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enderdaggers · 3 years ago

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Safe With Me

Summary: After a wild Pokémon attacks you and your partner, Adaman comes to visit you when recovering and shows a different side than usual.

Word count: 3,296

Warnings: Descriptions of pain, mentions of injury and blood, minor swearing

Notes: This is my first time writing for Adaman, but it’s been a day and I’ve already fallen in love with this guy. I hope you enjoy!

You weren’t usually one to take many risks when out and about.

In this world, the region Hisui, survival was always a question with Pokémon. Sure, there was technology being developed that would surely aid everybody’s survival, and not all Pokemon were ready to attack at a moment’s notice, but the world out there was dangerous. It was a fact everyone had accepted.

However, what you were not planning on that day was to be out gathering supplies only to hear a shrill scream pierce the air.

Instantly, you were on guard. Pulling out your Pokéball from your satchel, you tossed it out with a cautious murmur, and your Luxio hopped out with a cooing noise.

“Shh,” you whispered to him cautiously. “There’s someone in trouble over there. Come on.”

He obliged with another noise of curiosity as you ran over.

When you arrived, your eyes widened. A girl wearing garb that looked like Jubilife’s usual wear was cowering before a huge Pokémon that you didn’t even recognize, with a big build and a hostile look to it.

“Luxio, use Wild Charge!” you ordered determinedly, running for the girl as your Pokémon engaged the larger Pokémon in combat.

You pulled the woman up with no particular gentleness, knowing time was of the essence. “Go! Run!” “What about you?” she exclaimed. “You can’t hope to fight that thing?”

“You’re right, but I have no choice. Go find help! The closest you can think of!” you ordered.

The girl, still shaking, looked behind you at the battle and nodded, running off as the ground rumbled behind you.

As you turned around, your hairs stood on end as your Luxio attacked, dodging the large Pokémon’s arm attack as it charged at him before unleashing his electric attack. You whooped with pride as he landed by you and you looked him over for any signs of injuries.

He looked fine. You were grateful for that.

“We’ve gotta keep going, boy,” you said. “You ready?”

He hissed at the Pokémon. You took that as enough of a sign and grinned.

“Okay, then. Luxio, use-”

But before you could finish the command, the Pokémon lunged at the two of you. You yelped and dove to the side, tucking into a roll as all of your martial training came rushing to your head at the moment.

Not now! You told yourself as you untucked from the roll and pushed yourself to your feet, looking back.

Your eyes widened. Luxio looked fine, but he was squaring off with the Pokémon defensively, teeth bared in a snarl as he waited for your command.

You coughed slightly, rubbing a sore spot on your ribs, but continued, commanding quicker than before. “Luxio, use Crunch!”

Immediately, your partner carried out the order, lunging for the Pokémon as darkness began to gather around it and formed into the shape of a tooth-filled mouth in front of him, chomping down on the Pokémon.

You didn’t know how strong this Pokémon was, but thought that now was as good a time as any to gauge how strong it was by throwing a Pokéball at it.

You fished through your sachet for just a moment before you found your hand closing around the familiar shape of a Pokéball- and when you pulled it out, it was empty. Good.

I should really take Mai’s advice on organizing my satchel, you thought.

“Luxio, watch out!” You called, just before you threw the ball.

It soared through the air in a gracious arc- giving you the same rush of adrenaline that it always did- before it promptly hit the Pokémon square in the middle of their head, and you watched it get sucked into the Pokéball- how something so large could fit into something so small always astounded you- and the Pokéball fell to the ground with a very small thud.

You and Luxio stood there for a moment with a soft breath, not even thinking to run, praying silently that the fight would be over.

But no. Suddenly, energy expelled from the ball, and it split open- beams of light expelling for a moment before the Pokémon stood tall and true before you, expression giving only one emotion: pissed off.

“Oh, shi-”

The Pokémon lunged immediately, giving you no time to respond. Luxio was faster and smaller, but you were a human who was still trying to think of their next move.

Maybe the Pokémon knew that as it bowled straight into you.

You went flying. Not much sound left your lips- a brief shriek- before you flew across the terrain and hit a tree. Hard.

The breath left your lips in a silent oof, the wind knocked out of you, completely breathless.

Luxio squeaked in the distance, and all you could think of was the fiery pain in your back. I don’t think my spine was broken, but damn, that hurt.

You groaned, rolling onto your side as your partner ran to you, sniffing your face concernedly.

“I-I’m fine, buddy…” you forced out, voice strained through the pain. “Keep going… I just need a moment.”

Luxio didn’t look convinced, butting his head gently against your arm.

“Luxio,” you said sternly, though your voice was growing weaker by the moment. “Use-” Your eyes widened, and suddenly you grabbed your Pokémon, rolling to put yourself in his place.

A claw slashed across your arm as you held it up to shield your face, slicing through your clothing and scraping against it, making you scream in pain.

Shit! You thought. This is bad. This is really bad. I don’t know what to do. I can’t run- I’m too hurt- but Luxio isn’t going to want to leave me. I could die.

Where’s the help? How far away were we from people?

Suddenly, you heard a distant yell, somebody calling out. You lifted your head weakly and immediately hissed.

You were bleeding. Badly.

“Over here!” you called weakly. Almost directly above you, the large Pokémon seemed to be considering whether or not to attack you and finish you off or run away.

Luxio made the decision for them- lunging with a battle-worthy noise, he used Wild Charge again, shocking the Pokémon as the sound of distant footsteps- a lot of them- grew closer.

The Pokémon backed off slightly as Luxio landed in front of you protectively.

Just before you passed out, you heard somebody enter the area and whisper “Holy crap…” before you lost the last of your energy and everything went dark.

When you woke, you had no idea where you were.

Lying in a futon bed, you winced at the feeling of a headache building in your head. The covers were neatly pulled to your upper chest, while your two arms were over the covers.

Your left arm- the injured one- was wrapped with bandages from your fingers up the shirt you wore- which, again, wasn’t your normal one.

You raised an eyebrow as you cast a glance around the room. You attempted to sit up, but lightning immediately shot up your spine, and, with a whimper, you laid back down, opting, for the moment, to remain still.

As you studied your surroundings the best you could while lying down, you realized you weren’t in the Diamond Clan’s infirmary. This was a place with warmer shades- Jubilife Village.

You swallowed, licking your lips. They must have brought me here after the fight. I heard they had really good medics. Must be true. I can’t even feel my arm.

That was, you thought, a bit more worrying than relieving, but you supposed it was better than feeling the wounds on your arm.

When you were just getting ready to start shouting for somebody to come and explain what was going on, a woman entered the room. When she met your eyes, her own widened, and she grinned.

“You’ve finally woken up! Thank goodness! We were starting to get quite nervous about you, you know.” she said, approaching your bedside.

“Where am I?” you asked immediately, disregarding any chivalry. You wanted answers and wanted to know you weren’t completely alone.

Where’s my clan? Where’s…

The name you so wished to call out for died on your tongue from embarrassment, but the thought burned into your mind.

“You’re in the infirmary of Jubilife Village- more specifically, Galaxy Team’s headquarters. You were brought here after the Pokémon attack.”

You relaxed slightly at that. “Does my clan know what happened?’

The woman nodded, looking somewhat nervous. “Yes, they do. In fact, several of them were quite… loud about their intent on seeing you. A few of them are outside the headquarters waiting to hear about you. We’ve been having to… keep them out, to put it delicately.”

Your eyes widened, fairly sure who exactly the woman was talking about. “Well, can we let them in?”

“Of course, we just need to check you over quickly to make sure you’re well enough to be receiving visitors-”

Outside the closed infirmary door, there was a very loud and prompt crack, followed by the sound of two doors thudding to the ground. The doctor jumped several inches in the air, while you flinched, eyes darting to the door with wide eyes. What in the living…

However, a very familiar voice suddenly reached your ears distantly through the wood, “Let me through! I need to see them now!”

“Calm down-” somebody else said, but that was followed by a very loud wham against the wall and a garbled yelp.

Suddenly, the door slammed open with vengeance.

Standing in the doorway was the one and only Adaman.

Your eyes locked, and, through the stormy expression the clan leader held on his face, relief broke over his expression. Behind him, Mai and Arezu stood, looking over his shoulder concernedly at you.

The doctor moved back quickly as Adaman rushed forward to your bedside, looking a mix of furious and relieved. You’d never seen him like this before- Adaman was a confident person around you ninety-nine percent of the time- smirk on his face as he backed you up against a tree, flirting relentlessly before backing up and moving away as if nothing had ever happened.

He infuriated you and made you smile all at once. You didn’t get him.

But this? This was a little concerning.

“Sorry about him,” Mai apologized to the doctor. You noted two members of the Galaxy Team in the doorway of the infirmary, watching Adaman worriedly like they were afraid he was going to combust.

Your attention was dragged from them to your friends, who it felt like a lifetime since you’d last seen.

“Hi,” you started sheepishly.

Arezu broke the softest of smiles, chuckling slightly, while Mai sighed in annoyance. “That’s all you have to say? ‘Hi’?” She said disapprovingly, which only made Arezu chuckle harder.

Adaman, however, said nothing, instead studying you with a closeness that was so unlike him it was worrying.

“Adaman?” you pushed quietly. He blinked out of it, locking onto your eyes with his own.

He’s so damn pretty, you thought breathlessly, swallowing.

“Uh…” Arezu said. “We’ll leave you two alone for a moment.” She seized onto Mai’s hand and, before you could object, the two of them left the room, the doctor following cautiously.

When the door closed, Adaman breathed out, long and slow, before he spoke in a voice that was so soft, you thought someone else was speaking for a moment.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“What are you- yeah, I think I’m fine. I’m probably gonna have a big-ass bruise across my back for a while, and maybe some cool scars on my arm, but I’m-”

“No, no,” Adaman cut you off quickly, rubbing a hand across his face. His hair shook slightly as he laid a hand just below your right hand. “You don’t… get it, how could you just say you’re okay when-” He cut himself off.

His voice was shaking. You’d never heard that before. You studied Adaman with worry, confused, a little startled.

“Adaman, I know you might’ve been worried, but I promise you, I’m okay. Or, I’m going to be.”

“You could’ve died.”

The statement took you off-guard a little- not because of the actual words, but because of the way Adaman said it. His voice was low, shaking slightly, his hand beneath yours bunching up the bed beneath it in his fist.

“Don’t you get that? You were so hurt… I thought you were going to die. You were out for two days straight.”

Two days? Jeez, I really was knocked out.

“Adaman… I…”

“Shit!” Your leader shot to his feet, knocking a fist against his head gently as the other ran through and gripped at his hair. He turned his back to you, breathing heavily. “Why are you so dumb sometimes?! You keep acting like this isn’t a big deal, but look at you!” Adaman spun around, and you blinked, startled, at the look in his eyes. Desperation, worry, several other emotions were painted all over your leader’s face- all emotions you’d never seen him have before.

“You’re bedridden from those injuries, from getting thrown against a tree and slashed by claws, but you say you’re fine? You-” Adaman scoffed in disbelief. “You say you might be left with a big bruise and a few scars. Scars! That Pokémon hurt you enough to scar you! And you’re acting like it’s all perfectly fine, that it’s okay, even though for the last two days, I’ve been waiting with bated breath to hear that you finally woke up well and safe, wondering if I would ever hear your voice again-”

You reached out with your good arm and touched Adaman’s hand.

In the middle of his rant, the leader stopped dead and looked down, frozen, at your hand that brushed two fingers against the back of his hand.

“Adaman,” you said softly. “You were really that worried about me?”

Adaman’s facade crumbled. The anger fell away into the most emotional face you’d ever seen on your leader, and, kneeling by your bedside, he took your hand in his own and pressed it to his forehead gently.

“Of course I was. Why wouldn’t I be worried for you?” he said quietly, looking over at you.

“I… don’t know. You always seem unaffected by this kind of stuff. Like nothing really bugs you.”

“Even leaders feel things,” he said quietly. “I… feel things for you sometimes. Even if I don’t want to. The face I’ve worked so hard to build crumbles when I’m around you.”

You blinked at him surprised. “You… what?”

“I… like you,” he said. “I think I have for a while now. Sometimes it’s hard to get the words out that you mean the most.”

“You mean all that flirting has been actual flirting?” you asked.

“As opposed to… fake flirting.” Adaman said slowly, sounding a little more hopeful.

“No, I just- I didn’t know if that was just you or if you were- you know. Flirting.”

“Oh.” Adaman said softly, then chuckled a little. “Oh, love, I should’ve been more clear with that, huh?”

Your face warmed at the nickname, and you gently squeezed at Adaman’s hand, more flustered than you intended on letting on. This is actually happening. He likes me. Like- actually likes me. A crush.

Holy shit, Adaman of all people has a crush on me.

“Are you… okay?” he ventured carefully, beginning to release your hand. “Listen, my emotions kind of got the best of me. If you don’t feel the same, that’s fine-”

“Adaman,” you said sternly, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Would you stop? I know you like things to go quickly, but don’t run off like this.”

He paused, and you pulled him closer slightly with his hand and squeezed his hand slightly.

“I like you, too.” You said with a small smile, looking up at him. “I thought I was an idiot for doing that, because you never really seemed to care, but… I really like you, Adaman. A lot.”

The smile that spread across his face was so genuine, you thought he might burst with the expression. You’d never seen such a softly joyful look on his face before.

Moments later, it faded into a smug smirk. “Well, now that you’ve opened the way, you’re stuck with me now, you know that?” He brought your hand to his lips and trailed them gently across the back of your hand, sending shivers up and down your spine. Warmth built in your face as you met his eyes, which were watching your reaction carefully.

“Don’t be an ass,” you choked out, flustered.

He chuckled. “Sure, sure. I’ll hold back for now.” A gentle kiss was pressed against your hand before he let go of your hand, standing up to lean over you, lips so close to yours you could feel his breath on your lips.

“Hm…” he said. “Unfortunately, I promised to hold back, so I’m afraid-”

“Oh, you little shit, just kiss me,” you demanded with a small grin.

The smirk that spread over his face was worth every ache of pain on your body. “If you insist.”

He leaned over and kissed you, and you tilted your head slightly to slot your lips better with his, like some kind of puzzle piece. It felt like electricity was fizzing across every part of your skin, alight and terrifying and perfect.

When the two of you broke the kiss, Adaman leaned his forehead against yours with a small “Hm.” as he looked into your eyes.

“What?” you asked confusedly.

“Nothing,” he said as he leaned back to a full standing position. “Your lips feel as good as I thought they would.”

You huffed, turning your face away. “Flatterer.”

“Oh, I mean it.” he said with a small chuckle.

Suddenly, the door opened. Mai, Arezu, and Commander Kamado stood in the doorway, Kamado looking pissed.

“Adaman,” Kamado started. “You destroyed my doors.”

Adaman’s face got the familiar oh shit look that all humanity had on their face at some point in their lives as he slowly turned to face Kamado.

“Apologies for that. They wouldn’t let me-”

“I don’t want to hear it right now. I expect you to help reconstruct.”

Adaman sighed embarrassedly. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Kamado looked over at you. “I’m glad to see you’re well. I’ll let you all back to your business for now. That is all.” He left.

Arezu looked between Adaman and you and grinned. “Oh my god, did it finally happen?”

Adaman got his old defensive look on his face. “Did what happen, exactly?”

“Oh come on, you two are pretty transparent around each other.” Mai said, a smile on her face as well. “Did you-”

“Oh, my god,” you groaned, throwing your head back so you didn’t have to look at your friends. “When did you two get so nosy?”

“Ever since Adaman backed you against a tree and flirted with you in front of half the clan,” Arezu said with a laugh. “I mean- it was pretty obvious right then and there.”

Adaman sighed. “I suppose there’ll be no hiding it from you two, eh?”

“Nope.” Mai proclaimed.

“You win,” you sighed with a smile. “We’re never going to stop getting teased now.”

“Actually, Mai owes me money. She thought there would be a heartfelt confession after you got out of the infirmary, but I said Adaman was too impatient.”

Adaman sputtered. “You- I’m sorry?! I am not too-”

You leaned back with a smile, watching your friend group get into another intense argument that would probably eventually lead back to Pokémon. At some point, Adaman’s hand found its way back to yours, and squeezed gently while easily continuing the conversation.

Despite your injuries, you couldn’t stop smiling.

Tell me if you’d like to be added to the Adaman taglist! I love writing for him already.

#my posts #pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon legends arceus x reader #pokemon x reader #adaman x reader #pokemon adaman x reader #adaman #pokemon adaman #WOOO first adaman x reader???#i had literally so much fun writing this he reminds me of revali #who i'm also writing for! 👀#anyway- hope you enjoyed if you're still reading these tags :)

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gabriel4sam · 3 years ago

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Those are not the Jedi you're looking for 3/?

Socorro, Kibilini sector, the Outer Rim Territories , four years, two month and twenty days after Naboo

Obi-Wan had seen so many worlds as a Jedi. He had seen poor ones and abundant ones, he had seen beauty and horror, meet heroes and tyrants. Since he had taken this new path, he had added some interesting characters to his collection, but no one, really no one was like Hondo.

He had a suspicion Qui-Gon would have liked the pirate, perhaps to the exasperation of Padawan Kenobi.

“Ben, old friend!” the pirate cheered when Obi-Wan entered the cantina, dressed in tight green pants and a shirt so open it would more qualify as a shawl.

Obi-Wan perched himself on a high chair and designated Hondo’s drink to the bartender.

“The same. And another for my friend.”

“That’s why I like you, Ben,” and Ben endured another hug, and the awful taste of cheap alcohol in the middle of the morning, because if Obi-Wan wasn’t the style to imbibe at that hour, and not with that stuff that would be better to clean cocking pots, it was Ben’s style.

“What are you doing in this quadrant?” Hondo asked, ogling the freckles revealed by Obi-Wan’s open shirt.

“Searching for work, I must say. My last gig wasn’t as interesting as I thought. People can be so untrusting, once they learned about one or two minor condemnations.”

Hondo nodded.

“You know I offer good benefices for new members?”

Obi-Wan put a hand on Hondo’s knee.

“Not sure I would resist you if I saw you every day, you scoundrel,” and the other laughed, totally not convinced by the supposed Ben’s reasons, but ready to let it go.

“Where’s the old man?”

“Uncle Tholme? Ranged himself with some new flavour of the week, can you believe that? I give it three months. So, I’m all alone. Tell me, I heard Kray’s recruiting, that’s true?”

“The slaver? Ben, that’s no good work.” Hondo grimaced and Obi-Wan felt a spark of surprise. As much as he liked Hondo, he had no illusion about him, and he would have thought even slavery wouldn’t made him hesitate. He signalled the bartender for two other drinks.

“Not sure I will apply to work for him. What sort of sentient he is, you know him?”

“He’s bad news, that’s what he is, like all T'surr.”

“You only say that because of your ex.”

“I escaped with only my life and my pride by a narrow margin, I thought she would cut…you know.”

Obi-Wan, who had read the rapport of the Judicials about the intergalactic incident spanned by Hondo’s spat with his T’surr lover, almost thought Hondo would have it coming for his actions in this mess but Ben, who only knew Hondo’s side of the story, had a shiver and a grimace.

“Come on, old friend, give me more. That will be a last resort action, but I don’t like going blind into a new gig.”

Hondo grumbled, but told everything he knew about Kray’s organisation. And Hondo always knew a lot of things.

When, a few hours later, they left the cantina, Hondo more or less supported by the human, he gave him a last advice.

“Come work with me. I’m assembling a crew.”

Obi-Wan, who had used the Force against the level of alcohol in his blood but still had a giant headache, looked at him with surprise.

“A crew? You? Didn’t you swear piracy off when your mother threw you out of her own crew?”

“- Still thinking she overreacted-“

“- And that you would never, ever, go back to that sort of work?”

“Well, the voice of the blood. Long line of pirates, etc. Also, my latest operations didn’t work as well as I had hoped.”

Obi-Wan nudged him on a bench in a small square and sat down next to him.

“You only risked prison on your latest operations. Piracy is sentenced by death in all the Outer Rim. Piracy get people killed, not like your more or less organized scam operations.”

Hondo had a drunken laugh, and, with surprising gentleness, touched Obi-Wan’s hair. On Master Gallia’s advice, Obi-Wan was wearing them longer. He was thinking about a beard, too.

“And you think you could make a slaver? No, Ben you’re too nice for that. And too pretty, too. If you find Kray, he will sell you, not give you a job. Come with me. With my brain and your luck…”

He leaned down and with a startling realization, Obi-Wan realized Hondo wanted to kiss him. He pushed with the Force, without any finesse, and Hondo fell into his arms, fast asleep.

“What am I gonna do with you?” Obi-Wan, exasperated, whispered.

He took him back to the cantina, left him on a bench there, after giving a generous tip to the bartender, to be sure people would left the Weequay alone. He still stole Hondo’s purse, because Ben needed to maintain his reputation, but he left him the second purse, better hidden and probably better filled. Hondo would think Ben hadn’t found it.

He put the stolen purse in the poor box of one the numerous organizations struggling every day to raise people out of the slums and went back to the two rooms Quinlan and him had rented, a frown on his face.

He didn’t like what Hondo had told him about Kray. Slavers. It was like fighting a hydra from the Tirahnn moors. Cut one head and too will grow back. Since he had started to work with Master Tholme and Quinlan, the Judicials and the Jedi working discreetly for them had broken down twenty slavers or slavers adjacent rings. Twenty that he knew, because he understood better the vital compartmentalisation they put in place now.

Twenty, and it seemed there were even more slavers rings existing than when he became an active members of their branch.

He climbed the stairs, opened the door, and his heart seized in his chest. Quinlan. Quinlan wasn’t here, the room was ravaged and there was blood on the floor.

A long breath, as he searched for calm, pushing his fear for his friend in the Force, then, in that order, he send a coded message to Tholme, searched the room for a message or a clue left by Quinlan, then went back to the cantina and kidnapped Hondo, still drunk.

Nobody told him anything when he left the cantina with the Weequay thrown over his shoulder.

Hondo yelled when Obi-Wan threw him in the water of the water tank. Soccoro was an arid world and Obi-Wan just had to break a lock to find the perfect place to interrogate Hondo discreetly, sober him up and menace him at the same time.

Weequay were terrified of drowning.

Another day, Obi-Wan would perhaps feel bad of using that against Hondo, who had been as good as he could with Ben, he would probably even felt bad about it when he had Quinlan safe, but for now, bath time it was for the Weequay.

“Ben!” Hondo yelled, and Obi-Wan pushed him under again, then hauled him above the water, fisting the neck of his jacket. He pushed Force-healing into the other’s brain, sobering him up further. Hondo would pass that for the action of the terror and the water.

“Where is he, Hondo?” He asked through clenched teeth.

“Who?”

“Wrong answer!”

He let him go and Hondo yelled and sank like a stone.

“Ah kriff.”

Obi-Wan jumped into the water, cursing his own idiocy. It was logical a Weequay wouldn’t know how to swim. He took him out, spluttering, and asked him again.

“I have stayed with my partner for the two weeks of our presence on this damn world, not a whisper of violence, and the morning you and I have some meeting schedule, he disappeared? Don’t take me for an idiot or the next time, I’m letting you drown!”

“Sugi!! It was Sugi!! I was drunk, I told her I was meeting you. She was asking questions about the two of you! She gave me money for the time of our meeting, and only ask I made sure you would stay with me long enough.”

“Who the kriff is Sugi and what does she want with my friend?”

“I don’t know!! She’s, she’s a Zabrak mercenary, I don’t know why she wants him.”

“And where, Hondo, where did she take my friend when you were distracting me and trying to kiss me? I never thought you’ll go as far as prostitute yourself for the few credits she would gave you.”

“Well, that wouldn’t have been a hardship. What do you need that Kiffar for, I –“

“Think very hard, before your speak”.

“-…She was supposed to take him to the Smugglers' Moon, but you can probably find them before their depart, if you go quickly. They’re at the very end of the spatioport.”

“Good boy.”

He invaded his brain with the Force, his hand crisped on the Weequay’s throat. Hondo spluttered and trashed, but a stronger Weequay would have been needed to break the grip of someone taught to fight dirty by Master Tholme. Soon, he was slipping into unconsciousness. Obi-Wan purged the last moments of his memories, with less finesse that he would have used with more time. The Weequay would have the mother of all headaches. He left him in recovery position, far away from the water to be sure he wouldn’t slip into it in waking up, and then he started running.

Apparently, Sugi’s crew was manning a ship named the Guillotine. It was prepping for flight when Obi-Wan arrived. He didn’t draw his lightsaber. Ben’s persona had taken almost two years to be so useful, and he would only burn it out on a last resort.

But Ben already had a reputation to be bloody dangerous and the crew had a handicap. People always hesitated to draw blasters in their own ships, thinking of the possible damage on expensive equipment. The Kyuzo male lasted only a minute, before Obi-Wan knocked him off, using his ridicule large-rimmed had as a weapon. He checked with the Force he hadn’t caved his skull, then fell like a tornado on the small being hiding himself inside an armour.

Another person would have hesitated, because of the size. In the Force, Obi-Wan knew the truth. A sidestep, a jump, and a small electronic device attached to the armour shoulder, and the small being was too busy trying to come out of the armour to still be worried about a supposed scoundrel too good in close combat busy invading their ship.

Obi-Wan found the Zabrak woman in the cargo hold. Every occasion possible, Tholme had made him train against Zabrak, from the Judicials, from the Jedi who knew the truth about Obi-Wan, from other Force organisation, and it was a good thing. Because for a second, every time, for the first twenty times, fifty times, Obi-Wan had had a moment of hesitation.

Not that day.

He attacked first.

She was a worthiest opponent than her crew. Soon, he was cursing, hidden behind crates and returning fire, his blaster on stun. He could see Quinlan from there, unconscious and bound, but certainly alive. Someone had put a blanket on him, and for kidnappers, that was strangely compassionate.

“Ben, I presume?” Sugi yelled from the other side of the cargo hold.

“Do we know each other?” Obi-Wan yelled in return. He was feeling calmer now that he could see and feel Quinlan. Also, the Zabrak felt dangerous in the Force, but with an undercurrent that spoke of strong morals. A few years ago, he would have been surprised by that, but now he understood better how complicated people could be.

“Did you kill my crew?”

“No, but some strong pain killers will probably be necessary later.”

A few other shoots.

“I appreciate it!”

“Enough to let my friend go?”

“Enough to let you go. I have nothing against you, I tried to keep you out of it.”

“And it was most gallant, my lady,” he said, then, warned by the Force, rolled, letting the shoot that should have touched him blacken the floor right where he had been a second before,” He started to laugh, adrenaline chanting in his blood.

“Oh Kriff, that one was close, congratulation on your shooting.”

He heard her laugh, but she still tried to shoot him again. He was sure her blaster wasn’t on stun. Not on the highest setting, no, she didn’t want to kill him, but definitely not on stun, that would require bacta if he was touched.

She yelled again, and she had moved, where the kriff was she:

“Rawk has a good price on his head on Nar Shaddaa!”

Still returning fire, Obi-Wan searched his mind. For a moment, he had forgotten Rawk was the pendant to his Ben, the current false identity of Quinlan. And Nar Shaddaa ? They had only gone to Nar Shaddaa once, since he was working with Quinlan and Tholme, and it had been a very simple extraction job for an undercover judicial. From what he knew, their false identities that day were still good, and had never been suspected of collusion with Judicials.

“Quick question, he’s wanted for what, exactly?”

“It was under another name. Your friend is lying to you! He’s not even called Rawk!”

“Oh really,” Obi-Wan grumbled, as he was passing under a crate, slowly trying to turn around Sugi to attack her from the other side.

“He’s named Konshi! He’s wanted for murder.”

Obi-Wan groaned.

Of course. Of kriffin course. He knew that name. Konshi had been Quinlan’s name during his Trial mission, when he had been send to Nar Shaddaa to deal with a Dark Sider trying to establish himself as a crime lord by brainwashing people and exploiting them as sex slaves, under the pretence of a fair brothel, where employee were supposed to be there on choice and treated well and payed fairly.

The Dark Sider hadn’t left Quinlan with a choice and it had been a grim faced new Knight that his friend had become, whose joy of seeing his braid cut had been smothered by that death, even unavoidable as it had been.

He was still searching for a way to turn that, to explain it to her without revealing the truth, when the Force song a warning. Obi-Wan looked up, just in time to see the crate fall.

It was more reflex than anything else, a reflex honed since the crèche. He threw his hand and caught it just before it flattened the bounty hunter.

And he had used the Force.

She turned to him, shock in her eyes and he cursed. Well, now that it was done… He pushed the crate away, settling it on the floor, and in the same movement, stole her blaster that jumped right into his hand. He latched the safety of the damn thing, did the same on his own blasters, and slipped them in his belt.

“Jedi,” she whispered and in the deafening silence, after the noises of blaster, it ringed higher that it have should. He nodded and left his defensive wall of crates to join her in the middle of the cargo hold. She observed him and he let her, silent. She turned a little, observed Quinlan.

“Yes, him too,” Obi-Wan said, understanding the unasked question.

“His name isn’t more Konshi that it is Rawk, isn’t it? And you aren’t named Ben.”

She had an accent he couldn’t place, something a little harsh, unpleasant and dangerously attractive at the same time. She had renounced to attack him, too smart to think it would do some good, but the tension in her presence had ramped up a notch.

“No, those are not our true names,” Obi-Wan admitted.

She eyed him a little more.

“Will I wake up with missing hours? I heard it isn’t exactly pleasant.”

“Should I do it? Or can I trust your discretion?”

She went to Quinlan, opened his bindings. Obi-Wan leaned down and checked his pulse, his respiration, then he put his hand on his head and purged the drugs from his system.

“You used some Tolothians sleeping drugs. They are particularly costly, an interesting choice.”

“Less chance of a medicinal allergy.”

“And you did your best to be sure there wouldn’t be collateral damage in acting when I was busy elsewhere.”

He turned to her again.

“What do you think of being a contact for the Judicials? They are always searching for reliable contacts in the bounty hunters and mercenary communities.”

She smirked and answered, her gaze undressing the red head.

“A contact to the Judicials? Or to you? What’s your name, strange Jedi distracting people with his belly button?”

“Oh Force, can’t you go flirt a little far away, some people are dying right there,” a new voice grumbled and Obi-Wan immediately went to help Quinlan sit down.

“You’re the one who made some interesting friends when I wasn’t there,” he remarked, and Quinlan murmured something not very friendly. But as he pushed his head against Obi-Wan’s shoulder until the other man cupped it to help push the headache from the chemical away, he probably wasn’t really angry.

“The murder?” The Zabrak bounty hunter asked, and she went higher in Obi-Wan’s opinion.

“What murder?” Quinlan grumbled.

“She’s speaking of your trials,” Obi-Wan explained.

“Oh that. Murderous son of a bitch. Brainwashing people. Really bad. Tried to haul him to trial, didn’t give me a choice. Never heard of him again until I woke up to hear my partner flirting with my kidnapper.”

“It wasn’t flirting, my friend.”

“Oh, it was,” Sugi remarked, “I was almost ready to ask for your comm number.” Obi-Wan could feel his cheeks getting redder and against him Quinlan had a small laugh.

Later, once she had checked her crew and send them to the nearest cantina, with force grumbling, she sat down with the two Jedi and caf. She gave them everything she had about the Hutt of Nar Shaddaa who had put a bounty on Quinlan’s false identity head.

Obi-Wan gave her two of the pearls they used to reward contacts, because it was less traceable than credits, and then escorted Quinlan to their own ship.

“Our lodging?” His friend asked, once they were preparing for flight.

“I hoped you didn’t like too much the clothes you left here. Someone probably had signalled the trashed rooms now, that wouldn’t be very discreet to go back.”

“Kriff, I loved those boots.”

Obi-Wan leaned down across the console and patted his leg.

“Why don’t you go sleep a few hours? I can feel your headache from there.”

Quinlan seemed like he wanted to answer something, then he nodded and left the cockpit. Obi-Wan programmed the jump to one of the multiple spacers relays on the hyperspace lane, on a forest moon. That would need three hours, just the time needed for preparing his written report and for his friend to sleep off the last effects of the medication and his subsequent headache. Perhaps time for a little extra meditation.

They touched down as expected and Obi-Wan immediately connected the terminal to the secure canal of the holonet they used that month. He send a first data packet to Adi, about Sugi and her possible usefulness, then to Tholme: the Master would like to know about the price on his former Padawan’s head. He organized another data packet then he contacted Siri, who had just spent two weeks in retreat on Jedha, after a supposed falling out with the Jedi Order.

“And that’s everything Hondo knew about Kray,” Obi-Wan finished his oral report, “Data packets is transmitting right now.”

“Thank you. It will be useful to not go totally blind,” Siri answered. Even with the bad image of the holocall, Obi-Wan could see how tired she looked and it wasn’t the bad dye job of her hair or the fake tattoos.

“I still think it’s dangerous. I don’t even understand why they needed to pretend you had left the Order, when you’re going with a false identity… And infiltration as Trials…”

“We can’t all become a Sith Killer as Knighting event.”

“Oh Force, stop calling me that, it’s as ridiculous as when Quinlan uses it.”

A bark of a laugh and she nodded and cut the transmission.

Quinlan was still sleeping in his bunk, so Obi-Wan locked the ship and went to buy rations to replenish their stock and then two big portions of that Ithorian stew Quinlan loved, and which couldn’t be found outside the Outer Rim. The relay was quite calm, it was the middle of the night cycle in this portion of the moon. After two weeks on an arid planet, the atmosphere and the odour of the forest seemed like a gift.

Quinlan was working on their ship as he came back. Their supposed old-ship was a nice trick, dissimulating its real power and shields, but since a run-down with some pirates, a month ago, the landing trusters were capricious.

“Dinner!” He yelled to the only part of his friend he could see, the backside hanging down from an electrical compartment.

They ate seated on the hull, watching the coming and goings of people, trickling down as the most nocturnal species went to bed, and the other were still not up. Outside the hangar, the rain started to fall.

“I could have waited in our ship, you know?” Quinlan suddenly said, out of the blue.

The surprise stopped Obi-Wan in his chewing. He arched an eyebrow to convey his question.

“The bounty hunter liked you. I could understood if you had wanted a moment with her. The last months have been hard.”

“Are you suggesting I should have had sex with the Zabrak who just kidnapped you?”

“If that’s your taste…”

“You know me better than that.”

“Not in this particular field, I don’t know you,” He raised a hand to stop Obi-Wan from interrupting, “It’s not a blame. I’m not exactly beyond reproach in this domain, the less said about the mess with that Togorian, the better.”

He took a long gulp of his drink, probably to give himself time to order his thoughts, then he started again:

“Aayla will be of age of becoming a Padawan in one month. I want to ask her the honour of being her Master. I don’t know why I would make her wait, asking herself if she will age out… The second she’s of age, I ask.”

“Quinlan, that’s good news!” Obi-Wan immediately congratulated him, patting the Kiffar on the shoulder. Despite his joy for his friend, he felt a spark of regret. His status as a Jedi was still need-to-know only. No Padawan for him. He would have loved it. To take care of a child, to teach them everything he knew. He would have made sure that child knew how important they were to Obi-Wan.

Not like…

“That’s good news,” he repeated, and he took great care to only pat the leather of his friend’s tunic, escaping skin contact and Quinlan’s powers. He didn’t want that important moment of a Jedi life to be, even slightly, ruined for Quinlan because Obi-Wan was an idiot who had never learnt to be happy with what he had.

He was a Jedi Knight! That was the thing he had desired so much for years! He was doing some good in the galaxy, helping people, and that was enough.

“She would come with us, sometimes,” Quinlan continued, “but there will be time when I would stay on Coruscant with her.”

“Logical.”

“So, you would need to work alone those time, or with another Knight partner.”

“And I will. The education of Aayla must be your priorities,” Obi-Wan said and his smile wasn’t forced. He had never met the young girl, yet, but Quinlan had spoken so much of that bright child every time he came back from the Temple that Obi-Wan had sometimes the impression he knew her already.

“And, of course, you need to be sure about the way I introduce you to her. I don’t want to let her paddle around without clues about what exactly we are for each other.”

“Our- ” Obi-Wan stopped himself. That was the great question they never talked about. They slept in the same bunk five days of ten, they shared everything, from nightmares to bad memories, but never had they crossed that line. Quinlan had had liaisons, Obi-Wan too, if fewer, even an ill-advised one with Siri which had almost ended his friendship with the young blond. Nevertheless, at the end of the days, they always came back to each other when they needed to unburden their secrets, their fears, when they needed a partner for a mission or a fellow Jedi for meditation.

Quinlan had a sigh when he saw Obi-Wan refusing to meet his gaze.

“Think about it, ok? I don’t want her to think I’m lying to her. I want to say, “This is Obi-Wan, he’s a Jedi and it’s a secret and he’s my friend”, or “This is Obi-Wan, he’s a Jedi and my significant other” but…Children need to know those stuff, I think. I want her to know her place in my life, to know how important she is and that she has my trust and that I’m honest with her.”

He finished his drink and left Obi-Wan to his thought, jumping from the ship hull. Soon, Obi-Wan could hear the noises of his work on the landing trusters. Obi-Wan wanted to kneel and ask the Force for answers, but it seemed like cheating.

“I’m an idiot,” Obi-Wan finally grumbled after a few minutes where he was trying to make pro and cons list in his head. He hopped down from the wing, his feet soundless on the metallic floor. Outside the wind and the rain were building steadily and they seemed the only ones awakes in the hangar.

Quinlan set the hydrospanner down and looked at Obi-Wan, his face more serious that the other had seen it a long time. His heart was beating wildly in his chest.

That was it. They had danced around it for years and he discovered he still wasn’t ready. Quinlan was his friend, his partner in mission, his confidant and the risk had always seemed too big. About Quinlan, he knew everything that it was possible to know about a man without knowing the taste of his lips. He knew his laugh, the true one, the booming one, and the cultivated one, less noisy, that he used in public. He knew of his few memories with his parents. He knew the shape of his hands when he had needed help, he knew the smell of his hair when they had shared a bedroll on cold worlds, he knew even the lines of his palms for cradling them in his own hands, when Quinlan Saw too much with his power and needed the respite, his soul hiding in Obi-Wan’s.

And now, adrenaline was flooding him and he didn’t know if he craved a resolution to the tension or feared it.

Quinlan was rubbing his chin, his gaze suddenly shy somewhere around Obi-Wan’s middle, and he was so close that the redhead heard the scratching sound of the stubble. Since a long time, it had been a question of when, not if. Obi-Wan had imagined it as a we-are-alive hooray, as something rushed and almost violent, with adrenaline in their blood.

He had been wrong.

He touched his friend’s shoulder and his answer was written on his face, because Quinlan smiled, a little shy, a little unsure. The Kiffar leaned down, slowly, and gave him a tentative kiss. He took his time, like he wanted to learn the shape of Obi-Wan’s mouth. It was almost teasing but in the Force, Quinlan was nothing but serious. When he finally asked for more, Obi-Wan opened up for him, sealing their mouths together and let the world fade.

#star wars #quinlan vos #obi wan kenobi #hondo ohnaka #sugi #my fics

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suitofvibraniumarmor · 4 years ago

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Light in the Dark

Summary: Avoiding Bucky seemed to be the thing to do after the two of you broke up, until a mission gone wrong shows you how much you have to lose. Pairing; Bucky x Reader Word Count: 2415 Warnings: Language, angst, canon typical gun violence, GSW, blood. Square Filled: Post-Breakup AU for @marvelfluffbingo. Square Filled: Second gif within the fic (Y2) for @buckybarnesbingo. [Rating: Teen/Mature] A/N: I feel like I maybe ended another fic with a similar line? Anyway, don’t call me out, ha. Happy Reading!

GIF Source

“So, ending it. That’s what you want?”

Tears were brimming in her eyes and the lump in her throat stopped her from answering Bucky’s question. She sniffed, hoping it would stop her emotions from falling down her cheeks. One blink though, and she was betrayed.

“It’s not what I want, Buck.” Her tone was bordering on pleading. “But you and I don’t want the same things. I want to move forward, you want to stay stuck. You won’t open up to me, you haven’t touched me in weeks — and I’m not even talking about sex. You won’t hold my hand, won’t stand within two feet of me.”

He pressed his lips to a thin line and sighed. He started with a measured tone, partial words stumbling out until he got so frustrated at his inability to form a sentence, he let out a loud growl and pounded on the table nearby.

“You don’t get it! All right? You don’t know the things that are still in my head, you don’t know how much fear I live in, every mother fucking day, that I’m going to lose it and hurt you.” He squeezed his eyes shut, raking a vibranium hand through his hair. “This is more than you can handle, Y/N. There are days when — when I don’t wanna talk and you think things are worse than ever. That’s not always the case. Some days I just need the quiet. Everything in my head is so loud — that’s not the point. The point is, I’m not good for you.”

Her tears came to an abrupt stop. “Are you fucking kidding me? You think I don’t have demons of my own? You think the things that I have done, the lives I have taken, don’t haunt me in my sleep? At every waking moment? I see their faces, every time I close my eyes. You are not the only one with blood on your hands, Bucky Barnes.” She stood and clenched her fists at her sides. “If you think that I’m one of those agents who was bred into this because my parents were in the first wave of S.H.I.E.L.D agents, who can handle all of this and then sleep at night like it’s nothing, you don’t know me at all.”

She stepped up to him and took his face in her hands before kissing him softly. She wiped her taste away with her thumb before taking a step back.

“Goodbye, Bucky.”

For weeks after the split, they avoided each other at all costs. If she rounded a corner and saw Bucky coming her way, she backtracked and took the long way around. If Bucky was headed to the common room but heard her singing along to the radio before he made it there, he turned on his heel and got what he needed elsewhere. Every now and then, he could bribe someone into getting what he needed, but the whole crew was running thin on that arrangement.

“You could talk to her, you know,” Sam suggested.

Steve nodded his agreement. “At least work out a schedule of who can be where and when. That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard, but hey, at least then you two can have a more normal life and the rest of us can stop making money off of your awkward situation. Besides, it’s been … how long has it been? Surely long enough for you two to be adults about the situation.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “If she wanted to talk to me, she’d come to me and say what she needed to say.”

Nat came into the room and sighed. “Not necessarily, Barnes. I’ve talked to Y/N about it and she doesn’t want to be in your way anymore than you want to be in hers. To be honest, I’m not so sure that this break-up is really worth the trouble when the two of you could just talk it out and work through your problems.”

“We wanted different things,” Bucky mumbled, “and that hasn’t changed. What I want hasn’t changed.”

Nat rolled her eyes. “Her. You want her, stupid. The rest of it is called compromise. You should look it up sometime. Y/N can stop moping around, you can come back from the dim place. Everyone can be back to their normal lives.”

“The dim place?” Sam repeated.

“Yeah, you know. Not the dark place. He’s been in the dark place. This sucks but it’s not as bad as the dark place.”

“Makes sense,” Steve commented; Bucky looked to him for confirmation that his best friend agreed with Nat. “Hey, it’s not bad advice. I mean, she's also the one who told me to ask out the chick in accounting with a lip piercing.”

Nat punched Steve playfully in the shoulder. “Hey, she was nice!”

They all laughed about the idea of a freshly-thawed Steve dating a girl with a lip piercing; Bucky had to admit, it was nice to have the attention off of him and Y/N and on to a different subject.

Attention rescue team; emergency extraction call received. Departure in three minutes and counting. Rescue team; extraction mission imminent. Three minutes and counting.

FRIDAY’s voice pulled most of them from a steady — or not-so-steady — sleep and into action mode. A team raced for the quinjet, in uniform and ready for a debriefing as the jet took off.

“Secretary of State was abducted by a Russian militia organization. Our job is to go in, extract, get him home. I’m waiting now for reports on what kind of arms they have on the ground,” Tony informed as he set their destination into the navigation system.

Y/N buckled in and let out a deep breath. Flying was something she was getting more used to, but she did better when she knew the flight was coming. Several minutes into the flight, her tension was redirected from a few bumps of turbulence to the unexpected hand on her shoulder.

“You doing okay?” Bucky asked.

She pulled her shoulder from his touch. “Yeah, fine. I’m always fine.”

He smirked just a little. "I know you are, but the flying …”

“I’m great, Sergeant Barnes. Just peachy.”

Bucky pressed his lips into a thin line and he sat back in his seat. Y/N kept her eyes forward, her expression stoic, even as Tony took the jet higher. Her jaw was clenched though, giving away her nerves. Bucky decided the best thing to do would be to keep an eye on her; be supportive from a distance.

The mission started out well enough. They located the Secretary easily — too easily, really. Nat, Wanda, and Clint went ahead of the group to keep the path clear back to the quinjet; Tony and Rhodey were on either side of the Secretary; Y/N and Steve were right behind him; Bucky brought up the rear.

No one was quite sure where the first shots came from. The Secretary groaned and grabbed for his left shoulder as more bullets whizzed past the group. Tony and Rhodes took one arm each and flew him back to the quinjet while the rest of them went on the defensive.

Y/N was taking a mental head count of everyone running in front of her; Nat, Wanda, Clint, Steve — check all. Where was Bucky? Emotions took over and she spoke into the comm.

“Barnes, send back.” When no answer came, she stopped in her tracks. “Barnes! Send back!”

Still no answer. Her eyes met Steve’s for a brief second before she was turning and running the other direction, away from the rest of them. Steve was yelling behind her but she wasn’t about to stop and wait for whatever it is he had to say. As she got back to where the shooting had started, she started calling Bucky’s name. Her heart raced with frantic emotion at the million possibilities that could be keeping Bucky behind.

A Russian militiaman was positioned over Bucky, fists flying. Bright red blood pooled under Bucky’s thighs and spurting with each heartbeat made Y/N panic that his wounds were fatal as is, without a beating on top of it. A feral yell rumbled from deep in her chest as she rushed the other man, knocking him away from Bucky and tackling him to the ground.

Her own fists were flying now, lashing out at the man who might dare to take Bucky away from her. Somewhere in her mind, Y/N knew that getting Bucky medical attention needed to be a priority, but she couldn’t stop her anger from taking control at that moment.

“Y/N, hey, come on! Enough!” Steve yelled, finally catching up to her. He pulled her away from the Russian, who had gone unconscious at some point. His face was bloody and mangled, but his own people would have to take care of him.

Steve assessed Bucky’s other injuries while Y/N used her belt as a tourniquet around his leg. Between the two of them, they managed to get him back to the quinjet without much more incident; the second the were on board, Tony raised the bridge and took off.

“What happened?” Nat questioned, helping to get Bucky laying down. She grabbed for a first aid kid and found some gauze to place over the bullet wound while Y/N threw her gloves off and took his face in her hands.

“Bucky! Can you hear me? Look at me, Buck! You stay with us, all right? We’re going to get you back, they’re going to take care of you. But you have to fight too, you have to stay with me,” she pleaded, tears filling her eyes when his eyes met hers. “Please, Bucky. You can’t leave me like this, okay? We’ve got too many days of awkward interactions ahead of us.”

Bucky’s mouth pulled into a weak smirk as his cold, shaky hand came up to her cheek. Y/N leaned into it, still pleading quietly with him not to leave her like this.

“Everything’s okay,” Bucky whispered, only a couple of seconds before his eyes closed and his hand fell away from her face.

Hours passed in agony as you waited outside the medical bay for any updates on Bucky’s health. She didn’t change out of her uniform, didn’t bother to get cleaned up, only followed his gurney as far as they would let her go. After that, she found a chair and fell into it, determined not to move until she had some concrete information.

“Here,” Nat said, nudging her with an elbow. “Water and coffee. I’ll bring you food when you can stomach it.”

Y/N took the water bottle first, downed half of it, then set it aside and sipped at the coffee. She probably did need to eat, but the very idea of food make her stomach churn. Nat stayed but didn’t speak. Y/N waited a full minute before she broke the silence.

“He was trying.”

Nat frowned. “Bucky?”

Y/N nodded. “On the quinjet. He knew I was going to be anxious about the flight and he asked if I was okay. I blew him off. I didn’t want his sympathy because I’m still so mad at him. How could he think that I was — that I couldn’t understand where he was coming from? Maybe not to the extent that it was happening, but I’m not innocent, Nat.” She scoffed. “And how could I not be more understanding? How could I walk away from him and not show him how much I love him. How much I need him.”

“You need each other,” Nat offered.

“Yeah. I think you’re right.”

She sat silently with Nat for the next several hours. There was still no word, and no one would let them into the medical bay. Nat had finally convinced Y/N that she needed to shower when Dr. Cho came out to update them. Y/N bumped into Nat, she turned around so fast after hearing her name being called.

Helen drew in a deep breath. “Bullet nicked his femoral artery, but fortunately, I think his advanced healing process saved his life. We did the rest of the surgical repairs and I believe if he can pull through the next couple of days, he should be in the clear.”

Both Nat and Y/N breathed a sigh of relief. The women hugged briefly before Y/N asked if she could see him.

Helen smiled. “Of course; he’s been asking for you. We wanted to give him time to pull it together after the surgery.”

But Y/N only the first of Helen’s sentence. She raced into the medical bay, stopping once to ask which room Bucky was in. When she got there, she was nearly breathless.

“Wondered if you were gonna come see me,” Bucky mumbled, giving her as much of a smile as he could manage.

She stood next to his bed and took his vibranium hand. “Bucky, I’m so sorry …”

“Hey, you’re not the one who shot me.”

“Don’t joke,” Y/N scolded. “You know what I mean. I shouldn’t have walked away, shouldn’t have brushed you off in the jet. What if you hadn’t made it?”

Bucky squeezed her hand. "Hey, c’mon, sweetheart. I’m all right. I’ve been through worse than this.”

“But not with me so mad at you,” she whispered. “I don't want to do this anymore, Buck. I don't care how much we fight or how much we push each other away. I don't want to have the horrendously gigantic cloud lingering over me that one of us could die and you wouldn't know how much I love you.”

Bucky reached up to caress her cheek; this time, his hand was warm, steady. “I can't promise to give you everything you want right away. I still am who I am, Y/N. But I sure as hell can try.”

She leaned over to place a soft kiss on his lips. “Who you are is exactly who I fell in love with. Trying is all I ask.”

He pulled her in for another kiss. There would be plenty more to be discussed, when Bucky was fully on the mend and ready for it. The fights would come, the darker days would come. As long as neither of them gave up on each other, though, there would always be a light in the darkness.

AllOfTheThings: @captain-s-rogers @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @hurricanerin @horsesandbandsforlife @im-not-an-armrest-im-short @shynara51 @sea040561 @pinknerdpanda @xtina2191 @gifted-burnout @beakami @heartsaved @fullprunerebelstatesman @blackwidowismyhomegirl @averyrogers83 @jennmurawski13 @connie326 @disastersoldierbucky

Buckvember (Not already included in AotT): @peace-love-hobbitness @rebekahdawkins @wonder-cole

#marvelfluffbingo2020 #buckybarnesbingo2020 #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #buckvember #buckvember queue

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prurientpuddlejumper · 4 years ago

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Out Tonight (Part 5)

<- Part 4 | Part 6 ->

Summary: It’s been 24 hours since you woke up next to a panicked Rafael Barba who turned out to have been much drunker than you thought. Despite the blame and confusion, there remained a primal attraction that led you to decide to try a (sober) date. Was this a terrible idea? Do you have anything in common besides drunk karaoke?

This was supposed to have smut but it’s just a date XD Smut next time! Soon!

3,431 words

Drunk. He must have still been drunk that morning. There was no other explanation for his wildly impulsive, juvenile decision to accept a date with you after that fiasco of a morning, waking up in your hotel with zero memory of what was almost certainly an even bigger fiasco of a night.

But he had agreed to it. Given you the address of his favorite coffee spot that didn’t have wheels. Set a time. It seemed childish to back out on you at the last minute just because he’d had twenty-four hours to sober up and think about his life choices. And so, Rafael Barba stood outside, leaning near the door out of the way of foot traffic, impatiently glaring at the minute hand of his watch.

At least it was only breakfast. Nothing exciting in the history of the universe had ever happened this early in the morning. Everyone in the relatively small Sunday crowd seemed too tired to be here. He would show up for one bleary-eyed date like an adult, make sure you were still alright, and, assuming your story hadn’t changed—that you hadn’t remembered something traumatic he’d forgotten he’d done—you could both part ways with a clear conscience.

***

The GPS on your phone indicated you were at the corner of the street you needed to turn down. There would be no going back if you turned that corner—the cafe was just a few doors down. You almost turned around and walked back to your hotel, but before you could leave, you saw him. Across the street, under the awning of the cafe, a short, well-dressed man radiating authority stood checking his watch with the words “Why the hell did I agree to this?” creased into his brow. You recognized that expression from your own face and almost laughed, only holding it in because you didn’t want to be that crazy person laughing to herself in the middle of a crowd.

His handsomeness had not been an illusion of the drink and low lights of the bar, you realized as you crossed the street. He was really fucking handsome. He wore another stylish and expensive suit, a colorful blue-striped tie, and you assumed suspenders under the jacket, and his dark hair was groomed with precision to the side.

By the time you were close enough to hear his voice calling out to greet you, you remembered kissing him, and how solid his chest felt when your arms were wrapped around him. A flush of heat warmed the base of your spine, and suddenly you were glad you had made this date after all.

Barba was not so sure. Not at first.

He wasn’t certain he would even recognize you in a crowd, but the moment you turned the corner, he spotted you. Your face was permanently stamped into his memory, right along with the time he wet the bed at a sleepover in second grade and the waitress to whom he’d replied “you too” after she told him to enjoy his meal.

The first thing he noticed was that your clothes were not as nice as he perceived when he was drunk. What little memory he had of karaoke painted you as a perfect goddess of seduction, with legs that went on for miles, wearing couture woven by angels out of dewdrops. Even in your disheveled state the morning he could remember, he had maintained a lofty impression of your image, or what he imagined it would be when you cleaned up. But the cute little sundress swishing around your knees as you crossed the street was not designer. It looked nice on you, but was more comfortable, practical, and a bit hippie-chic. You were even wearing a backpack instead of a purse. Your whole aesthetic was woefully down-to-earth. Like a Subaru. You were the Subaru of people.

Yet, even his unfortunate habit of judging people based on their clothing couldn’t dull the spark he felt when you drew close enough to smell your shampoo and look into your bright eyes. He couldn’t help feeling irrationally protective when those bright eyes froze as you stood in front of him, almost spreading your arms for a hug, then almost extending a hand, and then staring like a panicked deer that wandered into Times Square.

“Good to see you,” he smiled, pressing your shoulder amicably, sparing you from the decision.

***

After a short wait in line to order your latte and croissant sandwich, Barba squeezed into one of the tiny seats at one of the tiny tables in front of the window, and you squeezed in next to him. It was such a tight fit, your shoulders almost touched every time you lifted the mug to your lips, and your legs bumped accidentally amid stammered, awkward apologies.

“So...” you began, and your voice sounded far away, like you were trapped deep inside your own skull operating levers to make yourself speak. And you had nothing planned after “so,” and nothing came to you organically, so even though it was a trite, over-used question, you sputtered out, “How have you been?”

“Not bad,” he replied, just as stiffly rote. “You?” The boilerplate question sparked a deeper concern, and he twisted in his seat to grab your eye contact under a furrowed brow, and asked more seriously, “Are you OK?”

Your cheeks burned. He must have noticed how weird and nervous you were and thought there was something wrong with you. “I-I’m fine!” you squeaked.

His brows stayed wrinkled with worry. He lowered his voice. “If you… remembered anything. Anything painful. Something you need to work out, to process… report? I want you to know I will support anything you need to do. If I hurt you, I will do whatever it takes to make it right.”

“Oh!” You nearly spilled your drink. “No, no! God. Nothing like that. Just… embarrassment. Shame. I mean, if anyone should be angry or need to process stuff, it’s you. That was all my fault.”

He breathed a little sigh and his shoulders relaxed. He nodded to himself and turned back to his coffee. With a sideways glance and a sly smirk, he added, “You know, you shouldn’t incriminate yourself in front of a prosecutor.”

You were pretty sure he was joking, but your laugh was tight and high in your throat, and your palms began to sweat.

“Actually—” you reached into a pocket and pulled out your phone, “Tengo unos fotos… if it will help you remember?”

He stopped mid-sip, set the mug back down on the narrow shelf of a table, then coughed into his fist. A near spit-take. “What do you mean, you have photos? Qué tipo de fotos? Muéstramelas.”

Barba had forgotten, or didn’t care, that your Spanish wasn’t terrifically fluent and made his demand at a rapid, clipped pace. Fortunately, your first instinct was to show him.

It was a good thing he had already set down his coffee, because his eyes went wide, and he choked on the air. Picture after picture of him red-faced and disheveled, most of them with a wolfish grin and his hands all over you. He still had on his tie and the grey peppering his temples was evident, and you looked so young and innocent you could almost be mistaken for underage in the soft lighting. The angle of the selfie drew attention to your cleavage. You flipped back once more, and a crackle of tinny audio burst from the phone speakers as a shaky video of Barba singing the tail end of One Song Glory began to play. “Shit,” you cursed, and muted it.

“Delete that,” he croaked, raking his fingers down his face. “God, this is a scandal. Those look—I look—” His eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head with a brash, hostile grin. “Is this blackmail? Is this blackmail amateur hour?”

“What? No! Why would this be… Oh my god, are you cheating on someone?!”

He scowled with indignation at the very suggestion. “I would never cheat on someone. Those make me look like a… a boozy lecher. It could damage my reputation if they got out. Why do you have those?” he hissed, feigning a pleasant smile over gritted teeth. It looked like it hurt his face.

“You told me to take pictures and send them to a friend! You kept going on about ‘gathering evidence’ in case things went sideways.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he scoffed. “It is sound advice,” he considered. “That sounds like me,” he concluded, pinching his brow.

“I’ll delete them all, OK? See? I’m deleting them.” You clicked the trash button and watched them disappear one by one as Barba’s blood pressure went down. “Ooh, I’m keeping this one, though,” you said, fawning.

You flipped the screen to show him a selfie of him smiling wide and carefree, cheeks flushed, his arms wrapped around your shoulders, and you kissing his cheek. It was sweet, almost chaste. The karaoke stage was in the background, and you both looked like you were having a great night.

Present-Barba’s horrified expression didn’t soften. Your face fell. “Alright, I’m deleting this one too,” you soothed.

Your wistfulness must have tugged at his heart as you gave the picture one last look, trying to memorize the happiness you’d felt when you took it. With your finger poised over the delete button, he caught your wrist. “No… If you really like it, that one isn’t horrible. Just don’t send it to anyone in the DA’s office. Por favor.”

“I won’t,” you promised. His eyes were an overpoweringly lush green as they fixated on yours so close up, and you could swear there was a spark of the connection you’d felt that night. Then he blinked, and it was gone, self-consciously letting go of your wrist.

With that matter resolved, Barba became cold and distant, as if all he’d come to do was settle things from that night once and for all, and now he was done with you. You tried to carry the conversation forward, but he met your efforts to bond with the sober version of him with minimal, dismissive responses, leaving you in uncomfortable silence. He would barely even look at you anymore. It made you feel small.

Barba was right—you didn’t know him.

The mood was tense as you quietly chewed your croissant, and it would have been tenser if not for the cramped tables. Had you a spacious seating arrangement, you might have felt the distance between your two obviously different lives stretch out between you like a vast, insurmountable chasm.

Had you met the real Barba first, you would have known this guarded, cynical, tightly-wound ball of nerves and assholery would never sing karaoke without being three sheets to the wind.

The effortlessly charming open-book of a man you’d been wooed by two nights ago was a fiction crafted by alcohol. Without his flirtatious nature to offset the severity of his bespoke suits and high-profile job, you were weighted down with the thought that this man had his shit together more than you ever would. He was too good for you. He thought so, too. You saw that look in his eyes, the sarcastic quirk of his mouth as he glanced over you outside the cafe, though he’d tried to hide it. Your entire outfit cost about a tenth of his jacket alone, and his rich-jerk radar honed right in on it. Barba said you might not like him sober, and he seemed keen to prove himself right. When he finally did ask you questions, it felt like you were failing a test—his brow going up because you had never heard of some famous restaurant or popular composer, proving yourself a cultural dilettante in spite of your mutual love of RENT. When you asked about his job, he was all but sneering at your lack of legal acumen on what he considered very basic things.

You would have downed your latte in under fifteen minutes, shaken his hand, and never seen him again if not for one seemingly unimportant fact.

The table was cramped.

Forced to sit so close together, waves of his scent kept washing over you like an aphrodisiac. He smelled radically different than last time. Then, he was steeped in the stinging smokiness of scotch whisky and the heady musk of sweat from a long day on his feet in the courtroom and the claustrophobic press of bodies at the bar. Today he smelled clean, like fresh soap and a woody, spicy, citrusy cologne as old-fashioned and classy as his suspenders. There was something profoundly soothing in the way he smelled. Soothing enough to push back your anxiety about being unworthy of his attention, and enough to enjoy the sparks of heat spreading under your skin every time your elbows or legs bumped.

The smell of him and the press of his body was enough to make you horny, angry, and bold enough to take him by the hand once the date was done, and drag him somewhere you could teach him a lesson about underestimating you.

***

“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you?” you growled over your shoulder, as if that was meant to be an answer to his question of “Where are we going?” He fell a step behind your determined pace as you literally pulled him down the sidewalk with a scary, but—he had to admit—sexy fire burning in your eyes.

“I never said that,” he cried unconvincingly, and felt he rather deserved it when you scoffed in response. He could be hard on people who couldn’t keep up with his standards, unless they were the victim of a horrifying enough crime to stir his compassion. And now that he was sure he hadn’t hurt you, well… you were just some woman from a bar who didn’t know the difference between civil litigation and criminal trials.

The fact that the neckline of your dress was so dangerously low, he caught a peek of something he shouldn’t when you leaned over your latte was just another reason to distance himself from you. He cursed his weakness for the tightening in his pants.

But that picture stuck in Barba’s mind. He was ashamed of his behavior, but at the same time, he was fascinated by this other Barba. The smiling Barba who didn’t make a million anxious excuses for why he couldn’t or shouldn’t be with someone he desired, who didn’t tell himself to wait, and wait, and wait until they were gone. He looked so comfortable with the woman on his lap in that picture. He wondered what exactly happened to make you grow so close?

After marching for several blocks, you finally slowed down where the geometric grey concrete of the city broke upon an oasis of wild green. Barba hunched forward, catching his breath in front of the entrance to Central Park closest to the pond. “Alright,” you challenged him with your hands on your hips, “Name one of these trees. Just one.”

“Shirley.”

You narrowed your eyes until he dropped his clever little grin.

“Worth a try,” he shrugged, straightening up. He unbuttoned his jacket to let some of the heat out. He pointed to a large tree near the path with three-pointed leaves and smooth, camouflage-patterned bark. “That’s a maple,” he said with confidence.

You raised your eyebrows at his breathtaking ignorance and tutted. “Oh, Rafael, that’s such an easy one. This is an American Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis. The bark is a dead giveaway, and maples have opposite leaf arrangement, while sycamore is alternate. But I’ll let it slide since the leaves are similar.” Your voice was dripping with intellectual condescension, and he immediately understood that you had brought him here to humiliate him. A familiar roar burned inside him that he felt any time someone thought they could get the better of him. His sharp eyes bore into yours, the slightest hint of a smile at the corner of his lips. Rafael Barba did not back down from a challenge.

He walked farther into the park, past sweeping rock formations covered with climbing children, and you followed behind, watching him as he swiveled his head in search. It was almost magical how the park felt like a trail in the countryside until you looked up to see the gleaming peaks of skyscrapers and 5th Avenue. Barba stopped next to a green park bench in front of a tall conifer with drooping branches. “Pine,” he said matter-of-factly. “I know what you’re trying to do, but even a city boy knows what a pine tree looks like.”

Except from the way your cheeks puffed out as you tried to contain your laughter, he apparently should not have sounded so sure of himself. Or you were just being vindictive, pretending he was wrong because you assumed he wouldn’t know the difference.

“That is a pine,” he insisted. “That’s basic middle school science class.”

“That is a conifer,” you corrected, still giggling at his expense, and his cheeks darkened with realization. Conifer. Pine. They were different things. He braced himself as you lectured him like a school teacher about how the Norway Spruce is in the genus Picea, while pine trees—and there was a White Pine right over there, too!—are in a totally separate genus, Pinus. When he tried to call it hair-splitting and trivia, you exploded. “You realize we live on a planet, right? All of human life on Earth couldn’t exist without forests—you literally need trees to breathe—yet you can’t identify a single one. Your furniture is made of maple, beech, oak,” you gestured to a few specimens, “but you don’t know what they look like growing in front of you. It is crazy to me how people lack even a basic understanding of the environment we can’t survive without. If we didn’t have laws, life would go on. If the whole world was paved like New York City, humanity would go extinct. So go ahead and judge me for not knowing who Puccini is when you know fuck-all about the planet.”

You had worked yourself into a lather, and all he could think was how much he wanted to kiss you. Your face was flushed, and you were so animated with passion for the subject as you laid into him—even though he knew nothing about it or even found it particularly interesting, he oddly enjoyed being torn apart by your arguments. You might make a great lawyer, if your clients were green.

“Are we even?” he smiled. “Now that you’ve judged me?”

You took a half step back and covered your mouth. “I… got a little defensive, didn’t I?” you cringed.

“Just a little,” he pinched his fingers together so they were almost touching. He stepped toward you.

“Sorry about that,” you laughed nervously. “Yeah. We’re even.”

He took another step closer, and you didn’t back away as he entered your personal space. He could feel his heart hammering behind his rib cage. Behind his over-dressed tie. His tongue darted unconsciously across his lower lip as he glanced down at that temptingly low neckline before snapping his eyes away to meet yours. He wondered if you’d noticed his glance. If you had, your reaction was not to slap him. There was a tentative hope shining in your eyes, breath catching as he stood too close to be platonic.

“So, you’re the Lorax,” he smirked.

“I do speak for the trees,” you said, glad to finally understand one of his references. “I work in conservation. Mostly management plans to control invasive species.”

He tipped his head back with a knowing “Ah,” that you were in some outdoorsy field. That explained your crunchy-granola vibe and the fact that you weren’t at all winded by speed-walking six blocks to get here. You fit in better here, surrounded by greenery, than in the city. You were some sort of forest nymph, a fae creature who had come out of the woods to seduce and enchant him, and spirit him away into the ether.

Your lips were close enough that he could capture them in one fluid motion of his neck, but he hadn’t yet, and now you were simply talking too awkwardly close together while a million excuses not to chanted in the back of his sober mind. So he reached for your hand instead.

“You know, there’s a whole field of environmental law that I am woefully rusty on…” he began. Linking arms, you chatted about your interests as you strolled through the park in the cool morning air of what would be a humid summer day.

• ● • ━━━━━─ ••●•• ─━━━━━ • ● •

@beccabarba / @caked-crusader / @itsjustmyfantasyroom / @thatesqcrush / @dianilaws / @permanentlydizzy / @mrsrafaelbarba / @da-po / @madamsnape921 / @charlottegrice / @onerestein

#Rafael Barba x Reader #Rafael Barba #law and order svu #Raúl Esparza #Rafael Barba x female reader #my writing #reader gets some backstory in this one I hope y'all like trees

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dragonrajafanfiction · 4 years ago

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Justice Chapter 1: How?

This is a mini series (hahaha mini series... ok) about the MC in the ReWritten Series, now named Uesugi Yoko. What happens to her after she’s left in Japan by the Caesar Team and what challenges is she facing?

If you read, please leave me feedback! ^_^

Yoko Uesugi looked at her phone from the rumpled sheets in a black tank top and shorts. Tokyo was seven hours ahead of Rome so it would be midnight, ‘Caesar Time’. She’d cheekily texted ‘you up? >:P’, but got no response. He probably was awake, but Caesar was the worst texter and seemed to get worse the more she wanted to hear from him.

She imagined him still awake, smoking a cigar and drinking Champagne. In the Takamagahara he used to stay up all night long to work and sleep in the morning. Yoko still struggled to wake up in the morning and sleep at night, even now. Most of her studying she did at night by the light of a lamp, polishing her Japanese reading and script, studying history, and dragon genealogy. On the nightstand she had crossed off 35 assignments. But this was an accelerated pace she set for herself, not something required by the Japan branch. In fact, Anjou blithely told her that thanks to her performance on the mission, she could be excused from classes entirely.

But knowledge was power, and she needed power.

She made an effort not to bother Caesar. Her assignment in Tokyo was her business after all. He had nothing but full confidence in her ability to handle any difficulty that came her way. So it felt like she was doubting him when she suddenly wondered if what she was doing was going to end up well done in the end.

And now she wondered if she was going to end up dead.

Months ago, she’d awakened at Cassell College after experiencing the destruction of Black Swan Bay. The disorienting change in circumstances was made all the worse when she was subsequently shipped off to Japan to perform a dangerous mission. She learned that the man who had run the human experimental labs at Black Swan continued the cruelty in Japan. Dr. Herzog set up two organizations from a single family group of hybrids, splitting families apart by their bloodline heritage either the stable ‘good’ genes of Hydra or the ‘trash’ violent genes of the Devil Clan.

He ran experiments on both groups and used violent means to dispose of the undesirable results. When he finished his research, he launched a campaign to eliminate the Devil Clan by framing them for wanting to resurrect ‘god’ that is, the Light King. In less than a week, hundreds of people were dead, thousands were injured. And those who survived had their lives torn apart.

Herzog was dead by her hand, but his legacy lingered in the ruins of the Hybrid families of Japan. Yoko’s assignment was to help heal the fracture between the Devil Clan and the Hydra. Herzog’s legacy in Japan was connected to Black Swan Bay and she knew him intimately. It wasn’t enough to just kill Herzog and call it justice. She wanted to dismantle Herzog’s entire deadly philosophy that caused the slaughter in the first place and undo his legacy in Japan down to the foundation.

However, what needed to be done was going to run her up against some very powerful people. She wanted Caesar’s advice, but he wasn’t answering. Yoko put her phone down and got up to get ready for the day.

Yoko Uesugi wasn’t her actual name. Her real name was Russian because that’s where she was conceived. Her dark hair and eyes appeared Asian, however, only her square jaw and longer nose spoke to some other mixed heritage. It was easier to just adopt a Japanese name rather than have them struggle with her Russian one.

The light was already on in the bathroom. A girl with long red hair brushed her teeth in the mirror and moved aside to let Yoko in. Erii was the one who gave Yoko her last name, fully adopting her as an Uesugi sister. Like Yoko, Erii was the result of Herzog’s experimentation and should have been killed by him. She was the chosen vessel for the Light King parasite, the so-called Tsukiyomi-no-mikoto, who could fully assimilate the genes of the dragon into her own body at the cost of her mind.

She was horribly unstable. The dragonblood in her body was eating away at her. Yoko was in a similar state and together they bonded over their shared illness. Thankfully, they both ended up sharing the cure of the Light King’s fetal blood that saved their lives, but even this was at a great cost. The resurrection of the Light King provoked the eruption of Mt. Fuji, devastating earthquakes, and a large tsunami that killed hundreds of people. Erii and Yoko got their lives back but the scars on Tokyo were still very apparent.

Erii wrote in her notebook and held it up. “Sakura-Kun got promoted. He’s a big man in College now.”

“That’s good news. Tell him I said congrats.” Yoko runs a brush through her hair and yawns. “Hope it doesn’t get a big head.”

Erii lifted up the paper again. “He says he doesn’t know how he’ll manage.”

“I can sympathize with that.” Yoko looks down at her brush.

As soon as Caesar Gattuso, Chu Zihang and Lu Mingfei left Japan, Yoko was approached by the Clan Chief, Nanami Sakurai who had been placed over the Hydra Executive Board by Chisei Gen before his disappearance. Yoko didn’t know Nanami very well other than a brief encounter where she’d furiously slapped Caesar in the face, not knowing it was him. The cold, murderous look in her eyes frightened Yoko into fleeing the elevator she was in.

But after the events in Japan, Nanami was very different.

Nanami Sakurai had suffered from both sides of the War. Her relatives were members of the Devil Clan. Akira was less than ten years old when it was determined that his bloodline was dangerous and he was shipped off to the prison like schools for the violent. Kogure Sakurai was older, about fourteen when she was sent away. The two half siblings both died because they took Herzog’s poison and mutated. They were both killed by Chisei Gen.

Not only that, but two men she loved among Hydra died to the Devil Clan. The Kotaro of the Fuma Clan and Genichiro Ryoma.

Nanami took Yoko to an onsen and teahouse where they stayed for a week, talking and swapping stories. Yoko told Nanami the truth. The man who separated Kogure and Akira from her family was the same man who provided the poison that turned them into monsters and the same man who sent Chisei Gen to kill them. The man who did that was also the same man who drove Chime Gen to madness by converting him into Ruri Kazama. Ruri Kazama then killed Kotaru Fuma. This same man planted the Kanto Group in Hydra and induced them to rebel, an action that would lead to the death of Genichiro.

The men she loved in Hydra and her Devil Clan family were all victims of the same man who wanted to resurrect the ‘god’. Dr. Herzog.

Nanami Sakurai was silent and numb for a long time, her eyes dull. She didn’t speak again that night.

Once Yoko returned to her lodging in Genji Heavy Industries, she sent her a memo on how she thought the damage should be repaired. Yoko commented that it was important to listen to all the victims to get a full account of matters and collect evidence to document what happened first before making any decisions.

Kaguya the super computer had her core destroyed in the fighting and was still being rebuilt from a backup, but many of the records were held on personal devices and Nanami also sent out neutral representatives for witness testimony.

Yoko had spoken to a man of the Inuyama family named Chance who gave her a glimpse of the violence during that horrible week. His family was all killed and their apartment block set on fire. The young children were all orphaned and institutionalized. But even that was only the tip of the bloody iceberg.

The Devil Clan controlled eleven of the eighteen yakuza gangs in Osaka, and the seven gangs loyal to Hydra had always been peaceful to them. But overnight the world changed. The gates of the Genji Heavy Industries building opened, black vans drove out in a convoy and the top members of the Hydra poured out. The moment they arrived in Osaka, the seven Hydra gangs launched an attack on the Devil Clan. Never before in history had a yakuza war been fought so efficiently. It was no less than Hitler's blitzkrieg of Poland. The Devil Clan gangs were crushed one after another before they could organize themselves. Seven of the eleven Devil Clan gangs declared their allegiance to the Hydra Yakuza, three of Devil Clan hold out gangs were beaten to death with bats, and the last one was disbanded. Overnight, Osaka became the Osaka of the Hydra

Not only Osaka, but also from the south to the north, all the gangs loyal to the Hydra family took action and spared no effort to attack the gangs loyal to the Devil clan. Either the Devil Clan members surrendered or their bodies were left on the street.

Hydra had almost all the information about the Devil clan, including the illegal transactions of the clan's gangs and government officials who had dealings with them. The police department received anonymous emails with evidence of the Devil Clan’s crimes, and as soon as the judge accepted the evidence, more than half of the Devil Clan members would be sentenced to prison. The officials who covered up for them received death threats. A prefectural assemblyman was suddenly lifted by a helicopter on the highway in his car, flying 500 meters in the air. The terrified prefectural assemblyman received a phone call in the air from Zuo Shang, an old-timer in the Hydra family, expressing his cordial greetings. Ten minutes later, the helicopter dropped off the senator's car in front of the prefectural assembly building, and by then the senator had become a member of the Hydra family.

But the ‘ghosts’, the unstable hybrids, never even had the option to defect. Even though they had the blood of the Hydra family in their bodies, in order to escape, some of them used potions that forcibly purified their blood. In front of the Executive Board, which was created to kill people like them, they were just a bunch of desperate beasts. No matter how furiously they struggled, their hearts were pierced by explosive bullets filled with mercury. The aces that the Executive Board brought along with them were responsible for pouring the bodies of the ‘ghosts’ into the cement piles. The cement piles were driven into the bottom of the sea to form a neat array. The Maruyama Construction Institute, to which the Hydra family belonged, would build a shrine on that reclaimed land to commemorate the dead.

The ghosts who did surrender would be imprisoned for life. During the Heian period, the Hydra family set up a black prison in the hollow of Mount Kobe to imprison the ghosts that appeared in the family. After the Meiji Restoration, the family was exposed to Western ideas and felt that the black prison was not humane enough, so they closed it, but suddenly the rusted iron gate had opened again. Very few ghosts surrendered however, preferring death to an eternal prison and that prison filled with their children.

Yoko had stood on the shore of the sea, looking over the rows of concrete piles under the waves, knowing that each one contained the body of a man or woman who had chosen not to be imprisoned forever and a great cold came over her. Right behind her, the people assigned as her escort and guard were the same ones who had ended these lives. Unless there was an investigation, it would be impossible to tell who was acting in good faith to repair the damage and restore the Japan branch to harmony and who would much rather let all the former Devils serve as a building’s foundation elements.

Thoughts of financial reparations and placement of orphans were suddenly overshadowed by the names of famous courts like Nuremberg and the Hague and Gacaca…

The suggestion of an investigation and trial of cruel members of the executive board went over as poorly as she expected. Where in Japan could she find impartial judges? Hydra owned everything, all the officials in the courts. No witness would ever testify openly in such a situation. Outside judges would have to be brought in. Who could be trusted with compiling such a roster? Who would be in charge of protecting them from corruption and intimidation?

The pushback was immediate. The Executive board were respected and highly regarded members of the Hydra. How could they be prosecuted for sparing no effort in stopping the Devil Clan from resurrecting god? Nanami didn’t tell anyone that this was all a plot of one man. They all still believed it was 100% the Devils’ fault and they all deserved to die. Tachibana was their respected and dearly departed leader who died saving his son at Tokyo Tower! Why were the guardians of Japan being held accountable for a war that the Devils began?

On the way home from shopping, Yoko was researching the Meiji Restoration when a bullet shattered the window. Despite there being a clear blue sky and it was broad daylight, there was no evidence to be found regarding who fired that bullet. It was a warning shot. Only someone who was very high up in the Hydra rankings could have known where she was at that moment. The next bullet probably would not miss.

Yoko slipped on her shoes at the door and checked her phone one more time before stepping out into the hall of the Genji Heavy Industries building.

Caesar had still not texted her back.

#Dragon Raja #Justice AU

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eternal-reverie · 4 years ago

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*drumroll*

notes of a kh au of both evil plans successfully getting a sora puppet!!

some context, this is a canon divergence idea inspired by this thing I drew a while ago.

ok im absolutely thriving with this fic idea but first, there was a painful hurdle in thinking about how to rework the Chain of Memories plot for Naminé to go along with Marluxia’s plan completely, and that naturally would change a lot of things. Especially regarding Riku’s story plus Axel’s role and a bunch of other characters. It’s actually so intimidating with all these characters and their conspiracies clashing with each other, scooping all that up to transform that into a (hopefully) coherent sequence of events;; in comparison, Days was pretty simple to deal with the change.

Anyway what I have so far is this:

Roughly decided that Marluxia, Namine, Sora, and Xion are the main characters. Riku and Roxas are in comatose states but still influence the story. Xemnas is the main antagonist naturally. Aqua and Ven become key players towards the end. Saix, Axel, Zexion, and Xigbar are also important. Larxene will be a surprise element. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and DiZ are there for the most part too.

The original event that pushed Naminé to tell Sora the whole truth was Axel letting her go meet Sora. So for this plot divergence to work, someone has to intervene here. I mulled it over and decided Larxene should be the one to to do it, resulting in her attacking Axel. They argue in the midst of the fray on who’s the real “traitor.” Sora arrives and defeats them both. Larxene learns of Saix’s plot before she fades. Axel then tells Sora to trust his instincts and to fight off Marluxia’s schemes, before cryptically telling him to not forget their appointment on the clocktower for ice cream. Axel then “fades” away.

Namine becomes more convinced with going through the deception (though not completely) due to interacting with the Angelic looking Specter. She encounters this figure and is given some revelation into some of Marluxia’s motives. i’ll have to think a lot about Namine and how her desire to end her loneliness comes into conflict with her integrity, in addition to how she is manipulated. She consistently guides so many characters through the series with her insight, so that’s a trait i want her to grow into. I think she’ll be the one pulling the strings in the end..

One of the biggest changes is Riku’s reverse/rebirth story. Originally, Riku doesn’t fall into Zexion’s trap due to Namine’s influence and advice dealing with darkness. However, in this AU, Naminé is going ahead with tricking Sora, being absent for Riku. So Riku would lose to Zexion, who’s desperate to use him as a counter to Marluxia’s command of Sora. Though it won’t work out for Zexion in the end because Ansem would finally be able to possess Riku fully...

Which has got me thinking there would be a clash between Ansem and Marluxia in the castle. I think it would be interesting for two of these characters who have a guardian behind them to fight!? Somehow Marluxia wins, adding to his arrogance when it comes to Xemnas.

DiZ is now stumbling over what to do and the mouse would get sad at these turn of events; both heroes of the keyblade now compromised...which leads to Mickey thinking, wait there’s someone in the realm of darkness!!! this is now a secret mickey redemption story

That will lead to Aqua returning to Castle Oblivion to do pest control and finds Axel and Zexion scrambling about trying to find the Chamber of Waking. She promptly decides that Ven is no longer safe there and gets him out. She finds Riku replica and recruits him (might change this detail, forgot to say that Marluxia told Naminé to power him down prior. Aqua finding a replica could be interesting, lest Axel or Zexion gets to him first,,)

Also forgot to mention that Riku is now the one placed in the pod for him to sleep and not turn back into Ansem. (role reversal with sora woo!!)

Sora goes happily along with Naminé but despite all the memory rearranging is still wary of Marluxia in charge (thanks Axel). Something that’s interesting in CoM was how Marluxia told Naminé to destroy Sora’s heart, finding this last resort a shame and rather having preferred him unmarred. So this AU is just that, the plan with Sora’s uninjured heart (but perhaps...breaking his heart could be point reached...in regards to Ven’s heart hidden in there..)

Mar’s character is actually one of the harder things to address. So I need to think more but I want this story to touch upon his hidden memories as so many things will remind him of the old plight of losing a loved one. Mainly observing the interactions between Naminé and Sora, Aqua and Ven, and maybe Xion??? I want Saix’s search for Subject X aka Skuld to be relevant to this too. there’s!!! so!!! many!! examples!?!?!

As he remembers more, the specter haunting him becomes more smaller and human-like. The specter will talk to Namine more for the most part. This will influence Naminé to turn the tables against Marluxia; so you could say she will manipulate and influence him with her memory powers along with her insight.

Will he gain a sibling-esque affection for Sora and Naminé? Yes. Vaguely... I think Sora’s going to lose against Xion... so Marluxia’s going to have to take up the protective role much to his displeasure. Being around Sora’s and Namine’s hearts for an extended amount of time will be a factor in his memory returning and regaining a heart.

Much of his story is taking control back of his destiny vs finding what his true purpose is and what method he choses. I feel like his time as a union leader could contribute to him feeling qualified taking over the organization. Plus him having a strong feeling that Xemnas’s plan is b.s. which is of course, spot on. Does Marluxia become a good guy in the end? im not sure yet, but I want to say no for the most part. (oh the appeal of tragic villain protagonists) who’s to say he wouldn’t sacrifice or destroy anything to recover what he’s lost?

in regards to Xion, I think she’ll be the one in most pain oh boy. Roxas was asleep through the Castle Oblivion events and Xion left seashells at his bedside during that time. The discarded Sora memories, as a result of Naminé’s interference, will pour directly into her mostly. Xemnas sees this plan working and once Roxas wakes, forces him and Xion to clash resulting in Xion successfully absorbing Roxas and becoming the perfect sora puppet. sorta

Xion is at this point, still in confusion on who she is. Everything in her tells her she’s Sora, but the dearest memories of her own life so far is of Roxas taking her up on the clocktower for ice cream, and she holds on to that. Xion also has the discarded C.O. memories including Axel’s last remarks to Sora. I want Xion and Repliku to meet in this story.

Xemnas discovering comatose Ven will be a main thing eventually. Which led me to this image of Xion!Sora thinking Ven is Roxas ;-;

Up to this point, I still need to address how real Sora and Xion!Sora clash. It’ll probably be in the throne room, not unlike what happens at the climax in ddd. the moment I’m most excited for is Marluxia’s humiliation at these turn of events LOL that’s why i drew that joke comic for the most part! someone commented on the post with ‘GET OFF THE STAGE MARLUXIA’ and i was GONE LMAO

there’s more stuff (from my 10 pages of notes i made yesterday. it’s a small square sketchbook so it’s probably more like 5 pages) but i think this summarizes the majority of my ideas. Idk if I’ll get this off the ground promptly since the scope is so big 😵 but it’s a start!

Here’s some sketches! lol i couldn’t resist.

sorry if there some gaps or holes since this wasn’t an outline, i just jumped around with ideas. now to think about this more meanwhile i have other responsibilities to attend to @_@

#i need to give this a proper tag #hrmm ok #puppetplanaufic #there #a project title i guess #warning this is long #and there's some sketches!! to look at #kh #this is just all the main characters receiving the bad ending of their respective games?#um days already has a 'bad' ending but like this one is...way worse #also a bunch of identity crises!#just average kh stuff #long post #sorry the read more doesn’t work on mobile 😥

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renaxwrites · 5 years ago

Text

honeybee || iwaizumi hajime

Pairing | Iawizumi x F! reader

Genre | fluff

Summary | you never thought that getting stung by a bug would set you up with your crush

a/n: hey y’all! it’s iwa’s birthday today and he honestly deserves the whole world �� (especially since he has to deal with flat ass oikawa all the time lmaooo) but he is honestly the best, and I wish him a happy birthday! this is inspired by the other day when I stepped on a bee and was home alone w no one to help me, good times 😔🤙🏼hope y’all enjoy <3

Seijoh was in their most heated match yet, one that would determine their trip to Tokyo. This match not only weighed heavily on the players, but on the manager and coach as well.

As the team’s manager, lately you did your absolute best to try and take over as many tasks as possible, so that the team can focus on training. From small things like washing jerseys, to bigger tasks such as organizing practice matches, you were the one to offer to get it done.

The coach and team were able to focus on practicing, thanks to you, and it was evident in today’s play. However, you haven’t been able to sit and watch the game go on. You had taken it upon yourself to make sure all their waters were full, the towels were cooled, so on and so forth.

At some point, mustering through the endless pile of tasks alone has taken a toll on you. You had barely sat on the bench for a mere second of rest when a time out was called. Immediately, you rush around to give each player a cool towel and water. By the time you got to a certain vice-captain, you were flushed from the constant movement.

“Thanks, y/n,” Iwaizumi mustered out as you hand him a towel and bottle.

“No problem!” you pipe up as you wipe the drop of sweat trailing down the side of your face.

Iwa raises a brow. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that you were playing in the match with us. You alright?”

You chuckle. “I’m alright, thanks. But what you need to worry about is scoring more points. In fact, you might want to go into the huddle, they’re starting to talk strategy.” Sure enough, the coach was waving him over.

He looks from the coach to you. “I will. But are you sure you’re okay? You don’t need to do this all yourself.”

“I got this. Don’t worry about it. I’ll feel better if you scored another point for us!”

He give you a knowing look, then puffs out his chest a bit. “I will then. Later, y/n.” And with that, the match resumed.

What you should have done is take his advice. Instead, you began to venture off to get yourself and the coaches a drink. You began to stretch your legs. You wallowed in the satisfying strain of your knotted muscles, thankful for the brief second of fresh air.

Then it hit you. Literally.

You collapsed on the ground. A searing pain had suddenly enveloped your ankle. You are quick to inspect it, only to find a writhing bee with its stinger stuck in your skin.

You brush the bee off as quickly as possible , only to wail in even more pain. No one was around, so you tried to get yourself up and at least hobble over to First-Aid. But no matter how much you tried, you always fell.

Your cries reached that of player number 4. He thought the cry sounded familiar, so he whipped his head to the sideline. Only to find you not there.

“Iwa-Chan!” Oikawa yelled, calling his attention as he set the ball up. Once the point was scored, Iwaizumi immediately sent a “time-out” signal to the coach, much to everyone’s confusion.

“Iwa-Chan, what are you doing?”

“Yes, what exactly are you doing? You’re breaking your momentum, Hajime.” The coach observed as Oikawa whining fell on deaf ears.

“I thought I heard y/n cry out. Is she alright? Where is she?” he admits as he looks around the gym for you.

“She said she was off to get more waters, maybe she...oh dear-” the coach is cut off by the sight of you in the doorway. Iwaizumi follows his gaze, seeing you struggling to stand.

“Let me help her, please!”

The coach sighs, knowing that his vice-captain wouldn’t give up until he allowed it. “Of course. Make sure she’s alright. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Iwa zoomed over to you and picked you up, as if you weighed nothing.

You yelped, so engrossed in your injury you didn’t notice him. “Iwa! What are you doing?!”

“Helping you, obviously. You’re hurt. What happened?”

“Iwaizumi Hajime! You’re literally in the middle of a match. Put me down, I’ll be fine!” you cry, even though it was obvious you weren’t fine.

“Doesn’t seem like it. I thought I told you to rest! Since you didn’t listen, I’m taking you to get treated, whether you like it or not.”

But. You did like it.

You wait for the nurse to return to finish treating your ankle. You were still a bit flustered, but not from the bug sting. It couldn’t be controlled when you were literally shoulder-to-shoulder with your crush.

“...and that’s what happened before you picked me up. I’m sorry. I just wanted you and the team to focus on training. I thought taking over all the workload would help you all.”

Iwa grabs your hand and rubbed cricles into your skin, each shape burning into your memory.

“Y/n, we’re big boys. We have to handle responsibility both on and off the court. It was very thoughtful, thank you, but you don’t need to be so selfless for our sake. Now you’re hurt! I...I worried about you,” he bashfulky admits the last part as he looks away.

You intertwine your fingers with his. “You did?”

He looks back at you and nodded, blushing more. “Yeah. I did. I’ve always tried to look after you. But lately...I failed. And now, we’re here with your hurt ankle.”

You suddenly burst out into giggles. He looks at you in confusion as you observe, “But Hajime, we’re here. If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have known you cared for me much as I do for you.”

His eyes widen. “You..I...really?”

You respond by grabbing his face and bringing his lips to yours. For a few moments, the two of you admit all your mutual feelings through a passionate kiss.

You slowly pull away to see Iwa break out into a flustered grin. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he says.

“Me too.”

You briefly kiss once again, before he breaks away. “I never thought I’d see the day, but it looks like I’ll have to square up on a bee. A bee! How dare he.”

You laugh and peck his cheek. “First off, Hajime, the bee is dead. Also, think about it. The bee kinda...hooked us up.”

He looks at you in endearment, tucking a stray hair behind your ear. “Well then, thank you, bee. I owe him one.”

From then on, his nickname for you was Honeybee.

#haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!! imagines #iwaizumi x reader #hajime iwaizumi x reader #iwaizumi imagine #iwaizumi hajime #hajime iwaizumi #rena imagines

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coredrill · 4 years ago

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alright here are my rwby8 thoughts now that i’ve had a few days to sit on ‘em!! spoilers for the entire volume under the cut

so if anyone happens to open this and is like “wow this is more words than i’ve seen you use ever” lol yup! it’s probably the most words i’ve written since high school lmao. feel free to read through if ya really want but this is mostly just my own way of organizing my thoughts for this kind of stuff rather than making a million different posts on random parts of it. this way if i want to look back in the future and say “haha wow can’t believe i thought THAT” it’s all in one easy location! i don’t expect anyone else to be reading all this shite lol

thoughts on the volume as a whole:

honestly i loved it!! there’s very little that i would’ve changed and most of that is nit-picking stuff. i’m very impressed that this volume was made in quarantine lmao. the animation in and of itself was STUNNING (shout out to the finale’s water animation...the aura break particle effects...the cinnamon topography of the amity scenes...all of the facial & body expressions...the whale disintegrating...)

i’d honestly say that it’s probably my second favorite volume?? volume 4 is still my beloved but v8 was so good. i’ll probably need to watch it through a few more times but god. i LOVED IT.

honorable mention cause idk where else to put it: some of the scores were breathtaking!!! i tend not to notice background music on my first watch unless it really sticks out to me and there were quite a few scenes where that happened in a good way this volume. the ones where cinder breaks into the atlas control room and the one at the end when atlas is flooding are probably my favs!!! also there was this one part where it was just screeching over ironwood and it worked really really well.

okay so now for individual characters. let’s start with ruby:

i would like to fund her therapy

very surprised that she didn’t “break” this volume! i was sort of expecting it to happen--between ironwood, the amity plan only kind of working, the hound, the virus, and the fact that she was separated from her usual support system (qrow, yang, and jaune), i was definitely expecting her to. i’m glad she didn’t though cause it’s gonna be so much harder when she actually does (probably when she finds out that cinder has the relics and penny’s dead...)

massive shout out to lindsay jones for managing to make squeaky-voiced ruby still sound like ruby even while going through a whole host of emotions we’ve never seen ruby go through before!

god. that scene where crescent rose fell into the drink and ruby scrambled after it. my heart dropped lmao.

also. this is likely because i’ve got an engineering degree (which came with a free stick up my butt when it comes to technology in media) but the line where they say “mass no longer matters” wrt her semblance??? WHAT??? bro splitting mass up into smaller chunks doesn’t change the actual mass of the material itself what is going on here 😭😭😭 (this isn’t a real criticism of any kind i just yelled WHAT after they said that line lmao)

weiss:

i have one single weiss criticism and its that, in the scene where she’s leaving whitley to go fight the hound, she says “we still need to work on your attitude” and for whatever reason, the voice track doesn’t sound like it was quite mixed right? like it sounds like she’s just standing there rolling her eyes but my girl is BOOKING it out of the room lmao

other than that: weiss you are PERFECT. she really spent this entire volume saving and taking care of the people she loves!!! and i loved every second of it!!!

i would’ve liked to see more of her and klein/whitley/willow. i think there’s a lot of great stuff in that dynamic (not me crying when klein showed up at the manor...) and especially between weiss and her mother. i hope we get one big schneeuinon in vacuo once they + winter are all in the same location (but that’s gonna be a while i think lmao)

it’s been said a million times before but weiss?? shaking and crying but using gambol shroud anyway?? even though she thinks her teammates are all dead?? giving ruby the staff and pushing her out of the line of fire and pulling blake back to safety??? fighting cinder, a fucking wholeass maiden, with no aura because she needs to protect penny?? only unable to get up and keep fighting after she watches gambol shroud (the last physical piece she has of her teammates) go over the edge??? bro. BRO. i’m legit tearing up just TYPING THAT. god she’s gonna find her team at that island resort and never let them go. gonna be like v4 jaune all over again huh??

blake/yang:

not as much here since they didn’t get a whole lot of focus this volume, but i enjoyed all their scenes! yang just fuckin going at salem was 1000/10.

i will say...i think blake’s gonna kiss yang when they meet up in tropical paradise. and good for her!! (especially if this volume’s been planned since the beginning, it makes sense that this would be the writers’ idea for where they wanted their first kiss to be)

jaune:

going from ren saying “he has no fear. he believes that we can do this” about jaune to, five chapters later, forcing jaune to deliver a killing blow to penny was just CRUEL

the fucking dissonance of jaune haha!-awkward-renora-moment-exit vomit-boy-through-the-portals hit-in-the-head-with-a-rock arc being the one that penny asks..............bro. don’t hmu.

it’s going to be such a long time until we see him smile again.

also. the moment when crocea mors snaps in half...again, my stomach dropped.

but it’s okay! he’ll be fine without a weapon! he’s the ~strategist~! *breaks the fuck down*

it hurts so much too to think about, like oscar mentioned.....even if/when he does reunite with ren and nora, he’s not gonna be the same person he was when they last saw him. he’s not gonna be their goofy, wholesome, soft, snarky, healer team leader anymore. he just got his shit sorted out, he just stopped being actively suicidal, and tbh i think this might affect him worse than what happened with pyrrha. especially since they were compounding in his brain--what he did gave penny more of a choice than pyrrha ever got, but GEEZ.

pain. just. pain.

nora:

NORA MY BELOVED

okay. OKAY. so like she was passed out for half the volume but what we did get of her was fucking amazing

nora’s mom i am going to find you and have some words. i’ve mentioned this before but this woman has the same energy as the mom from grave of the fireflies who was like “i know we’re actively being bombed right now but i’m going to abandon my children and get myself to safety.” SQUARE UP BITCH. i hope we never see nora’s mom in the show because i will become filled with rage

but nora herself??? flawless. perfection.

i really did love her journey this volume. realizing that she wants to become her own person apart from ren, and then telling him that when he says that he loves her?? nora sweetie that was heartbreaking but i am SO SO PROUD OF YOU.

nora putting herself first for once and being told that people love her WE FREAKING LOVE TO SEE IT

except NOW that’s all gonna go haywire 😭😭😭

like...the moment in the finale where you can see she’s hesitant to leave jaune to to go vacuo but she goes anyway because he’s her leader and he doesn’t like splitting up either and she loves him and she trusts him only for her to get STUCK ON THE OTHER SIDE BANGING ON THE PORTAL. that scene fucking BROKE me. you just KNOW she’s gonna be hating herself for going through and leaving jaune (even though nobody knew it was one way!!!) and when the portal dissolves and he doesn’t come through........

she really thinks that she’s lost TWO teammates now. that’s TWO teammates that she wasn’t able to save. she saved ren from the nuckelavee but pyrrha’s dead and as far as she knows jaune’s dead too

and jaune’s her fucking family!!!!!!!

and like. when we see her on the vacuo side of the portal, we see that she’s got the happy huntresses behind her. she did her job and she gathered them but now she can’t get back through and AHHHHHH. FUCK. when she drops to her knees because she realizes.........that fucking killed me. i’m tearing up now just typing this sdmndbm

and like. the worst part is that she just realized that she wants some time away from ren. but everyone else is gone and just like when they were kids he’s all she’s got and they are gonna lean on each other harder than ever because this time they both lost EVERYTHING. not just jaune, but ruby, who was their teammate for a while too. weiss, who took such great care of nora while she was injured. penny, who nora helped with blake’s advice. yang, who ren had time to bond with this volume. FUCK

it’s gonna hurt so bad to watch but i cannot WAIT to see what nora does next and how she moves forward. god. this is gonna kill her. it’s killing ME and i’m just a viewer lmao

ren:

remember that one week where neath went on twitter and was like “i love renora and i’m gonna make that everyone else’s problem”??? yeah. that was a good week lmao

speaking of neath. MASSIVE PROPS TO HIM FOR HIS WORK. he managed to give ren every single emotion in the book this volume and none of it sounded ooc despite ren being such a repressed character before. he did incredible!!!!

I LOVED REN SO MUCH THIS VOLUME GOD. i mean i love him in every volume BUT HE HAD SO MANY GOOD MOMENTS AND SUCH A GOOD ARC

i’ve already talked about it at length but the scene where his semblance evolves is one of my favorites in the whole show. he’s so fucking full of love that it’s literally tearing him apart and when he finally accepts that fact his ENTIRE SOUL levels up!!! he looks at himself and there are pink petals falling off of him because he can’t contain the love in his body anymore!!! it’s there in a literal, physical manifestation and it’s so. fucking. GOOD. FUCK.

and also my obligatory remark about how he was thinking about oscar and pyrrha and his parents in that moment. people he loved platonically and familially. rwby goes so fucking hard for platonic love and i can’t ever thank them enough. to see ren have this realization because he was thinking about oscar.....god i’m gonna cry again LMAO

and then after that the way that he just. looks at jaune in every scene with the biggest fucking heart eyes. i’m gonna fucking combust he loves his leader SO MUCH. (which. as i mentioned in the nora section. pain now)

and the nora stuff........JUST AS GOOD

another thing i’ve talked about a lot but to see him apologize, be emotionally open, listen to what nora’s saying and what nora needs, TELL HER THAT HE LOVES HER FIRST, not holding a single thing against her, agreeing to wait for her to be ready.........literal perfection holy shit

romance is normally not one of my favorite aspects of any media but i will make an exception for whatever the fuck ren and nora got going on

basically as a ren stan / jnpr stan i was thriving this volume and then that finale hit me and i know i will be in pain until they reunite again

i have a handful of jnr gifs that i was planning to make during the hiatus but now they’re all PAIN aksjhdasjdh

oscar:

deeply worried about the quickly approaching merge. i’m really hoping that oscar and oz stay separate but i also love seeing all the animation/voice acting nuances that indicate that they’re getting closer to the merge.......AH

this volume really hammered home just how strong this kid is. he stands up to SALEM and does the right thing even despite the torture cause he’s so BRAVE and STRONG and when he trusted hazel with the password DESPITE IT ALL. ugh. so good.

i love oscar so much and i’ve loved seeing him grow!!!

penny:

serious stuff coming in the next bullet point but. GOD. her model’s head is so big and i don’t know WHY but this stuck out to me every time she was standing next to someone else. it might be because of the volume of her hair (but yang’s hair also has a lot of volume, and her head is normal sized)??? idk it just threw me off a lot. every time she was like, talking to ruby or something, all i could think about was how her head was bigger than ruby’s ENTIRE TORSO lmao. (also why didn’t they give her human body shoes skdjhaksjh)

that said.........oh, penny 😭😭😭😭😭

i’m surprised that she died but only because i thought her plot armor was pretty thick LMAO. narratively it makes a lot of sense and i’m glad her story ended the way it did.

i’ve seen a lot of people interpreting her actions in the finale as “choosing to die,” but i don’t think that’s the case?? penny’s friends all saved her every single time that she presented her own death as an option. that’s what makes this so tragic, is that they successfully saved her every time she offered that, and that in the end, she still died. she was gonna die anyway. she was impaled by cinder--jaune didn’t have enough time to heal her before cinder defeated weiss (who had no aura!!) and turned on them again. penny made her own choices when 1. she asked to die at the hands of a friend, rather than by cinder’s soul-sucking grimm arm and whatever horrible fate that includes and 2. to choose her successor. and i don’t blame her for making either of those choices! she wanted to die with as much dignity as peace as she could and to choose whose life she would be intertwined with. and while it’s very sad, i’m glad that penny finally got some sense of control over herself and her legacy.

and like...she was so happy when she met up with winter!! she was so happy to have full autonomy for once!!! that scene was both heartwarming and heartbreaking!!!

i also think that penny’s death reinforces the idea that remnant is gonna be very different by the time rwbyjnorqe is done with it. now not one but two kindhearted girls have gotten killed because they got tangled up in the maiden powers—which were originally meant to be a gift!! and i’m very interested to see what the resolution is gonna be!! (i know it’s gonna be in like. volume 52 or something alsjfndnx but still!!)

also, if nothing else, i am very glad that whole “pietro sacrifices the last of his aura to revive her” theory is gone. i hate that theory lmao

i will say, while i enjoyed penny’s role this volume, i do think that maybe some of her screentime could’ve gone elsewhere. i get that there needed to be a lot of focus on her, so that we would be attached when she died, but i think it would’ve been beneficial to spread that screentime elsewhere just a bit, especially since she wasn’t really developing at all. hitting the same point with her like seven times did start to feel a bit repetitive lol. my vote would be for extra time with the schnees, or the jn(o)r reunion at schnee manor, or maybe a scene checking in with pietro and maria!!

emerald:

EMERALD MY BELOVED

YOU DEFECTED!!!! GOOD FOR YOU GIRL!!!!

i hope we get a LOT more time with her in the future. she’s still gotta work out the cinder thing of course but i also think it’s gonna be super interesting to see how she acts now that she (alongside oscar, ren, nora, the hh, and winter) is one of the closest things their group has to a “leader”

also like........good for her for being one of the LEAST traumatized people this volume despite being THREATENED BY SALEM

somebody give emerald a nice long hug

i love her

that is all

winter:

WINTER OH MY GOD

seeing her struggle with her emotions all volume.....only to finally accept them and save marrow’s life.....and because of that choice she realizes how long overdue it was and goes all in on helping the heroes.....and is eventually chosen to become the next winter maiden by the girl who challenged her to accept her emotions in the first place......😭😭😭 chef’s kiss

“you chose nothing. this was a gift.” *demolishes ironwood but doesn’t stick around cause he’s not worth it* *fights cinder* POETIC CINEMA!!!!!

also i cannot wait to see her schneeunion with willow, whitley, and klein.......even if she does have to be the one to tell them what happened to weiss 😭

cinder:

CINDER I HATE YOU BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN

her backstory was pretty self explanatory but i think this was a good time to spell it out especially while we were in atlas. the culmination of that, her consistent failures to achieve her goals after v3, and watts dragging her really all just came together to make her so much more intimidating and efficient and i loved watching it.

like i know there’s people who don’t like her as a character but she’s always so fun to watch and her va does AMAZING and she’s just. so INTERESTING

also. i cannot wait for her to find out that ruby and neo are both alive (and especially when salem finds out they’re both alive LMAO)

also also her line to ruby about never being born feels.......awfully specific??? i wonder if it’s a hint at some other part of salem/cinder/ruby/summer lore (like her “and i refuse to starve” line from last volume)

also also also CINDER.......lying to salem is gonna backfire on you at one point or another.......HM

salem:

gosh i love salem. she’s such a good villain and i loved all her scenes (especially the fight scene...SO COOL).

very interested in whatever she does next!! since the only remaining lackey she has is cinder (who is now starting to try to manipulate her) and tyrian and mercury, who are in vacuo, i’m curious about her next steps. is she gonna keep recruiting, now that people know who she is?? is she gonna come to vacuo herself?? she could definitely do a WHOLE LOT OF DAMAGE with the refugee situation there, so i’m super excited to see how her next moves play out!!

hazel/tyrian/watts/merc/neo:

rip hazel. glad we were able to get an INSANE fight scene out of him before his death BUT ALSO WHAT’S WITH YOU BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF A 14 YEAR OLD HUH

listen. listen. i know merc-rescues-oscar was never a possibility BUT i still love that idea. it lives in my mind rent free!!!

i feel like mercury’s gonna be so insane after the worst road trip ever in a confined space with tyrian that he’s gonna be immediately redeemed by team sssnn and the power of himbofication upon landing in vacuo LMAO

real talk though, i am VERY interested in what happens when mercury sees emerald again and learns she defected. like, this is his friend, who he’s tried to keep safe the only way he knows how (by keeping his head down and not angering their abuser) and she got out but he didn’t. GOD. AND in the first fight she was in after defecting, she used the move that she learned by watching him!!!! that’s gonna be SO GOOD and i can’t wait to see it!!!

neo is a wildcard and i love watching her fight and i think it’s SO INTERESTING that she went over the side with rwby and jaune and i CAN’T WAIT to see what she does next.

WATTS MY DUDE. what a GOOD volume for him. like the stuff where he yells at cinder was SO COOL to see and it was so funny that he thought that wasn’t gonna come back to bite him LMAO. i think this was super fitting for him and while i like him as a villain, i think this was a good place for his story to end. i had a lot of fun watching his scenes this volume.

qrow/robyn:

I LOVE THEIR SIBLING ENERGY. robyn talking qrow down and them bonding over their semblances together was so great.

i also loved qrow’s semblance...evolving?? changing?? idk what exactly happened yet, but i know that if i too hung out with robyn hill for 48 hours straight my outlook on life would improve dramatically.

i do hope robyn makes it to vacuo soon because she will be invaluable at handling the refugee crisis there.

on the other hand, if qrow gets to vacuo and finds out that ruby and yang (and three more of his adopted kids) never made it........PAIN. oh my god it’s gonna be like summer all over again 😭😭

aceops:

did not expect to get teary-eyed when vine died. and yet i did. that “themes of death” cw on the finale was CERTAINLY SOMETHING HUH

hell yeah marrow!!! what a good boi!!! i loved his defection ofc and him going off on ironwood...chefs kiss

i hope marrow sticks with the main cast. he’s my favorite and he deserves to see his friends again!!!

as for elm and harriet, i’m not sure?? i think harriet still has a lot of work to do before she’s redeemed in my eyes. maybe they can be dropped off at beacon to help glynda fight the grimm/rebuild so that they can be back for the show’s ending but the cast is somewhat trimmed for vacuo lmao

also. i know they’re not aceops. but WHERE ARE FLYNT AND NEON ARE THE MEME KIDS OKAY

happy huntresses:

may marigold is literally perfect in every way

loved them! would’ve loved to see more of them lmao. maybe even just cutting back to them in the crater reacting to some of the stuff going on.

i very much hope we get to see them in the future! i know the vacuans aren’t gonna be happy with the atlas/mantle people showing up unannounced but i feel like if there’s anyone who’s gonna be able to earn their respect, it’s the organized-and-saved-the-lives-of-those-downtrodden-by-atlas-happy-huntresses.

maria & pietro:

okay. SO. my thoughts are either that they made it to vacuo (penny did see where amity would touch down, so it’s possible that a portal was placed in that location and they made it through) or qrow picks them up.

either way, i hope we get to see them again. I LOVE THESE TWO GEEZERS!!!

oh, pietro......... *cries*

ironwood:

not much to say here except that i loved it. i loved how he got more and more paranoid, i loved that he vaporized jacques schnee, i loved that he only went cartoon-villain at the last moment, i loved that he died unceremoniously surrounded by the thing he thought would save them all. i love that cinder got in one final chess reference beforehand. 10/10

the hound:

it feels like a lifetime ago that this guy died but holy shit. holy SHIT.

i want whitley to summon the hound!! it was an enemy that pushed him to grow, i think it would be neat!!

ambrosius:

LOVED THIS DUDE. i LOVE how his powers work!!! like, even though it’s magic, it’s so realistic because that’s how creation works!!! you gotta design the EXACT thing you want or else its gonna be fucked up!!!

like. okay. so (back on my engineering bs again lmao) for example. let’s say i’m writing a program where the user enters a number from 1-10 and it’s displayed on the computer screen. so i write whatever code i need that says “take user input and put on screen.” that’s what ambrosius did when he created the portals and the pathways between them!

and then let’s say i also put a warning to the user that says “only enter numbers from 1-10.” that would be ambrosius saying “do not fall.”

but...the user can still enter whatever they want. what happens if they put in the number 100? what happens if they type a letter? this program only puts numbers from 1-10 on screen, so who knows what’s gonna happen. and that’s what happens when people fall off the railings!!!

“oh, but you told them what numbers to enter” yeah but humans are unpredictable and ya gotta account for the human element when doing stuff like this!! team rwby didn’t account for people falling off--because why would people fall off if they were told not to? but the human element messed that up anyway!!!

anyways i’m a fucking nerd apparently but it was super cool to see that reflected in ambrosius!!! i’m a big fan!!!

like whenever people call him tricky or sneaky...no!!! he was just doing exactly what he was told to do!!!! so good!!!

also i wanna see him hang out with his sister jinn lmao

alright and here’s my thoughts/predictions for v9:

first off i just wanna say that this entire section (this entire post really, but especically this section) is just me spitballing lmao. we literally have ZERO clue what’s happening next or where they are, i’m just throwing out some stuff that’s crossed my mind! whatever crwby gives us is gonna be infinitely better than whatever i come up with lmao

that said, i have two ideas for what could be happening in madagascar.

option one is the one i’ve seen other people toss around, which is the whole wonderland-land-of-the-dead thing. i’m kinda torn on this because i think it could be good for penny’s storyline, but not really anyone else’s?? sure, yang and ruby could see summer, but weiss would see...jacques?? and blake would see...adam?? i’m not sure what weiss and blake would have to say to them/learn from them the same way ruby and yang would.

on that same idea, jaune could definitely see pyrrha, but again, i’m wondering what purpose that would serve? obviously jaune’s actions in the finale were guided by pyrrha (or specifically her mom, and realizing that pyrrha never had a choice either), but it’s clear that that’s the case for all of team jnpr, and it will be probably forever. their scene together at pyrrha’s memorial felt like they were closing the door--specifically--on their grief. on the other hand, those actions are super relevant right now and i will never turn down the chance to see pyrrha!!! it’s just free waterworks babey!!!

neo also has roman, but i can’t really see roman admitting to anyone that he got swallowed by a grimm 😭😭 just seems too embarrassing for him LMAO

for penny, i think this could work nicely. all she ever wanted was to not have her life controlled by others--kind of like alice in wonderland (the disney movie version because i am fairy tale illiterate lmao). if penny gets to exist after death in a land where she gets to choose everything for herself i think she would be very happy!

again, if this ends up being the case, crwby could 100% make it work! (and i am 0% opposed to maya model pyrrha.) i just personally am not as sold on this being the case as some others are.

option two imo is vacuo but in the past. which i know seems kind of weird BUT i have reasons!

so we know a few things about vacuo. one, it used to be an oasis and was considered a paradise until atlas and mistral destroyed it for the dust. two, it has giant motherfucking crabs that people like to eat. yes this is all i have to go off of BUT both of those things are in the end credits scene we got!

also, them landing in past-vacuo makes sense on ambrosius’ level. their “one way ticket” probably didn’t include all four dimensions of coordinates--so i could see them landing in the same x, y, and z as the official doorway, but at a different time. the creation would still do exactly what it was asked to do--drop them in vacuo.

there’s also a couple other things. “vacuo” means “in a vacuum” which i’ve heard v9 is supposed to be. also in before the dawn, sun saw some bigass magic tree that awakened his semblance which this one definitely could qualify as

(okay. side note. when i first saw the tree i thought of the glowy tree from james cameron blue people avatar. IDK WHY, i haven’t seen that movie in years??? i also had to google it to make sure i wasn’t making it up and apparently it’s called the “tree of souls.” which would also make sense if it helped sun awakened his semblance. i don’t think rwby based something off of blue people avatar, it’s probably more likely that blue people avatar is based off of some fairytale/mythology that i don’t know anything about LMAO)

i don’t actually think option two is gonna happen, but it was fun to think about!!

also either option opens the opportunity to time not passing 1:1 in current vacuo & rwby’s island getaway which???????? AHHHHH

alright so now to the actual characters lmao. i mentioned wby earlier. i honestly have no clue what neo’s gonna be up to, she’s such a wild card and i LOVE IT.

ruby and jaune is gonna be...........PAIN. NO MATTER WHAT. i have no idea how ruby is gonna react--she might just be so overwhelmed by everything that she snaps/yells at jaune which. PAIN. but she also might not?? which. ALSO PAIN. i feel like no matter what ruby does, jaune’s gonna blame himself anyway. god. i love their friendship SO MUCH and this is gonna HURTTTT

and on that, he doesn’t have ren and nora this time to pull him back from the ledge. this dude’s guilt complex is gonna go crazy especially since he doesn’t have his team and double especially if ruby/rwby blames him for what happened. god it’s gonna HURT TO WATCH.

on a wildly different note, i hope we do get to see vacuo/qrow throughout volume 9. if i go a whole volume without ren and nora i WILL cry lmao.

also it’s gonna be super interesting to see how their group fares!!! vacuo’s fuckin nuts and i’d love to see winter just destroying the grimm there (3 headed giraffe my beloved) and see how the atlas/mantle refugees handle the climate--and how the vacuans react to all of them LMAO

ALSO!!!! THE SULFER FISH WERE THERE!!! very glad to see that they’re in vacuo too because from the concept art it seems like they have super unique abilities and i’m excited that we may get to properly see them, instead of just cameos!!!

team cfvy pspspspspspsps theodore and rumpole pspspspspsps team sssnn pspspspspsps

and, of course, i gotta mention that any possible jnr reunion WILL tear my heart out and i will probably cry for days. i gotta start emotionally preparing now LMAO

alright and that wraps it up!! if anyone makes it down to the bottom props to you!! i don’t expect anyone to actually read this mess lmao. tldr: INCREDIBLE volume and i’m so hype for v9 already!!!

#f: rwby #t.txt #this took me two whole days to type lmao

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years ago

Text

Life Without Reverend Moon by Jen Kiaba – October 22, 2012

Thirty-thousand feet seems like a good altitude at which to question one's life. “I am already in motion,” I tell myself. It's a kind of progress. Shortly after my twentieth birthday I was in progress, between JFK and Heathrow, en route to Oslo.

After takeoff the girl sitting next to me smiled kindly, asking where I was headed. I told her:

“To Norway. To visit my husband.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a stack of glossy women's magazines, offering me several. They promised hot sex tips, orgasm-inducing positions, and advice on how to find a man to orgasm with. She pointed to a few with a wink. “Maybe you can find something nice in there for your husband.”

Today, almost a decade later, to use the word husband feels wrong; I avoid it. But at the time it was what he said I should call him. “I am your husband!” he would say. The word sounded foreign in my ears; "husband" was supposed to be a word attached to “honoring” and “cherishing,” and whatever else heartfelt marriage vows should entail. But I had not been given the choice to say those vows.

My parents were married, along with two thousand other couples, in Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church at Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1982. I was the first of five children, and we were all raised as members of the Unification Church's Second Generation, who were thought to be born sinless and of God's Lineage, through the Blessing marriage ceremony officiated by Rev. Moon. Theologically this meant that Rev. Moon, as the purported Messiah, had created a heavenly lineage through his personal perfection, relationship with God, and marriage with (the much-younger) Hak Ja Han, in 1960.

Growing up, I always had the expectation that Rev. Moon would choose my spouse. In the Unification Church, one didn't date. Flirtatious interactions with the opposite sex were severely frowned upon, all activities were separated by gender, and we referred to one another as brother and sister in order to emphasize platonic relations. Sex before marriage was absolutely out of the question. The Church had a word for that: falling. To fall was the greatest sin that could be committed, and it could not be undone. To fall was to enter the realm of Satan, to be cut off from God and to wound His already-suffering heart.

Perhaps childhood's greatest tragedy is what we learn to normalize. In my upbringing, to question what we were taught was to invite Satan and the evil Spirit World into your mind; to fend off evil, one must quiet the questions and dive further into the readings and teachings of Rev. Moon. Some of the most effective brainwashing was what we had been taught to perpetuate upon ourselves.

At 19 I found myself on a terrifying personal precipice. I was seriously considering leaving the Unification Church, but with no means of supporting myself and no safety net outside of the insular church community, the notion was enough to bring me to panicked tears. Yet I didn't know if I believed Rev. Moon, his world, or his supposed messianic mission. As a reflex, I was ashamed and hated myself for feeling that way.

When word of an administrative opening in the US Second Generation Department reached my family, I was intrigued. What better way was there to understand what this movement was all about than by working for one of the central organizations? So, before making a decision to abandon the culture of my childhood, I climbed into the belly of the beast looking for truth. That’s where I lost my way.

When the Christmas holidays rolled around, I took my miniscule stipend and boarded an Amtrak train home to ponder the nothingness I had found but had not yet accepted. When I arrived home, there was news: after five years of having parents match their children, Rev. Moon was stepping up again, and was going to conduct a matching ceremony for the Second Generation.

My parents sat me down in the bedroom, listing all of the reasons why I should go. Though it was left unspoken, we all knew that at almost 20 years old, my eligibility expiration date was staring me hard in the face. My mother finished with, “If Jesus came to you and said that he had found your perfect spouse, what would you say to him?” She paused for effect. “Now, how much more is Father?”

How could I say no? To refuse was to deny the remotest possibility that this man might be who he said that he was. I simply had not gotten there in my journey. Besides, I told myself, it was just a matching. My match and I would have time to get to know each other before deciding to get married.

My biggest mistake was to assume that I would be allowed to exercise free will.

My mother dropped me off at East Garden, one of the Moon family's mansion-compounds in Tarrytown, NY, and I entered into the ballroom of the estate with approximately 10 other nervous young people. For the next several hours, one of the Korean leaders proceeded to lecture us on our unworthiness. That’s when I found out that by the time we left, we were all going to be Blessed to someone.

The panic blossomed. I had to leave and began approaching anyone, even strangers, to ask to borrow their cellphones. Repeated calls home, begging my parents to come pick me up, were answered in the negative.

By the end of the day, the ballroom was packed to capacity. Young people from all over the United States, Asia, and Europe had answered Rev. Moon's call. Late in the evening, Rev. Moon came out to address us through his interpreter. Though I had never heard them from his mouth before, I desperately wanted to hear words of wisdom — or something that rang true — from the man who held my future in his hands.

One phrase stuck out to me in the monotony: “Do you want me to match you tonight?” A thunderous “Yes” answered Rev. Moon's question, and we were lined up into rows, divided down the middle, and categorized.

I should have left, I tell myself. I should have simply snuck out of the sweltering ballroom, slipped out of the mansion, and found my way through security to get outside of the compound. Even if I had had to follow the train tracks from Tarrytown back home, I should have left. But with no money, no means of communication, and no idea if I would have a home to go back to if I left, I was frozen in place. Besides, I had been trained to obey.

Suddenly Rev. Moon began pointing. A girl, then a boy would stand up, acknowledge each other, bow to Rev. Moon, and then be ushered out to be “processed” by administrators. My breathing was shallow; I tried to quiet my mind and draw upon the things I had been taught.

Absolute faith. Absolute Love. Absolute Obedience.

When Rev. Moon's finger pointed to me, time stopped. I looked deep into the eyes of the man who had bidden me to rise with his gesture and saw nothing. I was gazing into the eyes of the man who was determining my future, and I had expected to see some sort of timelessness, or to feel as though his eyes were digging into my soul. But he was looking through me, as though his finger had arbitrarily found its way to me in a game of love roulette. I felt suspended over an infinite emptiness.

Then time sped up, his finger jabbed in another direction, then another and another. Three other people stood up, and I had no idea which of the other two men I had been assigned to. One I had met at a summer camp several years ago, but he was looking at someone else. The other man gestured to me and I found myself eye-level with a shrunken and pilled sweatshirt emblazoned with the word “Norway.”

In an instant, I was no longer suspended. A kind of darkness engulfed my mind, the words “game over” ringing in my ears. Afterward, everyone was abuzz with excitement; I desperately looked around to try and find someone whose face mirrored the same panic I was trying to fight. A gesture from above caught my attention. “Norway” was trying to introduce himself to me.

Finally I looked up at the man that Rev. Moon had chosen for me. "Tall" was the only word that came to mind. Over the noise, he tried asking me questions; what they were and how I answered, I forget. Those next hours were a strange blur — alternating between sadness and terror. At one point I borrowed someone's cellphone and called home. It was 2 a.m. and my mother's sleepy voice answered. “I'm matched,” I said without emotion. “To a Norwegian. His name is Chris.” Then I hung up.

We were woken up the next morning at 5 a.m. for morning service. I had lain awake all night, clutching my stomach, trying to keep nausea at bay. Chris found me and approached me with a bagel — the first meal I remember receiving in 24 hours. The smell of food made me ill and I politely refused. Despite his best efforts to chat with me and have the “getting to know you” small-talk, I could barely muster words.

Every so often I would sneak away to borrow another cellphone, calling home in tears. But if my parents had refused to budge before, they certainly weren't going to now that they had a son-in-law waiting in the wings.

The day after Christmas, at the back of that crowded ballroom, I was wearing a wedding dress that didn't fit, standing next to a tall stranger, and repeating vows in a language I didn't understand. After the Blessing ceremony, we had official photos taken. As the photographer told us to say “cheese,” I realized that I couldn't remember how to smile.

I still have that photo. I look like a confused child playing a bizarre game of dress-up; I'm gazing into the camera with a lost expression. Chris is looking away, dressed in an equally ill-fitting tuxedo. The picture would have been funny if it weren't so sad.

That was how I found myself several months later at 30,000 feet, bound for Norway. To fight the mounting dread of the impending arrival, I immersed myself in the magazines that my neighbor had kindly lent me. It was the first time I had ever picked up any material that encouraged an expression of sexuality, and I felt a delicious bit of rebellion wash over me.

As I pored over the pages, I could feel certain gears shifting as pieces of me unlocked and unwound inside. The women in these pages catapulted me into an exhilarating daydream in which my choices were my own. That daydream left an intense hunger within me.

As a 20-year-old virgin, I wanted to know what it would be like to sleep with a man because you wanted to, or because you loved him, not because you were pressured by your parents and his parents to “start family life.” The idea of sex with Chris made my skin crawl, and I had no idea if I would face pressure from him or his parents when my plane touched down.

Rev. Moon died on September 3, 2012, at the age of 92. His daughter, In Jin Moon, stepped down from her role as leader of the American church a few days later, after having given birth to a child from a three-year affair with a married man. While the church has not been a part of my life for many years now, I've watched these recent events and their fallout with interest.

At first, this news of Rev. Moon's daughter didn't bother me. Then the leadership began trying to explain away her actions and affair, saying that she "chose love when she had a chance.” How many of us were given the allowance to "choose love when we had the chance"? That was something we were explicitly denied; instead were taught to feel ashamed for our feelings unless they were chosen for us, and then sanctioned by someone with power over us.

Sometimes I wonder where my life would be if I had sat next to someone else on the plane, who offered to let me borrow a copy of The Economist instead. The girl next to me on the plane offered a small form of salvation; in a kind gesture she offered me a glimpse into a world that I had had no idea existed. It was a world in which I did not need to be ashamed of my body and my sexuality. My desires for love were not evil. It was a world that encouraged me to discover who I was, not a world in which I had to break my inner-self down to fit a preconceived notion of goodness and of womanhood. Most important, it was a world that let me take ownership of my future, my free will, my reproduction, and my heart. It was a world that I finally knew I needed to escape to.

And I did. It didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen while I was in Norway. It took me almost two years of fighting with Chris, fighting with his parents and my own, before a church divorce was granted. The decision to "break the Blessing" was an agonizing one that took me turning myself inside-out, trying to reform into the kind of person who could love and accept Chris. But finally, I walked away — free but with a proverbial Scarlet "A" branded into my chest, as far as other church members were concerned. Today I am proud of it. It is my battle scar from a fight I am proud to have survived, because I fought my way into this new world.

Jen Kiaba is a photographer living in New York's Hudson Valley. Her work explores dreams, memory, fantasy, and the realms where all three blend. This is her first personal essay. She and her sister also have a blog about their experiences within the Unification Church.

___________________________________

The Purity Knife: Sex, Death and Human Trafficking in the Unification Church

http://summerofcheesecake.blogspot.com/

https://www.jenkiaba.com/portfolio

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Jen Kiaba on the Ares Meyer podcast

Conceptual Self Portrait Artist Join me in conversation with Artist Jen Kiaba as we talk Poetry, Self Portraits and Child Marriage.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conceptual-self-portrait-artist/id1549515902?i=1000507915214

___________________________________

Why Didn’t You Just Leave?

Jen Kiaba : Hello and welcome to my least favorite question in the entire world. It’s one I’ve heard more times than I care to count, and sadly I think that’s something many cult survivors can relate to. In the past that question used to make me clam up and spiral into shame, or mumble, “It’s not that simple.” But in those days I didn’t fully understand the coercive control mechanism that were used to keep me, and so many others, trapped.

Read more:  https://jenkiaba.medium.com/lessons-on-leaving-why-didnt-you-just-leave-789953c4689a

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We Are All Vulnerable

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‘Falling Out’ Elgen Strait podcast April 6, 2021

13. Fuel For Nightmares: Jen Kiaba – Part 1

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/13-fuel-for-nightmares-jen-kiaba-part-1/id1550448436?i=1000516011584

• Jen’s website: jenkiaba.com • Introducing a new segment “Autotune the Moon.” • “Bad Moon Rising” by John Gorenfeld – Recommended by Jen. 

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‘Falling Out’ Elgen Strait podcast April 13, 2021

14. Scorpion House: Jen Kiaba – Part 2

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/14-scorpion-house-jen-kiaba-part-2/id1550448436?i=1000516958607

Recommended reading from Jen: "Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free" by Linda Kay Klein

#Jen Kiaba #Moonies #cult #Sun Myung Moon #Unification Church

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miraculoussage · 5 years ago

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Breaking Out

Sorry for the lack of formatting regarding this section. My laptop charger broke so I’m currently stuck with mobile, and I am not great at mobile text organization. Also sorry for the lack of a read-more. Once again, mobile :( fixed bc i have a laptop again B)

Rating: General

Characters: Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir main character; lots of other characters making an appearance, lots of Plagg, Marinette/Ladybug, and Gabriel

Relationships: Light love-square (pre-relationship)

Other tags: Trans boy Adrien, mostly closeted trans Adrien, transphobia (no transphobic violence), mentions of a dead name but no actual use of the dead name, misgendering, mentions of Dysphoria; supportive friends, Gabriel Agreste is a soggy tissue, minor mentions of diet control, minor redesigns of LB and CN costumes, major redesigns of civilian Adrien bc closet trans. Use of the word queer as an identifier and not a slur.

Part 2

♪~ ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

The worst thing about being a popular fashion model, Adrien thought, was his image pasted all over the city. He had to see himself in the mirror enough as it was; seeing himself dressed up in the most feminine clothes his father could design, his long blond hair professionally styled into curls and braids and up-dos, and with enough makeup for three circus clowns made his skin itch. All of Paris, all of the world saw him as he was on the billboards and posters, in heavily edited magazine photos, set on backgrounds of flowers and butterflies. Everyone saw Adrien as a girl, Gabriel Agreste’s beautiful model daughter. Everyone except himself.

He had thought about coming out to his mother and father before, but while he was trying to find the nerve or the right moment, he overheard his father firing one of his models for coming out as trans. After that, his anxiety grew. He could never tell his parents, especially his father, not until he was living on his own and not relying on his modelling career and his father for survival.

Even when he went to school for the first time, he had to introduce himself as his dead name and endure the misgendering. He had considered coming out to Chloe, too, but while she didn’t seem to be transphobic, he didn’t trust her enough to keep it a secret. She thrived on gossip, sometimes even at the expense of her friends. Whether or not it was on purpose didn’t exactly matter to Adrien in this situation.

Plagg was the first person he ever came out to, not entirely on purpose. When he transformed into Chat Noir the first time, he actually cried for a few minutes. He felt different and he felt right and when he caught his reflection in a mirror he saw exactly who he wanted to be. Aside from his inhuman eyes and the strangeness of the costume, of course. His hair was short and messy and the makeup his father insisted he wear every day was entirely gone.

His costume was thick black leather, covering his whole body up to his neck where a bell sat at his collar. There was soft padding on his shoulders, elbows, and knees, barely visible under the leather. He had black combat boots with green soles that reached half way up his calf, laced with bright green laces, and lined with soft material if the same colour. His gloves, too, were black leather with soft green lining, claws on the fingers. Over the black bodysuit, he had a sleeveless hoodie; the fabric was looser and lighter than the leather, it almost seemed like cotton except it was sleek and waterproof. The pouch pocket was bright green with a single black paw print in the middle. All of the lining was the same bright green, visible in the hood and extending to the hems of the shirt. The hood itself had spaces cut out for the leather cat ears on his head, and fit loose and comfortable without falling over his eyes. Most importantly to Adrien, his chest was entirely flat without pressure.

After the first Akuma was stopped and Adrien transformed back, Plagg was suddenly gentle where he wasn’t before. “So what was that, then? What are your pronouns? Got a different name than the one I know?” After answering the questions and having another emotional moment, Plagg was back to being aloof and snarky, seemingly only concerned with cheese.

Adrien warmed up to the little cat-god fast. It felt more than amazing to be called the right thing for once, and Plagg at the least acknowledged his angry and frustrated rants about anything related to his gender that he’d never been able to share with anyone before. “As long as you keep giving me cheese,” Plagg had said, but somewhere along the way the meaning of the sentence changed to “always”, unspoken but genuine.

At school, things started out nice despite the rough start from being Chloe’s friend. The misgendering and dead name weighed down on him, though, and soon his new friends shared their concern about him. No one had any idea what it was about. It could be anything from his father to his mother to his modelling to just not getting enough sleep, but he’d hidden himself enough that no one would ever guess what it truly was about.

Nino was good about (sort of) silent comfort, offering to talk about it but relenting easily and moving to sharing music, food, memes, stories, and just a comforting presence. Alya always tried to figure out what was wrong and when she came to her own conclusions she would give him advice, though it was never the advice he needed. And Marinette...

Though Marinette was shy and got flustered easily, when her friends were in pain, she would stop at nothing to help them feel better. When he sighed about going home at the end of the day, she would invite him over to do homework, which usually ended up actually being video games. It became almost a routine by the spring, the two of them (and sometimes their friends) hanging out in the Dupain-Cheng apartment, snacking on yesterday’s left-over pastries while they played games, watched movies, talked, or rarely actually doing homework. Marinette’s parents were incredibly kind to Adrien, he was even envious that Marinette had such a supportive family. She was open about her biromantic identity, and never suffered for it at home.

As a result of their time spent together and Marinette’s own tendencies to not back down from helping her friends, she was the second person he came out to. It was a mess of tears between them, and Marinette apologized profusely for the misgendering, despite having no idea she was doing it. It made Adrien laugh, which made Marinette laugh, and then they were both laughing and crying at the same time. When Sabine came up to check on them, Adrien found he didn’t care that she was seeing him like this, and didn’t try to hide his identity from her anymore. Then, Sabine was crying with them, hugging Adrien close and giving him all the affirmations he never got from another human. (It was then that he decided he was now Adrien Dupain-Cheng, and she and Tom were his new parents.)

They all understood how important it was to keep this new information a secret, from everyone. If it got to his father or, gods forbid, the media, everything would go to hell in a hand basket. Marinette helped him fix his makeup before he left, apologizing even more about him needing to wear it. As usual, Sabine snuck some fresh pastries into his bag while he pretended not to notice when she hugged him goodbye. On the way out, Tom stopped him. The bakery was empty, just closed for the evening minutes before. “Adrien,” the news had reached him earlier via Sabine, “if you ever ever need a place to go for any reason, you’re always welcome here. No questions asked, any time day or night.” He had to hand a napkin to Adrien, tears gathering in his eyes again. As Adrien’s car pulled up to the front of the bakery, they said goodbye for the night, and Adrien was on his way back to the mansion. It wasn’t home, not anymore.

He came out to Ladybug third, but he didn’t know if it counted as third when he was Chat Noir. It was a rather casual interaction, against all expectations. The two of them were jogging across rooftops, keeping their eyes out for any sort of problem, just a regular Saturday patrol. They were talking about TV shows, sharing their theories for the next episode and the rest of the season; Ladybug theorized that one of the characters was a trans man, and Chat Noir seized the opportunity without a second thought. “Oh, like me,” he said, and Ladybug didn’t even blink. She just smiled at him, and he smiled back. Before they parted for the night, she thanked him for trusting her with his secret and promised it was safe with her. “I know, my Lady, I wouldn’t have told you if I thought you wouldn’t.” Nothing even changed between them after that, though Ladybug did seem to talk more openly about queer subjects when they came up.

He came out to other classmates and friends on a case by case basis, with Marinette there for support every time. Nathaniel, Alix, Nino, Rose and Juleka, Kagami. People he could trust entirely to keep it a secret and that he knew weren’t queerphobic from their time knowing each other. He always had some anxiety about it anyways, but with constant unspoken support from Marinette and her parents, it didn’t seem as daunting as before. Nathaniel drew pictures of him with different styles of short hair and more masculine outfits, “for when you’re able to choose your appearance”. Marinette had helped Nathaniel design the outfits, and she had plenty more in her own sketchbook designed just for Adrien. Alix and Nino casually called him “dude” and “bro”, a way to affirm him without actually outing him, since the terms were so casual and usually neutral.

As his support outside of the mansion grew, Adrien realized day after day just how terribly he was treated by his father, and Natalie and the other staff by proxy. Aside from his father’s thinly veiled queerphobia, he also controlled Adrien’s diet, his schedule, his social life, his career, his finances, and almost every aspect of his life. Before going to school, he thought most families were like that. It wasn’t until Alya complained about being saddled with babysitting again and the others lamented with her that three evenings that week was a bit excessive that Adrien realized most of his classmates actually got to decided what they did in their spare time without having to beg for permission. They got to choose what to eat for lunch, some even got to make their own food, and they didn’t have to follow a strict diet. They weren’t constantly afraid of their parents punishing them at the slightest mistake.

He spent more and more time at the Dupain-Cheng’s, at home, they even gave him his own key. More than once they’d woken up early to open the bakery, just to find him curled up on the couch in his clothes from the day before, the throw blanket wrapped tightly around him. Marinette made plenty of casual clothes and loungewear for him, until half of her closet was his. They almost always had a plate of leftovers from dinner with his name on it in the fridge. One afternoon, they surprised Adrien; the room that was formerly the office was converted into a full bedroom with his clothes moved into the closet already. The room was even decorated, soft green and light grey, paintings on the walls, a desk with a silver cat paperweight next to a lamp. Plagg seemed even more excited about it than Adrien was, which was saying a lot because Adrien was over the moon. They really were serious about the “anytime, no questions asked”.

After three years of school and crime fighting, Adrien made the biggest decision in his life. He talked to the bank and a lawyer. He had his rightful savings moved from the account under his father’s surveillance to a brand new private account. He had his friends and real family at his back. And then, he came out to his father. It went about as well as he expected; Gabriel threw a fit, accused Adrien of acting out for attention, and ultimately ended up locking Adrien in his room and forbidding him from going to school. Fortunately for Adrien, he had an escape plan in the form of a magical ring.

He was across the city in a matter of minutes, detransformed, and contacting his lawyer. His emancipation was officially in process. He texted the Dupain-Cheng family chat letting them know he told his father and it didn’t go well, but he was not in the house and he was safe. They were the only ones who knew about his plan, given they were part of it all. Though the idea of living full time with Marinette gave him butterflies, he could ignore his crush for everyone’s comfort.

Before his father or Natalie had a chance to suspend his access to his accounts, he made an Instagram post. A photo of himself, no makeup and his hair pulled back into a bun so it wasn’t so visible, wearing one of the more formal outfits Marinette made for him (a blue suit with a white undershirt and a pink bow tie). It had been taken a few days earlier, in front of a nondescript grey wall in his bedroom, unable to be linked to any location. As the caption, he wrote “Adrien Agreste, he/him, proudly trans! Stay strong, and know you are loved.” He posted it in as many transgender and fashion tags as he could, and was happy to see screenshots of it spreading almost immediately before it was taken down from his own account and his access was cut off. He texted Marinette one last time to tell her he would be unable to contact her over the phone, then turned the phone off, left it on a nearby cafe table, and disappeared down an alley. Thirty seconds later, Chat Noir was vaulting between buildings, headed nowhere in particular.

Stick around for part 2! ♪~ ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug au #trans adrien agreste #sage writes #ml #ml fanfic #uhhhh gabriel agreste could be eaten by a dinosaur and it would still be too good of a fate for him #we feelin the DYSPHORIA 2nite lads

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noperopesaredope · 3 years ago

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My Main EAH OC (Besides Maybe Flint)

Legumes Pea

“The boxing ring is a place where I feel like myself. No pressure to be perfect, no people breathing down my neck. Just me and my opponent and the punch, punch, punch.” - Legumes Pea

Legumes Pea is a 2021 introduced character and the next princess from The Princess and the Pea. She is the lead character of One Year Left and a reoccuring character in NopeRopesAreDope's 4th Years of Ever After saga.

Character

Personality

Legumes is that one senior who basically adopts all the freshmen that she can and is a jock. She’s a bit brash and loud, but yet surprisingly good grades on her princess etiquette classes due to growing up in a household where she was taught that kind of stuff all the time. Despite having an intense independent streak, she still has a fear of disappointing people like her parents, and therefore is a bit of a perfectionist. Legumes can be a bit thickheaded, but he’s actually very socially intelligent, picking up on other people's emotions pretty quickly. She’s a bit of a prankster and troublemaker, truly the definition of chaotic good. Legumes is somewhat liked among her classmates, though quite a few of them find her to be a bit overwhelming. But she is still pretty nice. A chaotic jock with a big mouth and a bigger heart, Legumes tries to be the best she can be, despite her struggles.

Flaws

Despite being good in princess classes, she’s actually not the brightest. She was expected to look pretty, and be seen and not heard, so her parents didn’t really focus on any intellectual skills. She still tries her best. Legumes can be a bit brash and impatient, with the stubbornness of a bull, as well as loud and slightly obnoxious. She tends to forget that personal space is a thing that exists and occasionally gets into other peoples business. She’s also incredibly insecure, worrying that she’s not good enough for anyone, and sometimes feels the need to ask her friends whether or not they hate her or find her annoying.

Likes

Boxing, gothic fashion and literature, botany (she likes it, she’s just not great at it), adopting people as her younger siblings, help people who are lost in the hallway,

Dislikes

Snobby people, her mother, math, any classes that revolve around magic, elitism, people who get involved in other people's business (she can be a bit of a hypocrite on that front)

Appearance

“Princess Legumes Pea stepped out of her carriage, her somewhat large feet stomping against the ground, very much unlike the typical light click of a princess in heels. People turned as they watched the muscular girl walk up the steps of Ever After High, her towering figure causing her to stand out. Legumes was an oddity to all that knew her. Of course, with the details of things, she made some sense. Being athletic as she was, it would make sense that she would be so muscular, and though she did not outright reject Royal customs, she didn’t really fit into them either. It would make sense that she was a bit tall due to the fact that she probably inherited her height from her father.”

—Opening lines of One Year Left

Legumes is 6’2” with a broad, muscular figure and feminine curves. She has an AF6E4D skin tone and frizzy black hair that reaches her chin. She has large green eyes, a Greek nose, and average lips. Her head is slightly square, but still feminine. Her hands are also somewhat large, which can be helpful for shouting and boxing. On her back, Legumes has 3rd degree burns from an accident.

Fairytale – The Princess and the Pea

How the Story Goes

A young prince is looking for a princess to marry, but can’t seem to find any real princesses because all the girls he meets have bad table manners and don’t act proper. The princess mother decides to hold a challenge to see if a princess was real or not. They would invite the girl to sleep over, and if she accepted, they would give her a bed with many, many mattresses stacked on top of each other. Little did the girls know, there would be a pea at the bottom of these mattresses. If the girl was a real princess, she would be able to feel the pea underneath all those mattresses and get a bad night’s sleep. The next day, the prince and his mother would ask if they slept well last night, and if the girl said no, it meant she wasn’t a real princess. One stormy night, a mysterious woman comes knocking at their door, asking for shelter. The mother decided to test the mysterious woman the same way she did all the other girls. The next day, the mysterious woman talked about how she had gotten a restless night of sleep due to an uncomfortable object poking her back and bruising her. She showed them the evidence, and they rejoiced. Only a real princess could be delicate and sensitive enough to feel a P under so many mattresses. The princess and prince got married and lived happily ever after.

How does Legumes come into it?

Legumes is the princess. She was somewhat neutral about her destiny growing up. Her destiny often involved fulfilling the expectations of others and society, and her mother pushed it on her hard. Her father on the other hand, mostly let her follow her dreams, but was a little overprotective of her, seeing her as something delicate and fragile. But after the accident that caused her to sustain extreme nerve damage in her back, Legumes has slowly become more and more defiant of her destiny. She discovered her love of boxing and dislike of being seen as so delicate that a single pea can interrupt her sleep. She also discovered that she is very gay, and doesn’t want to marry this other guy. Legumes is generally very much not the type to follow her destiny, but doesn’t actually say much about the topic, since she still has the heavy expectations weighing on her. An important detail about Legumes is that when she was a young child, she got caught in a fire and sustained intense nerve damage on her back, resulting in her being unable to feel someone touching her back. This has made her destiny much more difficult, especially since she also has an easy time falling asleep. She actually hasn’t told the headmaster yet, and isn’t really sure what to do. Honestly, no one except her parents and her doctor (and possibly her girlfriend and best friend) actually know about her back problem.

History

Childhood

Legumes was raised by Perfection Charming and Delicate Pea in her home kingdom; East Kunani, on a mountain called Mulapua. She mostly stayed in the castle and wasn’t allowed outside much until she got older, so she was a bit socially underdeveloped for a long while. She was taught many princess skills, such as manners and royal customs. She learned a decent amount other cultures, as well as court culture. She also learned a lot of embroidery and household management. But she never truly enjoyed any of those things.

Boxing

One day when she was 8 after much begging, her father took her to see something he himself enjoyed; boxing. Of course, he didn’t actually enjoy doing boxing, rather watching it. Legumes was fascinated and loved it immensely, especially one of the boxers name Rocky Road. Legumes got her own mini boxing gloves, and her hero ended up signing them! Ever since, Legumes secretly learned how to box, and when she got into middle school, she officially joined the boxing club (much to the displeasure of her parents). When she joined Ever After High, she again joined the boxing club and became a captain in Junior year, and learned to earn the respect of her fellow boxers. She plans to make boxing a professional career, though she didn’t know how until that Legacy Day.

The Accident

When Legumes was about seven years old, a section of her castle caught on fire due to a pan on the stove going unwatched for too long. Everyone in the kitchen was able to escape, but the fire got into a few other rooms, one of which was a small sitting room. Legumes was in the side bathroom next to it, and didn’t notice the fire until things were already falling apart. She came outside of it and only then noticed the fire. She tried to escape, but a wooden beam fell on her back. She was rescued, but not before the wooden beam gave her third-degree burns covering the majority of her back. This was a very traumatic incident that gave Legumes mild PTSD, which she received treatment for and has since then mostly recovered, but she will still experience a panic attack if something falls on her back or if she gets too close to fire.

Leadership

Boxing Team Captain

Legumes first joined the boxing team during freshmen year and became a dedicated member ever since. she wasn’t always taken seriously due to her smaller size at the time, but many older members of the team deeply appreciated her due to how seriously she took her role in the club, making sure to her clean up after matches as well as prep, cheering her teammates on, and generally participating as much as possible. Because of this, the couch and previous captain made her the head captain of the team after the previous ones graduated. Some members of the team disagreed, some out of jealousy, while others out of feeling as though she wouldn’t take the job seriously enough due to her incredibly energetic nature. However, the majority agreed with the decision due to witnessing Legumes hard work. She has been captain of the boxing team since she was a Junior. She used the leadership roles she learned as a child to organize the club and her skills and leadership to earn the respect of her teammates. While she is chill and understanding, she doesn’t mess around and takes her role as captain very seriously, making sure to put time and effort into keeping the team together.

Senior Guide

Basically, Senior Guides help some of the freshmen get used to the school, giving them a tour on their first day, giving some advice, and generally just being available to help out. Seniors can sign up for it, then sometimes teachers will suggest them as an option. It’s also required for members of the student council. Legumes immediately signed up for it and has been trying her best to be as helpful and ‘older-sibling-y’ as possible, though she of course isn’t perfect, not always knowing what to say or do, but she tries.

Tutor

Legumes just really likes to help out people, even if it is out of her area of expertise. She is in capable of helping with math homework, as she often needs help with that herself, but she is able to help with princess etiquette, and has figured out ways to cheer them on. She also likes to help her students feel confident in themselves, not wanting them to feel disappointed at their inability to do something that they personally find difficult since she understands what that is like.

Princess of Mulapua

Though she dislikes being royalty, Legumes understands that there are certain responsibilities that come with her title and that she needs to fulfill her duties as princess of Mulapua. As princess, Legumes must attend certain festivities, be present during most meetings, and greet guests. Her mountain's traditions also give her, as the eldest (and only) child, a certain role in their government. She is required to visit each village every two months and check on their progress. Legumes takes her job very seriously, as she feels she has an important duty to her people. Though she has other dreams, Legumes does legitimately enjoy leading, or at least, she wants to lead her people. If she weren't born into royalty, she probably wouldn't become that kind of leader, but she would still lead a small group of people.

Relationships

Family

Legumes’ dad, Perfection Charming, is always kind and calm, helping her gain a bit of self confidence and is supportive of her and who she wants to be. He’s also slightly overprotective of her, still thinking that she is something fragile that must be protected, and this only increases after the accident. They still have a very positive relationship.

Legumes’ relationship with her mother, Delicate Pea, has always been tense and strained. Delicate constantly put a lot of pressure on her daughter to be a perfect princess, since that was what her destiny was all about; proving that she was a real princess. This caused Legumes to have a perfectionist attitude and a fear of disappointing her mother. While she isn’t completely abusive, Delicate is over controlling and generally very unpleasant to her daughter. She is the only person that Legumes won’t stand up to and is very submissive of. Ever since the accident, Legumes has felt as though her mother was disappointed in her for not living up to her expectations. This is why Legumes works incredibly hard in school and tries to follow her destiny despite it being close to impossible. Delicate was the first person to bring up the idea of simply faking it, but both realized that wouldn’t work. Despite the toxicity of their relationship, Delicate truly does love her daughter and wants the best for her, they simply have different ideas of what is best for Legumes.

Friends

Miriam Shepherd and Legumes have been friends since Legumes ran into her while out exploring. They both require each other in order to function. Legumes make sure that Miriam doesn’t lose her mind and also makes her socialize with others, and Miriam make sure that Legumes doesn’t do something incredibly unintelligent. Miriam is the common sense, and Legumes is the social intelligence. They share a brain cell and neither one is sure who has it. Miriam loves Legumes, but also wants to face palm constantly, finding many of her questions to be bad ones. Legumes cares for her friend, but worries about her and secretly feels like Miriam is bring down the mood. They still deeply care about each other, and are good friends.

Spire Madraspude and Legumes get along quite well, despite really not wanting to marry each other. Both are supposedly meant to be each other’s one true love, but what with Spire being gay and Legumes being a lesbian, that is highly unlikely. Still, they both managed to be friends since childhood, seeing each other more as siblings than anything else, with Legumes being the protective older sister and Spire the adoring younger brother. They argue sometimes, but in a sibling type way, and would never see each other as, well, not siblings. They don't see each other as more than siblings, but also never anything less. They aren't just childhood friends, they are siblings. This is important because some people forget that and think that if they have a big fight, their friendship is over. But the thing is, their siblinghood wouldn't be. They basically forget they aren't blood related in any way, and would totally make some kind of blood pact to make them more official siblings. They probably asked a witch or something to help them do that. Spire and Legumes relate to each other in a lot of ways. They like hanging out together

Pet

Legumes has a pet mountain goat she named Wayfinder to guide her through the storm. They love competing with each other to see who is the strongest and fastest.

Romance

Poppy Red and Legumes have been dating since freshman year. They met one day at a royal ball in the gardens of Poppy’s palace. Legumes was bored of all the fancy formal stuff, and decided to take some time outside and smell the roses, when she spotted Poppy all by herself, observing some plant specimens. They talked for a bit, and started to get along. This is how Poppy joined the little quartet of friends that is Poppy, Legumes, Spire, and Miriam. Then they fell in love and started dating. It works somehow. Legumes has a respect for Poppy and sees her as the coolest person alive. She will defend her to the death, and if anyone tries to hurt Poppy, Legumes will personally (try to) break their knees. She loves her girlfriend’s free spirit, and really appreciates her kind nature and how she’s willing to listen to other people. Poppy thinks of her girlfriend as a giant golden retriever. She may be tough on the outside, but on the inside she’s a cinnamon roll. If anyone were to be cruel to Legumes and hurt her heart, Poppy will not hesitate to kick flip them, somethings she has actually done to someone.

They love listening to each other talk about their passions. Sometimes they’ll just hang out together so one of them can talk about their latest project while the other listens excitedly (even if they don’t understand any of it). They also just like sitting in silence together, reading or drawing next to each other and just living in those quiet moments together.

They do slightly disagree on the royal rebel conflict. Poppy isn’t completely supportive of it either side, as she is slightly fearful of her loved ones poofing, while Legumes is openly supportive of the rebels. They’ve had a few small arguments about the subject. Nonetheless, they still care about each other and respect each other‘s opinions and choices.

Boxing Team

Legumes is the captain of the boxing team, so she has to keep all its members in line. This can prove frustrating, but she's trying her hardest to be a good leader.

Sun Qiang is the most infuriating person Legumes has ever met, and their relationship dynamic is "the class clown" and "the one kid who can keep them under control, mainly via intimidation." Qiang isn't the most respectful, but Legumes has her ways. When they mess with another student, Qiang will receive a lecture. When they pull a prank, they are the one to clean up after the next 4 matches. Legumes legitimately cares about Qiang and wants to see them grow, they just need to pull themselves together.

Moose Wulf is Qiang's partner in crime, but he is a bit more respectful towards authority and Legumes. He will go along with Qiang's antics, but alone, he doesn't cause as much trouble.

Freedom Selkie is one of Legumes favorites, since she is passionate about the sport. She's also the one who keeps the troublemakers in line.

Flint Match is similar to Freedom in the fact that he uses his time at practice to get his frustrations out, but he is generally a bit more of a troublemaker. He and Legumes have a bit more banter between them as a brother-sister type duo, as shown by their text chain during the Slushie Incident.

Enemies

Legumes and Rosa Lindworm had a short (one-sided) rivalry in their third year, due to Rosa's crush on Poppy Red. Rosa was incredibly jealous, and would be a bit passive aggressive to Legumes, who was just confused. She only found out what was going on through Veil, and it was very awkward. There was also an incident where Rosa challenged Legumes to a battle for Poppy R's honor. She did this via text. Unfortunately for her, she sent it to the wrong chat; the senior class chat. Most of them already knew, and it was just a small laugh, nothing big, but Rosa hid in her room for 3 days until someone made her come back out. Rosa's crush eventually faded, and she's pretty embarrassed about the whole thing, but it's more of a joke between everyone now. But if anyone who isn't Legumes, Poppy, or one of Rosa's kinda friends, then Rosa will send some interesting threats their way.

Legumes also dislikes her distant cousin, Magnificent Charming, as she finds him to be incredibly annoying. They loath each other, and disagree on almost everything, whether it be destiny, school, hobbies, Spire, food, marginalized groups, or politics. He is the exact reason why Legumes rarely visits Spire's room.

#eah oc #eah #eah roybel #ever after high #my oc #my art #my writing #my character #info page #sorta finished #getting closer

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sendnotes · 4 years ago

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books i read in april.

this is going to be my thing from now on. i'll compile a list of all the books i read in a month and share my thoughts on each one every end of the month.

just so you know, i'm a little forgetful, and i have a tendency to forget names, plots, and other details. i'm hoping that writing these will aid my memory in recalling how i felt about each novel.

you can also find me on goodreads

so, let’s begin, shall we?

101 essays that will change the way you think (wiest, brianna)

self-help book

this book got off to a good start! some of the essays written (or should i say a collection of articles originally published on the thoughtcatalog website) made me think and consider my outlook on life, love, and so on.

the title overstates the case though. when i think of an essay, i picture something more argumentative and philosophical. not to mention that the majority of the ideas in this book are redundant. it made it difficult to get through. nonetheless, i was able to get past it because there were so many fantastic concepts and topics discussed.

overall, it's an interesting & worthwhile read for those who enjoy thinking outside the box.i lost count of how many times this book gave me aha moments. i swear, most of the entries soothed my mind and provided a great pick-me-up when life seemed to be frustrating.

the midnight library (haig, matt)

science fiction, fantasy fiction, psychological fiction

regrets, self-remorse, what ifs, family approval, drugs, dreams, love, passion, hatred, death, afterlife, multiverses, quantum physics, and a plethora of possibilities packed into a 304-page book.

i'll be honest: this book is already on my list of favorites. i'm simply blown away by how well-crafted and diverse the entire story unfolded.

a sci-fi novel with a dash of fantasy and a smidgeon of philosophy. if that's your thing, you should give this book a shot.

the first few pages of the book gave me an impression and led me to surmise it was going to be a cheesy ass chick lit novel that i'd only read and find enjoyable in high school. i was completely off base. it proved to be very mature, full of lessons, but delivered in a fun and entertaining manner— exactly my cup of tea.

it reminded me of a disney pixar film called soul, in which the afterlife is depicted in vivid detail. they differ on so many levels, but they both imagine life after death for people who are unsure of their path, purpose, and passion.

every chapter served a significant concept, so this book is well-deserved of a 5-star rating!

norwegian wood (murakami, haruki)

fiction, romance novel, bildungsroman

as i read the book and neared the end, all i could think about was how this book became one of murakami's most popular and influential works.

murakami offers a sprawling glimpse into the lives of a group of severely damaged youths grappling with the realities of what emptiness entails. take what you will from it.

i know a lot of people like it, which is fine. but please keep in mind that this book hit me square in the gut. it alternated between making me angry, sad, annoyed, and disgusted almost constantly. there isn't much else.

this book should come with a warning: "this is not a good place to start if you're new to murakami's works. this is not a representative of murakami's brilliance."

fist and foremost, the characters in this book are all repulsive.

toru watanabe was a fuckboy and a softboy rolled into one. what could possibly be worse than that? he'd have as many casual sexual partners as he could while also buttering a girl up by appealing to her emotions and displaying a "sensitive" and "vulnerable" side.

this book was made even more depressing by the fact that each female character was needy, weak, dysfunctional, and dependent. since they're all the same, i'm not going to go over each of these female characters one by one. you already get the idea.

reiko ishida, imo, was one of the best rendered sections of the novel. most likely because she had a better grasp on her emotions and goals than the still seeking youths... until, *spoiler alert* she wanted to do it with toru as well. a big disappointment.

to summarize, this book is primarily concerned with two topics: sex and death.

hidden meanings are everywhere, but when you get to the core, that's all that remains.

the four agreements: a practical guide to personal freedom (ruiz, miguel)

self-help book

first agreement ⏤ be impeccable with your word

this essentially means that you should not spew gossip or use words to harm others. because words have tremendous power and can cause significant harm. you are not only negatively affecting others with your hateful and thoughtless words, but you are also hurting yourself. this is something with which i generally agree. how i see it, when people are unhappy with themselves, they turn to others to make themselves feel better. as a result, they gossip about others in order to divert attention away from themselves.

second agreement ⏤don't take anything personally

alright. sure. don't let what others say about you bother you. it has everything to do with them and nothing to do with you. well, i don't entirely agree, but i think it's a fantastic idea in general. however, achieving this goal will be extremely difficult. i believe it would take a lot of practice to reach this level of zen. plus, i honestly believe that other people's opinions still matter because they keep you in check. the best advice is to not be swayed by these opinions, but to consider why they were expressed in the first place. see what you can do to improve yourself from there. sure, it can be difficult to deal with; after all, no one likes being told they're wrong or whatnot. but it's not all bad news because you can sometimes use criticism and judgment to give you a competitive edge. i mean- don't you think hearing someone else's point of view is also an opportunity to learn and progress? ruiz should have stressed that it's not just about "not taking it personally because you know you're not that person," but also about not retaliating with an extreme knee-jerk reaction even if you believe you're being unfairly criticized.

third agreement ⏤ don't make assumptions

this is a real eye-opener for me. i've noticed that whenever i become enraged by someone's words, it's usually due to my tendency to assume. personally, i can't help but make assumptions. i don't know what other people's motivations are, and i can't help but draw conclusions based on the information i have. even if the other person had no intention of causing me harm, it's too late. the thought has become ingrained in my mind, and i never ask for clarification out of pride or fear of appearing overly sensitive.

fourth agreement ⏤ always do your best

this section did not seem particularly useful to me. i mean, aren't we all reminded of this all the time? this section is filled with sloppy writing, in my opinion. as if he badly wanted to finish the book and impulsively thought: "okay, fourth agreement: always do your best. that should suffice. lmao"

overall opinion: the third agreement was my favorite, but the rest were a no-go. don't get me wrong, i appreciated his ideas, but i've heard them all a hundred times before. basically, the book's sole takeaway is that we are all suffering in some way in our daily lives, and we are all dealing with different issues. regardless, we all need to be kinder and gentler to ourselves and others.

the song of achilles (miller, madeline)

romance novel, historical Fiction, war story

i'll keep it short and sweet:

i really wouldn't have had this book any other way. miller's writing is breathtaking, so rich and full of lovely detail. it's incredibly a unique concept to me that authors are rewriting such ancient history and stories to make them lgbt+!

some suggest it's tedious, but i disagree. it isn't slow; rather, it is just right.

'cause at the end of the day, it's not about war, tragedy, or heroes - it's a slow-burning, organic love tale between two young men and their inevitable connection.

it's sad, tender, and painful, but in the best way possible.

circe (miller, madeline)

novel, historical fiction, fantasy fiction

"greek mythology, but with a feminist twist"?! sign me the hell up! this piqued my interest... only to leave me feeling completely let down. seriously now. circe was described as a "badass empowered woman," which was the single most compelling selling point for me, and thus the most wrenching disappointment, i must say.

sure, it demonstrated the value of feminine power, but it also did represent how this power can be a force of good or evil.

not to mention the fact that circe fucked a married man or two in this book- i mean- how is that an ~empowered woman~?

let's be clear right off the bat: madeline miller's follow-up to the song of achilles is epic in scope but not necessarily in execution. to me, this read more like a tedious island tale. regardless of how many five-star reviews this book has received... i just don't think it's well-deserved. don't get me wrong here. miller is a fantastic author with a lush writing! istg- i'm blown away by how beautifully she wrote and carefully chose her words. even the most mundane phrases were written poetically. after-all, it’s greek mythology. but how did she manage to make circe seem so... bland?

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twilight-town-zombies · 4 years ago

Note

For the ship thing. Axel and Isa. Somebodies and Hot Topic where it would differ

How do much do I ship it?: Never heard of it/ Notp / Dislike / used to ship / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / IS IT CANON YET?

2. What non sexual activities do they like to do together?

Somebodies:

When they were kiddos, Lea and Isa spent a lot of time outside of academy hours roaming around the city and trying to sneak into places they weren’t supposed to (Their loftiest goals being the clock tower and castle). They considered this more their ‘job’ than anything, though.

For fun, they played a lot of frisbee and tag with the other local hooligans or just with each other, which Isa preferred. They would read books and comics together late at night when Lea would sneak over to Isa’s house and often reenacted these and the stories their fathers told them on the beach or in the town square.

Sometimes Isa’s father would take them both out in his fishing boat. Isa would help, and Lea would also ‘help,’ which often involved fumbling bait and fish over the side. Other days, one of the bartenders, cooks, or servers at the Lea’s parent’s pub would take them under their wing for an evening and let them help add spices to dishes or collect bottle caps off the floor or wash tables, which would last until one of the customer’s complained or Lea’s parents caught sight of them and kicked them out.

In Somebodies, as young twenty-somethings, they spend most of their free time focusing on academy training and school, especially with Isa trying to steer Lea away from his delinquent friends and tendencies. Isa’s much more studious than Lea and helps him relearn material that he was too distracted to learn in class, and convinces him to take time to sit and focus on completing homework and readings.

They love to spar and work out together on a regular basis and often give each other advice or teach each other new techniques. They’re both competitive and have some unchecked aggression, so sparring is a good outlet, and it teaches them to give their all, while maintaining self-control, because they don’t want to hurt each other much, although a few bangs and bruises have always been forgivable, and they give each other a fair amount of medical care as well.

In their free time, Lea and Isa enjoy taking their dog Neptune on walks in the park or along the beach, going sailing, and playing frisbee for old time’s sake.

Some nights Lea helps Isa babysit his sisters and entertains them with wild anecdotes. They both appreciate how gentle each other can be with kids and animals. Other nights, Isa visits Lea while he’s bartending, and when Lea has time, they tell each other stories about their day, reminiscence and try to make each other laugh.

Hot Topic:

Axel and Saix have embraced island life in a big way. Whenever they can get away from work, they spend their free time on the beach, going on long walks or jogs, or surfing and playing frisbee or soccer with Xigbar and Demyx. (They played soccer together in high school for a while.) They enjoy being active and getting fresh air, and it’s been helpful for Saix’s mental health. They often go to the gym together, spot each other and give each other advice and encouragement.

When they need a night in, they enjoy cooking together and then Netflix and cuddle. Sometimes they watch terrible shows just to amuse each other making snide comments. They’re also very good at spending down time together, with Saix reading and Axel sketching tattoo designs, either on paper or on Saix’s skin.

When they want to go out, sometimes the pair of them will go to a club to dance and hang out exclusively with themselves (because if Saix loses sight of Axel for two seconds he will jump to conclusions and freak the fuck out). Though they don’t have a lot of time for it, they enjoy shopping for clothes together and have been known to spend literal hours in the fitting room, making each other try on a hundred different things.

(God, this is long. I will try to be shorter)

3. Who does chores around the house?

I would say in both stories, they try to split chore responsibilities evenly, because Isa doesn’t let Lea slack. Having a clean and organized house is incredibly important to Isa/Saix because it gives him a sense of security and control over his life. Lea/Axel is not a naturally neat person, and doesn’t entirely understand, but he recognizes how important it is to his boyfriend and tries to take his responsibilities seriously. HT Saix is a little more extreme with his organization than Isa is, (I think I mentioned an alphabetical spice rack?) so Axel has a harder time of it. Every now and then, Lea/Axel will get tired and forget to do something or leave his things lying around. Isa is more likely to shake his head and do it for Lea, while Saix is more likely to give Axel a lecture about his laziness.

4. Who’s the better cook?

Somebodies: Lea. He grew up watching cooks in his dad’s bar, he works in a pub, and he’s had to make a lot of his own food because his parents are pretty negligent. Also, he enjoys cooking and loves to try exotic foods, probably because there wasn’t always enough to go around and he occasionally had to accept food from whoever would give it to him. Isa’s mother does a lot of the cooking in his family and keeps recipes pretty simple. His father’s a fisherman so there’s a lot of seafood and bread, which are pretty much the only thing Isa feels comfortable making well. He tends to prioritize school over learning to cook and sometimes forgets to eat if Lea doesn’t remind him.

Hot Topic: Saix. Under the advice of his therapist, Saix tries to embrace the healthy body, healthy mind lifestyle and spends a lot of time learning to make healthy and delicious foods. He’s thinking about going vegan. He approaches cooking like something to be studied and perfected. Axel can cook fairly well too, and sometimes they cook together, though Saix can be bossy in the kitchen. Axel can’t entirely blame him though. Axel is more about tastiness than healthiness and tends to burn things or make them too salty or spicy.

5. Who’s the funniest drunk?

The funniest would probably be Lea/Axel when he’s a little buzzed, but mostly just up to his normal antics.

When Isa/Saix is drunk and in a good mood, he gets very affectionate and clingy with Lea/Axel and forgets to care how much he dislikes/is cautious of PDA, which their friends find both funny and a little sad. If he’s tired or stressed he tends to get broody and quiet, Isa more likely to get depressed or opinionated, Saix more likely to be jealous or hostile.

While Lea/Axel is funnier in general, and he’s more likely to make people laugh with his sense of humor, getting drunk actually tends to make him less funny, because he’s more likely to make jokes that are a little crueler, more personal, less tasteful, which he otherwise would have kept to himself, and Isa/Saix is less likely to keep him in check and more likely to get pissed about it.

6. Do they have kids?

Somebodies: No, just a dog that they are very devoted to. Lea and Isa would have liked to have adopted a kid or two in the future.

Hot Topic: No. They’ve been on and off again enough that the topic of having kids is kind of a vague and distant concept in their minds at this point in time. Saix especially wants to focus on getting himself into a better place before he even considers the idea. Axel prefers to hang out with other people’s kids so he can give them back after. He sometimes baby-sits his friend David’s niece, Lilo. He’s a little afraid he’d mess his own kids up.

7. Do they have any traditions?

Somebodies: They used to meet at the fountain in the local square to walk to school together every day. Even after their fake public break up, they still get together on special occasions, like birthdays, holidays, and graduations, and spend the whole day together, and they usually meet up in that same spot.

Hot Topic: Both Axel and Saix did not have great home lives growing up, so rather than going home for the holidays, they spend them together making their own traditions, inviting their friends over, or if they’re really just not in the mood, making them as low key as possible. They only decorate for Halloween. They are an order take-out on Christmas kind of couple. Although they would probably go surfing before-hand. Attempts to break from these into a more traditional holiday tends to cause discord.

8. What do they fight about?

Somebodies: Mainly, Lea’s bad habits, smoking, stealing that sort of deal. He has some friends like Elrena that poverty has pushed toward the criminal side, of life and Isa wants him to be successful. Every so often, they’ll fight about the uncertainty of their future. Lea wants to be on the Castle Guard, and Isa’s also considering it, but guards aren’t supposed to be in relationships, and they don’t actually have a plan to deal with that, nor are they able to sit down and talk about it without emotions running high.

Hot Topic: Commitment. Lea’s a bit of a flirt, and Isa’s childhood abuse has left him with an extreme sense of insecurity that manifests in his jealousy. So, Isa’s constantly questioning Lea’s commitment to him and relationships with other men and keeping tabs on him, and Lea’s questioning why the other areas of Isa’s life seem to be improving, but not Isa’s ability to let Lea be himself, spend time by himself, and make new friends.

9. What would they do if they found their pairing tag on tumblr? (If they have one)

Somebodies: Isa and Lea would be incredibly concerned with the extreme personality changes and murder they see in their futures. (And how the hell does that lead to domestic life with two teenagers? Or are they adults? Or are they preschoolers? Isa and Lea are barely not teenagers themselves, and are not feeling ready for this.)

Hot Topic: Saix is Concerned. Axel loves the murder and intrigue, he’s definitely going to spend hours clicking through fanart and fics and showing Saix highlights.

10. Who cried at the end of Marley and me?

(I’ve never seen Marley & Me, I’m just going to assume a very cute dog dies)

Somebodies: Isa’s reading Marley & Me out loud to Lea, who’s lounging on the floor in front of the fireplace, hugging Neptune. Lea’s eyes start getting misty and Isa’s voice breaks. Lea brings Neptune over to Isa, who is not full on crying, but maybe about to be. Group hug and they decide to take a break from the book and take Neptune outside to play for a while.

Hot Topic: Axel starts bitching about the ending as soon as he realizes what’s happening, but he gets quieter and quieter as the story plays out. Saix is holding him and rubbing his back and Axel thinks he’s doing okay and then abruptly Saix starts straight up sobbing into Axel’s shoulder, and Axel hushes and quiets him, and they make plans to go adopt a puppy the next day.

11. Who always wins at Mario kart?

Both: Axel is much more into video games than Saix is but Saix somehow always comes up from behind at the last minute and beats him in Mario Kart, no matter how many times they play.

12. One thing I like about this ship?

I love their history. They grew up together and know each other inside and out and have stood by each other through whatever life’s thrown at them. I like their personalities. I see them as two people with wildly different personalities who, nonetheless both understand and value the other person for and in spite of those differences. I like that they are both strong, loyal, and dedicated to what they believe in and care about to the point where they stand by each other when they lose their hearts and straight up commit murder because they want to be able to feel love for each other again. That’s fucking hard core. Oh that was like five things. Whoops.

13. One thing I don’t like about the ship?

Controversial take, I know, but I’m a huge Axel/Roxas fan, so I kind of prefer to see Lea/Isa and Axel/Saix as past tense, a couple that broke up because life threw too much at them and they betrayed each other, but have happily moved on and still mean the world to each other, just in a different way.

Sea Salt Fam: I don’t like that they’ve somehow become the Dads of the group? I always imagined them in their early twenties--at most--just a few years older than the rest of the group, so seeing them put in these parent roles, for Roxas and Xion, who tend to get treated like young children, (Daddy, braid my hair and read me a story is, like, not something any teenager has ever said), kind of weirds me out.

14. The song I would say fits them?

Somebodies: Mars (Sleeping at Last)

Hot Topic: Kills You Slowly (The Chainsmokers)

15. Another headcanon about the pairing? (Free space)

Somebodies: Isa and Lea have never officially told anyone in their families that they’re romantically involved, because they’re not supposed to be, but they are all perfectly well aware, and do not believe for a second that they broke up.

Hot Topic: Saix is hugely in love with Axel’s voice and guitar-playing, and even though seeing him at the front of a band makes him incredibly uncomfortable and Demyx drives Saix crazy, he’s trying really hard to be supportive of the whole endeavor and listens to the band’s EP on a regular basis.

#asks #kingdom hearts #saix #axel #lea #isa #akusai #leaisa #my writing #somebodies #the other day at hot topic #akuroku #twilight town zombies #adult language

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catisawells · 4 years ago

Text

The Conjurer's Dilemma; a guild job board collaboration.

Catisa Wells looked around from beneath her cowl, the dark woods that surrounded the town certainly gave the whole place a dreary feel, she could only imagine a place called Deadwind Pass wasn’t going to be much better. With a sigh she glanced at the parchment she had jotted a few notes down about their task, the first of which being that she was to meet her partner for the duration of this mission at the town square. The fledgling mage waited patiently, the scarlet robes she wore surely a dead give away as to her career choices, though she began to find it eerie that there was no one outside and despite it being only late afternoon it seemed as though night had fallen upon the area.

Approaching from the north, on the road from Redridge, as what little light filtered through the leaves of the trees dimmed more, the light from the lanterns in town offering some welcome pools of light, a man approached. His silhouette may have been imposing, tall and broad-shouldered, nearly as tall as he was slung across his back, but as he grew closer and noticed Catisa, he raised a hand in greeting with a wide and pleasant smile, "Hey! You're down here from the Violet Bastion too, yeah? Supposed to be meeting someone!" His voice has the characteristic twang of Westfall, giving even the simple greeting a folksy quality.

She nearly yelped when she saw him, an imposing figure in the dark, before he stepped into the light of the street lanterns. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as he spoke and she lifted her hands to relieve her head of the cowl. "Hello! Yes! My name is Catisa Wells, it's certainly a pleasure. I'm new to the Bastion, but I don't believe we've had the pleasure yet." She extended a hand in an offer to shake if he took it, her touch would be warm and her accent told of a gilnean farm girl.

"The name's Mason!" The man's handshake was firm, yet friendly, and quite enthusiastic. Pulling his calloused hand away - one of his many qualities that made him seem more a workman than one who would be part of an organization like the Violet Bastion - he continued, "Mason Kohler, rather. Haven't made your acquaintance yet, but then again, I haven't spent all too much time at the estate out of the workshop on the grounds trying to get things set up for my specifications." Clearing his throat, he motioned with a jerk of his head towards the east, and Deadwind Pass, "The plan's to track down that elemental and the poor fellow who brought it in, yeah? Any news in town about it?"

"A pleasure, Mister Kohler." She greeted him with a kind smile, "So far it appears to be a ghost town, though I brought something along that should help." With a smirk she reached into a satchel and pulled out a small orb. "A scrying orb. We should be able to track the familiar's movements, assuming that nothing else has interfered with the trail." Catisa gestured toward the mountains to the east, "From what I understand, the guards here lost it in Deadwind Pass, so I expect we should be able to pick up traces of it if we head toward the largest mana reservoir in that direction."

He nodded matter-of-factly, and motioned to the road leading east, which began to rise as it wound through the dark woods out of town and into the rocky pass far beyond, "Lead the way then, Miss Wells. I'm afraid I'm not much use at tracking magic, though I've gotta say, it's a skill I've been hoping to pick up a little more of one of these days. I tend to hunt down, let's say...more mundane threats!" The laugh which punctuated the end of his thought was booming and mirthful, especially in such a silent, dreary location as Duskwood, "Do lead on, and I'll keep at the ready!"

A giggle escaped her, she found his company soothing in their dark and unfamiliar surroundings. "Little tricks like this are things my mother was known for." The Pyromancer began as she started to walk with one hand out, the scrying orb glowing in her palm as she continued, "She was a fortune teller. This was actually hers before she passed, though it has far more uses than that of simple parlor tricks. If applied correctly, it can lock onto the magical signature of a being or even a person and lead you to them wherever they might be."

The man peered at the orb curiously as they walked, listening with a slight tilt of his head as she explained, that broad smile returning, "Yeah? Impressive little thing to be able to carry around! Might need to look into getting one for myself. That is, if I could channel a lick of magic that'd start it up. You might've guessed that that's not where my gifts really lie." He laughed again, following her on the path out of town, "You ever been out in these parts? Been quite a few years for me."

"I'm actually fairly new to the area, so unfortunately I haven't. This is a first for me." She looked around a bit nervously at that, noticing that as they walked the trees and sky grew more grey and dead looking. "Has it always been like this here?" She found herself wondering aloud, "What caused this?" Her steps slowed more and more, the further she got the more uncertain each step became. Though the orb seemed to continue to pulsate its eerie glow as steadily as ever, but the poor girl's hands were trembling and as much as she tried to hide it, it was probably painfully obvious to her companion.

"A mystery I'm afraid I don't know the answer to. Word is something big happened here a long time ago, rumors even say there was some Burning Legion involvement, and having seen just how bleak, I can say I wouldn't doubt it." He offered a reassuring smile, though he too was clearly put on edge by the greying of the world around them, everything from the sky above to the dirt beneath their feet, "What's hard to believe is that something like this is so close to home."

"The Legion..." Catisa echoed, recalling the all too recent war and sundering of their world by a giant blade and shuddered, "I've only read about some of the things the Legion are capable of, but that seems likely." She nodded, "So close to home and yet people still squabble over the price of a loaf of bread in the streets." Another sigh escaped her, raven black locks of hair fell over her features as her brow furrowed and their voices began to echo off of the valley walls around them. It was then that the orb in her palm began to glow a bright blue, illuminating a path before them of what appeared to be residual arcane. To someone not attuned to such a sight, it might look more like blue dust that glows in the dark.

Mason's brow, too, furrowed, recalling scenes of such squabbling himself, over the price of bread in Stormwind, and over the last scraps back home in Westfall, "Folks don't like to worry about the big things too much, I find. Reckon it gives them some peace, a little bit of control over what's going on. I know back home, even when the Legion was right there, skies choked with them..." He trailed off, dropping his thoughts as he narrowed his eyes at the glowing trail before them, "Looks like we've got something!"

The aspiring sorceress grinned, her tone excited and devoid of any trace of unease she had felt only moments before. "It does! and it looks like it's arcane in nature, so it's likely this is our familiar." She looked up at him and looked as though she might start sprinting down the path before she quirked a brow, "The signs should grow stronger as we get closer. These things can be tricky so we want to corner it before we spook it. And... I can understand that, to a degree, but I have no wish to live in the dark and hide." With a shake of her head she returned her gaze to the illuminated trail before them and continued their previous pace. "I was raised better than that."

"Sounds like we've got that in common then, Miss Wells. If I'd waited around for things to happen and didn't go out and find life for myself, well..." He shrugged, making to follow the trail, "Can't say I'd be the same person I am today. It's good that there are some of us out there who'll worry about the big things so others don't need to, yeah?" He flashed back his broad, excited grin as he moved further ahead, "Shall we?"

A wide grin flashed across her features as she watched him pull ahead of her and she moved to quicken her pace, the orb pulsing a dull blue in time with the arcane dust. "Yes, lets!" She giggled, "And it is, nice that is, to know there are others out there. It seems today has been an interesting day for conversations or perhaps I am just tired and thinking too deeply as of late."

"Met some other interesting folks? Not a bad thing, not at all, I say!" Mason continued following the trail illuminated by Catisa's scrying orb, though he moved carefully, and surprisingly quietly in his place-reinforced leathers, clearly having taken the mage's advice to heart about being sure to corner the elemental before engaging, "I'm awfully sure the best conversations are when you're on the road, or doing something interesting, rather than just sitting around."

"Someone else new to the Violet Bastion, actually. I think you'd like her, a Dark Iron dwarf by the name of Dahlyah, a huntress that knows only the hunt." She giggled. A moment later she brought her hand up and pointed into the distance, "See there? Where it starts to get brighter? We're getting close." As she spoke her voice lowered and her footsteps grew softer. Upon the horizon they could start to make out the roof of a tall structure, crooked and haunted by all manner of beings was the building that towered over the basin. The closer they got the more evident it became that their trail lead straight there.

"Wait a second... Name sounds awfully familiar." He pursed his lips in thought before his eyes widened in sudden recognition, a grin splitting his face, "I remember, I ran into her a while back! Let me pick one of the bounties she was looking for and have the job myself! It'll be good to see her again, I think!" He shook his head, "Not important right now, though. Looks like..." He trailed off as his gaze followed the haphazard tower to its summit, "Trouble, really. I never wanted to get this close, but we've got work to do."

She swallowed hard as she realized where they were headed, the trail led straight down to what appeared to be crypts below. "I didn't realize you two were already acquainted!" Came her response, though she was practically whispering at this point and her free hand had begun to reach for the fabric on his arm. An instinctual reach for someone to clutch onto and his much larger form certainly made her feel more at ease than she would have been, but nothing had prepared her for what they might see down there. "I-it looks like it's down there..." Catisa looked about, spotting no other entrances or trails to follow. "Assuming our familiar is the only thing down there, it may have made our jobs a bit easier."

"I'm sure hoping so..." Mason peered down the path ahead and down the dimly-lit stairwell leading to the crypts, "Last time I found myself wandering into some underground ruin, it wasn't the most pleasant experience, lemme tell you. On the bright side, I did make it outta that alright! So I'm sure we'll be fine!" His bravado, however, was not matched by his face, his grin having fallen away and been replaced by a look of cautious resolve. Following the still-shimmering trail left by the scrying stone, he pulled the sword from his back and held it before him, traces of lightning crackling along its blade offering some very slight light in the growing darkness.

A nervous laugh escaped the girl beside him, "At least there's that..." Her eyes then fell to the blade in his hand, having taken note that he had no abilities to call upon the arcane when he stated so she caught herself thinking aloud, "Enchantments?" The scrying stone would lead them down into the depths of the caverns full of sarcophagi. "I really hope that Remy Whiteley gentleman didn't end up making this his grave too."

He let out a chuckle, far from the booming laugh that had echoed off the cobblestones of Darkshire, and shook his head, "Enchantments? Something like that. Call it a gift. Not anything I'd be calling magic, but I can do a little more than just swing a sword if need be." He grimaced at the tombs lining the walls of the crypt, a sigh escaping his lips, "Gonna agree with you on that one. Whatever mistake he might've made in summoning something too big for him to control, poor man doesn't deserve to rot down here."

Catisa seemed put at ease a bit more in his presence, perhaps he was just humble about his own talents. "I'd love to know more about it when we're not, um," At this point her voice was a barely audible whisper as she practically clung to him, only poking her head out to see and her hand to illuminate the passages with the orb. "Crawling through dead people." She slammed her mouth shut, tears in her eyes as she felt a squeal rise in her throat from something cold and wet brushing across her leg briefly. It took all she could not to give away their presence, practically holding her breath as they continued forward, one step at a time.

Mason offered another reassuring smile, hoping it was visible even in the gloom of the crypt. He seemed to focus for a moment, the lightning dancing along his blade becoming brighter, more of a constant, softly crackling glow, and illuminating more than just a few steps ahead. The stones were damp, this far below the surface, but the light gave more in secure footing than they'd had a moment before, "Any way of telling how far away we are from the familiar we're after with that?" He motioned with a slight nod towards the scrying stone, "I feel like we - I hope, should say - don't have much further to go."

She nodded with a quiet noise from behind him, thankful for the additional light his blade provided. "It will start to-" As she was about to speak; the orb began to flash, slower at first, but as they proceeded the pace between pulses quickened. "Do that." She continued flatly. Up ahead of them was a divergence in the path, it split off into three other directions, but the brightest one of the three that veered off to the right appeared to be where their target lay. "Be careful," She whispered, "It's not much farther now... we want to catch it by surprise and..." With a brief pause she reached into her satchel and held out a small pale blue crystal. "Take this. Charge it like you do your blade and throw it at the familiar, it should stun it long enough for us to surround it."

Beginning to follow the light illuminating the right-hand tunnel, Mason took the crystal in hand with a nod of thanks, "Sounds like a solid plan to me. If we can keep it from coming back the way it came, we should be pretty well set." With a firm grip on the blue stone, a crackle of lightning shot down the man's arm, an inner glow springing from the crystal as it became charged with power. Stepping softly, blade at the ready as the pair approached the end of the hall, the gentle glow of magic beyond giving away the rogue familiar's location, Mason bent his arm back, and threw! The crystal arced through the door, a crackling trail in its wake, landing in the room beyond with a crash of thunder and a surge of electricity, "Now!"

Catisa followed his lead and darted into the room. It was a crypt with no exit other than the way they came, perfect for their trap. "Here!" She called out, "I'll block the exit!" At the far end of the room the familiar stood dazed, the flowing water that made up its form seized from the shock that crystal had delivered so suddenly. With a wave of her hands she began to cast a spell, flames ignited at her palms and weaved around her fingertips that moved intricately with practiced movements. Once Mason was clear of the threshold she would release the gathered energy in a burst of molten rock that filled the doorway and quickly sealed the exit.

"Good call!" Mason grinned broadly, leaping past the threshold of the dead-end crypt, brandishing his sword, now surging with lightning, against the elemental. Trapped and stunned as it was, it was left entirely defenseless, giving the man an opening. In a huge arc, he swung his weapon up over his head and brought it crashing down on one of the bracers that bound the familiar to the mortal world. Thinking himself clever, Mason did not foresee the magic feedback that erupted from the shattered bracer, and was thrown back onto the damp floor. Nevertheless, as he began to push himself back to his feet, the elemental - now aware of its surroundings once more - made for him, though it seemed to be sluggish in its movements, burdened by its new state, "May have miscalculated just a bit there..."

With one bracer shattered that left one more to go. Crimson robes whirled about as she spun on her heel and faced the beast, the room illuminated by the dull glow of the molten rock in the doorway. Flames licked at her palms before she extended her arms and unleashed a quick fireball to try and deter it from attacking Mason before he had the chance to recover, but the flames quickly sizzled out of existence in the familiar's watery form. "Uh oh," She uttered, her eyes wide as it grew enraged, cornered in what it had made its home. "Look out!"

Sword in hand, Mason had made it to his feet! The elemental's fists, swirling and frothing white like river rapids, pounded down on him, the blows parried with deft and surprisingly swift movements of such a large sword. The blade itself simply slid through the watery creature's form, just enough to deflect the blow as if diverting the flow of a river. Without a chance to regain the momentum, Mason found himself backed into the crypt's wall. Feeling the cold stone on his back, he braced himself against it, threw his sword to the side, clattering to the ground with a shrill echo, then lunged forward, passing through the wall of water that had backed him into the corner, and emerged from the other side soaked and sputtering. Whirling around, he raised his hands before him, and with a shout, a crackling burst of lightning shot forth, a bright flash in the dark with a sound like thunder, stunning the elemental anew, "The bracer, finish it off!"

A gasp had escaped the young mage as he pushed his way through the elemental, she had never considered that maneuver. Wouldn't you drown from doing that? And was equally surprised when he made it through and stunned the familiar. She quickly regained her composure when he shouted and nodded her understanding, flames licked at her palms once more and danced around her fingertips as she gathered more energy than she had for her prior blast and extended her left arm to let forth a plume of flame that engulfed the elemental and converged upon the remaining bracer. Her brow furrowed from the strain and focus, a bead of sweat dripped down her cheek as the room temperature suddenly made a drastic change and not only did the elemental begin to evaporate, the bracer itself started to melt. The creature threw its arms back and a watery scream filled the room just as the bracer shattered from the forces colliding. Catisa gasped for breath as the flow of water finally began to disrupt and fell to her knees, the flames from her arm ceased and left a trail of smoke in its wake.

Seeing all that remained of the elemental - slick traces of moisture on the stone floor, steam swirling about from its sudden dispersal, and the two mangled bracers that had bound it - Mason let out a booming, triumphant laugh, "It is done, and done well! Beautiful work!" He turned to Catisa, still wearing a huge grin, and stepping over to her extended a hand to help her up, though he himself was still bedraggled and breathing heavily.

She winced as he grabbed her hand and with her tiny frame she compared to his she was practically hoisted up. Though in somewhat of a daze, she offered him a weak smile. "Indeed." Came her agreement between ragged breaths and waved a hand at the doorway, the molten rock that had prevented escape melted away to leave only scorch marks where it had once been. "Thank you, Mason. I don't think I could have done this without your help." Though the admission was true, she still seemed preoccupied as she now finally took the time to familiarize herself with the room.

"Hey, don't mention it! It's what I'm here for, after all. That said, not sure how well I'd have managed either, if we're being entirely honest here. I'm better at dealing with things that are, let's say, solid, yeah?" He chuckled to himself as he picked up his fallen weapon and slung it across his back once more. Finally taking the chance to look around the gloomy chamber himself, he crossed his arms over his chest and grimaced at simply how sodden his leathers still were, "Lovely little hole it found for itself. Any reason you can think of? I'm no expert, but elementals don't seem the sort to like creepy tombs."

With the adrenaline passing she found her sense of humor once more and giggled at his comments about solid objects, though that quickly faded and a frown found its way to her lips. "At first I thought it was because of the ley lines beneath Karazhan, though I should be so foolish as to think they were for reasons related to a passage in a book I had just read. It seems there was an ulterior motive." As she finished speaking she gestured with her right hand toward the far end of the chamber where a corpse lay crumpled in the fetal position, bloated from taking on too much water and likely drowned, though the stench was well masked by the surrounding musk of the tomb.

Mason wrinkled his nose and, shaking his head, knelt down beside the poor, drowned conjurer, "Must be our summoner, fled from Duskwood and led his rebellious familiar on a chase. Shame we didn't get here quicker, but looks like he's been here for a little while anyway." He reached out a plated hand to close the bloated body's eyes, still gaping in the throes of drowning, "We'll have to send someone out this way to take him home, if he's got a family." Pushing himself back up from his knees, he raked a hand back through his soaked hair, pushing it from his face, "I'm about ready to get outta here, I think."

Catisa Wells nodded eagerly at his final remark, her voice shaky as she spoke. "That makes two of us." Came her agreement and took one last look at the corpse, the frown on her features deepened and she shook her head as she slipped back through the threshold and started down the path that had led them there. She folded her arms across her chest, tucking herself in as though she were attempting to console herself.

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