#Spending two days to manage to buy a whole cow and then that being for nought... Being made to wait on a bench for a whole day...

[sskk-manifesto]

AKUTAGAWA WAN EPISODE ‼️‼️‼️

[sigmasoyboy]

Hellooo,

Can we have more infos about that "incel" couple please? 🙂‍↕️

The one where you just posted a picture on instagram for smutember ✨️

Thanks a lot 🤝

I've been thinking about these two a bit lately so you can have some of my crazy disjointed thoughts and ideas I might or might not put on paper one day… As always with them [cw: kidnapping, torture, mention of SA, self-harm and suicide, forcefemme, incel shit etc…]:

Sydney only giving Shiloh milk to drink because surely he would believe the common myth that it increases oestrogen AND the superstition/meme you see in manga that it will make your boobs bigger because of course he would… If he's dumb enough he might alternate between cow's milk and soy milk for variety. Shiloh hates it but it actually turns out to be kind of a godsend when Sydney withdraws food as a punishment; that's a lot of yummy nutrients he still gets to have.

Maybe surprisingly, but Sydney really insisting on not having sex (read: penetrative sex) with Shiloh because he wants it to be mutual and special and romantic so so bad, holding hands kissing missionary style. Also him often bringing up how ungrateful Shiloh is because at least he's not raping him (the bar is in fucking hell).

Rewarding Shiloh when he plays his girlfriend role well with comforting junk food, getting that high sugar high salt high fat shit for extra positive association. It feels nice to hug, kiss, cuddle and say corny stupid shit when it's followed by delicious greasy pizza with all the toppings you want or the comforting bite of that bacon cheeseburger with jalapeños and extra burger sauce when you were fed only rice crackers and milk for a while. Even just a fucking pop tart, a handful of cheezies or a funsize chocolate bar for smaller things hitting like a truck.

Shiloh sleeping in a dog crate Syndey got off of craigslist… It being not big enough to stretch his legs or sit up comfortably because it had to fit under Sydney's bed, which he managed because he had a crawlspace under it (a bit like those bookshelf beds I've seen floating around that look like, super hazardous) his uncle built him when he was a preteen, with a little curtain in front of it for ✨extra privacy✨. From cry corner to escape the world to girlfriend bedroom… Even if it's not like sleeping together, Sydney finding great comfort in sleeping above him (Shiloh not so much).

Sydney's attendance at college starting to suffer after he abducts Shiloh because he would rather spend time with him but still having to go avoid too much suspicion so he gags and lock Shiloh into the crate for the whole day. This leading to Shiloh starting to beg Sydney more and more not to go to college because he starts dreading being locked into that small dark space all day, maybe even developing full on claustrophobia after a few months of this shit. Naturally Sydney would delude himself (helped by Shiloh agreeing to anything not to get the crate) into believing it's heartwarming that his girlfriend wants them to spend more time together ♡ why not stay home one more day to play video games and watch anime while cuddling with his girlfriend, yay ♡

Shiloh trying to create an opportunity to escape by asking Sydney to let him sleep in his bed without restraints or the chain and getting false hopes when he agrees only to drug him with so much sleeping meds he's functionally unable to stand up even if he tried…

Sydney spending his big boy allowance to buy cute outfits for Shiloh, shoplifting at hot topic when his uncle starts asking why he needs money for clothes so soon already because women's clothes is surprisingly expensive. Using his own black eyeliner to doll him up and buying cheap flavored sticky gloss at Claire's to cover his chapped lips, all while he has gone unwashed for weeks to keep him grateful when he does allow him to shower, happily scrubbing him of all the grime.

Shiloh managing to choke Sydney and really, really trying to kill him but ultimately failing because he has lost so much muscle mass and strength from lack of exercise and shitty nutrition. Sydney getting out of his reach and instead of getting angry crying his eyes out, nearly more hysteric than Shiloh because he's tried so hard to get him to like him and yet he tried killing him again. Him leaving the basement for what feels like hours only to return with a knife and fresh scars blabbering about how maybe there is no hope and how he's going to kill both of them and Shiloh scrambling to change his mind and try to convince him not to kill him by telling him he does love him and he didn't know what went over him and begging to give them another chance, even resorting to trying to soothe him through sexual attention. Who knows how it does end up for them there, we'll see when I make up my mind（◕ω◕）

[hetalia-has-a-secretary]

Axis + Prussia and Allies + Canada playing Sims with their lover who loves the Sims (I’m asking this cause I love Sims)

... I will not lie I have Sims and the fact I haven't made me and Russ is dissapointing at best. Going to have to fix that...

Allies and Axis (Prussia and Canada): Play Sims with their S/O!

Allies:

America:

His sims is immediately friends with everyone, especially that goth family.

Has more friendships with the children and is pretty much a babysitter.

Definitely cheated to get the most money because he didn't have patience to earn it.

SPACE CADET TIME! His sims room is space Everything, and an American flag if possible.

He made his Sim look like him, obviously.

Has a doggo named Pluto.

When he felt like he accomplished what he wanted he decided to go and murder the neighbors because he wanted their house, and couldn't have it.

He has split the house in two so his S/O can decorate the way they want! Always compliments them too!

Him and his S/O made a roulette wheel that usually causes chaos and breaks the game.

England:

He made both his S/O and him as sims and they share a file.

Was a mistake because his S/O filled his house with plants, and he couldn't figure out how to sell them all.

Had to restart.

His Sim works as a freelance writer.

The house is pretty much a mystery murder mansion, where he actively gets people killed only to play detective.

Doesn't ever go well.

Has kept a room specific for his S/Os plants.

France:

Spends most of his time decorating, and editing his sims.

His wall decorations consist of nothing but paintings his Sim painted.

Nothing else

He didn't really want his Sim to be so flirty with literally everyone.

Still laughs when his Sim gets slapped.

Has no clue how to build a second floor, and his S/O chose to let him suffer

His house changes theme every couple of weeks.

His S/O logged on one day to the whole house filled with books like a giant library with death casually eating a hot dog.

Confusion resumed.

China:

He had to choice the highest paying job, and has the prettiest house.

He made a whole family with his S/O.

The children are Panda 1 through 5.

They lost two of them the first couple days due to the amount of filth that piled up.

One child kind of just, left and didn't return?

As a joke, his S/O locked his Sim out of the bedroom and he couldn't figure out how to get back in.

He did know how to rebuild the house.

The goth child scares him.

Russia:

Absolutely loves the game.

They made themselves as sims, and after a week or two his S/O had to interview Russia as to why there was 3 kids in the house all of a sudden.

Was painfully upset there was no sunflowers.

But has a garden of deadly plants, and a single cow plant.

He has taken it upon himself to kill all the Sims, Despite his S/O protest

Thinks the goth family is cool, so they die last ^J^

Has an ungodly amount of cats.

One of them is named Kot.

Canada:

He's a major vanilla player.

Also just let's his sims do whatever they want, and it's funny to him.

Doesn't call it Sims. He kikes calling it the babysitter simulator.

His S/O showed him the cow plant.

He wants 5 and has named all of them.

Also has a dog named Bruce.

Axis:

Germany:

It's already cannon that he plays work simulators.

So his Sim does nothing but work, farm, and sleep

Accidentally killed his Sim because he managed to trap it in the bathroom, and forgot about it.

He likes walking away from his game so he can pick up after the messes the Sims make.

When his S/O plays with him, he Pretty much does what they want.

They share a sim, and he had a nice chuckle when he logged on to the whole house covered in pink.

Pranks consist between them now.

Japan:

Has way to many Mods.

Knows how to get away with murder and steals stuff rather than buying it.

He loves watching his S/O play, it makes him happy.

Knows how to play, but doesn't because he spends most of his time being a sneak and cheating the system.

Dogs. So many dogs.

He adopted a random child of the street and named it KawaiiKaiju as a joke.

Loves pranking his S/O on their shared file.

He turned the whole house into a maze and the both of them enjoy tormenting the Sims

Did I mention they have two sims who are the male and female versions of Hatsune Miku?

Also spent way too much time on that.

His S/O spent a month not knowing about the secret attic that he built for their sims wedding.

Italy:

Finds the game relaxing, and loves watching them be all chaotic.

He really wanted a child sim, and his S/O made an old sims.

The house is run by Italy's sim.

Was sad when his Sim grew up, but filled the void by flirting with the goth mom.

That's his wife now.

She actually killed him one week after marriage and he doesn't know why, neither does his S/O.

Loves the kitty cats in the game.

Has three cats.

His S/O has to take control very often to avoid him breaking the game.

They did make one of the prettiest gardens in the game though.

Prussia:

Made his Sim as evil as possible, but his S/O's sim is just as bad.

Neither him or his S/O have a plan, and it's just chaos.

His S/O made the mistake of letting him decorate the house

It's a mess and nothing makes sense.

And he's made it so it takes any sims trying to rob them virtually impossible.

Other than that he prefers to let his S/O take over

He loves seeing how their mind works, and enjoys seeing them happy.

He hits top level mechanic and moves on to mathematics for fun.

Their sims had a child and Prussia named it Awesome JR.

[ladykissingfish]

At The Zoo with the Akatsuki

*This was an anonymous request in my inbox. Whoever you are, thanks! This was fun to write 😊

Hidan

This guy goes ape for the monkey exhibits. Lemurs, baboons, marmosets ... but his favorite of all are the gorillas. He’s blown away by how intelligent the animals are, and how closely they act like humans. Hidan likes to stand by the glass in these exhibits and make a variety of gestures to see which ones they’ll copy. His favorites are sticking up his middle finger and scratching his behind, which he’ll laugh himself silly over when the gorillas mimic his motions. Besides the primates, he’s also fond of the giraffes enclosure. Once the group went to a zoo where they allowed people to physically interact with these majestic beauties, and Hidan wouldn’t let them leave this one exhibit for nearly two hours, because he couldn’t get enough of petting their long necks. He’s the type to ignore the Do Not Feed The Animal signs for most attractions, and in fact tries to start fights by throwing peanuts and other treats through the bars or over the glass.

Sasori

He mainly thinks that zoos are boring, and doesn’t really get why the others seem so enthused to go. The one thing he does enjoy are reptile houses; he’ll move slowly through the dark rooms and gaze at the different snakes, lizards, colorful frogs, and whatever else is being showcased. Is more of a people watcher than an animal watcher, and finds the reactions of those looking at different species more entertaining than the animals themselves. Will spend the most time walking around with Deidara; he finds the blonde’s childlike enthusiasm to be refreshing, and it’s one of the few rare times that the two can be together without arguing about art.

Deidara

Deidara has an odd, odd grudge against hippos. He’s told the others ad nauseam about a memory he has of when he was a little boy, and his father taking him to a local zoo. According to Deidara, his father wasn’t watching him, Deidara slipped down an embankment and landed in a hippopotamus hole, and the beasts charged at him, teeth bared. He was rescued by the zookeeper, so he says, and he remembers getting “a lot of free shit” because of the incident. But the others doubt that any of this happened, and try (unsuccessfully) to convince him that this was just a vivid dream. But Deidara doesn’t buy it: he’ll stand at the top of a hippo exhibit and hurl insults down below, until the others can drag him away. Aside from this one weird tic, Deidara actually really enjoys the zoo, and spending time with the others in such a calm, relaxing environment. He especially likes the bird houses, and could spend hours whistling at or cooing to the beautifully colored, winged creatures.

Kakuzu

This guy tries to pretend that going to the zoo is a waste of time, too expensive, etc etc ... but in reality he loves this particular outing like no other. He’s never told anybody this, but when he was a very young boy, he lived with his parents on a farm. Exhibits of “common” animals such as sheep, goats, pigs and bulls or bisons puts him in mind of the happier, simpler times of his life. He may be the oldest but he moves faster than anyone in the group; the others think this is because he’s in a hurry to get the trip over with, but really it’s because he’s enthused (and impatient) to see each and every exhibit that there is. Still, Kakuzu is ALWAYS going to be Kakuzu ... he’ll snap at the others if they ask him for money for souvenirs, and he’ll have to be physically dragged from the snack shops once he sees (and starts yelling about) how high the food prices are. “$13.99 for a cheeseburger?! It better be the entire f*ck*ng cow on that plate!”

Kisame

Going to the zoo is always a duality of emotion for Kisame. On the one hand he’s part animal himself, so it bothers him to see other animals locked up and on display like prisoners. But on the other hand, he has the alpha-like mentality that being part human elevates him beyond the level of the others, therefore it’s ok for him to go and look at the “lesser beings”. Although he has fish DNA, by contrast, his favorite things to look at are the big cats. Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars ... Kisame admires these beauties to no end. “Jokes” so much about climbing the barricades and riding one of these kitties that the others start to take him seriously and someone keeps one hand on his arm while near these exhibits. Walking along in the sun is nice for awhile but after several hours of this he begins to get tired and dehydrated; there’s been several times when he’s been caught taking “a quick dip” in open-water exhibits such as the penguin tank.

Itachi

Lions? Tigers? No, it’s Bears for this boy. These furry mammals provide him with hours of watching delight. He’s especially fond of polar bears, and could spend forever watching them walk around on glaciers and go for swims underwater. One time he and Kisame were sent on a mission to a foreign country. They were supposed to return within 2 weeks, but they didn’t make it back for almost a month. Kisame covered and said it was because they ran into extensive traffic difficulties ... but the reality was the place they were sent to had a zoo with an interactive koala exhibit, and Itachi went every single day to have the little cubs crawl all over him ... even going so far as to put the owners of the zoo under a gengetsu in order to maximize his time limit.

Zetsu

Depends on what kind of mood he’s in, as to whether he’ll join the others at the zoo. If he goes, he is always mistaken for being a wildlife plant mascot, because of his unique foliage. His hobby is trying to sneak into as many exhibits as he can, posing as a plant, before the others (or the animals themselves) notice that he’s there. He doesn’t quite have a favorite animal but finds himself attracted to the gracefulness of flamingoes. He can’t stay with the others too long, however, as all that natural sunlight gives him a “brightness overload”, as he calls it. An ideal zoo day for him would be one where it’s partly cloudy and/or lightly drizzling; but the others prefer to go in the full sunlight.

Konan

Absolutely loves going to the zoo with the others. She’s the one who will read the zoo map and try and put them on a schedule to ensure that they see everything there is to see. Also the only one who will think to bring a bag filled with water and small snacks for the others (which Kakuzu appreciates more than anyone because he hates them wasting precious money on the in-zoo snack stands). Is fond of all the animals but her favorites are elephants. She often tells the others how highly intelligent and sensitive these creatures are, how they look after and care for their mates and their families. Tobi tells her that she reminds him of an elephant, which the others will smack him for because what woman wants to be called an elephant? But Konan will smile and hug him, because she understands what he means. One time as a group they surprised her, and found an elephant sanctuary where one was allowed to play with elephants. Konan spent a full day there laughing and getting sat on/cuddled by playful baby elephants. At the end of the day everyone received a muddy hug and kiss from her, which they tried to act grossed out by but were really happy about. Also should be noted that when at regular zoos, the heeled sandals that Konan wears often quickly tire her out, so more often than not she’ll be offered a ride on Kisame’s shoulders, or (if Sasori is walking around in it) on top of Hiruko.

Pein

Doesn’t particularly like the zoo, because he isn’t the fondest of animals, caged or not. Will only go with the others if Konan insists on it, as she feels Nagato needs to experience some pleasant imagery once in a while (through the Pein body). He’s the type to pick up every single pamphlet or brochure outside of each exhibit, study the information carefully, then quiz the others later on different fact about what they saw. Since he’s not a fan of animals he really doesn’t have a favorite, but he most enjoys watching wolves. He can always identify which one is the alpha male, and he observes the way it leads its pack around for future inspiration for his own group.

Tobi

When they go to the zoo as a group, somebody has to be assigned to this guy, to keep an eye on him. He gets so enthusiastic with the different animals and sights that he often throws caution (and common sense) to the wind, which allows for dangerous situations to happen. Once, he managed to break the gate on the tiger enclosure because he said it looked like they weren’t warm enough where they were, and would probably like to be outside with the people. Chaos and a wide panic ensued, and the rest of the group had had to get him out of there before they were all arrested. Tobi claims he likes all animals the same, that “they’re all Tobi’s friends!”, but his favorite-favorite are penguins. He loves the way they waddle, and will walk around the whole day after they visit this attraction trying to imitate that walk, until Deidara yells at him to “walk like a grown man, Tobi, hm!” He also really likes the snacks that they offer at the zoo and will likely run through his weekly budget as he buys tons of popcorn, candies, and ice cream to munch on as he walks around. Always cries when it’s time to go; usually takes 2-3 other members to drag him out by the arms.

[fanfics-for-the-hockey-fan]

My Treasure - William Nylander

Request: Can you do one where you are pregnant with William nylanders baby and getting hate and he makes you feel better

Getting pregnant at 24 was definitely not a part of my 5 year post college plan. Then again falling in love wasn't one of my bullet points either. But when my period was over a week late I knew that everything was about to change. William was thrilled when he saw the bolded word on the pregnancy test, immediately wanting to tell anyone he could. I was a little more hesitant to share the news.

I knew that I wanted children someday and those feelings intensified once my relationship with William became serious, I just figured we would be married and I would be a little more secure in my teaching job before we would add a baby to the mix. We told our families first and they were all excited and happy for us, same with friends and teammates. The real problem came when we started to share the news with the rest of the world. On William's social media everyone was happy for us and wishing us well, but mine is where all of the hate went.

She probably got knocked up so he couldn't leave her.

Hopefully you don't gain too much baby weight, you could already stand to lose a little.

You're not even pregnant with his kid I bet, just went to the guy with the biggest paycheck.

I did my best to delete the comments as soon as I saw them, hiding them from William so he wouldn’t get upset. Some people didn't get the hint after the first deleted comment and I would end up blocking them. Two weeks after announcing our pregnancy the nasty comments were outweighing the nice ones of my post. My pregnancy hormones went crazy one day when my pants didn't fit for the first time of the pregnancy and William was away on a road trip until the morning.

I canceled my plans to go get dinner with some friends and instead had a pity party in some of William's clothes with ice cream and reading through all the horrible things that were being said about me.

I can't believe he is still with her, she is not pretty enough for him.

Fat cow

You are going to ruin his career with the child.

I cried myself to sleep on the couch after midnight and didn't wake up until someone was brushing some hair out of my face. Slowly opening my eyes I saw a concerned William kneeling on the floor in front of me. "Ellie, what’s wrong? Were you crying?" I sat up, making room for William next to me before he pulled me into his lap. "Your friends texted me last night and told me you skipped on going to dinner with them. Is everything okay? Is the baby okay?"

"The baby is fine, I just couldn't find anything that fit comfortably with the bump. I had a pity party with ice cream and must have fallen asleep." Everything I said was true, I just left out one major thing.

"I'm sorry babe, but can I finally buy you some new maternity clothes? Please." He gave me puppy dog eyes as he begged, causing me to laugh and turn to face him more.

"You love shopping more than I do."

"Is that a yes? I'm taking that as a yes. Go get ready, shopping might take all day." With that he was carrying me down the hall, laughing the entire way. When he finally set me down I managed to find a t-shirt dress that wasn't too uncomfortable and proceeded to get ready.

***

After a full day of shopping William took me out to dinner at our favorite Spanish restaurant. I excused myself after we ordered a bunch of small plates to share to run to the bathroom and when I got back William was standing at the table with a large plastic bag and shaking hands with the owner. "What's going on?" 

"I thought you might be more comfortable if we went home and ate. I've kept you busy most of the day so I know your feet must be bothering you." His tone was off but I brushed it off as we headed out. The drive home was a tense silence without even the radio playing.

I didn't say anything until we were in the apartment and William started slamming cabinet doors as he got plates. "What's wrong?"

"I just don't get why people spend so much time trying to make other people down! Like, what does it do for them?" He had a fire in his eyes I had only ever seen on the ice, and I wasn't sure what was causing it.

"I'm going to some more context here. Did something happen at the restaurant?"

"Before we left the last store I took a couple of pictures for our shopping day and posted them to Instagram. I thought it was no big deal, just sharing what I was up to on a day off. And then when you were in the bathroom your phone started buzzing like crazy so I thought someone was trying to call you. But all of your notifications were for Instagram, and I know I shouldn't have opened the app on your phone but I thought maybe it was your girlfriends' group chat and Sophie finally got engaged." I let out a small chuckle at that, we basically were taking bets on when her and her high school sweetheart would finally take the next step.

"I'm guessing that isn't what you saw." I knew what he was going to say next but I was hoping with every fiber of my being that I was wrong.

"No, I saw the worst of humanity in your DMs. I just- how can people be so cruel?" William slumped into the bar stool next to me at the island as I reached for my phone having to see what was sent to me now. "Ellie…" I ignored his worried warning as I opened up the app, going to my DMs.

Fat cow, you only got pregnant so that you could lock in some who is far too good for you. I hope he sees he could do so much better and kicks you out before that baby ruins his career and life!

So you are just using him for his money. I bet the baby isn’t even his, probably a teammate who makes less. Whore!

Bitch, why are you even with Willy? He is a literal hockey god and from what i can tell you are just some stupid high school math teacher. He can do so much better than you. 

There were over 50 messages just like those, all sent within the last hour. I didn't even dare look at the comments on my latest post, even though it was a few days old the braver trolls put their nasty messages there for the whole world to see.

"How long has this been happening?" I had hopped off my stool, going to plate up the food we brought home and trying to avoid the conversation I knew we needed to have. "Ellie… Please talk to me. How long?"

"Honestly, since we started posting that we were dating. It's gotten worse since we posted that we are gonna be parents."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because part of me thought that if I just deleted the messages and comments that it wasn't real. That if I was the only one who knew that I could just pretend that it was all in my head. Then there is that stupid voice in my head that likes to play up my insecurities, that made me feel like if you saw what people were sending me that you would believe it. And I know that thinking that is stupid and unrealistic but it can sometimes be the loudest thing in there." William also got off his stool, coming to stand right in front of me. He kissed my forehead before cupping my cheeks and holding eye contact.

"Min skatt, never feel like you have to hide this from me. You are the one I am in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with. You are the only one that can make me smile and laugh when I am in a bad mood after a game. You are the only one I see myself growing old, and possibly bald with." I let out a gasp at the word bald, he was so protective about his hair.

"See, the rational part of me knows all that."

"Well, let me make it clear to every part of you. I love you with every fiber of my being and as soon as I meet with your father next week to ask for his blessing, I will be asking you to marry me."

"Will…"

"But I am going to need you to act surprised when I ask." That got a small chuckle out of me. 

"I'll do my best." William's stomach growled then, making both laugh. "Let's eat before your stomach starts communicating with us again." William just nods, a thoughtful look on his face that I'm sure would cause problems later but right now I just wanted to live in the happy moment.

After reheating the food and settling at the kitchen island to eat, I went through and deleted all the DMs and comments. I barely registered what they said as I deleted. What I didn't know was Will was looking at the comments as I deleted before pulling out his own phone. It was only when my phone buzzed with another notification that I found out what he was doing. 

@williamnylander tagged you in a post

The post was two pictures side by side; the first was from our first date at a Christmas market, all bundled up and snuggled into each other as we took the photo in a mirror. The other picture was a selfie he took of us at my last doctor's appointment for the pregnancy, both of us were all smiles as I sat on the exam table with a picture of the sonogram on the screen behind us.

Two pictures of the love of my life. One from our first date, where I was a clutz and spilt hot chocolate all over her light grey coat and she still agreed to a second date. The other from a few weeks ago when we got another look at our baby. 

I can say without any doubt that having Ellie in my life has only made it better. She has become my sounding board for when I'm frustrated, my motivation to score more goals, and my ray of sunshine on any cloudy day. 

I knew from that first date that Ellie was the one for me, no one can tell me otherwise. And now she is carrying our first child. My heart continues to grow and fall in love with this amazing, kind, dedicated, caring, loving, and perfect woman each day.

I am so lucky to spend time with you each day and anyone who says otherwise is wrong and jealous of what we have.

Min skat, I am so excited to watch our family grow and experience the joys and challenges of parenthood with you. Ellie I love you and can't wait to see where we go next. 

Together.

The tears started flowing before I even read the caption, the pictures enough with my pregnancy hormones. But the words William managed to write push me over the edge, I was crying at the love he put into the words but also laughing at the not so subtle 'fuck you' to all the nasty people who sent you messages.

"Did I overstep? I don’t want to embarrass you."

"It's perfect. You're perfect. I love you."

"I love you too, and I plan on showing you that everyday. Even if it is something as simple as an Instagram post."

"It's not just the post, it's that you are saying to all the people who see your pictures and then come trash talk to me that you know about them. And that will probably stop some of them from doing it again. And anyone who doesn't get the message gets blocked."

"Good. Now, let go watch some TV and cuddle." Nodding grabbing my plate of food, following William to the couch before curling into his side.

As William pulled up the next episode of a show we were binging, I thought of something. "You never have told me what 'min skat' means."

"It means 'my treasure'. And it reminds me how lucky I am every day to have you in my life."

[gureishi]

hey there~ got something a little different for you this time :3c

[if you are comfortable sharing this sort of thing...] HCs for how Saeyoung (and any version of Saeran, if you wanna do that too) would react to/feel about... 3 or more of your more specific/unique habits (or side interests, such as my thing with carnivorous plants).

hope this isnt too confusing haha 😅 Also hope you are having a lovely day 😌💖

[417]

Ahhhhh you’re so sweet to ask me this, my friend. What a lovely question. I hope you are having a good day today, dear ♡♡

1

I’ll start with what is perhaps my most obvious unique interest: I am a Crazy Lizard Chick. I have a one-year-old bearded dragon, and I love him a lot. Soulie—the lizard—has a 120 gallon enclosure, which I put together myself. He’s got UVB and a heat lamp and a ceramic heat emitter, and they’re all on dimmers and timers and need to be at specific temperatures at different times of the day. The lizard gets daily baths. I make him special salads with all his favorite greens. Basically, I spend a lot of time on like...lizard stuff.

Saeyoung’s never particularly thought about lizards before. He likes animals, generally. He never thought he’d get to have a pet, though he loves the idea of it. He certainly didn’t expect to get a girlfriend and a pet lizard at the same time. But here I am!

I get sort of crazed about lizard facts. I need to know everything. I’m in lots of lizard groups; I’ve done a ton of research. I’ve spent a lot of time trying out different equipment to get my little guy’s temperatures and humidity just right. And Saeyoung—Saeyoung understands about this sort of fixation. He does this, too: he’ll throw his whole self into an interest (his cars! the robots!) and become so focused he forgets about everything else. We have this in common. I think he’d find it kind of cute that I sometimes spend hours reading articles comparing two different brands of UVB bulbs. He’d flop onto the couch beside me and gaze at me with his beautiful big eyes—and when I tell him he’s too distracting, he’d smile and kiss my cheek and curl up into the cushions and pretend to play on his phone (while totally still watching me). He wants attention, sure—but he also likes how I look when I’m focusing, I think.

...Until I ignore him for too long, of course. Then he’s back, and he’s in my lap, and I’ve got to stop what I’m doing and pet his pretty hair.

2

Here’s a slightly more serious one. I have OCD, and though it’s pretty well managed at this point in my life, I’ve still got some funny little compulsions—ones I barely even notice anymore. For example, before I get into bed at night, I need to check that the stove is off, the door is locked, and the lizard’s temperatures are right—and I have to do all of this three times. It’s something I don’t even think about when I’m doing it, but Saeyoung’s a smart and observant boy and would probably pick up on it right away. He understands about being cautious—but there’s just no chance of anything going wrong in his home. It’s all pretty much programmed to take care of itself. I’d have to tell him that it doesn’t work that way: that knowing, rationally, that everything is fine doesn’t actually alleviate my anxiety (because anxiety, by nature, isn’t rational). This would drive him crazy. He wants to fix it: he wants to make all the bad feelings go away. He’d offer to make me anything I want: an app so I can check all of this without getting out of bed! An auto-turnoff system for the stove! But indulging the compulsions doesn’t do any good, either. 

Let me have this, I’d tell him. It’s not hurting anyone. So he would: he’d sit up in bed waiting for me, and when I’m done he’d open his arms and let me curl up against him. Are we gonna die tonight? he’d ask—because playfulness helps me; because if he can speak about these things in a lighthearted way, then I feel a little bit safer. We’re not, I’d tell him. I made sure of it. So he’d kiss my forehead and tell me I’m doing a good job. I don’t need to be fixed—I just need to be reassured that I’m doing okay.

3

On a lighter note: I have no self-control, and even though I one hundred percent can’t afford it, I can’t walk into a drug store (like a Rite Aid or a CVS) without buying something dumb. Even if I know I just need to get, like, soap, I will walk out with a bright pink liquid lipstick. If we need cleaning supplies? Oops: I bought a set of crappy acrylic nails. Picking up a prescription? Got it! And also a cup with a twirly straw.

This is a pretty annoying habit, to be honest—but I actually think Saeyoung would find it kind of charming. Oh, he’d tease me for it: I’d come back from the store and he’d glance up from his phone, wiggle his eyebrows, and ask me if I brought home a rocket ship, or a flame thrower, or a live cow. No, I’d tell him. Just this decorative pinwheel.

But I never spend a lot of money, because I’ve never had it—just enough to get that little serotonin boost from buying something I shouldn’t. And he is just like me: impulsive and sometimes careless. But we make use of things. Neither one of us likes anything to go to waste. So we will try on the new lipstick together—and he will do my nails, and we’ll drink only out of the cups with the twirly straws. And he’ll take the decorative pinwheel and install some wires and turn it into a beautiful clock that really tells time. Neither one of us is practical, necessarily—but we’re great at taking nothing and making it something good.

[theawkwardterrier]

to fill with joy the warrior's heart

Steggy Week 2k20, day 7 Prompt: Free choice

Summary: Trust is earned, and sometimes must be re-earned. Nothing in life is as pure and simple as we might wish it to be.

AO3 link here. Thanks to @steggyfanevents​ for organizing!

Peggy wakes Saturday morning with light steady at the window and in the first second realizes that Steve is not beside her and in the second remembers why.

“Moving day,” she says aloud, voice shaking sleep from itself, and opens her eyes.

Later, he will explain how he knew she would be there, will tell her about a different, older self he met, one who spoke of returning to the Stork Club even after she had moved from New York, one night a year spent sipping a drink alone and allowing herself the full imagining of what might have been.

But when she comes across him sitting on the steps of the brownstone Howard has loaned to her for the weekend, she doesn’t know any of that. When he looks up as he hears her footsteps on the sidewalk, when the streetlight falls on the shape of his jaw and nose and brow and the familiarity blooms hot and instant within her, all she knows is her feet pulling her forward even as her mind can’t grasp it, even as she cuts off her own gasp and sob. All she knows is her arms around him, his around her, the frantic scramble for logic, the somewhere knowledge that if this is real she’ll hang logic and do it happily.

She takes him upstairs, conscious of the pistol in her garter holster even as she can’t bring herself to relinquish his hand. Nevertheless, she manages long enough to prepare and pour tea for the two of them, manages as she sits across from him and asks quiet questions to which he gives equally quiet answers. (As familiar as he is, there’s so much worn to him now.)

“You might as well interrogate me the way you really want to,” he finally says when he’s corrected yet another small mistaken detail she’s dropped into the recounting of some part of their history. There’s just a bit of cheek to his tone, and it is that, something so tiny and personal and inimitable and him, something she truly believed she would never hear again, which makes her trust that it is truly him back with her again.

They fall asleep on the settees opposite each other. She wakes with her arm dangling; it is vaguely numb, but still reaching toward where he lies sleeping, solid and restless and here.

She is meant to return to Washington in the afternoon and he joins her. The ride is comfortable. They take turns at the wheel (Steve apparently drives now, and fairly well, too), point out landmarks along the route, fall occasionally into deep discussion, sample from each other’s plates in roadside diners, sit in easy silence with the scenery rushing past. Somehow, there’s a feeling of routine to it. They didn’t precisely spend the war gallivanting in cars together, but she has never been able to forget those snatched moments of synchronicity between the two of them: talking late at night once the others had gone to sleep, or during a brief mutual leave in London, what was meant to be greetings between them in the hallway spooling out into a conversation that had them blocking the door at headquarters for a half hour. Sometimes she still goes to sleep to the rhythm of their matched footsteps on patrol during an assignment.

That could be her life from now on, she realizes, the thought rocking into her. That synchronicity, this man, for as long as they were able.

How long will that be? she wonders. How long, this time?

Her hands shake on the wheel and she forces them to stop, forces herself to breathe. But the idea won’t go away.

He had come back to her, he wasn’t leaving, he’d told her that, and Steve’s word is good, Steve is good, she knows that like the fact of her own life. And she also knows that the control, the choices we think or wish we had, that we want to have, can slip from us so easily.

As they enter the city, she asks, eyes forward, “Can I help you find someplace to stay?”

Even without looking, she can imagine the surprised furrow of his eyebrows, can hear the shift in his posture against the seat: so slight, and so clear to her. She doesn’t fault him for assuming that he would be staying with her, after having felt her grip on his arm, having fallen asleep to her voice and sat with her all this while as she returned to the place she is making her home.

She hopes he doesn’t fault her for not being able to let him.

He finds a place in a building several streets over from hers, easily walkable. They eat at the same halfway point diner in the morning. Sometimes they share sections of the Post, sitting and reading silently, pointing out articles of interest, debating politics and trends and culture. Sometimes they tease each other across the table: “Ah, look, they’re bringing the cow in the back, they must have known you wanted a bit of steak and eggs this morning” and “Better give that left curl a stern talking-to, it’s not looking as quite as perfect as the rest.” They don’t part with a kiss, but sometimes they stand so long chatting on the sidewalk outside that people detour around them with exaggerated annoyance.

Talk about work, about their lives, is usually saved for evenings or weekends spent together. They are neither of them particularly good at cooking, but are both perfectly satisfied with sandwiches or restaurant food. They can each muddle through a few simple dishes anyway, and, regardless of whether or not their muddling improves along the way, it’s certainly more enjoyable to prepare things together.

Her kitchen is larger (though no one would call it spacious) but he actually remembered to purchase things like a pot and extra forks, so they split time between the two. Over jacket potatoes served with butter and leftover bits from Peggy’s fridge, she lets out the frustrations that she hides during the day behind cool smiles and sharp retorts, lets out the anger at the men who don’t have any of her experience or skill and yet imagine themselves equal to her. She had forgotten how it felt to allow these words into the safekeeping of one who had never thought such things and never would. She had forgotten the ease, the openness between them that included him revealing his own fear and pain and longing. The night that they sit across from each other at the secondhand card table he’d found and he tells her with such detail about the friends she will not meet for decades if ever, she stretches a hand across to him, holding tightly to his fingers.

When they spend the night together, it’s almost always in her bedroom. Her clothes are there, her hairbrush and lipstick and powder, her soap, toothbrush, indulgently soft sheets; she doesn’t need to pack a bag so she can sleep comfortably and armor herself with perfection for work the next day. Regardless of disapproving stares from neighbors when she and Steve walk out together in the morning, she doesn’t need to worry that she has missed an important call in the night.

So she allows him inside her home and wonders if any of this is wise, whether she might have to buy new sheets, a new bedframe even, if his scent will haunt the place, the remembered sight of him sitting at the table, of the contents of his pockets - loose change and crumpled notes to himself, that same compass, come all this way - on her nightstand, whether she will really ever be at home here again if he persists in becoming so much here and then she is left alone once more.

She can’t help herself. They had been slow and polite and careful last time and she was still left with a heart broken at the thought of what might have been; she’ll take better advantage this time, as much as she can, as long as it lasts.

Six months, she tells herself. Six months, and it will feel safe to let him in completely, to begin discussing a future.

But six months comes and goes, and it doesn’t feel safe, it seems only more dangerous to let him further. Even the small amount she has allowed of time spent and secrets shared seems too much. During a dull meeting one day her mind wanders to the idea of going to City Hall with Steve beside her, of standing up with him in front of a church, and she holds herself distant from him that night and cannot tell him why. He is late one evening for reasons which are perfectly sensible when explained and she tries to avoid cataloging all the small details of him over the next days - holding these crystallized memories in her mind will only hurt later.

She is no coward, she does not need assurances on that score. She's been asked to face battlefields and killers and destruction, to put herself in the way of it all, to take charge, to defend and strike back, and she has done it - she has chosen to do it - without pause.

But even brave people, she tells herself, must be sensible. Even brave people do not simply allow themselves to jump from cliffs with no guarantee of being caught on the way down.

He does not push her, does not even mention time-frames or any expectations he might have had when he came back. The only time he brings it up is in the night, those times she shakes herself from sleep with a gasp or a doubled-over cry. His hand will rest on her back or shoulder, will stroke over her bare stomach, the pressure of those long fingers well-remembered despite herself, and his voice will come, solid in the dark: “I’m sorry I was so late. I’m here now.”

And all she can think is how easily “now” can become “for now.”

They have an argument.

It starts out as simple conversation. She tells him that she is planning for a busy next few days, her time taken up first with meetings and then with fieldwork. He reminds her once again that she has a whole agency that’s meant to take care of fieldwork for her these days. It’s a running joke between them by now; he doesn’t even look up from whatever intricate little sketch he is working on. But, somehow, today it does not feel comfortably amusing. Just now, having Steve sitting at her kitchen table, referencing some new thing shared between the two of them, using a pencil borrowed without thought or permission from one of her drawers, seems constricting, dangerous.

“If I thought someone else would be able to take care of things for me, I would be perfectly capable of telling them so,” she snaps, watching his head come up in surprise.

“Of course you would be,” he says, and then, as if he can’t resist pointing it out, “but it’s pretty rare for you to actually do it.”

“Ah, so the only trouble with having things done successfully is asking people.” She pushes up from the table, paces back to grip onto the kitchen counter. “Unbelievable that I hadn’t simply thought of it earlier. How kind of you to inform me.”

“I’m only saying—”

“Of course you are! After all, we both know how well you delegate, how often you’ve been willing to put others in danger in your place.”

His back is very straight now. “Whether or not that’s true for me, you barely trust any of the people you have over at SHIELD. You don’t trust them to do things right or to work with you or support you, so I don’t know why you hired them in the first place.” He crosses his arms, mouth tight. “When I chose to work with people, it was because I knew I could rely on them.”

The laugh she gives is a single, dagger-tipped note. “How wonderful that must be for you, to have such luxury. I’m meant to protect the world and everyone in it while surrounded by people whose integrity I can’t always count on, much less their respect.”

“So find people you can trust! Hell, I’ve told you I’d step in if you need it - you can’t keep doing everything yourself, Peggy.”

His jaw is clenched, jutting in that stubbornly recognizable way of his, but for once she has no desire to laugh with him over it, to tease him from his tension with kisses or sly remarks. Her jaw clenches in response instead, words coming out tight as her crossed arms.

“Consider, perhaps, that I don't have confidence in the idea of you stepping in. You were gone for years, Steve, and I accepted it. I cannot simply accept that you’re back to stay, that you won’t sacrifice yourself again if you thought it would serve the greater good. I can’t rely on things going right, I can’t rely on you not finding yourself in such a position, and it haunts me, the idea that I might spend my life waiting for the next thing that will take you away from me. So I wouldn’t be so eager to consider yourself someone I can trust. ”

The pencil lies blankly between his stricken fingers. “If you don’t trust me,” he says, “maybe I’d better go.”

He doesn’t slam the door behind him, but it feels as if he has.

Alone in her bed, she realizes that she was right to worry: even though she has so carefully guarded against having Steve with her every night, the bed feels unfamiliar without his weight beside her, his soft breathing or sleepy comments in the dark, the simple smell of his soap. It hurts not to feel his touch, easy against her even in sleep, to think that she might never feel it again.

She gets up at half past two and puts a jacket on over her pajamas. The streets outside her window are silent except for a slight breeze and the light patter of drizzle. She shuts and locks her door quietly, turns to start the walk to Steve’s, and finds him sitting in the hallway.

He is leaning against the wall, chin fallen onto his chest. Hearing the click of her lock, the scuff of her shoes, he looks up to where she stands cat-still in front of her door, keys still in her fist. She cannot see the golden glint of stubble on his cheeks, but she knows she would feel it against her palm if she touched him.

“I wasn’t okay when I came back,” he says quietly, eyes on hers. He swallows. “And even though you’d already told me some about the way things had been for you, I should never have assumed that I knew everything. I should have checked whether you were okay. I know better than to think that just because someone's strong they can't hurt.”

She steps across to him, slides down so that she is at his side, arm against arm.

“Have you been sitting here the entire time?” she asks.

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Roberson didn’t look really impressed, but I don’t like being away from you. I’ve already learned that lesson pretty well.”

“And in the most difficult way.” When she leans against his shoulder, her head fits just perfectly. The blue cotton of his shirt smells faintly of laundry soap, but mostly like a long and difficult day.

"I do trust you," she says, close to the fabric, her words coming carefully. "I know that you are a good man, and that you were forced into a terrible situation, a terrible choice. I don't want you to think otherwise."

"But—"

She overrides his voice. "And still, the world we live in is full of terrible choices, terrible situations. We live them perhaps more than most. And the thought of—" She breathes, starts over again, makes her words simpler. "Losing you once already hurt so very much."

He doesn't try to shove back against her words or feelings or reasoning, does not offer placation or gentle lies. He puts his arm around her.

"I wouldn't regret coming back," he says against her hair, "if you didn't think you could live with the uncertainty. I had to try, and I—I would still be here, in your life, if you wanted me."

"Actually," she says, looking at the wall in front of them. She's noticed the unavoidable paisley wallpaper before, but not the way it curls up from the baseboard. "I think you should come live with me."

She can feel him startle, shift to look down at her. She takes her time meeting his eyes.

"I don't even have a spare key to your place yet," he points out, confused.

"I remember."

"And we just—You just said—"

"Yes, I remember that too," she says, amused despite herself at his polite flapping about. "I was there."

"Then why—?"

"Because I will always want you with me," she says simply. "We circled around each other the first time even though I knew I wanted you with me. You went away from me and I wanted you back. And then you returned, and no matter how I tried to avoid it, I wanted you with me anyway. I want you with me always. And although it cannot happen, regardless of how careful we might be or what luck we might have, I must know better by now than to think I can simply pretend that I can turn away from you. I should know better than to try."

Through long minutes, he doesn't say anything, his heat and even breaths nevertheless soothing beside her. Finally she asks, "Well?"

"Okay." He lets the word float there, then adds, "But if anyone asks, I'm telling them that you asked more romantically than that."

It's ten days until the first of the month. Steve doesn't need nearly that long to pack his things.

Peggy arrives promptly at eight. Steve’s already been over to Stein’s Grocery and gotten the delivery van. Between the two of them, they haul the boxes and a limited amount of furniture, first down from Steve's building, then up into Peggy's.

Everything is moved in by noon, the truck returned, and the sun splashes joy over the pile of boxes in the doorway, the light dwindling as things find their new homes: his small supply of records sliding in with hers, art books, science fiction, and novels amongst the mysteries and classics and occasional paperback romances on her bookcase, clothes in the places she has made in the bureau and wardrobe. She knows that his paints and drawing paper, his pastels, will eventually escape or will be put away messily, but for now they lie neatly stacked in their assigned place on the shelf. His sheets and pillowcases go into the linen cupboard, spares now for their shared bed.

They keep her radio, but trade her secondhand turntable for his - also secondhand, but slightly better quality (Steve still knows how to hunt down a bargain). The armchair that they can both fit into if they curl together just right finds its place in the lounge area; it doesn’t match her sofa in the slightest, but they don’t care.

There isn’t much wall space, but they’re able to find places for a piece of artwork or two. She hammers the nails, he makes sure the frames hang straight. A print of his parents' wedding photo, pictures of him and Bucky, of the Barnes family, join her limited collection of photographs. They both have the same one of them alongside Commandos; for some reason, they tuck his copy behind hers in the frame.

His silverware easily replaces her minimal set. There’s a bit of a bicker over which dishes to keep - he has more settings and complete ones too, she has the deeper bowls and larger plates - but they decide on both for now; they’ll shop around for something together. The single pot and frying pan he brought make the cut easily, as she still doesn’t have any of her own.

(“Considering all the time we just spent organizing the kitchen, one would think we might actually intend to use it.”

“It’s probably a good thing for everyone that we don’t. Do you want me to go pick up from Luigi’s or Good Earth?”

“Neither - Chin’s is better than Good Earth, and they'll deliver here. But whatever number of egg rolls you’re intending to order, double it. You always eat far more than your share.”)

Late and later, with the moon high out the window, they get ready for bed. She stares as he adds his clothes carefully to the laundry hamper, piling them atop hers. She wonders how long it will be before he begins tossing them in less attentively, allowing shirts to drape comfortably over the sides or even drop onto the floor.

There is his toothbrush and his soap beside hers, his razor. His clothes hang in the closet. Anyone who needs to reach him from now on will know to call here.

They climb into bed. Our bed, she thinks, startled by it, until he brings her close and whispers, “Your sheets really are better than mine.”

“It doesn’t do to doubt me,” she reminds him. He laughs. After a time, she adds, “It went well, I think, moving day.”

“It did.”

His familiar weight is beside her, the smell of work washed off and replaced with soap and clean skin. He will be there as long as he can be, and she knows he will try to make that a very long time.

“Let’s not move again for a good while yet,” she says. “I can’t bear the thought of having to do double the packing and then unpacking it all again somewhere new.”

One day, they’ll move somewhere larger, a house where they can host friends and have a back garden to relax in, where they might be able to raise a child or two. But for now...For now…

“Yeah,” he says, sleepy in a way that she usually doesn’t hear him. His arms are heavy and secure around her. He is no longer keeping himself at the ready; he no longer has to. “Right here. We’ll stay right here.”

[kaorei-endgame]

Game of the Year #4: Pathologic 2

You went in with 10 years knowledge on the subject, read those Rock Paper Shotgun Articles, consummate played-by-proxy nerd. And if you come in feeling like that, you've got a clean head start in the first few days of Pathologic 2: The Pandemic Simulation RPG (And Meta Commentary On Gaming (And The Nature of Fiction (And Perhaps Humanity Itself?)) and proto survival sim elements). Like it's turbulent and your health meters drain quick, but you get the jist. Water is short so you learn where the water drums are. Break borrow and steal. Deus Ex house-scavenging on a time limit. That is a genre of game you can wrap your mind around. On day two the plague begins, infected district is cordoned off on the map (which you know--because you have read Rock Paper Shotgun--is shaped, and named, like a cow's various parts, pre-butchering. metaphor!!) and your little virtual desire paths shift to compensate. A timed meeting with a medical colleague on the other side of the city now includes a 5 minute detour. Your nightly visit to harvest herbal curatives from an abandoned village in the steppe slides back into a midnight run, and then an early morning visit as the tasks consume you. Treat these people or we'll withhold your (paltry) salary. But also, heal your friend or his whole district succumbs. But also, buy a cloak to cover your face or you'll succumb. But also, you can't afford a cloak, which is why you're stomping through this abandoned village in the dark trying to remember where the fucking weeds to pick up are because you can't even afford a fucking cloak, much less real medicine!! Which is why you spend like a full quarter of every day making the trip here and back which is why there are now a half-dozen infected districts, all your friends are dead or dying, and the military has brought out the flamethrowers! The game has to be almost over, right? This fucking bull I scrounged up to buy on Day 1, when the world was simple and kind, is supposed to talk to me on the worst day of my life and you're telling me that's not right now, on Day 5 of the 13 total days in this game??

So it's kind of like that. Pathologic 2 arrests my functions through mechanical overwhelm. You're always on the knife's edge of poverty, and the next trashcan is always going to be the one that has a sewing needle in it that you can combine with the cloth you also don't have yet to make a pocket and expand an inventory you couldn't possibly own enough to fill with anything but more trash.

In 2020, this sounds close enough any survival sim but Pathologic's loop is so attenuated by long travel times and finely diced resources that you will never become comfortable. Here's a Terraria where you mine every copper vein you see while everyone around you slowly dies, but not so slow that you can't convince yourself you can save them, or if not them.... maybe the next one? Holy shit, this game is hard, yeah, but wow! Am I a doctor? Am I doing triage?

You build a base, and it's never stocked because you're living out of your coat pockets. Oh, haha, you think you're a doctor? Well you can't afford medicine, as stated, and your guess-work home remedies require infected organs harvested on the sly when you pray no one's looking, because they will run you out of the neighborhood for it. Haha, remember? You spent the literally whole first day, the only infection-free day, skulking in alley ways because the whole town was ready to kick the shit out of you Rambo-style for being a wandering vagrant?

And you still got the temerity to call yourself a doctor? Bitch, you're a fucking haruspex, and that much is clear in how a certain percentage of the population views you as moooore or less one step removed from the anthropomorphic nomad people who roam the plains (and who are, not coincidentally, being targeted by hate crimes as the plague sets in). Half of the tinctures you brew in your lab go into your belly to delay the onset of hunger or sleep for a few more hours. You crash on any couch you can find before the meter bottoms out. You spent less time diagnosing patients yesterday than you did scrounging through the garbage for enough refuse to trade for a fish from a midnight merchant called the Dead Item Seller who for some reason wants bloody bandages, and the fish didn't even fill up your whole belly. Barely even 40%. And the day starts anew, another two cornerstones of the town are sick and dying but what else is new. Have to go watch the giant plague doctors put on a secret play in the town's enormous baroque(????who cares???) theater we've converted into an emergency ward so don't wake the patients, please, you quasi-metaphorical thespians! Oh, my uncle or some shit says there's a hole in the center of the earth where all the blood goes down and THATS the problem?? 😰Well haha I don't think anyone's got enough Orange+ Tincture for a hole that big, Grandad!!🤣 Maybe better find another shaman trained in the ancient ways?? This one's barely making rent.😬 Oh the RAT KING wants to talk to me now? Is he gonna HELP? is he gonna GIVE ME DRUGS OR A FUCKING COAT?🤬

Please, it's 2020, 50% of the people reading this use horror movies as a safety valve to experience trauma and inure themselves to it. In that way, I feel I am among friends. Pathologic 2 is a mechanical expression of that release valve, maybe? A way to touch all those anxieties--Gotta Work, Gotta Rest, Gotta Eat, Gotta Talk To People, Gotta Do My Mindfullness Meditation, Gotta Be Responsible For Building My Own Boundaries In Personal Relationships And Also A 401K or an IRA If I Have The Time, You Know, On The Weekend, By The Way I Belong To A Class Of People The World Unilaterally Hates :)--so I think a good way to manage that.... for people like me.... who have brains who don't manage things well without external motivation.... which, for them, has been historically linked to trauma.... is to play a video game where everyone looks at you like you're sick while THEY'RE all dying of the fucking plague. Is that it? I don't know. It's 2020. So maybe that's just it.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 98

98

   It was weird to have slow weeks again with all the excitement Keith had brought into his life. Keith had called to update him on things in Platt which weren’t exactly good. A scuffle had broken out between three vampire clans, so Lotor, and his generals, were now calling VOLTRON home for the foreseeable future. Asking far too much over Lance for Keith’s comfort. Keith and Shiro were both back in with Blades after the failure of a mission, though Keith was two weeks out of loop, so he’d had to work extra time to catch up on everything he’d missed. Then the last two weeks August had seemed to disappear into thin air, without seeing Keith. Lance honestly didn’t know where they’d gone, only that they were wankers for leaving him without Keith for so long.

  Filled in far too much, Sendak seemed to be the cause of the recent vampire fighting. The four clans suffering heavy casualties, which meant pretty much every night hunters and Blades were on the look out of for potential vampires turning humans to bolster their numbers. Plus they had to deal with werewolves getting all uppity with their mangy noses out of joint. Two murders had made their way into the news, the reports on the details varied differently with between each printed news report. Someone had brought up the question of it being related to the theft he and Keith committed, with that particular story disappearing within 6 hours of making it to socials. The Blades could make anything disappear, maybe even him if they got sick of all these vampire drama. Lance didn’t envy Keith at all. He knew his boyfriend was working hard, even harder as he tried to avoid his approaching birthday weekend... despite how freakin’ long it was until their holiday. The broody anger loaf as as bad at him over birthdays. He could have easily pushed it to the back of his mind, but instead he wanted all the information and considered hiking it ahead of time so they wouldn’t get lost.

  Lance was working in his own way. Pidge found them a “case” a few towns over. Lance didn’t want to go. He felt wiped from his heat. Pidge had no pity for him after a “romantic week away”, Lance ending up going. Matt coming along for the night and succeeding in pissing off Pidge by explaining away phenomenons with science. He was kind of right. There wasn’t the feeling of death in the building despite its age, nor any annoying shadows to ignore. Hunk saved them all from Pidge’s bad mood by suggesting the turn the video into a “debunk” video for the watchers. It was nice to have part of his old life back. He felt as if things were finally settling down for the Garrison Trio, and that they’d worked past his whole “vampire” issue. A new video landed him a couple of new clients seeking advice, giving him a chance to feel helpful in a different way from tagging along because Lotor wanted it.

  Vegged out on the sofa, their new family member mooed loudly from outside. Yeah. They’d kept the damn cow. Three weeks seemed too long to now be going out and finding the owner seeing she hadn’t been reported missing. They’d even named her Kaltenecker. Blue wasn’t fond of her. Her Royal Highness was sulking as it was. She and Kosmo had gotten pretty close, Lance feeling she missed the hyperactive pup as much as he missed Keith. She’d tried to be friendly with Kaltenecker, but was out the moment Kalternecker’s long slobbery tongue passed over her head. He didn’t like to admit that he slept with one of Keith’s shirts over his pillow these days, because it felt kind of stalkerish and really rather lame. He couldn’t help that he slept better with Keith’s scent close to him, despite the fact he felt a 45 year old man should probably have grown out of nightmares long ago.

  Matt and Rieva both tried to help with his nightmares. Lance appreciated the thought, but his dreams had been so weird lately that he had no idea what to make of them. Sometimes they were about him being turned. Sometimes he’d turned Keith in them and they were having the weirdest adventures. He’d had one dream where he was pregnant and Keith was on a quest to find him shorts... though, the worst dream he’d had was when Nyma and Rolo had kidnapped Keith and he’d come home to find his boyfriend dead. It took calling Keith to calm him down from that one.

  There was also one big change in the house that made Lance happy. Curtis had moved back in. When he’d come to check on him at the hotel, they’d talked, entertaining the idea of finding an apartment in Platt, only to decide that it was more practical if Curtis lived there. It was nice to have him back. Curtis felt as lost as he did over not being able to be in the field with Keith and Shiro. Having found a home outside VOLTRON, where his curse wasn’t such a big deal, Lance fully supported Curtis moving in and having fresh air and freedom. Plus, it helped to have someone get as emotional over soap operas as he did. Matt forced to watch the pair of them make fools of themselves as they’d yell at the TV over the script.

  With Rieva at her waitressing job, Lance having cleaned through the house, and nothing much to do, Lance was curled up against Curtis, Christmas shopping for their friends group, and trying to ignore the feelings of anxiety that came with waiting for Keith to check in with him. Seeing he was giving Keith a twin set of blades for his birthday, Lance was facing he dilemma of “Did he buy Keith another blade” or “Should be he buy him camera equipment without knowing anything about cameras”. His boyfriend really did get excited at the idea of stabbing things... Maybe too excited so he shouldn’t give him a potential murder weapon?

  He could always gift Keith a voucher to a camera equipment store, but he didn’t want to spend too much on the voucher and have Keith feel guilty over the cost of the gift. He could probably pick up a vintage camera as a gift...

  Then again, he’d seen some amazing antique blades. As well as custom jobs that seemed to scream Keith’s name at him. It was hard containing himself. Huge gifts would be nice, he’d spoil Keith rotten for every single bad birthday memory he had, yet a heartfelt gift was worth more than spending thousands. That’s why he loved that he had a small selection of Keith’s photos. His photography so super personal that the vampire felt kind of honoured. He adored it. He adored the photos of them all, the photos of the caves, but his favourite was of Keith and Kosmo cuddled up together, even more so of the ones where he was kissing Keith’s cheek. Now he was missing his boyfriend again. God. Okay. No more swords. Time to move on to Shiro and who better to ask than his boyfriend?

  “Hey, Curtis. What are you getting Shiro for Christmas?”

“I’m not going through this again”

Tilting his head back, Lance frowned up at Curtis

“What does that mean?”

Curtis sighed at him

“It means Keith nearly had a mental breakdown trying to decide on your gift. I will not go through that again”

Lance blinked at him, a warm feeling in his belly that his boyfriend cared that much. He didn’t blame Curtis for not wanting to go through that again, a stressed Keith could be very bossy and uncooperative

“No, I’m being literal here. I don’t want to get him the same thing as you. I’m tossing up between getting Keith another blade, or some camera equipment. I thought I’d move onto Shiro”

“Oh. I was sure you were edging into asking what you should purchase for Keith. He was quite the wreck the morning of your birthday. 5 cups of coffee, all in different cups. Pacing nonstop. Freaking out because he hadn’t purchased a present and it had to be just right and in no way lame”

  Lance huffed at Curtis. He really wanted to call Keith now... Their camping trip seemed so long away... 52 days. Every day counting down was being marked off on his office calendar and his friend calendar

“I am trying not to think about how much I miss my boyfriend. What should I get Shiro?”

Shiro was filled with “Dad” vibes. Sometimes it felt he was the only mature one around them

“You could get us matching T-shirts. I’m with stupid pointing to him, and his saying “I am stupid””

“Dude, that seems more like something you should give him. Maybe I’ll skip him for now”

“You could get him an ugly sweater?”

Lance hummed. Shiro was a closet nerd. He’d seen the bobble head collection... and the movie collection...

“That could work. Maybe some socks to make it feel like a dad present. Thanks for the idea. What are you getting him?”

“I’m thinking I should get him an ugly sweater now”

Lance rolled his eyes

“That’s what you told me to get him”

“But it’s such a good idea. Why don’t we all get him ugly sweaters?”

“Because you’re the one who’s going to have to live with the consequences”

“I don’t mind”

“Fiiiiine. But you better gift him something else to make up for it, or he’s really going to think we don’t like him”

“I think I’ll manage. Why are you shopping now?”

“So it’s all out the way. Postage gets hectic around Christmas and if there’s going to be delays than I want the extra time”

  He was letting his age show. But with two months to go before everyone started going mental for Chris, he wanted things all organised so he didn’t have the last minute rush to deal with. He had his eye on a nice outdoor setting as his birthday gift to himself, a little late, but if he timed it right he couldn’t always say it was an early Christmas present. He wanted something bigger to fit them all comfortably, once he’d extended the brickwork... maybe built a pen for Kaltenecker... ohhh... Kaltenecker could have her own stall near the house. They could build a doggy training course for Kosmo... and Matt...

“Curtis, do you know anything about construction”

“Not particularly. Dismantling measures... Explosives. Survival measures”

“Do you want to try building a cow pen with me?”

“No. And you will not be building one either. Go back to your Christmas shopping”

  Lance pouted. Not liking being told not to do something. It wasn’t an ego thing. It was something he’d heard so many times in his life. No matter how good he’d been, he wasn’t good enough

“I did all the repairs on the house for like the most part, and things are still standing”

“So you did the electrics, the plumbing, reroofing...?”

Well... no. The walls had to come down to tackle the mould and... his ego didn’t like what Curtis was saying

“I pulled down the walls and replaced them once I got rid of the mould”

“Great. You broke stuff. Speaking of broken stuff, Matt and Rieva broke the bed again”

“I heard. Maybe it’s time to get them another bed for that room? Instead of two singles pushed together?”

“Weren’t they planning on moving out once their probation ended?”

“That’s beside the point...”

  He really liked having them there. Not just because he’d become friends with them, but for the added security of having two werewolves in the off chance of things going south

“You’re acting delusional. Maybe it’s the stress of Christmas shopping?”

“I’m not stressed. And before you ask, I’ve already ordered your present”

“I know. I’ve been on your laptop”

“Dude! Privacy! I’ve got confidential client... you’re an arsehole”

Curtis started laughing as he snapped at him

“You should have seen your face”

“You should see what I’m going to do to yours”

Curtis brushed his hair back from his horn

“It’s because I’m horny, isn’t it? You wouldn’t hit a horny man”

Lance choked on air. Curtis laughing at him as he spluttered. Part of Curtis’s Christmas present might have to go missing in revenge. Sulkily, Lance snapped his laptop closed. His friend was a dick. He was a raisin cookie pretending to be filled with chocolate goodness

“I’m going to go make lunch while you think about your actions”

And check in on Matt who was doing “Top Secret Research”

“Oh, good. Food and free entertainment. This really is the life”

[duskowithapen]

Aurix Chapter Three

In Which Ghouls are Fought (and Celeste is Followed)

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When Celeste walked into the training room the next morning, she was in a good mood. All her theory work was done for the week, along with the associated homework. In the library, she’d managed to find a book about Earth art history when looking for the extra readings for Politics. It had replications of paintings, sculptures, and illustrations from across the planet going back thousands of years. It was fascinating. And, given the fact that it doubled as a history text, she could use it as a reading for her War History assignment if she chose to focus on Earth-based warfare. Certainly none of her classmates would choose it – they all seemed to prefer looking at the civil wars of Solaria, or the logical battle strategies of Zenith. Earth was considered too backwards for their standards. Their loss.

But either way, Celeste walked into the training room that Thursday morning with a smile on her face, having completely forgotten about yesterday’s debacle of a sparring match. At least, until she saw her teacher waiting for her with a smirk.

She immediately went pale. If she were to look into a mirror, she would see the small silvery freckles that dotted her cheeks and forehead fairly glowing with how much blood drained from her face.

Professor Riven sounded almost absurdly happy when he addressed her. “Hello Celeste, how are you this morning?”

Trying not to step too close, Celeste nodded in response. In vain she tried to bring back that smile which so easily graced her face seconds before. Her hand was shaky when she gave him a thumbs up. He called me by name. He never calls me by name.

“That’s good. I saw that all your theory work for this week was marked as complete, so I decided that we would have a full-day training and conditioning session. If you keep finishing your work so quickly, I’ll make this into a weekly thing.” His smile wasn’t nice. It was evil.

Celeste nodded again.

“We’re going to start with a nice jog as a warm up.” Professor Riven headed to the door. “It’ll be easy – you just need to keep up with me.” And the man was off, running down the hall towards the stairs at a steady lope.

He’s going to kill me, Celeste thought as she scrambled to catch up with her teacher and his much longer legs. He’s going to make me run to my death for disappointing him yesterday!

She wasn’t completely wrong. The ‘warm up’ jog eventually led to the larger Red Fountain student gym, where Celeste was put through a gruelling exercise circuit that seemed designed specifically to cause every single muscle in her body to ache. A two minute break between each station was all she was allowed – enough time for her to get her breath back, and have a sip of water, but not much else. A cool down run and stretch proceeded lunch, which she was mortified to actually share with her teacher.

Professor Riven followed her into the dining hall, grumbling about the food standard at Red Fountain. According to him, the food was good for nutrients and calories, but tasted like cardboard compared to the food found elsewhere. All the other students stared as he dropped down in the seat across from her. The round tables allowed for up to six seats, and there were just enough seats for every student. For first time, Celeste saw empty tables in a ring around hers– students either doubling up at other tables, or walking in, seeing Professor Riven eating with a red-faced student, and immediately walking out. Said professor forced a second sandwich and extra apple down her throat, complaining all the while about fairies and their tendency to go on extreme diets.

With a steely look in his eye, he said to her, “If I ever find out about you skipping out on meals or eating less for the sake of being skinny or having a nice body, I will let seniors use you for target practise. And seniors don’t miss.”

Just then, Helia walked past to say hello. “It’s nice to see you spending time with others, Riven. And I don’t believe I’ve seen any crying students yet.”

He’d just grumbled in response. “I haven’t made anyone faint in almost 24 hours either.”

“A new record,” Helia said sombrely. He snuck Celeste a wink when Professor Riven started growling, and she had to hide her smile behind her apple.

After lunch, they returned to the training room where Celeste was forced to contort her body into various uncomfortable positions. She had been familiar with some of them, having snuck through the old connection tunnels to spy on classes in the Aurais girl’s school on the other side of the mountain, but many were new and painful.

Professor Riven was unapologetic even as he stretched beside her (she was smug over the fact that she could go down into the splits and he couldn’t). “You need to be flexible in both body and strategy if you want to be winning any of your sparring matches. As a girl, your greatest advantage will be your flexibility and speed. Don’t try to match your opponents blow for blow – you’re not built to take those kinds of hits. Avoid them.”

The thing that made Celeste hate her teacher just a little less was the fact that he worked alongside her. He didn’t just watch – he matched her step for step, stretch for stretch, station for station. It was as much for his benefit as for hers. And when he set up a new training dummy, he went first.

“This is a new invention of Timmy’s, designed for your kind of fighting style,” Professor Riven slapped a hand on the skinny, tree-like machine that was almost as tall as he was. “The aim is to hit the buttons on the body without getting hit by the arms. Speed and evasion. Watch closely.”

On the first setting, the various arms didn’t move very fast. They were rigid in their positions, spinning around the main body at a low speed. The buttons were easy enough to find, lighting up as the exercise started and disappearing once hit. After successfully hitting all twenty buttons without injury, Professor Riven moved aside to let her have a go.

Celeste didn’t come through quite as unscathed. One hit caught her across the stomach, and she coughed even as Professor Riven explained to her where she went wrong and how to place her feet better.

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you ready to go again?”

She nodded. The pain was already fading.

“Okay. Watch me again. This is the second level.” Again, the lights came on, and again Professor Riven hit all twenty buttons without injury. The machine moved just a little bit faster this time, and the lower most arms were able to bend from their static position in swiping movements. When Celeste had her turn, one caught her hard enough at the ankle to make her stumble into another arm. The subsequent collision with the ground rammed the breath from her lungs.

Once she caught her breath, a hand appeared in her face. Professor Riven looked down at her with something like concern in his face. “Alright?”

She glared at the machine and nodded even as she was pulled to her feet. She was bested by a machine.

Professor Riven laughed. “Want to go again? Keep an eye on those lower arms – and keep moving. A sitting duck is a dead duck.”

When the arms went for her ankles again, Celeste was ready – jumping onto the arm as she pulled one leg back into a punishing kick on the last remaining light. The metal bent in a little at the force.

“Well,” her teacher said dryly, “Looks like you’ve beat that level. Want to try the next?”

Celeste’s earlier exhaustion was forgotten as she and Professor Riven took turns beating each level of the machine. It wasn’t until the sixth level that things went wrong.

All the arms were moving now, rotating in their sockets and shifting up and down. Celeste was moments away from hitting the last light when something flashed off glass in the corner of her eye – the sun had moved into the window. That split second of inattention cost her, and a metal arm caught her sharply across the shoulder. She gasped at the sudden pain, moving away from the machine’s reach to rub the feeling back into it.

With a curse, Professor Riven sprang forward and shut down the program. Sharp eyes turned to her, catching the way her hand shook over the ball of her shoulder. “What’s wrong with your shoulder?”

She waved a dismissive hand – notably, not the hand connected to the hit shoulder – even as blood drained from her face. She was fine.

When Professor Riven crossed his arms, Celeste knew he wasn’t buying it. “Did the Evader hit you too hard?”

Celeste shook her head rapidly, lifting both hands with a wince before dropping them. How was she going to explain this? Without getting into trouble?

“I didn’t see you get hit in the shoulder yesterday, so what happened?” When Celeste instinctively denied it, Professor Riven stared her down. “I know you’re injured – your face gives you away every time. How bad is it? Do you need to see one of the nurses?”

At that, Celeste shuddered and took a step back. Don’t send me to the nurses! They were scary. When Professor Saladin brought her to Red Fountain, they wouldn’t let her out of the infirmary for a whole two days, stabbing her with needles and sighing over her weight and berating the cowed looking Headmaster about her vitamin intake, whatever that meant. If Professor Riven made her go back…

He sighed. “Look, we didn’t get off on the right foot. I wasn’t told anything until right before I met you so I was frustrated, I’m pretty sure you weren’t told anything so you were confused, and everything about this,” here he waved a hand between them, “Isn’t exactly Red Fountain regelation. You’re the first female student at the school, and you’re the first to essentially be given an apprenticeship. You’re my apprentice, which means that I’m responsible for your wellbeing, and that means I need to know if you’re injured. Continuing to train on an injury will only make it worse. I don’t want to hurt you.” Saying all this caused the man to become tense – he couldn’t look her directly in the eye, instead glancing either at her shoulder or just over it. “So just tell me, please, how did you injure yourself and how bad is it?”

Even as she grabbed her tablet, Celeste couldn’t figure out how to explain it. To be honest with herself, she had no idea how bad her injury was. Medical stuff hadn’t exactly been on her reading list – the first and last time she’d looked at a book on medicine, she had been ten and put off by the large words and specific language. But Professor Riven was… he looked worried. Like the Headmaster did, the first time she snuck out of the castle. And he was nice to her. He said please.

So she typed out an answer. I was doing some extra training outside last night and landed on it wrong. I’m not sure how bad it is though, but I don’t think it’s very bad. Just sore.

Professor Riven read it with a blank look before glancing up. “Are you able to let me have a look at it? Or would you prefer to get it checked by a nurse? I need to know the extent of the damage before we keep training.”

With a shrug, Celeste pulled down the zipper on her uniform. She’d been provided with a reinforced sleeveless undershirt – a crop top, she was told – when she got her uniform to support and protect her chest, so it wasn’t like anyone would be seeing anything they shouldn’t. She carefully peeled her left arm out of the clingy suit and turned her back to her teacher.

She heard him inhale sharply as he took in the damage. Ugly purple and blue bruising formed a mottled pattern over the ball of her shoulder and down her back, fading into lighter blues at the edges. Warm fingers put firm pressure at the light points and Celeste hissed. That hurt! They moved immediately as Professor Riven circled around to look her in the eyes.

“How did this happen Celeste? Because that kind of bruising doesn’t just come from a training accident.”

She stiffened. It was a training accident, she wrote again, but I fell out of a tree. See, that was kinda the truth. She didn’t need to explain the exact circumstances of how she fell out of the tree…

“Celeste…” To her surprise, the teacher led her over to the benches built into the wall and sat, making sure to keep a fair amount of space between them. “Celeste, are you being bullied?”

Her face said it all. What?

“I’ve fallen from plenty of trees Celeste, I’ve watched my squad mates fall from trees, and none of them resulted in bruises like that. Not unless we were pushed.” His face was almost soft as he continued, “I heard some of the things the other students were saying yesterday. Did one of them try something? Was it one of the seniors?”

She shook her head even as she wrote a reply. No, it had nothing to do with any other student. I was careless and stupid and not paying enough attention to my surroundings.

“You don’t need to protect them.” Professor Riven was getting angry now. There was something different about it though – it wasn’t his normal, disdainful kind of snarl. “If someone is hurting you, you need to tell me so I can make them stop.”

There was no one it was my fault Celeste typed quickly. Can we get back to training?

“Are you going to have another one of these late night ‘training sessions’?” He asked, making weird movements with his fingers.

I’ll wait until my shoulder is healed, she wrote distractedly, but I want to keep doing them. What was that thing you did with your fingers?

He blinked. “What?”

Celeste copied him – hands in fists on either side of her face, first two fingers up, before mouthing the words ‘training sessions’ while bending her fingers up and down.

“Oh, that. Those are called quotation marks, and I did them because I don’t believe you.” He didn’t seem to care anymore, walking away to grab a small tub out of his bag. “But I have no proof that it wasn’t a training session, and you don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth, so we’ll be leaving it at that for today. Go put some of this on your bruise. We’re done here.”

When she didn’t move to take the tub, he scowled. “Are you going to take it?”

Thank you Professor Riven, she wrote after a moment. Do we have another training session tomorrow?

The man scowled harder as he shoved the tablet back into her hand, “Don’t call me Professor – it makes me sound old. Just call me Riven. And yes, we still have training. Don’t be late.”

Professor – Riven walked out of the room without looking back, leaving Celeste standing dumbfounded with a tub of bruise paste in one hand and a tablet in the other. What… what was that?

***************

Riven was still scowling hours later, storming down the outdoor corridors on his way to his quarters. Thankfully there were no students around, otherwise he would have broken his now 36 hour no-fainting streak. He had fled to Magix and a bar he knew that only asked one question – what are you drinking? – after he gave the girl the bruise paste. There, he spent a couple of hours trying to drown his sorrows. Or more accurately, trying to drown that heaviness in his chest that showed up when he realised just how little his student trusted him.

He didn’t know why it affected him so much. He barely knew the girl! He had been training her for less than two weeks. In that time, she had said very little to him – their interaction earlier was the most he’d ever heard from her. He had read the reports given by the other teachers (participates very little, but seems to be listening intently), glanced over her results from this test or that essay (which were surprisingly high), developed training sessions based on how she responded to different fighting styles (she needed a weapon that would both increase her reach and not impact her speed or manoeuvrability, perhaps a dual weapon), but he hadn’t tried to get to know her beyond that. He didn’t know what her favourite food was. He didn’t know if purple was her favourite colour, even though it was the colour of her cape pin. He didn’t even know why she refused to speak!

It’s not surprising that Celeste didn’t trust him enough to tell him what was really going on. But it still hurt.

There had been a fleeting though this morning that they were actually getting somewhere. The warm up jog may have started as a somewhat cruel punishment for her failure in the ring, the girl lagging behind due to her much shorter legs, but by the end they were racing each other to the gym. Then there was the workout circuit, and then lunch, and then playing with Timmy’s new machine… It was like training with the squad again. It was like being back at school, when he had his squad and Musa and the other Winx and that sense of everything being right in the world, even when things were actively trying to kill them.

Oh magic, Musa… That was a whole other issue there. He missed her so much, and regretted the way he left things between them, but… His stupid pride stopped him from reaching out. What could he even say to her anyway? Hey, I’m sorry for being a douche, take me back?

Riven scoffed as he rounded the building. Neither of the women in his life trusted him it seemed. Musa had every reason not to, given the amount of times he’d been brainwashed and turned against her. And Celeste, well… none of the students trusted him as a teacher. Why should she?

A sound pulled him out of his increasingly maudlin (and not exactly sober) musings, drawing his attention upwards. He was near the senior dorms – they sat on top of the library wing, consisting of two floors, each with three squad rooms, a common room, a study space and a small training area. There were only two senior squads this year, so they’d split themselves up. The noise was coming from the topmost floor, where a window had opened, and a person was climbing out.

Riven opened his mouth to call out – to berate them, tell them to grease the hinges if they didn’t want to be caught, to indulge in his seniority as a student started babbling in fear of the hated professor, he didn’t know – but then the clouds shifted letting through enough moonlight to shine off long pitch black hair, pale skin glowing as Celeste fairly floated down the wall.

Anything he was going to say dried up at that point. Celeste was sneaking out of her dorm room. Words flashed through his mind – late night training sessions. This was his chance to find out what was really going on (a chance to find out who was hurting his student).

Silently Riven followed the girl through the school, frowning as she went further inside the campus rather than towards one of the open areas or training rooms. She was good at avoiding the cameras, which made Riven feel something akin to pride at his obviously skilled student, sneaking through their blind spots via shadows and spaces Riven didn’t even know existed. She stopped at the hanger bay and his mouth dropped. She was leaving the school?!

Oh shit, he hadn’t taught her how to drive yet! Did she know how to pilot a plane? Or a wind rider?

Thankfully, for Riven’s sake, Celeste didn’t jump into one of the various aircraft sitting around. Instead, she made her way to the exhaust vents that cycled fresh air from outside into the hanger. With the ease of someone who’d done it a dozen times before, Celeste tugged the cover off the vent and slipped inside.

With a curse, Riven sprinted over to his wind rider. There was no way he was going through the exhaust vents, even if he could fit, and this way he’d have an easier time following her to wherever she was going. It still took a good five minutes after leaving Red Fountain to spot her – somehow Celeste had already gotten out of the vents and onto solid ground, steadily making her way into the surrounding woods.

Riven followed her for a good half hour, occasionally ducking into and behind the tree line as the girl periodically looked to the stars. Celeste is achieving high marks in Navigation, he remembered one of the reports saying, her comprehension and application of star charts far exceeds the expected knowledge base of a freshman. It didn’t take him long to realise they were headed to Black Mud Swamp, and something dropped in his stomach. Who was she meeting out here? Witches? The thought made him shiver. Witches weren’t something freshmen should mess with – especially not his student. In his distraction, Riven didn’t realise he’d lost sight of her till it was too late – Celeste had disappeared into the depths of the swamp, and the trees were becoming too tight packed to continue on the wind rider.

On foot, Riven was able to follow Celeste’s trail. She wasn’t making any attempts to hide it, so she wasn’t expecting to be followed. At one point, the trail led to the base of a tree before stopping – looking up, he could barely see a dark lump slung over a branch. After climbing the tree (with much cursing) he found a deep blue coat. It was obviously well cared for, as despite the fading fabric, the hems were still in good condition. Had she put this here for safekeeping? What is she doing?

Thinking back to when he first saw her climbing out the window, he paled. Celeste wasn’t wearing her uniform. The shadows and distance had hidden a lot from him – enough that a deep blue coat looked similar to a bright blue cape – but he could distinctly remember seeing a lot of black rather than cream. She’d hidden easily enough in the shadows after all.

Then he heard the high-pitched screeching.

OH SHIT.

Riven sprinted through the swamp, uncaring of the noise he was making. His student was alone in Black Mud Swamp, without armour or even a proper weapon, at the mercy of the ghoul infestation Codatorta was planning on making the sophomore students clear out for detention.

When he burst into the clearing, Riven was expecting an injured student, maybe some blood. Definitely something akin to a damsel-in-distress situation, like Musa – the Winx had found themselves in over the years.

He wasn’t expecting… this.

Celeste looked like she was having the time of her life.

Riven had never seen the girl smile so widely… or with so much glee. Her weapon may have only been a tree branch, stripped clean of smaller off shoots and leaves, but she was wielding it like her bokken. She was darting around the clearing, swinging at the malformed creatures like she was going for a home run. Even as he watched, she kicked one ghoul into the air before sending it flying. Another tried to run up her leg before she flung it into a small knot of already downed opponents. He could only stare, open mouthed, as Celeste completely decimated the twenty-odd ghouls. Where was this confidence in the arena?!

For the moment, Riven was content to just watch, blue coat balled up in his arms. He’d give her the dressing down of a lifetime when she was done.

Of course, that’s when the troll showed up.

[prorevenge]

A Story of a 15 Year Old Badass

WARNING: this is really long, but it’s worth the read!

When I was 14, I started high school, like most 14 year olds are scheduled to do, but I really didn’t feel ready.

Even though I was in an extremely dark place, I was really hopeful that high school would be the opportunity I needed to get my life back. On the first day of school, I was boy crazy because I was hanging out with other girls who were and I figured that it could be a fix for my depression. My mother is a pastor, so other than getting prayed for and praying, there was nothing being done to treat my depression and the only thing my mother could think of was to spank me and punish me whenever I self-harmed or isolated myself. I spent the entirety of my first day, ogling boys and envying girls I compared myself to. At the end of the school day, I was walking to my bus and saying bye to my friends and bumped into a white boy, with long, very curly hair and coke bottle glasses. He had a bandanna wrapped across his head, rainbow tie-dye shirt, and a faux cow suede vest with fringes. He was holding his skateboard in one hand and smoking a cigarette with the other. When we looked at each other, all I could say was “my bad, dude...i respect your vibe” and I walked away, occasionally looking back at him and saw that he was still looking at me and I waved before getting on my bus and he waved back.

The next day, I asked everyone if they knew “a hippy looking boy with coke bottle glasses” and finally someone said, they knew Tony. They continued to inform me that he was a junior, he was a huge pot head, and he didn’t “believe in relationships, so, aside from his ex, no girl can tie him down”. They said they saw always him in the Drama hallway, with all of the theater kids. I made a plan with my best friend, Keke, to go to the Drama hallway and pretend to sign up for the play after school. As soon as we went, we were greeted with a round of applause and hugs from the older thespians, who were thrilled to see fresh meat show an interesting in their pride and joy. We introduced ourselves and, after announcing my name out loud so all thirty-sum people could hear me, one person immediately said “Iris*...a girl named Iris...nice to meet you”, and as you suspect, it was Tony.

(my name is a dead giveaway of my identity because it’s a boy’s name and there aren’t a lot of girls who share my name)

To speed things along, I ended up joining the Drama club, primarily because I felt like it was the perfect niche for me but also because Tony was in it. I signed up to do hair and makeup for the fall play and tony was a part of stage crew, where they stay after school every day and assist the contractor in building a custom design set for each production. I asked him if there were any girls in stage crew, and aside for one older girl who graduated already, it was mainly a small group of guys. As you can guess, I joined and so did Keke because we were adamant about having each other’s backs. I was partially interested in woodwork and building at the time (I was 14 and I managed to mount my TV to my wall by myself) so I was looking forward to learning how to use a nail gun, a saw machine, stain wood, design something, take precise measurements, and have everything come together into something beautiful. After week two of high school, Keke and I were staying after school every day to work on the set for the play and I was able to get to know Tony, without looking too desperate. He asked me to be his girlfriend on the last Friday of September. I told him that it felt like the last true day of summer, and I also told him I never had a boyfriend or kissed a guy before. We had an established routine of going to the lake, parallel to my high school, and eating lunch before stage crew started (we had from 2:15-3:30, to be exact). He kissed me after I asked him if I could try his cigarette and started cough after one pull. We walked back to campus holding hand and it felt like we were making our debut as a couple because almost everyone looked at us. It was like in those high school movies, where everyone’s attention is on the focal point and it’s really dramatic. I felt accomplished because I, a freshman, was the one who tied down Tony Bologna, one of the ten most longed for boys in my high school. Little did I know, he was the biggest can of worms in the tristate area and my dumbass opened the fucking can, y’all. My brother, who was also a junior, told me I was dumb and advised me to end things with him, but I assumed he was just being protective of me.

As we dated, he taught me everything I was willing to learn about. I learned how to skateboard, how to smoke cigarettes without coughing, how to buy them without looking like I wasn’t old enough and which type of cigarettes to smoke. I learned the different levels and intensities of kissing. I learned how to navigate the hallways of high school without looking like a lost duckling and I smelled weed, for the first time intentionally. A girl, who was senior in the drama club and I worshipped on a semi-regular basis, came up to me and told me that heard a rumor that I was dating Tony and wanted to let me know. I told her that it wasn’t a rumor and her entire tone shifted. She asked me if I was sure we were officially together because he has a reputation to go for vulnerable freshman just to manipulate them and have sex, and I told her that we’d already been serious for about a month and I was a virgin but he respected the fact that I wasn’t ready. As soon as I said I was a virgin, her eyebrows went up and she laughed in my face. She apologized for laughing, and said “I’m not laughing at you being a virgin, I just didn’t realize Tony wasn’t addicted to sex anymore...when we were together, all he wanted to do was have sex with me so I broke up with him. I didn’t realize he’s a new person now, and I never really fell out of love with him...thank you for letting me know!”

I should have paid more attention to what she said about the sex thing, but I was so jealous. She was THE ex, and she was a senior, and she was such a confident badass. I told him about the conversation during our daily lunch at the lake and he said that “even though 30% of me would still date Sam*, and 80% of me would definitely still fuck her, I’m crazy about you and I don’t want to lose you”, and I thought that was the most romantic thing ever. In an effort to compete with her, I started adjusting my style and wore more black. I wasn’t willing to give up my virginity to compete with her, but I knew that they both smoked weed and drank. I heard rumors about him being a drug dealer and selling weed, acid, molly, coke, shrooms, and etc., but I didn’t believe it to be true for a second. In October, he told me about a halloween/birthday party his friend was throwing and ask if I could come. I meticulously planned it out: I asked my mom if I could spend the night at a friend’s house nearby and she happily agreed, thinking that my mental health was finally improving. I went to CVS and used my lunch money to buy liquid eyeliner and dark red lipstick. After school, we went to his house and I met his very sweet and liberal parents. We stayed in the movie area of the basement and watched Benchwarmers and made out the whole time. He directed my hand to where he wanted it (y’all know what I’m saying) and showed me the specific motion. I didn’t feel confident enough to continue so I straddled him and attempted to grind in skinny jeans. After ten minutes of that nonsense, I felt like a new woman and he was definitely proud of me. We went upstairs to eat dinner shortly after and being in the presence of a functional family that loved and respected each other made me feel so uncomfortable, so I was pretty silence. After we all ate dessert and watched “Adventure Time” in the living room, he drove me to my friend’s house and we planned to meet up at the party. I wore black shorts, with fishnets underneath, combat boots, and a grey cropped sweater with skulls on it. My friend did my make up and we walked 10 blocks, in late October weather without coats at 10:30PM, to the party. When we got there, we saw grown ass adults, between 18-30 years old, and we thought we were at the wrong place. I saw his ex, Sam, and realized I was exactly where I needed to be. A 26 year old man greeted me, saying he was Tony’s best friend, and gave me a vodka bottle, filled with what I thought was just orange juice. I never tasted alcohol so I didn’t realize that it was the weird taste I noticed in the orange juice and I drank the entire thing without really pausing, on an empty stomach. As soon as Tony came, several guys rushed greet him and I stood up and tried to walk towards him...and that vodka HIT me like a goddamn truck. I threw my body on him and he immediately knew I was drunk. He started asking me how I got drunk and what I had to drink and why I drank so much and repeatedly asked if I was okay. He sat down in my chair and placed me on his lap and fed me water, without making it obvious to people that I was really drunk. Drunk me appreciated the care and attention he gave me in that moment and, in combination with my first dry hump experience earlier, I was feeling really confident and in love. I whispered in his ear that I loved him and he whispered it back, then I started whispering about doing a bunch of sexual things with him and to him and rubbing my butt against him, without realizing that we were sitting in a circle of people passing around three blunts. I felt Sam looking at us a few times and I decided to look her dead in the eye after passionately kissing Tony. I felt like such a badass, so when Tony was hitting one of the blunts, I took it from his hands and took a good hit to celebrate my victories, and coughed my lungs out. When Tony was ready to leave, he drove my friend and I back to her house and, after I changed and wiped my make up off, her older sister dropped me off at my house. That was where things took off for me.

I managed to do a variation of this routine for the entire school year. My parents were convinced that I wasn’t depressed anymore, but being around his stable family so often made me resentful of mine and I always picked a fight with them, by criticizing the way they always dismissed me and ignored how badly my mental health was. Tony and his friends taught me how to roll a blunt and a joint and how to handle my liquor. I found solace in my pot head boyfriend and his unemployed adult friends, and I clung to him as my feelings got stronger. He suggested ecstasy as a remedy for my depression and, after taking it, I decided to stop self harming completely and I grew even more infatuated with him. In March, he was arrested for having an ounce of weed, a ziplock back with molly, and an entire sheet of acid wrapped in aluminum foil, in his locker. He wasn’t allowed to return to school until the next year and he had to take drug classes and attend meetings every day. After a month, he was allowed to take night classes so he wouldn’t fall behind on school. For some reason, I thought that WE were going through this tough time and I kept insisting that we were going to “get through this together”. It annoyed the shit out of him and he became really distant for the rest of the school year but I didn’t want to push him away even more, so I gave him space when he wanted it and I continued to hang out with his friends, do stage crew and hair and make up, and I even got casted in the spring musical. Over the summer, we periodically hung out, but it felt like we weren’t even dating. Whenever people asked about him, I would make up some lie about how he was doing better and I regularly saw him, as if our relationship wasn’t in limbo. I turned 15 and, towards the end of the summer, we started talking and seeing each other more and our relationship felt brand new. He wasn’t selling drugs anymore or smoking cigarettes, but he still smoked weed and such. My best friend, Keke, told me to break up with him after he got arrested, but I told her that she couldn’t possibly understand what I was going through. I told her that on our one year anniversary, I was going to have sex with him. She told me that I was an idiot for sticking with him and that letting him take my virginity was the dumbest thing I could do. Mind you, Keke lost her virginity before we even started high school, and she regularly smoked weed with her 35 year old mom, so I didn’t know why she had such an issue with me doing the same things.

When September came, and sophomore year started, I had a pixie cut, I developed my own style that I was confident in, and I got a new pair of glasses that looked just like Tony’s. I met him at his locker before the first class started and he was annoyed that I got glasses that looked like his. I asked him if he was still interested in stage crew and he said he wouldn’t want to do it if I planned on signing up too. I told him I was planning on auditioning for the play and I wasn’t just doing stage crew because of him. I didn’t want to give it up just because he believed I was only doing it for him, so I stuck with stage crew and I auditioned, and I got an understudy role. Keke continued to do stage crew with me also, even though she wasn’t interested in it, and I was planning to only talk to her and the others after Tony upset me, but our friendship wasn’t the same after we got into the argument where she called me an idiot. For some reason, Tony noticed that Keke and I weren’t talking and asked her why, but they were consistently having conversations and completely forgot about me. Whenever they were talking it was always at a distance where I couldn’t hear what they were saying and when I tried to enter one of their conversations, they would stop talking and look at me until I walked away. I told Tony what Keke said about breaking up with him and he told me that she was just being a good friend and, based on what she told him, I was a bitch to her. I told Keke that Tony thought I was copying him, and even though she knew I was just into stage crew and I just liked my glasses and they had nothing to do with him, she agreed that I was copying him and I told me I looked like a desperate, lost puppy and, based on what he told her, I turned him off.

The week prior to our one year anniversary, I messaged Keke and apologized for being insensitive. I begged her to help me prepare for my first time because I was really nervous and after sending her a dozen messages, she replied back, saying this:

“You have to stop. You can’t have sex with Tony and you have let it go. You weren’t being a bitch and I’m not mad at you. I just feel guilty and it’s really hard to be friends with you because of what I did. I don’t even know how to tell you this and I’m scared you’ll never talk to me again if I tell you.”

After assuring her that I wouldn’t cut her off, she confessed that her and Tony have been having sex since him and I first started dating. She admitted that she told me to break up with him because she was jealous and she called me an idiot because she couldn’t stand how much I trusted and loved her and Tony. She told Tony about my plan on our anniversary and he started pushing me away because he felt guilty too. He told her not to tell me the truth and that he was going to eventually break with me to be with her, but she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

THE REVENGE: I was in such shock, that all I could do was thank her for telling me the truth. I told her I needed space and I asked her not to tell Tony about our conversation at all. I didn’t tell her that I had a plan but I knew that virtue had no place in this situation. We proceeded to stay together and I acted like I didn’t know about him cheating on me. I gave him less attention than I normally did and he started coming to my locker instead and would text me first. It wasn’t obvious that I was mad or upset with him, but I really couldn’t stand to be around him or even pretend to. I would dodge his kissing without thinking and walking away without hugging him, so he knew something was up. I told him that I was acting weird because it bothered me that he thought I was copying him, and he felt so horrible. He spent the entire day apologizing, telling me that he loved me and that he was going to make up for it on our anniversary.

On our anniversary, I dressed up a bit and wore a black high waisted mini skirt and a black cropped Pink Floyd t-shirt and my classic high top converse. He came to my locker with a few sunflowers and was shook when he saw me. He told me that I looked as sexy as the day he met me. Our original plan was to have a picnic by the lake after school, then go to his house when his parents were out for bible study and have sex.

INSTEAD, I snuck outside during lunch to the student parked lot and keyed “CHEATER” on the hood of his car. I put on the dark purple lipstick I wore fairly often and left kisses on his side mirrors. I wrote “Fuck you, Manhoe!” on his rear window with the lipstick. I snuck back into school before lunch was over and I texted him and told him to meet me by the lake for our picnic, instead of coming to my locker. The lake is across the street from the student parking lot, so he would have to pass his car to get to the lake, which is exactly what I wanted. I told Keke to pretend to be confused if he accuses her of telling me the truth and she did exactly that. People were taking pictures of his car and sending them to me, asking me if I did it and I never admitted to being responsible. My brother sent me a picture of Tony’s car also and told me that he was proud of me. After Keke told me the truth, I asked his close friends if they knew and they were all shocked and pissed off and disappointed in him. I also asked them not to mention anything and told them I had a plan. One of his closest friends, Jerry*, who was 20 years old and practically Tony’s mentor, was the most upset. He knew how much I loved Tony and offered to listen to me if I ever wanted to talk and we ended up talking nonstop, about Tony, about personal things, about everything. He mentioned that he thought I was flawless and he was envious of Tony for finding me before him because he would have never fuck up a chance with me. I told him about my plan on Tony’s car and he loved how petty it was. Jerry offered to pick me up from school and take me out to eat to get my mind off of my one year anniversary with Tony, and after celebrating the success of my petty revenge over a meal together, he kissed me and invited me over to his house. Jerry knew I was a virgin and he asked me why I felt ready to lose my virginity to Tony. I explained to him that I was determined to have my first time with someone who I was in love with, but after Tony crushed me, I completely stopped caring about losing my virginity with someone I was in love with because doing so would set me up for heartbreak, regardless of who it’s with. After agreeing with me and telling me that I had a mature thought process, I kissed Jerry. I got on top of him and we ended up having sex. The next day, we did the same thing, and I had lunch and sex with him every day for two weeks until I found out he was engaged and blocked his number after his fiancée messaged me and threatened to end her life if I didn’t leave him alone.

After Tony saw his car on our anniversary, he took pictures of it and sent them to me. He asked me how I found out and if Keke told me about them and I pretended to be completely clueless and surprised, and so did Keke. He couldn’t figure out if I did it or if Keke did it and, when he realized we were both “confused” and upset when he accused us, he stopped trying to figure out who it was. Keke and I didn’t really get back to being friends, but I know she didn’t tell Tony that I was the one who fucked his car up because she was also heartbroken over him and she didn’t want him to think that he had a chance with her, so she let him believe that both of us were potentially responsible. She had no idea I was going to fuck his care up, but she did commend me for doing so. I broke up with him when he sent me pictures of his car and mentioned “Keke telling me about them”. He never admitted that he was sleeping with Keke, but I acted like I had no idea what he was talking about when he texted me and I kept asking him what he meant about “Keke telling me about them”, and I pretended to put two and two together, and told him that it was over if he didn’t explain himself, and he never did.

After he stopped selling drugs, a lot of people ghosted him and when he told his close friends about everything that happened, they told him that they already knew everything and that he was foolish for fucking things up with me. They also told him that Jerry and I were having sex (which is probably how Jerry’s fiancée found out). Tony eventually came clean and apologized to me for cheating on me and asked for another chance to be with me. I accepted his apology and declined his request to get back together. We haven’t talked since then and he still doesn’t know who fucked his car up. :-)

TD;LR: My first boyfriend cheated on me, with my best friend, the entire time we dated because I wasn’t ready to lose my virginity, so I fucked his car up and had sex with his best friend.

(source) story by (/u/cutebugsmallhands)

[chain-unchained]

June 17

(Just a heads up, this is entirely a filler chapter with Ashe, Sebastian and Sam-- and this is where I reeeaally start taking creative liberties with the game systems.)

“Ugh, it’s too hot to practice…” Sam groaned, as he and Sebastian walked away from Alex’s ice cream stand, cones of creamy frozen goodness in hand. “And it’s too hot to do anything else today...”

“You say the same thing every year.” Sebastian pointed out, raising a brow at Sam’s drama. “Why don’t you ever ask for an air conditioner for your birthday present? Or just save up and buy one yourself?”

Sam’s expression became quite sheepish. “Well… I know how expensive they can be, especially when it starts heating up, so I’d feel bad asking Mom to spend that kind of money.” He admitted, hastily licking up a trail of melted chocolate ice cream as it ran down the side of his cone. “And my paychecks aren’t usually that big, y’know? With what I have left after giving half to Mom for rent, I’d have to spend a whole year saving to afford one. It’s like…” He gestured with his hands, “I can either be a penny-pinching miser for something that I’ll only use for a couple of months a year, or I can have fun with my money and spend it on stuff I’ll actually use all the time, like strings for my guitar or a new amp.”

“Or you could work more than once a week.” Sebastian was deadpan in his delivery, crushing his friend just a little; it was a playful jest, of course, one meant in good fun. “Even if you picked up just one extra shift every week, it’d give you more to work with.”

“Yeah, I know…” Sam hung his head a little in defeat. “Can you blame me, though? I don’t want to work at that awful place! Even if it does have air conditioning, it’s not worth it. I don’t know how Shane puts up with Morris for forty hours a week, every week.” He looked thoughtful as he took a bite, using his tongue to lick up some that got on his upper lip. “Y’know, speaking of Shane… he seems different lately. Like, he seems more… I dunno, clear-headed? Maybe it’s just me, but…”

Sebastian ran his tongue around his own ice cream to keep it from melting too quickly. “He’s stopped ordering beer when he comes to the saloon on Fridays.” He pointed out, much to Sam’s surprise. “… You didn’t notice because you never turn around when we’re playing pool.”

“Cos the last time I turned around, you hit the 8-ball into the back of my head.” Sam pouted a little; amongst their little friend group, he was definitely the most oblivious. “I wonder if he’s trying to stop drinking. If so, that’s gotta take some serious willpower.”

“Why don’t you ask Ashe and find out?” Sebastian pointed over Sam’s shoulder. “He’s right over there.” It was pretty common knowledge in town at that point that Ashe and Shane were close, so it made sense to ask a question like that of him rather than going directly to the source.

“Huh?” Sam turned around and followed Sebastian’s finger; sure enough, Ashe was heading up through the north of town, past Harvey’s and Pierre’s and up towards the mountains where the Carpenter’s was. To their surprise, he was carrying quite a large, empty burlap sack, with a pickaxe strapped across his back. “Oh, good idea. Hey, Ashe! Ashe!”

Faintly hearing his name being called, Ashe paused, looking back over his shoulder curiously. “Oh! Hey guys!” He turned around and waved, waiting as Sam and Sebastian made their way towards him. “Happy birthday Sam~ I was actually heading to the mines to get a birthday present for you.”

“Aw, that’s real nice of you.” Sam was touched by his thoughtfulness, but he couldn’t help but be concerned. “Aren’t the mines dangerous, though? I wouldn’t want you to get hurt on account of me.”

“I dunno, I bet it’s a lot of fun to go exploring in them.” Sebastian shrugged his shoulders a little. “It’s got to be more exciting than anything else you can do here in town.”

Ashe just smiled, adjusting the strap of the sack slung across him. “It can be a little dangerous, but there’s a rescue team on standby in case things go wrong. Even though they’re technically Joja employees, they’re really nice. And it’s really exciting to see what you can find down there~” An idea struck him, making him press his palms together in delight. “I know! If you guys don’t have anything else to do, why don’t you come to the mines with me? I bet we could find a whole vein of valuable gems.”

The two taller males could practically see the gold coins dancing in Ashe’s eyes at the notion. “Well… I mean, it’s better than anything else we could have thought of.” Sam admitted, glancing over to see Sebastian’s own eyes glinting a little. He knew his best friend hated the mundanity of life in Pelican Town, and was probably extremely keen on the idea. “The mines have gotta be cooler than out here, right?”

“Oh, definitely.” Ashe nodded enthusiastically. “The mines stay super cool—sometimes a little too cold, but that’s when you get warmed up with some mining~”

That was enough to sell the still-reluctant Sam, whose ice cream at that point had already half-melted from the humid heat around them. “Alright, count me in. What about you, Seb?”

“Definitely.” Sebastian tossed what was left of his ice cream into the nearest trash bin as the three of them began up the path towards the north; on their way there, they passed Robin, who was on her way to Pierre’s for Caroline’s weekly aerobics class. They played off their passing casually, as Robin would definitely protest them heading into the mines if she knew what they were up to—even though she was a mother only to Sebastian, she had that motherly ability to cow any unruly teenagers if she felt like they were doing something dangerous. Since she had only just left for the class (the class that Jodi also went to every week), that gave them a solid three hours to explore before their folks got suspicious.

Right off the bat, the interior of the mines was noticeably cooler—it was easily a ten to twenty degree difference, making the trio sigh in relief. Having never really been inside the mines before, Sebastian and Sam were surprised to see a sort of ‘base camp’ setup right past the entrance—it was a small setup, to be true, with a little first aid station and a portable restroom. Usually the rescue team was comprised of two Joja employees, but that day only one was present, a mousy ginger-haired girl with huge glasses.

“Hi Ellie~” Ashe greeted as the three of them approached; the sudden sound of his voice made the meek girl practically jump out of her skin, having been so absorbed in the book she was reading that she hadn’t heard them enter the cave. “Are you working alone today?”

“A-Ah, hello Ashe…” Hastily, Ellie put down the book and fixed her now lopsided glasses, thoroughly flustered by that point. “Y-Yes, it’s just me today. You know h-how it is during the week…” Looking to the unfamiliar young men with Ashe, she asked hesitantly, “A-Are these your friends?”

“Mmhm.” Gesturing to Sebastian and Sam, Ashe introduced, “This is Sebastian, and this is Sam.”

“Hey, nice to meetcha.” Sam greeted with a friendly smile, while Sebastian raised his hand in hello. “So uh, how does this whole setup go exactly?”

Ellie got to her feet. “W-Well… You sign your name into this logbook, just so we have a record of you coming in should anything happen.” She gestured to the crate with said book on it. “Th-then we get you fitted with some safety gear and weapons, and you go off and… do your thing.” She seemed to recall something and looked to Ashe. “U-Unfortunately, you’ll have to stick with the left path; P-Percy signed in a-about an hour ago and reserved the right path for the day.”

“Drat.” Ashe scuffed the toe of his boot into the ground with a pout. “The right path is always loaded… Oh well, it can’t be helped.” It always felt like his rival was one step ahead of him; just when he thought he was catching up, Percy managed to widen the gap between them even further. “… The mines split off into two different directions.” He explained to his friends, who both looked slightly puzzled.

“F-From what we can tell,” Ellie added as she retrieved some safety gear for them to put on, “the left path is from the hey-day of the mining operation; the right path was started when the left path started running out of resources, but due to a cave-in, the whole operation was shut down before much p-progress was made, hence why it tends to be more resource-rich. B-But I’m sure you’ll be able to find plenty all the same.”

She helped the boys into the gear—nothing too grand or complex, considering it was a setup that Joja realistically made very little money on and thus had no incentive to do anything more. Helmets with headlamps, gloves, some rather dull-bladed swords. She did give Sebastian and Sam their own pickaxes, before strapping what seemed to be some kind of monitoring devices to their wrists. “Sh-Should anything happen, these alarms will send a signal to me to come get you guys. B-Be safe in there, and good luck.”

“Thanks, Ellie~” Ashe smiled merrily and proceeded onward, with Sebastian and Sam quick to follow; the path into the mines was straightforward for a short distance, before it diverted sharply into two distinct paths like a forking road. “I still can’t believe Percy beat us here.” He couldn’t help but pout, giving the right path a longing look before he led the two to the left.

“Are you really so strapped for money that you need those resources to sell?” Sebastian asked as he too came to walk beside Ashe.

“Well, not really…” Ashe admitted meekly; suddenly, a fire lit up in his eyes, and he pumped his fists in determination. “But the more money I make, the more I can improve the farm, which means more money, which means more improvements! I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely have to make my farm better than Percy’s.”

Sebastian and Sam shared a look around the short male. “Why is that so important?” Sam couldn’t help but inquire slowly. It just seemed so out of character for Ashe to be so money-hungry and so competitive, when usually he was one of the friendliest folks in town.

“…” Ashe’s arms fell to his sides. “Because if I don’t, Joja will take grandpa’s farmland and turn it into factories.” He murmured, his shoulders slumping as he came to a stop.

“Joja will—wait, come again?” Sam’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Seriously?!”  

“Mmhm.” It was all Ashe could do to simply nod his head in confirmation, leaving Sebastian and Sam somewhat speechless. “I can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen. So…” He clenched his fists for a moment, before thrusting his finger outward dramatically. “That’s why I will build a farm better than anyone’s ever seen before! And to do that, I need lots and loootsa G, so let’s get to mining!”  

It was such an abrupt about-face that it practically gave the boys whiplash. They’d had no idea of the kind of pressure that Ashe was under, but it wasn’t exactly their fault; despite how nosy the farmer could be, he was pretty tight-lipped about himself and his goings-on at the farm, as though he preferred to endure his burdens all alone. Whatever the reason was, Sam and Sebastian had gained some pretty horrific insight into just how depraved Joja was.

“What gives them the right to try and take your grandpa’s farmland?” Sam tried to press, jogging to keep up with Ashe who had picked up a quick pace in search of treasures. “That can’t be legal, they can’t just take what doesn’t belong to them cos they feel like it. And I knew Percy was kind of an ass, but I didn’t think he was a Joja stooge.”  

“It’s a long story.” Ashe seemed perfectly content to leave things at that, smiling that carefree smile of his as he marched resolutely onward. “We’re starting to get kind of deep now, so we might end up seeing a few slimes here and there. They’re harmless—actually, they’re really cute and squishy, and they seem to like attention. Sometimes, they even lead me to where a good ore vein is~”

Clearly, the boys weren’t going to get much more than that out of him; one of Ashe’s more deserved reputations was of his unyielding stubbornness. “… Wait, slimes?” Sebastian repeated, as what Ashe had just said sunk into his brain. “You mean like, the kind you fight in Dragon Quest?”

“Yup.” Ashe looked over his shoulder and grinned. “In fact, I’d say the ones in here are way cuter.”

Almost as if on cue, a little green blob bounced into view from around a large jagged boulder, its little antenna swaying too and fro as it merrily went along its way. “Oh, there’s one now!”

Completely startled by this revelation—that creatures much like the ones they’d slain in video games existed in their world, in these mines not far from town—Sam let out a startled yelp, tripping over his own feet in his haste to step back; he was, of course, horrified when dozens of the little round blobby beings popped out of nowhere and swarmed them, drawn from their hiding spots by the sound of activity and voices. Just as Ashe had said, they were completely harmless, simply bouncing uselessly off of their legs like a thrown pillow or stuffed animal would.

“…. Is this real life right now?” Sebastian crouched down and dangled one by its squishy skin; it felt kind of like mochi without the rice flour coating. The slime wriggled and squirmed a little, looking up at Sebastian with an expression of overt curiosity mixed with a desire to be freed.

The sound of Sam’s raucous laughter filled the mine; Ashe and Sebastian looked down to see the slimes practically converging on him, jumping and crawling all over him as he tried in vain to push them off. “I-It tickles when they move!!!” He wheezed, the weight of all the slimes on his upper body pinning him to the rocky ground. “D-Don’t just st-stand there! HALP!”

“Welp, RIP Sam.” Sebastian tossed the slime he was holding into the slime-pile and began to walk. “He lived a good life.”

“If we find a neat gemstone we’ll be sure to leave it on your grave~” Ashe chimed as he traipsed off with Sebastian.

“H-Hey, where are you guys going?!” Sam sputtered, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head once more—before another slime happily squished onto his face.

Of course, they went back once the joke had run its course, if only out of pity for the guy who seemed completely incapable of getting the slimes off for fear of hurting them. It was a good introduction to what the mines were like, though, especially once Ashe told them that the only threat slimes posed was thanks to their tendency to swarm like that—it was easy to get into some real trouble if there were other monsters lurking about.

 “Oh yeah, I completely forgot.” Sam suddenly recalled their original reason for wanting to talk to Ashe some time later, as they were chipping away at a vein of silver ore—it wasn’t a gemstone, sure, but silver was still valuable in its own right. “We wanted to ask you something, Ashe.”

“You wanted to ask him something.” Sebastian corrected as he gave Sam a pointed look. “Don’t drag me into your nosiness.”

Ashe swung his pickaxe hard enough to chip a good chunk from the vein. “Me?” He asked, giving Sam an inquisitive look as he knelt down to pick the chunk from the ground. “What is it?”

“Is there something going on with Shane?” Sam wiped a bead of sweat from his face with his shoulder and leaned against the handle of his pickaxe as he spoke. “He seems different than usual, and we noticed that—” A small pebble struck him in the back of the head; he jerked his head around to see Sebastian casually sifting through a pile of chipped fragments, humming in that kind of ‘innocent’ way that was a dead giveaway that he had chucked it. “…. Sebastian noticed that he stopped ordering drinks at the bar. We figured asking him directly wouldn’t work out too well, and you’re one of the people he’s closest to, so…”

“I just want to clarify that I have no part in this.” Sebastian announced bluntly, leaning around his friend to give Ashe a dead serious expression. “Sam was the one who wanted to stick his nose in Shane’s business.”

“Dude, why are you trying to throw me under the bus?!” Sam whipped around again to fume at his friend. “Admit it, you’re curious as hell too! Otherwise you wouldn’t have said anything in the first place! And why are you acting like it’s such a big deal, anyway? It’s a small town, everyone knows everyone’s business eventually!”

As Sam ranted, Sebastian looked away with a smirk and cleaned some dust out of his ear with his pinky finger; it was way too much fun to rile up his friend like that, especially since Sam had the tendency to go way over the top as he was then. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

“What does that even mean?!” Sam threw his hands up in defeat.

The sound of Ashe giggling brought Sam’s energy back down; the two looked towards the farmer and found him nearly doubled over with repressed laughter. “It’s not a big deal, guys.” He managed to giggle out, straightening up and wiping a tear from his eye; he was almost jealous of the kind of friendship that they had with one another, the kind where you could sit and insult one another for hours just to see who could come up with the most creative shit talk. “Shane decided to quit drinking, that’s all.”

It was the confirmation that they had suspected, but to hear it was still a surprise, considering how much of a beer hound Shane had been up until that point. “Damn. What do you mean, it’s not a big deal?” Sam asked. “That’s kind of huge for him, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is.” Picking up his pickaxe again, Ashe gave it another good swing, sending bits and pieces of rock and silver everywhere. “But I… I think he’s kind of embarrassed about it. He said the last thing he wants is for the whole town to start bringing up how glad they are that he’s not a drunkard anymore. He just wants everything else to stay the same…” Another swing revealed little flecks of red embedded in the rock, and he set the pickaxe aside to crouch down and get a closer look. “Change can be really scary, so having something normal to cling to can make it less scary… right?”

Sam and Sebastian exchanged a look. “A match made in heaven.” Sam stated with a sage nod of his head.

“I can already hear the wedding bells ringing.” Sebastian agreed, making Ashe’s face turn red.

“H-Hey, what do you mean by that?” He demanded, becoming quite flustered by their casual comments. “It’s not like that with us at all. We’re just good friends. Besides, Shane… Shane needs to focus on getting better. Something like that would just get in the way. Yeah, it would just distract him from his recovery!”

His adamant protests and excuses made both males snicker. “The lady really doth protest too much now.” Sebastian teased with a smirk. “Oh, calm down and listen.” He added, when he saw that Ashe was getting even more worked up than Sam had been a few moments ago.

“Think about it.” Sam took the opportunity to sit down beside Ashe for a break, gesturing for the smaller male to join him as Sebastian did the same. “Shane’s been set in his way for years and years, right? Everyone in town knew what a bad place he was in; we just didn’t know how to get him to see that. But then you showed up, a total stranger, and within just a few months Shane decides that he’s gonna call it quits with booze. Now why would he do that for someone he hasn’t known for very long, and not for the people he’s lived with for years?”

Ashe didn’t say anything for a moment as he pulled his knees up to his chest. “… I didn’t have anything to do with that.” He insisted emphatically, once he had given some thought to what he wanted to say. “All I did was pester him until we were friends...”

Even as he said the words, he knew deep down that he was lying to himself. If that were really true, then why was he letting all of this bother him so much? “….” Catching the look that the two were giving him, he quickly added, “E-Even if what you’re getting at is true, there’s no chance anything would happen with us. Absolutely zero. Shane isn’t into guys, and surely it’d make people in town feel uncomfortable…”

“How do you know he’s not into guys?” Sebastian dug around in his pocket for his pack of cigarettes. “Did he ever say that, or are you just assuming?”

“…. It’s a pretty safe assumption.” Ashe mumbled, his face only turning redder.

“Thought so.” The flame of Sebastian’s lighter lit up the space for a moment, followed by the sound of the end of the cigarette smouldering as Sebastian took a drag on it.

“We’re not trying to embarrass you or make you uncomfortable.” Sam assured Ashe as the farmer buried his face in his hands. “We’re really not—”

“Oh I am.” Sebastian corrected, earning himself a smack on the shoulder from his best friend.

“—We just wanna help you out a little.” Sam continued, after giving Sebastian one hell of a stink eye. “You’re our friend, after all. And it’s pretty obvious how much you care for the guy, and how much he cares for you.”

For a long moment again, Ashe didn’t say anything. It felt strange, to have the ‘because we’re friends’ card played against himself for a change. “… I don’t want to ruin what we already have.” He finally murmured, resting his chin against his knees; for once, none of his characteristic bubbliness was present. “And it would feel like I’m just taking advantage of him when he’s vulnerable… I really appreciate what you guys are trying to say, but…” He lifted his head up and looked to each of them in turn, putting on the best, most convincing smile that he could. “I’m really happy with letting things stay the way they are~”

It was painfully obvious what a lie that was. But before either Sebastian or Sam could say anything more, they felt a faint rumble in the ground. “Uhh… that wasn’t me.” Was the first thing that Sam could think to say as the three of them looked around for the source.

“I think we’d actually die of oxygen depravation if it was you.” Sebastian quickly snuffed out his cigarette. “It was probably a minor earthquake or something—” That explanation began to fall apart as another rumble, then another still followed, each growing slightly stronger than the last. “… Ashe, should we be worried?”

“Uhh, maybe?” Ashe scrambled to his feet and cranked up the light on his headlamp as he looked around; a rumble strong enough to nearly knock him over seemed to come from the direction of where they had been coming from. Slowly, all three of them turned their heads to look, their headlamps illuminating upon a massive, deep purple slime as it came to loom over them—unlike the little ones they had encountered before, this one glared down at them with terrifying eyes, its little deely-bopper antennae swaying back and forth in agitation.

“I-Is this one harmless too?” Sam stammered as he and Sebastian also hastily got to their feet, staring up with jaws hanging slightly at the monstrosity before them. “What the hell even is it?”

Ashe swallowed nervously. “S-Slime EX.” He answered, suddenly finding his mouth quite dry. “And, uh… it’s not harmless. If it squishes you, it’s game over.”

Sebastian could picture what being crushed by that thing would be like—moist, heavy, suffocating, and thoroughly unpleasant. Definitely something to avoid at all costs. “Any advice on how to deal with it?”

“Yeah.” Ashe grabbed onto each of their arms and began to backpedal, practically throwing them in the opposite direction of the slime as he shouted, “RUN!”

That was it, they were all done. Screaming at the top of their lungs, the boys fled, with the enraged slime giving chase—it could move pretty damn fast for a squishy amorphous blob. “This is not how I want to go out, man!” Sam wheezed, pumping his arms as hard as he could to get some more momentum in his running. “I’m too young! I haven’t even had a girlfriend yet!!”

“Less bitching, more running!” Sebastian barked to his friend, glancing over his shoulder to see the slime gaining on them and zipping ahead of the two in order to ensure his survival. “Sorry guys! Survival of the fittest, you understand!”

“IF THIS THING DOESN’T KILL YOU THEN I WILL, SEB!” Sam shook his fist after his friend. “YOU ASSHOLE!”

 Collapsed in a big heap, the three began to try and catch their breath; somehow, they’d managed to outrun that thing, though at the expense of going much deeper into the mineshaft than they probably should have. “I-I actually want to die right now.” Sebastian groaned, resting his sweaty face in his hand as he leaned against Sam for support. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that much physical activity.

On Sam’s other side, Ashe too leaned against him, his head tilted back and his eyes closed as he clutched at his chest. Compared to the other two, he was much more winded, but all of them were too caught up in what had just happened to notice.

“I-I can’t believe… we got away…” Sam coughed, sliding down against the wall he was slumped against; as he did so, he felt something pointy dig into the small of his back, making him yelp and quickly sit back up.

Ashe too straightened up, fanning himself with his hand and doing his best to calm his racing heart. “I’m so sorry, guys.” He apologized, his entire body beginning to shake now that the danger had passed and his adrenaline was wearing off. “Th-that was really dangerous… I-I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“Wh-what are you apologizing for?” Sebastian shook his head and leaned forward to look at Ashe from around Sam. “We knew the risks from the start. It’s not like you twisted our arms into it; we came with because we were bored.”

“Still….” Ashe let out a long, heavy breath. “I guess I wouldn’t feel as bad if we’d managed to find anything more than a few chunks of silver.” He admitted. “It just feels like this was a big letdown.”

“Are you kidding?” Sam managed to laugh as he got some of the wind back in his lungs. “We got to explore a place we’d normally never go to, we got to see real life monsters, we found some silver, and we almost died! This was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” For once, Sebastian agreed with his friend, nodding his head as Ashe looked between the two. “… Okay seriously, what the hell keeps poking me?!”

Finally fed up with the sharp jabbing pain in his back, Sam emphatically pushed the two off of him and twisted around to see just what it was. It took a few seconds before his brain registered what he saw, and when it did, his jaw practically hit the floor. “Uhhhh….”

“Whoa…”/ “Holy shit.” Ashe and Sebastian both uttered simultaneously, crowding around Sam as they looked upon a huge vein of jade; what had been poking Sam in the back was a chunk of the gemstone that jutted out from the rest. They had actually just hit paydirt by complete accident. When the revelation sank in, they all shared a long look, before they busted out laughing in disbelief.

They were still laughing and joking about their unreal luck when they finally returned to the front of the cave, hauling the sack filled with jade as it was too heavy to carry properly at that point; what was really the icing on the cake was the look that Percy gave them as they passed, as he had came out from the right path mere moments before them with a much smaller trove.

“Thanks for suggesting that we come with you today, Ashe.” Sebastian thanked, as they emerged out into the furnace that was the outside.

“Yeah, seriously. Thanks!” Sam agreed with the most ecstatic grin. “Man, even splitting what we got three ways, this is gonna be worth like five paychecks~ I’ll be able to get that AC for sure!”

Relieved that things had worked out, Ashe laughed happily. “I should be the one thanking you guys.” He insisted with a merry smile. “If you hadn’t come with, I wouldn’t have made out with much of anything today—”

“Ahem.”

The unmistakeable sound of a displeased mother clearing her throat killed the jovial mood in an instant; to the boys’ horror, Robin and Jodi were waiting for them, both wearing the kind of ‘you’re in so much trouble’ expression that struck fear into the hearts of even grown men. In all the excitement, the three of them had completely lost track of how long they had been in the mines.

“…. Well, it was nice knowing you two!” Ashe suddenly broke away from them, monkey-climbing up the hill to their left up to where Linus’ tent was pitched as he made his grand escape. “I’ll be sure to leave flowers on your graves!”

“ASHE, YOU LITTLE—GET BACK HERE AND SHARE IN THE MISERY!!!” Sam raged, as Sebastian just tugged a cigarette out from the pack in his pocket and lit it, already resigned to his fate. The haul was totally worth getting into trouble for, and if it weren’t for Ashe, they wouldn’t have had arguably the best time of their lives. So just this once, he could get away with it.  

[sonicrevival]

Reunions: Chapter 4 of 4: Answers

Alright, time for the final part of Arc 2.

Read on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18573268/chapters/44028463

Sonic: Revival- Reunions

Chapter 4 of 4: Answers “Answers would be good, Geoff…” Sonic nodded for a moment. He took a step forward, but stumbled, pitching into Nicole and Emerl’s arms as his legs gave out. “On second thoughts… I think most of us are gonna need a rest before we do anything else…” “You should probably get that hand looked at as well,” Nicole added. “It doesn’t look healthy.” “You… have a very good point there…” *** With Emerl taking care of getting the rest of their teammates home, Nicole took on the task of escorting Geoffrey to the hospital, along with a pair of guards. Regardless of circumstance, the skunk had still killed the ruling monarch, and injury or no injury, going two for two on treason wasn’t something that tended to be taken lightly. He would almost certainly be under heavy guard for a long while after this. However, as she watched the skunk disappear into a solitary ward, a nurse approached her. The older-looking giraffe had been shadowing the group since they entered, and Nicole turned to face him with a quizzical look. “Can I help you?” She asked. It sounded more defensive than she intended, if the nurse’s slight recoil was anything to go by, and she cursed inwardly. Naugus had managed to put her on edge around regular civilians, and she inwardly thanked every god she could think of that someone had put him down for good, even if it was his own lackey. “Sorry Ma’am, it’s just that we saw the battle in the plaza, and realised that one of your team would probably be coming here, so I waited. It’s about your friend, Antoine.” *** “Welcome home, Sally,” Bernadette hugged the squirrel gently, Jules laying a hand on her shoulder. With the exact situation regarding who was the monarch in flux, Sally had decided to spend the night with Sonic and his family. “Thank you, Mrs. Hedgehog. It’s good to be back,” She smiled warmly. “Now, Sally, if you’re going to insist that we use your name, you can at least do the same for us,”  Bernadette gave her a wry grin, which she returned. “Very well, Bernadette,” She nodded. “Uncle Chuck said he’ll be home late. Apparently having a fight to the death with the head of state right outside the Council Chambers creates a lot of paperwork. Especially when the king loses,” Sonic shrugged, leaning against the door. “He said that if we haven’t eaten by the time he gets back, he’ll cover that. Says Sal and I have gone too long without his cooking.” “Well, he’s not wrong,” Jules nodded. “That’s what I said,” Sonic grinned. *** Tails, Rotor, and Emerl stood outside the Prower residence, having paused to bid farewell to the fox. “When we’ve got all of today’s events sorted out with the council tomorrow, we should probably all head over to the lab and take a look at you, Emerl,” Tails suggested. “Hey, at least buy me dinner first!” She flicked one of her optics off, imitating a wink as he let out an exasperated groan. “Not like that…” He sighed. “I mean, seeing exactly what it is you can do. Power-copying is fairly obvious, but I want to know your limitations.” “That’s fair,” She nodded, folding her arms slightly. “We should also probably look into the whole “Chaos Emerald” situation,” Rotor added. “Counting the synthetic, you’ve got three of them in there, and, well, they’re not exactly stable when they’re brought together outside of a complete set. That’s a lot of power, and we should probably be sure you can contain it. I don’t want you to feel like we’re not trusting you-” “Nah, it’s cool. I don’t know a whole lot about them, save for them giving me a power boost and showing me what I think might be old memories. Last thing I want is to overdo it and cause problems by absorbing more of them,” She replied. “So I’d be glad to help you with that.” “Good to hear,” Tails smiled. “Anyway, I should probably go. I need to tell Dad that Mom’s gonna be home late.” “You also need to recover from the whole fight thing as well,” She added. “That goes for both of us,” Rotor sighed, rubbing his forehead. “That pain spell was nasty.” “Yeah. You’re lucky you didn’t have to deal with that, Emerl.” “I know, right?” She nodded. “Anyway, catch you later, Tails.” “Yeah, same to you.” “See you tomorrow.” *** “You know, you don’t have to do this, Ames,” Bunnie sighed as she let the pink hedgehog into her and Antoine’s house. “Maybe, but I want to,” She replied, glancing around the dusty hallway. “You’ve not been here since Antoine went into the hospital, coming back was always going to be difficult, especially alone. That’s why I’m here.” Bunnie smiled, and threw her arms around her, squeezing slightly. “Yer a good friend, y’know that?” “Bunnie, you’ve been supporting us ever since I joined the fight, and from what the others say, before that too. Supporting you when you need it is the least I can do,” Amy returned the hug. “Thanks.” As they stood there, Nicole flickered into the hallway, smiling broadly. “Bunnie, I have news!” She beamed, as they looked up at her. “Antoine’s showing signs of waking up. His brain activity has been on a steady increase over the last few days, and he should be coming out of the coma within a day or two.” Immediately, Bunnie pulled Nicole into the hug. *** The following morning brought a buzz of activity to the Council Building. The Freedom Fighters, along with Harvey’s secret team, and the new arrival of Emerl, all clustered inside the main chamber, with Geoffrey there, one arm bandaged, both cuffed behind his back. “It would appear that we’ve been kept in the dark here… You’ve clearly all been very busy lately,” Rosemary frowned. “I believe an explanation is in order.” “Where should we start?” Sally asked, standing amongst her team. Dylan opened his mouth to answer, but Isabella spoke up first. “Well, I think the first thing we should say is ‘Welcome home’ to all of you. Before we get into the heavy part, it’s a relief to see you all alive and well,” She said. “Thank you, Isabella,” Sally smiled. “But let’s get down to the reason we’re all here.” “Let’s start with the, uh, regicide?” Hamlin shrugged. “I was no supporter of Naugus, but Mister St. John murdering him raises some complications.” “I wouldn’t call it regicide,” Sally shook her head. “Nicole explained to me what happened with Naugus’ accession, and that was probably the least legitimate coronation in the entirety of history. The crown is important, yes, but the physical object is ultimately just a fancy hat. Removing it from one man’s head and putting it on another does not a new king make, regardless of the size of a cheering crowd.” “We’re here to represent the will of the peop-” “Yes. The will of the people. And that extends to all of Acorn, not just one city, and should be conveyed through due process, not a screaming mob.” Her eyes narrowed. “Additionally, given that Naugus was an escaped convict, responsible for not only multiple counts of attempted murder and trying to ignite a civil war between Mobians and Robians, but instigating the Great War, then I can only ask what in the name of Chaos were you thinking?!” The various members of the Council, with the exception of Isabella, were starting to look awkwardly at each other. “Given that this system was formed in response to my father’s own mistakes, which included trusting Naugus…, I can only refer to this as a resounding failure,” Sally almost growled. Sonic placed a hand on her shoulder, and she visibly relaxed. She took a deep breath, and sighed. “Given the circumstances… I believe we should disregard Naugus’ reign as legitimate.” The Council talked among each other for a moment, quietly, visibly cowed by the Princess’ anger, until they nodded slowly. “Motion carried.” “Thank you. Geoffrey is many things, but ‘kingslayer’ is not one of them,” Sally nodded. “Princess, you have my sincere thanks for-” The skunk spoke up, but stopped when she turned to face him. “Don’t mistake this for fondness, Geoffrey,” She snapped. “Naugus’ reign being illegitimate puts you in a poor position as his kingmaker, especially considering that his previous pardon of your betrayal has now been rendered null and void. I recognise that you’ve suffered more than many during this whole debacle, but that doesn’t excuse your actions.” “Of course…” He slumped back into his seat, Sally turning back toward the Council. “So, what’s next?” “I would like to ask about this… “Secret Freedom Fighter” team that appeared to guard us yesterday,” Penelope spoke up. “Where did they come from?” “The Secret Freedom Fighters were a creation of myself and King Elias,” Harvey spoke up. “They were formed as an underground resistance to Naugus’ rule. Understandably, the fewer people that knew about their existence, the better. They were successful in preventing him from gaining the ability to brainwash all of you in order to attain absolute power.” “I see… well, thank you for your service…” Dylan mumbled, not the only member of the Council  looking unwell at the thought. “And King Elias? Where is he?” Isabella asked. “He was injured during our last mission, broke his leg, and is currently recovering in our hideout,” Silver replied. “We asked if he wanted to be here for this, and he and Sally seemed to agree that him returning before the dust settled on Naugus’ death would complicate things,” Harvey added. “Very well…” “What of Naugus’ other dealings?” Hamlin prompted,  glancing at Geoffrey. We’re now aware of his ill-fated attempts to gain control of our minds, but what else was he up to, why was he hiding in Commander St. John’s body?” “Allow me to provide that information, as someone who witnessed it all first-hand,” The skunk replied, rising in his seat a little. “Get comfy, this might take a while.” “We’re all ears, Geoff,” Sonic shrugged. “Very well… my… former master’s power grab began the night of Mina Mongoose’s previous concert. We were present on a nearby rooftop, and when Miss Mongoose performed her rather on-the-nose song about Nicole-” “Something that she did apologise for, by the way,” Nicole cut in.  Isabella smiled knowingly, and the rest of the time sighed with relief, while Emerl’s tense form relaxed. “Yes, well. As I was saying, when the song was performed, Naugus used his magic to amplify the feelings of the crowd, and it seems his level of control over the citizens of the city seemed to increase until he was outright dominating the crowd outside the Council Building during yesterday’s battle.” “So, the general populace aren’t afraid of Nicole?” Sally asked. “I didn’t say that. Naugus’ magic amplified fear that was already there, it didn’t create anything new.” “Why would anyone be afraid of Nicole?” Emerl asked, voice raising. Nicole put her hand on her shoulder, smiling sadly. “It’s alright. When I made this city, I thought only of the good I could do with my power. I knew that very little was capable of breaking into my processor, due to the way my code is written. I didn’t expect magic to be my weakness, and in that respect, I was overconfident. While Sally has protected me against future invasions of that sort, I do think that some level of limitation does need to put on my control over Mobotropolis,” She said. “We’ll discuss that soon, as we continue to deal with the fallout.” Charles nodded. “As you were. St. John.” “Thank you,” Geoffrey nodded. “In any case, while Naugus was able to gain control of the city that way, his health began to deteriorate. Whatever that white energy wave that came from the Death Egg was, it destabilised him.” “Destabilised?” Penelope asked. “He wasn’t one person, he was three previous wizards fused into a single being. It seems that their minds were reawakened, and they started trying to separate themselves. This resulted in his mutations, his magic becoming more chaotic, and his sanity slipping,” The skunk continued. “He had sanity?” Sonic smirked. “Well, relatively speaking,” He sighed. “Regardless, he was never sure how he reverted Mrs. D'coolette to normal, but he wanted to recreate it so that he could use Princess Sally’s condition to maintain his security. Unfortunately, with his condition deteriorating, he began to try and find a body to hijack. He visited the former king, and Jules Hedgehog, but both of them refused his offer of healing, and he ultimately settled for me.” Sonic and Sally both narrowed their eyes, hands clenching, but Geoffrey continued all the same. “Ultimately, he was driven out by your ploy with the Sword of Light, and for that I thank you, in spite of the damage to my hand,” He finished. “I see… Well, this information will be useful.” “And the robot?” Rosemary asked, glancing at Emerl, who looked up as the room’s attention focused on her. “Tails, is it one of yours?” “Not exactly. Emerl here was something of a group project for the Brain Trust when that was a thing. We discontinued the project when Fiona warned us that a single robot like her once wiped out the empire of their creator, and while we tried to ensure that she’d be safe to activate, we couldn’t guarantee it, so we didn’t wake her up,” Tails explained. “Sally and Nicole had the activation codes hidden away, to be used in a situation where the worst-case scenario of bringing her online couldn’t make things a whole lot worse.” “I took a risk, but it was a calculated one,” Nicole spoke up. “If Emerl hadn’t been stable, I could’ve deactivated her. Fortunately, she was stable, and I can’t say I have any regrets about the decision I took. Without her, we might not be standing here right now.” “Yeah, she pulled us out of the fire when Eggman pulled a fast one on us,” Sonic shrugged. “She and Nicole saved my life,” Sally added. “Emerl brought Nicole to Holoska, and while Nicole shut down the self-destruct bomb and released my mind from Eggman’s command, Emerl quite literally saved my heart. Eggman took out more core and used it to power one of his mechs, and he tried to destroy that too. Emerl extracted it and removed the EMP generator that it was wired to…” Those who hadn’t been present when Sally’s modifications were discovered turned pale, the room’s temperature dropping. “W-well, I can certainly promise that, in light of these revelations, we will be reviewing our approach to the war with Eggman, perhaps working toward a more… active route,” Rosemary muttered. “But, while your defences of your new comrade are touching, they are appeals to emotion, not fact.” Emerl sighed, and stepped away from the wall she was leaning on, folding her arms. “Can I say something for myself?” She asked, striding to the front of the party. “Go ahead.” “Look, I understand why you don’t trust me. You’ve had some bad experiences with purpose-built bots. You’ve been fighting a guy who makes bots that look a lot like me since some of you were children, and others among you were forced to be his slaves. And the two groups aren’t mutually exclusive,” Emerl slumped slightly. “I want you to understand that I’m here to help. Your protectors are my friends. They can say all they like about me saving them, but I’m just following in their footsteps. I won some fights because I don’t get tired and I don’t feel as much pain. That’s all. But y’know what? I’m good at that. And I like doing it. And I like them. So I’m going to keep doing it. And frankly, you can’t stop me.” Emerl straightened, folding her arms as she took a few more steps forward. “I don’t need your approval to be their friend. I don’t need your approval to be their ally. Heck, I don’t even need to live here, I’m a robot, and I have three chunks Beryl fused with near-limitless power fuelling me, I can go anywhere I like and just swing by when I’m needed. But it would be much easier for all of us if I didn’t have to do that.” “Well… You’re certainly… passionate in your approach,” Isabella blinked, looking down at her. “Yes, perhaps if you want to convince us, you should show the appropriate respect-” Hamlin began, stopping short as Emerl appeared in front of him, hovering to meet the height of his chair as she stared down at him. “I’ll give you respect when you earn it,” She replied, before flashing back to ground level. “If anything, I’m being too respectful. So far, all I know about you is that you put Naugus in charge and exiled Nicole without actual justification. I’m not exactly familiar with your laws, but I’m going to hazard a guess that justice isn’t a popularity contest.” “Emerl…” Nicole ventured. “As forceful as Emerl is being… I can’t disagree with her,” Sally shrugged. “Regardless of her origin, Nicole is a person, and you have a duty of care to all of your citizens, not just those of flesh and blood.” “We’ll, uh… strive to improve that in future…” Rosemary slouched into her seat, as Sally offered a dry smile, and Emerl folded her arms. “Make sure that you do,” The princess replied. “Despite the outrage on her part, I can speak for Emerl’s integrity,” Charles said. “We would like to have your capabilities on record, though.” “Well, I can do… basically anything that I observe and understand,” Emerl tapped the closed optic in her forehead. “I can scan the abilities of others, and then adapt them for my own use. I have currently gained powers from Nicole, Sonic, Tails, Bunnie, and Mecha Sonic. I have additionally acquired weapons from Bunnie, Amy, Rotor, Mecha Sally, Mecha Sonic, and the former Eggman-goons we fought at the oil foundry, along with standard combat training from all parties. I’m always willing to add more powers, too.” “And the Chaos Emeralds? Reportedly you absorbed the one that Naugus held.” “Yeah, it seems to happen automatically when I touch them. When I do, I get flashes. I think they’re memories. Then the Emerald gets absorbed into me, and I get stronger. That’s all I know. Tails and Rotor are going to run some tests, and once that’s done, I’ll have more of an answer for you,” Emerl replied. “Can you… uh… spit them out?” Penelope asked. “Not that I know of,” Emerl shrugged. “Sorry.” “While they may be safer in your possession… we did want to use an Emerald to try and heal King Maximilian,” Dylan frowned. “Well, I can still do that. I used the one from the Death Egg to help fix Mecha Sally, and I’m sure I can learn a Chaos Heal from someone else so I can patch up organics too,” She responded. “Well… alright then,” Rosemary sighed. “Miles, can you get these tests done, and make a report. Then we’ll make a decision on where we stand with your new friend.” “Sure, we’ll get right on that,” Tails nodded. *** The meeting didn’t last long after that. Geoffrey was escorted back to the hospital, remaining under guard. Sally remained with the Council to discuss the situation she had engineered in the desert, and most of the others went their separate ways. Tails, Rotor, and Emerl all went to the lab, where they began setting up the equipment for the Gizoid’s tests. “What is this, a lab or a gym?” Emerl asked, optics flickering over the various machines. “It’s both,” Tails replied, looking a little proud. “I wanted to create a facility here that we could use to determine how strong, tough, fast, etcetera, we all are, as well as tracking improvement. We’re going to test your speed, strength, and your inbuilt weapons. We’ll also hook you up to the computer and see if we can run a scan on your programming.” “Sounds good me, except that last part. I dunno why, but I feel like that’s a bad idea,” She replied. “But if you want to try it, sure.” “Alright then. We’ll start with strength…” The strength test didn’t last long. Emerl’s first punch tore the bag from its mounting, hurling it into the far wall, sand spilling out. Speed tests were similarly short-lived, and her chainblades were carving through everything short of the few scraps of armour they had left from the wreckage of the first Egg Beater. “She’s off the charts…” Tails sighed, watching as the Gizoid ambled out of the test chamber, heading up to join them. “I… it must be the Emeralds.” “The Emeralds? That’s your field of expertise, not mine.” Rotor frowned. “Normally we only use them when we have all seven, because they can be unstable without a control, but I’ve managed to determine that when he’s Super, Sonic receives a power multiplier of 700%,” The fox began. “One-hundred for every Emerald, in other words.” “So it could be that, with two Emeralds, Emerl is experiencing a boost of 200%?” “Precisely,” He nodded. “We’ll have to get this place set up for a Super-level subject…” Emerl walked into the room, stretching herself out, despite the lack of muscles to keep limber. It just felt right to her. “So, uh, did you get anything out of that? Because I feel like that didn’t go as planned,” She asked. “No, but we’re going to reset everything and get it set up for a higher level of combatant. We think the Emeralds are what’s pushing you over the current limits,” Tails replied. “Still, the fact that you’re stronger than we can measure is, in its own way, a measurement.” “I suppose,” She shrugged. “How long will it take to set up for a second attempt?” “Not sure. We’ve only measured aura before when it comes to Super modes. Getting something that can actually take a hit… Well, we'll work it out later. We can do the scan now, if you like?” “Sure, why not?” Emerl shrugged. “I already destroyed some of your equipment, what’s a computer on top of that?” “Oh, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like you’re going to melt it, right?” Rotor asked. “Well, okay then… Wait, I think Nicole’s coming, hang on,” She held up her hand, and sure enough, Nicole appeared in their midst, grinning ear-to-ear. “How did you know?” Rotor asked, raising an eyebrow at the Gizoid. “We’ve shared a head, I can kinda feel it,” She shrugged. “What’s up, Nicole?” “Sorry if I’m interrupting, but Antoine’s awake!” She beamed. Emerl didn’t know much about the coyote, other than what she had been told or was able to pick up from the conversations she’d been privy to, but the matching smiles on all three of her friends’ faces were all she needed to see. An impulse of thought, faster than any verbal conversation, invited the lynx into her head, and she gripped the two scientists’ shoulders, warping all four of them away. Nicole guided her to the correct room, and she landed outside it, releasing her friends. Tails pushed the door open, and they all stepped in together. Bunnie and Amy sat to one side of the bed, the former clutching Antoine’s hand tightly as she hugged him as carefully as she could manage. Sonic and Sally were at the other, Sally gently holding the coyote’s other hand. They looked up as the newcomers arrived, and clustered together around the bed. Finally, they were reunited. *** A world away from the turmoil of Mobius, cold blue eyes snapped open, a spark of purple rippling through them. A change in the air, a familiar aura, a presence he had hoped lost, but deep down, he always knew would return. Miles Prower rose to his feet, running a hand through his black hair. He stood at the centre of a peculiar pattern, three runes arranged in a triangle, connected and contained within concentric circles, more runes filling the space between them. The eldritch sigil had been seared into a ledge of rock, jutting from the side of a black mountain that rose from a frenzied ocean, grey waves slamming against the stone, and Miles had been sitting at its centre for the past three and a half days. He looked down at his hands, and found the same sigil now branded into the backs of them. Clenching his fist for a moment, violet light ignited within the the fine lines of the markings, both those in his skin, and in the stone at his feet. He grinned, and turned away from the precipice, picking up his coat from the rock where he had hung it half a week prior, wrapping it around his shoulders. Descending the rough-hewn steps into the bowels of the mountain once more, he called out to his sole companion. “Myrddin, where are you?” It was less a question than a demand, and his brow furrowed at the lack of response. The old wizard was becoming increasingly difficult to rely on lately, Miles had noticed. Still, he’d got what he needed from him, so that wasn’t really an issue any longer. If anything, it was most fortuitous that his journey had reached its end just as his perennial adversary returned from his exile.

[goodlucktai]

twice the heart

natsume yuujinchou pairing: nishinatsu word count: 2367 title borrowed from more heart, less attack by needtobreathe: “be the never turning back twice the heart any man could have”

written for @natsume-ss​ ! my giftee this year was @nesushii, i really hope you like it ! <3 read on ao3

x

When Shuuichi extends the invitation, he’s largely expecting Natsume to turn it down.

Instead, the other side of the phone call drops into thoughtful silence, and then Natsume’s quiet voice says, “Would I be able to bring someone with me?”

To say Shuuichi would agree to anything Natsume asked of him is a stretch, but not much of one. Natsume could express an interest in bringing his whole high school class along and Shuuichi would find a way to make it happen.

“I must say I’m surprised,” Shuuichi teases, once they’ve gotten Touko’s glowing permission and made the appropriate arrangements. “I didn’t think my movies were of any interest to you, and now you’re going to spend a weekend on set?”

“Well,” Natsume says with a hint of warm humor, “my friend is a big fan.”

   Shuuichi is always happy to meet a fan, devoting more time to autographs and interviews than his publicist would like, but this is a special case. He’s acutely aware that the russet-haired boy before him now, half-hiding behind Natsume’s shoulder, isn’t just another movie enthusiast.

Because while Nishimura flushes and stammers and can’t seem to decide whether he should gape at Shuuichi or just stare at his own feet, Natsume watches his antics with a wide smile. This is someone Natsume is fond of, at the very least, and from what little Shuuichi knows about Natsume’s very lonely past, that makes Nishimura someone more than worthy of the VIP treatment.

They tour the set, meet a few of the other actors, peek into an empty wardrobe suite. It’s all just this side of mundane for Shuuichi, and it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that Natsume isn’t moved either, and Nyanko-sensei looks like he wouldn’t so much as bat an eye if the entire building was to go up in flames, but Nishimura more than makes up for their lack of enthusiasm. He’s bright-eyed and spilling a dozen questions and tugging Natsume into countless selfies as they go, and buoys the mood into something wonderful.

The afternoon is a pleasure, really. While getting Natsume to admit to anything more than “school was okay” is like pulling teeth, Nishimura is an eager conversationalist, and launches into charming anecdotes of countryside shenanigans with very little prompting on Shuuichi’s part.

In two hours, Shuuichi has learned Natsume’s favorite color, his least favorite food, the title of a book series he’s been binge-reading for the last two weeks, and the entire story of how he and Taki and Kitamoto all got stuck up the same tree. That’s more than he’s learned from Natsume in almost a year.

Perhaps most remarkably, Natsume doesn’t mind at all. He watches Nishimura the way Shuuichi has seen people watch their favorite part of their favorite movie, every now and then smiling in a faint, knee-jerk way that says he’s unaware his mouth moved at all.

Ah, Shuuichi thinks gleefully. So that’s it.

Nishimura has been a delight all afternoon, sunny and cheerful and energetic enough to make up for Natsume’s disinterest twice over, but as morning fades into afternoon something changes.

It’s a gradual shift, one that Shuuichi doesn’t notice right away. The boy’s smiles, so automatic before, seem to be a reach now. He’s a little slower to pick up conversation, eyes trailing narrowly away. If it were Natsume, Shuuichi would be certain there was a yokai problem afoot-- but when he cuts a quick glance at Hiiragi, paranoid despite himself, she shakes her head.

By the time they sit down for lunch, Nishimura is outright scowling.

“Let’s do something else for the rest of the day,” he says without warning, and Natsume blinks up from his meal, looking as bewildered by the non-sequitur as Shuuichi feels.

“What? You’ve been looking forward to this forever. I thought you’d beg Natori to let you live here.”

“C’mon, Natsume,” Nishimura wheedles. “There’s a whole city out there to see! Who knows when we’ll be back here again?”

It looks like a familiar exchange, Natsume longsuffering and Nishimura petulant. Shuuichi thinks he’s getting a good idea of what their usual dynamics are like, when Natsume is the first to give in with good grace, and Nishimura smiles like they both knew it was only a matter of time before he did.

“Well,” Natsume finally says, “Natori is our host, so it’s up to him.”

If he was expecting Shuuichi to shut Nishimura down, he should have known better.

“I’d be happy to get away from work, actually,” Shuuichi says with a winning smile. If something back at the studio is the reason behind Nishimura’s soured mood, then Shuuichi is more than willing to play hooky for the day. It’s not as though they could fire him. “Consider me at your service this afternoon.”

And so the day is spent lost in the city. Natori is only here for a few weeks, shooting a few scenes on location at the picturesque riverfront, so he’s not a very helpful guide. But he’s happy to pay transit fare and foot the bill for whatever souvenirs catch the boys’ eyes and stop for enough snacks that dinner is effectively ruined, and it seems to do the trick. Natsume and Nishimura are arguing and laughing and trying to push each other off the sidewalk within an hour, and the atmosphere lightens again by spades.

Shuuichi plays the role of cheerful chaperone and largely keeps them from wandering into traffic. Otherwise he’s a hands-off babysitter, letting them roam to their hearts’ content.

He thinks it’s obvious from the way Natsume’s eyes linger-- the softness of his mouth when he smiles at all of Nishimura’s chatter, the way he’ll forget himself and get noisy and silly as though Nishimura’s presence alone is a buffer against everything that taught him to be still and quiet-- that there’s definitely some level of infatuation here.

Whether or not Natsume is aware of it is another matter entirely.

Whether or not Nishimura is aware of it is also a mystery. He’s quick to catch Natsume’s hand or throw an arm around his shoulders or push the long fringe out of Natsume’s eyes when the February wind tosses their hair, but he also seems to be a tactile kid in general, so that might not mean anything at all.

It’s none of Shuuichi’s business, but love stories certainly are; he makes a living off them, after all. He can’t help being interested, though he knows better than to meddle. Natsume wouldn’t thank him for it-- would probably have a few very strong words for him, at that-- so Shuuichi stomps down the protective edge his thoughts start to take. It’s really not his place.

From what he’s seen of Nishimura, he’s a good kid. His taste in movies is certainly top tier. And Natsume is a very good judge of character. That’s enough for now, Shuuichi decides, and buys the boys enough matching keychains to share with all their friends back home.

A phone call from Shuuichi’s harried assistant is finally what brings them back to the studio. Apparently one of the filming locations was double-booked for a wedding this weekend, and the director is chewing over either rushing the scene or shooting it somewhere else. In his bad mood he noticed their leading actor missing, and Shuuichi’s assistant all but begs him to come back.

They pile out of the cab in front of the studio, Natsume beginning to flag after a busy day of new places and new faces and a lot of walking. His cat, bundled in his arms, has looked disgruntled since this morning, but that might just be his face.

“I’m sorry about this,” Shuuichi says ruefully as they make their way inside. “Please bear with me. I’ll sort this out as quickly as I can, and then give you free reign of the room service menu back at the hotel. Deal?”

His suite is more than big enough to accommodate two high schoolers for the weekend, as he assured Touko over the phone when they traded emergency numbers and contact information, with more than enough amenities to keep them busy. But it looks like their first night will see them too tired to do more than go straight to bed, and Shuuichi feels a little guilty about that.

“Oh, no,” Natsume says, eyes wide. “No, this is-- we’re the ones intruding, we know you’re busy. We shouldn’t have taken you away from work in the first place. Take your time.”

He gives Nishimura a nudge with his elbow that doesn’t look gentle, and Nishimura nods through a wince. “Yeah, absolutely. We’ll be good.”

But his sunny mood is disintegrating again. He’s visibly bristling, and keeps pace at Natsume’s side as though he’s standing guard. Shuuichi keeps an eye on him while the production staff argues with each other, and it’s because he’s watching so closely that he finally catches on.

The boys are in an out of the way corner of the studio, very obviously minding their own business, and someone Shuuichi doesn’t recognize-- one of the PAs, possibly-- cuts toward them. It’s too far away, and too loud besides, for Shuuichi to catch whatever is said.

But he sees it when Nishimura’s tremulous hold on his temper snaps. He surges out of his chair, eyes bright with anger, and Natsume only barely manages to curb the fight before it starts. He shoves Nyanko-sensei into his friend’s chest, and Nishimura’s arms curl around the cat on reflex, and now he has no hands free to pick a fight.

Shuuichi, however, is not given a fat cat as a deterrent, and has plenty of hands free.

He’s crossing the studio with swift, sharp strides, Hiiragi at his side. He realizes he’s furious-- disproportionately so-- and it must show. Natsume looks cowed as he approaches, and the PA fades away into the crowd.

“Sorry,” Natsume says quickly, “if we interrupted-- “

“Don’t say sorry,” Nishimura says right over him. He’s searching the crowd hungrily, as if the force of his glare might bring that woman back over. “You didn’t do anything.”

“Nishimura,” Natsume stresses, looking as though he’d like to sink into the floor, “it’s okay. She just-- I used to live with her family. She’s not-- you don’t even know what happened back then, you don’t know why she said-- “

“I don’t have to know,” Nishimura snaps. He pets Nyanko-sensei just for something to do with his hands. He looks ready to set the next person who looks at Natsume sideways on fire. “Anyone who treats you like that is picking a fight with me, so deal with it.”

And this is the boy who dragged them all over the city for hours, who coaxed and whined and teased until Natsume gave in and had a good time. He was so excited to get behind the scenes for this movie, he was ecstatic to meet Shuuichi and his co-stars, but it didn’t cost him anything to leave it all behind because one person in this busy studio was unkind to his friend.

His earnest eyes are narrow now, all trace of that idol worship placed somewhere far behind him, as he sizes Shuuichi up. Nyanko-sensei lifts up to bump his head on the underside of Nishimura’s chin, but his eyes are dark and intelligent, and they size Shuuichi up, too.

Beside him, Shuuichi is aware of Hiiragi lifting a hand to the lower half of her mask, as though she’s covering a smile.

Well, I know when I’m outdone, Shuuichi thinks.

A nearby security guard is looking particularly interested in their group, and Shuuichi waves him over with a smile. The middle-aged man saw most of the altercation, and would recognize the PA if he saw her again. Shuuichi makes a quiet request for the guard to get her information and collect her badge and escort her off the property.

With that taken care of, Shuuichi turns to the teenagers in his care. They’re both staring in surprise. He wonders what they expected of him, if not that. He certainly won’t tell Natsume he plans on blacklisting her name on as many upcoming projects as his influence will reach, but Nishimura would probably be delighted by the idea.

“That’s one way to end an evening,” he says with a great theatrical sigh. He puts a hand on each of their heads, feeling all twenty-four of his years, and his voice softens into something more serious. “I wish you would have told me something was wrong in the first place. I would have dealt with it then, and we wouldn’t have had to change our plans.”

He looks particularly hard at Natsume, and Natsume has the good grace to look ashamed. After all the deadly situations they’ve lived through together, surely the child can trust Shuuichi this much.

Nishimura presses Nyanko-sensei back into Natsume’s arms. His eyes are full of sunlight when he looks at Natsume, burning and affectionate and fierce.

“We still had a good time, didn’t we?” he says, as if that’s all that matters.

The Western-style hotel suite boasts two beds and a pull-out couch, but Natsume and Nishimura both clamber into the bed nearest the window without bothering to change. Nyanko-sensei stretches out across the foot of it while they talk in low, sleepy voices.

Shuuichi steps into the room, having wanted the phone call in which he had a PA fired to be a more private affair in the hall, and is just in time to watch Natsume press a kiss to Nishimura’s knuckles, as though to soothe a bruise that isn’t there from a fight that didn’t happen.

Ah, Shuuichi thinks. His instincts are getting rusty. That’s twice now that he’s been too slow on the uptake.

Natsume goes still when he notices Shuuichi in the doorway, like a rabbit sighted by a hawk, but Nishimura brightens. He holds Natsume’s hand harder when Natsume tries to let go.

“Natori! You promised us room service, right?”

Shuuichi feels something tight in the pit of his chest relent, and he smiles despite himself. The smile melts the anxiety out of Natsume’s tense shoulders.

“So I did,” he says, and hands over the phone. 

[fruit-teeth]

Fem!merc OCs: a character list

LONG POST UP AHEAD

People were interested in my fem!merc OCS, sooooo here you go! Just some background: these characters will be in my fanfic Black Sky (which can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18373481/chapters/43506845) but since they haven’t really been introduced there I’ll introduce them here. 

These characters work for a company called Sterling Enterprises, run by another OC of mine named Sterling. He hires these mercenaries, and in Black Sky, they wind up joining forces with Mann Co.

Anyway, here they are. I got a little carried away at points but I hope that’s not a problem! 

Molly (Fem!Scout)

Molly is a twenty-three-year-old woman from Brooklyn hired by Sterling Enterprises as a mercenary. She’s Scout’s female counterpart and she’s just as fast as him, as well as just as dangerous when provoked. However, she’s very friendly and sweet to the people she likes, and she’s outgoing and loves parties.

Despite this, she tends to get angry easily, and she’s had multiple arrests for picking fights with people, namely with other women. She survived a bad childhood with her mother’s cousin and after one particularly bad incident, she was bounced from various foster homes before eventually ending up back with her mother as a teenager. Much later, she and her mother were both hired by Sterling Enterprises as mercenaries, where they’ve been ever since.

Veronica (Fem!Sniper)

At 30 years old and possibly originating from somewhere in Ireland (although this has never been confirmed), Veronica is an incredibly skilled archer and won several scholarships during her youth as a result of her amazing ability. She uses guns too, but she’s always felt more comfortable holding a bow than a gun. Veronica’s life changed forever when she shot and killed her abusive husband, which led to her arrest, and when the court didn’t believe her story about self-defense it seemed like she was facing a great deal of prison time. So, Veronica was rather surprised when Sterling appeared and offered her a deal: if he bailed her out of prison, she would serve as a mercenary for his company. Having no other options at the time, she agreed and left prison to work with him, where she has remained ever since.

Veronica is very soft-spoken and gentle, but when provoked she can become an absolute nightmare. She’s a vicious fighter with a near perfect aim, although she knows when to be kind to good people and when to calm down. She doesn’t have many friends but she’s very loyal to the friends she does have.

Mimi (Fem!Demo)

Upon leaving her home in Italy and moving to the US during her childhood, Mimi took out her frustration by spending whatever money she had and using it to buy small explosives. She would then light the explosives in desolate areas like fields, just for the fun of watching them explode. When she became an adult and managed to hold a job as a factory worker, Mimi’s obsession with explosives spiraled out of control when she bought a crate of dynamite and lit it inside of a church at night, which she did in response to the church keeping her from adopting a child. Obviously, she was arrested but was only put through therapy after she was deemed ‘incompetent’ to stand trial. Shortly after this, Sterling discovered her at a shopping mall and offered her a job, which she accepted right away.

Mimi is very excitable but doesn’t always know how to interact with others positively. She loves making friends but prefers spending time around children or animals, which has tied into her desire to be a mother. She taught herself how to create explosives from various materials she found in either the junkyard or from any other bizarre place, and she’s also learned how to be very resourceful. Mimi doesn’t like authority figures and is very strong-willed, although she’s gotten more agreeable over the years.

Judith (Fem!Spy)

Judith’s origins are virtually unknown, but all she’s ever divulged about her backstory is this: she started out as a special effect artist in Hollywood, and it was very clear that she had amazing talent in that area right from the beginning. However, that all changed when she used her skills to disguise herself as her boss in order to get into a high-end VIP club, which obviously led to her getting fired. After this incident, Judith moved on and took up a series of strange, shady jobs with many different companies. At some point during this period of her life, Judith gave birth to her daughter Molly but was unable to care for her at the time, so she gave Molly to her cousin to care for. Several years later, Judith nearly died from a failed mission but managed to survive, and it was in the hospital where she learned of Molly’s issues and decided to take her back.

Sterling learned of Judith through a colleague and was impressed with her skill, so he hired her as a spy, but Judith refused to go alone and asked if her daughter could work with her. Sterling agreed to this, as he needed extra help.

Judith is highly intelligent and well-trained in many areas, and she can even be manipulative in her ways of getting what she wants. While being dangerous, cold, and collected, she’s also very loyal to the right people in her life and she can be an excellent friend to have. She has a soft spot for her daughter, but obviously, she keeps this a secret as to not appear vulnerable.

Nell (fem!Soldier)

Nell was raised by a single father in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, where she saw virtually no one besides her father daily. Her father, a war veteran, had gone deaf from his experiences on the battlefield and as a result, Nell had to constantly yell to get his attention. Now she’s used to speaking loudly and shouts most of the time, even in normal conversation. Nell’s father also trained her how to fight, and this led to her developing an intense infatuation with fighting and with battles in general, and over time she became a vicious killing machine.

After her father died unexpectedly, the house where the two had lived was about to be foreclosed on and when Nell refused to leave the house, the police had to come to remove her. Nell, however, refused to comply and ended up brutally killing a police officer after he pulled her hair.

Nell faced the death penalty for this offense, but before that was supposed to happen, she mysteriously disappeared, and no one went looking for her. This was because Sterling privately bailed out Nell and even bribed whoever he could to get her into his mercenary team, which Nell happily agreed to join. She doesn’t get action very often, but when she does, Nell is incredibly strong and deadly. Despite her strong and wild nature, Nell is a very loving friend to have and she’s rather childlike in her demeanor. She also has a bad habit of chewing on things which are not meant to be chewed on, like her sleeves or the straps of her helmet.

Scarlett (fem!Medic)

Once a nurse for a mental health ward in Wales, Scarlett had the credentials to be a full-fledged doctor herself but stayed a nurse anyway. She was well-respected at her job until one day, she walked in on a doctor abusing a female patient and lost it. Scarlett attacked the doctor, stabbing him repeatedly and then making the scene look like a suicide. The patient never turned Scarlett in, and charges were never pressed against her. However, Scarlett still quit the job out of guilt and moved to Sweden, where she met her soon to be wife Agnes. The two lived in Sweden for ten years before moving to the US, where they took up jobs as mercenaries for Sterling.

Scarlett has very strong opinions on what’s right and wrong, although her ideas on how society ‘should’ be in her eyes are a bit extreme to many. She wrote and attempted to publish a book about government conspiracy theories, but when no one would publish the book she painstakingly printed out several copies herself and gave them to her teammates, free of charge.

She can be very caring and gentle with her wife and her other teammates, but if angered she will fly into a violent, almost uncontrollable rage. This makes her the perfect doctor for the team, but also the perfect protector.

Agnes (fem!Heavy)

Agnes has not disclosed much about her origins in Sweden, but what is known is that she grew up on a farm with her family and spent most of her days handling cattle. This practice gave her incredible strength, which she still uses to her advantage today. She worked on a railroad during her teen years after dropping out of school, and when she turned 21 her parents began pressuring her to find a husband. Instead, she met Scarlett, and surprised her parents when they got married a year later.

Agnes doesn’t seem the fighting type, as despite her incredible strength she’s very kind and usually quite peaceful. However, she seems to become a different person when she or someone close to her is threatened, and her fighting skills are not something to be underestimated. Handling weapons is nothing new for her, as she has lots of experience working with machines and considers them easier to wrangle than a cow.

Ellen (fem!Engineer)

Under a normal circumstance, Sterling never would have noticed Ellen as she looked to be any other Louisiana factory worker, but she surprised everyone when she used her skills to build a robot that would sense when people got too close to machines in order to prevent accidents. Ellen tried to get the factory to put her device to use, but they rejected her ideas since they were considered ‘too costly’ to use. Instead, Sterling offered Ellen a job as a mercenary, and she accepted.

Ellen is rather nonviolent in nature and instead tries to work out situations diplomatically, but this doesn’t always work, and she ends up using weapons anyway. She didn’t like this at first, but when she discovered she could build any weapon she wanted she found a whole new love for her job. Sometimes she gets carried away, though, and creates weapons that are almost impossible to use since they’re so complex. Ellen is very motherly, especially to any teammates younger than her, and she loves team-building exercises and takes any excuse to socialize with her coworkers.

Amber (fem!Pyro)

All that’s known about Amber is that Ellen rescued her from an abusive situation, and Amber’s ability to work with fire combined with her resilient nature was enough to get her hired. Amber is nonverbally autistic, speaking mostly in sign although she resorts to writing notes as many of her teammates don’t know sign. She loves to set fires, and she has a fascination with watching things melt and burn.

Amber doesn’t always like to be touched, so she’s not very physically affectionate but she loves to give gifts to her teammates.

[shyeehaw]

Two requests today. Something nice with Micah cause poor ole boy needs some hugs and a punch to the face but mostly hugs. And something where reader ends up in Rhodes the day of the greys ambush and manages to rescue Sean.

I will post Sean’s tomorrow, if that’s okay ^^ I got so carried away writing the Micah one, the boy deserves hugs! You are so right. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it

Javier had a focused look at his hands, he wouldn’t even blink fearing that he’d miss the space between his fingers. Micah was across him at the table, his stare was fierce, wishing his opponent’s loss.

That was the most intense five finger fillet game the gang ever saw.

The crowd started forming when uncle asked for how long they’ve been playing, drawned by the pile of money that was forming on the table.

“About half hour?” asked Javier.

Micah just nodded, not losing his rhythm with the knife.

Uncle reached for his pocket and betted his last few coins on Micah.

“Uncle?” Javier said, with false resentment.

“The man is good Javier, what can I do?”

Every member of the gang was having a great time, laughing and cheering for who they’ve betted on. Surprisingly, Micah had a lot of bets placed on him. The man was a pain, but he sure was good with his knife. You and the girls joined the crowd, getting nervous at each swift knife movement.

Tilly and Mary-Beth had some money to bet, but you and Karen had none left.

“You should offer a date, Y/N, I’m sure either of them boys will be up for it.” said Karen, who had just placed a bottle of brandy on the table.

You eyed at her suspiciously.

“What? I don’t drink that light stuff!”

You and Mary-Beth just laughed at her. Karen had already done her fair share of drink that day, so you were not surprised when she started selling you like a cow in the auction yard.

“Y/N will go out to town with who wins!” the girl was out of herself, giggling like a fool. “Y/N to the winner, boys!”

You were trying to shush her by placing a hand on her mouth, but both men gave you a funny look.

“I’m ok with that.” Javier said, glaring at you with a playful smile. It was a moment of distraction that costed him that round.

Micah was indifferent to the “ohs” and “ahs” that folk was starting to make. You don’t recall a game lasting that long. When was Javier’s turn again you could see tiny drops of sweat on his forehead, the pressure of the crowd closing in, watching his every move... Until he missed the space between his pinkie, cutting deep the skin. Some were cheering as others were calculating how much money they lost.

As the crowd started dissolving Micah was grabbing all his share off the table, you stood there unsure what to say. Would he even want to go out with you?

“I reckon it’s our date night then, Miss.” he said raising his eyes off the money to look at you, “Care to join me on a ride to town?”

The two of you climbed on the wagon and headed to Valentine. The ride there was awkward as you rarely had spoken to Micah before.

“Where the lady would like to go?” he seemed to be enjoying the opportunity, in fact, you’ve never seen him act so nice before.

“Oh... I don’t know...” you felt a little embarrassed to ask or even confess to him, but you hadn’t been to many towns before, “I’ve never seen one of them moving picture shows.”

Micah secretly liked them, it was a good way to distract him of his thoughts.

“I wouldn’t mind!”

The night went on full of surprises, Micah even offered to buy the tickets. You were not expecting him to be so charming. He even tried to make a move while you were watching the movie. You’ve noticed it and just gave him a quick glance, it sure was fun seeing big tough Micah turn red when caught trying to put his arm around you. He was unsure what to do, arm midway to your seat, so you just leaned against his shoulder, as it was something normal.

You felt his breathing getting more short and fast. Could he be nervous?

As the show came to an end, you two headed towards the wagon.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go have a drink?” you asked.

It’s was fun being somewhere else than the camp, and Micah has showed a side of him you’ve never seen before.

His face light up with the chance to grab a drink before heading back. And spend more time with you.

“Let’s get something to drink!”

With a hand leaning on his shoulder, you were trying to finish the bottle in one go, courtesy of his challenge. Micah was openly laughing. Not a chuckle, but that kind of spontaneous snorting laugh. Come to think of it, you never seen him enjoying himself as much as he was doing seeing you cry yourself to the end of the bottle.

So when a guy came talk to you, you felt your head dizzy, not making much sense of his words.

“I would like to see you choke on something else.” he said, grabbing you by the hip, leaning for a kiss.

Micah went from careless to ruthless in a matter of seconds. The guy didn’t even saw when the man’s knuckles came crashing against his bones.

You don’t remember much but the shocked scream coming out of your throat . The whole saloon was cheering and making a circle around them. Micah was sitting in the guy’s chest, delivering one punch after another. It all happened all so fast, in a blink of an eye the other guy was already in a puddle of blood.

It didn’t take much longer for the bartender to get a hold of the situation. He threw you and Micah out of his establishment threatening you to never come back again.

“You idiot!” you said, slowly getting up to your feet.

Micah helped you up.

“I’m sorry” he said, swallowing his pride “I-I ain’t gonna let him talk to you like that.”

His face was bleeding mess. The whole thing was so absurd (or the alcohol was acting) that you started laughing again. You hugged him, careful not touch his black eye.

“Let’s fix you up” you said, pushing his hair gently back, and placing a kiss on his forehead.