#and I dropped some stuff that will go entirely unexplained into this

[2amcheese]

Fic for day 1 prompt of @foxquinweek 2023, Please don't take him from me 2,500 words May be updated with an AO3 link when I have one TW: Callous treatment of clones, major character injury

Enjoy!

Quinlan was battling his own opponent, who had managed to slip some force-resistant cuffs onto his ankle when he was distracted. The woman was fighting with vibroblades, short knives that maintained a flurry of attacks keeping Quinlan focused on her. He was fighting for his life, unable to access his usual wealth of power, and just barely maintaining the upper hand.

This was why he was powerless to stop the other opponent, who plunged his knife directly into Fox’s right shoulder. 

He heard Fox cry out behind him, and glanced back to see his boyfriend clutching his shoulder, staggering back from the attacker. The knife had gone right through the gap in his armor.

Shit. Shit. Shit–Quinlan sliced off the cuffs with his saber, scorching his ankle in the process, then picked up both attackers, flung them into the wall, grabbed Fox, and ran out of the bar into an alley.

“I’m fine,” Fox gasped. “Go arrest them!” It was taking all his willpower not to scream.

“No? You got stabbed! I’m taking you to a medic!” 

Fox struggled against him. “Let me bandage my arm, at least.”

“Fuck. Yeah, okay.” Vos put him down and started removing Fox’s armor. “Don’t move your arm. You’ll only make it worse.” 

The Vos carefully cut away Fox’s blacks where they threatened to adhere to his skin. 

The wound was bad. 

Really bad. 

“I can try to set it…” Vos said, looking bleakly at the mess of severed muscle and tendon.

“Don’t bother. You need to chase the assassins. An injury like this, I would need  amputation or something.” He winced and bit his tongue hard to keep himself from whimpering. “I’ll be decommissioned anyway.” The smile he attempted to direct at Quinlan was more of a grimace. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not,” Quinlan said, wiping away the tears blurring his eyesight as he lined Fox’s bones up, then jerked his shoulder back into its socket. Fox cried out in pain. “Sorry love,” Quinlan said, immediately wrapping his shoulder with strips of his robe. 

“C’mon. The faster we get to the medbay, the faster you can heal. You have your comm? We gotta keep moving.”

“You’re an idiot. It’s a good thing I slipped a tracker onto the guy who stabbed me.”

“You’re so smart babe.” Quinlan hissed as he put too much weight on the burnt foot. 

Fox pulled out his comm, sending Quin a worried look. “Thorn! We need an extraction–the mission went south and I got a little bit stabbed. We’re on level 9, heading towards the center pipe.”

Quinlan didn’t hear what Thorn said back, but Fox nodded and ended the call. “He’s on his way.” 

They reached the central pipe just as a transport lowered to their level. “Vibroblade to the shoulder,” Quinlan said. The Guard medic–Humerus?-- unwrapped Fox’s dressings to examine the wound. 

“This is bad,” he said, glancing at Fox’s face, which was obscured by his helmet. 

“I know,” Fox said softly. “Quin insisted I be brought back.” Thorn took off Fox’s helmet.

“Are you okay, General?” The medic asked. Yeah, it was Humerus.

“I mean–I have a burn on my ankle, but it’s not that bad. Focus on Fox!”

Thorn, Fox, and Humerus exchanged a look. The medic pulled out a bottle of pills. “You want some pain meds, sir?” 

Fox accepted them with his uninjured left arm and swallowed them dry. They were approaching the barracks, where the clone medbay was. 

“I recommend you leave, General,” Humerus said. “Your presence will only make things harder.”

“He–he won’t die, right?” Quinlan said nervously.

“The wound isn’t fatal, sir.”

That was enough for Quinlan, and he walked out of the medbay and back to his rooms in the temple.

Something wasn’t right though. He was getting a distinct feeling that he was missing something. 

He sighed. He might have to engage in his least favorite hobby: research.

Disgusting.

He walked down to the Jedi archives to look for the guidelines on clone injury.

Decommissioning.

That’s what the screen said. 

Injuries too serious to be treated easily, that result in the loss of or loss of use in a limb, as well as brain injuries, may result in decommissioning as the clone is no longer fit for battle.

No wonder Fox had told him to ignore him, no longer everyone had seemed so–so apologetic, they hadn’t wanted to tell him! Quinlan jumped to his feet. There was no way he was going to let them take him. He made his way back to the clone med bay, ignoring whoever was telling him he wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Fox, what the FU– Oh. Hello, Chancellor,” Vos said, cutting off abruptly and nodding politely. Rage was simmering in his gut, and he took several deep breaths. There is no passion, there is serenity. Anger makes you do stupid things. 

“Hello, Master Vos. Always a pleasure to see you. What brings you here today?” the chancellor responded pleasantly. Master Windu stood behind him, watching. 

“Checking in on Commander Fox, Sir. He was injured while we were in the field. Will he recover?”

The Chancellor’s face morphed into deep regret. “I’m afraid not, Master Jedi.” Vos’s heart started pounding. “My commander has unfortunately lost the use of his right arm. According to the regulation manuals, this results in a decommissioning.” No. No. No.

“Respectfully, Chancellor, I don’t think that’s necessary. A commander as experienced as Fox is a great asset to the republic. I’m sure a prosthetic could be fitted easily.”

“Can we discuss this away from the patient?” Palpatine said, pleasant as ever. Vos nodded mutely, allowing him to lead him outside of Fox’s room. Quinlan shot him a worried glance. Fox looked heartbroken and mouthed quickly, ‘don’t.’ Vos ignored him.

“I appreciate your concern over Commander Fox,” Palpatine began. “And trust me, no one is more sad than I to see him go.” 

Quinlan highly doubted that.

“However, the Republic is strained as it is. We cannot devote more budget to the upkeep of the clones. If one gets a prosthetic, soon they all will want them and that’s more money than we can spare.” No, they couldn’t take Fox from him–

“Sir, it’s just one. The troopers will understand that their commanders get more privileges. What about Commander Wolffe, of the 104th?”

“Master Plo Koon went against regulations to obtain the cybernetic eye for him, and should not have done so. We let it slide but a warning was issued. This is, unfortunately, how it is, Master Jedi.”

“I would like to add,” Master Windu chimed in for the first time that day, “that you are displaying a higher level of attachment than we prefer for Jedi to have. Your compassion is appreciated, but we cannot go against the rules. To do so would be anarchy. You must let him go.” 

Quinlan couldn’t do that. He–he fucking loved Fox. He’d never said it, they’d only been a casual thing, but it was true. He made his life so much better. They couldn’t just do this. 

“Besides,” Palpatine said, with that same sorrowful, apologetic look on his face, “I do not wish to be callous… but he is just a clone.”

Don’t punch him. Don’t punch him. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. This was the leader of the entire republic. He was not going to punch him. 

Quinlan Vos looked at them with dead eyes and replied, “I understand. Sorry for the commotion.” He spun on his heel and left the room.

Now, which of his contacts would be the best to ask for a prosthetic arm?

Prosthetics and other similar accessories were common in the underworld. There was a thriving market for them, and finding one that could meet a clone’s specifications wasn’t hard. He paid a (frankly outrageous) fee for it and left for the medbay.

By then it was late, and his abilities as a Jedi Shadow allowed him to slip easily into Fox’s room. He was still there, thank the force.

Vos woke him up gently, shaking him. “Hey love,” he whispered. 

“Wh– oh, Quinlan. Hey.”

“You doing okay?” Quinlan kept his voice low and the arm hidden. Fox had in fact been amputated. Vos doubted that was entirely necessary, from what he knew of healing processes, but it wasn’t his field of exercise and this definitely made it easier.

“Yeah, I’m on meds. Listen, Quin–”

“Shh. It’ll be okay. I got you a prosthetic, we just need to attach it, where’s the best medic you have?”

“Quin, you really shouldn’t have done that. I don’t think they’ll let me go anyway. They… this shouldn’t have been an amputation. I had feeling in the arm, the shoulder joint was just messed up. Something’s gone wrong.”

“You think someone’s trying to get you killed?”

“Maybe, I don’t know. I’m just letting you know, you should leave now though, don’t get in trouble.”

“Fox, I’m not going to unpack how you all pretended you’d be okay and didn't tell me you were worried about this. We can deal with that later. But I’m not going to let them take you. Not from me, or the Guard, or anyone. Please let me do this. You can accept the punishment if you want if that’s what you need to say yes, but please.”

Fox sighed. “...Fine. Go ahead, but just–be careful.”

Quinlan smiled softly at him. “I always am. I’ll grab Humerus.”

The clone medic hurried over. Quinlan assured him that he would not get in trouble for this, and Quin was prepared to take all responsibility, then told him not to tell Fox that. Humerus nodded grimly and began the process. Quinlan held Fox’s good hand through the whole process, falling asleep halfway through. He hadn’t gotten much sleep. None, actually, since the incident. 

He woke with Humerus gently shaking him awake. “The Chancellor will be back soon to send him off to Kamino,” he said anxiously. “I hope you’re ready for what’s about to go down.”

Quinlan nodded nervously. Fox was asleep, which was good.

The Chancellor, Master Windu in tow, arrived soon after. 

As soon as he entered the room and saw Fox, Palpatine’s usual pleasant face twisted into angry disapproval. “Master Jedi,” he said, enunciating each syllable, “did you go against my and Master Windu’s direct orders?”

“Yes sir,” Quinlan said. “As a Jedi, it is my duty to do my best to help people. The arm came out of my personal pocket so the republic need not worry about the expense. It integrated very well with his systems. There is now no longer a reason to decommission him.” The chancellor seemed to be seething. He likely hadn’t ever had anyone disobey him.

Mace Windu stepped forward, frowning. “As much as your compassion for this clone is admirable, it shows a level of attachment we prefer for our members not to have. And your money could be spent on something better.”

“Respectfully, Master Windu, I would argue that saving a man’s life is really the ideal use of my money. And yes, Fox is my friend, but I would not place him over the world or my duties.” Quinlan wasn’t sure how much of that was true. It didn’t matter.

Windu sighed. “I will let this go, as it was a noble act. But there will be consequences, as disobeying your direct superior cannot go unpunished.” Relieved, Quinlan nodded at him. 

“Thank you, Master Windu.”

“Well, I suppose I am glad I get to keep my favorite Guard commander,” Palpatine said, his usual expression plastered firmly in place. “Thank you, Master Jedi.”

“Of course, Chancellor.” Quinlan inclined his head to him as well. 

Mace sighed. “You shall be put on a new shadow mission that has been in the works for a while. It will be for at least a month, off-planet, with minimal contact. Maybe this will help you gain clarity.”

That wasn’t as bad as Quinhad expected. This was okay. It was going to suck, sure, but it could have been so much worse.

Fox was staying. He was living. Sans an arm, but he was alive. Quinlan had succeeded. 

“Yes, Master Windu. Permission to first finish the mission I was on when Commander Fox got injured? We have a tracker placed on one of them.”

“Permission granted, Master Vos. I shall see you for your mission briefing at 0100 tomorrow.”

“Yes sir.” 

Windu and Palpatine left the infirmary. Fox was still sleeping. Humerus emerged from another room. “So we’re good?”

Quinlan gave him a tired smile. “Yeah. Maybe tell the men.”

“I’ll do that.” The medic paused. “Thanks, sir. For doing that for him.”

“Of course. I just hope he adjusts to the prosthetic easily enough.” Quin hesitated. “What kind of sleeping meds did you give him?”

“The good ones. He should be up in a few hours. The integration process is the most painful–the skin and tendons will heal, but this is the worst of it and our pain meds can only do so much.”

“Okay. Thanks, Humerus.” The medic nodded and left them alone. 

Quinlan took Fox’s hand in his again. “I’m never going to let them take you from me,” he whispered. 

Fox woke up a couple of hours later. “Still alive, always a plus,” he said drily, causing Quinlan to look up in excitement. “Oh, you’re awake! Yeah, you’re all set. How does it feel?”

Fox gingerly moved his new arm. “It’s okay. Hurts in the shoulder. Gonna take some getting used to. How’d the talk go? I’m going to kill Humerus for making sure I was out of it.” He was grumpy as ever. Quin smiled affectionately at him.

“The chancellor seemed pretty upset. Mace said I shouldn’t have done it, but I think mostly that was because of Palpatine’s orders. I’m being sent off on a mission with minimal contact soon as punishment.”

“Mm. Could be worse.” 

“Yeah. And that’ll give you time to adjust to the arm, so when I get back you can probably get back in the field!” He lowered his voice. “And I’m going to take you on a real date. Somewhere nice. Not just your office to talk for a few hours.” He grinned. “Of course, I wouldn’t mind a little stop by your bedroom…” 

Fox blushed and shoved him away. “A good date. That’d be nice.” His voice was sharp and curt in the way it got when he was embarrassed. Quinlan laughed softly, then frowned.

“First I’m going to hunt down those bastards that hurt you, though,” he growled. 

Fox regarded him expressionlessly. “Hot,” he commented.

Quinlan swatted him lightly on the head. “Shut up.” 

“Make me.”

Quinlan rolled his eyes. “If you want me to kiss you just ask for it,” he teased, and cut off Fox’s response by pressing his lips to his boyfriend’s. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.”

[saltydkdan]

Pleasant tidings Salty, here to say your iceberg videos where one of the main things that actually got into jojo’s, incredible series, and now i’m caught up on everything i’d be interested to hear your opinion on (as a ultra based jojoer) the end of JoJolion. Personally i loved it, from the connections to part 7 and Gappy’s development through the part, but i know some people found it rushed or confusing, and i’m wondering what your thoughts were?

(ignore the fact i’m a dead weezer gimmick blog)

I’m EXTREMELY MIXED on Jojolion. There’s a lot I love, but also a lot I dislike.

WARNING: JOJO RAMBLE INCOMING

My opinion is very fresh, as I dropped off of modern Jojo back in college. It was only recently that I decided to finally catch back up, and do a weekly book club for Jojolion with a few friends.

My personal recommendation for reading it:

Do it weekly with other friends if possible. Have discussions with them about it. There is so much that I either didn’t pick up on while reading, or completely didn’t register at the time. And trying to extrapolate what Araki was trying to say with his story was very fun. It’s clear he tried to pack a LOT into every chapter. Which has it’s pros and cons. Binge reading doesn’t hit the same for me for Jojolion. I gained a far bigger appreciation reading in batches with other fans :)

The way I like to think about it, is that it had the ingredients, but I feel like the cake didn’t come out right. Although it tastes just as delicious as I would have wanted.

I just feel like Jojolion had a bit too many moving parts that even Araki couldn’t keep track of. There’s plenty of early Jojolion stuff that feels very tonally different with later Jojolion stuff. It’s clear that Araki had to course correct and change the plot several times throughout it’s run. And it’s because of Jojolion that I just feel like Jojo isn’t built for longer stories/publication. I think its length caused a lot of issues long term. It’s because of how long it took to make that there seems to be much more room for Araki to have second thoughts, or flat out change his mind on the story several times. (Josefumi having the Joestar birthmark and having it later removed in the volume releases, the characterization of Norisuke, etc)

Plenty of things go outright unexplained or elaborated on. I know it’s parroted a lot, but the “Flashback Man” from the first arc is the biggest example of this issue. If I had more time I’m sure I could type up a more definite list (how the Wall Eyes work is another example, as well as why the fuck Josuke and Kei Ninimura never really interacted past her stand fight, given that they are siblings and JOSUKE IS LITERALLY SEARCHING FOR FAMILY. HE LITERALLY SAYS THAT HE “HAS NO ONE” MULTIPLE TIMES LIKE, BRO, TALK TO YOUR SIBLING)

Now, I’m not saying that EVERYTHING needs explanation, but for 70% of the story, Jojolion posits itself as a MYSTERY. So to have so many pieces of that be unaddressed just feels… strange.

I also just feel like Jojolion has SO MANY AMAZING IDEAS, and has plenty of time to explore them and just… doesn’t.

Tooru is an incredible villain, probably one of my favorites in the entire series, but his presence in the story is soured because of how late he’s introduced into the plot. He’s amazing, but he feels like a very last minute inclusion, especially when Araki wants us to believe that he was totally a part of Yasuho’s life before and we’ve never even heard a rumbling of that before.

Anyway that’s enough complaining, let me hush about what I love about it real quick.

This is the case with everything he writes, but when Araki nails it with Jojolion he REALLY nails it. The Vitamin C arc is incredible, and ties Josuke’s story together so well and has some incredible lore drops. Not to mention that I think that Jojolion has some of his best written characters. Yasuho is one of the most deep and complex female characters in the entire series (didn’t stop Araki from writing that she gets sexually assaulted once or twice, but that’s just an issue I have with his writing overall)

He also goes really strange with the stands and designs, and I love it so much. When Araki gets weird, he really goes wild, it’s crazy fun. Blue Hawaii is such a fantastic arc, and really highlights his mastery of art and choreography in manga. Josuke’s combat is the best in the series imho.

And although the final arc stumbles in a few places, Wonder of U sticks the landing for me regardless, and in a way that didn’t feel cheap. Araki has come a long way from him writing that “Star Platinum can ALSO stop time”

At first, I thought that Josuke gaining the power of the spin last minute was cheap. However the more I reflected on it, the more it made sense. It isn’t outright confirmed, but I feel like Johnny’s spin was passed down to Josuke through his fusion in the wall eyes. Much like how Autumn Leaves absorbed some power from Johnny’s spin, I think that Josuke being in the wall eyes allowed him to absorb the power in the same way. I can’t tell if that was Araki’s intent, but if it was, dude is a genius. It makes complete sense, and in a roundabout way, directly connects Johnny and Josuke in a final battle.

Anyway yeah, I’ll stop the rambling here.

Believe me, I could go on for hours about Jojolion, and especially Jojo in general. I have so many things I can gush and complain about, it’s why I love it so much.

So yeah, I’m mixed on Jojolion, but overall I enjoy it a lot!!

[onewholivesinloops]

Meguri Tatariakashi finally started!

...

...

...and I have VERY mixed feelings about it. I’m holding out proper judgement until more chapters release because this is definitely not unsalvageable.

A friend of mine summarized key stuff for me and in terms of positives, I'm happy remorseful Teppei wasn't cut because I think it’s very important for Satoko’s arc in this. I also like that Meguri is leaning into Satoko thrusting herself into the depths of her misery and trauma because she believes others are only capable of caring about her when she's an object of pity.

It feels like it's emphasizing what R07 said he was going for in Gou/Sotsu in some interviews about wanting to write a story where Satoko isn't in the "damsel in distress/princess" role to be saved by Rika and the others who are in the "prince" role but an active protagonist so her heart can be explored further.

Satoko’s original plan was basically to be abused by Teppei and have Rika and the other club members help her, then cause a tragedy in the end, but she thinks this being different from her plan with good!Teppei as a new element could be fun/interesting as well. She also talks about how in order to be treated as precious by the club members like in that world she needs to deceive everyone. She says she’s playing a starring role in this play, and everyone needs to help make it exciting by playing those roles, and that starting from tomorrow she’s the “heroine of a tragedy”.

We’re still flipping Tatarigoroshi/Minagoroshi on their heads which is interesting!

Satoko’s mindset here reminds me of some of Eua’s dialogue about her behavior during Sotsu Tatariakashi too:

As for the concerning stuff, I'm a little bit disappointed Satoko shows little to no reaction to Teppei... I don't think the anime handled this well at all, but Satoko's PTSD reaction to Teppei still felt really palpable to me and even in Sotsu you get this feeling that she's feeling deeply uncomfortable around him with all of their interations having this unsettling vibe.

The concepts weren't explored properly but they were there. Teppei's change of heart is unexplained right now which is also worrying...?

I guess it's possible Tomato is still keeping the mystery of what exactly Eua meant when she said some irreversible changes are occurring because we still haven't seen had her explain memory leaks to Satoko so that could still come into play at a later point. The same goes for Satoko’s reaction to Teppei.

The chapter ends on Satoko arriving at the classroom which was the cliffhanger of the first chapter of Tataridamashi and we still haven't had the club drop by at her home.

That scene in Tataridamashi felt very important because it’s the only glimpse we get into Satoko’s dynamic with Teppei in the question arc and it’s also a good opportunity to explore some of Satoko’s feelings about Teppei because he regresses back to his violent self even if his aggressiveness isn't directed her?

I'm holding proper judgement until further releases like I said because the idea could easily be that Satoko right now isn't reacting to him negatively as she's loving being bad because she enjoys the control and power it gives her, and she's going to continue reveling in it until it runs up into all her of her childhood trauma and blows up in her face.

The manga has been very explicit about Satoko being on some kind of power trip where she’s enjoying her unlimited power and being in control of everything which makes so much sense when her entire life has been mired in a lack of control.

I think Satoko could still have a stress response in reaction to Teppei being aggressive in the next release when the club drops by her house but she's probably going to be deep in denial about it/shrug it off as unimportant, but the more time she spends with him the more she'll deterioriate until we get something like that moment in the anime when he tried to pat her head and it triggered her PTSD reaction?

The main reason I'm so anxious about this is because as much as I find the fake abuse plotline interesting as a concept, if it's not going to be executed well again then I don't want to have to suffer through it another time. The first time was already bad enough for me as someone who finds Satoko’s abuse storyline in the original very relatable. My mental health is too fragile to handle it a second time. Watch me do it anyway even if the manga drops the ball though-

And to be fair to Meguri, Gou/Sotsu had the advantage of laying the groundwork for the Teppei stuff in epsidoe 23 and Satoko still hasn't looped much by that point so it makes sense she'd react more strongly to Teppei immediately. The manga didn't do that and it's only introducing Teppei now that Satoko is on a power trip so it's possible for any PTSD reaction to take some time to kick in, and Tomato’s intent could be to spread exploring Teppei’s development across Tatariakashi to make this arc more eventful.

I always thought it was clever of Meguri to push the Teppei and Takano stuff into the answer arcs themselves instead of having them as part of some prep loops before everything starts.

This release was also just 10 pages so it's definitely too early to judge this arc. It’s a concerning start for sure but the good faith is there for this to be converted to a Satoko and Teppei arc but still gonna be worried until or unless it actually plays out?

Another reason to be optimistic though is that Tomato went out of his way to develop Rina in Oniakashi more than Sotsu did so I find the idea that Teppei’s change would be explained with just a throwaway line about what Eua said in the previous chapter to be EXTREMELY unlikely. I’m betting on Tomato coming back to this and exploring how Teppei’s transformation happened in the next releases but we’ll see.

I’m cautiously optimistic about all this. Emphasis on cautiously. I’m even more anxious and stressed though.

[octarianstrength]

It's late at night in the domes, not that there's much of a noticeable difference between that and daytime. Normally Yulia would be asleep right now, being the diligent Octarian soldier she is, but tonight is a rare exception.

The sound of quiet laughter can be heard from an otherwise silent restaurant near the exact center of a dome, far away from the upper areas where Yulia lives. She's inside, along with a shorter octoling that has long, bright pink tentacles and dressed in greasy tank top with baggy cargo pants, a rather typical look for a lot of engineers.

"I remember that like it was yesterday!" The shorter octoling exclaimed with a chuckle. "Otto's tentacle was flattened for like an entire week afterwards!"

Yulia smiled, looking down at them. Her goggles had been removed some time ago so she could let her friend see her eyes, and also to prevent them from fogging up thanks to the steamy noodles they had been eating.

"Yeah... He was kind of an arse though, so... deserved."

"Yeah! But hey, that's enough about the past! I wanna know how you're doing now! What's going on in the world of the awesome Octarian general?"

"Oh... well not a whole lot lately. The army has been back to just making sure things don't fall apart and preparing for our next operation ever since... well. Ya know."

"Right..." The octoling looked downcast, like she regretted bringing up something painful.

Yulia noticed this almost immediately and felt the need to comfort her friend. "Don't worry about it, Chip. We might have suffered another loss, but we'll come back from it." She doesn't suppose that's very reassuring, but she has to try.

Come on, think Yulia. THINK!

OH! I got it!

"Ya know, around the same time we lost it, those mysterious disappearances stopped happening. I might have to look into what was going on since I was busy with other stuff at the time, but we might make progress on figuring out what was actually happening with all that soon."

Come to think of it... is this actually helpful...?

Apparently it was, at least to some degree, as Chippy's bright smile returned.

"Really? After all this time?"

"Yeah. The last unexplained disappearance was quite a few years ago. Some young girl. Don't think she had even finished training... Hopefully it's all over now."

"Yeah...!" Chippy hesitated to speak up further, but the feeling of having that burning question in the back of her mind persisted. "But um... what about you? Are you still alright after the incident?"

Yulia looked off to the side for just a second. She doesn't like the idea of lying to such a close friend, but what choice does she have?

"Yeah... I'm fine. Felt weird afterward for a little while, not gonna lie, but..."

"Sorry. I'll drop it. I've just been worried about you since then-"

"Oh no, you're fine! You're just trying to make sure I'm okay, right? It's all good. I appreciate it." Yulia smiled at her. She can at least be glad about that not being a lie.

"Yeah... I always did care a little too much I guess..."

Yulia stood up and pulled Chippy of her chair to wrap her in a loving hug. She had intended for it to only last a few seconds, but it seems as though neither party is interested in having it end quickly.

"Sorry I was there for it... and sorry we only get to meet up like this every few weeks if we're lucky."

"Oh, don't you worry about it! I couldn't be more proud of you! I'm sure everyone's sick of me talking about how awesome my Kraken class sister is!"

Yulia let out one last quiet chuckle and finally let go, happy that the night had ended on a much more positive note. "Yeah... but you're right."

She set some money on the counter for the lone worker that had been tending to the store this late at night and gave Chippy one of her signature, firm handshakes.

"We'll talk again soon, okay? Hopefully without as much of a wait as this time."

"Alright, I'll see you around. And you better stay safe!"

The pair went their separate ways soon after, heading in opposite directions to get back to their homes. It was a nice night to be sure, Yulia just wishes it hadn't taken so much of an emotional toll on her. It's nothing a good sleep won't fix up though... hopefully.

[infinitestarsintheskye]

“You need to forgive yourself.” + ship of your choice

It is quarter to 11,(and after a small interlude it is now ONE IN THE MORNING) I have work tomorrow morning, but here we ARE.

I'm a hellcheer hoe at the moment so this is gonna be for them. There's so many snippets and fics about Eddie taking care of Chrissy, so lets turn that RIGHT around SHALL WE

It was the movement next to her that woke her. Things came through slowly. The movement, the sounds of the sheets rustling against exposed skin and clothing, the gentle swish of his hair against the fabric of the pillow. Chrissy opened her eyes, feeling as though she had been ripped unceremoniously from her peaceful sleep, disorientation, and a certain unexplainable heaviness pummelling her as she forced her eyes open. There wasn't any time to dwell on it. The familiarity of the situation came to her immediately.

"Eddie?" She asked, pushing herself up onto her elbows, her voice retaining that gritty, weighty quality of sleep.

She blinked slowly, her eyes adjusting to the dark. Quickly she made out the shape of him, sitting on the edge of the bed, slumped over, back to her.

"Eddie."

Her voice was softer this time. Quietly, gently, she pulled herself over to him, wrapping her legs around his waist, her arms around his chest, her head resting on his shoulders, like a little koala bear. This happened from time to time. Still. Right after it all, it was every night. Same with her too. They found solace with one another. It was one of the many reasons why Chrissy had moved in so quickly. Sleep had become a dark and terrifying place. With one another the burden of it all was eased slightly. Chrissy felt the deep shuddering breath he let out, felt it in her entire body. She stayed quiet, pressing her lips to his shoulder. She knew what to do by now. He needed to do it all in his own time. And he would. He just needed some time, some distance.

"It was my fault."

Chrissy had heard that one before.

"No it wasn't."

"Yes it was." He shot back.

"I watched you- and I watched them all and I did things and..."

"No. He made you. That wasn't you Eddie. No one holds that against you."

"I should have fought harder. I shouldn't have run. I should have grabbed you by the ankles and yanked you down from that ceiling. I shouldn't have let him get in my head and... and..."

He was crying. She could tell by the heavy shakes in his chest.

"No. It wasn't your fault Eddie. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. You fought back. You got out. You got us both out from there. You need to forgive yourself Eddie. You saved us. You saved so many people. And all the bad stuff, that wasn't you. It was him. In your head. You said it yourself it was like you were his puppet. But you fought. We're here. We are safe. And I love you so much."

He didn't reply. He just shook with quiet sobs for a while, as Chrissy held him, her hands gently smoothing up and down his chest, as slowly, his breath began to even out again. His movements were unhurried, and he began to shift backwards onto the bed. Chrissy, managed somehow, to never let go of him, just shifting gently as he did, until he was flat on his back, with her head laying on his chest, their legs tangled together. She pressed a kiss to his chest, and felt his breathing slowly get heavier, heard his breaths from deep within him under her ear. Gradually everything became delightfully heavy again. Just as she was about to drop off, a whisper fell into her hair.

"I love you too."

She gave him a light squeeze, before she felt him succumb to sleep, easily letting herself fall after him. The last thought that passed her sleepy mind before darkness fell around her again, was just of gratitude. The feeling filled her up gently, pleasantly, easing her back into the depths of sleep.

Random Writing Prompts

[missmaywemeetagain]

hiiii! i’ll be reacting to 17 & 18.1 so i’m sorry & pls excuse me if this is a lot LOL

17:

you jumped RIGHT into it i see!!! & let me just say..i nearly DIED!! YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!! i swear i could’ve passed out right w her😂😂😂 elvis saying that’s not normal like what he’s doing to her is?! PLS!!! the way he ordered all her fave foods, it’s the little stuff that shows how he feel🥹 the flashback?? i understand the craziness of the situation but all i can think about is how elvis is ALWAYS there. every. single. time. we LOVE him. the TENSION & the ANXIETY i was feeling when she was up at the lil get together?! the DISGUST when jack kept pushing up on her?! everytime he calls her treasure i get chills & not in a good way. i never thought i could hate a written character more in my life. the confirmation of “cheating” (bc should we reallyyyy call it that atp?? LOL) being him seeing the hickies?! oh i was shaking in my boots. now, i understand the whole purpose of the way this is written is that i’m putting myself in her shoes but WHEN HE DRAGGED HER OUT THAT BATHROOM, DRESS UNDONE,SCREAMING?!?! OH I REALLY FELT THE HATE & EMBARRASSMENT TIMES 100. STEAM WAS COMING OUT MY EARS. i was surprised elvis didn’t pop his ass right then & there. we love a king w a lil self control. emphasis on a lil😂i think i paused in my reading for a good 10 minutes when jack punched her. jaw DROPPED. & i swear i screamed when elvis started beating his ass. my heart SOARED. FINALLYYYY IVE BEEN WAITING & i CACKLED at the confusion from jack. sir, she had that scarf on AGAIN & you’re confused??? PLS. the way EVERYBODY had to hold him back & bring him to his knees from red?! i was eating it up!! & idk….jack deserved more than a smack from her, but at the same time, he not even worth it. elvis did him in enough. now, w all the passing out & throwing up…. pregnancy is running through my brain. MAYBE IM REACHING IDK IDK. this entire part was so JUICY!!! WHEW i was on edge the ENTIRE time. the excitement i’m feeling thinking about what’s next now that everything is finally out on the table?!?! you never fail to surprise me!!!

18.1:

i know you mentioned possibly doing his pov at some point but THIS?!?! oh this is not what i was expecting!!! i am GAGGED!!!! for one, yk i LOVE your flashbacks. but these?! idk i wouldn’t say these were the most intense but they are the most important to me in a way. maybe bc it really confirms everything for me. like clearly just off everything from before, we know he’s in love. BUT READING THESE?!?! HES BEEN DOWN BAD HIS WHOLE LIFE BASICALLY LOL PLEASEEEEE!! that poor baby!!! we know our girl has been too but at least hers is more so on a subconscious level for so many years lol it’s so insane to me how GREAT you write their connection. i’ll say that 1000 times bc i swear i can literally feel it. my heart physically hurts reading this part! the way he yearns for her is so😩😩😩😩 the way he was holding back for so long but after that night he stayed w her he’s like yea no fuck that!! then BOOM! FUCKING JACK MAN!!!!! i teared up! & me knowing the torment that’s still to come & the YEARS of heartbreak he’s gonna go through got me so SAD!! it took SO long for him to finally have her!!! also, now that i’m thinking. elvis knew jack wanted her from the jump, that’s why he didn’t say shit even knowing they have that intense unexplainable connection but HER?! what’s her tea?!?! after she was done w ted she should’ve been ON IT. BUT i can say i’m glad bc all that ripping & running he was doing early in his career, it wouldn’t have been fair (which actually was probably her thought process now that i’m typing it lol) & it probably all would’ve fell apart. timing is a important thing. i cannot WAIT for 18.2!!!!! something so good always comes after a great flashback to connect & you gave us a few so im ready!!

you really pull some crazy emotions out of me reading this series. I LOVE IT. letting yk NOW, once this is complete?! oh i will pay good money to have this on paper in my bookshelf!!!!

First, I'm sorry it took so long to get to this ask, but OMG, Kelly Honey, I LOVEEEEE this. LOVE. IT. Your passionate reactions are what I live for and thank you for blessing me with them! 🥰 You somehow put into words all the fun emotions I'm trying to glean from y'all as a writer and it's just great to see! So many good observations and theories going on here!

My brain is a bit fried from finishing 18.2 just now, so I'll just say that I cannot wait to see how the next part sends you over the edge, babycakes...💋

[slapegg]

Some Thoughts About... Dead Cells/Return To Castlevania

Long time readers will know that I'm a big, big fan of Castlevania, so I'm coming at this almost exclusively from the Castlevania side and not the Dead Cells side. Dead Cells is... okay. It's just not my kind of game. I can appreciate it for what it is and means to be, but that's not what I'm looking for in a game. I'm mostly not a fan of rogue-likes and I prefer exploration over combat, so yeah, Dead Cells is not meant for me and that's okay. But I do like Castlevania!

To get the Dead Cells bits out of the way first, don't buy the bundle of the game and the DLC together. It was significantly cheaper to buy the standalone game and then buy the CV DLC, so check your store before making any purchases. The thing I appreciate about Dead Cells is the speed it moves at. The game is zippy! But it comes at the cost of an awful camera. There's almost no dead zone for how much you can move your character before the camera starts moving too, so once you're running and moving all about, the camera is really swimmy and unpleasant until you get used to it, and the air combat is particularly bad too. There's also a near constant issue with your character grabbing onto things you don't want them to grab. Try to drop through a block near a wall and they keep  pulling themselves back up to the block you just dropped through. So frustrating! The accessibility options are really nice and they give you some great gameplay tweaks. Especially since I'm only here for the Castlevania content, there's a lot you can change to get rid of the filler and some of the grinding. The game also shows you content you can't access because you didn't buy the expansions. You explore your way through an area, find the exit, and... you're not allowed to use it because you didn't buy a specific expansion. It's not like you can just buy it there and access it right away like in a mobile game, so why populate the map with exits in the middle of the game that you can't use? I could understand having the advertisement there at the start or end of a run to push you to make a sale, but getting it in the middle of a run didn't make me want to buy the new stuff, it just frustrated me. Which probably isn't the emotion most conducive to getting people to spend more on DLC. I'm also surprised at just how grindy the game is. Finding new outfits or weapons doesn't unlock them for use. You also have to spend currency once you have the blueprint and some of the costs are nuts. It costs an entire highest difficulty run's worth of cells to unlock a new outfit that's just a color swap of an outfit you already have. It feels like the game should be all about experimenting with different weapons but they cost so much to unlock that the game seems to be working against itself.

The storytelling is also really disappointing. The game throws so much at you with so little explanation of even basic who/whats/wheres that it just seems like stuff... happens. Why did that man attack me? Why did I blow that man up? I dunno! I was exploring and trying to find lore bits but there are so few of them in a particular run and you can get so far into your first runs that it feels really poorly put together. Compare that to the story telling in Rogue Legacy, one of the few rogue-likes I enjoy. Man, I loved the story in Rogue Legacy. It's sparse, but I was so excited to find the little bits and pieces that built everything up and slowly unfolded what was going on behind the scenes as you push deeper into the game. So good! And RL did a great job of tying game mechanics to the story. But in DC, you'll kill named characters before you're introduced to them or know anything about them and it takes multiple play-throughs before it comes together, and even then it's just "I dunno, unexplained time rifts that only affect some people and not others!". I'm also not sure if I'm done with the content of the game and how much I'm missing. It seems like it's just randomly finding lore drops and then I see online somebody mention that different events happen if you use different items or wear a specific outfit in a certain area and then you have to use specific modifiers and then a specific move to access the final area of the game. And then you have to do that again a second time to get the final ending. Also, you have to get DLC to get the actual ending. But now the DLC isn't available anymore. But maybe it's been rolled into the main game now but I don't know because the game doesn't tell you any of this and you get different results from searches because it might be different depending on where you're playing the game. You made the content, I paid for the content, so let's explore that content and not hide it from me. I shouldn't need to follow a guide on a wiki page to see this game I paid for. This doesn't feel like a cohesive package. It feels like a bunch of stuff taped onto a core but with the expectation that you've followed every release and know all the changes before you sit down and try to play.

So on to the important/Castlevania stuff! The game does a really poor job of telling you how to access the CV content. I'd heard from people online about the CV content being certain exits during a run so I was searching for it through my first run and found nothing. Then after your first run, there's an explosion and lava that the game leads you to! But no Castlevania. But then bats fly by! But nothing there... You still have to hunt down the stage exit that leads to the CV content, which I would have missed on my second run because I found a different exit first and if I hadn't seen somebody play it online, I wouldn't have known to skip that exit and find the CV one. This game's UX is bad. Did it just not dawn on anybody that doing a licensing deal with a major IP would bring in new players unfamiliar with the base game so a quick "here's how to access the thing you paid for and care about" would have been good?

You can access the CV music right away but the implementation is pretty disappointing. During the non-CV stages, you get music mostly from Symphony of the Night and that is surprisingly low quality. SotN's soundtrack is great, but I was hoping for more CV 1 and 2 and a little more breadth from the decades this franchise has been around. And it's not a variety of music either. The CV music it applies to that biome is just the song you get. I was expecting more like a jukebox where each biome would have a playlist of songs rather than looping the same one.

The new stages are... okay? They're pretty short and the first one is fairly plain. There are no interesting gimmicks to set it apart from the other normal DC stages. The second stage is also plain but there are several moments where Dracula teleports in and messes with you in some silly ways. It's fun because it doesn't feel like Drac is menacing. He feels like, at best, he's toying with you and at worse, he's just there to knowingly be a dick. There are only the two CV stages but for no apparent reason, you're only allowed to play one per run. They occupy different spots in the route (Death at the beginning of a run and Dracula at the end) so it doesn't make sense why you can't do both. The stages also don't run very well. It took so long to load into Dracula's Castle that I thought the game had locked up and once you're in, the game hangs up when some effects play, like it's loading them in as they happen.

There's nothing special about the enemies. Armor Knights, fishmen, skeletons that throw in an arc, buer, bats, and a harpy. It really took me a while to realize the werewolf was supposed to be a werewolf. No Medusa heads, fleamen, white dragons, or any of the other dozens of recognizable characters. There's a miniboss pulled from CV but it's just the one. You come across other bosses, but they're just objects in the background, the Beheaded makes a quip about them, and that's all. The CV heroes don't look great, but Richter fares the worst. They're so much bigger than the Beheaded, but they retain the faceless look of older CV sprites. That worked because their faces were so tiny on your CRT TV, but now all big and defined, Richter's head is a fleshy void. And for some reason, Shanoa is there to serve as the Collector's role in the CV stages. Weird choice as this thing is almost all SotN-based but then you get a random Shanoa appearance. At least Konami remembers she exists?

The sub-weapons are pretty no-frills takes on the axe, cross, bible, and so on. They included that weird rebound stone one that's rarely ever useful. The main weapons are more interesting, but DC already had whips so the scythe is the only one that stands out (but it's pretty bad against bosses, so I usually drop it by the end of a run).

There's a "Richter Mode" mini-game you can stumble upon, where you play as Richter and the gameplay mechanics are set more like Castlevania's. It's... fine. It's a regular stage that adds the Bone Pillar enemy and you use the high jump and dash relics for Richter's movement upgrades. It looks like an explorable space from the map, but it's really a linear path to the two movement upgrades and then two paths that wind up in the same place. You fight the same mini-boss in the Dead Cells CV stage and then it just ends. The jumping feels really bad so it's not particularly fun and there's nothing there to encourage replaying it. Weirdly enough, they use a different Richter model from the DC content and since it's smaller, it looks so much better.

If you're a Castlevania fan only, this DLC isn't for you. The CV window dressing is nice but it's not going to make you like Dead Cells. If you're a Dead Cells fan already, you may be into it, but you're not getting a lot. Maybe wait for a sale or just look up videos of the boss fights depending on what $10 is worth to you. It's not outstanding and it's light on content, so it's not going to hold you over for the next Castlevania game.

[eigwayne]

So I had some unexplained eye pain on Monday and am on eye drops, but because I also had to work I have not been resting my eyes enough. This definitely means I have not been writing, watching my shows, or playing Atelier (and I was finally getting somewhere in Lulua again ;_; )

Instead, I watched a bunch of Youtube channels. And by ‘watch’ I mean ‘mostly listen to or watched with my good eye while I tried to keep from blinking my medication out of my bad eye’. But some of them are really interesting so here’s a list for any gentle readers who need some things to watch:

Baumgartner Restoration: Talks a lot about the materials, his experience, and processes of fine art conservation. Super soothing voice, lots of background noises like scraping and brushing, I don’t know or care what ASMR is but apparently this is similar. A godsend for when I wasn’t feeling good this week.

Steve Shives: I mostly watch his Star Trek stuff so far, because there’s soooo much to get through. Has both thoughts on the shows and response videos. A bit acerbic and definitely opinionated but he’s right about so much of it.

Guga Foods: Cooking and grilling, and preparation experiments. A lot of meat. Sooooo much meat. I have never heard the word “Wagyu” used so many times in my life. Fascinating though. Also has the channel Sous Vide Everything which has more variety of items and cuts, but sous vide looks so disgusting, it may turn your stomach even if you are okay with the weird meats. Keep an eye out for Leo and enjoy him; he does the best descriptions of the food they’re tasting, hands down.

Bob Ross: That’s right, entire seasons of The Joy of Painting! Watch from season one to learn the techniques and discover how freeing this method of oil painting is- and how dark some of his scenarios explaining the buildings in the pictures are.

Anti-Chef: More cooking and kitchen experiments. Has a “Jamie and Julia” feature where he does recipes from Julia Childs’ cookbooks. Does not hesitate from showing his failures which is nice, but his chaotic kitchen going sometimes makes me anxious and I want to get in there with a dish cloth. I guess French cookery is not conducive to clean-as-you-go? 

Tasting History with Max Miller: Recipes and history in the same video! He’s not a pro chef or a pro historian, but he’s a great presenter and learning all the time. Keep an eye out for the Pokemon in the background of each video; they always match the theme somehow.

Chef James Makinson: Has both his own cooking videos and reaction videos to other chefs. One of the now-many chefs doing Uncle Roger reactions, but I like Makinson a lot because he’s very gentle in tone and in his responses, and includes great tips for doing things cost-effectively and with home tools.

Made With Lau: A Chinese restaurant chef sharing his recipes, and his son preserving them for the future, with sit-down dinner Q&As. I want to make my own spring rolls so bad now, and with their tips, I could probably do it.

Yes, I watched a lot of cooking lately. And I need to rest my eye soon, so also check out these channels, among others: TwoSetViolin, Bernadette Banner, Morgan Donner, Abby Cox, Artifexian, LangTime Studio, Biblaridion, How to Cook That (Ann Reardon), Dianxi Xiaoge, Chef Wang Gang, Fujian Grandma (the last three are Chinese-language, so turn on the subs. Dianxi Xiaoge has another channel for her dogs so keep an eye peeled, no reference intended, for Apenjie with Dawang).

[nswor]

Evangelion (part 2)

Ok, now for my grievances. The plot completely fumbles at the end. This show is impossible to watch without googling for plot summaries and browsing reddit posts, wikis dedicated to the show, and youtube videos explaining what the hell the ending was and what the meaning of it all was. Now, I really do tend to like media that has extensive lore and backstories, like I could easily watch videos about unexplained Five Nights at Freddy's stories or something like that, but the difference I think with Evangelion is that you can't piece together the story by yourself just from watching it alone. With FNAF, all the details are in the games themselves and you can come up with conclusions on your own (at least you used to be able to), versus Evangelion you have no idea what happened to cause the ending, and what the whole point was just from watching it. That is until you google it and find out stuff and mass extinctions, ancient aliens, sea scrolls and all sorts of other convoluted stuff. If you don't do outside research you will have no idea what the reveal of "adam" at the end of episode 24 is supposed to mean, and even with context its still hard to understand episodes 25 and 26. The show's story ultimately feels pointless. I know the ultimate goal is to end with Shinji getting some form of self confidence, but what is the point if to get there everyone including Shinji needs to die? If the show ends with everyone becoming a collective conscious and the villains 'winning', why does individuality matter? Is the message just 'don't be sad'? Additionally, there are so many plot points I feel they completely drop the ball on. I knew prior to watching that episode 18 is supposed to be the 'sad' one, which really makes everyone that watches depressed. In that episode, Shinji is unwillingly forced to kill his friend by the hands of his father, and when I first saw the Eva killing his friend slowly while Shinji can only watch in horror, I really was moved. For a brief second I thought this is what people who like Evangelion were affected by. That is until the end of the episode where it is shown that his friend lived... What the hell was the point? At that point in watching, I knew this show was never going to actually double down on its messages and would just continue to be a series of events happening for no reason. All tension was completely lost when he lived. I found out recently that the creator's intent was for him to die, but the publishing company didn't want that from a show targeting a 'younger audience'. I don't want to ramble on too much more, but some other things that were dumb were; Asuka's backstory is explained entirely just in episode 25. Prior to, she is just an annoying average tsundere. Even with being exposed to Asuka's backstory, she doesn't learn her lesson, since everyone is dead at that point there can't be a scene where she realizes her mistakes or is shown to be kind to other people. Rei secretly being a clone is a dumb plot point that doesn't do anything. The creator of the show themself just said the Christian Imagery and allusions were solely just because 'they're cool'. Reassuring that the show has no actual substance or goals other than to just be cool and have an interesting atmosphere, which I suppose it achieves Evangelion is just dumb. It feels like I'm supposed to have had some profound impact after watching it but to me it falls flat on its face.

Congratulations.

[insomniumstella]

traitor 

bucky x reader 

summary: when Bucky, y/n’s ex-boyfriend of 3 years, suddenly proposes to his new girlfriend of just a few months, y/n has no choice, but to abandon her mature ways and release the anger she’s been holding on to. 

warnings: 18 & up only, unspecified age gap (reader is in their 20s), choking, oral (m and f receiving), unprotected sex, edging, overstimulation, reader has fire powers she uses on Bucky (skin marking/scars)

word count: 2,979

author’s note: thank you to the scumbag that is my ex-boyfriend for the inspiration. with all my heart and love, i hope your new girl (or shall I say fiancée) treats you the way you treated me :) also, i don’t believe Bucky would ever act like this, but for the sake of turning my unexplainable rage into something other than a petty act of revenge, this fic needed to be written. if you ever felt as used i did after a relationship, i’m so sorry love. this goes out to all of beautiful babes who got their hearts broken, much love to y’all. part two — bitter end

All it took was a single picture of his new girl, laying on the same blanket she used to lay on, proudly showing off the engagement ring Bucky got her. It was the last drop in the bucket. If time travel was possible, she, without a doubt, would go back and slap Bucky across the face. She wouldn’t latch onto him, holding the man as tight as possible, because, in her heart, she knew it was the last time she’ll ever get to do that. No, if time travel was possible, she would have been as immature and emotional as she wanted because Bucky didn’t deserve her maturity and composure. Still, even during their breakup, he had such a hold on her, y/n didn’t want to appear crazy or loud as if her response to his actions was unreasonable and petty.

They started dating just a few months after Steve brought Bucky to the compound. She was quite new there too, with each day bringing the pair closer together. His smile and charming demeanor could have made any girl fall in love. The nicer he was, the more y/n’s walls crumbled until no fear of vulnerability was left. As with any relationship, it had its ups and downs. 3 years of it. Some days, y/n would be on top of the world, and the other, well, the other days, she’d be at the very bottom. Bucky had managed to, simultaneously, raise the bar for other men that may come after while also throwing it into the deepest parts of hell. Bucky was a strange man. Every time she thought she had him figured out, he’d do something so unexpected she’d end up at square zero.

She’ll show him petty. Hell, she’ll show him crazy.

Never once did she lose the idea of Bucky Barnes being a good man. Not even when they broke up just a few months ago. Except, the stories she reminisced about started seeming inconsistent. Buried lies started to rise. The man she used to know started acting different. Cold and distant, as if they didn’t ever meet at all. The past 3 years of memories vanished away without a trace. Her desire to play nice disappeared too and all it took was a single picture.

Sam spent an entire week with y/n when Bucky broke her heart because she couldn’t sleep. His face was stuck in her mind like a parasite. His words froze her bones. But then she was right where she was before him. Her appetite returned first, and then her smile followed. Until this stupid picture of the much older girl, one hand covering her face, Bucky holding the other hand, the one with the ring, appeared. She could tell he was on top of her, taking the photo from the same position y/n used to end up in all the time. Oh, Bucky thought y/n was too young and unstable for him before? This new y/n he brought out was about to do much, much worse things than he could ever imagine. The nice girl he once knew was dead.

Bucky had promised y/n they would stay friends, but when she went up to his room for closure, his stuff was gone, and the room was empty. He moved out less than 24 hours after they broke. She briefly remembers crying again because the window was open and even his perfumed no longer lingered in the air. It took a lot to convince Steve into giving up Bucky’s new location. His answer only fuelled her anger further. Of course, Bucky Barnes fucking cheated on her. She was too blind to see it before. Why else would he move into another building? Under different circumstances, her hands would shake as she’d walk into his room. Perhaps, she’d even worry if his new girlfriend was there, but not today.

Besides the shorter hair, Bucky looked the same way he always looked after a workout. Shirtless, with muscles glistening from a thin layer of sweat. Once upon a time, that was quite a sight for y/n.

“Came to say congratulations?”

A harsh slap across his face followed the sentence.

“Getting engaged is your idea of focusing on work?”

Another slap followed her question. She was about to slap him again, but Bucky swiftly caught her arm.

“Stop. Why are you here?”

“Why am I here?” She abruptly removed her arm from his hold. “4 months haven’t passed since our breakup. What the fuck, James?” A third slap landed on Bucky’s face. “What the fuck?” She spoke again when he didn’t answer. “Was I good enough to fuck, but not good enough to keep?” Tears prickled her eyes, but she wiped them away before they could escape. “Why did you leave me? What the fuck did I do?”

Looking down at his toes, Bucky sighed.

“You told me you loved me, remember? A few days before you broke my heart?” She took a step closer and grabbed his chin to make Bucky look up. “It was Steve’s birthday, and we were all dressed up. You couldn’t keep your hands off of me that night. Kept whispering sweet nothings into my ear.” Neither dared to break their eye contact. “Later that night, when I was sucking your dick, you couldn’t stop telling me how much you fucking loved me, or have you forgotten?”

“Loved. I loved you. Not anymore.”

“Don’t you fucking try me, I swear, Barnes.” She hit him in the chest, then hit him in the chest again. “What happened on that mission in Moscow?”

Bucky took a few steps forward. She had to walk backward to avoid him until her back hit the wall, and y/n was trapped between his body and the cement. “I already told you. Nothing happened.”

“A new girl-“ she had to quickly correct herself, “fiancée doesn’t seem like nothing. I gave you everything I had. I gave you everything of me there was. Why was I good enough to fuck, but not good enough to get married to? Why?!” She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, but hitting Bucky was a bit of relief. “What happened in Moscow?”

Taking the last step left between them, he pinned her hands above her head. “I cheated. Is that what you want to hear?” He tilted his head to the left. “You already know that I cheated. Why the fuck are you here? For me to break your heart further?” A single tear rolled down his face. “I cheated with my new fiancée. It doesn’t matter that you gave me everything of you there is.”

The day after the mission in Moscow, a couple of hours after he cheated, Bucky had already made up his mind to leave y/n. Mila, the girl he was partnered up with, was everything others told him a wife should be. She was of appropriate age, calm and collected, opposed to y/n, who was too often too reckless, when out on the field. Mila was someone Bucky wouldn’t have to worry or fight about because people had mistaken them for a couple many times before. As bad as it sounds, Mila was also mentally stable. Her past was picture perfect, while y/n came from a messed-up background. Mila was easy to have, while y/n was hard to love.

Leaning in so close their lips were almost brushing, “Loving you was too hard,” Bucky whispered.

She wasn’t sure what came upon her in that moment, but she was losing Bucky either way, so without thinking, y/n kissed him. Every ounce of hurt and anger she had, y/n put into the kiss. Except Bucky stood frozen in place, his lips still. His hand let go of her arms, letting them fall to her sides. Bucky could taste y/n’s tears on his lips when she pulled away. Squeezing her lips into a tight line, y/n sneaked out from her place between Bucky and the wall. If she was too hard to love, this wasn’t a fight worth fighting.

She was almost at the door when he grabbed her left arm, spinning the girl around, and placed his lips on hers. His kiss was too familiar as if he never left at all. As if Mila wasn’t in the picture now. God, please forgive me, y/n thought as Bucky placed a hand on the back of her neck, he was mine first. 

Pulling away, she pushed Bucky in the bed’s direction, each step bringing him closer to the edge until he was falling on the same blanket they used to cuddle under. For a moment, y/n considered leaving, but perhaps this was the closure she needed. Even if leaving after the sex was going to break her heart into a million pieces again.

She removed his shorts and then underwear with trembling arms. There he was; the love of her life, naked, ready for her to use him as she pleases. Use him in the same way he used her. “Move back.”

Bucky followed her words without question, scooting until his back rested against the headboard. Her sweater was the first to go. It used to be Bucky’s before he gifted it to y/n because she couldn’t sleep when he was away on missions. Hooking her thumbs on both of her shorts and her thong waistbands, y/n swiftly pulled them down. He took a deep breath once all of her clothes hit the floor. She didn’t move at first, playing with her tits for a while, eyes locked on Bucky. His face was painted with a hunger only she could provoke. Bucky hated the way his body reacted to y/n because he was engaged to someone else; his dick, however, knew who it belonged to, hardening as soon as she placed the first kiss on his thigh. Kiss after kiss, she reached his shaft, softly holding his dick in her hand while leaving light pecks on his lower abdomen. “Tell me you love me.” She said and swirled her tongue around his tip. “Say that I’m the only one you want.” The sentence was followed by y/n taking his full length into her mouth. The taste of him was enough to silence her consciousness.

“I can’t lie.” Bucky moaned out when she bobbed her head on his dick a few times. “I can’t.”

“Sure you can.” She was sucking Bucky’s dick the way he liked, the way only she knew how. A groan left Bucky’s lips when y/n licked a vein on the underside of his length. A second groan came out after she started swirling her tongue around his pink tip again. A bit of pre-cum leaked out, and y/n snickered at how quickly she was able to get him to the edge. “Tell me you love me.” A moment later, she was on her knees, heels digging into her ass as she locked eyes with Bucky. He knew he couldn’t express the frustration that overtook his body when y/n left him on the edge. For that, he’d have to deserve y/n’s lips on him in the first place.

“No.”

“No?”

She wrapped her lips around his dick again, one hand pushed against the mattress to support herself, the other on his lower abdomen. Bobbing her head up and down, cheeks hollow, y/n moved her hand down to his pelvic region, right above the shaft. Bucky felt the burning sensation as soon as his orgasm washed over. Except, he couldn’t focus much on it, as y/n kept sucking him until he was so sensitive he kept trying to pull away. Swirling her tongue around him one last time, y/n pulled back, crawling across his body to sit on Bucky’s face. Bucky loved when y/n sat on his face. “Tell me you love me.” She repeated, one hand in his hair, the other gripping the headboard. “Spell it ou-“ a moan left her lips as soon as Bucky’s tongue made contact with her clit. He didn’t spell out I love you, but he did spell out no. Grinding against his face, y/n tightened her hold on his hair. A little pain was good. He should feel as much pain as she did. The sentence he was spelling out she could only make out after the third letter. I am sorry. Sweet pressure started building up by the letter m, and by the letter y, she was cumming on Bucky’s face for the first time since Steve’s birthday. 

Softly pushing y/n off of himself until she was laying on her back, trying to catch her breath, Bucky got on top of the girl. Looking down at his lower abdomen, Bucky noticed two red letters burned into his skin; y/n’s initials. Chuckling, out of anger or amusement, he wasn’t sure, he gave y/n a moment before his lips found their way to her own. Their kisses were always nothing short of pure passion, tongues dancing together, hands roaming around every inch of each other’s skin. The girl could taste herself on his tongue. Bucky broke the kiss only to latch onto her neck, leaving a few small, purple marks in his path before sucking on one of her nipples. He twirled his tongue around the sensitive bud and chuckled again when y/n arched her back off of the bed.

“I’m sure Mila won’t appreciate your name burned into my skin.” He said, pulling away and focusing on her other nipple. The burn was sure to leave a permanent scar of y/n's initials.

His words, however, burned y/n more than her powers could ever burn him. Locking her eyes on his, she wrapped her hand around Bucky’s neck, “Why?” y/n tightened her grip, though she was sure Bucky found her attempt at choking him funny. “Is that a turn-off for the little-“ she moaned out when Bucky slid two fingers into her, his thumb pressing against her sensitive clit. A moment to collect her composure was needed, as Bucky started moving them in such a way that they hit her pleasure spot every time, “bitch?”

“Don’t call her such names.” Bucky answered after a few minutes. She was a sweating, moaning mess; Bucky managed to get a second orgasm out of y/n. Removing his fingers, Bucky made a show of licking each one, until they were fully clean of y/n’s wetness. “She’s nice.”

“I was nice.” She propped herself on her elbows. “I was pretty.” She kissed his jaw, faces barely apart. “I was yours, too. Wasn’t I? Or am I just a distant memory you want to forget?” She fell back on the bed, her head hitting the pillows.

Bucky’s sigh turned into a groan the second he entered her. The stinging burn of Bucky entering her was a welcome feeling, but with the last remaining strength that she had, y/n stopped herself from letting out a moan. “You’re not a distant memory.” He answered and thrusted into her. “You’ll never be.” The thrusts quickened.

She could feel Bucky deep in her guts and the moan she was holding escaped when he pushed on her lower stomach, magnifying each sensation. “That’s b-“ Bucky’s dick hit her g-spot as he wrapped his metal hand around her neck, “-ullshit.”

“I love you.” His words were a distant sound in her pleasure clouded mind. “I,” he said, pulling out and bottoming out again, “love you.” Perhaps this was one of his many twisted lies. The hand around her neck, pushing on the places he knew were most comfortable for the girl, the dick deep inside her, each thrust hitting that sweet spot over and over. They never slowed down either as his head found its way to the crook of her neck. His hot breath against her skin, as if he never left. “You’re my good girl. You always will be.”

You’re my good girl, lies, you always will be, bullshit.  

Pulling out of her, Bucky swiftly moved them, so he could be behind her. Arching her ass high up in the air, y/n stuffed her face into the pillow. “Liar.” She wanted to say more, much more, but his dick kept her deliciously full and deliciously on the edge. Bucky’s thrusts got sloppy, so she knew he was close too. Without a warning, he wrapped his flesh hand around her neck and pulled y/n up. The metal hand he placed on her stomach, half to keep y/n in place, half to feel himself inside her. “Cum on my dick pretty girl, you deserve it.”

And so she did, letting Bucky take the two of them over the edge and into a place of blissful pleasure; his moans the most beautiful sound to her ears. He didn’t let her fall back onto the sheets when she finally rode out her orgasm. Instead, Bucky held her. Perhaps, he knew this was the last time he’ll get to hold her. Perhaps, he missed her too much to let go. “I love you.” He repeated and placed a soft kiss in the crook of her neck. She didn’t answer. In fact, she didn’t talk when he carried her to the bath or when he washed her body clean of his touch. Bucky assured y/n she could stay in his room as his fiancée was away on a mission. He made the bed before they got in because y/n liked to fall asleep in a freshly done bed.

The first and only thing she said to Bucky after his words of I love you was “Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight. Sleep well, doll.” He replied, clinging to y/n as tightly as she was clinging on to Bucky the night he broke her heart. Except this time, she was the one who left, and when Bucky went up to her room for closure the next morning, all of y/n’s stuff was gone. With the open window, even her perfume no longer lingered around. 

[luminari-mc]

My Human, My Sunshine - Part 1

Genre: Angst, hurt/comfort.

Pairing: GN!MC x Mammon

Word count: 5194

Summary: Mammon finds himself lost in the human world. Meanwhile, MC can't get ahold of Solomon, their phone dead silent.

Warnings: N/A

A/N: My first writing piece for Obey Me! It's kind of a long one so I recommend you grab a snack or two during it. While this part is occupied by a good amount of text messages between Mammon and someone else, I'm already thinking of writing a part 2 which will have way more dialogue. In the meantime, please enjoy this little scenario I came up with after listening to a song that set me in an angsty mood. :)

______________________________________________________

Wet. Cold. Exhausted. And completely lost.

Mammon felt all of those, and yet, his legs kept on marching into the dead of night, his jacket covering his head despite being too drenched to protect him from the rain anymore. Each time a droplet of water came rolling on his cheek, his wrist would come to brush it off, and Mammon would let out an annoyed groan. If only there were any shops open, but the city was definitely asleep. He was thankful for the crashing sound of the rain on the ground around him, along with the smell of the wet asphalt keeping himself awake, otherwise, he surely would have gone crazy by now. The demon had even lost count of how many hours he had been wandering through the streets, how many mailboxes he had checked, how few passersby he had come across, only to receive negative answers to his questions.

And so Mammon kept on walking, not sure where to go next. But he felt sure of one thing: he wouldn't stop moving until he had found what he was looking for. Be there rain, or no rain. Lost or not.

"Tch, the human world's weather really sucks..."

As he walked on the pavement, his brow furrowed from the lack of new clues as to where his destination was supposed to be. His eyes caught sight of a bakery he had already walked by earlier during the day, its gentle light piercing the darkness that had been accompanying him for far too long now. Mammon's brow furrowed slightly at the sight- he knew he had gone in circles time and time again, but seeing it confirmed once more rubbed him the wrong way. Despite that, he decided to walk towards it, and took shelter under the entrance's porch. Surely the owners wouldn't mind him checking his phone for a few minutes, right? Right.

Pinching between his fingers the precious D.D.D. he had tucked under his shirt to protect it from the rain, Mammon looked at the map again. His stomach dropped for the upteenth time upon seeing the address still showing in his search bar, the letters and numbers taunting him. A knot formed in his throat as he tried his best not to scream at his screen.

"It wasn't there, you idiot..."

His mouth formed into an angry pout. Mammon looked into the list of potential addresses he had made throughout the day, and all had been crossed out. He felt his jaw clench- not only was he left with no addresses, no other clues, no humans to help him, but also that stupid rain surely would keep on falling for the rest of the night.

He was truly cursed.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do now?!" Mammon groaned, his free hand reaching upward to grab at his hair in frustration.

Yes... that was a good question. What was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he could ask help from any of his brothers, or from the angels. It had already been a miracle a witch he knew accepted to snuck him into the human world without anyone knowing, but there was no way he'd get any more help from her without offering his own life in exchange. And contacting Solomon was absolutely out of the question, for his own obvious reasons that he still was suspicious of the guy.

For the longest time in a while, Mammon felt alone. More alone than he had ever been before. He had promised himself to go on this search on his own, stupidly thinking that it'd be over by the end of the day, and look where that got him. Lost in the human world, on the verge of catching some nasty human virus from all this rain that had poured on him, and without anyone by his side.

The grip on his phone tightened, the hand holding it shaking slightly as the anger was starting to consume the demon. Even Mammon's patience had its limits, and he was starting to reach it.

"Dammit, where the hell are ya-"

A pathetic yelp escaped his mouth as he looked in fear at his phone, which had buzzed for a very short second in his palm. Wait, was it a notification? But from who? He had taken all the necessary precautions before leaving, so who was still able to reach his number?

His mind ran through all possibilities as he quickly checked his screen, the name of the sender making him open his eyes wide.

Leviathan: Mammon!!

Leviathan: Where are you???

Leviathan: You promised me you'd play this new game with me after coming home from RAD, don't tell me you forgot?? It's been HOURS.

Leviathan: Also the others say they can't reach your DDD and Lucifer is seriously pissed!

Leviathan: And I know you didn't break your DDD, that wouldn't explain why I can send texts now and the others still can't. Even though mine didn't work before.

Leviathan: But do you know how much time and effort it took me to find a way to bypass a blocked number?? Well guess what, the same amount of hours since you broke your promise!

Leviathan: You're reading this, right? Then send something! Anything!

Mammon backed even more into the porch of the shop, his eyes stuck to the screen of his phone. All of the blood rushing to his head suddenly made him forget he was cold in the first place. Of course Levi would be the first to find a way to contact him.

The demon's chest rose as he breathed in heavily, his hands slowly wrapping around the phone. It took him a hot minute to get ahold of his trembling fingers so as to not make any typos, his mind debating whether responding was a good idea or not, even as he hit the send button.

Mammon: Sorry Levi, gonna have to postpone the gaming session.

Mammon: I got business elsewhere and I'm not sure when I'll come back home, if ever.

Leviathan: Ew stop sounding so gloomy, you're almost starting to sound like me and tbh it would be kinda creepy.

Leviathan: That still doesn't tell me where you are! I know it's like a common thing for you to get into shady stuff on a regular basis but even Lucifer seems concerned, and weirdly enough he's not even trying to hide it???

Leviathan: He's been pacing back and forth in the common room for 20 minutes and won't let go of his phone it's starting to creep me out.

Leviathan: Hey huh, if you really were in big trouble you'd let us know, right? Like, even by typing a secret message to let us know that you got kidnapped or whatever?

Leviathan: Nevermind, I really don't see why you'd even get kidnapped, so it HAS to be that you chose to disappear by yourself.

Leviathan: But anyway! It's been 2 months now since everyone's been acting weird and I've seen and heard you enough to CLEARLY see that you're getting worse but finding trouble with witches or whatever won't help you feel better. And yes I know you've been faking being fine the entire time!! Don't think you can fool me!!

Leviathan: Believe me and the hundreds of figurines I bought!! I thought they'd help and it's somehow doing nothing, I feel like the worst fraud of an otaku EVER!!! How can I call myself an otaku when I can't even find joy anymore in the things that make an otaku what he is??

Leviathan: It's like I'm losing my identity! Wait no screw that, it's not just me, we've all been losing it!!

The three dots of a message being typed disappeared and reappeared, and Mammon couldn't do anything but watch the messages of his brother pop up one after another on his screen. A sense of guilt surfaced inside of him, and it only made him frown. It's not as if he hadn't thought about asking Levi for help, before getting himself into this mess... but for both of their sakes, he had decided that it had to be him coming here, and only him.

But suddenly, just as he expected his brother to send another message, the three dots disappeared, and didn't come back right away. Mammon's focus on his phone increased at the unexplained absence of new texts from Levi, and he waited, expecting him to continue the chain of messages he had started. But nothing followed.

It wasn't in Levi's habits to suddenly stop texting in the middle of a flood of texts. The demon gripped his phone tighter, worry beginning to grow within his mind. Was it because they were in different worlds that their phones couldn't reach properly? Or worse- had Lucifer found him out?

His heart almost skipped a beat as the three dots reappeared under his eyes, before letting another message pop up.

Leviathan: wait

Leviathan: waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait

Leviathan: OMG NO WAY

Leviathan: MAMMON TELL ME YOU'RE KIDDING

Mammon: I literally haven't said anything?

Leviathan: YOU PERFECTLY KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

Leviathan: DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE IN THE HUMAN WORLD RN??

Shit.

How did he even find out?! Well... he could only assume that it wouldn't take a genius to figure out where Mammon could have gone if not anywhere in the Devildom, but still, why did Levi have to type it out? His plan was supposed to be flawless after all.

Mammon: Sorry bro, I can't say where I am.

Mammon: I know Lucifer's bound to check all of your DDDs sooner or later and that's only gonna help him find me.

Mammon: And like I said, I have something to do, so I can't come back.

Leviathan: Wait! I'll delete all of our messages, and I'll even destroy my DDD if it means you tell me why you're there

Leviathan: Actually no don't even answer, there can only be one reason you took that kind of risk

Leviathan: Is it... because of MC?

Upon reading their name again, Mammon felt his stomach sink. The eyes of the Avatar of Greed closed almost instantly as if to avoid reading it, the damp air whistling through his teeth as he breathed in deeply. Of course Levi would figure that out too. Any of his brothers could have.

The demon leaned his head against the wall behind him, his eyes opening and staring into nothing as he contemplated telling Levi about his plan. It wasn't as if he had any backup plans considering the situation he was in, after all. And Levi had the advantage of being at home, and having access to technology and magic that could improve his search further. But the thought of Lucifer figuring everything out still haunted him, making the hair on his skin stand straight.

And yet... At this point, he had nothing else to lose.

Mammon: Ya gotta promise not to tell anyone about this.

Leviathan: Who do you take me for? I'm not a snitch!

Leviathan: Especially if it's about MC.

Leviathan: But huh... what about Lucifer? You know that if when he finds out you went to the human world, he's going to kill you.

Mammon: Fuck Lucifer.

Mammon: I'm tired of hearin' him say he's "taking care of it". He clearly knows something but won't tell any of us and I'm tired of not getting any news from MC since they left the Devildom 2 months ago.

Mammon: And what's with his excuse about them not havin' their DDD anymore to contact us? I call that a load of bullshit.

Mammon: Something weird happened and Lucifer's too stuck-up to let us know what it is.

Mammon: So I'm done waiting around to see when they'll come back, or IF they'll even come back. So I'm going to get them myself.

Mammon: Problem is, I went to MC's place, and they weren't there. Their neighbor told me that they moved out a while ago with, get this, "a guy with white hair".

Leviathan: ??????? Solomon?????

Mammon: I'd bet my Demonio and all the things I possess that it's him.

Mammon: Not only Lucifer's in on this secret thing about MC, but Solomon too. I've already booked him an appointment with my fists if he did anythin' to them.

Mammon: Hell, even Diavolo and Barbatos seem to be in it too, which sucks even bigger time.

Mammon: So that means it's just us 6 who don't know shit. I wasn't about to play nice and dumb for Lucifer any longer.

Leviathan: Mammon

Leviathan: I never thought I'd ever write something like that to YOU

Leviathan: but

Leviathan: you sound super cool rn!! That just makes me wish I could have gone too!!

Leviathan: Pleasepleaseplease let me help!!! I'm also worried about MC and I miss having them here. The atmosphere at the house has sucked ever since we realized we couldn't text or call them anymore and I huh... kinda miss seeing them around the others too.

For a split second, Mammon considered taking a screenshot of Levi's last message to sell it as "the proof that the Avatar of Envy can control his jealousy!", but now wasn't the time for that. He had Levi's approval for helping him find the whereabouts of MC, and that's all he needed at the moment. He hadn't even noticed his lips turning into a small grin upon reading his brother offering his support.

Mammon: Alright Levi listen.

Mammon: All I'm tryin' right now is to find where MC might be.

Mammon: I don't think they left the place I'm at, but I ain't about to search at every damn house there is here. Would take too much time anyway.

Mammon: So can ya use your shut-in powers and figure somethin' out? Like I don't know, catch their human phone's signal or whatever through hacking?

Leviathan: Lol? I'll let you know it's not because I spend my entire days in my room that I know how to find a human phone!

Leviathan: I know how to hack yeah, but I don't know how to hack human technology! Not that I maybe tried once or twice and it resulted in failure each time.

Leviathan: But huh... I could try?

Leviathan: Let me ask Satan if we could use magic too.

Mammon: Satan? Levi, are you stupid? Last thing we want is to get more people to know about what I'm doing.

Leviathan: Oh huh yeaaaah, about that.

Leviathan: I should have told you sooner, but when I stopped answering earlier it's because Satan caught me texting you.

Leviathan: But he actually knew you had left to the human world! So we don't have to worry! He's on our side... obviously.

Mammon: Then the two of you get on it.

Mammon: And don't catch Lucifer's attention.

Leviathan: Yeah!

Leviathan: I'll let you know when we've found something.

Leviathan: BRB!

And then just like earlier, Levi's texts stopped appearing on his screen. A sigh left Mammon's lips as he closed his eyes, and the demon allowed his body to slide against the wall behind him until he was sitting on the ground. As he stretched out his sore body, the second-born finally realized that after two whole months of not getting to hear MC's voice, seeing their smile, getting to touch them... he had gotten closer to finding them, all thanks to his brothers. He had let Lucifer's intimidation get the best of him throughout all this time, but not anymore. No matter whether his older brother would catch wind of where he was, and what he was doing, Mammon would never stop trying to bring back MC where they belonged. With him, in the Devildom, back with the family they had found and grown to love.

Closing the messaging app with his thumb, the picture of MC he had set as his D.D.D. background seemed to radiate like the sun. How dared them all try to separate his human from their first man? From the one who'd they come to whenever they had a nightmare and couldn't fall asleep? The demon who'd hug them as tight as possible in their bed after a long day at RAD? The one who'd had the chance to fall asleep with them, getting the absolute honor of seeing their face so close to his, and who'd protect their dreams from any bad thoughts and scary nightmares?

The anxiety that Mammon had worn on his face all day slowly disappeared, and a small smile was placed upon it instead as his eyes met MC's in the picture.

"I'm almost there. Ya just gotta be patient a little more."

I'll find ya.

Time went on as Mammon waited for any news of Levi and Satan's research. The rain showed no sign of clearing soon, and the demon was starting to doze off after spending his entire day without taking a single break. He could have almost fallen asleep if it hadn't been for the owner of the bakery opening the door to close his shop and asking him to sit somewhere else. So Mammon moved from one spot to another, and took shelter near another store instead.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting on the stone steps he had sat on, his phone's screen flashed a bright light as a new notification from Levi appeared from the top. Quickly passing his wrist on his tired eyes, Mammon tapped on the new message at the speed of light. The contents made him gasp, and for a second, he had almost forgotten how to breathe, as his now wide-open eyes were glued on the content of the message.

A full-on address, along with a picture of the place.

Mammon instantly stood up at the sight of the picture, the memories of his day resurfacing in a flash. He remembered very clearly seeing this particular building sometime during his search- its height had been making it stand out very easily amongst the other buildings in the city. Nobody couldn't mistake it with anything else.

Mammon: This is it?

Leviathan: Yeah, we placed down a map and confirmed it was there.

Leviathan: Satan actually found a book in his room with a spell that can help find a person's specific item with just some of their DNA.

Leviathan: So we went to MC's room and found some hair that Satan used for the spell, along with his phone so it could narrow down the list of MC's items.

Leviathan: I didn't think Satan's room could look even more of a mess, but he spent 10 minutes shoveling through his collection and now you can't even see the floor or his bed anymore lol

Leviathan: Anyway now that you got what you wanted, go and check if MC is there!

Mammon felt his legs move on their own as he flipped his jacket above his head and stepped under the rain again, a confident grin now brightly adorning his face as he typed on his phone to reply.

Mammon: Thanks Levi. I'll owe ya one.

Leviathan: Find MC and bring them back. Then you can consider us even.

Mammon nodded, a newfound hope filling his entire body and mind. After confirming that Levi had ceased texting him, the demon turned the phone off. He opened his hand to drop it on the wet floor, and let his right foot crash down upon it, the object almost breaking in half. Mammon promptly gathered in his hand the shattered item, now completely unusable, and threw it down a nearby sewer before letting his excitement take the best of him and sprint further in the direction of the building from the picture. At least, now Lucifer wouldn't be able to track him down with it if Levi and Satan got caught.

The more distance he covered, the more Mammon could swear he was about to take on his demon form at any moment. The thoughts of MC began to fill his head even more, as if they were the one pushing him to find them, to get to them as soon as possible. For the first time in 2 months, Mammon felt truly alive.

"Almost there. The Great Mammon's coming for ya, MC!!" he let out in the form of an encouragement to himself, his legs having found their energy again as his form was engulfed further into the city.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Anxiously pacing around the room, their head low and their phone in their hands, MC was growing more and more impatient. They were supposed to receive an update from Solomon about three hours earlier in the form of a phone call, but no matter the amount of messages they'd spent in the hopes of the wizard finally answering them, all they received was a dreadful silence. Grabbing a nearby chair, they let their body fall onto the seat as their fingers typed yet another message. They couldn't really understand how they had come to grow so persistent when it came to getting Solomon to reply to them, but having no other person to talk to ever since they left the Devildom 2 months prior would do that to anyone, they assumed.

'Solomon, sorry, I know I'm sending a lot of texts, but you said you'd visit today and I'm starting to be worried and... honestly a bit lonely. I thought going out today would help, but I just sat in the park for an hour before going back home and not doing much of the day.'

'You were supposed to meet with other wizards today, right? I hope nothing bad happened. But in case you're alright, all I'm asking is just one reply to at least get some sort of human connection. Not that I had a lot of it in the past few months.'

They felt their throat tighten upon writing their last sentence, feeling the frustration spilling out of their own words right back into their face. But who could blame them?

2 months without seeing, hearing, or even texting their friends back in the Devildom. 2 months without receiving a single visit from Luke or Simeon. 2 months spent exclusively with the company of Solomon, who had been acting strange ever since and had made them move out of their home under the excuse that it was to "train them at magic in a more private setting". But more importantly... those had been 2 months without having Mammon around, and MC would lie if they said they hadn't spent several nights crying themself to sleep, wondering how the demon was dealing with their absence.

The memories of their latest departure from the Devildom played in their head like a movie as they placed a hand on their forehead. Everything had seemed alright at the time, with them getting to say their usual goodbyes to the brothers, wishing to see them again once the new year at RAD would start, foolishly thinking that they'd get to spend their time hearing their voices on a daily basis once they were back in the human world. And before they could understand, their DDD had been taken from them, Solomon had been more present in their life than ever before, and for a reason they still couldn't grasp, it was as if the brothers had vanished from their life completely. No news whatsoever. Complete radio silence.

Just thinking back to this period, and how they could have probably caught that something was up as soon as Diavolo asked for their DDD after the brothers had left... it just made them want to puke.

But nothing could make them want to do so as much as the long-awaited reply of Solomon appearing on their screen.

'Hi MC. I'm deeply sorry I couldn't get ahold of you throughout the day. I won't be able to visit you today, since my services are still required here. Besides, it's getting late. I recommend you go have a good night's sleep as soon as possible.'

'If everything goes smoothly, I should be able to come back tomorrow. Then, we'll be able to go walk wherever you want. How does that sound?'

'I need to be going, but I shall wish you a good night. Take care, MC.'

And just as quickly as he had answered, Solomon went silent again. Leaving them in this apartment they had grown to hate, this prison cell he had put them in. A place where no fun could be found for them. MC didn't even bother sending anything else after that.

Their head sunk even lower, until their forehead slowly met with the hard surface of the dinner table. The phone faceplanted onto the wood as MC's hands turned into hard fists, a deep groan shaking the walls of their throat. It was hard not to let the tears escape their eyes, but instead, they opted to punch the table several times as hard as they could, until they felt their anger diminish.

How long was Solomon going to act ignorant towards them? How long was he going to ignore their pleas to get news from the Devildom, anything that would let them know why they couldn't contact the brothers, Diavolo and Barbatos? Even if the lords had been in some sort of trouble... they'd still find time to talk to their human, right? There was no way Mammon, the one they loved, wouldn't try to reach them one way or another... right?

Him who had been so clingy in such an adorable way every time they'd be at the House of Lamentation, he who had revealed to them that there wasn't a single day where his thoughts wouldn't drift to them no matter how hard he tried...

No. No amount of important duties would explain why Mammon of all demons, would ignore them like that.

They missed his antics. His entire being. The warmth he'd bring them each time he'd hold their hand before tucking his face into their neck like a pouting child, desperately trying to sneak one or two kisses in there, in the hopes he'd get to hear that sweet giggle of them. It wasn't for nothing that Lucifer had come to name them the chaotic duo of the House of Lamentation. They were two parts of a whole.

And yet, the world had dared to separate them. And MC was tired, oh so tired of not having their other half near them. The only feeling they had left, was one of pure desperation to see their greedy demon.

"I'm not asking for much... even a single word would do." MC replied to no one as they turned their head to rest their cheek onto the table. They closed their eyes, the anger slowly being replaced by a profound exhaustion. Could they really do nothing but act normal around Solomon, and accept that this was now their new life? No demons, no angels, just... humans around them?

Before they could slap the thought away, a loud banging coming from the entrance door made them straighten in their seat, their head turning towards the hallway in a panic. Their heart pounded inside their chest as the banging seemed to go on forever, until they used the back of their chair to push themself up, their legs shaking.

"S...Solomon?" They asked, way too silently for anyone to hear, and fully knowing that the person behind the door couldn't be the wizard.

As if they were waiting for an answer, MC stood there, their hand grasped onto the chair. The banging was insistent, demanding, angry. At this time of night, there were few reasons they could think why someone would mistreat their door in such a way, and MC wasn't sure they wanted to find the reason for it.

That is, until the person behind the door finally let their voice be heard.

"Oi, MC! Ya can hear me right?! Come on, open the door!"

It didn't take long for MC to let the familiar voice enter their ears, and it took less time for them to nearly stumble over the chair as their legs moved in a hurry to lead them towards the door as quickly as possible. Their hands messily trying to open the locks on the door, they were sure their mind had just played a trick on them, and the person outside was going to leave them completely disappointed, but they didn't care. This voice they could only remember so well despite the time since they had last heard it, was simply inviting them to open the door, to check for themselves whether it was true, or just a nasty joke played by their brain.

But as the last lock was undone, and the door was swung open, MC couldn't do anything but just stand there, their mouth agape.

Mammon kept on drawing breaths, his wet hair stuck to his forehead and drops of rain falling from his clothes onto the floor below, so much so that it had started to create a small puddle underneath him. As if the person who opened the door wasn't the one he expected, the demon took a step back, letting his eyes wander up and down on the human he had in front of him, almost in an attempt to check if it was really them. He too, couldn't stop his mouth from hanging open at the sight.

The two of them just stood there for a few seconds, taken by so many emotions at once that they weren't sure what to do. But right as Mammon took a step forward, his mouth opening some more to let out words that he so desperately had wanted to say for so long now, MC's face contorted into one of pure sadness before they rushed towards him. Mammon greedily welcomed them into his arms as they jumped and wrapped their arms around his shoulders, and their legs around his waist. They buried their face into his neck, the warmth of their tears mixing with the rain on his skin.

His embrace only tightened even more as they mumbled his name amidst broken sobs, the sound ever so close to his ear that even though he had his eyes firmly closed, he might have cried on the spot too. But he had found them. He had them in his arms again. After what had seemed like a million years, finally, they were back where they belonged, and he was back with his human.

Almost as if they were about to be pulled away from him, Mammon placed a hand on the back of their head, wanting to protect their entire being from harm no matter the cost. He still wasn't sure why it had taken so long for him to reunite with them despite the obstacles, but at the present moment, nothing else could matter.

The lord had finally found them, and he wasn't about to let anyone interfer between their happiness once more.

"I ain't letting you go." He whispered through gritted teeth, his head lowering into their shoulder. "Ever again."

[incarnateirony]

Hi! I’m still not really over the last episode (and that happy montage in the end i-) and I’m feel confused about what’s part of the episode was fake. I mean the end totally is. But all Chuck scene was superweird too. And sometimes i think that it should be Cas instead of Lucifer and Jack felt him. I mean... confused! How do you feel about that?

Okay so here’s the thing -- this is a multifaceted episode--

BuckLeming, while often herded efficiently by Dabb, can muddy up the textual waters, leave gaps, and things unexplained.

However, that doesn’t account for Showalter’s choices in direction. Dutch shots out the ASS which are typically used to evoke that something is "wrong." Lots of panoramas, tracking shots, zooms and blurs in ways that simply are-not-standard for SPN. Extreme aerial shots.

One might even think “maybe it’s Chuck looking in on them!” but then you realize the same overhead view zoomed out on *Chuck* even and panned out to the horizon again.

One of the early mega-zooms literally zoomed out to The World, even. I’m just gonna gesture people to my tag on that and let them think on that, much less the empty world orbiting on the news or whatever the hell else.

There were *several* Cas-baits, yes. Yes, that was intentional from our actual authors. 

But when it comes down to “fake episode”, here’s where we were at.

15.17-19 run immediately concurrently. At the end of 17, Chuck says this was his ending.

Now, the Winchesters largely derailed that ending, so Chuck was writing new material.

But Chuck is also seeking death. 

He wrote a suicide note in 11. He wrote the story that would end in him and Amara being eradicated. And whatever influence he was exerting forcefully with Michael and Lucifer to bop the story around was all in the interest of seeing his book. One might think “to keep the Winchesters from killing him”, but he was desperate to see what his ending WAS, to know it and experience it and scream after them.

The dour taking of “no one cares” right after “I care(d)” about humanity is its own highlight going on.  But wait, there’s MORE.

When Dabb dropped his pre-episode thing, we started talking before the episode.

So I mean, I think what we were *mostly* witnessing is the pen being ripped away.

But this is that emptiness that lingers even with Chuck generally resolved. They’re still kinda on the pages. The book is presented as shut, and the next steps are not taken. Development stops, if not drops.

This entire thing is so meta my damn head hurts.

Summarily: Is it just like, some weird AU that’s gonna go away? Not so much. Is it an incomplete portion of the story told from a skew? Absolutely. And is there still someone watching over them? T’would seem so. The whole World, even. Beyond Chuck. 

Now the point at which we start blocking off issues of “eugenie writes like she’s 3″ is where we ask about things like “god power” or whatever else being thrown in the mix along with eugenie’s ki ball special effects that are literally always unique to her episodes, even if other people have to add the SFX.

So while it was a good bit of masterful work to do it via buckleming for this style of bump, it still inevitably has its flaws because... buckleming. But... Showalter was there. And one thing to note is almost every single scene entrance had some sort of major pan or zoom effect. That’s not typical for him.

The entire thing is designed to evoke, directorially: 

One style: crooked shots, unlevel, unbalanced, uneasy feeling.

Second style: Over-under; some force is watching them on high, while others have a sort of brechtian absurdity, which seats it like a play on an elevated stage.

We are the audience, looking up at figures half the episode; but a second audience is looking in from “on high” and out over the world. As if perhaps even from the heavens. 

Third style: CSI Miami, basically? Parts of this episode were sectioned off to be like a procedural crime drama in its cinematography and flashbacks. Which is ironic, because Dean loathes procedural dramas, but at the same time some of this fandom demands a procedural monster show instead of a family drama show. 

Sam and Dean barely have any lines in the episode *until* we hit Crime Drama Time. Then suddenly, they reveal all of their case work. Despite Dean’s hatred of crime dramas, this is honestly when I feel like the brothers kicked in their own pen. 

Let’s play a game-- the winchesters are aware they can write their own story. So they start telling the story they think people want to hear, or maybe just fill in the gaps from when Chuck gets dropped on his ass. Maybe Dean’s the one writing about how many times god punched them in the face whereas Sam is breaking down the crime scene investigation front. Another, where it feels like we’re loosely circling the war table as others lightly wander too.

But everything before that is the first and second style, and even after that, the overview-angle remains. The uneasiness is gone but there is an emptiness otherwise. But we are no longer spectators from beneath the stage, but staring into them.

I still very much expect everyone to “die” one more time and several specifics to choose to walk back into life at the end of it.

Is it a *complete* false narrative? No. We’re not just gonna turn around and be like “oh that whole ep didn’t happen.” But the writer lost his pen and got jacked at one point, while we also observed the stage from a series of angles as different audiences.

Riddle me this: Why show the World? “Because it’s empty and just them!” okay but there’s a lot of ways to show that which actually gets that point a whole lot better across than “here, here’s a planet that still looks lit up”--yes I know electricity is still running until stuff runs out but essentially speaking, the end of the episode shows us the kind of dramatic shots that could be used for that.

CASey just poofed in the World in the TV, seems legit.

Let’s see these overhead angles again, knowing it isn’t just Chuck.

This sort of overview is known for causing a “dollhouse effect” that derealizes the episode and makes them seem, well, like toys. Which is interesting. Because Chuck isn’t the only one watching them on high.

Cool, this is fine.

Either way, the entire episode is DESIGNED to cause some major uncanny valley. There’s a lot of parts that simply *haven’t been told or filled in.*  It’s almost like evasive maneuvering, half the content just never made it to print, and what did wasn’t in its best draft. There may be battling authors, or a transition of authorship. But the thing is: this is not the complete story.

There is an entire missing section about Sam and Dean even finding out that Jack is a power siphon which they hadn’t witnessed yet much less arranged an entire plan.

Even Chuck’s episodes are generally told from the general POVs of the Winchesters, but this was absolutely not. 

Matthew 28: 18: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Put a pin in that one.

Unless CHUCK IS WRITING HIS OWN FAKE DRAMATIC END, the overhead view, however, IS NOT CHUCK PERSPECTIVE.

-- Regardless, the metaness of “fish in a toilet bowl BRL plot” stacked into this makes it very difficult to accurately decipher the lines, especially with only one watch so far--just skimming back through right now to grab a few things I remember.

Some parts are plot salad buckleming.

Some parts are us as forced spectators of a stage play.

some parts are shifting authorship

Some parts are the heavens looking out over the earth it loves.

------

It almost feels as if, within enclosed spaces, unsteadiness and stageplay, we have Chuck’s POV.

But by the end it ceases to have any relevance, as he is no longer the author, and instead, we have the Presence of Being overseeing them, letting the Winchesters argue for their own proverbial pen in their own storytellings between here and there.

ALTERNATE PROPOSAL:

 it is all one point of view. All of it. Pretend you’re someone’s eyes on a situation, you just happen to be in the sky half the time, and the uncanny valley is pulling forward the concept of being a presence that simply isn’t *there.*  For example we're looking extremely closely at passed out dean but the camera turns and raises to level with Sam before Dean gets up. Our viewership lens is rising to meet Sam.

The camera stays in motion to fill a role or slot of a viewer. At first it’s haunting and ominous, but at other times, it’s simply part of the room, when it isn’t hovering from on high. Rather than speaking of empty space, we are viewing The World through that empty space, as if it were a Being.

Just a few more eye catching shots.

But whoever or whatever frames the end, even without Chuck--like the story is still turning on the pages, roughly. 

The montage at the end feels like the Swan Song one, more or less, but there’s no narrator, no chuck.

The writer, the writer we know at least, is Absent.

Men are writing their own Stories.

But they aren’t alone.

I know how you see yourself. Angry and dark like your father. You think that’s what you are. But you are the most loving man in the whole world. That is who you are.

Someone does care. Even if right now, Sam and Dean don’t feel like anyone does.

...Because of you. I cared. For you, for Sam, for Jack, for the Whole World.

I cared.

“That’s not who I am.”

I am.

I speak therefore I am.

[thewebcomicsreview]

If you look up “How to make a magic system” over on the Google, you’ll get a lot of advice. Make it “hard magic”, focus on the cost of casting spells, Think about the effects of magic on society, blatantly rip of bending from Avatar, etc etc etc. People will often say that the best magic systems are stuff like Avatar, FullMetal Alchemist, or Battle Anime where people spend thirty pages explaining their stand, with a very strong preference for Hard Magic, but as a general rule and especially if your protagonist is a spellcaster themselves. It’s one of those iron-clad rules of fantasy writing: The ability of magic to solve problems in directly proportional to the audience’s ability to understand magic. There are tons of writing guides that make it very clear that you can’t make a successful fantasy story where the main character can resolve issues with some nebulous vaguely defined and unexplained magical abilities, like using some kind of “guide the arrows to hit the target” spell that was never so much as hinted was one of his powers until the moment he uses it.

Audiences just won’t put up with it!

Prequel is a fancomic based on the Elder Scrolls series of games. This presents it with an issue when trying to tell a story of a girl who slowly becomes a powerful and heroic wizard: It’s magic system has to line up with a video game, one with a fairly generic “wave your hands and a spell happens and your MP goes down” magic system, where wizards can shoot fireballs, heal, walk on water, pick locks, summon monsters, summon pants, turn invisible, trap souls, move things telekinetically, etc. with no real underlying logic connecting it all. How do you make it interesting to learn about? 

One thing Prequel does that’s kind of clever is that it leans into the inherent “softness” and inconsistent nature of the Elder Scroll’s games and really digs into how fucking frustrating it must be to learn how to be a wizard in a soft magic setting.

Every single spell or magical effect in Prequel has an entirely unique set of rules for how that one spell works. Destruction magic is based on emotions, mysticism is apparently more of a logic and understanding, summoning is literally calling a tech support hotline....

Which is neat and all, but none of that really matters. What makes this so interesting is how all this magic shit relates to Katia, because she’s the protagonist and it’s her story.  And Katia’s got a bit of a problem that gets her into trouble a lot, an emotional boom-and-bust cycle that works like this:

Things go badly for Katia

Katia has an emotional crash

Katia tries to fix things (in this case by raiding a tomb to find treasure)

Katia has a lucky break

Having succeeded at something, Katia gets overconfident that her entire life has managed to turn a corner and that she’s transformed into a cool and successful new person

Things go badly for Katia

Katia has an emotional crash.

This is a enough of a repeated pattern that the above panel is where a lot of people apparently drop Prequel, convinced it’s just gonna be misery porn. Katia needs to get control of her emotions. She needs to learn to think more carefully. She needs to be able to change the parts of herself she wants to be different.

Anyway, we were talking about magic. The first spell Katia learns is powered by her emotions, taking her hurt feelings when experiencing racist micro-aggressions and channeling those feelings more productively.

Once Katia learns this ability, then the next time she has a big emotional crash-

Is the time where she manages to lot let her negative emotions control her.  And at no point does the comic explicitly make the connection between Katia learning to channel her negative emotions in magic and Katia managing to overcome her negative emotions and quit drinking.

I mean, yes, the act of refusing to give in to despair causes Katia to immediately get her fire powers super-charged, but because this is treated as a problem for her to solve (”Oh shit everything’s on fire!”), the connection is one of those things you have to put together yourself, or have a Webcomics tumblr point out to you. 

The second spell she learns is based thinking logically and realizing that things don’t inherently have to be the way they are.

In this case, the connection is reversed. Katia learns “to think like a Witch-hunter” and gains Telekinesis. 

And this causes her to do something she’s never really done: Make a plan. Once she learns to think like a Witchhunter, Katia does a lot more thinking generally, and doesn’t rush headlong into bad ideas nearly as often. 

The magic system in Prequel isn’t interesting because it follows rules or because it’s well understood in a way that makes it easy to slot your OC into it. It’s interesting because it’s tailor-made for Katia’s personal character arc.

And so while healing magic being a time of time travel is a cool idea (and one I independently had for Saffron and Sage before Prequel did it, for the record), what makes it really interesting is that the key is “believing in yourself harder”. The reason Katia can’t get a handle on how restoration works isn’t some worldbuilding lore, it’s because she hasn’t gotten to that point in her character arc quite yet. 

Because ultimately the worldbuilding exists to serve the story, and doing what serves the story is always going to be better than doing what some guide on the internet says is the “right” way to do something.

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

A Touch | Reggie Peters

Request: Hi!! I saw you were looking for Reggie requests so I was wondering if I could request one where the reader is related to Luke and has a major crush on Reggie and Reggie likes her too but doesn’t show it and that night she does with them and when they get to 2020 and Reggie flirts with those girls she gets jealous and goes off and meets another ghost and starts hanging out with him and Reggie gets really jealous and admits his feelings for her

A/N: Tweaked it a little bit cuz otherwise this would’ve been even longer! Hope you like it! :) 

Pairing: Reggie Peters x Patterson!Reader 

Warnings: minor swear words, angst 

Songs used: Touch - Little Mix | Bright - Julie and The Phantoms

Words: 5,672

1995

“Sunset Curve, are we ready to rock?!” you run into the garage, holding up rock signs whilst yelling. This is the place you’ve spent every summer with the four boys you call your best friends. Every first of July, your parents would drop you off at your Auntie Emily and Uncle Mitch’s house while they were off doing work-stuff, or so they said. But you didn’t mind, really because those boys made your summers so amazing. Especially Reggie. 

You’d met the boys years ago when they first started the band and your parents had dropped you off at the Pattersons over the summer. Alex quickly became your go-to for any problem, and you were the first person he ever told about his sexuality. Bobby turned out to be the person to prank the other boys with. And Reggie… Reggie is just Reggie. Amazingly goofy, really smart -- though people would say otherwise -- and the sweetest, kindest gentleman to ever grace this planet. He’s the sole reason you really came back this year. Your parents had given you the option to stay home alone this year since you’d become seventeen, but you insisted on going back to Los Feliz anyway. You didn’t want to spend an entire summer in your house with no friends to hang out with since they all went on holiday at the same time. No, you wanted to stay with the Pattersons and have a Reggie-filled summer. He didn’t know you had a crush on him, and neither did Luke. It’s better if they don’t know. The group dynamic would’ve been disturbed and that’s about the last thing you wanted. Only Alex knew, and that was enough. At least now you could blab about how cute Reggie was that day or about that funny thing he said to you. Alex had told you to tell him, but you refused to. That would be the worst thing you could do. 

Besides, Reggie doesn’t even like you like that. And he has other things on his mind right now, like playing the Orpheum tonight. It’s been a long, winding road with lots of ups and downs, and trials and errors, but they finally did it. Sunset Curve is having a showcase tonight at the Orpheum. THE ORPHEUM. To say you’re proud would be an understatement. 

“Someone’s excited,” says Alex with a smile as he comes out from behind the drum kit. They’d just finished rehearsing their set one final time before their soundcheck. 

“Yes! My favorite band is playing at the Orpheum, you guys!” you’re jumping up and down all the way to the blonde boy to wrap your arms around his neck in a hug. “I’m so excited for you guys!” you sigh before letting go and turning to the other guys. Two out of three boys in front of you smile at you endeared, whilst the third one scowls at you. “What’s gotten your panties in a twist, Patterson?” you ask your cousin. “Aren’t you excited you’re playing the Orpheum? This has been a dream of you since I can’t even remember when!” he chuckles sarcastically while zipping up his guitar case. 

“I would be more excited if my little cousin would be a little more covered up,” he grumbles. The boys look at your outfit, as do you. You’re wearing light blue jeans with a salmon pink off-the-shoulder cropped top. You thought it looked cool, but now that your cousin seemingly doesn’t love it, you begin to have your doubts. 

“Really, Luke?” Alex chimes in, shaking his head, “I think she looks cute.” 

“Yeah, but you’re gay, you’re not gonna be lustin’ after her,” Luke mutters. You chuckle at his lame excuse. Of course he would say that. You cross your arms at him, and purse your lips. 

“No boy is ever gonna be lustin’ after me, Patterson, because you scare them all away,” you snarl at him with a raised eyebrow. This shuts him up right away. Or at least for a moment. 

“Good. You’re too young for a boyfriend anyway,” he says instead. 

“I’m one month younger than you, Patterson!” you scoff. For a second you think he’s being serious, but then that teasing smirk tugs at his lips, reminding you that he’s only playing. 

“Just looking out for ya, cous,” he wraps an arm around your shoulders, guiding you out the garage with his guitar case in his other hand. “I need all them boys to know that if they ever hurt you, I’ll kill them.” Little do you know that Reggie’s behind the two of you, carrying his bass out the garage, and hears your entire conversation. He’s once reminded of why he can never act on his feelings. Luke would kill him if he even tried. 

At the Orpheum, you help the boys set up their instruments and then sneak backstage for a while as the boys are talking to the showrunner at the venue. You walk through the labyrinth of corridors that give out on the dressing rooms left and right. But for some reason, the room at the end of the hallway screams at you. You don’t know why you’re pulled towards this particular room, but you find yourself opening the door cautiously. A creek echoes through the empty corridor, making you cringe a little. You hastily slip through the door and turn the lights on. The artificial blaze blinds you for just a moment. When your eyes have finally adjusted to it, you let them wander around. Over the seating area with the sofas and the couch, and then finally landing on the piano against the far left wall. As a smile tugs at your lips, you walk over and let your fingertips grace over the keys before pressing one and letting a note ring out through the room. The single note reminds you of the summer you’d spend teaching Reggie how to play. He’d constantly mess up and giggle, and then he’d watch you for a while as you showed it again, only for him to mess up again because he was looking at your face instead of your hands. And every now and again, your hands would brush over the keys, and you’d feel all giddy and warm inside. Especially when he gave you that look. That one look only Reggie can give you. You’ve tried to explain it to Alex, but in vain. There was no way to explain the way Reggie looked at you that summer. That was two years ago. That unexplainable look of his faded away, as did the brushing of the hands. He never asked to play piano with you ever again, which made you wonder what you had done to chase him away like that. You cried to Alex about it or stayed awake for hours wondering what happened. 

Though there were no touches and no glances left this summer, you still remember the feeling it gave you. You remember it enough for you to get dizzy just thinking about it. With that dizzy feeling welling up inside of you, you sit down on the stool and make up a melody on the piano. Satisfied with how it sounds, you play it again and start making up words as you go. Something you and Luke did all the time whenever the other boys were busy in the summer. 

“Just one touch, just one touch Just a touch of your love is enough To knock me off of my feet all week Just a touch of your love, oh Just a touch of your love, oh Just a touch of your love is enough To take control of my whole body Just a touch of your love, oh Just a touch of your love, oh”

“Ah, here you are!” The voice coming from behind you makes you jump, and you let out a squeal as you turn around hastily. Reggie’s standing in the doorway, an amused smile on his face. You clutch your heart as though it’s going to pop out any moment. 

“Fucking hell, Reg. You gave me a heart attack!” He chuckles before walking up to you and joining you on the stool at the piano. Your heart skips a few beats while you’re trying to calm it down from getting startled so badly, which does not make it any easier. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles and nudges your shoulder with his. “What were you singing? Sounded good.” A blush creeps up your cheeks, heating you up from the inside out. 

“Just something that came up,” you reply as nonchalantly as possible. 

“It sounded great,” he compliments once more. You look up at him for a moment, finding him looking down at the piano. There is something so calming and peaceful about him, but you could never say what it was. Maybe it's the vibe he gives off or the beautiful green orbs that could stare right into your soul. “Let’s see what I remember from your piano lessons,” he then mumbles before touching a couple of keys, letting a shrill sound come out. 

You scrunch up your nose as he looks over at you with a nervous smile on his face. “Guess you should start teaching me again.” The sound of his laughter reminds you why you loved hanging out with him. Not because he’s the most beautiful guy you’d ever seen, but because he makes you laugh. There’s never been a day he didn’t make you laugh your ass off. 

“Maybe you should just give up on the piano,” you say teasingly, which makes Reggie’s mouth drop open in fake shock. “Stick to the bass, Rockstar,” you pat his shoulder before getting up and making your way to the door. You turn your head to see if he’s following you, only to find him charging towards you at full speed. Your reflexes aren’t quite on point. Before you can run away from him, he already has a tight grip on you and throws you over his shoulder. You shriek at the sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through you before you burst into laughter, flailing your limbs about to try and get him to put you down again. 

“Patterson, your cousin is being mean to me. Permission to throw her out?” You stop moving at his words. Of course, you’ll always be Luke’s cousin to Reggie and nothing else. Instead, you place your head in your hand, your elbow resting against Reggie’s back while the other hangs down. A big sigh leaves your body, and when Reggie feels this, he puts you back on your feet. He gives you a worried look first but after you offer him a convincing enough smile, the worry makes room for his happy-go-lucky personality again. “Don’t test me next time, Patterson,” he whispers before turning and heading to the stage where the other boys are. Alex gives you a knowing look, to which you just roll your eyes and go to the back of the venue where a girl is wiping down tables. 

“We’re ready for soundcheck, Gil,” Bobby tells the sound guy. He gives the band a thumbs up and gets to working. You sit back on the bench, watching as the boys play a couple of songs from their set for tonight’s showcase. They sound wicked. But they always sound wicked to you. These boys are crazy talented and tonight’s going to change everything. For all five of you. They’re going to land an amazing manager that’ll help them climb the charts and get the best tours around the entire world, and you’ll still be Luke’s cousin, left at either your parents house or your Uncle and Auntie’s. Thinking of Emily and Mitch reminds you that you need to tell Luke to come back home soon. His mother is pretty much going crazy and it’s driving you crazy not being able to tell her where her missing son is. You keep telling her he’s okay, that he just needs some time. He’ll come back. You’ve been promising her for months now and he still hasn’t returned. You’ll force him tonight, after the show. 

“That was the tightest we've ever played! Too bad we wasted all that energy on soundcheck,” you hear Bobby say as you approach the stage once they’ve finished. 

“Alex, you were smokin’!” Reggie compliments the drummer as he steps down from his stage.

“Eh, I was just warming up. You guys were the ones on fire!” The blondie deflects humbly. 

“Can you just own your awesomeness for once, Al?” you shout at him, a smirk tugging at your lips. All four boys look at you for a second before Reggie, Bobby and Luke turn back to Alex.  “All right! I was killing it!” His answer makes you very happy.  “To fuel up before the show I was thinking…” Luke starts, and you know exactly what he’s going to suggest.  “Street dogs,” the two of you say in unison. “We’re thinking the exact same thing, cous,” you say with a smirk as Bobby hops off the stage, landing beside you. You turn your head, following him with your eyes as he moves to the table you were sitting at earlier. The one that girl was wiping down.   “Hey, Bobby, where you goin’?” Luke asks, jumping down too, followed by the two other boys. You make your way to the table with them.   “I’m good,” Bobby says over his shoulder in response, then turns to the pretty girl. “Vegetarian, could never hurt an animal.” You roll your eyes at the obviousness of his flirting. The dude isn’t even that strict a vegetarian. You’re pretty sure he had a hamburger for lunch earlier today.  “You guys are really good,” the girl compliments, her accent thickly enlaced in her words. “Thank you,” Luke retorts with that flirty smile on his face. Another earned eye roll.  “I see a lot of bands, been in a couple myself. I was really feelin’ it.” Luke pats Bobby’s back.   “Ah, that’s what we do this for,” he says, then pushes Bobby back with his shoulder. “I’m Luke, by the way.”   “Hi, I’m Reggie,” the bassist says, pointing at himself.  “Alex,” he raises his hand while a smile tugs at his lips. Bobby then nudges Luke back, forcing his way in front of him. Even though they’re the best of friends, you have noticed Bobby getting jealous of Luke on more occasions than one. Mainly when it’s about the ladies.  “Bobby,” he says in a deep voice. The girl then looks over at you as you’re standing between Reggie and Alex, leaning on each of their shoulders, but haven’t introduced yourself yet, thinking it was a band introduction.  “Oh! I thought we were only doing the band,” you say, making the boys and the girl chuckle. “I’m Y/N. Luke’s cousin and band therapist.” The boys give you a questioning look. “Self-proclaimed,” you quickly add.  “Nice meeting you guys. I’m Rose,” the girl introduces herself then.  “Oh!” Reggie then starts and hands over the CD he’s holding. “Here’s our demo.” He hands her a shirt next. “And a T-shirt, size beautiful.” You remove your arm from his shoulder whilst biting the inside of your cheek, trying to withhold yourself from reacting badly to his obvious attempts at flirting. Alex scoffs and shakes his head in disappointment. The girl holds the shirt in front of her for a moment before flinging it over her shoulder with a smile.   “Thanks! I’ll make sure not to wipe the tables down with this one,” she jokes, which makes you chuckle slightly. Mostly at the fact why these boys -- except Alex -- are so enthralled by this girl. Not only is she really gorgeous, she’s funny too.  “Oh! Good call!” Alex starts, “Whenever they get wet, they kinda fall apart in your hands.”  “Don’t you guys have to go get hotdogs?” Bobby asks, clearly wanting to get rid of all of you, so he can flirt with Rose without being disturbed or embarrassed by his friends.  “Yeah,” Luke pushes Bobby away as he leans forward to Rose.  “He totally had a hamburger for lunch,” you say in unison with your cousin, once again. Rose laughs lightly, but you’re not sure whether it’s at the two of you exposing your friend or at the fact you said it at the same time. Might be both too.  The four of you make your way out of the Orpheum and onto Sunset Boulevard, chatting about that night whilst making your way to the hot dog vendor you’ve been to a couple of times. You try your hardest to ignore Reggie flirting with some fans at the door and focus on the  night ahead. The  night that’s going to change everything.  And it does, but not in the way any of you had expected. That night, the four of you die from eating tainted hot dogs. At first, it just tasted a little off, then you began to feel a little queasy until the lights went out completely. The next thing you know is a dark room and hearing Alex’s soft sobs echo through the darkness. So… That was it for the four of you… 

 2020

Or that’s what you thought. After a while of being in that dark room and you holding Alex as he cried, you suddenly feel something pulling at you. It’s this weird force that keeps pulling at your skin, which makes all four of you scream until you finally land on a hard floor with a loud thud. Groaning and coughing from the impact of the fall, you get up, looking around at the very familiar surrounding you find yourself in. “Woah! How did we get back here?” Luke asks, realizing the exact same thing. You’re back in the garage, in the exact same spot you were this morning. All of a sudden, a loud, ear-piercing scream startles all four of you, sending you into a huddle of screams too. You just about catch a flash of yellow running out, the screaming fading away as the color did too. Long story short, apparently this girl Julie played the boys’ demo and pulled them back into the ‘real world’ but as ghosts. You’re a little weirded out about the whole ghost thing, and you don’t really know what to think of it. At least you still have the boys. “Hey! Let’s go check on Julie!” Luke suggests one day. He had suggested Julie to just perform a song for her teacher to earn her spot back in the music program with a song the four of you had written together back in the day. You’re stood at the sidelines with the three boys next to you, looking at the girl on the stage as she plays the keyboard, playing the notes you’d come up with way back when. “Sometimes I think I'm falling down I wanna cry, I'm calling out For one more try to feel alive And when I feel lost and alone I know that I can make it home Fight through the dark and find the spark” You and Luke both mouth the words along, shooting Julie encouraging glances as she continues. “Life is a risk, but I will take it Close my eyes and jump Together, I think that we can make it C'mon let's run” Suddenly, the boys poof away from you and onto the stage, instruments at the ready, to support Julie. You’re a little confused at first, but then a smile tugs at your lips as they, once again, start rocking out.  “And rise through the night, you and I We will fight to shine together, bright forever And rise through the night, you and I We will fight to shine together, bright forever” The kids from Julie’s school have now all gathered at the front of the stage, confused and excited noises erupting from the mass of people. The boys seem equally as confused as you are. Those kids can see them. You decide to go around the crowd to get to the front of the stage. You catch Luke and Julie conversing, both of them looking out on the crowd with both confusion and exhilaration.  “What’s happening, Reg?!” you shout at him, but he just gives you a confused shrug whilst Luke sings the next verse.  “In times that I doubted myself I felt like I needed somе help Stuck in my head with nothing left I feel somеthing around me now So unclear, lifting me out I found the ground I'm marching on” You glance at the group of students, the couple of jocks closest to you are headbanging to the music, clearly enjoying themselves. All but one. He’s looking at you with a flirty smile on his face. Your eyes widen at this. He can see you too? Goldilocks -- his hair looks nearly gold -- nods at you curtly in a “what’s up?” kind of way, which sends a blush right to your cheeks.  Reggie skips to the other side of the stage, not noticing anything of the interaction between you and the very alive and very attractive boy.  “Life is a risk, but we will take it Close my eyes and jump Together, I think that we can make it C'mon let's run” “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here?” the boy asks as he walks up to you.  “I uhm… I’m with the band,” you reply pointing up at the boys on stage. Reggie skips all the way back to his microphone, your eyes locking as he shoots you a smile.  “They’re really good! Where are you guys from?” You stutter and stumble, unsure of what to tell this boy. Your eyes dart from this boy to Reggie and back.  “I’m not allowed to tell you,” you finally manage to come up with. “Management rules.”  “Okay, can I at least get your name then?”  “Y/N. Y/N Patterson,” you reply. There’s no use in lying about that part. Though Julie told you about Google and this boy might be able to look you up on ‘the Google’ and find out you died… But why would he do that?  “That’s a pretty name,” he says flirtily and licks his lips. For a split second, you look up at Reggie to find him already looking at the scene unfolding before his eyes. “I’m Chad. Chad Avery.”  “Nice to meet you, Chad,” you reply very politely, a smile tugging at your lips.  “In times that I doubted myself I felt like I needed some help Stuck in my head with nothing left And when I feel lost and alone I know that I can make it home Fight through the dark and find the spark” Your eyes widen when you catch Julie walking through your cousin. How in the holy hell is she going to explain that to the school? You quickly look up at Chad, who’s too busy with his buddies to be able to ask you what that’s all about, so you take that opportunity to poof away from him, and get your ass to the very back of the gym.  At the end of the song, the boys vanish from the stage, which earns a loud uproar of confusion from the students and faculty of Los Feliz High witnessing this. You find them at the side of the stage again, and decide to poof next to Alex.  “That’s crazy! They could see us when we were performing but not when the music stopped!” Luke exclaims excitedly while Reggie shoots you an annoyed glance, but it disappears quickly as a thought pops into his head.  “Oh! Maybe we should check!” he runs up the small flight of stairs and starts gyrating his hips. No reaction from the crowd whatsoever. “Yeah, I don’t…” he runs down again, “I don’t think they can see us.” You chuckle at his antics. That’s the Reggie you’ve fallen in love with.  “I wish I couldn’t see you,” mumbles Alex under his breath, which makes you laugh even louder. Reggie glares at you, raising his eyebrows before turning around and walking over to the girl in the purple wig. Even though she can’t see him, he still attempts to flirt with her. The entire interaction makes you feel queasy and not at all at ease.  “Ugh, please, kill me,” you mumble, earning a raised eyebrow from Alex. “Oh, you know what I mean,” you snap, annoyed at Alex for even trying to minimize how terrible you feel about the scene unfolding in front of you. But even more annoyed at Reggie for flirting with other girls even though you’re not a couple, nor will you ever be. He’s allowed to flirt, it just hurts.  “Y/N,” Alex is going to try and reason with you, but you simply shake your head at him before poofing out of the school and back to the garage.  The silence wraps around you like a comforting blanket, and that’s when the tears start streaming down your cheeks. You know you shouldn’t feel like this. Reggie can do whatever he pleases. You don’t own him. But it still hurts. It’s been more than twenty-five years of having a massive crush on him. That didn’t wash away with death. That burning, aching feeling you get whenever you see him is still there. And you doubt it’s ever going to go away. It’s there for eternity.  “Thought I’d find you here,” Reggie’s voice startles you once again. It’s almost like a déjà-vû. You’re sat at the grand piano, delicately caressing the keys, but not finding the strength to write a song. No words could ever describe how you feel right now.  “Fuck, Reggie…” you mumble, clutching your heart. In your mind, you’re scoffing at how familiar all of this feels, and you think Reggie realizes it too. He walks up to you and takes a seat next to you. Your shoulders are pressed together, and you’re trying your hardest not to show how nervous you feel.  “Why’d you leave so suddenly?” he asks, twisting the hem of his flannel around his finger.  “Just--needed some air…” you lie. You know you should tell him the truth. You’re literally going to spend an eternity with him as ghosts, might as well just come clean about everything.  “Alex told me something different…” You scoff at his words. Of course Alex had to blab. “He didn’t tell me what it was, but he did say you were annoyed at me?” He pronounces his words carefully as if trying not to overstep. “What did I do wrong, Y/N? Tell me, so I can start apologizing because I’ve tried to wrack my brain to try and find a reason for you to be mad at me, but I just can’t…” he chuckles and shakes his head, “I can think of a few, but you’d never be annoyed about those.” You can’t help but laugh at that too. As the weight of the looming truth lands on your shoulders, you exhale slowly. There’s no way around this anymore.  “I just--I couldn’t handle you flirting with that girl… I’ve watched you flirt with girls for years, biting my tongue not to say anything, but today was just… Too much…” you admit with your voice barely above a whisper. Reggie huffs beside you.  “You’re kidding, right?” You look up at his furrowed eyebrows and darkened eyes. “You can flirt with whoever you want but I can’t?!” 

You open your mouth to say something, but no words come out. He gets up from the stool and walks around the piano, halting on the other end. “I saw you flirt with that jock guy at Julie’s school and plenty other times when we were alive, Y/N! You think that didn’t hurt me?!” Frustration wells up inside you as you shoot up from your seat, leaning your hands on the keys, a distorted note echoing through the studio.  

“I barely flirted with anyone when we were alive because you guys chased every fucking boy away, Reggie! You can’t blame me for flirting with one boy after being dead for twenty-five years!” He scoffs, now leaning forward on the piano too. 

“Ever thought there might be a reason for us chasing those boys away, Y/N? Luke had his own and didn't know about mine but Bobby and Alex did! I told them to make sure no boy could ever touch you until I plucked up the courage to ask you out!” You’re stunned at his words for a split second, but then go back to the screaming match you were holding. There’s no time to properly realize he’s confessing his mutual feelings for you.  “Maybe you should’ve just, I don’t know, Reggie, just a thought, asked me!” you yell at him, seething through your teeth. You’d much rather crawl across this piano right  now and kiss him, but you’re frozen to the floor.  “You try and ask Luke Patterson’s cousin out, Y/N! That man is impossible to get through! He’d never agree to me dating his little cousin!” Your tongue glides across your teeth as you mull over the next words in your mind. Back in 1995, you would’ve never dared to speak these words out loud, but so far in 2020, you’ve learned it’s okay for a woman to come up for herself.  “Ever think about the fact that I am my own person, Reggie? That I make my own decisions about my life, my body, my heart? I decide who I love and who I date, not Luke. ME!” Your voice raises and your confidence gets a sudden boost after finally saying those words that have been written down in diaries multiple times, but never been said out loud.  “Luke would’ve killed me if I ever told him I was in love with you, Y/N!” His voice matches yours now, which is equally as terrifying as it is extremely hot. You’ve never seen Reggie like this, he’d always been the guy that shrunk whenever someone would yell at him. He’s the one that would mutter an apology rather than come up for himself.  “Well, you’re dead now, Reginald, what are you still waiting for?!” The words have only left your mouth about a second ago, but Reggie’s already charging up to you. He grabs your face and presses his lips forcefully to yours. You kiss back immediately, returning the passion and hunger he’s exhorting. This is what you’ve been waiting for, for years. You’ve dreamt about kissing him for so long, and now that it’s finally happening, you realize it’s even better than what you ever dreamt it would be like.  “I can’t believe I waited this long,” he pants when you take a break from the intensity.  “Yeah, me neither,” a very familiar voice chimes through the garage. The two of you look up to find Alex and Luke at the door, smirks on both their faces. “I had a bet going with Bobby how long it would take for the two of you to finally confess your love for each other. Guess neither of us won…” he explains nonchalantly while walking over to his guitar to grab it.  “Wa-- Wait, you knew?” Reggie asks, his eyes darting over to you and then Alex.  “Yeah, man. It was pretty obvious,” Luke replies, chuckling, whilst strapping his guitar around. “I mean, I heard you crying in your room about how much you loved him and how much it killed you not to be able to tell him,” he points to you, and a scarlet red colors your face immediately.  “You were listening in on our phone calls?!” Alex asks, knowing the exact conversation they had that night. They talked about boys constantly, especially that one summer when Alex found himself falling for the lead singer of his band and best friend. They dated briefly, but figured out they were better off as friends, for the sake of the band.  “Our walls were pretty thin, man,” Luke shoots him a teasing grin, “And you, Reggie,” he points at the boy next to you. “I caught you staring at my cousin all the time, and I just knew you didn’t shield her from flirting boys to protect my little cousin, you shielded them because you were jealous. It was so obvious, you guys! You’re not going to tell me this is the first time you realize the other’s in love with you too, right?!” Your cousin could get excited and passionate about a lot of things, but your love life was never one of them.  “I was scared you’d kill me before I could even utter a word about my feelings for her,” Reggie mumbles, looking down at his shoes. “So, if anything, this is your fault, Patterson!”  “Yeah, cous! All of this is your fault!” you agree, chuckling slightly at the widening of his eyes. “But you’re cool with this, right?” you ask, “I mean, he is your best friend, Luke…” His smile widens, the flicker in his eyes reappearing.  “Of course I am, Y/N. I just want you both to be happy,” he replies with a shrug. “Now, let’s get rehearsing!” He plugs his guitar into the amp while Alex goes behind his drums. Reggie turns to you again, glancing down at you with that look of his he always used on you two summers ago.  “Will you stay until after rehearsals? I wanna take you somewhere after.” You simply nod your head before leaning up and pecking his lips sweetly. He turns around to join the boys, grabbing his bass from its stand. Your teeth dig down into your bottom lip as a smile etches its way to your lips. Even though it’s taken you this many years, it finally happened, and you couldn’t be happier about it. You could finally kiss him and hold his hand and touch him. That electric touch you longed for, for so many years. His touch. 

Taglist: @hannahhistorian92​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @thequirkybookaholic​ @bookdealer5​ @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @hemmingsness​ @iainttakingshitfromnobody​ @ifilwtmfc​ @angryknightstatesmantrash​ @kiss-themoongoodbye​ @rudysbay​ @thedarkqueenofavalon​​ @caitsymichelle13​​ @calamitykaty​ @wiselight​

[mysterytickingegos]

I’ve Created a Monster

Pairing: Darkiplier x Clairvoyant!Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Word Count: 2,480

Summary: After a bad date, you made a rather interesting friend. But better yet, you discovered something just as interesting about yourself. This something leads to a very exhilarating part of your life, but you learn the hard way that it’s not quite as glamorous an adventure as it may seem. The last person you’d expect is the one to bring you back to reality.

Anonymous Request: If I may request! :) Can I have a darkiplier x fem!reader fic with the prompts 37, 44, 45? After the events of wkm? Just some hurt and comfort to give me dem feelz 😀👍 Maybe Dark is the one saying it please? Much thanks!

Authors Note: Probably not what you were going for with the prompts but I hope you still enjoy it!

Want to read more?

[Image Description: A Gif of Darkiplier from the “horror” branch of “A Date with Markiplier,” speaking to the viewer at a table, while another image of him leans away and yells. End Description]

Junk mail, bill, wrong address, junk mail...

The usual. You weren’t sure what ‘cool thing’ you were expecting to get in the mail in 2020 but the disappointment was there anyway. Just as you shut your mailbox you heard somebody coming down the stairs and cringed, bracing yourself as you hoped it wasn’t who you thought it was. But of course it was.

Your upstairs neighbor, AKA the worst date ever. “Ah, hey Y/n.”

“Hi Mark...” You gave him a sad attempt at a wave, and he gave you a nod, walking over to his own mailbox.

‘How’s it going?”

“Great, yeah...you?”

“Good.”

And with that the room dissolved into awkward silence, and you took your leave back up the stairs. Funny enough these moments used to be filled with dumb jokes and flirting, that was until he finally asked you out. You had been overjoyed, happy that someone had taken an interest in you and glad that something was breaking your dull everyday routine. Little did you know the highlight of the date would be the end. He had taken you to an expensive restaurant only to reveal that he had ‘forgotten’ his wallet (which ended up falling out of his pocket in front of you in the theater.) Then he had been upset with you for accidentally falling asleep to what must’ve the most boring Rom-com you had ever been subjected to. You both seemed to be in silent agreement that this should never, ever happen again.

But unbeknownst to you and Mark, somebody else had been lingering around. That was the first time that specific somebody had decided to visit you, making a sucky date the least of your concerns. You spent the rest of your night watching compilations on YouTube and eating chocolate Ice Cream. You kept going from sad to angry over your horrible day in your head.

Were you only worth asking out for a free meal? A meal that for you took about half your grocery budget. You should’ve given that ass a piece of your mind.

You sniffed, wiping your eyes and scarfing down even more ice cream. “Damn it.”

“Aw, don’t cry, darling. It wasn’t that bad.”

You screamed and nearly jumped out of your skin, scrambling away from the man now next to you on the couch. The moment your feet hit the ground you grabbed your phone and locked yourself in your bedroom. “Who the fuck are you?!”

“Let’s say I'm a... friend of a friend. I thought I’d check up on you after that train wreck.” He spoke through the door. You heard a laugh layer over his voice, and wondered if somebody else was there.

“I’m calling the police!” You shouted back.

Then you heard the same voice just in front of you, clearly amused with the situation. “You’re welcome to do so, though I’m not sure they’d believe you.” It was the same man from the couch, smiling at you. You noticed how he seemed to be glitching, and how as his head tilted to the side his figure had duplicated in blue for a split second. “As I’m sure you can tell by now, I’m not exactly human.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I’d like to get to know you, Y/n. Is that so much to ask?”

The first few nights that you had stayed up a little too late and wound up speaking that deranged spirit again, you had been terrified. But soon enough you learned to enjoy his company. Sure, he could be a little unsettling at times, particularly when he was irritated and got...cold. Not just figuratively, which he was, but literally. The temperature in your apartment would drop a significant amount and you would change subjects shivering. But all in all, from what you could see behind that wall he had up, he was simply lost at worst, not exactly evil. And it was nice to not have to be so lonely all the time.

But during one of these visits, early on, you had decided to ask why.

“Why me, of all people?”

The man you had come to know simply as ‘Dark’  leaned in, lighting up as though he had been waiting on you to ask that this entire time. “Oh, Y/n. Don’t you know?”

“Why would I ask if I already knew?”

He let out an impatient sigh. ‘That’s...I was being...” He glanced up at you just in time to catch the smile playing at your lips after successfully ruining his aesthetic. “You know what? You can stay in the dark.”

“No no no, I’ll shut up, just tell me.” You turned to face him on the couch, tucking your legs under yourself.

He left you in suspense for a few moments, before dropping his voice down low when he spoke so you would have to lean closer in just to hear him. “Let’s just say you are...spiritually attuned to my world.”

“Spiritually attuned?”

“Yes, you are psychic, a medium, clairvoyant. Whatever you want to call it.” He explained. “You are a magnet to things outside the realm of the natural. A strange pair, aren’t we?”

And that was all it took, so many unexplained events from your past were now explained, and a world of possibilities was opened to you. You must’ve spent weeks researching how to harness your abilities, starting the second he left. Sure, most sites and blogs were absolutely full of it but you got the gist. With that and some common sense, how much could go wrong?

You started to take silly jobs on the internet, from old women who thought something was off with their mirrors to amateur ghost hunters who wanted a ‘consultant.’ It took you a while to gain some confidence that you weren’t just pulling this stuff out of thin air, that you hadn’t lost your mind. But after a few months, once you hit that learning curve, man it was fun.

Your latest job was a little more hardcore, a young family wanting help to push a poltergeist out of their new home. Their stories had chilled you to the bone, but you were happy to help. Your evaluation at the house went fine, nothing too far past what you were used to. Except, the entire time you were there you felt as though you had weight sitting on your chest. You could barely listen to the poor couple tell you what they experienced due to a faint scratching feeling at the back of your mind. You weren’t an expert yet but you could tell that whatever this thing was, it did not welcome you there. Worse yet, the feeling of being drained that the couple mentioned was certainly affecting you as well. Perhaps worse.

But all that accomplished was making you even more determined to rid the house of it. You took notes for your research later, tried to communicate in the most active part of the house (with no results,) and gave the couple the best advice you could at the moment.

“Until this thing is gone, it’s best you stay somewhere else.”

A few nights later, you had just finished packing your bag and begun heading for the door when you heard Dark just behind you. “Good evening, Y/n.” His voice was layered, followed by a subtle echo bouncing off the walls of your small apartment. When you turned to face him you saw he was already frowning, having realized you were on your way out. “Where are you off to so late?“

“I’m going to hang out with some friends. So I’m sorry, you’ll have to find some other way to entertain yourself tonight, instead of ya know, slowly but surely turning me into a nocturnal hermit.“ You joked, adjusting the tote bag on your shoulder.

He chuckled, bringing his hands behind his back. “I hate to break this to you my dear, but you were there well before we met.”

“Ha ha.” You turned to leave but were stopped short when you saw that he had apparated directly in front of you.

“What’s in the bag?” He asked, starting to reach for it curiously before you stepped back.

“Nothing.” You said, a little too quickly. “Just some party supplies, alright?”

He raised his brow, no longer amused. “...Convincing. Is it really so difficult to be honest with me?”

“Oh don’t even try and pull that card, you won’t even tell me why you’re haunting that jerk upstairs.”

His jaw clenched, and he looked away from you. “That’s different. Bringing such things to light would only do more harm than good.”

“Well, I may be wrong but...my thing is kinda the same. And I like what we’ve got going on so just let it go. Please?”

Dark stayed quiet, peeved off and clearly even more curious than he was before. Finally, he side-stepped out of your way, “Just be careful.”

When you got to the house, you were careful. Keeping lights on and keeping quiet while you did everything your research said you were supposed to. As you did, the spirit was also quiet, too quiet. And on your way home, you kept waiting for that heavy feeling on your chest to fade away.

Your apartment was freezing when you stepped out of the bathroom after your shower. Cold air brushed over your shoulders as you wrapped your arms around yourself. “Dark?” You called out, looking around for him. This wasn’t like him. He usually made you aware of his presence as soon as he showed up. You walked into your bedroom and when you locked eyes with another in the mirror, you froze.

This wasn’t like Dark, because it wasn’t him.

Instead, the person standing behind you was a very decrepit and very angry old woman, seemingly fading in and out of reality as she glared at you. “Y̸o̵u̶ ̴s̴h̷o̵u̶l̶d̸ ̸h̵a̵v̷e̷ ̵l̸e̴f̷t̶ ̷w̶e̶l̵l̶ ̸e̴n̵o̷u̶g̷h̶ ̶a̸l̶o̴n̸e̷.̴“

The mirror shattered and you whipped around to face her, but she wasn’t there. The air whirling around the place started to pick up, and picture frames flew off the wall at you, then other objects that had decorated your room. You tried to flee but your front door wouldn’t budge. You started to bang on it, crying in fear and praying that anyone would hear you. Next thing you knew though, you were flung towards the wall.

Finally, everything settled. The weight was off your chest, but there was plenty of pain there in it’s place. You slowly pulled yourself into a sitting position, then wiped the tears off your face with one hand and held the other over your ribs. You weren’t sure how long you sat there, waiting for something to happen and your heartbeat overpowered the ringing silence in your ears. You wanted to get your phone, to call for help but you were terrified of gaining attention again. You didn’t even really stop shaking until you heard a familiar voice.

“...Y/n?” Dark didn’t see you when he first showed up, just the disaster area that was your living room. Once had seen you, he was beside you in a blink of an eye. You didn’t even think about it before you wrapped your arms around him. He only gave you a moment of comfort before he pulled back, looking over you in concern. “What happened? Who hurt you?”

You couldn’t really get much out between pained wincing as he scooped you into his arms. “It was a -Ow- s-spirit.”

He laid you down on the couch as gently as he could, and you could see his face change from confusion to recognition to irritation. “Why, pray tell, would a spirit be here?”

“I may have taken a job to get rid of it...” You muttered under your breath.

“Unbelievable.” He shook his head, about to say something else before he stopped himself. Instead he moved his focus to your hand, moving it to reveal the dark bruise over your ribs.

“See, I knew you weren’t gonna like it.”

“You going off and messing with things you haven’t even begun to understand? Of course I don’t like it.” His figure glitched and layered itself in different colors before he got up and went to the kitchen.

You scoffed at his remark, trying to sit up. “Hey I understand more than you think, I’ve been doing this crap for months!”

He came back around the corner with an ice pack from your freezer in his hand. “Months?” He apparated in front of you, gently placing the pack down on the bruise, allowing you to squeeze his free hand until the shock wave from the pressure passed over you.

“I started looking into all this after you told me the truth.” You confessed. “I mean with the internet it wasn’t difficult, and I do my due diligence alright? I don’t know what went wrong.”

The aura behind him flashed pure red for just a moment, he approached his next words much softer than usual. “You can’t navigate things like this using the internet, Y/n.”

“Well I didn’t think you’d want to help me help everyone else get rid of their ghosts.”

He scoffed at you, beginning to raise his voice as the aura swapped back to blue. “You were right! I don’t understand why you would want anything to do with this, anyway. Why would you do this to yourself??” 

“I thought...I thought it’d be fun-”

“This isn’t a game!”

“You know I really don’t get you, why-”

“Of course you don’t! Do you even know what I am?”

“Well, no...”

“Neither do I.” He growled. His words truly sunk in once you saw the pain behind his eyes. He collected himself, taking a deep breath before continuing, “What I do know, is that I was human once. And people screwing with things that they shouldn’t have for selfish reasons is what turned me into this. Over the years I’ve had to see other terrible things happen to well meaning people. I’ll be damned if you throw yourself into the fire for fun.”

You nodded softly, breaking the intense gaze between you to look as your hands. “...Okay.” You opened your mouth to speak again after that, but decided against it.

“What is it?” Dark asked, trying and failing to hide the impatience in his voice.

“I just didn’t think...well I really didn’t think you’d care. Well, about this part I guess-”  You sighed, cutting yourself off this time, rather than rambling.

He was quiet for a moment, placing his hand under your chin and tilting your head up to look at him. “I care...more than you know.” It was the silence after that, that spoke volumes, and even more so the way he moved forward to press his lips to yours. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I have a poltergeist to take care of.”

[triforce-princess]

well, i finally 100% completed hyrule warriors age of calamity in its entirety, including post game content, so i’m finally going to write a full review. beware this review will contain every spoiler imaginable so please do not click the read more if you haven’t finished the game yet and don’t want to be spoiled!

tl,dr; this game is a lot of fun despite some of its shortcomings and it’s really nice to see characters get the development they needed in breath of the wild. also a huge improvement gameplay-wise from the first game. if you’re a fan of breath of the wild it’s worth a try, just don’t expect breath of the wild style of gameplay! and if you’re a fan of the original hyrule warriors, you are going to love this a lot. ok now to get into the details. this is extremely long;

about the gameplay; it took me a while to fully adjust to the new controls and mechanics, but once i finally understood it it was so much fun. i originally wasn’t crazy about the sheikah slate runes since it was difficult at first to remember that a. i had that ability, and b. when the proper time to use it was. but when it finally clicked for me it brought a whole new interesting layer to the gameplay that challenged my memory in a fun way. it took me even longer to learn what the use of the rods were but those were great in a pinch once i figured it out. i also loved the flurry rush mechanic since dodging is a pretty important aspect of the gameplay. all these new layers added to this gameplay makes me wonder how i ever put up with the original hyrule warriors gameplay lol. something i wasn’t entirely crazy about was the wall jumping and paraglider stuff? i never really found it useful and it always just became a problem when i was trying to dodge and i’d be confused about why my character was slowly flying around at critical moments.

the camera in this game was pretty frustrating. with the more organic map & lots of tight spaces (which i’ll get more into later), the camera would get stuck a lot and you’d be unable to really see what’s going on and it got pretty frustrating at times. i wish there were some way they could fix that but i’m not sure what they could do without having the camera go out of bounds & show the edges of the map. maybe they could’ve made some of the objects that are in the middle not be things the camera get stuck on though.

i also felt like there were too many special effects going on with some enemies and attacks, sometimes it would cover up large parts of the screen & you wouldn’t be able to see what you were fighting and that was pretty stressful (i found myself frequently yelling “i can’t see!!” when i’d defeat a guardian or something in a room with lots of other enemies. this only became an issue in the later parts of the game though.

now about the maps, i do love how much more organic and natural they are. it’s a big upgrade from the original which had a lot of wide corridors leading into square rooms which were allied/enemy basses. but unfortunately, this causes issues with navigation and the camera getting stuck (like i mentioned before). i had a lot of problems where the map was too natural and i was confused about why i was getting stuck on level geometry when it looked like i could walk through there. i think the breath of the wild style makes this confusing too because you can’t really undo a thousand hours of being able to walk through nearly everything. but also it was just really unclear what was a wall and what wasn’t sometimes. i was surprised i actually had to zoom in on the mini map and look at that to move around at times. definitely an ambitious aspect of the game & i appreciate the effort and detail, but i don’t know if it works that great for this style of gameplay. i also don’t know why they bothered putting so many small details on the ground if they’re just going to pop in so close to the camera. it was kind of awkward when you cleared out all the enemies & were traveling to another location and it was the only noticable thing on screen.

speaking of ambitious, we can’t ignore this game’s framerate issues. it’s the first thing on everyone’s minds when talking about this game. most of the time, it was pretty acceptable. but they definitely pushed this game farther than the switch can go and it shows. i really appreciate the love they put into making this game as detailed as they did, but i don’t know if it was worth it in the long run. there’s only a couple times i can think of where the framerates got absolutely unacceptable, and it always seemed to be when there was a lot of electricity and enemies on screen at the same time. it happened once during the final vah naboris mission and another time where there were a ton of electric lizalfos all shooting electricity at once at the same time you have to fight an electric lynel. but, i’m not the kind of gamer that loses my shit over dropped framerates, i grew up with the n64 & have had to put up with poor early emulation many times in my life so framerates don’t really phase me until it just gets unplayable.

wasn’t crazy about how many late game missions were just boss rushes, but that’s pretty standard hyrule warriors fare. at least it was more fair in this game where most of the time you only had to fight one boss at a time and the next boss wouldn’t spawn in until you beat the first one, so there was no risk of accidentally aggro-ing a boss in another part of the map & have an unfair fight on your hands like in the first game. it was pretty anti-climactic how the seemingly final mission which had the highest recommended level was just another boss rush, and not even the hardest one (it was just a bunch of regular malice bosses in a row).

bit of a side note but i didn’t like having to grind for materials and find koroks for 100%. the koroks weren’t nearly as bad as breath of the wild though, thank god.

i’m pretty disappointed that some content that’s clearly in the game isn’t unlocked in the base game, it’s looking pretty likely that they’ll add it as dlc later & pretend it’s new content to make the game relevant again...i’ve always firmly believed dlc should be extra content that’s added in later. hopefully they’ll add some really cool stuff as dlc alongside the stuff that’s in the game & it won’t be so disappointing. there’s two characters i was sure would be unlocked as playable characters (sooga and astor) but i found it weird that you don’t get them in the post game and instead you get to play as the egg guardian (terrako) and calamity ganon???? talk about subverting expectations. also really frustrated to learn that zelda’s royal dress isn’t available in the base game but its in the files & is just missing one body part?? really hope that’s just a free update and not like, paid dlc. kind of dumb that they didn’t give the devs one extra day to model feet on the character.

about the story; the story starts out really strong i feel, i loved seeing characters get the development they didn’t get in breath of the wild and this game’s story makes breath of the wild’s story feel even more incomplete than it did before this game came out. and actually seeing the story play out in chronological order in real time without link having amnesia gave the story so much more feeling and connection. this is probably my favorite aspect of this game because i was always so disappointed with how disconnected you feel in breath of the wild because of the way the story is told. and it does so much of a better job illustrating link and zelda’s feelings. i’m probably the single most difficult person to convince when it comes to link and zelda being in a relationship or having feelings for eachother and i thought this was quite possibly the best master sword scene in any zelda game;

in previous games link has always had to prove his courage in a variety of trials spread across the land and to me its really boring, especially after how many times its been done. the thing that gets me about this scene is the master sword deems him worthy because of his desire to protect zelda even when he’s been beaten down & disarmed. that was a really beautiful moment to me & i’m glad they wrote the scene this way.

speaking of being worthy of power because you want to protect someone, i wasn’t really that crazy of zelda unlocking her power just because she loves link but honestly this game illustrated it in a much better way & i’m more down with it now. i loved this shot how it really captured what she was feeling;

it’s also in general awesome to see the champions in action, both in gameplay and in cutscenes. i remember being in awe the first time i got to play as urbosa. it feels like we finally really got to know them and how powerful they really were, instead of breath of the wild just telling us they were cool & we just had to believe it.

now for the part i know people say this game is shit because of; the time travel aspect. yeah, it’s a little silly and nonsensical, but honestly, it was kind of fun. and i don’t get how a time travel plot is somehow weird for the zelda series. the most critically acclaimed game of this series, ocarina of time, is entirely revolved around a time travel plot & the heroes would not have won if it weren’t for time travel in that game. yeah, it’s goofy, but this series is known for its nonsensical aspects & plotholes. there’s always some kind of unexplainable magic in this series that solves problems. i don’t think that makes this game shit. plus i was kind of starstruck when i first got to play as sidon lol. i was thinking to myself, man, who would’ve known 3 years later we’d get to play as sidon! crazy! none of the champion descendants were really my favorite to play as but it was still cool to see them & play as them.

something i didn’t understand was why kohga and the yiga clan joined zelda’s cause? i feel like a vital scene got cut. i don’t get why he’d join even when astor betrayed him, considering his group’s ambitions and how many times they tried to kill zelda. and where’d sooga go? the scene of astor betraying them kind of implied he was going to die but we never got confirmation of that, and he even shows up in a post game mission as an ally (no cutscene, just one line of dialogue during gameplay)

as for the ending, i guess it was alright? astor was a really lazily written villain and i just did not care for him at all. kinda don’t even care that we don’t get to play as him (yet, probably). calamity ganon’s design in this game was terrible. and i guess it would’ve been hard to make it work, but no beast ganon? just felt a little to easy to wrap up. despite this i guess it was nice to see hyrule get a happier ending even if it was a bit nonsensical at times. also this is just a bit of a personal thing for me but i liked seeing  hyrule before it was destroyed. it always bums me out when you find a locaiton in game that’s been destroyed & you can only think about what it mightve looked like before. this is something that’s bummed me out since wind waker (was always disappointed you don’t get to see what greatfish isle is like!!) and breath of the wild gave me so much disappointment in that aspect lol.

one final thought but it was odd to me how many lines revali got & how often he interacted with link lol. was weird to see him slowly warm up to link a little towards the end (but of course he’s still a little mean...). no other character acknowledges link as much as revali. this scene confused me the most??

there were so many other people revali could’ve spoken to. he barely even acknowledges teba who was the one who specifically came to his aid!! and the way link looks at him with big puppy eyes?? link barely makes a facial expression at anyone else! and how revali expresses gratitude for the first time in his life after looking at link’s stupid cute anime face and smiles (but he turns around because he would be too ashamed to smile at link i guess)

anyway that’s it, i finally got out all my thoughts about this game. this went on way longer than i intended and i’m sorry if you read the whole thing & it took forever lol. this game is fun, get it.