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mixelation · 3 years ago

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if you've been here a while you may remember my Tobirama/OC thing (bulletpoint outline, excerpt). you may also remember me whining about how it's hard to develop an OC who's just as interesting as the other main characters (who in this fic would be Tobirama, Tsunade, maybe Jiraiya) but also seems like an organic product of the setting. anyway under the cut is some discussion of the OC and possible story so I don't fucking forget.

Okay, so to review: I originally thought of this as wanting to write an SI soulmate fic. The OC, Ren, is an SI in the sense that it's a character designed with some aspects of myself in mind, but I don't think this fits with the way the Naruto fandom current uses "SI." She's not a real world person reborn or anything like that; she's a tokubetsu jounin who works in R&D in Ame. Soulmates in this AU have the "first thing your soulmate says to you" written on you. Ren has been assigned to a project that involves trying to move people around in a hiraishin-style jutsu, and through that she accidentally summons Tobirama (her soulmate) from the middle of his fight with the Kinkaku Squad or whatever they're called.

I wanted to justify why she has this deep knowledge of hiraishin-adjacent jutsu and ended up with a fairly complicated background. I think I'll have to be pretty careful about how I present it in writing to not turn readers off? So it will go a little like this:

The first thing Tobirama asks her, after he's demanded to know where he is and stitches himself up, is how the fuck did you do that. She shows him the jutsu formula and he's like: oh so she's a little bit of a maniac.

Tobirama cannot go outside so he's stuck in her lab. He often gets left alone while she goes around and pretends she didn't break time with her research and they both try to figure out how to smuggle him out of the village once he's healed enough to travel safely. As far as Tobirama can tell, Ren's research is mostly agricultural? Like she has bays of plants under different treatments growing. He recognizes her surname (Kaentake) as an old ninja clan whose Thing was mushroom cultivation, so it makes sense to him that she went plant-fungi symbiosis (which is a lot of the research) -> general agriculture (GM crops, etc). However he doesn't get why she also knows time-space jutsu?!

When he asks her about it, Ren is like: WELL, this isn't really a secret, I guess. So she tells him that when she was a kid and the Third Shinobi War broke out, her genin team was captured by Iwa. Iwa cut off some of their fingers so they couldn't perform handsigns for ninjutsu but could still do manual labor. Then, once Iwa realized the Yellow Flash was going to be a Problem, they started using their prisoners (who were expendable) to try and counter act him. They tried stealing hiraishin seals, and then they started trying to send prisoners in as a vanguard to physically fuck up hiraishin seals. None of this worked particularly well, but Ren was stuck in the thick of this for years and has an intimate knowledge of how the hiraishin works.

(But, also, note: even if you know all the ins and outs of the jutsu, it's stupid hard to actually execute, which is why no one has successfully reverse-engineered it from the seals left behind.)

Tobirama senses there's a lot Ren isn't telling him-- like how she ended up back in Ame, or how she even survived doing that for so many years-- but he doesn't press for more details.

One of the things we see when Ren is away from the lab is her going to meet with Konan about a request she put in to honor a specific person (currently named Ayaka but this could change) by adding her name to some sort of war memorial. Konan is basically like, "No, I understand you were friends but she wasn't an Ame-nin, why did you even request this?" and Ren is like, "Well, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try..." We also see that Ren doesn't have many social connections but is very dedicated to a shrine for Ayaka.

We also see that Ren getting into an argument with the head of R&D because he's like "why are you modifying rice to make more vitamin A if you could be working on making us a new bloodline limit like everyone else?" and she goes back into lab and rants at Tobirama about how vitamin deficiencies are one of the leading causes of childhood mortalities in several prefectures, and we could be solving THAT, but everyone is like "WHAT IF WE POISONED ALL THE RICE INSTEAD?"

Tobirama agrees with her that Vitamin Rice Would Be Good but is also like: no civilian farmer in their right mind would trust the product of some ninja's crazy science experiment to eat? How are you going to scale production up just in your little lab's greenhouse bay? You'd have to work with the Daimyo or local nobility to coordinate directly with farmers, not a ninja village, and Ren is very >8C

Anyway the point is that even though Tobirama is grumpy and critical, he's critical in a way that helps Ren's goals, so when they start to work out how to get him out of Ame, Ren asks what would happen if she went with him to Konoha.

In the morning, she shoos Tobirama away from remaking expired reagents and into her office.

“What…” she says slowly, unsure of how to even suggest her new plan for getting him out. “Hypothetically speaking… what would happen… if I came with you?”

She watches Tobirama’s face closely, expecting to see surprise or excitement or maybe even disgust at the idea of taking her with him back to Konoha. Instead he just looks thoughtful for a few seconds and replies:

“We’d get married.”

“What the fuck!” Ren hears herself cry, throwing her hands in the air.

“What?” Tobirama asks, helpfully scooting himself into a corner of the office so Ren can pace anxiously. “We’re soulmates.”

“It doesn’t follow that we’d get married,” Ren hisses back. This is… this isn’t at all what she was expecting. She doesn’t have a plan going forward for this option.

Tobirama’s eyes narrow-- a move which looks deeply intimidating and like he’s debating how to slice you open, but which Ren is fairly sure just means he’s thinking-- and he tilts his head slightly to the side.

“It would have been expected in my time,” Tobirama says slowly, “for different-sex soulmates to marry and produce children. Is this not still true?”

Ren pauses in her pacing, staring and her old-fashioned soulmate. Oh gods, she thinks, he’s being completely serious about marrying me.

“No,” she snaps immediately. “Well, maybe for big clans, but--”

She cuts herself off. Tobirama just raises an eyebrow at her.

Oh gods, Ren thinks, feeling hysterical, he’s being completely serious about making me wife of the Senju clan head.

Ren’s face must look suitably horrified, because Tobirama says, “Marriage is an option we can explore at a later time. As a former Hokage, I would guarantee your safety in Konoha.”

He also seems deadly serious about this, and yet Ren doesn’t feel calmed at all.

“And what does that mean?” she asks, waving her arms and going back to pacing. “Like, chuck me in a holding cell until I spill all of Ame’s secrets but hey! You’re still alive! safe, or-- I don’t know-- end up permanently possessed by Nakayama, or-- what the fuck could an Uchiha do to me--”

Tobirama looks… vaguely startled, and that makes him hesitate a moment before he spins Ren around and places both hands on her shoulders. They’re big and heavy, and Ren glares at his clavicle.

“Safe,” he says, “as in physically and mentally unharmed, and able to live freely.”

Ren shrugs off his hands and takes a step back so she can glare at his face.

“Live freely as in your custody, live freely as in be watched by ANBU, or actually live freely?”

Tobirama’s face twitches, and it almost looks like he’s fighting back a smile.

“I’m not a demon trying to trick you with misleading promises,” he says.

“Then answer the question,” Ren answers, narrowing her own eyes.

Tobirama’s ultimate promise is: he’s confident in his ability to sway (command) Hiruzen to let Ren live under her soulmate’s custody, and that Tobirama has no intention of controlling what she does as long as she’s not actively sabotaging Konoha. With badgering he also promises the possibility of her leaving Konoha altogether if she wants to.

“And what if,” Ren asks very slowly, when she’s done badgering Tobirama for details, “you can’t sway Sarutobi, because he’s old and you’re supposed to be dead?”

Tobirama leans into her, replacing his hands on her shoulders. “If Hiruzen cannot accept you after you’ve risked your life to help me,” he says, very firmly, “then I have no problem reclaiming my status as Hokage.”

“Oh,” Ren says quietly. “Okay, then.”

The way they get out involves some bullshit with Ren's soulmate summoning seal, which I haven't ironed out the details of yet. The main blocks to getting out is that Pein can sense anyone moving around in the village (so Tobirama needs to be super covert unless he wants to fight a whole village); Ren is not actually allowed out of the village because she spent so long working for an enemy village, even if it was under duress; I am going to let Tobirama figure out Hiraishin but not at this time because it would make fleeing a ninja village to easy. :P

...also, very important, Ren has a cat with anxiety she makes Tobirama help her smuggle out too.

“Miyuki is a cat?” Tobirama asks, confused, while Ren runs to catch her.

“What did you think she was?” Ren asks, bemused, as she dumps Miyuki into Tobirama’s arms. The cat lets out an unhappy yowl, which Tobirama ignores.

“A child,” Tobirama says accusingly, as if Ren has deprived him of a human baby.

Anyway! They have a roadtrip to Konoha and Hiruzen is like What the FUCK but Tobirama checks out as being a bonafide 100% real Tobirama, and they call in Jiraiya to verify Ren's jutsu. (Which, several people note, has to potential to change they very nature of war?! And Ren is like, "uuuh I would rather it.... not?") Also at some point this happens:

“Yeah, well,” Ren says, nodding. Here’s the awkward part. “You know how I said I couldn’t use any ninjutsu?”

Instead of looking annoyed or angry, Tobirama just laughs. It’s a full, loud laugh that takes years off his face and makes Ren jump.

“You lied. Of course you lied,” he says when he’s gotten control of himself. “You’re going to make presenting you as harmless to Hiruzen either very easy or very tricky.”

“Just you wait,” Ren says dryly, collapsing onto her loveseat. “This one I learned in Iwa.”

(Living as a prisoner in Iwa was a dangerous dance between "get good enough to survive" and "not so good Iwa perceives you as a threat," and part of her safety in Ame is that even though she spent a decade working for an enemy, she's one of them and not even that dangerous)

They move into the ancient Senju household Hashirama built. Ren sets up Ayaka's shrine, and Tobirama gets some fo the story of Ayaka out of her: Ayaka was another kidnapped genin, from Kusa, Ren's "best friend" (read: girlfriend) during the war. Toward the end of the war, more effort was put into recapturing prisoners, and a mixed group from some of the smaller villages (Ame, Kusa, Taki. etc) freed their prison group and distributed the prisoners, some of whom didn't remember where they were from, sort of haphazardly between the villages. Ren and Ayaka ended up in a group shuffled back to Ame, where they sat in prison for a while while Ame tried to figure out what to do with them. Ren was eventually shown to be a Ame-born and raised kunoichi and allowed to re-integrate. Ayaka was not, and was eventually executed.

Anyway! One of the first things Tobirama wants to do, finding his clan nearly extinct, is hunt down Tsunade and drag her back home. Idk how the details of this would go yet, but at some point they all get kind of drunk and are comparing battle scars and Ren is like "YEAH THE YELLOW FLASH TOTALLY STABBED ME. missed my vitals tho" and Jiraiya is like "Minato wouldn't miss" and Tsunade is like "no, no, you can clearly see in the scarring pattern it was one of his stupid kunai" and eventually someone goes, "hold on, are you going to be okay with his giant stone face staring down at you for the rest of your life?!" But Ren is very adamant that even though she does low-key have nightmares about Minato (she doesn't say this part outloud to Jiraiya/Tsunade, but she might confess to Tobirama), she's not like. Bitter? And up until now Tobirama has gotten the impression that Ren deeply hated Iwa so he doesn't really question this answer.

I kind of want Tobirama to get pulled into Uchiha Coup shenanigans in a way that prevents the massacre but idk how exactly it'd go. Kind of want him to take Shisui on as an apprentice as a show of good faith? And probably he tried to bully either Tsunade or Jiraiya into being Hokage (I'm leaning towards Hokage!Jiraiya so Tsunade has free time to do other things)

Anyway, since Jiraiya is in-village now, he's going through old shit and discovers Minato had drafted a pardon for a random Kusa-nin for some reason, and he recognizes the attached photo as the same photo as the one in Ren's shrine. So he goes to Tobirama and is like: YO WHAT THE FUCK? Tobirama shows the photo to Ren and she has a pretty emotional reaction but refuses to explain; this ends up their first real argument.

Later, Tobirama decides to fill Ren in on whatever the fuck he's doing with the Uchiha as a show of trust, and eventually she tell him her Full Dramatic Backstory: she'd basically been sabotaging Iwa's moves against the Yellow Flash by memorizing the countermeasures they had in development for the Hiraishin and telling him about it. In exchange, she'd begged him to spare Ayaka's life (and only Ayaka's). Minato had never reported this to anyone to prevent Konoha going over his head to makes moves against his informant, and he had severely but non-fatally injured Ren a few times to prevent suspicion on Iwa's end. Ren was planning to take this secret to her grave.

Ren is actually devastated to find out Ayaka would have been safe if Konoha had picked them up. Ren is the one who'd had them go to Ame, and it'd gotten Ayaka killed, even though the only real difference between them was were they happened to be born.

Thematically, I like the idea that One Small Action from an unimportant person could change the tide of war, and I want to sort of... figure out a way to tie it into how the Uchiha are being treated? Like: You cannot mistreat people in your community and expect it to not destroy you. Idk. It's being workshopped.

What I ultimately want the Senjuu household (Tobirama, Ren, Tsunade, Shizune) working towards is what Ren wanted to aim her research at all along. Like, improved agriculture and public health and medicine to help communities that were devastated after war, even outside of Fire Country. I want it to be rocky and filled with a lot of mistrust of ninja. I want Minato's hiraishin seals left all over the continent (which conveniently map almost perfectly to the most effected places, bc war) to be hijacked as a way to move supplies around.

...and I guess if it's a "soulmate" fic then more soulmate shenanigans should be happening, so we'll make Kakashi and Obito be soulmates as a plot point? Idk.

#the tobirama/oc au #this is very long under the cut and contains some excerpts. im sorry lol #my writing

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fagderolo · 3 years ago

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also ughhhh okay desperately looking into myths when i know nothing is so difficult bc idk how heavy handed this game is.

sorry had to take a break to fish a thread out of my heater (: anyway where was i.

idk what to look into but Basically there is a singer, her name is martha ellis she sings the blues and seems. idk. old soul wise? out of time, is how my gm put it and strange to Me especially bc im technological.

umm. she sang at the scene of 2 possibly 3 deaths? i am unsure abt the time frame but from what i got she sang, they died seemingly of "heart attacks" within a day of each other? (and/or? her singing?)

but like. from what we are getting (not much) at least one of them died Of Loneliess and the other two were not in happy situations. so heartbreak in general is our Main thread. she seems to be able to connect to peoples sadness, though not in a way where she Realized when one of us tried to resist it

anyway my only ideas r like... orpheus or a siren/muse (specifically melpomene) but. idk. its a lot harder to find information a) on any of the muses and b) on any other mythology that is Not western without knowing More about what im looking for and im Just not sure greek is the direction im meant to be going at all really.

she also could not be involved at all i guess but we talked to a really unhelpful dead guy that said something about "her" being there and he was talking to a singer so. we r assuming. i feel our gm could be a bit more helpful re: what we can infer as opposed to giving us shit to sort thru but thats neither here nor there. im simply adhd and jump to the wrong conclusions easy.

#⚡#blahhhh i hate how slowly ttrpgs move sometimes i feel we did so little but we did all we could be expected to do really #city of mist #ummm btw i guess nobody thats played this/gmed it answer bc i am relatively #certain this is a case or whatever theyre called in the book

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spine-buster · 4 years ago

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The President Wears Prada (William Nylander) | Chapter 22

A/N: So this chapter actually marks the end of the plot line of the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” -- I’m sure the dialogue after the Zamboni driver game from last chapter and the “By all means, move at a glacial place, you know how that thrills me” line was a bit of a hint. Also, we’re striking that last scene where Andie apologizes to Nate in the restaurant because she had absolutely nothing to apologize for 😤 ANYWAYS, this means that from this point, up until maaaaaybe the final FINAL chapters (whenever this thing ends, because I still don’t know when), all content and storyline is original and not based on the movie, although it will still obviously be inspired by it. We love consistency! Have a great read, and enjoy! Let me know what you think as always!

February 24th, 2020

Aberdeen Bloom watched as Brendan and Kyle were answering phones left, right, and centre.

Seriously. At one point, Kyle had three on his ears. He didn’t have three ears. All because of the damned trade deadline. And it was still only 9:30 in the morning.

The room was set up the way she was told to set it up; prepared how Brendan wanted it prepared. Every major voice for both the Leafs and the Marlies was in the room – Brendan, Kyle, Brandon, Dave, Reid, Leanne, Sheldon, Paul, Dave, Andrew, Jim, Troy, and even Laurence, Mike, Greg, AJ, and Rob from the Toronto Marlies. At the front of the room, on the whiteboard, there were the names of all the players – even those in the system – glued to magnets so they could move them around. On the other side were magnets with names of some other players from teams that they’d been looking at bringing in through a trade. Three phones were hooked up in the room, and Brendan and Kyle were on their cellphones a lot. There was a TV set up for video playback and hooked up to Reid’s laptop. Brendan would exit and enter the board room at will while he was on his phone. So would Kyle. Kyle was dealing with most of the possible cap stuff. There were worksheets everywhere.

And in the back of Aberdeen’s mind, all she could think about was Tyson Barrie.

He’d been on her mind since the drive home, really, and since all the ramp up for the trade deadline started. And she couldn’t help but wonder if Brendan and Kyle knew of him wanting to be traded and him being unhappy. Did Brendan and Kyle concern themselves with the private lives of their players? Even if the player said nothing? That was the ultimate question Aberdeen needed answered, because now that she recognized all the clues, it was glaringly obvious to her how much Tyson wanted out. She hadn’t said anything, obviously. His name magnet wasn’t moving around much, but she knew how much he wanted to be moved. She was conflicted.

“This motherfu…” she heard Brendan mumble as he looked down at his phone. “Can someone post a memo to the entire fucking league that we’re not trading Nylander, for fuck sakes,” he announced to the room. “The core isn’t on the fucking table unless Connor Mc-fucking-David is in the mix.”

Aberdeen let out a shaky breath she didn’t know she was holding in. William being traded was not, for some reason, a worry of hers, if only because everyone knew he was having a banner year and Kyle had made explicitly clear that he wasn’t going to be traded so long as he was GM.

Kapanen.

Johnsson.

Gauthier.

Holl.

Ceci.

“It’s not in his contract but Spezza won’t go anywhere. He wants to be here.”

“If Johnsson goes it’s one less player we offer up to Seattle when the time comes.”

“Can Kappy go? He’s good bait. He’s got a friendly contract.”

It didn’t help that everything ended at 3pm. It also didn’t help that they had a charter flight waiting for them at 4:30 to take them to Tampa for their game tomorrow. Aberdeen didn’t know how they were going to handle this timeline. What if they made a blockbuster trade? What if someone was shipped off to the west coast at 2:59pm and had to uproot his whole life? Everybody in the room wasn’t exactly calm, but she didn’t know how they could take about trading these players as if they were cattle being moved. She knew this happened in all sports, but now that she was a part of it (well, in the room – it wasn’t like she was making decisions), it made everything more complicated for her.

“Tyson’s staying. Tyson – no – Tyson – Tyson is – Tyson is staying,” she heard Brendan repeating to Kyle, in what looked like a semi-private conversation. She couldn’t hear some of the other things he was saying, but some words were said loud enough. Contract. Avalanche. Kadri trade. Defense. Rielly-Barrie.

Happy.

Aberdeen gulped. Did Brendan think he was happy here? Did Kyle? Because she knew the exact opposite. She knew Tyson wasn’t, but she was sworn to secrecy by Tyson that she wouldn’t say a word to Brendan. But Brendan was wrong. Tyson wanted out.

Should…should she say something?

She liked Tyson. She wanted to see him happy. It was complicated, though, because she had no loyalty to him. She did, in a way, as an acquaintance – as someone who overheard a private conversation and then was asked not to share the details of it – but she had more loyalty to Brendan. Her boss. The guy who was trying to build a team that would win the Stanley Cup. The guy that her job depended on.

“Aberdeen.”

Like, who was she loyal to the most? If she actually said something to Brendan, would Tyson hate her forever? Would the entire team turn their back on her and hate her forever too? Because she couldn’t shut her mouth? Because she was a tattle-tale and exposed—

“Aberdeen.”

—exposed a secret of one of the players to the boss? But that secret was tied to his mental health. It’s not like she saw a guy hook up with a teammate’s girlfriend or escort or do blow off a toilet seat or something. This was integral to the well-being of a player—

“Aberdeen!”

She snapped out of her thoughts to see and hear Brendan calling her over. She jumped out of her seat and ran over to him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Sorry. What do you need?”

“I think Chipotle is in order for lunch for everyone,” he said. “Do you mind taking everyone’s orders?”

Seventeen Chipotle orders later, Aberdeen was waiting in the restaurant at a bar table, most definitely holding up the line that was starting to form due to her massive order. She took out her phone and saw that William had texted her a heart earlier but she hadn’t seen it. He had the day off.

how bad does tyson want out of Toronto? be honest

how do u know?

i overheard him and emma talking when they drove me home once is it really bad?

can i call u?

it’s not that he doesn’t like it here bc he loves the guys and he likes the city well he really didn’t like babs i think that’s a given but he found it really hard to transition from colorado to here like he couldn’t adjust and support wise he didn’t or doesn’t feel he’s been supported enough and he’s trying his hardest to mesh within the lines and be the guy he was in colorado but he just can’t and it’s driving him crazy

Aberdeen felt herself take a deep breath. Not that she thought the conversation in the car was out of the blue or a one-off, but at least she had confirmation from another source now. She couldn’t help but wonder if Tyson talked to the guys on the team about it. Like, was it an open secret between them?

why r u asking minskatt

She knew she’d have to lie about that one. Even though William was her boyfriend, she couldn’t reveal any secrets of what was happening in that war room. If she did, Brendan would probably put her head in a guillotine.

all i see on twitter and the sports channels is us moving him they think they’re in the war room with us but they’re not and it’s just funny to me that they already think it’s a done deal

welcome to the toronto media i am getting traded too, haven’t u heard 😉

Aberdeen smiled. He was such a little shit.

you’re never leaving me.

never, minskatt ❤️

“Alright, I got seventeen bowls!” the cashier yelled, and Aberdeen knew that was her cue. They were all stuffed into multiple bags and labelled appropriately, so she handed over the company card to pay. Holding the four bags in both hands, she made her way back towards the office.

When she got back, it was very chaotic. The reports were now everywhere. Half the people in the room had left to do God knows what. Kyle was frustrated on the phone with someone. And Brendan was nowhere to be seen. “You might want to find him,” Kyle said as Aberdeen handed him his burrito bowl. His hand was covering the receiver.

Aberdeen nodded frantically. She stopped putting all the burrito bowls on the table where people had been sitting, but for some reason grabbed Brendan’s before she began running around the halls, popping into rooms to search for him. He was nowhere. She tried texting and calling. Nothing. She thought about screaming his name down the hall. Her mind was getting the best of her. Why did Kyle need him? Who was he on the phone with?

Were they about to make a trade for Tyson?

She needed to find him. She needed to tell him.

After circling the halls twice, she finally saw him walking, his winter jacket on, phone to his ear before ending the call and walking towards the board room. “Brendan, Brendan, wait. I need to talk to you,” she scurried to his side. “Tyson Barrie wants to be moved. He told—I overheard a conversation between him and his girlfriend in the car once when they were driving me home after a flight about how deeply unhappy he was here and how he sort of knew he was going to get traded or at least wanted to get traded somewhere so he wouldn’t have to be here and have the pressure on him and maybe be happy again and I promised him I wouldn’t say anything to you but now I am because I thought that maybe if I told you, that you could fix it—”

“Do I smell chicken?” Brendan asked suddenly, taking off his jacket.

Aberdeen stopped. Her brain felt like it just short-circuited. “What? No. I—I specifically told them the beef bowl for you—”

“If I have chicken in mine, I will be very disappointed,” he said, taking his burrito bowl from her hands and giving her his jacket instead before disappearing into the conference room, leaving Aberdeen standing there in shock.

***

The New York Rangers traded Brady Skjei for a first round pick. The Edmonton Oilers acquired Tyler Ennis, who Aberdeen knew was one of Bee McTavish’s best friends. Patrick Marleau went to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But the Leafs stayed quiet. Calle Rosen came back. That’s it. Tyson wasn’t moved. He was staying a Toronto Maple Leaf. Aberdeen wondered what he was feeling right now. She wondered if he and Emma already had their bags packed for nothing. As everybody went home, Aberdeen cleaned up the boardroom. When it was time to go to the airport, she went to her desk to grab her suitcase. Brendan was waiting outside his office.

The walk to the town car was quiet. The loading of their suitcases into the trunk was quiet. The getting into the back of the car together was quiet. The sitting there as Lou drove through the downtown streets and onto the highway to get to the airport was quiet.

“You thought I didn’t know…” Brendan began, his voice low as he stared out the window. When she heard his voice, Aberdeen turned her head slowly towards him. “I’ve known what was happening for quite some time. It just took me a while to find out what to do with Tyson. A few teams were interested, and were probably willing, come July, to make him absurdly overpaid that he would have jumped at it. But I had to tell everyone he was unavailable.”

Aberdeen felt a shiver run up her spine. Unavailable? If Brendan knew Tyson wanted to be moved – if he knew how unhappy he was – then why wouldn’t he move him?

“The truth is, there is no-one available in the league right now that can fill his place on our team, regardless of how unhappy he is,” Brendan continued. “Any of the other players would have found this job impossible and the team would have suffered. Especially because of the way the media is here. The list of writers, journalists, media personalities, analysts…they eat the players alive. It takes a very special type of player to want to play in Toronto. That’s why it was, and is still, such a big deal that John came home. Hockey is a business, Aberdeen. I’ve known for a while he was unhappy. But I couldn’t trade him. I couldn’t reconsider.”

Aberdeen took a deep breath. And there it was. Tyson Barrie was more valuable deeply unhappy here than he was happy somewhere else. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Hockey was a business, just like Brendan said. Despite her best intentions, good people had to make tough decisions – Brendan’s was to keep Tyson on the team. Brendan wanted to win more than anything, and he still thought he could do that with Tyson.

“But I was very, very impressed, by how intently you tried to warn me,” Brendan continued, finally looking at her. Aberdeen found it hard to meet his eye, not showing any emotion on her face. “I never thought I would say this, Aberdeen, but I really��I see a great deal of myself in you. You can see beyond what people want and what they need…and you can choose for yourself.”

Aberdeen shook her head slightly. “I don’t think I’m like that. I – I could do what you just did to Tyson. I couldn’t do something like that.”

“Hmph…but you already did,” Brendan said. “To Peter.”

Aberdeen’s eyes bulged out dramatically. “That’s not what I – no, that was different. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Oh no no no, you chose,” Brendan said sternly. “You chose to get ahead. You want to be successful in this life, those choices are necessary.”

Aberdeen felt like she was about to cry. She could feel her cheeks redden. “But what if this isn’t what I want? I mean, what if I don’t want to live the way you live or be in a career the way you conduct your career? Not caring about people’s happiness and only caring about success.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Aberdeen. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be successful. Even writers.”

Aberdeen hadn’t even noticed Lou had stopped the car because they’d arrive at the airport. She could only watch as the door unlocked and Brendan slipped on his sunglasses for the bright winter sun, getting out of the car and walking back to the trunk to get his suitcase. Aberdeen took a minute to process everything. What Brendan had just said. What he revealed to her.

Dumb. She was so dumb. And she still had so much to learn.

Aberdeen was quiet as she walked into the airport with Brendan. She was quiet as they checked in, quiet as they walked to their private hangar, quiet as she saw some of the boys and quiet as she plopped down into a seat, stuffing her headphones into her ears. She knew she should be thankful to be spending her 22nd birthday in Florida, but now, all she could think about was the conversation she’d just had with Brendan. Even William arriving almost didn’t even register with her.

She napped on the plane, not wanting to deal with hockey for at least an hour of her day.

***

The hotel was taking too long to get the key cards and reservations sorted for everyone. Aberdeen tried not to huff and puff, but she was tired. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to out for dinner. After the stress of the last two days, and especially today, she just wanted to get under the covers of her bed and sleep. Sleep would make her happy again. More than anything, she wanted to be in a good mood for her birthday tomorrow, even if she was working.

“Ab-er-deeeeeeeen Blooooooooom,” the way-too-perky helper called out her name. Aberdeen approached her and got her room key, mumbling a thank you. She was on the 5th floor.

Auston had followed behind her, grabbing his as well. When they rejoined the loosely assembled group, he took a look at her. “You look really tired, Aberdeen,” he commented.

She glared at him. She couldn’t believe the audacity of him. She’d just been up for almost two days straight because of the stupid trade deadline. Lucky for him that he didn’t have to work the last two days. And lucky for him that he didn’t have to worry about being traded like most of the other guys on the team. He could at least sleep at night knowing he wasn’t going to be traded for the next five years. “You can just say I look like shit, you know,” she deadpanned.

Auston’s eyes bulged out. “No no no—I didn’t mean—”

“Whatever, Auston,” she grumbled, shaking her head. “I know I look like shit, alright? I don’t need you to tell me.”

“Aberdeen, I didn’t mean it like that at all—”

“It’s fine,” she shook her head again, grabbing her suitcase and dragging it behind her as she stomped away from him. She didn’t have time for his excuses or for him trying to cover up his tracks. She practically punched the elevator button so she could go up to her room before everybody else. Screw waiting for everyone.

She was barely able to unpack her toiletries into her washroom before the first text came through on her phone. Of course, it was William.

saw u stomping away what happened?

She wasn’t exactly going to tell him what Auston said because God knows what he would do.

I’m just tired Willy. I’ve practically been up for 48 hours.

but u need to eat

I’ll order room service, but I’m not going out for dinner.

She left it at that. She heard her phone buzz a few times afterwards but she made a conscious decision not to answer it. She needed to be alone with her thoughts instead. She didn’t need to be around Auston telling her she looked tired. She didn’t need to be around Willy who would be staring at her all night. She didn’t need to be around Mitch and his hyperactive puppy personality. She didn’t need to be around Tyson who was probably sulking at the fact that he wasn’t trad—

A knock.

She took her sweet time going to open it. When she did, she was greeted with Jason Spezza and Jake Muzzin on the other side. She almost wanted to shut the door in their face but knew that would be the rudest thing she’d ever done. “We’re going for tacos. You in?”

“No.”

It was actually Jake who looked more taken aback by her statement than Jason. She figured it was because Jason knew better. “No to tacos? I think that’s the first time in my life I’ve ever heard anyone say no to tacos.”

Aberdeen cracked a half smile. “Have fun guys, but I’m exhausted. I’ve been up for like two days because of the deadline.”

“That’s all the more reason for you to get a healthy meal in,” Jake pressed.

Before she could politely decline again, she saw two figures out of the corner of her eye walking down the hallway towards them. One was William – she could figure him out from miles away just by how his hair looked – but once the other came into focus, a lump formed in her throat. Tyson was with him.

“We goin’ for tacos or what?” Tyson asked. There was a smile on his face. A fake one for sure, Aberdeen thought, all things considering.

And then it happened. She felt the blood and emotion rush to her cheeks, and she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and responsibility for the man that was standing in front of her right now. She’d tried to help him and her attempt failed. And in that attempt to help, she betrayed him. She couldn’t even look him in the eye. “Please, just go,” she shook her head.

“What? What’s going on?” Jake looked in between Tyson and Aberdeen.

“Will you guys just leave me alone?” she pleaded, her voice strained as she felt tears well in her eyes. “Please. I’m so tired and I’m so—”

“Inside your room, now,” Jason pointed to her bed, not even waiting for her to make the first move, and instead just walking in himself. Everybody followed – everybody except William – who took his spot leaning on the doorway so he wasn’t actually in her room. But he was watching. And every muscle in his body wanted to walk in with everyone.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked softly. “What’s the real issue here?”

Aberdeen shook her head. She still couldn’t look Tyson in the eye, but when she could, she almost broke down. It took every ounce of strength in her not to burst out crying and maintain some type of composure. “I’m so sorry. I tried, I really tried—” she began.

“Tried what?” Tyson asked.

She hesitated. “Listen, I know – I’ll understand if you hate me forever because of this – I know you told me not to tell Brendan what I heard Emma say in the car, but I couldn’t help it,” she began. Tyson’s face visibly softened. “I thought that maybe if I told him he’d actually deal you out, and you could be—you could be happy again, you know, or at least somewhere where—”

“Aberdeen—”

“—but he couldn’t, and he didn’t, and I just feel horrible for betraying you by telling him and I feel so responsible now for everything that happened and I can’t live with myself—”

“—Aberdeen, are you apologizing right now because I wasn’t traded?” Tyson asked. Aberdeen didn’t respond. “Aberdeen, come on. You’re not the general manager or the president.”

“But I could have helped—”

“No, you couldn’t have,” he shook his head. Though his words were short there was a softness and a sentimentality in his voice, even a hint of surprise that she’d even go so far as to feel responsible for not being able to deal him to another team. He understood what she was getting at, understood why she was mad and was feeling this way, but ultimately, he was shocked that she was getting so emotional over it. “You’re not responsible for that sort of stuff, Aberdeen. I know you were trying to help, and I thank you for that, but the responsibility of what happens on trade deadline day falls on absolutely nobody in this room, not least the personal assistant to the president.”

She sniffled slightly. “I just thought that if I told him he’d be more inclined—”

“It doesn’t work that way,” he shook his head, looking her in the eye. “But thanks. I appreciate what you did in its own way. Just remember that it’s not your job to write the narrative.”

He was telling that to an aspiring writer. Go figure. But Aberdeen took in the words, really took them to heart, as she nodded her head quickly. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. And I don’t hate you,” Tyson said. “I see where you’re coming from. Just maybe don’t try to do it again.”

She let out the slightest of chuckles. “Yeah, I think that’s best.”

“William? What are you doing in Aberdeen’s room?”

Everybody whipped their heads towards the doorway to see Brendan Shanahan peeking in. Aberdeen thanked the fucking Lord (and would probably pray the entire rosary tonight) over the fact that she was able to control her emotions and not cry during the interaction, and also that two of the men currently in her room were married with children and the other had a serious girlfriend or else it would all look very suspicious. Brendan took a few steps in and saw Jason, Jake, and Tyson. He didn’t look suspicious, but he didn’t exactly look happy. He had a neutral look Aberdeen couldn’t make out. “I’m not sure if I like four of you in Aberdeen’s room like this,” he said.

“That’s my fault,” Jake piped up immediately. “I was forcing her to come out to eat with us. I was making sure she had at least something to eat since she kept saying no. Tys and Spezz followed to make sure, too.”

Brendan’s look became much more neutral at Jake’s words. “Hmm…I get it. Healthy meals and all. But she can order room service if she doesn’t want to go out. She’s been up for the past two days almost.”

Jake smiled. “Her words exactly. We were literally just on our way out.”

“Have fun boys,” he said, dismissing them. “And I’ll see you tomorrow, Aberdeen.”

She nodded. Everybody filed out of her room, each one of the giving her one last look before leaving. William was last, of course, letting his look linger for longer than the rest before letting the door close behind him. She let out a deep breath.

love how that was the closest we’ve ever been to getting caught and i wasn’t even in ur room

The text came from William not even two minutes after he left. Leave it to him to make light of it, she thought. But it was the following text that got her thinking.

can u tell how the boys wouldn’t say a word now?

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fuckedaroundandfoundout · 3 years ago

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How do I tell my GM that his suggestions make me uncomfortable?

So, I'm in a Fate game on Fridays, and I love it! It's amazing, our GM is super amazing and awesome at improvisation and even had us all fill out gaming consent sheets after asking me for advice on them. The issue comes in when I talk to him about the game outside of the sessions. We're becoming decent friends as I jumped into the game after being invited by a mutual friend, and only spoke to him briefly before it through our gaming server. The thing is, some of the things he talks about make me uncomfortable. I know he says them as jokes and doesn't mean to ever do any of them as he knows I wouldn't like it, but I've had bad experiences with GMs and people in general in the past who have crossed boundaries and said they were "jokes" only after I expressed how inappropriate and uncomfortable they made me. We're talking r*pe and k*dn*pping jokes from people I barely knew and have since shoved forcefully out of my life. The jokes he makes are that there's an eldritch entity in our campaign who I pact-married in order to keep her under better control so she didn't cause problems in the town. Not the smartest decision I know, but I had only like five minutes to come up with a plan and hey, it ended up alright and is a pretty funny situation with shenanigans that are liked throughout the group. The reason I married her is because she was pretty open with her intentions to make babies with the entire town to spread the eldritch influence and create more food for the forces that would eventually consume us all, blah blah blah whatever. It was either kill her, keep her locked up which probably wouldn't end well, or find a way to buy time and acclimate her to society so we could potentially use her as a powerful tool for things since she's pretty powerful in certain ways, but ultimately mortal. She came into being by forced impr*gnation, which I wasn't super happy about but it made sense at the time and honestly her "mother" didn't even know she'd ended up birthing this entity (little f-ed up in my opinion but whatever). The pact I made with her is that she can only make babies with my character, with consent, can't harm anyone on the island and some other things I can't remember since I was rambling at this point. Marriage, anyways. The GM keeps making these dry and not serious jokes about how "Would it be so bad if she turned so-and-so into a brood mother?" I keep saying like "lol, yes. It breaks our pact and what-not" but how do I tell him that if he actually pulls these things, I'll leave the campaign since even if it's not SA, this kind of r*pe makes me very distressed and uncomfortable. I want him to stop making these jokes all together because they distress me and make me feel like I need contingency plans for everything and makes my anxiety go haywire, but how do I approach this with him?

#fate system #ttrpg #need advice #help #tw: sa #fate ttrpg

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koutawoo · 4 years ago

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good morning to you!! once again, i hope you slept well last night yea? i saw ur post thing about flat hair lev but i think it's for the best yaknow? bby's too tall fot this world some extra hair height and we'd be watching karasuno vs nekoma ft a titan jDJBRIFY. i searched up russian men's hairstyles and i saw this little kid with all his hair except the front part shaved off so.... imagine lev with that hairstyle O>O. anyways love riri ahahaha 😳

how r u so consistent with these gm messages omg

yeah, once again, i’ve sleep more than i should’ve rip. I GUESS?? but we already saw karasuno vs. mr. hyakzawa (2 meters) LMFAO but i guess it is for the best bc it makes lev seems much more like a dork!!

okay, i don’t want to imagine that but i think u submitted an image so rip all our eyes

#riri san 💛#dinonerdsimp #kouta babbles #hope ur having fun on break whilw it lasts :3

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intertexts · 10 months ago

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goobmorning....

#wearing the same overalls & sweater as i did yesterday oops. its not my fault they're super fucking warm & it's freezing out!#anyway gm!!!!!!! how r we all!!#txt

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intertexts-moving · 1 year ago

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gmorbing-_-

#woke up and my wisdom teeth are coming in LMFAO.#was supposed to get them out years ago but we've been moving. lol. anyway this sucks. also they're coming in at a weird angle #so they're gonna fuck ALL my teeth up if i don't get em out soon. kills my self.#anyway.hi gm how r we all.

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therainroguefanfiction · 4 years ago

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⁂ Echo [o3/o3] (Daniel Bryan)

◂Previous

Author’s Note: So, when I was looking up information for the ending of this part, I realized that the day I originally posted it was his birthday which seems hella whack and coincidental, but I certainly didn’t plan it that way.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

“I’m fly like I’m killing the scene like, I’m a villain with wings. I’ll sleep when I’m 6 feet deep. Right now I’m living a dream, Though we may be reckless.”

When Kyle finally got over his shock, he removed himself from the top of the pile, allowing you to move, as well. You then helped Jericho to his feet.

“Sorry about that,” Kyle apologized, bowing lightly.

“It’s fine.” he responded, looking down at you both – he stood just a foot taller. “I saw you both in the ring.”

You glanced at each other, wondering what he had planned. If he decided to turn you in, you could easily take him down but the time it would take to do so would give the perfect opportunity for someone else to come along and subdue you. And if he tries it, you were fully prepared to take off. He may be strong, but there’s no way he could catch you if you took off running.

“Relax. I’m not turning you in.” he smirked, folding his arms over his bare chest, “You both did a pretty good job on kicking the Nexus’ ass.” he paused, “If you’re looking for the exit, it’s that way.” he turned to the side, pointing down the hallway from which he had just come, “Go straight down, you’ll pass about three other hallways. The fourth one is the one you go down.”

You looked at each other again.

Kyle leaned closer to you, holding his hand in front of his mouth. “Could be a trap… what do you wanna do, Y/N?”

You shrugged, “Since he gave me a soda earlier, I’m willin’ to trust ’em.”

Jericho raised an eyebrow and Kyle clarified, “Y/N is addicted to soda. Anyone who gets them a soda is basically good in their book. Anyway, thanks for the help!”

Chris’s laughter could be heard as you followed his directions down the hall, walking at a leisurely pace. After all, why not enjoy the peace while you had it? Soon enough, you’d be running again. Now’s the time to save energy.

“I wonder if this is a dream.” Kyle mused.

“The hell are you on about now?”

“Well, this has to be a dream, right? I mean, this kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life! If it wasn’t a dream, we would have been caught the minute we entered the ring. We wouldn’t have met Sheamus or Jericho, or argued with Barrett. You never would have gotten a soda from Jericho and we would have been caught by now! It has to be a dream.”

“There’s an easy way to tell if it is or not.”

“Really? How?” he questioned, looking over at you curiously.

“In dreams, you can’t feel pain.”

“So?”

You waited until he had walked a little ahead of you before bringing your foot up and kicking him hard in the back of the head like a soccer player does when hitting a soccer ball. Kyle yelped loudly, the sound echoing through the empty corridor.

“Ouch! What the hell was that for?!”

“It hurt, right?” you asked simply, beginning to walk again.

He blinked, following after you slowly. “Ohh! I get it! The fact that it hurt means that I’m… I’m not… dreaming…” he paused, stopping in the middle of the floor. You stopped as well, turning around to look at him. His eyes widened, “Holy shit! I’M NOT DREAMING!”

“You’re going to get us caught if you keep yelling like that. Idiot.”

“Ohpe!” he clamped both of his hands over his mouth and laughed sheepishly.

“Let’s just get out of here,” you muttered. As cool as it was meeting with the wrestler’s of Raw, there was one that you wouldn’t too thrilled to run into. You weren’t sure if he was actually there tonight or not, but you didn’t want to find out. And if he saw the match like the others did, there’s no doubt in your mind that he’ll be looking for you. It’s been a long time since you saw him last and you’d like to keep it that way.

“Aren’t you even the least bit excited?” Kyle prodded, poking your arm. “I mean, this is a once in a lifetime chance. We should enjoy it!”

“Maybe,”

“What are you hiding?” he pouted, poking you harder. “You’re hiding something!”

“I am not,”

“Are so!”

“Not,”

“Are so!”

“Real mature, guys.”

“Who the hell asked… you…” you trailed off when you realized who was now standing in front of you.

Adam Copeland, better known as the Rated R Superstar Edge, was standing there, a smile on his face. He was dressed in normal clothes, consisting of a pair of jeans and a black form-fitting t-shirt. You had met Adam a couple years ago but you weren’t so sure you could be considered friends. It was more of an acquaintance/partner type thing since you had banded together to beat the shit out of a few gangsters on the street. You were surprised he still remembered you.

“Edge!” Kyle grinned, “Been a while, huh?”

“Yeah,” he glanced at what Kyle was wearing and couldn’t help but grin. “A fan, huh?”

“Teehee,” Kyle rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly, “Yeah.”

“Weren’t you traded to Smackdown ’cause you pissed the GM off?” you questioned, cocking your head to the side.

Edge chuckled, moving closer. “All this time and that’s the first thing you say to me? Cold.” he paused, “Yes, I was traded to Smackdown but that doesn’t mean I can’t come and enjoy the show. And tonight… well, it was interesting. You guys are still kicking ass as hard as before.”

“Of course!” Kyle grinned proudly, sticking out his chest, “‘Cept we kick it even harder now! We could so own you, Edge!”

“Oh, is that right?” Edge smirked, “I’ll have to keep that one in mind.” he paused, “Figures you haven’t been caught yet but, for the record, the security guards aren’t the only ones lookin’ for ya.”

“Who else?” Kyle asked cautiously, glancing at you as he did so.

“Nexus, for one. You really pissed them off. Plus Cena, Orton, Miz, and his sidekick.”

“I told you this was a bad idea!” Kyle whined, hitting your arm and jutting out his bottom lip.

You glared at him, pushing him away. “It was your idea! If it wasn’t for you, I never would have been here, to begin with! Besides, what happened to ‘enjoy it while it lasts’ and ‘it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity’?”

“That’s taken out of context!”

“My ass it is!”

Edge’s laughter broke up the argument and you turned to glare at him.

“You brats haven’t changed a bit!” he wrapped his arms around your shoulders, pulling you both into him. “I’m getting flashbacks of the last time we met. Good times.”

“We did have pretty good teamwork.” you mused, looking off to the side, hand on your chin.

“That’s because you’re so much alike!” Kyle commented as if he had all the knowledge in the world.

“And how’s that?” Edge was curious.

Kyle pulled away, moving to stand in front of the two of you with his index finger in the air, “It’s simple. Y/N,” his finger moved to point at you, “is a bitch. Edge,” it moved to the Rated R Superstar, “is an asshole. See? It’s fitting.”

Edge glanced at you, “Now I remember. You were the annoying one that I wanted to smash into a brick wall.”

“See? See?! That’s the Rated R-Asshole coming through!”

“Can I hit him?”

“By all means, please do.”

“Nooooo! I’m too young to die!” Kyle cried, dodging Edge’s hands and running down the hall. You and Edge took pursuit, running after him. It didn’t take long for Kyle to be stopped, but it wasn’t by your hand. No, it was by a six-foot, one inch tall bright orange wall, causing him to hit the floor. “Uh-oh…”

“We’re screwed,” you muttered, looking first at John Cena, who towered over Kyle’s sitting form, arms crossed over his chest and face blank. To his right was Randy Orton, still in his wrestling gear.

“I’m not a part of this,” Edge commented, holding his hands up in surrender before glancing at you.

“Gee thanks!” Kyle stuck his tongue out at him.

“Nice to know we can count on ya, Adam.” you rolled your eyes, resisting the urge to hit him.

He grinned, “I know, right?”

“You traitor!” Kyle whined, slowly getting to his feet.

“I’m not involved in this,” he responded, shrugging and looking away.

“W-What…” Kyle cleared his throat, offering a sheepish smile, “What are you going to do to us, Mr. Cena… sir?”

“You’re coming with us,” he answered simply, grabbing Kyle’s arm, dragging him away.

The Viper lifted to fingers and motioned for you to follow.

With a sigh, you waved at Adam before following the apex predator. When you passed him, he grabbed your shoulder to make sure you didn’t run. You glanced at his six-foot, four-inch frame and scowled. Of all the enemies to make, it just had to be the viper.

“Hey, Kyle?” you called, despite the warning look for the wrestler at your side.

“Yeah?” he glanced over his shoulder, a questioning look on his face.

“We have a really bad taste in enemies. We always get the most troublesome ones.”

“There you go, stealing from Shikamaru again!”

“Oh for the love of… will you come off that, already?”

“Not until you admit that you stole it!”

“I borrowed it, dipshit. There’s a difference.”

“Same difference.”

“You act as if I’ve said it’s my own.”

“You never said it wasn’t. That’s the problem!”

“Be quiet,” Randy growled, his eyes narrowed at you.

“He’s biting you first,” Kyle muttered under his breath.

“He’s not Hibari Kyoya.” you scoffed, folding your arms and looking away.

After a few more twists and turns, you arrived at Cena’s dressing room. Once inside, the Viper locked the door and the two turned to face you.

“Y/N!” Kyle whispered harshly, grabbing ahold of your arm, “They’re going to kill us and hide our bodies in here! They’ll probably sell our body parts on the black market!”

You pulled away from him, staring at him blankly. “The fuck have you been watching, man?”

“CSI, Law and Order, Bones, NCIS.” As he mentioned each name, he counted them on his fingers.

You shook your head, slapping your forehead and muttering an idiot under your breath.

“We’re not gonna hurt you,” John spoke up, sending a strange look to Kyle, who was still naming off crime shows he’s watched.

“Eh?” he froze, “Then why’d you bring us here?”

“We wanted to thank you, actually.”

“Thank us?”

“There’s not many people out there willing to stand up to Nexus. But now you’ve made them your enemy.”

“They were our enemies the day they started attacking our boys,” you growled, glaring at the wall.

Kyle nodded in agreement, “That’s right! We may like a few of the Nexus members… for weird reasons,” he glanced at you, “But when it comes down to it, we have to pick our boys over them!”

“And your boys would be…?” John raised an eyebrow, glancing at the merch that you both wore.

“You and Randy Orton, of course!” Kyle grinned since he was wearing the most Cena gear.

“The Miz and his leach,”

“Chris Jericho,”

“King Sheamus,”

“You don’t have to say king every time, idiot.” you rolled your eyes. “John Morrison.”

“And the Big Show! And yes, I do! It’s out of respect, which you know nothing about!”

“We did count Edge, too, but not anymore,” you smirked, glancing at Kyle.

He nodded in agreement, “Traitor~!”

John grinned, “Alright then. What’re your names?”

“Kyle!” he grinned, holding his hand out. When John accepted, he began to shake it wildly, “Big fan, man!”

“I can tell,” he chuckled.

“And this bitchy little thing here is – ”

Before he could finish his sentence, you kicked him in the back of the head, sending him to the floor. With your foot still on his head, you grinned. “The what now? I couldn’t quite catch that.” Kyle hit the floor, no doubt calling out a various string of cuss words that couldn’t be understood thanks to said floor. “Name’s Y/N,”

“Not the friendly one, huh?”

“Meh,” you shrugged, looking off to the side. Kyle smacked the floor with his hand and you looked down at him, a fake surprised look on your face. “Oh! I forgot you were there. My bad.”

“Yeah right! You’re such a bitch!” he whined, rubbing his face and pouting.

You shrugged, “So’s life. Not like complainin’ is gonna do anything.”

“I like both of you.” Cena caught your attention with the smug look on his face, “What do you say to joining me in the fight against Nexus?”

You didn’t even have to glance at each other. Kyle was already running forward, standing just inches away from Cena with sparkles in his eyes, “Can we?! Can we, really?!”

“Hold it,” you grabbed the back of his hoodie, forcing him back roughly. “What does this entail, exactly? Would we be apart of the WWE?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t arrange that, but you can still work on the sidelines for me.”

“Good. Becoming part of the WWE wasn’t really in my plans for today. Then again, neither was coming here, to begin with…” you trailed off.

“Oh, will you let it go?” Kyle whined, sticking his tongue out.

“No. I will never let it go because I will never get my six hours of sleep back!”

“Do you two always go at it like this?”

“Sometimes.” “Always.”

You glared at each other.

“You’ll be traveling with us,” Randy spoke for the first time, though he still looked angry. Then again, he always looked angry.

“I’ll arrange your hotel stay and everything else.” John added, “By the way, I don’t know why, but the Miz is looking for you. The Nexus is, to, so be careful.”

“I’ll inform the security guards of the situation.” Randy turned around and left the room.

“With that said, do what you want. Just stay out of trouble, avoid the Nexus, and don’t damage anything.” John nodded to you before taking his own leave.

“Waaahhhh, this is so COOL!” Kyle cried, falling onto the couch, “Can this get any better?!”

“Wanna go see the Miz?”

“It just got better!”

“That’s a yes, then?” you walked out the door, Kyle hot on your heels. Of course, you had no clue where to find him but walking around aimlessly usually works, so why not?

“Maybe we can ask someone this time…? I mean, John and Randy are working everything out, so we can ask now, right?”

You shrugged, “Ask someone and find out.”

“Alright!”

Before you could stop him, Kyle approached two men on the other side of the room. This man was wearing light blue jeans, a long-sleeved dark gray vest hiding the long-sleeved sky blue flannel shirt, but it poked out at the cuffs and collar. He wore casual black and white sneakers on his feet. The man he was speaking to stood a foot taller, wearing a loose sleeveless shirt and blue jeans.

By the time you realized who this man was, it was already too late. You tried to reach out and grab Kyle, but he was already at the man’s side, tapping his shoulder. He glanced at him before saying something to the taller of the two, who then walked away. Turning around, he looked down at Kyle, standing at five feet, ten inches; the facial hair only confirmed it.

You backed away slowly, hoping to remain unnoticed. Hopefully, Kyle will ask him what he wanted to know, said man would give directions, and you’d walk away without him noticing.

Kyle spoke to him and the man nodded every few minutes to show he was listening. You strained to hear what they were saying, hoping that Kyle didn’t mention you, but you were too far away to hear anything. You were in a large area, connected to three or four different hallways, which gave you enough space to stay away from the man. You looked off to the side, finally taking your eyes off of him.

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Kyle motion with his arm towards you, turning the man’s attention your way. With the small hope that he would not recognize you, your eyes stayed on anything and everything but him.

His eyes widened in recognition and you fought the oh so strong urge to facepalm; leave it to Kyle to ruin your plans.

“And this is my bitchy best friend, Y/ – ”

You held your fist up, eyes closed to control your annoyance. You hit him hard in the back of the head, sending him to his knees with a whine.

“And you wonder why I have so much brain damage!”

“If you didn’t say stupid shit, you wouldn’t get hit.” you paused, “And, actually, no. I’ve never wondered that.”

“Wow, really?”

“I just figured you were dropped multiple times as a child.”

“Hey!… that’s true, but still… hey!”

You shrugged, looking away from him. Maybe if you pretended like you didn’t recognize the male, he’d let it go. “Did you find out where Miz is?”

“Oh, right!” Kyle sprung up, a grin on his face. He formed a V with his index and middle finger, “Sure did!”

“Great. Let’s go then.”

Before you could take a full step, the man reached out and grabbed ahold of your arm, readjusting his WWE United States championship belt on his shoulder. “After all this time, you don’t have a thing to say to me?”

Kyle blinked, looking between you both with a questioning look, “You two know each other?”

“We do,” his grip tightened.

“Y/N… how do you know Daniel Bryan?”

You glanced at him and shrugged, trying to pull your arm free of his grasp. You scowled at his hand when his grip tightened. “He’s my brother.”

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

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lostjulys · 3 years ago

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good morninnnng hii chat.

#ive got a cold i think :[ fuckig. headache.#anyway gm how r we all!!!

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shadowron · 5 years ago

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Harlequin: The Immortal Elf Metaplot Railroad Adventure (1st Edition). Part 1: Physical

In which the runners are hired by a dwarf, hassled by some orks, and do a datasteal against some elves. Trolls get a pass.

Written by Ken St. Andre (creator of the games Tunnels & Trolls and Stormbringer, among many others I wasn’t aware of when I wrote this),

Illustrated by Jim Nelson (another iconic Shadowrun artist).

Respect.

This is a straight-forward B&E/datasteal, featuring those classic blossoming with nodes Matrix systems that the decker gets to see while everyone else uses the bathroom (both in and out of game, most likely). The interesting twist comes at the beginning, with the aforementioned orks: they are hired by the aforeaforementioned dwarf (who is their Mr. Johnson) to stand in between the runners and the Johnson – presumably as a way to test the runners’ ability to get out of minor scrapes without immediately reaching for their HK 227s but honestly just serving as their first target practice of the run. Come on’ – if there are condition monitors next to their description, they’re asking for it.

Please, get the rest of them some hats too.

The Mr. Johnson is a Mr. Morlock (yes, like in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, and not the first pilfering of names from other media in this adventure), a hump-backed albino dwarf who wears lace-trimmed purple satin clothes and has no sense of trying to blend in anywhere. He tells the runners to break in to a publishing firm named Sylvan Information Systems that is (wait for it…) “an Elven house, meaning it publishes Elven authors or designers almost exclusively,” to do two things:

Steal a handwritten manuscript of the next Ehran the Scribe book

Plant a computer virus, provided by Morlock, that he says will wipe out any electronic copies, but honestly could be anything because the runners will blindly trust him.

From here the runners break out their Etiquette dice and do some Legwork, but this run is really not subtle – they need to break into the building and do that stuff. While possible for the decker to do the computer part first from outside the building, they have to go in anyway to grab the hardcopy, and planning the virus early would certainly put the company on higher alert, so there’s a good reason for the decker to tag along and hide under a desk decking while the rest of the party takes light arms fire from the approaching guards.

I mean – that’s how it always worked when I played.

Maybe this would have worked better...

Except not here.

After 7:00pm there are no guards.

Like, anywhere in the facility. How crazy are these corp chummers?

The text is written so that the GM strongly hints that the incursion should happen in the nighttime hours, which is what they probably would have done anyway, but there’s always the possibility of some scouting during the day – even dressing up the Elven Decker in a Fine Suit and sending him in there with some of his Little Mutant Vik Ninja Cyberboy! Fanfic, posing as a prospective author. But also knowing how the game is always played – the runners will instead want to break into the place AS SOON AS POSSIBLE because then they can get their Karma and nuyen and finally buy that Ares MP Laser they’ve their eye on. So, while the players don’t know this, there are no guards present at night. So what’s protecting the place?

Sylvan Information headquarters is in the eastern part of the Bellevue district, a nice part of town where everyone has a SIN and unemployment is low… Though some Lone Star vehicles are always on patrol in the streets, most of the security is private and does not call attention to itself.

This “most” must apply to everyone except Sylvan, because as we will see, it most definitely does call attention to itself. Audibly.

The Sylvan headquarters sits in the center of its own little landscaped park. Beautiful lawns surround the building, with walnut, oak, apple, and cherry trees dotting the grassy expanse.

Good because you know the Shaman is going to be all “WhAt TyPe Of TrEeS r ThErE I LuV nAtUrE!”

Oh you’re getting manabolted for that.

In the northeast corner of the grounds is an artificial lake holding three small islands linked by bridges. Beneath the surface, huge fish swim lazily back and forth, glittering gold, orange, and white.

The Merc and the Street Sam will take turns taking potshots at the fish.

Sam: “Why does everyone always think we’re violent? Do you think it’s the g-”

Merc: “...it’s the guns.”

But you get the idea – this is a beautiful idyllic landscape for which the Elves within to write their Elven Books about Elven Things and drinking Elven Wines and Lembas Bread and Whatever. You’d think the primary external security would try to blend in with that – subterranean Hobbit-hole like bunkers where pointy-eared leafy-ghillie-suit wearing commandos lie in wait with their smartlinked Smartbows, or maybe a series of Earth Elementals that rise up out of the ground to block any after-hours unauthorized intruders.

Nope.

The whole complex is surrounded by a three-meter-high electrified fence. Touching it without shielding results in a character suffering 5M4 electric shock.

First of all – ouch. Second of all – this is not the security of a New-Age Metahuman Publishing Company. This is the security of a High-Security Secret Prison for Troll Cybercriminals. That beautiful idyllic landscape described above looks a little out of place when surrounded by a TEN-FOOT-HIGH ELECTRIC FENCE. This makes no sense except to provide a random obstacle for the runners to bypass.

But bypass it they will, because they must. What opposition will they find beyond. Guards?

The four company guards are normal Humans armed with stun batons.

Even thought I’m wearing Heavy Security Armor and have the face of a Ringwraith, I still only have a stun baton. I’m really just here to annoy you.

Yeah, they’re not going to survive. Except…

They come on duty every morning at seven and go off duty at seven in the evening.

Wait, what? Leaving aside the brutal 12-hour shifts, if you are worried enough about break-ins that you have a

THREE.

METER.

ELECTRIC.

FENCE.

You are not going to leave the rest of the joint unoccupied at night. Other than door locks, is there nothing to protect the building after the party gets a trampoline and bounces over said fence?

Well, it’s not totally unoccupied.

Four barghests patrol the park grounds at night.

Ayup! The Eight-Titted Devil Dogs are here!

Count my mammae. Count them.

Plus their keeper, who lives in a tiny apartment in the basement and I assume dresses like this guy:

It’s from an obscure 80s movie.

So that’s the penalty for breaking and entering here – no prison time or fines, it’s straight to being driven crazy with fear, paralyzed by their howl, and then eaten using “teeth (that) glow slightly in the dark because of luminescent bacteria in its saliva.” It’s never good when they describe a monster’s saliva. This, again, is so WAY out of line with the image presented of an otherwise mundane, small-print publishing company.

So while the runners are rewarded by finding a non-combat option to get past four orks in an elevator, they really have no choice except to use up ALL of their APDS ammo inside these poor puppies.

That’s right, chummer. You just killed four dogs. Live with that.

What did we do to deserve this? Other than try to eat you?

After the fence and the dogs, the rest of the adventure is essentially an afterthought – the players have crawled enough dungeons to know to search all of the rooms, so they will find the manuscript, the decker will deck the sculpted system and plant the virus, and collect their nuyen.

#shadowrun #harlequin #puppies

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