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dameronology · 4 years ago

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that’s all {din djarin x reader}

(i’m reposting this bc it wasn’t showing up in the tags and it was stressing me out)

summary: you’d saved din djarin from himself before. now, with the pain of losing his kid, you’re about to do it all over again. (kinda based on find me here by hayley williams)

warnings: this is...flangst. fluff and angst. swearing. mentions of depression but it’s also a bit ✨positive✨

this is just me trying to be the emotional janitor to...that. i’ve tried to keep it as gender neutral as possible but some of the conversation might imply an afab reader but hopefully it’s vague to be completely objective!!

- jazz

anyways i know i already said it but !! spoilers !! spoilers !! spoilers !!

p.s spot the titanic reference

Grogu was tiny but the whole he left in your lives was massive.

You always knew you were going to have to give him up - hell, that had been the job in the first place - but you hadn’t expected it to hurt so much. He wasn’t your kid but at the same he completely and entirely was. You’d never expected your first parenting experience to be with a tiny green Jedi but at the same time, you wouldn’t have had it any other way. The next few months were going to be hard; accepting that he wasn’t yours to keep and that he was in a better place was guaranteed to be a long process. It would be worth it in the end but the initial pain was bordering on unbearable.

Din was better at hiding it than you. Admittedly, he did have a thick beskar layer to shield his emotions and pain from the outside world but he couldn’t hide it from you; never from you. Even behind the metal, you could read him like a book. It was a product of spending every waking minute together (his overprotective doing, not yours) and in return, he had learnt every habit and every quirk of yours. He sometimes cursed your ability to read him, especially when it lead to you saying things like you did not just tilt your helmet at me like that, Din Djarin.

He’d been quieter in the days since Luke Skywalker had taken the kid - quieter than usual, at least. Din was already a pretty taciturn person; compared to how he was with other people, he practically spoke your ear off but since you’d landed back on Nevarro, he’d completely kept to himself. It was painful to watch, seeing him rise at the crack of dawn to take a bounty, only to return in the evening with a few more bruises than he’d had that morning. You wanted to say something to do something that would make him snap back to reality, but this was probably his grieving process and you had to respect that. Or, you had to at least try to.

That was, until, it felt like Din was killing both you and him; working himself to the point of exhaustion, barely sleeping and refusing to even acknowledge Greef or Cara. You could deal with him being angsty. You could deal with him grieving. You couldn’t, however, deal with him ignoring you. You had literally vowed to go through all your bad times together and Din Djarin was nothing if not a man of his word. He knew it. You knew it too - and you’d be damned if you’d let him forget it.

It was on a cold - at least by Nevarro standards - morning that you decided it was time to show him some tough love. The Mandalorian had decided to hole out on one of Karga’s old ships that morning, claiming that he wanted to fix it. You were no engineering genius, but given that the old jet’s wings had fallen off, you could see it was past the point of no return and that Din had just been looking for an excuse. He was good at that these days.

‘Din!’ You called. The bay doors were open, but the ship itself was dark and dusty. Tinkering, my ass. As expected, there was no reply. ‘Din! Don’t ignore me.’

Silence.

‘Please?’

You grumbled to yourself, walking further inside the dimly lit ship. Tiny specs of dust were floating in the streams of thin light, leading your path further and further towards the cockpit. Who ever it had belonged it, it pre-dated the Republic, let alone the Empire or new order. You tried to resist the urge to cough, instead choosing to focus on your mission: hunting down the Mandalorian. The tables really had turned, considering he was very rarely the prey.

‘I was talking to Karga.’ You continued - as far as you knew, you were talking to thin air, but you liked your chances. ‘He offered me a bounty puck for...Corellia, is it? For that big, bad guy we didn’t catch last year. You know the one that nearly killed me?’

There was a crash from the cockpit, and you grinned to yourself. It was a little unethical to scare the man out of hiding with your bullshit, but you were getting desperate.

‘I figured it would be good to get out a bit, try and distract myself, you know?’ You continued. ‘So I was gonna borrow a ship and head out there tomorrow-’

‘- like hell you’re doing that on your own.’

A six foot mountain of beskar suddenly stepped out from the darkness. Normally, that would have been enough to scare anyone, but not you. You’d married that six foot mountain of beskar. That probably gave you more guts than anyone in the damn galaxy -- until they found out he wasn’t actually that terrifying. Not many people would have taken the Mandalorian seriously if they knew he enjoyed having his hair played with.

You held your hands up in the air, stretching out your fingers to show that there was no puck in sight.

‘You lied.’ Din grunted.

‘And you were ignoring me.’ You shot back. ‘’S going on?’

‘I told you. I was working on the ship-’

‘- nope.’ You cut him off. ‘Try again.’

‘Karga asked me to fix it-’

‘- Still no!’ You snapped. ‘We gonna go three for three or are you gonna finally pull your head out your ass and stop lying to me, Din?’

There wasn’t a single person in the galaxy who dared speak back to the Mandalorian - except you. That was what had made him fall for you in the first place. It was like you couldn’t even see the beskar. You’d always seen him as Din, and never as the Mandalorian, or a warrior. You’d made it clear from the day you met that you wouldn’t take any bullshit from anyone, him included, and he’d always respected that.

‘You have been holing yourself away for weeks.’ You continued. ‘I know it’s hard but you have to accept it. Grogu wasn’t ours to keep - he never was.’

Din didn’t response, instead dropping his gaze down to the floor.’

‘Hey.’ You put a finger at the base of the helmet, tilting his head back up to look at you. ‘Look at me. Talk to me.’

‘I miss him.’ He stated; short and blunt. Fitting, really. ‘And it hurts.’

‘I get that.’ You gently placed your hands on either side of his helmet, fingers splaying out over the cold metal. ‘But it’s better to hurt together. Can I?’

Din nodded, signalling that it was okay for you to take it off. You gently tugged at the helmet, momentarily breaking away from him to place it beside you. It was a relief to see his face after so many weeks of having the beskar between you; the soft brown eyes and slightly crooked smile that met you on the other side felt like home. You could have stared at him forever if the galaxy wasn’t so fucking demanding of your presence.

You’d spent far too long on the other side of the beskar, waiting for him to let you in. And now that you’d got him, now that you’d promised yourselves to one another forever? You weren’t going to let it happen again.

You gently pushed back a few tufts of brown hair, offering him a sad smile. ‘You know we made the right decision, yeah?’

He nodded, leaning into your touch as your hands carded through his hair. ‘I know.’

‘So you gotta stop beating yourself up, baby.’ You stressed. ‘Stop shutting people out - stop shutting me out. I know we don’t have the kid anymore but we are still a family.’

‘I lost the ship. I lost the kid.’ Din quietly spoke. ‘I’m just worried that-’

‘- I’m not going anywhere.’ You shook your head, knowing what he was going to say before the words even left his mouth. ‘Even if you paid me. You are stuck with me, okay? Cursed with me till the day I keel over and die.’

Finally, Din smiled. He looked you dead in the eye and he smiled, eyes creasing at the side as he peered down at you, eventually tightening his arms around your waist. He held your head to his chest, ungloved hand gently clutching you as he rested his chin on your hair. The first time he’d clung onto you like this had been after a rough mission; neither of you had been sure if he was going to make it back and when he did, the first thing he did was pull you into his arms and you stayed there for what felt like hours. That was when Din realised for the first time that he loved you - and now, after weeks of isolating himself and shutting you out, this didn’t feel completely different from that. It was just that this time, it was less of a realisation of more of a reminder.

‘I didn’t expect it to be this bad.’ Din quietly admitted.

‘I know.’ You whispered back, voice slightly muffled by his chest. ‘But pain is only temporary. Dark times pass and we’ll learn to look back on this and enjoy the memories. They won’t always be tainted.’

He’d been in a dark place when he’d met you. It was like he’d been treading water, waiting for the riptides to take him, to stake their claim and remind him of his mortality, to remind him that not even the bravest people can forfeit their ability to hurt. He tried. Maker, he had tried. The icy and emotionless impression he gave to strangers wasn’t an accident. It was a survival mechanism; a defense mechanism. One that you’d chosen to ignore. You’d saved him in every way a person could be saved.

Just as the waves were pulling him under, you’d dragged him out; dragged him to the shore and reminded him that pain was merely part of being human. Most importantly, you’d called his attention to the fact that no matter how much beskar he wore or how impenetrable he acted, that he couldn’t avoid being one. He could run away from bounty hunters and Imperials and the thousands of enemies he’d made but the fact of mortality was always hot on his tail.

Now, you were pulling him up for air all over again.

Eventually, pain stopped being a reminder of his humanity and instead, it was replaced by his love for you. His ability to feel things for you. You’d saved him then and now, you were helping him come up for air all over again. Being human didn’t always mean to hurt - it could just as much mean to love.

‘I’ve got you, okay?’ You tightened your grip on him, eyes meeting his. ‘Whatever you need.’

‘You.’ Din replied. ‘I need you. That’s all.’

a/n: ok i realised i published an identical but slightly different imagine to this in october but...clearly i have a type and that type is imagines where the mandalorian confesses that you’re the only thing he needs because i eat that shit up. consume it whole. i am telling you. i have no regrets. my content might is predictable but HELL at least u can rely on something in these wild times❤️

#din djarin x reader #din djarin imagine #din djarin x you #mandalorian x you #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian imagine #mandalorian fan fiction #din djarin fan fiction #star wars x reader #star wars x you #star wars fluff #din djarin fluff #mandalorian fluff #mandalorian spoilers #mandalorian season 2 spoilers

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gojo-x-reader · 4 years ago

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Red String of Fate

Relationship(s): Gojo Satoru x F!Reader

Warnings: slight swearing, slight manga spoilers

Tags: Soulmate AU

AO3 Link: here

Words: ~2.3k

Request: “Hello I'm actually not sure if I'm supposed to put put my request here? well, if its not supposed to be here, then please ignore it. Anyways, can I ask of you to share your thoughts on Soulmate AU w/ Gojo around 12 to 16 yrs old where he can see signs of who's soulmate is whos meeting his possible fiance who turns out to be his soulmate (I asked that age bc first meeting! he's from a noble clan and its really weird he doesn't have fiance or something) Sorry if its confusing and Thank you!”

Gojo Satoru was twelve years old when his Six Eyes began showing him the red strings of fate. Every person’s string was different. Some of them stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, almost seemingly never reaching the other end. Others were shorter, connected to the person they stood next to (whether they knew of their existence or not). And unfortunately, on some, Satoru could see the end of the string, but it dragged behind someone, unconnected to another human.

Satoru had told his mother about the strings as they appeared. Those are strings that lead one to their soulmate, she had explained to him. Everyone has a soulmate, but not everyone is in love with theirs. There are different kinds of love in this world.

Satoru’s parents were soulmates, but they did not love each other; that much was clear from how his father treated his mother. He never hit her or anything, but he didn’t treat her like an equal; more of a vessel that gave birth to an heir. He only interacted with his wife when necessary, the two not even sleeping in the same room at night.

For that reason, Satoru was scared to meet his own soulmate. He had one, that much was clear by the bright red string tied around his left pinky that stretched on for kilometers. He didn’t want to end up like his parents.

Gojo Satoru was fourteen years old when his father announced that he would be marrying you, a girl from the Kamo clan. You were the youngest daughter in the secondary branch of the family, just a year younger than him. Tomorrow, the two of you would meet for the first time.

You were nervous about tomorrow, for several reasons. Number one, you had heard the rumors about Gojo Satoru--the first member of the Gojo clan to be born with the Six Eyes and Limitless, the two inherited techniques of his clan, in a hundred years or so. That meant, in a nutshell, he was much stronger than you could ever hope to be, as someone who hadn’t even inherited the Kamo clan technique (which is why you were being shipped off to another clan). Number two, you had heard rumors of his personality, somehow both cold and carefree at the same time, but one hundred percent a horrible personality to be combined with your timid and quiet nature. And number three, you almost resented him because now you were stuck in an arranged marriage and you saw how well that worked out for your parents.

Tomorrow arrived, and the maids dressed you up in the finest of kimonos, hair ornaments, and even makeup. You weren’t particularly into girly interests, more interested in training for when you enter Kyoto High in a few years; the feeling of foundation and lipstick felt foreign on your face.

You arrived at the main hall, escorted by your uncle (the head of the Kamo family), your parents, and a few maids. You normally didn’t wear a kimono often, except for very special occasions, and you have never been in one for this long. Graceful, you were not, and tripped a few times because of the geta chosen for you to wear with the kimono. Each time, the maids were swift to grab ahold of your arms and stabilize you. They even helped you sit down as you awaited your future fiance and his parents.

Gojo Satoru’s parents arrived before he did. They apologized on behalf of their son, citing that he was on he was back from a mission. You were jealous, he wasn’t even in high school yet and was already being assigned missions. While you weren’t powerful in comparison to Gojo Satoru himself, you could still hold your own against your older cousins and had a decent amount of cursed energy.

Gojo Satoru’s parents seemed nice enough, but the chemistry between them resembled that of your own parents; they tolerated each other, but that was it--no love, no spark, nothing. You wondered if his parents were also put into an arranged marriage. You could sympathize, but you also secretly hoped that the two of you wouldn’t end up like your parents.

You poured tea for your future in-laws, hands shaking slightly, a few drops of tea spilling. As you sat the teapot down, in came Gojo Satoru himself, dressed in a simple black kimono, but the sash was not tied tightly. His hair was touseled, and stained with either dirt or blood (you hoped it was dirt). Despite his unkempt look, he was gorgeous, with bright white hair and eyes blue like the sky matching neither of his parents. Despite the color differences, he took mostly after his mother with her soft features.

When he made eye contact with you, he froze, looking down at his left hand, and then back to you. Before you could even greet him, he immediately fled the room, both his parents calling after him, leaving after him.

That was a bit painful; your first time meeting him and he leaves immediately seeing your face. You weren’t sure how your self-esteem would recover after that blow.

About twenty minutes later, Gojo Satoru’s parents came back, empty-handed without their son. He refused to meet you, but they promised he would come around eventually. So, your family said your goodbyes and left the Gojo estate.

Once your family arrived back at the Kamo estate, your uncle slapped you across the face, blaming you for what transpired with the Gojo family. It was your looks, your lack of femininity that obviously scared your fiance away. Not even makeup or the finest materials could fix it.

So what, if you weren’t “feminine”? Being “feminine” doesn’t exorcise curses, now does it?

You grumbled an apology, leaving to your room and locking the door behind you. You started crying, ruining the makeup that took the maids hours to do, but not even bothering to care. It took a while to get out of the kimono, but you changed into sweatpants and a large T-shirt and left the offensive material on the floor. Neither of your parents bothered to check in on you, but the head maid did. She cleaned up your makeup and brought you some of your comfort foods. She was more of a mother to you than your own, and you were always grateful for her in your life.

The next time you would meet Gojo Satoru, there would be hell to pay for embarrassing you like this.

Gojo Satoru was sixteen years old when he next met his fiancee, this time on the battlefield rather than mitigated by their families. Kyoto was short by one for the Kyoto Goodwill Event, so you were allowed to join as the sole first year. You were glad for the opportunity because that meant you could finally pay back Gojo Satoru for the embarrassment you felt two years ago.

You were told you had great potential as a jujutsu sorcerer, already being promoted to Semi-Grade 2 as you entered Kyoto High. Of course, you weren’t even close to your fiance who was promoted immediately to Special Grade upon entering Tokyo High. While the power difference between a Semi-Grade 2 and a Special Grade was immense, you weren’t going to let that stop you. You held a lot of pain in your heart for how Gojo Satoru rejected you from one glance, refusing to ever see you again that day.

This was Gojo Satoru’s first Goodwill Event, as last year he was only a first-year and the spots were full from the second and third years last year. Since last year, Kyoto had won, the event was held at your school. Not a single second or third year at Kyoto believed they even had a chance to win this year, as Tokyo has not one but two Special Grade students this year participating in the event. There was only one Grade 1 sorcerer on the Kyoto side, a third-year, while the others were a Grade 2 or Semi-Grade 2. The goal was to stick together; power in numbers. While the two monsters Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru could take out the entire Kyoto team singlehanded most likely, the others on the Tokyo team were rather weak, at only Grade 3.

So, the Kyoto side would stick together, avoid conflict. The goal was to exorcise curses, not necessarily fight each other.

The six of you stuck together, exorcising curse after curse. It was strange, as several minutes passed and you hadn’t even encountered one of the Grade 3 Tokyo sorcerers. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck stick up, then a voice behind you announcing, “Hello~”

You turned around quickly, barely able to avoid an attack. There he was, Gojo Satoru in the flesh. He was much, much taller than last time you saw him, now towering over you like a tree. On his (admittedly) handsome face was a smug grin, his bright baby blues peeking out behind round black shades. He held his hands in his pockets in a carefree manner. Almost not like he just attacked you and your senpai.

You glanced back briefly. While you were somehow lucky to avoid the attack from your fiance, your senpai behind you was not. The attack left them unconscious, back against a tree and blood running down their head.

While reading headfirst toward your fiance probably was not a good idea, only rage flowed through your head. You may not have inherited your clan’s cursed technique, you inherited a similar technique but more closely to your mother’s Zenin clan’s technique. You could manipulate shadows, not to summon shikigami, but rather to form weapons.

You summoned the shadows to form a sword, raising it to strike Gojo Satoru. But it reached just centimeters away from his body before stopping, almost like an invisible forced kept it in place, unable to move it further. You stared at your hand in surprise.

“Now, now, is that any way to greet your fiance?” Gojo Satoru asked, grin widening.

“Are you really though?” You asked, jumping back cautiously before he could ready another attack. “You didn’t even want to meet me two years ago.”

He placed his hand onto his chin in thought. “Hmm, I suppose that’s true. Tell you what, land a hit on me and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Bastard,” you called to him, switching your shadow weapon to a bow and arrow, pulling back the shadow string, and releasing it toward him.

Gojo Satoru held up two fingers as the arrow stopped in mid-air, much like your sword earlier. “I don’t think that’s my name, sweetie. Bad luck for you today. Seems like we’re just a bad match.”

You were frustrated. How the hell was he doing that?

A siren sounded out through the forest. The match was over; Tokyo won, only because Gojo Satoru had distracted the Kyoto group while Geto Suguru handled the stranglers and the remaining Grade 3 sorcerers were able to exorcise more curses than your side.

Gojo Satoru disappeared before your eyes, but you heard a whisper in your ear from him, “I’m feeling generous. An hour before the individual matches tomorrow, meet me in the garden. I’ll explain everything.”

So, that’s how you found yourself out in the garden at 8 am, shivering from the morning chill. The garden was huge, but somehow you figured your fiance would be able to find you.

“Yo,” he called out, startling you from your thoughts. “I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

“I don’t think highly of you,” you admitted. “You embarrassed me two years ago and my uncle thinks I’m a disgrace to the family now.”

“Yikes, that seems a little harsh. Not like I annulled the engagement or anything. I just was going through some good ole teenage angst then, nothing more.”

“Still going through some ‘teenage angst’?” you questioned.

“Oh, you know, just the normal amount. I died a few months ago and it reset me back to typical teenage angst levels.”

“You what? ”

“But that’s a whole different story. We’re talking about why I left two years ago after seeing you.” He brought a finger up to his lips. “This is top secret. Can’t tell anyone.”

You nodded.

“So, my Six Eyes. I’m sure you’ve heard all about them, being in the Kamo clan and all. It turns out I can also see the red string of fate that brings soulmates together. My parents are soulmates, but they have a shitty relationship.”

“Okay.” You could relate, your parents also have a shitty relationship.

“And they’re the only pair of soulmates I’ve ever known. So,” he grasped his left pinky in yours, “when I saw that red string of mine connect to yours, I panicked. Didn’t want to be forced into a relationship with my own soulmate and end up like my parents. Call me a sappy romantic, but I wanted to meet you and get to know each other on our own, not because we’re in an arranged marriage.”

You couldn’t help but blush. Here was Gojo Satoru, your fiance, one of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers in the world, proclaiming that you were his soulmate. It seemed ridiculous, but you didn’t think he was lying. Suddenly, all the resentment for that time a few years ago left.

You took your pinky out of his, looking away from him in embarrassment, then stated, “There’s nothing that says we can’t do all that while still being engaged. Lets.” You took a deep breath, looking straight at those brilliant blue eyes past his sunglasses, then continued. “Let start over. Get to know each other the right way and see where this takes us.”

He grinned. It was the first time you saw him smile with pure happiness behind it. “I like that idea, soulmate.”

#gojo satoru #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #jjk #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen #soulmate au

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denkamis · 4 years ago

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into the fire. (dabi x reader)

masterlist.

warnings: this oneshot contains spoilers for the manga & swearing. it also describes burns & wounds in detail.

summary: you tend to dabi’s wounds after a small altercation with some pro-heroes. (takes place sometime after ch 290).

notes: fluffy dabi content written for a friend per her request <3 if u couldn’t tell, i have no fucking clue how to write him so pls bear with me. i’ve written like headcanons for him a bit so— either way, hope u like my first oneshot posted here :,))

word count: 1.4k

Information spread like wildfire. As soon as Dabi unveiled himself as the son of Endeavour, there was no turning back for him. The whole world knew, and that further skewed their once unshaken perspective of pro-heroes. Everything was crumbling before your very eyes. The society of heroes that was previously trusted was now brought to its knees by a simple revelation. They were not who they seemed to be.

You had known his secret for a little over six months now. When he had told you, he vowed he would make Endeavour suffer for the pain he had brought him all those years ago. No matter what it took. You had been no stranger to Dabi’s rants about his father at this point, and now that the date was finally here, he had been true to his word. It was time for karma to hit that poor son of a bitch back. And so it did.

Dabi had told you to wait at your usual rendezvous point: an abandoned apartment just on the outskirts of the city where the two of you would be hiding out until further notice. You were never a villain. You had never been interested in killing people, or bringing the hero civilization down to shambles. All you knew is that you loved the man that came home to you every few months. You knew it was wrong, you knew that there were probably other men you were better off with. Even so, you couldn’t shake the feeling that he cared about you more than he let on. There was something about him you couldn’t quite place. You supposed that’s what made life with him so exciting. The thrill of it all was exhilarating, maybe even addicting.

You were in the middle of plating dinner. You had made spicy udon, two bowls, with what little groceries you had in the rundown apartment. It wasn’t glamorous in the slightest. It was a temporary home that you two would stay at. You knew that you two would have to move in the morning to avoid detection anyways.

You sat down at the table, fingers tapping against the thin, cheap wood restlessly. The worry you felt was undeniable. Had the authorities tracked him? Would he even come back? Was he alive?

No. This was Dabi. He wouldn’t die so easily.

Putting your hands together, you said your grace before your shaky hands moved to pick up your chopsticks. Before you could touch them, there was a light thud that came from the singular bedroom that the apartment hosted. Cautiously, you stood from your seat. Your throat felt dry as your body seemed to move on its own, your legs guiding you to the door slowly as to not let the potential burglar know you were on to them. You braced yourself, your hand on the rusted knob of the door before you swung it open.

A gasp escaped you at the unsightly man before you. The smell of ash and burnt flesh made you keen, and the now white hair colour he dawned stood out against the darkness of his charred skin. Tears welled in your eyes. He faced away from you, shirt and coat discarded. Staples hung off the skin of his back, receding down further. He must have been in so much pain from the overuse of his quirk. He never seemed to listen to you when it came to protecting his body.

Dabi turned his head at the sound of the door, his eyes bored and emotionless. Your shock and horror must have been evident. You’ve seen him come home to you with scratches and bruises before, but nothing to this scale. He looked like he was falling apart at the seams.

“Dabi,” you began, your tone saddened and dripping with concern for the taller man.

“Don’t pity me. Quit looking at me like a kicked puppy, Y/N. Doesn’t look good on that pretty face of yours.”

You swallowed, reaching into your travel bag on the bed and pulling out several bottles of ointment. They were specifically for burn care, mixed with aloe vera and pain reliever. It was your own personal concoction, one suited for Dabi’s needs that you could procure no matter where the two of you were if need be.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, rolling his eyes. It seemed that every time you pulled out the bottle, he retaliated and complained. You shook your head. “No, you need it this time. Seriously, now show me where,” you demanded of him bluntly. You weren’t taking no for an answer. With a scoff, Dabi broke his gaze from you. “Don’t fight me on this,” you urged him, sliding onto the creaky mattress and already beginning to apply the lotion onto your hands.

“Doll… You don’t have to do this shit for me,” Dabi said lowly, head turned so that he could watch you. You were gentle, always so painfully gentle, with him. Part of Dabi, actually all of himself, believed he didn’t deserve you. Him, and all of his broken parts, his disgusting past, his current, unforgivable actions. Yet here you were, patching him up without a second thought. His gaze, though unreadable to the onlooker, held a feeling deeper than what he let on.

Your hands massaged his skin and he let out a groan. His limbs ached and his bones felt like shattering, but he always made sure to come back home to you.

“You’re not leaving are you, doll?” he asked you suddenly.

“Hm?”

Your eyes met his turquoise ones. His face was burned nearly as badly as the rest of him, his staples appeared to be drooping dangerously. He stared at you, examining your features and committing them to memory. Dabi knew that nothing was ever permanent in this world, certainly not you. He dragged you into this. He had let you follow him along when there was no clear way out of this shithole.

Dabi bowed his head, white tufts of hair falling over his eyes. A cocky smile played on his lips, “You’re not like them, huh? Not gonna leave me for some dickhead that wipes their asshole with money?”

You snickered at the thought as your palms continued to rub away into his back, tracing the burns and wounds that refused to heal. Fingertips grazing the toned muscles, you hummed in thought. There were a lot of reasons you stayed, some reasons less logical than others, but you digress. As you ran your hands up his back, retracing your steps and mapping out his scarred skin, you rested your hands upon his shoulders, feeling how unnaturally tense they were. The feeling of soft lips meeting rough skin made Dabi sigh once more. He relaxed ever so slightly, skin surging from a new warmth you had brought him. You gave him comfort unlike anything else he had ever felt. You were home to him. He never cared for anyone, until you came waltzing into his life.

He was cautious, of course. You were a capable woman who could kill him at any moment (not that you wanted to, but Dabi had precautions). You were unlike anyone he had ever met. You were absolutely captivating, unbelievably kind, and yes, incredibly gullible, but you trusted him to come back to you. He felt like he owed you that much for you giving so much of yourself to him. For giving up so much of your small, insignificant life that you couldn’t get back, to him.

A strong hand fell onto your waist, lifting you up from your position beside him to one where your knees were situated at either side of his hips. You now straddled his torso, his hands gripping at your sides possessively. He looked up at you, grinning wolfishly. Heat rushed to your cheeks, your body now feeling like it was on fire from where he touched you.

“Answer me, baby. Tell me how much you love me,” he teased you, face so close to you that your noses brushed against each other. Heart beating rapidly in your chest, your hands held his face as if he were made of some type of china.

A smile crept across your face timidly, thumb rubbing over past scars being covered with new ones. You leaned down, lips ghosting his as you spoke.

“I could only have eyes for you, Dabi. No matter how many weeks you leave, I’ll be here when you get back. Always.”

His chapped, broken lips met your plump ones, passion and some sort of feeling resembling love radiating from the affectionate act you shared.

“I love you.”

Dabi laughed at your words, smiling up at the ceiling before his gaze lazily met yours. You managed to breathe such life into him without meaning to. Fuck. He was in deeper than he realized.

“Good. You fucking should.”

all works © denkamis 2021.

tags:

@meilbox

want to be on the taglist? see this post!

#mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha oneshot #bnha oneshots #dabi x reader #dabi x y/n #dabi #dabi fluff #dabi comfort #touya todoroki #denkamis.oneshots

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thekrazykeke · 4 years ago

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title: just keep breathing

fandom(s): fallen hero rebirth/retribution

pairing(s): wei chen x sidestep. ricardo ortega x sidestep. wei chen x ricardo ortega x sidestep. ricardo ortega x wei chen.

playlist/song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMkz9JF7teY

rating: t+

summary: maybe it’s not about fixing what’s broken. maybe it’s about starting over and creating something better.

warning(s): pre poly relationship, comfort food, pining, mild spoilers for the alpha build, angst and hurt/comfort.

Listen.

I played Fallen Hero Rebirth and rated it a solid 9, and the story initially left me crying my eyeballs out but mildly confused, wanting to understand things. So I replayed and replayed and replayed. I picked up things and the clues started fitting together. I paid for the Retribution alpha build and I’m still crying my eyeballs out at night over it but I wanted resolution. I wanted to give (one of) my character(s) a light at the end of the tunnel.

So this is what it is. Or an attempt at it because FHR is really quite dark and not for the faint hearted. Those warning tags are not for show.

Sidestep’s name is Tyndall Bowman in this one.

It happens on a Sunday. The last weekend before a new month started, technically.

Ortega frequently visits Chen’s apartment and brings food, lightly ribbing the other man for his lackluster kitchen space. Chen’s routine response becoming less and less exasperated each time.

You think that he not so secretly fears that you’ll both starve or subsist off canned food and cheap takeout. ...Which probably isn’t a far off assumption, considering the implication day one of your temporary living situation.

It could be considered sweet, if it wasn’t so very funny. (You had to get your kicks somewhere).

Your legs are still broken.

Progress is frustratingly slow.

You’d tried to move to a schedule of crutches-only by the second week out of sheer boredom and the flat look Chen had leveled in your direction caused you to nix that idea stat.

There’s a tension between Chen and you now.

Not to say that there rarely isn’t tension, but that’s usually due to an aftermath of an argument. Now? Now, you’re aware of him. Aware of him in a way that you’d only been aware of Ortega.

Fucking hell.

Someone’s knee brushes lightly against yours, breaking you out of your reverie. You glance to the left and catch sight of Ricardo watching you with soft, worried eyes. Chen also watching, but less obvious in his concern, features more stoic, controlled. The three of you are in the living room, they are siting on the couch, you’re in your wheelchair.

They probably asked you something and you were zoned out.

The lie is on the tip of your tongue, “I’m fine,” you mumble and grip your bowl which has half melted blueberry swirl ice cream and salted caramel cheesecake. Sweets are your kryptonite but Ricardo has pulled out your top favorites...

“You’re fine?” Ricardo scoffs, his tone skeptic.

A muscle jumped in your jaw. “Yep, just fine,” you reply, using your spoon to scoop up some ice cream, take a bite and enjoy the flavor. Refusing to give an inch and let him win.

The two of you had played this game many times, too many actually, and it usually ends with you being the one to fall for the prodding, and then you get angry, lash out.

Walk away. Only this time you can’t.

Another scoff. “Typical. You do this every time, you know.” There’s a surprising amount of bitterness in Ricardo’s voice now.

“Ricardo,” Chen starts to interject, the strain clear in his voice. “Tyndall. Stop.”

It’s too late though.

Placing down the bowl on the nearest surface, freeing up your hands, you clench then unclench your fingers, trying to avoid cracking your knuckles. “And what about you, then huh, Saint Ortega?” The sneer on your face is ugly. “You’re always on about me being honest with my feelings and talking, but the truth of it is, you’re just like me, or worse!”

Ortega looks dumbfounded. As if he can’t believe you’d dare to throw the truth in his face like this, so obviously. He recovers quicker than you’d like, much to your annoyance, though. “...Maybe so,” he acknowledges, his voice softer. Enough to lull a more gullible individual into complacency or just anyone not paying attention. You know better. “That’s a topic we can revisit in a moment. I’m more curious about how long the two of you expect me to play the idiot here.”

Unwillingly, your eyes dart to Chen’s, then away.

Not focusing on any particular point in the room. Does Ortega know that you’re Mastermind? Since when, and did Chen tell him? Or is he bluffing right now and he doesn’t know? Is he talking about something totally different than what you’re thinking about?

Quick! Think up an appropriate answer and throw him off the trail!

“....I don’t....know what you mean.”

That’s not what you should say!!

Chen sighs deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looks pretty much done with the both of you right now, not that you can blame him. “Be clearer, the two of you have a propensity for telling half truths which leads to the majority of these absurd arguments.”

Ricardo winced and you feel the sting from that particular burn as well.

“In response to your statement, though, no one is expecting you to play the fool.” He looks a little nervous, guilty. “ I... We’ve kissed.” There’s a pinch to his brow, the tips of his ears turning pink. “That wasn’t an example of being a good friend to you, kissing Tyndall and murkying the waters further when I knew the two of you were...” There’s a pause as he tries to find a word for what you and Ortega shared before you and he tentatively stopped antagonizing each other and bonded over Spoon.

You snorted, lips twisting into a wry smile, “The phrasing of that sentence makes it sound as if I found it a chore to kiss you or something.” Chen cuts you an admonishing look which you temporarily ignore as you turn to glance at Ortega who’d been watching the byplay between you and Chen with an unreadable expression. For the nth time, you wish you could read his mind, and at the same time, you’re grateful that you can’t.

“...He’s right though. It was an epically shitty thing to do, kissing your oldest friend, who’s probably had a crush on you since he’s met you, while we were kissing. Totally and unnecessarily complicated.”

He just looked at the two of you for a moment. Then Ricardo sighed heavily, running a hand over his face, wearily. “Esto es un desastre.”

You say nothing, staying quiet because honestly, you agree. This is a mess, and it was poorly handled, on all sides. You’d already spilled the beans about Chen having a crush Ortega before it got to this point because you sincerely thought the conversation should have come up properly over seven years ago, your ‘death’ should have been a nonfactor.

They likely would’ve been a couple already if they weren’t such obtuse idiots.

“Okay... okay...” Ricardo seems to have come to a conclusion. He nods resolutely, turning all his considerably intense focus onto Chen who seems taken aback by it. Leaning forward into the other man’s space, slow enough that it’d be easy to shove him back, but of course Chen doesn’t. Ricardo’s hand went to the nape of his neck, lightly urging Chen forward, the other man obeying that silent request, and in the span of a breath, they’re kissing.

Your don’t avert your gaze, as much as you want to.

This is a private thing, you shouldn’t look, shouldn’t stare like a pervert.

‘Isn’t this what you knew would happen?’ Of course, your brain isn’t nice.

This is what you wanted right, for them to get their act together.

Humans falling in love with each other is normal and acceptable. (Although your education depicted of men and women falling in love, primarily). It happens all the time.

Such emotion is a luxury a Re-Gene cannot afford, nor can they sincerely feel it, that’s what you were taught on the Farm. So resistant to the idea of going back to being treated as an unfeeling thing, your re-education had been particularly brutal.

“Whatever horrible thing your mind is telling you, it isn’t true.”

Once again caught off guard, lost in thought, you’re unprepared for Ricardo to kiss you. He tastes faintly of blueberry swirl ice cream and sweet tea, and maybe it’s your imagination, but maybe even a little bit like Chen. It’s that stray thought that has you jerk your head, trying to turn away from him. “W...what the hell, asshole?”

He snorted. “You know you sound really cute when you curse.”

Baring your teeth, you snap, “Tomber d'une falaise!” Although the idiot clearly didn’t know what you said in French, basically telling him to fall off a cliff, it didn’t stop him from dramatically clutching at his chest, as if he’d been stabbed in the heart; he could probably guess it was at least an insult.

“Stop teasing him, Ricardo.” Chen admonished. Ricardo mock pouted. “I mean it. Can’t you see that he’s overwhelmed?”

“I am not overwhelmed!”, you vehemently protest.

“Out of your depth then,” Chen countered and before you could complain that it was pretty much the same thing, only with differing meanings, he continued on, “What our resident idiot is clumsily trying to show instead of explain, is that he wants both of us.”

“If you want a threesome, fine. It’ll have to wait, as I’m a bit physically impaired at the moment.” You’re almost surprised by the bitterness in your voice.

Chen stared at you for a brief moment and then he braced both hands on either side of your wheelchair. Heart slowly turning over in your chest, oddly feeling as if you’re caught in the gaze of a hunter, you stubbornly keep eye contact for a second or two, but can’t maintain it for long. That doesn’t stop him from murmuring in your right ear, “Stop being so stubborn. Stop lying. You want this. To be in a relationship with both of us.” A brief pause. “Correct?”

Fucking hell...

Swallowing thickly, wondering the logistics of how that would work out. Wondering if you were about to once again make a horrible mistake. Then again, since you’d come back to Los Diablos, since Ortega found you again, that’s all you’ve been doing so far, haven’t you. Making mistake after mistake after mistake.

“Yes.”

As Chen’s left hand buried itself in your curls, taking control, tilting your head back, idly you wondered if the next time you hit the ground, if it’d hurt less. This is after a freefall into madness, it feels like, and twice as foolish. Yet you surrender, and you stop thinking, enjoy the kiss.

#fallen hero rebirth #tyndall bowman #fallen hero retribution #wei chen #fallen hero rebirth imagine #ricardo ortega #fallen hero rebirth fanfic #tyndall bowman x wei chen #fallen hero retribution imagine #tyndall bowman x ricardo ortega #fhr #fallen hero retribution fanfic #wei chen x ricardo ortega #fhr imagine #misc fics #thekrazykeke

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jjba-cuties · 4 years ago

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Hello! Was wondering if you could do Josuke and reader getting into a fight? How messy would they tend to be if they were to argue and how do they make up? Feel free to ignore if you ain't up to it. P.S. Your art is beautiful! Keep up the good work!!! 💜🌟 Stay safe and take care!

WARNING!!! JJBA P4 SPOILERS!!!!

A/N: Of Course!! I hate having to write fighting because I’m HORRIBLE AT IT- but I live for angst with a lovey fluffy ending. I hope you enjoy this quick lil imagine! TW: Crying, fighting, mentioning of death -Isabel <3

“H-he’s what?” You slowly turn your head to stare into Josuke’s eyes. A bead of sweat rolls down your forehead as you can feel your throat choking up. No, no it can’t be true, there's no way he’s gone. You didn’t even know him that well yet, he’s no longer here.

Josuke’s gaze faltered as he struggled to make eye contact with you “Segachi’s dead y/n.” His voice slightly quivered. Recently you and the Duwang gang had met a ghost named Remi. She was a sweet girl who’s life was taken away from her by a man lurking around Morioh. You had been trying to find his identity for the past week or two but unfortunately, he had taken your friend's life.

Josuke was closer to Segechi than you were despite them only meeting a few times to collect loose change around Morioh. You’d met the kid after tagging along with Josuke and Okuyasu for lunch. They had told you they met another stand user so you didn’t mind meeting him. Segachi was only a few years younger than you but he was still nice company.

It didn’t matter if you didn’t know him personally. Segachi didn’t deserve to die. The man who took his life was so cruel to murder an innocent child, it just prooved your point further he was extremely dangerous and a threat to Morioh.

Josuke looked up from where he was staring only to look off at the wall. “I’m going to find him y/n,, I’m going to avenge every life he’s taken. Even if I have to do it alone!” Josuke clenched his fists as he raised his voice. Alone?? What about the others, what about you??

“Josuke, no it’s too dangerous. We don’t even know who he is or what his stand ability is. We need to talk about this with Jotaro and the others. Please Josuke you can’t do this alone, I want to help.” Josuke’s head whipped to your direction.

His brows were furrowed and he blurted “Don’t get involved. You’ll only get hurt y/n.”

You were taken aback by his comment. You knew he was just being protective but you were a stand user too, you weren’t helpless. Despite you knowing he was only trying to prevent you from being hurt you couldn’t help but feel irked at his comment.

“Josuke if you go alone you could die. Segachi is dead because he went up against that man without anyone to help him. Segachi almost took out you AND Okuyasu. If he couldn’t use harvest to at least disable this user, who knows what could happen to you! Koichi, Okuyasu, Jotaro can help you Josuke… I can help you.”

Josuke was against you fighting, he knew you were a powerful stand user but he couldn’t help but fear you ending up like the rest of this murder’s victims. He loved you too much and he wouldn’t stand for you being hurt. “Ok fine, I won’t go alone, but you’re not coming along. It’s too risky.” Josuke was still avoiding eye contact so he looked back at the floor.

Your face flushed. Is he actually being serious right now? Your nose crinkled as you barked “Josuke i’m not helpless! I can defend myself alongside you and even help you fight. I know your intentions are good but i’m just as strong as you! God sometimes I don’t even think you view me as someone who’s tough or able to put up a fight” Josuke’s ears turned red and his eyes started to hurt. He struggled to make out words. His hesitancy to admit he was wrong only made you more impatient

“So you really do think i’m helpless. God Josuke, I'm not just your weak partner that only you can protect! I want to do this for the people of Morioh” Your cheeks we’re starting to hurt and Josuke’s nose and fingertips flushed red. His teal eyes gleamed a light purple as he spat “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother trying to protect you. Apparently you don’t care” his fists lightly clenched and your eyes flickered to his nails digging into his palms.

“Do you want to die y/n? You fight so carelessly and if you were to go up against them with that attitude you will fail.-” you cut him off “Josuke I won’t be fighting alone because you and Oku-” “I DON’T CARE!” Josuke cut you off abruptly startling you with his raised voice.

“I DON’T WANT YOU DEAD Y/N! Segachi is GONE and you could be too! Y/n if I lose you to him so god help me-”

Josuke had raised his arm to smooth back his hair. It was becoming unkempt from his outburst. Though he noticed from the corner of his eye you had flinched. A light pink aura was surrounding you and two arms were holding your shoulders. You had summoned your stand to protect you, you had thought he was going to hit you. Josuke’s posture faltered as his eyes became glazed over.

Your glassy eyes started to weep. The aura around you faded away as you just collapsed onto your knees as you buried your face into your palms refusing to let Josuke see you in such a state. Josuke immediately knelt down to your figure wrapping his arms around you whispering i’m sorry’s and I love you’s over and over. You eventually curled up and hid in his chest as he rubbed soothing circles in your back.

You choked out trying to speak “I-I’m scared Josuke but I believe in everyone,,, I believe in us. I know we can find this murderer and defeat him. We can do it Josuke, even if it’s just you and I in the end. I wouldn’t want to be with anyone more than you.” Your breathing was starting to regulate but tears were still streaming from your eyes moderately. You wiped your cheek with your sleeve. Josuke scanned your face as his now teal eyes grew while rivulets of tears streamed down his face.

He croaked out “I didn’t mean it y/n. I know you’re strong” he chuckled recalling back to your first encounter “When we met you almost gave me a mass beating with your stand. I remember being blown away at how carefree and playful you were fighting me.. The amount of confidence you had in yourself was alluring. Y/n I don’t want to lose you to this killer, I want you to be by my side forever and if that means in a fight then hell I’m going to fight by your side.” His mouth was quivering as he smiled.

You sniffed as you brought your palm up to his cheek wiping away a tear. You whispered a soft “I know” only to gaze into his eyes. Josuke tilted his neck down and you lifted yours only to meet your lips with his. You could feel his damp eyelashes on your cheek as Josuke went lower. He cradled your lower back as his head was buried into the crook of your neck. There was a comfortable silence in your house. You both sat there for a few minutes until you heard your name. “Y/n?” Your slightly squeezed Josuke “Yes Josuke?..” Josuke lifted his head and laid it on your right breast looking up into your eyes. He had a weak smile on his lips. “I love you.” Your lips parted for a second then you softly smiled at him. “I love you too.” Please repost with Credit!!! ~JJBA CUTIES~

#jjba #jjba x reader #josuke #angst #oc x canon #self insert #self ship #diamond is unbreakable #anon request #jjba fanart #jojo's bizarre adventure #self shipping community #y/n #selfship #fictional other #requests #imagine #josuke x reader #josuke imagine

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panharmonium · 4 years ago

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next round of in-progress naruto thoughts under the cut! i haven’t done one of these in a while - been doing a lot of individual posts instead, but seeing as we just finished a season and started a long filler arc, it feels like a good time to collect my thoughts.

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time. i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons. Thank you! <3 ]

okay uh where to begin. UM. so much is happening that this is not going to be a comprehensive commentary, just certain things that stuck out in my head.

two annoyances first, and then the rest is my usual lovefest:

- if i have to listen to one more speech about how amazing naruto is i’m gonna start fast-forwarding through them. i’m sorry; i love him so much, but in the last couple of episodes there have been at least 10 separate speeches saying the exact same thing, and i need a little break from the naruto praise-fest. i already know he’s wonderful! you do not have make every single character tell me so. spend that time on resolving the other characters’ arcs on their own terms, the way they deserve - naruto is very important to all of them, but he also isn’t the only reason they're here.

- i love how the show made such a big deal once again out of sakura refusing to let sasuke and naruto go on without her, saying “i’ve finally caught up to them; they’re not going to leave me behind this time” and then they literally just...leave her behind lmao. the show has tried to resolve her arc in exactly this way multiple times and every time it goes right back to its old nonsense. i don’t know why i keep believing it when the show says she’s just as integral a part of the team as sasuke and naruto. i am charlie brown with the football, and i keep landing flat on my back.

and now better things:

- i loved gaara’s relationship with shukaku coming back into play! when he swooped in to pull shukaku out of obito like “come here, shukaku” because naruto had no connection with the one-tails...that was awesome. and also him asking for shukaku’s help like “i’m not ordering you. i’m asking you. if you don’t agree, that’s fine” - i LOVED seeing that.

- that whole episode with the three-way deadlock...you ever see a particular shot and think “foreshadowing, foreshadowing, foreshadowing”???

- perpetually distressed over how entertained i am by orochimaru’s dynamic with taka and then needing to remind myself of how EVIL orochimaru is lmao. like. i’ve always loved his character; there’s never a dull moment when he’s around, but then in this arc they’re almost like...making you imagine what it would’ve been like if he had been on their side the whole time and you’re kind of...enjoying all these moments he has with the kids but then you have to be like NO! THESE KIDS ARE HIS EXPERIMENTS! HE’S THE ONE WHO STOLE BABY YAMATO AND RAISED HIM IN A TEST TUBE!!! THIS MAN IS EVIL!!!!!!! and yet...

- i was losing it laughing at sasuke’s snake calling him “lord sasuke.” i’m sorry, you all know i love sasuke more than anything but this kid’s ego does NOT need further swelling. my sister and i were both like “yeah ok kakashi’s gonna put a stop to that immediately” lmao - like there are some levels on which sasuke needs love and support but there are also some levels on which he needs an adult to bop him with an empty paper towel roll and tell him NO.

- i love that sai is still the smartest one in the room, telling sakura that they don’t really know sasuke’s true intentions and can’t trust him. and i really liked the callback to his initial arc way back in season 2, where he looks at sakura and says to himself “your words may not be lies, but i can already tell that your smile is fake.”

- i know it’s all going to go to shit eventually but in the meantime i love seeing team 7 sniping at each other.....“don’t drag us down, naruto”...... “remember, he can only be affected by sage jutsu!”/“i know that, i’m not YOU”...........just like the Good Old Days XD

- also how much did i laugh when minato was like “you and the others go and deal with madara” and naruto was like “OH RIGHT! I FORGOT ABOUT HIM!!!” ‘forgot’ about the antagonist. in the middle of the war they’re fighting against him. that’s the naruto we know and love. XD

- LOVED when shikamaru needed ino to connect him to the entire army and he asked “can you do it” and she went “that doesn’t matter; i’m GONNA do it!!!!” i am crying for both of them forever but i love seeing them continue to be so amazing

- i talked about this on another post, but i have loved having minato around for these episodes. i finally feel like i’m actually *fond* of him, whereas before, the best i could say was that he was an impressive shinobi and i didn’t DISlike him. but it is so much fun to see what a massive awkward weirdo he is, with his ridiculous jutsu names and asking naruto “sooooooo......is this your girlfriend?” the man is a DORK. he’s a certified dork.

and yet at the same time - in a fight, he still possesses that sort of cold, “our family is shinobi” ruthlessness, which sounds like a bad thing, but isn’t how i mean it. it’s just a “we do what we must” vibe, and i respect it, especially in this situation, when we really need someone like that on our side. eg, when he realizes that it’s obito up on top of the ten-tails, he teleports there and cuts his throat INSTANTLY. and it’s clear in the aftermath that it kills him to do it, but he does do it, without a second’s hesitation, because it has to be done.

that sort of decisive action is what i would have expected from him, given our past introductions to his character, but i appreciate that this arc is also showing us his human side, and the depth of compassion he feels, and the weight of his guilt, and the fact that he actually cares about what happened to the kids who were his responsibility and whom the shinobi world swallowed whole.

- all of those images of what life could have been like if obito had just come home...........that was EVIL. why would they make me see that. the knowledge that he and kakashi could have gone through all of their suffering together, that neither of them would have had to ever be alone, that they could have had in each other what kakashi’s kids are going to have someday...that was too much. i already think about that daily. i did not need to see it animated for me onscreen.

- i appreciate the fact that naruto’s attempt to talk obito over to the other side didn’t work. i just think on a fundamental level that this isn’t really something naruto should be able to do. naruto’s presence and what he represents make a difference, obviously, but i just think that reaching obito is kakashi’s job. which is essentially what minato says when he sends naruto away, so i appreciated that.

i’m sure there are lots of things i’m missing (so much is happening!) but just some yelling about the end:

- sooooo naruto is almost dead. or temporarily dead. my assumption is that gaara is taking him to kurama’s other half inside minato? but that’s just a guess; i dunno. (i’d be happy if that’s where they were headed, because it would at least mean that naruto and sakura and kakashi are back in the same place together, so i’d appreciate that.)

- sasuke is also almost dead. hopefully taka can go pick him up...even though he’s been so terrible to them...he owes them so many apologies

- WHAT HAPPENED TO BEE????? *distraught face* obviously we all know naruto and sasuke are going to be fine eventually, but bee must’ve been disconnected from eight-o too......... ;_______;

- i’m just gonna come out and say it. i think yamato is here. you all can laugh at me later if i’m wrong, but i think yamato is here trapped inside swirly and i cANNOT handle that

- madara said something very brief about sasuke’s eyes that i’m curious about......are we finally going to get more information about the different sharingan patterns?

- the new ending credits start off as the usual naruto-sasuke show but then kakashi and sakura come bursting in and honestly the emotions i felt......THAT IS WHAT I WANT. I WANT ALL FOUR OF THEM TO MATTER AND TO BE THERE TOGETHER.

#pan watches naruto #naruto

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jokertrap-ran · 4 years ago

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(未定事件簿) 莫弈 [剧情: 第2章] [Tears of Themis] Mo Yi Private Story Translations (Chapter 2-7)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist / Mo Yi’s Masterlist / Mobile Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Mo Yi’s Private Story tag is #Tears of a Personal Psychiatrist. *Chapter 1 can be viewed here!

Location: Mo's Mental Health Research Center

After confirming Li Yu's identity, Mo Yi rejected my request to continue taking part in the investigation.

MC: Why!?

MC: It wasn't easy for us to get this far, Dr. Mo! There's no way I can just give up on this so easily!

Mo Yi: …...

But Mo Yi only continued staring at me in silence, a thoughtful look on his face.

Mo Yi: ...Before we put this discussion on the table, please answer me this honestly: Have the PUAs come to you for revenge?

MC: Oh...No… They haven't; why do you ask…?

His sudden question caught me by surprise. I hurriedly avoided his eyes, pretending not to understand his question.

Mo Yi: I'm supposing that the "spam message" you received the other day was actually an SMS they'd sent as harassment.

Mo Yi: And recently, the actions that these people have been taking have been getting more and more aggressive; essentially having even affected your daily life to a certain extent.

Mo Yi: That's why you said they were "arrogant"; am I right?

MC: !!!

MC: ...Nothing gets past you after all.

I couldn’t help but to sigh, deciding to come clean about everything that I’d been hiding from him recently.

MC: Yeah. Some PUAs have been verbally harassing me with threats lately.

Mo Yi: When did this start?

MC: Probably not long after the “Anti-PUA” Club turned into a mutual aid group. Someone had suddenly added me as a friend one day.

MC: They asked if I was the Lawyer who’d helped Lin Yunyun, and I thought that they were also a fellow victim, so I replied in the affirmative; but in the end...

I couldn’t stop all the many different sorts of harassment messages that I’d received recently from popping back up in my mind at the thought of it.

Those messages, not fit to be shown to anyone at all, were always sent to my phone at fixed timings. There were countless, so many that I could never delete them all even if I tried. It gradually became a personal living hell of nightmares.

MC: There were only a few people who did it sporadically at first, so blacklisting and blocking them worked like a charm; but then the number of people doing it increased...

MC: Why do they always choose to bombard people during sleeping hours!? Don’t these people need sleep too!?

However, I’d failed to notice how Mo Yi’s face was twisting itself into an increasingly unsightly look at this moment in time.

Mo Yi: ...Why didn’t you tell me? How were you planning to put up with this alone, if I hadn’t asked today?

MC: Well… It wasn’t anything big at all. They only sent me a couple of unpleasant texts, and it didn’t really cause a big impact on me or anything like that.

MC: Anyway, let’s not talk about this anymore and get back on the topic of how to continue our investigation. I—

Mo Yi: I apologize, but my stand is still the same; it’ll be for the best if you don’t take part in the upcoming course of action.

MC: ……

Mo Yi: ……

That was how Mo Yi and I faced each other in a stand-off; neither of us saying anything, neither of us willing to back down.

The air came to a stand-still, the damning silence that would make anyone hold their breaths accompanied by the faint scent of “gunpowder”, as figurative sparks filled the air.

MC: Then, could you tell me a reason why I should not? I can’t give up on this just because you tell me to, Dr. Mo.

Mo Yi: ……

Mo Yi: I have three reasons for this.

Mo Yi: Firstly, although Li Yu’s story was created from one big patchwork, Wang Chen is still an experienced PUA, from what we can glimpse from the credible parts of her story.

Mo Yi: I cannot allow you to interact with him alone, considering how you’ve not received the relevant training.

Mo Yi: Secondly, although our actions have not been fully exposed yet, the fact that the other party retaliated against you means that they’ve already got their eye on you.

Mo Yi: If this goes any further, it will only escalate; and when the time comes, it won’t just be merely verbal words of threat.

Mo Yi: They will attempt to break through your psychological defenses from all angles, thus, endangering your very life itself.

Mo Yi: And lastly…

He placed the teacup in his hands down, his gaze dropping to my face, an inexplicable emotion within his golden orbs.

Mo Yi: Just what’s in your mind, as you do these things?

Mo Yi: Is it to uphold justice? To deter the other members of the PUA Group? Or is it to save all of the girls who’ve been harmed by it?

Mo Yi: Can you really do all of this?

Mo Yi: Even if we did settle this matter with Li Yu along with all the other people backing her, there’ll still be other PUA Groups in this world who lurk in the dark.

Mo Yi: They’ll continue hunting girls, and even go so far as to treat you as a right thorn in their side, using various methods to retaliate against you to no ends.

Mo Yi: And at the very end of it all, not only will you fail to protect others; You might also very well be unable to protect yourself.

Mo Yi: This fairness and justice you seek might not be able to see the light at all.

Mo Yi: Now, with all that considered; are you still willing to continue on?

He waited quietly for my answer after finishing.

He had a look of utter seriousness on his face, so focused he was. However, the corners of his eyes and his eyebrows still presented the same calm he’d always displayed. Hence, I couldn’t tell just what exactly was going through his head.

But none of these mattered anymore. I don’t even need to think to answer this question of his.

MC: Of course. Even so, I still wish to continue as usual.

Mo Yi: Why?

MC: You just asked me what’s in my mind as I do this, right? I’m actually not thinking of anything at all; no thoughts, head empty.

MC: I’ve never held onto any pipedreams, nor have I ever thought of using this PUA Group to go fight against the other PUAs.

MC: Granted, trying to rescue all the girls who’ve been victimized is an even bigger delusion.

MC: I’m only trying to do what I can as one, ordinary, Lawyer.

MC: That being said, there’s one thing that I know for certain. And that is that I cannot ignore the crimes that appear before me.

MC: I cannot allow the group that’s backing Li Yu to go scot-free, let alone allow them to challenge law and threaten justice as they so wish to.

Mo Yi: You...

MC: Secondly, you said that I “cannot protect others”; but there isn’t only just one fixed way of protection.

MC: Don't all the girls in Lin Yunyun's mutual aid group learn a lot about all sorts of things pertaining to PUA?

MC: All that's requires is for one of those girls to understand these through what I've done; so that they'll keep their guards up and watch out for these things.

MC: If so, then everything I've done up till today have already served some sort of purpose in protecting them.

MC: And lastly, about their cars if revenge…

I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at the mere thought of those less than savory messages I'd received.

MC: I've already been prepared to face all sorts of people, who come up with all sorts of retaliation methods, since day one of being a Lawyer.

MC: But if really does come down to the point where it gets as serious as you've described, then that's when I'll wield the Law as my weapon and protect my own rights.

MC: The road to justice will always be a rocky one, but no one can stop me so long as I refuse to give up.

Mo Yi: ……

I blurted out everything that I had in my mind, even forgetting to check just what sort of expression Mo Yi currently wore.

It was only until I had regained my bearings that I looked back up at him. He was still looking at me with a serious look on his face, yet his eyes were like that of stormy seas.

Mo Yi: You… You’re really different from everyone else.

He suddenly laughed.

MC: What are you laughing about, Dr. Mo?

Mo Yi: Nothing. I’m just feeling slightly fortunate, and a little happy.

MC: Fortunate? Happy?

Mo Yi: Yes. Fortunate, that I chose to stay back then; and happy, because… I met you.

Mo Yi: You always never fail to surprise me.

MC: ……

He spoke slowly, but that didn't fail to impede the strength and impact that each word brought.

It was almost as if he had just conveyed some sort of inexplicable feeling to me through mere words. It was hot, yet full of possessiveness, almost engulfing me whole.

MC: Does this mean that… I can take part in the continuing investigations?

I hurriedly changed the subject upon seeing how the air around us was starting to turn increasingly warmer.

Mo Yi: Do I have any other reason to be denying you?

MC: Great! Then let’s hurry and get started!

MC: Do you need me to contact Wang Chen? Are we still going to be using our previous tactic?

Mo Yi: Don’t rush, for starters. I’ve got even better ideas.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Previous Part: (Chapter 2-6) | Next Part: (Chapter 2-8)

#Tears of Themis #Mo Yi #Translations #Otome #Mihoyo #未定事件簿 #莫弈 #Private Story #Tears of a Personal Psychiatrist

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silver-wield · 5 years ago

Text

FF7R: The Cloud Narrative

While in the middle of one of my replays that involved making different choices for Cloud to get other stuff, I started thinking, “What would Cloud choose?”

And that got me thinking some more about the fact we say it's all what Cloud would choose, but really, it's what we pick to get the best story that suits our preferences.

And since I'm that kind of dork, I decided to replay and let Cloud's personality and development lead me to make the choices so I could try and see what Cloud would've chosen if he had autonomy. It makes for a slightly different game than the one I usually play, but it was fun really thinking over the options and deciding how Cloud would react to every situation and whether he'd choose to engage with it or not.

I didn't actually remember to grab every screenshot of my playthrough, so some of these are from Youtube, but the decisions I say I made are the ones I made because why would I lie?

Ok, let's mosey...

Spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long.

The opening decision is in Chapter 2 when we first meet Aerith. None of these decisions affect anything within the game to do with the resolution, it just makes either girl react differently to Cloud.

I'm sure some people would argue he'd buy it because Aerith, but he doesn't know her, has no obligation to be nice to her – especially compared to the Avalanche crew who he needed to rely on back in the reactor and he was a dick to them – he's in a rush and has no reason to buy flowers unless people want to assume he already had Tifa in mind the moment Aerith mentioned it. If we do choose the option to buy it right away, Aerith flirts a little and slots the flower into Cloud's shoulder strap over his heart. We get none of the extended dialogue if we choose this option. For those people who say the more someone talks is a sign of canon, this would make the “how much” option the non-canon choice because it contains the least amount of dialogue and time they spend together.

If we choose “I'm good,” then we hear Aerith insisting he takes it by saying, “When was the last time you saw a real one,” and adding that “it'll make your girlfriend's day.”

Then we get the automatic line from Cloud that happened when we originally chose “how much.”

After some more dialogue from Aerith another choice occurs, one which can make Cloud sound like a royal shitbag or not.

I think everyone would agree that Cloud purposely pissing off a total stranger is out of character, and if you choose the second option he doesn't actually speak and Aerith goes straight into her line about how “lovers used to give these when they were reunited.”

For my choices as Cloud I said, “I'm good,” and then when she insisted, I agreed to take it because to me – and this is how I always answer – it feels the most Cloud kind of answer.

Chapter 3

The next choice Cloud's presented with is during chapter 3 when Tifa offers him a drink. No matter which choice you make he calls Tifa beautiful as the outcome.

By answering “something hard” Tifa goes into her cocktail making routine before pouring Cloud a drink that looks suspiciously like piss, but is actually meant to represent the colour of his hair. Hard and bitter. Like him. He doesn't like it. Colour me shocked. She then goes on to make the red drink that's a representation of her eye colour. This is when Cloud raises the glass and makes the “beautiful” comment.

If you choose the refuse option, Tifa replies that “if you were in the mood” and then goes into the same drinks making routine as the first option, with the exact same dialogue and outcome between them. (And now I know it's almost identical I wonder why the devs did it? It seems like a straw man option tbf. There's no real choice or changes to the dialogue and it's like it's been put there to give the illusion of it being optional).

Since Cloud is secretly into Tifa I figured he'd choose “something hard and bitter” as a way to try and show off how tough he is. However, it’s worth noting that Cloud isn’t a big drinker and only drinks when he’s in a low mood. He’s pretty happy here, so I’d say in general he wouldn’t drink, but because he’s only recently reunited with Tifa he still wants to impress her. So yeah, to drink.

The next chance for Cloud to have a choice concerns the chapter 3 side quests that open up the alone at last which goes towards choosing a dress for Tifa later in chapter 9. If you don't finish the quests or miss alone at last you always get Tifa's blue dress and moon charm earring. That is her canon outfit.

The quests for chapter 3 are all monster related apart from one – which I'll get to in a minute.

Chadley's report involves scanning monsters for data and killing them. Rat problem comes from the item vendor and involves killing doomrats.

Nuisance in the factory involves killing drakes.

On the prowl involves going after a shinra dog thing

Just flew in from the graveyard involves a larger drake.

These are all the type of job that Cloud would accept without thinking about it too much. He's a merc, he's getting paid to kill monsters. It'll show off his skills and build his rep and as Tifa says, the better his rep the more he gets paid. These five quests are ones Cloud would take because that's the type of person he thinks he should be. The monster slayer.

As for quest 4, lost friends, I initially said that Cloud would avoid this because it involves two things he isn't good with: kids and animals. Now, I've heard from people that by AC Cloud is actually pretty good around kids, and I agree, he's got a lot of love from them by this point. But that's at least two years away from now and he's not even slightly good around kids and actively avoids them. Cats seem to have a grudge against him, too, at this point in the game – though Wedge's cat mellows towards him after he helps out. These were my reasons for deciding to avoid this quest because Cloud just wouldn't do it. Then, once I got to it, I realised the reason why Cloud would do it.

Tifa.

Tifa likes kids and animals. Now, as a respectful type of girl, she doesn't usually push Cloud to do things he doesn't want to. She's always considerate to his feelings and to others too. In this case, though, she's not focused on Cloud and if he'd want to do this job, but on helping out a little girl. Cloud's been running around doing jobs all morning, so Tifa's related him to the task of finding the cats.

Usually Cloud would refuse to something that's so obviously beneath his skills, but because it's Tifa who's asking, he agrees.

Alone at last triggers and we get to view a moment between Cloud and Tifa that ends in him choosing a dress for her. Alone as last is narrative canon whether we choose to see it or not because of other hints in the game that refer back to the conversation they had. While they talk about the past we get an above view of the rug that has a reunion flower pattern on it. Tifa and Cloud both take steps towards each other during this scene, which symbolises their closing the emotional distance that's between them.

This choice changes nothing about the game and only matters if you want to go for the dressed to the nines achievement.

If you choose the top option – for her canon outfit, Tifa replies “Yeah, I guess we aren't kids anymore.” If you choose the second option she says, “That's not much different to my regular style.”

If you choose the exotic outfit she says, “really?” and acts a little awkward about it.

She then asks Cloud to dress to match her. The dresses he wears during wall market all have a similar style to Tifa's options, showing he did dress to match her. The narrative canon choice for which dress Cloud eventually went with is something I'll be bringing up later.

By choosing the canon outfit option and getting Tifa's canon dialogue we get a reference to the fact they've known each other for a long time. This ties into the conversation they had which also touched on their shared history. This is a background development scene between them, but isn't necessary to know because we get other info about them over the rest of the game. This extra bit of dialogue is to increase our knowledge of Cloud and Tifa, both separately and together.

Chapter Four

Jessie’s bike ride, which isn’t optional in the sense you can choose how it goes. The result depends on how good you are at the minigame. However, since there’s three endings, this is a choice based result.

Are you, Cloud? Really? When did you get that SOLDIER mandatory training? Of the three optional endings, the narrative canon that makes the most sense is Cloud being really bad at it. This is his first time doing any of that, but it gives him the crash course he needs for later in the Shinra building when he does all those fancy moves. Cloud owes Roche some props for observational bike stunting.

Chapter Five

And our next canon narrative choice is between making Cloud look incompetent at his job or choosing to have an intimate moment with his one true love. Well, seeing how the cloti roll is in the ultimania we know this is the correct narrative choice.

Chapter 8

There's a long gap between chapter 5 and the next option we get for Cloud. Once we meet Aerith again and get her back to Sector 5, we go into her side quests and optional discovery. Aerith's side quests are tied to what dress she later wears during chapter 9.

The side quests for Aerith's chapter are split into groups of 3. This means that by unlocking one, you get the further quests on that branch. One branch is more of a Cloud oriented style set of quests, while the other involves the thing he doesn't do well around: kids.

Kids on patrol → A verified hero + Angel of the slums

Weapons on a rampage → Paying respects + moogle merchant.

If you don't complete kids on patrol first then the other two don't unlock. One of these further quests involves more kids and playing with them. Not really Cloud type activities and unlike with chapter 3 where he'd do something because Tifa asked, he's not got that type of relationship with Aerith that he'd be willing to do stuff that he doesn't want to just to impress her.

Breakdown of sidequests in sector 5 and NPC background dialogues.

Weapons on a rampage is more his style of quest, which leads to the NPC who set it to ask a further favour. This links to the next quest where you have to pay respects for the old man. The thing is, he doesn't have the graveyard key, which leads to the next quest where we have to go buy it off Moggie. This is the only kid related quest on this branch and it's over in moments. Cloud has the minimum amount of contact with Moggie and doesn't show any kind of tolerance towards her while he's talking. There's also no apology for his behaviour – unlike when he said to Tifa he was doing his best when she scolded him for being rude.

The way these quests are set out in blocks of three and the fact one half is heavily reliant on child interaction – which Cloud wouldn't do at this point in his development or association with Aerith – leads me to believe he wouldn't agree to these quests. This means the language of flowers discovery doesn't trigger and Aerith ends up in her second option dress – which I've theorised is her canon outfit because of its design similarity to the OG version, her reaction to the dress, the fact that in OG, Aerith chose her own dress, the hairstyle and accessory match the OG style and Cloud's reaction is a very Cloud reaction to have, compared to the other two outfits – the bad dress has dogs and rats following her and the red dress is so ott she's swarmed by fans, a red carpet and so on, but also her accessories don't fit her symbolism theme of flowers because she's wearing stars.

With all of the above in mind, I surmised Cloud would do the monster hunt branch of quests and quit while he was ahead.

Chapter 9

Where before we had a few choices happening, once we hit Wall Market we're inundated with options that affect Cloud's outfit later on. They also showcase what kind of morals Cloud has. Either way, it's canonically easier to get Chocobo Sam's pts higher than Madam M's, leading me to believe he is the canon narrative choice for this section and that Cloud's black and blue corset dress is the one he ends up wearing.

This contradicts my previous theory about the ultimania in which Cloud is shown very uncomfortable in the loli outfit, which led me to believe that was the one he ended up in if he made the choices in Wall Market. I now believe it's because if you pick this outfit it's his “bad ending”, worse than if you don't make any effort and get the plain black and grey dress.

The maximum amount of pts you can get from Chocobo Sam's options is 6.5, compared to Madam M's 5.

There are several people who offer you options during Wall Market.

The love hotel owner (not a Nojima self-insert lol).

Johnny (discovery) + before the first coloseum match – there's a bottle on the table and the choice is to drink or not.

Madam M x2

Sam x2

The first option you get in Wall Market happens before you've even entered the place. Sam asks you what the girl you're searching for looks like. No matter which option you choose, Sam says that Cloud has a crush on Tifa – which he doesn't deny.

If you choose the first option you get 1pt with Sam.

If you choose the second option you get 0pts

If you choose the 3rd option you get 1pt with Madam M.

I chose the first option because Cloud's a guy, with eyes, and the other two choices don't offer anything in the way of a physical description and if he's describing her to someone then he needs to actually describe what she looks like in some way. This is the only option that does that. It's also the only option that gets a different reaction out of Aerith, whereas the other two options have the same reaction from her.

This is the second option we can choose from and it's the love hotel guy (still not a Nojima self-insert). If you choose “no thanks,” this gets you 1pt with Sam and Aerith flirts with Cloud.

If you choose “how much?” you get a surprised “Cloud!” from Aerith and 1pt with Madam M.

If you choose “back off” you get 0pts and Aerith apologises on his behalf.

Of the 3 choices, I picked “back off” because it's the most Cloud appropriate choice.

Next, we have the Johnny discovery when he literally runs past you as you try to go to Don Corneo's for the first time. By following him to the Honey Bee, we get a lecherous dialogue from him and then a question about Cloud's own preferences. Would he go into the Honey Bee? If he agrees with Johnny, we get a slightly self-loathing assumption of a reply, whereas if we disagree, Johnny says that Cloud hasn't experienced anything yet. Either way, he runs off once he's finished.

By agreeing with Johnny you get 1pt for Sam.

If you don't agree you get 0pts.

I chose to disagree because Cloud isn't a lecherous pig and is actually pure af with no experience.

We learn from Leslie that the only way to get into an audition with Corneo is through the trio. Andrea Rhodea has a 3 year waiting list, so we don't even see him. So, we go back to Sam.

This is a hint that the following event with Sam is a load of bull. Johnny telling Cloud – if you interact with him – that he should've followed his gut is a hint that Cloud should trust his instincts. It’s also confirming that while Cloud is a total cheapskate who doesn’t do anything for free, he’s also a betting man who’ll think little of dropping 1000g on a sure thing (why 1000g? because that’s the amount he says to Barret in chapter 6, showing that while Cloud appreciates having money, he’ll also spend it.) Then it's around the corner to where Sam waits. Who, despite having already endorsed Tifa, says he's willing to help Aerith if she can guess the result of a coin toss.

Ofc it's rigged. But if you choose to gamble, it impresses Sam. You get 1.5 pts for choosing heads or tails. If you refuse to gamble then you get 0.5pts.

I believe the narrative choice is to pick heads, like Johnny suggested because he is the inner voice of Cloud and gives us hints as to real Cloud’s feelings at different points in the game. Either way, Cloud gets the coin and says he had a hunch about the result.

After this it's away to Madam M's and the most hilarious choice I've ever seen! I have to wait until the room's clear before choosing because it's a watch from behind a cushion moment lol

Madam M won't help Cloud unless he agrees to a massage. Since our SOLDIER boi doesn't like being forced into decisions and has issues around touch and intimacy, not to mention he's stingy af and wouldn't drop 3k on a massage when he's previously hounded people for a lot less money. But, he also doesn’t stop to think about spending money if it’s worth this while. 1000g doesn’t seem like much of a big deal to him, if it’s his standard amount of bet on a sure thing. He wants to save Tifa, so he’d likely go with the standard course. The other one alludes to him being a cheapskate like Aerith accused and there’s no reference to the luxury course anywhere in the game except here. This isn't something he's doing for pleasure, he's in Wall Market to save Tifa, so the things he's doing are a means to an end.

If you pick the luxury massage you get 2pts with Madam M.

If you pick the standard massage you get 1pt with Madam M

If you pick the poor man's massage you get 0pts.

I chose the standard course massage because I believe that's what Cloud would choose just to get Madam M to agree to help them.

The next choice comes right off the back of the massage at Madam M's and involves Cloud giving an opinion of Aerith's outfit.

If you choose the first option it gets you 1pt with Sam and a pleased reaction from Aerith.

If you choose the second option you get 0pts and an angry retort from Aerith.

If you choose the third option you get 1pt with Madam M and a middle of the road comment from Aerith. No matter which you choose, Madam M scolds you.

Since by this point in the game Cloud and Aerith are friendly enough for him to pass comment on her outfit, I could see him answering with the second choice, but not the first since he doesn't even notice what anyone's wearing let alone have an opinion on it. The third option sounds the most Cloud-centric choice, so that's what I picked.

The last option is for Cloud to drink an unknown substance or not while waiting for his match to start at the coliseum. Johnny gives the explanation of what it is, who it came from and what it potentially does.

By choosing to drink the mystery substance you get 1pt with Sam.

By ignoring the drink you get 0pts.

Since Cloud is the last person to put weird shit in his body I went with not drinking it.

The final tally for the options that Cloud gets set him on Chocobo Sam's side quests for the blue corset dress that matches Tifa's canon outfit – she said dress to match, remember? It's also the one that in the ultimania Cloud looks the most at ease in.

Chocobo Sam's sidequests are the ones that I got as a result of choosing the options I did. I believe this is the canon narrative that Cloud would take if he were choosing. After several playthroughs I did waver on whose quests seemed more the narrative canon. I began thinking Sam's were, but then the ultimania illustration of Cloud embarrassed in the satin dress led me to think Madam M's were the narrative canon. After playing both sets of side quests, I've come to the conclusion that Sam's would be the narrative choice if Cloud were making the decisions.

Having Cloud's choices result in Sam's side quests we get burning thighs (appears in both), the party never stops and a dynamite body.

Burning thighs is the squats contest that echoes the OG storyline. We meet Andrea's little brother, Jules – who is totally not staring at Cloud's ass through the entire minigame while encouraging him. This side quest touches on egos and being cocky – which Cloud can be. It's a humble pie moment, which is another life lesson that Cloud needs to learn also.

The party never stops features the return of Johnny, who appears as we leave the dressmaker's son who's the originator for the quest. We're sent over into the bar, where we can collect the Midgar Blues single for the cd achievement. This song is canonically Cloud and Tifa's romantic theme in Advent Children. Once we meet the dressmaker, we're sent over to the materia guy who wants “the sauce” in exchange for “inspiration”.

This sidequest is a bunch of tongue in cheek dick jokes and it's hilarious! It's also alludes to the fact that Cloud has zero experience since he had a crush on Tifa until he left the village, spent his time pining for her as a grunt, then got stuffed in a test tube and was in a coma for five years. Ofc he blusters his way through it, handling his balls and making comments about how he doesn't need lessons on “whipping it out”. Oh you poor sweet boi.

Once we get the sauce – fun fact there's no picture in the inventory of it when you get it – and we hand off to the materia guy (unintentional pun but I'm leaving it in now I've done it – and that one) we head over to the next weirdo on the list. The chef. Who literally poisons all of his customers. I suspect he and the pharmacy guy are in cahoots. He poisons people, the pharmacy guy cures them and they both get rich.

The chef asks Cloud to help fix the problem with his kitchen – but from npcs around it sounds like it's just his cooking that's the issue. It doesn't matter which option you pick, Johnny still gets food poisoning. Even if you max your materia, nothing changes. Cloud doesn't even offer the options, Johnny does the talking.

Once we're done with the killer chef, it's over to the pharmacy guy, who asks Cloud to go and deliver medicine. If you maxed your cleansing materia you get 3 packets of meds. The only one that matters is the guy in the pub bathroom since that moves the side quest along. The others are optional, but increase Cloud's rep about town since he's helping more people.

The pharmacy guy gives Cloud a Honey Bee Inn VIP pass, which is the dressmaker's inspiration. Once that's handed back, Cloud chats to the dressmaker's son, who caps the side quest off with the below screen.

This is a reference to the dream that Cloud had during chapter 8 where his mother mentioned he should have a mature girlfriend. This is the contradicting opinion that balances that. The dressmaker's son saying age doesn't equal maturity is referencing Tifa – since these quests are the ones that get you the matching dress to her canon one. This is the same as the Midgar Blues playing in the pub. These are Tifa centric quests, which is the entire reason Cloud's in Wall Market to begin with.

The last quest is a dynamite body, which comes from Sam. Tifa has a bomb bracelet on her default weapon that is part of a matching pair with her chocobo bracelet. Tifa is represented by “da bomb” and everyone knows Cloud’s a chocobo head. This quest is referencing cloti, and a comment from the announcer using a mixed metaphor mentions putting on shades.

Afterwards Same tries to hand Cloud his cut of the prize money and Cloud says he's there for Tifa, not money. Sam replies that Cloud has changed since his arrival and could likely storm Corneo's place all by himself to save Tifa. He also mentions that Tifa is a bombshell and Cloud goes to confront him by taking a step forward and saying “Hey.” This is Cloud stepping up to people sexually objectifying Tifa.

Once the quests are done, it's back to Corneo's where Cloud considers breaking in – like Sam suggested – but Leslie uses Cloud's feelings for Tifa against him by saying Corneo could hurt her if he does anything he shouldn't. This isn’t the first time Cloud’s emotionally blackmailed in Wall Market.

Cloud backs down, but is now operating under the sense that Corneo is a lot more dangerous than he first thought, and he's sending Aerith in. Aerith. Who's useless in a fight. He's now thinking that he'd have to go in and save them both, which is why he says to Aerith that he's not letting her go alone.

We've now reached the point where Cloud's earlier refusal to do kid related quests gives us the result with Aerith's dress. Her theme has been given a slightly rock vibe, which is SOLDIER Cloud appropriate, and the design is something that she has chosen – this is in line with her OG dress which she chose herself. She also has a large hair bow, similar hairstyle to OG and her flower symbolism throughout – compared to the red dress which has stars that haven't been associated with her at any point. The straps on the pink dress – which is her signature colour – also match the straps on the OG design. Johnny’s around throwing cherry blossom petals, which match several of her abilities and are a reference to Zack. Aerith wore this dress for Zack. This is her Zack date dress. This leads me to believe that this is her canon narrative outfit.

The accompanying blocking to this scene is also more realistic than the other two.

Cloud's reaction to the dress is suitably Cloud. His jaw drops a little and he gets a bit soft voiced when talking to Aerith, though it's a quick moment that ends when he asks why she left Madam M's.

And now we're at the point where Cloud has to impress Andrea Rhodea. As long as you get 112pts in his dance sequence (great = 2, good = 1) then Cloud will wear the earrings with his dress, no matter which one it is.

This is the last choice you have and it's the tie breaker between the two girls if you chose to do all of the side quests for them. By choosing Aerith you get her resolution later in chapter 14, but in the meantime you get a short dialogue and then Tifa wakes up.

If you choose Tifa, this goes towards her resolution in chapter 14, but in the meantime you get a longer dialogue concerning the imminent dangers in sector 7 and also she questions Cloud about his relationship with Aerith. This is referencing all of the strange things about Aerith from her initial touch to Cloud’s wrist letting him see the whispers, to the whispers attacking them later in sector 7, to her not letting him leave sector 5, to her crying and wanting to go with him. Tifa’s question makes Cloud suspicious. It’s not romantically motivated on her part because her focus is on saving sector 7.

Cloud doesn't get a chance to answer, as Aerith wakes up.

Chapter 12

Technically not a choice -- in fact it implies the opposite -- because if you run the timer out in chapter 12 at the top of the pillar nothing happens. This is a message that all previous timed events were optional because that’s what the players wanted. This is saying that no matter if you try to choose to ignore Tifa or Barret or any of the plot, that the game will wait for you to move. There are no consequences to running this timer down because it’s implying that the time for optional choices has passed. Narrative canon only will commence from this point on.

The last optional choice in the game comes a lot later with the stairs and elevator, so anything that Cloud says or does between then is canon. All of the resolutions are canon, but we're only able to view one at a time because of how the game operates. Cloud is the witness to the resolutions because they’re Barret, Tifa’s and Aerith’s resolutions.

Barret's resolution is first because the lighting is much brighter indicating it's earlier in the night.

After that comes Tifa's resolution, which is much later in the night, but well before dawn.

The last resolution is Aerith's and she indicates that it's almost morning at the end of hers.

All resolutions are canon

Aerith's resolution is hinted at by Mirielle during the lost wallet and Kyrie sidequests.

Tifa's resolution is hinted at by Tifa, through Leslie in the chapter 14 intel gathering main quest where you hunt down Don Corneo. Tifa relates Leslie's fiancee's necklace to a symbol of reunion. Since the necklace has a reunion flower on it, that she's seen, and the only time she mentions learning about the meaning of that flower is during her resolution, this is the confirmation of it having happened. Also, the fact that Cloud was about to mention the meaning, then stopped because he thought it might embarrass Tifa – who'd been in a vulnerable state at the time – shows that he was aware of both the meaning and the resolution and Tifa's feelings.

Chapter 16

Last choice in the game and it’s between the stairs and the elevator. And as much as I love the stairs, Mayor Domino tells us later on that the stuff in the elevator is what happened.

Feel bad for Cloud having to confront his claustrophobia with Tifa there. He’s not happy at all by the time they reach the top.

In Conclusion.

Playing as though Cloud were the one making the choices was a lot harder than I thought. I tend to choose things either as he would, or close enough in most cases, but there were some choices that had me stopping to debate which was the right choice. Cloud's character development is a slow process and even though I know he's got a whole kid army in AC, I couldn't resolve that with his current personality, so that led me to avoiding the kid quests. This revealed that Aerith should have worn her pink dress in the narrative and the scene between them when she reveals it feels a very narrative canon type of scene.

Tifa's dress is the same no matter what. I also believe she'd be the narrative choice in the sewers over Aerith because of the content of her dialogue and the fact real!Cloud has a crush on her still. He often checks in with her to make sure she's ok and he has an overriding urge to support and comfort her even when he doesn't know how. The way she lands in the sewers is echoed later in several other falls, but there’s one in the opening of chapter 13 where she’s got her arm under her head. This is because Cloud positioned her that way after she got knocked out. This shows he’d go to her if he saw her hurt.

All of the events, options and side quests culminate in Tifa's resolution being the main narrative option we see, with Aerith and Barret as a second and third option through replay choices, though all three do happen. From Cloud’s pov, though, the important one is Tifa because that’s the person he cares about the most. You only get Barret’s resolution by being a closed off asshole and Aerith’s if you act out of character and more like Zack, which is what Aerith wants. The quest dialogue with Leslie shows the resolutions happened, which makes them narrative canon.

People can disagree with this, but I found the narrative canon a really enjoyable way to play – once I got over messing up in wall market with the dress and had to start again (the choices are hard lol). Seeing events through Cloud's eyes, instead of being like some puppet master telling him what to do so I could get the story I wanted to see, was a really fun way to play. I definitely recommend it!

#final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #the cloud narrative #cloud strife #tifa lockheart #Aerith Gainsborough #choice analysis #long post

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kilyra · 6 years ago

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You Did, Sweetheart

Eric Northman (True Blood) One-Shot

A/N: Well, I tried to stop after one. But then @breanime shipped it and so now I get to blame her and @thatchampagnebitch ! (And thanks to @suitsofwo3 for your help!)

Although your roommate has been found safe, and there’s no reason for Eric to return, he makes an appearance anyhow...

Warnings: Dub Con and the raciest bits I’ve ever written!! Swear word. No spoilers though (I myself am only on S3 or 4, so this is an early Eric style fic…also, please don’t send me any spoilers). (Credit for this amazing gif goes to @skarsgardaddict . Thank you SO much!)

You were awake. From a dead sleep.

Staring into the blackness of your room, you tried to push past your sleepy fog to understand why. Propping up on your elbow, you squinted at the darkness, looking for movement. The shadows were still.

But something didn't feel right.

Giving up, you reached over and clicked on your lamp. Soft yellow light flooded your room, and that's when you saw him.

Eric Northman.

Your heart leapt into your throat as a grin slowly started over his lips. Gracefully, he rose from his spot, keeping his intense stare on you. Not able to look away, your heart raced faster with each step that brought him closer.

His dark grin grew.

Biting your lip, you tried to control the rush charging through your chest as his ice blue eyes roamed over your body. In a daze, you reached down and slowly covered yourself. His eyebrow lifted quizzically at the gesture.

“I...I didn't expect to see you again,” you said, finally finding your voice.

Tilting his head, he narrowed his eyes slightly. “No?”

“Well, now that they found my roommate...there's no need for you to keep coming back here...” You stumbled over your words, not wanting to insult him. Your mind was racing too quickly to realize you shouldn't care.

The flames blazing in your pounding heart also made it hard to focus.

“Isn't there?”

With one tug, he ripped the blanket off your bed, casually letting it drop on the ground.

Gasping, you pressed your thighs together, trying to ignore the heat that immediately poured there from the fire in your chest.

Lowering his chin, he held you in place with a predatory stare. He continued to glide across the floor as though his feet didn't touch the floor.

Trying to sit up, you pushed yourself higher on the bed. It didn’t get you far…and your desire to get away wasn't as strong as it should be.

Pausing to watch your attempt to avoid him, he seemed genuinely amused as he trailed his curious gaze up to your eyes. Not letting you look away, he stared you down as he reached forward to grab your ankle.

Attempting to kick your foot free, your knee bounced on the mattress. But your foot was firmly pinned. Your eyes darted back up to his as you swallowed heavily and stopped uselessly kicking.

Being surprisingly gentle, he pulled you back towards him. Keeping one ankle trapped, he lightly trailed the fingers of his free hand down your leg before swooping back to trace around your inner thigh.

Every muscle in your body tensed as you watched each movement of his hand. Soon, your body was trembling, as much from betrayal as from tension.

Slowly, he ran his tongue past his flat teeth and over his lip as he let his hand drift closer to your core. “Is there no reason at all that I should want to stop in on you?”

As your lips parted, all that came out was a shaky exhale. This was bad. Your voice of reason had been stunned into silence before he had even laid a finger on you.

In a swift, blurred motion, he snapped his hand down to your other ankle. Gasping, you flinched, but your ankles were weighted. Moving against him was pointless.

Taking painfully slow and measured motions, he started to spread your legs apart. Twisting in his grip, you tried to keep your knees together, but it was as futile as trying to fight his hands.

You let out a soft whimper as you were opened to him. Only a thin scrap of fabric stood in his way.

Bringing a knee onto the bed, you felt it dip under his weight. Your heart hammered against your chest as you watched him lean in and gently kiss your shin.

Distantly, you knew you should scream, to try and wake your roommate. You barely knew him. Even the kiss had been short-lived. If anything, you knew Eric by reputation...which was awful.

But instead of calling for help, or even asking him to stop, you stared as his tongue swirled over your skin. Quivering at his touch, you felt heat rise to your cheeks as you realized you didn't want him to stop.

Letting out a shuddering breath, you relaxed your legs. Looking up, directly into your eyes, his lip curled into a victorious smirk as he sensed you give in.

Kneeling before you, he seemed more than happy to pick up the pace as he kissed his way up to your thigh. Playing with you, he used his teeth to roughly nip at your skin. Jerking at the sensation, you kept your eyes on him. He never broke skin.

As he started sucking further up your thigh, you dropped your head against the pillow. Soon, your back was arching, lifting your hips off the mattress, silently begging for more.

Obliging, his hands slid under you, keeping your hips lifted. And freeing your feet.

But you were beyond wanting to be free.

Writhing against his teasing mouth, a moan escaped your throat.

Which was what actually woke you.

Jerking awake, your legs kicked out from the bed, getting tangled in your sheet. Gasping, you sat up, fighting the blanket that trapped you. The sheets stuck to your damp skin, adding to the struggle. Frantically trying to catch your breath, you slowly woke up enough to realize it was a dream.

A stupid, stupid dream about a vampire that terrified you. Sure, he had kissed you. And sure, you didn't hate it...but you were grateful when Sookie stopped by and interrupted. That wasn't you. You weren't thinking clearly.

Letting out a heaving sigh, you laid back on your pillow.

“Good dream?”

Eric's smooth voice broke through the darkness.

Your breath hitched as you sat straight up again. Covering yourself, you quickly clicked on the light.

He was leaning on your window frame, almost exactly like your dream. Your heart raced as his ice blue eyes swept over you. Almost exactly like in the dream.

“N-no.” Inwardly you cringed at your stutter.

Lightly scoffing, amusement lit up his eyes as he tilted his head and came closer. “Really? Because that was a lot of moaning.”

Immediately, your cheeks were on fire as you pulled the blanket higher and forcefully tucked in it around you. Like that would do a damn thing.

His eyebrow flicked upward as he watched you. There was a purr to his voice when he spoke again. “I'm assuming I was in this dream?”

Your mouth suddenly felt dry as you tried to swallow. Dropping your eyes, you refused to answer. “How are you here? I didn't let you in.”

Shrugging, he looked down at his own hands as he ran his fingers along the edge of your bed, carefully tracing over each bump of the blanket. Despite yourself, you watched them too.

“Oh, you already gave me permission to enter. It only takes once.”

Shit.

When you looked up from his fingers, you realized he was watching you. He saw your fascination with his gentle strokes over the fabric near your legs. Somehow, your cheeks grew even warmer.

Tightly, you crossed your legs under the blanket pressing your knees together. Unlike in your dream, you managed to ignore the electricity that seemed to course through you.

“But why would you? My roommate was found, you don't need to keep an eye on me anymore." There was no conviction in your voice.

Continuing to quietly observe you, he pursed his lips together as his eyes narrowed in a brief flinch. Finally, he nodded in agreement. “This is true. But I thought it would be polite of me to stop by and explain about the dream you were having.”

Eric's movements were so smooth you didn't realize he was continually getting closer. Soon, he was standing at the side of your bed, keeping his eyes on you.

“W-what are you talking about?”

Smiling warmly at your denial, he stooped forward, leaning on his hands and bringing his face close to yours. You tightly clutched at the blanket as your pulse spiked.

“You don't need to worry about them. They're a normal part of taking my blood. But you can expect them with a certain frequency.”

“I didn't take your blood,” you weakly protested.

He let his gaze drop to your mouth, slowly dragging it over your lips. To your horror, you realized you didn't know what you wanted – for him to kiss you or back away. Memories of the dream came flooding back, and you sucked your bottom lip between your teeth.

Embarrassed, you turned away.

His dark chuckle filled your ears. “Oh, but you did, sweetheart. I can feel it.”

By the time you turned back, he was gone. The sudden flutter of your curtain was the only proof you had that he had been there.

You were in more trouble than you thought.

Taglist: ( @mysteryoflovve @givemeabite , I tagged you both last time for sending me love withe my first Eric fic, so I thought I’d keep that going. BUT, if you don’t want to be spammed by me with this, lemmie know 😊) @foreverfaeries @flower-two @getlostinyourparadise @selfishkiddo @angelicshinigami @kingccbsblog

#eric northman x reader #eric northman #true blood #alexander skarsgård #alexander skarsgard

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avidfanficwriter · 6 years ago

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The Other Sister (chapter 3)

Characters: Steve Rogers(AU!) x OFC.

Summary: After five years of marriage, Steve Rogers finds himself questioning everything that his wife, Annabel has ever told him thanks to the impromptu visit by her troubled younger sister: Addison; whose existence he’s just learned about fives years prior. His only question now is: who verison is the truth? His loving wife? Or the troubled sister?

Ratings: M

Notes: Chapter took entirely longer than I expected. Or wanted. Each time i wrote it, it came out shit. (not that this one is much better but hey.) THIS STORY DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR/FROM AVENGERS: ENDGAME!

Tags: rangotangomango lilulo-12 wolflhards

Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3.

“It’s...” here.

It's amazing how much can change in five years, how a person can shift their entire demeanor to become completely unrecognizable. The past five years, Steve had grown partial to a beard something he hadn't worn since his senior year of college when he was up to his neck in finals and had no time for non-necessities; his attire had changed drastically suits became the norm; buttons ups a comfort item and dress shoes a staple of his outfits. Yet while he had changed for the best, his opinions differed when his eyes came upon Addison, her hair was a darker shade of brown, her eyes as impossible as it was, appeared darker. There was a three inch scar below her left eye that was at least a year old that caught your attention immediately, a pale face with a scarred gash. She's dressed in a red flannel that looks two sizes too big for her small frame, a plain black T-shirt underneath and light blue jeans that were stained. She's lost weight, probably to much if he was honest. The woman in front of him looked nothing like the one he'd met years earlier.

Steve notices the differences between the 'sisters,' Addison is shorter than Annabel, by six inches. Different eye colors, different hair color, hair texture and different body shapes. Different everything. If it weren't for their last name, no one would have assumed they were siblings let alone related.

Addison keeps her eyes to the ground, staring at her scuffed converse that should have been replaced six months ago. Her duffel bag is hooked over her shoulder and she's breathing deeply. "Haven't seen you since the wedding." Steve says immediately regretting his decision to try to lighten the mood. Instead of helping clear the awkward air, it only added to it. Immediately, he kicks into protector mode. "Listen, if you're going to be staying with us." He says, straightening his posture and lowering the pitch of his voice. "I need to check your bag."

Her chocolate eyes quickly meet his and he expects the worse. Her refusal, even her storming off after shouting an insult but she does the opposite. She drops her bag on the ground between them and takes a step back, allowing him access. The search comes up empty, there isn't anything inside of it aside from clothing, a journal and a wallet. No drugs, syringes or weapons. There's a flash of disappointment that crosses his face when he zips the bag up, he hoped that would have been his ticket to kick her out. Hoped maybe she was stupid enough to have something.

"And we need to check you." Her sister speaks as she stands beside Steve with a brown paper bag in her hand. Steve's jaw tightens as he steps forward, "I assume you know how to stand for a body search?" Annabel asks.

Addison's arms extend out and she spreads her legs a bit as Steve begins patting her down. His hand comes into contact with a hard object in her front pocket, "What's that?"

"Phone." She says in a small voice, avoiding his eyes. He's given her the benefit of the doubt in the past and it came back to bit him in the ass, he won't be making the same mistake twice. Using two fingers, he carefully pulls out a old flip phone from her pockets and lets out a quick breathe.

"Okay." He replies, pushing it back into her pocket.

Steve rejoins his wife who is listing out the rules for her stay, "No drugs, no drinking alcohol; no parties, no visitors. You will use the front door of the house to come and go, the back gate is locked and will remain that way. You break any of those rules, you will be on the street." Annabel's hands Addison the brown paper bag. "We will also be drug testing you twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night; before we get you settled we'd like you to take one now. Inside the bag is a cup, go the bathroom, pee in it and we'll test you. if it comes back positive, Steve will take you to the guest house."

Addison does it without a second thought, following Annabel's directions to the bathroom and closing the door behind her. The married couple stand near the restroom, thankful they don't have a window that she can escape from in there.

"Do you think she'll do it?" Steve asks, leaning his back against the wall.

"If she's really got nowhere else to go, yes." Annabel is filing her hot pink nails and sitting on the blue bench, they had to have to accentuate the hallway. What it really added was beyond him but for the price of it, it had better be doing something impressive.

"You sure this will work?"

Annabel doesn't have a chance to answer before the bathroom door opens and a startled Addison walks out. Her eyes are wide and she takes a few deep breaths to calm herself, handing the brown bag back to Annabel who stares at her in disgust. Steve takes the bag instead, giving her a small nod.

"I'll do this." He enters the master bedroom, retrieving the box of drug tests they had purchased. The instructions are straight forward, have a sample ready and dip the stick in; wait five minutes and the results will be ready. Two lines for negative. One line for positive. Waiting feels like an eternity, his watch ticks the seconds away and his mind is spinning with the possibility she's high. He should have checked for track marks.

The five minutes are up and to his relief it's negative. She was off to a good start. Rejoining the girls in the living room, the air is full of static, both unsure of their next move. "She's clean." He says a little to joyful.

"Good. I'm glad." Annabel smiles, clapping her hands. "Steve will show you to your room, I have to get started on dinner."

Steve expected more conversation to arise as he lead Addison to the guest house, even a simple remark about the yard or the house rather than silence. It's unsettling and blatantly obvious that she's nothing more than a stranger. The only thing even allowing them to interact was a marriage license between someone who had once considered her family.

"The uh--the kitchen is testy, some appliances work when they want to, others not so much. I'm working on getting it fixed, as for what truly works in the kitchen It's a bit of a guessing game." Steve says once they get inside the guest house. "The fridge is not to reliable either, anything you need, you're more than welcome to get from the main house. The glass door we'll leave unlocked for you." He hopes some parts of this come off as genuine, he's trying everything to not be rude but the amount of hostility bubbling inside of him is putting him on edge. "The bedrooms just through there." He points to left. "There's no television but I'm sure Annabel will have no problem setting you up with the internet password."

Addison nods, the muscles in her face tightening as she looks around. "We put some blankets in there for you and a dresser for your clothes. You're welcome to stay as long as you need." Steve nervously taps his fingers along the marble counter. He leaves, chewing on his bottom lip and fast walking back to the main house where Annabel is leaning against the counter, reading a copy of some gossip magazine.

"She all settled in?" she asks, discarding her magazine to wrap her hands around her husbands waist.

"Yes. Are you sure we shouldn't have gotten something else for there? I don't feel comfortable with her coming and going into the house as she pleases."

"She'll be fine." The conversation was dropped after that, no further discussions of mentions of her. For the next few hours, he's doing everything he can to not stare at the guest house. He's waiting for it, the sound of gunshots, a fire breaking out. The worst is coming, it's just a matter of time.

Around dinner, Annabel places a plate of roast chicken with a side of pasta in front of him and another where she is going to sit. There's an extra plate resting on the counter that is eyeing Steve. "I told Addison she was more than welcomed to join us for dinner. Don't be surprised if she comes in." She doesn't. Their dinner is quiet, the same way it always is. Addison focus is on him for the first few minutes before falling victim to her cell phone.

Steve spots a lit turn off from one of the windows in the guest house but it still does nothing to make the dread leave.

Their conversation resumes once they are inside the comfort of their room, "I'm surprised she didn't have any drugs on her." Annabel remarks once she sits on the bed, dressed in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

"Maybe this will work, the drug tests and the rules."

"I doubt it."

Steve walks out of the bathroom, discarding his pair of pants into the hamper. "Why do you say that?"

"I think she actually enjoys creating trouble like... she gets off on it. God, every second of my childhood was filled with some of her bullshit. One thing after the other. Then the shit at our wedding, we extended an olive branch and she screws it up. I mean, she's an adult and still acts like she's a child." Steve lets her continue, holding his tongue. "I give her three weeks before she's back jonesing for her next fix."

"Even if it fails, at least we can say that we tried." Steve suggests, sitting on the bed bedside her. "If it does work, at least our children would know their aunt."

Annabel turns to him, disgust smeared across her face. "Yeah, their druggie aunt Addison. No childern of ours will even know of her existence."

"You can't say that." He objects.

Annabel scoffs, shaking her head. "Are you kidding me? We have a 50/50 chance of having at least one child like Addison, my parents had her, who knows what we could have. If by some miracle we manage to have one child with their head screwed on right, we don't need her corrupting them."

Steve stares at her in disbelief. "You'd keep her away from our family?"

"To protect our family."

"Even if she was clean?"

"I don't care."

"Annabel..." He lets out in a low whisper. "You can't say that, she's your sister."

"By blood. Not by choice." She corrects him, sternly.

"Baby..."

"Steve, you've known her for less than two hours, I grew up with that. I know exactly what she's capable of."

With that, Annabel tugs the blankets up, turns off her bedside lamp and lays down.

Steve sat in silence, his head leaning against the headboard while his eyes remained on his wife. He’d never faced a problem such as this one before, good guys were always good guys and bad guys were always bad guys. Addison however was neither good nor bad, she fell somewhere in between. She’d made bad decisions, did bad things but wasn’t evil as far as he was aware. His mind was in a battle between hating her and wanting to care for her.

Steve wakes at five in morning, the smell of coffee filling the house and the subtle scent of Annabel’s perfume lingers on the sheets. Inside the living room, he expects to find the Shaw sisters but only finds his wife, whose muttering to herself about misplacing her keys.

“They’re on the microwave.” Steve says, leaning on the counter watching her. She’s dressed in a form fitting blue dress and black heels.

“Thank you.”

Annabel moves to grab her keys off the microwave and Steve notices the black suitcase, she only uses on her trips that is against the counter. “I thought you weren’t working this week.”

Annabel sighs, pushing her hair out of her face. “I wasn’t. Harold…” Her boss. “…called and said they need me to go to Seattle and help train a bunch of new employees. They are having a difficult time selling.”

“They need you?”

“June’s going as well.”

“What am I supposed to do with Addison?”

“Steve…” She says in a low voice, walking up to him and running her hands along his shoulders. “I’ll be gone for a three days, a week at most.“ She raked her nails down his chest, knowing fully well the grey t-shirt he’s wearing leaves him with no protection against her seduction, he fights it; tightening his jaw and looking out the window at the guest house. Annabel’s hand pulling at the waistband of his pants brings his attention back to her.

He lets out a low groan as she nips at his Adams apple and trails her tongue up his neck. Steve groans, roughly pulling her into him and digging his fingers into her hips. Their kiss is rough, full of pent up frustration and need.

"Fifteen minutes.” She says between the kiss as he bites at her lip and she pulls at his hair.

With a loud growl, he lifts her onto the counter, standing between her legs and pulling her dress up. “More than enough time.”

Sex with Annabel had changed throughout their time together, in the beginning it was spontaneous, pouncing on one another at any given time or any location, wild and crazy. After their nuptials, it dwindled down, less spontaneity. Sex became rare and when opportunities arose the air was filled with excuses, 'his back hurt, she was on her feet all day, sleep was calling.' Far too many excuses and far too little energy. Their need for each other was still there, bubbling at the surface waiting to be released which is why he is having to resist every urge inside of him to strip her completely and run his fingers through her hair. Steve likes intimacy, he likes to bare his soul and have the same in return. Lingering touches; small kisses, quick gasps and whispers of I love you. He wants every single part of his partner.

Her nails dig into his back and her teeth into his shoulder as he finally pushes into her. "Annabel..." He groans, trying to pull her closer.

It's the clearest his mind has been in the fifteen hours since Addison's arrival, for once he can clear his mind of the 'what ifs' and focus on one thing. He can focus on his wife, Annabel and the beautiful sounds she's making or the feeling of her body reacting to him. It's going to be over soon either because they've ran out of time or because he can no longer find the will to not break. He warns her, letting out a stifled cry into her neck that he's almost there but before she can respond, her body jerks away and her legs shake sporadically. It's blissful the sound of her coming apart. Steve studies her face, lips parted letting out a silent scream, her eyes shut tight and her body trembling with aftershocks. Not even a second after her, he lets out a loud curse and can hardly stand upright as he fills her. They lean on one another, trying to calm their heart rate and gain control of their breathing.

With a pat on his bicep, Annabel speaks. "I've got to go, baby." He nods in response. "Baby..." Steve breathes out deeply, stepping away and fixing his pants as she disappears down the hall. He collapses onto the couch, glistening of sweat and feeling weak at his knees. Annabel rejoins him, looking beautiful as ever, her perfume and hairspray fill his nose as she leans down to give him a quick kiss. "I love you." She whispers against his lips.

"Come back to me." He responds, accepting that she is leaving.

Annabel smiles, "I always do." She says making his heart swell.

The comment started as joke, they were at a party when a man began flirting with Annabel; desperately trying to bed her. Steve watched their encounter, finding humor at the man's actions before joining them and quickly wrapping his arm around her waist. Annabel buried her head into his chest, sighing with relief at her savior. "I was worried you weren't going to come back to me." He says mockingly, knowing the man had no shot with her. She shook her head and looked him straight in the eyes, "I always will." It was simple yet straightforward, mimicking a confession of love with the way Steve felt his heart beat faster. Since then he's always said it and she's always responded in the same way.

An hour after Annabel's leaves, Steve is struggling with what to do about Addison; she needs her drug test but she hasn't came out of the guest house and he has to leave for work in fifteen minutes. He's now fighting an internal battle of what to do, does he go to the guest house and ask for her urine? Does he leave the cup on the counter with a note and hope when she comes into the house to eat, she'll do it? Should he even go to work? How was he supposed to do anything this week while Addison was here? After a short debate and his watch counting down the minutes, he decides to go to the guest house, he'll have to get this over with. It's a short walk, ten minutes at most but to him it feels like ten hours, each step feels weighted as if a rope is wrapped around his ankle and someone is pulling at it as he moves. He's waiting for the black clouds, the circle of fire or the smoke monster from that Tv show to appear; something the signifies this was a bad idea. He fights every cell in his body telling him to turn away and knocks on the wooden door, quietly at first before finding the courage to knock harder. There's shuffling on the other side of the door before it swings open revealing Addison who looks worse than he thought possible.

"Good morning," He says with a small nod. "It's time for your test."

She sighs, extending her hand out to grab the plastic jar. "In front of you?"

"No." He shakes his head. "Just bring it back when you're done."

Addison disappears into the house while he stares at his watch, counting how long it takes for her to return. Three minutes. That corresponds with how long it took her yesterday, as long as she didn't spend more than three minutes in the bathroom all was well. That limited the chances of her doing something to compromise the sample. The jar is wrapped in paper towel, most likely to give her some respect over the fact that she's handing her brother-in-law a jar of her urine.

"If it comes back positive, I'll be back." He warns before walking back to the house. Inside of the bathroom, he tests the urine and says a silent thank you when once again the results are positive. The last thing he wanted to do was kick Addison out while Annabel was away. Flushing the urine down the toilet, he sends a quick message to Annabel about the results of Addison's latest drug test. It still feels wrong, breathing the same air that Addison is, knowing that any moment she can break. Turn into a lying manipulating monster, it's not a safe environment for any of them. Not safe for her to be around them but she is, they have no choice. "We're good people." he can hear his mother reprimanding him. He's doing this for Annabel, putting up with this mess for his wife because he loves her.

His next battle is leaving for work, which is harder than it should be. He's ready, dressed, briefcase packed and for some reason he can't find enough strength to turn the knob. He's scared, scared of what might happen when he is gone, what evil she could bring into the house. She's a virus that's affecting the home, a demon that is haunting them. They have insurance, homeowners protection and savings, if she does something they are protected and he'll use the full force of the law to go after her. Make her pay for her faults unlike her family he wrote her off. It's a new found confidence running through his body as he finally manages to turn the doorknob and step out. The air outside feels different, cleaner and lighter even brighter. The heavy fog that was hanging over him is gone. He's able to breathe until he gets to work. Work is another ball park, all day it's numbers and meetings, his boss' loud voice booming through the office demanding better... everything. No encouraging speeches, just paperwork slamming onto the table and shouting for better results. Tony Stark, his boss; his friend--most of the time-- is a perfectionist and at times an asshole.

When Steve and Tony first met, it was like a firecracker had gone off inside the building, sparks flew and egos went to bat. Two dominate male personalities were sparring with their words just waiting to get their fists involved. Over time, their toxic relationship became less toxic, they could finally refer to each other as friends in certain situations. Usually after work, they'd meet up for drinks and bitch about their boss, complain about their personal lives and drink their sorrows away. Until Tony became the boss and suddenly, their fighting was a far more common occurrence; they had to find a line that allowed them to be friends and employee/employer. The line was blurred, they could work together as long as one of them didn't disagree with the other then suddenly an argument would break out yet after work they were out drinking or at dinner with the others family. While it made no sense, no one questioned it in fear more questions would create another set of problems.

After work, Steve is tired and refuses to go home, he'll be returning to a empty bed and the devil's spawn will be there. Against better judgement, he decides to go out with Bucky and Tony. Tony is buying the first round per Bucky's request, "The boss pays first round, he works us to the bone least he could do is pay for our drinks." which puts a smile on Steve's face but not for long. He's lost in the negative yet again.

James 'Bucky' Barnes or Jimmy as Tony refers to him when he's angry (which only pisses off Bucky), has been friends with Steve since childhood, they grew up just five houses apart and instantly became family. Everyone assumed they were brothers because of how close they were and eventually they stopped correcting people, they felt like family and they were. Chances were if you found Bucky, Steve wouldn't be to far away. They were attached by the hip which was how they manage to work together. Steve applied first and Bucky applied on a whim somehow both managing to land a job.

"Why weren't you at work today?" Tony asks, turning into their boss for a moment as he looks at Bucky. Who called in with the excuse he was sick but was perfectly healthy now.

"Sick."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "Sick? But not too sick to drink?"

"Drinking heals the soul." Tony shakes his head, scoffing at the younger man and walks to the bar to retrieve the beers.

It doesn't take long before Bucky realizes something is eating at his best friend, not that it was difficult to see, Steve had a terrible poker face. Exactly the reason, Bucky and Tony always won during poker nights, one look at Steve and it was obvious, if his hand was good or bad. "Alright, what's wrong, punk?" He asks nudging him in the arm.

Steve lifts his head, confused. "Huh? Oh, nothing." His shoulders shrug.

"Something's up. Tony said you didn't even argue with him about having to redo a report."

"There was no reason to argue."

If they were in a old fashioned bar, the record would've scratched and everyone around them would've gasped. Their expressions would've matched Bucky's whose starring him wide eyed with his jaw almost on the floor. "No reason to fight with Stark? Now I know something is up. You never pass up a moment to argue with Stark, no matter how ridiculous."

Tony arrives at the table, three beers in hand, "Drink up boys."

Enthusiastically, Tony and Bucky grab the beers quickly drowning their livers in the brown liquid and share a look of confusion when Steve grabs the bottle but doesn't drink it. The two men silently come to the conclusions his attitude shift is none other than problems linked to his wife. They have yet another silent realization that one of them is going to have to be the one to ask and neither want to do it. Their eyes convey their words, arguing over who is going to do it before Tony says to hell with it and asks.

"So, what'd she do?" Tony asks, leaning back in his seat, getting ready for another dive into Steve's relationship.

"What? Who? Annabel?"

Bucky lets out a sarcastic laugh, "Who else?"

"It's not her." The two men beside him let out a laugh. "It's her sister." As quickly as their laughter started, it was gone. Confusion is clearly going to play a large role in tonight's conversation.

"Sister?" Bucky questions. "I didn't know she had a sister?" he looks at Tony for confirmation, he to didn't know

There's not a descriptive word in the English language that could properly convey the feeling of sorrow that overtakes Steve as he tells the story of dear ol' Addison Shaw, the black sheep of the Shaw family. He can see his friends faces contort with confusion and disgust as they take in the secret. They're as speechless as Steve was the first time he heard and suddenly filled with anger, Tony's eyes shift and Bucky's jaw tightens. Steve fills a wave of euphoria after finally getting every last drop out, the story is out there, finally he's not alone in bearing the weight. He can have a third party involved, someone that isn't entirely involved by blood or marriage. A new opinion, someone to tell him if he is doing the right thing or at least give him advice.

Tony is uncharastically speechless, normally the man has words ready before someone is even done speaking but now he's leaning on his hand and letting out a deep breathe, while he tries to process the revolution. Bucky however is, leisurely drinking his beer and shaking his head. Then he smiles and Steve knows, the second Bucky smiles after startling information is revealed is never a good thing.

"Well, shit." Bucky adds. "You hit the jackpot, kid." He's not done. There is no shock factor yet and Bucky loves to shock, if even for entertainment purposes. "She single?" There it is. The one line that makes Steve question why he's friends with him. "Or you know, down for something? Sex with someone who's got a few screws loose is fucking life changing."

"Goddamn, Barnes." Tony chimes in with disgust. "Don't let your boss hear you say stuff like that, you're gonna fail a drug test if you stick it in her."

"I'm telling my friend, not my boss." He corrects.

"Two drug tests a day then?" Tony asks shifting the conversation from Bucky's sexual conquests to the real issue at hand. Steve nods. "She got a record?"

Steve sighs for the hundredth time tonight, "According to Annabel, yes. A few arrests for drug use but I don't know the details. I don't even think she does."

Tony suggests using one of his 'friends' to look into Addison, the perks of being born with money meant you had an assortment of people at your fingertips, all waiting for the one phone call to get started. He's listing off people that Steve can use, a detective who owes him a few favors (he won't say why and Steve is scared to ask), a doctor who can get him a better drug testing kit; a private investigator to not only watch her every move but to find out where she has been for the last few years.

For a moment, Steve considers it; it would make his life a lot easier, probably easier to sleep. "No, I can't." He shakes his head with disappoint. "Annabel said, she'd last three weeks at most before she slips up. it would be a waste of time."

"What if she slip ups and costs you guys something?" Bucky finally interjects, this time with something helpful. "You guys were already having problems, what if she's the thing that makes you call it quits."

For the first time in their friendship, Tony agrees with Bucky as painful as it, the last few weeks-months have been filled with Steve drinking his pain away and cursing at the thought of his wife. It wasn't divorce worthy yet but the possibility of separating had arose. Tony suggested it, using his own relationship as an example. "Time apart hurt like hell but it did the trick, made us... me realize what I wanted and need." He'd said. Bucky was silent during the conversation, not having a 'relationship' to compare it to. The most trouble he faced was deciding what woman to call if he didn't luck out at the bar. Steve and Tony were the only ones in long term relationships and knew the troubles you could experience. Tony was far more useful in this situation but surprisingly Bucky was holding his own.

"It wouldn't cause that." Steve argues.

"It could."

Steve feels like a lost puppy after Tony speaks and his eyes drop to his gold wedding band. Every aspect of their lives, he'd taken into account except for their marital problems. Things weren't great between he and Annabel but they weren't bad either, it was this weird space between them. They spoke but not frequently. They said they loved each other and kissed one another goodbye but it didn't feel the same anymore. They'd fight, then make up and fight again. An endless cycle.

"Steve..." Bucky voice is small, as if he's not entirely sure what to say. "Why would Annabel agree to this? To her staying with you guys?"

All Steve can do is shrug, "I don't know. I think it's because she's trying to be nice? Do what her parents couldn't."

"You said she brought drugs to your wedding after Annabel invited her and she's giving her another chance?"

"I don't know." Steve finally gives up, none of it makes sense.

"Was she at your mother in law's funeral?" Tony asks, thinking back to the depressing day, there wasn't anyone in particular he remembered looking troubled attending.

"No, Annabel said she refused to answer the phone."

Tony scoffs, "God."

Steve's phone beeps, stealing their attention and startling all of them. It's a text message from Annabel asking about Addison's latest drug test. His cue to go home. "Boys, I have to go." He says, tapping Tony on the shoulder before rising to his feet. He tosses a few dollars onto the table for them. "Next round's on me." He's grateful for the notification, he'd lost track of time and didn't want to leave Addison alone in his home. Bucky offers a helping hand before he departs, "Call me if you need me. If it gets outta control."

Arriving home just in time to beat the sunset, he quickly gathers the jar and heads to the his guest house, it's quiet again; no noises; no moving this either. It's dead silence. "Addison?" He resorts to shouting her name and knocking. She answers the door wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a loose fitting guns n roses t-shirt, her hair is a birds nest and dark bags under her eyes. They're not happy to see one another but without any complaints, she takes the small jar and disappears from his view. He stares at his watch again, timing her. One minute... two minutes... two in a half... three minutes... three minutes and sixteen seconds before she comes into view, the jar wrapped yet again in toilet paper. He doesn't say anything this time, she has to know by now and there is no point in repeating. The results once again are clean. He texts Annabel, telling her Addison is clean and that he misses her, wishes she was here and that he loves her before laying down in bed.

It's cold. The bed and the house when he wakes, the bedside alarm clock taunts him reading, 12:09am. Four hours of sleep yet he feels like he only got five minutes of sleep. Steve stretches his muscles and exits the bedroom, sighing heavily as his bare feet touch the wooden planks beneath him. The kitchen is dimly lit from the fish tank full of fish, they always manage to neglect; another reason they couldn't have a dog. Their fish sometimes go days without eating or days where they are overfed, unfortunately never in between. He plans to feed them only to grab his chest and let out a loud, "Fuck!" when he notices a figure sitting at the counter. The figure jumps as well, glass shatters against the floor, making the scene even more harrowing.

"Shit."

#Chris evans #Chris evans fanfiction #Chris Evans fanfic #Chris Evans Fic #chris evans imagine #Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers Fanfic #Steve Rogers Fic #Steve Rogers Fanfiction #Steve rogers!AU #Au #Captain America #captain steve rogers #Cap

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capsicletho · 6 years ago

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I Can’t Make You Love Me

…if you don’t. You can’t make your heart feel something that it won’t.

a Tony Stark series; author: @stvrktony | chapter 13

trigger: -

warning: civil war spoilers if that’s even still a thing;

word count: -

summary: Reader and Tony found comfort in each other while they were trying to mend their own broken hearts.

a/n: -

masterlist | ICMYLM masterlist | previous chapter

Complying with Tony was just a way to shut him up and get him out of the compound, because he was on a deadline. You knew that one way or another, you are going to go where Tony is going. You haven’t had that figured out yet, currently, but you’re going to get there. You entered Tony’s study –– although you’re not a tech genius like your boyfriend is, you knew how some things worked based on your own observations and what he taught you about certain things.

You looked around the study and then poked around until you found one of Tony’s earpieces and took it with you. You exited the study and then turn around only to jump in surprise.

“What are you doing?” Happy asked.

“Uh...I thought I left my wallet in there, but it’s not there,” you lied.

“Huh,” Happy examined your face and you tried to put on the best innocent expression you could muster. “Alright, well. Tony told me to make sure you stay here and not go anywhere. But right now I have to drop someone off, so please do me a favor and don’t mess around, okay?”

“Who are you dropping off where?” You asked, a cheeky smile on your lips. If you can get that information out of Happy, you would not have to go through your complicated plan.

“None of your business,” Happy retorted, seeing through your move.

“Happyyyyyyy,” you called out to him. “You have to tell me! Tony could be in danger, the only way I can stop him is if I know where he’s going!”

“He’s going to be fine. He’s with Rhodey, Vision, and Nat, now I gotta go drop the kid off in Germany before Cap leaves.” Happy said as he walked away and fiddling with his iPad. But then he halted in a sudden and turned around.

You smirked. “Thank you, Happy,” you smiled. You decided to ignore the fact that he said ‘kid’ because it would give Happy time to stall you.

“Hey! (Y/N)! Don’t!” Happy called over to you, but you already disappeared into your room to pull the exact same suitcase that you haven’t even unpacked. You instantly left the compound in one of Tony’s cars and zipped to the airport. You booked the earliest flight which is about two hours away. The perfect amount of time to actually get to the airport and then buy some other things you might need to board the plane.

Meanwhile, back at the facility, Happy debated on calling Tony ––- knowing that his boss already had so much on his plate. But he also needed to pick Peter up and accompany him Germany. The man groaned and decided to deal with you later and prioritize Peter first.

Your eight hour flight ended smoothly and you could not wait to get to the hotel. As soon as the plane landed, you slipped on the earpiece that you had and tuned in to the conversation, but it was quiet. Too quiet. You gathered your bag, took off the earpiece, and put it back on your bag, knowing that it might get confiscated in customs. Just as you were waiting for your bag, you heard over the speakers that certain people were ushered out of a wing in the airport and there were complaints and people who looked angry, but some were also jumping in curiosity and excitement trying to still glance back to the airport wing that was being emptied. You were confused, why would they close an entire wing.

As you watched the people being transferred into other flights or booked hotels, you caught hints from a boy who was jumping around in excitement, he was a foreigner, but you would not have mistakenly heard the superhero names he was uttering. “Captain America!” he yelled out, the name laced thickly with their accent. He spoke again and then your boyfriend’s superhero alias came up. “Iron Man...” The gestures the boy was making, let you know that the Avengers are here, in this very airport.

You immediately shoved your way past the people and tried your best to hide from the security guards. Meanwhile, you slipped the earpiece back on and tried to get through to Tony, asking FRIDAY to connect you to him.

“Honey. What are you doing here?” Tony yelled in your ear as you slipped past more guards. His breath sounded a little bit labored, like he was doing a heavy activity.

“I told you I won’t come with you, but that does not mean I can’t go alone,” you retorted. “I’m on my way to you,” you said.

“No you’re not! Turn around. Leave. Now.” He ordered you. Right then, a security guard stopped you from going further into the airport wing that was closed.

“I’m with Tony Stark,” you said, showing your Stark Industries ID. You figured it out now, Tony must have had the airport employees usher people out to avoid casualties.

“No. No, you’re not with Tony Stark. You’re going home right now,” Tony spoke in your ear, unfortunately the security guard would not be able to hear him.

“I have to get this to him, it’s urgent.” You lifted a pouch from your handbag. It was actually your sleeping eye mask pouch, but he seemed to believe it was something important. “Now if you could please just step aside and maybe point me in the direction to where he is, I’ll be out of your hair in a flash,” you said.

The man studied you for a while, and as if on cue, Happy appeared behind you. “Actually, she’s not going there, she’s coming with me.”

You sighed and turned around, seeing Happy behind you.

“Come on. Don’t make me drag you out of here,” the bodyguard said.

You turned to the security guard who was now crossing his arms, surely he was not going to let you in now. “Fine,” you sighed in annoyance.

Happy loaded your suitcase into the car while you got in. You climbed into the car and just as you

“Babe, you still there?” Tony’s voice sounded in your earpiece. He sounded frantic and scared and you quickly tensed up.

“I’m here. Tony, are you okay? What’s going on?” You asked.

“I- I need... I need an ambulance.” The man stuttered, a sign of panic overpowering him.

“Tony are you hurt?” You asked again.

“N-No, no, no. It’s Rhodey. Rhodey...I couldn’t get to him in time.” He tried to explain.

“First responders are already here,” FRIDAY joined in on the conversation.

“Okay, Tony, calm down, babe. I’ll take care of it, just get out of there safely, okay?” You calmly spoke, knowing that if you panicked it would worsen Tony’s panic attack. You turned to Happy who decided not to leave when he heard you talking to Tony. “Happy, go, we’re going to the hospital now.”

You and Happy arrived at the hospital before Rhodey and the ambulance did and you quickly got everything sorted out, from the room he will be staying in until making sure that there will be a place ready for him in the emergency room so that they can examine him quickly.

You paced back and forth as you waited for Rhodey in the emergency room. From what you saw, you knew he took a hard hit which worried you even further as to what was going on between all of them at the airport.

“(Y/N),” a voice called out to you and you turned around to see Tony. He was battered and there were bruises forming in his face. You were scared to even imagine what other injuries and bruises he was sustaining.

You quickly walked over to him and enveloped him in a hug. Tony grunted a little at the impact, but he wrapped an arm around your waist while you wrapped both arms around his neck. He exhaled as he buried his face in your neck, inhaling your scent always helped calm him down; knowing that you’re near and that you’re safe comforts him more than anything. Your fingers slipped into his hair and rubbing soothing circles on the back of his neck. You stayed like that for a few minutes before Tony finally spoke up.

“What did the doctors say?” He asked.

“I don’t know, they haven’t come outside of the ICU yet,” you said as you pulled away to look at his face but still wrapping your arms around him. Your finger gently traced the bruise under his eye, causing him to wince a little. That was when you noticed he was not actually moving his left arm, not even to hug you. “What happened to your arm?” You asked.

“I think I sprained it,” he said.

You knew he was downplaying it. A lot has happened to Tony’s left arm, you noticed. Every time he came back from a mission or a fight, he would always have worse problems on his left arm than anywhere else. Tony said he was not sure how it started, but it was most likely when he first became Iron Man when he was flying to rescue hostages when a shell hit him.

“Okay, we’re getting you to a doctor,” you let go of him and then pulled his right arm to direct him to the ER.

After moments of you persuading and him refusing, you were sitting with him looking at the scan result for his arm. It was sprained, like he said, but you knew that he was experiencing worse pain than he just a sprained arm because his left arm had so much trauma from previous injuries.

The nurses decided to put his arm in a sling, and the man was already impatient, wanting to see Rhodey’s doctor as soon as possible. Right after the sling was clipped on properly, he stood up and left the room. You thanked the nurse in a hurry and followed him out to wait in front of the ICU again.

Things got worse when Tony received the news about his best friend’s condition. You sighed, worried for Rhodey but also for Tony. There is now another burden on his shoulders: the guilt of not being able to rescue Rhodey in time that had caused his long-time best friend to be paralyzed waist down.

You looked at Tony just standing there in front of Rhodey’s room and you bit your lower lip. “Tony, go,” you encouraged him. “I’ll keep you updated, okay? So go do what you have to do.”

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#tony stark fanfic #tony stark fanfiction #tony stark imagines #tony stark x reader #iron man fanfic #iron man fanfiction #iron man x reader #tony stark #iron man #icmylm #tony stark imagine

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nomattertheoceans · 6 years ago

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I made you a promise - chapter 16

Before I let you read on, a few important announcements.

I will be leaving tumblr from Sunday 21st, until I’ve read Kingdom of Ash. Because I’ve already put my spoiler tags up, and still I started to see things about the book (I don’t know how these people got their hands on the book, but how about using some tags, people? I’m so angry about it, I don’t want to dwell on it and ruin your day too….)

Knowing myself and how I read, I’ll probably start reading it on Friday 26th, and will hopefully have finished it on Sunday or something.

Once I come back to tumblr, this blog will definitely not be spoiler free!!! I will be using these tags on every koa post I share: “koa spoilers”, “koa spoiler”, “kingdom of ash spoiler” and “kingdom of ash spoilers” That way, if you want to avoid any spoilers, just filter at least one of these tags and you’ll be safe in my blog.

Regarding the fic: this might be my last update in a while. In November, I won’t be updating it at all, because I’ll spend the month of November developing my original story, and I can’t focus on my story if I keep thinking about my fics. So I’ll try to get a chapter out between the moment when I’ll finish Kingdom of Ash, and the beginning of November, but nothing certain. In any case, whether it be this chapter or the next one, I promise I won’t leave you guys on a big cliffhanger hahahaha (I’m really not that cruel ^^), and I also promise that I am in no way abandoning this fic, and will be back in December! I just need some time for my other project :)

Anyway, that’s it I guess. Thank you so so much to everyone who reads, likes, comments,... I love it all!!

@highladyofherondale @amazinginglyawesomeperson @illyrianbeauty

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Feyre sat down at her small desk after lunch, a smile lingering on her face. She’d just eaten with Rhys, and at some point during the meal, he’d casually referred to her as his girlfriend, before realizing what he’d said and looking at her with dread in his eyes. She hadn’t been able to stop her laugh at the sight of him freaking out, a warm feeling spreading in her heart at the idea that he considered her his girlfriend, that it had come as naturally to him as it had to her. Still smiling, she opened her inbox to check emails, somewhat mindlessly reading through them, thinking - and blushing - about something Rhys had whispered in her ear before leaving her at the door. Something about making his girlfriend moan when he…

There was an email from New York. From John, the author she’d met with the week before. And the email was titled: “John Helvar - Illustrated edition - Trip to NYC?” She opened it frantically and read what he’d written to her:

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Email sent on: Tuesday, October 30th at 1:04 p.m.

Feyre,

How are you?

I’m writing to you as a follow up of our meeting in Velaris last week. I was charmed by all of the ideas you presented to me, and showed them to my publisher on Friday. She also liked them, and would like to meet you and discuss them further before making a final decision. We’re both available at the beginning of next week, and would like for you to come to New York for a few days. It would be a trip from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning, allowing us two full days to work. The publishing house would pay for your plane tickets and your hotel.

Let me know before Thursday if you’re available, to book everything for you.

Looking forward to seeing you soon in New York,

John.

She wasn’t sure she was breathing. He wanted her to come to New York. To meet his publisher. To craft a contract. Which meant he wanted to work with her, he wanted her to create every single one of the illustrations for his books. An entire collection, with about 100 to 150 pages per book. After meeting her twice, he trusted her enough to agree to working with her for the next few months, the next few years. She felt her heart racing in her chest, her breathing became jagged and her hands were shaking.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go to New York and meet with these people when she had to drag herself out of bed every morning, when she found every drawing she made harder than the last. Not when she’d been unable to pick up a paintbrush for months, her only drawings being those requested for work. She’d felt sort of confident during the meetings with him, but it hadn’t been serious. For all that she wanted and needed this job, she hadn’t considered the possibility that he might actually choose her. Her vision blurred and she realized she was crying. The realization woke her up and she tried to force her body to calm down. Nothing was decided yet, she thought, clenching at her desk to keep herself grounded, he simply wanted her to meet the rest of the team that was working on the project. Maybe he didn’t even want to work only with her, maybe she would be part of a bigger team of illustrators and her work wouldn’t even be noticed.

But it didn't work, she was still panicking, tears still rolled down on her cheeks. Without thinking, she picked up her phone and dialed.

***

The day was beautiful. Granted, it was raining, and he was freezing, and he had about a zillion paperwork to finish before he could go home tonight. But how could this day not be beautiful, when he’d just had lunch with his wonderful girlfriend - it was official now - and she was coming to his place to spend the night. He’d have to buy some stuff for her if she started to sleep at his house more regularly, like a toothbrush, some of her shampoo, maybe some stuff for her period if she wanted, a hairbrush,...

He was driven away from his mental shopping list by the vibrations of his phone in his pocket. Smiling at the name on the screen, he answered:

“Hey you, miss me already?”

“Oh Gods Rhys, I’m freaking out.” Her voice was stranded, and her breathing frantic.

“What’s going on? Are you ok?”

“I am. It’s just…. I received an email from the guy I met with the other week. He wants me to go to New York next week to meet his publishing team.”

“Feyre, that’s great!” He wasn’t really an expert in the publishing world, but the author wanting her to meet with his publisher was bound to be a good sign.

“I… Yeah I guess it is.” But her voice was flat, and he started wondering what was in this email that got her so freaked out.

“Darling, what’s going on? You don’t sound pleased.”

“No, I am.” A pause. “I am. See you tonight at your place?”

“Y - yes, sure. Are you sure you’re okay?”

But she had already hung up before his question was over.

***

She refused to approach the subject of New York for the entire evening, cleverly avoiding talking about it, and bluntly staring at him when he tried to bring it up. So they ate in near silence, Rhys trying and failing to make her open up to him, and then keeping quiet, hoping she might feel better if he left her alone. They washed the dishes, turned off the lights and got up to his bedroom. He was fishing out a clean pair of underpants to sleep in when he caught a glimpse of her in the mirror, seated on his bed, her hand tucked between her thighs, crying silently. He turned around and hurried to her, kneeling down in front of her.

“Feyre, what’s going on?”

She avoided his eyes, and was clenching her hands together, tears rolling down her cheeks silently. Still without looking at him, she said: “Are you… Are you mad at me?”

“What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?”

“Well… I don’t know. Because I didn’t want to talk about New York, and you might think I want to hide something from you, and be mad.” Her voice had grown quieter as she talked, and she looked so sad, Rhys decided then and there that if he ever met her ex-boyfriend, he wouldn’t mind punching him in the face once or twice.

“Feyre, please, look at me.” And he was pleading her, pleading because he wanted her to look into his eyes and understand that he would never react like that, with her or anyone else. She met his eyes but she was still sobbing silently, her beautiful face stained by tears, and her eyes red. “Feyre, you don’t have to tell me everything. Ever. If you don’t want to tell me about something, it’s absolutely fine, and normal.” He rested his hands on her thighs gently. “I simply stopped talking about it because I thought I was annoying you, and I thought you’d feel better if I left it alone. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make it worse.”

He stopped talking and let her cry, not wanting to make her feel like she had to stop before she felt better. She cried for a while longer, and then she managed to calm down enough to take in deep breaths. He got up from his knees, sat down beside her and gently took her head between his hand. He brushed away her tears with his thumbs, and slowly, so that she’d understand what he was doing and stop him if she wanted to, he hugged her. She gripped his jumper and he tightened his grip on her back, pulling her even closer to him.

“I don’t think I’m going to go to New York,” her voice was a mere whisper, as if she was indeed telling him a secret, but she was steady.

“Can I ask you why?” He kept his voice equally low.

“I don’t think it’s going to be worth it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not good enough to do this job, Rhys. And even if I was, even if the people I’d met with liked my work… I would never be able to deliver.”

“Why would you think that? You’ve been doing this job for years.”

“But this is different. It’s… It’s such a big commitment. If I do agree to work with them, I’ll probably be involved in this project for years. It’s seven books to illustrate. It would take so long, and I can’t guarantee them that I’ll be able to manage it.”

He gently forced her to move away from him so that he could look her in the eyes when he answered:

“Feyre, this is your job, and from what you’ve shown me, you’re pretty good at it. I have no doubt that if you start working with them, you’ll deliver every single piece of art they need. And every single one of them will be beautiful.”

She gave him a sad smile, and it broke his heart a little, because he could see that she didn’t believe him, that she simply smiled because she thought he was only trying to reassure her. Gods, he wanted to help her so much it hurt, he could feel his heart break at the sight of her being so sad. He couldn’t stand to know that she didn’t believe in herself, when he himself believed in her more than he could express. And it seemed that there was nothing he could say or do that would change her feeling of being worthless.

“Feyre, why do you think you can’t manage?”

“Because… My job, it’s not serious. Working with your hobby, that’s not something serious, that’s not something you can do for your entire life. Drawing and painting, I never learned properly, I was never trained. And untrained skills are useless in the professional world, I wouldn’t be able to hold my own in such a big project.”

And then he knew. He knew why she was feeling so unconfident. And he was boiling with rage at the idea. But he needed to be sure:

“Did he tell you that? Did he call your talents useless and tell you that you couldn’t work with them?” Her silence was answer enough, and he wanted to cry. “Shit Feyre. You are so talented. What you’re able to create, what comes to life under your touch, it’s a gift. And it’s beautiful. Maybe you weren’t trained, but I have absolutely no doubt that you’ll be able to meet any challenge that comes your way. You’re strong, and you’re stubborn enough not to let anyone tell you otherwise.” She chuckled slightly at that, sniffing after her tears, “Feyre, I think you should go to New York, because you might regret it if you don’t. And I’m sure you won’t regret going. Worse thing happens, you don’t like it, you tell them that you don’t want to work with them, and you come back home. Free trip to New York!”

She actually laughed at his sloppy attempt at a joke, and wiped her eyes to get rid of the last tears lingering in them. His chest tightened, and he resisted the urge to take her in his arms again, allowing her space to breathe. When she looked at him once more, there was still sadness in her eyes, but it was coated with a joyful brightness that reflected in her smile. She advanced and kissed him fully, her lips wet and salty, and he kissed her back, hugging her against him.

***

She arrived at her desk the next morning rested and smiling softly. What had happened the night before had been… amazing. Rhysand had been amazing. She’d had one of her most awful days in a long time, and still he had found the right words, given her the exact amount of reassuring and affection and space to sort it out. He’d given her space, had allowed her to cry for as long as she’d needed it, not commenting on it, not asking for her to calm down. And she had felt so much better afterwards. She couldn’t exactly say that she was confident about her abilities to work on the project, but at least she was ready to try. She opened her computer and typed an answer:

RE: John Helvar - Illustrated edition - Trip to NYC?

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Draft written on: Wednesday, October 31st at 9:12 a.m.

Hello John,

Thank you for your email. I am thrilled that you liked my ideas for your book, and would love to come to New York next week to discuss it further with you and your associates. I am available on the dates you gave me, so feel free to book those days for our meeting. Please find enclosed a copy of my personal information for any booking you might have to make regarding this trip.

Looking forward to seeing you again,

Greetings from Velaris.

Feyre.

Looking at her screen, she exhaled loudly and clicked send, afraid she might lose her nerves if she waited any longer.

She was going to New York.

#acotar #acotar fanfic #feysand fanfic #feyre #feyre archeron #rhysand #rhys #feysand #rhys x feyre #feysand fanfiction #my writing

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thesffcorner · 6 years ago

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Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame is the latest and concluding film to the first 10 years of the MCU. Endgame, takes place right after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, and follows the remaining heroes as they try and regroup after Thanos’ snap.

This is a film that, in some ways has been in the making for over 10 years. As such, there are a lot of expectations placed on it, and I don’t think it’s humanly possible to meet them all. For the most part, I enjoyed it; there were some issue with the pacing and characters arcs, but overall, this film is a masterpiece, if nothing else than it’s sheer scope. The Russos have set out to make a celebration of the entire Marvel universe, and in many ways there were successful. As an experience, watching the past 10 years of film-making being brought in and celebrated the way they are here was super positive, and though I found the story a bit lacking, I think it’s worth seeing if nothing else, then for that alone.

Let’s be real though. You don’t want me to convince you to see this. You were already going to see it. Presumably, if you are here, you want to read what I thought about the film. So let’s cut to the chase, and under the cut and let’s get into my SPOILER FILLED thoughts.

Let’s start with the run-time.

This film, is a little less than 3 h long, and you FEEL, every single min of those 3 h. Part of the problem, is that there is no intermission; the other part is the structure. The first 40ish mins, are setting up where the characters are, the bulk of the film has to do with the Avengers going around collecting the stones, and then the third part is another 40 mins of a CGI battle that feels like it lasts an eternity. Helms Deep, ain’t got nothing on this; it’s so long it actually felt more draining than the almost identical hour long Battle of Wakanda for Infinity War. Then, when that’s over, we still have another 15-20 mins of tying up loose ends, and finally the film is over.

The film is too long. The issue is, I couldn’t tell what things could have been cut. The beginning set-up is slow, but it’s necessary to get us up to speed on where these characters are now, and if they have changed. While I found the battle needlessly long, it was cool to see the entire MCU come together, and every character gets at least one little moment to shine, even if it’s just a few seconds long. There are dozens upon dozens of characters at the end, and the sheer enormity of the cast makes it impossible to have the battle be short, but I still think it could have been significantly truncated. After all we already saw a massive brawl in Infinity War; I don’t necessarily think we needed one here too, though I will admit that that’s probably an unpopular opinion.

The set-up at the start was imo, one of the better parts of the film. It’s incredibly depressing; the scene between Tony and Steve at Avengers HQ was harrowing; I liked the brief spike of energy when the Avengers go after Thanos, but it’s quickly deflated when he tells them the stones are gone. Then we get the ‘5 years later’ card, and it was like a blow to the face.

Having the bulk of the main plot set 5 years later was both a good and bad idea. On the one hand, 5 years is long enough for certain people to have moved on (some haven’t) and what little we get of what the world is like now was interesting. The best two story-lines for me were Thor Clint; I have been hoping we would get the Ronin story-line at some point in the MCU, and we get a glimpse of it here.

Thor was absolutely amazing; Hemsworth got his wish to have Thor be exactly like what he and Taika developed in Thor: Ragnarok.

The rest of this part was more than a little contrived. Scott getting released from the quantum realm by a rat, Tony figuring out the time travel in a single scene; it felt like the Russos just needed an excuse to get the characters from point A to point B, and went with the most uninteresting way to do it.

I had some issues with the main hook of this film, being time travel. First, I’m not a huge fan of time traveling stories; I tend to find their stakes are jumbled and rather low, they over-rely on common tropes, and almost never end in a satisfying way. I’d like to say that Endgame avoids this, but unfortunately it falls into some of the same traps, as all the films it tries to distance itself from.

There is a catch here in that the Avengers aren’t trying to prevent Thanos from snapping his fingers, but trying to collect the stones before he does. They even make a point of explaining why they can’t just travel back in time and steal the glove from Thanos before he snaps, in a pretty entertaining scene between Nebula, Rhodey, Scott and Hulk. I liked that they had to travel to a point in the past where at least one person had a direct contact with the stone, so they have a precise anchor in the time stream (and also it’s a clever way of going back to the battle of New York, Asgard, and Morag with the Guardians).

It was the part of the film I found most creative and had the most fun with. The team splits into 4 groups, and each group has to work around the obstacles of being in the past, with the group in New York being the funniest. Everything about the Battle of New York was great; the clever way in which they try and get the scepter and tesseract; trying to outwit Loki, Shield, Hydra and their own past selves. I can’t decide if I like the scene with Cap fighting himself more, or Scott giving Tony a heart attack; either way this was the most entertaining part of the film.

Hulk going to the Sorcerer Supreme and trying to convince her to give him the time stone was also good; I liked the reason why she didn’t want to give him the stone, and why she ultimately changes her mind. The idea that removing the stone would split an alternate reality where the Sanctuary failed at its job to keep Earth safe from dark magic was clever and we even see it in action, when Scott and Tony fail to get the tesseract, enabling Loki to escape, meaning in this new timeline, the Avengers failed to upper-hand Loki and lost the space stone.

Tony and Steve going back to the 70’s on Tony’s birthday to steal the tesseract from Shield/Hydra was also really fun. Hank Pym’s amazing 70’s hair was great, but the real standout was the scene between Tony and Howard; it was sad, funny and heart wrenching, and I’ll talk a bit more about it when we get to the characters.

Thor and Rocket go to Asgard to get the aether from Jane, which was likewise hilarious, both because Rocket and Thor as a tag team work really well, but also because it’s so clear that Natalie Portman refused to come back for Endgame, so they had to work around her, by reusing her scenes from Thor: the Dark World, and inserting Rocket. It was also really nice to see Asgard again, and like Tony, Thor too gets a really sweet and emotional scene with Frigga.

The third team is Nebula and Rhodey which was a fine pairing, but I feel that both characters were very underused. They bond a little over both having to rely on prosthetics to live, but most of this section is devoted to getting Thanos back into the film. Thanos being able to see what future Nebula could see through past Nebula’s cybernetic eye (something that maybe Nebula should have thought of before being the one to go to Morag, or at least warned the others about BEFOREHAND), was neat. However, another unpopular opinion of mine is that bringing Thanos back was unnecessary and only needlessly prolonged the film. We had too much Thanos in the last film, his story is over; I realize the Russos wanted him to have a rematch against all the Avengers combined when he’s not mortally wounded, but I would have gladly just watched the team traverse through the time-space continuum looking for the stones for 2 hours.

The final team was the one that actually made me mad. Clint and Natasha have to go to Vormir and get the soul gem. Okay… first off: why out of all the team members, do Clint and Natasha have to be the ones to go to Vormir? Wouldn’t it have made so much more sense for it to be Rocket? Nebula and Thor are indisposed, but they could have called Carol back, if nothing else than as back up, seeing as Vormir is in freaking space. Even without Carol, both Clint and Natasha could have easily done New York, considering they were there instead of Tony, Scott, Steve or Bruce.

Second, we are shown in the film, that the group is discussing what the best course of action would be, and they take notes on all the stones, and each person’s contact with the stones. When they were discussing Vormir, Nebula even says that that’s where Thanos killed her sister. So how come when they get there, Natasha and Clint are completely confused when Red Skull tells them one of them has to sacrifice so the other can get the stone?

Third, we have this ridiculous fight, between Clint and Nat about who will sacrifice themselves, and the Russos picked Nat? The ONLY female founding Avenger, the oldest member of the group along with Clint and Fury, and she does NOTHING this entire film, but throw herself in a pit to further Clint’s already massive man-pain over being a murderer and losing his family. This bit INFURIATED me; even if the reason Nat had to die was because Scarlet Johansson wanted to exit the MCU, there had to have been a better way to have her leave than killing her halfway through a 3 h movie, where her role up until that point had been sitting at a desk and crying.

Since I’m already talking about Natasha, let’s talk about the characters. In my review of Infinity War, I said that Nat, and Steve had such a small part, because the Russos were saving them for this film. For Steve that’s mostly true; his role is bigger, he gets some funny scenes, he gets some ‘character development’ (we’ll get to that). But Nat? What does she get? She’s overworking herself because she can’t move on, and is sad about Clint turning into a murderer. Then she sacrifices herself so Clint can get the soul stone and go back to his family, and it’s supposed to be a callback to when he didn’t kill her all those years ago, and had her join Shield. It was so reductive and uninteresting, and had nothing to do with her actual character. And don’t give me that ‘greater good’ bs; the Russos have been writing Nat for 4 films now, if they wanted her character arc to be about sacrificing for the greater good, they should have written it that way, dammit.

With Steve, like I said he gets a few touching moments, like running the support group, giving the rally speech before they go to the quantum realm, and getting up to fight Thanos after he has been beaten and his shield is broken.

But what was his character arc? Like Nat, the Russos have been writing Steven for 4 films now, and in every single one, they have failed to understand him as a character. They have had 4 films, and they still don’t know what to do with him. They seem to have this idea that Steve is just incapable of letting go: he can’t let go of the past, he can’t let go of the life he could’ve had with Peggy, he can’t let go of Bucky. He has spent 11 years out of the ice, has made a new close family with Tony, Nat, Sam, even Thor and Bruce, he’s even had a new love interest with Sharon, and he’s still completely stuck on the idea that his only chance at life was 80 years ago.

So here we have more of that: Steve can’t and won’t move on. He will risk his, and his friends’ lives for the slimmest of chances that things could go back to the way they were. That he can save everyone. It’s noble, but it’s not a character arc. Steve is exactly the same character he was in Captain America, and he has had no progress in 7 films.

He started out as someone who didn’t know his place in the world, and he ends this film by choosing to abandon his entire life and all his friends he worked so hard to bring back, in order to go back to Peggy. Everything he did in the present, all his friendships, memories, getting Bucky and Sam back, meeting Sharon, saving the world, none of it matters as much as being with Peggy. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy it.

Moreover, this brings its own host of issues. If Steve went back in time, exactly when did he go? Before he crashed the plane? How did the bomb not detonate then? After he was frozen? Either way, in that timeline there are 2 Steve Rogerses. Did he just… convince Hydra not to dig him out? Did he kill his past self?

Was he still Captain America? If yes, then that should drastically change the timeline in the present day right? Things wouldn’t have happened the same way, so why would Hulk, Sam and Bucky be at that spot at that time? If the present timeline didn’t change, then how did Steve end up old and on the bench?

If he wasn’t Captain America in the past, how did he hide it? Did no one recognize him? Peggy did. Also, if Sharon exists in this timeline, then wouldn’t Steve have committed incest when he kissed her in Civil War?

I have the same timeline question for the rest of the cast. When Hulk snapped, he brought every person who disappeared, 5 years into the future, right? So is everyone 5 years older? If yes, then wouldn’t that make Peter Parker 19-20 years old? Why is he still in high school then?

If not, then how is Ned, and all of Peter’s other classmates exactly the same age? Did they all gets snapped? Every single person on that bus? That’s not random selection then now is it?

Clint, another character that the Russos don’t like or understand, didn’t fare much better. In the comics, he becomes the Ronin because Norman Osborn becomes President, and he creates a government sanctioned Avengers team full of criminals, where Bullseye is Hawkeye. He becomes Ronin to work illegally as an Avenger. Here it’s because his family got snapped, and because of that he is angry that some criminals remained alive, so now he’s killing them? What?

And then he just… gets his family back? And now everything is ok, and all those people he killed are completely forgotten?

Not to mention the absolutely infuriating scene, where Rhodey, Clint, Hulk, Thor and Steve, argue about whether Natasha is really dead or not. 5 men, argue about the ONE woman who had to sacrifice herself so they can all feel guilty and argue about it for 2 mins? This film really hates women, doesn’t it.

There’s a scene during the battle where Captain Marvel has to take the stones through Thanos’ army, and then all the female characters stand around her as back up, and it’s supposed to be this really empowering moment to see how far the MCU has come in representation.

Except it’s not, because having all the women fight CGI blobs for 1 min of a 3 h movie, while cool, doesn’t make up for the other 179 mins of shitty treatment of all your female characters.

Case in point: Gamora and Nebula. I really, really hated this plotline too. First, I hate that the Russos understanding of Peter Quill just seems to be that he’s an idiot. Great.

Second, since we can’t bring back Gamora from Vormir, we have Gamora from 9 years ago coming back to the present, so all the development James Gunn did with her character, he bonding with the Guardians, her relationship to Peter, he relationship with Nebula, all that is reconnected away. Thanks a lot guys! Way to completely negate years of development for the sake of your shitty plot twist!

Then we have Thor. I absolutely loved Thor in this film; he’s depressed, suffers from panic attacks, hides his pain with alcoholism, has put on weight, is very funny, and has the best interactions with all the cast. The scene in Asgard where he gets to talk to Frigga was beautiful; however, I wish he had gotten a scene with Loki or Jane, because that would have completed his arc. Like, it’s a bit strange that he seems to have forgotten that Loki died last film, and has no reaction when they sneak by his cell, but when he sees his mother he loses it?

While I do love Thor and Rocket, and I did think the final scene between Thor and Peter was funny, I just don’t want Thor in the Guardians films. Guardians already has a blonde, hot but dumb as bricks leading man, we don’t need two to compete for who gets to say the most dumb things this minute points.

Carol is barely in this film. She has 2 lines and 2 fight scenes, and I wonder why they even bothered. She is the strongest character in the MCU, and here she has a tug of war with Thanos for like 5 secs, before she gets swatted away, and isn’t in the rest of the film. They could have written her in if they wanted to, since she had contact with the tesseract in the 90’s, but nope. She’s off to space somewhere, because no girls allowed.

I don’t have much to say about Hulk. He’s in the movie. He says things. He has a single funny scene. He gets to do the snap. Yay.

Finally, we have Tony. The Russos love Tony Stark. I love Tony Stark. Tony Stark dies in this film. It’s made painfully obvious from the very first scene, and the film does everything it can to tug at your heart strings. And I still bought it.

First, we have him surviving a near death experience in space. Then when we cut to 5 years later, he has a daughter with Pepper, as well as a nice cabin in the woods. He doesn’t want any part in quantum traveling, because he got his second chance. He knows he won’t get a third.

I liked the scene where he and Pepper discuss what to do. It’s nice development for both of them; Tony has learned how to communicate with her, and tells her about the Avengers and the quantum travel. Pepper tells him that trying to get him to stop doing something is impossible for both of them. I also enjoyed all the scene between Tony and his daughter; they were sickeningly sweet.

Then we have the scene between him and Howard; I really loved that Tony still loves his dad, and doesn’t think he was a bad man even if they had a bad relationship. I also liked that Howard was worried about being a good father, since he knew he cared about work more than anything else in his world.

And then, to make things the worst, he gets a reunion with Peter, which was the final nail in the coffin. It was so emotional and seeing Peter say goodbye to Tony was even worse. He also gets the hero’s goodbye; he kills Thanos by snapping his finger and the gauntlet kills him. It’s the goodbye he deserves, and it’s the goodbye Nat deserved to have, but didn’t get.

So that’s it. Them’s my thoughts on this film. It was bittersweet, and it was mostly satisfying. I don’t expect that it could have possibly lived up to my expectations, but I am proven once again, that Marvel doesn’t really understand what I like about these movies.

It will be interesting to see how this changed universe will go on now: Thor’s in space, Sam is the new Cap, Tony and Nat are dead, and Clint is a murderer. I hope we get a lot more of Carol, T’challa, Hope, Steven, and Peter, but as for the OG Avengers, the ones that got me into this cinematic universe, this was a pretty decent, though not perfect send off.

#avengers : endgame #avengers endgame review #moni talks #film review

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megers67 · 6 years ago

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Saisei Academy Verse: Saitou Hibiki

I’m re-making this post since it’s not showing up in the tags. I suspect it’s because I linked my fic which is bullshit, but I want others interested in this little OC grouping to find it so I de-linked it. If you want to find it, I’ve linked my AO3 to my blog or you can just ask me!

I'm finding it increasing difficult to refer to this as an AU version of Hibiki since, while I came up with it second, it's the only verse I've actually written about so far. But now that @miracide has created the wonderful school, Saisei Academy, I've decided that this version of Hibiki would end up there. My story, Ascent, is an origin story for her. So uh... I guess this will inevitably contain spoilers. Take that as you will.

For that reason and for length, I will put her bio under the Keep Reading. Also, I based the formatting after one of the bios she made for one of her own OCs, though I added my own sections.

Hibiki Saitou

Age: 16

Status: 2nd Year Student, General Studies

Basic personality: Deeply cares for others and tends to put them ahead of herself to a fault, quiet, usually only speaks when she has something to say, good listener but bad at communicating her own needs, tends to mother people, over-prepared, anxious and paranoid, only truly comfortable when doing something she knows she’s good at (her preferred school subjects, first aid, cooking) so she is most likely to speak up during these times (providing answers in the school subjects, assertive during first aid, opening up while cooking) though it’s not a guarantee

Basic appearance: On the shorter side of average, thin (due to recent months), long dusty-pink hair that she usually keeps up in a tight bun, dark eyes, covered in scars including prominent one at the corner of her mouth and a crooked nose from when an injury there failed to heal properly, she hides her scars as much as she can (basic foundation on her face, tights/stockings, and sleeves when she’s allowed to, even when it’s hot) because she doesn’t want people to ask her about them

Likes: English language media (especially music), cooking, biology, first aid

Dislikes: Being touched, passive aggression, things being put on higher shelves out of her reach

Favorite food: Hot chocolate

Best school subjects: Biology, English (nearly fluent since her father was)

Worst school subjects: PE, arts

Random fact: She tends to sing while she does chores when she thinks nobody is around (her skill is only average). She gets super embarrassed by it if someone catches her doing it. But because she keeps forgetting that she lives with other people, this happens relatively often.

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Quirk: Injury exchange

- With skin-to-skin contact, she can exchange any active physical damage between herself and the person she is touching.

- Injuries transfer between analogous body parts so a broken left arm causes a break in the same place in the same way on the other person’s left arm. If one gets an injury in a place that is otherwise uninjured, the state of non-injury is given in the exchange. So if Person A has a broken left arm and Hibiki is uninjured there, she takes the broken arm while it is healed in Person A.

- By default, it switches all injuries across the entire body, but with concentration, she can focus it to a specific area. This means she can theoretically heal others while stockpiling a dangerous amount of injuries onto herself.

- The quirk activates automatically and she has to specifically cancel it, so she is dangerous to touch while unconscious (since generally injuries are what cause one to become unconscious).

- Her most common use of her quirk is where she can sense any and all injuries of the other person, but deactivates her quirk before the exchange is made. This allows her to accurately access someone injured without advanced scanning equipment or putting herself in harm's way.

- Still-present causes of injuries are not affected, only the active damage to the body. A stabbing would need to have the knife removed first. Otherwise it will completely heal around the knife in the victim and leave a disconnected knife-shaped flesh in her own wound in the exchange as that could not be exchanged. Similarly, damage from an illness or a poison can be exchanged, but the original victim would simply acquire that damage again. The only advantage of proceeding with the exchange despite this is it gives the chance to “restart the clock” once that may buy time.

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Background:

Unlike many students at Saisei Academy, she came into the program with excellent quirk control. She mainly attends the school for psychological support and reform due to her criminal activity. Since she has an otherwise clean record and her crimes were nonviolent in nature, she avoided jail time. This, plus her good academic record and other extenuating circumstances, saw her admission to Saisei Academy. However, as she IS a criminal, she is liable to have more restrictions than the average student (I just don’t know what restrictions Miracide would have for this kind of situation).

Her home life has not been great. Hibiki's mother died shortly after her quirk manifested because a villain attack left the toddler gravely injured. When her mother naturally came to her aid, the injuries transferred to her and help didn't come until it was too late. Hibiki's father, in his grief, always blamed her for her mother's death, often taking his frustration out on her and using Hibiki's quirk to indirectly aid in his hero work.

He was a local pro-hero named Noci whose quirk allowed him to store any pain he's sustained in the past 24 hours and give it to someone else. This allowed him to incapacitate villains without causing actual damage to them. The potential for his quirk to be used for torture made him a controversial hero so he never became incredibly popular outside of his home town. For his hero work, he would often allow himself to become injured so he could store the pain, but later force Hibiki to take on the actual injuries herself so that he wasn't incapable of actual fighting. She'd attempted to go to the authorities about this, but his connections with local law enforcement prevented the case from being pursued seriously. This long-term abuse and the refusal of its acknowledgment made Hibiki incredibly skeptical and disillusioned towards the hero system and law enforcement as a whole.

Hibiki was left to her own devices for much of the day, but was not allowed to interact much with her peers outside of school. She took on many of the domestic responsibilities of her house at a young age as a result. She disliked most of them, but became very efficient in doing them, a skill she carries to this day. Hibiki does like cooking, however.

Her only true friend in school was Tanaka Rin. Rin was one of the only students who didn't treat Hibiki any differently despite her scars and frankly was the only reason Hibiki has any real social skills at all. The two girls became even closer when an accident permanently blinded Rin and Hibiki helped her devise a way for Rin to use her temperature quirk as a form of thermal imaging.

The two however were separated when Rin chose to pursue a career as a pro-hero and succeeded in getting into the hero program at the famed UA. Hibiki applied to a more normal high school on the area in order to be near her and in the process ran away from home. However, she became too embarrassed to let Rin see her as she was since she had nothing to her name after becoming a runaway. This put her in a very dark place.

A fateful encounter with a young criminal who nearly died since he didn't want to be arrested had he gone to a hospital led her to create The Bunker. The Bunker was an off-the-grid medical facility housed in an abandoned bunker that had been built when quirks first began to emerge, but had long since been forgotten. The 6-bed facility allowed her to help those who, like her, had been ignored but still needed help. With the help of a disgraced nurse who had been fired from the local hospital for taking pain killers while on the job, she ran the facility for 6 months before a raid brought it to its end.

While the raid meant Hibiki now had a criminal record (though the charges were less than you'd expect due to the care she took to remain as close to technically legal as possible), it also finally exposed her father's abuse to the world. He went on the run before he could be arrested and remains at large. As she now doesn’t technically have parents or legal guardians, she is a ward of the state until further notice.

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The main goals for Hibiki's reform are to:

- Regain trust in authority. While she doesn't necessarily act out, she does a worrying amount of hopeless/mindless compliance.

- Learn it is okay to put her own health first. She went through much of her life thinking it's her place in life to sacrifice herself for the betterment of others and that prioritizing herself was selfish.

- Figure out what she wants to do with her life. Due to the above, Hibiki has resigned herself to believing she will die young and as such has difficulty thinking in the long-term. She's never thought much about her future because she never thought she had one.

#saiseiacademy #saisei academy #miracide #megers67 oc #bnha oc

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