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therealvinelle · 3 years ago

Note

Ok I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm just now copying your Norwegian Bella AU into a text translator, and if you don't already have 50 people in your inbox demanding a translation then shame on ALL OF US because this is glorious! And while Google Translate does have a certain charm (it translated "piper hun ut" as "she beeps") I'm curious to see how you'd put it in English.

Troquantary is referring to this post. In which Bella doesn't speak English.

Fun fact, you're the only one who's gone into my inbox to request this. I was so sad, had the translation half-written and everything, but I was too proud to beg. So thank you, Troquantary, for popping this ask.

As for the dictionary fuckups, sounds about right. I made a few typos, too, that made Google Translate suffer even more. (Such as managing to mix up "henne" (her) and "hendene" (hands), resulting in Aro patting Bella instead of clapping his hands. Poor Google.)

Also, there are a few cultural references and language things that would be lost in the translation, in an attempt to keep them I included notes clarifying things.

Some things, like Aro and Carlisle's very old man way of speaking, are easier said than done to translate, you'll have to bear with me there.

Additional notes are that I added a few things to this version, many of them because translating is hard, but a few because while translating I thought "oh you know what would be much funnier-" and then wrote that.

Alright, without further ado:

When Renée left Charlie she did not go to Florida, she went to Oslo. And she went all in to make her daughter a true Norwegian, hiring Norwegian nannies and making sure never to speak English around the child. Since transatlantic flights are expensive, little Bella Swan rarely got to visit her father, and as such she never did learn what should have been her native language.

She quickly forgot what English she did have in favor of Norwegian, with the exception of words like “Yes”, “No”, and “I’m Bella”.

The few trips she took to visit her father were all the more awkward than in canon since she couldn’t play with the Black kids. Let not the blame fall upon Charlie: he took Norwegian classes and speaks conversational Norwegian. He can’t speak to Renée, because her Norwenglish is incomprehensible even to Norwegians, but he can communicate with Bella.

Not that he’s had a lot of chances to do so.

Bella makes it to seventeen years old, she’s in second grade at Handels* and is a major outsider among the preps there, and then Renée marries a handsome skier**. Together they shall travel the continent all winter to participate in as many skiing races as they can, and in the summer they’ll take gigs at Hurtigruta to see the coast.

*“Handels” is the nickname for an Oslo high school infamous for its pupils being rich and beautiful blonds who are going to be CEOs when they grow up.

**Skiing as a sport is huge in Norway

***Hurtigruta is a famous ferry that travels across the Norwegian West coast

Bella, who sucks at skiing and is too young to work at Hurtigruten, takes the hint.

With dread in her stomach and dictionary in hand she goes to her father in America.

Where she doesn’t speak the language.

Faen.

Charlie gives her a car, and I wish this meta was set in the present because I could have joked about electric cars and the automat only driver’s license*, but Twilight is set in 2005 so I can’t. The car part proceeds without drama.

*An increasing number of Norwegian youth take the driver’s license for automatic cars only, and we’re the country in the world with the highest percentage of electric car purchases.

School is worse than in canon, because she is now a thousand times more sensational than if she was merely the new student. She is from another country! All of Forks keels over with excitement.

To make matters even worse, our girl doesn’t understand a word of what people are saying.

She is too awkward to let them know she doesn’t know English. It’d become a thing, and they might think she’s dumb. To be fair, it’s not good that she’s been through primary, secondary, and now a year and a half of high school and still sucks at English.

So she nods, smiles, mumbles “Hi, I’m Bella” to the new faces, and blushes heavily when anybody says anything.

People assume she’s shy. That’s a bit boring, but oh well.

She has her biology class with the redhead hottie she noticed during lunch. She watched him and his family, they were fascinatingly pretty, but she doesn’t know anything more about them. Sure would have been great if she could have asked the tiny girl (was it Jess?) about them.

Biology proceeds as in canon - Edward badly wants to eat the delicious girl, but fortunately doesn’t.

She runs into him in the office when he tries to switch to another biology lesson, but she has no idea what he’s saying so she only has the suspicion that this somehow concerns her. Which is still uncomfortable, but Bella is probably the problem here. The hottie surely can’t be.

He’s missing from school for a week, Bella finds that weird.

He returns, and to her great horror he starts talking to her.

“Hello”, he says.

Bella dies inside. He’s too handsome!

"I'm Edward Cullen," he continues, and ok, she got that. The hottie is called Edward, that’s good to know. She’s not sure she caught that last name, though, Köln?

He says something else, it’s gibberish to Bella even though she’s concentrating, and at the end there he says “Bella Swan”.

She gulps.

"I'm Bella Swan," she confirms and nods. That should be correct. God, she hopes it’s correct.

He smiles a crooked, boyish smile. She’s awed. She didn’t think it was possible to be so beautiful.

He says something else.

Bella didn’t catch it.

She blushes even harder, she hasn’t been more embarrassed in her life. Here he is, the most handsome guy in all the world, and she has nothing to say to him. Literally, they don’t speak the same language.

She should tell him.

It’s one thing to chicken out of telling the town she doesn’t speak English, but there’s something different about Edward Cullen. He deserves the truth.

But...

He’s the most beautiful person she has seen in her life. He is American, too, so the odds of him knowing Norwegian are microscopical. If he finds out she doesn’t understand a word he says he’ll stop talking to her, and selfish as she is she doesn’t want that.

So with a slightly guilty conscience (but not enough to fess up) she contributes to the conversation with enough words and smiles to pull through. "Yes", "No", "Thank you", and "That's nice".

He is surprised by several of these answers, but instead of giving her odd looks and losing interest he grows more invested in the conversation.

Class ends.

The next day the near accident happens, and he saves her. She is stunned - dear god, did he just pick up a whole car? After teleporting across the parking lot..?

Soon she’s in the ER, and more than a little bit stressed about that fact since she knows the Americans have a terrible healthcare system.

She hopes Charlie has an insurance.

An insanely beautiful man walks into the ER, and Bella is shocked. He is just as handsome as Edward and Edward’s lunch friends!

He introduces himself as Carlisle Cullen, and Bella can only assume this is someone’s older brother. Possibly related to the blonde girl.

He smiles at her, says something, and she answers, "I'm Bella Swan."

He frowns.

That must have been the wrong answer, then.

His hands return to investigating her scalp, and to her great surprise he switches to perfect Norwegian, "kjenner De* noe ubehag når jeg holder her?" Do you feel any discomfort when I touch here?

*De is the Norwegian polite pronoun for “you”. Du = thou = the French tu, and De = you = the French vous. These polite pronouns went out of use in the 1980’s, save for when addressing royal persons, and would be considered antiquated in 2005.

He hurries to add, "Norsk lærte jeg i... fjor sommer. Det var et nettkurs." I learned Norwegian… last year. Online class.

"Hvilket da?" Which one? Bella asks, because Charlie needs to hear about this. The doctor has beautiful, if slightly outdated, pronunciation.

The doctor’s smile turns uncertain. She gets the feeling there’s something he doesn’t want to say. "Husker ikke," I don’t remember, sier han etter en litt vel lang pause.

That’s a shame. And weird.

"De hadde hellet med Dem i dag, som ikke ble truffet av den bilen." You were lucky today, not getting hit by that car. he then says, noticeably changing the subject.

"Det var ikke hell, det var Edward," It wasn’t luck, it was Edward, she replies sharply.

The doctor definitely looks uncomfortable.

She continues, "Han krysset skolegården på et blunk, og plukket opp hele bilen. Jeg så det," He crossed the schoolyard in a moment, and picked up the whole car. I saw it,

The doctor laughs. "Om han kunne det hadde nok gymkarakteren hans vært meget bedre. Nei, frøken Swan*, jeg beklager å si at det høres ut som at De er litt omtåket. Det er helt normalt ved hjernerystelse." If he could do that, his PE grade would be a lot better. No, Miss Swan, I’m sorry to say you seem confused. That’s normal with concussions.

*Addressing a young woman as “frøken” is even more outdated than using polite pronouns.

Why does Bella get the feeling he’s lying?

She’s discharged.

We’ll jump ahead to her trip to La Push - that trip uneventful, since Jacob knows she doesn’t speak English. They stick their hands in their pockets and stare at the sea.

The next day she’s shanghaied to Port Angeles, because apparently she said “Yes” at the wrong time when talking to Jessica (Turns out Jess’s name was Jessica!) and accidentally said yes to a day trip to Port Angeles.

Like in canon she wanders away from the others, and as in canon she is nearly gang raped. And again as in canon she is saved at the last moment by Edward.

He buys her dinner, and she can’t believe her own luck- and misfortune. A date with the most handsome guy on the planet (hence the luck) and she can’t say a word to him (hence the misfortune)!

He says things to her, lends her his jacket, and really this is it for Bella, she’s peaked, life can’t get better than this.

(That’s a lie, it would be better if she spoke English.)

He’s so amazing.

She’s gotten pretty good at navigating conversations with him, so she nods and aha’s her way through.

In his car on the way home the tone takes a more serious turn.

He asks her about something, and it’s a serious question, that much she’s gathered. She answers in the confirmative.

He is silent.

Did she say anything wrong?

(Edward, on his end, just asked if she knows what he is. She said yes, so calmly, not even a trace of fear in her.)

A few days later he takes her out on a walk in the woods.

He shows her a meadow in the woods, and when he steps into it he lights up in the sunlight.

Bella is in shock.

She knew there was something different about him, but- holy cow. This guy isn’t human.

Is she dating a god?

She stumbles into the clearing after him, and they spend a day together where he says things, and she can barely hear any of it (nevermind understand it) because she’s so distracted by how pretty he is.

The next day he takes her to a house in the middle of nowhere. She doesn’t want to guess that this can be where he lives. Surely gods don’t live in houses?

He shows her inside the house, and introduces her for Dr. Cullen and a lady with a name she doesn’t catch.

Bit weird that these two are acting like a couple of parents, they’re far too young and divine for that.

Edward shows her around in an old-fashioned office, and she doesn’t know what to make of i when she sees a painting of Carlisle. Edward launches into a long story when he sees her watching it, unfortunately she doesn’t catch any dates or artist names. At one point she heard the word “suicide”, though, and that’s not good.

She doesn’t get much out of the story.

The baseball game doesn’t happen because Bella didn’t pick up on what Edward wanted and didn’t realize she was being invited to a thing. They spend the afternoon watching a movie instead.

The relationship continues, impeded slightly by communication problems, but she’s mostly able to cover those up.

Until her birthday comes around.

She gets a papercut.

Jasper lunges at her. Edward throws her into a glass table, and then everyone is leaving.

Carlisle is kind enough to switch to Norwegian when he’s stitching up her arm, perhaps remembering the last time she was his patient. "Jasper har ikke vært på dietten vår så veldig lenge." Jasper hasn’t been on our diet for very long.

"Diett?"she asks. She’s never seen Edward eat anything. She wasn’t clear on what the Cullens ate, honestly she thought they were above such things. She was thinking maybe photosynthesis. The knowledge that they apparently eat food astounds her, but diets?

"Dyreblod istedenfor menneskeblod," Animal blood in stead of human blood, Carlisle clarifies.

Whachasay?

Carlisle gives a slight smile. “Jaspers liv som vampyr fikk en brutal start." Jasper’s life as a vampire got off to a brutal start.

...

Vampire?!

Bella’s missed something here.

Oh dear lord, oh fy faen, she has missed something.

“Åja”, uh huh, is all she can say, and suddenly she’s very aware of the fact that she’s sitting there with a bleeding arm.

And Carlisle.

Who is a vampire.

Over the course of the following conversation Bella makes a host of discoveries.

Edward has been a vampire this whole time, and he’s a telepathic vampire. Whether Bella should be a vampire too or not has been a matter of hot debate, but due to religious reasons Edward doesn’t want that.

Carlisle also brings up how Edward died of the Spanish flu.

"Jeg var under den oppfatning at Edward fortalte deg bakhistorien min?" I was under the impression Edward told you my back story? Carlisle asks at one point, and Bella just has to ask very nicely if he’d be so kind as to repeat it.

Turns out the guy is nearly four hundred years old.

Jaha.

Jahahaha jaa ha.

That’s… a lot.

She wanders out of the house in shock, and hardly notices Edward’s strange behavior over the next couple of days.

One day he picks her up at school, and takes her behind the house.

That works out.

He’s a vampire, but he never hurt her. He is endlessly beautiful, perhaps easier to love now that she knows he’s not a god. He’s her Edward, and that’s suddenly easier now that she knows.

They can still be together.

But now that she knows this about him, it’s about time he knows something about her as well.

It’s time to finally be honest with him.

So when he opens his mouth, she opens her mouth as well, but she doesn’t get any further than to “Edward-” before he launches into a monologue.

She’ll have to wait until he’s done before saying her piece. It’s a bit embarrassing, but it doesn’t seem like he intends to stop talking anyway.

And what he’s saying seems to be serious, so it’s probably best to let him finish.

Edward concludes his monologue by kissing her forehead. Then he disappears.

Where did he go?

A big unsure, Bella goes back to the house. She’ll just have to wait until he gets back.

She doesn’t know what to think when Charlie returns from work and tells her the Cullens have all left.

Oh, god.

Edward must have found out she doesn’t speak English.

She made a mockery of him.

He has every right to leave.

Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier to live with.

Bella sinks into a depression.

The hallucinations begin, as in canon, though Hallusinward speaks Norwegian. Thank god for small mercies.

The friendship with Jacob (dictionary in hand) blooms, as someone has to help her see those hallucinations.

The cliff diving happens, and Alice shows up. Bella’s not sure what this is about, but she has gotten good enough at English to know that something bad happened, and Alice wants them to do something.

She’s a bit surprised to find herself on a plane to Italy, though.

Alice tells her to “Run to Edward” and ok, she got that, actually.

So she saves Edward.

After that she’s taken into the sewer, which turns out to house dozens of vampires.

Bella, Edward, and Alice are received in some kind of hall, where an unusual vampire has quite a bit to say. She understands some of what he’s saying, at least the part about “la tua cantante”. She knows a bit about Italian, see, so she knows that he’s talking about a song now.

She wishes she knew the context.

At one point he takes her hand, and appears fascinated by it. She wonders if he’s a palmreader. Not very vampirey, but what does she know.

He asks her a question.

"Yes," she says.

Saying yes has gotten her this far, after all.

But when he lights up and claps his hands together, and Edward and Alice stare at her in shock and betrayal, she knows she must have said the wrong thing.

The two are dismissed from the room before Bella can do or say anything, she’s just listening to Edward make a racket outside in the hallway.

Not good.

The unusual vampire brings her further down in his sewer palace to a basement, and she is given comfortable clothes to wear.

This is getting terrifying.

The vampire leans towards her - and she chickens out.

"Jeg snakker ikke engelsk!" she squeaks. "Non habla ingles!" I don’t speak English.

Han stanser, og ser forvirret ut. "Que- Hva behager*?" I beg your pardon? spør han etter et øyeblikk.

*A very formal, and slightly outdated (you can use it, but people will think you’re putting on airs. And they will be right) way of saying “excuse me?”

Sobbing, Bella tells him the whole story, from how she didn’t want to be the weird kid in school to how she’s now somehow in Italy without knowing why nor what she just agreed to.

When she’s done the vampire starts laughing.

"Dette forklarer jo en hel del," This explains quite a bit, ler han. "Men, kjære Bella, jeg er redd det ikke endrer noe." But, my dear Bella, I’m afraid it changes nothing.

He tells her that she has agreed to serve him and his army of undead warriors into eternity.

Well fuck.

"Du skal få slippe det, når du ikke visste hva du samtykket til - men skjebnen din forblir den samme. Loven er loven." You’re released from that promise, as you didn’t know what you agreed to - but your fate remains the same. The law is the law.

After a moment of silence, during which she looks terrified, he hurries to add, "Vi har en lov. Du må bli en av oss." We have a law. You must become one of us.

A law that Bella Swan has to become a vampire?

People are finally speaking Norwegian, and Bella is still lost. And it’s too embarrassing to keep pestering this poor, polite man with questions.

So she nods.

He gives her a glittering smile, and bites her.

When she wakes, Aro offers her an English course. A language course that, naturally, leads to her staying in Volterra. Why not learn a few more languages while we’re at it, dearest Bella?

Some time later Edward breaks into Volterra to save his Rapunzel, only to barely recognize her now that she’s a vampire who says things. Lots of things, she talks all the time now. WHAT DID ARO DO TO HER.

Too mortified to admit that she never spoke English, Bella claims she’s been brainwashed.

Aro is having too much fun to correct her, and the whole sad affair sets off a regrettable flood of rumors.

#troquantary #norwegian things #bella swan #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #evighetens kyss #evighetens kyss meta #evighetens kyss renessanse

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strawhatsweets · 3 years ago

Note

21 + OSAMU

hi bestieeee ilysm i hope u like it

21. “I guess I’ll just get off all by myself then”

Osamu Miya + fem! reader

MINORS AND AGELESS BLOGS DNI

Come to my smut prompt game!!!

CW: masturbation mentioned

"Your food SUCKS Osamu!" You laughed, throwing a napkin at him.

"Oh right- says you who begs for me to bring some to your place every other night!" He replied, throwing it back at you.

You'd been visiting your boyfriend at his Onigiri shop after work. You'd been craving it all day.

"Its out of pity!" You tried defending yourself.

"Whatever stupid." He sighed, sitting across from you since there was a lull in customers.

"How was your day, loser?" He asked you, happy to be sitting with you.

"It was decent- just glad the week is over. I miss you in my beeedddd." You said in a singsong voice, kicking his shin lightly.

"Stop it- I miss your ass so much." He said, trying to fight the blush creeping up on his face.

"Oh just my ass huh?" You teased.

"Nah...I also miss your tight little-"

"HEY HEY we are in a family friendly establishment!" You laughed, earning a blush of your own.

"Yeah yeah- the owner doesnt care." He joked.

"It's slow enough- can you just leave early? You can come back to my placeee." You tried convincing him, knowing he would say no.

"Baby- I gotta stay here." He said, putting his hand on yours.

"I know I know- I just wish you could come over sooner." You said, enjoying the feeling of his fingers tracing your hand.

"I know. I'd love to but I can't. Theres only an hour and a half before close anyways." He sighed.

"Its ok! I understand babe really!" You said, an idea popping into your head as you stood up, letting his hand land on the table. "I'm gonna head home though."

"O-okay!" He said, standing with you.

"Youre sure you dont wanna come?" You asked, hoping he would change his mind.

"I shouldnt babe, besides youre cute when youre needy." He said, half sighing.

“Well, I guess I’ll just get off all by myself then.” You leaned and whispered in his ear, kissing his cheek and turning around.

He grabbed your wrist and turned you around. "You sure you can get yourself off as well as I can, angel?"

"I'll manage babe- see ya later!" You said, face burning as you walked out of the shop and started on your way home.

After you got home, you looked at your phone to see the dozen texts from your boyfriend.

"You aint gonna be able to do it right." "You know im better than your toys." "You didnt even ask first" "Oh like you need permission." "The thought of you touchin yourself is making me hard." "Why would you do this to meeee" "Baby youre so hot" "Fuckin hate you rn"

You laughed, jumping onto your bed and pulling out your favorite toy. You felt giddy- teasing your boyfriend like this was way funnier than it needed to be.

You took a photo of your toy and sent it to him, along with a text of "You had your chance buster" and laughed. Honestly, you werent even planning on doing anything. It was just to get a rise out of him.

But then he replied to your text and your breath hitched.

"Fuckin do it then. Send me a picture of that stupid fuckin toy in you too."

You gasped at how vulgar his request was, taking a second to respond.

"If you wanted to see it you shouldve come over."

You even started to put it away.

"Do it. Get yourself off. You were so confident about it. If you dont, youre not cumming at all tonight."

"Fuck." You whispered to yourself, feeling the wetness start to pool between your legs.

"And I want proof."

Looks like it's gonna be an hour of masturbation before your boyfriend comes to help.

---------------------------

womp this lowkey sucks but HEYYY i kinda wanna continue it bc it’s so short but ehhhhh lmk lmk

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smut #osamu smut #miya osamu #osamu x reader #haikyuu fanfic #smut #osamu miya #osamu fic #osamu drabble #haikyuu x yn #osamu x yn

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corysmiles · 3 years ago

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Ok so I was reading your little streamer au story Just a Joke and that part about the matchbox bed had me thinking, what if Tommy did a stream where he just showed off his house? Like, just walked the camera from room to room and talked about different stuff he had for fun. (Probably not his whole house, just his bedroom and maybe one other him sized room if he has it)

He would probably see nothing wrong with most of it (or even if he does, he doesn’t think it’s a big deal and ignores it, thinking everyone else will do the same) but his friends see how poorly made and “diy” everything looks (like his bed) and start thinking about how all tinys have to live like that.

I imagine Wilber especially starts to feel bad, looking around his house and seeing all the stuff he takes for granted, all things that tinys could only get a poorer version of, if they got a version at all.

Not to mention, Tommy seems to be a bit better off then a lot of tinys, so some don’t even have the stuff he does, and/or have ones of even lesser quality.

Maybe it’s just a one off little “oh...that sucks...” or maybe they try to do something about it. Idk, just think it’s a cute and sad idea. (I have more to say about this idea, but I don’t want bombard you with a super duper long ask, so just take these basics for now I guess, sorry)

-tired anon

House Tour

————————

Little Streamer AU

CW: language

Notes: Woah little streamer content?? In this economy??? More likely than you think. And thank you so much for this awesome idea tired anon I love it :D Without further ado have a fun tiny Tommy housetour followed by Wilbur’s confusion over tiny culture

————————

Tommy hadn’t been this excited for a stream in a long time, but as he set up everything he was practically bouncing on his feet.

He was going to do a house tour- or a room tour- for the chat since they’d only ever seen a bit of it in the background. It was a lot different from his normal content, but it felt refreshing doing something so new.

When he finally stepped back and looked at everything a grin spread across his face. He didn’t think his room had looked this nice since the day they built it. His red sheets were perfectly tucked into his matchbox bed, his dollhouse desk was wiped down and shiny, and even his scrap-fabric rug was dusted.

Pride swelled up in his chest at the sight.

“Mom!” he yelled as he peaked his head through the “window” in his room. It really was just a hole in the wall to the human part of the house, but it also let light in to his room. “I’m gonna be streaming soon!”

He didn’t even wait for an answer before he happily popped back into his small room. It was still a little dusty since it was inside of a wall, but there was nothing he could really do about that. The viewers would just have to deal with it, he mused.

Quickly he sent out a tweet for his stream and hit “go live” on his pc. Almost immediately people flooded the chat even though it was still just his starting soon screen, and one name in particular caught his eye.

WilburSoot: this is not exciting

Tommy grinned and stifled the laugh that threatened to burst out of his chest. Of course Wilbur was messing with him, who would he be if he wasn’t messing with the tiny. And even though it was just one message Tommy was excited to know he was there.

Wilbur had actually been the one to convince him to do a house tour. Tommy never really thought his room was much, it was decently sized but not very exciting, but still Wilbur thought it would be a fun idea for an easy stream. The tiny still has been pretty iffy about the idea but after constant nagging from his brother-figure he gave in.

“Hello chat!” Tommy yelled as he switched his screen to his camera. Dramatically he swung it around to zoom in on his face.

“How are you doing today? I’m doing so well,” he grinned, “Today’s gonna be a little different actually- spicing things up Yaknow. You get to see my big man home!”

The chat blurred in the corner of his eye as he explained what the stream would be, and chugged a cup of coke he’d poured right before he started. It was all going well, and they seemed to like it a lot more than he thought they would.

First Tommy stood up from his desk and pointed it at his setup, “See this is where the magic happens boys.”

He laughed as the chat flew by even faster with one message catching his eye.

“Hey it is not a Polly pocket desk it is a Barbie Ken desk,” he pouted, “please I’m better than that.”

Step by step he moved across his room explaining his furniture and showing off his favorite things. They got to see his cardboard bed, his “borrower hook” he’d been trying to teach himself how to use, and even his “spider hole” in the wall where bugs got into his room.

Most of the time the chat seemed to find it funny, but every once in a while people seemed concerned. He just chalked it up to humans though.

At the end of the stream he put the camera on his desk and jumped up on his bed to say goodbye. To make it even funnier he loaded the tiny nerf gun Wilbur had bought him a while back and tried to shoot the camera.

“I’m gonna shoot you if you don’t leave, go!” he yelled jokingly, “Disparse! Leave! Go home!”

Once the chat seemed to calm down a bit he said his actual goodbyes and teaches as the screen turned dark. Just like always he let out a breath of relief that the stream went well. He enjoyed streaming, but it was still stressful trying to make sure everything went right.

After a minute he fell back onto his bed and scrolled through his phone until discord dm flashed on his screen.

WilburSoot: how did you get a whole fake room for a stream??

Tommy frowned and quickly opened the app staring at the message.

Tommyinnit: what? vc?

The tiny sat back against his bed and waited for his friend to respond as anxiety curled up in his gut.

“Tommy?” Wilbur’s voice crackled.

“Hey Wil, what the fuck do you mean?”

Through his phone he could hear Wilbur shifting around as he stumbled on what to say, “That room.”

Tommy frowned and tilted his head even though he knew the human couldn’t see it, “What about it?”

“What- that can’t be your room, right?” Wilbur’s laugh boomed, “It was a good joke though.”

“Wait wait Wil,” Tommy fumbled, “What the fuck do you mean? This is my room.”

The silence that filled the call almost made Tommy wish he hadn’t said anything at all.

“Huh?”

“Uh yeah,” Tommy coughed, “That really was my room, what’s wrong?”

Wilbur’s staticky hum echoed through his phone, “Oh uh… I don’t know I thought you’d have like…actual furniture?”

“I mean, it works doesn’t it,” Tommy frowned as he leaned back against his sheets, kicking up his feet on the edge of the box, “It’s not that bad.”

“Tommy,” Wilbur paused, “you sleep in a box.”

The tiny froze and stared at the worm edges of the matchbox he slept in. He never really thought about it. It was pretty normal for tinies considering how expensive real furniture was, and he was probably better off than a lot of other tinies.

“Uh well yeah big man,” Tommy stuttered, “I’m a tiny.”

“Well no shit I know that but shouldn’t you have like an actual bed? You have a real pc!” Wilbur said, getting louder by the second.

“Well yeah,” Tommy muttered, “But spending over a thousand pounds on a bed frame just doesn’t seem worth it to me okay?”

Again silence filled the call, and it lasted so long tommy thought the human had left.

Wilbur was the one to break the silence, “One thousand pounds?”

“For a shitty one yeah,” Tommy frowned. He still remembered the day his parents had searched endlessly for any bed frames only to find that they were all thousands of pounds. They had seemed so upset about it, but Tommy never really cared.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Wilbur dropped, “I shouldn’t have said anything I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright,” Tommy smiled, I’m the corner of his eye he saw one of the hoodies he’d bought during his last visit with Wilbur, “But my spider hole is very real and very important to me.”

Wilbur’s loud laugh burst through the phone making the tiny’s heart swell. He missed the human more than he’d admit, and it was always nice hearing his friend’s voice- even if he was just joking about his spider hole.

“Yeah yeah, your spider holes fine. Very normal,” Wilbur joked before his voice steadied, “Seriously though, sorry about thinking it was a joke. I just- I don’t know. I feel like maybe I’ve taken my things for granted. I didn’t mean to seem rude though I-

“Nah stop,” Tommy smiled, “Your house is shit man, I’ve been there.”

The tiny stared at Wilbur’s profile picture as his wheezy laugh filled the room.

“Yeah yeah whatever,” and then an added, “love you Tom.”

Before Tommy could respond he heard the ding signalling Wilbur had left the call. The silence in his room now only filled by the sound of his parents shuffling around somewhere else in the house.

“Yeah,” Tommy hummed, “Love you too Wil.”

Taglist:

@encaos @blurrybunnie @brooky71 @forgetful-dorito

#little streamer au #mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #fluff #hurt/comfort #corywrites #t!tommy #g!wilbur #tired anon #anon ask

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dragon-papa · 4 years ago

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A fic where reader is annoying Fyodor

no warnings. other than a mildly suggestive joke at the end

You tossed and turned on your bed unable to fall asleep. Damn what fucking time was it now? You grab your phone and get nearly blinded by its bright light. 3:25. You let a sigh escape your mouth. The hours of the night were passing and honestly tomorrow was gonna be a pain in the ass after another restless night.

Sleep was practically a lost cause at this point so you decided to annoy Fyodor. He was always fun to bother at obscure hours of the night. You called him thinking of how to irritate him this time.

After the third dial tone he groggily picked up. “What are you doing awake?” “I could say the same to you.” you rolled over and laid so your head was laying off the side of the bed. “Are you busy right now?”

“If I weren’t I would be in bed right now. Why do you ask?” he didn’t say it directly but he was definitely overworked not that his prideful ass would ever say it. “Oh nothing much. I just can’t sleep and I’m bored.”

He sighed. “For heaven's sake…. You really need to get a new hobby (y/n).”

“Maybe,” you laughed. “Until I do you wanna go on a walk through the city.”

“(y/n), its raining.”

“And?”

“I will freeze to death out there.” Fyodor made it clear with his tone that he had no interest of going out in the storm that was going on outside. You sat up grabbing your jacket. “Ok I’ll walk over to your place and we’ll snuggle by the fireplace.” “Do not go out in the storm. You are going to get sick.” another sigh escaped his lips. “Too late.” You stepped outside pulling up your hood. Cold rain was coming down hard and the wind wasn’t making you any warmer either. “I’ll be there in like…. 15 minutes or something?”

“I’ll prepare tea and a warm blanket.” On the other end you could hear fyodor get up and start walking. Probably towards the kitchen. “What kind of tea should I make?” “Hmmm… do you have Earl Grey?” He rummaged around his cupboard for a few minutes. “Yup. A couple bags still.”

“That one is always good. Go with that.”

“Alright.” There were some cluttering noises on his end and him quietly humming to himself as he set it up. “How much tea are you making?” You asked, trying not to laugh at the loud clanging that came from the other end. “Hmm? Oh only one mug. I don’t drink much so I won’t be needing any more than that.” “Fyodor you suck.” “Well pardon me, but you’re the one who decided to invite yourself over to my living space.” You physically stopped for a second. “Excuse me. Did you refer to your house as your “living space?” “It’s not that odd of a phrase (y/n) don’t make it a big thing. If I remember correctly you’ve used the term ‘homie womie’ towards your own house so I will hear nothing from your end.” You held back a laugh at the memory of that joke. “Don’t disrespect homie womie Fyo. Its comfy womfy.” “That’s it. I’m locking the door. Have fun freezing out there.” “Fyo wait-”

… he hung up. You picked up the pace and started running. When you got there you could see him sitting inside by the window with a smug grin on his face as he locked eyes with you. You ran over and tried the door. He wasn’t kidding. He locked you out. “Fyodor you ass! Open the door it’s cold!” You hugged yourself trying to keep yourself warm. While looking at him pleadingly. “Say the magic word.” he taunted you and then took another drink of tea. You knew he was asking you to ask nicely and take back your insult but like the sarcastic motherfucker you were you had a funnier idea. “Please master ლ｜＾Д＾ლ｜let me in the housie wousie.” He paused. “I’m going to bed.” He got up and started walking off and you of course started laughing at your dumb joke. “FYO PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME OUT HERE ITS COLD!” You waited there about 10 minutes before he finally opened the door. “Come on (y/n)... lets get you warmed up…”

#bungou stray dogs #fyodor bsd #fyodor x reader #bungou stray dogs fyodor #bsd x reader #bungostraydogs x reader #bungou stray dogs fanfic

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pilliepollie · 4 years ago

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Day6 react to you "calling” another guy

Thanks so much for liking it! I actually had a lot of fun coming up with these scenarios! (LINK for those of you who haven’t read it)

Jae

It was late into the evening and you and Jae are finishing up cleaning after dinner. Being the cheeky devil you are you decided to pull a little prank. Walking over to the couch you sat down and pulled out your phone, “Hey what’s up JUSTIN! You haven’t called me in a while and I just wanna know how you been?... Good good, oh me? I just ate dinner, yeah not much happening right now.” Listening from the other side of the kitchen washing dishes, Jae begins to get confused since name he hasn’t heard ever, Justin? Who’s Justin?! Y/n’s never talked about him before. That Justin guy better not get near Y/n. “A date? At the movies? Tomorrow at 7-”, interrupting your lil act your boyfriend comes storming in, “HEY WAIT A MINUTE NOW WHO DOES THIS CHUMP THINK HE IS?!” You laugh hysterically, wheezing while trying to capture this moment of him in his angry stance, “Babe it was just a prank 😂🤳.” You turn around to show him your phone, there was nothing on the screen except a cute photo of you two. Speechless, he still even had his bright yellow dish gloves on, holding a sponge in one hand and a spoon on the other, “Oh you are so done. C’MERE YOU😤 ” The night ended with Jae chasing you around the house trying to catch you with his wet soapy gloves still on, “COME ON BABE YOU AT LEAST OWE ME A HUG AFTER ALL THAT!”

Sungjin

My goodness, this man would just stop in his tracks as he listens to your so called conversation with “Kyle”🤭. Good thing your back was facing him, otherwise your wide grin would’ve ruined the whole thing. You planned on doing this prank as soon as he gets home from work. Hearing the keys entering the lock and the knob turning, you proceed with the prank. “Haha yeah I remember that... Me? KYLE you’re asking me if I’m free tomorrow?” Being the protective boyfriend he is, Sungjin starts to get a little mad, “Alright I’ve had enough of this.” he murmured. Walking over to you, Sungjin lightly taps your shoulder and motions his hand to let you give him your phone to give “Kyle” a piece of his mind, “Hey Kyle, this is Sungjin, I’m not sure if you know me or are aware of our relationship but I’m Y/n’s BOYFRIEND, I repeat, B. F. BOYFRIEND. So run along now and go ask out someone else because she/he’s taken buddy.” Hearing you giggle from his passive aggressive response to “Kyle”, he turns to you with a confused face, “What? I can’t just let some random guy take my girl/boy can I?”, “Babe look at the screen.” Looking over to your phone, he sees the notes app being opened up with the words, “Who’s Kyle? Sounds like a made up guy to me ;)” Congrats, your boyfriend is now jaw dropped, and eyes widened 😲. “You little-”

Young K

The only member to catch onto your little joke in my opinion. But before finding out, he’d just stare at you like “ಠ_ಠ... So you just gonna let this happen huh?” In between your guys’ dinner, you decided to pull the prank, needless to say, saying another guy’s name was all it took for Younghyun to completely stop eating. With a mouth full of spaghetti he continues to listen, *What’s he saying? Is he asking you out?!* he mouthed. You shook your head, *Not telling*, I guess that’s what made him think that it could possibly be a prank, which it was. Being the annoying Brian he is and wanting to test his so called “theory”, he did what any boyfriend would do, or any annoying, crazy, and out of their mind kind of boyfriend would do. Thank god it wasn’t a real call because it would have been a major rollercoaster trying to explain this man’s actions. “OHH Y/N! GOD THAT FEELS SO GOOD!”, “YOUNGHYUN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”, “YEAH JUST LIKE THAT BABY MMM RIGHT THERE YEAH THAT’S THE SPOT!” At this point you’d have to stop, god you could see the smug written all over his face, “You think you can prank me like that? I don’t think so babe 😘.” Needless to say, never make him suspicious during any REAL phone calls otherwise you’ll be in royally big trouble 😅

Wonpil

I actually think Wonpil wouldn’t do anything, he’d just sit there not knowing what to do and kinda just wallow in sorrow around the house all day until you’d have to tell him that if was just a prank. “Babe what’s wrong? You’ve been walking around the house and looking like someone sucked the energy outta you.”, “Well I don’t know.. just leave me alone and go over to TYLER’S place because he asked you to come over and it SEEMS like he’s a funnier guy than me. >:( ” Lowkey about to be on the verge of tears until you started laughing over his jealous and bratty state, you walk over to him and squish his cheeks, making his lips pucker out in a cute way. “It was just a prank Wonpil, a skit, a one man show. I just wanted to see how you would react if it actually were to happen.” This poor boy would just stay quiet for a few seconds, trying to put 2 and 2 together 😂, “So Tyler isn’t a real person 🥺️?” “No babe he is not.” You and I and the whole myday community both know that Wonpil is the crybaby in the group so you best believe the waterworks will start flowing. “WAAAAAGHHHHHH”, making ugly sobbing noises with a running nose starting to form. “OH BABY NO I’M SORRY I WON’T DO THAT AGAIN I PROMISE!” Looks like you’re going to him a coddle him up with lots of kisses and I love yous because the poor man just went through a whole set of emotions within those few hours. Lesson learned, this man’s level of emotions will be the downfall of him someday.

Dowoon

Chilling on the couch, Dowoon has not given you any attention what so ever this whole evening, instead he focused all his attention on his Nintendo switch. “Woonieee~ can we cuddle 🥺️?” Only to hear his response a few seconds later, “Sorry Y/n I gotta finish these last levels, I’m so close to getting to gold tier.” A few minutes later~ You come back to the couch with your phone in hand and up to your ear, “Yeah I could eat... Chipotle sounds great... see you in 10..JOSH.” Pretty sure it took him a few minutes to comprehend what just happened, when he did his fingers slipped leading to the game console to fall on his face. He gets up and goes over to you, mouthing the words *Y/n what are you doing 😕.* Ignoring him, you proceed with your act, “Oh are you on your way right now?” purposely smiling. Dowoon snaps and grabs your phone, lifting his arm way up into the air so you wouldn’t be able to reach it. “HEY DOWOON GIVE IT B-”, “I’LL CUDDLE WITH YOU FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT AND GIVE YOU FULL ATTENTION JUST PLEASE DON’T GO SEE A RANDOM DUDE OK!”, “Oh ok 😏”, “Wait what.” Confused over your quick response, he brings his arm back down and looks down at the screen, “Google search: Ways to get your boyfriend’s attention... Number 1- Pretend you’re calling another man.” Dowoon looks up at you like he’s just seen a dead man, “Y/n I lost all my progress because of you.” Giggling, “Yes I know,” you say, skipping happily to the bedroom, “Now quit standing around it’s time for cuddles 😊.” Laughing in disbelief over your whole act, “You’re lucky I love you.”, “Yes yes I love you too now get your cute ass over here.”

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ellana-ravenwood · 5 years ago

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Thinking of young twenty something Bruce Wayne not long after he took Dick as his ward gives me life :

In the hope to forget about current canon that turned him into a mindless brute, I was thinking about Bruce’s early days as a “guardian”. About him, you know, learning how to take care of a kid and all, and trying not to rely entirely on Alfred all the time. Really wanting to be part of this child’s life and trying so hard, even if he was/is bound to make MANY mistakes, and for some reasons ...A (headcanon) scene came to my mind. So, let’s say it’s a few months after Bruce took young Richard Grayson in, and it’s the boy’s birthday.

Bruce doesn’t really know what to get him so he figures, he’s gonna take him to a mall and the kid can just choose whatever he wants (and I am a 100% sure he would buy him ANYTHING he points at, no matter what it is. “What, you want a book ? Huh, you want the...library ? All of it ? Ok *gets checkbook out*” hahahaha. But of course I’m sure Dickiebird would ask ridiculous things as a joke and to be a “smartass”, thinking B didn’t really mean it when he said “Choose whatever you want” and it was just a figure of speech...and be baffled he actually did totally mean it, and took all his requests seriously and then Dick would just end up asking for a normal gift, even feeling a little shy and wanting nothing too big while Bruce is like : “so...no library ?”). Now let’s say Bruce would...Lose sight of Dick in the crowd, after a second of inattention. I mean. The boy is curious and you know, kids wander off all the time, and are quick doing it. I guess where I’m getting at is :

Imagine Bruce Wayne, charming billionaire always in control of his emotions, smooth as fuck and the actual BATMAN Bruce Wayne, screaming “DICK” very loudly at everyone, in every aisle of every shop, all around a huge mall, his voice growing louder as he searches for his boy desperately, unable to think straight and rationally ! Hahaha... Mm. It sounded funnier in my head ? Oh well.

Of course he’d find Dick who like, walked in an arcade and was looking, very interested, at all the video games they had. But then when he wanted to ask Bruce for a quarter he realized he didn’t follow him and Dick’s parents always told him to “stay where he was” when he got lost...So he stayed there, waiting for Bruce. When Bruce finally found him, after screaming “DICK” frantically everywhere for a while = first genuine loving hug + Bruce realizing that being a dad isn’t gonna be that easy (and would 10/10 die for the boy). Pretty certain after that, an “Arcade room” opened in Wayne Manor haha.

I’m also sure “that time you lost me in the mall” is an event Dick brings up often when he wants to annoy Bruce, and he does it particularly when he’s trying to have something and Bruce says “no”. Know what I mean ? Guilt tripping haha. Also telling the story of that time Bruce yelled “Dick” everywhere, and scared old ladies who thought he was a crazy lewd young man, to people like Clark Kent, giving them a little leverage on the Batman (it’s only fair haha... none of them use that knowledge right anyway, according to Dick).

PS : I’m sure he lost all of them at some point hahaha : Jason “disappeared in a wave of happy fans when Bruce took him to a baseball game and the Gotham’s Knights won, and the boy got separated from his dad in the thrill of it all, which resulted in an extremely panicked Bruce who ended up finding him on some hooligan’s shoulders screaming that the other team sucked (and not scolding him because said other team was Metropolis’ one)” Todd. Cass “ran after a firefly in the park, because it was beautiful, and scared her father to death when he couldn’t find her anywhere and he was panicking about what happened and getting paranoid thinking something from her past caught up to her, only to find her sitting next to a tree, surrounded by fireflies” Cain. Tim “so tiny that it was like he got eaten by the crowd at a charity event’s entrance, and after the confusion of it all and Bruce feeling like he was loosing his mind at the thought that maybe someone took advantage of this to kidnap his boy (famed Wayne heir after all), found the kid eating “hors d’oeuvres” on the lap of some beautiful model...”Hi Bruce !” haha” Drake. Damian “apparently lost me for the first ten years of my life” Wayne. Hahaha.

Anyway just a quick post not to take too seriously. I just like to think about random small scenes that could’ve happened in the Batfam’s “domestic” (or vigilante really) life, as I just love them all so much <3.

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justphilia · 5 years ago

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Aubade is a great fic; too bad it’s possibly dead.

Been a while since I did a long long babble on a fic I like, and lately, I’ve been rereading a few fics to fuel my entertainment. I low key notice how rare it is to find a multi-chaptered fic for Ritshou that doesn’t have Terumob as main, which is really funky honestly.

I talked about Aubade once, in my list of incomplete fanfics I missed back in like February. But it’s so good, I’m gonna make a long post about it lmao.

Even though this fic has literally taken the number one ranking in my favorites list, it only took today for me to bookmark it in my ao3 (mostly because I’ve been waiting it for it to be completed before doing so.)

And generally, anything that I bookmark on ao3 is something I’ve cried about at least once, whether it’s because of the story or because I love the story too much. So anyways,

Aubade by Ravenesta is a M rated Ritshou fic centered around Ritsu, who moves in with Shou after Shou declared he was going to stay in Japan for good.

They buy an apartment together near Ritsu’s university and go on a shopping spree in IKEA for furniture and such, which is as chaotic as it doesn’t sound. The tension between them is real and it’s there, so much so you just want them to get together already sometimes.

I’ve read this fic for a total of 4 times, and I will keep rereading it until the day I die. If you asked me what would come to mind if I thought about Ritshou, it would be the fic’s summary;

My dove, my doe, I love you so I cannot, will not, let you go

Ritsu and Shou have been orbiting around each other ever since they were thirteen years old. Really, something like this was inevitable.

It’s so simple and sweet, and somehow, without fail, every time this summary (specifically the poem) comes to mind, I would get teary eyed. Even now I’m getting :’( over the poem, just because it literally speaks Ritshou to me.

The fic starts off with Ritsu heading back home by train to Seasoning City during his summer break from college in Grain City. It’s written in a way where it’s very easy for you to visualize the scenario of Ritsu waiting for the train to come while holding a cup of cheap coffee.

It’s realistically detailed too, going as far as to include little quirks about Ritsu and the people around him (stranger or not).

Both Shou and Shigeo gets introduced during a phone texting scene, where you can easily tell their personality was conveyed right through the way they message Ritsu. Shigeo adds little face emoticons with caring and sweet messages, and Shou shortens his words to ‘u’ and ‘ur’ with chaotic spacings between words and many exclamation marks.

Even Ritsu has his own way of messaging, always adding punctuation to his sentences.

Later on, after Ritsu arrives in Seasoning City, he’s picked up by Shigeo and Teru, who are already a couple in this fic, and you can tell how much Ritsu misses his home.

Teru is such a beautiful mess in this fic, everything about him is dramatic and overtop, going from his haircut to his little diet habits, and he’s still playful with Ritsu. The ‘Little Brother’ nickname will never go away.

(Also, at some point, Ritsu makes a face immaturely after seeing Shigeo drop a kiss on Teru’s head and I think that was pretty funny)

(Also also, they all call Reigen ‘Dad’. Which is hecking adorable, but it did confuse me at some point because Ritsu named Reigen’s contact as Dad and I legitimately thought that was Ritsu’s actual dad until later.)

Fast forward after Ritsu gets a haircut from Teru in Spirits and Such. Pretty funny considering how Reigen did the same thing to Serizawa in Season 2, but I’m mildly sure Serizawa doesn’t exist in this fic so it was probably a coincidence.

So they’re going shopping and Ritsu gets another text from Shou, because Shou isn’t in town, or at least, that was what we were led to believe, until he does pop up.

And it wouldn’t be Shou if his appearance isn’t random, so of course his first line is to comment on Kiwis looking like balls.

Ritsu, being Ritsu, responds by calling Shou an asshole and proceeds to be conflicted between wanting to punch Teru, because he knew all along, or wanting to hug Shou, because Ritsu misses him so much. He goes for the latter.

Cue Shou and Ritsu hanging out because Shigeo and Teru had to go save Reigen from a spirit job, and their interaction is just so Ritshou it makes you feel fuzzy inside y’know? Because it’s just...friends being friends.

Ok so fast forward again, and they’re sitting around in Ritsu’s room and here’s where the plot begins:

Shou, sleepily, declares he wants them to live together, before suddenly falling asleep.

And Ritsu panics because he can’t tell if he’s serious or just sleep drunk. So he consults Teru to confirm this, who answers that, yes, Shou was being serious, and this just makes Ritsu panic even more because wow he did not expect that and mostly because he can’t afford an apartment.

Shou, being the rich boy he is, offers to settle the payment, because of course he would.

Ritsu weighs his options in his head and convinces himself that he’ll do it. So that’s what they do. They make a little list, which is funny and adorable, and start scouting for apartments online.

Fast forward yet again and Ritsu’s plan was to first gather his shit from his dorm room, crash there for a bit, before fully moving into the new apartment.

Reigen, Teru, and Shigeo are seeing the two off at the train station, and Reigen being Reigen, he’s all double checking that Ritsu has all his shit and it’s just such a dad moment.

Most of their luggage is Shou’s because Ritsu packs light and most of his things are at the dorm, and I brought this up because of this scene:

“It’s my oldest friend!” Shou had argued, trying to wrestle it from Ritsu’s hands. “Six years I have known you, Suzuki, and never once has there been a working bulb in this lamp.”

We get a few more cute scenes of Shou running around and being playful before being tired out and falling asleep on the train, and there’s this tender moment where Shou’s snuggling on Ritsu’s jacket, which the latter had taken off early, and he makes a comment saying how it smells like Ritsu which just baffles the only. It’s...nice, makes me fluffy.

Anyways they reach Ritsu’s dorm to crash and pack, and they have this scene where Shou gets a little emotional about how organized Ritsu is, and he genuinely couldn’t believe how Ritsu is making this work.

So! Chapter 6, alright! And it’s the apartment viewing chapter, because of course they need to view apartments before moving in (which is as fun as it sounds).

They view 3 apartments, with the third try being the charm;

Apartment 1 fucking sucks! And Ritsu only chose this because he wanted to get a feel of how apartment viewing works, and you gotta hand it to him for thinking ahead. So no matter what, he knows he won’t be buying this apartment.

Apartment 2 was actually pretty decent, the landlord, however, was not. Throughout this scene, she is constantly trying to get into Ritsu’s space, and you don’t exactly know what’s up until the very end where she gets really close. Shou saves Ritsu in the end by dragging him away and making it known that, “THIS IS MY MAN DO NOT TOUCH.” And makes an enemy out of her, so big whoops.

Apartment 3 is kinda awkward but workable, with their landlord being the sweetest man to walk this earth. His kids were born on the viewing day, which made him a little late, though Ritsu finds in understandable. After the viewing, Ritsu asks if they can crash at the apartment even though they haven’t actually gotten it yet, and the man’s like, “Don’t worry, you’re gonna live here anyways so might as well crash here now!” Protect this man.

Next scene we have Ritsu finally moving out of his dorm and into the apartment with Shou and after getting a few groceries, they finally decide they should head to IKEA for furniture. It’s a pretty funny scene because everyone knows IKEA is an equivalent to a bloody maze, so you get to watch them play around in the display rooms and climbing into beds and getting lost.

And it’s funnier because this is the Shou’s first time stepping foot into an IKEA, and Ritsu makes fun of him for it briefly. Shou gets back at him later on when they’re playing around in a bathroom display room.

he doesn’t quite notice where Shou’s wandered off to until he turns around from a bathroom sink and spots him in a shower stall, calling him over with a wave of his hand. Ritsu steps inside, ducking his head under the bar for the shower curtain

He almost startles when Shou reaches over and pulls the shower curtain closed with a flourish, leaving them enclosed in the shower stall, somehow still mysteriously lit by no lamp that Ritsu can see. He shoots Shou a questioning look, only to snort when Shou leans back against the shower wall, a hand over his heart and eyelashes fluttering.

“Why, Mister Kageyama,” he says, all false coquettishness, “Cornering a young girl like me alone in a place like this? How scandalous.”

He considers giving Shou the reaction he wants, a laugh and a shove on the shoulder and possibly a comment about exactly how classy making out in an IKEA shower stall is, but the reaction he’d gotten earlier was too good to resist playing along with the joke.

He shamelessly uses his height advantage when he steps into Shou’s space, one leg between Shou’s and a hand propped casually on the wall beside his head. He leans down so that their noses are almost touching, and says low, “Well with you standing here all gorgeous like this, how could I resist?”

It’s pathetic joke flirting, some cheesy disaster line out of every old black and white movie he’s ever watched with his mother, so he doesn’t quite expect it when Shou seems to freeze, eyes wide and locked onto Ritsu’s. It’s only for a few seconds, a barely noticeable pause before Shou’s howling with laughter as he pushes past him out of the shower, but Ritsu gets caught on it, on the hitch he thought he’d heard in Shou’s breath, on the way he feels oddly wired, like his skin is buzzing from the proximity, and what the fuck had just happened?

This scene, ladies and gentlemen, had me sold on the fic. Starting with how Shou had playfully dragged Ritsu into the display shower in an attempt to tease Ritsu, only to be surprised that Ritsu had played along because, according to Ritsu, the raven would usually just laugh and dismiss the joke as a joke.

You can literally see that’s where the subtle feelings come out, where their friendship suddenly moves a bit faster into something more. It’s a slowburn for a reason, because their relationship happens really slow, so it’s moments like these that makes you really warm inside.

We come to a near end to the fic from here, which includes a scene where Shou cooks and Ritsu has a wet dream that’s pretty brief tbh and nothing too explicit don’t worry. Then there’s some scenes where Ritsu’s doing school things and Shou’s being Shou in the kitchen and everywhere.

It slows to a stop after the iconic Shou and Ritsu flies scene, because we’re all suckers for Ritsu trusting Shou that he won’t drop him when they fly.

SO! You can pretty much get the idea of how the fic will end/go from there since the major arc scene has been settled (moving in together). And frankly, if Ravenesta was to stop the fic on chapter 9, I don’t think we’ll lose too much since the only thing we didn’t get is a conclusion to the slowburn.

If you’ve read up to here, thanks for indulging me I suppose. I mostly write little reviews for my own sake since I really talk too much and it’s very hard to collect my thoughts at times.

Is this a fic I would recommend? Most definitely yes, it’s lovely, it’s well written, it’s captivating. It is the embodiment of Ritshou’s romance, and I really wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #kageyama ritsu #suzuki shou #ritshou #shouritsu #fanfic babbles

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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Ok thoughts on Six on Broadway fresh out of the theater (2/16; 3PM show):

First and most importantly it totally lived up to the hype that I've been trying and failing to not build up in my head since last year. And this might be the hypest audience I've ever been in. Everyone in line was talking like they already knew what was up and I saw a good amount of people in like crowns and space buns and stuff. And every single time a Queen got burned during the show, everyone “OOOOOOH”-ed like we were on Wild ‘N Out or something.

While I was in line, I’m 95% sure I saw Toby Marlow sprint past me and then return 10 minutes later with a slice of pizza.

I got a pin and I asked the dude for an Aragon pin and he was like, "Is that queen of the castle?" Like lol buddy welcome to your first weekend working at Six.

Before the show starts, they play pop songs but I assume with the keyboard set to organ or harpsichord sounds. The two songs I recognized were Truth Hurts and Havana.

If you’re here looking for intel on the seating situation, I had seats second from the top and way to the left and I still saw everything fine (and I am not a tall person) so I wouldn’t worry too much about where you’re sitting.

Like I said before, it's such a hype show. Like even if you've heard the soundtrack or seen the show through ~other means~ I promise you're not ready.

Right when the show starts, they project out these Tudor rose projections into the audience which is a nice touch. It’s such a nice looking set in general with the lights in the back and the band up on stage. I really like how highlighted the band members are in this show as compared to other shows I’ve seen. It’s a hard job and I bet it’s nice to get the props.

“Live in Consort” is the best pun in Six because it’s a reach but said with such confidence that you have to give to to her.

"Donde esta my crown?" is already a funny line but it’s even funnier when you picture two British 20-somethings conceiving of the line.

Any time Aragon waves at the crowd, which is a lot, she Princess Diary waves which I love.

A lot of people have had a lot to say about the American accents and it's honestly ridiculous. Like, we're already taking these historical figures so out of their original context that could hardly be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Like, Kathrine Howard can sing a Brittney Spears song but it has to be in a British accent? Come on. And I actually think some songs (like No Way and Get Down in particular) sound a little more natural in an American accent considering the artists they’re taking inspiration from.

I can’t believe they do this show without a break. This is like 90 minutes of pure cardio. It’s, “I’m getting exhausted watching you,” choreo. They didn’t stagedoor after and, tbh, good. Go lay down before the 8pm show please. That’s 100% what I’d be doing.

I have heard the Anne Boleyn intro before but it’s a million times funnier watching her actively peace out as she’s being talked about and then take a selfie and quickly stash her phone before the song starts.

They really scrubbed as many of the “mate”s out of the show as possible which I get but I feel like I would have just left them alone since it’s such a common British-ism that I feel like people know.

I was led to believe that in “Wearing Yellow to a Funeral,” Anne is cut off from calling Aragon a massive bitch but lol that was def a hard C and not a B they stopped her after.

“What a weekend,” is also a killer line imo.

Still wild that Elizabeth is never mentioned in this show except indirectly when Anne says when she had a daughter Henry killed her.

Heart of Stone has def grown on me since I first heard it and Abby Mueller is obv amazing but it’s still weird to hear after a song about how this dude literally decapitated someone (“You’ve got a good heart?” Jane, what? Citation needed) and I think it’s good that it’s basically undercut immediately by the, “Severed head,” line by Anne. Also, I lowkey spent most of the song preparing for the cut to Haus of Holbein.

I was not prepared for the cut to Haus of Holbein.

Literally, I could not wipe the stupid grin off my face during the entirety of Cleves’ pre-HoH speech because I knew exactly the nonsense that was about to happen and it still surpassed my expectations.

If I didn’t already know that Boleyn’s line was, “the whole of the Holy Roman Empire,” there is no way I would have understood any of that. The German accents during that scene truly do sound like they were told, “Do literally whatever,” and it’s so funny.

Cleves’ throne rising out of the stage so she can sit in it is such a Moment.

Brittney Mack’s operatic riff or whatever it’s called during the slow-mo part of Get Down is so, so, so fill the room amazing. Man it was so good. Also, I 100% did not realize that on the “take my fur” line, they breakaway rip her little jacket off and it’s this cool sparkly bodice piece under. Based on audience reaction, neither did they.

I feel like everyone always talks about Boleyn’s energy in this show and they should because they’re right but--speaking for the Broadway cast--she’s for sure second to Cleves in terms of raw energy.

During the roast, I think to Aragon, Howard strokes her cheek with the back of her hand which is super funny, as is her shaking her fists at the sky after the, “When will justice be served,” line to Jane.

Not a Surprise: I also Wasn’t Ready for All You Wanna Do.

AYWD is the song I was most curious to see audience reaction to (w/ HoH being a close second) because, you know, it’s an ostensibly fun song except that it’s awful. But I think the mood of the audience kinda followed Howard’s. When she was joking around, everyone kinda felt like they had permission to joke around too--like there’s a part in the choreo that happens more than once where they put her hands on her and she shrugs them off and the first time it happened there was a laugh but when it happened again during the third verse when she’s clearly Over It and dancing in a really rote and exhausted way, no laugh.

(Sidenote: The juxtaposition of Cleves and Howard--arguably the most and least successful Queens--is always to interesting to me. The placement of such a “I’m so Dope,” song next to a, “My life was trash,” song. And, now having seen it, there’s a part in the Get Down choreo where all the other queens have their hands all over Cleves in a hyping her up kinda way and, as, in contrast, Howard is getting touched constantly in AYWD and it’s Bad.)

(Double sidenote: During verse four of AYWD, there’s a part where everyone walks in front of Howard and they duck so they don’t block her and Andrea like basically didn’t duck at all. It was lowkey super funny).

Anyway, the breakdown was rough. By which I mean extremely good but rough to listen to. Like, I know it’s a part of the song so I knew it was coming but I’m so used to the studio version that listening to her full on sob through the last chorus was A Lot. You could feel the air sucked out of the room. Huge props to Sam Pauly.

So, iirc, in the West End version of the show, post Howard’s song is the fight which dissolves into literal hair pulling/having to break people up. In this version, it doesn’t got that far. They get to comparing miscarriages and the Cleves breaks it up and tells Parr it’s her turn. Then, she gets an intro to an upbeat sounding song that we never actually hear because she can’t bring herself to sing it. Then she goes into the same (or at least a similar) speech about, “We shouldn’t do this,” which leads into IDNYL.

When Katherine does the, “Katherine de Valois, I mean I don’t know,” line, Cleves looks at her like, “Bitch what?”

When Boleyn gives the, “Everyone notices that Jane can’t dance,” line, I didn’t catch Jane’s reaction like I wanted to because Aragon immediately breaks into a sidebar with her like, “Right? That’s totally true.”

During Jane’s verse in Six, everyone is actually pretty down with the Tudor Von Trapps line and then she says Royaling Stones and loses everyone.

I didn’t realize that they did the same couples choreo during the Six that they do for Ex-Wives but I like that a lot. Very circular.

It is extremely hard to not sing during a show like Six, especially once you’ve conditioned yourself for the past six or so month to start spitting out lyrics the second you hear any of these songs start. I really really hope they have Sing-A-Long tix at some point because I am willing to shell out for that and I think a lot of people in that audience would have as well.

Some random dude at a light say me holding my playbills and asked how I liked the show because he’d good things which, if an omen for the show’s prospects, is a good one. Opening weekend is probably not a fantastic gauge of show longevity because of course all of the hypest fans would be out now but if it can keep up this energy then man they’re gonna have a hit (well, a further hit).

#six the musical #six broadway #personal #if you have questions feel free to hit me up but my musical memory is so bad. i just internalize the experience and then forget the details

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years ago

Text

Skam France season 3, episode 2 reaction

Skam France is really leveling up

Eliott Demaury, raccoon enthusiast is the best creative decision they’ve ever made

Episode 2

Clip 1 - surejan.gif

Is the B-roll or w/e at the start of the clip the same place Lucas was brooding in the first clip of the season? It’s probably reading too much into it but I like that those two dudes on the bench are there for a reason, like mirroring Lucas and Eliott at the end of the last episode, sitting with space between them (no Chloé in the middle, though).

Lucas scrolls through his phone looking for Eliott. He doesn’t find him, but he does find a friend request from Chloé, which he accepts after a moment’s hesitation. Son, she’s going to take that as a marriage proposal.

Mika plops down beside him and nags Lucas about the rent. Now that Manon’s parents are no longer financing Lucas’ rent, seems like he’s behind. Can I just mention that Mika and Lucas look like they could be related? I know it is a running Skam fandom joke that the Evak couples look related (sometimes said with underlying homophobia IMO BUT I’m not going to go into that rant now) and I’ve seen people say Lucas and Eliott look similar, but Lucas and Mika are the ones who stick out the most to me. Actually, Lisa too. If you told me that this was an apartment of like ... three siblings being gay and cranky at each other, I would buy it.

Notifications are going off on Mika’s phone. It’s because Mika changed his profile pic, which he helpfully shows to Lucas/the viewers - I mean, I can get why his phone is blowing up, not gonna lie. No dick from what I can see, but you know. Suggestive. Pubes are clearly visible.

Lucas is like, I don’t want to see that! Well, I don’t think Lucas objects to naked men but I believe him in this instance because Mika is fulfilling the big brother role. Mika teases him about seeing what a man’s body looks like. Don’t worry Mika, in like a month Lucas is going to have very thorough knowledge of what a man’s body looks like.

Mika then asks for Lucas’ advice on a straight dude who wants a blowjob. Does he want it for himself or to do it to Mika? He helpfully imitates a blowjob that freaks out Lucas. I mean, it kinda freaks me out, I had war flashbacks to that grapefruit technique video. (If you have not seen that video, all I’m going to say that it is highly NSFW, not to be watched in public or if you have a heart condition, and I’m sorry.)

Mika is like, if you want to suck dick, you’re not that straight. Lucas is like, well, maybe he wants to try. Maybe that guy is just curious! HMMM Lucas, interesting train of thought. I’m sure you have no personal investment in this debate whatsoever. Mika helpfully shows Lucas’ a picture of the “curious” guy’s butthole. That Mika, being so helpful today.

Lucas gets up because he doesn’t want to spend his weekend looking at naked guys. Well, maybe not guys, plural. Again, in about a month you’re going to look back on that comment and laugh, bro.

Mika and Lisa agree that Manon was funnier. Lmao, I kinda love how they’re so unimpressed with Lucas.

Clip 2 - Light and dark

Lucas walks into school on Monday morning and … goes through an attendance book? He didn’t even hesitate, this guy does not give a single shit, does he? He’s just going to grab love by the balls. The camera puts us in Lucas’ POV by focusing from top to bottom like it’s imitating Lucas scanning the list, which is a good detail. Skam France had some POV issues I didn’t care for in previous seasons so this feels more carefully thought out.

Just as I’m noticing Raptor Alex’s name above Eliott’s, the man himself appears. Oh yeah, they’re supposed to be pals now. They have a short conversation where Lucas is like, WHOOPS, silly me taking the wrong book! When Alex asks for the register, Lucas snakes out and distracts him by congratulating Alex on him and Emma. Alex is like, “Huh? Did Emma tell you that?” Well, they were obviously making out at the party and hanging out together in their IG stories, so while it’s maybe an assumption that they are 100% a couple, there’s obviously something going on between them.

I’ve never really been like ... dying for Isak/P-Chris friendship or interaction post-S2, although I think it could have been interesting. Plus, Chris had graduated by S3 so there weren’t as many opportunities for them to interact. But it’s a nice follow-up here since Raptor Alex is still in school with them. (Was he supposed to graduate along with Charles last year, though? I totally forgot. It feels like those seasons aired forever ago.)

Bell rings, Lucas scampers off with the register. I was like, “Wait, did he even put it back?” until Alex calls after him for it, lmao. I like to imagine that it’s just gone forever, a casualty of love.

In the classroom, Lucas looks up Eliott on his phone. Unlike Isak, he has the wisdom to plug in earbuds before listening to anything.

He’s looking at a crowdfunding page for a project of Eliott’s. It’s noted that the project closed and that the funding was not reached, and that detail punched a hole in my heart. Instant poignancy, instant affection for Eliott. We don’t know the circumstances yet of why he didn’t meet his goal, and if it was at all related to his manic/depressive episodes - perhaps a nice bit of foreshadowing if it turns out they are related - but it’s automatically sympathetic to learn someone had a dream that went unfulfilled.

In a video, Eliott is talking about his project - a film called Polaris, about two characters and a tunnel. One is a boy, and one is not specified, (a boy, a girl, a creature) which I think is hinting at Elliott’s pansexuality, that he’s okay with any gender, it doesn’t matter to him. The second character does not leave the tunnel, because they are afraid of the light, and they meet the boy, who’s afraid of the dark. They can’t live in each other’s worlds so they chat at the border without ever seeing each other. They talk and fall in love but never meet until one of them decides to conquer their fears and go to the other’s world.

So there’s a lot of obvious symbolism here. Tbh, it’s pretty on the nose and I wish they’d toned it down just a smidge, since this is like … probably exactly what is going to happen with them for either their first kiss or their version of O Helga Natt (or both), but I still appreciate the effort a lot and am eager to see it in action. This is what I wanted from S3 remakes, for each of them to develop their own symbolism that fits their characters, because Isak and Even’s symbolism is so specific to them, their names and their story, that you inherently lose something when you transplant it to other versions of them. The concept of rebirth is really beautiful in a gay love story about coming out and being born as one’s authentic self; I think the idea of light and darkness being used in a similar way - especially in terms of a coming out narrative, being in darkness, coming into the light - could also be beautiful, and of course there are the ideas of having to be brave in order to live with each other, very relevant for an m/m couple in a homophobic society and for someone like Eliott who would be afraid to get close to someone due to his mental illness. It also works in the sense that neither of the characters in the film see each other until they get over their fears - both Lucas and Eliott have baggage and neither will really “see” or understand each other truly until they confront their respective issues.

Right now it seems like Eliott would be the one in the tunnel and Lucas is the one who’s afraid of the dark, and Lucas is going to have to leave his world to be with Eliott. Because well, this is supposed to be Lucas’ story, and the name “Lucas” is associated with light, or meaning “light-giver” or something similar. We know that one episode is called “the boy who was afraid of the dark” and that’s probably referring to Lucas since it’s his POV. At this point in the story, too, we aren’t supposed to know that Eliott is mentally ill, we don’t know he’s struggling, so we might also think that it’ll all be on Lucas to change in order for them to be together. But I think it’s also plausible that maybe they’ll switch roles over the course of the season, they both take turns in the light and in the dark. Maybe Lucas steps into the dark for the first kiss, conquering what he’s afraid of, then he steps into the light for the O Helga Natt equivalent. Or Lucas steps into the dark for the kiss, Eliott must step into the light for O Helga Natt. There are many ways it could go. But this is also what I like about them changing the symbolism, it leads to this kind of speculation.

I’d like to see Lucas and Eliott being a little more strongly contrasted, too, sort of like they’re ... polar opposites, eh? OK, not that corny and not that they need to be so different that they can’t get along. I just think it’d be interesting with the light and dark metaphor to have them be clearly different in some ways, personality-wise, arc-wise. I want to see their separate worlds highlighted at some point.

Also want to mention that you could perhaps apply this imagery to certain scenes already, like in the first clip of the season you had Lucas in the daytime, light reflecting off the water and through the trees, but he’s not really comfortable there, he’s alone and detached. Later that night, Lucas making out with Chloé in the hallway sort of put him in shadow (or that might be Skam France’s lighting in general, IDK). Might be a reach but it’d be interesting if those choices stacked up throughout the season and reflected the larger metaphor, when we see who’s playing what role.

Polaris itself is “the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor” so that’s another nice allusion to light in itself.

Imane shows up and scares the bejesus out of Lucas. She was going to give him the weed, but he ruined it by being a weenie. However, he redeems himself by expressing interest in the common room project and saying he’ll be at the next meeting. I wonder what changed his mind? Daphne’s enthusiasm? No matter, Imane must see some progress in Lucas, like he needs a reward for good behavior, because she decides to give him back the weed.

He’s grateful, but the teacher sees their drug exchange and wants to know what’s going on. When she asks to see what’s under the table, Imane whips out some tampons and says Lucas brought them to her. LMAO, that’s pretty funny.

She calls out the teacher for humiliating her in front of everyone, which is also funny, although I kind of feel bad for that teacher, lol. We haven’t seen her be a racist yet like Isak and Sana’s teacher, and I mean ... her students were passing drugs under the table, she wasn’t wrong about them being shady.

Arthur and Alexia laugh at them in the background. I want to know what’s going on over at that table! We can have two pairs of classroom buddies!

Lucas and Imane both laugh so that’s really the kickoff to their friendship. Tampons: saving the day, bringing people together. Tampax should make it into a commercial.

Clip 3 - Questionnaires

It’s the common room meeting, just the girl squad and Lucas, and they’re going over the questionnaires that people filled out. The consensus is that the common room sucks, and people make dirty comments when anonymous (literally the least surprising thing ever if you have ever seen a bathroom stall or any comments section on the Internet).

Daphne kicks out Emma when she gets a phone call and Lucas laughs along with the others. He seems way happier and more comfortable with the girl squad than with anyone else so far, and I think a lot of that is because there isn’t the pressure to maintain a typical hetero fuckboy persona with them as with the boy squad. They’re just girls engaging on a dorky project, so he can just relax.

Alex reads another questionnaire and the answers are all about Daphne. Lucas confirms that the phone number on the page is Basile’s. Daphne looks done with it, she’s caught him staring and drooling, she doesn’t get why he’s into her all of a sudden. Man, I’m already sick of Basile, he’s like Magnus from hell. Especially because Daphne is so not into it, and the fact that she’s noticed him salivating him over her makes it worse. I think it’s for comic relief but it quickly went to creepy territory, and I hate that they’ll likely hook up at some point. Please please don’t go there.

A lot of the questionnaires mention they dislike the mural, so I bet they’ll paint another one at some point, and I bet Eliott will have an idea that they use, being the artsy guy he is. Also, everyone wants them to throw a party so I’m sure that’ll be the setup for either the neon party or the Christmas party (whatever takes the place of those scenes).

Lucas reads another questionnaire that requests a vending machine (reasonable) and a nudist day once a month (not so reasonable) and I was gonna say it was Eliott’s form, because of the vending machine connection and probably some painful foreshadowing toward the hotel naked incident, but actually it’s Alexia’s form, LMAO. She wants the eye candy of naked guys and girls. A nice way to integrate her bisexuality since she’s into naked guys and girls.

I notice that Alexia has a little rainbow patch on her jeans, so I’m hoping that they’ve taken feedback from earlier seasons and will more directly address her sexuality. I know her ex Clara has been listed in the credits, so that’s very promising. I hope they keep it up and maybe Lucas can connect with her over being LGBT, well, G and B, respectively.

Emma comes back and complains that Alex thinks she’s been telling people they’ve been going out when they’re just hooking up, but Lucas does not care (even though he is responsible for giving Alex that impression) because Eliott walks by the window. Lucas hauls ass out of there and goes out to find him - give him some credit, Lucas is being pretty upfront about approaching Eliott, or going after what he wants so far. What is that gonna end up meaning to his overall character arc? I’m fine with that approach to Lucas’ character, I’m just curious how it will affect his overall characterization from beginning to end. Because Isak wasn’t a total wallflower, he did pursue Even in his own way, but I felt like because he also could be reserved and shy about Even, it was narratively significant when he took certain steps for clear reasons to his personal growth. (I think Lucas and Isak are maybe not all that different about their approaches so far, just slight ways that make it seem Lucas is bolder - like going up to Eliott at the vending machine himself, grabbing the register instead of walking by a list, running after Eliott instead of standing still and locking eyes with him).

Before Lucas can go stalking, he runs into the boy squad. Yann is like, were you in the common room? Spending a lot of time with the girls, eh? Like is he just being a dick about that, because Lucas is choosing the girls over the boy squad, or does he think Lucas wants to hook up with one of those girls? Or is this more about the common room project seeming stupid to him?

Of course Basile has to ask about whether Daphne is thinking about him, GOD please shut him up. Arthur tells him Daphne doesn’t care about him. The hero we need.

Lucas looks around the courtyard but no Eliott in sight. ur boys cockblocked u, bro

Chloé and Maria come up and invite the boys to their party on Friday. Maria’s fucking cute when she’s not puking, she does a little dance with the invitation. Lucas tries to say they have plans but Arthur’s like, no we don’t! We’re coming! No, Arthur, don’t say that, you know Basile is going to be a creep about it.

The squad gangs up on Lucas for saying no, because you’re always supposed to say yes to partying with girls, and it’s played for laughs with their reactions and stuff but really it is shitty how these guys don’t want to listen to their friend. I mean, let’s say situations were reversed and Lucas was a girl who said “this guy is stalking me.” We’d all be like, get away from that dude, you don’t have to spend time with him, right? Or we’d hope that girl’s friends would say so.

Lucas says Chloé has been clinging to him and it’s stressing him out, and Arthur’s like, I don’t get you, she’s into you, but you’re stressing out? Lucas is clearly stressed by this conversation and that he can’t tell the boys what’s up. All that pressure to like girls is draining him.

I think it is important to keep in mind that Isak also felt isolated from the boy squad at this point in the story, for similar reasons: he had a big secret that he couldn’t tell them, and he felt like he had to like girls to fit in with them, and they put pressure on him to hook up with girls, talk about girls, go to parties with girls. What I think is the big difference, and why it feels perhaps more noticeable with Lucas, is that Isak didn’t have the interaction with the girl squad other than Sana blackmailing him and Vilde annoying him, so we didn’t see him have this friendly outlet where he’s relaxed. In fact, the first time in his season we see him really start to relax and be himself is with Even. I think that contrast was valuable toward establishing Isak’s connection with Even, showing Even as someone who brings Isak out of his shell. But with Lucas, first he is able to laugh together with Imane - Isak and Sana had a moment but they weren’t like giggling together after Isak told off the racist teacher - and second he seems to be having a good time at the common room meeting. Then he goes to the boy squad and it immediately becomes tense. However, I don’t have a huge problem with Lucas laughing a bit with the girl squad here. It makes him seem somewhat less socially isolated, since he seems relaxed with them (even if this isn’t the deepest or most intimate interaction), but it still provides contrast to his interaction with his male friends. It would be nice if the story highlighted this a little more later on, as to why Lucas might feel more comfortable with the girl squad and not the boys when he’s closeted.

Clip 4 - Polaris

At home, Lucas watches the animated storyboard for Eliott’s Polaris video. A guy and another person of ambiguous gender meet just outside the tunnel in the rain and finally kiss.

I like that Lucas got to watch the project itself (or a storyboard of it) and be invested in it. That’s something I loved about Isak watching Even’s video and then watching R+J - he got to fall for Even watching him be funny and strange talking about his Cap/Putin video, and then he got to watch a movie that Even loved and that awakened these very emotional parts of himself. He got to see a great love in action and wish for that for himself, he got a glimpse of Even’s soul from the art Even loves. Lucas does something similar here in that he gets a glimpse of Eliott’s creative mind, something very personal, and fall for him further, and Eliott’s video is also about great love that Lucas feels that he wants in his own life, it chips away at that facade he’s put up, the lie he’s living. Good adaptation.

The only thing is I suspect that their first kiss or O Helga Natt is probably going to go heavily like that storyboard, if not exactly, which will likely be beautiful, but again, slightly on the nose for me. To be fair, obviously Isak and Even’s first kiss imitated Romeo + Juliet closely; I guess this being Eliott’s own creation/vision vs Even’s fanboying a film by his favorite director makes it a little more OTT, like if a scene from a novel I’d written came into my life, I’d feel weird and self-conscious about it. But that’s just me! I can also see why it’d matter to Eliott, to take this longing and make it a reality. But I think I’d rather just see him make his actual film, accomplish his passion project, than to recreate it in his own life. Maybe because, filming a beautiful love story and falling in love in real life fulfill two different parts of one’s self - one’s artistic creations are not substitutes for one’s social connections and vice versa - and Eliott’s unfunded film is a thing on its own that’s very poignant and begs to be carried to completion. Does that make sense? IDK, I’d like those big scenes to have similar themes and imagery but not like his storyboard come exactly to life. We’ll see how it goes.

I think it’s a little murky why Lucas searches for the “gay chat” - like is he trying to find Eliott there, or is he looking for any type of connection? Think it’s the former since that was shown more explicitly with Isak, but I guess you can say he’s just testing the gay waters.

The gay app that Lucas downloads features the picture of Skam France director David Hourrègue, much like Skam Italia had their male director in the gay app. (The directors look a tad similar, or is that just me?)

Lucas looks through pictures mainly of disembodied abs and bulges, until he stumbles upon Mika’s picture, and HA, that’s a REALLY good gag, hats off to Skam France. I remember being annoyed because they recreated the Jonas cunnilingus walk of fame in their season 2, except with none of the build-up that made the Jonas scene funny and emotionally resonant (with Eva’s reaction), so it lacked the impact and was just kinda there. This actually had some setup, good job.

Clip 5 - Two bros chillin’ at a bus stop

The boys are getting ready to go to Chloé’s party later and Basile starts talking about how he’ll get with Maria and I’m already so over this, please God let them talk about anything else. I get that this girl talk is establishing the overwhelming heteronormativity and pressure to pursue girls among these teenage boys, but like, let’s hear from Arthur about his hookup techniques, or if there’s a girl Yann likes, anything but Basile being a creep yet again.

He talks about calling himself “Daddy” to Maria as if I wasn’t already thoroughly horrified out by him. FUCK no.

And the guys are like, I thought you were all up in Daphne’s business? Basile basically doesn’t care, one girl or the other will do, ughhhh GODDDDD.

They tell Lucas that he’s paying for the beer because they’ve taken their turns paying. Lucas waits at the bus stop, texts his dad for rent and grocery money, then texts Mika for money (presumably to buy the beer). MEANWHILE, a figure in a familiar brown coat sits down. I can’t quite tell from the angle, is he sitting in the next seat or is there still one between them? You’d think Eliott would learn from the past not to leave space for any Chloés who might come along. (At the end of the clip I still couldn’t tell, lmao. Feel free to clarify if you have better spatial awareness than I do.)

It’s Lucas’ turn to get startled by a dude just staring at him intensely. They have some banter, Mika texts back that he’s working, Eliott notices something is up, Lucas explains that he has no money to buy beer for a party, so it’s Eliott’s suggestion to come back to his place and get the beer he has. Not Lucas asking him for help, like Isak did. Lucas has seemed somewhat more forthright in pursuing Eliott so this is a bit of a surprise, because a noticeable example of Isak asking Even for something was switched to Eliott offering. I guess you could say it’s Eliott’s development, if he’s the one in the dark and is holding himself back? We’ll see.

Clip 6 - Eliott confirmed weirdo

They go to Eliott’s place and Lucas checks out Eliott’s drawings. They’re cute. Dude really loves raccoons. They look at the drawings together and Eliott says they’re old and that he’s better at drawing himself now. Lucas is like … that’s you? LMAO, Eliott is so fucking weird, I kind of love him. He likes that raccoons have a mask. Well, we know Eliott has his own mask, so it’s fitting, I suppose.

Okay, French fans, I have to ask - what are the perceptions of raccoons in your culture? I found this article saying that the raccoon was introduced to France in 1966 and is considered a pest. They’re considered pests in North America, too, and spread disease, and sometimes they fall through ceilings, but like ... they’ve always been here, so there’s something about them that’s normalized, I guess?

Lucas asks if Eliott had to draw him what would it be. Well, that’s fucking forward. Eliott studies him and says he doesn’t know. So Eliott basically can’t figure out Lucas yet. What are the odds his later notes to Lucas will include his and Lucas’ fursonas? I know all Isaks are snakes but Lucas reminds me of a woodpecker, personally.

Or maybe they will both be raccoons for the sole reason that I want to start calling Lucas Little King Trashmouth.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY for Lucas to say “draw me like one of your French girls” or something along those lines, though.

Clip 7 - What ... the fuck ...

Lucas and Eliott smoke and talk. While Eliott gets up to change the music, Lucas checks his phone and he’s got messages from Chloé waiting for him.

Lucas blames his absence on the other guys lacking motivation and THAT is the least believable excuse I have heard in my fucking life, come on, Lucas. As if those dudes aren’t panting after those girls. Did you even meet Basile? If you talk to him for ten seconds you’ll already know the names of five girls he wants to fuck.

And of course he types this as Yann is trying to get in touch with him about the party, very much motivated to go.

One of these days an Isak just needs to lie in a plausible way. “Sorry I’m sick, I think I have food poisoning, I’ve been shitting my guts out for the last hour.” If you overshare and make it disgusting, they’re not going to question you further AND Chloé will probably back off and stop chasing you.

Lucas guesses that Eliott will be putting on some Chopin or Dad Jazz because the turntable makes him seem like a vintage collector but ACTUALLY Eliott is one weird motherfucker and I have to say, not even Even would pull this stunt this soon in their relationship, because what he puts on is dubstep and Eliott starts banging his head and jumping around in a completely unashamed way, and like, even Lucas in all his infatuation with this guy cannot help but stare at him like “what the fuck is going on.”

When Eliott asks about it Lucas responds, “....it’s cool!” in the same way I do when an older relative asks me what I think of The Big Bang Theory or the Minions.

Eliott asks Lucas about his tastes and Lucas is more into rock, like very famous bands, Nirvana, Rolling Stones, Beatles, The Clash. Eliott offers to put on Queen and luckily for the music licensing department Lucas is like, no, I like discovering new things. By which he means “I like discovering new boys.”

Eliott blows a perfect ring of smoke so we know he has more smoke skills than Lucas, going off Lucas’ messy shotgunning in episode 1, and then Lucas also starts to rock out to the music and I’m kinda feeling secondhand embarrassment but also, I guess this means they’re meant for each other?

Clip 8 - Piano man

They’re both sitting there stoned as fuck, Eliott doesn’t want to get up to change the record, so Lucas gets up and puts the record to the side. But instead of selecting a new one, he lifts the lid the piano and asks Eliott if he plays. Eliott says he can play the Star Wars theme - so he has Star Wars fanboying in common with Even, heh.

Lucas then sits down and starts to play perhaps too well for someone who’s probably pretty stoned by now (but I’ve never tried so who knows) and Eliott sits up. We get him smiling at Lucas, eyes shining. At one point Lucas looks behind him and seems to get encouraged by Eliott’s enchanted reaction.

Mmmm ... unpopular opinion, but while this is a really lovely scene, I kiiiinda wish they’d taken it down a notch or put the focus more on Lucas? Because there’s like ... not really any ambiguity about what Eliott feels after this, with his enamored stare at Lucas, and I think in context of the larger story, it takes a little tension out. I think with Even, the attraction was conveyed more in small looks and glances, and while I definitely thought he was always into Isak, from Isak’s POV you could see how the arrival of Sonja threw that into doubt, there was room to question whether Even really had feelings for Isak. Whereas here it’s like ... girlfriend or not, Eliott is smitten with Lucas, I don’t really feel that the ending reveal carries as much weight. I guess I’d put more focus on Lucas’ expressions as he plays, showing him getting into it and letting himself put down his emotional walls and express himself, showing him more open here with Eliott than he’s been so far anywhere else - this is his POV season, after all - and cut back on Eliott’s reactions to preserve a little mystery.

What I think is good about this moment is that Eliott got to share a part of himself, with his drawings (and his questionable taste in music), and unbeknownst to him his Polaris project, and now Lucas gets to share a part of himself with his piano playing, and so they’ve both let each other in to their artistic sides, perhaps establishing them both as creative types. It’s cool that we both see their respective interests. They might even complement each other’s, like Lucas’ music might end up serving Eliott’s vision for his film or something. And this was obviously a turning point for Eliott, he may have noticed Lucas on the first point of school but this is what took his interest in Lucas to another level as he saw Lucas just unleash this piano piece, catching him off guard with something beautiful.

When Lucas is done, Eliott says it was impressive, and that Lucas is surprising, and he likes surprising people. Well they’re just being blatant as fuck, aren’t they.

Unfortunately, the night must end as Eliott has people to meet and Lucas has a party to endure. Eliott walks Lucas out and says it was great, they need to hang out again, Lucas agrees. I like this moment a lot because it is somewhat more ambiguous - like on the surface this could be a platonic conversation, just wanting to hang out as friends, but there’s just a little too much intensity, a bit too much of a pause in the delivery, to think this exchange is so casual.

Just as Lucas is going Eliott adjusts his hair? I don’t even know what he was doing because I do not notice a single change in Lucas’ hairdo but Eliott sure did it as a memorable parting gesture. Lucas is internally screaming, probably.

Lucas goes out the door and outside he checks his phone, of course Chloé is pissed, Yann asks why Lucas is lying, Chloé has been posting “men are trash” messages on IG. I repeat: just tell them that you have unstoppable explosive diarrhea and people won’t be so quick to judge.

Behind him, Eliott leaves his place and Lucas sees him greet a girl with a kiss. OK now that is actually a pretty big change because Eliott does not know that Lucas saw him with a girlfriend and like, I always thought Even was overcompensating with Sonja when he started to compliment her and make out with her, but Eliott was just casually greeting his girlfriend with a kiss, without knowing Lucas was there. He’s not going to know Lucas knows about his girlfriend the next time they meet. If Lucas is irritated with him, he’s going to be like WTF.

There’s piano music at the end, and with its inclusion in the clip itself, I’m thinking they’re going to use a lot of piano on the soundtrack this season. They already did it in episode one.

Social Media/General Comments

Lucas apparently ran away from Chloé at the bus stop, heh. She texted him to “subtly” see if he wanted to hang out and insinuated that she wanted to swing by Lucas’ flat some time. Or not subtly. Nothing about her is subtle. She’s wearing a sign that says BANG ME LUCAS.

Lol, as I mentioned above, Emma was hanging out with Raptor Alex and posting pics and stories on IG, I don’t know why they’re surprised people might think they’re an item after they also just hooked up at a party. Like not necessarily together-4ever but it’s not an unreasonable assumption they have a ~thing.

Lucas and Imane laugh over the tampon thing via text later, it’s a sweet moment. I wonder how they’re going to play the religion discussions since the two are already warming up to each other, Lucas being like, “Why are you religious?” in a confrontational way would kill the vibe.

Manon was supposed to see The Book of Mormon with Charles, then later she posted “Night in after all.” Dramaaaaa. Manon, fuck Charles and go by yourself. If some dude bailed on me that night I’d be like, whatever asshole, we paid to see these singing Mormons and I am going to goddamn see some singing Mormons. (Also, lmao at her dramatically posting that publicly, talk about a passive-aggressive swipe at Charles.)

Let’s talk about Basile, goddamn Basile, because he is by far my biggest issue with the season so far. Everything else is pretty solid, any other quibbles I have pale to my rapidly developing kneejerk GTFO when he appears on screen.

Some of the issue is that this dude is so one-note and in a really intense way, like you know when you’re a toddler and your parent hands you a pot to bang on and you hit it with a wooden spoon over and over? That’s Basile. There’s also just the element of overexposure. He tends to take over the boy squad scenes just because he wants to get laid. It feels like we’ve already had as much of Basile thirsting after Daphne and Maria in two episodes as we did Magnus crushing on Vilde spread over the whole season.

You might say Magnus was similarly desperate to hook up with a girl, and that’s true of course. And look, Magnus isn’t perfect and he said some dumbass shit during the season, but at the same time, there was a kind of weird innocence to him? Even when Vilde is complaining about the first year girls taking the older guys, and he says he’s available to fuck if she wants, it’s an outrageous statement but the way it’s played has a bizarre purity to it, like hey, this girl thinks there won’t be anyone for her to fuck, I should offer! With Basile there’s more sleaziness to his behavior, like dude has been on Reddit too long and has read too many forums about embittered men seeking to get laid.

I think some of it also is that a lot of Magnus was not actively and aggressively pursuing specific girls and bothering them for the most part - after that first offer to fuck Vilde, we don’t see him nagging her or crossing her boundaries, from what I recall? The flirtation gets mutual. He mentions stuff like the Vilde sex dream to the guys but it’s not like he’s telling that to her. With Basile he’s directly going after Daphne in a very persistent way.

One way they could redeem Basile is have his behavior act as a criticism of toxic straight boy bullshit, to go along with the heteronormative pressure. We still have a bunch of episodes to go so perhaps Basile will have character growth.

One thing I didn’t care for was them breaking up the Friday clip into multiple parts and airing them one after the other. I suspected that it was due to time restrictions and I was right, according to the screenwriter on IG. It’s too bad because I think it interrupts the flow of the story. With Skam, we got to see Isak himself change over the course of the afternoon - he went from shy and reserved to opening up and being able to laugh and joke around with Even, and the fact that it’s all one clip makes it more noticeable. The length makes it feel like the lazy afternoon Isak and Even spent getting to know each other. Not Skam France’s fault they had to break it up, just a shame because it felt choppier - watching it clip by clip meant I kept going back to what I was doing in real life and losing the mood instead of sinking into it. But I appreciate what they were trying to do when they couldn’t have a long scene and I think the ways they cut the scene were probably the best places to end/start the clips, tone-wise.

On that note, I’m trying to avoid the BTS commentary but I ended up reading it when I saw the reaction to the Skam France writer’s thoughts on Isak. I get what the guy was going for, Isak was more reserved and shy than Lucas is and Even was doing a lot of the initiating, although yeah, I think his description was worded in an oversimplified way - I don’t think Isak was entirely naive and innocent, more like inexperienced (which is a different thing) and he was certainly the hero of his own story, he was brave. Just because he wasn’t as outgoing doesn’t mean he wasn’t taking control of his own story - I’d say that’s part of what makes his character development so powerful, that because he is more repressed, his choices to kiss Even, to come out to his friends, to learn to be himself, have even more impact. But I don’t think Niels meant to bash Isak or anything, and it’s very clear from his notes that he loves and respects the original season. I think his main point was just like “Lucas is more upfront in his actions,” lol.

Though on a related note, the experience of watching the remakes has made me think that a lot of people don’t get who Isak is as a character, and especially have some extremely bad faith and unsympathetic readings of him. But that’s a rant for another time.

Tbh I think the behind-the-scenes notes about production stuff like “Axel wasn’t a trained pianist but he practiced hard for this scene” is fine and fun, it’s more the stuff that’s like “Here’s the interpretation of the scene itself” that I wish would wait until the season ends. But lmao, I’m just gonna try to avoid that stuff again.

I actually did like this episode. I’m not sure Skam France is ever going to be my favorite remake, because there’s something about the way it’s filmed that feels more slick and well, TV-like than is my preference, but I can definitely see that they’ve upgraded from last season, and that they’re trying hard to give this story its own spin. The Polaris symbolism is the biggest sign of that so far.

If there’s something I do wish we could get more of with Skam France, it’s subtlety? As a show it often feels more dramatic and this episode leaned heavier on the blatant romance, which might be a cultural thing, and I can absolutely get why people are more drawn to that. There’s plenty of TV shows and movies that I like that are not subtle in the slightest. I guess I’ve just been thinking that I wish the remakes would not be afraid to rely more on subtext for parts of this season, especially building up this relationship. Like there’s nothing blatantly “romantic” about the Evak version of this clip - everything is heavily show don’t tell, and we have to read into the littlest moments, the shared glances. How Even smiles to himself for just a brief moment after Isak compliments his drawings, or how Isak gets flustered after Even teases him for not knowing who Nas is (because he wants Even to think he’s cool) and how Even says that they’ll listen to Nas later - the implication that Isak is going to stay a while and Even will share this with him. “We can’t go back now” is in relationship to the cheese toasties, except you know, it’s not really about the cheese toasties. With Lucas and Eliott, it’s really easy to pick out that Eliott is flirting when he’s flat-out telling Lucas how special he is and how he’s intrigued by him, and sure, that’s where they’re going with Eliott’s character and making him more direct but it’s also related to the overall method and effectiveness of the storytelling. (I mean ... having Eliott be like “You are this-and-that, Lucas” is the definition of telling, not showing, lol.) And I completely get why that works for a lot of people, it doesn’t NOT work for me, but the understated stuff is what makes me watch clips a dozen times to pick up on it all, the subtext is what gets under my skin. My favorite moment was their goodbye at the door because it was a typical friendly exchange on the surface but with more going unspoken, and I felt that on the screen. So not to whine, because I did legitimately enjoy the Lucas/Eliott interaction, those are just my preferences. (The show is not made for me personally etc etc., cultural differences etc etc. I’m aware.)

I am finally warming up to Lucas, after two seasons. I really don’t think that I didn’t care for him before just because his character was closed off and snaky, because I’ve liked every other Isak in the first season of their show even though they’ve also kept secrets and done shady shit. I think they’ve just found a way to portray his character more effectively after having to copy + paste S1 and S2. They can make the character feel more organic. Also, not gonna lie, it felt like they cut back on the serial killer looks (partially because Lucas has more smiley and relaxed moments) so A+ work, Axel.

Also, knowing that they had to redo the first two seasons so closely doesn’t really change my opinion of the quality of the first two seasons, but it does make me more sympathetic toward the cast and crew for having to color inside the lines, so to speak.

Eliott is a fucking weird ass human being and I’m really feeling his character. They made his absurdly good looks more approachable by turning him into a dubstep-stanning furry, and I am here for whatever shit they tell us about him next.

I also think think the use of music was much better than in previous seasons. There were some very deliberate choices in this episode, obviously, but it felt like they’re learning to use silence more effectively and not shoehorning the soundtrack as much.

Feel free to chime in or correct me about French culture/translation/other issues.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions #skam france reactions

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dalilaswork · 6 years ago

Text

HELLDREAMERS Pt. I || Connor x Reader

Author: Dalila Ship: Connor Murphy x Reader Word count: 3.271 Trigger Warnings: destuctive thought, mentions of self harm, half-attempted suicide, low self-esteem, anger management problems, shitty writing.

YOU

So, first day of school, huh? Senior year... Yeah, that really sucks. Especially after moving in from a whole another town. But it happens. You just got to deal with it. Like you deal with every other shit that happens in your life.

I picked out the jeans and the t-shirt I left at the chair the day before and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

God, I looked so ugly.

I couldn't help but see how my nose was too big, how my eyes were too small, how uneven my skin colour was. Those were minorities that most people just ignored, but I saw them everytime I looked at myself . And no matter how many compliments I heard, it just wouldn't go away.

I got dressed and looked at my reflection once more: something was missing. Sure - a hoodie. No one needs to see my scars. At least not yet.

Downstairs, my mother was already filling up some papers, I could hear that. But before I went down I looked out the window: luckily my brother's car wasn't there. It was safe.

Malcolm wasn't just a regular annoying older brother. He was a drug addict with serious mental issues. My parents tried their best to help him, but Malcolm could never admit something was wrong with him. From his point of view, we were the psychos.

After grabbing the bag, I ran down the stairs and quickly got to the door. I wanted to escape, but my mother wouldn't just let me go. She looked up from the documents just as you I began to tie my shoelaces.

"Why are you leaving without breakfast? You should eat something."

You should eat more, you're unhealthy. You should eat less, you're gaining weight.

"I'm not hungry yet. I'll grab something before classes start." I said quickly before running out the door, so my mother wouldn't drag me into a much worse conversation.

Quickly I searched the pockets of my jeans for the earbuds. I needed to numb myself . After picking my favourite song to play, I began looking around the new neighbourhood.

Almost all houses looked the same; same neat lawns, same driveways, same roofs. I was sick of it. I missed my old house, far from the noises of the town, with a forest nearby. It was my home.

I finally reached the school. Nothing too worrying. From the outside everything looks normal. It's the inside that hides the horrors.

After settling the usual stuff like a small tour and a visit to the headmaster's office, I was left alone in the corridor. However, I didn't get to enjoy the loneliness for long, as someone pulled at my sleeve. I turned around to see a smiling girl with a book in her hand and glasses on her nose.

"Hi, I'm Alana. Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you before." she smiled even wider. For some reason I found the smile simply fake. After all, who in their right minds just goes up to a new kid with a smile so wide?

"Do you know every kid around that you're so surprised? It's a big school." I lifted an eyebrow at her, wondering how she might react.

Her smile got thinner at my words, she must have not expected that. "I-I mean, I try to remember everyone, and I really d-didn't see you here before, so..." she began rushing the words.

"Nice," I cut her short. "I rarely remember faces." I didn't really feel like talking to her. She did seem like that kid, who wanted to be friendly towards everyone everytime. "See ya." I hated that sort of people.

"Wait, I didn't catch your name," stubborn, I thought.

"(Y/N)"

"Will I see you at lunch?" she asked, going back to that unsettling smile.

"Dunno, maybe." I quickly turned my back and headed forward. I had no idea which direction I was going for, I just wanted to get rid of that Alana girl.

I hated people who were always so nice to everyone. Mostly because, from my previous experience, it always turns out to be just an act. A facade created to look cool. Not once had I heard that someone was there for me if I wanted to talk, but when I really wanted to talk, they'd always be busy. But I got used to it.

I got used to a lot of things.

I looked down at the schedule I was holding. Of course, trying to get away from Alana I ended up going in the wrong direction. Luckily, the school was planned quite easily, so I had no problem knowing which way to go.

I just needed to go through a small corridor to get to the other building. The corridor was significantly smaller, actually. I could only see one person there. A tall boy with shoulder-length brown hair. I walked past him, but I stopped when I heard someone speak.

"Hey, Connor. I'm loving the new hair length. Very school shooter chic."

I turned around to see that another kid walked in. So the tall one was Connor. School shooter, maybe they were friends. Friends sometimes have weird sense of humour with each other.

All I could see was Connor's back and the other guy's face. He had short, light brown hair and glasses. From his expression I could tell that they weren't friends. He was just being an asshole.

"I was kididng, it was a joke." he said, rolling his eyes. Yet another type of person I couldn't stand. I immediately recalled how people at my old school used to laugh that way at me.

"Yeah," Connor's voice seemed so... Emotionless. "No, it was funny. I'm..."

"Your jokes are even worse than your style." I stepped towards the kid. For a moment standing beside Connor.

"What's your problem?" the kid stepped back. For me it was an encouragement to go further.

"You. You're my fucking problem. You think you're funny? My dead grandmother was funnier at her funeral!" I told him as I kept walking towards him. The kid must have got scared a little, because he raised his hands in defeat.

"Jeeez, calm your tits, dude. " he said and walked off. Only now I noticed there was another guy, with a cast on his left arm. Just when I laid my eyes on him, he followed the jerk out of the corridor.

"Sorry for that. I get a little carried away when I hear douchebags like that." I said as I turned back to Connor. He was pale, and I think his eyes were slightly red. "So... I guess you're Connor, right?" I looked up at him and tried to smile.

He narrowed his eyes at me and took a step back. "Why would you care?" as I looked at him; he somehow resembled of a cornered bunny.

"I don't know," I didn't want to push him. "I don't like jerks. You don't seem like one." I shrugged and looked down at my watch. I was short on time. Well, I could easily blame it on getting lost. "I'm (Y/N)... if you care." I said and moved past him to find my class. First English. Then Art. Then Math. We'll see how it goes.

...

It was weird.

Either I was brilliant at math, or this whole school was so backwards. During the lesson I got a little carried away with my thoughts, and instead of listening to the teacher I just began drawing doodles in my notebook.

"(Y/N) (L/N)..."

"Yes?" I got my head up as I heard my name.

The teacher must have noticed that I didn't pay any attention. "I understand the struggles of being a new student, but that isn't an excuse. You should be paying attention."

You should pay attention, you should do this, you should do that, you should...

"Do you even have an idea what to do with this problem?" the teacher gestured to the blackboard and crossed his arms on his chest.

Luckily, I remembered that problem. My previous teacher was pretty strict, so the entire class was always ahead of the schedule. I told him how to solve it. He seemed pretty impressed.

I didn't pay much attention to it, though. I went back to my doodles, occasionally looking up at the teacher.

But it only got weirder as the doorbell rang.

"H-Hey" a kid walked up to me as I was gathering my stuff from the desk.

"Hey" I replied, looking up at him. I noticed the cast on his left arm. "What's up?" I asked, only now remembering that this kid was also in the corridor with the douche, Connor, and me.

"Well, I-I thought... I mean, I'm not that good at math..." he seemed anxious. He didn't even look at me as he spoke.

"I can help." I said quickly. I felt bad when he was stuttering like that. "When?"

"Oh, really?" his eyes opened widely. "What time... Uh, is Wednesday okay with you? If not, then..."

"Wednesday it is then." I smiled at him, wanting to reassure him. I wondered, was he always like this or was it because of the morning incident? "By the way, I'm (Y/N). And, uhm... I'm sorry I yelled at your friend. But he was being a jerk."

"I'm Evan. And Jared... He's not my friend... I mean, he's a family friend. It's different, apparently." We walked out of the classroom together. "Uhm, do you... Have a minute?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.

"I have, why?"

"I need to go to the computer lab for a second, but... Maybe we could eat lunch together?"

"Sure. I can go with you to the lab."

"Oh, but I-I meant the lunch, not the lab" he began stuttering again.

"I know. I just didn't want to sit there by myself." I lied. I would be totally fine with it. But to be honest, I felt a bit protective over Evan.

"Oh, OK." he only said and rushed to the computer lab. I followed slightly behind, picking at my (f/c) nail polish. His phone started ringing, so I got even more behind, to avoid eavesdropping. He seemed a bit upset. Once we were finally there, he began writing something on the computer and I sat on one of the chairs nearby . I took a moment to look closely at the kid.

As he sat on the chair, probably unaware of me looking at him, he looked pretty normal. Just another teenager with blue striped polo shirt and short honey blonde hair. He was quietly tapping on the keyboard. There was a bit of a contrast between that kid and the one who approached me after math. "What're writing?" I asked, looking down so he wouldn't know I was staring.

"Oh that's just a stupid, it's a paper I have to write for a, uhm, for an assignment..."

"For school?

"Actually, no... Ahm, my therapist... I don't know..."

"If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, it's fine." I told him. And then we fell into an uncomfortable silence, that was broken only by the sound of the printer from the other side of the room. I got up and headed towards the door. Evan didn't get up, though. He just sat there. I stopped, one foot in the lab, one already outside

"So." I turned around when I heard a familiar voice. "What happened to your arm?" Connor stood in front of Evan, nervously hiding his hand in his pocket. In his other hand he held a paper. Was he there all along?

Evan looked a little startled. "Oh, I uhm, I fell out of a tree actually."

"You fell out of a tree?" I saw how Connor smiled before letting out a chuckle. "That is just the saddest fucking thing I've ever heard. Oh my God... " to my surprise, Evan also began to smile. He seemed a bit less scared. That was good. Connor shook his hand before moving closer to Evan.

"I know.." Evan chuckled as well, getting up from his chair.

"No one's signed your cast."

Evan's smile got thinner at the words. "No, I know." only now I noticed that the cast was indeed empty.

"I'll sign it. " I smiled at Connor's words. It was nice of him. I moved towards them, scanning through my bag.

"Me too. " I said before Evan could get any weak protest out of his mouth and handed Connor a sharpie. He looked at me in disbelief.

"I thought you left." Connor narrowed his eyes at me. He raised his hand to take the sharpie, but hesitated.

"Well, I didn't. " I smiled at him and tilted my head a little.

"You're like, a fucking phantom girl. " he shook his head and took the sharpie. Also, I think I may have seen a shadow of a smile playing on his lips. He signed Evan's cast first, then I took out another sharpie to do the same, but with smaller letters, slightly above the huge CONNOR.

"So, now we can all pretend we have friends, right?" Connor said, with this tired smile growing on his lips.

"Why pretend?" I asked, looking at the two boys in front of me. When I first saw Evan, I thought he was Jared's friend. Another douche. But he was just an anxious boy, in need of a friend. Just like me. And Connor...

Connor looked at me for a while. I had no idea why. Then he offered me a slight smile as he looked down. "Maybe... Uhm, I think it's yours? I... I heard you talking about the assignment, so I grabbed it for you." he awkwardly held the paper for Evan to get.

"Oh, uhm... Thanks..." Evan reached out and took the paper from Connor. His cheeks were blushing. Was he ashamed that Connor heard us?

"I hope it's not a habit of yours to eavesdrop on people." I joked and put the sharpie in my bag. I looked back up with a smile.

But Connor wasn't smiling. His face went pale, even more than before and I could see how his hands were shaking a little. "You think I wanted to hear that?" I think his breathing got a bit heavier. "What, you think I'm this kind of freak that goes around and spies on everyone?" his voice raised and I stepped back, slightly taken aback. "Is that what you think?!"

"N-No..." I stuttered as I saw him raging. It was just a joke, I didn't mean to hurt him in any way.

"Fuck you!" he yelled, throwing the sharpie my way and storming off. I didn't even have time to react, so the sharpie just bounced off my head. I simply stood there, bewildered. Evan looked at me and then at the door. He started picking at the hem of his shirt nervously.

"Is he always like this?" I asked, before finally realising something. I looked down at my watch. "God, my class starts now. " I didn't even notice the time passing as we sat in the lab. I took out an empty paper out of the printer and scribbled my name and phone number. "If you need anything, just call or text me. Bye, Evan!" I waved before running out of the lab. I checked the schedule. French. Just around the corner. Perfect.

But as I glanced to the window, I noticed a tall figure running towards the park. A familiar figure, with long hair. I wondered if I should go follow him...

No.

He clearly wanted to be alone.

And we weren't friends. Not really. I still didn't understand why he stormed off like that. Was it really because of what I said?

No, I wasn't rude. I was just trying to be friendly and make a joke. What was his problem?

Maybe there was something I didn't know...

"Hey Zoe, isn't that your brother running off to the park?" I heard someone say. I turned around to see who it was. A guy in some band's shirt and short black hair was talking to a brown haired girl. When it came to style, she couldn't be more different than Connor. But when I looked at her face I could find a few similarities.

Leave it (Y/N). It's not your problem. He's not even your friend. Why would you care?

Maybe because someone has to...

I came up to the girl. "Are you, uhm..." that was the second time today that I randomly walked up to someone just because I heard something that wasn't even meant for me. Why am I doing this? You don't even know him. "I'm sorry, this must seem weird as hell but... Are you Connor's sister?" I asked, biting on my lower lip. Great job (Y/N), now she probably thinks you're crazy...

I watched the expressions on Zoe's face change from confusion, to irritation, to concern. "Did he do something?" she asked quietly, so only I could hear. The boy took a few steps back to give us some privacy, but I noticed how he looked at me. As if I said something strange. "He's a freak, so if he'd done anything..."

"No, he didn't. I was just wondering... Could you send him a message from me?"

She furrowed her brow at me, but eventually nodded. "What is it?"

"Just... Tell him that I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Please, just text him..."

"... Okay."

CONNOR

The world is just a mess. A fucking mistake. And why should I be a part of this misery?

I sat in the park near the school. It was quiet here, at least for now. Mostly because all the annoying jerks were still at school. It was better this way. No one to see me break down.

The world's a fucking mess. The school's a fucking mess. I'm a fucking mess.

Why did I storm off like that? The girl was actually pretty nice. It could be just a joke. Was it really? She didn't look like a typical bully. They never look like this. She said we could really be friends...

She was just trying to mock you, idiot.

She's new. She doesn't know me, probably never even heard of me. Which is for the best, actually.

Please, who the fuck would want you as a friend? You're a freak. You're the freak.

She defended me.

She pitied you.

I dug my fingers in my head, trying to get the voices to go away. I was tired of it all, why can't it just go away?

It could go away.

It will go away...

This morning I took a bottle of pills from the bathroom. It could be the end of this. End of this misery. I mean, no one would care, right?

*BEEP*

For fuck's sake.

I had tears in my eyes as I looked at the phone. It was lying on the ground next to my leg. I wanted to ignore it. There was Zoe's name after all. I just wanted to throw the phone away.

But then I saw the message. It was short, but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

From: ZOE (Y/N) says she's sorry.

I held the phone in my hand. It was shaking. I was shaking. Why was I shaking?

It's been so long since anyone apologised to me. Sincerely...

I don't really know why, but instead of throwing my phone, like I previously planned, I ended up throwing the bottle of pills away...

A/N

There are three other parts (for now) on wattpad, if you want to read the whole thing and leave feedback, you can search the title HELLDREAMERS on wattpad and it should show up.

#connor murphy #connor murphy x reader #connor murphy fic #dear evan hansen #dear evan hansen fic

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blooblooded · 6 years ago

Text

BG story part 2

Yes this sucks. Last 30 pages, the first half was definitely better. Cynthia is good for like 3 lines at the end though.

I wondered why I was so fixated on BG trying to make excuses for Lady even though he knows exactly what she does. Then I figured it out lol.

BG vs Empathy

Fucked up events were now snowballing. Destructive blood magic groups were becoming more organized. Terrorists were all over the place. The creatures that Dot was related to teemed beneath the Colony in the sewers and Lower levels. Social unrest grew as factions like the Prospases, Voorsts, and Agapamas gained more power and control. It seemed like some new awful thing happened in the Colony every day, and there weren't enough secret police agents to take care of them.

Up until that point, the unrest only happened outside of the secret police.

One event put an end to that. And of course it did. The individual at the center brought nothing but chaos and unrest in life, why would he be anything different in death?

He and Lady relaxed on the couch of the common room on their floor. Some kind of commotion had been going on earlier in the day, but for once they weren't a part of it. It felt good just to chill. So many agents had been killed recently that everyone was overworked. There was no better remedy for stress than laying around and doing nothing.

Lady was falling asleep. She curled up on the couch with her head resting on one of BG's legs. From time to time she would drift off and BG would feel stabs of neural pain until he shook her awake again. It wasn't her fault. She was just so exhausted. He liked to have her close to him like that because he felt like he could keep a better eye on her. With every day that passed he could feel her drifting farther away from him and closer to whatever black hole had opened up inside of her on B-Day.

He tried to keep her awake. "Hey. Want to hear a joke about a piece of paper?"

"Hm?"

"Never mind…it's tear-able."

"Ugh." She yawned and stretched her long thin legs. She was wearing BG's clothes and was practically swimming in them. What was with the squad and stealing his clothes? At least he never had to worry about Bizo, since she burned right through anything that wasn't made specifically for her. While Echo liked to wear other people's' clothes out of comfort and familiarity, BG was almost positive that Lady did so because her brain was so rotted she had forgotten who owned what. "You're very very bad at jokes. You're not funny."

BG scratched Lady's head. She had just shaved it again and the black stubble was soft. "I'm funnier than you are."

"I don't really need to be funny, do I." She exhaled heavily and closed her eyes. BG tapped her on the shoulder to keep her from falling asleep. "Quit poking me, I'm awake! I'm just bored! Where is everyone?"

Boredom and Lady were a dangerous combination. BG heard someone scuttling past the common room in the hallway and he whistled to get their attention so that Lady could have someone else to entertain her. When the person didn't stop, he teleported out into the hall so that he could stop them. BG was also deathly bored. He had not interacted with anyone but Lady since breakfast; Echo and Bizo were out on a mission together.

The person who was scuttling past was one of the worst agents to teleport in front of, on account of her jumpiness and violent temper. However, when BG suddenly appeared in front of Creedo, she barely flinched. Creedo was a tiny woman with narrow eyes and patches of discoloration across her black skin. Always yelling. Always fighting. As a telekinetic, she often levitated several inches off the ground in order to appear more threatening than she really was. Whenever she and Smiles had their spats she always levitated at eye level with him before attacking. At that moment however, Creedo was still and quiet. She regarded BG blankly, with her mouth slightly open as if she was in shock.

"Uh," said BG, staring down at Creedo. "You good?"

"What?" said Creedo, as if seeing him for the first time. She had patches of angry looking blisters on her dominant hand, the one that she used to direct her abilities.

"Are you ok?" asked BG. For some reason he felt anxious. He gestured at her hand.

Creedo touched the blisters and then winced. She swallowed. "Oh. I'm on my way to the Infirmary. It's not that bad. I just--I had to-- I don't know."

Behind her, Lady crept out of the common room doorway. She tiptoed when she walked, like she always did. Luckily, Creedo did not turn around, because Lady was not a pleasant sight to behold. With clothes hanging off of her bony frame, green shadows blooming beneath her eyes, and skin that had almost gone white, she looked more dead than alive. She cocked her head to one side, watching Creedo.

Something was wrong. Creedo wasn't talking. It was abnormal. BG's heart beat faster.

"Uh," said the little telekinetic at last. She licked her lips. She cradled her injured hand. "Have you heard anything?"

"About what?"

Then, Lady's terrible eyes went very large and black. She stood up straight, suddenly filled with strange energy. "About Smiles," she said in her high-pitched voice. Creedo startled when hearing it and turned around, but did not react violently like she normally would. Instead she drew back half a step and watched Lady dumbly. "What do you know about Smiles?"

Creedo took another half step back. "I don't know anything," she said. She turned to look at BG again, since he was the one she interacted with the most, but for good reason kept glancing back at Lady. "I don't feel too good, I mean if he-- I don't know. People are saying he got Retired this morning. I had to take Pete to solitary before she-- before she realized what was happening. She knew though." She took a deep breath that should have been calming but it sounded like she was about to hyperventilate. "I don't think I ever seen her cry before. It's got to be real."

Time seemed to stop.

It was impossible. His nemesis, dead? Smiles, the guy who had been in the organization forever? No, no, no, no.

"Ha!" said Lady, loudly.

BG shook his head. It wasn't happening. They would never Retire Smiles. If Smiles was gone that meant anyone could be gone. They couldn't just get rid of a squad leader like that without setting up the next steps for his squad. That would be like-- well, it would be like getting rid of him and leaving his squad to fall apart. It was cruelty. It was impossible.

He was only vaguely aware of how fast his heart was beating and how dizzy he felt. His mouth was completely dry and when he swallowed he just became more parched. Did Creedo feel the same way? She looked lost. Of course she did. She was 27, almost as old as Smiles. It was only a matter of time.

He needed proof.

"I have to go," BG mumbled. He inhaled and teleported away, leaving the girls to do whatever it was they did when he wasn't around. He re-appeared outside of Smiles' dorm room. For a second, everything seemed normal. The door was open like it always was. There were scuff marks on the floor outside from Smiles stomping around in his precious boots. It was easy to imagine that everything was like it was before and that BG would bust in to find Smiles ready to bubble him. Except it was too quiet. The only sounds from inside was a woman's low talking.

He paused for a long time outside that door. He wondered if he would be happy if it was true. If it was something to be happy about then why did he feel sick inside?

BG walked into Smiles' dorm without knocking. And why should he? If Smiles was truly Retired and if Pete was in solitary, then what did he have to worry about? He could do whatever he wanted to Smiles' room and Smiles' things and Smiles' team without facing any repercussions. Thinking about that did not make him happy either and he knew it meant that there was something wrong with him. He'd known he was going soft for a while now. The feelings in his gut only confirmed it.

Inside the dorm, it was just as Creedo said; devoid of A-Class agents. Nickels and Johnny were sitting on one of the lower bunks, the bunk that BG knew was Smiles's. They did not notice BG come into the room. He watched them like some kind of voyeur of grief. Nickels talked quietly and rapidly, pausing every now and then to sniffle and wipe her nose with the back of her hand. Johnny sat cross-legged and perfectly still without making a peep.

“We’re OK,” Nickels was saying. “We knew this was gonna happen one day, right? He always told us how to survive this. I’m OK and Pete’s OK and you’re OK too.”

BG cleared his throat. Nickels whirled around to face him and jumped out of Smiles’s bunk to stand defensively. BG always thought that Nickels was pretty. She was soft and fat and had a round, expressive face. Somehow she remained bright and had avoided the haggard, exhausted look most psychics developed from overwork. Now however, she was not pretty. Her skin was red and blotchy; hey eyelids were swollen from what he assumed was crying.

“Get out of here,” said Nickels harshly. “Out.” She pointed at the door. As a B-Class psychic, it was abnormal for her to be giving him orders like that.

BG didn’t move. All he could do was look at her and know that what Creedo said about Smiles getting Retired was true. His heart had not stopped beating fast and he didn’t know why. “I, uh, heard that something happened. To Smiles.”

Nickels clenched her hands into fists. It was disturbing that she favored physical fighting over her psychic abilities. That was all Smiles’ doing: he didn’t like psychics. Every time BG ever saw the guy training with Nickels, he was forcing her to fight him physically. As powerful as Lady was, if she had to face Nickels without the benefit of her abilities, Nickels would snap her in half like a glowstick. Hell, Nickels could probably beat him in a fight if it came down to it. She was scary.

He didn’t know why he said what he did next. The only explanation he had was that he was getting weak and soft. He cared about people who hated him because his brain was trying to get him killed. After everything he had been through lately, it was impossible to exist with the same casual cruelty that some of the other agents did. Some of the things he saw Lady doing lately disgusted him and he knew he didn’t want to be like her, as much as he loved her. He didn’t want to hurt people who were weaker than him. He didn’t want people to get Retired. All he ever thought about now was how Echo had told him how much they hated this place and wanted to leave before it was too late. At this point in his life, BG was starting to feel the same way.

Looking at Nickels in her state of grief was terrible when he knew what she really was like. He felt bad for her and didn’t know what to do. “Are you OK?”

It looked like she wanted to attack him. She brought her fists up in front of her chest, realized what she was doing, and put them down again. “No!” she said, loud enough for anyone in the rooms next door to hear. “Would you be OK if you were me? Get the fuck out of here!”

Over on Smiles's bunk, Johnny looked over at BG like he was just recognizing that he had come in the room. He wasn't moving or reacting; usually he was all over the place and friendly to a degree that provoked irritation. His eyes were so wide that the whites showed all the way around. Apart from that, his expression was completely flat. He had his arms crossed tight across his chest like he was hugging himself for comfort.

After the time that Johnny flipped out and bit him, BG had maintained his distance. He watched Johnny cautiously, since something like Smiles getting shot in the head could easily precipitate an episode. But judging from his movement and his expression, he wasn't all there.

"What's wrong with him? Are you doing that to him?" BG asked Nickels. It's what he would have done if he was her.

Nickels turned red. She moved her chunky body so that she blocked BG's line of vision to Johnny. "You think I'm like Lady? You think I just fuck with people?" she asked savagely. The anger and grief inside of her was not being contained properly and it showed in her wet black eyes. She roughly wiped at her face with her sleeve. "Smiles told me not to get in peoples' heads without asking, especially not people I care about."

"Oh." Smiles and his whole asking for permission thing. Recently BG had considered bringing psychic consent up with Lady-- at least as it applied to Echo and Bizo. It would go completely over her head and she would end up ignoring him. What was the point.

It made him feel like he was not as good as fucking Smiles.

"Did you need something?" asked Nickels from behind clenched teeth. She sniffed and tried to turn it into something tough. "Are you gonna leave us alone anytime soon?"

"I--I wanted to see if you were OK," he said helplessly. He missed the days when his conscience was quiet. "I kind of try to do that now, you know."

Nickels turned away from him and stomped back to Smiles's bunk. What used to be Smiles's bunk. She sat down and got as close as she could to Johnny without touching him. "What a saint," she said, and sniffled again. "You know what's going to happen to us with Smiles fucking dead and Pete in perma-timeout? Everyone hates us because of him and now he's gone." She pried Johnny's arms down from the hug he was giving himself and forced his hands down into his lap. The physical contact did not jar him from his unsettling trance. When she let go of his hands, he put his arms around himself again and did not move. Nickels slumped her shoulders. It was clear that she was doing her best not to cry.

The two of them made a seriously sad picture together. BG could not stop feeling anxious. Was this even real? It was like something playing out in front of him on a screen. Any moment now Smiles was going to pop in and kick his ass.

It was real. Creedo knew it was real and knew it was going to happen to her one day. And BG? Well, Silas assured him and assured him that he was special. She revealed that sometimes she allowed the agents she thought were special to re-enter society as civilians. They didn't get Retired, not ever. They were able to live out their lives and have families and be normal and shit. Doc was one of the special ones, she had said. The first day she met him she had known that she could never kill him. She said that she felt the same thing about BG.

The thing was, that Doc might have been out of the agency, but he wasn't truly Free. Why did he come back and work in the Infirmary 3 days a week? Was that it for him, forever?

BG could not trust Silas anymore and it killed him. Not after how cold she had been about Echo.

“I want to help,” he said. He wondered if he was overstepping boundaries. “I’ve been thinking about how all of us need to start sticking together.”

Nickels didn’t answer him. BG wasn’t sure what he wanted her to say. Would he be able to keep her from being forced to work Upstairs and torture people in the same way Smiles had? Probably not. Would he be able to protect Johnny from his own choices and toxic desires? Another no. Would be be able to advocate for Pete? He did not even know where he would start.

"Will you just get out of here and leave us alone?" Nickels said at last. She still did not look at him. "We just need to be alone."

"Ok," he said. "I'm sorry about what happened." He left. What else was there to do?

Smiles was dead.

Smiles was dead. They'd roll his body into an incinerator and that would be the end of that. Maybe they'd take Pete out of Solitary if she behaved, maybe they wouldn't. It all depended on whether or not her value to the organization outweighed the possibility that she would try to burn it to the ground. Nickels would get treated like a real psychic without Smiles to protect her all the time. They'd assign her work Upstairs and force her to hurt people and eventually her brain would turn to mush. Johnny no longer had Smiles to reign in his behavior; he was going to cross a line and then he would get Retired as well. It was the end for Smiles' squad and all it had taken was the death of one person.

Was that what would happen when he was no longer there for his squad?

Intermission II

Every night he had dreams that his left arm began to operate outside of his control and in those dreams it squeezed the life out of him.

BG vs The Worst Thing that Ever Happened to Him

The day that BG's life went down a path he could not turn away from was more dreamlike than any of his dreams. It was more nightmare like than any of his nightmares.

It was only a few months after Smiles was Retired. He could never have seen it coming.

Bizo, Dot, and himself all had been exercising in a rec-room for several hours that morning. It was something nice they did together. BG sometimes felt like he neglected Bizo. He was impossibly close to Lady because of what they went through together, and Echo was his best friend so there was no competing with them. Every week he tried to put a little extra time into his relationship with Bizo because of this. She needed to know how important she was to him and how valuable she was to the squad. She spent so much time by herself already.

Spending time with Bizo meant spending time with Dot. The two came as a pair. Dot was an ugly little creature but since the time Bizo found her, her intelligence had increased exponentially. Even though she was a sentient hairy ball of black slime that was usually only about as big as a cat, Dot called herself a girl. Most of the time she had 12 legs, dozens of eyes, and mouths all over her body. Her prickly black shed all over the place and was hard to explain. She could change her size; sometimes she was small enough to fit into a boot and other times she was large enough to cover Zoey like a blanket of pudding. Dot could talk a little bit, but mostly she mimicked Bizo's breathy snorting laughter.

One of the primary jobs secret police agents had was to hunt down and exterminate the creatures like Dot that infested the Colony. Only people with abilities could see them, but they latched onto civilians and brought misery into their lives. It was strange that Dot was so different. She had latched onto Bizo, but the relationship between the two of them was like a friendship. For some reason, Dot was intelligent, friendly, and not interested in hurting humans. For that reason, BG and his squad protected her like she was an important secret.

Protected by the closed doors of the rec-room, Bizo was able to scoop Dot up in her arms and hold her like a baby. She had her greasy brown hair tied up in a pony-tail to keep it out of her face (BG had told her time and time again that shaving her head and following hygiene regulations would make her life easier but she just would not listen.) Bizo's ugliness was charming. She had a dumpy body and tan oily skin covered in freckles; these qualities made her seem froglike. BG and Bizo used the open space of the rec-room to goof off in.

"Wicker was acting weird today," said Zoey, referring to one of the Elite psychics. She talked about everyone as if they were all her friends, even though 99% of the secret police avoided her like the plague because of her behavior and the nature of her abilities. Nobody could touch her physically without risking chemical burns; it was one of the reason she loved to hold Dot so much. "He looked funny at breakfast, like they fried him or something."

This wasn't a huge surprise to BG, since Wicker had parts of his brain cut out and only ever interacted with other psychics. That was an agency recipe for creating someone with all the rebellion potential of a boiled shoe. He nodded anyway as he sat on the floor doing butterfly stretches to keep himself limber. It was important to him to encourage Bizo when she talked, no matter how dumb it seemed.

"He had glue stuck on him."

"Lady has glue stuck to her all the time." It was from where they stuck the electrodes to their temples when psychics had to monitor their brain patterns during high intensity work. Lady complained about it constantly because it made her delicate skin break out.

"I guess. I still think we should do something nice for him because it looked like he felt bad."

This was what was wrong with Bizo: being trapped in Isolation for 6 years had stunted her so badly that talking to her was like talking to a 9 year old when in reality she was Creedo's age. She was nice. She was thoughtful. She didn't like hurting people, even when they had hurt her.

This was what was wrong with BG: he was starting to think she was the only sane one in the agency and he wished that he was more like her.

Dot crawled up Zoey's chubby arm and nestled beneath her chin. "Felt bad!" she said, in a voice that was scratchy and small. "He felt bad." Bizo tickled her and she changed her shape, expanding with happiness.

Someone knocked on the rec-room door and all three of them jumped in surprise. Dot shrank herself and slithered into Bizo's clothing like an eel. "We still have 90 minutes in here," BG shouted crossly. Probably a dumb C-Class rookie who didn't understand the rules. You had to sign up for time slots and Elite agents got first pick.

The knock came again. Bizo laughed. BG sighed and got to his feet. He had barely done any stretching. Usually when he hung out with Bizo he was able to get several lengthy yoga flows in. He touched his toes, reached his arms up towards the ceiling, then went over and punched in his ID number to open the door.

Of all people to be standing there, it was Nickels. When he saw her, BG felt his stomach drop to his feet and he didn't know why.

In the months since Smiles' Retirement, Nickels had been forced to work Upstairs with the other psychics. She had probably lost 10 pounds and she no longer had the funny, expressive face she used to have. She looked tired and unhappy; instead of the comfortable sweats she usually lived in she wore the heavy black pants, long sleeved black shirt, and rubber gloves that all psychics wore when they were on duty Upstairs. This uniform differentiated them from field agents. While field agents dressed in helmets and protective uniforms for the benefit of civilians, agents who worked within the Capitol building only needed to be clean and effective. When the doors opened, Nickels made a face like she didn't want to be there.

"Hey," she mumbled, not making eye contact. Whatever they were doing to her to re-train her up there was destroying her social skills. "I'm working but I really needed to talk to you."

"To me?" BG's voice sounded high in his ears.

(Alone,) she said telepathically. BG flinched. The voice in his mind sounded exactly like Nickels, while most psychics who spoke telepathically sounded like they had static over their voices. She was talented, a more talented telepath than Lady could ever hope to be. So she had given up on asking for consent before going into people's' minds. How long had that taken? (I'll intercept your thoughts, you don't need to talk. It'll just freak her out.)

(What's going on?) He felt panic.

Nickels looked at her feet. They had taken her boots away and given her the same kind of little black flats Lady always wore. (I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here but you were nice to us when Smiles was Retired. I wanted to repay that. You need to get Upstairs right now.)

"What?" BG almost shouted it. Adrenaline surged through his body as he realized what Nickels was talking about. His legs began to shake as if he had just run a long distance. There was no reason for anyone on his squad to get Retired. They were all hard workers, efficient agents. Unless one of them had committed an act that was unforgivable."Lady?" His eyes stung at the unthinkable.

Nickels shook her head no. (I just thought you'd want to see their body. For closure. Nobody gets that here.)

For a second, BG saw red. His blood was hot, he could feel every heartbeat. He could not move. He could not think. He could not breathe.

Behind him, Zoey took a few shuffling steps forward. "BG?" she asked, extending a hand out to nearly touch him, as she did when she was nervous. "What's wrong?" In that moment BG was so scared and reactive that he shoved her away from him with his right hand. His skin met hers and it instantly blistered. The pain brought him back to the issue before him and he clutched his hand over his heart.

Usually he could spring into action without hesitation. BG opened his mouth but no words came out. It was like he was a fish dying on the shore. He tried to focus enough to teleport but nothing happened. It took three more attempts before he was able to do so. He left Bizo alone and didn't even care. Didn't even take her feelings into consideration. All that mattered to him was getting to Echo.

The jump was not-- for lack of a better phrase-- well executed. He knew the Upstairs layout perfectly. He knew where the small concrete room with the grate in its floor was. He knew how to navigate the sterile halls above the dormitories, with all the twists and turns, the laboratories and confinement rooms. Instead of appearing right in front of the room where Retirements happened, BG crashed into a desk in a laboratory. A couple of white coated scientists jumped back in surprise. BG stumbled, then teleported again. If he was not careful he was going to lose his other arm or worse.

He appeared in front of the Retirement room but didn't stick the landing. BG tripped and almost fell to his knees. In front of him, directly in front of the door, leaned Crossfire, the agent in charge of executions. When he saw him, he jumped to his feet.

Crossfire regarded him with his heavy-lidded, half-open eyes. He put the communication device he was tapping on back in one of his pockets. Like Nickels, he was dressed in the simple black pants and black shirt that all agents who worked Upstairs wore. Unlike Nickels, he had a firearm strapped to his belt. "Woah there friend," he said. He was so universally hated that he had to sleep on a bed in one of the labs so that nobody shanked him in his sleep. It came with being in charge of Retirements. "This isn’t ideal."

BG seized him by the arm and shoved him away from the door. He flung it open without considering the consequences. What was worse, seeing your closest friend’s body or never seeing it at all? That philosophical question did not exist in BG’s mind. There was only the mission: get to Echo. Find Echo. See Echo. Be with Echo.

Did he love them? There wasn’t any doubt.

There was nothing inside of the room. No body. Only a wet little puddle of blood on the floor that was slowly draining into the grate. It seemed too small to be the only thing left of them.

All he could do was stand there and tremble. He could not process organized thoughts. The world was not moving around him. This was a dream. This was a nightmare like the ones he had every night except it was worse.

Crossfire leaned against the doorframe behind him. “Your teammate was nasty, you know,” he said. BG slowly turned to face him. His blonde lashes and eyebrows made him look hairless and repulsive: a monster. He had a hand lightly on his firearm. “Their ability. They didn’t look the same after they died. ”

BG’s left hand clenched into a fist.

Did you want to see them?" The executioner curled his upper lip. "I wouldn't. You know what a bullet does to a head. Messy." The way he said it made BG gaze down at the blood on the floor again. It was very red. Had he ever seen Echo bleed before? They were so careful and avoided injury. Images of skulls being obliterated by bullets filled his mind and he hated himself for knowing what it looked like.

Had they been scared?

Of course they had been fucking scared. There had been no warning. No preamble. They just got dragged Upstairs and shot. He'd seen Retirements happen before. They made you stand with your hands raised, your face to the wall. A Handler, a psychic, and the person who took the shot were always present. Sometimes others if backup was needed, if it was expected that the soon-to-be terminated person would put up a fight. A lot of people tried to fight. Allegedly Smiles had bubbled himself for nearly a day before they got to him. In the end that's what always happened. No one escaped.

He held the image of Echo's face in his memories. The last time he talked to them had been when they parted that morning after showering. Echo had been so upset about a single zit that had sprung up near their nose. BG had laughed until Echo tried to get him in a chokehold so he had flipped them over and didn't let them get up. It had been so funny because they were so mad. What a stupid final memory. That was it, forever. No more jokes, no more wrestling around. No more missions. No more waking them up in the morning. No more Echo.

They had been taken away from him.

BG couldn't look into Crossfire's eyes. He wanted to kill him; this creature that existed only to take the lives of others. That's what they all were, really. Their function was to kill and destroy. Echo had been right to want to get out of this place and now they never would.

"Who authorized it?" he said in a voice that he did not recognize. It came from far away. "Do you know?"

Crossfire shrugged lazily. "I just follow orders." He scratched his nose with his non dominant hand. The other never strayed far from his firearm. "I'll tell you though. For a price."

"What do you want?" He stared at his gun, unable to look away from it. He imagined the way he had held it before firing.

Crossfire smiled. It was not so much an expression of happiness or smugness as it was an act of him moving the corners of his mouth up to mimic normal human behavior. "The name of whoever went down and leaked confidential information to you."

If BG told him that Nickels had told him about Echo's termination, Nickels would be subject to swift and severe punishment. Everyone who worked Upstairs operated on a different level than the rest of them. Not too long ago, BG would not have cared what happened to Nickels. When Smiles was still alive, he would have relished the idea of landing her in the kind of trouble that left her in pain just because it would have pissed Smiles off. Now the idea of hurting other agents made him sick. He couldn't do that to her.

"Lady," he lied. Nobody could touch Lady. As far as he knew, she had never faced repercussions for anything she had done. She had killed 3 agents accidentally over the years while working on them in the re-education rooms and got away with it. She hurt people just for the hell of it. She was childish and incompetent in the field because of how rapidly her mind was failing her. Why should she care? Lady was Elite and nobody could touch her. There was not a single agent who was not terrified of her, himself included. "She intercepted what was happening by accident."

"Aw." The smiles that Crossfire was aping faded away like he was disappointed that he was not going to get to hunt some poor sucker down and hurt them. "OK. The termination order came straight from the Executive Director. It wasn't proposed by a Handler or nothing. Guess your pal personally upset her, I dunno."

Silas.

Statue-like, unreadable Silas. Silas, who he had loved for so long and had only just recently started to fear and resent. Smiles had been right about her. Of course he had been. Smiles had been right about everything.

BG wanted to throw up. He wanted to die because that would be easier. Of course it came back to Silas. She had never liked his connection to Echo. She had never liked how much he talked about them, and now they were dead. All he could do was stand there helplessly. His metal fist began to rise. The rest of his body was frozen in place. It was like he was already dead.

Crossfire noticed his aggressive stance and clenched fist. He did not change his, as if he was confident that BG would not dare to attack him. He was one of the oldest agents there; as old as Smiles had been. Silas had told BG once that it was hard to keep agents in that position because they became so hated. Soon he would be executed by someone else's hand. "What's the problem, man?" he asked mockingly. "You angry at me because I terminated your little girlfriend? That's so cute. Wanna hear something funny? They refused to turn around and face the wall so I shot them in the face. Let me show you. You snuck up here to see them, right?" He manhandled BG out of the Retirement room and down the hall. They were evenly matched strength wise, but BG felt as weak as a kitten. He let himself be pulled down the Upstairs corridors because he couldn't come up with anything else to do.

They passed by more researchers, who inhabited the many laboratories Upstairs. BG took no notice of them. They all wore white coats and detached expressions. Dr. Y-- or Yancey Atwood-- passed by with a canned energy drink. He did not recognize BG. Dr. Y was an unremarkable man with a wide, smiling mouth and sneakers that did not match the usual uniform of a scientist. It was hard to picture what he looked like away from his presence but as he passed, but BG tried to commit his bland face to memory. He did not look sad. He did not look interested in anything at all. A man who had...worked with Echo for nearly 10 years, and he didn't even appear to care about their death.

For most people, this was just work. They got to go home to their loved ones and forget all about what they had done. It wasn’t fair.

Crossfire pushed him into another room. It was small, windowless, and more than 10 degrees colder than the rest of the Upstairs. The only thing inside was a stainless steel table in the center with a connected shelf and bright lights overtop of it. Like a Re-education room, only more sterile. One wall had several small square metal doors. BG had never been inside but he knew it was where they kept the bodies before they tossed them into the incinerators. If an agent was not Retired-- that is to say, if they died of natural causes or were unlawfully murdered-- then this was where autopsies were carried out. Agents who were Retired were not further mutilated after their deaths. Everyone knew how they died. That was a blessing at least. Echo would not have wanted to be cut up.

BG supported himself by leaning on the metal table. He was dizzy, he was not grounded. He was watching himself from outside of his body.

"I'm so tired of you people sneaking up here to try and see the bodies. I keep saying nobody wants to see that shit, but no," Crossfire was saying. He wrenched one of the little metal doors on the far wall open. It opened with little difficulty and a smaller metal slab rolled out. The thing that had been inside and laying on top of the slab was not even covered. BG was quick to look away. He didn't want to see. Did he? "All your little friendships and connections-- who does that really serve? Nobody. And then a few months back, when that girl Pete was fighting her way out of containment because she thought she could get to Smiles, who did that serve? Nobody. She screwed herself because of her connection to the guy. Now here you are, so intent on seeing your partner after their brains have been blown out because they were on your squad. All this does is make you people feel like shit. Is it really worth it? Go on, I've taken you this far. Look!"

Against every instinct in him, BG looked at Echo's body lying there. Their expression would have been peaceful, had it not been for the wound which had taken their life. The left eye socket and cheekbone were entirely caved in into red nothingness. Totally obliterated. Gory. He stared at the bulletwound for a long time. This was where people were supposed to cry and wail and tear at their clothes out of grief. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with him? He had seen other people go into paroxysms of grief when their teammates were taken from them. BG was numb. He kept staring at what was left of Echo's face, and from far away he thought about how much they would have hated it if he saw them like that. He looked away and his eyes were unable to move from the gun at Crossfire's hip.

He raised his fist like it did not belong to him. "Hey man," he said from around a tongue that had gone thick and useless.

The executioner looked up from his handiwork. His lazy, uninterested expression did not change because he was like Lady in his arrogance; so far gone that he did not view anyone as a threat, even if they were right in front of him ready to do harm. "What?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

Without answering, BG started hitting him in the face with all his strength. He used his metal arm with its terrible capacity for violence. He did not stop. It was easier than he imagined it would be, but at close quarters Crossfire's ability was useless. After two good hits, BG had him on the tile floor. After four, he had crushed the cartilage in his nose and the blood began to spurt in heavy bursts, splattering across BG's face and getting into his eyes. Crossfire's skull felt like a wet melon under his fist. He was aware that he sustained a couple of blows, but did not feel them. He was aware that the other agent was yelling for help, but did not hear it. In the moment, his body was a beastly automaton with a singular desire: to kill.

He saw Crossfire's eyes roll back in his head and he still didn't stop.

He wasn't even mad at him for shooting Echo. He wasn't the one to blame-- just following orders, after all. But he was the only person close enough to punish.

The yelling attracted people. It must have. BG felt himself pulled up and physically restrained. It didn't hurt, not yet, although he knew that someone had tased him because he saw himself convulse. He kept fighting back without thinking about how futile it was. All he wanted to do was cause harm to anyone who played a part in doing this to Echo, and for all it mattered, everyone had played a part in that. It did not occur to him that he could teleport to Silas' quarters and end it all for good. Not yet.

They got him on the floor and tased him again. Two Handlers: October and someone else, he couldn't quite see them. A gaggle of researchers had gathered behind them, observing in their frightened-rat way. BG thrashed and rammed his shoulder into the legs of the Handler he couldn't see, sending them crashing to the ground. October kicked BG viciously, then stomped down on his elbow.

"Aw shit," said October. "I guess it was only a matter of time before this one lost it. Yikes. Hey can one of ya'll check if he killed that other guy? Jesus, what a mess."

BG tried to free his arm and October tased him a third time, not letting up until BG lost control of his bladder. He was sadistic, even for staff. The other Handler got up (upon closer inspection, she was the one known as Wednesday) and once she was clear, October stomped down on BG again even though he lay still. "Yeah, have fun laying in a puddle of piss, smart guy, because you're gonna be in Solitary for a week."

One of the researchers stepped over the urine and the blood with his sneakers to stand over Crossfire's body. BG was so far removed from what was going on, he could only recognize the white coat. The researcher bent down to check the pulse. "Unconscious," he said in an unremarkable voice. Still mostly obscured from view, BG saw this researcher pause by the open metal slab that held what was left of Echo. He gently rolled it back into the opening which held it and closed the door so that Echo and their ruined face could no longer be seen. A small act of kindness. An unheard of action. "No real harm. I'm sure whatever this young man's punishment is, it needn't be so drastic. He's upset about his friend."

October snorted. "No offense, but you have no idea how to treat these kids. If you aren’t harsh they’ll rip you to shreds."

The researcher leaned down over BG and smiled at him. Black hair, black eyes, completely and utterly bland. It was evident that he recognized him. Yancey Atwood. If BG had not been so incapacitated, he would have....well, he would have done something. "You're the professional," said Yancey pleasantly. He gave BG a cheeky little wink, which he interpreted as mockingly malevolent. "I just think this big fella is upset about his poor friend with the big hole in their grey matter over there. I know that I sure am."

Things were much worse than BG could have ever imagined.

Interlude III

Later, he thought about how he could easily teleport to Silas and kill her, but even in his anger he would not dare. There were parts of him that still loved her.

BG VS Lady

Months passed. Life became tiresome. Day in and day out, it all boiled down to the same thing: violence. They all perpetrated violence. Out in the real world, they perpetrated violence against civilians. Inside the dorms, they perpetrated violence against each other. It did not end. It would never end. It was not only the secret police who were engaged in violence. A strange and horrible Outsider came to Eden and brought with him his appetite for blood. The terrorists who had fled the Colony a year and a half ago were back and causing trouble. More Outsiders came, and Silas executed their leader herself. Cyberterrorism got worse by the day, which led to riots. There were lots of riots. There were even reports of a family of cannibals, which was actually kind of weird, even for Eden.

BG was sick of it. He woke up every morning feeling nauseous and haunted by every bad thing he had ever done. And yes he had done bad things, he had liked doing bad things. He had taken kids away from their families who loved them. He had chased innocent people down and killed them. He had liked it all, because his convictions in the agency were so strong. It wasn't just about being ordered to do bad things. Anyways, it wasn't a good enough excuse. When Smiles was ordered to do anything that crossed the boundaries of his moral fortitude, he refused until they really forced him.

He started helping people whenever he could because he could no longer stand the violence. When weaker or lower-level agents got bullied, he stepped in. When he saw people breaking the rules, he looked the other way. He stopped being complicit. He gave advice. People like Pills and Nickels, girls who had once hated his guts and attacked him, grew friendly with him. The solidarity between him and others strengthened.

But BG still couldn't sleep well. His dreams upset him too much. He would wake up in the night beneath an empty bunk. At some point he would have to find someone to take Echo's place. Recruitment wasn't for another 5 months, and he did not think he could stomach choosing some freshly tortured 14 year old. He wanted to petition to put Nickels on the Squad, since hers had been dissolved the second Smiles kicked the bucket. Lady would never go for that. Staff would never go for that either; what was the point of having a Squad with two psychics?

He hadn't stopped thinking about Echo. Sometimes he talked to Nickels about it, since she could understand what it felt like to lose a teammate. Hell, Nickels had essentially lost 3 teammates: Smiles got a bullet in his brain, Pete was locked up Upstairs having unimaginable things done to her, and Johnny was so still so hurt and angry that he had started hanging out with people who treated him poorly. Nickels said that she just missed the way things used to be, and she screwed her plump face up but was unable to cry. It made BG feel even worse.

BG contemplated these things as he slowly walked back to the dorm after an exhausting mission where he had done nothing but try to hunt down the little terrorist group that had come back. They really did not want to be found. Good for them.

The door to his room was closed, but he didn't think anything of it. It was mid-afternoon and the girls often liked to take naps when they weren't working. BG swung the door open and stepped inside. "Hey, I'm ba--" That was all he was capable of getting out before he looked about the room and froze.

Lady sat cross legged on the floor, her posture and focus as rigid as a dancer's. Beside her, Bizo lay on her back, unmoving. This tableau could have been normal, but BG knew what was happening immediately. He knew because there was blood at the corners of Bizo's mouth like she had bitten her tongue. He knew because Lady did not move or react when he entered the room since she was so focused on what she was doing. And he knew because Dot had congealed into a still black puddle on the floor nearby. Every few seconds, Lady's beautiful hands twitched like she was directing her psychic ability, and more blood came out of Bizo's mouth. Lady was smiling.

"Hey!" BG shouted. No reaction. His instincts kicked in and he crossed the room to seize Lady by the shoulder. Her skin was cold to the touch. Her big eyes were so black he could barely see any whites in them. When he grabbed her, she still did not leave her sadistic trance. Her terrible mouth kept smiling and smiling. On the floor, Bizo's expression was frozen in one of terror. She had gone so pale that the freckles on her face looked like they had been painted on. She was so trapped by whatever psychic horror show Lady was inflicting on her that could not even blink.

"Lady!" BG said loudly, shaking her. "Stop it!"

She did not stop, and she wouldn't be able to unless he jarred her from the way she was locked in. A while ago, he would have hesitated or tried to wait it out. He would have made excuses for Lady, like he always did. Oh, she had brain problems. Oh, she had good reason for doing what she was doing. Oh, he couldn't criticize her because she had saved his life. Oh, he loved her. Excuses, excuses. Now, BG could only think about one thing: he was going to be sick if he stood around and watched as she hurt even one more person.

The Lady problem was something that he should have addressed a long time ago. He would always feel guilt over the way that he knew she treated Echo and that he hadn't stopped any of it. He would always feel guilt over the way she treated everyone except him, for that matter. But it was better late than never.

BG slapped her across the face with the open palm of his right hand. He did not use much strength in the slap, because he didn't want to actually hurt her-- she was so fragile. When his hand connected with her head, Lady made a noise that was in between a gasp and a growl. For a split second, before she lost focus, she lashed out at him with her mind.

In all his years as an agent, BG had never been psychically assaulted. He was too privileged, too important. Not even during these last couple of months of acting out had anyone dared to confront him. The last time a psychic got into his head was B-Day, and she had ripped his potential out from where it hid deep down inside of him. Now, Lady pulled out other things that he had shoved away. Her specialty was trauma memories and luckily BG did not have too many of those floating around. For those few fleeting moments, he re-lived the pain of losing his arm, and had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out. The heat and the blood seemed unbearably real. He tasted copper. The air, however, did not smell of smoke and fear like it had on that day. It smelled soapy and clean, just like Echo used to. That was what really got to him. The psychic pain merged with the pleasant memory of his friend and became something unbearable.

His eyes grew wet.

Then it ended. BG steadied himself and shook his head to clear it. He looked at Lady, who clutched one hand to her face. A red mark bloomed across her pasty skin. Her expression was one of shock and betrayal. On the ground, Bizo started to wheeze and cough. She rolled over to her belly and spat out a mouthful of blood. "Oh no," she whimpered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" BG knelt to try and help her up, but her skin glistened with corrosive oils. She cried in the way that a little kid cries. Beside her, Dot began to solidify into her usual form. The little monster also made terrible noises as if she was also crying. Dot oozed over to Bizo and let herself be clutched.

"You hit me," Lady said in disbelief. Her lower lip quivered.

BG ignored her for the time being. "Are you OK, Zoey?" he asked Bizo. He wanted to hug her so badly.

Bizo shook her head as she buried her face in Dot. The creature was slowly growing back the prickly black hair she liked so much, and which had been lost when she had been...puddle-ified….He had not known that Lady could affect the alien creatures. Maybe it was only due to Dot being smarter than the rest of her kind.

"You hit me!" Lady said again. Her fine black eyebrows furrowed to contort her face.

"I'll smack you again the next time I catch you hurting Bizo!" BG said fiercely. Lady shrunk back from his anger, but her expression darkened. "That goes for anyone else here too, but especially for her! What the hell is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? She is our teammate!"

Lady's gaze slid over to Bizo, who kept crying and crying. Her curled lip revealed her belief that Bizo was something less than human-- a belief that many agents shared due to Bizo's disability. Once, BG had believed that Bizo made it out of all those years she spent in Solitary without being damaged. Spending years alone in the dark made her wilt. She was not intelligent, she was not emotionally mature. It showed in her naïve, trusting eyes. It showed in the way her mouth gaped open at all times. They'd slammed her into a dark little room when she was only 8, when her mind was still plastic and learning new things. It damaged her irreparably. Maybe if she was not in this place then she would have a chance to heal. Healing was a luxury no agent was privileged enough to get.

Dot's hair bristled and moved like the legs of countless spiders. She was back to her usual size, just a little bit bigger than a housecat. 5 narrow yellow eyes popped up in various places on her body and they all stared at BG. One mouth filled with sharp triangular teeth opened in her middle, close to Bizo's face. "Hurt!" The teeth gnashed in anger but the voice was scared and quiet. "She--she made me see the home that is beyond the stars! She made me remember we can never go back!" She grew several short legs with appendages that were not quite hands but not quite paws. Even smaller mouths opened in the center of these hand-paws, with tiny tongues that Dot used to gently lap up Bizo's tears.

"Talk to me, Zoey," said BG pleadingly.

Bizo kept shaking her head and holding the little monster close. She never opened up to him. Just like Echo. Never opening up, never actually saying the thing that was the problem. Never putting a name to the problem. In this case, BG knew the name. Lady.

Of course they hadn't felt safe talking to him about her. He always took her side. He defended her. BG felt nauseous and it wasn't just the sight of the blood at Bizo's mouth.

"I'm sorry," he told her and he knew that his words were cheap, that only his actions could start to make up for it all. He looked at Lady, who still sat on the ground but whose expression had changed to confused rage. It was not yet clear who that rage was directed towards. If it was at him, well, he didn't let himself care. "Lady," he said, keeping his voice calm even though he wanted to yell at her some more. Even though he wanted to shake her. "Why did you do that?"

"What?"

"Really? What do you think?"

Lady gingerly put a hand to where he had slapped her and winced. It made his heart twinge but he no longer let himself feel bad for her. There was no more room for that in his heart, not after he had been filling it with things like trust and collaboration with other agents. He looked at her and saw how sick she was. The culmination of nearly a decade of being used to torture others-- to torture kids-- had made her into a monster. She was not beautiful like he used to see her; she had grown unspeakably ugly. Every inch of spare flesh had withered from her body, her olive skin had turned colorless. Even her teeth had become translucent and gray. She was probably dying slowly. Her brain hadn't worked in years, and her body would soon follow.

"Are you mad at me?" Lady asked him. She slowly got to her feet and her knees popped. On her feet were the little flat slippers that they gave out to agents who worked inside of the building, and she padded a few steps away from him as if she anticipated that he would strike her again. "I do this all the time. I just get bored, I can't stand being bored. You know how it is, some people can just be so annoying!"

He tried to stay calm and tried to not clench his hands into fists. "You can't do that. Zoey and Dot are our friends."

"Bizo is retarded and we kill stuff like her pet literally every week," Lady said dismissively. She sniffed. "And I was thinking that like, now Echo's gone it would be easier for us to downgrade to Partners instead of having to get a new teammate. Then it would just be me and you, and wouldn't that be totally so much nicer? Just me and you, just like back on B-Day."

BG felt icy horror fill his body. Lady was smiling at him like she had come up with something novel. The implication alone made him want to do something drastic.

"What do you think?" she asked him.

He stared at her and knew that the girl who had brought him back from the brink of death on B-Day was dead, and the person who lived in her body now was a stranger to him. He had closed his eyes and ears and ignored the way that she had changed because it was easier for him to pretend like she was the same as she was. He knew that she loved him in her own twisted way but he wished she didn't. He loved her too, even then. He loved her more than he could even explain and knowing what she really was made him want to rip his hair out.

How was it possible for someone to be bad, even though he loved them? BG did not want to reconcile with something like that. It would be so much easier if everything was black and white, like it used to be. A couple of years ago, he knew for a fact that Smiles and his Squad were his enemies. Now he pitied Smiles for dying in such a humiliating way, and had grown close to Nickels. A couple of years ago he knew for a fact that the agency was always just. Now he thought it might rip him apart.

Bizo kept crying her snuffling tears. She was so vulnerable.

At length, BG said, "I think you need to walk away because I'm so angry right now I don't know what I'll do if I keep talking to you, and because I love you I really don't want to hurt you. Get the Partners thing out of your head forever, I mean it. I love Bizo too." When he said that, Bizo finally stopped mashing her face down into her alien friend so that she could look at him in a way that was so shocked it almost broke his heart. Of course she believed that he loved her less. Why wouldn't she? He had to make up for that somehow. He had to let her know that he loved her entire greasy awkward being, that he would kill and die for her. Echo would have done anything for her too, back when they were alive. Bizo was wonderful and kind and she was loved so much.

Lady cocked her head like that helped her better comprehend what he said to her. Like she couldn't read his body language. She probably couldn't. She blinked stupidly and did not stop smiling. "Ok, I'll take a walk, only because you asked," she said. She turned to soundlessly go for the door. Without looking back, she said, "Remember what I said about the two of us though. Just me and you."

She closed the door without making a noise and left.

He knew that it was too late for Lady and that he would never be able to help her. She was too far gone.

BG VS THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

There was nothing BG used to like to do more than chase people down.

Now it depressed and repulsed him.

There he was, in the middle of the School District. Not on top of the buildings, or creeping through the alleys at night, but inside of the actual high school. Like a civilian. For this mission he was even dressed like a civilian. The armory had doled out jeans, red sneakers, and a t shirt that said "peach time", whatever that meant. He was supposed to blend in, but even with his youthful face he could never pass as a high school student. He was too old. And he stood like a soldier. The act of dressing up anyway made him feel uncomfortable.

The mission itself was uncomfortable. Abnormal. 3 days of surveillance on the target, concluding with her extraction. The target was some 16 year old girl named Cynthia Tariq, who was a low-grade psychic. Normally she would be yoinked out of her bed while she slept, but for some reason that had been deemed an impossibility. She was special in some way so Silas wanted her to be monitored before bringing her in. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that the suspicious Infirmary nurse Doc was her father, and her other father was part of the terrorist cell that had been causing so much grief lately. BG hadn't even blinked when he learned that snippet of information. Nothing could surprise him anymore, it was all too fucked up.

The Colony was going to hell.

The Colony was going to hell and BG was wasting his time, standing around in a high school wearing red sneakers.

He and Lady were co-leading the mission. They were unable to really interact with any of the school kids because they obviously didn't belong. Lady looked especially horrific in civilian clothes; he had never seen her wear colors other than black, grey, and white, so the orange shirt she had on looked ghastly. When staff briefed them, they had been assured that all the kids would think the two of them were college aged, or teachers. It was worse. All the kids thought they were cops, which was not far off from the truth.

While he and Lady co-lead the op from the background, four C and B Class agents did all the real grunt work. They were chosen because of their actual ability to pass as high schoolers, as well as their high levels of friendliness and charisma which were supposed to put the Tariq girl at ease so she didn't call her father before she got nabbed. Bex, Shorty, Flash, and Johnny. That last one didn't feel too good. BG and Lady had been given orders to make it look like he got killed on accident during the mission. Really, Silas just wanted him executed like vermin so that Nickels and the freshly re-integrated Smokey Pete would stay in line. BG really didn't want to put Johnny down on account of his closeness to Nickels, but it would be up to him to do it since Lady couldn't kill using her mind, and they all had to leave their weapons behind to 'fit in'.

BG sat in an empty classroom as he contemplated this. He had a piece of taffy in one of his pockets but wasn't interested in eating it. He wanted to take a nap. Anything bad that could have happened had happened during the last couple of months. That wasn't including the day he walked in on Lady torturing Bizo and Dot. Silas was one step away from declaring martial law, she couldn't control anyone. Even Commissioner Nguyen was defying her and was seen openly interacting with West Agapama. He hadn't had a full 8 hours of rest in....well, he couldn't remember when.

He was aware of a fire alarm going off on another floor because he could hear it faintly. Probably the one where the cafeteria was located, since Cynthia Tariq was at lunch that that was where the 4 dummies were supposed to nab her. BG put a finger to the side of his face, then remembered that he wasn't wearing a helmet and had to use a normal communication device on his wrist. He pressed the button that activated it and would connect him to the agent he had appointed Squad leader. "Bex," he said. "What's the situation?"

No answer. Probably because civie communication devices were inefficient and awkward to use. Bex probably didn't even know he was hailing her. BG sighed and thought about teleporting down into the cafeteria, but knew that would cause mass panic if anyone happened to see him. Which they would, crowded cafeteria and all. He decided to wait until someone contacted him for once.

10 minutes later, Lady skidded into the room. She had actually been jogging-- he knew because she panted for breath and had high points of color in her cheekbones. BG immediately popped up and teleported across the room to support her. She appeared to be shocked and amused.

"What's going on?" BG asked her, flabbergasted that she had exerted herself physically instead of just talking to him telepathically. "Is everything ok?"

"No!" Lady exclaimed, but she didn't sound too upset. There was laughter hidden behind her voice. "This is just too crazy. That girl just wiped the floor with our goons. She's terrifying, she can't possibly just be a psychic. I see why she's so special, why they wanted us to watch her. I couldn't get into her head at all from that distance, and when I tried she ran for it!" Lady really did laugh, like she didn't believe what was happening.

"She got away?" BG said, alarmed. "What's so funny about that? Locate her right now so I can jump over and grab her, what the fuck is wrong with you Lady, an untrained civilian shouldn't be able to take out four of us at once!"

"Three," said Lady, brightly, like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Three?"

"Three. It's too good. That Artificial who bit you last year helped her, he turned on us. They ran away together-- don't worry I can feel their minds, even from here. Hiding while the girl tries to reach her dad to come save her before it's too late. It's all fear fear fear, I don't think I can stop laughing about it."

BG had to keep himself from reacting. It wasn't funny. It was awful. So Johnny had known that he was going to die on this mission. He must have known for days, must have been waiting for it. There wasn't much worse than the anticipation of one's own death. It was the reaction of a cow going to slaughter and trying uselessly to turn back. Of course Lady sensed fear. Johnny knew he was going to die and had tried to save a civilian girl anyway. And now they were both going to be hunted down easily, Johnny would die, and Cynthia Tariq would be taken away from her dads and tortured and brainwashed until she was nothing but a soldier.

He felt numb and hated himself for being a part of this.

"Where are they hiding?" he asked. He wanted to go home. He couldn't go home. He'd never had one.

"Two floors down, close to the left wing," Lady told him. She put her arms around his waist in preparation for teleportation. She was featherlight and he wanted to push her away. "Closet. Isn't it always a closet that they choose to burrow into?"

BG nodded without feeling anything but dread, and made the jump.

Two floors down, the firearm still rung. It blared in the background, impossible to ignore. The hallway was empty, all the students and faculty having scampered away to safety after seeing the fight and hearing the alarms. Since all emergency alert systems were wired into the agency, the single technopath always prevented emergency services from even receiving alerts if secret police were involved. None of them wanted the added difficulty of dealing with the cops, fire-control, or EMTs. These delays had resulted in dozens of civilian deaths, but the missions always went smoothly.

As he stuck the landing, BG noticed the red sneakers he wore. They looked ridiculous on him after all the years of wearing heavy boots, but he kind of liked them. He zoned out for a second to exist in a fantasy where he could wear what he wanted and didn't have to kill anyone, until Lady grasped his metal shoulder. Teleporting didn't make her sick anymore, since she no longer ate and no longer adhered to the same physical laws the rest of them did. She patted him a few times in excitement.

Lady loved to hunt people down just like he once had. For her it was not the thrill of the chase. It was the slow process of it all; the understanding of her prey's terrified anticipation of her arrival.

She pointed at a closed door several meters down the hall. BG followed the path with his eyes. He swallowed. "You sure?" he asked, his mouth dry, knowing the answer.

"Mhm." Lady's eyes had gone black again, deep pools of water framed by impossibly long lashes. She did not look human. She cocked her head for better focus the way that she always did when she listened in telepathically; she had no skill for it, unlike Nickels. For all her power, she failed to even be half the telepath of Smiles' B-Class psychic. "So sad. He's giving the girl advice on how to survive in the agency because he knows they're about to be caught. He’s thinking about all the bad things that ever happened to him."

BG's heart pounded. The frayed nerves in his shoulder burned as if his body was turning against him, as if it was urging him to stop participating in what he knew was wrong. If he was brave he would listen. But he was not brave. He would kill Johnny with his bare hands since he had no weapon. He would restrain a little girl and drag her out of her hiding place so that she could begin a short lifetime of participating in the same wretched things. The cycle repeated itself.

Just go, he thought to himself, unmoving. Just run away. He couldn't. He stared at the closet where the target hid. Boiler closet? Maybe. It would be so easy to stomp over there and get it over with. He had done this dozens of times before, both with Lady and without her. He could not will himself to do so.

"Now would be a good time to surprise them," said Lady. She un-cocked her head and stretched her arms to limber up. The bones in her shoulders and back popped gruesomely. "Really reaching a whaddya call it, a crescendo of feelings in there." She laughed her girlish, high-pitched laughed. The fire-alarm had not stopped. When BG did not move, she took the initiative. She covered the short distance to the door as quietly and gracefully as a dancer. BG reluctantly followed behind her and flexed his left arm in preparation for the kill.

How many people had he killed with that arm?

The closet door was one of the flimsy ones that slid open and shut, painted the same color as the wall so that it was perfectly camouflaged. There was no handle, no lock, only a small indentation where one could insert their fingers to slide it open. Lady hooked two fingers into it and pulled; BG loomed behind her like a menacing shadow.

Boiler closet. Of course it was. Like all boiler closets it was dark and cramped, with only just enough room for the mechanical beast that provided heated water and steam for the left wing of the school. Two people could not fit inside comfortably, but fit they did. Johnny stood closest to the door. He was in a fighting stance, ready to lunge. The t-shirt and jeans he wore to be undercover made him almost look like a normal kid, but that was the end of it. His face was wild and afraid; his sharp teeth were bared in a snarl but his eyes were big and wet like two runny fried eggs. The girl, Cynthia Tariq was pushed uncomfortably behind him like he was trying to protect her. She held something in her arms and gazed at the intruders in the way that civilians who have never seen Elite secret police agents always do. She had dark skin, bright eyes, and box braids that were in disarray, probably due to her recent fight. Someone must have hit her before she escaped the cafeteria, because a bruise was forming on one of her cheeks. She looked frightened, but not nearly as frightened as she should have been.

When Johnny saw Lady, that's when he must have known it was all over because he started to breathe rapidly; BG could see his chest rising and falling. But Cynthia was worse, it was like she knew Lady's true nature just by looking at her. She squeezed the thing in her arms tight and it squeaked. As mashed as she was up against the boiler, she tried to correct her stance instead of cringing back. It wasn't that Cynthia was not afraid-- she was very afraid, judging by the way she looked at Lady like she was some hideous spider. It was that she had the strength of will in to push past the fear.

She looked so young. 16 was older than a lot of recruits were when they got pulled away into the agency. For some reason, Cynthia seemed younger. It was because she where she was supposed to be. She was supposed to be in school, doing whatever it was teenagers were supposed to do in school. BG never had that privilege. He could see ink stains on the sleeve of her pink sweatshirt and that made him feel worse than anything, though he could not place why.

"I'm surprised you guys got as far as you did," said Lady, like she was some kind of villain from a movie. BG wished she wouldn't talk so they could get this horrible ordeal over with. She didn't twitch a muscle, but was already using her monstrous ability. Johnny shook all over like a dog as she pulled things from the recesses of his memory. It could have been anything; he had suffered enough over the years. Cynthia did not seem to be affected but she grew more alarmed when she saw that..

Cynthia dropped the thing she had been holding so that she could clumsily put up her fists. BG was roused from his discomfort and self-loathing when he realized that it was one of the alien creatures, like Dot except larger. It stretched itself up into a dripping bipedal form all covered in eyes and mouths, aping a human-like shape. It wrapped several long black tendrils around Cynthia's legs and her waist. When Lady saw it, she hopped back in disgust.

"Get away from us," said Cynthia. Her voice quavered a bit but she spoke like she was making a threat. She maintained eye contact with Lady, something that most people could not do. "I'm not kidding, I know how to fight."

"Me too," said the creature. It formed what could almost be called a human face, exactly where a face should be.

This display shocked Lady so intensely that she must have let go of her psychic connection to Johnny, because he refocused and he stopped shaking. It shocked BG too. He was not aware that there were other creatures that could talk like Dot could. He was not aware that there were others that could make connections to humans. In that moment, Cynthia Tariq was more familiar to him than Lady was. She was a girl that loved a slimy little alien, just like Bizo. Someone who was like that saw the good parts of things, not the bad. This girl cared about a creature that wasn't even from her own dimension, something that deserved to creep around in the sewers eating vermin. She was not disgusted by it the way that all other people who could see Things were. She had made friends with Johnny in less than 3 days-- Johnny, a person who was harmful, empty, and unlikable. BG didn't need to talk to her to know what she was like: Cynthia Tariq was good.

He was about to take her to a place that would squash all the good right out of her.

Lady regarded Cynthia and the creature. "Ew," she said to BG. She wrinkled her nose and suddenly the creature made the kind of noise a cat makes when it is being slowly flattened beneath a wheel. The oily black surface of its flesh bubbled like it was being boiled. Its dozens of eyes rolled wildly before being sucked back into its body. As it shrieked, Cynthia grabbed at it in sudden terror, the same way one grabs at a family member. But her fingers slipped through its body as it dissolved into gelatinous black jelly and melted into a quivering puddle by her feet.

The only way Lady could affect something was if it had complex feelings. BG looked at the puddle. He thought about Dot.

"Billy?!" Cynthia exclaimed, but she did not waste time on grief. She tried to lunge at Lady. Johnny, standing in front of her, held her back. He had that unnatural freak strength Artificials sometimes had, but even then he appeared to strain against her. What was this girl? The dossier he had read said that she was nothing but a low-grade psychic, but then how was she that physically strong? She was not an Artificial, but then why did she have strange blue eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth? She seemed to be reading Johnny's thoughts, because she looked at him and then stopped fighting. The message was clear: it was futile to fight two Elites. But Cynthia was not resigned; every inch of her body was tense and ready to move.

"Don't hurt her," Johnny said to BG. It was the first words he had said to him since that night he had sunk his teeth into his neck. All the fear seemed to have gone out of him now to be replaced by acceptance. Who could possibly get past both Lady and BG? Nobody could evade such hunters."I know you gotta kill me, I get it, but don't hurt her. You don't know what it's really like in there."

"I'm sorry," said BG, completely pathetic. He pictured what he would have to do, what he did not want to do. If he was lucky they wouldn't fight back.

He was not lucky.

Cynthia lunged for a second time and shoved past Johnny with a strength that should not have been possible. It was clear that she was untrained, but someone in her life had shown her how to throw a punch. She moved with the ferocity of a person who does not find it acceptable to quit. Her fist connected with Lady's face, dead center. It could have been a crippling blow, had Lady not recognized the danger she was in and lashed out psychically against it. Still, Cynthia's punch hit Lady square in the nose and shattered it with a loud crunch, sending Lady reeling back against BG. But the moment that Cynthia's skin touched Lady's, she crumpled to her knees, her body twisting in pain.

Suddenly motivated, Johnny also sprung forward to attack Lady, who he recognized as the greater threat. He moved to sweep her legs out from under her. Johnny was fast but BG was faster. He took one step into the boiler room and intercepted him, using his left arm to slam him against the wall hard so that he couldn't move. What Johnny’s Ability came down to was luckiness. Most of the time he was impossibly lucky. Other times, like this time, he screwed himself over so badly that it seemed like he had no luck at all. BG pressed his forearm across Johnny's throat and applied enough pressure to start incapacitating him-- knowing that with enough intensity, his job would be done.

He was farther from the door now, though only a pace separated him from Lady. By his feet, Cynthia Tariq's body convulsed and she cried for her mother. BG could see Lady out of the corner of his eye. Cynthia's punch had broken Lady's delicate nose; it was smashed and flattened. Blood poured out of both nostrils, down her chin, neck, and chest. The blood made BG sick to see and he steeled himself against becoming faint. Lady froze like she did not know what had happened to her. In nearly a decade, no target had ever laid a hand on her. She put a hand to her nose and then shuddered with pain and rage.

"You good?" BG asked her. Johnny struggled to free himself but grew weak from the lack of oxygen. BG tried not to look at him. He knew he had to end it, that it would be kinder to do it fast. He didn't have it in him to press down.

Lady gazed down on Cynthia, who went into another convulsion. In nearly 10 years, BG had never seen her so inhuman. Her eyes were completely black, no longer deep pools of water, but like holes in her skull. The entire lower part of her face was red and the blood dripped down onto the floor. Her trembling lips pulled back into an obscene smile. The blood was in her mouth and it stained her teeth. She crouched down to get closer to Cynthia and dropped whatever psychic torture program she was running in the girl's brain.

"Change of plans," said Lady, speaking more to Cynthia than to BG. "Looks like we failed our mission and couldn't take the girl in. Unavoidable accident." Cynthia breathed heavily and tried to get back up, but the things that Lady had made her experience had not given up their influence. All the girl could do was glare back at Lady without blinking, frozen.

Her words sent a chill through his body, like his own blood had turned to ice-water. Without knowing what she was talking about, he understood that this was it. This was the place where she really went off the deep end. Where their two paths separated forever. He had been waiting for it since the day he caught her hurting Bizo. Waiting for the moment she finally went where he couldn't follow.

Waiting for the moment where he would have to make a choice he didn't want to make.

"You can't mean that" he said, from a place that was far away and outside of his body. He forced himself to look at Johnny, who looked back in the way that people who know they're going to die do, little blood vessels in his eyes already bright and red from not being able to breathe. He didn't hate Johnny, didn't want to hurt him despite all of the things he had done. BG understood. And he wanted him to be free in a place where nobody could hurt him anymore.

BG wanted all of them to be free in a place where nobody could hurt them anymore.

"I mean it," said Lady. When she breathed, bubbles of mucus and blood came out of her ruined nostrils. She put one of her hands on Cynthia's head, gently rolled one of her braids between two fingers. "We have time. I want to slice her apart. You can do whatever you want to that guy. I know you must want to after what he did to you."

He knew one thing for sure and that was that he would not be able to live with himself if he allowed Lady to torture and kill this girl. BG used to think he was a good person, but had lost that sense of himself back when he realized that he was just a tool in the hands of someone evil. He had never been a good person. He looked the other way when people got hurt. He hurt people himself. He let people die and he let people get punished. He could not do that for even one more minute unless he wanted to blow his own brains out.

BG stopped pressing his arm against Johnny's windpipe so that he could breathe. Johnny wheezed and sucked air into his lungs, looking at BG warily, intelligent enough to know that he was being shown mercy but too stupid to understand why. When he was sure that Johnny was not going to react, BG released his hold on him entirely. He shook his head once to try to communicate the importance of not interfering.

On her knees in front of the girl, Lady was not paying attention to anything but the harm she intended to dole out. She was humming to herself, the way that she did when she was getting into 'torture mode'.

"Lady," said BG. He stepped to stand beside Cynthia and extended his left hand to his teammate. She took his hand without hesitation and allowed him to help her to her feet. Totally trusting, totally unaware. And why shouldn't she be? Over the years, BG had never given a reason to believe that he would harm her. Cynthia was frozen, and in Lady’s mind someone like Johnny was lower than dirt. Maybe she believed that he was showing her affection, maybe she believed that he wanted to tell her something important. It was impossible to say.

She was a monster and he loved her so much but it was all...wrong.

"Yes?" When she looked at him she was not really looking at him. Her terrible, beautiful, blood covered face was completely open. The cruelty and insectile anger on it faded away the moment that he spoke to her. BG had never wished to be a psychic before, but he did in that moment. What was she thinking? How was she feeling? She had no premonition of what he was about to do to her because she trusted him completely. He had watched her back for so many years. He had turned his back on what she did to others for so many years.

He cupped her face in his hands. When she brought him back after he lost his arm and he was bleeding helplessly as the bombs went off around them, she had cupped his face in her hands just like that. That was the day that he found her, but that was the day he had started to lose her as well. There was no going back to the girl she was before, the girl who he had been friends with, because that girl had been dead for a long time. The thing that was left was something that should not be. BG wanted to do the girl that Lady used to be just one act of kindness.

He should have said something. He should have said 'I love you', or, 'I'm sorry', but he didn't.

With one fast, simple, practiced movement, BG jerked Lady's head hard to one side and broke her neck. She died instantly. Painlessly. It was more than she could say for anyone who had died at her hands. One second she was there and the next second she was gone. Nothing changed. Lady looked the same as she ever did, she just wasn't...alive. She could have been sleeping. It wasn't like Echo, whose death had been concrete and violent and left half their skull blown off. BG carefully lowered her body to the floor and wondered why he didn't feel anything.

The second that Lady died, Cynthia Tariq regained control of her body. "What the fuck!" she said, gasping in pain but popping up to push past BG and Johnny in order to get to the black puddle. It was reforming itself too, the way that Dot had once. "Billy?! Are you OK?!"

Johnny did not look like he understood what was going on, like he expected the other shoe to drop and land him into an even worse situation. He had one hand on his neck and was still trying to position himself between BG and Cynthia.

The severity of what BG had done was starting to hit, but he still did not feel panic or grief. The numbness did not leave him. The fire alarm droned on and on as it had that entire time, and he thought about his next steps. He couldn't run. Running would make it worse. If all three of them ran then there would be nobody left to cover it all up. He knew what he had to do.

He would never be able to make up for all the bad things he had done. But he could start.

He would help Cynthia and Johnny escape the school District. He would go back to the Capitol building and as time passed he would do everything in his power to help as many people get out as he could. Until they caught him-- and they would catch him. It would be worth it.

BG looked at Lady one last time. He took a deep breath. “OK,” he said. For the first time in a long time, his voice felt like his own again. He felt like he was his own again. Maybe that was a start. “You two have to listen to me very carefully and do exactly what I tell you to do. I’m getting you out of here.”

EPILOGUE: MEANWHILE

When Yancey Atwood heard the fire-alarm go off from the safety of the classroom he was lounging in, he knew that the secret police kids were going after his protege Cynthia. Not that he was worried about her safety. Scrappy kid could fight! Not only had he been teaching her his technique, but the sad old lady cop and the rich mob guy had been sharing their skills as well. He had total confidence in her ability to survive, just as long as the A-Class agents didn’t involve themselves-- especially the psychic. Cynthia was a bright girl. She reminded him of himself.

No, now was not the time to worry about Cynthia. Now was the time to get the Teleporter without raising Silas’s suspicions. The chaos would make it easy to look like he had run away.

Yancey sipped on his 3rd energy drink of the day. “Hey Harper,” he said to his companion. “Let’s get this show on the road, bud. Time to grab your chubby boyfriend and blow this popsicle stand.” He wondered if he was mixing metaphors but didn’t care enough to correct himself.

Harper Malena, who was known as “Echo” to their little secret police pals until Yancey had brilliantly orchestrated their escape, didn’t say anything. So quiet. They didn’t have much going on upstairs, it showed in their blank and glazed over face. Sometimes he wasn’t sure why he had bothered with them as long as he had, but they were useful in their own way. And he knew for sure that they cared about the Teleporter known as ‘Bubblegum’ (stupid name) more than they cared about their own life.

Out of habit, they raised their hands to start signing, but then put them back down. Yancey couldn’t read sign language and always forced them to speak if they had something to say. Looked like whatever it was wasn’t that important.

Yancey smiled and sipped on his drink. He couldn’t help but laugh.

That Bubblegum guy was about to get the shock of his life.

#writing

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