#bc he has No clue who he is besides his blood telling him to kill ppl
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gxldencity · 1 year ago
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So I'm like on PT #3 for bg3 (I did Lie about putting this game off till January lol) and this is the first run where I am romancing astarion and I gotta say...ppl are right about him having 0 rizz. Like the man can't handle being reciprocated in terms of flirting and he's even more of a cringelord now
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myfanfic-urfantrash · 11 months ago
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God I love me some possessive men-am thinking about HSR daddies with their Omega mate that suddenly goes into heat while their in public/crowded area. (๑/////๑ " )
Them being both worried and protective bc other alphas are starting to take interest. While their poor spouse is just there, clinging for dear life.
Imagine this was before they bonded- free real estate for other alphas to swoop in to woo the poor thing.
IMAGINE IF SOME OF THE ALPHAS DO CHALLENGE THEM ONG (⸝⸝˃ ་། ˂⸝)
Blade would probably be the worst out of all of them. Bro would be pissed as hell. He's ready to fight the world.
Jing Yuan probably would either be very calm, Instead trying to get you someplace safe, or freaking tf out & growling.
Welt, my poor bby would be very concerned (♡´𓋰`♡) prioritizing his mate's wellbeing first. But would he step up if another Alpha would challenge him?
Kyaaaaaaaaaa >-<
I am entertained by your emoticons and your stunning mind :o
Including Luocha cause I keep leaving him out of things.
CW: omegaverse, violence and death mention.
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Blade
All he has to do is release his scent and that'll be enough to send anybody running, if not that then seeing the blood lust in his eyes and the sword by his side will.
If anybody is foolish enough to challenge him it's their last day breathing. They better enjoy the scent of his omega while it lasts.
Doesn't escort his omega to safety but does have them hide and close their eyes as he deals with the idiots who thought they could claim them. As soon as he's done he's taking them back home where they'll be safe and checked for any wounds.
If their scent sours because of the violence he might regret killing those other alphas but only because it upset them. Cleans them and himself up of any blood and wraps them up in his sheets before wrapping them up in his arms.
He's struggling a bit with his Mara and his rage at being challenged as an Alpha so he doesn't have the energy to properly take care of them besides this for now. Give him a moment or two and he'll be ready to tend to their every need and comfort them better than he is at the moment.
Jing Yuan
As soon as he smells them he's ordering the nearest soldiers around to clear a path so he can escort them to safety. They follow even if they too are bothered by their scent, they know their place and not to dare lay a hand on his omega.
Everyone knows who the General's omega is, with or without a claim mark, so it'll be surprising for some brave(read: foolish) soul to try and challenge him of all people.They must be some foreigner with no clue on who's in charge of the Luofu and or they don't care.
Point is they've challenged not only their General they've threatened the safety of his omega and he and his people won't stand for this. He doesn't have to lift a finger or look in their direction as his soldiers drag the offender away and focuses on getting them both home.
On the occasion it's just him without any soldiers nearby it takes seconds for him to knock down the competition as soon as they reach for his omega.
Once they're both somewhere safe he's sticking by their side, looking them over for any injuries and checking their medication to see if they've missed taking it or something to explain their sudden heat.
If they allow him he's more than happy to help them out but he'd prefer to make sure they're feeling safe and secure before he's willing to help.
Welt
His priority is to get his omega somewhere safe before dealing with any threats, they can wait but they can't.
He escorts them to a room, such as a bathroom or somewhere else where the door can be locked from the inside and tells them to stay there and to not open the door for anyone until he calls them.
Let's say one of the Alphas follows him and challenges him for his omega thinking with his old age they could do so much better. He doesn't hesitate to put them in their place through words alone, letting them know that clearly they aren't a good match if all they can do is think with their dick and then some.
If the other gets enraged he'll deal with them promptly with his powers until they and any stragglers flee the scene. Once he's sure the coast is clear he gives his omega the signal and finds the quickest route back to the Astral Express or their hotel room.
As soon as their safe he does his best to take care of his omega by giving them the space or comfort they may need from such a stressful situation. Will help them out with their heat if they like but their mental, emotional, and physical health comes first.
Luocha
Since people tend to think of him as an omega as well they might try to come after him as well. Doesn't mind the attention as he can deal with them easily but with his omega struggling to stay standing he's got to prioritize their safety first.
Releases his scent to get most of the other alphas to back off before taking his omega into his arms and cutting past anyone who tries to stop him.
If an alpha decides to pursue not getting the hint they're not wanted he's taking them out, zero hesitation. They might not be dead but they're gonna wish they were.
As soon as he's got his omega to the safety of their shared room he's giving them all the attention they could want in the world. He might have to take a break away from them to reschedule his meetings and the like but that's nothing, their health and well being matters far more than some business.
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lae-zels · 1 year ago
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Out of pure curiosity, what do you think is missing from Halsin's story?
after writing it all down, i realized it's not just what's missing but also what's broken, inconsistent and shallow about Halsin, hopefully that still answers your question :)
his backstory in the underdark comes out of nowhere and is never again brought up!! it is, in fact, brushed off as just some silly goofy thing that happened to him once!! hihi haha i was a sex slave for two years. im so embarrased to tell you this, tav haha anyways how about round two with the twins ??? while im standing speechless mouth agape struggling to process the story he just told me. to say it was written and handled poorly is putting it mildly
he is shown to be a shrewd person (with his francesca choice for the new archdruid back in emerald grove) so expand on that! show that he's more than just a pile of muscles! show me he's cunning and has bite! there's so much political intrigue in act 3, have him comment on it, on gortash's plan, have Halsin compare it to some other people/events that happened in the past and how they mirror what's currently happening in baldur's gate, my dude is 3 50, he's seen some shit im sure, even living in the forest the news would reach him so no excuses
he's so closely tied to act 2 i have no clue why he's locked off as a companion till you find daniel (which on my first playthrough was just before attack on moonrise, that almost made my blood boil bc not even 2 hours later orin snatched him up??? and i was like?? ok?? she took who? i barely know the guy?). i think he's too tight-lipped about what happened all those years ago with the shadowcurse and i would have loved to hear more about it (like the implication of him killing isobel and the conflict with the thorms)
I need him to be the biology/nature expert equivalent to Gale with his weave expertise. he should have more to say about the worms!! he should be studying you under the microscope the entire game!!!! literally bring back all the missing EA halsin dialogue!! i should be able to drag his ass into the underdark!!! I WANT HIS KNOWLEDGE! I WANT IT TO BRING BACK BAD MEMORIES! expand on drows and their culture in this game by using halsin as the conduit that tells you everything he learned from spending his time here!! so maybe that info dump in act 3 about him being a slave wouldn't come out of nowhere
i refuse to believe he'd have nothing to say about the elder brain after seeing it. i want him to be absolutely repulsed, terrified but also intrugied by the mindflayer colony under moonrise, i want him to cautiously study every nook and cranny there and offer his insight
absolutely baffled he won't say anything to that one dragonborn druid back in baldur's gate that is trying to keep a tree alive???? for all his distain for the cities he sure is quiet here, seeing nature failing in the middle of it while a guy is desprately trying to keep it alive. maybe make it so these two actually manage to turn this spot into something more beautiful, a lush tree in the middle of a concrete road that attracts people who come over to relax in its shade
if they bring up his hatred of the city life, why not let me turn him into a full on shadow druid (which is already hinted on during one of the conversations with him in act 3), kind of how you can keep shadowheart a shar worshipper or steer her toward selune. plant some seeds of his loathing back in act 2, how nature had to be sacrificed because people had delusions of grandure (the elder brain plot and the thorms) etc
besides wanting to cure the shadowcurse and enjoying whittling there's nothing more to this guy. after the curse is lifted all he's got are the ducks.............. once he'll mention he doesn't like the city life. okay, you've been on this earth good 350 years, my guy, you know how cities are don't act surprised
an alternative ending is missing, you should be able to go with him
personally, i think his personality is missing because he is too flat and frankly, boring. he is too agreeable even if you're a meanie to others. just as long as you don't kill innocents he's a ride or die. it's not his fault of course, he's just badly written, too surface level. which is a terrible shame bc i'm so in love with him but i'd like to fall for his personality too. once there's a fleshed out one. so it's quite hard to speculate on what's missing about a guy there's barely any information on in-game tho :'(
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googledetective · 1 year ago
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the theories that have been presented on this cast + one of my own :)
I do want to mention that I strongly believe this is a prequel due to a conversation I had with a bunch of people on discord earlier. (Everyone was 16+, dw.)
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I haven’t seen anything about the first two at all so far, so I’ll be skipping over them and onto the third guy (oh my fucking lord).
(Also this post from @nesisamess helped a lot)
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Staring onto the third dude,
(both posts are made by @zitherwaifuus :)
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It seems that here this guy has some sort of relationship to XF-Future Tech, which if you’ve seen Min’s side story, you’d know is the company that came into her life and groomed her to be the Ultimate Student. She received special tutoring for them and worked her ass off for that title her entire life because of that. Next, this guy shares the same tie pin she does, and it’s also very notable that she dresses up with the same button down and tie in her MV. Not only do I think she is linked to the company now, but she might be working there before she was in the game. Who knows, though.
Next, I have not seen anything on the fourth girl besides a bunch of people on discord theorizing what the dandelion in her hair could mean. Unfortunately dandelions have different meanings from different cultures all over the world, so until it’s specified about where she’s from, I don’t think there’s many assumptions we can make yet.
Number Five, the purple guy.
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Everyone seems to think so far that this is Elliot Cuevas, Charles Cuevas’s deceased brother. Now let me tell you that although I can’t see it based off design, the way he looks (playful and kinda weird but happy) and the way he was described by the creator in the latest qna (a popular joyous dude), can definitely make me see this being real. The only thing that is super far fetched about this is that we know he died a long time ago, and so if this is a prequel, it would have to be at least 15 years before drdt even starts.
Here’s also some more evidence from @sunlit-haru supporting the ‘that’s Elliot’ theory.
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Now we’re up to the protagonist, who mind you is definitely my favorite so far. I will eliminate the rest of you protag dickriders so I will be the only simp left.
ANYWAYS, in the about page for this, it’s stated that this is a fangan for someone who wants to be the perfect teacher. Now with the hidden quote on the drdt tumblr page about this teacher…
( @demodraws0606 ‘s post)
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Uh oh. I think we’ve figured out who this mysterious teacher might be. As for who is talking to them, I’ve personally got a few ideas, but they are not backed with any evidence.
1. The mastermind from this first killing game
2. Mai Akasaki or David Chiem still
3. The mastermind of the drdt killing game
Whoever it is, I think that these games are surely related and that each current kg participant does have a relation with one of these cast members. And that previous killing game’s end is why this one is happening.
Then, based off the post up top and a few others, people seem to think this is Teruko’s brother. I’m going to give a wild theory (no evidence) that Mai Akasaki knows him, only bc of the red in his hair. Then I think Mai would’ve found Teruko, and she would’ve been trying to reconnect them. Just a theory, though. There’s no evidence based around that this guy might be Teruko’s brother though, sadly.
Last but not least, @1moreff-creator pieced together some of the text on his badge:
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I’m just gonna say that I’m seriously impressed with your efforts cause I have no fucking clue that could even be readable lmao.
*UPDATE ON TEXT: holy mother of god, @xmicrophonyx is a fucking god, and deciphered it. Here you go, and we all have got to give a serious thank you to them.
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Sadly I cannot link the image of what the phone number gets to, but it gets linked to a yellow pill. I don’t have any ideas on how it would relate to the game, but I think it does. It’s used for high blood pressure and heart failure. If he’s really related to Teruko, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had high blood pressure lmao.
Also, the area code for 555 is just North America.
Here’s what I found on Wikipedia:
“The telephone number prefix 555 is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan, used as the leading part of a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, 555-XXXX, in each numbering plan area (NPA) (area code). It has traditionally been used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing NPA-555-1212.
The central office code is also used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, video games, and other media in order to prevent practical jokers and curious callers from bothering telephone subscribers and organizations by calling telephone numbers they see in works of fiction.”
I don’t understand the first part, but it seems that this is a fictional number. If someone could explain to me wtf that first part even memes, I might be able to give more info.
Anyways, it seems that this guy ended up being a teacher at HPA, before or after the killing game. But I think this was very worth mentioning.
Unfortunately I’ve seen nothing about the next two, but I want to say that the girl in all pink (#8) I think is Felicity Giles, if that’s even possible. I just feel that’s Arturo’s sister. I know, I’m a weirdo. Even if #7 looks more like Arturo, I just cannot see it.
Moving on, nine and ten! If you look at them closely they’ve got the same eye pattern, suggesting they’re siblings, or likely twins, since they’ve got the fire/ice scheme going on.
Lastly, eleven which oh my god, Arturo’s dream girl! But she’s been theorized to be Whit’s mom. Here’s the post that argues a pretty convincing reason of why.
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Oh boy. That woman is pretty cool and is very elegant, and has the same shade of blond hair that Whit dyed his too. I don’t think she’s any coincidence.
But joining along on that last little paragraph of this person’s post, it’s starting to seem a lot of characters do have connections to this cast and are seemingly mentioned quite a few times.
UPDATE: oh my lord, @accirax literally went on a deep dive for us and gave us a pretty good explanation and educated guess on everyone’s talents. I’m not going to link it because they covered pretty much every logical point as to why they have their guesses. Here’s the post if you haven’t already seen it https://www.tumblr.com/accirax/728687594893885440/drdt-new-character-talent-analysis
Anyways this is just the sum-up of everyone’s theorizing + a bit of my add on to it, and huge kudos to everyone who’s been making theories so far. I’ll be updating & crediting if there’s anymore notable things that come out.
Thanks for reading!
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maibi · 4 years ago
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The Past Never Forgets
Pt. 1
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Dabi x reader
Warnings: killing, cursing
Summary: as a cast out by society you find your way to the League of Villains. Your family that had given up on searching for you after you ran away , but after 5 years, in some mysterious way, they found your hide-out. 
A/n: I got the quirk idea from someone else bc my brain isn’t working with me. They have a lot of other fan made quirks I will put the link right here, you can check it out!! ( https://www.wattpad.com/672985786-my-fan-quirks-venom ) 
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Life wasn’t really something that had been going great for you. In fact your life had been pretty shit. You were an outcast, hated by society, hated by your own family. All because of your unbearable quirk. You had no place to feel safe and no place to call home. Your family made sure you never used your quirk because it could cause deaths among your loved ones. Your childhood was ruined all because of the image they wanted to hold as a family. they put their desires of fame above your well-being and you saw only one option to change that. And that was by running away. The only thing you had been taught was to hate what you used to love, you were basically emotionless.
As a teenager of 16 years old you decided to run away from home. You never got treated right and you were seen as a death-threat. You yourself didn’t see any problems with your quirk, but your family had other opinions about that. There were rules for you, and only you. None of your siblings had any of these rules, because their quirks were hero-like and yours was villain-like. If you used your quirk without permission you would be left in a dark room with no food for a whole day. They would call this discipline, but in reality this was child abuse. The only person caring about you was your grandma, but after she passed away you had no reason to stay in that house.
Your family tried searching for you, but gave up quickly when they realized life would be much better without you around. You quickly realized that life would also be much better without them. You had blamed yourself for your quirk. For all those years in that place that was a so called home, you had believed that your quirk was a threat to society. That if you made the wrong moves they would take a hold of your life. But after running away, and finding people that adored you for your quirk, it made you realize what a real family was. And you realized that your quirk was more than just a threat to society, it was something that belonged to you and only you. 
You were the holder of the Venom quirk.
For 5 years you wandered around, going from city to city and doing about anything to provide yourself some food and a place to sleep. You never stayed put, that wasn’t your way of going. You went from place to place, exploring different streets from every city and making yourself known within the “villain community”. It wasn’t every day people got to see a venom quirk in action, so they were all curious enough to let you stay with them.
One day, before you had settled down, you were wandering around a new city, chewing on some stolen buns, you walked in a side street, hidden from the citizens. You saw blue flames and it struck to you. You had always liked the color blue, it was a pretty color compared to your dark purple venom, you didn’t like the color purple after all. You had watched the holder of the blue flames do his thing on a person who was trying his hardest to escape. He was unable to let out a sound as the blue flame man was keeping his hands strongly around his throat. 
You were interested in this person, not because he was probably a villain, but mainly because you thought his quirk was cool. Oh yeah, and of course because of the color blue. You wanted to know who’s quirk would be stronger. You were curious, so you budged in, not caring about what would happen. You threw your bun on the ground.
“I mean, that’s pretty kinky”, you said. 
his hand shot in your direction, but you were quick to react. Before his flames could hit you, you had made an X motion with your arms, letting out your venom in a shield form, protecting you from the burning flames. If there was one thing you had learned from wandering on your own, it were quick reflexes. you felt that his flames were powerful, but you knew for a fact that he didn’t use all of his strength.
“You got some good reflexes”, he said continuing to strangle the small dude. 
“You seem... interested in that kind of stuff”, you said, pointing at his hands around the man’s throat. 
“well what can I say, it’s tempting sometimes”, he said with a smirk. “I mean you can join in if you’d like that.”
He dropped the man and watched him crawl his way in the other direction. “That’s your prey, you sure you wanna just let him escape?”, you curiously asked, smirking back at him.
“He can’t go far, the next person will get him”, he said as he properly turned around and leaned against the stone cold wall. You couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of him actually freezing against the cold wall right now. “Now tell me, what brings you to this side of the city?”
“I saw blue flames and I like the color blue”, you shrugged, placing your hands in your pockets. “Nothing more.”
He walked closer to you, examining you from head to toe with his eyes. You let him, because in the end what did you have to lose? If he wanted to kill you, he would have probably already tried to do that. But he was just looking at you, probably trying to figure out how your quirk was supposed to work. 
“You saw blue flames and you like the color blue”, he silently repeated your sentence. His eyes stopped trailing down your body when he connected eyes with you. “Do you have any clue as to who I am?”
“Not the slightest”, you answered, breaking the eye contact first by walking past him to the direction the person that was a victim of his blue flames. He was gone, with only a splash of blood and a limb on the ground. You smiled to yourself. He had not survived just like flame boy said.
This could get interesting. You had thought to yourself. 
“What exactly is it that you do around here”, he asked while walking behind you. “Never saw you around here. You new?”
“You could say that”, you answered. But left out the fact that you were only new to the city and not to the whole “villain” thing, because giving away your life wasn’t really your plan yet.
“What about you? I never heard of you”, you said.
“My name is quite known here”, he smirked, walking closer to you. “The name is Dabi.” 
“Nice to meet you infamous Dabi”, you said as you inched closer too, showing him you were by no means intimidated by him. “I look forward to hearing and seeing you more often.”
After that you had made yourself known in the new city you visited, the city were you had met Dabi, the so called famous villain. You did hear a lot about him, making him a lot more interesting. There were many encounters between the two of you and he had tried to convince you to join his little group of friends called the League of Villains. You liked to work independent, so you kindly rejected his offer. 
But it wasn’t after a very fierce battle that Dabi had been heavily injured. You wouldn’t consider yourselves friends at that time, but you were close enough to not let him die. You hadn’t received from him what you had wanted. So you brought him to his hide-out, where the other members of the League were. 
The time you had spent there as just “a visitor”, had turned into you wanting to have more fun so you decided to join, without a plan. You were still allowed to move on your own so you didn’t see that much of a problem. They weren’t people with rules, or whatever. You lived freely, and you were happy about that.
You had made that place your home. Things that started off as a joke, turned into things that were important to you. These people were the people that didn’t fear you, but were happy to battle with you. These people wanted to get stronger for their own sake and didn’t live up to the will of other’s. Even if they looked like emotionless people, they cared about each other. And that was a place you liked to call home.
that all lead to the present. You were sitting with Dabi at the edge of high building, thinking about some random plan Shigaraki had made you think about. It wasn’t even necessary, he just needed a back-up plan.
“We’re not really gonna write this down are we?”, you asked as you held a piece of paper and a pen in your hands. “Shigaraki has to be kidding if he really wants a back-up plan for this one. I’m 99% sure we’re winning this one.” You slowly watched your venom eat up the paper as you threw the pen off of the building. 
Shigaraki had planned to attack UA, you didn’t really care about UA, but because Shigaraki had let you do just about anything while being with them you didn’t mind helping him out. “We can never go wrong with a back-up plan, you know.”
“But I mean, he has been planning for over a month now. How wrong can stuff go? Worst case scenario is that we retreat. They can’t possibly be this cautious beforehand?”
“Oh, you don’t know UA. They do just about anything to keep school grounds safe. They have everything ready for literally the worst case scenario”, Dabi said.
“But everything has been planned out, we literally searched for every possible thing that could go wrong and we found a solution for that. I really don’t think we need this. Besides, since when does Shigaraki want back-up plans, he never did-”, your head shot up in realization and you slapped dabi across his chest as you lightly gasped. “You little shit. Shigaraki didn’t ask us to make a back-up plan! Why did you bring me here then?!”
“Ding ding ding, someone caught on”, he said as he slowly rose to his feet.
“But why!”, you asked as you also stood up.
“To protect you”, he said smugly.
“To protect me?”, you said questionably. “And why would you do that? I survived on my own for 5 years on the street, I think I can handle some high school children.”
He came closer to you and kissed your lips for only a second. He did this often, it’s not like it was the first time he did it, but it always left you a little flustered. It was not everyday you had received any form of affection, so it was all new to you. You two weren’t in a “relationship”, but it sure was something along those lines. Whenever he’d kiss you, your so called superiority went down a little only because you did not know how to act. But you never let yourself get trampled over. 
“Dabi I’m serious here, why did you take me here. If Shigaraki is fighting some people right now we should at least help him. Your own feelings shouldn’t come first place when it’s such a dangerous thing. I can care for my own, so let’s go help Shigaraki. He helped us out too many times to leave him alone there”, you said in a strict tone, showing him that you were by no means playing. “Besides I haven’t thrown a good punch in a while, I need this.”
“It was him that told me to bring you here, tho I would have even if he didn’t ask me to”, he said. “Your family found your occupation. Not the real hide-out, but you know the one where we-”
You slapped a hand on his lips, making sure he didn’t continue that sentence. Your face was flushed and his lips turned into a smirk. You didn’t like it when openly talked about your intimate relationship. He knew exactly how to fluster you, but right now wasn’t really the best moment to do so. 
You looked at the ground, eyebrows furrowed. Your family really had the audacity to come search for you now? It felt like bullshit to you. You looked at Dabi and straightened your posture. “All the more reasons for me to head over and take a look.”
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teenwolffanclub-me · 4 years ago
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Season 1, Episode 12: Code Breaker
Hey there beautiful reader! If you’re new here, this is a series I’m writing where each chapter is an episode from the first season of Teen Wolf. If you’ve been here before, hey! I missed you! Previous and future chapters are linked at the end of each part if you want to catch up.
Pairing: Stiles x Psychic! Reader
Warnings: two very justified character deaths 
Notes: I feel like I blacked out and now we’re somehow on the last episode. Not sure how that happened so fast but here we are. Just prepare yourself bc this one is entirely too long but I didn’t want to do two parts 🤷‍♀️
Does anyone want me to continue with Season 2? Please let me know bc I won’t do it unless people are actually interested.
I also wanted to give a shoutout to everyone who has sent me nice comments and showed love on this series. It’s meant the absolute world to me!
Okay now let’s get some closure!
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                                                    ————————
I walked through the hallways of the high school, using every ounce of willpower I could muster to keep my eyes firmly planted in front of me.
The pressure of dozens of curious stares weighed on my back as I made my way toward the lockers briskly. From the moment I walked through the doors a few minutes ago, all eyes had been on me. I squared my shoulders and forced my head to remain up high.
If people wanted to gossip, they could go right ahead.
My pace quickened as I heard the unmistakable sound of judgmental whispering behind me. I pinched my eyes shut tightly and tried my best to block out the irritating noise. I just wanted to get my books and go to class. At least there, I would see Scott, Stiles, and Allison.
Once I reached my locker, I shakily dialed in my code and popped the small metal door open. I instantly stumbled back, my eyes going wide as a shit ton of dirt came spilling out. I stood still for a few seconds, blinking slowly as I tried figuring out what the hell just happened.
With a frown, I wiped my hands against my jeans, which were now covered in the stuff. My eyes flickered down toward the pile of soil on the tiles in front of my feet, my brows furrowing in confusion.
How the hell did that much dirt get into my locker? How did any dirt get into my locker?
I glanced around the hall slowly, anxious to see my classmates reactions. I was already the weird girl after everything at the dance. I didn’t want to be the even weirder girl who keeps dirt in the locker.
A surprised breath left my lips as I saw that the halls were now completely empty. I turned all the way around, peering in both directions, but there wasn’t a single soul here with me. My head started pounding and I winced at the unexpected sensation before rubbing at my temples gently.
I swiveled back toward my locker, wanting nothing more than for this day to be over. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this yet. I instantly froze at the sight of a single purple flower sitting in the middle of the dirt pile. I was almost certain it hadn’t been there a moment before.
My heartbeat thrummed loudly in my ears as I reached a trembling hand inside the small space. I tentatively plucked the plant, which I easily recognized as wolfsbane, out of the soil. My eyes flickered around the purple leaves and long, green stem as my confusion only grew.
Just then, an ear piercing scream echoed through the halls. I whipped around, instantly going rigid when I saw that I was no longer in the school, but standing in the middle of the lacrosse field.
I glanced around the empty stadium, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Did I suddenly develop the ability to teleport? Or was I losing my damn mind? My eyes trailed downward as I felt cool air brush against my legs. My breath hitched as I saw that I was wearing my formal dress. The navy fabric was covered in blood and dirt, the strap on my left shoulder torn to shreds.
A bolt of fear licked up my spine as I heard rustling directly in front of me. My gaze slowly swept upward before landing on a pair of glowing red eyes that were illuminated in the shadowy distance. My eyes pinched shut as terror coursed through me when they started moving closer.
“It’s not real.” The mantra was a shaky whisper as my body trembled. “It’s not real. It’s not—”
Just then, my eyes jerked open on their own accord. I bolted upright with a harsh gasp, my throat constricting painfully as I sputtered and coughed a few times. One of my hands came up to clutch at my chest as I tried desperately to catch my breath.
Only a split second passed before Stiles flailed into a sitting position beside me. He whipped his head from side to side with wide eyes, as if searching for the cause of my panic. Once his attention landed back on me, he instantly pulled me into his chest and began murmuring lowly.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” One of his hands rubbed at my back while the other cradled my head against him.
“Lydia...” I gasped, my breath coming out in quick, trembling spurts. The dream had been some sort of vision or clue...it just had to be.
“Lydia’s alright, okay? They’re gonna find her.” Stiles’ fingers threaded through my hair and massaged my scalp soothingly.
“What? What is it? What happened?” Scott’s head suddenly popped up at the foot of my bed, his hair so messy it looked like he’d been hurled through a tornado.
“Another nightmare.” I breathed, feeling my heartrate dropping back down to normal as Stiles’ hands continued rubbing against me gently. 
Scott sighed from the floor, his shoulders sagging in relief. One of his hands came up to massage the back of his neck and he grimaced uncomfortably. “Cool. Is it my turn on the bed yet?”
“You can curl up down here if you want, like a good puppy.” Stiles smirked at his own joke as one of his hands left me to point toward our feet.
“Scott, just go sleep in your own bed. It’s literally right there.” I gestured to my window, which faced his, and slowly pulled away from Stiles.
As much as I would love to stay in his arms forever, I had to learn to get ahold of myself on my own. They couldn’t keep babying me. Both of them had done nothing but obsess over my health from the moment I was discharged out of the hospital two days ago. 
Scott had refused to leave my side since I’d gotten home, other than the brief moments he made appearances in his own house so that his mom knew he was still alive. He insisted it was to keep an eye on me, and that was partially true, but he was also basically in hiding right now. 
Jackson, being the wonderful friend that he is, somehow found the time to tell Mr. Argent that Scott is the beta they’ve been looking for, kindly adding on to our reasons-life-is-currently-terrible list.
“And let you guys have all the fun without me?” Scott mumbled sarcastically and leaned back to lay on the pillow and blanket I’d set up for him on the hardwood floor.
This had been our routine for two days. Mom banned me from having any visitors while I recover, but that hadn’t stopped Scott from staying or Stiles from sneaking in after school. Each night, I could barely make it through a few hours of sleep at a time before jerking awake from yet another nightmare. Or maybe they were visions. I honestly had no idea.
My days had also been...weird, to say the least. Most of the time, it was hard to tell whether or not I was awake. My sense of reality was seriously fucked up. I was having almost constant visions and dreams, and they never made any sense. It felt like my subconscious was trying to tell me something, but in another language I had yet to learn.
Lydia was still missing, and I was beyond worried sick. Sheriff Stilinski and the entire police department had searched every square inch of Beacon Hills over the course of the last two days, and hadn’t found a single trace of her.
Aside from that shitshow, I also hadn’t spoken to Allison since the last time I’d seen her at the dance. No one had, actually.
Scott—when he wasn’t fawning over me—was losing his mind because apparently while I was being a dumbass and getting myself bitten, Mr. Argent somehow made him shift in front of Allison. Then, he shipped her and Kate off to an undisclosed location until further notice.
I’d sent her a few texts since being home, but she only responded once. The words had replayed in my mind over and over for several hours after reading them as I tried figuring out an acceptable response.
You knew the whole time, didn’t you?
I eventually decided not to answer at all. What could I say? I’d kept something huge from her, although it was never really my secret to tell anyway. She had every right to be pissed off. I wanted to address it in person and, honestly, didn’t have the mental capacity to worry much about it right now.
I blinked a few times, feeling myself come back from my dazed thoughts as Scott and Stiles’ voices fluttered back to my ears. I’d been doing that a lot, too. Getting lost in my mind for several minutes at a time, if not longer. I felt a curious gaze on my face and took in a slow, deep breath before lifting my head to meet Stiles’ eyes.
My heart clenched uncomfortably in my chest at the look he was giving me. It was the same expression that had been etched into his face ever since I’d woken up in the hospital. It was like he was afraid I would try to kill him at any given moment, while simultaneously worrying that I’d suffer a mental break or croak on the spot.
I heard the rumbling sound of snoring from the floor and knew that Scott was already out cold again.
“I’m sorry I woke you.” I sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted. I glanced at the alarm clock on my bedside table, noting with a regretful wince that it was three in the morning. He had school in only a few hours.
Stiles’ eyes inspected me tenderly, rounding with concern as he reached out to tuck a stray clump of hair behind my ear gently. “I wasn’t sleeping. You stole my pillow, so...”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He apparently couldn’t sleep without the thing and had brought it with him each night. It was quite possibly the most adorable thing ever.
“I’m still sorry.” My voice was barely above a whisper as I looked down toward my lap and fidgeted with my fingers. 
Ever since I was bitten I’d felt...different. Like a burden. Out of control. It was as if my mind was warring with itself all day, every day. I had a constant nagging fear that I was forgetting something important. It was like it was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t remember.
Stiles leaned toward me slowly and cupped my cheek before placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. His fingers trailed down to brush against the side of my neck before tangling in the hair at the base of my skull. His free hand came up to the other side of my head and he pulled it down against his chest. My eyes fluttered shut as a sigh left my lips.
A sense of peace always washed over me when he was near. Despite everything going on, all it took was a small touch to quiet my racing mind. I felt myself relaxing, if only slightly, in his arms. A moment later, I leaned back to look at him again, my stomach fluttering at the intense gleam of worry shining in his caramel eyes.
“There’s something wrong with me, isn’t there?” My voice broke and I furrowed my brows as traitorous tears filled my eyes. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself. I wanted to get better.
Stiles glanced fleetingly at the place where Peter had bitten me, but jerked his attention back to my face quickly, probably hoping I hadn’t noticed. “Whatever it is...we’ll figure it out.”
Somehow, his response wasn’t all that comforting. I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d be there for me every step of the way as I went through whatever this was. I’d watched how he helped Scott during the early stages of his transformation, and it was admirable. But I didn’t want there to be anything wrong. I didn’t want there to be anything different about me.
I just wanted to be normal.
“C’mere...” Stiles opened his arms and I couldn’t help but instantly fall into them.
He pulled me tight against him and leaned back, snagging his pillow from my side of the bed on the way down. My eyes fluttered shut as I laid there on top of him, my legs between his and my head resting above his heart.
I listened to the steady rhythm of his pulse, feeling it lull me to sleep within seconds.
                                                    ————————
I leaned back against my headboard, adjusting the book that rested atop my knees. My bottom lip was tucked between my teeth anxiously as I flipped another page. I narrowed my eyes as they swept over the words, urging my mind to comprehend them. I just couldn’t. I was way too distracted.
My eyes flickered up to find Scott lounging in my desk chair across the room. He was playing some game on his phone and it was making this annoying boing sound every few seconds. It was starting to drive me crazy, but it wasn’t the only thing causing my jitters. 
I glanced away from him to look out my open window and sighed heavily. It was already dark outside, and Stiles wasn’t here yet.
It wasn’t usually like me to jump to conclusions, but considering the state of our lives right now, it wasn’t a stretch to be worried. At this point, though, I was moving toward a full on panic attack. School ended six hours ago. What could he possibly be doing?
I opened my mouth to voice my concern, but never got a chance as Scott interrupted me before I could get even a single word out.
“He’s fine.” He said absently, his eyes never leaving his phone’s screen.
My eyebrows twitched up in surprise. “How did you know...”
“I can hear your heart racing.” He sighed and finally dropped his phone onto my desk before lifting his eyes to meet mine. “You either just ran a marathon, or you’re worried about something. That something is usually Stiles. And he’s fine.”
I rolled my lips into a tight line at the way he’d just read me so easily. “But it’s already—”
Just then, something thumped outside my window loudly. I stiffened at the sound, and Scott perked up in his chair, instantly on high alert. There was a low groan before a figure clambered through the opening. I instantly knew it was Stiles as I caught sight of his red flannel. He flailed to the floor spastically with a yelp and I slammed my book closed before bolting to my feet.
I rushed to his side, my arms wrapping around him as he struggled to get up. His chest heaved with ragged breaths as if he’d run the whole way here.
“Where were you? Are you okay? What happened?” I couldn’t stop the panicked words from tumbling past my lips.
My eyes trailed over him quickly to assess for any damage. His freckled cheeks were flushed and the top three buttons on his flannel were undone, exposing his white undershirt. He looked a little roughed up, but not hurt.
He finally stood up straight and his eyes widened when they met mine, as if only just then realizing that I was beside him. He gripped my upper arms sternly before walking me backward.
“What are you doing? Get back in bed.” I had no choice but to plop down onto the mattress as the back of my knees ran right into it.
“Don’t change the subject, Stilinski.” I frowned up at him and his eyes twitched in warning.
“Oh, God. Please don’t make me listen to another who’s more worried about who fight. I might seriously puke this time.” Scott practically threw himself onto the bed beside me, a look of feigned disgust taking over his face.
My eyes swept toward him and narrowed into a glare only briefly, as my attention moved back to Stiles when he started talking again.
“Moving on.” He sent a pointed look Scott’s way before continuing, his hands gesturing quickly in front of him. He was anxious, that much was obvious. “I had a uh...talk with Chris—”
“Who?” I interrupted, thrown off by the unfamiliar name.
Stiles’ eyes twitched at me in annoyance as he flailed one of his arms in a circle, signaling that we didn’t have much time. “Argent.”
“You call Allison’s dad Chris?” My voice rose in disbelief. Since when was that a thing?
“Oh my God. This is important, okay? He tried to get me and Jackson to tell him where Scott is and—”
Scott sprang upright on the bed, his eyes wide with alarm. “Why were you with Jackson?”
“Can I just finish? Is that alright with you two?” Stiles’ voice rose in frustration, his eyes pinching shut for a brief moment after he shouted.
Both Scott and I froze and he sighed before running a hand down his face. His gaze flickered to Scott as he extended a hand out apprehensively. “He’s literally planning to kill you. Tonight. Okay? So you can’t—”
Scott suddenly rose to his feet, his face tight with determination. “I need to find Derek.”
Stiles’ fingers curled into a fist, still hanging in the air, as he pursed his lips when Scott brushed past him. “Why do we keep going back to him? He’s like your abusive ex, okay? You have a problem. And did you miss the part where I just said you could be murdered by werewolf hunters at any given moment?”
“If the Argents are after me, he’s the only one who can help.” Scott braced his hands against my windowsill and turned to glare at Stiles over his shoulder.
Before either of us could ask him what he was doing, he doubled over with a low groan. I realized he was shifting and tentatively slid back on my mattress, not sure what was going on. I knew he would never hurt me, but I hadn’t seen anything supernatural since being bitten. It instantly had me on edge.
Then, he jerked upright and howled loudly into the dark sky. 
I winced at the deep, rumbling sound, feeling a painful twinge in my head. One of my hands came up to cradle my temple as my lips parted in a silent gasp. The noise was vibrating all the way in my bones, overwhelming every one of my senses. I felt myself slipping away from the present, my eyes wide but unfocused. I faintly registered an arm wrapping around my back as Stiles rushed to kneel in front of me. 
His free hand cupped my face, his lips moving rapidly as he tried to bring me back. I suddenly had the strong urge to close my eyes, so I let them flutter down slowly. Instantly, my breath caught as an image of Derek’s house popped into my mind. There were way too many things happening to decipher any of it. My brows furrowed as I tried making sense of what I was seeing. 
The clearest picture was the most gruesome. Blood. Everywhere. 
A painful spasm in my left shoulder had my eyes jerking open. They met Stiles’ wide, panicked gaze as he hovered only a few inches away from me. With a snap, his and Scott’s voices rushed into my ears. 
“What the hell did you do to her?” Stiles practically yelled, his voice tight with anxiety and a hint of anger. His hands were clutching my arms as he jostled me awake.
Scott appeared at his side above me, his face crumbled in horror. “I-I didn’t do anything! I didn’t mean to...”
“I think I know where to find him.” I interrupted breathily, blinking a few times to focus my eyes. I sat up with a groan, my head pounding harshly. Stiles tightened his grip on me as he tried to keep me steady. “His house. I saw it.”
Scott’s face dropped from beside me, his brows furrowing as his lips pulled into a frown. “So did I.”
We shared a long, curious glance. I had no idea what that meant, and judging by the glint of wonder reflecting in his eyes, neither did he. 
“So we’re just not gonna talk about whatever that was?” Stiles asked incredulously. He e took a step away from me and shrugged sarcastically with a tilt of his head. 
“We don’t have time.” I pushed myself up to my feet and strode toward my closet hurriedly. 
It was freezing outside by now, and I wanted to be prepared for once. I rustled through my sweaters until I found one I didn’t mind ruining. My shoulder protested each movement as I wrestled it over my head, but I tried my best to ignore it. I turned on my heel to face the guys and froze at the looks they were giving me. 
Scott seemed hesitant, but didn’t look like he was going to argue, while Stiles was very much unimpressed. 
“That’s funny.” He laughed humorlessly and pointed at me. “It looks like you think you’re going somewhere.”
I frowned at his demanding tone. “I’m sorry, are you my mother? No? Okay. That’s what I thought.”
I brushed past him to find a pair of socks in my dresser. If he thought he was going to start telling me what to do just because we’re dating, he had another thing coming. My eyes flickered up to meet his in the mirror as I heard rustling behind me.
“You can’t seriously—” His mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to find the right words. I pulled out a mismatched pair of socks and turned to lean against the dresser as I slid them on. “Scott, tell her how stupid this is.” 
“Hell no. I’m not getting involved.” He glanced between us with wide eyes, lifting his hands in surrender. 
“If we don’t go now, Derek is going to die.” I forced the words out through clenched teeth, growing impatient. Somehow, I knew that’s the future we were up against, despite not having actually seen it happen. I just knew. 
“Since when do we care about that?” Stiles swiveled his head as his eyebrows rose in question. 
Scott stepped forward, suddenly looking pensive. “I’m not going to just let him die.”
“I’m the only sane one left...” Stiles muttered to himself, throwing his hands up in exasperation. 
After several more minutes of pointless arguing, a very disgruntled Stiles finally agreed to drive us to Derek’s. The three of us had barely made it a few steps outside the Jeep before he came barreling from the house, looking unpleasant as ever. 
“What the hell are you doing? None of you should be here right now.” His angry voice echoed through the trees as he continued stalking forward until he stood right in front of us. 
“Finally, someone’s making—oh my God!” Stiles didn’t have a chance to finish his thought as an arrow came out of nowhere and embedded itself into Derek’s shoulder. 
My eyes widened in shock and I whipped around just as another arrow came from the trees to land in his thigh. He crumpled to the ground with a groan, clutching at his injuries. 
“Close your eyes!” He shouted and tucked his face into his elbow. 
Long fingers clasped around my bicep and I was jerked to the side before another hand shoved my head into a warm chest. I screwed my eyes shut tightly, a quiet boom sounding beside us. Stiles and I separated quickly to see what it was, but my eyes landed on Scott instead. 
He was crouched down on all fours, blinking rapidly. He hadn’t been fast enough. He squinted into the distance and I followed his line of sight, but came up empty. 
Derek grunted lowly as he broke off the shafts of each arrow that still lay inside him. He stumbled to his feet and grabbed Scott by the collar of his jacket. “Get to the house!” 
Stiles and I didn’t hesitate to obey as we bolted in that direction, our hands tangled together. We only made it about halfway before Derek slumped to the ground behind us, exhausted. I staggered to a halt at the sound and nearly lost my balance when Stiles continued moving. 
His eyes flickered from me to the place where Scott and Derek lay crumpled on the ground in a moment of hesitation. With a grimace, he let me go and we both jogged their way. 
“No! Go!” Derek’s head popped up and he tried waving us off, but it was too late. 
I froze, partially crouched beside him, as a thin figure emerged from the darkness. She was stomping toward us with a huge bow slung over her shoulder. The dim light from Derek’s porch illuminated her face as she neared us, and my breath caught in my throat. It was the last person I expected to see.
“Allison, I can explain—” Scott immediately stammered desperately, still trying to get his bearings after being stunned by the flash bullet. I realized at then that it was the same type she’d tried out with me and Lydia the week before formal.
“Stop lying.” She barked, her voice tight with built up anger. Her eyes flickered up to meet mine, my chest tightening at the intense betrayal swirling inside them. “All of you, for once, stop lying.”
“I was gonna tell you the truth. I was gonna tell you everything at the formal.” Scott rushed the words out in a panic as he shuffled backward to match each step she took toward him. “Everything that I said...everything I did...”
“Was to protect me.” She finished with a humorless scoff, fingers tightening around the arrow she held at her side.
“Yes.” He instantly confirmed, pleading with her to understand. 
I knew exactly how she felt. Being kept in the dark sucked, no matter which way it was spun. Maybe she had been safer this whole time because she didn’t know. Or maybe all his secret did was create an irreparable wedge between them. She was bound to find out eventually, considering who her family was, and this whole mess was probably the worst way it could’ve happened. 
Allison’s eyes glistened as she peered down at him, her hardened mask of hatred cracking just slightly. Her voice trembled as a few tears escaped down her cheeks. “I don’t believe you.” 
“Thank God!” I jumped at the sudden voice from the darkness, and watched as Kate stalked out of the tree line with a roll of her eyes. “Now shoot him before I have to shoot myself.”
My heart leapt into my throat at her words. With Scott dazed and Derek seriously injured, there wasn’t much we could do to stop her from killing either one of them. The reality of our situation hit me like a ton of bricks. Stiles and I were utterly useless. 
“Y-you said we were just going to catch them.” Allison sputtered, head jerking toward her aunt in surprise. 
“Yeah, and we did that. Now we’re going to kill them.” Kate raised an arm absently and shot a bullet right into Derek’s chest as she passed by, not even sparing him a glance. “See? Not that hard.”
I gasped at the unexpected act of violence, my jaw going slack. He instantly fell against the damp ground, motionless. 
Holy shit. Oh my God. Is he actually dead?
Allison’s horrified expression matched mine, more tears coating her face as she stared at Derek’s lifeless body. She stiffened when her aunt joined her in front of Scott, who was still gaping from his crouched position.
“Oh no, not that look.” Kate mused, not sounding the least bit genuine. “That’s the you’re going to have to do it yourself look.”
She raised her gun toward Scott’s chest, a manic grin pulling at her lips. I moved without thinking, taking a big step in their direction. Allison instantly started freaking out and tried to put herself between them, but Kate shoved her away harshly. 
She tumbled to the ground just as a hand clasped around my wrist to stop me. I yanked against it, my chest tightening with panic. I had to get over there. I had to help. 
“Y/N! Y/N, stop!” Stiles yelled frantically from behind me, his hold falling loose as I continued struggling against him. 
I ran forward and staggered to a halt beside Kate, who was still pointing the gun at Scott, having no idea what to do now that I was here. She glanced toward me and sighed with a disinterested roll of her eyes. Before I even fully registered that she moved, I was already on the ground. She’d whipped the gun against the side of my face harshly, white hot pain instantly rippling through my head. 
“No!” I heard Allison shout in horror. 
A groan trembled past my lips as I shakily pulled myself up onto my elbows. My vision blurred as Scott jerked upright, about to rush to my side before Kate aimed the gun at his chest again. He froze, his wide eyes never leaving me. I brought a hand up to my temple and hissed when my fingers landed on a warm trickle of blood. 
“Ah, ah...” Kate tutted, amusement shining in her eyes as she glanced behind me, gun following the movement. 
I turned my head and saw Stiles freeze mid-sprint toward me. His eyes narrowed into an angry glare as his jaw clenched tightly, but he didn’t move an inch. I let out a huff, growing frustrated by this whole stupid situation, and swept my gaze back to Kate. 
“Just shoot someone already.” I barked, annoyed with her games. 
Was it stupid to taunt the person with the weapon? Yes. Did I give a fuck? No. At this point, I was more angry than anything. We’d spent months fighting and tracking the alpha—Peter—as he went on a bloodthirsty rampage through Beacon Hills. We’d nearly died in the school, and at the movie store, and in these very woods. Several times. 
Lydia and I had been bitten, and Stiles’ dad was close to a nervous breakdown because nothing in this town makes any goddamn sense unless you’re risking your life everyday just by knowing about the supernatural. And now, we had to deal with Allison’s batshit crazy family, on top of everything. 
I just wanted it to be over.
Kate huffed out a surprised laugh and pointed the gun at me again. “What poetic last words.”
“No! Leave her alone! I’m the one you want.” Scott shouted desperately, stumbling upright from his position in the dirt. 
An evil smirk twitched at her lips as she ignored him. I watched her pointer finger tighten on the trigger and held my breath as I waited for the inevitable. 
“Kate!” A deep voice boomed from behind me, making her pause. I instantly recognized that it was Allison’s dad. “I know what you did.”
The amusement dropped from her face at his words and her eyes flickered up toward the house for a brief moment. 
“Put the gun down.” Mr. Argent ordered, dried leaves crunching beneath his shoes as he walked toward us. 
“I did what I was told to do.” Kate jutted her hand toward me as she enunciated each word curtly. 
I stiffened, very aware that her finger, which still rested against the gun’s trigger, could set it off at any moment. My pulse hammered in my ears loudly and my entire body began trembling as my fear suddenly caught up with me.
“No one asked you to murder innocent people. There were children in that house.” 
My mind raced as I slowly pieced together what he was saying. The fire. It was Kate. But why? Why would she murder an entire family?
“Ones that were human. Look what you’re doing now, you’re holding a gun at sixteen year old kids. No proof they’ve spilled human blood.” He continued, his voice harsh and unfeeling. “Now, put the gun down...before I put you down.”
My eyes widened at his threat. Would he really kill his own sister?
Kate stared at him for a few long moments, her face crumbling in disbelief. Finally, she lowered her arm back down to her side. I let out a heavy breath of relief, but didn’t move from my crouched position in front of her. A loud creak from the house had everyone’s attention jerking toward it. 
The front door swung open slowly, nothing but darkness behind it.
“Kids, get back.” Allison’s dad ordered gruffly as he cocked his gun and aimed it at the decrepit structure. 
Scott stumbled to his feet, but didn’t make a move to run and hide as instructed. Allison joined his side a moment later, her bow and arrow cocked and aimed at the house. I heard quick steps behind me a moment before strong arms wrapped around my waist and hauled me to my feet. 
Stiles whipped me around to face him, and I winced as my head throbbed in protest. His hands came up to cradle the sides of my face, his fingers turning red as my blood smeared onto his skin. His wide eyes flickered around my body frantically, as if not fully believing that I was right here in front of him. 
He suddenly jerked me toward him and smashed his lips against mine, pouring every emotion he’d just gone through into the kiss. I responded instantly, my hands fisting the warm material of his flannel as I pulled him closer. It was over much too soon as he pulled back with a shaky breath of relief. 
“God, I’m so mad at you right now. I could literally kill you.” His eyes twitched as he continued inspecting me for any hidden injuries. 
“Wouldn’t that be a little counterproductive?” I chuckled despite the situation, and he just glared at me.
“What is it?” My attention jerked back to Allison at the sound of her panicked voice. I’d nearly forgotten what was going on outside the peaceful bubble that was Stiles. 
I turned back toward the house and saw Scott’s eyes flash bright yellow as he peered through the opened front door. “It’s the alpha.” 
At his declaration, a huge black mass raced out of the house, moving impossibly fast. It dashed around the area in a big circle before turning abruptly and knocking Mr. Argent right off his feet. He flew into the air before landing heavily, instantly passing out cold as his head slammed against the dirt. 
Allison cried out and made a move to help him, but quickly found herself in no better shape as the alpha rammed into her next. Only a second later, Scott was groaning as he lay in a heap beside her on the leaf covered ground. My heart slammed against my ribs painfully as my head whipped from side to side, trying to see where he was now. 
All the air rushed from my lungs as a powerful force shoved against mine and Stiles’ sides. His arms instantly wrapped around my waist, and mine around his shoulders. We held onto each other tightly as we flew several feet through the air. At the last second, Stiles shifted us so that he would take the brunt of the fall. He hissed in pain as his back slammed onto the dirt, and I quickly scrambled to get off of him. 
“Come on!” Kate’s angry voice echoed through the trees as she jerked her gun around in a circle. She was the only one left standing. 
I wrapped an arm around Stiles and helped him sit up. He waved me off, muttering something about being fine, and I huffed in annoyance. At this point I was convinced that he was physically unable to help himself from downplaying his own struggles. 
I was about to argue with him, but froze when Peter emerged from the darkness to stand threatening behind Kate. He snatched the arm that held her gun and wrenched it behind her with ease. She grunted in pain as he twisted it with a snap, two shots firing into the sky as they struggled. 
She had no choice but to release the gun. It landed on the ground with a dull thud as he gripped her by the throat and tossed her in the air like a ragdoll. She crashed onto the porch, a cloud of dust rising all around her as she shakily pushed herself up. 
Peter wasted no time in striding up the broken steps. He bent down and grabbed Kate violently before pressing her back to his chest, holding her in place with his claws at her neck. 
“No!” Allison suddenly shouted and sprinted toward them. 
My eyes widened in horror. What the hell did she think she was doing? I made a move to follow her, but Stiles wrapped both arms around my waist tightly. I pulled against him for a few seconds, but stopped when Peter’s voice echoed toward us. 
“She is beautiful, Kate. She looks like you, only not as damaged. So I’m going to give you a chance to save her.” My breath hitched as he addressed Allison and I started thrashing against Stiles again. I couldn’t let her get hurt. I couldn’t let anyone else I care about become one of his victims. “Apologize. Say you’re sorry for decimating my family, for leaving me burned and broken for six years. Say it, and I’ll let her live.”
A tense moment of silence passed as Kate seemed to weigh her options. Finally, she choked the words out the best she could. “I’m...sorry.” 
A small, satisfied smile tugged at Peter’s lips before he ripped her throat out with his claws. My jaw dropped as blood splattered across every nearby surface, my stomach churning at the violence of it all. Allison screamed, practically doubling over in horror as Kate crumpled to the porch with wide, empty eyes. Peter’s shoulders sagged as he let out a long sigh, a look of relief washing over him. 
“I don’t know about you, Allison, but that apology didn’t sound very sincere.” His amused gaze bored into her wide, glistening eyes as he stalked down the steps.
By the time he had one foot on the dirt ground, Scott and Derek were crouched in front of her protectively. I hadn’t even noticed that Derek was still alive, let alone completely healed, but I was more than grateful. 
“Run.” Scott grunted over his shoulder, and she didn’t hesitate to listen. 
She sprinted toward me and Stiles, taking her bow with her, and immediately crumpled into my arms. A harsh sob wracked her body as I pulled her in tight. I felt Stiles’ hand on my back as he guided us hastily toward his Jeep. A few animalistic growls and roars sounded from behind us, and I knew they were fighting.
“I’m sorry.” Allison cried, pulling away from me to wipe at her face. “I’m so, so sorry. I-I didn’t know what happened with you and Lydia, and now Kate’s gone and—oh my God. I’m the worst friend ever.” 
Stiles wrenched the passenger door open when we reached the car and I shoved Allison inside before crawling in behind her. Something snapped behind us, and I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d just uprooted a tree or completely destroyed the house. 
“It’s okay.” I breathed, running a hand down Allison’s back as she continued blubbering. “We’re both terrible friends, honestly.”
“Wait.” She suddenly perked up, her eyes widening in horror. “My dad.”
Damnit. I‘d completely forgotten about him. 
I turned to peer out the window and winced as Peter picked Derek up by the ankle and tossed him through the air. He crashed into Scott, who was trying to pull himself upright a few feet away, bringing him right back down harshly. 
Peter snarled, seemingly losing control as he hunched over and shifted fully into a huge, terrifying beast. He roared loudly, baring his claws and stalking forward. He grabbed Derek by the throat and threw him into a nearby tree before turning back to Scott. 
“I have to do something.” Stiles suddenly spoke up from the front seat. My head whipped in his direction as he threw open the driver’s side door and clambered onto the ground. 
“What? No!” I immediately tumbled out behind him and watched with baited breath as he reached into the trunk. 
My brows furrowed as I caught sight of a huge beaker in his hand. I barely had time to register that here was a yellow liquid swirling inside before he hurled it at Peter. As it flew toward him, I realized it was a Molotov cocktail, like the one Lydia showed us how to make when we were stuck inside the school. Peter caught it easily, his glowing red eyes snapping our way with a ferocious growl. 
“Oh, damn...” Stiles instantly deflated and took a tentative step back. 
My eyes widened as I whipped back around to face Allison, an idea suddenly popping into my head. She seemed to know exactly what I was thinking as she reached for her bow and instantly nocked the arrow into place. After taking only a moment to aim it out the opened window, she fired. 
It hit the glass bottle dead center, and Peter’s left arm erupted in flames. He roared frantically and tried shaking the fire off, only managing to make it spread across his torso more quickly. Soon, his entire body was ablaze as he staggered around and howled in agony. 
After a few long, torturous moments, he slumped down onto his knees in his human form. Thick smoke billowed from his charred skin as he sputtered and gasped for air. We all stood impossibly still, gaping at him in horror. I don’t think any of us had the slightest idea of what to do next.
Derek suddenly emerged from the house, his face a tight mask of fury. He stalked toward Peter, who now lay on his back, and stood over him with clenched fists. 
“Wait!” Scott rose to his feet and stopped only a foot away from them, his eyes wide with panic. Derek’s hard glare never moved an inch. “You said the cure comes from the one who bit you. If you do this, I’m dead. What am I supposed to do?”
My attention snapped back toward him, surprised at his words. There was a cure? I had no idea what he was talking about, but it must’ve been important if he was this freaked out over it. 
Derek’s eyes pinched shut and his jaw clenched tightly. He hesitated for only a brief moment before raising a clawed hand in the air. 
“Wait! N-no! Don’t!” Scott's desperate plea fell on deaf ears as Derek brought his hand down to slash Peter’s throat. 
Allison gasped from beside me, and I just stared ahead with wide eyes. My breath caught in my throat as I watched yet another person’s life fade away right in front of me. It was almost hard to believe, that he was actually dead. We’d all been through so much. It didn’t seem possible that it could all be over, just like that. 
There had to be more.
Derek staggered to his feet and turned to glower at Scott over his shoulder. His canines elongated and his eyes flashed bright red before he uttered the words we were all dreading. The ones that would seal our fate for the foreseeable future. 
“I’m the alpha now.”
Episode 11 Season 2, Episode 1 (Part One)
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tracybirds · 5 years ago
Text
To Stumble and To Falter
(A title? you who know my intense dislike of titling fics may all give a cheer, no need for further reading, thank you, thank you xD)
John faints and Virgil is suspicious of the cause. Includes some Dr Grandma bc we need more of that in our lives!
Many thanks to @gumnut-logic for bluntly telling me to write the fic and then reading it over in bits to help me fix it up :D
And if I’ve written Jon anywhere let me know, my H key is being temperamental... I think I’ve got them all but still :D
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The stumbling step hardly drew attention from anyone else, John tripped so often when bound by the laws of gravity. By his own admission, this particular re-entry had been of the hard and fast variety, the kind that left him a little hazy and wobbly. Only Virgil looked up at the sound of a foot not lifted high enough and banging into the staircase.
The crash that followed however, echoed around the room as brother by brother snapped into action.
“Medkit,” barked Virgil, darting across the room in three bounding steps. His command followed Gordon out of the room as he knelt next to John. He could feel the sluggish pulse beneath clammy skin and hurriedly ran his hand across the lump that was forming at the back of John’s head. There was no blood, he noted with some relief.
“Alright Scott, get his feet up.”
Scott quickly complied as Alan popped up next to Virgil.
“Is he okay?”
“Give him some space, he’ll be fine.”
Alan scooted back, reassured by the authority that rung in his older brother’s voice.
“How badly did he hit his head?” asked Scott.
“Nasty bump, but with a bit of luck nothing more. Look, he’s coming around.”
John’s eyes fluttered open as Gordon skidded into the room, nearly throwing the medkit at Virgil in his hurry.
“Wha’ happened?” mumbled John.
“What do you remember?” asked Virgil, as he strapped the icepack in place.
John batted weakly at his own neck, trying to escape Virgil’s care.
“I was walking up the stairs?”
“Didn’t even make it to the third step this time,” quipped Gordon. “You going for a record or something?”
“Gordon,” growled Scott, and he bounded away with a grin.
“You fainted,” Virgil clarified. He frowned at the lazy way John’s pupils followed the light. “And you’re on the concussion watchlist, congratulations.”
John groaned, a high whiny sound that earned him a cushion snatched from the nearby couch and laid lovingly over his head.
“Thanks,” came his muffled voice. “I feel fine.”
Scott and Virgil shared an exasperated look, remembering the last time an injured John had insisted he was ‘fine’.
“Sure John, whatever you say. You feel okay to walk?”
“Maybe. Is Alan there?”
“Sure is.”
“Might need a hand getting up.”
Alan grabbed his hand and hauled him upright. The change did not improve Virgil’s assessment of John. He pitched slightly to the side and Alan and Virgil both grabbed at him.
“Easy.”
Virgil could feel the tremors running through him, the heavy, deliberate breathing loud in his ears as he held up his brother.
“Dizzy? Nauseous?”
The barest nod sent Gordon hurrying from the room in search of a bowl.
“It’s probably vertigo, it’ll pass.”
“Thanks,” said John, through gritted teeth. “I know that.”
He took a few steps towards the staircase that had been his undoing and paused. The small motion had been enough for the colour to leech from his skin again.
Virgil was at his side immediately, steadying hands against his back.
“Maybe walking isn’t a great idea right now.”
John said nothing, standing as still as he could while he swayed with his eyes closed.
Virgil was several inches shorter than his brother, but this was no object for him, hoisting John into his arms.
His eyes flew open at the touch and he stared up at the ceiling in surprise.
“Medbay or bedroom?”
“I hate you.”
“Medbay it is then.”
“No, bedroom is good,” said John quickly.
“Glad you’ve come around.” Virgil glanced over his shoulder, catching Scott’s eye and nodding towards Alan. “Go update Grandma. She’ll want to check him out for herself.”
“I hope I do throw up,” said John with a scowl. “You’d deserve it.”
Virgil ignored him, knowing his brother was just embarrassed. He climbed the stairs easily, heading for the isolated area of the villa that John made his own when he came to visit.
He kicked open the door, and placed his brother on his bed. John was still scowling up at him.
“Was that necessary?”
“Yes.” He snatched up a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and cracked it open.
“I don’t need to be read to like a child.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun. You can explain all the hidden maths to me and I’ll pretend to understand what you’re talking about.”
“Really Virgil, I’ll be fine.”
Virgil shrugged and replaced the book. Swinging the desk chair around, he sat and propped his feet up on the bed, leaning back to look at John.
“Probably.”
“You don’t really think I have a concussion do you? I’m alert, no headache unless I poke in the wrong place, no vomiting or confusion.”
“You’re dizzy, nauseous, unable to hold your balance, and clearly agitated.”
“You’re agitating, that’s why,” muttered John.
“And it’s been a while since you had a fainting spell like that. I thought we had that sorted out.”
John said nothing. Virgil raised an eyebrow, a niggling suspicion starting form in the back of his mind.
“There’s not any particular reason you would know of that would cause that, is there?”
“Long term exposure to microgravity?”
Virgil narrowed his eyes.
John smiled guilelessly.
His brother’s eyes flitted to the bedside table and, in one fluid motion, Virgil vaulted across the bed and yanked the drawer open.
John yelped at the sudden mass lying across him, scrabbling at Virgil’s hands and pulling uselessly against him.
Virgil held the monthly drug planner away from him, scowling at John as he attempted to pry the box out of his hands. He shoved John back and flipped his prize over with a futile hope that only the last remaining days of the month were creating the rattling sound inside. Instead he found nearly every compartment still filled with the little supplement packets John was meant to be taking daily.
“What the hell, John?” Virgil smacked his arm with the box. “Why aren’t you taking these?”
“I forgot?”
Virgil glared at him.
“Try again, you’ve never been less than intentional about a damn thing in your entire life.”
Stubborn silence stretched long in the room and Virgil filled every second with fears and possibilities and visions of his brother collapsing and confined to the Earth forever.
“We trust you John, you can’t just do this,” he growled, waving the box at John. “Your health has to come first, you’re alone up there, and if you get into trouble, who’s going to help you? Alan?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Like hell it isn’t. You’d really make him come up and get you?”
“That’s not fair.”
“I know it’s not fair.”
The shout erupted from him, its echo only stoking the frustration that yet again one of his brothers had chosen to ignore the medical procedures laid out before them. He took a steadying breath, hating the way his brother curled away from him.
“It’s not fair of you to put us in that position, it’s not fair to expect me to always pick up the pieces.”
“I know what I can handle, you’re choosing to worry unnecessarily.” Fire flickered in his eyes. His face was pale but his cheeks were tinged with blotchy red.
Virgil snorted. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about John passing out again with so much blood pooling in his head.
“This isn’t about you getting to decide, this is about you doing as you’re told. You’re not the only one with a stake in your damn life, stop acting as if you’re the only one who matters in this situation. You take your pills because if you don’t, you won’t just injure yourself, you’ll fracture this whole family all over again.”
“Stop it.”
“No, you stop it. Stop being selfish and think. Do you even care that it damn near killed Alan the last time? Of course you don’t, you weren’t there afterwards. You never are. We care about whether you get hurt or not, you could at least pretend to do the same.”
“Virgil.”
The calm of his Grandma’s voice slammed into him, freezing the moment in place.
For an instant, Virgil could see the room from the outside, him towering over his bed-bound brother, brandishing the box in front of him. John’s eyes were closed, his face pulled into a frown. He lay still with his head tilted up on the pillow, determined that even while he shut Virgil out there could be no chance of accidental connection between them.
“Scott, take your brother please.”
There was no doubt about who she meant. Scott stepped around her and tugged the container from Virgil’s hands.
The short, sharp rattle of pills made him flinch away as Scott laid them back on the bedside table, eyes dark with worry as he looked between them.
“Let’s go,” he muttered, eyes lingering on Virgil’s frozen expression.
Scott pulled him from the room, but the way John stiffened at their grandmother’s gentle hand on his shoulder stayed with Virgil long after the door was closed.
Virgil backed up against the wall opposite the door and sank to the floor.
“What the hell was that?” demanded Scott, dropping down beside him. “I leave you two for five minutes and come back to you tearing out his throat? For what, fainting? Give the guy a break, it’s not like he can help it.”
“I’ll take that bet,” said Virgil, scowling at the door. “He’s not been taking his pills, Scott. Which means we don’t have a damn clue where his vitamin or mineral levels are at now, or how long they’ve been deficit for. And they will be deficient.”
“But you and Grandma can sort him out right? It’s not like this is new.”
“Only if he listens to us. We can’t force him to take them, he’s not a child.”
The image of John, pale and unmoving, floated in front of him again and wrapped itself around his heart. A sigh escaped him as he closed his eyes, trying to blot out the image.
“Look, if he won’t, there’s going to be consequences. His health, our trust, something will have to give eventually and I’m not willing to pay for his mistakes.”
Scott blinked.
“But if there were a way to force him,” he said slowly. “I could make his rotation conditional, it wouldn’t be hard.”
“And why the hell would he listen to you?”
“We could put checks in place so he doesn’t have a choice.”
“Let me rephrase that, why the hell should he listen to you?”
“I get the final say over assignments, I can–”
"You're just as bad as he is," snarled Virgil. "How many times have you explicitly ignored my advice. You can't command him to take them while you're still blasting off with broken ribs."
"They were strapped."
"That's not the point!"
“Okay.” Scott’s hands were surrendered in front of him in an attempt to fend off the vehemence in Virgil’s voice. “Okay, jeez, fine. Are you mad at him or not?”
“Of course I’m mad at him.” Virgil slumped against the wall. “He’s supposed to be the one I don’t have to worry about.”
He didn’t feel mad anymore. He just felt the creeping exhaustion that came with caring for a brother that didn’t want his help.
Scott tilted his head back and exhaled heavily.
“Did he say why?”
Virgil shook his head.
“I didn’t give him the chance.” He ran a hand down his face. “He’s not stupid, he knows how important this kind of thing is.”
“It might have been an accident.”
“For twenty four days in a row?”
“Okay, point.”
The door clicked open and both men sprang to their feet. Before they could say anything, Grandma Tracy held up a hand and walked away, beckoning them to follow her.
They didn’t say a word as Grandma Tracy ushered them into her sitting room.
“How is he, Grandma?” asked Scott, unable to hold back any longer.
“He’ll be right as rain come morning. He’s sleeping now.”
“Is that wise?” Virgil asked, his mind still overrun with worries.
Grandma Tracy clucked her tongue gently.
“You know as well as I do that sleeping doesn’t cause the complications that come from concussion. We’ll keep monitoring him, same as always. Although it looked like a mere scalp wound, not a brain injury, to me.”
Virgil looked over at Scott, the relief mirrored in their expressions.
“The other issue however, that’s more complex.” She opened the door to her rooms and nodded at the seats inside. “Sit down, both of you.”
They sat.
“What’s he told you?” she asked Scott brusquely.
“John’s refusing to take his supplements. He’s gonna get himself hurt.”
“John’s struggling up on Five with daily medications,” she said bluntly. “He’s not refusing. The days are too fragmented, and there’s no chance for him to build habit triggers with the pace he’s keeping.”
Virgil’s stomach dropped. Of course John wasn’t being malicious or stubborn about it. He should have known. He should have asked.
“Well, that’s good, right?” said Scott, nudging him. “It’s not deliberate?”
“It’s not deliberate,” repeated Virgil, still internally cursing the ridiculous conclusion he’d jumped to. To say nothing of the painful accusations he’d made.
Grandma Tracy cleared her throat, drawing their attention again. Her eyes were serious.
“I’ve taken a blood sample, and in a few hours we’ll know the most urgent actions to take. EOS can monitor his daily activity for a few weeks and identify tasks we can tie his supplement use to. Then it’s just a matter of checking in until he’s ready to go back to full capacity.”
“Seems straightforward,” said Scott, glancing at Virgil. “What do you think?”
Grandma Tracy’s eyes shifted to meet his own.
“It sounds like a good plan, Grandma.”
She nodded firmly, eyeing the two brothers in front of her.
“Well if that’s decided, we’d best go break the news to your brothers that they have a dispatch refresher coming their way.”
Scott laughed. “I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear it.”
“They do need the practice,” said Virgil with a reluctant smile tugging at his lips as they stood.
They stepped out of the sitting room. He paused, staring at the hallway that lead to John’s room. It seemed to stretch far ahead of him and the way it curved into dark corners somehow seemed all the more ominous for the dread and regret that weighed upon him. His feet were leaden, but he forced himself to turn away from Scott and Grandma Tracy and walk towards the hall.
“Are you coming, Virgil?” Grandma Tracy’s voice was quiet but it broke through the whirling thoughts in his mind.
The door at the far end was ajar, a tiny gap that called to him as a clear invitation.
“Actually, I have something I need to do first,” he said, walking towards it. “You go on, I’ll talk to them after.”
Grandma Tracy smiled.
“You’re a good man, Virgil,” she said, patting his shoulder. “We’ll see you later.”
Decision made, he could move easily again and the hallway seemed to brighten with every step.
Virgil slipped into the room and found John appeared to be sleeping peacefully, the exertion of the day catching up with him at last.
He settled himself back on the chair, watching the slow rise and fall of John’s chest in the gloom. An arm had been flung across his forehead and Virgil smiled to see the small Yoda plaster over the prick on his index finger.
He picked up Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from where he’d placed it earlier and flicked on his pen torch, a tiny beam of light illuminating the words.
“You can turn the desk light on if you want.”
Virgil jumped slightly at the calm, measured voice. He glanced over and saw John watching him, one eye still closed and the other bright and alert.
“You don’t mind?”
John shook his head and so Virgil did as he was told. The soft glow that lined the desk spilled onto the page and across the room.
There was no sound but the rustle of turned pages and even breathing.
“You could read it to me,” said John suddenly.
Virgil looked up, spotting the shining eye and the tilted head that told him John wasn’t going to hold his fears against him. He swallowed carefully past the lump in his throat. He knew a peace offering when he saw it, knew they held words that would be left unsaid between them. He wouldn’t reject a sincere attempt to mend fences, especially when he had been the fool that smashed them.
He nodded once and John closed his eyes with a content sigh.
“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do…”
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Maths and Alice you ask? Some very cool theories about the meaning and context in which Alice was written can be found [here]
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churchyardgrim · 4 years ago
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#2 from the d&d ask meme? it is a fantastic question
before they met their party, what was their main goal?
oooo excellent opportunity to plug my boy’s four page backstory that i just realized i never posted here!
tldr Silas wants to study a perfect immortal in order to defeat death, bc death insulted him once and he never got over it hghdfg
Silas Edelhart has a problem. That problem is death.
He was born to minor nobility, old money making use of their hereditary ambition to generate new money on the merchant routes, and he was lucky enough to not be his father’s preferred heir; he was allowed to take to academia, or else join some priesthood and curry favor with the lesser sons of other noble houses. He chose academia.
He was enamored with it. The libraries! The minds to learn from. The men. The women! The men. The only disappointment was that apprentice physicians did not get invited to many parties, something Silas was hard at work remedying when he was presented with an unwittingly significant patient.
A farm hand from outside the city had been delayed in reaching them for medical care, and his injuries - an accident with a plow, they were told - had gone gangrenous. He was insensible with fever, and would have lost the leg even if his people hadn't taken so long in getting him to the medics; as it was, despite amputation and efficient treatment for blood poisoning, he expired overnight, in Silas's care.
Silas was crushed. He had done everything right, double and triple checked his protocols, and still the man had died. “No one blames you, of course,” one of the senior physicians said to him, “these things simply happen.”
Maybe they ‘simply happened’ to other people, Silas thought bitterly, but he was better than that. He had decided the man would live, and his performance had been flawless! The terminity of a mere natural law to stand in the way of his will was intolerable. Incensed, Silas threw himself at his studies, dead set that it should never happen again.
Resurrection magic wasn't what he was after initially; he only wanted to keep the living where they were. But he found quickly that the popular consensus was that healing magic could only do so much, and most simply accepted its failures as they did any other misfortune. So he hunted out spells to wrench the dead back, hidden and fragmented in books his instructors only grudgingly let him read. Time would tell if they would be enough, however; none of the accounts of their use he had read gave any indication of the effects being permanent. It would be so embarrassing, to put so much work into defying death only to have his prize killed in a careless accident! He would not settle for anything less than complete immunity from death.
His practice only pushed him deeper into this conviction; plenty of his patients lived, much improved from treatment, but a few still died despite his efforts, reigniting his rage at death every time. He began to get a reputation for it, and some of his peers started tactfully funneling away those patients that seemed likely to die with or without medical care, to spare themselves his rants. Many of them thought his anger came from an insult to his skills, but this was all wrong; he knew his skills were exceptional, the failure was not his.
It is the gods’ fault, Silas decided. The gods had set this wretched law in place, to kettle and humble mortal creatures. But... no, the gods themselves are yet subject to death, have died in scores. So, death is a greater power than even them.
But in one book, ill-used and forgotten, Silas found mention of a god returning from death. A resurrection on a divine scale. And once that possibility had revealed itself, the hints between the lines of other books made themselves apparent; someone had performed that resurrection, exercised mastery over death in such a way that it left Silas’s mouth watering. How? How had it been done?
The next few months of frantic research and evasion - the concern from his tutors was enough to warn him that no one wanted him to go looking for this - led him eventually into the university’s vaults. To a broken-legged construct, dormant, containing a withered, desiccated hand. Not the hand of the godly resurrectionist, no, but the hand of someone who, certain books implied, might have been a devotee of that individual. A relic of a necromantic saint.
Silas stole it, of course he did. Made use of a debt owed by an engineer of the local guilds to repair the construct housing, and treated it as a treasured prize. Such mysteries, opening to him now with the artifact’s communion; he graduated quickly from books to practice, retreating into his own rooms to make frogs twitch and test ancient ideas on the animation of flesh. He took on fewer and fewer patients, withdrew from the society of his peers… for the most part.
Sera Mournleaf was brilliant. Sera Mournleaf was intense. And some days, Sera Mournleaf was the only thing that could distract him from his work. An elf with connections, she did him many favors in getting him subjects to work on, meat with which to test his theories, and had an insightful and sparkling mind with which to discuss the less publicly acceptable aspects of spitting in the face of death. So what if she stayed up later than him some nights, reading and rereading his notes. So what if every time she visited her aging human father she came back slumping with worry. He cannot expect things to be about him all the time!
Besides, he had little focus to spare for things not his research, now. He had been forced to take up the shovel himself, more than once, to find fresh bodies that would be more difficult to trace back to him - they keep a close eye on the university morgue, he learned better than to try that more than once. And he had had no small success, stripping corpses of their unnecessaries and stitching the most promising parts to one another, speaking to his prized relic with equal parts demand and prayer.
The results infuriated him at first. Lurching, wretched things, no better than flesh constructs, most of them had to be destroyed; that shriveled hand granted Silas holy fire as easily as it had clues to the resurrectionist arts. But he persisted, and grew to view them as necessary stepping stones towards a greater perfection. He grew more bold, more reckless, and felt himself forever on the verge of a cataclysmic revelation.
It was not to be. He was found out. The right word in the right ear brought the law crashing down on his shoulders, and he watched them burn his experiments with a guardsman kneeling on his back. It was broken, all of it, his research carted away in boxes (fewer boxes, maybe, then he thought there should have been), and Silas himself thrown in prison to scream his rage at the uncaring stone.
The trial was a farce. Somehow, Silas's family managed to find reason enough to pull half the lawyers in the city to his defense, while at the same time making it very clear that under no circumstances was he to darken their doorstep ever again. In the same two hour span his prospects went from life imprisonment to a mere slap on the wrist of exile, and then summarily informed that he had been neatly removed from the last will and testament of his every living family member. It was a very trying day.
At the end of it he was stripped of his qualifications, most of his wealth confiscated, and ejected from the city with his mouth sewn shut with wire; an archaic punishment for heresy, invoked here merely as sorry consolation on the part of the law that they couldn’t execute him outright. In the proper spirit of the thing, he should have left the stitches in place and let himself starve, and in deference to the bare truth of his crimes Silas endured it for three days before getting sick of the whole thing and cutting himself loose.
He had managed to keep his precious relic in its construct housing, the only thing worth bribing a minor official to sneak out of evidence lockup, and he quickly put distance between himself and wretched Misthaven, thinking nothing but bitter thoughts towards his betrayer. Selfish, horrible Sera; she had gotten cold feet, most likely. Come over all moral about what he had been doing, let slip to the magistrate that perhaps she knew who had been plundering the city's burial grounds at night. Well! She will just have to wait and see, won't she. Wait until he can begin his work again, reach as yet unseen heights of resurrection. Then he would return to Misthaven and enact some fitting revenge, on her and all those who had a hand in ruining him.
(Miss Mournleaf could have argued, the better part of a year later, that his unwitting parting gift was revenge enough. Babies scream like they’re being murdered, and the damn thing looks just like him. She left it with the nuns and got on with the business of saving her father.)
And so he wandered, working as a physician in small towns and middling cities, trying his damndest to reestablish his research in some capacity. But his funds never stretched that far, and neither did the patience of his neighbors; more than once he had to flee under cover of night, for misdeeds real or imagined. Most of these were unmemorable affairs, and only irritated him. Once, the mercenary paid to kill him proved a delightful match, in combat and energy, and the man made an affair of running away with Silas, and Silas ended up growing remarkably fond of Cassian Hellier, for all his unrefined brutishness. They still keep in touch, whenever either of them is in civilization long enough to hire a messenger to carry letters.
A decade passed in this fashion before Silas began to hear rumors. Travelers between worlds, fading in and out of unearthly mist, serving a genuine immortal. He seized upon these threads, passion alight again; a near perfect undead, far superior to the wretched things he had managed to raise back in Misthaven, yes. He would follow the travelers, seek out their master, see what, if anything, of the rumors were true. If they are... he would study, and learn, and replicate the results. And if not? Well, the corpse of even a lesser undead would be a beautiful thing.
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duker42 · 5 years ago
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Levi's s/o getting amnesia from an expedition bc she got slammed into a tree really hard. She does not remember Levi at all and it shatters him, but he's determined to get her memories back. He tells her about their time together, takes her to places that have special meanings, and anything else he could think. She still doesn't remember. One night she's in her room (not in his room like she used to bc she doesn't know him now). She gets a pretty bad nightmare and starts screaming and crying.-
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💜Remember💜
“Y/N!!!!” Levi shouted as Y/N hurled through the air. He pushed his gear to the limits to try and get to her, but he was too late. With a sickening thud she slammed into a tree. He caught her before she tumbled to the ground. Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing. Blood was pouring from a cut on her forehead. Cradling her, he shouted for his team to take the Titan out as he carried he to the medical wagon.
~~~~~
Sitting by her bed, he held her hand as he waited. She hadn’t woken up on the trip back to the Wall, or when the doctors examined her. She was clean and resting, but no one knew if or when she would wake up. But Levi had faith, he couldn’t think of any other option. Y/N had to be okay. 
“W-Who are y-you?” Y/N’s voice was scared and hesitant he opened his eyes. He must have fallen asleep. Blinking he looked at her alarmed position as she had moved away from him, pulling her had from his. He rushed to hug her, but her small scream in terror stopped him in his tracks. 
“Don’t hurt me!” She cried. Her eyes were wide and her gaze was darting around the room like she was trying to escape. 
“Y/N….what’s wrong?” Levi questioned. Her scream had alerted the doctors that she was awake and they came crashing into the room. Levi moved aside as they started examining her. Hanji gently pushed Levi out of the room to wait.
~~~~~
“She doesn’t remember you.” Levi scowled at the bespectacled scientist. Her solemn face was his second clue that all wasn’t right with his girlfriend. The first being her shrinking back in terror from him. 
“What the fuck do you mean? How can she not remember me?” He demanded. It had to be some kind of sick joke. 
“She has amnesia, Levi. That hit to her head wiped out some of her memories.” Hanij’s hands twisted nervously. She knew Levi would be unhappy with the news that she had for him. It was going to hurt him.
“What does she remember?” Levi didn’t know if he wanted to know the answer to his question. 
“Everything but you.”
~~~~~
“How the fuck can she remember that she’s in the Special Operations Squad but she can’t remember her fucking boyfriend is the Captain!” Levi yelled out, as he paced in Erwin’s office. 
The short ball of rage had slammed into the room shortly after Hanji had sent a message that Y/N was awake, but there was a complication. 
“The brain is a mystery, Levi. They don’t know how it works.” Erwin’s words weren’t comforting, but they were the truth. No one could answer why Y/N knew every detail of her life except for the fact that she was in love with Levi. “You understand, of course, that for the time being Y/N will have to have separate quarters?”
Dark eyes glared at him as Levi stopped pacing. “Fuck that.”
“Levi, she doesn’t remember you. It would be like forcing her to sleep beside a stranger.” Erwin sighed as Levi closed his eyes. He might not want to admit it, but the sullen Captain knew he was right. 
~~~~~
Y/N moved into her quarters that night. There was nothing else wrong with her except for her supposed memory loss. She didn’t see how not remembering one man was that big of a deal. As she tried to reacquaint herself with her room, there was a knock on her door. 
Opening it up, she found the dour face of the man that had been in her room when she woke up. She tilted her head curiously and studied his face closely. He had ivory skin and a sharp face. His nose was small, perfect in appearance. Lips were a bit thin. His eyes were intense, a deep grey with flecks of blue in them. Thin eyebrows. Inky black hair parted to one side fell in his face, but he had an undercut. He looked like he never smiled. 
“Oh…um. Hello?” Y/N faltered as she tried to remember his name, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. “I’m sorry, you are?”
“Levi….My name is Levi and I’m your boyfriend, Y/N.” His level voice was no help. He could have been talking about the weather, not something as important as a relationship. 
Y/N chuckled nervously. “Haha, funny.”
“I’m serious.”
~~~~~
Levi was at his wit’s end. He had told her about their relationship. Even going so far as to let her know that they lived together, had woken up together the morning of her accident. He told her everything he could think of. When they had their first kiss, in the kitchens waiting for the teapot in the middle of the damn night. The first time date they had gone out, horseback riding out to the lake. The first time they had made love. None of these things rang any bells for her. 
She had been excused from her duties until she had regained her memories. But she had come out to see the Squad. It was so hard to watch her talk to Petra, Eld, Gunther and Oulo like they were long lost family but to treat him with polite reserve. Day after day he was treated to uneasy smiles while everyone else was greeted like an old friend. Because they were. She just didn’t remember him, and it was killing him. 
He decided to take her to different placed. She didn’t remember the lake, or the restaurant in Trost. She didn’t remember his office or the damn desk she had decided to seduce him on one night. Every time he looked at the damn thing all he saw was her splayed out on it, inviting him to come ravage her, but all she saw was plain desk with reports on it. 
~~~~~
He was beginning to think it was hopeless. Weeks had past and Y/N was no closer to regaining her memories of him. Maybe it would be better to just let it go. He didn’t want to start causing her anxiety every time she saw his face because he was so damn insistent that she remember him. 
Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard her scream. Darting out of his room, he ran to the door next to his and shoved his way into he room. Y/N was sitting up, gasping and crying in her bed. He was relieved it was only a nightmare as he gathered her in his arms. 
It was the first time he had held her since the accident. He hadn’t wanted to push her. But now she was scared and he was going to do his damnedest to comfort her. 
“Shhhh. I’m right here. It was a dream.” He cooed as he stroked her hair. She sobbed agains his shirt. It must have been a pretty bad dream. “it’s okay…You’re safe, Y/N.” 
She gasped loudly and started crying harder. “Levi!” She choked out.
“Shhhhhhhh, Shhhhh….It’s alright. Just let it out.”
“Levi….I remember!” He pulled away to look at her, his eyes wide.
“Ar-are you sure?” She smile at him and pulled him closer to her. 
“Yes…I remember everything” She kissed his stunned lips. A moment later he moves, deepening the kiss as he groans his elation. She remembered him.
Pulling himself up with her in his arm, he walks towards the door. He is taking her back to their room. She remembers him.
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protecticarus · 7 years ago
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PROMPT: Todd somehow sees Dirk talk to Riggens for the first time (in 1x03). I mean like it's unnerving as hell to see cheerful, kind-hearted Dirk look so terrified and hurt (he's about to cry lmao this scene breaks my heart and im crying) especially when Todd hasn't really seen this side of him ever. So like he's just like wtf?? dirk?? my ball of sunshine?? who is this man and do you want me to kill him for you??? bc i will
yes! I love this prompt because I am a dirk!angst fan (what’s wrong with me) & this is our first look into the blackwing side of dirk’s story & therefore it’s easy to put todd into that situation as well. plus I love me some protective todd.
(I’m not sure if you wanted todd to interfere with the actual scene or to talk to dirk afterwards but this is what I ended up writing)
-
“It’s all real, isn’t it? You really are what you say you are. Some kind of… Holistic detective?” Todd asks, already knowing the answer.
“I’m trying.” Dirk replies sincerely. “Is this enough proof? Will you help me?” He asks.
Todd can see the desperation in Dirk’s eyes, how much he really, genuinely wants Todd’s help. Todd doesn’t say anything right away, he still feels unsure about this mess he’s somehow been dragged into, but he also knows he will eventually accept it. There’s no way out for him, not anymore. Besides, something about Dirk just makes it feel like this is supposed to happen. Todd never used to believe in stuff like that. None of that ‘everything happens for a reason’ crap. Yet somehow meeting Dirk seems like something he was meant to experience. Somehow Dirk is supposed to be a part of his life. It doesn’t mean Todd is thrilled about the danger and illegal aspects it has brought him, but he knows he can’t walk away from it. From him.
“Fine.” He finally replies.
Dirk’s face lights up like a child’s on Christmas. He gives Todd a huge smile and pats him on the shoulder. Then he turns around and basically hops down the stairs. Todd is left standing in the hallway. There’s many things on his mind, most of them questions.
He turns around to go back to his apartment, but his feet stop moving before the thought really registers in his mind. After everything that’s happened, after the revelation of Dirk being… Whatever he is and Todd actually committing to this bizarre case they seem to be on, he doesn’t feel like going about things the normal way. He doesn’t feel like going into his apartment and sitting on the couch, chatting with his sister. It all feels… Different.
As quickly as he’d stopped mid-step, he turns back around to go after Dirk. He’s not sure why. He shakes his head, mocking himself for choosing to go after the man who broke into his apartment and claims that they’re friends instead of going back to the safety of his apartment. Then again, his apartment wasn’t exactly safe at the moment. A man had been killed there. It had been broken into. Twice. 
Todd reaches the stairwell that leads to the ground floor and he sees Dirk at the end of it, but something stops him. An ominous voice Todd doesn’t recognize.
“Hello, Project Icarus.” The voice says.
Todd has about half a second to wonder what the hell that means, until Dirk reacts.
“No..” Dirk whispers. “Leave me alone.” He says, but it comes out as more of a plea than an order.
A feeling of anxiety sets in Todd’s stomach. He’d come across all kinds of crazy people in the last few days, but none of them had made Dirk pale the way this man did.
“Svlad, we have to talk.” The man continues.
“That’s not my name anymore.” Dirk says defiantly.
Dirk isn’t his real name? Todd suddenly considers the things he knows about Dirk aside from his eccentric personality and comes up with nothing. He doesn’t really know anything about Dirk, or Svlad, or whatever his name was.
“Dirk then.” The man complies.
“I said leave me alone!” Dirk says with more power in his voice now.
Suddenly a man charges at Dirk and tackles him, both of them collapsing against the bottom stairs. Todd instinctively takes a rushed step forward, going through any self-defense techniques he’s seen on tv in his head, ready to pull the man off Dirk, but stops as the other man yells.
“Friedkin! Friedkin, goddamn it, get off him!” The first man orders.
Todd stays still, but on guard. These people were obviously not friends of Dirk’s and if the situation escalated, he would need help.
“He was escaping!” The younger man explains, still holding Dirk down.
“You release him now, soldier, that’s an order!” The older man yells.
Soldier? Who the hell are these people?
The man, the soldier, gets off Dirk and sits next to him on the stairs. Dirk scrambles to get up and basically wraps himself around the pole at the end of the staircase, grunting and panting franticly. He was obviously shaken, understandably so.
“Is this what you do now!? You just attack people!” Dirk screams once he’s recovered.
“Sorry, sir, I got confused.” The soldier says and gets up from the stairs and walks back to where Todd assumes his commanding officer is standing, out of view. Todd rolls his eyes.
“He seems like a winner!” Dirk comments sarcastically.
“Dirk, listen to me.” The older man says.
“Why? You have new lies to tell me?” Dirk comments.
Todd furrows his brow. What is Dirk’s history with this guy? In the short time he’s known Dirk, Todd’s never seen him so shaken or as defensive as he is around this guy. He lied to Dirk? About what?
“We need you to come back in for a debriefing.” The man says.
Debriefing? On what? Was Dirk… An agent of some sort? He couldn’t have been telling the truth about the CIA… He admitted it was a lie?
“Oh yes, why not, it’s only been sixteen years!” Dirk exclaims in frustration.
Sixteen years? Dirk must’ve been a teenager sixteen years ago? What kind of agency would employ a teenager? 
“Blackwing is under review. That’s why we bailed you out when the police brought you in. It’s the least you can do.” The man explains.
More and more questions form in Todd’s mind. What the hell is Blackwing? They bailed Dirk out?
“The least I could do?” Dirk repeats in disbelief. Dirk obviously didn’t think he owed these people anything. Todd started to feel like this situation was truly threatening.
“This is in your best interest.” The man says.
In Dirk’s best interest? Was Dirk in danger? Well, of course he was, Todd had experienced more danger in the short time he’d known Dirk than in his previous 30 something years of life, but was there more danger than he originally thought? Was someone specifically targeting Dirk?
To Todd’s surprise, his first thought was worry towards Dirk’s safety, not his own.
“You promised them something you couldn’t deliver. You promised me something and you couldn’t deliver.” Dirk says.
Todd frowns. This man had obviously hurt Dirk. Just a few minutes ago Todd couldn’t have imagined hearing the fear and bitterness in Dirk’s voice that was clearly present now. This made Todd worry.
“Dirk, I am not the enemy here.” The man says and takes a step closer to Dirk, now coming into Todd’s view too. Dirk quickly stands up and backs himself against the wall, like a scared animal. Todd suddenly feels the need to stand between Dirk and the man who scares him so.
“And you’re not a detective.” The man continues and Todd can see tears forming in Dirk’s eyes. “You’re going to get yourself hurt or killed if you-”
“I am on a case!” Dirk interrupts in a teary voice. “I have friends! And we found clues! We’re gonna solve a mystery! A real one! And some people think I’m a pretty good detective!” Dirk yells, the last words coming out shaky. He sounds like a child trying to defend himself to adults.
Dirk’s teary, shaky voice breaks Todd’s heart. Dirk takes so much pride in his title as a holistic detective and just earlier he told Todd how he was trying to live up to that title, and now this man was demeaning the thing Dirk put so much effort in? So much so that the man’s words made Dirk nearly cry? Now, Todd hadn’t exactly been on board this holistic detective train until a few minutes ago, but seeing the normally cheery, optimistic Dirk so sad and broken by just the sight of this man? It makes Todd’s blood boil.
Dirk kept panting and fighting tears as the man opened up his mouth again to speak, but suddenly Todd decided he’d had enough. He marched down the stairs, drawing the strange men and Dirk’s attention to him.
“Todd…” Dirk almost whispers, obviously surprised to see him.
“Who is this?” The man asks.
Dirk opens his mouth to speak but Todd beats him to it.
“I’m his friend. And I’d appreciate it if you left him the hell alone, now.” Todd says, coming to stand between Dirk and the man, trying his best to appear as intimidating as he could despite being the shortest of the four men.
Dirk looks at Todd, his eyes shining with unshed tears, his expression somewhere between shocked and grateful.
“This doesn’t concern you.” The man says.
“Like hell it doesn’t. I don’t appreciate people making my friends cry. Actually, I have a tendency to punch the daylights out of people who do that.” Todd replies.
“Todd.” Dirk says, his voice a clear warning, but Todd doesn’t break the intimidating staring contest with the older man.
“Do you want me to take him down, sir?” The younger man asks.
“No!” The older man and Dirk exclaim at the same time, the man’s voice giving out an order, Dirk’s tone more pleading.
“Dirk…” The man tries again.
“I suggest you get the hell out of here unless you want me to call the cops.” Todd says with no intention of actually doing so, since he is currently, possibly a murder suspect. “And I never wanna see your face here again. Or anywhere near Dirk for that matter.” Todd continues. 
The man seems unsure for a moment before nodding slowly. He walks towards the doors and then stops and turns back.
“I’m only trying to protect you, Dirk.” He says.
Dirk shakes his head behind Todd. “I don’t care. I don’t need you.” He says.
The man sighs and gestures for the younger man to follow him. Once both of them are out of the building, Todd turns towards Dirk.
“Are you okay?” Todd asks, adrenaline still burning in his body.
Dirk swallows. “Yes. Well, no. But yes. I’ll be fine.” Dirk mumbles. “Thank you, Todd.” He whispers.
Todd gives him a reassuring smile. “Sure.”
Dirk gives him a small smile, still a bit shaken from the interaction.
“Who the hell were those guys anyway?” Todd asks.
Dirk looks down at his feet. “It’s… A long story. And I’m afraid it’s not a happy one.” Dirk replies.
“Hey,” Todd says and places a comforting hand on Dirk’s shoulder, which gets Dirk to look up at him again. “It’s okay.” He promises. Dirk smiles a little more brightly this time.
Then Dirk sits back down on the bottom steps and sighs. Todd follows suit, sitting right next to Dirk and immediately placing his hand back on his shoulder. Dirk looks to Todd, as if to ask for permission. Todd gives him an encouraging nod.
Dirk takes a deep breath.
“They’re a part of a CIA operation called ‘Blackwing’…”
-
if you have any fic ideas, please send me prompts! I’d love to write them. my inbox is open! xx
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blacknovelist · 7 years ago
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Hie, if you are still taking asks for your AWESOME ageswap BNHA AU, I have an ask that I would like to see your novel length answers for: What do you think would happen and Canon!All Might & Ageswap!Deku's reactions would be in the combined world if a villain somehow managed to kidnap Canon!Deku & Ageswap!Toshinori? And the kidnapper managed to snatch Canon!Shouto and Ageswap!Engi as well? I can imagine that between the two, only Ageswap!Shouto would join the others them.
BUDDY, MY PAL, FRIEND, ANON, LIGHT OF MY LIFE……… ageswap is absolutely 1000% of the time always a thing (In general, BNHA AU’s are, haha) and I’m so glad you asked because in general I’ll take any excuse to take things and just go
I can’t believe you came here wanting me to talk for ten years gghlsnfiskfj
I’ve been looking for things to overthink and analyze lately and u, my friend, are officially an enabler of my awful rambling tendencies. You, every other anon and person that’s ever asked me about anything and also @guardianlioness​, because naturally she’s my partner in crime for Ageswap and the moment I showed her your ask we absolutely ran with it. 
(–> As context for anyone jumping into the Ageswap bandwagon, here’s the tag. Generally speaking the way the Ageswap meets Canon thing works is that Ageswap 1-A gets mysteriously transported into canon and end up having to stick around while they figure out how to send Ageswap 1-A and whoever came along, like Inko and some Ageswap teachers, back to their universe again. 
There’s actually also an AU of an AU in which, through means unrelated to our favourite class, both universes get fused together, which is the Ultimate Combo Verse and was 100% mostly lioness’s idea and it’s frankly just great. Basically, everything is the same, everyone exists as both kids and adults at the same time. During this fusion process, Ageswap 1-A ends up needing to stay with canon 1-A. That’s relevant because Lionesss suggested that this whole situation take place while Ageswap is staying with canon, but mostly tangentially bc it can work out without that anyway. I just wanted to mention it.)
So like…. there’s several ways and reasons for all our kids to be brought into trouble like this, and it means there’s like, thousands of ways for this scenario to play out (with a billion little details to change)and god i love it. We figure in this case, it would be while they’re all in one universe, as opposed to some situation where a baddie is going cross-dimensional to kidnap everyone separately or something. The way it’s been settled is, someone probably used the Quirk Trigger drugs on them to make the boys’ powers go out of control, so that it would be easier to kidnap them. It would take a lot of planning, and just getting a hold of the drugs would use up a great deal of resources probably! 
It would also be the easiest part of the entire situation. 
Listen, if anyone decided it would be a good idea to take these kids? There’s at least like, 40 reasons why that’s a terrible idea and most/all those reasons are not above working with each other and in various configurations to create even more reasons why it’s a terrible idea. Buildings leveled, oceans split, mountains shattered… there’s few things more dangerous than a dad on a mission, let alone the group of dads we have going on here (going by adoption and blood technically it’s the Dad Trifecta, but obviously canon Aizawa is also in on this so it’s actually the Dad Quartet). 
Basically, this whole thing is the apocalypse upon us, my dude.
That’s not even getting into the 1-A’s. Worse still, that’s not even counting Inko Midoriya. That right there is the destruction of the universe as we know it.
The rest under a cut becauseeeeeee who knows how long I’m going to go on about this? I sure don’t.
To be more specific to the nature of your ask because I’m a terrible terrible person who loves going on about things that you didn’t actually ask about, we’ll start with our Dad for All’s. Ageswap Izuku is a mad strategist, even though at this point in the shared timeline both he and canon Toshinori would be retired from the world of heroics, and against these guys? The plans he comes up with are absolutely ruthless. He’s got no time for things like mercy when his alternate self and his nephew and the young version of one of his best friends and even his own son have been taken. Any semblance of pity has been launched all the way to goddamn andromeda at this point, it’s not coming home any time soon.
The plan itself absolutely includes copious amounts of explosions, stealth, sneaking around, lots of research, possibly punching a man or two into the stratosphere, freezing things, burning things, shattering a few eardrums, finding the boys, making sure they’re okay, wrecking the place, and making several people regret being born and coming up with this idea in the first place, at a minimum. Not necessarily in that order (need to make sure everyone who cannot fight is out of danger first, after all)
For a moment, as canon Toshinori watches and helps plan, he wonders (in a good way) what kind of monster he’s creating with canon Izuku if this is what his pro-counterpart is like. 
As for canon Toshinori? Well. He’s not so much a strategist or planner as Ageswap Izuku is, but this is his universe, his home turf. He’s got the advantage of connections with people, like canon Naomasa, the police department on a whole, and his hero agency. If there’s so much as a whisper as to where their boys are and why they’ve been taken, someone along the grapevine is gonna hear it and pass it along. Plus, of course, he helps Ageswap Izuku when he can!
Also, you know who we’re talking about here. Of course retirement and mortal wounds aren’t going to stop these dumb old men from going out into the field and bringing their boys home. (“Oh, punching this would be bad for my health? I’ll kick their asses instead”)
Ageswap Todoroki, of course, has a hand in planning everything. Besides, who else is gonna freeze and burn the shit Izuku asks him to, right? He’s more familiar with how Ageswap Izuku tends to plan and strategize in general, which helps. He’s good at keeping a level head, which provides a handy perspective for everyone.
Canon Aizawa is like Toshinori in that he’s got a homefield advantage, but also, he’s far more familiar with the underground/underworld workings of the villain-hero scene, so while Toshinori has got contacts, Aizawa has the means to contact people as well as going out into the field to gather intel himself. As well, he’s familiar with what they need to look out for as far as clues and research go, which is vital to Ageswap Izuku’s planning and also the finding of the boys in itself.
Overall, though, I think Ageswap Todoroki and canon Aizawa are the ones to help keep a lot of the calm among the adults directly involved, reminding them not to get overly frustrated and that they’re going to find the boys no matter what - not to say the kids aren’t doing their part not to freak out over things they can’t do shit about yet, and also not to imply that there isn’t anyone else involved as far as teachers and pro heroes go. And that’s also not to say they’re not absolutely fucking livid and furious about this situation and that they’re not among the first ones on scene to start wrecking shit, because of course they are.
No one touches their boys.
Canon Endeavor, though… mind you, of course he’s gonna be involved - someone dares to kidnap his boy, he’ll teach them to think twice. His experience and connections mean that they can’t really say he can’t be involved, so he too does his part. I don’t know if this would be before or after Lifetimes or some other in-verse variant of it though, and that’s admittedly important bc in AU context it would also be relevant to whether or not he’s trying to change or not, you know? Regardless, he’d probably not be very involved in the planning itself, outside of offering small bits of his thoughts and things - he can’t get a read on Ageswap Deku, but he’s aware that Deku is/was the number one of his world, and gets that he’s deserving of respect, to some degree, so he’s cordial to them all on a whole (though canon Toshinori tries not to be around when he’s around and vice versa).
Though, also, since I imagine this mess would be something they might want to keep out of the public eye, there’s also only so much canon Endeavor can do openly, too. He probably does a lot of red herring things and calls his work relating to finding the boys by some other name, and I guess in that stream he’d help by just, making sure no one finds out abt the kidnapping by keeping the press and media distracted by whatever he’s doing (and by doing it very, very far away from where and what the others are doing. It rubs him wrong, but he’s still doing his hero work so hell. Fine. He’s the only one that can do this anyway, so of course they’d come to him about it. Or, that’s what he tells his ego because he can’t argue with them about it).
As far as the rescue mission itself goes, everyone gets deployed. And by “everyone”, I mean both 1-A’s, possibly the Inko’s (because I’m sure we all remember this very serious and official ageswap post), their teacher-parents, several other teachers, the Naomasa’s (because of course ageswap Nao is in on it), and canon Endeavor. 
And by “rescue mission”, I mean “UA and Nedzu decided that it would be good experience for their heroes in training to go on this unofficial mission for a kidnapping that has not been disclosed to the public At All to avoid any sort of big legal fuss and here are a few teachers/pros to supervise pls don’t kill anyone :)” because, you know, everyone knows better than to get between “everyone” and their mission to save the boys. 
(When everyone comes home mostly safe and sound the world collectively breathes a sigh of relief, because it looks like the end has been saved for another day.
also because a mountain range or five haven’t been wiped off the map in some fit of fury and rage or anything like that.)
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sweetxrevenge-blog1 · 7 years ago
Text
Utah
This is just a collection of things I drabbled out after finishing New Vegas Bounties bc it hit me really hard in the feelings haha. They don’t have a lot of explanation in them, but they’re just sort of an ‘in the moment’ thing.
The saloon reeked of blood, gun smoke, and the cheap alcohol it supplied. The former two were new additions, courtesy of the bounty hunter standing in the middle of the room surrounded by the corpses of those who had betrayed her. All but one. The slippery little shit escaped from under her nose, running out into the snow. It was pointless, though- she stepped outside and fired off a round into his leg, sending him down. He shrieked in pain, dropping his tough-guy facade completely. Ketan stomped through the snow over to him, ignoring the pain shooting through her hands and arms as she grabbed a handful of his hair, tugging his head back to look him in the eyes, keeping a solid foot on his back. The fear she felt in his gaze was the most satisfying feeling she had felt in a long time, and she savored it too much to be disgusted with herself. "Why?" She demanded, she didn't ask. She commanded him to answer her. He was crying, ugly crying. "I w-was scared!" He cried, snot running down his face which was bright red from the cold and the tears. "There wasn't any way you'd win, it was safer to side with Marko! I didn't know he would- he would..." "You killed Randall without a second fucking thought. I don't want any of your goddamn excuses." Even though she had just challenged him to give her one worthwhile. "I didn't enjoy it! Neither of you ever took me seriously!" "We were trying to protect you, you little shitbag!" She shouted, tugging harder on his hair. There wasn’t anyone to draw the attention of, they were all dead. Her volume didn’t matter. "This life is not what you wanted! This is what happens! No matter what choice you make, you die, either way!" "I just wanted to be like you!" He sobbed, squeezing his eyes shut. "Then let's start with surviving a bullet to the brain," She spoke coldly, colder than the snow falling around them. She pressed the barrel of Sweet Revenge to Ford's temple, and pulled the trigger with no hesitation. He died instantly, falling limp out of her grip when she let go of him and stepped away. "Failed step one." Sweet Revenge was returned to its holster, and Ketan sighed. She hated herself. She hated that this was the only solution. The first time Steven was 'killed', she was filled with rage, ready to slaughter anything in her way to avenge him. This time, she just felt empty. A twinge of guilt ran through her, but she suppressed it just like she suppressed everything else. Ford wasn't a bad kid. He just had his head so high in the clouds, he was too scared to come back down to Earth. That didn't excuse him from Ketan's traitor policy: they die. Ketan lit a cigarette, eyes still set on the corpse in front of her. It hurt to kill him. She wasn't going to deny her own humanity, it hurt to have to be the one who put him down. She was so certain he was just some kid who needed guidance, who needed to be shown reality. He already knew reality, though, that was apparent when he abandoned his beliefs to join what he thought was the winning side. That's the kicker: it wasn't the winning side. It was the losing side. Anyone who opposed her was the loser, she made sure of it. It would catch up to her some day, like Marko kept insisting it would- she knew that. It was just going to catch up to him, first.
It was over. The cold, icy mountain air bit at her skin and the wounds still healing on her shaking hands. She stood alone, now; Marko's corpse was still warm beside her, if that man ever had any warmth in him at all. What a shame she hadn't brought a shovel with her, maybe she could have returned the grave he buried her alive in. It was, after all, conveniently empty now. Instead, she stared down at the fresh grave directly in front of her, right at her feet. The graveyard went on for a mile at least, countless unmarked wooden crosses in neat, organized lines; she wasn't sure whether the number or the sick tidiness of the way the corpses were buried was worse. However, only one grave held her interest, the one in which the dirt hadn't yet settled. Ketan knelt down by the wooden cross, careful not to disturb the mound and pulling her knife from its sheath on her thigh. Controlling her hands was still difficult, and she likely wasn't going to have perfect control of them ever again. Slowly but surely she carved into the wood, paying attention to neatness and detail as she wrote out the name of the deceased: Steven Randall. Once she was satisfied, she stowed the blade and pushed back to her feet. The tears were coming, and the first thing that came to mind was surprise that she was even capable of crying anymore. Her hand drifted towards the holster on her right side, pulling Sweet Revenge from its place there and looking it over. Part of her was tempted to bury the gun with him, as some sort of final step in fulfilling the revenge he wanted so dearly, the revenge he put on her shoulders. No, he didn't put it there. She did. The moment Ketan realized that she and Randall were family, that they were all each other had, that revenge became her responsibility whether he was alive or not. Maybe it was selfish to think he was all she had. She had other friends- she had Boone, Arcade, Veronica, all of the people she had encountered and who agreed to help her. It was definitely selfish to chase her own revenge high the way she had, leaving them all once more without a clue of her whereabouts, too consumed with hatred to bother telling them that she might not come back. That was the sad truth: it was entirely possible she wouldn't come back. But Randall was different from the others. He reminded her of someone, way back in the deep reaches of her mind where forgotten memories slept. It could have been anyone, perhaps her father or brother, if she ever had either. He was the first real friend she made after she crawled out of the grave, and how fitting it was that she avenged him after crawling out of one again. It wouldn't bring her peace. She knew that. Ketan would never know peace, no matter what she did, now. "I know you wanted me to keep it," She mumbled, idly returning the revolver to its holster at her side. "Doesn't feel right, not after all this, but like you said: would have just locked it back in the safe. Grave's about the same thing." Nightfall made the coldness of the air bitter, so much so it left a bad taste in your mouth. She let out a long, visible exhale, hands snaking their way into her jacket pockets. "Good bye, Randall, you crazy zombie bastard," her lips couldn't help but curl into a smile when she said it. Ketan turned to look back towards the pass she came through, turning to leave. Her steps were heavy through the snow, and her boots were soaking wet. She figured that if being shot through the hands and buried alive couldn't kill her, neither could frostbite. It was gonna be a long trip home.
Ketan's eyes opened like curtains being drawn at the speed of light, shooting upright in her bed. Her body was shaking, her breath was labored and she was coated in a cold sweat. It was the nightmare again. The same one that came every week, sometimes every night for several days in a row. It was so rare for her not to have it, she considered this normal, and she should have been used to it by now, but you never really got used to dying. It was Frosthill, the townspeople all on their knees in the street, then they're all gunned down. Their cries and the gunshots ring in her ears and echo like ghosts wailing at her in accusation, in blame. The blood turns the snow red, and it melts away while Ford, that fucking two-timing coward, puts a bullet in Steven's head without a second thought. It stings, she wants to scream, but she's gagged and she can't make a noise above a muffled yelp. The screams feel like rats trying to claw their way out of her throat, turning it sore and raw. Her stomach does somersaults, trembling in rage and pain as that monster, that horrific bastard has the nerve to touch her, to hold her jaw and force her to look at him. His words blend together into a cacophony of screams and laughter so concentrated it's deafening, as the ground below her opens, and swallows her whole. The darkness made it hard to breathe, like the chasm was getting deeper but tighter, suffocating her while she could still hear that hideous chorus of screams and laughter, telling her it was her fault, everything that happened was all her fault. Ketan ran a hand through her hair. Every time this happened, she would usually cope with it by getting hammered and passing out from that, since that generally drove the nightmare away. It was always temporary, every fix was temporary. Nothing could truly fix her psyche. Her eyes surveyed her hands. The large, grisly, round scars in the center of her palms and the backs of her hands were a constant reminder that the nightmare wasn't just a dream, but that it happened, and it happened because she fell for a trap she should have seen coming a mile away. The scarred areas were still tender and sore- her fingers, especially her middle and ring fingers, didn't work quite as well as they used to, just as she predicted. Nothing in her worked as well as it used to. Her mind wandered while she sat up in the middle of the night, eyes drying out from the heavy air conditioning blasting into her room. An idle thought wondered how much Med-X it took to kill you. She pushed the thought away. She considered getting up and seeing if anyone else was awake, but she didn't. This was her battle, it didn't matter to anyone else. Give her the Hypocrite of the Year award, but she wouldn't make others deal with her bullshit. She dealt with theirs so that she could forget about her own for even a short while.
A grumbling sigh found its way out of her throat and she reclined back into bed, staring at the ceiling fan as it spun. She just hoped sleep would find her again, soon.
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