#and apparently it did nothing and the last thing i want is to police her relationships or get in her way

[faaun]

i feel rly sad and conflicted abt one of my best friends on earth but idk who to ask for advice bc i usually would have consulted her in this situation lmao

[auspicioustidings]

No second location, that was the mantra that had been drilled into your head. So when a man bullied his way into your passenger seat, put a gun to your head and told you to drive, you did that. When he told you to take the next cut off you did not.

"Naw think I'll shoot ye?"

"Think if you do we're doing 80 and we're both meeting a quick end."

It's night time, quiet motorway that stretches for hours and hours. He laughs in disbelief after the initial plan to intimidate you fails. You can't keep driving forever, but he is fascinated by the attempt.

One hour in and you know each others names. He knows what music you like, knows you're single, that you have a cat. You know this is the first time he's brought a girl back (or has tried to at least), that he's the youngest in his team and this is an initiation of sorts. He connects his phone so he can blast his music. "Naw dying in a blaze of glory to fuckin' showtunes sweetheart."

You scream at one point, raw fury. He screams with you, whooping as you pick up speed and hit 100 in a moment of blind emotion before you slow a little again. He's touching you, a hand running down your body as he whispers filth into your ear. You give him nothing, act unaffected as your hands grip the wheel so tight they are turning pale.

There's a phone call. One of his team.

"As beautiful as you'd be dead, your pretty corpse is of fuck all use if it's burned to a crisp in a fireball."

"Oh, I don't talk about necrophilia until the second date."

"Fuck LT ye should see her. Spitting mad, think she might actually kill herself just tae take me with her."

Soap groans the words out, hard over the idea of dying in this car with you, throbbing with the knowledge that maybe you hate him so much you're willing to give up your life to spite him.

There are other team members, you try and block it all out. You are crying with frustration because soon the motorway will run out. Maybe you'll just drive straight to a police station, but then Price who you think may be their leader tells you that if his boy goes to jail, he may as well do it for murder.

"Soap'll blow your pretty brains right out of your skull luv, now pull off at the next exit and follow directions."

"Isn't it apparent by now that I'd rather die?"

"If that were true you'd have crashed 100 miles back."

He's right. You don't want to die. You really do not want to die. Over the last few hours you've developed an aversion to Soap dying as well. He's crazy, certifiably insane, but the danger of him is the kind of danger that comes with the flood of adrenaline that borders on erotic with how strong it is. You're sort of attached, trauma bonded maybe.

But the mantra persists. No second location.

Soap grins wildly when he sees how you relax, how your eyes fill with resignation. He can see what you're going to do. So he kisses you, tongue trying to bury itself as far into your mouth as possible.

"Let's dae it baby."

So you do. You bank hard right and the car goes flying, tumbling over and over into a field. You don't know how you survive it, but the next thing you know you are in the back of an ambulance. The police question what happened once you're stable in the hospital. You tell them everything. Psychotic break they think, suicide attempt. After all, yours was the only body in that car when they got there.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Kayla Katin

Published: Dec 31, 2024

Jordan Neely was murdered…by NYC Democrats’ failures

Apparently, I’ve got to be the lone voice of sanity. The veteran Marine, Daniel Penny, was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, the homeless black man that he put in a chokehold on the subway in New York last year.

I see that people are well vexed about that, so I need to come and spit some facts.

[ BLM of Greater New York co-founder Chivona Newsome was not happy about the Daniel Penny verdict. ]

The jury did the right thing. The ruling is correct. Penny is not guilty. The only problem is that he wasn’t cleared of the charges sooner. The injustice is that this trial was even a thing in the first place.

Here are the facts. Jordan Neely was being belligerent, and threatening, and launching at people, and throwing things on the fucking subway. He said that he was ready to die, wanted to go back to jail, and was going to fucking kill people. The people were scared on that train. The passengers were scared. The mothers were trying to cover their children. That is when Daniel Penny intervened and put Neely in a chokehold to restrain him.

And guess what? I really don’t see this being reported, but there were two other guys helping Daniel Penny to restrain Jordan Neely, and neither of them looks white. Plus, Penny’s fellow passengers, including a black man and black woman, have said that Neely was terrifying and that Penny did the right thing. Yet, for some reason, the media seized on a race narrative.

[ Daniel Penny restrains Jordan Neely with the help of two other men. Video of the incident can be seen here. ]

Maybe I’m mistaken but I’ve seen the video and it doesn’t look like that chokehold was strong enough to cause asphyxiation. The forensic evidence found that Jordan Neely was still alive when that NYPD finally pulled up. Cops refused to resuscitate him because he was dirty and the police understandably didn’t want to risk catching hepatitis or something. So, Jordan Neely died.

We found out that he had a fuck-ton of drugs in his system and he had underlying health issues. All of that predisposed him. But the chokehold and the stress from the struggle probably just pushed him over the edge.

Maybe he would still be alive if it weren’t for that chokehold, but it’s really unfair to try and pin his death on Daniel Penny. The intent clearly wasn’t to kill. And Jordan Neely had to be restrained in order to stop him from attacking the passengers and following up on his threats.

The media, like some fucking vultures hovering over a corpse, couldn’t wait to make this into a race issue based on literally nothing except for the skin colors of these two guys. Guess what? Around the exact same time, a black man, Jordan Williams, did basically the exact same thing as Daniel Penny, except he actually ended up stabbing the homeless guy to death, because the homeless guy was harassing the passengers on the subway and harassed his girlfriend. Jordan Williams walked free after a month, but this Daniel Penny trial took a whole year.

That’s smelling really fishy.

As a black woman in the New York area, who had a run-in with my own “Jordan Neely” last year, I am really, really, really fucking frustrated at all of this hashtagging for this nigga.

Last year on the very first day of school, I was in downtown Newark waiting for my bus home, and some lady started mumbling shit at me. At first, I was trying to reason with her, asking what was up. But then I realized, she’s too far gone, she’s clearly on some shit. So I backed away, putting some distance between me and this lady.

But she kept being belligerent toward me. I was basically just ignoring it until she pulled a fucking baseball bat out from her backpack and threatened me with it. I’m dead ass. And there were multiple fucking people standing around, also waiting at this bus stop with me, and nobody gave an F. Nobody came and did jack shit.

This went on for minutes and minutes. Eventually, one middle-aged lady did come to stand by me to protect me. She said that she has daughters my age so she felt sympathy for me. And then, finally, the bus came. I thought that would put a stop to this, but the fucking crackhead got on the damn bus with me. I thought maybe she would get out but no, no, no, she stayed on all the way to my town and got off at my same stop. Thankfully, my mom was waiting for me in the car, so I ran into that car and I told my mom what happened.

I am so, so, so, so fucking tired and frustrated by these race-baiting politicians and naive liberals, who act like some hugs and free cookies can solve all these altercations. The mentally-ill, drug-addicted, and homeless of the world can be dangerous and violent. And it's not, right or fair for the rest of us to be put in danger because of their problems.

The bitter, bitter, bitter irony of everyone calling Daniel Penny a white supremacist is that the people who are most put in danger by the Jordan Neelys of the world are other working-class black people who have no fucking choice but to use this shitty-ass public transportation.

As a black New Yorker, I will stand on this. Daniel Penny did nothing wrong. He’s a hero. He deserves a key to the city. Y’all are so desperate to follow a narrative and create another George Floyd that you’re just overlooking facts and justice and common sense.

The New York Democrats were so, so, so desperate to let Daniel Penny take the fall for their failures. They wanted this trial to be a distraction, a smoke screen from their failures to address drug addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and transit safety.

Those are all very real problems, and instead of being mad at Daniel Penny, we should be mad at the politicians. We need to get mad at the politicians, but they want to divert the people’s anger to cover their own asses. Pretending like that was an act of systemic racism is a really easy way to take our eyes off of the other systemic problems that they’re presiding over. Every single fucking politician and law enforcement official that participated in this sham trial of Daniel Penny should be required to pay him reparations out of their own damn pockets.

Oh, and I forgot to add: Jordan Neely’s family is disgusting and fake as fuck for coming out the woodwork to cry crocodile tears over his death, when they did nothing for him in his life. They didn’t give a fuck.

Some closing thoughts from my X account:

--

==

BLM are con artists and opportunistic grifters. They don't give a shit about black people. They don't give a shit about the people Neely - on a bond after his 44th arrest - was threatening, they don't give a shit about the people who were glad Penny stepped in.

BLM always martyr the worst people in the world, seemingly because they can't find any legitimate incidents that service their narrative. Everything they have to say should be treated as a lie by default, until proven otherwise.

[bekkarific]

Playing With Fire:

Pairing: Frontman|In Ho x Fem OC

Chapter One - Where There Is Smoke

Chapter Masterlist

————————————————————————

If you play with fire you’re going to get burned, that was what Ji Ah’s Oppa used to say to her. Fate only knew how right he would be.

————————————————————————

Coffee, that was the only thing that that kept Ji Ah awake for these long shift’s. Sweet coffee was normally her favourite, but Ji Ah would take anything with caffeine. Which is why when a hot cup of sweet coffee was placed on her desk, she almost wanted to kiss her beloved police partner Jun Ho. But she doubted he would appreciate the public display of affection, however platonic it may be.

Taking a sip of the sweet nectar of the gods, she instead sighed a simple “thank you” to her partner, who smiled in return.

This is how their partnership was, having worked with each other for about 5 years, since being promoted to detective, Jun Ho was like her other half. Whilst she felt nothing more than sisterly affection toward him, they held no secrets.

Which is how she ended up on her 14th hour of her original 8 hour shift, working through any leads in the case to Jun Ho’s missing brother, In Ho. She had never met the man in person, but she felt like she knew him having picked through the last few years of his life with Jun Ho, trying to decipher what might have caused him to suddenly disappear. Her heart ached when Jun Ho told her the story of how In Ho lost his pregnant wife to a sudden illness, having lost his job for taking supposed bribes, he could no longer pay for her medical care. Jun Ho commented often on how she reminded him of his sister in law, both stubborn (she liked to think of it as a positive), intelligent and kind hearted. She liked to think of these a good things, however given the sad look in his eyes when talked about it, Ji Ah was not so sure.

Shaking her head to refocus on the facts of the case, In Ho had been missing for several days, no concrete leads on when he was last sighted, unpaid rent and a history of bribes, things where not looking good to his current circumstances and probability of finding him unharmed. Ji Ah was reluctant to say this out loud, like speaking it out into world will make it real and she did not want that inflict that grieve onto her partner who loved his brother dearly. She was hesitant, this wasn’t like her, she did not want to be the person who told Jun Ho his brother may be gone, but the reality clawed at her, In Ho’s disappearance was not just a case any more; it was personal.

Whilst all this was racing through her head, Jun Ho was sat opposite in quiet contemplation, this hands twirling a card with shapes on the back.

“Is there something you need to tell me ?” Ji Ah asked with a pointed look toward to card in his hand.

With a sigh, Jun Ho reached his hand out toward Ji Ah with the card stretched outward. Ji Ah took the small card and pulled her face in immediate confusion, small shapes where on the front and on the back a simple phone number.

“What has this got to do in In Ho?” She questioned, her eyes still examining the card for any clues.

“I found this card in In Ho’s apartment in a small present box, I thought it odd at first, then reports of crazy man coming into the station today, saying about being forced to play a game of red light, green light -“

“The children’s game?” Ji Ah interjected

Jun Ho nodded taking a sip of his coffee “he stated - well ranted apparently - that he and many others where forced to play the game and that those who lost where shot”

“What does the card have to do with this?” Ji ah asked, eyebrows scrunched.

“The man stated that he was approached by a man in a suit at the train station, and after playing rounds of Ddakji for money, the man in a suit handed him a card to join the game. He called the number on the back, was told a pick up point, then stated he was drugged and woke up in a room with other competitors, in numbered clothes” Jun Ho finished solemnly

“So let me get this straight, the guy was invited to play children’s game from a stranger in the subway, and after presumably winning, was given an card like this” she held it up between her index and middle finger “and was invited to play more, he was then kidnapped, woke up in a strange room with other people on in a same situation and then forced to play red light, green light in which the losers where executed” Ji Ah summarised, trying to keep the scepticism out of her voice.

Jun Ho nodded, not meeting her eyes.

Ji Ah sighed, she could tell this was a thread he was not going to let go of “you think this is somehow related to In Ho’s disappearance” she stated more than questioned, knowing her friend too well.

Jun Ho finally met her eyes and nodded. Everything in Ji Ah was telling her this was crazy, the man was clearly mentally deranged and Jun Ho was looking for anyway his brother might still be alive. She wanted to tell him as much, but one look into those sad brown eyes and she crumpled. It would feel like kicking a puppy.

“Okay” she breathed, taking a gulp of her coffee “police work with evidence, so let’s look at the evidence, both your brother and this guy received a card as in invite to a dangerous game days ago, this guy explained people where killed, he returned and we have yet to hear from In Ho” Jun Ho nodded, a frown marring his features. “So we follow the lead” Ji Ah explained trying to remind positive “What do we know about his guy? Surely someone took a report, even if they did think he was crazy”

Jun Ho looked up, breathing a small sigh of relief that his friend was with him on this. “Yes, the desk Sargent said he gave the name Seong Gi Hun from Ssangmun-dong”

“So let’s go” Ji Ah stood, downing the last gulp of coffee and tossing the empty cup. She knew the lead was tenuous as best, but it was all they had. One way other, they were getting closer to truth, she had to believe it.

Stunned by the sudden change, Jun Ho takes a a minute to respond. He looks at his friend, black jacket on, she moves her hair from her collar and holsters her gun at her hip. Looking at him expectantly.

Jun Ho’s tired eyes softened, he couldn’t hide the faint flicker of hope in his eyes as she looked at Ji Ah. She was always the grounded one, the logical one. But they both couldn’t ignore the feeling in their guts that this could be a dead end.

“Ready?” she said shaper than intended, but it did the job.

Jun Ho nodded as he stands, eyes more enthusiastic as before, ready to head out to a far fetched lead. But he is willing to follow path that leads him closer to In Ho.

[codenamesazanka]

Eri's touted as sort of a 'Tenko But Things Went Right', which isn't wrong, but I feel like her save relied a lot of luck too. And luck shouldn't be a determining factor in child welfare??

It was by pure chance that Deku and Mirio first encountered her. 100% random bump. Nighteye had no idea about any child in the Shie Hassakai compound, despite having staked it out for at least a few days already.

The rescue effort was launched to save Eri, yes, but only because the Heroes had that one lucky detail to connect “DNA inside bullets” to “visibly injured child”. Without that...who knows? If Heroes had no compelling evidence to storm the compound, would they have just continued a routine drug investigation? If they raided the compound but didn’t know about the child beforehand, what would’ve happened to her? Shunted off to an orphanage because she’s ‘a criminal/yakuza’s child’? Place under HPSC supervision because of her relation to the bullets?

The manga itself stated that Eri was going to be sent off to an orphanage, BUT her out-of-control quirk was cause for concern and fortunately there was the one (1) guy who can suppress her quirk and help train her - who happened to be a teacher at a private educational campus run by a multi-millionaire who can afford to take her in as a ward. How amazingly lucky!!!! (And everyone themselves said that they were hoping to teach Eri how to use her quirk so that she can cure Mirio. How nice that her quirk is deadly but also has this miraculous healing ability that lends this additional incentive to take her in.) Eri is still only in custody of UA because her last living blood relative, her grandfather, is still in a coma. Would Pops ever want her back, if he ever wakes up? Would UA let him? Good thing UA has the resources and connections to win a custody battle, in this case.

Plus, before all of that, Eri was already another abandoned child, way before the Heroes ever learned of her. Her mom abandoned her; then her grandfather took her in, but when he fell into a coma, she ended up with the worse possible caretaker. Yeah, Overhaul is Overhaul, but a relative falling ill and being unable to take care of a child is something that can happen to any family.

Eri was abandoned by her mom because she killed her dad. What on earth was the police doing then? Did her mom is not report this? Five seconds after the dad disappeared, the mom immediately plopped the toddler in the car seat and drove her off to Pops? Or is it more likely the mom screamed and panicked and called emergency services, but it turned out that there’s nothing to be done about the dad… and then emergency services also apparently did nothing about the mom or Girl With Newly Lethal Quirk or the beginning of quirk counseling so that the mom could understand the accident as ‘mutant quirk’ and not ‘curse’??

There were points where Eri could've been saved, before she ever bumped into Deku, before Overhaul put Pops in a coma and started cutting her up.

Similarity, saving Tenko shouldn't have just been 'Hero happened to be in the area and wasn't busy and was able to spot this injured child and go help him' (if it doesn't turns out AFO was behind this too lol), or 'if only there could've been a Hero 15 years ago who could handle his quirk, hold his hand, and give him relief'. It should've been 'first person who saw this injured child called the police or took Tenko to a police box'. It should've been 'Kotarou's last act of parenting was not to pick up garden shears and whack his kid with it, but know to keep calm and know what to do in a quirk emergency' or whatever. It should've been 'the three other adults in the household had enough conscience to not let Kotarou bully his toddler'. Hell, it should've been 'All Might and Gran kept tabs on the Shimura boy'.

idk. I just don't think 'Luckily a Hero noticed!' is good enough.

[twstedpometea]

1 year later: Ugigiugi review and thoughts

Hello Everyone.

It's finally been a year since the PDF was released. I decided to do a retrospective post on Ugigiugi, the history of her tracing, and share my personal thoughts now that some time has passed.

Feel free to read below!

First off, I wanted to publicly address the fact that I noticed the new "findings" in the tag. I have collected those for annotations.

As I've stated before in one of my older posts, this whole situation was the first time I'd seen or dealt with a serial tracer like Ugigiugi. Counting her last post day, she had been tracing for 5 years. Given all these things, I decided to reflect a bit on the Ugigiugi situation and things are a year later.

At that time it appeared that Ugigiugi was mostly a tracer/self-insert Mary-sue type of artist. Given her lack of crediting and stealing from others, it was pretty apparent that she was a lazy and passionless person masquerading as an artist and had zero shame in taking the efforts from others for herself.

While there is still plenty of art that has yet to be sourced, it can kinda assumed if Ugigiugi saw it, she stole it, regardless of the source. This is pretty evident when you look at the located sources which spanned from small-time fan artists and to published works, including online media or comics she's read in her own time. And let's not forget the audacity of her tracing over other people's original characters, and comics, or stealing from lgbtq+ ships.

Pharaoh’s Concubine by Misha/Youshi

Ennead by Mojito

Now, generally, it's alright to feel "inspired" by other people's fan art/comics/stories/etc. That's normal. And I certainly can't police what people will end up liking in their media.

But blatantly stealing others shows no passion and demonstrates you have very little respect for your fellow art peers. As I've said in my previous post on Tracing/Copying/Referencing while tracing is one way to "learn" how to draw art, it is not something you should heavily rely on as it can quickly become a crutch. If you're not pulling any useful information from it and just trace without a second thought, you will become dependent on it for everything and never truly learn how to draw without that crutch.

Every artist needs to study the fundamentals to learn how to break the rules. Every artist needs to learn how to use resources properly, be transparent if they borrow from others, and give credit where credit is due. Every artist has to gain confidence so they can create and self-motivate to improve.

Ugigiugi had NONE of these qualities because at the end of the day she did not care about being an artist.

She wanted attention and praise and did not care how she got it.

Looking back on the fallout and how Ugigiugi handled it when people tried to correct her or called her out, I can't consider her a creator in any capacity. Given that most of her pieces are in the genre of Mary-sue/self-inserting, this was really just her putting the spotlight on herself and that's the bottom line.

Now I'll be frank: I don't care for self-inserting. But that is a personal preference. However, I understand it is a thing people do within fandom spaces for fun, and if that's what you like? More power to you.

But if you have to steal from other artists to do that? From fellow fans or even from people who probably spent years developing their skills and putting art online to advertise their artwork or comics? You are just a leech, no different from the "AI artists" plugging prompts into generators to spit out terrible soulless art, scrapped from the honest efforts of thousands before them. And how can you call yourself an artist when you take from everyone else but having nothing to show for yourself?

Finally, for my last point, I'll share my thoughts on Ugigiugi's last known post and her "apology" before she deleted her Tumblr since not everyone got to see her response/rant when the callouts first began to circulate. I'm also leaving her DA post here for reference.

Someone had asked me if there was any actual proof Ugigiugi ever apologized anywhere before she nuked her social media. No, she never did apologize. You can even see in her Tumblr "apology" that she doesn't admit to what she did before going off on a rant. As of this year? She still has never apologized for all the tracing or stealing and for not crediting her free resources.

That being said a lot of what Ugi said at the end of her apologies always bugged me. I'll zoom in on these parts of her posts.

Here's the thing. You can have all the dreams in the world you like. Does creating art help you escape from the troubles of the real world? By all means that stuff is normal. To create art and express things is also fine.

But what isn't normal or acceptable Ugigiugi's lack of responsibility.

You can't build things with stuff that isn't yours to begin with. What story or world is there to share if you're just stealing the building blocks from others with no regard for people's works or boundaries? How can you create or inspire anyone when all you have to offer is a poorly reproduced copy. Can you even call it a hobby when you're not even going to put in the minimum effort? I don't think so.

Yes, Ugigiugi's can have issues with the doxing/political hubbub but at the end of it all, she is in a mess entirely of her own making. If she hadn't traced and just sourced things properly, I don't think people would have gone after her for all the stuff she had stolen (problematic media/opinions aside obviously). Taking accountability is always a sign of maturity.

And that is probably the biggest reason I can't give Ugiugigi a pass. She is not some misguided young artist just starting out. She is an adult. And not just any adult but one in the educational field too. It is appalling and little disturbing that an educator is engaging in such selfish behavior. And in her own words she knows these things and people have corrected her. But instead of taking accountability, she chooses to double down even harder and get mad at everyone for "bullying" her. She acts like a victim and makes excuses right up until the bitter end. And even now, despite a year of silence, I suspect her stance hasn't changed.

But this post is already growing quite long and rather then continue to beat this dead horse, I would rather finish this entry to talk about what people should avoid.

Even a year later after the PDF was published there's still stuff being sourced from her traced works and we have no idea if Ugiugigi is continuing to lurk or continuing to steal but keep it offline to avoid another public fallout.

Whatever the case may be I would like to leave a final thought both to encourage people to not do what she did and also address and of her lingering supporters who might stumble across this:

There are some out there who feel that what Ugiugigi did was not that bad since "everyone traces". But these people are wrong.

When you take something that doesn't belong to you, that is stealing. And when people discover you have been stealing they get upset for far more than just the theft. They get angry because that person is a LIAR. That is a betrayal of trust from an artist they believed was acting in good faith. If said artist can just rip off other people's work or resources without even so much as a token acknowledgement of where their inspiration came from, it calls their entire body of work into question.

And when people discover you have lack integrity, they no longer trust you. And once you lose that trust it can be impossible to gain that back. That is why they leave, block that artist, and refuse to engage further because if they can steal from others, what is to stop them from stealing from you?

Ugiugigi's downfall is ultimately from her own egotism, a misguided belief that she deserved praise while giving negative effort. And while there are still many like her out there, there is at least one less parasite to deal with.

[silvervioletvalentine]

❣️! Unpredictable!❣️

Pairing : Max verstappen X Cherrie!

Word count : 6.2k

Summary: in which Cherrie is a unpredictable chaotic mess and max stresses over her like a mother hen.

Max could say with a hundred percent of his heart and soul that he loved Cherrie more than life itself. It was the kind of love that made him dizzy . The Kind of love where if anything were to ever happen to her, he would kill whoever had done it and then bring them back to life just so he could kill them again.

She was his life. His lover , but most importantly she was his best friend.

Ever since they were teenagers and met at go karting, the two of them had stuck side by side and bonded immediately, it was hard to tear the two away from each other's side after that.

And max has grew up beside her, watching his best friend become more and more beautiful with each year that passed. His once platonic and innocent feelings turning anything but.

He had watched her go on a date once when they were both eighteen years old , filled with nothing but anger and jealously when she told him that she might give the guy a second date too.

That was the last date that she ever went on with anybody but him.

He had told her, more like demanded her , not to do it again. She hadn't looked surprised at his shouting , merely smugly smirking at him and asking him if he wanted to be her boyfriend instead .

He did. He told her so and that was it.

They had been together ever since and there was not one day that went by that max ever doubted his love for her.

But the only thing that really got to him was how much the love of his life enjoyed giving him mini heart attacks with her sudden announcements and abrupt ideas.

He had always known that Cherrie was a crazy adrenaline junky . He was too. It was something that they bonded over but Cherrie ... Cherrie liked to push it to the limit all the while doing it casually as though she didn't make his heart fall out of his ass each time.

Because when you loved someone, you worried about them , constantly . But his girlfriend actually gave him reasons to worry and stress and max was almost certain that she was going to give him grey hair within the next year.

Exhibit A: This morning.

They were at a airfield with some of the other drivers , having been invited to check out all of the different old planes and to see how it all worked out.

Max thought it was interesting and was enjoying checking out the exterior of a old army plane when he suddenly felt like it was too silent around him.

The sound of his girlfriends usual chatter and her loud opinions no longer meeting his ears like they usually did .

Immediately he was alarmed. It was too quite , Cherrie was someone That you heard before you seen.

She was an absolute loudmouth so silence …was not a good sign.

Snapping his head around him as he tried to spot where she had gone to , frowning when he couldn't see her by him anymore .

He looked over at lando and charles who were a little further down being shown a military helicopter , he walked over to them quickly .

Worry written across his face "where's Cherrie gone? I turned around and she's disappeared again!" He said to them a little bit annoyed by her sudden vanishing act.

This not being the first time that she had just gotten some ideas of her own and buggered off , leaving him on his own without even telling him.

Because apparently Cherrie thought that he was psychic and that he would automatically know where she had gone.

Like that time in france when they had been looking around a museum with their friends when he turned around and noticed that she was no longer there.

He had spent hours panicking and looking around France for his missing girlfriend , having been on the urge of calling the police for possible kidnapping when he had started to be tagged in photos on all of his socials.

He had opened his phone just to see multiple pictures of Cherrie at Disneyland on her own, happily walking around with Mickey Mouse ears on her head as she has the time of her life without him.

Max couldn't believe it. Apparently she had gotten bored of looking at paintings and decided to ditch him for Disneyland . Without even telling him!

At the time max has been furious with her. Picking her up from Disneyland with a scowl on his face as he scolded her like a pissed off parent that couldn't control their unruly child.

But the more time she did things like that, the more he had gotten used to it. Because it was such a Cherrie thing to do.

But he loved her. So the worry and panic never left him no matter how many times she did some insane shit . It always put him on edge .

So her going missing at a air base? Yeah , that was more than enough reason for him to worry.

Lando looked over at him in confusion , having thought that he already knew.

So he casually told him "oh . she's gone to jump out of a plane."

Max's reaction was instant . Gasping loudly as his eyes widened in shock.

"What? My girlfriend is jumping out of a plane and nobody thought to tell me?!" He shouted in disbelief , immediately turning to the man that had been showing them around .

"Can you take me to her please? I can't believe this!" He exclaimed , Getting More worried as he followed the man over to the part of the base where they apparently did skydiving sessions for guests .

Groaning to himself , wishing that he had known that they did something like that before he agreed to come. Because if he had known, he would not have allowed Cherrie to tag along.

Not his crazy girlfriend who wasn't afraid of anything and had no problem with throwing herself out of a plane .

In fact she enjoyed doing anything that she could possibly die doing.

Because she was clearly bat shit insane.

"God. Please tell me that she hasn't gone up there yet? I don't want her jumping from a plane .." he whined stressfully as he looked around him, hoping that she would pop out and tell him that she was just kidding and that she wasn't going to jump out of a plane.

Unfortunately for him and his poor heart , the man just shook his head with a smile . Nodding up to the sky above them casually .

"Sorry son, she's already up there . About to jump any minute I think .." he informed him.

Max looked up to the sky, heart pounding in his chest as he spotted a plane so high up he could barely fucking see it.

Seeing Charles and lando come up to him from the corner of his eye, both of them excited as they gasped and squinted up to the sky trying to see her.

Lando pulling out his phone to film her, grinning as he said to him. "Let's hope she remembers to pull her parachute."

Max death glared at him , going even Paler at the thought .

"Shut the fuck up. Oh my god!" He gasped as he looked up and suddenly saw a dot jump from the plane .

Squeezing his eyes shut as his heart dropped down to his stomach , shaking his head fearfully.

"I can't watch! Fuck! Oh my god!" He could only repeat feeling genuinely sick at the thought of it all going wrong and something happening to the love of his life .

He felt someone pat his shoulder comfortingly while lando just laughed and whooped loudly at her.

"Yeah Cherrie! You're flying!" He yelled out happily , still filming her as she began to get closer to the field now , her parachute making it an easy ride down.

Max warily opened his eyes again and sighed in relief when he saw Cherrie safely on the ground again, a ecstatic grin on her face as she babbled on about how amazing that was .

"I wanna do it again!" She shouted gleefully as the man helped untie her , grinning over at her friends happily.

Max immediately shook his head, glaring at her as he stomped over to her quickly , the panic slowly leaving his body now that she was in reachable distance again.

"Absolutely not! Cherrie! What is wrong with you?!" He exclaimed to her.

Pulling her into his arms and squeezing her tight , Cherrie just giggling as she hugged him back just as tightly.

"We came here to look at the planes ... not jump out of them! Five minutes. I don't look behind me and you disappear! Do you enjoy giving me a heart attack Cherrie?!" He ranted to her , pulling away to smack the back of her head . Shaking his head at her scoldingly .

Cherrie just grinned and leant up to give him a kiss, max sighing against her lips knowing that there would be no changing her ways.

"Sorry baby. I just got bored . I was thinking that we could jump out of the -"

Max cut her off before she could start suggesting they jump out of anything else .

"No more jumping out of anything today. Or any day for that matter. Just no!" He snapped at her . Steering her away from the field before she could get anymore ideas.

"I would like you to live a long and healthy life Cherrie. How can that happen if you keep doing things like this when I turn my back?!" He continued to lecture her, wrapping his arm around her waist and keeping her close to his side so she couldn't run off on him again.

Cherrie paid his scolding no mind, used to his worry. Instead she just meant her head against his arm and smiled , kissing his shoulder gently.

"I love you." She simply told him with a smile ,

Max just sighed exasperatedly , giving up. "You're so lucky that I love you as well Cherrie. Because you're going to make me go bald. And that is not a good look for me." He replied , leaning down to give her another kiss. Just thankful that she had her feet on the ground again.

Exhibit B : the day at the fair.

Cherrie had dragged them all along to a fair taking place the day before their big race. The rest of the drivers happily tagging along as she excitedly pulled them over to do games and rides with her like an overgrown child.

She had been on the teacup ride with lando while max talked to Charles about the race tomorrow, both of them discussing how they felt about the new track as they leant against the barricade them separated them from the field where the monster truck show was taking place.

"Do you think you could drive one of those? They're even bigger Up close!" Max heard Lando exclaim as the drivers gathered around ready to watch the show.

Charles shook his head with a grimace "I don't think so. I'd probably tip the whole truck over. Never mind crush cars and jump over them like that. Look at the size of the wheels! They're like- the size of a house!" He dramatically said as they watched the massive green monster-truck slowly come out onto the field.

Max hummed in agreement , nodding his head. "I agree. I'm glad that I'm not the one driving it." He laughed before glancing over at lando, expecting to see Cherrie beside him .

The two having been going from stall to stall and ride to ride together .

Only lando was on his own and Cherrie was no where to be seen.

Max straightened up in immediate worry, frowning over at him in confusion as the speakers loudly announced that the monster stuck was going to crush a line of cars and jump over them too. The crowd yelling in excitement around them as the monster truck revved it's loud engine.

"Lando! Where the hell is Cherrie? I thought she was with you?" He called over to him worriedly , glancing around the crowd to see if he could spot her pretty face .

Lando just looked at him strangely , just as confused as he was . "Huh? She just told me that she had something to do and that we'd see her soon." He relayed what she had said to him .

Max frowned "see her soon? What the hell-"

He couldn't even finish his sentence before he heard the other drivers gasp loudly , Charles's voice the loudest as he exclaimed in shock.

"Is that Cherrie?!" Pointing towards the driver in tbe monster truck .

All of them watching as she reversed the truck and then sped towards the cars , flying over them and making everybody gasp as the massive truck wobbled side from side on the enormous wheels.

Looking like it was going to tip over only for it to spin around and head back to the cars, this time crushing them as the truck rolled over them. The crowd clapping and screaming in excitement.

Max could only Gape at the familiar helmet covered head driving the monster truck casually , his mouth dropping open in shock.

"Oh my god. Why is my girlfriend driving a death truck?! It's literally named the grim reaper! You know why-" he inhaled sharply , heart racing in his chest as he watched the love of his life speed around in a truck the size of a fucking house .

"Because she's clearly trying to kill me!" He almost shouted not knowing why he continued to be surprised by her anymore.

Half an hour later and Max's stomach was in pieces, clutching at his face in horror after all the tricks and dangerous stunts he had just watched his girlfriend do around the field like it was just another Monday for her.

Watching with wide eyes as she casually got out and waved to the cheering crowd , jogging over to them as she took off her helmet to display a excited grin .

Waving at them like she hadn't done anything out of the ordinary.

"That was fun!" She panted as she wiped the sweat from her face and smiled at them.

“I've never done that before! But I think I did good!" She added as an afterthought .

Much to Max's horror who wondered what the hell was wrong with his girlfriend .

Inhaling shakily as he swallowed down the nausea he felt at watching the love of his life in a truck that could crush cars , never mind people.

"Cherrie..." he could only sigh . Blinking at her slowly in disbelief . "You said you were going on the rides." Was all he could say. Still in shock.

She just laughed , slapping at his shoulders like he had just told her a funny joke.

"I never said what ride though did I? Did you see me fly over those cars? I almost tipped the truck upside down but I managed to do it! My heart was racing so fast! So much fun!" She gushed to him. Oblivious to the heart attack she had induced to her boyfriend .

Max just Continued to look at her in silent disbelief , shaking his head at her.

"Yeah.. I saw you." Was all he murmured . Sighing in defeat as he just took her into his arms and hugged her to his chest. Closing his eyes and just being grateful that she was alive.

"You're absolutely crazy Cherrie . You need to- you need to tell me that you're going to do stuff like this. Otherwise you're going to kill me. Then we can't be together anymore cause I'll be dead." He rambled to her as he pulled her down to sit on the grass instead, not trusting his shaking legs to keep him upright after yet another scare from her.

Cherrie just gave him another kiss alongside a innocent smile. Looking like butter wouldn't fucking melt .

"Sorry. I'll tell you next time. But you thought I looked cool right? It felt cool." She gushed , unbothered by the panic she had caused.

Max sighed , reluctantly nodding his head yes. "Very cool . But please ... no more.." he groaned .

Exhibit C: the circus .

The two of them were enjoying the circus together with the rest of their friends , max grinning as he watched them unveil a large metal ball that the motorbikes would zoom around , practically defining gravity with their speed . It was really dangerous and fun act to watch.

Max was having fun and actually enjoying himself for once as he watched them ask the audience for a volunteer to stand in the middle of the ball while the motorbikes would be speeding around the person , a really risky act .

Max grinned , taking a sip of his drink . "I wouldn't dare to it. One wrong move or even the slightest turn of their wheel and it could all end in tears. I read a story once about this man who did this and he ended up having the bike cut him up when the driver couldn't pick up enough speed to be upside down and instead crashed on-top of the poor guy, really injuring him." He told Cherrie seriously , glad that he wasn't the one doing it.

He then turned his head to look at her, ready to tell her more horrific details of what he had read when his stomach dropped down to his ass as he saw her putting her hand in the air to volunteer to do it.

He slapped her hand down with a gasp "what are you doing?! Did you not just hear a word that I said?!" He snapped at her in disbelief , trying to get her to put her hand down.

But it was too late . The man had already spotted her waving enthusiastically at him and called her up to them excitedly .

Cherrie beamed excitedly, trying to get up from her seat while max tried to pull her back down.

"No! No! Please! Cherrie don't-" he hissed at her in panic when she managed to slip out of his hold and get up on the stage.

Max felt like he was going to be sick. Lando nudging his shoulder with a amused grin.

"This is going to be great. Hopefully she doesn't sneeze or something." He joked before looking away when max just glared at him for his unhelpful teasing.

"Why does she do this to me? I can't- there's still time to grab her-" he went to get up so he could run on the stage and drag her as far away from that wheel of death as possible .

Only for Charles to tug him down with a rolling of his eyes. Max seeming to be the only one panicking .

"Calm down mate! They know what they are doing. She's just having fun!" He said to him while filming her as she skipped inside the metal ball happily.

Max scoffed , watching Cherrie closely . Biting at his nails worriedly .

"She can't have fun if she's dead! Why can't she enjoy squad bikes or - or bowling?" He whined as he sunk into his seat in stress. Heart pounding again.

Lando looked at him in amusement "bowling?"he laughed loudly .

Max ignored him. Instead focusing on his girlfriend , only to gasp as the motorbikes filled the wheel with her, covering his face with his hands fearfully as they kicked off and started driving around her, going around and around while she just stood in the middle of them with a grin. Clearly enjoying herself .

"She's fucking crazy! Fucking hell!" He groaned out loudly .

Letting out a loud sigh of relief when it was over . Shaking his head at her disapprovingly when she just skipped back over to him with a pleased smile on her pretty face .

Jumping into his lap and giving him a kiss as she beamed at him .

"How fun was that?"

Max side eyed her , sighing in relief that she was safe in his arms again.

"So fun that I forgot to have fun." He just muttered while squeezing her tightly . Refusing to let go of her till the show was over.

Not trusting her not to volunteer for something else too.

Exhibit D: while he was at work.

Max was doing a interview by the dock with his team, answering fan questions and doing a game of this and that when he heard a familiar , loud voice screech his name over and over again.

Snapping his head around in all directions to try and locate where she was this time , frowning to himself when he thought about how she had told him that she was just going to hang around in the mclaren garage with lando for a bit while he was busy.

He should have known that his girlfriend never did what she said she would. He was just glad that she was still in hearing distance , meaning that thankfully she hasn't just left without him because she was bored again.

The two of them had a long conversation about the mini strokes that she kept giving him with her random and chaotic ideas. Max having firmly told her that she needed to inform him of her crazy plans in advance so that he could prepare himself for what he was about to see.

He had also begged her not to leave the country without him too. Not understanding why when she got a little bored , her first instinct was to get on a plane and do something outrageous , like the time she went to Texas to go be a cowboy for the day.

While max had been oblivious , still in Bahrain getting ready for his race . Only to see a photo of Cherrie on Instagram of her on the back of a horse in full cowboy style, hat , boots and all.

'I thought I would be back by the time your race started." She had genuinely told him , nothing but innocence in her voice as max picked her back up from the airport at one o'clock in the morning , not at all impressed with her .

But then she had smiled at him so beautifully and starting to excitedly show him videos and pictures that she had taken on her sudden day trip away. And all of Max's anger had faded when she pulled out a cowboy hat that she had gotten for him too.

"You can come with me next time and I can show you around now that I've been." She had told him excitedly , leaning over the console to give him a kiss.

She was absolutely unpredictable but max loved her for it , even if she did like to take years of his life with her antics.

Like now. As he glanced up to the high rise building opposite then only to see his girlfriend hanging over the ledge while waving at him happily , shouting his name loudly .

His heart dropped. Eyes widening as he placed his hand above his eyes so that he could see her more clearly from the sun that was beaming down on him.

"What are you doing? Get down!" He Shouted up to her in panic , eyeing the drop from how high she was, dangling over the edge like it was nothing.

Completely forgetting that he was in the middle of filming a video, he placed his hands on his hips in worry . Watching her warily as she leaned even further over and smiled at him .

"Can you get me a McDonald's when you're finished please? I'm really hungry!" She screamed down to him casually as though she wasn't a hundred feet in the air. One fall away from her plunging to death.

Max blinked up at the tiny dot of his girlfriend in disbelief .

"You're going to fall Cherrie! Please get down!" He shouted back at her , stressed .

She just shook her head at him "not unless you feed me!" She countered back to him , laughing at how he much looked like a stressed mother hen, hands on his hips and all.

She pulled out her phone and quickly zoomed in to take a picture of him. Giggling to herself .

He groaned loudly ,quickly nodding his head in agreement . Just wanting her to get down.

"Okay! Okay! I'll get you the whole Damn menu babe but please get down before I have a heart attack!" He called up to her worriedly .

Cherrie just give him a casual thumbs up , laughing triumphantly.

"Okay! Thank you!" Was all she said before disappearing from the edge of the building making him let out a loud sigh of relief .

Shaking his head to himself as he turned to look back at the camera that was still filming him, pursing his lips with a exasperated look on his face.

"She's an absolute menace ." He breathed out to them, chuckling a little now that his heart rate was beginning to lower back to normal now that he knew she was safe again.

"She's very lucky that I love her because that.." he laughed "is grounds for divorce." He said jokingly .

The cameraman gave him a smile , amused at the couple .

"But she's not your wife. So wouldn't it just be a break up?" He said to him.

Max just smirked and let out a laugh, looking over to the building opposite the harbour and watching Cherrie finally come skipping out of the door , her jacket laying over her head like a child trying to stop her head from burning in the heat  , fanning a large paper fan in her face that she had gotten on her little day trip.

"She will be soon. She's crazy but she's my crazy." Max told him simply as he pulled off his cap from his head and threw it at her head as soon as she was close enough to catch it .

He gave her a pointed look towards her sunburned cheeks that he just knew she would be having him rub aloe Vera on later .

"What did I tell you? I told you to put on sunscreen and a damn hat. You're gonna look like Charles’s Ferrari now ." He told her with a grin as he watched her reluctantly put the hat on.

Reaching behind the camera to where his drink was, uncapping the lid and quickly gulping the redbull down with a sigh.

She looked over at him , unbothered. Simply smiling as she leaned down on her knees to get closer to the water, dipping her hand in the water to try and cool down a little .

"I look ugly in caps max. I don't suit them." She simply replied , looking over at him from her shoulder , his cap hung low over her face .

Max frowned at her , looking offended as though she had told him that he was the one who looked stupid in hats. Not her.

"No you don't . You look gorgeous as ever. But you'll look even prettier if your skin isn't peeling off your face so keep the cap on Cherrie. I meant it.”He told her firmly, knowing how easily she burned and how much she whined and complained like a baby when she did.

She just smiled at him, shaking her head.

He had no doubt that she would take the cap off as soon as he looked away. But he bathed in her pretty smile never the less .

"Love you." He muttered to her as he got back in his place , ready to continue his last piece of filming for the day. Giving a nod to the cameraman to let him know that he was ready.

Cherrie frowned at him, pouting like a child as she sat down on the wooden floor and hung her feet over , swaying them up and down above the water lazily .

"But you promised me McDonalds!" She reminded him, unhappy that she wasn't being fed after giving up her fun time on top of the building for him.

Max just sighed , laughing underneath his breath at her lack of patience .

"Five more minutes. Then we'll go. Just be quiet and play some games for now." He murmured to her as he pulled his phone out of his Jean pocket and passed it over to her.

His phone full of games that he had downloaded for times like this when he needed to distract her for a bit.

Because the love of his life had the attention span of a child and the only way to get her to sit still and not run off to do something crazy, was to give her food and let her play games on his phone.

It was ridiculous. But he loved her anyways .

She may have behaved like a over active, adrenaline addicted child most of the time but at least she wasn't Boring.

She kept him on his toes and gave him insane memory's to tell their friends and family, so it wasn't all bad.

Exhibit E: the tile on the roof.

Max had been stood in their back garden for a while now, arms crossed over his chest with a frown as he squinted him at their roof unhappily .

"I think a few of the tiles have fell off or broken and it's causing a leak upstairs. Only a small one but .." he sighed , scratching his head .

Lando, who was staying over so that he and Cherrie could game all night together on twitch , just hummed around the straw of a cocktail that Cherrie had made for him. Laid out on one of their sun loungers , relaxing by the pool peacefully.

"But it's bothering you." He finished his sentence , laughing a little at how much of a stressed out dad max looked like. He was just missing a patio to inspect now.

Max just hummed in agreement , looking away from the roof with a sigh .

"It really is . I was gonna call someone over to fix it but Cherrie told me not to. Something about not wanting strangers in our home . Which I get but how the hell else are we going to fix it?" He rambled to lando, slightly annoyed with his girlfriends refusal to let him call for help.

He blamed it on her dad. He had taught her to do everything on her own. Now she was miss independent who didn't need no man to do anything for her.

Which was why he should have predicted what she was about to do next.

"Where even is she anways-?" He couldn't even finish his question about her disappearance before he heard lando gasp out a laugh. Looking up at something behind him.

Max quickly spun back around and looked up to the roof, eyes going wide in disbelief as he watched Cherrie casually sit ontop of their roof with a bucket and tiles by her side .

"What the fuck are you doing?!" He almost squealed in panic at how high up she was, balancing on broken tiles like it was nothing.

Cherrie just waved a hand at him like he was an annoying fly bugging her, sticking her tongue out between her lips as she concentrated on fixing the roof.

"I'm fixing it. Won't take me very long." She simply shouted down to him.

Max gasped as he watched her get up on her knees and lean over to grab something , not at all bothered or scared that she was hanging onto a dodgy roof with fucking crocs on!

Max felt like he was going to faint.

Placing his hands over his face stressfully , chewing at his lip as he looked up at her worriedly .

"Cherrie if you fall ..." he inhaled sharply, too panicked to even finish the very thought.

The love of his life just laughed , not scared at all.

"I won't fall max. Plus if I do I'll probably only break my arms and legs. It's not high up enough to die from… unless I break my neck maybe ..”She casually mused, focusing on the broken tile in front of her.

Max went pale.

Lando giggling from the sun lounger as he filmed her with a amused grin. Used to seeing her do shit like this by now.

"That doesn't make me feel any better! I would like you unbroken thank you!" He shouted at her , stressing the fuck out.

Cherrie finally glanced down at him, wiping her hands on her shirt carelessly to get rid of the dirt .

"So you wouldn't still love me if I was broken into a million pieces?" She called down to him , grinning as she teased him by standing up on the roof, pretending to wobble.

Max squeezed his eyes shut in panic , gasping. "Oh my god! Get the fuck down! How did you even get up there? We don't have any ladders yet!" He exclaimed in disbelief , squinting one eye open to make sure that she was still okay.

She just shrugged her shoulders at him "I climbed up the drainpipe . Butttt..." she sang happily "I fixed it now!" She announced to him proudly, making jazz hands at the newly fixed roof tiles .

Max just hurriedly nodded his head, flapping his hands to the ground . "Fantastic baby but get down! I meant it Cherrie! Please! Just be careful!" He shouted at her , shaking his head to himself when she disappeared from his sight and climbed back down the drainpipe again.

Turning slowly to look at a giggling lando, max placing his shaky hand over his pounding heart and sighed loudly .

"She's going to kill me." He said matter of factly "a cat only has nine lives. She’s already took about seven just this year.”

Lando giggled , pulling a face at him in confusion .

“But you're not a cat?" He stated the obvious.

Max just rolled his eyes and laid himself out on one of the sun beds, needing to lay down and calm down again. Preferably drink some alcohol too.

"Same thing. She's shortening whatever lives I have left. If I ever have a heart attack you know exactly who to blame." He muttered.

Side eyeing his unbothered girlfriend who was singing happily along to the radio as she took off her clothes before throwing herself into the pool, splashing him with water .

Sending him a cheeky wink making him stick up his middle finger at her, huffing when she just laughed and swam away.

Christ. Why did he have to fall in love with a crazy one?

So, she drove him crazy and she worried him like he had never been worried before. But that was love and that was something he never wanted to stop feeling.

He wanted her craziness forever . He really did.

So while she was sleeping peacefully beside him in bed, the only time that she was ever quiet and still.

He slipped a diamond ring onto her finger with a soft smile on his face , gently kissing her cheek as she slept away obliviously .

Tucking his face into her neck and wrapping his arms around her waist , their legs entangled underneath the covers . He sighed in bliss.

He gave her a week before she finally noticed the engagement ring on her finger. Looking forward to seeing her go about her usually craziness without a single clue.

Taking a photo of her sleeping with her hand against his chest, zooming in on the sparkling ring on her finger as he took a picture . Sending it to the rest of the drivers groupchat .

'How long till she notices the ring and marries me?' He sent to them casually .

The chat quickly blowing up with both replies of excitement , shock but most of all amusement. All of them well aware of how oblivious the love of his life was.

She had once gotten a tattoo while on a drunken night out with her friends when she was nineteen , a tiny little heart on her ass cheek.

She hadn't noticed it till two months later when max finally pointed it out to her and asked why she got it done.

Her reaction had been priceless.

He had a feeling this time would be no different either.

Two weeks. Charles predicted .

Two months . Lando replied quickly .

Never. She walked past Elton John who was wearing a bright pink hat and diamond sunglasses. She's never going to notice . Sorry mate. You're going to be waiting a while. Daniel sent a laughing emoji with his answer .

All of them replying around the same thing.

Max just smiled to himself and shut off his phone, leaving them to go crazy over the group-chat about his secret proposal .

I'll give her two weeks to see the ring otherwise I'll tell her myself . Max thought to himself before cuddling back into her side , sighing contently when she squeezed him tightly to her in her sleep.

She may have drove him crazy and he was definitely going to go Grey quicker because of her but man , did he love her.

She was crazy. But she was his crazy. That's all that mattered to him.

[bamber344]

Culture Shock

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masterlist

it is 20 minutes to midnight but the chapter's done so i'm UPLOADING!!

Once again being bullied by these chapters, though for a very specific reason this time. I was stuck on one scene for like three days because I was trying to write a character doing something that I very much don't know how to do in real life.

Anyway, I'm overall pretty happy with how this one turned out. Enjoy!

CWs: Living weapon tingz, Jordyn's false belief that her abuse is normal, sexual references (in Jordyn's anatomically focused internal dialogue), dislocations, references to previous injury (stabbing), poor videogame skills

Culture Shock

“Need anything else?”

The officer shook his head. “Nah, I think we’re good. Tha-”

“Hey, get back here!”

I turned my head to find one of the suspects I’d just helped apprehend making a run for it. He must have wiggled free from the other officer’s grasp. No biggie. With a little bit of focus, I turned the darkness inside his pant leg solid, and sent a spike of it into the ground. With his hands cuffed behind his back, there was nothing stopping him from faceplanting hard on the asphalt road. Served him right for trying to run. The officer quickly grabbed him and dragged him back over to the cruiser.

The one in front of me cleared his throat. “Right. As I was saying, we should be good from here. Thanks for your help, Seven.”

I nodded, ignoring the way the name rankled. That was dangerous. I was starting to get used to being called ‘Jordyn’ again. “You’re welcome.”

Leaping up to a nearby rooftop and perching on the ledge, I stuck around and watched over the scene until the police left, just in case anything else happened, as per usual. By the time everything was done, the sun was starting to set, bathing Tombguard in a beautiful orange light. The season was turning, apparently. Summer had run its course, and now the weather would begin to grow colder. The idea was exciting. I didn’t feel like the outside world would ever lose its novelty after how long I spent in the facility.

I stepped back from the ledge to make sure no one could see me, and pulled my helmet off. Usually, that would be pretty risky, but I knew Father was out of his office right now, and the odds of him checking back over the footage were pretty low. Yes, I was taking a chance with being put back into that dark room and chained to the wall for another eight hours, but… Well, I’d been thinking about Maggie lately, along with everything she told me. Never stop asking questions, and all that.

Why did Father always want me to keep my helmet on? I thought it was to protect my identity, but everyone at the Union knew my identity now. Even if it was just to protect the sight of my face, surely it didn’t matter if no one was around to see it anyway, right? I mean, he let me run through the city without it back when we went to that ��party’ thing, so… I felt bad just thinking it, but… it seemed a little arbitrary.  Especially when the wind picked up and I got to feel it rushing through what little hair growth I had since I last cut it two weeks ago – another one of my small transgressions, since Father almost never saw me without my helmet anyway.

These were questions I would’ve ordinarily purged from my mind the second they cropped up, but… after what happened with Steve, I’d been letting them sit and working through them in my head. I still didn’t have an answer for why I had to do that to him, and it was making me realise just how much else I didn’t have an answer to. I did what Father wanted because I owed him for saving me, and that wasn’t going to change, but I just wished he wouldn’t keep me in the dark so much. I knew I wasn’t as smart as Maggie seemed to think, but I didn’t think I was as stupid as Father thought, either. I could handle knowing the truth about more stuff.

…Well, it was pointless to think about. It wasn’t like I could just ask him to explain it all to me. I would have to work hard with this Union job and show him I could earn it.

Speaking of, I should probably head over there. It had been about two weeks since I first joined, and I’d only visited a handful of times. If I ever wanted to finish this mission, I needed to start sucking up my nerves and actually interact with the Union heroes. It was just… very uncomfortable whenever Vivienne was around. I wanted to spend time with her, but knowing what I did to her uncle, it was still difficult to be in her presence for any length of time.

Well, whether she was there or not, I couldn’t procrastinate forever. Better get moving.

—

I stepped into the Union conference room, looking around for any sign of life. So far, the place seemed empty. Aside from Muffin, of course, who somehow always knew when I’d arrived and was always there to greet me. He pranced up to me, trilling, and I removed one of my gauntlets to pet his weirdly wrinkly head.

“Wrinkly little boy,” I said. He mewed in agreement, nipping gently at my fingers.

With no one around, I decided I might as well explore the place on my own. To that end, I followed a hallway out of the conference room, taking turns randomly. Muffin came along for a bit, before getting bored and skulking off somewhere else.

Eventually, I came to what appeared to be some sort of gym. Brianna was there, running on one of the treadmills. Her braids were tied back behind her head, swaying back and forth with her movements. It looked like she’d worked up quite a sweat, based on the sheen that had covered her dark skin.

She turned her head towards me slightly, slowing the treadmill down to a walk. “That you, Jordyn?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?” I asked.

She smiled. “The way you walked in. You step like you’re trying not to be heard, but those boots aren’t exactly subtle when they hit the ground.”

…I did do that, didn’t I? “O-oh. I hadn’t realised. That… That’s a pretty impressive skill.”

Brianna shrugged. “Eh. I can’t see people when they approach, so I’ve had to figure out other ways of determining who’s who. Doesn’t work all the time, obviously, but you’re pretty unique, so it’s hard to mix you up with anyone.”

Unique, huh? The thought made me feel warm. “What if I didn’t have my armour on, though?”

She seemed to ponder on it for a second, then shrugged again. “Then I’d probably be out of luck unless you spoke.” She grinned, showing off her teeth. “Why, planning on stripping down?”

“No, just curious.”

Brianna paused, her expression faltering slightly. She then quietly chuckled for some reason, shaking her head. “Ah, you’re funny. Say, do you wanna run with me? I’ve still got a few K’s left before I hit my goal.”

It seemed as good an opportunity as any to start ingratiating myself, and I was no stranger to a treadmill. “Sure.”

I hopped up on the treadmill next to her, turning it on and slowly increasing the speed until I was at a steady run. For the most part, we remained silent, only focusing on the pounding of our feet and the occasional beep of Brianna’s treadmill announcing her progress every 500 metres or so. It was relaxing in a way training usually wasn’t for me. Probably because for once I couldn’t feel Father’s eyes on my back, watching for every mistake.

“You’re keeping a pretty good pace,” Brianna said. “Do this often?”

“Every day,” I replied. “It’s usually just a warm up for my daily training regiment. Gotta keep my stamina high, y’know?”

“Damn, I’ve gotta respect the grind. Though, with the work you do, I guess that’s to be expected. Bet you’ve got a pretty nice physique under that armour though, huh?”

“Y-yeah, it’s, uh… It’s pretty nice, I guess…” I muttered, insides swirling. “You’ve got a nice body, too.”

It was the truth. I wasn’t sure why, but I had to keep myself from constantly glancing over to her to catch another glimpse of her toned midriff, exposed by her exercise-wear. 

Brianna laughed. “Thanks, babe. I work pretty hard for it. You’ll have to show me yours sometime, too.”

I frowned. “How would that work if you can’t see?”

She grinned again. “I’ve got hands, don’t I? I’m sure I’ll be able to get the picture with those.”

I stumbled a bit on the treadmill, almost falling off before righting myself again. “Uh, y-yeah, I guess you would.”

…Wow, the thought of that felt funny. There was this weird, sparky sort of tingling in my gut, similar to that feeling I got back when I first figured out I could touch my clitoris to feel good, only not quite as strong yet. It made me want to go home and do that right now, actually. Or, alternatively, feel Brianna’s hands on my body and maybe between my legs as well. I wondered what that meant.

We ran in comfortable – yet contemplative, at least in my case – silence until Brianna finished up and reached her goal. She powered down her treadmill and got off, reaching down and picking a red and white cane up off the floor as she did so. I followed suit.

“So, you wanna… hit the showers?” she asked, enunciating the last part a little weirdly.

“No thanks. I usually just shower when I get back home.”

Brianna paused for a second, then shrugged. “Alright. Some other time, then. Catch you later, cutie.” 

She winked at me, before turning and making her way out of the gym, sweeping her cane back and forth in front of herself as she went. 

Wow, she was nice. I made a mental note to try and come back here around this time more often, so we could run together again.

Now that I was on my own, I turned back to the gym at large and had a proper look around. The space seemed pretty well-equipped. They obviously had an array of treadmills, but there was also an absolute truckload of other exercise equipment, too. Racks of weights, padded flooring clearly meant for sparring, a small selection of martial arts weaponry on one wall, and in an adjacent room, a big pit in the ground filled with water. That last one confused me a bit, so I ignored it, honing back in on what was familiar: the weaponry.

I picked a bō up off of the wall, examining it. The wood was rough and unfinished, as to be expected, and covered by a slight layer of dust. It was nothing I couldn’t wipe down though, and it had been a while since I got to work with one of these. Might as well make the most of it.

I walked out onto the sparring mat and settled into a comfortable stance, holding the bō in a standard two-handed grip. Taking a breath, I moved through what I remembered of my katas, swinging, thrusting, and spinning the bō around me, in sync with the rhythm of my body. As more came back to me, I began moving through them faster, striking harder, picturing targets in my mind’s eye to take down with my attacks.

Once I’d gone through each remembered kata at least three times, I began improvising, following the learned movements of my bō training and applying them to my own usual fighting style. The bō became an extension of my limbs, lashing out further and with greater power than I’d usually be able to muster on my own. I started flourishing a little, just for fun, spinning the bō around my arms and back as I brought it in for a strike. Then I began incorporating my shadows, using the bō as a conduit to manipulate them to my will.

Despite how hard I was pushing myself to maintain my speed and precision in my practice, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so relaxed. Going through these repetitive yet satisfying movements without Father lurking over my shoulder felt… fun. Almost freeing, in a way. I’d never thought training could be enjoyable, and yet here I was, actually having a good time while working out for a change.

Once I was satisfied, I finished off with one final strike before settling back into a neutral stance, taking a deep breath and letting the tension flow out of my muscles.

A small round of applause from the side of the room startled me. I whirled around to find Vivienne leaning against the wall, clapping her hands along with one other guy I didn’t recognise, who was sitting on the bench next to her.

“That was impressive, Jordyn. You’ll have to teach me how to do that someday,” she said.

“Oh. Uh, thanks,” I replied. “When did you get here?”

“A couple minutes ago. I was actually looking for you. Brea told me you were in here.”

The guy stood up, waving. “I’m here too. The name’s Rishta. I was just coming by to do my dailies, but that was some awesome shit you just did there. Where’d you learn?”

“I had a trainer. I’m a little rusty, though,” I answered, then looked at Vivienne. “What did you need?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out. I’ve finished all my studies for today, so I’ve got some time to kill. Do you wanna do anything?”

On one hand, this was a great opportunity to start gaining more trust among the higher-up Union members, as Vivienne seemed to be, as well as an opportunity to just to spend more time with her, which a large part of me still really wanted to do. On the other, what happened to Steve still sat heavily at the back of my mind. I couldn’t keep running from her forever, though. I was never going to make up for the pain I’d caused if I just kept hiding from ever having to think about it. If she had gone so far as to actively seek me out, it meant she wanted to see me. It would only hurt her more if I kept turning her down.

“Uh, y-yeah, sure. What did you have in mind?”

“Hold on,” Rishta interrupted. “Before you girls go anywhere; Jordyn, could I spar with you?”

Finally, something familiar. This must be a common pastime here. As much as I hated fighting, it was something I could do well. Accepting his offer would be a great way to start making ground on my mission. “Okay.”

He clapped his hands. “Great! I’ve been wanting to test your mettle ever since I saw you kick some guy’s ass on the news. I’ve been doing MMA for almost my whole life, but I’ve never seen moves like that. I’d be really interested to hear where you learned your stuff.”

Vivienne rolled her eyes with a smirk, sitting down on the bench. “Well, I guess I’ll ref, then.”

Rishta turned to her, hands clasped in apology. “Sorry Viv, just one match. It won’t take that long!”

She smiled. “It’s fine. It’ll make for some entertainment to see you get put on your ass at least.”

“Damn. Confident in Jordyn, aren’t you?” 

“Jordyn is a highly trained special forces police officer. You are an admittedly pretty good martial artist. While I do think you have a chance, Jordyn’s got you beat in the experience department by a mile.”

“Okay, I’ll concede that,” Rishta said. “Either way, win or lose, I just wanna see how I fair. So, ref, what are the rules?”

Vivienne seemed to think for a second before deciding. “One round, either a ten second pin or a tap-out. No power use. Also, Jordyn? You’ve gotta take your armour off, otherwise it isn’t fair.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Why’s that?”

Rishta snorted. “Uh, because if you hit me with those metal fists you’re liable to take teeth out? And also, how am I meant to land a hit if I might break my wrist with a solid punch?”

That was… pretty reasonable, actually. There was a reason most of my trainers used special equipment when I was fighting them in my armour.

“Okay, but… I’m not allowed to let people see my face.”

“You can use your powers to cover it up, but only for that,” Vivienne said. “Like that night we ran into each other, remember?”

I nodded. “Yeah, alright.”

There was a chance Father would be mad at me for doing this, but… technically, I was still following all of his rules, right? Yes, he wanted me to keep my armour on at all times outside of my quarters, but if they still couldn’t see my face, what did it really matter? If he wanted me to gain their trust, I was gonna have to take some risks.

Step by step, I peeled my armour off, piling it on the floor. I summoned a cloud of shadows around my face before pulling off my helmet, and left it with the rest. 

Rishta whistled. “Damn, girl. You are built.” 

I didn’t know what that meant. Glancing at Vivienne heeded no clues, either. She was too busy looking at my arms, for whatever reason.

“Uh, sorry?”

Vivienne stood up, walking over. “He means you’re muscular. Seriously though, you have some nice arms.” She reached out, but stopped before she could make contact. “Can I feel?”

Most of the time, when people needed to touch me, they just did it. It was weird for her to ask, but oddly, it actually made me feel better about saying yes. I nodded, holding my arm out to her. 

She placed a cold hand on my bicep, gently squeezing, before running her fingers up to my shoulder. I was only dressed in a tanktop and my underwear, so she had a lot of space to explore.

“What’s this scar here?” she asked, tracing over an indent on the front of my shoulder.

“A criminal’s knife got through my armour. It was a long time ago, though.”

Vivienne paused, stepping back with an odd look on her face. “Right…”

Rishta cleared his throat. “Are we gonna spar? Or do I need to give you two some space together?”

Vivienne’s face turned a fascinating shade of pink. She whirled around to Rishta, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “That’s enough out of you.”

“I’m ready,” I said.

“Alright, let’s do this,” he replied, walking into the sparring ring. I followed behind him and settled into a fighting stance on the opposite side.

“Are you both good to go?” Vivienne asked from the sidelines.

“Yup,” Rishta replied. 

“Yes,” I said.

“Alright. Remember, you win by either pinning the other person for ten seconds, or getting them to tap out. No power usage. Just a clean and friendly match. Alright, fight!”

I inched towards Rishta, keeping a close eye on his movements as he did the same. Due to my lack of coverage, I was at a slight disadvantage; any twitch in my muscles to indicate my thoughts would be that much more visible, and I couldn’t read his thanks to his baggy clothing. I would just have to trust in my own reflexes.

We reached contact distance and Rishta didn’t waste any time, throwing out a few clear jabs to test me. I batted them away with ease, and returned with a few of my own. He ducked out of the way of one, but the second grazed his ear. He flinched, jumping back out of my range.

“Okay,” he muttered. “Faster than I thought. That’s fine.”

Why he was wasting time talking to himself, I didn’t know. I would, however, be taking advantage of it. I darted forward, aiming to sink a fist into his solar plexus before he could react. His reaction speed was pretty good though, as he noticed just in time and moved to block the hit. My fist was redirected, but I still landed a glancing blow on his ribs that would succeed in winding him a bit all the same.

I didn’t let up, aiming high this time. He blocked a hook directed at his jaw and grabbed my arm, clearly aiming to throw me as he spun into my centre. I moved with the throw, flipping over in the air to land back on my feet, and used my momentum to land a solid kick to his side. Rishta gasped, letting go of me and backing up.

“F-fuck, Jordyn. You’re-”

Apparently, he hadn’t learned his lesson. I just wanted to get this over with, so I moved in for the kill, returning his attempt at a throw by slipping my leg behind his and flipping him over my hip. He slammed back-first onto the mat and I wasted no time, grabbing his arm and pulling it between my legs as I wrapped them around his throat and waist, trapping him in an armbar. Then, I dropped to my back, squeezed my legs, and pulled with all my strength, pushing my hips up at the same time.

Rishta screamed as the pressure mounted, and it wasn’t long before the tell-tale pop of his shoulder leaving his socket reached my ears. This fight was over.

I released his arm and rolled back up to my feet. Rishta remained on the floor, catching his breath and groaning.

“What the fuck was that?!”

I looked up to find Vivienne staring at me, a horrified expression on her face. “What did you do?!”

“I dislocated his shoulder,” I replied. Why did she look so bothered?

Vivienne’s face didn’t change. “Why?!”

I frowned. “I… I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”

“J-Jordyn,” Rishta called from the floor, voice shaking. “While that was a s-seriously impressive armbar, I… I think she wants to know… wh-why you felt the need to dislocate my FUCKING shoulder!”

“Isn’t… Isn’t that normally how sparring matches go?” I asked, starting to get the distinct feeling I’d done something very, very wrong. “I dislocate my shoulders at least once a week in training.”

Vivienne’s face finally shifted, all the way from horror to pity. “Oh, Jordyn… No, that’s… that’s not normal. You shouldn’t be dislocating anything at all ever. I’m shocked you can even move your arms at this point if it’s happening so frequently.”

I looked down at Rishta, his face contorted in pain. Pain that I caused. I just couldn’t stop hurting people, could I? “I… don’t understand.”

What did ‘not normal’ even mean? This was just the way it had always been. I trained, and if I wasn’t good enough, I was hurt. My shoulders came out easier and easier the more it happened, but that was just what I deserved for failing to meet Father’s expectations. Was that… not how it was done in the Heroes’ Union? Was Father hurting me for no reason? No, definitely not. I never would have become as strong as I am if he didn’t train me like he did. But… If all of these heroes could do their jobs without needing to go through that training…

Vivienne kneeled down, helping Rishta to his feet. “We’ll talk more about this later, Jordyn. Right now, I need to get him to urgent care.”

No. No, I caused this pain, but I knew how to fix it, too. I needed to fix it. 

“W-wait, I know how to put it back in. P-please, let me help.”

Vivienne looked at me appraisingly, and then at Rishta. “Are you okay with that?” she asked. 

“If she’s really dislocated her sh- shit-” he paused, wincing for a second, “shoulders as much as she says she has, I’m sure she knows what she’s doing. Let her have a go.”

Vivienne nodded, gently laying him back down. I kneeled down next to him, hands shaking, throat clogged with the need to cry. Now wasn’t the time for that, so I forced it back.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I- I just thought this was how it was.”

“It’s cool, Jordyn. You don’t get very far as a martial artist if you hold a grudge every time someone puts you on your ass. If you wanna make it up to me, you can teach me how you did that flippy thing when I tried to throw you. Also, find a new trainer. Yours sounds like an asshole. Maybe a therapist, too.”

I grunted noncommittally. As if Father would ever let me choose my trainers. Also, I didn’t know what a therapist was, so it was hard to agree to that, as well.

Step by step, I walked him through the process of getting his shoulder back into place. He cried out a bit louder than expected when it popped back in, but succeeded nonetheless.

“Shit, that was intense,” Rishta muttered, still catching his breath, tears visibly pricking his eyelids.

“Feel better?” Vivienne asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Do you have a sling you could use? Standard procedure with shoulder dislocations is to give the joint a rest for a week. If not, I could get one for you.”

“Thanks, Viv. That’d be great.”

“And you,” she said, rounding on me, poking me in the chest. “Rest your shoulders before you lose use of them entirely. You’re gonna give yourself arthritis.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

Vivienne sighed. “Do your shoulders hurt?”

I frowned. “Yeah. All the time. Don’t everyone’s?” 

“Jordyn.” Her voice turned soft. “Most people aren’t in any pain at all. Your shoulders hurt because they’ve been constantly abused. Every time you dislocate them, the muscles and tendons are stretched far beyond what they’re made for. Even when you set the joint back in, the damage stays, and it takes time, and more importantly, rest, to recover. Even with the rest, your joint becomes weaker. I’m not a doctor, but I am in medical school, and honestly? I think at this point the only way you’re going to ever fully recover is through major surgery.”

“Oh.” That was… a lot to take in. There was no way that was correct, though. Father wouldn’t let me continue to injure myself if it would affect my performance in the long run, right? My performance was practically all he cared about.

“I know that must be pretty daunting, but don’t worry too much, okay?” Vivienne put a hand on my shoulder and I felt it dig straight into my heart. The tears started forcing their way back up my throat, despite my best efforts. “The Union is here for you. You’re never alone when you’re with us.”

This was too much. I needed to get out of here. I’d done my part for the day and now I needed to go.

I moved past Vivienne towards where my armour was, and began re-equipping it as fast as I could. Neither of them spoke a word or tried to stop me, and once everything was back where it should be, I all-but ran out of the room and out of the building, jumping up to the rooftops to hide.

Maybe one day I’d be able to have a normal interaction with Vivienne without feeling more emotions than I thought possible, but today wasn’t that day. So much was running through my head, and I didn’t know what to do with any of it. Once again, that advice from Maggie rang through my ears. Father was hurting me unnecessarily, and I couldn’t understand why. More importantly, how the hell was I supposed to unravel all of this when barely getting through the day took so much brain power already?

Vivienne said the Union would be there for me when I needed them. But would they be there for this? 

—

“No, no, no, no, no, no- Aw, come on!” Vivienne grumbled, throwing the controller down on the bed. 

“Did you die again?” Brea asked.

“Shut up.”

“Have you tried turning the difficulty down?”

“Brianna, I swear to god.”

Brianna giggled, sinking back against the pillows. “I’m just sayin’. Listening to you die over and over again is starting to get boring.”

“Why don’t you try it, then?” Viv teased, though she knew it was a bit of a low blow.

“Ooh, you’re so funny, Viv.”

Vivienne grunted. In truth, she wasn’t all that invested in the game. The earlier events of the day were still taking up far too many of her thoughts for that. Rishta would be fine after a week or so, of course, and he was a remarkably good sport about the whole incident. No, he wasn’t the issue. The issue was that Jordyn had once again inadvertently revealed something about her life that she deemed innocuous, but was actually horrifying, and now Vivienne couldn’t stop thinking about it. The poor girl dislocated her shoulders once a week! She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised, given what they’d learned about Jordyn’s origins. It made sense that de Vygon wouldn’t bother being too protective of her when he literally grew her in a tube and could grow another just as easily. Still, it was just… so fucked up. Vivienne wanted to grab hold of Jordyn, wrap her in blankets, stop forcing her to hide her face, give her a hot chocolate and some plushies and a kiss on the forehead, and put her in front of a tv with some disney movies or something. Just… anything to alleviate the trauma that poor girl was going through on a daily basis.

Yes, these things took time and she just needed to be patient. But knowing that didn’t make the burning need to do something any less powerful.

“So,” Brianna said, holding the syllable out for far longer than necessary. “What do you think about Jordyn?”

Vivienne blinked. Apparently, Brianna had the power to read minds on top of her ability to turn into smoke.

“What do you mean?”

Brianna sighed. “I dunno. Think she likes girls?”

Ah. That made more sense. “Hard to say. Maybe? Why?”

“I was putting out a couple of feelers today when we were running on the treadmills together; y’know, trying to see how receptive she was to a casual fuck. She seemed into it, but then she turned me down when I invited her to the showers, so I’m not really sure.”

Vivienne snorted at her bluntness. “You wanna screw Jordyn?”

“Yeah, why not? She’s cute, isn’t she?”

“I dunno, I’ve never seen her face.”

“I mean, like, her personality ‘n stuff. Y’know, hardworking, determined, but kinda naive. And at the same time, sort of meek. It’s interesting. I’d like to know more about her.”

“And, to do that you’re gonna bang her?” Vivienne asked.

“Well, to be honest, she gives me major anxiety vibes. It would probably be good for her to unwind, y’know? Obviously, if she doesn’t want to, I’m cool to just hang with her, but I’m of the opinion that fucking someone is the single best icebreaker there is. Once you share that… that ultimate vulnerability with each other, there’s no nerves getting in the way anymore, y’know? Isn’t that how our friendship started?”

“I- well, okay fine, you’ve got me there,” Viv admitted, much to her chagrin. Sleeping with Brianna had been a great way to loosen up and also gain some confidence in herself after joining the Union. Hell, it would probably be just as useful for Jordyn, just like Brea was saying. But, knowing what she knew about Jordyn’s whole deal, it could definitely backfire if not handled with caution.

“Still, if you’re gonna do it, just… be careful? Jordyn seems like she’s got a lot going on, and she might… I don’t know… go along with it when she doesn’t really want to. I get the feeling she has trouble saying no to people.”

Brea hummed. “Yeah, I can definitely see that. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Either way, I gotta get my intentions through to her first.”

“Honestly? You’re probably best off just being straightforward. Like you said, she’s pretty naive. If you’re not clear, she’s not gonna get it; like you inviting her to the showers.”

“Yeah, that tracks... Anyway, that aside, are you gonna keep playing any time soon? I’m actually starting to get invested in the plot, but if all I can hear for the next hour is the sound of you getting your ass kicked, I’m leaving.”

A laugh burst up from Vivienne’s chest. “Oh, okay then. Tell me how you really feel, Brea.”

She fished the controller up from where it had fallen between her and Brianna’s legs, and unpaused the game. It was serious now; her pride was on the line. Vivienne was gonna beat this boss or die trying.

It was a little weird to think about; Brianna and Jordyn having sex. Part of her instinctively objected to the idea, on the basis of Jordyn’s sheltered-ness and naivety. But, in truth, Jordyn was a grown woman, and she deserved to make her own choices, even- no, especially when it came to stuff like this. Besides, Vivienne trusted Brea. Regardless of how it turned out or what Jordyn decided, she trusted that Brianna would do the right thing. She knew what she was doing in this department far more than Vivienne could ever hope to. There was nothing to worry about. It would all turn out for-

“Did you just die again?”

“Fuck!”

Taglist: @steelandblood @sapphicwhump @urnumber1star @alsolucakairomi @thataquaticwhumper

@iamheretohurt @anoyedartist @dontyoubleedoutonme @seastarblue @lettherebepain

@bacillusinfection

This arc is great because it means I can explore Brianna more, since she lives at the Union HQ. She is fr everybody's friend and it is mostly because she just does not gaf about societal norms of intimacy and will love on you platonically until you accept your new best friend. She knows what she wants and how to get it.

(can you tell that her flirting scene was the one that gave me so much grief?)

If you can't already tell, the next chapter will very likely be saucy, unless I decide to put a buffer between them. So, if you're here for that, get ready >:) If you're not here for that, uh... my condolences. I will try to remember to indicate how to skip those parts.

Lemme know what you thought of the chap with a comment or reblog! See ya next time!

[mikailys]

MCL NewGen Ep 10 Commentary

Tbh I didn’t want to write a review or my usual commentary for this last episode because I genuinely have nothing to say. Nothing happened, I wasted about 2000 AP for the nothingness and a two-minutes scene with Jason 🙃

I wasn't keen on skipping it though 'cause I'm sure it would make my future self and my ocd implode so here we are.

It's an episode without shame or glory. As I already said, nothing happened and the little that did wasn't entirely necessary. The driving force of the plot—Thomas and his 'disappearance'—starts off strong but gets weaker as the story progresses. I thought it might pick up a bit toward the end but the excuse they gave for Thomas was honestly terrible but we'll get there later.

To sum it up, it all revolves around searching for Thomas, who hasn’t shown up at the office, is later than usual and isn’t answering his phone. So instead of calling his family as a normal person with a bit of intellect would do we waste time and APs wandering around Amoris because ofc that’s the logical thing to do in such situation. Eventually we find out he had an accident right in front of The Cosy Bear but there’s no sign of his body. After several errands it turns out that yes, he had an accident but in the meantime he managed to already get the insurance money ??? and buy himself a motorcycle ??? all within the span of about 8 hours without a care for the world.... Now, I am astonished and utterly speechless. I get the sitcom-style ending, but it didn’t make me laugh at all. If anything it pissed me off even more. I seriously can’t stand how everything always ends with everyone happily smiling and laughing about it, it is not funny istg

Jason is giving that Scar "I'm surrounded by idiots" moment, I feel him lol

Thomas is a big irresponsable, blame it on the autism certified by yours truly or not, but he's incredibly selfish and doesn't give a fuck about anyone apparently. He had the time to go and buy a new motorcycle on foot but not the time to find a phone and spare a call to Devon?? Are you okay?? That's where your responsabilities lie?? My god.

About the moment with the LI, as a Jason girlie, I’ve come to terms with how hard it is to include him in situations involving the whole main group. That said I really appreciated the two minutes he was on screen because, once again, we see that he cares and knows how to set aside his jerk tendencies when it’s necessary—even managing to actually ‘find’ Thomas color me stocked. The only downside is that he had so little presence in this episode; the police station scene with Nath and Eric was definitely longer than his whole screentime :/

On a brighter side, the next episode involves a new showdown between companies so I’m hoping to see him just as much as the other LIs and to know a bit more about Goldreamz employees' relationships maybe Spencer? Since he only appeared at the fair...

I hate to repeat myself but I have no idea where this game is headed. There’s no driving plotline or future goals established for the characters. It would be great to see Candy outside of the work environment, maybe meeting new people. Aside from her colleagues, she doesn’t know anyone and tbh she doesn’t even know them that well. It’s ridiculous that by episode 10 I still know next to nothing about Amanda unless I’m doing her route...

[mysticsublimeperson]

NUMB pt2

(pt1)

Arthur had noticed something, he didn't quite understand what exactly, and that was frustrating.

Then Merlin cancelled the only date night the had been able to schedule in a month, because of the difference in their work hours, and Merlin spended less and less time with him at work...

So ditching him to go to a club?

Yeah... Arthur was pissed.

But then, "They have notice that I 've been absent, unless you want me to explain where do I spend my free time lately, I better go with them to get them off my back. We wouldn't want anybody knowing your secret right?"

And damn if that didn't hurt.

He knew Merlin wasn't really happy with the arrangement, he knew that he had been crossing the line lately. Going off at work, mostly to throw people off the track, but also to let out some of his frustration. But what could he do?

It was impossible to continue with his life as it was, and have Merlin. He would loose everything, his job, his family, his status, probably the flat too... His father was sure to ruin his life if he gave that step.

But for the life of him, he could not let Merlin go. He will never let him go willingly. Merlin was the happiest he had been in his life. Waking up next to him, he felt at peace, felt understood, felt seen. The way Merlin looked at him, like he meant something extraordinary, made him feel complete.

But then the little doubt creep in, What would happen if Merlin grew tired of this baggage?

No.

What will happen when Merlin grow tired of this situation?

Arthur felt his chest heavy with guilt. It was bound to happen, he knew that, he, himself, had made sure of it. He had enough scape routes in case everything went south, but now he found that Merlin could also use them, and that thought was the scariest of them all.

Merlin went radio silent after that call, and Arthur understood.

Then the next day he could not find him at the company, which was strange but maybe he was avoiding him, and Arthur understood.

He didn't answered any of his calls, or texts, and Arthur understood.

The dread expanding in his belly.

The following day he went to work with a heavy step and a heavier heart.

He knew that this whole circus was his fault, and therefore he had no right to complain or demand anything of Merlin, but that didn't make him feel better.

Merlin was still gone, so he went looking for him. And then Gaius told him that Merlin hadn't gone to work, he was sick, apparently. Gaius didn't know what exact illness but ... "he has been off lately, distant, cold, sad. And with all due respect, that you are keen on humiliating him on public lately hadn't really helped. I imagine it has to do with that. He didn't explain further, just told me he was going on sick leave"

Gaius spoke clearly, and with every word Arthur felt more shame. That dressing down was something he didn't know he needed.

Had he been so awful towards Merlin? Truly?

He bolted, didn't even told anyone, just went.

Went to his flat, and banged on his door, and called his name until the neighbors threatened to call the police.

It was useless.

The last time he spoke to him, he was going to go clubbing with his friends. He knew most of Merlins friends, basically because they were also Arthur's friends. But those friends... he knew them yeah, but he wasn't precisely close, Will, proper hated him, and the girl, Freya, was apprehensive around him, he didn't know why, but he hadn't particularly care up until that moment, he did not have any way of contacting them, not their number saved, not their social media profiles, nothing.

Shit.

The only thing he could remember was where Freya used to work, because Merlin had insisted on buying his coffee there for months just to spend his break catching up with her, at least until they happened.

He went there, his only clue, praying for the girl to be there.

He wasn't lucky, she didn't even had a shift that day. But he had obtained a contact info. He texted her.

And she answered vaguely, not understanding why Merlin's boss was asking for that kind of information. He didn't get much, but the fact that that whole ordeal was orchestrated by Gwaine.

So he went to Gwaine.

He was still hungover, or, more accurately, hungover again. And told him reluctantly that he had tried to get Merlin to relax, because he had been upset as of late. Arthur really ought to pay better attention, everyone had noticed this change in Merlin's behavior, so probably Merlin had been dealing with the burnt of having to lying to everyone.

"We just wanted him to unwind, It was fine... at least I hope so" Arthur's heart stopped at that very moment "What do you mean?" Gwaine was completely unaffected by his murderous tone and stare, and reentered his home trailed by Arthur "I don't know mate, he was having fun, he had been talking to this bloke on the floor, the seemed to have hit it off quite well... that was the last time I saw him, when we didn't heard from him in the morning, well we assumed he'd gotten laid, at least he had fun, but yesterday he told us that It didn't went well, but didn't explain" As he spoke his voice lost it's strength, and the insecurity he must have felt since that message was brought to the surface.

Arthur wanted to scream, to accuse, to point, to break, to do everything at the same time, but how could he? He stopped himself just before he started a shouting match with Gwaine, who was lost in thought in the sofa, because Gwaine was his friend too, and if he had known he wouldn't have done any of that.

His eyes started to sting from the sheer frustration.

Fact 1: Merlin's friends had taken him to a club, so he could cheat on Arthur, not that they knew that.

Fact 2: Merlin had gotten drunk, danced and left the club with another man, Arthur could not grasp how he felt about that just yet.

Fact 3: something went WRONG. WHAT THE HELL WENT WRONG AND WHERE WAS MERLIN? BECAUSE...

Fact 4: Merlin hadn't gone to work in two days, and no one knew where or how he was and the worry in his chest was clouding his mind and shit, he was crying.

He wiped his face quickly with the back of his hand, but couldn't hold back anymore so he struggled a bit saying goodbye to Gwaine and got out of there, didn't listen to whatever Gwaine was saying in the background.

He couldn't tell you how did he find Merlin, just that it was probably illegal and highly unadvised. But by that afternoon he was in front of that hospital door, with mixed feelings, a lot of guilt and one thought.

Hunith opened the door, Hunith was there. His gut twisted in different uncomfortable directions.

"Hunith?"

"Arthur? What are you doing here? Wait, let's talk outside, he finally managed to sleep for a bit" His throat closed off.

"I..He didn't show up at work" It was all he could manage, he could see her eyes harden.

"Yes, well, I am sure you can see he is in no condition to do so, now if you would kindly leave"

"Hunith" he was trembling "Can I see him?" he saw her hesitate.

"He doesn't want to see anyone" she ultimately answered a bit softer.

"What happened?"

"It's not my place to tell Arthur, I need to respect his decision, now more than ever" she said with finality "Look, I'll call you when he changes his mind.."

"IF.. if he changes his mind, you know how he is" he protested "Hunith I just..." he had to stop, before his voice broke "I need to know how he is, I need to see that he is ok"

"I know you are his friend Arthur" Arthur could hear his heart shatter "But this is... He is not ok" she said looking directly at him "He doesn't want to be seen like that, he doesn't want to be judged or pitied. He needs someone by his side right now, someone who would just be there with him, loving him, truly, boldly, despite everything else" Hunith broke down a bit and ran a hand by her hair, talking to him and to herself also "Don't get me wrong Arthur, I know you care for my son, you are a true friend, but you are not what he needs right now. I know the teasing and bantering is your... style, but I am afraid he cannot handle that. I'll call you if he changes his mind, but if not, please do respect his wishes"

She turned around visibly affected and went back into the room. Meanwhile Arthur had his world shaken to the ground.

[marcelwrites]

Love Her To Death (Pt. 1)

The last thing I ever expected to see were Zee's brains leaking out of the gaping hole in her skull. Gore matted jet black hair obscured some but not all of the damage. Bloody jags of bone and bone fragments were scattered on the floor near her final resting place. A thin breeze ran through the space and sent my skin to prickle with goosebumps, a brief respite from the oppressive smell of blood, fucking, friction, must and old rot. A panic started setting in. How did this happen? My mind clawed and scrapped at the thin pieces that comprised of my memory of the last 24 hours. Zee's naked body, thin, pale, and sublime, lay in a graceful heap despite the obvious grotesquerie on display. Before losing all that remained of my sanity I noticed how long Zee's hair really was. When did she ever wear it untied like that? I couldn't remember and the innocence of the thought seemed profane under these circumstances. My phone didn't seem to be in my pocket. Do I call the police? Where's Zee's phone? I hastily checked the room, looking over at the bed maybe her clothes or phone would be under the pillows or duvet. No luck. Looking under the bed I could only see torn condom packets and used condoms. A smear of rusty blood apparent on two of them. What will the police say if they find us like this? A naked body. Brain matter, blood, and bone. A room reeking of cunt and death. What the fuck had happened? I examined my hands. No blood. Bringing them closer to my face to inspect the nails. Nothing there either. I turned to the door and rushed over to it. The old metal handle wouldn't budge. "Oh fuck this!" I screamed. Panic setting in further. I began to smell my own sweat, the adrenal glands setting into overdrive, the cortisol pumping through my body. The window! Despite it being pitch black outside, I could climb out and circle back into the room. Not quite remembering where we were was a problem to be resolved later. I desperately needed that phone.

eeeeekugh and then the whisper of some hideous gargle. I turned back suddenly. Zee's body twitched ever so slightly. No way this was happening. It just wasn't possible. Zee's thin white fingers made the slightest movements. What the fuck was happening!? help... Did I just hear her speak or was this just my mind playing some cruel trick on me? I tried to focus my vision but couldn't trust it. I walked back over Zee's body, looming over it like the grim reaper, and stared. Desensitised to the carnage in front of me but not that ancient musty smell mixed with blood and sex. In a situation like this, what else can you do but disassociate in order to get through it? Your mind can only process it in the same way it processes Horror movies and gross-out flicks. fuck.. me... I thought I heard the craziest, most obscene thing, but no, it was probably just my brain thinking about some shitty Horror movie. I'll pull myself together and get out of here. Get out of the room. Find a phone. Call the police. Pull yourself together, cunt. I walked back to the half open window, it was caked in muck, the sill was dusty, and a red thumbtack was stuck into an old rag to provide some semblance of privacy. Wrenching the window open fully I relished the night air. Outside there was a thick cover of trees and underbrush. Eucalypts and wattles mainly. I could detect their faint perfume. Above was a cloudless sky, the moonlight bright, casting violent shadows across the ground in front of the cabin. Dam... Damian... Me. Come to me. I didn't just hear that! I just want her to be alive. I would believe that she were still alive if I didn't see her brain matter splashed across the fucking ground. My stomach churned. I was going to puke. The smell wash too fucking much. I climbed up and out the window, landing on the soft ground below. My underwear briefly catching on the little latch but thankfully didn't rip. If God were watching I wonder what he'd think? This nightmare was making me question his existence. I was still hoping I'd wake up in a sheen of sweat, panting, thankful for it to be over, but the feeling of the dirt between my toes assured me that this was cold, harsh reality.

[fandomfaeofveryfewf4cks]

Things I noticed the nth time watching Nimona:

Knight armour can get sliced through like nobody's business (Balister's arm), but can take a laser hit without serious, body-altering consequences (Director hitting Ambrosius with a laser made from the same one that apparently has the power to wipe out half the realm, or kill an Immortal being who doesn't feel severe pain from an arrow wound)?

...is this because Ambrosius' armour was made to be more protective than Balister's?

"She manipulated BOTH of us." Ambrosius says this about Nimona, who he had very few interactions with aside from her very blatantly fucking shit up for the institute. How did she manipulate HIM?

I guess it probably makes sense when you consider he was going to arrest the director, implying that he believed Bal AND Nimona, but I dunno. The little rat in my head started running on its brain-powering wheel at all the possible fanfic plots this could lead to.

Nimona as Ambrosius grabbed the Gloreth statue when they fell to the ground.

On the one hand, this could just be actor!Nimona putting dramatic emphasis on how even in death, the leaders of the realm will cling to their hopes and beliefs, or the golden boy finally getting to join his ancestor.

On the other hand, we could make it deliciously angsty (yum yum) and say it is Nimona's personal desire to grab the statue of Gloreth for reasons such as: taking down the monster-killer image of her former friend out of anger and sadness because she never wanted that image to be so true in representing one of the few people who ever cared about her even briefly;

OR, While trying to think about how she would act if she were actually dying, she reaches for the closest thing to a friend that she has, but this is her staging a false death, as that particular friendship was false so this is just fitting, isn't it?;

OR, They wanted it to spread a message that with the fall of the director, would come the fall of the corrupt system they live in, as well as the fall of this narrow-minded view of both Nimona and Gloreth's story as well as Gloreth and Nimona themselves.

Nimona freaking out about the arrow in their leg in the comic vs Nimona treating it like a little scrape not to be worried about in the movie.

This is really interesting to me. In the comic, it's played up for humor like Nimona is almost overreacting, then having Bal take care of her because he does care about her. This shows it as a bit silly, but so very meaningful.

Then you have the movie where Balister is freaking out and it's kind of funny because clearly Nimona is relatively fine about it, so he doesn't really need to make a big deal out of it. Then he helps her and is still very careful about it like with anyone else's arrow wound, and asks her questions so he can better understand them. Again so very important.

I love both versions of these scenes, I just am so curious about why they made such a drastic change.

I love this movie so freaking much. (I knew that already, but it bears saying for the thousandth time. It's just so fucking good.)

For this last one:

TW: mention of police brutality (discussed as a theme in the movie, nothing specific outside of the Nimona movie)

"He's got a weapon." It's not a weapon. It's a phone. But Todd (and who knows how many of the other knights) didn't choose to see it as anything other than what the director told him it was, and destroyed it as he was trained to do. This screams messaging about the stupid, dangerous, and harmful actions of too many police officers who don't check the situation for themselves before acting on "information" they gathered from insufficient data and/or unreliable sources, and combine that with profiling to make decisions that so often end up being harmful and even fatal to others.

[bataranqs]

In the Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018) documentary, one woman talks about how Fred Rogers wanted the show to tell kids to go to a trusted adult for help in things - cooking on stoves, if they were being abused, if a situation was hard for a kid to handle. And she talks about how she knew it was good but as an adult who knew her limitations and knew she barely knew what to do even with the best of intentions, it felt so much like lying to the kids.

No Home as a coming-of-age not in the sense of the kids growing independent but in the sense of you’re still young, the adults affect your life so much, and yet you’re told to mature beyond what you’ve been taught but kids need to be taught. Everyone does, really, but so much is - how can a kid know what to do if they don’t see an adult do it properly first? And how much of this is our duty, as human beings, to grow into “proper adults”?

Marie taking care of her family and growing older was realizing she only had to take care of herself but the reason she came to that conclusion was because she had a good-for-nothing dad who only took care of himself and forced her to take care of him on top of that. Marie who told Minju just to take care of herself because she didn’t want Minju to grow up like she did, even though they’re the same age - and in a way that’s what the adults in many of their lives do. They tell them what to do because they don’t want the kids to become them but they can’t exist as a better role model so the kids have every idea of what not to do but not what to do.

Why do we start with Haejoon and why is Eunyung’s arc last? A lot of reasons, of course - but also because Wanan knows that you need to see what’s done right in order to properly understand what’s wrong. Eunyung knows what’s being done to him by the adults is wrong, but he doesn’t understand what something being done “right” looks like.

What was the point of the shoplifting arc? Why did Wanan put this into No Home, a story about losing homes and broken families? To show how strongly it affects the teenagers. Haejoon knows how to react in this arc, albeit a bit poorly (he is still a teenager, after all) because his mom already showed him how to act. Everything he does is mimicking his mom - telling Eunyung stealing is wrong, believing Eunyung is telling the truth when he says “I didn’t steal it”, gently telling Eunyung that it's okay if he relapses because it's hard and they'll face the consequences together.

We can clearly see Haejoon growing into an adult - his coming of age, his character growth, is all obvious. He visibly matures, made even more apparent by his speech to Haejoon about how getting into fights and such feels immature and embarrassing now that he's going into high school. But the question isn't whether or not Haejoon is growing into an adult - the question is, are the others as well?

What about Juwan, who has nothing to do with this and is blithely young and happy? What about Marie, who cares enough to give advice to Minju but not enough to help her? What about Eunyung, who seems determined to stay on the path of self-destruction?

What does it mean to be an adult? What does it mean to be a kid? What duty do we, merely by existing as human beings, bear, and how much do we owe others even when they do nothing for us? Especially when they do nothing for us?

What do adults take away from this? It's not about having kids. It's not about guilt-tripping parents into being better. The teacher who told Haejoon to stay out of Eunyung's home life and hit Haejoon was in the wrong. The police officer who sent Eunyung back to an abusive home was wrong. The shop-owner who hit Haejoon and the shop-owner who accused Eunyung without proof of shoplifting thanks to his own biases were both wrong.

But what about the neighbours who probably heard Eunyung being hurt and didn't say anything? The bystanders who saw Haejoon being bullied and didn't do anything? The teachers who scolded Haejoon for beating up other students but never asked why or taught him any alternatives? What about us?

What kind of adult am I going to grow into? Will it be enough? Is this the only thing we can do - tell kids to trust adults, knowing it's a lie, but knowing there's nothing else we can do but try to make the lie a truth?

[kmazines]

Darl+ing

part i || part ii

Your last argument with Mingyu went nasty and that’s how you and him stop talking and decided to take a break from each others. You don’t know what went wrong this time. Usually both of you will talk it out before it’s too late but since both of you have been busy for months; him with the group comeback and you with company’s big project so every small problems brushed off and and little did both of you know, both of you ended up explode, shouted and said words both of you didn’t mean to each others and hurt each others.

pairing ; mingyu x female reader

warnings ; grammatical mistakes, stalker

Mingyu made sure he was left alone in that meeting room before dialed Wonwoo's number. He texted Mingyu to call him right away after he's done with his meeting and mention it's better if no one was around. Nothing was unusual with that especially when they're on date or off-schedule, it's always better to talk without any staff around.

"Mingyu, did y/n told you anything about what happened?" Wonwoo asked Mingyu over the phone.

"What do you mean? What happened?" Mingyu furrowed his brows.

"I'm on date with Yeri right now and she just told me that someone followed y/n to the office. Apparently he is a part-timer from another company related the last project and bothered y/n few times already while preparing for the event, so the others hvae been be on guard with him too but they never thought he'll follow y/n after the event. Especially when y/n definitely draw the line with him.....Mingyu?"

"Keep going"

"He almost dragged her away outside the office area but luckily the office guard saw it and try to get him but he got away" Mingyu silently listening. He was shaking inside but he's trying to stay calm and trying to brain all this new information he just heard. 'What the hell?'

"Y/n told Yeri to not tell me because she don't want us to worry and figured at least maybe you know. She didn't know about y/n moving out either. Y/n request one month unpaid leave so... I think she moved out to new place got to do with this too. You should go ask and check on her, Mingyu."

Mingyu agreed with Wonwoo that he shouldn't drive so he asked the manager to send him to your house instead. He sat in the car seat, looking outside at the beautiful scenery but his mind was somewhere else.

Mingyu keep rewinding his memories to few months back.

"I wish I didn't need to go to the venue tomorrow. This guy been staring at me the entire time. It's uncomfortable. I can't wait for this project to be over" you complained, pulled the blanket over both of you, turned to see Mingyu beside you, eyes closed.

"Just told your manager or coworkers about it, I bet they will understand you not going. Don't worry much, okay?" eyes still closed, Mingyu pulled you closer before drifting into dreamland.

He sighed, he should ask you more about it. Sometimes it's you that end up fell asleep over the talk, so Mingyu don't think much of it. To think that you did mention about it again another night too, but Mingyu can't even remember if he ever replied you back made him dissapointed with himself. There are a lot of things to prepare for the comeback, especially this time and he barely got time to visit you either. When he did, every conversation during that period end up either like that, or with Mingyu need to rushing back to the company.

Seungkwan called just right when they got into the parking lot.

"I think you should come here. Polices are here", Mingyu get out of the car and run upstairs without even looking back.

"What happened?" you see Mingyu panted and rushed towards you as he enter the apartment. Didn't even care about others around. He then turned to the police officers as he sit right by your side, waiting for explanation from the officers.

"And you are?" the police officer asked Mingyu. Seungkwan, Hoshi and Dokyeom already introduced themselves as your friends.

"Boyfriend. I'm her boyfriend," Mingyu confidently said. You wrapped your arms around Mingyu's arm and nodded to the police officers, giving them the green light to talk about the case.

"He was arrested last night" You gasped and let out a loud relief sigh. Holding yourself from crying right now. Finally!

"He was arrested in front of your previous apartment building. Fortunately, it seems like he don't know you already moved out" you can see Mingyu's head turned to you from the corner of your eyes. You can feel the horror from his stare. Obviously shocked and waiting for some explanation.

The police officers told you that the stalker said he just want to talk to you but it's hard to do so because you're always with others whenever he saw you at the venue to check for the preparation, so he followed you after the event when you're alone.

"But after the investigation, we found out he got few reports on him and he was going around using fake names and identities. Thank goodness we got him this time" Mingyu can feel how tense you are. He slowly moved your arms from his arm and tightly hold your hands. Your fingers intertwined with his fingers, while his thumb rubs your hand, trying to calm you.

It's shocking, really. You can heard the trio's slow gasp and whisper and talking with each others too as they're standing not far behind to listen.

The police officers asked you to come to the police station later whenever you're ready and you just nodded. You barely know what's happening around you anymore after that. When you finally made sense of everything, the house was so silent already. When you looked up, the police officers were gone, seems like the trio excused themselves too. Then your eyes locked on him, Kim Mingyu. He was leaning against the wall in front of you.

You was so flabbergasted by his stares. You know he was patiently waiting for your explanation, but you don't think you can talk right now. You're still overwhelmed and you know you will end up bursting into tears right away if you try to talk about it. You smiled at him nervously then walked to the kitchen to clean the table and stood by the sink to wash the dishes. You stopped as you can feel his presence right behind you.

"Thank you......for coming..." you bite your lower lips, trying to not cry. But your shaky voice, made it obvious. Mingyu's heart sank.

"Y/n...you must be so scared" he slowly hugged you from behind. It's been a while since you felt this secure and safe.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be that person you can rely on. I'm sorry I'm not there to protect you" he said softly, almost like whispering as he tighten his arms around you. He then turned you around, wrapped you around his arms tighter as you start sobbing. Your face buried on his chest, soaking his shirt wet with your tears. You hugged him back tightly when you look up and realised the tears start pouring out of his eyes too.

After you calm down, Mingyu brought you to sit on the couch before wrapping you with blanket.

"Do you want tea or hot choco?" Mingyu wiped the tears under your eyes. You shook your head and pulled him to sit beside you, motion him to join you snuggling under the warm blanket. He smiled sheepishly, gladly do so.

"I want to call you that night but..I don't know. Maybe I was being egoist, stubborn? Maybe I was actually afraid you wont come--"

"Hey hey y/n..shh" he softly shushed you. "It's okay"

"And..and especially when that night, you know how our fight went nasty. I was so frustrated when that guy followed me to the office but instead of telling you about it, I vented my anger on you and blamed you for not paying attention on me"

"It's my fault too, babe. You're right, I wasn't paying attention. I should've take your words seriously. I thought you're overreacting and get mad at you when you must be shocked that day" planted soft kiss on your forehead.

"Now tell me everything that happened. I know what happened at the office on that event day. Yeri told Wonwoo about it". You forgot they had a date today. Yeri is your closest coworker and also Wonwoo's girlfriend. They probably crossed paths few times after you introduced them to each others because not long after, Wonwoo asked you to help him to set a date with Yeri. The next thing you know, they're an item.

"Well...that night, we fought. Then, the next day I went to work like usual. I clocked out early because I'm not feeling good" Mingyu sighed.

"I never thought he'd follow me to the apartment-" Mingyu eyes grew bigger this time, didn't believe what he heard.

"That night he keep ringing the door bell, but when I asked who is it, he didn't answer. I called the police but by the time he arrived, the guard already chase him away. The next morning when I want to go to the work, he grabbed me again.." your spine shivers remembering the situation.

"Ughhh! I seriously want to kill that jerk right now," He groaned. His fist punched the couch pillow on his lap. His voice was stern and full of anger. Your cupped his face with your hands, don't want him to be overwhelmed by the anger and looked into his eyes.

"There are many people around so he couldn't do anything. He's actually stupid if you think about it." you chuckled try to shoo away the anger and anxious feelings away from your boyfriend.

"He's bold and that's...crazy. That's scary, babe. He got away with it many times that's why he's being bold" He didn't mean to scare you but that scares Mingyu. The fact that the stalker's doing that to you in public like that.

"I knew something was wrong when you said the house contract end, l should've asked more about it. I've promised to join you to go house hunting for the next house, remember? But like, we still have few months to go so I was confused. And I know we fought bad this time but you would never moved without telling me. And especially you said before that you prefer the area closer to your office but you moved to place closer to my company instead of yours?"

It's been 10 minutes since you let him rant and nag, to both you and himself. It's been silent and scary for a week, and you hated that. You don't mind hours of his voice echoing in this apartment but you're getting sleepy. You nuzzled into his neck.

"Let's go to sleep. It's been a long week", you nodded. He strokes your hair, loving the scent. Your scent that he's been missing so much.

"Plus, unfamiliar too.."he looked around the room. Both of you just realised how unfamiliar is this house to both of you

"And whatever break is this, let's end it. I can't do this. Not just I can't protect you and be there for you when you're in danger"

"And...I've been missing you so much too y/n. The whole time I feel like I'm going to explode" Mingyu's sad pouts got you. You lean closer and planting kissed all over his face. From his checks, to his nose and to his forehead, and gave a soft peck on his pouty lips, making him giggles.

"I miss you too, Mingyu. Now you're here, I'm not scared and it feel so comfortable in this new apartment. It's so unfamiliar not because it's a new apartment, but because there's no you with me. You're my home. Definitely." You looked fondly into his eyes, giving him butterflies. He giggles before pressing his lips against yours, into a soft kiss.

"Let's not fight like this again, okay?" You nodded as you pulled out from the kiss. You give him another peck on his lips before Mingyu pulled you closer into his embrace and pressing another kiss on your forehead.

Your closed your eyes as you nuzzled yourself deeper into his frame, slowly you begin to drift off, with Mingyu's warmth make it easier to fell asleep.

p/s : it's been hectic since I left this halfway done in my draft. I want to make better plot but I might end up not post it if I'm being undecisive so here it is. Sorry if it's a let down

I will change some words and grammatical mistakes from time to time. English is not my first language, so if you can ignore all those stupid grammar mistakes, that will be much appreciated.

PSSS : I don’t know how or what taglist is and I don’t know how to reply with this account (this is not my main account)

[five-rivers]

Cult Division 4

Part of this series.

“Vlad,” said Maddie.  

“Maddie,” purred Vlad.  “What brings you here today?”

Maddie repressed the desire to curl her lip.  “I am informing you that we’re exhuming Phantom’s body, following the activities of the unidentified cultists last night.”

“Oh, but, Maddie, only family members can do that.  And unless you and Phantom are suddenly family members…”

“Don’t give me that,” said Maddie.  “I.  Know.”

Vlad’s expression soured.  “Yes.  Quite,” he said flatly.  “I am aware.  However, unless you want to make your relationship with the boy public, there’s nothing I can do about the law.”

Maddie, having anticipated this, slammed a piece of paper down on the desk.  “You won’t have to,” she said.  “The law is very much on my side for this one.  Municipal Ordinance 10776.  Investigative professionals registered with the city can request that any grave be exhumed.”

(Investigative professionals here meaning ghost hunters.  Not everyone had the kind of open-mindedness as the average Amity Parker, and although a ordinance against summoning ghosts could be laughed off, things like this tended to be taken a little more seriously.)

“Request,” stressed Vlad.  “Requests, by their nature, are not automatically granted.”

“Maybe,” said Maddie.  “But when word gets around about the cultists, and it will, people will start asking why we aren’t investigating.”

“Is there even anything to investigate?” asked Vlad, putting on his fake innocent act again.  “Goodness, I thought the cultists left the memorial intact and undisturbed.  Are you saying I was misinformed?  Or has something happened to poor Daniel?  I’m sorry, to Phantom?  It really is fascinating that they both have the same first name.”

They glared at each other over the mayoral desk.  

“If I have to,” said Maddie, “I can always reveal you.”

“And I’ll deny everything, or reveal Phantom.”

“Not your ghost half,” said Maddie.  “Your continued sexual harassment.  There might not be enough of it to get you arrested, but there’s certainly enough for some interesting headlines.”

(She could also just wait for the police to get a warrant from a judge, but figuring out how to word it without saying anything about ghosts, cultists, or other things that would make outsiders overly curious took time.)

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.  Jack would be upset, but if it's for Danny, I think he’ll get over it.”

“Very well,” said Vlad, who looked like he’d swallowed a full box of spiders.  “I will approve your request.”

“Thank you,” said Maddie.  “I–”  Her phone went off.  Relishing the chance to be rude to Vlad, she answered it.  “Hello?”

.

“Kidnapped?” Maddie Fenton repeated again.  “How?”

“Er,” said Collins, drumming his fingers on the wheel of his car.  This was not the best place to have this conversation, but there weren’t a lot of better options, so…  “The normal way, I suppose.  Someone broke into the house and took him.”

“Through Jack?”

“That’s something we’re investigating.”  Jack Fenton had been found passed out near the front door, and was one of the reasons they’d been called in.  Apparently, bright orange hazmat was visible.  Who would have thought.

“But,” said Maddie, “you think Danny’s okay?”

‘Okay’ was probably an overstatement.  An overstatement at best.  They hadn’t found any major organs or limbs strewn around the house, but there were signs of a struggle, and kidnapping victims were, as a rule, never okay.  

Also… Collins made the decision to not mention the bloody backpack.  Some things mothers (and potential suspects) were better off not knowing.  He was fairly certain it wasn’t Danny’s blood on the bag, anyway.  He almost felt bad for whoever kidnapped him.  

Almost.

Whoever those people were, he doubted they were aware of even a tenth of what Danny did for Amity Park.  

“At this point, he is most likely still…” he hesitated slightly before the next word, “alive.”  He wasn’t convinced anything could kill Danny.  The kid seemed invulnerable, for all intents and purposes, and even as a human, he could do incredible things.

Maddie made a strangled noise on the other side of the line.  

“We’d like you to come down to the station,” continued Collins.  “Keep your phone on and with you.  It’s possible you’ll be contacted for ransom.”  Possible, but highly unlikely.  The Fentons were well-off, but not to this degree.  

“I don’t have time,” said Maddie.  “I have to look.”

“We’re looking.”

“You aren’t ghost hunters.  It’s almost certainly a ghost that took him.”

“There’s reason to believe that is not the case.  Mrs. Fenton.  Maddie.  It’s possible that you saw or heard something important before you left or earlier this week.”

Maddie was quiet on the other side of the line.  “You think I had something to do with this?” she asked, a thread of danger running through her words.  

“Not as such, no.  This is just– this is just procedure.  We need to look into everyone.  We’re talking to Jack, too.”

“Is that why you think it was humans who did this?”

Again, the reason for that was more the bloodied bag, but, again, he wasn’t talking about that.  “Go to the station and you can ask him yourself.”

“Are you not at the station?”

Crap, what had he said to make her think that?  “That’s–”

“You’re still at Fentonworks, aren’t you?”

“No?” said Collins.  

Maddie hung up on him.  

Great.  She was on her way and she’d be on the warpath.  He hit redial.

“Hello?” said Maddie, in a way that told him that she hadn’t looked at the caller ID and that she was considering what he’d said about ransoms.

“Look, Maddie, I know you were going up to see if you could get permission to exhume the body.  Could we– If you go to the station, we can get that started right away.  We have the equipment ready to go, the medical examiner is ready.  Everything is ready.”

“You–”

“This is a crime scene, Maddie.  You can’t be here.”  

“It’s my house.  And my son.”

“I know, I know.  We care about Danny, too.  But he’s not here.  You can’t help him here.”

There was quiet on the other side of the line.

“Fine.” 

.

“So,” said Paterson.  “You went to the door and… what, again?”

“I already told him,” said Jack, who was sitting on the back of an ambulance, getting poked and prodded by an EMT.  “Can’t he tell you?”

“Sure,” said Paterson, glancing sideways at McGee, “but can you run me through it again?  For reference?  Sometimes, we remember things better the second time around.”

“I went to the door, and started feeling dizzy, but I opened it up - I shouldn’t have done that.  Should have realized that something was wrong.  I opened it up, and there was this duffel bag there.”

“Do you remember anything about the duffel bag?”

“It was taped over in weird places.  Patched.  Uh.  It might have been blue?  Or green?  But after I saw it, I just passed out.  I don’t know what it was about it that made me pass out.”

“Oxygen deprivation,” said the EMT.

“What?”

“Right, you said I wasn’t breathing before, so–”

“Which was caused by oxygen deprivation.  You show all the signs.  Whoever it was that did this must have released a huge amount of nitrogen or something similar into the area immediately in front of your door.”

“I didn’t feel like I couldn’t breathe, though.”

“You wouldn’t.  Our reflex to breathe is triggered by the presence of carbon dioxide, not the absence of oxygen.  Without rescue breaths, you would have died of asphyxiation.”

“That’s a thing?” asked Paterson, scrunching her nose.  

“Yeah,” said Jack.  “You can’t really work as a scientist without at least hearing about it.”

“People have died from it before,” said the EMT.  “You’re probably going to be fine, you were found fast, but you still need to go to the hospital.”

“But I need to find Danny.”

“They wouldn’t have stuck around,” said Paterson.  “We’ve already got everyone looking for Danny.  Amber Alert and everything.”

“Do you think they did the same thing to Danny?  The nitrogen thing?”

“It would have been in the house, yeah,” said the EMT.  

“Okay,” said Paterson, “so we should look for someone who bought a whole lot of nitrogen tanks or something?  What do people even use those for?”

The EMT shrugged.  “Science, I guess.  You ready to go, Mr. Fenton?”

“Alright,” said Jack.  

“Hey, wait,” said McGee, “I’m not done yet–”

“Then you can come talk to him at the hospital,” said the EMT.  “George!  Come over and help me!”

The EMTs packed Jack into the ambulance and drove away.  

McGee stared after it, tapping his foot.  “Do you think these kidnappers were able to revive Danny, or are we going to be looking for a corpse?”

“Don’t say things like that,” said Paterson.  She’d already seen Danny’s corpse once, after all, she didn’t need to see it again.  “It’s bad luck.”

.

Danny woke slowly.  He felt unpleasantly bruised, for one, and for another, the last thing he remembered was getting kidnapped, which was generally not a precursor to happy fun times.  

He peeled open eyes that felt disgustingly bloodshot, and looked around.  There wasn’t much to see.  The room he was in was small, clean, and bare, and he was lying down on a bed.  Someone had even tucked him in.  

Creepy.  Not that kidnapping wasn’t creepy in and of itself, but this was especially creepy.  

He struggled to sit up, and discovered that he’d been wrapped in a kind of improvised straitjacket.  Several layers of blankets were wrapped around him and held in place by belts.  He strained against them, but unfortunately whatever the cult from the other night had done was still holding strong.  No powers for him, not even a little bit.

And Danny didn’t even know why these people had taken him.  

His legs were still free, so, with a little extra maneuvering, he got up and walked around the room.  The one door didn’t even have a handle.  

He was stuck.  

His mouth suddenly even drier than it had been, he swallowed.  He was stuck.  Trapped.  Hadn’t even figured his way out of this frankly embarrassing ‘straightjacket.’  

The door opened, and Danny stumbled back, overbalancing and thumping into the wall.  Severa masked figures walked in.

“Oh, he’s perfect!”

They came in, crowding him.  

“Back off!”  Danny kicked out, but he was at a bad angle, and the first of the mask-wearers was able to get close enough that Danny couldn’t do anything other than try to bite, which didn’t really work if the person you were trying to bite was holding your face.  

“Just perfect.”  They tilted Danny’s head this way and that, and Danny couldn’t pull away.  “Age, of course, is important, but appearance, too.  I hadn’t realized…”  They fell to muttering.  

Danny’s eyes flicked from mask to mask.  They were plain white plastic with the eyes blacked out with some kind of fabric.  Simple, but effective.  Danny didn’t know who these people were.  

“Yes, our sponsor was right.  You’ll do perfectly.  Perfectly.”  They patted Danny’s cheek.  

“Sponsor?”  Danny didn’t want to interact with these people at all, but he needed information.  

“I know you must be so frightened.  We would have tried a more peaceful way, but those ghost hunters…  They would never see reason.”

The other mask-wearers shifted, grumbling.  

“The number of times they have assaulted our lord–  No, no, we had to get you somewhere safe.  After all, you are to be the host for our lord, Phantom.”

Well.  That.  

What?

He stared at the masked person, uncomprehending as they waxed poetic about Phantom’s - his - virtues.  Many of which Danny didn’t have.

“... honor, to be chosen, and an honor, too, to be here to witness.  But, of course, you’ve asked after our sponsor.  He asked to meet with you.”  They ran their hand through Danny’s hair, which was just.  Bad.  “Yes.  We have followed his word for some time, and he has never led us wrong, you know.”

Danny didn’t know.  And he didn’t want to meet this ‘sponsor’ they were talking about.

“He’ll be coming soon,” said the masked person.  “You’ll talk, and then… then we prepare.”

The masked people filed out of the room and closed the door behind them.  Danny futilely tried to open the door, in case they hadn’t closed it properly.  Frustrated, he sat down on the bed.  

Another cult.  A different one, too, if he knew anything about cults, which was not a sentence he’d have expected to say before he became a half ghost.  Worse, not only was it another cult, it was another Phantom cult.  What part of his behavior as Phantom made people think he wanted cults?  

Superman didn’t have to deal with this.  

Superman was fictional.  

Maybe he could use the walls or the edge of the cot to shift the belts around, and from there he could use the buckles to… pick the nonexistent lock on the door.  Right.  Not likely.  Maybe he could do something to - no, the hinges were on the outside.  At least, he could use them as a weapon, probably?  Maybe–

Danny’s ghost sense went off, and he tensed.  He wasn’t ready for a fight, but he was ready to be a pain, assuming this ghost was involved, and make a plea for escape, if they weren’t.

A ghost phased through the door.  

Danny hissed.  

“Plasmius.”

“Hello, little badger.”

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Redux (5x01)

Agent Scully had always been poised, even from that first moment in Blevins’ office, but she’d developed a sort of…commanding stature as the years went on. The conference room was full when she entered, but she took her seat and began to speak without any hint of discomfort. 

Four years ago, Section Chief Blevins assigned me to a project you all know as the X-Files.  

Agent Mulder had barely been on Blevins’ radar at the time. Had it not been for the man in charge of all this, he might not have realized the depth of his search into the paranormal for quite some time. But word had come down that he needed to be watched– reigned in. Shut down. 

Blevins had chosen Agent Scully. He’d wanted someone young, someone impressionable who was eager to please and eager to further their career in whatever way possible. She was a doctor and a scientist. Blevins thought she would be perfect for the job.

I come here today, four years later, to report on the illegitimacy of Agent Mulder's work. That it is my scientific opinion that he became, through the course of these years, a victim. A victim of his own false hopes, and of his belief in the biggest of lies.

Blevins believed she would be able to prove that the things her partner sought were nothing more than fodder for a child’s nightmares. 

He believed the X-Files would be shut down. 

How things had changed over the years. Agent Scully had only made her partner stronger. She’d proven to be just as unpredictable as the original thorn in their side. She used her intelligence and expertise to find credibility in the X-Files. What had started as an assignment to debunk had quickly changed into a mission to validate. 

…systematic way in which Agent Mulder had been deceived and used.

And yet, despite all past experience with this young woman, she sat in front of them today, claiming to have accomplished what they’d asked of her. 

…I as his partner had been led down the same path, losing a family member due to my allegiance and contracting a fatal disease, which I was being told was engineered by the men who were responsible for Agent Mulder's deception. 

Blevins didn’t know if he believed it.

What I couldn't tell Agent Mulder… what I had only just learned myself, was that the cancer which had been diagnosed in me several months earlier had metastasized.

Blevins hadn’t wanted this. He didn’t even understand it. He was too low in the chain of command to know if what she said was true, but what he did know was that the man with the cigarettes had an ever-growing interest in the status of this particular agent’s health. 

And the doctors told me short of a miracle it would continue to aggressively invade my body, advancing faster each day towards the inevitable. 

It wasn’t just the cancer that he was in the dark about. Blevins didn’t know the purpose of these men, or their goals. Their endgame. He was just a yes man, a link to the FBI. Had it not been for a chance meeting followed by insinuated threats to both his family and himself, he wouldn’t have even been there. 

He had no vested interest in Mulder and his quest, but he was part of the machine, the same as everyone else dressed in suits, skulking around in dark, smoke-filled rooms. 

Early this morning, I got a call from the police…

Following orders, completing plans. 

…asking me to come to Agent Mulder's apartment. The detective asked me... He needed me to identify a body.

Blevins could hear the emotion in her voice. He could see the way her lip quivered, and despite himself and his duty to the men who had called this meeting, he remembered the young woman from four years before. He’d sent in a spy, but in the end, created a team. 

“Agent Scully…” He chewed the inside of his lip and watched her struggle. She didn’t speak at first, but then, fighting tears, she charged forward. 

“Agent Mulder died late last night from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.” 

Her attention had fallen to the light at the door as Assistant Director Skinner entered the room. She watched him with her back to the room, but Blevins was Division Chief, and it was his job, his responsibility, to move forward. 

“Agent Scully, these accusations you've made…” he said, seriously. “You've been given a disease?”

“Yes, sir.”

“They're extremely serious charges.”

“Yes, sir. But I have proof…”

She wouldn’t have proof. These men prevented them from ever reaching that point.

…against the men behind this…of the lies that I believed. 

Agent Scully removed something from the file in front of her and stood from her seat. 

What I have here is proof undeniable...  

She would never have anything substantial…

…that the men who gave me this disease were also behind the hoax. A plot designed to lead to Agent Mulder's demise and to my own.  

If he kept his head down, did his job…

Planned and executed by someone in this room...  

Blevins could feel his heart stop in his chest. She couldn’t know… he didn’t know…

What I have here is scientific evidence—  

She froze, looking down at her file. Blevins looked too, at a small drop of blood. Then another.

Agent Scully rubbed a finger under her nose, looking back at him with a bright red smear across her skin. He was horrified by what he saw. By all of it. She began to sway on her feet. Skinner was the one who went to her rescue while the only thing Blevins could do was watch. 

Watch what he had done to a young woman with a promising career in the FBI.

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Ao3!

@fridaysat9