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merakiui · 10 months ago

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MERA, THAT NEW TREY FIC HAS TICKLED MY BRAIN SO GOOD LIKE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! ヾ(≧▽≦*)oヾ(≧▽≦*)oヾ(≧▽≦*)o

Surreal horror has always been one of my favorite types of horror because of the unsettling atmosphere and the reality-bending and you wrote it so well! You did amazing when you wrote the dream sequences in DRU, and now to actually read a whole dang fic with the theme?? With Trey of all people???? OTZ OTZ OTZ You've unlocked so many new possibilities with his Doodle Suit, truly the Gaslighting King of all time 👑👑👑

AND THE SYMBOLISM!!!!! please please please please ramble about them if you want-- I'm having so much fun rereading this fic again and again. The Violet Butterwort caught my attention cause isn't that a carnivorous plant? 👀👀 Trapping insects in its leaves like a certain grass-haired man??? 👀👀👀

Anyway, all I'm saying is, Trey is not the only chef around cause you definitely COOKED with this one 🔥🔥✨✨

( ≧ᗜ≦) AAAAA OMG OMG THANK YOUUUUUU!!!!!! ✨ ✨

I'm so happy it tickled your brain! I adore surreal horror in film and writing. There's just so much potential for the craziest of things to happen! Dream sequences or sequences that feel like dreams are some of my favorite things to write. The ones in DRU are also just as surreal. <3 I originally wanted to write this concept with Jade (Kalim was second on my list), but I decided upon Trey in the end because I think he suits the surreal horror vibes so well! Doodle Suit + the power of seamless gaslighting........ what a terrifying combination.

I wanted the story to feel obscure and almost like a trip with the imagery and descriptions. Sort of like the vibes in Alice in Wonderland. Just,,,,, utterly bonkers.

👀 you are very right about the butterwort hehehe!!! As for other symbolisms/details, these are the main ones in the story! I left out some of the symbolisms of various lines or words because that would make for such a long analysis of my own work. ^^;;;

It is under the cut due to length (forgive me)! A warning for mentions of sexual assault and drugging!

✧ the binary can be translated into messages. :)

✧ the feeling of itchiness - feeling as if you don't fit in your body after it's been violated. Feeling like something (trauma/blocked memories) is beneath your skin and you can't get it out no matter what you do. Also, itchy as in discomfort.

✧ grass - this is meant to be Trey. It's how Reader views him throughout the story.

✧ violet butterwort - as you noted, it's a carnivorous plant that traps insects! It's also a symbol of resilience and a common charm used to ward off supernatural evils.

✧ birthday cake with 20 candles - the plot is that Reader and Trey are/were in a relationship and on Reader's twentieth birthday Trey drugged their tea (chamomile) and had his way with them when they were half-conscious. Thus, Reader was never able to indulge in their birthday cake because Trey took it all. Cake can also be a metaphor for Reader's body.

✧ the line "it will take twenty more..." is in reference to the healing process and how it's going to take Reader time to heal from everything.

✧ xylophone chimes/broken glass - the juxtaposition of something sweet-sounding with something jarring.

✧ the white rabbit - a sense of innocence/comfort lost.

✧ "Soups are easy to eat. Easy to slip special sentiments in." - a reference to drugging.

✧ "Soup is what becomes of your brain when your body is too itchy." - disassociation during something traumatic (in this case, sexual assault).

✧ the hedge maze that never has a true exit - the feeling of being lost and trapped and never having a real escape.

✧ the grass bow around the white rabbit's neck - the obsessive and unhealthy hold Trey has on Reader. How he can't let them go.

✧ static - lots of noise and amidst the noise there's Trey, whose own voice is sometimes static and other times soothing enough to cut through the static.

✧ the sequence of "it's here and then there and then here again..." - an allusion to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland when he's giving Alice directions, but they're all over the place.

✧ every time the grass whispers or speaks - things Trey told Reader when he assaulted them.

✧ "In and out. Out and in. In and out. Out. Out. Out. Incessant itchiness. Get it out." - double meaning for breathing but also the act of sex (thrusting).

✧ the questioning of "that didn't just happen, did it?" - how Reader feels in the aftermath. But also just a general question in response to gaslighting. A consistent questioning of one's reality.

✧ Reader's association of the word "gross" with cake (especially birthday/confetti cake) - it ties into the above and also the part in the story about favorite foods and memories.

✧ teeth falling out - usually, in dream interpretation, this symbolizes a recent loss or mourning of something lost.

✧ hyperdontia - the horror of having a mouth and a voice but never being able to use it because it's so clogged with teeth, so no one will ever listen to or hear the things Reader desperately wants and needs to say.

✧ Frozen Charlotte dolls - Victorian era dolls that could float in the bath. They were also baked into cakes. They're called Frozen Charlottes based on a folk ballad called "Fair Charlotte," which tells the tale of a young girl (Charlotte) on her way to a ball with her lover (Charlie). It's dreadfully cold out, but she frets over the fact that wearing a coat will prevent everyone from seeing her pretty dress. She freezes to death on her way to the ball and arrives in her carriage as a frozen corpse. I think these dolls are fascinating and so cute, so I just wanted to compare teeth to Frozen Charlottes. The description of having a dozen tiny dolls stuck in your throat made for unpleasant imagery, so I wanted to write it!

✧ "A black rabbit blinks up at you with its milky-white eyes. Its nose twitches. Once. Twice. Thrice. A loud gust slithers through the field in which you currently observe, surrounded by decaying greenery and wilted wildflowers. They sprawl endlessly, clawing at the horizon beyond with broken fingers. You watch monochrome tones sway, dried petals flaking off like scabs against a battered, bloodless sky." - this is the same paragraph as seen in the beginning, only certain details have been changed. It's a hint at some sort of cycle that Reader's just only beginning to see. Idyllic beauty is no longer so blinding now that Reader sees what they didn't notice before.

#sweet messages #heyyy11

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lordisitmine · 2 months ago

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ttnbd chapter 15 sneak peak

back in the saddle, and you guys have waited long enough, so here's a little bit of the upcoming chapter

February 19th, 1900.

-London, Claridge’s Hotel-

“The weapon is called Lævateinn,” Simeon said. “In truth, I was skeptical of its existence until this very moment.”

“Indeed.” Sebastian nodded thoughtfully. “There are so many myths that prove to be naught but smoke.”

Ciel rolled his eyes and scoffed softly from his position by the window.

Sebastian and Simeon had been prattling on now for what seemed like hours- no topic of conversation escaped them. They’d discussed the Peloponnesian war, which Sebastian knew quite a lot about despite it being before his time- he had, however, been present for the fall of Rome, as was Simeon, so they’d had many fond memories to recount on that subject. They’d worked their way through the Renaissance- this had involved several minutes of the two of them speaking in Italian, a language Ciel did not understand, which at least made the irritating noise of their rambling easier to ignore- albeit only slightly.

Currently, Sebastian was recounting last week’s incident at Trancy Manor, which, to Ciel, seemed redundant. Simeon had no doubt heard the tale from Lizzy and Sybil already, and thinking about that night made the fresh, still-healing skin of Ciel’s arm tingle with unpleasant recollection.

I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, he thought in Sebastian’s direction. It’s so important for children to play with others their own age.

On the contrary, Sebastian replied, Simeon is far older than I am. He glanced at Ciel, even as he went on speaking to Simeon. Perhaps some children should pay more attention to their lessons.

Ciel scowled at the candle flame in front of him. It burned the same bright yellow natural light that it had all afternoon, ever since Simeon had sat him down in front of it and told him to concentrate.

“To pull the fire from within oneself, one must first master it as it exists in nature.” he’d said. “Once you can take hold of the candle’s flame, snuff it and relight it with your will alone, you will be ready for the next stage of your training.”

As with Sebastian’s fighting lessons, Ciel was frustrated to no end, perturbed to find he could not immediately pick up on the finer points of the skill he was meant to be learning. He was a demon, for Christ’s sake- he should be a terrible, fearsome thing, not some fourth-form pupil condemned to the corner to copy down lines ad infinitum. He sighed, crossing his arms on the table and leaning his chin into the cradle they made.

To think, he’d been excited about this.

“Lævateinn is an ancient weapon,” Simeon was saying. “It is said to have been crafted from the bone of the Leviathan; a massive, eldritch creature described in biblical scripture among other places. Some versions of its legend have it being cursed by profane magic, while others speak of it as a holy weapon, purifying in its power.” He chuckled. “Given that it is currently in the possession of a demon, I think we can discount its holiness.”

Ask him what it does, Ciel prompted Sebastian, keeping his eyes focused on the candle flame.

“It has the power to instantly destroy the soul of any being it wounds,” Simeon declared as if responding directly to Ciel’s thought.

Ciel bolted upright.

“Did you just read my mind?” he hissed.

“In a manner of speaking,” Simeon confirmed. “When one is as old as I am, the minds of others, mortal or not, become more transparent, allowing me to detect the words and images at the forefront of their consciousness. As a rule, I do try to stay out of others’ thoughts- it is a rather impolite practice, to be sure- not to mention unpleasant at times. In this case, however, it did elicit the response I had aimed for, and so I do hope you will forgive my impertinence.”

“What response?”

With a Cheshire Cat grin spread across his face, Sebastian pointed to the candle- it had gone out.

“Well done, my lord,” Simeon congratulated Ciel. “I had hypothesized that strong emotions might be the key to your powers, after what Sebastian told me about your attack on Earl Trancy- and now that theory seems to have been proven.”

“I’ve seen evidence of it myself,” Sebastian remarked, leaning casually back in his seat. “There was a certain incident in front of the fireplace when I had-”

Ciel slammed his palm flat on the table, hearing the wood crack. “Sebastian Michaelis, if you finish that sentence, I will tear your arms off and beat you to death with them.”

The candle flared back to life. The flame was blue and burned with a healthy, beaming light.

Simeon grinned- it was only this expression that betrayed his infernal nature. “If you could perhaps learn to harness those emotions, call them up and dismiss them at will, you would be most fearsome indeed.”

“Does this mean you’ll finally let me do something other than light a candle?” Ciel asked.

“Yes, yes I believe so,” Simeon answered, and turned to Sebastian. “Impatient, isn’t he?”

“Oh, terribly,” Sebastian agreed. “But then, most children are.”

#writing this was a riot. i love having OCs to just ham it up with #goal is to have this chap out before the end of the month but that is not a promise by any means #sebaciel #lord speaks #ttnbd #tteoe series #fanfiction #kuroshitsuji #black butler #my writing

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pleasedontghostus · 2 months ago

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"Welcome to XY. What do you need? Drugs? Firearms? Weapons? Fake IDs? A extra man for support? We got it for you."

(lf you want to send a ask to a specific character, please address which character you want me to respond as. Ex: "Hey_______" or /this is for _____/)

Owner @paintedgrilledcheese

Character designs and info are below

ShadowKeeper

Ability: Welcome to Wonderland

When someone stares into his eyes when his ability is activated, the victim will have Alice in Wonderland like hallucinations.

Age: 35

Birthday: April 15th

Height: 5'9

Likes: Messing with people, gambling, RPGs.

Dislikes: Water.

Cheshire

Ability: Rumors spread like wildlife

His ability allows his shadow to carry rumors about people or things and haunt people. Also, he can turn into a cat at will.

Age: 14

Birthday: April 15th

Height: 5'4

Likes: Video games, juice and sodas, pulling pranks, committing arson.

Dislikes: Water and coffee, being called kid

Dr. Nightshade

Ability: Blood, Sweat, and Tears"

Their ability allows them to heal any injury as long as the person who inflicted it has the same or worse injury.

Age: 37

Birthday: March 15th

Height: 5'7

Likes: Pens, math, pineapple juice, aliens.

Dislikes: Pencils, Temu, dry hands.

Checkmate

Ability: Pawns in our game

His ability transports them and everyone near to a dimension where everyone are the living cheese pieces. Whoever loses the game dies, along with the pieces on their side.

Age: 36

Birthday: December 15th

Height: 5'11

Likes: Chess, cats, tea.

Dislikes: People who dare hurt his sister, being called a clown.

Marinette

Ability: [later]

Age: 27

Birthday: January 15th

Height: 5'6

Likes: [later]

Dislikes: [later]

Puppeteer

Ability: [later]

Age: 27

Birthday: January 15th

Height: 5'7

Likes: [later]

Dislikes: [later]

#bsd #bsd oc #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs oc #bsd xy #bsd rp

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witchyleehibernates · 2 months ago

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Curtis Gang's Creature Companion's

Mrs. (Cheryl) Curtis has a Phoenix and her Magical prowess came in the form of potion making. Sodapop often sat with Cheryl when she was making her potions, her phoenix ‘playing’ with him when she didn’t need a magical plant. After she died, her Phoenix stayed close to the gang, and at night you could hear her crying for her person (Cheryl).

Mr. (Darrel) Curtis has a Hippogriff, and when his children were younger, he would take them on late night flights. When Darry’s Hippogriff was able to carry him, the two of them would go on flights, sometimes just the two of them, sometimes bringing the other two boys along too. His power was light manipulation (he could change the colors and shapes of light that he created himself).

Darry has a Gryphon, which stands just a half a foot taller than Darry when both are standing at full height. Sometimes, Darry will go on late night flights with his Gryphon. Darry’s magic is temperature manipulation. Darry’s Gryphon is a girl.

Two-Bit 100% has a basilisk that shrinks itself to wrap around his arm, the basilisk has reached majority and its life force has connected to Two-Bit’s and Two-Bit gained the ability of Sound Imitation which he absolutely uses to mess with people.

Two-Bit also has a Cheshire Cat, no one knows how. It rests across his shoulders when it’s not trying to terrorize people and not trying to steal their hats… or their rings. Sometimes, it also rests around the gang's shoulders, specifically Ponyboy’s.

Dally has a Firebird that sits perched on his shoulders. There are bits of fire that span from its wings, but it is not a phoenix. There are times were it seems like the two are communicating through whistles, and other times where Dally and the Firebird are… fighting? Dally’s ear is more often than not bleeding from a harsh peck from his firebird. Dally’s (future) power is vibrations / silent sound waves (think Rictor from ‘Logan’).

Steve has a ghost dog… or a half skeletal horse. (He takes Sodapop on horseback rides, both because it makes Sodapop ecstatic and two because he loves Sodapop holding onto him, only Ponyboy has clocked that second one). His future power lets him track people through a magic compass-like thing; he absolutely puts trackers on Ponyboy and Johnny (it tells him their health and body status too).

Sodapop has a Raiju (electric puppy as my friend explained it to me), he gets shocked on the daily with his Raiju, sometimes on accident, sometimes the Raiju is feeling spicy or he doesn’t want Sodapop to do something. His (future) power lets him grow magical plants. It breaks his heart when he learns this (through a dream of a younger him helping his mom with potions), and he becomes determined to become an amazing potion maker, like his mama was.

Johnny has a Cerberus with a size max cap of up to Johnny’s shoulder’s when Johnny is fully grown (the Cerberus shoulder’s will stand beside Johnny’s own). His (future) power is telepathy/empathy, and it lets him talk to people in their minds and read their emotions. When he’s strong with it he’ll be able to read minds and control emotions too.

Ponyboy has a type of small dragon (Wyvern) that’s really tiny upon hatching. Normally in mythology a Wyvern is massive in size, however Ponyboy’s Wyvern will have a magical cap size once it gets just bigger than Ponyboy’s torso when he himself is an adult (torso being from the top of Ponyboy’s shoulder’s to his waist). It likes to cling to Ponyboy’s back, claws digging into his waist and his shoulders and it will absolutely dive bomb out of the size to land on him. Ponyboy’s (future) power is a healing light/glow/touch manipulation (when he wants to heal someone, there is a golden light and he can change the shape of it, he often makes butterflies)

#the outsiders #ao3 writer #WitchyLeeHibernates AUs #outsiders creature companion au #darry curtis #twobit mathews #dally winston #steve randle #sodapop curtis #johnny cade #ponyboy curtis

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envihellbender · 7 months ago

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Michael as a killer, Gerry as a survivor

I was going to do bios but they were too similar to the original canon so I didn’t bother including them, basically original canon happens but instead of their stories in Archives their taken in by the fog.

Michael Shelly - The Distortion

Appearance:

Michael is the tallest killer chosen by the Entiry, making him fast with a longer vision scope, but also means survivors who are crouched are a little harder for him to spot and he takes longer to get through doors. He has two forms. The first is almost respectable looking. He seems like a gentle young man, if somewhat unsettling. He’s extremely tall with curly blond hair. He is always wearing what appears to be a work suit. The moment one of his abilities triggers however he changes drastically. He becomes taller, much taller. His hair grows in length and becomes a mass of blond curls that spiral and twist, seemingly disappearing into the background at the ends. His placid smile becoming a wide grin with regular teeth becoming sharp fangs. The only thing that stays the same is his fingers, regardless of his appearance his fingers are distorted. They are extremely long, so much so the tips of his fingers brush his knees, and look almost broken in several places.

Weapons:

Voice - his laugh can stun within a ten metre radius.

Hands - his fingers and nails are long, distorted, and sharp. Perfect for slashing.

Mori:

The world around the victim morphs. The sky becomes colourful spirals and the ground and landmarks all twist into each other. Suddenly a smile appears from above like the Cheshire Cat, wide with sharp teeth. It opens, laughing his high pitched shriek, a cackle that seems to cause your body to twist in on itself grotesquely until you are an unrecognisable pile of flesh.

Perks:

Twisted Souls

If you catch a survivor unhooking someone in time, you cause them both to twist around each other. This means the second survivor will be added to the first survivor’s hook.

The House

If you are in the same building as a victim they are exposed. They receive a tally mark similar to the one they receive upon being hooked. If in the second hook state the survivor is unable to leave the building as for them doors and windows keep changing, moving, and disappearing.

Jack-In-The-Box

The doors are your world, if a survivor enters a locker they become exposed to you for 15/30/45 seconds.

—

Gerard Keay

Appearance:

Thick, messy long hair, dyed black with a hint of ginger roots coming through at the top. He’s short, chubby, and his tattoos have been changed by the Entity. Instead of symbols relating to the Fears they related to the different killers that have been chosen.

Perks:

The Motherload

I can hear what the spirits are telling you

You have learned to understand the Entity and can hear what it is telling the killer with 15/30/45% clarity.

Raining Blood

Raining blood from a lacerated sky

When bleeding your blood splatters in different directions making it extremely difficult for the killer to follow.

Duality

Leave me all the pieces, then you can leave me alone

When you heal someone without a med kit you are given the option adopt one of their perks at random until the end of the trial. This can only be used once per trial. The icon for the perk will appear in Gerard’s skin almost like a warm, glowing tattoo.

—

Location associated with both: The Tunnels

There are four different areas within this location each corresponding with the directions on a compass. Their complex mazes with ceilings that get higher and lower seemingly at random. Some doors require you to crouch through, some are gigantic. The basement works a little different here, in that since the tunnels are a basement this room with its special hooks is in the centre of the map. The exits are on the ceiling with a ladder that falls down when they open.

#envi writes #Michael the distortion #Gerry Keay #dead by daylight #dbd au #the Magnus archives #tma au

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resident-cake-anon · 9 months ago

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hi luna !! do u have any ideas/info abt golden petals in other aus, like modern aus? 🤔 id love to hear abt them!!

HIHI CLARA!! I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS <33 this ended up being a really long post im sorry.. im a professional yapper

MODERN/COLLEGE AU

❦. i see them as being college kids w their academy selves

❦. catalina is always really pushing herself in her studies, maybe she would even be double majored so she ends up doing LONG study sessions in the library

❦. claude is there to check up on her though ofc, ryan put the idea in my head that he would come see her in the library between classes to give her food and a kiss and it rotates in my mind CONSTANTLY

❦. claude’s always posting cati on his socials, ppl are kind of sick of it but they’re too cute for them to say anything

❦. BUILD LEGO FLOWER SETS TOGETHER.. not a doubt in my mind that they do that as a sleepover activity while watching a movie they take an hour to decide on

❦. i see claude as being involved in a lot of clubs maybe a leader of one (my gut says chess) and catalina always makes time in her busy schedule to show up at their events to support him!!

❦. they go on dates to the closest boba shop, especially when cati needs a break from her study sessions

❦. catalina gets the same drink every time while claude always tries something new (he lets catalina have a sip hoping she can widen her palette) + he gets a snack that they can share

❦. catalina insists that she pays but claude always seems to trick her into letting him do it, she always feels guilty but claude doesn’t care, he has the money to spend

TANGLED AU

❦. rapunzel and flynn fit these two SO much there’s a reason why i see the light is on the golden petals playlist

❦. catalina basically lives the rapunzel story in fe3h, basically locked away in the monastery unable to leave all that much and wanting to explore the world

❦. also rapunzel being born from a flower??? yea. iconic. and so catalina coded..

❦. the power to heal, all the flowers in her braid, her generally excitable nature, the overwhelming GUILT of leaving home idk so much lines up

❦. also flynn rider is literally the blueprint that defines all f/os i have/will have in the future.. i have a type and it is DEEP-SEATED in my love for flynn rider

❦. fake aliases, rouge-ish but charming personality, being seen as an outsider or weak as a child and turning to putting up fences as a defense mechanism??? sign me up apparently,,

❦. but most of all i think the way the two’s relationship develops in the movie is so perfect and reflects how golden petals would grow closer, learning to trust each other and eventually willing to sacrifice themselves for the other

WONDERLAND AU

❦. IVE WANTED TO MAKE CONTENT FOR THEM FOR SO LONG..

❦. i love alice in wonderland so much and golden petals fits into the story pretty well too!!

❦. catalina is so similar to alice aaa her imagining up a whole world like wonderland bc the rules and regulations of sophisticated society bore her is just so fitting

❦. in this au ofc alice wouldn’t be a child i could definitely see catalina in wonderland as her academy self bc she uses escapism as a coping mechanism sm

❦. also catalina and the scene of alice singing w the flowers… love it sm

❦. in wonderland, catalina would then meet claude as the cheshire cat!! i think he would be more helpful than the original cheshire cat but still mischievous in his own way

❦. i think he would often mess w the others they find along their travels in wonderland to get a laugh out of cati, pulling a prank on lorenz as the mad hatter always seems to do the trick

❦. at the end of their story, i believe catalina would be woken up by her classmate, khalid, ig she dozed off during class…

SLEEPING BEAUTY AU

❦. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY AU.. RULER OF MY HEART…..

❦. this au exists only bc im an actual sicko over sleeping beauty not bc i think their roles fit, this one is just for ME

❦. i actually made sleeping beauty au art before golden petals.. was called golden petals so the love runs deep

❦. bucket assigned the three good fairies to hilda, heather, and marianne and who am i to disagree!! it think they’re quite perfect actually hehe

❦. instead of them being aunts to briar rose they would more likely be like older cousins

❦. catalina as briar rose would definitely want to explore outside the woodcutter’s cottage and the forest and so meeting claude was sort of the perfect gateway!!

❦. claude as prince philip is so nice too.. i wholeheartedly believe that he would throw away his royal title to run away to be w this girl he met in the woods over someone he’s been betrothed to since birth.. it makes sense to me

❦. also white wyvern -> white horse that he bickers with.. love it

TY FOR THE ASK CLARA I <3 YOU AND IM SORRY

#NEVER give me the chance to gush i WILL do sht like this #golden petals ❀ ☽#cake anon’s art!#cake anon gushes!#selfship #self ship #f/o #self shipping #f/o community #selfshipping #f/o art #selfship art

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heroescore · 15 days ago

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Heroes

Chapter 10 - Throwback

Detective Liam Hill grumbled a bit to himself as he looked over a board full of evidence. He’d long since concluded an interview with Black Cat about the supers that attacked her, but all he really acquired was a guestimate of their powers and a digital rendering of what they sort of looked like.

“Uh...sir?”

He turned around, finding a young officer standing behind me.

“Yeah...Bales, was it?” Hill said.

“Ah, it’s Hales, sir,” the young officer said, “anyway, I got you the info you requested on Alice and Cheshire Cat.”

He handed him two files.

“Not a lot,” Hill said, noticing how thin the files were.

“It’s really all there was in the NYPD database,” Hales said.

“Great, just great,” Hill grumbled, “the hitman ain’t talking, all our leads are dead ends...if there’s really one group behind all these things, how come they know so much and we know so little?”

“Maybe you’re missing a piece?” Hales helpfully offered, “One time I was making a puzzle, and my grandma taught me to start with the edges to make it easier to fill in the picture, but it had a bit of an odd shape, even when it fit perfectly, but then it turned out I just missed a piece whose adjacent pieces also fit each other, so I didn’t notice until I saw my cat Snowy run off with it.”

Hill blinked a moment, looking the young officer up and down before gesturing at him to come closer.

“Look at the board,” he said, “I could use a fresh pair of eyes.”

“Uh...what am I looking for?” officer Hales asked as he approached the detective and looked at the board.

“Anything that might seem important. There are no wrong answers,” Hill assured him.

Hales hummed thoughtfully as he took his time looking over all the clues and notes pinned to the board. Following the timeline it seemed someone bred and released three dinosaurs, and during that incident a new super debuted. Then a subway got hacked and a boy was kidnapped while Mirage saved the train and its passengers from crashing into another train by teleporting the entire vessel into the East Meadow. Then a famous super seemed to have risen from the dead, after which things got weirder, with a suicide jumper and a hitman targeting the new super and several others according to his list. Lastly Black Cat was attacked by a known assassin but the attack ceased when another unfamiliar villain showed up to call the assassin away.

“There’s two things,” officer Hales said slowly, “the incidents on this timeline all involve Mirage, Black Cat, Cross, and this Winter guy, or a mix of two or three of them.”

“Winter is friends with Cross, and Cross has been supporting Mirage and Black Cat since the dinosaur thing,” Hill explained, “but yeah, they seem to deal with a lot of events that happen to be related too…what’s the second thing?”

“Oh, uh, I was wondering about Slade,” Hales said, “it says here ‘showed up out of nowhere.’ What does that mean?”

“According to Ranger and Brain he just showed up all of a sudden,” Hill said with a shrug.

“Brain’s active again too?” Hales asked, surprised.

“Sorta,” Hill said, “he told me about Slade’s return and questioned King of Hearts and White Rabbit about Hatter’s involvement with multiple missing persons cases and a possible relation with the missing Lapin kid.”

“Man...no wonder you’re stuck on this case, sir,” Hales said.

“Not necessarily,” Hill said, “I think I’ll go back and ask Brain if he knows any more about Slade’s whereabouts prior to his return.”

“Will you need assistance, sir?” officer Hales asked.

“Don’t you have places to be?” Hill asked, raising a brow a bit.

“I have to feed my cat, but I can also text my neighbour and ask her to do it for me,” Hales said with a shrug.

“Alright, let’s go then,” Hill said, “I’ll drive.”

In the meantime, about two weeks had passed since the shooting. Aiden’s wound had healed exceptionally fast, thanks to some divine support, and in the end he really did only spend a couple of days at Slade’s boat— I mean yacht.

He still had trouble sleeping, but managed to utilise his time lying awake by doing schoolwork instead of aimlessly tossing and turning in bed. Phil didn’t even notice his friend’s bad sleeping habits as he was often up late himself, scouring the web and all his sources to keep his new series of interviews running.

He really couldn’t get a hold of the more popular heroes such as King of Hearts or Ranger, so he was constantly eyeing popularity polls from gossip sites to see which other supers might keep readers interested.

When Aiden was finally allowed to go back to work, he was immediately confronted with a double shift. Mr Ecker had initially planned to ease him into it with short shifts at quiet moments of the day, but his other employee cancelled for tonight, and he knew the detectives were coming to question him on Slade’s sudden revival, so he couldn’t just run the shift himself either.

Besides, it might have been a double shift, but it was still a quiet one, and Aiden seemed to be holding up well. He seemed a little tired, yawning a lot, but managed to push through with some extra coffee. Ecker sat in his office, staring at his paperwork rather than working on it, trying to get a gauge on how his employee was doing, but Aiden’s thoughts were oddly quiet, while he normally had at least a little bit of inner dialogue going on every now and then.

Trying to figure out how he could be broadcasting not a single thought gave him a headache, so he stopped, needing to preserve his powers for something more important in just a few minutes…

The bell by the door chimed as a late customer stepped into the very empty cafe, yawning a bit as he approached the counter.

“Good evening Slade,” Aiden said politely, “what can I get for you?”

“The usual please, Love,” Slade said, “I didn’t think to see you back to work so soon, but boy am I glad to see you.”

“Let me guess, you met James while I was resting?” Aiden said, while getting the machine ready for a simple black coffee.

“Aye, what a piece of work that lad is,” Slade said, taking a seat at the counter, “no manners whatsoever. I don’t understand why William keeps him around.”

“He must have his reasons,” Aiden said with a shrug, “sometimes when you ask him a question he stares off into the distance like he’s calculating all possible futures first.”

“No, that’s just him processing how to best formulate an answer,” Slade said, “he’s done that since he was sixteen.”

“It’s still so weird to me how you talk about my boss, who is like, pretty old, as if you’ve known him forever, yet you don’t look much older than me,” Aiden said with a sigh, while serving him his coffee, “how old were you exactly?”

“Uuuuh March 1827, do the maths,” Slade said, sipping his coffee while Aiden counted on his fingers a bit, before he blinked a bit.

“Ah know, ah know,” Slade said, “holy shit, right?”

“Language,” Aiden said.

“Oh please, I’ve heard you curse,” Slade said.

“But at least I try to keep the sacred separate from the vulgar,” Aiden said, “I don’t want to go to Hell for something so trivial, I feel like I’m already on very thin ice.”

“Can’t your angel vouch for you?” Slade asked.

“Watch it or I’ll let him smite you.”

“I’d love to see him try~”

Aiden rolled his eyes and ignored him as two people entered the shop. He vaguely recognised the man in front, but it took the uniformed man behind him to realise they were police.

“Ah, welcome to The Joint, what can I get you?” he politely greeted.

“A coffee,” the older man said, “I’m detective Hill, this is officer Hales. We’re here to see Brain, have you seen him?”

“Uh…”

“Knowing him he’ll be here any moment,” Slade said, “he did call me to come over after all.”

“Perfect,” Hill said, “let’s take a booth and wait for him then.”

“I’ll bring your coffee over then,” Aiden said, “would you like something too, officer?”

“Ah, just some tea would be great,” Hales replied.

Aiden nodded and got to work, when Brain finally entered the cafe. It seemed he had put on his old noir detective costume and had gone out the back, walking around back to the front. He was trying to hide that he was out of breath as he stepped in while Aiden served the police their coffee and tea, holding open a box with different flavours for Hales to choose from.

“Are you smoking again, lad?” Slade asked, “you’re breathing like you ran a mile.”

“Maybe I did,” Brain said, coughing a bit.

“Would you like some water, sir?” Aiden asked.

“Yes, and a coffee,” Brain said, before joining the detectives and Slade in the booth.

Detective Hill eyed Aiden for a moment, to which Brain spoke up.

“You can trust him,” he said, “he’s a friend of ours.”

“How’d that happen?” Hill asked.

“How does anyone know one another in this community?” Slade said, “how are your ears, detective?”

“My ears are fine, thanks,” Hill grumbled, “but I hear a strange whirring...never heard it before.”

“Could be from another building,” Brain said with a shrug, “so...you wanted to know about Slade’s whereabouts the past six years?”

“Is that why you called me?” Slade said, “I’m sorry detective, I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t remember anything.”

“But do you want to remember?” Brain asked.

“It could be helpful to our investigation,” Hill said, “things have only gotten weirder since your return. It could be related.”

“My plan was to input my memories of the night in an attempt to kickstart yours,” Brain explained, “it might be intense, but I can pull you out at any time. It’s completely safe...I think.”

“Oh you think,” Slade said, rolling his eyes a bit, “arite, fine. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You seem anxious,” Hill said, “elevated heart rate, increased breathing…”

“He’s terrified,” Aiden helpfully added as he brought Brain’s coffee.

“How do you know?” Slade asked.

“I’ve an eye for it~” Aiden said, “I’ve always been able to see how people feel, their personality and such.”

“Cute parlour trick,” Hill grumbled.

“No, actually, come sit down, kid. I’ll need you,” Brain said, “if you focus on his state of mind, then I can focus on his memories better.”

“Um...sure, one sec,” Aiden said, moving over to the door and turning the sign to ‘closed.’

He got the keys from Ecker’s office and locked the door too, so they couldn’t be disturbed, before pulling up a chair and somewhat awkwardly joining the others.

“Okay, go lie down on the bench, Slade,” Brain said, “Aiden, when the panic gets too much, tap me on the shoulder and I’ll pull him out.”

“Got it,” Aiden said, while Slade grumbled as he lay down, having to rest his head on Brain’s lap.

Brain then put his hands on his temples, taking a deep breath to focus, before they both zoned out.

Slade opened his eyes, feeling like he woke up from a very strange dream...

Then he remembered.

Some coked out maniac remembered he had fire powers and was burning buildings and a huge portion of the lower west corner of Central Park. Ranger had called for help, and things had been chaotic since the start.

Brain was hovering over him, helping him back to his feet, while Absolute Zero and Rasputin were duking it out with the firebug, and Ranger was evacuating citizens. Brain had stayed back with Slade because he wasn’t one for close-combat, whereas Slade wasn’t one for fire in general.

They moved further back, out of the firebug’s blast radius, panting a bit as they were both a tad out of shape.

“Looks like Zoe’s got it under control,” Brain said, “you okay, Slade?”

“Oh, just a wee bit tense,” Slade lied, “any news from Devin?”

“I don’t sense him,” Brain said, “Ranger said he couldn’t reach him either.”

“Odd...I’ll try calling his wife,” Slade said, pulling out his ancient brick phone.

Brain wondered how it still even had service, but decided not to comment on it while Slade was trying to reach their friend’s wife.

“Voicemail,” Slade said with a sigh, hanging up again, “arite, I know you’re tired, lad, but I really need you to pinpoint him. You said it yourself he’s been going down a troubling spiral lately.”

“Alright, give me a moment,” Brain said, “and tell Rasputin to stop throwing cars, I don’t need another lawsuit from insurance companies.”

“Ah shite— Vitaliy! No! Ostanavlivat’sya! Stop!”

He ran over to the Russian giant, coaxing him to put the car down, when suddenly there was an even larger explosion, and Rasputin had to shield his much smaller friend from the boiling hot steam that was released.

“Shit man what happened?!” Ranger asked as he joined them.

“Zoe’s special move,” Slade grumbled, “lowering the temperature in an area before heating it much too rapidly.”

“Didn’t that nearly kill her last time?” Ranger said, before promptly running into the fog of steam that was left behind. “Zero?! Are you okay!?”

“Si, I’m fine!” Zero replied, heels clacking as she walked towards him, dragging the unconscious firebug with her. “This one will be out for a while,” she said.

“Amazing!” Ranger said, high-fiving her, before taking the troublemaker off of her hands.

They dragged him back to Slade and Rasputin, who had greeted the police when they finally showed up.

“Detective Carnahan, good to see you,” Slade greeted, “always late to the party~”

“Only because I don’t see any need to risk my officers when I can let you boys do all the dirty work,” the woman said.

“Boys? These boys did nada!” Zero said, “I took this one down by myself.”

“You go girl!” detective Carnahan said, “book ‘em Liam!”

“For the last time, we’re not doing a thing,” detective Hill grumbled as he got out of the passenger’s seat and pulled out a set of handcuffs.

Carnahan ignored him and turned to Slade.

“Now that I’m seeing you, I had a couple questions,” she said, “we’ve been working on a series of gruesome murders this week. Coroner just identified a victim’s wounds as bite marks...human.”

“...so?” Slade said.

“Aren’t you missing someone?” Hill asked, while Ranger helped him drag the unconscious firebug into the back of the police car.

“Carnivore would not consume a human,” Slade said, “much less murder them over it!”

“Except for that one time he licked your blood to heal himself,” Ranger said.

“Asqueroso,” Zero commented, pulling up her nose a bit.

“Right, but that was a stressful situation and mostly on accident,” Slade said, “I see no reason why he would—”

“All victims are supers, Slade.” Carnahan emphasised.

Back in the present, at The Joint, detective Hill and officer Hales, somewhat awkwardly sipped their drinks while Brain worked his magic and Aiden...observed? The young man looked on sympathetically, when suddenly he frowned in concern.

“His anxiety just went through the roof,” he said quietly.

“Shouldn’t you pull them out then?” officer Hales asked, worried.

“I have a feeling it has yet to get much, much worse,” Hill darkly said.

“I wonder what they’re seeing,” Aiden said, carefully reaching past Brain to pick Slade’s hand off the floor and attempting to lay it across his stomach.

“Are you two close?” officer Hales asked curiously.

“Not at all, really,” Aiden said, “but he’s helped me out in a pinch twice now, so I kinda feel like I owe him, maybe...don’t tell him I said that, I won’t hear the end of it.”

“A smug bastard, ain’t he?” Hill said with a chuckle.

“Yeah sometimes I just wanna deck him,” Aiden said, “you know, a solid right hook.”

“He’ll heal,” Hill said.

“S-sir, we shouldn’t encourage citizens to violence,” Hales said.

“I’m joking, kid. Lighten up a little.”

“Hush, Brain’s losing focus,” Aiden said, to which the two policemen promptly quieted down again.

Back on memory lane, Brain rejoined the group, looking rather pale.

“We have to go, now!” he said urgently.

His friends exchanged looks, to which Slade turned to the detectives.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this meeting short, detectives,” he said.

“Right, but we’ll need you all to come in tomorrow to report tonight’s incident properly, deal?” Carnahan said.

“You have our word,” Slade said, shaking her hand, before taking off with the others.

They couldn’t agree on how to travel, so they travelled on foot, which brought them to an abandoned warehouse, out of breath and rather frustrated.

“Next time we travel this far, I’m summoning horses!” Ranger hissed.

“I didn’t know it would be so far,” Brain said, “I was just following.”

“Following what exactly?” Zero asked, trying to get some feeling back into her feet.

“Carnivore,” Brain said.

“What’s with him?” Ranger asked, “I feel like I haven’t seen him in ages.”

“I think he’s finally cracked,” Brain said, “his thoughts are in complete disarray.”

“He’s been loco since he started talking about all those conspiracies,” Zero added.

Rasputin leaned towards Slade.

“Vhat are they saying? I do not understand,” he whispered in his best English.

“Devin is uh… sumasshedshiy,” Slade softly explained, before turning to Brain, “is he inside here?”

Brain nodded, gesturing for his friends to follow as they headed inside. They entered the warehouse, which was completely empty except for some crates and boxes in the middle. On one of the crates, sat a lonely figure. He didn’t seem to have noticed them coming in as he was too busy staring at the ceiling. Slade was the first to recognise him, to which he slowly walked over to him.

“Devin?” he said, upon noticing his mouth was covered in blood, “what happened to you?”

Carnivore slowly looked down as he licked his lips and chuckled softly.

“Oh you have no idea, Slade...if only you knew,” he said.

Slade could see the madness in his eyes, but decided to hear him out.

“We haven’t seen you in a while, laddie. Are you arite?”

He stepped around the crate. His breath stocked upon seeing what was lying behind it. Two dead bodies, or rather...what was left of them…

“Remember last year?” Carnivore suddenly said, “we were dealing with that berserker, and he got injured when Rasputin shielded me…”

He glanced at the others before looking back down at the two motionless bodies before him.

“The power I felt that day….it was incredible...but they didn’t understand...nobody did...oh. Oh what have I done?”

Carnivore buried his face in his hands, smearing more blood onto his face. Slade glanced at the two bloody remains on the floor, and noticed one of them stirring.

“She’s still alive!” Slade said as he stepped forward to check the girl’s pulse, but Carnivore snapped.

“DON’T TOUCH THEM!” he screamed as he jumped up and pushed Slade aside with such force that he broke his shoulder upon making contact with the ground.

The others wanted to step in, but Brain held up his hand.

“Wait for it,” he said.

“Screw that!” Ranger spat at him as he ran towards Slade, “you okay?”

“Always,” Slade growled as he picked himself up and glared at Carnivore.

He was breathing heavily as he stood over the stirring body.

“Devin snap out of it!” Slade yelled, “are you bloody insane!? That is your daughter!”

“VHAT!?” Rasputin yelled before charging at Carnivore and forcefully pulling him away from the two victims.

“Cover me,” Slade said, before running over to them.

His suspicions were confirmed; Carnivore had killed his wife, but his daughter was still alive, though mortally wounded. Slade tried to assess the damage, but there was so much blood, he felt overwhelmed.

“I said...stay away!” Carnivore yelled, before Rasputin’s ginormous shape came flying at Slade.

Ranger managed to pull him aside just in time, to which Rasputin crashed on top of the crates. Ranger cursed upon seeing the bloody mess of Carnivore’s victims.

“Can you save her?” he asked.

“Dunno, I—”

Slade abruptly shut up when the faint shadow they made in the dim light suddenly disappeared. They were pulled towards Carnivore, and slowly shaped into shadowy, humanoid figures that rose from the ground and slowly turned towards the team with red glowing eyes.

“It...it’s like I landed straight into a nightmare,” Ranger said.

“Nori’s powers,” Slade mumbled, “wait. You’re still afraid of shadows?”

“Shut up, that doesn’t matter!” Ranger said, “Can you save her?!” he pressed, looking very eager to retreat as soon as possible.

“I can try. Cover me,” Slade said.

Luckily Ranger didn’t have to face the shadow figures on his own, as Rasputin had picked himself up and charged at Carnivore again. Slade bent himself over Carnivore’s daughter, and tried to look past all the blood and smaller wounds, and tried to focus on the large, gaping hole where her guts were about to spill out.

“Talk to us, Abuelo!” Zero said, “Can you save her?”

“I can if I can stop the bleeding, but I don’t have any equipment, so maybe…” Slade slowly looked up at Zero, “I’d have to scorch the wound closed. It’s her only chance of survival.”

Zero’s eyes widened for a second, but then she nodded, determined.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Heat up a piece of metal and place it against the part I’m pressing on now,” Slade instructed.

Zero nodded and picked up a conveniently placed piece of metal that seemed to have come from one of the broken crates.

“Will this do?” she asked. Slade looked at it.

“Yes. Perfect. Now only heat the tip.”

Zero heated up a part of the metal and carefully handed it to Slade. His hand trembled slightly as he held it over the girl’s wound.

“H-hold her down...this is gonna hurt,” he said softly.

Zero placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, to which Slade carefully pressed the hot metal against her bleeding wound, scorching it closed. The girl’s eyes shot open as she screamed while trying to jump up, but Zero held her down.

“It’s okay mija, you’re okay, you’re gonna be fine,” she whispered gently, while the girl sobbed as Slade slowly pulled the metal away.

The wound had stopped bleeding heavily.

“Arite, I’ll take care of the rest, you go and help Ranger and Rasputin,” Slade said.

Zero nodded and ran off, while Slade grabbed the girl’s hand.

“Nori? Nori look at me. You’ll be fine, okay? I promise!” he said.

The girl slowly opened her eyes again and looked at him.

“U-uncle…” she choked out, coughing up some blood, “b-behind…”

Slade jerked around just in time to see a red-eyed, shadowy figure swing an equally shadowy sword at him, before everything went black.

Slade woke up with a gasp, shooting upright as he breathed like he’d ran a mile. Aiden had just considered pulling them out when the two of them suddenly woke up, both sweating and panting a bit.

“Jeez, you okay?” Hill asked.

“I’ll grab some water,” Aiden said, getting up.

Meanwhile Slade grasped Brain’s coat, looking rather pale.

“N-Nori,” he said, “did...d-did she…?”

“We managed to bring her to hospital,” Brain said, “however...she checked herself out as soon as she could walk, and...we haven’t been able to find her since.”

“Christ...and Devin?”

“Also not a trace,” Brain said, “police have been looking for him since that night too.”

“Do you...remember anything else?” Hill asked.

Slade took a sip of the water Aiden handed him, before shaking his head.

“It might still come,” Brain said, “just...make sure to rest just in case it’s too much.”

“...couldn’t you have warned me for that beforehand?” Slade asked.

“Detective, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to be patient while Slade gets his thoughts in order,” Brain said, completely ignoring his old friend.

“We understand,” Hill said, “it seemed...intense?”

“Dying is intense, even when you’re immortal,” Slade said with a sigh.

“I see,” Hill said, beginning to get up, “let’s go home then, Hales. We’ll start fresh in the morning.”

“Uh...I’m at the reception desk tomorrow,” Hales said as he got up as well.

“I’ll talk to Cap, don’t worry about it.” Hill said, waving his hand dismissively, “Thanks for your time, Brain. Slade, get well soon.”

The two of them left after Aiden unlocked the door, leaving the three supers alone. Aiden was somewhat burning with questions, but it seemed both Slade and Brain were definitely not in the mood to talk.

“Do you want uh...more coffee, or...something stronger?” he quietly asked, while beginning to clean up the used cups.

“Go home, Aiden,” Brain said with a sigh, “we’ve kept you long enough.”

“Are you sure?”

“Listen to your elders, Love,” Slade said with a wink, “especially when they let you get off work.”

“Fine, but that still sounds weird coming from you,” Aiden said, taking off his apron and pulling his bag from underneath the counter, stuffing his tips underneath all his things as usual, before heading out.

“See you tomorrow, sir. Take care, Slade.”

“Good night,” the two of them replied in chorus.

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grav3yardbb92 · 2 years ago

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Glow Stick

Bruce Banner x reader

***** " Miss Stark, Dr. Banner request your assistance in the lab"

" Thank you, Friday."

I finish the papers that I was organizing for my brother, before making my way to see my fiancé.

" The fun has arrived! " I announce my presence as I enter the room, only to be met with silence.

" Bruce? " His head raises above a pile of mysterious weapons, chemicals and substances that we confiscated from two different hydra bases. He has a slight look of frustration on his face before it softens into a smile. "A little birdie said you needed help, doctor." I state, sliding up behind him to deliver a message to his tense shoulders. " I've been able to identify three of these substances, just through chemical analysis- Oh, that feels good." A giggle escapes my lips at his relaxed demeanor. " What about that blue one?" I emphasize my question by pointing to a rather large glass jar, just to the right of the table. " Um, nothing yet. That's why I need you to..." " You want me to drink that, to see what happens?" "Well, you know, after we rescued you, your body heals itself now. So no matter what it does, it won’t be that bad." He studders through his reasoning statement, cautious at the mention of me being kidnapped and experimented on. " Yeah, nothing bad. Except being cursed with blindness for a day, or that time you turned me into a cat.... stop laughing, it wasn't funny Bruce. " my complaints are interrupted by my own laughter at the past situations. " Oh fine, but if I'm turned into anything gross, we won't make our dinner reservations. So, you're cooking dinner" I leave no room for an argument, and he nods muttering "deal", before placing his soft lips to mine. " Bottoms up" I cheer before turning the jar up to lips, taking a sizable gulp of the blue liquid. Bruce has a translucent screen in front of him waiting on results. " Remember, tell me everything, what are you feeling, seeing..." " Um, I'm cold, my tongue is tingly, do you hear buzzing?" He shakes his head, before recording everything I said into the computer. " Keep going, anything-"

" Just because I have a billion dollars, doesn't mean I want to pay to power empty r..." Tony shouts into the air, before turning the lights off.

" TONY!!!"

" Y/N?, sorry, I didn't know you were..." He rambles while walking into the now dark room.

" HOLY SHIT!"

"Turn the lights on... What?" His face is covered with a look of pure shock, matching the look on Bruce's face, beside me. Tony moves around the room, finding a mirror on his desk. He turns it to my face, which is...glowing? My hair, nails, skin and eyes are all glowing. My panic is interrupted by my lovely big brother, bursting into boisterous laughter. " oh my god. You're glowing, ha! Bruce, you're going to marry a glow stick." I gasp at his outburst, looking toward my fiancé for some sort of reassurance. This better not last till next week. " the side effects should be over by then..." A bright flash stops his statement, pulling us both to look at Tony, who has his phone out, with a Cheshire cat smile on his face. " I know you didn't just take picture of me." " Now, come on y/n, would I do that? " Yes, he. fucking. would.

" Tony!" I stand from my seat as his short legs bolt him out of the lab and down the hall.

"Anthony Edward Stark, you delete that picture, or I will sick the Hulk on you!" I shout after him, but he is long gone.

" Now what?" I question the good doctor.

" Now I guess we wait." I frown at his answer. " And I go cook dinner" he sighs out, taking my hand. " no way, you burned it last time. " " okay, how about pizza and a movie? I smile at his suggestion, heading to our bedroom. " And cuddles?” He laughs at my question. "Yeah, I guess I do owe you cuddles." "You owe me more than that, Doc.”

#bruce banner imagines #marvel imagines #avengers x reader #hulk x reader #mcu imagines

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plague-of-insomnia · 2 years ago

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Six-Sentence Sunday: Synchronize, Ch 3

Here’s another snippet from the upcoming 3rd chapter of my newest fic, Synchronize. I had hoped to have something steamy but I haven’t had a chance to work on that part yet. So enjoy this sample of Sebastian and Claude’s brotherly reunion:

Sebastian had to force himself to breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Ignore the pain. The dizziness. How bad he wanted to close his eyes and sleep and not be himself for a little while. “Go back to Charles, oniisan.” Though Sebastian’s word was polite enough, the mocking tone he used implied how he really felt: Claude had stopped being his brother a long time ago. And by “stealing” Sebastian’s fiancé? That was the final gauntlet.

But his brother took a step closer, Cheshire Cat smile firmly in place. “Oh? But I just got here.”

Sebastian shivered, and yet his face felt so hot, his head swam. He wanted Claude gone. He didn’t want to remember everything he’d lost. He wanted to hold onto that brief moment of happiness and hope Agni had brought to his day. All of which Claude had crushed underfoot.

Claude adjusted his glasses, enjoying himself. They were fraternal, but still looked so much alike, the main difference their eye colors and sight. Claude had always resented Sebastian’s perfect vision.

“He loves me more than he ever loved you.”

“Charles only loves himself. He’d marry a mirror if the state allowed,” Sebastian spat without thinking. Once the words were out, he realized he’d always known that. But he’d cared deeply for Charles, so much he convinced himself that eventually their love would become equally strong. Once they were married, Sebastian had deluded himself they’d lived happily ever after.

He could hardly believe he’d been so naive. And yet the giant, gaping wound in his heart Charles had carved out had never properly healed. And now today, this fucking week of all weeks, here was the last person on earth Sebastian wanted to see, poking poking poking to see if he could make him bleed.

And it was working.

Reblogs are always appreciated :)

Read the first two chapters of Synchronize on AO3!

I hope to have the next chapter up soon.

Fic Summary: Agni, a home-care nurse, has had his share of difficult patients, but now he's up for his biggest challenge yet. Sebastian is young, seriously ill, and angry, but Agni is determined to help him anyway. Will the two be able to synchronize and move forward, or will Sebastian forever let his bitterness over his past trauma hold him back?

#黒執事 #black butler #sebastian michaelis #claude faustus #six sentence sunday #sebagni #modern au #snippet #wip #synchronize au #chronic illness au #poi writes

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mushroomwillow · 1 year ago

Note

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals, followers and all the wonderful people on here!!!

Oh!

1. My fiancée and my daughter, they bring me so much joy. My fiancé has shared his love of painting miniatures with her and it’s so heart warming. Every day I get to see how much she’s growing and learning and forming her own beautiful personality. My fiancée is the first person to really make me feel safe, I’ve never known a love for another person like I have for him, and like he shows me. Their relationship with each other is amazing to watch too

2. My cats Boo and Heimdall, Boo is my first black cat and she’s so small and has the sweetest tiniest meow. Heimdall is a CHONK and a tuxedo, he reminds me every day of my cat Cheshire who I lost in 2020. I have a tattoo of Cheshire on my chest, that cat went through some of the worst times of my life and I miss him so much. Heimdall brings me that “my soul cat is visiting me” and I love him and Boo very much

3. Being able to create again. Spent a few years being too stressed to focus on doing much. I started drawing again which is the first thing I learned how to do and that really makes me feel good

4. Being accepted by my fiancée’s family. My bio family sucks, and every spouse I’ve had their families have hated me for one reason or another. My fiancé’s family has welcomed me with open arms and I couldn’t ask for a better found family

5. I’m finding myself again. Or maybe for the first time idk. It feels really good to finally be able to start healing and expressing myself the way I’ve always wanted too

#ask #ask game #asks open #things that make me happy

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threewaysdivided · 2 years ago

Note

Euughhh I can’t decide between #18 or #20, so I will let you decide :)

Meta asks for writers

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions?

(Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations? Tell us about them.)

I think this may have come up as a glancing mention in the past but the Deathly Weapons you know is actually a stealth-re-write starting at around Chapter 10. When I first came up with the idea, I had enough of a detailed outline to carry me to Interference, plus some loose notes for later plot-beats. In that initial burst of unfettered creativity I kept going and freewrote up to roughly the equivalent of Chapter 17: Assessment in DW’s canon timeline.

There was some fun stuff in there (the “And here I thought I was just a pretty face” quip from Zatanna in Chapter 18/ Mission 1 comes from the OG version of Chapter 10) but there was also a reason I didn’t release those versions, and was already wanting to go back and re-do them. The stealth-draft was incredibly barebones/compressed in places and some now-key scenes were straight-up missing (Propositions, Constants and Roads to Safe Places were all timeskipped over). Plus I was leaning more heavily into fanon since I hadn’t decided to go back and revisit either show yet, which meant things were more surface-level and “standard” in a few ways. In the stealth-draft, Ghost-Obsessions were explicit lore a headcanon which is fine but that I realised didn’t interest me or serve the story that much on consideration, Danny was more of an OP Gary-Stu type the OG version of the training session was a free-for-all spar where he beat the whole Team, which… no, and Danny and Wally’s conflict was a lot more superficial/arbitrary/unsatisfying.

I’ve walked myself to the stocks over this before but in the spirit of good-natured lampooning I’m happy to rummage through the old draft some more should you want further samples to jeer and hiss at.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about?

(Symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Considering my status as a shameless meta aficionado who can and will ramble for up to 20 pages on the barest prompting, one could say you’re playing a dangerous game here, nonnie.

For the sake of brevity I’m going to rapid-fire a bunch of meta I’d love to talk about and let anyone who’s interested take their pick:

I haven’t found a place to really dig into it in-story, but I went and read Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland etc. collection for extra Artemis material, and there’s some interesting parallels you could read into between Alice/Artemis and The Cheshire Cat/Jade, and what it suggests about their dynamic. It could also indicate some things about how they themselves perceive their relationship given that Jade deliberately took the name Cheshire as her alias in-universe. The Nguyen-Crock sisters are interesting.

YJ!Wally deviates from many iterations of Comics!Wally in that he canonically has a loving and functional homelife rather than an abusive one. I have some potentially-controversial but mostly sappy thoughts about why that changed backstory is actually good for this iteration of the character and what it lets him bring to his version of the Team.

The central emotional arc of Deathly Weapons is Danny/Phantom’s journey through grief to healing. I like how the planned scenes ended up coming together in a pattern where he initially tries to avoid talking about it with other people, then starts to reluctantly talk when asked, then starts talking freely when prompted, and eventually starts willingly volunteering information as he begins to form new bonds and move forward. It wasn’t a conscious thing when I first set them out but it feels correct in hindsight.

There’s lots of little things that I’m either setting up on purpose to pay off later or have found ways to bring back as echoes in late-game chapters:

Danny’s appearance at Cadmus has developed into a pretty seminal point for his and Team Phantom’s journey between leaving Amity Park and joining The Team. More information to come in Equilibrium but keep an eye out for references to the incident or things about his left shoulder.

I recently did some Martian Meta in prep for M’gann’s later focus chapter but there’s also a dynamic I’ve started setting up between her and Phantom (especially in the sparring scene) and it’s going to be interesting to see if anyone picks up on where that’s going.

There’s a very late game scene where Danny is talking to Conner about Danielle and The Clone Thing where I have Danny planned to say “but either way, she’s here and she picked our side. The how and why… guess it just didn’t take that long to stop mattering” as an echo of Bruce’s conversation with Clark in the YJ Episode Schooled.

There’s a conversation between Wally and Dick in the final chapters whose ending parallels the end of Danny and Dick’s scene in Trade Secrets, paying off a promise that will be made in Equilibrium.

And, as you can see, there is so much Equilibrium character-meta which I am desperate to discuss about but also don’t want to talk about for spoiler reasons. I am going to be so normal about it when publication day comes.

Thanks for playing!

#Porque no los dos?#feel free to ask for multiple numbers #writer meta ask game #justwhumpythings' ask game #young justice: deathly weapons #Young Justice #DP Crossover #DP x DC #anonymous #3WD Answers #I also like to hide little bits of literary quotes or easter eggs from other series I like in the details of the story #During In the Mists there’s a planned conversation where the Team lightly pay out their mentors #and about half of it is references to embarrassing moments from other DC properties.#Carroll + Dickens + Shakespeare works all get random references in CH19 #later on the Team is fighting a magic user and his ‘special amulet’ is actually the Amulet of Sarmarkand from the Bartimaeus series

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