#I was dubious at first but now I really like and appreciate the changes they made

[hael987]

Soo-Ho’s character in the drama series is very different from the webtoon and he seems to be written with characteristics of other characters.

His desire to be a shield for his loved ones, a reliable pillar of strength. The fighting prowess and strength that entails. The way he wants to avoid unnecessary conflict, knowing where the line is and not crossing it unless necessary. The fierce protection and role of protector and leader, the weight and responsibility that comes with that and ensuing guilt upon “failure” to protect. But also the way that he won’t hesitate to retaliate when the ones he cares about are threatened and hurt. All of these are very much like Ben Park.

The scene of Shi-Eun having his arm broken and then Soo-Ho losing it because of that but still trying to maintain his calm facade in front of Shi-Eun directly parallels the way Ben almost lost his mind to anger after the Mok-ha duo broke Gogo’s arm but tried to keep his calm facade at the hospital. After changing the characters (Shi-Eun included, because Gray wasn’t a fighter before losing Stephen) I feel like Shi-Eun and Soo-Ho’s dynamic is more similar to Ben and Alex’s dynamic with the fierce and loyal mutual protection.

There’s also parts of Gerard in there too, how he works many part-time jobs and sleeps in class.

Even parts of Alex, how Soo-Ho once trained as a professional fighter and Gogo goes to a gym to train properly and practice boxing later in the story.

If I looked harder there’s probably more as well.

At first I was a bit dubious about taking characteristics from other characters and giving them to Soo-Ho but the more I think about it, the better I think it is. It could provide a very solid basis for building friendship if we get a season 2.

If they keep all the characters the same as they are in the webtoon for the next season (which I hope they do) then maybe these similarities are something that would provide a connection for Shi-Eun. How he might recognise parts of Soo-Ho in the others and that helps him form a bond, let’s him open up to them. It’d be a nice starting point before forming deeper understanding and bonds. Maybe he’d recognise what he and Soo-Ho had together reflected in Ben and Alex and wants to protect that for them too.

Obviously his heart is wounded and he’s hurting after what happened, especially the betrayal from someone he considered a rare friend, so it wouldn’t be easy for him to open back up and be receptive to others or new friends so it makes sense (to me at least) for the similarities - that sense of familiarity - to be a good starting point, that crack in his walls that eventually lets them in.

All in all I think it’d go a long way to soothing some of his pain of loss and be a great way for him to start his healing journey. As well as increase his desire to protect them all, how he couldn’t protect Soo-Ho but this time he’ll get strong enough to help protect what matters.

[carbondioxidewater]

Make A Move (Pt. 2)

americanfootballplayer!Sukuna x fem!reader

genre: slow-burn romance, college au, fluff, angst

warnings: none so far

word count: 2.3k

(-> Pt. 1) (-> Pt. 3) (-> Pt. 4) (-> masterlist)

The next week, you didn't hear anything from Sukuna. You thought that maybe, he lost interest in you, but you should learn just how wrong you were soon enough.

You were sitting in class - it was thursday - and the lecture has not started yet when your former jerk of a group partner took the seat beside you. Great, you thought, of course he had to be in the same course as you.

"Hey." he greeted and you responded back. Then it was silent. Eugh, how awkward.

The door was still open when a certain someone walked past it. Of course, you immediately caught his eyes. He stopped walking and smiled mischievously, when suddenly, he saw the guy next to you, his attention now on your conversation. Sukuna quickly realized that this was the boy you were fleeing from when you two first met.

"You know, it was very rude of you to leave me hanging in that restaurant..." Sukuna heard the guy saying.

"Do you know how embarrassing that was?"

He kept eavesdropping, his brows furrowing with every word.

"I can imagine, I would be embarrassed too." were your only words. Sukuna suppressed a chuckle. He really liked your attitude.

"That's it? You don't even want to apologize?"

"What for?" you asked and met his gaze, indifference in your eyes as the guy went furious.

But before he could speak any further, his aggressive body language was enough for Sukuna to intervene. He came up to you and positioned himself behind the chair of your classmate, roughly pushing it back.

"Hey, idiot. Fuck off, will you?" he expressed loudly, cocking his head up in an order to leave. You looked up in surprise, confusion on your face, because why was Sukuna here?

Your classmate was ready to fight whoever it was behind him, but when he saw that it was Sukuna, he quickly dropped that plan and retreated without hesitation. Bewilderement decorated your face as Sukuna sat down on the now empty seat, staring daggers at the guy before turning back to you.

"What are you doing here?" you then asked, still completely dumbfounded by the current situation.

"What? No thanks?" Sukuna smirked, his whole demeanor changing, whereupon you raised your eyebrows in annoyance. He continued.

"I've witnessed your little talk by chance and figured I should rescue you from that douchebag."

"I could have handled it myself. I don't need a savior." you shook your head.

Sukuna huffed in amusement.

"Oh, believe me, I know that. But why should you worry your pretty little head when this fucker doesn't respect your boundaries anyways?"

You stared back at him.

"It is my duty as a man to hold other men accountable when they step out of line. I can't just turn a blind eye to it, you know. It can get dangerous real quick."

You furrowed your brows at his words, unsure if he was being sincere or if that was just his trick to get women to like him.

"What? Don't believe me?" he questioned at your dubious look.

"I don't know yet." you declared, studying him closely.

"Whoa, I feel like I'm being examined. I should warn you, I'm into that." At that last statement, he smirked again.

"You're into being looked down on?" you laughed quietly, not wanting to cause too much noise as the room was still quite silent.

"As long as it's you who's looking down on me." he murmured and you just watched him, eyeing him up and down.

Then he came closer to you, only inches away from your face now. He opened his mouth and his eyes stopped at your lips, staying there for a while before looking back up and narrowing them.

"Careful inspector, if I didn't know it better, I'd think you want to seduce me."

The smirk on his face widened and you groaned in disgust, waving your hands in withdrawal.

"Okay okay, you can go now." And your voice changed to a faked tone of appreciation. " 'I'm safe again thanks to you.' "

He snickered at your sarcasm and got up when he saw your professor entering the classroom, bidding you goodbye.

"See you soon, sweetheart."

And your heart missed a beat.

After class ended, the universe found it necessary to send Sukuna your way again - or more like - send you his way. One time a day wasn't enough apparently, because as you walked down the floor, who stood there in front of the lockers was no other than the popular boy himself. He was surrounded by a lot of people, a few of them were probably his football teammates, as you distinctively heard them talking about defensive strategies.

When you walked past the group, Sukuna immediately recognized your silhouette and followed your figure with his eyes. It didn't take long and he excused himself, quickly running after you. Just as you exited the building, he stopped you in your tracks.

"Hey, are you off now? It's getting pretty late, need a ride home?" he offered, holding the door open for you.

"Hey," you greeted him, walking through the entryway in perplexion, "no thanks, I'm good." Although you were curious, did he have a car?

"Come on, do me the favor." he insisted and you exhaled.

"Do you think you're entitled to a favor now for playing hero earlier? If that's the case, then-" but he interrupted you.

"No, you owe me nothing. I just want to make sure you get home safe and aren't walking home alone in the dark."

"Wow, I have to admit, you're really good at this whole player thing." you mocked him.

"You think I'm playing with you?" he laughed and then opened his mouth to say something else.

"So, is it working then?" he joked, voice deepening in an instant before you hit his arm playfully.

"Just kidding, just kidding!" he held up his hands in retreat.

"I'm not playing, though. I mean it." he confessed after.

"Well, I don't really know you and I don't get into strangers' cars."

"Strangers'? Ouch." he pressed his hand against his chest in feigned offence.

"Good thing I don't have a car then, though." he smiled coyly which left you confused.

"Didn't you just ask if I needed a ride?" you repeated his words and he swiftly cleared up the small misunderstanding.

"I was talking about my bike." he then grinned, pointing to the spot behind him, where the motorcycle was standing.

"A bike?" you sounded surprised.

"Yeah? You ever been on one?" you shook your head at his question while he got his bike ready. But, admittedly, you always wanted to experience what it was like to ride one. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to accept his offer.

"What? You've never been on a bike? Well, then it's your lucky day today. Hop on." he said, but you were still indecisive.

"And let you know where I live? What if I don't want you to?" you smiled, irony obvious in your voice. But Sukuna played along.

"Your tone alone tells me you live in a dorm. Am I right?" Your smile simply grew and that was all the confirmation he needed.

"Knew it." he muttered.

"So you were speculating about me?" you instantly reciprocated.

"Always." he grinned and handed you over the helmet.

"Here, take mine. I only have one."

"What, and let you drive without one? No, I'll pass then."

"Calm down pretty girl, it's not the first time I do this." Pretty girl. Why did that name fluster you?

"You mean taking a girl with you?" you teased. He just flicked your forehead.

"No, silly. Driving without a helmet. So don't worry about it."

"Oh, so you're allowed to worry about my safety but I can't worry about yours?"

"Exactly." he gave you a teethy grin and your tummy fluttered in response. You weren't blind - he was incredibly handsome. There was a reason he was so popular after all, but up until now, you've never really noticed it, always somewhere else with your thoughts. Your two worlds were fairly separated before, so you didn't bother dealing with him.

"You're cute. Now come on, before we spend the whole evening here. I'll drive extra careful for you, promised." he assured you, half serious half joking.

A pout spread on your face and you were still hesitant, but Sukuna managed to convince you eventually.

When you sat down, he told you to hold on tight. Not knowing where to put your hands though, you decided to place them on his shoulders shyly.

"What are you doing?" he asked next and turned around, a puzzled look on his face.

"Uhm, you told me to hold on tight..." Did he want you to hold onto the bike instead?

You immediately drew your hands back in embarrassment, however, Sukuna was quick to grab them with his.

"You're supposed to cling to me. This way, you just bring me out of balance and risk falling. Here, put your arms around my waist."

That's what he said, but he did the job himself, dragging your arms around his strong built. You could practically feel the muscles behind the fabric, it was undeniable that he hid a sixpack underneath it. Your heart started racing and you hoped and prayed he didn't feel it pounding on his back.

The drive only lasted for about 10 minutes, your dorm was near the college after all, and here and there Sukuna popped a question, asking if you were okay or if you enjoyed the ride.

It was nice of him to keep the conversation going, even though it was difficult to hear him at times due to the heavy wind. When Sukuna tried addressing you once more and only a "huh?" escaped your lips, he laughed whole-heartedly, the contagious sound making you break out in laughter too. In that moment, you felt so free and careless, and you were so grateful Sukuna took you with him.

Sukuna stopped in front of the dorm complex and turned off the engine. He looked up at the building and started speaking.

"So, a dorm girl, huh? You sharing a room with someone?"

"Not a room, but the apartment. We have two bedrooms." you answered and he hummed.

When you walked up to the front door, Sukuna waited on his bike a few meters away, wanting to see you get inside. You searched for your keys, but as much as you were rummaging through your bag, you just couldn't find them.

"What's wrong?" Sukuna yelled.

"I can't find my keys." you admitted, panicking before remembering you left without them this morning.

"Can't you ring the bell?" He asked you and you explained to him that your roommate Utahime was still working.

Making his way up to you, he pulled out his phone, apparently sending some messages. He seemed distracted for a split second before he tucked the device back into the pocket of his pants.

"Where does she work? I will drive you there."

"No. No, you really did enough for me already, I'll just walk there. But thank you, for everything." you tried brushing him off to not be any more of a nuisance, but he wasn't having it.

"I wasn't asking, I'm definitely taking you there." he commanded and his casualness about it had an effect on you. It was so attractive, the way he was chauffeuring you around the city on the single mission to make you get the keys for your apartment.

Arriving at her workplace, Utahime went speechless seeing you coming in with Sukuna. While he was busy with the soda machine, you explained her the situation and she gave you her keys under the condition you let her in later. She obviously couldn't outwardly ask you about him in his presence, so you two communicated via facial expressions. Utahime tilted her head into Sukuna's direction, a flabbergasted look on her. You tried your best to let her know you'd clear everything up later as he already neared the two of you, the prominent silence seemingly suspicious. He seemed to notice the weird atmosphere.

"You guys good?" Sukuna broke the silence.

"Of course! Everything's perfect!" Utahime exaggerated and you pressed your eyes together in humiliation, facepalming inwardly. Sukuna mustered her strangely, taken aback by her overreaction as well. After that, he turned to you.

"Here for you. Saw this drink on your table earlier, you must be thirsty." he reached you the drink he bought and both Utahime's and your mouth fell wide open at this action.

"T-thank you." you stuttered a little and Utahime let out a small laugh she failed to suppress. You sipped on the bottle of strawberry-vanilla soda and then stored it in your bag. Sukuna was simply drinking water.

Leaving the lobby, Utahime was the receptionist in a 3-star hotel, Sukuna and you walked back to his vehicle. On your way, he mentioned the weird ambience inside.

"Your friend is a little odd, isn't she?" he pronounced and you chuckled, nodding your head slightly.

"A little, yeah." you agreed, "but she's the best."

Sukuna looked at you with a soft smile, but you didn't see it.

As you sat down on the bike and Sukuna got the helmet out of its case, you've come to a realization.

"Can I ask you something?" you uttered.

"Spit it out." he permitted.

"How did you know I don't have a car myself?"

He lips twitched upwards.

"I've never seen you in the parking lot. But I've seen you walking around plenty. I put two plus two together." He's so attentive.

"Someone's been looking out for me." you beamed.

"Guilty." he smirked and slipped the helmet over your head, locking the straps. You looked up at him with big eyes and he met your glance, his half-lidded eyes observing what's left of your face. The tension was palpable for the both of you and before it got too awkward, he was already shoving down the helmet visor to escape your eyes.

The ride back was silent, but he still watched you walking through that door before leaving.

Soo here's part 2 hehe! Had to make Sukuna a lil' feminist because he's supposed to have a functioning brain <3. Hope y'all enjoy!

taglist: @miakxn @aureliaborea @nonamevenus , thanks for the support 🤍

[liketheinferno2]

These aren't full ref sheets but I was trying to take some clear pictures of Hephaistos for later art reasons and then got side tracked doing all of the Pandaemonium bosses so here they are in order. Also for anyone following who doesn't play FFXIV and knows it as the catgirl game, enjoy this instead? VISUAL SPOILERS obviously.

Asphodelos

Warder of the Condemned: Erichthonios

Mythic Creation: The Hippokampos

Mythic Creation: The Phoinix

(+ familiars)

Hemitheos: Hesperos

(+ sexy fanfic redesign by Nemjiji)

To be brutally honest I never really liked either of these designs compared to every other Hemitheos we get, I think the really brutal black and red of the Phoinix is weakened by gold accents, but I still am always down for gay vampire surf rock. The Savage version kind of looks like Ultimalius as well if you've played XVI.

Abyssos

Mythic Creation: Proto-Carbuncle

Hrgrhhgrhrgrh

Hemitheos: Hegemone

^ My favourite detail on this is you can see the parasite's outlines in her robes and in her legs, then right through the eye holes on the mask to wrap around the torso. I'm convinced this version of Hegemone is functionally an ant being piloted by a cordyceps infection.

Hemitheos: Agdistis

She's very big

Perfect Imperfection: Hephaistos

I'm probably biased by Abyssos being the first raid I was there for day of release but these really are all fantastic. It's also when the story abandons all pretense of not being (at least partly) about family abuse and is loudly using the body horror and shackle motifs to talk about that. It's great. Hephaistos specifically is constantly bulging and twisting in and out of different forms like a highly unstable chimera and the more I look at these the more I notice parts that just should not be there. He's giving everything.

As for the Savage design It's a hard thing to rate as such but my favourite part is the veins that grow down from the eyeholes in his mask like bloody tears.

Thanks Abyssos I love you

Anabaseios

Mythic Creation: Kokytos

Dæmoniac Dungeon: Pandæmonium

It's really hard to communicate how huge this nasty tumor crab I zoomed out as far as physically possible in the game engine and subsequently ended up at a goofy angle staring up his nose.

Ephemeral Justice: Themis

Best boy. The double ended lance and second pair of arms are fantastic for this character.

Theos: Athena

In.. almost every final fantasy adventure you're fighting the real villain not at the very end but a little beforehand, the big iconic end boss is often more a metaphorical figure representing everything wrong with that first person's ideals. Athena cut out the middle man and became her own JENOVA.

I do like the moth angel, especially the hollow body full of dubious orbs, but with her eyes closed all the time it gives off the impression of this not even being the true body but some kind of anglerfish lure in the shape of a fairy... which might be true because this exists:

I really really love her twitchy anemone feelers and how the moth body ends up grafted to the rest of it waist down.

Anyway there's the gang I did not specifically intend for this to be design reviews I just wanted to have clear photos because when you actually see them in game there's other things to focus on. In hindsight I can appreciate more the theming of each tier and then the series as a whole, but my only (extremely obvious) observation for now is that every character Athena had a personal hold over is decorated in chains somehow and so I should have seen the Hegemone thing coming lmao. Heph and Aggy are still my favourites I don't think that's changing any time soon. I'm also noticing that Anabaseios is now just old enough for random DF parties to fuck up severely and I find that fun so I'm going to go fight the crab mansion now.

[okiedokrie]

Epiphany // Want Me - Chapter 1

Summary: Jeonghan is more than a little upset at Joshua at the moment. He's getting tired of waiting for him, too impatient and stubborn to realize what he has in front of him. Jeonghan takes his frustrations out by having fun. And maybe, he'll enjoy it with the company of a new friend.

Characters/Pairing(s): Yoon Jeonghan x Fem!Reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Suggestive

AUs/Trope info: Non-Idol!AU, Poly!AU, Strangers to Friends to Lovers

Word Count: 2319

Warnings: drinking, cussing, descriptions of non-sexual nudity

Rating: 18+

A/N: banners by @kwanisms

Loud bar music beats in sync with Jeonghan's heart, shockwaves coursing through his body, and the vibrations calm him down. 

It's been exactly 56 hours since that conversation with Joshua by the window, and he's still a little pressed over the fact that Joshua is taking a bit too long to catch up with him. In their 10 years of friendship, many things have changed already. Like the way Joshua dresses, how comfortable they are with controversial jokes, or the way Joshua got beefy over the pandemic for seemingly no reason?

But god, those pecs are immaculate. Jeonghan thought, this wouldn't be the first time he thought of Joshua this way. 

It was a little dubious, wanting someone who's convinced they don't want you in the same way, but ever since that conversation, Joshua has never looked at Jeonghan the same.

It was like an Epiphany smacked him in the face.

Jeonghan isn't complaining though- okay, maybe a little. He's complaining about how long it's taking Joshua to take a hint. Especially when he's trying to set him up with what he believes to be the love of his life.

Apart from Joshua, of course.

A hand wraps around Jeonghan's arm, sliding into the barstool next to him. “Hey Jeonghoney!” She said, placing a kiss on his cheek, a grin spreading across her face in an impish manner.

“Shuji couldn't make it today?” She asked, already having a nickname for a guy she hadn't even met yet, but it was fine, she was always the comfortable type.

“No, doll. He's way too in his head about his feelings and I want him to ride it out on his own, he desperately needs it.” He said, taking another swig of his drink before setting the empty glass down and calling for the bartender. 

Signaling another of his drinks and a new one for his new company, Jeonghan rolled his shoulders in frustration before turning to the woman next to him, her eyes watching his every move attentively, the dim red lights of the bar making her look devilish. 

She is kind of the devil, though, at least to Jeonghan's loins.

“Aw, that's too bad.” She said with a pout, “At least we're here now, let's dance after this drink. What about it, Jeonghoney?” She grinned after.

Jeonghan grinned a boyish grin after this, he always loved that she was always down for whatever, making the most out of any situation. Maybe that's why they clicked during Seungcheol's birthday party.

“Yeah, I'd love that.”

The bar had a more laid-back atmosphere than most nightclubs, which Jeonghan appreciated given that the club crowd was never really his. But still, the dance floor was high on energy and hot. Everything felt too hot and sticky for him to fully get his head into it, especially not with Joshua's existential crisis being in the back of his mind.

He felt her arms wrap around his neck, pulling his body closer to hers as they set a more relaxed pace to the song. She leaned in, kind of shouting over the music to speak to him, “You're in your mind again Jeonghoney, care to share your thoughts?” She said, leading the sway of their bodies to the music.

Jeonghan only shook his head, holding her hips in his palms to swing to the beat more intensely. “Nothing you should worry your pretty little head about, doll. At least, not in the middle of a bar.” He tried to joke, a dry chuckle leaving his throat. 

She huffs, agitation bubbling, “Then why are you thinking about it, hm? In the middle of the bar no less?”

Jeonghan just chortled at this, he kind of played himself there. She may be bubbly and easy-going but that doesn't mean she's anywhere to being stupid. She's a very intelligent woman if she wants to be.

He leans down to kiss the wrinkle on her forehead, effectively smoothing the furrow of her brows, “My bad doll, I'll just focus on you, then.” He said, turning his head to place a kiss on the side of her head, humming at the scent of her perfume. 

She giggled, pulling him close to her as they swayed, the song slowing down. They both turn their heads to rest on each other's foreheads, Jeonghan's hands resting on her hips with no pressure of leading their swaying, only enjoying the warmth of her presence. 

Jeonghan believes this is bliss, to have someone who wants him as much as they want them. It might be wishful thinking on his part, but he hoped that one day Joshua would catch up with him.

It was obvious how Joshua acted around him, but he needed Joshua to tell him explicitly. Joshua needed to come to that realization in his own time.

Jeonghan waited for over a decade now, what's the harm in more waiting?

She leans in, their lips brushing but never kissing,  they haven't kissed, not on the lips yet, but Jeonghan is guilty of wanting to go further with her, carefully considering his options of just asking her directly to let her set the pace.

He decides he's a really patient guy, he's always waiting, isn't he?

Jeonghan came to the realization that he wasn't monogamous a long time ago, he had a lot of time to think about what that meant and to let go of the social stigma that was instilled into him at a young age. He thought he was wrong, for wanting more than one person to love. He thought his integrity and loyalty didn't exist because he couldn't just commit to one person.

But then again, his heart was just too big for one.

Jeonghan pulled away from her face to lean down and press his face into the crook of her neck, opting to press feather-light kisses to the skin, his hair tickling her cheek.

His hands roamed her midriff, still at a respectful pressure and manner. He just wants to feel her close, having no sexual intentions. He hums in contentment, peace in his mind as he shares this intimate moment with her.

Breathing in her scent made calm wash over Jeonghan in gentle waves, almost making him forget the recent turmoils of his and Joshua's relationship. 

The key word is almost.

Much like every day after he met Joshua at 18 years old, he managed to make a place for himself in the back of Jeonghan's mind, never leaving no matter how hard Jeonghan tried to push him further back.

Can you blame Jeonghan though? A beautiful soul like that only comes once in a lifetime, there wasn't a day when Jeonghan could ever think that Joshua could be anything other than beautiful.

Not that he had to try hard, Joshua's merits spoke for themselves. His mindset, devotion, loyalty, and comforting aura. Everything about him. Even everything that he was insecure about, Jeonghan found beautiful. 

Oh, being in love with your best friend hurts.

Maybe one day he’ll get over the monumental obstacle that was his feelings for Joshua. He felt really guilty for them most days, too. He couldn’t fully commit to being Joshua’s friend because of his feelings. He felt bad for essentially lying to him, for over a decade, even. 

Jeonghan doesn’t want to be just his best friend, he never did. And that’s what bothered Jeonghan the most.

She pulls him out of his own thoughts. Running her fingers over his hair to look him in the eyes, still a little unfocused on the current moment. She should be offended, he was the one who invited her out to dance but he couldn’t even be present enough to be here.

But, of course, she isn’t. You see, Jeonghan had a type. The type to forgive over and over again. You and Joshua, basically. 

He's only been in love twice in his lifetime, you and Joshua, basically. 

Jeonghan finally snaps out of his own thoughts just as the song ends, pulling away from her, taking her hands in his to lead her back to the bar. “I really need a drink, sorry for ruining your fun doll.” He said, his voice a little dry.

“It's fine Jeonghoney, you need this more than I do. He'll come around, I'm sure of it.”

Oh, just how sweet can you get? Jeonghan thought, your saccharine smile sticking to his mind like thick honey, golden ambrosia poisoning his mortal consciousness. 

Being in love is addictive, and Jeonghan is only a man. Maybe his pining for his best friend would be the sun he flies too close to, hubris is his greatest sin, after all.

He leans over to press another kiss to her shoulder, “You're too kind to me, doll. It's only been a few days, but would it be too soon to call you a blessing?” He jokes, trying to lighten the situation by buttering her up, like usual.

She giggles, much like at Seungcheol's party, but this time instead of curiosity toward a handsome stranger, it's adorable for a close companion. 

Jeonghan and Y/n haven't known each other for long, but to a romantic, you know your soulmate as soon as you meet them.

It was easy for them, Jeonghan didn't have to skirt around the idea of something more with her. He didn't have to wait for her to get on the same page as him, minds in the same wavelength as soon as they locked eyes. Both Y/n and Jeonghan are romantics, so of course they're in love.

But Jeonghan still yearns for his best friend.

The one who stood by him for over a decade now, the only one who Jeonghan could share all his secrets, the one who knew Jeonghan better than he did, but somehow did not know anything at all.

Jeonghan only wished that in another universe, Joshua was just as much of a romantic as he is, maybe then he'll finally be able to tell him that he loves him in the way that Jeonghan wanted to.

One more drink before they go home. Jeonghan thought.

Taking her home for the first time felt a little intimidating to Jeonghan, especially since the conversation they had before leaving. 

If we're going to take this relationship seriously, you need to trust me Jeonghan, trust us. I love you, truly, I want us.

She's right, of course, one look at the both of them and you'd know just how in love they were.

They make their way through the threshold of Jeonghan and Joshua's shared apartment, carefully entering Jeonghan's room. Joshua hasn't been in their apartment the whole night, choosing to spend his time with high-school friends that took the time to visit him from across the world.

It might be the best for him, a distraction from the difficult situation he found himself in.

Jeonghan helps her with her night routine, his hands are a little clumsy from all the drinking they'd done, yet Jeonghan takes great care in unzipping the back of her dress.

He kisses the new skin exposed to him, her back turned to him as she frees her hair from her up-do and she starts to pick bobby pins out. Jeonghan takes this opportunity to massage her scalp, trying to press out the tension from being up for so long.

After helping her undress, Jeonghan starts to strip lazily too, taking his time to get used to the nip of the cold air nipping at his skin, before joining her in the bathroom, he fishes out some towels as she sets the water to whatever temperature was comfortable for her.

She gets in the shower, letting the water soak into her hair and skin, fogging up the glass of the shower and the mirror. Jeonghan followed after her, hia body also getting soaked by the water as he was reaching for the shampoo and letting it lather on his palms, before gently massaging her scalp again, carefully scratching it to clean.

She sighed, the physical intimacy comforting her, it was odd for most people, to be this comfortable being naked and showering with someone they knew for less than a week. But Jeonghan just felt like someone she'd spend the rest of her life with, it was odd, to fall this quickly, but it was right, this felt right. 

Jeonghan feels the same way too, most men wouldn't know what to do with themselves when in the vicinity of a gorgeous woman, but to Jeonghan,  just her presence was enough. Sure, it'd be nice if there was something more, but just this was enough, love overpowering any carnal desire for her skin.

He just wants her close, so after helping her with shampoo, he hugs her from behind, warm skin pressing against warm skin, pressing small kisses to her wet neck. She giggles, Jeonghan's soft lips tickling her, leaning back against him, she sighs again, she loves this type of intimacy. Both of them were too drunk and tired to do anything over than finish up preparing for bed, so instead they just held each other close, enjoying the moment of silence, only being broken by the steady patter of the shower.

They both finish their shower and skincare before getting dressed, Y/n in one of Jeonghan's shirts and a pair of his boxers, and Jeonghan in much of the same uniform. 

They take turns drying each other's hair, Jeonghan's expensive and fancy blowdryer doing the job perfectly. Now, after a relaxing shower and a few more kisses, they're ready for bed.

Jeonghan shuffles under the covers with her, immediately turning over to pull her close, his heartbeat under her ear as he steadies his breathing again. She looked beautiful, a calm washing over her in the safety of Jeonghan's arms, pressing more kisses into each other's faces as they fell into an easy slumber.

[internet1girl]

Chapter 5: What Happened Here?

Pairing: Johnny Cage x Fem!Reader

Summary: A whole village, depopulated just like that. Does something still lurk within its vacant buildings? Is whoever, or whatever, did this still out there? Something’s going on…

Word count: 11.9k Warnings/Notices: named!reader, angst, mentions of child abuse, dubious content, descriptions of gore and viscera, gross stuff overall, sexually suggestive, flirty johnny, a few curse words here and there

First Chapter / Previous part

A/N: new chapter yayyy :3

y’all the next chapters will be shorter I PROMISE THIS TIME!!!

Midday shines down onto Outworld. The night has ended, and the darkness has given way to the light of the sun.

The carriage was still on its course for the village, now only minutes away from its destination. The vehicle was gearing along the rolling hills of rural Outworld, surrounded by nothing but greenery. Though, just like the prior night was moonless, this current afternoon was sunless. The sky was completely covered by thick grey clouds, not allowing even a single stream of the sun's rays to peak through.

Inside, the vibe from last night had changed. The pink light of the overhead lanterns was completely drowned out by the light of the day, and the background ambience was now thick with animal noises and howling wind.

You and Johnny were both awake and had been for some time, you both were busy with your own respective activities. Silence was thick within the air, the both of you were immersed in whatever had captured your attentions in the moment.

Sometime in the night, you broke out of the hypnotism that was the view of Johnny's sleeping form and finally fell asleep. When you awoke in the morning, you chalked that whole experience up as nothing but a dream. Must’ve been a really weird one, considering how you would never take advantage of the fact that Johnny was sleeping to silently admire his beautiful features. Yes... that was nothing but a vision that your subconscious decided to randomly generate for no reason at all… right?

Right now, you were gazing out of the carriage window, your eyes on the fields of Outworld. Despite it being a cloudy day, it was still so stunning to see. You always had a fondness for greenery, an appreciation for nature was something that you carried ever since you were a girl. When on these missions, you loved to do nothing but gaze out of the window, to stare at whatever landscape currently surrounding you. It was nice, calming, relaxing.

Across from you, Johnny was sat, his eyes glued to the screen in his hand as aimlessly scrolling through social media. His free hand would snake behind him to rub the nape of his neck every now and then. He woke up with a crick in it, for some weird reason.

His attention would soon be diverted when he clicked on the Twitter logo on his home screen. To his egotistical joy, the sight of his name currently trending on the app met him, in all its glory. His fans were raving about an up-and-coming action movie that he was to star in. Scrolling through all the ecstatic tweets earned a smile from him, one that only grew as he read through the latest search results of his own name.

"Guess who's trending on Twitter?" He loudly announced, looking up and flashing you a grin.

His voice suddenly breaking through the silence caught you off guard a tiny bit. You’d temporarily forgotten about his presence, as nice as it sounded. The plains outside consumed all your focus, leaving little room for anything else. You turned to face him, a little ticked off that he had interrupted your nature watching.

"...Who?"

"Me, of course!” He shoved his phone in your face, showing you the tweets of people going crazy over him as evidence.

There was something he liked about how he was able to capture all of your attention with just his voice, as silly as it sounded. Your eyes on him made his skin prick in anticipation, though he chose to keep these odd feelings confined to his brain.

"Wow, that's lovely." Your tone was comically flat as you stared at the screen a few inches away from your face. You didn't even bother to pretend like you were happy or excited for him in any way.

Your deadpan response got a scowl out of him, his lips pulling down in dissatisfaction. 

“A bit more enthusiasm would be nice…” He muttered as he took his phone back, his voice taking on a more brooding tone. He's Johnny Cage, everyone should be excited and happy when he has news! Everyone loves him!

You roll your eyes, leaning against the back of your seat as you turn your gaze back to the carriage window. Though, a query sprouting in your mind did tear your attention away from the hills outside and back onto him.

"How do you even have reception? We're in the middle of nowhere." Your eyes narrowed as you looked over at him, the logistics of Johnny and his phone now finally coming into question for you.

“Darlin’, I’m Johnny Cage. Wherever I go, I make sure to have access to reception and Wi-Fi. I need access to these to keep in touch with my fans." He huffed, as if this was the simplest, most obvious thing in the world.

You were about to say something in response, but your lips stilled before your vocal cords could form a noise. Instead, you just looked over at him with a baffled expression, your brows furrowed in confusion. This man was just so…

"Why you looking at me like that? You jealous?" He smirked, finding it so amusing that he was able to draw out such reactions to paint the blank canvas that was your usual emotionless face.

Your fog gave way to your typical ’Johnny Cage just pissed me off’ scowl upon his question. This man was so predictable, yet he still somehow kept managing to catch you off guard.

"Far from it, Cage."

"You sure? That's exactly what someone who’s jealous would say.” He teased, tilting his head to the side, a coy smile tugging at his lips.

In contrast, your scowl deepened. ”I would actually hate to have my whole life on display for millions to see."

His smirk didn't even falter at your dismissal, his glittering ego practically impenetrable. “Ah, don't tell me you don't have a desire to be in my spotlight, Jade."

You once again roll your eyes at his arrogance, a small groan leaving you. "I have no desire to be famous."

This made his eyes narrow. Johnny didn't know why, but he felt like your reaction wasn't genuine. Despite their truth, he didn't believe your words. In his eyes, you were too gorgeous to not possess a secret desire to be adored by the masses, to be well-known and worshipped like him. He didn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to capitalise on your perfect looks, to have millions across the globe venerate you. Why would you put your beauty to waste?

“But, why not? You're pretty enough to be famous. Everyone would love you."

His sweet words got a small laugh out of you. Sure, he’d probably said such a line to a countless amount of women in his lifetime, it would be entirely unsurprising. But still, it was nice to be complemented every once in a while.

"That doesn't matter. I value my privacy."

His eyebrows raised, your sincerity finally starting to sink in.

“You serious?” He started, your humbleness something that his vanity couldn’t grasp. ”You really don't have any desire to have fans? Like, at all?"

"No." You replied bluntly, looking him dead in the eyes as you did so. The idea of having millions of people knowing every single thing about you made your skin crawl. As an assassin, you couldn't think of anything worse for you or your lifestyle.

You’re serious. You’re actually serious.

Johnny wouldn't quite say that he was shocked, but he was kind of surprised. Though, it started to fade when he took note of how you weren’t being as snippy anymore. He actually kind of liked this, to speak with you as an equal.

"But... why? It's great having fans. They're like your own army."

"Army?” You look at him with a raised eyebrow. “I don't need others to fight my battles."

Johnny was trying and failing to convince you to enter the world of Hollywood.

This wasn't the first time he's done so, either. Over the months, he's tried a multitude of times to hire other Earthrealmers, and even some Outworlders, to star in some of his upcoming projects. Most declined.

He sighed a little. "Fine. You don't need an army. But... don't you want the adoration and praise that millions of people give to you? It's not bad, or anything."

You took a few seconds to ponder what he had to say. It's not like he was 100% wrong, but it's not like he was right either. You just weren’t a public person, something that your celebrity counterpart struggled to understand.

"I won’t lie and say that I don't see how one wouldn't find that appealing, but it's not for me. I am all that I need."

Ever since you and Hiroshi cut contact, you’ve learnt to rely on yourself. Despite your other friends, you were still a little bit of a lone wolf, in a way. Never really allowing yourself to be dependent on anyone else, lest they leave you again. You couldn't help it, it was a trauma response.

A small pause of silence passed between you both, the only sound from the carriage being the trotting of the horse's hooves on the ground. His mind latched onto the latter part of your statement, your last sentence dominating his thoughts. Something about it struck him deeply, your words repeating in his head without let up. He didn’t know why, but your unabashed self-reliance had him zoning out as he stared down at the floorboards below. You’re all that you need. Just you…

This was one of the times that you found Johnny interesting as a person. You couldn't help but be intrigued by him. He was actually a pretty deep person, he was more than just some narcissistic playboy. You’d figured this out ever since the pyramid mission. A part of you itched to know more about this man, to peel back the layers of intrigue that coated him.

"May I ask you a question?" You broke the quiet, the sound of your voice jolting him out of his thoughts.

A smile bloomed on his jaw in response, his face lighting up. As if he would ever say no.

“Sure. Ask away.”

"What was the driving force in your desire to enter the film industry, to become a part of the Hollywood society?” You were semi-careful with your words. This was a genuine question that you posed, the unwanted possibility of offending him like last night being taken into consideration.

He paused for a few moments as he thought of what to say, looking down to his intertwined hands. To say that he was shocked would be… inaccurate. Surprise would be a better word to sum up his current feelings. Such a question from you was new... and, admittedly, very interesting. He took in another breath before he replied.

"When I was young, I guess I always found myself drawn to the spotlight.” He looked up, meeting your curious gaze. “I love being... noticed. It felt good. It made me happy."

You took some time to dissect Johnny's answer, running over the words in your mind. Deep down, you wondered if that desire for attention was a byproduct of his father's neglect, a result stemming from the lack of a brotherly bond, an outcome of his mother’s tragic absence. You refrained from saying any of this out loud, though.

"...l see." You finally reply. A tiny, satisfied smile graced your features.

“So, what about you? Did you always want to be an... assassin?" It was Johnny's turn to ask an actual, non-antagonistic question. He looked over at you, elbows pressed into his knees as he patiently waited for your response.

His question caught you off guard a little. You weren’t offended, it's just that nobody had ever really asked you something like this. You took some more time to think about your answer, running over the key moments of your occupation in your mind as your thumb stroked your chin.

"My career is something that I fell into. It is what I excel at, and, for a while, it was a valuable source of income. Think of Kenshi and his ties to the Yakuza as a comparable example."

"So, what, you enjoy it?" He asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

This was another one of his questions that had you thinking. Nobody had really questioned you about your profession before, such inquiries were admittedly new to you. New, but not unwelcome.

"Sometimes." You admitted. "There’s a particular thrill to it."

His eyebrows raised. "A thrill? Do you..." He trailed off for a few seconds, as if he was searching for the right way to word the question on the tip of his tongue. “…Is it fun?"

"Fun is not the word for it. I have simply become accustomed to what l do."

Now it was your turn to ask Johnny questions, to find out a little more about him as a person. You had encountered few men like him, the fact that there was so much more to him than meets the eye was a driving force for your curiosity. Slowly, you allowed yourself to give in to your intrigue.

"What about you? Are there ever any moments in your life where you find yourself wishing that you weren't famous, but instead a normal person?"

Johnny was surprised by the question, at first. Despite all the interviews, Q&As and fan questions he’d undergone, nobody had really asked him such a thing. He paused for a few moments, humming as he delved deeper into his mind. His expression grew more and more pensive as he thought of an honest and serious response.

"Yeah. Sometimes I do." He took a breath, slumping back into his seat with a sigh. "Fame does come with its perks... but there are times when I do want a break. It can get tiring.”

You hummed in response, nodding your head as his answer sunk in. It was...surprisingly nice to have a civil conversation with him, without the added snark that usually came from you both. Johnny's whole arrogant playboy persona, a leading factor in your disdain towards him, was a direct result of his shining fame. The fact that there were times when he wished for a different life, it was actually surprising to hear.

You were really starting to view him less as Johnny Cage, the character, but more so as John Carlton, the man.

"You gonna fall for me now that you've seen a little of my softer side?" He asked, jolting you out of your reflection. You met his gaze, a toothy grin meeting you.

Okay. Once again, Johnny just couldn't help making some sort of flirtatious comment. Whether Johnny Cage or John Carlton, he was still a nuisance.

Your small smile quickly morphed into an irritated scowl. The interest surrounding your partner made you forget how annoying he could be.

"No." You responded, crossing your arms to your chest.

"Aww, no? Come on!” He teased further, continuing to grin at you. “Every girl I've ever met eventually falls for me, you're no different."

"Your imbecilic attempts at seducing me are futile; save your breath." You retort, looking at him with a slight scowl as the words left your mouth.

Johnny barked out a laugh, your sass was something that he could never get enough of. “Ah, c'mon, are you sure? I’m more charming than you give me credit for."

He took a moment to look out of the carriage window, turning back to face you with a sly smirk. "It'd be nice to see you melt in my arms."

You shuddered a little at his words, you couldn't help it. Your face contorted with disgust as the mental image of your body wrapped in Johnny's arms, intertwined with his own, flashed through your mind. No fucking way.

"See? You're already imagining yourself falling for me." He teased.

You didn't say anything in response, your scowl at his relentless pursuit of you spoke volumes. Once again, this asshat was getting on your nerves. It's almost like this was your thing, Johnny being annoying and you being annoyed.

"You look cute when you're mad, you know that?" He teased, shooting you a wink.

You just rolled your eyes, turning and looking away from him. You refocused your attention back to the rolling hills outside, a much better view to devote yourself to. You’d had your fill of Johnny and his antics, opting to stare out of the window and hopefully relax for the rest of the ride to the village...

...Which didn't last long because the carriage suddenly stopped.

Heavy footsteps could be heard making their way towards the interior. The collision of boots against the ground increased in volume as the owner came closer with each step. Before you or Johnny could say anything, the door of the carriage swung open.

Thankfully, you weren't under attack, or anything like that. All was fine, it was only Geras that was on the other side. He’d stopped because the journey was complete, that’s all. A little warning would've been nice, he was so abrupt.

Whatever, though. That’s not what his job is. He took a moment to let you both gather your bearings before he spoke up.

"Jade. Johnny. Good afternoon. We have arrived at your destination." His voice was as rough and raspy as always, his face neutral and emotionless as his blue eyes pierced through you both.

He stood to the side to make way for you both to exit the vehicle. Once you both were on your own feet, and after all of your cramped muscles were stretched out, you both began to take in your surroundings.

You were outside the village of Kakariko, or what was the village of Kakariko. The whole settlement, once teeming with life, now lay deserted. The small wooden houses, once inhabited by families, stood void of life. Overgrown vegetation was starting to creep along the cobblestone paths and the exterior of the empty buildings, reclaiming the spaces where the townsfolk once walked on and worked in.

A cold wind whispered through the abandoned streets, rustling the unkempt foliage. The bland, grey sky above cast such a dull light down below, making the town’s remains seem even more forlorn.

The carriage was parked on the peak of a hill, overlooking everything. Your breath steamed in the chilly air, your palms rubbing up and down your bare upper arms in an effort to combat the cold seeping through your skin. 

For a bit, you just… stood there, in awe of the eerie sight before you. To see a place that was once so full of life to be completely abandoned sent a chill down your spine. In a way, this location was far more unsettling than the pyramid. Everything about this just felt... wrong.

"What the hell happened here?" Johnny was in a similar state of disbelief, though he was a bit more vocal with his thoughts. He turned to look at you, a look of confusion blanketed across his face.

"You think we're in the right place?"

"We are." The sound of Geras’ voice cut through the silence of the hills, abruptly answering Johnny’s question.

"This is Kakariko Village. Once a thriving settlement, it now lays devoid of life.”

He walked around the stationed horses, towards you both, taking a place in front of you both. "When the two of you have finished your investigation of this settlement, I shall be here to take you both back to Sun Do. I wish the both of you luck."

Johnny nodded in response, taking a look around the desolate, abandoned village once more before finally turning to face you.

"Well… guess there's no use in just standing here. Might as well get started."

"Agreed." You nodded, trying hard to not let your fear unease show.

With that, the two of you left Geras and walked off, headed for the village a few minutes away. Your mind flickered with a barrage of scenarios as you walked, you weren't quite sure what you would discover when you arrived...

...Or what was potentially waiting for you in the empty town.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Your combined footsteps were slightly muffled against the grass, tiny squelching noises being produced every time your soles came into contact with the ground. The silence was unsettling, creepy. The lack of any sound, other than your steps and the howl of the wind, was really starting to set Johnny on edge. He glanced over at you, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before he spoke up.

"You not even the least bit creeped out?"

"I am." You replied, not taking your eyes off of the buildings in front of you. The wind had a chill to it, making you shiver slightly as you wrapped your arms around your sides in an effort to retain body heat.

"This is incredibly unsettling. Whatever has occurred here cannot be good."

He huffed in agreement, his breath forming a small, white cloud as the chill wind swept across his face.

"Hopefully we can find some kind of clue that can give us a lead."

"Yes… hopefully."

Eventually, you both reached the centre of the settlement. Surrounding you two was what used to be a peaceful, bustling village… and now, it was little more than a desolate ghost town.

You were looking around, analysing every building for any signs of life. There were none. The entire village, save for a few crows, was completely empty. Besides maybe Geras, the two of you were the only souls around for miles… that you knew of.

The wind whipping through the empty streets blew some strands of hair in your face, something that framed and complemented your facial features quite beautifully. Johnny, despite being thoroughly creeped out, couldn't help but notice this.

"You know... we are all alone..." His voice was low, flirtatious. He leaned closer, a smirk growing on his face as he not so subtly raked his eyes over your armoured form.

At this, you took your attention off of the devoid buildings and towards Johnny, giving him a look of befuddlement mixed with exasperation. Was he serious?

“No one else around to hear us... or see us..." He took a step closer to you, closing the distance separating, his eyes not daring to leave yours.

In response, you took a step away from him, putting some space between yourself and the horndog by your side. Whilst he was looking at you with the filthiest intentions possible, you were looking at him like he had just said the dumbest thing in the world.

"Have you no shame? We’re on a mission."

Johnny let out an exaggerated sigh, pouting slightly at your words.

"Yeah, I know. All work, no play..."

He leaned against a nearby street light, looking you up and down once again with a cheeky smile.

“…But it would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste."

“Mm, you’re disgusting.” You took a step closer to him, ignoring his dumb flirtatious smile.

"Now... I think we should split up. That way, we can cover the land more efficiently, and maybe find something valuable in the process."

His smile faltered slightly at your words. Splitting up wasn't his first choice, or his ideal choice, in terms of how to go forward. How would he be able to pester you, if he had to be apart from you? But… he had to admit, it would be the better way to proceed. Damn you and your tactics.

"Yeah, alright. Probably the more logical choice. But..." He leaned in a little, a smirk pulling at his lips. "...don't miss me too much."

"Right..." You were so over this man, it was hilarious. "I will search the eastern half of the village, you can search the western half. How does that sound?"

He pushed himself up off of the pole he was leaning on, standing straight again. "Yeah, sure. I’ll take the west side, you take the east. Just try not to get lost, okay?"

You nodded in confirmation. With that, you both parted ways, heading deeper into the village, commencing your search.

Kakariko Village was actually quite a small settlement, only appearing to house a few hundred inhabitants. Compared to Sun Do, this place was tiny. It only took you both some minutes of walking through its streets to get to the village centre. If you each focused, you both could probably complete a thorough search of the whole place in about an hour or so.

Well, if nothing went wrong, that is.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Johnny was mindlessly walking past empty houses, his hands shoved in his pockets as he looked around for clues or anything out of the ordinary. 

The silence surrounding… it was just so creepy. Not being able to hear a single sound, except his own footsteps, was really beginning to weird him out. He would suddenly spin around from time to time, jumping back to face the opposite direction, just in case anything tried to sneak up on him or whatever.

It wasn’t long before he found himself standing in front of an abandoned house. The door was slightly ajar, a small sliver of the interior peeking out from the gap. Having nothing better to do, Johnny decided to cautiously take a peek inside.

Just like its surroundings, the inside of the building was completely void of life. The interior resembled a typical village home, one that a family probably lived in. The floorboards of the home creaked a little under Johnny's weight as he leaned in, aiming to get a better view of the place.

Once he confirmed that the coast was clear, he slowly pushed the door open, wincing at the loud creaking sound the hinges made. He took a few quiet steps inside, glancing around intently.

The home, though abandoned, still somewhat held the warmth of a once well-lived-in family house. The place stood frozen in time, nothing about it indicated that the inhabitants left in a haste. A large stone fireplace, now cold and covered in a thin layer of dust, dominated the room. 

Worn furniture, including a cushy sofa and a few simple beds, sat preserved, their colours slightly faded. Handmade quilts and crocheted throws, once bright, lay draped over the home’s chairs, adding muted splashes of colour and texture.

Shelves lined with books, trinkets, and family photos told stories of years gone by. The wooden floorboards, polished smooth by countless footsteps, creaked softly under every step. The dinner table, the heart of the large room, had an aura of character to it. Crude cutlery was dotted around the surface of the table, sitting on top of a handmade cloth.

The daylight streaming through the small, paned windows, cast a dim glow on the cluttered space. Johnny could see all the dust particles floating in the beams of light, he could even see some cobwebs in the ceiling’s corners. Though paused, every corner of the home spoke of a life humbly lived.

Despite the place being abandoned, the warm aura of the family that inhabited the home still lingered in the air. There was something about this small home that was so intriguing to him, it was such a nice break from the creepiness of the empty village outside. He ran his hand over the dining table, feeling the smooth wood underneath his bare fingertips.

He leaned against the wall, letting out a soft sigh as he crossed his arms to his chest. This home… it was so strangely inviting, despite being seemingly abandoned. He could sense all the love... all the happiness that once filled this home. This was technically part of his search, so it’s not like he was slacking off, right?

Johnny continued to explore the home out of sheer curiosity. He walked around the space, eyes dancing around the various trinkets and items lined up on the shelves. He was curious, wondering who used to live here.

A picture perched on a nearby shelf caught his attention. He picked it up, brushing off the layer of dust that covered the frame. His eyes narrowed as he studied the image before him. 

A photo of a family of five; a mother, a father, and three children, smiling happily was what met his curious sight. This picture and its framing were so crude, yet Johnny could sense all the sentimental value it held. The actual photo itself was worn with age, small stains were dotted around the artefact to prove it. In a way, this just made the item more heartwarming, something so simple yet something so cherished. He couldn't help but smile, feeling strangely warm from what was before him. A genuine reaction of happiness spread across his face, so unlike the dumb smirks he always shot your way.

The happy family, all smiling brightly with their arms around each other in the photo, was familiar to him in such a heartwarming way. His focus was now solely on the item in his hands. Though… after a bit, something about this picture made the warm smile on his face slowly shift into a slight frown. His face dropped, the sweet happiness draining from his eyes.

This was all reminding him of his own family.

Ah. He hadn’t expected anything as simple as a picture to hit him in the heart, honestly. The family in the photo looked so happy, so content. And yet… he couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy, bitter jealousy, as he continued to stare at them.

They were… they were just like his own family, down to the last detail. Right before his mother died of cancer, before his father switched from loving to abusive. Before the bitter rivalry between him and Jimmy formed. Before him and Rebecca drifted apart, back when he was convinced that they’d be close forever…

A drop of something onto the picture snapped Johnny out of his thoughts. It was a tear, a tear from him.

Nooo no no no. This can’t be happening. He’s Johnny Cage, he DOESN’T cry. This damn photo, pulling on his heartstrings like this, serving as a stupid reminder of what was once the happy Carlton family. A family… that was now in pieces.

Why did it have to turn out like this?

Johnny couldn't believe what he was doing. He was crying, over a simple picture? A simple picture of a family that he didn't even know? It was pathetic. It was stupid. But he couldn't stop himself.

"Dammit.." He muttered, trying hard to control himself. He held the picture tightly, his hands shaking slightly. He cursed under his breath at the overwhelming wave of emotions coursing through him, it was pathetic. It was stupid. It was all so… ugh. He didn’t even know these people, for fuck’s sake. But… he couldn't stop himself.

No. He was not doing this. Not now, not today. This was a mission, not a therapy session. What would his fans think? What would you think?

He shakily wiped the tear falling down his cheek away with his hand. He used the other one to gently place the picture back down onto the shelf it previously sat on. He took a deep breath in, trying to calm the volatile seas that were his emotions. After taking a moment to push the feelings back down compose himself, he took one final look around the house. There was nothing out of the ordinary, it was just a regular home. He had a whole half of a village to search, there’s no use in wasting time in one singular building.

After one last glance at the picture now on the shelf, he quietly walked away and out of the home, carefully closing the door behind him. He felt a strange sense of melancholy as he walked down the street outside, one that he tried his best to ignore.

As he continued his search, he tried his hardest to push the memory of that family picture out of his mind, or at least to the back of it. He couldn’t afford to let anything distract him from the mission at hand. That family was not his own and had nothing to do with him.

He had a job to do.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

On the other side of the village, you were diligently enacting your part of the search. You were laser-focused, quickly but efficiently searching every building that you came across. There had to be something related to why the residents of Kakariko disappeared. Your mind was solely on the mission assigned to you, nothing else mattered right now.

Some time had passed. You had thoroughly searched around half of the eastern side, a quarter of the village. So far, you’d found next to nothing suggesting how all of the townsfolk had disappeared. None of the empty homes indicated that their respective residents left in a hurry, everything was preserved.

However, there was something. In every other house, a few small, sharp white stones could be found on the floor. They resembled the teeth of a predator, small sharp fangs. Could they be actual teeth? No, impossible. No Outworlders teeth were that long nor that sharp. They had to be something else, although you couldn’t think of a similar substitute. Perhaps some sort of bizzare cultural practice? Oh well, you were sure to find more answers if you just kept searching.

You had just come across a certain structure. It was too large to be a home, it must’ve been a public building or something similar. You walked around its exterior, looking for anything that was out of the ordinary. When you didn’t find anything of interest, she walked over to the open entrance and cautiously stepped inside, your hand hovering over your compacted bō staff strapped to your hip, just in case anyone or anything suddenly jumped out at you.

The interior of this building seemed to be a library of sorts. Large bookshelves lined the walls and singular books were haphazardly spread around the tables dotted around the space, some were even strewn out on the floor. There were certain items on the tables, you recognised those as instruments of magic. Someone was performing sorcery here, though it was unclear what their intentions were.

You cautiously stepped around the library, your eyes darting around the room for signs of something, anything. The magical items on the tables caught your eye, you walked up to them and carefully began to analyse these objects. You possessed some knowledge of magic and sorcery, thanks to the monks of the Wu Shi and the mages of Empress Sindel’s palace. But you were no grand magician. You were staring blankly at the devices before you, unable to deduct their purpose. All you could tell were that these instruments were magical in nature.

You couldn't help but shiver as you continued to look around the library. The atmosphere was just so eerie. The lack of people around, coupled with the silence, made your skin crawl. And this place in particular was just downright creepy. It didn't have the usual cozy feel that most libraries have - instead, everything about this space was just… unnerving.

The books around were a good start in searching this room, you figured. You picked up one of them off of the nearest bookshelf and flipped through some of the pages, skimming the text. Some of the pages contained spells, but this didn’t alarm you that much. Magic was common practice throughout Outworld, these grimoires could’ve just belonged to the village mage or something. It was a little irritating that you couldn’t understand the text before you, though.

You continued your reading, your hands darting out to any book near you. There’s a very good chance that sorcery played a hand in the disappearance of Kakariko’s residents, you couldn’t rule anything out.

Whilst you were walking around, you kept accidentally stepping on small white stones, just like the ones you saw in a few of the empty houses. They were tiny, easy to miss, but still everywhere regardless. Damn it, what were they? Why were they in nearly every building in this village?

They were really starting to make you frustrated, there were so many of them that you struggled to walk around properly.  Unlike the empty houses, there were more of these stones in this library. Somehow, these stones and this building were related. This was something of interest, although you were a little too ticked off to realise this.

Your focus switched from the books of sorcery over to the strange floor stones. It would switch again when a loud shuffling sound cut through the silence behind you.

Quickly, you spun around, drawing your staff and taking on a fighting stance. You were now on edge, hyper-aware of your surroundings, intense amounts of adrenaline were coursing through your veins, you forced yourself to be ready to take on whatever may be potentially lurking behind you.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a person or anything preparing to enact a sneak attack upon you. No, the origin of the noise was a book dropping. You, in your rummaging hastiness, had placed a book right on the edge of a table. As so, it toppled over and came crashing down to the floor. The shuffling sound was the book slowly sliding off of the table, its weight wasn’t balanced enough.

You sighed, folding away and strapping your bō back onto your hip. You keeled over, your hands coming to rest on her knees. You were quick enough in turning around to see that book falling onto the floor. A small laugh slipped past you, between lungfuls of air. You weren’t mad, rather the opposite. Something so insignificant as a book falling getting that big of a reaction out of you made her chuckle. It was so stupid, it was comical. Save for Johnny on the other side, there was nobody in this village. Who could possibly be gearing up to attack you? This was just a subtle reminder from the Elder Gods to stop being so on edge, you thought.

However, the jumpscares of today weren’t finished with you yet. As you stepped back slightly, in order to scour the rest of the bookshelf behind, your boot landed on a ‘book’ on the floor. Expect, it wasn’t really a book. It was a hidden mechanism, a secret button that sank into the floor as you pressed your weight onto it. You’d unknowingly triggered something, and you were about to find out what that something was.

The sound of a mechanism came to life, metal grinding and cranking below. Loud rumbling, so loud that it practically echoed throughout the entire library, cried out. 

“Fuck!” You jolted back, literally jumping in the air at the sudden sound.

There was a pause for a little bit. Everything was quiet, for a moment. Then, the sound of loud grinding came from the floor.

A circle in the floor opened up. The wood around the shape split apart, opening to reveal a staircase leading downwards, into the ground. The new entrance was dark and foreboding, almost like it was inviting you to step inside.

You slowly made your way to the top of the staircase, your hand hovering over your bō staff. You peered down, into the darkness below. It was dark enough that you needed some time to properly focus on the details of the space below, but you could still see the end of the staircase, and how it led to a large door.

Unfortunately, Liu Kang didn’t provide you and Johnny with flashlights before you departed, he didn’t see the use for it. You had to investigate this secret staircase and hidden room in the dark.

Well, not completely in the dark. Thankfully, your bō had a slight green illumination from it. As well as serving as a weapon, it could also serve as a makeshift light source in the void down below. How handy!

Re-equipping your staff, you cautiously ventured down the stairs. Your weapon did indeed provide some illumination, but barely. You were starting to have trouble seeing in front of you as you went deeper. You stuck it out, using the handy little thing as a makeshift cane to check for any obstacles obscuring.

The air started to become colder and more moist as you went on, almost as if you were walking into an actual dungeon. The atmosphere was creepy and unsettling, the perfect place for someone, or something, to ambush you. Maybe it would’ve been smart to run and get Johnny before going down here by yourself…

Eventually, you reached the door. It was large, at least eight feet tall, and cast in dark iron. It had a lock on it, only adding to the heap of mystery surrounding. This did nothing to deter you, though. You made quick work of the lock with your staff, a few strikes loosened it up nicely. After the hunk of metal was discarded, you slowly pushed the door open, peering inside to assess any potential dangers lurking on the other side.

You were greeted by the sight of… darkness. The entire space behind the door was almost completely void of light. The dim glow of your staff was nowhere near strong enough to combat the void, you could barely see anything in front of you. The only thing that you could make out was a tiny light coming from the other end of the room, but you couldn’t tell what the source was.

You cautiously took a few steps into the darkness, using your foot to prop the door open just in case you needed to run out screaming retreat. Under the light of your bō, you came across an unlit sconce on the wall. Striking the tip of your weapon on the metal of the sconce was able to generate enough sparks to light the torch. You got more than you bargained for, though. The sconce on the wall turned out to be magical; it was built to be connected to all the other sconces in the darkness. As soon as you lit up one, all the others followed suit, dispersing the darkness around you.

The new light revealed a grotesque laboratory. A twisted chamber of horrors that housed eyesore upon eyesore. Dim, flickering torches cast eerie shadows on the stone walls, revealing a space filled with the macabre results of twisted experiments.

Rows of grimy, blood-stained tables lined the room, each cluttered with crude surgical instruments and sprawled-out notes. The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood and the acrid tang of chemicals. The smell alone made you retch on the spot. Broken and rusted chains hung from the ceiling, some still clinging to skeletal remains or dismembered body parts. The floor was slick with a mix of blood, viscera, and unidentifiable goo, making each step a nauseating journey.

In one corner, there was a large metal cage, something was inside of it. It was too far away for you to get a clear view of its contents, though. It’s not like that cage was the worst part of this room, pretty much everything in the space was as disgusting as could be. There were literally more stains on the floor and walls than there were clean spots

So this was what was hidden under Kakariko Village.

There was no time to run and get Johnny, this needed to be investigated now. Reluctantly, you ventured further. You used a nearby chair to lodge the door open, just in case you needed to make a hasty escape. Looking around the space was tasking on your eyes, unimaginable horrors met your sight with every head turn.

Those little white stones were weirdly all over the place, much more so than the library above. They were littered across the floor, so much so that you had to kick them out of the way to step around freely.

When you finally walked over to the cage in the corner, you quite literally jumped back in fear. A loud yelp came from you as your body leapt backwards, your eyes couldn’t believe what was in front of them. Your brain refused to accept what lie before you.

It was a Tarkatan!

A dead one, but still one regardless. It was completely hairless, and its skin was red and heavily irritated. The only thing it wore was a small rag covering its crotch. What it died of was unclear, but it was completely unresponsive and slumped over against the wall.

When the initial shock wore off, you cautiously stepped closer to analyse the body. Your eyes settled on its teeth and, by the Gods, they were identical to those stones around the floor of the village buildings. Those ‘stones’ were in fact Tarkatan teeth!

A thick bolt of worry ran down your spine. All those sharpened molars, the ones that you had kicked around just minutes earlier…

You couldn’t look at the corpse any longer, out of fear that you might throw up. You had seen all that needed to see of the body, looking at it further made you feel queasy. You stepped away from the cage, hastily looking around the rest of the laboratory in search of anything else. The missing villagers, the secret underground facility, the dead Tarkatan, what could it all mean? Somehow, someway, everything correlated.

All the notes strewn around on the table next to you caught your eye, quickly walking over to see them. They were damp with something, but you were past caring by this point. You rapidly searched around the table, skimming through all the notes you could get ahold of. Research was written all over the pieces of paper, detailing something to do with Tarkat and an infection. This was strange… Tarkat was a disease, not an infection. What could all of this mean?

And that’s when you found it. A leather-bound book under a few damp sheets. You rapidly brushed the pieces of paper off of the item, and once again stumbled back in shock of what you found.

The cover of the book had a mark on it; the insignia of the infamous sorcerer Shang Tsung.

A chill ran down your spine. The symbol of the sorcerer, right on the cover of this book, was a clear indication of who was behind the horrors around you. He had his hand in this, everything made sense now. The only question left was… what exactly had happened?

You reluctantly opened the book. The first page detailed a record. It was a list of names, presumably villagers that were compromised by Tarkat. You turned the page to find that the book was being used as a journal of some sorts, documenting Shang Tsung’s findings and progress with whatever had occurred here. You were now in the process of studying the journal’s entries, eager to find out something, anything. It read as following:

“Day 1.”

“I have successfully moved into the small village of Kakariko. The locals think me a travelling merchant, in desperate need of shelter. They welcomed me with open arms, even giving me a small home to reside in for the time being.”

“This is the perfect location for what I have planned; small and remote enough that no one will notice if a few people go missing, but large enough that I’ll have plenty of live subjects. I plan to set up all of my equipment in the morning, as well as construct an underground facility to carry out my work in secrecy.”

To say that you were sickened wouldn’t be surprising. Onto the next page…

“Day 3.”

“Kakariko Village is small enough that I’m now somewhat familiar with the layout of the settlement. I have become aware of the local library, a place that few villagers visit day to day. It will be the perfect place to construct a laboratory. I plan to start construction late at night, whilst everyone is asleep.”

Next page.

“Day 10.”

“My facility is just about complete, a secret mechanism serves as an entry point to the room. Truly, some of my finest work. With this, I am now ready to commence my work, I have already selected some villagers to experiment on once I possess a prototype of the infection.”

Ah. Next page…

“Day 22.”

“I am pleased to write that I already possess a few prototypes of my Tarkat infection. The material I drew from Princess Mileena has proved most useful. Finding out that the teeth of the compromised are a rich source of the disease was most surprising. I will be sure to capitalise on this.”

“Tarkat, as it stands, is merely a disease. One that is slow to show symptoms, and even slower to fully take effect. Such circumstances will not do, I plan to create a version that is an infection. I aim for this infection to be highly contagious, transforming the infected into a beast within seconds. When perfected, this shall be the perfect weapon. General Shao will be most pleased.”

Your heart sank at this. General Shao? Shang Tsung? Together? Such a dark revelation had your stomach churning. This was the most horrible wake-up call you’ve ever experienced in your life. You could barely bring yourself to turn the page.

“Day 29.”

“I have already commenced testing how live subjects react to the exposure of my Tarkat infection. So far, it is not what I had hoped. The beasts that come as a result of exposure are too docile. After mutation occurs, they are mostly entranced by a state of confusion, unfit for any form of kombat. No matter, I have nothing but time ahead of me. I will iron out these kinks, and perfect this infection.”

Next page.

“Day 32.”

“Much to my dismay, I am now experiencing the opposite of my prior problem. When infected, the beasts are now too aggressive to reason with. After mutation, the Tarkatans are rendered mindless, too feral to take commands. They barbarically attack any form of life they set their eyes on, even if said life is other Tarkatans.”

“What’s more, the villagers are starting to grow aware that something is happening in the shadows. They are noticing how the population of Kakariko is dropping. If found out, this could prove detrimental to my plan. I must quicken my research, and perfect this infection as soon as possible.”

Next page.

“Day 40.”

“Slowly, the infection is meeting my expectations. Once mutated, the Tarkatans display extreme ferocity, ripping through anything in their path, but not to a degree in which they are impossible to reason with. It is a difficult task, but now entirely possible to tame one of these beasts.”

“Unfortunately, I am starting to run out of test subjects. By now, all of Kakariko is aware of its dwindling population. As such, it had become increasingly difficult to obtain live test subjects, without exposing myself and my true intentions. No matter, I am close to perfecting this infection. It is only a matter of time.”

Next page.

“Day 41.”

“Yet again more unfortunate news. Whilst I was working today, one of the test subjects escaped. It ripped out the chains confining it to the wall, and ran up the staircase to the outside.”

You paused from reading to look at the wall to your side. Indeed, it had indentations plastered on it, the sign of struggle evident. A sigh slipped past you as you lowered your head to continue reading.

“As I ran to capture it, a little village boy had witnessed everything. His eyes were wide with shock upon seeing the beast and me. Unfortunately, he was too quick to catch. The menace ran out of the library, no doubt on his way to tell the other villagers what he saw. Hopefully, this will not be my undoing, not when I’m so close to perfecting the infection.”

Your heart was thumping in your chest now. You could feel it slamming against your ribcage with each fearful beat. Shaking fingers turned the page.

“Day 42.”

“I have been found out, Kakariko is no longer safe for me. A large crowd was gathered at my door this morning, eager for my head. Thankfully, I was able to escape unscathed. There is no choice but for me to flee, and take haven somewhere else.”

“I am gathering up everything I can in this facility. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to abandon it. This location is no longer suitable for me to conduct my work. A shame, truly.”

“As for the villagers, they too will have to be dealt with. Such tales of me and my work cannot reach the ears of the Royal Family, not yet at least. I shall continue my work somewhere else, and finally perfect the Tarkat weapon.”

You turned the page to read more, but there was nothing. That was the last entry, and now you finally understood the whole story.

The disappearance of the villagers was all Shang Tsung’s doing. The madman is planning to weaponise Tarkat, and he used Kakariko as a testing ground. The disappearance of the villagers? Likely victims of his dark magic. Now Shang Tsung was at large, somewhere within Outworld working on his deadly project. Not only that, but he’s working with disgraced General Shao too. That machine back in the pyramid? No doubt his vile work.

Your mind was filled with a mix of horror and determination. This was all too much, truly. The onslaught of information had you sweating buckets, droplets of moisture dotted your forehead as a result of the sheer shock that you were under.

You closed the book, slowly recoiling backwards as you tried to comprehend everything. Shang Tsung, this Tarkat infection, the presumably dead villagers, General fucking Shao? This was all just so-

The feeling of your back hitting the wall shook you slightly, jolting you back to reality. Instinctively, your hands reached out to stop your body from falling over. 

And that’s when you felt a prick on your finger.

You hissed a little, the sudden feeling sending a jolt of pain through your being. You brought your finger up to eye level, grimacing at the sight of your now-pierced skin. A small bead of blood was already forming on your fingertip, threatening to run down your whole hand.

You turned around to see what had wounded you. Your eyes focused on a small spike on the table behind you, the tip of it now already tinged red by your blood. You cursed under your breath, wincing slightly as you examined your injury. It didn't look too serious, but it hurt like hell.

No matter, there were more important manners at hand than a pinprick. You had to find Johnny, get back to Sun Do as quickly as possible, to tell Liu Kang all that you had found. Pocketing Shang Tsung’s journal, you raced out of the laboratory, running up the stairs and out of the library with haste.

By now, it was late afternoon. The cloudy sky overhead was starting to part, revealing the glimmer of the afternoon sun. The wood of Kakariko’s buildings shone brilliantly under the light of the sun, somewhat subsiding the previous creepy aura of the village.

Not that you took notice. No, you had to find Johnny as soon as possible, and inform him of all that you had discovered.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

After his little moment, Johnny distracted himself by searching through the western half of the village. There wasn’t really much to find, apart from these weird white rocks on the floor of some houses. By the time he was done scouring his portion of Kakariko, there was nothing really to do.

He would walk around the empty streets, his hands in his pockets and his focus lowered as he kicked rocks out of boredom. He hadn’t seen you for about a couple of hours now, he was thinking about you and how you were doing. He missed your beautiful face, and the way you would scowl at him after he said something to piss you off. How your hair flowed in the wind, how your uniform was perfect for your body, how well your breastplate cupped your-

His lewd thoughts were suddenly cut off when you came into view. Finally, you were back! He was so excited to see you again, oh how blissfully unaware he was of what happened. He was so happy to see you that he didn’t even take notice of how fast you were walking and how intense your expression was at first. Ah, that’s just classic you!

“Aaa, there she is! So what, did ya miss-"

“Shut the fuck up.” You were never in the mood for Johnny or his antics, but you were especially not tolerant of him after what you had just discovered. You didn’t even care to ask what he had found in his time searching around the village, whatever it was was probably far less important.

“Listen. I found something.”

He was admittedly slightly taken aback by your aggression. Not that it really bothered him, though. He’d gotten used to your iciness, but the fact that you were acting stranger than usual did pique his interest.

"Oh yeah? And what’s that, exactly?” He folded his arms, waiting for you to speak. Your no-nonsense attitude and seriousness… it made you even hotter in his eyes.

You knew that Johnny was blatantly checking you out, but you honestly didn’t care. Your mind was solely focused on Shang Tsung and Shang Tsung alone. You looked around for a second, as if to check for something, before turning back to speak to him.

“…Shang Tsung was here.”

His expression changed instantly. Now his interest was fully piqued.

"Wait, what? You serious?” He asked, unfolding his arms and raising a suspicious eyebrow. “You got proof?"

You nodded, bringing out the journal from behind your back. You handed it to Johnny, concern plastered all over your face.

“Read this. It’ll catch you up to speed.”

He was intrigued. He slowly took the journal from you, opening it gingerly. Johnny had a bad habit of skimming through pages and skipping lines whenever he read, but with the sheer amount of information here, paired with your intensity, he actually forced himself to slow down and take his time with this.

Meanwhile, whilst Johnny was flicking through Shang’s journal, you started to feel a little… off. Your injured finger was starting to really hurt, and you were beginning to feel so overheated, despite being outside. Your mind was slightly fuzzy, the effort to concentrate on your thoughts became increasingly harder. Ah, no matter. It was probably all the stress that you were under, nothing more. You’ll be fine… right?

He took some time to properly read through the journal’s content, his eyes widening with each turn of a page. Finally, he finished reading, shutting the book and looking up at you in disbelief and shock. Confusion would also be added to his mix of emotions when he took notice of you. You were acting weird… like, weirder than usual.

"You alright, Jade? You look… I dunno, like you’re sweating a lot. Also, you’re not scowling. You got a fever or something?” He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine.” You quickly responded, wiping the accumulating sweat off of your forehead. This wasn’t the time for checkups. You were fine and he was fine. The focus should be on Shang Tsung, not whatever you had going on.

“There’s this secret laboratory, right under the village library.” You looked away from Johnny for a minute, pointing in the direction of the library. “It’s opened by some sort of mechanism, that’s where I found the room and the journal.”

"Cool, cool… a secret lab? This is some James Bond shit right here.” He nodded, following your finger and turning to look in the direction you were pointing at. “How do we get to it?”

He glanced over at you. "And how’d you even find it anyway?”

“Some sort of… button… I stepped on…” You were starting to find it hard to speak. You were getting so warm, like you were in a furnace or something. Your head felt so fuzzy, and your finger was throbbing like crazy. What was happening?

“Mmm… you’re acting weird.” He stated bluntly. Johnny took a step closer to you, his eyes narrowing on your flushed face. This was so out of the ordinary for someone like you, he was honestly a little concerned.

"You’re sweating a lot. And you’re stuttering your words. Seriously, are you sick or something?”

“I’m… fine…”

A lie, an unconvincing one at that. You were stumbling around now, it was a struggle to stand still. You shut your eyes for a bit - when you re-opened them, your gaze fell onto a concerned Johnny. To you, there was something about him that just looked… delicious.

You composed yourself, standing up straight as you cleared your throat. You couldn’t afford to make a fool out of yourself, especially considering who was in front of you. Whatever was going on, you would just have to put up with it.

“…Yes, I’m alright. I’m just a little tired.” You pointed in the distance, the direction in which you both came from.

“Geras is waiting for us. We’ve found all that there is to this mystery. We need to go back to Sun Do and tell Liu Kang of Shang Tsung and his intentions immediately.”

"A little tired"? Yeah right…

Johnny didn’t believe a word out of you, he saw straight through your lies. Still, he chose not to question you. You were so damn stubborn, you would just double down anyways, there was no point. But, he was still concerned.

"Yeah, you’re right.” He sighed, mostly out of defeat. “Let’s go tell Liu Kang. Maybe he can-“

He was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit coming from you. You keeled over, your body heaving as cough after cough came out of you.

This lasted for some seconds. When your outburst finished, you looked back up to an even more concerned Johnny.

For a bit, you just… stared at him, looking him up and down. Johnny, being the idiot that he is, took that as a sign that you were into him, a small smirk forming on his lips in the process. 

"What? You checking me out?” He teased, his smirk widening into a smug grin. He held his hands behind his back as he did, showing off more of his figure.

But… it wasn’t like that. To you, he looked delectable. Not like an attractive man, no, but like a well-seasoned piece of meat. A dark hunger started to stir within your belly.

Though, Johnny’s arrogance, as well as his stupid posing, snapped you out of your trance. Whatever was going on, he had broken you out of it by being his usual self.

“Ugh, Gods no…” You muttered, stretching slightly and wiping the sweat off of your forehead, despite already having done so a minute earlier.

“Come on, we should head back to Geras.”

"Hey, you’re lucky. Any other woman would be drooling at this body.” He quipped, pointing at himself as he gave you the biggest, most arrogant grin, one that faltered a little as he noticed how pale you were becoming.

“Then they have no standards…” You muttered again as you walked past him, trying to ignore the beads of sweat already forming again on your forehead.

"Right, you’re going to tell me that even you don’t think I’m attractive?” He followed behind you, snickering slightly at your jab towards him.

That was when you stopped in your tracks and turned around to face him. Your eyes darkened as you started to… growl at him? A deep, guttural noise emanated from your core, you looked at him like a predator would prey. Your damp brows furrowed as you bared your teeth, like some sort of cornered animal.

“Whoa, whoa!” Johnny exclaimed, his eyes widening, his hands shooting up defensively. “The hell’s gotten into you?! I was only messing with you, damn!”

His shocked reaction snapped you out of whatever was going on. You realised what you were doing, looking down out of confusion. Your overheated temperature, your dizziness, your sudden hunger, what the fuck was happening?

When you looked back up at a confused, borderline scared Johnny, that hunger returned. Gods, he looked soooo good, like a piece of perfectly seasoned steak. The thought of what his flesh would taste like sprouted in the back of your mind, you couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if you just-

Focus! For the Gods sake! This was your teammate! What the hell has gotten into you? Something was wrong, you needed to get back to Sun Do immediately and seek out medical attention. You’d probably picked up a bug or something from that filthy laboratory, you wouldn’t rule it out.

“…Sorry.” You mumbled, looking down out of shame. “Don’t know what’s coming over me…”

"You’re… uh, fine. You just gotta chill out, alright?” Johnny spoke hesitantly, keeping a cautious eye on you just in case you snapped again. 

“Mhm...” You hummed in agreement, meeting his gaze as he stepped a little closer to you. You tried your best to push your sudden cannibalistic thoughts about him to the back of your mind, you really did, but by the Gods it was getting hard.

This was no place to linger. The two of you started the walk back to Geras’ carriage. It was only a few minutes away, it’s not like you were going to be trekking for miles. It wouldn’t be long before you’d be safely on the way back to Sun Do, nothing else would be happening in the meantime… right?

As you walked out of the village, and along the grassy hills, your cannibalistic thoughts became too much to ignore. By this point, your pupils were inhumanly dilated. Your eyes were glued to this fine piece of meat in front of you, you were looking at Johnny like a starving kid would their favourite meal. He looked tantalising, so tempting.

Your pricked finger was swollen by this point. It hurt like a bitch, but your current fixation on Johnny distracted you from some of the pain. You held your inflamed finger in your other hand, caressing it slightly as you stared your companion down. By now, the sweat from your forehead was dripping down your face, the front strands of your hair now slightly wet as a result. Not that you cared, though. Your mind was so cloudy that it was impossible to focus on a single thought…

…Except how appetising Johnny looked.

He looked soooo good, sooo sweet. How good would he taste if you just took a bite out of him? You licked your lips, running your tongue over your teeth in the process. Weird… were your teeth always that sharp?

An uncomfortable few minutes passed by. Uncomfortable for Johnny, that was. He could feel your gaze on him, it made his skin prick. You looked crazy, like a drug addict going through withdrawal symptoms. He was honestly really worried, both for you and his own safety. There was a look in your eyes that shook him to the bone, every time he glanced back at you and made eye contact, he would regret it.

Before you both knew it, you had reached the carriage. Geras, who was sitting on a rock right next to the vehicle, met your approaching gaze. He hopped up, walking around the horses to greet you both.

"You are both back quite early. Everything went smoothly, I trust?”

You would usually greet Geras back, you liked the construct. But this time, you didn’t even say anything in response. Your eyes were still locked onto Johnny, slightly baring your teeth and curling your fingers like you had claws. You wanted to pry that suit off of him, like his meat sack body was some sort of macabre present. The need to do so was getting harder to resist by the second.

Johnny, having now turned around to face you, saw your condition clearly for the first time. He saw the sweat, the dilated pupils, the twisted smile, everything. You were looking at him like a hungry tiger eyeing a bleeding, half-dead gazelle. All of it had him scared shitless.

“Are you well, Jade?” Geras asked, keeping a wary eye on you. He’d caught on to what was going on by now, his eyebrow raising and his concern growing.

A guttural noise was emitting from your throat, your lock on your next snack Johnny never once daring to falter. He gave Geras a look, one of fear, one that the construct seemed to understand immediately as he took a step closer to you.

Out of nowhere, your feral snarl morphed into a frown of discomfort, then one of pain. You keeled over, clutching your stomach like it was being ripped open. Your groans of discomfort turned into screams of pain, so much so that you were now kneeling on the grass, yelling out loudly. Your body felt like it was on fire and your jaw hurt like hell.

In this process, your eyes snapped shut. Neither Johnny or Geras could see your brown pupils turn red, nor could they see your irises morph into thin lines.

“What’s wrong?!” Johnny was now beyond worried for you, his previous fear now totally overridden by overwhelming concern. He ran to your crouched form, kneeling down and grabbing your shoulders, Geras following after him.

You didn’t respond, you couldn’t respond. The pain coursing through your body was so intense that you didn’t even hear him correctly. Your screams of pain started to carry a… certain roughness to them? Your usual sweet voice was starting to sound deep, rough.

And your jaw, by the Gods. It hurt so much. Like it was changing or something. It felt like something sharp was starting to rip through your lower face. Not that either Johnny or Geras could tell. Your head was buried in your arms, a futile attempt at easing your searing pain.

Johnny didn’t know what the hell to do. Never in his years had he seen a person react in such a way. This went far beyond a simple “not feeling well”, this was a damn otherworldly phenomenon.

“Geras, is there anything you can do?! Literally ANYTHING!!” He looked over to him, he was practically shouting now.

“Take her into the carriage, we must get to Sun Do as fast as possible!” He frantically answered, a weird change from his usual emotionless demeanour.

Johnny immediately followed Geras‘ command, scooping you up into his arms. He ran to the carriage, carrying you inside before gingerly setting you down on one of the seats.

Well… that’s what he would’ve done. Instead, when he went to pick you up, you swatted his hand away with a grunt, looking up at him in the process, revealing just what had happened to you.

Your… by the Gods. Your beautiful face was completely deformed. Your big brown eyes were now red, cat-like and buzzing with ferocity. Your lips were nowhere to be seen, the lower half of your face was replaced by rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth, resembling those of a Tarkatan. This gruesome dental display was such a nasty shock to both Johnny and Geras, a loud scream came from the former as the two men stumbled back in shock.

You were infected with Tarkat.

A/N: lmfao not the cliffhanger ending-

jokes aside i really liked this one :) i had a lot of fun writing this and this is lowkey one of my fav group of scenes so far in this long ass story

now to start on chapter 6…

[gyupinkys]

scream

Content warning: MENTION OF MURDERS, smut, slight angst, knives, breaking and entering, unprotected sex, blood, spit, double penetration, fingering, cum play, degradation (slut, whore, etc), choking, spanking, oral (m&f receiving), SLIGHT DUBIOUS CONSENT BUT CONSENT IS ASKED, lmk if i missed anything else. 

afab reader x jeonghan x joshua

WORD COUNT: 5.1K

NOT EDITED

a/n: This is my first fic so please lmk if you enjoy it :)

“Jeonghan stop lying”

“I’m not lying y/n I really saw the killer eating a apple in dino’s kitchen”

“OUT OF EVERYONE WHY WAS HE SUDDENLY IN MY KITCHEN? Jeonghan stop trying to scare y/n”

“Are you sure you're not the one that's scared Dino? Worried the sick little killer will creep up on you flexing in the mirror” Joshua exclaims with a smirk, making the group burst into laughter. Dino rolls his eyes with a pout on his face knowing it makes no sense to defend himself. 

“How did you even see him in dino’s kitchen? Without dino knowing you were in his house to begin with? And why did you not say anything until now? Mingyu asked. Mingyu has been sick of jeonghan’s shit for ages now and him joking about this ghost face killer terrorizing your town seems insensitive. Across the past two months a ghost faced killer has been breaking into people’s houses with no rhyme or reason. The police are stumped and the only advice they can give to the citizens is to lock your doors and stay safe. Mingyu thinks that's shit because if he was trying to murder someone the last thing that would stop him are some flimsy locks, he’s picked enough locks in his lifetime to know.

“Ok how about we just stop talking about this? I don’t want Seokmin to start crying before the night ends” Jeonghan said with a sigh. You looked at him in confusion, jeonghan is never one to drop a conversation, especially when he can poke fun at someone. You figured he must've realized everyone was freaked out and continued your conversation with Cheol, missing the glare Joshua sent Jeonghan's way. 

“Y/n make sure you stay safe ok? I know when you have your headphones on the whole world disappears, but promise me you’ll be aware of your surroundings, ok?”

“Yes cheol” you say with an eye roll. Cheol is always treating you like a child but you know he has only good intentions. 

“Here, take this. You should start eating better. All those chipotle bowls aren’t doing you or your bank account any justice”  Cheol hands you a bright red apple he seemed to suddenly pull from thin air. You look at him in confusion “Since when do you eat apples?” “I’ve had a change of heart after visiting the farmers market a few days ago, you can't beat those prices. I got a whole container of cherries for $4!!” He says with wide eyes, you stare at him with a blank face hoping he won't continue this conversation for any longer than necessary.

He takes the hint and announces to the group “Let's end the night here, Josh can you give y/n a ride?”  

“Of course, I would hate for our dear y/n to encounter this scary killer” joshua says 

“For the love of god drop this gentleman act Joshua no one buys it” you say with an eye roll. 

With that everyone says their goodbyes and begins to head home. When you leave the restaurant Joshua is leaning against his car. You take a moment to appreciate him. As much as he gets on your nerves, he is admittedly one of the most handsome men you’ve ever seen.  His dark hair falls perfectly across his forehead and his skin is so clear you feel nothing but raging jealousy towards him. Oh what you would give for eyelashes like his. Stupid men and their stupid eyelashes and stupid slutty waist and stupid pretty faces and-

“Y/n? Can you continue to stare in the car? We should get going”

You're not even embarrassed to be caught, you’ve been friends for so long he already knows you’re attracted to him. You’ve always been especially close with Joshua and Jeonghan, something about them settles your spirit in a way the other boys can't. The group likes to call them evil twins, they look very similar and work a little too well together… You really hope you will remain friends forever, maybe even more than friends but you try not to feed into your delusions.   

As expected Joshua opens your door for you “Can’t have a pretty girl like you do any work. I’ll take care of you all night, don't worry that pretty head” he says in a low voice leaning his hand on the door. 

“Just get in the car joshua”

As he drives you look around your neighborhood and see the police cars on every street and people with their windows boarded up.

“Joshua, are you not a little worried?” 

“About what”

“Joshua be fo real, you know what I’m talking about”

He sighs and looks over at you when he stops at a red light. 

“Y/n I don't know, I think people are being dramatic. Why would someone randomly kill people with no motive? Obviously the police are missing something. No ones coming after you I promise.”

“What about you” 

He smirks at you, “Don’t worry about me pretty girl” 

You give him an incredulous look. How could he be so calm? 

He seems to pick up on your shift in energy, “If anything I’ll sacrifice mingyu so I can escape. I'm sure he cant fight off the killer”

This makes you chuckle. You look out the window and hope you and all your friends are safe.

As you tuck yourself into bed you get a text from Wonwoo:

GaM3 B01: R u home?

Y/N: yea

GaM3 B01: Make sure u lock ur door. Goodnight y/n 

Y/N: gn

This is weird. Wonwoo rarely texts you. Why is he suddenly worried if you locked your doors? You triple check your locks and get back in bed. 

Sleep can’t come to you. You put on your headphones and decide to listen to some white noise. As you settle back into bed you thank yourself for investing in these noise canceling headphones. Vernon insisted these were the best and he wasn't lying. A few minutes later you begin to drift, missing the rattle of your door knob and the small clicking noises as your lock is picked. You miss the creek of your bedroom door open and you miss the light chuckle of the intruder watching you sleep.

The next morning you wake up feeling a cool breeze. You sit up and see your bedroom door is wide open. You don’t remember leaving your door open, maybe in your sleepy haze you forgot to close it. 

It’s a saturday so you get the day to recover from your hangover. You should've listened to Mingyu and stopped after your third shot but Dino always manages to get you to play drinking games with him. Last night Jeonghna had to get down on his knees and beg Dino to get in a taxi. It was not a cute sight.   

You turn on the news to see there was yet another murder last night. It was a few blocks from your apartment. It seemed to happen only a few hours after Joshua dropped you off last night. You call him to make sure he got home safe.

“Hello” he says with that raspy morning voice. You can’t even lie it went straight to your core. Curse him and his voice.

“Shua did you see there was another murder only a few blocks from me?”

“Oh?”

“Did you see anything last night?”

“Nah I didn’t”

“Well where did you go after you dropped me off?”

“I went to jeonghan's place”

“Why did you not go straight home? Shua you may think you're safe but we don’t know who the killer is targeting. If something happens to you I won’t recover.” you say with a sigh.

“And what if I did know who the killer was targeting?”

“What?”

“I said, what if i knew who the killer was targeting”

“I heard you the first time, idiot. How would you know?” you said in confusion. 

“Y/N Do you think I’m the killer?”

“Why would you even say that? Shua, this isn’t a joking matter! I’m genuinely scared and youre making stupid fucking jokes.”

“Did I spook you y/n?” You can hear the smirk in his voice.

“Fuck off joshua” and with that you hang up. He’s so annoying when he acts like this. 

You decide to do some research into the murders. Joshua told you last night there must be some connection to all the victims. Hours go by as you compile more and more evidence and you realize all the victims are people around your age, and spouses of people you went to highschool with. 

“What the fuck” you say to yourself. The killer clearly must be someone you know. Someone you went to highschool with. This can't be one giant coincidence. 

As you connect more pieces  you realize you're too scared to stay here alone. Every noise is making you jump and you can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching you. You figure you should share this info with someone before you go to the police station and make a fool out of yourself. You're still pissed at Joshua so you call the next best person, Jeonghan.

As you explain yourself to him, he’s oddly quiet.

“Y/n, why don’t I stay with you tonight and we can head to the police station tomorrow?” 

You agree and he says he’ll be there in 15. From the moment he arrives you feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. It's around midnight when he realizes he left his talisman at home. He claims there are these lesbian ghosts haunting him and if he doesn’t have his talisman at all times they’ll try to kill him. You find him ridiculous but he assures you he’ll be back soon and if anything happens to call him. It’s been 20 minutes and he’s still not back. You mindlessly scroll through netflix deciding if its in your best interest to rewatch the entire hunger games series. As you are about to embark on your journey you get a phone call from an unknown number. You answer:

“Hello?” 

“Hi my love” a distorted deep voice says.

“Who is this?”

“My love, do you like scary movies?”

“Fuck off and don’t call me again”

You hang up. Talk about a mood killer. You take this as a sign to get ready for bed instead. 

As you're washing your face you hear your door knob rattle. Your heart stops as you struggle to breathe. If it was jeonghan he would have texted you to buzz him in downstairs. There’s no way this is jeonghan. You turn off your bathroom light and lay down in your bathtub. Your breathing picks up as you plead with yourself to not have a panic attack. You hear your front door open and heavy footsteps fill your apartment. You call jeonghan but he’s not answering. Of course this is the one time he’s not on his phone. You call the second person on your recents. Joshua. You know if you attempted to call 911 you would fuck uo with how much your fringers are shaking. You suddenly hear ringing flow through your apartment. Tears well in your eyes. Why is Joshua in your apartment? Why did he just break into your apartment? Your breathing picks up even more as tears freely flow. You hear him pick up. 

“Y/n, I know you're in here” 

You hang up and shut your eyes. You pray this is all a joke he and jeonghan are trying to pull on you. 

“You know y/n, you really are too curious for your own good. I always tell you to not worry that pretty head of yours on things like this” 

You can hear him getting closer and you feel like your heart is about to bat out of your chest. 

“I never would want to hurt you, pretty girl. I just need to make sure you keep your mouth shut.”  

What? How would he know about what you found unless jeonghan told him? And when would he have done that? 

You hear your front door open again. Maybe he left you think.

“Y/n?” you hear jeonghan call out.

Oh god why did he have to come now? Joshua’s probably going to kill him. You decide if he’s gonna kill you, you might as well make it as hard as possible because there's no way in hell you're taking Joshua Hong on in a fight. You make your way out of your bathroom trying to look brave but the tears still flowing through your eyes betray you. 

You make it your living room and everything is dark. There’s no sign of jeonghan or joshua. Maybe they left? You feel arms wrap around you from behind and feel someone breathing in your ear. The intruder covers your mouth as soon as you open it to scream. 

“Shhh pretty girl don’t make me do something I'll regret” you hear Joshua's smooth voice whisper in your ear. Here comes the tears again.

“Joshua go easy on her look how scared she is” you hear jeonghan say from somewhere behind you. You're so confused right now and the snot in your nose is running into Joshua's hand and you can guarantee he’s about to start complaining. 

“My pretty girl, why couldn't you just trust me when I said you're safe?” he sighs. 

“Now you're in real danger, my love” Jeonghan says suddenly in front of you. 

You gasp. My love? Was he the one who called you on the phone? You start whining and thrashing which only makes Joshua tighten his hold on you. 

“My love, can't you see what we're doing? You almost figured it out, use that pretty little head and put the rest of the pieces together.” Jeonghan says. 

You're in no state to actually use your brain which Joshua picks up on. “Why don’t you just tell her han, I think we’ve played with her enough for now”

“But I'm only getting started,” Jeonghan says with a pout. 

Joshua sighs, “Y/N were only avenging you. Do you not remember? All those people in highschool who made fun of you for no reason? They couldn't see your beauty the way we could? Having to watch you suffer all those years and beg us not to intervene killed us. Now it's our turn to watch them have to look on as their one true love suffers”

You're stunned. Jeonghan moves to turn on your lights and that pretty face you're so familiar with returns, but suddenly not as beautiful. There’s something different about his eyes when he looks at you. He’s looking at you like you're his most prized possession but also like you're his prey. You shiver in Joshua's hold. The latter pulls out a knife and begins to draw shapes on your skin. You curse your fucked up brain for the warmth begining to spread to your core. Joshua has you pressed so firmly against him you can feel all his muscles, you can also feel his throbbing cock against against your ass. Is this turning him on? What the fuck is happening? 

Jeonghan speaks again, “My, love we did this for you. I planned everything so well, even the police couldn't track us. And Joshua carried out my plans perfectly. You know we work very well together” The smirk on his face was both pissing you off and turning you on. God, what is happening to you?

The deepest, most carnal part of you is sickly impressed by this. They have such devotion for you that they're willing to risk their lives and kill for you?  To be completely honest you forgot about those bullies after highschool, but they clearly didn't. What else would they do for you if you asked?  

 You don’t even realize you're pressing your legs together until Joshua speaks up. 

“My pretty girl, are you enjoying this?” he removes his hand from your mouth and  you immediately deny his claim.

“So why are you pressing those slutty legs together when you know you just want to open them for us?” Jeonghan asks with a smirk.

You remain silent as Joshua moves the knife to your shorts. He whispers 

“So if i touch in between your legs you won’t be wet?”

“No” you say, lying to yourself and him.

Jeonghan grabs your chin and forces you to look at him. “My love, if you lie to us we are going to have to punish you.” 

You stay silent and look away. Joshua slides the knife in between your legs and presses against your panties. When he pulls it back there's a slick sheen on the metal giving you away. Joshua tisk and sighs. “What are we going to do with you?” 

Joshua finally lets you go and pushes you into jeonghan, who begins to lead you to your bedroom. You try to resist but Joshua is right behind, he smacks your ass hard which immediately makes you stop. You can’t see his smirk and you walk into your room. 

Jeonghan pushes you onto your bed and he and Joshua tower over you. They share a look and pounce. Jeonghan manhandles you so you're sitting leaning your back on him while he’s leaning on your headboard. He pulls your arms behind your back and spreads your legs open with his own. Joshua slides in between your legs and looks down at you. He drags his nose down your neck and breathes in your scent. You gulp.

“My pretty girl, you don’t know how long I've wanted to do this.”

He puts his hands on your thighs and looks into your eyes. 

“Are you ok with this?” 

You don't hesitate to say yes. He immediately dives in and kisses you. His lips are as soft as you always imagined. His scent overwhelms you in the best way possible.  You feel his tongue swipe against your bottom lip and you bite it. You won’t make this easy for him. He silently laughs to himself as jeonghan’s hand flies to your neck and presses hard. You begin to feel that delicious pressure go to your head. Jeonghan tilts your head up with his grip on your neck and Joshua looks you dead in the eye.

“Behave.” is all he says before he pulls out his knife. 

“I’m not scared to use this” he says as he glides it against your exposed thighs. To prove his point he presses the blade into your skin, the crimson blood flowing. He looks you in the eye as he takes a long lick. He quickly pulls up and kisses you. You can taste the metallic twinge on his tongue but it doesn’t deter you. You kiss him back fiercely until he pulls back for a breath.

“Open your mouth” jeonghan says from behind you, tightening his grip on your throat. You obey. Joshua spits into your mouth and you swallow opening your mouth to show him.

“My pretty, perfect girl,” he says, flashing that beautiful smile. 

He uses his blade to cut your shorts and top off leaving you in just your panties. He smirks at the damp spot on your panties. He gives you a questioning look and you nod your head letting him know you're ok. Jeonghan rubs your hip with his free hand and Joshua cuts off your panties. He immediately runs two fingers through your folds and pulls his hand back to show jeonghan how wet you are. They both groan at the same time, jeonghans coming out as more of a whimper. 

“Josh, don't forget we still need to punish her” Jeonghan calls out from behind you. You can feel his hard dick throbbing behind you. You groan.

“Put two fingers into her for me” jeonghan says and he plants his thumb on your clit while Joshua eases his ring and middle finger into you. You let out a gasp as Joshua immediately starts thrusting into you searching for your g-spot. Jeonghan lets go of your neck and turns your face to kiss you. His lips are somehow even softer than Joshua’s and you attempt to free your arms so you can touch him. He breaks from the kiss and tightens his hold. 

“My love, how's this for your punishment? If you make any noises or move we won’t let you cum”

Your eyes widen and your mouth falls agape. Joshua chuckles at this and increases his speed while jeonghan presses harder on your clit making it harder for you to control yourself. You resist the urge to buck your hips but when Joshua presses into that spongy spot inside you, you let out a pornagraphic moan that has the both of them stopping their movements. 

“My pretty girl, are you too stupid to follow simple instructions? Or are you just a pain slut who doesn't want to cum tonight?” Joshua says and he removes his fingers from you.

You begin to sputter an apology but Jeonghan is having none of it. He slaps your clit to silence you. 

“What will it take to shut you up? Do we have to fuck you dumb for you to learn how to close that slutty mouth?” jeonghan says as he pushes you off of him and climbs out from behind you. As if on the same brain wave jeonghan pulls you to the end of the bed while Joshua removes his shirt. You look over to him to see his muscles flex as he removes his pants and you can clearly see the outline of him in his boxers. His cock is big and hard and you can feel your mouth watering as you look at him with a pout. 

“You want me to fuck you?” he ask with a smirk. You nod your head yes as you feel Jeonghan's hot breath on your core. 

“Or do you want me to fuck you?” 

You look between them baffled. How do you pick between two of the most handsome and well endowed men you've ever seen in your entire life? At this point you rathered Joshua to kill you so you won’t have to make this choice. After a moment you reply with “both?”

They exchange a look. “Jeonghan grabs your face and looks t you for a second. 

“My love, I never took you as a greedy fucking whore. Do you think you could handle both of us?”  

“Yes” you immediately say. They exchange a look and jeonghan shrugs. 

“Whatever you desire my love”

Jeonghan slides back down the bed and dives into your core. Licking and slurping whatever he can. He sucks harshly on your clit begining to rebuild your lost orgasm. He slides three fingers into you and immediately hits the spot Joshua previously found. Meanwhile joshua takes off his boxers and pumps his cock in his hands. You can see the precum gathering at his tip and you're dying for a taste. 

“Open up” he says as he taps the head on your lips. You obey and he slides the head in. 

“I won’t go easy on you, this is still a punishment beautiful”. You nod and he begins to thrust, gradually increasing his pace. He begins to fuck yout throat like your nothing but a toy, the lewd sound almost drowning out jeonghans moans as he feasts on you 

“You know,jeonghan wanted me to hurt you. Teach you a lesson, but you know I have a soft spot for you. I could never live with myself if I hurt you in ways you didn't like.” You shudder and he takes this as an opportunity to thrust further down your throat until his pelvis is touching your nose. He sits there for a few seconds as you gag and struggle to breath around him. He pulls out with a moan and barely gives you time to catch your breath when he’s thrusting back in somehow deeper. Meanwhile jeonghan has you tethering on the brink of release, toying with you. He’s giving you almost the amount of pressure you need to cum but not enough. He pulls back and pulls his fingers out, sucking your essence off of them. You whine against Joshua’s dick and buck your hips begging for a release. Jeonghan tells you “ you’ll cum when I say you can, joshua come here and prep her ass if she wants both of us to fuck her its happening at the same time.” Your eyes widen as Joshua pulls out of your mouth and jeonghan grabs handcuffs from his coat pocket. He locks your wrist together and rests them on your stomach as Joshua digs through your bedside drawer for lube. Once he finds it he begins to kiss you as he slowly presses one finger into you. Jeonghan begins to undress and pulls Joshua off your mouth by his hair. He taps his cock against your face and you immediately begin to please him. By the time Joshua works three fingers into you jeonghan decides it’s time to fuck you. He tells Joshua to sit against the headboard and for you to sit on his cock. You shuffle up the bed and face jeonghan. You raise your hips and sink down onto Joshua holding eye contact with Jeonghan the whole time.  

You feel like a virgin again with the way Joshua stretches you, he rubs your hips and whispers about how good you feel in your ear. When you're fully seated he lets out the sweetest whimper that has you tightening on him. You begin to bounce on him savoring how he fills you so perfectly, its better than you ever imagined. He grips your hips so tightly you're sure youll have bruises in the morning but the thought makes you want him to hurt you even more. Leave his mark on you. You look at jeonghan with puppy dog eyes, pleading for him to touch you. He tells joshua to stop fucking you which he does begrudgingly does with a groan. Jeonghan pulls you off joshua and sits you back on him, only this time Joshua is fucking ur ass while holding your legs spread for jeonghan. Jeonghan slides into you and he swears he became comatose for a second. Your heat grips him so tightly and your warmth manages to spread through his whole body it has his toes curling. He gives an experimental thrust which has you tensing. You’ve never felt so full before you feel like you're floating. Unsure of what's real and whats not. You faintly hear jeonghan ask if your ok and you nod, needing to cum and feel their cum more than you needed air. They began a steady rhythm, one thrusting in while the other pulls out. It felt heavenly, you didnt think you would be able to have sex again without imagining it was them fucking you. You felt your orgasm quickly brewing and you knew you weren't going to last.

“Jeonghan please let me cum, o-oh god i feel so full, it feels so good Shua, oh my god please please, please” you blabber. Jeonghan smiles and looks at joshua. He shakes his head voting that you should be able to cum, Jeonghan relents and tells you to cum. You let go and you feel like your soul left your body, your toes curl and you squeeze your eyes shut moaning and whimpering like a slut while they fuck you through it. You begin to feel weak but neither let up and continue pounding into you like youre their personal fuck toy. The oversensitivity takes over but all that's on jeonghan's mind is getting you to cum like that again.  He begins to run your clit which has you arching your back into joshua, changing the angle for him and instantly making his cum with a whimper. He doesn't stop thrusting until he physically has nothing left in him. He pulls out and watches his cum drip onto his thighs. Jeonghan pulls you off joshua and lays you on your back, pushing joshua’s cum into your pussy and fucking it into you. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss while joshua sneaks his hand in between you and plays with your clit. Your second orgasm is near and you know it will be the most powerful you’ve ever had. Tears begin to freely flow from your eyes and jeonghan looks into your eyes.

“Cum for me my love, I want to see you fall apart on my cock” and like a trained slut you cum on command milking jeonghan in the process. He keeps thrusting until he’s too sensitive and collapses onto you. 

“Jeonghan you're too heavy” you whine and he chuckles. He carefully pulls out and rolls off of you. 

“Nooo now its gonna leak on my sheets” you complain, ignoring the fact that your sheets are already covered in both you and Joshua's cum. Jeonghan smirks and pulls Joshua from his spot on your bed and pushes his face into your core. Without a word Joshua begins cleaning up all of your cum, savoring the taste of the three of you mixed together. Jeonghan pulls him up and Joshua spits the mixture into your mouth. You swallow with a smile,and he collapses back onto the bed.

“So…” you say while staring up at the ceiling.

Joshua turns to look at you. “y/n I hope you can try to understand that everything we do is for you.” 

Jeonghan speaks up “My love, I will never let anyone or anything hurt you ever again. If you won’t accept our love that's fine, but we will never stop protecting you.” 

You try to take all of this in but it’s too much. Maybe you should just live in this perfect bubble, ignoring the fact that two of your closest friends murder people in your honor. Maybe it's ok to live in your delusion. You settle that this is something to think about another time. 

“Wait, Do the other guys know?” you ask.

“No”, jeonghan replies. “We didn't want to get them caught up incase we got caught, though I knew we would never.”  

“Wait, so when you said you saw the killer eating an apple inDino’s kitchen you weren’t lying? You say with a smile. 

“Do I ever lie, my love?” Jeonghan asks.

“Yes” you and Joshua say in unison.

“Whatever” Jeonghan says with an eye roll.

“So am I dating two psychotic serial killers now?” you ask.

“Psychotic is a bit harsh” Joshua says while holding his hand to his chest.

Yes you are” Jeonghan says as he carries you to the bathroom to properly clean you up. 

As you look in the mirror you see Jeonghan’s pretty face looking back at you. You think to yourself “I wouldn’t mind being killed by someone as gorgeous as him”  In that moment you realize you're just as psychotic as them, maybe you three do belong together.

[clu-ven]

Heyaa , I hope you're taking good care of yourself before answering any of the asks! Make sure to stay hydrated always 😄

I have a small request for the bad batch (mainly Hunter). How would they react to a reader that is the mom friend ? Bonus points if she has a REALLY short pixie cut (hair almost buzzed).

I'm usually the mom friend and I'm really curious regarding this , if you feel comfy enough writing about it , headcanons , maybe even small fics of it? 💛

THE BATCH BAD WITH A READER WHO'S THE 'MOM FRIEND'

quick note: eeeek thank you for the request anon! But I'll be honest, I had no idea what a 'mom friend' was before this so I hope I did it justice! Also, because I spent so much time trying to figure out the characteristics of a mom friend (Have I overthought this? why yes, yes I have), I didn't touch on the short hair aspect but I can always do headcanons specifically for that if you'd like!

word count: 3.1k

HUNTER

Hunter isn’t sure what to make of you at first. Before you came along, he assumed if someone was nice to the Batch, it was because they wanted something from them.

But not you. 

You genuinely care about them and their safety. It’s unlike anything Hunter has ever experienced and honestly, it’s a little unsettling at the beginning. He doesn’t understand why you put so much effort into befriending a bunch of defective clones.

He’s cagey but once some time passes and he realises you genuinely care and this isn’t some façade, Hunter relaxes and embraces your role as the mom friend.

Hunter’s actually kinda relieved to have you around now. He’s still unsure if he can look after Omega properly but having you there to confide in is a big help. 

And although Hunter will always try his best to act tough and unfazed by things, he appreciates your keen eye and how you can always spot whenever he’s feeling overwhelmed.

...and now, a quick drabble...

Hunter’s been staring at the datapad for twenty minutes, hand pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighs to himself. In the two seats in front of him, Tech and Echo loudly bicker about whether the last mission was a trap or simply bad timing, and in the seat adjacent to Hunter, Wrecker flings Omega up into the air before catching her again… a routine they’ve been doing ever since the Marauder went into hyperspace. 

The mixture of Tech and Echo’s squabbling, Wrecker’s booming laugh and Omega’s squeal everytime she’s hoisted into the air is a recipe for disaster for the Sergeant. 

Picking up some spare blankets you spontaneously bought on the last planet you visited, you call out to Hunter. His head snaps up, though the second he sees you, his expression softens. “Can you bring these to the bunks for me? You can just leave them at the end of each one” you ask sheepishly.

With a sharp nod, he stands and with a few strides, Hunter is in front of you and taking the blankets. Lowering your voice so just he can hear, you say “Take all the time you need, I’ll get them to calm down… eventually”. A flicker of shock spreads across his face, surprised that not only did you notice his agitated demeanour but that you knew exactly what was causing it. 

Opening his mouth, Hunter wants to thank you, to put his hand on your shoulder and tell you how much this means to him but Omega lets out another shriek and he tenses.

Giving him a reassuring smile, you walk past Hunter and to the others. As Hunter makes his way to a quieter part of the ship, he can hear you trying to change the topic of conversation with Echo and Tech, hoping that’ll put an end to their bickering before offering Wrecker and Omega some spare Mantell Mix you had in an attempt to distract them from their noisy game. 

With a smile on his face, Hunter crashes on to his bunk, blankets covering his head as he wonders how he got so lucky to meet you.

TECH

Much like Hunter, Tech is dubious of you at first. You’re so quick to help them, to listen to their problems and care for them. Before this, the only other entity that’s ever aided the Batch is the Republic and well, we all know how that turned out.

Don’t be surprised if he ends up interrogating you, asking you a barrage of questions regarding what you hope to get out of this.

Kindness isn’t something they’ve come across recently so Tech’s sceptical of you.

But once Tech sees how you act around not only them but everyone else, he starts to understand that you’re simply caring by nature and not trying to scam them.

Before you came along, Tech would usually stay up working until he fell asleep hunched over a table or else he would opt to not sleep at all.

But now with you here, he knows it’s only a matter of time before you come along and usher him off to bed. At first, Tech thought this was annoying and a hindrance to his work but he gets used to it pretty quickly, finding it comforting that you always make sure he gets some rest.

...and now, another quick drabble...

It’s another late night for Tech. He doesn’t mind it, preferring to work in near silence (besides some snoring coming from the other room).  Working on a few adjustments to his helmet, Tech’s eyes flick between his armour and datapad, taking the time to simultaneously catch up on what the Empire has been up to recently. He’s not sure what time it is but judging by the deep sleep everyone seems to be in, he’s presuming he has another few hours until anyone wakes up.

When he hears some movement from the other room, Tech freezes for a second before relaxing once you come into view, a steaming cup in your hands. “You should be asleep” you whisper, tiptoeing closer to him. 

“So should you” he replies without missing a beat, resuming his work on his helmet. You sigh, setting the cup down on the desk. Peering over at the warm liquid, Tech questions “Caf?”.

“Tea,” you correct him “you can take it to bed with you, it should help you sleep”.

Tech doesn’t move, giving you a look that reads ‘seriously?’. Putting your hands on your hips, you bluntly state “You need to rest”.

“So do you” he quickly replies. You sigh. Sometimes you forget how stubborn he can be. 

“Well, I’ve actually gotten some sleep,” you shrug “and Echo’s supposed to be watching the ship while we’re in hyperspeed but he’s fast asleep so I’ll take watch instead”.

“That’s unnecessary, I’ll watch the ship and you can go back to bed“ Tech proposes but you fold your arms, shaking your head.

“No, you need sleep” you try your best to sound stern but it’s hard to act mad at Tech, especially when he’s trying to help.

He goes to speak again but you sigh, giving him a pleading look as you say “Tech, please… if you don’t sleep now then you’ll be overtired tomorrow and you won’t be able to think straight on our next mission and kriff, if you can’t think straight on a mission then we’re all screwed”. 

Slowly, Tech rises from his seat “You have a point”.

Picking up the tea, he gives you a wearily smile, suddenly feeling self-conscious over his stubbornness. “Thank you… for looking out for us, you’re caring nature isn’t something we’re used to” Tech tries to make eye contact with you as he speaks but he finds it hard, his face becoming flustered with his small confession. 

Returning the smile, you reassure him “Don’t worry about it, now go get some rest, you deserve it”.

WRECKER

Even in a galaxy full of backstabbers and criminals, Wrecker likes to see the good in people so he trusts you and takes your kindness at face value.

He quickly becomes attached to you, relishing in your caring nature and becoming very protective of you. You’re a breath of fresh air to Wrecker so Maker help anyone who tries to mess you with.

Wrecker knows how rare it is to find someone so gentle and caring and now that you’re here, he doesn’t want to let you go. 

Despite Wrecker being much larger and stronger than you, you make him feel safe and protected.

Although, Wrecker can be mischievous sometimes. He has no problem dragging you into an argument if he knows he’s losing, knowing you’ll put a stop to the bickering completely and he won’t ‘officially’ lose the argument.

He may have threatened his brothers a few times with the dreaded “I’m telling”. You’re respected by all of the Batch so the thought of getting into your bad books is enough to make them shut up and leave Wrecker be for a while.

...yet another quick drabble...

Boarding the ship, Wrecker calls out your name, hand on his head as he enters. You immediately look in his direction, getting up from your seat and making your way over to him with a concerned look on your face.

Before you can even ask what’s wrong, Wrecker groans “I hit my head… again”. Reaching up to get a better look at his injury, you gently touch his jawline as you examine the side of his head. Thankfully there’s no open wound and hopefully the pain won’t last long. 

“Do you need some food?” you ask, making Wrecker’s demeanour perk up ”You go rest, I’ll get you some blankets and a cup of water and-“.

Hunter cuts you off, boarding the Marauder next “He’s fine, he can do that himself”. Although you know Hunter is only saying this to make sure you’re good hearted nature isn’t being taken advantage of, you roll your eyes. 

“No he can’t, he’s injured!” you declare, removing your hand from Wrecker’s jawline and instead opting to rub his back. “Yeah, Hunter, I’m injured!” Wrecker repeats, his tone mimicking yours.

Not wanting a fight to break out, you glance over to Wrecker, giving him an unimpressed look. After seeing your expression, he goes back to groaning and holding his head. It’s pretty obvious Wrecker’s exaggerating this injury but you decide to play along, knowing he just needs some attention.

“Oh c’mon, he didn’t even complain about his head until he saw the Marau-“ Hunter scoffs but Wrecker interjects with another low whine, turning his attention to you as he speaks over the Sergeant “I think it’s getting worse, all this talking is many my head throb”. 

With a soft smile, you reply “Why don’t you go lay down, hm? I’ll follow you in a second, just let me go get some snacks for you first”.

Although Wrecker tries to keep up his exaggeration, he can’t hide his smile. Giving you a nod, he turns to head towards the bunks, making sure to give Hunter a smug look as he passes. “Wha- please tell me you saw that” Hunter runs his hand down his face.

You let out a small laugh, making sure you speak loud enough for Wrecker to hear as you give Hunter a wink  “Hey be nice to your brother, he’s hurt enough as it is and he doesn’t need you making his headache worse”. Hunter rolls his eyes but doesn’t intervene anymore. 

Once you’ve collected all of your snacks, as well as getting some drinks ready and picking up a holomovie, you follow Wrecker into the bunks, excited for the relaxing night ahead.

ECHO

Echo can be kind of distant with you sometimes. It’s not that he doesn’t like your caring tendencies but he doesn’t want to depend on you, scared it might seem like he isn’t able to do things himself.

He wants to help the Batch too and before you came along, he was seen as the responsible and very tired parental figure of the group.

So while he’s hesitant to let you mother him, he’s always there to take care of the others with you. You two are the parents of the group and honestly, you’re the best duo for it.

Echo has some walls up, hesitant of the roles being swapped and him becoming the one being cared for… but with some time, those walls will start to drop.

But until then, he’ll be your teammate. The both of you working together to take care of and worry about the others. 

Seriously, it’s scary how similar you and Echo think sometimes. Whether that be packing extra supplies or remembering how each member likes to have their caf.

...you guessed it, it's quick drabble time...

It’s always hard when the batch gets split up, one half staying while the others go on a mission. What makes it harder is that you’re on the side that has been told to stay put. 

According to Cid, it’s an easy job that doesn’t require that many people and that you should be happy you get some time to relax while Hunter and Echo go on the mission. But your mind doesn’t see it like that.

While the other’s hang back at Cid’s parlour, you walk with the other two back to the ship so you can properly see them off. “Have you got extra bacta patches on board?” you quiz Echo while Hunter picks up his pace, deciding it’s best to leave the parents of the group discuss supplies.

“Yes, we do” Echo nods.

“And bandages?” you question, nervously nibbling at your bottom lip “Cid didn’t really give us a lot of information on this job so it’s best to be prepared for anything”.

With the Marauder close by, Echo stops and places his hand on your shoulder, making you stop too. “It’s going to be fine,”  he says, his voice calm and comforting “we’re transporting nerf nuggets, even I don’t think much can go wrong with that”.

You sigh, knowing Echo’s right but still feeling anxious “Ok but be-“.

“Careful?” He raises an eyebrow at you, a cheeky glint in his eye.

You roll your eyes, already well aware of how predictable you can be. “Yes but seriously, keep an-“

“Eye out for troopers” he finishes your sentence again, letting his hand drop from your shoulder as he begins to climb the steps up to the Marauder.

“Ugh, fine, point proven,” you shake your head before remembering “oh and keep your-“

“Comm on in case of emergencies” this time Echo doesn’t even glance back at you when he says it, only stopping to look at you once he’s safely inside the door to the ship, revealing his mischievous grin.

Before closing the doors, Echo bids you a proper goodbye “I’ll see-“

“You soon?” You quickly interject, making Echo’s grin grow wider. As the steps to the Marauder begin to disappear into the ship’s mechanics and the door loudly starts to close, Echo calls out over the noise “You took the words out of my mouth!”.

CROSSHAIR

Crosshair has convinced himself he doesn’t need your help, your compassion or your company. Yet no matter how many times he tries to push you away or rebuff your kindness, you continue to be there for him.

Basically, you’re a complete enigma to him.

Crosshair’s kinda like a stray cat, subtly curious of you but too wary to accept your affections. Instead, he likes to simply watch your interactions with the others, slowly warming up to the idea of you also caring for him in the same way.

The one thing you do that is guaranteed to always make him smile is scold the others. You don’t do it too often but sometimes it’s necessary, especially when they fight over petty things. 

Crosshair is always by your side then, arms folded as he enjoys the entertainment of it all. And if things start to calm down, he makes sure to say a comment or two just to rile the others back up again.

But if he’s in an argument and you walk in? He knows better than to continue, usually rolling his eyes before stalking off to spend some time alone.

...quick drabble time: Crosshair edition...

Despite the mission being a success, it ended in another argument. You luckily missed the start of this argument, so you aren’t sure who’s done what or who’s angry at who but from the glares Crosshair and Hunter keep giving each other, you can make a few assumptions. 

You just arrive to the argument when it ends, catching the tail end of it as Crosshair storms past you, muttering something about loyalty.

Once Crosshair is out of earshot, the rest of the batch let out a collective sigh, equally annoyed and disheartened by the argument. “Do I even want to know what this is about?” you ask and judging by the look on Echo’s face, no, you don’t. Taking a deep breath, you turn on your feet, now facing the direction Crosshair stormed off in “I’ll go speak to him”.

It doesn’t take you long to find him, sitting on top of one of the large crates the Batch has been tasked with collecting and transporting back to base. He doesn’t look up when you approach, keeping his attention on the dirt staining his gloves. Hopping up beside Crosshair, you wait for him to speak.

“If you’re here to make me apologise, you’re wasting your time” he hisses.

You shake your head “I’m not here to do that, I just thought I’d keep you company”.

“I don’t need your company,” he snaps back.

You don’t reply. Whenever Crosshair gets into one of his moods, you understand he pushes people away and so you don’t take what he says to heart.  

Trying to shift the topic of conversation, you put your hand into your pocket. “Y’know the last time we were in Coruscant, I went to this place called Dex’s Diner. I heard some Regs talking about it so I thought I’d check it out,” you start, causing Crosshair to roll his eyes “the food was fine, nothing too fancy”.

“And why should I care about this?” he asks, raising his head so you can see his bored expression. While he’s still in one of his moods, you notice his tone isn’t as harsh, your sudden story somewhat disarming him.

“Well, on the tables they had a bunch of napkins and those little holders for straws, oh and they had these brightly coloured sauces ,” you ramble on “but they also had this bowl on each table and you’ll never guess what they were full of…”. 

Pulling your hand out of your pocket, you open your palm to reveal a bunch of toothpicks. Crosshair gazes down at your hand, his expression remaining neutral.

“I know they’re just toothpicks,” you shrug, unsure whether you should feel embarrassed or relieved by his lack of reaction “but when I saw them, I got excited because they made me think of you. And then I started wondering if you had enough toothpicks so I figured I should take some just in case you don’t”.

With your other hand, you pick out a toothpick and delicately place it on his leg, a satisfied smile on your face. You drop the other toothpicks into your pocket, jumping down from the crate “Anyways, I’ll leave you be now, just thought you might appreciate a toothpick”.

Crosshair stays silent as he watches you leave, waiting a few seconds to make sure you really are gone before taking the toothpick and putting it between his lips. With your words ringing in his head, a small smile begins to tug at his lips. 

He rolls the toothpick along his mouth, hoping that’ll hide his expression.  Sitting back on the crate, he closes his eyes, focusing all of his attention at what you said...

“they made me think of you”

[gavisuntiedboot]

Just Pretend (Gavi x reader)

Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Most recent part

Warnings: Dubious consent!!! Please don't read if you're uncomfortable with unclear consent. Mentions of crying during intimacy.

Not really a warning, but in this universe, Ferran is single and not the best person. So the warning is major Ferran character assassination? Sorry Ferran girlies <3

Word count: 2.4k

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been enjoying this story so far. I have been waking up to 99+ notifs on tumblr for the last 3 days now and I can't tell y'all how much I appreciate it. So much that I'm typing this next part in the university library (while wearing my Gavi jersey) .

Also I was wondering why engagement was so much higher on part 1 and I found out that the link to part 2 on that post was broken smh.

Pablo Gavi was notoriously hot headed. Everyone knew this - from players to coaches to commentators to the 16 year old girls making TikTok edits of his footage. Everyone knew he had a temper the bubbled over at a moment's notice. Xavi liked to describe him as a spark: volatile, quickly explosive, but just as quick to come back down to a level headed state. This is what made him a good footballer. He could be passionate and powerful on the attack, and then level his emotions to make strategic decisions in a split second.

"Gavi is never nervous when he goes onto the field. He is confident. It is his game."

But Gavi was not himself for the rest of the day. His usual look of disturbance was deepened, eyebrows remaining furrowed together for the entirety of training. The air of boyish charm he always had dissipated, settling instead into an uncomfortable aura that was felt by the rest of the team. Gavi's irritation was widespread. The main target was Pedri, who refused to tell Gavi when he had seen you at a club. It was at Ansu and Balde, who kept you busy for the rest of the afternoon, so you couldn't watch them train. It was at Martin, who was sending so many texts that, in Gavi's opinion, he looked like a desperate little loser that had never felt the touch of a woman.

Gavi's anger did not spare you. It was one of those days where he decided that he just did not trust you. He had them semi-frequently. When he went into your office and his heart started hammering in his chest. Where his skin felt like it was on fire whenever you touched him. When your voice flowed into his ears like honey and clogged his brain and clouded his thoughts. He interpreted these feelings as fight or flight - his gut's way of telling him you were not to be trusted. Why else would he feel like this? The only other time his heart beat so loudly was in the middle of an important match, when he could not afford to make a single mistake. There was something wrong with you, and sooner or later, he would find out what, and these feelings would subside.

Until then, he continued to glare at the wall of the locker room, wet hair dripping onto his forehead, as he waited for Pedri to finish getting changed.

"-and then she started massaging my chest and it was the best I've felt in weeks. Every day I want to kiss the La Liga president for approving women physios. If she keeps stretching me out, I'll be the next Messi."

Gavi's head perked up at hearing this. He knew Ferran was talking about you. It was not the first time Ferran had made some less-than-appropriate comments about you. The first day you had come out to the field to be introduced to the squad, Ferran had been standing next to Gavi and Pedri, letting out a low whistle.

"Look boys, Xavi doesn't want anything to hinder your performance, not even sexual frustration. Look at the present he brought us."

Gavi's face twisted in disgust at the memory. He grabbed his bag and made his way out of the locker room, deciding it was best not to hear Balde's response to the comment. He wished they would focus on their football skills rather than trying to get girls. Gavi had been told multiple times that it might benefit him to get a girl. It's not like he was a blushing virgin - whenever he felt like he needed to be with someone, he went out with the rest of the squad. Pedri and Ferran would be surrounded immediately. They would then pick one of the girls at their feet and ask, "Have you met my friend Gavi?"

When he was at La Masia, it was harder - what woman wants to be brought back to a football academy dorm? But now that he was in the squad and on TV, women were all but crawling into the Uber with him. They came back to his place, begging for him, and he released any frustration he had. This didn't usually take long. Gavi wasn't looking to be a giver or a romantic. When he was finished, he got up, got dressed, handed the girl her clothes, and asking if she needed an Uber to get home. Was it harsh? Probably. The three girls he had done this to had all yelled at him, strings of profanity about his mother leaving their mouths as they walked out the door. But he didn't care. He was 18 and about to be one of the most famous footballers in the world. Like Pedri told him, "Girls will always be there. Focus on your career, and there will always be a line of women waiting to have your kids. Don't create extra stress for yourself."

Pedri executed this well. He was rarely seen out, and whenever he did go out, he could get a girl and be out of the club in a matter of 20 minutes. He was efficient. He didn't let his after hours activities seep into what he did on the field. Ferran was a different story. Some days, Gavi thought Ferran had only stuck with football because he couldn't become a male prostitute. He was always thinking about sex, talking about sex, or hypothesizing how to acquire sex. He was not efficient. He often tried to see how many girls he could take home with him at once. He always came in tired and sore, hangover causing him to move much slower than he should be. He was always making comments about the girls that sat close to the field in Camp Nou, going on about how he could have all of them at once if he wanted. Gavi usually tuned it out. But he couldn't when it came to you. He hated the way Ferran spoke about you. It made his stomach turn and blood boil. Focus on football.

As Gavi stepped into the hallway, he saw you struggling to carry your bag and a large stack of files. He leaned coolly against the wall, bag slung over one shoulder.

"Stealing all the medical records to sell them to the press?"

You looked up at him, arms shaking from the weight of everything in your hands.

"Selling them to Real Madrid. Ancelotti wants to know who has the biggest dick. Come carry these filed before I say yours is the smallest."

Gavi rolled his eyes and took the files from your hands, surprised by how heavy they actually were. He followed you to your car, thinking to himself, 'Does she actually have our dick lengths in our medical records? I don't remember getting mine measure. Is it self reported? No, it can't be everyone would lie.'

"Gavi. Where are you going? This is my car."

Gavi was taken out of his thoughts, realizing he walked too far. He jogged back to you, placing the files in the back of your car. He watched you bend over to arrange the files so they wouldn't slip onto the floor. Gavi found himself glancing at your ass as you leaned over, before swiftly looking away. He did not like you. He had a baseline of respect for you as a young successful professional. Nothing else. You were still sarcastic and loud and treated him like a child. He had no interest in your ass or any other part of you that couldn't help him get better at football.

"Do you need a ride home Gavi?"

"No I'm just waiting for Pedri. The guys were being too rowdy in the locker room and it was giving me a headache."

You closed your car door, sighing with the effort of making sure you didn't damage the files.

"Alright then. I'll see you next Monday." You said over your shoulder, moving to get into your car.

"Next Monday? Why not tomorrow? Where are you going to be for the rest of the week?"

"I have the week off to study for my field training assessment on Friday. If I pass with an 85% or higher, I can start helping the medical staff on the field when one of you gets injured in a game."

"Right. But if the exam is on Friday you should be here for Saturday training."

"I asked for Saturday off. I have a date."

Gavi's head shot up at the statement.

"A date?"

"Yeah. You know Martin? He asked me to go to Cala Bona beach with him. I never really use my vacation days so I thought it would be good. Besides, the team has a match on Thursday. Saturday training will be recovery. I don't need to be there."

Gavi looked at you with the same distressed face he always had.

"Don't you think it's a little desperate of you to take off work for a date?"

You looked up at him seething. He stood with his bag strapped over his shoulder, hands in his pockets, hood up to cover his wet hair. His eyes were stern and cold, the usual fire behind them having died down to leave frigid disgust. You would be lying if you said you didn't know about how the Barca men got rid of their sexual frustrations.

"Oh I'm sorry. Next time, Gavi, I'll be classy like you and have weekly sex in a club bathroom."

You didn't give him a chance to respond before you slammed your door and started your car, the sound of the engine drowning him out. His cheeks were burning with embarrassment. He hated when you did that - when you acted like he was a stupid kid. But in this case he was. You had refrained from getting into a long term relationship during your undergrad in the US because you knew you would be leaving, and you didn't want to drag someone across the world with you. But you were human, and humans love companionship. So you tried your best to find someone who you could love. Or rather, someone who could love you.

University had been difficult for you, and not only in the academic sense. In high school, you only really got close to one boy. His name was Ricardo. He walked in one day in the 9th grade wearing a Barca shirt, and you couldn't contain your excitement. You both got closer throughout your years at school, sharing a passion for medicine and sports. You even planned to go to the US together, so you could have a companion from home. Naturally, rumors swirled that the two of you were a couple, because friendship among teenagers doesn't exist.

In your final year of school, Ricardo confessed that he had been pining after you for the last year. You didn't know what to say. Your gut told you that you didn't like him, but everyone around you said otherwise. Everyone told you that the way he looked at you should make you feel special. That he had been so nice to you for so long that you basically owed it to him to return the feelings. So you went on a date with him (well, if you consider hanging out in his basement watching Netflix a date). Ricardo was not slick with his intentions. He had his arm around you, and pulled you in close within the first 10 minutes of the movie. At minute 30 he started kissing your neck. You tensed up. You had thought about being physical with Ricardo, but only because of all the times your other friends had talked about it. Halfway through the film, your clothes were off. Well, sort of. Your shirt was pushed up, bra pulled down to expose your chest (since he could not figure out the clasps. Both of you had your pants around your ankles.

"Ready baby?" "Yeah, I think so."

Your first time lasted 3 minutes. When he finished he laid on top of you. A tear rolled down your face. Ricardo looked at you, kissing you on the forehead.

"Hey, are you okay."

You nodded, but you didn't mean it. The realization was setting in that you had absolutely no romantic feelings for this boy. Ricardo got a girlfriends soon after, and you spoke to him sporadically before you moved to the US.

In college, you were fun. You were social, drawing people in with the mysterious exotic nature that came from being an international student. This, coupled with the fact that you were close to a lot of the athletes, meant that everyone wanted to get to know you. You got a lot of party invites. You spent almost every weekend at a bar or house or club. Tall gym bros were tripping over each other to serve you drinks. They were eager to grind up on you in a room full of sweaty undergrads, feeling the way your hips swayed to the beat of the Drake songs over the speakers. It always ended the same way. They whispered in your ear for you to go to the bathroom with them. You obliged. The feeling of the sink pressing against your ass was a familiar one. You drove boys crazy, kissing them like you were taking your last breath. You grabbed them by their belt loops, pulling them close into you. You would grab the backs of their necks, playing with the hair on their nape, and let out some (exaggerated) breaths when they kissed your neck. You always ended the encounter the same way. They would ask you, beg you to go back to their rooms, and you would always respond with, "I don't think you'd be able to handle it."

This got you a reputation around school. Some called you "The Pentagon", because it was impossible to penetrate you. Others called you "ice princess", because you could get men so hot and reject them so coldly at the same time. You became the ultimate challenge for every frat boy: who could get you to sleep with them. Men would treat you like a goddess - wine and dine you, buy you presents, confess that you were the woman of their dreams, all for the bragging rights of saying you gave it up to them. Having your emotions played with started to mess you up. You started to believe that no one really could fall in love with the "ice princess". But you weren't going to stop trying.

[Martin Zubimendi]: I can't wait to see you this weekend.

[Martin Zubimendi]: Send your address so I can come pick you up.

[Martin Zubimendi]: A pretty girl like you shouldn't have to drive by herself for an hour.

[Gavi]: Good luck on your exam Doctora

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Hey y'all, this part is a little shorter, but I wanted to give some background on the characters' mindsets before I start another eventful part of the story.

This part of the story is inspired by the story "7 minutes is never enough" on ao3. It is a Dabi x reader that sent shock waves through my system. So pls go support that author as well!

Thank you so much for all the love on this series. I really appreciate it more than I can say. Always love to hear feedback, so let me know under here or in my asks. Love you all. Will upload the next part when I can.

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere platonic Ashoka vs Yandere platonic Darth maul hcs with a Jedi reader who was close to Ashoka till reader left to work with Maul instead.

Sure! Kept the idea general so there may be some spoilers but I don't entirely focus on specific plot points if that makes sense?

Yandere! Platonic! Ahsoka vs Yandere! Platonic! Darth Maul with Jedi! Darling

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Manipulation, Overprotective behavior, Angst, Rivalry, Violence, Potential murder, Dubious companionship.

The idea of you and Ahsoka being friends as Padawans only for you to turn to the Dark Side is the idea that came to me for this.

For some reason she noticed changes in you... right up until you disappear.

What happened to you? Well, you found a new master.

Darth Maul.

Darth Maul has been shown to have a lonely life.

For the most part he just cares about vengeance against Darth Sidious and Obi-Wan.

This is the primary reason he is searching for an apprentice.

Which is when he eventually finds you... a disillusioned Jedi.

Once Maul gets his hands on you he cultivates hate and anger within you... making you his to teach and control.

But let's talk about you and Ahsoka first.

You and Ahsoka knew each other for months as Jedi in training.

You had your own master and was well acquainted with Ahsoka and Anakin.

Being Jedi you naturally grew close as allies and even friends.

On missions you often met up to provide aid.

Since Jedi are unable to have close attachments, Ahsoka is the closest you have.

You're friends... protective of one another.

Things most likely don't go downhill until something tragic happens to you.

Maybe your master died?

Even worse, Darth Sidious had them killed or something similar to that.

Somehow an event strong enough to shake your faith occurs and you begin to feel... different.

If we're going based off the idea your master died, maybe you blame The Order for it.

Honestly... you could blame a lot for your tragedy.

Ahsoka most likely notices a change in your aura.

After all, you're close friends!

She couldn't imagine her life without you!

That's why when she notices you feel... darker, she's concerned.

Being her usual kind self she tries to ask you about it.

She fears your actions will turn dark and she'll lose you.

She really doesn't want her best friend to become her enemy.

You try to tell her not to worry about you but she keeps pressing.

She can tell you no longer believe in the Jedi... perhaps even deciding to pursue vengeance and anger.

Ahsoka doesn't want to leave you alone, she wants to convince you not to do what you're about to do.

But eventually a mission will drag her away from you.

Something she regrets deeply... as when she goes to find you, you're gone.

Ahsoka most likely blames herself for your actions.

She has no idea where you went and wonders if she ever could help you.

She doesn't give up on the idea of finding you and making things right... but that brings us to Darth Maul.

Your encounter with Darth Maul was willing.

While he looked for someone to help him with revenge, he met you.

He could even sense the craving for vengeance and rage laying dormant within you... yet traces of it were evident.

As a result... he offers you to join him.

He promises to give you the power you need to soothe your inner torment.

He promises if you help him... you'll be happy.

In the end... you accept.

You become Darth Maul's apprentice.

Originally he plans to just use you to get revenge against his old master and Kenobi by feeding into your hate.

He convinces you the Jedi are useless now and that he can only change things if he has you.

He needs to get rid of his master, his master's puppet, and the one who ruined him.

But he soon realizes he doesn't need you just to obtain his goal.

He appreciates the company you provide.

Your thoughts are similar to one another, allowing you to bond over shared hate.

He manipulates your dark side... making you someone new.

He trains you and learns about you.

Through you he most likely learns about your past friendship with Ahsoka.

He can tell you still care about your fellow Padawan.

Yet why should you?

You should just care about your new master and the new role given to you.

He fears Ahsoka will try to purify your darkness... that she'll take you from him.

So he'll do everything in his power to prevent that.

Ahsoka only gets to meet you again when she has her final confrontation with Maul.

She has never met Maul, only heard of him from Obi-Wan.

Which makes it a big shocker when she meets Maul... and you beside him, clothed in black.

Oh her heart aches.

This is where you went!

You really have given up your role as Jedi.

She can't blame you, by this point she left The Order too.

She understands your pain and betrayal.

But now you've hurt her.

She no doubt tries to get you back, a desperate attempt to convince you to change.

Maul no doubt has the fear of losing you bubble in him again and tells you not to listen.

Ahsoka just wants her friend back, while Maul wants to keep his new apprentice to change fate... neither wants to be alone again.

This final confrontation has different motives than the original in Clone Wars.

This one is about preventing loneliness.

A fight to see who keeps their companion... one whose now torn on who to be with.

You care for Ahsoka as a dear friend... you care for Maul as your master and yet another friend.

You worry you'll lose one of them.

In fact you worry mostly for Maul killing Ahsoka.

You know Ahsoka would never murder... but that look in her eyes scares you.

By the end of this long battle... one of them will have you in the end.

You quickly begin to dread the outcome.

Maybe if you never left Ahsoka... you wouldn't have to see them fight over you.

Or maybe this was your fate all along no matter what you did?

[paingoes]

Rubies

Missed Calls

(Content: living weapon whumpee, dehumanization, kinda dubious caretakers???)

=================

“No,” Iza said, “Yeah, I know. No, yeah. Yeah. Okay. No. No. I know.”

She pressed the phone tightly to her ear, her other hand pressed tightly to her forehead as she leaned over the kitchen table. She got up periodically to walk out on the porch if she really had to say her piece, but for the most part she just had to listen. She went minutes at a time without getting a single word in. 

The memo had taken about seven hours to circulate. It’d come in the dead of night, otherwise it probably would’ve received more attention. But by the time Iza had woken up, her phone was already buzzing, and she had a soft ringing in her ears like someone was talking about her. By noon, the phone was ringing nonstop. All of their phones were.

Kitty had stayed up all night. Now, she was crashed out on the couch, all curled up in a ball. Iza shook her gently.

“They want you to send everything. The chatlogs, the archives, everything. What you showed me,” she mouthed, still on the phone. Kitty yawned. She pulled out her laptop from beneath the couch, lazily hitting a few buttons. She’d been expecting this. Apollo told her to prepare their case in advance. It’d all felt very urgent at the time; now she just felt tired. She fell back asleep right after. It wasn’t for long.

“He wants to talk to us,” Apollo said, a weary determination in his voice. Kitty blinked her eyes open, sitting up quickly. Her tail flicked behind her. 

“I can’t believe it got to Levon already,” Willow sat on the counter, staring out into space. The horror had not left her face since yesterday. Apollo gave her a thumbs up. He could believe it just fine.

They went into the upstairs bedroom for privacy. Iza passed them the phone in the corridor. They sat cross legged on the bed as the dial-up sounded.

LEVON has entered a voice call with APOLLO.

LEVON: Hello?

APOLLO: Hey its Apollo. Kitty is here too she just woke up.

LEVON: Good morning, Kitty.

KITTY: good morning :3c

LEVON: Explain yourselves.

APOLLO: I want to say first that technically we had permission.

LEVON: Is that right?

APOLLO: We outlined that we were going to do a strike on the Centennial Ball and simultaneously run a rescue extraction and that is what we did.

LEVON: Very cute. The situation changes a bit when that rescue is of a million mega-joule atom bomb, living or otherwise. Do you disagree?

APOLLO: No. I know its a different situation.

LEVON: Kitty, do you disagree?

KITTY: no 

LEVON: So we understand each other?

KITTY: ya 

LEVON: I really don’t appreciate this kind of slickness when people’s lives are at stake. Lying by omission is still lying. 

LEVON: And to level with you I think it's kind of despicable that you are trying to pass this off as a rescue mission! It's a very transparent power grab and I am really not amused by it.

KITTY: levon

KITTY: thats not true

KITTY: we had plans to break him out well before we knew abt the psychic thing

KITTY: and actually we didnt even know we just suspected!! we didnt have confirmation until yesterday literally it was just a hunch

LEVON: That’s not what Iza said. Iza said you presented it to her as a weapons acquisition.

KITTY: thats because we were appealing to iza!!!!

LEVON: And now you’re appealing to me?

KITTY: yes!!!!

APOLLO: Can I interject? I don’t think thats fair. We briefed Iza on everything we knew for sure and everything that we suspected. The weapon thing only stood out to her because thats how her brain works. We told her we didnt have confirmation.

LEVON: She felt confident enough to bring dampers, which I’m sure you’re glad to have now.

APOLLO: It was better safe than sorry.

LEVON: Of course it was. Look, I’m reading over the logs right now. Tell me this. Why did you promise him amnesty?

KITTY: …becuz ur gonna give it to him right?

LEVON: Who said anything about that?

APOLLO: Captain?

LEVON: What? 

KITTY: ur not gonna give it to him????

LEVON: I’m not saying that. I’m just saying you shouldn’t have promised it.

LEVON: Frankly I don’t think that technology should even exist. Amnesty was not my first instinct.

APOLLO: Okay. I know we messed up. We should’ve told you. But you don’t need to take it out on him. 

LEVON: I’m not taking anything out on anyone. That’s not what this is about. I’m telling you the reality of situation. Just knowing the scale of destruction that he’s capable of, I can’t guarantee his safety.

KITTY: levon we’re sorry :(

LEVON: Stop that. Why are you apologizing to me? You should apologize to him.

KITTY: okiiiiii :(

APOLLO: We will. We know we overstepped. But it’s done now. We’re going to work with you from here and maybe we can figure it out together??

LEVON: For the life of me I can’t understand why you didn’t just come to me with this in the first place. 

KITTY: cause it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission :?

LEVON: Is it really? Is this situation any better for either of us? Better for him?

APOLLO: No, she has a point. Would you really have signed off on this if we asked you first?

LEVON: Probably not. Not the way you did it, anyway. I don’t like that you sent your poor brother in there alone.

APOLLO: Lun’s fine. I know the plan wasnt perfect but its the best we could do on short notice. 

APOLLO: If you saw the kid now, you’d understand. He’s not in good shape.

LEVON: I believe you. I’ve yet to hear anything positive about the treatment of psychics in Empire. 

APOLLO: Are we clear to bring him back then?

LEVON: Put Iza back on. We’ll talk about it.

APOLLO: Okay. Thank you Captain. 

KITTY: thank u!! 

Call with APOLLO has ended.

==============

(Masterlist)

Tags: @catnykit@indigoviolet311@snakebites-and-ink@vivulapom@scoundrelwithboba@whatwhump@pumpkin-spice-whump @deluxewhump @fuckass1000 @fuckcapitalismasshole @defire @micechomper

[victorcross]

VN REVIEW! Particles of Obsession

obviously have to do my first review with the game that basically inspired my vn marathon and is part of my blog theme. also I know the creator has a tumblr if you see this hiiiii

the basics: you're monika viotto, a college student working at a cafe. school sucks, life kinda sucks, you've gone through a lot and are just trying to make the most of it now. buuut unfortunately, you're not allowed to have a happy ending. you do at least have 5ish love interests though who make you suffer and/or suffer with you though?

available on steam and itch.io, full game is $30, alexander route dlc is $5, free demo

contains 18+ scenes, options to censor; sexual content scenes/cgs, dubious consent scenes/cgs, and descriptions of violence

MANY endings, extra content, and a walkthrough for each character

I'm not good at summaries but while avoiding any spoilers, all the above and the fact this game has a billion trigger warnings attached to it and on every character's page is all you really need to know. if you can handle a lot of extreme dark themes (listed on the game's page) I recommend trying out the free demo at least and seeing if it's for you!

and with that out of the way: actual review portion! spoilers abound

immediately must put it straight I Love this game and admire the clear passion and love (tough love. to be more fitting) put into this.

if you're really just looking for a straight up yandere experience your mileage will vary because you get that plenty out of sebastian and unfortunately brandon, while julian is like 3/4ths there and quinn is simply too normal for that (I can't speak for alexander since I haven't bought his dlc I would assume he's also like 3/4ths there). if you're also fairly interested in the purely narrative portions and can give our mc a fair shot, you'll probably enjoy it more

in general without getting really into specifics of the story or characters, it is an extremely dark story with a lot of triggering elements but I feel there's a lot of grace and tact towards all the subject matter that stops it from being unnecessarily disturbing or like it's purely for shock and I applaud that considering the darkness of the game is like part of the selling point. I love the writing and pacing, and it doesn't take itself too seriously or too silly it knows the right time and place for everything and the characters all have some level of charm to them. even characters with little presence generally feel like they really do have personality and life to them

I feel like this game really is worth the price, it honestly has so much packed in I feel like I have been spoiled because I play other vns and I'm like sigh....... I miss particles of reality. like there's so many endings with wildly different outcomes, your choices are spaced out well and can HEAVILY change the events, there's very few that are purely for like random minor dialogue differences and otherwise pointless. genuinely is a Your Choice Matters game even if you can only like die or suffer for the rest of your life but you're told that in the tagline basically

also the extensive trigger warnings are really good they're not something I personally need but I absolutely appreciate the fact they're there and how thorough they are as well as the censorship options

the only thing that has bothered me really has been that some of the ui is kinda plain but that's the artist in me I don't think people care that much

good game. anyways story and characters. tw for incest on brandon

so firstly I have to acknowledge the worldbuilding. there is actually a supernatural element to all this which IS mentioned in the game description but I am illiterate and only look at pretty pictures so it caught me off guard. basically there are these meta guardians who oversee reality and I'm not very into this aspect of the game so I'm blurry on the specifics but basically all the timelines are canonical, alternate universe are also canonical, and all have something to do with monika who as far as they can tell is just a regular human but they abruptly end when she either meets a horrible fate or dies, and reality is breaking. it's not understood why by anyone (even by the end of the game) and there's some shady shit going on in the guardian hierarchy.

again hasn't really piqued my interest so I won't get really into it or anything, but it is like a whole side to everything I feel like I have to address it. it isn't a detriment to the game, it adds an interesting layer of mystery and explains the whole existence of the vn which I find endearing. fun mystery to learn more of in the sequel! (I need to play the demo for it.....) the guardians investigating this also pop up to comment on the routes on occasion which may be annoying to some people but I think it's cute and they are funny sometimes. it's also not a frequent occurrence, mostly only happens at the beginning of each route and the separate sections with them only last a couple of minutes so they don't overstay their welcome or anything

moving on, our mc monika! I actually replaced her name at the beginning with mine and couldn't reset it so I was like wtf was it again.... thank you brandon's character profile. anyways

basically. I love her I find when mcs of media like this to be completely healthy people with normal happy lives/childhoods it can sometimes be really annoying so I think she is delightful and perfect for the kind of story this is. I think she's very realistic and well written for her background and personality and as someone who has fortunately not been in the mafia but has my fair share of troubles and history with unhealthy relationships I can relate to her and see why she does the things she(/you. I guess) does and her logic behind it. idk it was crazy to me that people in reviews found her annoying or stupid I don't think she does anything atrociously dumb there's always a clear line of thought or reason she chooses to do something or why she acts the way she does

there is a fair amount of focus on her character and background which is extremely sad but it may be a bother if you don't really care about her as a character and just want to get in the guys' pants but I LIKE HER!!!! I think she wraps everything up in a nice depressing bow. also she's funny sometimes

speaking of getting into pants though. love interest thoughts. you can play them in any order (aside from one) but the order they're listed in seems to be the intended way which is also how I'm going through them

first we have sebastian the poster child. he also has the most endings and general just appearances/presence of all the guys so if you like him you will have a fucking ball and if you don't like him it'll be a nightmare his presence is not limited to his own route at all despite the fact that outside of his route you are complete strangers he's just a really dedicated stalker. I think it is so so funny.

he started pursuing monika when he was 14 and she was 10 which is not the type of creepy weird inappropriate behavior I accept I do/did like him outside of that but with that knowledge I'm like oughhh.... he was never a good person anyways but that singlehandedly made him unsexy

about his character though it makes sense he is the poster boy because he lives and breathes the obsession theme he is delusional and wants to do everything he can to be the perfect boyfriend in your eyes and do things right by you but at the same time his selfish desire to have you overtakes him and all good will he has towards you. he literally cannot live in a world without you and you're the only thing he wants

I find he oddly has the least backstory or explanation to why he is the way he is compared to all the other characters/love interests? we know he is from an enemy mafia family that was shockingly a kind of healthy environment as far as a mafia family can be I suppose and we actually can play their meeting via brandon's route and I have found like 0 reason why sebastian becomes INSTANTLY fixated and obsessed with monika it's just love at first sight and he says as much. which is pretty flimsy and nonsensical that it's taken to the degree it is especially when the other love interests do have a clear reason why they love her and aren't obsessed to that degree

that's like my only real complaint about his writing otherwise he's very fun and the obsessiveness is such a ride, I found his routes really enjoyable and Eventful I can't recall other thoughts on him anymore because I did literally all of his endings and extras before doing the other characters so they've just left the building

also this is the funniest thing he ever says in my opinion yes it's around the same time as the last quote I showed.

my favorite ending with him was "not the one" it was the most unique to me both in what happened and how sebastian reacted and broke, it was really interesting

julian oh julian....

I have to premise that I DO like him he is very cute and endearing to me but I don't like his route as a love interest I basically only like him as monika's coworker friend with an unrequited crush. like there's a number of things that make him not really work for me

1. the dragon thing. like I do put my best effort to take everything presented sincerely as such but I simply cannot do it for the dragon thing I'm so so sorry I like the thought though. 2. ash he's convinced he has DID and ash is another personality but actually ash is just some demon or something possessing him and when julian dies ash will just possess another person and I honestly cannot understand it... why doesn't he just actually have DID? like if ash comes back in the next game remembrance I guess I can understand that more but otherwise I don't get why that isn't the case besides to either avoid doing the whole evil murder alter thing (which functionally is still what is happening) or demonizing DID in general

beyond that I think it's just a matter of preference I LOVE his personality and his backstory I simply am not into the serial killer aspect nor want him as my boyfriend. I want him as my friend he's cool. yay ❤️

my favorite ending of his was until you're mine

Brandon. is your brother so he's certainly not MY love interest because I'm not into that but I do think he is a really interesting and compelling character

his route is more of a backstory route than a brandon dating sim but brandon is like the only person in monika's like before going to college so it's like. what you would expect. very depraved. there's copious amounts of NSFW scenes between them moreso than any other character which is insane. I do ultimately understand why he developed an attraction and attachment to monika just due to the isolation and having no other person he feels emotionally close with so I feel like it makes sense he turned out the way he did and I do have some sort of empathy for him. he's very human and a horrible person. I didn't enjoy the sex scenes at all for obvious reasons but I can't objectively say they were like distasteful to write in at all

(also this is completely irrelevant but the fact he's into anime is so fucking funny I can't stand it imagine arguing with a guy on an anime forum and he's actually a member of the mafia with like a billion people in his kill count. I know this guy wants to try sprinkling japanese in his conversations like a middle schooler and has to hold it back for professionalism)

ouhhhh my baby darling quinn. I love quinn so dearly and their endings all suck so bad I'm so sorry

he feels like the most human of all the characters, they are very grounded and also the most normal and empathetic (which I will expand on in a bit) their route when you go with them to visit their family, feels the most emotionally intimate to me. like he feels like a person I would actually meet and could love in real life. I love them a lot!

being sane and grounded in this game is kind of a death sentence though so that's how I'd sum up quinn's routes they almost all end with monika and quinn being killed/kidnapped/etc by OTHER CHARACTERS so like I don't even have a favorite ending for him. because quinn almost never does anything to cause these bad endings they're a saint as much as they can be unlike with the other characters so it's not as fun as being kidnapped by sebastian when it is Quinn's route and quinn did nothing to earn the fate he got

I still loved playing through his endings but I was like damn can't quinn kill me this time instead!!! they try that actually in one but nonetheless

my true favorite ending is the extra what-if scenario where he's a yandere which honestly would have been really interesting to see me more of but you know. I am biased.

secret guy jumpscare pretend there's a picture of him here I do not have the motivation to grab one

as you may be able to tell by my url. I like victor. from the get go I thought he was the hottest guy so I was very eager to play his route

unfortunately his is extremely short and is a linear story where he's just killing your ass the whole time because he retains memories from all the timelines and he is utterly sick of you but I enjoyed it thoroughly even with his short time he is full of a lot of character and considering everyone likes you so badly it's very fun to throw in a guy that not only hates you but is fully aware of what's happening

he does make extremely short appearances in other routes (I think he only speaks in one of them?) too which is cute and also makes it funnier to me knowing that he's actually seething the entire time. the detail of his eyes always being open in the menu (unlike the other characters who have them closed until you hover on them) is also a little plus. I want to see more of him I miss him so bad

ANDDD that's everyone/everything.

when you finish the game you get character interviews and they're so cute good fuel. I may buy alexander dlc sometime and if I do I'll give it its own mini post I also want to play the remembrance demo...

this game says there is no happy ending except there is exactly one and it's the one scenario where monika is an only child and she gets with her bodyguard after throwing julian and sebastian out I'm so happy for you queen

[lykegenia]

Happy Valentine’s Day, lovely person 🌹

I love your writing so much (your Nate! And Leah!) and am so happy you’ve started sharing more about Rhi and Mason as well. And whenever you share your thoughts, they are always so well-though out and interesting to read!

Here’s a romance-themed OC question for any OC(s) of your choosing (no pressure to answer on Valentine’s day itself, or at all):

What combination of random objects would your OC use to describe their LI? What do they represent? Bonus question: What would their LI use to describe them?

Dearest Nonny, you have no idea what a delight it was to wake up to this message this morning. Thank you so much for such kind words, it's one of the best feelings to know my characters are loved 🌹

For the OC question...

Objects Leah would use to describe Nate:

A fountain pen, but like, a really fancy one made of tortoiseshell and ebony and gold wire - not only do charming words seem to flow easily from him, but there's a certain elegance in his hands and a lightness of touch that matches the finesse required to use a fountain pen properly (she could never master it). It's also slightly old-fashioned, but there's potential for change as well with special inks or new designs like those glass nibs, which he would probably appreciate even if he was a bit dubious at first.

A cashmere blanket - soft and comforting and cozy (and expensive, because Nate would never compromise on quality). Something that she doesn't necessarily need or was missing before it came into her life, but woe betide you if you try to take it away from her. She's snuggled and comfortable now.

A star chart - not just for his naval background, or his penchant for deep thinking, but because people have always used the stars for guidance. She never really had a direction before UB came into her life, but now she does, and the feeling of looking up into the vastness of the night sky is very reminiscent of the rare mornings where she can wake up before Nate and watch him still sleeping.

Nate for Leah:

A (European) magpie feather - elegant but understated and unassuming, from an intelligent but often overlooked/maligned bird, until you look at it from the right angle and the plain black shimmers into brilliant irridescence. He once listened to her talk for an hour about how structural colours evolved in birds, and wishes she could appreciate that complex beauty in herself.

A lit candle - staring down the darkness of eternity often seemed unbearable at times. There were previous sparks, but nothing to provide the steady light that Leah provides him. The sweet smell of beeswax meant it was used to create church candles in the medieval period, and being close to her certainly feels holy, the flame bright and warm but with a bite if you're not careful. But at the same time, it's precious, because eventually the flame will burn down and go out, and the memory of it will be all that's left.

An arrow - it flies straight and true and pierces its quarry without mercy, and that's what Leah is like in the pursuit of justice. There are also so many stories where arrows are a symbol of devotion, from St Sebastian to Cupid, and he likes the imagery of himself as an Arthurian white stag finally brought down by a strike to the heart.

Bonus Mason and Rhi:

"What the fuck kind of question is that? Rhi's not an object, and if I wanted to describe her, I'd just say she's hot." "Charming." "Don't hear you contradicting me." "Well I know what kind of object you are." "Oh?" "You're one of those metal ring puzzles you get in Christmas crackers that are fun for the first few minutes before everyone gets sick of it." "I like to think it'd take more than a few minutes to get bored of playing with me, Sweetheart." "And you even come with a terrible joke - do not respond to that." "Wouldn't dream of it."

[sabraeal]

don’t speak boyshit, Chapter 9

[Read on AO3]

“Inomata-san?” Most girls would be thrilled to be the object of attention for the Prince of Third Year, utterly breathless by the way his gaze follows them across a room, seeing sparkles with every bat of his eyelashes. “You’re looking very...determined this morning.”

The rest of the female student body might also squeal at the wisps of blond curling over their desk, thrilled that Yagi-kun deigned to rest his head so close to their own fingers. But Maria simply frowns, dropping her pencil case near enough to endanger his well-being. Or at least the integrity of his haircut.  “I didn’t ask you.”

His smile tightens by the smallest flinch, imperceptible to anyone whose vision blurs to pink and bubbles when he breathes.

“Inomata-san.” It’s impressive how normal he can seem when there’s no chubby cheeks around to entice him. “I’m only trying to be friendly.”

“You should try that on someone who would appreciate it,” she suggests, sliding into her chair. It takes a moment for her to organize all her limbs-- girls may stop growing at her age, but she’s still never gotten used to all the extra inches-- but when she’s nearly folded and tucked, Yagi’s still there, curious. “There’s a whole classroom full of girls who don’t know you well enough to know there’s something wrong with you.”

One end of a perfectly shaped eyebrow twitches. “You really don’t mince words, do you?”

Maria squints down at him, the same way Galileo must have when he stared into the sun. “I’m not trying to impress you.”

The blinding brightness of his smile doesn’t blur or dim, but this close, Maria could swear a nerve jumps in his jaw. “That much is clear.”

“Yagi-kun...” After three years as the sole female in the Advanced Course who is safe to sit next to the Class Prince-- a dubious honor doled out her first year after the disastrous mid-term seat change-- she’s nearly in expert in the gradation of weariness in Nezu’s sighs. This one suggests that he should have stayed home if they were going to be in this sort of mood today. “Stop bothering Inomata-san.”

With all the speed guilt can provide, Yagi springs up from his seat, smile dialed up to its max wattage. “Ah, Chuukichi-kun, good morning! I wasn’t bothering her, we were only--”

Nezu slants her a dubious glance.

“I was handling it,” she assures him, “but thank you.”

“H-hey!” That sunny smile shines itself close to a grimace. “I mean it. I was just trying to compliment her.”

With a toss of his head, the wild thicket of Nezu’s hair parts just enough to reveal a rare glimpse of his forehead-- one that is furrowed with incredulity. “Uh-huh.”

“Really! Inomata-san came in with a spring in her step. Or, er--” his voice falters under the strength of their combined stare “--as close as she comes. I assume this means that you had some progress with your romantic endeavors.”

It’s Maria’s turn for her eyebrows to take a hike up her forehead. “Excuse me?”

“That’s what you’ve been frowning over the past few weeks, isn’t it?” He darts a glance at Nezu, as if confirmation might come from that quarter, only to be met with resounding confusion. “You said Inomata-san asked you about boys just a few weeks ago, right, Chuukichi-kun?”

He has the grace to flinch under her glare. “Ah, yes, but I didn’t think you’d, er...”

Be interested, the slope of his shoulders says. His glare, however, implies, didn’t think you’d run your mouth off about it.

“I was surprised you didn’t come to me.” Yagi’s popularity has always been one of life’s mysteries, another sign that she’s not like the other girls in her class, a statistical outlier destined to go uncounted. But looking at him now, all concerned and earnest and every inch what a class president should be--

Well, it’d be easy to get twitterpated under this sort of attention. If she didn’t know the precise amount of tissues he goes through when the children play house. 

“I’d be happy to help you.” Under the spotlight of his smile, it’s a struggle not to shrink back, to raise a hand to make some shade. “Between the two of us, I’m sure we can figure this guy out.”

Nezu snorts. “You’ve never even been on a date.”

“Neither have you, and you got to help,” Yagi reminds him with his usual maddening calm. “I’m a boy, aren’t I? I’m sure that’s enough similarity for Inomata-san to--”

“Absolutely not!” The very idea that she could apply advice from this man and apply it to Kashima-- her skin shivers at the thought. “The two of you don’t have a single thing in-- in--”

(Shouldn’t it bother you that you’re stuck here with us? Usaida’s grin says he already knows the answer. I think most seventeen year olds would prefer to be celebrating with their friends.

Oh, no no! Kashima’s smile isn’t even the littlest bit strained. I like being here. The kids are so excited, and er... He must forget she’s here, playing house with Kirin in the corner, since he mutters, I think they’re a little easier to deal with than my classmates sometimes.)

“Really?” Yagi arches one of those perfect eyebrows of his; a girl three rows back squeals. “Not one thing?”

(He’s getting too big for it now, Kashima sighs, listing close enough to her that the cotton of his button-down brushes hers, but sometimes I just want to-- to-- it’s charming, how red he flushes --pinch his cheeks! Just a little.)

“It just wouldn’t work.” Her fingers curl, nails too short to cut her palms the way she’d like. It’d be grounding, if they could. “A-and you’re too late anyway! I already found someone else to help me.”

Yagi blinks, jaw so slack he could catch flies with it. “You don’t say. Who offered to...?”

“That’s privileged information.” Maria stifles a grimace. It’s the same answer her father pulls from his pocket every time she pushes too hard and too long on why she isn’t allowed to go to sleepovers, or about the Sunday plans that are too rigid to allow her to see a movie on Saturday, but-- well the last thing she needs is word getting around that she needs help from Kamitani. He’s not even in the Advanced Class. “And in any case, their advice will be much more helpful than anything you could give me.”

There’s a moment where that sunlight flickers, Yagi’s mouth flirting with the beginning of a frown before his mood clears to bright skies once again. “Is that so? I would have figured that someone as logically-minded as yourself would have wanted as much data as you could collect.”

He would have a point, if he was anyone else. As it was... “There’s no point in collecting from what’s sure to be an outlier.”

Nezu chokes. Impressive, since he hadn’t even seemed to be eating anything, but Yagi leans over, pounding him on his back until the sputtering stops.

“Well, if you’re sure,” he says, giving Nezu one last slap on his back for good measure. “I’m always here, if you change your mind.”

Maria’s mouth pulls as thin as her patience. “I won’t.”

Not as long Kamitani follows through, at least.

*

It’s not that Maria is impatient, per se. Excited, perhaps. Eager for the rush of data analysis, definitely. But impatient? Restless?

Certainly not. During homeroom, she doesn’t even think about the oddly powdery pages of those test booklets, never quite holding fast to the strokes of her pen. Even as far as first period, she never once dwells on the unique pleasure of being finally being the one that wields the corrective marks, scrawling red over what’s already written--

And then Yagi is called to the board, chalk squeaking as he works out a differential equation in his neat hand, clean enough it could have come from a textbook. The girl beside him flushes, hand trembling with the effort to make her bubbly numbers look as professional as his. In the end, it’s a failure, her own nerves making fours into x’s and b’s into sixes, until she has to write the whole thing out again, chalk dust dotting her uniform as she trudges back to her seat.

But the boy after them-- his answer has more in common with chicken scratch than letters, so cramped that even sensei has to squint. Maria snorts; no one will be asking her to letter any banners, but at least her handwriting doesn’t require the teacher to crouch down, as if being level with the mess might help untangle it. That sort of disaster seems to be entirely the purview of boys, Well, excepting Yagi-kun.

It’s only logical then, that she thinks of it. That her mind suddenly projects Kamitani’s test booklet into her hands, completed cover to cover. It falls open, draping over the smooth wood polymer of her desk, and--

And it’s utterly illegible. A thicket of hiragana that cuts as she tries to wrap her mind around it, brambles pricking at her palms she as teases out individual strokes. With the way he keeps his room, it could hardly be anything else; even if Kamitani gives her that booklet today, she’ll have to spend weeks wading through his answers, trying to uncover his meaning. Her syllabus will be in shambles.

The lunch bell isn’t the same complicated set of bings and bongs as the one that marks the start of homeroom, but Maria’s on her feet at the first note, out the door fast enough that the squeal of her school shoes puts a flourish on its final one.

“Mari-chi?” Kawata leans her hip against the door of 3-C, sipping at a strawberry milk. “You’re back today too?”

“Uh...” Her shoes skid to a stop just shy of that speculative stare, suddenly aware of how her hands are utterly empty of excuses. There’s no papers to pass to the office, no official business to shield her from scrutiny; even her lunch is left back in her bag, forgotten in her rush. “So it would seem.”

“Oooh, who are you looking for this time?” Yamane cranes her neck out around the corner, gaze sweeping up and down the hall. “Yuki-chan, maybe? You guys haven’t had lunch in a while.”

“Yuki just stepped out to drop off some papers for sensei,” Kawata informs her, bumping Yamane to the side. “I’m sure she’ll be back in just a few minutes, if you don’t mind waiting.”

“Ah, but I’m not, er...”

Honesty may be the best policy-- at least, that’s what Father always says-- but Yamane’s grin goes a little sharp, like a small puppy about to bite the neck of her favorite squeak toy, and only just clamps around the impulse before the girl asks, “Or maybe you’re here for someone else? Kashima--”

“Not him either!” she squeals, loud enough that a few passerby give pause, and oh, this isn’t worth it, not at all. There’s no point in making a spectacle of herself when it would just be easier to find that annoyance after school, or maybe even--

“What’s all the noise about?” Kamitani’s scowl is already firmly set when he insinuates himself in the doorway, but when he catches sight of her, it furrows deeper. “I should have known.”

There had been a plan when she left 3-A, a course of action; one that involved dragging Kamitani from his desk and demanding the data she’d so patiently waited for. But now that he’s here, one arm braced against the jamb, buttons popped above the vee of his cardigan, like he didn’t even bother to dress right--

“There’s a tie in our dress code,” she snips, “as a third year, you might bother to wear one.”

His eyebrows spring free of their furrow, hitching up his forehead until it’s no longer a scowl stretched across his mouth but a smirk. He shifts too, slipping past Kawata to lean against the outer wall, limbs so long Maria has to step back to avoid scuffing his shoes. “That right?”

“To...” It’s terrible how she feels a flush working up her neck as he watches her, far too pleased with himself. "To set a good example. To the younger students.”

“To the younger...?” Humor leaves him in a huff. “What are you doing over here, Inomata? Looking for someone to nag?”

His edges might be blunted by annoyance-- a feeling that’s mutual as far as she’s concerned-- but she can see the gleam in his eye, the tilt of his chin. He wants her to rise to his bait, to admit that, yes, she’s looking for him. A challenge she’s willing to meet, except--

Except that Kawata and Yamane are right beside them, stares burning into the side of Maria’s head.

“I...” Maria clears her throat, letting the motion pull her spine all the straighter. “Not anyone in particular.”

His mouth pulls tight, frustrated his little farce has been foiled. Good. Maybe now he’ll learn that silly games earn silly rewards.

“Cool.” It’s indecent the way that he pulls the word so long; insolent even. And only made worse by the wall he pulls away from the wall, one vertebra at a time. “Guess I’ll just go back in and--”

“Wait!” If she’d taken more than a moment to think, Maria would not have reached out. And if she’d done more than react out of simple panic-- well, she certainly wouldn’t have grabbed him, fingers locking tight over the pulse fluttering in his wrist. “Don’t...!”

It’s bad enough that he is staring at her, the already muddled color of his eyes made muddier with incredulity. But Kawata and Yamane--

They’re right there, watching with entirely too much interest, and-- and she doesn’t know how to do this. To put a patch over this whole debacle and slip out unscathed.

“Er...” She turns to them, stiff, her grip wrapped so tight it’s little more than bone and tendon itself. “Would you excuse us?”

Kawata’s expression hardly changes; she just darts the smallest, subtlest glance between the two of them and squeezes out, “Go ahead...”

“Yeah,” Yamane adds faintly. “Take your time...?”

*

The girls are quick to scuttle back into the classroom, but their wide-eyed glances through the door are a reminder that this is hardly a secure location. Certainly not free from prying eyes, and if the searing pressure at her back is any indication, any one of them will feel welcome to relate what happens between Kamitani and herself to the nearest willing ear. Which may, most distressingly, be Kashima’s. “Come with me.” 

It’s a pleasant surprise that he doesn’t struggle when she tugs him. She’s hardly gentle, either; panic and the threat of humiliation tightening her grip until her own fingers ache, she drags him down the hall with very little care to what obstacles might be behind her. Which there must be, it’s busy; most students in the upper school bring lunch, but there’s always a horde of boys ready to supplement their carefully crafted bento with the high-calorie offerings of the bread line.

One he might be in, if she hadn’t waylaid him. Not that the state of his stomach is precisely her top concern; she’s too busy shoving him into a stairwell to think about such petty things as physical needs. It takes climbing up one flight and down another before she’s content that there’s no malingerers, no underclassmen with big ears and bigger mouths to spread their business far and wide, and--

“You just about done?” he asks, utterly unimpressed. “I’ve got gym after this.”

Of course he has to ask her when she’s still catching her breath, winded from adrenaline and exertion. “Do you have it?”

His eyes narrow. “Have what?”

Oh, honestly. It’s not like she’s in the habit of just handing him things right and left. “You know what!”

She can practically hear the gears grinding behind that sour face; it takes entirely too long for his eyes to widen, for him to finally grasp the low hanging fruit of her meaning. “You wanted me to finish that today? Are you crazy? It’s got to be fifty pages.”

“Thirty-five,” she informs him, prim. “It’s shorter than most practice tests.”

“Yeah, but those tests are multiple choice,” he huffs. “Every one of yours is some...short answer or something!”

“Well, I’m asking for your opinion!” She tucks her arms over her chest, shoulders hiked high enough to brush her ears. “That should be easy for you, shouldn’t it? Since you love to give it entirely unprompted!”

“Me?” He straightens so quickly it’s a race to put space between them, her stepping back even as he looms. “I like to give my opinion--?”

If boys could breathe steam, Kamitani would. She can picture it, curling tendrils like smoke from a dragon’s mouth, all rushing from his nose in one great huff. That’s how he does it now, one huge exhale that seems to empty him right down to his toes.

“Fine,” he snaps, like even that’s more than he can chew. “I’ll get it done.”

Huh. Maria blinks. She hadn’t quite thought he’d give in; not that easily at least. “Tomorrow?”

He sneers. “Don’t push your luck. Soon, okay?”

Soon. Like she’s going to believe the timetable of someone who can’t move two feet to drop their underwear in the hamper. “You’re not getting my notes until you’re done.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He shoulders past her, heading toward the door. “I get it.”

*

Kamitani’s version of soon, as she suspected, doesn’t conform to any accepted definition of the word. Or at least, not unless she would like to make progress at the same rate continents separate and divide. At this rate, maybe she’ll get to have a conversation with Kashima that isn’t about schoolwork or small children by the next ice age.

Honestly, you’d think with her-- highly coveted, never shared-- notes on offer, he’d be able to answer fifty simple questions. But Tuesday blends into Wednesday, and Wednesday into Thursday, and there might just as well have not been a weekend for how little relaxation brings, since by Monday morning, she is just as tense as she was when she confronted Kamitani by the bike rack, as if she hadn’t done any work at all.

It would be one thing if he had approached her like a civilized person; Maria may be eager but she is not inflexible. If between two clubs, his schoolwork, and his homework he had needed an extension, she would have been happy to give it. But oh no, after five days of coming all the way over to 3-C only to find he’s already left-- for bread, for club duties, for a conveniently timed bathroom trip-- she’s left to conclude that this is not all just happenstance. No, Kamitani Hayato is dodging her.

Well, fine. If that’s the way he wants to play, then Maria can play too. He can keep on slipping out of every room she enters, using his club-- and the men’s facilities-- as a shield, but Maria-- Maria--

She’s memorized Kashima’s schedule. A data set that just so happened to include the days Kamitani would be at his club, if only to assure minimal interference when she did deign to come down after her own. Last thing she needed was some grumpy manchild complaining about how he didn’t like sweets when she showed up with two bins of extra desserts.

“Inomata-san!” Kashima’s eyes round when he sees her in the doorway, jumping to his feet to greet her. “I-is there something you needed?”

His gaze drops down to her hands, and, ah, yes, maybe she should have brought something. An excuse, for one.

“No.” A glance over his shoulder counts five children, as it should, and Usaida, even if he’s just napping, but-- “Are you the only one here today?”

“And Usaida,” he offers staunchly, even if the man doesn’t deserve it. It’s a point she might stick on, if she didn’t have other useless boys to account for.

Maria squints, glaring a hole through the green apron still hung on its rack. “Doesn’t the baseball club have the day off?”

“Ah, yes, it does! But Kamitani came by just a minute or two ago to tell me he wouldn’t be able to make it.” Kashima smiles, entirely too used to the habits of his fair weather coworkers. “Apparently there’s something he needs to do with the manager today. He explained it but...well, I’ve never really been all that good at sports...”

He shrugs sheepishly. An act she’d typically savor, coming from Kashima, but today, oh, today--

She’s too busy thinking, how convenient.

*

“Is that Kamitani-kun?” One of the first years-- Makino, she thinks the girl’s name is, or maybe Miura-- steps away from her station, standing on tiptoe to see over the sill. “I thought baseball club got canceled because of the rain storm last night.”

“Of course it did,” Inui sniffs loftily over her batter, too good to follow suit. Still, Maria catches her glance, that small bob up on her toes while backs are turned to take a peek. “But Summer Koshien is only months away. Even if the team doesn’t practice, he and the manager still have to come up with their strategy.”

She spares an ingratiating little smile for Maria. “He’s going to take us all the way to nationals, you know.”

A lofty goal for a boy who can’t even take his clothes all the way to the hamper. Or keep to a perfectly rational timetable.

“But isn’t...” Makino-- Miura?-- drops her voice to the precise pitch gossip travels at. “Isn’t the manager a girl?”

Another one of the first years slides between them, wide-eyed. “Oh, do you think that they might...?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Inui snaps, cheeks flushed. “You can’t possibly think he’d go after the team manager when...”

The rest of that thought catches between her teeth, ones she turns right on Maria. “I suppose if someone were his girlfriend, though, they might get nervous about something like that. You know, their boyfriend spending so much time with another girl. Especially if there wasn’t much special about them to begin with.”

It’s not until Tanaka-san murmurs under her breath, “Don’t take her bait, senpai,” that Maria realizes it’s even meant for her.

Inui simply stands there, saturated in self-satisfaction, so sure that Maria will react. That somehow, the insinuation that Kamitani has something going on inside his head besides a rotating system of baseball scores and bad attitude will send her into a tailspin. That him tolerating some girl was any of business of hers to begin with.

Quite frankly, it’s insulting. Or at least, it would be, if she wasn’t too busy being annoyed that he might have devised some legitimate reason to be unavailable. Air hisses through her teeth just thinking about it. Unbelievable. The lengths he’ll go to to avoid doing her a single favor.

At least she knows now: if she wants those lessons, she’ll have to be the one to set the syllabus. “Kaichou, could you--?”

“What do you think, Inomata-senpai?” Inui grits the words through her sunny smile, never once letting it flag. She expects the first years to giggle, to flank her as they always do, but this time they simply stare at the girl, as if drawing attention to their snide asides is somehow beyond the pale.

It’s tempting to ignore her; it’s not as if she actually cares about that poor manager being cooped up with hours of Kamitani’s irritating company. But the air stills, and she realizes that the entire club is watching their exchange, even Tanaka and Suzuki-san. For some reason, her answer matters.

So Maria lifts her chin, letting her gaze snowball into a glare as it slides down the steep slope of her nose, and says, “I think if someone has to worry about who their boyfriend is with all the time, that is either a reflection of their own insecurity or their own poor taste. Either way,” she continues, bored, “I think it’s hardly any of your business.”

Unlike Inui, Maria has no need to see a reaction, instead she simply turns on her heel and says, “Kaichou, may I ask to borrow some of your culinary expertise?”

Tanaka-san stares at her, eyes so wide it’s obvious when they slip behind her shoulder, and even more so when they snap back. “Ah...my expertise?”

“Yes.” She nods. “I’m curious about the way one would go about constructing a bento.”

*

“Inomata-senpai.” Tanaka-san’s hands tremble in the air, first toward the containers, as if she might grab them, then to her hair, as if that might soothe, before pressing them both firmly onto the lab’s countertop. “I appreciate that you came to me for this, erm, important advice, but surely...you must know how to make your own?”

“I do.” Her mother does prefer to make them-- if my mother did it for me, she says, checking her watch to make sure that she will not be late for her train, then I must do it for you-- but part of Maria’s duties have always including picking up whichever balls drop in the juggling act of between motherhood and making partner. Lunch happens to be one of the more consistent ones. “But that’s different than when you make them for someone else.”

“A-and that’s what you’d be doing?” Tanaka-san’s eyes bounce around from table to table, hardly pausing to rest. That’s what makes her a good president; even when she’s giving her attention to one club member, she’s always keeping an eye on the others. “Making it for someone else?”

A quick breath steels her spine. “Yes. Hypothetically.”

“So this is a...hypothetical situation,” Suzuki-san asks, her stool dragged close. “You would hypothetically use this information, because there isn’t someone you’re hypothetically using it for?”

“I mean that I would like to learn the basic rubric of creating a bento for another person,” she clarifies, “so that I could conceivably make a passable meal for anyone in the future, not just to please the person I would make one for right at this moment.”

Suzuki-san swings her head toward the president, weary. “I think I’m more confused now. Is there someone, or--?”

“That’s not what matters right now,” Tanaka-san declares breathlessly. “Is it? Inomata-senpai wants to know the, um, rules of making one. What other people would expect if you were to give them one. Some...common sense?”

Maria nods. “Yes, exactly. Common sense is just what I’d like. The sort of things that are considered standard. Or if there’s any, er, hidden meanings to what dishes are made.”

The last thing she needs is to find out that edamame is a signal that you’d like to be kissed, or a sweet omelet means you desire the receiver carnally, or whatever other terrible shorthand simple dishes have become in the hands of the romantically inclined. It would just be sleeve-tugging all over again.

“Hidden...?” Tanaka-san blinks. “Ah, no, it’s just usually what your boyfriend likes to eat. Or, ah, whoever you’re giving it to!”

“What if...?” It’s a struggle to keep from grimacing. “What if you don’t...know?”

Suzuki’s giggle is light, more bells than belly, and it takes the sting from her reply. “Then you ask him!”

Doing that will give her an excellent idea about what Kotaru likes in his lunches, but Kashima, well... “That won’t work. Is there anything that boys like in general?”

“Ah...” Tanaka-san flushes. “I’m not sure I’m the one to ask. I’ve only had the one boyfriend, and not for that long...”

“I made a bento once!” Inui offers. “It was pretty good.”

“Really?” Miura-- no, Makino?-- asks, curious. “I thought you said not even the babies would eat it.”

Inui deflates. “Well, sure. But it looked good, that’s all that matters.”

“No.” Suzuki’s smile is too wide when she assures her, “It definitely has to taste good.”

“Maybe you should ask someone who has made a lot of bentos,” Tanaka-san suggests. “Or, ah...has received a lot of them...?”

“Yuna-chan,” Suzuki coughs, “are you telling Inomata-senpai to ask a popular boy. A prince type or something?”

Tanaka-san claps her hands to her cheeks, shaking her head. “N-no! I mean, maybe, if she knows one--”

With a sigh, Maria feels her mood sinking straight into her stomach. “I think I just might...”

*

“Inomata-san.” There’s a distinct lack of enthusiasm in Yagi-kun’s greeting this morning, his customary smile fading to a frown as she heaves herself into the seat behind him. “Is something the ma--?”

“I think,” she says, begrudging every word, “that I might need to consult your...personal expertise.”

[stoookes]

Oh, Omegaverse chapter 4 was a total treat!!! My heart broke for Stu, poor thing, pretending to be someone he's not 😭💔 But three cheers for Ali for realising how uncomfortable Stu is and doing everything in his power to find out why, and being kind to him. Also, Jimmy, babe, be a bit more sensitive please? And listen to Ali. He gets the right idea more often than you do! XD

And then Tim's introduction!! Brendon threatening Stu, Stu getting his first proper whiff of an alpha scent and his biology betraying him ahhhh 😭 that scene was so well written! And I definitely let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding when none of the English alphas were able to find out Tim's secret.

Also, ngl when I saw Stu/Kev as a ship, I went ??? But that part was excellent! I loved Stu not being sure of himself throughout, and struggling with his omega inclinations. The scene was very well done, the dubious consent really came through, and it was just wrong enough to make it feel right, if you get what I mean. Also ugh, Kevin promising that next time he'd be the one filling Stu up... yuck please no don't put stu through that! 😭😭

And then Virat's introduction!!!! I love Stu being protective of Virat right off the bat, even though he's never met him, and feeling a kinship with him. I also love how Virat's causing an inner turmoil in Stu, about how beneficial it would be to reveal his second gender. And then Virat causing a stir among the English alphas... 🫣🫣 I'm scared for him now, espo with Kev around. Although let's be honest, if any omega could keep Kev in check and have him wrapped around their little finger, it's Virat. He's coy enough to pull it off, and I'm confident he can handle himself even if it's Kev he's dealing with. He'd turn the tables on Kev's claim of omegas doing as they're told alright! Makes me wonder, are we gonna get some Virat/Kev action next chap? 🫣 Also, thank you for the little morsel that Stuart notices even Jimmy was in on the conversations about Virat, speculating about the date of his debut and how soon they'd play him. As a Virat/Jimmy enthusiast, I appreciate that nugget! 😉 Ahhh, now I want to see the scene of Virat's first match against England, every alpha being lewd with him, and Stu trying to keep him away from all that as best as he can, but Virat also holding his own and letting them know he can't be pushed around so easily.

Awww yay! I’m SO glad you enjoyed it 🥰🥰🥰

So, as mentioned, Freddie has given Ali a nudge to go be muma bear with Stuart because he obvs knows Stu is avoiding them all because they hang together and Stu is trying to avoid Freddie. And we all know Ali, he’s certainly not letting this go (he’ll get Jimmy to play nice).

Tim was another thing that wasn’t ever originally planned but then had to come in due to timelines. I like that Tim is there, playing as omega, but scenting because this still gives us VK as the first open OPENLY playing omega, as has always been planned (plus there’s a whole bit about how BCCI feel of NZC bringing in an omega which will be in VK’s fic). Brendon ofc would be so damn protective of any omega because Brendon 🥰 and I love how Brendon thinks Stuart reacts to his scent badly because, as alpha, it should smell bad to him, when really it’s having the direct opposite affect. It makes me so happy you think that was well written 🥹

It’s interesting that KP/Stu doing something together didn’t feel on the radar, considering how close they are and so how any changes to Stu’s behaviour was going to be noticed. It certainly does make sense what you mean and that balance of feeling wrong but right is exactly what I was striving for so I’m glad that came across!

I did tell you all VK was coming! 😂 And here he is! I certainly wouldn’t worry about our little firecracker; he may be unbonded right now but he certainly knows how to hold his own around omegas. KP should probably just stay away… 😂

Thank you so much for the comment! Absolutely makes my day to receive them 🥰 Next chapter hopefully coming soon!

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- The Haunting of Braidwood Manor

Welcome to the second official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about The Haunting of Braidwood Manor, which I have ranked on the "Gold Tier" at 8 stars out of a possible 10.

I’ve played this about 4 times. Mainly because I needed the diamonds and this one is 6 chapters, so it’s easy mining. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed this one. 

The story was pretty linear, but it was interesting and compelling with memorable characters, and it works fairly well as creepy paranormal horror. And a few points do even make me want to cry. However, I do have two nitpicks. Like, how did MC make the connection between her brother’s death and Braidwood Manor? Unless I missed something even after playing the story 4 times, it felt very out-of-nowhere and unexplained. And how come Eleanor is the only one that can be brought back to life but not the rest of the Waverly siblings? That’s not fair at all. But for the most part, those are pretty minor issues. 

It’s also kinda neat that we have a story where the main LI is female while the male LI is sidelined. Actually, I wouldn’t even say Victor is sidelined– he’s straight up a total non-character. I mean, I’m not a fan of sidelining LIs at all, but considering how so many books have treated female LIs now, this one is at least a rare change of pace. And I say this as someone who is very wlm. And I say “wlm” and not “straight” because quite simply, I don’t think I’m really straight. And Eleanor Waverly is one of many female Choices characters who I can thank for helping me realize that. Seriously, it’s super adorable how she’s supposed to be this cold stoic ghost, but then gets really blushy and flustered when you flirt with her. 

Though, as much as I appreciate the sapphic ghost romance taking the full spotlight… this book is rather pointlessly genderlocked. And probably the first ever Choices book that I would deem as such*. I mean, all you’d really need to change is the dialogue in that one set of choice options when Clarissa asks for help writing her letter. 

In the canon version, Clarissa assumes you know how to write letters to guys, and you get an option to say you’re actually into girls, and then she says how she’s cool with it and she considers sapphism very sophisticated if you choose said option. For a playthrough where you’ve chosen a male MC, she could maybe assume that you’d know what guys like to hear from girls, you could get an option to say you’re actually into guys, and she’d say it’s very sophisticated if you choose said option. Easy as that.

And as far as I’m concerned, Eleanor is only canon sapphic and not lesbian (but do correct me if I’m wrong). THOBM, I am sad that you are the start of the pointless genderlocking trend /jk

*Technically ROE is the first Choices book I could consider pointlessly genderlocked, but I’m a little more uncertain on that because there’s a handful of scenes that would need tricky coding changes such as the bachelorette party/girls night scenes. Or even before that is TFS, but I’m also a bit dubious about calling it pointlessly genderlocked because Kaitlyn is a lesbian and has a whole arc revolving around her coming out about it to her parents– but people have said that aside from Kaitlyn, the story and MC are very gender neutral, so do with that what you will. There’s also LH, but I’ll say my thoughts on its genderlocking in its own review.

So it didn’t have anything that really wowed me, but it’s still a great story that holds a very special place in my heart.

[my-mt-heart]

I like Stick Figures and don't care how many fandom friends the writer has, but their latest fic has a 22-year old Carol and Daryl is over 50. She's two-fifths of his age. Carol at 50+ is strong and vibrant and a perfect partner to Daryl. You talked about having a "library of high quality content" but when those writers change one of the characters to suit bigoted views of what romantic love should be like it isn't the same as an OOC Daryl who's a confident ladies man.

I know there's an element of concern in the form of Carol's nana, but for a HEA Daryl has to win her over and get approval to date a woman who's younger than Sophia would be to middle aged Daryl. He had the option of a fresh faced farm girl and didn't take it. That age difference was also 2/5 and Caryl fans condemned it. Carol getting groomed by her soulmate tarnishes their bond too because consent gets dubious.

I know from Stick Figures the writer is good at mixing angst with lighthearted fluff in a way that gives "real emotional satisfaction" so I want to read more. The parallel between young Carol with her freckles and auburn hair and Anne of Green Gables is adorable, but reading makes me feel like a participant in the ageism. I don't know how to reconcile that.

You're good at analysing so maybe you can help me understand why it's different from the rampant misogyny in the fandom?

For one thing, it’s a time travel narrative. The setting is pre-ZA, but Daryl looks and behaves like the gentler, battle-weary Daryl who had to survive for many years, scar and all. He isn’t our narrator though, Sophia (Carol’s grandma) and Young Carol are, so that’s why we get the concerns about age difference. The author uses their POV’s to stigmatize it, which is already far more than Gimple/AMC made sure to do during Daryl’s arc with Beth, who was not only decades younger than him, but also a minor. Young Carol (22) is attracted to an older Daryl, but it’s flagged multiple times that Daryl is in love with his wife, who he lost. We already know who his wife is because he almost slips up in conversation. It’s Carol, the middle-aged Carol who had to survive the ZA with him. He got to know that woman first, fell in love with who she became during that era, gray hair and all. So he isn’t attracted to Young Carol because of her youth. He sees his wife in her and wants to hold onto that because he misses her. Here's Then & Now for anyone who wants to read. My fingers are crossed for a second chapter :D

I really appreciate the concern for the ageism/misogyny in the fandom, but rather than direct it at fellow Caryl fans, I think it would be more productive to hold AMC and co accountable for not promoting Carol nearly enough, certainly not as a leading female character, not giving her nearly enough meaningful screentime for a whole (extended) season, and then treating her like the expendable half of her own show. Those optics validate the hateful comments she/Melissa gets from “fans.” Same goes for Caryl. The insistence that Carol is “too old” for Daryl or just that a romantic relationship between them is gross runs rampant because so much time and energy is spent boosting Daryl’s sex appeal, acknowledging every potential relationship with this or that younger woman while the biggest, most organic, most earned ship gets treated like the dirty secret that the showrunner has to bury under layers of subtext and no one can ever talk about it. They struck gold with Caryl’s chemistry. You’d think they’d celebrate that.