his time in hell). this is different than compartmentalization in that it's there on the surface in a huge way and it's plain as day and you know it and acknowledge it but there's nothing you can do about it so you just sort of ignore it and refuse to sit with it or talk about it and just... continue existing with this wound bleeding inward or outward.

(see: getting angry and breaking things, being reckless or self-destructive and endangering self and others, etc. this is not a tactic that works. this is bottle up and explode.)

distractions is one i should mention here too, as one of their core (more healthy and adaptive) emotion-focused coping strategy, but i'm tempted to talk about it more under differences because they have really different distraction methods except for one. they both use fresh/new hunts to distract themselves from whatever it is that is causing them stress or pain.

Differences

continuing on the thread of distractions, dean uses media and escapism through narrative in a way sam simply Does Not. dean watches scooby-doo and horror movies and explicitly says he enjoys the escape and knowing that the bad guy is going to lose in the end. he references books and quotes them far more frequently than sam, everything from aesop to vonnegut, and we know that he loves music quite a bit, probably part of how he drowns out reality or escapes from it when he needs to.

in general, i think dean also dissociates more than sam does. this is integral in some of that 'dean as object' stuff. he separates himself from his physical body and steps behind it and away, so that what is happening to his body isn't happening to him, often when a monster or demon is threatening and implying some sexual violence.

conversely i think sam rationalizes and medicalizes a fair amount. he wants to understand and be able to explain (at least to himself) what his emotions are and what he's going through, because / as if the ability to understand and explain it provides a degree of power over it. sam craves control, and rationalizing affords illusory control over his emotions, allowing him to convince himself he has mastery over those feelings even when he's in fact very off the rails and being dragged around by his emotions like a dog on a leash.

this tends to mean that sam is up in his head explaining and re-explaining his own shit to himself until he's got a handle on it, and dean is out of his head escaping.

sam uses distractions as well, as i said with a new hunt, and with reading the lore. the lore thing is two-fold though -- it provides a sense of control over things again, illusory or real, because that knowledge can help in a pinch, even if it's not related to a current case. so he can kind of convince himself he's reading for work or for a present problem or that it will be helpful, even when he's using it as a distraction.

sam also somatizes more, i think, which is when your psychological stresses manifest in your physical body. we're dipping a little into headcanon territory here but i picture him as someone more prone to headaches and stomach aches than dean as a result of stress and anxiety (dean's stomach aches are earned through eating food he shouldn't have).

i connect this partly to sam's clean living/eating/exercising more as time goes on, although that is also about control. much like reading the lore 'just in case' and developing encyclopedic knowledge of things they may encounter no matter how far-fetched, eating well and exercising affords a small advantage against monsters.

exercising as a coping mechanism more general can also be a way to distract oneself and is a good emotion-focused coping mechanism when used to get restless energy out and improve one's mood. i think sam does use exercise adaptively and healthily like this and it's generally good for him, but yeah that it can and does tend toward obsessive control/coping sometimes.

something i think they do in different ways is also their problem- and emotion-focused approach to 'tend and befriend'. we can cope with our own shit sometimes by getting out of our own heads and focusing on others instead -- helping them with their problems or giving them stuff or just generally socially connecting with laughter and fun.

on this, sam likes to find a person experiencing a problem, get them to open up, provide empathy or offer words of support, and in so doing, stop focusing or worrying so much about his own shit. he does this with dean but also with victims on cases and gets more out of hearing about their issues and offering them advice/support than dean does. dean will engage in the practice too, but it doesn't emotionally feed him the way it does with sam, who processes his own emotions through empathizes with others, and dean does it out of necessity more than anything.

in contrast, dean likes to solve another person's problems for them (see: trying to throw sam at women) or distract himself by hearing about what is going on with others (see: asking cas to distract him when crowley and gadreel are co-possessing sam). solving their shit allows him to stop worrying about it or allows him space to process his stuff, potentially by hearing about theirs and having his own churn themselves along alongside the other person's, or in the meantime.

relatedly, dean also tends to mother hen others, and in so doing he uses caretaking as a means of coping with his own shit. this is part of dean's illusory control methods, because it affords him the sense that he's doing a job and if he does it right then things will be okay. he engages in caretaking by identifying and meeting the needs of others, and this is distinct from him trying to solve their problems only in how it tends to be more emotional, whether that's being 4 or 5 years old telling his mom things will be okay, as an adult pointing out bobby's drinking and later giving him whatever speeches he needs after he's become paralyzed from the waist down, and manifests in so many ways with john and with sam it's not worth counting.

tl;dr

while both brothers use compartmentalization, suppression, helping others, and distractions at a broad level, at a more specific level, both sam and dean have very different emotion-focused coping mechanisms, and different ways their problem-focused coping manifests.

sam hits his head against a problem until it cracks open, and does so rigidly and to his own (and the planet's) detriment until he is forced to learn some more emotion-focused coping mechanisms after the cage. he is always seeking a sense of control so he reads lore, eats well, pushes his body, and rationalizes/medicalizes until he can gain a sense of control. some of this is adaptive. eventually he learns to sit with his emotions enough to process them as they arise and threaten to overwhelm or overtake him, which allows him to compartmentalize them more effectively as needed.

dean copes with a similar sense of helplessness by distracting himself from the issue through hunting and the job, and sometimes through narrative transportation and by taking care of others, all of which can be adaptive for the smaller issues or one-off hurts, but causes him a lot more pain with the big stuff like his betrayal over sam going to stanford or his emotions about his father (john's death and his treatment of dean and their messed up dynamic all included) or what hell wrought on him. when bigger hurts stack up, much like sam, he is eventually forced to learn more adaptive or flexible ways to navigate overwhelming feelings, which i tend to think involves sitting with them and acknowledging them and allowing himself to think about them, something i don't think he did when he was younger except when he lost control over his compartmentalizing, but that allows him to go over them and then set them aside better, when ready.

for both of them, when circumstances demand or emotions overwhelm, they will open up and talk out or acknowledge the emotion. this tends to manifest in distressed sadness from dean and in distressed anger from sam, when they're at their wits' end, with dean expressing shame but seldom guilt, and sam expressing guilt but seldom shame. exceptions include how dean expresses guilt over ways he's hurt sam or others and how sam expresses shame over actions taken related to victimized aspects of himself. at the end of the day though, they both get better and more adaptive and healthy as time goes on at sitting with their feelings instead of trying to control or ignore them.

#characterization #long post #long post for ts #sam #dean #emotions #my meta #wincest wednesday #but no wincest to speak of sorry #also this is of course opinion #and if i thought about it a bit deeper i might come to different conclusions on some of these #so if you anyone feels differently and wants to point out or share why please feel free to rebagel and discuss!#right on queue

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jestlingnest · 2 years

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I said I’d post more episode 7 thoughts eventually. Well that time is now! Long post about speculation/interpretation/explanation/headcanons on what chipping is like under the cut.

I have decided to politely look away from how chipping is done, as the machine doesn’t really... make sense. The box goes over the front of your head, but the chip is on the back. So unless the box is actually going over people’s entire heads or it’s grabbing there face, I have no clue how that works.

Moving on!

Getting chipped feels like a heavy punch to the back of your head except that punch has knives. And it’s the kind of hit that makes your whole head hurt, even your eyes.

Nothing you do from now on is out of your own will. Even your thoughts are being controlled. A person whose chipped does know what’s going on, but they wont perceive it or process it. All they can think of is to follow orders. Fighting back doesn’t work (in most situations) except to let you be more aware of the situation besides “Do what PAMA is telling you to.” Being chipped also makes it so no one gets tired. And PAMA doesn’t feel the injuries that people would get, so it keeps pushing people to keep moving or fighting when they really shouldn’t be. It just isn’t useful to be hurt. But with PAMA’s help, no one will be out of commission because of injuries again!

When a person gets unchipped, that’s when the memories of what happened hit.

Unchipping by water leaves the worst injuries- that thing was inside a person’s head, it’ll leave a mark! And this is the worst one. The water breaks the chip, and the chip’s response to that is to shock whatever is trying to break it. It can’t find anything, so it just shocks the person instead. The force of the shock and the chip breaking is what gets it to pop off.

So, let’s add that together; being electrocuted, the constant dull headache from the chip, the memories and thoughts hitting like a truck, your body suddenly realizing that it’s in control again, all that is enough to make a person extremely fatigued and out of it.

Also, PAMA being able to download a person’s memories can go both ways- kind of. The human isn’t downloading anything, just perceiving. Like what Petra (I’ve always unchipped Petra first so I’ll be using her as an example) said, she said she remembered the redstone spires. And she remembered they were important. Petra wouldn’t have known they were important unless she knew from PAMA.

Now, moving onto the final battle of episode 7. Once the Redstone Heart is pulled out a little bit, Lukas (like I mentioned with Petra, he’s always been the one still chipped here) starts to get control back. The first time that he appears to be hurt by this wasn’t on purpose, it was just that the forced severing of that connection did hurt. The second time, when he gets electrocuted, that was on purpose to try and make it easier for PAMA to keep control. Now Lukas actually has a chance of succeeding in fighting for control!

If being chipped was already a headache, this is even worse. PAMA is now 100% concentrated on trying to control Lukas so that it can kill Jesse. You heard him, he said his head felt like it was on fire. Kind of like... an overheating computer! He is in so much pain yet he manages to stay in control enough to hold onto to the ledge.

And then... unchipping because of PAMA dying. So like. You know that feeling when you suddenly get jumpscared? The whole shock that runs through your body? The variation that actually kinda hurts? That's what the citizens of Crown Mesa felt before all blacking out for a few seconds. The chips didn’t pop out like the did with the water unchipping, everyone had to pull them out themselves.

It wasn’t that simple for Lukas, however. Remember how I said PAMA was 100% concentrated on him? The connection with the rest of Crown Mesa being severed was like breaking a small string. But the connection with Lukas being severed was like cutting a thick rope. Yeah, I don’t wanna keep saying “it hurt” over and over again, I won’t repeat myself.

And this part is just speculation, but I noticed that when PAMA flat lined, pama-as-lukas screamed after that. Which gave me and my friend the idea that in the last few seconds as a desperate attempt to survive, PAMA tried to upload itself into Lukas’ chip. It didn’t work.

So combining all of those things I mentioned as well as getting hurt while fighting Jesse (they tried their best not to hurt him) no wonder Lukas went unconscious instead of just blacking out.

Kind of an abrupt way to end this but uh. Yeah!

I feel like a lot of people gloss over the fact that both Lukas and Petra had redstone take over their minds for awhile. Like, come on, that’s gotta have some long lasting effects, both physical and psychological. And with the latter, I don’t think either of them are gonna admit that. (You can even see it at the end of episode 7 if Jesse brings up PAMA and Lukas looks upset, and they apologize and Lukas quickly goes ‘it’s fine!’. He is not fine but he is hiding it. Especially because I picked the ‘this is all my fault!’ dialogue option earlier, he doesn’t want Jesse to blame themself again :( okay I’m getting off topic I can talk about the characters themselves in another post. This was supposed to be about chipping!)

#I THINK ABOUT EPISODE 7 A LOT #ESPECIALLY THE ENDING #just. waugh!!!#every day i think about how jesse threw aside the redstone heart to make sure they could run and save their friend before they fell #i can elaborate on the stuff in the last paragraph if asked!!#i would love to talk about my interpretation and speculation on bits of mcsm if asked #mcsm posting #minecraft story mode #pama mcsm #story mode posting

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rishi-eel · 3 years

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thinking (yet again!) about the differences between the bad batch story reels and the season seven arc and like... some changes just blow my mind because all it did, really, was make the bad batch less likable.

lets star with the whole “reg” thing. if i remember correctly, in the originals “regs” is said twice. the first instance is by crosshair when taunting jesse in the LAAT. the second is said by hunter: he tells tech (who’s hacking into the cyber center) that he and wrecker are going to “go get the regs” (i.e. rex and jesse). that is, hunter only used it among his squad when the others were not present (much like how cody informs that the bad batch are defective clones out of earshot. these words are descriptors, but there’s also an offense associated to being referred to by them). the idea that hunter has restraint referring to regular clones this way in their faces connects, i think, to how hunter was a tad more apologetic to jesse in the original script. “he means regular clones. don’t take it personal. it’s just that we don’t always follow protocol” carried an actual sense of hunter trying to convince jesse that it’s nothing to do with him.

it’s interesting, i think, that in a context where you have clones and defective clones, that the bad batch (as defective clones) would find a way to talk about other clones in reference to themselves in a way that normalizes their own existence. it also introduces the idea that the bad batch experience a level of disconnect, and even animosity, in regards to other clones. all that can be conveyed by only using the word twice. the season seven episodes added three more instances, and in all of them the bad batch members comfortably throw the word around the clones who “are regs.” the sense of separateness (which, again, was already established/achieved by using it just two times) is only made stronger (thus more needs to be done to portray a sense of reconciliation or coming together. the reels succeed this to an extent because that barrier wasn’t built up as high).

so yeah in the original... wrecker didn’t say “we always get shot down when we travel with regs,” he kept quiet as he helped people out of the wrecked gunship (in fact, wrecker lost a lot of subtlety going from the reels to the final eps, which i’ll get back to). hunter didn’t fake-compliment rex with a “not bad, for a reg”! and oh boy crosshair’s comment implying that echo is worthless and expendable because he’s a “reg”... yeah that was not in the reels either. in fact, not only does crosshair not call echo a reg, the meaning of his original dialogue was completely different.

in the original, after hunter voices his suspicions echo might be dead, crosshair suggests that if alive echo could be cooperating with the enemy, making him a traitor. rex takes this as an attack on echo’s character and crosshair explains that no, he’s not intending to insult echo, by saying: “oh i don’t blame him, if i were left for dead, i wouldn’t be so loyal.” and like!!!!! that’s such a radically different line of dialogue because crosshair seems to blame rex for having left echo behind, actually. if you betrayed the republic to survive, or even out of spite, i don’t blame you even if you now present a threat to myself and my family, is such an interesting, empathetic sentiment. and that contrasts with the lack of regard given to rex, making it read like he’s condemning rex for leaving someone behind. crosshair doesn’t seem to understand, as an experimental commando clone, the pressures rex as a legion captain is under, because he’s seen a less expandable (they’re a specially trained four man team, if one dies that’s 25% of the unit gone. is there a replacement for that member? you get the idea). so you’ve got a clash between different povs, but also crosshair being shown as having a set of morals, chief among them being that you do not leave anyone behind. so remember when rex says to move out and crosshair goes “commander cody is in no position to move” yeah i’d say that’s crosshair making sure cody isn’t being left behind. when crosshair saves anakin? that’s because he saw anakin go off on his own and followed him. because you don’t leave people behind. and like... the idea that yeah crosshair is an asshole. he’s unpleasant and that’s deliberate. he doesn’t care if people like him and he’s not trying to be liked. but that he values the lives of other people and looks out for them? that makes an interesting, flawed and multifaceted character. that got lost in the dialogue change because its no longer suggested that crosshair holds these values.

as for what i said earlier about wrecker: he lost subtle, nonverbal moments through the addition of lines that are either anticlimactic or only serve to make him seem loud or ditzy in an exaggerated fashion. he didn’t laugh when the LAAT came down. he was quiet as he helped people out of the downed gunship (no comment about regs!). he didn’t say “boom” when the ship exploded in the background after he flipped it over (the difference? a character moment that’s actually cool and impressive vs something that’s corny). when wrecker comes to crosshair’s aid by picking rex off of him, there was no quippy one liner. there was no need for anything to be said for it to be understood that wrecker is acting as a barrier and it trying to intimidate rex. when he’s afraid to get onto the elevator? that’s conveyed visually through camera angles and through hunter picking up on the fact that he’s scared. he doesn’t scream (if you can call a comical “aah what is that thing oh no its going to get me” a scream) when the organic decimator almost gets him. when they walk across the pipe? wrecker doesn’t whimper or talk to himself for comfort. he is scared of heights, that’s already been established, but he’s also a grown man and a soldier like he’s keeping that to himself? like we see wrecker hesitating to walk on the ledge but doing it anyway because he has to. in a piece of dialogue that was cut, tech said “does anyone want to know the odds of us making it across alive?” to which wrecker (who’s you know already having a bad time) interrupts with “don’t even think about it, tech” (if ur curious, this exchange was replaced with: wrecker: “keep walking tech!” tech: “that’s fine, but if you fall don’t take me with you” which???? uuh weird exchange). also, the fact that wrecker was mostly dealing with his fear silently means that when hunter tells wrecker to hold on because they’re almost there... that’s because hunter knows he’s scared and is checking up on him. basically... any kind of serious moment was cheapened by having wrecker talk in them. now i don’t want to say that DBB is a bad voice actor, but his expertise is making animal noises. he’s not able to do a realistic, deep voice, meaning that whenever wrecker talks he kind of sounds like a joke. it’s fine when wrecker is actual being lighthearted and jokey, but otherwise? the emotion just does not come across as genuine, which breaks the stakes or weakens credibility.

and god the whole plot point about the bad batch being suspicious of echo was nonexistent in the reels. the “don’t worry, echo says he’s got a plan”/”that makes me feel so much better” exchange between rex and tech is in the original, but tech’s sarcasm isn’t from doubting echo’s allegiance, it’s because they’re planning to land on admiral trench’s ship and echo having a plan (that he himself doesn’t know) doesn’t exactly soothe his anxieties. rex acts like tech’s being a big joker and playfully shoves him, telling him to get on board. which is an interesting interaction because these characters are kind of starting to bond?? as for tech and echo, they kinda become nerdy friends really quick. like when tech warns echo not to send the signal right away because he first needs to make it look like it’s coming from skako minor, echo’s like “oh yeah good thinking tech.” and when echo figures out a way to shut down all the droids at once tech is impressed and lightly shoves his shoulder. again there is none of that “oooh maybe echo’s a traitor maybe he’s with the techno union” shit. like i understand that the writers wanted to up the stakes but it falls flat because the idea of echo being a traitor isn’t credible. it does not seem like an actual risk or possibility. so all it did was make the bad batch seem like assholes, cutting away at some very nice character moments.

ok this is a long post and you might ask yourself “but tumblr user rishi-eel, why do you care so much about the story reels, this stuff isn’t canon now” and there are a couple reasons, first, i think it managed to tell a better story overall. so the question is: why is that? because you would expect that writers reworking the plot would add improvements and not downgrades. and to be fair, the s7 episodes had a bunch of upgrades, but not when it came to the characterization of the bad batch. another thing to consider is that changes were made in the context of setting the bad batch up as future protagonists of their own spinoff series (something the original arc was not intended to do because there were no plans for a bad batch series). were the characters made flatter and more archetypal to add to marketability? was the reg/defective clone rivalry (and dichotomy, even) amplified because this separateness serves a narrative in which the bad batch are heroes and the other clones villains?

#long post #clone force 99 #the bad batch #it's late and i haven't proof read so there might be typos and stuff but. here are my thoughts #rishi-outposts.txt

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actuallybarb · 3 years

Text

The Aftermath ~ Part 5

Summary: y/n goes to avengers compound, mysterio proves to be a dick even in the afterlife, y/n fixes everything sleep be damned

Pairing: peter parker x reader

Warnings: swearing, angst, fluff, mysterio is finally out of the picture god bless, trauma, marvel bs and shenanigans

Word Count: 3691

A/N: sleep deprivation and coding are not my strong suits yet i find myself writing about them way too often

/////////

Let’s just say, I am so grateful Jessica is in my life, or else I would be toast.

“How could you keep something like this from us?”

“You were forced to use your powers against your friends?”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”

They had good intentions - they’re just worried. I’ve had five, almost six, years to process it, and they’re getting it all thrown at them at once.

That’s at least what my brain was trying to tell me. But the louder they got the faster my breathing shallowed out and my heart beat and shit is the room spinning?

“Y/N?”

Jess.

“Are you okay?”

“I-“ The three of them were looking at me and wow, as much as I loved Jessica, I felt like I was being suffocated. “I need some air.” I basically sprinted out of the room.

There was only one floor between us and the roof, and the couple that lived there were so old they wouldn’t reach the window by the time I was off the fire escape.

The sun was setting. When the pollution was worse, pre-blip, the sky would turn pink and purple and every color in between. Now it’s just blue. Less pollution is good. But I miss how the sky used to be.

I sat on the edge of the roof with my legs dangling over the edge, trying to get a grip on my reality, when none other than Spider-Man came swinging around and sat beside me.

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Hey Peter.”

“Are you okay?”

I brought my knees up to my chest. To tell or not to tell - the question of my life. “I just told my parents about my powers. The- they have mixed feelings.” Peter just sat there, so I took the chance and kept talking. Talking to someone who kind of gets it. “They just kept getting louder and louder. So I left.” I brought my chin down to my knees too. “Jess is down there, though, she can help calm them down.”

“Who’s Jess?”

“My foster mom. Both my parents were snapped, so were her husband and kid, so I lived with her. She used to be the only other person who knew what I could do. Now I feel like everyone does.”

“Who else knows?”

I counted in my head. “Eleven, including me.”

Peter counted too, but he was two short. “Who else? I already counted Fury.”

“My shrink. And Flash. He saw me while I was a monster.”

“You’re not a monster, Y/N.”

“Aren’t I?” I stood up and started pacing. “You saw what I did in London. That wasn’t a pack of drones, that was me. All me.”

“You’re not a monster, Y/N. You may have been the one doing the damage, but Beck forced you too. He threatened to kill you and your parents if you didn’t cooperate. You didn’t have a choice.”

“Yeah, well,” I sat down again, probably closer to Peter than was friendly, “that doesn’t help my conscience.”

“We…“ He sighed. “We can’t let Beck have a hold on us. That’s just what he wants.”

“Happy gave me a card. He told me to call him.”

Peter perked up immediately. “Have you called him yet?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. I had to tell my parents first before anything else, just in case something got out about London.”

“You told them everything?”

“I don’t like lying. I can tell when other people do it and it just pisses me off. It just makes things easier if you tell the truth.” I sighed and stood up, brushed my hands off on my pants, and stepped down from the ledge. “I’ll see you around, Peter.”

“Going back to face them?”

I smiled and shrugged. “Has to be done eventually.”

/////////

They let me call Happy, and that weekend I was allowed to stay at the Avenger’s compound. It was weird, being surrounded by adults that had been doing the whole ‘superhero’ thing for a while. Even Peter, who was the same age as me, looked so much more in his element during training.

“Are you a genius too?”

It was breakfast. I had made myself some scrambled eggs and bacon, because, according to Sam, “You have to eat protein too, Y/N, not just that sugar shit.”

I side-eyed Bucky as I took a bite of eggs. “Define ‘genius.’”

“Peter’s brain runs a mile a minute. I know you guys go to the same school, so?”

I shrugged. “I pass, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

He rolled his eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant, Y/N.”

I huffed. “I don’t know, I just am. I mean, sure, I hacked into Stark’s servers when we were in Prague, but it doesn’t seem extraordinary. The only part about me that actually feels different is the fact that I can make fire with my bare hands.”

I didn’t realize there were people listening in on our little conversation. “You hacked into Tony’s servers in Prague?”

Pepper Potts was who I wanted to be when I grow up. A complete badass. And I just ruined her perception of me in one sentence. “Uh… Yes.”

“We could never figure it out. FRIDAY got an alert, but you were untraceable. How’d you get through all of the firewalls?”

“I-“ There were more people in the kitchen now. “I don’t know.”

Pepper looked me up and down. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to do it again. Then we can improve the system. Then we can think about adding you to our software development team.” She winked at me, then walked out of the kitchen, leaving me absolutely gobsmacked. Wow, I’d only been there a weekend and I was already picking up the old man slang.

“Damn, kid.” Bucky pat me on the back then continued eating his way through his third bowl of cereal, because, as Sam angrily said to me, “He’s a grown-ass man, Y/N, he can eat whatever shit he wants.” And then admitted, after some slight teasing, “Do you really think I could be able to tell him what to do?”

“He is your boyfriend.”

“That’s not the point.”

I wanted the weekend to last forever, but I was promised another one, where I could show Pepper my breaking and entering skills and eventually beat Wanda at poker. (She can literally read minds, it’s an unfair advantage.)

My parents, though still wary, were glad to see me in such high spirits - it didn’t happen very often, so they took advantage of it as much as possible.

But it didn’t last long. Mom and Dad sat down on the couch to catch up on This is Us on Tuesday and I went to grab my laundry, but when I got back out I dropped it in shock.

“Spider-Man’s name-“ Beck’s video cut out then flashed back. “Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker!”

“Fuck.”

Mom was too shocked to scold me for my language.

“That’s just horrible.”

“How could Spider-Man do such a thing?”

I looked at my dad and wanted to hit him upside the head. “Dad! Peter didn’t kill Beck!”

“You heard what the video said-“

“I also know that Beck had a team of people working with him that probably knew how to use his tech as well as he did.” When he didn’t give me more than a blank stare I groaned. “They made it up! It’s all fake so they can ruin Peter’s life.” I pulled out my phone. “I have to call-“

Everyone will be trying to call Peter.

What good will that do, then?

How the fuck can we fix this?

I pressed a different contact and held my phone up to my ear, my laundry completely forgotten on the floor as I made my way up to the roof. “Pepper.”

“You saw it?”

“How could I miss it?” Pepper Potts saw right through me my first day at the compound. She knew from the get-go my feelings for Peter. That’s probably the only reason she took my call. “What do we do?”

“I have three other lines open with my lawyers and they’re looking into every bit of information they can get their hands on. Y/N,” she started, “I need you to find him. We can’t let him run off or do something extreme, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Text me when you find him, I’ll let you know what the lawyers say.”

If I was Peter Parker, where would I go?

I have no idea I barely know the guy.

Shut up, Y/N, you’re more similar than you think.

Oh. Duh. He’d be on a rooftop.

After a quick text to MJ, I figured he’d be close to May, considering he saw the whole thing from a big screen in Times Square. And, lo and behold, there he was, on the rooftop of his apartment building.

“Peter.”

“Y/N?” I hated seeing his eyes bloodshot. It was a look he donned too often. “What- How-“

I pulled him into a hug, and he just sort of… crumbled. I just sort of held him for a little bit before he let go and rubbed at his eyes.

“Y/N, I don’t know what to do.”

Great, now I have to be the problem solver.

“Have you talked to anyone yet? May, MJ, Ned?”

He shook his head. “MJ saw it with me, but I left before she could say anything.”

I nodded. “Okay. Let me- hold on.” I texted Pepper, “I got him,” and she responded back, “Bring him. Happy’s bringing May.”

“Who is it?”

“Pepper. She says we need to get to the compound.” I started to move to the edge, but Peter stayed frozen in place. “Peter?”

“What if it’s all a trick? What- what if this is all a big hallucination? What if Beck is still alive? What if everything since the trip has been fake, and that’s why everything’s been going so well with MJ, and now he’s just blowing it up in my face, and-“

“Peter!”

I’m not gonna lie, the thought had crossed my mind. How do you tell what’s actually reality when you don’t even know yourself?

But I could feel the ground beneath me. Beck couldn’t trick me in Prague, and he sure as hell wouldn’t be able to trick me now. (Mostly because he’s dead, but that’s not the point.)

“Hallucination or not, we should go.”

He shook his head again. “No, I can’t, May’s still here, and MJ, and Ned-“

“Happy is bringing May to the compound. Just call MJ and Ned, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“I can’t just leave everyone!”

“And I can’t let you stay!” Some pigeons flew off at both of our outbursts. I sighed. Why does he always give me such a headache? “Peter, please, we have to go.” As if on cue, a helicopter came flying over us, shocking Peter out of his stupor.

“How are we getting there?”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“We can take my mom’s car, she barely uses it anyway.” Peter nodded, and I sent Mom a quick text. “Can I use the car?”

“Why?”

“I need to go to the compound. Peter’s freaking out.”

...

“Sure. Keep us updated.”

“‘Course.”

Peter and I made it back to my rooftop in five minutes, then we took the elevator down to the underground garage. “Here.” I tossed him a hoodie to wear over his suit. “Keep your head down ‘til we’re out of the city, okay?” He just nodded, then curled up on the seat as the traffic of New York crept by.

He was asleep fifteen minutes into the drive. We hadn’t even left Manhattan yet and his breathing evened out. Just in time, Pepper was calling me. “Hey, Pepper.”

“Are you guys on your way?”

“Yeah, we still have a while, though.”

Peter stirred awake. “Is that Pepper?”

“Hi, Peter.”

“Is May there yet?”

“Happy said they still have about fifteen minutes. Listen, Pete, I’ve called some lawyers, and they…”

Pepper kept talking, but I felt Peter’s heart rate go up.

“Hey- Pep- We’re losing-“ I hung up.

He immediately relaxed. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He sat back in the chair and looked at me, which made me only want to reach out and hold the hand he had on the center console, but I couldn’t because: a) I still didn’t know him that well, and, b) that’s just weird. So I kept two hands on the wheel and my eyes straight ahead until Peter started talking.

“What else can you do?”

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You said you can tell when people are lying. What else can you do?”

I glanced at him before the road captured my attention again. “Um,” my fingers tapped the steering wheel, “I can open metal locks. Like, if it’s metal, I know how it’s made.”

He peeked up considerably at that. “That’s so cool! Does it work with everything?”

“I mean, I guess? I haven’t tried it on much, just like locks and if my computer starts acting stupid.”

“Could you do it on Mr. Barnes arm? Or my nano-tech suit? Or-“ His face paled immediately. Was he going to burst into tears? To vomit? I couldn’t tell, but I really wanted the answer to be “no.”

“I could try it on Bucky’s arm. I’m not sure it would work, I haven’t tried something that complicated, but that’d be pretty cool.”

Peter didn’t talk much the rest of the ride. May was waiting outside to greet him, and she kept a secure arm around his waist while they followed Pepper inside the compound, Happy not far behind. I was left outside with the car.

My first instinct was to call Jess, because even though it wasn’t me directly affected, I still felt like a pound of bricks fell on my chest. But I picked up my phone and called Mom instead, because my shrink told me the relationship wouldn’t get better without some work. And she is my mom; it’s not like I don’t love her, we’re just different people now, and we have to learn each other all over again.

“Mom?”

“Hi, sweetheart. How’s everything going?”

“Not too great, if we’re being completely honest. I- I don’t know what to do.”

Mom had exactly 8 days of superhero-parenting under her belt, but I’ll be damned if she didn’t give it her best effort. “What do you usually do when you feel this way?”

Wow, she really is learning. “Something productive.”

“You did say they had a training room.”

Genius. “Yeah, I did. Thanks, Mom.”

And that’s where I was found an hour and a half later by Sam Wilson. FRIDAY had a lot of fun creating new simulations for me and it kept me distracted enough to not focus on the complete ass Quentin Beck and the primal urge I felt to pound the face of his carcass in. Not to be morbid or anything.

“You okay, kid?”

One last fireball at the bad guy and I had won my fifth round in a row. “Sure.”

“That wasn’t very convincing.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.” My water bottle lay helplessly empty on the ground next to a small towel, both of which I picked up to avoid a tripping hazard later. “How’s it going in there?”

“They’re looking at all the different ways to get the video down and find the creator and clear Peter’s name, but FRIDAY hasn’t been able to get past the firewalls.”

I swear my neck popped my head shot up so fast. “Firewall?”

“Yeah. Wanna take a crack at it?”

I followed him out of the training room and into a huge lab I had only had the pleasure of walking past. Now I was standing in the center of technology heaven.

“Are we going to get technical with legality here?”

Sam held his hands up in surrender. “I won’t tell, do what you have to do.”

This. This was my element. Beck forced me to make an Elemental for him and tried to force me to kill hundreds of people, thinking I could do it because I could control water, earth, fire, and air. But little did he know he was creating something that dropped the ball completely in my court.

“Okay. Let’s blow the bastard up. FRIDAY, I want you to observe only.”

Then I got to work.

////////////

“Where did Y/N go?” Peter and May were still in the conference room, talking in hushed voices, while Pepper continued to talk to the lawyers, drawing up a new game plan. Happy was the only one to wonder where I went.

“She’s in the lab.”

“Did you take her in there?” Happy started to get defensive, especially about anything Tony related, but Sam just set his glass down and motioned for him to follow.

“She broke into the archives on a laptop in Prague. If anyone is going to have any luck at that video, it’s her.”

They walked along the outside of the lab. “She locked the doors the second I left. Probably doesn’t want us screwing up her process.”

Happy’s eyes crinkled around the edges as he smiled. It was almost like Tony was back. The loud music in the background, thirteen different screens open at once, fingers and brain moving faster than the eye could see.

Sam glanced over at Happy and smiled too. “It’s almost like the good ‘ole days.”

He coughed, trying to get over how choked up he was feeling. “She and Peter both have it. They— they both make it seem less- less empty.”

Sam clapped him on the shoulder. “Keep an eye on her? FRIDAY knows to let someone in if she’s crashing.”

“How does she know that?”

“It’s the same protocol Rhodey had installed for Tony.”

/////////////

Stark Industries computers are a dream to begin with. Actual Tony Stark tech? It’s like I died and went to heaven. That was probably insensitive to say, but hey, someone’s gotta appreciate the man’s work. And I will happily do so.

I didn’t come out for hours, probably days. The only time I let someone into the lab was if they were bringing me coffee, and even then it would go untouched half the time.

“Y/N.”

“Shut up I’m almost there.”

“You said that six hours ago.”

“And now I’m six hours closer.”

“This isn’t healthy.”

“Isn’t it?” I took a sip of the blessed espresso and kept typing. “Seriously, Bucky, I’m almost there, I can taste it.”

“You’ve been at it for-“

“Got it.” I saved the video to the personal system then took it down, bit by bit until it was completely erased from every hard drive on the planet. (Stark Tech can do that. It’s totally invasive but I don’t care enough to worry about the ethics of it.) “Let me follow the source.” One hundred and twenty four clicks later, “I got them.”

“Them?”

“All of Beck’s bitches.” I pushed back in the chair and let myself feel exhausted. “Can you get Pepper? She seems way more qualified to deal with this. FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Ms. Y/L/N?”

“Keep surveillance on these twelve will you? All movement needs to be tracked.”

“All movement?”

“Even when they take a piss.”

I was happy to just curl up in the chair and fall asleep, but Bucky had other ideas. He put an arm under my legs and carried me to the room I stayed in over the weekend. He was even thoughtful enough to take off my shoes before he pulled back the covers and tucked me in.

“Wait, Bucky.” He turned around and took a step forward, just within reach. I stretched my arm out and let my fingers touch his vibranium arm. “There’s a wire in your pinky that needs to be replaced soon.”

Then my arm fell and I lost all consciousness.

/////////////

Apparently I slept for fifteen hours. At least, that’s what FRIDAY told me. She also told me that my parents were at the compound, which freaked me out more than how long I slept.

I walked into the communal kitchen and was met with the afternoon sun blazing through the wall-long windows. After blinking several times I realized I was definitely not alone.

Almost everyone was there. Pepper, Happy, Sam, Bucky, Peter, May, and my parents were dispersed around the kitchen and connected living room. “‘Morning.”

Everyone’s heads turned to me. “Y/N!”

It was Peter that rushed forward and wrapped me in a hug. I have to say, I was thrilled it was him. I got a good look at his face when he pulled away and he looked a lot better. No bloodshot eyes in sight. “How are you?”

“Starving.”

I sat beside Mom at the huge island, a stack of pancakes immediately put in front of me by Sam.

“I thought you didn’t want me eating that sugar shit?” Mom pinched me in the arm for my swear, but I didn’t care, not when I could get a rise out of Samuel.

“I’ll make an exception just this once.”

With half a mouth full of pancakes I asked Pepper, “What happened?”

What was that look on her face? Pride? Relief? I couldn’t tell. “All twelve of them were arrested and are currently being tried in court.”

“And the whole Peter dilemma?” I glanced his way, but he didn’t look nervous. He looked… happy.

“Taken care of. Fury was able to pull a few strings and we’ll be able to get live news coverage of both Peter and Spider-Man at once so no one can question his identity. Spider-Man will remain anonymous. There’s still the matter of clearing Spider-Man’s name, but for now at least Peter will be safe.”

Peter looked at me with a huge smile on his face. “It’s all working out, Y/N. All thanks to you.”

I shrugged. “All I did was get past a few firewalls.”

Mom set a hand on my back and I smiled at her.

Maybe it was all working out.

tags: @eridanuswave @vampirestrawberries

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker series #peter parker oneshot #marvel #marvel comics #peter parker x mj #mcu #ned leeds #michelle jones #flash thompson #spiderman far from home #reader insert #spiderman #avengers

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writer1 · 3 years

Text

Fear of the unknown

Chapter 15

After you eat Numa leads you around her village a little bit, you find everything so interesting. She's such a sweet little girl, she introduces you to her tools doll.

You find it adorable how she calls Waxer and Boil Nerra, right now you're watching Rex interact with her. He's swinging her around and talking to her like any one would a youngling, he's so good with her.

Rex is always good with youngling's, you know that he would be a good father if he had the chance. You discussed that possibility a few months ago.

But Rex is nervous about his exelerated aging and he'd rather wait until the war's over anyway. You agree, but you don't know how he would feel about it now. You don't know how him being a werewolf could affect the baby.

You're pulled out of your thoughts by Rex walking over with Numa in his arms Waxer and Boil right behind him, he seems very happy holding her which brings a smile to your face.

"I'm sorry to say that we have to be heading back to the base." You look at him sadly, you've had fun hanging out with the youngling. Waxer and Boil both look sad to, with Waxer almost looking devastated.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely come back and visit the Lil'un before we leave, okay." You, Boil and Waxer nod and Rex puts Numa down, rubbing her head gently as if ruffling imaginary hair.

Numa take's a different approach and gives Rex a big hug, wrapping her little arms around his legs. He smiles and kneels down to hug her back, once she's done she does the same to Waxer and Boil. Boil is his usual self and kneels down, giving her a small hug. You don't miss the small smile he gives her, she goes and hugs Waxer who picks her right up in a hug. He kisses her forehead.

"You be good while we're gone, okay." She smiles and nods, jumping out of his arms and make's her way over to you. You kneel down and give her a hug.

"Goodbye sweetie, I'll see you later." You stand up and watch her run to her uncle, as you all leave you hear her yell goodbye, and you smile.

You grab Rex's hand as you walk, his fingers immediately wrapping around your's. He looks at you and smiles, letting Waxer and Boil walk ahead.

"So... Did you have fun cyare." You nod.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun. You seemed to have fun with that youngling." Rex blushes and looks away from you.

"Yeah, she was a sweetheart." You smile as you arrive back at the base, Waxer and Boil go to find Anakin to tell him that we're back on base. You and Rex walk to your temporary room, you give him a quick peck on the lips.

"I love you." You tell him and he smiles lovingly.

"I love you too."

"I want to talk about having kids, after the war is over." You blurt out and Rex looks at you nervously.

"I don't think that's a good idea, cyare." You cup his face lovingly, looking him in the eyes.

"Rex..."

"No, cyare. There are so many things that could go wrong, if the kid somehow had my accelerated aging, I would never forgive myself." You sigh, you can tell that Rex is scared. He's allowed to be, neither of you know what could happen.

"And what about me being a werewolf, how would that affect our kid. I'm not going to let our child be in as much pain as I am during full moon's, let alone be a monster."

"Oh Rex, you aren't a monster. And you know we could always adopt a kid, we have time to think about it." Rex nods, you cup his face and give him a long, sweet kiss. When you pull away he stares at you, love for you filling his eyes.

"You're right, it's just hard cyare. First my aging and now I'm a werewolf, it's like the force just wants us to have a hard time." You chuckle.

"I think that you're being just a tiny bit over dramatic, I'm sure that the force doesn't want to give us a hard time." You kiss him again and leave the room, heading to help out on the base. Rex follow's after you, and you see Anakin.

"Hey, Anakin!" You call and he turns and waves at you.

"Y/n, Rex. I was just about to come find you, we need you on patrol Rex." Rex nods.

"Yes sir, I'll be right there."

"I'm coming too." Rex looks at you, shaking his head.

"Oh no, you are not coming with me." You glare at him and Anakin just looks between the two of you awkwardly.

"Yes, I am. I'm not leaving you alone this time, besides it's just patrol. I'll be fine." Rex sighs, he doesn't want to let you come. You could get hurt.

"Cyare, it's dangerous."

"I know how to use a blaster! Besides, you and the boys will be there to protect me." Rex sighs again and Anakin butts in.

"It might be good for y/n to go with you, the whole point of having her part of the 501st was to keep her with you, just in case you transform. There's not to much Separatist activity right now." You turn and smirk at Rex, and he huff's. He knows that you won't stop bugging.

"Fine, but you stay near me at all times. Understood." You nod and Rex points to your room.

"Go grab your helmet." You smile and run to grab your helmet, when you get back Anakin has a blaster ready for you. Rex gives you a clone belt and puts the blaster in the holster.

"Remember, stay close to me. Okay. I can't stand the thought of losing you." You pull Rex into a hug and he presses his forehead to your's, closing his eyes.

"I already told you, I'm not going anywhere. I promise." Rex nods and pulls away, ready for the patrol.

"Ready to go." You nod and head out with a group of five clones. Rex, Fives, Stutter, Jesse and Dogma.

��××

You have been out with Rex patrolling for about an hour, nothing's happened at all and it's actually kind of boring. You are walking along the edge of a rock wall, not far from the base. You're talking to the clones, having fun.

"So how do you like your first patrol, y/n?" You look at Fives and smile.

"It's a little more boring than I thought, but not horrible." all the boys laugh and Rex smirks at you.

"Wait! Who told you to stay on base." Everyone chuckles and you glare at Rex, punching his shoulder.

"Jerk."

"Y-yeah, patrol i-isnt that f-f-fun." You smile at Stutter.

"Yeah, I thought that there would be more excitement." Dogma smiles and so does Jesse.

"We'd rather you not be here when there's a lot of excitement, can't have our favorite mechanic get hurt." You smirk at Jesse when suddenly something's thrown off of the rock wall. You are close to it but it's still far, you go to walk closer when Rex screams.

"Bomb!" He grabs you, then there's a flash of light and everything goes black for what feels longer than it was.

You wake up feeling a sharp pain in your chest as your vision and hearing comes back to you, you can see that Rex transformed and is now tearing the Separatist droids that have come off the rock ledge apart. He's gone completely feral, you've never been afraid of Rex, but you're terrified of him right now.

You sit up and just as he's about to run past you, you grab his torn pant leg and tug it, trying to get his attention. He looks down at you and you can see that he's not in his right mind now, you rub his foot with your hand.

"I'm okay Rex, I'm okay." You know that you're not okay, you aren't okay at all. You're struggling not to pass out from exhaustion. You were close to the bomb that the Separatists launched at you guys, you have no idea how you're alive right now.

Rex kneels down and you can tell by his eyes that he's returned to his senses. You give him one more smile before darkness engulfs you, the last thing you hear is someone yelling your name.

Taglist: @captainrexisboo @tobitofunction @pentaghasm @ohmsjedi @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @ellie1366 @marine-captain-deku @reimet @commanderrivercc-3628 @ahsokatano-thetogruta

#captain rex #star wars clone wars #wererex au #werewolf clones au #wererex x reader #wererex #werewolf clone wars au #werewolf rex au #werewolf rex x reader #captain rex x reader #my writing

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nimsajlove · 3 years

Text

Not leaving you

Brothers-AU Ao3

Her fingers trembled when she repeatedly asked unsuccessfully about Droidbait. "No, didn't show up.", Kix reported, his voice sounding tinny and empty through the comlink. "I'll let you know when I hear something.", he quickly assured her and cut the connection, of course he had to go back to work. Ahsoka felt really bad when she thought about keeping him away from other injured people. But slowly she was losing patience, and maybe a little bit of hope, to find the clone under the heap of rubble. Even so, she returned to the excavation team and began to move stones out of the way.

It didn't take long for her arms to ache. Her hands were open, burning with every touch with the bluish dust that seemed to cover every surface. All the clones that could be dispensed dug around her, her Master also hoped to be able to rescue survivors from the hole. So he gladly accepted a delay in the schedule in order to be able to give his padawan more men. Panting, she hung from a stone and, not for the first time, wished that her Master had come too. She cursed loudly when the stone didn't move an inch. As if Anakin Skywalker had heard her thoughts, her comlink flashed and she swallowed more phrases. "Already found something?" Ahsoka shook her head, her Master's voice sounding as hopeless as she felt... "No Master, but we haven't hit the ground yet either. I hope that the overhang-” “Commander!” The call interrupted her and she looked up, one of the men waved and then pointed to something at his feet. “Maybe we have something. I'll get back to you later.", she hurriedly said goodbye and ran to the soldier.

In fact, there was a hole at his feet, more like a gap. It pulled itself long and narrow through the rubble and revealed a cavity. Ahsoka's heart contracted frantically, her hopes that the ledge would create a cave had been confirmed. Carefully she pushed around on the surrounding rubble. "I don't think we can open it any further from the outside.", one of the men, Appo, announced from behind her. "I think so too. I'll squeeze in there and see what I can do.", she agreed and sat down on the edge of the gap, her feet dangling in the air. It was dark down there, but the fall couldn't be deep! Carefully she slid further and further in until she was only hanging by her arms in the crevice and tried to make out something. Nothing, just pitch black darkness. So she dropped on luck, the ground was actually not far away. After only two more meters she came up and landed safely like a cat, immediately she pulled out her lightsaber and illuminated her surroundings.

The heavy dust had settled quickly down there and Ahsoka was glad to have a good view and clean air to breathe. She stretched out all her senses before taking a closer look. She didn't have to look far, a small group of clones had gathered right under the ledge that had caught most of the debris. As she got closer, some of them stood up and came towards her, one had taken off his helmet and was beaming with relief. "You have come." He was so happy and Ahsoka slipped a smile. “How are you?” “Three of us can't walk, Wall is not responsive and Hang is totally confused. Always wants to run away and keep looking, although his legs can hardly support him.” They approached the group and Ahsoka recognized what the clone meant. The men looked battered... "Wait here."

With quick steps she hurried back to the crack and contacted Appo. “I found a group. I will try to enlarge the hole a bit, then we can get them out of here.", she communicated and heard a general agreement. Without hesitation, she got to work.

*~*

Most of them had already been brought up, but Droidbait wasn't among those found. Ahsoka looked around nervously as she helped another man up. The rubble ceiling trickled softly over her, how long would all of this last? "I'll go and search on, you can do the rest of this by yourself, won't you?" Appo nodded above her.

Carefully she found her way through the darkness, she felt sick when she came across the first corpse. The clone hadn't had a chance and she was slowly getting a stomach ache, what if Droidbait hadn't had a chance either? She took three steps further and raised her lightsaber further, the rubble dome sloping into a steep wall in front of her. There was no getting through here. She wanted to turn away when a scrape made her look again along the wall. Three times her gaze slid from one end of the illuminated area to the other until she discovered him. The dust colored the white equipment with the blue drawings almost black and she hurriedly jumped over some stones to the clone, when she was only a few steps away she realized that it was indeed her brother.

His hip was buried under a rock, but when she grabbed his arm, his legs moved. "Commander.", he gasped and carefully she grabbed his helmet, he looked terrible. With gentle fingers she examined the huge laceration on his head, he would survive that. One of her hands was on Droidbait's chest while she radioed Appo. Two heartbeats passed before she heard the pawing footsteps approaching. "Over here.", Ahsoka called and as soon as the clones were in sight, they threw the blasters to the ground and hurried over to her. "I can only lift this thing up for a moment.", said the girl, her fingers trembling. She was sure she could get the rock of from Droidbait. But then? The men grabbed her brother by the shoulders and waited, so she didn't have time to think.

Lifting the rock was harder than she had expected, the day had asked a lot of her and gradually her strength was exhausted. As soon as the rock had slipped out of her control and fell to the ground, she turned around and leaned down to the Medic, he bandaged the other's hip as best he could and tried to support it. "And?", she asked, the Medic shook his head slightly. "Pray that no arteries are injured.", he growled and she went freezing, she knew that an internal bleeding in the pelvis was practically a death sentence. The porous bone would soak up all the blood like a sponge.

"Well, lets get out of here.", she growled and the men lifted Droidbait as carefully as they could, he barely reacted and Ahsoka patted his face worriedly. No reaction.

*~*

It was late, no clone had passed her or the other Dominos in a while. Cutup next to her chewed his lip bloodily while Hevy seemed to be asleep. His clenched fists told her he wasn't. Fives and Echo didn't seem to be able to stand it on the floor, they were leaning against the wall across from her and seemed worried, but far less tense than the others. Not particularly fair, ARC-training seemed to prepare them for such things better than any Jedi-training.

Growling, she turned her gaze down to her feet, her neck ached from looking down and her fingers were so rigid and cramped that they could hardly be moved. Her thoughts in her head were hollow and cold. They did not want to let go of the images of the battle and something kept replacing all the dead with more familiar faces. Briefly she screwed up her eyes, only to tear them open again. No, it wasn't any better that way! Concentrated, she stared at her fingers, maybe she could try to move one... She felt her hand on her shoulder and raised her hands at the newcomer. The clone caught her fist and for a moment she didn't know who she was looking at. Then her eyes cleared and she blinked at Jesse. "Hey Mini-Commander.", he smiled and loosened his grip on her fist, her arm slumped limply onto the floor. "Hi.", she mumbled and pulled her knees to her chest, Jesse sat down next to her on the floor and she could now see Rex quietly exchanging a few words with Fives and Echo, who then grabbed Cutup and Hevy and brought them away. Then the Captain came over to her and leaned against the wall. "Hey kid." She huffed and stared up at him. "Don't do that, I'm not a child anymore." „Then I'll just take this ration back with me and let you make your adult decision.", teased Hardcase, who actually came around the corner with a ration from the canteen and slumped to the floor in front of her with a thud. He grinned broadly. How did he always grin?

At the sight of the food her stomach growled loudly, but she felt nothing that could have reconciled the sound. "I'm not hungry," she muttered and buried her forehead in her pants. She wished she had ears to cover. As it was, she was forced to hear the growling of Hardcase and Jesse. Suddenly a hand was there and forced the ration on her. Sighing, she straightened up a bit, it couldn't hurt to do a favor for the others. So she forced a few bites into herself before rubbing her forehead with both hands. Where was Kix? Why did it take so long? "I'll give him another half an hour.", Jesse mused aloud, could he read minds? But what if... "How am I ever supposed to survive this?", she mumbled choked, the lump in her her throat made it hard to breathe and she shivered. "You mean?", asked Hardcase, sliding closer, his knees now touching hers and she hastily rubbed her eyes. "If either of you leaves." The first dry sob broke free and she shuddered painfully. Jesse made a pressed sound and Hardcase hastily patted her lower legs to calm her down. Then she heard Rex crouch down beside her. "We're not going anywhere," he said, putting his hand on her arm. Now they were all close together and the touch grounded her, she sobbed again. The idea of having to live without this feeling scared her. "What's going on here?", came another voice and the next sob died in her throat, she almost choked on it in surprise. Then she looked up at Kix, he looked tired and there were hard lines around his mouth. "There's nothing to mourn here, so get up Commander.", he then smiled thinly and she was on her feet immediately, stumbled over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you!", she muttered and he patted her head. "I will not allow anyone to leave you vod'ika."

*~*

"Droidbait!" Laughing, she stormed into the medbay, Kix gave her a gently reproachful look. Coric a few steps further, however, seemed to be delighted at the sight of Ahsoka half hanging in the bed of the injured clone, almost crushing him. "Please don't take your job so literally next time.", she said, then loosened up and beamed at him. Droidbait laughed, and Ahsoka decided that nothing was more beautiful to see than a laughing brother.

#star wars #clone wars #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #clone trooper droidbait #clone trooper kix #clone trooper jesse #clone trooper rex #clone trooper hevy #clone trooper cutup #clone troopr echo #clone trooper fives #and yes - a broken pelvis still is kinda a death sentence #clone trooper hardcase

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whatzaoverwatch · 4 years

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The Reaper of The Opera Chapter 7: All I Ask of You

Now to end Act One of the actual show! Fun Fact: The end of act one in the stageplay had the chandelier fall in the production while the movie adaptation everyone knows about saves it for the climax of the film. Just a little foreshadow and nudge nudge for things to come. Was also told to do no harm to the emotional support cowboy :^) we shall see bout that

First Prev Next

You had been preparing in the dressing room to take over for Hana. As many would be thrilled to fulfill their part as the understudy, the cause of it made you sick to your stomach. Everyone was very well aware of what happened: the Reaper managed to switch Hana’s vocal spray with something vile. Corrupting her voice and silencing her song. It was cruel and it was despicable. The worst part about it, he did it for you.

He wanted you to sing, he wanted you to shine as his star. It was all according to his plan and you were forced to play a role in it. Even when you found the newly tailored dress before you in the dressing room, you knew it was a part of his game. A bouquet of black roses sat across from the costume alongside a note that was labelled to ‘his most beautiful pupil’. Genjis cherry blossom found tossed into the trash and replaced by the flowers of darkness. Reaching for the rose, you felt the guilt rising in your stomach at the realization of how much he obsessed over you. You wanted no part of his plot, yet he kept luring you to him.

Suddenly, the crack of a shotgun echoed the theatre, startling you by the sudden screams from afar. Striding to the door, you heard the various shouts and movement from the backstage. Hurrying to the stage exits, you were presented with a horrifying sight. The stage handler bleeding to the floor, grasping his arm with screams of agony filling the theatre. The managers at his side trying to stop the bleeding from the several gunshot wounds. McCrees shouts and curses ringing in your ear. The pool of blood staining the stage floor as the audience had already scattered for the doors. Nearly trampling one another as more shots were heard. Seeing some passed out performers on the side while others hollered for medical assistance or to find the culprit.

Stepping back with horror, your body trembled at the chaos before you. This was all his doing; the Reaper had laid his curse upon the theatre. It was no question he wasn’t going to stop. He would continue to do this for you. No matter how much blood he had split.

“[Name]…”

You heard a voice in your ear. Oh no, you thought, has he come for me now? You began to step away, yearning to run began to boil in your stomach. Breath quickening by the second. Hyperventilating at the commotion around you. Feeling him near you, reaching for you with nothing but his voice. It was all your fault, if you hadn’t sung, none of this would’ve happened. Their blood was going to be on your hands.

“[Name]!” The voice became louder. Alerting yourself to see Genji. Running to you quickly with concern, “[Name], there you are! Are you alright? What the hell is going on?!”

“Genji? What are you doing here?” You mumbled in disbelief, watching him look over to the fallen McCree.

“I was watching the performance with my brother. When he fell from above the stage I was worried for your safety. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

He never left alongside the audience, finding his way through the madness to search for you. While you wanted to be relieved to see him, you noticed the lights flickering. The shadows forming against the walls when he got closer. White noise muting his words to what was around him. Knowing the Reaper had his eye upon you, you didn’t want your dearest friend to end up like McCree.

“Stay away from me.” You spoke, backing away from the now confused man. He was taken back by your words, reaching for you slowly.

“[Name]? What’s wrong?” Shaking your head, you could almost see the shadow right behind Genji. Red eyes drilling into the Shimada. Hiking up your dress, you began to run.

“I SAID STAY AWAY!” You cried, running through the backstage loft. Fighting your tears as Genji called out for you.

You didn’t wish to keep him away, but the Reaper left you no choice. Climbing the spiral staircases higher into the theatre’s scaffolding. Voices whispering in your head left and right while you tried to escape. Everyones shadows nearly startling you in the belief that it was Reaper. Nearly tripping over your dress as you reached the top of the stairs. Looking behind with short breaths, watching the shadows crawl to you.

“Do not escape me, my dear. I am inside your mind. You cannot run!”

Facing ahead, you spotted a rustic door to the outside. Running towards it, you scrambled to open it with desperation. Opening the door to the snow fallen rooftop, you quickly slammed the door behind you to block the darkness. The cold frigid air from the nightfall caused you to hug yourself for warmth. The costume providing no thermal care to the cold and the emptiness around you. Backing away from the door, you gazed at the gargoyles that remained perched upon the theatre. You began to wonder if they were placed there to protect the evil within. Your tears stung your cheeks, watching your panting breath dance through the air while you walked. Peering down below to see the various attendees run out the doors, sirens blaring in the distance as you knew the damage was done. Slumping down onto the ledge, you couldn’t help but sob into your hands.

He was right, you couldn’t escape him. You opened your mind to him blindly and he took advantage of you. Now the people around you were suffering under his control. If he ever so desired, he could attack the new managers, or perhaps any of the dancers. Even Genji wasn’t safe from what the Reaper could do. Was the darkness all you were meant for? He had imprisoned you even before that one evening. You wanted to escape, you wanted…

“[Name]??” Genjis voice cleared through your darkened thoughts, drawing your attention to where he entered. Shaking as he hurried to you with no hesitation, “[Name], why did you run?”

“Genji please,” you choked on your sob, wiping your hot tears to scoot away from him, “Just keep away from me. If he sees me with you, you will get hurt.”

“He?” He asked, kneeling before you to take your hand. His touch ever so warm in comparison to yours, “[Name], are you referring to this ‘Reaper’?”

You flinched at the mention of his name, pulling away from Genjis hold in fear. Avoiding his worrisome gaze as you stood up. Shaking your head with a sniff.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” You croaked in your exhausted voice. Trying to move away from him, you felt his hand gently hold your wrist.

“Then help me understand [Name]. Did the Reaper cause all of this?” His question lingered in the air. Pulling your arm away from his hold, you found no reason to run from Genji. Lowering your head, you tried to wipe your tears once more.

“Yes, and he will not stop. He keeps whispering to me, trying to lure me to him. I can’t get him out of my mind.” You whimpered, grasping your temple to repress the voices.

“So, he is real…what do you know of him? Have you seen him?” Facing Genji, you watched his eyes fill with hurt at the sight of your never-ending tears.

“I have, he has taken me into his lair. Filling my head with his songs and words. He wants to take me away to become his, and I cannot control it,” You express, the wave of thoughts you had concealed to prevent disbelief overwhelmed you, “He took me away the other night. I saw things that have prevented me from sleeping. It is no man; it is a monster…and yet…”

“And yet?” He stepped towards you cautiously, giving you a fair amount of space to catch your breath. The tears never ending as you wiped you sleeve.

“I can’t help but pity him,” You confessed, recalling the faint whimpers from when he lashed out at you, “He only wants to be remembered. That’s why I keep letting him in. In someway he is just as lost as I am.”

He looked at you in silence. Unable to read his emotions from your blurry tears. You felt your words were falling short of your childhood friend. Was it foolish to finally speak your mind? Had you truly gone mad? Before you could regret your words, you felt a hand rest upon your cheek. Feeling his thumb gently brush away your tears.

“[Name], I cannot blame you for finding pity for someone like him. You have always had a tender heart, even when we were little,” His words soothed you gently, continuing to brush your tears gently, “But that does not mean you should allow him to take advantage of you.”

“But I’m scared Genji,” You wept, turning your face into his palm to relish into the metallic touch, “You saw what happened. Those that oppose his actions will get hurt. I don’t want anyone harmed because of me.”

“I won’t let it,” He cupped both of your cheeks at this point. You looked into his eyes to see the honesty within, “[Name], the moment I saw you again I thought about all the years that were lost to us. I couldn’t remember a happier time than when I was with you. I want to make up for my absence, starting with protecting you from the Reaper.”

You felt your heart flutter at his words. Unable to recall the last time you had felt safe and comfortable like this. Those last days of love were left by your father and his passing. What you recalled was his memory by your Angel of Music was spoiled by The Reaper and his desires.

But you remembered long ago, Genji always had brought a smile upon your face. From the moment you had found his scarf to when he had to make his final goodbye to you. When he had come back after so long it was if a part of you had returned. Despite his half metal body, it was still the Genji you had admired. Placing a hand over his, you couldn’t help but sigh.

“I do not want to see him hurt you. He has already seen you before with me, I don’t want what happened to Jesse to happen to you or worse.” Genji shook his head, pulling you into an embrace. You felt the faint rhythm of his heartbeat. The sound of it withered the whispers that corrupted your mind.

“[Name], I have faced far worse than what he has in store,” He told you, stroking your back ever so smoothly to ease your shivering, “No more hiding in the dark. Dry your tears, I am here for you. Let me guard you and guide you. Let me be your shelter and your light.”

Looking up at him, you saw the devotion in his eyes. Whatever happened to him before had turned him into more than the mischievous boy from before. You knew your crush hadn’t subsided from these past few days. After all, you pushed him away because of what you were feeling. Taking his hands, you held them into your own.

“Genji, I kept you away because…” You felt your cheeks heated up at the realization of what you were about to say. But somewhere inside of you wanted to finally speak your mind. Squeezing his hand before speaking, “because I love you. I didn’t want him to harm you if he knew how I truly felt about you.”

You saw his eyes widen at your words. His cheeks going pink with his fingers intertwining with yours. Noticing him sigh in relief before a longing smile formed on his lips.

“I’m relieved to hear you say that,” You blinked in confusion before he continued, “When you first disappeared, I thought you despised me. But a part of me never wanted to give up. I wanted to learn the truth.”

“I don’t despise you. I am thankful you never gave up on me. Promise me Genji,” You hushed him with your words, your tears no longer shedding as you spoke, “Say you will be my protector. Say you love me and need me with you. That’s all I ask of you.”

“My blossom,” He whispers, letting go of one of your hands to trace your cheek, “Say you’ll need me with you here. Share with me one love, one lifetime. Anywhere you go let me go too. [Name], that’s all I ask of you.”

“Genji, please say you love me.” You leaned in closer, his lips ever so close to yours. His smile remaining, tilting your chin lightly to look into your eyes.

“You know I do.”

In the heat of the moment, your lips met into one tender kiss. His rough lips ever so gentle against yours. Closing your eyes as you wrapped your arms around his neck. His arms gently caressing your sides. As if a collision of repressed emotions had collapsed upon the two of you. Holding each other in a desperate embrace against the cold. The moment lasting forever, but not enough as you pulled away to catch your breath. He opened his eyes to look at you with love you had never felt before. Wanting to take in another kiss, you heard the sirens and shouts from down below.

“They will be looking for us,” You whispered, taking Genjis hand into yours once more, “Come with me Genji.”

“I will always stay by your side [Name]. I love you.” He assured you, following your side as you two entered back into the theatre.

The Reaper followed closely behind from your chase. He awaited to confront you himself on the rooftop. Seeing your tears ached his cold heart, knowing his was the soul reason for their presence. It was not his fault that McCree intervened when he did. He did not mean to stain your spotlight with crimson. The desire to appear behind the gargoyle were halted by Genjis appearance. Disgusted by his interference to what he was creating with you. When you had spoken the truth, he had hoped it would drive the young man away. Especially with the note he had given to keep Genji away.

But he did not push away from your pleas of help. Reaper was no fool, he could see love within the man’s eyes for you the moment he spoke to you the other night. He was bound to love you as he did himself. The fact that you too shared these emotions tore his heart open. Looking away when you two shared that passionate kiss. His fingers digging into the stone at the signs of confessed love that he wished to share with you.

You were not just his songstress, you meant more to him than his ambition. He fell for you, and you turned away those feelings before he could show you the man behind the monster. Watching as you two left, seeing a black rose fall from your dress pocket that you had took with you when you escaped. He stepped out of the shadows to kneel before the rose. Fingers delicately caressed the flower while his body shook.

“I gave you my music. Made your song take wing. I gave you everything and this is how you repay me?” His voice hoarse from the empty air around him.

Bringing the flower close to his lips to conceal his whisper of your name. In his agony, he could still hear your voice. Singing sweetly to the man you had truly loved. The masked mans eyes grew cold, crushing the flower in his grasp with seething anger. Rising from his position to tear away his vulnerability once and for all. His blood boiling as he growled to the heavens.

“You will curse the day you did not do, what the Reaper asked of you!”

To be continued

#Overwatch #overwatch x reader #overwatch imagines #overwatch scenarios #overwatch au #Reaper #reaper x reader #gabriel reyes #gabriel reyes x reader #phantom!reaper #genji #genji shimada #genji shimada x reader #only a Shimada can control these tags #do i even tag mccree

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superfem-imagines · 4 years

Text

New Beginnings

Could I perchance ask you to write a Kara/Lena/Alex fic? I have absolutely no prompt for you lol just would like to see those 3 get together. (I do prefer getting together stories over established relationship). For @sugarampersandjoy

A/n: I'm sorry this took so long! I couldn't think of how to do it then boom! It popped in my head and here we are. I hope you like it! (I wasnt quite sure how to end it lol)

I also don't know shit about Krypton so if the information Alura gives Kara is wring let's ignore that lol

Alex sits and watches her sister and her best friend talk, not quite sure how to interact with the youngest Luthor. One moment Kara and her were having lunch, the next Lena was sitting with them complaining how Jess, her assistant, was making her leave the lab to eat.

Sitting back and observing their interaction, the agent notes how her sister lights up as Lena talks about her latest inventions, how she blushes when Lena looks at her through her dark lashes and when she touches Kara’s forearm as she laughs.

With a sinking heart, she realizes the young CEO liked her sister and that Kara returned the feelings. Before she could dismiss herself, Alex was pulled into the conversation.

“Alex, you work with bio-engineering! I don’t understand what Lena’s saying but you should.” Kara, practically bouncing in her seat, grabs and holds onto Alex’s hand, excited for her two best friends to get along.

A long conversation and a possible breakthrough later, Lena is saying bye and rushing back to her lab to try the equation Alex wrote out for her.

Once Kara had her cheeks full of sticky buns, Alex turned to the Kryptonian with a shit eating grin. “You like Lena,” Alex taunted in a singsong voice, watching the blonde almost choke on the sweet bread.

“No I do-don’t!” Kara protested, voice hoarse.

“You do, you can’t lie to me Kara.” Alex poked her sister in the sides, making the alien squirm. “Admit it, Kar!”

“May-maybe,” Kara stuttered, trying not to laugh too loud. When she finally choked the words out, Alex relented her attack and sat back smugly.

“See that wasn’t so hard, now you just have to ask her out.” Before Kara could protest, Alex sat forward and looked her in the eye. “I’m serious, Kara. Ask her out, I’m almost positive she likes you too.”

“No she doesn’t, Alex.” Kara sighed, picking at her sticky buns. Alex’s hand cupping her cheek drew her attention, blue eyes meeting soft brown ones.

“Trust me, Kar. As Cat would say, “Dive”. No risk, no reward right?” When Kara gave a hesitant nod and smile, Alex smiled back and moved away. “Now that’s decided, let's finish eating and head back to the DEO.”

--------

“Hey Lee,” Kara called out, walking into the lab with Big Belly Burger bags. She followed the sound of her name, being waved over by the raven haired CEO.

“Kara, your sister is a genius! You know the part I was stuck on?” Seeing the blondes nod, Lena turned back to the microscope. “Well the equation that your sister gave me worked! Thanks to her this project has been launched forward weeks.” Looking at the breathless CEO, Kara smiled softly and decided that she was going to ask Lena now.

Leading them to an empty lab table, Kara set down their orders while Lena took off her lab coat and wiped down the table with disinfecting wipes. Listening to Lena gush about her project and Alex, Kara took a deep breath. “Lena I-”

“You should ask her out you know.” Kara stopped talking, surprised by what the woman had said. Letting out a confused ‘what’, Kara stared at her best friend. “I saw how you guys looked at each other when we were having lunch, I know you like each other. And it wouldn’t be a big deal if you guys dated, you’re not even related- hell you’re not even human! I’m sure things were different on Krypton?”

Kara murmured a quiet confirmation, not even really thinking about it. “See? It wouldn’t be a big deal and I’m sure the Superfriends wouldn’t even care either- maybe Winn but that’s cause he likes you.”

Kara didn’t really hear the rest of the brunettes monologue, too distracted by the thoughts and feeling swirling around her head. Dismissing herself, Kara left Lena in the lab and flew off in a daze.

Sighing, the CEO watched her best friend leave with a heavy heart. The youngest Luthor was in love with the bubbly blonde but she would never get in the way of her best friends happiness.

Kara slumped heavily onto the ledge of Catco, eyes glazed over and mind dazed. Alex said I like Lena, and I do. But Lena thinks I like Alex. Is she right? Oh Rao, what do I do? Kara had these thoughts and more swirling. Lena had said things might be different on Krypton, could she be right? Determined, Kara took off to the DEO to talk to the one person who could help- her mother’s hologram.

Cracking the concrete with her arrival, Kara brushed past Winn, absently waving back to him. Putting in the code and powering up the hologram, Kara paced along the wall gathering her thoughts. “Is something wrong with me?”

Kara frowned at her blurted question, continuing before her mother could interrupt. “Was it normal on Krypton for someone to love two people romantically?”

“Yes,” the hologram answered in a monotone voice. “Although rarer in the years leading up to Krypton's destruction, it was common in the past.”

“How?” Kara sat down, preparing to learn all she could before she made a decision on where to go from here.

Couple hours later and Kara was leaving the room with a new outlook, ready to act on it.

--------

Kara fixed her hair before opening the door, revealing Lena standing there with a bottle of wine in hand. Ushering Lena into the apartment, Kara took the wine and directed the woman to the bedroom where some sweats and a t-shirt were waiting for her.

Setting up the Netflix and all the snacks, Kara heard the elevator ding and Alex’s heartbeat approaching. Grabbing the wine glasses, Kara called for her sister to enter the apartment. The redhead entered the living room with boxes of pizza then headed to the kitchen to grab plates.

“Hey Alex,” Lena called as she pulled her hair into a bun, makeup gone and relaxing in Kara’s clothes. Calling back a greeting, Alex wiggled her eyebrows at Kara. Kara rolled her eyes in response, punching Alex and sending her to change in an effort to hide the blush lighting up her face.

Plopping onto the couch, Kara pulled Lena into a side hug. Grabbing some pizza, Kara called out to Alex to ask what movie she wanted to watch.

The responding “Nothing too romantic” sent Lena into a fit of laughter. “You know just as well as I do that’s not an option, Danvers.”

“Maybe, Luthor,” Alex jumped over the back of the couch, grabbing the wine. “But it was worth a shot.”

Quarter of the way through a random romance movie, Kara paused it. “Thank God, please tell me you changed your mind.” Alex groaned out, sending her sister a playful grin.

“Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you guys about.” Hearing Kara’s seriousness, both women sat up and gave the Kryptonian their full attention. “After the lunch we had together I realized some things.”

“Kara,” Alex said softly, slightly frowning. “I was just teasing you, if I was wrong then you can just say so.”

“No Alex, thing is you were right. But so was Lena.” Seeing the confused looks they shared, Kara took a deep breath and turned to Lena. “After that lunch, Alex had teased me about liking you- I denied it at first but then I realized I did. I went to your lab to ask you out,” Lena opened her mouth to say something but Kara rushed to continue.

“Lena had said I liked you, Alex.” Kara murmured lowly, scared to meet either of their gazes. “After thinking about it I realized that she was right, I did have feelings for you. And it scared me because you’re supposed to be my sister, and I can’t lose you.

“I left the lab and went to the DEO to talk to my mom's hologram. Turns out in the older days of Krypton, polyamorous relationships were common. I talked to her about how it worked, and about my feelings for you guys.” Another deep breath and Kara steeled herself, meeting the gazes of two of the most important people in her life. “I like both of you, and I’d like to be in a relationship with both of you.

“You don’t have to date each other, it can be me dating Lena and me dating Alex and you guys being friends, that parts up to you. I- if either of you are even interested in dating me, that is. If not then we can pretend this didn’t happen and we can go back to the movie. Rao this was a bad idea, let’s just watch the movie, yeah? Yeah, ok.”

With the movie going again and Kara stubbornly staring at the screen, Lena and Alex talked, heads ducked low and voices quiet. Coming to a conclusion, Lena took the remote while Alex got up to sit on the table in front of Kara.

With each of them holding Kara’s hands, Alex stared at the blonde in front of her. “Lena and I talked, Kar. We both like you.”

“And,” Lena cut in, gaining Kara’s attention. “There is some attraction between Alex and I, so we are willing to try this out. But only if you really want this.”

All three women sat in silence, giving Kara time to think. When Kara slowly nodded, Alex beamed. “Yeah?” When Kara nodded again, Lena tapped her chin.

“We need you to say it outloud, Kara. Do you want this?” With a steeled gaze, Kara met the brunettes eyes.

“Yes,” meeting Alex’s gaze, Kara gave another nod. “Yeah, I want this.”

“Good,” Alex slid closer, kneeling by Kara’s feet. “Can I kiss you?” Not giving an answer, Kara dragged Alex into a kiss. Soft and hesitant, the kiss was short, the two women pulling back to rest their foreheads together. Pulling herself out of her trance, Alex pulled back for Lena to move closer.

With one more check in, Lena pulled Kara into her. Just as hesitant, Lena was more demanding in the kiss compared to Alex, but gentle nonetheless. When the blonde pulled back, Lena moved towards Alex, pulling her up onto the couch. The two women shared a heated kiss, pulling back breathless. Resituating on the couch, Kara played the movie, both women cuddled up on either side, fingers tangled together on Kara’s abdomen.

They’d figure out their date later, and how to break it to the group and later on Eliza, but for now they were content in the moment.

#kara x lena #kara x alex #alex x lena #kara x alex x lena #supercorp #kalex #agentcorp #supergirl imagine

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mitchellsbeca · 5 years

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Chapters: 1/? Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell Summary: A collection of prompts/tumblr requests. Bechloe for now but may change later.

prompt 18. “I shouldn’t be in love with you.”

In all honesty, it was the last person Beca expected to turn up, her arrival always catching Beca off guard and tilting her center of gravity.

It had been about six months since she’d officially signed with Khaled, six months since the Bellas had split and gone their own ways and Beca had moved to Florida. But she’d still invited them all to the release party for her first album, something she’d worked tirelessly on to get it completed as soon as possible (and she already had a repertoire of songs and beats saved on her computer so there hadn’t been a great deal of work to do, just plenty of fine-tuning).

Understandably some couldn’t make it; Jessica and Ashley were busy at a different event in California doing... something (she should really ask them what they’re doing now), Cynthia Rose was in military training and couldn’t get the leave, Lilly or Ester or whatever her name was now was off somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, Fat Amy had flown herself over since she had the money now, along with a Aubrey, Emily, Flo and Stacie (who had actually brought Bella with her and made motherhood look cool and easy at the same time). But Chloe had reluctantly declined, her studies taking up most of her time now that she was at vet school with an unavoidable exam taking place the same Friday. And she was the one Beca had been most looking forward to seeing.

It was a red carpet event so everyone was dressed particularly nicely. Beca had been assigned a blazer slash play suit piece, dark red with cut-off shorts in matching fabric and heels. Hair and make up had been done - maybe even over done for Beca’s liking - but done nonetheless. And she did look killer, she wouldn’t disagree. Beca was actually feeling good.

But even in the sea of people at the venue, alongside influencers, other artists and photographers, Beca pulling attention from all corners, her focus wasn’t with anyone else but who’d just walked in.

It was like a parting of the ocean, Beca’s direct line of sight guided by a line of emptiness with people either side and all sound plunging to mute.

A blue gilded dress with a deep neckline held the woman tight, hair braided like a halo around her head with strands falling to frame her face. And the sky. The endless gorgeous sky that Beca always saw in her eyes, even from halfway across the room it was like daylight and the height of summer and the endless possibilities that could be. Could have been.

Beca excused herself from the group she was surrounded by, one of them a journalist who was halfway done with asking Beca questions about the album and attempting to pry into her personal life.

Chloe looked lost, eyes wandering across the vast, dark room in sight of any face she might find familiar with clutch caught in front as her body turned. Beca wove through bodies on the approach, smile growing ever so slightly larger as she neared.

And Chloe beamed, spotting the brunette head towards her and she moved forward, arms outstretched and ready to embrace her best friend. Laughter escaped them both when they hugged, Chloe’s warmth seeping into Beca, dissolving her stress and settling some of the underlying anxiety she’d been suffering from all day.

“I thought you couldn’t make it?” Beca asked.

“Amy flew me over from New York. You know she has her own private jet now, right?”

“I do.”

“Well, she didn’t take no for an answer, so she got her pilot to fly back and pick me up after my exam and I got ready on the plane.”

“Yeah, you look like you got ready on a plane,” Beca jested with a playful smirk.

“Please. This is Mile High Couture, thank you very much,” she said, splaying her arms out as she showed off her out and stroke a pose, “And I was going to say I look better than you but that would be an outright lie. You look... stunning, Beca, honestly.”

“This? It’s just people doing their job to make me look good. Turns out you can only do so much with an actual potato. But yours is all natural, you don’t even need to try; you always look incredible.”

“You’re not a potato. But we’ll leave the ‘all natural’ comment out for discussion.” “Dude, I’m not kidding.”

The grin on her face faltered, like a sudden thought had popped to the forefront of Chloe’s mind and escaped to her expression. She eyed someone next to them before she leaned in, pulling at Beca’s wrist and asking in a hushed voice, “Is there somewhere we can go that’s a bit more... private?”

Beca turned to who Chloe had been eyeing; a tall guy with heavy duty camera equipment that was beginning to snap pictures, flash almost blinding. A small group of people lingered behind him too, so Beca nodded in response and grasped the wrist of the hand holding her own, pulling Chloe behind her. She knew where to go. There was a secret balcony down a corridor next to the restrooms that she had scouted earlier that day. So Beca lead them there, out into the Floridian air that was more humid than inside but fair quieter.

“Sorry about that,” Beca apologized.

Chloe shook it off, “You’re a big celebrity now. People want to know you.” “I’m just making music, like I’ve always been doing. Just... more people are listening to it now.”

A silence fell. The thumping bass of the music inside was the only thing that could be heard but the air was still around them. They were both leaning against the edge of the balcony, solid stone wall cool on their skin.

Beca was about to speak when Chloe jumped in before her, “I listened to it. The album, I mean. As soon as you sent it over I listened to it in one sitting. I’m not going to lie to you when I tell you I cried a little bit.”

“You cry at videos of dogs.”

Chloe chuckled, “So it wasn’t necessarily a hard task, okay? But still... it really moved me, Beca.”

“Good. I’m glad you like it.”

“Especially the hidden track.”

The brunette’s posture went rigid. She doesn’t know how, but Beca had been hoping Chloe had missed it, that dumb song she’d unknowingly recorded on her down time (thanks to Theo, once again), stripped back and acoustic. “Yeah?” she asked.

“I don’t know why, but when I first heard it I was kind of... I don’t know. I had to listen to it again. But when I did, I was just... crying and I couldn’t work out why, but I felt like it was a piece of a puzzle that I didn’t even know I had that I’d been missing. And I asked Amy if she’d heard it and what she thought of it and she told me. She told me it was about us. And how you felt about me.”

“Feel,” Beca corrected, staring at the street below them.

A beat, too long too be promising, “...what?”

And it was now or never, Beca decided. Because if she owed Chloe anything, it was the truth. She didn’t have the energy to keep tip-toeing anymore. Chloe had her life sorted now so it wouldn’t make a difference, but she deserved to know, “How I feel about you. Because I love you. And I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t be in love with you because it’s not my place to be in love with you—”

“Beca...”

“The truth is, Chloe, I’ve loved you since Freshman year; starting from when you broke into my shower and invited me to audition for the Bellas. When we sang together for the first time?” Beca asked like she thought Chloe wouldn’t remember. “It just took me too long to realize, and when I did... it was too late. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was too slow and gave too little. I didn’t just break up with Jesse because of the long distance. He wanted me to move with him to LA and I said no, but as soon as you said you were going to New York the thought of not seeing you on the daily made me feel like I was going to drop off the planet. So I agreed to move with you and make it work. I knew I couldn’t ask you to be with me the same way as I was with Jesse, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because I was still saw you every day. And even on the USO tour I didn’t say anything because... because I already knew I was too late...” she looked up at Chloe with a sad, gentle smile, but blue eyes were covered by eyelids pressed shut, cheeks glistening in the dark, “and that was okay. I made my peace with that even before we moved. I just wanted you to be happy, and Chicago made you happy, so I didn’t interfere. And all the Bellas wanted me to take this opportunity so I did. And it was a perfect way to move onto the next chapter.”

“We’re not... together anymore. Chicago and I.”

It was Beca’s time to be taken aback, “What?”

“I didn’t really work out. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but he would have been working away from home a lot and I barely know him already so that’s... not what I want.”

“I’m sorry, Chloe.”

The redhead moved to Beca, clutch left behind resting on the flat of the ledge so she had two delicate hands free. And they reached for the hands across from her, pulling them closer and making Beca turn to face her, “What I’m trying to say is... that chapter? It didn’t start for me when we left Spain, but it ended on a cliffhanger when I heard your song. And I don’t know what the next one is going to be.”

And they were both so close. As close as Chloe had pulled her on hood night all those years ago, but this time Chloe’s eyes were red and puffy and there was a million things swimming within them that Beca had only dreamt about seeing half of. And just when she thought she was used to all the ways Chloe could make her feel...

Clear music erupted from the door behind them. Chloe pulled away, turning away from whoever it was that interrupted them and regaining her composure.

“Beca! We’ve been looking everywhere for you; we need you for the speech,” Theo said, his British accent grating Beca’s neck moreso than usual, “Come on, you’re already late.”

“Two seconds. Just two, I’ll be with you soon. Just... tell them I’m coming.” “We can’t, Beca, we’re already running late,” he replied, holding the door open. “Dude, I was having a moment!” she near yelled and she heard a chuckle from the side of her. She turned to Chloe.

“You should go. I’ll be fine. Don’t want to keep them waiting any more, Miss Hotshot Artist,” the redhead said, eyes twinkling still but the smile she offered not quite reaching them.

“I don’t care. They can wait, but you can’t. I won’t make you,” Beca whispered, even over the music, so that only they could hear. And she cupped the bottom of Chloe’s jaw, thumbs stroking damp cheeks before pulling her close and pressing lips together. And Chloe? Chloe was everything Beca had imagined her to be. Soft, gentle, perfect. Her perfume smelled divine. She could smell the sweet scent of her hair as it danced into her senses and enveloped her completely.

And before she knew it, Chloe’s arms were wrapped across her shoulders, the crook of her elbow pulling her body closer by the neck. They were pressed so close. So close like when they sleep but this time they were both so awake and vibrant and alive.

Chloe pulled away and Beca craved to follow but the redhead pressed delicate fingers against her lips, “You’ve done enough. I can wait ten more minutes. Go and knock ‘em dead, Becs.”

The brunette couldn’t be beaming brighter if she tried. She pressed a gentle kiss against Chloe’s fingers and pulled away, making her way to the door. She didn’t escape without a pat on the ass from the redhead, though.

And whatever the rest of this chapter had, Beca thought, it was going to even more brilliant.

#bechloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale #bechloe fanfiction #pitch perfect #prompt #this is kind of old but im like #super happy with it #writing #my writing #our little universes

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andrea-lyn · 5 years

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Hey! So birthday request 🎂☺️(I am Shameless).So I was thinking since Alex Met Michael ‘s mum,can you please do an Alex taking Michael to meet his(Alex’s) mom fic?and Kyle tagging along because now they are the road trip trio and he says he is Alex’s best man.

(I’m sorry that this is so much of a belated birthday gift, but a bunch came in before, but I hope this works for you even if it is no longer your bday)

“I don’t know about this.”

Alex glances to the passenger side of the car, trying to surreptitiously check that the locks of the car are on for the fourth time. After all, the last thing he needs is Michael tucking and rolling out of the car because he’s panicking. “Michael,” he sighs, glancing in the rearview mirror. “How come you’re not helping?” he demands, of Valenti. “What are you even here for?”

“The entertainment, mostly,” Valenti quips.

Michael is in the middle of what might be an actual panic attack and Valenti is about to eat popcorn. Alex pinches the bridge of his nose and wonders what he did to deserve this, never mind that he’d been the one to actually request this happen.

It’s Mother’s Day and after the disastrous events at Caulfield two years ago and everything that’s happened since, Alex didn’t think it would be smart to leave Michael alone on the day.

Maybe he’s just trying to fool everyone. Maybe it’s because Alex is going to visit his mother in person for the first time in years, because after he’d called her to ask about Jesse’s habits, she’d ended the call saying that he should come see her sometime.

He’d made a promise and now he intends to keep it.

It feels like if he doesn’t, it’s not only him making his mother upset, but somehow undermining Michael as well, who’ll never get a chance to visit his mother again, thanks to Jesse Manes’ legacy. The very least Alex can do is offer him something else, even if it’s second best.

His mother lives out in the middle of nowhere, off the grid. Alex had helped erase her information so that certain people (specifically his father) couldn’t find her once he got old enough and had tracked her down.

She’d explained it wasn’t the boys she wanted to hide from, but Jesse.

They’ve been talking lately and he’d mentioned wanting to introduce her to his boyfriend, which she had eventually come around to. Alex suspects that she’s anticipating another military boy, someone that reminds her of Jesse. She’s going to be so damn surprised.

“Michael,” Alex says, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “It’s okay. She’s gonna love you. You’re nothing like anyone I was around growing up. That’ll do it alone.”

“So, be the anti-Manes?” Kyle quips.

Alex raises both brows and shrugs, because, “Yeah. Kind of.”

That seems to relax Michael a little. Alex isn’t so sure that he’s as relaxed, but he’s burying it down deep. He’s never brought anyone home and it’s for obvious reasons with his father, but with his mother, it almost felt like cowardice. Not bringing Michael or anyone else felt like he could keep his heart safe in the process.

He’s not so sure he wants safe, now.

Pulling into a long, winding driveway, he knows that there’s no turning around at this point. They’re here and his mother is expecting them. To leave now would be an act of cowardice so grand, so awful, so terrifying that he suspects he’d have to go months without speaking to his mother as a consequence.

Besides, he wants her to meet Michael.

The three most important people in the world to him are within a mile of each other right now – mother, boyfriend, best friend – and Alex has never felt safer or more panicked at the same time.

“Okay,” Alex says, and parks the car. “We’re here.”

Here goes nothing.

When Alex is making his way to the porch of the little bungalow, Michael weighs the merits of running away. He’d have to live off the land in the desert, sure, but then he won’t have to worry about being a disappointment to anyone’s mother (especially seeing as he doesn’t even have a shot of being with his own).

Of course, there’s one looming doctor-shaped issue in his way.

“Don’t even think about it,” Valenti warns, like somehow he’s learning mind-reading tricks from Isobel.

“What? I was just…” Michael trails off, when he hears low voices at the porch. He straightens up his posture, aware that he’s not going to get out of this, and if that’s the case, then he needs to make sure he doesn’t fuck this up.

Michael Guerin, Earner of Parent’s Trust isn’t a trait that he ever thought he’d possess, but for Alex, he’s got to try.

“You were just debating running away. I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m here. Got to make sure you don’t make a break for it.”

He’s lurking back here because he doesn’t think that he can muster up the courage to get over there until Alex either deliberately drags him or his presence is requested. “I’m not exactly the kind of guy mothers like.” It’s an understatement. Michael’s not the kind of guy any parents like, from his interaction with adults as a kid.

Valenti clearly isn’t impressed by his little ‘woe is me’ parade.

”You know how hard it is for him to come out here and face her. It only happens when something is important,” Valenti says. “He doesn’t like bothering her, but ever since Caulfield, I swear, he brings this up on a weekly basis. He’s always asking me if I think you two should come out here and look. It’s mother’s day and he wants to spend it with you and with her.”

”Also, you,” Michael feels compelled to point out.

”Yeah, notice how I’m the one talking you off the ledge? Alex knew he’d need the backup,” Valenti boasts. “Is this about your Mom?”

They really, really, really don’t talk about this often, but Valenti knows the gist of what happened in that prison. He knows that Michael had lost his family that day and that his mother had been one of them. What’s been weird, honestly, is the fact that Valenti gets it.

After all, they both lost parents to Caulfield.

”I don’t want to think that she can replace her,” Michael admits, feeling feeble for the way he sounds as he speaks, “and at the same time, I don’t wanna be the ingrate boyfriend who doesn’t see how much Alex is doing to make this happen for us. It’s just, how is she supposed to replace my Mom? How can I even think that when I don’t even know my Mom?”

”You won’t find that out standing out here,” Valenti says.

Michael breathes in and out, staring at the daunting bungalow in front of him.

”Do or do not…” Valenti intones.

”Oh, fuck you, I knew showing you Star Wars was a mistake,” Michael groans, but it has the effect of breaking the tension, making him huff out a laugh as he nods his head. “Yeah, I got it. There’s no try.” He’s just gotta do this and he knows it’ll turn out fine.

He still can’t help worrying.

”Michael,” Alex calls, ducking out onto the porch. He’s smiling like the sun is shining on him and he’s waving for the both of them to come inside. He looks so happy and Michael isn’t about to ruin that by running away. “Come inside, lunch is ready.”

Valenti claps him on the shoulder, putting his hands on both of them like he’s intending to steer him inside if Michael doesn’t go on his own volition.

”You can do this,” Valenti encourages.

”I can at least try,” Michael admits. “For Alex.”

”For Alex.”

Michael sits in the truck, full of lunch, tea and cookies, still feeling the tightness of Alex’s mother’s embrace as she’d hugged him so tightly to say goodbye, refusing to let him go until he’d relaxed. He hates that he’d tensed, but his experience with the Manes family, outside of Alex, has been resoundingly stressful.

She’d been kind and warm and welcoming. She’d been the complete opposite of Jesse, and he’s starting to understand why she’d run away so early in Alex’s life.

“So, did she…” Michael trails off, hating how small his voice sounds. “Do you think she liked me?”

Alex gives Michael a fond smile. “She did ask when I was going to ask that nice boy to marry me,” is his wry comment. “She’s hard to put off when she knows that I’ve been in love with the same guy for over twelve years, not to mention the part where we live together. As far as she’s concerned, that’s inevitable.”

Michael feels his cheeks go hot, because he’d liked her, too.

It’s not that he’s ever had a mother figure to compare her to, but she’d been sweet and warm with her love, while also having a firmness and a backbone of steel – but then, he supposes you’d have to, in order to leave Jesse Manes, because that takes guts.

”I liked her too,” he mumbles, staring out the window so Alex can’t see the vulnerability on his face. “Do you think we could turn this into a regular thing? I know she doesn’t like coming back to Roswell, but I don’t mind driving out here, if that’s what we’d need to do.”

From the way Alex practically radiates relief and joy, it’s definitely the right thing to say.

”I think we can manage,” he agrees, tugging Michael towards him for a slow kiss that makes

“Come on, let’s hit the road,” Valenti says, interrupting that beautiful moment, hopping in the back of the car, arms piled with leftovers. “I saw a 7-Eleven on the way back and I don’t know about you two, but I’m thinking Big Gulps.”

Okay, thinks Michael. Maybe Valenti has a few decent qualities up his sleeve and his taste in roadside beverages is up there in the plus column.

#thougtsofadyingatheist #malex #malex fic #tumblr prompts #meeting the in-laws #road trip buddies!#roswell new mexico

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neonganymede · 5 years

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Number 22 for mchanzo please? Love u ❤❤❤❤❤❤

Aahhh thank you!!

22. “Choose me.”

Jesse McCree looked aroundhis room and found it bare. Nothing to suggest he’d ever been there. Nothing tosuggest he might come back. Nothing of himself within these grey walls he’d calledhome twice.

He slung his bag over hisshoulder. Paused. Tried to stifle the reluctance brewing in his stomach.

Leaving was for the best.It was a mantra he’d repeated a countless number of times in front of hisbathroom mirror. Leaving was for the best. The more he said it, the less hebelieved it, and the more he wanted to just unpack and stay instead of being a fucking coward—

Jesse took a deep breath. Bestto leave on a high note, anyway. Nothing had happened. Nobody would suspect thereal reason he wanted to leave. And if they did? Maybe he could get out before someonecalled him out on it.

Leaving was for the best.Maybe one of these days, he would believe it.

Jesse left his room, emptyand devoid of any trace he’d been there. Later, if anybody realized he hadn’t beenthere for breakfast or training, then one of them might go check on him. Find nothingbut the faint aroma of tobacco.

Maybe it would be Angie,and she could get all annoyed with the realization he’d been smoking in hisroom. Or maybe Genji, who probably wouldn’t tell anybody for a while; he’dunderstand and give Jesse the opportunity to get a head start.

Probably, though… Hanzowould be the one to check on him. He wouldn’t be there for their morning practiceor for lunch, which both of them attended religiously if they weren’t out on amission. Hanzo would probably go to his room and knock. Wait. Call out for him.Wait.

Hell, maybe Hanzo wouldeven kick down the door. McCree got a little chuckle out of that. Probably not.He’d just ask Athena where McCree was.

And then Athena would tellHanzo that Jesse wasn’t on the base anymore. Left early in the morning, beforethe sun was up. Didn’t even have the decency to fucking say goodbye, just ranoff.

Likea fucking coward.

McCree shoved away thethoughts as he continued down the hallway, careful to keep quiet. The lastthing he needed was somebody hearing him and coming out to see what the noisewas. Then he’d have to explain, and explanations were messy.

He thought about stoppingby some of their drinking spots. The ledge atop the watchpoint, where Hanzoliked to monkey himself up and McCree used the stairs like a normal fuckingperson. The lounge, where Hanzo had fallen asleep on him for the first time.Hell, he even thought about stopping by Hanzo’s room to just stare at the doorlike a fucking creep, but no. He avoided all of those places.

Just made for the door,fully intending on vanishing into the dark cover of morning twilight. He madeit pretty far, too. He was outside, headed for the open road. Ready to leave everythingbehind him (again) and everybody he ever cared about (again) and not look back.

“Going somewhere,gunslinger?”

McCree stiffened. Shit. He turned around to find Hanzo leaningagainst the wall and watching him. Not the Hanzo that everybody was used toseeing, with his hair up and his clothes pristine. No, this was Jesse’s Hanzo, whose hair was free and a little disheveled and who wore sweatpantsand a t-shirt in place of his usual garb. This was the Hanzo that not many knewexisted but which Jesse knew intimately.

This was the Hanzo that he—

“Funny,” continued Hanzoin a tone that suggested he did not find this very funny at all, “I do notrecall you mentioning that you might be leaving. Is there a mission?”

McCree ground his teeth.Fucking Shimadas and their sneakiness. He should’ve known one of them wouldcatch him. He just wished it had been the damn ninja and not the one he’d beenhoping to avoid.

“No,” McCree saidcarefully.

“No?” Hanzo repeated, andthere it was. That signature Hanzo Rage that came out when he got a little angrierthan normal. He likely knew what McCree was up to and didn’t understand it, sothat pissed him off. “Then where would you be going with all of your belongings?”

McCree might as well be bluntabout it. “I’m leavin’, Hanzo. And I ain’t comin’ back.”

Hanzo was quiet for amoment, digesting this. When he spoke, his voice was curt and emotionless, theHanzo that McCree had first met who didn’t want to get attached to anybody andespecially not the cowboy.

“Why?”

“I got my reasons,”answered McCree, not wanting to get into this with him. Maybe with somebodyelse, but not with Hanzo.

Hanzo leveled him with aglare. “Which are?”

Jesse looked at Hanzo andsaw the distress gleaming behind the mask of anger. He deserved an explanation,but what did McCree say? That he couldn’t stay here anymore because just thesight of Hanzo made his stomach queasy? That the sight of Hanzo smile brightenedhis day, even when he was tired and sore after a long mission? That nothingmattered more to him than the evenings they spent together, drinking andtalking about nothing and everything or even just sitting in silence and appreciatingeach other’s company?

That Jesse was so fuckingin love with Hanzo that he was stupid with it?

No. McCree couldn’t sayany of that. Not when it might sour their friendship, even if McCree neverintended on seeing Hanzo ever again. He wanted Hanzo to remember him fondly, ifno other way. As friends.

Jesse wanted to throw up.

He picked the bestbullshit he could come up with, something Hanzo might believe. “Listen, Han, Iain’t one to work with groups—”

“Neither am I,” Hanzo interrupted.“Try again.”

Jesse huffed. “I hatesittin’ in one place all the time—”

“As do I,” Hanzo sneered,a bit triumphant. “I can do this all morning, Jesse.”

“Fine. I got one you ain’t gonna measure up to.” And McCree made hisbiggest mistake: stalking closer to Hanzo, as if proximity might help him gethis point across. “Overwatch ain’t justice. It’s never been justice. Yeah, maybe it started out like that in the beginnin’,but that wasn’t what it ended up bein’. It was all money and politics, and thefuckin’ victims ended up comin’ second.”

“Overwatch is different now,is it not?” Hanzo pointed out, a little quieter than before. He was staring atMcCree’s face with something akin to fear, as if he’d just realized that McCreewas serious about leaving. As if he’d just realized he might never see McCree again, so he had to soak inall of him while he had the chance.

Or maybe that was justwishful thinking on McCree’s part. Probably. He just couldn’t see a scenariothat ended happily for him. In every daydream he’d ever concocted where he toldHanzo the truth, he always ended up being called a fool because who could ever love a man like him? Hanzoprobably didn’t even like men, and ifhe did? McCree was probably at the bottom of his list.

“Yeah, it’s different now, but I know how this’ll go. We won’twe workin’ under the radar for long before somebody catches us, and then they’lleither take us down or build us back up. And if it’s the second one, then Overwatchshould ‘a just stayed dead. We’ll end up bein’ all about money and politics again, and that ain’t justice. Not to me.”Jesse paused to catch his breath. Some of that might actually have been true,which was good for him. Hanzo might earnestly believe it if there was an air ofreality to it.

“So the way I see it, I gota choice to make: do I stick around and see what’ll become of us the secondtime around or do I go out on my own again and make my own kind o’ justice?”

Hanzo’s eyes were dark andstormy, like that quiet moment of intensity before he unleashed hisdragonstrike. McCree held his gaze as he waited for Hanzo buy his bullshit andlet him go, and he tried not to think about how much he would miss this assholearcher. Already, he felt the hole of yearning expanding in his chest, and he wonderedwhat would happen first—if he would get over his feeling for Hanzo or beswallowed by them.

At last, Hanzo reached hisdecision with a quiet huff and a tilt of his chin. McCree didn’t have long tofigure out what he was so frustrated about before Hanzo’s hands were curledinto his serape.

“You have one more choice,”he growled and then pulled McCree in.

His hat fell to the ground,but he didn’t care. His serape was strangling him, but he didn’t care. All hecared about was the hard press of Hanzo’s mouth against his, kissing him withsuch determination that McCree was too stunned to even react. By the time he realized he should do something—at leastkiss the man back, dammit, how long have you been dreaming about this? —Hanzopulled away again, breathless and overcome with emotion.

“Choose me,” Hanzo encouraged, his voice rough and inviting. ”Stay.See this through. And if you do not like the direction the reformed Overwatchis headed, then we will leave together.”

“Together,” Jesse repeated,dumbfounded.

“If you will have me, thatis. I do not wish to presume….” Hanzo’s eyes shifted downward, momentarilyplagued with doubt, and McCree reached up to brush his fingertips along Hanzo’scheek.

“Darlin’,” he said, stillstunned but determined to work through this before Hanzo got the wrong idea. “I’lltake anythin’ you’re willin’ to give me.”

Hanzo looked back up athim, relief etched on his face. “Then we are in agreement? You will stay?”

Jesse thought about all ofhis fake reasons for leaving and the one realreason, whose hands were still tangled in his serape as if to keep himleaving by sheer force. He supposed he really couldn’t leave now, could he? Still, he should probablydraw this out a little bit more, not give away his real motives just yet.

“I dunno,” McCree said,turning away a bit only to be jerked back by Hanzo. “I might be in need of alittle more convincin’.”

And Hanzo’s eyes narrowedknowingly, his lips curling up in a smirk. He began to lean in again, slower nowthat the urgency was gone. “As much as it will take.”

“That’s good,” he mumbledagainst Hanzo’s lips, much more prepared this time. “Cause I’ll need convincin’for a long time.”

#writing prompt #overwatch #mchanzo #angst with a happy ending #gleeyatch

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akajustjessicajones · 5 years

Text

With A Little Bit Of Magic || Sofia, Daisy, & Jessica

summary: sofia helps jessica see daisy. daisy thinks jessica is a hallucination. they have a lot to talk about.

trigger warnings: abuse/violence implications, discussions of murder, death, suicide, violence, FEELINGS

THE MOVIE credits rolled. For a long time, after their conversation -- a conversation she'd never wanted to have, but even she knew was long overdue -- they'd just sat in silence together. But as the final name scrolled past the screen, and the projector flickered out, Jessica turned to her. "Did you mean what you said?" she asked. "About... them not being able to contain your magic. You don't owe me anything, but I -- if it's true, then maybe.... Maybe there's something you can do for me." She bit her lip, holding her breath, doing something she never did. Hoping.

IT HAD been quiet for the last parts of the movie. There was so much more to say, so much to talk about in this ever-evolving conversation about what had happened to them. The things they couldn’t control, the things they couldn’t allow to break them. But they needed time, to think, to process. The last image had faded, and Sofia fiddled with the empty whiskey bottle, not quite ready to part ways with Jessica. “Hm?” Sofia looked towards Jessica, snapping her fingers against the empty bottle. “I can’t imagine that they could, my magic isn’t from this realm --- I could easily portal out of there because,” she shrugged, “it’s hard to explain, but if I can go to another dimension with my magic, I don’t see how a prison would be able to contain my magic. I mean --- if they bound my hands, yeah, I would be in trouble, but they’d have to get me first.” Sofia paused for a moment, brushing the snow that had settled on her own cheeks, “I don’t need to owe you to help you. What do you need, Jess?”

MAGIC WASN'T something she understood -- before she'd known that it was a virus inside Kilgrave, she thought he was magic, and she'd hated it. On basic principle. But despite how up and down things had been between them, she trusted Sofia. They had laid everything out now, and they were still here. Still weathering their storms. "I wouldn't let that happen," she said, swallowing hard, only too aware that it was another promise she couldn't truly keep.

She hesitated a long moment before replying, heart pounding in her throat. "Can you use one of those portals and send me there? To the Raft, to Daisy's cell. I just -- I need to see her again. At least one more time." She didn't know if Daisy would want to come home, if she'd want to be a fugitive the rest of her life, or if maybe... maybe she'd just want to say goodbye. It would be her choice. Jessica just wanted to give her that much. "If it's too much, I get it, but I -- I'd hate myself if I didn't ask. If I didn't at least try."

SOFIA ADJUSTED her position on the roof, listening to Jessica’s promise that she wouldn’t let that happen. “I know,” she said in a whisper. It might not have been a promise that Jessica would be able to keep, and part of Sofia knew that, but she knew Jessica would do her best to protect her. She’d try, and that’s all Sofia could ask for. And Sofia could try as well, to protect herself.

Portal her to the Raft? Sofia looked at Jessica, her mouth falling open slightly, an awkward pause before she said anything, “I could,” she said finally, but those two words came out slowly, too slowly, like the word but was trailing behind the phrase. “It’s not too much,” Sofia said softly, “I just, I can’t create portals to places I haven’t been --- or places that I don’t know where are. Do you know where the Raft is? Or do you have a picture of it?” She hadn’t traveled anywhere with just a picture to guide her, but for Jessica, she’d try.

SHE WASN'T sure what she could do -- she wasn't a fully-fledged SHIELD agent, had barely begun her training. She doubted the guards at the Raft would be all that impressed by a lanyard, and she wouldn't even have that if it became a physical fight. She was just starting this, and already, she was about to jeopradize it. If this went wrong... It wouldn't end well for either of them.

Jessica shook her head. "I don't know where it is, the location's a big secret. I could try hacking into the SHIELD database, get a picture or location that way, but..." She bit her lip, shoved her hands into her pockets to fight of the chill. That's when she felt them. The daisy earrings. She pulled them out, ran her fingers over the little flowers, felt a pang in her chest when she remembered the first time Daisy had given them to her. "What about portaling me to her?" she asked, glancing up at Sofia. She held out her palm, showed her the earrings. "Using these to -- I don't know, establish a connection to her, to Daisy?"

SOFIA’S LIPS formed a hard line with Jessica spoke, not having an exact location could be a problem. Portals were complicated things and even with all the studying she had been doing with magic, nothing quite compared to real use. “That’s a risk,” Sofia finished in a whisper, if Jessica started hacking and sneaking around --- that would only attract suspicion. “And I’m not even sure a picture would be enough.” Looking at the darkened side of the building where the movie had been projected, Sofia let out a small sigh, she could travel between dimensions (in theory), but this was out of her reach.

“To her?” Sofia repeated the words and looked at the earrings in Jessica’s hand. “These were Daisy’s?” Reaching over, Sofia took the earrings from Jessica and rolled them in the palm of her hand for a moment, nodding her head, “I could --- yeah, I could locate her with these, but,” Sofia paused as she glanced at Jessica, “the only spell I know that can do that would… would destroy these.”

THIS WHOLE thing was a risk. But if she got to see Daisy, just one more time, just to have something real to hold onto -- it'd be worth it. She'd risk this thing with SHIELD, she'd risk her own freedom, her own life for that. But she couldn't ask Sofia to do the same. Not when she didn't even fully understand how her powers worked, not after everything Jessica had already put her through. They were being honest with each other now, but there was still a long way to go.

Jessica nodded slowly. "She gave them to me. They're actually comm devices, a -- a way for her to stay in contact with me when I was with Fish," she murmured. She bit her lip, chest constricting when Sofia lifted the miniscule weight from her palm. Even the sight of the earrings in someone else's hand felt wrong, but...

She blinked, forcing herself to keep breathing, no matter how hard it seemed. "Do it," she said finally. "They're just earrings, I'm not -- I'm not sentimental," she choked out, trying to find some humor here, even black humor. Anything to feel like herself. But she didn't exactly know who she was anymore. "It's worth it. If it works, it'll be worth it."

SOFIA THUMBED the earrings in her palm as Jessica explained what they had been for, it was poetic in a way, that the earrings were there to keep Jessica and Daisy connected when Jessica was facing her other demon. And now they were going to use them to reconnect the two. Sofia looked down at her palm, they looked and felt so small but they felt heavy. “Okay,” Sofia nodded her head and curled her finger around the small earrings, blocking them from Jessica’s view. “It’ll work,” she said, glancing at Jessica before taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes.

There was a faint orange glow in her hands as Sofia focused her energy to her palms, as the energy mixed with the earrings --- and they tore apart in her hands, Sofia got a glimpse of Daisy. Alone in her cell --- but it was like she was looking directly at Sofia. She took in a breath like she was struggling with the sight. It looked like there was blood on Daisy’s face, marks from being beaten on her body. Sofia tore herself away from Daisy and looked at the cell she was in, and then opened her eyes. Gasping for air. “I know where she is,” Sofia said finally, opening up her hand to show the earrings had faded into dust.

Standing up, Sofia moved away from the edge of the building and faced the center of the room, tracing a circle in the air with her hand, opening a portal directly into the cell of Daisy Johnson. Looking at Jessica, Sofia’s jaw tightened slightly, “When you’re ready, just... be prepared.”

HER HEART skipped a beat as Sofia's hand curled around the earrings. The stupid, irrational part of her wanted to reach out and snatch them back, because the last time she didn't have those earrings.... She shook her head, and had to turn away, muttering street names under her breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the orange glow, feel the strange heat coming from the spell.

I know where she is. Those words, even said so breathlessly, with that undertone of concern, even with the dust of the earrings blowing away into the wind -- they soothed something inside her. Jessica nodded, and followed Sofia off the ledge, towards the center of the rooftop. She didn't look into the portal yet, just kept her eyes on Sofia for a moment.

"Thank you," she said, simply and sincerely. She placed a hand gently on Sofia's shoulder, the shadow of a touch. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she just didn't have the words for. So she did something she rarely could -- and pulled Sofia into a hug. "If things get ugly while I'm in there, you get yourself out. Okay? You close the portal and get to that bunker." She pulled away with a small smirk. "You can come back for me later if you really want to," she said softly.

She took a breath, closed her eyes, and stepped into the portal. She felt the change instantly. There was no more wind, but it was just as cold. The hum of electricity surrounded her, vibrating through her body. She opened her eyes slowly, let them adjust to the lighting. The cell looked high-tech, but only held the basic amenities. But Jessica wasn't paying attention to any of it. Her entire world tunneled down to one corner, one single person. "Daisy," she breathed. "Daisy, it's me. I'm here."

EVERY SECOND in the raft was one she counted. She found that important to hold onto somehow. She knew she couldn't do it forever, but she found that her mind was pretty good at multi-tasking. She could count the seconds while her mind recounted everything she did wrong, everyone she hurt. It served to help her know that she deserved everything she was experiencing here.

She'd started with Kilgrave, had gone to him first and manipulated him, and had slept with him in the same night. She'd murdered people in a cafe for no reason other than to convince someone to give her things for free. She'd killed countless S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and hurt Coulson. She'd hurt him every way she could. She hurt Jess too, and the only silver lining in that was that at least she didn't hurt her physically. Hell, she'd even gone after Jessica's sister, and nothing could make up for every terrible thing she'd done. No amount of beatings that the guards had put on her could make her feel like she was serving enough penance because, in the end, she knew the truth. No one had controlled her. No one had made her do or say anything. She just snapped. Everything she did was her own fault, and she deserved far worse than to be placed into a cell like this.

She didn't deserve to see the person she loved.

She just walked through a hole in the air, like one of the ones Robbie used to open up when he traveled to Hell. Maybe the beatings had done more damage than Daisy thought they did. Maybe that's where this angel was going to take her. She wasn't like the angels that the nuns told her about. She was scabs and scars and bruises that go away only when a new one shows up. She was the smell of booze, ripped jeans, and a bad attitude to cover up how she's feeling. She was a mess, but she was a mess in the way that Jackson Pollocks are considered masterpieces and in the way that you’re not eating ribs right if you don’t end up getting barbecue sauce all over your face. Was that always what she was? An Angel in disguise?

She was more likely a hallucination. Daisy had seen hallucinations of Jess before, but they were always cruel, trying to break her, but this hallucination seemed softer, more filled with sadness and loss than anger and hatred. She supposed that made sense. Maybe her brain was just trying to keep her sane, making her see the woman she loved. She always ignored her hallucinations, but . . . there was nowhere to go. There was no reason to avoid it, and maybe she could just pretend like this was real, just so she could have a moment of happiness in her new hell.

She gave the apparition a broken smile. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was dry, and the words didn't come out at first. She tried to clear her throat and fell into a coughing fit. She didn't realize there was still blood in her mouth from when they'd beaten her before. She could still taste the iron there too. She should've known there would be blood there since it was all over the rest of her face too. There were bruises all over her, covering her arms and legs and face. Her right eye was swollen with a black eye. Her neck was red and sore from the shock collar zapping her so often. Her wrists were bruised from the cuffs they'd used on her, but it was just all part of the experience, part of her penance that would never be enough. "Hey, Jess." she said shakily. "What's up?"

SHE AND Sofia had finished that bottle -- but one look at Daisy sobered her up instantly.

Jessica thought it would be like looking at her mother. A prison jumpsuit, bags under her eyes, but safe at least. She'd prepared herself to see Daisy in chains and exhausted and worn out from whatever had happened -- but this was something she couldn't have prepared for. The bruises and the black eye and the goddamn shock collar around her neck. Like she was an animal, something rabid and dangerous, something to kick before you put it down. That wasn't right. That's not who her Daisy was.

Fury flared up in her chest, but she pushed it aside. She could figure it out later, try to get different guards put on Daisy's rotation, get the old ones fired (and hopefully not have to kill them to get rid of them, like Dale Holliday). Right now, being angry wouldn't help Daisy. They might only have a little bit of time.

So instead, she walked over slowly, knelt down in front of her. "I missed you," she breathed, because it had been true for so long that she felt like she might burst if she didn't get to say it. "I missed you so much, my Daisy." She paused, biting her lip, inhaling a shaking breath. "Can I -- can I still call you that?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. Daisy was hurt and looked like a shadow of her usual self, but she still looked like her again. Jessica could see in her eyes, eyes that were warm once more. Despite everything, the echoes of that Thing's voice in her head, and the flashes of Trish's wide, panicked eyes as she woke up from nightmare after nightmare begging for pills, despite the cold, industrial cell around them, despite the fact that this might be the last time they ever saw each other -- the world felt a little more straight on its axis. A little steadier beneath her feet.

Jessica lifted a hand, reached towards her, but pulled back at the last second. "I don't want to hurt you," she murmured. "I want to hold you, if that's what you want. I don't know how much time we'll have, I don't know everything that happened -- I just know that I still love you, Daisy. I never stopped. Not for a second."

HER ANGEL or her hallucination was so delicate with her, just like Jessica would've been. Not everything about them was so gentle. They knew so much about each other and knew when it was best to be rough or soft. Jessica always seemed to know what to say, even now, as a hallucination that only served to save her sanity. Every detail on her face was like how she remembered it, which only convinced her more that she was imagining it.

She watched her hallucination move. If she was anything like the ones she'd seen before all of this started, not even touch would convince her that this was real, because those hallucinations had felt real too. She didn't know why they were so strong now. Maybe the sedative the guards had put in her had lasting effects she didn't know about. Maybe she was just going crazy again. Maybe it was finally coming back to her, and that side of her would snap again. She'd hurt people again. Then she really would never get to see her Jessica again, her real Jessica.

Daisy bit her lip. The worst part about this was everything she went through was real. It felt real, so when she was like that, she knew she hadn't missed Jessica. She hadn't missed her until she woke up this morning in bed with him. She felt awful about that fact. She should've missed her sooner. She should've missed her stronger. Maybe she wouldn't have ended up like this if she could've just made herself miss Jessica more. "I miss you too," she told her.

She still missed her. She missed her smile and her laugh. She missed the ripped jeans, and even now she felt like her mind could practically smell the whiskey on this hallucinations lips. She must've just remembered it so well. She missed it so much. She missed the safety of being around her, and it didn't matter that bad things still happened to them. It didn't matter whether she was safe with Jessica or not because she knew she would never really be safe, but she felt safe with her. Even this hallucination made her feel like things were okay, and she was grateful to her fracturing mind for creating such a beautiful image for her.

"You can call me whatever you want," she told her. Jessica was always one to let her choose, and Daisy was the same way, whether she was real or not. She didn't know why Jessica would want to call her that though. After all the things she did, hurting Jess and Coulson and Trish, how could she still want her? Of course, this was a hallucination. She was just saying what she wanted to hear.

When Jessica's hand reached out, Daisy's heart sped up. She'd had hallucinations that were vivid enough to feel like touch was real. It had happened just the other week, but a part of her worried that she wouldn't feel it either, whether it was from numbness or from confirming her belief that this was a hallucination. She nodded, tears filling her eyes at the offer. "Please." She missed Jessica's touch that was all so healing to her, and at least now, she wouldn't have to worry about hurting her. "I love you too, but I- I . . . I did stop," she spoke shamefully, lowering her head. "I didn't feel like I loved you, even though I promised you forever. I'm s- I'm sorry. I love you, but I stopped. I hated you, and I wanted you to hurt. I tried to- to hurt you however I could. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

“I’M RIGHT here,” Jessica assured her. But in a way, she understood. It was like those moments, when they would be kissing but it wouldn’t feel like enough, when they would be so close, entangled in each other, legs and arms and breath all twisted, but they wanted to be even closer. Sometimes, Daisy had been standing right in front of her, had been right there, but Jessica could barely believe it, and that selfish part of her wanted even more than was physically possible. Missing someone who was right in front of you – it was a strange feeling. But she’d felt it most when that Thing was wearing Daisy’s face, spitting venom at her, touching her hand the same way as ever, even as it tried to sever the connection between them.

But it hadn’t.

From the minute they’d gotten together, it seemed like the world had been trying to tear them apart. Fish had chipped away at her soul, and Kilgrave had tried to control her sanity again. But Daisy had gotten her through it, even when they were far apart, even when Jessica was sitting in that cell completely drained and exhausted and ready to give up – she hadn’t. In the end she had wanted to, but she had wanted something else a little bit more.

“I’m here, Daisy. I’m right here,” she promised again and again. “I couldn’t be with you before, and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry it took me so long to find you, but I’m here now. I am,” she whispered, just staring at her girlfriend’s face. “My Daisy,” she breathed, the words like honey on her tongue, god she had missed saying them. Saying them to her, being able to pour sincerity into those two little words to say so much with so little. With everyone else in her life, Sofia, Coulson, Trish – there was a barrier, a wall, a line she couldn’t cross. But with Daisy, she could just be.

Please. That was all it took, one single broken little word. And Jessica wrapped Daisy in her arms, pulling her into her lap, holding her as close as she possibly could. She didn’t care that they were sitting on the cold, concrete floor, or that the forcefield in front of them wouldn’t stop humming. She was holding her Daisy in her arms again and even with so much wrong, that felt right. This little piece of the puzzle was in place right now, and that’s all that mattered.

She guided Daisy’s head to her shoulder, rested her own on top of it. She could feel the tears falling, soaking her shirt, and she was almost grateful for them because they felt so real. Grounding her in the present – though she wasn’t sure Daisy was there with her just yet. “I know,” she said softly. “And I won’ say it’s okay or that it didn’t hurt, because it did. It hurt more than I ever thought possible,” she whispered. One hand stroked through Daisy’s hair, trailing softly down her back, and the other tilted her chin up slowly, gently. She cupped Daisy’s face, thumb tracing along the edges of her black eye. “But I forgive you, Daisy. I’ve never been good at forgiving anyone, but you taught me how. Remember?”

A strangled, strained smile crossed her lips. “The first time I met Fish, when I barged into her office without telling you, without letting you help me – you forgave me for that. You forgave me like it was nothing. You always let me say sorry, even when it hurts you. You’ve given me so much, and I’m no gonna let some bad week and some fear gas take that away. If you still want me, if you want forever, I’m here, Daisy,” she said, leaning forward, planting a gentle, ghost-like kiss to Daisy’s forehead. “I could get you out of here if that’s what you wanted,” she whispered, her eyes desperately searching Daisy’s.

SHE WANTED to believe that. She really did. She missed Jessica terribly. She wanted to just lay with her like they used to, and she hated that her mind could create such a perfect replica of Jessica when it couldn't even make her think she was somewhere better than her. Why couldn't she just picture her at home, watching Lilo and Stitch again with Coulson and May there? If it was giving her this vision, why couldn't she have more, see more? It was a greedy thought, but with all things considered, she knew why. For Daisy, home was in the arms of people like Jessica and Coulson, and it was far easier for her to lay in Jessica's than face Coulson after what she did.

"I wish you were," she admitted. It was a cruel thought, to wish that Jessica was here with her, in this cell, so pulled away from the rest of the world, so cold and unforgiving, but she missed Jessica terribly. In reality, she wouldn't have subjected Jessica to this. She wouldn't have wanted her Jessica to see her like this. For Daisy, she was used to the torture and the pain. Hell, she'd been tortured by one of her best friends before. She'd been tortured by someone who had considered her like a daughter, even though she already had a good steady father figure in Coulson. She wasn't used to people seeing her like this though.

When she'd been tortured in the Framework, it had been different. The Fitz who saw her there wasn't really her Fitz. He didn't care whether she lived or died, and he helped with the torture. May had seen her like that too, but at the time, it didn't seem like that May knew her or even cared about her, and when she did, the way she helped seemed to heal Daisy anyways, meaning that May didn't have to see her like that for long. Even those were different though. She hadn't wanted to stay there, she wanted to help the people she was held captive by, but here? Here was somewhere she belonged. It was somewhere she deserved to be, where she ought to rot for the rest of her miserable life.

"No, it's not your fault. It's never been your fault. I never- I never blamed you for not being with me. It's better that you weren't there. I couldn't hurt you because you weren't there. I'm glad I couldn't. I couldn't live with myself knowing that I did to you what I did to . . . everyone else. It's not your fault," she whispered, as if she were talking to the real Jessica, but it didn't matter that this wasn't real. In the moment, it made Daisy feel slightly better, pretending she could comfort her girlfriend, pretending Jessica would still want her like this after everything she'd done. It was great in theory, but it was hardly likely to happen. "It's mine."

The movement into Jessica's arms was painful. She had more than enough bruises all over her body, and all things considered, a hallucination shouldn't have been able to touch her or hurt her. It wasn't the first time she thought she could feel a hallucination though, so she didn't think much about it. It was good enough that she could feel this close to her. She wondered what the guards who looked over the cameras at the end of the day would think, her just holding onto thin air so tightly, crying over it. She must've looked like a crazy person, but maybe she was one.

She didn't understand how Jessica could forgive her, but she looked into her eyes and saw the truth. "I don't- How can you- after everything I did. . . to you . . . to Dad. . . to- to your sister. I killed- I killed so many people. I don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't. You didn't do anything this bad before, Jess. It was easy to forgive you, but this? What I did? I'm a monster, Jess. You shouldn't forgive me. I can't forgive me."

She wanted so much to have forever with Jess. She wanted to be with her, to love her, but it wasn't fair to Jess. She gave Jess a broken smile and pulled Jessica's fingertips to her lips, pressing a kiss to them. "I would love to get out of here," she breathed slowly, before adding, "with you. I just- I can't do that. I can't make you do that. If you got me out of here, we'd be fugitives. We'd be on the run forever together, and as much as I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with you, I don't want you to have to do that. I don't want it to get to the point where we think we've gotten away or we know they're about to find us. I don't want you to have to watch them shoot me in the head right in front of you."

THOSE WORDS made Jessica pause, mouth falling open. Daisy didn’t think she was really here – thought she was a dream or a hallucination, they had plenty of experiences with both between them. She bit her lip, wondering how she should respond. Would it be cruel, to tell her the truth? Would it be crueler not to? Daisy’s mind was clearly struggling with reality, trying to make it safer to process, but – Jessica had promised never to lie to her.

She didn’t want to start now.

But she didn’t want to hurt her either.

“So, believe I am,” she said finally, stroking a hand down Daisy’s face. “If you want to believe it, then believe I’m here, Daisy.” It was a strange limbo to leave them in, a middle ground she wasn’t entirely comfortable standing on. But it wasn’t about her comfort, not right now. It was about Daisy’s. She deserved it, after everything she’d clearly been through. “You know what Coulson said to me once? He told me that even if there were terrible, horrible voices in my head, there’d always be good ones there too. You’re always in my mind, my Daisy. I can be in yours too,” she whispered, desperation threading through her words, choking her, closing her throat. She could barely breathe, and just looking at Daisy hurt.

But it was real. To her, it was real. More real than a voicemail or a note on her pillow, more real than that Thing standing in front of her. She didn’t mention, when Daisy started talking – rambling really – that she had been hurt. She understood what Daisy was saying, she’d done the same thing after that night with Kilgrave and Fish. Pushed Daisy away to keep her safe. But like Lee had said, it still hurt. They’d hurt each other so much over the past few weeks, intentionally or otherwise. “I don’t think it’s your fault,” she said slowly, so her voice wouldn’t break so much. “And I’m going to prove it. It wasn’t you, it was that gas and this thing that came after, we’re still trying to figure it out, but –” She stopped herself, biting her lip hard. Daisy didn’t need technicalities and plans right now. Jessica just hoped she could give her what she really needed. “But even if it was your fault, I’d still forgive you.”

She had to stop herself from clinging to Daisy, from holding her too tightly. But a part of her was so scared, scared Daisy might slip through her fingers like smoke, scared the Thing might come back, scared it would laugh at her for trying to comfort someone who didn’t care about her. But the Thing was gone, had to be, or they wouldn’t be here. Right? Right. She had to convince herself of that, had to force herself to hold Daisy gently. She had to trust in this, even if she had no answers, no certainties.

Jessica cupped Daisy’s face with an aching softness, careful to avoid her black eye, her cuts, her bruises, so she didn’t cause her more pain. “Because you’re my Daisy,” she said simply. “And I love you. You’d do the same for me, how could I not?” She smiled, and it was a bittersweet expression, but everything sweet in it came from this woman in her arms. “I know you feel that way, and I get it. I really, really do. But I mean it. I forgive you. I’ll forgive you forever, I’ll say it as many times as you need me to.” Kilgrave was a grade-A piece of shit, a psychotic waste of a human being, but those words meant something when they were real. When they weren’t another manipulation. “I don’t think that was you. Not entirely. Maybe some of those feelings were real, and maybe you had a right to be that angry, but I don’t think the person who did those things was the real you. “You’re not a monster, Daisy. You just got lost. And then you found yourself,” she whispered. She paused, just trailing a hand along the side of Daisy’s face, her fingers elated at the chance to touch her again, to really feel her. “I’ll forgive you, even when you can’t forgive yourself. That sounds just like us, don’t you think?”

Daisy pulled her fingertips to her lips, kissed them, and Jessica closed her eyes, just reveling in the sensation. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed it. Daisy’s lips, her touch, her eyes, her presence. Even like this, despite everything that happened, Jessica had missed her. Missed her the way she missed her family every day, the way she missed Stirling, the way she missed everyone who had been taken from her. The world wanted to take Daisy away from her too, but goddammit. Jessica wouldn’t let it.

She closed her eyes, leaned her head back against the wall. “Somehow I knew you’d say that,” she breathed, looking down at Daisy again. “I’d do it for you. I’d leave it all behind. We could run away to, I don’t know, Hong Kong or something. Make new identities. I could be the Johnson this time, and you could be a Jones,” she murmured, stroking a hand through Daisy’s hair, thinking about that date, so long ago now. She inhaled sharply, remembering her mother’s blood on her face, falling over, suddenly lifeless. The blood pooling around her head like a macabre halo. “They’d have to shoot me first,” she said firmly, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to Daisy’s forehead. “But you think you deserve to be here, don’t you?” she whispered, a wave of sadness washing over her. Her hand moved now, traced the outside of the black eye, gingerly, carefully. “You think you deserve all this.”

SHE DIDN'T know what she wanted if she was honest. It was all so complicated. She loved Jessica. She still loved her. She was happy seeing her now. It was comforting and warm. There was some pain in the touch, but it made it feel real. However, she didn't want Jessica to have to see her like this. She could see in her eyes how much seeing her like this hurt Jessica. She didn't want Jessica to have to deal with that, and if Jessica was here, that was Daisy's fault. If Jessica was seen on those camera's, that would be Daisy's fault. She couldn't handle Jessica going through anything else that bad because of her, so she came to the conclusion that she didn't want to believe Jess was there.

"I don't want to hurt you anymore," Daisy stated finally. "If you're here, then I'm hurting you. Seeing me like this will hurt you." She bit her lip, looking down. She thought for a moment again. "But if you're back at home and not really here, I'm still hurting you because I left you. I'm trying to protect you . . . from me, but I know how it hurts that way too. I hurt you no matter what I do, and I don't know which one is the worst."

For a moment, just a fraction of a second, she almost wished she didn't have to make a choice here. At least with being commanded to do things, she didn't have to make hard choices. She just went with what people told her to do, and this choice was hard. This choice hurt. She knew the importance of her choices. She knew how she normally would be thrilled to be given any kind of choice. She should've been grateful for the opportunity to have something that was her own choice, but all she wanted to do was curl up against Jessica and cry.

Maybe it didn't matter if she was real or not. What we feel is reality. She'd said that when she was under Hive's control. Maybe it wasn't exactly true back then. She'd only felt that way because Hive controlled her into feeling a certain way, but what she was feeling now, this love and concern for her Jessica, this comfort of being wrapped up in her arms? It didn't matter if Jessica was real or not, because in this moment, her being here helped.

It felt like she was plucking petals from a daisy just to come to her decision, but she didn't need to do it to know that Jessica loved her. Instead she mentally recited She's real. She's a hallucination. She's real. She's a hallucination. She's real. She's a hallucination. The only problem was that the last petal was split down the middle. She didn't know whether to count that as one or two petals, so she chose them both. For now, in this moment, she could pretend this Jessica was real. Until she was gone, she'd believe she was real. Until that comfort was gone, she'd accept this. "I want to believe you're here," she nodded, holding onto Jessica tightly.

"I know. I was there, just behind the door. I listened." She thought about the week before she decided that killing people was fine, the week before she became a monster and only thought she was a monster. Jessica was one of the good voices. The text messages they'd sent each other had grounded Daisy, reminded her that she was okay and that she was just seeing hallucinations, but it didn't help matters that Jessica was also one of the bad voices too. She was one of the hallucinations telling her what was wrong with her, and why she hated her, had never loved her.

This Jessica in front of her was the opposite of that. It was so accurate to how she thought Jessica really was normally. She wanted her in her mind like this. She wanted to remember her like this, loving and caring and worried about her, understanding everything she did the way only she could. "You're always in there in some way."

Of course Jessica didn't think it was her fault. She was used to people like Kilgrave, who controlled people and made them do horrible things, but this wasn't Kilgrave. She'd joined up with him by her own choice. Her mind had changed, but she couldn't believe anything had influenced it. It was my fault, Jess." Tears welled up in her eyes even more, filling to the brim. "The gas made me scared. It made me see horrible things. It made me hear the people I love abandoning me over and over again. It broke me and stitched me back together repeatedly with lies and deceit, but it never made me do anything. Everything was my choice." The tears broke free and started streaming down her face. "I just- I snapped. It was me."

"I don't want to be forgiven, Jess. I don't deserve that, not from you. After what I did, you shouldn't forgive me. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve you. You deserve so much more than this." She buried her face in Jessica's chest, letting her tears flow freely. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Her ranting was stopped when she found Jessica's hands holding her face, and she stared into those beautiful eyes. She found those words so much more soothing. Kilgrave had been possessive of her. He had murdered a bellhop just for inviting her to a party, and she'd loved that back then. She hated it now, was terrified of that kind of possessiveness, but Jessica was protective, not possessive. Daisy loved the sound of Jess calling her her Daisy. Her expression softened, and she traced the edge of Jessica's jaw with her thumb, believing in the reality of her presence. "My Jessica. I love you too."

She bit her lip as Jessica continued on, ranting about how it wasn't her, despite how much Daisy knew it was. "But I'm just as bad as he is. Worse even. I killed people and enjoyed it, and practically nothing held me back. You could never forgive him. I just don't understand. How can you forgive me when I've done so much worse than him? You love me, and I get that. I just- I want you to have the best life you can. If I could even get out of here- If S.H.I.E.L.D. released me for whatever reason, do you think- would being with me be the best life for you?"

"And if they shot you, then I'd have to watch you bleed out before they killed me instead. I don't want that either. You can't die because of me like that. I couldn't take it, even if it only lasted a few-"

Daisy yelped as the collar around her neck activated, sending a shock throughout her body. She just hoped it didn't go through Jess too. At least it wouldn't hit Jessica as powerfully as it did to her though if it did at all. Daisy was left breathless and hunched over on the floor as she tried to get her bearings.

"I . . . I do . . . deserve it," she said between heavy breaths. She pulled away. "But you need to go," she told her, knowing that the shock was just a sign of them being on their way. "If you are real, and they find you here, . . . I can't take it if you get in trouble because of me." She breathed in deeply again, finally letting her air catch up to her. "I'll always love you." She leaned forward slowly, so Jessica could pull away if she wanted to. She kissed her right cheek, then her left cheek, then her forehead, then her chin, and finally her lips, where she lingered for just a moment longer. "I'm sorry for hurting you."

JESSICA WAS quiet. This was something Daisy needed to work out for herself, something Jessica couldn’t help her with. Anything she said would just make things more confusing for her, and she already seemed so fragile. It did hurt, seeing Daisy like this. It hurt her more than she could possibly say, almost more than she could bear. But she would take this pain and live with it, if it meant seeing her again. She would’ve put herself through almost anything for that privilege again.

In that long, heavy silence, nothing but the sounds of the other prisoners reaching them, Jessica wondered if she had made the right choice. In coming here. It didn’t feel much like she was helping Daisy right now. She’d been selfish in choosing this. Selfish when she asked Sofia to use her powers, to risk detection when she was already in trouble. Selfish to cause Daisy this much pain, this stress, just because Jessica wanted one more chance to hold her.

But she remembered those texts. When the fear gas was just stirring up bad memories and making people panic – not changing them completely. Daisy had asked her for a goodbye. And even if Jessica wasn’t the one leaving this time, she still wanted to give her that option. Maybe Daisy wanted that, too. Maybe that’s why she finally broke the silence, and decided to believe Jessica was real.

“Then I’m here,” Jessica whispered. She wanted Daisy to know her choices were powerful, even if it was just about what to believe. Because so much had been out of her control for too long, still was. Between that fear toxin and whatever the goddamn parasite was, combined with Kilgrave – because Jessica had seen him try not to control people. He couldn’t function without giving orders, and the only reason he’d been so careful with her in her childhood home was so she wouldn’t catch onto his weakness. She doubted, whatever that Thing said, that it’d gone that much better with the two of them.

The two of them. She pushed that thought away. It was nauseating, to say the least. She didn’t blame Daisy for what happened, couldn’t even begin to. But it was hard to forget I’ve already shown him a lot of things. He’s already in love with me. You come after us and I’ll kill you. The threat hadn’t hurt nearly as much as that word, as us being applied to Kilgrave and Daisy, like they were a couple, a pair. But Jessica didn’t want to think about that now. She wanted to focus on this moment. The present was always better than the past, especially when she was sharing it with Daisy. She made the present actually feel like a goddamn gift.

“Eavesdropping isn’t nice,” she teased lightly. “This is coming from a professional eavesdropper by the way,” she added. Was it wrong of her, to reach for a thread of normalcy? Was it wrong of her to want to see Daisy smile, at least one more time? In her dreams, she’d seen it. The past few weeks, that was all she’d dreamed about. Daisy’s hands and Daisy’s eyes and Daisy’s smile. The warmth of it. They’d felt like nightmares when she woke up because they were so far away, and now – now she was right here, in Jessica’s arms, and she still felt miles away. Like Jessica hadn’t quite gotten her back yet. There was still so much out of their control. “For once that doesn’t scare me,” she murmured, her hand moving so carefully, so slowly as she traced Daisy’s face. Her mom had taught her that, when Phil was a baby. It always lulled him to sleep and she’d said it was her way of memorizing him. Jessica wanted to memorize Daisy, wanted to hold onto every image of her, even the agonizing ones. “I’m always so scared of screwing up other people’s lives, but you… You’re always the exception. I want you to remember me, just like I remember you.”

Because the thought of Daisy, the real Daisy, her Daisy and Coulson’s Daisy, that was the thought that kept her clinging to life when she was so tired she could barely stand. That was the thought that made her step back from rooftop ledges, and stay out of Coulson’s medicine cabinet (though she couldn’t say the same for his liquor cabinet). It was the thought that kept her fighting, even after that Thing tried so hard to defeat her. It hadn’t. And it wouldn’t. And she wouldn’t let it defeat Daisy either. “I’m here for you. However you need me, I’m here,” she whispered, voice thick with emotion.

There was more to it than the gas, more to Daisy’s fears, more to this whole, complicated situation – but now wasn’t the time for it. Jessica made a living telling the truth, giving people the answers they didn’t really want (and she had a feeling part of Daisy wanted to believe this was her fault, because at least if you blamed yourself, you had some control), but that had taught her about timing. “I don’t believe that,” she said, shaking her head. “I know you need to, right now at least. And I won’t stop you,” she said, swallowing hard. It did little to dislodge the lump in her throat. “But you can’t stop me, either Daisy. You can’t stop me from forgiving you or from loving you, nothing can.” Her other arm pulled Daisy a little closer, and the hand that had traced her face now moved to her hair, stroking it so softly, more softly than Jessica thought she was capable of. Daisy had taught her she was capable of so much. “You can say it as many times as you need to,” she whispered. “But I’m pretty sure we agreed not to talk about what we deserve, right?” She kissed the top of Daisy’s head again, couldn’t help herself. “Because if we did, I’d have to tell you you’re right. I don’t deserve you, not even close. But I want to. I want you, just as you are. You’re all the ‘more’ I’ve ever wanted, Daisy.”

Those words, repeated back to her, her name said in that way that was never possessive and only ever made her feel free to be, they washed over her like a wave. Daisy loved her. She was still my Jessica, and Daisy was still my Daisy. “We’ll make it through this,” she whispered, rocking her slowly back and forth. “We already have. We still love each other, and that’s what matters.”

She paused just a moment, at the mention of Kilgrave. Her body stiffened involuntarily at the name, but she forced herself to keep breathing. “Kilgrave’s never felt sorry about anything he’s done. He’s never taken responsibility for a goddamn thing in his life. And the one time he came close, he killed his mother anyway,” she said firmly, her eyes searching for Daisy’s, hoping she would hear this, that she would understand the difference. “You’re nothing like him, Daisy. You feel so much for other people. Too much sometimes, and it sucks and it hurts, and I know that. But you are a hero, Daisy. You’re a hero to me, no matter what you’ve done or what comes next. You told me once that no matter happened, no matter how much shit the world threw at us, we’d get through it together. And that – that’s the best life I can imagine,” she choked out, breathless and mind swirling. “A life where neither of us have to face it alone.”

She opened her mouth to say something, even before Daisy finished speaking, but then she felt the jolt course through them both. The collar vibrated against her chest, and it was strong enough to make her muscles tense, even secondhand. She stared at Daisy, eyes wide with shock and concern, but she could hear the footsteps approaching. “I’ll be back,” she promised. “Daisy, I’m coming back, okay? I don’t know when, but I love you, and I’m not leaving you here to rot alone.”

There was so much more she wanted to say, but Daisy was kissing her, and she let herself get lost in the sensation, let the tingle of Daisy’s lips against her own suck all the air out of her lungs and all the words off her tongue. She didn’t need to say them anyway – her Daisy would hear them regardless. “I love you,” she said, standing up slowly, moving towards the portal still shining in the corner of the cell. She stopped just at the entrance of it. “And I’m not saying goodbye, because this – this isn’t goodbye. I’m coming back for you,” she said firmly, and only then did she step through.

She landed on her hands and knees on the other side, felt the portal close behind her. Her head was swimming and her heart was pounding in her chest so hard she wouldn’t have been surprised to find bruises. Just like Daisy’s.

For a long moment she was silent, apart from the heaving breaths, while she tried to will her stomach to settle, tried to bottle up all this feeling inside her hollow places. Finally, she looked up at Sofia. “Thank you,” she said simply.

#aka discords #sofia #daisy #sofia: a little bit of magic #daisy: a little bit of magic

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unastute · 5 years

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FEBRUARY 13 , 1982

jessica day is born in portland , oregon to joan and bob day

1987 AGE FIVE

jess’ parents get divorced

1992 AGE TEN

meets cece parekh , and the two instantly become best friends

1998 AGE SIXTEEN

jess goes on one date with george jiang, a guy from her reading club. before they date anymore , he sleeps with ashley berkman under the bleachers while jess watches. she doesn’t date anyone else through high school because of it

2000 AGE EIGHTEEN

attends ucla for education , minoring in theater studies. she is in many productions , but never the lead. originally , she was going to be a theatre teacher , but had a change of heart and became an english teacher instead

2003 AGE TWENTY ONE

incredibly drunk , jess cuts and dies her hair blonde. she wears a lot of hats to try and hide that fact , but eventually she owns it. after the hair grows out , she dies it back dark

2004 AGE TWENTY TWO

jess graduates with her degree , moving back home for a few months to get her start as a teacher cece has already been living in los angels for years now , and asks jess to be her roommate. jess agrees and packs up to move to la jess meets a firefighter named teddy , and he becomes the first person she’s intimate with in any regard since high school jess meets berkley at an arts and crafts fair , and the two date for a few months. jess ends the relationship because she doesn’t like him , but the two remain friends

2006 AGE TWENTY FOUR

jess meets spencer wolterstroff and the two start an intense relationship , as jess is madly in love with him against spencer’s wishes , jess goes back to school for her masters in education

2008 AGE TWENTY SIX

jess and cece plan to move , having already signed a lease , but cece gets a modeling job in paris , forcing jess to move in with spencer as she has no where else to go

2010 AGE TWENTY EIGHT

unknown to jess , spencer starts to cheat on her with various women he brings home from work.

2011 AGE TWENTY NINE

jess wins a free trip to new york , but the city sucks in her opinion so she leaves early jess decides to surprise spencer instead of telling him she’s coming home early , which leads her to catching him cheating. she immediately grabs a few of her things and leaves while looking for a new apartment , jess meets nick , schmidt , and coach and decides to move in with them coach meets a girl named malia and leaves the loft. winston comes back from latfia where he was playing pro basketball , and moves into the loft jess has a crush on a teacher at her school named paul , and they start to date after a thanksgiving fiasco a month later , jess and paul break up because jess feels she is moving too fast with him

2012 AGE THIRTY

jess falls for one of her student’s parents , a rich man named russell jess finds out schmidt and cece have been sleeping together behind her back. she eventually figures out that the reason cece didn’t tell her is because cece likes schmidt but didn’t want to admit it to herself jess realizes she and russell have no passion , which is what she wants. so she breaks it off with him worried she did the wrong thing by dumping russell , jess calls up paul instead and they sleep together , but paul has a girlfriend. jess ends up helping him propose to his girlfriend nick is moving out of the loft , but the gang spends the night in the desert and jess inadvertently convinces him not to jess gets laid off from her teaching job due to budget cuts jess meets sam at the bar and he thinks she’s his online dating match. they end up having sex , and even when sam finds out she lied , they still continue their sex only relationship after realizing she’s been in a rut in finding a job , jess starts to tutor in order to pay rent jess realizes she actually has feelings for sam , but when she tells him he turns her away , wanting to keep it just physical. they break off their relationship jess can’t pay rent so she looks for a new job , eventually finding one teaching creative writing to adults while attending christmas parties , sam seeks out jess and tells her he wants to have a relationship with her. jess is hesitant at first , but she agrees and they start dating

2013 AGE THIRTY ONE

after a game of true american , where it ended with nick jumping on a ledge to avoid kissing jess , nick meets jess in the hallway in the middle of the night and kisses her jess tells sam about the kiss , and he dumps her. things are very awkward with nick and jess while on pain meds , jess tells nick that she wants to have sex with him. he assumes it’s the pills , but later she admits it again while sober jess and nick makeout a couple of times when the guys aren’t around. most of it is spontaneous and instigated by both parties nick asks jess out on a date , but it keeps getting interrupted. eventually they decide it won’t work between them , so they establish rules where they can’t get close to one another after talking about how they lost their virginity , jess and nick sleep together spontaneously jess is offered a job at coolidge middle school and after a day she is given the job at cece’s wedding , nick and jess debate on whether they should actually be a couple , eventually coming to the decision to call it off. but a few hours later , jess finds nick again and begs him to give them a shot. the two get in a car and drive off together jess and nick spend a week in mexico and come back officially dating in the midst of a bad break up with cece , schmidt moves out of the loft coach moves back into the loft after malia dumps him jess has to spend a week in the hospital after eating a poisonous fish to make nick feel better

2014 AGE THIRTY TWO

jess and cece get invited to a party at prince’s house where nick tells her he loves her. after a panic attack and some time alone with prince , jess is finally able to say it back jess’ sister abby comes to town and causes chaos , forcing jess and nick to move into nick’s room together , which drives both of them nuts schmidt moves back into the loft after he spends all of his money on jess’ sister jess becomes vice principle of coolidge with help from coach after a week of deliberation and a long time of feeling that something was wrong , jess and nick break up the gang goes on a cruise nick and jess booked when they were together , and they get stuck in the room for three days , making international news over the course of the summer , nick and jess sleep together numerous times , unsure about if their breakup was the best thing , plus the fact that they still love each other. eventually , they say no more and decide they can only be friends jess’ dad comes to town with his new girlfriend , ashley berkman. he eventually proposes to ashley , and the two become engaged with jess’ help at school , jess meets the new science teacher ryan whom she instantly has a crush on at a teaching conference , jess finally admits to ryan how she feels and he tells her he feels the same. however , they cannot date due to the the fact that jess is his boss. instead , they sneak around in secret

2015 AGE THIRTY THREE

jess and ryan come out to the teachers that they are dating , and it does not go well. ryan is forced to find a new job ryan’s job hunt takes him back to england. when he cancels on jess at her dad’s wedding , jess breaks up with him coach moves to new york with his girlfriend may , leaving the loft jess is selected for jury duty. it’s a capital case , and jess has to be sequestered for two months. while she’s gone , the guys rent out jess’ room to reagan , who becomes nick’s new crush

2016 AGE THIRTY FOUR

jess comes back from jury duty while she was gone , the school board appointed a new principal at jess’ school. jess hates her , as she makes jess do all the work while the new principal gets all the credit. ultimately , jess quits at a trial period for a new job at banyon canyon , jess’ boss is dating sam. in a series of events , jess’ boss dumps sam and jess gets the job. sam takes out a restraining order on jess , and after a few days and some talking , sam tells jess he only took it out because he still likes jess and he was worried he would do something stupid if he didn’t put up a physical wall. sam drops the restraining order and the two start dating again at sam’s birthday party , one of his old friends shows up and tells jess that she is in love with sam and has been since college. she even wrote sam a letter explaining all her feelings. she gives the letter to jess , who decided sam should know about his friends’ feelings for him. she leaves them be , and sam returns to her and says that whatever time he and his friend might have had was gone now , and he only wanted to be with jess the night before cece’s wedding , jess believes sam is going to propose to her , but he actually dumps her for his friend. jess told sam she couldn’t marry him , and when asked why , she couldn’t give a reason. sam said it was because she still was in love with nick during the wedding , jess helps reagan and nick finally get together , while at the same time realizing she’s still in love with nick. even when nick comes back from his trip with reagan , jess still is in love with him , so she stays single and really throws herself into making her friends happy

2017 AGE THIRTY FIVE

reagan moves into the loft jess helps winston propose to his girlfriend aly on valentines day. she realizes she’s pissed at nick for hurting her , even though it’s unintentional jess’ boss goes to open her own school at sea , and jess accepts the promotion to principal of banyon canyon jess starts spending a lot of time with reagan and nick and realizes she’s the girlfriend stand in for both of them. they take her to socalyacon , where jess realizes she can’t be around them and get over her feelings for nick at the same time. she bolts and leaves , going back to oregon when she hears about nick and reagan breaking up , she goes to tell nick how she feels , only to over hear him tell others it was never going to work between them. unable to stand it any longer , jess moves out of the loft and out on her own , to be away from nick

#this is the basis for all of my verses #long post tw

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