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hoshigray · 3 months

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𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 | satoru gojō

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: Is it possible to wish to be in the embrace of someone who makes you want to throw them off a cliff? You seem to think so, and the same goes for Gojo. But alas, good things always come to an end, even when not meant to be...

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Gojo x fem/afab! reader - explicit content; minors DNI - modern + college AU - frenemies to lovers + mutual pining - Gojo and reader are at least age 20 - implied fwb relationship - catching/awakening feelings - oral (m! receiving) - ball massaging + sucking - sex in a shared room; college dorms (alone) - cowgirl position on a chair - breast fondling + sucking + nipple play - protected sex (psa: wrap it up, or get tf up) - pet names (baby, cutie, pretty, princess) - heavy depiction of a blowjob - cameos: Haibara and Ijichi - fluff + angst; misunderstandings - humor bc i'm [not] funny.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 7.6k

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: second part, let's goooo!! i loved ur support and comments from the first story, so hope y'all are excited for this part :DDD and ty so so so MUCH for 5.5k like??? i kiss you on cheek, every single on of you, hehehe~

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“If you’re not gonna help, then leave my dorm!”

“Ehhhh, hell no! It’s cold as fuck outside; you want me to freeze to death?”

“They’re…still going at it.”

“Yeah…give it a minute, and we’ll just go to the library without them?”

It’s coming down to the last week of January; university students are finally settling in with their new schedules and getting used to the groove of the spring semester. Or some run around trying to keep up with the new semesters and the change of weather already getting on people’s nerves, wanting nothing more than spring to come quickly.

Three weeks in, and you already have stuff to do, one of them being an argumentative presentation assigned by Professor Yaga in your Contemporary Issues class. You and three other people are tasked to find sources for a topic issue you find interesting and then present a discussion-based presentation on two sides of the topic (two people in favor and two people against).

Unfortunately, the groups were to be randomly assigned. Luckily, two friends you knew in the class, Haibara and Ijichi, were picked to work alongside you! However, the bad part was that another person you knew was assigned to work with you, and he happens to be the guy getting on your last nerves right now, sitting on your couch while clicking through the television channels with the remote.

Your roommates weren’t home today. The club fair was occurring at the quad, so Mei Mei and Utahime had to go out and represent their clubs for the afternoon. Shoko is having an intense study session with Geto for an exam on the first of February, so they’re at the library now.

That leaves you alone at your dorm, using this as a perfect opportunity to invite your group over to work on the project.

“You can freeze your nuts off and become the next Jack Frost for all I care; if you’re not going to do your part of the work, get out!”

Well, minus you yelling at your partner, who clicks his teeth before turning to you. His round sunglasses shone from the light reflected from the living room windows.

Satoru Gojo was your number one nemesis within these campus grounds; this was a known fact to everyone, especially the other group members who nervously examined you two bicker. Being in the same space as him is enough to make you wish you could pull your hair out or put him in the nastiest headlock you could do. Worse, being assigned to the same group as him for your project almost made you want to rip your ears off.

But you had to suck it up; at least you were the first group to start a presentation. Better now than worry about it later, right?

“Pssh, fine, I’ll get up and—Oh! Wait, you guys have Digimon on Hulu? Ahhh, sick!”

Nevertheless, you can’t say that when your supposed partner acts like a child glued to your TV screen instead of doing the work he promised to do. You grit your teeth with a twitching brow, “Why you…”

Across from the common area was the kitchen, where Haibara and Ijichi sat at the dining table. The two sophomores could do nothing but feel the tension between you and Gojo grow with every passing second, suffocating the younger duo. Haibara eyes Ijichi from across the table and whispers, “Wanna make a run for it now?”

The black-haired second-year didn’t reply, only a hurried nod before the two grabbed their coats and stuffed their laptops back into their backpacks. The sound of their zippers alerts your ears, turning to them to question, “Huh? Where are you two going?”

Haibara takes it upon himself to deliver a half-lie as he zips up his jacket. “On second thought, Ijichi and I are thinking of taking the shuttle to the library to work instead.”

Huh? The library? Were they leaving because of the belligerence between you and Gojo? God, you hoped not. “Wait, you guys don’t have to do that. I already made you guys walk all this way here; it’d be rough to have you leave for somewhere else…”

Ijichi comes with the assist after putting the sling of his messenger bag around his shoulder. “It’s okay, Y/n. We found material from the library we could use as sources, so we’re heading up there to take some notes while they’re there.”

“Yup!” Haibara exclaims in agreement, and the two walk past you to put on their shoes by the front door. “Maybe you guys can find sources of your own while we’re gone, and then we can converse and share what we found when we come back. Sounds good?”

“I suppose so…” you couldn’t shake the feeling that they were leaving to avoid being in the same room as you and Gojo. The guilt is hard to endure since you didn’t mean to make the younger boys uncomfortable. “See you guys, then.”

“Cya!” And with that, the door closes on their way out, leaving you and Gojo alone in your apartment.

Well, this is just great; you’ve driven your group members and friends away and are now stuck with the nuisance of a partner who still keeps his attention on the television. It takes everything in your power not to pop a vein. But with one calm breath, you steady yourself and stand tall.

You walk in front of the TV, blocking it from Gojo’s view. The white-haired boy throws his hands up in exasperation, but you couldn’t care less. “What’s the big idea?” He questions you as if he has a right to at this moment.

You cross your arms across your chest with narrow eyes. “Haibara and Ijichi just left.”

“Uhh, yeah, I heard the door,” he maneuvers his body to try and see the children’s show blocked by your figure. “Doesn’t have to do with me—“

“It does have to do with you.” You interrupt him, taking two steps and bending to stare him down. Your face is a foot away from his. “You’re supposed to be here to work with Haibara on the ’no’ part of the argument while me and Ijichi do our part. You’ve only been here for thirty minutes, and the only thing you’ve done successfully is take off your shoes at the door and read your manga books on the couch.

Gojo chuckles – oh, how you hated his laugh – as he puts his hands behind his head, spreading his long legs from their crossed form. “You heard them, no? They’re going to research on their own and then come back. Besides, you know I’m not one to start stuff right away. I’m a procrastinator, remember?”

“You’re annoying; that’s what you are.” You straighten up with a heavy sigh. God, I wish Utahime and Shoko were here. They’d help me out with this white garbage…

“Ahhh, lighten up, Y/n. It’s not like the presentation is on Monday; we got until Friday to come up with everything.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of that, smartass. And you’re right: I do know you. And I know you tend to do things at the last fucking minute. But not this time!” You watch him try to put his feet up on the coffee table, and you quickly intervene by kicking them off.

“Tch. Look, you knew what you were getting into being partnered with me. And relax; those two said they’ll be back to discuss the material later. They already left – nothing I can do about it.”

Your hands rest at your hips, tapping your foot with visible frustration. “Oh? And I wonder why they left in the first place, Gojo. Mind telling me how?”

He quirks up a brow with a smug grin — a telling sign that you’d get ticked off with whatever he’s about to say. “I don’t know, Y/n. Why not ask the nagging control freak talking to me right now, huh? Maybe their short height and angry temper are affecting the mood of those around them to be miserable like them.”

You almost did it — your hands nearly gave into your intrusive thoughts and were about to lunge at the snow-haired guy’s neck to wring around like a rag doll. But you played it off with a clap, rubbing the palms together to distract your temporary violent thoughts.

You sucked your teeth and turned on your heel. “Forget it. I’m gonna go take a nap.”

He scoffs, “Good, maybe your tiny brain needs it to calm down.”

“Choke and die, Gojo!” You say down the hall, already at the door of your shared bedroom. Before slamming the door shut, Gojo’s patronizing laughter can be heard to your dismay. With gritted teeth, you march to your bed to throw yourself on the mattress.

“Ughhh. That Satoru Gojo,” you curse his name under your breath as if he’d hear you through the walls. “So unserious…”

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

To be quite honest with himself, Gojo doesn’t necessarily hate you.

The white-haired boy lies on his side on Utahime’s bed, watching you nap. He did knock on the door – believe him, he did. He even gave you the good old ten-second rule, waiting for your response. But then you didn’t, which gave him the initiative to waltz in and see you in your slumber.

You slept so peacefully; your face at peace, and your faint snores were the only things his ears picked up on. It was as if your little nagging show from earlier was hard to comprehend when seeing your tranquil state in front of him. It used to be rare to see you like this. Keywords: used to be.

For the past two to three weeks, your relationship with Gojo has become more…intimate. Ever since he took your first kiss and drew your virgin curtains, the two of you have gotten a little closer than before — both platonically and physically. Something that Gojo never thought he’d experience with you, his tiny, cute frenemy.

Gojo has known you since freshman year; you were two in the same enrichment group to prepare you to transition into college life. Personally, he wasn’t much for the program; he found it a waste of time, a mandatory prerequisite that he felt he didn’t need. He’s all about experience, wanting nothing more than to get on with his day, go to classes, hang with friends, and repeat.

“Hello, my name is Y/n. It��s nice to meet you all!”

And then came you, the person sitting across from him at the round table your group would always meet at. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t enamored by you the second he saw you. Gojo rarely finds someone who could easily pull his eyes to them — not saying the girls who’d usually crowd and admire him weren’t pretty. There was something about you that kept him wanting to know more – to engage more – about you.

One thing he knew from you was that you carried your character with pride. Your achievements, your personality, your kindness, and your mannerisms — all of which were displayed elegantly and were a breath of fresh air to look at. You stood out to him more than all the other kids in the group, his eyes always finding a way to steer from the professor’s advice to your alluring, listening face.

Another thing Gojo liked about you was that you weren’t afraid to stand your ground, especially when discussing with your peers or him. Sure, you were always respectful and would respect other people’s arguments. But, God, the way you said things so constructed and nuanced, it had the tall other glued to you whenever you spoke.

He’s not going to lie; he’ll admit that he’d try to tick you off and get you to get a little angry with him when it came to arguing. He couldn’t help it. He just liked the thought of you layering out of your poised appearance to the point you’d glare at him whenever you saw him in the halls. And it had him giddy knowing he’s the one that made you angry because you looked cute.

And that was the other thing he really liked about you. The more you two interacted, argued, hung out with his friends, or attended classes together, the more Gojo’s fascination for you turned into that of a school-boy crush. He wouldn’t admit to anyone of this (minus Geto and Shoko if his life depended on it) because it certainly wasn’t something to be known. He was okay with what you two had right now, being the friend who loves to push your buttons to see you nag at him.

That was until you two started sleeping together. Because holy fuck, the past weeks you two have been sneaking time to have each other’s bodies close made Gojo’s mind go crazy. So fucking crazy like the feeling of you on him is borderline addicting. Your whiny cries calling out to him when he scrapes your sweet spots, your nails scrape on his chest, your half-lidded eyes when you look at him, or how you whisper his name only for him to hear.

This was the kind of relationship you two brewed, a secret thing only between you two. And Gojo was satisfied keeping it like this because it was what you wanted. No need to flaunt it around; it was no one’s business. Besides, he likes having you to himself, seeing a side of you that only he could imagine and experience.

The sensations of your body under his touch, the various tunes of your voice, and the beauty exhibited in your gaze. It was all addicting. You were addicting.

“Who told you to lie on my roommate’s bed? You know she’ll kill you if she ever saw you.”

It was so addicting that he didn’t even notice you awake until you spoke to him, the erotic memories of you clouding his brain dissipating at the indication of your voice. He smirks, “Oh, I’ll be fine; not like she can hurt me with her tiny self.”

You’re too groggy to roll your eyes, sighing as you turn to your side to face him from across the room. “How long was I out for?”

“Almost an hour,” he replies, switching to sit criss-cross on Utahime’s bed. “I got bored watching TV and knocked.”

“How long have you been in here?”

“Maybe twenty minutes?”

“Just watching me sleep?”

“Yeah.”

You let out a scoff, shaking your head. “Weirdo.”

He snickers at you for recognizing his silliness. “Whaaat? There’s not much to do aside from looking at you. I got bored of the TV.”

“What about your manga?”

“Got bored of that, too.”

“Anyone on your socials that you’d wanna talk to? Girls? Friends? Your teammates?”

“Mmm, nah, none I’d wanna talk to right now.”

Your brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you mean ‘right now’? You make it seem like I’m keeping you from interacting with your outside life. If you’re bored, talk with whoever you want. Maybe bother Geto…No, nevermind, he’d probably be annoyed since he’s studying.”

Gojo examines you, silently removing himself from your roommate’s bed and treading towards yours. He takes off his sunglasses and places them on top of your dresser before sitting on his knees on the floor. He rests his hands and chin on the edge of your bed, his sky-blue eyes locked in with yours. God, you were so beautiful to look at.

“I meant that I don’t want to talk to anybody.” Now that he’s closer to you, his voice dials to a whisper. “Not when I got you here to myself.”

He notices your brows drawing upward at the sentence. “To yourself?”

“Mhmm,” he hums, bringing a forefinger to trace your brow. A sensual touch not to startle you. “Just you and me.”

You give him a look as if you think he’s trying to pull something. “Don’t tell me you were making me mad at you earlier just so Haibara and Ijichi could leave, and I’d be stuck with you.”

His smile broadens with every word, his dimples out to see. “No, although I hate that I didn’t think of that myself.” His hand goes to your cheek for his thumb to stroke gently. “Would it have been a bad thing if I did?”

You don’t reply, only placing your hand on his. Your eyes are still on his blue orbs, and – you don’t know this because Gojo has the perfect view of you – the light from the window made them shine charmingly as it highlighted your face.

“No…I don’t think so,” you murmur, gaze gradually venturing down to his lips. “I like being around you…Satoru.”

He heard his name leave your lips, an invitation to what he wants to do, his eyes fixated on your lips before closing them and drawing in closer. “Me too…”

The kiss was soft and gentle like he always starts with, waiting for you to give him the okay to kiss you again. And when you meekly lick his bottom lip, he gives in to your request and claims your lips again.

Your moans were so sweet to his ears — his favorite thing to hear — especially when he becomes a little devilish and sucks on your tongue to make you whimper a little louder, turning him on even more. It serves as the perfect distraction for him to snake a hand into your shirt, his hand already making itself home and cupping your breast in your bra.

You break the kiss with a gasp, and massages to your mound make your breath shaky. “Mmmah…you sneaky pervert,” you name-call him sweetly.

“Can’t blame me; I just know that you like to have your tits played with.” Gojo sneers, tweaking your nipple to hear you gasp again. “Hey, remember you said you’d suck me off next time?”

“Huh?” The question threw you off before you could fall deeper into a euphoric haze.

“Don’t ‘huh’ me, you promised!” He whines to you like a hurt puppy. “After I ate you out for twenty minutes straight last time, can I just have your mouth on my dick once?”

“I never told you to eat me out for twenty minutes!”

“You crying and telling me not to stop said otherwise!” He stands his argument, even if you warn him with a glare. “Just suck it, please. I haven’t felt your mouth in a while.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. You didn’t expect to deal with his childish tendencies, but it is Gojo we’re talking about. You sigh, “…Fine, Satoru.” And then the white-headed boy beamed at the confirmation, immediately standing up and heading to your desk. It was an abrupt change of pace for a second until he brought your desk chair out.

With glee, Gojo flings his jeans and boxers with ease, his half-hard cock out for you to see. He sits on your chair with spread legs, “I’m ready~.”

You roll your eyes, yet the smile on your face sneaks without you knowing while leaving your bed and crouching between his legs. “You’re such a big baby sometimes…”

Your hand finds its way to the body of his dick, gliding it up and down to feel the veins under your palm and fingertips. Gojo hums to your cold fingers, hitching his breath when you tease him with a blow of air.

Your free hand comes to his balls, massaging his testicles in a way that has his leg jerk. He tries to fight it, but the squirm on his legs says otherwise. “Hahhh, fuck…quit it…”

“Hmm? What, you don’t like it when I tease you?” You peer up at him with a smug grin before using your tongue to lick on the glans slowly, and he covers his mouth before a gasp comes out after lapping on his frenulum. “But when you do it to me, it’s not a problem, huh?”

“Mmmph, shiit, Y/n—Ohhh…!” Another jolt of the hips after you lick and kiss one of his balls, teasing the skin with a kiss and tiny chews that would have him choke on his breath. “Jesus, fuck! Y/n, baby, you’re driving me crazy….Aishhh!!

“Oh, really?” God, you were such a fucking tease. But he fucking loved that so much. “What should I do?” You ask him before sucking on his balls again, and a hand comes to your shoulder to grip.

“Mmmm…Blow me off, princess,” shivers crawl up his spine as you place kisses from the base of his cock towards the tip. “Please, I wanna feel you…”

You giggle at his reply, finally taking in his cockhead to your pretty lips and sighing through your nose as you hollow your cheeks to take in more of him.

Gojo sighs at your licks and sucks on his girth, his erection becoming accommodated to your oral cavity wonderfully. You unhurriedly prompt yourself to take in more of him until your lips reach his pubes, your throat now full of him, and the warmness of your gummy walls makes him squirm more.

Bobbing your head at a moderate pace, you suck him off to that of a pleasurable cadence. You still use your hands to stroke him, Gojo melting to your touch even more. He throws his head back when you attack his tip again with the onslaught of licks and laps, the hand on his balls roughly kneading them jerks him to moan aloud.

Fuck, it feels so fucking good having you suck him off like this. How your tongue moved up and down on him was so dangerous, prompting him to place a hand on your head for support. As if that would help, you don’t show him mercy when you suck him harder and faster. The noises coming from your mouth sounded so erotic and pornographic, the heat on his face brewing out more.

“—Khhmm, fuck, man, I can’t…Ahhh! Y/n, I’m gonna cum if you keep licking it like that. Stop, st—Ahhaaa!!”

But like he said before – you’re a tease (if not worse than him). You remove Gojo’s dick from your mouth and throat at once, the groan he exerts fueling the fire in your body. You stand to withdraw your shirt, bra, and panties to the ground, knowing Gojo’s watching every move. “Don’t get mad at me; I know how much you wanna cum inside.”

You pull out the condom from the pocket of your skirt, placing the rubber on his cock after removing it from the wrapper. He couldn’t help but laugh, “Seems like you’re more of a pervert than me if you had that ready while those two were here earlier.”

“Shut up,” you playfully kiss him with a sneaky bite to his bottom lip. Then, you mount and align your cunt on his dick, the glans kissing your wet labia. “Hmmm, fuck…”

“Relax, cutie,” he kisses you on the cheek while his hands fondle your breasts.

You slowly descend your slit onto him, the tip of his cock pushing into the entrance of your vagina. A couple of exhales and inhales keep you steady when inserting him into you, not letting the pain distract you from the task at hand. And the both of you moan in unison when it makes it in, your hips leisurely coming down on him until your ass rests on his thighs.

You grind on him with the roll of your hips, evoking choked intakes of air from him as a hand goes to your ass with vigor. His face to your chest while the other hand plays with one mound. His lips found a nipple to pop into his mouth to suck on.

With a slow pace, you rock your hips onto him. Your legs bent for your feet to be on his knees, the chair solid enough to withstand you bouncing on Gojo’s dick with repetition.

“Hoohhh, ohhhh, mmmm,” your hums are expressed in tunes. The curve of his cock is so fucking good, scraping your insides with precision. You couldn’t help but increase the speed just a little bit.

Gojo keeps sucking on your nipple; the grazes of his teeth and pushing the bud up to the roof of his mouth only fuels more quivers to travel down your bouncing figure. Both of his hands now under your skirt to feel the flesh of your ass under his hungry grasp. He kneads your asscheeks with every thrust to your chasm, and your shrieks get louder by the second.

“—Mmmph! Shit, shit, you feel so good, pretty,” he finally lets go of your hardened nipple, burying his face to your chest. “So fucking good for me…fuhuuuucck!

You could feel your cunt contract around him; every graze to your sensitive spots prompted your walls to grip around him. He hisses, looking up to see your expression as you ride him out. Fuck, you looked so good on top of him like this. He’ll add this position to the list of things to do again with you.

You peer down to see that Gojo is staring at you, and you quickly bring a hand to cover his eyes. “—Ahhahhn, d-don’t look at me like that! Yer soo embarrassing…!”

He only chuckles at your shy demeanor, especially during this. But he humors you, not fighting your makeshift blind for him to see you wholly. He’s seen it all already — felt it all, too. And he could never get enough.

“Ooooh, Satoruuu—Nnaaahh!” He loves how you say his name, your hand traveling to his hair to grab in tuffs. “Oh, fuck, ‘toruuu, I’m gonna cummm…!”

“—Hnngh! Yeah, baby?” Oh, he knows. The way you’re grinding to and fro on his pelvis tells him so. “Go ahead, princess. Clench on me and ride it out.”

And with that, your hips go to an erratic pace that has the both of you holding for dear life. The squeeze of your inner walls clenching on him almost makes him choke on his spit, the nails of his fingertips forming crescents on your skin. And you scream at it, slamming your ass onto him as you both climb up to orgasm.

Within seconds, it hits the both of you like a train. This had to be Gojo’s favorite part of the entire thing, experiencing having your folds clamp and flutter around him as you cry for him. It took everything in his power not to come with you because he wants to have you on him a little longer. You just felt too good to let go — too addicted to your body to be done with one round.

When the contractions subside while your slurred howls get quieter, Gojo gives you a few minutes to let your body be free from the aftershocks. He knows your body is extra sensitive now, rubbing circles on your back and placing chaste kisses on your clavicle. You hum under his lips, letting the wave of your crescendo exude out from you quietly.

However, since you wanted to be such a tease, why not be a tease back? At least, that’s what Gojo thought before he threw your cunt another snap of the hips, his cock jabbing into your delicate walls that haven’t recovered yet. A sharp cry comes from your puffy lips, the hand covering Gojo’s eyes finally freeing him to see you.

He grins with hooded azure eyes, “Sorry, cutie, but I didn’t get to finish. Wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t get to have fun of my own, right?”

You chew on your lip with trenched brows before bringing your face to his. “Don’t you get carried away like last time, Satoru.”

“No promises, princess~” he sings to your ear before humming into your lips.

As mentioned before, Gojo doesn’t hate you — he just hates that he can’t fully express liking you.

But having you on top of him like this, in his embrace, is a nice change of pace he’ll happily get used to.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

“Okay, everyone, class dismissed! Thank you for your time, and see you all on Friday.”

Professor Naga closes up the last class for today, and the students all get up from the seats of their elevated rows to pack up and leave. The clock is ten minutes before seven o’clock, the winter darkness already claiming the sky with a sheet of night. Students are either famished and heading to the dining hall for food, going straight to their dorms or homes, or staying behind for last-minute conversations.

Gojo was one of the latter, deciding to stay behind to chat with the group for a bit. After packing his backpack and putting on his coat, he slings from the table to jump to the row below him, where you were talking with Haibara and Ijichi.

You watch his stunt, ready to lecture, “Jesus, Gojo, what’s all that for? You could’ve just walked around.”

“Ehhhh, why would I do that? That’s so lame.” He comes and bends close to you enough to slang his arm around your shoulders.

But you click your teeth and try to maneuver away from his tall figure. “You’re lame,” you mutter under your breath.

However, Gojo’s ears perked with furrowed brows. “What did you say?”

“You heard me, you lame white furby!” You repeat yourself with a huff and the snow-haired student gawks at your brazenness.

The two of you argue again; students passing by silently exit the class, others stand and watch, and Professor Yaga can only sigh at yet another altercation between you two.

However, it quickly dissipates when Haibara laughs from his seat. “You two, there’s never a dull moment.”

You and Gojo blink at the dark brunette before removing Gojo’s hand from your shoulders. “Hmph, it’s not like it’s my fault; he’s the one who starts it.”

“Oh, what could I possibly do to make Y/n so upset with me this time?” He pushes up his sunglasses, snickering at the scowl you send him.

Ichiji, being the passive second-year he is, meekly changes the topic from the row below you three. “On some brighter news, at least we did well on the presentation.”

“That’s right!” Haibara happily agrees with the statement, leaning against the chair with his hands behind his head. “Professor Yaga seemed really pleased with our arguments; I don’t think he intervened even once. Plus, he said many good things about how we handled the topic. Nice one, team!”

The raven-haired one hums at the other’s exclamation. “I think most of it goes to how Y/n and Gojo bounced off each other’s arguments. How you two pulled up examples from the articles yet remained dignified with your viewpoints was cool to witness. I even saw some students be engaged with the conversation, many amazed with how Y/n refuted Gojo’s arguments elegantly and respectfully.”

But most of all, what the two sophomores wanted to mention was that there was no yelling. To them, the professor, and all the students of this class, you and Gojo presented your presentation without a single tone of malice, no pointless teasing, no name-calling, nothing! It was a civil conversation between two opposing sides. To everyone’s surprise — and thankful stars — today was a success.

You chuckle nervously at the praise. “Oh, come on, you two, don’t let me and Gojo take all the credit. You guys did your part. Especially you, Ichiji; you were an exceptional help for my side and finding sources I could build off from.”

Gojo, on the other hand, rolls his eyes. “Psssh, don’t butter them up like that; without us, they would’ve failed this presentation big time. No offense.” He was forced to say that when you called him by his last name and hit him with your elbow.

None taken, the two younger friends say to themselves unbeknownst to each other.

The tall one continues, “Besides, you were the one who did most of the work. I slacked off until the last minute when you whipped me into shape.” Gojo brings his hand on top of your head for a pat. The action surprised you enough to flinch a bit. “Nice work like always, Y/n.”

Were the stars aligned differently, or did Gojo just compliment you? It certainly took you aback, especially the two others who silently kept their observation to themselves.

You could only look at his complacent look for a few seconds before you realized the warmth of your cheeks became stronger. Averting your eyes, you remove his hand from your head. “Thanks, Gojo…” you express gratitude. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”

A cheeky smile, his dimples prominent to blind you. “Awww, would you two look at that? They’re complimenting me, too~” Another bump to the chest has him cackling like a child, and you shake your head with rolled eyes.

The two younger students observe the scene before Haibara forcibly stretches and yawns to catch the two’s attention. “Man, I’m so hungry; I skipped lunch to prepare for this presentation. Me and Ijichi are gonna meet up with Nanami at the dining hall. You guys wanna come?”

You instantly beam at the proposal; who are you to refuse a dinner with your friends? “Sure! I’d love to…Oh! Wait, let me use the restroom and fill my water bottle.”

You rummage through your backpack for your water bottle before exiting the classroom. The boys watch you descend from row after row, and Gojo says, “Don’t take too long; I’ll convince them to leave without you.”

“Hmph, go ahead and try! They invited me; I don’t know who told you to invite yourself.” You stick your tongue out at him before opening and closing the door behind you.

Gojo watches you with a smile still plastered on his face for a few seconds before Ijichi makes a tiny cough to catch his attention, the sunglasses-wearing junior turning to look back down to the other two. He notes the albeit cheesy-smiling faces they harbor, and he lifts a brow. “The hell are you two smiling for?”

The raven-haired sophomore squeaks at the sudden firm tone, “N–Nothing!”

“Pfft, oh come on, Kiyo; let’s not act like we didn’t see what we just saw.”

Gojo catches the nuance of Haibara’s comment. “Saw what?”

“You’re over here talking about our faces, but you’re the one who’s smiling at Y/n as they leave the door?” The brunette sophomore sends a wink to his junior, whose face doesn’t change at the comment.

“And your point is?”

“Well, it seems — to me, at least — there might be something going on with you and Y/n?”

Gojo was prepared for that, opening his mouth to interject quickly. However, the dark-haired other beat him to the punch. “Now that you mention it, Gojo and Y/n have been kind of…stable? There's still the usual arguments, but those haven't happened as much since last week…”

“Right!?” Haibara points at Ijichi with exclamation, making the other second-year flinch. “For some reason, things seem to be a little quieter with the two of them now, not to mention them hanging out way more often. Everyone’s been talking about it; even Geto and Shoko asked if Gojo had done anything that made Y/n passive?”

“I asked Nanami about it on Monday; he thinks maybe Y/n finally knocked some sense into Gojo’s childish brain to have him be so civil to engage without yelling their head off.”

“Pffthaha, I wouldn’t go that far. Y/n did just kick him in the shin yesterday for scaring them from behind.”

“Ahh, yes, well, that was deserved.”

“You two realize I’m still standing right the fuck here, right?” No, they hadn’t because the two discerned the twitch of Gojo’s brow after conversing about the tall, white-haired boy.

“But it’s true!”

Another voice enters the set, making Gojo raise his head, and the other two turn to their left. It was some girl and her friend. Gojo knew of her; she sat next to him during class. Again, he knew of her, meaning she had no significance to his knowledge.

And yet, she speaks to the three boys. “You and Y/n have gotten a lot more close these past weeks compared to previous semesters—“

“Real close, too!” Their friend adds on from behind. “It’s as if you two are like a couple.”

“So…Are you two….a thing?”

Gojo could tell from a mile away what this was. Obviously, the first girl has a thing for him — he can see the anxiousness from the twiddle of her thumbs and avoidant eye contact. Although he wasn’t interested, he couldn’t even answer the question the way he wanted. What the hell could he say: that you two are in a secret relationship? He knows you’d have his grave ready before he could finish that confession.

And he can’t say the two of you are in any relationship either; it’s not what you would’ve told them. To everyone else, you and Gojo are friends who would preferably be caught dead rather than lying in bed together. So, might as well keep that facade up.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” he starts with the push of his sunglasses. “Y/n is a pretty good friend, and I’d like to keep it at that.”

Haibara and Ijichi turn from Gojo to look at each other and shrug. Before turning back, something caught their eye that caused the two sophomores’ skin to turn white.

Ijichi tries to prevent Gojo from speaking further. “G-Gojo—“

However, the tall one doesn’t listen. “I mean, sure, they got a nice personality and are independent…Kinda pretty, too, not gonna lie. But they’re not really my type. I mean, have you seen them? Just a little person who likes to find trivial stuff to yell at me over. Angry at the world around them, I’d say.“

“Go. Jo.” Haibara says the junior’s name through gritted teeth, bringing his hand up by his neck and drawing an imaginary horizontal line back and forth — a gesture for Gojo to not say anymore. But unfortunately, the sign wasn’t seen, and the words kept pouring out.

“And to be honest, can you imagine? Me and Y/n, a couple? Jesus Christ, that would be fucking exhausting to deal with, especially with someone so boring and too uncute like them. I’ve seen prettier, been with better. I feel sorry for the poor bastard who does end up with them—“

“SATORU GOJO!”

Now — that sudden burst of yell from a loud, masculine voice — that was what got Gojo’s attention. It’s what got the attention of everyone else in the room. The snow-haired student jerks to look at the professor standing at the front, the older man with a deep frown. “What?

The professor doesn’t answer him. Instead, he points to the left of him with his chin with a huff. With common sense, Gojo turns behind him to see where the older man points. And at that moment, he felt his very being drop to the soles of his feet. Haibara and Ijichi took a slow breath in unison at the immediate tension.

Behind him stood you, a lone figure holding their water bottle within three arm’s length away from the group. But that was sufficient enough for you to have heard everything said.

Breathing suddenly felt impossible for Gojo; his entire body was stiff under your gaze. His shades could hide his eyes, but he wasn’t sure it could shield the instant shame that slapped him across the face from you.

And that was another thing: the look you harbored was indecipherable — the true definition of disengagement. There were no widened eyes, quivering lips, or shaky hands. You stood plainly and looked as though you were detached from the entire situation. And that was what scared him the most.

This was strike one.

He dared not move when you began walking up, and your eyes then shifted to ignore his presence. “Hey, Yu,” the brunette straightened his posture at the use of the first name. “I think I’ll have to decline on that dinner offer. I’m a little tired and have a paper I need to work on…Maybe next time?”

“Uhh, yeah, sure, no problem.” He answers with a sweat.

Wait a second. Gojo tries to call for you, “Y/n—“

“Ijichi,” but you immediately shut him down and directed your attention to the other sophomore friend as you put on your coat and stuffed your water bottle back into your bag. “Be sure to submit the presentation template and sources to the course site before the end of the day, please.”

“U–Uhh, already done, Y/n.” He squeaks while reassuring.

Wait, please. The tall one tries again, “Wait, Y/n—“

“Good.” You sling your backpack on, refusing to look at the person trying to talk to you. “Well, I’ll be seeing you, then.” And with that, you turn on your heel and head down the row to leave.

No, wait, stop— “Y/n, wait!” This was strike two.

Gojo doesn’t hesitate to call out to you. At that moment, he follows you to the class steps where you were a row down left from the door. He grabs your hand without thinking, the size of your palm captured by his slender fingers. He knew it was a risky move, but he had to — he had to get you to talk with him right now, if not ever. Because the latter is something he isn’t ready for, something he didn’t think would be a possibility.

And yet, he will learn this lesson of being prepared for the impossible when you rapidly turn to him. Strike three.

SLAP!

Have you ever seen someone get smacked in the face so hard that their sunglasses come off? The remaining two girls who witnessed it know for sure now. Haibara and Ijichi won’t admit to it as they immediately turn to the other side of the room when they saw your hand move. But please believe they winced at the sound of the impact. The same goes for Professor Yaga, who was too stunned to speak, yet it was a valid outcome.

Gojo didn’t move a single limb, allowing the stinging feeling on his cheek to course through his facial muscles. His eyes were glued to the carpeted ground; he knew that’s where they were supposed to be. And you snatched your hand away from his grasp, leaving his fingers to suffer in forced loneliness.

“You…you think it’s all fun and games to say stuff like that when I turn my back for a few minutes, huh?” He can see your hand palpitate from his peripheral; the anger depicted alone was enough to interpret. And the tremble in your voice? It felt like an arrow to his being. “…Look at me.”

He’d be a fool to have you repeat yourself; he has lost that right to toy with you now. With a slow inhale, Gojo rotates his head at you, azure eyes tracking up your figure to your face. And when it lands at that destination, his heart is shot down.

Tears stream down vexed, watery eyes. Your brows furrowed, and your bottom lip chewed in a terrible attempt to stop it from quivering. The rise and fall of your shoulders as you moderate your breathing, trying so hard not to let your temper dwell into a deeper phase of ugly. It was bad enough you’re crying in public, in front of your peers, your teacher — and it was because of him.

“From this day forward,” you fight your sniffles to say your statement as clearly as possible. “Don’t you ever talk to me, Satoru Gojo. Enjoy your life without something as boring as me.”

And with that, you dismiss yourself from him and the class altogether, the room silent even after the slam of the door closed. No one says anything, too shocked from the event to utter a letter.

The silence aids the ringing in Gojo’s ears, his breathing still having trouble maintaining a balanced front. The cheek you slapped burned with pain; he’s sure the skin is as red as a cherry.

Oh, fuck.

He brings a hand to his face, his body fighting the trembling. The ringing in his ears worsens, along with the pounding in his head that beats like a drum. His eyes stuck to the ground below him, choosing to focus on something inanimate and not living.

Fuck, fuck, fuck—

All he could think of in this time and place was you. Memories flashing right before him, of you and only you. He can hear the way you say his name, both in vexation and in sweet tunes. Your smiles, your frowns, your huffs, your whispers. When your eyebrows scrunch whenever you express worry for him, how you’re never afraid to stand up against him when making a point, the smile that’s been blinding him for many days and nights — the smile he wouldn’t mind seeing for eternity.

All those memories were one stab to his heart after another. And every time a recollection ended, a flash of your crying face would return to haunt him. Tears that weren’t meant to be there but were, and warm feelings you expressed with him were gone the moment he saw your eyes void of feelings for him. At least, that’s what he saw.

He hurt you. That was the only revelation that haunted him where he stood, making his voice falter from confidence. It was a revelation he never meant to bring about. And now that it exists and he sees the damage, nothing would be better for him now than the ground beneath him swallowing him whole.

“What…the fuck…”

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androxys · 5 months

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Task Force What? An Incomplete (Yet Still Very Long) Guide to Some of the DCU’s Government Groups [Part 3]

If you’re a glutton for punishment like me, or if something in the first two parts seemed exciting and you want to dive in more, here are a variety of suggestions for further reading. While obviously incomplete, hopefully you find something in here you like! This section also doubles as (some of) my sources cited, if you’re into that.

If you just want a TL;DR recommendation, personally, I would say read Suicide Squad (1987) and Checkmate (2006) for a great sampling of DC’s world of spies and politics.

I say it every time, but really, thank you to my editors and beta readers who helped make this happen. I owe y'all one.

Part 1: Organization Descriptions and Histories

Part 2: Timeline

Part 3: Reading Suggestions

Suicide Squad

For the Suicide Squad, you’re in luck, because there are three titles just about them! Suicide Squad (1987) is the first and, in my opinion, the best. It ran for 66 issues and was revived in 2010 for a 67th issue to tie in with the Blackest Night event. This establishes Amanda Waller’s character and details how she put the Suicide Squad together. The entire series would be published in a series of eight books, published 2011-2019.

If you want to read the Janus Directive crossover, mentioned several times here, you’re in luck! It was collected in 2016 as Book 4 of the series reprinting all of SS ‘87. However, if you want to read it in singles, you can do that as such:

Checkmate (1988) #15

Suicide Squad (1987) #27

Checkmate (1988) #16

Suicide Squad (1987) #28

Checkmate (1988) # 17

Manhunter (1988) #14

Firestorm (1982) #86

Suicide Squad (1987) #29

Checkmate (1988) #18

Suicide Squad (1987) #30

Captain Atom (1987) #30

After SS ‘87 ended, their next main book would be Suicide Squad (2001). This series would spin out of the Our Worlds At War crossover, and is set during the time period when Lex Luthor is the U.S. President and Amanda Waller is the Director of Metahuman Affairs. It is collected as Suicide Squad: Casualties of War, published in 2021. This one has much less Waller in it, and is only loosely connected in the final issues to anything that came before it.

The Squad’s last titular series would be Suicide Squad (2007). This book is set during Amanda Waller’s time in Checkmate, and details the Squad’s involvement in Operation: Salvation Run. It was collected in 2008 as Suicide Squad: From the Ashes. Lots of past Squad members return for this one. If this run really grabs you, you can also read Salvation Run (2008). It was collected under the same name in 2008.

Checkmate

Checkmate has had two primary runs in the post-Crisis, New Earth continuity. The first is Checkmate (1988), which covers the Harry Stein era of Checkmate. It ran for 33 issues, with the Janus Directive crossover happening roughly halfway through. This run follows from Checkmate’s first appearance in Action Comics (1938) #598, also in 1988.

Checkmate pops up a few times during the Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive comic arcs. These arcs are too long for me to detail them all out here, but they were both collected in 2014 as self-titular books. For Checkmate specific issues, check out Detective Comics (1937) #768-777. This arc deals with David Said working as a Knight for Checkmate, and the organization’s recruitment of Sasha Bordeaux. If you want to see Said working as King, that’s in Gotham Knights (1999) #37-40.

Checkmate would receive its major revamp in 2005, with Maxwell Lord as King. This saga is chronicled in Countdown to Infinite Crisis (2005) #1, The OMAC Project (2005) #1-6, and Infinite Crisis Special: The OMAC Project (2005) #1.

After the events of The OMAC Project and Infinite Crisis, Checkmate would be rechartered as a U.N. organization and receive a new self-titled ongoing series. Checkmate (2006) would run for 31 issues. This series would crossover with Outsiders (2003) with the story CheckOut, which would run

Checkmate (2006) #13

Outsiders (2003) #47

Checkmate (2006) #14

Outsiders (2003) #48

Checkmate (2006) #15

Outsiders (2003) #49

Checkmate (2005) #1-25 is collected, including the CheckOut crossover, in Checkmate by Greg Rucka Books 1 and 2, published in 2017 and 2018, respectively. #26-31 is collected in Checkmate: Chimera published 2009.

Cadmus

Okay, I’m going to cheat a bit here. Before Crisis happened, Jack Kirby created the DNA Project in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (1937) #135. You can read that in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby published 2019. A lot of this stayed on after Crisis, and it’s Kirby, so that’s fun.

In New Earth, if you want to read about Cadmus, I sort of have to recommend The Death and Return of Superman story arc. The thing is, that story is giant, and I can’t list all the Cadmus stuff individually. If you’re interested, DC reprinted the entire arc over four books in 2016. These are The Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend, Reign of the Supermen, and The Return of Superman. This chronicles Cadmus’ response to Superman’s death and the subsequent debut of Superboy. If you’re interested specifically in Superboy’s first appearance escaping Cadmus, that’s in Adventures of Superman (1987) #500.

The Battle for Metropolis and Fall of Metropolis feature Cadmus’ clone virus and its subsequent fallout:

Action Comics (1938) #699

Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #34

Superman (1987) #90

Adventures of Superman (1987) #513

Action Comics (1938) #700

Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #35

Superman (1987) #91

Adventures of Superman (1987) #514

Action Comics (1938) #701

Cadmus continues to pop up through Superboy (1994), which is unfortunately generally uncollected. The first ten issues, as well as the Zero Hour #0 special, were collected in 2018 as Superboy: Trouble in Paradise. You can see Superboy suffering from the clone plague a bit in there, which is a nice bit of continuity, though the series doe not officially crossover.

A.P.E.S.

This group exclusively shows up in the pages of Young Justice (1998), which ran for 56 issues. The entire run is collected in five books, published 2017-2020.

Department of Extranormal Operations

The DEO first shows up in Batman (1940) #550, which is also Cameron Chase’s first appearance. This issue serves as a sort of “backdoor pilot” to Chase (1998), which ran for 9 regular issues and a DC One Million tie-in. This series dealt with Chase’s adventures as an agent of the DEO. Cameron Chase and Director Bones would later become major supporting characters in Manhunter (2004).

Evidence of the DEO’s research camps, orphanages, and training groups can be found in various titles. Notably, Young Justice (1998), Relative Heroes (2000), and Titans (1999).

Wonder Woman’s adventures as Diana Prince, agent of the Department of Metahuman Affairs are chronicled in Wonder Woman (2006). The DMA is heavily involved in the “Amazons Attack” storyline that runs #6-13, but be forewarned, that arc is not exactly… loved… by Wonder Woman fans. The story “Who Is Wonder Woman,” which runs #1-5 is good, and Gail Simone’s acclaimed run starts at #14. Make of that information what you will.

Spyral

As mentioned above, Spyral has a bit of a funny publication history, debuting in the New Earth continuity, but then being largely fleshed out in the post-Flashpoint continuity that directly follows from the pre-Flashpoint timeline.

Spyral first appears in Batman Incorporated (2011) #4. The group would continue to appear through Batman Incorporated (2012). Spyral features prominently in Grayson (2014), in which Dick Grayson is forced to give up the Nightwing identity and becomes an agent of Spyral throughout the comic’s twenty issue run, concluding in Nightwing: Rebirth (2016) #1.

#dc comics #amanda waller #sasha bordeaux #suicide squad #checkmate #meta #my writing #chit chat

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mrsq8geek · 2 months

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Ramadan Challenge 2024, Day 4

Day 4: Ramadan is the month of the qur'an. What is an ayah from the Qur'an that has changed your view of things or impacted you deeply (this year)?

وَمَن يَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُۥ مَخْرَجًۭا (٢) And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make a way out for them, وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُۥٓ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بَـٰلِغُ أَمْرِهِۦ ۚ قَدْ جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدْرًۭا (٣) and provide for them from sources they could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He ˹alone˺ is sufficient for them. Certainly Allah achieves His Will. Allah has already set a destiny for everything.

— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran Surah Al-Talaq aya 2-3

This isn't from this year, it's actually from April 2013. I was going through such a hard time and completely losing hope in everything. It was one of the few times in my life I actually felt ungrateful to god because I couldn't see the point of everything I was going through. I felt embarrassed for being ungrateful as soon as I felt it, because clearly I was doing better than a lot of people. I was just lost and couldn't think what to do next. So I said whatever dua came to mind for guidance, just prayed from the heart because I felt helpless and powerless in my situation. This was the aya that got me through an incredibly dark time, a crucial fork in the road when I really needed courage to speak up for myself or risk suffering potentially devastating consequences for the rest of my life.

I still keep the ajr in mind for my daily tasks, even if I don't specifically refer to this aya in particular in daily life. But it's always there for me to fall back on.

Diary for today:

Writing this before I go do the final preparation for futoor. Today the hunger pangs are working together with PMS cramps. I can't even cough without feeling it. The PMS headache and lower back pain aren't helping either. I have the privilege of being able to be kind to myself today: since I'm too physically weak for much, I mostly slept, then when I woke up, did less than usual. I have that option and the rest will allow me to recover my strength inshallah.

I saw that the Oscars are trending on tumblr these past couple of days. Listen, I understand celebrating our website-wide certified holiday, the Ides of March, but y'all really said let's not talk about the Oscars and then did. And you know what? I get it. Unless you're the one in the situation, you won't be able to keep on that one note, because you've got a life outside of it.

Maintenance is hard work. These fights are marathons, not sprints, although the sprints definitely help, too! I'm wondering to wear for Eid even as I hold my breath over the inevitable atrocities they're planning for Palestine's Eid. I just hope that even if people don't turn up for Palestine every day, enough of them do for some change to take place.

Daily click as much a reminder for myself.

Day 1 | Day 3 | Day 5

#ramadanchallenge2024 #notetaeker #I haven't thought of that aya in a long time actually #It's been such a long time that I nearly forgot that extremely dark time #I am in a much better place now #You can live under tough circumstances and still be happy #and that's better than the alternative #where I was living in better circumstances but wanted to die rather than have things forced on me #alhamdulillah #alhamdulliah #alhamdulilah

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sofia-amebka · 1 year

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Y'all know the "It took me five minutes to do the task I'd been postponing for six months" meme? This autumn semester in university two lamps in my dormitory room started to fade, one went out in November, and the other (and last) one finally blacked out last Monday. The whole semester I couldn't put myself together to make a request for a change even though those two lamps are the only sources of light in my room. So last Monday, when I lost them both, I finally made a request, and then I went home for a one-week holiday, thinking one week would be enough for them. And y'know what? They repaired it Wednesday. Took them just two days to replace the lamps. It's ridiculous how it took me three and a half months with bad light in a room to deal with the problem in just two days.

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xpao-bearx · 2 years

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NSFW UNDER THE CUT!!! 18+ only, minors please DNI 🔞

《Original Post HERE》

《EDIT: Updated Post HERE》

My Fourth Kinktober 2021 Prompt: MORNING SEX

Fandom: Haikyu!!

Pairing/s: Tetsuro Kuroo x Shoyo Hinata x Lev Haiba

On an early morning during the Tokyo training camp, Lev accidentally discovers a titillating secret shared between Kuroo and Hinata that whets his appetite for the tiny giant...

NOTES: As I wrote this, it's finally the last day of October 2021 and when I posted this it's midnight of November 1 (so it technically still counts as Kinktober). I hope to those who celebrate Halloween, you had a very happy and safe one~!! 👻 Anyhoe, as stated this is the fourth prompt on the Kinktober list that I'm doing and it's also the final one I'm able to write. As much as I'd fooken L O V E to write the rest of them, sadly I just don't have enough time since October's clearly over ;-; BUT DON'T FRET!!! I DO hopefully plan on writing the other prompts at *some* point, most likely in a much shorter kinda bonus style type of fics if that makes any sense. And please keep a lookout cuz I will eventually be editing this post and my other oneshots with the link to all the Hinata harem prompts I wrote so y'all have easy access to read 'em plus keep in mind about any other possible updates on my blog if you're interested! 😄 But enough rambling, here's the latest and final story featuring our fave rooster daddy and the dorky lion with our lovable ball of sunshine~ \(♡o♡)/ I feel like Lev has more of a spotlight in this story and I may have been rushing to finish this, but it's okay! I also read a ✨spahcy✨ HQ doujin before that I think helped inspire the plot of this story a lil bit, but unfortunately I can't remember its title or the source :'(

The early morning breeze was chilly and biting, Lev's skin breaking out in goosebumps even as he wore the warmest hoodie he owned. His ragged breaths came out in visible puffs, his heart racing a mile a minute as he jogged.

From beyond the horizon, he could make out the sun peeking out just barely. Teasing him, making him crave the sweet relief only the heat could provide him as he internally wished over and over again for the great big ball of fire to just rise already.

If it were up to him, Lev wouldn't even be awake at this ungodly hour. But Kuroo was a resolute and, at times, merciless captain. It was no secret that Lev was new and he still had much to learn about volleyball, but was it really necessary for him to be constantly picked on by his own team?

And now, as decreed by his oh so fantastic captain, Lev was required to arise at 6:00 a.m. everyday for the whole duration of the Tokyo training camp and run a lap or two around the entire perimeter of the grounds until 6:30 a.m.

It was just SO unfair! How come everyone else still got to sleep in while he was the only one being bullied like this?! But Kuroo merely smirked at him when Lev complained, Kuroo claiming that if Lev wanted to be the next ace then he needed to put in the extra effort.

Lev let out a frustrated yell before his long legs came to a stop. He leaned his hand against the wall of the camp's school building for support, head hanging low as he panted heavily.

Lev was many things, but he wasn't a liar. Despite absolutely despising his task, he was dedicated and will see through it until the end. But it wouldn't hurt if he just took a break for a few minutes, right?

He then slid down to the ground, or more like plopped on it as his tired body completely gave away. His back was against the wall, shutting his eyes as his heart slowly calmed to a regular rate again. He threw his head back, pulling up his knees to his chest and propping his elbows on it as he let out the longest exhale of his life.

As he basked in his bittersweet short time to unwind, picking up on the faint caws and chirps of birds from afar, he was just about to stand and continue his jog before he'd inevitably drift into unconsciousness until his ears perked up upon suddenly hearing a familiar noise.

"Ah, Kuroo, g'morning!" Lev's eyes shot open, instantly recognizing that chipper voice from anywhere. Hinata was already out and about at this godforsaken time? Then again, Lev wasn't that surprised. Hinata was full of unbridled energy, after all. Most likely he was going on a run, too.

"Morning, Hinata." Came the response from the Nekoma captain, his voice even deeper and huskier than it already was. It sounded like Kuroo just woke up, and that shocked Lev. Lev didn't bother seeing who was in their futons or not when he took off that morning, far too sleepy and eyes bleary to even care. But why the hell was Kuroo awake instead of enjoying a few more blissful hours in Dreamland? Kuroo didn't have any prior commitments, did he?

The murmurs of their two voices overlapped with each other, Lev not being able to make out their conversation. From his impression, though, it seemed as if this wasn't their first instance meeting like this.

Lev knew that he should just leave. After all, it wasn't any of his business and the sooner he could finish his exercise then the better it was.

But...his curiousity was piqued. And how could he ever let go of this glorious opportunity?

Slowly and silently, like a lion stalking its prey, Lev crouched down and carefully crawled over to where Hinata and Kuroo's voices were talking. And if anyone else saw, it would definitely have been an interesting sight; a giant like the Nekoma team newbie looking like he's about to pounce on a tiny mouse as he tried his best to appear discreet.

Finally, he reached the end of the school building. He then took a deep breath, poking his head out just a little bit and then turning it around the corner to catch a glimpse of the other two boys.

His eyes widened, almost popping right out of his sockets. He felt his chest tighten, astonishment and disbelief clouding his mind.

There was Hinata, pinned against the wall by none other than Kuroo. At first, Lev thought that Kuroo might have been threatening the short player and Lev was actually going to spring into action and push Kuroo off of Hinata. But he was abruptly halted when Hinata let out a small moan, his arms wrapping around Kuroo's neck and pulling him in for a kiss.

Kuroo rolled his hips against Hinata's crotch, making the ginger whimper. One of Hinata's hands then trailed down, palming the obvious bulge in Kuroo's sweatpants. They were kissing each other sloppily, their tongues dancing lewdly with each other and some saliva dripping from their mouths.

Hinata clung onto Kuroo like his life depended on it, wrapping a leg around Kuroo's waist and Kuroo grabbing the back of Hinata's head and yanking it to expose the redhead's neck.

"You never fail to get me going, short stuff~" Kuroo hummed, smirking lopsidedly as he peppered butterfly kisses along his neck. "If only you were in Nekoma, then we'd have fun like this every. fucking. day." He emphasized each word with a smack to Hinata's ass, making Hinata cry out.

"I-I can't go to Nekoma, I live in Miyagi!" Hinata replied, ever oblivious. Kuroo only chuckled at his slow wits, finding it amusing yet strangely adorable.

"I know, that's why we gotta enjoy this time together as much as possible." Kuroo sank his teeth into the flesh of Hinata's collarbone, eliciting a sharp gasp from the boy. Kuroo growled, a possessive tone overtaking him, his strong arms holding Hinata tightly as he licked the mark on Hinata's fair skin. His mark.

"K-Kuroo..." Hinata leaned in, nibbling lightly on Kuroo's earlobe. "Fuck me. Please? Fuck me hard, I can't take it anymore..!"

Kuroo's heart swelled with both pride and delight, his smirk widening even further. He was just about to so happily grant the shortie's wish when he heard a 'crick'. The sound of someone's weight making contact with the ground, like when someone is trying to be as quiet as possible in the forest though makes a wrong step and ends up crunching a piece of leaf beneath them.

Lev's blood went cold. He was so enraptured by the captivating sight before him that he found himself unconsciously leaning forward to see more, and as a result his right foot slipped from underneath him causing a slight disruption when his sneaker scratched against the ground.

He cursed to himself, and his body moved of its own accord as he bolted as fast as he could as if escaping from a crime scene.

"W-What was that?!" Hinata panicked, searching around frantically.

But Kuroo remained cool, his scheming smirk still etched upon his face.

Oh, this will be fun...

{•••♡•••}

The rest of the day, no matter what Lev did, he could not fucking forget what he saw that mortifying morning.

He was unforgivingly harassed by constant images of Hinata. How he looked downright tempting being pinned against that goddamn wall, and how Lev wished it was him who was in Kuroo's place instead.

Lev was a simple enough man. He's heard various stories about Hinata before which made him drawn to Karasuno's famous Number Ten, but when he actually finally met the redhead then nothing could compare. Hinata was truly something else, and Lev knew that he's quickly formed a crush on the feisty shortie.

But... What about Kuroo? Was he and Hinata in a relationship? Were they keeping it a secret?

Lev knew he shouldn't pry. It was totally inappropriate of him and whatever the hell was going on between Hinata and Kuroo, then that was their own issue. Still, he couldn't help the burning feeling of envy that made him fucking sick to his stomach.

Hinata and Kuroo acted normally, though. Outside of practice and volleyball matches, they didn't interact much with each other. And it was the same as any other day; Hinata being pissy with Lev for making fun of his height and Lev enduring harsh treatment from Kuroo and his other teammates.

Honestly, Lev would've just passed what occurred that morning as a weird daydream that his muddled brain randomly made up.

...If not for the bite mark on Hinata's collarbone that Lev noticed when Hinata briefly grabbed the hem of his shirt to wipe off the sweat on his forehead.

The days that went by were like a blur. As if his body was on autopilot, Lev found himself in the same corner behind the school building. And, as he suspected, there was Hinata and Kuroo.

Every single time that Kuroo fucked Hinata senseless, Lev repressed the overwhelming urge to just jump out from his hiding spot and seize Hinata for his own. What did he see in that rooster head, anyways? Sure, Kuroo was a skilled volleyball player, but Lev was so much bigger and taller than him. Lev also knew that he was very attractive and he was actually quite popular with both girls and boys.

And, most of all, he was 100% positive that he could fuck SO much better.

But then again... Who was he to judge? Kuroo was the fucker who had and very much enjoyed Hinata's attention, and Lev was only the perverted loser who was secretly jacking off as Hinata's moans and cries filled his ears like the sweetest fucking music while another man took him to the highest peaks of pleasure. Pleasure that Lev could only dream of giving Hinata.

But on the last day of the camp, as Lev was hiding as per usual, only Hinata appeared. Hinata shoved his hands inside his hoodie's pockets, bouncing on the balls of his feet as a way to warm up. But Lev didn't miss the way Hinata's eyes would dart around, looking anxious as he assumedly waited for Kuroo.

Lev gulped thickly. He didn't want to come off as such a creep, but it wouldn't hurt if he just talked with Hinata...right? Lev wasn't expecting anything. This was just a great chance as any to spend some time with his crush and not have to worry about that cunning bastard.

Steeling his resolve, Lev rose to his full height and approached Hinata.

"Oh, Hinata!" Lev greeted as if he wasn't expecting to come across the redhead, grinning brightly. He felt so shitty lying like this, but his blood was pumping from the adrenaline of simply being alone with his crush. "You're up early. Were you going on a run, too?"

Hinata flinched, making Lev raise a brow. Did he say something odd?

"L-Lev!" Hinata beamed, though his smile seemed to falter. "Y-Yeah, I was on a r-run."

Now Lev was really intrigued. Why was Hinata stuttering so much? And upon closer inspection, it looked like his entire body was shaking.

"Hinata, are you okay?" Lev asked worriedly. "Are you cold? You can have my jacket, too, if you want. I'll just grab another one."

"N-No!" Hinata immediately interjected. He then paused, his face growing hot as his eyes dropped and he fidgeted in his spot. "I-It's...not t-that..."

Lev's brows furrowed. What the actual fuck was happening? He then followed Hinata's gaze, blinking dumbfoundedly at what met him.

There, clear as day, was Hinata's cock pressing against his joggers. The front of it was also completely wet from his precum, and Lev felt like such a moron for not having noticed it before.

"H-Hinata... W-What are you--"

"Lev." Hinata cut him off, peering up at him with teary eyes. "C-Can you help me...please? I-I need you, Lev, please."

And that was all the words Lev needed to hear. He was already standing on the very edge of his restraint, and hearing Hinata say what he's always yearned for was all he needed to jump off his metaphorical fucking cliff.

Without wasting another moment, Lev practically ripped the joggers off of Hinata and discovered that he was going commando. Lev groaned, seeing that a mini vibrator was attached to Hinata's cock.

"Did you do this to yourself?" Lev breathed, completely under Hinata's spell and unable to look away.

"K-Kuroo did." Hinata replied, making Lev growl. "B-But... It's only 'cause I l-like you."

Lev froze, eyes blown wide. "What?"

"I-It's true..." Hinata looked down again, heart pounding hard against his chest. "I-I've liked you since the first time we met! You fucking p-piss me off, so I d-don't understand it! But I fucking l-like you, okay?!"

"But... What does that have to do with Kuroo?"

"I-I... Well..." Hinata gulped, blushing darkly. "Kuroo found out about my feelings a-and, well, I dunno... He t-told me he can help me out with y-you, and one thing led to another and h-here we are." Finally, he managed to lift his head and meet Lev's eyes. "He also told me that y-you were...w-watching us."

Lev's breath hitched, and it was his turn to blush. Fuck. Kuroo really was a sly motherfucker. But then again, he also kind of had him to thank for this...wonderful predicament. Lev honestly still didn't understand it, but he was with Hinata and that's all that mattered to him at the moment.

"I-I don't mind that you were w-watching us..." Hinata proceeded. He then reached forward, placing a hand against Lev's chest. Hinata could feel the thrum of Lev's rapid heartbeat, and he was somewhat relieved that Lev was just as nervous as he was. "Honestly... I kind of l-liked it." He admitted, smiling sheepishly. "Do you...like m-me?"

"Hinata..." Lev's voice was nothing more than a whisper. If this was a dream, then it was much too cruel. But even if it was, he'd be damned if he didn't enjoy it to the fullest. "I like you, too. So fucking much. Since the very beginning." He leaned down, and any other time he would've poked fun of how small Hinata was compared to him. But all the jokes he said were nothing more than petty ways to get Hinata's attention, like a childhood bully teasing the person he likes. "H-Hinata, can I..?" Now it was his turn to stumble over his words, face scarlet as he could only glance down at Hinata's erection.

Hinata giggled cutely, lips quirking up into a dazzling smile. "Y-You can do whatever you want to me, Lev."

Lev smiled back at Hinata, leaning ever closer. They stared deeply into each other's eyes for a few moments, their lips only a few inches apart as their warm breaths fanned against each other. It was Hinata who broke the spell first, going up on his tiptoes and connecting their lips.

Lev's smile only grew bigger, Hinata's soft lips confirming that this was indeed reality. Sweet, amazing reality. Lev deepened the kiss, one arm snaking around Hinata's waist while his free hand gently took off the vibrator from Hinata's cock. It clattered onto the ground, useless and forgotten.

Hinata wrapped his arms around Lev's neck. Or, at least, he tried to. Hinata let out a frustrated little huff as he could only lay his hands on Lev's shoulders, making Lev burst into laughter.

"Shut up, stop being so damn tall!" Hinata snapped, before gasping when he was suddenly easily hoisted up by Lev. He instinctively wrapped his legs around Lev's waist, Lev pinning Hinata up against the wall.

"This better?" Lev smirked, pressing a tender kiss to his forehead.

"Well... I'll forgive you for now." Hinata grumbled, pouting cutely. His hands then made quick work of Lev's sweatpants, untying it as it fell to his feet and Lev eagerly pulled down his boxers as well.

Hinata's eyes widened as he saw the sheer size of Lev's cock. He was definitely much bigger than Kuroo. And he should feel intimidated, but instead his cock twitched in anticipation.

"Lev..." As he spoke, his lips brushed against Lev's. "Y-You can fuck me. I'm all ready for you. P...Please don't keep me waiting any longer."

Lev sighed deeply, nuzzling into the crook of Hinata's neck. It was more so for him, too embarrassed to let Hinata see his pleased and flustered expression. "Just...tell me if it hurts, okay?"

Hinata nodded, and Lev gladly seized the moment. He positioned himself at Hinata's entrance, slowly pushing in. His tip was just barely in when Hinata whined, throwing his head back and Lev could feel Hinata's nails scratching incessantly at his back like a cat.

"Breathe, Hinata. I'm not even fully in yet." Of course Lev wanted Hinata to be comfortable, but he also couldn't keep the smugness out of his voice. He knocked his forehead lightly against Hinata's and made eye contact as he penetrated the redhead deeper, deeper, deeper.

They both let out a guttural groan at the same time, Hinata feeling so fucking full as Lev buried himself completely inside of him. Hinata leaned in, licking Lev's lips sensually and nipping at his bottom lip. Lev moaned, his tongue darting out to play with Hinata's.

Quite unexpectedly, it was Hinata who began to take the lead. He grinded his hips against Lev, a broken cry escaping him as Lev's huge fucking cock hit just the right spot. Lev soon followed, moving his hips in sync with Hinata. Hinata gasped and panted, calling out Lev's name as he was continuously impaled oh so perfectly.

"Lev, Lev, LEV..!" Hinata screamed, tugging needily on Lev's grey hair. "F-Fuck, yes! You fuck me so good! M-More... Please, more..!"

"Hinata..!" Lev moaned loudly, uncaring if they wake up the whole damn camp. He grabbed Hinata's chin before he tipped it up, revealing his neck. Lev has completely lost all control, his green eyes flashing possessively. "You're mine, you got that? All mine. Kuroo can never make you fucking feel this way. You're my slut." He bared his teeth like a starving lion, sinking it into the crook of Hinata's neck. Hinata whimpered, and once Lev drew away he smirked triumphantly at the prominent bite mark he inflicted.

Lev then flipped them over so that his back was against the wall. Hinata's legs continues to be wrapped around Lev's waist, and Lev supported Hinata's body with his hands firmly holding onto Hinata's hips.

"You're not fucking answering me, Hinata." Lev growled, his tone more authoritative than before. "Who do you belong to, slut?"

"Y-You..!" Hinata yelped, bouncing on Lev's fat cock. "I-I belong to you, Lev!"

"Good. Fucking. Boy." He enunciated each word with a thrust, recoiling his hips before slamming his cock back roughly into Hinata. Hinata's walls clenched like a goddamn vice around Lev, the both of them knowing that it wouldn't be long for them to come undone.

Lev then enveloped one of his hands around Hinata's cock, stroking it in time to his swift thrusts. He was pretty much jack hammering into Hinata by now, Hinata nearly going cross eyed and lips forming into an 'O' as incoherent babblings and desperate moans violated his body.

"L-Lev, please..!" Hinata begged, tears springing to his pretty brown eyes. "L-Let me fucking cum! Please..!"

"Then..." Lev panted, never ceasing his thrusts as he chased his high. "Fucking CUM..!"

"AH!" Hinata cried out, his back arching as he came. Spurts of cum smeared Lev's hand, and Lev soon followed with his own release. He pumped his cock relentlessly even as he exploded, gasping and grunting as if he was in heat.

It took a good couple of minutes for them to collect themselves, Hinata laying slack against Lev just as the sun rose and casted its ethereal glow upon them. Lev slowly pulled his cock out of Hinata, eyes darkening at the fucking erotic sight of his seed spilling excessively from Hinata's anus.

"Shit..." Lev chuckled breathlessly. "I fucking love mornings."

And neither were aware of a certain captain hiding around the corner of the school building, his ever devious smirk unfaltering from his lips.

'Lev's a fucking idiot if he thinks I'll give up on Hinata that easily.' Kuroo thought to himself, snickering softly.

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chronicbatfictioner · 3 years

Text

Exchanges and Compromises - Chapter 17

Jason was having the time of his life.

Dick was sure of it. He might grump and sulk a lot more than before, but Dick was sure that he was having fun. Sure, guarding Damian might be a little more than tasking, after a while - especially since Damian was so certain that he could face Bane alone if it comes down to it, conveniently ignoring the fact that: a. he's ten and practically one-tenth of Bane's size; b. the Waynes most likely would detest having to clear intestines off the marble floor if Damian were to be let near a katana and/or Bane, and c. Alfred definitely would detest cleaning intestines or parts of Damian off the floor or walls.

And d. Bruce Wayne seemed to actually enjoy having Damian around and has no qualm in talking to Damian as if he was twice his age. Bruce's age, that is. Not Damian's. Dick suspected that Bruce has spent a lot of time talking to 60-year-olds.

But there were numerous forms of excitement that were offered by the Wayne Manor. First and foremost were the cars. Dick has never learned to drive - being a Talon kind of impeded the learning process of 'common human things'. Jason, however, was an excellent driver. He had mentioned something about being a getaway driver in warzones, and Dick couldn't be sure if he was telling the truth or joking. Either way, he rather enjoyed it whenever he and Jason had to take Damian somewhere in town.

Except for today, as somebody seemed to have tampered with the car.

It wouldn't brake, and they were cruising really, really fast.

Hence Dick's belief that Jason was having fun. He did not look perturbed at the slightest as he controlled the car, swerving crazily over the backroads, making sharp u-turns instead of going into the city roads and went back where they came from. Within a mile from the Drake House's gate, Jason finally managed to cut down the speed to the point where the car's engines died and it rolled to a stop. On the Drake House's gate.

"Seriously, people," Tim remarked dryly as they walked in - leaving the car at the gate and settling their respective adrenaline back down. "I've heard of visiting the neighbors, but must you be like, dying and/or damaging people's property before you come here to say hi?"

"The car was tampered with," Damian reported. "Must be the brute. And I shall replace your gate, Drake."

"I think I'm down to like, eight lives. No-- seven." Dick admitted, "my heart's still beating a hundred miles per minute. Good thing, though, at least that way I know I'm quite alive."

"Dick, you're a bird. Not a cat." Tim deadpanned. His eyes never leaving Jason, who had lit up a cigarette as he walked through the house. "Since when do you smoke?"

"Since I was eleven," Jason replied. "And since I walked into a house that has laser triggers that were set up by a lunatic. Smoke worked to reveal them all."

"I'm... partially scowling because smoking kills. But I suppose laser triggers would kill faster..." Tim replied.

"The lasers are used to trigger booby traps just about Damian's height. If he were to be a common kid and run around the house, he'd be decapitated within the first few days." Jason continued bitterly. "What the fuck is wrong with that giant lump of steroids, anyway? He was ready to kill a child!"

"The nutshell version is that the child would prevent his usurping the Waynes' wealth." Tim pointed out. "The long version is that I don't think he's really the child of Dr Wayne, the Waynes know of it, and they're literally being held hostage in their own home. Also, you people are being watched, too, by drones. I've asked Harper to kill those drones for entering my property."

Tim then explained Bruce's visit and the USB. "Oracle has contacted him and told him we... the Birds, that is - are investigating the evidence."

"How long until we can punch the asshole out of the house for good?" Jason demanded, accepting a bottle of water Tim handed him. Slowly and gently. Making sure his fingers brushed Tim's. And Dick had to swallow a grin.

"That, unfortunately, would be up to the GCPD. Did you guys saw the news? Vicky Vale's article on Damian?" Tim... preened a little, waving his hair as he walked away from Jason. Dick's lips itched, he wondered if Barbara or the other girls -- if Selina or Dinah have noticed this. The two were definitely flirting.

"I have seen it. It had good pictures of my mother and grandfather, and quite... adequate descriptions of both of them." Damian replied. "Evidently father has made a comment to the writer about me looking like him when he was my age."

"Well, you kind of do look like him, except for the green eyes." Dick pointed out. Bruce's eyes were blue - like both his parents. But from the photos of little Brucie around the house, Dick could see a little of Martha Wayne in Damian's still-round face. "When did Bruce make the comment?"

"Oh, Vale called him." Tim snickered. "She still has his personal number, and she commented something about hearing a - quote: 'constipated buffalo sounds in the background' - unquote. She was also wondering if Bruce was in a bullfighting ring somewhere."

"Seriously?" Dick laughed.

"Seriously. Even Barbara couldn't stop laughing hearing that." Tim assured him. Jason rolled his eyes but looking amused, anyway.

"Sooo... a possible off-road accident for the apparent heir is in the books?" Jason suggested.

"I won't put it past Bane. Damian...?" Tim started. But Damian already nodded in acknowledgment.

"I shan't eat anything that is not presented by Todd or Grayson, nor will I frolic the manor on my own. This shall be more to bear witness to your insinuation of my 'child-like' behavior than to take care of me, Drake, as I am quite capable of sustaining my own life." Damian scoffed.

Tim paused visibly for a good two seconds, before nodding, "of course. Furthermore, I can assure you that Alfred is safe, mainly because as a butler, his focal interest would be the actual Waynes. That's in his training - unless an offspring is publicly announced, they are not to be cared for by the Butler. In Wayne Manor, the proverbial child would solely be Bruce - for obvious reasons, and Damian, whom Bruce has publicly acknowledged." Tim explained.

"He was in MI6," Jason remarked. "Alfred, that is. Not Bane. It would be safe to say he's loyal. He told me of the booby traps and that Bane has a daily dose of injection of the steroid-like substance. But I-- we shall prepare you emergency rations - just in case, anyway."

"You guys can always drop by here. And don't think that Damian would be Bane's only target." Tim reminded. "If I was him, I'd take out the big guns - that is you two - first; and then Bruce, because he'll want to be protective of his son; and then Dr and Mrs Wayne last."

"Then I'm afraid you are forgetting one of the members of the household that is most dangerous, Master Tim," a voice spoke; Jason pulled out his gun, Damian automatically hid behind him while pulling out a small dagger.

Dick wanted to lunge right toward the source of the voice until he realized that it was Alfred Pennyworth, both hands raised up to show that he was unarmed.

"How...?" Jason growled, "I didn't hear the front door open."

"Apologies, gentlemen. I should have informed you that there is an underground passageway between the two houses that were once used frequently, but now has all been forgotten." Alfred explained. "You were right that I was in MI6, Jason; as you were right that my focus will and forever shall remain the true Wayne blood, Master Tim. Not ones who claimed as such and refused to provide irrefutable evidence."

"Does Bane know of this passageway?" Tim asked.

"It is located in the staff's wing, and as he is not permitted to be there, I sincerely doubt it," Alfred replied. "I have my own... booby traps and surveillance that should tell me if anyone has been there." he smiled. "I am aware that both of you have prowled the entire house at one point or the other in the past few weeks." he nodded toward Jason and Dick. "You were stealthy, indeed."

"But not stealthy enough?" Dick quipped. "I gotta go back to training... Anyway, why are you here?"

"I saw your vehicle's mishap and its stop here. If anything, Bane is not... stealthy enough." Alfred pulled out a small memory card. "To get to the garage, one must pass the servants' hall. And the garage is my province."

Tim accepted the memory card, plugged it into his cellphone; and then projected its content to a wall. "Huh... this should be enough evidence of tampering..." Tim commented. The memory card showed a clear date stamp - that morning, a few hours before Bane and the Waynes left the house. It also showed Bane himself, jacking the car that was now resting with a dented bumper at Tim's gate, while holding a plier.

"Anyone watching our car now?" Dick commented. "Won't be cool to have it suddenly fixed, will it?"

"Harper should be. Plus, y'all are on my property. If he trespasses, I'll have his ass arrested." Tim huffed. "So... if anyone has ideas--" Jason and Damian's eyes lit up; Tim glared at them and continued "--that do not include sharp and/or exploding objects of how to remove Bane from the Manor..."

"I'm fresh out," Jason replied mournfully. "No sharp objects, no exploding objects... what do you expect me to do? Poison him?"

"But Todd, did my mother not teach you the arts of food as medicine?" Damian piped up.

The sudden silence as all eyes landed on Alfred was quite ominous.

"I will not conduct a crime, young masters," Alfred remarked dryly.

"Oh nooo... not a crime," Jason grinned mischievously. "It's just... you know that Damian was born in the Middle East, yeah?"

"I may have quite a culinary skill, but I fear that my Middle Eastern cuisine knowledge is rather limited," Alfred said demurely.

"Well, mine isn't." Jason grinned. "Besides, what else should one do to celebrate one's entrance into such a distinguished family; but hold a family dinner?"

"You're going to poison him." Dick groaned.

"Not to death!" Jason protested. Dick gave him an unimpressed glare. "Just... to the point where he would realize that he and I have opposing objectives."

"Do let me know of the ingredients you require, Jason." Alfred intoned. "Or perhaps you prefer to shop on your own? I shall fetch a new, un-tampered-with vehicle."

"Oh, please do, Alfred. I doubt we can make a single trip. But they will be fun." Jason replied, grinning.

Dick knew that the sense of foreboding was not in him only. Tim looked like he was contemplating moving away to Alaska.

"For the records, I don't know anything about cooking," Dick said defensively.

"I'm... truly and fully reconsidering my life choices," Tim admitted.

"Oh, don't worry, Drake. Todd was trained by the best," Damian grinned mischievously. "I pity the fools who think him as a brute. I pity the brute who think that small equals weak."

#Batless!AU #JayTim #Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #Jason Todd #Damian Wayne #Alfred Pennyworth #stray!tim #RedGhost!Jason #Talon!Dick

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gingermintpepper · 3 years

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After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

#ginger rambles #ginger talks about video games #monster hunter stories #monster hunter #code dragon iii vfd #video games #3ds #underrated games #These take so much energy to make holy shit #There are so many more amazing 3ds games I could talk about #But I legit just don't have the braincells for #Also I know Apocalypse probably has the biggest audience that played it out of all the games listed #But it's criminally underrated because it was different #So it's probably going to get it's own little review thing #Yeehaw

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epicmoonintensifies · 4 years

Text

What of a Wing?

Requested Anonymously Here's something short to hold y'all over while I figure out how to breathe and do a task at the same time! And also I hate literally every change tumblr has made since I've been gone. It was nearly impossible to post this.

🖤

You weren't a faunus. That wasn't usually something that you had to explain to people, because it was rather obvious that your wings weren't natural. They weren't the right size to really get a person off the ground, and yet, you flew. They were shiny, metallic, and their strange texture brought to mind something otherworldly, not smooth and familiar like the feathers of a bird's wing. That, and, a faunus couldn't channel aura through their animal anatomy anymore than they could through a human part. But your wings were a manifestation of your semblance. The benefits of having one's aura unlocked at such a young age: your semblance got to build and grow into something far more than most people's would ever be, and all before you were an adult. So. When the multi-colored glint of metal shone off your wings, and when the sun made the strange feathers glitter like cut diamonds, it was very obvious that they were not the wings of a faunus. And yet, most people never realized that, like any semblance, it was adaptable. That is to say, not just for flying. Well. That was fine by you. That just meant you had a few tricks up your sleeve. Qrow didn't ask many questions about your wings. He didn't usually bring up semblances, if he could help it, and you didn't blame him. You didn't mind, either. Your wings had been a source of curiosity to other people for most of your life, and it was nice, really, to not be questioned about only those, as if they were the most important part of you. (And there was some bitterness in you about that, because the attention was entertaining when you were small, but as you got older and you realized that everyone you met thought your wings were the most interesting thing about you, some part of you began to hate them.) You knew that he thought your wings were beautiful, and that was good enough. He liked to hug you from behind and rest his head on your back, between your shoulders. He was so gentle with your wings when he did that, even though you had told him that they were tougher than anything he could do to them. But you supposed that he could hardly bring himself to treat your wings any differently than he treated the rest of you. Gentle. Kind. Admiring. He didn't put you on a pedestal but he always treated you like you deserved more. But Qrow had never seen you in a fight before today. It was odd that he hadn't, really. You both hunted, and you both supported each other at every turn, but you just hadn't hunted together. Until today. You were distracted, mostly by Qrow. He was beautiful in a fight. You were used to seeing rough-and-tumble fighting; rolling in the dirt and spitting blood and coming away in shreds. But that might have been because you had been trained in Vacuo. Qrow moved like a dancer. He was magnificent. You know that he would be, but Oum, it was incredible to finally see it with your own eyes. But you needed to focus. You had handheld weapons, of course, but your wings were incredibly effective. In a fight, your feathers sharpened to obsidian-sharp edges, and your wingspan allowed you to cut down most Grimm before they came into range of your actual blades. Thankfully, your swords were also guns, and while your wings kept anything from throwing off your aim, you could provide Qrow with some firepower. But you moved when you realized that bullets wouldn't be enough. Your wings provided you with incredible speed. But you knew it wouldn't be enough, not with– Not with that Grimm closing in, bigger and faster than the others, smart enough to stay in Qrow's blind spot, tough enough the you couldn't shoot it down from a distance, so fast and so close too close– Your wings folded around Qrow, bladed feathers interlocking to become impenetrable, and wicked claws scraped along your primaries with a sickening shriek. Qrow turned, fast, and you only had a split second to take in his startled expression before he honed in on the Grimm you had just shielded him from. And then he was moving, the beauty of Harbinger's swing arcing over your shoulder not lost on you as Qrow took advantage of the wall your wings provided and attacked from a more defensible position. You heard the distinctive 'shnnk' sound of Harbinger making its mark, and Grimm ash filled the air for just a moment before dissipating, leaving a gray stain on the ground and nothing more.

Little beowolves, barely armored, were easy pickings after that.

That night, Qrow nuzzles and flutters soft kisses at the base of each wing, activating sparks of your aura as your wings soften into something less like blades and more like down feathers at his touch. You allow it, not minding genuine appreciation of your wings. It's well-deserved after today, you justify to yourself, feathers curling as Qrow digs his fingers into your primaries and holds tight.

"I love what you do with these," he laughs into your skin, tired and gentle and happy.

"I love that they kept you safe," you admit. That's one of the kindest compliments you've given your wings in the past few… years.

"Ehh, no they didn’t," he says, kissing from feather to feather and then to your lips. "You did."

#qrow x reader #qrow #rwby qrow #qrow branwen #imagine rwby #rwby imagine #rwby #qrow imagine

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miioouu · 4 years

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Headcanons for Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki for their crush getting to clean their face off for them? Maybe it's training, or a cooking incident, or some random thing that gets their face messy enough that their crush notices

Ummmmm why are y'all ideas so cute?! Like seriously! Thank you so much for requesting!! ❤️💜❤️

Midoriya Izuku 💚

- This boi!! He's messy and clusmy, so it wasn't unusual for him to get stuff all over his face.

- Tonight it was your turn to watch Eri together.

- The little girl always liked creative activities, so drawing and art crafts were always in the day's schedule.

- So right now, the three of you were sitting together, helping the little girl decorate the wooden spoon doll. (did you guys do that as kids or was it just me?)

- And being the kid she was, she wanted to put gliter on the skirt, so Deku decided that he'll be the one to help her.

- With glitter all over his hands, he rubbed his cheeks. As you tried to tell him about it, Eri suddenly got tired and demanded to go to bed.

-Coming back from finally tucking Eri in bed, you noticed that Midoriya had cleaned everything, except the big spot of glitter on his face.

- Laughing, you made your way to the confused boy. "Deku, you have glitter on your face. Let me help you!"

-Running to the bathroom, you came back with a damp cloth to remove the mess on his face.

-Your soft touch on his skin, made him feel some type of way, never being this close before. You pulled back with a shiny smile on your face when you were done.

-" Tha-thank you y/n..."

Todoroki Shoto💙❤️

-Todoroki loved training with you. Not only you were a good opponent, but it also meant that he got to spend more time with you.

-As you two were fighting, he was usually very serious, never once losing against you.

-But this time, it was different.

-For some reason he couldn't focus on fighting, all his attention on you; the way your body flows and turn, escaping his attempts of hitting you.

- He kept telling himself that it was because he was tired and had been studying all day, and not because you looked so beatiful, sunlight hitting your face perfectly, changing your eye color so slightly that drove him insane, or the way your training clothes looked perfect on you today.

- So lost in his train of thoughts, he didn't have the time to register what was happening, suddenly finding him self face planting the ground.

-You ran as fast as you could to his side, helping him up, apologizing over and over again.

- Noticing the little mud that was on face, you went and grabed your towel to clean him up.

- The simple contact of your skin in his, lit his heart on fire, this type of actions only happened in hia day dreams.

-"You could've told me, I could've taken care of it by myself you know?"

Bakugo Katsuki 🧡

- He usually found cooking a relaxing activity to take his mind out of things, but with you beside him, it wasn't as relaxing anymore.

- You had begged him to help you cook something to level up your skills.

- So he decided to help you do something simple, like spaghetti bolognaise or something for sure you can't mess up.

-Oh but he overestimated you, you were really bad. Like how is that even possible.

- Somehow, you managed to burn the pasta, and the onions, and the garlic and....well you burned everything.

- And now Bakugo had to restart again because the whole dorm was starving and he's his only source of food.

- He assigned you to the chopping, hopping that you wouldn't chop your fingers off.

-Even though you were so terrible at cooking, he couldn't help but find you so cute focusing on the task he has giving you, brows scrunched in concentration. You were adorable.

- So lost in his thoughts he didn't hear you call out his name twice, before you were nudging him, waiting for him to turn with a huge smile in your face trying to hide the laughter that was threatening to escape your lips.

- "Bakugou, you dumb bum, you have sauce all over your face! Let me clean you up!"

- Standing on your tippy toes, tissues in one hand, the other grabbing his shoulder to help steady yourself.

- He was so lost, so in love, looking at you with wide eyes.

-"Y/n! I can clean myself, I'm not a baby!"

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alirhi · 3 years

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If I wrote Loki pt 5

(Missed one? Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4)

Woo. Coming up on the end. It's been so hard to keep the same stupid storyline and just give Loki a bigger part to play (in his own motherfucking show) rather than just rewriting the whole bloody thing, but it's almost done! And trust me, guys, this has been deliberate (and painful), not a sign of lacking creativity. If I'd really written this thing, there would be no Mobius, no Sylvie, no TVA. It would have been properly about Loki and would not just be a six-hour commercial for the multiverse. Of course, it almost definitely would have also involved Loki in a poly relationship with Sigyn and Bucky if I was allowed to truly run wild 😂 so I'm not saying I'm perfect lmao

Alright. Let's get on with this, shall we?

Episode 5! Almost done! We start with the TVA side of things. Mobius is struggling to calm the other agents and keep them from killing anyone else, not an easy task when enraged, grief-stricken Sigyn is trying to kill them all. He manages to get close to her just long enough to whisper He's not dead; not yet. He slips a Tempad into her hand, winks, and then steals a weapon and prunes her. Happy now? he grumbles at his coworkers, tossing the thing (seriously, what were those called? I keep wanting to call it a melty stick, but this show isn't worthy of a Grandmaster reference XD) back to the stunned agent he'd stolen it from. We have the psycho Variant. Job well done, right? Let's get her processed.

So much for friendship, Sylvie growls at him, horrified by how casually he just murdered Sigyn. I never said I was their friend, Mobius points out, though there's a quick flash of fear and regret as he glances back at the spot where Sigyn once stood. He doesn't know her well enough to care how things go for her, but he's praying she can help Loki. There was no way he could have sent Sylvie; she's feral, she doesn't trust anyone and can't be trusted, and there's no way she and Loki can work together.

Cut to Loki appearing in the pruned dimension. Again, can't remember if it had a name. I only watched these episodes once each, which was more than enough 🤮

Anyway, he doesn't fall out of nowhere; the orange sparks that he disintegrated into on the other side are what come together to recreate him here. He meets a few other Lokis; at least two of them are his age and blue. One is wearing Jotun clothes, and he smirks at OG Loki's look of surprise. "I went straight to Jotunheim after killing Laufey. I only had my throne for a few moments before those wretched TVA people showed up, but it was still mine."

"Did it make you happy?" Loki asks, a tired, resigned smile on his face. He knows the answer before King Loki says anything, and only smiles a bit wider when he says "No. I never wanted any throne." Loki nods and picks up King Loki's train of thought: "Only ever wanted to be seen and valued. But the only thing the house of Odin values is power." They take him to the underground bunker.

His interactions with the other Lokis aren't played for laughs. There's some lighthearted stuff (I'd keep Croki and his reaction to him, because that was genuinely funny) but mostly Loki meeting other Loki variants (several of them female and no one bats an eye) is to show that he was never evil. Self-serving and a little weaselly at times, especially when he was younger, but not evil. King Loki is horrified that OG Loki tried to destroy Jotunheim. OG Loki, in turn, can't even look at Feral Loki who never deluded himself into thinking Odin would ever love him and ran away as a child. Like Old Loki, he kept himself hidden for years before he got lonely and sloppy and the TVA found him.

Each new story more heartbreaking than the last; each new Loki variant reveals more of the horrors they've suffered in service of the TVA's "sacred timeline" before being sent to this place to die. But Lokis don't die; they fight, and they survive. They're all tired. They're all a bit broken. A few have had idle passing thoughts of finding a way out, a way home, but what would be the point? After all, they'd only be sent back again. Princess Loki quietly illustrates this point by revealing that she did get out, once. She ran to her husband and wife - Baldur and Nanna; she loved Sigyn, every Loki who's ever met Sigyn has loved her, but like many of them, she never had the courage to tell her, so she latched onto the pair who would have her - and they didn't recognize her. Their connection had been erased, and her once-partners only knew her as the Trickster who'd once almost gotten Baldur killed. She was captured and sent back to this wretched place, and with nothing left to hold onto on the other side, stayed.

"Then there is a way out," is OG Loki's takeaway. He remembers the prank that had nearly killed Baldur, and he cringes a little, but quickly moves on. He needs to get out, get home. "Where is 'home', Loki?" King Loki challenges him, and that makes him pause. He'd only learned about his Jotun heritage a year ago, Asgard was slated to be eradicated... "Sigyn," he murmurs. "Sigyn is home."

"Then I suppose this is home now." Loki spins to face the source of the snarky voice behind him, and throws his arms around Sigyn, overwhelmed with joy to see her. One of the other Lokis had found her and brought her to the bunker, and all the Lokis are staring at her, missing their own connections with her, but this isn't their Sigyn, so they stay away. She smiles and backs up, holding out the Tempad. "Or we can find a new home."

He takes it, and glances at the others. "Our greatest failing is that we've always done everything alone. Look where that's brought us - all of us, no matter what path we try to take, we're all here." One of them points out that the TVA is why they're there, and he nods. "That's my point. Alone, not one of us can stop them. Our sister tried, and I brought her into their clutches." He points to Princess Loki. "She tried to escape them, but they made sure she was alone. This is not my fate. I refuse. If I can't count on myself, well..." A mocking smirk at his other "selves" turns into a fond, nervous smile as he turns to Sigyn. "I suppose I'd better start counting on someone else for help."

"There is not a single Loki that's ever existed who wouldn't die for that woman," King Loki points out, giving Sigyn a shy smile. She laughs, blushes, and turns to OG Loki, who only shrugs and nods with a sheepish smile of his own. "We can address that later," she assures him. "For now, what's the plan, Loki?"

"If Sylvie can enchant, so can I. We're twins." He grins, putting the Tempad away. "That's a handy failsafe, but I'd like to be done running. I say we enchant the guard dog outside and find out what it's guarding."

Meanwhile, Mobius and Sylvie (I'd be happy to forget about them both, but y'all like them, so...) are discovering the truth behind the "Time keepers". Finding out the whole thing was a sham, Mobius is 100% done. He and Sylvie work together to remind as many agents as they can who they once were, trying to dismantle the TVA from within. While the small army of Lokis (and the beautiful Sigyn ❤) march right up to the hungry murder cloud, Mobius and Sylvie wake up as many variants-turned-agents as they can.

Episode 6 (season 1 finale)

#loki #loki series #loki negativity #fixing bad writing #if i wrote the series #episode 5 #almost done #thank gods

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futuredeadbranches · 6 years

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I love this God bodies post canon thing, mind telling and/or drawing us more?

I’m so happy y'all like this idea!! I’m going to try to put my ideas in words, but warning: this is going to be terribly long (and possibly a mess).

Roxy: Dark spots appear randomly across her skin, changing place every day or so. As time passes, the spots grow larger, and at the end of her growth as a goddess, they cover her entire skin. Those spots are made of void, of pure black (not reflecting any light), though her body is still corporeal/material even in places covered by them. She can morph this nothingness into whatever she wants but can also willingly throw anything in it, losing that object forever in the void (yeah, she can pretty much use her body as an unlimited trashcan).When her body is entirely covered by void, she can fully shapeshift into anything she wants.

Dirk: His body splinters and puts itself back together at random intervals. He can still use his limbs even when they’re separated from his body but doesn’t know how to reform himself during his growth. Using his detached limbs, he can, for example, reach stuff in the distance, but learns how to control them gradually. When he touches someone, sometimes a soft pink light glows under his palm, transmitting under the form of a soothing and warm energy, all the care he has for the person he is touching. It’s pleasant, but can be a bit overwhelming, the love washing over one like a powerful wave. Dirk slowly gets used to it, finding comfort in finally being able to express what he is feeling in a way that feels right.

More under the cut bc this is too long:

Jake: Well, as a hero of hope, he gets wings. They grow slowly, the first ones appearing in his back. But Skaia is generous and doesn’t give him just two. Slowly, he gets more and more pairs of wings, on his lower back, his hips, behind his ankles, etc. (à la satan from devilman crybaby). Golden rings appear over his head. He also starts radiating an aura that puts people at ease around him, making them feel lighter, comfortable.

Dave: At any moment, there’s an infinity of different actions he could take, but a human eye couldn’t see them all at once. Instead, he is surrounded by some kind of afterimages of the actions he most likely would do in that precise moment. For him, these actions actually take place, allowing him to do many tasks simultaneously. At first, he has trouble anchoring his ‘other’ actions in the current reality, creating small separated parallel timelines where he has done one thing differently. But with practice, he manages to make them take place in the same timeline and can actually use his new ability to multitask.

Rose: Small specks of light appear on her skin, similar to freckles, staying there (unlike roxy’s). With time, they accumulate on parts of her body, forming together bigger spots, ending up covering her entire body, looking like a sun. During the growth, she has trouble controlling the brightness of the spots, blinding everyone around her if they dare to not wear some kind of protection for their eyes in her company.A third eye appears on her forehead, with which she can see all the time what she should do to go towards a brighter and better path of life.

Jade: Her dark hair grows longer, more quickly than a natural growth, and small stars appear in it at first, twinkling in the darkness. But with time, more and more celestial bodies appear, galaxies, planets, moons, until a small universe exists in her hair. It develops itself and lives, with stars dying, new ones appearing. In addition to that, some kind of gravity field creates itself around her, allowing her to just let go of objects and have them float around her or stick to her skin, depending on the size and weight of it. Lastly, rings appear around her ankles, wrists, and arms.

Jane: Flora begins to grow on her skin, creating a lively garden that constantly moves and changes. The plants of the garden may depend on her emotions, thorns appearing when she’s angry, flowers blooming and covering her when she feels happy. Specific flowers with specific meanings can appear too, showing her emotions more in detail. In addition to that, moss and flowers start to flourish on anything she touches, except on other living beings, so when she walks flowers bloom behind her but die and disappear most fo the time when she’s too far. With time, she learns to control their random apparition, but also to make them last even when she goes away. She attracts any living thing that’s in her vicinity, people and animals are drawn to her, plants grow in her direction, because she’s a source of life, of energy. Lastly, she sometimes gives life to inanimate objects without noticing. They don’t have sentience, as she is only Life and can’t give them a Soul, but they can move on their own, obeying her words. She learns how to control that power too, giving life to anything she chooses.

John: His hair constantly flows in the air. Small clouds appear and float around his head (and sometimes his limbs), depending on his state of mind: the more upset/sadder he is, the darker and the more there are clouds. In a way, they’re helping him finally let out and express the negative feelings buried in him. With time, his emotions impact the sky itself, the weather in the area surrounding him depending on them.We’ve seen in canon that he already knows how to become wind, but at random intervals, some parts of his body start to turn ghost-like, sometimes even disintegrating into wind. He isn’t always fully aware that he’s getting incorporeal, making him drop things or go through people accidentally. He gradually learns how to control it, while simultaneously learning how to shape the breeze the way he wants and turn it into a fog-like matter.Sometimes, completely out of his control, a part of his body shines with a bluish light, and a vision/scenery appears in it, serving as a window to another universe.

Vriska: Trolls get some attributes of their lusus through the godbod, so additional eyes appear on her face and two more pairs of thin arms grow in her back.As a thief of light, she steals the light of every environment she enters. When it’s a room, it goes completely dark and she shines with its light, when she’s outside during the day, there seems to be a dark aura around her, since she takes all the light of her surroundings, her body shining in the middle of it.When she touches people, it arrives that a golden/orange light appears under her palm, giving her a random piece of knowledge from the person (it isn’t necessarily something important, it can be a simple thought). The nature of the information can depend on the part of the body that is touched (infos about one’s feelings closer to the chest, for example)And she can steal luck in the same way 8ut she already has aaaaaaaall the luck.

None of these changes are painful, since this is the kids’ reward and Skaia isn’t trying to inflict them any more pain. But some mild discomfort can accompany the apparition of new limbs and whatnot, since the sensation is strange and foreign.

EDIT: Added some missing godbods

#roxy lalonde #dirk strider #jake english #dave strider #rose lalonde #homestuck #godbod au #im taking your name for it mims hope u dont mind #also hope this is not too messy

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vampirefreakism · 5 years

Text

The Scientist (Chapter 27)

Summary: In the events following Asgard’s destruction, Loki finds himself on Earth seeking refuge to await the inevitable. Much to his surprise, it comes from a source he would never have expected.

AO3 Link

The Soundtrack So Far

Warnings: domestic fluff, a hint of angst

Word count: 3.4k

A/N: Wooh! Another one is here! First off, Captain Marvel was amazing. I saw it twice and I would absolutely watch it again at a moment's notice. Second, we got more domesticity in this! Yay! I know some of y'all really like that, so here ya go. Enjoy this little burrito. Lastly, it's been about a full year since I started writing this! Wow, how time flies! Around this time last year, after the final Infinity War trailer was posted, I put my first thoughts onto a page and began The Scientist. I planned to have more of the story out by this point, but hey, at least she lives :D

Masterlist

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Trudging through the doors of the apartment complex, Luna stamped her boots off and shook the loose snow from her hat.

“Phew! We made it,” she breathily praised, brushing the shopping bags she’d set at her feet.

“Yes, good,” Loki replied. He was glad to be back inside. The new gloves and hat he got helped with blending in, but style-wise, they could be better.

Setting down the cardboard boxes he was tasked with carrying, Loki mimicked Luna in dusting the snow from his clothes. As he did so, he wondered about the contents of the containers he moved. He hadn’t been paying attention when Luna picked them up, being too preoccupied in studying what the shop referred to as ‘mistletoe.’ Alas, it was vastly different than the thing he knew growing up.

He could have taken everything into his arms, but like always, Luna insisted on toting the groceries while he took up the larger items. Something about preventing him from accusing her of using him as her ‘pack mule.’ He knew she would never be so derogatory towards him, but nonetheless, he complied.

Upon entering the apartment, they took turns in putting their parcels down and shrugging off their outer layers. Luna pulled off her boots and rubbed her cold hands together.

“Alright, everything is in. I’ll go get changed and then we can put the groceries away.”

Loki nodded, pulling his own shoes off, and watched Luna shuffle away to slip into something more comfortable. In her temporary absence, he opted to do the same. He had to be quick about it, for there were minor chores to be done and he couldn’t risk being seen unclothed.

Odd, he felt, for him to be concerned about such things. He never had been. Well, of course not. Everything was done for him before any semblance of thought could be spurred about it. Luna did so for him as well, but not out of obligation to him. It was her culture and personality. However, those pieces of the puzzle did not make up the whole picture, and he was intent on completing it. Luckily, he liked getting to know his new friend.

Of course, think of the devil, and she may appear. Back into the living room walked Luna, now clad in blue-and-white patterned leggings, fluffy socks, and the same concert shirt Loki had seen earlier that morning. Not a warm outfit, but comfortable enough for the house.

Without a word, the two got to work; Loki dividing up the items to go in the fridge and Luna putting everything in their appropriate places. They were done in half the time it took for Luna to do it alone. Smirking to herself, she noted another excellent reason to have Loki around as a friend: receiving tidbits of help without having to ask made life feel nice.

Sipping from a glass of fresh water, Luna stepped back out into the living room.

“Ok, so I was thinking we could set these up first,” she pointed to the unopened boxes still sitting by the door, “before I do any cooking. Is that ok?” Loki nodded. “Great.” She smiled, setting her glass down. “I’ll get the box cutter.” And off she was again to her room.

Loki moved one box further into the room for Luna to have more space to open it. Knife securely in hand, she sliced through the tape as if it was hot butter. Inside sat more packaging material surrounding the object of interest. Curious, Loki crouched down to Luna’s level on the floor and inspected her deconstruction of the Styrofoam and plastic.

“What is it, exactly?” He asked as he watched the thing in question slowly reveal itself.

“Oh, it’s a little electric fireplace, just for us,” Luna smiled sweetly.

‘Just for us.’ A nice sentiment. It allowed Loki the temporary belief he could stay with her forever, the two of them enjoying a fake fireplace.

“Very nice,” he said absentmindedly, no longer investing in his wishful thought. As he had said in the past, it was easier to let it burn.

In his mental distance, Luna had pulled everything out of the box and laid it all out in front of her. It was indeed a simple and small electric fireplace, fully capable of warming a room and providing a light show of fake flames.

Luna read over the user manual as Loki settled onto the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs and drawing them into his chest. He observed her as she concentrated, anticipating her next move. It didn’t take her long to figure out what she needed to do.

“There is some assembly required.” Clearly, by the pieces on the ground. Luna picked up the tiny bag filled with black screws. “Do you know where the screwdriver is?”

“Oh, yes,” Loki nodded, rising from the ground and venturing to a drawer in the kitchen. Luna paid him no mind as he rummaged around for a bit and brought back the tool she needed. “Right here.”

She observed his outstretched hand grasping the screwdriver and gently took it from him. “Thank you,” she smiled. She didn’t recall telling him where it was.

Brushing it off for later, she knuckles down and screws on the legs of the machine. She has Loki hold the screws in his hand and give her one each time she needs it.

Loki thumbs the four remaining screws in his palm. “So, why do we need this? This place is warm enough.”

“Yeah, it is. I just figured it would be nice. You know, with Christmas coming up and all.” Luna stops and looks up at Loki. “No, sorry. Not Christmas. Yule.” She takes a screw from Loki’s hand and fits it into its proper spot. “Christmas is pagan in origin.”

“Indeed it is,” Loki grins. “But why do we need this?”

“Oh yeah. Uh, since we would get in all kinds of trouble if we lit a fire any bigger than a tea candle, I thought this would be the next best thing. You know, for symbolism.” She shrugs. “Keeps the occupants warm inside and ward off evil little spirits, even though we are warm enough without it.”

Loki propped an elbow in his knee. “I never would have thought of that. Using this.”

“Well,” Luna smirks, “that’s why you got me: to fill in any gaps you miss.”

“Oh, I thought I had you because Stark was ready and willing to put me in a maximum security prison if you didn’t offer your home,” Loki harmlessly teased, hoping she would get the humor. The light laugh she let out granted him reassurance.

“Ah, yes. Can’t forget that.”

The two sat quietly, the only noise being the metallic tapping of the screws and screwdriver. Once she was done, Luna made sure to check all four legs were tight before standing it upright. She checked and double-checked the instructions, taking a tally of the switches and dials and what their jobs were. Content with her work, she plugged it into the nearest outlet, adjusted the temperature dial, and flicked the switches to the ‘on’ position.

The heater and flames came to life, producing a soft orange glow accompanying the warm, gentle breeze. Luna sat in front of it and admired her new décor piece. Loki stood a ways behind her. He was underwhelmed, but the point of the thing wasn't to impress him. He knew so. He was honored she considered him, so he appreciated the new heater as well.

Having had enough, Luna got to cleaning up the spare cardboard, Styrofoam, and plastic scattered across the floor, tossing it all into the box it came in. She made a note to take care of it on another day. Dusting her hands, she sauntered over the counter and rested her elbow upon it. Loki mindlessly looked over her book collection as he contemplated her next move.

“Have I ever made pancakes with you here?” Luna asks. Loki spares her a glance and returns to his original activity.

“You’ve made cakes before.”

“Yeah, but like, in a pan. Have I done that?”

He lets his gaze take hold of her. “Not that I recall.”

She stands straight and brings her hands together. “Alright, let’s make some pancakes,” she states, making her way into the kitchen. “Nice, warm, fluffy boys.”

Loki followed her, intrigued by what is to come next. He had partaken in the Midgardian pancakes of old from many cultures, but he was eager to try her recipe. He stood by her side, head bent, and surveyed her as she took out the ingredients.

“Ok, to start off, I obviously don’t have a mixer,” Luna gestures to the counter, “so you might have to help me with something if you want it to go faster.”

Loki smirks. “Oh no, whatever shall I do?” He exaggerated, teasing her again. To his mild mockery, he received a soft scowl and placid swat on the arm. He could take it. He was a big boy.

“For now,” Luna took out a set of measuring spoons, “you can stand right here,” she placed her hands on the sides of his shoulders and maneuvered him a tad to her right.

Satisfied, Luna parceled out and mixed the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, all the while Loki peered over her shoulder. She was tempted to commandeer his help, but she remembered she wasn't a user by nature. She could do everything by herself, and everything she couldn't, she could learn. He was still a comfort to have around if only to fill the space for the moment.

Loki studied her movements, memorizing the measurements and the order the ingredients were added. How she turned the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into one uniform mix. The way she haphazardly added vanilla extract, but carefully measured and poured in a cup of milk. By her concentration, he assumed she had forgotten he was there. He didn’t mind. He preferred to watch in peace.

He saw her hand slow the stirring and folding of the batter, continuing to do so to a stop. Luna stretched and flexed her aching fingers. The pain wouldn’t ebb as fast as she would like, so she switched hands and kept going. With the mixture smooth to her liking, she set it aside and shook both hands out as she took the few steps to the fridge. From inside, she retrieved the carton of eggs and took two out. She broke them with ease, producing at most two taps from each of them, and emptied the whites out into a separate bowl.

A rotary egg beater in hand, Luna mechanically whipped the egg whites. It was times like these she wished she had the proper appliances, but she recalled how her mother always said that if you can do something without a machine, never bother getting one. It was easy to deal with as she had less expensive things to break or replace, but as she lived away from her mother and by her own rules, it greatly tempted her to buy a few. Not to say the thought hasn’t gone through her mind in the past. She never bothered when the opportunity came up.

The desire to purchase new equipment came to the forefront of Luna’s mind as the gears of the egg beater jammed in her hand and snapped apart. She bent her head and silently seethed at the pieces in her hands. Defeated, she slammed her right hand down on the counter.

“Dammit,” she growled and slid a hand over her forehead. The change in attitude caught Loki off-guard.

“What?” He said, creeping slowly to her side.

Luna lifted the piece in her left hand. “The egg beater broke.” She looked up at him sadly. “I’m sorry, Loki. I have to whip the whites to make the pancakes the way I need to make them, and without this, I can’t.” Her eyes fell to the bowl of eggless batter. She was faced with two options: toss it out or cover it for a later time. But she wished to do neither of them.

“Surely there’s another way.”

Luna huffed. “There is, but I would wreck my arm doing it.”

“How? And with what?” Loki pressed, placing his hands on his hips.

Luna looked back up at him dubiously. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. Now, do you have the instrument in question?”

Luna sighed and opened a drawer full of large metal utensils. Carefully digging around, she pulled out a whisk.

“It’s this.”

Loki held a hand out. “Here. Give here." She handed it to him, and he took it upon himself to take the bowl with the partially-beaten eggs in the other.

“Are you seriously planning on whipping those eggs by hand until they peak?” Loki shrugged. He was serious. “Can you really whip it fast enough?”

“Seeing is believing, so you’ll just have to watch.”

Luna could hardly believe him, but she was willing to let him prove it. “Alright. While you’re doing that, I’m going to go set up the other thing we got. You’ll need the time to yourself.” She threw the broken tool in the trash and made it a couple of steps out of the kitchen, but stopped. “Oh, and if you hurt yourself, don’t say I made you do it.”

Loki was surprised how accusatory she believed him to be, but he shook it off and turned the whisk around the bowl. He had been called worse things, and she was within her rights to practice caution. Faster and faster, he moved the egg whites to the best of his ability. Luna was right about how difficult it was. Lucky for him, he had the stamina and strength.

In his periphery, he spotted Luna taking apart the second box and extracting the object it housed. A slip of his hand drew his attention back to the bowl. He would have to keep his curiosity at bay for now. Judging by the faint white color of the eggs, he was making progress.

Soft music graced Loki’s ears. He had heard the tune before and found favor in it. A lively song by Ultravox. He paid no attention to the lyrics and title. His primary interest was to finish his job, but he allowed his body to sway and his foot to tap to the beat. No harm in enjoying some good music.

The steady rhythm coming from the stereo kept his whisk in time. Quickly enough, Loki found the eggs turning into white foam. He wondered if this was what Luna meant by ‘whip to peaks.’ He stopped and swirled the bowl around. It moved too fluidly for his liking, so, on he whisked. The eggs fluffed and stiffened more to his expectations, but Luna wasn’t there to inspect his work. He couldn’t know if they were up to her standard, and he would hate to disappoint.

Bowl and whisk cradled in his long arms, he padded over to his friend. A side glance from her confirmed she acknowledged his presence. He sat down beside her and placed the bowl next to him. The object she attended to took his attention for the time.

“What is this?” He asked.

“A Christmas tree. I didn’t think I would be allowed to have a real one in here, so I got this." Luna bent the wire branch until it sat perpendicular to the small trunk. “I know it’s fake and smaller than usual, but again, the symbolism counts for something.”

Loki grinned a little. “You could say, yes.”

Luna pulled at another branch and paused to admire her little tree. Pleased with it, for now, she sighed and gave her attention to Loki. "Are you done? With the thing?”

“I think so.” Loki took a last look inside the bowl and handed it to her. “Here.”

Slowly moving the whisk into the whites, she was dumbfounded. "You did this by hand? Completely? That fast?” They peaked the way she wanted them to.

“So unbelievable?” Loki contrived confidence, but he was still unsure.

“Uh, yeah,” Luna affirmed, a broad smile forming on her face. “Oh, Loki, it’s beautiful. Thank you.” The tension slowly gathering in Loki’s shoulder fell from him. She held nothing back. There was no reason for her to hide her appreciation. “Come on,” Luna rose to her feet, “let’s go finish it.” She looked down at Loki and nodded to the kitchen. “I really think you’ll like this.”

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

As they ate, the two friends took care to upkeep idle chatter between them, keeping the music going in the background. Neither was in the mood for television. The subdued company of the other was enough.

Taking a bite of her second pancake, Luna pieced her words together and posed another question to Loki. “What traditional dances did you have on Asgard?” She sipped her tea. “There has to be at least one.”

Loki snuck another pancake from the main stack, making it his fifth, and dug into it. “A good few, actually.”

“Do you remember any, or is that something aristocrats didn’t participate in?” Luna snarked with a smirk. Loki chuckled and shook his head a little.

“No, we did. From kings to commoners, everyone danced.”

“Which was your favorite, if you had one?”

Loki paused, pondering over the length of his life. “The Asgardian Wedding Dance,” he answered, a little more timid than he would like.

Luna rested her chin on her hand. “Sounds romantic.”

“It was the tradition.” He shrugged, taking another bite of his meal. “Every marriage, no matter how high or low, enlisted the participation of the patrons in attendance. Aside from the children too young and those incapable, it was required of everyone to know it and join in.”

“And I assume you knew how.”

“Oh, of course," Loki stated, as though the thought of him not being able to perform it was blasphemous by itself. “For royal marriages, the newly-wedded couple go first, then the king and queen alongside them, then the princes and princesses,” he gestures to himself, “and so on until everyone got a turn or two.”

“And the newlyweds keep dancing? Until everyone gets to?” Luna had trouble imagining such a feat.

“Yes.” He took another bite. “The stamina required was symbolic of their commitment to each other. At all the ones I’ve been to, never have I seen a couple falter.”

“And the king and queen?”

“Likewise.” He reminisced on watching his parents dance together, a pleasant image in his mind. “They never stumbled or quit before everyone got a chance.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I could dance until the sun rose twice over.” Loki thought back on his own jovial days of old. “My selected partners, however, could not. It was no fault of theirs. I was a little over-zealous at times.”

“You say it’s your favorite. Do you know why at all?” Luna tread lightly. She didn’t want Loki to suspect her of probing and clam up.

Luckily, he did not. “It was one of the very few times I could be seen as an equal prince of Asgard, not just the younger brother to the crown prince.”

Luna was taken aback a bit. “You mean no one did during any other time?” She brushed her fingertips against his arm. He shook his head. “Well, that’s disrespectful! Shame on them.”

Loki snickered. She was offended for him. How cute.

“There’s no use defending my honor. There’s nobody else here.” He waved his hand in the empty space.

“Yeah, but still. Shame on them.” Luna echoed herself, using her position as his friend and holding fast by him. “Do you remember how it goes?”

“I don’t think I could ever forget.”

Luna leaned in close, as though she were about to utter a secret. “Would it sacrilege if I asked you to show me?” Not a secret, but still scandalous in nature. She was not Asgardian, and surely not a princess by blood or marriage. He knew he would break multiple rules by taking her hand for this particular dance, but he was never one to listen to them, and there was no one around to see.

“Not in the slightest,” he lied, throwing in a charming smile, “though I do need a dance partner.” He dusted his hands off, stood up, and extended his hand to her. “If she be willing.” She eyed his open palm and moved her gaze to meet his.

“Lucky for you,” she said, slipping her hand into his, “she is.”

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Taglist: @the-doctor-9-10 @pinkieperil @sherlockfan4life

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that-fandom-sucks-tho · 6 years

Text

Circuits of the Heart

Title: Chapter 6: You Knew

Warnings: Slight swearing

A/N: Hey y'all sorry for the long wait. I felt bad so long wait means long chapter. Enjoy!

Also this amazing blog @ranting-badger right here is a writing account you should totes check out!!!!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

While I had thought the outside of the mansion was impressive it was nothing compared to the inside. The foyer had floors of marble that led to a grand staircase. Guests were milling about with fancy drinks and small cubes of food. A chandelier made the space brighter, if that was even possible. The crystals sparkled and small rainbows could be seen if you tilted your head just right.

“Wow, I thought Nightwing said Rodney Slane was a small mob boss. How did he get a place like this with petty crimes?” Wally whispered into my ear. I had been thinking the exact same thing.

“The missiles make more sense after this revelation” I whispered back.

We walked through the crowd with no one paying attention to us. They did not know who we were and they felt no reason to change that. I pulled up the blueprints of mansion on my internal interface to find the door we needed. I craned my neck and saw that it was hiding behind a young looking guard. He seemed to be no older than 16 and his face held the nerves of being relatively new.

“Wally, our door is blocked by an opponent. What should we do?”

“Well we can’t fight him that would bring too much attention to us. Quick, make out with him that’s always a good distraction.” Wally shoved me in the direction of the guard.

“If that is what you suggest, I can try” I stated with determination.

“She will not be making out with any guard!” Nightwing yelled into the comms. Both Wally and I flinched at the sudden change in volume.

“Geesh, I was mostly kidding. Though she should flirt with him to try and get him away from the door.” Wally said seriously, for probably the first time ever.

“Ah, yes. At our ‘sleepover’ the girls taught me how to do this flirting technique. I feel that I could adequately apply it and make him move.” I started marching forward at the young man.

“Wait now. You don’t need to-” Nightwing started.

“I will complete my mission however I need to. If you continue to distract me I will shut off the comms.”

I glided over to the door making eye contact with the guard and smiled warmly at him. When I was speaking about the flirting I tried to be confident but in reality I was nervous as hell. I had never done this before and if I messed this up we would not be able to access the computer.

“Alright do what you need to. Also Circuit?” Nightwing murmured into my ear.

“Yes?”

“Remember to smile, you look beautiful when you smile. He won’t be able to resist.” Warmth pooled into my stomach and made a fluttering sensation erupt.

As I walked over to the gentleman his eyes widened and he gulped nervously. Obviously he had not expected to be getting any attention from the attending guests. He stood up straighter and shifted his eyes around trying to see what was happening.

“Mam this is not the way to the restroom.” He nodded in the direction I assume the bathroom was.

“Oh, I am not looking for the restroom. I came over here to talk to you.” I brushed a lock of hair behind my ear and looked up through my lashes, as my lessons had instructed. His ears turned scarlet and he cleared his throat.

“Mam, I am just a guard not an actual guest.”

I walked closer until we were only a few inches apart. “I know, it is just, you are so handsome and I could not imagine not talking to you.” Compliment them for their egos, check.

“Really?”

“Of course.” I leaned forward just a little. Men like imagining mating encounters as Artemis said. Now the young boy’s face was fully red.

“My name’s Jared.”

I stood up on my tip toes and I whispered into his ear. “Well, Jared how about we arrange to meet in the garden in ten minutes and we can talk.” As I pulled away from him I grazed my hand down his arm. Light touches are a plus.

He quickly nodded.

I walked away from him and made my way towards Wally. When he saw me his face was full of shock.

“I had no idea you had such game. I think that boy is in love now.” Wally smiled brightly and patted me on the back.

“I was not playing a game. I was simply utilizing the instructions I learned from the other girls. I’m guessing I did well then?”

“You did great! He’s left the door wide open for us to sneak into.”

“It is sad that I will not be meeting him in the garden. He will surely feel horrible.”

“Take it from a fellow heartbreaker, it happens don’t feel bad. Now let’s go before we lose our chance.”

We approached the door slowly as to not raise suspicions. Many times we had to stop and pretend to be chatting when people were looking at us. It was painstaking because the boy could return anytime or someone else could notice the unguarded door. When we finally slipped through it was like I could breathe again.

Pulling up the blueprints again I followed the trail to the computer room. The door had a fingerprint scanning lock. Whoever had enabled this lock figured it made them safer. They assumed their secrets and lies were protected. They were wrong.

My fingers grasped the sides of the lock. The metal was cool and smooth under my touch; it is clearly of high quality material. The electricity danced through my fingers and rushed up my arm. It reached my processor and I felt its reluctance to release its hold. I had to push harder than normal and the golden glow of my power started to seep out. I felt the groaning of the lock and then I heard a beep.

“I have unlocked the door.” I said as I pushed the door open lightly. The room was cooled making goosebumps pop up on my skin.

“Whoa that’s a lot of hardware” Wally whistled.

He was right; the amount of computers and servers was enormous. The scope made me more nervous. I had never infiltrated such an extensive system.

“The size is quite… overwhelming.” I whispered more to myself than Wally.

“Just stay whelmed; you’ve got this.” Nightwing responded.

“That usage has no meaning to me nor the english language.”

“It means you’ve got this so stay whelmed.”

With that I stepped forward and began my task. The clack of the keyboard filled the room otherwise engulfed in silence. I initially tried to hack without using my powers. I was proficient in regular computer skills and this was the first thing I learned.

“How long is this gonna take? I don’t know when someone might want to get in here.” Wally paced nervously in a circle, but in superspeed. A scorch mark was starting to blacken the carpet beneath his feet.

“Wally if you do not want our presence detected leaving a mark on the carpet is not what we should be doing. If you are really worried go keep watch.” I continued with my mission.

I was flying through folders, firewalls, and data; nothing could stop me now.

Suddenly the computer screen went blank and then a singular word began flashing on the screen.

Intruder. Intruder. Intruder.

I flung back from my seat. This was not good. They had an alerting system that I had missed. How had I missed it?

“Circuit what’s happening? What’s wrong?” Wally came up from behind me to see what was on the screen. “That is not good.”

“I missed their alarm system; I need to shut it down from the source. I need to recover the rest of the files as well.” I marched over to the servers. I placed my hand on the exposed metal and began the work.

Images, words, and numbers were flying past my inner monitor. A lab, hits on people, the main boss. Then me, lots of information on me. Pictures of me, intel on me, and my lab footage. Coordinates for Mount Justice. Coordinates for my lab; my home. I pulled faster needing all of the data. Its secrets opened up for me and rushed faster and faster. Warnings flashed in my vision but I did not stop. The power surged through me and then it was around me. Crackling and flashing as I bent and conducted it.

“Circuit, Circuit. What’s happening? Can you hear me? We’ve gotta get out of here.” Wally was yelling over the noise but he sounded faint and distant. My vision blurred as the warning became louder and larger in my monitor.

A loud pop and then silence. My ears were ringing and the room swayed. All I could focus on was the information coursing through my brain. A hand was pulling me out of the room but everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Thundering footsteps were rushing after us and yells of outrage. Then the world became streaks of color as Wally rushed me back to limo.

“Quick, drive us back to the jet. Now!” The driver whipped out kicking up loose gravel as the tires spun. Hands were shaking my shoulders as the world started to come into focus. “Circuit!”

“I am okay and I can hear you at a regular decibel, no need to yell.” I put my hands on my temples trying to massage out the piercing pain that I felt.

“What happened? One moment you were fine and the next electricity was zipping in and out of you. Did you find anything out?”

“Yes I found lots of things.” I stared out of the window trying to collect my thoughts.

The attack on me in the warehouse a year ago was not an accident. They had not randomly found me. They were there specifically there for me. This mob knew who I was and had extensive research on me. They had targeted Mount Justice because of me. My lab, my home, was featured prominently in their intel. I had seen my last days there; the days before the lab had been destroyed in an accident.

No, not an accident. This mob, whoever they were, had destroyed my home and killed everyone in it.

A thought hit me as I was sitting watching the scenery pass us on our way to the airport where our jet was. Nightwing had been silent since I entered the control room.

“Nightwing, Nightwing? Are you there?” I spoke into my comms.

Only a fizzle of static could be heard on the other side. Either I had fried it with my electrical outburst or he had logged off.

Our arrival back to the base was one of quiet actions. Our jet landed and we walked out to meet everyone on the tarmac. Everyone was there to see what had happened, as we had not checked-in in over an hour. Batman stood soberly behind the group. Watching and monitoring, making connections and collecting information. A fury built in my gut and seeped into every part of my being. I stormed over to Batman.

“You knew. You knew what they were, what they did. Did you not?” My eyes blurred at the memories of fire and smoke and ash. At the memories of hands pawing at me and the screams sounding out as hands dragged me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Batman stated calmly. His masked face giving away no emotions.

“Do not lie to me. You are Batman. You know everything.” I was spitting my words with venom.

Batman made a long pause. Clearly debating the fact that my statement was true but also not wanting to tell me his knowledge.

“Fine. I knew this information but I was not entirely sure. I needed more intel before I jumped to conclusions.”

“That is why you sent me in there. To get the data you could not acquire. Was that the rush for the mission? Why would you send me in there if you knew I was their main target?” Everyone involved in the mission had seemed so at ease. Did they know?They had no qualms with putting my life in danger if it meant their gain. Actually, everyone but one person.

I turned on my heel and set my glare and anger on my new target. Nightwing. The Boy Wonder. Batman’s trusty sidekick.

“You knew as well. Did you not? Is that why you felt reluctance in sending me there? Why would you not tell me?” A crackle of electricity shot from my fingers. This seemed to be happening more often. My emotions fueled the sparks as they danced around my body.

As I looked into Nightwing’s eyes I saw many things; remorse, fear, sadness, concern but most of all guilt.

As the others surrounding us backed away, he held his ground. Lights started to flicker and my warning panels popped up again. The amount of power I was conducting was at a dangerous level. I had forgotten that my powers could do this but in this moment I was glad. Glad no one could come near me; glad no one could stop my fury.

Nightwing held his hands up in surrender. His eyes pleading with me to understand the words he had not shared yet; the words he could not share. I kept advancing slow and menacingly waiting for the answer I knew he would say.

One last look of defeat before the traitorous word left his lips.

"I knew."

@lilylovelyxo @jadedhillon @gingerrosecosplay

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thesoftdumbass · 6 years

Text

Beware the Creeper

A Star Trek AOS fanfiction

Supernatural AU

Posted: October 31st, 2017

Words: 6K (because I can be a wordy hoe)

Pairings: Reader x Leonard McCoy, Nyota Uhura x Jim Kirk

Summary: You and Nyota are ghost hunters that get trapped inside a haunted hospital with supernaturalists Jim and Leonard. How will you get out of this situation?

Warnings: ghosts, weapons, abandoned sanatorium, mentions of death and disease, brief mention of suicide, brief mention of experimental surgery, brief mentions of torture, being trapped, un-edited

Pre-A/N: This fic is based off of a real place called Waverly Hills Sanatorium in my home state of Kentucky. I have never been but I’ve done some research and I hope this isn’t too off-base. I hope this gives good spoopy vibes. Enjoy!

-Tay

(This moodboard was made with pictures from pinterest)

You pulled up the long drive leading to the entrance to the hospital around dusk. Glancing over to Nyota, she smiles at your apprehensive expression.

"Are you sure we have to take this case? The kid wasn't hurt, he just got scared," you ask her.

"Yes, YN. A teenage boy saw an apparition, and when he tried to flee, couldn't get the door to open. He was stuck on the fourth floor for two hours before he was able to leave."

You mumbled under your breath something about nosy kids having to break into haunted buildings to get their kicks, while Nyota got out of the car and opened the trunk, grabbing her duffel bag.

"How about once we finish here, we can take a small break from cases and relax. Sound good?"

You vacate the driver's seat and join her behind the car, grabbing your own gear. "I guess, Ny. This place just gives me the creeps. Give me a ravenous vampire or a wendigo any day, but a haunted hospital?" You give a slight shudder at that. "I am not a fan of this."

"I know hospitals weird you out, just give it a night at least. If we don't find anything here, we move on," your best friend told you, placating.

"Okay, okay. There's not anybody here, right?"

"They closed their overnight tours for the season, we should be alone."

"Then let's go," you said, your voice laced with faux enthusiasm.

The two of you walked to the front of the building and opened the main entrance, the padlock already having been busted. You walked in, your heavy-duty flashlight illuminating the way, Nyota by your side.

Looking around the dilapidated first story, you suppress another shudder. The building seems empty except for plaster falling from the walls and dead leaves and debris coming in through broken windows. You give a sigh and follow Uhura's lead down the hallway.

Neither of you notice the van pulling up in front of the abandoned sanatorium, and you also don't notice two bickering men entering the building loaded down with camera equipment. It's only when they come within earshot and Nyota's head pops up from around a corner that you notice anything off.

"Do you hear that, YN," Ny inquires in a hushed tone.

"Yeah," you trail off, listening. "Are there people here? That doesn't sound like an apparition." Nyota pulled you into a patient room while two men walked closer and their words became clear.

"And why do we have to spend our time here?" The man with dark hair said, and his companion gave him a playful glare as you spied from behind a door. "All I'm sayin' is, we could be somewhere else. There's a place just a few miles away that's famous for their mint juleps. I read about it online."

"C'mon Bones, this is our job. We investigate creepy, haunted places, and we do it on camera. Waverly Hills is said to be one of the most haunted places in America. We can't pass up this opportunity!" the tall blond exclaimed.

Before they could pass you up altogether, you stepped into their path with your shotgun raised, Uhura behind you doing the same. The blond man yelped and dropped his pack while 'Bones' just muttered curses under his breath, raising his hands in defense.

"It's obvious y'all aren't cops, so who are you," you question them.

The pretty blond with electric blue eyes steps forward, his hands also raised. "My name is James T. Kirk and this," gesturing to the handsome brunet with hazel eyes, "is Leonard McCoy. We're supernaturalists, we travel the country recording ourselves in haunted locations. We're just here to film."

Nyota stands up from where she was kneeled checking the dropped bag. "That checks out. They just have camera equipment and snacks in the bag."

Giving them a look that simply said 'really,' the blond dropped his hands and whined defensively, "I get low blood sugar."

You rolled your eyes and lowered your shotgun that was filled with rock salt, and turned around to retrieve your duffel bag from where you left it in the other room. You returned to find Nyota standing in front of James and Leonard with her arms crossed.

"I'm sure you can find the way out," Ny says, practically shooing them away.

"Wait wait," Leonard as you learned, butt in. "Now you know why we're here, but why are you two lurkin' around here all by yourselves?"

You snort attractively. "That's not your concern, and don't you worry about us being alone, we can handle ourselves."

"Not to piss off the people with shotguns, but we're staying. We came here to do a job and we're not leaving until it's done," blue eyes stands his ground.

"Listen James, we have a job to do. So find your way out, or we'll show you out," Nyota said calmly but with a quiet authority in her tone. James and Leonard grabbed their belongings and turned around, heading in the direction of the exit.

You waited a few moments before you spoke again. "So now that those bozos are gone, ready to get started?" Ny agreed and you both headed towards the fourth floor, starting to search for cold spots.

Meanwhile, the supernaturalists were sneaking their way through the hospital, filming.

"My name is Jim Kirk and I'm coming to you from Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. This building opened it's doors as a tuberculosis hospital in 1910, and later renovated in 1926 to accommodate more patients. Over the years, thousands of men, women, and children spent time in this hospital for treatment. Many patients died from the disease itself, but many were subjected to bizarre and barbaric experimental treatments. Waverly Hills closed in 1961 only to be re-opened as a geriatric sanatorium a year later, where horrible conditions and mistreatment led to many more fatalities, and was shut down by the state. With such a tragic history, it is not surprising how much paranormal activity and strange happenings take place here. We're here communicate with some of these spirits, and try to help them find their way to their final resting place. Come with us as we explore this border between worlds."

With the beginning monologue for their episode recorded, Leonard stepped out from behind the camera. "You sure like to hear yourself talk, don't you?"

"Don't be mean, Bones. The viewers needed some backstory."

Bones let out an unconvinced "uh-huh" and picked up his tripod, folding it up. "Where to next?"

"I think we should go to the upper levels, there have been a few suicides in room 502, so we can start there."

When they were passing by the fourth floor, though, Leonard noticed that the door was left cracked, where it was supposed to be closed and locked. Putting up a hand to stop his friend from passing, Len crept closer to the door and pushed it open a little more. Before he could turn back around, Jim pushed past him and went bounding into the main hallway of level four.

"We've gotta check this out," Jim yelped happily.

Bones let out a loud shushing noise and followed cautiously after his friend, trying to prevent him from doing something stupid.

"Jim, those women are still here somewhere, and I don't want another shotgun barrel shoved in my face."

"Relax, Bones, I'll be careful," Jim says right before he trips over a section of the floor that had fallen in, hollering and catching himself last minute against the wall right beside him. Turning back around, he faced his friend with a sheepish smile. "That was an accident."

"You are such an infant sometimes," Bones grumbled as hecautiousl made his way into the same hallway as Jim, leaving the door to the stairwell open behind him.

"Did you hear that," you question Nyota as you're both inspecting the fourth story. She shrugs and keeps watching her EMF meter. "I'll be back," you say distractedly, already cocking the shotgun in your hands. You make your way out of the patient room you were in and cautiously turn the corner into the hallway, your face dropping into a sneer when you saw the source of the noise.

Standing before you were the two men you and Ny had sent away earlier, Leonard and James. "Are you freaking kidding me," you say with a clenched jaw.

"Nice to see you again," the blond smirks.

"I thought we told you to leave."

"And I thought we told you that we weren't leaving until we did what we came to do," he bit back.

You roll your eyes and turn away from the nuisances, making your way back to Uhura. Walking across the uneven floor, you hear more than feel, the two following in your footsteps, literally. You decide to leave it alone for now, preventing yourself from making rash decisions.

As you walk back into the large patient room, Nyota looks up from her task. "Did you find out what the noise was?"

You just walk to the side of the door, letting your two shadows make their way into the open space beside you. "We have company," your voice monotone.

Her almond eyes narrow on the men in question before looking to you. "I thought they left."

"Me too. I guess they just sneaked around the first floor before coming up the stairs."

You both turned to look at them. "Listen you two, I don't care what you do. You could dress in drag and do the hula, as long as you do it somewhere else. Have I made myself clear," Uhura sassed at them, and you gave them a smug smile.

"Ladies, I'm sure we can work something out. We can both just work around each other, we don't even have to be on the same floor," the one named Leonard said.

You and Ny have a silent conversation, coming to a decision. "Fine," she speaks out loud after a moment. "as long as you two promise to keep clear of the fourth floor, we guess you can stay." James pumps his fist in the air, and Leonard grins. "We'll walk you to the stairs to make sure you actually leave this time."

"Done! Deal," blue eyes replies readily.

"Lead the way," you gesture for them to walk in front of you.

As the four of you are walking through the cluttered hallway, James breaks the silence. "Y'know, I never caught your name," he flirts with Nyota.

"And you're not going to," she replies confidently. He keeps speaking, shameless.

"Well my name is James, but you can call me Jim. Or you could just call me." Jim's buddy rolls his eyes and you snicker at the glare on your friend's face. You reach the door that leads to the stairwell and stop, not resisting the smirk on your face as you bid them good luck in the ridiculously haunted abandoned sanatorium.

Jim pulled on the door to the stairwell, but it wouldn't budge. "What the- it won't open!"

"Let me try." All four of you attempted to open the door with increasing intensity. The door may have been heavy, but the problem was more than that.

"Guys, stop. Its obviously not going to open for us. There must be somebody keeping us inside."

"Somebody?" Leonard spoke.

"Something," you clarified. "We should go back to the room, we can try to come up with a plan to get out."

Once you're back in the patient treatment room, Leonard pulled his phone from his pocket and frowned down at it. "I don't have any service to call for help."

"Of course not. Whatever is keeping us in here obviously don't want us to leave." Nyota said, then turned to you. "YN, can you find us a way out of here?"

"I can try," you said with little confidence. You bent over and picked up your duffel bag, placing it on one of the beds to dig through it. You pulled out a map of the building and started to examine it by flashlight. "There are porches on every level for the patients to get fresh air, but we're up four flights of stairs. We could be hurt, or worse, if we land wrong. If we could get to the first floor, there's a tunnel that leads outside the grounds, they used to bring supplies in through it during winter, and also transport bodies out so the other patients wouldn't see."

You continue to study the map silently, trying to find some way out of the building. The others in your little group started thinking of other ways out. Nyota noticed that Jim was being uncharacteristically quiet, even for having just met him. "You okay," she asks, bumping his shoulder with hers.

"I'm fine, its just... I've never been in a situation like this before. The most paranormal activity I've witnessed has been benevolent spirits, they weren't trying to hurt me. I guess I just don't know what to do."

"Well, me and YN have been in plenty of situations like this before, and we've always found a way out. Have trust."

"How can I trust you if I don't even know your name," Jim said playfully, bumping her shoulder back.

"Uhura." At Jim's confused expression, she spoke again. "My name, it's Uhura."

"What, they don't have last names where you're from?"

"Uhura is my last name."

"What, they don't have first names where you're from?"

"Not one that you'll hear," and that was the end if that conversation, for now.

"GUYS!" you exclaim. Uhura and Jim shift their attention to you, and Leonard looks up from checking the footage from his body cam.

"Did you find anything," he asks.

"I think I did! There's a fire escape on this floor, it leads to a set of stairs outside the building. It might be closed, though. I've never known a vengeful spirit to overlook something like this, but its worth a try. There's also a kitchen on this level, we can look for salt there. I didn't bring any in my bag."

"Why do we need salt? And what is a vengeful spirit,” Jim asks, perplexed.

"They are usually ghosts that have been done wrong, usually by the way they died. They remain after death and try to right the wrong done to them. They act violently to try and avenge the wrong, but their obsession often leads them to hurting innocent people," Nyota explains.

"Okay, so how do we stop it," questions Jim.

"The best way is to burn the body. Cover it in salt and lighter fluid and light it up. Salt also keeps ghosts away. You can put it in the windows and doors or stand in a circle of it so they can't touch you. Eventually it can get blown away with the wind, but salt works in a pinch." You snorted at your inadvertent joke.

"How do y'all know so much about this stuff," Leonard asks incredulously with a southern accent that you failed to notice earlier.

Uhura sighed before informing them. "I am a hunter. So is YN. We kill monsters and supernatural creatures that hurt human beings. That's why we're here tonight, a teenage boy saw an apparition, and was trapped on this floor for two hours. Apparently, whatever did that doesn't like letting people leave."

"You hunt ghosts?" When Uhura nodded in answer to Jim's question, his jaw went slack. "That is so hot!" A perfectly manicured eyebrow raises. "And I mean that in the most respectful of ways." Uhura rolled her eyes.

"We should split into two groups. One can check the fire escape to see if it's open, and the other can search the kitchenette and dining area for salt." Jim and Nyota nod in agreement, but Leonard has some concerns.

"Haven't you ever seen a scary movie? That's how people get killed!"

"Lighten up, Bones. It'll be faster this way. The quicker we do this, the quicker we can go get those mint juleps you wouldn't shut up about," Jim says with an eyebrow wiggle.

Leonard's eyebrow quirks up in interest, but he still doesn't look convinced. "That's alright, Len. I'll protect you from the big bad ghost," you coo sarcastically, picking up your shotgun for safety. He rolls his eyes but comes when you beckon him closer with your fingers, handing him your flashlight. "I'll check the kitchen. You guys got the fire exit?"

"Yeah, you go on," Ny tells you.

"Try not to make out in the middle of the hallway," you call over your shoulder as you leave, not missing Uhura give you the finger, both you and Len laughing on your way out.

You make your way into the hallway with Leonard by your side, your shoulders brushing every few steps. You decide that if you're going to be trapped in a building with this guy, you should at least get to know him a little better. "So Bones, huh?"

He chuckled. "It's a nickname Jim gave me in college. It's a long story."

"All right then," you say and continue to walk in silence.

"So YN, what happens if we can't get out the fire escape?”

"A ghost's presence is stronger at night, along with the energy they can manipulate. If we can't find an exit, we're likely stuck here until dawn."

"Who do you think is keeping us here," Leonard asks.

"Well I highly doubt it's Timmy the ghost boy," you joke. "There have been a lot of deaths here over the years, a lot of creepy happenings. A lot of gorey experimental surgeries were performed back in the day, trying to treat the tuberculosis, and a lot of the patients suffered painful deaths. The boy that got trapped on this floor saw an apparition of a man in a white cloak that we think was a doctor. Honestly though, it could be any number of spirits left behind."

You were finally in the kitchenette, so you sat your shotgun down on the unsteady table and started rifling through drawers while Bones opened cabinets and searched. There wasn't much to be desired about the small room, the wallpaper peeling in some places, and sections of drywall completely missing in others. The whole kitchen was destroyed, making it hard to walk safely through it. You didn't find any table salt there, so you asked your companion.

"Anything?"

"Nope. You?"

"Nothing. Maybe we should check the dining room and the pantry," you suggest.

The two of you stay together, walking side by side as you find the pantry. There is a carton of salt there and you grab it, letting out a small excited noise.

Leonard lets out an amused huff before grabbing your hand, "Let's go tell them the good news, hopefully they have some for us."

"Okay. Oh, wait! I left my gun in the kitchen."

You and Leonard head back into the kitchen but you pause in your footsteps when you take a deep breath. "Is that... Do you smell something baking?"

"It smells like freshly baked bread," Len contributes after inhaling deeply.

You cautiously step forward to grab your weapon, feeling Bones right behind you. After picking it up, you start to turn around but freeze where you stand. Before you is a transparent figure, clad in a lab coat. Before you can even take a brreath, the apparition is turning his back to you and walking into the dining room. It disappears into thin air and you let out the breath you hadn't realised you were holding.

"So, that happened..." you say awkwardly a few minutes later, after realizing you were standing in silence. You turn to Leonard when he fails to say anything, giving him an inquisitive look. He is still staring at the space that the doctor disappeared into with his mouth gaping. It looks like he's having a panic attack, breathing shallow, so you place your hand on his. "Hey, are you okay?"

Leonard opens and closes his mouth several times but he doesn't make a sound. "Let's get you back to the room, okay?" When he nods, you steer him by the shoulders towards the hallway, in the opposite direction than the spirit headed.

You are almost back to the room when you hear a shot being fired. "Ny?!"

"Jim!" Bones comes to his senses enough to start off in a sprint before you pull him back by the arm, keeping him by your side. You raise your gun and cock it, ducking into rooms one by one and making sure you weren't taken by surprise. It feels like forever but it only takes minutes for you to arrive at your destination. You run into the patient room and see Nyota and Jim standing there, NY still had her gun raised.

"Try not to make out in the middle of the hallway!"

Jim raised an eyebrow at YN's comment and a laugh slipped past his full lips. Nyota rolls her head in his direction, an unamused expression lining her features.

"What? I thought that was funny."

Nyota rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night. "Let's go," she grabs her own flashlight and weapon, walking to the door and not looking back to see if Jim was following her. Kirk adjusted the small camera fixated on his jacket and followed a few steps behind her.

"So if they can't find the salt, what do we do then," Jim asked, catching up to Nyota. "I mean, this place closed down thirty-five years ago and they're not exactly holding dinner parties here."

"If it comes down to it, we can empty our shotgun shells. They're filled with rock salt to make the spirits dissipate. It's not permanent, but it keeps them away for a little while."

A look of awe passed over Jim's face before a large grin took over. Nyota suppressed a smirk at having impressed him, and continued walking.

"So you said you're supernaturalists, how did you start all this," Uhura gestures vaguely, trying to start a conversation.

"When I was a little boy, my house was haunted. Me and my brother Sam would try to communicate with the spirit. It wasn't malevolent or anything, he was in the Navy in his youth, Captain Pike. He just seemed lost and in pain, and I promised myself that one day I would help other spirits like him move on to the next life instead of being stuck in-between worlds. I've spent my whole life studying paranormal entities, and I love what I do." It was silent except for the sound of their footsteps, and Jim asked a question he had been wondering. "How did you become a hunter?"

"When I was fifteen, a vampire killed my parents right in front of me, drained their blood slowly. If Jody hadn't showed up and killed the vampire, I would have been next. She took me in and raised me as a hunter."

"I'm sorry about that," Jim said softly.

"Don't be, it's in the past."

They arrived at the end of the extensive hallway and located the fire exit. Jim immediately reached for the handle, pulling with all of his strength, to no fruition.

"Bila shaka hatuwezi kuondoka," Uhura muttered to herself. "I knew it wouldn't be that easy, whatever is keeping us here wouldn't overlook this."

"What now?"

"Now we go back to the treatment room and hope Leonard and YN found salt so we can last until morning when we can get out." They start the treacherous walk back to their home base.

"I am so glad that we didn't get stuck here alone, you guys really know what you're doing," Jim admits.

"Lucky for you, because you two wouldn't last the night by yourselves."

James opens his mouth to defend himself and his best friend when he catches Uhura's smirk in his peripherals, sporting a small grin himself. "Good one."

"Thank you," Ny says proudly but her steps hesitate. Jim notices and gives her a concerned look.

"Are you all right?"

Nyota turns her head, evaluating their surroundings. "I'm fine, but we're not alone,' she says slowly.

Jim's back stiffens and he turns around in a quick circle, looking for their company. When he doesn't notice anything imediately off, he faces back around to Uhura. "There's a shadow-figure behind us, watching from the doorway to the nurse's station," she says quietly.

Jim pivots and looks toward the place in question, he squints his eyes and sees what Ny is talking about. There is a dark silhouette, shaped distinctly like a man, tall and thin. Uhura calls Kirk's name and captures his attention. "We should go back to room 423," she said, and they started walking again, the only sounds heard were their quiet breathing and footsteps crunching on the littered floorboards.

They make it back to the room and walk inside, immediately going to Nyota's duffel bag. While she is taking out her EMF reader and turning it on, Jim gets an uneasy feeling. His head starts to swivel, checking all around them before stopping in the corner of the large room.

"Uhura!" Jim yells in surprise, extending a hand and pointing his finger. Uhura stands up from her seat on a patient bed and turns to face the corner that Jim brought attention to. There stands another shadow, this time a woman in a patient gown, facing away from them.

Jim and Nyota watch as the shadow turns to face them, her features blurred. The woman starts inching towards them, mumbling repeatedly. As she gets closer, her words become clear. "Get out," the detached voice croaks out.

Nyota grabs her gun, cocking it and letting out a shot when the woman is only inches away, sending salt into the apparition. She immediately dissipated, her energy going elsewhere. "Believe me, we're trying," Ny says deadpan.

Shouts are heard from down the hallway, and when Leonard and YN return to room 423, they are out of breath.

"Nyota, are you all right?"

"What happened in here?"

Both YN and Leonard ask at the same time. After Nyota and Jim tell their story and the bad news about the fire escape, the other half of their group do the same along with the good news about the discovery of salt.

"I don't get why this thing would tell us to get out if it's keeping us here in the first place," Bones questions. By now it is past two in the morning and you've all been trapped on the fourth floor for hours, growing more tired of this place by the second.

"What if something else is keeping us here? You said the doctor didn't act aggressively, and the teen that was also trapped here was only scared by the apparition he saw, and couldnt get out when he tried to run. What if it is a completely separate entity locking the doors?" Nyota hypothesizes.

"Yeah, but what? We haven't done anything wrong to any of these spirits," Jim points out.

"It doesn't matter," you speak up. "Vengeful spirits may start out trying to get retribution, but that fixation can drive them crazy, making them forget their purpose, even who they were when they were living. Given enough time, the spirit could turn on a loved one without even knowing or caring if they are innocent or not." Then you add under your breath, "I should know."

Len hears your quiet confession though and asks while Ny and Jim venture into their own conversation. "What do you mean 'you should know'" he asks softly.

You sigh sadly before starting to tell your story. "I was little girl when my best friend died in a car accident. We were really close, and we lived right beside each other. When I started seeing her around both our houses I just thought she was coming to keep me company. I would still tell her everything, and she would listen. I guess as I grew up, I started living my life as I was supposed to, and she was angry that she never got to. I started to notice that, even though it had been almost eight years since her death, Janice wasn't the same as she used to be. Whenever I told her something new that happened to me that week, she would get angry and things would start flying. She wasn't the same girl that I used to know, and I knew it. I stopped talking to her and eventually she stopped visiting me. When I graduated high school I wanted to know more, so I started digging, and found out a lot of information about things that I didn't even know exist. I started hunting and I haven't looked back since, I just hope Janice found her peace."

After you're finished, Leonard looks at you with sad eyes. "I'm sorry, YN." You wave away his concerns and plaster on a smile. You busy yourself with looking through your duffel bag to avoid awkward conversation, instead pulling out your tire iron. Len looks at you curiously and you answer his un-asked question. "Iron, it also keeps away ghosts. Just swing it at their body and they should leave for a few minutes."

Bones raised his eyebrows and replied with a simple "Gotcha."

You straightened up when you heard what sounded like a scream coming from the corridor. "Guys?"

"We heard it," Jim spoke.

"It was only a matter of time before something else came at us. Should we go see who it is this time," Uhura asked rhetorically. You picked up the tire iron that you had previously sat on the bed beside you, handing it to Leonard and standing up, grabbing and loading your gun.

"Let's go then."

Nyota follows your actions and places another iron in Jim's hand and followed you into the hall. You follow the sounds to one end of the building and end up on the other end of the building, in the surgery wing. The wails were getting louder and more frequent, high pitched almost like a child shrieking in pain.

The screams were the loudest when you reached the minor surgery room, forcing you to cover your ears. As soon as all four of you are inside the room, the wails stop and the door slams shut. Kirk's eyes widen and he bites his lip. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that wasn't the wind."

"Nope," you say, popping the last sylabil.

"Great, now we're stuck in an even smaller space. Just what my claustrophobia needed," Len's grumbles reach your ears, making you smile genuinely this time.

A beam of light shines beside you, startling you. "Sorry," Ny apologizes but you also pull out your flashlight.

You walk in circles around the room while the others look around, blatantly avoiding the operating table in the center of the room. It was on one of these passes that you see it. You were sweeping your light across the ceiling, inspecting the cobwebs when your eyes move past. You do a double take and almost fall over in shock.

"What the..." you whisper, not able to find your voice.

"What?" NY asks, following your line of sight to where the creature currently was on the ceiling.

You walk backwards, bumping into Leonard who was behind you. He puts his hand on your waist to keep you steady while you recall something you had read in an article online. "The creeper."

"The creeper? I thought that thing left in the 60s!” Jim gasped as everybody's eyes followed the shadow crawling across the ceiling.

The creeper was on all fours, moving in an animalistic manner, coming to a rest above the operating table.

You were the first to take action, shooting a salt round into it, making it disappear. "So I'm guessing that's what's trapping us here."

"I'm guessing you're right," Nyota walks to your side, examining the spot that the 'thing' was just moments ago.

"Am I the only one here that doesn't know what the heck "the creeper" is?" Bones makes air quotes with his fingers.

"The creeper is a manifestation of energy that first appeared in 1967. According to eyewitness accounts, it materialized to protect a young boy that was being subjected to electroshock therapy, protecting him when the machine was set too high, almost killing the boy," you supply.

"It stayed behind after they stopped the shocks, protecting the boy from bullies in the facility and supposedly left when Shadow Eyes did. I don't know why it's back though," Jim added.

Uhura sent it away again with a spray of rock salt. "I've read reports that its been seen around the sanatorium, but it didn't do anything like this."

"So it's unpredictable. Awesome. How do we get out of here," Len asks.

"I have an idea, but I can't guarantee any positive results. It could just piss it off."

"Do whatever you have to," Kirk voices what everybody is thinking and you nod.

When the creeper shows up again just minutes later and stalking towards you more aggressively, you shout the first thing on your mind to keep it from hurting Nyota, who it was closest to.

"Shadow Eyes!" It pauses its movements but resumes just seconds later, so you try again. "We're not trying to hurt Shadow Eyes, or you. We know that you came here to protect Richard all those years ago, but now we're trapped here, just like he was."

The creeper stops moving and turns its attention fully to you. You continue to speak once you see this, still holding your weapon aloft just in case.

"Richard's parents had him brought here and he couldn't leave. He was here for three weeks and I can only imagine how that must have felt, but you don't have to protect him now. Shadow Eyes is safe. You were his guardian but he doesn't need you for that anymore. Please, just let us leave. If you let us leave and not hurt anyone else, we won't come back."

Your words have their effect and you watch as the darkness around the creature disappears, and reveals the spirit of a woman in a nurse's uniform. She gives you a grateful smile and speaks in a kind voice. "Thank you for reminding me of who I was." You nod in acknowledgement and see her leave one final time, disappearing into a cloud of white.

You are able to leave the operating room and gather your stuff from room 423, finally making your way down the stairs and outside while it is still dark. You load yours and Nyota's duffel bags into the trunk, then lean against your car, watching as Nyota and Jim say goodbye a few feet away. Leonard comes over to your side and copies your stance, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That was pretty impressive in there, you saved us all."

"That was nothing," you say humbly.

"Really, YN. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't remember all that stuff about Shadow Eyes," Len insists.

"Well, thank you," you reply, tucking a loose strand of hair behind you ear.

"Maybe tonight, after we've all had showers and some rest, we can meet up and have some of those mint juleps I've heard so much about," you suggest biting your lip and Leonard's eyes follow the movement.

"I'd like that darlin'," he replies.

"Good. I'll see you later, Bones," you give him a wink and a kiss to the corner of his mouth, sliding into the driver's seat as Ny opens the passenger side door.

"Bye Nyota,” Jim accentuates her first name, cheekily reminding her that he did learn it without her having to tell him. "Call me?"

"We'll see," she replies but by the smile on her face there is a real possibility of her doing so.

You exchange goodbyes for now and turn around in the long drive, seeing out of the corner of your eye, a shadow figure watching you leave from the fourth floor. You bid adieu to Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and leave the grounds, hopefully for good. With the creeper gone you know that future visitors will be safe, and that's all that you could hope for.

(”Bila shaka hatuwezi kuondoka” = “Of course we can’t leave” in Swahili)

In Beware the Creeper, the spirit behind the creeper was a nurse at Waverly Hills at the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, and contracted the disease herself. Her spirit stayed behind, looking over the patients still inhabiting the building. When a 12 year old boy Richard Rollins was put under ECT that was set too high, the spirit of the nurse turned into The Creeper to keep the doctors and nurses from hurting him more and followed Richard when he left the grounds, but returned years later

Post-A/N: Like I said, Waverly Hills is a real place with a long and tragic history. It was a tuberculosis treatment hospital at the height of the epidemic here in the US, and is now one of the most haunted locations in the country. If you want to know more about Waverly, Shadow Eyes, or The Creeper, there are more than a few articles online that I recommend you read. All of the haunted happenings that I described here have happened to real people, with the exception of the entire OR scene. I exaggerated some parts but others have been witnessed.

Some other things:

-I wanted Reader and Uhura to be BAMFs who kick butt and take names, I hope that comes across.

-Reader and Uhura are loosely based on Sam and Dean Winchester, and Jim and Leonard are (very) loosely based on the Ghostfacers, Ed and Harry.

-I am not the best with attention to detail, and I know it shines through in my fics. I sometimes leave details open and I am sorry, please disregard this about me.

-Did you catch all of the cameos/quotes/references to Star Trek in this? There are a few of them.

I procrastinated hard on this one, guys. I promise I will try harder on my fics for the Holidays, which I will try to start soon.

I think that’s all I have to say (though it is alot. Wordy hoe, remember?) Please consider leaving notes if you liked this and prove my sister wrong. Thank you all so much for reading, have a safe and happy Halloween, lovelies!

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the-antiproduct-blog · 6 years

Text

Gather 'round y'all. I've quite a tale to tell.

It all started when our DM introduced a group of Card-Master type NPCs. They would throw cards at us which would have random magical effects. He decided beforehand that the leader had 2% chance of dropping a Deck of Many Things. Guess what? He rolled it. At the time, I was playing a Halfling Master Thrower by the name of Katarin, a character who will always have a special place in my heart. Katarin was a no-nonsense Lawful Neutral military officer from Yllarum, a desert city with a booming economy (this was a homebrew setting, by the way). Also in the party was Gully Teach, a vagabond deadpan snarking Human Swashbuckler/Dread Pirate whose biggest goal in life (as far as I could tell) was to finally obtain his own ship and crew and be a famous scourge of the seas. Gully and Katarin are the two most important characters in this story, and in general they were the two highest respected in the group. There was also Throng, The Half-Orc Barbarian, Lloyd, The Human Duskblade, and Marris, The Human Ranger. There was an Assassin too, but I don't remember his name and he didn't have too much of an influence on the story. My tale begins when party was roughly level 6 or 7. We had just successfully managed to stop a war from starting between humans and dwarves, and we were on our way to explain the situation to the Dwarven king in the city of Gundermount. Gully had attempted to buy a ship at a human port town along the way, but he got himself gypped out of his money buy a couple of less-than-savory types. In our effort to recover the stolen gold, we ran into the aforementioned card-throwing gnomes with Brooklyn accents. It ended up being an easy fight. After mopping them up, I looted one of the bodies and found a deck of cards in a box, upon which was written something to the effect of "The Fate of Us All" in Gnomish. I didn't think that much of it because I had never encountered or read about a Deck of Many Things, neither in nor out of character, so I simply put it in my bag to inspect later. Once we'd all settled down for the night however, Gully Teach saw Katarin handling the deck and flips his stack. Apparently he knows what it is. After choking out a quick explanation of how major the find was, he begs to be the first one to draw from it. We concede. Gully draws three cards. I don't recall what the later two were (they were something minor like getting a few thousand gp in gems), but the first card Gully drew was the Moon. He got four wishes. He wished for one million gold, to be famous, to be more dextrous, and for "a ship that cannot be pierced by any means". He ended rolling a reflex save to avoid getting crushed by the gold, but he got it. He got a +4 racial bonus to dex, but he also grew a monkey tail. He also got an adamantine Ironclad ship, and everyone knew his name. Then Katarin (me) draws. Not really liking to take chances, he goes for only one card. He draws the Star, and gets himself a +2 to dex. Throng and Lloyd weren't there at that point and time (their players were gone and their characters were doing something else), leaving only Marris. She drew the card that summoned a CR 17-something dread wraith. It looked as though our luck had run out at this point, but Marris had been holding on to a modified version of an Arrow of Slaying for the past three levels. It just so happened that Marris had a deep running hatred for the undead, so naturally her arrow was attuned to destroy them. It also just so happened that the wraith had an abysmal fort save, so she killed it in one shot. The DM rewarded her with enough experience to boost her (and even Gully and I for some reason) up a level. So far everything about this situation had been one-in-a-million, but it gets even worse. The DM had ruled that instead of only being allowed to draw once from the Deck, he would allow us to draw once per week. This eventually proved to be more of a curse than a boon. Our DM's policy when it comes to wishes was that he'll let you get away with a lot, but he'll also screw with the wish if you ask for too much. It was dangerous business. But Gully hadn't had enough. We ended up having to find someone to teleport us the rest of the way to Gundermount, because we didn't have the crew or knowledge to actually pilot the ironclad. Upon reaching the Dwarven city, our party went on a MASSIVE shopping spree. The power-scale of the game had skyrocketed ridiculously. Throng rejoined us and drew from the Deck. I had been joking for the past week that when Throng drew, he would die, due to the fact that he was at times ridiculously unlucky and it often put him in ridiculous situations (in and out of character). Sure enough, he drew the Void. Throng was gone, just like that. A week went by as we took a rest, and as the dwarves celebrated the news that there would be no war. Gully eagerly drew from the deck again as soon as possible. The rest of the party abstained for the time being. I had all but made up my mind to never draw again after what happened to Throng. Luck smiled on Gully Teach, however, because right then and there he drew another Moon, this time with two wishes. Gully wishes for his ship to be capable of flight and underwater submersion (a suggestion I had made earlier in the week), and also wishes for "the ability to regenerate from any wound" (by which he meant Fast Healing). This is when the DM struck first. Gully was transformed into some sort of small-sized sea nymph in a glass bowl, who had Fast Healing 40, but he also couldn't survive outside of the water in the bowl. Gully was nonplussed. So it got even messier. Gully sought out the most powerful wizard in the Dwarven city, and paid a ridiculous sum of gold for a casting of Wish. He wished to go back in time to the point right before he'd made the wish that had turned him into what was effectively a goldfish. He then changed his previous wish to a wish for a powerful and loyal crew that was capable of expertly piloting his ship. Thus, he was no longer a sea creature, and he now had a crew. We hadn't actually gone back to the ship since Gully had made those wishes, but when we did, we found a group of 20 blue large size lizard-like creatures bustling about the ship, performing maintenance and other such tasks. Upon seeing our swashbuckling party member, they all abruptly came to attention. They all shouted simultaneously, "HAIL GULLY TEACH! THE BATTLE-TITAN BRIGADE IS AT YOUR SERVICE." It was at about this time that the game could truly be said to have become ridiculous. It was also about the time where Katarin lost his place as highest authority in the party and the campaign became more about pursuing the wild whims of Gully Teach, the eccentric millionaire pirate in his flying submarine of a ship. I don't know why or how they called themselves the Battle-Titan Brigade, why they were lizards, or why they could speak. I figured it was a reference that I still have yet to discover the source of. But nevertheless, these lizards were impeccably loyal to Gully, and the manned the ship expertly, not to mention they were handy in a fight. They also appeared to share some sort of hivemind. Suffice to say, they were odd. Upon starting up the engines, we found that the ship had a pathetic speed of 20 ft. Irritated, Gully went back into town, purchased another wish, went back in time again, and modified his wish such that it would allow for his ship to be faster. When Gully returned to his ship this time, the Battle-Titan Brigade was still there, but the ironclad had become an animatronic Gargantuan Blue Wyrm, another one of the DM's twists, perhaps based off something in the way he had worded the wish. It could fly and swim at 120 ft. speed however, so Gully didn't seem to mind. Also at about this time, Lloyd the Duskblade rejoined us and we offered him a shot at the Deck. He cautiously accepted, and recieved a Sunblade and his own private castle appeared on a deserted island (which he inherently knew the location of). The party decided to check it out. So finally, with at least half of the million gold spent, we set a course for that island. That's when are troubles began in earnest. We were flying over the ocean, when an Old (28 HD) Red Dragon came soaring in from out of nowhere, roaring with rage. Keep in mind, we were level 7. We pretty much panicked as Gully ordered to submerge the ship, and we dove a hundred or so feet underwater (it's maximum depth wasn't very impressive). This waylaid the red dragon for a moment, though it was obviously after the ship for some reason. "GULLY TEACH!" The dragon roared loud enough to make us roll fort saves vs deafness. "YOU STEAL FROM MY HOARD AND NOW YOU'VE USED MY GOLD TO CONSTRUCT THAT?" He was referring to the Blue Wyrm Ship. Red dragons don't like blue dragons. Unforunately it didn't have the stats of an actual Blue Wyrm, and it indignantly told us so when we asked if it could fight the dragon. The realization hit us like a ton of bricks. That million gold had come from this dragon's hoard. Gully's famousness wish had made it so that everyone knew his name and what he was doing. Putting 2 and 2 together, it meant that we were completely trapped. To make matters even worse, the fact that the ship was now a construct that looked like a blue dragon made it look as though Gully was mocking the red dragon. It followed us from above the surface of the water wherever we went, demanding that we resurface and face its wrath. Desperately, we all looked to the Deck. Gully had already drawn this week, but three of the party members had not. Maybe, just maybe one of us could draw the Moon or some other card that would help us escape this situation. This was when the deck really started to screw with us. Marris drew and had her alignment changed to Lawful Neutral. The assassin (whose name I don't recall) drew and received a level 4 fighter cohort, who he then instructed to keep drawing from the deck until he got the moon. He only got three cards in before drawing the Void and dying. He did, however, get a Luckblade, which just so happened to have zero wishes still in it. Lloyd drew and also got a cohort, to which he gave the same command. He drew some sort of magical item, followed by the Queen of Pentacles (destroy all magic items), followed then by yet another Void. Katarin had to make a choice at this point. He felt no real responsibility for this situation, despite the fact that he had used some of Gully's gold. Katarin had barely agreed to draw one card at the beginning, and after seeing Throng die, he had all but sworn off it. He knew that repeated drawing could bring great benefit, but he also saw that the law of averages said that one day it would kill him. Katarin also had a Cloak of the Manta Ray on hand, so while none of the other characters could escape underwater, he could easily just step outside, become a manta ray, and get away from whole situation, and he was dangerously close to doing so. But here was the whole party begging him to draw at least one more card. The dragon above had started to bombard the ship with spells. Cursing his luck, he drew a card. Queen of Pentacles. Lose all magical items. I was so mad I got up out of my seat and start yelling at this point. This was the one other card besides the Void that I knew of that could completely screw me over. Katarin had lost his escape route, and since a Master Thrower is somewhat dependent on returning daggers, he had lost a lot of his combat effectiveness too. While this had been going on, we'd been continuing our flight to the island stronghold that Lloyd had received from the deck. We had arrived near the shore, but we were unable to surface because it would mean exposing ourselves to the dragon. There was only one thing to do: Offer the Deck of the Many things to the dragon in return for a truce. The dragon hastily accepted. He probably could have simply taken the deck and then killed us, but he must have been too enthralled by the deck or too prideful to go back on his word. When we emerged onto the shore and got out to give him the deck, he simply took it and drew 5 cards immediately. He drew a joker and some other cards, but only two were important: The Moon and the Queen of Pentacles. The dragon made three wishes on the Moon, but we didn't know what they were. We were hastily trying to leave at this point. An affect of one of the wishes he made, however, was to turn the blue wyrm ship back into it's adamantine ironclad form. It could reach 85 ft. speed, however it took 4 or 5 rounds to get there from 20. As we had all retreated back onto the ship and begun to sail away, we heard a roar of complete and utter outrage, bemoaning the loss of his hoard. He must of been disoriented by his despair, because he didn't think to chase after us once we were out of sight. We made our way to Yllarum, Katarin's home city. After that the campaign seemed to regain a smidgen of normalcy. Gully bought one more wish in order to reverse the effect the Queen of Pentacles had had on me. Gully christens his ship "The Monkey's Paw", now that it was a proper ship again. We felt pretty good. We'd managed to escape the dragon, keep the gold, and live to campaign another day. Some time later, after taking care of our business in Yllarum, we decide to make for the southern continent. Lloyd, the owner of the castle on the island, asks if we can make a slight detour to fully inspect it, seeing as how we never got the chance during the dragon mess. It was only a little out of the way, so we agree. Flying overhead upon our arrival however, we see that same bloody red dragon resting in the courtyard of the castle. He had chosen quite the vengeful spot on which to start building his new horde. Now this is where it becomes crucially important that the ship had been changed back to its old ironclad form by one of the dragon's wishes. Upon seeing our ship, the dragon roars angrily and gets up to attack. Seeing as how the ship didn't have the speed to outrun a dragon, the only option was to stand and fight. Gully's player had been looking into Stomwrack's sections on naval combat, and therefore knew that the ship could ram for 11d6 damage. So, without any ado, that's exactly what Gully begins to do. Whilst commanding the Battle-Titan Brigade to man and fire-at-will with what ballistae the ship had (two), he repeatedly attempts to ram the dragon. Sometimes, he lacked the maneuverability to do so, and the ship needed to build full speed to do it's full damage (which would be X8 at max speed). Building up speed required he only turn by one diagonal square per round, and this fight just wouldn't allow him to do that as he had to keep swerving in order to hit the dragon. While it seemed to be working fairly well, the dragon was also dealing major damage to the ship, and even if we did gain the advantage, he could always retreat and be back to harry us again some day (probably soon). Thankfully, the ship's adamantine composition prevented us from going down like yesterday's leftover barbecue. It could even bypass the dragon's DR, seeing as how the ship was considered magical, but it still wasn't an easy fight. Gully, Katarin, and Lloyd happened to be the only ones in the ship at this point in time. This errand in the southern continent wasn't supposed to take long. So there we were, 3 level 8 characters and a bunch of cohorts taking on a CR 20 encounter. Our most potent spellcaster had three levels in Duskblade, so you can be damn sure we didn't have access to Shivering Touch. Lloyd is struggling to find a way to be useful. He manages to nick the dragon with a Shocking Grasp through one of the portholes once, but he promptly got caught in the dragon's breath attack (which the DM ruled only would hit each 5-foot square adjacent to the portholes if the breath attack came parallel to them), taking 128 and dying instantly. Katarin happened to have a Revivify scroll on him and a handy high roll on his UMD check, which brought him back, but he was out for the fight for sure. Meanwhile, Katarin was built to excel at ranged combat. The dragon's AC was too high for me to hit on anything but a very favorable roll, but my DM said he would allow me to shoot for his eyes, which had a much lower AC despite being smaller. At first, he attempted to time his attacks with the cooldown of the breath weapon, having to dodge in and out and waste several turns making sure not to get hit (and also to save Lloyd), but then he had the idea to mount one of the Battle-Titan Brigade members, with Gully's permission, and instructed it to take cover from the window if he should see an incoming breath attack. The dragon then feels the sting of Katarin's full attack: Six thrown daggers per round, each dealing 14-16 damage for about 90 damage if all of them hit their mark (which, with the range increment penalties, didn't always happen). Over the course of several rounds, I manage to fully blind one of his eyes, and deal significant damage to the other. The dragon doesn't like this at all, so he changes his tactics, attempted to kite us with spells and breath weapons. Unfortunately for him, this gave Gully the opportunity to do just what he had wanted with his ram attacks. Shuddering with anticipation, he calls for a full steam ahead. The range increments were getting even tougher, but Katarin finally managed to blind the other eye just before Gully hit maximum speed. The dragon, who had managed to get about 1-2 hundred feet away from us, conjures up a Wall of Fire, and begins channeling a Pyro Burst (the DM has a soft-spot for that spell), which I only know because I took a cross-class rank in Spellcraft, had a high int, and rolled high enough. Gully commands for the ship to dive as quickly as possible while still remaining full speed. We managed to get underwater just before the dragon laughs and says "You fell into my trap!" and releases the Channeled Pyroburst, which completely misses, seeing as how he is now blind and we are also beyond the range of his blindsense. The round after, we came careening back out of the water at full speed, flying directly at him. I start playing "Libera Me from Hell" from my laptop because it seemed appropriate. The ram connects, dealing a full its 88d6 damage. The DM informs us that we ram into the dragon, spinning like a drill, we pierce it's chest and come out the other side, having impaled its heart, taking it to -200 hp. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?" In the aftermath, we dragged the dragon's lifeless body back to the beach, where we later sold it's body to a specialist who worked with dragon parts. The ship had taken 85,000 gold worth of damages, which Gully paid in full to repair. I'm fairly certain we also leveled up again. Lloyd and I later encountered the Deck of Many Things sitting innocently on the sandy beach, presumably where the dragon had dropped it in his delirious rage. We simply passed by it without saying anything. We'd been damn lucky. It'd happened before in this campaign, and it would happen again, but the important thing was to acknowledge the fact that it was, in fact, luck. I don't believe Gully Teach saw the Deck lying there, because if he had, he might very well have kept drawing until the Deck really did manage to kill him. I might have buried it, though I honestly don't remember. What I do know is that after all we'd been through, Lloyd and I had decided the Deck was certainly not worth the risk. The real kicker is that some months later, we begin adventure to stop a bunch of time-traveling black dragons from destroying the earth. They claimed that an ancestor of Gully Teach would eventually unravel time, and that the only way to stop it was to tear out our world's magical lay-lines (thus destroying it). Of course, Gully Teach had since died in a particularly nasty encounter with Rakshasa and denied resurrection, leaving poor ol' Katarin and Co. to deal with it. Apparently something about Gully wishing to go back in time over and over again had sparked the DM's imagination in a pretty horrible way. So that's what happened. Because of a Deck of Many Things, we broke the power-scaling of our game, accidentally pissed off a dragon, fought and killed said dragon in a flying adamantine submarine, and then created a tear in the space-time continuum, all without meaning to and at level 6-8.

Not written by myself. In this story I was playing Gully Teach. My buddy Paul wrote this who was playing Katarin. I love sharing this because the way he wrote this captures the game perfectly.

#dungeons and dragons #deck of many things #3.5 edition #ruleofcool

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