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muyurei · 4 years ago

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Cultural Relics Are Not To Be Messed With – Chapter 3

Chapter 3: How can this person be so childish!

“What happened?” The little man muttered.

“Something doesn’t feel quite right...” Before Qi Chen could even finish speaking, he was already being dragged by the little man to take a look at the commotion.

They stood amongst the crowd and tried to look in. A private car had been parked on the side of the road, and the owner seemed to have gotten off. He stood in front of the car, and it was evident that he felt rather exasperated, helplessly yelling at the middle-aged woman: “Do you just cross roads without looking at the traffic lights? Are the pedestrian lanes here painted for fun?! You really just went ahead and walked straight to the middle of the road, it was a good thing I reacted quickly without getting a heart attack, ah, otherwise you’d be hit in the head now! Is your luck bad or is my luck bad today? Can you really stand on your legs with no problem? Just a little wound? Good, good, I won’t be detained for this...”

“No... I didn’t mean to... I–... I don’t know how I got to the middle of the road.” The woman was obviously in shock as well, both of her hands clutching the strap of her shoulder bag, and her explanation almost sounded incoherent from how much she was stuttering.

The fabric of her tweed coat had been scraped, the lapels on the lower part of her knitwear around her legs were stained, and her socks that reached up to her knees were torn as well, but she was frozen, as though a wooden statue, not caring one bit about her appearance, continuously repeating those words over and over again.

A young woman helped support her, slowly leading her to the side of the road, and said: “Dajie, do you have a fellow family member’s phone number? Would you like to contact them so they can come and pick you up?”

(t/n: dajie = elder sister)

“My– my family? Yes, my family! I came here to eat, and I just planned to go down to this area to buy something, I had no intentions of crossing the road... I, I just felt a little nauseous, and then someone called by name, and then... then, it seemed like someone was pulling me along, and when I realized where I was, I– I’ve already been... I almost got hit, by then,” The woman was still frantically explaining.

Her face was pale and full of fear. After the young woman reminded her of her family, she hurriedly looked down and rummaged through her bag anxiously. Her hands were still shaking when she pulled out her phone, and because her hold wasn’t firm, the phone fell to the ground. Clack!

“Hey– you...” The owner of the car heard her explanation, and he looked at her with an odd expression, thinking that the woman was probably... not in her right mind. He picked up the phone and gave it to her, shaking his head. “I still have an urgent business to attend to. Are you sure your legs are okay? Then, I’ll go now. Don’t just stand here on the road, please call your family to come pick you up.” After saying that, he returned to his seat and drove away in his car.

As soon as the owner of the car left, a man, who they soon discovered was the woman’s husband, suddenly sprang through the scene in a hurry. He crossed the road, passed through the crowd, and went straight to the place where the woman was standing. He held her close as he took her bag, and he nodded to the young woman who had been assisting her. “We’re so sorry for the trouble... please, let me take care of this.”

“Eh?” The young woman looked a little surprised. “But we haven’t contacted anyone yet...”

“We were just eating in that restaurant, on the second floor.” The man turned around and pointed at the building across the road. “She told me that she would just go for a quick trip to the supermarket to buy something. After she left, I went to the bathroom for some time, and when I came out and saw that she hasn’t returned yet, I looked out of the window and saw all these people crowded around this area, so I went out in a hurry.”

The woman looked at her husband, who had just arrived, in a daze. Immediately, she grabbed the man’s sleeve and went into a fit, looking as though she was on the verge of crying as she told him in panic: “I, I did it again, what should I do? She, she called out to me again! It’s that voice! Really, I didn’t cross the road on my own accord! What should we do... what about Ah-Ming...”

(t/n: ah-, a prefix used as a term of endearment )

“It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine... let’s just go back and get a good amount of sleep. You must be tired after being occupied with the museum for the past two days.” The man comforted her with his words and then told the young woman: “Thank you. I’ll take care of her now.”

...

Qi Chen and the little man saw that there was no need for any more help from outsiders like them, so they turned back and went to find a place to eat.

“Eh, by the way...” When Qi Chen arrived at the food court, he suddenly remembered something, so he faced the little man and patted him, asking, “What did you say to me back then?”

Xiao Hei Pi asked with an innocent face: “What I said back then?”

(t/n: xiao hei pi: little black-skinned guy)

Qi Chen: “Just before the woman cried out, I mean. What were you about to ask me? I was distracted and I didn’t clearly hear it.”

Xiao Hei Pi glanced at Qi Chen and innocently replied: “The interruption was so sudden, I can’t remember what I asked anymore.”

Qi Chen: “...” Are you a goldfish?

In turn, what happened that noon was considered no more than a small incident. It soon dissipated into obscurity, and no one took it to heart.

Qi Chen thought that he was about to spend the rest of his afternoon being in the same room as that bad-tempered Executive Team Leader Long, but upon arriving at the office, he didn’t see him at all. His desk was still relatively empty, with the rebooted computer and the empty coffee cup being the only signs that showed any indications of the desk owner’s earlier presence.

Before he joined the company, the company had just finished working on a rather major project, and these past two days had been that project’s closing phase. Compared to the team members, the team leaders were much busier. Most of the time, aside from Qi Chen, there weren’t even that many people who stayed inside the office room.

“Long– Eh?” Logistics Team Leader Hong Ming stomped inside the room with her dozen-centimeter high heels. “Are you alone here, Xiao Chen? Shouldn’t Team Leader Long be back by now? Have you seen him?”

“Ming-jie,” Qi Chen greeted her. “When I came out to eat, I saw Team Leader Long come in the office with some coffee, but when I returned, I didn’t see anyone at all.”

“Well, what about you guys? Did you see where Team Leader Long headed to?” Hong Ming asked, turning her head and asking the other group members who were sitting outside.

One person said: “I saw him and Team Leader Hu go to Building B. They probably went to the supervision office.”

“He just returned and he’s already gone to the supervision room?” Hong Ming was surprised. “Aiyou, so now he’s consuming his rat poison at noon? Just when did he become so disciplined!”

(t/n: aiyou = an interjection of surprise, usually like oh!)

Qi Chen: “...”

“Xiao Chen, are you busy?” Hong Ming patted on the stack of documents she had in her hand. “I still have to go somewhere, so would you mind helping me deliver something to Building B? Do you know where the supervision office is? It’s in the corridor past the second room to the west.”

Qi Chen’s innocent face asked: “West is... left or right?”

Hong Ming gave him a face that looked as though she had just been taken for granted. “Up is north, down is south, left is west, and right is east. West is obviously left.”

t/n:

Qi Chen: “...” You’re making so much sense right now.

“Ask Team Leader Long to sign these documents. You can just put them on my desk once he’s done.” Hong Ming explained, and after a few more words, she gave the documents to Qi Chen and then turned around to walk away, her high heels clicking on the floor and her long, curly hair almost hitting Qi Chen’s face.

After finishing the remaining tasks that he had on hand, Qi Chen took the small stack of documents and left the office.

The offices, meeting rooms, reception rooms, and such were all located in Guanghe Company’s Building A, whereas the archive rooms, supervision rooms, and everything involving the company’s internal affairs were located in Building B. The two buildings were connected by an indoor walkway located on their second floors.

As Qi Chen was walking along the corridor going to the other side, he looked down and casually flipped through the papers that had to be signed by Team Leader Long–

–Only to see that the first few sheets that had been stapled together were just normal A4 printing paper. The front page contained the company letterhead, and the bottom right corner of the paper had the company seal stamped on it. However, despite the text content in the last few pages being the same as that in the previous pages, the papers that were used here were slightly different. They were a light yellow color, almost slightly astringent to touch, and they were also thin and transparent.

To say that the text content in the last few pages and the first pages were the same would have to be an overstatement. It contained a seal that didn’t look like Guanghe Company’s at all; it was more like a seal you often found in totem patterns. It wasn’t an ordinary round seal – it was square, and the text on the paper had been written in Zhuan Ti.

t/n:

He was about to try to understand what the characters that were written there meant when he heard the low voice of a man from in front of him. “What are you standing there for? Blocking the path, are you a crab?”

(t/n: you know how crabs walk sideways/horizontally? and because they walk/stand sideways they also block vertical paths)

The sound of that person’s voice was very elegant, but coupled with the speaker’s tone...

Haha.

Qi Chen didn’t have to look up to know who this person was, but how could this person walk so silently? Did he have paws for shoes? The boss is such an expert at pretending to be a ghost!

He flipped the documents back to their proper arrangement in his hands and handed it in front of the person who was supposed to receive them: “Team Leader Long, I was looking for you. These documents need your signature.”

Team Leader Long, who didn’t even look at the document, but glared only at Qi Chen who was carrying them: “No time for it!”

Qi Chen: “...” How can this person be so childish!

Seeing him look away with an expression that made him seem like he had no plans of taking the documents, Qi Chen said in a deadpanned voice: “Oh.” Without changing his tone, he said, “Ming-jie said that this contained all the subsidies declared in your name for your recent business trip. If you don’t sign it, you won’t be able to submit it. Ah, she also said that your suggestions had been included in it. Are you sure you don’t want to sign? Are you sure? Then, I’ll take it back and I’ll tell Ming-jie that–”

“Wait a minute!” Team Leader Long finally turned his head and snatched the pile of documents from Qi Chen, still glaring at him in the process. He turned around, took two steps away so he could place the documents against the wall to sign them. Feeling around for a pen and a stamp, he first planned to sign the last page at the end that had those ghost-like symbols, reading through them, and then roughly tapped on the seal at the second-to-the-last page of the documents.

Qi Chen respectfully reached out his hand, waiting for the documents to be signed to be returned to his hands, feeling very much like a small eunuch serving his lord.

Because of this, after Team Leader Long accepted the documents, he glanced at him twice and soon walked around him to go back to the office with the papers. He might as well have told him, ‘You kneel there and wait,’ it couldn’t have made a difference.

Qi Chen: “...”

Just yesterday, he felt that he and Team Leader Long wouldn’t bump too much into each other, being in different teams in the company, so there shouldn’t have been a situation where Qi Chen may provoke him. Thinking about it now, it really... these past few events... it really becomes more and more of wishful thinking than the truth...

Guanghe Company goes by the standard clock-in-at-nine (morning), clock-out-at-five (late afternoon) work schedule. According to Xiao Hei Pi, it was common to work overtime, and it was also not unusual for business trips to depart at night. No one was left to idle about in their work – once they were done, not a minute will be delayed spent getting off work.

When it was five o’clock, everyone in the office packed up their things, turned off their computers, and was ready to leave work.

Qi Chen wasn’t in a hurry, so he first sent his friend a quick WeChat message. He put on his coat, took the navy blue scarf he was wearing earlier in his hands, and walked out. The little man he ate with earlier walked next to him with his shoulder bag and invited him out for dinner.

“I already made plans with my roommate back in university. He accompanied me in two trips to help move my luggage and tidy up my dorm here at work, so I’ll be treating him to dinner today.” Qi Chen apologetically declined the little man’s invitation.

The other man nodded understandingly. “Oh, of course, of course, you can go ahead. I’ll head to the cafeteria to eat now, then.” After he said this, he then went on to the crowd of people on their way to the basement floor of the building.

Qi Chen thought at first that the workplace canteen must have an employee discount, so even if the food there was a monstrosity, many people would still go here to eat. However, Xiao Hei Pi, the little man, said that there weren’t any discounts at all, and the meals here were much pricier than those outside. Qi Chen doesn’t know why his colleagues still choose to eat in this cafeteria every day, and thought, maybe they’re all masochists?

Ceylon Square in the east of Jiayang District has opened a brand new self-service barbeque restaurant. Rumor has it that the meat and vegetables there were fresh, and the sauces were full of fragrance and flavor. Qi Chen and his college roommate, Xu Liang, decided to eat out here, since it was close to Xu Liang’s workplace, and was only one bus stop away from Guanghe Company.

Qi Chen didn’t have to wait for a while before Xu Liang arrived.

“It’s a good thing you got off work early today. I saw that everyone outside had started lining up for a table here.” Xu Liang said as he set his coat and scarf aside. He rolled up his sleeves, pouring himself some warm water, and wiped his cups and plates.

“You’re pretty early yourself, too. Why is that? That new batch in your museum’s all sorted out now?” Qi Chen had already ordered a few plates of meat, and after the waiter brought over the oil for the grill, he began to grill them piece by piece.

Xu Liang works at the museum across Ceylon Square, just around the corner, and was the only one in their dormitory aside from Qi Chen to stay in Jiangshi. The two of them had originally gotten along well with each other, so after this, they naturally got closer, texting on WeChat almost every day.

Qi Chen previously heard that a tomb had been dug up in a village called Baihe River, located on the western outskirts of Jiangshi, and a small batch of the objects buried with it was sent to the museum that Xu Liang worked at. The previous two days had been their finalization period for finishing the arrangement of these funerary relics in their exhibition area.

“En. It’s all done now, and the exhibition will open this week. A few of them were really beautiful. I took some photos when we were setting them up, I’ll send them to you later. I’ll just go pick out some sauce first, I’m starving to death.” Xu Liang said, and he got up to go to the sauce station.

The thin slices of meat that Qi Chen had been cooking were now ready to be eaten, sizzling on the grill. The aroma of the barbeque was enticing him to just eat in.

Qi Chen crinkled his nose, convincing himself that Xu Liang was Xu Liang, he was himself, and Xu Liang would understand, being friends Additionally, he thought that, with being friends, there was no need for politeness between them, so the sneaky Qi Chen stretched out his paws and moved his chopsticks to pick up the slices of meat.

Xu Liang picked his sauces according to his preferences and took a few more dishes of meat and vegetables. When he returned to his seat, he saw Qi Chen sandwiching the meat slices coated with a thick layer of sauce in the crisp lettuce leaves, taking a big bite, and then looked at Xu Liang with his puffed cheeks and a face that said he was innocent.

The plate of meat slices on the table was empty, and a new batch of meat slices had already been placed again on the grill.

Xu Liang: “...”

Seeing him eat made Xu Liang’s stomach rumble even more... so he took out his phone, scrolled through his photo album, clicked on the latest photos he took, and then placed it in front of Qi Chen. “You glutton! Go look at the photos first, this batch of meat belongs to me!”

Since bright light can damage the relics, the lights in the museum were always very dim, and turning on your camera’s flash wasn’t allowed, so the photos that Xu Liang took weren’t very good. Although the main focus in the photos could obviously be identified as the relics in the display case, they weren’t very close to the camera, and the occasional staff members entering and exiting could also be seen in the background.

“Check out that bronze mirror, and that jade bracelet...” Xu Lian pointed out as he ate.

Qi Chen let out an “en,” his slender fingers sliding through the photos in the phone’s gallery. “Bracelet with gold and jade engraved on it? But I remember that these burial goods that were found weren’t from a distinguished nobleman... this craft style looks a lot like those relics made in the earlier times that were unearthed in Hejia Village– Eh?”

His sentence was interrupted when he slid to the next photo, and he froze the moment he saw what was in it. “This woman works in your museum?”

“Which one?” Xu Liang looked at the phone handed over by Qi Chen with a puzzled expression. Qi Chen pointed at the woman in an elegant red knitted outfit behind the relics display case.

“Ah–you mean Qin-jie? She’s from one of our office branches. Why? Do you know her?”

Qi Chen shook his head. “Not really. At noon today, around lunchtime, I happened to see her on the roadside. She was almost hit by a car while standing in the middle of the road and got a bit scratched in the process, but she kept saying that she had no idea how she ended up there. She felt like... she’s not in the healthiest state of mind right now, and was later picked up by her husband.”

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(As of 04/16/21: Somewhat(?) edited.)

#cultural relics are not to be messed with #danmei

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xoxo-ren-xoxo · 4 years ago

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Unpopular Opinion /lh /rp

Talking about dSMP character’s heights and sort of their body types? Not in a weird way just in a ‘how I imagine them’ way. Loosely based off of their irl heights, but some of them I don’t know, so it’s mostly guesswork and vibes. Also if you disagree you’re wrong. (Just kidding leave your ideas in the tags/replies)

Obviously this is all roleplay/character stuff. None of it is intended to be weird or to reflect on the irl people! I’m just having fun with headcanons :)

Tommy is 6′3 and very very lanky. This child is not short. Stop drawing him short. He’s taller than Techno. He’s not as tall as Wilbur, but he’s tall. He towers over most people. Emphasis on most because everyone is so tall on this server what the hell?

Anyway I think the mental image of this super tall kid actively trying to make himself look shorter/smaller is heartbreaking. Like imagine him curled up into a corner trying to make himself as unnoticable as possible in Logsted. Imagine him slouching when living with Techno to try to make himself seem like less of a ‘problem’. Imagine Dream telling him that he’s a ‘big strong man’ and that he shouldn’t need help, he can defend himself, so when he goes back to Tubbo, he tries to make himself look *tiny* as a cry for help. He wants comfort.

But he’s also incedibly skinny. Back in L’manburg and Pogtopia, he developed some muscle from all the fighting. His shoulders broadened out and he looked slightly intimidating. But like most teenage boys, he was still lanky as hell. This only got worse when he was exiled to Logstedshire, with little food (and no drive to eat the food, or get up, or exersise) he became more malnourished and he just looked *small* despite being 6′3. This probably isn’t helped by the constant use of golden apples when he moves in with Techno, which give him energy and strength but no real nutritional value. Techno was just trying to get the kid to eat normally. When he finally stands at his full height, Techno is shocked that he didn’t notice all the slouching.

Anyway Techno is 6′2. He’s taller than a lot of people but not as tall as his brothers. He makes up for this with muscle and strength and a healthy body. Wow, the only healthy person on the server. Amazing. You love to see it. Good for him. He could win in a battle of raw strength against anyone else on the server. He’s quite broad, which makes him look bigger generally.

Wilbur is 6′5 and also he is a stick. Just. Straight up and down stick. Nothing there! He is just a pale sickly stick. This gets worse the further into the timeline you go. When claiming L’manburg and fighting in the war he starts to get insomnia, causing him to look like a corpse half the time. When in Pogtopia, he’s too busy to take care of himself properly, so he only looks worse and worse. His hair is a mess, his skin is far too pale, and he only eats enough to be able to hold his own in a short fight. There’s a reason he doesn’t wear armour or really try to fight at all. He’s subconciously self-destructive, then actively so when he blows the place to the ground. He’s always been too busy for self-care.

Ghostbur is a much more healthy, younger version of Wilbur. I would say he’s ‘water rising’ era Wilbur. The life returned to his body, in a morbid kind of way. He’s still tall but he prefers to make himself seem shorter just to be less threatening.

Phil is 5′11. He has an average build, with slight muscle from the years of playing in hardcore. He’s older, now, but he can still kick your ass. Also, he taught Techno how to fight smart, not hard. He doesn’t need to be super strong because he’s intelligent enough to outwit most people on the server. He has a wordly knowledge that others don’t possess. He also has wings, large and grey, clipped so he could get onto the server (there is a no flying rule after all).

Fundy is... 5′10, just a little shorter than Phil. His fox genes make him smaller, despite his father being 6′5. He’s got a healthy, svelte build. He’s sneaky and light on his feet. In the wars he built up some muscle, but it was quickly lost since he prefers to take a backseat to any fighting outside of those times (especially now) and he’s built for spying.

Schlatt is an interesting one because a lot of people are gonna fight me on this, but he’s not actually old. Everyone calls him old but honestly I think he’s younger than Wilbur (in canon, I feel like Wilbur is in his late 30s, early 40s, simply because). I think Schlatt’s around 35-ish, but he looks older due to his shitty health. People call him an old man either to demean him or because they see his actions and appearance and go ‘yeah, this guy is old’. Which is fair enough, because irl Schlatt and c!Schlatt both act like they’re from the 1950s.

This guy looks like shit by the end, but he looks alright at the start. Slicked-back hair, sharp ram horns, golden animalistic eyes. He’s intimidating. And loud. Then everything shifts, right towards the end. He’s frail and deteriorating throughout his short presidency, and by the end of it he’s practically a corpse, just like Wilbur.

He’s 6′3, with broad shoulders and a silhouette that seems strong not only because he carries himself as if he can fight, but also because of the percieved power that comes along with it. In reality, Schlatt is a poor fighter, and the abuse he ends up putting his body through (working out excessively to try to fight his condition, and turning to alcoholism as an escape) completely destroys him, making him probably one of the least healthy and weakest people on the server. It doesn’t really show until his death scene, since he’s covered up the deterioration since day one. Basically, mans is dead.

Glatt, or Ghost Schlatt, or whatever you want to call him, would be a healthier Schlatt. Again, from the ‘water rising’ era. I headcanon him to have longer hair in that era. Not sure why.

Ranboo is the same height as tommy, but is more naturally lithe than made that way by lack of food. His enderman DNA can be blamed for that. He’s healthy most of the time, but may have spirals where he doesn’t take good care of himself (perhaps he forgets) and he looks pretty bad. If he goes a few days without keeping up his self-care routine, he looks a lot worse than he actually is. Sleep tends to be his biggest issue, his mind keeping him awake all night and leaving him looking like shit in the morning. Really, he’s just a kid with a troubled soul, and it shows sometimes. Most days, though, he looks very well put together.

Tubbo. He’s 5′6. He’s more childlike than Tommy, which only makes it worse when he acts in the way he does in season 2. He has burn scars across one side of his body, from his execution, and he is partially blind in one eye because of it. He takes very good care of himself, since he has to look good while being president if he wants those sweet sweet approval ratings. But when he’s super stressed, he will pull all-nighters and forget to eat. He’s got a lot of issues, but his body is very normal and healthy, all things considered.

Quackity is 5′8. Which is really funny because that’s his actual height. He’s less sharp (?) than a lot of people on the server, but he has some muscle because he’s constantly training to ‘take down Technoblade’ (in reality, it’s a habit he picked up in Schlatt’s era, and never had the heart to drop). He tries his best to stay healthy (again, to better kill Techno) and he’s careful with his life, knowing that it’s his last.

Niki is 5′5. She’s also able to kick so much ass. That is all.

Dream is a bitch and therefore I will not be discussing him. Also he’s a blob or whatever so I guess height is irrelevant. Or maybe he’s a mysterious figure with a mask. Who knows.

No one else is important enough to talk about /j (but really I’m tired so I will stop here). Put your own thoughts in the comments, tags, and rbs. This was all in good fun, so don’t get mad haha.

#dreamsmp #dream smp #jschlatt #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #tw alchoholism #tw self-destructive behaviours #quackity #tubbo #dream #ranboo #philza #technoblade #niki nihachu

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fishfingersandjellybabies · 4 years ago

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Beyond the Mountains - fic

Characters: Jon Kent, Damian Wayne, Ra’s al Ghul, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, bits of Tim, Conner, Terry Pairing: jondami Summary: There was a new Batman in town, but it wasn’t Damian. No, Damian returned to the League of Assassins with his grandfather. Jon married him anyway. A/N: A batman beyond ‘verse kind of?? based on the comics! Referenced the two arcs Damian are in in Batman Beyond currently (like, 10-13 and 43 through current) a few times in here, but also changed a few of the canon details. Since the current arc Damian is in in BB is not yet out, I bs’d the end and I’m sorry it sucks. I imagine Jon being the hot/dorky high school teacher so...that’s what he is haha. Also reminder that I am nooooooo good at sex scenes haha. I worked a fuck ton on this, so if you like it, please consider checking out my ko-fi or patreon!

Jon was used to Damian breaking into his house in the middle of the night. He’d done it since they were kids. Jon had started breaking into Damian’s house right back when they began dating. It was a thing between them. Their thing.

But this time. This was different.

The bright light shining through the window woke him up first. It was blinding, and he had no idea what it was. Was it daytime? Did he sleep in? Impossible, his parents would have never let him, despite being nearly twenty-three years old, and a guest.

Next, he caught on to the wind, the sound of something hovering. The light was coming from an airship? Batman? Wonder Woman? One of the Lanterns? Was there an emergency?

But as he sat up, he saw a shape drop onto his windowsill. A familiar one, one that put his heart at ease almost always.

But…it didn’t this time.

Because Damian’s silhouette was wrong. There was no cape, or even pointy-eared mask like there should have been. In fact, he seemed to only be wearing what he always wore under one of those uniforms. Compression leggings and long-sleeved shirt.

“Damian?” Jon asked as he sat up, and Damian dropped to the floor. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing you need to worry about. But I’m not staying.” Damian explained quickly as he came into view. His face looked hollow, eyes dark. “I just…I just needed to see you before I left.”

“Left?” Jon kicked his blankets off, stumbling to his feet. Damian wasn’t the type to throw words like ‘left’ around easily. “What do you mean? You’re…you’re leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Wha…where are you going? What happened?” As an afterthought. “Is your dad okay?”

“He’s fine. In Gotham where he belongs. I…” Damian looked away. “I’m going with my grandfather.”

“No.” Jon stepped forward, grabbed Damian’s biceps. “You are absolutely not going with him, and I don’t care what he said or who he threatened, he cannot make you do anything you don’t want-”

“But I do.” Damian whispered. “I…I want to go. And I’m going of my free will. No one is forcing me.”

“No.” Jon was shaking his head. “No. I don’t believe you. You would never-”

“What my father is doing isn’t working, Jon.” Damian pleaded. “And his scope isn’t wide enough. His vision is today, not the future. But that’s what we need to work towards. That’s what my grandfather envisions.”

Jon was still shaking his head, still squeezing Damian’s arms. “No way-”

“I didn’t come here to debate.” Damian sighed, closing his eyes. Carefully, he wiggled his way out of Jon’s grip. “I just came to say goodbye.”

Before Jon could say anything else, Damian took a soft hold of his face and kissed him. It was heavy, desperate, but gentle, and so clearly apologetic. But even as Jon began to shift his arms to hold on to Damian’s waist, keep him there forever, Damian slipped away and was back to the window.

He looked back only once, then disappeared back into the dark.

To say Jon was furious was an understatement.

It’d been weeks since Damian disappeared. Weeks. And when he first went back to Gotham to tell him what Damian had said to him, Bruce hadn’t been surprised. Said he knew, and that he was looking for Damian himself.

And for a while, he gave Jon updates. Called him every few days with his new leads or any evidence he may have found.

Then he stopped.

And when Jon showed up in Gotham a few weeks after, he saw some kid with Bruce, at Wayne Enterprises. Same dark hair, athletic build and eager face as the rest of them.

“You’re not looking for Damian at all, are you?” Jon snapped as he burst into the office, ignoring all security and secretaries. “You’ve already…moved on, haven’t you?”

“You know that’s not true, Jon.” Bruce countered, weakly standing in front of this new boy.

“Do I? You stopped calling me with your leads.”

“Because none are panning out.” Bruce promised. “I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

“Yeah, okay.” Jon huffed. “…All this time, I defended you to Damian. But here, it turns out he was right all these years. You never gave a shit about him.”

“Jonathan!” Bruce admonished, face filling with his own anger.

“Save it.” Jon waved him off as a security guard grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “I’ll just go find him myself.”

Nanda Parbat.

He’d never heard of it before, not even from Damian. But this lead came from Tim, through Conner, and not Bruce, so Jon believed it. Especially with Tim’s own unfortunate ties to Ra’s al Ghul.

It was freezing here, and Jon was almost starting to doubt Tim’s intel of a secret village, when a barrage of arrows came out of nowhere in the fog. They barely missed him, just as he almost missed the bola swinging straight for his throat.

In the moment of being overwhelmed with weapons, he lost track of where he was going, and found himself bouncing off the sharp edge of a jutting cliff, falling out of the air like a crashing plane.

The landing was surprisingly soft, thanks to the snow that he plopped into. But when he rolled over and opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by a circle of masked assassins, each one holding a matching sword to his throat.

“Um…ow.” He murmured, rubbing his head. Slowly he raised his hands. “I, uh…come in peace?”

“You should not have come at all.” A voice called further away. The assassins all backed up a step, and some shifted to allow him to see. An old man had spoken, older than anyone Jon had ever seen.

Damian stood behind him.

“Surely the Detective has told you.” The man – Ra’s, Jon assumed – said. “You are not welcome here, Superma-”

Ra’s trailed off as Jon sat up. As he slowly got to his feet and ignored the danger of death all around him.

“You are not the Superman I am aware of.” Ra’s countered. Damian, still silent behind him, let his eyes grow wide. Jon grinned back at him. “But the rules still apply to you, and you are as unwelcome here as the original Superman is…”

Jon tuned him out as he moved forward. One of the assassins stuck his sword in front of him, and Jon just bent it in half as his walk turned into a run, and he all but barreled towards Damian.

He hit him head on, like a freight train, almost knocked him over, really. But Damian caught him anyway. Wrapped his arms around Jon’s neck as Jon wrapped his around Damian’s waist.

“You’re here.” Damian gasped, shifting his hand to clutch at Jon’s hair. “You’re here, you…you…what are you doing here?!”

“Looking for you, obviously.” Jon smiled against his throat. “I mean…last I checked, you’re still my boyfriend.”

Damian’s fingers twitched against his head.

“Unless that lame ass goodbye you gave me was supposed to also be a breakup.” Jon smirked. “And if that’s the case, I didn’t get the message, and also don’t accept.”

“It doesn’t matter what you are to him.” Ra’s reinserted himself into the conversation. “We don’t allow visitors of any sort here, least of all unannounced ones.”

Jon backed up a little bit, but only enough to turn. He kept Damian in his arms. “I’m not leaving without him.”

“Then I’m afraid you won’t be leaving here alive, Little Superman.”

Damian was instantly between them. “A few nights, Grandfather. Please.” Ra’s narrowed his eyes at him. “He was unaware of the rules, and their strictness. He should not be executed for his ignorance.”

“We don’t make exceptions here, Damian. You know that.”

“I also know I am the heir to your throne, and as future Demon’s Head, can do as I please.” Damian countered. “I’m only asking as a courtesy, out of respect for you. Now, either you let him stay, or I let him carry me away, and decide later if I wish to actually return.”

Ra’s frowned. “Watch yourself, Damian.”

Damian merely raised his chin. It’d look regal, if he wasn’t still half corralled into Jon’s arms.

“…Fine. He may stay.” Ra’s spun away, waving to the nearby assassins to stand down. “This time. Inform him of the rules, and remind him that he won’t get this mercy next time.”

Damian glanced back up at Jon, who gave him his best grin. “…Yes, sir.”

“Who told you about this place?” Damian asked. “Or how to find it?”

“Tim, technically.” Jon hummed from the bed, watching as Damian slowly walked around the room, lighting candles as he went. It gave the space a warm, comforting glow. “Well, I mean, Conner told me. But the info was from Tim.”

Damian nodded. “Guess I have to kill him, then.”

Jon laughed and rolled to his side. He couldn’t stop staring at Damian as he moved. He was graceful, yes, but it was more his clothes. Loose pants under an open, deep green robe.

Even in his pajamas, he looked royal. Like a king.

(Like his king.)

He himself was just in borrowed clothes. Offered the same as what Damian wore, but only took the dark green pants. Robes were never his thing.

“Well unfortunately, I won’t let you do that.” Jon laughed, ducking his eyes only a little when Damian looked back at him. “…He misses you, by the way.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Damian said dryly. “He and Father both, right?”

Jon sighed. “…I don’t know what Bruce is doing, but Dick, Tim and them…they never stopped looking for you. In fact, I told them I’d contact them if I found you.”

“I’d rather you didn’t.” Damian hummed.

“Why, want to hide all the terrible al Ghul secrets from them?” Jon smirked. “I mean, doesn’t Tim already know most of them?”

“He does I suppose, but that’s not why.” He finished lighting the last candle and blew out the match between his fingers. He carefully put the smoldering piece in a nearby ashtray and turned fully towards Jon. “I want to spend time with you.” Damian admitted. “Uninterrupted.”

Jon felt his cheeks heat up instantly. He suddenly remembered that he was, gloriously, only half clothed. And that the only extra piece of clothing Damian had, the robe, was light and easily rippable.

“And you know if you contacted them, they’d attempt some kind of rescue mission, and come in guns blazing, etcetera, etcetera.” Damian drawled as he waved his hand around, walked towards the bed, and sat on its edge. “And that would just waste our time together, wouldn’t it?”

Jon smiled and flopped his hand out for Damian to take. Damian did so instantly, leaning down to drape himself across Jon’s chest.

“…You sure it can only be a few days?” Jon whispered as Damian trailed his fingers along his cheekbone. “Sure you really don’t just want to come back with me?”

“Want to, of course. We could get that log cabin in the middle of the forest you’ve always talked about.” Damian lamented, even as Jon dragged their combined fingers to his mouth and kissed them. “But I need to stay.”

“Why?”

“I can do good here.” Damian offered. “I can…learn things. Maybe one day put them to good use, or, heaven forbid, tell them to my father. Work together to save the world, and all that.”

Jon kissed at his fingers again. “And where do I fit in that plan?”

Damian hesitated, then sighed, attempted to pull his hand away and sit up, but Jon didn’t let him. Clung to his fingers, and wrapped his free hand around Damian’s back.

“It’s just a question.” He promised. “Not an accusation.”

“I…suppose I had hoped you’d take my last visit to you as an ending to our relationship.” Damian admitted sheepishly. “Not because I don’t-”

“I know.” Jon smiled, kissed his hand again.

“…I’d hoped you’d forget about me. Move on. Find happiness elsewhere.”

Jon grinned, pulling Damian down farther. “Impossible.”

Damian pursed his lips. “Well, it would have made my plan a lot easier.”

“I’d say sorry if I was.” Jon released their hands to hold the side of Damian’s face. “But we both know I’m not.”

He felt Damian’s smile as he pushed their mouths together. Damian melted against him immediately, hands running up his sides to curl into his chest.

Jon’s heart pounded, and he could feel the fast beat of Damian’s through his jaw. His hand twitched, nails just biting into Damian’s skin.

God, he missed this. Missed him.

“How…many?” He gasped as one of Damian’s hands found their way into his hair. “Days? How many days can I stay?”

Damian hummed. “Three at most.” He answered when parted for a quick inhale. “Four, if I begged, perhaps.”

“You, begging? I’d love to hear it.” Jon laughed as he shifted to begin kissing along Damian’s jaw. Damian pinched at his collarbone. “Any way we can extend my visit indefinitely? Or gain unlimited visiting access without potentially getting murdered?”

Damian hummed again, pulling back to lean thoughtfully on his elbow.

“…There are not many, I don’t believe. At least, not many that would apply to you.” Damian thought out loud. Jon reached up to tuck a lock of hair behind Damian’s ear, then ran his hand down to his shoulder, where he began to subtly push Damian’s robe off. “Members of governments and armies we are having dealings with and spouses are all that come time mind.”

Jon’s hand stopped on the curve of his arm. “Spouses?” He blurted. “People are married here?”

“Not many, but a few. Higher generals and some of the scientists, maybe. My bodyguard, Koru. He is. I’ll introduce you to some of their children in the morning, they’ll enjoy you.” Damian shrugged. “At least two of Grandfather’s wives stayed here in their lifetimes.”

But when Damian looked back towards Jon’s face he frowned. Jon was smiling.

“…What?”

“There’s our solution, then.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“We get married. I become husband to the next Demon’s Head.” Jon’s grin grew impossibly wider. “Problem solved.”

Damian scoffed, sitting up completely. Jon released him only reluctantly.

“That’s ridiculous.” Damian snapped. “You can’t marry someone just to have unlimited…as Todd would put it, booty calls.”

“One, rude that you believe I think of visiting you as purely earth-shattering sexcapades.” Jon pushed himself up onto his forearms. “Two, also rude that you don’t think I’d want to marry you because, I don’t know, I love you?”

Damian just glared at him.

“Don’t look at me like that, we’ve said I love you to each other before. Many times.” Jon countered. “I mean, I know we haven’t said it since, you know, you ghosted everyone for three months, but still.”

“Marriage is a big decision.” Damian countered. “And I’m not letting you make such a spur of the moment decision on my account.”

“Who said it was spur of the moment?” Jon demanded. “I’ve been thinking about this for ages.”

Damian snorted. “You have not.”

“Have so. Ask your sister.” Jon countered. “She was helping me for weeks to figure out what kind of design I wanted for a ring, and had scouted a bunch of jewelry stores in Gotham and Metropolis. We were planning on checking them out the weekend you disappeared.”

Damian just stared at him. But there was less annoyance in his face now, more wonder. His eyes glowed in the dim light from the candles.

“I mean, we never made it to the stores, so I don’t have a ring. But I’ll go fly out to one of the mountains outside and make one out of stone if you want me to.” Jon sat up completely now. “I’ll even get down on one knee if you want that too.”

Damian just stared up at him. His cheeks were rosy, and Jon wanted to kiss him again, but now that he’d started down this path, he had a feeling it would be awkward if he just stopped his weird admittance of adoration to make out some more.

“I always thought we’d have a giant wedding, you and me.” Jon whispered with a dreamy smile. “But…this is an opportunity. This is a good opening. We’re together, we’re alive. And it kills me to think about, but when is our next chance to be both those things together?” He looked down, and took Damian’s hand between both of his own. “I…forgot, until I saw you again, outside. How much I missed you. How lonely I was. How worried. How miserable. How much I…worship the fucking ground you walk on, Damian.”

Damian didn’t say a word.

“Is it a means to an end? Well, if the end is me not getting killed for just stepping foot here, then to some it may look like that. But it’s not.” Jon hummed, stroking his thumb along one of Damian’s knuckles. “It’s just…no time like the present, you know? Potentially getting murdered gives us a good reason to get it done. To not wait, or hesitate.”

Damian stared at their hands.

“And I…I realized. When I saw you again. I don’t want another day without you. I don’t want another day without being yours.” Jon squinted, feeling tears welling up in his eyes. “Even if marriage wasn’t a potential solution, and I mean, you said maybe, you didn’t even say sure thing. But even if it wasn’t, even if Ra’s locked me up for staying too long, or showing up again, that’s fine. I’d be here with you, so I’d be happy anyway.”

“…It’d have to be long distance.” Damian murmured, turning his hand in Jon’s grip. “I can’t leave here. But I refuse to damn you to stay in this place forever too.”

“I know. I have stuff I need to do back home, too. A job and hero stuff. I’m not going to stop helping people or anything like that. But hey, it might work in our favor. I can be your eyes and ears back home. Keep you in the loop in case anything serious happens, and you need to come back, if only for a day or two.” Jon tilted his head. “And now that I know where Nanda Parbat is, I can be here every week. Every night.”

Damian looked up at him, eyes wide and almost disbelieving.

“And it’s weird to say, but you’d be safe here. No one will be able to find you, except me.” Jon smiled. “My very own prince hidden away and guarded by an evil dragon.”

Damian quirked a smile at that. “…We’d have to do it quickly. The wedding I mean. Before your three day time limit is up. After informing Grandfather, of course.” His smile faltered. “You wouldn’t get the big wedding you wanted.”

“I didn’t say I wanted a big wedding. I just said I always imagined that’s what it’d be, with both of us knowing so many people, and, you know, being Superman and Batman’s sons.” He squeezed Damian’s hand. “I’m more interested in the act than the event.”

“Oh, the wedding night?” Damian teased, rolling his eyes. “Of course you are.”

“Stooop.” Jon drawled as he threw his head back with a laugh. “I do not want to marry you so we can have, as you put it, secret mountain village booty calls whenever I can come out here.”

He heard Damian laugh too. Felt Damian squeeze his hand. “…Yes.”

The answer was soft, almost inaudible. Jon lowered his head to look Damian in the eyes, the tears in his threatening to overflow. “What?”

“Yes, I will marry you.” Damian whispered. “It would be my greatest honor.”

Jon felt a tear escape even as he leaned forward and engulfed Damian in his arms. Felt Damian wipe it away as he twisted his head to kiss him. Felt Damian’s own tears drip onto his face as they fell back into the bed together.

In the middle of the night, he reluctantly slipped out of the warmth of Damian’s bed and tiptoed to the door. He slowly slid it open and stuck his head out, glancing around for the one Damian called Koru, the bodyguard.

“Pst!” He hissed when he saw him, just down the hall. Koru narrowed his eyes, but quickly pattered over. “Can you do me a favor?”

Koru frowned. “No.”

“Why no…oh. Right.” Jon whispered. “You can leave your post, I promise I won’t tell. And I promise I’ll protect him in the meantime.” He let his eyes glow red as he pointed at them. “I’ve got heat vision and super strength and all that. He’s in good hands.”

Koru’s eyes had widened slightly. “…What do you want?”

“Go out and find the coolest stones you can find. As many as you want, but at least two.”

“What for?”

“A secret, but I promise it’s not a weapon. And I promise you’ll find out tomorrow.”

Koru hesitated for a moment, then huffed. “Fine. But if any of his blood is spilled, I will have your head.”

“Perfect.” Jon gave him a thumbs up. “Knock twice when you’re back?”

“…Yes, sir.”

“Cool.” Jon grinned at him and slid the door shut once more.

In all his years, in all his fantasies of getting married to Damian, the one thing he never thought was that he’d be getting married by the one and only Ra’s al Ghul.

He was ordained. In at least six different religions, and all countries but Norway. Who knew?

Ra’s wasn’t thrilled when Damian barged into his quarters the next morning, Jon in tow, to inform him of their intentions. If anything, he seemed most annoyed at the fact that Damian had upturned his plans for the day, and entered the room without knocking or any of the formalities he was supposed to perform.

He didn’t seem surprised, though.

“His mother fell in love with the Batman, and he fell in love with the future Superman.” Ra’s sighed in answer to Jon’s question as servants suddenly swarmed the room, dragging Damian away for wedding preparations. “It follows a pattern. Why should I be surprised?” Another group of women came into the room and began pushing him out of it as well. “Your ceremony is at dusk. Don’t be late.”

He didn’t see Damian the rest of the day, but it’s not like he was given a chance to notice. He was fed and, awkwardly, bathed. He was presented with what appeared to be traditional robes, made of the nicest materials he’d ever seen in his life, and stood on a stool as the clothes were tailored and hemmed by some of the women – “Call us your grannies, little American boy.” The eldest of them said – for the rest of the afternoon.

It was…nice, though. The women were kind, and the assassins sent as guards were respectful. Jon even got a few of them to smile. The children who were following their working mothers chattered his ear off, in between drawing pictures of him and ‘Prince Damian’ as they jokingly called him, and creating colorful crowns and headbands for him from the scraps of fabric scattered around the room.

After a light dinner that, against the instructions and commands of all the adults in the room, Jon ate with the children, there was a quiet knock on the door before it opened to reveal Koru, Damian’s bodyguard.

His clothes were much finer than the battle-ready armour Jon had seen him in since he arrived, and he felt a sense of honor wash through his system at the thought.

“It’s time.” Koru mumbled. Jon stumbled to his feet, and practically ran after him. The women and the children cheered in his wake, sending salutations and well-wishes after him.

Koru led him outside and down a path that seemed to leave the small village completely. Suddenly, the path took a sharp incline into the hills surrounding them, and Jon felt like they were walking into the clouds.

The end of the path opened into a clearing of pure stone, a cliff jutting into emptiness. The sky around them was a deep orange, the sun, giving off rays of golden light through passing clouds, merely a sphere of blood red on the horizon.

It was beautiful.

But Jon didn’t even see it.

Because Damian was there, with Ra’s and Goliath, standing on the edge of the world. His hands clasped behind his back as he surveyed the cold earth below him.

He and Ra’s were in similar clothing, both green with golden accents, but Damian’s seemed a little more formal. The golden patterns a little more detailed, a sword fastened on his hip with a sash.

He looked a like a king on his coronation day.

And he was breathtaking.

The snow crunching under their feet alerted the others to their presence, and Damian spun around instantly. His eyes widened at the sight of Jon, and Jon had a feeling he was just as enamored with what he saw as he himself was.

Koru didn’t go with him as he walked forward, but he didn’t notice. He didn’t notice anything, Damian was the only thing that existed. Not the cold, not the assassins, not their superhero fathers.

Nothing.

“Stunning.” Damian breathed as Jon reached him. Jon smiled as he reached for his hands. Damian grabbed at them greedily.

“Those ladies know what they’re doing.” Jon laughed. He looked Damian up and down, then blinked, and looked at himself. “Oh…oh, that’s cute.”

“Hm?”

“The robes.” Jon grinned, nodding down to his dark yellow clothing, with green embroidery. “Mine’s the opposite of yours. You know, minus the sword part.”

“…Indeed.” Damian hummed, seemingly just noticing it himself. He smiled. “Very…cute.”

Ra’s suddenly cleared his throat. “Are you two ready?”

“Yes, sir.” Jon answered instantly.

“Don’t expect anything overly sentimental, Mr. Kent.” Ra’s warned, pulling a notebook from his own jacket. “This will be quick.”

“The quicker the better.” Jon grinned, squeezing Damian’s hands. Damian smiled warmly back. “Honestly, we can say our personal vows later. You can just skip the to ‘I do’ part, Ra’s and it’d be – oh!”

Damian frowned. “What?”

“I forgot.” He turned. “Koru? You still have them?”

“Of course.” Koru scoffed, offended. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something Damian couldn’t see, dropping it into Jon’s outstretched hand. When Jon pulled his hand back, Damian couldn’t help but gape.

Two rings, made out of the black stone of the mountains surrounding the village.

“Told you I’d make you one.” Jon said sheepishly.

“When?”

“Last night, when you were sleeping.” Jon laughed. “You’re a heavy sleeper when you’re happy.”

Damian’s face reddened with embarrassment, but Jon paid it no mind. Instead, he reluctantly let go of Damian’s hand, only to slowly slip the ring on. Ra’s took the hint, and began reciting the vow for Jon to repeat.

Jon didn’t hear a word he said. Repeated on autopilot, waited until he had permission to say the two words he wanted to most.

“I do.”

And Jon could have sworn that Ra’s said the vows slower for Damian, just to torture them both. So instead, he focused on the warmth of Damian’s fingers as he gifted him with the second ring. Laughed as Damian then reeled Jon in, wrapping his arms tightly around his waist.

He was already descending as he whispered, “I do.”

The universe restarted when they kissed; the second coming of the Big Bang. It took all Jon had not to clutch at Damian as tight as he could, and float off into the sky like a runaway balloon.

When they parted, Jon leaned their foreheads together. Goliath shrieked happily into the darkening sky.

“I love you.” He murmured, running his thumb along Damian’s cheek. “More than…than…I don’t even know what. Everything.”

Damian chuckled as Ra’s stepped away.

“You’ll both catch your death out here if you stay much longer. And it would be rude of you to die before your own reception.” He called over his shoulder. Jon leaned back, staring after the old man in confusion. Ra’s grinned. “The al Ghul heir just married. Even I am not so cruel as to say that’s not a time for celebration.”

Damian took his hand, tugging him along a few feet behind Ra’s and Koru. Goliath stayed behind them. “Why do you think no one else was up here, Beloved? They were preparing the food for the wedding feast.”

The party was a blur. But the best night of Jon’s life.

There was music, and dancing. He danced with the women who dressed him, and even a few of the assassins who, literally a day before, had swords to his throat. Ra’s even shook his hand at some point in the evening, muttering a tender. “Love him properly, or I’ll rip your throat out with my own hands.”

He danced with Damian, and they both danced with the children. Jon watched in amazement as the kids swarmed Damian, presenting him with tiny gifts like a flower or drawing, or those cloth crowns they’d made him earlier. Smiled as Damian thanked each child individually, let them climb all over him and drag him this way and that.

He thought he understood why they called him their Prince now.

But the best part, the most magical part of the night, was when the party was over, and they went back to Damian’s quarters. When Damian lit all those candles again and then came to the bed and laid in his arms.

There was no sex. Jon probably wouldn’t have wanted it even if it were offered. There was just basking in the presence of each other. Staring at each other in the dim, warm glow of the candles. Holding hands that now bore matching rings. Holding each other.

“Beloved.” Damian whispered. Jon closed his eyes, and hid his face in Damian’s throat. Damian ran his fingers through his hair. “My dear Beloved.”

It was the best night of Jon’s life.

He stayed for another two weeks. He befriended many of those living in the compound, and helped where he could, where he didn’t think his morals would be tested. Painting the kitchen and planting in the greenhouse, not sitting in on treaty negotiations or looking over scientific blueprints like Damian was with Ra’s.

But two weeks still wasn’t long enough, and saying goodbye – that he’d call, that he’d visit whenever he could, that he’d still listen for his heartbeat every second of every day – still ripped his soul out.

And Damian had smiled, but Jon could see the pain behind it anyway.

Because they both knew that along with missing each other, it would be hard. Because Jon couldn’t tell anyone. Didn’t want to tell anyone. Because Damian was his, and he couldn’t let anyone know he knew where he was. Where the League of Assassins was. Wouldn’t put him in that danger. Wouldn’t put those families and children he’d met and come to already love in that danger.

(Knew despite the acceptance of the marriage, if Damian got out of line, Ra’s would threaten Jon. Use Jon against Damian any chance he got.)

So he couldn’t brag about his husband. Couldn’t tell his parents he was married, couldn’t tell Dick, worried out of his mind, where his brother was. Had to lie about the ring on his finger. Yes, it was where you put a wedding band, but if he was married, he would have said something! Obviously! Besides, who would he marry? His last boyfriend disappeared into the wind!

And then most obvious problem. Jon was still a superhero. Damian the heir to one of the largest underground crime organizations in the world. Emergencies arose. Schedules were changed. There was never a promise of when they would see each other next. Never a promise that either of them would be alive tomorrow.

And that just sucked.

It was about a year and a half later, and Jon was sitting at his desk. The final bell had just rung on a Friday afternoon, and his students were gone for a long weekend. He just had to finish marking down the grades of Wednesday’s tests, schedule a parent-teacher conference or two and then put in that maintenance request to Phyllis, then he could go enjoy the long weekend himself.

A three-day weekend in the mountains sounded great right about now.

So he was a little embarrassed when the gentle knock on his doorframe made him jump. But the embarrassment was quickly replaced by surprise.

“Dick?” He asked incredulously.

Dick Grayson, newly minted mayor of Bludhaven, stood there, a smirk almost hidden by the beard around it. Jon still couldn’t get used to that facial hair, no matter how long he’d had it.

“Howdy, Jon.”

“W-what are you doing here?” Jon scrambled to his feet. “Everything okay?”

“Fine, fine.” Dick waved off, leaning against one of the desks. “It’d just…been a while.”

“I suppose…” Jon trailed off suspiciously. “But I’ve known your family long enough to know that no one just stops by without reason.”

Dick laughed. “You always did spend way too much time with Damian. Sounds like something he’d say.” That smirk widened. “How is he, by the way?”

Jon’s heart sputtered, but he kept his face the same. “How would I know? I haven’t seen him since he disappeared, just like you. What’s it been, two years now?”

“Well, I mean. I just figured you’d seen him since then.” Dick shrugged nonchalantly. “With you being his husband, and all.”

Jon opened his mouth to respond, to give the same lies as always, when Dick suddenly reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it, and skimmed it before showing it to Jon.

A marriage certificate.

Jon knew there was one. Knew Ra’s and his League was able to pull strings and get one expedited for their cliff side ceremony. He’d signed it, Damian signed it, Ra’s and Koru signed it. Then it was discreetly put into the United States’ system. No fanfare, no newspaper or tabloid announcements, no one knowing it was even there to look for either.

Jon closed his mouth and gulped. “…How did you find that?”

“Being a mayor gives you some privileges, I’ve found.” Dick hummed, even as Jon came around his desk and took the paper from his hand. “And I found myself missing my brother the other day, so I looked him up. Thought I might find some more recent activity or sightings. And here this was, right on the first page.”

They stood in silence. Jon staring at the paper and Dick staring at him.

“Dick, I-”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dick asked instantly, the hint of pain in his voice. “Why did you lie about that ring on your finger? Hell, why didn’t you tell us at the very least where he was?”

“Because Bruce stopped looking for him.” Jon said coldly. “And don’t defend him, Dick. You know he did. He stopped looking when that McGinnis kid showed up. And I don’t blame the kid, it’s not his fault, it’s just how Bruce is.” A deep inhale. “And then you know how Bruce is with Ra’s. He already had a feeling Ra’s took Damian, or Damian went with him, or whatever, so even if he found Damian, you know he would have gone in pissed off and wouldn’t have listened. Would have jumped to conclusions. Would have potentially hurt him.”

“…Okay, I’ll agree to that potential.” Dick admitted. “But, Jon, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because nobody could know, Dick. Nobody.” Jon said. “My parents don’t even know.”

“Famed investigative journalist Lois Lane doesn’t know?” Dick asked incredulously. “I don’t believe you.”

“Well maybe she does, I don’t know. But she took my word and hasn’t pushed the issue.” Jon shrugged. “If she and Dad are playing purposefully ignorant, that’s fine. That means Damian’s safe.”

“He’s not safe with Ra’s, Jon. I know you know that.” Dick countered.

“I do. And so does Damian. But he’s biding his time.” Jon explained. “He’s working from the inside. He wants to save the planet like Ra’s does, but he’s trying to manipulate the organization from within, make their methods more like Batman’s. Kinder.”

Dick shook his head. “He can’t do it by himself. He’s crazy if he thinks he can.”

“Well.” Jon smiled. A sad, lovesick smile. “Then he’s crazy.”

Dick frowned, ran a hand through his hair. “…I have to see him, Jon.”

“You can’t.” Jon stepped forward. “And you can’t tell anyone either.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because even if Bruce doesn’t make a move, word will get back to the League that they’ve been found.” Jon’s eyes widened. “And they’ll know it’ll be through me. They’ll know it’s because I spilled the beans and then Ra’s will punish Damian for it.”

Dick pressed his lips together.

“You know he will.” Jon breathed. “And until…until Damian can change the League or until I can convince him to come back, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” A second to think. “And I’d hope it’s not one you would either.”

Dick turned his head away and closed his eyes.

“…On one condition.” Dick said after a moment. “You put me in contact with him.”

“What?”

When Dick looked back, he suddenly seemed like he’d aged ten years. “I just want to talk to my little brother again, Jon.”

Jon pursed his lips, spun that stone ring with his thumb.

Damian was going to kill him. It was a secure line for just the two of them. But…

“…Fine.”

Most of the time, people were sick of snow by mid-February. Jon wasn’t though. And despite the fact that his school district had called for a snow day, he was up at his normal time. Only instead of rushing to the school, he took a leisurely walk to a nearby coffee shop to give himself a little reward for once.

A nice caramel-chocolate latte with extra whipped cream.

He was just exiting the shop, deciding to go to the park to have his treat. Just glancing up into the gently falling snowflakes.

“Beloved?”

Jon spun around so fast, he almost launched his coffee into a nearby window.

“Dames?”

And it was, Damian stood right there, looking far too fashionable than any human had a right to be. A gray pea coat with a blue scarf wrapped neatly around his neck. Black leather gloves, one of which held a bouquet of flowers, dark jeans and black combat boots.

Jon’s heart soared.

“Dames!” He shouted, running at him and jumping into his arms. Damian chuckled, returning the embrace. “What are you doing here?”

“I had meetings in San Francisco yesterday, and decided to stop by on my way home.” Damian smiled as he pulled back, and presented the flowers. “It seemed that it would be…rude not to, given the occasion.”

Jon took the flowers. “Occasion?” He sniffed at the petals. “What’s the occasion?”

Damian blinked, then laughed. “Jon, I think you’ve been working too hard, if you’ve forgotten.”

Jon closed his eyes. “It’s not our anniversary, I know that.”

“You didn’t have a party with your students?” Damian asked. “Or, I suppose that tradition ends after elementary school.”

Jon racked his brain. “The…Super Bowl?”

Damian laughed again. “Valentine’s Day, Beloved.”

“Oh my-” Jon gaped. He glanced into the coffee shop’s window. Paper hearts adorned the walls in decoration. “Oh my god. I forgot Valentine’s Day.”

Damian laughed for a third time, reeling Jon into his arms.

“I can’t believe I forgot Valentine’s Day.” Jon lamented, leaning against Damian’s shoulder. “Divorce me, Damian. I forgot Valentine’s Day.”

“Never.” Damian said warmly. “I know your classes were cancelled today. Have any other plans?”

“Honestly, I was just going to watch cartoons all day.” Jon admitted sheepishly. “But now I just want to spend all day with you.”

“That can be arranged.”

“…How long are you in town?” Jon whispered. “How long can you be in town?”

“Two days.” Damian returned, with a kiss to Jon’s forehead.

“Then we better make it count.” Jon decided, leaning up and capturing Damian’s lips with his own. When he allowed Damian to pull back, he smiled. “Hope you like take out.”

“Oh? Why?”

“Because baby, you are not leaving my bed for the next forty-eight hours.”

Once more, Damian laughed as Jon clutched his flowers and coffee to his chest in one hand, grabbed Damian’s hand with the other, and all but dragged him down the street.

The phone rang in the middle of the night.

Jon didn’t jump, phone calls in the middle of the night weren’t new. And he didn’t bother to look at the caller ID. He supposed it didn’t really matter. If they had his number and they were calling now, it was enough.

Still, when he hit answer, he couldn’t help but slur, “Hm?”

“It’s me.” Damian whispered, his voice trembling. He seemed to hesitate, thinking what he was going to say next. “It’s done.”

Jon sat up. “Sweetheart?” He asked. “What’s done? What’s wrong?”

“Ra’s is dead.” Damian said simply. “I…I am now the sole leader of the League of Assassins.”

“Oh, Damian.” Jon cooed. He threw his covers back. “Give me thirty minutes, okay? I just need…I need to grab some pants and I’ll be there.”

And he was. In less than thirty minutes, really. Closer to twenty.

Koru was waiting for him at the compound entrance. He nodded solemnly, then silently led Jon to where he needed to be.

Jon could hear people wailing in the distance. Word must have spread already. And he’d forgotten – Ra’s was a monster. A villain. Evil.

But he meant something to the people here.

Koru led him to a large, ornate door. He opened it, and gestured for Jon to go inside.

The room was dark, but it didn’t matter. Even if he didn’t already see him standing next to that bed, the sound of his heartbeat would have guided him.

He only glanced at the dead body. It was Ra’s alright, and even without the lack of a heartbeat, Jon could tell by the color of his skin he was gone.

But he didn’t care, if he was honest. Never cared about that old man, never cared about what he was doing so long as it was held in check. He only cared about Damian.

Jon stepped up behind him, carefully wrapping his arms around his waist, pulled him back into his chest.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

Damian shrugged. “We knew it was coming.”

“That doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Jon tried. “You’re allowed to grieve.”

“There was no love lost between Ra’s and I, so there’s no need.” Damian pushed back. “I just…wasn’t ready.”

Damian pulled away and turned towards him.

“I…I didn’t have enough time to gain the loyalty I needed.” Damian sighed. “Many…many here do not trust me. Or do not believe in me.”

“I believe in you.” Jon offered.

Damian smiled sadly. “Unfortunately, Beloved, your opinion does not matter to the assassins now under my rule.” The smile disappeared. “I’ve already been visited by one of my grandfather’s most loyal scientists. He and I have never agreed, and he’s never trusted me. I sense that will get worse in the coming days.”

Jon frowned. “Do you want me to stay? In case he tries anything?”

“He won’t. He’d be stupid to do anything during these days of mourning.” Damian promised. “And Koru is more than capable. I am more than capable.”

“I’d feel better if I did, though.” Jon shrugged. “I don’t want you to be alone right now.”

Damian’s eyes suddenly twitched over Jon’s shoulder. Jon turned and found an older man passing by the door. He had white hair, and wearing an odd metal suit of armor.

The man glanced in at him and frowned at Jon. Seemed to frown at Damian too. But he didn’t say anything, just continued on his way.

When Jon turned back, Damian was looking at him again, his face warm. “You’re too sweet, Beloved.” He gently took Jon’s hand. “Now come. Since you’re here, you can stay for the funeral at dawn.” A snorted smirk. “Superman attending the funeral of Ra’s al Ghul. Isn’t the world a funny place?”

Jon was woken by a rapid knocking on his apartment door. Damian must have heard it too, as he was suddenly trying to burrow into Jon’s side.

“I’m going to buy your building a doorman.” Damian mumbled as Jon reluctantly rolled away from him. “So then no one can knock on your door. Ever.”

The knocking continued. “I’m coming!” Jon shouted as he yawned. “I’m-”

“Hurry up, bro!” Jon froze.

That was Conner.

“Just give him a minute.” Another voice scolded.

Tim.

“Fuck.” Jon whispered, spinning around. Damian was still curled up in his bed, only half hidden by comforter. Jon quickly ran from the room, slamming his bedroom door shut behind him. He fell into the front door, opening it only enough for his face to show. “…Hey guys.”

Conner grinned. “Mind if we come in? We just had a killer patrol, and we’re starving.”

“Uh…” Jon hesitated. But before he could answer, Tim pushed his door open for him. “…Well, I guess.”

“Conner’s not lying. We’re starving.” Tim mumbled, bee-lining towards the kitchen. “I’ll reimburse you, I promise.”

As he shoved his head into the refrigerator, Conner smiled apologetically, clapping a hand on Jon’s shoulder. “How you been, Jonno? Feel like I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’m…good.” As Conner went into the kitchen himself, Jon glanced back to his bedroom door. “Summer vacation and all that.”

“I’d say you’re lucky if you got paid more during the school year.” Conner hummed around a piece of bread Tim handed him. “Doing anything for a second job this summer?”

“Just more patrols as Superman.” Jon shrugged. And more time at the League of Assassins compound in Nanda Parbat he didn’t say. “Some travel, if I feel like it.”

“You meet the new Batman yet?” Tim asked as he poured some orange juice. “Terry. He’s not bad.”

“No. Haven’t had the chance.” Jon mumbled. Hadn’t wanted to was the real answer. Because Damian was Batman to him, he still had that hope. Still believed Damian would return to the title one day, permanently. “So much for World’s Finest, huh?”

“Well, you know Bruce.” Tim shrugged. “He’s kind of hogging him anyway. We only see him at galas.”

“None of you work with him?” Jon asked. He tuned into Damian’s heartbeat for a second, found it still slow, so Damian was still dozing. He could only pray Conner didn’t use his same ability, and hear the same thing.

“Not really. We’re getting old.” Tim laughed. “I’m spending more time at Wayne Enterprises. Dick’s a goddamn mayor. Cass works at Steph’s practice. Jason’s doing…whatever Jason does.”

“But you’re working with Conner.” Jon smirked.

“I called in an old favor. Timmy can’t say no to me.” Conner grinned.

“Please.” Tim snorted into his glass. “I was bored.”

The two began to banter, and Jon found himself glancing back to his room.

God, what he wouldn’t give to be able to tell his brother, and someone like his brother, that Damian was there. That they were married.

That Damian was fucking alive.

And he wanted to bring it up. Wanted to bring Damian up. Ask if Tim remembered his brother, if they’d been looking for him still, if he cared at all. Or at least more than Bruce.

But he couldn’t risk that.

So he smiled and nodded and partook in the conversation, and didn’t mention a thing. Entertained the two for a half an hour or so before, luckily, they excused themselves first before he had to start leaving hints for them to leave.

As soon as he closed the door behind them, he dashed back to his bedroom, only to find Damian still sleeping, only now taking up more of the mattress, arms spread side to side.

Jon blinked then laughed out loud as he walked forward and collapsed back into bed. Damian groaned as Jon twisted their legs together, and he began peppering kisses along Damian’s shoulder.

“…Has my brother left yet?” Damian whispered after a moment. Jon pressed his head against Damian’s.

“Mhm.”

“…Did you tell him anything?”

“If I did, do you think you’d still be in here peacefully sleeping?” Jon smirked. “Tim probably would have come in here just to kill you.”

Damian hummed.

“But alas.” Jon sighed dramatically, curling his arms around Damian’s one. “You’re still my dirty little secret, Mr. Demon’s Head.”

Damian never opened his eyes, but he smiled anyway.

“I think…I should feel insulted.”

Damian’s lips twitched up. “Most people would feel honored, I believe.”

“No, I mean.” Jon rolled towards the edge of the bed, glancing towards the drawing desk his husband sat behind. “You sent me a text that said ‘ASAP.’”

“I did.” Damian murmured, eyes following the tip of his pencil as he moved it across the paper.

“And here I came running because I thought you were in danger. That the mutiny you’re so concerned about finally happened.” Jon continued. He glanced at the candle nearest him, gently hovered his finger through the flame.

“That’s very kind of you, Beloved.” Damian glanced up, frowned. “Please don’t burn your finger.”

“But there was no emergency. You weren’t dying.” Jon sighed, flopping his hand down. He looked up through his lashes. “You just wanted to draw me.”

Damian smiled. “Like I said, most people would probably be honored.”

“I feel like I should be mad.” Jon muttered.

“In my defense, I did say as soon as possible, not right this instant.” Damian mused. “That was your interpretation.”

“Well, how am I supposed to stay mad at you, sitting over there looking like a…a goddamn angel in a wave of holy light?” Jon scoffed. “And you sit there worried about me burning myself? You bump one candle and your desk and drawings are all up in flames in an instant.”

“I doubt you’d let that happen.” Damian chuckled. “Now, despite your wiggling, I’m almost finished.”

“And what’s my payment?” Jon asked, stretching his leg in the air, curving his spine. He felt Damian’s heartbeat stutter a little. “For being your beautiful model?”

“Well, I hope some ice cream your so-called Grannies made when I informed them you were en route is satisfactory.” Damian suggested. “And…I can only hope my undivided attention is a suitable accompaniment.”

“I do love my Grannies and their cooking.” Jon agreed. He turned to his side and propped himself up on his elbow, gave Damian his most seductive grin. “And I definitely do love you a whole lot more.”

Jon watched the heat rise to Damian’s cheeks. The pencil suddenly began moving across the paper faster.

“I’m almost done.” Damian promised.

When he saw it was Bruce Wayne calling, his stomach dropped.

“Jon.” He’d murmured softly. “I…I found Damian.”

Jon blinked.

“What?” And it wasn’t a faked question. He felt his heart speed up. Because if Bruce, if Batman, found Damian and the League then-

“He’s…alive.” Bruce whispered gratefully. “He’s…leading the League of Assassins, and I’m working on that. But…but I just thought you’d want to know. He’s alive. He’s…okay.”

“I…I didn’t know.” Jon lied. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me, Bruce.”

“You were…you are so important to him.” Bruce sighed. “You deserve to know.”

“Can I…Can I see him?” Jon continued. “Can you tell me where he is?”

“I…don’t think that is a good idea. For now.” Bruce sighed. “But. One day, Jon. I promise.”

When they hung up, Jon immediately took to the skies for the Himalayas.

He found Damian on their wedding cliff. He was staring out into the emptiness again. Back straight, hands clasped at the small of his back.

Goliath stood nearby.

“Damian?”

Damian’s head lifted and he turned. Jon instantly took in the new cuts and bruises.

“Jon?” Damian immediately moved towards him. “What are you-”

“Your dad called.” Jon reached out when Damian got close enough. He ran his thumbs over a blossoming bruise on his cheek. “Told me…the basics.”

Damian smiled sadly.

“We…reconciled, I suppose.” Damian whispered.

“You suppose?” Jon asked gently. “You don’t sound very confident about that.”

“It’s…it’s what we’ve always said. He didn’t come after me. He didn’t care where I’d gone. He replaced me.” Damian breathed. “He…he only came here after McGinnis. When he thought I was going to kill him.”

“Well. You clearly proved him wrong. You didn’t kill anyone.” Jon paused, glanced back at Goliath. “Where’s Koru? He never lets you out of his sight.”

“He is…recuperating.” Damian sighed, trying to turn out of Jon’s hands. Jon didn’t let him. “He attacked my father for a grudge I was unaware of. I had to take him down. He then attempted to set off missiles that I’d decided against. He needs…time to think about some things.” Damian closed his eyes. “…I have no control.”

“You do.” Jon said. “You’re doing…amazing things here, Damian. I know it. Your dad knows it.”

He paused, to run his hand over Damian’s hair.

“I could tell when he called.” Jon offered. “He missed you.”

“He didn’t look for me.” Damian reminded.

“But he’s protecting you now.” Jon said. “He called to tell me you were alive. I played dumb, I asked if he would tell me where you were and he refused.”

“That’s not protection, that’s shame.” Damian countered.

“Damian, change takes time. You know that. I know that. Bruce knows that.” Jon squeezed his cheeks a little. “I don’t think he would have called me to tell me you were alive if he was ashamed.”

Damian shook his head. “I don’t know if I can change the League faster than the coming mutiny.”

“I know you’ll do everything you can.” Jon kissed his forehead. “And I’ll be right behind you. I won’t let them do anything to you. I swear.”

“…Thank you, Beloved.” Damian whispered.

“Mhm.” Jon murmured into his hair. “Now, come on. I’m making an executive decision. You need a break.”

Damian merely wrapped his arms around Jon’s neck as Jon lifted them into air and turned towards Metropolis. Goliath followed.

He should have been more alarmed when he heard the lock jiggle. Should have at least had his super strength ready.

But he’d had the flu all week. Him, having the flu. What the fuck.

“Just go ahead and kill me.” He whined as loud as he could. “Give the stuff in my fridge to my neighbor. I don’t want it to go bad.”

He heard the lock click and the door open, but didn’t even look.

“I might have some pizza you can heat up if you want.” He mumbled, closing his eyes. “If I even tried to eat it, it’s coming right back up.”

He didn’t hear anyone.

“If I puke on you, will you go away?” Jon drawled. “Oh wait, can you give me another blanket first? I’d like to at least be warm when you kill me.”

Suddenly there was a scoff, and blanket fluttering over him.

“Beloved, since when did you become so dramatic?” Jon looked up and felt tears well up in his eyes.

“Damian.” He cried. He reached a shaky hand up and Damian took it in his, kissing his knuckles.

“Hello Jonathan.” Damian smiled. “Still feeling bad?”

“Worse than when I called you.” Jon admitted. “You didn’t have to come all this way just because I’m puking.”

“Through sickness and in health.” Damian reminded. “It’s the same in all languages and religions.”

“Stop.” Jon called as Damian backed away. “Stop being so cute.”

Damian snorted. “You need fluids.”

“They won’t stay down.” Jon sighed. “…Wait, did I give you a key to my apartment?”

“No.” Damian hummed. “I could have just come in through the window, but I figured that might concern you. So I…called Grayson.”

“He has a key to my place?” Jon called. “Since when?”

“It’s Grayson.” Damian reappeared behind the couch, handing Jon a glass. “Probably since forever.”

“I hate your family.” Jon decided. “I barely even see them and I hate them.”

“I know.” Damian offered sympathetically. As Jon took the glass, Damian walked around the couch, and Jon found himself staring.

“What?” Damian asked when he noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re in your evil leader garb.” Jon mumbled, gesturing to Damian’s green robes. “You didn’t change?”

“I came as soon as my meeting was over.” Damian shrugged. “So…I suppose I didn’t think about it.”

“…The Demon’s Head is making house calls.” Jon smiled weakly. “The new Ra’s al Ghul is going to make me soup.”

“Eventually, if you can keep that drink down.” Damian smiled, smoothing Jon’s blankets.

Jon felt his exhausted tears fall as he took a sip.

It was like out of a movie.

He arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and gave a fake name to the hotel concierge. The man typed in the name, stared at the screen, then smiled, and handed Jon a key.

He took the elevator, inserted the key for the private floor, and stood in the corner. Smiled to the couples and families who stepped on and off on various floors. Tapped his finger against the lining of his pocket.

And when the lift opened into the penthouse apartment, Jon almost fainted. Almost swooned right then and there.

Damian sat in the breakfast nook, practically glowing in the early evening sun that shone through the window. He wore nothing but a silken robe, open at the chest, a book open on his crossed knee and a cup of tea in his hand.

“Damian.” Jon whispered carefully. Damian looked up and smiled. Sweetly, welcoming. “You’re going to need to put that tea down.”

He barely gave Damian the second he needed to that before he crossed the room and swept him up in his arms, all but throwing him onto the nearby bed.

Damian grunted as he bounced, but gave a laugh as Jon crawled up his body. “And here I thought you’d want to eat first after your flight.”

Jon just grinned and kissed him as hard as he could.

And that’s where they’d been now, for hours. The sun had set, but Jon had never gotten off of Damian. Not that Damian had let go of Jon himself.

“One more.” Jon whispered into Damian’s neck, remarking a hickey on Damian’s next that was already dulling. “One more round.”

“Oh?” Damian hummed sleepily, fingers locked on and tugging at Jon’s hair, the other arm was tight around Jon’s waist, just above where his ankles hooked together. Jon glanced up at Damian’s amused eyes. “I didn’t realize the last round ended.”

Jon bit at his throat, and thrust his hips at the barb. Damian groaned, his leg twitching involuntarily in pleasure, digging into Jon’s spine. He released Jon’s hair and ran his hand down to his chin, tipping Jon’s face up until he could kiss him properly. Jon smiled as Damian tried to devour him, tried to act like he was the one in control.

Well, that just wouldn’t do.

Jon shifted his weight upwards, changing the rhythm of his movements, drinking in every sound Damian tried to hide. He carefully took the hand Damian had under his chin and intertwined their fingers, pushing the hand into the mattress. Damian tried to push back, but Jon decided he wanted to cheat, just a little, and used his super strength to keep his hand down.

Damian noticed. Growled quietly, “You asshole.”

Jon looked down at him with half-lidded eyes. “You like it.”

Damian bit his lip, lowered his eyes. Jon felt him dig his nails into his hip. That was as much of a yes as he was going to get.

And that was fine. That was good. Because Jon wasn’t lying, he wanted this to be the last round. He was getting a little bit tired, and he could tell Damian was too.

Besides, sex was cool. Sex with his husband was great. But it wasn’t even his favorite part.

The afterglow. The cuddling. The staring into Damian’s eyes and seeing the universe. The warmth of his skin as he held him in his arms. The gentle sounds of them saying just how much the other means to him.

And they’d been at it for hours. They were slow, they were fast, they were desperate, they were sensual.

So he’d hoped he’d be forgiven for rushing now, ready for it to end. He bucked quickly, bordering on faster than the speed of sound, needed to stay in his head enough not to do that, not hurt Damian beyond pleasure, but he kissed slowly. Carefully.

Adoringly.

When Damian tugged his hand away, Jon let him. Felt his heart pound as Damian wrapped his arms around Jon’s neck, held him as close as their skin would allow.

They came together.

Jon collapsed onto Damian’s chest, shifting only enough to pull out. Damian kept his arms tight around Jon’s shoulders, his hand returning to stroke at Jon’s hair.

“There is a warm bath ready for whenever you’d like it.” Damian whispered. “And room service. We just have to call the front desk.”

“Hm.” Jon smiled. He found himself pressing more kisses to Damian’s throat. “I’m good right here with you.”

Damian laughed. “Jonathan, we’re disgusting.”

“I’m okay with that.” Jon hummed into Damian’s skin.

Damian snorted and rolled them to the side. He held the side of Jon’s face, staring into his soul.

“Happy anniversary, Beloved.”

It was silly, and he was ashamed of himself.

Like, jeez, he was almost thirty, and here he was in the middle of the night, drowning in insomnia because he missed his husband.

Well…there were other things. But it was mostly that.

He rolled to his side, grasping for his cell phone even as guilt coiled in his gut.

The line rang only once. “Hello, Jonathan.”

“Hi.” Jon muttered. “You busy?”

“No.” Damian sounded amused. “It’s only seven in the morning.”

“Oh. Oh yeah.” Jon sighed. Timezones sucked. “Can you…video chat?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Hang on.” Jon said a little too quickly than he meant. He pulled the phone away and tapped a few buttons. An instant later, Damian filled the screen.

He was still in his pajamas and dressing gown, but he sat at his drawing desk, the phone propped up on the top corner. When he realized the connection was made, he smiled. “Hello.”

Jon gave him a tight smile. “Howdy, handsome.”

“Is everything okay?” Damian asked immediately. “You sound…sad.”

“I miss you.” Jon mumbled into his pillow. “It’s been months.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Damian sighed. “I’ve been swamped.”

“It’s not all your fault. I could fly out there any time.” Jon flopped back. “But being Superman…”

“Is far more important.” Damian finished for him. “I understand.”

“Cases haven’t been great lately.” Jon continued. “I haven’t really been saving the day real well.”

“But I know you did your best.” Damian soothed. “…Is there anything I can to make you feel better?”

“Come here?” Jon tried.

Damian laughed. “Anything reasonable?”

Jon glanced around his screen. “Are you drawing right now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Jon smirked. “Draw me a picture.”

“And what would you like a picture of?”

“I don’t know.” Jon sighed. “A puppy.”

“A puppy.” Damian snorted. “Alright.”

He flipped over whatever he was working on and instantly the pencil started flitting around the page.

“I really do miss you, though. More than being bummed about the bad cases.” Jon sighed. “I think I’m just lonely.”

“It happens to the best of us.” Damian agreed. “Would you like me to have Grayson come visit you?”

“Nah, he’s busy.” Jon waved off. “I can call my own friends. Eventually.” He paused, listened to the pencil. “…What do you do when you’re lonely?”

“Call you.” Damian smiled. “And when you don’t or can’t answer, I call Maya while I draw you.”

“You draw me? When I’m not there?”

“Of course. I have an entire folder.” Damian admitted, turning his page. His hair, still unkempt from sleeping, fell into his eyes. “Koru calls me obsessed.”

“You’ve never shown me this folder.” Jon pouted.

“Because I was embarrassed.” Damian admitted. “And sometimes the children take the sketches as coloring pages.” Damian’s eyes widened a little bit, a blush dusting his cheeks. “The…less lewd ones, anyway.”

“Oh my god, if you want me to sext you, just ask.” Jon teased, the tension in his heart releasing a little.

“I prefer the real thing.” Damian chuckled. He made a few more lines across the page, then picked it up, twisting for the camera. “How’s this?”

It was a Dalmatian, with large dark spots and big eyes. Floppy ears and a doggy grin.

“It’s perfect.” Jon smiled. “Send it to me so I can color it?”

Damian snorted. “Sorry, it’s only available for pick-up.”

“Okay. I’ll come get it soon.” Jon yawned. “…Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You need your rest.” Damian hummed.

“…Draw me to sleep?” Jon asked. He felt pathetic, like he was begging.

“Of course.” Damian nodded, reaching for another piece of paper. “Want me to tell you a story as well?”

“Sure.” Jon sighed. “Tell me about your day yesterday.”

“Not that exciting, but if you wish.” Damian nodded.

Jon closed his eyes, and drifted off to the sound of a scratching pencil and Damian’s soft voice.

Jon was in the middle of class, when he got the sense something was wrong. He tripped over the cord of his overhead projector, and his students laughed, but he told them to get an early start on their homework as he scrambled to his desk.

He checked all the news sites, but there didn’t seem to be anything urgent. No mention of his parents or friends. No catastrophe or apocalypse. Everything was fine.

But then he tuned in to Damian’s heartbeat. And everything was not fine.

It was slow and weak. And Jon had heard that sound before.

He’d heard the sound of someone dying before.

He jumped to his feet and out of the classroom, ignoring his students’ calls after him. He ran to the principal, rambled about a personal emergency, then was gone before his boss could ask any questions.

Jon waited until he was off campus before he took to the skies.

But there was a problem, he realized, as he neared Nanda Parbat. He could still hear Damian’s heartbeat, he was still alive, but it…it wasn’t here. The heartbeat was far away. Faint.

He slowed above the League compound, hesitating. He could see men running around, shouting, loading into airships.

He could also see a trail of blood, leading away. He could see where the trail ended, at a mess of claw marks.

Goliath.

There was blood. There were marks from Goliath. Damian was dying.

Where would Goliath take him?

It took him two seconds to realize.

Gotham.

Jon spun around and took off for a second time.

He knew he was on the right path when Damian’s heartbeat got louder. But it didn’t bring any comfort, because it didn’t sound like it was getting any stronger.

As he reached Gotham airspace, he got a glimpse of Goliath, flying behind some black dot, heading towards Wayne Tower. So he didn’t think. Didn’t decide. Let instinct take over and followed them.

He saw the assassins coming in the distance, and he felt his anger grow.

The mutiny must have happened. Damian’s worst fear.

He balled his hand into a fist.

He would not let them hurt him.

He burst into the building, hot on Goliath’s tail. He landed and slid across the tiles, destroying them completely. The black dot, Batman, spun around, stepping in front of Bruce, who had appeared in the room.

“What happened?” Jon bellowed.

“Jon?” Bruce asked. “How did you-”

“What. Happened?” Jon repeated. He glanced at Goliath, Damian limp in his arms. Blood oozed from wounds all across his body. He was unconscious. “…Can you save him?”

Bruce looked over. “…Yes. Goliath, over here. To the recovery tank.”

And Jon never felt so helpless as now, as he watched Terry McGinnis help Goliath lower Damian into water that looked far too much like Lazarus. As little robots swarmed his body.

He stood next to the machine, wishing more than anything that he could stick his hand in the liquid and hold Damian’s.

“…How long?” Bruce suddenly asked. Jon twitched and looked up at him. Batman and the little boy who Jon only just now noticed were tending to Goliath.

“What?”

Bruce pointed to Jon’s hand, to his ring. He pointed to the matching one on Damian’s hand. “How long?”

“…Seven years.” Jon murmured tiredly. “We eloped in Nanda Parbat.”

Bruce closed his eyes. “You never told me.”

“I never told anyone.” He tilted his head in a wince. “…Dick only found out on accident.”

“Dick knew?” Bruce asked. Jon nodded.

“I swore him to secrecy. I’m…kind of surprised he followed through.” Jon admitted. “I…you two were on bad terms. I didn’t want you going in there and potentially starting a war. Potentially hurting each other.”

“We saw each other last year.” Bruce whispered.

“I never stopped him from telling you. That was his choice.” Jon added. “…How did you not notice the ring then? Damian said he never takes it off.”

“He wore gloves the whole time.” Bruce shrugged. “It wasn’t something I was looking for.”

Terry reappeared then, and he and Bruce began to talk about the situation at hand. The city currently being overrun with assassins.

Jon didn’t care.

He had just crossed his arms, was tapping on his forearm, when suddenly, Damian burst from the water in a frenzy. He was screaming and disoriented, and he set his sights on the new Batman.

“Kill.” Damian hissed. Bruce tried to grab for him, but he was too slow in his old age, and missed. But that was fine. That was cool.

Jon was between Damian and Terry in a millisecond.

“I’ll…kill…” Damian breathed, fist still ready. Jon just smiled, and took his face in his hands.

“I’d like to see you try.” Jon mused, leaning down to kiss him. Damian instantly became putty in his hands.

“…You’re with family.” Bruce offered behind them, as Damian’s mind seemed to catch up. His spine straightened, and he reached out to hold Jon’s waist. “You’re safe.”

Jon pulled back, but continued to hold his face as he repeated, “You’re safe.”

“Well. For now.” Terry interjected. “Mind telling us what the hell is going on, so we can maybe save the world?”

Damian sighed, stepping away from Jon. But not too far. Not far enough where Jon couldn’t immediately hook their fingers together. “His name is Zeh-ro. But some call him Mr. Zero…”

It was kind of cool, if Jon thought about it. There was a short ice age. Dick showed up, his daughter too. Damian played well with others. And Zeh-ro was taken down, his plan destroyed.

The Earth saved. Millions upon billions of people were saved.

“The League is yours again.” Jon hummed, watching Matt jump around the roof with Goliath. “…So, I take it you’ll be leaving again soon?”

“…Well, not necessarily.” Damian shrugged. “I mean, Nanda Parbat was turned into a launch pad, and is currently unlivable. The families there have been moved to safer ground, and those remaining loyal to me are all here or protecting the families, so.” He looked at Jon. “You’re stuck with me for the time being.”

“Great.” Jon smiled. He stepped to the side, winding one arm around Damian’s waist. ��Better than great, actually.”

“Oh?”

“In fact, the longer you’re here, the more time I’ll have to think up a plan to keep you with me forever.” Jon smirked, bouncing his nose off Damian’s cheek. Damian laughed, and leaned into him. Jon looked across the roof. He could see Dick glancing their way as he spoke with Bruce, a warm grin on the old man’s face himself. “And I don’t think I’m the only one who might be happy with that.”

Damian looked over himself. “…You’re all a bunch of old, sentimental fools.”

“…I’m younger than you.” Jon reminded.

Damian pursed his lips. “Old, sentimental fool.”

Jon laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the city. Goliath responded with a happy roar of his own. Damian smirked as the McGinnis brothers, Graysons and Bruce laughed too.

It was a good day.

“…Welcome home, Damian.” Jon whispered.

Damian sighed, taking hold of the hand Jon had on his hip and leaning into his chest. “Thank you, Beloved.”

#jon kent #Damian Wayne #jondami

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girlofthefandom · 4 years ago

Text

Tales from the smp thoughts and random quotes I enjoy (essentially delayed live blogging) Part 1

I love all these npcs already

“Hurry up camera man!”

Yes! Gladiators! I remember seeing someone say that idea

Just some joes

Porkeous the 7th. Oh no I can see the fan girls now.

Yes! Punch em off!!

“Yeah same.”

“That’s good cause I don’t” “we build a new colosseum every time”

I can’t want to see the names of everyone’s characters. Especially Philz’

Stairs everyone’s worst enemy

Tubbo... sweet child

She disappeared!! Witch craft! Burn the witch!

Tubbo=Jacky (forced off streets)

Fundy=Laggius Maximus (I love this name so much with the spinning)

Please don’t kill both the boys in this fight. But also I’m cheating for Laggius.

Subbin Empire? Subbin to Technoblade!

Go Laggius! This is not going to go well... this is really not going to go well...

No I refuse to root for Jacky. I like Laggius the bit will be funnier later.

I want to know what happened to the last camera guy! Let us know!

Vertical feeling! Heaven forbid! Also look at them insulting TikTok

I love the background music. Feels magical.

A lovely jump

Surprises... well that’s ominous. And wait the first one!

Tower! Towers are always good.

We got our popcorn. Ready to watch this fight.

Laggius is... coming... maybe...

GG Jacky... he hasn’t won yet but gg.

Lava!!!! Hooray! Love us some good lava

Poor Laggius... he was burning too early

And Laggius is still lagging

Why isn’t Jacky burning?? He won???

Knocked unconscious in the lava. What is this a Pokémon game?

GG Jacky.

Nobody needs to know the way around here.

“Almost like a video game” just break that fourth wall right down

Keeps looking at sapnaps character and talking about strong. How sweet. We love some fiancé’s.

Please don’t throw Laggius to the wolves

Jack Manifold = Bartholomew

Phil having to translate. I love it.

Watson = Phil

Good pun. Very good pun.

Nobody likes Punz. Gosh everyone’s so mean

We love Watson. Let’s go Watson.

Bartholomew with the drugs and Watson.

Crazy drunk man with fire resistance

I agree with Watson why did we come to this cousin.

Sapnap in a hole

Also I love the drinking age being 3

Let’s go Watson!!!

Where are my Pom poms? I’ve got a Watson to cheer for.

Execute those architects.

And their first Borns.

Watson! Watson! Watson!

“Welcome to the land of the living Bartholomew.”

I love the slow fight.

Come on Watson shoot em!

Oh no. Oh no. Come on Watson. You’re so close!

Noooooooooo.

Why Bartholomew???? I can’t spell that! I’ve been relying on autocorrect this whole time.

Watson would be so much easier to spell.

Still must go down the stairs.

Speed running life. That’s what I do.

No one dies. Just take them to nurse joy.

Poor Punz being so bullied

Punz=Levi

Levi? Really? Oh well I like the name. He won’t like but I like the name.

Also why does Levi have such a full backstory.

Has weapon hands with a horrible southern accent. I love it.

“Hmmm”

Who is Ol’ Sap?

Sapnap = John

And no creativity apparently.

Laggius had the best name for a gladiator. All the others are too boring.

Why are we beating up BBH

Hannah=Genevieve

Genevieve! I can spell that thanks to old Barbie movies!!

Go Genevieve! Trained her life! I love this woman!

Mostly women upstairs. I love it our fandom is so biased.

“Are you sure about that?”

Darlin? Really that’s not the right word.

Go Genevieve! I probably shouldn’t cheer for her since everyone I’ve cheered for has lost.

But still GO GENEVIEVE!!

Our empire is millions in dept

Let’s step up the battle! Let’s gooooo

“Ayyyyy!!!”

Go Genevieve! Levi hush up with your gills.

Jump in! Splish Splash!

Wait why are we listening to Mario Kart music? Wait I recognize this song.

Go Genevieve!!

YES FINALLY! I PICKED THE WINNER!

Levi hush. You done lost messed up southern boi.

Go Genevieve! I can actually spell your name!

I straight forgot Porkeous the 7ths name for a second and had to check my notes.

Stairs. Woop de doo.

“Pick the most handsome” wow

Ol’ Sap = John as I remember. And he’s sticking with it. Bold man sticking with it.

Ranboo = Ran

Just Ran and it’s just the enderman part of the skin. Haha. Very funny.

BBH = Edward

He went from strange voice to normal(ish) voice

I don’t like Edwards speech pattern. At the very least. Yucky.

John v. Edward letsa go

Go John!

Wait we renaming? This is going to get confusing.

Handsome. Can you two quit flirting (not really keeping going)

Alrighty then Ugly v. Edward

Go Ugly! (Sentence I never expected to type)

The seat thing

And saying king Julien. Sigh.

Just BRB real quick.

Thinking about buying things. Oh he meant ad.

Alright Ad 1/3 let’s go.

No I can’t even open chat to watch them instead of the ad. Boooo.

2/3 let’s get this done!

3/3

Snickers just loading for forever

Alrighty we survived.

And a crown really? Just wants his normal skin back.

Let’s go Ugly!

Bo-at battle! Let’s go!

Please don’t shoot Ugly.

Go Ugly!

“King Are you ok!”

I still hate Edwards speech pattern so much

Please. Just pretend to have a fair fight.

The rabbits???? Cant rabbits swim?

Hooray rabbits! I don’t what purpose they serve but I love them.

Edward or Edwardo? Did I miss something?

Ok it seems both.

Shooting a rabbit? Disowner on you disowner on your cow.

Killing pets reference? The references are so good.

YES UGLY!!!! Thank heavens!

I’m 2/4 for choosing the winner.

I hope ugly keeps on winning

“Colosseum Remote Control”

3 in 1 battle how did they not plan correctly for an even number

Nerds hold cameras you heard it here folks

I don’t want to hear deeper for some of these stories. All I want to see is Genevieves further story. She seems deep.

“Massive pigs growling at us. No offense”

Watson trying to clean the table.

We bringing in the Harmonika.

Harmonika fits the moment.

Yes name him handsome! Haha

Grievous is how I’m spelling that stupid sounding name. But it’s better than John and ugly.

I can’t get over the name Ran.

BE GONE LEVI!

I love Watson having to take care of Bartholomew. Translating for him and waking him up.

Phil just can’t resist playing the dad.

No no stopping just fighting.

Also I love Watson saying break it up. I wish Watson had won.

Genevieve sounds like such a lovely lady and she deserves to win.

As much as I love Grevious I want Genevieve to win.

Sapnap=Grevious good gracious this is hard to follow.

Ran is cool. I’m going to kill over listening to them just saying Ran.

Complicated backstory. Found the main character.

Ran is cool.

Wait this place is going down??? Pardon me???

Three person fight is...

Grevious v. Ran v. Bartholomew

Genevieve v. Jacky

Puns! Let’s go! And of course Levi likes Puns.

Everyone is so mean.

GO GENEVIEVE!

And Watson just babysitting Bartholomew

I’m going to get good at spelling Bartholomew. Because I was horrible at it before.

Empire of women!

Cages=Lava

“Mmm what smells good”

Battle star!!

“Boing Boing Boing”

Water dome?

Water Dome in Lava?

Well he tried zombies/bunnies

Lava in the water sphere?

Only fight at top of fishbowl got it.

GO GENEVIEVE!

Come on girl you’ve got this!

No Genevieve babe please don’t lose.

“The boats going down.” “It’s yelling timber.” “Like that song that hasn’t been made yet.”

Hurry up and die. I love it.

NO GENEVIEVE!!!!!

Do do do do

That was a longer fight. But pretty good.

To the cellars! Not to the cellars!

No! The boat is gone!

That was close.

This feels like a funky Pokémon game.

Jacky is a finalist! Good for him. I’m not cheering for him but good for him.

TRIANGLE FORMATION

Who’s missing? Oh wait it’s Bartholomew

“Intense prison cosmetic surgery”

Rabbits! We love rabbits.

Oh no faceplant mode!

What is even happening?!?!

Thinking creatively.

Just don’t die. What a game.

Cant wait to watch the thinking creatively animatic.

In a boat to avoid floating.

Attack!

Go Ran!

Oh we’re lagging.

Disable the dive mode!

The zombies are a bit much. Oh everyone’s actually fighting.

Rats why weren’t there baby zombies when Watson was going. They even made a Phil reference.

No treaties.

Go Ran! Keep on running away.

I love Ran.

GO RAN! I love Grevious. But GO RAN

Faster Zombies. Zombies go zoom.

Oh Grevious won.

Wait why does Ran have grass and why do they see him again.

Placing more dirt to clean old dirt.

Poor Grevious.

I feel sorry for him now.

Stand on da dirt.

Put the rabbits in the cages!!!!

I cheer for Grevious.

And yes there are many a loser.

Everything is so spicy. As in lava is there.

You can’t kick your fiancé’s future descendent out of the gang.

A full inventory

Watson with the backup button!

Seriously all he can do is be a dad.

OH BOY LAGGIOUS IS BACK!

And he’s here for the picture.

And Watson is (still) bullying him!

Bartholomew is pure trouble.

Ooops. The root beer was on the brain.

Watson! Come get your drunk!

Oh wait he actually did! I love this so much.

Petition for more Phil in Tales.

Only Genevieve voting for Jacky

Some people refusing to vote.

I’m sorry who asked if Laggius is ok.

He is always (not) ok

He is fine. See.

I love Laggius’ character the most.

Go winners!

Reformed kinda. If that doesn’t sum up the whole of the smp.

All the grass in the cage.

And Laggius being his slow self.

Nothing v. General

I love how it went from King to Emperor to King

And there is Laggius.

I don’t know how anyone else is spelling Laggius but I like this way and refuse to edit it if it actually spelled different.

Oh we’re getting more ads.

1/3 let’s go

#tales from the smp #tftsmp #dreamsmp #dsmp #delayed liveblogging

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midnight-strays · 5 years ago

Note

Hello! I hope you’re doing well and not too busy. If you wouldn’t mind, I was wondering if I could make a request for Chuuya with a fem s/o in Port Mafia who hasn’t been coping with stress well (she doesn’t want to upset Mori so she does all the missions even though she’s exhausting herself), just a fluffy scenario of her coming back practically crawling on the ground and Chuuya helping her out. (And canceling all of her missions for the future cause she needs sleep! Haha) Please and Thank you!

//This isn’t so much stress, more just physical exhaustion. Hope you enjoy!

Letting out a long and heavy, but silent yawn, you tightened your grip on your gun, blinking back tears formed by the yawn so your vision was clear. Forty-eight hours- no, make that forty-nine hours without any sleep. You’ve barely sat down since you woke up the other day. You had gotten up, after sleeping for maybe five hours, got ready, received a call from a subordinate of yours and headed straight to your boss’ office to receive your new orders. Now here you were, forty-nine hours later, back against a large sea container as you tried to keep yourself focussed on the task at hand. You could hear footsteps creeping towards you, almost silent but by holding your breath and paying close attention, you could hear them, how close they were, how fast they were moving, male or female. You were trained well enough to be able to pick it all out.

The footsteps were slow, calm. They didn’t know you were there, most likely on patrol. The footfalls were heavy, they were most likely male and judging by the faint clicking you could hear, they were armed. Just as you had expected them to be. You stood close to the corner of the sea container, gun in one hand and the other hand ready to strike out. The moment you saw the weapon of the other, you grabbed it, pulling them around the corner before quickly disarming them. They hardly had a chance to let out a yell before a bullet was lodged into their brain. Thank god for silencers, you didn’t need too many people on your ass right now. The body dropped to the floor like a sack of shit and you quickly looked around the corner to see if anyone else was in sight or had heard the small amount of sound you had made. No one.

With the coast clear, you continued on with your job, making your way into the facility undetected. So far that is. Your legs ached; you haven’t sat down for more than a couple minutes at a time since you woke up forty-nine hours ago. You neck also hurt, beyond belief, as about five hours ago, you spent a whole hour, stuck inside an air vent, listening into a conversation to find this place. God you needed to hot bath, a massage and a much-needed sleep. But you just knew, when you got back, Mori would have another job for you. You almost wanted to drag this on a little longer, maybe take a nap on your way back, just so you could take a break, but you knew what would happen if Mori found out. He’d work you even harder, right down to the point you were unable to lift your own gun.

You shuddered at the thought, shaking your head to try remaining focused. You couldn’t afford to get caught now. You didn’t know the building well enough to escape if someone saw you and set off an alarm. Seemed you had no choice in the matter however, as you didn’t notice the censor hidden in the corner of the doorway you just walked through. There was no alarm, no rushing of footsteps, nothing. You didn’t know you were in trouble until you were met with a wall of people, all pointing lethal weapons in your direction. Why couldn’t you have been an ability user?

Beaten, bruised, bleeding and struggling to hold yourself up, you sat in the train, head tilted back as you tried to relax your tense muscles. What a rodeo that had all been. First you were captured, pushed for information, beaten to a pulp and given some adrenaline to keep you awake right when you were about to pass out from exhaustion. Lifting your arm, so your wrist was above your face, you stared at your watch, trying to work out how long it had been since you last slept. Seventy-four hours. A little over three days of no sleep and even now, you still had to get back to the base, which was about half an hour away, shower and patch yourself up which could take up to an hour and then report back to Mori, an extra twenty to thirty minutes. God you were so tired.

Weary eyes were on you, some concerned over your condition, others fearful of the reason you were so beaten up. Were you bad or had bad people gotten to you? What they didn’t know, was that technically, you were both. You dropped your arm over your eyes, letting out a heavy sigh, followed by a yawn. You could feel your eyes becoming heavy, sleep calling your name now that the adrenaline had worn off. Not wanting to fall asleep on the train and miss your stop however, you jumped to your feet, startling some people with your sudden movement. You reached up and held on to a bar above your head to remain steady and kept your eyes focused straight at the doors, eager to get the hell home.

When you got off the train, you were left to walk to the base. Not only had Mori forgotten to send someone to pick you up, no taxis would stop for you, considering the state you were in. So, as you finally walked through the doors of the building’s elevator and then through Mori’s office door without knocking, you were about ready to drop- wait. No. You did drop. Exhaustion finally grasped onto you completely, practically squeezing the life out of you as your legs gave out from under you. The men in the room cringed as you toppled to the floor. Even Elise’s eyes widened in surprise and she likes watching people suffer! Mori, who was sitting at his desk, watching with raised eyebrows while the other man, one of his executives, quickly made his way over to make sure you were okay.

A gloved hand was offered to you, which you took, so he could help you to your unsteady feet.

“Thank you Chuuya,” you murmured, catching sight of his ginger hair before actually seeing his face. When you were able to make eye contact, you could see concern written all over his face. Straightening up the best you could, you looked to your boss. “Boss, with all due respect, I’ll report back to you when I’m able to stand on me own,” you spoke, a look of amusement crossing Mori’s face at your words. Chuuya wrapped your arm around his shoulders to hold you up so you weren’t supporting your full weight on your legs.

“Very well. Chuuya, we’ll continue this talk later, please assist Miss (Y/N) for now,” the man responded calmly, earning a nod from the hot-headed executive before you were escorted out of the office and towards the medical bay.

“No… Chuuya, just take me home. Please. I have what I need there, I just want to go home…” you sighed out, holding onto him tightly, fearful you would drop back to the ground if you let go of him any time soon. The mafia executive was about to argue, insisting that you needed proper treatment, but the look on your face said it all. You needed to go home. So, he turned to the elevator and took you down to the underground parking lot where he got you into his car and drove you to your apartment, just like you had asked of him. He didn’t speak to you, only keeping an eye on you from time to time, making sure you didn’t suddenly stop breathing or some shit like that. You were beat up pretty bad.

When you arrived, you tried to get out of the car on your own, only to almost fall out, cueing him to come around and assist you into your apartment, where he insisted he clean your wounds before you took a shower. It took a moment to find your keys and get into the apartment itself, but once you were seated at the kitchen table, Chuuya went straight to your first aid kit- he’s patched you up before- and got to work on cleaning you up the best he could for now. He would do a better job once you had showered.

“The boss has been wearing you pretty thin huh?” he finally spoke, cleaning up a deep cut on your collarbone.

“It’s just part of being in the mafia…” you responded with a small shrug, wincing a little at the pain it brought you.

“I hate to say it, but the boss runs you around a little more than some of the others. I’ll ask him to lay off for a while, at least until you’ve healed and regained your strength,” he claimed, looking up at you from where he was slouched over.

A soft smile crawled to your lips at his words, thankful that he would do something like that for you.

“Thank you Chuuya.” After he had cleaned up your not so pretty wounds, you went to take a shower, sitting on a stool to prevent further injury. The water pooled at your feet, brown and red in colour for a little while before running clear again. After that, you just enjoyed the feeling of the water on your skin, almost falling asleep in there, if it wasn’t for Chuuya calling out to you, making sure you hadn’t slipped or something.

You wrapped a towel around yourself, carefully making your way out of the bathroom and coming to sit on the couch. You didn’t bother dressing just yet. For now, this made it easier for Chuuya to finish what he was doing before.

“Take it easy for the next couple of days. We don’t need you coming in if you’re just going to pass out on us, okay? I’ll come around tomorrow to check on you, so if you’re planning on sleeping all day, put a key somewhere I can find it,” he explained to you as he placed bandages over your wounds. When he didn’t get a response, he looked up from what he was doing with a small frown, only to chuckle and shake his head when he saw why. You were fast asleep.

#bungou stray dogs #chuuya x reader #chuuya nakahara x reader #chuuya nakahara #bsd x reader #bsd #bungou stray dogs x reader #stressed reader #fluff

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danganronpa-tng · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 5 - The Trial Of Kamron Naegi

*Trigger Warning; brief mention of hanging later in the trial. Read at your own discretion*

- - -

Kamron was found collapsed out in the hallway of the dormitory corridor. He had a couple of bruises on barely visible areas, such ad his stomach or legs. His sunglasses were missing. Due to the fact four people encountered the body at the same time, one out of the four could still be a suspect, hkwever this is not certain.

Cause of death was blood loss. He was found with his right hand severed, laying several feet away from him. The weapon used to sever the hand is unknown, but the cut makes it look like a sharp blade. There were clear signs of a struggle, including blood splatters in the middle of the hallway. It seems he was propped up against the wall rather than collapsing against it.

The victim was killed at approximately 1PM. He was discovered at approximately 9AM that day.

- - -

“So, he died at 1AM?”

“Yep... anything on your mind, Sara?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing really. I just find it odd he was still fully clothed at 1AM, that’s all. Well, bar his sunglasses, but you know.”

“That’s true, actually... thanks, Sara!”

“Anytime! Good luck.”

- - -

“I-I can’t believe this... Kamron... as s-soon as I learn we’re related...”

“Hey, hey Kass... it’s gonna be OK. We’re gonna find his killer, no matter what! Ok?”

“Yeah... yeah, I know you can. We all can. I just can’t let this slide. Someone’s- someone’s gonna pay!”

“Right.”

- - -

“Greetings, Hayden.”

“Oh, Katelyn! You ok? You look panicked.”

She’s smoothing out her clothes and panting.

“No, not panicked per say... more so, kind of nervous. I was chatting to Aspen last night, and we talked about how we were sure nobody else would be killed from now on... I suppose we were wrong.”

“Oh...”

“Anyways, I did my usual check to the weapons room, as I tend to do.”

“And?”

“I, surprisingly didn't see anything out of place. Nobody had moved anything since the masquerade.”

“Really? That’s odd... anyways, thanks Katelyn.”

“Anytime. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

- - -

“M-morning, Aeja...”

“Hello, Hayden. Apologies for my message earlier, please disregard it.”

“Huh? I mean, we can still talk if you want-”

“No, it’s quite alright. Now, what did you come over here for?”

“Ah, well, I just wanted to see what evidence you had.”

“Is that it? Hm. Well then, all I’ve found so far isn’t properly solid evidence, but I noticed that almost everyone came out of their room in their pyjamas, as you can see. However, three people didn’t. Aspen, Katelyn and Estrella. Not proper evidence.”

“Well, it’s still worth noting! Thanks, Aeja.”

“You’re welcome. Now, please leave me be. I’m thinking.”

“Ah. Ok.”

- - -

“Estrella-?”

“Hm? Hmm? Is that a voice? No, must have been the wind.”

“Estrella-”

“Oh, there it is again! It sure is drafty in here.”

“Estrella please, I just wanna talk about evi-”

“Ugh, a leader as supreme as me shouldn't be putting up with a cold room. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Wait-! Aaaaaaaand she’s gone.”

- - -

“Hm? Vera? Oh, you can write it down. Cool.”

Yes. Well, I was just wondering, has anyone checked the kitchen to see if all the knives are still there? It might be a worthy idea.

“Oh, no actually! I didn’t even think of that. Thanks, Vera!”

- - -

The Trial

- - -

“So, does anyone have a solid alibi?”

“For 1AM?”

“Ah... fair point. So let me rephrase that; was anybody in someone else’s dorm last night? As in, sleeping over?”

Yes, I was staying in Sara’s room last night.

“Ah, ok! So, we can pretty safely assume those two are clear then.”

“Nice! Thanks, Vera!”

“Was anyone else with another person? For any amount of time?”

I looked over at Estrella and Aeja. They were looking anywhere but at each other, avoiding eye contact like it was the Black Plague. I pitied the two. I debated whether or not I should admit I saw them. But before I could, the conversation topic changed.

- - -

“So, I don’t suppose anyone checked the weaponry room, did they?”

“Yes, I did, in fact.”

“Oh! See anything, Katelyn?”

“No, actually. Nothing was out of place, so it seems nothing has moved since our last investigation.”

“Oh, that’s odd...”

“...hey, Vera? Didn't you say you thought about checking the kitchen?”

She nods.

“Did you get a chance to?”

She nodded again, starting to write. I suppose writing is easier then having everything translated.

Yes. One knife was in the rack still, but bloodied, so we can assume a kitchen knife is what severed his hand. And I also noticed a glass while I was there, one that still had ice in it. Which means...

“Someone only put it back this morning?”

She nods.

- - -

“Estrella, you’ve been pretty quiet.”

“Hm? Oh, sorry. I just didn’t feel like wasting my breath on you.”

“Wow, rude.”

“Really? Quite honestly Sara, I hadn’t cared to notice.”

“What’s up with you? You’ve been in a pretty good mood since the whole-”

“Yeah, well, things change, People change. Or rather, they don’t. See, I was trying to be a but nicer, but after a certain incident I realised that- well, who am I kidding? I’ve built this role for myself, and I’m never gonna be able to shake it off, so might as well live up to it.”

She folds her arms.

“I’m the evil leader that’s only here to confuse and irritate people. I’m the walking embodiment of a bad joke! So, if you plan on figuring out who stabbed Spy Kid over there, I suggest you shut the fuck up and keep going with the trial.”

Sara just looked away, slightly disheartened.

“I thought we’d become friends now... Aren’t we friends?”

“Do you really want to be friends with someone like me?”

- - -

“Well, let’s get back to alibis, since we don’t have much to go off. Where was everyone? Alone, or with someone else?”

“I- like I said earlier, I was with Vera.”

“Right. Karma?”

“I was alone. I stayed up a bit late though, so I only woke up when the body announcement went off.”

“Ok. Kassidy?”

“I-I said goodbye to Kamron and then went back to my room... I went asleep pretty quickly.”

“Alright. Katelyn?”

“Unlike almost everyone here, I have an alibi. I stayed in Aspen’s room last night, then went back to mine and got changed. I was up before the announcement, so-”

“Wait a sec.”

“Hm? Something wrong, Aspen?”

“Katelyn... you never came to my room last night.”

- - -

“Katelyn..? Care to defend yourself?”

“Wh- oh, shut up, copycat. Have you not even considered your dear girlfriend over there? You should have seen her face when we saw the body! She didn’t even look surprised, she looked like she already knew! She-”

“That’s because I did.”

“...what?”

“Estrella, what do you mean by-?”

“Isn't it obvious, Mr No Talent? I saw the murder happen. I was on my way back to my room when I heard a fight, so I went to check it out, and... well, I simply decided to not give him a hand, haha!”

“Really?! You're serious?”

“Most likely.”

“Well, who did it?”

“I thought that was obvious, too. I decided not to tell you because I’m pissed off! I’m a petty bitch, as you know, and as such I decided to let this play out.”

“Estrella, stop being childish-”

“DON’T talk to me about childish, Aeja! I’m not the one who tried to hang them self when they got scared!”

The room fell horribly silent. Aeja looked away, and Estrella reached up to her own cheek, where her cut was. Something started to click into place.

“Wait, Aeja tried to-”

“Fine then, Estrella. If you're going to be like that, shut up and dont disrupt this trial. This isn't about our business, it’s about finding Kamron’s killer. So, now that we’re back on topic and abandoning that last conversation... Katelyn? Aspen?”

Aspen looked at Katelyn, who didn’t meet his eyes.

“K-Katelyn? Kate? Please, please tell me you just got mixed up. You got mixed up, right? Yeah. Yeah!”

“...Aspen.”

“...no. No, no, no, please don’t say it.”

- - -

“Why? Why did you do it, Katelyn?”

“I- Hayden. You have to understand, I hold my parents in... very high regard. He was insulting them, insulting me! I-I couldn’t just let that stand. I got mad, so I- I got a knife from the kitchen and went back, just to threaten him! I never planned on actually hurting him... but I guess he panicked, and he lunged at me. So I panicked, and- I accidentally-”

“...chopped his hand off.”

“...If I could go back in time, I would change what I did. But, it’s in the past now. I... this shouldn't have happened, I know.”

“...you can’t be serious, right Katelyn? Right?! It was Estrella. Yeah, it was! You’re just covering for her because- because- you don't wanna watch the same execution again!”

“...no.”

“...this doesn’t compute. There’s something wrong here, right? RIGHT?!”

- - -

“Well, Hayden, I do not wish to put up a fight. Care to unravel this case?”

That quickly? Hm...

“Ok. This- *sigh*.”

This all starts... Last night, I believe. The killer was out in the corridor with Kamron, with whom they hadn't interacted, until the killer made some off-handed comment about their parents, which caught Kamron’s attention. He started talking about the parents of the other participants, including the killer’s. They seemed to have a particular distaste for their parents, particularly their deceased father, for reasons unknown, as they started to slander them, insulting them and the killer. The killer, enraged by this, leaves Kamron there and goes to the kitchen. They grab a knife, which they must have thought was blunt, to threaten him. However, when they got there, Kamron saw the weapon in their hand and panicked. They tried to lunge for the killer, but was swiftly cut off- literally- as the killer also panics and swings the knife with unusual force. This blow, to their dismay, manages to cut off Kamron’s hand. He stumbles backwards and collapsed, bleeding out. The killer, panicking, returns to their room. They stash the weapon and go straight to bed, trying to act natural.

They wake up slightly earlier than everyone else to hide the evidence. They wake up a bit too late though, and don't have as much time as they thought to clean the weapon. They simply slip it back into the knife rack and grab a quick drink, before heading back to their room. Five minutes later, they hear me scream and run outside, ‘finding’ the body along with me and two others.

That’s what happened, and our killer is...

Katelyn Momota, the Ultimate Psychiatrist!

“...it sounds so horrible when it’s repeated back to me. But, I must face the facts. I’m-”

- - -

*mumbling*

“Aspen? Did you say somethi-”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“ ! ”

“I told you not to get mad! I told you not to hurt anyone, and look what you did! You’ve... you’ve gone and killed someone, and now I’m going to lose you. I’m gonna lose you, Katelyn!”

“Aspen... Aspen, no. You can’t be upset over me, ok? I’m a killer now. I’m a bad person here.”

“No you’re not! I don’t care what you’ve done, you’re still special to me! I-I can’t lose you! Please don’t go... please...”

Aspen was doubled over on himself, and... I think he was crying oil?

“I didn’t know the robot could cry-”

“Shut up, Estrella.”

Katelyn looked genuinely confused and concerned. She shook her head.

“No, you... you’re not supposed to be upset over me. You... you shouldn’t be upset over me. You can’t.”

Aspen and Katelyn finally locked eyes. Neither said anything for a moment. Eventually, Katelyn sighed.

“I... I know there is no escaping my fate. But... I wish to do one more thing before I am killed. Monokuma, may I? I will make no attempt to escape.”

Monokuma shrugged.

“Sure, knock yourself out. ...wait, what are you doing?”

And suddenly, Katelyn was running. Not to the exit, not to Aspen, but to...

“...Eh-?! GAH-!”

Katelyn was on her knees either side of a now toppled over Estrella, with her hands around Estrella’s neck. Estrella was grabbing at Katelyn’s Arms, trying to free herself. She was being strangled.

“You BITCH! I should have wasted my damn murder on you!”

“KATELYN!”

“ESTRELLA!”

Two people ran over; Aspen and Aeja. Aeja reached them first, full on jumping at Katelyn and pushing her off Estrella. Aspen helped Estrella sit up, the girl in question being purple in the face and gasping for air. Aeja had Katelyn pinned by her wrists.

“Hah... hah...”

Estrella looked over at the girls, panting. She looked between them, and I couldn't tell which person confused her more. She nodded at Aspen, trying to stand herself up.

“Katelyn... the fuck?!”

“You... you know what you did to me, you bitch!”

After a moment, Estrella took a deep breath and grinned, placing her arms behind her head.

“Of course I do! And I don’t regret it either, you know. I’m glad I did!”

Katelyn literally growled, and suddenly she shoved Aeja off her, standing up. Estrella jumped a bit, backing up. Aeja looked at Monokuma.

“Monokuma- MONOKUMA!”

Even Monokuma looked surprised at the whole outburst, but he quickly resumed normal behaviour.

“I have a very special punishment for Katelyn Momota, Ultimate Psychiatr- SHIT-!”

With Katelyn quickly approaching Aspen, Monokuma slammed his hammer down on his button.

“Wait- Katelyn!”

#Danganronpa TNG #Katelyn Momota #TNG Spoilers #Trial

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silenthillmutual · 6 years ago

Text

if the heavens ever did speak

we were born sick, you heard them say it.

writing exercise thing, warning for some pretty bad feelings under the cut y’all

his life has always been a kind of race of one life-ruining decision after another, so his death is - more or less - to be expected. it’s the kind of thing he could have approached nonchalantly, if taka would just realize he wasn’t worth the arguments and let things be. but even after he’s shown his cards, admitted his guilt, lined up for the firing squad, he is still knee-deep in denial.

there is no part of this mondo enjoys. there is no quantifiable “hardest” or “worst” part about it, because every single second feels just as terrifying as the next. he acts out of impulse and a lack of self-control and he doesn’t sleep and he more or less just waits around for them to find him, and he thinks, to himself, ‘the worst part is that i have killed a living being again’. and then once that’s sunk in and he’s started to feel so terrible that everything is numb, he thinks, ‘the worst part is now ishimaru will hate me’.

about the last part, he’s wrong.

the worst part is that he doesn’t. the worst part is that he beats down every accusation until he’s almost physically falling apart from the strain of it all. the worst part is that even when he’s accepted what mondo’s done he doesn’t even hate him for it. the worst part is watching makoto try to hold him back from doing something dumber. the worst part is hearing that he voted for himself. and again, all of that absolutely pales in comparison to the absolute pinnacle of worst parts, which is the fact that the last thing he ever hears is kiyotaka ishimaru screaming for him as he’s dying.

dying, itself, isn’t that bad.

there’s a pretty big disparity between what mondo thinks he knows, and what he realizes he actually knows when he wakes up. it’s like when your alarm clock goes off, but you don’t wake up, you just hear the buzzing in your dreams. that’s what taka’s screaming sounds like, and he is trying so desperately to think and he can’t over the sound. and then, it’s cut off, abrupt, and he knows that it’s because taka has run out of voice. and somehow, that’s just worse.

that’s it. it only ever gets worse.

he doesn’t have that moment where he thinks he’s alive and the slow, horrifying memory that he is, in fact, dead that he’s read about so much in fiction. he knows that he’s dead. it just doesn’t help matters much. he thinks he’s stuck where he is, facing white walls and monochrome tile and somehow it all looks more bleak than it did this morning.

he’s wrong, but what else is new? he can move, just not like he did before. he can’t move on his own terms.

if he thinks it was bad before, it is absolutely nothing. not even death is a reprieve from the consequences of his actions.

it’s funny, how daiya used to say that when people died, they went to sleep and never woke up. it’s more like being awakened, and never being allowed to go back to sleep. here’s a fun fact: kiyotaka doesn’t either.

his body (or what passes for it now) is tethered to every minute movement kiyotaka makes, and it’s like being a partner in a dance but you are blindfolded and also deaf and mute and in fact you do not exist at all. everything is one long stretch of silence punctuated by jerks. which should be kind of funny, because every memory he has of taka makes him seem so practiced.

speaking of memory. he has so many.

they don’t “flood”. that’s another thing he’s seen - that when you get temporary amnesia, it will all come back to you in chronological order. it’s kind of gross for him to think about every memory montage that ends with some guy running to some girl and kissing her at the end because when he follows that train of thought to the last stop he certainly has a lot of memories and they involve running and they involve kissing and they involve kiyotaka and he is aware that he didn’t have any of these until he woke up and saw white. they are both new information and old.

worse. worse, worse, worse. it’s worse that for the past however many days they’ve been here he’s acted like such a tool. lining up for his execution he thought about how taka blamed himself for mondo’s actions and mondo thought about how funny-but-not-funny-haha it was that if he had actually let kiyotaka into his life earlier he might have learned something about self-control. not that it was taka’s job to teach him things he should have learned long ago, learned from his first five hundred mistakes, but it couldn’t have hurt to know.

he feels something crawling on his back, like when people make spiders of their hands to tickle and scare you. he never liked it at age 13, and he doesn’t like it any more now that he’s dead.

there’s something in his head about kiyotaka running his hands through his hair because he’d let it stay down out of the shower, and taka told him it suited him and he told taka he’d better not tell anyone else about it. and then he’d laughed, a lot different from how he laughs now, because only mondo could hear him.

right now, the real kiyotaka, the alive kiyotaka who doesn’t remember the things he does, is looking at his hands.

he’s not sitting on the bed, or anything. he’s standing by it, like a toy put up on a shelf so that he can’t be brought down and played with in the middle of the night. just standing there, still in his boots, staring at his hands that are shaking.

mondo kind of wants to blow him over. he kind of wants to say hey, do you remember the first time we held hands, and you apologized because hands were sweaty and you didn’t know how to do it properly, so you kept letting go and trying again and saying it was for ‘practice’ and i pretended to be embarrassed about it?

but it’s kind of hard to say any of it without a mouth.

taka opens his own mouth, but no sound comes out.

makoto is probably trying to help. it’s hard to really tell anything when he has to see it all from over taka’s shoulder, but his consciousness swings around wildly and he doesn’t get to direct where it’s aimed. he wants to get a good look at taka’s face, but at the same time he’s afraid to. everyone who catches a glimpse of it looks away in guilt, and if mondo could still talk he’d call them cowards.

no one but makoto actually makes an effort.

all in all, mondo feels something like blurred surprise that taka even bothered to leave his room. hours passed with him just breathing, not making a noise or even crying. he moved, eventually, from standing by his bed to sitting next to it, never on it. to mondo’s knowledge, he never slept, just stared at the walls in grief until it was time to meet everyone for breakfast.

he didn’t change his clothes, and he doesn’t eat. mondo remembers it with flashbacks to pets he’s loved that slunk away to a corner and starved themselves at the end of their life. and it’s getting worse still that he can see what ishimaru is doing, but a, no one else seems to care, and b, there is not a damn thing he can do now to stop it.

the whole class is gone for about fifteen minutes when he stands up and walks back to his room, his boots making echoes of the floor.

“i wish you’d talk to me”.

it’s the first thing taka says in more than 48 hours. there is elation somewhere beneath the surface where he still has experiences he can’t physically interact with. his voice is strained and thick from overuse and tears. mondo was such an idiot to ever think he’d want him to stop talking. it’s karma.

if he really tries, he can move his point of view enough to see taka’s face. his eyes are pointed at his lap, his knees drawn up to his head and his arms on his legs. it’s not a comfortable position. he can’t remember what it feels like to wear the same set of clothes for two days straight but he knows it can’t possibly feel good.

“i know you’re there.”

worse and worse and worse. is any part of this what mondo wanted? had he wanted to stick around and watch over taka, like he could keep him out of trouble?

bringing pain to people, even in death. yeah, that sounds like him.

he feels like he’s sliding off to the left and tries to hold himself in place so he can watch as taka pulls his head slowly, eyes staring at nothing.

the hands on his back start to take shape, from restless blobs into restless fingers.

when taka hears about alter ego, mondo can practically feel the manic energy vibrating off of him.

there’s a kind of danger in the false hope. he’d like to think that taka doesn’t know it’s there. he’s so cautious in everything he does, in the way mondo remembers him buttoning up his jacket every morning, and rebuttoning it every time he stood up, folding out the creases from sitting or laying down. every habit he’d instilled had been an effort of manual programming.

mondo remembers hating it the same way he remembers loving it: small moments, built up over time. and it takes a good deal of time to establish standards, but not much time at all to burn them to the ground.

he thinks and he shouts with as much force as he can, don’t go. and for now, taka listens.

there is something rotten in the state of denmark.

mondo remembers reading hamlet. a play about a teenage boy who has seen so much tragedy that he starts to slip. attempts are made on his life, even by his friends. he sees ghosts everywhere. his personality fractures into something barely resembling the person he used to be. in short, he doesn’t cope.

what mondo remembers most is discussing this play first year and ishimaru being very loud in his opinions. the question had only been, were the ghosts real? toko said it didn’t matter, taka said it did. she said they only existed as a rule of symbolism. taka said denmark needed better mental health services.

that was like him. that was like him then. but he knows ghosts are real now.

he gets another note under his door, slipped in the middle of the night when he has, for once, taken at least his shirt off. he hasn’t eaten in at least four days, and it’s starting to show.

“i think i’m starting to remember something,” he says to the ceiling.

the note passes under at some point in time he thinks is after midnight. and he reads that too-good handwriting and mondo knows that it’s hiro’s, but he also knows from over two years with the guy that he has never figured out a damn thing in his life and he never will. this is a trap, and he whispers to taka because he figures it doesn’t need to be said, don’t go.

and taka, this time, doesn’t listen.

when things flood, and they do this time, it’s like everything just behind where his ears should be is screaming. he’s known that he can’t stop this, and has felt fists grabbing full hold of his back and tugging. but his grip on ishimaru is other-worldly. he wouldn’t stay here for anything else, and he’s not leaving until he absolutely must.

what is forming into his head as he’s standing half-there between ‘existing’ and ‘not’ a pounding that just goes worse, worse, worse. he can hear it, now, clocks ticking and footsteps and when he tries to grab ishimaru’s hand to make him look at what’s coming for him he hears that same wheezing out-of-breath laughter no one else but him ever has, or ever will, get to know.

he wouldn’t tell anyone if they asked, but: kiyotaka ishimaru goes out with a smile.

#nori talks #nori writes #death cw #ishimondo #(sorta?)#anyway. not sure what prompted me to take a smaller whack (haha) at this.#icarus.docx #mine

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hystericalrogertaylor · 6 years ago

Text

As The World Crumbles (Chapter Five)

Collaboration with @bentaylorrogerhardy

Pairing: Ben Hardy x Reader

Word count: 2099

Summary: Ben and (Y/n) have been dating since Bohemian Rhapsody’s release. Everything seemed perfect for the young couple, until the night of the Golden Globes. Russia has bombed the United States, destroying everything and implementing a ruthless dictatorship. With the country in tatters, Ben, (Y/n), Rami, Lucy, Joe, and Gwilym form the Killer Queens, a vigilante group aimed on destroying the new government, and the cold-blooded dictator, Cornelius Vanzant.

Warnings: Pregnancy, mentions of kidnapping/guns, one cuss word, heart-wrenching angst and super duper-squishy fluff

A/N: I think y’all are gonna like this...

Master list

Spotify playlist

(I feel like this gif was edited with a filter or something, so yeah, it’s not ours. Haha)

~~~

“Oh, my God,” you whispered, covering your mouth with your hand. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Lucy stood there, in front of the TV, seemingly paralyzed by fear and shock. Then, her knees started to buckle, eventually giving out under her. She fell to the floor and started to scream.

“NO!” she yelled at the blank TV screen. “This can’t be happening! Rami, come back!” She leaned forward, almost putting her head on the floor and sobbing her heart out. “Why?!”

Ben slowly broke away from your side, kneeling down next to an inconsolable Lucy. He pulled her into a hug, whispering “shhhh” to try and calm her down. “Hey, we’ll get him back. Okay? We’ll do all we can. Please don’t cry.”

“He’s going to die!” she shouted, her body shaking with each sob. “They’re going to kill him!”

“We won’t let that happen,” Ben said quietly.

Lucy sniffled loudly, sitting up and looking Ben straight in the eyes. “Can you promise me that? Can you promise he’ll be alive to see his child?” Ben broke eye contact, looking down at his lap. “That’s what I thought.” She stood up, brushing her pants to get rid of the dust. “I know we can’t guarantee his survival, but we can at least try.” She wiped the back of her hand over her cheeks, smearing the tears.

“It’s your call,” Gwilym said, standing off to the side. “We’ll do what you want to do.”

“We watch them,” she said. “We watch the news, watch what they schedule. If his execution is public, we can get him that way. If it’s not, we can break into whatever headquarters they’re using and take him that way.”

Gwilym nodded. “Okay. Sounds doable. Let’s get to work as soon as everyone can.”

Frankie, at some point, had come into the room, watching everyone’s somber expressions. Dogs can smell emotions, and Lucy was the most depressed in the whole room. She slowly made her way over to Lucy, jumping up on her leg.

Lucy actually smiled. “Hey girl. Hey Frankie.” She picked the dog up, holding her to her face. “Everything’s fine, girl. We’ll all be fine.”

In response, Frankie started to lick Lucy’s face, making Lucy laugh a little. “That tickles!” She held Frankie away at arm’s length, smiling at her. “Thanks for that, Frankster. I needed it.”

---

After a hard day of planning how to get Rami back, you and Ben went back to your room, not even changing clothes before slipping under the blankets. Ben stared up at the ceiling, not making an effort to hide his pain.

“I just can’t believe we let that happen,” he whispered, rubbing his eyes. “He was behind us, and when we turned around a random man had a gun on his head.” He took a deep breath. “We tried to shoot him as he got away but it wasn’t any use. We could’ve hit Rami.”

You shook your head. “You’re so stupid,” you said, rolling over to face away from him.

You heard him sit up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“How could you possibly think you could take him down?” you asked, trying not to look at him. “They’re a powerful group of people, there’s no way you could’ve saved him.”

“What the hell, (Y/n)?!” he practically shouted.

You slowly sat up, finally looking back over at him, tears starting to pool in your eyes. “It’s just...I hate living every day knowing that any moment, these terrible people could just yank you out of my grasp.” You gulped, trying to suppress a sob. “I know it makes me a terrible person, but I’m so glad they didn’t get you. I don’t know what I would’ve done.” You paused for several seconds, waiting for Ben to say something. When he didn’t, you continued to talk.

“I’ll have nightmares. Almost every night. And a vast majority of them are you dying. I’ll...I’ll wake up and actually have to check the other side of the bed to make sure you’re still there. I’ve also scoured the pharmacy for pregnancy tests, and I’ll sometimes take them after a nightmare where I lose both of you, just to make sure the baby’s still there too.” Ben blinked several times, trying to comprehend what he was hearing. “You two are my everything, I couldn’t handle losing either of you. No way in hell would I be as calm as Lucy is right now.” You had to stop because you were sobbing so hard. “Please, just...don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.”

Ben sighed, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you in for a hug. You held onto him for dear life, letting your tears fall onto his shirt. He stroked your hair, placing soft kisses on your forehead. “I’m not going anywhere, love. I’ll protect all three of us with whatever I can. We’ll be okay.”

“But it’s like what Lucy said,” you whimpered. “We can’t guarantee anything. If you go out on a run tomorrow to stalk Vanzant’s men, there’s no way you can say you’ll come home because you just don’t know! Fuck, I wish we’d never gone to the stupid Golden Globes!” You shook your head. “We could’ve been home, in London, watching from afar. We wouldn’t be in this stupid mess!”

“Once this is all over, we’ll head back to London, have our family, and never think about these years again.” Ben held you closer. “You’re the love of my life. Being with you until I die is all I want to do, and I’m willing to do whatever to get there, including killing Vanzant myself.”

You looked up, grabbing Ben’s face with both of your hands and pulling him into a kiss. It was short, but full of love and meaning. You knew he meant every word he just said.

You pulled away, still sniffling. “Let’s...I don’t know...go on a walk tomorrow. Spend the day with each other. Forget our problems.”

Ben cocked an eyebrow. “You want to go outside? You just protested me--”

“No, not in a public place or anything,” you clarified. “You know the garden behind the hospital? We could just hang out there all day. Get some fresh air and sunshine.”

Ben smiled, nuzzling his face into your neck, placing several kisses here and there. “That sounds amazing.”

You sighed, running your fingers through his hair slowly. “What are you doing?” you asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” he answered, pushing you down onto the mattress.

---

You and Ben woke up bright and early, wanting to get a jump start on your relaxation day. After changing out of your birthday suits and finding Frankie a leash, you said goodbye to everyone else and headed out to the hospital’s garden.

What remained of the lush area was still as beautiful as ever in your eyes. The hospital walls had begun to be severely depressing. The fresh scenery and open air was already doing wonders for you.

“All right Frankie,” Ben said, unhooking her from the leash. “Go have fun!” Frankie ran off, sniffing several plants and always staying close to you two.

You and Ben took a stroll, hand-in-hand, in complete silence, listening to the sounds of nature and the apocalypse. Under the shade of trees and knowing you weren’t seen was quite calming for you. If a plane hadn’t flown over at that moment, you would’ve had more hope for the future to be better.

“We’ve been inside for I don’t even know how long,” you said, beginning to swing the arm holding Ben’s hand. “It’s so nice to get out.”

“It is,” Ben agreed. “I’m already having more fun than when I went out yesterday.”

You shook your head, feeling the sadness creep back in. “No, we’re not talking about that. We’re here to enjoy ourselves.”

“Right, sorry.” He pantomimed zipping his lips, making you smile.

You sighed, looking up at Ben. “Do you ever just randomly think about the fact that we’re about to be parents? Like, you almost forget about it and then you remember and get that happy, fuzzy feeling, but at the same time you’re scared because this isn’t where you want to raise a child.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I get that. But usually I just get all smiley and giddy because, wow, I’m gonna be a dad. And the mom is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”

You blushed, smiling down at your shoes. You ran a hand over your stomach. “I can’t wait to have a bump.”

“Why’s that?” He put his hand on top of yours, causing you both to stop walking.

“Because then it’ll be real.” You smiled at him. “Then I’ll actually feel pregnant.”

Ben frowned, laughing. “I’m surprised you didn’t feel pregnant when you threw up again this morning and then cried about how cute Frankie is.”

You smacked his arm, laughing. “Oh, you know what I mean!”

Ben chuckled, pulling you into his chest. You sighed with contentment while he ran a hand up and down your back. “We should tell the others,” Ben suggested again.

You pulled away, shaking your head. “Ben, you know we still can’t do that.”

“But why not?” He was getting upset again, and you just wanted the conversation to be over.

“It’ll stress them out, and Lucy will be more upset that Rami’s not here for her.” You grabbed his hand again, beginning to slowly stroll again.

“All right,” he ceded, letting you pull him down the path.

After a few more minutes, you came upon a fountain. The water had long since evaporated, leaving an empty, beautiful stone monument. Frankie, who was still right on your heels, ran up to it and began sniffing around, even jumping up inside, before spotting a butterfly flitting about and chasing after it.

“Frankie, please don’t eat the butterfly!” you called after her. You shook your head. “Never really thought I’d have to say that out loud.”

Ben laughed, watching his dog run around and bark. “The butterfly’s too high up, she won’t get it.” He sat down on the edge of the fountain. The sun shone directly on him, making his blond hair glow and his blue eyes sparkle. You sat down next to him, putting your head on his shoulder.

“There’s no place I’d rather be right now,” you said, closing your eyes.

“Me neither.” He used his finger to tilt your chin up, pressing a kiss onto your lips. You grabbed his shoulders as he cupped your face, trying to be as close as possible. You swung your legs over and moved towards him so you were sitting on his lap. He moved a hand to your waist, always being careful to avoid touching your stomach (he was always paranoid he’d accidentally hurt the baby). The moment was getting a little heated, which wasn’t uncommon for you two, until he said something that made you stop.

He dug his fingers into your hair, pausing the kiss for a second. “Marry me,” he whispered.

“Wait.” You put your hands on his chest, pushing him away only slightly. “What did you say?”

This time, he stared directly into your eyes as he said, “I want you to marry me.” When you said nothing, he continued: “I’ve been thinking about it. I know you love me, and I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything. Like I said last night, my one goal is to spend my life with you. I would have no greater joy than if you said yes to marrying me.”

You had a few tears slipping down your cheek. Somewhere deep down, you knew this moment would come; you would even daydream about it sometimes. But nothing could compare to the actual words he spoke.

“Yes,” you rasped, your throat filled with phlegm. You cleared your throat quickly before trying to speak again. “Yes, I’d love to marry you.”

His face broke out with the biggest grin you’d ever seen. He chuckled as his own tears began to trail down his face. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”

You used your thumbs to wipe away his tears, smiling wide. You pushed your face back into his, continuing the kiss from earlier. He wrapped his arms around you tightly, never wanting to let go.

Until Frankie jumped up next to you both, a large pine cone in her mouth. You both looked down at her, laughing. You smiled, knowing that your planned day had turned out perfectly.

Tag list: @florencewelchmybiggod @xquiet-thoughtsx@virtualsheepeat @pietrorunsforme @stella2445 @dovexparker@amostpeculiarmademoisellerp @harrysniallpolish @mr-stank-i-dont-feel-so-dank (I’m terrible at tag lists, so send an ask if I forgot you. Sorry!)

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despiteherself · 6 years ago

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somewhat spoiler-y thoughts under the cut. don’t keep reading if you don’t want to see stuff about httyd3

okay. so overall i actually enjoyed httyd3 (surprising; i know). i do have lots and lots of complaints but the stuff i liked was exciting and interesting enough that i sort of just blacked out the bad stuff. and i’m going to love picking that stuff apart bc boy was there some cringy shit. especially if you don’t like hiccstrid, their scenes with actual relationship talk were awkward and wooden and god. the ending was SO :/

actual spoilers from here on out. you’ve been warned.

grimmel was a lot more compelling as a villain. they sort of gave him a backstory thing and it kind of ruined it a bit for me bc it was basically “i killed a night fury as a boy and my village loved me for it so i killed all of them” but idk something about it was lacking and i was like. oh. did you guys not care enough to flesh this one out. actually, writing it down it sounds way better motivation than when he actually said it even tho it’s basically the same thing.

the deathgrippers were being controlled! grimmel was using their venom to mind control them, so any “alpha talk” didn’t get through to them and they did exactly what grimmel wanted.

and hiccup didn’t give a shit lol. these dragons were constantly being drugged via needles in their head/neck and being forced to hunt and attack and carry grimmel around and hiccup didn’t even feel a little bit sorry for them or express any pain. the whole movie was kinda “wow ppl don’t deserve dragons we need to save them” but he didn’t express any empathy for dragons being used? not many were shown in this movie to be used, and even less that hiccup saw, but idk the whole “let the things you love go!” didn’t congeal well.

further more, he made several terrible decisions for the entirety of berk, including running away to find the hidden world, which they had no proof even existed and absolutely kept walking exactly into everything grimmel wanted, but when ruff did it (after she was “captured” and let go she flies straight back the place they’ve settled leading grimmel back to new berk) it felt like it was being played as a WAY worse thing. like she was an idiot for doing it, and it was just! hiccup. every decision you’ve made has been panicked and blind and made your position worse and worse.

gobber, valka and eret all get a little screen time, and they all play the naysayer stoick part? like “hiccup this is dangerous” and hiccup completely ignores them. them: hiccup we have advice hiccup: ok cool im not listening and i don’t want to hear it. they don’t even get to really explain their points of view ???????

valka’s other stuff is “oh we might have been followed leaving berk” and then her being all “astrid do u still love and believe in my son?????” what “he’ll listen to u” uhm ??? and no one else i get? ?/ they literally do not talk except about hiccup

gobber’s scene where he tells hiccup to marry astrid is so weird and awkward and only tuffnut yelling “oh no not the m word!” had anything that made it better. noah fence but astrid was all “that’s weird and awkward of you” and tells hiccup she thinks they’re “not ready for marriage” and the idea is silly and it 100% sounds like she’s not interested in him at all. and he’s obviously super invested and he’s all “haha maybe you can have snotlout” she makes “jokes” about snotlout being into valka. it was....

also. he ONLY mentioned snotlout when saying there’s other guys and idk. it ..... idk now i think about it it maybe feels the “joke” is kinda who would want snotlout which :/ but i guess means tuff and fishlegs are valid suitors? i don’t know

hiccup in the whole was pretty weak tbh. like he didn’t stand out for me and most of his plot felt like it had a bunch of good ideas but they struggled putting it together. it’s like when u see a fic and u love the general idea but the execution is not how u would, and they go on and it’s like. i really really wouldn’t have

they weirdly anthropomorphise toothless and then also. have him act like a dog and i found it disconcerting

the light fury is genuinely super blobby and ugly and i cna’t believe they made me watch SO much of “uwuw sexy seductress” content and toothless being a complete airhead who licks a rock to “practice” for it. was weird and i was uncomfortable.

also astrid is all “wow toothless has a girlfriend its so cute !!!!!!!” and they watch him watch other dragons doing mating dances and hiccup is like ‘i never pegged you for a romantic, like never” like get a fuckign hint !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she never kisses you on the cheek. astrid expressing sentiment cause she thinks something is romantic but never for your relationship is telling you A LOT about it

honestly. they don’t do anything to make me convinced in ANY WAY that astrid is actually into him and wants to marry him for real. at their wedding she is SO wooden and when they kiss hiccup brings his hand up but astrid is just STANDING there,,, and they look so blank. it’s so.

also. i was right astrid was mostly just a prop for hiccup’s story and she barely interacts with anyone that isn’t hiccup or valka, and when it’s valka it’s about hiccup.

aside from toothless, and a little bit of stormfly, the gang’s dragons are mostly just. in the background and don’t really have anything to do with anything

behind everything there were this warlords, i didn’t pick up names and apparently they were the ones who were funding drago or whatever? and they call grimmel in bc he cares about killing night furies and are hoping that it’ll mean they get all the dragons. it was kinda. i sort of liked the idea but i felt it was shoved in, and they just mentioned drago to make it seem like it was planned when they came out of nowhere. and idk not planned at all. like an idea that was good but they didn’t edit everything to make sure it fit. a lot of stuff felt kind retcon-y like apparently stoick was “obsessed with finding the hidden world” and he even mentions in a flash back that it’s not the nest they’re looking for in httyd1 so it’s so weird like. and there was this ~journals~ stoick had about it and it’s just! they never ever mentioned this before gfhsdfjhdfgjdfgfdg guys. that’s so fucking messy and kinda annoying. in the grand scheme this retconning isn’t too much, but it’s enough that it’s like. none of this was planned and i can tell and instead of making it match up you just bluster through like “actually this always happened” as if u think i’m a dumbass who will just blindly believe whatever you tell me instead of a long time fan with a personal involvement.i know some of u read my blog,,, come on

i didn’t cry at all like lol. i had fun but i wasn’t emotional.

no characters die don’t worry

ruff was PERFECT and everything she did was wnoderful and i LOVE her so much! she got to speak A LOT and she’s all “it’s so tough being this hot” i love you girl, and she’s over eret and is like “wow he missed out” and talks about snotlout and fishlegs which was :///// but the guys don’t do the whole fighting over her thing so that’s! and she’s like “i guess fishlegs but he’s a nerd” and at the end he cries at the wedding and she’s like “wow i guess the sensitive guy wins” so a lot of her stuff was kinda about men ://// but herself was PERFECT and she boops grimmel’s face with the bobble ends of her hair pretending they’re a zippleback. she makes jokes about why is grimmel’s face so long, and her’s is long but WOW does that take the cake. and she says “astrid round face” it was so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she’s so good i love her

rupple does a good job with tuff. the voice difference was noticeable and i kept thinking about it but i think he did well. tuff gets a bunch of speaking parts and he’s super involved with the whole wedding concept and he’s like “haha wow hiccy, a DOES NOT WANT to get married 2 u LOL. which is #tru cause like. she’s a viking warrior queen and you’re well you. you need to shape up. also. be more like me” which i will TAKE i cannot believe tuffstrid is REAL. also now im about 80% convinced hiccup and astrid took a break to see other ppl and tuffstrid fucked. tuff and astrid don’t really interact except for when they leave ruff behind but they KEEP on doing this whole, vibe thing that makes them seem like they’re good friends. like. tuff thinking he knows what astrids want or admires and he actually goes and all his advice/pep talk is like half leg jokes but it’s all good????? tuff has ear piercings, they’re SO on point they look so good, and he’s got rings all over his fingers i love this kid so much he’s so great. he calls his braid his beard and whenever anyone looks a little sad he like, shoves their face into his braid to comfort them.

also tuff says there’s no edge of the world cause actually it’s round like the sun and the moon and stars, even tho stars are dumb.

i was right fishlegs’ first sentence is basically them all going “wow a nerd” akdshgfkdjghfg. he doesn’t get as much screen time as the others, and most of it is focused on fishmeat, who is ADORABLE and PERFECT. that big moose dragon meets fishmeat at the start and they become bffs and he defends his lil buddy

snotlout’s also not as much screen time, and most of it is him following valka around and being impressed with her and wanting her to say nice things about him. the rest is him getting caught on his cape. valka says nice stuff about eret cause he’s actually good at this planning stuff (except one bit thats played for jokes where snotlout is like “we should spilt up cause *good reasons*” and then eret is like “we should spilt up cause i feel like it” and valka’s all “i trust your instincts!!!!”. it was weird bc it was the only really good tactical decision snotlout made and it gets ignored) and he keeps getting his ego pumped up when he takes what valka says wrong - like she’s being polite, or there’s double meanings and he takes it like he’s good but all he did was get caught on a cage and hung there until hookfang picked him up - and at the end she says “eret maybe brawn, but you’re the brains” and snotlout feels validated again but he doesn’t really deserve it? like idk i wish she said something meaningful. it’s not kind to make someone feel like they’re good at something they’re not. you should encourage him when he’s doing well.

eret is just kinda. around. doing things. and being like, snotlout’s “rival” for valka’s attention and eret is like. what are you on about lmao

also. i’ve seen some out of context spoilers and they mentioned something being gay but i don’t know where that’s from? snotlout kinda says some great things about eret but it’s a real squint and gobber says eret has the body of a norse god but then he says he does as well and then puts a crick in back when he’s stretching so it’s very clearly a joke and it’s definitely like ‘he’s fat and old and dirty its funny cause he thinks he’s attractive” rather than anything else

hmmMMmmMMMMM god ive forgotten what i’ve talked about and what i haven’t im sure i have more to say but this is already super long os. you can ask me questions if u like. send me an im or something

#httyd3 spoilers #httyd 3 spoilers #hidden world spoilers #spoilers #httyd3 #dot post

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neverwatchedonepiece · 6 years ago

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476-478: “Luffy at the End of his Tether! An All-Out Battle at the Oris Plaza”, “The Power That Will Shorten One's Life! Energy Hormone, Redux!” and “To Live up to a Promise! Luffy and Coby Collide!”

You know, Whitebeard, with your massive ham hands, you could stretch Luffy, aim for the scaffold and ping him onto it like a rubber band. Just a thought.

Had time today, so burned through three episodes in a row. Glad I did because 478 was worth the watch with Luffy unconsciously using Conqueror’s Haki (Shanks will be so proud).

Can’t lie, I’m getting fed up with the “charge/knocked back”, “oh the blades are coming down, no... wait” repetition. I joked about the obstacle course a while back but come on...This is getting ridiculous.

It’s hard to split everything that happened into themes, so I’ll have to go through this write-up by episode. That way, I won’t lose my mind keeping track of everything.

476

This episode finally addressed the elephant in the room: Garp. Prior to 476, he had been hanging out with Ace and Sengoku on the scaffold, biting his nails, agonising, torn between duty and familial affection for Ace.

White Whitebeard ordered his crew to clear the way forward for him and briefly turned Aokiji into an Admiral Kebab (ha), Luffy charged the scaffold. Closer than ever, Garp watched his grandson’s advance, watched Vice Admiral Momonga slash up a tired Luffy who had reached his limit, then witnessed Kizaru take advantage and strike. Sengoku watched Garp’s reaction closely, noticed the tell-tale sweatdropping and sensed the conflict in Garp. Being a clever general, he knew he had to nip that in the bud. Having a powerhouse and famous Marine hero like Garp turn against you would be the worst for his meticulous image management strategy. “Garp, remember that you are one of us.”

Funny how Sengoku actually considered Garp might turn against the Marines. (I have a secret hope he might one day. Maybe one atrocity will push him too far and he’ll finally rebel).

Further to my shock-horror discovery that Kizaru is actually cold as ice and an accomplished shit-talker (Aokiji at least expresses regret, you know), he went Full Justice and approached a weakened Luffy through a dust cloud. I liked the shot where he looked down at Luffy and said...

“But, Strawhat, if you’re not strong enough, you can’t save him, no matter how hard you try. Now why don’t you just get lost.”

Luffy, unable to dodge because his vision was blurring and his legs wouldn’t hold him up, took Kizaru’s kick straight to the face. Ouch.

See, though, Kizaru... Luffy having courage is important. Even if he’s not strong enough to take you on now, courage is the starting point. Strength can be built. One day, Luffy will turn around and be fast enough to smack you right back. Rules of shounen, Kizaru. I don’t make them. Unless Oda breaks them, then everything’s out the window.

Luffy’s luck was with him, though. Whitebeard caught him in one massive hand and told his crew to treat him because he’d done enough. Luckier still, Ivankov and Jimbei scaled the wall (via Ivan’s giant face, ha) so Luffy could be treated properly.

I like that Whitebeard defended Luffy and reassured Ace at the same time (@meaheartonepiece has good point about everyone being able to hear everything on the battlefield. Dat manga physics). “He’s nothing but a bundle of energy who bluffs. Young and clumsy. But I like fools like him,” he said, while looking at Ace. Aw, Whitebeard.

But the Sea Dad feels were not to last. For he then stood up, called out the Marines, “Any of you who want to die, come forward!” Only Akainu stepped up to the challenge. Banter was exchanged. They clashed.

Oda (or Toei) love those contrasting colours. Reminds me of DBZ with Frieza vs Goku (and Goku vs anyone, really). The last time they used it to good effect like that was Ace vs Blackbeard (which still wins but this was great too).

It all went off for a while. Kizaru was firing out lasers like he was handing out candy (”one for you, one for you”), Jimbei swore to lay down his life (please don’t, Jimbei. I’d like you to survive this one) and the Shichibukai were still going at it outside the walls.

Marco realised this and saw an opportunity to sweep in and take Ace. Unfortunately, Garp chose that moment to make his Decision. He falcon punched Marco, sat on a vacant Admiral throne and roared, “If you wanna go any further, you’ll have to kill me first.” (Don’t say that, Garp. All these death flags are making me paranoid).

477

The Fodder hacking at each other with swords were quivering that the Legendary Garp had finally entered the battle. They gave us a handy-dandy rundown of Garp’s C.V. Twenty years ago, he fought Gol D. Roger, which we knew about, but he also fought some guy called Shinki the Golden Lion. (Is this filler? I vaguely remember someone mentioning this name a while back).

Gotta say, even if it is, I loved that shot of 70s cop duo Sengoku and Garp. Look at those Pulp Fiction-esque suits. Splendid.

Whitebeard was annoyed. “Don’t get tripped up by Garp’s name” He’s just an old soldier.” You know, I call out Kizaru for his sass but Whitebeard is up there with the best of them. He has top banter with Akainu too, who complained, “I told you not to destroy the city!” to which Whitebeard countered, “I told you to protect it.”

Ha. Check and mate. Your move, Akainu!

While this chaos was unfolding, Sengoku ordered the execution. Now, I’ve just had a thought, but could he just... do it himself if it’s that important? I know he probably won’t want to be personally responsible for Ace’s death because of Garp but really he is the one ordering it, so he is already pretty damn responsible.

Cue a close up of Ace’s sad, tired face which faded into a flashback. This was interesting because it revealed that Ace didn’t always hate Roger. At his adopted island, he’d wander around town, asking groups of unfortunate randoms what they knew about Roger. Most people hated him and gave Ace viciously negative responses, which earned them an ass-whooping and Ace a reputation for being out of control.

I wonder when Ace started to hate Roger? Maybe he’s never really hated Roger. Or maybe it’s complicated.

There was a nice moment with Garp, though, which is a damn good quote for lie, really, now that I think about it. Ace, racked with guilt even at his young age, said to Garp, “Did I deserve to be born?” What a question for a kid to ask. Garp thought about it, then said, “That’s something you’ll see as you live.”

Excellent answer, Garp. It made me tear a bit, to be honest. That’s a quote I’d take away from One Piece and use in real life, no question.

The memory of that conversation triggered something in Ace. He looked out over the battlefield, over the carnage and chaos and wept because, even though that guilt was still chasing him, he was so happy because his family and friends had come to rescue him.

The boy wants to live, damn it. ;_;

I am certain those words hurt Garp more than any physical blow.

Now, this is where I have to disclose something. I have been avoiding talking about Ace and where I think this execution is going to go because way back when I first started this thing, a random, weapons-grade walnut sent me a PM with three “spoilers” in it. I say “spoilers” because one of the three turned out to be fake. Some of you might know this because I think I mentioned it in the early posts. One was that Roger was Luffy’s father, the other was that “Ace dies” and the third was “they have another brother.” The first is fake, so I’m holding out hope that the random was just trolling because now that Ace wants to live and has come to terms with his guilt, it would be cruel to take Luffy’s only brother from him.

Maybe Whitebeard will sacrifice himself for Ace because THOSE WOUNDS.

While fighting Magma Brat, Whitebeard had an attack of Old Age. Akainu struck and blew a goddamned hole in Whitebeard’s chest. (Oda likes that angle, doesn’t he? It reminds me of Luffy vs Magellan). At the same time, Marco was sniped by Kizaru, Diamond Jozu was Diamond Frozu by Aokiji, and Luffy was down.

But not for long. He has traded a portion of his life for a boost of Ivankov’s Regenerating Hormones. I like how Ivankov refused him at first, saying he could never face Dragon if he let his son die. But Luffy, as always, has that hellish charisma. “If I knew I'd done everything I could, I'd be happy to die. If I can't rescue Ace, I'd rather take my own life afterwards. Let me have the strength to fight now!"

That is some iron conviction you have there, Luffy. Ivankov, even though he was conflicted, said, “UGH, FINE STRAW BOY, HERE. DO WAT U WANT, SMH.” And it was business as usual. Another charge!

478

Meanwhile, Coby spent most of 476-477 feeling terrified, inspired and conflicted by Luffy’s strength and conviction.

It’s nice that he found his courage to fight and stand up to Luffy, but the encounter was laughably short. He saw Luffy through the dust cloud, built up an attack (does Coby have a fruit?) aaaaaaaaaaand... he got his face caved in.

At least he’s not dead, eh? Coby, son, you need to level up! Go join Kizaru’s crew. He’ll teach you how to be a cold, hardass MF WHO IS ALSO CUNNING.

Realising his beams wouldn’t work on Marco because Marco regenerates, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Kizaru cuffed him with seastone, negating his powers, and then sniped him.

What a magnificent bastard he is. I hate that I like Kizaru. I am as conflicted as Coby, haha.

At this point, things were not looking good for the Whitebeard Pirates and Allies. Sengoku gave the order to kill Whitebeard and a bunch of fodder leapt at him with swords to the point he looked like an angry, roided porcupine. He even took a bazooka to the face. But that didn’t matter. "They think they can beat me so easily? I don't need any help. BECAUSE I’M WHITEBEARD.”

That was awesome.

“Did he call me wounded? Ridiculous. I won't die from such a small wound.” (He said with a fucking hole in his chest). “I know.. what will happen.. if i die. Then, you know, I can't allow myself to die until... I see a bright future ahead for my sons. Right, Ace?”

I wasn’t crying. Nope. Not at all.

Sengoku did not like this. He ordered the swords to be brought down. Whitebeard tried to stop it from happening, but his vision blurred. Luffy was too far away. He fought and fought, got punched in the face, knocked back... there were too many Marines. Ace was going to die. And he couldn’t reach him. It all became too much...

And then this happened.

Conqeror’s Haki. Absolutely golden. Shanks would be proud, Luffy. You are now worthy of wearing that hat.

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rorykillmore · 6 years ago

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ok haha relevant to ur field: top 10 tv episodes of all time?

i finally sat down and tried to do this and it’s taken me all of like, an entire evening, and i’m STILL not sure i haven’t forgotten something,

that being said i tried to the best of my ability, and also big disclaimer: some of my favorite shows are just straight up not on this list. determining my favorite shows overall would be MUCH different than determining my favorite individual, stand alone episodes of something. and with that being said...

(also i gave up trying to number-rank them. they are maybe like, ROUGHLY ranked, but i could flip flop a lot of them especially towards the middle so like, whatever)

lost - “the constant”

there are so many good, defining episodes of lost that it was kind of hard to pick one but... for me this was a good example i could think of that summed up the show at the height of like. how weird it could be and how emotional it could be. it also may be one of the best stand-alone episodes of the show objectively, i think. for those who are familiar but can’t remember, this is the one where desmond is kind of jumping around through time and the one with That phone call between him and penny at the end (which frankly should earn it a spot on this list by itself). okay i rewatched that and made myself cry so we’re off to a great fucking start!

hannibal - “mizumono”

mizumono is honestly one of the most like... perfect culminations of disaster i’ve ever seen. and i mean that in a good way!, but really, it brings seasons worth of tension to a head with near-flawless execution, it’s one of the most beautifully and artistically shot episodes of an already beautiful and artistic show, and the last fifteen minutes are like... kind of beyond description. i honestly have yet to see a season finale that’s as brutal to like, its ENTIRE MAIN CAST, and because of the impact it had at the time i felt like i had to put it on here.

true detective - “form and void”

the first season of true detective as a whole was honestly incredibly influential to like... the modern tv landscape we have today and how highly regarded television as a whole has become. it’s really important and really worth seeing. the finale, “form and void”, is if i recall correctly perhaps a little divisive because of how the mystery ultimately ended up being solved (i won’t give spoilers) but it was beautiful and surreal and creepy and for me, just the right amount of satisfying. actually for me, i’m not gonna lie, it was... and still is, very important to me personally. specifically in regards to the culmination of rust cohle’s character arc and the hopeful, compassionate note it ended on. rust was essentially a deconstruction of the “bitter edgy nihilistic main character” trope, much of his characterization was about how that mentality just ate away at him, but he found this essential moment of peace in the end that just... still really stays with me.

alias - “pilot”

i had to include this because alias has, literally my favorite pilot episode to date. in general alias has a few episodes i considered putting on this list (the finale of season 2 also being one for... Reasons) but i just had to go with this one because it’s a fucking pilot. in the television industry, pilots are notoriously difficult to get right. there’s so much establishment and exposition that needs to happen all while making sure you hook your audience that it can be... really tough to pace it correctly, and i have never seen anyone fucking nail it like alias did. of everything i’ve put on this list i think this is probably the episode i’ve watched the most times. sydney bristow in that bright red wig. still iconic.

westworld - “the bicameral mind”

westworld season 1 almost felt like it could have... ended with that finale, period. i mean naturally it did not, but in some ways if you weren’t so attached to the characters and didn’t want to see how they’d evolve, you almost wouldn’t NEED more than the bleak (well, for humanity), inevitable note it ends on. there are so many gratifying answers to the questions the season spun, so much emotional catharsis and satisfaction in dolores’ awakening and self-realization and maeve making her first real, free choice in returning to the park... idk it’s a lot. and it’s executed wonderfully. there are tons of moments that never lose their impact no matter how many times i revisit them. not much more to say than that.

buffy the vampire slayer - “restless”

possibly a controversial choice even among buffy fans? i remember at least at the time people were mad that such an unconventional episode was used to top off season 4. but let’s be real, season 4′s overarching plot was, not that great. for me, i never minded that it tied up early and that we had something really... different for the finale.

it also helps that i’m a huge sucker for like, surrealism, character studies, symbolism and significant imagery, foreshadowing, that kind of thing, and this episode is thick with ALL of that stuff. look i hate joss whedon but this was him at his best. restless is still... one of the most haunting things i’ve ever watched, and such a bold choice, and people are still dissecting it today and i’m like, “how did they manage to foreshadow some of this stuff this intricately this early in the show’s run’. i could probably go back and rewatch it easily even though i haven’t really delved into buffy in forever. “once more with feeling” also gets an honorable mention to being the best musical episode of a show to date.

black mirror - “nosedive”

okay i was really tempted to put uss callister on this list because i enjoyed that so immensely, it’s one of my favorite things ever, but uss callister is so... almost movie-like that it almost feels unfair to put it on this list with more traditionally structured television episodes. so apart from that, i have this inexplicable fucking soft spot for nosedive. i think about it all the time. it’s the black mirror episode i’ve rewatched the most. i’m not even sure if i can articulate why i love it so much except that... well, firstly it is another character study (with bryce dallas howard giving a wonderful and moving and vaguely unhinged performance), but also like. i think it is perhaps one of the most insightful episodes of black mirror overall. the point isn’t to be... bleak, necessarily, but its message is important. it’s less about ~the dangers of social media~ i think and more about how people relate to one another (or don’t, and how painful it can feel to not really emote or connect or find sincerity) and just, the social media app being a vehicle for that. stories about emotional suppression and catharsis always hit me hard.

oh and since black mirror is an anthology series with all standalone episodes, you can watch this even if you’ve never dabbled in the show before! go see it if you haven’t!!

grey’s anatomy - “losing my religion”

so i knew i wanted to put a grey’s anatomy episode on this list but i wasn’t really sure... how to go about picking just one, because grey’s has so many iconic individual episodes that have really. permeated television culture at this point. i don’t know, how do you just pick one? but i went with losing my religion because 1) i do genuinely feel that it contains some of the shows best and most poignant and memorable to date, i mean, even like 13 years later people remember the culmination of the denny storyline, and 2) i distinctly remember this being the point when i was watching the show for the first time that i really... consciously, vividly, felt myself falling in love with it and appreciating it for all that it was.this is really the point where you can’t write off grey’s anatomy as a one-dimensional quirky medical drama anymore no matter how hard you try. so it’s on here for nostalgic reasons too

also, this was the episode that launched “chasing cars” as the song that reduces literally everyone to tears, so there’s that,

ahs asylum - “madness ends”

for all the shit i’ll give ryan murphy, i truly still believe that ahs asylum was his masterpiece. it is perhaps the most sincere and tender and brutally real i’ve ever seen his work get. and madness ends will always be... one of my favorite season finales ever, and something i’ll always remember so fondly and emotionally. it also, and maybe this is an unconventional opinion, but it is also the most hopeful the show has ever felt to me. the most forgiving, the most kind. the closure it grants lana, kit, and jude, and even MARY EUNICE (wait was this the episode she died in? i think. i don’t remember) was just... i don’t know if you can get more satisfying than that. jessica lange’s performance in this episode specifically, and the ending of jude’s story, is something that’ll stay with me forever (there’s a reason that i consider jude to be one of my favorite characters, like, ever). i actually haven’t rewatched it in full, let alone this specific episode in so long but... yeah that shit stays with you

and last but incontestably not least...

the leftovers - “international assassin” or “certified”

guess what! for the leftovers, i actually COULDN’T pick just one! and if there’s any show on this list that deserves two episodes... well,

“international assassin” is a lot of people’s favorite episode, from what i understand. at least, its usually the critics’ favorite episode. and it wins a lot of points with me for the same reasons “restless” does (it’s basically another instance of like, the show taking a break to do a completely different kind of surrealist episode) and it marked the first time the show really like. completely abandoned all pretense of reality and went all-out mysticism. and it fucking worked. everything about this episode is a masterpiece. to give you a basic premise if you’re not familiar, basically. the main character, kevin, has spent the entire season behind haunted by... either a ghost or a hallucination (you’re not sure at that point as an audience member, but kevin is leaning towards ghost) and is told by someone that in order to get rid of her. he essentially has to die, go to purgatory, and confront her. the end result is... something you couldn’t even imagine and i don’t think i could fully put into words, but as most things in the leftovers are, it ends up being startlingly insightful and compassionate and is 100% guaranteed to make you feel very deeply for a character that most people hated up until that point

“certified” isn’t as much as a standout but for me it is one of the most powerful episodes in an already incredibly powerful show. it’s essentially devoted to giving closure to one of the characters (who happened to be one of my favorites) and her longstanding pain and her struggles with being tied to realism in this world where you increasingly need to believe in something to survive. it’s hard to give much context beyond that but it is heartbreaking and wonderfully performed and i actually haven’t been able to revisit it many times since because it affected me so much

idk i could really put every episode of the leftovers on here, honestly. it is incredibly special.

#thanks tony!!#man theres a lot of good tv out there huh #fizzlep0p

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sunyoonandstars · 7 years ago

Text

BTS Reaction 8: They accidentally injure you, their dance partner

This is based on of your lovely requests. ☺️

Scenario You, a famous ballet dancer, were asked to act in a music video alongside BTS and partner up with the members who, however, end up accidentally hurting you while shooting …

fluff

word count 4.679

This was actually so cute and fun to do. Thanks for requesting.

I hope you like it! Enjoy! And thanks for reading! ☺️💜

1. Kim Seokjin / Jin

The camera was zooming in on you for the final pirouette. Apart from the music echoing throughout the studio, there was no sound. The members and crew were literally holding their breath in expectation while Seokjin gently got a hold of your hand to take the lead.

The two of you had practiced this part countless times because the eldest was painfully aware of his lacking talent in the dance department and definitely wanted to get it right for the shoot. You could clearly tell how anxious he was, judging by his focused gaze, clenched jaw, and tense muscles.

Just breathe and relax, you can do it!, you tried to tell him with your eyes, but he cast his down, avoiding your glance.

Finally, as the song reached its climax, Jin followed the steps you had practiced, wound up and gracefully spun you in place. You did your part and for about five seconds everything seemed to go smoothly. When, suddenly, unexpectedly, Jin let your hand slip out of his, leading you, taken off-guard, to spin directionlessly and eventually go tumbling to the ground.

Wide-eyed, Seokjin simply stared at you at first, pressing one hand to his parted lips, inhaling sharply.

„Oh, no, y/l/n y/n! I’m so sorry!“

Quickly having recovered from the initial shock, he hurried to your side and kneeled down next to you, gently rubbing your back.

„Are you all right, y/l/n y/n?“

Jin carefully helped you back up, smiling cautiously while giving you a once-over in order to check if there were any apparent injuries.

„I’m so, so very sorry, y/l/n y/n. I have no idea how that could happen. Everything went well when we practiced and —“

„I hope you’re well-insured, Mr. Kim“, you snapped back at him, trying hard to keep a straight face. „Because my ankles are worth millions. If this is actually sprained, it will cost you and your company dearly.“

Flustered, his face suddenly white as a sheet, he let go of your elbow and took a step back.

„We-Well, I’m — I’m sure Big Hit will —“

By now you weren’t able to hold back the laugh stuck in the deep of your throat any longer.

„Sorry“, you burst out, playfully nudging his shoulder. „Just kidding. I’m all right. My ankle is barely even bruised. It’s gonna be as good as new in a few days. And, please, call me y/n. No need for formalities anymore now that we made fools of ourselves in front of each other, your friends and a running camera.“

Still chuckling, you gestured towards the laughing members.

„Haha. Very funny“, Jin shook his head at you, still pale, smiling nonetheless.

2. Min Yoongi / Suga

„I have to warn you, though. I’m no dancer“, had been Yoongi’s first words the very moment you were introduced to each other. And, until now, he had kept it. The pensive rapper clearly was no Baryshnikov. However, he tried to give it his all and stayed focused during practice, paying close attention to the instructor in order to memorize the choreography.

„Wait, we're shooting a scene of a Pas de deux? Of just me and y/l/n y/n?“, Yoongi exclaimed in horror as soon as the choreographer had explained his part to him, the rapper’s face visibly draining from his already pale cheeks.

„Come on, Suga-Hyung, it’s gonna be just fine“, Jimin enheartened him, casually poking the older one in the ribs.

„Yeah. She did the same thing with all of us. Y/l/n y/n even shot the scene with Namjoon already and they both made it out alive, so you’re gonna do just fine“, Jungkook added, having watched the two of you practice for a while now. „Also, I think you’re doing a rather decent job. I’m sure it’s gonna go down smoothly. Just focus on your dance partner, Yoongi, and you’re gonna be all right. She isn’t world-famous for no reason.“

Questioningly, the rapper looked over at you who blushed under the youngest singer’s flattery.

„He’s right“, you smiled at Yoongi reassuringly. „Just focus on me and trust the movements you learned. Don’t think too much. Your body will remember. And if you miss a step, we’ll simply shoot the scene again. No big deal.“

„All right ...“, Yoongi shakily sighed.

„Ready?“, the director inquired, sticking his head in at the door to the practice room.

You nodded at Yoongi, indicating him to reply.

„Sure. Ready“, the rapper shrugged, failing to exude the intended confidence. After one last, successful run-through, the both of you then proceeded to get dressed and made up.

„Don’t forget what I told you, Min Yoongi. Eyes on me. No thinking. Just doing“, you reminded him in a low voice as the both of you took up your positions on the designated marks. Eyes cast down, he simply nodded, flexing his muscles one last time before the camera started rolling and the music was turned up.

You acted out your parts with ease, the rappers movements smooth and confident. Until the actual ballet-inspired sequence was to take place.

Suddenly, Yoongi’s whole body tensed up noticeably. Now that it was time to translate the movements he had mastered into action once more, he seemed insecure, uncertain how to stand or where to place his hands, when and where to lead you.

After the fifth attempt had miserably failed, the director started getting impatient.

„Okay, one more take for today!“, he announced. „You better get it right this time.“

„Yes, I will. I’m sorry“, Yoongi bowed to him.

„Don’t let him distract you“, you urged him, your tone soft. „Just focus on me. You’re too tense. Loosen up a little.“

„Yeah, yeah. I’ll try.“

Once again, you got in position to film the crucial part of the pas de deux. In sync with the song’s instrumental part’s dramatic climax, you performed a fluent chassé, quickly, elegantly moved towards Yoongi and finally went on to perfectly execute the Grande Jeté, leaping into his arms, expecting to be caught. Which you weren’t however. Because the rapper had been so focused on your beautiful dancing that he had spaced out and in fact forgotten to extend his arms to you.

Paralyzed by shock, Yoongi simply stood there and watched you go down, staring, motionless, as you rubbed your badly bruised knee, his face bare of any expression, whereas the group’s choreographer and your manager immediately hurried to your side to thoroughly inspect the injured joint.

You brushed off their concerns with a kind smile and refused to accept their help as you effortlessly got up on your own.

„Are you okay?“, Yoongi finally managed to get out the words, obviously worried, eying you intently as he approached you, now that the fuss was over and the others had left again.

„Yes, don’t worry. I have suffered worse. This is nothing. Put a little makeup on it and I’ll forget about the bruise entirely.“

„Are you sure?“, he asked, raising a brow.

„Don’t look at me like you broke my or something“, you scoffed, shaking your head. „I’m not made of glass, you know. Ballet isn’t all tutus and glamour, so I’m much stronger than I look.“

„All right“, he smirked. „I like the attitude.“

„Thanks“, you shrugged. „And your dancing wasn’t half bad, either. I know I said you should let loose. But next time no zoning out and just a tad more tension in your arms, maybe“, you winked at him.

„Okay, okay“, Yoongi chuckled. „I get it. Let’s give it another shot. This time I’ll definitely catch you.“

„You better.“

3. Jung Hoseok

Being a skilled dancer himself, Hoseok had been looking forward to the challenge of trying his hand at ballet and dancing alongside the world-renowned icon of contemporary ballet that you were ever since Bang PD had announced your participation in their newest music video. Hoseok had been so excited to meet you that he had even practiced the basic steps beforehand in order to be able to keep up with and maybe even impress you.

His talent, passion and hard work doubtlessly showed in his flowing, masterful movements, even during the very first run-through of the complex choreography.

„Wow, not bad“, you complimented him on his dancing, a little short of breath, after the two of you had, almost flawlessly, completed the routine for the second time already.

„Not bad yourself“, he flashed a bright smile at you.

„Thanks“, you laughed, stretching your left leg, casually lifting it up and behind your head.

„No“, the rapper backpedaled immediately, apologetically waving his hands, eyes wide and mouth round, lips pursed in abashment. „Sorry, that came out wrong. I meant, wow, you’re so talented. I’m honestly so honored to be working with you. You have no idea what it means to me.“

„It’s all right“, you chuckled. „Don’t listen to my managers. I’m nothing special. I love dancing just as much as you do. We’re both masters of the same art, we only have different styles, different ways of using our bodies to express what we feel. And it seems we make for a great time. Do you think we’re ready to start shooting? Or do you wanna practice it in water first? Since we’re gonna shoot the scene in some kind of tank or basin to my knowledge.“

„No, it’s fine. I practiced the steps so many times. I’m certain nothing can go wrong even under different conditions.“

„Okay, then“, you shrugged, impressed by the young man’s confidence in his skill set.

The two went your separate ways to get ready and met back up again in front of the plain, black basin. Hoseok, being a proper gentleman, stepped in first, his slender body disappearing into the water almost up to his hips. Smiling broadly, trying not to let on how uncomfortable he actually was in the lukewarm, almost cold water, he extended a shaking hand for you to take so he could help you down and into the water. You thankfully accepted.

„You’re shivering“, you noticed.

„Yeah. I get cold easily.“

„But that won’t affect your performance, right? You’ll still be able to do the lift, won’t you?“, you cautiously inquired.

„Of course“, Hoseok gleamed. „I’m a professional, after all. I won’t let a little chill get in the way of our shooting.“

„Good“, you smiled.

When the time finally came to perform the said lift, however, Hoseok barely managed to get a hold of you before your waist escaped the grip of his trembling hands. With a stifled scream, you fell, head-first. Your arms instinctively shot up to protect your face from the inevitable impact as you saw the water’s surface close in rapidly. In the very nick of time, however, Hoseok managed to, more or less, catch your fall, in doing so averting the worst. Nonetheless, your knee hit the basin’s merciless marble floor.

Worried, Hoseok looked down at you as a pained groan escaped your lips.

„What is it? Did you get hurt somewhere?“, he hastily inquired, his voice cracking. „Where? What is it? Were did you get injured? What can I do? Should I call a doctor? Can you stand?“

Pale-faced, his brown eyes as big as dinner plates, the rapper stared at you, genuine concern written all over his face.

„Is it bad? Are you in a lot of pain? Here, let me help you. Let me see that.“ Anxiously, he lifted you up and carried you across the basin to set you down on its edge in order to take a look at your wounded knee.

„Oh, no!“, he gasped, his voice shaking with dismay. „You’re bleeding! This could leave a scar!“

„Ah, never mind“, you said nonchalantly, couldn’t help but wince, however, when he carefully touched the gaping wound to inspect the depth of the gash.

„Aish“, you hissed. „No need to touch it, though.“

„Sorry“, Hoseok apologized, obviously mortified. „Seriously, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. This should never have happened.“

„It’s not as bad as it looks, I’m sure. And thing like this happen, even among professionals.“

„You’re far too kind“, he abashedly mumbled. „Anyway, let me at least take you to see a medic and make sure you get the prettiest band-aids they have to offer.“

He turned around and indicated you to get on his back, smiling at you over his shoulder while adorably imitating the sound of a siren.

„Come on. Let me give you a ride.“

4. Kim Namjoon

„All right, this time I’ll definitely get it right“, the tall rapper declared, eyes focused on the mirror by the means of which he was monitoring his own movements, chin protruding and expression serious.

„Yes, yes, that’s it“, you applauded him. „And now you’ll just keep on doing that and I’ll join in.“

„No, wait. Let me just — Let me just practice this one more time.“

„All right“, you nodded, smiling.

You patiently waited until the nervous Namjoon finally regained his composure and got in position again.

„Ready for our last run-through?“

Wordlessly, he nodded, inhaling deeply.

„Okay, let’s do this.“

Skillfully, you danced around his tall figure until Namjoon started swaying his body in conformity with yours.

„Great!“, you exclaimed the second you were done. „I think we’re ready to shoot the scene now. Do you feel like you’re up to it?“

„I guess“, the rapper stammered, apparently nervous.

„Come on, you’re gonna do just fine“, you encouraged him.

Both in costume, you finally stood across from each other in the studio, headlights and cameras fixed on you.

As soon as the music amplified and the rest of the members cleared the stage, making way for your and Namjoon’s short-lived but beautiful Pas de deux, both of you followed the simple steps you had practiced earlier. Everything went smoothly until it was time for you to find your way into Namjoon’s strong arms. Confused and blinded by the spotlight, he took a step to his left instead of moving to his right and towards you, causing you to lean into the air and, taken by surprise, eventually plummet to the ground.

„Cut!“, the director's voice echoed across the set. „Someone get an ice-pack and a medic!“

Muttering a curse under your breath, you struggled to your feet, carefully rubbing your injured elbow.

Squinting at the bright light still being aimed directly at his face, Namjoon quickly hurried towards you, his features displaying sincere care and guilt.

„Oh, no! Y/l/n y/n, I’m so sorry! The light — I just — I got misdirected and — Oh, my god! Are you hurt! Did I hurt you? I break things all the time. But your arm isn’t broken, right? It’s not broken, is it? I mean, you have an important performance tomorrow. And if you had to miss it because of me I’d never —“

Gently, he removed your hand to carefully examine the bruise rapidly developing along your upper arm and elbow.

„Aish“, he sharply inhaled through his teeth. „That looks really painful. Does it hurt badly?“

You barely flinched at his touch.

„Just a little. I’m gonna be fine. So, please, don’t worry. This wasn’t even your mistake. The lighting needs to be adjusted. You couldn’t see a thing.“

„Maybe. But still, I should have caught you. I’m so sorry, y/l/n y/n. You should better do this part with Hoseok-Hyung or Jimin instead. They’re splendid dancers.“

„But I want to do it with you. And you did a great job so far. Next time it’s gonna be perfect, I’m sure. And in the end the video will have been worth the little bruise, believe me.“

„You really think so?“, the rapper smiled shyly, dimples becoming apparent in his cheeks now tinted a pale rose shade.

„I’m sure of it.“

„Okay“, Namjoon nodded, a content grin still curving his full lips. „I’m now gonna leave you to the skilled hands of the medics before I can make things even worse. See you for practice tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.“

5. Park Jimin

„One, two, three, four …“

On the count of four, you started artfully bouncing across the stage towards Jimin who was more than ready to catch you, both of you having practiced the same move over and over again, ready to deliver a flawless performance in front of the running cameras now.

Just as you were about to leap into his inviting arms, however, the young singer’s nose was tickled by a loose hair and he couldn’t help but sneeze. Leading your foreheads to collide as he threw his forward, in your direction, leaving you no time to react.

„Ouch!“, both of you called out in unison as you went stumbling backwards, staggering and eventually, inevitably, going down.

„Oh, no! Y/l/n y/n!? Are you okay? I’m so sorry! That hair — My nose — This is so embarrassing. I’m sorry“, Jimin repeatedly apologized, squatting next to you now, still rubbing his forehead, cheeks flushed.

„Did you hurt yourself? Are you in pain? Should we quit shooting for today?“, he asked, his rounded eyes eagerly searching your body for any signs of injuries, none being apparent, though.

„No, I’m fine“, you sighed, having gotten over the first shock. „I don’t think I’m injured.“

„Let me help you up anyway“, Jimin politely offered, extending a hand you gladly took. Just as you were about to get up he, however, lost his balance and fell over, onto you, causing your heads to bump once again in the exact same spot.

„Seriously!?“, you gasped, half-laughing, half ready to start cursing any second now.

„I’m so, so sorry“, Jimin stammered, blushing furiously, his hand shooting up to massage his temple on which a reddish bruise was now showing. „I’m usually not that clumsy.“

„Yes, he is“, Jungkook teased in passing by. „Good job, Jimin-Hyung.“

„Don’t listen to him. He just likes to make me angry.“

„I can see why“, you snickered, pointing your chin at Jimin whose face had turned a bright shade of pink by now.

„You look kind of cute when you’re flustered“, you added, carefully examining the horn developing in the middle of your forehead.

„Is it bad?“, Jimin asked, contritely surveying the damage done, all the while avoiding eye-contact, his cheeks burning. „It looks like it’s growing. We should probably put some ice on that.“

„Yeah, probably“, you agreed.

„Come on, you should get up. The floor is cold and you really can’t afford to get a chill.“

„That’s right“, you concurred, this time around, however, rejecting Jimin’s hand as he once more offered to help you back up on your feet.

„I think I’m better off getting up alone“, you chuckled, your comment earning you a little glare from the noticeably abashed singer.

„I’m sorry. I’m honestly not that awkward normally.“

„It’s all right“, you assured him, straightening your clothes now you were finally standing upright again.

„Wait. There“, Jimin pointed at your flowing skirt. „You’ve got something, some lint or something, stuck to your dress.“

Swiftly, he bent over in an effort to remove the dusty fluff from the rim of your skirt the very moment you were about to do the exact same thing.

„Three times! Are you kidding me!?“, you laughed, pressing a hand to your forehead which had just met with his once more.

„All of this is not a coincidence …“, Jimin softly hummed the well-known lines of one of their group’s most popular and catchy songs, immediately going on to regret his decision, his cheeks reddening yet again.

„Sorry, couldn’t help it“, he shrugged apologetically, on his plump lips playing a smile so broad that it turned his eyes into narrow, sparkling crescents. „But you have to agree. Three times in a row: If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is.“

6. Kim Taehyung / V

„Come on. Come at me if you dare“, Taehyung wiggled his distinctive eyebrows at you.

„Kim Taehyung“, you sighed, trying hard to keep your lips from curving into a smile. „This isn’t a game. This is already the fifth take. It won’t work if you or I start laughing every time we’re about to do the promenade. This scene is supposed to be kind of dramatic, you know. So we should really try and keep straight faces.“

He simply shrugged, nodding his head in agreement.

„Or I’m gonna do it with Min Yoongi. He seems to be more on the serious side“, you noted, looking over at the rapper awkwardly practicing his dance moves.

„But I’m a much better dancer than he is“, Taehyung pouted.

„Then prove it.“

„All right, all right. I’m gonna be serious now. I’m a professional, after all. This time I won’t laugh. I swear.“

You gave him one more stern, taxing look before you turned to take up your position.

Entirely focusing on your body and the rhythm of the music that soon started playing, you started moving in Taehyung’s direction, doing a slow, elegant chassé that led into a slow promenade, just like the two of you had practiced it a dozen times.

Taehyung took you by the hand and started walking in a slow circle around you, all the while spinning you in place, facing you, his gaze fierce and expression serious.

Finally.

No laughter, no giggling, no brow-wiggling.

Everything went as planned, the promenade being executed perfectly. You almost couldn’t tell the young man had only been introduced to ballet dancing about four days ago. His moves were graceful and certain.

Until one of his legs for some reason went astray, thus tripping you.

„Oh, shit!“, you heard Taehyung curse under his breath as you went down, his hand, instead of catching you, letting go of yours in surprise.

„Ahhh, shhhh—“, you hissed in pain, rubbing your bruised hip.

„Oh! I’m so sorry, y/l/n y/n! I didn’t mean to! I was really trying to get it right. I have no idea what happened“, he floundered, abashed, all of a sudden unusually serious. „Did you get hurt? I should’ve caught you at least. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so sorry.“

Carefully, he helped you back up and brushed the dirt off your delicate silk skirt.

„Let me see. Is it bad?“, he asked, eying you worriedly and actually proceeding to lift up your skirt, for a brief moment apparently entirely forgetting about appropriate manners, in order to take a look at your contused hip bone, tenderly putting his cool hand to the promptly developing hematoma. You gritted your teeth, flinching involuntarily at his touch.

„Oh, no. It hurts, doesn’t it?“, Taehyung looked at you, making eye contact, his expression almost as pained as if it was him suffering the injury. „Aish. I’m so, so sorry.“

„Could be worse“, you muttered, avoiding the young man’s intense stare, feeling a hot blush creep up your neck as you quickly pulled down your skirt again.

„Still, we should have that looked at“, he stated. „Maybe they have some kind of ointment that will help it heal more quickly. And we should really ice that.“

Cheeks still burning, you smiled to yourself since Taehyung had spoken of the treatment as a joint effort. ‚We‘. You liked that sound and had to admit to yourself that the young man grew on you increasingly. You couldn’t even be mad at him for ruining the shooting.��

„Here, let me help you“, Taehyung offered his shoulder for you to lean on, supporting your weight as you limped over to your chair where a medic was already waiting. „Slowly, slowly. I don’t want you to be in pain. Take as much time as you need.“

7. Jeon Jeongguk / Jungkook

The surprisingly muscular young singer had proven that he was a rather skilled dancer during practice. However, your presence seemed to unnerve him for some reason. You couldn’t quite tell if it was either because of your reputation in the world of ballet or simply because you were a woman.

In any case, you could tell Jeongguk’s hands were still shaking, even now after the two of you had known and danced with each other for days already. Every time during your Pas de deux, whenever it was time for him to grab you by your waist and perform the figure you had rehearsed, he suddenly froze. It wasn’t even that difficult of a dance figure and all the other steps he performed with grace and discernible prowess. Jeongguk simply had to put his hands on your waist and lean you forward, follow your movement and sway his body in sync with yours and the climaxing music. Every time throughout practice when he was just about to do so, however, you could clearly tell that he hesitated, leading the two of you to lose the beat and having to start over.

Now, that it was finally time to shoot the scene and perform the pas de deux in front of a running camera, his nervousness seemed only to increase.

„Don’t worry“, you calmed him, smiling softly. „It’s gonna be just fine. You’re an incredibly skilled dancer and obviously strong, so I’m sure you can do it. Just … don’t hesitate when you, you know, have to hold me. Just don’t think. This may sound strange but forget about the fact that I’m a girl, simply grab me and do it. Right now we’re not y/l/n y/n and Jeon Jeongguk, but simply two bodies, no more than the means to express certain emotions and convey a plot. All right?“

„All right“, Jeongguk nodded eagerly, an uncertain grin stretching his rosy lips, his eyes, however, avoiding yours.

Dear, god, please don’t let me fall, you silently prayed as the both of you took up positions at the designated marks.

As soon as the director gave you the sign to go and the music started playing, you started spinning, doing pirouettes in Jeongguk’s direction, the young man anxiously waiting to catch you. You exhaled a sigh of relief the moment he actually did so, his hands this time almost naturally taking a firm hold of your slim waist.

Thank, god, you thought to yourself. Apparently having cheered too soon, though. Because only seconds later, when Jeongguk helped you lean forward as far as you would have never been able to do on your own, your body almost moving into a horizontal position, his grip on you suddenly loosened. Causing you to plummet straight to the ground, unchecked.

„Argh!“, you called out involuntarily as both your elbows hit the parquet floor with an audible bang.

„Oh — I — I — That — I’m —“, you could hear Jeongguk stammer. „I’m — I’m so sorry. I’m such an idiot.“

„Can’t argue with that“, you scoffed, struggling to your feet.

„I’m honestly so sorry. Did you get hurt badly? You hit your elbows, right? Can you move them?“

Teeth gritted, you stretched and flexed your arms a couple of times in order to see how serious the damage was.

„It’s okay. Don’t worry. They’re just bruised, nothing serious“, you reassured him.

„Are you sure?“, Jeongguk inquired, his brown eyes wide with shock and apparent concern. His hand was half extended, hanging in the air, frozen mid-move. It seemed as if he wanted to check on your injury but didn’t dare to get to close, let alone touch you. His insecurity was endearing.

„Don’t sweat it“, you smiled at him. „I’m gonna be just fine. I’ve been through worse. Believe me, ballet is no picnic. You didn’t break me or anything.“

„Good“, he sighed, tension visibly leaving his body as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

„Should we give it another try?“, he cautiously asked.

„Sure. I love dancing with you, to be honest. I think we’re great together“, you casually admitted, to your amusement watching the young man blush slightly.

„But only if you won’t drop me again“, you added, arching a brow at him.

„I won’t, I swear“, Jeongguk promised, gleaming, eyes sparkling. „I think I could get used to holding you.“

I hope you enjoyed it! ☺️ Thank you for reading! I hope you have a great day! 💜

Here you can find my Masterlist, in case you feel like checking out more of my BTS fiction!

The GIFs used are NOT mine. Credit goes to the initial creators. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.

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richsretroreviews · 6 years ago

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Spyro the Dragon Review.

Release date: 9th September 1998 NA, October 1998 EU.

Developer: Insomniac Games.

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment, Universal Interactive Studios.

Ok, I have been putting off doing this for way too long…

Back in 1999 for my 7th birthday I got my first Playstation as an early birthday present. I remember being incredibly impatient for one reason or another until my parents went “Fine, here, this’ll shut you up and keep you occupied.” And it did. I had already gotten a SNES from my uncle when I was 6 which blew my infant mind, but getting the Playstation had solidified video games being a prominent part of my life.

One game in particular that was special to me was Spyro 2 Gateway to Glimmer (or Ripto’s Rage in the US). I was very possessive of that game as a kid… Then I got Spyro 3.

But I never played the first one…

I remember seeing it in a Playstation magazine after I had got Spyro 2 and for some reason it astounded me that there was another one that came before it. I mean, I was a kid. Anything new would bewilder and fascinate me. I remember it clearly that it was a screenshot of the beginning of the Toasty level and Terrace Village. Also there was a Tekken 3 article in that magazine too of that little dinosaur, Gon.

Anyway, fast forward to about 2012. I had just gotten a PS1 emulator working on my laptop and gotten a PS2 for my dad. I still kept a hold of my PS1 memory card from when I was a kid that still had Digimon World 2003 and a couple other saves on it. And I still got that blue card today. That’s when I decided to get back all the games I had lost as a child to play on the PS2, starting with Spyro 2. BUT, the lady I bought it from on ebay mis-advertised the game and I ended up getting the first Spyro. It wasn’t what I wanted at all, but I had never gotten to play it all these 13 years since I first got my Playstation. So I wasn’t one to complain. I messaged the seller, told her it was the wrong one “Oh, haha, ok send it back and I’ll get you a refund” but it was a Friday afternoon. So before I went to send it back the following Monday I blasted through that game on my PS1 emulator on my laptop and made the most of it. I know I could’ve used the PS2 but whatever.

And I’m so happy I mistakenly got the first one.

It was exactly like being a kid again to when I first played Spyro 2. The soundtrack by Stewart Copeland immediately sticking and playing songs on loop in my head, the atmosphere it laid out, controlling Spyro for the first time in a long while and the first time ever in his first title, setting everything on fire, charging everywhere (because you don’t just walk everywhere in a Spyro game, you have to charge), but also there was a wealth of new things to the game that was very different to what I was accustomed to in Spyro 2.

You go through the game freeing crystalized dragons, collecting all the gems, catching all the eggs, doing the time trials for more gems, beating all the bosses and beating Gnasty Gnorc. By the end of it you can get 120% completion.

With Spyro’s controls, you charge, you glide, you breath fire, you charge faster, you fly forever until you hit a giant lighthouse, and you plummet to your death at the push of a button.

I was so used to pressing X to glide then triangle to do a little hover for an extra boost of height in Spyro 2 and 3, but that was never a thing in this. You press triangle after a glide and you plop down on the ground. So many times when I first played it did I mess that up, especially in Alpine Ridge. I go to glide across a giant chasm, feel I’m not quite going to make it so I instinctively press triangle for a last bit of extra height and—nope, let’s just turn gliding off.

You glide along, you soar! Whee! It’s fun! Triangle and turn it off. Foomp. Shit…

But honestly it didn’t take that long after a while to learn that triangle=bad when gliding in this. Do it all you wish in 2 and 3 but this, noooooo.

Either way, gliding was just as fun as the other 2 games. I feel like it was refined in 2 and 3 more, obviously, but it was definitely satisfying to do. Which a lot of what you can do as Spyro feels like, it’s satisfying. It’s a joy to run and fly and play around and jump about as Spyro. For the most part it has great controls to play as Spyro and I never had any problems controlling the lovable purple dragon.

Although, if you were to charge down a line of 6 enemies in a row, you see them all lined up and think “Yessss, I know exactly what I’m going to do!” You go to knock them all down but sometimes it doesn’t entirely work because it feels like after you hit one and go to hit the second behind him it feels like you roll off of the enemies and have to almost fight to keep Spyro in a straight line. So you can’t satisfyingly knock down the whole row of enemies like you want to. Otherwise you miss one and it kinda takes the fun out of what you wanted to do.

But yeah, beyond those two complaints Spyro controls so well it feels too good to play around as him, and it’s important that you enjoy playing as the character you’re stuck with for the next 6-8 hours, otherwise what’s the point?

Also, with being able to roll side to side. I don’t understand why they took that out in 2 and 3. That came in so useful against bosses in this game they could’ve easily used that mechanic again in the later games, but they didn’t. I liked it and I thought what the others would have been like if they implemented that move. Oh well…

The soundtrack I’m not sure I could say anything more to it that hasn’t already been said the past 20 years for it (shit, it’s been 20 years already…). It’s good! It’s wonderful! It’s so joyful, bouncy and uplifting and so fitting for the universe of Spyro that it feels almost like no other could’ve done it better than Stewart Copeland. It’s like outside of the Police that’s what he was meant to do. He put so much energy and attitude and enthusiasm and creativity into each track to accentuate the atmosphere and tone of each level he’s done more than a marvellous job of it. And his soundtracks only got better later on for 2 and 3.

But what sold me and captured me was Lofty Castle and Haunted Towers tracks. That’s when I had to stop myself playing to take in what I was seeing and listening to and thought to myself “I am in love with this game.” And I didn’t want the level to end. I hadn’t felt that way about a game in such a long time I felt robbed of not having more frequently felt that feeling.

And for its levels, the Artisan homeworld and its levels available there are perfect opening levels. Easy enough difficulty, access to how each enemy works and a safe enough environment for you to figure out how to deal with them without being too pampering. But the look and design of the Artisan homeworld and its levels are very good. Bright, colourful (throughout the whole game really), inviting and laid out all for you to run about and play in and explore. Which is what the whole game is designed for you to do. To play.

The Beast Maker’s homeworld and its levels I think is the only place I didn’t like. They all seemed a bit murky and muddy and almost grimy. It still had charm and fun to be in, definitely, but with its colour schemes I felt I just wanted to get through them and move onto the next world and hope for something brighter. In fact, while I’m at it, most levels and its designs and even its enemies and bosses do have this “first time doing this” feel to them which can be pardoned given its execution. They got better though.

And that’s when I got to the Dream Weavers homeworld and its levels. Like I already said, once I got to Lofty Castle and Haunted Towers I fell in love with this game and its design. It gave me the warm fuzzy happy feeling I got as a kid and I loved it. Hell, playing the levels again now and even just listening to the tracks makes me feel giddy! Once a game can do that to me in some way or another it has me captivated, I’m helpless to it. That’s what made me a fan of this game.

Now the boss fights are the most interesting I’ve come across in a platformer.

All the ones I had been acquainted with were Spyro 2 and 3 (ok, I got to stop referencing those I feel), Crash Bandicoot, Mario Sunshine, and numerous others I can’t really think to name off the top of my head. But still, no other game I’ve played had done boss fights like Spyro.

The first is Toasty, who is just a joke and I definitely don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s set out as this scary scarecrow with a fleet of wolves, or dogs. I seem them as wolves. You flame, roll and flame again to defeat the wolves and then you get Toasty all on his own. You flame him and then… it’s a sheep on stilts. You don’t expect that. You’ve gone in all raring and prepared for a tenacious boss fight but then you get this for your first boss and it’s just “Oh… Alright.” I didn’t expect it going in. I went in on this game blind knowing almost nothing about it. But it’s well executed and so funny to come across and for kids I’m sure that would get many a heavy laugh.

Doctor Shemp felt like the first actual boss with a proper video game-y rhythm to him that you had to learn to defeat him. You jump and flame his behind. Easy stuff.

Blowhard was cool but his design didn’t really stand out, same with the rest of them really, Metalhead and Jacques. They were serviceable and the battles themselves are perfectly fine, especially how their levels are laid out as full levels and then the boss battle at the end, but how they look they don’t really stand out.

Metalhead’s battle was cool though. I liked that one.

And then Gnasty Gnorc.

He was honestly pretty challenging at first, what with chasing down the egg thieves to get the keys first. Which! The egg thieves were honestly not that hard to get throughout the game… At all… They were so easy. I can understand struggling as a kid getting them, but these days they’re just not that difficult as you remember them to be. Spyro 3 however, the egg thieves on that, THOSE guys are hard. That’s how people remember the egg thieves to be in Spyro 1 I feel.

Anyway, you beat Gnasty Gnorc charging through the level over some fairly tricky moving platforms flaming him along the way and then he’s toast. Poof.

After you get 100% you get to raid Gnasty’s Loot and collecting those last little bits of gems and that giant room of purple gems with Gnasty’s mug looking down on you is so rewarding for everything you’ve been through.

On my first playthrough it took me 6 hours to complete. I wanted to see if I could beat that and in my second playthrough on that same weekend I beat it in 5 and a half hours. Recently I managed to complete it all 120% in 5 hours.

It’s not too hard a game when you know what you’re doing but for those going in blind and for a child it’ll definitely give reasonable enough challenge, which is good.

Some other things I liked about it, it basically had no loading screens. I mean it technically does when Spyro is flying from homeworld to level, but for a game to do that before Arkham Asylum claimed to not have loading screens is impressive.

Overall, it’s a fun as hell and straight forward adventure platformer. I’d most definitely recommend playing this. It’s dirt cheap to download these days so go for it.

Also, Tree Tops isn’t that hard at all either. It’s fun as hell charging and flying everywhere once you know where you’re going and how to do it. And I know, I understand where the dread comes from and it’s fine. But come on, when you’re a kid it would be tricky but most of us are in our mid to late 20’s now. We can handle a couple slow moving egg thieves and tree top speedways.

Also also! After sending the game back to the buyer I did buy this game again from another seller later on and this one came with a demo disc too. I still don’t know why I didn’t decide to originally keep it the first time. Maybe it was money. And I did want Spyro 2 more. Oh well…

Where to purchase: Playstation Store (PS3 PSP); £7.99 (Trilogy) £3.99/$5.99 (single)

Ebay; £14.99-£49 (Even £100!! Why?) $20-$150 (20/08/18)

Amazon; £25.99-£199.99 $19.99-$246.95 (20/08/18)

#spyro the dragon #playstation #games #video games #review #rich's retro reviews

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crayonwriting · 7 years ago

Text

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

Summary: No one deserves to be alone on New Year’s Eve. Not even a ‘shitty boyfriend’ like Steve Harrington.

Word Count: 2.9k

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Inspiration: What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve by Ella Fitzgerald . I mostly get inspirations from songs so, expect that a lot from me (my next fic is inspired by another song actually, haha.) This is just a sweet, sweet song and I am just a sucker for music in the 50s to the 80s. I HIGHLY suggest that you listen to it on loop; just to set the mood.

A/N: Thank you so much for 100+ notes on ‘The Lady Killer’! Really didn’t expect that. Thank you to all who read it and enjoyed it. Thank you for the feedback and comments too—these give me fuel to write even more! So, I hope you all enjoy this one too! Another Steve fic because I am totally in-love with that boy! Set just days after the Snow Ball.

—

December 30th, 7:36 PM

You, Steve and the party were sitting on the sidewalk, just outside The Hawk. You had just gone and watch Christine, enjoying a good scare just before the year ends.

“So, what are you guys doing for New Year’s Eve tomorrow?” Dustin asked.

“Light fireworks, of course!” Lucas exclaimed. “It’s not the New Year if there’re no fireworks!”

“Yeah, we’ll probably light ‘em at my house. My mom bought a lot of stuff to light too.” Mike piped up. “You guys are invited, obviously.” Everyone laughed at this. “You’ll be there too, right El?”

The curly haired girl, who had her head laying on Mike’s shoulder, sat up straight and looked at him. She smiled softly before nodding. Mike smiled back at her, then looked up at the rest of the party. “Dustin?”

“I can’t.” Dustin frowned. “My mom wanted to visit her sister somewhere upstate. We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Same here. Neil’s cousin or something is throwing this party. Unfortunately, we’re gonna attend.” Max sighed. She didn’t really want to go. Seeing more of Billy’s relatives was just gonna be a nightmare for her.

“Good luck with that.” Lucas patted the back of her hand. Max just smiled sadly. “You coming Will?” He asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” Will nodded his headed. “Jonathan is visiting Nancy, so yeah, I guess so.”

“Hey! Try to be a little more sensitive Will!” Dustin scolded. Will and the rest of the party looked confused. Dustin not-so-subtly pointed to the teenage boy who was sitting beside him. They all nodded in understanding, with Will mouthing a ‘sorry.’

“C’mon guys. I’m over it.” Steve said. Everyone remained quiet, not really believing it. Steve coughed and stood up. “It’s getting late. I’ll drop you all off. Let’s go.” He started to walk to his car which was parked nearby. You and the kids followed.

“Don’t worry about him guys.” You said. You put a hand on Will’s head smiling down at him.

“Steve, I’m sorry about earlier,” Dustin said.

“Kid, it’s okay. I’ll get over it.” Steve pulled down the front of Dustin’s cap. Dustin tried to dodge Steve’s attack but wasn’t successful. He smiled at the older teen before getting out.

“See you next year guys!” Dustin said as he closed the door of Steve’s car. He was the last kid to be dropped off. You waved back at Dustin from where you were seated.

“Enjoy the trip Dusty!” You shouted. Steve waited for Dustin to enter his house before starting the car and driving away.

The car ride to your house was silent. What were you supposed to say? Steve hasn’t talked to you about what really happened between him and Nancy, not with all the happenings in the tunnels and the gate and the Upside Down. You just hadn’t had time to sit down and talk about it.

Steve was your best friend, always has been since you met him in 6th grade. He stopped talking to you during his reign as ‘King of Hawkins High’, also he started hanging out with assholes like Tommy H and Carol. Your friendship was rekindled when you saw him—his face bleeding and bruised—scrubbing away the vandalism he and his so-called friends did at the cinema. You waited for him and cleaned up his wounds. Apologies were made and you became best friends again.

Despite it being cliché, you had a crush on Steve. How could you not, when you had spent most of your time with him during your middle school and the beginning of your high school days. You couldn’t blame him for falling for Nancy Wheeler. She was pretty, smart, and very determined. But hearing about their breakup—and they say it was bad—you couldn’t help but feel sad because you knew how much Steve loved Nancy. She was probably the first girl, out of all the girls he dated, that he loved.

From the passenger seat of his car, you could see how tight he held the steering wheel, how his lips were set in a straight line and how he was so focused on looking straight ahead. You knew he was hurting but he didn’t want to break. You wanted him to talk about it so bad but you couldn’t force him to. You decided that maybe a little small talk could do the trick.

Maybe it’s much too early in the game Aah, but I thought I’d ask you just the same What are you doing New Year’s New Year’s Eve?

“So Steve,” you started, pulling on the hem of your shirt, “What are your New Year’s Eve plans?”

“Nothing. I’ll just be at home.” Steve replied.

“What? You can’t just stay at home for the New Year!” You were looking at him now. “It’s boring! You should be out partying!”

“That’s a lot coming from someone who rarely goes to parties.” He smiled lightly, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel.

Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight When it’s exactly twelve o'clock that night

“You know me. I just don’t like the smell of sweat and alcohol.” You put your tongue out at him in a childish manner. “Tina’s hosting another party tomorrow. I heard it’s her big Year Ender party. You should go. Have some fun, Steve!” He stiffened at the mention of ‘Tina’ and he sat up straight.

“Listen Y/N,” he licked his lips and continued, “I know about Tina’s party tomorrow. Everyone’s been bugging me about it—the basketball team… Hell, even Hargrove’s been on my back about it, wanting to challenge me to another keg fight or something.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “And now you want me to go there too.”

“Listen, Steve, I—”

“I don’t want to go okay?” He cut you off. “I just… I don’t know… The last party I went to was bullshit. Just… let it go, okay?” He looked at you briefly, before averting his gaze back on the road.

The rest of the trip was quiet. So many thoughts ran through your head. Steve shouldn’t be alone on New Year’s Eve. Nobody should ever be alone on New Year’s Eve. It’s a symbol of new beginnings. With all that happened the past few months, you all deserved a fresh new start and that’s exactly what you’re gonna get.

The car stopped in front of your house. The porch light was on, but the rest of the house was dark. You turned to look at Steve who was still looking straight down the road.

“Look, I’m sorry if I stepped a line back there. But I can’t let my best friend spend New Year’s Eve alone and sulking.”

“I am not sulking.” He countered.

“You definitely are sulking.” You giggled. “So, I have a plan for tomorrow. If you ever decide to stop moping around and spend the last day of the year with your amazing best friend,” you leaned in closer to him, whispering, “that’s me,” he laughed at your antics, “pick me up at 10 PM.”

“What are we gonna do?” He asked.

“Pick me up and you’ll see.” You pushed the door open and stepped out of his car. “Drive safe, Harrington. Thanks for the ride.” You started up the steps of your front yard and to the porch. You opened your front door. Before entering, you looked back at Steve waving at you. You waved back and entered, closing the door behind you.

You let out a breath and got ready for bed.

—

Maybe I’m crazy to suppose I’d ever be the one you chose Out of a thousand invitations You received

December 31st, 9:58 PM

Ever since you woke up this morning, you have been in and out of your house preparing for what you had planned for you and Steve. You bought some groceries, making him and you some sandwiches and buying a pack of soda. You bought some sparklers at Melvald’s and also some flashlights.

Truth be told, you didn’t exactly know how you were gonna execute your plan. You just hated to see Steve so vulnerable and so sad. Even if he doesn’t feel the same way, you just couldn’t bear to see him like that. It was your job as his best friend to cheer him up. You sighed. You didn’t even know if Steve would come pick you up. He might just go to Tina’s party after all. But, he wouldn’t just bail on you, his best friend, right?

You checked your watch and saw that it was already five minutes past ten o’clock. Should you just go to bed? You should maybe just wait for a few more minutes. You were seated by the window, waiting for your best friend to come. The backpack that had all the things you needed was sat on the floor beside you.

Moments later, a familiar set of headlights were approaching. The car parked in front of your house. You jumped and scrambled to the front door, quickly putting on your shoes. Your heart was hammering against your chest. For a moment, you thought that Steve would’ve gone to the party. You squealed inwardly and rushed outside, just as Steve was walking up your yard.

“Good to see you, Steve. C’mon let’s go!” You yanked him back towards his car. When you reached the passenger door, you turned around and saw him still standing in the middle of your yard. “What are you waiting for?”

“Where are we even going, Y/N?” He asked, raising his shoulders in question, with his keys in his hand.

“Oh come on, Steve! Don’t you trust me?”

“Well yeah, but—“

“Bar none. C’mon.” You urged. Steve sighed before smiling to himself and jogging back to his car.

For the remainder of the night, you had tried your best to cheer Steve up.

You both drove around the town, directing him where to turn while eating the sandwiches you made. He complimented them and your heart leaped just a little bit. You told him random stories about how milk had suddenly come up your nose and out one lunchtime; and that time you smacked Mr. Colins’ toupee off his head after rushing to get to your class, or that time you almost set your lab partner on fire. Steve laughed at all of the things you said. These happened during the moments he left you for Tommy H and Carol, that was why he hadn’t heard of any of those happening to you.

“Holy shit Y/N, I knew you were clumsy but I didn’t know you were that clumsy!” Steve wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes. “Can’t believe I missed those moments with you.”

“Nah,” you brushed him off, “Don’t beat yourself up for it. It’s okay.”

The car grew silent as you told Steve to take a right.

“Y/N, where are you taking me?”

“You’ll find out, Harrington.” You flashed him a mischievous smile.

Soon enough, you and Steve found yourselves at the Quarry. You told Steve to stop and park here. No other cars were present so you parked in the middle of the road

“Why are we here again?” Steve asked. He turned the engine off, but the radio still played a low hum in the silence of the night.

11:18 PM

You hopped outside of the car, with your bag of necessities on your shoulder. You stopped in front of the car and pulled out a box of sparklers and a Polaroid camera. Steve was in front of you, with his hands on his hips, looking down at you.

“C’mon let’s light these babies up.” You waved the box at him. You got a few sticks out and handed them to him. You pulled out a matchbox from your pocket and lit the ones he was holding up.

“There. Now do a pose, and I’ll take a picture of you.” You grabbed your camera and got ready.

“Is this really necessary?” Steve held the two sparklers awkwardly beside him.

“Yes, Steve! It’s been a long time since we’ve taken photos, so just shut up and pose!” You peered through the viewfinder of the camera and waited for Steve. Steve forced a big and awkward smile on his face and you took the shot. “Okay now take my photo.”

This went on for a couple more pictures, you and Steve making weird and funny faces. You even took a few pictures together. You held the pictures out to Steve.

“Here, pick a few. Your copies.” Steve thought for a moment and chose four pictures; one of him, two of you and one with the both of you.

“Thanks, Y/N.”

You smiled at him and pocketed the rest of the pictures. You were now sitting on top of his car hood, looking out over the cliff. The faint sounds of distant fireworks and the radio were the only sounds you could hear; the soft breeze humming along.

“You know,” you sat up straighter, “I used to come here when you left me for your shitty friends.” Steve looked at you, his eyebrows knotted together. “I hated you that time. And I was so frustrated. So, I came here to the quarry and screamed until I was okay again.” Steve was quiet as he looked away.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled.

“Stop apologizing. It’s okay.” You put a hand on his arm and smiled softly. “Why don’t you try it?”

“What?”

“I know you’re hurt about Nancy. And I know you act all tough but I know you, Steve. I’m not your best friend for nothing.” Steve hesitated. He didn’t exactly know what to scream. He doesn’t want to curse out Nancy, god knows he doesn’t. Noticing his lack of response, you bit your lip before cupping your hands around your mouth and screaming,

“HEY! I’M BEST FRIENDS WITH THE KING OF HAWKINS HIGH AGAIN!”

His eyes grew wide at your actions. He stared at you but you continued to smile.

“C’mon Steve!” You took a deep breath and shouted once more, “WOOH!” Your voice echoed out into the air. After a while, you heard Steve take a breath and finally let everything go.

“I LOVED YOU NANCY WHEELER!” You flinched slightly. You didn’t expect that from him. “I LOVED YOU NANCY BUT IT’S OKAY! YOU DESERVE SOMEONE BETTER!”

“YOU DESERVE SOMEONE BETTER TOO STEVE HARRINGTON!” You shouted. Steve look at you abruptly. His chest going up and down, trying to catch his breath. “You do deserve someone better too Steve. I mean, yeah sure Nancy was great but I guess she just didn’t see how much you’d change since loving her. There’s someone who will appreciate that Steve. You just gotta look harder.”

Steve grew silent once again. He thought about what you said because all this time, he had thought he was a shitty boyfriend to Nancy. Maybe he was in a way. But then, maybe he was also good in his own way. Maybe their timing just wasn’t right or maybe him and Nancy just weren’t right for one another.

“Y/N, thank you.” He said quietly. You beamed up at him and punched his shoulder. “Seriously, thank you. For today, for being with me this New Year’s Eve. For putting up with my shit for years.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can take your shit.” You joked. He laughed and nudged your shoulder with his.

11:58PM

You perked up when you heard Ella Fitzgerald start to sing on Steve’s radio. You jumped up from his car hood and put out your hands to him. He gave you a quizzical looked, silently asking what you were up to again.

“Just get up Steve and dance with me!” You egged him on. He slowly took your hand and with force, you pulled him up to stand in front of you. You reached out through the car window to put the volume on full blast. You turned back to Steve and let out a breath.

Slowly, you wrapped an arm around his shoulder and held his hand out with the other one. Instinctively, he put an arm around your waist. You started to slowly sway the two of you, going around in a circle. You felt Steve follow you awkwardly and you couldn’t help but giggle.

“Steve, loosen up a little! Remember when I helped you learn how to dance so you can ask Sarah to the dance during 7th grade? ” He laughed at the memory and shook his shoulders loose. He looked down at you, giving you a heart-warming smile that you couldn’t help but blush at. You felt your heart beat loudly against your chest and prayed to the gods that he didn’t feel it. You leaned closer to him and pressed your cheek against his shoulder; he pressed his cheek to your ear. You both continued to sway slowly until the song was done and another came on.

The distant booms of the fireworks were a bit louder now as the clock had already struck twelve. Never moving from the position you were in, you greeted Steve a happy New Year.

“Happy New Year, Y/N.” He whispered and continued to slow dance with you.

You didn’t know if he intended for you to notice but he held you just a tad bit tighter, giving the side of your head a feather-light kiss. You smiled widely and held on to him tighter too.

Aah, but in case I stand one little chance Here comes the jackpot question in advance What are you doing New Year’s New Year’s Eve?

—

Posted: December 30, 2017

#stranger things #stranger things 2 #stranger things imagine #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagine #joe keery #joe keery x reader #joe keery imagine #b writes

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