#best friends are still prime targets!

[theorangedead]

...and the scenario plays out the same as if she had been a love interest, because being a best friend doesn't make someone a lesser target as a hostage than being a romantic partner and she's not about to Out her own best friend. It's not like if the villain knew she was a best friend she wouldn't be kidnapped for the Sanctity of Friendship or something.

She does, however, stab the villain because her friend might be constantly worrying about the morality of utilizing his power for mortal violence, but she's just a girl with a knife. I'm sure the fact that she's best friends with the hero instead of dating makes the knife hurt more, I guess

The Hero is secretly gay. Unfortunately, the Villain doesn't know this and keeps kidnapping the Hero's best female friend, thinking that she's the love interest. Even more unfortunate, she's finally had enough.

[valtsv]

This is your formal invite to info dump about your figure skating horror murder mystery (I want to know more lol)

okay it's still a very vague outline but the premise is that a disgraced ex-figure skater whose suffered a career-ending injury as a result of sabotage by her fellow skaters becomes a suspect for murder several years later when skaters - several of whom are connected to her past - start turning up dead, apparently at the hands of a serial killer. while her career was already terminated, the catalyst for her fall from grace was when she assaulted one of her former teammates, who was involved in the sabotage, making her a prime suspect, since she has both apparent motive and a history of violence. the few people left around her who she hasn't alienated since then are unhelpful - one of her parents (haven't decided which yet) is far more interested in capitalising on the media attention than defending their daughter, and the other is absent, any siblings she might have she's estranged from, and she has no friends - so she ends up reluctantly teaming up with a trashy small-time tabloid journalist of the worst sort of kind; a person who's in it for the potential of finally landing that big scoop, but who is perhaps the only one who doesn't seem to care whether she's guilty or innocent. while initially incredible hostile, their working relationship begins to grow into something almost like caring for one another as they uncover more information about the case and learn more about each other, and the turning points in their lives where they lost their way. however, the killer begins targeting them too, trying to convince them that the other is out to get them and that it would be in their best interests to break that tentative trust. it's not the most original premise, but perhaps i'll draw some of the characters at some point. selina and jules (the dreadful duo) have a fun dynamic.

[rveyjules]

A Second Chance

Pairing: RE6!Leon Kennedy x Prime Minister's Daughter! Reader (ft. Ada Wong)

Genre: Smut, Romance, Angst

Warning: cheating, Leon is obsessed with the reader, stalking, taking photos, the reader is cold but deep inside she’s a sweetheart, mentions of arranged marriage, pure smut (mentions of masturbation, foreplay, kissing, breasts fondling and sucking, markings,  p in v intercourse, virgin sex, penetrative sex, Leon is huge [I think it's at least 9 inches, sheesh], creampie, aftercare)

Word count: 5.2k

Summary: As the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister and one of the faces of the family, you received multiple assassination attempts. So, your father hired someone to keep an eye on you. And to your surprise, out of all people, it was Leon Kennedy your father picked for you. You and Leon had a secret relationship but soon did not last because another woman came into his life. Now that the both of you meet again, will it be the start of chaos or a continuation of romance?

author's note: This story is entirely fictional. I do not know what the President and the Prime Minister exactly do for the country. Same with the occupation of being a prosecutor and the chief of the CIA. English is not my mother tongue so pardon if you encounter mistakes and grammatical errors. This is only for entertainment purposes only. And minors, please do your homework first.

—

        It all started when you had an assassination attempt for the fifth time. Being the only daughter of the Prime Minister isn’t easy. The more your father becomes powerful, the more assassination attempts you receive because if the opponent can't attack the Prime Minister, their target will be his family and pick the most treasured and precious gem of his life, his daughter. 

"The President will help to capture those bastards who tried to kill you." Your father spoke, looking at you, who was fixing the files from the CIA. 

"Papa, this is the fifth time you told me that. All the men you hired to guard me ended up being fired." 

"Because they failed to protect you," The Prime Minister replied in a strict fatherly tone. "This time, it was the President who recommended this agent to keep an eye on you." 

"I hope he wouldn't think that I am being a spoiled brat and a baby when he found out that I am a prosecutor." You chuckled, shaking your head a little. 

"Yes, you are a prosecutor. Not just a simple prosecutor. You are one of the most powerful prosecutors in the Supreme Court. You have access to every government agency as the Chief of the CIA. So, it’s quite understandable that those people who tried to eliminate you were not just because of me but because you are one of the most influential people in politics.”

      You sighed and gave him a small smile. Your father has been stressed out with international political stuff plus your assassination attempt. And speaking of the President, both of them are best friends and they climbed the political ladder together. The President is personally closer to the Prime Minister than the Vice President. That’s why when you survived your fifth assassination attempt, it was the President who was one of the first people that paid a visit to check on you.

“Alright, I’ll accept whoever the President has to recommend to guard me. But Papa, I don’t want to be guarded all the time. You know what I mean. I need some private time.” Your father nodded in agreement. 

“I understand. I’ll call the President.” With that, he walked out of your office and was escorted by his bodyguards as he walked down the hallway of my office. 

—

“I heard our dads having a conversation about your assassination attempt. Are you sure you’re okay?” Your friend, Ashley asked in a concerned tone on the other line of the call. 

“Yeah, I am fine. The assassin must have poor eyesight.” You laughed but Ashley only sighed. 

“You’re still joking around as if you weren’t stunned when you barely dodge the bullet. By the way, my dad recommended the man who saved me from Spain. You haven’t heard about him, have you? Because you have three cases to finish.” Ashley chuckled.

“The two are successful, only the rape case left. But believe me, I was so worried about you. And don’t tell me his name. I love surprises.” You grinned. 

“Oh, no. Here we go again with that behavior of yours. I think you know this person. Because when I mentioned you once in our conversation, he was surprised to hear that you are the Chief of the CIA and a prosecutor.”  

“Do we know each other?” I asked, confused. Ashley hummed and chuckled. 

“You’ll meet him tomorrow, according to the conversation between the Prime Minister and the President.”

         With that, you started critically thinking about the person. According to your father, he’s a federal agent and was exclusively picked to save Ashley from an insane cult in Spain. But why did this person seem to know you?

—

“This is Leon Scott Kennedy. Your bodyguard starting today.” Your father, the Prime Minister introduced the federal agent who saved your friend from Spain and the one the President recommended. 

            And for the very first time, you hated surprises. This is the worst surprise you’ve ever had. Leon looks different from before. How long has it been since the Raccoon City outbreak? Fifteen years? Leon looked at you, scanning you from head to toe. You are wearing a black tight turtleneck knee-length dress, black high heels, and simple makeup but the matte red lipstick made you look bold. Your chest and curves perfectly fit the dress you are wearing. His gaze went back to you and swiftly rolled your eyes. 

“Bodyguard?” You repeated, hiding your irritation because out of all people to become your bodyguard, why this fucking bastard? Why your ex? 

            Your father nodded his head. 

“If he saved the President’s daughter alone from a deadly cult in Spain, then he can save you from assassination attempts.” 

“Papa, that guy can’t predict if there’s someone who will try to eliminate me.” You retorted and your father gave you a disapproving look. 

“We agreed on this already, Y/n. And this is an exclusive decree from the President. You are one of the secret weapons of the country so for him, it is also his responsibility to take care of you.” Your father reminded you. 

“I know my job, Papa! You don’t have to remind me of that! Right now, I can’t help but feel embarrassed of myself that the Chief of the CIA needed to be guarded as if I can’t protect myself.” 

“Y/n L/n!” Your father yelled, shutting you up. “For Christ’s sake, Y/n! Just for once! I am trying to protect you but you wouldn’t listen! And for the first time, you despised the man we selected to keep an eye on you. I mean, what’s wrong if this guy keeps an eye on you?” 

             His question made you pause. Your father must never know the reason why the hell you hated Leon so much. Even thinking about it makes your heart break. So, you looked down and replied against your will to not make this worse. 

“Alright. End of discussion.” 

              Your father scoffed at your sudden change of mood and aura. He had never seen you glare and roll your eyes at the agents he picked to protect you. You are warm to the four guards who used to protect you. It was he who fired them when an assassination attempt occurred and those men failed to protect you. But now, he sees nothing but the fire of rage in your eyes when he introduces Leon to you as your bodyguard. 

“Y/n, what the hell is wrong with you?” He asked. 

“I accepted him already, Papa! Don’t ask me such questions again. Just fire him the moment someone fired a gun on me while he was nowhere to be found. Just like what you did to my former bodyguards.” You replied, turning your back on him so that he couldn’t see the tears forming in your eyes. 

           And then, the Prime Minister’s phone rang. He accepted the call and there was silence in the room so that he could have a proper conversation with the caller. After a few seconds, he hung up and looked at you. 

“I need to go. They need me to discuss something in the White House.” He announced and you gave him a nod without sparing him a glance. 

            When your father left, you turned around and faced Leon who was looking at you the whole time, realizing that you are not the young girl he left for another woman back then. It’s true, he thought. You are no longer naive, eyes full of anger with the mess he made fifteen years ago. 

“You changed, Y/n. After fifteen years…” Leon started which made you smirk. 

“Unlike that woman who’s still manipulative. Bet you didn’t last.” You straight-forwardly rebutted and headed over to your desk. You sit on your executive leather chair and cross your legs as you rest your back against the backrest. 

“Tell me, what’s your motive?” You asked sharply. 

“It was the President who recommended me to the Prime Minister.” He replied but you shook your head in disapproval. 

“You can decline but you didn’t. There must be a reason why you accepted the offer. The government needs you to save the country from bioweapons but here you are, standing in front of me as my bodyguard.” 

“Well, I am protecting the country’s secret weapon so I think it’s considered. Besides, the President and I agreed that I will still work as a federal agent of DSO while guarding the Prime Minister’s daughter.” 

                 Well, he has a point. You hummed in satisfaction with his answer and opened a file and checked the documents regarding the case you are currently in. There was a silence between you and Leon couldn’t help but feel your anger behind your calm expressions. No matter how much you tried to not make this personal, the pain he gave you makes it difficult for you to calm your nerves. 

               But Leon decided to give it a try…

“Ada and I were not in a relationship… or even on good terms.” He stated, causing you to grin. 

“Not interested. Besides, you are nothing to me.” 

             You can feel that your words affected him but you don’t care. And there’s an awkward silence again until you receive a call from the Chief Prosecutor. At least it saved you from the uncomfortable feeling of being with your ex. You stood up and kept your documents in the proper places and grabbed your handbag. 

          You walked to the door but Leon moved faster to open the door for you. You ignored his presence and walked out of your office to the ground floor. Leon tailed behind you until you came out of the law firm’s building and your driver pulled up the car in front of you. Before Leon can move, you open the door for yourself and get inside the car. 

           Leon paused for a moment and shook his head and was about to get inside the front seat but you rolled your windows down and said…

“I do not allow my bodyguard to come to join me in my car so go join my other guards in the other car.” Leon scoffed and retorted back. “According to the Prime Minister, I shall join you in every vehicle you are going to ride.” 

“Are you working for the Prime Minister or me?” You sarcastically asked. 

           He didn't want to make further arguments so he sighed and just obliged. You rolled your windows up and your driver drove away to your destination. 

—

             It was now nighttime. You and Ashley decided to hang out in a fancy bar in the city. You are staying in the VIP Room while your bodyguards are staying outside of the room, securing the area.  You two are regular customers of the bar and the owner doesn’t mind if you two brought a bunch of bodyguards for safety purposes. 

           So here you are, sipping a glass of whiskey with your legs crossed and back against the backrest of the leather couch as you stare into nowhere in the room. It has been two weeks since your father hired Leon as your bodyguard. Having him around you during those days felt like being chained up again to your past. 

“Hey, you’ve been staring at nowhere. Are you even listening to me?” Ashley’s voice snapped you back to your senses. You hummed and took the last drop of the whiskey before putting the glass down and pouring yourself another shot. 

“You rarely drink whiskey, Y/n. What’s wrong?” She asked and you didn’t reply to her. Instead, you pulled a cigarette and put them between your lips, and lit them up before huffing out a smoke. 

“Knew it. Something’s wrong. Was this because of your new bodyguard?” She asked and you hummed, huffing out another smoke. 

“Tell me, Ash. Do you think my life right now would be different if I asked you his goddamned name before we met?” You asked. 

“Why do you ask?” She asked too while you breathed out another smoke and sipped on your glass of whiskey. 

“Because I could’ve stopped Dad from hiring him! That bastard has been getting on my nerves for the last two weeks.” You hissed.  

             Like your father, Ashley asked the same question. “What’s wrong if my dad recommended him and your father hired him to be your bodyguard? Y/n, Leon is one of the top agents in the country. He saved many lives and protected the country from bioweapons. And this is the first time you despised your bodyguard. You weren’t this cold to your former bodyguards until Leon came.” 

           There was another pause as you finished your cigarette and put it on the ashtray and drank your whiskey. Ashley continued, “Was I right? Do you two know each other?” She asked and you hummed again as the response. Even responding to her is difficult, especially when you're talking about the man who ruined you. 

“We used to, Ash. We used to.” You replied, chuckling to yourself as you tried to stop your tears from falling. Ashley has been your best friend even before his father became the elected President of the United States of America but you don’t want her to see your vulnerable side. 

“Used to? Like, he’s a part of your past?” She asked and you nodded your head. 

“Worst part of my life, rather.” You sipped again, gulping the strong liquor down to your throat. 

“You know, it would be nice if you would share your backstory with me. Even just the highlights, I’m sure I can understand it.” 

“Ash, he’s my ex-boyfriend.” You frankly said. Ashley gasped upon hearing this from you. 

             She never thought that the man who saved her in Spain was your ex-lover. This is a shocking revelation for her. Ashley recalled the moments she mentioned you during her conversation with him back in 2005. Leon’s reaction was still clear in her memory when she told him that you are a prosecutor and one of the most powerful ones in the Supreme Court. He was completely surprised but then he was grinning moments later. 

“No wonder why he was surprised when I mentioned your name back in 2005. How long has it been since you two broke up?” 

“Since 1998. It was during the Raccoon City outbreak. After we parted ways, I never heard from him again and just focused on my studies.” You lit up another cigarette, putting the stick between your fingers and lips. 

“Why did you two break up?” Ashley asked. 

            You paused for a moment. A lump formed in your throat and a tear slipped out of your eye. Your only way is to gulp down the whiskey in your glass. Ashley doesn’t want to force you to spill out the truth. Her point is to ease the pain in your heart. Seeing you struggling to speak is enough for her to understand that you and Leon did not have a good end. 

“He’s a traitor,” You managed to speak out, taking deep breaths as you struggled to breathe.  

—

               Ashley had to go because her mother, The First Lady called because of curfew. She doesn't want to leave you in tears but you ushered her to leave, saying that you will be fine and enjoy the time by yourself. Ashley gave you an apologetic look before grabbing her purse, kissing your cheek, and leaving the VIP Room. 

               And there you are, having deep thoughts. You huffed out another smoke and groaned. You are not a menacing teenager who will do everything to get rid of Leon. That’s too immature. Ever since you graduated in Law and become a prosecutor, you promised yourself that you are no longer that young girl who’s sweet and naive. You need to be tough no matter how hard the situation is. No matter how much pressure a case gives you, you will do everything to win the trial. 

              Same as being the Chief of the CIA. Your hacking skills, high potential on battlefields, gunfight skills, and being a deadly agent made you reach your current position. None of the missions you had were easy. Most of them cost the lives of agents that failed to complete the mission. Only you are the last man standing. At the end of the missions, you’d always look around and see the pools of blood scattered around whether it is from your enemy or comrades. Dead bodies lay down on the bloodied ground. And now, the President takes you as the country’s secret weapon against the threat from other countries who will dare to attack. 

             Those events happened within fifteen years. You didn’t get enough rest. Your mind is so occupied with your job that even when Ashley was kidnapped back in 2005, you did not let your emotion take over you and continued pursuing your goals and fulfilling your responsibilities as a prosecutor and the Chief of the CIA. Leon never popped into your mind ever since. Now that he’s here again as your bodyguard, you couldn’t help but recall what pain he gave you in Raccoon City fifteen years ago. 

           Fifteen years ago in Raccoon City, things go wrong as you, Leon, and Ada encounter another group of survivors and now they are chasing you down to kill you. Ada, the most experienced one in fighting got shot in the leg causing her to fall to the ground. You and Leon are shooting them with your guns but he saw Ada get shot. 

“Ada!” He yelled and shot those people who are after her before running to her to check on her. But there’s a guy who appeared out of nowhere and pointed his gun at Leon. 

“Leon, duck!” You yelled and covered Leon with your body. A gunshot echoed around the road and you hissed in pain as the bullet hit you on your arm. 

          You growled and reloaded your gun as fast as you could and shot the guy right in the head. You took care of the rest of the people while Leon is busy treating Ada’s injury with a small medical kit he has. After a few seconds of silence, you lowered your gun and held your injured arm to stop the bleeding. You turned around and found Leon carrying Ada in his arms. 

            In your view, Ada was telling Leon that she’s fine and can’t walk, even including a phrase that it was just a bite of an ant. But Leon insisted on carrying her. It makes you feel jealous. Like, you are his girlfriend while Ada is just a random FBI Agent who appeared out of nowhere and saved Leon from infected dogs. Then, why is he treating her as if you are not around? Does he even realize that he was hurting you? Does he realize that a man who’s in a relationship shouldn’t act like that around his girlfriend? 

            So, to not ruin Leon’s time with her and to avoid making an issue between you in the middle of a zombie outbreak, you uncovered your arm, letting it bleed. You’re wearing a black hoodie so the blood isn’t noticeable. Claire will be here soon so you can treat your wound later. You wouldn’t die if you bleed and wait for Claire, would you? With a heavy sigh, you walked away, taking the lead while Leon followed you with Ada in his arms. 

          Soon, you found Claire with Sherry in a safe room. She was treating Leon’s wounds too while Ada was resting in the bed. While you are looking outside through the window. It was your only way to ease the pain and jealousy you felt. That shot could have killed Leon if you didn’t cover him. That could’ve cost your life too. This isn’t the first time you felt jealous. This is the tenth time you felt this way and you hate it. You noticed how Ada acts around Leon and she usually dismisses you. If she did, it was against her will. 

            You are in deep thought when you hear Sherry gasp… 

“Y/n, you’re bleeding! Why are you not saying anything?!” With that, you gained everyone’s attention. Claire immediately approached you and found your arms bleeding. 

“How could you not say anything! You’ll die if we don't treat this immediately!” Claire scolded you, rolling up your sleeves, and gasped when he found your injury bleeding more. She grabbed all the things she needed and started treating your wound. 

                 You gritted your teeth as Claire took the bullet out of your arm and wrapped it with a bandage. Leon approached you too and attempted to hold your hand but you declined and said, “I can manage.” And there Leon realized that something was wrong.

               Until one day… you find out Ada’s secret. Upon finding out about this, anger quickly rushed down through your veins and quickly grabbed your gun and pointed it to Ada and fired multiple times but none of the bullets hit her as it was your way to catch her attention. 

“Tell us the truth, Ada Wong,” You growled venomously. “Tell us who the hell are you…” 

“Y/n!” Leon quickly stood between you and Ada, facing you. “Put the gun down! What the hell is wrong with you?!” He shrieked. 

“That bitch is fooling around us! She told us that she was an FBI Agent when I didn’t see her record on the FBI’s server! Stay away from that traitor, Leon!” You hissed, firmly pointing your gun at Ada. 

            Ada did not reply but there is no hint of worry or regret in her eyes. Instead, she glared at you. She stepped in front of you, never breaking eye contact with you. She then smirked and put on a smug look on her face. 

“Traitor? Seriously? If you are just a student, you wouldn’t know how to access the FBI’s server. From the very start, I’ve been helping you and Leon. I’ve saved your life a lot of time and now this is how you are going to repay me?!” Ada hissed at you. 

“For an eighteen-year-old student, it’s not easy to hack the FBI. What about you, Y/n? Who the hell are you?” She turned the tables around. She takes steps closer to you as if she was challenging you.

“Don’t change the topic, Ada. You’re working under Albert Wesker, right? One of the researchers and the reasons why the hell we are here in this damn situation? Too bad, Ada. You did not pass as the best actress.” 

            Then, Ada attacked you at such speed. Of course, you dodged her attacks and are more trained than her regardless of your age and state in the government. You may be just a student, practicing Law but no one must look down on you or even doubt your commitment especially when you are doing this for your team’s safety. The combat between you and Ada ended when you pulled the trigger and hit her on the waist. Ada grunted and you took the opportunity to take her down. 

“Y/n, enough!” Leon pulled Ada away with such care which breaks your heart more. Claire was holding Sherry who was sobbing in her embrace. 

“Leon, are you defending her?” You asked, feeling betrayed. Leon put Ada to the side for a moment before pulling you away to a more private room. 

“What the hell did you just do?! You know that Ada is our key point to survive this damn apocalypse!” Leon hissed at you and of course, you retorted back. 

“From the very start, I did not trust that woman even a bit! It feels like she planned to cross paths with us to gain our trust and take the samples because she is working for Albert Wesker!” 

“Aside from accusing her, shooting her, how did you access the FBI’s server? We have only limited devices! We even barely called for help and now we found out that you accessed the FBI just to do some stupid research on her!” 

“Stupid research? I did it for our safety!” You rebutted. “Leon… I don’t understand. Why are you being so protective of her? Why are you defending her? Leon, I am your girlfriend.” 

              Leon sighed. “You are. But these days, it feels like we’re not together. It feels like you are different from the girl I love. I… I don’t know you anymore.” Your heart shatters as Leon said those. Tears filled your eyes, your heart pounded against your chest, and a lump formed in your throat. 

               You couldn’t believe that Leon was saying this to you when you just want to protect him, to protect everyone. A tear slipped out your eye and you pulled yourself away. “Are you doubting me, Leon? Do you believe that the fake agent is your girlfriend?” Then Leon snapped at you, 

“Don’t call her that!” 

“Then what?!” You yelled at him. “You think I don’t notice your behavior ever since she came into our lives? That you are becoming more affectionate to her than me? That you will prioritize her over me? That night when those groups of survivors chased us and tried to kill us, I saw how worried you were for her that you insisted on carrying her when she just had a shot in her leg because of her stupidity, rather than me catching the bullet for you!” 

                 Leon was taken aback by your sudden outburst. 

“If there’s someone I truly don’t know anymore, that is you, Leon. Even thinking if I should approach you for help is difficult for me because your attention was on Ada. Tell me the truth, Leon. Is there someone else? Is there someone else who captured your heart away from me?” 

              He didn’t reply to your question. Seeing you in this kind of situation hurts him. But he couldn’t lie to you. His silence is enough for you. With a deep breath, you turned away from him. 

“I can leave, if that’s what you want. I know you very much, Leon. As a rookie police officer, you wouldn’t ride the same boat with the person you are doubting. But mark my words, Leon…” You paused but Leon interrupted you. 

“You’re not leaving.” You turned to look at him and he was looking directly into your eyes. “We will survive this apocalypse together, I promise. Please, stay with us. For me….” 

               For his sake, you stayed. To not lose him, you swallowed your pride for him. Until one night… when you almost escape the damned city, things went wrong again. He broke his promise.

                You woke up from being knocked out and there you found yourself cuffed in a chair. You looked out to the glass window and found Leon heading to the helicopter with Ada. And the sound of zombies banging outside of the room you are in made you panic even more. So, you forcefully pulled your hands off the handcuffs. You kept pulling yourself and your wrists started to bleed. Tears fall from your eyes, struggling to be free. “Leon!” You yelled and winced in pain until you successfully freed yourself. You banged against the glass to gain his attention. 

           He did. He looked at you who was crying, scared of death. The banging of zombies against the door gets louder and you look at Leon with pleading eyes as blood stains the clear glass that was coming from your wrists. 

“Leon, don’t leave me here! Help me!” You screamed but Leon only looked at you with saddened eyes. 

              He had no choice but to leave you. Even if it hurts him to see you crying like a puppy, injured and terrified, there’s no other way but to leave with Ada. The woman in red noticed that Leon was looking in your direction. So, she held his hand and gave him an assuring smile. 

“Leon, I know that this is hard but you need to strengthen yourself…” 

              What breaks your heart more is that he smiled at her before proceeding to walk to the helicopter.  After connecting the dots, you realize they use you as the bait while they take the opportunity to escape. With that, anger rushed throughout your veins upon realizing that Leon just betrayed you. He betrayed you for Ada. Your hands clenched into fists while your wrists keep bleeding. 

             Leon gave you a last look and he saw nothing but pain and anger in your eyes as if you were cursing him for betraying you. There’s no point in turning back now. Call him selfish but he made up his mind…

          And so he rides the helicopter with Ada, leaving you, scared and alone. Soon, the zombies break into the room where you are in. You ain’t going to cry and let those zombies eat you alive. On that night, you vowed to yourself that no matter what it takes, you will get your revenge on them. You used all the weapons you can use just to survive even if you’re alone. 

           Remembering how you struggled to survive made your eyes teary. You don’t want to be as weak as the person you used to be. That night when Leon betrayed you, another persona came into you. It made you more powerful. Having Leon back makes you feel like meeting your past self. A naive, sweet, and caring young girl who was now looking at a sophisticated, high-class, elite, and exclusive prosecutor and a superior of the country’s most powerful agency, the CIA. 

            You put your glass down and the cigarette on the ashtray before removing your black leather gloves and looking at the scars on your wrists that were carved on your skin. You still can feel the pain those cuffs gave you. When you survived and escaped that damned city, you started wearing gloves, not wanting to see your scars. 

              Anger rushed down through your veins. You grabbed the glass and threw it away with a growl, creating shattering sounds. There, you broke into tears. You rest your head against the backrest while you drape your arm over your eyes as you weep. 

“I will make your life a living hell, Leon Kennedy.” You muttered under your breath before passing out.

—

            Leon, who was patiently waiting for you outside the VIP Room heard a shattering sound inside. And there he found you, sitting on the couch with your head resting against the backrest with an arm draped over your eyes. He sighed in relief that you were fine. 

“Is that how you throw tantrums?” He asked. You didn’t reply, not even moving from your position. Leon sighed again, realizing that you passed out. 

             The man approached you to pick you up but something caught his attention. Your scars. He moved closer to you and stared at your scars. It was carved around your wrists. Your skin was torn, he can tell that the cuffs he gave you back then have made you ruin your skin, desperate to escape. 

          Leon still remembers how you looked at him with a fire of rage in your eyes as your tears fell uncontrollably. When he looked at you during his introduction as your bodyguard, the flame was even worse behind your calm expression. The mystery of Prosecutor L/n's gloves is now finally solved. 

         Suddenly…

"Traitor…" Leon snapped back to his senses and looked at you. You are looking at him with hooded eyes. You stood up and grabbed your bag and gloves before walking to the door, without regretting telling him that. Because that's what he is.

—

To be continued...

[beware-thecrow]

I fucking hate BNHA The last panel about "granma is here" in fact further proves my point on another post of how empty and nonsensical BNHA became in the last arc because AfO wanting Tomura from the very beginning made impossible for him to be saved anyway, which means all his beef with the heroes became unjustified and his speech about violence and heroes and villains held no importance in the end. Why?

Because you cannot have a character built over the premise that society was so corrupt and selfish that put a little boy in the bad bad villain's reach for 5 arcs, to then say "oh, wait. He was fucked anyway because the bad bad guy was behind everything all along"

A bad bad guy not even all might in his prime could defeat, so it doesn't matter if people would or wouldn't help others. "It's all bad bad guy's fault anyway and he's practically immortal." Perfect, now we know granma didn't stand a chance against AfO, he planned this.

The whole idea of a society that relies on heroes too much instead of everyone doing their part from kindness falls like a house of cards if you have an evil so corrupt that none of said kindness will mean a thing. The moment Horikoshi went from "Tomura was found by AfO" to "Tomura was planned by AfO" the core theme of his series crumbled down. The league as a device lost its meaning, the characters that composed it became unjustified because whatever motivation they had was in fact a manipulation from the greater evil. And this applies to everyone.

What's the point in Toga and Twice calling out the lack of help for people with mental illness and problematic quirks if the message still is "If you do bad things out of despair no one will help you and you'll get killed." And yes, Toga died loved, Toga wanted to be loved, but she didn't wanted to die?? She was literally an abandoned child who found a family and ended up dying giving blood to the same girl she stabbed. And yeah, it's kinda poetic she died giving blood instead of taking it, but what was the point if she doesn't get to know she's loved? Further more, are we really to believe Ochako loved Toga? A girl she literally didn't know. Sorry, but once I got lost in a mall and a police officer helped me find my mom, that doesn't mean the officer loved me. And yeah, Ochako tried her best to be a good hero, but it's not about what the characters do, it's what the story tells you it happens with what they do. The story just told you the ill and abandoned die in the end before anyone helps them. And they die hunted by the police. What's the point of Touya as a whole? oh, wait. I know, it must be very awful for Endeavor to be such a bad person, his child ended up incapacitated. Very hard on Endeavor. Fuck Dabi being turned into a piece of charcoal, IT'S HARD ON HIS DAD.

What's the point in Spinner pointing out discrimination and people following him if in the end we got that he should have stayed in his lane, in his room, friendless because he only went out to be seen by someone who accepted him, just to have that person tortured in front of him before he was killed. And for what? For a teen to tell him "Yo, bro. I punched your bestie to death, make a comic about it. Btw you'll be staying in jail forever. So so sorry for you guys." Proving once again, murder is okay if you are on the right side of the story. No matter how much compassion, Tomura showed Spinner, or how much he suffered through life. Heroes had the right to kill him, and there was nothing Spinner (who legit loved his friend) could do about it because AfO had taken over. Again, another good character turned pointless, with a pointless point of view, with a pointless conclusion because he can tell the story of Tomura Shigaraki all he wants FROM JAIL, but under the public eye Tomura will go down as an insane mass murderer either way since looking at him in any other light would inevitably make a target of Izuku for killing him and that won't happen. You cannot have "the best hero ever" and "he killed this dude that was kinda right" in the same sentence. It doesn't make sense. Not to mention his case against discrimination went nowhere since everyone who followed him became a villain and the only person who actually makes a point about discrimination ends up being Deku on another, totally different chapter that had nothing to do with Spinner. And...he's a hero so he can say whatever he wants, we go back to "questioning bad, unless a hero says it" and "people are really that horrible in BNHA universe".

Tomura's case it's even more fucked because even when he said he didn't want a future, every single wish he had fell flat. His hatred for not being saved as a child proved to be out of anyone's control, his desire to destroy society didn't land because nothing really changed. There are still schools for child soldiers, and people are still not questioning the violence heroes use to keep the status quo, and certainly no one is wondering how is that a couple of heroes were able to kill a couple of villains (because so far Hawks still has a job). His friends ended up dead or locked away, and the child in him that begged to be saved ended up...being not. In the end, we got a suffering festival for Tomura, from his granma being pushed to drop her kid, his dad being tricked, his parents getting killed in front of him, Mon-chan and Hana's memory squeezed dry and young Tenko asking for help while Tomura was assaulted by his creepy guardian for 200 chapters straight just to tell us that Deku at sixteen was a great hero for putting a twenty one-year-old dissociated guy out of his misery like a euthanized dog. And for what? To finish a guy who was infatuated with his dead brother AND THAT COULD HAVE BEEN EXECUTED IN JAIL LIKE...300 CHAPTERS AGO, since the manga already made the point that villains can be executed with little repercussion, and it can be justified if said villain it's a threat. Then...why was AfO alive to begin with? Oh, I guess this is something we can trust to a 16 year old instead of... the government or whatever. And yeah, these are tragic figures, they certainly are, but you can hardly claim that they achieved anything in the end because the first premise of the league, why it was formed and why they joined was

To live as we want/are. And now they are dead, or locked away, or bedridden crispy for something that was planted by someone else from the very beginning. And what they believed didn't change anything in the end because it's not like the public saw them do something meaningful but, again, they are being told what to believe, by whom? BY THE HEROES. Are we really arguing that Iguchi's comic will change society? ARE WE FOR REAL????? Have you ever read the story of Jesus Christ? he died for our sins by Marvel. And on top of that as the last nail in the coffin to prove that NOTHING changed, Hawks really said rebranding + target audience =📈🤙🏼 StOnKS✨ I wish I was joking.

[whateversawesome]

Spy x Family Fic Compilation

Love Is... : After a practicing a 'welcome home' kiss with Yor, Twilight develops symptoms he had never experienced before: a rush of energy, good mood (when near his family), voracious appetite for his wife's cooking, aggressive behavior towards other men (who dare to come near his wife) and a desperate need to kiss Yor again. This is the first rut of his life. How will Twilight deal with this? (Multichapter. Completed!)

With Murderous Intent, I Love You: Yor and Loid meet before Operation Strix and fall in love, but have to separate. Later they find each other again aboard a cruise ship. Unfortunately, Loid is Yor's target. Based on Spy x Family Season 2 ED Music Video Todome no Ichigeki. (Completed).

Eden's Ball: A cute Twiyor Eden AU. Eden's Student Council is hosting the event of the year: a ball! This is the perfect opportunity for Loid Forger to finally ask Yor Briar to be his girlfriend. There's only one problem...he needs to ask her to the ball first (Two-shot, completed).

Fate: In this AU, Loid Forger and Yor Briar meet as children and are best friends who plan on spending the rest of their lives together. Nevertheless, they are separated after the bombing of their town. Years after the war, they find each other again in a very unlikely place. (Multichapter, completed)

The Rose: An alternate universe in which Twilight and Thorn Princess meet before Operation Strix. During a Governor's ball, Twilight faces the most important mission of his life: to steal the Thorn Princess. (Completed).

A Kissing Disaster: After their identity reveal, Twilight and Yor must navigate one important aspect of their relationship: intimacy. Twilight is more than ready for it, but Yor still lacks experience. Getting carried away can bring unexpected consequences. (Completed).

Addicted to Yor: Upon realizing he's become addicted to his wife, a very touch-starved Twilight resolves to stop touching her all the time. Will he succeed? Spoiler: No he won't. The man is hopelessly in love with Yor. (Completed).

Joint Mission: On the first joint mission between the Garden and WISE, Thorn Princess overhears something that makes her doubt her husband's love for her. Twilight's most important mission now is to reassure his wife. (Completed).

The Divorce: Twilight and Thorn Princess discover each other identities during a side mission. After that, Twilight knows his marriage is over. But can he go through with what needs to be done? (Completed).

Last Days of Operation Strix: Twilight can feel it: Operation Stix will soon be over. It's almost time for Loid Forger to die. He's supposed to have a clean exit like his other missions, but Strix is NOT like any other mission. As much as he tries to deny it, Twilight has been compromised. Now he needs to choose between his duty and his love for his family. (Multichapter. Completed!)

As a Real Family: A series of tooth-rotting fluff one-shots in non-chronological order in the same universe as Last Days of Operation Strix. Just some domestic fluff about the Forgers, including super cute Twiyor baby.

Until You Come Back to Me: (Actors AU/Eden AU) Everyone knew actors Yor Briar and Loid Forger had a long history together. But seven years ago they parted ways and moved on with their lives. Now Loid Forger is coming back to Ostania. Nobody knows he's now a spy for Westalis. His mission: To spy on Prime Minister Donovan Desmond. To achieve this, he'll have to get close to his former love, Yor Briar, and manipulate her into spying for him. His agency, WISE, was very clear to him: Do whatever it takes, whether is a heartfelt reconciliation, friendship, or even...seduction. (Major angst warning for this one).

Fake ID: In this Eden AU, teenagers Loid and Franky will do anything to get into a nightclub to see their favorite band. (A small prequel of Until You Come Back to Me). (Completed).

Also, thank you to all the artists who have crafted fanarts from these fics. I appreciate you and your beautiful art from the bottom of my heart 💖

@artbyluro

@juuyeah

@juuyeah

@astersugar

@pokianne

@giushia

[hazbin-but-good]

another hazbin hotel rewrite/redesign?

yup! and i'm so serious about it that i made a whole blog for it. i'm a white queer ex-cath tran doing this as an art and writing exercise, so feedback from other creatives + jewish and/or racialized folks is especially welcome.

i'm putting this post and only this post in the main tags for visibility. also, not gonna link my main, but i do make my own original stuff, and i encourage fans and haters alike to do the same.

anyway, here's a mostly good-faith 1.7k-word essay on the original. i think it's pretty funny and brings up some less talked-about points. correct me on the facts, disagree with my opinions, and ask clarifying questions, but don't come at me with any piss-poor reading comprehension.

the hellaverse is garbage, and here's why

cw: strong language, stronger opinions, intersectional feminist critical discourse analysis

1. vivienne medrano, the person

medrano was born as a well-off white-passing latina (salvadoran-american) in bougieass frederick, maryland. while attending new york's top art school, she got popular on deviantart-tumblr-twitter by being a prolific multifandom fujoshi furry who's more into ornamental character design than storytelling. upon graduation, she leveraged her fanbase and industry connections to make the hazbin and helluva boss pilots, get helluva made for youtube, and get hazbin made for amazon prime.

like every woman online, she gets harassed for no good reason, and as a certified autist, i will defend her right to be dumb, weird, annoying, and bad with words. however, there are legit reasons to criticize her:

racism, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, some antisemitism, past transphobia, past ableism

shitty boss, bad friend

cowardly, vindictive, manipulative, thoughtless behavior

skeevy friends

sucks at taking criticism

in short, i think she desperately needs a PR person and someone to clean up her digital footprint.

2. medrano's art

incurious

inauthentic

noncommittal

creatively stagnant

overindulgent, and the indulgence isn't even fun

shallow and childish framed as complex and mature

bland and boring framed as shocking and subversive

to be clear, i'm at peace with the existence of suckass art like this; i just think the money, attention, and praise it gets are unearned and should go to more interesting works, of which there are infinite.

medrano's had the time, money, and social cache to grow as an artist, learn from the best, and take creative risks, but she hasn't. if she truly has nothing more to offer, she should let her collaborators take the wheel, but she doesn't do that either. instead, she keeps getting more and more resources to make the same baby bullshit, and that pisses me off. she could be the nicest person ever, and this fundamental arrogance would still make her art blow.

stop with the pointless guilt: liking medrano's work does not make you stupid or evil. however, if you stay in the kiddie pool of culture, if you refuse to engage with a diversity of art, if the hellaverse is your point of reference for anything media-related, you can't expect to have your opinions on art, media, or culture taken seriously. you have not earned a seat at the table. you gotta hit the books first.

i cannot emphasize enough how much incredible stuff is out there if you're willing to look further than what social media and streaming services put right in front of you. if you come away from this blog having learned about just one new artist or piece of art, i'll be a happy camper.

3. the hellaverse

a. empty and confused

hazbin and helluva's content and marketing has no clear target audience. the subjects are inappropiate for teens, but the execution is too childish for adults, and lemme tell you what i don't mean by that, first.

not inherently inappropriate for teens:

sex and sexuality

violence, including when it intersects with the above

politics and religion

not inherently childish:

animation (any style)

comedy

episodic writing and/or loose continuity

young characters

fun, happiness, optimism, the power of friendship, cuteness, tenderness, sincerity, etc.

what i mean is that these shows are literally about adult characters who fuck, smoke, drink, do drugs, go clubbing, work full-time, manage their own finances, and deal with stuff like bureaucracy, sexual violence, domestic abuse, marriage, divorce, late adoption, and family estrangement.

however, none of these "adult" things are given enough specificity to create drama or comedy. it's all too stock, vague, flat, weirdly sanitized, and thus utterly banal—pure aesthetics on top of bad saturday morning cartoons. it's exactly what i'd expect from a sheltered disney kid who needs to log off and get into their local gay scene ASAP so their only contact with things like poverty, policing, addiction, and sex work stops being facile movies and TV.

if the shows were aware of this and played with it, that could be amazing, but they're not. they give you the mickey mouse version of the world with a straight face and then play looney tunes sound effects to try to make you laugh and sad_violin.mp3 to try to make you cry. now that's funny.

b. old and tired

let's make like americans and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. even within the confines of the USA, home of the hays code, the red scare, and reaganite propaganda, this neopuritan fascist state ruled by 1000 megachurches in a trenchcoat, the indie/underground animation scene has been doing crazier shit for decades. anti-war films in the 60's, bakshi movies in the 70's, the simpsons shorts and r-rated movies in the 80's, adult swim and MTV in the 90's, flash/newgrounds/youtube in the 00's, streaming in the 2010's—so what are we doing in the 2020's with this wet white rice drowned in expired ketchup? i feel crazy making this point because it's obvious if you've watched these things, but if you haven't, you're gonna be like "well, there's gotta be something new here". no! there isn't! in the words of jimmy "the scot" jordan, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

c. ideological purgatory

actually, there is one thing in these shows i've never seen before: the presbysterianism. shout out some interesting or at least intentional presbysterian art in the comments, because the way these ideas are presented here is not compelling. it just makes the rainbow neoliberalism even more confusing and contradictory.

i guess the big presbysterian things are protestanism, calvinism, and, uh, big church government? presbysterians, get your shit together. get your brand down. catholics have BDSM and vampires, evangelicals have TV and corporatism; what do you have? celtic crosses? no wonder medrano has such uninspired ideas on divinity.

d. queer deficiency

when i look at a piece of art, i ask myself: "what does this give me that i can't get from the hunchback of notre dame (1996)?" if the answer is as limp as "uhh, gay people, i guess", i can probably look for my gay shit elsewhere and rewatch the hunchback of notre dame (1996) in the meantime.

but let's say that you have no standards. you've been waiting for ages for a show about gays by the gays for the gays, and by god you're gonna get it. this is it! here we go! time for some

generic twink obliteration

male sexuality as aggression and dominance displays

WLW (sex and chemistry not included)

a couple straight femdoms

and the stalest sex jokes known to man

...yeah, it's not very queer. and by "queer", i mean "questioning or subverting gender norms (including sexual roles) within a given cultural context regardless of creator identity and intent". i'm not a queer studies scholar so LMK if there's a more specific term for this, but whatever you call it, it's not in the hellaverse much.

there's not even any transness, literal or metaphorical, just ancient drag jokes. i guess the writers thought we would've been too controversial. so much for an indie animation studio that prides itself in the diversity of its staff both above and below the line, bakshi-style. i wonder how medrano, a bisexual woman, would've felt if told that a lesbian main couple in hazbin would be "too controversial".

4. spindlehorse and the vivziepop brand

spindlehorse toons underpays its overworked staff and keeps outsourcing more and more labor to even more overworked freelancers overseas to cut costs. a rainbow sweatshop is still a sweatshop, and just because these practices may be "industry standard" doesn't make them any more ethical.

the studio has also been repeatedly accused by current and former employees and contractors of creating a hostile and abusive workplace. AFAIK, it still has no dedicated HR person, and victims are too afraid of retaliation like blacklisting and online harassment to speak out.

this is exactly the stuff that unions exist to prevent. as i'm writing this, the IATSE (the parent union of TAG, which is the parent union of all US animation unions) is negotiating with entertainment industry executives for better working conditions, and if the execs fuck around like last year, it's strike time again. so watch this space, voice your support, and don't cross any picket lines.

i hope spindlehorse unionizes, but until then and for these reasons, i don't think you should give money to the company.

first of all, all content on amazon-owned platforms is ok to pirate, and all youtube ads are ok to block. everyone involved in making the episodes has (or should have) been paid upfront, so you're not taking the bread out of anyone's mouth.

next, let's look at the succulent offerings of the official vivziepop merch shop:

$10 pins and keychains

$15 sticker packs

$20 mugs and acrylic cutouts

$25 shirts

$30 metal cards (not even tarot)

$40 lounge pants

$50 mini backpacks

random $80 skateboard deck

forgive my latin americanness, but this is all stuff you can get made by a local metalsmith, print/sublimation shop, or just crafty people in your life. it's cheaper, customizable, and better for the environment to skip all the shipping and packaging. also, not painting your own skateboard is poser shit.

the hazbin website also has $15 pins, one $20 keychain, and $6 trading card packs. people are weird about trading cards, so if for some reason you wanna gamble for a mass-produced bit of cardboard, plastic, and tinfoil, at least bulk-order for all the vivziepoppers in your area so it's less of a huge waste. better yet, trace the designs and make infinite bootlegs.

at the end of the day, buying merch is not activism. your bulk order of trading cards will not save any wage slaves from getting evicted from their overpriced studio apartments. however, the shop links you to all the credited artists/designers, and more of your bucks will actually reach them if you buy their designs directly, then turn them into body pillows or life-sized bronze statues or whatever the fuck.

go through the credits of any episode of helluva or hazbin, and you'll find even more creatives you might wanna support. get jinkx monsoon's albums on CD. subscribe to actually good artist, animator, and composer gooseworx. lots of voice actors now have patreon, cameo, or self-hosted pages where you can write better lines for their characters and have them read it. these things may not look as shiny as Official Merch™, but we all need less plastic shit and more culture anyway.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts year 2 day 6

Link stared at the boy he had just saved. He was...considerably younger than he had been minutes ago before the strange monster had attacked them and he feared that if he saw his reflection it would show something similar had happened to him.

Unfortunately, Links shield had broken in the impact of the attack and while he had protected himself from the blunt of it, he was still smaller than the black haired child he had jumped into the fray to save.

Link was not familiar with the language of this place, only knowing the boys name, and the name of the city they had been transported to: Gotham. He hoped the princess and her sages wouldn't panic too much when they discovered he was missing but he could feel through thier vows that the sages have already noticed something was wrong. Nonetheless, he had a child to protect and nothing was going to stop him from doing so, even being adopted by what Link believed was the king of this realm, Bruce Wayne

On the other hand, link had lost his childhood the moment he had drawn that sword, everything being stolen from him to prepare him to fight the calamity. He would not say no to having a belated childhood with nearly a dozen older siblings to protect him...did...did he even want to be found? Being found would mean he would have to return to Hyrule. To his old life.

He decided he did not want that.

Danny had similar thoughts. His parents never actually cared much, his best friends had abandoned him the moment Gregor came into the picture, and his sister never paid much attention to him either. He didn't have much of a life and the whole reason he had met elf boy and accidentally kidnapped him was because he was in the zone trying to vent his pent up aggression through beating the hell out of whoever and getting sucked through a portal a ghost had created to get rid of him.

Meeting Link was one the best things that had ever happened to him though he felt kinda wierd about the blond elf boy protecting him, especially since the little guy often killed his opponents, regardless of whether they where human or not, a fact that seemed to have the local furries fighters in a tizzy. I mean...they can't exactly beat up a small child but they can't let him keep doing what he's doing either but they can't put Link into the system cause him being a blond elf boy would make him a prime target for trafficking so adoption it was. Danny also had to be adopted too due to how attached Link was to him

[tinydefector]

Hello tinydefector!!! I wanted to say that I admire your work, especially the book "Human's effects". So could you please add Skids and Rodimus to the continuation of the book, I would really like to see them. Thank you for your attention.

Chaos on board - Human effects

Rodimus

Human effects masterlist

Prev

Next

Word count: 2.3k

Warnings: workplaces issues in space

__________

The Ambassador walks into the Ultra Magnus' office to see Megatron and Magnus both glaring at Rodimus and Daniel. "What have you two done this time? Did they go out asteroid surfing again? " They ask while making their way towards the table. As Megatron glared daggers across the table, Ultra Magnus heaved a long-suffering sigh at the newcomer's inquiry. "Worse than that, I'm afraid. It seems Rodimus and Daniel decided simulated space warfare was an... appropriate pastime." Magnus' field pulsed annoyance. 

Rodimus waved a dismissive hand, uncowed. "Aw, c'mon Mags! We were just having a little target practice in the hold, no harm done. How were we supposed to know the booster rockets were still online?"

Megatron growled deep in his intake. "You were supposed to conduct comprehensive safety checks on our cargo!." His field roiled with barely-leashed rage. 

Daniel scratched his head sheepishly. "He's, uh, not wrong. Things may have gotten a teensy bit out of hand" The ambassador pinched their brow ridge. "Let me guess. uncontrolled explosive devices in an enclosed space led to..."

"Minor structural damage and several singed circuits, yes," grated Magnus. 

A humourless smirk curled Megatron's dermas. "Appropriate punishment is in order, I believe." His tone left no doubt over the two delinquents. They were all just happy the third member of their party hadn't been present, less they all had to deal with Ratchet's wrath. 

Rodimus gulped. Daniel sank lower in his seat. The Ambassador groans in annoyance. "Daniel get back to the crew room. Your on restroom cleaning duties for the next Orn. And don't think complaining to David and Kyle is going to save you" they state. Daniel scurried from his seat, hands raised placatingly. "Yessir, right away sir! No complaining, got it." He backed towards the door, casting Rodimus an apologetic grimace. 

Rodimus merely flashed his signature cocky grin and finger-guns, to his friend. But Megatron's responding snarl and Magnus' deepening scowl boded ill for the speedster's fate. "Really, Rodimus, must you continue pursuing chaos and mayhem?" sighs their ambassador wearily. "One of these days your antics are going to get someone hurt, what were you thinking?"

"Are you questioning my leadership?" Rodimus shot back, before shrinking back into his seat as the other two mechs shoot him with a glare. Megatron loomed over the desk, a deep rumble echoes from his chassis as he does his best not to lose his temper at the prime. "Questioning implies there was leadership to begin with." He states it's not quite a sneer but his disappointment shows. 

Magnus nodded stiff agreement. "Reckless endangerment of crew and ship cannot be tolerated. You may be Co-captain of this vessel but the Ambassador and myself are responsible for the safety and security of all on board your vessel." Rodimus paled, grin faltering at the prospect of real punishment, Their optics held no mercy as sentencing began in earnest. Another incident to log in Rodimus' ever-growing file.

"Look Rodimus I don't really care what you do in your spare time but don't drag my crew into it. I'm responsible for each and every one of the humans on this ship. Do you realise how easily something could have gone wrong?" The Ambassador states while looking at the captain. Megatron growled irritably. "Spare us your coddling, Ambassador. Rodimus' 'antics' endanger us all. He's reckless, refuses to do his documentation, finds every opportunity to disappear from proper duties, Ultra Magnus and myself are the ones running the ship due to his inability to stick to a task."

Ultra Magnus nodded solemn agreement. "Recklessness cannot continue unpunished. I suggest confinement to quarters for the foreseeable future, with duties suspended."

But Rodimus' smile falls. "What! You can't just ground me. I'm not a fragging Sparkling! I said I was sorry, what more do you want?" He shouts out optics frantically looking between the three. Megatron's engine snarled. "Respect. Responsibility. Traits you've yet to demonstrate, Captain." He spat the title like an insult. 

"Enough!" The Liaison calls out loudly. "Rodimus you have been acting up recently, rather badly, why? It seems every time one of us turns our back you are sneaking off, tonight was my night off. I was having drinks with my crew and got called here because of this" they accuse, trying to find out what had Rodimus acting up. This wasn't  the first time either he had both Daniel and Traxies looped into his antics but so far been the most dangerous.

Rodimus shrank back slightly under the barrage, facade cracking. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Look, I know things have been... dicey lately. And yeah, maybe I've been pushing boundaries a bit more than usual? But I'm trying to enjoy myself, make others enjoy travelling with me. It's boring! I feel like I'm going nuts cooped up at a desk all cycle."

"So endangering lives is acceptable?" Megatron crossed his arms severely. 

“Have you any idea the amount of violations you have committed,  have you even read the list to your name?” Ultra Magnus grumbles, Rodimus looks at the table like a scolded child before the human sighs as they move closer. " Rodimus, can you actually read?" They ask, it was a slight hunch they had that he was acting up because of something with their reports and records. But he was showing signs similar to dyslexia and adhd. 

Rodimus stiffened. "What kind of insult is that?! Of course I can read - I'm the Prim- friggin' Captain, aren't I?!"

Megatron snorted slightly amused. "A fact that continues to astound and dismay in equal measure."

But the human ambassador remained focused on Rodimus. "Then perhaps the issue lies not in your duties, but how you process them. Reading reports and records can be tedious for some."

They pulled up a datapad, flipping through screens. "Let's test your comprehension. Can you summarise the contents of this supply requisition?"

Rodimus grimaces at the screen, he hates it. "Aw c'mon, do I have to? That stuff's so boring" 

Magnus rumbled a subtle warning but their ambassador kept Rodimus pinned with a stare. With a huff and whine from his engine, Rodimus gave in and began squinting at the pad. Silence fell as they watched him struggle to parse the words, tangling meanings and figures alike. 

"OK, so paperwork is hard for you, why haven't you brought this up to one of us?" They inquire this time not as annoyed. The move to sit down on the table near him. Rodimus shifted uncomfortable under the others' piercing stares. His plating flared in embarrassment as never before. "I didn't... it's not like..." He vented harshly, the truth forcing its way free at last. "Reading's always been hard, okay? The words jumble and my processors ache if I have to focus too long." 

He refused to meet their optics, ashamed to show such perceived weakness. "Why did you not come to us for aid?" Megatron asked, the anger in his voice had faded. "There is no shame in acknowledging limitations, Rodimus, but causing chaos over something that can simply be solved with changing who does the documentation."  

Rodimus' intake worked furiously. "Because... because I'm the Prime, the Captain! I'm supposed to have it all together, be the fearless leader. How can they follow me if they think I'm.. Everyone except me too know everything! I'm not Optimus. Im out here to not have to be in his shadow! ” he finally lets out before he sulks into his arms. 

The others go quiet as they watch the dishevelled speedster. 

"I'm willing to help you with taking inventory and trade bargains, but no more dragging Daniel or Traxies into your silly endeavours, understand?, are one of you able to help him with reports to cybertron and earth over different routes for trades and out travel logs" They inquire firstly to Rodimus and then to the other two mechs. 

He straightened with surprise. "You...you'd help me? Really?" His optics darted between the human and his Co-captain and enforcer. 

Magnus nodded. "Orders and logs require diligent documentation. Traversing trade routes necessitates mathematical prowess. I am equipped to handle them." 

Megatron gave the barest nod. "And I am...familiar with navigating bureaucracy. Of log reports and records" 

The meeting concludes after a while  the human stands there waiting for a moment. "Rodimus walk with me" they called out to the speedster waiting for him to begin walking beside them. Rodimus glanced up from shuffling pedes. "I...yeah. Yeah, okay." He nodded, falling into stride beside the human. His fields pulsed anxiety and gratitude in equal measure. 

Silence fell as they walked the halls, Rodimus casting furtive glances at them as they flick through the data padin hand. "You're not the first person I've worked with who has trouble reading or even understanding stuff" they remark as they begin heading to Swerve's. It takes Rodimus a little off guard that they were going to the bar. "Plus you owe me drinks after pulling me away from my night off" the human tease.

Rodimus perked up in surprise as they angled their path towards Swerve's bar. His cooling fans kicked on at the human's casual revelation and teasing quip. "Wait, seriously? There are others who struggle like me?" He asked slightly shocked. They hand the pad to Rodimus. “have a look at the screen and tell me if having a dark mood helps with being able to read stuff.” They tell him. He accepts the tablet as they walk into the bar. Optics flick to them watching like hawks as they find seats. 

“ it's easier to read some stuff still going to give My processors a short circuit tho” he grumbles slightly. They nod in understanding. “ we will working something out but that's for tomorrow” they hum as they both pull up to a table. Rodimus lifts them up to the bench where they fall into one of the human sided seats on the table. 

 "Look, about earlier - I really am sorry I dragged your crew into that mess. You deserve a break." Optics in the bar shoot to Rodimus and the Ambassador. All of them watched with vented breath after the earlier drinking session with the human's. Rodimus' plating twitched self-consciously under the weight of so many curious stares from within. But beside him, the human ambassador didn't seem fazed by the stares. 

Rodimus leaned in close. "Seems everyone's watching us. Primus, you'd think we spawned a sparkling the way they're gossiping!" He grumbles looking into the drink swerve slides in front of him before the mini bot disappears. The ambassador chuckled. "Don't mind them. Think everyone's letting the high grade and energex go to their head" the Ambassador states. "Plus my crew were here earlier having drinks and got a little out of hand, Nadia was talking about 'taking a mech for a ride' " they chuckled into their own drink.

Rodimus sputtered on his energon, cooling fans kicking into high gear at the risqué implications. His plating rippled in scandalised delight.  "Taking a mech for a ride, huh?!” His fans kicking on had made a few other mechs snicker from other tables. Across the bar, curious optics remained glued to their table, The speedster leaned on an elbow, optics filled with wonder.

"So which poor mech caught the little lady's optic?. " it was barely above a whisper. His engine rumbled warmly. “she had her eyes set on Swerve, I honestly think she was just trying to get free drinks" they call back in amusement.  But it makes Rodimus' processor go wild at the thought. The humans were just as interested in bedding a bot and the rest of the crew was with the humans. 

"Clever little thing, your Nadia! Far be it from me to judge creativity in scamming a drink or two." He mumbles, feeling the energex hitting him hard. He had suspected that Swerve must have given him a triple boost. 

So many of the other bots in the bar are still watching him and listening in on the conversation, eager to see if the rumours Kyle had spread earlier were true. "Oh Nadia is a very clever schemer. I'd say watch out for her and Millian they're thick as thieves kinda like you Daniel and Traxies. Just as much trouble makers" they chuckle as they finish their drink.

He cycled a gusty vent and pushed his empty cube away, coming to a reluctant conclusion. "As much as I'd love nothing more than to keep yakking all night, you should probably call it and get some recharge. You looked tired. I'm going to have one more round before I head to berth. Magnus is gonna have me on inventory or worse with him tomorrow," Rodimus shuddered theatrically at the thought.

 "But we should definitely do this again real soon. This was nice, and um thank you. For you know helping me" it's a rather shy reply which has them giving him a smile. "Enjoy your night captain, I'm most likely heading back to my room soon. Getting late and I plan on actually sleeping in my bed and not a desk tonight" they state while standing up. Joints popping slightly.

Once Rodimus had helped them to the ground they flahs him another smile “Good night Rodimus I'll see you tomorrow " they state as they make their way towards the door of the bar. He's sat there for a moment his spark fluttering as he watches them. before he gets a ping from swerve and other bots asking the gossip. He goes to get up and leave the bar before be can get bombarded with questions only to get cornered by Swerve. 

"A-hem! And just where do you think you're off to in such a hurry, Captain?" Swerve's cheery voice broke Rodimus from his musings as the gathered bots closed in, optics alight with curiosity and engex-loosened daring. A blush swiftly rose in Rodimus' plating, though he straightened with false bravado. "Just turning in for the night, mechs, as should you all” 

Catcalls and laughs erupted from the crowd. "Aw, no need to play coy, Roddy!" laughed Tailgate. "We all saw you chumming it up with the Ambassador - spill the goods!"

Rodimus cycled a sigh. They'd get it out of him one way or another. Best tell it himself and save some shred of dignity intact. "Alright alright, you buzzards! I'll tell you what really went down..." 

________

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[unluckiestmember]

Hiiii.

Could we get a good old best friends to lovers with Hobie and opposite reader? Idk I think he would be so awkward lmao

Coming right up!

Best Friends to Lovers: Hobie Brown X Fem! Reader

Characters: Hobie Brown

Tags: Friends to lovers, meet cute, fluff, nervous! Hobie, Hobie being Hobie, anarchy, awkwardness, denial and reassurance.

Warning: None. SFW.

A/N: I bet Hobie would make a cute boyfriend, minus the fact that he'd probably have us end up in jail every week or two-

You and Hobie became friends when you two met at a rager.

He thought you were cute rocking out. You thought he was cute causing mayhem.

After that night, the both of you would spend time together raising havoc in the UK and pissing off the Prime Minister.

Unlike other Spider-Men, he didn’t hesitate to inform you he was Spider-Punk.

He would mindlessly flirt with you when he wasn’t doing hero work and playfully pushing your buttons just to get a reaction.

You believed he was just being funny at first and so did he.

But then days you hung out turned into weeks.

Then months.

And soon years.

And as those years passed, a strong emotion brewed within Hobie targeted towards you.

Now his flirting would be more intimate when he wasn’t busy trying to correct his own words.

He would start to act like the men he mocked daily on those rom-coms and soap operas you watched for giggles.

If he made a mistake, he wouldn’t own it, he would actually say sorry and stumble over himself.

It was kind of cute, in a funny way, but also confusing.

Why was he acting like this around you, you wondered?

You let it keep going until it started to affect his hero work terribly.

His chill nature sort of depleted and his calculations would be thrown off if you were around him.

Again, it was cute. Until it wasn’t.

Eventually, you sat him down to talk about it and he told you the route of the problem;

You. He had fallen in love with you.

You never expected Hobie Brown, entitled anarchist and supposed man who had zero cares in the world, to fall in love with you.

But he did.

He was scared you would reject him.

So imagine his cute shocked face when you said you felt the same.

The man went into a fit of laughter when he realized how easily all this awkward energy could have been avoided if he just spoke up.

But no use crying over spilled milk!

You two started dating and Hobie got his groove back!

But it still makes you laugh at your boyfriend when he gets giddy around you sometimes.

He was your cute little anarchist.

Spider-Verse Requests are open!

Likes and retweets are always appreciated! I love you all, stay hydrated and have a good day! <3

[unreleasedwrites]

May I request Gen 0 + 1 (plus Gun and Goo) when they have had a crush on somebody since highschool (highschool sweetheart)?

Thanks!!!! (keep up your good work)

drabbling about lookism characters with their very own highschool sweethearts and highschool crushes

pov: lookism characters having a crush on you during and since highschool; and as highschool sweethearts

character(s) included: Gapryong Kim, Elite, Jinyeong Park, Tom Lee, Baekho Kwon, Beolgu Lee, Mujin Jin, Gitae Kim, James Lee, Jichang Kwak, Taesoo Ma, Gongseob Ji, Jaegyeon Na, Seongji Yuk, Park Jonggun, Joongoo Kim

cw: my opinion, they’re all in their prime / highschool, mentions of teasing, stalking, some parts are female reader, 3 variants per scenario, red flags, hints of yandere for the last variant, most characters are repeated on purpose (because it really depends on how you view the character hehe)

unwrapped on: Friday Midnight, June 28 2024

wrapped up on: Sunday Midnight, June 30 2024

published on: Sunday Morning, June 30 2024 (at around 11 am)

As A Current Crush

tries ignoring his feelings

This man is in DENIAL. Or even if he’s reached the point where he is no longer in denial, he still refuses to let you know about it. At first, he would notice how much he genuinely likes spending time with you. Until it slowly progresses, he starts taking mental notes of all the little things he’s picked up on you. From how you get to school or what you typically drink in the morning, to how you usually spend your evenings. But he wouldn’t drop hints of his little crush on you. Nonetheless, he would do his absolute best to continue spending time with you as mere friends— putting aside his growing feelings for you.

James Lee, Jichang Kwak, Taesoo Ma, Seongji Yuk, Jaegyeon Na, Park Jonggun

will confess after little to no thought

Oh this man is CONFIDENT. He’ll let his feelings sit with him for a while until he can’t take it anymore. The constant reminder he gets of you wherever he goes is slowly driving him insane. Given his ego, he can’t bare to crumble over some girl who most likely doesn’t care about him. He’ll have to confirm with himself first if he really does like you that much, then once he can finally bring himself to accept that he does like you, he’ll confess his feelings in high hopes that you wont reject him. Which, considering his experience with girls, he likes to think that you most definitely won’t and couldn’t even.

Gapryong Kim, Jinyeong Park, Tom Lee, Beolgu Lee, Mujin Jin, Gitae Kim, James Lee, Gongseob Ji, Jaegyeon Na, Joongoo Kim

avoids you at all costs

This man doesn’t want anything to do with you. He will bluntly push you ASIDE. It doesn’t matter who or what you are to him, he’s got better things to do and bigger plans that doesn’t have you in it. Sure, it might also be that he isn’t ready or is unsure, but for the most part— which he would never admit to anyone, he simply doesn’t want you getting involved in the shenanigans he’s involved in. He knows he’s either got a bad reputation or a torn image on many, so he’s also realized that you’d be put into danger if he were to grow close to you. Which is why he ignores you, avoids you, and shows no signs of liking towards you.

Elite, Jinyeong Park, Baekho Kwon, Mujin Jin, James Lee, Jichang Kwak, Seongji Yuk, Park Jonggun

As Current Highschool Sweethearts

loyal and caring

Some might think that this guy enjoys bouncing from girl to girl, flirting with every lady he might come across, and spending his nights with every girl that lets him, but he’s not. Stereotypically, it might make sense but if in this scenario, he genuinely thinks that you’re for keeps, he wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you. He may seem pretty distant publicly but he’s all over you when you two are alone. This is partly because he doesn’t want you becoming a target in his dirty work, and partly because he’s not into pda. But nonetheless, he would do his very BEST in the relationship to make sure it lasts and you’ll be his only one.

Elite, Baekho Kwon, Mujin Jin, Jichang Kwak, Taesoo Ma, Jaegyeon Na, Seongji Yuk

keeping it lowkey

This guy simply doesn’t want people knowing about the two of you. He acts so distant in public that no one could ever assume that you two are actually such sweethearts in private with each other. Just like the others, he doesn’t want you getting involved in his fights and becoming an easy target for whoever is against him. But he also just doesn’t want to publicly display your guys’ relationship YET, it’s not in the way that he doesn’t want people thinking you’re together but he simply doesn’t want any rumors and bad news to stem from the two of you— due to his reputation of course. But dw, he is loyal and caring!!

Elite, Jinyeong Park, James Lee, Taesoo Ma, Jaegyeon Na, Seongji Yuk, Park Jonggun, Joongoo Kim

cheats on you

Why would you even say yes to this idiot..? He’s a ladies man for who knows what reasons. Has never heard of commitment and what a real relationship is supposed to be like. He likes to think that because he’s in highschool, he’s still young and he’s meant to enjoy every last bit of it— which is why he spends it with any girl he can. It’s probably already known that he doesn’t want to hold a relationship but if he seemed sincere to you and you fell for that, then you’re in for a one day or maybe even a one week relationship with this guy. Doesn’t care about the aftermath or what’s bound to happen, he’s just there to have a good time.

Gapryong Kim, Tom Lee, Beolgu Lee, Mujin Jin, Gitae Kim, Gongseob Ji, Park Jonggun, Joongoo Kim (gun and goo are red flags girlies, we gotta face it 😭)

As a crush but never a thing since highschool

watches you from afar

This man will STALK you. Now that you two are adults and are no longer in highschool, you two have lost all contact with one another, or so you thought. He knows your life better than you do from subtly being in the same place as you or having some other people do so. He would never want you to recognize him though, which is why he does his best to stay hidden. He’ll rely on whatever information he can get out of your socials, until he finally finds you and has your complete address, workplace, all of your friends and family, and information of yourself that you didn’t even know about.

Gapryong Kim, Elite, Tom Lee, Mujin Jin, Gitae Kim, James Lee, Taesoo Ma, Gongseob Ji, Park Jonggun, Joongoo Kim

will suck it up and finally confess after all these years

He HATES himself for not doing this sooner. All the wasted time you two could have spent together. But he isn’t even certain on whether or not you’d reciprocate his feelings. Of course, theres only one way to find out— he’s got to finally tell you. He had his reasons for not speaking up about it sooner and he was hoping that he wouldn’t feel this way anymore after all of the years that has passed. Yet, his feelings are still here, he has liked you since high school and he’s hoping you might have been in the same situation as him. He’ll go all out without making it too big of a deal in confessing.

Jinyeong Park, Baekho Kwon, Mujin Jin, Jichang Kwak, Taesoo Ma, Gongseob Ji, Jaegyeon Na, Seongji Yuk, Joongoo Kim

would slowly start isolating you from other people

He has thought about doing the last two. But he still prefers his own idea; keeping you all to HIMSELF. Without your knowledge— he has actually been watching you ever since highschool was finished. He specifically planned to “suddenly run” into you and strike a conversation just after you finished your shift. And you, thinking you just ran into an old classmate, fall for all of his little tricks. Not knowing what you were getting yourself into. He and you eventually start dating and he slowly “shelters” you from the outside world. He promises he’ll keep you safe, he’s all you’ll ever need and that anywhere without him is far too dangerous.

Elite, Gitae Kim, James Lee, Park Jonggun, Joongoo Kim

notes: i didn’t include every single character in those gens because we didn’t know much of anything abt them and i didn’t think anyone would want them 😇🤨 i also didnt know how to write this in a diff way so i made it into a drabble because its just so much people 😇 But either way, I hope the anon who requested this still likes it 😓

also tysm to the anon who requested this!! 😭😭 I’m so used to writing for gen 2 only so this was a fun experience 💝

This has been sitting in my inbox for a while now so i apologize 💔

- With or without proper credits, please don't try to steal or claim any of my works as your own

I genuinely appreciate any feedback like comments, likes, reblogs, and requests

Once again, I hope this isn't too bad and I wasn’t sure if this anon wanted a drabble or something else, so im sorry !! 😭

[sehtoast]

Tender Threads Ch 9 (Homelander x OC)

chapter nine: awakenings

chapter directory | slow burn, hurt/comfort, fluff, spidersona as original character, original trans male character, smut, sublander

summary: the world hasn't always been good to you, has it, little spider?

warnings: this chapter contains attempted/foiled SA against a minor, recollections of SA by a main character, and themes of hate-crimes

“– and now that menace is trying to corrupt our greatest hero!”

He fades into the world before his eyes even open.  There’s an awareness of most things.  A body beside him, fuzzy blankets beneath the palm of his hand, a pillow that his face is half sunken into, warmth…

“These arachnid types are all the same!”

And that damn voice…

He blinks slowly, eyelids heavy with the weight of rest the likes of which he hasn’t had in… well, he doesn’t know, really.  Before him is his little spider, phone aloft in his limp hand playing on the lowest volume setting and looping what seems to be a podcast of some sort.

“Junkies, thieves, dangers to society!”

Despite the vitriol, Benjamin seems to have fallen back asleep.  Homelander slips the phone out of his hand and squints.  8:45 in the morning… not quite time to start their day, but certainly a lot later than he normally sleeps.  Not that it matters terribly much.  Friday meetings always happened later in the day.  Other than a photoshoot at two, their day was mostly clear.  

Mostly.

“And now one’s in The Seven!  What were they thinking!?”

The Bugle.  Some low ranking news podcast channel he’s heard of in media demos that constantly begs for him to come on as a guest.  Homelander rolls his eyes.  This guy was less than shit in grass, but, all things considered, shit served more of a purpose.  Just a washed up old editor for a disbanded newspaper company whose name he recycled shortly after they had to close up shop.  Desperate for anything that could lift his views, even if it was just a rank amateur D-lister from some shithole like Cleveland.

Jonamy Ameson was no ordinary angry old man, it seemed.  As Homelander scrolled the VTok page, it appeared that he had a massive personal vendetta against Spider-Man.

“I don’t want that kind of filth swinging around the streets of this great city– nay, this great nation!” 

Every word was shouted with all of the poise of a tantruming child, fists slammed on his desk to rattle the cheap microphone, fingers pointed into the camera.  If the video wasn’t about Ben, about Spidey, it was about Webweaver, Silk Strider, Arachno-Lad– basically any spider type hero was ripe for the picking, but Ameson’s prime target was always Spidey.  

Interesting… 

“To think Homelander would allow such filth on his team!  The lawlessness of it makes me want to simply vomit!” 

Maybe it was worth booking a slot on his little budgetless production to put Ameson in his place.  For now, though… He has Ben’s phone.  Ben’s unlocked phone.  A quick glance finds the bug still out cold, so he gets to work.

Homelander was no aficionado with technology, but he knew one thing.  A person’s cell phone was an absolute gold mine of secrets.  Texts, photos, search history, all sorts of little obscure things he hasn’t been able to deduce from his secret visits and late night observations.

He starts with texts.  The second to last person Benjamin had texted was his mother and, from the looks of it, the conversation hadn’t been pleasant.

-please talk to your brother. he loves you -

-he’s got a real funny way of showing it - 

-he just doesn’t know how. you’re not being nice -

-the last time i talked to him he made sure to accuse me of being part of ‘tranny predator cabals’ but sure, *i’m* not nice -

The conversation seemed to have died there two days ago.  He backs out and opens the most recent.  In it, he finds Benjamin’s chats with his apparent best friend– the same one Homelander watched him have lunch with so long ago.

-i made Homelander mad, idk what to do -

-Duuuuude -

-help 😭😭 i don’t want him pissed at me! -

-I thought you’d want him at a distance after the stalking bullshit -

-i meaaan a few weeks ago yeah, but not really now yk? he’s not bad. kinda cool actually. you seen the pics yet of us running around together?

-Just that one from the other day with the car thieves -

The rest is… interesting.  Ben told of their excursions. Of how scared he was the first time they flew but how he’s started loving it so much– how he’s embarrassed to ask but wants to see if ‘Homie’ would ever bring him up above the clouds at night.

-idk does that sound weird? it might be weird -

-It’s a little weird bro. Shit sounds a lil romantical ngl -

-😭😭 -

A little night trip, eh?  He could do that…  But a romantic flight?  That was… something else.  That the bug didn’t deny it was worth a raised eyebrow or two.  Maybe… No.  No, no… he shouldn’t entertain the thought.  But maybe…

He shakes his head to clear his mind.

Benjamin’s gallery is little more than wanted signs and missing person posters, with maybe a shot or two relevant to his actual life.  A few screenshots of stupid social media posts, a picture of the menu from Patsy’s Pizza…

He’s so fucking ordinary.

Homelander half expected to find rantings and ravings about how much the bug detested their time together.  Something to undermine and dispel the illusion of all of this strange kindness.  Hell, he was even hoping to find a nude or two to send to himself and delete the evidence of such from Benjamin’s phone right after– but there’s nothing.  Even his social media is clean.

With a sigh, expelling emotions he can’t even name, Homelander leans over the bug to place the phone on the nightstand.  And that’s fine until he realizes how close that makes them.  The strangest shiver goes down his spine– a need to curl his arm around Ben’s abdomen and tug him nearer and sink into his very existence.

Their faces are so close.  He can practically taste Ben’s breath and he hardly hates that it carries that morning-time smell with only a whisper of the bug’s toothpaste of choice.  His nose should be scrunching in disgust. Every part of him should be reacting that way.  Instead, he stares at Ben’s lips, imagines what it would be like to slot a leg between his and entwine their limbs.

He’s never woken up beside someone before.

Maeve never stayed.  Never wanted to.  The rare fan usually left right after, was far too fucking annoying to keep around, or just… didn’t survive the prior events.  Even in the more innocent sense, like now, he’s never had this. 

What are you doing to me..?

He leans in closer.

Closer… 

The slightest nudge would touch their lips and he’d know if this was all just his mind playing tricks on him or if it was something… 

Something else. 

The fact Benjamin hasn’t startled awake yet is a miracle.

Homelander’s breaths grow unsteady, chest beginning to rise and fall faster and harder, heart hammering within. There’s something forbidden about it all.  A fruit too sweet to taste that screamed for him to do it anyway.  Could he stop himself?  

Should he?

Eve cast mankind from paradise with a mere bite.  Would the same happen here?  If those gentle eyes happened to flutter open and catch him in the act, would he too be thrown from heaven?

He has to know. He has to fucking know right now.

He flinches the moment their lips touch.  It’s as if Benjamin is pure electricity jolting through his very bones, fire through his veins, air in his lungs and it’s all from a mere brush of flesh.  Homelander’s eyes roll and flutter shut.  He goes back a second time, firmer.  It’s a sensation running hot and cold through his entire body all the to the fog of his mind.

He doesn’t move.  Doesn’t glide his lips further nor allow his tongue to swipe out.  He just lingers there, letting every sensation lap at the shores of his heart, mind, and soul.  It was like water in the desert. Food for a man starved.  Freedom for a caged dog.

Pulling away is the hardest thing he’s ever done.  But he can’t risk it.

He cannot be cast out from Eden.

Meetings had gone from a sore spot of anxiety to no more than a time to daydream.  There wasn’t much to it.  Homelander did the same-old-same-old.  He’d ask about saves, about marketing, about media projects, all the regular stuff.  This time, though, he gets to gloat.

“Well, the bug and I got up to some mischief with a few groups of undesirables this past week.”  He says proudly, shoulders back as he preens before the lackluster attention of the team.  “Media’s been eating it up, Home-Spider's been trending for three days straight. Our approval rates hit a hundred percent this morning.  That’s how it’s done, team. ” 

Homelander’s so giddy– happier than usual by a long shot.  Ben wonders what’s gotten into him.  Even their morning together had been incredibly upbeat.  Granted said morning was a matter of waking up, having a laugh about the absurdity of having had a sleepover without discounting that it was actually enjoyable, offering Homelander a lackluster breakfast of cereal– which he politely denied, and seeing him off as he floated back to his penthouse to get put together for the day. But still. 

Waking up beside him had been interesting.  Seeing Homelander with his eyes shut, sleeping peacefully without a trace of stress, sourness, or even a distant, distracted mind warping his expressions was… 

Well, it certainly brewed a nice warm feeling in the bug’s chest.  The entire fact Homelander had shown up last night took Ben totally by surprise, but it spurred the strangest tidal wave of joy.  Maybe because the ice cream apology worked out, but also just knowing he’d flipped the man who once threatened to ruin his life over to a friend was a source of happiness in its own right.  But it was somehow more.

For so long, Ben’s only friend had been Jase. There was only so much the bug could pester him before he would start to feel like a nuisance.  He’s lost so many people to having a dual life and hiding himself.  All the events he’s walked out on to do the right thing, all the people he’s left behind, every text detailing how his absence was too hurtful to tolerate anymore… and even just the relationships that died naturally.  

Although he was, at first, a suffocating force, Homelander has become the freshest breath of air Benjamin has breathed in a very long time.  Strange how the man who destroyed his perfect balance could become such a thing.

“Now,” leather clad hands come down on Ben’s shoulders and jar him from his thoughts.  The grip is gentle– kind, even. “Spidey and I have to get a move on to cover our obligations, but I fully expect to hear good things from everyone when we meet again on Tuesday.”

Once upon a time Ben would have expected those hands to be slowly crushing his bones in a display of dominance, but they do nothing of the sort. In fact, one drops and Homelander splays the other between Ben’s shoulder blades.  Benjamin looks up and smiles, glancing to the side occasionally to watch the others depart.  Maeve’s lingering gaze doesn’t go unnoticed, but he brushes it off.

“We’ve got that photoshoot next, yeah?”  He asks.

Homelander nods.  “Then some more district patrols. Oh, I’ve got a surprise for you too, but you’re gonna have to wait.”

“You wha–” 

“Ah, ah.  No spoiling it.”  Homelander says with a wag of his finger.  “Now, go do whatever it is a spider does.  I’ve got a quick meeting with Madelyn before we leave.”

“Wait, like– it’s a good meeting, right?”  

“Of course, silly.”

Silly?  That’s a new one.

“Just make sure you’re on the roof when I’m done, ‘kay?”  Homelander leans in, brow arched, voice softer and deeper.  “Otherwise I’ll have to hunt you down.”

Ben’s brows raise and his cheeks tingle with a warmth that spreads a little faster through his body than he’d care to admit. “In that case, c-can I just… give you my number then?”  Smooth. “Not to like, y’know– it’s so you can tell me when you’re done and I can–”

“Mm,” Homelander hums, pulling a phone out from god knows where in his suit.  “That sounds like a super idea, actually.”  He leans against the table and hands it off, eyes locked with Ben's.  “Go ahead, put it in.” 

Woah… is he– why’s he being so…

The bug taps away to create the contact, sends himself a message, and hands it back.  Homelander peers at the screen for a moment before snorting a little laugh.  Probably because of the contact name.  

‘Ben 🕷️ 🤠’ 

“Behave yourself, Benjamin.” Homelander says as he stands once more, turning on his heel to leave.  He gets to the door’s threshold before he turns back. “Oh, and don’t put my name in your phone as something weird.  You fuckin’ Gen Z’s are always doing that.”

Oh, now it’s just pure fucking temptation.

“No promises.  Homie.” 

“Hope you didn’t blink.  That’d just make us look bad.”

“I’m wearing a mask, you dipshit!” Ben cackles, releasing one web to tether another.  “What if you blinked, huh?”

“Please,” Homelander scoffs as he floats along.  “I’m perfect.  I would never do such a thing.”

“Suuure. I bet.”  The bug lets off at just the right angle to land on a low building.  On the streets below, students were just letting out from a nearby high school and their far-off chatter filled the air around them.  

Homelander touches down right next to Ben and shoots him a smug look.  The teasing had been going on back and forth since they first left Vought Tower.  Nothing crazy.  In fact, it had all been perfectly good natured.

The day had been absolutely wonderful.  They’d even snagged some churros once the shoot ended and ate them on top of the Empire State Building.  Of course, Homelander complained about the low quality of the ‘meal.’  He was, after all, a man of refined tastes accustomed to steak and lobster and whatever other fancy-pants cuisine the chefs on floor twenty-two cooked up.  

“What, you didn’t know you could do custom orders?”

“No!” Ben whined.  “The fuck?  You mean you can just get anything, and it’s like– it’s free!?”  

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Homelander asked, giving the street vendor food a concerned sniff.

“‘Cuz it’s fuckin’– it’s so fancy, dude!”  The bug throws his head back in theatrical agony.  “My god, I’ve been eating lunchables and ramen this whole time.  What the hell...”

“I don’t– why the fuck would it even matter if cost anything?  It’s not like you’re poor anymore.”

“Old habits, Homie.” Ben gripes.  “Once you’ve lived off’a jarred marinara and dollar store spaghetti for a month because you fucked up your budget, you just kinda get conscious of spending, y’know?”

“Nope.”  Homelander snorts.  “I would not know.  That sounds disgusting.”

“Mm.” Comes a hum that breaks Ben from the joyful memory.  “Sounds like a kerfuffle closer to the school.”

“Wanna check it out?” 

“Just kids,” Homelander says.  “Sounds like the pecking order is just establishing itself.”

The bug just looks at him.

���Fine.”  Homelander grabs Ben at the waist and propels them into the air, zipping all the way to a rooftop overlooking some rank alleyway where a gaggle of youths jeered at another, shoving him back and forth between the circle they’d formed around him.  

“Let’s see it, pussy boy!”

“C’mon, you say you’re a real man!  Shouldn’t be that hard to prove it.”

A girl stands off to the side, phone pointed at the scene while she laughs in gleeful joy.

Ben jumps down with no care to slow his fall. The concrete crackles below him, drawing away all the attention. 

The crowd parts with gasps of awe and horror, and in the center is an older boy frozen in place, hands mid-tug on a younger boy’s shirt.

Benjamin inhales deeply, holds it, then lets it go.  They’re kids– remember that they’re just kids.

The girl holding the phone points it in his direction, quaking.  With a thwip, he snags it from her, throws it to the ground, and crushes it under his heel.  Rage brews in his gut like a poison.  He’s almost confident his knees are trembling almost as much as his balled fists.  It’s all but a mirror fucking image of himself...  Tears bite at his eyes and it takes all he’s got to swallow the lump in his throat between the grinding of his teeth.

The kids flinch with his first step toward them.  By the second, they’re inching their bodies to turn for their inevitable dash from the scene of the crime.  All Ben wants is to grab each of them by the neck and throttle them senseless for what they were doing.

“Go.”  He grits.  “Get the fuck out of here!”

Normally, seeing them throw one another to the wolves and every-man-for-himself-ing it would be amusing.  But not this.  Not now.

The boy they’d been after sniffles and tugs his jacket back in place, zipping it quickly to hide the torn neckline of his shirt that had revealed a garment Benjamin knew all too well.

“Hey it’s– don’t worry now, okay?”  He stammers, approaching slowly.  “They’re gone, and they ain’t coming back.  This yours?” Ben asks, nodding his head in the direction of scattered books, paper, and a crumpled bookbag.  His heart hurts ten times worse when he spots the little pink, blue, and white pride pin dangling from a zipper loop.

The boy doesn’t answer, nor does his gaze rise from the ground.  Ben picks everything up anyway.  He spots a name on some torn up algebra homework.

“Eli?”

That does the trick.  Ben grabs one last thing off the ground– a baseball cap– and shuffles over to him.  “You okay?”  The bug kneels once Eli looks back to the ground. Kiddo’s got a black eye and a bloody nose.  “Think you dropped this,” he murmurs.  He gently plops the hat in place and tugs it forward nice and snug.  Perfect fit.

Thwip.

Whoever’s washcloth he snagged from the clothesline above will just have to cope with its loss.  “Here.” He says, reaching forward with the rag to dab away the blood.  “Pinch that for me, yeah?” When the boy’s hands don’t leave the neckline of his jacket, Ben sighs.

“Don’t worry about hiding the straps, little dude.  I used to wear a binder too.”

And, just like that, shame and humiliation turns to awe and disbelief.

“Used to have shitty kids do awful things to me too.”

“R-Really?”  Eli squeaks, voice nasally from the hold Ben keeps on his nose.

“So you can talk!”  The bug chirps, lenses miming the way his eyes change with his growing smile.  “Here, take that– awesome.  But yeah… Yeah.”  Ben slings the bookbag onto his back and stands.  “Can I walk you home?  Or I could swing ya.  Your choice.”

The kid’s eyes light up even brighter.  “I wanna– can we swing?”

“You bet!” 

He swaps the bookback to his chest and lets Eli climb on piggy-back style.  

“Hold onto your hat.  You want the scenic route?”

“What the hell was that earlier?”  

Ben's feet dangle over the edge.  He and Homelander had stopped to relax not long after the debacle with the kids. There had still been a few issues around the city that needed handling, but they finally found a quiet moment.  The top of Lady Liberty’s crown was the only place that seemed far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, and they sat in near silence so long that the sun had started to paint the world in reds and golds.

“What do you mean?”  The bug asks, sadness thick in his voice despite every insistence that he was completely fine.

“Just, all that.” Homelander doesn’t know how to explain it.  The bug smelled like misery down to the atomic level from the moment he dropped the kid off, and there was obviously something personal in the way he’s been reacting to the situation.  “You take every wet puppy we come across to heart, but you usually get over it pretty quickly.  What’s the problem?”

It’s certainly irksome when the bug looks away.  Benjamin’s dismay is practically stinking up Lady Liberty’s entire head.

“It’s nothing.  Don’t worry about it.”

Which is such a fucking lie. It almost makes him furious. 

“Right, right.” He scoffs. “Your blood pressure is elevated over nothing.  Got a little jack rabbit thumpin’ in your chest over nothing.  Do you think I’m fucking stupid?”

“No, I just…” Ben sighs wistfully, but one of his uncomfortable chuckles cuts through it.  “It’s just a lot, y’know?”

Since fucking when has his talkative little spider ever learned the art of silence?  Christ, it’s almost a total role reversal of the other night.  Ben’s silent, but all Homelander wants is their normal, stupid banter.  He wants to hear about helping old broads cross the street and stopping bike thieves.  He wants to hear Ben’s ridiculous anecdotes and pestering questions. But now he’s being deprived, and for fucking what?  Because some pissant kid couldn’t fight off a pack of bullies?

“And I don’t wanna force you to be my therapist.”

As if the bug could force him to do anything. Time for a different approach. 

“Heh, try me.  I’ve been told I’ve got pretty strong shoulders.”  He pats one for good measure.  “Besides, the more you deny it, the more I want to know.”

The more I have to know…

Was there something not included in his file?  Something Homelander hadn’t scrounged up in that shithole apartment Benjamin had been living in?

“C’mon, get it off your chest before you stink up the whole statue.  Sad people smell bad.”  

He stares and stares until Ben cracks the smallest smile.  It would be fine if his eyes weren’t glassy.

“I just… ah, where to start…”

Probably at the beginning, he wants to say, but–

“That… happened to me.”  Ben says, clearing his throat after a moment.  “Just… really hit home, y’know?”

Oh.  

Oh…

Homelander’s eyes narrow.  He means to demand elaboration, but Ben beats him right to it.

“I… it was some kids at school.”  Ben takes a deep, shaky breath.  His blood pressure is climbing again, heart pounding, adrenaline brewing. He stares blankly into the dark nothingness of the river. “I dunno what they were even trying to prove, y’know? I figure you know all this already, but I wasn’t always a guy…”

He just nods.  Of course he already knows. Vought didn’t miss a beat with that dossier.  But, more importantly, Ben used to get harassed as a kid?  It seems nothing short of preposterous.  Benjamin’s a superhuman; he shouldn’t have a single problem putting filth beneath his boot–

“Apparently they were supposed to just beat my ass and prove a point, but I– it wasn’t…”  Benjamin pauses, collecting himself, eyes shut.

Homelander inches the slightest bit closer.  Never in his life has he ever felt a need so strong to pull someone into his arms.  Hell, he’s never even asked someone to drop all of their baggage like this before either.  He’s never cared.  Things like this are beneath him… But how quickly that lack of concern has morphed into woeful rage the likes of which he hasn’t felt in decades…

“T-They didn’t do a lot, y’know, just– just some, but...” 

Every sniffle, every crack in Ben’s voice rips Homelander’s heart to shreds. Someone had hurt his little spider.  

“And I…”  Ben wipes furiously at his eyes.  “I think– I think that t-those kids earlier were about to do the same thing to that boy and–” Ben finally looks over, eyes bloodshot and puffy. Devastated inside and out.  “Other than my old therapist and Jase, you’re the only one who knows about that now…”

His body moves on its own.  Homelander pulls Benjamin over, loops an arm around his back and another beneath his knees and hoists him into his lap for an embrace unlike any he’s ever given.  His heart hammers just as loudly as the bug’s.

“M’sorry,” comes the smallest, whimpering sob against the crook of his neck.  “S-Shit, I don’t– crying’s not– I usually don’t–”

“Shut up,” Homelander says softly, careful to keep even the slightest shred of rage off his tongue.  There would be time to find names later. Someday soon, hopefully.  “Cry your heart out, bug boy.  I can handle it.  Good shoulders, remember?”

Ben’s body shakes with a small laugh that interrupts whatever suppressed weep managed to slip free.

“T-They are cozy,” he hiccups.  “I’ll give ya that…”

He waits.  Waits and waits and waits until Ben’s cries cease and his vitals fall back to less distressed ranges.  By the sound of his breathing, he’s nearly wept himself to sleep.  So Homelander does the only thing that feels more right than dropping everything to raze that little shithole town where Benjamin was raised to the ground.

“I’ve gotcha,” he coos.  It’s the gentlest he’s ever taken off.  Just a tiny hop was all he needed to become weightless and rise higher and higher.  This is what he should’ve done right away.  

“What’s–”

“Your surprise,” he says as if it were so obvious.  “You like it?”

He certainly should regardless of how exhausted he may be.  The sun casts its red haze across the clouds, painting them perfect hues of scarlet and pink, sinking bit by bit more and more beneath the horizon.  The darkening blue of the sky threatens to overtake it all, like a god in and of itself ready to swallow the earth.

Ben clings to him even tighter.

“Relax. M’not gonna drop you.”  Homelander huffs a small chuckle.  

“I didn’t say you would,” yawns the bug.

God, their faces are so fucking close. 

“You’re being sticky,” he hums with a small roll of his eyes.  There’s not really a better way to describe it.  “Don’t you trust me?”

Say yes… Please fucking– just say yes.

“I do, just–” Benjamin sputters, eyes darting to and from his gaze.  “The heights, y’know?  Wait, you can feel that?”

“No, but I figured you were stuck to me.” He teases, grinning from ear to ear.

The resulting giggle is like sweet music to his ears.  It’s silent for a moment while the bug takes it all in.

“You can just– you can just do this like it’s nothing…” Ben murmurs after a while.  “You’re amazing,”

“Mm, tell me more.”

“If I do that, your head won’t fit through my doorway anymore,” Benjamin chuckles.  “But yeah…. Yeah.”

Just for that lovely compliment, Homelander decides the bug has earned a full sunset.  Not until the sun fades away completely does he decide to descend and, even then, the bug is already halfway dozed off again.  Messy hair tickles his cheek and he’s so glad Ben can’t see the smile he’s struggling to keep at bay.

Because it’s endearing, he tells himself.

He flies as slow as possible to savor the moment. It's awkward to maneuver two bodies through the access hatch at once, but he manages to do it all the same.

Part of him expected Ben to hop down as soon as they were inside, but, to his surprise, the bug does nothing of the sort.  He clings weakly all the way back to the bedroom, and those arms don’t quite unloop from around his neck even after he lays Benjamin on the bed.

Their eyes meet and the space between them is so very small.  No different at all than when he’d stolen that sweet, sleepy kiss…

“Hope you enjoyed flying air-Homelander,” he murmurs, smiling softly.  All the rage he’s felt since Ben’s confession has melted away, replaced by butterflies and fondness that feels so sweet that it could give him a cavity at any moment.  “You’ve arrived at your destination…”

Instead of letting go, those arms pull Homelander into a warm embrace.  No one ever really knows that Homelander can quite literally sniff them out.  Every little chemical the brain makes tickles his bloodhound nose in some way or another.  And Benjamin..?

“Mm, thanks, Homie…”

He smells sweet. 

“Of course.”

Warm.  Welcoming. 

“Get some sleep,” Homelander hums. The arms at his neck fall slowly and he tugs a blanket up to Ben’s chin.  Even after he leaves– reluctantly, of course– and with a troubled mind, he can’t shake that scent.  Serotonin, norepinephrine, oxytocin, vasopressin…

He smells like love.

Oh god.  Oh god…

He’s paced back and forth through the penthouse for hours now working through the hurricane of emotions sweeping through both his heart and mind.  There was rage.  Pure, unbridled, wrath at the fact someone had harmed his sweet Benjamin.  That they’d done such damage to the boy… it wasn’t enough to even fathom rolling heads.  It had to be more. 

He’d clenched his gloved fists over and over again, each creak of the leather a promise of how he’d crunch bones and sinew between his fingers and rip them limb from limb.  He’d savor it.  Every second would be perfect.  There were no faces yet to attach to these fantasies.  But soon, the very minute the staff clocked in, he’d put analytics’ sniffers on the trail.  They’d scrounge up something.  They fucking better.

Look at you, all in a twist over the bug.

His reflection stares back in the mirror, but there’s a lack of anger.  There’s no ridicule in its eyes.

“I–”  He swallows thickly, eyes darting between the window and mirror.  “I hate that someone… hurt him.”

I know, John.  I know… Why is that, do you think?

“I don’t–”  He swallows again, letting loose a shuddering breath.  He does know.  Dare he speak the words?  It was just a fixation, damn it!  For so long, it was just a fixation.  Just watching Ben through the walls of his shitty apartment, just floating out of sight to watch him swing to work, just watching – just… 

It’s the same reason you’re so afraid of the next few days.  They’ll be over.  You don’t know if he’ll keep coming around.  Chatting with you, sitting on rooftops, hanging out.  

It was undeniable.  As much as he tries to bury the feeling, there’s anxiety bubbling in droves over the idea of their mentorship week ending.  He’s never really had something like this.  Ben feels like a friend.  Sure, sometimes he’s a pain in the ass and he never shuts up, but he’s so…

C’mon, tiger! Do the math.  You snubbed Madelyn for him this morning.  What, you can’t put two and two together?

“I can’t–”

Can’t what?  Admit it?  Because that makes it too–

“Real.”  He deadpans.  It makes it too real.  These feelings, the reason he felt the need to sneak that little kiss, the way his heart fluttered earlier… letting Ben dump his baggage and not sneering or telling him off… 

“I–”

Just then, his phone dings from across the room and a jolt of excitement sparks through his body like a barrage of lightning.  He knows without even looking.  He knows because no one fucking texts him let alone talks to him after work hours.  His number was seemingly business only for so long, until…

Along came a spider.

He smiles sheepishly and does an awkward little run to his phone.  He chucks his gloves off on the way and grabs it with delight, hoping beyond hope that it’s–

-can’t sleep :( wanna do another movie if you’re not already asleep?  i’ll let you pick-

Giddiness rises in his chest and tugs the corners of his mouth into a big, happy grin.  Duh, he wants to say.  But he doesn’t reply at all.  Instead, he’s down the side of the building and inside the hatch within moments.  His hands shake slightly as he shuts it.  The barely-there citrus scent and the aroma of popcorn greets his nose first thing, and it feels so right.  

Ben’s in the kitchen to greet him, standing there in his boxers and a t-shirt while his snack of choice pops away in the microwave.  A thrill runs up his spine at the sight.

What a way to end the day.

[superscourge]

Can you tell us more about the Childhood Friends AU?

yeas

i guess i'll give some lil details abt it. this is gonna be long so under the cut it goes

sonic and scourge (also sonic at the time) meet each other when a portal opens up between their dimensions when theyre both about 10 years old. they both are pretty attuned to changes in their world, so they find it at the same time and are like "What The Heck You're Me!" but they hit it off pretty quickly bc they figure out the other one is just as fast as them and they race and a bond is formed.. they decide to call each other nicknames (buckles for prime sonic, shades for alt sonic bc at the time he's wearing the leather jacket + boots + shades) just to make things easier

for a little more context, in this au moebius is more like just. mobius but a little to the left. its not an opposite world like it is in canon, its just kinda...Different? if that makes sense? so shades isnt Nice, hes kind of a dick and he's rude, but he's not evil or malicious

buckles finds out after a while that shades has...not the best home life. his dad fuckin sucks. so shades stays with him and his nonna a lot (buckles' parents are gone already and he ends up staying with this sweet old cat lady he calls his nonna). this eventually culiminates into an awful thing when theyre about 14--shades ends up being pushed to the point of where he actually kills his dad. he doesnt show up for weeks, and buckles is worried, but he eventually shows up again, but hes different. hes not okay. and suddenly hes talking about how they cant be friends, how hes going to leave and never come back. and they have their first fight, which ends with shades leaving and buckles being left alone and devastated

they dont meet again until a couple years later when theyre both 16. shades had eventually returned to mobius and had been crashing there for a while, but he was stirring up trouble under the name of sonic. prime sonic finds him on angel island--apparently he had caused so much trouble that even sonic's enemies were targeting him now, so he wanted to use the master emerald to gain power so they'd stop messing with him. of course this goes south when he powers up with the emerald and knuckles defends it by slashing him across the chest during the transformation, interrupting it and putting him in a permanent half-super state (the green). he proclaims his new name is scourge, and they fight again, but scourge ends up using the master emerald to chaos control away, and once again they dont see each other for a while after that, bc then sonic is dealing with the Worst fucking year of his life (shadow, unleashed, forces). they basically dont talk again until theyre 19.

when they do talk again, sonic's really messed up from forces--the torture from infinite on the death egg really fucked him up and was making him question his reality even after everything. but scourge runs into him and knocks some sense into him (literally punches him in the face LOL) and sonic realizes this Is real, the war Is over, and everything fucking sucks. his nonna died while he was away. scourge doesnt take this well at all, and neither does sonic when he realizes its real, and they both kinda have a mutual breakdown moment because Neither of them were there when she passed and they both majorly regret it. but scourge still doesnt end up staying; he takes sonic to a nearby village when he falls asleep and then he leaves again. but that lets sonic know that scourge still does care about him, despite pushing him away for all these years. so hes going to figure out why, and bring back his friend.

they finally meet again post-frontiers, when sonic has a clearer head and has healed a lot. they fight again Of Course, but it ends up with scourge finally confessing why he'd run away so long ago, why he'd been trying so hard to push sonic away and drive a wedge between them to make sure sonic would Stay away--it was all because of the thing with his dad. he was ashamed of himself and didnt want his only best friend to see him as a murderer. but yknow what? sonic isnt fazed. he doesnt give a Shit. in fact he literally tells scourge that if scourge hadnt done it? sonic would have. jules was awful and beyond saving and the world was better off without him. scourge is shocked by all this, not really understanding...but they end up making up and finally, Finally becoming friends again

so thats the whole story LOL. ive been developing it w jester behind the scenes and while it isnt a Long au story its a fun and angsty one hehe. might be a little sonourge eventually. you know how it is

[thereisnolumos]

With the Princess Diaries 3 confirmed *excited squeals* here is my list of non-negotiable demands for it:

DO NOT, and I mean DO FUCKING NOT target it to the modern audience. DO NOT target it at teenagers of now. IT. IS. NOT. ABOUT. THEM! It's about us, who have been here since 2001, thank you!

Mia and Nicholas are happily married together, NO FUCKING DRAMA ABOUT THEIR MARRIAGE! Nicolas is singing in the kitchens, making one Michelin worthy dish after another, perfectly happy in his Prince Consort/trad wife state, while Mia rules

CLARISSE AND JOE ARE HAPPY TOGETHER AND PRESENT! THIS FILM CANNOT HAPPEN WITHOUT THEM BEEING TEETHROTTINGLY SWEET TOGETHER. AND THEY MUST DANCE AT LEAST ONCE!!!

I'm fine with Mia and Nicholas already having a child, but that child better be a really side-character. NO ONE CARES FOR THE NEW GENERATION OF RENALDIS! We want Mia's story, period

If it's confirmed that Mia and Michael are still good friends off-camera I'll be happy. No need to bring him in for the drama, since they were the first love, that's been well ended in the second film

I really want Lilly and that yelling guard being the absolute goals of a comic relief couple 😂

Eggs with Elsie is a NEED

THE ABSOLUTE GOLDEN RETRIEVER OF A MAN THAT IS ANDREW JACOBY BETTER MAKE AN APPEARANCE AS A FAMILY'S BEST FRINED AND VOICE OF REASON. They really need that voice 😂😂😂

Charlotte in the government. Charlotte going for/already presiding over the government. CHARLOTTE AS THE SUCCESSOR FOR PRIME MINISTER MOTAZ

Mattress surfing

[flight-of-the-sacred-eagle]

So, I’m still yelling about Sonic Prime season 2. It’s. So fucking good?

And not just because someone on the writing team 100% ships Sonadow because, holy crap, so much of that episode feels shippy.

So, full disclosure. Shadow is my favorite Sonic character. Ever since I saw him in Heroes I loved him. As a kid I didn’t notice the real “constantly shifting character” thing. Now, having played almost every major 3d Sonic game (I didn’t play Forces and refused to play Boom), having watched shows like Sonic X and Sonic Prime (again, I stayed away from Boom but I’ve heard it’s amazing), I think it’s obvious that he gets wildly mischaracterized.

He’s angsty, yes. I mean, he watched his child best friend/sister get shot to death in front of him when he was… five (Look, he’s simultaneously Sonic’s age, over 50, and like five- his age is an enigma), that would make anyone angsty. But he’s also genuinely caring, even if he rarely shows it.

Look no further than 06 when he accidentally releases Mephelis because he picks up Rogue to move her away, or when he intercepts Silver so Sonic can go save Elise. He’s actively saved the world three times- SA2, Shadow the Hedgehog, and 06, with him sacrificing his life in his first appearance. And let’s not forget how he genuinely seemed upset in 06 when Sonic died.

Actually, 06 is the best characterization of Shadow since his introduction. And it can basically all be summed up in his own words. “If the whole world chooses to turn against me, then I’ll fight like I always have.”

He’s brooding. He’s harsh. He’s proud and independent. But by god will he fight to the death for what is right. He cares about people, but he uses actions not words.

Now, what does this have to do with Sonic Prime? Well, this is probably the best characterization of Shadow they’ve ever done. He’s still broody and much more reserved, but everything he’s doing is selfless. He’s not beating up Sonic just because.

He’s beating up Sonic because he, rightfully in my mind, sees Sonic as a threat to his world. He isn’t trying to prevent Sonic from saving the world, he’s basically trying to put him in time out for ruining the world.

This is more than proven when he not only realizes that he can’t do something, but he also realizes that the only way to fix everything is to work together. And he actively admit that. Reluctantly, yes, but he says they need to work together.

He’s still angry and is currently furious at Sonic, but… he kind of has the right to be. Interestingly, he actually spoke to Sonic before fighting him (which, side note, was animated amazingly).

And let’s not forget his cockiness. It’s done perfectly. He’s not taking it too far like Sonic tends to do, but him being a smug little shit is great. And I think it really helps to show the dynamic he and Sonic have because he’s just. Not like that around other characters.

Without using words, they managed to show that, despite the fighting that’s happening, there’s a bond between Sonic and Shadow. One that can only be forged by fighting to save the world side by side.

I think it’s also important to mention that Shadow clearly was enjoying his fight with Sonic. Probably because it’s the most normal thing he’s experienced in forever. His friends are gone. Green Hill is gone. The chaos emerald is gone (though I have a suspicion that it’s going to come back at some point. It fell into the void for a reason and that void was shown for a reason. My bet is that they’re going to need to enter the void at some point). He’s trapped in limbo.

Fighting Sonic is a constant. One he desperately needs.

I know I’ve been rambling but for the first time in over a decade, they’ve gotten Shadow’s personality perfectly. Makes me wonder if the writers, or at least some of them, played SA2 growing up. After all… it’s been long enough since he was introduced that the target audience for SA2 when it was released would be old enough to work for the SEGA team.

It also makes me crazy excited for the third Sonic movie. I know they’re different writers, but they have hit the nail on the head with each character, and if a different show can characterize Shadow that well… maybe Sega is relaxing their iron grip on him and allowing him to actively shine.

Also that scene with Shadow falling to the void and Sonic sounding genuinely panicked was amazing. You can tell he was getting SA2 flashbacks. Someone likened the scene to Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man watching MJ fall in No Way Home and catching her when he couldn’t catch Gwen, and yeah. The emotional impact seems to be the same.

Sonic couldn’t save Shadow then, but he can save him now.

Just… go watch Prime if you haven’t. Sonic fans have been treated well these past few years and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

[drabblesandimagines]

Kitty (part 2)

Pairings: Rei x reader Buddy Daddies Check out part one here.

Kyu has come up blank on finding out your real name, but he does think he’s confirmed a possible date you were taken into ‘service’ - a polite way of saying they took you for payment of your father’s debts. The conclusion was drawn from some other intelligence he had in his possession. Turns out your abductor had been on the organization’s radar for a few years before he became the prime target of a hit, and on a USB stick from a previous reconnaissance job about one of his associates Kyu had found a photograph of you. You were stood behind the target as he sat at a table, laughing heartily with your abductor. You were in that stupid maid outfit, your face adorned with a split lip and a nasty-looking black eye. You couldn’t say you remembered that one in particular – there had been a fair few until you decided it was best to keep your mouth shut. He no longer had a reason to hit you in the face if you weren’t talking back, but the rest of your body was free game. The real kick in the stomach was that the date of the photograph was from over two years ago. Kyu had used that information to look at missing persons reports a year either side of the date, but had come up empty. He’d suggested to Kazuki that maybe you weren’t from the city, maybe you’d be based rurally and so it had just been your father and you. All you had at the back of your mind was that maybe no-one from your old life even missed you enough to ever mention it. No wonder you couldn’t remember any names of your supposed family, friends or acquaintances – even what you’d do before you were in the house. Maybe your life in service was better than the one where you were free.

You don’t know how to feel when you hear it has been over two years. Your concept of time is completely warped. How long exactly did you put up a fight for in the end? It’s a blur of screaming and beatings, and then silence, beatings and house chores. Maybe you didn’t fight long enough or hard enough. Time passed and when you realized he wasn’t going to kill you, despite all of the numerous threats to do so, you’d just accepted this was going to be your life now? Clean, serve, clean, wash, serve, clean and sleep in a closet, with his hands grabbing you throughout the day, always leaving a bruise. Rinse and repeat. Maybe you should’ve realized time passing though. For one, your hair had grown longer but you’d kept it braided, wrapping it around your crown to keep it out of the way. At one point you must’ve just not considered what another inch of hair to braid represented in the grand scheme of it all.

After your vow of silence had been broken yesterday to stop Miri dousing herself in hot water, you’d began trying to answer some questions with a couple of words throughout the day. Some might even constitute a full sentence. It still felt so very wrong but there was no backlash, only ever pure delight from Kazuki and Miri when you spoke and what appeared to be an encouraging nod from Rei.

“See, Miri, Rei,” Kazuki comments over dinner that evening, “Kitty eats her vegetables.” He’s been in a bit of a mood that he’s had to serve convenience store hamburg steak again at Miri’s insistence.

You look at your plate compared to theirs – Miri and Rei are devouring everything but their vegetables, whereas you’d focused on those more than anything else. It was all just so colourful and appetizing to you.

“Papa Kazuki, you should make Kitty’s favourite for dinner tomorrow!” Miri bounces up and down in her seat.

“That’s a good idea. What’s your favourite food?” All eyes are on you, waiting for an answer. You put down the chopsticks and take a drink of water – your mouth going dry as you try to think of a response. Favourite?

Thankfully, Rei relieves the heat. “Mine’s ramen.”

“Of course it is,” Kazuki rolls his eyes. “That instant stuff too.”

You’ve had time to think now. “S-s-scraps.”

“Scraps?” Kazuki raises an eyebrow, and then his face sinks in realisation. Rei’s stopped mid-bite and your heart skips a beat. No, no, you’ve phrased that wrong. That’s not the normal way to reply to someone asking you your favourite food, idiot. There was a better way to say that your sustenance had been whatever you’d salvaged off plates or rescued from the top of the bin on really desperate evenings when he dined alone and scraped his plate clean. You bite your lip trying to think of the word that sounded more polite and less depressing.

“S-sorry, no. I-I mean l-l-leftovers.” You pick up your chopsticks again and grasp the broccoli. Surely they can’t ask you more questions if your mouth is full.

“I wanna try leftovers!” Miri exclaims.

“Miri, you and Papa Rei never leave any leftovers… except veggies, so maybe we will have a completely vegetarian meal for a change tomorrow,” he threatens.

Miri wolfs down her vegetables with gusto, one that Rei and Kazuki hadn’t quite seen. “Nuh-uh,” she protests. “You’ll have to make new leftovers.”

You help Kazuki with the dishes after dinner – you like having a task to focus on. It helps your thoughts from spiraling. You’ve been stuck in your head waiting for the catch, because there had to be one. Would two assassins really just take pity on you and take you in, no other motive? You’ve just gone willingly along with them and yes, they’ve let you sleep in a bed and, sure, they feed you and they haven’t hurt you and they have an adorable little girl, but where do you fit into this, whatever this is?

They’re both on the sofa tonight after Miri is tucked up in bed. She insisted that you sit in while Rei read her a bedtime story. He read all the character voices in a deadpan voice, but Miri laughed through the whole thing. Kazuki wanted to watch some romance spy drama on the television – he gave you a very thorough recap before it started. Your brain didn’t absorb much of it, there’s two love triangles going on, and someone’s in a coma but also an evil twin? Rei is gaming on his phone, but he’s holding the device in such a way that you think he’s secretly into the drama as well but doesn’t want to show it. Kazuki is one end of the sofa and Rei the other, and you’re in the middle, feeling sandwiched despite the distance between you three. The drama comes to a close – if anyone were to ask you a single thing about it you wouldn’t have a clue - and Kazuki stretches, getting up from his position. Rei grabs for his games controller. You’re on your feet at the same time and at first you don’t realise you’ve done it – is it a habit, a reflex?

“You good?” The blonde asks, not sure what to make of your movements.

“I-I-I-I…” You trail off, swallowing hard. Cut out the middle. “Q-q-question.”

“You have a question?” Rei translates and you nod.

“Yeah, of course!” Kazuki sits back down, clasping his hands in his lap and looking at you expectantly. You look at your feet - maybe it’ll be easier talking to the floor.

“W-w-what’s to h-happen with m-me n-now?”

“Happen to you?” The blonde repeats.

“Nothing, Kitty.” Rei says, in a matter-of-fact tone. “You’re safe.”

“Yeah! We just wanna help you in whatever way we can. You got dealt a real shitty hand, I won’t lie. And, I mean, we probably should’ve said before that if you want us to drop you off at the police station or a shelter or something…”

“No.” You manage that word firmly, but Kazuki keeps going. “..we can, but we’d obviously need you to promise you wouldn’t give names or tell them what you saw about us…”

“Dude, she said no.” Rei cuts over him.

“Sorry, sorry,” Kazuki raises his hands. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like and anything we can do, we will. Right, Rei?”

The dark-haired man nods.

“We know we’re not your typical family but maybe that’s not such a bad thing, and you’d be very welcome to join us if that’s what you desire.” The blonde is back on his feet but looks on the verge of tears.

“Dial it back, Kazuki.”

“Oh,” he rubs the back of his head awkwardly. “I swear Miri’s made me soft.”

“-er.”

“Huh?”

“Soft-er.” Rei clarifies. “We heard you weep when Kitty said good morning.”

“It’s just so nice to see your confidence begin to return…” Kazuki’s eyes are brimming and Rei has a flashback to when he’d offered to make rice balls for the sports day and knows it’s time to intervene. “To think a few days ago you were so terrified to utter a word and… Hey!”

Rei is now dragging the blonde man towards the stairs. “Don’t you have to be up early?”

“Yeah, you’re right… Night, Kitty!”

“G-g-goodnight.” This has turned into much more of a scene than you wanted. Rei slopes back to the sofa now Kazuki is safely on the upper floor and picks up the controller.

“Sorry if he made you feel uncomfortable.”

“Ka-ka-kazu…” You swallow, giving up on the third syllable. “He’s n-nice.”

“Hm.” Rei begins to set up a game. “Want to play?”

You’re tired, in all honesty. All this conversation was draining. “C-can I g-go to bed, p-p-please?”

He looks at you – is it possible he’s frowning even more than usual? “You don’t need to ask permission, Kitty.” You know he’s said it before, as well as Kazuki, but you can’t shake the doubt that there’s going to be one thing that trips you up if you don’t ask. “You can do what you want when you want.”

“B-but it’s your r-r-room.” He’s only been in there when you were downstairs, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes in the morning, but it feels weird to be in what should be his intimate space at night. You’d considered previously if he wasn’t already using the tub that’s where you might’ve resorted to.

“Call it ours.” He turns his attention to the TV. “Sleep well.”

“Night, Rei.” It’s only when you make it up the stairs you realize you made it through those two words without hesitation.

--

Day four - or was it five? You probably shouldn’t keep count - started much as the same as the other days. Kazuki was up early with Miri, serving breakfast. Rei emerged from the tub due to all the racket and whilst Kazuki and Miri headed off to daycare, you had a bath, washing your hair and retreating to Rei’s – no, our? - bedroom to dry it before braiding it as usual, and joined him back downstairs ahead of Kazuki’s return.

“Kitty?” Rei’s voice cuts across your thoughts. You’re both on the couch, he’s paused his game and is looking at you. Kazuki is back, bustling around in the kitchen and you’re not quite sure where your head’s been at. You’re cuddling your knees. You can tell Rei must’ve asked you something and you’ve blanked him as his game is now paused and his attention is focused solely on you.

“S-s-sorry, w-what did you s-say?” You wondered how long it would be until you didn’t feel like you were gonna throw up every time you started a sentence, especially if your stomach was full after one of Kazuki’s – admittedly delicious - meals.

“Do you know your shoe size?”

You looked at your feet. Kazuki had given you a fun pack of socks with cute patterns on them so you could get rid of those stupid thigh highs. That had opened up a new can of worms though - Miri gasping at the healing bruises on your legs that the socks had covered when you were in shorts. Her eyes were wide and tearful as she had asked you what had happened. Kazuki and Rei had looked mildly panicked as to what you were going to say.

“I’m… I’m c-c-clumsy, Miri. I f-fell o-over. Silly.”

“Like me!” She beamed.

“No, Miri, you’re just reckless,” Kazuki rolled his eyes.

Back to the present, you shook your head and the idea of time passing swirled around your head again - it’d been over two years since you’d thought about shoes. “N-no. Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” Rei replied.

“Rei’s right.” Kazuki brushed his hands down on his apron. “Well, only one thing for it - to the 398 yen store! We can get you some new clothes too, something you like rather than just Rei’s picks.”

You had, apparently, been working your work through Rei’s wardrobe. Rei told you to take whatever you wanted to wear from his t-shirt drawer but that felt wrong. He’d now taken to getting a t-shirt out for you when he dressed, leaving it on top of the dresser. Kazuki had dug out a pair of black tracksuit bottoms with drawstrings. They’d been too long on the leg but the cuffed bottoms meant you could hoist them up a bit. Today, you were in those, a plain white t-shirt and the black hoodie they’d given you the first day. You’d put on socks that were bright white and had orange slices all over them – they’d made you smile.

 “Y-you shouldn’t s-spend your m-m-money on me.” They’d done so much for you already, their clothes were fine. More than fine.

“It’s the household’s money and you’re part of that,” the blonde replied, holding his finger in the air as he so often did when it came to money matters. “I’m sure I’ve got some of those ‘one size fits all’ slippers in the back of my closet. They should do to get us there…” He dashed up the spiral staircase.

“You’ll like the 398 yen store, it has everything.” The game’s unpaused and his fingers fly over the controller buttons.

“A-are you c-coming?”

“Of course. I’d go everyday if Kazuki would let me.”

--

The 398 yen store is overwhelming. Rei wasn’t lying when he said it had everything. They headed straight towards the shoes, Kazuki finding a device that measured your feet and he said the number aloud, a number that you felt your brain should’ve recognized – “Oh, of course I’m that size,” but nothing clicked. Next, it was off to a literal wall of shoes, surrounded by buckets of shoes. Kazuki encouraged you to choose whatever you wanted. It felt a daunting task, there were so many styles and colours – laces, zips, slip-ons. At least the price point was the same for them all…

You possibly stared a bit too long before Rei appeared at your side, pressing a pair of black and white sneakers into your hands. “These look comfy - for walking.”

You nodded and tried them on – they felt odd, but that was probably just because you hadn’t worn shoes in so long more than anything.

After the shoes came the clothes and, you realized, undergarments of all things. You’d slipped those in the cart without much of a fanfare, thankfully, letting them run riot on other items for you. You didn’t really have a style so the cart is a mix with dark and bright colours, representing both their styles and perhaps you’ll find something inbetween.

When you get back to the apartment, Kazuki starts to pull the tags off everything whilst Rei mutters something about the bedroom, ties his hair back upon his head and darts upstairs. Kazuki stares as he does so. “Okay…”

A short while later, Rei emerges and strides down the stairs, releasing his hair and heads to the door to get his shoes on – the two of them had promised to pick up Miri from daycare together this afternoon.

“About time.” Kazuki puts his hands on his hips. “We gotta go. What were you doing up there?” Rei having his hair up only ever meant serious business in his eyes.

“Kitty needs space for her things, so I cleared out a couple of drawers.”  

“Y-y-you didn’t h-have to do t-that for me.” But you couldn’t help the smile that crept on your face. Something about having a space that was entirely yours seemed exciting in that moment.

“It’s fine.” There’s a hint of red on his cheeks. “Let’s go.” He pulls on the door handle and leaves without another glance.

“Back soon, Kitty!” Kazuki calls cheerily and follows his partner, leaving you in the silence of the apartment. He catches up with Rei at the lift, his hands in his pockets.

“What was that, Rei?” He’s elbowing him in the side, raising his eyebrows, being an absolute clown. “Clearing drawer space, huh?”

“It’s nothing.” He shrugs. “It was overdue.” But it can’t be nothing, because seeing you smile made his stomach flip in a way he’s not felt before.

---

Anyone for a part three?

Part 3.

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

the fun thing about fucked up 4halo is that bbh has already tried the whole "sacrifice your mind and sanity and self to be with your fucked up mind controlled lover thing once with the egg and red skeppy already and it uh. well. so anyway, i think that 4ever laughing at bbh and asking "why do you seem so scared of me all the time?" and bbh replies very calmly "i'm not scared of you. i'm scared for you." bbh wanting to let his control slip and just be happy and knowing that kills people he loves

YES!!! YES YES YES. okay you touched on one of the reasons i'm Like This about 4halo in the first place- bad has never been worried about forever being corrupt; bad has been terrified of the federation corrupting forever. you can see it in the way bad tried, over and over and over and over again to talk to forever to build a system that bad thought would be, if not fool-proof, more difficult to corrupt. Bad didn't want a president. but then forever won, and bad settled for second best- building a system that would hurt them as little as possible. not because forever would hurt them, but because the federation WOULD use whoever became president to hurt them. that's why he wanted the council; that's why he wanted to disband the presidency. whoever sat in that chair would be the prime target for the federation's manipulations, and we've seen how that went down with cellbit. and like. bad wanted to trust forever. forever is one of the very few people i could see winning and bad not start an immediate revolution arc (even though he made noises about it). even after one of their biggest fights bad was like- i believe forever is a good person and he's trying to do the right thing. forever is the first person who bad saw as an equal when it came to protecting the eggs and thus was PIVOTAL to bad learning how to trust the other islanders when, for a while there, bad's whole thing was about how paranoid he was. bad trusted forever so, so much, he exhausted every. single. option. he had to defang the presidency (to some players' and chats' horror o7 but i respect the analogy grind). and. god. bad did everything he could to give himself a reason to not kill his friend. because he knew it wasn't forever's fault. as many noises as he's made about killing forever and being silly and salty- he knows forever was in the same boat as him. that's why he built the statue. that's why he was so upset about the gift baskets. they're the same. they're friends. he's always known that forever isn't his enemy. the federation are.

he still knows it. in a pained, soft voice, bad told pierre during the proposal, "there won't be a wedding. look at him. he's out of his mind."

bad was so scared of his friend being corrupted, and now his worst nightmare has come to pass