#I’m gonna get started on their teams first probably and then branch out to who else is in the AU and what they’re doing

[kingofanemptyworld]

you’re gonna hear about this wind breaker pokemon au again, like, just letting everyone know now. I’ve been thinking about gym leader turned day care work Umemiya and headstrong, unwilling to choke down his pride (the only thing sustaining him) Sakura way, waaaaay to much to let this one go. you will hear Thoughts. Ideas. perhaps incoherent dialogue strung together in a desperate bid to get these dumbasses out of my head. also togame will be there

[pathologicalreid]

the lost daughter | s.r.

in which JJ goes missing in the middle of the night, and Spencer's attempts to comfort you completely fall through

margovember

who? spencer reid x fem!reader category: angst content warnings: death, kidnapping, jareau!reader, takes place during 9x14 "200", caryatids, sibling loss, the british word count: 2.83k a/n: wrote this with my own sibling loss grief in mind so this is just me using fanfic as therapy. not sure if it's any good really. thanks for reading <3

You were already in the roundtable room by the time everyone came in, Penelope was making alarming faces at her laptop before she shook her head, “I’m trying,” she said. “I’m trying to pull data off of JJ’s phone, but it’s like level 9 security—it would make Snowden weep.”

Familiar hands settled on your shoulders, thumbs gently skimming over your collarbones as you watched the rest of the team sprawl around the room. “What about cell phone records?” Blake was next to speak, asking about your sister’s welfare when you couldn’t—too afraid of falling apart to so much as part your lips.

The look of desperation on Garcia’s face did nothing to comfort you, “Encrypted. JJ’s and Cruz’s.” With the disappointing news came a squeeze to your shoulders, Spencer’s silent attempt to comfort you without drawing too much attention to his movements.

Rossi shrugged, “That’s not surprising if they work for the State Department,” he reasoned, looking around the rest of the room.

You leaned back in the office chair, trying to remember how to place your feet on the ground, but it was hard when the soles of your shoes felt like a foreign sensation. “But if that assignment was a backstop,” Morgan started, “then JJ’s transfer as DOD Liaison was her cover.”

Spencer’s thumb ran from the base of your cervical spine to the base of your skull, working out a knot that had been there since you received a call from Will, asking if you knew where your sister was. “So, what was she really doing that year?” Spencer asked, the question sending a wave of goosebumps across your skin, fear making your blood run cold.

“That’s the first question Hotch is gonna ask,” Derek answered, easily slipping into the role of team leader in Hotch’s absence. “Strauss was pressured by the executive branch to push JJ’s transfer through in 2010, so she would have known the reason why.”

Your eyes immediately flicked to Rossi, wondering if Erin Strauss had divulged any state secrets over the duration of their relationship together. Though, you imagined Strauss maintained her oath of secrecy, much like your sister had in the three years since her reassignment. “Any assignment that Strauss authorized would be archived in the SCIF,” Spencer responded, his thumb smoothing over the hair at the nape of your neck.

Garcia looked alarmed, “That facility is code word classified.” She glanced around the room as if she was already searching for new ideas, but Derek seemed convinced.

His head bobbed, “Okay, but Anderson can get you in. He archives those reports,” he began to outline a plan. “Blake, Rossi, JJ couldn’t have used the SCIF without drawing attention. She probably has it foxholed right here in the BAU. We just need to find it,” his head rotated, meeting the gaze of everyone in the room—except for you.

“And what are you not telling us?” Blake asked, slipping both of her hands into the pockets of her blazer.

Morgan’s eyes dropped to meet yours, and you already knew what was coming. “Whoever took Cruz and JJ is highly trained and highly organized. Justice, defense, and state—they wouldn’t be on edge like this if this was a simple matter of two missing agents,” he explained.

You stiffened at his response, and Spencer restarted his ministrations, dropping his hands to your shoulders and working on your shoulder blades. “Is Hotch worried that the recovery won’t be made a priority?” Rossi asked, eyes flittering to you—even though they tried to hide it, everyone was sparing you nervous glances.

“It’s our job to find the leverage that assures it is. Let’s get it done,” Morgan said, nodding his head confidently before allowing the room to disperse.

Shaking off Spencer’s touch, he let you go without a fight, knowing that you wouldn’t be going anywhere far while your sister was still missing. You ducked your head, letting your hair curtain around your face while you walked out of the BAU, vaguely aware of the muttering that followed in your wake.

You shoved your way through the glass doors and turned the corner, practically throwing yourself into Morgan’s office before pressing your back to the wall and sliding down the drywall.

Visualizing the movement of air in and out of your lungs, you tried to teach yourself how to breathe normally. Something that was usually autonomic required more focus than usual, your thoughts so preoccupied with fear that you had to make a conscious effort to inhale and exhale.

The overwhelming feeling of impending doom hadn’t struck you until just then, sitting in the roundtable with your team and being left to wonder what might happen if you can’t convince the state to save your sister. You would have to call your mom and tell her that she’d have to bury another one of her daughters, Henry would have to grow up without his mother, and you would become an only child.

You never had to worry about being alone because you always had your sister, particularly in your adult life when you moved to D.C. JJ made a point to be dependable, to be someone that you could rely on no matter what was going on in her life, and the situation you found yourself in made you wonder if you never reciprocated. Her assignment was classified, but you wondered if she had ever tried to clue you into what she was doing during her time at the Pentagon. You wondered if she would’ve told you even if it was permitted.

It seemed too cruel. Parents weren’t supposed to have to bury their children and sisters weren’t meant to end up alone. The world couldn’t possibly be cruel enough to take JJ from you—she was the only sister you had left.

She promised you, after Roslyn died, that she’d never leave you alone. It was the most vivid memory you had from that early in your childhood. That period of time, from the moment JJ found her in the bathroom to the date of the funeral, you could recall it with alarming accuracy. For the longest time, you thought they were all manufactured, something you had dreamt up as if you were on a therapist’s couch.

But it was real, the fighting, the blood, the necklace—all of it was so devastatingly real.

Morgan’s office was cold, your fingertips frigid in the dim lamplight, you hadn’t even noticed your shadow until he was lowering himself to the ground in front of you, crisscrossing his legs so you were level. He leaned his head forward and set his chin on your knee, his posture so bad it would make dignitaries cry, but it allowed him to meet your eyes even while your head was tilted down.

You put your hands in a praying gesture and slid them between your thighs to warm them up, making eye contact with Spencer while he wiped at the tears on your cheeks. “What’s going through your head right now?” His voice was gentle, he didn’t want to push you, he just wanted to hear from you.

“The British Museum,” you answered because your fears of catastrophe would just worry him more.

He chuckled lightly at your answer, acknowledging that that was the last thing he expected you to say. “Can I ask why?”

Splaying out your fingers, you felt the sensation of the rough denim of your jeans on your knuckles—two of them split from hand-to-hand combat. You leaned your head back, focusing on your surroundings for a moment—Morgan’s office always smelled like cologne and a little bit like old man, which Penelope thought was the ghost of the agent that Derek had inherited his office from. “She was stolen from her sisters so long ago, and now no matter what anyone says or does, they won’t give her back,” you told him, your voice suddenly weak.

Emotion made your throat swell, and the way Spencer was tenderly skimming his fingertips over your thigh wasn’t helping. “Won’t give who back, honey?”

“The Caryatid,” you said urgently as if the answer should’ve been obvious to him. His eyes widened in response, maybe it concerned him that you were relating to a statue, and maybe it was right for him to be worried about you.

Six statues, constructed to support the roof of the Erechtheion in Greece, named after Caryae, which was an ancient town of Peloponnese. Vitruvius said they were constructed to represent the women of the town, women who were enslaved because the town sided with Xerxes during his second invasion of Greece.

Six sisters, built to carry burdens and remind people of the sin committed by Caryatid women.

Five statues, residing in the Acropolis Museum for their own protection while their sister lives alone in the British Museum because she was stolen. Taken by Lord Elgin and despite the insistence of those all over the world, she’s never been returned.

You wondered if she missed her sisters. If the arm she was missing had broken off when she was taken hundreds of years ago, and they had stopped her from reaching out to the only home she had ever known. You knew you would rather detach your own arm than live without your sister, you couldn’t bear the thought of not being a sibling anymore.

“I’m still here,” you whispered, looking straight forward and letting fresh tears fall from your eyes, “and when they’re both dead and I’m still here—what do I do?”

Spencer’s expression was pained, it killed him to know that there was nothing he could do to take your hurt away, it killed him to notice the way you wouldn’t meet his eyes. “She’s not going to die,” he insisted with an uncharacteristic note of optimism in his voice, producing hope when you had already scraped the bottom of that barrel.

Your nostrils flared in frustration, “You can’t promise me that.”

He nodded, “We are going to get her back, okay? We’ll get your sister back for you, and that is a promise.” Sad brown eyes bored into you, a sense of urgency that you very rarely saw in Spencer.

You shook your head, pulling your knees closer to your chest, effectively pushing him away. “You can’t promise me that she won’t die, we don’t even know where she is,” you reminded him.

“Honey,” he breathed, the word dripping in desperation as he tried to get you to meet his eyes, but you were looking past him—through him. “Hey,” he tried again, reaching out and sweeping a lock of hair behind your ear, “Garcia and I are going to the SCIF with Anderson, and I think you should stay here. If you’re up to it, you can help Rossi and Blake look for the foxhole.”

Just like that, he was gone, seemingly unaffected by your rejection of his reassurance, Spencer walked out of the office, leaving the door open a crack behind him.

The worst part was that you had known that JJ’s assignment was a backstop. You knew that there was something deeper going on because you could see it in her, you knew her just as well as you knew yourself. At least you thought you did.

Your suspicions started when she needed you as an emergency contact, citing that her job needed someone outside of her household to be part of her file. The cagey phone calls and missed lunch dates only added to your suspicions, but she never caved. “Where were you, JJ?” You asked yourself, speaking into the emptiness of Morgan’s office.

JJ had left the BAU just before you joined, and at the time everything seemed like it just worked out. When she decided to return, you got to stay, and being able to work with your sister felt like a dream come true—something right out of a film.

You held your head in your hands, pushing at your cheeks with your palms and trying to convince yourself to get up. You couldn’t hold the roof up without your sister. There was no way you’d be able to avoid crumbling without her.

So, you got up.

You ducked your head as a bullet ricocheted off of the iron in front of you, the BAU scattered throughout the warehouse as the search for your sister climaxed. She had to be here, it had been too long, and Askari wouldn’t let her survive this. “He’s headed to the roof,” Rossi said, and you heard footsteps echoing through the orange-lit space.

“So’s JJ,” Blake added, nodding assuredly from a few steps away.

Your head snapped up quickly enough to catch a flash of golden hair as JJ ran through the warehouse, chasing Michael Hastings. Spencer tried to get you to wait, but by the time the words left his mouth, you had already broken off into a sprint and fell into a line behind your sister and Emily.

Keeping your firearm drawn, you follow them to the roof, catching up with your sister and Emily, a thousand words exchanged in that first glance between the two of you. You didn’t have time for a proper reunion, not with Emily peeking around the corner, trying to get a shot at Hastings.

Somewhere in the distance, you heard helicopter blades whirling, getting closer and closer to you. No one had the chance to speak before JJ was running again, rounding the corner and scaling the ladder along the side of the building.

It was left hand-to-hand, and once your sister had given him enough momentum, you had to lunge forward to catch her. Hastings nearly dragged her off of the building with him, but you and Emily caught her, grabbing her hands and hauling her off of the ledge.

The three of you stood in a circle, looking around at each other as if no time had passed, as if Emily hadn’t flown here from London just to find her. “JJ,” you breathed, desperate for something, anything. The universe punished you for catastrophizing by watching the pain set in, JJ’s adrenaline faded now that she wasn’t in the midst of a chase, and the pain of the last several hours was able to show through.

You were about to offer to get down, to find her somewhere quiet to sit, but before you could, she hugged you. JJ nearly launched herself at you and gave you what you so desperately needed—your sister.

“It’s okay,” you said, pressing your face into her shoulder and letting your tears dry as quickly as they fell. “I’ve got you, J,” you assured her, your eyes flickering up to meet Emily’s, concern plain in her furrowed brow.

Slowly, the two of you got JJ off of the roof, and you met up with the rest of the team at the front door. You watched silently as everyone exchanged hugs with your sister, and you kept an eye on her even as she spoke with Cruz in the ambulance.

A familiar hand found its home on your waist, and you subconsciously leaned into Spencer’s touch, “She should go to the hospital.”

You scoffed, “Good luck convincing her of that,” you responded, raising your eyebrows as Hotch helped JJ down from the rig.

Just as you thought, she fought you on it, refusing to get in the back of an ambulance, but being okay with someone else driving her there. The only stipulation was that she needed to call Will first, and he could meet her at the hospital.

“How are you?” Spencer asked, leaning on the passenger door of an SUV while you kept an eye on your sister, watching her talk to Will and tell him that she’s fine.

JJ would always be fine. To someone else, that might’ve been enough, but you knew her better than that. Something was bothering her, but you feared it would take more than one conversation for you to get it out of her. “I’m sorry,” you whispered to him, trying to absorb his body heat into yours.

“You don’t need to apologize,” he insisted, dropping a soft kiss to the roof of your head.

Slumping your shoulders in disappointment, you looked up at him, “I shouldn’t have gotten so frustrated with you.”

Spencer is silent for a moment, shoving his hands in the pockets of his FBI jacket, “You were so scared, worse than I’ve ever seen you. Worse than you were when you were abducted, and I just wanted to reassure you. You were right though; I shouldn’t have promised.”

You shook your head, smiling up at him, “You were right. We did find her. You kept your promise.”

“I’m not really in the business of making promises that I can’t keep,” Spencer responded, cupping your face with his hands.

Raising your eyebrows, your eyes flickered over to JJ again, “Maybe you should be, you have a 100% success rate.”

[teshadraws]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 65]

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AO3 Link

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Team Scarlet joins Team Shellshock for their latest mission, and Nia picks up a few new skills.

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(Quick reminder of all the members on Team Shellshock!)

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Just as planned, Team Scarlet meets up with Team Shellshock in the psychics’ quarters at dawn.

Nia yawns and shuffles closer to Xander’s warmth as Tobias and Avery set up their teleportation coordinates with the abra behind the counter, who is accompanied today by a little green jelly Pokemon. A solosis, Nia thinks through hazy, sleepy thoughts.

The abra seems to be sick, speaking with a throaty voice and sniffling every few seconds. Nia makes sure to keep her distance, not wanting a repeat of her illness from before. Still, she feels a bit bad for them—their narrow eyes are drooping with fatigue, and the solosis keeps shooting them concerned looks. August surely lets sick Pokemon take days off to recover, so the abra probably insisted on coming in to work.

Well, not much Nia can do, unfortunately. She knows firsthand how stubborn some people can be about their health.

Samir is standing close to Nia’s other side, shifting restlessly on their hooves. Kry and Felix are joking about something across the room, far too awake for the early hour.

Finally, everything seems to be worked out for today’s joint mission. Tobias stands on Nia’s other side, a welcome wave of heat in the morning air, and Avery steps into place by Xander, a hair closer than they strictly need to be.

Once everyone is brushing up against each other, physical contact made, the abra and solosis hem the group in on either side. The solosis glows a faint yellow as they start to use their psychic powers, but the abra seems to be struggling, purple energy flickering in and out of existence around them as sweat beads on their forehead.

Nia exchanges a worried look with Avery.

Avery shifts. “Minerva, are you—”

Before they can finish speaking, Nia feels it. The tingle running through her fur. Then, all at once, her vision is a flash of light and her stomach flips as a feeling of weightlessness overtakes her and—

She lands on cold, dewy grass and stumbles with nausea. Oh, she’s gonna barf.

Nia takes a deep breath and keeps a firm grip on Tobias’ arm as she regains her bearings.

“’S wrong with her?” She hears Kry ask.

“She’s a fighting type,” Avery says. The kirlia moves closer to rub Nia’s back. “That doesn’t mesh well with psychic energy. Especially since Minerva is sick and couldn’t make the transport as smooth as usual.”

Nia squints open her eyes as her stomach starts to settle. Ugh. She’s never going to get used to teleportation.

Still, it is useful. Looks like they’re already almost to the dungeon, if the forest around them is any indication. They’re in the thick of it, lush greens and muddy browns interrupted only by streaks of white frost and the occasional glimpse of gray stone. Overhead, a cloudy sky is visible through half-bare branches. Looks like it’s going to rain later today.

Nia shivers as a gust of wind blows by.

“I’m okay,” Nia assures. “Thanks.”

Tobias nods as she releases him. A moment later, Avery steps back to give her some space.

“It looks like they still got us to the right place,” Tobias says, looking around. “So which way to the dungeon? You think the victreebel outlaw is hiding in there, right?”

Xander nods. “Right. I don’t see any other reason for him to be hanging around this area so consistently. Chances are he’s evading capture in one of the deeper levels.”

“Coward,” Kry snorts, cracking her knuckles. She looks to Avery. “Which way, Ave?”

Avery hums, closing their eyes. Nia feels a gentle ripple of psychic energy pass over her, much less nauseating than the teleportation. Is the kirlia using some kind of ability to track the outlaw? Or are they just sensing the dungeon itself? Nia knows psychic types are the ones most sensitive to shifts in energy like that.

Nia doesn’t want to interrupt to ask, and Avery starts walking with their usual grace as soon as they open their eyes, despite the tricky roots and foliage underfoot. “This way. It’s not far.”

Kry and Xander follow instantly, while Felix falls back, looking at Samir.

“Wanna start your first lesson?” The wartortle asks, arms crossed behind his head.

Nia blinks. “You know the whistle language too?”

“The important stuff, yeah! We all do. Watch this. Hey, Kry!” Felix whistles a short trio of notes in a distinct pattern, ending with a click.

Kry cackles. “Back at ya, buddy. Remind me to kick your tail extra hard later.”

“What did you say?” Nia asks.

 “Something unfit for innocent ears.” Farther ahead, Tobias snorts. “I see you only retained the most important information.”

“Of course! It’s extra fun to curse out enemies when they can’t understand you.”

Nia giggles. Samir looks uncertainly between them, as if unsure of whether they’re allowed to be so lighthearted while on a mission.

Luckily, the skiddo loosens up as Avery leads the group through the cool, damp forest and Felix teaches them some actually useful phrases. The wartortle starts with a refresher over the basics that Nia discovered with Samir and Junie the night before, and she finds that it helps to be able to practice with someone more experienced out loud.

Still, the language is tricky. With so few “notes” to work with, it’s easy to mix up the phrases as they get more numerous and complex. For example, two quick, sharp whistles signifies to be on guard, or that something needs attention. Two whistles with a longer pause in the middle is more of a check-in on your party. Yes is an easy enough answer to that question if all is well, but the more detailed responses only add more complexity. “Injured” is a high-to-low No with a click of the tongue at the end. “Stuck” is a click, a sharp whistle, and another click, as if the sound itself is trapped between the two noises. And so on.

It's fascinating, and Felix is a surprisingly good teacher, patient and clear as he bookends Samir and Nia’s mess-ups with his usual levity, but it’s still a lot to take in, especially as they cross into the border of the mystery dungeon proper.

Nia shudders as the now-familiar charge enters the air, prickly and unnerving. In what seems like a blink, the “walls” of the dungeon crowd in around them. What was frosty but open forest is suddenly close walls of towering roots and stone, slick with frozen condensation. Trees tower high overhead, dark and clawlike against the bright white of the sky. As always, it all feel mildly claustrophobic, their group corralled into a narrow hallway that stretches on in front of them before branching off.

Felix seems to take their entrance as his cue, because he falls back to cover the rear of the group without hesitation. Xander takes the lead of their combined party, the luxio’s relaxed posture tensing into something more alert. Kry lurks close behind him, prowling like she’s ready to attack at any moment. Avery slows down to join Nia, Tobias, and Samir in the middle.

“This is our usual formation,” the kirlia explains. “But until we find out where everyone works best, feel free to claim a space anywhere.”

Nia, who is usually comfortable just following Tobias through dungeons and making sure any charges are sandwiched safely between them, exchanges a hesitant look with Samir. Tobias, unsurprisingly, moves past them to take the spot right behind Kry, probably itching to prove himself. After a moment, Samir hesitantly follows, settling behind Tobias and in front of Avery.

Nia decides to take the place behind Avery, joining Felix in the back of the group. The wartortle gives her a bright grin and a friendly twitch of his fluffy ears.

And then they tackle the dungeon in earnest.

The group has to pause periodically to handle the ferals that start to appear. While Xander’s team works together fluidly, clearly old pros, it’s an adjustment for Nia to traverse a mystery dungeon with not only one new teammate, but another team entirely. With the rescue mission involving the crew of the Aqua Jet, Nia and Tobias had handled most of the fighting, with little interference aside from Cordelia and Beck’s protective outbursts.

Here, everyone is a battler. Xander and Kry clear the way easily when a tangela and gloom attack, Kry grabbing the tangela by the vine and slamming it into the stone and root walls of the hallway. Xander uses a flash of dazzling electricity to stun the gloom before knocking it aside with a heavy paw. Tobias leaps forward to finish it with an ember attack, and Xander gives the charmander a nod of thanks for the support.

When a tan and black-striped crocodile tries to sneak up from behind, Felix blasts it with a powerful jet of water so it goes tumbling out of sight down the hall. Nia, who hadn’t been listening for sneak-attacks at all until that point, makes a mental note to keep her ears as vigilant as her eyes.

When they cross an open room from one hall to another, the ground covered with frosty grass and housing a single tall, near-leafless tree, it’s up to Nia, Samir, and Avery in the middle of the group to fend off a sandslash and little grassy chipmunk. Nia vaguely remembers Samir’s strategy in their fight against the steelix, and makes sure to give the goat plenty of space as they go for the sandslash with a volley of razor leaves.

Nia instead takes on the chipmunk, dodging its sharp teeth and white eyes and giving it a kick square to the chest to send it stumbling backwards. Avery takes that opportunity to encircle it with a glow of indigo energy, then sends it flying into the wall. There, it slides to the ground, unconscious.

Samir is busy fending off the sandslash’s dagger-like claws with careful parries of their horns, so Nia jumps into that fight with a blast of aura to send the sandslash staggering and give the skiddo some breathing room. Samir doesn’t hesitate to send another barrage of leaves at the sandslash, and the spiky creature staggers back before falling unconscious.

“Yes!” Nia turns to Samir with a hand raised for a high-five, before faltering. Oh. Right.

Samir looks at her, bewildered, but hesitantly taps her palm with a horn. Nia laughs.

The first floor of the dungeon is surprisingly painless, but their two teams do start to trip over each other once they get deeper into the dungeon. Nia gets nicked by Felix’s water gun when she jumps into battle expecting Tobias to be at her side, and she has to take a few minutes to assure Felix—who is rambling apologies and near tears—that she’s really all right.

Tobias and Kry both go for an opponent with their usual brand of aggression, and crash into each other when the feral dodges unexpectedly. While the two of them snarl insults at each other, Samir jumps in to help and nearly slices Xander to ribbons with their razor leaf attack.

Avery is the only one who manages to weave around everyone without issue, so they take out the feral with a quick flash of fairy energy.

After that mess of a battle, Xander stops to analyze their party with sharp golden eyes.

“All right, clearly it’s time to re-order. Kry, join Felix at the tail of the group. Tobias, Samir, you two take point in front of me. Nia, you and Avery hold down the middle.”

Nia doesn’t know why she’s surprised by the sudden show of authority. Xander is the leader of Team Shellshock, after all. It makes sense that he’d give out commands, and it’s not like he’s saying anything with a tone of arrogance. His voice has the sort of calm confidence to it that says the luxio knows what he’s doing and that he expects his word to be followed. She supposes she’s just used to her and Tobias’ way of working, which tends to be more of a question-and-response conversation.

Samir doesn’t look surprised by Xander’s style of leading, and follows the order without issue.

Tobias, on the other hand, narrows his eyes. “You’re putting me in the lead?”

Xander looks at him sharply, as if irritated that Tobias is being contrary, before registering the open suspicion on the charmander’s face. The luxio takes a deep breath.

“I’d like you to lead because I know you do so for your own team, so I can trust your judgement. And I can tell you’re itching to battle anyways.”

“Why put Samir in second, though?” Nia asks, fully trusting Xander’s knowledge but curious to know the logic behind it.

“Samir has a powerful razor leaf attack at their disposal, but it’s volatile in the middle of a group considering how widespread it is. In this formation, if any leaves do go wide during battle, then Tobias won’t take nearly as much damage from a grass type attack.”

Nia can tell Tobias’ hackles are slowly lowering, but he still asks, “And you or Kry aren’t leading us because..?”

Xander smiles. “Kry isn’t leading because, quite frankly, she will go out of her way to fight everything she sees.”

Kry, who had been passing by Nia on her way to the back of the group, sends a very human and very rude hand gesture over her shoulder. Huh. Nia wonders where she learned that from.

“I’d prefer to stand back,” Xander continues. “Because I want to see how you two fight and act as a team. I’ll be right behind you as backup. Sound good?”

Tobias stares at Xander with a furrowed brow for a moment longer, as if to make sure he isn’t playing a prank, before wordlessly passing by the luxio and skiddo to take point.

Nia isn’t sure if she’s more surprised by Tobias agreeing to the reassignment, or by Kry going along with it. The fraxure clearly isn’t thrilled about getting taken out of the action, but she joins Felix as requested. The wartortle snickers and elbows her as she joins him, and she pushes him back so hard he almost stumbles into the wall.

Xander looks over everyone’s places again, then nods to Tobias. “We’re good.”

Tobias straightens up, nodding in return before leading the group down the next hall.

Xander’s strategizing proves itself as soon as they run into the next few groups of ferals. Tobias doesn’t go out of his way to pick fights, but his usual aggressive combat style works well as the first line of defense. Samir, with only Tobias to watch out for, can clearly focus better and use their leaves more precisely as they fight. When a little green cat does slip through their wall of attacks, Xander doesn’t hesitate to pounce, slamming the smaller cat down to give it a shock and knock it out.

Felix and Kry are clearly used to working together already, and do so effortlessly. When a Pokemon tries to sneak up on the group from behind, Felix knows when to fall back and let Kry lunge forward, and when to step in to help her out, resulting in a near-flawless battle and a fist bump between the two ‘mon by the end of it.

And Nia is delighted to find that she and Avery continue to work well together, too. Nia is the frontal attack, getting in the face of a phanpy who rolls right past the front of their group to avert its momentum with her aura staff, sending it veering into the wall. From there, Avery picks it up with their psychic energy to finish it.

It only takes a few battles for all of them to find an easy synergy, smoothly traversing hall after hall and mowing down ferals in the process.

It’s going so well five floors in that Avery decides to start teaching on the go, apparently unworried about making noise and calling out lessons for Samir’s new language between and sometimes even during battles. When a feral approaches, Avery uses the sharp whistle-whistle code to alert everyone, and at the kirlia’s behest, Samir and Nia echo them. After each fight, they take turns asking for a check-in, and everyone whistles a low-to-high Yes in response.

Well, until Xander answers with a woozy No instead, after a sneak-attack from a dugtrio.

“Dodge would be another useful command,” Avery says, almost guilty, as they kneel to offer an oran berry to their partner. The luxio is fine, if a bit bruised, but his tense frame relaxes as soon as Avery puts a hand on his back.

The rest of them wait while Xander crunches into a few of the small blue berries, Kry and Tobias keeping watch. The mystery dungeon shifts around them like a slow-moving optical illusion, a living, breathing maze of roots and stone and trees, but no ferals jump out.

Nia takes the chance to rest, and sits on a nearby stone. “What’s dodge, then?”

“Oh, I got that one!” Felix says, stretching his sides. He straightens up and whistles once, sharp and loud and low. It almost sounds like the word “move,” if you strain for it.

Samir hesitates, but then tries the word themself. It takes a try or two of them blowing air through their cheeks, but then they get a wobbly version of it down. Nia brightens, giving them a congratulatory clap. Then she tries it herself.

The two of them are still trying to get it nailed down, Felix coaching them by squishing his own cheeks to show how to mold the sound, when Xander gets back to his feet. Everyone turns to look as the luxio shakes out his fur, standing tall once again.

“Sorry for the detour,” he says, smiling with something like embarrassment. “We ready to keep moving? Or do we need a food break?”

“We’re only on floor seven, right?” Tobias asks, frowning. “Do we know how deep this dungeon goes?”

“It’s not very large, actually,” Avery says, getting back to their feet and reorganizing the satchel looped around their delicate shoulders. “Only a few more floors.”

Nia blinks. “Really? This is a C-rank mission though, right?”

“Doesn’t mean the dungeon is C-rank,” Kry says, stretching her arms. “Just means the outlaw we’re hunting is C-rank levels of danger.”

Oh. Nia supposes makes sense. The Pokemon they’ve been fighting haven’t felt much stronger than the Pokemon they usually fight, which she’s been grateful for, but she forgot that they’re here for a specific target.

“I’m good,” Tobias says. He looks first at Nia, then Samir. “You two?”

“Good!” Nia chirps, giving him a thumbs-up. She doesn’t want to actually barf when they reach the outlaw. She can eat when they get back.

Samir nods as well.

Xander smiles. “Good. In that case, let’s keep moving. The outlaw will likely be hiding near the end of the dungeon. Keep your eyes open.”

The others nod. Felix gives Xander a joking salute, and Nia bites back a laugh.

“Tobias, I’m going to take point again, if that works for you.”

Tobias stiffens, distress crossing his face for an instant before he stuffs it away again. “I can handle it.”

“I know you can,” the luxio says, voice calm. “But we’ll need your fire against the outlaw. I’d rather keep you back a bit so you’re at full strength.”

Tobias’ mouth twists, as if he doesn’t believe that that’s the full reason, but he grudgingly nods, falling back behind the luxio.

Nia goes to Tobias’ side as everyone else prepares to get moving again. “Hey. Remember that they’re responsible for us in this dungeon, since they’re the upper-level team. I’m sure he’s not pulling you back because he doesn’t believe in you.”

Tobias shrugs, clearly not buying it. “I guess.”

“Really! You did awesome as leader,” Nia assures, giving him a smile.

Tobias glances at her, and finally the quiet upset on his face fades a bit. He gives her a faint smile in return. “Thanks.”

Nia gives his arm a squeeze, then retreats back to her position in the middle of the group, behind Avery and in front of Kry.

And they continue on.

The remaining floors aren’t much tougher than the previous ones, but the air of the group is notably more quiet and tense as everyone pays closer attention to their surroundings. Nia keeps her ears perked and her eyes moving almost constantly before realizing—

“Um. Hey, Avery?”

“Mhm?”

“Uh. What does a victreebel look like?”

Behind her, Kry barks a laugh. Nia’s ears burn. She can’t believe she forgot to ask this beforehand.

Avery glances over their shoulder with an amused look. “Well, you know he’s a grass type. Otherwise, he’s large, taller than all of us, and shaped a bit like a sitrus berry. Bright yellow, with darker spots and leaves for arms, and his mouth is on the top of his head.”

“On top of his head?” Nia echoes, aghast.

“Yeah, victreebel are weird ones,” Kry says. “They like to bury themselves in the ground to  ambush enemies.”

“Don’t let him grab you with his vine, either,” Felix adds, sounding mildly unnerved. “Seriously. Victreebel have lethal acids in their stomach and while I like to think most ‘mon wouldn’t go that far, he could potentially, uh. Eat you?”

“Eat me?!” Nia shrieks, a little louder than she means to. She stops on the spot to give Felix a horrified look.

“We won’t let him eat you!” Felix assures, hands out.

“If he does, I’ll kick his tail extra hard,” Kry offers with a smirk, as if that helps.

“Thanks,” Nia says weakly, only half-listening. They faced a known murderer in Kaleido’s prison less than a week ago who was much higher than C-rank, but something about the idea of this victreebel outlaw being able to eat Pokemon is so much more alarming.

Nia is suddenly very, very aware that she took it for granted that Pokemon society is basically vegetarian. Every giant, toothy-mawed Pokemon she’s ever met flashes through her mind.

“S-So how do you avoid it ambushing you?” Nia asks, voice hushed in the tense air. “If it likes to hide itself?”

“You stay vigilant,” Xander answers from the front of the pack, one of his large ears swiveled backwards to listen. “Which is easier with seven pairs of eyes, rather than four. You’ll be fine, Nia. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

Nia swallows down shame for needing to be babied, but nods, relieved all the same.

“Just put those big ears and nose to use,” Kry adds.

Nia blinks, glancing over her shoulder. “My nose?”

Kry tears her eyes away from their surroundings to give Nia an unimpressed look. “You’re a riolu. You don’t use your nose?”

“Um. I usually try to block out smells, actually. They’re a bit, uh. Overwhelming.”

Kry abandons her surveillance to stare at Nia, as if genuinely shocked that the answer to her question was Yes. “You’re a riolu,” she says again, in disbelief.

“Who was once human,” Avery reminds gently, stepping over a root crawling across the path. “I’m guessing humans are more like my species in that their sense of smell is rather unremarkable, correct?”

Nia nods. “Y-Yeah. Like, we can smell! But it’s nothing like a dog’s nose. I spent so long just trying to get used to this body that I guess it feels difficult to try changing how I use it at this point.”

“Makes sense,” Felix says.

“It would be helpful if we could train you to track in the future,” Tobias says, glancing back at her. “It definitely has its uses in the field.”

Nia sighs, vaguely recalling that they’ve had this conversation before. “I know, I know. How exactly do you train your nose, though?”

Xander hums. “It’s really just like training any other part of your body. You practice.” The luxio stops, looking back thoughtfully. “Actually, victreebel have a very distinct scent. Right, Ave?”

The kirlia perks up. “Oh! Yes, you’re right! The acids in their stomach smell overwhelmingly sweet, somewhat like honey. Are you suggesting..?”

Xander smirks. “Well, if we’re talking training, this is a prime opportunity. What do you think, Nia? Want to give your nose a workout?”

Nia blinks, looking around as she’s put on the spot. She doesn’t really want to—she would much rather practice first in a more secluded area with something less, uh…important on the line. But then her gaze lands on Samir, who has clearly been so nervous but so brave about approaching them to join as a team, about meeting new people, about learning a whole new language, and—

“I can try,” tumbles from Nia’s mouth. She’s not sure who’s more surprised by that—her or Tobias.

“That’s the spirit!” Felix cheers, nudging her forward.

She stumbles over her own paws, but slides past everyone to reach the front of the group. Xander steps aside for her too, and she looks at him with pinned ears, nervous. “I-I’m leading?”

“You can do it,” Xander assures her, all confidence. “I’ll be right behind you.”

The luxio does as he says and stations himself second in line, which helps alleviate some of her worry. Still, it’s rare for Nia to take the lead in a dungeon. Rare as in she can’t even recall if she’s done it before, aside from the one time she entered a dungeon alone, chasing after Tobias before they even became partners.

That feels like so long ago. They’ve done so much since then. She’s done so much since then.

She’s gotta be braver now than she was then, right?

Nia takes a deep breath to calm her nerves, shaking out her arms. Then she nods and takes the lead, feeling the gaze of her friends on her back. “S-So I just…pick a direction and go?”

“Use your nose, dummy!” Kry jeers.

“Shut your mouth, dummy!” Tobias growls back. “Give her a sec!”

Nia closes her eyes to block out the squabbling, listening first for anything abnormal. Aside from Avery hushing the argument, Nia can only hear the wind through the trees and the distant cries of feral Pokemon. But nothing unusual.

Her nose. She needs to use her nose. Usually, Nia tries to block out most of the information that comes with taking a deep breath, since it’s so overwhelming. Like squinting against a bright cacophony of colors, or putting on sunglasses so her eyes don’t burn. But this time, she takes a long breath through her nose and tries to understand what she’s smelling.

Some of it’s familiar. The sharp bite of frost, the earthy scent of the forest, Tobias and Xander’s comforting scents close by. But then there’s also the sour tang of something she realizes is probably the scent of a feral, likely one that passed through this very hall not too long ago. But nothing sweet.

“Nothing,” Nia reports, wrinkling her nose and blowing air out of her nostrils as if to clear out all the scents.

“Then we keep moving,” Xander says. “Do you feel comfortable leading?”

Nia glances back at Tobias and Samir. Tobias gives her a nod, as if to say she can do this, and Samir glances at him before doing the same. Right. She’s just leading them through the dungeon. No big deal.

Nia tries not to feel wholly responsible for the lives following behind her, and instead marches forward with a swagger she doesn’t feel, down the hall and to a nearly-empty room. There, a feral toedscool jolts awake from where it’d been sleeping in the corner.

She nearly freezes when it runs at her with an angry cry, but she manages to dodge at the last second. Tobias and Samir burst past Xander, and make quick work of the ‘mon with a burst of fire and a volley of leaves.

Nia, panting, stares at the downed feral, heart pounding.

“You good?” Tobias asks, hushed as he comes closer.

Nia nods, swallowing. She is. She just needs to stop freaking herself out and get her head in the game. It’s no big deal—she has her teammates behind her.

Oh.

Nia blinks, then looks up at Tobias, who is watching her with a furrowed brow, and then at Samir, who is squinting at the downed toedscool as if to make sure it’s really knocked out. Behind the two of them, Xander gives her an encouraging, knowing smile.

Right. She has all of them behind her. Just because she’s leading their steps doesn’t mean she’s suddenly alone. Quite the opposite, actually.

“I’m good,” Nia says, meaning it this time. She pushes herself to her feet and brushes off her fur, offering a smile. “Sorry. Got in my own head for a minute there.”

Tobias reaches out to knock his knuckles against her forehead. “Well, get out of it. You’ll have plenty of time to overthink later.”

Nia snorts and bats his hand away, turning back to the empty room. There are two hallways they could take, other than the one they came from, but she isn’t sure which one to follow.

Oh, right! The whole reason she’s in the lead at all. Nia closes her eyes again and takes a deep breath, both thrilled and alarmed when, beneath the strangely musky scent of the toedscool, she catches a hint of something…sweet.

Brow furrowed, she steps closer to one hallway and sniffs a few times, not sure if she imagined the scent. But then, when she steps closer to the other, she smells it again: something almost like honey. Like a whisper of it on the breeze.

“I…I think I smell something?” Nia says, looking back at Xander. “Something sweet, right?”

The luxio nods with an encouraging smile. “Is it stronger on one path than the other?”

“It’s really faint, but I think so?”

“Then we follow it,” Xander says with a decisive wave of his tail. “Lead on, Nia. Just remember to keep smelling as you go—I don’t want us tripping over the outlaw, and it should be obvious when it starts to get stronger.”

Nia nods, resisting the urge to salute like Felix had earlier, and turns back to the hall the sweet scent had come from, cautiously walking down its path. The scent strengthens ever so slightly, but nothing close to “obvious” like Xander had said.

When they reach the next open room, the crumbling stone stairs at its center explains the question on her mind.

“I’m smelling him from the next floor?” Nia asks, shocked.

“You are,” Xander confirms, seeming pleased as he looks at the top of the stairs. “Good work, Nia. You’re a natural.”

Nia flushes under her fur, pleased relief unfolding in her chest.

Xander’s mouth drops open the slightest bit, and after a moment Nia realizes she’s seen the gesture before, in housecats. Is he…scenting the air?

“Wait, can yousmell him too?” Nia asks.

Kry snorts. Felix punches her arm.

“Ah, yeah,” Xander says, sheepish, as his ears fold back. “I’ve got a strong sense of smell, too. Just wanted to make sure he wasn’t waiting right near where we’d pop up. We should be all right if you want to keep leading, but I can hop in front if you’re worried.”

Nia blinks, unsure how to take that sudden revelation. Well…she supposes she has a willing teacher on hand if she needs help with tracking in the future? “Um…if you’re pretty sure he’s not right up ahead, I guess I can stay in the lead?”

Xander nods. “Do that, then. I’ll keep an eye on the trail too so we don’t stumble over him unexpectedly, but this is the perfect opportunity to get you started on tracking.”

Nia takes a deep breath, then leads the group up the set of cold stone stairs. She braces herself as her foot hits the top step, but the sudden warp to a new floor, in a new room, is still as jarring as ever. Her stomach flips like a pancake.

She glances back to make sure everyone is with her, then sniffs the air to find the scent again.

Xander was right—the victreebel isn’t waiting for them in this room, or even on this floor. There’s a clear scent trail she can follow as the smell gets stronger and stronger, almost like following a line of paint across the ground. Except instead of seeing it, it just becomes more and more obvious to her nose where the paint leads and where it doesn’t. She gets more and more comfortable with closing her eyes and relying on her ears and nose than she’s used to doing, and some part of her feels oddly…thrilled by it.

It took her a while to get used to this body, and even now she’s usually fairly neutral about it. But something about this process feels…instinctive, almost. And fun! Like rediscovering her aura for the first time. It’s not something she ever could’ve done as a human, and it almost feels like a superpower.

Once or twice she loses the trail, usually when it crosses through a puddle or a patch of frost or a particularly strong feral scent, as if the line of paint has been wiped away. But each time, Xander is quick to find it by scenting the air himself, showing her how to do the same with her own nose, and setting her back on the right path.

It’s two floors deeper into the dungeon that the scent becomes nearly unbearable, cloying the air to a nauseating degree. It’s so strong that it decimates the path she’d been following entirely, as if instead of a line of paint on the ground the entire floor had been painted.

“Well, he’s definitely here,” Xander says, quiet, his own muzzle wrinkled with distaste. “Nia, I’ll take lead again.”

Nia gladly lets him do so, falling back to walk behind Avery. She rubs her nose as she tries to put her “blinders” back up to block out some of the sweet stench.

“I need your duller senses of smell now,” Xander tosses over his shoulder with an amused look. “Nia and I are overwhelmed up here. Let me know if you smell him, and keep an eye out.”

Kry rolls her eyes, but everyone nods, falling back into formation as they follow the luxio.

It’s unusually quiet on this floor, and Nia doesn’t know if that’s because the outlaw scared off all the ferals, or if he really is out here eating other Pokemon. Surely not, right? Like, he’s a criminal, but a petty one. Nia’s pretty sure cannibalism would get you put much higher on the guild’s priority list than a simple thief.

Regardless, their group is silent and tense as they traverse the halls, scanning every rustle overhead and every shift of stone in the walls. The sweet scent of rotten honey permeates the air.

They pass through an open room with a single tree growing from the side of the stony walls, surprisingly large and still with a great deal of leaves on its branches.

It’s here that Samir stops in their tracks.

Avery, behind them, stops as well. “Samir?”

Samir’s brow is furrowed, their gaze locked onto the tree. A breeze rustles through the leaves and then—

Samir whistles two piercing, short notes, jumping back. Everyone but Nia and Tobias, still unfamiliar with the whistle language, leaps away as well, just as a vine lashes out almost too quick to see, slamming into the hard ground where they’d been standing a moment before. Nia yelps and staggers away, heart pounding.

“Found ya!” Kry growls, racing forward to tackle the trunk of the tree, sending it shaking. “Come out, coward!”

A giant creature, bright yellow and almost pear-shaped, drops from the boughs of the tree and lunges at Kry with a guttural scream, slashing with the leaves at its sides. Kry grins and neatly dodges each attack, before swinging around to slam the creature with her tail.

The creature goes flying closer to the middle of the room, tumbling over once before righting itself. Finally, Nia gets a good luck at it.

It’s the victreebel outlaw they’ve been searching for. He almost looks like a pitcher plant, a bright yellow color with darker speckles. Large, sharp leaves are held at his sides and cover the top of his head, which is indeed an open mouth. Acid slips between his teeth and drips to scorch the grass, right above panicked, darting eyes. The long vine he attacked with before stems from the top of his head, and it lashes now like the tail of an angry cat.

“Keep your distance!” Xander calls. “Ave, slow him down. Kry, act as cover. Felix, ice moves. Team Scarlet, long-range attacks only.”

Nia nods, watching as the victreebel is surrounded by Avery’s distinct indigo energy. The outlaw shrieks in pain as Avery uses some kind of psychic move, but he manages to lash out with his vine, making the kirlia dodge and lose focus.

Unfortunately for the victreebel, there’s a storm of attacks waiting in the wings. Xander launches a dazzling electric move that locks the outlaw in place with a cry of pain, and Felix follows immediately after with a gust of icy wind that coats the grass type in frost. Samir’s razor leaf attack and Tobias’ flames follow shortly after, swamping him.

Nia waits, almost expecting the victreebel to fall unconscious in record time. However, the moment the attacks have a gap, the outlaw screeches again and spins, spitting a shower of acid.

“Take cover!” Xander yells.

Nia hurries to do so, tripping over herself as she backs out of range. The acid splashes at her feet, the grass beneath sizzling and withering to nothing. Yikes.

The victreebel takes advantage of the moment to retreat, and uses his vine to swing back up into the tree. A moment later, Nia sees the faint glow of a move at work.

“He’s healing,” Avery warns.

Nia looks around, glad that everyone seems to have been able to dodge the dangerous attack.

“Want me to shake him out again?” Kry calls.

“No,” Xander says. “He’s expecting that. Let me—”

Before he can finish, the victreebel’s vine is shooting out from the leaves again, wrapping around Tobias’ ankle and yanking his feet out from under him with a shout. In a flash, he’s pulled through the air towards the tree.

“Tobias!” Nia yells, heart dropping. The outlaw must be trying to take out the biggest type threat first.

She bolts after her partner before she can think about it, pouring her energy into a quick attack and leaping up to grab onto him. The two of them, light as they are, are whipped through the air and into the tangle of leaves and branches.

The outlaw looks surprised to have reeled in Nia as well, and Tobias takes the instant of hesitation to blast him with a flame burst. The outlaw shrieks, flinging Tobias aside as Nia loses her grip. The charmander gasps, tumbling out of the branches to fall the (thankfully) short distance to the ground below.

Nia snags a branch with her arm and latches the rest of her body around it like a koala, getting her bearings. Okay, she’s in the tree. With the dangerous criminal. The dangerous criminal who is still recovering from Tobias’ attack, eyes squeezed shut and embers smoldering away at his leaves.

Ugh. She needs to get him back out in the open, doesn’t she? She’s in literally the perfect position to do so.

Nia takes a breath, pushing herself up to balance carefully on the branch, then makes the short leap to the branch the victreebel is resting on. The outlaw whips around to face her. Before he can do a thing, she reels back, aura staff forming in her hands. He looked pretty light when Kry hit him earlier, right?

“Batter up!”

Nia slams the grass type with her aura, sending him flying out of the tree with a shriek.

Nia hurries to follow, dropping carefully to the ground below. Tobias, who had apparently been climbing back up to help her, is halfway up the tree trunk, holding on with his claws.

“Oh. Uh. Nice hit?”

“Thanks!”

The two of them dart back into the fight, where the victreebel is once again trying to flee. This time, Avery catches them in a bubble of psychic energy. When the victreebel tries to swipe at the kirlia with his vine, Kry steps in front to intercept, letting it wrap around her arm with a feral grin.

“Someone cut this guy loose. I’m tired of him playing yo-yo.”

Nia doesn’t even have time to consider what the fraxure is asking before Samir sends a razor leaf attack at the vine, severing it. The victreebel shrieks and reels back.

Nia gasps, hand coming up over her mouth. Did she—did they just cut off one of the outlaw’s limbs?! She glances at the others, but no one looks as horrified as she feels. Even Avery, usually the most sympathetic to Nia’s soft heart, doesn’t wince.

Okay. Okay, maybe that means that wasn’t as serious as Nia is thinking it is. The victreebel doesn’t bleed from the remnants of its vine, or go into shock. Instead, it simply goes on the offensive once again, sending another wave of acid around itself in a sludgy, dangerous mess.

Later. She can ask about the vine thing later, when she’s not dodging puddles of bone-melting goo.

The victreebel is apparently tired of dealing with their long-range strategy now that he has nothing to fight back with, because he launches himself directly at Felix next. One of the victreebel’s leaves glows a bright green as he swings it around, slicing into Felix’s shell with a super-effective hit.

The wartortle is sent rolling back with a pained cry. Nia’s stomach jumps.

Still, she’s surprised by the sheer panic in Xander’s voice as he shouts, “Felix!”

She looks over to see the luxio full-body tackle the victreebel with a snarl, distance strategy apparently out the window. The two roll until Xander comes out on top, slamming his paws down to pin the light grass type in place. There’s an instant where Xander’s fur lifts with crackling electricity, his gold eyes alight with fury. Then, in a flash of lighting, the victreebel is struck. The outlaw screeches, locking up as light blinds Nia.

When the stars behind her eyelids start to fade, Nia squints an eye open. The victreebel is out completely, fried to a black crisp. His crumpled leaves twitch.

And just like that, the fight is over.

“Whoa!” Kry laughs. “A bit overkill, Xan.”

The sentiment echoes Nia’s own thoughts, and even Tobias and Samir seem shocked, whether by the sheer display of power or by how ruthlessly the luxio attacked their enemy, she can’t tell.

“Felix!” Xander cries, ignoring Kry and bolting to the wartortle’s side.

The water type groans and sits up slowly, wincing. He chuckles and pushes Xander’s probing muzzle away. “‘M fine, you big worrywart. Calm down.”

“You’re sure?” Xander asks, scanning Felix’s body again and again, lingering around his shell. “That leaf blade looked strong.”

“Let me see,” Avery says, moving to kneel beside Felix. They feel at the edge of the wartortle’s shell, where the attack must’ve landed.

Felix hisses a breath, wincing.

“Toughen up!” Kry calls. “You’ve taken worse than that.”

The fraxure has wandered over to the victreebel and is nudging at him with a foot. The outlaw twitches again, which Nia really hopes means he’s alive and not just working the last bits of electricity out of his system.

Xander is…actually kind of terrifying when he wants to be.

“Felix!” Xander hisses, catching Nia’s attention again. The luxio is keeping the wartortle on the ground with a heavy paw, ears pinned back. “Stay down and let Avery check you over, for Raikou’s sake!”

“I must defend my honor!” Felix groans dramatically, throwing back his head. “Kry has challenged my toughness! As a wartortle, such a slight cannot stand!”

Avery goes back to feeling around the injury, and Felix yelps, facade broken. Xander sighs, once again looking more like a tired parent and less like a raging ball of lightning.

“He’s been through worse?” Nia asks Kry.

“Yeah,” Kry says, walking over. She has the short remnant of the victreebel’s vine slung over her shoulder, and is using it to drag the crispy outlaw behind her. “Nearly got his shell split in half by a nasty leaf blade a couple years ago. Xander gets all fussy when Felix takes a hard grass type hit now.”

“His shell almost split?” Nia asks absently, still staring at the outlaw.

“Yup,” Kry says, popping the “p.” “Like a chestnut. He tried to laugh it off, then passed out as soon as he stood up while Avery worked on teleporting us out. He’s still got the scar if you’re looking for it.”

“Felix, don’t—!”

They all look over to find Felix sitting up to eat the sitrus berry that Avery handed him. Xander looks a moment away from tackling him back to the ground, fur bristled.

“Ugh.” Kry rolls her eyes. Nia looks at her, questioning.

“I know Xander can’t help being a bit of a dad with the cubs and all, but those two have been teammates for almost a decade now. He should know Felix can handle himself. He needs to stop getting his tail in such a twist over every little hit.”

“I don’t know,” Nia says thoughtfully. “I think it’s kind of sweet that he cares so much.”

Kry snorts. “We all care. He’s just the only one working himself into a frenzy over it.”

Nia is thinking about how to respond to that when she finally notices Samir, standing nearby and watching Xander fret over his teammate. The skiddo’s expression is a complicated mix of emotions. They look…pained.

Before Nia can step forward to make sure they’re all right, Tobias beats her to it.

“Hey,” Tobias says, nudging the skiddo. Samir jumps, looking at the charmander almost guiltily. “Good awareness back there. You spotted the outlaw before any of us did.”

Samir seems surprised by the compliment. But then they nod, opening their mouth to say something before letting their breath out in frustration. Finally, they mouth, Thank you.

Tobias mutters something embarrassed in response, clearly feeling as awkward about the exchange as Samir is. Nia, on the other hand, can’t help a soft smile.

Before she can decide whether or not to go join them, she’s distracted by Felix rocking to his feet, sitrus berry finished. Xander stands too, weaving around the wartortle as if to catch him if he drops. 

“I’m fine! Don’t get your fur in a tangle.” Felix does a spin to prove it, then nearly falls over. But it does look more like it’s just from the wartortle being clumsy rather than from his injury.

Avery simply gives the wartortle a fond look and an affectionate pat on the cheek before walking over to Nia and Kry.

“The outlaw is all right?” Avery asks, peering past Kry.

Kry waves a dismissive hand. “He’ll live ‘til we get back to the guild.”

“Kry.”

“Seriously, he’s fine!”

“Kry, we can’t have Xander going to jail for murder.”

“Look, he’s breathing! I think! He’ll be fine!”

Avery sighs and crouches to make sure the outlaw is indeed still alive.

Nia is reminded of her earlier horror, and she can’t stop her eyes from jumping back to the victreebel’s severed vine. “U-Um. His vine. That’s not like…losing a limb, is it?”

Tobias, who had been walking over to Nia, raises a brow. A moment later, Felix and Xander join them, Samir on their heels.

“No, it’s not,” Avery confirms with an apologetic look. “I didn’t think how that would appear to you. Grass types are connected to the plant life growing on their body, and it may sting a bit if suddenly severed, but his vine will regrow fairly quickly.”

Oh, thank God. Nia finally relaxes, some of the nausea in her gut settling.

“Jeez, even Kry isn’t that ruthless,” Felix says, clearly teasing. “Usually, at least.”

“If I were ruthless, you’d be missing a few limbs yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Felix says. Then he turns to Nia and Tobias with bright eyes. “Last hits aside, that was awesome! You two have been holding out on us in training. You’re seriously strong!”

Nia cracks a shy smile. “Thanks, Felix.”

Tobias looks away. “I didn’t do that much.”

“What?! Yeah you did! Seriously, I wish we always had a fire type like you with us. You’re great with your flames. Attacking even as you’re getting dragged into a tree? Your lung control must be crazy!”

Tobias flushes, looking down to kick at the frosted ground as if it holds the secrets of the universe. Nia smiles, watching him with a sad sort of fondness. She wonders how often anyone compliments him for his fire. Especially in the Haven.

“Great, the fire type can use his fire,” Kry says as she sits on the outlaw’s back, making the poor guy oof a breath of air. “I’m more impressed with you two.”

The fraxure’s claw points right at her and Samir.

“U-Us?”

“Yes, you. Thought you’d wimp out on us, Riolu, not pull that little stunt in the tree. And you, little leaf? Sharp reflexes.”

“Um. Thank you?” Nia manages. “I think?”

“That was just as much an insult as it was a compliment,” Tobias grumbles, giving Kry a dirty look. The fraxure smirks in return.

“She’s right, though,” Xander says, still standing a bit closer to Felix than is probably necessary. He’s finally managed to tear his eyes away from his partner, though. “You did well.”

“Thank you!” Nia says. “So did you. That attack at the end was…”

“Strong,” Tobias finishes, crossing his arms. “But if you could’ve done that the whole time, why didn’t you just do it from the start?”

“That move depleted my energy completely. I’m going to be feeling it tonight, and my electricity won’t be back to full charge until tomorrow. I try not to use a thunder attack unless I really need to.”

“Or until you get all overprotective,” Felix teases, nudging his friend.

Xander coughs. “Right. Or that. Regardless, mission accomplished. Good work, team.”

Nia finally relaxes at those words.

Before they return to the guild, Avery calls for an injury check, but aside from Felix, the rest of them made it out with only minor scrapes and bruises. So in a matter of minutes, they’re rounding up the outlaw and pulling out their badges for a teleportation back to the guild.

When the usual flash of light fades, Nia keeps her eyes closed until the nausea passes.

“Wait, why are we out here?” Kry asks.

Nia forces her eyes open, only now registering the quiet rustle of the leaves overhead and the open, breezy scent of the forest. They’re…somewhere outside of the guild? Don’t they usually warp in directly to the psychics’ quarters?

Avery hums, looking concerned. “Minerva was clearlyfeeling unwell this morning. It’s likely that the psychic wing is either short-staffed or Minerva’s illness is making their teleportation more inaccurate. I’ll check in on them when we get back.”

“More walking it is,” Felix sighs, not sounding all that put out. “Ah, well. Good reminder of how lucky we are to have the teleportation system in the first place.”

“True,” Xander says, flicking his tail and stepping through the brush. “Come on, it’s not far to the nearest entrance.”

“You say that, but you don’t have to carry this stupid lump,” Kry grumbles, hefting the unconscious body of the victreebel overhead with a grunt.

“Think of it as an extra workout,” Xander says, tone light. “And I can take over if you get too tired.”

Kry growls in a way that says he will not be taking over, regardless of how she feels.

“This is actually kind of convenient,” Nia says, looking at Samir. “We haven’t gotten to show you all the entrances to the guild yet, right?”

Samir shakes their head, then tilts it in question.

“The guild has multiple tunnels running underneath it,” Xander explains, leading them through the undergrowth. “All of which lead out into the forest. The entrances are hidden, but all of the guildmembers are shown where they are.”

Samir’s eyes widen as they straighten up and look around with more purpose than before, as if to catalogue where they are so they can find their way back in the future.

Nia laughs. “Don’t worry, I still get lost all the time, even here.”

Tobias snorts and flicks her leg with his tail. “Which doesn’t mean you should encourage Samir to do the same.”

Team Shellshock points out the notable landmarks on their way to the nearest entrance. Nia takes a few mental notes herself, having forgotten most of them since her initial introduction to the guild.

Finally, they arrive at a small cave hidden away beside a creek bed, behind a curtain of lichen and moss. Xander takes the lead and slips inside, and the rest of them follow into the darkness as it slopes downward into cool, damp earth.

Nia is about to block out the loamy scent of the soil in her usual fashion, before deciding to take a deep, purposeful breath of the scent instead. Tobias and the others were right. Her nose is an advantage, and she should start trying to use it.

Beneath the smell of the earth, she detects the scents of her friends as well as fainter hints of other guildmembers she’s met and passed by before. She even thinks she catches Abana’s trail in particular, the hippo’s scent reminding her somehow of a sandy beach.

Nia keeps her eyes cracked open as they walk, even as she tries to identify the overwhelming variety of scents she comes across. While they have Tobias’ tail flame to light the way initially, soon the darkness starts to lift on its own. Then, their surroundings brighten significantly as familiar glowing blue crystals start littering the walls and ceiling of the large tunnel.

Their group makes small talk as they near the guild, light and relaxed, until Xander suddenly stops at the head of the pack. Nia and Avery, who had been chatting right behind him, nearly bump into his legs.

“Xander?” Avery asks, the rest of the group falling silent.

“Shh,” Xander murmurs, staring ahead with a serious expression and pricked ears.

“What is it?” Nia murmurs.

Xander’s focus doesn’t waver. “I thought I heard…”

Nia frowns, straining her ears and swiveling them in the same direction. It takes a moment, but then she hears it too: high voices that definitely shouldn’t be down here in the tunnels.

“And you’re sure we can find our way back?” Laine asks. The shinx cub sounds uncertain.

“If we get lost, Xander’s gonna be so upset,” Leor adds. “A-And Arlo, and Junie, and—"

“They won’t be upset because they won’t know!” Asher responds. The zorua is the loudest of them all, sounding almost cocky. “C’mon, don’t you get bored stuck in the nursery all day? I wanna explore this giant forest!”

“Yeah!” Luca cheers. “He’s right! C’mon, we’re more than strong enough to go outside by ourselves by now. Don’t be such cubs about it.”

Xander’s expression darkens, and he bounds forward down the tunnels. As soon as he rounds the corner, he’s met with startled shrieks.

The rest of their party follows quickly, and sure enough there’s the three shinx cubs, cowering in front of Xander, whose fur is lifted along his spine. Asher is the only one still standing tall, glaring up at the older ‘mon.

“You know you’re not supposed to be down here alone,” Xander is saying. “And you’re certainly not supposed to leave the guild.”

“We weren’t gonna!” Luca says.

Xander stares his brother down, twitching an ear. “You want to try that again?”

Luca shrinks back.

“That’s such a stupid rule!” Asher says brazenly. He morphs into a little green monkey with a sprout atop its head, reminding Nia of August somehow. As if he could intimidate Xander by echoing the appearance of the guildmaster.

Xander is clearly unimpressed by the display, muzzle wrinkling with the hint of a snarl for just an instant before he regains his cool with a deep breath. “It’s a rule meant to keep my siblings safe. How old are you?”

Asher falters. “…Twelve.”

“And do you know how old my siblings are?”

Asher glances back at the smaller shinx cubs. “Eight, right? But that’s not that much younger than me!”

“It’s young enough that they’re going to look to you to lead them. Are you prepared to bear that responsibility?”

Asher’s bravado stumbles for the first time. “Um. W-Well…"

“If one of them gets hurt and you’re lost a mile away from the guild, do you know what to do in that kind of situation? If you stumble into a mystery dungeon, do you know how to fight your way out?”

Asher swallows, ears falling. He morphs back into his zorua form with a flash of light, fluffy tail lowering. “…No.”

Xander sighs, then directs his stern look across all four kids evenly. “I know you feel cooped up in the guild, and I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to make more time to take you outside to explore.”

The cubs perk up at that.

“But,” Xander continues, stern. “Rules are there for a reason. This one is there to keep you safe, especially when the world is so dangerous right now.It’s okay to question rules if they don’t make sense or if you’re unhappy with them, and hopefully you’ll get an answer that explains things. But you have to understand why a rule is there before you even think about breaking it. All right?”

The three shinx cubs nod with murmured agreements, properly chastised. Asher glances at them as if he’s seeing them for the first time, and Nia catches the zorua glancing down to where his paw rests next to Luca’s, almost twice its size.

Finally, after a few moments of heavy silence, Xander softens. He leans down to lick each of the shinx cubs on the head, then gives Asher a gentle brush of his paw as he passes. “Come on, let’s get you all back to Arlo. I’m sure he’s worried sick. Asher’s father too, if he’s around.”

“Actually, Junie was watching us since we were supposed to be playing together,” Laine says, looking contrite all over again.

Oh boy. Nia can only imagine how the little rookidee is handling all this.

“Then you’ll be apologizing to her first,” Xander says simply, flicking his tail for them to follow.

The kids do, trudging behind the luxio. They cast a few curious glances behind themselves at the rest of the party, looking torn between embarrassment at getting in trouble and curiosity about how their mission went, especially once they see Kry carrying the unconscious victreebel. That’s when they start muttering to each other with renewed excitement, and Nia has to stifle a laugh.

She hopes they got the message, but it looks like that won’t keep them down for long. Well, the shinx cubs, at least. Asher still looks rather put out, trailing along with his head low and a thoughtful frown on his face.

Their crew of eleven—twelve, counting the outlaw—files out of the tunnels and onto the mission floor where the bulletin boards are posted. There aren’t any other teams present at the moment, which explains how the cubs snuck through undetected, but as they start climbing the spiral staircase leading up into the Lexym Tree, a blur of blue and black nearly flies straight into Xander’s face, backpedaling just in time with a squawk.

It's Junie, flapping frantically in place with wide eyes and panting breaths. “Oh, hey guys! Back already, huh? Everyone in one piece? Great. Awesome. You want to help me with a little something?”

Nia holds up a hand. “Jun—”

“I lost the kids,” Junie blurts. “Like, your kids, dude. We were playing hide and seek and they were supposed to stay on the nursery floor but I can’t find them anywhere. Or Asher! I should’ve guessed they were going to be little gremlins about it when they were whispering to each other but—”

Xander, clearly amused but trying to keep a stern expression, steps aside to reveal the group of kids.

Luca is in the front, ears pinned back. “Uh. We’re here. Sorry, Junie.”

The rookidee cuts herself off, beak hanging open. Then, she sighs with relief, landing heavily on the nearest step. “Oh, thank God.”

“We caught them trying to sneak out of the tunnels into the forest,” Xander says, giving all four cubs another scolding look. “Which I will be telling Arlo about. And Asher’s father.”

Luca and Asher wince. Laine and Leor shrink back and shuffle their paws.

Junie groans. “I know I’m a cool rebellious role model, kids, but you’re not supposed to disobey me! Do you know how upset Arlo and Fidel would be if I lost you?! Arlo’s a giant dragon! He could eat me in one bite!”

“Arlo wouldn’t eat you,” Laine protests quietly, head tilted in confusion.

“But he could! Look at me, I’m bite-sized!”

“Regardless,” Xander interrupts. “You four will be apologizing to everyone you worried. And then you will not whine or argue with whatever punishment Arlo and Fidel see fit to give you.”

All four cubs mutter a reluctant agreement.

Xander sighs. “Well, go on then. Apologize to Junie.”

The shinx cubs murmur a seemingly genuine chorus of, “Sorry, Junie.” Asher mumbles his own apology a moment later, looking embarrassed as his ears fold back.

Junie snorts. “Thanks, I guess. Just don’t do it again under my watch. Good luck with the rest of your apology tour.”

And with that, Junie flutters up and over Xander to perch on Nia’s shoulder.

“Well, I guess I’ll be taking the criminals back to the nursery floor,” Xander says. He looks back at his teammates, farther down the staircase. “You can go ahead and drop off the outlaw. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

Kry pushes past him without hesitation, hefting the victreebel over her head. Felix gives Xander another joking salute before following her, ruffling the fur on Laine’s head as he passes. Avery waits a beat longer, looking at Xander questioningly.

The luxio gives them a tired smile. “I’m fine, Ave. Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

The kirlia relents and heads up the staircase as well, whispering something about checking on Minerva, the sick abra from this morning.

Finally, Xander turns back to Team Scarlet. “It was good working with you all today.” His gaze settles first on Nia, then Tobias and Samir. “All of you. You work well together.”

Nia beams, and Samir and Tobias shift in place, muttering a quiet thanks.

With that said, Xander turns to herd the four cubs up the stairs back to the nursery floor, already laying into them again about how bad an idea it was to try sneaking out. Winter’s coming, after all. They could get lost and freeze to death overnight, or stumble into a mystery dungeon, or come across an outlaw, or—

Junie laughs as Xander’s voice fades away. “Kinda glad he’s being so hard on them, actually. I was gonna start losing feathers from the stress.”

“Understandable,” Nia says, giving Junie a pat with her finger. “Have you eaten yet?”

Junie perks up. “Nope! Food time?”

“Food time,” Tobias agrees, taking the lead up the stairs.

___________________________________________________________

That evening, the rain that had been hanging heavy over their heads the entire day finally arrives, coming down in stinging cold sheets. Thankfully, they’re all back in Team Scarlet’s quarters by then. Junie is tweeting short melodies from the human world for Tobias to imitate on his guitar, and Samir is practicing their whistle words. Nia, exhausted as usual after a mission, is skimming through a book near the gray light of the window.

As soon as the first drops of rain patter against the wooden sill, Nia hears the distant drumming of August using his powers. Right on cue, the roots and branches making up the frame of the window in their room start to wind shut, creaking like old rope until the opening is much smaller than before, easy enough to cover with the leaf-sewn blind installed overhead. After doing so, the room is dimly lit, and Nia can only see by the faint light bleeding through the blind and Tobias’ tail flame.

Samir’s mouth twists. They squint and lean closer to try reading the book in front of them, then glance at Tobias and his tail flame before looking away just as quickly.

Nia laughs under her breath. “Samir, you can use Tobias’ tail flame to read. I do it all the time.”

Tobias gives Nia a dry look, but doesn’t argue, his eyes sliding shut as he continues to play.

Samir hesitates, but then flips the book shut and picks it up with delicate teeth. They move over and lie down again close to Tobias, flipping the book back open to resume their studies.

Nia smiles, tempted to go over and join them.

But she has something else on her mind suddenly, after watching the tree obey August’s orders like that. She’d marveled at it briefly before, the rillaboom’s power and command over nature, but now she can’t help thinking about how it actually works. Does he tap into the energy of the tree itself?

Will’s words from their last meeting come to mind.

“Have you ever tried? Tried tapping into the life energy outside of other beings? Plants. The dimensional border. It would be fascinating to learn how deep your aura powers go.”

Nia never tried interacting with aura aside from other Pokemon because she simply didn’t think it was an option. Sure, if aura is life energy, then it makes sense that anything alive should have its own form of aura, but tapping into the life energy of the world itself doesn’t seem like something Nia should be able to do. That kind of power would be a lot of responsibility, wouldn’t it? It feels like something only gods should have access to.

Then again, Pokemon are constantly interacting with that energy anyways, in how they use their moves. So maybe it isn’t as big of a deal as she’s making it out to be?

Nia glances at the others from her place in shadow near the window. She can’t very well read now, and she is tired from the day. She’s sure Junie is going to call her over any minute now, but...

Nia closes her eyes and places a hand against the wooden wall of the room. She gathers her energy, like she does before reading the aura of another Pokemon. Then she holds her breath, and tentatively reaches out to the tree.

She’s stunned when she realizes there is something there, reaching back. It’s not a concentrated, bright ball of aura and color like Tobias, or Junie or Samir. Not a soul, necessarily, but still life. It’s fainter. Quieter. Something she has to actively look for or risk missing entirely.

But Nia feels like she can almost…follow it. Like a network of rivers. Like she can dive into that lifeforce and see where it goes.

So she does. She tries to focus her consciousness into her aura, and sends it into that strange tangle of roadways, millions and millions of strands of energy threaded together, splitting and converging again and again. Are those the individual roots of the tree? Its branches? Or maybe something much smaller, like the veins of a leaf? Its atoms, even?

Nia has no way to ground herself, so she picks a thread at random and follows it, feeling the pathway usher her down an endless road, through uncountable connections, through a web too large for her to comprehend. She thinks she notices something like a soul on the edge of her periphery a few times, bright colors in large concentrations of life energy, but she doesn’t investigate until she brushes by something familiar, a burst of indigo aura that feels like a serene night sky—

Avery?

Nia cuts the connection, startled, and blinks in the dim light, her breathing a little heavy. Did she—? No, that couldn’t have been Avery. The kirlia is all the way down the hall in Team Shellshock’s quarters, and Nia has never reached her aura nearly that far before, let alone so effortlessly.

Except…her aura wasn’t connected to her on its own this time, was it? She was riding the lifeforce of the tree, coasting along its aura like a surfer on a wave. So could she have really..?

“Nia! You good?”

Junie’s voice snaps Nia from her thoughts, and she whips her head up, blinking at the rookidee across the room. Junie is staring at Nia with a confused little smile, head tilted. Tobias has stopped playing and Samir has stopped reading, the two of them also watching Nia with a touch of concern.

Oh. Right. She supposes it is weird for her to be sitting here in the dark with her eyes closed.

Nia forces a laugh, sitting up and grabbing her book to move over to the warm glow of Tobias’ tail flame. There, she sits against their bed, close to the charmander’s side. “Sorry. Tired, I guess.”

She doesn’t know why she says that. She doesn’t know why she doesn’t feel excited about this discovery. Maybe because she’s still in disbelief that she could be right.

“Well, at least nod off over here where it’s warm,” Junie teases. “Toby, play us a lullaby.”

“I’m not your personal minstrel,” Tobias grumbles. Still, he starts plucking away at a softer melody than before.

Nia tilts her head back and closes her eyes, hugging her book close with one arm. With the other, she places a hand on the wooden floor, too curious to resist. Once again, she reaches out with her aura, and leaps into the quiet, gentle lifeforce of the wood.

This time, she picks a direction with purpose. Tracks the vibrations of the specific aura she’s looking for like a spider feeling the vibrations of prey caught in its web. Tracks it like the scent trail in the mystery dungeon.

Just as Nia suspects, she brushes up against a blaze of bright orange energy, Junie’s familiar silhouette lighting up behind her eyes. No contact needed. And she’s done that before, but something about the way she doesn’t feel drained at all, something about how she accidentally connected to someone rooms and rooms away, feels…big.

In a world like this where nature is so present, where life energy weaves through the very fabric of reality so consistently, how far could Nia reach? Could she reach Maggie, up on the top floor? Or Fliss, at the flying outpost? Beck and Hazel, in Afon’s Cap?

Could she affect that lifeforce somehow, like Xerneas and Yveltal can?

Nia abruptly cuts off her aura and grounds herself back in the physical world. She focuses on Tobias’ playing and the heat radiating from his skin. Focuses on Junie’s chipper comments and the sound of Samir flipping a page as they read. Focuses on the smell of the rain and the feeling of rough wood grain against her hand.

Nia’s heart pounds. Her stomach churns.

She’s suddenly reminded of that fight with the seviper, outside of Ghatha. When Nia's aura grew in power and she felt like it was too much for her to control. When she’d handled her aura like a live bomb, terrified of it destroying everything and everyone around her.

For reasons she can't quite explain, Nia feels that same fear now.

[hitracks]

BWAH tysm i'm deffo a mr fear kind of guy but it's really so fun :heart_hands emojis: so i'm happy to engage. if i can ask you some questions. ONE what's the outline idea for your funger au and TWO who's your favorite character from og funger. and least fave maybe :] yes

ILL ANSWER 2 FIRST cause it’s easier. My favorite in general is probably Cahara … wonderful bisexual wife guy. I am a terrible no good sucker for found family. Him and the girl make me want to throw up and die. Least favorite, other than Legarde, PROBABLY VALTIEL? Dude he just pisses me off hes such a little asshole. Not even prevalent enough for everyone to know about him either … just get smarter freak. Fellowship would’ve done numbers without you being the strange cisman Incel of the group…

FIRST ONE. OKAY. Outline is really really rough but, it happens BEFORE the current termina festival that you are seeing in game. So while things are still ‘set up’ where in game events or npcs would be around but not to the point where you would get the same endings… Like the ending with Relia ( Olivia’s Sister ) isn’t able to happen because Olivia is not there to trigger that event nor has Relia and her Team gotten to Prehevil ! This also means it’s before the Kaiser ( Legarde / Yellow King ) gets his hands on it completely, so most normal things about the festival are in full swing. Same starting event happens where they are on the train when it stops & they are unable to start it again … I am not entirely sure who I will focus on story wise first, but I have a lot of rough ideas for most of them. Some of the characters ( dsmp ones ) I have turned into Enemies with their likeness :-] some are just beasts and others are more coherent individuals just gone crazy by Rher. For example I am including DreamTeam but they got there a day before the rest of the party, and moonscorching effects already take over them just because the lot of them are susceptible to such …. So the rest of them would run into those three early on and only figure out later that THOSE WERE ACTUAL GUYS!!!! NOT JUST BIG SCARY BEASTS!

ENDING WISEEEE I want to try and do something with the egg & sulfur cultists for a general one … I think it would be interesting to play around with considering Rhers effects branch out like a living creature. Obviously all the B endings as well, which is just where the ‘main’ person survives and the rest of them it is either ambiguous or you kill them. If I have the brain power too I think I could definitely replace like. Relias story line to have something to do with Connor & Karl regarding DreamXD …. I will have to think on it more though. It would be hard to incorporate new gods into the already muddy storyline. Phil needs to be there too or I’m gonna lose my mind ( I like drawing him. )

[stusbunker]

Tattered: Growing Pains

A SPN ABO Fan-fiction Series

Featuring: Alpha!Sam x Omega!Reader, Alpha!Dean x Omega!Reader, Alpha!Sam x Omega!Reader x Alpha!Dean

Word Count: ~3250

Warnings, etc: Dean has discovered he’s into her being pregnant. Sam and Dean tag-team smut. Oral, knotting, there’s lots of bodily fluids, but also a bath tub. Breeding kink, possessive and jealous Alphas. Nesting, pregnancy problems.

Series Masterlist

Special shout out to @lastactiontricia​ for putting up this series the entire time.

Six months later

Dean

The thing about hearing other people’s thoughts—- or even just having their emotions running through your head, well, it makes it really fucking easy to see their point of view. Especially after sensing the way she felt about me and Sam both. So— yeah, I decided to be the bigger man. But; really, it came down to Sam accepting that, truemate or not— I was just as much her Alpha as he was.

It hasn’t been the easiest, but it sure beats the alternative.   

It's almost time to start moving into the Barn when I smell the change on her skin. Bobby and me have been busting ass all winter to get the place up to code and habitable. I didn't realize we were working on a deadline, but life’s always had a way of biting me in the ass.

       I gather her up against me, rubbing my belt against her middle as she leans back to squint at my face. "What?"

       I shake my head and go all glassy eyed on her, because she is actually glowing a little. And if she doesn't realize it yet, I'm not gonna be the one to say anything. I admit I'm slightly tickled to have this kind of secret to keep for a while. 

      Maybe even a little smug, too.

      Sam's been working with Garth and some folks on the inside at Roman Enterprises to figure out the how's and why's to zapping the fucking face-munchers back to where they came from. So far it's been all surveillance and research, but everybody knows the time to act is rapidly approaching.

        Now, we have another reason to get back home in one piece. Hell, maybe even reasons.

         "Nothing, just looking at ya."

         She rolls her eyes and swats my chest, reprimanding me. She kisses me quick, but deep and goes back to hauling in the rest of the groceries. I can't wait to see Bobby's face when he finds out he's gonna be a grandpa. 

         God, might even make him cry.

          I drive to the Barn because though the weather is finally turning for the better, it's a cakey, mucky mess out there and I don't really want to spend five minutes cleaning my boots before I get to do the final walk through.

         The plan was once the chompers were dealt with, we’d let her loose to nest. But I think it's time. Circumstances have changed. And we probably should keep her as busy as possible while she's still willing and able to put in the manual labor.

          Fuck, I wonder if Sam knows. It's not like I can hear a heartbeat yet, it's just a chemical thing. Or maybe Alpha's intuition. Who knows and I don't really care how—- I just know what I know.

          The entryway is wide and empty for now. We kept stone as the primary material for the floors, maintaining the rustic feel. But I talked Bobby into wisely installing a heating system beneath the decorative tiles. Warm and cozy like.

         The staircase is wide and angular, nothing ornate, but sturdy. The kitchen and first floor bath branch out to the right, making for a southern exposure for a lot of natural light. The den and the office/library take up the left side, which once held the farm equipment and animal stalls. 

         Bobby ensured the built-in bookshelves would make Sam pop a nerd boner.

          I take the stairs two at a time, rushing to see if I can parcel out the upstairs living quarters with some pocket doors or just keep it predominantly one large room with only single smaller rooms on each side, backed by the ensuite bathroom on one side and the walk-in closet on the other.

        I don't think we were ever gonna need this much closet space so I start measuring it out, thinking nurseries don't last forever and that eventually we'd need space for toys and then privacy after that.

        Maybe we hadn't thought this through after all. I think about calling Bobby out here, but it's probably too early to be making such adjustments.

        Should wait 'til she's been to a doctor or something. 

       Still, makes me worry that the house isn't really ready. Or that could just be me.

Two weeks later

         I get back from the hardware store just after sundown and all she's sending out is colors and WANT. Sam's easier to read, he's between her legs, the only dessert he really allows himself.

          I leave my keys on the hook by the door and unlace my boots. She's excited that I'm home. Sam's happy she's happy. He's also damn pleased with himself and I can almost smell her once I start climbing the stairs.

          I start shrugging out of my shirts as I enter our room. She's face down, ass up and Sam's on his knees, holding her open as he drags his tongue up and down her seam.

         He groans when she sees me, and I can smell how her slick is already changing.

          "Taste good, Sammy?"

          "Better than ever," he agrees, before dipping down and sucking on her clit. She squeals and fists the comforter. 

          She's got a steady chant of 'mate mate mate' going in her mind. I sidle up to the edge of the bed, let her nuzzle my junk— just to hear her purr, before I back away and undo my belt.

           She's the only one naked so far, but I'm not letting that last. I need to feel her. Fucking breed her all over again. God, she's gonna be so hot in a couple months. I can't wait to taste every inch of her, feel her thicken and plump fuller.

           She whimpers, either Sam's doing his job or she's hearing me. She likes it when our mouths are on her, especially if it's to get her open for our knots— or to clean her up afterwards.

            With her—with us it's been a little bit of everything. She wants both— she gets it.

          Sometimes she makes us watch the other, eye fucks us as she rides the other brother. She's fucking vindictive. But she knows her power, can't be angry about a confident Omega. 

          And now that she won't be needy and in heat so often—- fuck she's going to have both our balls in a vice grip.  She gasps and comes all over Sam's chin. He growls and keeps going, making her squirm until she comes again, loud and screaming his title.

           I'm stroking myself nice and lazy now, going to stretch this out. Make her a pile of sagging joints and sticky skin before calling it a night.

          "Can you smell it? What a good Omega we've got?" I ask without asking.

           "Can fucking feel ‘em in there," Sam agrees.

          I lean over the bed to where she's limp and warm. Kiss her hair and brush it back so I can get to her ear and breathe out, "you feel it, honey? Us growing inside you?"

         She whines and then asks, all sleepy, "Pups?"

         Sam and I share a look and a shit eating grin. 

        "Yeah, baby, you're fucking glowing with them," Sam confirms, hands soothing up and down her haunches.

        "No wonder you've both been so damn happy lately. And handsy," she taunts, slipping away from Sam's touch and rolling up to her pillows in the middle of the bed.

         She aint wrong. But, damn, didn’t think I was all caveman about her having kids until it actually happened. Now it’s all I can think about. I crawl after her up the bed, drag myself up her body, feeling the way she shivers from my body heat. I cage her in, box her in with my forearms and settle against the cradle of her thighs, hard and in no hurry.

She plays with my hair as I look down at her dazed expression, gather her up so I can slip my arms underneath to hold her head in both my hands. Nudge into the hair at her nape, getting her eyes to droop further closed.

“How’s my girl, huh?” I breathe against her lips as she smiles, just a hint of one really and she's reaching for a kiss. I hum against the familiar give of her mouth and drag her bottom lip in for a little nibble. 

Sam’s off in the bathroom. I can hear him rummaging around, smell the salt she likes to use as he fills up the tub. He gives me this, just holding her, feeling her soft and supple in our bed. I kiss her, smirking as she tries to make it dirtier than it needs to be.

She’s fucking perfect.

I peck my way down her chin, drag my nose up her jaw, just to lap at that spot behind her ear. She’s itching to move, I can feel the tension build as I take my time, hold her tight, pinned by my hips and elbows. 

She whines as I suck on her pulse, and sighs as I kiss it better.

Love this shit, love riling her up.

But she's sneaky, and just as I start to lick over to the other ear, she's got me in hand, clammy fingers squeezing and stroking. I gasp more than growl, of course she clocks it and fucking purrs.

"We gonna get dirty or what?" she teases.

"Don't want Sam's hardwork to go to waste," I agree, pulling her knee out and rolling my hips to really get at her. She drags up her other leg and lets me slick myself up. I tune everything else out, it’s just us right now. Just heat and wet and home. And me sinking inside her, her opening up to keep me close, and fuck it, I’m getting sappy here.

“Dean,” she moans my name, not my title, not some random endearment. My name and I just let go. I fuck her into the bed, hard and desperate, needy. All the while looking down at her, seeing her face and those eyes I can never hide from, just wrecked from it all.

Pride surges through me and I thrust deeper, letting my knot kiss her entrance, without letting it all go. I wanna keep drawing this out and if I focus on her, I won’t let her take me over the edge. I hover over completion— seeing her blissed out and mine.

So mine.

I snarl and clamp my jaw shut. Close my eyes and breathe. Force myself to use my upstairs brain and keep her throat out of my mouth. She’s mine, ours, I don’t need to reclaim her. She’s already got the best part of me anyway—- growing and safe.

My eyes snap open cuz she’s squirming to change positions, sitting us up so she’s in my lap, bouncing and kissing me all over. God, it’s perfect.

Every thrust she falls harder on my knot and I’m seeing spots, cross-eyed from the pleasure. “The water’s gonna be cold if we—,” I warn as she adds a swirl to the movement of her hips.

“Carry me,” she husks out, voice thin, but firm.

I lose it, slamming her down as my knot pummels inside her. She clutches to me with everything she has. When I can think straight, I feel myself leaking out of her, down my sapped nuts and onto the sheets and still she pulses around me, milking me for more.

I laugh and sigh, forehead on her shoulder as she wraps her arms around me and squeezes. I never want to move.

She murmurs in agreement, kissing my neck and just being that sweet side of her, the tender Omega that she kept hidden and protected for so long. I flex my toes behind her and start scooting us to the edge of the bed. 

Sammmy’s been patiently waiting in the ensuite and I really should thank him. Maybe even ask for a spotter, but I manage to stand with her locked around me, her arms like snakes wrapping around my head. With every step I tug against her internal grip and we’re both whining at the strain by the time we reach the tub.

Sam’s shaking his hair out from a shower, and I make a point of not noticing his unsatisfied knot while I try to set her on the edge of the tub. Sam does a good job of suppressing his jealousy around me, but I always know. And it’s not personal, we’re beyond that. It still happens. 

“Don’t look at me like that, it was her idea,” I gripe, trying not to rip out of her as I bend at the knees.

Sam huffs, probably giving her a bitch face, but she just shrugs and gasps as I step carefully into the tub.

“Easy,” Sam warns, like I’m not fucking going slow and steady.

She hugs me tighter, and I feel more of our juices slide down my thigh. Sam’s at her back now, holding her shoulders as I lift my other leg and twist us into the steaming water. We go down with a huge splash, but no one’s bleeding. So there’s that.

She sags against my chest, just letting herself relax with the warmth.

“Thanks, Alpha,” she says and we all know she means Sam.

Sam hums and pulls her hair out of the knot she had on top of her head, rubbing gently at her scalp. I never figured out how he does it without hurting her, but maybe it’s a trick having stupidly long hair taught him. Maybe he’s just got a better angle from space.

She sighs into his touch and smiles up at him with closed eyes. He bends down and kisses her. And I’m just a chair at this point.

Okay, maybe Sam’s not the only one who gets jealous.

I rub her thighs and use my fingertips to scrub our efforts off her skin. When my knot starts to soften, she leans back and gets her hair wet. That’s when Sam gives in and joins us in the tub. More water gushes over the sides, but I installed the walk-in shower at a pitch, the drain’ll do its job.

We take turns cleaning her off, and she takes turns kissing us stupid. We whisper sweet nothings about her body, our pups, the way she smells. I’ve never been so damn happy in my whole life.

Of course, it can’t last.

 READER

What no one tells you about morning sickness is that morning has NOTHING to do with it. It’s like nausea for being hungry, your body is YELLING for nutrients in a more drastic way. Or at least that’s what I’ve been dealing with for the past six weeks since we figured out what we got ourselves into.

It’s been fine, really. I mean, I knew it was inevitable. The chance of birth control standing up against two claims and ALL that sex was pretty much wishful thinking at this point.

It’s just, we’re still on high alert with the Leviathans. 

Dean’s letting me decorate the nursery, which is really just a branched off nook to the master bedroom. I still can’t believe all the work he and Bobby did to make this place so gorgeous. It makes me a little weepy just thinking about it too long, honestly. But don’t tell either of them, because they get all smug and start primping about their skills.

Yes, both of them.

Then there’s Sam. Who has, by far, been the worst. He checks my vitals, scents me constantly and has read more about the birthing process than probably half of the medical field. He’s relentless about my diet, my hydration, even my generally chaotic sleep schedule. If his protectiveness wasn’t so hot— I’d have stabbed him by now. 

I still come pretty close when he raises his eyebrows when I sneak a sweet or two.

Dean’s on my side though, so tough titties for Sam.

I’m walking barefoot between our room and the babies’, relishing in the feel of the transition from reclaimed wooden floorboards to the cushy give of the soft gray carpeting.

I’m measuring the windows for curtains when the first pain shoots down my side, as quick and centralized as a ripped off bandage. I gasp and pull my arms down, rubbing the area through my shirt. It ebbs before I really think about it, moving on to the next wall where it’s a double window looking out towards the long forgotten cornfields.

It’s warm on the second floor this time of year, and we’re not around enough to leave the air conditioning on yet. So I huff a little and write down the width and height before stepping back and surveying the space. Blinds and curtains or just curtains?

I’ve never had my own space like this— never been able to choose how it takes shape. Another gift this house gives me. And I’ve found so many already: stability and hope, space and privacy, freedom, but mostly it gives us roots. 

A true homebase.

A sense of safety and rightness has begun to creep into the everyday. My reflexes are slowing, even though I’m still on my feet and ready to assist on a hunt at a moment’s notice. Not that they’d let me in the field, now. Assholes. But I feel the ways I’m changing— we’re changing and I can’t really complain about the softer edges to us all.

I get another spasm just before dinner, nothing quite as alarming, but this one holds out longer. I’m rubbing my side again when Sam comes in with the bag of Chinese. Dean’s right behind him with a case of gatorade and a six pack. 

Both of them gawk at me and I roll my eyes, take a deep breath and let them settle themselves down. One tiny bit of pain is not the crisis they’re thinking it is.

I take the bag out of Sam’s massive hand and start setting the white cartons out on the table. Worrywarts.

Bobby

The doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong. Something about weird body chemistry or mixed results from all the damn tests they’ve put her through the last week and a half. They’ve got her in a room, hooked up to monitors and saline drips. And still she’s struggling to keep a steady heartbeat. And the pups— well, they’re monitoring them too.

She won’t let me tell the boys. Not until we know something. But every instinct in me is screaming that those idjits need to be here for her, should be the ones holding her hand and getting the doctors to listen right.

I’m not her dad, but I’m the pack Alpha. I gotta do something.

They better just finish the Leviathans once and for all, because I’m not sitting on the bench for my health here. She’s been quiet today, pensive. Almost like when she was a kid.

Or younger. I didn’t know her like that until she was already hunting, damnit, in a way that these kids were never kids.

We’re not letting that happen again. Not if we can help it. I tell her I’m grabbing a coffee, promise to bring her something from the cafeteria. Just need to stretch my legs and get out of  my head. 

Make some calls.

Because we know a thing or two about things that these white coats don’t. And I’ll be damned if I let my girl go down without checking out every stop along the way.

Tell me what you think?

Tagging:  @idreamofdeanie​ @stoneyggirl2 @delightfullykrispypeach​    @dolphincliffs​ @flamencodiva​ @crashdevlin​ @dontshootmespence​ @thoughtslikeaminefield​  @rockhoochie​ @dawnie1988 @mrswhozeewhatsis​ @cosicas-cuquis​ @foxyjwls007 @tumbler-tidbits @defenderrosetyler​ @ericaprice2008  @wingedcatninja​ @akshi8278 @itmighthavebeenintentional​ @smi727​ @princessmisery666​​ @impalaslytherin​​

Read On: Chapter 9: The Prodigal’s Redemption

[seijorhi]

Hey, god it’s me again. 😔 LOL

I think that at this point of my life your beautiful and flawless fic ‘means to an end’ has physical intertwined with me. It is a part of my mind, soul, and body. 😩 Everything about it is chefs kiss.

I wish I could just kiss that beautiful big brain of yours for coming up with such delicious ideas. The way it’s on my mind daily since the moment I read it is SICKENING (in a good way obvi 😏).

I will go through my day and out of nowhere something will remind me of it and along will come a question. You did this to me Rhi 🫵.

NOW I know you’re very busy with getting your new fic ready (absolutely excited btw, I love Gojo and knowing your beautiful mind , anything you write will be to die for!!!!) but I wanted to ask a couple questions (I know, shocker right?). Since I know you’re busy, don’t feel obligated to answer these questions. In fact, I’ll be very happy if you even reply with a heart. (I simply just wanted to let you know deeply I appreciate/admire your work.)

But here are my troublesome questions:

- Did the guys on their volleyball team know about their obsession with the reader?

- I know you mentioned Atsumu having girlfriends through highschool but did that apply to Osamu too? (Especially since he liked the reader first?)

- This is sort of like my first question but did the girlfriends know as well? And if they did, did they feel any jealousy? (Jealousy from their boyfriend giving his attention to someone else.)

- Since there was a long period of time of not seeing the reader, did they have hopes of seeing her again? (before Atsumu found ame)

- While in that period of time did the twins still date around?

That’s all but please if you have anything else to add , it’s definitely welcomed. 🫶 (also I’m sorry if these questions sound silly or stupid but they’ve been taking up my mind for awhile and I’m sorry to everyone for constantly bringing up ‘means to an end’ but that fic has a strong grip on me yall. Like I’m down bad on my knees for this version/fic of the Miya twins 😔.)

OFF TOPIC: I’ve been trying very hard to be more active with my favorite writers to show love and support but still find the idea to be very scary. I still get nervous sending in messages or asks but I’m trying to take baby steps. I also want to gain the confidence of not having to press the anonymous button because I want you to know who I am but as a second baby step , I will now be signing my post with my nickname since I want you to (sort of) know who I am ☺️ (and not just some crazed fan lol.)

-🌬️🌫️ katia

(I keep on forgetting which emojis I used on the previous questions I sent but I hope I got it right this time 🥲)

(Edit: you’ll probably see the same message again but that’s because I’m sending it to you again because I forgot to mention this in the pervious one 😰.

You’ve inspired me to start taking a more darker route in my writing. I began writing maybe a month ago and it’s a romance novel. (So far I’ve got two chapters 🫠).

But these past couple days I’ve been REALL REALLY wanting to write more darker content (like the kind you write, you’ve inspired me a great deal with your writing technique).

But the problem is I don’t know how to write yandere/horror/gore. So I was wondering if it wasn’t to much of a bother, if you could give me some tips or advice. (Im very new to writing and I have my struggles but I want to branch out to more darker themes, like you and fairy.) Still learning the ropes but I hope with your guidance, I’ll get there 🫡. )

hello my love!

okay so first of all if ur gonna keep being so cute and complimentary i will melt into a soft gooey puddle and be of no use to anybody so be warned.

as for your questions:

i would say that most people who spent a decent amount of time around the twins, i.e. their teammates and classmates, would have at least an inkling about their interest in bullying her. the miyas are many things, subtle isn't one of them. having said that, i think out of everyone, suna was probably the only one who saw it for what it was

hookups yes, 'girlfriends' no

again, anyone who spent a significant amount of time around the twins was bound to eventually put two and two together. which isn't to say that they were all blind going in – some undoubtedly thought they could snag his attention once they were officially dating, only to find themselves bitterly disappointed

they 100% both kept tabs on the reader, it was more a case of biding their time and waiting for the right moment

yes. not serious, long term relationships (aside from ame) as neither one of them would be capable of faking it for more than a few months but relationships all the same

advice wise, i dug up this old post which hopefully will be at least a little helpful??

beyond that, all i can really say is that for me, good yandere/horror fics balance emotion with tension, and the build up of both. the characterisation is also really important – what makes you love to loathe them, or alternatively, not see them coming until it's entirely too late. nothing bores me more in a yan fic than when the writer hasn't bothered to give their yan a personality beyond a cookie cutter obsession.

but congrats on getting started with writing! i'm proud of you bby <33

[sidhewrites]

Chapter four! Most of this is taken from the previous version of the project, but it's the last bit that's been prewritten. Everything here on out will be brand new.

Project Info

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

I bring two coffees just in case.

I don't know what Lucy likes, so I get one with just a little cream and no fancy add-ons, and a mocha frappuccino with all the add-ons, just in case. I could drink both, if it came right down to it, but I didn't want to leave Lucy without one just in case she changed her mind. I'm also armed with a backpack of stuff. Snack bars, a tiny radio, a small speaker, and Josie’s dowsing rods, just in case we get caught.

It was a perfect night for ghost hunting. The clouds were nearly gone, just a few still rolling across the sky and a thin mist obscured the ground. A cold breeze pulled dry leaves off branches and tossed them carelessly across the ground. Lucy is nowhere to be found, but I arrived a few minutes early as it was. The Archivists themselves are still waiting for the last few members of their team to show up, and I make my way over to the grave where we first met to wait. 

It’s a weathered stone, probably at least a hundred years old at this point, and, in this low light, that the words are too worn away to make out clearly. Josie would probably know who it belongs to, but I resist the urge to turn my phone on and check if she’s sent any messages. I tell myself it’s not just because I don’t know if I even want to talk to her or not, and, for once, that’s actually true. The light could attract unwanted attention, and the plan tonight is to not be noticed. Just to be extra safe, I’ve got a dark jacket on with the hood up over my pink hair, so I blend in just a bit more with the background. 

I am secret. I am stealth. “I am the night,” I mutter as hoarsely quietly as I can.

“Is that so?”

This time, I manage not to shout Jesus Shit as I fall on my ass in fear as Lucy stands over me, covering her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"Hi," I say.

"Evening." She grins down at me, more than a little smug. I'd be irritated at her if it wasn't admittedly so funny.

"Hi," I say again. I'm very eloquent.

Lucy gives me a look, and lowers herself to the ground next to me. "So, what's the plan?" Lucy asks.

"I figure they're gonna start filming after about half an hour of setting up, I think? Deliver some of the scripted lines, get some spooky B-roll."

"You know quite a bit about their methods."

I shrug. "I took a few film classes." I was by no means an expert, but I had an idea of what to expect. Then I look at her again, and realize, "When did you get here?"

I startle, falling forward and swallowing a yelp of surprise. Instead, I smile, turning around to see Lucy standing behind me, nearly invisible in the deep shadows of the tree. “When did you get here?” I whisper, realizing just how tall she is. I’m already short, five feet and two inches on a good day, but she seems to be pushing six feet, even when accounting for my view from the ground.

“Some might say I never left.”

“Okay, Mary Shelley.” I stick my tongue out at her, prompting Lucy to giggle, and I hold one of the coffees out. “Brought this for you, just in case you’d need it. Oh --” I pull it back and hold the other one out instead. “Or this one. I don’t know if you prefer it sweet or black, so I got both.”

“How very kind of you, though I hope you didn’t burden yourself too much in getting them. I can’t drink coffee, I’m afraid. Maybe you could have them both?”

“That’s a horrible idea. I’ll be vibrating ‘til next week. I’ll do it.”

“You, ah -- you don’t have to?”

“Nah, I’m gonna.” I chug.

“Amazing.” Lucy does not sound amazed.

Once I down a good amount of the first coffee, we turned our attention to the crew. They're almost done setting up and taking one last inventory of the tools on hand. They look fairly satisfied with their setup, though the sound operator still has second thoughts about the leaves on the ground stirring in the breeze.

“Alright, Luce, how do we wanna start?” I list off the items in my bag as the team goes over their own filming schedule and glance off into the distance with some frustration. I guess in Haunted Archivist Standard Time, 10:00 is actually 9:30. Sure enough, a small group of people emerge out of the darkness -- the last two members of the Haunted Archivist team, and the last person I wanted to see tonight.

Mr. Gno looks even older than usual at this hour. Admittedly, I ought to have been expecting it. The team needed someone to let them in the gates and to sign off on various filming permits, but it didn't even cross my mind until now. Why didn't he have one of the other groundskeepers work tonight? Or one of our two office admins?

At least he's clearly having fun. As the group gets closer, I can hear him try out different voices and personas. Apparently they'll be interviewing him for some of the background segments of the video, and I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing as Mr. Ngo puffs out his chest and says, "Howdy." 

The rest of the group laughs as well, which does endear them to me a little. He's a kind man who deserves to be appreciated, and, also, the best cowboy.

"Thanks again for helping us out tonight," the manager says. "This is gonna be a huge hit."

"Always happy to help out a couple of young'uns lookin' to rustle up some ghosts ... buckaroos."

I have the best boss.

Besides me, Lucy is laughing as well, a hand covering her mouth to keep quiet as well. She notices me looking, and fights to regain her composure. "I'm looking forward to hearing his interview. They seem to be almost ready. Let's do the same."

I nod, trying to focus on making a plan.  “I know they like to just kind of talk into the air and analyze audio later. Not much we can do there, but I think we can hijack their communicator thing.”

“Communicator thing.”

“You know, the thing. It, like, listens to the air waves and the computer translates that into actual words. It’s called, um…”

“Spirit box.”

“No, that’s the one with the radio, isn’t it?”

“There’s multiple types. Trust me, I’ve seen my share of investigator teams. These ones are a sight more sophisticated than the early spiritualists, to be sure.” Lucy’s smile grows. “They have the teddy bear.”

I follow her gaze, and, sure enough, the team is bringing out and testing the light up bear. It’s to attract playful spirits and measure vibrations and static charges in the air, but I might have bought one just to have something that lights up when I hug it. I’m a mature adult, and I make good choices with my life.

“Let’s see if this works.” I raise the EMF generator, and point it in the direction of the bear. Slowly, feeling very slightly James Bond-y, I press the switch and turn the dial gently. Sure enough, the lights start to glow a bit brighter, just enough to be noticeable, and the team gasps collectively.

Lucy and I duck down again, fighting to suppress our giggles as the team gathers around the bear, all talking at once. Who was it, is she here already, I wasn’t expecting this sort of activity --

“We should start filming now,” the manager says, half-breathless already, and everyone rushes to comply.

I clamp down on my laughter and look up at Lucy. She’s closer than I had expected her to be, and I’m grateful we’re both trying to be silent right now or else I’d probably say something stupid, like wow you have really long eyelashes.

Instead, she probably mistakes my distracted gazing into her eyes as some sort of intelligent silent communication and nods. I nod back, and raise the generator again just as the camera operator, “Rolling.”

Lourdes faces the camera while Mick holds up his EMF reader and follows the sources of the sound. "This is amazing," she whispers. "We were expecting some activity tonight, but nothing like this. We hadn't even turned the cameras on when this thing started going."

If I remember correctly, there’s usually at least five hours of unused footage to go with the half-hour video they end up with. Almost automatically, their usual closing plays through my head -- And monthly pledges get one hour of deleted content, so click the link on your screen or in the description to --

The stupid music they play is going to be stuck in my head all night. I would probably do a stupid little dance to it if someone asked. I really hope Lucy doesn’t ask.

#

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[tuesdayisfordancing]

Picard 3.3 thoughts part two:

“He’s not ‘Dad’.” “He’s a good man.” Relevance, William? Kid hadn’t said he wasn’t (though he will procede to lol) just pointed out that some guy you meet when you’re 23 isn’t automatically your dad because of genetics. (Also aw he said please.)

That being said Riker is pretty cute here overall. And Jack’s understated wtf face when he says “I spent 2 decades watching you get cooked up before you were born” is great. What a thing to say about a guy’s parents.

“Bigger the legend the more disappointing the reality” this is about WESLEY and I’m not wrong.

Um. Did they add the DNA line after seeing all the jokes about the accent being genetic or? I’m gonna be honest it would have been better by my lights to ignore this rather than call attention to it, but I’m sure some people prefer a slightly awkward explanation to none.

Oh my god I was right he literally did say “ugh no thanks” to the whole concept of having a dad. I thought based on the delivery of “I never had one” that I was wishful thinking. This is amazing. Oh man I gotta rewatch the first two episodes with the knowledge that Jack knows exactly who this dipshit is.

Holy shit Picard you PHENOMENAL JACKASS??? Literally changed his fucking mind about whether he should have protected Jack upon learning that Jack knew who he was and hadn’t wanted to meet him??? What the absolute everloving fuck????? !!!!!!

“I think it might be time you called me Number 1” was good

Raffi and Whorf are very cute but I’m having trouble getting properly invested because I just. Don’t we should be starting from a place of her being isolated and miserable to begin with!

Mixed feelings about Beverly being a better doctor because she doesn’t over rely on fancy new tech. I mean, I like it mostly but. Hm something bugging me and I can’t put my finger on what.

Beverly completely ignoring the CMO’s hypothetically being in charge is fantastic though because it’s both a strength (in this case she was needed!) and also an arrogance that could absolutely have led to her getting in the way and causing problems. Hope this is explored more.

She summons Jack to help her! Because they are a team! I don’t know like on the one hand it’s obvious, if nothing else probably the doctors and nurses on the ship would hesitate whether they should listen to her when she’s arguing with their boss, but the whole thing just felt like it got across so well the way they are used to relying on each other.

How is Raffi’s hood staying on while she runs? She and Whorf continue to be cute as hell.

Seven Jack teamup!! This was actually a secret item on my wishlist that I didn’t mention because it had nothing to do with themes I just really like Jack and want him to get to do cool stuff and what’s cooler than bonding with Seven? Also as far as I’m concerned this proves that that one fic is canon.

Are there going to be. Consequences later for Jack knocking out a security person or are we just skipping that? LMAO the doors though.

I really thought that guy was like, going to assume Jack was the bad guy, not that he was the bad guy? But anyway I’m ALWAYS down to whump the pretty boy. Yes please.

Curious like a proper sucker about the Seven hallucination. “Connect the branches. We’ll be together soon. Find me.” What does that mean! I also wonder if he’s picturing whatever’s going on as Seven just because actual Seven is there talking to him, or for another reason?

Hmm, okay it’s not that Picard doesn’t deserve a significant share of the blame but Will you were in command, you made the call to listen to him!

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

A little short story from Of Mutants And Monsters

“So what did this guy supposedly do?” April asked as she floated next to Casey. The team entered the recently abandoned lab to investigate.

“Well. From the reports we were given” Donnie started as he looked at his tablet. “Some of the suspected crimes of this man are-“

“They don’t need to know the specifics” Raph interrupted Donnie, knowing just how twisted some of the accusations were.

“What? Why not? You guys get to know” Mikey whined. “Me and Donnie are adults who don’t care. You three are teens that are, quote, “easy to traumatize” apparently. All you need to know is the accusations are very bad” raph responded.

“I went to high school. I’ve seen some crazy things. Some mad scientist can’t be that bad” Casey retorted.

“Yeah yeah. Whatever. I don’t care. I just don’t need middy giving me another spiel about being “insensitive”” raph stated as they started to investigate.

“Could she also give Donnie that spiel?” Mikey asked. Donnie raised an eyebrow at Mikey.

“I’m not insensitive” he responded defensively. “You’ve stabbed all of us with needle’s multiple times without warning” Casey chimed in.

“I needed blood samples” Donnie retorted. “You couldn’t ask first?” April asked.

“It’d take too long” Donnie responded. “It’d take 5 seconds!” Casey growled in annoyance.

“Exactly. Too long” Donnie finished before turning his attention to a cabinet full of chemicals.

Casey glared at the fish/turtle man. “You know it’d probably kill him” april told Casey, reading the boys thoughts.

“I know I know” Casey grumbled as he picked up a couple of crates so him and april could see if there was anything hidden under it before opening the crates.

April used all four of her arms to grab some chemicals from the crate. “What do you think would happen if I mixed these?” She asked as she looked at the chemicals.

“I wouldn’t recommend it. I tried something similar in science class once and it didn’t end well” Casey responded, opening another crate.

“How bad?” April asked, still finding the idea tempting. “It caught my dad’s attention” Casey responded.

April was confused at that response but decided to not go through with the idea.

Mikey noticed a big metal door to what looked like a giant freezer. “Wonder what’s in here” he asked to himself as he shocked the electronic lock, shorting it out and letting the door open.

Everyone in the room jumped as they heard screaming mixed with electrical shock sounds. “What is it?!” Raph asked as he ran to the freezer.

“Jesus Christ!” Casey yelled. “AHH!” April screamed as she jumped into Casey’s arms. Raphs eyes widened with slight horror as he saw what happened to the missing victims.

Donnie had a neutral expression as he walked into the freezer to collect evidence/samples.

“Ok. Time to wrap up this little field trip” Raph exclaimed with wide eyed and a fake smile as he noticed the others mortified expressions.

“I’m still in the middle of collecting samples” Donnie stated. “Don” raph gritted through his teeth as he signaled towards the others.

Donnie noticed the other three shaking and scared. “Oh come on! It’s not that bad. You don’t see humans being mortified by seeing meat lockers with cows and pigs and stuff” Donnie said.

“Donnie. LOTS of humans are freaked out by meat lockers” raph said. Donnie rolled his eyes.

“Get” raph said as he extended his branch arms to grab Donnie and move him towards the exit.

“Fine fine” Donnie said as he left first. “Come on you three” raph said as he took Mikey by the hand to guide him out.

“How could someone do something so horrifying” april cried. Casey didn’t want to admit his fear, but he carefully hugged april closer, still holding her.

Raph looked back at them as they walked out. “You guys are gonna see stuff like this a lot so you should learn to control your reaction now if we’re gonna continue with these missions” he said to them.

“We’re gonna have to get used to this?!” Mikey asked in worry. Raph sighed.

“You don’t… you don’t really get used to it. You kinda just.. I don’t know. You kinda learn to… poker face it? You’re never gonna get used to it. It’s horrifying. You kinda just… figure out when to react to it, I guess.” He tried to explain.

He didn’t want to lie but.. he was connected to all plant life. He feels living things die everyday. It still hurts. He still thinks about it but.. well he can’t dwell on it everytime it happens so..

Maybe he wasn’t the right person to explain something like this. “Let’s just go home. Middys a lot better with verbal stuff” he said as he led them out.”

[frauleinandry]

after many months (mostly caused by dropping it temporarily to play P3P before the remake came out), i’ve finally finished persona 4. for a detailed analysis, check under the cut (note: it’s NOT spoiler free), but my ultimate feelings are.... hm. not exactly positive for reasons that both are and are not the game’s fault. while it did some things well (looking right at the culprit here), my experience was heavily tainted by the fact that i simply didn’t like a lot of the characters and humour, which is Very Bad given it’s a character/”humour” driven game. ultimately, i’d have to give it a 4/10. 

okay, so, i’m gonna start off with the reason I didn’t enjoy P4 that much that wasn’t the game’s fault. as with persona 3 and 5 i didn’t go into it blind, and this is the only time that mattered. look, i love murder mysteries - in fact, it’s the only ‘realistic’ genre i consistently like. that, however, is because i enjoy the guessing game. so, knowing that adachi was the killer from the get-go sapped a lot of the fun out of it. 

while i’m on the topic of the genre, while P4 is a murder mystery game, it’s also a slice-of-life one to a far greater degree than 3 and 5. that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though I admit it’s a genre I find boring in of itself without other stuff included. slice-of-life is like romance to me - it spices up a pre-existing meal, but I’ve got no interest in eating a mouthful of raw cinnamon. still, i don’t mind slice-of-life moments... with characters i actually like. which, does not include the investigation team. i’ll talk about that last though, as the characters are definitely the thing I’ve got the most to say about.

instead, let’s move on to the gameplay. admittedly if i’d played FES instead of P3P my opinions here would probably be different, but… P3P was better, honestly. don’t get me wrong, being able to choose what skills are inherited in persona fusion is a godsend, but the quest system and the way social links are handled both suck ass. the fact that all the TV dungeon quests require backtracking is baffling to me. who the hell thought that was a good idea? i could barely tolerate doing the dungeons once, let alone crawling through them multiple times. suffice to say, i did not do many quests.

secondly, the social links. in royal and P3P i managed to complete all but one link on my first playthroughs, but by the time i’d finished golden, there were 4 links I hadn’t completed (despite the fact that the game goes until february), not including the two branching ones. the fact that there are no gifts to minimise hold-out ranks sucks, and the night hangouts are too random and limited to compensate for it. my least favourite thing though was how you can basically only level up one social link on a rainy day. In fact, rainy days were just awful in general. the fact that you can do nothing but fish and level up stats is one of the most baffling game design choices ever. like, gameplay limitations that increase atmosphere are fine, but there are far too many rainy days for them to feel anything but tedious.

speaking of atmosphere though, one positive thing about P4 was that the soundtrack slapped! while I think P5 has better dungeon/battle themes, the overworld ones in P4 are brilliant. probably my favourite in the series as a matter of fact - heartbeat heartbreak and backside of the TV were the highlights. also, i think the december fog easily did the pre-climax disturbing atmosphere thing the best. the nyx cult felt very shoehorned in and was ultimately irrelevant, and everyone giving up free will in P5 happened too quickly to have much effect. meanwhile, the whole thing with the gas masks and the illness and the changed overworld in P4... it was fantastic, honestly.

still, while the game’s atmosphere was good in parts, thematically speaking, it was a mess. while they could have taken in further, rebellion is a huge core tenant in P5, and P3′s theme of parting is so well executed it makes up for the game’s simple plot/threadbare lore. meanwhile, P4 was just kind of a mess. 

so, the two core themes are “it’s worth facing the truth even if it's painful”, and “having bonds and connections allows one to prosper”. already, the first problem should be obvious. there are two themes instead of one - neither of which are simple topics. as a result, both of them are underdeveloped and poorly executed. the truth theme is introduced first and is reflected in the TV dungeons/investigation team plot, but is pretty much absent from the social links. instead, the social links are all focused around the second theme - namely, connecting to others. the problem is that theme isn’t introduced into the main plot until the very endgame, so as a result, the social links feel very disconnected from the main story. 

eventually, the game tries to wrap both themes together in the izanami/hollow forest arc, but by then it’s too late and it just feels like izanami’s trying to do two things at once, instead of having one cohesive goal. ultimately, I think P4 would have been served far better if the central theme was “reaching out to others is hard/scary, but it’s only by human connection that we grow”, with the truth stuff minimized. after all, adachi’s refusal to integrate with people is a key component of his misanthropy, while namatame wouldn’t have done nearly so much damage if he’d had dialogue with people instead of making a wild assumption about how the TV world worked.

speaking of izanami, holy shit!! i owe an apology to yaldabaoth P5 now - i thought he was poorly integrated into the main story, but at least he actually was. unless you go out of your way to deliberately ignore the game’s prompts, you just... never encounter her, and honestly, that’s probably the better way to play the game - i’ve never experienced a final boss that felt so shoehorned in in my life. there are literally two lines of foreshadowing for her existence, and That’s It. 

generally speaking, the lore was pretty weak, but then again, it probably was a step up from P3, so yay, progress...? on the complimentary side though, I think the TV dungeons are a super interesting idea - i love the whole having to face yourself to unlock your persona thing. admittedly, I think palaces on the whole execute the same idea better, due to the presence of cognitions and the way continued exploration reveals more about the ruler, buuuuuut palaces wouldn’t exist if the TV dungeons didn’t. so yeah, they don’t lose that many points for that. 

this seems like a good time to segment into talking about the investigation team/characters in general. as individuals, I like most of the team. chie and kanji are funny, naoto and kanji (again) get interesting development, and yukiko’s neat, even if she’s woefully underdeveloped. rise admittedly does nothing much for me (I find her aggressive simping for the protagonist utterly tedious, and I don’t like the way her more withdrawn side was dropped post joining the team), but eh. that’s just me. 

speaking of yukiko/kanji/naoto, i know a lot of people are annoyed with the generally collectivist messages behind their arcs, but honestly? i don’t mind it. my opinions might have been different pre-covid, but in the wake of that, I think that sometimes people need to do shit they don’t necessarily want to for the sake of others (*cough* masking *cough*). i know yukiko staying at the inn pissed a lot of people off, but I don’t think that in of itself is problematic. it would have been better if the reporters were introduced at rank 5 of her social link, and the latter half was about her choosing to support her family because she wants to, but ultimately that’s a minor gripe.

moving on to naoto and kanji, or to be more specific, their queercoding/the controversy drummed up by that. given the game came out in 2008, there was no way in hell naoto was ever going to be trans. while I think their shadow confrontation is absolutely written that way, it clearly wasn’t intentional on the side of the writers - I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even know what a trans person was back then. i understand why people are upset about it, but... it simply wasn’t a realistic expectation. i think their arc is less an example of intentional bigotry, and more of an example of a bunch of cishet writers accidentally stepping on a landmine.

if the game ever got a remake, I do think it’d be neat if naoto was portrayed as transmasc, or their shadow wasn’t about them feeling uncomfortable with their gender, and more about them being fine with being female, but feeling forced to hide it to fit in and get the respect of their male peers.

kanji, meanwhile? he’s fine. like i said before, P4 is not a recent game. korra simply holding asami’s hand was a humungous deal, and that was aired over seven years after P4′s release. it’s amazing they even got away with implying kanji might be same-sex attracted in the first place. not to mention, his character arc isn’t really about his sexuality? it’s about him learning not to use aggression to cover up his insecurities. which, again, isn’t a bad message?

at the same time though, there are major characters who i disliked the writing for in this game - namely teddie, and my most hated character of all, yosuke. christ on a bike, he’s the humanoid embodiment of everything i dislike about P4.

so, stepping away from yosuke and towards the game’s writing on the whole, you can absolutely tell this was released in the early 2000s, and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible. while P3 and P5 have a few jokes that hit the wrong way, they’re thankfully limited (and most of them feel OOC in P5 anyway). conversely, as a more slice-of-life focussed game, there are a lot more “comedic” scenes in P4, and dear god, they are all trash. sorry, but I don’t get what’s so funny about homophobic comments and constant goddamn sexual assault. it wasn’t funny back then, and it ain’t funny now. this isn’t even some trite accidental pervert shit - i cannot think of a single comedic scene that didn’t involve the male characters actively going out of their way to sexually harass the girls. like, flirting badly is fine. groping, peeping, and constantly leering is not. i cannot describe how deeply this shit is entrenched in the game’s DNA - over 60% of P4 is just... that.

stepping back to yosuke (and to a lesser degree teddie), one of his main roles is to be the instigator of these garbage excuses for jokes, which completely sours me on his entire character. this sucks, as a) his social link exploring his relationship with saki is genuinely really good, and b) he’s the deuteragonist and is therefore around all the bloody time. i know some people use the whole “he was initially designed as a romance option” thing to dismiss this, but nah. that content was cut. his actions don’t come off as an internalised homophobia thing, just him being a jerk. it doesn’t help that he never grows out of it too - if he was written like say, sokka, who starts off being gross but gets better over time, that’d be fine, but he’s not. yosuke starts the game as an awful sex pest, and finishes as one. pass.

the problem with yosuke being so hateable is that it completely ruins the investigation team’s dynamic on the whole. one of the crits I saw about P5 from older fans is that the phantom thieves didn’t feel like friends. if you’re comparing them to the investigation team though, i’ve got to ask what you’ve been smoking. chie and yukiko are friends. kanji and naoto are friends. all the girls tolerate each other, but beyond that... these people treat each other awfully, and not just in a joking banter way. 

moving away from the investigation team and on to the greater cast, most of them are... pretty mid, honestly (admittedly my experiences with P3P make me think that the non-plot social links were all pretty bad pre-P5). dojima isn’t dreadful I guess, but he’s blown out of the water by his successor sojiro in every way possible. nanako is good - i don’t care for kid characters on the whole, but she really contributes a lot to P4′s soul. her relationship with the MC is a huge part of the game’s backbone. marie on the flipside is just annoying - while the hollow forest is really touching, her base personality comes off as... unnatural, I guess? like, she feels like several anime tropes stuck together, not an actual human being. 

i’m gonna finish this off with a bang though, and talk about the one character I absolutely loved. surprise - it’s adachi! sympathetic villains are good and all that, but sometimes I just want to see a guy who’s genuinely just a bad dude. and adachi is a bad dude in very realistic way. the entitlement. the immaturity. the pettiness. his goals and motives suck, but they suck in a way that feels both in character and more importantly, like something someone would actually do. like, bad people irl don’t tend to be mass-murdering cultists or whatever. they tend to be entitled people who think their needs and comfort trump everyone else’s. 

it also helps that he’s just a fun character in general. compared to the other major non-sympathetic human persona villains, adachi blows them out of the water. strega and ikutsuki are woefully underdeveloped, and shido feels like an obstacle, not a human being. adachi on the other hand is both hateable and genuinely entertaining to watch. if P6′s villain takes after him, i’d be more than happy.

[mountswhore]

hey! see u were taking requests so i wanted one with mason related to "london boy" by taylor swift? maybe reader is a singer or something like that?

one of the best taylor swift songs imo, so of course!

𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐲 — mason mount

summary: mason shows you around london during your break, and now you don't think you can ever go back

notes: requests are open again! my asks are open.

Leaving your hometown in New York to visit the world was one of the hardest things you had to do. But you had your dream job, now it was time to follow it. Your recent album was a success, pouring your heart into it as you recovered from your breakup. Your fans had watched your relationship build, and then break apart. Hearing your side of things through 14 songs. Awards, interviews, and traction had come from it, earning you a world tour. It was a scary thing to do, considering it was your first international tour.

“I just want to come back to New York already, I’ve not been on this tour long.” You complained to your sister, curled up in a hotel bed in London. Your first destination was the UK, and there was nothing worse than being homesick.

“Quit being a baby, the UK is so nice.” Your sister replied, chuckling shortly afterwards. “Me and dad visited Manchester, I think? Very nice looking, at least where we stayed.” You sighed, knowing that didn’t make it any easier. You loved your cosy apartment in New York, you were even starting to miss the constant traffic sounds and arguing in the early hours of the morning.

“I guess, and I know London is nice, at least. I think I’m gonna interact with some fans,” you decided, pulling the duvet further up your body, “speak tomorrow at sound check.” You ended the call, liking some tweets and replying to a few things, eventually tweeting something of your own.

“Happy to see a lot of my UK fans tomorrow, can’t wait to scream my feelings out with you,” Declan read out, giving Mason a cheeky look. The pair of them were in Mason’s living room, enjoying their evening of FIFA. The boys had spoken about you plenty of times, in interviews too, Mason declaring you as his celebrity crush.

“Shut up already, she probably doesn’t even know who I am.” Mason stated, resting his arm over his eyes to conceal the blush on his face. Him, Declan and a few other boys were going to your concert tomorrow night, some of the WAGs suggested it as they loved your music.

“You think she’s not going to notice a blue tick in her dm’s? It’s worth a shot.” Declan encouraged his friend to shoot his shot, close to grabbing his phone and doing it himself, but instead he was watching Mason bashfully scroll through your twitter replies. “Do it, or I will.”

Mason sighed, clicking the reply button and typing out a reply, handing the phone to Declan to review. ‘Can’t wait, wanna see you.’

“Perfect,” Declan mumbled, pressing the reply button for him. He knew Mason never would, he just saved him 20 minutes of back and forth debate. Handing Mason his phone back, Declan smirked as he watched his friend's face change from fairly embarrassed, to shocked.

“There’s no fucking way you sent that.” Mason remarked, refreshing his phone to see his tweet attract likes. “You dick.”

Declan just laughed as Mason had turned completely red, watching the likes and replies collect under his tweet. Moments later, you’d appeared in his dm’s.

‘I recognise you.’

It was an ominous message from you, one that had you pacing and replaying the creepy message over and over again. But Mason smiled at the message, all ounces of worry leaving his body as he replied to you.

‘Oh yeah? From where?’

‘Actually, I think I recognise your teammate, Pulisic. He’s all my brother talks about sometimes. But all I know is that he plays for a soccer team.’

He laughed at your reply, Declan watching over in pure disbelief.

‘You have a lot to learn about the UK, and luckily I know all about it.’

‘I’ll hold you to that, come backstage after the show, bring whoever you’re with. I’m in London for the next few days before my next show, maybe you can show me around.’

“There’s no way you’re flirting with Y/N Y/L/N within two minutes of replying to her tweet.” Declan stated, Mason smirking at his best friend before sending another reply.

‘Bet.'

Your show was now over and you were anxiously waiting for the boys to be escorted back stage. You didn't know much about football, especially over here, but you knew the boys that were coming back stage were professionals. You'd learnt their names, Declan, Jack, and Mason. Jack and Declan brought their girlfriends along, but Mason was 'painfully single', as he put it.

Finally, as you sat down in your chair to relax, you heard a knock at the door. It was them. They had all filed in, the two girls in shock that they were meeting you. You'd given them all a hug, and gotten to Mason. He looked down at you as you pulled him in, squeezing you tightly before letting you go again.

"Did you guys enjoy it?" You asked, ushering them to the couch for them to sit down. You wanted them to feel as comfortable as possible, rushing over to your dressing room fridge and pulling out some drinks.

"It was amazing," Sasha gawked, still in awe over seeing you for the first time, "we saw you have one in Birmingham in a few weeks, so we're going to that one too." You blushed, returning to your seat opposite the couch.

"That's so sweet! I'm sure I can get you some good tickets, I'll dm you on Instagram or something." You suggested to her, Sasha eagerly nodding her head. You conversed with the group of five, Mason giving you a particular look that you had mirrored back to him. You planned on getting his number, and making sure he showed you around London.

Soon enough, the group was heading back to wherever they were staying, as it was beginning to get quite late. "Thank you guys for coming, and I'm so glad I met you."

Mason stayed behind, folding his arms and sharing a smirk with you as his friends voices trailed down the hallway. "So, about this bet."

"Yeah," you replied casually, grabbing your water bottle from the table and taking a sip, being in the presence of an attractive man again was giving you quite the nerves, "I'll take your number, because I'd love to get to know London." He nodded, grabbing his phone from his jacket pocket and handing it to you.

"Perfect. See you."

You and Mason had planned your first meeting in a pub. It wasn't the classiest of places, but your plan was to get to know the UK. Mason had ordered you both a drink, guessing what you like and nailing it when you went in for a second sip and shoved a thumb up.

"So," he began, fiddling with the coaster his beer sat on, "how long are you in London for?"

"Just until Thursday, Friday morning I'm heading to Manchester." You stated, realising you only had four days with Mason, including today.

"Well, we better make the days count then." Mason declared. The pair of you spoke about his career as well as yours, talking about how different school was for the pair of you. Mason had stood up, holding his hand out for you to take, and you'd accepted it without complaint. He led you out of the pub and through the town center, gazing at the stalls set up around you. The weather wasn't so different to New York, both constantly dreary, but you were liking London so far.

On your second day together, you'd taken a cab to another town, this time to just experience the busy streets. To Mason, this was normal. For you, it was only familiar. New York was one of the busiest cities in the world, but London was different, better in every other way. You'd finished your day together, stomachs full of pub food, and in the back of a cab, rain pattering on the windows. You'd shuffled closer to Mason, placing your hand on his and squeezing. He looked at you briefly, smiling his usual smile, before quickly looking out at the street in an effort to hide his tinged cheeks.

Day three, the weather was too bad to do anything. But Mason kept you company in your hotel room. He'd taught you a bunch of British slang, laughing as your accent completely butchered them all. You'd shown him a snippet of your new song before room service had arrived. And the night ended with the pair of you collapsed in your bed, tv playing in the back ground, but your eyes on each other. It was like pure magic, the long-awaited feeling of his lips on yours. You'd been thinking about it all day, missing every opportunity until now.

Your final day was the worst. You both knew it was coming, you wouldn't see him until you had a break, and he had one too. You both had stupidly busy schedules, as well as living in different countries. Maybe one day you could bring him to New York, show him your side of life. And maybe one day you'll branch out and move here.

Mason had helped you carry your things out of your hotel room, which was taking you to Manchester. Your manager had texted you to be in the car before 3, which meant you had just 10 minutes until you had to say goodbye to Mason for a while.

You were stood in the foyer of the hotel, waiting for the car to arrive. You'd secretly hoped it didn't, you wanted to stay with Mason for a while longer, but you couldn't. Duty called.

"Thank you for showing me around London," you spoke, looking up at Mason, who was hiding his deflated feelings, "I really enjoyed it, I might even prefer it to New York."

"That's a given. I'm here." He joked, in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. These four days had been immense fun for him, different to how he usually spent his days. Different than night at home alone, different than a night on the town. Was it too soon to say he missed you?

Mason looked down at you as you clung to his side, hoping he felt the same way you did. And he did, you just didn’t know that. His fingers slid across your jaw slowly, pulling your chin up to look at him. It was an intense moment, so many different emotions. He’d leaned in and kissed you, it was his parting gift. To say that he’d see you soon enough.

“Enjoy Manchester, I’m sure I can fit another show in somehow.” Mason spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” You spoke, the car pulling up outside. He’d dragged your suitcases out to the car, popping them in the boot for you. Finally, he stared at you through the window, which you quickly rolled down. “I fancy you, is that the right term?”

Mason laughed, head tipping back slightly. “Yeah, it is. And I fancy you too.”

[rayshippouuchiha]

Fic Idea free to a Good Home(s)

Since I've been thinking way too much about Team Seven again and how they could've been so much more than an echo of an older generation's mistakes, have a branching off point that I'll never use to its full potential.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In another time and space, Sakura gets out of the Wave mess practically unscarred. In another time, Sasuke gets paralyzed and knocked out protecting his teammate. In another space, Naruto pulls his punch and shows mercy. In another time and space, Kakashi puts his hand through yet another chest and helps a former enemy. *** In this time and space, Sakura's a little too slow to duck or not as cowardly to flinch. Maybe, in this time and space, Zabuza is a little wilder, a little less concerned with control when dealing with little brats. Whatever it is, it costs Sakura an eye. *** In this time and space, Haku's aim is a little off or maybe his throw is a little too strong but whatever it is, Sasuke dies. *** In this time and space, Naruto's heart beats deaddeaddead. In this time and space, he knows the first real embers of rage and hatred, and an orange haze covers him. *** In this time and space, Sasuke activates his Sharingan and lies dead on the half-finished bridge. Maybe it's because he has Hatred in his Uchiha blood. Maybe it's because of the eternal soul filling the cracks in his like spiritual kintsugi. Maybe it's just random happenstance. Whatever it is, the orange haze leeches into him and covered by sounds of battle and heartbroken, rage-filled grief, Sasuke gasps. *** (in this time and space, Kakashi breaks a little at the feeling of the Kyuubi, at the scream of Sasuke!, at the already heavy knowledge of Sakura's lost eye, and he, like his students, changes irrevocably.) ********

After the battle, after Gatou, after all the thanks, they sit in a circle in Tazuna's home, silently staring at each other. Sakura with her bandage-covered eye, Naruto with his darker, sharper nails, Sasuke with his orange-rimmed Sharingan, and Kakashi with failure a familiar taste on his tongue. *** It's Naruto who finally breaks the silence.

(of course it is, he's always had to make noise to be noticed, always had to pick himself up and raise his head with determination and a I-dare-you attitude aimed at the universe)

"I'm going to protect all of you."

He's flexing his fingers, still staring at his nails, watching them grow and shrink; and he looks up at Kakashi and then Sakura and, finally, Sasuke. "I'm gonna become strong enough this never happens again."

More silence and Kakashi feels like he's drowning, floundering. What's he supposed to do with something like that? With those eyes daring him to contradict? (but what if?)

Naruto's gaze switches to Sakura, clearly zeroing in on the bandage before he looks her in the eye, and something is clearly exchanged because Sakura's spine straightens, something like steel flashing in her eye, before she looks at Kakashi with her "sweet, harmless, civilian girl" look. She tilts her head to the side and pulls her headband to slant across her face, covering the bandage. "We can match, ne, sensei?"

And all of their attention turns to Sasuke. Sasuke whose fists are clenched. Sasuke who's staring at the floor, slight tremors racing through him. Kakashi almost holds his breath because this, this moment, is where things can start to change for Sasuke. "I have to kill him." A long pause. "I have to." Another pause before Sasuke looks up, Sharingan blazing, and Kakashi has to wonder what the Kyuubi did to it and what that orange ring means for the future of the bloodline. "But," and Sasuke looks from Kakashi to Sakura before locking eyes with Naruto, "I guess, it'll be easier with help."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Personally, I was thinking that Sasuke's changed Sharingan can see malice (maybe not at first but at full power?) but if someone picks this up, you're free to do whatever you want :D

Also, I probably would've gone with an infiltration/espionage/sabotage trained Team Seven instead of a front-line heavy-hitting team but, again, that's just me xD (please! if someone has recs, I'm starving.

But yeah, if anyone gets inspired, run wild and free :)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

hi yes im still alive

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST--

HAVING A MOMENT TO PROCESS ALL THE LORE AND STORY CHAPTER 6 JUST DROPPED ON US, I CAN BARELY WRITE

AHHHHHHH, I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS 😭 kjdbbaufbiafafvoaybo LEMME PUT ON MY THINKING CAP AND THROW SOME STUFF OUT ASDYUBUASDLI;AGVUOQIB;VI You’ll understand why I used Leona’s face here even though it’s Idia and Ortho’s chapter after you read my thoughts--

***Chapter 6 (and other main story) spoilers below the cut!***

Okay, just to keep it simple, I’ll try to keep things in chronological order!

First is a bullet point list of my thoughts on chapter 6 so far, then all my questions and theories (mostly a biggish theory on Ace) are at the end of the post.

Expectation: Idia cowering in his room, Vil and Rook busting down his door using Epel as a battering ram, dead Ortho theory confirmed

Reality: SWAT TEAM RAID ON NRC, DORM LEADERS (sans Kalim) AND JAMIL GET KIDNAPPED

Admittedly, I’m disappointed to see that the injury Grim inflicted to MC was basically just a cat scratch and nothing more. I thought it would be a lot more impactful if MC had to deal with juggling the realization that Grim has betrayed their friendship and trust while also on the verge of death (or at least while being severely injured)... And given how MC reacted to the attack at the end of chapter 5, I would think whatever struck them was much more substantial than just a cat scratch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say either the script got scrubbed by Disney, or the intent was that MC was still woozy from VDC / OB Vil, MC felt so betrayed that it shook them emotionally, or that MC was just that weak by default that they can’t defend themselves against cat claws.

Hey, Ramshackle’s finally getting renovated! Proceeds to immediately get destroyed again--

I feel like????????? They tried to retroactively explain why Neige won to try and mitigate the uproar over how VDC ended. There’s some dialogue between the VDC group about how they didn’t perform at their peak because of having just walked out of dealing with OB Vil, and how Neige’s fans were going to vote for him anyway because they resonated with his background. Honestly, I think they should have moved on from that sore spot instead of bringing it up again, even if how chapter 5 ended didn’t personally bother me.

BOOM, HERE COME THE TWST TERMINATORS--

NOT GONNA LIE, THOSE STYX GUYS LOOK HOT SO COOL

AAAAAAND IT’S KIDNAPPING MONTAGE TIME, KIDS

JOABSFHUPAUABDBADB CALM DOWN, RIDDLE??????? YOU’RE GOING TO COMMIT ARSON IN BROAD DAYLIGHT--

Okay, I know this chapter’s focused on Ignihyde and Grim, but the standout part to me (so far) has been the scene where Leona’s being kidnapped. Historically, Leona has not been a character that I like (excluding that one time I had to pretend to like him for a game). I feel like he’s one massive missed opportunity (he didn’t show up much in chapter 2, he’s pretty similar backstory-wise to his Disney counterpart compared to the other Dorm Leaders, he didn’t seem to learn anything or become a better person even a LITTLE after chapter 2, etc.). I’m not a fan of his lazy and arrogant attitude either (even if it is justified by his backstory). But here? THIS IS THE LEONA I ACTUALLY LIKE AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF. 

LIKE????? I CAN’T DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW MUCH I LIKE THIS SCENE???? Yeah, we have Leona fighting STYX at first, but as soon as he realizes who they are, he wises up and surrenders because he knows better than to resist arrest. AND NOT ONLY THAT, but he uses King’s Roar in a smart way--to turn the falling greenhouse glass panes into sand so they don’t hurt anyone nearby (namely him and Ruggie).

And after he turns himself in????? LEONA TELLS RUGGIE TO TAKE CARE OF SAVANACLAW FOR HIM!!! THIS is what a real leader would do. He looks after himself and his people, but he knows when to surrender, AND he leaves his “kingdom” (the dorm) in good hands while he’s away. THIS is the Leona I want to see.

AJBDUASHPFBUABFIABIYFBIPFAAFIAF I ALSO REALLY LIKE HIS SASS WHEN HE JUST THROWS HIS HANDS UP AND ASDBIASBIABAIODDAYOFAIPPADAIDB SAYS “I’ll go with you, but be careful while escorting me, okay? Despite my looks, I'm a precious prince. I’ll get sick/dizzy if you drive recklessly.” SARCASTIC SASSY SMARTASS??????? IF YOU HAD MORE LINES LIKE THIS, I’D LIKE YOU MORE

I love how Azul’s still talking about capitalism/how he can profit from Idia (apparently the Shrouds are like the TWST equivalent of Google??????) as he’s being escorted away by the agents?????? IF I WERE HIM, I’D BE PISSED OFF THAT THEY INTERRUPTED MY BOARD GAME????? At least let the man finish first--

Damn, everyone’s being tasered???????? And apparently all the STYX agents are equipped with anti-magic plates? I guess Bind the Heart can just eat shit then--

Lilia’s ringtone is cute, period.

CROWLEY CALLED STYX TO CAPTURE GRIM???? GRIM IS OFFICIALLY A SCP THAT NEEDS TO BE CONTAINED????

WAIT WHAT CROWLEY’S BEING KIDNAPPED TOO??????? Oh well, the school is probably safer in Trein’s hands anyway--

askhlbfbilhidbabbidasb RIDDLE WAKES UP POST KIDNAPPING AND HE’S USING LEONA AS A LAP PILLOW?????!

How does it feel to be held in a room against your will, Jamil? Yeah, don’t like a taste of your own medicine, do you?

OH HI IDIA, NICE YZMA MAD SCIENTIST GETUP YOU GOT THERE

Wait, what????? THAT’S IT?????? SERIOUSLY???????

MAN.

I have so many questions??????? Specifically about STYX and what they do, and how the Shrouds are tied into all of it.

So they say STYX is a specialized unit called in to quell serious Overblot cases. And if Crowley called them to deal with Grim... well, bad times ahead for Grim. STYX has also been studying Overblot for a long time, which is why (I think?) they captured Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil, and Vil. 

There’s been some allusions made between Grim and Stitch in a lot of fan art and fan theories I’ve seen, since their struggles have some parallels: that being them struggling to decide if they are “good” or “bad”. I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of the TWST writing team, but regardless, it’s a really good concept that plays into the themes of TWST itself. There’s no good, there’s no evil, no black and white--most of the characters we see may be BASED on villains, but that doesn’t MAKE them villains. They are good, and bad, in their own ways--and now Grim is dealing with that crisis as he fights to keep his sanity and avoid completely succumbing to Overblot.

Though Idia seems to be involved with STYX’s research, it doesn’t sound like he personally gave the order to retrieve those test subjects (or at the very least, he’s not happy about roughing up the test subjects), it sounds like the orders came from other people in the organization. His parents, perhaps?

They mention briefly that Idia’s parents are asking him to “come home”, so it must be for something urgent. Are they worried about his safety? But Idia’s lines at the end of chapter 5 lead me to think he is estranged from his family, since he straight up rejected a job offer linked to them (Olympus Corp is owned by the Jupiter family, and the Shrouds are a branch family of Jupier), and says something like “I’m not welcome anywhere”. Has Idia done something to disgrace him from the rest of the family? Or is it more of a self imposed/self inflicted statement, given that he always says he’s “cursed” and acts like he’s guilty of something that deserves scorn?

Why is Idia participating in STYX research, even if it means experimenting on his fellow students (and fellow board game enthusiast Azul)? People are speculating that he wants to use blots to fully revive Ortho (if dead Ortho theory is true), or that Idia actually has heroic intentions (he wants to know more about blots to prevent OBing from happening?), but at this point??? Literally anything could happen?!

In future parts, I’m guessing Pomefiore, MC, and Adeuce will team up to break Jamil and the Dorm Leaders (except Malleus, Malleus got left out again www) out? And HOPEFULLY we get to see Rook’s Unique Magic or at least more screen time, since I feel like he got so little in chapter 5... Another thing I’d like to see is Ace and/or Epel getting their Unique Magic, or at least starting to develop it. It’s really mostly Ace I want more details for.

A theory I’ve been holding onto for a long time is that Deuce getting his UM will spur Ace on to become jealous (since he has always seen Deuce as an idiot/”lesser” than him), and that will cause a rift in the friendship, or for Ace to throw himself into a dangerous situation to prove himself (he has done it before with Riddle)... and has his ass rescued again. This would make Ace even angrier, since he feels like everyone is treating him like a little kid or rubbing it in that he isn’t “as good” as they are. I don’t know where it would go from there (I’m sure TWST would get creative), but ultimately it would culminate in Ace making amends with everyone and rushing in to save them from either Grim or Idia OB.

I don’t think Ace would discover his UM in a similar manner as Deuce (Deuce had to embrace his own stubbornness and straightforwardness, but as the term “Unique” Magic implies, the way a magic develops and manifests is “unique” to the user). While Deuce has to learn to accept his own way of thinking, I believe Ace is already sure of his own way of thinking and has totally accepted it. I think what Ace has to deal with instead is coming to terms with his fickleness. We’ve seen him time and time again treating his loved ones kind of callously, from constantly bullying MC, Grim, and Deuce to ghosting his own girlfriend and flaking on people when they are counting on him to do a task.

The issue with Ace isn’t that he isn’t aware, it’s that he is aware and he seems to think this behavior is totally okay. He demonstrates little to no remorse in what he does and says, and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequences either (how many times does he get punished by Riddle, yet he keeps doing the same dumb things over and over?). Ace appears to operate under the mindset of always being in the right, or (if he’s in the wrong), he won’t really acknowledge it, or he will wave it off as “no big deal”--and I think that’s his greatest weakness.

In the scenario I described earlier, I mentioned that Ace’s jealousy will cause a wedge between him and his friends, and I think this will play into him realizing the error of his ways. When he has finally driven away all of the people that supported him, what will he have left? Nothing. Then maybe Ace suddenly finds himself relating to Idia, or to Grim, who have Overblotted and are in a similar emotional state as he is. Confused and lonely... and that energizes him to pitch in again, even if all he has is wind magic up his sleeve. Everyone could be shocked that Ace has returned, and in that moment, he could finally realize his true potential and unlock his Unique Magic!

(Maybe that’s too specific, but that’s a scenario that I’ve had playing in my head for a long time!)

... Buuuuut given that Ace has gotten little to no spotlight so far in chapter 6, I’m not sure if they’ll lean into him developing his UM yet (unless they pull a chapter 5 and really start addressing Ace in the latter half of the chapter like they did with Deuce). Seeing as chapter 6 is dealing with a lot of heavy topics (death, Grim lore, Overblot lore), I’m thinking maybe the TWST team will push off Ace’s UM development to chapter 7???? The only way I can see it happening in chapter 6 is if the chapter is SUPER long, or if the writing is REALLY good or really bad. 

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! I’m so excited for the rest of chapter 6... I hope that we don’t have to wait too long for it!

[yelenasdog]

moving out, moving on (mitch rapp x fem reader)

genre: fluff

summary: mitch and reader are taking another step towards mitch moving on, and it’s bittersweet.

words: 2.2k

warnings: drinking wine, kinda suggestive at times, talks abt katrina, mitch being emotional, my writing being melodramatic LOL

a/n: so. this was written during an all nighter that went to 7 am where i was listening to nicki minaj and eminem (???) for a good duration of it so. i’m very sorry if this is wonky at times! i hope u enjoy either way! mwah 

🥍🥍🥍

The early morning rays streamed through thin fabric, draped above the assassin's window. Dust particles floated about, becoming visible within the section of light cast from the sun. The birds perched outside the small apartment tweeted happily from their branch, their songs beautiful. 

Though, they were quite pesterous to the pair that lay together, wrapped in gray sheets. They reveled in the heat provided by the soft blanket, but even more so by the warmth from their joint bodies.

A mop of dark brown hair stirred, bringing one hand up to softly rub his eyes with his knuckle, the other hand snaking around the waist of the woman peacefully sleeping beside him. He watched with fond eyes as she lightly groaned, rolling to face away from the invasion of bright, turning towards her love. 

Mitch smiled down at her sleepy behavior, reaching out and brushing stray hairs from her forehead. He reluctantly retracted it only moments later, forcing himself out of bed to go and prepare the two of them for their big day as best he knew how: Coffee.

His sock clad feet dragged across the hardwood as he went, his sweatpants hanging low on his hips and groggy-ness (a word Y/n had donned as her own, and Mitch had caught on to) still very prevalent in his entire system. 

The Rhode Island air was frigid this time of year, Mitch allowing a grin to break out on his face upon remembrance of two nights previous, just how cold Y/n had been in the arena of the Providence Bruins hockey team. Nose pink, donned in a beanie proudly showing the team's logo, well, he had found himself a new lockscreen.

He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of said groggy-ness, his body on autopilot as it made the beverages. He picked out her favorite mug from the cupboard (AKA a souvenir from Dubai he had picked up long ago) that she had adopted as her own, drinking out of it every time she would spend the night, almost like clockwork. He waited for his coffee beans to brew, scratching his stubble along his jaw. He flinched, though, when he felt two arms wrap around his middle. He quickly relaxed into the embrace upon realization of who the supposed assailant was, her head finding its way to rest on his bare shoulder.

“You scared me, there.” Mitch muttered, his larger hand inching towards her’s on his waist. He closed his eyes in content and she hummed in acknowledgment. Mitch allowed her to turn his figure to face her, still residing in her arms, seeing a bright smile plastered across her face.

“Only for a minute though, right?”

She laughed to which he chuckled in response, nodding in false surrender. “You’ve got me there, Y/n/n.” He mused, his eyes lighting up at the sound of the coffee machine beeping. He looked back to her, shrugging.

“I made you coffee, was gonna bring it to you in bed but, y’know.” He gestured to where she had now climbed up to sit on top of his counter, his sweatshirt around her that read “Brown University” across the front in large lettering pooling around her thighs.

“It’s alright, I need to get a move on anyway.” She smiled, hopping down to retrieve the mug, taking the warm ceramic from Mitch’s hands and sighing at the wondrous feeling that had spread through her whole body. She lifted it to her lips and drank, not surprised that her boyfriend had made it just the way she liked, to perfection. 

“Thank you, baby.” She commented, reaching up to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. Her lip curled as she pulled away, Mitch already knowing what she was going to say, a laugh bubbling up in his throat.

“Mitch! Go brush your teeth, for the love of God!” She whined, watching as he scampered off towards the bathroom, snickering all the way. She rolled her eyes, downing the rest of her beverage before following where Mitch had gone.

Once in the bathroom after rinsing her and Mitch’s mugs, she tied her hair up, undressing and turning on the water (practically scalding hot, of course). Mitch had no objections to the temperature, though, seeing as it was his last time showering with her in that apartment, and in that apartment, period. 

The whole thing felt very symbolic to Y/n, at least, seeing it as washing themselves clean for the next phase of their lives together, a sort of preparation. (Maybe not so much for Mitch, who really was just pleased for any excuse to see his girlfriend naked.)

They used generous amounts of soap, as not only were most of them nearly empty (in fact, a few were and if it weren’t for Y/n, they probably all would be), but also that they had decided to simply just buy new toiletries as a whole for their new place.

They giggled at the sight of each other, all lathered in bubbles and suds. Mitch reached a finger forward, wiping it from above her eyebrows and preventing it from falling into her eyes. Y/n brought her arms around his neck, her lips connecting with his. “Much better.” She regarded with a smirk, before leaning back in.

Nearly 40 minutes later, they both emerged from the shower, fresh faced and ready for the day ahead. He didn’t have a lot that needed to be packed up, given that his place came fully furnished, so it took all but 2 hours and 5 boxes to pack up Mitch Rapp’s life. It honestly might have taken even longer than originally would have been needed, as Y/n would stop every time she found something interesting, allowing Mitch to tell her all about whatever stories had been connected to the item.

It had started with the ridiculous bird lamp that sat on his bedside table, once belonging to Mr. Nazir, and ended with his lacrosse stick. (And, a promise that one day, he’d show her how to play. He swore he’d never seen her smile that big.)

They also threw away and donated a lot, some of Kat’s old stuff bringing a pained smile to his face as he would place it in a box simply labeled “Kat” in messy, thick letters. He wasn’t sure if the box would end up in his new closet, covered in dust and unopened, or back with her family. But either way, he wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to her completely, which Y/n was able to understand.

“Mitch? Did you pack away your coats already?” Y/n called out, opening up the closet near the front door. Her breath slightly hitched in her throat upon seeing all of the photos of Mansur, still pasted to the painted wood, the edges curling up. 

“Nah, not yet, I was gonna handle that while you worked on the cupboards” He responded, busying himself with a text from Irene on his phone wishing him good luck. He looked up and saw what she had been asking about, his phone quickly sliding into his pocket as he made his way over to where she stood, visibly distressed. 

“How long have these been here?” She questioned, feeling Mitch’s arms wrap around her shoulders. She brought her hands up to grasp onto his wrists, leaning backwards into him and biting into her lip.

“Since the beach, when I decided to go after Mansur. When everything happened with the CIA, it was kind of a whirlwind, I didn’t really have enough time to even think about taking it down when I was only even here for hours at a time.” He lightly chuckled, watching as she stepped forward and began to take the pictures down, crumbling them up in her hands. 

She ran her fingertips over the indents left in the door, feeling the splinters against them. She turned back to Mitch, quipping how “Mr. Nazir won’t be too pleased about that.” 

He smiled, joining her in taking all of the images down, ripping them or balling them up in his fists. All of them ended up in one of the old Target bags they had been using for trash, filling up an entire bag (minus a few Dunkin cups sitting at the bottom).

Mitch trailed a few tender kisses down the left side of her next, and though it sounds cheesy, a feeling of hopefulness flooded himself out of most of the bitterness that had been stuck inside for so long. 

She turned her head to catch his lips with her own, and smiled into the kiss, her hand finding the back of his head. She lightly tugged on the chocolate colored strands and he groaned in content, to which her grin only widened. She pulled back, ruffling the top of his head before beginning to pack away the remnants of what was left in the closet. He rolled his eyes, following suit.

They had piled all of the boxes into the back of Mitch’s old decommissioned CIA vehicle (which was obvious that is was such, given that the side was littered with bullet holes and metallic scratches), returned the key to Mr. Nazir (who was glad to see Mitch go), and with that, they were off.

The new place wasn’t too far away, the pair taking a page out of Stan’s book and opting for a wonderful sense of privacy. It was nestled in a rural corner of Massachusetts, where Mitch would be able to come home to a sense of serenity. Y/n had already moved in her possessions, Mitch’s items being the last step. They’d also furnished the cozy cabin, trips to IKEA and Urban Outfitters (along with several other over-priced boutiques) making the place feel like a perfect fit for the couple.

Mitch’s strange and varied knick knacks made the house feel like a home, his lacrosse stick finding a new home by the front door, right under a hanging potted plant that Y/n and Mitch had decided to affectionately name “Charles” after a drunken night watching the X-Men movies. The house was littered in plants such as Charles, in fact, with Mitch’s first response to seeing all of them being “Wow, looks like a greenhouse in here.”

(Still, he’d grown to love the plant babies. Trust me.)

Two tired smiles made their ways to their faces as they both sat on their new sofa, admiring a job well done. Though several boxes still lay on the hardwood, unopened, they felt accomplished enough to pull out a bottle of wine that they had been saving for the occasion. It was an early housewarming gift from Stan, to which they were unprepared to take advantage of, it seemed.

“Baby, did we unpack the wine glasses earlier?” Mitch questioned, his mind slightly foggy of the day's events and early start.

“No, I think they’re still packed up.” She replied, to which Mitch’s eyes lit up, an idea forming and an imaginary lightbulb popping up over his head. He got up from his seat, a wide smile spreading across his face. Her expression mirrored his own, with an added quirked brow at his antics.

“I’ve got a solution, wait here.” Mitch responded, padding over to where he had remembered the new home of the mugs to be. Upon realization of what he was doing, Y/n smiled, rolling her eyes and bringing a hand up to run through her roots.

He shuffled back over moments later, his girlfriend recognizing one of the mugs in his hands as her favorite. He sat down next to her, with the bare skin of her thighs touching his own, jean clad. He bumped his knee to hers with a giggle, pouring out the Pinot Grigio into the mugs. 

She gratefully accepted it as it was handed to her, smiling as she took a sip. Mitch did the same, the two of them leaning back into the soft sofa. Y/n brought her legs up, cuddling into his side and absorbing his warmth. He brought his free hand to her side, a strong hold giving them both a strong sense of comfort as she lay her head on his shoulder.

The box labeled “Kat” remained unpacked along with the others on the floor, dust already beginning to gather. Mitch had come across it a few times that day, each time more thoughtful than the last as he struggled to decide what it was exactly he was feeling towards the objects; or perhaps towards the memory of Katrina.

He had come to realize that it was acceptance he felt, deep in his stomach, settling down. It had been brought upon him in totality over time, today’s events being the final step. A soft smile spread across Mitch’s face, a single tear falling from his eye. Y/n looked up, eyebrows furrowed with worry.

“Mitch, are you alright?”

He leaned down, connecting their lips in a watery yet nectarous kiss, his hand beginning to rub small circles on her shoulder. 

“Yeah, Y/n/n.” 

The fire they had built earlier was roaring, now, casting a warm glow across the pair’s features. The damp trail down his cheek was highlighted, nearly glistening on his skin like an amber. 

“I’m doin’ just fine.”

🥍🥍🥍

ok btw ik that wine in mugs would be a horrible idea but this is fiction so SHUSH

anyway i hope yall enjoyed! i love writing for mitch and i have lots of future fics for him, so if u liked this, please reblog and follow if ya wanna. mwah, go drink water and have some protein <333

 xx hj

[thefanficmonster]

Filterless

Corpse Husband x Plus-sized Reader (Female)

Warnings: Body Image Insecurities, Low self-esteem, Swearing

Genre:  Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Feeling comfortable in her skin has hardly ever been the case for Y/N who’s been struggling with body image issues all her life. However, they only get worse when she sees the ‘type’ of girls her crush is into.

Requested by Anon. Hi darling! Thank you so much for your request (hits close to home 😅) I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to fulfill it and post it but here it finally is and if you’ve stuck around long enough to read it, I hope you enjoy! ALSO! - Never forget how beautiful and amazing you are. Never compare your beauty to someone else’s. We’re all beautiful people and we all shine so brightly and uniquely. No one deserves to be compared to anyone when we’re all so different yet so incredible. Love you and appreciate you with all my heart, Vy ❤

If I ever need my ego taken down a few notches - it never does, it’s barely even present, to be honest - all I have to do is go on Instagram. To be honest, regardless of how I’m feeling, opening that app is bound to make my mood plummet and come crashing into the ground so hard it drives a hole in it - probably in the form of a broken heart.

Being a content creator myself, I often get asked questions about my absence on that social platform specifically. I mean, the questions are based and rational I guess, considering I’m not a faceless YouTuber and yet my Instagram account is void of any photos. It’s not like I don’t post at all - I do! I post on my story often but it’s more often than not scenery I find pretty or a poster I’ve made for a movie/video game. Bottom line is: I barely ever allow a picture of me to make it online. The most my fans are ever gonna get of me is a selfie which is also a super rare occurrence because of how long it takes me to take and choose one I don’t hate.

Ok, but how am I supposed to find the motivation to post any sort of picture of myself when on my timeline I’m always faced with people worthy of posting pictures of themselves. People with such perfect bodies and beautiful faces. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jealous or envious of those people - good for them! They know what they’re working with and they’re working it well. I have nothing against them, in fact, I love seeing people proud of their bodies no matter their size, shape or weight. Those are my role-models: people who are proud of themselves, their bodies, their attributes and capabilities and don’t hesitate to show them off. Those are the people I look up to but, deep down inside I know I’ll never be like.

Insecure about my body, having been referred to as ‘chubby’ and ‘squishy’ all my life. Inappreciative of the stuff I do: starting from my job as a graphic designer leading towards my job on YouTube - nothing I do, professionally or otherwise, satisfies me. Nothing I do is enough in my eyes because I feel incapable of ever being able to do enough. I’ve been called lazy and a half-asser a few too many times to be able to brush it off as a meaningless insult. 

With these problems I’ve had with myself and my own perception of who I am and the work I do, I’ve never had the time for romance or romantic relationships. I second-guess the intentions of everyone who ever shows any interest in me because in my mind I’m nothing special and I have nothing to offer - nothing attractive or likable at least. That being said, I haven’t even been one to make heart eyes at others either. I busy myself with my job and some side-gigs, brushing off any relationship questions with the excuse that I’m ‘just too busy to be in a relationship’ which is technically true.

Having spent twenty plus years with that mindset, one can imagine how surprised I was when I found myself catching feelings for someone. And that someone just couldn’t be any other than the biggest YouTube sensation at the moment - Corpse Husband.

I’m close friends with Poki - her and I were roommates at one point too - so her inviting me to play Among Us with them wasn’t so strange. One or two games, I thought, nothing unusual there, just friendly curtesy. I wasn’t expecting to warm up to the group of famous streamers nor did I expect them to welcome me among them so easily, mostly because my channel is so small and practically invisible to the YouTube algorithm. But soon enough, I became a permanent member of the team, making friends with every single one of those YouTubers I practically thought of a celebrities.

This journey of branching out to other content creators has proven itself to be surprisingly pleasant and has packed my book of friendships to the brim. All of that came unexpectedly, along with a wave of new subs and a higher view count. However, as I mentioned, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. I came to finally understand what my high school friends were talking about when they were head over heels for a boy - the butterflies in the stomach whenever he speaks your name; the importance of the laugh you share with him, how special and different it is; how cool it is to be impostors with him - ok they never said that, obviously, but it’s what I have as a substitute to the ‘when the two of you make eye-contact’ bullshit since Corpse and I have never seen each other in person. That is, of course, because of him being a faceless YouTuber and me being a self-conscious and insecure girl.

We do talk all the time though - texting, calling, chilling on Discord, you name it. Our conversations range from deeply philosophical to ones that might mislead someone into thinking we’re high. There’s no topic we haven’t touched upon and yet we still manage to find something new to talk about. We have plenty of similarities but we also never seem to run out of differences we slowly come across as we keep getting to know each other better and better. 

And somewhere along that journey I ended up catching feelings.

Human nature of wanting to connect with other people, I curse you for what you’ve done to me.

You might think I’m being overdramatic about the whole ordeal and that this is just a normal, natural occurrence many people experience in their life - some even daily. Well, not only am I far from used to it, but it’s also taking a toll of a different kind on me.

It’s like a constant slap to the face. 

That slap turned into a punch when Corpse and I started following each other on Instagram and I started getting daily reminders of how out of my depth I am with this crush on him. In over my head, especially when you look at all those girls whose pics and videos he reposts on his story. Imagine how that makes me feel, what that does to me - puts me back into the ‘Constantly not good enough‘ basket, the one I’ve been fighting to get out of all my life. In the past and in different contexts I could easily say that it was all just my mind hating me intensely but now - now that I know for a fact I’m not good enough and don’t fit Corpse’s criteria - it hurts ten times as much. I’m not one to do shit for someone’s attention or to attract someone’s eyes, but it really hurts my feelings. Often times, it also leads me to doing dumb things and making rash decisions. 

Like the one I made two days ago.

Imagine me cringing and shaking my head at my own stupidity as I admit this: I, in a frenzy, ordered a whole e-girl getup with overnight delivery. 

Wait, hold up, it gets worse. 

I received it yesterday and spent the whole day regretting that decision, but then, in my most insecure hours - which was somewhere around midnight - I equipped the get-up, took a picture and posted it on my Instagram page. First full body pic I’ve ever posted on there. First pic I’ve posted there of any kind. There to stay, not to be gone in twenty four hours. First pic, and it’s not even of me. It’s of who I want to be in order to fit someone’s criteria. And that fucking stings.

As you might imagine, I’ve spent today’s day regretting that decision as well. Recently my mood’s been nothing but regretting rash decisions that have surfaced under the influence of my ridiculous, constantly-present insecurities. And I would’ve probably gotten over it rather quickly had I not received a message from Corpse that read:

“Didn’t think of you with an e-girl aesthetic“

I didn’t open the message, I peeped at it as it was a notification on my lock screen. It’s still there, an unread notification. It’s been two hours since I received it and I cannot think of a single thing to say in response to that. 

Truth is, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of so many things right now.

I’m afraid of becoming that girl in the photo, cause I’m most definitely not her.

I’m afraid of letting Corpse down by admitting I’m not her.

I’m afraid of what my own mind has made me do because it hates me so much and I’m terrified of what it might do in the future.

I’m afraid and stranded on things to do.

You can’t be her forever, you know. Being her won’t make your insecurities go away, it’ll only make them worse. Haven’t you learned that by now?

I sigh, frustrated and irritated with myself as I grab my phone and tap on the notification, finally deciding to face the music and allow my instincts to carry me through the interaction. Improvisation, that’s one of the few things I’m good at. Let’s hope it doesn’t fail me.

I’m just about to type out my response - not sure what it’s gonna say - when I give the message Corpse has sent me a second glance.  I furrow my brows, finding there’s more to it than that peep through the notification let me see.

“Didn’t think of you with an e-girl aesthetic. You’re personality is so bright and colorful, I could’ve never imagined you were into the darks and blacks“

Because I’m not

I fail to realize until the message has been sent that my thoughts are exactly what I typed out and sent.

And honestly, I’m glad. It feels like I’ve spoken my truth, like I’ve lifted a huge boulder off my chest.

With that rare confidence in mind I go on and delete the picture.

In its spot, I post a picture I just now took - a mirror selfie in my homey get-up consisting of hot pink sweatpants and an oversized blue tee, my hair in a messy bun, my face free of make-up.

I caption it: ‘Oops, had the e-girl filter on for the last one. This is filterless me tho so...Hi 🥴’

A lot better, I’m surprised to hear my inner voice say. I hope I don’t get used to all this kindness on my brain’s part, probably won’t last, but damn if I don’t milk every second of it.

Just then, I receive a new message from non other than Corpse.

“Now that’s the girl I see when I think of you. She’s super cute 😉“

My, oh my, who would’ve guessed Corpse has a game like that - and by that I mean the ability to make me blush so intensely with only a text message.

Now ain’t that better than being someone else, Y/N?

It sure is, it sure is.

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse

[felassan]

Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source] 

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok.  What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important.  They're like sets in a play.  (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source]  Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source]  There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars]  except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves. [source]

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April