#I'm on the making train I gotta make the most of it before it disappears

[ivy-plays]

We'll be alright Ch.4

Summery:Summary: you've been married to Owen Grady as well as training a pack of velocsrapters at the New Jurassic World for two years now. So what happens when the two of you are asked to check on the paddock for a new dinosaur only for things to go sideways and send the entire park into chaos?

Warnings: blood, death, cussing, mentions of alcohol

Raiting:pg13

Paring: Owen Grady x wife!reader

Previous: Ch.3

An: heyyyyyyyyy. Guess who finally was able to write the next chapter after two months.🙃 . I'm sorry for such a long wait but my life has been really hectic lately with my job and senior year and just life in general ( I hate saying that because it's the #1 writer's excuse, but it's true lol) . Anyway! I hope you all like this chapter and I hope it was worth the long ass wait.

"Owen. " I whisper out, my voice shaking as I grab onto my husbands sleeve.

"It's in the cage! It's in the cage with you!"

"Abby what is it?" He asks as he turns around and as he does his eyes lock onto what I'm seeing.

A large white dinosaur,much larger than the t-Rex, emerges from the trees; its head hung low. Looking right at us " Run!" Owen calls out as he takes me by the hand as we begin running as fast as we can for the gate. The muscles in my legs are burning and my heart is beating rapidly with adrenaline and fear. When we got to the gait Owen hurriedly shoved me through first before following right behind me. I keep running until I'm a good 20 feet from the paddock and I watch in horror as the extremely pissed off idomanous rex begins to break and pry its way through the gap left in the gate. "Oh God" I murmur under my breath as I stand frozen where I stand.

"come on, we gotta go!" Owens voice makes me come back to my senses as the two of us began to run again but we didn't get far when the gates gave way. I drop to the ground, the sharp gravel digging into my knees and hands as I crawl under a van and Owen is quick to follow. I watch as he rolls onto his back before pulling me on top of him.

"close your mouth and eyes" he whispers as he pushes my head into the crook of his neck before I hear his pocket knife flick open. The smell of brake fluid fills my nose as Owen covers us in it , the thick liquid soaking and staining our clothes. My breath hitches and I tighten my grip on the man beneath me as loud and terrified screams fill my ears before abruptly being cut off. I'm holding my breath, and my body is completely frozen in fear when I suddenly feel a large wave of warm air blow over us. Something that should not be happening under a van. I have to stifle the whimper that falls from my lips. Owen, now taking his turn to tighten his grip on me, strong arms wrapping me in a cacoon of safety. We both hold our breath as the dinosaur nudged the van with its nose before letting out a huff of disinterest and stomping off somewhere, most likely looking for her next kill. I let out a choked and shaky breath as I felt Owen relax slightly beneath me.

"What the fuck just happened?" I eventually whisper out as I pull back to look my husband in the eyes. In his usual tranquil green eyes swam anger and something I haven't seen in a long time. Fear.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Once we gathered our bearings the two of us eventually made it back to the main building of the park. I watched as Owen barged through the doors of the central control room, me hot on his heels as we shoved past a security guard who tried to keep us out .

"What the hell happened out there?"

"sir" the security guard barked as he tried to grab Owen by the arm but he just yanked his arm away.

" There are thermal cameras all over that Paddock! She did NOT just disappear." I argue as Claire walks up to us , the rest of the control room watching the exchange.

"It must have been some technical malfunction." Claire tried to argue, but her voice sounded just as unsure as her words.

" Were you not paying attention?" Owen speaks up once more, his anger evident," she marked up that wall as a distraction. She wanted us to think she escaped."

I folded my arms across my chest, nails digging into the skin of my palms as I tried to not let my irritation get the best of me. Arguing and standing around isn't going to solve anything.

"Hold on . We're talking about an animal here " Claire huffs out, clearly annoyed about Owens and I's presence here.

" A highly intelligent animal" I retort, my pointed look meeting her own.

"400 meters to the beacon" I catch someone saying before my eyes snap up to the giant screen in the room, and I can't believe what I'm seeing.

"You're going after her with non lethals?" I grit out , my patience and composure running very thin with those who are in charge of this damn park.

Claire , who is now also watching the screen with her back towards us, continues to argue with us." We have $26 million invested in that asset. We can't just kill it" she says , her voice laced with a very matter of fact tone.

"Those men are gonna die-"

"300 meeters to the beacon"

"You need to call this mission off right now." I can hear Owen bark out from beside me as my eyes continue to watch the group of men trudge through the jungle with nothing but tranquilizers and tasers.

"They're right on top of it"

" Call it off right now "

"You are not in control here!"

The argument between Claire and my husband stops as the captain of asset containment picks up a chunk of skin and muscle from the jungle floor.

"What is that?" I ask as I try to examine the blinking object embedded in the mass before I turn to look at the man beside me.

" That's her tracking implant. She clawed it out" Owen says in near disbelief and Claire turns to look at us again.

" How would it know to do that?" She mutters as she turns to look back at the screen and so do I.

"She remembered where they put it in" I finally answered.

"It can camouflage!" The captain screams out as everything erupts into chaos as the Indominus rex seemingly appears out of thin air , quickly attacking the squad of men.

"Evacuate the park"

"We'd never reopen"

I feel my anger bubbling over as Claire continues to care more about money and image than the lives of others. " You made a genetic hybrid, raised it in captivity," I say, my voice low," She is seeing all of this for the first time ."

"She doesn't even know what she is." Owen continues, building on top of my words," she will kill anything that moves."

" Do you think the animal is contemplating its own existence?" Mr. Masarani ask is disbelief as he finally turns and acknowledges Owen and I.

I watch as yet another agents heart monitor flat lines on the screen. There are only two people left.

" She is learning where she fits in on the food chain and I'm not sure you want her to figure that out " I explained, my eyes meeting Masarani's ." Now, asset containment can use live ammunition in an emergency situation. You have a M134 in your armory. Put it on a chopper and smoke this thing!" I say, my voice is loud and demanding.

"We have families here. I'm not gonna turn this place into some kind of war zone." Claire hissed back at me .

" You already have"

"Mr. And Mrs.Grady if you are not going to help , there is no reason for you to be in here." The red head scoffs out as the walks over to one of the people who work in this room.

"I would have a word with your people in the lab. That thing out there. That's no dinosaur" Owen huffs out before he turns and storms out of the control room. I look at the screen once more as the last heart monitor flat lines before following him.

Tag list:@kaykinotic ,@rubyxx16

[pakunod-a]

Silly Prom Night

Prompt: It's prom night! What do these men do in the ballroom? 🤨

Pairing: Overblot boys x Reader

Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil (I) [here]

Vil, Idia, Malleus (II) [here]

CW: Random stuff, not really fanfiction-ish, more like drabbles, some shorter than others lolololololololololol Reader is referred to as You and Yuu. Reader is described to wear a gown, other than that it's gender-neutral if you don't mind the fabric gap. Bad English because I'm not a native English speaker :( not proof-read, random as FUCK and characters might seem very ooc if they do I blame my not-so-American education

Notes: entire work is based off of stuff that happened to me last night at prom, and i was thinking about various characters that would probably fit the profile of all the mishaps that happened to me last night lolololol

Work under the cut :)

Riddle Rosehearts !

You were sitting at your table, waiting for the buffet service to end so you could take the dance floor.

Well, it's not like anyone's dancing with you.

To be fair, you were supposed to be partnered with a first-year, who got sick the night before, so he couldn't make it. Poor lad.

It was horribly long, it felt like a very, very long time.

It took around thirty minutes for the dance to start, and everybody's got a partner.

All, except for you.

What a bummer.

Wait, is that the housewarden of Heartslabyul, in the corner, without anyone asking him to dance?!

Let's go fix that. 🏃

You ask him if he wants to dance, and he simply says;

"No."

"Come on, it's a ball, you're supposed to dance. You're getting there whether you like it or not. This long ass dress won't stop me from dragging you on the dance floor."

You ended up having a half-hearted Riddle dance with you.

Honestly, the way he held you felt like he wasn't interested at all, let alone happy. It felt like he was disgusted by your presence.

Every time you'd look at him, he would have an unpleasant look on his face, and aim his gaze elsewhere.

After the dance is over, and everyone returns to their seats, and you get a notification from your phone on Magicam. It was Cater, tagging you in a post.

"So cute! I'm vouching for RiddeYuu next year. #RiddeYuu #YuuRid"

..huh. Attached to the post was a video, and a bunch of hashtags you swear you didn't care about. You clicked the video, thinking that it was some kind of impractical prank being played on you.

Oh boy.

Boy, were you wrong.

In the video, it was you and Riddle dancing together on the dance floor. Riddle was a mess, blushing and shying away from all the lights. He had a small smile, as he evaded your gaze whenever you looked at him. He seemed genuinely happy to dance with you.

Maybe he wasn't disgusted after all.

Maybe he really did love dancing with you.

Leona Kingscholar !

You couldn't count the number of times this guy stepped on the hem of your train.

It's like your hair being pulled out of your skull, except it's your entire body being pulled back like a slingshot.

It wasn't the most fun experience.

Then, you had to pick a partner to dance with for the nth time this evening.

Your feet hurt already, how much more dancing?

Surprisingly, even though you had little to no interest in dancing, a certain sleepy lion approaches you with a scowl on his face.

"C'mon herbivore, chop chop. Vargas says I gotta dance for extra credit. You look like you could use it too."

This feels and sounds condescending.

He's pretty nice to dance with, doesn't step on the hem of your train anymore, nor does he step on your feet.

On the contrary, he scoops up the longer part of your train whenever you'd have a hard time walking somewhere.

Other times, he straight up carries you like you're a cat.

It's funny, really.

There was this one instance where you mentioned you wanted ice cream.

He set you down on his chair near his party's table, and disappeared. He actually came back with half-eaten ice cream

You love your sleepy lion, even if he seems a little TOO catty at times. :)

You eventually got too tired to dance, and just sat down. Leona napped on your shoulder.

How sickeningly cute.

Azul Ashengrotto !

Where there is bank to be made, Azul Ashengrotto's the merchant's name.

Seriously, this guy's part of the catering group for the buffet.

Bro did NOT stop making deals at a school function. The grind never stops, respect for that.

You'll probably end up selling your kidney and a lung if you stayed there any longer.

Buuuuut, he does need a dancing partner.

So what say you, if he offered you a slice of mango graham cake and a cup of coconut jelly with a side of gelato in exchange for a dance?

Hell yeah. sorry to the readers that dont have a sweet tooth, have some roasted garlic and onions.

He wasn't too bad honestly, never stepped on your feet once.

You do remember having two gold bracelets on your hands.

He admired one for a quick moment, and it seemed to disappear.

Now, he wouldn't go around stealing stuff from anybody.

No no.

He found it on the floor, while you were too busy dancing.

You want it back?

"Three more dances. Then I'll give you your bracelet back. After all, what's a precious bracelet in exchange for a few dances, no?~"

"You're wasting my time, screw you."

You ended up dancing with him, ten times.

Not thrice.

Ten.

Bro just exploited the jewelry glitch, and wore you out all night.

"Oh, poor Yuu, however will you get back home? If you promise to help out at Mostro Lounge, I'll have you home in a jiffy—"

Thud.

You fell on the ground, snoring.

Oh. You're asleep now. That's convenient.

Don't worry, he'll carry you back home to Ramshackle, free of charge.

After all, dancing with him all night must've tired you out.

He'll just repay the favor.

Surely, that would be the more gentlemanly thing to do.

Jamil Viper !

Would you believe me if I said this guy was in the corner, squinting his eyes as he looked for someone?

Oh. Dude must be looking for Kalim. Fortunately for him, he's over by the second-year's table, away from him.

Hold on.

Away from him???

But the Octotrio sits at that very table.

The Leech twins and Azul Ashengrotto himself?!

Hell no!

Jamil sprints half a mile across the ballroom in an attempt to sweep Kalim away.

"You shouldn't be sitting with them. They're not exactly the type of people you should be socializing for this type of event."

Not even a few seconds later, Kalim trips on a giant camera stand.

He face-planted into the ground, his nose bleeding from hitting the ground too hard. He still has that stupidly goofy smile on his face.

It honestly gives you cuteness aggression.

He had to be brought to the infirmary.

Poor Jamil, he really doesn't get a break.

It's not until he gets dragged to the dance floor, does he leave Kalim's side.

Let me tell you, once this guy relaxes, DAMN can he dance.

He could be blindfolded and spun around five times, and he'd STILL have the balance and elegance of a ballerina.

Work it girl, show those students who's boss.

note: "which events were these inspired from?" oh wow i thought youd never ask let me give you a tour of my brain juice i used to write this real quick and indulge myself in an immersive storytelling 🤜💥🧱

For Riddle: when i got called up for my award, there was a boy who also won the same award in the male category. we were instructed to dance together, for the Royalty dance. i thought he was disgusted because i was holding him, so i felt uncomfortable dancing with him. in a video posted by my schoolmate, they tagged me in a video of him looking at the camera and smiling as he waved. he looked half pale and half pink.

For Leona: while dancing for the "waltz" part of the prom, i felt hungry and told my dancing partner i was hungry, but they wouldnt let me back into the buffet because my dress almost took up the entire line for the buffet, so i either had to ask someone to get it for me or have my homeroom teacher get it for me. he eventually sat me on a chair, and ran back with ice cream from the dessert bar. he did eat the whipped cream and cherries, so i made him go back and get another.

For Azul: this one student was working behind the counter at the buffet, and he was jokingly stealing his dance partner's earrings, necklace, and bracelets while she wasnt looking. he said it costs three waltzes for a singular piece of jewelry to be reclaimed, but if she danced to a budots remix, she'd get everything back. she waltzed for more than seven times until she collapsed onto a couch and snored for an hour straight. she did get her jewelry back, and she resumed dancing with our Azul-like classmate.

For Jamil: i saw someone slip and their friend was scolding them for not being careful. he sat down at the table full of people who dont like him, and he got an earful from his friend on why he shouldnt sit there. his friend reminded me of Jamil so much, i had to write him like that.

[circeyoru]

Omg I've just caught up on the Colle tion of Overlords and I gotta say, it's fantastic!

I'm so sorry if you're getting overwhelmed with ideas/requests but the brainrot will not stop, so here goes-

Regarding the Collector's relationship with Lucifer, and how he's technically just a bit more powerful than them, I had the thought of what would happen if Charlie, being Lucifer and Lilith's daughter, had a huge outburst (maybe over Angel's contract or smth to do with Heaven? Idk) and, completely by accident, hurt the Collector

It wouldn't be because she's a lot more powerful or something, but mainly because the Collector wasn't paying attention/had been so caught up with other affairs that they hadn't noticed Charlie getting more powerful, if only slightly

The Collector wouldn't be hurt in any way, shape or form that would cause permanent damage, probably the equivalent to getting a slightly scraped knee to them, but everyone else is completely shocked and doesn't know how to react (with the exception of Charlie who is just immediately and profusely apologizing) cause they didn't know it was even possible for them to get hurt

With how you've portrayed them so far, I'm wondering how the Collector would react, maybe overplaying it and disappearing for a time (while being completely fine) so Charlie gets a bit more respect, or simply brushing it off and treating the Princess like a niece who just made a mistake and offering to help her train along with her dad (very jealous overlords incoming), or smth else entirely

Sorry for this being so long, I've only just discovered your work and have already fallen in love! Drink water, eat food, and take care of yourself first and foremost ❤️

This is for {Collection of Overlords} , check MASTERLIST for the work

Welcome to this series~! Thanks for staying and having an interest!! No worries~ Taking care of myself~~ (I've stopped request cause of an incident, but I'm getting to the ones from before. Most likely it'll be open in May)

Anyways~ Your ideas.

Charlie can't harm Reader/you in any way. She may be Lucifer's daughter, but (as of season 1) she doesn't have angelic powers. That is your one weakness and possible method of harm and death. Otherwise, you can't be harmed or killed under any other power or circumstance.

You'll understand when Part 7 comes out.

As for your relationship with Charlie. Yeah, you see her as a niece of sorts. You did consider being her mentor like you did with Lucifer, but you don't see her as mature enough or needing your guidance that strongly.

Remember in Rosie and Alastor's bit in "Ready for This"?

They're dancing along They're singing her song Surprised? Why, I knew she could do it all along She's bound to pass the test as princess of Hell Like her daddy, she is madly power-fell She's filled with potential that I could guide I concur! Stick with her, you'll be on the winning side

Now notice the part where Alastor and Rosie smile together. "Pass the test", what test? In the show, it could be dismissed, but in this series, no no, there's meaning. Rosie and Alastor, as well as other Overlords, will see a lot of challenges or tricky situations as tests set by you to prove worthiness and capability. Overlords are aware that you raised Lucifer to where he is now, so they step back when it comes to matters of the Morningstar family. Vox stating that he has to avoid Alastor making a deal with Charlie and Zestial asking why Alastor is with Charlie is a sign that they are being cautious so as not to interfer with any possible plans of yours.

No doubt, Charlie is powerful. But to you, she is nothing because she doesn't have angelic powers to counter you. Overlord acknowledges that Charlie is the next in line, but they observe to see if you'll be bring her to the throne or by her own powers. So far, it's all on her own without any interference or help from you. Alastor and Rosie sticking to Charlie to be on the winning side implies your favour and attention. If they were to support Charlie who is from royalty, you are bound to praise them. Part 4 proves it when Carmilla, Rosie, and Alastor were all rewarded, while the Vees that watched it all was punished, and Zestial and Zeezi the neutral parties were left untouched.

Say, Charlie or someone else did accidentially or purposely attacked you. It's like ants walking on your arm to you. You just brush it off.

"Oh, I felt an itch."

You'd be confused as to why Charlie is apologizing cause nothing harmed you, and your clothes were slowly reforming under Alastor's coat that he immediately dapped on your shoulders. Alastor explained and you laughed, patting Charlie's head, you'll tell her to train more and hope to give you a massage.

Ah, the bit about you disappearing. You have little to no public image or presence to the sinners in Hell. Only the Hellborns know of you and they keep themselves because of it. You don't appear much to your Overlords as well. So when you say 'disappear', you'd be implying that you are gone for like 15+ years to cause something to happen.

If that happens, Charlie isn't getting respect, she's getting a full-out war from all the Overlords and their army directed at her without mercy. The other Rings would have heard of it as well, and the Sins are aware of your affiliation with the Overlords, they were your personal army (in a way). So, to see them move against the heir to the throne like that and hear that Charlie's the reason for your disappearance? The Sins will join in on the fight. There'd be a rebellion on hand and the Morningstars will be dethroned to nothing.

After that, your presence will be announced to all of Hell, and you will be back on the throne. No one will take your place again. Before, the Sins agreed to let Lucifer rule because you told them you'd rule from the shadows like a mastermind. But the moment one of them (Lucifer, Lilith, or Charlie) bites the hand that fed them accidentally or on purpose, then no way will the Sins let this slide.

No matter how docile the Overlords and Sins are to the King, Queen, and Princess of Hell right now, their allegiance is to you, the true Ruler of Hell, first and foremost. Nothing changes that.

Wait till Part 7 comes out. You'll see what I mean when I say you're quite OP.

[thatanimewriter]

IMMOVABLE OBJECT MEETS UNSTOPPABLE FORCE.

➳ request: Big ask. Weiss, Blake, & Yang (separately) with a quiet reader S/O either taking a hit for them (potentially dying) or reader being saved by them (or vice versa)? Either one of the two, or maybe both if you're up for it. Thank you.

➳ character/s: weiss schnee, blake belladonna, yang xiao long

➳ warnings: blood, death, injuries, canon typical violence

➳ notes: i have an unhealthy addiction to angst, this is great >:)) i'm so sorry for the wait bestie, i promise i'm getting through requests-

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 / 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭  / 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 / 𝐰𝐢𝐩 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

── 𝐖𝐄𝐈𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐄.

she's probably a little bit mad, but also proud and a little jittery in more than one way

like, how nice that even though she's had a privileged life for so long that someone like you would take a hit for her

but also you took a hit for her and now you're injured >:((

thank you so much, she's very flattered and will pamper you until you get better but don't ever do that ever again

she'll cry (as if she isn't already after the adrenaline is gone) and it's embarrassing for her

she doesn't wanna be mean, but she probably never thought you'd do something like that for her

you're so quiet and reserved, maybe you'd stick to your own safety

she was wrong and she didn't wanna be proven wrong in this way

if you die though-

she will NEVER forgive herself and she will train like nothing else to be better so this doesn't happen to anyone else

has something of yours on her at all times and is super reluctant to date anyone again

if she wants motivation to keep going during a battle, it's you she thinks of

── 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀.

angry girlie because she can handle herself and she already feels like a bit of a burden as it is

will eventually be grateful for the save but it's gonna be a little while before she comes around

you should've just kept to yourself, she can handle being hurt, but she doesn't like it when you are

especially because of her (it's not really, but that's how she interprets it)

she'll read to you if you're uncomfortable trying to go to bed without aggravating injuries

will let you pat her ears if it makes you happy, but don't think this is a regular occurrence, she just enjoys the quiet time with you

will hold this against you for a little while, but won't be mean about it

just reminders that you should like, not do that again because remember when you were bedridden for weeks-

if you died after saving her, it's like battle of beacon pt. 2 bro

she runs away and disappears and probably is not found for a longgg time

visits your grave (if you have one) every day and tells you all her regrets and what she wanted to do with you before you died

doesn't take on another lover after you die, it feels disrespectful to her and she feels like she should owe you something in return

── 𝐘𝐀��𝐆 𝐗𝐈𝐀𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆.

less mad than anxious about your sacrifice

goes absolutely crazy (super saiyan mode) to end the fight asap so she can check on you and make sure you're as good as possible

honestly, the whole thing is kind of a blur after you took the hit for her

pure blind anxiety and a lil bit of rage to just get you both out of there

yells at you a bit cause she's so scared for your life rn, don't do this to her on a regular basis

knows you're not the most outgoing though so she's willing to sacrifice some of her social time to help you recuperate

will play some games with you if you want cause you can't do a whole lot

definitely more willing to take a day in with you after this cause TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, she gotta spend time with you

if you died to the hit, she will probably let herself get beat up a lil more than usual

just for one huge blow to throw back at them for literally killing her partner

worse nightmares than adam tbh, she is haunted by you and she can't even blame you for this one

will eventually return to the dating scene but won't ever forget you and tries not to find a replica of you

[grandlinedreams]

| a lovely request from @shewalksinanotherworld sorry it took me longer than I thought hdhd but I hope you like it!!

[Heads up!: Fluff, mentions of blood/injury, cursing]

Shit, shit, shit.

Thunder rumbles overhead, the sky an ominous gray that threatens to edge into black as lightning lances across.

Fuck. 

How had you gotten yourself into this mess? Months ago you'd never have found yourself in an unfamiliar town, trying to lose a handful of marines on your tail, because they'd recognized you from a wanted poster.

Months ago, you hadn't even had a wanted poster. You'd been perfectly fine, living a fairly boring, untroubled life.

And then he had shown back up, looking the same as he always did. Tanned skin, harumaki sash, three swords at his waist ㅡ Roronoa Zoro.

You could pick him out in a crowd, know his attitude and mannerisms perhaps better than most ㅡ because at one time, you'd been in love with him. (And perhaps still are, but the jury is out on that one.)

Nonetheless, he'd waltzed back into your life, three earrings jingling with that stupid smirk on his face ㅡ and brought his crew with him. (A relatively new development, because the Zoro you know would never have partnered himself with pirates.)

And now, here you are. Luffy's reasoning had been something along the lines of "a friend of Zoro's has gotta be as cool as him! Wanna join my crew?" and you'd been so baffled that it'd been hard to say no. Although you wonder what Zoro has told them about you, because you used to be a lot more than just friends. 

You just wish you could find where exactly you'd agreed to something like this. Hand pressed flat against the split in your side, you try to even your breathing and weigh your options as fresh blood seeps between your fingers. 

There's a chance that they'll give up when they can't find you ㅡ but then decide that if you're here, so are the others. You could also turn yourself in ㅡ but your bounty is meager compared to ones like Luffy, Sanji, or Zoro. 

Overhead, there's the clap of thunder, then a raindrop. Two, three ㅡ and then the roar of rainfall as the dirt beneath you quickly soaks into sticky earth. You can hear footsteps and overlapped voices, wondering where you've disappeared to as they near. 

Fine, you think, wiping your blood slick hand on your pants before you reach for your own blades. There are just two of them, and your skill is nowhere near as refined as Zoro's, but you can hold your own. If you make it out of this, you're tempted to reconsider your new career path.

"Gentlemen," you say as you step out, "this is as far as you go, I'm afraid." 

You know you hardly look the type to take a life, especially now ㅡ rapidly becoming soaked to the bone and bleeding, but that's fine. You'll use their assumptions to your advantage. Steeling yourself and blocking out the dull thrum of pain from your side, you dart forward.

Though you aren't on par with Zoro (yet, you tell yourself constantly, yet), you aren't an idiot, either. You've trained hard with your swords, and it shows as you defend yourself.

Your wound, however, is ultimately your undoing as the amount of blood you've lost begins to catch up with you ㅡ and the fact that you've never been in a fight on your own like this. 

One of the last marines uses that to his advantage, swinging a foot out to catch yours and pressing forward when you stumble and hit the ground. "Tell me where the rest of your crew is," he demands sharply. "You're with the Strawhats, they must be around here somewhere."

You glare. "Bite me." 

He scowls, teeth gritted as he lifts his blade to bring it down ㅡ and then chokes on a mouthful of blood as a sword that does not belong to him pierces through his middle. 

It isn't yours, either. Zoro looms above the mortally wounded marine before he lets him topple to the side, yanking his sword free before he turns to you.

"The hell are you doin' on the ground like that?"

You scowl. "Admiring the view," you huff sarcastically, hand pressing to your side as you get to your feet, and Zoro tracks the movement.

"You're bleeding."

"Brilliant observation." You use the coat of one of the marines to clean your swords of blood and grit, making a note to clean them properly once you're back on the ship. 

Zoro follows you at a more sedate pace until he finally pipes up. "You sure you know where you're goin'?"

"Yes, Zoro. Because unlike some people, I'm not horribly inept with my directional skills." Your tone is somewhere between teasing and genuine annoyance, instigated by the ache of your side and chill that's seeping into your bones as it continues to rain.

Zoro clicks his tongue, irritation flaring. "Does everything have to be a fight with you?"

"And here I thought you liked me angry," you answer before there's the wrap of fingers against your wrist, yanking you to a halt before Zoro steps forward, crowding you against a nearby wall.

"I do," he says, "but not at me. What's your problem, anyways?"

You stare. Zoro has changed in dozens of ways since you'd last seen him before now, in ways you're still learning ㅡ but you've never had a man be so absolutely, frustratingly oblivious to his own involvement in the careful eggshell dance two of you have had since your joining of the crew. 

"My problem?" You echo, reaching to fist a hand into his shirt. "My problem is you, Roronoa Zoro."

And then you yank, hard enough to send him forward so you can kiss him. It's uncoordinated and rough ㅡ but that hardly matters when he's crowding you further as he responds.

It'd the bump of his hand against your side that pulls you from the needy haze as you hiss against his mouth, brought back to the current situation. "Don't kill me, asshole."

"I'm not killing you," he huffs, "though that's tempting since you're such a pain in the ass." He pauses. "But you're my pain in the ass, I guess."

"Fine by me." You wiggle free of him, reaching to grab his hand. "Now let's get back to the ship before I pass out because if I left it to you, we'll be here forever."

[fiapartridge]

the perfect moment | luke hughes

summary: luke's leaving for boston and you need to tell him you love him before it's too late...

a/n: hello, everyone! this is my first imagine since joining tumblr. hope u like it! <3

Luke was leaving tonight. You felt your heart drop down to the farthest, unreachable parts of your stomach as you watched Quinnipiac win the semifinals at the Frozen Four. It was over: The University of Michigan’s season, playoffs, Luke’s college hockey career. It was all over.

Ellen and Jim were already off the couch, making calls with a couple of people on the Devils’ coaching staff, making sure he was on the next flight to Boston by the time he got off the ice. 

It was hard to stomach the fact that he wasn’t coming home this time; that he was going straight to Boston for the morning skate with the Devils and then immediately back to Jersey to train with the team. Of course you two talked about it. It was always a thought lingering in the back of both of your minds, but you didn’t really think of it being an actual possibility.

It wasn’t like you weren’t happy for Luke. He was your best friend. You would be happy for him wherever he went and whatever he did, but he wasn’t coming home, and you never got to tell him that you loved him more than Sunday morning pancakes and Movie Night Fridays. You loved him, like you wanted to run onto that ice and kiss him before he stepped foot on the private jet that would force hundreds and thousands of miles between the two of you. 

You were in love with Luke, and he didn’t even know.

Before you could get off the couch and wallow to your own home down the street, you got a text from Ethan, and then Mark, and then Dylan.

And lastly, from Luke.

Ethan: He’s leaving TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE.

Mark: You’ve loved the kid for as long as you’ve known him. You gotta tell him before he leaves Y/N/N.

Dylan: I'M BOOKING YOU THE NEXT FLIGHT TO FLORIDA. YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.

Luke: Getting on a flight to Boston later tonight. I’ll call you first thing in the morning. I don't want this to be a goodbye. I just wanna see you.

Your eyes widened as you clicked each notification from the boys. You didn’t even know they knew about your crush on Luke. But maybe it was obvious? Maybe they could see the slight glimmer in your eye every time you met Luke outside the locker room after a home game, or maybe they could see the way you hug him, how you squeeze him a little tighter and a little longer than a best friend would, or maybe they could see the way you talk to him, like he’s all you’ve ever known; like he’s all you ever want to know. When he’s around, everyone else disappears.

And you weren’t going to give that up.

Dylan: I JUST BOUGHT YOUR TICKET GET YOUR ASS TO THE AIRPORT. RIGHT NOW.

Is this actually happening right now? Oh my God, this is happening.

You jumped up from the couch, startling both yours and Luke’s parents. Your heart was racing and they were staring at you like you were crazy.

“Are you alright, honey?” Ellen asked, looking back and forth between you and your mom. 

You shook your head. “I- I gotta go,” you stammered as you rushed out of the Hughes family’s home and down the street to your own. You ran through the front door, tripped up the steps to your room, and quickly grabbed a backpack from your closet, filling it with a day’s worth of clothes, a mini toiletry bag, your wallet, and an extra charger. 

You bounded down the stairs and sprinted back to the Hughes’ house, praying that someone would be willing to take you to the airport or else all of this would be for nothing. 

You busted the front door open as everyone’s heads turned to you. You were out of breath, your backpack was slung messily around your shoulder, and your heart was beating faster than the speed of light.

“I,” you breathed harder, trying to push out one of the most important sentences of your life. “I need a ride to the airport!”

Ellen and your mom knowingly smiled from ear to ear, like they understood why you were leaving without you ever having to tell them. They always knew about your feelings for Luke, they were just waiting for the moment it would all come out, which happened to be tonight. So calling them eager to help you would be quite the understatement; they were absolutely elated. 

Ellen grabbed the car keys and your mom opened the garage while the dads sat there, watching the entire scene with their own sly smiles on their faces. Your dad would never admit it to you, but he always hoped that you would tell Luke that you liked him. He was the only person that your dad felt safe to leave you with. Not that you needed Luke’s protection or anything, but he knew he would never break your heart; the boy wasn’t capable of it.

You threw your backpack in the backseat of Ellen’s car and your seatbelt was barely secured before Ellen stepped on the gas and raced down the sleepy streets of Michigan. Your mom squealed in the passenger seat as she held on tight to the handle on the roof of the car.

“We were really expecting you to tell him sooner, but I love a dramatic running sequence,” Ellen beamed, smiling into the rearview mirror.

You shook your head. “Sorry, what?”

“We’ve been waiting 12 years for you to tell him you love him!” your mom butted in, turning around in her seat to look at you.

“12 years? What?”

“Sorry my boy is clueless!” Ellen apologized. “Seems like he got that trait from his father.”

You laughed and the three of you continued talking about your plan for when you see Luke in Florida. But when you saw the airport in full view, the anxiety and nervous bubbles danced around your stomach like they were giving a tireless performance.

This is seriously happening.

They parked on the curb, wishing you good luck as you ran out of the car and darted through the airport doors. Security went by swimmingly fast and before you knew it, you were seated on a nearly empty plane, Florida bound.

༊*·˚

Two and a half hours later, you were dashing through Tampa International Airport like your life depended on it. Luckily, the airport was quiet and empty. Nobody seemed to notice the girl that was fighting back the tiredness in her legs and the drowsiness in her eyes. 

You couldn’t get tired. You needed to see Luke.

Ethan, Dylan, Mark, and Mackie were the first people you saw when you made it outside the airport. Dylan was jumping up and down in the air, waving his hands back and forth as if you weren’t the only person outside with them. 

You sprung into the backseat of Mackie’s rental car as the boys started shouting to step on the gas. There was no time to spare. You were in Florida, Luke was about to get on a flight to Boston, and your heart wasn’t ready to give up yet. 

“MACKIE, IF YOU DON’T STEP ON THE GAS, I’M LEAVING YOU HERE AND DRIVING THIS CAR MYSELF!” you yelled, causing Mackie to jump in his seat and steer the car down the freeway in a hurried manner. 

They knew not to mess with you when you were stressed. It was like a rule of thumb. As you five raced down the road, heading straight back to the arena, you felt your phone vibrate and the screen light up. It was a text from Luke.

Luke: Hey, I’m leaving in a bit. Text me when you can.

You shook your head, gulping down your nerves. He can’t leave. Not yet.

Five minutes later, Ethan was pushing you out of the car and Mark was grabbing your hand, leading you around the arena— leading you to Luke.

You two weaved through Quinnipiac fans that had not yet cleared the arena and through coaches that looked at you confused, wondering how you got there. But when the Michigan hockey team saw you, all you were met with were smiles and cheers. They all knew what you were here for— who you were here for.

They were lined along the walls outside of the locker room. Mark let go of your hand as you turned to all of the guys. Luca smiled at you as he placed his hand on your shoulder. “He’s inside the locker room.”

You nodded your head, took a quick breath, and slowly, hesitantly walked to the door.

“Hey!” Dylan shouted. You turned to him, wondering what was so important that he had to say it right before the big moment. He smirked, a mischievous smile dancing on his lips. “Don’t forget to kiss him.”

The guys whistled and hollered in response as your cheeks immediately flared. You laughed, rolling your eyes and turning back to the locker room door. 

Here goes nothing.

You slowly turned the doorknob and quietly walked into the room. Luke was the only person in there. He was folding clothes into a suitcase as a blue Nike backpack and his hockey gear sat on the ground beside him. You closed the door shut and it immediately grabbed his attention.

His eyes searched the entire room before meeting yours. He didn’t say anything, his jaw was too slacked to push out a single word. You left your backpack by the door and smiled softly as you walked towards him. 

He felt like he was dreaming, like he conjured the sight of you because there was no way you were actually there. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Surely he was just tired. His mind was playing tricks on him. That had to be it. But when you were still there when he opened his eyes, he realized it wasn’t a dream; he wasn’t going crazy. 

You were there. You were really there.

He couldn’t believe it.

“I didn’t want to say goodbye over the phone,” you said.

He grinned. “So you flew a thousand miles just to see me?”

You nodded, a smile managing to escape from your lips. “Among other things,” you said before crashing your lips onto his. Your hands were met with the ends of his curly brown hair and his were met with the small of your back. It was the kind of kiss that you could never tell your friends about because there was no way to accurately describe how perfect it was. It was the kind of kiss that was separated by smiles and tiny laughs. It was the kind of kiss that made you realize that you had never felt this happy in your whole life.

Yes, Luke was going to leave. He was always going to leave. But at this moment, none of that mattered. This kiss, you and him, your hands in his hair and his on your back, that was all that mattered.

This.

This perfect moment.

The moment wasn’t over when your lips disconnected. His eyes were still on yours and his lips were still stained with your lipstick. It was you and him, just like it always has been.

“I,” you two spoke at the same time, giggling when you caught yourselves talking over each other. 

“You first,” you said.

He shook his head. “Seems like you had something important to tell me if you flew a thousand miles to be here.”

“Fair point,” you chuckled. He smiled back— a soft smile. Like this smile was meant just for you to enjoy. Like this smile belonged to you– signed, sealed, and delivered. Your hands rested on the nape of Luke’s neck. 

It’s now or never.

You paused, played with the cuticles of your nails, shuffled your feet, and breathed. “I love you— more than just friends, and I needed you to know that before you left.”

And yes, you just kissed the boy you’ve liked for the past 12 years, but some part of you still expected him to turn you away. To tell you that he doesn’t feel the same. To tell you that all you guys had ever been were friends. 

But when he pulled you closer by the waist and attached his lips to yours once again, you knew his answer. He pressed his forehead against yours, his eyes still closed for a moment afterwards, like he wasn’t ready to leave this moment just yet. 

And when his sage green eyes met yours, he grinned, and said the next few words so softly, it felt like a pillow that was waiting to catch him in case he fell. He already knew you loved him, but just like you, he was still scared, like you could take it all back and realize that it isn’t him you wanted. 

But who else would you fly a thousand miles for at one in the morning?

“I’m leaving in a few minutes, but I just— I think I’ve always been in love with you. It’s always been you,” he smiled, still terrified. But just as he did with you, you pulled him into the biggest kiss ever— which was shortly interrupted by the entirety of the Michigan hockey team.

Mostly Duker.

“HEY, THEY’RE KISSING IN HERE! I knew you could do it, Y/N/N,” he smiled. “YO, YOU OWE ME FIVE BUCKS, BRINDLEY!”

You giggled into Luke's chest, shielding your blush-stained face from the rest of the team. You were beyond happy.

And yes, Luke still left for Boston, but he didn't leave empty-handed. He had your love with him after all.

[betweenthescarletmoon]

Hey 👋

So I saw your reblog and post about jayce, and I just wanted to say you managed to genuinely encapsulate what I was thinking about jayce and just how weirdly the fandom treats him and I am so happy about your post!!!

I wanna bring another discussion point to this. What do you think season 2 jayce's arc would have been had arcane not lost its political messaging because I was totally under the impression that after season 1, jayce was going to boarden his views and understand a lot more about zaun and the undercity through his interactions with other characters like ekko, jinx and vi. I thought we were gonna get jayce leaving politics and high society and going back to his roots as a labourer, understanding his original dream to help the people with hextech and improve lives. I thought we were gonna go back to jayce, who has a family that owns a forge factory and that the show was gonna go and link It back to renni and her kid. I thought we were gonna see jayce comment on the zaun child labour.

I thought so much more was going to happen but it didn't. In the end we didn't even get jayce introspection on the weapons he made and its not even clear why he made them (I have my theory as to why) and we don't get his reaction to cait gassing zaun because I can tell you for a matter of fact jayce wouldn't have been cool with that not after he found out what the hexgates were doing to the undercity and not after he came out from the AU where he had to consume pollution that included the grey daily (I fully believe that when jayce came back he was dying from all that pollution)

Jayce is a creator destined to die young and suffer a fate similar to his father

Thank you for letting me ramble

oh man you COOKED with this!!

i gotta say, this rapid-fire hype train after every weekend for s2 didn't help me think much about what could've been, but your ideas are so wonderful that i'm now even angrier that they reduced him to just viktor without properly expanding on his grief and his guilt about it ifywim? like, he lost cassandra too, he almost lost mel, i do see why he would lose that Very New unlearning of his biases after surviving perhaps the most traumatic event of his life before the Anomaly. i loooooove the opening sequence of s2. his shock and dissociation were absolutely delicious. but it's strange that we don't see any more of how that trauma affects him or mel.

i also feel so confused as to why nobody cared that the de facto Head Councilor and Man of Progress disappeared before publicly resigning. yeah we get it man, you love Viktor, but the people needed leadership, and the fact that they all just moved ON?? from him??? without a single explanation? they didn't even extend a notice to him about the meetings, nor mentioned that he was a "coward" in them bc they obviously didn't like him except for mel, etc.

i think what i was most excited about was that, given jayce is not a politician (and it would've been cool to explore him being forced to be a man he isn't given that's his whole s1 arc), but a man who sees the world through the people he cares about, it would've been so awesome for him to learn to work together with vi and ekko to help zaun. i still love his apocalypse arc, but i think it came too fast, too conveniently, and by separating him and ekko even in act 3 it just falls apart for me kinda.

and you're so right. not a SINGLE mention of renni's child? [points at the writers] what have you done to my boy? even just a quiet, short scene of vi and jayce just...processing, as he stares at the weapon that took the kid's life, but saved his, would've probably sent the message home as to why he once again, thanks to fear and trauma, he makes the weapons despite his massive guilt. it would've been nice for us to see him give vi and cait the weapons, and there we can see that he either isn't allowed to know what they'll do but he trusts them, or doesn't want to know bc he's sick of being aware of all this violence in a more selfish way haha. so many possibilities to express his moral dilemma and how the precarious growth he'd built started to fall apart, not JUST because of viktor, but because he is once again faced with the violence he thought for a long time was coming for him from zaun. it is a prejudice, viktor did call him out for it, but in jayce's mind, it could've been proven. he was attacked TWICE by the people he accidentally hurt the most (bc jinx is who she is thanks to hextech), but is he going to be aware of that, or think that all of zaun is out to get him now? a big part of him is his paranoia, to the point that his cave scene sountrack is called that, so it could've been a great theme to foreshadow from the very beginning. if we did all this, then that would explain what they had going for him in this season in a way that didn't erase his character the way they did

i loveee your points on ethical production and labor, and how that would question even his own name's business. all those hints about his father never went anywhere, and they could have if that was explored. but sadly i don't think there would've been enough time for that with the plot they set in motion of the anomaly and multiverse. (despite how i have grown to accept the multiverse ret-con of the mage, and that i adore ep7, it still irks me that we cannot let the multiverse rest, especially in a story that used to be so grounded in our social reality). also yeah i would've loved a bit more portrayal of his new disabilities!! how he struggles now even with his brace, and what that illness/corruption consisted of. but then he died so it doesn't matter :')

i think i've mainly been coping by writing fanfiction. a lot of my gripes with the season are going to be tackled in my ghosts in the hearth series. it may not be exactly what you're looking for bc it takes place after act 2 but i needed it for my sanity XD

thank you for sharing your thoughts! let's be moots :D

[catboyklug]

Characters: Miles "Tails" Prower [ they / them ] ; Knuckles the Echidna [ he / they ] ; Gadget the Wolf [ they / them ]

Warnings: vague mentions of disordered eating; mentions of overworking

Notes:

Word count: 1.1k

The Resistance Tunnels have fallen near-silent, the only sound coming from the trains far above.

Howling whistles.

As if the tunnels themselves mourn the loss.

Though some have not yet given up hope, the calibre of Sonic's injuries have left most to believe he is gone.

In defiance of this theory, one of the few hopeful works in his room, alone, attempting to find any proof their brother may be safe...

"Tails."

The voice breaks the near-silence, but recieves nothing but the gentle clack of an old keyboard in response.

"You can't work on an empty stomach."

The final third of Team Sonic, the echidna known as Knuckles, stands in the doorway of Tails's 'lab' (which, in truth, is just his room, so full of junk it's impossible to sleep or rest comfortably).

"You gotta eat, bud. Just-"

Before Knuckles can think of another excuse, however, Tails yips excitedly.

"Wait, I think I got it-!"

The sudden excitement nearly breaks the tension, but just as soon as the feeling arrives, they lose grip of it.

Connection lost.

"...Never mind..."

In those few moments, Tail's eyes had regained some of their lost spark, shining in the din.

Knuckles can't help but feel that, with it gone, the entire room feels far darker.

"C'mon, Tails," Knuckles says, his voice soft, "Sonic's only been gone for a day. He's probably getting his energy back up so he can do some crazy stunt and escape the Death Egg."

"...I hope you're right," they sigh, "But I'm worried. The Death Egg just... disappeared after entering orbit. And Eggman's been so quiet about the whole thing..."

"It's probably hiding behind the moon, or something," he reasons, "...I'm serious about the food, Tails."

Their ears flatten on their head, and their stomach growls, betraying their hunger.

"Fine," they huff, "But I'm eating in here."

"Fine by me," Knuckles huffs in response, leaning against the doorway so that Tails can get out.

The walk to the cafeteria is short, but Tails practically shuffles the entire way there, extending the time it takes to get there massively.

They don't want to leave their post. In all honesty, they shouldn't if they want to find their brother any time soon.

Considering Knuckles's... close relationship with their brother, they can't believe he's not more concerned.

But here he is, insisting Tails take a break after only two days of searching...

Knuckles wants them to take it easy? To go slow?

Them, the second-fastest Mobian probably ever?

Oh, sure, they'll be slow.

It's this tiny protest, this rebellion in the Resistance, that keeps them from turning tail and locking themself in their room, refusing to come out for anyone.

Even their percieved punishment is exclusively on their own terms.

In their bottle of rage, they hardly notice that the two of them have arrived at the food court, only being made aware due to Knuckles giving them a little push with his elbow.

They grumble for a sec, but he gestures ahead, and they reluctantly follow his gaze...

And feel their mouth drop open a little as they do.

Potato pancakes, hashbrowns, french fries,

Scrambled eggs, hard-boiled, devilled, fried...

Several different kinds of milkshakes and smoothies,

And huge pots of soups and stew in a dozen varieties.

Thanks to the close ties with the many heavily-protected farms on the surface, food was never a problem for the Resistance. Which was great, given that it was growing massively every day.

But even so, this is ridiculous...

Yet with that ridiculousness comes a sense of deep comfort. They can still afford to be a little frivolous sometimes, spending too much energy on things that matter or putting tons of ingredients into meals that take hours to cook... and taste absolutely delicious.

Before either of the two can begin filling their plates and making use of the food they have while it's available to them, however, Knuckles spots someone.

A somewhat scrawny red wolf with almost cartoonishly thick glasses, busy attempting to put at least five servings of every food on their plate.

With an encouraging smile, Knuckles waves at them, gesturing for Tails to follow.

"Hey, rookie!" he booms, and it's only to their credit that they don't drop the plate they're carrying with how loud Knuckles is, "Got someone I want you to meet!"

Surprised that, out of everyone, it's Knuckles who's forcing them into an awkward social interaction, Tails can barely even get out a "nice to meet you-!" in the (relatively mild) confusion.

"I'm Tails, what's your name?" he offers, giving a slightly crooked smile.

"...Gadget." The wolf says, voice not betraying even the slightest hint of emotion, "Charmed."

"Likewise!" Tails widens his smile, continuing their attempt at being polite...unaware of the fact they're starting to look a little creepy.

"So, you're a Wispon user, like the rest of Knuckles's squad, right?"

"Yes. Currently maintaining bonds with three Wisps. Red, blue, and purple," Gadget explains, "No names given. Close companions nonetheless."

"Amazing...!" They whisper, quickly putting themself back in Small-Talk Mode, "So, uh... What're you getting to eat? There's a lot of choices, I don't think I can decide..."

Though he says this, it's obvious what they're eating - practically everything. Noticing this fact is obvious, the rookie tries to hide some of their stacked plate with their huge bowl, but fails miserably.

"Not very much. Eating light. Heading out soon," They nod gravely, looking to Knuckles - and raising their brow when he laughs.

"I told you, rookie, we're not moving out until later this afternoon," he clarifies, looking a bit awkward as Tails gives him a Look, "We switched out with Silver's gang. You can eat as much as you need."

"Oh," Gadget hums, "...Good."

With the indirect encouragement, they shove even more food onto their plate, and pocket a plastic-wrapped protein bar for later.

"Glad to see you're eating well, soldier!" Tails smiles, "Uh... Keep up the good work!"

Gadget gives them an amused smile - the most emotion they've shown to anyone since they've arrived, considering Knuckles's awe-struck face - and leaves to go eat with the rest of their squad.

Thankfully, despite how awkward the whole thing was, Tails's spirits seem to have been lifted by the interaction, too. As they pile food onto their own plate, Knuckles spots their somewhat crooked smile's morphed into a genuinely cheerful one,

Thank goodness...

Truth be told, Knuckles hasn't actually grown a newfound appreciation for social interactions lately.

But he knows both the kit and the wolf need more social interaction than they've been getting, and he was hoping they'd hit it off.

And they did. In their own way.

So... score.

[domesantis]

Keith and his Fanny Packs and Boots to bed

disclaimer: first post, extremely new to tumblr. but of course my first post HAD to be voltron-related, and it's about keith and his fanny packs and boots. (A stupid, small analysis)

in S1 E2, in the first minute we see Allura doing an unannounced drill (albeit dramatically) to evaluate the readiness, vigilance and speed of the newly recruited pilots. Other than Shiro, he seems to have the best mastery of these traits as he launches across the room to grab his jacket (Wow. His first instinct. Gotta dive into that sooner or later) then get out one second later.

Many people have pointed out the sheer absurdity and comedy of Keith wearing his fanny packs and boots to bed. How uncomfortable can that be? At conclusion, this scene was boiled down to just a trivial animation mistake and I also think that's all it is. But, out of fun, I want to look deeper into this "mistake" (Although many people have already probably concluded my upcoming analysis and I'm just late to the bandwagon.)

His fanny packs and boots are the solid testament to his life.

In later seasons, we find out that Keith has been practically raising himself throughout his childhood. He had an absent, dead (secretly alive) mother and also a completely dead father. In an optimistic sense, at least his father passed when Keith was 10 (?) years old, having a fragment of paternal love and care despite it being abruptly cut off. Oddly enough, orphanages aren't a thing in his time.

As if being stripped of parental love wasn't cruel enough, he also faced ostracization and bullying throughout his entire childhood without any adult to stand up for him whatsoever. Until around he was 16-17, Shiro saw his potential and eventually developed into his implied father figure. Then Shiro disappeared after a year, leaving him all alone once again.

So, during the timeframes before and after he met Shiro, he was left all alone to fend for himself. He lives in an almost dilapidated, shabby shack in the middle of a desert, naturally leaving security unattended and nonexistent.

Of course, for a child/teenager, this predicament alone would transpire paranoia especially when you're in the middle of nowhere with the imminent anxiety of wild beasts/animals without any nearby protection.

Onto my main point now.

Keith is a teenager that was left to fend for himself all alone. Not only does he have no parents, but also he lives in the middle of nowhere and faces extreme ostracization and bullying. His school is an extremely emotionally and physically unsafe environment for him, and so is his shack. Consequently, he makes it a priority to always keep his guard up everywhere at any time. He isn't familiar with the notion of a "safe space". (Perhaps he only literally experiences that concept when he forms a deep connection with a bunch of other teenagers in outer space. Now that's a safe space. LOL)

His only resort and closest alternative to a "safe space"? His dagger, fanny pack, and boots.

Boots, to immediately escape the grasp of an intruder/emergency;

His fanny pack, presumably with all his survival essentials in it, in case of any emergency;

And his dagger, to defend himself.

All of which are stationed on him.

When you've spent the majority of your life alone with absolutely nobody to depend on, vigilance and paranoia creeps itself onto your daily routine. Most likely, Keith feels naked and vulnerable without them, because these three are his fundamental objects of safety.

So, he learnt readiness, vigilance, and speed not by training, but through cruelty. Of course, even with the reassurance of sleeping in a high-security advanced spaceship, old habits die hard. He'd rather sleep through discomfort rather than face danger.

Last Comments

this would be so good for a klance hurt/comfort fic. just lance slowly easing keith into introducing the possibility of safety and vulnerability coexisting together instead of having to choose between the two. i GOTTA write something like this soon

keith needs a hug bro

[petty-pumpkin]

Might be controversial but I've got to say this.

So we all know that the soukoku fanbase has a toxic side right? Right.

It was very talked abt how a big part of skk shippers were toxic and blah blah blah. How you would say you liked a ship nd they would come at you, right?

Well, I just want to say that ppl who STILL say this are dumbasses, honestly.

First, to prove my point, I just wanna say that EVERY fanbase has a toxic side, there's no way to deny it, there's always that one mf that ruins the harmony in a fandom and has to be a pain in the balls.

Now, ik that a big part of the skk shippers WERE toxic af, more than the average of toxicness in a fandom, not going to deny it.

BUT THAT WAS BEFORE BRO. I remember that in 2020/2021 it was FULL of toxic skk shippers. You litterally could not like any other dazai or chuuya ship w/o being attacked for it by a cray cray skk shipper.

Because of that, the skk fanbase has a really bad fame, and it's known for being 1- very fucking passionate abt a fictional relationship, and 2- very fucking toxic about said fictional relationship.

In 2022, the toxicness was becoming less. Of course the toxic shippers were still in the shadows ready to attack, but they were less than b4. Now why were they less? Bc ppl actually fucking complained abt it and stopped acting like the skk fanbase was a normal one.

In early 2023, other dazai ships begun to have more popularity, and it stopped being only dazai and chuuya. This was also the era when ppl actually started to understand dazai's character a little better than before and stopped being blind ass mfs. Thanks to this, a LOT of skk toxic shippers disappeared or matured to realize that ppl have different fucking opinions.

Of course the fanbase still had quite a variety of toxic shippers inside of it, but they started to eradicate fast.

Now we're heading to the end of 2023 and I had not ONCE in 5 whole months seen a toxic skk shipper ever again. It's like they rlly disappeared. And I gotta say, that there's obviously still a lot of toxic shippers out there, ik that, but I'm still really proud bro.

Like, it's so nice how an entire fanbase maturated that much in such a short span of time, the mha fandom could never.

Anyways, having said this, I just want to sincerely say, WHY THE FUCK DO PPL STILL SAY "oh i hate skk bc of the shippers" LIKE WHAT.

Ok, first of all, it's totally fine if you dislike skk, everyone has their own opinions (weird opinion, yeah, but I still gotta respect it bc I'm a normal human being (not rlly)) but using that lame ass excuse that litterally every idiot uses when they dislike a popular ship?? Yeah no. Just say u don't like the ship and move on. We, as a society, (a group of shippers) have maturated enough to understand that not everyone has the same taste as us, WE WONT JUDGE YOU IF YOU DISLIKE A SILLY SHIP FROM A SILLY SHOW ABOUT DEAD GAY AUTHORS, EVEYONE HAS THEIR OWN PROBLEMS BRO, WE DO NOT CARE IF YOU DISLIKE IT OMG 😭

BESIDES, why the fuck do you hate a ship bc "oh no the shippers are kind of really intense when someone doesn't agree with them" like ???? Bro, how the fuck do the shippers affect the canon relationship between chuuya and dazai??? Do you see them making a pact with the devil so asagiri could make their ship canon???? That's litterally a monkey's train of thought.

Anyway, it litterally makes no sense if you dislike something bc of it's fans or creators. That's like saying "flashing lights" by kayne west is a bad song bc kayne is a son of a b1tch. Like, kayne is truly a dumbass, but the song is fire. BESIDES, IT'S NOT EVEN ASAGIRI HIMSELF IT'S LITTERALLY THE FANS, AND NOT EVEN THAT BC MOST OF THE TOXIC SHIPPERS ERADICATED FROM EARTH MONTHS AGO.

It used to make sense b4, but now it doesn't. Stop attacking skk shippers for litterally nothing when they stopped being THAT problematic a while ago.

Like rlly. It makes zero sense.

[styrmwb]

I Beat Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

I went ahead and I did it

The urge to go ahead and finish the XIII trilogy after beating XIII-2 won out, and I can finally say I cleared this off the ultimate list of FF games.

Lightning Returns is an interesting one. It's a slow burn kind of game; it took me a bit to really lock in with it, but once I did, I got into a nice flow state with it. It's also a game that simultaneously could work very well by itself, but also feels like it's essential to be the act 2 of XIII-2. It's weird. Not bad! But weird.

Day 1: Gameplay

I think this is where LR shines the brightest.

Combat is. ALMOST like its predecessors. Rather than it being menu selection, you're pressing buttons like an action game; and rather than swapping paradigms, you're swapping between 3 "schemata", which are basically customizable job types that are also a dress-up minigame. You also still have an ATB system... kinda. Rather than a bar that fills up and executes all of the commands you put into it, it's more like an action meter. You can do so much in each schemata before you run out and you gotta wait for it to refill. On paper it sounds entirely different, but with the ATB filling and the schemata switching, I still felt that echo of paradigm switching (especially since I essentially gave myself a commando, ravager, saboteur setup), and the ATB in practice still felt like the ATB of classic. It's different for sure, but still has enough connection to not feel like it's a complete jump away from its prequels. Also, you have these points called "EP" that you get from day start or killing enemies which you can use for things like full cure or esuna, but the big thing I used it for was "Overclock" which slows down time for your enemies while speeding it up for you. It gives you a unique ATB bar that I essentially used to keep up my assault when needed. Very fun once I had enough EP to not worry about using it all up.

Where XIII was a straightforward, classic RPG story that had some side quests, and XIII-2 was more side quest heavy but still sectioned, LR feels like it's ENTIRELY made of side quests, in a way. Even the main story is split up into quests that sometimes require you to do side quests (which was weird if you gotta do them why are they side), plus it had a board of collection quests that you could turn into. If you just looked at XIII, you'd be like "what the fuck happened", but going through the trilogy, I can feel the natural progression. As someone who enjoyed the XIII-2 style quests (plus I'm MMO brained so quests are ingrained in my DNA anyways) I quite enjoyed this style of game organization. It allows you to move back and forth between the areas and their stories, which mixes really well with:

Time management. The big deal about this game that I think MOST people look at and think "oh no". I also thought "oh no" at first. There's not exactly a Majora's Mask style time reset or anything (which I gotta talk more on this topic later) and you don't really have time to sit and rest unless you're in a menu, meaning every single step counts, but it does give you a temporary time stop ability, that uses the same resource as your big combat abilities. I was really unsure of it at first, I didn't know how to handle it, but once I really got the hang of things, I realized that I didn't need to time stop nearly as much as I did, and I was able to strike a good balance. Like I said, I found the flow state of managing quests, travel, teleportation, and still leaving myself with enough for combat buffs. As time passes, different enemies come out, different NPCs appear and disappear, different stores open and close, it makes you think about where you have to be, when you have to be where, and you have to think about your travel time. There's a quest I have to do but they don't appear until 14:00, so I'm gonna sit here and kill guys until like 13:00 where I'm then gonna take the train over there. It was scary and weird at first, but it's a system that I think is improved with knowledge of just how much is in the game.

One last thing I wanted to talk about, is Undertale. This game has a fucking Undertale genocide mechanic (I know Undertale came after but hush shush). There are actually limited enemies in the game (save for a couple), and you can actually completely extinct a species by killing all of them. When you've killed all but one, that one becomes a Last One, which is a hyperpowered hot pink version of that enemy that drops better loot. This also interacts with time management well because as the days go by, enemies drop better abilities for you to use, BUT, you also have to make sure you're giving yourself enough time to do shit AND kill all of everything. This is cool! It's also grindy, which does kinda suck. Having to kill 30 reavers (behemoths) gets mindless after a bit, which CAN be enjoyed, but can also be ugggghhhhhhh. I think I felt both of those emotions. This is at its worst in the final dungeon where there's 3 new monster types that can be killed off, meaning if you wanna kill all of em for the quest that makes you kill all of em, you HAVE to last second grind. Stinks when I just wanna finish the story.

Together, Lightning Returns offers an experience that's actually quite fun, but I think you REALLY HAVE to have the knowledge to make the most of it. It gives me the vibes of something that would be better on subsequent playthroughs, where you really know just how much is in this space.

Day 2: Story

The story this time about is weird. After the world Fucking Explodes in XIII-2, and Lightning turns herself into crystal to have Serah live forever in her memories, she's woken up (numbers) years later by God Himself, who said "hey shit's boutta explode in a few days can you go save a bunch of souls so I can put them in a new world I have your best friend here (he's a kid again don't worry about it) and I'll give you your sister back" and then Lightning goes "ok (unfeelingly)" and does it. Rather than a single focused story, it's split up into 5 main quests you can move back and forth between, all centered around a character from previous games. You got Noel, Snow, Fang, Yeul/Caius/Odin, and Sazh. Between these, and the many side quests, the game is very character based rather than narrative based, I feel, which I certainly don't have a problem with. Characters, I'm coming to realize, are my absolute favorite part of any media and the most important thing to me ever (which I think is why I end up making 20 hour long character sections (coming soon)). As you help people and your friends, you realize God is A Bitch And A Liar, so you go to Kill Him. This culminates in an ending that is 1. INCREDIBLY CHEESY, 2. A nice little celebration of the entire XIII trilogy, and 3. A little stupid. It's nice. It's not the greatest in the series or even the trilogy, but it's nice. Again, it feels like it's the second half to XIII-2, wrapping up everything that that game set up, which stinks a little cause it means it can't hold on its own well, but is nice when you're doing it in sequence.

Day 3: Characters

I've lived with this cast for 3 games now, and LR is, for the most part, a nice bow on everyone's stories/a cool way to take all their characters.

Lightning - Lightning in this game felt more of what I knew than XIII-2. Unfortunately, a major plot point was that her emotions were essentially stripped away for most of it, but it didn't stop the game from showing me her caring about her family and other people, and despite her being God's Servant, it does not prevent her from rebelling against the higher powers when they're being assholes, just like in the original XIII. She's not my favorite protagonist out of the entire series, but I think LR ended her story in a way that made me a lot happier than XIII-2. I also find it really funny that Square's IRL usage of her as a fashion model seriously had its impact on this game with the garb switching, and the fucking ending of her going to France.

Hope - My favorite boy felt off at first. Why was his voice acting like that? The reason? God is a bitch. My boy was relegated to being a child sized costume for a motherfucker; and unfortunately, this half self of him kinda got on my nerves as he Kept Telling Me Things All The Time. I know it's an hour until I get called back. Please stop. At least I can be happy about the fact that the real Hope was actually the force that helped Lightning at the end, right as she helped him. I love the relationship between the two of them, one of my favorites in the series.

Snow - I genuinely think that his role here was NEEDED for his character to go into. For two games, he's been the extreme positive force. A heart of gold and a brain of brick. Challenging this with the failure to protect the one person he loves the most, plus centuries of stagnation and trauma, pushes Snow in a way that I think was really important. I can't say I LOVED seeing him so despondent, but I do think it was the right play. Seeing him at his lowest, yet still coming out on top, and finally, FINALLY, being rewarded with time with Serah, Snow feels like he actually went through the challenge he needed to get the ending he deserved.

Fang - I actually really enjoyed Fang here, because for most of the game, it was between Fang and Lightning. I will say, Vanille is not one of my favorite characters. At all; and unfortunately, Fang's primary character trait is that she is completely devoted to the one person she loves (you CANNOT tell me that this shit isn't romantic), Vanille. This is a good character trait, I just don't care for how it's aimed. But being able to enjoy Fang and Lightning's friendship, as well as Fang starting that fire of rebellion that I loved in XIII, it made me happy. I don't understand your crush girl but go off

Vanille - Going off that point; I understand Vanille. I really do. She feels like she did a lot of pain and wants to make up for it. I just... I can't. I dunno. The vibes are off for me. I think I could have appreciated a little more insight or explanation on WHY she has the power to hear the dead, and How Exactly she's going to save them and not kill them.

Sazh and Dajh - Once again thrown to the sidelines?????? Like, ok. I get it. Compared to the fighters, the ancient warriors, Sazh and his son are pretty much civilians! So in that way, I get it, they get the easy life compared to everyone else. But to see Dajh reduced to a plot point yet again upsets me. I want to see some growth for these guys, cause they deserve it. I even feel that Sazh got snubbed in the ending cause he didn't even get to appear alongside his own Eidolon like everyone else did. I love these two, and I love seeing them happy, but... gimme a little more, man.

Odin - Can I just say, it is SO funny that fucking Odin, classic FF summon, insta-killing warrior, majestic horse transformer, reincarnated into a chocobo? Hilarious. I do love that narrative of him being by Lightning's side, though. I think it could have been strengthened back in XIII-2, but it's still nice.

Noel - This poor fucking guy dude. Living with centuries of failure and loss. He never got a chance to really enjoy and be happy; it made me so sad to see him in the place he was in, and to have that fight against him. I am incredibly glad that he finally got to have an ending with Yeul; it feels like he really got what he deserved after all his torment.

Yeul - I still think she's more of a plot device than a character, but I did really appreciate that LR completed what she is on top of giving more explanation onto Chaos. Chaos is souls, and since every Yeul is intertwined, constantly dying at a young age, all being the same, yet all being different, that's A LOT of soul juice that congeals yet contradicts each other. The reveal that the Yeuls Are Chaos was literally the one thing I needed that completely solidified all the confusion I had from the last game, and how that turned into keeping Caius around, and them entering Etro's place in the new world, made complete sense. Sure, the Yeuls might not be a character, but they're a very VERY cool world aspect. Also they let the last one be with Noel :))))))))))

Caius - He remains an incredibly cool character. LR might not add much to him, but it doesn't ruin him in the slightest. He's still completely devoted to all of the Yeuls, and their wants affect his very being. Him becoming essentially the lord of death was a very cool ending, simply because it means he still reached the only goal he ever wanted. I love Caius, man.

Lumina - She's.... confusing. I didn't understand at a single point what her deal was, and honestly I still don't think I do, but that might just be me being stupid and not literate enough. Why was she summoning cyclops, why did she break Lightning's sword, why did she cause chaos. Just for funny? I guess? Other than that though, I do think the concept of her character was cool. The part of Lightning's soul removed from her; not only is it the part that had Serah, but it's her childhood self, her childhood emotions that she pushed away. The reveal that Lumina is Claire, and not Serah, was a huge one, and I think it was honestly foreshadowed in the fact that Lumina's eyes look more like Lightning's than they do Serah's. Wait, I'm just realizing it now, was she just fucking around cause she was a kid? That makes a lot more sense actually. Anyways, I think I would have liked a little more overt acknowledgement to her appearance. Give me one verbal "why do you look like that". I also enjoyed the bits where she was actually shown to care, like in Sazh's story.

Bhunivelze - God Himself. The biggest ASS that ever lived. What a douche. I think my favorite part about Bhunivelze was the consistency of the fact that he can't do emotions. It was shown in Hope's voice acting and lack of feeling, it was shown in the one part of Lightning that he took away; and it was his ultimate downfall, when that bit of Hope reversed on him, and made him feel shit he cannot comprehend. It's cool to see something so consistent in a character like this. He also serves as your typical JRPG "church bad" archetype, God only cares about his followers and nothing else, which does give me a bit of schadenfreude, shitty as it is. He is willing to lie and manipulate to get his way and get around what he cannot do. Very cool antagonist. Not the best, but very cool.

The game's just a nice tale ender for everyone (except for like, maybe I could have used an extra moment or two with real Serah). It serves as a good celebration of the trilogy, bringing everyone back in some form. Hell, even Cid came back, even if he was just a bunch of souls in a Cid costume.

Day 4: World

I should have mentioned this sooner, but whatever. The world that the game takes place in, Nova Chrysalia, is SUCH a cool concept???? Like, with the gameplay being what it is, if they just separated the story/characters, the world being super unique could absolutely make this game stand on its own. It's the remains of the normal world mashed together with the realm of death. Since the realm of death is also related to time, and it's broken, people Don't Age. Also, since the goddess of death, who deals with reincarnation, is dead, people can't be born. This world is the perfect stagnation that makes the setting of finite time until the end work. It makes systems like the Last Ones work. It's just super cool. It's split up into 4 zones, each having a sort of unique mechanic. You got Luxerion, the holy city and the capital, with a really cool gothic and checkerboard aesthetic spread around; you got Yusnaan, the city of "we're gonna party til we die (think Eulmore from XIV)", that completely changes vibes at night, as well as having a cool coliseum, and a bunch of for flavor restaurants; there's the Wildlands, that serves as that kind of Archylte Steppe-like big area, and is the only place with a chocobo for you to ride; and then finally the Dead Dunes, a big desert with a ruin underneath it. They're all very unique feeling, and I don't feel bored, especially moving between all of them. I think the Dead Dunes are my favorite zone, simply because you get to slide down the sand and it's really really fun. Yusnaan is probably second.

I think the one gripe I have is that the game needs to sell you a little more on the fact that everyone has been exactly the same for like 500 years. I don't know why, but it just feels like it needs a little more fuel in that department to fully immerse me in it. Maybe some more stagnation or apathetic feelings. There was a quest with a girl selling her tears that I think did this right, give me more of that. Also, uh, with this all said:

Day 5: This Is Just Majora's Mask

Hi yeah let's make a game about the end of the world. We're gonna give it a time limit. We're gonna split the world into 4 sections. The game is mainly going to be focused on side quests where you help the people of the world reach their final wishes, and some of them will be based on time of day. Not to mention, in the final dungeon, we're going to let the player either go straight to the final boss, OR they can do 4 mini trials that give them a super powered upgrade right before the final boss.

I could put some of these separately as a coincidence but I'm gonna be real that final dungeon solidified something to me: something's off. There HAS to be inspiration here lmao (none of this affected my enjoyment it's just really really funny)

Day 6: Music

As usual, the music is fucking phenomenal. It's beautiful, it rocks, it's terrifying, it's amazing. Lightning Returns might have one of the Best final boss themes in the entire series and nobody knows cause it's the weird last entry in a trilogy people hated.

I have. One flaw though. I don't... really like how previous battle themes were used as normal battle themes, cause it feels like it takes away the impact. I was walking through the Wildlands at night, when I ran into a Dryad, and suddenly Desperate Struggle starts playing. I think "oh fuck I just ran into a mini boss" and I thought I was right when this dude started doing massive damage and summoned a bunch of clones. Then I ran into a slug and the same song played. I'm not sad to hear those songs because the XIII trilogy does not miss at a single point, but it makes me sad when they all have the same meaning. I'm also really upset since Worlds Collide doesn't ever get to get to the good part since all the Hoplites are dead before it gets going

Day 7: Graphics

XIII's sauce remains. The game still looks good, and they solved that weird facial expression thing that XIII-2 had. I love the consistent checkerboard aesthetic that the Chaos has, spread throughout the game. Also, that fucking final boss battle? Holy shit. Beautiful. How the floor turns into Bhunivelze's fucking robe??????? That's so cool. The final prerendered cutscene was absolutely peak.

just gonna sleep in the inn for a bit now to get to

Day 13: 0 Days Until The End

Lightning Returns is a game in a weird place. I definitely do not think it deserves the reviews it got; I think that is a result of a time mechanic people didn't really give time (lol), as well as being the 3rd entry in a trilogy where people Did Not care for its first entry, but it really doesn't deserve to be one of the lowest rated FF games.

It could honestly work as its own game. You remove all the actual FF bits, and you have a wonderful standalone action JRPG. But in the same vein, it really Only works as a finale to the XIII series. The story, the characters, and even the evolution of gameplay, it only works/it's at its strongest when you've played the previous games. It wraps up bits from XIII-2 in a way that it feels like it was MADE for doing that.

When I started the game, I wasn't vibing with it. You need to give it time. You need to understand it, and know what it offers and how it works to really appreciate it, it's not going to be instant. Although, towards the end of my playthrough, it was getting a little grindy cause I really frontloaded my experience, not really knowing how much content I had, and in how much space. Especially with the NG+ feature, I imagine this game goes hard on your 2nd-on playthroughs. I'd love to see a speedrun or a fully optimized playthrough, that's GOTTA be sick.

7/10. A bit of an awkward experience in places, but in the end a fun, unique experience that also serves as a nice ending to an overhated trilogy. It's also Majora's Mask. Bhunivelze's Savior.

[burstanddecay]

petals in a storm

And if you asked me to, if you asked me, I would lose it all.

Pairing: Benny Miller x (OC) F!Reader Summary: Benny tries to tell you something by sharing a ritual that's a daily occurance for him. If that doesn't work, he's got another trick up his sleeve. Wordcount: 3.2K Contains/Warning: Angst, (passive) suicide ideations, existential dread/crisis talk, mental health issues. A/N: I'm not a boxer, nor am I into MMA. I tried to do as much research as was needed, but things might've slipped through the cracks or been stretched to fit the narrative. Part three of Cold Is The Night

The fluorescent lights make a slight humming noise as they flicker to life, speckles of dust floating through the air as Benny holds the door open for you. You cautiously enter, hesitant as you wait for him to take the lead, not sure what to make of the situation or what to do with yourself.

“C’mon,” he gently says as he places a hand in the middle of your back, putting pressure there as he guides you forward. “We gotta grab some stuff, and I’m gonna find you a shirt. You’ll get hot in the sweater.”

You look down at the sweater you’re wearing, at your jeans and the boots, shuffling your feet across the vinyl floor. He sees you look and gives a soft smile.

“The jeans are fine for what we’re gonna do. We’ll take off our shoes, it’s better to feel the floor.”

His voice is firm, not giving you any room for questions or protests, but is kind beneath it. You haven’t heard him use it before, but immediately know where to place it: he started teaching a self defence class for women a while ago. A big shift from his usual crowd of personal training and beating the lights out of fully grown men, but it seems to suit him, the way he lights up when he talks about it speaking volumes.

His hand disappears from your back as he walks past you, around a corner, disappearing out of sight. You’re not sure if you’re supposed to follow or not, so you take two small steps forward, looking around you as you do.

You’ve heard him talk about this place before, but for some reason you never had a reason to be here. He never explicitly stated he didn’t want you here, it just never happened, causing a wave of guilt to crash against you as you take in your surroundings.

“I just realised you’ve never been here before,” he calls out, his voice somewhat muffled by distance and faint rummaging. “Which y’know. Kinda weird.” His voice becomes clearer as he turns back around the corner, a shirt in his hands. “Since you’ve been in most places in my life. Here.”

You take the shirt from his hands, immediately recognising it when you catch a glimpse of the print on the front. You’ve seen him wear it before—just not in a while. He mostly stopped wearing it after he came back from South America, favouring other shirts and button ups over this one.

He rarely speaks of the trip. None of them do, the haunted looks and lack of Tom in their midst speaking volumes. It’s gotten better over time, but time heals all wounds is a fucking lie. You know that, Benny knows that, Will, Frankie, Santiago all know that.

Time doesn’t heal all wounds. Time is a trickster god and you better pray it’s on your side during your lifetime.

“Thank you,” you say. “I was just thinking the same, actually.”

 “Just need to grab some other stuff and I’ll show you where we’re going. Put the shirt on, I’ll be right back.”

He turns around and disappears around a corner, leaving you alone with the shirt in your hands. You carefully place it on a nearby table, peeling your sweater off before pulling the shirt over your head. It’s littered with holes along the hemline, the fabric softened and faded by time. The corners of your mouth tick up as you gently run your hands over the fabric, chest full of something you can’t quite place.

“Looking good,” Benny pipes up behind you. “That shirt always looked better on you than it ever did on me.”

You roll your eyes at the statement. It’s a very Benny thing to throw compliments around: it comes as naturally as breathing to him, something you envy at times. You turn around to face him, finding him leaned against a support beam, arms crossed as he watches you with a half smile.

“C’mon. I’ll show you around another time.” He jerks his head to the side, to a room just outside your view. “We’ve got stuff to do.”   

Anxiety gnaws at you as you follow him across the room, through the door he holds open for you. You look around as you enter, taking in the wall-to-wall mirrors on one side, the wooden bar stretching across its length, the loose bits of equipment placed in various nooks and corners.

“This used to be a ballet studio,” Benny explains from behind you, closing the door behind him and pulling his boots off. “They moved into a bigger space, so we put the mats down, but left the mirrors.” He shifts his weight on his socked feet, looking at you in the mirror. He seems anxious, which in turn makes you anxious. A part of you revels in the sensation: where most feelings no longer really seem to exist, this is something you can feel.

“C’mere,” he says, lowering himself into a kneeling position, patting the mat in front of him. “Come sit with me.”

You take a breath, kicking your boots off and leaving them next to Benny’s before sinking down to the floor in front of him.

It’s intimate in a way that’s both familiar and unfamiliar: it’s not like you haven’t been this close to him before, but at the same time, you really haven’t.

You haven’t let him close in ways that mattered.

“We said five minutes at a time,” he says. “We’ve made it through…” he moves his hand where it rests on his knee, looking at the watch on his left wrist. “At least ten of those since we left the bar.”

You want to tell him it’s easier to make it through those minutes when you’re not alone, when there’s other people’s voices to fill the growing void, other people’s joy, giddiness, frustrations. You want to say it feels as if something is flooding your bloodstream and slowly numbing your senses, leaving you to navigate the world by depending on others.

You want to say that the only thing making you feel even slightly alive is him, but you can’t do that to him. You can’t burden him with that, with keeping another person upright.

He fought his battles. The mental ones, the physical ones and everything in between: he already fought his war.

He doesn’t deserve to fight someone else’s, too. Not again.

So, you say nothing.

Instead, you pick at your cuticles, ignoring the sting as you pull at the already raw skin with your fingernails.

“So,” Benny starts, producing a handful of fabric from his pocket, letting it slide through his hands. “Normally when you box, you wrap your hands.” He reaches out, holding an upturned palm stretched out in front you. “Or you wear gloves, but I prefer wrapping. May I?”

You nod silently and place your hand in his, the callouses on his palm oddly comforting against your soft skin. He turns your hand, so that your palm faces up, the movement gentle, as if he’d break something if he wasn’t careful enough.

“Our hands are made up of dozens of tiny bones, essentially just held together by some flesh and tendons,” he continues, placing the strap in your palm before he starts wrapping it around your hand. “And sure, you can just throw a punch, but it puts a lot of stress on those bones. When you don’t know better, you’d think that the wrapping is there to protect your knuckles, right? Because that’s what we see in media. Bloody knuckles, held up in front of our faces.”

“I can do this all day,” you mumble under your breath, the imagine of pre-serum Steve Rogers immediately jumping to mind.

“Right,” he smiles. “The truth is, we have to protect our hands by allowing the impact of that punch to be better distributed,” he explains, wrapping the fabric back and forth between your fingers, essentially creating a glove out of a single strap of fabric. “That single punch puts a lot of stress on just the top bones, the ones that stick out the most,” his fingers lightly tap your knuckles. “Which we don’t want. That causes tears in the bone at the first punch, if you throw it hard enough.”

His touch is featherlight as he continuous to wrap the fabric around your hand, weaving it through your fingers with ease. It goes automatically, as if it’s as easy as brushing your teeth. You suppose it is, to him. It’s something he does most days, after all.

He finishes up the first hand and opens and closes his fingers as a way of saying to hand over your other hand, which you wordlessly do.

You know better than to just see this as wrapping your hands. You know damn well what he’s trying to say.

“We don’t just want to protect the knuckles, we want to protect the full hand, all those little bones. We want to make sure we don’t wreck ourselves trying to come out on top. So instead, we make sure there is something keeping those loose things tightly together and allow them to weather the circumstances they’re being put through. Because when the knuckles are bloody, when that surface is cracked, you already know you’ve done damage that beyond a quick fix. When in reality, it’s… mostly preventable.”

He finishes wrapping your second hand, and motions for your other hand, turning both of them back and forth to check his work.

“Do you do this every game?” you ask softly, admiring how quick and efficient he was with something that you would’ve redone at least three times.

He nods in reply. “Every game, most practises.”

“But…” you start, letting the sentence die off when you don’t know how to word your thoughts.

“But?” he asks, letting go of your hands.

“Isn’t a thing that by continuously breaking the bone, you strengthen it?”

He lets out a low sigh, leaning back on his heels. “Well, no. You just… stop feeling it eventually. There’s debates of whether or not breaking bones repeatedly improves bone density, but I think it’s bullshit, personally.” He smirks, the first time since leaving the bar that there isn’t a hint of sadness woven into his features.

The sight of it breaks your heart, echoing the sentiment that seems to engrain itself deeper and deeper into your heart with each passing moment: Ben Miller doesn’t deserve your mess.

“I don’t think we should have to continuously break ourselves to come out better in the end.”

And there it is. Laid out in front you, word for word. He doesn’t look at you, instead leaving the words to float in the air as he wraps his own hands, the movement much faster and less deliberate.

He doesn’t push, not for an answer, not for a reaction, but instead finished up his own wraps and shifts in his position.

“Copy me.”

You don’t question him, not sure if you’re afraid of what will follow if you do or if you just don’t have the mental capacity to do so. He continues to stretch, the movements reminiscent of yoga poses, almost cat-like in their fluidity.

The silence between you is neither here nor there, and the minutes pass evenly as your muscles protest slightly at the stretches they’re being exposed to. Across from you, Benny seems to be wrapping up the warm-up, and he returns to his initial position, sat on his knees, before rising completely off the ground and reaching his hand out towards you.

You take it and let him pull you off the ground, resisting the urge to dust down your jeans, and shift on your feet as you wait for him to make the next move. This is his territory: you’re not sure what’s expected of you.

The answer catches you off guard.

“Hit me.”

“Wha— I… No?” you frown, eyeing the blond stood a mere two steps away from you. The light in this room is bright and unkind, the kind that reminds you of frustrated tears over jeans that wouldn’t come up over your thighs even though they’re a size bigger than you’d normally wear. You’ve avoiding looking at the mirrors because of it, but looking at Benny, it highlights all the things that burrowed their way into your heart. The golden hue of his hair, the way his moustache never quite fills in above his cupid’s bow, the fact that his lashes are two tints darker than his hair.

“C’mon,” he urges. He holds up one hand, tapping it with the other. “Right there. With all you’ve got.”

“I’m not going to hit you!” you whisper-shout in return, as if it was the most outrageous thing he could’ve suggested. It was, in a way. You just expected a punching bag. The unalive, hanging-from-the-ceiling-on-a-chain kind. Not a living, breathing one.

He cracks a smile, and lowers his hands, taking a step forward and grabbing your wrists. You eye him with suspicion but let him move your arms until they’re in the position he wanted them. Elbows tucked to your sides, knuckles facing the sky. His hands move to your hips, and you fight the kneejerk reaction of shying away from his hands there, instead biting your cheek as he puts pressure to get you to move.

It takes him a few seconds to position you, but he seems content when he takes a step back.

“Thumbs go over your knuckles, never tucked inside.”

“I know. I’m—” You bite back the I’m not stupid that’s threatening to come out, not wanting to be rude. “I know,” you repeat quietly.

“Good. Now hit me.”

You drop your hands. “I’m not going to hit you!”

“Hit me.”

“No.”

“Hit me.”

Your jaw ticks as you meet his unfaltering gaze. “I don’t want to hit you.”

He shrugs. “Don’t care. Hit me.”

“I’m not going to hit you, Benny.”

“Why not? It’s not like I don’t get punched on a weekly basis.”

“Because I don’t want to.” Hurt you, your brain finishes. Too bad it’s too late for that.  

“You won’t.”

You stiffen. Did you say that out loud?

“You won’t say it, but I know you’re thinking it. You won’t hurt me.”

You feel the corners of your mouth turn downwards, in a way that got you the comparison to Florence Pugh more than once already. You hate it when that happens: not so much the comparison, but rather what followed when you actually felt that movement on your face when it wasn’t on purpose. It meant the stinging feeling in your nose wasn’t far off, the tightening of your jaw and wet feeling of tears threatening to fall lurking not far behind it.

At that point, it takes a mild breeze for the dam to fully burst.

“You’re not gonna hurt me.”

“No.” The word comes out tight, already a brisk sound on its own but now amplified by the fight going on in your head. You stagger a step backwards, your chest rising and falling faster than it should. “I don’t—I’m not—”

“Look at me.”

You feverishly shake your head, avoiding his gaze at all costs as you roughly paw at your face, getting rid of the tears that made their way down without your permission.

“Peach, look at me.”

You take another step back backwards, putting distance between yourself and Benny, forcing yourself to take a deep breath. It ends up rattling through your chest, shaky in a way that reminds you of how it felt to cry when you were a kid.

You vaguely hear him call your name again, but it gets drowned out by the feeling crowding your chest. You both feel infinitely small and like you could burst out of your skin at the same time.

“Maisie.”

It’s like your struck by lightning, tearstained eyes immediately snapping to the man stood a few feet away.

He hasn’t called you by your actual name in years. Not even in letters you exchanged when he was deployed, or when he introduced you to Santi, Frankie, or even Will. Not even the one year he took you home to celebrate Christmas with his family.

He hasn’t used your name, your actual name in at least seven years, and by doing so, it feels like he shattered the windows, blew straight through the walls you put up.

By using your name, he took away the one barrier you had managed to maintain when everything else crumbled apart around you.

As you’re bolted to the floor, he closes the distance between you, his movements slow and deliberate as if you’re a deer he’s trying not to startle.

“I know,” he says, the calluses on his palm rough against your cheek as he holds your head between his hands, forcing you to look at him. “I know you think this is yours to bear, but I am here.” It comes out fierce, heated without any anger behind it. “I am here, and I want to carry it with you.”

You open your mouth to protest, shaking your head as much as his grip allows it, but he gives a gentle squeeze.

“I have the space to carry some of that burden, and I will do anything, and I mean anything, so you won’t buckle under it.” His jaw is tense and his eyes glisten in the fluorescent light. “Anything.”

“I can’t ask that,” you whisper, wrapping your fingers around his wrists.

“You’re not asking. And even if you were, I’d—I’d run into a fucking burning building. I’d run through a wildfire, I would sit with you through the night, I would hold you when it all becomes too much. I’d fight your inner demons with my bare fucking hands, I just need you to let me.”

For a moment, just a moment, time stops.

“Please.”

The word comes out broken, small, as if this was the most pain he has ever been exposed to.

You don’t have it in you to fight it anymore. It tumbles out before you can stop yourself.

“I’m not scared of dying, and that scares me so much I don’t know how to breathe some days. It just seems like an option that’s there, like getting a coffee or reading a book, and it terrifies me. There are days that’s all I feel like is waiting in the future, but I can’t put you through that, because I love you. I can’t make you give a eulogy at yet another funeral, and the reason why is wholly selfish, too, because I love you, and I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you. I know you don’t—”

“You don’t get to decide for me.”

You open and close your mouth, panic flooding your system as you realise what you just said.

“You’re right. I don’t want to bury you, I don’t want to give a eulogy at your funeral. I don’t want to do those things, because I want to live a life with you. I don’t want that to end before it even got a chance to start. So for the love of fucking god, Maisie, let me hold it. Let me carry that burden with you.”

[buggstuff]

CodyWan Week Day 4!

Honestly, I keep questioning what day I'm supposed to be posting because I'm putting it up on my ao3 at like midnight and either waiting til morning to post it here or I'm doing it minutes after posting it..

Prompts! @codywanweek

Force sensitive Cody/"This Isn't What I Signed Up For"/Secret Relationship, except I made a twist of my own. It's Pada-Wan x Padawan Cody. Because, frankly, I am obsessed with Pada-Wan aus, and it may be a problem, but that is not a problem right now as it's 0050(12:50am) and I'm running on a coffee flavoured protein shake I had at 1700(5:00pm)

Onto the reading!

When Cody was made, it was no normal.. making. Cloning. He was a clone. He had a number. He was a number. Just- Just a number.

That was until Shaak Ti revealed he had been specifically chosen, his DNA specially (and expensively) modified. He would grow at a normal rate after he hit 10 years old, physically around 20. Which was fine, well, he would live to see his brothers die but-

He was different.

Different in the way that- Well, he was a force-sensitive.

The only one of all of his brothers.

So when he reached age, he was told of this secret. He was sent off to the Jedi Temple. No one knew how this specific age growth would work, no one knew if his body would react to it well, no one even knew if he was actually a force-sensitive.

But if one person believed in him more than Shaak Ti, it was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan was a senior Padawan at the crisp age of 19 when Cody entered the Temple for the first time. He was only physically a year younger than him, but still was learning and growing. Obi-Wan couldn't help but take a liking to him- He taught him what Shaak Ti wouldn't, allowing him to excel in the Force quickly. After all, this was war.

Their first meeting was.. nice, you could say.

"Ah, hello there!" Obi-Wan says, double-taking as he desperately tries to keep up with his Master's long strides. He was supposed to be greeting the new Padawan of Shaak Ti's, but of course his Master had other plans. He'll catch up with him later.

"Hello," The newcomer says, curiously watching as Obi-Wan almost calls for Anakin before the Knight disappears around a corner, and he sighs.

"You're Cody, correct? Shaak Ti's new Padawan?" Obi-Wan smiles, pushing his long hair back. The Council insisted it wasn't tradition, Anakin insisted it looked better.

"Correct," Cody repeats. "And, you?.."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, pleasure to meet you," The Jedi shake hands, normally a bow was customary, but Cody.. was no normal Jedi, he had much to learn, and Obi-Wan thought it easier to ease him into it. He was quite nice looking, vibrant, dark skin with short, pitch-black curls. He found himself staring for a moment too much, quickly adjusting his posture and attitude, clearing his throat. Cody looks away, cringing when Obi-Wan chuckles quietly at the flush on his face. He had been staring too.

Oh well, that was a situation Obi-Wan didn't mind at all.

"I'll show you to your quarters, then around the Temple, then maybe I can take you to my quarters for a cup of tea. I'd love to get to know you, I hear we'll be working together very soon," Obi-Wan smiles as they beginning walking through the Temple, repeating what Anakin had told him to tell Cody.

"Uh.. Okay," Cody speaks carefully. Obi-Wan just smiles at him reassuringly.

It had been a year since then- Cody had grown, physically and in the Force. He finally reached the age where he'd grow at a normal rate, now he and Obi-Wan were physically the same age. And he liked that. Shaak Ti had trained him long before coming to the Temple, but she still thought the experience would help him adjust better.

And adjust better he did, mostly thanks to Obi-Wan and his very outgoing Master. Obi-Wan was always not far behind Master Skywalker, who was always running into a battle or a trap. He insisted he only followed because, well, Master Skywalker is his Master, and he's gotta be there most times, he is the Teacher- And in this war, there was less teaching from Anakin and more "Do as I do, you'll learn."

That of course led to Obi-Wan and Cody studying aboard their ship in their free time.

"Now that is just plain wrong," Obi-Wan sneers as he looks at the holopad, which was the debrief Anakin had given at the battle of Geonosis. "He either lied straight to the Council or they all decided they wouldn't include the fact that my Master was the one to get into the situation first. Unbelievable."

Cody chuckles quietly at Obi-Wan's frustration. They're sitting on the ginger's bed, leaning against the wall sitting close together, but ready to move if someone were to walk in on their canoodling.

And canoodle was what Cody wanted.

"Take a break from the debriefs," Cody finally replies back, moving the 'pad from Obi-Wan's hands and tossing it to the end of the bed. "I'm right here anyway."

"Oh, because you're not a bore on the eyes," Obi-Wan deadpans, lifting Cody's chin slightly. He only rolls his eyes and kisses the teasing Padawan, turning his body to not strain as much.

He practically melted as Obi-Wan pulled him onto his lap, holding him gently. His hands were rough but gentle to the touch as they kissed.

They rarely got these chances. Forever busy, as they would (forever) say. So the couple savoured the moments, drew them out as long as they could last, never moving too fast or too slow for the other.

Of course, moments were just moments.

A knock rang at the door and Cody removed himself from Obi, quick to lay on the bed at an appropriate distance, on his stomach as he looked at the holopad again.

"Come in!" Obi-Wan answers. An Admiral opens the door and begins speaking to Obi-Wan, explaining a request of Anakin's. Neither of them knew this relationship would.. evolve so much. And Cody definitely didn't like the fact that it was forbidden.

But, Cody just smiled to himself as he - pretended to - read the holopad, knowing fully well Obi-Wan would be craving for him all day once he leaves to speak with Anakin.

[waltwhitmansbeard]

A hello/good-bye kiss that is given without thinking - where neither person thinks twice about it. -for vaxleth duh

10. A hello/good-bye kiss that is given without thinking - where neither person thinks twice about it. can't believe my bestie is sending me cr drabble requests, this is the best timeline y'all

A creature of the night, Vax has worked hard to train himself to rise with the sun in his few months here in Zephrah. Keyleth is a natural morning person, which is equal parts endearing and irritating, so Vax makes the heroic sacrifice of waking up far earlier than he'd like to spend the mornings with her before she has to rush off to her myriad duties as Tempest.

This morning, she's running late, for which she places the blame entirely on Vax's shoulders, and okay, maybe he kept her up longer than she'd've liked, but as he fries up some eggs on the stove, he reminds her that she wasn't complaining at the time. She hops into her boots, a piece of buttered toast in her mouth, and grumbles about how mad her dad's going to be when she shows up late to their meeting with the Blades. Vax dumps some eggs onto a plate, slides them across the table toward her, and says, "You're literally the one in charge. You can be as late as you like."

The eggs are gone in three enormous bites. "It doesn't look good if I'm late." She disappears back into the bedroom and materializes a few moments later, her mantle haphazardly settled on her shoulders. "What are your plans for the day?" She struggles with the clasp.

Vax breathes out a laugh and walks over to her. He first thumbs away the crumbs at the corner of her mouth before nudging her fingers out of the way to fix her mantle. "I am planning on being the most dutiful stay-at-home boyfriend Zephrah has ever seen. I'm thinking...reorganizing the spice rack, going to the market to get what we need for dinner, ooh, an afternoon nap, and if things get really crazy, I might just clean the bathroom. Don't wanna overextend myself, though, so I'll play it by ear."

Keyleth opens her mouth to reply, but then the clock on the wall chimes the hour, and she says, "Shit, I gotta go!" She presses an off-center kiss to his mouth and darts for the door, snatching the Spire of Conflux from the umbrella stand right in the entrance. "Love you!" she calls over her shoulder.

"Love you!" he shouts at her retreating back just as the door closes. Laughing to himself, he returns to the table and his eggs, and he thinks maybe he's going to rearrange his schedule and take that afternoon nap as soon as he's done with breakfast.

[crisiscutie]

How about Yandere Sephiroth with a First class Darling? This was Post Nibelheim and Shinra, being the ever biggest mastermind they are prepared someone else as a replacement in advance. Darling just like that became the next star on the Shinra's military board. She hated it,she didn't feel the least pleased about being in the eyes of the public for all to see,it disgusted her

Darling knew everything,after she is the Shadow of Shinra, the one that always finished the dirty works for Shinra. She knew all about the things that had gone and are going on outside and inside Shinra. She knew about Sephiroth, Genesis,Angeal,Zack and the Jenova Projects including their future plans as well as other top secret, classified information. See her as like an unknown executive of Shinra,the one who always attended the meetings in secrets,the other executives just don't know she was the unrevealed one in the room, watching them in a different room with hidden cameras(which was permitted) that recorded the meetings

In the shadow she witnessed it all

Quite frankly, Darling was pissed they decided to just announce her existence,she doesn't like to be known. Being in the light ain't her thing. Being First Class doesn't really feel that fine like they say,too much followers, overly curious reporters and Roche is plain out annoying and Darling is one hell of a boss bitch:

[ Darling: Your hair looks ridiculous and stop those freaking noises from your vehicles already. It's annoying,stupid "speed demon"

Roche: ರ⁠╭⁠╮⁠ರ You're mean,even meaner than Genesis

Darling: Well you gotta live with it now,bitch. Cuz I'm never feeling in a good mood anyway. Plus Genesis is recuperating underground right now, I visit him sometimes

Darling: There's no need to mention him anymore

Roche: Wut?

Darling: Oh right, please don't go babble about it with others, Dear~ My specialty is killing tattletales

Darling: Let this be a little secret I let you in on

Roche: Ugh, fine I know better than to spill stuff about Shinra that makes them suspicious and I know it's serious cuz you just said please ]

Yeah Darling can be extremely bold and mean

Back to main story!!! One day,Darling was sent to eliminate Sephiroth bc Shinra wanted this threat to be entirely exterminated. Hojo called her in for a favour,which is if she managed to win,bring him some samples of Sephiroth back to him. Typical Hojo bitch

Darling didn't care if she wins or not,she was plotting her escape with this bc she knows too well this is a suicide mission and she was sent to be a sacrificial lamb. Typical Shinra President right? Rufus was right about him not treasuring precious pawns/subordinates, Darling is sure as hell a crucial piece in the game, he's just too dumb to try to use her to eliminate the other threat that they aren't even sure is alive which is basically a foolish move

When Sephiroth met Darling again he was surprised,he remembered clearly that he met this woman at many eerily important events in time,the most mysterious woman he ever met:

The informer who told him of crucial data and mission details on the phone during the Wutai War,he remembered that lovely voice

That day at the disaster in Junon where they first truly met,she arrived with backups and obtaining the reports on the incident. She was the one who interrogated and debriefed him. He immediately realised that voice was from her. How can he forget such a mesmerising voice? Most certainly that time he remembered her beautiful face as clear as day

He met her as suddenly and as fleetingly as when she disappeared away from his sight immediately after

Sometimes after combating with Angeal and Genesis on the virtual training ground,he saw her coming out of the observation room where one can witness what is happening in the training ground. Perhaps it was her eyes he felt on his back while he was fighting?

Of course before he can react,the mysterious woman disappeared again

She even appeared when he and Zack discovered the beast with Angeal's face, even commented about how it had gotten more and more uncanny with things these days. Then she disappeared right after which left a bewildered Sephiroth and a curious Zack who was questioning who was that beautiful woman that just appeared out of nowhere

Even that time at Modeoheim where the case of Genesis copies occurred,he also saw her there and it was the first time he truly confronted her, asking her who she truly is and why did she keep appearing and disappearing in the background at the multiple important points in his life,to which she only smirked,giving a friendly albeit wicked smile to him and told him:

"That is the secret which I cannot reveal to you. But you can find out what is this secret for yourself"

Then she left again,that smile on her face stuck in his mind for so long and her words ingrained in his memories

At this point, Darling does seem like she was a stalker to Sephiroth. But it's complicated, Shinra wanted an eye on Sephiroth and who's better than the Shadow? Darling was ordered to keep watch on him and reported back, this mission was a minor one as she had other things to do,hence her disappearance and appearance around Sephiroth. Darling must admit she has an interest towards the man but she didn't mind much about it

Darling was indeed there at Nibelheim,after Sephiroth burned it to the ground,she was sent there to check the debris and ruins. Zack saw her again and Cloud momentarily saw her for the first time. It was when they were carried off to somewhere and they heard her disdainfully talking to Hojo about "how he should keep it down on his atrocities and restrain himself from committing them " to which he replied with a laugh, saying how he understands she's such an interesting woman he even said she could be a perfect match for Sephiroth even

Back in the present,Darling was battling with Sephiroth and he noticed how she wasn't really attacking and that she was looking an escape. Darling planned to use this to fake her death and escape Shinra,they would simply thought she failed and went on with their life as if her life is meaningless to them

When Sephiroth overcame her and apprehended her,seeing there wasn't any other escape. Darling asked him to kill her for she rather die than go back to Shinra. But Sephiroth did something she didn't expect

Sephiroth cannot let his Darling go,she had always followed him like a shadow all his life. Always watching him, always had her grip grabbed around his shoulders, refusing to let him go

He felt that without her,he felt lonely. One may lost it all,but not their shadow. Sephiroth already lost those he truly cared,he cannot lose his shadow as well. He spent all his life trying to catch up with her,who kept disappearing and slipping away from his grasp. How can he ever let her go? One may call this a twisted,insane love. He thought she was watching over him because she cared about him in his screwed,ill mind

Now the twisted man and his beloved shadow are inseparable,he will never let her go again

This AU is officially called Shadow of Shinra AU

-🌹

I think you've nailed Sephiroth's reaction to such a mysterious darling that seemingly hovered over him so long. It would frustrate him (fear of the unknown and all of that) but also makes him starved to satisfy his curiosities, thus it paved a way to a deluded view of her caring about him in his broken mind... I mean, in a way, he was right. It was literally her duty to watch over him and report back. Would this make the darling an honorary Turk? Haha.

And poor (not really) Shinra, losing two of their greatest weapons. Maybe you know, they should stop trying to make all of these super soldiers and performing unethical experimentation on people? Ah, the plight of a despicable corporation getting what they deserve, if it wasn't only to the poor darling's despair through. She goes from oppressive control to another, basically.

And I love how Hojo is like: 😎. I mean, it seems he is always a winner in this AU. Darling somehow survives her encounter with Sephiroth despite it being a clear suicide mission intended by Shinra? He gets the samples he wants and continues to observe the scientific breakthrough that is the darling. If not? Well, Sephiroth is still alive and around, upholding his scientific brilliance and legacy!

[alpha-kid-au]

Chapter six, training, And pizza.

The mountaintops of Williams dimension are still drenched in the light of the full moon, as the sounds of battle echo through the valleys, as William is training G in the ways of combat

G strikes down at William, but he jumps out of the way. And as G lands, William kicks him into another mountain.

G got out of the wall and jumped back at him, bouncing from mountain to mountain.

He fired bones at him, which he dodged, but while he was distracted, G swung at him with the strings, so he jumped as G was about to hit him, and then he kicked him into the ground.

As William pulled G out of the ground he said "wow, you're doing a lot better than the first day we'd trained." As he dusted off G, and made sure he didn't hurt him

"Ugh, it just still seems so hopeless to defeat you though" G spoke annoyedly, as he stretched.

"Remember, the goal isn't meant to be "defeat me", it's meant to be improvement, which you have in spades." William said as he dusted himself off.

"I know but… it doesn't feel that way" G said, sitting down, as he got ready to eat his lunch

"Oh, you hungry?" William said as he sat down too.

"Yeah, it's just been a lot," G replied.

"Hey, would you wanna eat at my palace?" William suggested, putting his hand on G's shoulder. "I don't cook much but well, I can, if you don't expect anything magnificent."

"Are you sure?" G asked as William got up and said "of course! I mean I've been teaching you after all, gotta make sure you're not hungry. Come on, let's go." As G got up, and said "sure."

They both flew over on Williams' horned blaster, over the hills as they came to the large castle, weaving in and out of the mountain, some rooms visible, some not.

As they entered the hallway through the columns, they went down the hall, and after entering a smaller chamber, they went to the right leading to a hall with a large table. It seems to be dusty from lacking use, however.

"Whoa! How did I never know about this room before? Your place is massive!" G spoke into the echoing halls of the dining room.

"Y-yeah… I don't use most of it often" William said, grabbing his arm, as he continued down to the kitchen.

"You can do whatever you want, I'll try to make an actual meal, I'm used to just making cookies." He continued as he walked to the kitchen.

"Well I don't have much to do, I could help you make food." G suggested.

"Huh? Well what do you know how to cook?" William asked, as G perked up

"I can make pizza! Hunter and Nightmare taught me." As he walked over.

"Well I don't have those ingredients… Give me a sec." William said, disappearing into the warpspace.

After about five minutes he comes back with all of the ingredients he would need.

"Alright, let's make pizza I guess." He said as he smiled lightly.

As they headed into the kitchen, G saw a rather normal sized kitchen, as surprising as it is with the size of everything else, you would expect a kitchen the size of a restaurant's, however it isn't.

"This is my kitchen. We should get started! We'll need mixing bowls right?" William said as he used telekinesis to grab multiple bowls, cutting boards and a baking sheet, alongside a rolling pin and any other things they would need.

"Woah! That telekinesis is cool, can I learn that?" G asked, as William laughed,

"Well, probably. My control of telekinesis is far greater than even others with my same power, so it is unpredictable how good you could be with it." He responded.

"What do we do now?" He asked, as they made lunch.

Once they finished making food, they sat down, and ate.

"It would appear we have both learned something today,l." William said as he giggled and ate

"Yeah… I guess so" G said as they ate.

- later -

They're training again on the mountains, G threw bones, and fired blasters, to no avail.

So he summoned dozens of bones behind him, attached them to strings, flinging them at William, and as he was about to dodge, G surrounded the area with blasters, trapping him.

And as all the bones landed, he celebrated, "YES! I did it!" As William responded,

"Well, it could use some work, but I might be able to start using magic soon" he winked as he got up from the ground.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today bud, you can go home." William spoke, smiling.

As G said his goodbyes and went off to his home, William sat in-between the columns of the hall, as he somberly stared out into the infinite expanse.