#The kidnapping is probably the event that forced them to move to that town. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

willbyersabyss · 1 year

Text

The Upside Down Represents Homophobia

This is mostly about how Will’s queerness intertwines with the supernatural plot. I included summaries in blue so please at least read those!

Time Period

It’s no coincidence that Stranger Things takes place in the 80s. This is when homophobia was at a high because of the AIDs crisis and the satanic panic. These events factor heavily into the mindsets of the antagonists in the show. Season one is where we see this most. Troy, Lonnie, and Steve all spew homophobic views throughout the season. Homophobia was half of the evil in season one so I don’t think it would be that far off to assume that the supernatural evil and the real world evil were stemming from the same place.

Season One

In the first episode of the show, we are clued into Will’s queerness. Joyce expresses her concern over the homophobic bullying he has faced and how that might have had something to do with his disappearance. Hopper felt that Will being gay was important to the investigation as well. What if they were right? What if the Upside Down is the homophobe that took Will? Hopper tried to reassure that Will was likely with a parent but Joyce insisted otherwise. The parent would be Lonnie, an abusive homophobe.

It’s very clear that Lonnie is the person who spread rumors about Will being gay. As Joyce mentioned, he was the source of Will’s homophobic bullying. Will is referred to as “Lonnie’s kid” multiple times and people only gave their condolences to Lonnie at Will’s funeral. Troy’s dad mentioned Will being queer. Why would Troy’s dad know about that? Lonnie. Jonathan decided to look into Hopper’s theory that Lonnie, a known homophobe, took Will. He even looked in Lonnie’s trunk, alluding to Will possibly being killed by his homophobic dad. So the first suspect was notoriously homophobic and had power in the town of Hawkins.

Lets move into the town’s theory of Will’s disappearance. Joyce talked about Will experiencing homophobia to Hopper. This is implying that Will could have been killed in a hate crime. Troy says “He was probably killed by some other queer.” Once again, linking Will’s queerness to his kidnapping. The school has an assembly to grieve Will where Troy says “Will’s in fairyland now, right? All happy and gay!” And where was Will? The Upside Down.

After being humiliated in front of the entire school, Troy tries to attack Mike and Dustin by recreating what the town assumed happened to Will. Hopper said that Will saw something, made his way over to the quarry, and fell off. When we link this with the town thought, Will may have been forced off the cliff by a homophobe. We as viewers know this isn’t what happened. Or do we? The events of the cliff scene align well with Will’s disappearance:

The similarities between the scenes could point to the town being right. Will and Mike were both sent to their deaths by homophobia and only made it out alive by a stroke of luck. Dustin would have been the last person to see both of them alive. Will was looking up while Mike was looking down which is upside down. They’re mirroring each other. (Will’s body was at the bottom of the quarry so it’s almost as if they are looking at each other?)

The scene just before Mike’s quarry scene is the aftermath of Steve and Jonathan’s fight. This is the fight where Steve says “I always took you for a queer but turns out you’re just a screw up like your father.” So Tommy H. thought that Jonathan killed Will, Steve thought Jonathan was queer but now he thinks he’s like Lonnie, and Troy thought Will was “killed by some other queer.” Jonathan is “the queer” that they think killed Will but that isn’t the case. It turns out what “killed” Will is like his father (a homophobe). Queerness and homophobia is constantly brought up when discussing Will’s disappearance. We are meant to link the two.

Both the cliff scene and the fight between Steve and Jonathan happen in the episode titled “The Monster.” This is also the only episode where Will doesn’t try to contact anyone from the Upside Down. Let that sink in. The episode where homophobia results in violence on multiple occasions is called “The Monster.” The real monster of this story is not the demogorgon.

In the scene above, Troy had just finished making homophobic statements about Will (which were directed at Mike). Mike tried to ignore the comments, but he was tripped. Dustin picked up the rock Mike fell on and they decided that it would be “the monster killer.” This rock is used in the final episode when they face the demogorgon. The demogorgon and homophobic bullying are linked in this scene. Using the rock shows that overcoming homophobia is how they win.

When they find Will’s “body” at the quarry, Mike runs home and cries in his mom’s arms. The lyrics that play over this scene are “We kissed as though nothing could fall and the shame was on the other side.” If the other side is the Upside Down, then it is equal to shame. Homophobia shames the existence of queer people just like the Upside Down.

The only other established character that becomes a victim of the Upside Down is Barb. I genuinely believe Barb is queer. She was only in two episodes but there’s still quite a lot of queer coding in this short time. First, she noticed that Nancy had a new bra. How exactly would she know that? Anyways, Nancy is trying to fit in with her new friends and even tries to get Barb to participate. Barb reluctantly agrees and gets cut. Forced conformity. She later has a conversation with Nancy about how she isn’t being herself. Sound familiar? This is very similar to the argument Will and Mike have in season three. She has a parallel with a confirmed queer character! So yeah Barb is definitely queer. Her death cuts between Nancy and Steve hooking up. The injury Barb received from trying to be someone else attracted the demogorgon of homophobia. Nancy’s conformity killed Barb.

We discover in season four that the Upside Down is stuck on the day Will went missing. It was a barren land of dust and rocks but once Will arrived, it changed to replicate Hawkins. Why would Will change this terrifying place to look like his home? Because the thing that makes these places evil is the same. Homophobia.

The song used to represent Will’s mindset is Should I Stay or Should I Go. “Should I stay or should I go? If I go, there will be trouble and if I stay it will be double.” Is a line I want to highlight. Will is debating whether he should stay in the Upside Down or return home. Why would Will consider staying in such a dangerous place? What trouble would he face back home that he would rather be killed by monsters? Homophobic abuse and bullying. Will’s biggest fear is his own home and this is why the Upside Down now replicates it. His fear of the Upside Down manifested into the everyday fears he faces.

Will tries to save himself by contacting his mom through the lights and he even opens a gate in the wall. This all crumbles the second his father shows up. Lonnie patched up the hole and took down the lights which were Will’s only hope of escape. Will’s homophobic and abusive father is keeping him trapped in the land of homophobia. To make matters worse, Will doesn’t try to contact Joyce again after Lonnie does this. He’s reminded that the real world is not safer than this hellscape, not for someone like him at least. Will’s debate is finalized. He decides he will stay in the Upside Down and accept his fate.

After Lonnie shattered Will’s chances of escaping the Upside Down, Will went to Castle Byers to wait for the monster to take him. Castle Byers was a place where he could be himself, sheltered from homophobic beliefs. This was the last place he felt safe. El visits him and assures him that his mom hasn’t given up on him. The monster then destroys the Upside Down version of Castle Byers and takes him to his deathbed at the library. This represents how homophobia will always find and destroy queer spaces.

When Joyce and Hopper find Will, he has a vine down his throat that is killing him. Memories of Sara with medical tubes flash by. Those tubes were meant to be “healing” Sara but her fate did not change. Homophobes believe they’re healing gay people by trying to change them, but it only ends up killing them. As we now know, Vecna controls these vines. He says he “holds up a mirror” to people. It’s commonly said that gay people are “shoving their gayness down our throats.” Was the vine in Will’s throat a reflection of this belief?

Will's heart stops which is indicative of death. So Jonathan thought Will was killed by their homophobic father and the town thought Will was killed in a hate crime. Will was actually killed by the Upside Down. They were right, Will was killed by homophobia. What saved him? His mother who loves him no matter what.

Summary: Every theory the town had about Will’s disappearance was related to him being gay and this is no coincidence. Their theories were right but instead of a homophobic person, it was the Upside Down that took him.

Season Two

Will is plagued with visions after his time in the Upside Down. The times in which he gets these visions is indicative of internalized homophobia. Mike, the boy Will is developing feelings for, is almost always the person who is able to bring him out of these visions. How could gay love be so bad if it continues to save Will?

The first vision he gets in season two is at the arcade. Dustin was trying to win the hand of Princess Daphne in Dragon’s Lair but he loses and Lucas teases him. Keith interrupts and asks for a date with Nancy in exchange for information on Max. A seemingly meaningless conversation, right? Nope! Will’s vision of the Upside Down starts in the middle of this argument. People expressing their desire for a girlfriend set off Will’s internalized homophobia. He’s constantly reminded that he isn’t like his friends, he’s different. Mike takes Will out of this trance.

The second vision is similar to his first vision in season one. In both of these visions, he’s washing his hands in front of the mirror in the bathroom. Remember what Vecna said about holding up a mirror? When Will can see himself for who he truly is, he is pulled right back into the home of homophobia.

The third vision occurs on Halloween night when Will and Mike are arguing about Max joining their party. Mike storms off after he complains that Dustin and Lucas are pining over Max. This leaves Will to be bullied and pulled back into the Upside Down. Yet again, he has visions after his friends fight over girls. Will doesn’t understand these dilemmas because he has no interest in girls. These constant reminders that he’s gay are very triggering after all the bullying he has faced. Mike comes to Will’s rescue for a second time.

The fourth and final vision happens when Will is searching for Dart. He assures Dart (who represents homophobia) that he isn’t going to hurt him. This reminds me of queer people trying to assure homophobes that they’re not something to be feared. Dart scares Will and he’s back in the Upside Down yet again. This time, he doesn’t run or hide, he decides to confront the homophobia via Bob’s advice. He ends up in more danger because of this. Sounds very reflective of real life doesn’t it? (When Mike finally confronted Troy’s homophobia in season one, his life was put in danger later. Are these scenes connected?) Anyways, Mike is the person who finds Will in the field.

Speaking of Dart, remember this scene? Dart tries to attack Mike and Will only. Oh yeah and they happen to be standing in front of a rainbow here. Mike protects Will from homophobia yet again!

These visions later only show themselves as the tunnels taking over Hawkins. In the first picture, Will is drawing the tunnels. On the wall there’s a drawing of a spaceship with rainbows coming out of it. Is this the rainbow ship Joyce mentions later? Another tunnel vision happens when Will is left alone with Mike. For the fourth time so far, Mike is able to break Will out of his trance-like state. So Will has visions of the Upside Down when he’s next to a rainbow and the boy he has a crush on? Interesting.

Now let's think about what the tunnels spreading throughout Hawkins could represent. I believe they represent how quickly homophobia makes its way through small towns. The vines diseased plants and animals. Many homophobes view queer people as “diseased” and this was especially common in the 80s. If we think about how Vecna holds up a mirror to people, the rotting could reflect on the town’s view of gay people. The only person who could warn them about the dangers of the vines was Will. This shows how queer people can see how harmful homophobia is while it flies under straight noses.

The hive mind reflects how homophobes all adopt the same narrow mindset. They cannot break free of their homophobic beliefs. Dart could be an example of the “love the sinner, hate the sin” idea. He did as he was told without second thought but made exceptions for one person that tried to show him a different mindset. I believe Dart seeing Will is what caused the Mind Flayer to try to possess him again. Though Dart seemed different from the others in the hive mind, he still upheld his beliefs when faced by someone he feared. This is very common among homophobes.

While in the hospital, Will was slowly losing himself. The doctors said “At this rate, he’ll be gone by the end of the day.” Because they wanted to focus on burning the vines again. Instead of trying to save the gay kid possessed by homophobic thoughts, they focused on trying to keep the homophobia a secret. Will’s personality being lost as his mind is flooded with internalized homophobia symbolizes how gay people have to hide their true selves. The only way for Will to be safe is to perpetuate the thoughts being fed to him (ex. killing the soldiers). Staying in the closet protects him.

Speaking of closets, Bob had to hide in a closet when the demodogs took over the lab. He was safe from the homophobic creatures when he hid in the closet. The second he came out, the broom fell like an alarm. He was immediately a target for homophobia which is the reason for his death.

Another small detail: While they were trying to reach Will in the shed, Max was worried about what would happen if Will figured out their location. Lucas says that it will be “judgment day” if that were to happen. Judgment day is a common religious belief that a day will come where people are punished for their sins before death. Being gay is seen as a sin by many religious people so could this be the “sin” the Upside Down would punish them for?

Moving on to what I think is the most important scene in season two: the shed scene. Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike all share memories with Will to try and break his possession. The memories they initially focus on show their love and support for Will. Joyce talks about how proud she was of his drawing of a rainbow spaceship (as pictured earlier). Of course, rainbows are a huge queer symbol. Joyce was basically saying she loves him no matter what and even embraces his differences. Jonathan talks about the day they built Castle Byers aka the day their homophobic father left. Castle Byers was built as a safe space for Will because of the homophobic abuse and bullying he had faced. Will was able to start using morse code after this. His family expressing their love and support successfully broke through the homophobia racking his brain. Finally, Mike recalls the day they first met. Despite everything, Mike still believes that befriending Will was the best thing he’s ever done. We now know that Will not only has feelings for Mike, but that Mike makes him feel better for being different. All three memories relate to Will’s queerness in some way. The thing that saved Will was his loved ones assuring him that they love him for his differences. Homophobia can be destroyed through love and support.

The final time we see the Mind Flayer is at the Snow Ball. Will was pressured to dance with a girl by the person he really wanted to dance with. The Mind Flayer looms over the cafeteria to show that though Will thought he was saved, homophobia will always linger behind him. He can never escape heteronormative standards.

Summary: Will’s possession represents internalized homophobia. His visions of the Upside Down occur when he is forced to face his queerness. The vines and the hive mind reflect the way homophobes spread their own ideas while not considering viewpoints outside of their own.

Season Three

It was confirmed by the Duffers that the physical Mind Flayer represents puberty in this interview. Puberty and sexuality go hand in hand. Just like his visions in season two, Will feels the Mind Flayer in moments related to him being gay. Will continuing to have a connection to the Mind Flayer after his exorcism represents how homophobia will always haunt queer people. I wonder if he gets the chill on his neck because that’s where the homophobic vine attached itself in season one? Will’s connection to the Mind Flayer represents his PTSD from the Upside Down so if the Upside Down represents homophobia, the Mind Flayer’s appearance shows his ongoing struggle with his identity.

The first time Will feels the Mind Flayer is in the movie theater when he’s basically on a double date with Mike. At this point, Will definitely knows that he has feelings for Mike. Sitting close in a dark theater would remind him of the homophobia that lingers around him. Just like season two, Mike breaks Will out of the moment.

The second time he felt it was in the field when they were going to try and contact Dustin’s girlfriend. Will was surrounded by straight couples, leaving him to be the only one without a significant other. Mike and El decide to run off and ditch them. Will looks back at Mike and El when he gets the chill. Will’s fear of homophobia creeps up when he is reminded that he won’t get to experience love.

The third time he feels it is at Castle Byers after after he fought with Mike over girls again. This sparked the unforgettable “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” line. While Mike did not intend it to be a jab at Will’s sexuality, it was taken that way. Will ran off to Castle Byers, his safe space from his homophobic father. After destroying the only place he felt safe from homophobia, the Mind Flayer came right back. I believe he felt it at this moment to show that homophobia was winning against him. This scene wasn’t only about his sexuality, but it did contribute heavily to his inner turmoil. The homophobia inside him (the Mind Flayer) became too overwhelming so he finally told the group that he felt it again.

The fourth time he feels the Mind Flayer is during the sauna test. Again, he is standing very close to Mike here. It could also be noted that they had the silly scene of the boys looking terrified at the men in the sauna earlier in the episode.

The fifth time is at the hospital. Will was just sent away so Mike could make amends with El after their breakup. Will is staring at Mike a lot in the hospital lobby, silently pining behind him. The second Mike and El get close and cuddly while reading the M&M’s package, Will senses homophobia close by again. (Mike looking at Will here… okay)

Will feels it again at Hopper’s cabin. This one is a bit of a reach but the scene just before this is of Karen, Ted, and Holly on the ferris wheel. Karen is trying to keep up her image of a perfect family. While she is putting on this performance of conformity, Holly can see the trees move (from the Mind Flayer) but is ignored. This entire act is based on heteronormativity.

The final time he senses it is in the mall. They had retreated back into the mall because Billy found them. Billy himself had not been blatantly homophobic but his father previously abused him and called him homophobic slurs. Billy is a representation of homophobia and bigotry being taught. Instead of breaking the cycle, he is perpetuating it. This is why Billy was chosen as the host as well. He doesn’t try to find a way out of possession the way Will did in season two. He doesn’t reject the control of the Mind Flayer, he goes along with it. Billy is an easier target to control because he doesn’t actively fight against conformity.

The flayed are a hive mind. Each of them were asked by a higher being to get others to join their agenda. Sound familiar? This also represents how quickly propaganda against queer people attaches itself to small towns. They teamed up to take down anyone that disagrees with them. As I said before, Will is the only one who can see the danger coming because his queerness makes him vulnerable.

Summary: Will feels the Mind Flayer when he is, yet again, forced to face his queerness. The flayed represent the cult-like behavior of homophobes (just like the hive mind). Will is the only one who can sense the Mind Flayer because homophobia usually isn’t seen as a danger to anyone that isn’t queer.

Season Four

Eddie’s queer coding relates to him becoming the “town pariah” that Robin mentioned earlier in the season. He was hunted for being a freak. In Eddie’s introduction scene, he is listing reasons why DND is being targeted due to the satanic panic. One reason that stands out is sodomy. This belief is rooted in homophobia. So the Hellfire Club is already being linked to queerness in its introduction.

Another important line by Eddie in this scene: “It’s forced conforming. That’s what’s killing the kids. That’s the real monster.” This partly foreshadows his own death as he conforms to the idea of a hero, but it also gives us an idea of what the monsters in the show represent. Queer people experience forced conformity in heavy amounts for their own safety. We see this happen to both Will and Robin, our only (as of right now) confirmed queer characters. Will doesn’t really deny his queerness by trying to act straight but he does still have to hide from real and supernatural dangers. Going back to the vine that killed Will, that was forced conformity. Homophobia was shoving itself down Will’s throat and it killed him until his supportive family brought him back.

The purpose of Eddie’s character was to show how people will focus on attacking those that are different while the real problem flies under their radar. They started targeting Eddie after Jason convinced them to at the church. This is very reflective of how religious people target queer people in real life. They don’t care about the actual thing that’s killing the kids (homophobia), they just want to make villains out of queer people. This is how the Upside Down was able to target children for so long. Hawkins was focusing on the wrong thing. Troy’s belief that Will was “killed by some other queer” is another example of the town villainizing gay people instead of tackling the real problem.

Eddie is a new addition to the deaths that occur inside the Upside Down. He is one of three established characters that died there. Just like Will and Barb, Eddie was queer coded. That means every single established character that died in the Upside Down was queer or queer coded. The Upside Down targets queer people.

This is a smaller detail but it’s interesting how Robin is framed in the middle with the light shining above her. It really brings attention to the keyhole on her back. So Will is seen as the light and Robin as the key. What do these two characters have in common? Gay. Gay is the key! Also the eye in the keyhole is green and Will has green eyes (this is a joke). Anyways, Vecna passes by Robin’s flashlight first and she’s the first to be strung up by vines later in the Upside Down (right after she held Nancy’s hand). Is it coincidental that the only gay character in the Hawkins crew was detected in the Upside Down first? I don’t think so!

Here comes Will’s rainbow spaceship again. A rainbow rocketship sitting outside of the Creel house is a detail I always think about. They didn’t only show this ship, they made it a significant meeting place in the Upside Down. This is where Erica relayed messages to the others during their mission to kill Vecna. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about a swing set at a playground but since it’s next to a rainbow ship, it made me raise an eyebrow. A swingset to remind us of how Mike and Will met? So two things here relate to the memories that saved Will in season two. All we’re missing is Castle Byers. When the Creels arrive at their new home, Alice says it’s like a fairytale. What aspect of a fairytale could she be referring to? A castle perhaps? This may be a stretch but is the Creel house representing Castle Byers here? It’s definitely possible but it may not be necessary to represent Castle Byers here. Why? Castle Byers was already destroyed by Will.

When Vecna takes his final victim, the gates rip through Hawkins. Max’s gate goes straight through the playground across from the Creel house. The rainbow ship and the swing set are (presumably) both destroyed. I believe these items were chosen to show how Will’s safety from homophobia is being taken from him as the Upside Down takes over Hawkins (this could also relate to birthdaygate). The memories that make Will feel safe and proud of his queerness were destroyed by the Upside Down aka homophobia.

So what exactly opened the gates? It was just Max’s death, right? I don’t think it’s that simple. Remember what Eddie said about how forced conformity is killing the kids? Well that was definitely foreshadowing. Eddie and Jason were both participating in conformity right as they died. Max was the only one who didn’t do this. What was the conformity that killed her then?

It was Mike’s speech. When Mike gives his monologue, everyone is dying. Literally everyone. His love was surrounded by death. Many of the things Mike said in his love confession were not the full truth. There’s no question about that. It’s clear that Mike did not want to give that speech, he felt like he had to because El was dying and Will urged him to. Will, in a way, was forcing conformity upon both himself and Mike in this scene. I believe this act is the reason why their plan ultimately failed. There’s another piece of evidence that Mike’s monologue contributed to Max’s death in this post I made. What better to open the gates of homophobia than two repressed gay kids?

The gates all met at the library. This is where Will was found in the Upside Down. I think it should be noted that libraries are sources of knowledge while homophobia is based in ignorance. The Upside Down destroying the library is a perfect symbol of this.

Summary: Hawkins targeted someone they perceived as queer which blinded them from the true evil spreading through their town (homophobia). Will and Mike’s suppression of their feelings is part of the reason why the Upside Down was able to merge with Hawkins.

How will this influence season five?

Dustin and Suzie said it best: “And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a neverending story.” Gay love will save the world! The meaning behind Stranger Things has always been about accepting differences. Our beloved queer characters using their differences to defeat evil completely aligns with the message of the show!

Will’s journey through his queerness has been extremely important since the first season. It’s been confirmed many times that he’s going to be central to season five and they’re going back to season one dynamics. Homophobia was most literally present in the first season. It makes sense for the boy who started the story to finally overcome both literal and symbolic homophobia! Will’s acceptance of himself giving him strength to defeat the supernatural evil is a beautiful way to wrap up his role in the story.

I am a firm believer that Will and Mike’s relationship is going to be a huge factor in saving the world in season five. Their relationship has been built since the beginning and was made most obvious in the penultimate season. With Will being central again, it’s inevitable that Mike will be as well! Mike’s love for Will already helped save the world in season two so I believe something similar will happen in the finale. Will said it himself that Mike gives him the courage to fight on, now he must use that strength to save the world.

And here’s some obvious foreshadowing for Will and Mike having a big role in killing Vecna.

While Robin and Vickie are not as big of characters as Will and Mike, their relationship will also be established next season (hopefully with significant screen time). This further proves how the Upside Down represents homophobia. Both queer relationships were left for the final season because as long as homophobia is present, they cannot thrive. This gives a lot of room for queer love to be explored in the final season through the defeat of the Upside Down.

In conclusion, queerness has been integral to the plot since season one. It’s quite obvious that a show like this would make their monsters symbolic of real world issues. We already know that Vecna represents depression, the lab is the abuse cycle, and the physical Mind Flayer is puberty! The Upside Down is meant to represent homophobia.

#will byers #byler #stranger things analysis #tw homophobia #tw ca #tw implied suicide

95 notes · View notes

viridiave · 2 years

Text

Octopath but make it Pokemon

Indulging in a little crack because I lost to that fucking direwolf several times in a goddamn row so let's go Pokemon AU

You play as Kit probably but not only are you a fatherless protagonist you don't have a mother now either

So idk man maybe he just stumbles into Flamesgrace and they were like 'tf are you stumbling around without a pokemon for here go fetch kid

And this is how Kit gets a church-sanctioned starter pokemon

Archbishop Josef's like 'hey you should totally challenge my daughter Ophilia she's a Gym Leader on the side'

Minutes before getting poisoned

So Kit challenges the slightly neurotic sister who's having a bit of a meltdown over the rituals that now have to be rescheduled but like who reschedules a religious event this important??

And her whole gimmick is Friendship Evolutions

Including a very protective Espeon

She tells him to move onto the next gym down south in a hurry as she goes back to check up on her dad and Kit's like aight

She ends up following him after that cuz not only has she been sent on forced leave but now she's also carrying the literal flame of gods that protects the world from devastation unites all people within their nation

And Kit's very cool with this because he's seen how much ass she can kick

So they make it to Atlasdam to make a stopover and while Ophilia's taking care of her business she tells Kit to challenge the local Gym Leader

The problem was that their local Gym was underground and that the Gym Leader was currently preoccupied with being in Ace Attorney Investigations 3 rather than Pokemon Rogue and Noble like the script tells him to so Kit helps him with that first

This Gym Leader uses Fossil Pokemon and will not stop talking about literally everything no matter what he did

So not only is Kit getting his ass kicked he's also being given a lecture on gemstones and theft laws

Kit swears Cyrus's Archen looked apologetic when the professor started talking about rock formations

Kit wins, which is great, because that got the professor to stop talking and instead congratulated him on his win

So Kit meets up with Ophilia again in the square, and they're about to head out when they see Cyrus again at the gate with a briefcase and the explanation that he got booted out of the academy on false charges of p*d0philia and is now out to look for a book

'Professor it's been literally half an hour since I stepped out of your gym what the hell were you DOING' 'A lot can happen in half an hour, as it turns out! Now where to, fellow travelers?'

Ophilia and Kit now have to deal with the lectures that they are too polite to try and interrupt

They hoof it down to Rippletide where they witness a robbery

And in no time at all they were dragged by the ears by a tiny merchant with surprising strength to drug the culprits

Kit, Ophilia, and Cyrus decide to commit crimes, and perhaps Cyrus is a little too excited at the prospect of drugging pirates

So they succeed and kick the pirate's asses- and meet this cool guy Leon Bastralle why they were at it

While they were having lunch at the tavern after this whole thing the merchant plops herself down next to them with a grin and says 'sooooooooooo wanna challenge the Gym?' 'there's a Gym in this town???'

Tressa decides to take this moment to flex her team of shiny Pokemon- including like three different Meowths that all throw money at Kit's Pokemon

They may be Bifelgan incarnate but they stand no chance against Kit's protagonist powers so Tressa gives him the badge

Right as they exit Rippletide Tressa just decides she wants to travel like that cool merchant that saved them earlier so her parents just take care of the gym they guess???

Point is they're a lot richer now in the routes between Rippletide and Cobbleston where oh hello- there's been a kidnapping

They all help out this burly big dude named Berg and Cyrus keeps throwing him and the gigantic sword on his hip suspicious looks

But it's not until they confront the baddies and Berg's Aegislash pops out that Cyrus squeals in delight because aREN'T YOU THE UNBENDING BLADE OH MY GODS THEY SAID YOU WERE DEAD CAN I TROUBLE YOU FOR AN INTERVIEW OVER TEA LATER-

Meowth's out of the bag and Olberic comes clean about his past after they rescue his not-kid

Cyrus does not leave him alone after this. Because on top of being a professor he's also just one massive history nerd. Olberic is surprisingly alright with this arrangement.

He's also surprisingly okay with leaving his massive technicality of a gym leader status to the leader of the dude they just took in for murder and pillaging because hey didn't Gaston's men literally skin a dude alive for his wallet

But Olberic has a revenge quest to go on so it's fine

TL;DR: Kit is on a journey with a funky starter Pokemon, and instead of being sorted by type the Gym Leaders have gimmicks cuz why not

Ophilia has friendship evolutions, Cyrus has fossil pokemon, Tressa has shiny pokemon, and Olberic is uhhhh Double Battles, I guess

Does this have a Part 2? No. not yet anyway.

#found this rotting in OneNote #octopath #octopath traveler #shitpost #octopath au #been a while since i posted anything rip #another eden brainrot is real #also school started hooray #pokemon au

54 notes · View notes

vee-is-a-clown · 2 years

Text

Some copy pasted messages about Witch's Herbal Tea with @the-kittens-of-vol-tron

So basically, Lance ends up being Keith's errand boy/sometimes a little Sharona if you've seen Monk

He makes sure that Keith doesn't overexert himself and makes sure that he sleeps

Plus cooking but he does that because he wants to

Btw, I probably should've already mentioned it but Keith is pretty well off

There's no other magic users who can compete with his business and most people in town owe him favors

He doesn't really invest in luxuries so it's mainly based off savings but potion making is pretty lucrative

He makes potions for the hospital, enchants weapons for the local police force, does individual potion orders for people, and we can't forget the fact that he does this entirely by mail order so these people don't even leave their houses

It's a novel thing for some people but for others, their entire lives are built around this

Lance for example, has a medical condition that's made manageable by Keith's potions

The medical condition is something like CF where it makes him vulnerable to being much more sick than others

He enjoys playing with magic and the money is just a side effect

His business started with him making potions for the hospital and Keith experimenting with things to make new potions. At some point, people started coming to him directly to ask if he could help them

He knows that he needs to do this job or others will suffer so he has a horrible work life balance. That's where Lance comes in

People also know that he's a teen living on his own so they send him gifts from time to time

Nothing special, just some extra firewood or something

He's especially like the entire village's child at this point even if nobody really sees him

Keith is 18 when it starts and Lance is 17

Keith has been doing his business since he was 13 and it slowly grew

Pretty much, his parents were burned at the stake when he was 6 or so for being/associating with a witch (his dad is human). Shiro found him and the village assumed that he was kidnapped by the witch and belongs to a couple in another town but he can stay with Shiro's family until Keith's parents are found. Yeah so Shiro practically adopted Keith. Keith worked at the hospital with Shiro, eventually accidentally revealing his powers to the entire town by saving the priest's wife from dying at a big public event

He was 10 at this point. He saved her from being crushed by some falling debris

The town realize that this child that they've all practically adopted is a witch and just saved this woman's life so they can't hate him now

He started experimenting with herbs and stuff bought from Lance's family's farm so now they know him

He finds out how to make a basic healing potion for the hospital

Then his potion business starts up

He wanders into the forest to find some ingredients for a potion and ends up discovering an entire fae bed and breakfast that's owned by none other then Allura. Coran is the manager and Romelle gets a free pass because she's the owner's gf.

Allura inherited the business from her dad after he tragically passed, and Coran managed it while Allura got old enough to run it herself

They helped Keith with potion stuff (ingredients) in exchange for help (he made them potions)

They eventually helped him get his house built at the age of 16

He wanted to not be a burden and have his own place to blow up with potion experiments

Soon after he was all moved in, he found a magic puppy on his doorstep that just so happened to be his familiar

Also, around this time, Lance's family starts interacting with Keith more

Like they know Keith

He's like that one cousin that lives in Colorado that your mom is in contact with who's actually pretty cool but you never really see them

At the age of 17, Keith saves Lance's life with a potion and suddenly Keith and the Mclains get a lot closer

Keith has never really met Lance specifically but the idea of Lance, a human who has no idea what magic really is or how it works but is interested in magic, is so intriguing to him that he comes to see if he can teach Lance magic

I imagine it's really funny because Keith rides Kosmo to the McClain estate and absolutely freaks Lance out because he's never met Keith before

He originally only sees Kosmo and thinks "WAIT WHY'S THE WITCH'S DOG HERE"

Lance and Keith finally meet in person though and Lance absolutely agrees to work with him

That all I have rn

It was really tedious to copy-paste all this (plus half way through, I decided I wanted bullet points)

None of this is set in stone because I'm still working out details but that's essentially it

#voltron #klance #keith voltron #keith kogane #vld keith #vld lance #lance voltron #lance mcclain #witch's herbal tea #Some context for all of you #I would love opinions #I also am going to need beta readers soon #so if there's anyone here who thinks they can tell me my stuff sucks #dm me

26 notes · View notes

young-dumb-and-vaccinated · 3 years

Text

The Sommelier (Hannigram x Female!Reader) pt. 8

I have spent fucking all day on this fic, mostly thinking up ways to get y/n to Wolf Trap without Will actually kidnapping her. This is what I came up with.

Will takes y/n to Wolf Trap to hide out while the investigation continues.

@deadman-inc-bikeshop @viviace and @dovahdokren

Trigger warnings: mention of substance abuse, ptsd, sex trafficking

“The first priority is keeping you close and keeping you safe.” Will stood up suddenly and reached for his coat. “Come on.”

“Huh?” you interjected. “What are you talking about?”

“I have a place near here. Just outside of Quantico, surrounded by farmland.” He explained. “I guarantee you nobody will come looking for you there.”

“Can we at least stop at my apartment first?” You begged. “I should probably get my computer, and like, clothes and stuff.”

“Sure.” Will conceded. “Do you have a phone?”

“Uh, yeah?” You pulled your phone from your pocket.

“Turn off location services and shut it off.” He instructed. “We can’t risk anyone finding you.”

“Am I being kidnapped?” You said, half joking.

“I’d rather our one lead be kidnapped by an agent then murdered by a sex slave.” Will said, dryly, as he gathered up his things. “Come on.”

Thoroughly not caring whether you lived or died, you followed him down the hall to the lab where Jack was inspecting a corpse. He knocked on the window, catching Jack and Dr. Katz’s attention.

“I’m taking her to Wolf Trap for the night.” Will said in an authoritative voice that didn’t match his harmless exterior. “She’ll be safe there.”

Jack looked at Will and then looked at you. He seemed offended on your behalf that Will was talking about you like you were a box of Fabergé eggs and not a person. “And you’re okay with this?”

“He raises a good point.” You shrugged. “Unless you think he’s going to kill me.”

“The alternative is prison protective custody.” Will added. “And we shouldn’t let anyone have the slightest notion that we imprison people who need help. We’re not the ICE.”

Jack tried to keep his eye roll subtle, but you noticed. This wasn’t the first time Will had done this, and Jack didn’t seem concerned enough to worry you. “Fine.”

With Jack’s reluctant permission, Will escorted you from the building. Like a gentleman, he opened the passenger’s side door for you before starting the car. You settled into a less-than-comfortable silence that lasted until you reached the main road.

“What is a borrasca?” He asked, out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry?” You said.

“A borrasca.” He repeated. “When you were talking to Jack, you mentioned it and looked at me like you expected me to know what it was.”

“Oh. Borrasca.” You answered. “It’s a horror story. About a group of kids who live in a small town in the Ozarks. There’s an urban legend around the town about monsters living in abandoned mines, but they investigate and find out it’s a sex trafficking ring run by a rich family and the corrupt local police.”

“How does it end?”

You couldn’t tell if he was humoring you or if he was actually interested, but you told him anyway. “The ending is kind of bittersweet. The kids grow up, but they’re traumatized beyond any hope of repair. One is a heroin addict, another suffers from severe PTSD and the other is paralyzed. But they’re together again and the sex trafficking ring was exposed.”

“So you think it’s sex trafficking?” Will posed, after a moment of pondering what to ask.

“I’m not sure what else it could be.” You shook your head, keeping your gaze fixed on the road. “Other than a power trip for Chase to stroke his god complex.”

“I’m going to need directions to your apartment.” He said. “So just, let me know where to turn when we’re getting close.”

“Sure.” You nodded, fairly sure he was asking for directions on purpose as to not use the GPS. “Take a right when you get to Euclid Drive and then it’s a straight shot down Chandler Street. I can tell you when to stop.”

Will followed your instructions and soon enough you pulled up in front of your apartment complex.

“Try to be quick, okay?” He said as you opened the door. “Only take what you need.”

You hurried up the stairs, unlocked your door and found a large enough bag. You tore into your dresser, stuffing handfuls of random clothes into the bag. You moved on to the bathroom and slid everything on top of the sink into the bag. You shoved your laptop and its charger into the bag. That was probably everything.

After making sure to triple check the locks on your way out, you returned to Will’s car. You shoved the bag in the backseat and pulled yourself into the car like you’d just robbed a bank.

“Alright, I’m all set.” You slammed the door shut. “Let’s go.”

He put the car in reverse. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

You decided to play dumb. “Oh, I usually travel light anyway.”

“I mean, putting your trust in me.” He specified. “I know you didn’t have much choice, but still. I can’t imagine how scary this must be for you.”

You doubted that, but you kept it to yourself. “I appreciate you saying that. For the sake of transparency, I think I should tell you that I definitely feel safe around you.”

“You don’t have to say that.” He shook his head. “You watched me shoot someone dead tonight. I wouldn’t blame you if you were scared-”

“I’m not lying.” You interrupted. “I can’t explain it, and maybe it’s just because you saved my life, but I... I trust you.”

“You figured this out from a few hours?” he said, skeptically.

“In my defense,” You began. “It’s been a very eventful few hours.”

The car came to a stop as the light turned red. Will examined your profile. “You’ve lived more lives in the last six hours than most people live over the course of years.”

“But my last six hours is your life.” You countered. “So what does that say about you?”

“That I understand you.” Will fixed his eyes back on the road. “Maybe you’re just a little bit too much like me.”

You tilted your head onto the window and watched the lights roll by. You felt yourself beginning to doze off when a familiar sound filled the silent car.

It’s a long story, but one you’ve never heard before. This story is about a place that dwells in the mountain. A place where bad things happen.

You turned your head and looked at Will with a smile.

“What?” He laughed softly. “We have a long drive ahead of us.”

You closed your eyes, letting yourself relax in the presence of this familiar stranger and the comforting thriller. You only opened them again when Will gently shook you awake.

“Hey.” He whispered, watching you struggle against sleep. “We’re here.”

You tried to pull yourself awake but instead found a slightly more comfortable position and shut your eyes again.

He put his hand on your shoulder and shook a little harder. “I made up the couch for you. I promise it’s more comfortable than the car.”

This time, you forced your eyes awake. Any flat surface that wasn’t made of thumbtacks sounded inviting to you. You pushed the passenger’s door open and wobbled on your legs.

“Let me just grab my shit-” You mumbled, feeling around for the handle.

“It’s already taken care of.” Will told you, locking the car. He draped your arm over his shoulders and guided you towards the house. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”

#will graham x you #will graham x reader #hannigram x reader #hannibal x reader x will #hannibal x you #hannibal x you x will #the sommelier #tw addiction #tw substances

140 notes · View notes

shades-of-stony · 3 years

Text

Heavy Angst (And Not-So-Heavy but Still Angsty) Stony Fanfics!

I’m absolutely love a good Tony whump and hurt story so prepare to see a lot of those here! Get your tissues ready!

Push by phoenixreal

Summary: Tony Stark was known for pissing people off, it was a given. Then, after the man everyone thought was nothing more than a selfish prick decided to nearly kill himself saving Manhattan from a nuclear bomb, even the most sure of Tony's bastard status had to rethink it. And then, his team who were sure they had him pegged, they were invited (ordered) to move into Stark Tower with him. To their surprise, they found he had furnished full floors for each of them, somehow knowing their tastes exactly, including a floor dedicated to the resident Asgardian who would only be there some of the time. Surprised, and please, they all wonder at the enigma that is their host. After a couple months, Pepper Potts stops coming around so much, and they realize that something has exchanged between them because they are rather professional to each other. Pepper still frets over Tony, but instead tells the others to keep an eye on him rather than doing it herself. They easily forget that Tony is, and always has been, simply a human civilian. Then things get strange when they find themselves locked down within Stark tower, and after a harrowing viewing of a mysterious video, they find their resident playboy is completely gone.

Note: Prepare to cry and be hurt! This fanfic dabbles with Tony’s insecurity, self-worth, and issues. Please heed the warnings!

The words you choose to say by masterlokisev159

Summary: After the SHRA, the events around Steve’s death and Tony discovering he deleted part of his brain, Tony finally decides he's done enough. With Osborn taken care of, Tony leaves the Avengers and decides to quit being Ironman effective immediately.

He tells himself it doesn't hurt when Steve agrees. Why should it? After everything he's done, the team's better off without him.

However before he can truly move on, there are things he needs to take care of, and it's not long before he realizes he's dangerously close to losing his company. He's desperate and willing to do anything to keep it together.

So when, after months of silence, Steve asks him to drop everything and come work for Shield, Tony finds he doesn't have a choice. He agrees, no matter how much he knows he shouldn't. His reputation isn't exactly the best after the SHRA and he's heard stories of what he'd done as Director. He's knows what he's done. He's knows he's responsible for what happened to Steve.

He just wishes someone had warned him first. He hadn't been prepared to deal with the consequences.

Note: A 1000/10 angst fanfic that made me weep at 3 am in the morning. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. READ IT AND PREPARE TO CRY BUCKETS

Protocol SOTERIA by GoldenFinches

Summary: Friday's primary objective at all times is to protect one Anthony Edward Stark. And she will fulfill that objective no matter what it takes. Even if it means including certain people she thought she would never have to deal with again.

(Basically the Rogue Avengers get some sense knocked into them with the help of Friday and handful of videos.)

Note: A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ANGSTY FANFIC. I CRIED SO MUCH READING THIS.

Straight to Voicemail by YouMakeMeDokiDoki

Summary: "I DID!" Tony screamed, cutting Steve off mid-sentence and whirling around to glare at him.

"I CALLED YOU! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"

The one where no one answered their phone and things got out of hand.

Note: this will absolutely break you heart.

Sunshine and Luck by ImportedfromMunich2

Summary: Months after Siberia, Steve and the rest of the defectors are pardoned and allowed back onto the Avengers, with the help of Tony Stark. Now that they're back - nothing is the same as before. Tony is even avoiding Steve at all costs.

Then one night - Tony barges into Steve's bedroom while he sleeps, and they have spontaneous, passionate sex.

Only, the Tony Stark he just fucked isn't from this universe.

Now, Steve has to find a way to explain to Tony that he had sex with his counterpart from another dimension.

Note: A good Steve whump fic!

When You Mess With Him... by REM_It_Up

Summary: During an event with the Avengers, Tony is kidnapped by an unknown group of men right in front of the team. The group who took Tony taunt the Avengers by leaving small clues to Tony's whereabouts. When the kidnappers finally get in contact with the team, they are forced to watch Tony get tortured on camera.

The Avengers desperately search for their missing friend before they never see him again.

The kidnappers are smart and fast, they have everything figured out in order to get away with their plan...They just forgot one thing--

Colonel James Rhodes

Note: Now this is really heavy! Brace yourselves for a kidnapped and tortured tony! Also, protective honey bear aka Rhodey bonus here!

To Need is Not To Want by Brixon

Summary: All his life Tony has been used as a means to someone's end. Always someone's tool in a game. Carelessly thrown aside, once they had no longer use of him. He keeps it bottled up because, because he's Tony Stark. But he's always had this desire that one day someone would come who would stay because they wanted and needed him. He thought he had that with the Avengers, but after everything with the Accords and everyone leaving after Civil War that hope of having something of his to stay was gone.

Despite being burned constantly, Tony still has this wanting. So when Ryder, an old college friend, comes back into his life and actually seems to want to stay because he wants AND needs Tony, Tony is beyond thrilled. Because Ryder is staying. It doesn't matter if the bruises stay too.

But what happens when the Avengers return and Tony finds himself wondering once again exactly what he wants and what he needs.

Note: I’m sure, from the summary, you can tell that it’s a heartbreak here.

Hiding Things Is All Too Easy - Until It Isn't by audhds

Summary: Tony hasn't been the same since Bucky arrived at Stark Tower. That much is obvious. But Steve is overjoyed to have his best friend back and is somewhat oblivious to how Tony is withdrawing away from him. Because surely Tony is just overworked as usual. He must be quiet and jumpy because he is sleep deprived. And of course he has a few cuts and bruises on the visible parts of his skin - he fights and works for the Avengers as a living. It's part of the job description. Until it isn't.

Will Steve discover the physical and mental trauma that Tony is going through before it is too late?

Note: This is even heavier! Please read the tags carefully! Also, this has some serious Bucky bashing! If you are a Bucky fan but still interested in this, please prepare yourself.

No Trait As Much As This by KandiSheek

Summary: Tony gets hit with truth serum. It's a terrible time for everyone.

Note: A bit lighter than the others but still angst nonetheless. The added truth serum element makes this even more interesting!

Good For You by @orbingarrow

Summary: Steve doesn't understand why Tony dates people who abuse him. Tony doesn't understand why Steve cares.

The rest is bad choices, good choices, rehab, milkshakes, paintball, YouTube videos, couples therapy and learning to put the past in the past. Or: How Tony finds his happy ending.

Note: Another Tony-in-abusive-relationships fanfic!!

hold the things you wanna say by SailorChibi

Summary: Tony is still a consultant, and between SI, the team and SHIELD he's overworked and exhausted. That's okay.

He and Steve have been having sex for weeks but that's all it is, just sex, and Tony wants more but he'll never get it and that's okay. Really.

What's not okay is the fact that Howard Stark has somehow appeared in the future and is the same as always.

This is definitely going to fuck up his schedule.

Note: Anyone up for some Howard-travels-to-the-future fanfic?

Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies by MemoryDragon

Summary: Seven-year-old Tony Stark wakes up on a Hydra base, lost, afraid, and alone. He has to overcome his fears before it's too late for the Avengers and Captain America.

Note: De-aged Tony just screams heavy angst and hurt!

Advanced Protocol by masterlokisev159

Summary: The Incursions are coming. The Illuminati have surrendered and everyone has come together to take one last stand.

Everyone except Tony. And Steve is tired of waiting. He wants answers.

There's something the Illuminati aren't telling him.

Note: If you don’t know what the Avalon is in Marvel, I recommend you search it up, or you could read this fic. You will be heartbroken with what you find.

Flower Child by itsallAvengers

Summary: The point was this, though:

In a hundred million universes, in a hundred million different lives, there would never be a single one of them in which Tony Stark deserved anyone like Steve Rogers. Ever.

So this? Nonsensical.

Note: Another fanfic that highlights child abuse and Tony’s insecurities!

What Pays All Debts by KandiSheek

Summary: No one is supposed to survive the date written on their skin. And yet Tony's numbers keep piling up.

Note: Angst + Death dates? You could probably foretell how much of a gut-wrench journey this is.

Falling Into You by sabrecmc

Summary: Tony and Steve end up as fuck buddies after the events of The Winter Soldier until Steve calls it off. When Loki's spell wipes all of Steve's memories since the last time Loki was in town, Tony decides it will be so much easier to just not tell Steve they had something of a relationship. Spoiler: It isn't.

Or, how Steve fell in love with Tony and forgot about it, and how Tony fell in love with Steve and realized it.

Note: There are just something about amnesia fanfics that makes it so goddamn heartbreaking.

Art Freaks and Comic Geeks by Coil

Summary: Tony Stark had made himself a phenomenally renowned writer. The world had fallen in love with the heroes that appeared in his novels; captivated by his vivid words of life and colour.

His next ambition was to publish a comic book series starring the much-beloved heroes of his novels. There was just one problem. Brilliant as Tony may have been with his words, his skills in the field of drawing were less than great. It didn’t help that he barely knew what his characters ought to look like in the first place.

Enter: Mister Steve Rogers – an up-and-coming artist/illustrator with the potential to be brilliant.

Their paths happen to cross at Comic-Con.

Note: this is a much lighter angsty fanfic but is still angsty. It is a Modern AU mixed with Artist!Steve and Writer!Tony.

Unwritten Endings by XtaticPearl

Summary: Tony takes the bullet meant for Captain America at the end of their war and through his death, brings together the team again. Only, he isn't really dead and when he comes back, the equations between the team-mates begin to alter and reform, writing a new story altogether.

Note: Of course, you can’t have an angst fanfic rec without a fake death fanfic!

WIP

Need Is Just A Word by masterlokisev159

Summary: A month has gone by since the war and Tony has never felt more alone. of course, with the unrest within the government, the disappearance of the Avengers and the obvious lack of Steve Rogers, it was only a matter of time before the UN finally flipped out and decided to act on the last available Avenger. Too bad they didn't realise a promise had been made by Captain America to be there when Iron man needed him.

Note: a gut-wrenching Post CA:CW fanfic where tony is suffering the consequences of the civil war.

Take me out tonight by masterlokisev159

Summary: When Steve gets invited to a formal party with the government, Fury tells him he can bring a plus one of his choosing. While listening quietly in the corner, Tony heaves a sigh of relief because the team could really do with some positive publicity and any of the Avengers are a good choice for Steve. Tony just wants Steve to be happy after all, even if he knows Steve's gonna pick Natasha. He knows Steve doesn't like him and he's aware there's never going to be anything more between them. They're barely even friends really.

So of course he's absolutely shocked when a gold filigree letter rests in his palms two days later. He's the worst person for this.

Why on earth did Steve choose him?

Note: AHHHHHHHH, INSECURE TONY IS JUST A FAVORITE. Also, confident!Steve that knows who he wants is just a whole new mood!

The Soul Stone's Sacrifice by masterlokisev159

The soul stone demands a sacrifice that Tony and Steve are not prepared for, but in the end, one life is sacrificed for the many. Steve lets Tony go for the last time and mourns a future they never had.

That is until Tony comes back.

Note: A scenario where Tony and Steve where the ones to go to Vormir.

#stony #stony fic #stony fic rec #steve and tony #steve and tony fic #stony au #stony angst #superhusbands #stony fics #stony fanfiction

106 notes · View notes

taexual · 4 years

Text

i’d love you to stay but that’s simply insane // JJK (19)

jungkook is an uncontrollable lead vocalist of the campus band, and you’re a goal-oriented top student that’s known his rich and complicated family since childhood. you don’t want anything to do with each other, until each other is exactly what you want to do.

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college au

warnings: suggestive themes, some angst

words: 7.7k

chapter nineteen

You expected Jungkook to skip class the next Monday morning because neither of you had gotten enough proper sleep this weekend, but, surprising you, he was standing outside of your dormitory even though it was barely light outside, holding two coffees in his hands, and smiling.

Squinting at him suspiciously, you waited for an explanation why he looked so excited to be awake at seven in the morning – not to mention, why he got up early to get you and him coffee, and then showed up at your dormitory in time to catch you leave.

“I just wanted to go to class together with my girlfriend,” Jungkook said simply enough, emphasizing the last word.

“You’re lying,” you said, still watching him intently but accepting his coffee nevertheless. You almost considered yourself overly paranoid as soon as you took a sip of the blissful beverage, but Jungkook’s smile widened.

“Okay, fine,” he said, unable to hold it in much longer. “Yoongi told me something last night and I’d been looking forward to talking to you about it, so I’m still on a high.”

“Did you sleep at all?”

“No—listen. We got an out-of-town gig,” he said, his eyes glittering so bright, some of the street lamps nearby flickered awkwardly, intimidated. “It’s the first one. Apparently, the manager of some club or event hall—I don’t know—was visiting a relative on campus this Friday, and they saw us play. It’s next weekend. I want you to come with me.”

“Tha—that’s great, wow. I’m proud of you,” you said and you did mean it but, at the same time, you felt worried.

Jungkook had abandoned Parental Advisory right before the encore last Friday. What if some inane force got into his head and made him ditch the show again? He was obviously still not used to the consequences of his actions since, most of the time, he miraculously came out of every mess alive.

“You’re all very excited, I don’t doubt,” you said, choosing your words carefully, “but, uh… are you sure about this?”

You could see some of the initial joy fade away from his face after your question, and your mind immediately awarded you with a mental kick.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, last Friday—” you tried but Jungkook cut in as if he’d guessed that this was going to be the direction in which your conversation turned.

“No, don’t,” he said hurriedly, not wanting you to say another word about how much frustration he’d caused his bandmates. “We’re fine. We’re family, we don’t fight long.”

You nodded empathetically – or so you hoped – and tried again, “I was just saying that you—”

“I’m fine,” he cut you off again, still smiling patiently even though his voice was inching closer to the edge with each hesitant word that came out of your mouth. “You’ll be there with me. I’ll be fine.”

The confidence in his tone was infectious, however.

He said he’d be fine. You weren’t going to insist and make him doubt himself, not when he was voicelessly asking you to trust him.

“I hadn’t technically said yes,” you pointed out instead, more to tease him than anything else.

Jungkook replied, tongue-in-cheek, “I asked as a courtesy. I’m kidnapping you if you don’t agree to come with me.”

Relieved that the tension seemed to dissipate after you decided not to shove your worries on him and maybe even push them away from your own shoulders, too, the two of you started to walk towards the building where your class was going to take place.

“You always take my choices away from me,” you told him, a playful smile still on your lips. “Let me make a decision.”

Jungkook nearly froze, feeling the hairs on the nape of his neck stand up. He saw your face and could recognize that you were just playing around, not really trying to tell him that you were offended, but your words, joking or not, still hit a painful, throbbing spot inside of his mind.

He was using your feelings for him to get you to do what he wanted. He was doing it again. Even despite his mother’s concerns about his influence on you seven years ago. Even despite you both being adults now.

“I wasn’t—I… I just didn’t want you to make the wrong choice,” he said, browsing through dozens of lame excuses and choosing the one that made him sound the least like an asshole.

You knew he wasn’t an asshole. That was why you didn’t get upset when he told you that you were coming before you got a chance to accept his offer.

Still, wanting him to open up and explain what was going on inside of his head, you wondered aloud, “what’s the wrong choice here? Me, not going with you?”

“Yes,” Jungkook answered, not hesitating but looking down at the gravel underneath his boots, “I need you there with me,” that didn’t sound right. He corrected himself with an awkward chuckle – as if to reduce the strength of his next words, “I always need you with me. That’s why I didn’t wait for you to—”

“Well, say it like that, then,” you asked in a voice that was almost as impatient as your heart, who’d suddenly decided it wanted to leap out of your chest and take a walk around campus. “I’ll never say no.”

His face lit up. “Is that a promise?”

You responded to him by smiling and then looked away, letting him know, “absolutely not.”

“What?” the boy blinked, suddenly lost in his translation of your language. “You just said—!”

“You’re a shithead with unreadable intentions,” you told him kindly. “I can’t promise to always say yes to everything you do. But if you actually ask—”

“Okay,” he gave in, accepting your condition because you were making a good point. “I’m asking now.”

You nodded, appreciating that he did ask, after all, even though it’d all been decided already.

“I’ll come,” you said.

Jungkook smiled – genuinely now, not looking for ways to tease you or fool around anymore – and exhaled heavily to show you an exaggerated version of how relieved he was to hear this.

“Thank you,” he said. “I love you.”

The confession was supposed to be the new normal, but your heart was still on a field-trip, your heartbeat echoing all over your body as you smiled back. “I love you, too.”

The first time you saw Inna since she left last Friday, was when you got home from class on Monday. She heard you come in but, contrary to what you’d expected, she didn’t greet you by the door, demanding to know what had happened over the weekend.

Instead, you found her sitting by her desk, turned over in her chair as she was facing the door of the bedroom, a smirk on her face.

Automatically, you felt your own lips stretch into a smile as you entered the room, asking, “what?”

“Should I prepare for a third roommate to move in with us?” she asked, taking enormous pleasure in the way you sat down on the bed and purposefully turned away from her to unpack your bag.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you replied, hoping to sound nonchalant but, judging from the way Inna snorted, probably sounding desperate to change the topic. “Did you have a good weekend?”

“Oh, I did,” she replied, her face still adorning a Cheshire Cat’s grin. “But I bet it was nothing like the weekend you’d had.”

Pursing your lips because you couldn’t help but feel yourself respond to her cheerful expression with a smile, you asked, “will you stop looking at me like that?”

“I absolutely won’t,” she replied, “not until you tell me every detail.”

“You don’t want every detail…”

The way your sentence faded made Inna gasp. She jumped from her chair abruptly and threw herself across the room, landing on her stomach right next to you, on your bed, her legs flying up from the floor in excitement.

“Oh, like hell, I do!” she exclaimed, drumming on your thigh with her palms as she waited for you to stop digging around your bag and finally give her something. “Come on, I’m starving here. Feed me.”

Almost laughing, you allowed Inna to grab your bag out of your hands and shove it away, out of your reach.

“Did you hear how that sounded?” you asked as you lied down on the bed next to her.

“Unfortunately, I did,” she countered, “because you won’t start talking. Come on! I know you want to.”

You did want to. But, unfortunately for your dignity, you also wanted to giggle uncontrollably and your roommate’s encouragement wasn’t helping your restraint.

“I won’t be able to say one sentence if you keep looking at me like that,” you warned her.

Inna had a solution for everything, turning away from you as she talked you through her plan, “Talk to my back. I promise I’ll stay quiet. Well, no, actually, I can’t promise that, but I promise I will definitely hear you out until the end before I start screaming.”

In fact, she did not.

You could hear her supportive whining and flapping of her feet as soon as you told her about how you found Jungkook outside of your dorm room when you returned from the barbecue. Her response to your story kept growing louder, and, before you were through with the re-telling of the conversation you’d had with Jungkook this morning, she was nearly shrieking, making it impossible for you to quit beaming.

Even when you expressed your concern about Jungkook’s tense relationship with his bandmates, Inna responded in a way that supported your joyful state of mind and made all of your anxiety seem unnecessary and over-the-top.

“This is it,” she declared, triumphant. She still wasn’t looking at you. “You’re really together this time and there’s nothing that can happen to ruin that.”

“Famous last words, Inna.”

“Oh, please,” she turned on her back, looking at you through her eyelashes. “You’ve reached the limit of the curveballs the universe can throw at you. You’re fine now.”

You felt a natural instinct to argue – it was like a rudimentary reaction to anything that promised you a good future: you had to find every way in which something could go wrong so you’d be prepared once it inevitably did – but you swallowed it, nodding instead.

“Yeah,” you agreed, choosing to live in the moment because it was too precious to just let it pass. “We’re fine now.”

Coincidentally – marking the beginning of a new period in your life – something almost unbelievable happened on the day of the Parental Advisory performance.

Because a gig out-of-town was, obviously, a huge deal for a band that had only performed locally before, Jungkook brought it up to his parents.

He did it offhandedly, almost as a last-minute way to let them know that he was finally advancing in more than one aspect of his life. And also, to spite his father who’d called his band a “hobby”.

But, surprising him to the moon and back, his parents asked if they could come and watch him play.

And so, they were here, inside of the venue, exploring the poorly lit and barely furnished event hall, and not being any more judgmental than they usually were.

“It starts at eight, right?” Jungkook’s mother asked you, since her son was backstage with the band, dealing with the lighting. “Maybe we could sneak in some dinner before the show.”

“Oh, actually, the band is planning to go out for some food together,” you said, unsure if the invitation extended to parents – and doubting it very much, considering the name of the group – but still feeling like it wouldn’t be polite to not invite them. “Maybe you could—”

“No, we won’t intrude,” Jungkook’s father replied this time. “We’ll meet you here after. Eight o’clock sharp. Although, being sharp doesn’t matter much at events like these, right?”

He smiled, waiting for your supportive laughter, but you could barely muster up a chuckle.

He’d said it like he was about to watch a street performer break dance outside of an opera house – like it was a form of art that was universally acknowledged, but it didn’t hold any meaning in the larger context of art – and you had to fight your sense of justice so you wouldn’t correct him.

Jungkook may have been reckless and, sure, he may not have finished a show one time – that you knew of – because he got wasted instead, but you’d never heard of a Parental Advisory performance that did not start exactly on time. Inna had used this argument to convince you to get into them a dozen times before: the members respected their audience, they didn’t think of this as a joke.

“Yes, eight o’clock,” you said, the same polite smile frozen on your face. “Jungkook is really looking forward to this.”

“He should be looking—”

“We are, too,” his mother stepped in, bringing a hand to your shoulder and squeezing it gently – a gesture meant to make up for her husband’s immediate response about what Jungkook should have been looking forward to. “We’ll see you later tonight.”

You nodded and followed after them so you could see them out of the venue – not that this was your responsibility, but it felt like the right thing to do since their son wasn’t here – except someone grabbed your hand right after you reached the exit. Gasping in shock, you turned around to see the son in question, grinning at you.

Fighting off the surprise, you looked back to see his parents walk out of the venue and then narrowed your eyes at Jungkook as you inquired, “were you waiting for your parents to leave before you came out?”

“Yes,” he admitted, shameless. “Sorry I had to use you to keep them company.”

“It’s fine, they’re nice people,” you said and then added teasingly, “you should hang out with them sometime. I think they’d like you.”

Jungkook gave you a look full of skepticism. “I could hear my dad basically call my band useless from all the way over there.”

“He—” you started, but then realized that defending his father would have meant lying to Jungkook, so you sighed instead. “Yeah. He just doesn’t see what this is all about, I guess. Have your parents ever watched you perform before?”

“What do you think?” he asked, nervously tugging on your hand – that he kept on holding – as a reflexive reaction whenever the topic turned to his family.

You nodded knowingly.

“So, this will be their first time,” you said. “They’ll come around. Well, your dad will. Your mom seemed excited.”

“About the show?” Jungkook asked, lifting up your hand and intertwining your fingers, “or about the fact that you’re here with me?”

You smiled, unable to help it. “Both?”

“No, that can’t be it,” he countered, taking one remaining step to close the distance between you. He dropped your hand on his shoulder and wrapped his arms around your waist. “No one’s more excited about having you here than me.”

You ignored your racing pulse and played along, “are you sure? Because I’m pretty excited. I was even thinking of getting one of those ‘I’m with the band’ t-shirts that I remember your groupies wearing.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened in humor. “My groupies?”

You shook your head in a chastising manner. “Don’t act so surprised.”

“That’s not surprise, that’s indifference,” he spoke and, even though he was clearly using his lines on you again, the smell of his cologne when he stood so close to you, pressing your body against his, was too intoxicating for you to call him out on it. “And, in any case, I’d like to see you wear something else entirely.”

“Hmm? What’s that?”

Jungkook leaned in closer until you could feel his breath on the nape of your neck as he whispered, “nothing at all.”

Almost jumping in surprise as a wave of excited shivers ran down your spine at his words, you squeezed his bicep in a warning manner and chuckled. If Jungkook didn’t know you better, he’d have thought you sounded nervous when you spoke again.

“Don’t forget where are are,” you reminded him as he hummed against your neck, pressing several gentle, butterfly kisses on your tender skin. “Your bandmates are right behind that wall—”

“Are they?” Jungkook asked, pulling away enough to look at you but not enough to give you any space to breathe as his forehead lingered mere millimetres away from yours. “Maybe we should do a soundcheck of our own, make sure they can really hear us?”

You watched him with parted lips and he cherished in rendering you speechless so much, he couldn’t help the smirk that spread on his face right before he leaned in to kiss you.

Sighing – mostly in defeat because, clearly, he’d succeeded and you weren’t going to protest much anymore – you tightened your grip on his shirt as you kissed him back.

Jungkook had very much forgotten where he was as soon as he felt the softness of your lips against his and, taking a few steps forwards until your back hit the wall, he used the element of surprise to his own advantage as he deepened the kiss, trapping your body between his and the wall.

Both of you could hear muffled noises, coming from somewhere in the venue, but just like before – in his childhood bedroom or in the hallway of your dormitory – you were too far gone to care about any noise – or anything at all – that wasn’t literally right in front of you.

He kissed you like he had a point to prove, like the performance he’d come here for wasn’t going to begin at eight, but it began now. And he gave his all, pulling you closer and tightening his grip on your waist as his fingertips crept down to your belt to pull out the turtleneck that you’d carefully tucked into your jeans this morning.

Wanting to touch you, not just your clothes, he evidently couldn’t have cared less about your relative exposure to the rest of the venue, as he pulled out your sweater and sneaked his hands underneath. As soon as his fingers felt the warmth of your skin, he exhaled into the kiss, forcing you to grasp his shirt harder.

You knew of Jungkook’s abilities when it came to mood swings – the boy could climb from zero to one-hundred in under a second, that was nothing to him – but the unexpected lust and the intense passion of his kisses still took all of your breath away as you held onto him, not making any requests to slow down or take a break even if your lungs were starting to ache.

“Oi!” a voice called out suddenly. Jungkook didn’t even flinch, kissing you harder, if anything. “You need to tune in your—nevermind. Just hurry up and come backstage, will you?”

Jungkook made no sound of acknowledgement whatsoever, too focused on the task at hand and too lost in the feeling of your lips to worry about anything else, so you were the one who had to pull away, your lips smacking against his as you broke the kiss. When he opened his eyes, Jungkook looked almost offended.

“They’re waiting for you,” you told him, breathing heavily as if you were recovering from finishing first at a marathon. He looked at you as if you spoke a different language. You tried, “the band?”

“They can—”

“We don’t have the whole day!” his member called out again – you couldn’t see which one it was because Jungkook still refused to pull away – and you heard him open the door to return backstage. He shouted at Jungkook again before leaving, “but you do your thing! Not like a lead vocalist is that hard to replace.”

Jungkook rolled his eyes at the last part and you felt yourself smile softly, nodding your head in the direction of the stage.

“Go,” you encouraged. “I’ll go sightsee.”

He raised his eyebrows. “And leave me here?”

“You have a soundcheck to get to.”

“Yeah,” Jungkook said, grinning again as he leaned in to press a soft kiss right below your jawline. He pulled away far enough to add, “with you.”

You half-laughed, half-exhaled as he peppered gentle kisses down your neck.

“Not that kind of—Jungkook,” your voice did not sound nearly as stern as you wanted it to; even your hands seemed limp as you tried to push him off of yourself and gain some space to breathe, “seriously.”

He reacted to your rejection in the way he always did – by taking a step away from you and giving you an almost mournful look, “you are pushing me away. That is unacceptable.”

“You have more important matters right now,” you told him.

“I do not,” he insisted childishly.

“You do,” you repeated and then, pushing yourself off the wall, you placed your hands on his shoulders as you attempted to turn his resistant frame around, “go. I’ll come back in time for the dinner.”

Jungkook allowed you to push him towards the door to the back of the stage, but he still whined dramatically in a last-ditch attempt to tug at your heart-strings, “I don’t want you to leave.”

“You act like you’re five years old sometimes,” you told him and then added, less seriously, “I’ll see you soon. Be a good boy and behave.”

“Oh, behave,” he repeated, intrigued now. You stopped in front of the door and released your grip on his shoulders, allowing him to turn to face you. The twinkling lights in his eyes were challenging as he asked, “will I get a reward if I behave?”

“Yes,” you said, “your reward will be not getting your ass handed to you by your members. Now go.”

You gave him one last nod towards the door and then a reassuring smile, too, because the boy was pouting as if this was his first day in kindergarten; you felt ridiculous and he was absolutely using that to win more of your love.

You were about to turn around to leave when Jungkook suddenly leaped forwards, taking your hand and stopping you.

“You’re leaving without kissing me goodbye?” he asked, looking almost outraged. “Your audacity is just—”

You pressed your lips to his abruptly, shutting him up before he could proceed any further with this game, and then pulled away as soon as you felt his grip on you tighten; Jungkook was losing his sense of reality again.

Not saying anything else, you used his disappointed reaction as a way to get your hand out of his without him stopping you, and then, with a quick wave, you jogged towards the door. When you turned to glance at him one more time before you left, Jungkook was still standing there, shaking his head and smiling at the ground.

You‘d checked Google Maps before arriving to get acquainted with the area and, as it turned out, you didn't have to look very far to find an activity to occupy yourself with, because right across the street from the venue, was a horror book store that Namjoon had told you about before, back when you were working on your Sociology project.

Snapping a quick picture of the exterior of the store, you texted it to Namjoon to let him know you visited it, and went inside to explore.

The space was small, with barely enough room for two people to pass each other, but it was paradise for every horror fan. Not only did it contain books – many of them first editions, no less! – but also old DVDs and promotional movie posters. Actually, you thought you even saw a few VHS tapes hidden behind some books, too.

Canceling your plans to explore the rest of the city, you made a split-second decision to spend the few hours before the dinner here. And you didn't regret not going anywhere else – the several books and movies that you‘d bought seemed like a great purchase and you were satisfied.

However, as you headed for the restaurant where the band was supposed to meet up for dinner, you felt weirdly worried. It was Jungkook who‘d sent you the address of the restaurant, but he sent you four texts of it, and you were concerned that no one else was going to show up because he‘d only informed you – four times – and forgot about everyone else.

As it turned out, that wasn't what you should have been worried about.

In fact, at first, you didn't think there was anything worth worrying about at all. You saw the boys seated at a table outside, underneath a large parasol, laughing and having drinks. Jungkook noticed you first and he stood up to meet you on the steps of the patio.

“Heyyy,” he said as soon as he saw you, drawing out the y’s for what felt like three whole seconds.

You lifted your eyebrows but chose not to make a comment. “Hi. Did you order yet?”

“No, we were waiting for you,” he explained, putting a hand around your shoulders to guide you towards the table. He didn’t duck when you two walked past the narrow space between two tables and nearly got his eye taken out by a parasol rod. “Oh, wow! Now that—that could have killed me.”

“It could have blinded you,” you said, giving him a long look, “how would it kill you?”

Laughing instead of replying – because, apparently, you had just made a joke – Jungkook helped you into your seat and took one right next to you. When he turned to take your glass and fill it with champagne – the waiter had left three bottles on the table; one of which was already empty – you got to take a closer look at him and realized with horror that his red eyes were definitely not a sign of having had too much champagne.

“So, how was the soundcheck?” you asked, looking at the other members of his group – which was a mistake because Jungkook wasn’t aware of how much champagne was too much, and it ended up spilling out of your glass and pouring all over the table. “Careful—! Jungkook, why—let me. I’ll do it.”

He was laughing again and apologizing as he clumsily tried to clean up the mess on the table with the sleeve of his jacket. Gently pushing him back into his chair by his shoulder, you grabbed a few napkins and tried to soak up the liquid that hadn’t seeped into the tablecloth yet.

The rest of the group wanted to help – a chorus of belated “oh!”’s sounded around the table – and, even though you expected them to be about as useful as Jungkook, they proved to be a lot more in touch with their surroundings.

“The soundcheck,” Jungkook said, pinching his thumb and index finger and kissing it like a chef, while everyone else around the table cleaned, “was great. We’ll have an unforgettable night.”

You saw Taehyung giggle and gave him an inquisitive look – one that proved to be more threatening than you’d intended, because the boy blinked and stopped smiling as soon as he caught your eye – prompting him to explain.

“We had a quick, little smoke before we came here,” Taehyung said and then nodded his head at Jungkook, “him a little more than the rest of us.”

From the way it seemed, the smoke Jungkook had had was nor quick, nor little – he was swinging on the back legs of his chair as he sipped champagne; a second later, he lost his balance and would have fallen over if you hadn’t been standing next to him.

Hearing his alarmed gulp and seeing the chair freewheel backwards, you stopped and pushed it towards the table with your thigh and Jungkook burst into laughter.

“You are my lifesaver,” he declared and would have probably burst into a solo round of applause if the waiter hadn’t distracted him by bringing the appetizers.

“Is he going to be able to perform like this?” you asked, sitting back down. You glanced at Jungkook and noticed his preoccupation with the shrimp on the plate in front of him. “He probably doesn’t even realize where he is.”

“We still have a few hours,” Taehyung replied. “He’ll be fine.”

You bit the inside of your cheek as you watched the boy next to you indulge on everything that was on the table at the moment – it seemed like he would have gladly tried to take a bite out of the glass bottle of champagne, too, that’s how little attention he was paying to the things he was putting into his mouth – and you tried to find the reason why he decided to get high before a show that his parents were going to attend.

But then, perhaps, that was precisely it. This was a concert like none he’s done before in more ways than one: not only was it off-campus but it was also going to be the first time that his parents would see him sing live. So, however ridiculous it was to say this about someone as confident as Jungkook, but he must have been nervous.

“Maybe it’d be a good idea for him to—” you started to say but half of a breadstick was shoved at your face before you could finish.

“Try this!” Jungkook insisted, waiting eagerly for you to open your mouth as if he was going to feed you ambrosia itself. “It’s brilliant.”

Worried about what he would do if you refused, you parted your lips and allowed him to feed you the breadstick. He waited patiently while you chewed and then smiled proudly when you gave him a nod and a weak smile.

“I could have a hundred of them,” he announced then and, judging from the dedicated glint in his eye, he was planning to do just that.

“Is that normal?” you asked his members again, nodding your head towards Jungkook as he stuffed his face with breadsticks.

“What, his love for bread?” Hoseok replied this time, snickering. “Surprisingly, yeah. It becomes more prominent when he’s high. He once ate an entire loaf in one sitting.”

The other boys burst into giggles – thus, reminding you that they weren’t sober, either – and you exhaled slowly, realizing now that this dinner was going to be a particularly long one.

You’d hoped that by the end of your main course Jungkook would be back to his normal self, but that was not the case at all. In fact, his high didn’t wear off even when you returned to the venue after the dinner.

With less than an hour left to the show, Jungkook was dozing off backstage, harmonizing under his breath and dropping the microphone in shock when you entered, closing the door a little too loudly for his overly-sensitive ears.

“Oh!” he exclaimed matter-of-factly before leaning down to pick the microphone up, all while ignoring the scolding of audio engineers. “You’re right on time—listen to this.”

You stopped a few steps away from him and watched as Jungkook put his microphone to his lips before he opened his mouth to grunt and release other low, gruff sounds, coming from somewhere deep in his throat, that made him sound like a cat, choking on a ball of fur.

He looked immensely pleased with himself when he finished the impromptu concerto. Raising his eyebrows, he awaited your reaction.

“That’s good,” you said, mentally calculating if there was enough time left to push him into a cold shower. “You’re all set for your audition to join an a cappella group.”

“An a capp—no, I’m not joining—wait, do you think I should?” he asked, sounding terrifyingly genuine.

You heard the door open and close behind you, but Jungkook leaped forwards before you could turn around and embrace the distraction.

“Hey, Yoongi, listen to this—!” Jungkook said and was about to repeat his previous demonstration, but you decided this was enough.

Pulling on the sleeve of his shirt, you cut him off and, ignoring his surprised yelp, you dragged him towards the communal bathroom on the other end of the changing room.

“Hey!” Yoongi called out after you. “Where are you taking him? The show’s in forty-five minutes!”

“He needs a cold shower,” you called back, not bothering to stop or turn around, “or he will perform his rendition of a hairball being stuck in his throat on stage.”

Yoongi didn’t question you further – he’d regained enough of his rationality to understand why that’d be a bad way to start the show – and, a second later, you were already pushing Jungkook into the shower stall, still fully dressed. He hadn’t changed into his stage clothes yet, so you didn’t think it mattered.

“Are we taking a shower together?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows. “Because I’d prefer to be undressed for that.”

You turned the shower on. A long moment of silence passed after the water hit Jungkook.

“Ah, shit!” he finally exclaimed, gasping and jumping away from the stream of the ice cold water that had already soaked him. His reaction was, clearly, still delayed.

Regardless, Jungkook gave you a look full of terror and disbelief – as if you’d thrown him to the wolves and he only realized that after half of his leg got chewed off.

“Why are—” he tried to ask but you cut him off, getting the front of your own clothes splashed with water as you redirected the barely motioning shower head towards him.

“Because you’re high out of your mind,” you replied, “and if you don’t want to get disowned, you need to sober up as quickly as possible.”

“How is this—my head is going to freeze!” he complained, trying to bolt but only slamming his body into yours – and, thus, making you even more wet – as you blocked his exit. “Please. I’m cold.”

“Good,” you replied – so honest, it was almost ruthless. “That should speed up the process.”

He whined for the next few minutes – you were convinced that, after the first minute, his whining turned into a habit because, at that point, he already looked half-asleep – but he didn’t try to run away, which was a blessing, because if he came to his senses, he could overpower you and escape with relative ease.

However, escaping wasn’t on his mind and Jungkook endured the cold shower with newfound determination. You chose to take it as a sign that he was now sober enough to recognize the danger of going to perform while he was so high, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize himself in the mirror.

He climbed out of the shower shaking, somewhat dizzy, but aware of his surroundings.

“I’ll get you a towel,” you said after you’d helped him take his black t-shirt off – it basically rolled off his damp skin, really – but Jungkook pulled you back by squeezing your hand.

“T-thank you-uh,” he said, his lower lip trembling from the cold.

The gesture surprised you – you thought he’d sober up, but you didn’t think he’d appreciate that – and you felt yourself respond to him with a nod and a smile.

“I’ll be right back,” you promised again.

Most surprisingly, the shower seemed to work. To be fair, Jungkook still giggled when he walked into the side of the door on his way out of the bathroom, but he could actually sing now – as soon as he stopped shivering, that is – and, with five minutes until the start of the show, he looked much more ready for the performance ahead.

“Thank you,” a voice said to you as you lingered by the door of the changing room, toying with the end of the extra shirt that you’d borrowed from Jungkook. You turned around to see Yoongi. “Most people would have just left him to deal with it on his own.”

You were quick to realize that Yoongi was, obviously, thanking you for taking Jungkook off his hands.

“He’s capable of a lot of things,” you replied, “but cleaning up his own mess isn’t one of them.”

That got him to chuckle. “Yeah. I honestly thought he’d be fine. It’s not the first time we went for a smoke before a show. To ease the nerves, you know?”

You didn’t know. Somehow, you’d assumed, the members of Parental Advisory never felt nervous.

“Yeah, uh, I get it,” you said, realizing how naïve that belief had been. “He sort of overdid it this time, though.”

“Sort of,” Yoongi repeated, “that’s one way to put it.”

“Would it make me sound masochistic if I said I’d seen him worse?” you asked, only half joking.

“No,” he replied, “but the fact that you stayed with him in spite of it, kind of would.”

He gave you an apologetic smile but you responded with an understanding nod.

There was nothing to get upset about: Jungkook had wreaked havoc on your life, that was true -- but only because you’d let him. You could have walked away if you felt like you’d had too much, but you chose to stay.

“Yeah,” you started to say after inhaling deeply enough to fill up both of your lungs. “Well, he’s—”

“He loves you,” Yoongi said. “He probably thinks that’s enough to make up for the times he fucks up.”

You lowered your head, admitting this to him and to yourself, “sometimes that is enough.”

Rationally, the fact that Jungkook loved you probably wasn’t supposed to be enough, but, to you, it was. And you were the one who made the decisions for your life; you were the one who decided if you were treated fairly or not.

And tonight felt fair.

Tonight felt like you were helping someone out; someone who didn’t have enough strength – or, simply, pride – to even ask for help.

“His parents are in the audience tonight,” you said, voicing the reason why you understood Jungkook’s thought process that had lead to him, getting high right before the show. “He’s probably ten times more nervous than usually.”

Yoongi nodded. “Yeah, but he’ll do great. He’ll be fine now.”

“The shower should have—”

“Because you’re here,” he added unexpectedly. “He would have probably found a way out of this even if you weren’t here – no offense – because he’d had plenty of practice coming out of fires he’d set himself. He’d come out of them burned and in pain, of course, but, at least, he’d survive. And now... with you being here, he might come out of this completely unscathed.”

You thought about his words, looking away from him and, thus, giving Yoongi the permission to excuse himself and join the rest of his bandmates by the side of the stage as they prepared to start the show.

Then, finally, choosing not to fight the small smile that had successfully made it to your lips, you exited the changing room, too, and joined Jungkook’s parents in the venue.

Apparently they’d been back here for a while and Jungkook’s mother had an ambiguous smile on her lips when she saw you approach their seats. You were taken aback by the similarity between the expression on her face right now, and the look on Yoongi’s face when he told you that Jungkook loved you.

Too surprised to ask how long they’ve been back, you chose to remain quiet as you took a seat next to Jungkook’s mother, and waited for the show to start.

Parental Advisory performed in the same breathtaking manner as they did back on your campus – they’d captivated the attention of everyone here before the first song even ended – and you could not stop yourself from cheering along with everyone else.

You could distinctly recall yourself in a contrasting position just a little while ago – back when Inna had dragged you to the Parental Advisory gig, right before you went to their after-party and talked to Jungkook for the first time in seven years.

Back then, you couldn’t let go of your prejudice and did not think it was fair for the group to have a following this large. They weren’t anything exceptional, after all. But, even so, you could remember the awe you felt when you watched Jungkook on stage.

He was in his element. They all were.

You still thought the music they performed may not have been extraordinary, but the members of the group had something inside of them – something that helped them connect with their audience. Something that made their performances a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And every time Jungkook looked at your box – you weren’t sure if he could distinguish your and his parents’ figures – you realized that your preliminary opinion about him had been correct: he was arrogant and very full of himself.

But Inna was right, too – from the way he got every single person, even the security staff, immersed in the band’s performance, he had every right to be arrogant.

You kept looking back to Jungkook’s father, anticipating a comment from him and even biting your lip to resist the urge to smile after you involuntarily allowed yourself to imagine the way his voice would sound when he admitted that he’d been wrong and that, clearly, Jungkook had already discovered his place in life.

But his father remained quiet all throughout the concert and, perhaps, that was enough. He hadn’t made a single negative comment – and that alone said plenty.

However, surprising you, the biggest compliment from Jungkook’s father came as soon as the performance ended, and Jungkook returned backstage.

His eyes were still red, but his entire body was glowing from the post-show high, so you’d have never guessed the real cause of the redness on his face. He enveloped you in a hug as soon as he saw you, nearly suffocating you with the strength of his grip, and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his mother’s cheek.

That was when his father spoke up and offered to drive you both home.

You didn’t find it unusual at first – they had a car, why wouldn’t they offer to drive you home? – but Jungkook went stiff in your arms and, when he pulled away, you suddenly understood why the offer was unexpected.

Jungkook’s father had never driven his son anywhere, not unless it was for the sake of the company. Making it worse, you were probably correct to assume that, ever since Jungkook moved out of his parents’ house years ago, his father’s urge to drive his son anywhere had disappeared completely, regardless of the motives behind this drive.

“Uh,” it took Jungkook a minute to gather his words. “Thanks, dad.”

That wasn’t something he thought he’d get to say when he first woke up this morning.

His father nodded and reached into the pocket of his jacket for the car keys when Jungkook suddenly continued.

“But, actually, we thought of staying behind to get some drinks. To, uh, celebrate the successful performance, you know?” he said, threading carefully and holding onto your waist tighter. Even though you’d already pulled away from the hug, Jungkook did not let you take one step away from him.

His father’s face grew clouded. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

He asked it in a very official tone, as if he was making a business deal – almost wondering if merging with a different company was a wise choice.

“Yeah. It’s nothing big,” Jungkook said, caressing your shoulder to bring attention to the fact that you were standing next to him and his father had no reason to stare him down like that, “I won’t be there alone.”

“Did you even ask her if she wanted to come?”

The question – that sounded so natural coming from his father’s lips – forced him to freeze, just like that Monday morning, outside of your dormitory.

A loaded moment had to pass before Jungkook found himself again but, by that time, you’d already realized you had to interfere.

“I don’t mind,” you said, not wanting someone else to do the speaking for you when you were, technically, a part of the conversation. “I’d love to share a toast with the guys.”

You tried to substantiate your words with a convincing smile but, really, you didn’t know why you paid any attention to your facial expression at all – you weren’t lying.

Aside from Jungkook getting into a fight with Brock at the last Parental Advisory party, you didn’t have a terrible time there, and you figured that, perhaps, your bias against partying with the band members had been unfounded. Either way, you were genuinely ready to give it a second chance, especially when your body was still abuzz with the electricity from the show.

But Jungkook’s parents watched the two of you for another moment, looking very uncertain. You hadn’t heard them talk about you all of those years ago, and yet the shadows of their voices seemed to echo in your mind, expressing their concern about Jungkook being too big of an influence on you and, eventually, dragging you off the rails along with him.

Finally, a very defeated, “very well” sounded from his father’s lips as he gave you both a nod and turned around towards the exit, waiting for his wife.

“You were wonderful,” Jungkook’s mother whispered to him, giving you a wink and then bringing her hand over her son’s cheek, “thank you for inviting us.”

“Thank you for coming,” Jungkook said and, when his parents left, he turned to you and repeated his previous words with a deep exhale of relief, “thank you. For coming, for staying, for—”

You could feel the tension pulsing in his blood as he still hadn’t let you go and, wanting nothing more than to ease his anxiety, you cut him off with a kiss.

Wrapping your arms around his neck, you allowed him to pull you into his arms as he held onto you as if you really were his lifesaver as he’d called you before.

“You’re welcome,” you said when you pulled away, taking his breath with you.

keep reading | masterlist

#bts college au #bts smut #bts reactions #jeon jungkook #jungkook smut #jungkook college au #jungkook fanfiction #fanfiction #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #jungkook fanfic #college au #jungkook x reader #bts x reader #jeon jungkook fanfic #jeon jungkook fanfiction

529 notes · View notes

peterprkrsbtch · 3 years

Text

sapphire - part 1

Peter Parker x reader

A/N: This is some type of wish fulfillment writing for me because I like to imagine becoming a hot and badass superhero when I fall asleep and I thought other people may be entertained as well :) If you enjoy it, like or reblog to share!

REMINDER: in this story, the reader gains superpowers and I do describe the appearance of her body. i hope you know every body is a superhero body and weight does not impact your beauty at all-i just needed to show how drastic the changes were!

Warnings: Swearing, fighting, attempted kidnapping, guns/violence

The sun that came beaming through your window brightly as you opened the blinds in your room immediately brought a small smile to your face. Summer had always been your favorite season. As smart as you were, a three month break from Midtown has never sounded better. Junior year had not been easy for you.

Small goosebumps appear on your arms as you shiver when the memory of that night crosses your mind.

***

You’d been walking home after your first day of school, distracted as images of the day flicker through your mind. The first day was always exciting, new classes and people. Probably why you were too distracted to notice the man creeping up behind you until he wrapped his hands around your backpack and yanked it off of your back, making you let out a yelp of surprise.

Or, he’d tried to. Unfortunately, this dumb ass criminal didn’t know how backpack straps work and when he tugged, the straps caught around your arms and yanked you off your feet, slamming your body into your attacker with a groan.

Panic immediately clouded your mind. You’d never been mugged before. You try desperately to remember anything from the self defense class you’d taken in seventh grade. The attacker seemed surprised that your bag hadn’t slid off your body and this gave you the opportunity to scream. “Help!” You shrieked. “Somebody!” It was the middle of the day in New York and yet, the street you were walking was dead empty.

“Shut the fuck up.” The man growled in your ear and you suddenly became aware of his death grip on your arm. Before you could contemplate punching him in the face or kneeing his dick, a sharp poke on your arm made you whip your head, just in time to see a needle full of glowing blue liquid being injected into your arm by the man. He hadn’t wanted your backpack at all.

The shock you felt as you watched the unfamiliar substance enter your body was amplified at the burning sensation quickly spreading from the injection site to your whole upper arm. The man lets out a harsh laugh, and you finally turn to see his face. He did not look like a homeless man. Or a thief. The sight of his groomed beard and expensive jacket made you feel like you’d been plunged in ice. What the hell was happening?

“What did you do to me?” The sound of your voice is much stronger than you expect it to be, and it helps to ease a couple of the butterflies going mental inside your stomach. At least you didn’t sound terrified. He just lets out a low laugh and begins to drag you by your backpack towards a car parked on the opposite side of the road you hadn’t noticed until now.

“You’re coming with me.”

The burning had spread to your entire left arm and was now taking over your left shoulder. If you didn’t have adrenaline coursing through your veins due to your current situation, you would’ve been doubled over with pain. You struggle against the man’s hold on your backpack as he drags you closer to the large black SUV.

Hell no. I am not getting kidnapped today. You force yourself to calm enough to quickly think of a plan. Any plan. When the man reaches the car despite your struggling, a disgusting sneer on his face, he lets go of his grip on your arm to reach for the handle, and you take your chance to head-butt him as hard as you possibly can-letting your arms slide out of the backpack as you do.

“Ow! Get back here you little bitch!” But it’s too late. In the two seconds when the man doubles over to clutch at his head, you’d snatched your backpack from the ground where he’d let it fall and sprinted down the street. You try to tell yourself that the unbearable burning sensation now settling into your chest is from running, not from whatever the fuck he’d injected you with.

***

A loud beep, beep from the clock on your bedside table snaps you out of reminiscing on your near death experience and a large smile grows on your face. Finally it was 5 p.m, the time when your mom usually went over to her boyfriend’s apartment across town. Every night, like clockwork, since you were 13.

It used to bother you, but now the silence gives you the opportunity to do what you needed to do alone. You get up and move towards your closet as you let your mind slip into your memories again as you reminisce on the events after the attack.

***

You’d run home like hell and had never been so grateful to find that your mom had left early. Within ten minutes, the burning had spread and you were left to writhe around in pain on your bed for hours. There was no let up, no break. You knew you were going to die.

Whatever the man had injected in you was breaking apart every muscle, every atom in your body so slowly that you could feel it. Eventually, your pained screams became quieter as exhaustion began to take over. This is it. I’m really going to die. My mom is going to come home and find me like this-

Before you could finish your thought, a harsh gasp involuntarily left your mouth and you launch forward to sit up. Okay, maybe I’m not going to die. You thought as the pain suddenly ceases. You slowly bring your hands up to stare at them, scared that the pain will return. Just as you’re about to let out a breath of relief, it hits you again.

And it’s so much worse. The burning sensation shoots through your body, and every broken muscle and molecule felt as though it was being bound together again. The minutes bleed together as exhaustion and pain take over your body.

***

Looking back, you still have no idea what was in the injection. All you know is what happened because of it.

***

Beep, beep.

BEEP, BEEP.

The incessant beeping of your stupid alarm wakes you from quite possibly the weirdest dream you’ve ever had. You’ve never had pain in a dream feel so vivid before, and the memory alone draws your body inwards, hugging your arms in for comfort.

Your arms. Hold on.

They didn’t feel like this last night. You glance down at your skin, the shadow of your blanket making it hard to see. You rip the covers off and storm over to your full length mirror-and all you can do is let out a gasp. I’m going crazy.

With shaking hands, you grab your phone and unlock it, scrolling until you find a mirror selfie you had taken at the pool over summer, just two weeks ago. You glance at the photo, then back up at the mirror. Then at the photo, then the mirror. Photo, mirror, photo.

A shocked laugh rips through your lips as you stare at the photo of yourself. Smooth skin and curves. A couple extra pounds of baby fat you had yet to lose, a spot or three of acne on your forehead. You weren’t an extraordinarily insecure person, but you were a teenage girl and a couple of those things had bugged you but-

Your eyes flicker up to the mirror. You run your hands along your arms. You used to describe them as flabby, but you can feel and see the toned, tight skin. You move your eyes to your boobs. Were they bigger? They definitely looked bigger.

Any “baby fat” you carried had seemingly disappeared overnight. You slowly lift your shirt and let your jaw drop, running your hands over your small waist, not missing the muscle you can feel under your skin. Your skin was perfectly clear and your hair and lashes both seemed longer and healthier.

When you were younger and more naive, you’d hoped puberty would involve waking up one morning looking like a Victoria’s Secret model. But that was stupid. Things like that don’t happen, right?

Slowly, the events of yesterday began to register in your mind. The attack, the injection, the pain. A million questions flooded your mind. The most prominent being what the actual fuck??

“Y/n? You almost ready to leave for school?” Your mom’s voice rings out into your silent room as she knocks on your bedroom door.

“Yeah, Mom! Just a couple minutes.” You call out nervously, waiting until you hear her footsteps walk away from your door. You let out a curse as you race into the bathroom, the harsh lighting illuminating even more changes to your face.

Your lips were bigger, your eyes more open, and your cheekbones and jaw more defined. Fuck. If you weren’t so worried about anyone noticing your overnight transformation, you would’ve taken more time to think about the positives of this situation.

You were always shy and quiet at school, choosing a small group of people to hang around and mostly focusing on your classes. But every teenage girl dreams of being beautiful, and now you finally were. You pull your hair up to brush your teeth and wash your face faster than you ever have before, electing to ignore the fact that you should have a nasty bruise from your head-butt yesterday.

You choose to skip makeup completely, knowing it would draw more attention to your new face. You took one last look at your body in the mirror before pulling on the baggiest sweats you owned and a loose hoodie, hoping they would mask your new curves.

You had no idea how you were supposed to hide this all year.

***

You smiled as you remember how silly you’d acted the next day. You were overly paranoid, covering your face with your hoodie as much as you could and choosing to sit alone in the library rather than at your usual table. No one questioned you, not once.

You had felt a pang of loneliness at first, knowing that no one at your school even cared enough to notice the obvious change had hurt just a bit, but it made dealing with the powers easier.

***

You’d first noticed it on the walk to school. It was barely September and the summer sun was still coming down on the city. This paired with your heavy layers of clothing and the long walk to school would normally leave you slightly breathless. As you arrived at the school feeling more energized and alive than ever, you noticed you’d gotten there in a fourth of your normal time without even trying.

You next noticed it in gym, when the daily pushups the teachers forced you all to do every year were suddenly easy. Effortless. As soon as the final bell rang, you ran home within minutes without feeling winded at all and winced as you threw your door open, nearly ripping it off it’s hinges.

Something else was definitely going on. Your appearance was not the only thing that seemed to go through an upgrade. You said a quick hello to your mom before running up to your room.

For the first time since you woke up that morning, you relaxed once your door was closed and locked. Your shoulders release as you sink to your bed, dropping your head into your hands. You try to recall anything you’ve read about people being totally changed after some sort of injection.

Your heart sinks. Captain America jumps to mind. The Winter Soldier, Wanda Maximoff and her dead brother. They’d all been injected.

You bite your lip and glance at a book sitting on your bedside table. You straighten up and thrust your hands towards the book, trying to make it move. Unsurprisingly, nothing happens. You close your eyes and breath out a small breath of relief. Ok so I’m beautiful now and have great endurance, at least I’m not a superhero. You let yourself relax slightly, your eyes still closed. Now you feel dumb for throwing your hands around like some kind of knock off Scarlet Witch.

When you open your eyes, your blood runs cold. The book is floating in front of you, a blue glow surrounding it. Slowly, you raise your, now shaking, hands again towards the book until they flash with the same blue and it launches towards you, the force of it making you rock back as you catch it in your hands.

Well. Fuck.

***

After that, you were thankful that no one had noticed anything out of the ordinary. You bite down a smile as you remember the first few months after, thinking about how much you’d changed since then.

***

You spent nearly every night for weeks studying every superhero fight video you could find on youtube and practicing the moves alone in your empty house, over and over.

It didn’t take much for you to perfect them as your new body seemed to be built for this kind of shit. Black Widow was your favorite to watch, and you made sure to spend extra time working through her signature moves, letting the flips, kicks, and punches become muscle memory.

You spent time practicing your real powers as well, though those seemed to come to you naturally. After that first delay with the book, it had almost felt like second nature to lift up the heaviest objects in your house with just a wave of the hand, but still, you practiced. Over and over and over. You quickly learned you could move people as well, namely yourself. Flying over New York in the middle of the night was something that would always leave you breathless.

Once winter settled over New York, you decided you were finally ready to try and use your abilities for good. You had near perfect control over your “magic” and you were pretty sure you’d spent more hours in the past month punching the air than sleeping.

You spent all day Sunday bent over the dusty sewing machine you dug out of a shelf in your kitchen closet. The trip to Joann’s reminded you of your mother teaching a younger you how to sew, though you two never bought yards of spandex to make a skin tight suit.

It had taken a couple minutes for you to remember how to use the machine, but you were extremely proud of the final product. You’d made a simple skin tight black suit with a zipper up the front and a mask to cover most of your face, but you figured no one could recognize you by just your mouth.

Once you finished the last hem on your face mask, you took the suit and the mask and hid them in your closet next to a pair of black combat boots. You put the dusty machine away and finally made your way into your bathroom, glancing nervously at the box on the counter.

Although you had exactly zero friends at Midtown, you had grown up with some of these kids and you couldn’t risk one of them recognizing your hair color if they saw you in your superhero suit and the box advertising temporary spray on hair color seemed to be the perfect solution.

You take the small can out of the box and spray blonde-ish highlights into your hair and brush it through until your long hair is shades lighter than your natural color and you’re happy with the results.

Your hands shook as you pulled on your suit, then your mask, and finally, the black boots. You move to your mirror and nervously give yourself a glance, only to be pleasantly surprised. You really do look like a superhero, even more so when you will your hands to glow blue with your powers.

***

That night, you learned that you had severely underestimated yourself. You thought memories of your own attack would flash before your eyes every time you knocked down a criminal, but it didn’t.

Every time you would wrap your thighs around someone’s neck to drag them to the ground you felt strong and every time the person you just saved would begin to thank you aggressively, you knew you made the right decision to help people.

You kept your guard, and your hood, up during the school days but your months of training and now your late night rescues, had caused a spike in your confidence. After a particularly hard 18 vs. 1 fight in which your zipper had gotten yanked down a bit, you just left it. It looked better like that anyway.

You wished you had someone to show the new you. You used to be so unsure of yourself, and now because of a seemingly random attack, you had the ability to help people. It definitely felt good to be doing something good.

Unfortunately, your endeavors started to become sensationalized. New York was obsessed with superheroes, you knew this. But you never thought people would start paying attention to you.

You should’ve known better. A girl with enhanced curves in a skin tight suit, flying around the city with glowing blue hands and fighting crime with her front zipper pulled down, and you thought you could remain invisible in the media too?

Luckily for you, the spotlight was cast upon another new superhero around the same time-a Spiderman. Once he entered the superhero scene just weeks after yourself, you noticed the articles you’d previously seen sexualizing you and your costume turned into articles about the two of you instead. If only those reporters knew you were 17.

You were thankful for him even though you’d never met him, and your two names “Spiderman and Sapphire” were often used in the same headlines to discuss you two newcomers.

At first you hated the nickname the media gave you simply because of the increased attention, but you learned to love it. It was nice to see people appreciating what you were doing, even though every camera that was ever pointed your way made you anxious to protect your identity.

Ever since your first winter night spent fighting crime, you’d quickly fallen into a pattern. School with your eyes glued to your desk the whole time, sweats and hoodies concealing your body, then homework until your mom leaves, then go out and help your city.

Your fighting has improved to the point that you almost prefer hand to hand combat rather than using your powers. On especially slow nights, you’ve let yourself drag out a fight with some bank robbers or kidnappers just to entertain yourself.

It was your escape. In your suit, with your face covered and your hair thick with the lightening spray, was the only time you felt like yourself. Really yourself.

But you had a plan to change that. As easy as it had been to lay low throughout the last year at school, you’d had enough. You wanted more. So you had a plan. A new body and face overnight is impossible, but over three months? Totally plausible.

You were excited for three months with nothing to do but go out as Sapphire, and you knew these few months were going to be the calm before the storm if you really decided to go back to Midtown as the new you.

God, enough with the reminiscing. You told yourself, but you do allow yourself to feel pride at how much you’d matured from your first day of school this year to your last as you tug on your familiar suit and mask.

***

You glance down at the buildings beneath you, eyes silently scanning every dark alley and corner for trouble. Your hands glow blue as you fly yourself gracefully through the sky. Suddenly, loud sirens and screams sound from beneath you and you look down to see 8 large men climbing into a bank as they smashed the windows.

You quickly fly yourself down and through the hole behind the men as they point guns towards the only two people in the bank, a janitor and a man you assume is the manager. “Give us the fucking money.” One of the men growls and the others laugh menacingly at their friend’s threat.

The manager notices you standing behind the men and his eyes widen, causing the men to start to turn towards you. You grab the gun out of one of their hands using your powers and smirk at the oh, shit look on their faces. Before you can make a move to knock the man nearest you off his feet, a web snaps through the broken window and snatches the gun from his hands before you can blink.

Spiderman comes swinging through the opening, landing gracefully. “What’s going on here, fellas?” He asks, and you can’t help but smirk at the sound of his voice. The two of you seemed to live similar lives, and yet this was your first time meeting him.

The white eyes of his mask flicker from the men, frozen with fear, towards you, and his eyes grow with recognition and maybe shock? Hard to tell with the mask. He opens his mouth to say something else, but one of the men still holding guns raises it and fires towards Spiderman without a second of hesitation.

You raise your hand quickly, stopping the bullet in mid-air and everyone around you stares at the bullet suspended in mid-air, your glowing blue hand outstretched, almost as if you were catching it. Spiderman’s eyes widen even more. “Holy shit.”

You smile to yourself and clench your hand into a fist, letting the bullet crumble to the ground in dust. “Nice try.” You say to the man. “But you’re getting on my nerves.” You turn towards the 8 men in front of you, 5 still holding guns. You move your hand to face the men, and with a sweeping motion, the 5 guns are yanked from their hands to suspend far above their heads, where they couldn’t reach.

You can’t help a small laugh as one of the men tries to jump up and grab it. You turn towards Spiderman who’s standing there with his mouth wide open. “Sorry if I stole your moment.” You say genuinely. You had no doubt that he could’ve taken care of this himself, but you had gotten here first.

“Are you kidding?” He nearly squeaked. “That was amazing, oh my god! I can’t believe we haven’t met until now.” Your cheeks blaze slightly under your mask from his praise, you’ve never had a superhero compliment you before. You adjust your focus back to the men quickly, who seem to be thinking of a way to run.

Your eyes meet Spidey’s again. “You wanna web ‘em up?” He nods excitedly, his eyes finally breaking from yours as he jumps into action. As impressed as he was by you, you couldn’t help but watch in awe as he swings around the room and with a thwick, he webs all of the men together in a cocoon, hanging upside down from the chandelier of the bank ceiling.

He swings himself one last time to land next to you again. “Cool.” You say before you can even realize your mouth is open. “I mean, you’re not too bad yourself.” He bows his head a bit, seeming shy even though it was a half-compliment to cover up your embarrassment.

“Sorry to bust in on your fight,” He says, glancing around the room towards the two terrified employees staring at the two of you in shock. “Not a lot happening tonight, and I didn’t know you were here.”

“Ugh, I know.” You agree. “Not to complain about less crime, but our jobs have been a little bit too easy this past week.” His mask crinkles as he smiles.

“We could...work together sometime if you wanted too, of course.” He says nervously, nearly stuttering on his words. “It’s just, you’re really good and you seem really cool and I-”

You interrupt his word vomit. “Of course I want to! I’ve been wondering when we would meet.” His eyes move from staring at the eye holes in your mask down to your lips when you smile. “How’s tomorrow?”

“How’s right now?” You don’t think your smile can get wider. “One sec.” He holds up a finger before quickly running over to the two bank workers, who thank you both over and over and then they both hugged him. You were wrong, your smile grows and remains goofy and big as he runs back over to you. “Let’s go.”

That night you found out that your view of the city is 100 times better when you can also see a red and blue suit swinging from building to building out of the corner of your eye.

#peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker angst #peter parker fluff #peter parker smut #avengers #marvel #tom holland imagine #tom holland angst #tom holland fluff #tom holland smut #tom holland x reader #peter parker fanfiction

108 notes · View notes

sedge-yells-at-comics · 3 years

Link

Reprinted below, in case the link implodes.

Flash #27 Reveals Why Reverse Flash Is a Truly Unique Villain

The finale of "Running Scared" provides a gut-wrenching Rebirth update to one of DC's most complicated villains: Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash.

By Meg Downey Published Jul 27, 2017

If you’re a fan of the Flash, you’re probably pretty familiar with the concept of the Reverse Flash, a man named Eobard Thawne who, like Barry, has super speed and wears a flashy costume. Of course, the “Reverse” might sound like he’s the literal opposite of the Flash -- maybe someone who slows things down instead of speeding himself up? Or maybe someone who runs backwards?

There are a lot of obvious and incorrect guesses pretty readily available for casual or newer fans to throw darts at. The reality of the Reverse Flash is, however, pretty complicated. Mostly because his “reverse” status is actually ideological at its core. Flash media, be it print, animated or live action, has traditionally made this apparent by painting Eobard as someone who is essentially pure evil -- a sort of manic, time traveling serial killer who is motivated solely by his endless need to destroy Barry Allen from the ground up.

At that point, the problem then becomes finding a way to make Thawne’s homicidal drive, well… unique in the scope of the DC Universe, a place that just so happens to be populated by enough over-the-top villains to populate a decent sized Midwestern town. Why is Reverse Flash someone that’s specific to The Flash? What differentiates him from any of DC’s other iconic arch rivals, like Lex Luthor or The Joker?

Well, The Flash #27 has the answer, and it's probably not the one you expected.

Running Scared

The rebirth of the “classic” Eobard Thawne (as opposed to his New 52 revamp) began in the Flash/Batman crossover mini-event “The Button” back in April, a four-part storyline which connected the original Thawne to the events of last year’s DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot.

Since, then, Thawne’s taken up residence as a perpetual thorn in Barry’s side in the hero's own ongoing series, stepping directly into the spotlight for the three-part “Running Scared” arc which served to highlight Thawne’s Rebirth status quo. For the most part, it’s a story that fans will be pretty familiar with, borrowing heavily from elements of stories like The Flash: Rebirth and Flashpoint. Thawne’s from the future, he time traveled to kill Barry’s parents, he’s connected to a negative form of the Speed-Force, and so on -- But that’s where things start to get their Rebirth-specific legs.

It’s not that creators Josh Williamson, Howard Porter and Paul Pelletier are trying to reinvent the proverbial wheel with “Running Scared” -- just unlock a different side of it by shining a light on one of the most unique aspect of Eobard and Barry’s relationship.

Reverse Flash doesn’t hate Flash the way Lex Luthor hates Superman, or Bane hates Batman. It’s actually (appropriately) quite the opposite. It’s the reverse. Eobard Thawne loves Barry Allen, obsessively and vengefully, which is where his endless, destructive need to ruin Barry’s life comes into play.

“Running Scared” highlights the fact that a young Eobard grew up alone (though Williamson was quick to confirm that that particular story element came out of an earlier Geoff Johns Flash issue) with only his idealized and imaginary version of Barry -- a character from his history books -- to keep him company. Barry was, for all intents and purposes, Thawne’s only friend, confidant, and emotional anchor, despite the fact that the two of them wouldn’t actually meet for years and years.

It was plenty of time for a very troubled and very lonely Thawne to fall in love with a version of The Scarlet Speedster that existed only in his imagination...and, well, it’s pretty obvious how that particular emotional endeavor actually went down. Actually meeting Barry and subsequently being forced to deal with the fact that he was just a guy and not the cartoon character Thawne had built in his head for years, proved to be too hard a stress test for Thawne’s fragile psyche.

Fatal Attraction

Meeting and being disappointed by a personal hero is a rough experience for just about anyone, but rather than allowing himself to move on -- or even allowing himself to simply decide to hate Barry instead, Thawne’s obsession only doubled down.

As issue #27 hurtles to its conclusion, Thawne’s real motivations become abundantly apparent. As Barry, infected with Thawne’s own inverted Negative Speed Force thrashes Thawne within an inch of his life, he presses him with a question - Why, if Thawne has always been so inspired by him, has he gone out of his way to ruin Barry’s life at every turn? Why has he done all of these terrible things, from killing Barry’s parents to beating Wally within an inch of his life, to kidnapping he and Iris and hauling them to the future?

Thawne’s answer is as unexpected as it is heartrendingly honest: because these horrible things are the only way Thawne understands how to make Barry spend time with him.

It’s that simple.

Thawne’s love for, and obsession with Barry Allen has permeated his life so deeply and completely that he is even willing to count his time spent being pummeled half to death by Flash as a win. He’s completely unable or unwilling to differentiate between Barry’s affection and Barry’s hatred, and he’s ready to do whatever it might take to put himself at the center of either emotion in Barry’s mind.

“A few years ago, it would have really hurt my feelings to hear you say that,” Thawne taunts after Barry threatens him, “but now to think that I caused you that anger? That I could get under your skin like this? It warms my heart.”

It’s deeply troubling, of course, and horrifyingly uncomfortable to get a look into the head of a villain who is, essentially, the personification of a fan gone terribly, terribly awry -- a theme that only gets more difficult to swallow when you begin to think about the increasingly complicated relationship between fans and their idols in actual, genuine, non-super heroic world around us.

This subtle reworking of the Reverse Flash has made him one of comic’s most poignant ruminations of the idea of toxicity in fan communities, idolization of strangers, and self destructive obsession, and it did so in a way that boldly allowed Thawne to win at the end of the day.

The issue closes, and the arc completes, with Barry exactly in the position Thawne wanted him in: completely alone, just like Thawne was as he built Barry into a hero of mythological perfection in his head. Now, where Barry will end up, and whether he’ll be forgiven by Iris, Wally and the roster of people he’s been manipulating as he leads his vigilante double life, is still largely a mystery.

It’s clear that Thawne didn’t expect, or even really want, Barry to come running into his arms to start their life together the second he succeeded in isolating him -- he makes that abundantly clear as he warns that he’ll just return again and again and again, de-powered, killed or otherwise hindered. Iris may have added an exclamation point to the end of the story arc by “vaporizing” Thawne with a Black Hole gun, but it hardly matters.

Reverse Flash will be back, somehow, at some point, and it’s doubtful that his love and obsession for Barry will have wavered in the slightest. We know now that’s just now how his mind is capable of working. It’s unlikely that Thawne will ever feel anything for Barry beyond his own supremely twisted adoration, no matter how many times the Flash pummels him into the ground. It’s just not the way Thawne’s brain is able to process information anymore.

It’s complicated, messy, and uncomfortable, but it’s also one of the clearest articulations of exactly what makes Reverse Flash such an interesting villain in the scope of not just the Flash family of books, but the DCU as a whole.

#the flash #eobard thawne #barry allen #eobarry

47 notes · View notes

shima-draws · 4 years

Photo

Hiro is here!! We've all been waiting for him!!

You know the drill by now, all the yummy details about his background are under the cut ;) Also be warned it is VERY long I went a little feral writing his backstory lmao

Hiro

Age: 17

Hair color: Orange

Eye color: Pink

Element: Psychic & Forest

Okay so a lot of this is gonna be stuff I'm pulling from posts I've already written to make it easier on myself and so I don't have to repeat anything.

Before he was born, the Novune Forces approached Hiro's parents because they knew that he would be born as a dual elemental. Part of their goal was to raise several dual type children to become human weapons--they targeted dual type babies specifically because they're said to be more powerful since they can use more than one elemental type.

It was the perfect opportunity for Hiro's parents because at the time they were not ready for a child despite agreeing that they were going to have it. Ofc the Forces did not reveal their plans so to them it turned into a nice surrogate parent situation where Hiro's mother would give birth to him and he'd immediately be given up for adoption afterwards. It was definitely hard for them to part with him but they trusted he'd be in good care. Well. That turned out great, as you can probably tell :')

Hiro, along with Kaz and Mallary, became the Forces' iconic trio, with Hiro considered to be the golden child and the most dangerous between the three of them because of his high intellect and skill in combat. He grew up under a very strict regimen and would spend hours each day dedicated to training both his mind and his elemental powers. He's an extremely gifted psychic elemental and took to his abilities almost immediately--he’s able to read his opponents movements and set up traps before they can even get to him. He’s usually airborne for most battles he’s in; he finds it easier to strategize from a higher vantage point, and he also just likes to float around and dodge enemy attacks and act like an ass lmao. He’s a pro at immobilizing his enemies so they can no longer move, ending his battles swiftly and cleanly. Physically he’s not very powerful so he uses a magic staff to fight. His intelligence more than makes up for his lack of super strength!

He has a special power like Kaz’s extra dragon typing (and, like Kaz, he has a streak in his hair from the experimentation)—Hiro gets visions of death, basically predictions of the future, and his visions are never wrong. He’s able to see who dies in battle and the Forces use this to their advantage so that they can prepare around any casualties. Hiro hates getting these visions because he doesn’t like seeing people die, he witnesses their last moments and it’s certainly traumatizing for him;; and like Kaz, this power was something he only unlocked through lots of experimentation on him, so he usually passes out for hours after getting a vision since it’s not a “natural” ability he was born with.

As for his second typing, it was something he never really clicked with. Forest elementals have to be very attuned to nature and are generally more kindhearted and gentle people, but since Hiro grew up in a base with only limited access to the outside (and because he’s forced into acting as an antagonist), his forest elemental powers were repressed over the years. He’s already powerful enough as a psychic elemental so he doesn’t feel the need to resort to a second power, especially since his superiors viewed his second typing as useless and he never received proper training on how to use it. He's already a huge threat as he is so they said good enough. The Forces believe that if something is useless, throw it away, so they eventually abandoned any hope of him succeeding in bettering his forest powers, and focused solely on enhancing his psychic abilities and making his death visions clearer.

Before Hiro became the cold-hearted and snarky colonel that the Forces know him as, he was actually a very kind child with an aversion to violence, and cried often. That got forced out of him pretty quickly though--he learned right away that disobedience means punishment and the only way to pay for his mistakes is by verbal and physical abuse. Poor baby :'( He and Kaz and Mallary go through a LOT of unfair shit as kids. The event that really drove home his intense determination and flawless record was the first mission he was ever sent out on.

This happened when he was around 13. Usually members of the Forces don't get to go out on solo missions unless they have a high position or are old enough to, but he was the exception because of his talent and because it was an experiment to see if he could handle it. His mission was to infiltrate a small, family run guild and basically gather intel and find out what their agenda was, as there were rumors they knew of some of the Forces’ plans. Upon Hiro’s arrival to the town where the guild was situated, he ends up rescuing the Guildmaster’s daughter, Lorelai, who is around his age. Unknowingly, he triggered his forest elemental powers, which caused them to land in a field of flowers he’d bloomed. Because of this, Lorelai starts to call him Flower, since he couldn’t come up with a codename in time and he doesn’t have a real name anyway lol

A couple weeks pass and Hiro spends more and more time with the guild, growing closer to Lorelai and being lulled into a false sense of security. He becomes extremely jealous of how the guild lives, and is very emotional at how much of a family they are, and how sweetly they treat him. Hiro starts to ponder over whether or not he should be sneaking around behind their back, when one day the guild is attacked while he’s out. When he returns, the village is set ablaze, and when Hiro demands what’s going on, his superior informs him that he was merely a decoy to get their defenses down, since apparently the Forces had definitive proof that they knew of their plans. His superior orders Hiro to search the village and kill anybody who was left.

Hiro, panicked, searches for Lorelai, and finds her hiding in the forest nearby. He apologizes to her and has a mental breakdown, blaming himself for all of her misfortune. Lorelai realizes that he’s being kept in the Forces against his will and begs him to run away with her. Hiro knows that he’ll be hunted down if he does, and Lorelai could get hurt, so he tells her he has to stay with them. In the midst of this, they are confronted with the current colonel of the Forces, who encourages Hiro to kill Lorelai. Hiro refuses, and the colonel calls him out for insubordination. The colonel then decides to kill both of them in order to get a promotion. Hiro leaps to defend both Lorelai and himself, and in the scuffle, receives the scar on his head, and accidentally kills the colonel. Traumatized, bloodied, and terrified, Lorelai is the one to apologize to him as he cries his eyes out. Hiro numbly reassures her and tells her to run while she can. Lorelai admits that she loves him and bids him farewell, hoping that they can meet again, and that she’s sorry she can’t do more for him.

This is when Hiro decides to become the perfect agent—dangerous, cruel, and flawless, so that something like this never happens again, and so that he can have enough power to make the decisions rather than just following orders to mindlessly kill people. From then on out he does what he’s told without any complaints and has a record for never failing a single mission the Forces have given to him. Any enemy considers him to be absolutely ruthless because he does not hesitate in battles and will neutralize with no questions asked. He’s a cocky little bastard around enemies lmao he loves to snark them and tease them. He’s strictly against killing after what happened to the colonel, so instead, if it’s a high risk operation, he erases the memories of his targets to reduce the threat. Because he’s so uncomfortable with the thought of death in general he reasons that losing your memories is better than dying, and that makes it easier on the Forces as well since they’ll leave less of a trail rather than just killing people left and right.

Growing up, Hiro didn’t interact with Kaz very much, and they usually just saw each other in passing. However they both respect each other a great amount, and they sympathize with each other, being in the same sort of situation. Both the Hiro and Kaz hate their upbringing and hold a grudge against their superiors for their treatment and experimentation on them;; As for Mallary, Hiro became enamored with her because she reminds him a lot of Lorelai (who he later admits to being his first love). He finds her strength captivating and the way she doesn’t give a shit about other people’s opinions admirable. Hiro eventually falls prey to her manipulation and falls over himself to please her, which bothers Kaz because he knows Mallary’s just toying with him.

After the Forces’ plan to kidnap Ginni and use her as a hostage blows up in their face, Hiro finds out that Kaz had escaped with her, and commends him on the extremely smart decision to do so lol. He wonders if he should start considering leaving the Forces as well, seeing as he’s mature and responsible (and smart) enough to make it on his own. He’s ordered to retrieve Kaz which was a HUGE mistake on the Forces’ part because they didn’t realize Hiro’s loyalties lied more with people on the outside. Hiro meets up with Kaz and Kaz eventually convinces him to desert the Forces and work with him to stop their plans. Hiro agrees to work as a double agent for a while, leaking all of the Forces’ information to Kaz, Ginni, and the guild. In the midst of all this, Hiro meets Olivia, who pretty much calls dibs on him and she’s like “Listen Ginni got to give Kaz his name so can I give the colonel a name?? Please???” So she starts calling him Hiro! And finally baby boy smarts up and starts crushing on a girl that actually gives a damn about him and god dammit it’s the cutest fucking case of puppy love since Dusk/Nozomi. Hiro absolutely adores her, but he’s too nervous to actually do anything about it because he’s got huge abandonment issues (thanks again bad parenting! And Mallary!) and doesn’t want to ruin one of the only genuine friendships he’s ever had. But he is head over HEELS for Olivia and it’s so……softe.

Mallary finds out that Hiro’s acting as a spy, and retaliates. Hiro realizes just how awfully she’s treated him and defeats her, allowing him to escape and officially join up with the guild.

After that it’s a whole bunch of crazy action stuff as plans come together and they get to take down the Forces. Hiro falls harder and deeper for Olivia while she remains oblivious (at least, for a little while, until she finally starts noticing). He grows closer to Kaz and Ginni as well, and begins connecting with Kaz on a deep level because of their shared history. (They’re kind of like brothers, and Hiro considers him to be his best friend :’) )

Once the Forces are defeated, Hiro and Kaz both decide to go on a journey of self discovery in order to better themselves and learn more about the world they haven’t seen due to being locked up for so many years. Kaz and Ginni are already on the verge of forming a relationship, but with Olivia and Hiro it’s still tentative since she’s unsure and he still feels inadequate as a romantic partner. Olivia admits that she likes him and Hiro is so happy he’s ready to burst, but then he realizes it’s not the right time for them to be together so he gently rejects her. (Olivia takes this as an actual rejection tho not a “I’m not ready to be in a relationship with you yet tho I WANT to” and Ginni’s like YA’LL ARE SO DUMB I S2G).

Hiro and Kaz go their separate ways, and Hiro travels around for a while! He eventually settles in a lovely little village where he learns about his forest elemental powers and how to use them better. He’s finally able to connect with other people and essentially becomes way softer around the edges, revealing the true personality he had when he was a kid. A year or so passes and suddenly Kaz, Ginni and Olivia show up to reunite with him, and not long after that Hiro and Olivia FINALLY get together and start dating 😔👌 (Ginni: TOOK you look enough, god)

At some point the four of them go on a journey together and Hiro runs into his biological parents again…!! And he finds out he has a younger sister and they all reconnect and it’s SO EMOTIONAL

Other than that I think that’s all I have 🤔 Thanks for reading though this epic rollercoaster ride of a story plot lol!

Extra personality traits

-Hiro’s sarcasm and snarkiness is a defense mechanism to prevent anybody from seeing his vulnerable side, and also a way to trick the fear inside of him. Kaz is the one to point this out actually lol

-Despite that he does enjoy teasing people lightheartedly and being sassy, once he gets comfortable enough with them! There is a difference between his snarkiness towards enemies compared to that towards friends

-Is EXTREMELY loyal to the people he cares about. At first he tends to act prickly and kind of standoffish towards people he doesn’t know well. Over time he becomes more open to trusting others. Once you earn his trust and he deems you worthy of his friendship he instantly becomes softer and kinder haha, it’s like a switch

-Often dismisses people that he thinks aren’t worth his time or aren’t smart enough to hold an intelligent conversation with him

-Spends a lot of time reading and gathering knowledge. He is very book smart—but not very people smart :’D He and Kaz will spend hours in the guild’s library, since they’re both very thirsty for information outside of what they studied during their time in the Forces

-Touch starved as FUCK. He flips his shit every time somebody touches him in a friendly way, and will melt into a puddle if he gets hugged

-He can be very nosy and insensitive sometimes, prying into other people’s personal affairs if he thinks he can solve the issue

-Absolutely a tactics expert. He calculates all of his moves very carefully, and uses prediction tactics to leave no room for error. He enjoys coming up with mock battle situations to challenge himself.

-Very self-sacrificial;; he views the lives of those he cares about to be far more important than his own. He’ll lay his life on the line for his friends in an instant

-Is the person in the group who is the least fond of violence. If he can find a way around injuring someone, he’ll do it. He prefers to restrict his enemy’s movements or slow them down so they can’t fight back. He is VERY good at neutralizing opponents before they can even register it

-SUPER speedy. Due to his small size he’s very quick, most people don’t see him coming

-He’s really sensitive about his height fjmaksldmas he snaps at people who make fun of him for it

-Tends to levitate when he’s in deep thought. Olivia finds this very cute

-Blooms flowers when he’s happy/embarrassed

-He’s actually. A very talented dancer :0 During his year away from the guild he learned a lot of folk dances at the village he was living in, and when the others witness it they get really starstruck because it’s super mesmerizing!! He blooms flowers as he dances

-At his core he’s a very compassionate character!!

-After escaping from the Forces, he’s able to express his emotions more openly, and goes back to the way he was as a child. He’s a crybaby :’) He cries whenever someone he cares about gets hurt

-The only person in the group with the fucking brain cell, and the most rational one. Unless Olivia gets involved, then he gets stupid and flustered lmao

#This got SO long oh my god. I am so sorry. Except I'm not #My character bios keep getting longer and longer!! WHICH IS GOOD BC THEY ALL NEED GOOD DEVELOPMENT #OC #Original character #Character art #Character design #Character sheet #Character ref #Character reference #Art #Digital art #Long post #Shima arts #Shima's OCs #Among the Stars #ATS #Hiro #shima-draws

762 notes · View notes

mandos-lightningbeforethunder · 3 years

Text

Start Again - Chapter Seven (Din Djarin x Reader)

SUMMARY: After being ambushed by the pair of Devaronians, you and the Mandalorian make the decision to expedite your journey into the city of Opseg. Upon your arrival, the city and its people welcome you with open arms and you find out more about what the Empire did to you while in their custody.

CHAPTER WARNINGS: mentions of attack from the previous chapter, panic attacks, medical procedures including sedation, and VERY heavy discussion of forced sterilization.

Author’s Note: This is my longest chapter yet at 3.2k words! I hope you enjoy this latest chapter and I hope I can be back on my regular update schedule. Feel free to reblog and like!

CHAPTER SEVEN - THE DIAGNOSIS

Trekking through the canyon might’ve been easier if you didn’t have such a debilitating headache. The bacta patch had healed the wound in your hairline, but your eye was still swelling and your head ached in a way that you hadn’t felt in months. In the back of your mind, a part of you really wished you had the Puvion leaves to alleviate the headache. The leaves had always worked better than any bacta spray or patch.

Your heart still raced at the thought of what happened earlier in the morning. Waking up to two Devaronians sniffing around your camp wasn’t exactly what you had in mind of a good morning. When they noticed you were awake, there was zero hesitation to take you out. They had even managed to do so quietly enough that it didn’t wake the Mandalorian.

The swelling at your eye aches as a reminder of how quickly they had managed to take you down. Your lack of training had made it easy, before you could even swing up your knife to defend yourself, the one Devaronian, Zek, punched you hard enough for you to see stars. There wasn’t much fight left in you after that.

When they noticed the Mandalorian, however, their motives changed. It wasn’t about kidnapping you and keeping you as their prize for the day, but instead getting the armor off the Mandalorian and selling it. Had they been successful they would’ve walked away with both you and possibly thousands of credits after pawning off the armor.

But the Mandalorian had handled it, wielding his saber as he easily killed the two mercenaries. It still took your breath away thinking about how he had moved with it, fluid and precise. He may have held the weapon like it burned him, but he used it like second nature.

Your feet hit solid ground and you look up, eyeing the bustling city of Opseg around you. It was noisier than Tatooine. Children scream with joy as they run past you, disappearing into the crowd of people looking to buy the latest products. Fine jewelry and clothing were hung up on display, shopkeepers shouting prices to interested onlookers. The savory smell of vegetables cooking fills your nose and you turn to see another line of shops, these ones selling hot meals. The sights and sounds were both exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.

“This is insane…” you say, laughing slightly. You had never experienced anything like this before, a city with life. Tatooine was nothing compared to this.

“It’s not insane, my dear! This is Opseg!” A voice shouts behind you, startling you. You turn and a green humanoid alien grins at you. The friendliness waving off this stranger is almost as overwhelming as Orus itself. You wondered if everyone on Orus was like this.

The Mandalorian steps just in front of you, putting a barrier between you and the stranger. You hadn’t hired him to be a bodyguard but given the events earlier this morning and your lack of training, you let it slide this time. Besides, you were tired of being snuck upon.

“Ah, apologies, my name is Ortib-Blik! But you can call me Obie for short,” The alien extends his hand out, clearing his throat when the Mandalorian doesn’t offer his hand in return. “I’m a tour guide here in Opseg. You looked lost, so I figured I’d offer my help.” He offers a sheepish smile when the Mandalorian doesn’t say anything.

“Hello Obie,” you greet, stepping to the side of the Mandalorian in order to introduce yourself. “We’re just passing through; we need to find a medcenter.”

“I’d assume it’s for that wound on your eye?” Obie asks, pointing at where your eye swells. You nod and he grins again. “Well, you’re just in luck, the medcenter is taking walk-ins today!”

“How much is a physical?” Mando asks from behind you.

“It’s free!” Obie exclaims, “Even to non-Orus citizens.”

“Is there work I can find here?” Mando asks and Obie’s expression changes.

“Yes, plenty! You look more like a hunter, so I’m sure if you were to stop by any of Opseg’s twenty cantinas you’d find something.”

You balk at the number, looking at the Mandalorian. You forget his facial expression is hidden by the helmet, but you can assume he’s also surprised. Twenty cantinas was an incredibly high amount and you couldn’t imagine the work going into finding a job would be worth it.

“Thank you, Obie, but I think we’ll take it from here.” You offer a tight smile to the alien.

“Of course, of course! If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to shout!” He says, waving as he departs down the street.

“I think he was a lot nicer than the Devaronians that greeted us this morning,” you say, smiling when the Mandalorian sighs. “Too soon?” you chuckle.

“A little, yeah,” Mando says, turning around as he looked down the street. It seemed everywhere you look that it was teeming with life, people shouting and laughing. The shopkeepers yell over the playing children as parents stress over prices. This is way better than life on Puvo, you thought.

Puvo had its moments, the winter festival brought out a certain life in its citizens. Winter seasons were so rare that they celebrated the first indication of winter, whether it was a significant drop in temperature or animals beginning their hibernation. You had only ever experienced one festival and it was during the time your mind was still mending itself back together. But you remembered the laughing, the dancing, and the singing.

Valara had spent hours showing you how to braid her hair, repeating the motions over and over until you finally got it. She looked so happy dancing with that one boy from the neighboring village. Impressions meant everything on Puvo and she took it to heart when the boy didn’t offer another date after the festival. You had been too busy recovering to offer her any comfort, but Valara had moved on, throwing herself into work.

They hadn’t even celebrated the last winter festival. There was too much work to be done, the council had announced. A cloud of depression remained over the village for some time. Valara mentioned it reminded her of when the Empire was still in power. The depressive atmosphere took a toll on your already weakened mental health. Try as she might, Valara’s grandmother struggled to pull you out of that episode. It had been one of the many deciding factors to leave Puvo, at least for the sake of your own well-being.

“We’re in the town square at the moment,” The Mandalorian says. The memories of Puvo fade as you focus your attention. “Medcenter shouldn’t be too far from here.”

“Right,” you murmur, “and what are you going to do while I’m being seen?”

“The guide said twenty cantinas, I have to start somewhere. Most of them are downtown. Small, shouldn’t be too hard to get through all of them before you’re done.” Mando replies, looking to you for confirmation. You nod.

The walk to the medcenter isn’t much. You manage to escape the craziness that’s the town square, there’s not as much yelling, but there’s still plenty of children running around their exasperated parents. It’s clear you’ve entered one of the housing areas, women and men alike staring as you both continue your path. The Mandalorian doesn’t seem to mind the stares. He’s probably used to it by now, you think.

The medcenter is daunting when you approach it. The all-white building amidst desert brown was shocking at first, freezing you in your movement as you stared at the twin doors in front of you. What if they found out something was wrong with you? What if it couldn’t be fixed? Your mind spirals at the idea of what could go wrong, words and thoughts jumbling together. Would they take you away from the Mandalorian? Send you back to Puvo so you can really get better? Institutionalize you? You weren’t that crazy…

“I can’t do this,” you whisper to the Mandalorian. He remains silent and you wonder if you’ve finally managed to make him angry.

“You can. I’ll be there with you the whole time.” He speaks.

“But-but you said you’d—”

“I know what I said earlier.” He murmurs, “But you’re clearly in distress and it’s better for me to stay close, especially in a city as big as this one. The cantinas can wait.”

You’re not sure if his words really soothe your nerves. Your heart is still racing at your earlier thoughts and it’s quickly becoming harder to breathe. He was promising to stay but would he be there when they read off what was wrong with you? Suddenly being on Puvo didn’t sound so bad after all.

You jump when the door opens behind you.

“Hello, I am Oralia. I am a nurse here at the Opseg Medical Center.” A Mirialan woman greets you. “Is there something I can help you with?”

The kindness in the woman’s voice makes you freeze again. You’re unsure what to say, what to tell her. Do you start with the current injuries you have? Do you tell her about your purpose for visiting before you were even attacked? Could she tell you were overloaded with anxiety? You were probably shaking like a wet Loth-cat.

“Miss, are you alright?” Oralia asks you and you shake your head. With gentle hands, she lifts your face, her warm eyes examining the wound by your eye and the peeling bacta patch. “Are you with her, sir?” Oralia asks the Mandalorian.

“Yes,” he replies.

“Let’s get her taken care of.” The nurse says, grasping your elbow with a comforting hand as she walks you through the doors. You can hear the Mandalorian’s boots just behind you as Oralia walks you past the front desk into a smaller room.

“Is she going to be alright?” The Mandalorian asks, watching as Oralia lays you on the examination table. The lights are too bright in this room, it’s almost a startling reminder of that nightmare you had days ago. Strapped down to a table and subjected to torture, you never wanted to experience that again. Not again, not again, not again…

“She is having a panic attack,” Oralia replies in a calm manner, placing a wet cloth against your burning forehead. Their voices sound distant, muted even as you try and get over this attack. It’s so much worse than the ones before, your limbs feel numb and weightless all at the same time and the sterile smell of the room fills your senses. It only makes the panic worse.

A whisper of “I’m sorry” and the white ceiling blurs above you, your eyelids become too heavy to keep open. Sleep consumes you.

When you wake up, the room is the same. White walls and white ceilings stare back at you as you try to take in your new environment. The softness of a bed fills the fists of your hands. They must’ve moved you while you were still sleeping. Sitting up, careful of the needle in your arm, you look around in confusion. Where was Mando? What happened? How long were you asleep for?

“It is good to see that you are awake,” a voice greets you. Oralia. The nurse from earlier.

“Where is the Mandalorian?” You ask, not sure whether or not you can trust her.

“He is out. I told him to walk off his anger.” The nurse replies. She walks over to your bedside and examines the IV needle in the crook of your elbow. The skin is bruised but you’re not sure if it’s her work or from the Devaronians from earlier.

“Does he know I’m awake?”

“He will return, I am sure. You needed fluids in your system as well as a proper examination, but only one of those things I could do while you were asleep.” Oralia replies, examining the needle in the crook of your elbow. Adjusting the bandages, she looks at you with a kind smile.

“Did I pass out?” The last moments before falling asleep aren’t clear, only a blur of pictures and muted dialogue.

“You did not. I sedated you. Your panic consumed you and even my years of training could not walk you down from that.” she murmurs, removing the needle from your vein with calm precision. A small bead of blood pools out and she wipes it away, before wrapping the tiny wound.

Bringing your hand to your face, you feel along where your eye had been bruised. Clearly, it had been treated in your sleep as the skin is no longer tender to your touch. The patch just before your hairline is also gone, the skin smooth with no evidence of a scar.

“I am surprised you made it as far as you did. The Mandalorian told me a great deal of what happened to you both this morning. A pair of Devaronians?”

“Yes,” you say in response. She doesn’t urge you for any more of the story, but you tell her anyways. “The Mandalorian held his own. I, well, I didn’t.” Oralia chuckles at your statement.

“You are brave.” She compliments and you feel your skin growing hot at the statement. “It takes a lot for a woman like you to travel the galaxy. Much less with a Mandalorian.”

“I’m searching for answers. I was a victim of the Imperials and they took my son from me. The Mandalorian is helping me find him.” You tell her and she hums, finishing her work on the bandage just in the crook of your elbow.

“You have other wounds,” Oralia says, this time her hand placing itself right above your heart. You look down at where her hand is and you nod, looking away from her in shame. “I will grab Dr. Orn.”

The door opens with a soft whoosh sound and Oralia departs. You’re left in silence, pondering over your thoughts again. You didn’t want to have another panic attack. Taking a deep breath, you think about where the Mandalorian may be. Oralia had told him to walk off his anger. Why had he been so angry? Was it because you were asleep for so long? Thinking on it, it was some of the best sleep you had in a long time. No nightmares, no memories weaving themselves into dreams.

A click and the door opens again, this time Oralia is followed by a human woman. Dr. Orn, you deduce. Dr. Orn quietly walks over to your bedside and examines what you think is your chart on a datapad. The information displayed is not in basic and you frown.

“Hello,” Dr. Orn greets you. She’s older, possibly a few years shy of Valara’s grandmother but her eyes hold the same kindness. Dr. Orn says your name and you blink, looking back up at her. “We did some bloodwork. First, I would like to welcome you to Orus and we’re grateful that you chose our medcenter as the place to handle your healthcare needs. Second, your bloodwork came back great.”

A sigh of relief. “That’s great,” you murmur and Dr. Orn smiles.

“Oralia did some investigating on your chain code and there’s no record of you in any system, not even ex-Imperial. I’m sure you were aware, as was the Mandalorian. He was kind enough to give us what little information you had on yourself. But given the current state of your health, you are in great shape. Minimal scarring from the leaves of Puvo, which is great. I’m sure you’re aware of the ongoing mental healing you’re going through, but with time, you can work through the nightmares and panic attacks. However, there is something I want to note.”

Dr. Orn displays the datapad to you, this time the information is in basic. A rundown of what medical records they could establish for you. One healthy pregnancy was just one of the few things that caught your eye.

“It’s great to see that you’ve been able to have a healthy pregnancy. Oralia tells me you had a son, about fifteen years ago, correct?” Dr. Orn asks you, pointing at the profile they had made of your son. It was blank except for his name and estimated age. You were listed as his mother, but the name underneath FATHER remained blank.

“Yes. Castin. He was about ten when he was taken from me,” you reply, hand reaching out to skim through the notes they had established for you. Most of the information was blank, mostly because it was unknown, even to you.

“Good, good, as you can already tell we’ve logged that in the file we created for you.” Dr. Orn smiles before she brings the datapad closer to herself and removing it from your view. “However, we detected some anomalies in your blood. A woman of your age should be producing the normal hormones that regulate a menstrual cycle. We found that there was a lack of most of those hormones. Can you tell me when your last cycle was?”

You open your mouth to give a quick answer but quickly realize you don’t know. When you had arrived on Puvo, Valara had explained it was a possibility that your cycle would be irregular, considering everything your body had been through. But now that you were thinking about it, you hadn’t even noticed a lack in your cycle. You had been distracted by the ongoing therapy and work on Puvo.

“I-I don’t know…possibly after I gave birth to Castin but I don’t really remember,” you chewed at your bottom lip. What could it mean for you?

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Dr. Orn sighs, looking back down at the datapad. Her fingers tap on the screen, possibly logging what you had said. “You see, when we did your blood test, we found the lack of hormones a sign that you were not having a regular cycle. It’s not unusual, travel can bring stress on the body and I’ve been informed of what happened in your past, but for you, it means something else. When the Empire had you in their custody, what exactly do you remember them doing to you?”

You can feel Oralia’s comforting hand on your lower back, rubbing circles to soothe your nerves. You weren’t sure if you actually felt soothed, but you took a deep breath.

“It’s mostly a blur, I remember the electrocution and how painful it was, but beyond that, I don’t know.” You inform her, your hands twisting together in your lap. Why was she dragging this out? How bad could it possibly be?

“I see,” Dr. Orn hums. You watch as her hand reaches out, resting on your knee. A gentle touch. “When the Empire had you in their custody, most likely while you were in between torture sessions, they performed a surgery to sterilize you. The lack of hormones in your blood and lack of cycle leads us to believe that this is true. I am terribly sorry that you had to suffer under their hand. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.” Her face says it all, the sincereness in her tone and the sympathy in her eyes. The realization of the diagnosis hits you, knocking the air out of your lungs.

Even with Oralia’s hand on your back, you weep.

Read Chapter Eight - Finally, A Lead here!

#din djarin x you #din dijarin x reader #din djarin #din dijarin fanfiction #din djarin/reader #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian #start again

23 notes · View notes

shekorla · 4 years

Text

Linked Universe Zeldas

So last December I decided to draw my idea for the Zeldas on a whim. Found the WIP recently and decided to finish it.

Also, I typed up all my headcanons for them because I have a lot. They are below the cut.

And I put down nickname ideas, because I'm bad at naming things, and I think the LU discord has already decided on a set of nicknames that they like. Personally, I really dislike most of those though.

❖Corresponding Link: Four

o Age: Teen, just older than Four. Not a major difference, just enough that she can tease him about it.

o Status: Officially still holds the title of princess, acts more like a queen. Her father is extremely protective of her, but after Vaati he conceded that he couldn’t protect her forever. Since then she has been learning to fight, forge (not good at it), and taking over more and more responsibilities from her aging father

o Nickname ideas: Light, Picori, Force

o Fighting style: Mostly fights with a sword and shield. Has extremely strong innate light magic. (light force, although weaker now) Doesn’t necessarily know how to focus it yet (magic bomb, some healing). If you are going to be on the battlefield stop running around like that.

o Current relationship to Link: Best friends, practically siblings. When they were kids there was definitely some major crushing going on. Then everything with Vaati happened and things got… complicated. Neither she nor Link really knows what type of romance they want for the future. They still play lots of pranks on people. She helps keep him stable on the days when his colors get a little too wild.

o Random stuff: Hyperactive and cheery. Always something new to see or learn and she wants to do it. hates sitting still, she is always moving somehow (got turned to stone). Top is hers; Link made the sword (gift), rest is extras from four’s parts (stolen). Hair is naturally extremely curly, lets it down for formal things, tied up for adventuring. Helped four get back to functioning as Link after being four people. Will attack him to get him to take care of himself. Is taller than both four and wind.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Hyrule

o Age: At least a hundred. Was 18 when she was cursed to sleep, no one is exactly sure how long she was asleep.

o Status: Was a princess before falling asleep, offered the crown once woken up. Really over being royal. Link helped her get a job and lodging on a farm at the edge of Hyrule. Really likes that.

o Nickname ideas: Legacy, Farmgirl, First, Ancestor.

o Fighting style: Healer. Lots of bandages to patch everyone up. Doesn’t like to fight, but will stab a man if the need arises. The world is cruel, be kind. Has weak magic, a little bit of healing, and lots of prophetic. Knows the best places to hide on a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They are good friends. He checks up on her from time to time, and she makes sure that he always has a place to rest and relax in safety. Their world is a little bit of a mess, everyone needs a support system.

o Random stuff: Has insomnia. Afraid of not waking up. Extremely wise, or maybe just world-weary. On tense but good terms with current queen Zelda of Hyrule. Forgives her brother, has come to terms with her fate. Taciturn and calm, probably depressed. Extremely sensitive to dark magic. (like an old burn wound) Dislikes people who use it to forcefully get their way. Doesn’t outright hate the principle of it, but will actively shy away from the presence of it.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Time

o Age: Adult, mentally/physically the same age.

o Status: Queen of Hyrule. She is married and has a daughter.

o Nickname ideas: Destiny, Sheik, Queen, Lyre/Harp (what is that thing?), Sage.

o Fighting style: Fights mostly with magic. Uses the harp to play songs (ironically fights like HW sheik) has basic sheikah skills. Has only been training to fight for a short time, is still fairly physically weak. One of the most proficient magic users all round. Can take down the basic mooks, but won't last long against a bigger enemy. Knows how to fight alone.

o Current relationship to Link: Strained. Not OOT sheik. Is MM Zelda. Only knows link as the boy who showed up to save the day, then left. Has had occasional interactions, she visits the ranch, he works with the guard. Only in the past year or two, she has had dream glimpses of the alternate timeline. She knows that she and link killed Ganon side by side, that she helped link disguised as sheik. Does not know about the seven years or most of the trauma. Basically, seen like five cutscenes and nothing else.

o Random stuff: Prophetic dreams. Knew she would be leaving on a quest. Kingdom is well set up to work in her absence. Loves her family, is an idiot who doesn’t know the importance of checking in via letters for anything other than politics. Snobbish, proud, put too much stock in titles. Best manager, not a great leader (doesn’t have the personal skills for it). Sees the world as extremely black and white.

❖ Corresponding Link: Twilight

o Age: Young adult.

o Status: Newly coronated queen, has been running the show for a few years now, it's just barely official

o Nickname ideas: Dusk, Dawn, Shadow

o Fighting style: Uses mainly rapier to fight. Also, a great archer. Because of temporarily sharing a soul with Midna, has access to powerful twilight magic. Not as strong as Midna, still strong. Has goddess magic (channel through weapons). Tries to hide twili powers mostly since it's “dark magic”, but only technically. She knows it's not true dark magic and really just wants to avoid a lecture (does not get along well with time’s Zelda). Knows her way around the edge of a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They barely know each other. Only really interacted through saving the world things. Then they went separate ways. She considers Midna a sister and wants to slap both Midna and Link for not realizing they like each other. Once she knows Link better, she will probably tease him a lot.

o Random stuff: Unlike most of the other Zeldas, sees the world as being mostly shades of grey, rather than stark black and white. Somber and stoic. Secretly a massive gremlin. Has a few habits picked up from Midna's soul along with the magic. Is awkward around ‘normal’ people. Has spent almost her entire life in political settings. One of the best politicians. Rather open about her feelings, it's just small and easily missed. Feels guilty for the troubles that befell both Hyrule and the twilight realm. Hates having to stand back unable to help. Screw rules she is going to help.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Wild

o Age: 118-120ish(?) I don’t know how long it has been since the events of BOTW.

o Status: Technically queen, currently is focused on rebuilding Hyrule. Has no intention to take up the throne any time soon.

o Nickname ideas: Scholar, Architect, Champion, Urbosa, Scientist, Little Bird.

o Fighting style: Not a great fighter but she is learning. Decent with a sword. Gets a crossbow from twilight and then makes her own out of sheikah tech. (currently has no magic and good riddance). Learning to navigate a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They are good friends, but it's awkward. Neither of them are totally sure how to act around the other. Basically, either gremlin adventures, or awkward small talk. Past the first road trip, only interact a few times a month. She is caught between trying to mourn her knight and accepting her new hero. Cooking shenanigans.

o Random stuff: Loves learning new things. Can and will study and find the effects of every plant. Knows poisons, antidotes, elixirs, potions, and everything else. Still trying to come to terms with everything that happened. Frequent nightmares. Claustrophobic/minor insomnia. Knows all the languages. Loves studying sheikah tech, and finally gets the chance to as much as she wants. Hates the castle. So many things change culturally over 100 years and she has no idea what to do. Awkward, but sincere.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Wind

o Age: Teen

o Status: Technically the queen. Hyrule currently consists of a single town on the mainland, and lots of plans. Queenish. Anjean is teaching her how to politics.

o Nickname ideas: Name is tetra that’s it.

o Fighting style: Uses a pirate saber as well as the phantom sword. (IDK if spirit tracks is part of Wind’s story, but I was not passing up the opportunity to give tetra a massive sword). Decent archer, and can channel light magic into weapons…. most of the time…... It’s a work in progress. Also has general goddess magic. Big explosion of light. Knows her way around a battlefield

o Current relationship to Link: Serve on a crew together. Best friends and partners in crime. There is a lot that needs to be done to start a country, they will do it together. It’s not going quickly. They keep getting distracted. Why do paperwork when you can steal things.

o Random stuff: Smol. Link hit puberty and got a growth spurt. She did not. Not a politician, this child should not be in charge, whose idea was it to let a pirate child run a country. Great leader. All the social skills. Shoot first… that’s it. Sassy. Trying her best to be a good princess and live up to her lineage. It's hard. There is no book. Feels like she is letting everyone down. Hates big birds. Occasional nightmares. Really hates being cold. (turned to stone)

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Legend

o Age: Older teen

o Status: Queen. Has ruled for a while. Amazing support system. They regularly keep things running when she gets kidnapped. Good relations with all surrounding countries.

o Nickname ideas: Maiden, Sage, Hilda.

o Fighting style: Doesn’t. Pacifist. She can attack with light magic, chooses not to. Healing magic, team buffs, defense. Just because she doesn’t fight doesn’t mean she will let her team die. Strongest support magic. Does not know her way around a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: Good work friends. They get along well enough. No massive personal relations. She asks him for help with killing monsters, he asks her for help with laws. It works for them. Occasionally they will get lunch together and catch up. (aka make sure he didn’t get himself killed.) Can use telepathy to contact Link at any time. Keeps it to emergencies only. Because he finds it massively annoying, and a little creepy.

o Random stuff: Massive romantic. Currently single. Misses being able to gossip with Hilda. Kind and compassionate. Does not stand for injustice. Will forgive until the end of time. Just because she is kind does not mean she is weak. Strong-willed. Good politician. Loved by her people, even if Ganon has attacked like five times. Ganon is the only person on the list of people she would happily shank. So much paperwork. Give the girl a break. Keeps craft supplies on her for long imprisonments. Scrying magic, and a little bit prophetic.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Warriors

o Age: Adult. Older than warriors, younger than time or his Zelda.

o Status: Queen of Hyrule, and commander of its army. Her Hyrule has been in turmoil for a while even before the war with Cia.

o Nickname ideas: General, Commander, Tactician.

o Fighting style: Best fighter. Can use all the weapons. Summon a bow or rapier of pure light magic. Strongest understanding of how the goddess magic works with weapons. Mostly fights as Zelda (basically her gameplay style), still uses her sheik disguise sometimes (ironically fights similar to smash bros sheik because of extensive sheikah training.) Lives on the battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They work seamlessly together in battle and are friends outside of it. They haven't actually known each other very long so it's awkward sometimes. She still has to occasionally remind him that she doesn’t need a title. If they were two kids in a village then they would probably date. But they are not, and things are complicated. Duty to the kingdom comes first.

o Random stuff: Best makeup. Amazing, if ruthless, politician. Best historian. Blunt. No time for crap. One of the best leaders doesn’t have the pure charisma to outdo warriors though. Resting B Face. 90% of soldiers are scared of her. Comes across as harsh, rude, cold. Really, she is just a bit awkward and hides behind a mask. Can’t do people, can do basically anything else. Minor prophetic magic.

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

❖ Corresponding Link: Sky

o Age: Old teen/young adult. Older than Sky.

o Status: Technically the queen, but Hyrule hasn’t been founded yet. Officially goddess Hylia reincarnated. She doesn’t go around flaunting the title, but sometimes the memories of Hylia she gained will overwhelm her. Full goddess mode. Doesn’t stand for dark magic.

o Nickname ideas: Hylia, Sun, Swallow.

o Fighting style: trained at the academy and knows how to fight with a sword. Not a good fighter. massive bursts of power usually win her fights. Sometimes she can channel a little bit of her power, but usually, she just gets overwhelmed by all of it. General goddess magic, cannot channel through weapons. Thinks she does, but in fact, does not know her way around a battlefield

o Current relationship to Link: Do I need to explain? These two are head over heels. Sappy love birds all the way. Childhood friends. Everyone is surprised they're not engaged yet.

o Random stuff: More adventure-ready style to reflect working on founding Hyrule. Fierce and determined. Kind. But she will get her way. Struggles to balance her mortality and newfound divinity. Feels bad that Sky had to fight for her. Loves her bird. Beautiful singing voice. She is trying her best but is in fact very bad at being an adventurer. Good at sewing. Loads of people skills, working on leadership skills. Best with children. 6th sense type prophetic magic. (aka see a shot before it is taken, but not a coming calamity.)

That's it. Congrats on making it to the end. You get a cookie. 🍪

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #legend of zelda #princess zelda #zelda #loz #LoZ Fanart #long post #headcanons #my art #shekorla #sorry discord #yall are great #dont like almost all of the nicknames

284 notes · View notes

lovelahela · 4 years

Photo

𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 ↠ 𝖎𝖙 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓 [day six, @it-lives-week]

❛ the power is back, and it’s more powerful than ever. you must band together and defeat it once and for all... or die trying. ❜

n.b. i’m basing this off my ilitw mc taking jane’s place and everyone survived in both ilitw and ilb, so some plot points are interchangeable. plus, ilitw and ilb mcs’ characteristics are obviously interchangeable depending on how you played in your own playthroughs/how you have written them.

significant characters.

↠ (DETERMINANT) mc: it lives within main character [LI: determinant]. possible faces to choose from: caucasian, south asian, middle eastern, latina, african. sexuality is determinant. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) marisol reyes: it lives in the woods main character [LI: noah marshall]. filipina. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) harper vance: it lives beneath main character [LI: tom sato] african-american. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change if your mc survived ilb.

↠ (NB) jamie mcleod: it lives within side character [LI: mc or andy kang]. singaporean, irish. pansexual, demisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) sun-hee ‘sunny’ pong: it lives within side character [LI: mc or dan pierce]. south korean. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (M) okeyo ‘oak’ liao: it lives within side character [LI: mc or jocelyn wu]. kenyan, chinese. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

↠ (F) jocelyn wu. it lives in the woods + it lives within side character [LI: mc or okeyo liao]. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change.

romance.

↠ so i don’t know if this is gonna make sense but like in the game harvest moon, you can choose to/accidentally activate “heart events” that set your LI up with a different character, so i thought it would be a cool change for you to see an LI option end up with someone else if you don’t romance them. would probably be paywalled though, kind of like grace/aleister in endless summer.

↠ jaimie would not have intimate scenes until the second half of the book if mc has established a strong relationship with them.

plot points.

the plot isn’t complete, these are just some ideas i had in mind. i may change some or even all of them when i write my it lives 3 au.

↠ [this piece of information is not revealed until late into the story] noah ends up finding a ritual that allows him to bring marisol back, on the condition that he would have to give his soul up to the power after six months and take her place.

↠ in the midst of arguing with his former westchester friend group after revealing his face to them to propose an alliance in order to put a stop to the power, they are interrupted by marisol entering the room, looking and wearing exactly the same as she had on homecoming night, dazed and confused.

↠ noah, having thought the ritual hadn’t worked, is just as shocked beyond belief as the rest of them. it is then concluded that marisol does not remember a single thing during her three years as jane’s replacement (though memories come back to her in bits and pieces through nightmares and flashbacks throughout the story), and believes it is still homecoming night and the last thing she remembers is speaking to jane. they do their best to ease her into the fact that 3 years have passed.

↠ the main character’s parents were members of the society prior to their death, but they were away for college during the events of it lives beneath. upon hearing of their deaths, they move temporarily to pine springs, and notice that something was off with the quaint town.

↠ they take it upon themselves to investigate further into this and later discover the society by following one of its few remaining members into a forest. they are kidnapped, then immediately recognized as the child of their highly esteemed comrades, so they then decide to go easier on them and explain everything about the cult and their parents’ place in it.

↠ they are interrupted when a group of strangers [it lives beneath main group] bust their operation and the chief of police ends up hauling off what they then believed to be the last remaining members of the society into jail. meanwhile, tom, imogen, danni, and harper reveal what they had left out about josephine vance and the power that once lived in the lake.

↠ the main character, harboring bitter anger towards their parents’ greed for the power and how it got them killed, is immediately motivated to put a stop to it, so they are introduced to connor green, whom tom knew was organizing a group to fight against the supernatural force. together, they move to a town they suspected contained it: northbury, oregon - which was equidistant from westchester and pine springs, both of which were an hour away.

↠ the main character is introduced to the westchester group, including marisol and jocelyn; however, only connor, noah, jocelyn, dan, noah, and andy had decided to move to northbury. the rest decided to remain in their respective towns since they weren’t far away anyway.

↠ in an attempt to blend in with the locals and gain information about the recent disappearances simultaneously, MC makes it their mission to get to know the most significant current residents of northbury that ava cunningham and parker shaw had pulled up information about: jamie mcleod (the younger sibling of one of the missing victims), lawrence khan (northbury’s chief of police), jiao-long liao (occult studies professor at northbury university), and sun-hee pong (a college student who had been caught trespassing on properties including the homes of the missing victims multiple times, and the daughter of one of the missing).

↠ upon their arrival, more people start to go missing, and the gang discover that northbury has had a much darker past than westchester and pine springs combined. disappearances date back decades, and the rates are alarmingly high for a town that appeared to be bustling with residents. a local conspiracy blog/forum exposes numerous reports of dead animals cut in a ritualistic/sacrificial manner, sightings of a dark humanoid figure wandering in the trees at night, and rumors of a secret underground cave full of occult symbols drawn with blood on the walls, dust-coated skeletons, and a myth surrounding an ancient monster that was offered sacrifices by its people unknowingly.

↠ honestly this is all i have planned so far lmao but a few more things i had in mind were: (A) there could be a bad ending where they don’t defeat the power, meaning noah’s soul is claimed and he becomes the new redfield (B) if the power is defeated noah gets to stay alive and ends up with marisol, goes to culinary school, all that good stuff (C) i was thinking that even some characters without nerve could have multiple fates depending on how the story goes and who lives, like connor and jocelyn, and maybe it could be dependent on the nerve of others that way the stakes are higher and you’re more motivated to keep the nerve high. e.g. if MC’s nerve is low and they can’t complete a certain task that could save others, jocelyn ends up doing it instead and dies in the process.

so yeah this is mainly what i have in mind for an it lives 3 book! i hope PB change their mind one day and revisit it because it’s truly their best series.

82 notes · View notes

aliendes · 4 years

Text

Natural Borns - Chapter Three

Banner made by @thebannershop

Series info/genre: Angst, fluff, (possible) smut NSFW due to darker themes

Pairings: ot7 x fem reader (eventual)

Warnings: mentions of panic and anxiety, blood, and overall sadness in this chapter. This series will have different trigger warnings listed for each chapter (if there are any), but as a whole, this series will include violence, mentions of depression & other mental illnesses, cursing, abuse, drugs/alcohol, some shitty medical descriptions because i am NOT a doctor, self-esteem issues, fluff, and possible smut in future chapters (but that’s undecided). i will add more warnings/tags in the future if there are any.

Description: In the year 2613, over half of the world’s population are what scientists consider ‘designer babies’. YN is a small town girl who is a true natural born, someone born naturally without he help of a lab or gene splicing. Her DNA is greatly sought after, but what is she willing to do to protect it?

Word count: 5.5k~

A/N: Thank you all so much for the love on this series! If you want to be added to the tag list, please make sure you’re following me and send me an ask! This chapter is a little longer than normal because it contains a lot of backstory. We will be meeting (almost) all of the boys in this chapter and I’m super excited for the next couple chapters. As always, I’m happy to answer questions/asks and I love hearing from you. Reblog and help other’s see the series! xoxo - Des

Updated: 8/3/2020

Squinting, you cocked your head to the side as you caught sight of something, or someone, in your driveway. There, in front of your house, was your father.

And Hyunwoo.

You quickly maneuvered your body so you were completely hidden from sight behind the large oak tree. Your back was pushed against the rough bark, palms flat against the wood. Instead of catching your breath like you intended, your heart rate was soaring, you felt like you couldn’t breath. You screwed your eyes shut for a moment, trying to process everything that was happening.

Namjoon and Seokjin. They just warned you about Hyunwoo, the man now standing in your driveway with your father. Warned you that he could potentially be there to kidnap you - or worse - buy you from your parents. Your initial thoughts drove that possibility from your mind. Your parents wouldn’t do that. You know that. They’ve been protecting you your entire life. They’ve kept you at home, kept you away from anywhere that you could be scouted. But - eyes still screwed shut, you furrow your brow - why? Why have they kept you sheltered? You shook your head violently trying to erase these thoughts from your brain. You took a deep breath and opened your eyes. You slowly turned around to face the tree you were hiding behind, and carefully peeked around it, searching for the two men again.

Your father and Hyunwoo were still standing on your front porch. You were pretty far away from them so you really couldn’t make out facial expressions. You watched them for a moment, trying to read body language, but it was no use. You were too far. As you watched the pair you started to calm down a bit. Maybe Hyunwoo was just coming back to try and talk your father - or you - into selling your DNA. No big deal. Your dad would put a stop - you squint your eyes, trying to get a better look. It looked like they were - shaking hands? After your father shook hands with him, Hyunwoo turned and walked directly to his car. As he opened the door he gave one last wave in your father’s direction and bent to get into the driver’s seat. Before he was fully seated, his eyes snapped to you, as if he had known you were standing there all along.

You gasped loudly and it felt like all the air was violently sucked out of your lungs. You locked eyes with the man. Instead of outing you to your father who was now making his way back into your house, he kept his eyes on your frozen form and continued to sit down. He stared for only a moment before closing his door. A silent message that you heard loud and clear. You weren’t breathing, couldn’t move at all. Your feet felt like anchors weighing you down, keeping you rooted to the ground. You watched as the straight faced, calm Hyunwoo started his car and drove away from your farm.

Your body reacts before your mind could and suddenly you’re running through the forest, back in the direction of the stream. Your thoughts were reeling. You were scared, terrified, even. You were sprinting now, full speed, not caring about the soles of your bare feet. Your eyes were clouded with hot tears spilling down your cheeks. You were running so fast you could hear the whir of wind trailing off your form, leaves crackling and crunching on the forest floor, and the sound of your quick, labored breathing. You have no idea where you’re going, just letting your feet take you far away from your home. Something inside you was telling you, no, screaming at you, to get away from whatever deal you just witnessed between your father and Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo.

He knows you’re out here. He’s probably looking for you right now, or will be soon. Your brain was finally catching up with your body as you started to slow down to a jog. Quickly, you pulled your phone out of your pocket to dial the only number you felt like you could in this moment. Seokjin.

You needed to speak to him, you felt like he would have answers for you, he could tell you what to do. Before you could open your contacts you were falling through the air, phone flying from your grasp, before you slammed face first into the solid ground, cushioned only by dead leaves and shrubbery.

It took you a moment to realize that you must have tripped. Your face was now laying against something wet. You winced as you slowly picked your upper body up off the forest floor with the palms of your already damaged hands. Eyes scrunched in pain, you let your body fall back down when your muscles protested the movement. You turned your head to the side and huffed out a breath, blowing the hair that had fallen around your face. You picked your head up slightly to look to where your phone had fallen, seeing it was only a few feet in front of you, luckily not broken.

You reached out your arm to try and grab for it when you heard footsteps. Immediately your body stiffened and you twisted yourself from your prone position to try and see who was approaching. Now laying on your back, propped up on your elbows, you groaned in pain at your quick movements, but were quickly met with two sets of worried eyes.

“YN!” A familiar voice shouted. How did they find me? You weren’t sure how far you ran, but it couldn’t have been that far. How long have you been gone?

At the realization that the newcomers were safe, you closed your eyes and let your head fall back onto the cool ground, letting out a relieved, albeit painful, sigh.

“YN, are you ok!?” Seokjin’s frantic voice was now in your ear as you heard his knees hit the ground next to your face. Slowly, you opened one eye, taking in Jin’s panicked expression. His dark hair was a frazzled mess, like he had been running his hands through it.

You tried rolling onto your side, whining in pain in the process, but Seokjin put his hand on your shoulder, stopping you short. Your breathing was starting to even out, but as the adrenaline in your body wore off, the pain was hitting you full force. As you opened both eyes, you saw both of Jin’s hands hovering over your body like he was afraid to touch you and damage you further. A few feet behind him, also on his knees, you saw Namjoon. As soon as you actually acknowledged their presence, Seokjin took his backpack off his shoulders and immediately started tending to your wounds. He noticed how bloody your feet were, and decided to work on them first. It took you a moment to relax to his touch, still on edge from the recent events. As you took in your surroundings, you now noticed there was a third person, standing a few feet behind Namjoon. You startled a bit upon meeting the new man’s eyes. The stranger jumped a bit at the eye contact, much to your surprise.

Namjoon’s brow was furrowed in worry, but when he noticed you jump, he followed your gaze to the other man. The newcomer was tall, but not as tall as Namjoon, and looked to be closer to your age than Namjoon or Seokjin, maybe even younger than you. He had dark, curly hair that was falling into his eyes. Much like the other two, he was extremely handsome with a sharp jawline and round, doe like eyes. He looked a little embarrassed by your intense stare and diverted his eyes to the ground in front of him.

“Ah - YN, this is Jungkook,” Namjoon started, gesturing his hands towards the shy boy, “he’s the maknae of our group.”

You slowly nodded your head before letting your eyes slip closed again. Seokjin was disinfecting and bandaging the wounds on your feet and legs and though he was gentle, you were still in a great deal of pain. Your chest felt heavy, a foreign pressure near your ribs. It was becoming a little hard to breathe in the position you were in.

“I’m sorry,” Jin apologized as you winced, “what the hell happened to you YN? I think you may have a couple bruised ribs.” He seemed to notice your pained expression and helped turn you on your undamaged side.

Eyes still closed, you let out a huff. “I ran back home after you left. When I got to the orchard, I saw Hyunwoo.”

You heard someone inhale a sharp breath, but who it was, was a mystery to you. You opened your eyes, staring directly into Seokjin’s as you finished, “He was talking to my dad. They were shaking hands,” you could feel yourself starting to fall into a panic as you remembered the scene, “when he left, he saw me. It- it was like he- he knew I was standing, watching them the whole time. I don’t think my dad saw me, but as soon as Hyunwoo got in his car, I took off. I- I’m scared,” you whined out the last words, feeling overwhelmed by the events of today. You felt Seokjin’s thumb rubbing a soothing circle on the ankle he was currently wrapping as you finished your story.

“You made the right choice to run, YN,” Jin mumbled as he looked up at your face, “Who knows what was going on there, or if he’s looking for you. We shouldn’t stay here long, just in case,” he murmured the last part, almost as if speaking to himself.

“How far are we from the farm?” You asked, curious how far you ran.

“About a mile, a little ways from the stream,” he answered easily.

Namjoon got up from his kneeling position and walked over to your side, Jungkook following close behind like a puppy. You absently thought how adorable he was as you watched him sit on the forest floor behind Seokjin. He reached out to Jin and grabbed onto the back of his shirt, almost like it was a comfort to be near him. You could understand why he felt that way, Seokjin had this comforting aura about him. You felt safe with him, even though you barely knew each other.

Namjoon was now on your opposite side as Jin moved up your body to take a look at the scrapes on the side of your face. “I agree with Jin. We should get going as soon as you’re able to get up. We aren’t too far away from the stream we were at earlier. Probably wouldn’t be too hard to track us here.” Namjoon reached out a hand, like he was going to touch your face, or hair, but thought better of it and pulled away. You thought the action was a little strange, but decided not to dwell on it.

“What are you guys doing out here anyways?” You asked, remembering they had left not too long ago. “How did you find me?”

Namjoon’s face aggressively blushed as he looked over at Seokjin who looked unbothered. “We wanted to be near you in case something happened,” he managed without looking at you, “in case you called.”

You let out a dry laugh, the first the boys had heard from you. “I was actually taking my phone out to call Seokjin when I fell.”

Namjoon gave you a tight lipped smile, “I was about to ask.”

Seokjin was wiping a cotton ball at your bloodied face now, “It’s going to be getting dark soon. We should get going, do you think you can stand?” He asked you, assessing your body one more time and nodding quickly to himself once he determined you were ok.

You nodded a bit, sitting up on your elbows. You winced as you went to tidy your hair that was surely a rat’s nest. “Yeah, just - just give me a minute.” You mustered what energy you had left and pushed yourself onto your feet.

“I left my shoes back at the orchard,” you said as you stood up to your full height, “kind of dumb me.” You watched as Seokjin repacked his bag and stood up, the younger man standing up almost completely in sync, his hand still gripped on Jin’s shirt. The older man seemed completely unbothered by the other’s action, like it was completely normal. Namjoon watched you as you curiously eyed Jungkook.

“We went back to the other’s before heading towards your farm. Kookie wanted to come with.” He said with a fond smile as he mentioned the younger boy.

Kookie. How cute. “Where are the others?” You asked as Namjoon stood up and walked towards his brothers.

Jin slung his pack over his broad shoulders as he answered you, “We’re staying in an abandoned warehouse a few miles from here.” You knew exactly the one he was talking about. It was a big grey industrial building at the top of a quarry. The quarry was usually partially filled with water, and was no longer used. The warehouse used to house the stone that was mined there, but that was decades ago.

“Yeah - I know the one.” Almost all of the high school parties Mina tried to get you to attend were held at that warehouse.

Seokjin nodded at Namjoon, and the three men started to walk in the direction of the warehouse. You started to follow after them, but as soon as you took a step you let out a pained whimper, causing Seokjin, Namjoon, and Jungkook to whip their heads in your direction.

“Hey - hey, wait,” Seokjin started, talking quick steps towards you, arms outstretched, “does it hurt to put pressure on it?”

You nodded, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to fall by biting hard into your lower lip. Jin looked over his shoulder at Jungkook who was slowly approaching you both. “Do you think you can carry her, Kook?”

The boy in question was now standing almost directly behind Jin with a hesitant look on his face. You looked up at him and saw the timidness in his expression, “It’s ok, really. I can do it.” You winced as you tried to take another step.

“YN,” Jin said firmly. You haven’t heard him be this serious before, “Please don’t.”

You looked down to the ground and bit your lip again, nodding. Upon seeing your pain, Jungkook moved in front of Seokjin and turned his back to you. It took you a moment to realize he was kneeling down for you to jump on his back. You hesitated, you didn’t know this man, and he hasn’t spoken a single word since arriving here. Namjoon seemed to notice the resistance in your body language as he walked over and placed a hand on your shoulder. “It’s ok, YN. Kookie is really strong,” he explained, masking your true reasons for hesitating with worry for the young man, “you’ll both be fine.” He gave you a reassuring smile before walking next to Seokjin.

You slowly placed both of your hands on Jungkook’s shoulders and hobbled over until you could lean your front onto his back. It was an awkward position, made even more awkward by the fact you didn’t know the person who the back belonged to. As Jungkook stood up, you wrapped your arms around his neck and held on for dear life. “I wont drop you, Noona.” You startled at the first words spoken by the boy, blinking owlishly. You could hear Seokjin’s giggle from behind you both. You decided to trust Jungkook and loosened your grip a bit.

“Ready?” Namjoon asked the group. After receiving nods and noises of affirmation, the four of you set off in the direction of the quarry.

The walk to the quarry took about an hour, with you all moving a little slower than normal. Namjoon wasn’t lying when he said Jungkook was strong. He has had you on his back the entire walk, only setting you down once to take a drink from Seokjin’s water bottle. You were more than a little impressed by the young man’s stamina.

You realized you were getting close to the quarry when you started to see old dilapidated fencing and signage that contained warnings about cliffs and falling rock. As you reached the edge of the forest, you saw a clearing of trees that had one path leading down into the quarry that had a broken fence attempting to block it, and another path leading up towards the abandoned warehouse. You haven’t seen the warehouse since you were in highschool, having not the greatest memories here, you tried to stay away.

As you approached the large building, you weren’t able to outwardly tell anyone was living in it. The outside was all cement with large metal and glass windows that surrounded the upper perimeter of the structure. The roof was a large pyramid shape that used to hold glass, but was now a shell of metal and wire, with some jagged pieces of leftover glass hanging on. You knew from previous experiences that there was no electricity in the building, and when it got dark, it was incredibly dark out here, no surrounding city lights to illuminate the place. You weren’t fond of the dark and the sun would be setting soon, giving you an uneasy feeling.

Jungkook was beginning to slow down a bit, tiring from walking uphill to the warehouse. The path to get to the building was fairly long and winding. Your arms were crossed haphazardly across Jungkook’s chest to anchor you to his back and when you felt his breathing starting to pick up, you absentmindedly started rubbing one of your hands slowly up and down his pectoral. He straightened up at your movements and you immediately stopped, fearing you had made him uncomfortable. Your cheeks heated and you were glad he couldn’t see your face at the moment. You were sure because of his timid nature, he wasn’t faring much better.

“You said you knew this place, have you been here before?” Namjoon asked curiously, ever the observant one.

You nodded, “In highschool. Haven’t been here in years, though.” You explained. You turned your head to the right to see Namjoon and Seokjin walking together… holding hands? You thought briefly about how attached Jungkook had been to Seokjin earlier, holding onto him and following him around. Maybe it was a comfort thing? You filed away the thought for a later time. They weren’t looking at you, but Namjoon nodded in acknowledgement to what you said.

“We’ve only been staying here for a few weeks,” Namjoon started to elaborate, “there are two more of our group inside. Don’t worry, they’re nice,” he explained quickly upon seeing apprehension written all over your face, “we’ve all known each other a long time, most of us lived together at Big Hit.” Namjoon and Seokjin both grimaced at the memory.

Seokjin took over for the other, “Yoongi and Hoseok are,” he hesitated, “different.” He spoke with careful words, “Yoongi is a little abrasive, just be ready for that. He says what he wants and doesn’t really hold back. He doesn’t trust easily, if at all, so I just want to prepare you for that,” your heart sank a little, feeling empathetic towards the man you haven’t even met, but continued listening carefully to Jin’s words, “Hoseok is a little mysterious. He’s really outgoing and very friendly,” Seokjin giggled, “he’s a lot like a golden retriever, but like Yoongi, he doesn’t trust easily. He’s had a really rough time since we left the facility,” Seokjin’s expression changed into something darker, something you haven’t seen on the man before.

You hurt for these men. They’ve been through so much. You can’t imagine the things they’ve seen or were put through, and you weren’t sure you wanted to find out. One thing you did know, though, was that you felt inclined to do something, to help, in any way that you could, seeing as they have been nothing but helpful toward you. You weren’t sure what you could even do to help them, having not been through the things they have. You really didn’t know much about Big Hit, or about designer baby companies in general. Your parents have hidden you away from the outside world, keeping you sheltered from what goes on in places like those. You’re starting to wonder if maybe that had done more harm than good.

“Thank you,” you started, gaining the attention of all three men with you, “for being so kind to me. I wasn’t the most welcoming when we met, but I - I just want you to know I’m thankful for you guys, even if we don’t really know each other. Even if I’m not totally sure what’s going on, or what’s going to happen.” You laid your head on Jungkook’s shoulder as you finished speaking, feeling exhausted. You didn’t want to think about how tired poor Jungkook was feeling.

Namjoon nodded and gave you a small smile before saying, “We couldn’t let what happened to us, happen to anyone else. If we can put a stop to DNA poaching, we will.” His tone conveyed so much conviction, you couldn’t help but believe him, when suddenly you remember something he said earlier.

“Didn’t you say that some of your… friends were still at Big Hit?” You weren’t sure what to call them. Family? They definitely seemed closer than just friends. You felt Jungkook stiffen beneath you and you were momentarily worried you had upset him, before Seokjin started to explain.

“Yes, two others,” Jin spoke quietly. Something dark flashed across his eyes as he continued, “We call them the twins, Jimin and Taehyung. They’re really close.” Namjoon smiled softly after the mention of his two friends, but continued staring at the ground as you all walked together. “They’re tough. At least, Jimin is, and Taehyung will be ok if he stays with Jimin. We’re doing everything we can to get them out. Yoongi spends all his time trying to figure out a way to hack into Big Hit’s system and break them out of there,” Seokjin let out a long sigh before turning to look at you, “They belong with us. We all belong together.”

Your chest hurt at Seokjin’s words. You could tell how much the six other men meant to him, how much they all meant to one another. The look Jin and Namjoon were currently giving each other proved as much. Namjoon slowly rubbed his free hand up and down Jin’s arm in a comforting manner. You internally smiled at the action. You felt a slight ease at the knowledge that they had each other through everything they had been through, and everything they were going through now. Your heart broke at the thought of the twins still being stuck at Big Hit.

“We’re here,” Namjoon said softly, “I’m going to let the others know we have company,” he said to Jungkook and Jin, who both nodded in affirmation, before he walked through a large metal door on the side of the building. The way Namjoon spoke made you worry. What if the others didn’t like you? What if they wanted you to leave? Jin did tell you that they weren’t very trusting, understandably so. But would that mean they wouldn’t trust you either?

As you and the two men approached the side of the warehouse, Jungkook slowly knelt down to let you off his back, which you happily obliged. You didn’t mind being carried, but you felt incredibly bad for the young man and his poor muscles. As you slid onto the ground, you used Jungkook’s shoulders for support. When both your feet were on solid ground, you eased up to your full height, ignoring the stinging pain in the soles of your feet. You hobbled over to the side of the building and briefly took in your haggard appearance. Both feet and hands were wrapped in bandages, your ankles were bloodied, and your left forearm was sporting a rather nasty purple bruise. You could only imagine what your face looked like.

While you were lost in your thoughts, you hadn’t noticed Jungkook and Seokjin standing off to the side whispering to each other, not so discreetly staring at you. Jungkook was curious by nature, so of course he was incredibly curious about you. A beautiful natural born, a woman at that. He thought you were the prettiest thing he had ever seen, not that he had seen much outside his six best friends and the labs he’s lived at, but still. You were new and interesting to him. He desperately wanted to get to know you more, but he was nervous.

The loud bang of the metal door Namjoon had previously entered brought you out of your self conscious reverie, startling both you and Jungkook, causing you both to jump.

“YN,” Namjoon seemed a little out of breath, worrying you immediately, “do you have a phone?”

Your eyes widened for a moment before you nodded quickly. You pulled it out of your pocket to see you had twenty two notifications from your group chat, a missed call from Mina, some missed texts from your mom, and seven missed calls from your dad. You unlocked your phone and opened the text messages from your mom first.

From Mom [7:51 pm]: Where are you??

From Mom [7:52 pm]: We’re worried about you Pearl, please come home

From Mom [7:55 pm]: YN whatever happened we can explain, please just come home sweetie.

You swallowed a lump in your throat as you looked up at Namjoon. Your mom knew something. Whatever happened, she said. Her or your father must have known you saw him and Hyunwoo earlier. Why would she assume something happened if you never said anything? “I think they know,” you trailed off, noticing a small, blonde man bursting through the metal door and appearing behind Namjoon.

“Give it to me,” the shorter man demanded in a tone that made you flinch, holding his hand out to you.

Seokjin sighed as he rubbed his hand down his face. He walked over to the blonde and put his hand on his shoulder. “Ease up Yoongi. Remember how scared you were when we first found you?” Jin was speaking in a soft tone, but you could tell he was giving an order. Yoongi scoffed in your direction and then turned in Jin’s grasp, looking up at the much taller man.

“Fuck off, Jin. You’re going to trust some girl you just met? They probably tracked her all the way here,” his eyes were narrowed into tiny slits as he glared at Seokjin. Yoongi pushed past Jin, purposely bumping into his shoulder on the way back through the door. You could hear Namjoon sigh from next to you. Jin watched on sadly as Yoongi stormed off before turning around to take in your somewhat pathetic form. You were battered and bruised, still a little bloody, clothes dirty, the bottom of your pants ripped and wet from falling. You stood with your shoulders hunched, eyes trained on the ground in front of you, one hand down at your side and the other clasping your hurt ribcage, looking as small as you could make yourself. Jin’s heart broke at the sight of you, and he could tell Namjoon was feeling the same by the quick glance they shared. Namjoon walked over to you and placed his large hand on your shoulder, causing you to peer up at him through your long lashes. He couldn’t help but think you must be the most gorgeous thing he’s ever seen, even in the state you were in currently.

“I’m sorry about him, like Jin said, he can come off a little… strong,” Namjoon glanced behind him at Jin, who nodded in agreement, “He only wants what’s best for the rest of us, and he is right, even though he may not have gone about it the right way. They can track your phone, and it would be smart to get rid of it, or at least let Yoongi hack it.”

You instantly understood why Yoongi had reacted to you in the way that he had, and you definitely didn’t hold it against him. You nodded your head a little too quickly at Namjoon, “No, I understand. Can- can I just text my friends? They’re probably worried about me, and I don’t know when I’ll get to see them next.”

Namjoon’s eyes softened at the small way you asked him for permission. He didn’t want you to feel like a prisoner in any way. You were a guest, and hopefully with time, a part of their little family. “Of course, YN.”

You gave him a small smile in thanks before unlocking your phone and opening your group chat. You ignored the massive onslaught of text messages and opted for sending something short and sweet so they knew you were ok. You just hoped they’d understand not to come looking for you. You knew how Mina could get when she was worried.

From you [8:23 pm]: hey guys, sorry I can’t explain right now, but i’m not going to be home for a while. I’m safe, please don’t worry. I will get in contact with you both asap. Please, please don’t come looking for me.

You didn’t wait for a reply, realizing you probably wouldn’t be able to handle ignoring whatever it was that Mina or Woo would say in response. You locked your phone before handing it to Namjoon who pocketed it. “I’ll give this to Yoongi later.”

You weren’t super keen on letting the man who wasn’t very fond of you go through your personal device, but you figured it was for the best and Namjoon wouldn’t lead you astray. At least, you hoped as much. Namjoon wrapped one of his long arms under your own arms to help lead you into the warehouse as Jungkook, who had been completely silent throughout the whole ordeal, walked over to your other side to help. Seokjin trailed behind the three of you as you entered the building.

Yoongi didn’t like this. He didn’t like it one bit. As soon as Namjoon had come back to their temporary home, bursting through his door, letting him know they found you, he knew he didn’t like you. Yoongi had hoped against all hope that they wouldn’t find you, or if they did, you wouldn’t believe them or agree to come with them. He was actually positive that you would, in fact, tell them to fuck off. But the fact that you were now here told him you were weak, pathetic even. You would’ve gone with any stranger that told you their sob story. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

The second Yoongi found out about the young girl, a natural born, that was just like them, he wanted to believe it wasn’t true. What he had found in these six other men, was something he had never felt before. He felt like he was home when he was with them. Bringing you into the equation would only ruin things, make the others forget about him, love him less. He needed them, and they needed him. They didn’t need you, and he was going to make Namjoon and Seokjin see that, too. They were so adamant on finding you, on making sure Hyunwoo and the others never got their hands on you. But why? What made you so special? Sure, you were female, a rarity when it came to natural borns with near perfect DNA. When it came to natural borns with perfect markers in their DNA, males were much more common. But that didn’t mean they had to go and risk their lives, their safety, for you. He knew Namjoon wouldn’t let up, though. He made it his life mission to help natural borns like themselves, save them from the horrors they had gone through.

Yoongi was bitter. That much was obvious to anyone in the warehouse. But he also didn’t want to let you destroy the relationship and bond that the seven of them built together. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure you hated it here. Make sure you wanted to leave after he was done with you. He couldn’t watch his family fall apart because of some stranger, all because Namjoon was a martyr by nature. No, he couldn’t allow it.

But the second he took one look at you, standing outside, wet and bloody, saw the look in your big beautiful eyes as he so heartlessly demanded things from you, he knew he stood no chance.

To be continued...

A/N: WOO! All the boys have been introduced, but we still need to meet two of them. Let me know what you thought! My asks are always open. I also have character sheets for all the boys and YN if you want to know specifics about them. I love hearing from you guys!

xx Des

taglist: @minifruity @mrcleanheichou @arantxaglz

145 notes · View notes

watchinglikeafangirl · 3 years

Text

The way they handled Type’s trauma

I thought I would never come to the taste of thinking about TharnType ever again but here we are. Whose fault is that? The peaceful nature’s. How dare it let my thoughts wander and why bring up TharnType all of a sudden, brain?

I think I don’t have to tell anyone here what a f***ed up show TharnType was and why I mainly wanted to forget about it, but we’re going to dig a little bit deeper into one of the aspects that made this show so unlogical and showed its inconcistency: the way Type’s childhood trauma was handled. The inconsistency concerning that aspect mostly shows during the second season because that’s when it all went down to sh*t. I still think - though I’m not proud to say this - TharnType season one was a guilty pleasure. Yes, they are toxic and the end fight was really something else, but I somehow found it enjoyable enough to keep at it. I was at least a bit invested and I have to give Tee (the director) all the credits for that because I believe it’s totally on him that the show was watchable. The story was garbage from the very beginning but at least he made it work. It didn’t look that bad any more - not until you sat down and reminisced about the plot, but that’s not his fault. Tee totally nailed it with “Lovely Writer”, so yes, directors have a lot to say and when they changed directors for season two, the endproduct made me wanna run away from my phone. I don’t even know why I kept watching. I guess because it was an internet joke to do so. Just like the people still watching Riverdale: because it’s so bad, it’s nearly not funny any more but somehow compelling.

season one

This season starts off with a very important piece of information of Type: he is homophobic. We don’t get a real reason for a long time because he didn’t really bring up arguments against homosexuality. He was just against queer people, period. It takes a while before Type opens up to Tharn about why he is so afraid of homosexual men explicitly. Until then, there’s a lot of weird, uncomfortable sexual tension between them with Tharn basically dragging Type against a wall or something, so he can’t escape him. Yeah, this toxicness of their relationship is a different topic...

To be honest, I didn’t expect Type’s reason to be that shocking. I had tears in my eyes when he talked about being molested as a child because this is just something one doesn’t expect. It’s such an aweful action and experience, I can’t imagine. So, yeah, the reason for his fear of gay men comes from this childhood trauma and it literally explains everything.

He had nightmares of that day. He was obviously scared of his feelings because in his head that would mean being like his molester. And he didn’t want to be the center of someone’s attention again since his family pressed charges after he was molested. Actually, the reason why Type was so violent the whole time was to make others stay away from him, so he won’t ever be the talk of town again. If you’re untouchable nobody dares to try, so you live isolated from the world. It’s some sort of self-protection. It goes that far that he rejects gay men to have anything to do with him. He only met one homosexual up until this point at that meeting was traumatizing, so it makes sense for his character to be scared, to be hauted by that fear. But since Tharn is pretty needy, Type can’t escape him. His self-protection still kicks in because later, he refuses to define himself as gay. Being gay would mean being like his molester or at least, share something with him which is a terrifying thought.

The scene when Type tells Tharn about his horrible life experience, it was probably the most touching scene of the whole show and no other scene follows on this list. No, their break-up doesn’t count for me because I giggled the whole time because of the acting lmao. Sorry but no. Anyway, that scene indeed was touching and I was really shocked. The way Tharn then stops Type from telling any more felt realistic and this whole situation was very private. Just two people getting to know each other deeper. And all the ugly things included.

But - there’s always a but with TharnType - after the confession, nobody seems to care any more. It’s like letting the audience know was the missio here and it’s accomplished now, so let’s move on. Let’s not discuss how much it still affects Type. In fact, let him look like a total a**hole and a bully. Tharn is not more gentle with Type, pushes him even more into telling others though Type needs to sort his struggles out alone first. But then, Type doesn’t give a damn as well and they don’t talk about this topic again. Then, their relationship is more important.

Later this season, Type’s dad even nealy makes a joke about the whole trauma and I find that a bit disturbing. But again, Type is not touched by it. It seems like he doesn’t remember it, like this information was never given to us. It’s very odd but okay. The fight with Llong took more time though it was played out in a very boring way.

season two

Okay, season one was fine compared to this aweful masterpiece called “TharnType: 7 years of love”. It’s been seven years and the relationship didn’t make ANY progress. Type still hasn’t outed himself to the world and they are still jealous of women. So much inconsistency, it hurts. But let me just continue talking only about Type’s trauma because season two just walked over it.

In the beginning, Type’s behavior still mirrors that trauma. It is still visible because he doesn’t tell anyone about his boss keeping an eye on him. Why is that? Because he is again the victim of harassment and is too afraid to admit it, even to himself, because that would mean casting attention onto him. He can’t let this fear of events repeating go, he can’t shake it off. It’s again his self-protection to not let bad memories get ahead of him and mess with his thoughts. Labeling something as harassment might cause his nightmares to return because a trauma doesn’t leave your mind entirely. The bad night and days turn into bad moments but it still returns to you over and over again, but Tharn seems to have forgotten that. He seems to have forgotten his partner he shares a bed with gets heavy nightmares whenever he feels pressured. Tharn continues pushing Type to marriage and talking more about the stress at work. He doesn’t care because Tharn is selfish just like Type. The trust issues surrounding their relationship are ridicolous. Seven years for god’s sake!

Well that is that. I just wanted to point out Type’s trauma is still visibly sticking to him. But this season turns around completely with the whole Fiat kidnapping. That’s the moment when things stop to make sense entirely because Type seems to have forgotten everything about his trauma. He comes up with the plan to kidnap Fiat, forcing someone with a boyfriend to flirt with him, lets Leo watch all of this whilst feeling like the smartest person in the room. But man, did you forget you’re making Fiat the victim of abusement, just like you are one?! Why the hell did he do that? To punish Fiat? It freaking looks like he’s about to r*pe him! Shouldn’t Type know from personal experience how much such events affect a person? Fiat must’ve felt weak, scared - more like terrified - and helpless. It leaves a scar Type can tell a story about but he forgot. He forgot that with doing this, he’s not much better than his molester which would’ve originally been a no-go for him but I guess, he reached his lowest point here and there's no turning back. He doesn't seem to regret it anytime later because he doesn't even tell Tharn...

conclusion

It's is obvious the card of the trauma is only played when they have no other idea of explaining situations. The characters constantly forget about it until it's important again which shows exactly, the writers didn't care enough. Or MAME didn't care enough which she would set me on fire for but teh inconsistency is undenieable. It seems like it wasn't the original plan to give Type a tragic background but the story was too boring without it but some scenes wouldn't've worked normally because of the trauma. Type would never have kidnapped Fiat! But who am I telling this? You already know...

Yeah well, I guess we can agree season one at least knew what it was and tried to work with that and season two just totally lost its purpose.

#just know i read summaries to write this #it gave me a headache lmao #the story is so bad #i can't #tharntype #mewgulf

6 notes · View notes

mistersourwolf · 4 years

Text

A Lover from the Unknown- Geralt x Reader

Pairing: Geralt x Reader

Word count: 2.4k

Warnings: None really, hints at smut but no nsfw in this piece.

Request: Hey could you possibly do a geralt request where he saves and falls for a girl who is set to be killed cause the mayor of a town deems her a monster. She has powers to be able to control the elements. She's not a monster but part of a race that was wiped out. Maybe marks glow on her skin depending on what elements she uses

Summary: Y/N has lived most of her years captive inside the castle due to her magical abilities. Being treated as an experiment, over time her anger builds up. One night a storm rips through the town she resides in and the mayor is furious. Before she could meet her demise, she fell suddenly unconscious. Only in the morning would she realize what and who had spared her that night, saving her life. The two decide together to go on a journey to help discover who y/n truly is.

A/N: This is probabaly one of the most elaborate pieces I’ve written. It took me entirely too long to write it but I’m so glad because I’m just in love with the final results. I tried to get as accurate as I could to the request which I believe I did though I didn’t include markings which I envision would be a crackling turquoise glow as her emotions overwhelm her. So use your imagination as you will. Also, if you think Geralt talks to much, he just might if you’re basing this off the show. I’ve seen the show and have been reading the books and Geralt talks far more than what he does in the show so please don’t take it as out of character, it is very much in his nature to talk. Anyways without further adue ... A Lover from the Unknown.

You sat in the corner of your room rocking back and forth with your knees pressed against your chest, slowly becoming more panicked as the thunder broke against the roof in a loud bang. You knew this was all your fault, attempting to stand to your feet, you gazed out of your window, the whole town was being ripped to shreds. Rain hit the ground furiously, each drop setting a new fire. The tavern was completely destroyed and fires were raging in the distant neighborhoods, clouding the night sky with soot.

You were to blame for this chaos, unsure of what you were and with nobody to guide you, your anger had disturbed nature’s balance. It was your doing but not your fault, after all you rarely saw anybody but your own reflection. With little interaction with any other humans aside from the guards who would bring you your meals, it’s understandable why you would be enraged. You had been held in the castle for far too long, a prisoner to the Queen. As she ordered her servants to poke at you, as if you were a guinea pig, as if you were a freak, you grew more and more angry by the day. Previous to this event, you had summoned wind storms, manifested tornadoes and sinkholes but the day you made hail come down the size of boulders, they had to force an elixir down your throat, one that left you in a trance for days. But this—this storm was much different than the last.

Suddenly, the doors to your room flew open abruptly. Two men, both of them head to toe in a suit of armor came rushing in, demanding you to come with them.

“What?” Your eyes widened, “No please!” You cried as they grabbed your arms dragging you from your bedroom.

“Foolish girl, what have you done?” They muttered, pulling you along the castle halls.

“I don’t understand!” You cried, “You have to help me please.”

The guards said nothing, pushing through the doors of the tower, revealing a smoke littered atmosphere. You could make out the sounds of townsfolk screaming as the fires spread, their screams pierced the night air from miles away. Horses trotting through the ruins made horrific sounds as you were thrown to your knees. Your flesh slid across the dirt, causing you to wince in pain.

Slowly, footsteps made their way towards you, sloshing in the sludge of the dirt. You, sure that you would face your demise right then, hesitated to look at who stood above you. In your gut you knew, it was the mayor. He had been the mayor in this town for quite some time and despised of creatures who possessed magical abilities. You’d come to face him before and his threat, his penalty he’d deliver was far worse than being prisoner.

“Pitiful girl, what have you done to my town?” He yelled, crouching down beside you. “I spared your life once before, I won’t make that mistake again!”

You whimpered, tilting your head up slowly to meet wicked eyes. He was furious and veins showed clear through his forehead. “Get her up, onto the horse will you?” He phrased his command as a question to the guards but it was perfectly understood that it was a demand. That if they didn’t pick you up and place you on the horse that second, they’d be subjected to your fate as well.

You squirmed as the men complied, throwing you on top of the horse. At this moment, a lightning bolt shot from the sky, frying the men in their metal gear. You let out a scream, horrified as they dropped to the dirt. Simultaneously thunder cracked through the air once again, a demonic rumble. The horses kicked the dirt, terrified but obedient. Your hair blew violently in the storm watching the mayor struggle to his horse. He called out to you, a string of curses that you couldn’t make out. Your arms wrapped around the mare as if they would protect you from your own doings. Confusion grew on you as you smelt in the air lavender, chamomile and a powerful mixture that surely was a magical concoction. The mayor gripped the dirt, on all fours as he continued to make it to his horse. Your eyes grew heavy, starting to flutter shut. As your body grew calm, the storm eased and your hair blew gently in the fall night. Just before your eyes shut for good, you saw a man approach the mayor and in a swift movement, his elbow collided with the mayors crooked nose and he fell unconscious as did you.

When you awoke, the smell of the earth was so pungent you could nearly taste it. Immediately you sat up, glancing around the rather dingy, colorless inn. You were laid not on a bed, in fact there were no beds in the room, only a cot, one which appeared old and unclean. You stood up, the floorboards creaking beneath you, a deafening sound. The sun was starting to rise and gleamed through the broken window, dimly lighting the room. Where in the hell were you? You recalled the storm from the previous night, one you had caused surely. You remembered the mayor threatening your execution, a threat he would have surely followed up on. A man who emerged from seemingly nowhere and then—.

A tall figure entered the door to your room, closing it behind him.

“You’re awake.” He murmured, walking over to his bag to store something away.

You didn’t feel frightened but confused, “Where the hell am I?” You asked the white haired fellow.

He answered, still turned away from you, “Maybe the question you should be asking yourself is ‘What the hell am I’.”

“Oh yes, you’re probably right,” you pondered sarcastically, “stranger who kidnapped me!”

“Kidnapping? Ive been accused of worse.” He grunted, shifting his body to face you.

You sighed, walking back to the cot to sit down. “Who are you?”

“You first, what are you?” He pestered.

“Me first? What are you, a child?” You scoffed, but gave in to him, “I’ve been asking myself that question for years, I’ve got only a sliver of an idea. I know I can make the ground beneath me crumble and swallow us whole, that I can create storms of dust and pull lighting out of a clear blue sky. But I don’t know why I can do that, I don’t know what I am and I’ve only ever been prodded at.”

After a moment of silence, the man spoke again, “I’m Geralt of Rivia, a witcher.”

You were surprised by this but like him, showed no reaction to what you were told.

“Okay, Geralt of Rivia, you’re a witcher so tell me why did you save a monster?” You asked quietly.

“You think you’re a monster?”

“Everyone does, I’ve hurt people and that sounds monstrous to me.”

“Hmm.” The witcher grunted, unsure of what to say.

“What do you think I am?” You asked, staring at your feet.

“Talkative.” He teased.

You grinned and the two of you sat in silence for a while, watching as the sun finally rise, lighting the entire room. Why he had brought you here you had no idea, most likely it was the safest place for miles. You hadn’t been outside the town in nearly a decade, held captive inside the castle. If you could’ve brought that castle down you would’ve but the Queen had it enchanted so no magic, not even your own could effect the tower.

“Teach me.” You blurted, “Teach me to control my magic.”

“I wouldn’t know how to teach you.”

“Says who?”

“History,” Geralt said turning his head away from you. “Any more questions out of you and my ears might just bleed.”

“Then I’d be the one taking care of you,” you teased, “and surely you wouldn’t want that.”

You stood up, walking over to the white-haired man, his eyes the color of the sun. You didn’t realize how good looking he was but it was clearer than ever in the light of the early sun.

“And I’m not asking you, I know you will aid me just as you already have.”

He peered down at you, an annoyed yet intrigued expression. He was impressed by your persistence.

“So,” you said, running your fingers over his chest. “Have you a lady or can I repay you for this lovely debt?”

“I have no one and you owe me nothing.” He never broke eye contact with you and neither did you, which surprised him as most women struggled to keep his gaze.

“You don’t understand what you’ve done for me, truly.” You trailed your fingers up his chest, wrapping a hand behind his neck. “And you look just as broken as me so I insist.”

You pulled him in closer, leaning forwards to kiss him, gently. His lips moved in sync with yours as his hand moved to the small of your back. His lips were soft and his touch was nostalgic for you. You failed to remember the last time anyone wrapped their arms around your waist and so you soaked in every moment of his touch.

He broke the kiss, staring down at you, “What is it with women and magic?”

This was an odd statement, but verified you were not the only magic woman he had come across. Ignoring it, you felt him grip the back of your thighs, lifting you up on his waist and in response you wrapped your legs around him. He backed you against the wall, laying kisses along your neck and jawline. With a tug of your dress, he managed to remove it all while still pinning you to the wall. His eyes gazed over you hungrily, a bright yellow of which you never questioned.

After moments of pleasure and curses echoing the room had come to a stop, you felt yourself stand on your feet again, pulling your dress over your shoulders. The witcher stood in front of you, pulling his clothing down over his torso and fastening his pants. You remained in silence, glancing out the windows to seem occupied. You didn’t notice the witcher still staring at you and the marks on your neck that he left.

“Don’t let anybody tell you what you are,” he spoke, “A monster, a coward, a sex symbol or a fucking gnome, those names are nothing if you know your worth.”

You gazed at the witcher, blushing at his words. But something about him told you he wasn’t practicing what he preached. He carried himself with pride but his aura said something entirely different, that he was caught between embracing who he was and despising his own kind. You could see the world had made him feel that way, that witchers are to be spited.

“Do you?” You questioned, staring intensely at Geralt trying to get a read on him.

“Hmm,” He muttered, ignoring the question. “I’ve never seen anyone with your abilities and I’ve seen almost everything there is to see.”

“Yes, well I’ve heard several variations, you know the first being I’m a monster and brought to this Earth by the need for a balance between good and evil, I’m clearly the latter. Another says I’m a mutant, though there aren’t mutants like me as far as I’ve seen. Lastly, the mayor who sought after my death believed I stemmed from a line of ancient gods and goddesses who were thought to be mythical but he insisted they were real and that my bloodline is that of theirs. I don’t know if I believe that as those gods would’ve long been dead before my birth.”

The witcher analyzed every word you said and wasn’t phased by the mention of gods and goddesses. “I don’t know if any of those variations are true but I know a trusted bard who does his research.”

“Where might this bard reside?” You jumped excitedly, smiling broadly as you were excited by the thought you would finally find out who you are. At this same time your excitement bubbled up, the wind began to pick up outside and a strong breeze came through the shattered window, occupying the room.

“Hey,” Geralt spoke loudly over the wind, noticing it was your excitement which initiated the sudden breeze. “I don’t know for certain if he will be of help but it’s worthy to note your magic is tied to your emotions.” He walked over to you, placing his hands on either sides of your shoulders, staring down into your hopeful eyes. His touch was calming and your adrenaline settled inside of you and thus the wind came to a slow. Geralt observed this and interpreted that you had connected him as an anchor. His face suddenly softened and you hadn’t seen this expression on the witcher yet.

“Come on,” Geralt said, grabbing his bag from the floor, “before you blow the inn away.”

You followed him out the door of the inn and into the outdoors, where the odor of the musky inn didn’t follow and instead was replaced by the scent of Lilly flowers and petrichor, both of which you hadn’t smelt in ages. A lovely mare stood outside, the sun reflecting of its coat beautifully.

“Roach, this is—“ Geralt paused, embarrassed he had never got your name.

“Y/n.” You chuckled at the fact of him talking to his horse. “Roach? For a mare?”

“A pretty name like Y/n for a monster?” He said jokingly, annoyed by your commentary. You let him slide, laughing at the witcher.

“A jester I see, lets get going shall we?” You suggested, letting him mount himself on top the horse. He offered a hand out to you which you accepted, climbing atop the horse.

You started towards your journey, one seeking a know-everything bard to help teach you of your kind. The soft breeze whispered freedom as you laid your head against Geralts back, watching the trees pass you by. Soon enough, you’d learn of your origin and it was liberating to no longer be trapped in the four walls of your room in the castle. So you closed your eyes, inhaling the scent of flowers and pollen as the sound of the rushing wind took over your mind and put you at ease.

—Let me know if you’d like to see a part two as I already have some plot ideas :)) thank you

#imagines #geralt of rivia #geralt imagines #the witcher #the witcher imagine #geralt x reader #witcher x reader #geralt x y/n #netflix the witcher #notmygif #x reader imagine #henry cavill #send in requests

123 notes · View notes