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the first five minutes of Process of Elimination are trying so hard to let you know that it's just as good as all those edgey deathgames. It knows all the classics, so it'll just repeat those verbatim! surely this will enthrall the audience - no wait, where are you, there's still 90 minutes prologue to get through! what do you mean we should have a seizure warning?
#process of elimination#they really fucked up with that name gang#its unsearchable#anyways i hope to god that it does have a seizure warning and its just impossible to find that on the digital copy#cuz god those effects#anyways f in the chat for my sib who did not read the synopsis and just wanted puzzles#hopefully they are not far away#after going through a condensed two hour prologue to find the first of many crime scenes#poor illiterate sibling
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The Unexplainable
This has been sitting in as a WIP for so long and I’m tired of looking at it so here’s something but it’s not much
Mortch-- and lots of hurt
The first time that Derek Morgan sees it happen is about the third time it’s happened overall. It’s an awful thing to watch happen to someone he loves so dearly but there’s absolutely no warning it’s happening. He’s forced to watch Aaron’s concerned furrowed eyebrows fall and his soft brown eyes roll back into his head. His nose still gushing like a slashed artery and his trembling left hand covered in dark crimson. Derek can’t even hear his own scream but he can feel it claw its way up his throat. He falls to his knees before Aaron, pulling the seizing man onto his side, watching him choke and sputter for three agonizing minutes.
Aaron doesn’t wake up until he’s settled in the hospital. The EKG above his head measuring out his steady heartbeat but his body is so weak it doesn’t even feel attached to him. Morgan’s grip on his hand is vice-like and before he can help it a groan leaves his dry lips and Morgan lets go. His brain can’t form words so all he can do is part his dry lips and whimper softly from the pain. He’s cold and he can’t move his legs and he doesn’t want to be here blanketed in wires and thin scratchy blankets.
“Shh.” Morgan brushes tears from Aaron’s eyes, his lower lip trembling as he forces himself to smile. They release him within the day with specific instructions for Morgan to watch him carefully. Despite the importance, they place on this, despite how scared Morgan is they go home. Aaron’s electroencephalogram comes back normal given the circumstances and with normal brain activity now and with him growing more distressed with being in the hospital each passing hour they decide it’s better he just goes home.
No matter how many blankets Derek pulls around his shoulders, his teeth chatter and there’s a vacancy to Aaron’s eyes he just can’t handle. Derek keeps Jack at a distance, telling the boy Hotch is just sleeping, that he’s just tired. It’s easy to buy, Hotch is always tired, and Jack spends an hour tucked up against his father’s side. Face buried in Aaron’s side until Derek calls him in for dinner and Derek can see the fear, how little Jack truly trusts him. But it’s not him, it’s-- It’s the number of times Jack has been told that particular lie. “Daddy’s fine, Jack. He’s just tired.”
He finds himself with a shadow, Jack not straying too much further than arms reach. He wedges himself between wherever Derek is and someplace else he can see Aaron. Derek reads him his bedtime story and promises that Aaron will be feeling better tomorrow and things will be back together. Even if he doesn’t know if that’s true or if Jack even believes him but he says it because he needs to hear and because he hopes Jack might forgive him for not knowing if that was true.
He comes out of Jack’s room, later than normal. Jack cries himself to sleep and Morgan can’t figure out what he’s supposed to say, how to stop it, and wants to ask Aaron how he does this. He wants to ask him intrusively deep questions in the dark of their bedroom where he won’t see Aaron’s reactions. Instead, he walks into their room and finds Aaron exactly where he left him.
So Morgan crawls into bed beside him, tucking himself against Aaron’s side. Pressing his face into Aaron’s cold collarbone and closing his eyes, his day clothes still on. “Why can’t anything be simple with you?” Derek asks. He falls asleep but it’s light, with no true rest. He wakes with each bump, each caught breath, and every jerk of his muscles.
The next day Aaron has no memory of what happened just that he was standing in the kitchen when his head started to hurt and then nothing, he’s waking up in their bed. The shock of it stings and Derek wishes he could forget.
The doctors can’t pinpoint anything specific. Aaron’s anemic but he’s always a little anemic, it’s never caused seizures before. So, they assume it’s a once and done sort of thing.
The second time saves him the exhaustion of the seizure but Derek will never forget the impact of the ice-cold hole that hits his stomach at the sound of Aaron’s body hitting the ground. He’s in the shower, having just walked away from Derek’s too curious hands trying to worm their way down his pants. They’d separated with a kiss and an aroused shiver down Aaron’s back as Derek got exactly what he wanted, to get him hot and bothered. But Aaron’s self-control is annoyingly strong and they have things to do and Aaron isn’t rearranging their carefully constructed schedule for some fooling around.
Derek rolls over to Aaron’s half of the bed, seeping heavily into the warmth left behind by Aaron’s body. His heated blanket still tangled with their comforter. Aaron can’t go anywhere without that thing and Derek has accepted that if there is a fire his safety comes second to the blanket. He doesn’t understand the damn appeal of his ragged old thing but Aaron’s weird and he accepted, long ago, that there is just no way to fully understand the man.
He’s floating, only half-conscious of the world around him when Aaron falls. It’s loud, he brings bottles of things down with him but more concerning than spilled shampoo is the crack-- the distinctly painful sound of a body hitting the tub’s unforgiving floor. Then silence.
Derek throws the bathroom door open, not giving Aaron’s sacred privacy any thought. Aaron is there, on the cold tub floor sputtering and coughing up blood and water as quickly as it pours from his nose and from the showerhead into his mouth. He’s shaking, eyes dopily blinking in his confusion.
Not minding the harsh spray coming down over them, fortunate to escape the entrapping feeling of soaked clothes against his back, Derek bend over the side. He’s in his boxers, the only clothing he bothers to sleep with. “Aaron.” He cups the back of the other man’s neck, moving him from the direct spray of the water. With a cough, Aaron turns his face into Morgan. Sitting up and turning towards where Morgan doesn’t hesitate to draw him close. “Dammit,” Morgan runs his hand under Aaron’s nose. Trying and failing to wipe his face of the thickly falling blood. “Your nose is bleeding again. Did you get lightheaded? What happened?”
Leaning his head into Morgan’s shoulder, Hotch shrugs. He’s naked and cold and sitting on the floor of the tub. His hip is throbbing and his fingers are tingling painfully from where he hit his elbow coming down. There is the memory of sticking his face into the spray, drawing back, and seeing only the light trails of blood coming off of him. He can’t even remember bringing his hand to the source.
“Ok,” Derek sighs in-defeat. If Aaron knows, Derek can wrangle it out of him later but for right now he just needs to get him out of the tub. Easier said than done but they power through. Derek stopping every time Aaron can’t bite back a grunt of pain, shaking in Derek’s arms as he manages to get his feet underneath him.
“Sit.”
Aaron shakes his head, arms wrapped around his chest as he shivers. He’s shaking so hard he’s jerking, nearly taking himself off his feet. “Can’t,” he rasps, “ ‘m wet.” Derek grabs him by a hip and a shoulder, not pushing more moving his body down anyways. Aaron groans as the sheets get wet, as they stick to his skin. “Gonna have to wash these again,” Aaron mumbles.
Too tired to argue much farther, Aaron leans back into the pillows, closes his eyes. Derek takes his hand after a moment, rubbing his thumb across Aaron’s cold skin.
Derek is blinking quickly to keep his tears from falling. It’s not a matter of shame he just doesn’t want to upset Aaron more than he already is. Aaron knows that he’s upset. “Please don’t cry,” he whispers, rubbing at Morgan’s hand. “I’m okay. I promise.” Aaron tries to be more attentive than he really feels. Sitting up even though it makes him nauseous and watching and talking with Derek as he gets dressed.
Derek still has to go and do what they were planning on doing, he’s just got to do it by himself.
“I’ll bring you ice cream,” Derek promises softly. He lingers just a moment longer, palm on Aaron’s cheek. He moves to speak several times but none of what he needs to say can force its way up. How do you express such tremendous fear in losing someone while communicating the outrage that boils at the base of your sternum at the very thought of the realization that you know they’re lying to protect you? Because he doesn’t have those words anymore. He can’t look at Aaron and feel the pain of fury. He only sees tired smile lines on Aaron’s face and the ache of where those stronger emotions should be is nothing. “Call if you feel anything. Anything, Aaron. I mean it.”
Aaron nods, eyes falling to the comforter. He hates feeling weak and he hates worrying Derek even more.
“Just rest,” Derek sighs, seeing the tension rolling off Aaron in thick waves. They can deal with that later. “Call me and if you don’t--” it takes him a moment to think of a proper threat to issue out. “Well, if you don’t I’m sending the team over to get you. I’m sure you don’t want them to see you in your full glory.”
Aaron narrows his eyes, “you wouldn’t.”
Derek raises an eyebrow, “test me. I dare you.”
“I’ll call.” he promises.
Derek doesn’t believe him, not for a moment. “Okay.” He knows there has to be more that Aaron isn’t telling him. Though he isn’t sure what it is and if he’s wrong then he’s poking something far more serious. He’s just worried and it’s complicated with Aaron (good God everything with Aaron always is). He loves him though, and for some stupid reason he really loves Aaron’s stubborn ass. Even if right now he wants to kick him.
“Hey, get Jack some more cereal?”
Morgan pulls a hoodie over his shirt, nodding. “Same thing as last time or is he over the frosted flakes?”
Hotch shrugs, “I never know. Just get something that looks good.” Either way, Derek will end up eating it too and then they’ll both make fun of his oatmeal but beg him for a piece of the fruit off the top.
“Okay,” Derek bends down and kisses the top of his head. “Be back in a few hours. Read one of your books, watch a movie, but stay out of paperwork.” Hotch tries to open his mouth but Derek just shakes his head. “I don’t even want to hear it. Please Aaron, just stay in bed. Relax.”
Relax isn’t even in Aaron’s vocabulary.
“I will.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Derek rolls his eyes. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
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LIBERALITY: starshine [oh sehun] (m)
part II of all your gods are fake
summary: sehun gives you what he can, but it’s never easy. you have to work for it as well, but effort pays off, and he rewards you so kindly.
pairing: freedomfighter!sehun x reader
genre: smut, angst, fluff, light horror towards the end?
warnings: language, descriptions of war, descriptions of cults, mentions of violence, shibari, thigh riding, handjobs, reader has nipple piercings, sensory deprivation (blindfolds and ties), seizures, knives
song rec: rosalia & ozuna - yo x ti, tu x mi ♡ taemin - never forever
word count: 4.3k
a/n: this was originally posted to my old writing blog on may 9th, 2020. if you would like to be on the taglist, pls send me an ask or a message! <3
masterlist
He was getting agitated. You could tell this much.
It was already bad enough that the meeting so far had lasted for over an hour and a half, but now the tension of the situation was finally settling in, as everyone realized that it was finally here.
The last stronghold. Or so they believed. Or so he believed.
The meeting was only for the highest ranking officials of the resistance, people who The Brotherhood knew they could trust—the plan was far too important to risk it falling into the hands of The Sect of Seven at the hands of double agents.
The plan that, if executed correctly, could turn the tides and cause the downfall of the Sect.
You watched, leaning against the wall as Junmyeon, leader of The Brotherhood and face of the resistance towered over the war table, talking about possible strategies to take the last major neutral city and also take control of the country.
The Sect of Seven had existed for years before the war began—its existence spanned across centuries, millenia, even; dating back to the year The Prophecy of Brothers Alike was first proclaimed in the late twelfth century, and remained strong even almost a whole century after The Great Collapse of 2050, when global society had collapsed due to war, famine and climate disasters.
Then the war broke out, some ten years ago, when the first two brothers of the Fated Fourteen first made themselves known, springing the Sect’s violent plans into action.
Since then, the resistance had been built up by The Brotherhood’s efforts, both capturing strategic cities and territories across North America. The Sect was based in the desert, with the Sanctuary based in what was once Los Angeles, their control spanning across what was western Mexico, the american south, and half of the northwest.
The resistance was based higher north, in the Citadel, which used to be Chicago, territories consisting of parts of southern Canada, the rockies, the northern midwest and what remained of the Peninsula of Yucatan. Places like Greenland, the southern east coast and northern canadian territories had either been destroyed during the collapse or had since been reclaimed by extreme climate and nature.
The only major territory that remained uncaptured by either sides, the place where many had fled to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, was the northern west coast, and that was controlled by Washington DC.
The very spot the resistance was now planning to take.
Your eyes floated up towards Sehun, who was standing right next to Junmyeon, who was now listening to Chanyeol and Baekhyun discuss the logistics of a peaceful invasion.
“Overall, I think we still need time to form a solid strategy,” Baekhyun said, “Jongdae needs to get in contact with The Agate Sisters for some more weapons—”
“Which is not very easy, might I add—” Jongdae interjected.
“And even before that…” Junmyeon’s voice was loud, taking command of the situation, “Sehun.”
All eyes in the room fell to the youngest member of The Brotherhood.
Oh Sehun. The Oracle.
Sehun had become known to the world two years after Suho and Junmyeon were proclaimed the first two brothers of the prophecy, the same time as his twin brother. Being so young, his ability of both interpreting and creating prophecies was a sight to behold, both terrifying and morbidly fascinating.
You’d known him since he and his brother were children, before the three of you realized what the future held in store—pain and suffering for Sehun and you, and nothing but pleasure and debauchery for Sehün.
“Do you think you could consult with the spirits for a minor prophecy? Or any other interpretations of the prophecy?”
Sehun shifted in his stance, leaning back and forth. “I need time.” His voice was firm and gravelly as he crossed his arms, immersed in thought. “My most recent auguries have revealed to me that DC is the last stronghold that the prophecy is talking about. But I can’t be a hundred percent sure. Prophecies love to play mind games. We all know that.”
“Is there anything we have to be wary of when it comes to the prophecy? Double entendres, stuff like that?” Yixing asked, even though everyone in the room had heard the god-forsaken prophecy more than enough times throughout the past few years.
Sehun sighed, but closed his eyes and nodded anyway. A dramatic tension settled over the room, and Sehun began to speak.
“Cometh a day when seven sets of twins, be opposite ends of both virtue and sin—why am I going over this again, we all know this,” He huffed.
“Please just continue,” Baekhyun mumbled.
“Ugh, fine. Bearing eyes of blue and eyes of brown, cometh to tear the last stronghold down—” Sehun rolled his eyes, frustration evident in his expression. “The term stronghold has always been somewhat questionable. The prophecy was first declared in 1176, right? Early Modern English wouldn’t become a thing for another three hundred years, so most of this stems from Middle English. Some interpret stronghold as fort, or base, or holy land…”
Jongdae raised his hand before speaking, eyes flashing in alarm as he interrupted Sehun’s tangent. “Wait, wait, if others have translated it as holy land, then—”
“The Sanctuary.”
Junmyeon’s voice was quiet, but still commanded a heavy presence across the room, as a profound silence spread across the space.
“That means that the final battle could be in Los Angeles, on their turf. That would put us at a major disadvantage. We’re already at a major disadvantage.” The leader’s eyebrows were furrowed, using both hands to lean on the table as he made the connection.
The dread that followed was thick and suffocating, and you took the opportunity to speak up, wishing to rid the room of the anxiety gathering.
“But think about the implications of fighting the final battle in The Sanctuary. It would have to mean that we’ve managed to push them back sufficiently to the point where we feel confident invading their home base. Which we wouldn’t do unless we knew that we had a high possibility of winning.”
All eyes fell to you, and you crossed your arms, before meeting Sehun’s gaze. The look in his eyes was something akin to gratitude, being able to lift the sudden darkness. You lifted your hand to gesture back at Sehun. “Continue.”
He nodded, gaze stern. “Perhaps lovers lost to a most wicked brother, bringeth vengeance and hellfire upon one another… Loss could mean one of two things. Betrayal or death. But the rest of those two lines imply that the side that does the taking will suffer because of what they’ve done. That means that for now, none of us lay hands on any of the Sanctuary Queens, and those of us who have them, keep our partners close… Beware ye who heed this, for I warn thee now: suffer shall those who carelessly bow.”
“It has to be them,” A girl, Sasha, declared, “They’ve been lying to their followers for years—”
“That could mean anything. You know that.” Sehun’s voice was rough, eyes trained on the map that had been carved into the table.
A silence hung over the room, tension palpable as everyone remembered what the stakes were. These were lives and people’s free wills on the line, indescribable anguish promised by a prophecy written centuries ago to people who didn’t truly know their leaders. The end was near, but the outcome was nowhere near foreseeable.
“I’ll… I’ll try and do some more smoke readings.” It struck you how tired he sounded, watching as he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger, “Maybe I’ll ask the spirit of the Oracle for a specific prophecy on DC. For now, we just have to be cautious. Watch for any suspicious activity here in the citadel and listen to intelligence reports. Jongin, you’ve got your moles at the Sanctuary, right?”
Jongin nodded, gaze dark. “Yeah. I’m meeting with Ren in two weeks. She’s the best of the best. I’ll see what she has for us.”
Junmyeon straightened his posture, everyone quieting when he opened his mouth to speak.
“I think that’s enough worrying about that for today,” He declared, sounding grim, “Before we go, you all know that not a single word is to leave this room. This is highly classified information. Meeting adjourned.”
You watched everyone file out of the room, hoping to speak to Sehun, yet somehow didn’t catch when he left. You got the feeling that that was what he intended.
So you left too, resolving to see him that night.
—
Sehun’s room was easy to find, seeing as how it was right across the hall from yours, in the large apartment building the heads of the resistance had settled into. You knocked on his door, sighing when you didn’t hear any response. You tried one more time, then another time, finally a third time, before letting your head fall frustratedly against the wood of the door.
“Hun, I know you’re in there… please let me in.”
You heard muffled sounds of shuffling from behind the door, pulling your head away to lean it against the doorframe. Waiting, you strained your ears for a noise, hearing the occasional sound.
Eventually, you heard the telltale sound of heavy footsteps being dragged across the floor. You pursed your lips, waiting for the door to open, wondering what you would see when it did.
The door swung open slowly, and you were met with a tall figure, hunched over as he peered down at you. The exhaustion in his gaze was palpable, and you felt your heart clench in sympathy.
Sehun was 25 now. He was made known to the public some nine years ago, and on top of it all, he was the Oracle. Interpretations of any and all prophecies were up to him, a sixteen year old boy who had just discovered he was destined to spend the rest of his life fighting against his own brother, something that tore his family apart.
He was a child.
And now, here he stood, looking too worn, too hopeless for someone so young. His eyes had seen horrors he was much too young to see. Life had eaten away at the glow he’d had when you were both younger. The dark circles underneath his eyes were so pronounced, you’d think he hadn’t slept since he was a baby. His short, dark hair was greasy. You wondered if he’d been taking care of himself properly.
“Do you need anything?” His voice was raspy, quiet. You looked at him, brown eyes met yours. Your heart clenched. Here he was, mentally exhausted, and the first thing he said to you wasn’t a hello, but rather, asking quietly if you needed anything.
“Can I come inside?” You asked sheepishly, and he blinked for a second, before nodding, opening the door more for you to pass. “Go ahead.”
You stepped past him, into the hallway of his small apartment. The smell of incense invaded your nose, and you frowned. He closed the door, and crossed his arms. “What’s going on, Y/N?”
“Are you okay? You looked so tired today, you look tired now.”
“I’m fine—"
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
You refused to let him keep it all to himself. “Sehun…”
He leaned against the wall, head bowed, and you mirrored his stance, standing against the wall as well, but you didn’t look away. “Y/N, I can’t deal with that right now. People need me.”
“Sehun, you can’t force yourself like this, you’ve told me that yourself—"
“I have to make this work. I can’t fail like last time, not if DC is what we think it is.”
You sighed, taking a step forward, resting a hand on his arm. He glanced at it briefly, then raised his head to look at you. You said nothing, but guided him to sit down on the couch, and you sat next to him.
“Sehun,” You said, voice quiet, “DC is nothing but puppets right now pretending they’re actually doing anything. We have our puppets, the sect have theirs. You can’t be sure that a place like that is what determines whether we’re doomed or not. You said it yourself, there are so many possibilities that DC isn’t the place we’re thinking about.”
He took a few deep breaths, nodding to your words before rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger. He looked strained, and you moved to sit closer to him.
“Everything is so fucked up,” Sehun whispered, and you nodded in agreement. “I feel like everything is out of control. Like I can’t do anything about it. Meanwhile, Sehün—"
“Sehün has people who think he’s a god obeying his every whim, just like the rest of those—those idiots.“ Your voice was quiet, but firm, refusing to allow him to compare himself to his brother, "The only reason they look so polished and seem to have everything under control is they only leave the Sanctuary when they absolutely need to, to save face. They feel like they’re above everyone else.”
You took Sehun’s hand, carefully removing his worn, black glove before cradling it in your smaller hand, as if it were incredibly fragile. His eyes met yours, and you gave him a sad smile.
“The Brotherhood, on the other hand… You only use that title for formality’s sake. Yes, you’re all the leaders, but you see yourselves as equal to the rest of us. All of you are out there with us, on the front lines. You’re tired because you give everything you have to serve this cause, my love. You feel that everything is out of control because… well, it is. Lady Fate is a tricky one, we all know that. But you feel it even more because you’re dealing with it head on, not from some sparkly throne on a golden pedestal.”
Sehun’s eyes glittered with several emotions you couldn’t pinpoint, but you could see fondness in them. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “Starshine,” He mumbled into your hair, before resting his chin on the crown of your head, “Where would I be without you.”
You hummed, before allowing your eyes to flutter shut, and the two of you sat in silence for what seemed like hours. You reflected back to when you and Sehun both realized your feelings for one another, after a devastating battle in Salt Lake City where Sehun had given his brother the now infamous scar running down the left side of his face, some six years ago. He’d come so close to dying that day, and you’d realized just how important he was to you.
You’d been joined by the hip since you were children, and when the revelation came that he and Sehün were the brothers of liberality and greed respectively, you didn’t hesitate in taking his side, vowing to follow him until the bitter end.
It all made sense to you when you came to Sehun’s sickbed, seeing him resting and bloodied, that you’d actually been in love with the boy for a long time, perhaps ever since you’d first met him. You wouldn’t ever be able to live without him, and apparently, he felt the same way.
In this moral crisis, you were his anchor, his tether to the corporeal plane when his world was on an ethereal one.
Upon all the doubts that everyone had, as to whether the Fated Fourteen were truly gods or if they were simply men with delusions of grandeur chosen by Lady Fate for her cruel entertainment, he felt that you were what reminded him that he was human, that past gods were never truly capable of love or real emotion.
To be capable of loving you was a humbling experience, one that he treasured dearly, especially in moments like this.
“Do you remember what we did the last time you felt like you had no control?” Your voice was a whisper, full of promise and anticipation, as the hand that wasn’t holding his own came to ghost over his thigh. Sehun’s breath hitched, recalling the experience. Roughness against soft, supple skin, restraint and control, you giving yourself entirely to him before he gave himself entirely to you.
“What exactly are you proposing?” He murmured, and you exhaled as one would when they found something amusing, the ghost of a laugh. “You know what I’m proposing, Sehun. Don’t act as if I haven’t seen you teaching Chanyeol to tie his knots when he’s getting ready to go out on a field mission.”
His hand tugged yours towards him, and you moved as he sat back, resting his back against the couch as he helped you straddle his waist. You faced him, realizing with a giggle that he’d turned slightly pink at your accusation.
“Do me a favor,” He said, and you nodded, letting your free hand rest on his shoulder. “Never talk about Chanyeol when you’re trying to get me into bed again. You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on… Chanyeol, however, is the most unsexy person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”
Your head tipped back with laughter, and he joined in with you. Your heart, upon hearing this, skipped a beat. You had a hard time recalling when the last he’d laughed was. “I think Sasha would disagree.”
“Yeah, but Sasha isn’t here now, is she? It’s just you and me.” He leaned forward, trapping your waist with his hands and letting his face come close to yours. You watched his eyes flutter down to watch your lips, inches away from yours. You gulped when his lips parted, his tongue peeking out to lick the pink skin.
“So you want me to tie you up. Take control.”
Your hands wrapped around his neck, and you smiled. “Only if you want to tie me up. I want you to have at least one thing you feel you can control.”
Sehun licked his lips again, sighing in amusement as he considered the idea. “Y’know, a few weeks ago, some of the field officers came in with a bunch of fabric they managed to smuggle out of LA…” His tone was quiet, and his hands began trailing downwards, pulling you against him, voice filling you with anticipation. Comfortable fabric was so difficult to come by these days, given that the Sect had taken what were once lavish city districts.
You gasped slightly when your core came into contact with his lap, feeling he was already starting to get hard, and felt your face heat up.
“I might’ve bought a silk tie or two off of ‘em,” He told you, eyes burning holes into your skin, “Wanted to see what my starshine would look like in pink.”
Your felt your hands tighten of their own volition against the fabric of his black t-shirt, your mind conjuring the mental image. “Fuck, Sehun. W-where’s the jute?”
He flashed a lopsided grin, and you felt the need to smack the smug look off of his face. How he could go from being so serious to this, was beyond you. You personally didn’t believe that The Brotherhood and The Lords of the Sect were gods, but Sehun’s duality, in situations like this, seemed to be supernatural at times, if you dared say so yourself.
He pressed his lips to yours briefly, before lightly nudging you to get off of his lap. “I’ll go get it, baby. Give me a second.”
He stood, catching his breath briefly, before walking down the hall, towards his closet. The hallway was slightly darker, and you stood, striding over to him as he pulled out the rope. He turned to face you, and he quickly cornered you against the wall.
“Shirt off. Bra, too.”
You grinned. “What are you gonna do this time?”
You could vaguely make out his features, but you knew his face was probably twisted up in smug satisfaction. Regardless, you obeyed silently, your chest rising and falling quickly with anticipation.
“Chest harness, for now,” He quipped, “Is that okay?”
You nodded, not breaking eye contact with him as you undressed yourself. You wanted him to realize that you weren’t backing down.
He seemed to read you perfectly, nodding in response to your answer as he watched you pull off the dark fabric, before reaching behind you to unclasp your bra. Even in the dim light of the corridor, you could see how his eyebrows raised and the way his lips parted slightly, lazy gaze falling down to your breasts. You knew what he was gawking at.
The studs embedded in your nipples were a dark stainless steel, glittering, alluring. You’d gotten them on a whim at nineteen from some clandestine tattoo artist on the way back from a field operation. He’d always had a bit of a fascination with them, the way they seemed to twinkle at him underneath the light.
"You gonna stare at me all night or will I have to tie myself up?”
Your playful jab snapped him out of his reverie, and he straightened his posture a few seconds later. “Go stand in front of the bed.” His voice was soft, but still commanding.
You stalked into the dark bedroom, standing in front of where you made the bed out to be. He followed you, before standing behind you. “Are you going to tie my hands up, too?"
"Not yet, starshine,” He declared quietly, into your left ear. You could tell he was untangling the jute, and you pursed your lips in anticipation. “You want to know what I’m about to do to you?”
“You know I do,” You whispered, a confession just for him, before lifting your arms and your hair for him to work.
“Too bad,” He sighed, ”Because I’m not telling you.”
You huffed, but didnt protest.
His arms began to wrap the rope below your ribcage, tightening the jute to the point where you could feel it digging into your skin, but enough to complicate your breathing. Taut, but not torturous. You closed your eyes, sighing quietly as he looped the jute higher up this time, just between your breasts and your collarbones, wrapping back to where he began, in the middle of your back.
The sensation of the rough fibers against your skin was by no means comfortable. It was scratchy and some stray fibers tickled at your chest. But its presence against your skin, the implications of its position and what was to come, was most definitely comforting. Intimacy with Sehun now was rare, you rarely even slept next to each other. But you knew that it wasn’t because of a strain in your relationship.
Sehun had always needed peace of mind and silence when it came to auguries and prophecy readings. Now, with the war coming so close to what seemed to be the end, he needed it more than ever, and the moments you shared with him came to a pause. You didn’t complain—the cause came before your emotions, now and always. But inside you were crying out for him; in concern, in longing, in yearning.
So maybe that’s why when he paused his ministrations and chuckled, tracing a finger down his spine, you whimpered quietly, thighs rubbing together in anticipation. “You have goosebumps,” He said, lips brushing against the shell of your ear.
“It’s been a while,” You answered, and he hummed in response, pressing a soft kiss to your nape. You sighed at the sensation.
“Drop your arms, and turn around to look at me,” Sehun whispered a few seconds later, and with some help from him to maneuver through the rope he was still trying to tie around you, you were able to complete his request.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous.” His voice was throaty, eyes scanning your body as you did the same, eyes landing on the growing bulge in his pants.
“Sehun, please just hurry.”
He shook his head, crooked smile still gracing his face. His hands worked quickly, looping the jute underneath the lowest rope, between your breasts.
“It’s not too tight, is it?” He asked, and you shook your head.
“It’s fine. Not too tight, not too loose.”
He nodded, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. “Okay. Let me know if it becomes too much at any point.”
“I know, Hun.”
Sehun’s dark eyes lifted their gaze from where his hands were working to meet your own, not saying anything. By now, the smile had faded, replaced by a stern look of concentration.
Be still, my heart, you thought, he is so beautiful.
“What?” You whispered, and he blinked.
His response was soft, gentle. “I would fucking die for you.”
You felt your face grow warm, and you lowered your gaze. “Sehun,” You murmured, “I—”
“Sh, sh,” He answered, continuing to tie the rope, “Listen to me, starshine. You’re it for me. There’s never been anyone else. A-and if anything happens, Lady Fate forbid it… There’ll never be anyone else.”
He finished his words as he tied off the final knot, and silently, you stood there, eyes shut as you pressed your forehead to his. For how long, you weren’t sure. Seconds, minutes, eons… Maybe no time had passed at all. You didn’t really care. Moments like these were never long enough, they always ended too soon. Sehun was your elixir of life, your lifeline, and in these moments, you felt immortal, invincible, powerful.
To be able to bring such a man like him to his knees, to be so ready to put himself on the line for you; you were sure it would be your ruin.
You surged forward, wrapping your arms around Sehun’s neck, and he caught you as you pressed your lips to his in a blazing kiss. His arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you impossibly closer. You whined into the kiss, the dark cotton of his t-shirt pressing against your sensitive nipples and their piercings.
“Sehun,” You moaned into the kiss, reaching down to tug at the hem of his shirt. “N-not fair, take it off.”
He hummed, pulling away to comply with your protests, revealing toned skin and the broad shoulders you so adored.
“Is it fair now?” He asked, grabbing your upper arms to pull you closer and press kisses to your collarbones and along your sternum. “I should tie your hands now, maybe then you’ll learn you’re not allowed to touch without my permission.”
“Shut up,” You said, ignoring his declaration as he pushed you onto the bed. You peered up at his broad form, towering over you in the darkness, almost trembling in anticipation, waiting for him to put his hands on you, to make a move.
A few moments later, he finally did, reaching down to pull your pants off, as well as your underwear. He pressed soft kisses to your stomach as he did. When both garments were finally tossed aside, he lifted himself up onto the bed, lips trailing up across your skin. His eyes met yours as he gazed up at you, through you, before pressing his lips to one of your breasts, your sensitive nipples hardening at the contact of his warm mouth against the cool steel embedded in it.
Your head tipped back, eyes fluttering shut, unable to keep eye contact with your lover. One of your hands came up to comb through his dark hair, whimpering as he alternated between your nipples.
“Sehun, mmph, baby…” You murmured, coming back to look at him when he let go and came back to kiss at your jawline.
“Up, starshine,” He ordered, leaving no room for protest, arms wrapping around your waist and hauling you up to sit on his lap. As you squirmed to get comfortable in his grip, one of his hands reached for his nightstand’s drawer, and he pulled out two pastel pink silk ties. Your heart leaped towards your throat in excitement when you registered what these were, hips subconsciously searching for friction against his.
“Sit still,” He huffed as he closed the drawer, before straightening his posture, dwarfing you even sitting beneath you.
Wordlessly, he brought the tie up to your eyes, covering them before tying it at the back of your head with one tie, quickly doing the same to your hands with the other, tying them tightly in front of you.
“Fuck, you’re so pretty,” He mumbled, hands raking from your hair to down your back.
His hands came to grasp at your thighs, propping them so they rested only atop one of his. You felt your core clench at what he was alluding to, inhaling sharply.
“Move your hips, baby,” He said, and you couldn’t bring it in you to deny him.
Another thing you couldn’t do was speak, you found, as you prayed you could maintain your balance and began to slowly rock your hips against the rough fabric of his dark pants and his toned thigh, your bare pussy rubbing listlessly against the coarse fabric. You didn’t mind however, perfectly content to let him speak, murmuring strange hybrids of dirty and sweet things in your ear.
The hot pleasure between your legs seemed to double at the restriction in your ribs and not being able to see or anticipate where his hands or mouth were. You buried your head into the crook of Sehun’s neck, peppering wet, opened kisses against his collarbones, your nails digging into your palms with a vengeance in hopes of anchoring yourself to something.
The movements of your hips soon became capricious, rhythmless, your whimpers becoming louder and louder as he switched between flexing his thigh and bouncing it like a restless child. In the darkness of the silk tie, you could feel the callousness of his fingertips as they dug into your hips, a guided meditation through your pleasure.
The room reeked of incense and sex, you realized as you attempted to delay your slowly building release by focusing on different things. Smells, sounds, and finally, Sehun.
This was the Sehun you loved most, the one you cherished most in your heart. The Sehun that was so willing to give, give, and give, but not to the point of recklessness, unlike the Sehun you had seen so often lately in the war room. This Sehun was yours, and yours only. And if the growing wet spot against his rough pants was any indication, then your body loved this Sehun as well.
“S-Sehun.”
“Hmm?”
“P-please let me touch you.”
“Alright, since you asked so nicely.”
You clumsily began to search for his hard bulge, and he grabbed your tied hands and guided them to something hard and hot. You jumped slightly in surprise, not realizing he had taken himself out of his pants while you were humping away at his thigh like a bitch in heat.
He laughed at your squirming, and you slowed the rhythm of your hips in annoyance, but not completely—your hips had stopped folding to you, subconsciously rutting, twitching gently against the rough, now ruined fabric, perpetually searching for release.
“S-shut up,” You panted, and he laughed again, pressing another kiss to your jawline.
“You shut up. I still have to make you come.”
His hands resumed their leisurely movement on your hips, your focus snapping back to the impending edge, thoughts blurring into incoherency as the pleasure against your core. Mindlessly, you let go of Sehun’s member to bring your hands up to your mouth, attempting to spit crudely in order to improvise lube.
Instead, your heart jumped into your throat in arousal when Sehun grabbed your free hand and did the same, keening at his actions, eyebrows furrowing. And, despite feeling a slight annoyance at the chafing of your thighs, a feral instinct took over, and your hips sped up against his thighs.
“You look perfect like this,” He told you, guiding your hand back to where he needed you most, and you began to pump him slowly. His hands moved to wrap around your waist, large hands splaying possessively across your back.
“Gods, I wish you could see how lovely you look, starshine,” He mumbled, seemingly in a daze, “All mine.”
You nodded. “Y-yours, Hunnie. Only yours.”
He pressed a kiss to your collarbone, his breath picking up as your hands did the same, pace speeding up. He groaned against your skin as you pressed your thumb into the slit of his cock. Your movements were harsh, jerking against him as you felt yourself losing yourself in his touch.
“S-Sehun, I’m gonna…”
“I’ve got you,” He whispered, his voice your only anchor, “Let go, Y/N, it’s okay.”
Finally, finally, you crested, head tipping back, mouth falling open in a silent scream, body stiffening in his arms as you were possessed by pleasure. In the dark, colors danced around you, sounds could be touched, Sehun’s hands on your body tasted exquisite.
You didn’t even realize that your display had tipped Sehun over the edge, spilling himself onto your hands while he gripped your shoulders like his life depended on it.
When you came down from your orgasm, your chest heaving, you reached up to pull the blindfold off of your face, struggling slightly as you were still restrained by the silk tie. You blinked a few times, eyes adjusting to the light of Sehun’s room, and found that he had fallen back onto the bed in the height of his orgasm.
His eyes had fluttered closed, panting furiously. He seemed loose, almost boneless, and you stifled a laugh at how much more relaxed he seemed now.
“I take it you had fun?” You asked, poking his stomach teasingly. After a moment of silence, of what you assumed to be Sehun trying to catch his breath, you furrowed your eyebrows.
“Hunnie, come on, get up. Can you untie me, please, baby?”
No response. If anything, Sehun’s pants seemed to be getting even heavier.
“Sehun?”
His eyes fluttered open, and your blood ran cold.
His eyes had rolled up into his head, mouth opening and closing as if he were trying to say something but he’d lost his voice. Around you, the temperature seemed to drop.Out of nowhere, the scent of incense returned, stronger than ever, and beneath you, Sehun tensed, muscles contracting as he began to seize.
You froze, momentarily unsure of what was happening. Here lay your lover, convulsing under you, and you were restrained to a point where it would be difficult to help him. Panic creeped into your stomach, eyes searching for something, anything, that would get you out of the grasp of the silk tie. You brought your wrists up to your teeth, frantically hoping to loosen the knot. Sehun was still convulsing. Your eyes drifted around the room, glancing at his stiff hands, gnarled into unrecognizable gestures. Your clothes were on the floor, but you had left your knife in your room.
Knife. Sehun’s knife.
You lunged for the nightstand, knowing that was where he kept his switchblade in case of an emergency, tumbling to the floor as your legs gave out, still wobbly from both panic and your previous orgasm. You managed to open the drawer, clumsily fumbling for the blade, before pulling it out, holding it between your teeth and bringing your wrists up to your mouth, beginning to saw away at the lovely, pale fabric, suddenly not caring about its softness or its illusion of luxury.
All you needed was to know that Sehun was okay.
Your eyes squeezed shut at the thought that he might be dying, and when the final strands of silk finally gave way, you practically spat out the knife, grabbing onto the nightstand for balance, turning to look at Sehun on your weak legs.
He wasn’t on the bed anymore. Your eyebrows furrowed, head spinning as you tried to figure out what was going on.
“Beware the master of tongues.”
You shrieked, eyes snapping up from where the deep, almost demonic voice had come from, and almost fainted then and there.
Because somehow, Sehun was floating above you, suspended in midair, eyes open wide but not a sliver of brown could be seen. In its place shone a bright silver, the holiest of metals for the unholiest sight.
“Beware the master of tongues,” The voice spoke again, speaking through Sehun, who was stiff as a board, face contorted into a sneer, and you realized with a chill that this wasn’t Sehun, but rather the Oracle.
“Beware the master of tongues,” He said once more, as his sneer morphed into a cruel grin, “But beware more the wrath of the faceless one.”
#kpop scenarios#kpop smut#kpop imagines#kpop x reader#kpop au#exo x reader#exo scenarios#exo smut#exo imagines#sehun x reader#sehun smut#sehun scenarios#my writing#fic: aygaf
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Underfell: File Name not Edgy Enough #27
Chapter 27: Burden
WARNING: I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS HOW FILE NAME NOT FOUND WOULD FUNCTION IN THE AU OF UNDERFELL. BEFORE YOU READ THIS, UNLIKE THE NICE TIME OF UNDERTALE, THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. THIS STORY WILL BE GRAPHIC, GORY, USE SWEARS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS, AND DEAL WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THE FILE NAME RELOCATED SPOOF WILL KNOW HOW I PICTURE THIS VERSION OF LYNSIE COMING TO THE UNDERGROUND. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING DUMB. IT IS BECAUSE SHE CHOOSES TO END HER LIFE. SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I MADE IT BECAUSE I NEEDED TO LET SOME OF THIS EDGINESS OUT OF MYSELF. WHICH I GUESS MAKES UNDERFELL LYNSIE EVEN MORE TRUE TO WHO I REALLY AM. ANYWAY, ENJOY. ^_^
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[A quick recap]
My melancholy blinds me to my current surroundings. I only come out of it once a spotlight hits me.
"The hell...?"
Things look funny. No doubt it's a setup by Mettaton. But I'm unsure what this act is. I mean, it looks like a receptionist's waiting room. A desk and some random chairs.
"GOOD EVENING, LADIES AND GENTS...!"
Mettaton zips in wearing a red suit and shoves me in a chair as he takes center stage.
"FIRST AND FOREMOST, WE HERE AT MTTTV WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE LACK OF ME OVER THE COURSE OF THE PROGRAM. DUE TO THE LACK PREP WORK WITH MY COSTAR HERE, WE SADLY HAD TO FORGO A THRILLING ACT BACK IN LEVEL TWO INVOLVING HUNDREDS OF EXPLOSIVES!!"
I so freaking called it. I should let him have his moment...Nah!
"I thought you said that act was shit anyway?"
He extends an arm to cover my mouth.
"FORGIVE HER. SHE'S LOST A LOT OF BLOOD AND NOT ALL THERE MENTALLY."
I leer at him flatly.
"BUT...DARLING HERE IS GOING TO MAKE AMENDS WITH US ALL RIGHT NOW. IT'S TIME TO ANSWER SOME BURNING QUESTIONS."
I'm so confused as he lets go and leaps onto the desk, posing dramatically.
"IT'S TIME FOR..."
A large neon sign shaped like him drops from the ceiling.
"BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL WITH A KILLER ROBOT! THE LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOSTED BY YOURS TRULY."
Huh. Not a bad title.
"I thought you were working on a courtroom trial program?"
He scoots to now sit behind the desk.
"UNFORTUNATELY, WHILE I DO HAVE THE FUNDS, I DON'T HAVE AVAILABLE WORKERS TO MAKE SUCH A SET. SO...WE'RE DOING THIS INSTEAD."
"Heh...Must be hard to meet your expectations."
"DARLING, YOU HAVE NO IDEA."
A tense dramatic score plays.
"SO, DARLING...ARE YOU READY TO TELL ME EVERYTHING?"
Ah. I see now. Fine, Metta, have it your way. Just be careful what you wish for. You may not like it. Now don't get me wrong. I know my limits. I'm not about to tell him EVERYTHING. I'm not that stupid. But if he wants truth, he's going to get a version that's missing some characters and other junk.
"As you wish. You wanna know the truth? You want to scar the entire Underground? Sure. Why not. What else do I have to lose at this point since you exposed me? So congratulations! I hope you like the prize you've been longing to get. Because I sure as hell don't."
Let the show commence.
[Now our featured presentation]
"RIIIIGHT...ANYWAY...WHY NOT INTRODUCE YOURSELF. LET THE UNDERGROUND KNOW JUST A BIT ABOUT YOU."
I wave with a stupid grin to where I think a camera is.
"Howdy, monsters of the Underground. My name is Lynsie. Last I checked, I'm 5'8'', twenty eights years old, born November 7th, am a Scorpio, blood type A+, and enjoy long naps by the beach."
Am I introducing myself or recording a dumb dating profile video?
Mettaton whips out some cards from his desk.
"REALLY? YOU'RE THAT OLD? HUH."
"Yeah. Why?"
"YOU LOOK OLDER THAN THAT."
I sneer.
"It's the raccoon eyes. Insomnia is a hell of a slap to the face."
"THAT ASIDE...HOW ARE YOU FEELING? YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH A LOT SINCE THIS PROGRAM STARTED."
"I'm grateful to have this reprieve. It's nice to not be flung into fight after fight for a moment. I don't like fighting. I'd much rather avoid any conflict if able."
"SUCH A KIND GIRL. ARE ALL HUMANS THESE DAYS LIKE YOU?"
I eye him funny.
"WHAT?"
"Do mean 'kind' or 'stupid'? Because every monster has called me a fool for being nice."
"STUPID IS A STRONG WORD. NAIVE IS MORE LIKE IT."
I rumble lowly in my seat.
"But...To answer you properly, no. Not all humans are like me. Or...I'm not like most humans."
"OOOOH~, SUCH AN AMBIGUOUS ANSWER. FINE THEN, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIKE THAT, I'LL HAVE TO BE MORE BLUNT IN MY QUESTIONS. LET'S SEE..."
He flips through some of his cards.
"OH! HERE'S ONE...HOW DID YOU COME TO FIND YOURSELF IN THE UNDERGROUND?"
Blunt? I'll give you blunt.
"Easy. I tried to kill myself."
[SNOWDIN: Skeleton House in present time]
The mood in the room sours as the human continues.
"Yep. You see, Mt. Ebott has a reputation, a legend dating back lord knows how long, that those who climb the mountain never return. This has made it a popular place to die. Not as bad as the literal 'Suicide Forest' of Japan, but it does the job okay."
Mettaton's screen blacks out.
"Don't give me that look. You wanted this. You wanted the truth. So take it. Take the blunt no holds bar truth of the matter. And you know what else? It wasn't the first time either. I can think of at least five other attempts. Each more pathetic than the last. But, if memory serves me right, I do believe my very first try was when I was still so very small. Somewhere around age six to eight. I had learned that apple seeds contain cyanide, a very toxic poison. Of course, there's not a heck of a lot in a single seed, but if you ingest a lot...well...Kid me didn't know how many were needed. Just that it was deadly. As you can see, I didn't have enough and I didn't try that form of suicide again. I don't try the same kind twice. I'm too fearful of messing things up the second time. What if it only partly works and I end up surviving? Heh...Trying to end it all only to live but in even worse condition? The irony would be such a hilarious joke. Then again, that's my life in a nutshell. One big cruel unrelenting joke."
Toriel's eyes water. She knew her child had her demons, but she knew not just how far back they spawned. Mettaton's screen relights.
"I...I WASN'T EXPECTING..."
"Yeah, no one does. No one expects me to be so dark. But what can I say? I do a damn good job hiding it."
"BUT...WHY THOUGH? WHAT WOULD MAKE A CHILD THAT BENT ON KILLING THEMSELVES?"
She takes a deep breath and lounges back in her chair.
"You ever feel guilty for something? Something you have no idea why you should feel that way for but you just do?"
She runs her hands over her face.
"I don't remember why I asked her that question. Maybe I was just morbidly curious. I knew my siblings were unexpected pregnancies. The eldest never came to be, so whether it was a boy or girl is forever unknown. My brother came about in the randomness of my mom hooking up with my dad. She married my dad because, well, she did like him but also so that he wouldn't be deported once his school visa ran out. He and his family escaped their homeland to start a new life...but did so illegally. Even on the surface, there's no true freedom. Four years into the marriage, I was born. Things only seemed to spiral from there. Dad would stay out drinking. Mom would be pissed. Bro and I would hide in my room and try to keep the fighting out. Mom gave up on him, someone else charmed her heart and would later be the father of my sister. Eight years into this world and they divorce and months later sis is born. She was unknown and with how old mom was at the time, she now suffers from spontaneous seizures."
The girl looks up in thought.
"So a few years ago, I asked mom...Was I unplanned like they were? Was I another surprise baby?"
She looks back down, her face holding a more cold expression.
"No, she told me. You were the only planned one. ...I should've stopped there. *sigh* I then asked...Why? She answered..."
Emotion leaves her.
"We had you in the hopes that you'd fix our marriage."
Silence. Dead silence.
"So much pressure. And to put that on a babe? How was I supposed to solve your problems? How is it my fault you couldn't stand each other when things got rough?! How is a kid supposed to make sure you don't start taking drugs and acquire sixteen felonies?! How is it my job to make sure you don't regret loving someone else?! How is that fair?! Why not take some fucking responsibility for once in your god damn life?!"
She becomes irate, grabbing one of the chairs and beating it into another one till both are useless before ending with a guttural roar that pains the throat in its harshness.
Toriel recalls similar words from her not long after they became close and she found her.
"Child? You're trembling. Is everything all right? Child, please. Just speak to me. Tell me what's wrong."
"I hate you! I hate all of you! You fucking pieces of shit! Why?! Why is it so hard for any of you to care?! I've been missing for days or weeks and none of you care! *sobs* Did you ever love me?! Why did you even bother having me if you don't even care that I'm gone?! *bawling* Why? Why? Someone tell me why...please..."
"I know this isn't the most pleasant of times to ask...But since we've come to know more about each other, I have been curious about something. The humans that fall down here...They tend to not fall down for the happiest of reasons. If it is not too painful...Can you share with me your reason? What made you come to a cursed mountain where none ever return from?"
"*hard sniffling* They used to care. I used to know what it was like to know others cared. I can't remember when they started to pull away. When I became invisible. I just want to know why. Was it something I did? Did I do something wrong? Did I not make them proud? I thought I did everything right. I was a good girl. *voice cracking* I'm a good girl. Aren't I?"
Even Grillby had memories of such talk pop into his head.
"You are an amazing person. You live in his cold place and open this bar to every sad face willing to cast aside their mean spirits for spirits of another kind. You put up with a lot of nonsense, a good bit came from me today, and I'm sorry about that."
"Where is all this coming from?"
"I'm not done. You have been nothing but nice to me. And doing that isn't easy in this world we live in. Since meeting you, you've shown me more kindness than I got from my own family, and this is only our second meeting. Heh, how pathetic is that? I fell into the Underground trying to die, only to end up wanting to live because of the few that showed me any decency. And for that, I give you my thanks."
"Pussycat?"
"I don't know if it was the punch or I'm just in a weird mood. I'm probably making things awkward. No one wants to hear someone ramble about lame junk when at a bar. This is a place people go to forget things. I know I've got a lot I want to forget. Like the three or four times I ran away from home but never had a plan and always had the cops take me back. Or the time I cussed out my grandma because I thought she lost my dog when it turned out my mom had dumped the pup at a shelter and told me it escaped. Or the suicide attempts..."
"Attempts?"
"Oh yeah, there was more than one. Hard to believe, but I'm a very sad person. No, that's being too nice. Depressed is more accurate. 90% of the smiles you see me do are fake. Just part of the mask I wear to hide how truly miserable I really am."
"God, I hate myself. I'm a sad pathetic mess."
Sans now gets a clearer picture of the baggage weighing on her.
"oh! and don't forget, you're making dinner. pap only let that slide because you were practically dead. so don't get any ideas thinking you can get out of it."
"Did you just really say that?!"
"the hell is your problem?"
"Did you really just insinuate she'd harm herself?"
"i dunno...maybe?"
"You can't say that kind of stuff to her!"
"why not?"
"You...You don't know how she came to the Underground, do you?"
"she told me that she fell."
"I'm not comfortable telling you this, seeing as she hasn't and I don't think it's my place, but I can't let you say idiotic things like that."
"okay, weed, you have intrigued me. if she didn't fall, then how did she get here?"
"Well...Falling is how she came to the Underground. But...She didn't fall from an accident."
"you're telling me she..."
"She fell on purpose. She...was trying to die. I don't know about her life on the surface. She doesn't tell anyone about that stuff, not even Mom. But I have been with her since the start and I can tell...Under all that toughness and pass the goofy dork innards...She's very sad deep down."
And that moment that recently happened at Grilbby's.
"enough with the act! you act all calm, with your little quips and remarks. making you look so well put together. but i know better. i know you're just as messed up as the rest of us. so why don't you get off your high horse and get out of my life!"
"You're right. This is an act. Every day, I wake up and I pretend to be this way. To play this role of the girl that never gives in and can smile through it all. I put on my mask and face this world as best that I can. But inside I'm dying. I'm being crushed by insecurities, doubt, depression, and so much negativity that I let myself fall into a pit hoping for the sweet embrace of death. I have attempted to end my life a good handful of times. Each more pathetic than the last. Even now, I'm just a few triggers shy of crumbling into a blubbering mass of tears. Yet there are few things that keep me from doing those bad things now that I'm here. And if putting on this act keeps me in, relative, ease...Then yeah. I'm gonna pretend my ass off that all is fine with me. Because I'm a fucking moron that is too afraid to open up to those closest to me and ask for help!"
Papyrus, of course, takes all this in as vital information he could use against the human. Her emotional and mental instability can be used to manipulate her. Grooming her to be more obedient to his will.
"I'm sorry."
"DAMN RIGHT YOU'RE SORRY."
"No...I mean, I'm sorry for earlier. It was wrong for me to hit you. You just...*sigh* How do I say this without sound like a dweeb?"
"JUST...SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY. DON'T ALTER YOUR WORDS. THEY LOSE IMPACT THAT WAY."
"If that's true, then don't make a big deal out of this."
"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"I am an emotional wreck and going through so much internal bullshit that it ain't funny. So know that the stupid things I'm about to say are true because this is making me feel very vulnerable and uncomfortable which I think you feel too."
By now the human was breathing heavily over the shattered remains of once recognizable objects, slowly regaining her composure. She stares at the mess for some time. Mettaton doesn't even try to do anything that could get her attention while in such a state. Eventually, she drops the bits in her hands and takes a seat in the chair she spared. Slumping in remorse and holding her face.
"I'm sorry. That...That was shameful. I'll pay you back for the damage."
"DO YOU NEED A MOMENT?"
She rubs her eyes of faint moisture.
"N-No...No. I'm fine. That...That was just a moment of venting weakness. I normally cry this crap out of my system. But...I'm so sick of crying. Yet...That felt good though. So much pent-up bullshit I don't or can't let out was just dropped like weights off my back. ...Does this count as therapy? Because this feels better than that child physiologist mom sent me to after I ran away...the first time."
"SOUND LIKE YOU DON'T CARE FOR YOUR PARENTS."
"You'd think that, but no. Don't get me wrong. I love my parents. They could've been far worse even with the flaws I've mentioned. Dad never missed work and made sure bills could be paid. Mom always made sure we could eat even if it meant she didn't and often broke the law to do so."
Her head lolls back as she lounges.
"It's easier to dwell in the negatives than the positives growing up. It can make for a bitter soul. This is just the tip of a massive iceberg, there is so much more crap hidden below. But now is neither the time nor place to dive deeper into those murky waters. I'll drown if I stay under too long. *sigh* I don't hate them for the life they brought me into. I'm just...disappointed. Disappointed by the choices they made and things they expected to get from them. Disappointed in myself for allowing all that to have so much of a hold on me. Disappointed...So very disappointed...*long drawn out groan* Could we please leave the personal questions for now?"
"VERY WELL."
He flips through the cards.
"YOU'VE BEEN IN THE UNDERGROUND FOR SOME TIME NOW. HOW HAS THAT BEEN? WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A HUMAN AMONG MONSTERS?"
This gets their attention. The human knows better than to tell all. But she's so far been extremely open. They hoped she was of sound mind enough to remember to keep some secrets.
"Even after all the attempted murder...I prefer monsters to humans. Because at least once the fighting is over, things can be somewhat normal. It's like 'hey, I know I just tried to kill you, but do you wanna maybe hang out for a bit?' and then that happens. It blows my mind how there's no animosity or spite afterward. After Humans fight with each other there's no calm, no peace of it being over, hell, a war might break out if it was bad enough. You never know how bad someone feels after and if the grudge they carry will make them go to extreme measures to make them feel better. Well...Except for the Irish. Those lads can tussle and then be all chummy after like it was a bonding experience. Nice folk. Always fancied them. Heh...Kinda like Monsters. A tough outside but nice inside. Maybe that's one of the reasons they were persecuted too. ...God, my kind is trash. All it knows is hate. We even hate ourselves. And one day...That hate will be the end of us."
She moves some hair from her face. A small smile coming to her.
"Moments like this...It's nice. Brief pauses of reflection and repose. Typically I end up doing this kind of thing in my head or I talk to myself. Funny how that works, the mind I mean. It is a self-aware entity in itself that can be both you and not you at the same time yet won't confuse itself by doing so. Probably why the imagination is such vital part of it. *pause* Heh...My bad. Lost myself for a moment. Back on point...Sure, this all began with you nearly killing me and it's probably just leading up to something else. Something good or bad. Yet till that happens...This is nice."
"SPEAKING OF NICE...YOUR LV HASN'T GONE UP FROM ITS BASE LEVEL. WE'VE SEEN YOU GO INTO FIGHTS, SO IT'S NOT THAT YOU'VE AVOIDED THEM COMPLETELY."
"As I've said...I don't like fighting."
"YOU MUST BE AWARE THAT PACIFISUM IS NOT A RECOMMENDED OR AN EASY THING TO DO IN THE UNDERGROUND. IS IT HARD BEING NICE FOR YOU DOWN HERE?"
"Is it hard for a fish to swim or bird to fly? Nice is my default. I don't have it in me to be genuinely mean. I can be rude or even a bitch, but that's only if that was how I was treated first. The real hard part about it is getting others to understand this niceness is real. Some pick it up with no trouble. But others are difficult. Going so far as to think I'm trying to lull them into a false sense of safety as part of an evil human trap. Can you believe that?"
Sans eyes Papyrus who rolls his sockets at his brother, both knowing damn well she meant him.
"EVEN SO, HAS THERE BEEN A TIME WHERE YOU WANTED TO FIGHT BACK? SURELY EVEN I PROBABLY INCURRED SOME IRE FROM YOU?"
She looks at the mechanical machination with a mix of confusion and annoyance.
"Ire is a strong word. True, I'm not happy about this situation. Exposing me for ratings. One of your goons bashing me over the head. The creepy stalking behavior by watching me through cameras. The needless puzzles and fighting. All of it wasn't necessary."
"I DISAGREE. EVERY BIT WAS COMPLETELY NECESSARY."
"Bull crap."
"NOW NOW, LET ME EXPLAIN. REGARDLESS OF YOUR INTENTIONS, YOU HAVE TO AGREE THAT YOU BEING HUMAN DOES CALL FOR CERTAIN MEASURES TO BE TAKEN. HUMANS DEAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE AND MONSTERS ARE WEAK TO SUCH ATTACKS."
"I know that. Get to your point, Metta."
"MY POINT? VERY WELL. MY DATABASE CONTAINS THE COLLECTED INFORMATION WE'VE GATHERED FROM THE PREVIOUS HUMANS THAT CAME BEFORE YOU. EACH WEAKER AND WEAKER AS TIME PASSED. YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE BEEN DISPLAYING STRANGE ABILITIES..."
A monitor comes down, displaying the human in her earlier distress and giving off that strange energy.
"NOT TO MENTION YOUR SOUL HAS BEEN CHANGING IT'S COLOR WITHOUT MAGIC INFLUENCE."
The monitor shows the many different colors her soul was throughout the show.
"SO, DARLING, AS YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING HAS BEEN COMPLETELY NECESSARY. EVERY LITTLE OBSTACLE ALLOWED FOR MORE OF YOUR UNKNOWNS TO BE REVEALED. HOWEVER..."
The monitor goes back up.
"I GET THE FEELING YOU'RE STILL HIDING SOMETHING."
She glares at the robot.
"I repeat, this wasn't necessary. All you needed to do was ask."
She sits up straight and focuses. Her soul emerges...it is a deep dull blue.
"I don't know everything. Seeing as this whole 'soul' thing isn't known on the surface anymore. To use now, the soul is an intangible thing. It leaves when we die and does whatever since no one truly knows what happens after death. But...I do know my soul isn't normal. Not normal from what I've learned here anyway. I possess ten traits for which my soul can become."
Shock smacks them. Even Mettaton spits oil from some port.
"T-TEN?!"
She nods.
"Ten traits. Ten colors. Nine of which are completely fine."
Her breathing falters as she concentrates harder, forcing the soul to change color to her will.
"Blue, integrity. Cyan, patience. Green, kindness. Pink, passion. Purple, perseverance. Orange, bravery. Red, determination. Yellow, justice. White, hope. ...These are my main traits. The nine that make up my core personality. Yet...There is one, the last one, that I will not show you. No matter what."
A question mark appears on Mettaton's screen. Toriel and Sans know full well which one she means.
"WON'T SHOW? HOW COME?"
"That soul is too dangerous. One that I can't control. The black soul of relentlessness."
Papyrus sockets widen. Sans wasn't making it up after all.
"IF YOU TRULY EXPECT ME TO BUY INTO THIS BLACK SOUL NONSENSE THAN YOU BETTER FIND A WAY TO PROVE TO ME THAT IT'S REAL!"
"and how do you expect me to do that? have it triggered and let her kill half the town?"
"OF COURSE NOT! SHE'D NEVER GET THAT FAR INTO SUCH A SPREE ONCE I SLAY HER."
"YOU DON'T THINK I CAN KILL HER?"
"her? sure, you'd kill her no problem. she'd probably let you do it if things got really bad. but the black soul? that's a different story all together."
"YOU TALK AS THOUGH YOU'VE SEEN THIS 'BLACK SOUL' IN ACTION."
"..."
"YOU HAVE, HAVEN'T YOU?"
"that thing isn't something you want to mess with. don't go after something you can't handle."
"YOU DARE THINK THAT PITIFUL CREATURE CAN HARM ME?!"
"no! i don't think it would harm you! i know it would kill you!"
"I have no will over that trait. It consumes me utterly. Coldly targeting anything and everything as a threat, then calculatingly eliminating victims brutally with no remorse by any means. Pain doesn't phase it. It has no fear. But I do. I fear this soul. I fear becoming that...that thing. That beast."
The robot's screen blips.
"YOU MAKE IT SOUND TERRIBLE. IF IT'S AS BAD AS YOU SAY, HOW HASN'T YOUR LV INCREASED? SURELY A MURDEROUS SOUL LIKE THAT WOULD HAVE A BODY COUNT ATTACHED TO IT?"
"I have thankfully been taken out of that state when it happens. My brother down here, the flower you may have seen me with, he's the one that saves me. I don't know how he does it as I only barely register what happens when the Black Soul is in control. But it's one of the reasons why we stay together. He doesn't want to die and I don't want to hurt anyone, so it's a good deal for us both."
"AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT TRIGGERS SUCH A STATE TO HAPPEN?"
"I'm not 100% sure but I have a theory. The worst of times. Moments when I lose all hope or can't take the pain. Mentally and/or physically. It takes over when I can't deal with things. And I guess it tries to 'solve' the problem...by getting rid of it."
Her demeanor is becoming more unsettled as she continues.
"I...I normally am unwilling to share this information. I don't like being personal with strangers. But since this is a live broadcast, and I've basically torn open a can of worms full of my emo baggage, I want this to be known. I need others to understand the danger. Because you all seem to view me as an easy kill. The dumb nice human that doesn't fight back. It'll be easy to get her soul. Hell, if it weren't for the black trait, I'd have given this thing to you guys ages ago. But it's not worth it. There's no point going to the surface, otherwise I'd be more inclined to leave and be subjected to the crap I deal with. And trust me...You don't want to know what I deal with."
Her eyes get dark and her expression serious to the point it's unnerving.
"The death that can possibly happen if the black soul activates and isn't stopped could be limitless. As the bearer of this curse, I remain here. Not because I see less harm if it triggers around monster, hell no. I trust my death to you because I have faith in monster kind being able to handle it. It's because I don't want to risk it being weaponized by humanity. Magic...REAL magic like this is gone from the surface. If it were to be discovered now...Magic will be coveted like any other valuable resource. Blood and dust will be spilled over ownership. The experiments to find a better means of harvesting it, the torture, the suffering, the endless cycle of hate feeding upon the lack of morality. I have no doubt monsters wouldn't even be seen as people. We've done it to different creeds of humanity throughout history, hell we still do it. I...I don't want that for Monsters. Part of me is saying I'm overthinking it, but I can't that optimistic side of me knowing all the fucked up shit Humans do. I don't want you guys to suffer. I don't want to cause harm. I don't want to see any more death! Please!!"
Her eyes are watering and her body trembling.
"I...I-I hate this feeling. This h-helplessness. I'm caged. I'm useless. I'm nothing on the surface. I'm a danger underground. I'm my own worst enemy and I don't know how to fight. *struggling* Why? Why didn't the fall kill me? Why can't I just die? Why am I so weak? I can't even bleed to death!"
She's a mess, weeping into her gloved hands. But Mettaton dismisses this display and keeps going.
"WEAK? YOU SELL YOURSELF SHORT. CLAWING INTO YOUR OWN BODY ISN'T A VERY WEAK THING AT ALL. COME TO THINK OF IT...IN YOUR ENCOUNTER WITH MUFFET, YOU TOLD HER WHY YOU DID IT. CARE TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEANT?"
A recording is played.
["I have just spent an ungodly amount of time trapped in that elevator over there having my soul violated by people that don't even exist anymore on this plane of reality. I have clawed my skin off to stop feeling their hands on me."]
Her face has the look of someone biting their tongue fairly hard to stay in control.
"What's to explain? I meant what I said and said what I meant."
"YOU'RE AVOIDING THE QUESTION, DARLING."
"No. You're refusing the answer."
"YOU SAID YOU'D TELL THE TRUTH!"
"I am!"
Agitation mounts.
"BULLSHIT! HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE BELIEVE THAT?"
"I don't give a crap if you believe me or not! You weren't the one there!"
"JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"
"It doesn't matter! You can't do anything about it! No one can! You can't stop people that break the laws of reality!"
Sans didn't like what he was hearing. And none of them liked that her still exposed soul was sparking with that strange energy.
"THERE ARE NO PEOPLE LIKE THAT!"
"How would you know?!"
"IF EVEN A FLY FARTS ANYWHERE IN THE UNDERGROUND, I KNOW ABOUT IT. IF ANYONE WITH ABILITIES LIKE THAT WERE HERE, THEY WOULDN'T BE UNKNOWN FOR VERY LONG."
"Did you not hear my words? They don't even exist anymore on this plane of reality! You can't find people that are outside time and space, you fucking idiot!"
"I'M THE IDIOT?! DO YOU NOT HEAR YOURSELF?! OUTSIDE TIME AND SPACE?! YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE A CONVINCING LIE!"
"I'm not lying, you insufferable ego-maniacal narcissistic jackass!"
"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!!"
"I did! Accept the fact there is shit in life you can't fathom or comprehend yet is true! Like Bigfoot, life on other planets, or stigmata! Unexplained phenomenons are the backbones of reality! Deal with it!"
"THAT'S NOT AN UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON! THAT'S A PURE IMPROBABLE IMMPOSSIBLITY!"
"By who's rule?! Are you God?! Do you know every infallible law the universe runs on?! No! You know nothing! No one does! So stop digging for shit that isn't there before something bad happens!"
"THEN GIVE ME A REAL ANSWER!"
"Stop...Please stop!"
"DARLING..."
"I s̷ái͟d͝ s̷t̢̛o̧͘p̀͟!̵̕͜!̧"
A surge of energy bursts from her soul, the flash whites out the screen and hurts the eyes. While blinded they all can hear the garbled sounds of pain and the sudden thud of weight hitting the floor. Their sight comes back to see the human writhing on the ground and gripping her soul, teeth bared in restrained growling.
"DARLING?"
She struggles to make her body move. Just slightly getting her head off the floor.
"Th͜i͞s͠...͜T́h̴i̵s̸ ̛įs ̕y̕our ̛f́aul͝t͏..̢.̴I͜ ͟a͡ske͝d ͠y̕o͏u t̷o͜ ͜s̛top..̢.̵"
The energy courses from her soul over her form, a brighter than normal light emanates from her clutched soul. She weakly pulls herself up to be supported by her free arm and the reason for the light is made clear, a crack has marred her soul. But that is far from the worst part. Sans spots it before Toriel but she's the one that points it out.
"Oh no!"
"What's wrong?"
"The darkness!"
Indeed. Black began to appear in the human's heart. The darkness corrupting the white light and faintly leaking out of the crack. The girl feels this. Panic flashes in her eyes but she's in no condition to handle so much on top of what has already happened.
"Wh̸en̢ wil̡l҉ ̛yo͡u̶ le͘ar͜n.͞..̡Y͘ou ̴fuc̀kín͜g id̴iot.̸..W͢hén wil̡l yoų ́a̶l̢l͜ léar͘n that͏ ̵y͘our act̵i҉o͞ns ͏ha͡v̛e ͘co͡n̴seq͘uenc͘e̶s͘?͘!"
The distortion. The off tone. The malice that seeped out. Perhaps it was enough proof for the automaton to believe her earlier words. For Mettaton seems to be distracted one second and then takes it all seriously the next. One of his hands snakes under his desk and the next thing to happen is the floor beneath the human opens up, dropping her into the unknown. Glitched roaring echoes as she plummets. A sickening crash leads into dead silence.
"WELL...THAT WAS INTERESTING."
His nonchalance about the whole thing is upsetting.
"SADLY, MY CO-STAR SEEMS TO BE HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE. NOT EVERYONE CAN HANDLE THE STRESS OF BEING IN THE SPOTLIGHT, LIKE MOI."
His flamboyance is rubbing them the wrong way.
"HOWEVER, DESPITE HER TEMPER TANTRUM AND LACK OF COOPERATION, I WILL ASSURE YOU ALL SHE IS NOT DEAD. I MERELY GAVE HER THE SMALL BREAK THAT SHE CLEARLY NEEDED."
It's likely that the break involved her bones or some body part.
"BUT...I CAN GIVE YOU ALL SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO...THIS WAS THE LAST PRELEWD ACT. THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE US TOGETHER, IT WILL BE FOR THE MAIN EVENT. THE FINAL BATTLE APPROACHES, MY ENCOURAGABLE VIEWERS. DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS HISTORICAL MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT."
The show shifts into a commercial break.
Toriel begins shaking. She can't deal with this much longer. Grillby does what he can to give her support, but he too has much on his mind. His pussycat unloaded a TON of things and a lot of it was incredibly concerning. Papyrus ushers his brother away from the other two as not to be overheard.
"SO...HOW LONG?"
Sans looks at him funny.
"uh...what?"
"HOW LONG WERE THE BOTH OF YOU GOING TO HIDE THIS PART OF THE SECRET FROM ME?"
"um...which part?"
"THAT POWER. SHE HAS TEN TRAITS, SANS. JUST HOW STRONG IS THAT GIRL?"
Sans scratches his skull.
"i honestly don't know, pap. i didn't even know she had that many. my main worry was always the black trait, so i never asked about others."
Papyrus folds his arms and shuts his eyes in thought.
"i swear, i ain't lying to ya."
"I KNOW YOU'RE NOT."
"then...what's wrong?"
"*HUFF* I DON'T LIKE THIS. I DON'T LIKE THE IDEA OF THAT WEAKLING BEING POWERFUL."
His eyes open but look at nothing.
"I SHOULD'VE KNOWN SOMETHING WAS OFF THAT NIGHT...THAT PUNCH...SHE WAS HOLDING BACK SO MUCH..."
Papyrus clenches his fists into tight balls of rage.
"THAT BITCH."
"ya know she didn't want to hurt ya."
"THAT'S THE THING. SHE THOUGHT SHE COULD HURT ME. HOW WEAK DOES SHE THINK I AM? THAT'S WHAT'S PISSING ME OFF MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW."
Sans sighs. One day his brother will taste humble pie and not like it.
[HOTLAND: LAB]
Undyne finishes off her sixth bowel of ramen and looks at Alphys.
"Well...That wasn't how I thought it was going to end. Was it really necessary to tell him to drop her?"
Alphys takes a few more notes and ponders.
"Would you rather there be no main event? Besides..."
She adjusts her glasses.
"If what the human said is true, then the Black Soul being triggered in an open area would result in mass casualties. The zone in which the ending will be shot in is, for the most part, closed and under my remote control. So even in the event of something going wrong, which the odds of such are highly unlikely, then any and all threats can be dealt with in an optimum manner."
Undyne nods.
"I guess that makes sense. Still...I don't what I saw. There was real fear in the human's eyes."
"Good. She should be afraid. She should be very afraid of what's to come."
"And what's that?"
"That would be spoilers."
"Damn it. *sigh* A human soul with ten traits...Sounds tough. I wanna fight it!"
"It does raise a lot of questions. One, in particular, is on my mind."
"What's that?"
"If a human soul, deprived of magic, possesses ten traits and begins gaining magic...What will happen when it attains 100% magic?"
A cold chill runs through the captain.
[HOTLAND: SOMEWHERE ON LEVEL 3]
I am getting so sick of this crap. Why can't I just die at this point?
"*muffled* Lynsie?"
The voice and light jostling is bringing me back to consciousness. Damn it. Here I go again.
My eyes weakly open to the sight of dirt and rock. Just an inch away from losing the ability to see. Like I need a handicap in all this.
"Lynsie? Are you okay?"
Ah, Flowey. It's about time we met back up.
"*groan* H-Hey, bro. I missed you."
He smiles sadly.
"Are you okay? Can you move?"
I roll over on my back and check myself.
[HP ██████████ 10/40]
[HEARTBREAK level ONE in effect]
I figured that's what happened. No wonder the Black Soul was triggering. Thank goodness for the fall knocking my ass out or things would've gone bad fast.
"I think I'll be okay. Sore, but okay. I'm sadly getting used to falling and possible brain damage."
My answer has him pout.
"What's with the face, bro? You know I'm a tough cookie. I'll be fine."
His face gets full of concern.
"I...I heard what you told Mettaton."
Yeah, you and the rest of the Underground.
"I...I understand now why you didn't talk about your past. Why you kept to yourself. I'm sorry."
God, he's too sweet for this place. I reach over and gently stroke his petals.
"I love you, bro. You have no idea how much it means to me that you care. But don't pity me. I do that enough on my own."
I wearily sit up, shaking my head of all that baggage I brought up for the show.
"I wasn't pitying you. It's just..."
He fiddles with his leaves in a shy way but I cut his words off.
"Bro, I get it. I do. It's the same feeling like when you told me your history. Yet, let's be honest here, you're more mentally mature than me and I'm still not completely okay after getting all that off my chest. We can talk more about it later after this ordeal is over. Maybe over mom's cheesecake? Deal?"
"...You mean it?"
"Yeah. I promise."
He smiles brightly.
"Okay. I'd like that."
I pick myself up and stretch, taking a look around at where we are.
"Don't tell me he dropped me back at the start."
"Nope. This is still Level Three. In fact...I do believe MTT Resort is just past this place."
"...For real? Is it a safe space?"
"Yep. There are shops and rooms to rest."
I hear a heavenly choir sing in my head.
"Finally! The universe throws me a decent bone!"
I regret saying that the moment it leaves my mouth. Flowey looks at me funny.
"Don't take that out of context, you know what I meant."
"I don't know. You and Smiley Trashbag are eerily close."
My eye twitches. Things I wish Gaster didn't show me try to pop into my head.
"Are you okay? You look like you're about to puke."
"Never insinuate something like that ever again."
He shakes his head at me. I try to change the subject before I have a heart attack on camera.
"So...Are you able to follow me to the resort? I'm sick of being separated."
"There's ground outside of it and parts I can reach beyond it, but the resort itself I can't get in without some sort of aid like a pot. Cement and tile flooring is a pain to break into."
"Damn, bro, you hella strong."
There's a deactivated reversed conveyor belt that's attached to the artificial platforms.
"Is it safe to cross? It's kinda giving me 'trap' vibes."
"You should be fine. This is normally the part where the colored tiles would be used again, but you know, stuff changed. It's probably off."
"Ah. Gotcha. I guess...See ya soon?"
"You bet."
He ducks into the ground so I take it as my time to leave this pit. The entire time I feel on edge. With my luck, the trap will turn on and I get screwed. Thankfully nothing happens apart from some jets of flame randomly going off in the distance and making me jump like a wuss. At least it got me to the stairs quicker.
After a quite the climb, I reach the top perturbed yet undaunted as a four-way crossroads greets me, though the two paths on the sides are blocked. More Royal Guards, a cat to the left and some kind of insect on the right, both in that imposing armor.
"Well if it isn't my best customer..."
The Ice Scream rabbit pops up from behind the cart I wasn't paying attention to.
"Fancy seeing you again."
As odd as seeing him here is, he's a familiar face that is a sight for my sore eyes. I approach.
"Hey, guy, what's up? Haven't been seeing you much in Snowdin Forest for a bit."
He leans on the cart like a cool guy.
"Yeah...Been moving around seeing if I can make mad gold somewhere where the weather isn't the same temp as my product."
"Any luck?"
"Waterfall wasn't so bad. Even started a new program with rewards cards. Turn in a card with ten punches and get a free doubling of your next order. Speaking of which..."
He reaches into his pants pocket and hands me a punch card. Some holes have already been made.
"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had the funds to get this far. So...Instead of starting your card full, I may have added your previous buys. Can't say I haven't gotten better at my wonderful salesmanship."
I can't help but smile. He's come a long way. I'm proud of him.
"Well then, wonderful salesman, I'd like to add some more holes please."
"Heh...sure. But I'm warning you, prices have gone up. 25G. Got to charge more here 'cause of the heat."
"Understood, my dude. Um...Just curious...Got fudge pops? Kinda have this hankering for something chocolate."
He shakes his head.
"Sold out. The Royal Guards bought those like crazy."
"Damn. Oh well. One blue, orange, grape, and blood. All bisicles."
He fills my order and I pay the 100G.
"Here you go. All five ready to enjoy."
I look at him funny.
"Five?"
"Yep. Five. I definitely didn't toss in a strawberry one because of customer loyalty. Nope. Didn't do it."
Must...resist...the urge...to HUG!!
"...Thank you. That...That means a lot."
He gives me a wink and I practically skip away up another set of stairs. I place the treats in my inventory for now. I know not what crap will happen from here, so healing items are a big help.
I am met by a large complex. Redbrick that's been tagged with graffiti, yellow-tinted windows with some broken, a gold MTT sign with two Mettaton images with devil horns, a black & white checkered awning over the door, two large plant potters that have dry withered flower remnants, and a blood-red or just stained that way rug embroidered with gold MTTs.
"Classy."
I'm about to head inside when something hits my leg. A paper airplane? I inspect it to find it's a note.
[Hey! Go up the creepy alleyway on the right for some great deals!]
"...I'm gonna get mugged, aren't I?"
It's against my better judgment, but this is a neutral zone, so I should be okay. I wearily creep around, following spray-painted arrows, to end up finding two girls gossiping among garbage. They notice me and straighten up.
"Hey! Check it out!"
"Yeah! Check it out!"
"So, like, what's up? I'm Bratty, and this is my best friend, Catty."
"I'm Catty, and this is my best friend, Bratty."
Oh no...More valley speak!?! Why is that a thing down here?!
Bratty is a tall, green alligator or crocodile monster that wears a primarily black shawl with yellow and red details on the sides. She has yellow hair that flows into curls and red lipstick.
Catty is a plump purple cat creature who wears a set of black overalls with yellow buttons and tufts of red fur with yellow highlighted tips coming out from under it on either side. She has black hair with a red streak in it and a yellow earring on her left ear.
"Uh...Hi? So...This is a shop?"
"Like, the best shop!"
"You should buy ALL our stuff!"
Catty gets this blanket out and opens it out to show me their items. They don't have much, just four things, but I can't turn away from these items.
[25G - Junk Food - Has a big bite out of it]
[350G - Rusty Revolver - Bullets NOT included]
[350G - Tattered Western Hat - ATTACK up when worn]
[600G - Mystery Key - Probably to someone's house LOL]
A gun...How the fuck is that here?
"Oooh! I know that look!"
"That's the look of some wanting something!"
"Bratty! We're gonna be rich!"
"Where did you find this stuff?"
"I mean, like, where does anyone get guns, or food, or..."
"We found it in the garbage!"
I so called it.
"It's GOOD garbage."
"It's like, really good garbage."
"Where do you get the garbage?"
"Like, the garbage store, duh!!! ...Waterfall mostly."
"I found a gun in a dumpster!"
I check my gold...I don't have anywhere close to 1,300G for their garbage.
"Um...Maybe we could work out some sort of arrangement?"
They glare.
"That's poor talk."
"You need WAY more money."
What I need is to get that stuff away from them. That stuff is bad enough with humans, I don't want monsters messing with crap like guns.
"Ladies, I'm sure there's something we can do. Shops run on trade. This is just a trade of a different kind. I can't give you the gold, but I can get you other things. There's gotta something you'd both want that I can fetch for you in exchange?"
They mull it over.
"Thanks, but we, like, don't really need anything."
"Oh my god, can you go get us some Dazzleburgers?"
"We don't. Really need. Anything."
"Wait! I'll pay you 1000G if you get Mettaton to autograph my butt!"
Catty seems to be the easier one here. Maybe I can work with this.
"While I do know the guy, I'm not sure I can get Metta to sign your butt."
"Damn."
"Wait...You know Mettaton?!"
Their eyes sparkle.
"...Yes?"
They squeal with fanatical glee.
"Oh my God. Mettaton."
"Oh my GOD, METTATON."
"He's like...My robot husband."
"Actually he's like...MY robot husband."
"I think we're like...both going to marry him."
"We're both like, ALREADY married to him. He just, like, doesn't know it yet."
They're insane.
"Okay...Can I ask what's a Razzburger? I could try to get that."
Their eyes widen in shock.
"You don't know what a Dazzleburger is?"
"Do you, like, live under a rock?"
Don't we all do since this is a mountain?
"Dazzleburgers are epic!"
"They're only sold in the resort."
Interesting.
"Inside huh? Let me guess...Very pricey."
Bratty nods.
"The stuff inside, is like..."
"TOTALLY wicked expensive."
"But, like, this stuff we found is like..."
"TOTALLY wicked cheap."
"You should..."
"Like..."
"TOTALLY wicked buy all of it?"
"Cheap? You're selling a random key for 600G!"
They giggle at me and I sigh. Bitches, man...bitches.
"So where inside am I gettin' them?"
"The MTT-Brand Burger Emporium."
"You have to get them from Bugerpants."
That name...That name brings back memories...as well as sore spots. Douche-cat...
"Burgerpants."
"Yeah, that guy from the store. Yuck, what a creep."
"Yeah! He's a creep! But he's kind of cute, too..."
"C'mon Catty, don't you have ANY standards?"
"Nope!!!"
...You need standers, Catty.
"Yeah, I met him. Not so much a creep but he is a massive prick."
"OK, like, the annoying thing is..."
"He'd be OK if he just treated us with some respect."
"But he just acts..."
"Really weird."
"And then acts like it's OUR fault he acts that way!"
"Like, when we asked him to get those Dazzleburgers..."
"He dropped them and ran away before we could even say anything!"
"We were, like, going to share them."
"Really? I wasn't."
"Catty!"
This zone is full of awful people.
"One last thing...How many you want?"
Catty waves her paws.
"So many! Enough to fill a dumpster!"
"The mega value pack should cover us."
I give Bratty a thumbs up and leave their shady establishment. Now I enter the main building and this time I'm greeted by someone for once. It's either very diamond-like or very origami-like, but above all, it's a tiny monster.
"Welcome to MTT Resort - Hotland's biggest apartment-building-turned-hotel! Whether you're here for a night or still live here, MTT Resort prides itself on a great stay! Just passing through...? Nice! MTT Resort prides itself on being passed through!"
"Interesting business model. Does it work?"
"Oh, indeed it does, human."
"You know what I am?"
"Oh yes! The staff has been informed of your coming and instructed on how to handle you upon arrival."
Oh god, what now?
"Over on your left, we have a dine-in restaurant complete with a stage which hosts a wide cast of live acts. Either comedy done by locals or Mettaton entertains when he isn't too busy."
"Neat."
"If you're feeling like you hate yourself, behind me is the MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Dazzleburger!"
Well, they know how fast food works.
"All further questions can be taken to my coworker behind the desk."
I scratch my head and shrug.
"Thanks."
I walk away and head for the other receptionist. It's not a bad-looking lobby at least. Red & yellow checkered tiles and the rug from outside continues forward into parts unknown. The obnoxious fountain of Mettaton is gaudy though. I reach the desk and the monster behind it is a weird one. It's blue and its head is a hand with very well manicured red nails.
"Yes, we know. The elevator music volume is super loud and the song is stuck on a three-second loop. We are working on it. Because of this incident, rooms are running at a special rate! 200G a room. Interested?"
Someone sounds grumpy.
"No thank you. I was told to come to you. I'm the human if that helps."
Their head fingers extend in alert.
"Oh! Sorry. I was instructed to inform you on where to go next."
"That would be helpful, yes."
It motions to where the rug is heading.
"If you follow the rug there, you'll be lead out back to the entrance of the CORE. Mettaton will be waiting for you at the top."
"Could I use the elevator instead? All this travel is exhausting."
"No can do. The elevator leads to the Capital and main residence of our people. You're not allowed to go there."
"Oh...That's fine. I didn't want to go there. Just trying to take shortcuts if able."
"*ahem* If you require a small rest, might I suggest renting a room?"
"I don't the gold, sorry."
"That's fine. Mettaton has pre-paid a room for you. One time only."
I'm stunned. Damn him! Why does he confuse me so much?! I want to like and hate him at the same time!
"Um...In that case, sure. Where are rooms?"
They motion again.
"Down the hall to the right."
I wait for them to give me a key or card but nothing is there except awkwardness.
"Is there a problem?"
"No...not really. But...uh...Isn't this the part you give me a room key?"
"What? Room...Key? No, we don't do that. If you leave your room, you'll have to pay again."
So if I enter I can't leave or else I'll have to pay? That's insane!
"On second thought, maybe later."
"Shame. Do let us know if you change your mind. Have a sparkular day!"
I'm getting the feeling they're being nice because they were told to be. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be given such a warm welcome. Oh well. Time to pay a certain someone a visit.
I stroll up to the emporium and find myself paused. I can go about this in many ways. The different choices and outcomes play out in my head super fast. After a few, I settle on something...something that'll leave an impression. I push the doors open. A digital bell sounds. I look at what appears to be a sadder version of McDonald's. And like a mindless corporate drone, he speaks while moping the floor before seeing "who" just walked in.
"Welcome to MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Dazzleburger. Sparkle up your day (TM)."
He begins to turn around.
"What can I do to..."
His eyes widen seeing me, grinning sadistically at him like a lunatic.
"Uh...help?"
This hurts my throat to do, but it really sells this whole thing. I deepen my voice to imitate Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and just laugh. He is unnerved to say the least.
"*menacing* No one will help you."
"H-Hey now...Don't think of doing anything funny."
I walk up to him and he backs away slowly before leaping behind the counter.
"Stay back! You can't hurt anyone in shops!"
I keep the deep voice.
"*menacing* Hurt you? Foolish boy...Why would I do that? It's not like you put a cigarette out on my wrist and bashed my head with a bat!"
That last part was done a bit too harsh and I end coughing. All seriousness leaves.
"*coughs* Nah, man...*normal* I ain't gonna do anything. For reals. I was just messing with ya."
He eyes me funny.
"Riiiiiight...What do you want then?"
"Preferably, my phone."
He flinches, his eyes looking quickly down then darting back up.
"I..."
"Metta doesn't have to know."
"What do you mean he won't know?! He knows everything that goes on here!"
"Look, you either give me my phone, or I'm gonna go back there and take it."
"You're not seri..."
My dead stare shuts him up. He seems to freeze up now. I sneer and put my hand out. He looks at my hand and then starts sweating. I'm beginning to lose my patience.
"You have five seconds."
His fur stands on end and he suddenly slams his face on the countertop, giving himself a bloody nose.
"Sorry, (Ha ha) it's against the rules to talk to customers who haven't bought anything. And talking with you this long has put me in serious shit. If you want this 'exchange' to continue, you're going to make a purchase."
I'm not happy.
"...What do you have?"
[60G - Sorebet - Very popular food.]
[120G - Dazzleburger - Very popular food.]
[300G - Mythical Villain - Anti-Hero Sandwich. ATTACK UP in battle.]
[500G - Biltong Slab designed to look like Mettaton - Don't ask. Please.]
I huff through my nose and shell out the 60G.
"That Sorebet better come with my phone."
"Yeah yeah. Don't get your panties in a twist."
"Fuck you. I wear boxers."
He eyes me with a blush before heading into the back. Might as well chat him up while I can.
"So...Do you know the chicks behind the building?"
"Huh? Oh...Them. Yeah, I know them. What of it?"
"They were talking about you."
"The girls were...Talking about me...?"
Hooked him.
"They mentioned you threw burgers at them and ran."
"Bullshit! That is not what happened."
He comes back to the counter with a glass of frozen dessert and my phone.
"Care to enlighten me?"
He sighs and lights a cigarette. I wonder if he can do that while on shift?
"Never interact with attractive people. Unless you're 'one of them', they're just gonna take advantage of you. Those two chicks asked me to sneak them some Dazzleburgers. And I, the naive teenager that I was, said yes to them. Bad idea."
"What happened?"
He takes a dag and lifts the collar of his uniform shirt open, blowing the smoke in there.
"Does that really keep the smoke from spreading?"
"It's worked so far. *puff* So I went out to the alley to see those two ladies, and uh...you know, see what'd happen next."
"Like...Naughty stuff?"
"...Maybe."
"Nice."
He blushes.
"Anyway...Then my boss comes out of nowhere, sees me, and demands to know what I was doing. I was so startled, the hamburgers in my pockets tumbled out onto the ground. Not wanting to lose face to the girls, I scrambled to pick them up! But, as I was bending down, the weight of the remaining hamburgers...*puff*...caused my pants to fall down."
He expected me to mock him. But I can't feel anything more than pity for the guy. This surprises him and he continues his story.
"Then the girls laughed at me. Everyone calls me Burgerpants now. It's gotten to the point I can't remember my name half of the time. It's even on my name tag for fuck's sake!"
Poor douche cat.
"I think you're the first to not laugh at me or that story."
"Why would I laugh? That's...That's messed up, man."
He takes another drag.
"You know something...I misjudged you, human. I know it ain't much, but, I'm sorry for being an ass."
I rub the back of my head.
"I'll be honest, guy...Since the bar thing, I've seen you only as a prick. The idea of you having hard times and lashing out didn't cross my mind at all. That's my bad right there. Sorry on my part for being a bitch."
He smirks.
"So...You're really not going to tell Mettaton about this?"
He hands me my phone.
"Dude, this stays between us. Besides, he's kinda been pissing me off lately."
"Yeah, he does that."
He takes a deep drag before putting the cigarette out on the bottom of his shoe.
"Can I give you some advice? I'm getting on in years, so take it from me...You've still got time. Don't live like me. I'm 19 years old and I've already wasted my entire life. I'll probably be trapped at this stupid job forever. But wait! There's one thing that keeps me going! If ASGORE gets just one more SOUL, we'll finally get to go to the surface! It'll be a brand new world! There's gotta be a second chance out there for me! For everyone!"
"Maybe. So, what did you want to do before this?"
"Oh...I wanted to be an ACTOR."
"Neat."
"When I first came to Hotland, it was my dream to work with Mettaton. Well, be careful what you wish for! God, look what that idiot has done here. This place is a labyrinth of bad choices. And every time we try to change something for the better, he vetoes it and says that's not how they do it on the surface. Oh! Right! Humans are always eating hamburgers made of RHINESTONES AND GLITTER."
"...I can assure you we don't eat that. Eating that would be very bad for our health. Maybe even fatal. Monsters don't really eat that...Do they?"
His eyes shift and I facepalm.
"And you guys think I'm gonna hurt ya?"
"You should probably get going. The boss will get his gears in a bunch if you take too long getting to the CORE."
"Fine."
I put the Sorebet in my inventory and remember my awkward side-quest.
"Oh! Before I bounce, can you help me with something?"
He tilts his head.
"What?"
"The chicks, Bratty and Catty, they have items I want but don't have the crazy amount of gold. They say they'll trade for a mega value pack. Any way you might be able to help make this trade happen?"
He sighs.
"Really? Do you know how much that is?"
"1300G close? Because that's how much I need."
"...What kind of shit are they selling that's worth that much?!"
I goofily shrug. He groans and rubs his face.
"I can't just give you that much for free."
"Catty thinks your cute."
"...For real?"
I nod. He fidgets, fingers tip-tapping and pitter-pattering.
"Okay, I'll tell you what...You score me a hook up with her and I'll give you the burgers."
Damn you rule of three in side-quests!
"Argh...I guess I can try. It won't be the weirdest thing I do today but it is on the list though."
His eyes light up with excitement. I can't mess this up now. How often does he actually smile like this?
"Thank you! *ahem* I mean...Cool."
I slink out of the emporium and head for the exit.
"Um, excuse me, human...The CORE is the other way."
I groan.
"I know. I'll be back."
Exit building, go into the creepy alley, and meet the girls again.
"Look who's back."
"Do you have the Dazzleburgers?"
I show my empty hands.
"Ha! I knew she'd blow it."
"Sucks to be you!"
"Hold up. He'll give me the goods. But..."
"But...?"
"Catty...Do you really think he's cute? 'Cause he thinks you're hot."
Catty's face flushes. Bratty rolls her eyes.
"For reals? He wants a date?"
"A date? A hangout? A simple meeting while he's working? I don't know. For all I know she can walk in, say hi, and that's it. All I need is confirmation and you get all those shiny burgers."
"Yes!"
"Catty...?"
"What a deal! A cute guy and free food! It's the score of a lifetime!"
"Catty, he's a loser. You hang out with him once, then he wants to hang out... All. The. Time."
"But don't you feel bad for him, Bratty? Poor Burgerpants...Think about how cool we are compared to him!!! We'd be saving his LIFE with our awesomeness!! His LIFE, Bratty!!"
"Uh, so?"
"Think of all the Dazzleburgers he could get for us!!"
And just like that, I feel like shit for doing this.
"...So is he free after work?"
"*huff* I'll be back...again."
Leave the alley, enter the building, meet up with Burgerpants.
"I don't like the look you have there. Did she say no?"
I can't lie to this guy.
"Dude, I'm really uncomfortable with this."
"What's wrong?"
"She said yes. But..."
"She said YES?!"
"I mean, she agreed, but please listen..."
"Ha! Ahahaha!! Yes!!! You've brought a tear to the eye of this old man."
I feel so bad.
"Dude, please...I'm, like, 100% sure she's gonna use you for free food and maybe gold."
"...So?"
I'm taken back.
"Look, you don't think I didn't think of that? I know she's probably going to use me. Everyone does. If it's for the food, I don't care. That's just another way I can stick it to my boss. Speaking of..."
He plops this cardboard case down on the counter.
"A deal's a deal. The mega value pack for the girl."
...Okay, they're made for each other. Everyone here is trash!
"So, uh, what time did she say she wanted to hang out?"
I hate everything about this!!
"I'll be back again."
Take food, leave, exit, alley. At this point, I nearly shove the shit at them.
"Oh my God!"
"Is that the mega value pack Dazzleburgers?"
"OH MY GOD!!! GIMME!!!"
"God, Catty. Try to have some self-control."
"Sorry..."
"'Cause they OBVIOUSLY brought the Dazzleburgers for ME."
"NO WAYYY!!!!!"
I point to the items.
"Trade. Now."
Bratty puts the key and gun into the hat before handing it over to me.
"Thank you."
I put the key in my inventory and equip the other two.
[You equipped the Tattered Western Hat]
[You gain 12 Defense and 5 Attack]
[This battle-worn hat makes you want to crew on straw for some reason. It also raises attack by 5.]
[You equipped the Rusty Revolver]
[You gain 12 Attack]
[An super old gun. It has no ammo. Must be used precisely, or damage will be low. Duh.]
[HP: 40 ATK: 62 DEF: 50]
I am becoming OP!!
"Oh! Give burger-boy this!"
Catty hands me a scrap of paper with her number.
"Fine. I'm just glad this is done."
Back to Burgerpants. I slap the paper down.
"Here's her number. I hope you don't regret this."
His face contorts in a weird way...Is he...Happy?
Sweet! I need to pick a spicy outfit for my little shindig later. Though, now that I think about it, I had to throw away all of my clothes to make room for the outfits Mettaton gave me."
"...What?"
"Don't take it the wrong way. They're just all these...Weird getups. 'Promotional' costumes. For 'holidays'. Or 'specials'. Or 'because he felt like it'. The thing IS though! Most of the time I'm the only employee who has to wear this stuff! Sometimes he even calls me into his office just to...Make me put something on...Then he laughs and lets me go back to work as normal."
My pity meter is breaking.
"Anyways, I won't sweat it. I'll take it casual. NEVER let hot people think you care. That's how they GET you."
And the pity meter dropped dead.
"Good luck with that."
I leave on that note. Fuck this resort. Fuck this quest plot. Fuck this whole damn thing!
Wanting this shit show to be over and done with, I do as instructed by following the rug's path out some doors that have a giant sign above that says "CORE". Lazy-ass designers, I swear.
Weirdly this leads to a balcony. A balcony that has been opened and a walkway built that connects to the massive facility. The light from the resort barely shows half of the path as the CORE itself surprisingly gives off the faintest glow. The CORE is an entirely mechanical complex that is largely black and yellow with red accents. The blah colors aside, what gets my attention are the two monsters that were minding the entrance that slip inside when I show up. I don't like this.
"Flowey, you better be able to get here. I have a bad feeling about this."
Approaching shows more of this crazy thing. The CORE appears to be the most industrial and modern region of the Underground. Ozone, a byproduct of electrical power, is omnipresent below the floor level of the CORE. This could mean the CORE might be made of stainless steel, titanium, or platinum; as ozone is highly corrosive to most organic materials. If this is the case, they could use this stuff. The CORE could be a source of ozonated water, which cleans clothes, sanitizes food, and purifies drinking water. This also implies this might be the greatest source of oxygen in the Underground as ozone simply decomposes into oxygen at high concentrations and temperatures. The only hazard I can think of is that oxygen is a shitty thing to breathe. Breathing pure oxygen at high pressures can cause nausea, dizziness, muscle twitching, vision loss, convulsions, and loss of consciousness. Breathing pure oxygen for a long time can irritate the lungs causing coughing and/or shortness of breath. Higher exposure may cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs and subsequent death. Guess how much more O2 is needed to do this to a person? 20% more. God, Humans are so freaking weak. I'll need to be careful here.
The lobby of the CORE has an elevator to the north and two paths to the left and right. Not a bad looking place, very lavishly decorated, the floors are engraved with intricate patterns and multicolored neon tubes serve as wall ornaments and embellishments. I check the elevator, which is disabled, I'm not shocked at this point. Not much else to do, I go to the path on the right, which turns out to be a small room with a square platform overlooking a pit of fire. Not bad. I do enjoy looking at fire. It's pretty. Moving on! Going through the left path leads to a rectangular stretch of wall-less hallway with a doorway at the end.
"Hmmm...My bullshit senses are tingling. I'm willing to bet a random encounter/ambush is about to happen."
As if cued by my words, something cracks the back of my head and then hits my gut as I turn.
"*wheeze* Called it..."
My attacker appears and my dull cracked purple soul is forced out to play.
[Madjick pops out of its hat!]
Madjick has a typical appearance of a wizard. It wears a curved wizard hat, a pair of boots, and two rotating orbs emitting cross-shaped particles. Madjick has a sly smile on its face, but a pair of bright eyes are hidden just under its hat.
[FIGHT]
[ACT]
[̴͝SP͜͞E͡L̵͜L͟͠͏]͘͢
[ITEM]
[MERCY]
I wonder if SPELL will work on this thing? ...N-No. No. Can't chance it. Stick to normal tactics.
[ACT selected.]
[New options available.]
[CHECK]
[TALK]
[STARE]
[CLEAR MIND]
...The fuck kind of options are these?!
[CHECK selected.]
[MADJICK – HP: 190 ATK: 29 DEF: 24 – This enemy can only speak in magic words.]
Finally! My states aren't shit compared to my attacker. Also, only speaks in magic words is the most fucking adorable thing I've ever heard.
"Abra cadabra."
An orb spawns off to my left and rapid-fires crosses at me. I dodge and the orb tries to cut me off by going where I'm headed. It fires about eight times and moving around is not so great.
[HP ████████████████ 16/40]
Thank goodness my defense got increased during all this crap. I could've been really messed up.
[Madjick flaunts its orbs in a menacing manner.]
It snickers.
"A smug one. I like that."
[TALK selected.]
"You know...I can do magic too."
It looks at me intrigued.
"Yep. I can make your smile disappear."
It pauses before sneering at me.
"See? I made it vanish before your very eyes!"
It didn't seem to like my humor.
"Hocus pocus."
[Madjick begins chattering to itself. Its gibberish dizzies you...Your DEFENSE drops by 1.]
My head feels fuzzy. Did it just jinx me? Are there more types of magic than what I've been told?
One of the orbs begins to chase me while deploying harmful but immobile crosses. Yet due to the jinx, my sense of direction is ass-backward. Left is right and right is left. Up is down and down is up. However...much to Madjick's dismay...I'm used to being incredibly dizzy. My childhood was filled with countless hours of boredom appeased by spinning around till I couldn't see straight.
[HP ████████████████████ 20/40]
Ha ha...Suck on those magic balls, wizard-boy!
"*slur* Is that what you call magic? Boo! Disappointed!"
[Madjick whispers arcane swear words.]
"*slur* Oh...Someone needs to put some gold in the swear jar. I'm gonna tattle!"
It growls.
"Eh eh eh. It's not your turn."
I slap my face a few times.
[CLEAR MIND selected.]
"I wonder where Flowey is?"
[You think of pollen and sunshine. Your confusion abates. Your DEFENSE increased by 2.]
"...What?"
"Alakazam!!"
It tries to surprise me with that following orb trick. But now that I know that move it's not so bad.
[HP ██████████████████████████ 26/40]
Huh? Am I auto-healing faster? Sweet! Surely that only means good things for me.
[Madjick peers at you with strange eyes.]
"What? You scared? My sick moves and auto-healing too much for you? No worries, wizard-dude, we cool. I got you."
The hell did I just say? Am I magic high? Fuck it.
[MERCY selected.]
[New options available.]
[FLEE]
[SPARE]
[SPARE selected.]
It looks at me funny. Then it looks at my HP.
[HP ████████████████████████████████ 32/40]
It flinches.
"Please and thank you."
Madjick accepts my act of mercy.
[YOU WON!]
[You earned 0 XP and 120 gold.]
The fight ends, my soul returns to my body and I give my opponent claps of approval.
"Good show, buddy. Keep up the good work."
It seems confused but nods, hovering away behind me towards the exit.
"Well...That was weird."
My head still feels odd. Nothing a few brain sloshing shakes of the old noggin won't fix. Anyway, no time to question strange feelings or whatever. I gotta get through this so I can get back to Toriel. Onwards I go.
Continuing forward, I enter a room with a bridge that is cut off by a tesla coil. Wow. Hadn't seen that in a long ass time. How much do I wanna bet there's a convenient off switch nearby. Oh, look! A super obvious switch right there on the wall. Who could've ever had guessed! I flip the switch and lasers fire at me! First blue, then blue again, and orange. Thankfully they're slow, so once I triggered the first blue laser I easily hit the deck to avoid the others that pass by.
"Setting booby traps on top of other traps now. Geez, Metta, I'm starting to think you don't like me very much. Well, that's fine. I don't like me either! So come at me already and quit this pussy bullshit!"
Calm down. No need to get riled up. Get through this and go home. Then I can just stuff my face with Nanny's awesome cheesecake and pass out happy. I march on, doing my best not to look down or notice how some of the walls and floors are chipped away. Now I'm paranoid about if any other laser that turns up is functional or decorative.
The path leads into a crossroads with a path to my left and a path straight ahead. My bullshit sense is tingling when I look at the left path. Straight ahead it is.
This room contains a bridge with many blue and orange lasers followed by a massive wall of blue lasers.
"Nope. Just nope. Screw the rules! I have plot armor importance and common sense!"
Fuck this outfit. Fuck this shit! I have lost all my fucks! I get down on the floor and combat crawl the long as fuck cold metal catwalk.
"*muttering* Stupid bullshit. Why do I have to be nice? If I wasn't nice, I wouldn't have to put up with shit like this. Bitches don't end up in laser catwalk traps. But no...I have to be a decent person. *getting louder* I have to be a good girl. I have to not give in to the overwhelming urge to punch assholes for being assholes because that's wrong for dumb reasons! *shouting* Why am I pissing myself off?! This is extremely counterproductive given my current situation! Fuck!!"
I blame all this on Mettaton. That's a healthy way to look at it. Probably not. But I'm not a mental health doctor! The fuck do I know?! After crossing the bridge, I storm grumpily along another walkway only to reach something called "Core Branch".
Turns out the "Core Branch" is a four-way intersection. Fan-fucking-tastic. Man, my mood is fucking sour. Maybe the digital sign can be useful and give me directions.
[North, the warrior's path. West, the sage's path. Any path leads to The End.]
"*growling* This is so...FUCKING STUPID!!"
Nope. Not falling for anymore of this. I choose neither side and go straight. This middle path of the "Core Branch" has me entering a vertical room with a right path leading to the eastern portion of the "Core Branch". There's nothing to my left. It just drops into the ozone, so it's certain death. I'm so sure this place followed all safety measures. There is a sign on the wall that is telling me to "Get lost...And stay that way".
"Wha...Why have signs telling me to leave when you told me to come here?! Stupid metal moron giving me dumb mixed messages."
I hate everything. No monster better encounter me while I'm in this mood. I take out a gold piece and flip it. Heads for straight and tails for the right. It lands on tails so right I go. This has to be the stupidest designed building ever! What the hell was Gaster thinking?! Was he on the drugs? Because this seems like he was on the drugs! 'Cause now I'm at another four-way crossroads. Only now I have two digital signs.
[To the East! This is The End.]
[I cannot fight. I cannot think. But, with patience, I will make my way through.]
A third, and hopefully final, tesla coil blocks what has been established as the exit. This means there's a switch somewhere. F that shit. Know what? You know what'll piss everyone off? I'm gonna do what that sign said. I'm going to be patient. Because if I know Mettaton, and I know massive egos very well, he won't want boring content to be televised and eventually spice things up. I plop my edgy tush under the sign and...wait. Using this time to chill. Let this negativity go and...
*Clank-clank-clank*
Oh hell no!
A large monster ominously approaches. Knight Knight is a monster that wields a great staff with a sun symbol in her right hand. She wears a suit of black armor and what resembles a horned helmet with a crescent moon emblazoned on her forehead. The helmet's eyepiece occasionally widens and un-widens as if it is her mouth. Her torso is dominated by a dragon face whose beak occasionally opens and closes, revealing a small eye. It is unclear whether which face is the true face.
"Let me guess...You're here to make me move?"
"Yes."
"No."
She's confused.
"...No?"
"Did I stutter? I'm not moving."
She readies her spear.
"Then prepare for..."
"Let me stop you right there. I get that you're doing your job and following the law, and blah blah blee bloo, whatever. I have been through one of THE worst days in my life. My mind, soul, and charitable goodwill have been pushed to limits that are very VERY thin now. I am in no mood to deal with any more crap. So I'm going to say this once because I ain't fighting you or moving from this spot till this electrical blockaded is gone...Turn around and go home."
She doesn't take me seriously and laughs.
"Heh heh...You have no power to give me orders, human."
She takes a step closer and I snap.
"I͏͟ ̧̀̕W͝IL͘͡L̴ ̶Ŗ͟͜I͝҉P͘ ̵O͜F̧F̛͞ ̸̀Y̧͡O̡͢U̡͠R ͠H̸EA̶͏D͏͢ ̸̕A͜N͢D S̢̛͜Ḩ̶Į͢T̵̕ ͝D̶̀OW͞N̷̴͠ ҉͞Ý̸̢O̡͡U̡͢R ̸ŅE̴͝CḰ̡̧!͞͞!̧͢"
She stumbles back in shock. The strange energy sparks off me. I regret everything.
"I̵'͘͟͏ḿ͢͞ ̧̕͞so̧̨͡r̴̢ŗ̷͜y̧.̵̛.̢͞.̛p̢l͝ea̷se͢.͟.́͢.leave me. I'm so sorry."
I seem to have disturbed her. She slowly steps back and turns around when she's convinced I'm not going to move.
"Adieu...Human."
She leaves me and I let out a shaky exhale. It's getting worse. I'm losing control. I can't do this for much longer. I haven't been given any proper time to deal with this shit. My internal bottle has been shaken too much! It's going to explode! I...I...
"What the heck was that?!"
Flowey pops up beside me and I'm too freaked out to be startled.
"Sis? What's wrong?"
I hold myself in an attempt to squeeze into a tiny ball of self-loathing. This only worries him more.
"Lynsie?"
I...I can't...I need a break. If only I had my music. I could drown out all this. Lose myself in the lyrics.
"B-Bro..."
"Yes? Talk to me. I can help. Tell me what you need."
"...H-How fast can you get to Snowdin?"
He frowns.
"You want me to get 'him', don't you?"
All I can do is nod.
"I...I can help too. You don't have to turn to him."
My eyes dart to the blocked path. He puts things together. He is a smart boy after all.
"True. Mettaton is that way and the room his encounter takes place in is an elevating platform. I can stretch from my roots pretty far but not THAT far."
He pouts.
"*huff* I guess there's no other option. He does have experience helping you out when things get bad. And he can teleport."
I feel bad that I'm making him do this...again. Like in the dead timeline.
"I...I'm sorry."
"Wha...N-No! Don't apologize. I understand. You're worried. It's okay. We'll get through this. Family helps family. What kind of big brother would I be if I didn't do everything to help? Even if that means getting others to help when I can't."
"...I need a hug...please?"
It pains me to see him hesitate. But vines come out to wrap around me for a bit.
"Thank you."
The vines retract and he extends to nuzzle my cheek.
"It won't be like last time. I promise. You won't kill anyone. No one's going to die."
"H-How do you know?"
"Because you're strong. You just have to believe in yourself. I know I do."
...I needed that. I give him a smile.
"There we go. There's my sis. Now keep that smile. I'll get Smiley Trashbag and we'll be back home with mom in no time."
He really is too sweet for this world. He sinks into the floor and I forgot to ask how he was able to get through this floor. I mean, I guess he said he can get through cement so metal can't be too far of a long shot. Asriel sure is a super strong boy even as a flower.
*BUZZ*
The power to the coil suddenly is shut off remotely like I so knew it could be. Damn it. I was hoping to have more time. How impatient is Mettaton for this? Reluctantly, I get up and walk down this new road. Halfway along this bridge, I am blocked by three vaguely familiar monsters that look like tougher versions of monsters I see in the Ruins.
Final Froggit has spike-like protrusions on its head and eyelids, accompanied by a crown-like muff on top of its head. Its lips are marked with lines, as though wrinkled from age. Its "shoulders" are decorated with sharp excrescents, while the silhouette between its legs forms a face with a triangular smile and cross eyes.
Whimsalot has a more human-like appearance than Whimsun. Also, its antennae are thicker, and there is a muff on their head that branches in two. Whimsalot's appearance is also accompanied by a double-bladed spear and a knight mask. Its ghost-like torso is skinnier and shorter.
Astigmatism's body consists of a large ball and four spiked limbs. The ball is accompanied by two "horns" on each side. When idle, a large eye can be seen on the ball also with three eyelashes. However, it changes from this face to another where the eye hollow is changed with a smile. When having its eye closed, the two side eyelashes become Astigmatism's eyes, while the middle one simply becomes a marking.
I don't know what I must look like to them. Probably dreadful. Because they move aside with not a word being side. I nod in thanks, proceeding to the end which for all I know might be the most tragic moment of my life second to Grillby dying. No! Stop it! Do as Flowey said. Smile. Stay chipper. Think of something silly. Like how dumb this place is. Honestly, was Gaster high making this place? I'll have to ask him later. Nah...I'll ask Sans. Less hassle.
The bridge comes to an end, leading to a shadowy doorway and an elevator that probably would've been super handy but was out of order to pad out the length of this bullshit subplot. Augh...It's so much easier to think my life is a fictional story or internet abridge series. It's the only way my brain allows most of this crap to make any sense.
"So this is it, huh? The epic conclusion of this grand show. Heh...I want to feel accomplished for making it this far. Almost. But all I do feel is..."
I can't finish my sentence. The weight I thought I got off my back earlier begins pressing on me again.
"Nothing...I feel nothing. *sniffling* Damn it...Don't fucking cry!"
With a breakdown seconds away from happening, I enter the doorway to the room of darkness and a door shuts behind me then locks. There is no going back now.
Please...I made a promise...Please...Don't make me have to RESET...Please...I'm begging...Please...
#undertale#underfell#Anomaly#Lynsie#sans#papyrus#gaster#grillby#grandpa semi#flowey#Asriel#toriel#asgore#frisk#chara#undyne#mettaton#napstablook#alphys
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Instead of Dead, Become Two Dragons in Red.
| {MaribatMarch2020 — Week 1, Day 5: Transformation} |
| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] |
| {Repost due to original post disappearing from the tags.} |
| Triggers/Warnings: Violence/Implied Violence, Animal Transformation, Explicit Language/Some Swearing, Implied/Referenced Character Death (but not really), Polyamory (not really a trigger/warning but if you don't like Polyamory then this isn't for you). |
| For Gotham vigilantes, rampaging magic-users always make for an interesting fight, that is of course, provided one doesn't get hit by any stray bolts of magic. However for Parisian heroes, it's just your typical Tuesday Akuma situation. |
| Word Count: 3232 |
==‹›==
| A/N: Hi! I'm not dead, sorry for how long I took to respond to comments, I got hit by a nasty cold then sinusitis so I lost basically all my Maribat March prep time thanks to that, so I just barely managed to finish this ficlet/oneshot for today, anyway I hope you guys enjoy, and if enough people enjoy it, I'll make a second part to this oneshot because I had to cut so much material and it'd be nice to be able to use it still. |
| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then comment or send me a DM/ask! |
| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |
==‹›==
Zzzzt-crackle-woosh, a purplish-black bolt of unstable magic flies through the air, just barely grazing passed Dragonbug's side as she flips across the gap between two buildings. Cheerfully, she calls out “Missed again!”
The villain, an amorphous black shadow with dripping molten gold eyes and donning a ruddy patchwork hooded robe (which suffice to say, looks suspiciously like a rip-off wizzrobe from the Legend of Zelda, that or a faceless Gregorian based cultist extra from a film or TV show), scowls furiously, “Oh fuck you! I'm trying my best here!” and blasts another bolt of purplish-black magic towards her.
Conveniently located on the roof she just landed on, is an air vent. She cartwheels behind it and manages to dodge the bolt by a good metre or so. “Well, your best sucks and so does your aim!”
The wizard-villain screeches in fury, “Well my aim wouldn't suck if you didn't keep moving like a goddamn Duracell bunny!”
Dragonbug snorts. “Yeah but firstly, I'm dragon and ladybird themed, not bunny-themed; the bunny theme's already taken anyway. And secondly, where's the fun in that?”
As soon as she says that, her earpiece crackles as Red Robin pipes up on the comms channel. “Ready to see some fireworks?”
“Oh, you bet!” She responds, all too gleefully.
There's a faint clink-woosh-woosh-woosh and out of the corner of her eye, Dragonbug sees a blur of a small round silver ball arcing through the air towards the wizard-villain who's quite stupidly standing in the same place. As the silver ball disappears from her view, she hears a clatter of clink-clink-clink followed by a bwoosh and a bright flash of white light. At this moment, Dragonbug is so glad the Miraculous suits protect against flashbangs of all things.
The wizard-villain screams and once the flash of light fades, Dragonbug can see that they've fallen to their knees, in the middle of the street.
Dragonbug frowns and eyes their form, then double-taps her comms. “Hey, is it me or does our rip-off wizzrobe-magic-cultist look somewhat unresponsive?”
Her earpiece crackles again as Red Robin answers, and really someone should give these things a maintenance check, the crackling can be so distracting. “Our wizzrobe-magic-cultist is looking pretty unresponsive to me too. It could be a trap though because I swear I didn't use one of my knockout flashbangs.”
She nods, despite the fact he can't see her; which upon realising this, she flushes red in embarrassment. After clearing her throat to compose herself, she tilts her head to the side. “That's concerning, unless our rip-off wizzrobe-magic-cultist is susceptible to flashes of light.” She pauses, frown deepening, “You don't think they've got epilepsy do you?”
There's a slight rustle before Red Robin responds, “No, that's not what an epileptic seizure looks like. Again this could be a trap, or they could just be stunned. Either way, we should hurry but be careful.”
“Right.” Dragonbug scurries over to the edge of the roof then flips her way down to the ground. As she lands, she just spots Red Robin vaulting across an overturned car. As he catches sight of her, she gives him a thumbs up, which he returns.
Dragonbug then nods to him and he nods back, silently communicating their plan. They both start to slowly approach the wizard-villain in a pincer movement, her to the left and him to the right.
Red Robin reaches to his bandoliers and whips out a pair of manacles. He skulks behind the wizard-villain and goes to handcuff when the wizard-villain starts cackling maniacally. The laughter is quickly followed by a forming orb of purplish-black light—the same light as the magic bolts.
Oh, fuck! Is Dragonbug's only thought as she immediately dives at Red Robin, who's started backing away; she uses herself to try and block him from the still-forming orb. Please let the Miraculous magic protect us both! She silently begs as the orb expands exponentially, unfortunately enveloping them both completely in a fraction of a second
The maniacal laughter is the last thing they both hear as they're violently launched backwards into an alleyway, and everything fades to black.
==‹›==
Kagami's lounging on the sofa at Tim's Nest and binging Netflix, when the red alert rings across all the comms units.
“Shit,” Oracle falters, “Red Robin and Dragonbug are down. Dragonbug's signature has disappeared from our systems and her comms aren't responding. All Red Robin's vitals are down, his suit isn't registering any more signs of life. But I'm still getting warnings that the villain they were fighting is still active, so everyone available needs to converge on Red Robin and Dragonbug's last known location.”
Fear immediately seizes Kagami's heart, no please, please don't be dead my loves. She double-taps her comms. “I'm suiting up as Kuro Neko, I'll be at the location in three.”
With that said, Kagami flings herself off the sofa. She glances around the room for Plagg who's halted in his eating of cheese and giving her a sad but cryptic look. Her eyes flicker to the window and he nods almost imperceptibly.
“Plagg, claws on.” There's a woosh as the poisonous green light washes over her, donning her in the Kuro Neko suit. She flexes her claws for a split second, tail whipping back and forth furiously, before darting over to the window and vaulting out of it.
As soon as she's out the window, Kuro Neko extends her baton down and begins pole-vaulting her way across the rooftops and over towards where her significant others were last.
==‹›==
When Dragonbug returns to consciousness, the first thing she notices is that she can't move, nor see, nor hear. But she can feel, and unfortunately that means she feels a strange painful pulsing throughout her entire body, as well as an excruciating aching sensation. The second thing she notices is that she's curled up on the ground and her head, or the world, is spinning somewhat. Anyway, I can safely say I'm not doing so good right about now, big ouch.
The first of her other senses to return is her hearing. Which immediately makes her hiss in pain from the sudden cacophony seemingly coming from somewhere above her? She pauses, then realises that something's not quite right, hey wait a minute, why'd my hiss sound so weird? Something's not right, although I suppose that's kinda obvious now, but still! Oh god, what if I'm dying, or I've been body switched, or—or—or—
Her thoughts are interrupted by a sudden scream of fury, ringing out from above. Which is good because it means Dragonbug doesn't get time to dwell on that particular string of anxious thoughts, but it's also bad because it's loud and causes her to whimper in pain from how loud it is.
“Where the fuck are they? What the fuck did you do to them?” A voice sounding very similar to Kagami yells out.
Wait a second, that doesn't make sense, Red Robin and I didn't call for backup, so why would Kagami suit up on her night off? Dragonbug muses to herself, brain immediately latching onto the next train of thoughts. As she muses, she slowly realises that she's starting to regain the feeling in her limbs. Which is another positive? However, the feel of said limbs, causes her mind to immediately blank and lose the train of thought. While her brain tries to figuratively perform an error message, she does finally manage to crack open her eyes, yay sight.
It's at that moment, Dragonbug's superhero experience/training kicks in. She quickly takes stock of her surroundings and quietly thinks to herself, oh fuck.
It looks like she's in a giant—no massive—version of Red Robin's suit. Have I been shrunk? She wonders for only a brief second as something moves, just out of the area of her view. She turns and squints at the movement. Not a second later, a roughly cat-sized red lizard shuffled into sight.
She squeaks in surprise, then has a minute of wait what because her squeak sounded weird and very concerningly not-human-like.
The red lizard tilts its head to the side and coos at her.
Dragonbug glares at the lizard and tries to back away. Emphasis on tries, because as she does so, she ends up tripping over herself? Confused and extremely concerned now, she glances down and oh.
What. The. Heckles. She slowly spins around, checking out her new form, because she's clearly no longer human. No, she's got a snout, scales, fur—well mane—, claws, a long snakelike body, and a tail. Spinning around, she catches sight of a gleaming piece of shiny silver metal. So does what anyone would in the same situation as her, and scuttles over to it to use it as a makeshift mirror.
The reflection that greets her is… frankly quite adorable but also she's now a tiny little lung/long dragon. Which to be fair, makes quite a bit of sense as she was using the dragon Miraculous and Longg is a lung dragon. Her scales are a pretty red with shimmery golden accents and her mane is a dark red-almost-black colour. Her eyes still have the golden yellow iris and sclera that the dragon Miraculous gives. And the rest of her is all done variation of the gold, brighter red, and darker red. So at least her colour palette doesn't clash. Okay, so the colour palette isn't the most pressing issue here, but also I don't know how to fix this or change back so y'know, I'd rather potentially be stuck like this permanently with a nice colour palette, than one that clashes. But also oh god please don't let this be permanent, there has to be a way to undo this!
In her panic, Marinette doesn't notice the red lizard slinking closer to her. As it reaches her, it gently prods her with one claw; startling her badly and causing her to squeak again, loudly.
The red lizard flinches back and Marinette realises that maybe, just maybe, that's not a random lizard. And that maybe the not-a-random-lizard is actually a drake. A European dragon that hasn't got wings. And Tim. Tim's surname is Drake. A coincidence? I think not! It's got to be Tim!
She stares at the probably-Tim dragon and makes a chirping noise because dragons don't have the same vocal cords as humans, so she can't exactly ask him if that's him or not. A minor nuisance, to say the least.
The red drake mimics her chirp. Then cautiously slinks up to her again.
This close, Marinette can see that she's probably around the size of a ferret, in comparison to him being roughly the same size as a cat.
He flops down half beside, half against her and makes a series of clicks and chirps. She can't help but to tense as he flops but as the seconds pass, she finds herself relaxing bit by bit until she's also flopped over.
Enjoying the peaceful impromptu not-quite-a-cuddle cuddle session with one of her significant others, Marinette does try to keep an ear out for any goings-on above, just in case. But all seems well.
That is until, not even three seconds later, the peacefulness is abruptly shattered by a cacophony of screams, yells, zaps, and loud bangs echoing shrilly from above, before ceasing just as abruptly as it started.
However, the unexpected cacophony still manages to cause Marinette to panic. She tenses with a low whine, hunching slightly, and holds her breath. Alert and anxiously vigilant, she can't help but survey the immediate vicinity again and again and again—looking for anything she missed initially or if anything's changed.
Tim shuffles and stumbles into a sitting position. He nudges her gently in the side of the neck with his snout. He makes a cooing noise, followed by a soft rumble—as if he were trying to imitate a cat's purr.
It takes a few seconds, but his actions start to help calm her down. She takes in a deep breath and mentally reassesses the situation. We've been turned into tiny dragons. We're inside-slash-underneath the Red Robin suit which is on the ground. Before we woke up like this, we were battling a magic-user villain who tricked us. We didn't get time to call in backup before we got hit but it sounds like backup arrived anyway. As far as we know, no one is aware of what happened to us or that we're in-slash-under the suit. We are currently safe for now.
As Marinette reaches the end of the reassessment, she feels much calmer. She makes a low trill-like-purr noise to signal to Tim that she's calmed down.
He sticks his tongue out in a blep and mimics the low trill.
Their second moment of calm is then also interrupted because apparently fate hates peace and calmness or something like that.
“I will ask you once more, Where. Are. They?” Kuro Neko questions.
There's a loud thump-snap, followed by the wheezing cackle of the Wizard-villain. “They're gone! Dead! Erased! Exterminated!” With its piece said, the wizard-villain continues to wheeze and cackle maniacally.
Marinette can't help but shiver in fear at the sound, barely able to squash the rising nausea.
A harsh snap sound echoes loudly in the street and the wizard-villain starts choking wetly.
Kuro Neko hisses something but the red robin suit muffles the words to the point of being indistinguishable.
The minutes drag by and the only sounds of note from above, are inaudible mutterings and the clattering of handcuffs and car doors. They must've handed the wizard-villain over to the police, Marinette thinks.
She's about to go nudge Tim to try and communicate that they probably need to go find somewhere to stash his suit and a place for them to hide until they can figure out how to turn back when a conversation between the vigilantes who arrived for backup catches her attention. Partly because of the topic, and partly because of how close the voices suddenly sound.
“They can't be dead, Red Robin's suit is still there.” Dick—or well more like Nightwing, since he probably arrived as backup as well—stresses.
“But Dragonbug an' her suit's gone. You'd think maybe that there'd be a little more left if just organic matter was destroyed.” Jas—Red Hood mutters, the vocal distorter in his helmet making his tone of voice sound strange.
Or maybe that's just a side effect of getting tiny-dragon-ified, thinks Marinette, things sounding stranger. Although I've not really noticed anything bar the distorted voice sounding weird.
“The Miraculous suits are made of magic, and anyway, Plagg says he can't feel Tikki or Longg's presence anywhere,” Kuro Neko admits, reluctantly. “If all living things in the vicinity of the orb were destroyed, then the Miraculous would have still been left behind.”
“And how d'you know that?” Red Hood asks, sounding both genuinely curious and mildly concerned.
There's a split second of almost icy silence before Kuro Neko responds with a clipped tone. “Akuma.”
“Ah, o'course.” Red Hood comments, voice getting closer again. “Hey, d'you think B will want to stick the Red Robin suit in a memorial case like what he did with my Robin suit?”
“Hood!” Nightwing exclaims in a horrified and almost scandalised tone of voice.
Red Hood snorts.
Marinette flinches, and so does Tim beside her, although probably not for the same reasons as her. I don't think I'll ever get used to how flippantly Red Hood jokes about his death. Even if most Parisians who've died in Akuma attacks use the same sort of gallows humour.
There's a few seconds of silence before someone grabs the Red Robin suit and yanks it upwards, causing Tim and Marinette to tumble out of it with a series of startled squeaks and clicks.
Red Hood is the first to respond to the situation, with an eloquent, “what the fuck.”
Marinette glances up and sees Kuro Neko holding the Red Robin suit and looking rather shell shocked, with Red Hood and Nightwing a few steps away.
“Oh, thank fuck they're alive.” Nightwing half mumbles, dragging a hand down his face in exasperation.
“My loves,” Kuro Neko murmurs leaning down and scooping up Marinette and Tim, “I'm so glad you're okay.”
They both squirm for a minute before relaxing into her arms.
Nightwing frowns. “We should bring them back to the cave, maybe call Zatanna and Wonder Woman.”
“To the cave then.” Kuro Neko nods, hugging Marinette and Tim carefully, making sure not to accidentally hurt or squish them.
Marinette looks up at her significant other and bleps. She then trills, content to be held for the journey back to the Batcave.
Tim however, wrinkles his nose and chirrups in protest, he squirms and tries to escape Kuro Neko's hold—probably wanting to return to the Nest and deal with this on his own instead.
Kuro Neko gives Tim a deadpan stare before expertly pinching the correct pressure point to temporarily paralyse him.
Red Hood gives her a quizzical stare.
“Akuma, as well as kwami.” She responds, sagely.
“Right…” He slowly mutters, shaking his head.
Marinette can't help but burst into laughter at that, only because she's currently a ferret-sized lung dragon, the laughter comes out as a stream of trills and chirps.
Red Hood narrows his eyes at Marinette. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, danger noodle.”
Marinette pouts, whilst internally promising herself that revenge will be swift and pasta themed.
==‹›==
When they finally arrive back at the Batcave. They're greeted by the sight of Batman and Robin at the Batcomputer.
Robin turns and sneers at them. “Of course, trust Drake to pull such an attention-grabbing stunt as this.”
Marinette immediately looks up from her snuggled up position in Kuro Nell's arms and hisses at Robin; Tim however, lets out a world-weary sigh.
“Robin.” Barks Batman, but the reprimand does nothing to quell Robin's hostility.
Fixing a glare at Robin, Kuro Neko starts to stroke Marinette's scales like an evil villain would stroke a cat (much to Marinette's delight). “Need I remind you, how you hesitated upon hearing Oracle inform us that Red Robin's suit ceased reading any signs of life.”
“That was not hesitation! I was merely preparing for Grayson or Fatgirl to become hysterical in their distress.” Retorts Robin, who then stalks away, scowling and red-faced.
Nightwing dithers between going after him or staying to check on Tim and Marinette.
Kuro Neko shakes her head. “Go after him, Marinette and Tim will be fine without you hovering like a mother hen.”
Nightwing flashes her a grateful smile and scampers after Robin.
Kuro Neko then heads over to the medical bay and gently plonks the two dragons onto a cot. “Batman, I believe we will need to do as Nightwing suggested earlier, and call Zatanna and Wonder Woman. As this is a magic situation and I am not as skilled or knowledgeable in regards to magic as my love is.”
“Hhrrm,” Batman growls, already calling up the Watchtower.
Kuro Neko smiles softly as she glances down at her significant others, eyes twinkling with mirth. “Let's hope they arrive soon, otherwise who knows what sort of trouble you two could get into.” She winks.
Marinette chirps, tail flicking side to side eagerly. Whilst Tim perks up slightly and tilts his head to the side, mind probably racing with hundreds of pranks and shenanigans they could pull off whilst in dragon form.
==‹›==
| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |
| @maribat-march2020 | | @vixen-uchiha |
#Miraculous Ladybug#Maribat#ML x DC#DC x MLB#MaribatMarch2020#Timinette#MariTim#Timari#MariTimGami#MaribatMarch Week 1#MaribatMarch Day 5#MaribatMarch Transformation#Instead of Dead Become Two Dragons in Red#IoDBTDiR#Sham's Posts#Sham's Writing#Sham's Fics
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Lineage
Summary: Supernatural AU, one-shot??? Might have a part two??? You and Dean have a son, and heaven has been anxious for his arrival. (GIF has nothing to do with the story, I just love it.)
Pairing: Dean x Reader
Warnings: super cute fluff, Cas not having a seizure necessarily but something like it?, the feeeels
A/N: This is just the third fic I’ve ever written, go easy on me, ‘kay, I know it’s bad. I write for fun and maybe make people smile as a bonus, not to impress anyone.
“Cas!” Dean shouts as his best friend hits the floor of the bunker. Dean quickly hands his newborn son back to his wife and tries to comfort Cas as he writhes on the floor as if in immense pain.
“Cas, what’s wrong?!” Dean questions.
“The angels...,” Cas replies in an agonized tone. “They’re all talking.”
Castiel continues to seize on the floor for roughly another minute before he hears the ancient, vaguely familiar voice of God chime a few words loudly and clearly over all the angel chatter.
“Born unto us is the Winchester child!”
Dead silence.
“They know,” Cas informs the room solemnly. “The angels know he’s here, but they don’t know where he’s at.”
“‘They know?’” Y/N spits bitterly. “‘THEY KNOW?!’ The bunker is warded, how do they know?”
“God has spoken it,” Cas replies. “The Enochian keeps us hidden from the angles, but God cannot be warded from anything. Not to mention the considerable shift in energy caused by his birth probably would have alerted them of his birth anyway.”
“But he’s not an angel, not even part angel,” Sam adds defensively. “How would him being born cause a big energy change?”
“Dean has been on heaven’s radar or trying to fly under it before he was even born, when only God knew him. He was the archangel Michael’s chosen vessel, he has possessed both the marks of heaven and of hell, he has wielded the universe’s most deadly weapon known as the First Blade, he’s killed and saved many angels, and so on. Y/N, being tied to Dean in such personal ways and a chosen secondary vessel for Michael despite never hosting him, is also on heaven’s radar or trying to fly under it. With both parents of this child highly sought after by heaven and all its factions, the mere arrival of this child on earth sent waves of energy towards heaven like a smoke signal on a clear day. I feel the energy he’s radiating. His birth has been highly anticipated.”
“Why does he matter so much to those douchebags?” Crowley asks, breaking a hush which had blanketed the room.
“I don’t know exactly why, they’ve kept that kind of quiet,” Cas admits. “But from what I have heard, they’re interested in him as another chosen vessel. I don’t know for who.”
“They can forget about that,” says Y/N. “Over my dead body. They can’t have my son. The last thing heaven or any angel—.”
“I hate to interrupt, but it’s been a day, and it’s turned out to be a pretty good one too, so let’s worry about the real heavy stuff later,” Bobby interjects. “Not to mention, the kid’s been here for over an hour now and we’re still calling it him and he. Does this kid have a name yet or what?”
Dean and Y/N exchange knowing glances, their eyes sending messages to one another which are being acknowledged by loving smirks. This is a subject they kind of hoped to avoid in front of everyone at the same time for their own awkward reasons, but now they’re on the spot and have to address this in front of Sam, Bobby, Cas, and Crowley all at once.
“We, uh... We had a hard time deciding on a name because when it comes down to it there’s a lot of good men in his life,” says Dean.
“And it was hard for us to decide on a shorter name because of all those good men, so we went with a name that’s a little longer than we originally planned so that way he’s named after at least three of them,” adds Y/N with happy tears beginning to stream slowly down her face.
“His name is John Caleb Robert Winchester,” Dean chokes in an emotional tone and wiping tears from his eyes before letting them fall. “We’re gonna call him John Caleb.”
#dean x reader#dean winchester x reader#dean winchester#supernatural fanfiction#supernatural#spn#dad!dean#lineage#lineage part 1
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“So the doc said I have ____ Seizures. What does that actually mean?” An Updated Cheat Sheet
So you’ve been diagnosed with epilepsy. Great… what does that even mean?
“Epilepsy is a seizure disorder,” meaning you’re brain is more likely to send off mixed signals, than the next guy. But that’s alright, ‘cause I’m going to lay down the basics of what you need to know. Lol.
First, let’s get this straight: everyone is capable of having a seizure. You stick lil’ Timmy infront of a high speed strobe for long enough, sooner or later his brain will say “What the hell am I looking at? I can’t keep up!” And he’ll wind up on the floor.
Folks who have Epilepsy, like you and I, are no different. We see things, hear things, feel, and taste, just like any other human being. Okay? What I’m trying to get at here is you are not a freak of nature. You are not a mutant. Sadly, no, you do not have special powers to set objects aflame. (I know. That bummed me out too.) No! Instead, you’re just a normal dudelet - just chillin with the rest of the human race.
But what does makes us different, is that we have a lower seizure tolerance than most. That’s it. I know right? When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound like a big deal. That’s cause it isn’t. What is a big deal, are the seizures themselves, which I’ll get to in a hot minute.
So what IS a seizure? Great question. “… a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain,” says The Epilepsy Foundation (epilepsy.com). Another, but equally scientific, definition describes it as, “the workers in your brain going, ‘What the actual fuck are we dealing with here?’ And proceeding to lose their shit,”
Pretty much, something - be it lights, lack of sleep, stress, booze, high pitched beeping, the sight of toast, whatever - will set off this seizure. This is called a Trigger. Triggers are things that our brains don’t generally enjoy. They tend to me things that could give a person headaches, or migraines; or make you feel out of sorts if you have to deal with them for too long. It is possible for some to “delay” a seizure, or even stave it off completely. Not everyone can do this though. I know someone who’s been able to prevent her seizures by sleeping with a foot on the floor. I (sometimes) can push one off if I feel one coming on, by either her being physically active or focusing on something solid, to remind myself im not floating away. But as I said, not everyone can do it. It depends on what type of seizures you have, and how in tune you are with your body. I only figured out my method after years of experimenting.
Anyway, so we got the basics. Back to….
Seizures! There are two major categories from which we have a variety of flavors.
There’s Focal and Generalized. The main difference between the two is how they start. Easy enough, right? (I’ve heard tell of a third classification “Unknown Onset”, but we’ll get into that later)
First we have Focal Onset: Focal seizures happen in specific parts of the brain - Sort of like a controlled mob.
Focal Onset Aware (aka Simple Partial): Im gonna be frank with you here. There are like a million types of Simple Partial Seizures. I probably won’t hit every kind, and I apologize if I’ve skipped someone out there. Ya know. My bad. Nonetheless I’ll do my best.
Simple Partials are pretty cool is that you are awake for them. Oh yeah. That’s right. You can have a seizure and be totally cognizant. These are the ones many refer to as “Auras”. Yeah, you know that “warning” you get before blacking out? That my friend is most likely a simple partial seizure. They’re like little seizures. Aw cute, right. No! They’re a pain in the ass! (Ehem. Apologies) anyway, as I said before, they can come in a whole bunch of types. To save time, I’m just going to give you a list of the effects:
Some people experience Deja Vu, out of body experiences, weird tastes in your mouth, (there’s emotional/psychological kinds) that’s make you have intense sorrow, or a sense of impending doom, others make you randomly filled with a god-like rage.
Others make your hands, fingers, toes, legs, etc twitch.
Some make it IMPOSSIBLE to find the right words/understand words/even read, and you suddenly feel illiterate and as if English is your second language despite being brought up in the US. (I’m not emotionally invested or anything).
Honestly, for these, you really should look it up yourself. I’ll be doing a separate post just for them, but nonetheless. It’s too important, and it’s one that truly is unique to the person.
Focal Onset Unaware (aka Complex Partial):
These are like simple partial seizures, but you’re NOT awake. Apparently many experience lip smacking during it. I wouldn’t know, because I’m out for the count. The one thing I do know is they can go into Generalized Seizures. This is not common however, that’s just the case for me.
MOVING RIGHT ALONG
Next we have Generalized: “Generalized” Seizure are seizures that effect both sides of your brain. *Imagine a stray cluster of teenage neurons are having a house party, and EVERYONE shows up.*. [Neurons are the little electric dudes that’s race around your head and make everything work/tell different parts of your brain what’s going on]
Tonic-Clonic (Motor): This is the big nasty one that people believe all seizures look like. The person loses consciousness, and convulses (shakes).
What It’s Like: They don’t hurt while it happens; but I’ll be honest with you, it can feel like you’ve been hit by a bus coming out of it. Basically, you’ve been clenching up and releasing muscles you didn’t even know you had over and over really really quickly. It’s like being super out of shape, and then made to do a triathlon athlete’s complete workout circuit in 2-5 minutes. At a weird angle, so you probably get dinged up along the way. So yeah. I’d describe it as waking up to limp noodles for tendons and joints, and fiery rocks for muscles. It’s sorta like how you’d imagine the hero of an action film would ACTUALLY feel like if the scenario were real.
Absence: these are super quick, but can happen MANY many times a day. They’re so quick that they’re almost impossible to notice. You stare for a few seconds, and snap out of it. I know, not very scary. What sucks is that you can lose time with them. So one second you’ll be lovin life, and suddenly, black, you forgot what you were saying, and a whole bunch of things that happened recently. This all comes back though, eventually.
Clonic Seizures: Unlike Tonic Clonic, these big and nasties happen while you’re awake. (Fun fact: Tonic is the part of the seizure where you stiffen and fall unconscious. Clonic is where you convulse). So needless to say, these can hurt. Actually, they do hurt. A lot. I’ve only had a couple in my time, thankfully, but it feels like everything’s described earlier for Tonic-Clonics, except you are wide awake the entire time to enjoy every bump, scratch, and uncontrolled spasm. Oh, and it feels like there are electric shocks going through you. At least it did for me. These tend to last a few minutes.
Tonic Seizures: these tend to happen in your sleep, but they don’t have to necessarily. The muscles in your legs, arms, or abdomen tense up for about 20 seconds. It’s relatively harmless, but can mean for some serious loss of balance if it happens while standing up. (Also they’re just a pain, and can wear you out, honestly)
Atonic: These I’ll admit, can be spooky. Basically your muscles go limp for about 15 seconds at a time. So you might now be able to hold your head up; or suddenly you drop everything cause your arms go out. It’s not fun. It’s actually less than 15 seconds, but some people can have a bunch of these in a row. If its bad enough, some may consider wearing a helmet, if a fall hazard arises.
Myoclonic: Muscles will jerk as it electricuted. Apparently these seizures can start in the same part of the brain as Atonic, and many who have one have been known to experience the other.
So that’s what you missed on Glee! Any questions, comments, moans or groans, shoot em up my way! If anyone has any knowledge of Tonic Clonic Seizures, id love to hear it! And if I missed anything, please let me know!!
Hope this can be of some help for you newbies out there, (or for you other folks like I who never got the full story on their diagnoses til much later lol)
And don’t worry friend. I know Epilepsy is rough. I know it sounds scary, but you’re going to be fine. You’ve got an entire community who has your back :) So hang in there Kiddo!
Sincerely,
Captain Fantastic Spastic
#from one spazz to another#epilepsy awareness month#november#actually epileptic#living with epilepsy#chronic illness#spoonie life#spoonie#complex partial seizures#simple partial seizures#tonic-clonic seizures#seizure disorder#seizure blogs#long ass post
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II. Dinosaurs and Race Cars - Kyvid
The concept of David Rodriguez was one that Kyle had a very hard time understanding. It was, after all, hard to think when the very essence of a person was enough to drown out rational thought and basic comprehension. Also he had very, very nice arms.
Hi guys! Here we are with part two to this saga that will be full of the sweet, sweet kyvid content that the world so desperately needs. I, on a deeply personal level, feel I must provide for my rarepair, and so here I am, throwing cliches into the wind and hoping they stick (at least to somebody). Regardless, I hope you enjoy it! Tagging @mcnuggyy and @valzilla as my endless fountains of support and headcanons- y’all the real ones.
Part I
II.
“I’m gonna do it.”
“Kyle, dude,” Stan said, exasperated in every sense of the word, “you’ve been repeating that all fucking day. Are you gonna do it or not?”
“Yes, I’m gonna do it!” Kyle whisper-yelled, and he shrunk into his locker door as Stan’s gaze sized him up. “Just, like. In a minute. Next period.”
“Next period was two weeks ago,” he deadpanned. Then he gripped Kyle by the shoulders and whirled him around, and Kyle sputtered his anger out in incoherent noises of distress until Stan’s hand shot out from behind his shoulder to point straight ahead, to a locker that he knew embarrassingly by heart. “It’s so far past next period it’s stupid. Fucking go, Kyle, Jesus.”
Kyle’s hands met against his chest, his nerves exploding so violently he feared a seizure. He was right there, swinging his locker door open with his backpack slung over only one shoulder, halfway through pulling it off his back. His hair looked freshly cut from here, which did not bode well for Kyle. “God, what am I doing?” he moaned, and Stan gave him a decent push right in the middle of his back to force him out from behind his locker door and properly into the hallway.
“Making a fool of yourself. Go,” he hissed, and Kyle gulped down the nervous lump in his throat, nodding slightly. Next period really may as well have been two weeks ago. With a big breath, as though diving into the ocean, he surged forward in the most confident wide-stepped stride he could muster to try to pump himself up. It didn’t really matter, however, because David managed to catch him so off guard he deflated and nearly stumbled when he swiveled on one heel to face the hall.
Kyle’s heart leapt to his throat, and when David caught his eyes and smiled at him, his stomach grew flowers, the roots of them tickling and infiltrating his organs so violently he felt like he might be sick. At the same time, the glow of his familiar face left him awash with unusual calm, like a sedative with a laundry list of nasty lovestruck side effects that were somehow still worth it. In that moment, as David took one step forward to get close enough to talk over the crashing of locker doors slamming shut, all Kyle could think was,
‘Oh, god, I do love him.’
“My raptor friend,” David began, the smile audible in his tone, and Kyle wanted simultaneously to die and jump for joy at such an embarrassing nickname, “come to finish the hunt?”
Kyle giggled, honest to god giggled, before he cleared his throat and returned to his game face. “I, uh, wanted to make up for that.”
“Why? It was funny,” he said, and he chuckled himself, the sound so melodic and warm it could’ve brought him to his knees. “Plus the faces you make when I call you that are cute.”
Oh, Kyle could die. Die right there, in the middle of South Park High, at the ripe old age of seventeen, in front of a boy who could rule the world with one flash of his charming grin. He called him cute.
David leaned one hip against his locker and crossed his arms, and Kyle was stunned, transfixed by how his body moved with such finesse. “I actually had a question for you, if you had a minute..?” David said, and Kyle stood up straight, knowing full well that he would do fucking anything for him.
“Yeah, anything,” Kyle confirmed, perhaps too eagerly, because David’s smile turned the slightest bit devilish, and Kyle felt so caught in the act he considered ‘raptoring’ out all over again. In defiance of instinct, he glued his feet in place, determined.
David ran a hand through his perfectly newly-clipped hair, and Kyle could've sworn he looked nervous. “I was wondering if you would, ah,” he faltered, averting his gaze to the left and rubbing at the back of his neck, and Kyle had to try very hard not to stare at his arms as his muscles performed the elementary task. It looked anything but elementary, though; god, why was he wearing a short sleeved shirt in this weather? Shouldn’t he have his arms covered like a normal person? Any decent human being would know just how threatening it was to the student body to have his arms just exposed, like some sort of horrible tease that Kyle didn’t know how to talk to.
A deft hand snapped its fingers just beside Kyle’s left eye and it startled him back to Earth, to a grin that had definitely become devilish by now. “Back to the land of the living?” he teased, his sculpted brows quirked, and Kyle felt like dying all over again.
“Yeah, I, uh,” he fumbled, laughing nervously and clearing his throat like a schoolgirl in a goddamn rom-com, “yeah. Sorry, dude.”
David shrugged. “S’fine. Sound good, though?” he asked, but his face was uncharacteristically shy. Uncharacteristic, because David did and got what he wanted, and it was hot as hell.
“Yeah, yeah. Good!” Kyle said, a complete knee-jerk response, because his face heated up at the slow realization that he actually had absolutely no idea what David had said. Curse his beautiful arms, and that ridiculous, tantalizing v-neck—
“Alright, great! See you after school,” he said, and Kyle felt extremely grateful that David chose that moment to smile warmly at him and turn the other direction to go to class, because he was certain his face could light a match. What was after school? Oh god, what was after school?
Before David turned the corner, Craig Tucker, of all people, appeared to give him an unenthused high-five. Kyle knew they were kind of friends, but not high-five-level friends. Then, as though he could sense his thoughts, Craig looked over his shoulder and made direct eye contact with him. His face was just as flat and unyielding as always, and his eyes were so painfully scrutinizing he felt banished to Hell where he stood. What had he done? What had he signed up for?
A hand landed on his back and he jumped, twisting to find Stan looking at him expectantly.
“Stan, what’s after school?” Kyle asked before Stan could speak, a sinking feeling in his gut, and as Stan’s face morphed into one of confusion, he let out an embarrassing whine. “Stan, I don’t know what’s after school.”
“The fuck are you talking about?” Stan asked, brow furrowed, and Kyle dropped his face to his hands, mumbling into his palms and pressing his fingertips into his eye sockets, like he could end his own misery by squashing his brain right through them. All he managed was to make stars burst behind his eyelids. “Kyle, I can’t understand you when you talk in your crisis pose.”
“I agreed to something and I don’t know what!” he wailed, throwing his hands to the ceiling in frustration and screeching behind his teeth. “Stan, he said, ‘See you after school,’ and I have no idea what he was talking about. I just agreed!”
“Why didn’t you just ask him to repeat himself?”
“It was a knee-jerk reaction, Stan! By the time I realized what I did, he was already halfway down the hall!” He gripped at his hair and considered tearing it out. “What am I gonna do?”
“Well, you could ask him next period. You usually see him twice.” Stan shrugged, but was also clearly trying not to laugh, and Kyle resented him so much for that. “That sucks though, dude.” He snorted quietly, and Kyle dared him to go further. “Oh man, what are you gonna say? ‘Hey David, so funny story, I don’t actually know what I agreed to, because I was too distracted by how hot you look always.’ Oh shit, Kyle, you’re so fucked dude.” Then he did laugh, the motherfucker, the traitor, and he gripped his belly and wheezed while Kyle clenched and unclenched his fists, seriously considering resorting to violence.
There was suddenly a rough yanking sensation on his shoulder and Kyle yelped, turning to find Kenny hanging on his arm. “Heyyyy, my man! My big grown up manly man. How’d it go?” His teeth were ready to pop out of his beaming smile- at least the ones he still had. He then took a moment to assess the situation, and Kyle guessed he looked pretty dismal, because Kenny started to chill and let go of his arm, sobering up. “Aw man, that bad huh?”
“Kyle got distracted by David’s immaculate body, and regretfully does not know how it went.”
“Holy shit, Stan, stop,” Kyle warned, but Kenny had already resorted to booming laughter and started to hang off Stan’s arm instead, the two of them shrieking like hyenas. “It’s not like that! I just, I had a lapse in memory. It happens!”
“Yeah, when you’re obsessed with somebody, maybe,” Kenny snickered, and they switched to hushed giggling while they tried to calm down. Kyle felt his face go redder, if it was even possible. “Okay, so you need a new game plan. You gotta know where you’re meeting up anyways, right? Just meet up with ‘im here again when you usually do and you’re all set,” Kenny deduced, confidently. Kyle groaned.
“I guess I’m just nervous, again,” he admitted, feeling the embarrassment deep in his soul, crushing it and cracking it and making him generally miserable. His shoulders hung and he sagged into himself. Kenny and Stan shared a look, then Stan reached a hand out to grip his shoulder encouragingly.
“Hey, dude, this stuff is always tough. You can do it, though. We believe in you.”
“Yeah, well,” he grumbled, “two out of three ain’t bad.”
“That’s the spirit!” Kenny clapped his back hard and he straightened out his posture. “You got this, bud. You’ve got your own charm aboutcha. I got faith.” Stan nodded in agreement, and Kyle let out a big breath.
“Yeah, alright.”
He was not alright.
Will we ever find out what David said to Kyle in his moment of weakness? Does the author use italics way too much in Kyle’s POV? Is David the embodiment of perfection himself? The answer to all three is a resounding, ‘Probably!’
#south park#kyle broflovski#david rodriguez#stan marsh#kenny mccormick#kyvid#kyvid sp#sp kyvid#kyle x david#david x kyle#fanfiction#my fanfiction#south park fanfiction#sp fanfiction#south park fanfic#sp fanfic#my fanfic
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Gifted Blight AU
Episode Prompto Spoilers. Full story below. :D
Rating: Teen, but with trigger warnings
Pairings: None. Maybe Promptis or Noctis/Luna if you look hard enough.
An AU where the complications of Prompto’s birth actually causes him to be very sensitive to the sun. (You know why.) The sensitivity doesn’t just show itself in freckles and sun-burnt skin.
It shows itself as cancer.
The doctors say it’s caused by the UV light from the sun. There’s no cure. His body rapidly heals what the light seems to decay, forcing his cells to grow unnaturally.
Growing up, it was hard for him to make friends. He knew he was going to die, so what was the point? People always acted different and weird when they found out and he hated that.
But Noctis was different. After telling him of his doomed fate, Noctis only gave him a sad, understanding sort of smile and said:
“Some things are just out of our control. Decided before anyone could have a chance to say otherwise. Everyone’s gonna die at some point--only difference is that, some people know when. Might as well live life to the fullest.”
Then he takes the fourth nap he’s had in a day because they’re going fishing early tomorrow morning. Typical Noct, “living life to the fullest”.
Fast forward to the day they leave Insomnia. Despite Prompto’s failing health, the bros think it’s a good idea to have Prompto see as much as he can before... before he can’t anymore.
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to come with?” Prompto asks. He’s playing with his fingers again. “I mean, with my sickness and all.”
“Of course it is,” Noctis replies. “I’ll take you around everywhere I go. It’s good to get out.”
So they take him around Lucis. Through the deserts of Duscae and the rolling hills of Leide. The peaks of Ravatough and the depths of ancient ruins. Prompto records it all in his camera, because he’s not sure if he’ll ever have a chance to see it again. They let him stay, even when Insomnia falls and the Empire is hot on their tail.
Noctis, Ignis and Gladio all do their part in taking care of their friend.
Until they reach Altissia.
In summary, there are two types of MTs: "Imperials” (Niffs who have been powered by Magitek like cyborgs, or use Magiteknology) and those androids who have “Magitek” in their names and have glowing red eyes. People are not commonly aware of it, but those androids have no organic parts to them.
Not anymore, at least. The process goes like this: A human is infected with the Starscourge at a young age. Starscourge is a parasite that develops this thing called miasma (the thing that blocks out the sun later in the game) within its host. Miasma is then harvested from the people as an energy source, at the expense of their life. This energy is then stored as what we know as a Magitek Core. **Reference**
Verstael has spent his entire life studying this process. His most recent project is focused on being able to transfer the will of a human being into these cores--a process that should be completely feasible. After all, the entirety of a person’s being converts into miasma before it’s placed into a core.
By the time the events of Episode Prompto occurs, he’s on the brink of death. It’s been weeks since he’s had his medication as he’s got all of the signs--all of the worst ones anyways. His vision is blurring, he’s got massive headaches that escalate into seizures and the halls he’s wandering all blend into one. He’s coughing up blood the entire Episode, leaned on the walls for support. It’s a wonder he made it through so far, but he had to.
His friends are waiting.
Aranea tries to save him, at the part where she’s supposed to. But it’s not the same, because Prompto... Prompto can’t go on anymore. He’s too sick, and no matter how good of a fighter Aranea is, she can’t escape the facility while dragging a near-unconscious body along with her.
So she makes a call, and damn is it one of the hardest things she’s ever done.
She leaves. Not without leaving some sort of hope though--no, Aranea isn’t that type of person. She hooks him up to some whatever medical equipment she knew how to operate, and disguises him as an MT. A part of her wondered if she even needed to do that in this particular side of the facility. As she turned away she promised him:
“Listen kid. Hey. Hang on tight, you hear? I’ll be back with back-up, it’s just... things are gonna get ugly from here on out. ...Hey, are you even up? I’m coming back, and I’m counting on you to be here so I’ll have something to come back to.”
Prompto doesn’t--can’t respond. He lies there, on an unsettling operation table trying to contain his pained noises. Then a patrol passes by. The magitek unit doesn’t seem to see him as an enemy. It’s as docile as they come, and Prompto gets one of his brilliantly stupid ideas.
He takes it down. Rips out its core. And gods, does he show his mechanical ingenuity when he hooks up the offline MT into the initializing machinery with an empty core.
Then, ever so slowly, crashing into various instruments along the way, he makes his way to where the tanks were. Where the “series” he was from were.
It feels like he’s on several levels of inebriated when he steps into one of the tanks. There’s blood dribbling down his chin and, and gods, he can’t stop coughing.
And the gears start to whir. A pale, viscous fluid begins to pool at his feet.
For a moment, Prompto thought he was going to drown in the fluids that began to fill the tank, but the fear was overwritten by pain as it shot up from his legs first, burning up through his thighs and eating away at his gut like he’d stepped into a pool of acid. He looks down and--oh god, his legs are gone. They’re gone, they’re gone, they’re gone, and all that’s left was a wisp of particles making their way higher, and higher and then there’s ringing in his ears, and he really is choking on that fluid now, and he’s trying to grasp, claw at at his throat but there’s nothing, where are his fingers, and--
Darkness.
It feels like a million years have passed when Prompto’s vision flickers back, and the first thing he sees is himself. Or what looks like him. Then he realizes that it’s impossible for that to be him. He’s looking at a clone. His actual body should’ve faded into miasma.
He takes a deep breath--finds that he can’t... and looks down on to his hands.
They’re made of steel and circuitry. All hard casing and neutral paint.
Prompto almost found humour in the way that a part of him thought he couldn’t do it. Of course he could. He’s the clone of the damned genius who invented all this in the first place.
He’s traded his dying body for an MT’s and he’s never felt better. Now that he can really fight back. Now that he feels nothing at all.
The first thing thinks of is Noctis. He can finally help him now. He’ll stop being dead weight, and they can stop taking care of him all the time. Finally, he can stop being useless.
Prompto has to find out if Noctis is okay. But now that there’s so much that’s changed, he’s not sure if he can face them anymore.
The next time he sees Aranea, it’s at a cave just outside the facility and the meeting came with a spear pointed at his throat.
“Aranea?” Prompto blurts out, his voice a mess of static from a damaged voice box. He’s sitting by the fire, back turned to the water’s edge. He hasn’t had the guts to look at his reflection.
She gives him a similar pep talk to the one they had in game. Of all the tough love Aranea throws at him, one thing in particular struck him right at his heart:
“This is what you wanted, kid. You wanted to help your friends, and for you to do that you gotta live. There’s no shame in wanting to live.”
These words almost carry him to the pinnacle of the Keep, searching for Noctis. He was so intent on helping him from a distance, if he ever saw them. Even with Aranea’s words, he can’t just walk up to Noct as a bucket of bolts. He just can’t.
But it doesn’t go according to plan. Ardyn captures him; binds him in that metal frame.
Prompto’s screaming at Ardyn to let him go the whole time because the only thing scarier than pain and death, was the thought of Noctis rejecting his existence. His existence, which was now truly nothing but Magitek.
Ardyn finds it hilarious. So he guides the whole gang to Prompto.
When Noctis walks into his cell, he’s furious. There’s fire burning on the ring on his hand and magic flaring within his eyes.
“Don’t you get fucking tired of the same joke, Ardyn!?” Noctis spits, turning around and looking for cameras. “Where the hell is Prompto?” Silence. The MT on the frame chose not to stir. “WHERE IS HE?”
“Oh, how awful,” the voice on the intercom coed. “You’ve come all this way, only to fail to recognize the very thing you’re looking for. It must hurt your dear friend Prompto’s feelings.” The voice paused, letting the words sink into the frantic mind of Noctis Lucis Caelum. “Isn’t that right? Prompto?”
And when Noctis speaks, he doesn’t sound angry anymore. He sounds broken. “What the hell did you do him?”
They could almost hear the shrug in his voice. “Hm, nothing at all.” And the voice cuts out.
Noctis extends a hand towards the steel mask. Pries it loose. There’s nothing but metal and wiring on this inside. Of course. They’re called “MT” for a reason.
“Prompto?” Noctis whispers.
Prompto hesitates. It’s only after he realizes that he’s got nothing left to lose that he finally replies: “...Noct.” It sounds like a mechanical whimper. If machines could even do that.
Ignis and Gladio gasp behind him as Noctis pries him free from the metal frame.
Even after all is said and done, his friends still accept him. Prompto wishes he still had the ability to cry.
When he sees the last trace of Noctis disappear into the Crystal, and fires bullet after bullet into the Chancellor’s back, he felt something deep within wrench and twist. His mind clouded with an emotion he couldn’t release and he understood that even a soul on its own could cry.
As it turns out, being an MT was great in the eternal night that followed. Daemons don’t attack him. He could wander around the world with the same--no, even more freedom than he had before, now that he was’t sick. He took on the most dangerous of missions, taking him to the dens of monsters or from one side of Lucis and back. The missions he went on were impossible for a human. The ability to last for days in a world of daemons without food or water became the most valuable thing on Eos.
He’s never done so much in his life, and he’s never been so lonely.
A decade passes before he finds his best friend again, only to find out that he has to say good bye.
“What will happen to you?” Noctis asks, curled up under a blanket on the caravan’s bed while Prompto is sitting at the floor. The steel of his back scrapes against the wooden structure of the bed. There’s poorly drawn cactuars all over his steel plates. “Once the sun comes back?”
“I’ll be with you every step of the way,” Prompto replies quietly. “Ever at your side. Remember?”
Noctis does remember. The guilt that’s settled deep within him, surfaces once again when he remembers why Prompto chose to do what he did. He remembers that he was the reason why his best friend’s soul was trapped in an empty shell. He remembers that Prompto should’ve died a decade ago, but only stuck around this long to fulfill a promise made in the name of friendship.
He remembers that, despite this world needing so many more people like Prompto, he has to let him go. So he chocks down any final requests he would have, because the only thing he could think of to ask was for Prompto to live.
But, that thought isn’t quite right. It’s not Noctis who has to let go. Prompto’s already gone ahead, but he won’t move on to the next life without Noctis. He’s waiting for him.
When they reach the throne room, Prompto’s shot with a violet orb he couldn’t dodge--and when he wakes up the battle’s just about over. The only thing left to do is for Noctis to deal the final blow.
“Do you still want to take me with you, Noct?” Prompto asks, fiddling with his thumb.
“My mind hasn’t changed.” Noctis holds out his hand.
Prompto reaches up, hand wavering just above his heart. He unclasps a metal lock just under his left shoulder to reveal a glowing, red orb. Carefully, he unscrews it, and it’s released with the hiss of an engine and a satisfying pop. He’s able to place it in Noctis’ palm just before the red of his eyes dim.
He collapses, one knee first in front of his King. Then his entire body slumps down at the steps outside the Citadel.
“Thank you,” Noctis whispers into the core. Every shade of crimson shifted ethereally. This was Prompto. He treated the core with more reverence than the crown treasures of Lucis.
And it was Prompto he held onto when Kings of Lucis raised their blades. It took thirteen to strike him down, but only one gem in his hands to keep him together. Once Noctis stepped into a realm of void, he saw that his friends and family were with him--but only for a moment.
It was a fleeting image that didn’t dare to stay. Maybe he wanted to see them one last time that he hallucinated them.
But the ones to stay were Prompto and Lunafreya. The two whose bodies have long since gone, but have found ways to stay by his side. They were both eternally in their early twenty’s, young and baby-faced. They make short work of what’s left of Ardyn, shattering him into oblivion where immortals can’t return.
The battle leaves their ethereal forms in shambles; barely pieced together by each other’s light.
“Okay,” Noctis breathes, when all is done. “Okay.” He repeats again, then looks to Luna, then to Prompto. “Let’s go.”
“Uh. Me too?” Prompts’s eyes flickered to Lunafreya. “I don’t wanna third wheel or anything--”
“C’mon,” Noctis rolled his eyes. “I told you I’d take you everywhere I go.”
The astral plane is long and expansive. There’s no end to the possibilities the three of them can do. Now Prompto isn’t the only one waiting, and there’s a feeling of weightlessness within him now that he hasn’t imprisoned himself into a core.
Dawn rises in Eos.
And their souls are freed.
#I forgot what Verstael called his giant robot worm#ffxv au#noctis lucis caelum#prompto argentum#gladiolus amicitia#ignis scientia#prompto#ffxv#aranea highwind#if only I fleshed out my stories huh#look at the multiple cliff hangers this story could've had#i can imagine it as a multi chapter fic#no time though so enjoy#this one definitely came out of nowhere#i didn't expect to write it
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Okay so I got a notification earlier that reminded I still haven’t told y’all about my Night At The Museum Moana Au, so I thought I should share it now. Just a fair warning I’ve only partially thought this through so it might be a little messy, but the idea should still come through fine.
Okay so first off roles: Ahk would be Moana (obviously) Kahmunrah would play a similar role to the Grandmother Larry would be Maui Nicky would replace Hei Hei (I thought about Dexter, but he didn’t really fit) And just for shits and giggles I was thinking Jedediah and Octavius could replace the mini Maui’s.
Now the movie is set obviously in Ancient Egypt. Ahk’s parents are the current rulers, but he is the one set to rise to the throne (”Our people will need a chief and there you are”). Around the kingdom is a giant wall, blocking them from venturing further into the desert and the land around it. There’s only one exit, at the mouth of the Nile river, which flows through the kingdom. The exit leads to sea, and is only open for fishing boats to come in and back out of (”The fisherman come back from the sea”). At the other end of the river is a sealed exit that hasn’t ever been opened, and was only made in case of emergencies.
So Ahkmenrah is obsessed with the stars. He’s feels a call from the moon and the sky much like Moana does from the sea, he spends hours staring at it, longing to cross the wall and see the parts of the sky he never gets to. His parents are always trying to pull him away from the stars, back to land, back to where their people are. Ahk tries his hardest to ignore the stars, but its so hard when they keep calling out to him, begging him to follow them across the world (”I wish I could be the perfect daughter, but I come back to the water, no matter how hard I try”).
The only person on Ahk’s side is his older brother. Kah was the original heir to the throne, but by the time he was eight and Ahk was born his parents had decided he wasn’t fit. Kah grew up with hearing loss issues, he was partially deaf by the time he was 2 and as a result developed a lisp when he spoke. By the time he was four Kah had also developed reoccurring seizures, which lead many people to believe he had been cursed by the gods. His parents hoped he would grow out of it, tried to do all they could to get the gods to bless Kah again, but it didn’t work, and by the time Ahk was born Kahmunrah had developed such a reputation throughout the kingdom of being a little odd, a little strange, a little off, that his parents decided to not give him the throne.
The tablet is the heart of Te Fiti. It had been in the possession of the kingdom for quite some time, but it wasn’t until Ahk was born that it finally chose someone to restore it. See, Ahk was born a very sickly child, he almost died as a baby, until the tablet reached out with golden lights and healed him, choosing him as the one to take it home. Kahmunrah was the only one that witnessed this, and at that moment he set himself to learning all he could about the tablet, the stories behind it, to figure out why it saved his baby brother.
Ahk grew up hearing the stories from his brother about the tablet, about how it was believed to have great magical powers, including the power to create life, and how long ago the great demigod Lawrence Daley stole it from the heart of the temple of Khonsu, enraging the god and setting a great darkness free across the land. In trying to escape Larry was struck from the sky, losing his magical torch (Instead of a fish hook) and the tablet to the sands of the desert. Over time the tablet had found it’s way to their kingdom, but the torch remained lost. Kah always told Ahk one day someone would restore the tablet to the temple of Khonsu, but held off for many years telling him that the tablet had already chosen him.
So Ahk would grow up and train to be pharaoh, as Kah was left to become the kingdom crazy person, one people never took seriously or payed much attention to. As years passed Kah would steadily get more sick from the seizures and his hearing loss would worsen until he was almost completely deaf, but the kingdom flourished and nothing seemed to be gong wrong.
Until one night, Ahk looks up and notices some of the stars seem to be missing from the sky. He asks Kah about it, but his brother doesn’t know the sky as well as he does, no one does, so he can’t get a confirmation. Eventually he brushes it off, at least until the next morning when in doing his rounds he finds some of the fields have wilted. And then comes the news about the fish traps being empty.
Ahk knows it has to have something to do with the stars, but when he brings it up to his father he’s shut down and pushed away. After a little bit of debate Ahk decides to try and find out where the stars are going, scales the wall when no one is looking, but he quickly trips and hurts himself, and has to stumble his way back to the village and over the wall. Kah is there waiting, but when Ahk asks if he’s going to tell their dad Kah’s only response is that he’s meant to be the problem child, he doesn’t have to tell their father anything. Ahk thanks him and is about to set off for the kingdom to apologize and prepare to take his place as pharaoh, until he notices something off about Kah, and after a minute of prodding gets his brother to lead him to an old temple hidden near the sealed entrance of the Nile. There he learns of the forgotten past of their people, how they used to travel across the desert following the stars and exploring the land. Ahk is thrilled by this, and rushes to talk to their father about it, but this only leads to another argument. Before things can come to a head though, someone rushes in and informs them both that Kah had just had a severe seizure. One he likely wouldn’t recover from.
With his last breaths Kah explains to Ahk that the tablet chose him, encourages him to leave the kingdom with the tablet and find Larry, take the demigod to restore it to the temple of Khonsu and restore health to the land and the stars to the sky. Tearfully Ahk agrees to do so, and sneaks out whilst his parents mourn the lost of their eldest son, unknowingly taking with him when he does the eight year old orphan named Nicky, who had attached himself to Ahk at a young age and followed him almost everywhere. They set out on something similar to the boat Moana uses, only with sails higher up and made to go easily on sand using the wind (Like kiteboarding a bit).
Anyways, they find Larry under the torch shaped constellation, and after a bit of mess and trickery and convincing, they get him to agree to go with them to restore the tablet.
The rest of it would basically follow the plot of Moana with just a few changes, including the ending changing so that Larry accompanies Ahk and Nicky back to the kingdom, where he adopts Nicky as his son and they live happily ever after.
Also just because I think it would be funny, Jed and Oct can totally talk and they cause so much trouble and make so many jokes, Jed provides running commentary frequently that makes Nicky giggle, and Larry is pretty annoyed with them basically constantly.
There’s probably more to be said but this is as far as I got, so if you want to add more feel free to add on. And if you want to use this idea for a story or whatever go for it, just make sure you tag me in because I would read the shit out of that.
#Ravenpuff Rambles#Ravenpuff Writes#Ahkmenrah#night at the museum#natm#Moana#Moana au#Larry Daley#Nicky Daley#Jedediah Smith#Octavius#kahmunrah#late night writes with Raven#sorry if it makes no sense I am now half asleep
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MOVIE REVIEW: You Get Me
I did a poll on my instagram spam account (fatratglenn btw) and i got 100% votes for me to start and put movie reviews on my tumblr. so here goes nothing...
FIRST OF ALL.... this movie had 5 main characters - Holly, Tyler, Ali (or Alison), Gil and Lydia but the movie to me in general is primarily focused on Holly & Tyler.
So, basically the movie starts off with Tyler narrating about his life and blah blah blah *insert cliche teen boy shit in here* and how his new girlfriend has quote on quote ‘changed his life’. And briefly afterwards we’re taken to this cliche house party in the middle of damn nowhere where we are introduced to these privileged ass California teens. Then out of nowhere Tyler , our male protagonist, discovers his lovers (Ali’s) ‘vices’ (being the cliche popular party girl previously who insists she’ changed). He then talks to this misogynistic asshole Chandler - i mean Chase (i could not remember because the name is so overused) who speaks of Ali in a somewhat ‘disrespectful’ manner. The annoying thing about this is that the movie forces us and wants us to believe that this guy was important to Ali and is spilling about her old ways and is such a typical douche bag its kinda not believable. And ALSO this dude is all the way from San Fran, so accordingly to my research he would have to travel some good 383.2 miles just to see Ali and attend some party which he knows NOBODY there which is stupid and unrealistic. I just wanna say that ‘unrealism’ is to be expected in this movie - so be warned...
Ah, and then naturally in his typical douche bag token white guy ways, our boy Tyler gets off his tits ‘drunk’ just fir the purpose of him yelling at his girlfriend who declared his ‘soulmate’ 5 minutes ago! THIS MOVIE IS NOT CONSISTENT. Anyways, she then breaks up with him with no emotion whatsoever which instantly told me this movie had no hope for acting as i yawned. Prior to this we see him engage in a random and stupid conversation with Holly finally after a good 20 minutes of rambling. THEN he sees Holly and doesn't seem as drunk as he did 0.2 secs ago and gets in the car with this COMPLETE STRANGER and goes clubbing with her. Then we are ‘blessed’ with a cringey montage of he and her clubbing and taking what appears to be ecstasy. Then they continue to be unrealistic teens as they grind and make out for a solid 5 minutes on each other. This scene was especially painful to watch as Bella Thorne and Taylor John Smith had 0 chemistry but at least they tried. Then it cuts to the pair in bed after clearly having sex and just spends a good 15 minutes (it felt like the whole movie) of them both talking and bonding and in this HUGE MANSION which clearly isn’t Holly’s so doesn’t that tell you she’s a little PSYCHOTIC because she broke in for no damn reason?! Anyways, then Tyler and Holly fuck AGAIN and then he says he has to leave because ‘his parents’ (whom he said he only lived with his mom) would be worried.
So he leaves and doesn’t show any interest in his Ex-Girlfriend Ali, until she texts him on--screen asking if they can talk - ONLY THEN HE’S INTERESTED. Then they have a cliche moment where he betrays her an lies but she doesn’t know it - SHOCKER! cliche again, i know. So a little while later she moves to his school and unnaturally starts becoming close with Ali, Gil, Lydia - much to Tyler's dismay which she clearly does so she can get to him. Then they make out forcefully privately and he says she can’t do this and that he’s going to be ‘fucking sorry’ which was arguably the best line in the entire movie and the one line spoken with actual emotion so bravo Bella Thorne for being the only one who can semi-act.
Fast forward a couple more painful scenes and we find our selves seeing that Mr Dumb ass finally realized Holly is insane after she tells some lies that hurt his ego but (i agree with because he was so unlikable.) Also prior to this she tells him he used her, in which he of course denies, but to me was proven to be true as when they slept together they had a bond and he called it ‘special’ when he led her on to a false image which may have sparked her unhealthy desire for him in the first place. So yes, Tyler aka Mr ‘Such a good boyfriend’ did use Holly.
Also note that there is a super uncomfortable make-out scene between Holly (Bella Thorne) and Gil (Nash Grier) when she speaks about her and Tyler’s fling to Ali (anonymously of course) on the beach because that’s where all Cali Teens hang right?
Sooner or later Holly lies about being pregnant and talks about Tyler all the time and Ali never notices it being a little off because ,she too, has no brain just like everyone else except Lydia who is nearly killed so what does that tell you? Also near this moment we have, low and behold, the single handedly best scene of this god-awful movie, which is when the most likable character - Lydia suffers a seizure which is so dramatized and taken out of context considering the angles and close-up shots of her shaking her ass are not scary at all and are actually extremely hilarious, laughable and are simply comedic gold!
And then, just THEN Tyler realizes alongside a hospitalized Lydia, that this bitch, Holly is a FUCKING PSYCHO! I had to pause the damn movie to sigh in relief that this was finally noted. Then things get more ‘serious’ when Holly’’s baby-daddy, Tyler, shoves Holly who is allegedly pregnant which his child over and she bleeds and gets grazed, then she makes it her mission to tell Ali about them and she does.
Then our ‘beloved’ high-school couple (sorry Gabriela and Troy) break up at the damn beach AGAIN. Like seriously, could the director not have shot these scenes at different locations like we get it - they live in California and overly LOVE the beach, but showing something different would be a little refreshing, thanks. She says ‘she never wants to see him again’ boo-hoo crap and that’s the end of that.
BUT NOT BEFORE Holly ties fucking Alison upside down (like man that really took some effort getting up there) to her own ceiling at the mansion and then whilst Corrine, her stepmother (who doesn't do anything about her behavior despite being aware of it) tries to untie Ali but not before Holly (our favorite psychopath) strangulates her to death. This clearly showed Holly gave no fucks and made her more likable to me.
Then Tyler and Gil turn up and there’s a classic cliche showdown which is borderline ripped right off of Scream and Friday the 13th etc in which Gil is nearly shot (OMG NASH GRIER NEARLY DIED SO INTENSE bull-crap!) and Tyler is shot in the shoulder and Ali grabs a fire-poker and stabs Holly in the side causing her to fall inevitably in to the pool. But get this - she’s not dead! - (somehow she didn’t drown or bleed to death, that was a pretty painful stab btw) as Tyler pretends so badly to be dying as Ali and Gil pretend to care and attend to him whilst the police arrive. Then Holly is implied to become obsessed with the ambulance nurse as she somehow lives and looks untouched completely. REALISTIC Y’ALL!
Then yay! all their problems are solved as 3 of them party at Tyler’s little sisters party and then it ends. Classic cliche happy ending , worst 89 minutes of my life.
Some other things i’d like to point out is how this film is meant to be an ‘American Thriller’. Excuse me, but this wasn’t dark nor a thriller - it was more like a dramatized teen movie that had been done in Hollywood several times over the past 40 decades prior to this 2017 flick. And, with some more emotion, better acting, script and realism added in (and much more) this could have had the potential to be a good and somewhat decent Netflix movie! I think despite all those factors, the thing that let this movie down also was the stupid cringey-ass cuts in-between scenes where it was a overview of California (implying YET AGAIN that the director wants you to know that’s where they live for some unspecified reason) which had a form of EDM neo pop generic dubstep TRASH playing over it too.
So yeah, this took me a while to type, and now my fingers are numb! But, this was and hopefully not my last movie review! Now please don't watch this movie because if this review and its 4.6 IMBd score and it’s 26% score on rottentomatoes.com proves that you should STAY THE HELL AWAY from this movie.
The only somewhat likable charters were Holly (the fucking psycho) and Lydia - the one who actually had a brain! All the other were extremely boring, unlikable and mediocre.
REVIEW CONCLUDED.
Until Next Time my dudes,
sarcastic-saddo
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Instead of Dead, Become Two Dragons in Red.
| {MaribatMarch2020 — Week 1, Day 5: Transformation} |
| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] |
| Triggers/Warnings: Violence/Implied Violence, Animal Transformation, Explicit Language/Some Swearing, Implied/Referenced Character Death (but not really), Polyamory (not really a trigger/warning but if you don't like Polyamory then this isn't for you). |
| For Gotham vigilantes, rampaging magic-users always make for an interesting fight, that is of course, provided one doesn't get hit by any stray bolts of magic. However for Parisian heroes, it's just your typical Tuesday Akuma situation. |
| Word Count: 3232 |
==‹›==
| A/N: Hi! I'm not dead, sorry for how long I took to respond to comments, I got hit by a nasty cold then sinusitis so I lost basically all my Maribat March prep time thanks to that, so I just barely managed to finish this ficlet/oneshot for today, anyway I hope you guys enjoy, and if enough people enjoy it, I'll make a second part to this oneshot because I had to cut so much material and it'd be nice to be able to use it still. |
| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then comment or send me a DM/ask! |
| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |
==‹›==
Zzzzt-crackle-woosh, a purplish-black bolt of unstable magic flies through the air, just barely grazing passed Dragonbug's side as she flips across the gap between two buildings. Cheerfully, she calls out “Missed again!”
The villain, an amorphous black shadow with dripping molten gold eyes and donning a ruddy patchwork hooded robe (which suffice to say, looks suspiciously like a rip-off wizzrobe from the Legend of Zelda, that or a faceless Gregorian based cultist extra from a film or TV show), scowls furiously, “Oh fuck you! I'm trying my best here!” and blasts another bolt of purplish-black magic towards her.
Conveniently located on the roof she just landed on, is an air vent. She cartwheels behind it and manages to dodge the bolt by a good metre or so. “Well, your best sucks and so does your aim!”
The wizard-villain screeches in fury, “Well my aim wouldn't suck if you didn't keep moving like a goddamn Duracell bunny!”
Dragonbug snorts. “Yeah but firstly, I'm dragon and ladybird themed, not bunny-themed; the bunny theme's already taken anyway. And secondly, where's the fun in that?”
As soon as she says that, her earpiece crackles as Red Robin pipes up on the comms channel. “Ready to see some fireworks?”
“Oh, you bet!” She responds, all too gleefully.
There's a faint clink-woosh-woosh-woosh and out of the corner of her eye, Dragonbug sees a blur of a small round silver ball arcing through the air towards the wizard-villain who's quite stupidly standing in the same place. As the silver ball disappears from her view, she hears a clatter of clink-clink-clink followed by a bwoosh and a bright flash of white light. At this moment, Dragonbug is so glad the Miraculous suits protect against flashbangs of all things.
The wizard-villain screams and once the flash of light fades, Dragonbug can see that they've fallen to their knees, in the middle of the street.
Dragonbug frowns and eyes their form, then double-taps her comms. “Hey, is it me or does our rip-off wizzrobe-magic-cultist look somewhat unresponsive?”
Her earpiece crackles again as Red Robin answers, and really someone should give these things a maintenance check, the crackling can be so distracting. “Our wizzrobe-magic-cultist is looking pretty unresponsive to me too. It could be a trap though because I swear I didn't use one of my knockout flashbangs.”
She nods, despite the fact he can't see her; which upon realising this, she flushes red in embarrassment. After clearing her throat to compose herself, she tilts her head to the side. “That's concerning, unless our rip-off wizzrobe-magic-cultist is susceptible to flashes of light.” She pauses, frown deepening, “You don't think they've got epilepsy do you?”
There's a slight rustle before Red Robin responds, “No, that's not what an epileptic seizure looks like. Again this could be a trap, or they could just be stunned. Either way, we should hurry but be careful.”
“Right.” Dragonbug scurries over to the edge of the roof then flips her way down to the ground. As she lands, she just spots Red Robin vaulting across an overturned car. As he catches sight of her, she gives him a thumbs up, which he returns.
Dragonbug then nods to him and he nods back, silently communicating their plan. They both start to slowly approach the wizard-villain in a pincer movement, her to the left and him to the right.
Red Robin reaches to his bandoliers and whips out a pair of manacles. He skulks behind the wizard-villain and goes to handcuff when the wizard-villain starts cackling maniacally. The laughter is quickly followed by a forming orb of purplish-black light—the same light as the magic bolts.
Oh, fuck! Is Dragonbug's only thought as she immediately dives at Red Robin, who's started backing away; she uses herself to try and block him from the still-forming orb. Please let the Miraculous magic protect us both! She silently begs as the orb expands exponentially, unfortunately enveloping them both completely in a fraction of a second
The maniacal laughter is the last thing they both hear as they're violently launched backwards into an alleyway, and everything fades to black.
==‹›==
Kagami's lounging on the sofa at Tim's Nest and binging Netflix, when the red alert rings across all the comms units.
“Shit,” Oracle falters, “Red Robin and Dragonbug are down. Dragonbug's signature has disappeared from our systems and her comms aren't responding. All Red Robin's vitals are down, his suit isn't registering any more signs of life. But I'm still getting warnings that the villain they were fighting is still active, so everyone available needs to converge on Red Robin and Dragonbug's last known location.”
Fear immediately seizes Kagami's heart, no please, please don't be dead my loves. She double-taps her comms. “I'm suiting up as Kuro Neko, I'll be at the location in three.”
With that said, Kagami flings herself off the sofa. She glances around the room for Plagg who's halted in his eating of cheese and giving her a sad but cryptic look. Her eyes flicker to the window and he nods almost imperceptibly.
“Plagg, claws on.” There's a woosh as the poisonous green light washes over her, donning her in the Kuro Neko suit. She flexes her claws for a split second, tail whipping back and forth furiously, before darting over to the window and vaulting out of it.
As soon as she's out the window, Kuro Neko extends her baton down and begins pole-vaulting her way across the rooftops and over towards where her significant others were last.
==‹›==
When Dragonbug returns to consciousness, the first thing she notices is that she can't move, nor see, nor hear. But she can feel, and unfortunately that means she feels a strange painful pulsing throughout her entire body, as well as an excruciating aching sensation. The second thing she notices is that she's curled up on the ground and her head, or the world, is spinning somewhat. Anyway, I can safely say I'm not doing so good right about now, big ouch.
The first of her other senses to return is her hearing. Which immediately makes her hiss in pain from the sudden cacophony seemingly coming from somewhere above her? She pauses, then realises that something's not quite right, hey wait a minute, why'd my hiss sound so weird? Something's not right, although I suppose that's kinda obvious now, but still! Oh god, what if I'm dying, or I've been body switched, or—or—or—
Her thoughts are interrupted by a sudden scream of fury, ringing out from above. Which is good because it means Dragonbug doesn't get time to dwell on that particular string of anxious thoughts, but it's also bad because it's loud and causes her to whimper in pain from how loud it is.
“Where the fuck are they? What the fuck did you do to them?” A voice sounding very similar to Kagami yells out.
Wait a second, that doesn't make sense, Red Robin and I didn't call for backup, so why would Kagami suit up on her night off? Dragonbug muses to herself, brain immediately latching onto the next train of thoughts. As she muses, she slowly realises that she's starting to regain the feeling in her limbs. Which is another positive? However, the feel of said limbs, causes her mind to immediately blank and lose the train of thought. While her brain tries to figuratively perform an error message, she does finally manage to crack open her eyes, yay sight.
It's at that moment, Dragonbug's superhero experience/training kicks in. She quickly takes stock of her surroundings and quietly thinks to herself, oh fuck.
It looks like she's in a giant—no massive—version of Red Robin's suit. Have I been shrunk? She wonders for only a brief second as something moves, just out of the area of her view. She turns and squints at the movement. Not a second later, a roughly cat-sized red lizard shuffled into sight.
She squeaks in surprise, then has a minute of wait what because her squeak sounded weird and very concerningly not-human-like.
The red lizard tilts its head to the side and coos at her.
Dragonbug glares at the lizard and tries to back away. Emphasis on tries, because as she does so, she ends up tripping over herself? Confused and extremely concerned now, she glances down and oh.
What. The. Heckles. She slowly spins around, checking out her new form, because she's clearly no longer human. No, she's got a snout, scales, fur—well mane—, claws, a long snakelike body, and a tail. Spinning around, she catches sight of a gleaming piece of shiny silver metal. So does what anyone would in the same situation as her, and scuttles over to it to use it as a makeshift mirror.
The reflection that greets her is… frankly quite adorable but also she's now a tiny little lung/long dragon. Which to be fair, makes quite a bit of sense as she was using the dragon Miraculous and Longg is a lung dragon. Her scales are a pretty red with shimmery golden accents and her mane is a dark red-almost-black colour. Her eyes still have the golden yellow iris and sclera that the dragon Miraculous gives. And the rest of her is all done variation of the gold, brighter red, and darker red. So at least her colour palette doesn't clash. Okay, so the colour palette isn't the most pressing issue here, but also I don't know how to fix this or change back so y'know, I'd rather potentially be stuck like this permanently with a nice colour palette, than one that clashes. But also oh god please don't let this be permanent, there has to be a way to undo this!
In her panic, Marinette doesn't notice the red lizard slinking closer to her. As it reaches her, it gently prods her with one claw; startling her badly and causing her to squeak again, loudly.
The red lizard flinches back and Marinette realises that maybe, just maybe, that's not a random lizard. And that maybe the not-a-random-lizard is actually a drake. A European dragon that hasn't got wings. And Tim. Tim's surname is Drake. A coincidence? I think not! It's got to be Tim!
She stares at the probably-Tim dragon and makes a chirping noise because dragons don't have the same vocal cords as humans, so she can't exactly ask him if that's him or not. A minor nuisance, to say the least.
The red drake mimics her chirp. Then cautiously slinks up to her again.
This close, Marinette can see that she's probably around the size of a ferret, in comparison to him being roughly the same size as a cat.
He flops down half beside, half against her and makes a series of clicks and chirps. She can't help but to tense as he flops but as the seconds pass, she finds herself relaxing bit by bit until she's also flopped over.
Enjoying the peaceful impromptu not-quite-a-cuddle cuddle session with one of her significant others, Marinette does try to keep an ear out for any goings-on above, just in case. But all seems well.
That is until, not even three seconds later, the peacefulness is abruptly shattered by a cacophony of screams, yells, zaps, and loud bangs echoing shrilly from above, before ceasing just as abruptly as it started.
However, the unexpected cacophony still manages to cause Marinette to panic. She tenses with a low whine, hunching slightly, and holds her breath. Alert and anxiously vigilant, she can't help but survey the immediate vicinity again and again and again—looking for anything she missed initially or if anything's changed.
Tim shuffles and stumbles into a sitting position. He nudges her gently in the side of the neck with his snout. He makes a cooing noise, followed by a soft rumble—as if he were trying to imitate a cat's purr.
It takes a few seconds, but his actions start to help calm her down. She takes in a deep breath and mentally reassesses the situation. We've been turned into tiny dragons. We're inside-slash-underneath the Red Robin suit which is on the ground. Before we woke up like this, we were battling a magic-user villain who tricked us. We didn't get time to call in backup before we got hit but it sounds like backup arrived anyway. As far as we know, no one is aware of what happened to us or that we're in-slash-under the suit. We are currently safe for now.
As Marinette reaches the end of the reassessment, she feels much calmer. She makes a low trill-like-purr noise to signal to Tim that she's calmed down.
He sticks his tongue out in a blep and mimics the low trill.
Their second moment of calm is then also interrupted because apparently fate hates peace and calmness or something like that.
“I will ask you once more, Where. Are. They?” Kuro Neko questions.
There's a loud thump-snap, followed by the wheezing cackle of the Wizard-villain. “They're gone! Dead! Erased! Exterminated!” With its piece said, the wizard-villain continues to wheeze and cackle maniacally.
Marinette can't help but shiver in fear at the sound, barely able to squash the rising nausea.
A harsh snap sound echoes loudly in the street and the wizard-villain starts choking wetly.
Kuro Neko hisses something but the red robin suit muffles the words to the point of being indistinguishable.
The minutes drag by and the only sounds of note from above, are inaudible mutterings and the clattering of handcuffs and car doors. They must've handed the wizard-villain over to the police, Marinette thinks.
She's about to go nudge Tim to try and communicate that they probably need to go find somewhere to stash his suit and a place for them to hide until they can figure out how to turn back when a conversation between the vigilantes who arrived for backup catches her attention. Partly because of the topic, and partly because of how close the voices suddenly sound.
“They can't be dead, Red Robin's suit is still there.” Dick—or well more like Nightwing, since he probably arrived as backup as well—stresses.
“But Dragonbug an' her suit's gone. You'd think maybe that there'd be a little more left if just organic matter was destroyed.” Jas—Red Hood mutters, the vocal distorter in his helmet making his tone of voice sound strange.
Or maybe that's just a side effect of getting tiny-dragon-ified, thinks Marinette, things sounding stranger. Although I've not really noticed anything bar the distorted voice sounding weird.
“The Miraculous suits are made of magic, and anyway, Plagg says he can't feel Tikki or Longg's presence anywhere,” Kuro Neko admits, reluctantly. “If all living things in the vicinity of the orb were destroyed, then the Miraculous would have still been left behind.”
“And how d'you know that?” Red Hood asks, sounding both genuinely curious and mildly concerned.
There's a split second of almost icy silence before Kuro Neko responds with a clipped tone. “Akuma.”
“Ah, o'course.” Red Hood comments, voice getting closer again. “Hey, d'you think B will want to stick the Red Robin suit in a memorial case like what he did with my Robin suit?”
“Hood!” Nightwing exclaims in a horrified and almost scandalised tone of voice.
Red Hood snorts.
Marinette flinches, and so does Tim beside her, although probably not for the same reasons as her. I don't think I'll ever get used to how flippantly Red Hood jokes about his death. Even if most Parisians who've died in Akuma attacks use the same sort of gallows humour.
There's a few seconds of silence before someone grabs the Red Robin suit and yanks it upwards, causing Tim and Marinette to tumble out of it with a series of startled squeaks and clicks.
Red Hood is the first to respond to the situation, with an eloquent, “what the fuck.”
Marinette glances up and sees Kuro Neko holding the Red Robin suit and looking rather shell shocked, with Red Hood and Nightwing a few steps away.
“Oh, thank fuck they're alive.” Nightwing half mumbles, dragging a hand down his face in exasperation.
“My loves,” Kuro Neko murmurs leaning down and scooping up Marinette and Tim, “I'm so glad you're okay.”
They both squirm for a minute before relaxing into her arms.
Nightwing frowns. “We should bring them back to the cave, maybe call Zatanna and Wonder Woman.”
“To the cave then.” Kuro Neko nods, hugging Marinette and Tim carefully, making sure not to accidentally hurt or squish them.
Marinette looks up at her significant other and bleps. She then trills, content to be held for the journey back to the Batcave.
Tim however, wrinkles his nose and chirrups in protest, he squirms and tries to escape Kuro Neko's hold—probably wanting to return to the Nest and deal with this on his own instead.
Kuro Neko gives Tim a deadpan stare before expertly pinching the correct pressure point to temporarily paralyse him.
Red Hood gives her a quizzical stare.
“Akuma, as well as kwami.” She responds, sagely.
“Right…” He slowly mutters, shaking his head.
Marinette can't help but burst into laughter at that, only because she's currently a ferret-sized lung dragon, the laughter comes out as a stream of trills and chirps.
Red Hood narrows his eyes at Marinette. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, danger noodle.”
Marinette pouts, whilst internally promising herself that revenge will be swift and pasta themed.
==‹›==
When they finally arrive back at the Batcave. They're greeted by the sight of Batman and Robin at the Batcomputer.
Robin turns and sneers at them. “Of course, trust Drake to pull such an attention-grabbing stunt as this.”
Marinette immediately looks up from her snuggled up position in Kuro Nell's arms and hisses at Robin; Tim however, lets out a world-weary sigh.
“Robin.” Barks Batman, but the reprimand does nothing to quell Robin's hostility.
Fixing a glare at Robin, Kuro Neko starts to stroke Marinette's scales like an evil villain would stroke a cat (much to Marinette's delight). “Need I remind you, how you hesitated upon hearing Oracle inform us that Red Robin's suit ceased reading any signs of life.”
“That was not hesitation! I was merely preparing for Grayson or Fatgirl to become hysterical in their distress.” Retorts Robin, who then stalks away, scowling and red-faced.
Nightwing dithers between going after him or staying to check on Tim and Marinette.
Kuro Neko shakes her head. “Go after him, Marinette and Tim will be fine without you hovering like a mother hen.”
Nightwing flashes her a grateful smile and scampers after Robin.
Kuro Neko then heads over to the medical bay and gently plonks the two dragons onto a cot. “Batman, I believe we will need to do as Nightwing suggested earlier, and call Zatanna and Wonder Woman. As this is a magic situation and I am not as skilled or knowledgeable in regards to magic as my love is.”
“Hhrrm,” Batman growls, already calling up the Watchtower.
Kuro Neko smiles softly as she glances down at her significant others, eyes twinkling with mirth. “Let's hope they arrive soon, otherwise who knows what sort of trouble you two could get into.” She winks.
Marinette chirps, tail flicking side to side eagerly. Whilst Tim perks up slightly and tilts his head to the side, mind probably racing with hundreds of pranks and shenanigans they could pull off whilst in dragon form.
==‹›==
| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |
| @maribat-march2020 | | @vixen-uchiha |
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