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blackhakumen · 7 months ago

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Mini Fanfic #1198: (No) Trust in the Agency (Super Smash Bros Ultimate X Sonic)

12:50 a.m. G.U.N. Fortress Agency: Commander's Office.......

Mechanical Voice: A vistor has reached the facility and is now awaiting the entrance outside of the office.

Commander: (Looks Over at One of the Cameras Recordings to See a Familiar Face Waiting in Front of his Office) Hm. Here already? (Pressed a Button In Front of Him Before Giving the Voice the Command) Let her in.

Mechanical Voice: Entrance access granted.

'Door Automatically Opens'

Peach: (Walks into the Room, Happily Greeting the Commander in Question) Hello!~

Commander: (Gives Peach a Single Nod) Your highness. It's good to see you once again. I wasn't expecting you to come here this earlier than usual this time around.

Peach: (Giggles a Bit) Oho, you know me~ Can't stand the thought of me ever being late for the life me.

Commander: (Chuckles a Bit) Yes, you and me both. I much refer arriving somewhere in more earlier time than a slightly late one to say the least.

Peach: (Happily Nodded) Mmhmm. So how's everyone been doing here as of late?

Commander: Pretty good for the most part. (Shows Peach Recording Monitors of Everyone in Team Dark Participating Various Obstacles in the Training Room) In fact, the training and the missions they've reciprocal thus far has been helping them improve quite a lot, Shadow especially. His strategic prowess has been on point and his combat skills are better than ever. Well done teaching him how to fight with a frying pan by the way.

Peach: (Smiles Brightly) Why, thank you!~ I did my very best to make sure my baby become just as efficient with it in use as I am.

Commander: And you succeed with flying colors. (Turns Back to the Princess) We appericate all of the support you continue to bring to him and his team as of late, despite any negative feelings you have towards us personally.

Peach: (Starts Twiddling her Fingers While "Innocently" Looking Away) Negative feelings? Whatever do you mean, commander?~

Commander: ('Sigh') No need to try and deny it. I could already tell by the look in your eyes and movements that you're not too fond of my presences alone.

Peach: Oh my.....(Slowly Turns Her Head Back to the Commander) Was it really that obvious?

Commander: To me it was. I'm not too sure about everyone else here however.

Peach: I see. (Sighs in Defeat While Shrugging) But since you've figured me out, I might as well come clean and say it. (Forms a Glare Towards the Commander) I don't trust you and GUN around my son. Not after everything you've put him through after all those years ago in that Ark.

Commander: (Taken a Bit Aback by the Princess Has Just Told Him) A. I...take it Shadow has already informed you about that incident at some point?

Peach: (Simply Nodded) Yes, two to three years ago to be exact. (Wipes a Few Tears Away From Her Eyes) It broke my heart immensely to find out all the pain, tragedies and the heartache he had to endure on that awful day......('Sniff') And all those years later.....(Takes a Deep Breath) But above all else.......(Hardens her Glare at the Man Standing Right In Front of Her) It infuriates me to the core to also find out that the people who caused all of this to begin with, were a part of the very same organization he's working for!

The GUN Commander remains silent as he let's the princess continue on with her rant.

Peach: They took Maria, that poor, innocent little girl's life away in cold blood, executed her own grandfather on the spot afterwards, and made Shadow distraught to the point him going on a bitter revenge spree until the day he decided sacrifice his own life to helping Sonic save your world from destruction! And don't think for second, I didn't notice a few of your other agents talking about him behind his back.

Peach looks down at the harden floor, shaking with pure anger.

Peach: Calling him a monster......a freak.....alien scum......After everything he's been through, after all the hard work he've done here, THIS is the thanks he gets!?

Commander: I understand how you feel completely, your highness. But we can't change what others view him, even if they are his allies.

Peach: ('Sighs in Defeat') I know, it just.....This is all so....frustrating!!.....He doesn't deserve any of this.....

Commander: Some may say otherwise, but I for one ageee with you. He doesn't deserve all the anger and resentment he receives. Especially not from me of all people.

Peach: (Looks Up Back at The Commander) You....hated him too?

Commander: Used to, back in the distant past. ('Sighs Heavily') To the point where I tried to assassinate him once.

Peach: (Angrily Stomps her Foot Onto the Ground) YOU WHAT!? (Quickly Tries to Calm Herself Down While Taking a Few Deep Breaths) Sorry!.....I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.

Commander: (Shakes his Head) No, it's fine. Your anger on the matter is justified. I see no problem letting it all out in here.

Peach: (Takes a Deep Breath One More Time Before Speaking in a More Calm Manner) Thank you. But I think it's best we talk it out calmy instead. So please, explain yourself.....before I lose it and bash your skull open.

Commander: (Grimaces at the Thought of Peach's Threat Before Clearing his Throat) R-Right. Well, back when I was a child and long before i became the commander of this organization before you, I was too raised in the Space Ark Colony alongside Maria.

Peach: (Gasps a Bit and Eyes Widened Up in Genuine Surprise) You were?

Commander: (Simply Nodded) It's the truth. She was a older than I was. She was like the older sister I never had- (Chuckles Lightly at the Fond Memories) So it was only natural that I constantly annoyed and teased every chance I get. It wasn't long, however, before we found out that Professor Gerald among the scientists on board were involved into creating one of the Ultimate Lifeforms, Shadow, in a tube of sorts. I was wary of his presence at first glance, but I think I remembered getting along with him decent enough. (Starts Frowning at the Next Part of the Memory) It all changed one night when I suddenly woke up in a private confessional room located in the federal department. Two men in suits started asking me various questions I have little to no knowledge of answering until they told me Maria and Gerald were both found dead on board the Ark.....and that Shadow was the one who killed them.

Peach: (Couldn't Believe What She's Hearing) Those soldiers.....They framed him?

Commander: In a sense, yes. But I didn't know that at the time. ('Sigh') In fact, for fourty plus years, I've ended believing he was responsible for what happened. (Looks Down at the G.U.N. Symbol Imprinted on a Manual Sitting on his Desk) The very reason I enrolled myself into this agency in the first place was to find more answers about the incident.....and planned upon my vengeance towards him with my men joining alongside, once I found out he was still alive all those years later. Nothing was going to hold us back any longer.

Peach slowly resumes back to shaking in pure anger before the Commander speaks up again.

Commander: That was......until we unexpectedly met each other again at one of Dr. Eggman's former bases in the past. I was held captive by that mad scientist for almost the entire day, hearing him ramble on about his plans on world domination....(Picks Up a Picture Frame of Him, Shadow. Maria, and Gerald Together, From his Desk) Even discovering the truth of what really happened on the Ark that day. Eventually, Shadow came in and broke me free from his grasps as we fought through every machine that stood in the way of our escape.

Flashback

Commander: (Starts Shooting Downs an Army of Robots Behind Him, using his Armed BazookaWhile Following Shadow) ('Sigh') Honestly, You do know I never needed your help to begin with, right? I could've gotten myself out of here just fine all on my own.

Shadow: (Rolls his Eyes a Bit) Right..... And I suppose you already known which directions to go for the exit?

Commander: ('Sighs in Annoyance') Don't start with me right now, Hedgehog. I am just as much of a capable fighter as you are!

Shadow: You're also a leader of government agency who is too important and valuable to lose right now.

Commander: Is that right? I never took you for the caring type.

Shadow: Don't read too deep into this. I'm only doing this for a friend. Over here!

Commander: That friend of yours is Rouge, I presume?

Shadow: Yeah. She can be a real pain at times, but I wouldn't be where I am right now if it weren't for her and Omega.

Commander: (Raises an Eyebrow in Confusion) Omega?

Shadow: (Turns to Commander) He's one of the E-Series robots Eggman made. He's been on out side for the longest now, so there's no need for you worry on that-

Commander: LOOK OUT! (Points His Weapon Up and Shoots Down the Giant Robot That Was Right in Front of Shadow)

Shadow: Hm? (Immediately Stops Skating as He Turns Back Around to See the Scraps of Metal Falling Down to the Ground Before Turning Back to the Commander) Did you.....helped me out just now?

Commander: (Rolls his Eyes) Surprising, I know. But you should try to pay more attention to where you're going next time. I'll be damned if I let you die and see Maria again this soon......

Shadow: ('Sigh') Right. Thank yo- Wait. How do know Maria?

Commander: I'll explain everything later. Right now, we need to leave out of here alive, am i clear?

Shadow: (Nodded to the Man's Command Before Resuming On) Crystal.

End of Flashback

Commander: Once we managed to retreat back to this office, I explained who I was and our past together at the Ark, as well as offered him a job at GUN along with the rest of his teammates. It took some time for us to trust each other completely, but even then, Shadow has long sinced proven himself to not only be a one of the most profound member of our squadron, but also a hero in his own right.

The Commander puts the picture frame back down on his desk before letting down a deep breath and turning back to Peach.

Commander: Like I said before, I can't change some of our soldiers' opinion on who or what Shadow is to them no matter how hard I try, but I will continue to do everything in my power to look after him, fight for, and protect him if necessary not just as his boss, but as an old friend. That's a promise I am willing to fulfill until my dying breathe emerges.

Peach: (Stares at GUN Commander For a Brief Second Before Taking a Deep Breath Herself) It going to take time for me to trust you and this organization completely, but if it's a promise you're truly willing to take, then I'm willing to take your word to great value at the very least.

Commander: Is that right?

Peach: (Simply Nodded) Mmhmm. (Puts on Piercing Glare Once More) But let be known: If I catch or hear you and anyone else in GUN try to harm Shadow and his friends in anyway, I will make every last one of you pay, one way or another. Do you understand me?

Commander: (Simply Nodded) Loud and clear. I thank you for this talk. (Smiles a Bit) Shadow is lucky to have someone like you as his mother.

Peach: (Smiles Back at the Commander) I may not know Maria personally, but I believe she would be very proud of how much you've accomplished so far.

Commander: ('Heh') Yeah, if she sees me now, I'll never hear the end of her crying. Not that I wouldn't stop her, mind you.

Peach let's out a small giggle until the sound of a mechanical voice speaks again.

Mechanical Voice: Four more vistors are waiting out of the office.

Peach: ('Gasps') Could it be?~

Commander: Let 'em in.

The office door automatically opens by itself, revealing Team Dark and Topaz standing outside of the room this entire time.

Shadow: We completed our training session for the day, si- (Turns to See a Very Familiar Face inside the Office) Mother?

Peach: Shadow, Hello!~ (Happily Picks Shadow Up Before Twirling Him Around For a Bit Before Hugging Him) How's my precious, baby boi and his wonderful friends doing on this fine, lovely day?~

Shadow: (Sighs While Blushing a Bit) It's been for the most part.

Rouge: (Smiles Brightly atbthe Princess Mom) We were just finishing off our training routine before we leave for lunch.

Omega: (Already Has a Deadpinned Look on his Face) And I was yet again restricted from presenting my fullest potential in action.

Topaz: ('Sigh') Omega, we've been over this. You're not allowed to use any of your fully enhanced weapons on training grounds. You could potentially destroy the entire base if you're not careful.

Rouge: (Turns to Omega) Listen to your Momma Topaz, Omega. She knows what she's talking about.

Topaz: Exactly- (Quickly Turns to Rouge Withba Glare) H-Hey! I told you to quit calling me that!

Rouge: (Turns to Topaz) True. But you were the one who agree to help look after him with me, remember?~

Topaz: I did! (Turns Away Withba Bit of a Pouty Look on her Face) I just....Don't see myself as an actual mom. Let alone a fun one like you......

Rouge: Not with that attitude!!

Commander: (Gives the Team a Solid Nod) Well done as always, Team Dark. What say you start taking it easy for the rest of day, yeah?

Shadow: (Raises an Eyebrow) Taking it easy?

Rouge: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock) As in a day off!?

Commander: Correct. Consider this a reward for all hard work you three have displayed as of late. You too, Topaz. You deserve a day off as well.

Topaz: (Eyes Widened in Genuine Surprise) Seriously!? B-But sir, I don't know what to-SAY!? (Suddebly Gets Carried in Rouge's Arms)

Rouge: (Smiles Brightly at her Boss) Thank you in advance, sir, BYEEEEEEEE!~ (Flies Off While Carrying Topaz)

Topaz: R-Rouge, H-Hey! Where are we even going!?

Rouge: Shopping, baby!~ Let's go, Omega!~

Omega: (Follows his Mother Figures Behind) Not the activity that came to mind, but it will do for now.

Shadow: I....guess that means we have the day to ourselves then?

Peach: (Shrugs) I don't mind. So long as I get to spend it with you of course~ (Gives Shadow a Big Kiss On the Cheek)

Shadow: ('Sighs in a Bit of Annoyance') Mother.....Not in front of the Commander......

Commander: There's no shame in receiving kisses from mother, soldier. A shame I didn't bring my phone with me. (Gives Shadow a Bit of a Teasing Smirk) I would've taken five to ten photos of this in seconds.

Shadow: (Glares at his Boss) Don't start with me today, sir. We're leaving.

Peach: (Waves Goodbye to the Commander While Walking Out of the Office Along With Sgadow) Have a good rest of the day, Commander!~

Commander: You as well, your highness. You as well.

Shadow: So....(Turns to His Mother While Walking With Her) What did you two talked about while we were training?

Peach: Ohh nothing too important. Just how you all were doing here and stuff. Why ask?

Shadow: Just wondering. I know how much you dislike G.U.N. as of late.

Peach: ('Sigh') No doubt about that. I'm just glad you're doing okay here. Or at least I hope you are.

Shadow: I am, don't worry. (Gives His Mother a Small Smile) I appericate your concern and support though.

Peach: (Smiles Brightly) You're always welcome, honey. (Happily Hugs her Son Again) What kind of mom would I be if I didn't look out for my sweet darlings?~

Shadow: The kind that doesn't hug me in public?

Peach: Oh relax. We're not out of the base yet. Just let me gave this a little longer, okay?

Shadow: ('Sighs in Defeat') Fine......Love you.

Peach: Love you too, sweetie~(Gives Shadow Another Kiss on the Cheek)

@albion-93

@decibelcoatl

@ma-lemons

@caleb13frede

@bestpony666

@bellanova137

#sonic series #super smash ultimate #peach #gun commander #shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #topaz #maria (mentioned)#gerald (mentioned)#trust issues #angst #drama #sweet family moment #fluff in the end #mother's month #year of shadow #tragedy #edited

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ramosdick · 1 month ago

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NYC experiences #2

For some reason, I attract 'different' people. I say different because I've always hated the word 'weird' because I myself am that but wouldn't like it if someone referred to me as it specifically.

NYC public libraries are the best place to go to see and interact with these types. I was using one of the computers, and a man came and sat next to me. Periodically, he'd look over at me as if suspicious that my still stare at my own screen looking at apartment pictures was me sneakily looking at his screen. After a certain point, he made a giant show of moving his computer screen away from me. I found it funny and didn't say anything, because that's just another day in New York.

I was using the restroom and there was one universal key for it. I had exited the restroom and was about to put it on the hook when I noticed that it had been the same man who had sat next to me on the computer waiting to use it, so I instead handed him the key personally instead of putting it on the hook. I had thought nothing of it; that was just my personality.

I remember exiting the library one day, waiting for the bus. It was cold and I had put my hood up. I was standing at the bus stop but wasn't really paying attention to whoever was next to me, but I could vaguely make out by his figure that he was male.

"You cold?"

I looked at him and nodded. He was black, likely the same age as me. He had a drawl to his voice as if he were drunk or high.

He had said some other things to me but I can't remember. We got on the bus together. It was somewhat crowded and we were at the front. I could see him closer, his skin was about the same tone as mine. Not dark but not light. I wasn't sure if it was the same man who had rudely turned his computer monitor away from me, because if that were the case, why was he being so nice to me?

He'd told me he'd seen me at the library and I'd told him I'd seen him too. He told me it was a good library. He tried making some conversation. I noticed a seat open at the back and headed there once the bus stopped. He strangely followed. I sat down next to a male passenger as my new friend sat across from me. He told me his name was James and asked me for mine. He said he had his mask down and if I could pull mine down to show my face. I shyly said no. He told me my backpack was open and I thanked him. He asked if I wanted to get something to eat with him, which I politely declined. He wished me goodbye as he got off the bus. I only saw him in the library once after that and he didn't acknowledge me nor did I acknowledge him. The library eventually closed and I haven't seen him since but I missed him for some reason, even coming back one day to see if he was there.

I realized that me handing him the key as opposed to just putting it back on the hook for him to take was likely what got him. The physical closeness of handing it to him, me being female and somewhat his age, although I knew I was pretty basic looking. That that was enough to trump his initial aggression towards me.

I noticed a lot of outcast men fall for me once I show them any tiny bit of compassion, which is sad but understandable as I've felt the same when others show me even a hint of empathy. But also in combination with the fact that I'm not intimidating in the slightest like all of these beautiful women probably makes it a lot easier.

Truth be told, I would've gotten to know him and accepted his offer if I had been happy with myself and the way I looked, and content with where I was in life but I wasn't. But thank you for being one of the few people who acknowledged me and spoke to me at my lowest.

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fox-moxin · 2 years ago

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My Strange Dream, Champaign

Last nights dream was a trip..

It was a TV show, I think called "The Ch of Ch" and it opens with a shot of a woman who appears to washing laundry next to a door in a medieval setting, possibly in a monastery or castle of some sort. A lanky, pock faced fellow with a distinct lack of chin walks up to the door and says he'll go inside because he knows it bothers her to just use the wall. He then goes in and you can hear him urinating and the whole time gives a whiney speach tot he woman about how he knows she doesn't like him but he doesn't think it's fair since he's so handsome (A dubious claim at best) and says blaming it on his botulism isn't fair because it jsut makes him more moist and being moist should jsut make him MORE attractive and she really should appreciate him more. Finally he steps out of the room wishes her a good day and leaves, she smiles rather forcefully back and returns the well wishing.

Once he was gone she signals to her friend who has apparently been across the path, just behind the camera the whole time. This is a delicate looking young man with a whispy beard. A quick conversation reveals he is in fact a she and was waiting to make sure she could use the lavatory without anyone else in there so no one would notice. It would spoil years of work after all if everything was spoiled because they found out she was a girl and they were so close. While using the restroom though, somehow our heroine in disquise is spotted by a boy of about 12, she manages to escape though, before she is identified.

Having successfully escaped exposure she makes her way to a wooden post, a support pillar for the building they're in and opens a small hatch in the side. There we see a strange looking retro 60's telephone with a CRT monitor attached. She picks up the phone and it plays a sort of weird dystopian power point (Think Vaultech slideshow from Fallout) which gives a rather useless message of encouragement to keep up the good work and remember the importance of "THE PLAN" It also ends with a warning to be extra careful because "Champaign is there"

After this we do see Champaign who is making his way through another part of the building. People defer and get out of his way. He never speaks but he seems to be able to communicate what he wants through simple gestures and everyone is clearly terrified of him. Champaign is the weird part that I Really wanted to get down here so buckle up for this part, I'm gonna do my best here.

Champaign is portrayed by Three different actors. A boy of about 8, a Teenager, and an Arnold Schwarzenegger Impersonator. (That last part was distinct, it wasn't just a bodybuilder at peak condition, it was specifically an Arnold Schwarzenegger Impersonator) All three are dressed entirely in white, and have white powdered faces and makeup and all of them are wearing a powdered Wig, like a British judge. The boy was wearing a simple outfit of knee high boots and a patterned vest over a silk shirt. The Teenager was wearing an somewhat foppish suit that I'm pretty sure my brain is stealing from Hugh Laurie when he was the Prince of Wales in Black Adder, right down to carrying around a small cane, and the Arnold was wearing an almost clownish outfit of French Foppery and excessive makeup. It was too tight and seemed to be more about accentuating his musculature than anything else, straight up baring his midriff. He was also still carrying around the cane, which seemed comically small in his hands. But really made him weird is how the camera treats him.

The Camera shifts back and forth between the actors, in what seem like simple jump cuts. Sometimes going to other people first but other times back and forth between the three. They're never shown on screen together, and the camera angles seem to deliberately make it hard to tell exactly where he is standing in any given shot, using a lot of low angle shots that give him a sort of surreal quality. This all leads to a sort of weird set of possibilities to explain his nature.

1. His appearance is changed depending on who is perceiving him. Maybe literally, maybe it's jsut how people see him. This seems, unlikely, based on some of his actions, but it IS possible, maybe the most possible.

2. He is constantly shifting between the three forms and this takes the form of the jump cuts. This is certainly possible, although it means he's doing so essentially on camera and the effect is jarring and unsettling, which would have to be an intentional decision by the director.

3. All three people are actually there in the room at the same time, and they are, collectively the entity known as Champaign. This seems unlikely because the camera shots all SEEM to indicate that when it shifts from one actor to another, they're standing in the same spot, but the weird angles effect on his stance does not preclude the possibility. The strongest claim for this is that in one scene after being asked a question the Bodybuilder seems to look to his left, the camera switches to the teenager who looks to his right and nods, before switching back to the Bodybuilder, which indicates that maybe the forms are interacting with each other. But then again, even in wide shots they're never shown together, and even int he shot in question there doesn't seem to be enough space in the room for this to have been possible.

And that's all I remember.

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cadybear420 · 8 months ago

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Adding my thoughts because I love to talk about this series

I do think it sucks that you can't pair Emma and Caleb together if you're not romancing them--maybe not in book 1 since Caleb is still processing his breakup, though.

Honestly same. In concept I really like Emma and Caleb as a couple, I feel like they'd be pretty cute. But I will admit, making them a couple in the story would have been a disservice to both of their arcs. That being said, I do really like the idea of them maybe getting together in the later future, as a sort of a "coming together older and wiser" thing.

I do wish we had more extracurricular options, but I understand this is in the earlier days of the app, and they did well with what they had.

Even the most fleshed out choice-reliant stories are going to have limitations. For what it's worth, I do think what we got was pretty damn good. Though I'd definitely be all for exploring more activities as well.

Funny how you mention that "this is in the earlier days of the app, and they did well with what they had" though. It's been 7 years since this series and PB's effort has only downgraded since then. To the point where they're frequently using AI generated shit.

I feel like Zoe and Brian's arcs in this series are A MESS, though. Zoe cheated on Caleb since Summer vacation and Brian had some kind of feelings for her, but when Caleb finds out, she tries to go back to him, and it felt very flat.

Teenage relationships can be a mess lol. I definitely think Book 3 was much stronger for both of their arcs though. Book 1 was pretty good with them, but Book 3 really solidified it for me.

Brian also gave a weak apology, and it looks bad because you decide whether or not Caleb forgives him, which makes it feel like MC allowed room for Caleb to excuse Brian's actions again.

I mean, even when you choose the option to be more forgiving to Brian and hence Caleb forgives Brian, they do still make it clear Caleb wants nothing to do with him anymore. So it kind of has more of a "I'm accepting it and moving on" feel.

Another thing I'd have enjoyed was explaining why MC transferred to Berry High, as well as their relationship with their parents; half of their dialogue with Scott is just "Dad/Daaaaad/Dad!"

I honestly prefer it that way, that they don't explain the backstory for MC. It allows players to create their own, which I think is something that can be beneficial in a choice-based story like HSS. Variability in the story experience is something I consider fairly important in interactive novels, and giving MCs set backgrounds can often cheapen that.

I also wish MC got the option to work at the school station during the winter season, and the friction in the school felt unfair towards students like Caleb who didn't think anything bad of Principal Isa's hall monitors. Those who fought against Isa were really insensitive to those who followed her rules like they didn't understand those who were raised to respect authority (even to extremes) and were being abused themselves.

IDK what school station is... but I definitely agree with the unfair treatment. What especially bothered me is how the band and cheer rooted against the basketball team in order to stand up against Isa. Like, even the ones that weren't hall monitors, like MC and Julian. It's not out of nowhere and I get why they behaved like that, but it's still very painful to play through. Especially as someone who likes doing the jock route.

And lemme just say: the road trip gave me "The Freshman" vibes and I wish we'd gotten to have more fun like that outside of our "High School Story."

Stuff like that is one of my favorite things about OG HSS for sure. There's always this air of adventure, thrills, and excitement. We did not get enough time with our group tbh.

And why were Maria's dads the only parents who were suspicious of Isa?

Like @lover-also-fighter-also said, one of Maria's parents dads is a detective, so he has a little more experience with these sort of red flags. Aiden's parents were more focused on how their son was changing in behavior. MC hadn't been directly harmed by Isa. Emma and her mom were both worrying about their own shit. Caleb's and Michael's parents... yeah that's one thing that does bother me a little. Why don't we ever meet Caleb's and Michael's parents?

I will say it was kind of weird how deep this rivalry was, given that how you act affects the attitude of the freshman students from your rival high school.

HSS 1 does establish the rivalry and some of its background, but if you play HSS Prime (RIP) you'd get the full origin story for it.

Speaking of them, I'm glad we can pair up some of our rejected love interests, though they brought up something I wished we could've discussed more in the series: sexuality and identity. It's rare to discuss sexuality in GOC books with main characters since everyone is playersexual, but Cameron talking about being nonbinary and Emma talking about coming out as bi had me wishing that we'd gotten to address this earlier (especially since many modern genderlocked Choices books try to work sexuality into the mix). For example, if in book 1 you go to homecoming with someone of the same sex, your dad doesn't know it's romantic and you have the option to come out to him in book 2

honestly I'm surprised Aiden didn't have his own Kaitlyn Liao moment by coming out to his helicopter parents

Same tbh. I do think Aiden's parents weren't meant to be quite as strict as the stereotypical Asian parents, given he mentions that their behavior to him in Book 2 is fairly unusual for them. But a coming out subplot definitely would have suited him.

I also wasn't the fan of the main villains being from the rival school (and how they look like college students, even if some high schoolers look like that).

Yeah, Max and Kara were the weakest villains in the trilogy for me. Something like a fight for prom crown did not need nearly as much importance as the story tried to give it. I kind of like to read it as them considering prom court to how they measure "loyalty to Hearst", but still.

If they had to go that route, make Zoe and Brian the villains, both of them further spiraling after Caleb's disassociation from them

I do like what they did with them in this book. Zoe's redemption arc was fantastic, how she's able to stand up to Brian for Myra, how she truly understands how bad she is because she dated him, how she can even try to get some closure with Caleb in the truth or dare game. And I love that she doesn't just instantly become buddy-buddy with MC and friends. She just improves as her own person, it doesn't need to be signified by her befriending the protagonists.

And it is an interesting juxtaposition to Brian too. While Zoe improves as a person, Brian only gets worse. Brian saw people like Caleb and Zoe as nothing more than trophies to make himself look popular, and when he's lost both of those, he just spirals down and doubles down on his arrogance.

or have Skye be the villain with Brian to give off a Cheryl and Jason Blossom vibe, and after Skye's beat, she becomes the better person we see in book 1 of Class Act.

Oh what I would give to have Skye more integrated in the OG characters' storylines.

I kinda wish these books were spaced out during several school years rather than one.

Fucking preach. I like the series and I still consider it top tier, but one school year with these characters was just not enough. There was too much more to explore with them. CA may have been cute, but it did not do the HSS franchise much justice. Speaking of which...

NGL, it was messed up how we get blamed for our original MC getting hurt while auditioning, and I HATE slow burns, so the crush on Rory and cold shoulder from Ajay was annoying, to say the least.

Yeah, I found it a lot more mean-spirited than the drama in OG. The other theatre cunts were just so quick to jump to assuming our MC guilty and practically ostracize them for days(?) on end. At least in OG there was actual reason for the characters to act irrationally, such as turning on the basketball team or accusing MC of the fake tryouts email. And at least we got to see our characters overcome the adversities. In CA the drama just sort of... happens, and they just expect us to roll with it until it's over.

but you know what would've been super interesting? If this book kicked it up a notch and focused on investigating how MC got hurt (or maybe a random character is hurt/killed).

Yeah... A big thing that made the OG series so special was how proactive our friends were. They'd be able to investigate what had happened and catch the culprits. They'd go through plenty of setbacks for sure, but our MC and friends sort of took action and got shit done in situations like this. CA stripped that away and it left the stories feeling a lot more passive and lukewarm to me.

And the twin dating Amber felt kind of out of nowhere; I feel like Amber didn't need to be a factor in this in that the twin could've had their life together better than MC, but that's just me.

I actually found it one of the stronger plotlines of the story. But it does feel like it lacks importance after the first book though.

Class Act: Book 2 wasn't as fun for me as book 1. It focuses on how MC's twin and Rory are running against each other for class president. It was super icky, especially if you're romancing Rory. Your twin's feelings of betrayal feel (almost) unjustified since they expect you to help them win simply because you're related. It's super ugly and Ajay's issue with his parent's divorce felt like a B-story despite how it affected him. But I do want to praise the fact that we see the characters wear new outfits for the winter season!

Book 2 was hands-down the worst in the whole franchise for me. Neither Twin, nor Rory, nor MC get anything out of this whole plotline. They try to push this "MC we don't want you to feel pulled in two directions", only to shoot itself in the foot. And the turning point relies on the whole school acting like five year olds over a kitten video.

Ajay's subplot and romance route was leagues more compelling.

Class Act: Book 3 focuses on your spring musical going to an international convention in London! Honestly it's the most fun I've had in the CA trilogy.

Book 3 was for sure the most pleasant of the CA books. Unfortunatley I still had to take points off because it treated the OG characters like nostalgia bait.

You also find out that MC and their twin have a biological family member living in London. I don't recall it being mentioned before that they were adopted. Was this addressed in the previous books? Maybe I missed that, but it was fun to get to know more of your character's family--though I do hate how it feels like a missed opportunity to cement MC's ethnicity; oftentimes, MC is customizable but their race is ambiguous. It'd be nice getting to know more of their British culture (along with Asian or African, depending on their race).

One reason I do think confirming a background for MC can be fucky due to "letting the players create their own characters" definitely has some things to do with customizable MC race. Some pre-set backgrounds might not feel fully right for MC's of certain ethnicities. This story isn't one of them, but yeah.

Even addressing MC's race can be fucky, there are various ethnicities but the sprites generally only include four, and many players may headcanon their MCs outside of those. I'm Indian/brown, so I almost always imagine the brown MC sprite as Indian despite that the game files call them hispanic. So it would be a bit awkward for them to acknowledge a brown MC as hispanic if there are players who are interpreting otherwise.

But a BIG issue I have is with Rory's dad. Throughout the book, he sneaks around with one of MC's teacher, and it's revealed that he's been going through some emotional things that he couldn't bring to his wife...and we all don't dig deeper than that. I won't fault him since it's a "toxic masculinity" topic, but the fact that his wife forgave him so quickly felt a bit off, I guess?

I appreciate them trying to address toxic masculinity here, but this subplot definitely felt very cheap. It's just a handful of chapters of the kids thinking Rory's dad is cheating, only for it not to be and just turning out to be the good ole *misunderstanding* cliche. And it didn't really do anything for Rory's character either, which especially sucks considering they're very underdeveloped.

And Skye is being manipulated by her parents since they're financing the school play and it's future in London is in their hands. It was a really good arc, though in my alternate idea for "HSS: Book 3," it would've been interesting to see more Brian in the book. Even if he's awful, it'd make more sense.

Agreed. Skye and her arc was the best thing about the trilogy.

Both trilogies are replayable and as a franchise, a fun time, though the changeable extracurricular activities and various love interests in the original series makes it somewhat better, imo.

Yep, pretty much. CA was cute, but it lacked a lot of the effort of OG.

Choices review: High School Story

Continuing on with my reviews, I'm doing one of the fan-favorites: High School Story! In the first trilogy, you play a sophomore going to a new school and you have to navigate new friends, new bullies, an evil principal, and a school rivalry. For the second trilogy, captioned "Class Act" you play a freshman who's school life focuses mainly on extracurricular activities, namely drama and helping friends run for class president. Don't worry--it's not as boring/cliché as I make it sound. And I have a habit of listing drawbacks to things rather than positives, so don't assume I hate the book! Make sure to check out my overall feelings at the end of each review.

Book 1 was really great. While the plot didn't intrigue me like other stories and the media's usual portrayal of high school made the relationships in the book feel very PG by comparison, but the characters were probably the best part of the book. Something that kind of annoyed me is how Michael is labeled the "bad boy," even though he really isn't. He's more of a loner who occasionally breaks rules--and I'm glad, considering I'm not big on bad boys. I do think it sucks that you can't pair Emma and Caleb together if you're not romancing them--maybe not in book 1 since Caleb is still processing his breakup, though. I do wish we had more extracurricular options, but I understand this is in the earlier days of the app, and they did well with what they had. I feel like Zoe and Brian's arcs in this series are A MESS, though. Zoe cheated on Caleb since Summer vacation and Brian had some kind of feelings for her, but when Caleb finds out, she tries to go back to him, and it felt very flat. Brian also gave a weak apology, and it looks bad because you decide whether or not Caleb forgives him, which makes it feel like MC allowed room for Caleb to excuse Brian's actions again. I'm just glad the writers didn't make Brian and Caleb become friends again, considering what comes later. Another thing I'd have enjoyed was explaining why MC transferred to Berry High, as well as their relationship with their parents; half of their dialogue with Scott is just "Dad/Daaaaad/Dad!" Overall, it was a good book, even if it didn't immediately have me wanting more.

Book 2 covers how the principal is caught in a scandal and is replaced by the vice principal, who is not only totalitarian, but also scamming the school. In comparison to the previous installment, it felt better and inferior in my opinion; It was too bad that despite us being able to make Emma and Luis a concrete couple in book 1, we don't have the option to lock down a relationship until the end of book 2. I also wish MC got the option to work at the school station during the winter season, and the friction in the school felt unfair towards students like Caleb who didn't think anything bad of Principal Isa's hall monitors. Those who fought against Isa were really insensitive to those who followed her rules like they didn't understand those who were raised to respect authority (even to extremes) and were being abused themselves. And lemme just say: the road trip gave me "The Freshman" vibes and I wish we'd gotten to have more fun like that outside of our "High School Story." And why were Maria's dads the only parents who were suspicious of Isa?

Book 3 was probably the best book in the OG trilogy--and shouldn't the last story in an arc always be the best, from a writing perspective? After a fire burns down the rival school, they come and stay at your school--and rivalries inflame the school. I will say it was kind of weird how deep this rivalry was, given that how you act affects the attitude of the freshman students from your rival high school. Speaking of them, I'm glad we can pair up some of our rejected love interests, though they brought up something I wished we could've discussed more in the series: sexuality and identity. It's rare to discuss sexuality in GOC books with main characters since everyone is playersexual, but Cameron talking about being nonbinary and Emma talking about coming out as bi had me wishing that we'd gotten to address this earlier (especially since many modern genderlocked Choices books try to work sexuality into the mix). For example, if in book 1 you go to homecoming with someone of the same sex, your dad doesn't know it's romantic and you have the option to come out to him in book 2 (honestly I'm surprised Aiden didn't have his own Kaitlyn Liao moment by coming out to his helicopter parents). I also wasn't the fan of the main villains being from the rival school (and how they look like college students, even if some high schoolers look like that). If they had to go that route, make Zoe and Brian the villains, both of them further spiraling after Caleb's disassociation from them--or have Skye be the villain with Brian to give off a Cheryl and Jason Blossom vibe, and after Skye's beat, she becomes the better person we see in book 1 of Class Act. I kinda wish these books were spaced out during several school years rather than one.

Class Act: Book 1 has you play a Freshman character at Berry High, and your original main character makes occasional appearances, with mention to their dating life and extracurricular activities if you choose to import them. The book primarily focuses on how you navigate your crush on your childhood best friend Rory and auditioning for the school play. NGL, it was messed up how we get blamed for our original MC getting hurt while auditioning, and I HATE slow burns, so the crush on Rory and cold shoulder from Ajay was annoying, to say the least. But it was satisfying--but you know what would've been super interesting? If this book kicked it up a notch and focused on investigating how MC got hurt (or maybe a random character is hurt/killed). Though I will admit part of this desire is fueled by wanting Daniele to be punished for her actions. It's mentioned later that she's going to therapy, so maybe that could've been court-mandated? And the twin dating Amber felt kind of out of nowhere; I feel like Amber didn't need to be a factor in this in that the twin could've had their life together better than MC, but that's just me.

Class Act: Book 3 focuses on your spring musical going to an international convention in London! Honestly it's the most fun I've had in the CA trilogy. You also find out that MC and their twin have a biological family member living in London. I don't recall it being mentioned before that they were adopted. Was this addressed in the previous books? Maybe I missed that, but it was fun to get to know more of your character's family--though I do hate how it feels like a missed opportunity to cement MC's ethnicity; oftentimes, MC is customizable but their race is ambiguous. It'd be nice getting to know more of their British culture (along with Asian or African, depending on their race). But a BIG issue I have is with Rory's dad. Throughout the book, he sneaks around with one of MC's teacher, and it's revealed that he's been going through some emotional things that he couldn't bring to his wife...and we all don't dig deeper than that. I won't fault him since it's a "toxic masculinity" topic, but the fact that his wife forgave him so quickly felt a bit off, I guess? And Skye is being manipulated by her parents since they're financing the school play and it's future in London is in their hands. It was a really good arc, though in my alternate idea for "HSS: Book 3," it would've been interesting to see more Brian in the book. Even if he's awful, it'd make more sense. Overall, it was an enjoyable book.

HSS was a long series! Honestly I find "Class Act" more interesting story-wise, but the original trilogy had 5 love interests (not that having the option of Rory being a handsome male theatre nerd completely secure with his masculinity wasn't AMAZING), so in that aspect, it's superior. Both trilogies are replayable and as a franchise, a fun time, though the changeable extracurricular activities and various love interests in the original series makes it somewhat better, imo.

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artlesscomedic · 3 years ago

Note

was m!punz. like. mad that m!purpled got caught.

Furious.

Let's see, where did that comic leave off....

"Didn't I suffer when I had to pack up everything I owned and drag not only myself but also my little brother halfway across the world to protect both of us from our shitty parents?!

”We didn't get a brand new home and a brand new dad handed to us on a silver platter like they did! We had to work for it, while they were spoiled rotten! So, yeah, maybe Dream is scaring the kid to death--but maybe that's what he deserves!"

"Don't say shit like that!" Purpled is yelling now, or maybe it just feels louder because he means it. "Nobody deserves to be treated like that! What about our parents, since you wanna talk about them so bad! I remember some of the shit they did to us, and I'm sure that wasn't the half of it-- did you deserve it, Punz? Did I?"

He's leaving. "I'm leaving." Fuck Punz, fuck Dream, fuck this entire conversation. "And for your information: Jack doesn't deserve the world just because he's a foster kid!" He fumbles with his blankets, with the fucking breathing tube they put on him, makes a grab for the IV. "He deserves it because he's kind and thoughtful and loving!"

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? You can't leave--!" Punz snaps, but he goes ignored.

Purpled can't get the IV out with the heart rate monitor clipped to his forefinger, but he isn't going to lay here and be criticized for his own morals.

"Oh, dear. " There's a nurse standing in the door, now, as a high pitched alarm buzzes from the disturbed equipment. "Sir, please, if you could lower your voice, we can help you and your--"

"Fuck off," Punz snaps at the woman, any niceties from before dropped entirely. "You aren't part of this." He turns back on Purpled, eyes narrowed. "And you lay the fuck back down. Or, what, are you planning on walking out of here with a broken ankle? We're not done with this goddamn conversation."

The nurse in the door takes a nervous step back, but otherwise stays where she is. "Sir, please. I will call security if necessary."

"I'd walk out of here with two broken ankles if it meant getting away from you!" Purpled shouts back, and suddenly his hands are wet. "This conversation is fucking--" He blinks and looks down, and all at once he understands what the term "bloodbath" means. It isn't pretty.

His arm hurts, and in his other hand, he's holding the IV start. There's no needle there, like he figured there would be. It's just this little tube, making a mess, and all he can do is blink. "I'm fuckin...I need to leave." He says quietly, and he's sore, and tired, and the heavy feeling is coming back. "I want to go."

Punz opens his mouth to say something, but he's cut off by the nurse still at the door.

"I'm calling security." She states, eyes narrowed at Punz. "And I'm sure they will contact CPS as well. Either step aside and allow us to treat your brother, or you will be forced to."

"Fuck you," Punz spits, again. He turns to take one last look at Purpled, sneering. "Find yourself somewhere else to stay."

"Sir--"

Punz turns and pushes past the nurse, then, storming out of the room and out of sight. The nurse leans out, and shouts something to another nearby staff member, before turning and heading back into the room, towards Purpled.

"I know you want to leave, but let's make sure you don't bleed yourself dry first, okay?" She says, her voice much softer than it had been when addressing Punz. "Do you have any other family we can call in the meantime?"

Purpled blinks, still looking down at himself, and all he can think to do is politely hand back the IV start. She's going to call Child Services. And security, but he's never found a security guard he fears. He's more concerned about where he'll go after this, or if they'll even let him go without Punz.

He's ruined everything.

"No. I wouldn't know where to find them anyway; he's all I have." His voice wavers and he closes his eyes. "Miss? Um-- ma'am, I mean, sorry-- do you...are you really going to call CPS? That was-- it was bad, but...I promise it's not like that at home. He was just scared for me, a-and I started a fight."

The nurse is quiet for a moment, as she works on fixing what Purpled detached in his haste. "...Unfortunately, after an incident like that, I'm afraid I have to." She gently pats Purpled's arm. "It's just to make sure you're safe overall. They'll ask you some questions, but if there really is nothing to worry about, they'll leave you be, I promise."

The nurses offers Purpled a smile as she stands. "I need to go get some supplies, and a gown for you to change into do you can get out of that bloody mess. Can I ask you to stay put until I get back?"

Fuck.

Fuck, okay. Okay. He's threatened it before, when Purpled was younger and more stubborn, more argumentative, but Punz has never actually left him. They'll talk to CPS and smooth things over, and it'll be fine. It'll be okay. He won't be separated from home for more than, what? A week? A few days?

He nods, only partly listening to the nice woman. She didn't deserve to hear that, to be yelled at like that.

"Yeah. I can just...okay. Um...my-- Jack. Jack's the one who called the ambulance. If he's still here, can I see him after?"

"Oh, the boy in the lobby? He's been asking the staff about you constantly." The nurse smiles warmly. "Well, now that you're awake and fully aware, I don't see why not. I'll let him know that you've asked for him, and I'll bring him in after you've spoken to the social worker. Sound like a plan?"

Purpled looks up, eyes wide, and he has no right to feel as relieved as he does right now. "Please." He nods. "Or-- I mean...who knows when the social worker will get here, right? Maybe I could see him sooner...?" He's teary-eyed and covered in blood, but if it gets him closer to seeing Jack, he'll set his pride aside.

"Please? I promise I won't mess with my stuff again." He gesture to the various tubes and wires around him. "I-I won't even ask for more painkillers."

The nurse taps a finger to her lips in faux thought. "Well.... Tell you what." She gestures down to Purpled's ankle. "Let's get that elevated again, and you can promise me to keep it elevated this time, and I'll see what I can do about getting your friend now. How's that?"

For the first time in what feels like days, Purpled genuinely smiles.

"Deal. I'll be on my best behavior."

Biggest thanks and love in all the land for @warning-heckmouth for all of their patience and magnificent writing talent, without which this entire section of story would be much shorter, and much clumsier. <3 <3

#asks #dsmp mall au :)

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nothing-but-dreamy · 3 years ago

Text

BLACK TIE

A/N: Thanks again for this idea @mindlessstories

I hope you have fun with it

Pairing: LEON KENNEDY x READER

Words: 1.736

Warnings: fluff, cursing, Leon in a suit

Synopsis: Yn and Leon are on a mission with fancy clothes. But somehow the mission is not the most interesting thing...

"W-What the bloody... What are you wearing?", Yn asked as she checked the appearance of the man in front of her. The guy was neatly dressed in a white suit shirt, black suit pants and a black jacket. Even a black tie was bound around the man’s neck. Quickly, Yn checked the number of the hotel room once again in fear she had mistaken it and might stand in front of some stranger. No, it was the right room and actually, it was also the right guy. It was just … even if it was part of the mission, Leon S. Kennedy had swapped his typical, casual leather jacket with a tuxedo. It was a sight for sore eyes. Unusually and at the same time, perfectly fitting as if Leon would be some kind of secret undercover supermodel instead of an agent.

Leon, amused about Yn’s big eyes and astonished expression, chuckled and stepped aside, letting his partner in who was still watching him as if he would be an alien. A handsome one but still. Leon closed the door, "It's a tuxedo. That's what you wear on a bow and tie event.", he explained and watched how Yn rolled with her eyes.

“I know what it is but to see you in it… and by the way! Black Tie, Kennedy! It’s called Black Tie! And not ‘bow and tie’.”, Yn explained for maybe the hundredth time since they both got assigned to this secret mission. In fact, the job was easy. A rich weapons dealer had started to ‘extend’ his sortiment with some BOWs. His business was flourishing. But instead of just catching him, Yn and Leon had decided it would be better to bug the dealer to get information about his clients as well. Therefore, they were able to dig out the whole nest.

“I don’t care what these events are called. They’re all the same. It’s just to show off how rich and important everyone is.”, Leon said and leant with crossed arms against the doorframe.

“I know how much you hate these things.”, Yn said, grabbed her bag and aimed for the bathroom to change her outfit as well, “But I have to admit, you look good in this tuxedo. It suits you.”, she said through the half closed door.

Leon smirked, “Oh, really? You know, maybe you could show me how much you like my outfit?”, he asked flirtatiously.

Yn opened the door again and stepped out, “Focus on the mission, Kennedy.”

Leon was hearing her words but his mind went kinda blank as he saw her robed in a floor-length, backless, black dress. The silky-soft fabric hugged all her curves perfectly and gave much input for many, many x-rated fantasies. Slowly, Leon’s eyes wandered upwards until he met her challenging glance. Slowly, he stepped forward with a smirk, “I might hate these events but I could get used to seeing you working in such a stunning outfit.”, Leon said low.

Yn saw dirty thoughts glittering behind his steel-blue eyes and smirked, “Take a picture, it might last longer. Come, we have to go.”, she said, passed Leon and knew that he was staring at her back all the way.

Thirty minutes later, Yn and Leon were entering a huge, pompous decorated ballroom. Chandeliers bathed the room in dim, atmospheric light. Soft jazz music played in the background. And obviously a whole diamond mine had exploded because it was sparkling and twinkling in each corner. The room was filled with high-society and in the middle of it two special agents who tried to fit into this kind of world.

“Shall we split up?”, Leon asked low.

Still with a wealthy smile on her lips, Yn shook her head, “Let us take a round together and then, if necessary, we split up.”, she said and linked her arm with Leon’s.

The idea had been good but quickly, they had to admit that the room was too stuffed with people. And because they searched for a guy, and everyone looked kinda the same in their black suits, they had difficulties finding their subject.

Evading into a quiet corner, Yn looked up at Leon, “That’s not working. There are too many people here. Alright, we split up. I walk around a bit. You could monitor the guys who are without women like the group over there at the bar.”, she said and nodded unobtrusively into the said direction while putting a small intercom into her ear to activate it and gave Leon the other earpiece who mirrored her move. With a serious expression, her eyes met Leon’s, “If one of us finds him, the other one comes to the position.”, she said and was about to leave.

Leon held her back, “Be careful, okay?”, he said and looked her caringly but serious in the eyes.

She smirked, “Of course. I’m not the one with the reckless moves like fighting against infected dogs on a motorbike.”, and with that, she stepped back to vanish in the crowd.

Leon chuckled about her boldness and shook his head before he followed her idea to aim for the bar. He ordered a drink and while waiting for it, Leon looked left and right to check out the people around him if their target would be with them. Leon was just about to check an older man with salt-and-pepper hair as fragments of a conversation waved over to him, catching his attention.

“These women are all the same. Rich, wealthy and absolutely boring.”, one tall man said before taking a sip of his Whiskey.

“Yeah, or ugly. I mean, how many surgeries are really necessary? I get the impression that all these women here are just made out of plastic and silicone.”, another man said. He was a bit smaller than the first one.

Leon was just about to leave as the third guy said something that caught his attention to the point that he fully turned over to them, “You might be right except with this pretty thing over there. What? None of you haven’t seen her yet? Okay, then, she’s mine.”, the guy said and let it sound as if the woman was just a piece of meat and he was the lion to hunt it down.

Leon knew he had to focus on the mission and he really was about to leave the group of idiots behind but then, he noticed the way how the guy looked at the unaware victim. It was a lust filled glance that even Leon felt disgusted by the sight. The guy was pretty sure about himself that he would be successful to win the woman over this evening. The guy, tall, dark haired and looking like a lot of money, licked over his lips while his eyes showed that he looked at a point that was lower than the woman’s waist. Now more interested in who the innocent lamb might be, Leon followed the guy’s glance and felt how his blood ran hot and cold at the same time.

Yn stood there, talking with an older lady and facing the group of guys with her back. The dress gave a beautiful sight of her flawless skin. While she talked, her body moved beautifully and she even swayed a bit to the soft tune of the music so that her hair fell over her bare back, dancing a little through the air.

“You can’t have her! I saw her first. I just couldn’t say anything because I became speechless by her eyes.”, the first, tall guy said.

“By her eyes? Forget them! Look at her god damn ass. So round and juicy.”, the guy said and his eyes became filled with raw, sexual hunger.

That was enough for Leon to forget the mission for a moment as he walked over to the group, “I couldn’t miss hearing how you were talking about this young lady.” Leon said low, getting the attention of all three men at the same time, “Stay away from her. All of you. Or otherwise, things will turn ugly.”, he said with a kind of threat lingering in his voice.

One of the men stepped closer to Leon, slightly towering over the agent and looking down, “Who do you think you are, huh? Nothing we do is your concern.”

Not impressed at all, Leon stepped forward, holding the man’s glance, “She’s mine, get it? Therefore, yes, it concerns me how you are talking about her. So, do yourself a favor and stay away from her or I will become your worst nightmare. And trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”, Leon said threateningly, leaving no room for any further arguments.

The guy stared at Leon for several more moments and considered his best next step but in the end, the guy saw something in Leon’s eyes that told him to better back off. And after another few seconds, the guy stepped back, nodded to his friends and disappeared somewhere else.

Leon went back to his drink and emptied it in one big sip. As he placed the glass back on the counter, Yn stood already next to him, leaning against the bar with a smirk on her lips, "So, I'm yours, huh?", she asked low.

With a shock filled glance, he stared at her and swallowed thickly, "Oh, uhm... Well... I- I didn't like the way he looked at you.", he stammered with an apologetic glance.

Yn nodded, "Yes, I heard that.”, she said, tapping at her ear with her index finger to remind him of the intercom. As Yn saw his awkward smile, she stepped forward, “You know, to see you jealous and protective was kinda cute. But it was unnecessary, don't you think? I'm not your girlfriend."

Leon also stepped forward, a smirk was playing on his lips while he snaked his arm around her waist to bring her even closer, "Actually, we're just one date away that I can call you mine."

"Oh, really? Then, I would say we count this evening as a date, what do you think?", Yn suggested whispering against his lips which were just inches away.

"Deal.", Leon breathed before he kissed her. It was a deep kiss. Filled with hunger to show off to whom Yn belonged to. Yn tugged on his suit jacket to bring him even closer, knowing exactly where these clothes would land later this evening…

#leon resident evil #leon scott #leon scott kennedy #leon kennedy #leon s. kennedy x reader #leon s. kennedy #leon #leon s kennedy #resident evil infinite darkness #residen evil village #resident evil leon #leon in a suit is a thing

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keanureevesisbae · 3 years ago

Text

But professor… - epilogue

Summary: It's been a year and a half since their little baby was born. How are the two of them doing?

Professor!Walter Marshall x Penny Townsend (Asian ofc)

Wordcount: 1.7k

Warnings: None

A/N: Is it the end for Penny and Walter? Yes, omg i can't believe. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed writing it. The story took a full 180 (especially because I intended this story to be much shorter lol), but I'm very satisfied nonetheless 🥰

Masterlist // But professor… masterlist // Previous chapter //

Declan has a plan and that is to go outside. I mean, it’s kinda fair, since he spend a lot of time inside today. Not that he complained. No, no, no, he was an absolute angel at the salon—like always—playing with his toys, while I was at work, but now he needs some fresh air after we had a quick snack at home.

This little man is definitely as head strong as his dad, however he isn’t as stubborn as Walter can be.

Declan attempts to throw a ball at me and I can see there is some definite improvement. Just like any kid at that age, he is distracted like that. ‘Momma, momma,’ he says, pointing to a truck that passes by. ‘Dada!’

‘Oh honey, that is not his truck,’ I say, crouching down next to him. ‘Dada is gonna become soon. In his other car. His work car.’

Declan points. ‘No dada?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Dada home?’

‘Almost,’ I say to him, giving him a kiss on his cheek. Declan stops playing altogether, staring at the road, waiting for Walter to come home. His mouth slightly agape, as he focused on every car that passes by.

Finally his car pulls up and I exclaim: ‘There he is!’ When Walter gets out of the car with a smile that is only this wide when he sees us, I let Declan go and watch him wobble over to his dad. With one hand he lifts the little boy up and presses kisses on his chubby cheek. ‘I missed you,’ Walter says, looking his son in the eye.

‘Dada miss, dada miss!’

He chuckles. ‘That’s right.’ He walks up to me and says: ‘There is my princess.’

‘Princess momma,’ Declan says.

‘Give me a kiss, sweetheart,’ he says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I press a peck on his lips and melt against his frame.

‘It went splendid,’ I say. ‘I actually got to do someone’s hair for an important interview and afterwards, she came back to the salon and told me it went great!’

He smiles. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

After Declan was born, I stayed home for about six months, acclimatizing to being a mom and those sleepless nights. It was hard, I cried a lot and I was very scared. I think I hung on the phone with my mom about seventy percent of the time, while calling Walter the remaining thirty percent. I have adjusted pretty okayish, especially when Walter went to work, made sure I have nothing to worry about.

No stress, providing for the two of us as much as he can and Declan and I sure are lucky that Walter is the love of my life.

My parents helped me financially to go to cosmetology school, which was an absolute blast. It was around fifteen minutes from my place and Declan was always allowed to come with me.

He sure wrapped everyone around his fingers with no issue at all.

While Walter still is that grumpy detective he was when I met him outside of our house, he changes into a big fluffy ball, shaped like a human the second the front door closes. No matter how tired he was, how long his shift was, he pushes it aside to take care of his family.

We walk inside of our place and I tell him: ‘I made dinner.’

While I’m not a world class chef, I do manage to make some decent meals, especially because I wanted to make Declan’s baby food, since my mom raised me with that as well (though I was no saint and had jars as well stored in my kitchen, just in case).

‘Princess, I’m so lucky to have you,’ Walter says. Once we’re inside, he places Declan in the high chair and scoots his own chair closer to it, a silent message that he will help Declan eat today. ‘Okay, little fella,’ Walter says, ‘you gonna be a good boy and not spill the food over me?’

Declan nods. ‘Deccie, good boy.’

I give Walter a kiss, after placing his plate and Declan’s in front of him. ‘He has been such a good boy at the salon today, so it’ll go great, I’m sure.’

After I sit across Walter, he asks about my day. From the looks of it, he had a rough one. Thankfully enough happened at the salon today for me to talk about. While we’re still working on improving him sharing more details, but I kinda understand. With Declan repeating a lot of words recently, we get a little bit more careful with what we’re saying.

After Dinner, Walter and I curl up on the couch after Walter changed into something more comfortable. Declan places his head on my chest, his eyelids growing heavier before he stretches out his hand to place on Walter’s chest.

I nuzzle against Walter’s side.

‘He is so cute,’ Walter notes.

I smile. ‘He sure is. He has your curls.’

‘But your pout and eyes. How can I ever say no to this kid?’

I shake my head. ‘You can’t, honey. I tried it today and it was the hardest thing in my life.’

He starts to chuckle softly. ‘You got nothing to do tomorrow?’

‘No, why?’

‘Can you come down the precinct? I wanna show off the two of you.’

I smile. ‘Oh my goodness, you are so predictable. Of course, I can come by. Maybe I’ll even steal some of my mom’s cookies, tell them I baked them.’

He chuckles. ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be lying when at the police.’

Declan stretches himself and whines a little bit. ‘Momma,’ he says, looking up to see me.

‘Oh, I think someone is really tired,’ I say. ‘You wanna go to bed?’

He nods. ‘Deccie tired.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘Here, sweetheart, I’ll do it. You relax, okay?’ Walter stands up and after I gave Declan a kiss, Walter lifts him up and carries the tired little one up the stairs.

I watch my big buff boyfriend walk back into the living room and he places the baby monitor in front of us, before he sits back on the couch. That monitor basically is glued to Walter’s hand as he always checks up on his boy. I thought I would be the parent that worries the most, however Walter puts me to shame.

The two of them are as thick as thieves and it makes me so grateful that we have a son together.

‘How was work today?’ I ask him.

He shrugs. ‘There was a dad who left his kids in the car,’ he says, ‘in the burning sun, before literally running away. Took us two hours before we found him.’

‘Oh no.’

‘Yeah, it was painful. The kids are gonna be okay, but… It reminds me that Declan is a really lucky kid.’

‘Do those kids have someone to go to?’

‘Yeah, an aunt,’ Walter says, rubbing his face. ‘Come here, princess.’

I wrap my arms around his neck, giving him a kiss on his lips. ‘I missed you.’

Walter smiles. ‘I missed you too. You have no idea how much it means to me to see you two in the yard, waiting for me. Especially after a shitty day like this one.’

‘You know you can always call me,’ I say. ‘Really, I always want to listen to you. You before anyone else, okay?’

He nods. ‘Have I already told you today that you are a very amazing mother and how lucky I am?’

I shake my head. ‘Nope, not today.’

He pulls me on his lap and gives me a peck on my forehead. ‘Just everything you do and say to him… It’s like you always know exactly what to do and you stay so patient and kind.’

‘Oh, Walter, that’s too sweet. I can guarantee: it’s all because you stayed—or at least pretended—to stay calm. Had you not done that, I would absolutely freaked out every time Declan had a funny breathing.’ I ruffle through his hairs and ask: ‘Have I been good to you as well?’

‘What kind of question is that? Of course you have. I’m so lucky that I have you and you and I have a family. There is no one else in the world I would rather have with me for important events.’ He places his hand on my sides, pushing up my shirt. ‘Give me a kiss, princess.’

I willingly oblige and press my lips on his. ‘I love you, Walter.’

‘Oh, I love you too. I want your honest opinion and really be honest, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I chuckle.

‘What do you say if you and I have another one?’

‘Another what?’

‘Kid.’

My eyes widen. ‘Really?’ I ask. He actually wants another kid with me? I mean, I always figured we would have more than one kid, but that would be in the future a little bit further away.

But already another one?

‘Yeah and I mean, if you’re not ready, then I totally understand and I won’t bring it up until you are ready, but I personally would love it.’ He smiles and adds: ‘I mean, two of the most beautiful babies running around here? Together with my beautiful girlfriend, who I’ll make my wife someday?’

I should not be squealing, yet I totally do. ‘Walter, honey,’ I say with a chuckle. ‘I’d love to have another baby with you.’

He starts to smile even wider. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. I’d love for Declan to have a few brothers and sisters.’

‘A few? How many you thinking about?’

‘I don’t know. How about three kids? Or four?’

He starts to laugh. ‘Then you and I better get some practice in with some baby making,’ he chuckles. ‘Because this time it’s not gonna be an accident.’

I slap him across his chest. ‘Walter, what did I say about that word?’

‘Oh, right right.’ He gives me a kiss and says: ‘Declan wasn’t an accident, he was our surprise baby. Forgot.’

I place my forehead against his, wrapping my arms around his neck. ‘Forever and ever, right?’

‘Forever and ever.’

#walter marshall #walter marshall x penny townsend #walter marshall x oc #walter marshall x ofc #walter marshall x asian ofc #penny townsend #asian ofc #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfic #but professor

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lokis-army-77 · 3 years ago

Text

If You Please

Chapter Thirteen

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Word Count: 6300

This is technically a reader insert but without the (y/n) and all that. She also has no name mentioned so feel free to imagine as you please.

Follow the reader through the events of the Captain America movies and experience her love for Bucky Barnes.

Warnings: canon typical violence

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Masterlist

My morning started off, as usual, I woke up, got dressed, and had a cup of tea before I left for work. The same monotonous motions I had gone through every day since I came to DC close to a year ago. The only thing that had changed was I was no longer sleeping under my bed and I saw Steve on a regular basis, as long as he wasn’t off on a SHIELD mission.

My commute to work was the same as normal also, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen, something big. So I went about my day as normally as possible. Until that night.

Coming home from visiting with Peggy I noticed that the whole building was eerily quiet. Hastily making my way to my apartment door I took out my cell phone and dialed Steve’s number. It rang a few times before he answered.

“Hey kid what’s going on?” He said cheerily.

“Steve, where are you?” I asked as I looked around the hallway, nothing was out of the ordinary but it still felt off somehow.

“I’m walking into the front door of the building, why? You sound worried.”

“I don’t know, just be careful when you get to your apartment. I have a feeling something is about to happen, I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Alright, I’ll let you know if something is wrong when I get up there. I’ll call you back in a minute.” he hung up just as I unlocked my door. The apartment was quiet and dark, I flipped the switch and the kitchen lit up. Nothing seemed out of place so I cautiously went around to each room checking for anything that could be wrong.

After finding nothing I made my way back into the living room. Out of nowhere loud gunshots rang out. I ducked in front of the couch but the bullets never came. My eyes widened, they must have been meant for Steve. Slowly I crawled my way to the windows and peeked out into the dark night. There was someone standing on the roof of the building across the road. From what I could tell, he was watching Steve's apartment intensely, that was until Steve shot out of the window and through the window of the same building. The man turned to run and I lost sight of him. I hurriedly shot up and rummaged around my bookcase for one of the pistols I had hidden there. After finding it, I rushed downstairs and to Steve's apartment. The door was wide open and stood in the hallway was Kate, Steve’s next-door neighbor. Lying on the ground next to her was Director Fury in a puddle of blood. I looked at her confused, what was she doing here and with a gun no less. I brought my gun up just in case she was part of the problem.

“Miss. Rogers put the gun down.” She ordered cautiously while pointing hers at me.

“Why should I? It’s pretty suspicious of you to be in my brother's apartment with a gun, standing over the director of SHIELD, who just so happens to be bleeding out.” She sighted and ungripped the gun before slowly lowering it to the ground.

“I know this scene looks incriminating but I am Agent 13, I work for SHIELD and Director Fury assigned me to be Captain Rogers’ protection.” Her explanation came out slow and steady. I gave her a skeptical look before lowering my gun and walking closer to her. I turned my gaze to Fury who was unconscious on the floor. I bent down and looked over at him for the wound that was bleeding. When I found it I put as much pressure on it as I could without damaging it further.

“Call an ambulance, he won’t be with us much longer if we don’t get him to a hospital right now.” I heard her walk away and come back soon after talking on the phone. I kept most of my attention on Fury's shallow breathing and weak pulse.

The ambulance arrived almost twenty minutes later, I rode with them along with Steve, who had come back a few minutes prior. The hospital was bustling as they took Fury to one of the operation rooms for emergency surgery. Steve had called Natasha Romanoff while we were on our way, she met us at the hospital and stayed close to Fury at all times. Steve took her into the viewing room to monitor what was happening in the surgery. I stayed behind in the hallway to give them space to talk, but also because I didn’t think a complete stranger should be watching the surgery of someone they had only met a handful of times.

As I sat there in one of the chairs I thought back to what Steve had told me about the man from the roof. He said the man was fast and strong, I was thinking of some sort of super-soldier like us. He would have been since he was able to catch Steve’s shield, even if it was with some type of metal arm. No normal person would be able to walk away from being hit with a vibranium shield full force. Suddenly Steve came through the door. I stood and gave him a questioning look and he just shook his head. My shoulders hunched a bit at the confirmation. Fury had passed. I walked over to him and placed my hand in his and squeezed.

“I think you should go. I’ll be fine, I have to deal with some stuff here.” His voice was barely above a whisper as he talked.

“Okay, I’ll see you at home, you can stay at mine while your apartment is being searched for evidence.” I gave his hand another squeeze before turning to leave but he pulled me back.

“No. You can’t stay at the apartment, it isn’t safe right now. You need to pack a bag and stay somewhere else for a few days. Somewhere that can’t be associated with me, just in case.”

“I have somewhere I might be able to go but what about you?”

“I’ll stay at the SHIELD headquarters, there’s no need to worry about me. Now go, quickly.” I gave a firm nod and briskly walked down the hall to the elevator.

The FBI was everywhere around the apartment building. There were so many that it took me forever to reach my apartment without getting stopped and asked what I was doing there. Finally reaching my door I went inside and quickly started packing my largest suitcase with more clothes than needed. I also went and grabbed the second gun hidden in the bookcase along with the double-thigh holster. If there was going to be some sort of assassin, I was going to be prepared. There was just one last thing I needed before I left. Heading straight for my bedroom closet I tore the door open and got down on my knees. Feeling around I popped one of the floorboards loose and reached into the hole. I grasped the two metal cylinders, lifting them out into the light. I kept the bo staff hidden at all times, after waking up from the ice I had no use for it anymore until now. I reached my hand back into the hole and my hand hit a small velvet-covered box. I gently took it out and held it to my chest, then helped it out from my body a little way before opening it. There, gleaming in the dim closet light was Bucky’s mother’s engagement ring. I had kept it safe and hidden since nineteen forty-three. It was one of my prized positions and I knew the war front was not a place for it, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I were to lose it. I took the ring out and slid it onto my ring finger, it was weird but something was telling me I needed to wear it. I snapped the lid closed and hoisted myself up off the floor and shoved the disassembled staff into the suitcase and quickly zipped it up, sat it on the floor, and rolled it behind me as I headed for the door.

I got out of the building easier than trying to get in. Making my way to the curb I unlocked the car I had just recently bought myself so I didn’t have to walk to work every morning. I shoved the suitcase into the back seat and then made my way around the vehicle to jump into the driver's seat. The only place I knew I could possibly go was Sam’s, so that's where I went. It was almost three fifteen by the time I pulled into the guest parking lot in front of Sam’s apartment. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be mad at me for waking him up at such an inconvenient hour.

Grabbing the suitcase, I quietly walked up to his front door and knocked. I waited for a minute or two before knocking a second time, a bit louder. This time I faintly heard something behind the door just before it was harshly thrust open.

“What,” Sam spat out, eyes half-closed.

“Wow, is that any way to greet a friend in need?” I shot back. He opened his eyes a little more to see who was actually at his door.

“Oh, it’s you, sorry about that. I'm not really a fan of being woken up in the middle of the night. Why are you here, what’s the matter?”

“Well, in short, I think some type of assassin is after either high ranking SHIELD agents or my brother, and the Director was just shot in Steve's apartment. Steve didn’t think it was safe for me to stay in the building, given that I live above him. So I’m here to ask if it would be okay if I stayed here for a couple of days while everything gets figured out.” He stood there for a second, then rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“I’m going to pretend like I comprehend what you just told me, but sure, come on in. You can tell me again in the morning when I’m not half-unconscious.” He opened the door wider and I made my way into his home. He led me up the stairs and into the spare bedroom. “Make yourself at home, I’ll see you in the morning.

“Thank you, Sam. Good night.” I called out as he slowly shut the door.

The next morning I woke up around eight and decided to call into work saying that I couldn’t come in on the account of my apartment being broken into. A little white lie wouldn't hurt. Sam wasn’t home, he was probably on his morning run, so I decided to surprise him with breakfast when he came back, as a thank you for letting me stay for a few days.

Rummaging around in the pantry and fridge, I was able to find ingredients to make pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. I was halfway through the second batch of pancakes when Sam strolled in through the back door.

“Hey, what smells so good?”

“It’s breakfast. It’s the least I can do to thank you for letting me stay for a while.” I scooped up two pancakes, eggs, and a strip of bacon onto a plate and handed it to him. “I hope you like the pancakes, they're my special recipe from the forties.”

“You didn’t have to do this. I’m always glad to help, no thanks needed.” He grabbed his fork and started to dig in. Nodding his head as he chewed, I looked at him expectantly. “Wow, these are really good.”

“Thank you, I know.” I grinned. He shoveled a few more bites into his mouth before he turned his attention back to me.

“Okay, so what’s this about an assassin and why do you have to stay here?”

“Well, when I got home from seeing Peggy last night something felt off in the apartment building. I looked all around my apartment to see if anything was wrong, but everything looked fine. That was until some guy standing on the roof of the adjacent building shot into Steve's living room. Steve ran off after the man and I went downstairs to check things out, that’s when I found our neighbor, who apparently was a SHIELD agent this whole time, was standing over the director of SHIELD. We called an ambulance and took him to the hospital where he passed away. And since we have no clue who the assassin is after Steve wanted me to go somewhere I would be safe. That’s about it, I have a theory that the guy has had some kind of super-soldier serum like me and Steve because when Steve was telling me about what happened when he chased after him, the guy caught his shield with one hand and just stayed firmly planted on the ground.”

He looks up, fork halfway to his mouth, and says, “Dang, that's crazy,” then proceeds to eat as if nothing happened.

“Oh, is that all you have to say?”

“Well, what else am I supposed to say?”

I sat there for a second before nodding. “Okay, fair enough.”

We spent the rest of the morning lounging around until Sam went to work, I later met up with him at the VFW for the weekly group meetings. After that, we went back to his apartment and just talked and played board games to pass time until we were eventually tired enough to go to bed.

The next morning came quickly, I woke up significantly earlier than the day before, early enough to tag along with Sam on his morning run, which he wasn’t too happy about since I managed to lap him even though I was just jogging.

“Come on Sam, don’t be mad at me,” I said as we made our way in through the back door of the apartment. “I can’t help it that I run jog faster than normal people.”

“Yeah yeah, shut up. Here.” he tossed me a bottle of water before he grabbed the jug of orange juice from the fridge. I hadn't even taken a swig before there was a knock on the door we just came through. I looked to the door and then at Sam with my eyebrow raised in a questioning look. “Stay there,” he said as he sat the juice down on the counter and went to see who it was.

I watched from the far side of the room as he lifted the blinds covering the glass of the door, and there on the other side, as filthy as could be, was Steve and Natasha. Sam opened the door and let them in after Steve said something.

“Steve? What in the world are you doing here?” I asked as I walked closer to where they stood.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Sam is my best friend. That doesn’t explain why you are here.”

“We met a few days ago, he seemed like someone I could trust. Especially now that we have everyone trying to kill us. I’ll tell you more but can we get cleaned up first?” Sam nodded and showed them to the guest bathroom.

They both came downstairs about thirty minutes later after Sam went up to tell them that we had made breakfast. I sat down at the table in front of Steve and waited for him to fill Sam and me in on what had happened the day before.

“Well, for starters, SHIELD has been infiltrated by HYDRA, there’s no telling how many of the agents are compromised. They have been working on what Zola called HYDRA’s new world order.” Steve stopped to take a bite of food.

“Zola, as in Arnim Zola? I thought he would be dead by now.” I spit out in surprise.

“He is now, we think. He had his consciousness transferred to some sort of computer data bank. He’s the one who wrote the code on this,” he pointed to Nat who held up a small flash drive. “We would have found out what it was for but SHIELD launched a missile at us, destroying Zola and everything else around us.”

“Which,” Nat butted in, “leased us to the next question, who at SHIELD can authorize a domestic missile strike.”

“It would have to be Pierce,” Steve stated.

“Who is sitting in the most secure building in the world?” came Nat again.

“Well, he can't be working alone, there has to be someone else.” I put in.

“You’re right, but who? Zola’s algorithm was on the Lumarian Star.” Nat looked at Steve in realization as he said that.

“So was Jasper Sitwell.” She revealed.

“Okay, then how do the two most wanted people in the world kidnap a SHIELD officer in the middle of the day?” He looked at her with eyebrows raised.

“You don’t,” Sam walked over and tossed a file onto the table before continuing. “Consider this a resume.”

Nat flipped through the pages, “Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil Mission, that was you? Steve, you didn’t say he was pararescue.”

Steve just looked at the picture that was attached to the file, “This is Riley isn't it?” Sam just nodded, he had told me about his partner a few times before, but never really in much detail.

“I heard that they couldn't bring in the choppers because the RPGs were so bad, did you use stealth chutes?” Nat continued.

“No, we used these.” Sam handed Steve a closed file. I stood up and walked around the table to look at the contents.

“I thought you were a pilot,” Steve said.

“I never said that.”

“Well, I'll be the first to say that that wingsuit looks cool as hell.” I looked up and smiled at Sam, who gave a laugh.

“Sam, I can’t ask you to do this. You got out for a good reason.” Steve reasoned.

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There is no better reason to get back in.”

“Great, I’m helping too. I know I said I wasn’t doing the whole fighting thing anymore, but you three can't take down HYDRA by yourselves.” I affirmed.

“Okay then,” Steve breathed out, “Sam where do we find one of these?”

“The last one I know of is at Fort Meade, behind several bars and some concrete.” He had a tone in his voice like it was doubtful we would be able to get to it.

“That shouldn't be a problem,” Steve and I said in unison.

We made our plan on how we were going to abduct the man named Jasper Sitwell. We knew he had a meeting today at The Occidental restaurant, that’s where we would make our move. Sam would be our man in plain sight, I would trail behind Sitwell to make sure he went to the right car and didn’t try to run, and Nat and Steve would be on the roof of a nearby building with a sniper pointed at Sitwell for extra precaution.

Before we left I made sure I had my bo staff with me and my guns in their holsters. Nat somehow did something to a burner phone she had that would make it appear to Sitwell that Alexander Pierce was calling him, that's how we were going to get into contact with him, without making a scene. And just like that, we were off to Fort Meade to get Sam’s wingsuit.

A few hours later, a little after twelve, we all took our places and waited for Sitwell to exit the restaurant, and when he did, I was ready. I was standing at the corner of the building on the right, closest to the car. His interaction with Sam over the phone was short before he started walking in my direction. He rounded the corner and was directly in front of me when I pushed myself off the wall in order to follow him to the car. I watched as he found the right vehicle, opened the back seat, and climbed in, shutting the door behind him. We had put the child safety locks on beforehand just so he wouldn't be able to get out and run. I made my way to the driver's side and plopped myself into the seat. Soon after, Sam slid into the passenger seat.

When we arrived at the building Seve and Nat were hiding in, I shut the car off and forcefully dragged Sitwell out of the back, while Sam ran off to start on his next part of the plan. Sitwell gave a few complaints before I silenced him with a look of indifference. Steve and Nat were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairwell, Steve took him from me and I followed them in ascending the stairs. Coming to the stop floor of the building, Steve pushed Sitwell into the door to the roof, the door swung wide and Nat and I followed through after them.

“Tell us about Zola’s algorithm,” Steve demanded and Sitwell quickly scrambled to his feet.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Why were you onboard the Lemurian Star?” He interrogated further.

“I was throwing up, I tend to get seasick.” Sitwell backed up to the edge of the building almost typing over the edge. Steve Grabbed hold of his suit lapels, holding him still. When he realized he wasn't going to fall his face changed demeanor and he had a small smirk. “Come one Rogers, is this all to insulate that you’ll throw me off the roof? This isn't really your style is it?”

“No, but it is hers.” Steve stepped away from Sitwell and Nat kicked him over the small wall. I let out a short laugh as I watched him plummet to the ground. I backed up from the edge as Sam flew up and dropped Sitwell back onto firm ground. All four of us surrounded the man hyperventilating on the ground. He put his hands up in surrender before finally telling us what we wanted to hear.

“Zola’s algorithm is a program for choosing targets.” he stammered out.

“Targets like who?” I questioned.

“Like you, or Captain Rogers, Bruce Banner, some teacher in a rural town. It doesn't matter, it targets anyone who is a threat to HYDRA. It doesn't matter. It knows now and in the future.”

“What do you mean by the future, it can’t possibly know who will be a future threat?” He finally picked himself up off the ground and looked at me.

“How can it not? This is the twenty-first century, everything is online, from any type of official record to the smallest social media post, even phone calls. It knows everything. Zola’s algorithm studied people's past and present to predict their futures.”

Steve stepped up, “What then?”

“Then the Project Insight helicarriers scratch them off the list, millions at a time.”

“Steve, we need to go now. We have time to try and stop them.” I said. He looked at me and gave a quick nod.

He grabbed hold of Sitwell's arm and tugged. “Let’s go.”

We all rushed down to the car and piled in, it was a little cramped in the back with Nat to my right and Sitwell to my left. We were on our way to SHIELD headquarters. Sitwell was doing to me our ticket and hopefully our way to stop this strike from happening.

The whole drive Nat kept looking at the time flashing on the radio. I gave her leg a poke, then asked, “What's the matter?”

“The strike is set to happen in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a bit close.”

“I know,” Steve spoke up. “We’re going to use him to bypass all of the DNA scanners and access the helicarriers directly.”

“No way,” interjected Sitwell, “That is a terrible idea, are you crazy-” He was cut off by a thud on the top of the car hood. We all looked up.

“What the hell was that?” I blurted. Then, suddenly a hand went through the left window and grabbed hold of Sitwell, ripping him from his seat and throwing him into oncoming traffic. I let out a loud yelp of surprise. There was more movement on the hood before bullets came through the metal directly in between Nat and me. She surged forward and into Steve's lap while I pushed myself over into the seat Sitwell previously occupied. There was a slight sting in my upper right thigh where one of the bullets barely grazed me. I barely had time to brace myself when Steve pulled the gear shift into park and the car came skidding to a stop. I was flung into the back of Sam’s seat but I was way better off than whoever had been on top of the car.

We all looked out the front windshield as the man tumbled down the highway and caught himself. He stood up and stared us down, he looked terrifying in his all-black, metal arm shining in the sun and face covered up with a fast. I kept my eyes trained on him until we were hit from behind by another vehicle.

The force from the other vehicle pushed us into the ban on the highway and he jumped up into the air and landed back on the roof of our car. I grabbed one of the guns from my holsters and started to shoot blindly upwards, hoping I hit something. Then the same metal arm as earlier came crashing through the front windshield and tore the steering wheel from the car.

“Oh shit,” yelled Sam as the car started to uncontrollably twist and turn.

“Press on the brake, press on the brake” I yelled.

“I am,” he yelled back.

I looked out the back window and saw the man now squatting on the hood of the vehicle behind us. They kept getting closer until they rammed into us again, causing the car to swerve hard to the right. We ended up hitting the median wall and as we started to flip I heard Steve yell, “Hang on,” before he grabbed hold of Nat and Sam and they flew from the car. I on the other hand tried to keep myself from being tossed every-which-way as the car tumbled down the road.

Once the car had stopped moving I kicked the door off and crawled out onto the glass-covered asphalt. Standing up I stretched my arms up high to try and free my tensed-up mussels. “That freaking hurt” I muttered to myself. I got back down on my hands and knees to rummage through the upturned car for my gun and bo staff, which had been resting on my lap before all of this started. I found them quickly and made my way down to where the others were.

The mysterious man had hopped off the hood of the vehicle and was walking forward with a large gun in his hands. He lifted it up and aimed for Steve. He pulled the trigger and a grenade launched straight for Steve, who blocked it with his shield. He was safe from the blast but the force of it knocked him straight off the bridge we were on. I had no time to run to see if he was okay before a group of men clambered out of the vehicle and started shooting at us. The three of us left on the bridge scattered to hide from the fire. I clicked open the magazine of my gun to check the amount of ammo I had left. I had already fired off nine shots, so I had eight more shots plus the seventeen rounds still in my second pistol. I snapped the magazine back into place and took a deep breath.

I picked myself up off the ground and looked over the hood of the truck I was behind. There were seven of them about fifty feet away. I took another deep breath and fired, hitting one of them in the chest. I wasn’t quick enough in ducking back down, the metal-armed man saw me and shot another round in my direction. I flew backward off the bridge and into a parked car. I slid down from the side and onto the ground, catching myself on unsteady feet. It took me a second to get my bearings back but when I did I looked in the direction I flew from. The group of men were standing right at the edge of the bridge. I looked down to see what they were searching for, Nat was running under the bridge and stopped right before they could see her. She turned around and brought her arms up into the air and started firing at the men, who ducked for cover. As they did so, she ran for cover behind a bucket truck, I also ran to catch up to her. They came back up from hiding and started to shoot in our direction.

“Nat, we have to go now, there isn’t any cover here.” I grabbed hold of her alright arm and tugged. “Run, I’m right behind you.” She nodded and started running. I started after her but turned around halfway to shoot rounds off at the men until I was empty.

“Over here,” I heard a shout and followed it. Nat was crouched behind one of the many abandoned cars. I came and crouched down beside her. We waited silently until she gestured her hand behind us. I barely lifted my head up to see through the windows of the car, there he was, right in front of us. I felt her hand grab my wrist and pull me back down, right before an explosion went off. It had caught me off guard, but it hadn't affected her, she was ready for it because not a moment later she vaulted herself off the trunk of the car and onto the metal-armed man. They wrestled around as she wrapped herself around his neck, he almost threw her off, but he managed to stay on, shifting her hold with her legs so she could get a garotte around his neck. The man stumbled backward and into the car I was behind before managing to toss Nat fifteen feet in the other direction.

He started after her again but she threw something at his metal arm that sent visible shocks through it. The delay gave her enough time to run away, but this was my chance to have a go. I quickly but quietly made my way around the car and behind the man. I reached my right up around his neck fast and grabbed hold of my wrist with my left hand and put all my weight onto my left leg. This brought him down and I used the force of the downward motion to shove him headfirst into the car behind us.

He lifted himself up off the ground and aggressively turned toward me. I reached behind me where I had put my disassembled bo stuff in its holsters. I brought the separate pieces in front of me and conceited them together, ready to fight. I quickly lunged forward and struck my staff at his head but his metal arm came up and grabbed the staff mid-air and jerked it from my grip. He looked at it for a fraction of a second then back at me before flinging it away. Well, this isn't good, I thought to myself as he came barreling at me full force. I managed to jump out of his way, but he caught my right wrist with the metal hand and yanked me back. I stumbled but caught my footing enough to turn myself away from him and have my arm break free from his hold. Continuing with the movement I spun around behind him and kicked his left leg out from under him. He fell to the ground but caught himself with his hand and used that to spin himself around and kick both my legs out from under me.

My head hit the ground hard enough to make everything fuzzy. I laid there waiting for the man to come and finish the fight but he never came. In my disoriented state, I picked my upper body up and looked around but he was gone. After a few moments, my vision started to return to normal and I could see the man and Steve fighting at the other end of the street. I slowly got to my feet and looked for where my staff had landed before heading in their direction. They were fighting pretty hard, neither of them had a weapon, it was just a blur of fists. That was until the guy threw Steve into the side of a van and pulled a knife. He moved fast, aiming his strike at Steve's head, But he caught the man’s hands. The knife ended up plunging into the van as the two of them slid down the length of it. Steve managed to maneuver behind the man and grab him around the torso to flip him backward. This gave him enough time to grab his shield, which was embedded in the back door of the van.

They poised for a second before resuming their furious pace. Steve blocked the man's every attempt to hit him with the knife. I watched as he ducked another punch and came up, shoving his shield into the grooves of the metal arm. Steve reached his arm behind him, capturing the other man’s head, and flung him over his shoulder. He rolled a few feet away and the mask he was wearing fell to the ground. He stood up slowly and turned in our direction, his hair fell from his face and I felt the world stop.

No, that couldn’t be him. Steve said he watched him fall from the train. No normal person could have survived a fall from that height, but yet there he was, standing just ten feet in front of me. I took a few steps towards him and his eyes darted from Steve to me and I stopped for a moment. His brow was furrowed in a kind of feral way but softened a fraction when I called out his name.

“Bucky?” the sound came out in an almost sob.

“Who the hell is Bucky?” He countered, raising the gun he had in his hand. He never got the chance to fire it because Sam flew in behind him and kicked him hard in the back. Bucky went tumbling and I started to run for him. He stood back up and the look he had on his face was one of confusion before he went to shoot again, this time he was stopped by a grenade that was launched from somewhere behind me. When the smoke cleared he had vanished.

I just stood there in complete shock as we were surrounded by SHIELD Special Forces. They took my weapons away and roughly locked my forearms in thick metal cuffs and led me to an armored truck. I was the last one in and took a seat next to Steve. I could feel his eyes on me so I turned my head to him.

“Are you okay?” He asked. I just shook my head and didn’t say a word.

“What’s going on? Who was that?” Sam spoke up.

“That was Bucky, I watched him fall almost a hundred feet from a moving train in 1945. He was my best friend and her fiance,” he pointed at me when he said the last bit. “He looked right at me like he didn’t even know who I was.”

“That can’t be possible, that was almost seventy years ago,” Sam said in disbelief.

“It was Zola. Whatever he did to Bucky when his unit was captured is what helped him survive.” I thought aloud.

“They must have found him-” Steve started but was interrupted by Nat.

“What happened isn’t either of your faults.”

“Even when we had nothing, we always had Bucky.”

The somber moment was interrupted when Sam noticed Nat’s shoulder oozing blood. He turned to one of the two armed guards sitting in the back with us and said, “We need to get her a doctor, if we don't get pressure on that wound she’ll bleed out.”

The guard shot out their hand which was holding an electrified baton, but instead of hitting Sam they turned it around and struck the guard beside them. The other guard jerked before the first one slid and kicked them in the head, knocking them out. We all sat there confused as the first guard took their helmet off.

“Oh my god, that thing felt like it was squeezing my brains out,” she let out. We all continued to stare at her.

“Maria, what are you doing here,” Nat asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came to get you guys, we have important business to take care of.” She bent down on the floor and searched the knocked-out guard's body for the keys to our cuffs. “Now listen closely, when the truck stops I’ll use this Mousehole,” she held up a cylindrical silver tube, “to create a hole in the truck and road so we can escape. It will happen fast so be ready.” After she explained what was going to happen she went around and uncuffed us. I rubbed my arms a little, just to get the blood circulating again.

Then all of a sudden the truck jerked to a stop.

Tag List: @ginger-swag-rapunzel @underc0vercryptid-reads @geek-and-proud @intothesoul @leyannrae @starkleila @andy-is-gay

#james buchanan barnes #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky x female reader #bucky fic #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x rogers!reader #winter solider x reader #marvel fic #marvel fanfiction

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spiltscribbles · 4 years ago

Note

You're doing prompts! Yesss you have no idea how happy that makes me cause I love you're writing so so so much its so amazing soo yayyyyyy 🥳🥳 can I request prompt 32? Things you said I wouldn't understand. Maybe some wolfstar? I'm just a slut for your fics so I would probably die if you wrote this. Even if you don't that's fine I never wanna pressure you soo yeah love you 💕💕

~Notes: Gorgeous, this message is literally so fucking kind and I am absolutely SOBBING!!!! You are such a fucking gorgeous soul! And this means the galaxy! And I’m sorry! This screams angst, but I had a really really fucking awful day, so I just wanted to escape with some fluff :( But if you want me to redo I promise I will! Or you can send me another prompt and I’ll write angst! I adore you!!!

A Reblog Is Worth A Thousand Stars » Send Me A Prompt » Things You Said That I Couldn’t Understand

Sirius realizes on an ordinary Tuesday morning as he spills the chocolate chips into the batter of the first batch of flapjacks, that he and his husband of over a decade haven’t had a date night for three months.

Three! Ruddy! Months!

THat’s completely not on! especially considering that now that the twins have entered their terrible twos they’ve barely had any energy at all to go beyond furtive hand jobs and messy kisses in almost just as long. Sirius misses his bloody husband damn it!

“Daddy?” Angelica asks with owlish eyes from where she and her younger brother, Teddy, are standing on either side of him with their expectant plates in hand. “You look peaky.”

“Like you’re gonna puke,” Teddy tacks on helpfully, his ordinarily tawny curls turning a putrid shade of green just to emphasize his point. And Sirius silently reminds himself to tell Tonks off for teaching his kid such rude gestures once she gets back from her honeymoon with that Muggle bird of hers.

“Oi, you guys are going to make your old man feel like he’s the Hogwarts squid if you keep on.” Sirius tells them with a soft tug on Angelica’s ponytail and a cluck of a tongue directed towards his son.

“You’re father’s probably still just getting use to the time difference after getting back from the states.”

Sirius straightens up— pulse spiking in that way it always has around Remus ever since they had first begun to go out as fifth years— and spots him padding into the kitchen, beautifully sleep rumpled and cradling a babbling Maeve in one arm, while her twin, Matthew, toddles along side them with a meaty thumb in his mouth. Though he immediately begins sprinting towards Sirius once realizing that he’s finally home from teaching those Americans the newly enhanced defense tactics that the British Aurors have been utilizing to successful degrees.

“THere’s my Matty,” he crows, lifting him up in the air and blowing a raspberry into his belly while the toddler squawks with glee.

“Daddy home! Daddy! Daddy!”

“And he brings with him enough noise to rival the frog choir,” Remus notes absently.

Sirius waggles his tongue over at him, heart stuttering when he watches the morning sun spilling through the wide partition and unspooling golden in Remus’s hair. “You need it, gorgeous, considering you couldn’t wake up to your own ruddy alarm.”

Remus smiles in that abashed way that’s always been more devious than most give him credit for, “It’s the seventh year Ravenclaws, I think they will actually end up giving me an aneurism with how much extra they write in the essays.”

“Alas, I’m too pretty to be a widow,” Sirius sighs, tossing Matthew up in the air once more and cradling him into his arm before walking over to Remus and dipping down to kiss the corner of his mouth. “I’ve missed you.”

“You could’ve woken me up you know,” Remus mumbles, shifting from foot to foot while sliding Maeve into her high chair. “The moon’s not til tomorrow night.”

Sirius ducks his head, scratching the back of it with appropriate diffidence. “I just didn’t want to disturb you, love.”

Remus doesn’t catch his eye as he begins to walk over to the counter and brings the other portions of the meal to the table, lips pinched and shoulders stiff. “I’m not a total invalid, Sirius. I could welcome my husband home after a week apart.”

“What’s that mean, Tad?” Teddy asks, oblivious to the undercurrent of hurt in his father’s tone and energetic as always while scrambling into his own seat around the breakfast nook, wide eyes glowing with that easy mirth that Sirius is thankful every day his children can feel without any lingering ghosts. “A, erm— In—valvid."

“It means your Tad’s a bit brassed off at me, Ted.” Sirius answers for him, affecting a light hearted cadence. "And that I better get round to finishing up breakfast or else he’ll give me that stiff upper lip of his.”

Remus pins him with a glare from over his shoulder while Sirius sets Matthew into his own seat besides his sister, but his features are softened and Sirius knows that it means he’s close to being forgiven.

“Daddy can I have blueberries in mine,” Angelica asks as he returns to the oven.

“Course, jellybean,” Sirius answers, adopting the pet name that Hope had called her granddaughter ever since they had brought her back from the hospital eight years ago. Sirius loved it even more once finding out that it was actually a reference to some sort of Muggle treat that Remus use to eat by the handfuls as a lad.

“OmyChocomydadzee,” Ted yells towards them with a wedge of cheese in his mouth before sticking his fork into the plate of sliced fruit so to waggle it in front of a giggling Maeve.

“Sorry, son, I don’t understand trollish. Or is that some sort of highly advanced Metamorphmagus language that your Aunty Dora has been teaching you on the sly that we lowly, ordinary wizards couldn’t possibly understand?”

Teddy rolls his bright eyes with a huff, swallowing down pointedly before speaking again. “Only chocolate in mine, just like Tad!”

“Manners, Ted, remember please and thank yous.” Remus says, long suffering as he eases down into his own seat and sips from the mug of coffee that Sirius had already prepared for him. “Though yes, I’d like mine to be chocolate too, Sirius, if you’re taking orders.”

Sirius grins indulgently at them before peering down to his eldest. “Angie darling, what shall we do with their teeth once they fall out from all that sugar?”

Angelica laughs glowingly, and Sirius brushes back her chestnut bangs with a reverent hand.”The snow warlock outdoors could use it since he’s only got a carrot nose after Matty ate the chocolate frogs we were s’pose to use for his smile.”

“Brilliant!”

After they’ve all eaten, Teddy and Angelica race outside to await the Potters amidst shouts of “Shut your trap,” from a peeved off Teddy every time Angelica taunts him over his crush on Effie, and the twins dig into their toy chest in the living room while Sirius and Remus spell away the mess that always ensues after a meal with the Lupin-Blacks.

“Andromeda wants us to bring the Christmas pudding this year,” Remus idly tells Sirius while he enchants the dishes to begin washing themselves with a graceful flick of his wand. Remus ordinarily prefers cleaning them by hand, so Sirius has an inkling that the impending full moon has already begun aching in his bones. Merlin’s saggy bollocks does he wish this new, experimental potion would just escape the bureaucracy of the Ministry so that the man who is his other half could at least have a small relief.

“Is that along with the wine and fresh cranberry sauce she’s asked for?” Sirius says, saddling up behind Remus, bending slightly so to nuzzle his nose along the hollow of his long neck.

“Mmm, she thought you might say that, and wanted to kindly remind you that she carried a set of twins for us when she was forty even though we promised that Ted would be the last sprog.”

“Pff, as if I’d let potter outdo us.”

“We definitely didn’t let that happen,” Remus snorts. “The twins and Pip will surely be the next generation Marauders, God save Minerva.”

“Exactly!” Sirius sneers, locking his arms around Remus’s torso. “Besides ’s not like it’s our fault Meda’s bloody eggs decided on a two for one deal.”

Remus stifles a laugh, leaning back into the embrace and setting his hand over Sirius’s where he’s begun thumbing small circles against his abdomen. “Yes, well if you’d like to have that argument with her?”

“Oh, she’s full of it. I know that the twins are her favorites, spoils them rotten I tell you Moons.”

“Well it’s hard not to with such cute faces,” Remus says, turning his head slightly so to peer over at the pair of them through the doorway. Maeve is munching on the leg of her barbie and Matthew is clashing together pieces of two completely contradictory puzzles. Sirius swears that his chest might implode with the love he feels for his chaotic, little family.

“Course they’re cute, Moons,” he says loftily instead of the incredibly sappy emotions that are flooding his insides. “They’re are kids, cute is in the genes.”

“Cocky bastard,” Remus snorts before turning around in his arms and kissing him full on the mouth. And yes, the sight of Remus curled around the latest essay he’s meant to be marking up with the baby monitor for the twins’s room clutched in his left fist, was an absolute heavenly sight, but Sirius thinks this more hands on approach is a much more appropriate welcome after dealing with an ocean between them and six nights apart.

“Mmm, does this mean I’m not in the dog house anymore?” Sirius asks hopefully, trailing a path of kisses along Remus’s jawline and stopping at the hinge where it meets his neck so to suck only slightly, reveling in the beautifully familiar taste of his husband.

“You were never in the dog house you daft mutt,” Remus reproves in a voice that could’ve been caustic if it weren’t for his words going breathy half way through and his hands clutching tightly onto Sirius’s shoulders. “’S just— Just… Nothing.”

Sirius feels his stomach twist, pulling off of him with a scowl set on his face, and refusing for Remus to just brush this aside, the way he’s always want to do instead of talking about anything that actually might be hurting him. Like he’s afraid that his sodding feelings are somehow a burden, the self-possessed bastard.

“Tell me,” he intones, brooking no arguments while he gently takes Remus’s face in hand so he can’t look away.

His gorgeous features twist up, indignant and mulish, but they relax almost just as quickly, a defense tactic that’s melt away almost completely after so long of being intwined with one another in the most intimate of ways.

“Sirius, there was a time that you could hardly keep your hands off of me after being away for less than half as long,” Remus tells him, voice wavering only slightly. “And I understand if it’s getting tiring having to parent around the moon’s schedule—“

“What the bloody fuck are you talking about,” Sirius really meant to listen to him all the way through, he did! But he can’t help just how furious he got at the sound of that absolutely ridiculous conclusion Remus has somehow conjured up in his impossible mind. Positively hates how this is still such a point of sensitivity Remus has when it regards to their relationship.

“Sirius—“

“Don’t be a completely idiotic arse, Lupin!” Sirius very nearly shouts, absolutely broiling. “You are the love of my life, and I wouldn’t change a single sodding thing about us! And I swear to Merlin or Morgana or whoever the fuck else, that if you begin speaking such rubbish again, I’ll have to lock you up in our bedroom, and show you just how intensely I mean that.”

Remus’s face has gone flushed throughout Sirius’s diatribe, and his hazel eyes twinkle with that adoring way of his that always makes Sirius’s heart lodge somewhere in his diaphragm. “Lupin-Black.”

“Pardon?”

“You called me Lupin, it’s Lupin-Black now, has been for quite a while.”

Sirius chuckles lowly, feeling his righteous anger deflate as he crowds Remus against the kitchen island and presses their foreheads together. “You done being a senseless sod then?”

Remus locks his hands around Sirius’s neck, kisses his cupids bow with a tender earnestness. “You still could’ve woken me up.”

“I just wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t be exhausted for tomorrow, love.” Sirius reiterates, kissing him with feeling before pulling apart once more. “Though if I’m being totally honest, I would’ve liked it if you could’ve wanked me off in hello.”

“That’s all you would’ve wanted?” Remus asks smugly, the tip of his index finger tracing idl patterns against Sirius’s neck.

“Mmm, don’t tease me, Moony.” Sirius tells him before sharing another snog. “I was just thinking earlier on that it’s been three ruddy months since I’ve had you to myself for the entire night.””

Remus’s smile brightens, “Oh yeah? You’ve missed that have you?” He bucks forwards, and Sirius can feel him pressed completely against his front.

“I think I might go mad very, very soon, Mssr Moony if we don’t correct this most awful of grievances.”

Remus laughs fondly, kissing the tip of his nose with a smile on his face. “Well I reckon that the twins are old enough to sleep through the night, and Grandma Lupin is always asking after them.”

Sirius brightens ten fold, “Really?”

“I’m sure the kids won’t mind spending an extended weekend on the Welsh coast.” Remus nods.

“Right, good. Yes! Let’s use that tellamabob thing.”

“But the kitchen’s still a mess.”

“Remus, please have mercy on me,” Sirius begs with his best pleading look until his husband finally relents in that worldweary way of his, even if it’s him who snatches Sirius’s wrist and drags him to that muggle contraption, an excited jittering to his grasp all the while.

Sirius is irrecoverably in love with such a bellend.

~*~

My Wolfstar FIC Masterlist

#WOLFSTAR #REMUS LUPIN #SIRIUS BLACK #REMUSXSIRIUS #SIRIUSXREMUS #HARRY POTTER SERIES #MARAUDERS #SPILT INK #SUGARPLUMS #Sweetest babes

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burningcowboyhoagietaco · 3 years ago

Text

A Way to Learn a Lesson

written by:

@burningcowboyhoagietaco

illustrated and edited by the amazing, the one and only:

@lenle-g

Before I publish the story id like to thank @lenle-g from the bottom of my heart for being patient with me, being nice to me the whole time, and for making my story even better and more exciting. Without her I would have stayed in my normal, not that good English story. so thank you for everything!!! <3<3

And here's my part at @tagminibang submission:)

☆☆☆☆☆

Scott, no!!! No way! I am not going to give any lectures to anyone." John's voice comes out tight. "Especially not in front of a crowd. No way."

"Why not?" Scott raises a brow, his voice honeyed with ‘big brother wants something’. "It's not like you're gonna get executed by some children just for talking space at them, right? You love talking about space. It's all I've heard since you were, like, seven."

"No, that's not it." There's a sharp shake of the ginger’s head, "Scott, come on!" John knows for a fact that his oldest brother knows he's the most socially awkward person to have ever lived on Tracy Island (and maybe the entire planet). "You’ve lived with me long enough to know how much I hate social.... anything." John complains. "Why would you ever think I'd want to do this?""

"Well, yes, I know that," Scott shrugs, "I've seen that look you get on your face when there's a lot of people around." He’s well aware that his brother is an introvert who hates socializing with anyone, so he quickly changes the subject to try and make his younger brother feel a little more at ease. "But hey... everyone knows how much you like it when anyone talks about space or anything about astronomy. You'd be amazing at it."

"That's a different thing." John says flatly. Flattery, it seems, wont get Scott very far. "It's like, whenever you guys ask me anything about space, I like to answer them for you, but from random people…? And in huge crowds? I just simply can't." Surely he doesn’t have to explain himself much more than that?

"Oh trust me, everything is going to be fine." Scott was a flippant hand around, talking without really thinking, because all he wants is for his brother to get out of Thunderbird 5, to visit Earth for a little bit, to mingle with people a little. It can't be that bad. "If anything happens, Gordon and Alan'll be in Thunderbird Five doing Space Monitor duty, me and Virgil are gonna keep an eye on everything, and you’re in safe hands with Lady Penelope and Parker. It's all set up, so please go have some fun for once and teach the children something cool."

"My answer is still no." John says persistently, without hesitation. He's pretty sure it'd be worse than being in the middle of a hurricane, or testing one of his Grandma's new cooking experiments. It’s lucky Scott misses his involuntary shudder.

Scott, though, is so done with him at this point, that he's pretty sure there's no choice but to use plan b and hope that that works instead on his unwilling, stubborn, red haired brother. They've got to get him down from orbit and to that lecture somehow. Scott's just not going to stand for anything else.

"Are you sure that's your last answer?" Scott asks, with a heavy sigh, already planning the best way to call in the big guns.

"Yes," John scowls, arms folded. "Yes, it is."

They'll see about that.

...

"Is everything ready?" John adjusts his sleeves, smoothing down his vest and putting the last touches on his collar. Neat, simple, formal. Can't go wrong. "My presentation papers, laptop, and my mini simple dimple?”

"Yes, all in the bag." Scott calls back, rapidly checking everything, "But do you really need that little fidget thing of yours?" He picks his younger brother's old toy up between forefinger and thumb to examine it, remembering the day John made their Mom buy it for when he gets stressed.

"What fidge- oh, yes I need it." The look on John's face leaves no doubt about that. "I've used it ever since Mom bought it for me."

"Hey… Mom would've been proud of you, you know?” Scott tells him, in a quick flash of brotherly pride. “For, you know, going out of your safe zone for a little while and teaching the children and all that."

"Yeah, I know…" John finds him a nervous smile, "But I'm not doing this voluntarily, you've forced me with that plan b of yours."

The second John says that Scott's cheeks dimple, the corners of his eyes crinkle, and he grins victoriously, his teeth a bright white in the earliest rays of morning sun.

“All I had to do was make a call." He shrugs, "Lady Penelope did all the talking and somehow convinced you to go." Scott got a little more excited. He took a couple of steps forward, slightly standing on his toes reaching John's level asking"How did she convince you?" Clearly waiting teasingly for an answer to come out of John's lips

"Huhhhh." John exhales loudly, a little despairing. "She promised me we'd go to the Pagasa Astronomical Observatory after I finish the lecture with the children." He shrugs, keeping his eyes down, embarrassed.

"The what now?" Scott stares at him, thoroughly confused.

"The Pagasa Astronomical Observatory in the Philippines.” John says, like that was obvious, “It's equipped with a 45-cm computer-based telescope. It's so powerful that astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts can now conduct effective observations of stellar bodies and other distant space objects! Scott, it’s been my dream to go since I was, like, 17."

Scott always knew how much of an astrophile his younger brother is; he never cared about his physical appearance, nor his poor eating habits and he always used to make excuses to read his books alone, yet no one has ever interfered in his personal life.

"Okay okay space lover boy,” Scott grins at him. He'd expected Penny to be persuasive, but resigning herself to hours stuck with John in full excited-about-space mode would hardly be in his top ten. Either he's gonna owe her one, or Penny's more resilient than him. “You can go, no one is holding you back."

The short silence between them was broken by a ringing sound from a nearby table, which John answers.

“...Mhm, yes? Oh, the lecture." It must be Penelope calling, "Yeah, I'm ready, I'll head out now." John grabs his bag, wandering toward where the FAB1 must already be idling on the Tracy runway. "Time to go."

"Mhm,” Scott makes an agreeable noise, watching him go. “Please stay safe and please don't make an idiot of yourself." He's teasing… mostly.

"Yeah yeah," John waves at him over his shoulder, not even looking back. "I won't."

…

"Are we there yet?" Despite the consistently amazing views out of FAB1’s windows during the flight, John’s found himself mostly looking down, fidgeting with his fingers. He’s worrying, just a little, about what awaits him in the Philippines - a whole different tropical island to his own, though still in the South of the Pacific Ocean.

"Just give Parker ten more minutes, darling,” Her Ladyship smiles at him, “We'll arrive in no time."

There’s a moment of silence before, unexpectedly, it’s broken by a call flashing up from, of all places, Thunderbird Five. There’s a prickly sense of discomfort as John realises that, of course, it’s not him calling. Gordon must be trying to reach them.

"Heeeeey Lady Penelope,” The kid greets, as Penny flicks it on, seemingly a lot less bothered by the change than he is. “Oh, and Mr. Tracy.” There’s a huge smirk on his face. “How's our newest teacher holding up?"

"Firstly, my name is John.” John points out, flatly, “Second, I'm not your teacher so please don’t call me Mr. Tracy ever again. Thirdly…” He concedes, quirking an eyebrow, “Yeah, I'm good for now, but fourth… How are you holding up, up there in my Thunderbird? She’s not much like Four, is she?"

"Ooooooooo that's a good question,” Gordon looks half like he’s considering it, half like he’s really missing his own ‘bird. “I'm holding up pretty well thanks to Alan. He’s taken all the Monitor duty stuff, so all I gotta do is keep an eye on you guys." He sounds a bit… sarcastic about that. “It’s pretty boring, honestly. How do you survive up here without a pool?”

"Young Master Gordon, are you quite done talking?" Parker glances, unimpressed, at the little floating hologram of John’s brother in his rearview mirror, "Because we're about to arrive at our destination."

"Huh… oh yeah,” Gordon doesn’t seem too bothered about that, but he waves merrily at them all the same, “Okay bye and John, please have fun, you too Lady Penelope, okay bye guys."

It’s only a few moments later that Parker opens his mouth to tell them that they’ve arrived at Chino Roque Theater, pulling up out front to let them both climb out.

John's eyes widen: it’s nothing like what he saw on the internet. It was more enormous, more luminous, more spectacular than anything he’d seen or read online. All he remembers reading is that it's a sphere shaped building located in the Philippines, in Anilao Hill, but the pictures on the webpage didn’t do it justice like being there in person does.

The building was smooth and round; the auditorium shaped like a massive egg nestled in amongst the other buildings. They were early enough that the sun was just cresting the horizon, colouring the sky with reds and oranges, visible through the geometric front of the building - where giant triangles of glass intersect together to give the people inside an amazing view of the sky at night.

"M'lady, you and John can go ahead. I'll park FAB 1." Parker said, before going to the parking lot - unaware just how tiring and long his journey to find a place to park is going to be.

They both head inside the building, admiring the sweeping glass fractals of the roof high above them. It’s incredibly beautiful, really a feat of engineering. So much so, that John almost forgets why he’s even there, until he spots a couple of buses arriving on the other side of the building, and the panic sets in. He was expecting to be a little bit anxious, but this feels like his heart is going to beat right out of his chest. He presses a hand hard against it, trying to calm his racing pulse and stop the sudden shake of his fingers, and Penny must notice, because a little hand settles, ever so lightly, on his shoulder, drawing his attention to her.

"Hey John," Lady Penelope looks him steadily in the eye, projecting warmth and reassurance. "They're just a small, mixed group of children and teens. They can’t possibly hurt you, now can they? They just came to have a small lecture because all of them like space and astronomy just like you. Imagine yourself at their age, meeting a real life astronaut.” John tries very hard not to remind her who, exactly, his Father was, as she goes on - trying to visualise being a kid that didn’t get ‘take your son to work days’ at NASA’. It’s a pretty horrifying concept. “Most importantly,” Penny adds, “it's only for an hour or so, so you don't need to worry so much." She had to smile just to reassure him. “You’ll have filled their heads with space facts and be out before you know it.”

"O-okay,” John takes a deep, steadying breath, “I don't know if I'm supposed to trust you on this, or whatever, but I really don't have any other choice." He also wants to add that they forced him to go, but at the last second he remembers that they never forced him - he agreed to go because Lady Penelope promised him a trip to the observatory.

It seems like a pretty weak reason, now that he’s outside the stage door, knees shaking.

"Mhm, I think it's time to go inside.” She nudges him callously in the right direction, and John’s palms meeting the solid metal of the double doors is the only thing that keeps him from following gravity’s call and landing on his face. “Again, if anything happens, I'll be at the back of the room and I have a plan b if things get too much." John, pretty shocked by just how many plan b's the Lady Penelope might have prepared for the day, can only shake his head, bemused. “So stop worrying and get out there!”

She vanishes off into the atrium, and John can’t help the loud exhale that escapes his mouth before he musters up all the courage he can, and enters the room.

Bright lights startle him for a moment, and he’s pretty sure he does an awful, awkward impression of a blind baby giraffe as he stumbles out onto the stage and freezes as he notices the first smatterings of audience are already taking their seats.

The moment he placed his foot on the smooth wooden floor, his heart had started to beat faster, his hands began to sweat, the more steps he took forward the more he felt anxious. It was, he’ll think later, one of the toughest moments of his life, and he’s been to space. Multiple times.

Come on John. He tries to straighten up, shake off his anxiety, This can’t go worse than your first EVA.

Taking another deep breath, John waits patiently for all the attendees to take a seat inside the room. Waiting doesn’t help his anxiety levels at all, and he can feel them increasing by the second, but, determined, John doesn’t let it stop him from starting his lecture.

"H-Hello everybody,” He starts, incredibly conscious of the hushed silence that falls across his audience. “I'm John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons,” he rattles off his credentials, his nerves almost blurring them together, “I worked with NASA as an astronaut for three years before going… uh… solo in my astronomical studies, and I'll be your guest lecturer for the day.” He swallows around the lump in his throat, as a ripple of hushed oohhhs and ahhhs goes through the crowd. John’s pretty sure his face has gone bright red. “Thank you for having me at the Chino Roque Theater,” He goes on, before his embarrassment can bet the better of him, “I hope everyone’s had an amazing day so far. We'll be spending the next hour or so talking about astronomy and space physics, so shall we get started?" John thought it was a good opening, and yet his back was really wet from all the people's eyes on him. Glancing offstage, Penelope throws him a thumbs up, and he feels a little better.

"Um,” He blinks. “So does anyone here know how old the universe is?" John ventures, only to be surprised as almost everyone answers at once;

"Almost 13.8 billion years!"

"Yes,” The edge of a smile works its way onto John’s face. Clearly this was going to be a shout out the answer kind of lecture. He can work with that. “That's correct, now does anyone know how the universe started?"

"The Big Bang!" Most of them answer, and John feels a surge of relief. These guys really are into space.

"Okay, okay, not bad at all." He nods affirmatively at them, and the screen behind him lights up with an artist’s rendition of the Big Bang happening. "Now if I were to go and search ‘how old is the universe’ in, say, Google, the answer would be 13,772 billion years. It’d be the same thing if we looked at NASA, or even Wikipedia - so how did people get to know the age of the universe? How do you even start calculating something that old? Well I'm going to explain it for you in two ways: the good, nice way, and the kinda not that good and not that scientific way." There’s a bit of an awkward pause as John wonders whether or not he’s explained that well. When only silence greets him, he very quickly realises he needs to press on.

"So, uh, the good way.” He folds his fingers together behind his back, trying to resist the urge to fidget. “Well, in the middle of the previous century, as telescopes developed, we noticed something strange. We found that stars in very distant galaxies tend to look red… Umm, which is something that’s not supposed to happen.” A chuckle escapes John and, to his relief, the audience laughs with him. Scott never gets his space jokes. “So why’s that?” He asks, “See, if a chemical element gains or loses energy it’ll emit light in certain frequencies, thereby creating certain colors.” A small movement of his hand signals the slide to change, and a picture of the visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum appears, colouring the room with rainbow light. “For example,” John goes on, bathed in blue and violet, “Consider something like… a desk lamp, as like an element. If you give a lamp electrical energy, it’ll release that energy in the form of heat and light, yeah?" There’s a murmur of uncertain understanding in the room. “Electricity goes in, the bulb gets hot, and it gives off light. Well, we know stars do pretty much the same thing - only powered by nuclear fusion rather than a nine volt plug.”

"From studies of the sun and stars that are near Earth, we know that they’re made of helium and hydrogen, yes?” There’s another murmur of agreement in John’s crowd, “Well, hydrogen and helium can create red light, but they don't have the ability to create these shades of red that we see in deep space." The slide behind John clicks to a comparison of the two shades, on two different stars - making the difference clear.

"So, if stars are made of helium and hydrogen then why do distant stars have different colours? Are their compositions different?uh, well It’s possible, but not likely. The strongest explanation is that the color difference is due to the movement of the stars." The room gives a soft gasp at this news, and John knows he’s onto something good.

"So there's something called the redshift and blueshift phenomenon that says that if an object radiates light and approaches you, the color of the light begins to turn blue, and if the object is moving away from you, the color will turn red. This happens because the wavelength of light contracts and expands with movement meaning that something stretching equals red and contraction equals blue."

"And the strange thing is,” John adds, his audience listening raptly, “That most, if not all, stars show the same behavior, so, if we think about it, if all stars are moving away from us, that means that they were close to us at some point, and if we follow their path, we find that everything in space meets at a point named ‘singularity’."

"It was believed, in the past, that everything in the universe, or at least in the visible part that we have observed, that is to say,” John flicks to a graphic on his next slide. “All the galaxies, planets and stars, were all gathered at one point - the singularity. The theory is that this point exploded in what we call the ‘Big Bang’, and from that time onward, the universe has been in constant expansion.”

"So it’s with data from this knowledge that we can calculate the age of the universe:” With a wave of his hand, John puts a series of bullet points up on the screen behind him, then reads them aloud.

“One, the universe began as a very small, single point.” He reaffirms, “Two, the universe is constantly expanding outward from that point, and three, from these we have the ability to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, by calculating the speed of the stars that are moving away from us. If we take the furthest accelerations and enter them into this equation,” John’s board merrily does it’s thing behind him, “Then, we get the age of the universe."

"And, so we don't forget, all this talking was about the good way. There is another way to calculate the age of the universe, the, uh, not as good way, or, more specifically, the less scientific way.” A ripple of laughter goes through John’s audience - and he relaxes a little more. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe these are his kind of people. Scott’s never laughed at a space joke for sure. “There's no problem with it,” He quietens them again with a gentle gesture, “and it does support our theory and calculations, so I guess we should talk about it."

"Since ancient times, humans have been looking at the sky, watching the stars, and giving them names like Cygnus, Canis Major, Orion.” All names any young astronomer in the Southern Hemisphere would recognise, and be able to enthusiastically point out in the night sky. “In those days, there wasn't the internet so they were looking up at the stars instead.” Much like John himself, when he’d been a boy.

“As a way of calculating the age of the universe, astronomers set out to search for the oldest celestial bodies in space.” He goes on to explain, “The idea was that if we find a star whose age equals X, then the age of the universe must be greater than the number X. So we pointed our telescopes up there and started trying to find out their ages from birth, to youth, to their old age until their end."

"Can anyone guess the age of the oldest star we've found?" A lot of answers were guessed, some of them were pretty close, but some, amusingly, were way too far. "Ok, ok…” John puts his hands up to pacify his excited crowd, “Umm I see there are a lot of answers, but the oldest star people discovered was actually estimated to be 13.5 billion years old. The HD-140283, or as you might know it, the Methuselah Star. That number is very close, you’ll notice, to our estimation of the age of the universe."

"But if we found a star that is 13.5 billion years old today, then we could find an even older star next week and that would ruin all of that,” He chuckles, mostly to himself, “We also should note that this method alone isn't suitable for determining the universe’s age, but as long as we have two methods with corroborative results, we can be reassured that the estimate is correct.” He pauses for a second, “So, does anyone have questions?" A couple of hands raised, and John found himself suddenly answering a lot of questions - but he managed all of them despite his fear of the huge crowd.

He’s starting to feel more than a little overwhelmed.

"Umm… W-well that was a lot of questions,” John tries to pull it back in, his allotted lecture time ticking away on the big clock at the back of the hall. He feels a little panicky from the bombardment, and his palms have gone sweaty. “We’d better move on.” To distract himself from the people, as much as anything, “Our next topic is the theory of relativity, so l-let's get started on that."

Lady Penelope, from her fold-out seat at the back of the room, frowns. It’s clear John’s terrified and she wants to use plan b, but as long as he’s still standing on his feet, and giving the lecture, he's probably fine for now. If anything, it’d cause more of a disruption to drag him away now.

"Umm,” John takes a breath, trying to centre himself in the science of it all. “Let's start with a supposition, a hypothesis if you like, and consider it together. Okay, you’ll have to bear with me on this one, but let us suppose that we were all asleep, and the universe suddenly inflated by a thousand times.” There’s a murmur in the crowd at how odd everything abruptly getting that much bigger sounds, “Your bed, your pillow, your desk,” John extrapolates, “even the meter we measure stuff with. If humans became a thousand times bigger, when we woke up would we feel something strange? Would we even notice anything had changed? You’d think so, but no.” John’s settling back into his rhythm now, “So why is that? Because the bed and everything became a thousand times more inflated and our bodies also inflated a thousand times, with everything scaling in parallel relation to each other so that this percentage, this scale, was preserved throughout the room. You’d never know the difference."

"Henri Poincaré, the well known mathematician and theoretical physicist, says that we will never be able to discover that something like this has happened, even if we use all the mathematics and calculations ever invented.” John drives the point home with another illustrated slide, “This hypothesis is called the Poincaré hypothesis, and simply, because the meter with which we measure things will have also expanded a thousand times, there’s never going to be any equation or calculation or any analysis possible that could lead us to the truth, because the ratio is preserved in all parts."

"Now, this is important, because the same thing also happens with time. If everything suddenly got a thousand times faster, we’d still never feel anything different. Why’s that?” He asks, rhetorically, “Because time is also a thousand times faster, your heartbeat is also a thousand times faster, your body would function a thousand times faster to keep up with it all. As long as everything is increased by the same amount, the ratio is preserved, and none of us will be able to detect any change."

"So Poincaré asked the scientific community; is there no way to know that time increased or that things inflated?" John tells the room, "Well, it was Albert Einstein who answered him, deciding that the one and only way to tell, would be to have someone observing what happened to the world from another galaxy, from another world, lightyears away. For someone to point a telescope in our direction, and look through it at us, and say what happened to the Earth? Why are humans walking a thousand times faster than in the past? But this person who realized the situation,” The astronaut waves a flippant hand, starting to feel much more confident again, “would have to be a person standing on a fixed external platform in a different world, so that what happened to us was not also happening to him."

"But, as Einstein commented, this hypothesis is impossible for a simple reason and it's that there is no fixed platform in the universe - the entirety of it is in constant, turbulent motion. For example, the Earth rotates at a speed of 460 meters per second, revolving around the sun at 30 kilometers per second, and at the same time, the sun and it’s planets and dwarf planets and moons and asteroids, all revolve around our galaxy, The Milky Way, at a speed of 300 kilometres per second, and so the whole universe revolves. That's,” John takes a deep breath, finding himself out of air after so much explaining, “why it's impossible for us humans to completely accurately judge the motion of any astral body."

"Because there is no fixed berth, we can only offer relativity. This is the first part of the theory that Einstein came up with, in summary; it cannot be said that the monotony of a body is absolute motion."

"Another thing he said was that, because of the vastness of the universe, it’s impossible to synchronize, what does that mean? Well, I will give you an example.�� He flicks his slide, “Say I’m a person in the Philippines, and I'm talking to someone from the United States. We synchronize, and hear each other in real time, because we have a method of fast communication. I can hold my device and say; hello, how are you?” John holds up the slim, sliver slice of his phone to show the audience, “How’s the weather there? And they’d answer me with something like; I’m fine thank you, it's night here so it’s a bit hard to tell what the weather’s doing! What’s the weather like there? And I’d answer them; it's daytime, and maybe ask them something like, what are you eating? They’d answer me; a burger, and then I’d tell them that I'm eating kaldereta, and it’s much better than a burger."

In the audience Penny quietly hopes that Gordon, who's probably listening in with the rest of his brother’s, missed the fact John was making jokes on stage. The poor little bugger’ll never live it down otherwise.

"These two events, each person talking to the other, are compatible.” John goes on, absolutely oblivious, “It’s possible because the two wireless devices, be they mobile phones or more sophisticated comms systems, are on the same globe, creating a fast means of communication.”

"But,” John postulates, “If I was talking to someone from another galaxy and I used the same means of communication to make a call, do you know how long it would take to get to them? It would be about five to six thousand years until my signal reaches the phone of our friend, and they’ll have married, had children and died, and their children would have married and had children and died, and so on, for thousands of years before then."

"And that's why it's impossible to synchronize between the ends of the universe,” John balances his palms like he’s weighing two invisible ends, “It rather puts a damper on our chances of finding and communicating with extraterrestrial life, for sure, but at least it’s possible to synchronize within one system, like the system of the Earth. "

"This is a thing that also applies to light, for example: any star you could look up and see now, the light emanating from it may be coming from thousands of years ago. This means that it’s possible that the star you see shining could have exploded and disappeared, and hasn't existed for a long time. Why? Because it takes a couple of thousand years for the light from that explosion to reach us."

"There isn’t any proof for the hypothesis that the universe is linked by time, but the thing that happens that we’re sure of is that the universe is made up of, sort of, separate islands of different times that have no connection between them. The connection between movement and time in space is something we all know about, for example, a day on Earth equals twenty-four hours, yes?” There’s a chorus of agreement from the audience, “But on Saturn, a day is ten hours because it rotates faster. Astonishingly, a day on Mercury is the same as fifty-eight whole Earth days, which, infact, is also a Mercurian year, because the planet revolves around the sun for the exact same period as it revolves around itself."

"Okay, so, to what extent is movement related to time?” John asks, well and truly into this whole teaching thing now, “Well, Einstein was the first person to discover the connection between them and suggested that; suppose you’re on board a very fast rocket, 100,000 miles per hour for example. The mechanical watch on your wrist would be delayed over the flight, but you wouldn’t feel like time is being delayed. Why’s that? It’s because the rhythm of your heart would slow down - all of the vital processes in your body that are inside the rocket will slow down."

"As you move more, something called the dilation of time will happen.” He steps to the side, as if to illustrate the point, only to find himself stumbling a little, like if the ground beneath his feet had moved. “T-Time slows down,” John tries to recover it smoothly, but everything’s starting to feel, weirdly, like it’s shaking, and he doesn’t think it’s the anxiety anymore, “and that's-"

John doesn’t get to finish his sentence because there’s an abrupt shift and a loud cracking from under him, and getting off the stage suddenly seems like a good idea. Someone screams outside, and the volume in the room skyrockets as the children start panicking. John’s one hundred percent sure this wasn't anything planned.

He knew he shouldn't have come.

Earthquake? He wonders first, then; Tsunami? Ground slip? Hurricane? Whichever it is, John has to prioritise calming the people and evacuating them out of the building. The giant glass panels above them are trembling with the force of the shaking, and, as a professional at this sort of thing, Thunderbird Five’s Space Monitor doesn’t like the look of it one bit.

"Everyone calm down,” He has to shout to make himself heard over the roar of people, even with the microphones pointed his way, “This is a normal thing. All we have to do is evacuate immediately, as calmly. as. possible. I don't want anyone crowding the exits, do you all understand what I just said?" The front rows, white faced with fear, nod encouragingly at him, and he watches as they begin to lead the way toward the glowing green signs that signal the emergency exits. Immediately after making sure the crowd is moving, John pulls up his comm to contact Gordon.

"Gordon, are you on the line?” John’s a little breathless and he climbs down from the precarious stage, into the throng of terrified bodies, “We have a situation in here."

"Let me guess, you caused it?" Gordon seems so excited to hear something other than his brother's boring lecture that humour has outweighed his professionalism.

"Gordon,” John grits his teeth, “I'm being serious right now, there was a huge movement in the ground beneath the Chino Roque Theater, and it's still ongoing. Tell Alan to do a check on what's happening beneath us using the Ground Penetrating Radar." He orders.

"F.A.B." Comes the far more serious response, before Gordon clicks off the line to do just that. Squashing down any fear he’d about the now swelling, shuffling crowd, John opens his arms wide and walks toward them, the motion sort of like he’s trying to herd sheep, as he tries to evacuate the people safely out of the building.

He’s not exactly an expert at being on the scene during rescues.

"John, there's a landslide going on right now,” Alan’s worried little voice comes ringing out of his comm speakers, “Right next to the theatre. You’d better get out of there. I’m monitoring the situation, but it’s looking like you’re going to need International Rescue to get you and the people out of there. The debris field is spreading fast." John would do almost anything to be up there instead, at his own screens. “I've contacted Virgil and Scott, I’m patching them through now.” Alan clicks Scott and Virgil, both clearly just finishing their suit up sequences, into the conversation. It seems important to keep them up to date with John's developing situation.

"Hey Mr. Tracy, how are you holding up?" Scott jokes over the roar of his launching Thunderbird, the sound filling the background of the call with white-noise, "Oh, and how was your lecture?" John thinks he sounds far too casual in contrast to the impending danger all around him.

"Oh my God, Scott, is now really the time?” John groans, and a kid with mousey blond hair not dissimilar to Alan’s looks up at him, very confused, before the astronaut waves him on, “You are an adult person,” He reminds his big brother, “Please don't be like Gordon right now. He’s practically still a child."

"Hey!” Gordon had clearly overheard the conversation between his brothers, and springs up to defend himself. “I'm only two or three years younger than you!" He complains, not about to do the math.

"Gordon, we don't have time for arguing about that now,” John frowns, “and Scott, I'm holding up alright at the moment. Please don't ask me anything about the lecture until I get back home." If his voice cracks a little on that last bit, he’ll never admit it.

"Okay, okay I won't ask anything about that,” Scott reassures him, his amused, big brother grin very much in place, “Keep on evacuating the people safely until we arrive John, you’re doing great. It won’t take us that long. ETA at 15,000 mph is sixteen minutes.” He reassures, “We’ll be there before you know it."

"F.A.B. Scott." He reluctantly signs off. Now that he’s finished talking with Scott, John’s pleased to see that a lot of people have already made their way out of the atrium’s three sets of double doors, evacuating the building to get as far away from the landslide as possible. His fingers itch to pull up the schematics from Thunderbird Five on his comm, no matter what the people around him might think. He quickly caves, and it feels worth it to be able to see the incoming tide of slipping land.

They don’t have much time.

“Let’s go!” He shouts, chivvying. He’s a little breathless with the tension, so he keeps things short. “Come on! Let’s move guys!”

From his vantage near the crumbling stage, John can make out Lady Penelope and Parker by the main doors, ushering people through, and the sight of them fills him instantly with immense relief.

“Okay, that's a good amount of people out.” John has to jog to catch up with them, skirting around a little old lady with a zimmer frame and taking a second to correct her course, “Lady Penelope, Parker, I think you should go and check on the people who’re out. They could have minor injuries from the stampede, and International Rescue are still ten minutes out. I'll make sure the last few stragglers exit safely."

Penelope just nods, pale and worried. Her blond brows are all pinched in together, nervous and Parker looks practically haggard as he claps a reassuring hand on John’s shoulder, her faithful old companion following her pink shape dutifully out the doors. Hopefully they’ll go make sure that no one was badly injured in any way.

Turning back to the slow cascade of cracking rubble behind him, John finds the stage area has been all but obliterated, and his heart aches for the patrons of the Chino Roque Theater who’ll have to rebuild from scratch when this is over. He imagines the Tracy fund can contribute a significant amount toward that though. They often do for worthy causes.

John pushes the damp curl of his slightly sweaty bangs out of his eyes and climbs over what looks like a twisted piece of ceiling girder toward the sound of people, possibly trapped stragglers, who are calling for help.

"I miss Thunderbird 5 so much,” John mutters, keeping it under his breath so that no one hears him, as his palms are scraped raw against the concrete he’s trying to clamber around. There’s a rippp of fabric on a jagged piece of metal and the knee of his previous pristine brown jeans meets much the same fate as his poor, scuffed hands. “Oh, come on!” He’s having no luck today, “I'd so rather be assisting the situation from space. I can’t believe I’m stuck here." John grumbles, to no one in particular. He’s just not built for this kind of thing. Heavy labour and getting sweaty pulling people out of scrap heaps is what his other brothers do. At least rescues in space don’t have all this… gravity to contend with.

"John?” The crackle of a comm cut’s across his complaints, “What’re you still doing in there?” Gordon’s voice breaks him from his thoughts, little brother’s tone heavy with concern. “The building could fall any moment! You're so lucky the landslide isn't moving very fast, but it’s not gonna stay that way forever." Gordon was really worried about the fact that his older brother was still inside. “It could engulf the building! You need to hurry it up, bro.”

"I'm evacuating the people as fast as I can,” John gets both hands under the armpits of a boy who couldn’t be older than seven, and swings him above a pile of rubble toward safety, “I'll be out in no ti- Ah!"

John’s voice gets cut off with a startled cry, and it takes Gordon a second or two, time John might not have, to remember how to breathe so that he can yell in any way coherently into his comm. His eyes are wide, his anxiety levels through the roof as he tries, and fails, to rouse his brother on the other end.

"SCOTT! You need to get there now.” Gordon’s aware that he’s totally losing his cool, panic creeping in over his weak layer of professionalism, “I just lost contact with John.” He gasps, “He was evacuating people and I heard him yell and now he’s not responding! And- and it's not just him. There were other people he was trying to get out."

"Hey Gordon,” Scott tries to keep his voice steady to inject some kind of stability into the conversation, “Don't lose your cool yet. I'm sure nothing that bad happened to John. Just stay your positive self, okay? I’m arriving right now and Virgil isn’t far behind me."

Thunderbird One is panning over the city, low enough to ruffle the hair of people looking up, but it’s not a problem until the usually so sure and steady pilot finds his hands nearly slipping off her controls as Scott catches his first, horrific glimpse of the building that he knows his younger brother is inside.

“What the…?”

The Chino Roque Theater is almost flat.

"Virgil,” Scott swallows hard to try and remove any of the tremor from his voice, “A-Are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" He almost succeeds.

"Scott this isn't a joke, it looks like half of the building has come down with the landslide! John’s in there!" Virgil sounds more terrified than Scott thinks he’s ever heard him. What scares him the most is that the exit was on the side that has fallen in, which means that a lot of people are trapped under it, their John included. "Scott, we need to help them right now.

"Okay, here's the plan,” Scott’s hands tighten white-knuckled on the steering yoke, “You wear your exo-suit and go clear the debris out of the way so that we can save them, and I'll get rid of that roof with Thunderbird One and check for life signs. Remember that saving lives is our top priority, got it? No matter what’s happened to John."

"F.A.B." Virgil sounds incredibly tense. He lands Thunderbird Two as fast as he can in the crowded, limited space. Local people are beginning to make their way out of their houses to see what all the commotion is about, and the cramped city streets aren’t ideal for International Rescue’s four hundred and six ton workhorse.

Two’s pilot struggles into his exo-suit, rushing to get the Jaws of Life prepared despite Scott’s insistence that he focus and take things slow and sensible. It’s not long until he finds himself digging among the debris looking for buried people and, in the white rush of it all, Virgil’s not even sure how he got there.

"Scott,” he presses on his comm, “Please tell me you’ve got something?"

"Fortunately and thankfully yes,” It’s hard to find the hopefulness in big brother’s clipped Mobile Control voice, but it’s there to Virgil’s expert ear, drizzled in nervous relief. “I've got a whole cluster of life signs,” Scott reports, “BPM signalling in the green. "I think they’re just trapped under the debris." Alan’s echolocation report came back suggesting that there’s a big space under what could be folded sheet metal from the ceiling, that they’ve huddled in. I'm really sure there's nothing that bad, but still we have to continue otherwise it will take a bad turn for us and the people in there."

“I can use the grappling cables in Thunderbird One to take the strain off the roof,” Scott adds, “But I need you in there to get those people out.”

“Already on my way,” Virgil ducks under some rebar, skirting around the rubble and pulling away loose debris as he goes. His heart is loud in his own ears, and Virgil hopes the creak and groan of metal and concrete above him is Scott lifting the weight off the roof, keeping it from collapsing any further onto the people below, and not anything more sinister. Virgil gets peppered by a slide of small stones, but the roof holds steady.

He presses on until he catches sight of the cluster of around forty people, all huddled together around a tall, central figure with a shocking amount of rubble dust smeared over his face, and powdered through his ginger hair.

“John!” Two’s pilot makes a beeline for his brother, despite the fact three of the people are stuck under rubble. Clearly John’s in control of the situation here, and he’s never wanted a mission update from their Space Monitor so much in his life. He can’t help but hone in on the fact John's left arm is crudely wrapped in a piece of cloth from his sleeve, which he must’ve ripped off in order to tie it.

"You have to tell me exactly what happened,” Virgil drops the controls for the Jaws of Life, and grasps his brother’s biceps in both hands instead, resisting the very strong temptation to pull the spaceman in for a hug. “And what happened to your arm?!?" There’s a river of blood seeping from beneath the make-shift bandage, but John, it seems, isn’t bothered by it in the slightest.

"Not now Virgil.” His concerns get thoroughly dismissed, “We’ve got to get these people out of here, and then I'll tell you everything." Virgil didn't like the idea that something happened to his brother and he's silent about it, but after all John was right about saving the people first since his arm is under control for now.

John crouches by the nearest injured person; a pale, skinny teen with a sizable piece of rebar keeping him pinned.

“You’re gonna be out of there in just a second, Lito.” Virgil watches him reassuring the young man for a long moment, “Uh, Virgil?” John prompts. “Any time?”

“What?” He blinks, “Oh, yeah!” His brother is clearly waiting expectantly for him to use the Jaws of Life to get the poor kid out. "I’m on it, but you better tell me everything after we're done saving them." Virgil demands. “But, uh, Scott’s kind of holding the roof up right now, so you’re probably right.”

"Okay,” John literally rolls his eyes, busy stealing a pair of blue rubber gloves from the Med Kit Virgil brought with him, and snapping them on to protect his hands and the fine cuts he’d gotten from climbing over rubble. “I promise I'll tell you everything, but can we start actually rescuing them now?" Rolling his eyes right back, the bigger man uses his exosuit to heft the rubble off Lito, before John swoops in to apply pressure to his injuries.

“Give me the fold out stretcher from your sash.” He orders, hands bloodied “Then go get the next person out. Efifania, Sergio?” John beckons a pair of nearby dad’s in closer, clearly having singled them out as capable stretcher bearers. “Think you can manage Lito here for me?”

As Virgil starts removing the rubble from above the other two trapped people, a middle aged man and a younger woman, it becomes immediately obvious that both of them have more severe wounds than young Lito. They both need medical treatment immediately.

“I’ll carry one of them.” Without the three extra sets of hands he’d need, Virgil has to leave a couple of crowd members applying pressure to their wounds, as he moves back to where John is helping Lito unsteadily to his feet. “Think you can walk, young man? We’re gonna need that stretcher for the big guy.”

“I won’t let you fall.” John promises, and Virgil feels a real swell of pride at how well his brother is handling the situation whilst being outside of both his space station and his comfort zone. It looks like having a rescue and a job to do really gives him no time for anxiety. "I agree that that's our best plan.” He adds, nodding, short and sharp, to confirm it, then John turns, an arm around Lito’s waist and the kid’s arm slung over his shoulder, to address the crowd.

“Anyone not so severely hurt needs to help get the injured out of here.” John instructs, the small crowd listening raptly. The look on the faces of these scared people is one Virgil is all too familiar with, but he knows John has far less experience of in person. They’re really looking to him as their saviour. “Virgil here is going to lead us through the path he just made.” Which is news to Virgil, but does seem like the best plan. “International Rescue will then be able to take us all to the hospital to get checked out, and then I’m sure you’ll be released to go home to your families before you know it. Got it everyone?"

In that moment Virgil finds himself struck with amazement at how John seems to have become almost as fearless as Scott, as they started carrying the two injured people out to safety. It was really a new side to him that Virgil doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.

"Virgil… I need you to check on Lady Penelope and Parker.” John’s keeping pace at his side, helping the boy they’d dug out along as he goes, “I told them to check to see if anyone was hurt."

"Hmm, yeah you're right.” Virgil frowns. If Penny and Parker have any more injured party members, even minor ones that just need a check up, Thunderbird Two will need to evacuate them to the hospital as well. “Have you got any idea where they might be?"

"Well, I told them to get somewhere away from the landslide,” John frowns, as their limping, shocky party stumbles out into the bright light of day, to be greeted by the roar of Thunderbird One’s engines high above them. “They should be near here.” He yells over the sound of it.

As usual, it turns out that John is completely right. Penny and Parker are waiting for them, but neither John nor Virgil find the look on Lady Penelope's face all that reassuring.

"JOHN!” She rushes toward the battered, bloodied spaceman, her arms outstretched. Virgil very quickly and carefully finagles poor Lito out of the way as his brother gets ambushed. “Are you okay?!?” Penelope demands, frantic, “What happened to your arm?” She reaches for the bloodied bandage, and John winces, “I'm so sorry,” All of John’s carefully constructed rules around personal space are shattered as she cups his cheek, inspecting his face for injury. It’s lucky that John is by far the most patient of the Tracy boys. “I shouldn't have left you there.

"She’d been so terrified, perhaps more than anyone else here. The horrific view she’d seen with her own eyes is going to haunt her for a long time yet. One second she was getting out of the building to reassure and check up on the people, and the next she was watching half the structure collapse completely, with John under the side that fell. She still feels a little sick.

"I'm so, so, so sorry John,” She repeats, before he can get a word in edgeways to reassure her, “Please, you must tell me if there's any way I can make it up to you. Ask me anything and I'll do it."

"Okay guys,” Virgil chuckles, “while you talk things out I'll go to get the injured people aboard Thunderbird 2. Make it quick though, we’ve still got people who need immediate medical treatment, got it?"

"F.A.B. Virgil.” John nods, “We'll be quick. Penny, I..."

“I’m so sorry.” She repeats again, and pulls his good arm over her shoulder as if to steady him as they make their way at the back of the crowd toward the big green Thunderbird.

"No no no, Penny, please stop apologising.” John’s fingers tighten for a quick moment on her shoulder, in brief reassurance, “I'm not going to ask you for anything because it was never your fault.” He insists, “It was just some bad luck, that's all. Fortunately I, and most people, got out safe with no severe wounds. These things happen.”

“Your arm.” She points out softly, hoping that all that blood looks worse than it is, “John I can’t believe you stayed behind like that, it’s so...”

“Tracy?” He grins, amused but very weary.

“Scott Tracy.” She corrects, scowling a little as she holds on just that little bit tighter around his waist as his adrenaline from the rescue starts to flag. “I thought you had more common sense.”

“Hate to disappoint.” She feels the warmth of him chuckling, “I’m lucky it was nothing worse than his cut from some shattered glass that fell on my arm while I was helping one of the guys who got stuck. I don’t think any arteries or anything have been damaged, but it is... kinda deep." And he might be getting a little lightheaded from the blood loss. Still, he really wants to reassure her, just like she had reassured him before he’d gone in to give the lecture.

"Hate to interrupt your moment, but are you guys done?" Scott pops up from who-knows-where amongst the crowd to yell at them. He’s clearly joined the relief effort. "Virgil’s just finished getting everyone aboard Thunderbird 2, and he's ready to launch." He adds, squinting at the pale, wobbly mess of his brother. "And you really do need to check your arm. That looks nasty.”

"Yeah Scott,” John wipes a tired hand over his dirty face, dislodging dust, “We're done. Don’t let Thunderbird Two wait for me, I'll hitch a ride with Lady Penelope, uh,” He turns to her, bashful, to check, “If that’s okay?"

“Of course,” Her Ladyship concedes, “Scott?” She is mildly concerned that big brother might want to have the injured member of his flock under his wing so he can smother him.

"Yeah sure, ride whatever you want.” Scott flip flops a dismissive hand at them, “You can ride a pod, I won't care as long as your destination is the hospital."

"How about you, Gordon?” John knows his little brother is still on the line, probably sulking. “Is it okay if I take the ride with Lady P?"

"W-what do you mean by that?” Gordon sounds confused and maybe a little embarrassed, like he’s been caught out. “Scott already said you should go, why’re you asking me?"

"Well, she's your girlfriend.” John grins, teasing, as Penny helps him into the back of FAB1. “Of course I have to get permission from her boyfriend.

"Penny swats at him for that, amused, but careful not to hit his injured arm. She doesn’t need anyone’s permission to do anything, but it is fun to see Gordon squirm - especially as Scott and Virgil both crack up, and even Alan in space starts teasing him.

"What?!?” Gordon’s face, bless that darling young man, has gone bright red. “J-Just go already." He ducks off the comm screen to try and hide his embarrassment, but it’s far too late for that.

He’s lucky that Penelope finds it incredibly endearing.

"John,” She nudges him, as the Tracy’s all click off the line to go do their actual jobs. She’s a little concerned that he’s looking a bit spaced out, if you’ll excuse the pun, and it’s probably a good idea to keep him talking. “You know we're still going to The Pagasa Observatory, just like I promised you, right?"

"Wait really?” John’s head tilts, a little floppy, towards her from where it had been sinking into FAB1’s luxurious headrests. He’s looking a little grey, but it’s good to see his eyes open. “After all that happened?” A ginger eyebrow quirks, “Are you sure there's time for that?"

"Well, we’re on our way to the hospital now, but there’ll be plenty of time this afternoon.” As long as the medics give him a clean bill of health. “You can change your clothes after we're done checking your arm then there should be time for you to go see that big telescope you've been dreaming of visiting. After all, I did promise you we’d go there after we're done."

"Well, that sounds good to me!” John smiles like there’s a supanova fuling him, “Penny you’re the best."

They reach the hospital a little after International Rescue has dropped off the fourty or so injured people, and so there’s quite a wait for a Doctor to be free so that they can have a look at John’s poor, sliced arm. Penny seems to be doing a worried hover at his side, while he waits, shaky from blood loss, and though he’s not used to having so much company, John has to admit it’s nice to have a chance to catch up with his old friend with no rescue alarms blaring.

Alan reports in that the two worst injured in the landslide have been hospitalized as fast as possible, that they were stable - the doctors have said their prognosis looked good. He also tells him that Lito’s family had been asking after the redheaded lecturer who’d helped him out of the rubble, and that John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons, should probably expect a gift basket in the mail quite soon.

John gets quite flustered about that. He’d just been doing his job.

The spaceman's arm was eventually treated, and Scott calls in to ask what actually happened to his arm. It still hurts, a properly bandaged throb just under his elbow, but not like before. The painkilling injection and little bit of morphine they’d given him when they stitched it up had probably helped with that.

Alan’s reports dug up that the landslide had been caused by a water main leaking under the building, and destabilizing the soil. Over time, water can do a lot of damage, washing away vital infrastructure if it’s not been properly reinforced during construction.

As the Chino Roque Theater was a new build, there must have been a mistake in the installation of the pipes during construction.

Someone was getting a big lawsuit heading their way, and Tracy Enterprises will be more than happy to fund the lawyers for the theatre.

As Lady Penelope promised him, they found John a change of clothes and went to the Pagasa Observatory. Penny’s quite sure she’s never seen anything as wholesome as the moment John sees the telescope - his eyes went all shiny, and the smile on his face was massive.

"Lady Penelope, Parker come take a look at the stars!!!” He calls, over his shoulder, with the enthusiasm of a boy half his age, “They’re really beautiful from here!" With such a high-powered lens pointed up at the cosmos, it rivals even his view from Thunderbird Five.

"Indeed, they are." Lady Penelope and Parker both step up to take turns, but John was the one to look through the telescope the most. With all the stealth her years as a secret agent offered her, Lady Penelope took a picture of him.

"Parker, come take a look." She whispers, beckoning her old companion gleefully over. "He looks so happy and innocent in this picture. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see his face like this always?"

"We still have some time before they close,” Parker points out, a sly grin creeping onto his nosey old face. “How h’bout we leave him like this for a little longer?"

"That, Parker.” she smiles, “Is an excellent idea.”

The End

#tag mini bang 2021 #tagminibang2021 #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #john tracy #scott tracy #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #alan tracy #Lady Penelope #Parker #tag #my writing

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narvaldetierra · 3 years ago

Text

Hide and seek

This is the Kidnapped prompt for the #BarsonBingoAugust2021 created by @simpforbarba

Warnings: Blood, psychological torture, some descriptions can be graphics. Let me know if I forgot anything. Words: 4181. Disclaimer: English is not my first language.

“What do you say if we go for some Chinese food and go to your apartment? We may find Noah still awake if we go now.” Said Rafael standing at Olivia's office door.

The lieutenant looked up and put down the papers she was reading, surprised because she hadn't heard him arrive. She gave him an exhausted smile and took off his glasses.

“That would be great but…”

“You have a case.”

“I have a case.”

“A case for which they are pressuring you a lot, according to what I heard” He approached the desk. He already knew these kinds of cases, they resonated that much in the newspapers, that became a political issue, so the high levels pushed the police to the limit.

“That's right, but every clue we have just led us to a dead-end road.— Olivia sighed and dropped the paper in her hand. All that she wanted was to leave the station, take a walk with Rafael and be there when Noah went to bed, so she could read his bedtime story, for the first time that week.

“Hey… I know you are in a difficult position, but it's no use that you stay here all night, without sleeping” Rafael sat in the chair across the desk “You need to take a step back and stop looking at all that evidence for a while. When you come back tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep, you may see this and find something you didn’t see.”

“You may be right” she granted, still a little upset that she couldn't move further in the case.

A series of corpses had been found. Two each time, couples, according to what their family said. They had rope marks on their wrists, traces of sedatives, shoots in their chest and heads. All the women were raped. The Killer Match the press had called it. All the beginning, it seemed to follow a path with just heterosexual couples, but they suddenly found a sapphic couple and another one gay. They had found five couples, the last two had appeared after the investigation of the third, unlike the first two that were found thanks to the ongoing investigation. They were three weeks apart each time, and they were running out of time before they had a new couple on the coroner's table.

Olivia stood and took her stuff, purse, and coat. Rafael smiled back at her and stood as well, held out his hand towards her. As they left her office, he crossed an arm over her shoulders, and kissed her cheek, trying to improve her mood.

“When we arrive at the apartment, I will take care to spoil you.”

“With you being by my side is enough. Besides, I’m so tired that I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat dinner.”

---

They were sitting at a table, waiting for the takeaway food. A glass of wine in front of Olivia, and scotch in Rafael’s hand. It should have been 15 minutes and it had been already 20. After a long day, Olivia was a little impatient, her mind thought in that case, again and again, reviewing in her mind the evidence they had. After another five minutes, Rafael went to claim their food and she was left alone. Then she almost had an epiphany. She took the file from her purse, checked some papers, and then she made a search on her phone. She gasped as she realized.

“What happened?” Rafael asked when he came back, as he knew that look in her eyes “What did it happen when I wasn’t here”

“I… I found it” she replied still surprised by her own words “I know who he is, I know where he is. It was in front of us all this time, and we didn’t even notice!”

Rafael knew right away that they wouldn’t go home, after the last week, she wouldn’t let it be not even a minute more. They got into her car and Rafael put the food on the back seat. He would follow her till where ever she wanna go. He didn’t need to ask her anything.

She parked in front of a flower shop, behind the shop was the owner's house. Due to the time, all the shops in the area were already closed and the street looked almost deserted. Without her police radio, she took her phone and called for reinforcements. Olivia walked determinedly to the door of the flower shop, she took out his gun and his badge willing to be herself the one to arrest him. Upon closer inspection of the flower shop, she could see that the door was open, which gave her the green light to enter.

“Rafa, stay here”

“But Liv…”

“No, no but. The reinforcements are on the way, it is just a guy and you are not authorized to be the ADA in my case. You just wait here, and when the patrol arrives you send them inside.”

She didn’t let him make any reply and entered the flower shop. Identified herself as NYPD, just in case there was someone near enough to hear her, she couldn't let this case get lost on any kind of legal technicality. The shop lights were off, some street lights hardly leaked through the window. She advanced slowly with her gun in hand and alert. The first room cleared. It was when she went to the backroom when she felt a prick in her neck. It was too fast, just a little pressure and when she turned back, she fell to the ground just like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The gun, still in Olivia’s hand, shot up when it hit the ground. Rafael heard and he immediately went inside.

“Liv!” He exclaimed entering the back room.

She still had her eyes open and used all her will to try to move and warn him, but it was useless, she couldn’t even feel her arms or legs. Rafael ran to her across the door and before he could reach her, the perpetrator hit his head with a flower vase, knocking him out instantly. Barba fell beside Olivia, who looked at him terrified and then at the guy who was looking at them with a wide satisfied, and creepy smile on his face.

---

She woke up and everything was dark around her. She felt dizzy and sleepy. Her eyelids were heavy and she had a hard time staying focused. She could tell she was in a car. No. She was in the trunk of a car. She could feel the movement and the only thing she wanted was to hear the police siren following them near. She focused on what she could hear, but there was nothing outside but the normal sound of traffic. Little was the space she had to move and even less was allowed by the ropes that restricted her movements. Her mind threatened to bring back horrible memories of her tied up and gagged, in the trunk of Lewis' car moving with complete impunity. She tried her best not to think about it and tried to break free. It was then that she realized that she was not alone in the trunk.

Her heart stopped for a moment. Because her hands were tied up behind her, she had to lie on her side to be able to touch him. She looked for his pulse or any other vital sign, she begged for him to stay alive, and he was. Without being able to see him, she was guided by touch and when she felt the suspenders across his chest, she knew it was Rafael. It had to be him, she didn’t want to think of the alternative if it wasn’t him. She settled next to him, she wanted to feel his warmth and breath, somehow it made her feel better knowing that she wasn’t alone. She immediately felt guilty about it, since her relief was due to Rafael being kidnapped. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, and feeling Rafael by her side gave her the peace of mind that helped her repress the memories of those four days.

With the sedatives still in her system and prived of any external stimulus, she fell asleep again.

---

When Olivia opened her eyes again, she was alone. She was still tied up but in the middle of a forest. The sun was shining high, dazzling her eyes. She tried to stand, a difficult task with her hands tied behind her back, but after a few tries, she did it. There was no sign of Rafael nor even the guy that took them there. In front of her, leaning against a tree, there was a bag. She was sure that The Killer Match would be back soon, so she hurried to find something to release herself, so she could have a chance to do something.

She had a hard time trying to get something from the bag without looking, just feeling with her hands. Something pricked her left hand and as she could feel, she knew it was a Swiss knife. The blade didn’t seem very sharp but should be enough to cut the ropes.

While she was trying to free herself, a sound caught her attention. There was no one around, and it wasn’t a sound from the forest. She realized that it came from the bag, it seemed like a radio and when she looked inside the bag, she could see the antenna peeking out from under a compass and a canteen.

She finally released her hands and before anything else, she hurried to get to the canteen. She hoped it had some water, she felt thirsty and needed to drink anything. She wasn’t lucky at all, and the canteen was empty. She sighed with frustration and checked the bag. To the bottom of the backpack, she found a first aid kit pretty much empty as well. What she thought was a radio turned out to be the receiver of a baby monitor, just like she had used it when Noah was a baby. This one seemed to have been manipulated by hand.

“Hello… hi… testing… 1, 2, 3… Can you hear me?” A male voice came from the radio.

Olivia stood and took the bag, knowing that would be useful eventually. She looked around, looked for some path, looked for footsteps, and looked for something that helped her find a way to Rafael and understand what happened to him.

“If I'm not wrong, you both should be awake by now. I bet you already found the bag, but if you haven’t, now you do. No, it wasn’t left behind by a random hiker, is there for you to use it. We’re gonna play a game.”

“Both”, he said “both”, which meant that Rafael was somewhere in that forest too, probably confused and worried as she was.

“These are the rules: you both are on the opposite side of the forest, you both can hear me, but neither of you can communicate with each other. You can try to run away alone, or you can try to find each other. Either way, if I found you first, it’s game over. My dog has a good sense of smell, so I hope you can run fast.”

Word after word, Olivia began to understand all the victims went through and the kind of psycho this guy was. He was not just an amateur or a simple serial killer. He was calculating and careful, he had planned this very well.

“Lieutenant Benson… How is your head? It hurts, right? I’m sure you are thirsty too. Don’t worry, it’s just a side effect of the sedative I gave you. It will only get worse if you don't get some water.” She heard derisive laughter “If you follow the right path you will find a river that crosses the entire forest, you can load the canteen there. But… You will realize that this will reveal your location. It’s your choice. The game begins… Now!”

---

Rafael was on the opposite side of the forest. He had dried blood on one side of his head and his shirt collar. His wrists were red where the ropes had been. He also had his backpack and he was looking for a way to know where to go and find Olivia. It had always been easy for him to orient himself with the cardinal points, but he didn’t know in which part of the forest he was, so he didn’t know where to go. He thought he could climb a tree, but he dismissed the idea immediately, he hadn't done that since he was a kid. He wandered his gaze through the woods around him and chose a random direction, he had to trust that he was going in the right direction.

The forest was peaceful. Sunlight trickled through the leaves of trees, which were shaken by the slight autumn breeze. He heard birds singing from the treetops, so high that he was not able to see them. However, his vitals were racing, with the same adrenaline that he had only felt with the most important court cases, or even more. He walked in a hurry and wondered where the hell they were. He thought that the trees and birds around him should have been a way to know that, but little was all he knew about it.

“I can see you” heard from the radio after a few minutes with silence. Rafael's heart stopped for a moment. He couldn’t be sure who of the two was he talking to. From what he came to see, it wasn't him. “I can sense your horror.” He heard the dog barking in the background, coming from the radio, then he knew it wasn’t talking to him. “It’s already too late for you to try and run away”

Rafael felt despair grow inside him, he lost the composure he had tried to preserve and ran through the forest. He prayed he was heading in the right direction, he prayed he could reach in time and he prayed that Olivia could run faster from that guy or his dog. His lungs burned and his vision became somewhat blurry, but he kept running until he heard the gunshot. The sound echoed both over the radio and in the forest. He stood in shock without knowing what to do. His full attention was on the radio and the sounds that came from it.

“Run while you still can, your time is running out” heard the guy said, only then he could breathe again. Olivia was still alive. And because of the gunshot, he knew where he had to go. That way he ran again, willing to get to Olivia before the psychopath did.

---

Meanwhile, Olivia was running desperate, tears in her eyes. Her head was killing her, but she didn’t care anymore. She had heard everything on the radio and needed to make sure Rafael was okay. From what she had heard, he had managed to escape from the Killer Match, she just hoped he'd dodged the shot. She already knew where she had to go. She knew she was more likely to meet The Killer, but she didn't care, she just wanted to reach Rafael in time.

“Do you think your partner is still here? I think we are already alone” said the guy. “Don’t be sad, you are not the only one. It was the same with the first two couples. You think you found the love of your life, but when the time comes, they just look for themselves.”

“Don't listen to him Rafa” Olivia thought. She was doing her best to keep running. Self-defense classes kept her fit, but being inside the gym in a controlled environment was not the same as being in the middle of a forest. “I’m still here. I won't leave you. Don’t give up now, I’m coming for you.”

“This started as an experiment, you know? It turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I thought. I saw the cops go and come with the bodies I left behind. They never thought I was suspect, until now. Did you know you didn’t find them all? There are still two more couples out there. I don't think you ever will. Neither of you will return alive.”

“Not on my watch,” she thought.

She didn't notice it until she heard the click. It was that fast that she couldn’t do anything about it. Ropes moved through the trees and raised an extensive net, hidden on the ground. Before she could tell, she was hanging ten feet off the ground, trapped in the net.

“No, no, no…” Overcome by panic, her heart stopped for a moment, she clung to the net and struggled with it.

“Oh, oh… Someone fell into a trap” heard the voice from the radio and with a chilling whisper he added, “I know where you are…”

Olivia's breathing was racing, her mind was fuzzy, she was desperate to get rid of as soon as possible so she could run away. She just wanted to find Rafael and get the hell away from the forest. She wanted to see her son again, hug him, and never think about The Killer Match again. It took a lot of effort on her part to be able to focus, when she did, she recalled the Swiss knife. She took it from her pocket, her hands shaking so much that she feared it fell. She squeezed her hand tight to avoid accidents. She sought to cut a hole large enough in the side of the net, to be able to pass through. Her plan was to hang from the net before jumping, to reduce the distance to the ground.

“You can’t hide from me. Just wait for it, I’m almost there.”

With great speed, the razor's edge passed over the rope of the net. She could felt how she was running out of time. She was sweating cold and her heart was beating as fast as a mouse.

“I prefer young couples for this game, but I had to admit that you are being entertained enough. I’ll enjoy killing you two.”

With two ropes off, Olivia was able to sneak out. She hung for a moment from the net and then she fell to the ground. Although she tried to calculate her fall, her hands did not hold out for long. A scream escaped her mouth due to the impact against the ground, she could felt her right ankle hurt. However, she had no time to lose, she needed to run as fast as she could go.

She stood up, laying his weight on the tree next to her, and then she ran.

---

Rafael fell on his knees. His lungs did not allow him to continue running. He was short of breath and already felt dizzy. He could feel like his heart wanted to jump out of his chest, his throat was dry and burning. He puts his hands on the ground trying to calm himself. He could feel the throbbing in his legs. He cleared his throat and used all his willpower to get back on his feet. Olivia needed him and that psycho was near to her. He stood for a minute and then ran again.

“I’m getting closer. I can hear your footsteps thumping loudly through the forest.”

“No! Liv, run… please, just run,” Rafael thought. He didn't care if she ran away and left him there, he didn’t care to die in the forest, as long as she was safe. The sound of a breaking branch interrupted his thoughts. He hid behind a tree and took the Swiss knife, with the blade ready for anything. It wasn’t much, but it was better than fight just with his fists. He heard footsteps advancing trying not to make noise. He wondered if it could be Olivia, but then he heard the dog and he knew it was The Killer Match.

“You are not very good at hiding, I can see you…”

He heard the gun charge behind him. He closed his eyes and let the air out of his lungs. He stood and turned around slowly. Just like he already knew, the killer was in front of him, just a few steps away. He raised his hands in the air and their gazes met. The killer smiled sadistically and licked his lips, just like a beast ready to devour its prey. He took the radio and brought it to his mouth.

“You can say goodbye to your man Lieutenant. It’s game over for him.”

Then he just shot. The Killer liked to play with his victims, so he wouldn't let the fun be over so soon. He made sure to hurt him, without killing him immediately. The bullet got to the low abdomen, on his right side. Rafael fell to the ground moaning in pain and dropped the knife. Blood gushed from the wound in great quantity and his first reflex was to pressure the wound. The Killer approached and pointed his gun at Rafael's head.

“I hope you know Lieutenant, that you just confirmed my theories. In the end, you just chose to save yourself.” He hooked the radio back on his belt, crouched next to Rafael, and put the gun to his temple. He took a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and handcuffed Rafael. Although he had the gun pointing to his head, offered some resistance, something the Killer enjoyed. He picked up the knife with a wide, terrifying smile on his face. “Perhaps I can still have some fun” He rested the knife on Rafael's cheek “Stay still, do not try anything” made a quick cut, moved the knife against his chest, and made a new cut, this time even deeper, which needed more pressure and strength. Rafael bit back a cry. “What else can I cut? A finger? A toe? Which would make you scream more? I want to hear you” He positioned the knife against the pinky, knowing that it would take a while to cut the skin, muscle, and tendons to separate the bone.

Out of nowhere, Olivia appeared. She pounced on the killer, took him away from Rafael, and knocked him to the ground. In the process she got him to drop the gun. “I was waiting for you to show up,” he yelled in amusement and fought against her. With his free hand, he wanted to strike a blow against her head, which she blocked with a hand. Automatically he thrust the knife into her other hand. Olivia screamed. Adrenaline ran through her body just like when she beat the hell out of William Lewis after four days of torture, so she dealt repeated blows against the face of the Killer, who only laughed.

He kicked her to get her off him, then he stood up and spit out some blood. Then he pounced over her. Due to her bad ankle, she lost stability and fell to the ground. Aided by gravity, he imprisoned her under his body. His hands moved up and down all over her body and Olivia struggled to take him off. He opened her shirt, ripping out the buttons before a new gunshot was heard.

Rafael had done his best to get to the gun he held in his bloody hands. There were just a few times that he had shot in his life, he didn’t feel comfortable holding a gun and it took him a long time to decide to shoot because he did not trust his aim. But the shot was clean. The Killer fell over Olivia, gushing blood from the shot on his head. Both Olivia and Rafael froze for a moment, their breaths were heavy and after a moment they could react. Rafael dropped the gun, Olivia pushed the corpse and ran to Rafael.

“Rafa!” she exclaimed, becoming aware of her aching body again. She knelt on the ground and put a hand on his wound. “Rafa… you’re gonna be fine, don't worry.”

“Liv, are you ok?” he asked, worried about her and the first gunshot he had heard from the radio. He hadn’t realized yet that it had been a mind game the Killer made for them, like a bait, to guide them towards him.

“Yes, yes… I am” she wasn’t aware of the tears that were falling down her face. “I… I’ll get some help.” Then she looked for a phone in the corpse pockets. She dialed 911 returning to Rafael's side and pressed on his wound. “I am Lieutenant Benson, from svu, I need a bus.” She gave the details to the operator and explained that she didn’t know where they were. They tracked her phone and soon enough the help was on its way. A few minutes later Olivia leaned over Rafael and kissed him, relieved to hear the sirens approaching. They were going to be fine.

#barsonbingoaugust2021 #barson #olivia benson #rafael barba #svu #law and order: svu #fanfic #my gifs

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coloredgirlfan-fiction01 · 4 years ago

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Pregnancy and two Supernatural husband's.

Morning nausea was never a feeling a first time mother to a pair of fraternal twins that were four months away could get use to.

Then a few months later the sensation of having to hurl your guts out the moment you wake up from a night of kicking in your abdomen, then the insatiable cravings for a variety of foods, and not to mention the mood swings and swollen ankles were only a percentage of what this pregnancy was putting you through.

And having two big, strapping, overprotective God and Demigod husbands that monitor your every move and tended to every need was mind numbing in itself.

Shadow had transformed into a complete control freak that never let you go near anything that he deemed unsafe for you and your unborn children. Things that fell under that category were the stove (not allowed to cook because he became the family chef, the car (anxiety was all he would feel whenever you wanted to drive somewhere so he'd do it instead), the bathroom (you'd restrict him as much as you could in this area but he always complained that you might slip and hurt yourself if he wasn't there) and the list goes on.

Sweeny was a little more bearable but his need to protect and keep away any and all threats from his family was at an all time high.

Once when the three of you decided to go to the mall to do some early baby shopping, a man had accidently bumped into you and before he could utter an apology, Sweeny had grabbed the guy by the collar and hoisted him off the ground shouting profanities in gaelic while shadow looked on amused.

If someone had warned you being the wife of supernatural beings was this tiring and also carrying their children would turn them into complete alpha wolves, you would have decided to have separate pregnancies.

And at the moment that decision was looking pretty darn good. You were right now wide awake and trying to focus on anything that wasn't the pair in your belly moving around, fully awake and hungry.

Usually they sleep when you do but since they were only a few months away, you guessed they were just getting restless.

You looked over to your left and watched as Sweeny slept on his side. His mouth wide open with drool at the end of his mouth but thankfully he wasn't snoring.

On your right Shadow was cuddled a pillow that was trapped between his muscular arms. He, like Sweeny were big cuddlers so to avoid being suffocated by their bulking muscles and body heat, you had to barricade yourself on each side with most of the pillows to get somewhat of a comfortable nights sleep. But now even your children wouldn't let you have that luxury.

Deciding that enough was enough, you left the bed as quietly as you could and woddled your way down the steps and made your way into the kitchen.

There was bound to be something you could whip up that caused little to no noise to notify your husband's that you were up and also to satisfy the two ravenous demigods that demanded to be fed.

"I swear when you two are born and after breast feeding your father's are going to feed you from hence forth, because this is getting ridiculous." You said to your belly sternly.

You loved your children but you already knew that you weren't going to be able to keep up with their appetites as they'll get older.

"Babe, what are you doing in the fridge?" You couldn't help but groan in annoyance being caught by your husband. You didn't even make it to opening the fridge all the way yet and he was already onto you.

You looked over to the entrance of the kitchen to find Shadow fully alert, awake and completely shirtless. The only thing that left a little something to the imagination was the baggy sweatpants that were hanging dangerously low off his waist.

"I'm tired and your children wouln't let me sleep because they're hungry, again."

"Why didn't you wake me up to cook something for you?"

"Shadow, it's four in the morning. I think I can manage to make a sandwich to last me until breakfast." You could feel the disapproval radiating off of his as he shook his head.

"A sandwich? You know there's no nutritional value in that."

"But it's what they want and they wouln't let me sleep until they get it." Shadow walked up and pulled you into a comforting hug. He knew how frustrated the last couple of months have been on you. Having to bear children by two strong God's couldn't be easy and he just wanted to make sure he did his part to make the process as smooth and comfortable for you as possible.

"You know what. I'll make you that sandwich and get you some ice cream. We shouldn't give into the cravings but, you deserve to be spoiled a little for working so hard."

Him just saying those words made you feel a while lot better. You pulled him down by the neck to kiss him and to make sure he knew you loved the fact that he was going to let you eat some junk food for once.

"Why are you two up so bloody early?" You broke the embrace when Sweeny walked in looking completely worn out. Unlike Shadow he was wearing a white vest and a pair of lucky charms boxers you had gotten him as a joke. But he seemed to love them so you didn't make a big deal of seeing them on him.

"The kids are hungry, so I came to get something."

"Why didn't you just let him get up to make something?" He pointed at Shadow while making his way to you. He pulled you away from Shadow to embrace you and use you as a stand up headrest.

"Why are you up again?" Shadow asked annoyed that Sweeny was hogging you.

"Because the bed was cold and my wife wasn't there, you got a problem with that Moon?"

"Ok I'm gonna sit in the living room to relax. Shadow food, Sweeny come with me."

Despite sharing a wife and each of their children sharing a womb, Sweeny and Shadow still had a bit of 'bad blood' between them. Sure they respected eachother, but when it comes to the things they deem 'theirs' things could get a bit competitive.

"You'd think you'd be the cranky one love." Sweeny whispered as you lead him to the couch.

"Would you just come here? It's like you want him to beat you up."

"Like hell he could, couldn't beat me if I was tied to a chair and had a blind fold on."

Men having huge who's was one thing, but a gods ego was always way above average. They always had to prove who was the best.

"I'm sorry sweetie, your right you're a great fighter." You lowered yourself into the couch and patted the empty space for the towering leprechaun to sit next to you.

"You look tired darlin', should be gettin' some proper sleep."

"Tell them that. They're probably more excited to get out of there than I am."

Sweeny made himself comfortable between your legs and rested his head in your belly to listen.

"Still can't get over the fact it's only been six months. Just think, in three more they'll pop right out of you."

"Pop right out? You do know it wouln't be so simple right?"

"I know, and don't you go getting worried about anything. I'll be right there beside you."

"And me, of course." Shadow pitched in handing you your sandwitch and placed the ice cream in the coffee table infront of you when you were ready for it.

"But she'll need me more. I've had experience, what are you bring to the table?"

"I'll be there to support her of course, you may have experience but we both know I'm the one she'll need the most."

You sat quietly biting into your meal and decided it was use less to stop them from bickering. They were hot headed but they had yours and their babies interest at heart.

#American Gods #Shadow Moon #Mad Sweeny #Pregnant Reader #xreader

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satanschild01 · 4 years ago

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No All Might? That’s Alright Prt3

Izuku Midoriya Fanfiction

A/N: In all honesty this took me way too long just to finish writing this chapter, but I pushed through so I guess it’s fine. I’ve created a AO3 account recently and I’ve posted all of my previous fanfictions there so if you want to check me out, you can find me as SatansChild

Hope you all stay safe and wear a mask if you can't physically distance.Hope to update soon!

Catch you on the flip side ~ Em

Photo used in this fic was referenced from original picture from anime, I did draw this photo jtlyk

Tags:

@random-fandom-girl-24

Tags for some wonderful feedback😘: @trashys-things @pink-imagines @marvelmymarvel @shikigami-the-paper-spirit @spaced-out-imagines @marvelmymarvelmain @writingfreakk

Trigger warning: Talk about death

Word Count: 2633

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

After making sure all of the blood was no longer on his uniform, Closing his eyes, Izuku steeled himself to walk into the All Might shrine that was his room. Sure, he still wanted to be a hero, and he admired All Might’s strength, but he couldn’t stand to be surrounded by posters and figurines of a man who couldn’t offer any sort of encouragement to a child who clearly needed it. Izuku pulled some cardboard boxes out from his closet and started filling them with everything All Might. Oboro didn’t make a sound during the time he cleaned out his room, which he was grateful for. Even though he could just feel Oboro wanting to ask questions.

“So what are you going to do about all this stuff?” Oboro asked as Izuku changed his All Might sheets with regular black ones “You seem like such a big fan...it just seems like a waste just to keep it all in boxes.”

Izuku shrugged his shoulders.”I’m not much of a fan anymore.” he lied to mostly himself rather than to Oboro, “I guess I’ll just donate the stuff later.” Once his walls were finally bare, Izuku stuffed the now full boxes to the back of his closet and flopped onto his bed. The room stayed silent for a moment until Izuku broke the ice, “I don’t want to intrude on your personal life…but can you tell me about yourself?” he asked

“Well for the fact that I witnessed and helped you with some pretty deep stuff, it sorta would be rude if I didn’t tell you something about my previous life,” Oboro said cheekily

“H-how long have you been...you know…” Izuku paused not really wanting to complete the question.

“...dead?” Izuku nodded “I was in my second year of high school when I died and I would be 29 by now so...close to 12 years I think?” Izuku sat there on his bed frozen

‘12 years is a long time to be a ghost or spirit to not have passed on, that is if people actually pass onto another place once they die’ Izuku thought to himself

“I was patrolling around Tasomiya Ward with one of my best friends when there was a villain attack...I was working on saving some kids when debris fell on top of me...when I woke up I was like how I am now, I couldn’t find my body anywhere so I just...travelled around…” Oboro seemed to quiet down at mentioning that he never found his body to move onto another life, so Izuku thought of ways to change the current mood of the room.

“So you were a hero in training or something?” he asked, face full of wonder, Oboro hummed in affirmation “What school did you go to?”

“I went to U.A”

“Wait really?!” Izuku exclaimed excitedly, “that's so cool!”

They continued talking and asking questions back and forth, before falling into a comfortable silence. A few minutes past before Izuku took a deep breath

“I...I’m sorry,” Izuku said quietly, slowly curling into himself

"Why would you be sorry kid?" Oboro’s voice was full of confusion. But Izuku only curled in on himself further.

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be stuck here." As if anyone wanted to be bound to some stupid Deku...like him. And here he thought it was a whole coincidence that Oboro was with him. But instead, he just took whatever type of freedom he had to begin with.

"Hey, no! Stop that. Izuku that's not true! I'm here because I want to be!" The warmth spread all over him and he couldn't help but lean into it. “I said I'd make a hero out of you and I still plan on it."

Izuku looked up only to see the ceiling of his room, lifting his arm up to the sky and let it just float there (like what every kid does while laying on there bed contemplating on what to do next). "I wish I could see you again."

Oboro hummed. Seeming to think something through. "I don’t think there’s much out there since I was only a second-year when I died, but there could be some photos of me with friends or an article"

Izuku seemed to take that as a challenge as he went to his computer. "What did you choose to be your hero name?"

"Loud Cloud."

After scouring the web for a couple of minutes nothing showed up except for an old article from the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper, reporting the death of hero-in-training Loud Cloud. Izuku quickly exited that site choosing to search for something different. “What’s your full name Oboro?”

“Oh that’s right I didn’t tell you my full name, it is Oboro Shirakumo” Oboro replied

“Oboroshirikumo...oboroshirikumooo….here!” Izuku exclaimed pointing at the monitor’s screen. “This photo was tagged saying ‘Curry eating competition at U.A’s School Festival. Winner Hizashi Yamada from class 2-A!’ it also says the names of the people in the photo are; Shota Aizawa, Hizashi Yamada, and Oboro Shirakumo.”

“Oh, I remember that!” Oboro cried out laughing “The curry was soo spicy I was freaking out because I couldn’t find anything to soothe my burning throat!”

“So that’s you in the back then?” Izuku asked pointing towards a teenager who seems to be freaking out.

Oboro chuckles “Yep, the other two were my best friends!”

“Yamada looks sorta familiar what’s his hero name?” Izukku asked, curious on why the 16-year-old looked so familiar to him

“Unless he changed it before becoming a pro, which he probably would not, his hero name is Present Mic.”

Izuku sputtered “W-wait you were close friends with THE Present Mic?!” Oboro hummed in agreement while Izuku had his miny freak out “

“Oh my god that is socool!Ilistentohisradioshoweveryday,andhe’ssuchanamazinghero,likeevenifheisdeafduetohisquirkhedoesn’tletitbotherhiman-” He stopped hearing the sound of laughter coming around his room and his lamp flickering

"Aw jeez, that’s amazing Hizashi got to get that radio show he wanted." There was a quick blast of warmth flooding around his back and chest resembling a hug. "Well anyway, you should probably head to bed. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow and a long way to go before you can have a chance at being accepted into UA!"

"What are you going to do while I sleep?" Izuku asked, eyes slowly drooping.

"I'm going to see how far I can go without being next to you, and have a look around and exploring a bit. No need to worry. I'll make sure to be careful and be here in the morning." He seemed to pick up on his anxieties. Izuku felt warmth as Oboro slowly pet his hair back. "Goodnight, Izuku."

The next morning Izuku woke up to warmth pulsing on his right cheek. "Hey kid it’s time to get up! You have training to do! Up and at ‘em!" Oboro’s voice was overly joyful and Izuku felt very unwilling to get out of bed.

"Mm...just a bit longeeeer." He groaned turning himself over facing away from where he guesses Oboro is standing (floating?).

"Fair warning Izuku my jokes are terrible, everyone at school would always runaway once I started and I haven’t been able to talk to actual people in so long! If spaghetti were to have it’s own action movie, what would it be called?.... Mission im-pasta-ble. What did the pot eat on it’s birthday?....pancakes. What do you call a camel in a drought?....A dry hu- "

Finally, Izuku jerked up, covering his ears. “Okay. Okay, I’m up! No need to finish that.” His face started to burn a light pink across his face, (knowing what the end of the joke was) as he started to kick the blankets off only to turn towards the window and see barely any light outside. "Wha- Oboro!! The sun isn’t even out yet!"

He turned glaring into thin air hoping to make contact with him.

"Yes, it is, Izu. It's just reeeally early in the morning. There is plenty of time for you to get ready and eat before we go out for a morning run!" He was being weirdly energetic about the whole ordeal, but Izuku knew he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Heading to the bathroom, Izuku ran a brush through his wild curly hair and brushed his teeth. Going back to his room, Obroro pipped up. "It's a bit cool outside so I suggest you wear some long sleeves."

The entire way to his closet Izuku muttered incoherent things. In the end, he opted to wear a plain black shorts and a long-sleeved shirt with written kanji saying 'tank-top' with his old dusty sneakers because his red sneakers were still on top of the roof.

Before heading out Izuku ate some toast and an orange. If he got hungry later on their run he could always eat more when they got back. As Izulu started to leave the apartment Izuku tripped over an unmarked box that was just left in front of the door.

"Ooo I wonder what it is!” Oboro seemed quite enthusiastic as Izuku went to open the box revealing his faded red shoes and yellow backpack.

"Wai-how-who found my stuff?" Izuku asked immediately putting the bag by the door and quickly changing between uncomfortable and comfortable shoes.

"I don’t know, when I got back from wandering around the package was just...there."

"Maybe someone found it and found out where I live from my contact info and address was written inside…?” Izuku wondered out loud.

“I guess so,” Oboro said looking to the bright sight of things.

‘But what if it was...All Might. Yeah, I’m glad that I don’t have to go back up there to collect my things but...I don’t want to have to depend on All Might to help me with my own problems.’

“Hey don’t think like that Izu! I know you’re not a huge fan of the guy, but you don’t have to beat yourself down like that. I know you’re better than that” Oboro spoke sternly trying to make a point, but that soon backfired as warmth spread through his body.

“Hold up- could you always hear my thoughts?” Izuku questioned as he started to jog away from the apartment.

“So far I can heat some things. Like your thoughts that way heavily on you emotionally. But it could possibly work to talk to me through your mind. So you don’t look like a freak talking to themselves.” Oboro quickly informs Izuku as to not worry him.

Sighed Izuku. That was true. Though he kept thinking about it as he jogged. As they passed Dagobah Municipal Beach, the sun had started to rise. Taking in a deep breath was the wrong reason as Izuku cringed from the awful smell of garbage. Despite the smell, Izuku took a break, taking a seat at the entrance.

"Oh gross. What is this place?" Oboro asked with a clear sound of disgust in his voice.

"Well," Izuku started."This is Dagobah Municipal Beach Park. It has accumulated trash coming from the sea for years, turning it from a beautiful beach spot into a trash heap for everyone's unwanted or broken belongings." It was really a shame. As a kid, Izuku recalled going to the beach. Lie under a beach umbrella, making sandcastles. But by the time he was tall enough into the water, it was already flooded with trash by then.

"That's terrible." Oboro seemed deeply upset about this actually. It made Izuku want to do something about it. But before Izuku could voice his thoughts Oboro spoke up.

“Hey Izu, could we make a quick visit to a convenience store?”

“Sure...what exactly do you want me to get?” Izuku asked, despite having an idea what Oboro was thinking.

“Well...you’re going to need to get some garbage bags and some gloves.”

Izuku then dashed towards the nearest convenience store with determination in his eyes. A frail-looking lady turned the key to open the doors as he walked by. Causing her to recoil in slight shock, Izuku realized that with his rapid approach he had frightened her. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'd just come to purchase some garbage bags and some gloves.

The older woman seemed to soften something about his face as she smiled and opened his door. "Sure thing, they’re both in the last aisle on your right."

Before she went inside, Izuku thanked her and smiled back. He quickly found what he was looking for and brought a box of trash bags and a pair of workers gloves onto the counter.

"What's the hurry, son? Why do you need trash bags this early in the morning? You aren't trying to cause trouble are you?" the old woman pointed to Izuku with an accusing finger, and he shook his head quickly.

"Oh no, ma'am! I thought that I could just try and clean the beach up! I passed it while I was on my morning run!" Izuku assured, voicing Oboro’s plan

At this, the elder woman gently smiles while scanning the items. “Wow, is that right?” she said astonished, “ You know how long that place has been a mess? What makes you believe you can do it all by yourself?"

Her words weren't really painful, she was just being realistic. He knew she was right. He certainly had no obligation to clean up the beach. He could have just ignored it and easily went about his day. But he knew if he wanted to be a hero then he would need to start off the roots of how heroes came to be. How they used to work. Heroes in the beginning didn’t do what they did for fame. No. They didn’t care for the recognition they would get. They did it because they just wanted to help.

“That’s the thing, ma’am. I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to try. It’s also a great way to work out, instead of having to buy workout equipment or get a gym membership!” Izuku brightly smiles towards the lady as he handed her the money to buy his items.

“Well, I wish you luck, kid. I’m guessing that you’ll need a place to put the trash you collect.” She stated, Izuku smiling sheepishly at her rubbing the back of his head she continued, “There are two dumpsters in the alley behind the store, they get taken every Monday.”

"Thank you, ma'am!" Izuku said genuinely as he headed for the door. He didn't think too much about how he would dispose of the garbage, so it was good to have one offered.

Oboro began to laugh as Izuku jogged back towards the beach. "Cheaper than having to buy workout equipment or get a gym membership! Man, how true that is nowadays!”

The first garbage bags were packed very quickly. broken bottles, cans of beer, old and rotting newspaper, all of it was poured into the trash bag. Plastic, paper, glass, etc. Izuku could take them to a recycling center! He was already pumped about this new project when Oboro spoke up.

“Hey, Izu, before you toss that into the bag” placing his hand on Izuku’s making him feel warmth blossom closest to the soda, can packaging he was holding in that hand. “make sure you cut each circle so if they end up in wildlife again then animals won’t get their heads stuck inside.”

Izuku's eyes lit up as he started to tear apart each loop before placing it in one of the bags used for recycling. Soon Izuku had used up a quarter of the box of trash bags gone and only had 6x5 feet rectangle cleared of the beach.

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