#but this one is a bit slower cuz they have lots of time to kill on the boats now ajhbka

[huffle-dork]

Long Live the King

Chapter 5: Training Montage

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Morning dawns bright, with only a smattering of clouds in the sky. During the night the lookouts shifted, but the boat continued down the river. Now it cuts through fields of wheat and vegetables--clearly this area is home to many farms. An unfortunate side effect of sleeping outside is that there's no shelter from the sunlight when the sun rises. Are these visitors tired enough to sleep through the dawning light?

Dr. J, Jackieboy and Henny rise with the sun, all to varying degrees of success. JJ seems used to waking early, stretching and quickly rolling up his bedroll. Henny looks sleepy still but groggily sits up and rubs at his eyes, fumbling for his glasses. Jackieboy groans and tries to curl back up, covering his head with whatever he can find nearby. Bro is slumped against the wall, like he just fell asleep while he was sitting up. He doesn’t look comfortable or that he slept very well. He’s still somewhat asleep as the sun rises, though his eyebrows furrow as the light shines bright.

As the sun fully rises, Chase and Jackie come out of the hold together. They're talking quietly at first but then stop when they see the others awake. 

"Ah, good morning," Jackie says, cheerful but not too loud in case the Swaps want to ignore him. "Sleep well?"

Dr. J rises up and smiles, “Good morning. I slept just fine, thank you!” 

Henny smiles after finding his glasses, “Good morning!” 

“Why is the Sun so bright at butt fuck in the morninggg?” Jackieboy moans. 

Chase laughs. "It's a terrible thing, isn't it? How dare it be so bright." 

Once he starts hearing the others’ voices Bro blinks open his eyes and tiredly looks out. He rubs at his stiff neck and rolls his shoulders, trying to wake himself up.

"Happy you guys slept well enough." Jackie grins. "Hey, want to see something? In a moment--" 

Before he can finish, the door to the boat's small cabin opens, and out walks Henrik. Followed shortly by Vsevna. 

Jackie's grin widens. "Marvin wasn't just joking when he said that yesterday."

Jackieboy perks up and sits up at Jackie’s comment and looks back. He sees Henrik and Vsevna and grins wide. “ooooh!” 

“Aww a slumber party!” Henny says cheerfully. 

“Henny no-“ Jackieboy laughs.

Chase lets out a snort of laughter. That draws Henrik and Vsevna's attention. "Wh-what are you all staring at?!" Henrik demands, narrowing his eyes. Vsevna just grins and laughs. 

Jackie waves. "Hello, Schneep!" 

"Do not 'hello' me!" Henrik folds his arms. "You better not be saying anything strange to the otherworlders!" 

"Promise we're not," Chase says. 

"Promise?" 

"Promise." 

“We didn’t hear at thing! Promise!” Jackieboy says with a big grin. Dr. J rolls his eyes. 

Henrik pauses for a moment, assessing him, then says, "I am going to get food for breakfast. Does anyone want any?"

“Breakfast sounds great, other-me! I would like some!” Henny says brightly. 

“Yeah me too-“ Jackieboy adds. 

“Would you like some help, Henrik?” Dr. J asks. 

Bro looks like he might fall back asleep, rubbing at the dark spots under his eyes.

"Yes, that would be great, JJ," Henrik says. "Right down this way--unless we stored some food under the grates like we did with the weapons?" 

"No, it's just weapons." As Jackie says that, he uses the toe of his boot to slide open a grate on the floor, revealing a small compartment. 

"Alright, to the hold, then."

Before Henrik can go down into the hold, Jameson pops out of the entrance. He stands to the side so the others can walk through.

Dr. J smiles and nods, walking after Henrik. He pauses at seeing Jameson and waves, “Good morning, Jameson.”

Good morning. Jameson smiles at him. He looks at the others. I see most of you are already awake. Everyone down below is the same. Well, almost everyone. 

"Marvin is asleep?" Henrik asks. 

Yes. 

"Well, he can get food on his own time. Come, JJ." Dr. J chuckles at this and follows Henrik. They head  downstairs while Vsevna walks over to the wheel to take over from the night helmsman. 

Jackie sits down on the deck next to the others. "We'll be on the boat for most of the day," he says. "Then around sunset, we'll reach the edge of the Moors and switch this boat for one better for that environment."

Bro looks up as Jackie joins them. His shoulders slump slightly as he sighs, “…a whole day… I guess there’s no use in me trying to fly ahead huh?” He laughs tiredly and shakes his head. “…I’d probably just get lost…”

"Well... we're on a river... going straight south... you won't get lost that easily," Chase says. 

"But it's probably not worth the attempt," Jackie agrees. "We can use the time to help train up your friends--if they want," he adds, looking at Jackieboy and Henny.

Jackieboy bounces up slightly, “Yeah Chase! This is what you were most excited about!! Seeing me get my ass beat!” 

Henny giggles. 

Bro chuckles too and gives his friend a smile. “…yeah… I think that’ll be fun. A good distraction too.”

"Great!" Jackie says cheerfully. "So, what is it? Two close quarters weapons and a ranged one?" He looks down into the grate he opened earlier. "We have some daggers here, varying lengths, a couple shortbows with quivers--oh! One of those new crossbows." 

"Crossbow?" Chase looks in as well. "Oh, if no one takes that, I want to practice with it."

“Ah damn- I guess it’d be harder to get a sword hidden in there huh?” Jackieboy laughs, “I could fuck with a dagger though!” 

“Ummm.. hmm… I think like Juwel maybe I should learn something ranged. That way I can also be on look out for things that might need my magic!” Henny says with a bright smile. 

"You could use one of mine if you want, Jackieboy--it'd be fitting." Jackie grins. "They're lighter than the usual broadswords used by the royal warriors, though, if that makes a difference." 

But if you want to use a dagger, me or Henrik could help out, Jameson says. 

Jackieboy’s eyes gleam, “I mean… that’d be cool! … but I should learn something that I don’t have to borrow from someone else. I wouldn’t be as good as you are with them anyways.”

“Take a swing at the crossbow, Chase- the others gotta learn the shortbow basics first.” Bro says with a smile.

"Good point," Chase says to Bro. He rummages through the grate and pulls out the crossbow and two shortbows, along with quivers of arrows. "Usually we practice with blunted tips but they didn't pack any, not expecting to have the time. We'll have to be extra careful." 

“I am sure we will be careful, but we also have two very good doctors with us in case of accidents!” Henny beams. 

Henrik and JJ return at that moment, and Henrik passes out little bundles of cloth with food inside. "Here we are," he says. JJ also helps pass out food then sits down with a bundle for himself. 

Henrik notices the bows and quivers. "Ah--are you practicing?"

“Not yet just,” Bro says, “But we’re hoping we can practice to help the day pass.” 

“Well if that’s our goal, let’s all make sure we eat well,” Dr. J chuckles, “Cant learn or fight on an empty stomach.”

Indeed, Jameson says. So everyone eat up. 

The breakfast passes quickly, as travel provisions are dry and easy to eat by design. 

Marvin joins them just as they're wrapping up, holding a hunk of bread in his hand and taking bites out of it. Clearly he's found his own breakfast. "Let me guess. It's training time?" he says. 

"Hopefully!" Jackie says cheerfully. 

“Good morning, Marvin,” Dr. J greets. 

"Good morning," Marvin replies. "Suppose I'll watch this. It was fun last time."

"Other me, when you're done take a look in here and try to find a dagger you can use. Shorter is better for beginners, though it does mean you have less range." Jackie says.

Jackieboy quickly gets to his feet and goes over to look at the weapons. He hums as he looks then grabs about a medium sized dagger. He grins and looks at the others, “I’m pretty speedy so- I’m not too worried about range!”

Marvin looks around. "Do you think there's enough room?" 

"The bows will need space," Chase muses. "I'm guessing you didn't pack targets when you left." 

"No, sorry," Jackie says. "It's alright, we can improvise." 

"You know, the royal crest sort of looks like a target," Jackie says slowly. "And we still have that tunic that Bro ripped up..." 

Marvin laughs. "I was not expecting that 'disrespect' from you, Jackie." 

"We're short on materials!"

Bro grins, “That sounds perfect.” 

“Fuck yeah! We can get out our rageee and practice! It’s two birds with one stone!” Jackieboy laughs.

Everyone laughs. Even Chase, who seemed so quick to defend the real king earlier, smiles a little. "Alright, let's set it up, then," he says, getting to his feet. 

A lot of the Phantoms have to clear some space for the others to have room, but luckily, they don't mind. Bro goes to sit on the wall of the boat, watching with a smile.

Jackie pins the ripped tunic to the wall of the cabin with some arrowheads, providing a target. Half of the deck is thus converted into a shooting range, while the other half is for everything else. 

"Alright, Henrik, did you want to help with the knife lessons?" Jackie asks. 

"Yes, sure." Henrik nods. 

Bro blinks and smiles, “Oh Henrik’s gonna help this time? Nice!”

"Hah, yes, my weapon of choice is usually a smaller dagger." Henrik reaches down to his belt and pulls a dagger out of the sheath. "I am not often out in the front, being a doctor. So this is for just in case people get close." 

There's also those potions you've been using lately, Jameson says. Those are very helpful. Did you see him throwing those yesterday? 

"They are, are they?" Henrik grins. "I did run through almost all of my supply yesterday, but I can brew them easy enough, I just need more of the special bottles." 

Meanwhile, Chase is fiddling with the crossbow, looking it over. "Why does this seem so complicated, and yet, so simple?"

Henny looks down at Chase’s crossbow and tilts his head. “That does look complicated…” 

Dr. J tests the strength of the string on his shortbow.

"It looks like I just have to pull this, ah... I don't know what to call it, this... lever?" Chase indicates a trigger on the crossbow. "While I figure this out, let me give you two advice. The string will take effort to pull back, but if you can't move it at all it's too tight. You'll want to hold the bow with the opposite hand of your dominant eye." 

Henny perks up hearing about the potions and jumps over to Henrik, “oh!! I was wondering what those were!! Are they magic??! They are so fascinating!” 

“Oh well… we lost Henrik-“ Dr. J laughs. 

Henrik starts a bit at Henny appearing, but then laughs. "Yes, they are magic. This land has many plants with magical and medicinal properties--is why I came here to be a doctor so many years ago. But the unmixed potions are a practice from my home." He looks around, then reaches into one of the grates on the floor and pulls out a round bottle. A glass wall divides two different liquids inside, one a bright pink, one a pale yellow. "When you pour out the bottle or smash it, the liquids inside mix and form new effects! This one will cause a bright light." 

Henny’s eyes sparkle in fascination. “Woahhh!! That is amazing!! And you not need to be magic yourself to use such things?!” 

“I mean- even back home not everyone needs to be magic to use magic, Henny.” Jackieboy grins, “My family really liked witchcraft growing up. Was a fun Irish tradition my mam kept going with us- even if me and my siblings don’t really practice. At least the… religious stuff.” He laughs, “Oops Off topic but! Nature based magic? That’s always been open for anyone to learn-“ 

“Oooh really? Is that similar to what you use here, other me?” Henny asks. 

"Witchcraft is what it's called here too, yes," Henrik says, looking back and forth between Henny and Jackieboy. "And anyone can use it, learning to brew the right potions or craft the right talismans." 

Then Henny pauses and looks back at Jackieboy. “you never really talk about knowing magic things Jackie!” 

Jackie’s easy expression falls for a second and he looks away. “…it’s… kinda a… sensitive subject… cuz it… deals with.. you know.” 

Henny’s eyebrows furrow and then his eyes widen. “oh right! Yes I.. I am sorry Jackie-“ 

“It’s okay, hen, I brought it up!” Jackie laughs.

"What happened?" Jackie asks, picking up on Jackieboy's 'sensitive subject.' 

"Jackie, please," Henrik says, having also picked up on that and deliberately ignored it. 

"What? I can't help but be curious, since he's... me in a way. My family was never that into witchcraft, other than the handful of talismans to help protect from wild animals." 

"He just said it was sensitive." 

"He doesn't have to answer." Jackie looks a bit ashamed. "But, um... sorry." 

Jackieboy’s face falls again. But he tries to laugh, “no I… I get it. I would have asked too… I just…” He holds his arm and sighs quietly. “…I don’t want you guys to think… differently of me. But I… I knew… Magnificent… when we were kids. He was… my best friend. I’m the one who taught him about witchcraft… opened him up to studying other magic outside what his family knew. I… really loved teaching him. But now…it just reminds me that…” He purses his lips, trying to school his expression. 

The others' expressions fall. 

Henrik gives Jackie a glare, who just looks apologetic. "My apologies... for asking," Jackie says awkwardly. 

Marvin glances away. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it was your fault," he says slowly. "Jackie and I have had arguments as well--in fact, we had quite a big fight almost two years ago--and I still never would have done something like--not to make it a-about me, that's not my intention, I just--I simply mean that Magnificent might be the same regardless of your actions." 

I'm not sure that helps, Marvin, Jameson says. 

"I'm... sorry if it doesn't. I just... want to say he shouldn't blame himself." 

Jackie looks up and smiles at Marvin, “No actually that… that helps, Marv... But… I don’t blame myself. It… took a while to come to terms with.. all this. I.. honestly thought he was dead. But… I know now. That he chose to do all this.., I was there for him as much as I could be. …we all make our choices.” His expression darkens.

"W-we should continue with the lesson," Henrik says, quickly changing the subject. 

Jackieboy shakes out his head. “uh… yeah. Now you know! So… violence?” 

Jackie laughs. "Violence. Yes." 

Henrik nods. "The first step with any knife is getting comfortable holding it. For some reason, people are more wary around them than they are swords." He flips his own dagger in his hand, holding it a different way. "When I was learning, I had to spend a few days carrying it around with me, so I would be cautious but not overly nervous. But I will not make you do that, sicne you may not be in this world for long. Just keep in mind that you want to hold it tight, but not in a death grip." And you rarely want to hold it with your thumb at the bottom, Jameson adds That's only really helpful if you want to stab like this. He makes a stabbing motion that reminds the Swaps of the stereotypical horror-movie-killer stab. And it's rare that you'll do that. 

“Oh really?” Jackieboy says, already holding his knife like Jameson suggested not to. He studies Henrik then changes his grip, slicing at the air a bit to see how it feels. “huh- neat!” 

Meanwhile, JJ goes to follow Chase’s advice, testing his eyes. He puts his bow into the left hand and tries to see how well he can pull the string. 

"Looks like you're doing well," Chase says to Dr. J. "Now put your guard on your left arm so the bow string doesn't snap against your skin. Then move your feet like this." He turns sideways. "Your left foot should be in front." He looks at his crossbow and tries aiming it. He pulls the trigger--and nothing happens. Confused, he looks it over. 

Dr. J follows the instructions with a concentrated expression. He shifts his foot and puts the guard on. He holds out the bow and string and smiles. “Oh… that kinda makes you feel powerful doesn’t it?” He chuckles. He looks back at Chase and relaxes his stance. He hides a laugh, “Having difficulty?”

"Yes, but I can figure it out." Chase turns the crossbow over in his hands. He tries moving various parts--and finds a little lever on the back. "Oh, this was keeping it from firing, I think." He laughs a little and looks back at JJ. "It does, sometimes. I imagine it's more so for longbows. Those can be up to this tall." He holds a hand out just below shoulder-height. "Oh! When you nock the arrow, be sure that one of the three vanes--those are the feathery bits--points outward."

Dr. J chuckles at Chase’s discovery. “Ah that’s probably a safety so it won’t shoot when you’re not ready.” He takes out an arrow and studies the end before nocking the arrow. He pulls back and tries to aim for the makeshift target.

"A 'sayf-dee,'" Chase repeats. He looks at Dr. J as he aims. "Make sure your bow is lifted all the way. New learners tend to let them droop. Keep both your eyes open to aim. And loose whenever you're ready."

Dr. J opens both his eyes after keeping one shut. He nods and follows all his advice then fires his first shot.

Dr. J's arrow hits near the center of the royal crest. Chase's eyes widen and he laughs. "Nice! You're either extremely lucky or you really have a knack for this." 

“I’ll go with extremely lucky.” Dr. J laughs. 

Chase looks over at Henny. "Hey! Did you want to join as well?" As he waits for Henny's answer, he takes aim with his crossbow and pulls the trigger. The bolt hits the crest, closer to the edge than the center. "Hmm. This is strange."

Henny blinks as he’s called and calls back. “Oh! Yes! Coming!” He then turns back towards Henrik and grins. “I’d love to see how you make your potions later then, other me! I think it could be useful to learn!” Then he rushes off to join the archery lesson. 

Back at the knife lesson, "Pay attention to if your blade has one side or two," Henrik says. "If it is one-sided, rest the thumb on the side that is not sharp. If it is two-sided, like this dagger, hold it securely with all fingers and your thumb on top." He demonstrates. 

Jackieboy squints at his dagger. It seems… two-sided- so he tries to mimic hold Henrik is holding his. “like this?” 

Henrik nods. "Very good. Now, we should start with defense. Jameson, you learned this more recently, so if there is anything you remember feel free to jump in. Defense with a knife is difficult compared to a sword, due to the lack of reach. You should put more force into it than you expect to make up for that lack." 

Jackieboy nods, testing his grip and swinging the dagger around. He grins, “I can see why Alt likes these kinda things though- s’like a surprise no one anticipating! But yeah- more force… got it!” 

Meanwhile, Dr. J helps Chase to instruct Henny on how to get set up. He seems to be more left eye dominant so he holds his bow in his right hand and puts the guard there. JJ helps him get into stance and Henny starts to close his eye before JJ warns him not to. He giggles then takes aim too, letting his arrow fly.

Henrik's arrow hits even closer to the center. Chase blinks in surprise and laughs. "Are you sure you two haven't done this before? 

Henny blushes and waves one of his hands, “I swear I have not! I do not know how I did it!” 

“Maybe it’s a natural talent you didn’t know you had, Henrik,” Dr. J says kindly, patting his shoulder. “it really wasn’t something you could have learned.” 

“Alright, alright. Shoot another, we'll see if it's really luck." Chase says.

Henny smiles shyly.

Meanwhile at the knife lesson, I could help with a demonstration, if you need it, Jameson offers.

Jackie blinks then smiles, “Only if you wanna man! Anything would help probably.” 

Bro watches with a smile, leaning his head on his hand. He wonders if the Phantom managed to keep the sword the king gave him- technically now it’s stolen.

"I think it would help, too," Henrik says. "Jameson? Let's go slow." Jameson nods, taking a knife from his belt. This one is one-sided compared to the two-sided daggers. He steps over to Henrik and slowly mimes a slashing attack. Henrik demonstrates how to deflect. "If it is a knife attacking you, aim for the base," Henrik says. "In a fight, it's better to overcorrect and hit the attacker's hand than to undercorrect and only push away the tip a bit. If it is a sword, you will have less problem aiming for the bigger blade. And it is there that you will want to use the most force, since the bigger blade will naturally have more strength behind it." 

Jackie tries his best to absorb the information, nodding slowly. “Okay yeah- makes sense. You wanna disarm another guy with a blade cuz then you’d have the advantage but with a sword you just wanna sure you don’t get like- chopped.” 

Back at the arrow lesson, the swaps try to shoot again, Henny first then JJ.

This time, neither of them hit the makeshift target. Henny's arrow gets embedded in the wood farther to the left, while JJ's doesn't even do that, instead bouncing off the surface. 

"Well, I would've been embarrassed if you were both better than me right away," Chase chuckles. 

Henny and Dr. J laugh, Henny a bit more embarrassed but JJ seems to be taking this all in stride. 

"Here, let me..." Chase raises the crossbow, aims, and fires. The bolt hits the dead center of the crest. He blinks, clearly surprised. "Oh! Well, I suppose we all have beginner's luck, hah." 

“Ah you’ve been doing this much longer, Chase! I think that bullseye was well deserved.” Henny says brightly. 

He looks back at the two of them. "I think you were both a little looser with your stance and aim the second time. You can't get too confident."

Henny takes Chase’s advice and stands up straighter as he pulls the bow again. Maybe- bordering on too straight. Dr. J tries to take it a bit easier while still following Chase’s instruction.

"Don't break your spine, Henny," Chase grins. "Being too stiff is just as bad as being too loose. JJ, you look good. Try not to recoil from the snap of the string when you loose the arrow."

Henny blinks and then tries to relax and Dr. J nods with a smile. They both fire again. Henny’s posture correction helped him to hit close to the center again, if a bit off from the first time. But definitely an improvement from the time before. 

Dr. J’s gets stuck in the wood before the fabric. He chuckles. “Maybe i should try to learn about those potions! I’m not sure weapons are my strong suit.”

Chase laughs. "We can always do that later! I'm curious about Henrik's potions myself. For now, practice makes perfect."

"You're all doing great!" Marvin says encouragingly. Thank you, Marvin, Jameson says. 

“Yes, Juwel! You are always telling me the same are you not?” Henny smirks, nudging Dr. J slightly with his elbow. Dr. J flushes a bit but still laughs, “Touché. Alright, let’s keep practicing then.”

"And I'll do some practicing of my own." Chase loads another bolt into the crossbow. "Ask me for any help you need."

"If you want, I can help demonstrate, too," Jackie says back at the other lesson. "Or, if you want, Bro, you can. We still have that sword you had earlier." 

Bro blinks and points at himself. “Oh? I mean- yeah I could I’m just- still nowhere good enough to teach anything yet.” He grins timidly. 

"Ha. Well, I mean, it could also be practice for you, for defending from knives," Jackie says. "While Jackieboy keeps from being 'chopped,' you keep from being 'shanked.'" 

Bro bursts out laughing then shakes his head, jumping off the boat’s wall to his feet, “Alright- I guess I’m game then!” 

"Great!" Jackie grins. "We put your sword in the hold, so I'll go get that real quick. You guys keep practicing while I do that." 

Henrik nods as he walks off. "Alright, Jackieboy, I'll show you some basic moves, then." 

◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈

As much as the King would have loved to sleep more, they had a lot of ground to cover. And Alt needed sleep to function; his body was the same as ever even if his mind was ensorcelled. So the King relieved him of guard in the middle of the night. And now, with morning dawn, he nudges him awake with the toe of his boot. "Wake up, á klaíoh," he says. 

Alt very quietly groans before he registers who’s speaking and his eyes fly open. He glitches to his feet and nods his head to the king, bowing slightly. There’s a faint tremble to his hands and the bags under his eyes seem deep. But overall he seems fine as far as the King can tell. The spell is still strong. 

And then the King glances to where Magnificent is sleeping. "And you too, Magnificent, dear."

Magnificent stretches very cat-like and swats at the air, “Yeah yeah m’wakin’ up…” He slurs as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

The King chuckles lightly. He goes over to the horses, which were tied to a tree branch during the night. After rummaging through the saddlebags, he tosses some provisions to Alt. "Eat. Quickly. Then go scout around the area." 

“Yes, mu Ríth.” Alt responds, grabbing the food and scarfing it down quickly. 

Aneirin double-checks that his gold circlet is still where he left it on his belt. It is. Good. 

Soon enough, Alt is glitching to his feet and goes to scout around while the King and Mag prepare. 

"We'll be passing through some farmlands on the way west," Aneirin says to Mag. "Can't be avoided if we want to take the shortest route. Will you have any problems with that?"

Magnificent teleports to his feet and stretches more before looking at the King, tilting his head. “Why would I have an issue passing through farmland? If it’s the quickest then that’s where we should go.” 

"I didn't wish to assume," Aneirin says. "Perhaps you don't like being seen. But to be honest, a trip through the farmland could be ideal for gathering food. We can scavenge through most of the kingdom, but it is unwise to trust the plant life in the Wyldwood. It may cause undo side effects. The first time I was there, my... companion... unwisely ate a strange fruit and I had to waste a day taking care of him while the effects wore off." He purses his lips, frowning at the memory.

“Well yeah that sounds like it’s good to avoid.” Magnificent says flippantly, brushing himself off. “I don’t mind being seen- and you do whatever you need to keep the brat and your body running.”

"Ha. Indeed I will." The King grins and then takes some provisions for himself to eat. "Hmm... if any of the peasants see us, I'll have to modify their memories so rumors don't spread. Luckily I can do that without expending any of my power. So in just a couple days we'll be able to take a shortcut, barring any unforeseen circumstances..." He's more speaking to himself than anyone else.

Magnificent nods, leaning back against the tree he was resting near, “Alright yeah- guess the King traveling towards this big forest thing would cause quite the rumors?”

"Oh, definitely. It's rare to see a member of the royal family out in the country." He chuckles, and waits for Alt to return from the scouting.

“Ahhh yeah. Figures.” Mag chuckles along with him. 

Soon enough, Alt glitches back and stands at attention towards the King and Mag, “The area is secure, mu Ríth. Nothing out of the ordinary.” 

"Excellent. We'll move on, then." The King heads back over to the horses and mounts his. "Keep a lookout as we go. Alert us if there is anything strange before acting." Like that bird yesterday. That was strange. He pauses for a moment, wondering if there was anything... magical about it. But he can't think of what it could be. 

Alt nods, “Of course, mu Ríth.” 

Magnificent stretches again the teleports onto his horse, calming it down and then settling in. 

Alt hesitates, not really wanting to get on the horses again but not really wanting to walk the whole way either… but maybe he’d be able to scout better on the ground. 

Aneirin notices Alt hesitating. "What's the problem?" He raises an eyebrow. "Surely there isn't one."

Alt straightens up and shakes his head, “um n-no your highness, a-apologizes.” He glitches onto the horse with Mag and tries his best to hide his discomfort.

Aneirin chuckles. "On we'll go, then." He snaps the reins and the horses start off. 

◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈

The whole day passes on the river. As the boat goes, the river gets wider and wider, and yet also shallower and shallower. More trees appear, taller ones with large roots and drooping branches. Henrik and the other doctor on board pass around a couple jars of paste that smells like bug spray. Until, near the end of the day, the boat pulls to the side of the river. There's a small wooden building there with a dock, and docked there is another boat, one that's wider and shallower than the last one, without a cabin. Vsevna disembarks and starts talking to a pair of women who come out of the building.

The guys are hanging out on the surface of the deck, waiting for the go-ahead to start shifting the stored supplies to the other boat. 

Henny watches from the edge of the boat, studying the landscape. “ohh I see now why we need to change boats! These waters are very different.” 

“And full of bugs-“ Jackieboy mutters, swatting at one of his arms. “I need more of that paste stuff, Jesus.” 

"Here, there is some left, but do not take it all," Henrik says, handing the jar he has to Jackieboy. 

Jackieboy smiles gratefully and takes some more before giving it back. “Thanks Doc!”

Dr. J looks to fantasy boys, “How far to the wlydwoods from here?” 

"From here, it's due south to the coast," Chase says. "Where we'll meet up with a larger ship and sail west for two days until we reach the Cliffs of Feall. And that's not too far from the Wyldwood at all. Only a couple hours walk, really." He glances at the others. "I still can't believe you set up camp there." 

"Cliffs are defensible," Marvin says simply. "We could technically continue going west through the Moors, they spread more west to east than north to south. But this time of year the bugs are especially active, so I doubt anyone wants to spend a lot of time in here." 

"We have medicine for marsh fever if it comes up," Henrik adds. "Though symptoms do not usually appear until a week afterwards. I hope you have medicine for it back home if you catch it." 

Last time Bro and Alt did make passing mention of a lot of medicine, so I think they'll be fine, Jameson says. Don't worry them. 

Dr. J nods, “Reasonable… and yes I’m sure if we were unlucky enough to catch something here we’d be okay, granted we got treated quickly once we’re back home.” 

“Two days…” Henny says in a small voice, “I understand why…I am used to longer travels… I am just worried for Alt…” 

I know we only spent a few days with Alt, but we could tell that he's very... hardy, Jameson says. And I doubt the King or Magnificent would hurt him. It's not ideal, but we're moving as fast as we can. We'll be sure to beat them for what they've done. 

Henny still looks worried as he adjusts his jacket. “…I know… but even if Magnificent does not… intentionally hurt him… he does not know what being human is anymore… I remember how tough I was pushed when-“ He then slaps his hands over his mouth, eyes wide for a second. Then he sighs and lowers his hand, looking away. No use hiding this- “…when I was used by him… I just… I want him to be okay…” He blinks tears out of his eyes and tries to keep them back. “but I know he will most likely not be… and it hurts my heart.” 

Dr. J pats Henny’s shoulder lightly. “…we can’t change how this is playing out, my friend. We can only do what we can…” 

Jameson's eyes widen slightly. He starts to reach out, then hesitates and pulls back, pursing his lips. Well, it's not just Magnificent, he says. The King is... not kind, but he likes to keep people functional. And he probably understands better what it's like to be human. Even if he is just a spirit. He hesitates. I'm... sorry that happened to you. Nobody should be used. 

Marvin glances over at Jameson, concern flickering on his face. Jameson notices this and gives him a reassuring smile.

Henny’s eyes widen listening to Jameson. Then he smiles knowingly and nods, “Thank you, my friend.” 

Despite the others having gathered together Bro has taken one of the bows and is practicing taking aim at the Royal crest, eye narrowed as he sits on the ledge of one of the ships railings, up higher than the others. He’s a pretty decent shot if not just a bit rusty. And he’s being careful that no one is near while he shoots.

Jackie looks back at him. "You know we'll have to get off the boat soon," he reminds him.

Bro grips the bow tighter and calls back, “I know- I’m just passing the time.” But really- he’s letting out his frustration and pent up anger about this whole thing. “It was either this or use my Jackie as target practice-“ 

“Hey!” 

“Well I’m not am I? Cool your jets-“ Bro mutters, letting the arrow fly. The arrow just barely nicks the edge of the center circle and Bro tsks under his breath. 

“Still Chase… we should be getting ready to go to the next boat…” Dr. J warns gently. He recognizes that look in his eyes… 

“I hear ya!” Bro says as he jumps down from where he was perched to go grab the arrow and the tunic. 

Marvin blinks. "Cool your... 'dyets'?" he repeats under his breath. "That sounds like a Lodkan word." 

"It's not," Henrik comments.

Jackieboy giggles, “‘Jets’- it’s like a… high powered thing. We use it on air- …flying ships. And they can get hot so- ‘cool your jets’.” 

Marvin nods and turns back to Jackieboy. "Flying ships... that sounds very interesting." 

Jackieboy laughs, “Yeah they’re pretty cool. Make traveling a lot faster in our world!” 

“Lodkan?” Dr. J can’t help but ask, “Is that another country nearby?”

Henrik clears his throat. "Lodkan is the language of Leylodka, a nation to the north. The largest of the five nations that are farthest north in the world, actually. Vsevna is from Leylodka. And many of his crew are also from the far north. Those nations are well known for their shipfaring in this sea." 

Dr. J looks fascinated, “Oh I see… that explains their differing accents for sure. How interesting!” 

As if queued by the mention of his home language, Vsevna whistles for attention. He waves at those on deck. 

"That's our cue to start moving things," Jackie says. Other Phantoms who caught the cue are already heading down into the hold.

"You're improving a lot," Chase compliments his other version. 

Bro glances at Chase and tries to give him a smile, but it falls short. He takes out the arrow with force and takes off the tunic as he mutters. “Maybe I’d aim better if I pictured Mag…” he mutters. 

He perks up as he hears Vsenva’s whistle and he sighs, moving to deposit the things on the deck for now. “I should help with the heavy things-“ he comments before heading down to the hold to help. 

“Ughh how is Bro not sore? Even with just using a dagger my arm is killing me… I dunno if I can lift a lot.” Jackie moans. 

“He is a superhero, Jackie.” Henny giggles. 

“Yeah yeah-“

Jackie watches Bro go. Then looks back at Jackieboy. "Yea, don't worry about it. He has his magic and the rest of us have used weapons for a couple years at least." 

Except for me, Jameson admits. So I understand, other Jackie.

Jackie laughs a little. "I'll go down to help now, too." And he does.

Jackieboy massages his arm and chuckles, “Bloody cheaters, the lot of you! Only me and my boys and Jameson are legit it seems!” He jokes, lightly nudging Jameson with a smirk. 

Dr. J laughs and shakes his head, “I’d like to help… but I’m afraid my arms feel like jelly-“

“Hey, experience is not cheating,” Chase says. “In fact I would argue it’s just the opposite.” 

“Yes, magic is cheating,” Henrik says. 

“Hey!” Marvin gasps, mock-offended. 

The others laugh. 

Jackieboy giggles with the others, “Nah man I’m just havin’ a laugh- it helps distract me from the arm pain!” 

“Don’t worry about helping if you feel you can’t, JJ,” Chase says. “It just means you get to claim a spot on the boat first. This one has benches built-in.” He grins.

Henny laughs too, hiding his mouth behind his hand. Dr. J looks a bit relieved as he chuckles, “Oh that would be brilliant actually!”

Chase laughs. “Well what are you waiting for then? The rest of us are going to get pulled into helping, but no one would stop our guests.” 

“It is getting late, so tomorrow I could show you our potions and medicines, if you like,” Henrik says.

Henny nods excitedly at this, “Oh yes! I would very much like that other me!!” 

Dr. J chuckles and nods, “Yes, that sounds lovely as well, Henrik.” 

Jackieboy grins, “Well then gents? To the new boat!” He parkours over the side, making sure he’s landing somewhere safe before heading over. 

JJ rolls his eyes, “What a show boat. Come along, Henrik- we can use the ramp like civilized guests.” 

Henny giggles and they too head off to the other boat. 

Bro flies out of that hold with a heavy load but doesn’t look deterred at all. He touches down to the dock and grins at the others. “…I have no idea what any of this is but! Putting it on the new boat should do it right?”

Jackie follows Bro on foot. “I’ll still never get used to that,” he mutters, indicating Bro’s flight. 

The others all join the guys on the dock eventually. “Those are for the food,” Marvin says, indicating what Bro was carrying. “We also have medicine, ingredients and supplies for making medicine, spare clothes, weapons, the tents, random stuff—you’d be surprised.” 

“See? Cheating.” Chase gestures at how Marvin is using magic to make the tents he’s carrying levitate.

Bro blinks and then giggles, “Yup that’s me! Big ol’ cheater~” He does not even seem remotely sorry. “Are we putting these in a separate hold or-“ He asks the others.

"The hold is these flat boats are very small," Henrik says. "Here, let me show you." He walks onto the boat and pulls open a trapdoor in the center. The space beneath is barely big enough to crouch in. "So we can only put things here that we are sure we won't need. Everything else will be strapped down on top." 

"There's surprisingly a lot that we won't need," Jackie adds. He gives guiding gestures to Marvin and the others with the tents, and they put them into the small hold. "Pretty much only weapons and food are going to be up top." 

"And of course, if you want to learn about my potions, the materials for that," Henrik adds. 

The other boat was already crowded, but this is going to be much more, Jameson says. 

"Yea, don't worry about sitting down on deck, everyone's gonna be doing that," Jackie says.

Bro follows after the others and nods to all their info. “Well guess it’s good we’ll be on another boat soon then-“ He comments putting his pile of stuff down on the deck of the new boat.

"Yes, by this time tomorrow we'll have reached the ocean," Marvin says. He makes a face at that. "Oh joy." 

"Marvin, this time I insist you take a nausea tonic," Henrik says. He looks at the swaps. "And any of you who need it." 

Dr. J timidly raises his hand, “I will need one for sure-“ 

Henrik chuckles. "Will be no problem, JJ. I packed plenty. Thank the Sisters that you are not stubborn like this one." He pats Marvin's shoulder. 

Marvin makes a face at him, then turns to Dr. J. "Well, we won't have to worry in the Moors. It's all very still water here. There's not even much wind. See? There's not even a sail on the boat." 

Dr. J studies this with even more fascination. “Oh I see! Either there must be a stronger current here or it just doesn’t get enough wind… or perhaps both.” He chuckles. 

“Marvin being stubborn must be a multiversal thing-“ Jackieboy mutters to himself. 

"Not enough wind," Marvin says. "The trees tend to block a lot out. And I heard that." 

Jackieboy flushes and waves his hands, “Wait no I didn’t-“ 

Jackie laughs. "You're too right, Jackieboy." 

"You are not much better," Henrik mutters. 

"Neither are you!" 

"Okay, we get it, the three of you are stubborn bastards," Chase says, chuckling. 

All three of them make sounds of protest, specifics getting lost in their overlapping voices. 

Bro laughs, shaking his head, “I think most of us are stubborn. I know Alt is like 1000% stubborn.” 

“Chase you are too- it’s definitely a Brody trait from what I’ve seen.” Dr. J smirks. 

Bro shrugs, “Yeah that’s fair.” 

“But he’s nowhere as bad as Alt-“ Jackieboy adds. The 

others all nod in agreement.

Jackie grins. "From what I remember of Alt? Yea, that's accurate." 

With all of the Phantoms helping, it's not long before everything that needs to be stored is stored. It takes a bit longer to tie down the things in the center, but soon they have a pile, with everyone's bedrolls around the edges so that they can be easily grabbed when night time comes. There are no hammocks below deck like the last time. Seems everyone would be having a night under the stars.

Bro backs up from helping everyone tie stuff down and wipes sweat off his brow. He goes to sit in front of his friends on the deck. Jackieboy pats him on the shoulder and Bro smiles back at him tiredly. Henny looks over the edge, studying the water. Bro makes himself comfortable with a sigh.

As soon as everyone's on board, one of the Phantoms pushes away from the shore using a long pole. The boat drifts out onto the water. There is no wheel for steering here, just a lever at the back that connects to a rudder. The rudder and poles are the ways to steer here. 

The boat continues down the water, the trees getting taller and wider. The sound of frogs fills the evening air, so many that it sounds more like ringing than any animal sound. The sun begins to set, and small specks of yellow light start flying through the air. 

As the specks of yellow appear, Henny shoots to his feet and tries to get a closer look. "Oh mein gott!! What are these???" 

Dr. J watches with quiet awe, a soft smile on his face. "...they're... fireflies...! Oh my... I’ve never gotten to see them in person..." 

Marvin laughs. "Yes, fireflies! They exist in your world, too?" 

"Oh yeah- we only got glowworms back home-" Jackieboy chuckles as he looks, "Not nearly as impressive! These are... wow-" 

Bro looks up at the fireflies and smiles. They were beautiful... but it also just makes him miss Alt. He would have loved to see this... 

"Sounds like they exist, but they've never seen them," Chase says absentmindedly. "Well... I haven't, either, to be honest." He and Jameson are just as enamored with the glowing bugs as the swaps. 

"They exist in America," Bro says quietly, a far off look in his eyes, "... I remember seeing them sometimes... before I moved to the UK." 

"Here, watch this." Marvin holds out a hand. After a moment, one of the fireflies lands on his finger. "They just do that. Even with the repellant. It's so, um... 'cool.' It's sooooo 'cool.'" He chuckles. 

Henny looks so excited and eagerly holds out his hand for some fireflies to land on- but he's too excited. "come here little friends!!" 

"In the Wyldwood there are blue fireflies. But they're not as friendly. Not unfriendly, either, they just won't land like this." Marvin says. 

Will they land on us while we sleep? Jameson asks. 

"Yes, but they're harmless."

Jackieboy groans, "Man I'mma light sleeper- Imma feel these fuckers all night!"

Might want to use a blanket, then, Jameson says to Jackieboy. Cover your head.

Jackieboy chuckles, "Solid idea!" 

"Oh blue? How interesting... I wonder if that's magic or like... just different species of bug," Dr. J muses thoughtfully. 

"They seemed magic to me." Marvin shrugs. Then he looks at what Henny is doing and smiles. "You have to be a bit slower, Henny. It's very 'cool' but they get scared easily."

Henny looks to Marvin and then nods, trying to hold his hand steady. Finally, one lands and Henny squeals quietly. "J-Juwel! Juwel look!" He whispers in barely contained glee. 

Dr. J laughs, "Good show, Henrik!" 

"Ah, so you are also a mover, then, Bro?" Henrik says. "From... where was it? Umaerikah? To the Ookay?" He chuckles. "These sound like such strange names, but I suppose it's a matter of perspective. It can be very strange to move somewhere else." 

Bro blinks at Henrik and then laughs, "Oh uh... U-K, stands for United Kingdom... or Britain. It's where all of us live now. But, I was born in another bigger nation across the sea, its also called the United States. Goes back and forth." He looks back up at the sky and the fireflies and sighs, ".... I try not to think about America much... I've lived the UK for much longer now. It's home more than anywhere in America." He looks back to Henrik, "What about you Schneep? Do you miss your old country?" 

Henrik blinks, thinking about it. "Sometimes," he says slowly. "Alterde was a beautiful place, in both nature and the cities. Many artists live there. My memories tell me that it was cleaner, as well, but I cannot be sure of that. But..." He shakes his head. "Some things about it were not so good. They were not as accepting of people with other preferences, or of people with what they called mind sicknesses. Which was not good for me on either count." He chuckles. It quickly fades. "And like you, I have lived here for much longer. Jackie and Marvin were my first real friends. I cannot imagine going back and leaving them behind. Or... without finishing our business here with the King."

Bro smiles at him and nods, "Yeah... I get that... sometimes... it's nice to remember the nice moments... but then you remember why you left and what you have now and.... it almost feels silly to miss it, huh?" He laughs quietly, shrugging. "That's how I feel at least. ... there's nothing back in America for me and Alt so... we're never going back there. We got all the family we need here." He looks back to his friends and smiles a bit more warmly. Especially as he sees the firefly Henny caught going to land on Dr. J's face, causing Henny and Jackieboy to erupt into giggles.

Henrik nods. "Yes... I understand what you mean." He looks at the rest of the guys, at Marvin and Jackie laughing as Draco tries to bat at the fireflies, at Chase and Jameson trying to get the glowing bugs to land on their fingers. "It is getting dark. We should get some rest, yes?"

Bro sighs and leans back on his arms, "Yeahhh... probably." 

Jackieboy suddenly lets out a loud screech- one of the fireflies landed on his arm when he wasn't paying attention- and all the swaps fall over themselves in laughter while Jackie's face turns bright red. He grumbles and stomps over to find his bedroll, muttering about "Shining lil bastards-"

The fantasy boys all giggle in unison. "Good night, everyone," Henrik says, and walks over to grab his bedroll. 

We'll see you all in the morning, Jameson says. 

"And all through the night, since there's not much cover," Jackie adds. 

After everyone grabs their bedrolls and spread it out, they all huddle up to go to bed. 

◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈

Aneirin scowls at the sky. Even with the horses, they're not making much progress before nightfall. His power is still recharging for a big jump. "What say you about going a bit through the night?" he asks Magnificent.

Magnificent blearily looks up from where he's resting against his horse's neck and waves his hand, yawning loudly. "Yeah yeah- whatever you think is best~" 

Alt frowns, "... can the horses navigate at night...?" He asks quietly.

Aneirin tilts his head, considering that question. "Not as well as they can in the daylight..." He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head. "You're right, á klaíoh. Thank you." It's important to make them feel like they're appreciated. If they have positive feelings associated with you instead of only negative ones they're less likely to shake out of it. He pulls the horses to a halt. "For the night, then."

Alt blinks in surprise and then flushes slightly- not used to the praise. "Oh... uh... y-you're welcome, mu Ríth." 

Mag glances between them and snorts before hoping off the horse. "Well don't just stand there and gawk, kitten. Start getting us some firewood then." 

Alt straightens up and nods, glitching off into quickly darkening surroundings. 

The King gets off his horse as well, surveying the area. This is mostly fields, but it's impossible to keep a field completely clear of whatever plants will grow, so there are a handful of thin trees. He ties the horses to the nearest one. 

"It's important to thank them sometimes," he says idly to Magnificent. "Give them praises. They'll want to leave less. But I'm sure you know that already. You've probably been doing this longer than I have."

Magnificent waves the King off, "Yes yes- I'll make sure he know he's the 'best kitty everrr'~ when he gets back." He says sarcastically. He sits down and then contemplates this further. "Huh... i guess I don't.... really do that. I just- pump them full of my influence so they'll wanna stay. Like... getting them addicted to a drug. Hm...."

Aneirin raises an eyebrow. "Really? Well, I suppose if it works, it works." If it works. He knows from peering into Magnificent's mind last time that it doesn't always. "Perhaps I just look at it that way because Aodhan was taught from a young age to use his enchantment skills only to help."

"Mmm perhaps," Magnificent muses as he laughs, "Ha! Imagine having such a power and using it to help others! Ridiculous... this kind of power was only ever made to aid men like us. don't you agree, Aneirin dear?" 

"Ha! Indeed." The King laughs. "I got more kingly duties done in a week than he got in a whole year. It's so easy when you can make sure everyone agrees with you. Keeping such tight control is what enchantment is for."

Magnificent grins, "Exactly~!" He hums in amusement and then looks out at the fields around them. "..though... mayhaps I'll give the praise a shot..." 

Soon enough, Alt glitches back with as much wood as he can find and places it in front of the King and Mag. He steps back respectfully, about to go sit out of the way when Magnificent stops him and holds up a hand. "Wait a minute Alt... you've done so good for us lately, kitten. Why don't you come rest over here?" 

Alt blinks at Magnificent and looks confused. But slowly he nods and glitches over to sit next to Magnificent and sits awkwardly, arms stiff and in his lap. 

Magnificent rolls his eyes and then pulls Alt to lay down on the ground next to his leg. "I said to rest, Alt." 

"S-Sorry, my liege," Alt mutters out, awkwardly curling up. 

The mad magician pauses as he studies his former apprentice. He reaches out- and then gently starts to pet back Alt's hair. 

Alt stiffens at first- but then purple magic blooms in his eyes in a quick spiral before he shuts his eyes and melts into the touch, practically purring.

Aneirin watches this with a mix of curiosity and fascination. He wants to make some comment about how Magnificent must really like cats to act this way, but something tells him this won't go over so well. So he simply gets busy setting the fire up, something he can do without even thinking. He lights it with a spark of lightning, directed down his seax to the wood. Then he sits. 

Magnificent blinks in surprise, then grins, doing a bit more and washing more of his magic over him. Might as well keep the magic strong right? "Yes... that's a good kitty... rest... and let all those pesky thoughts fade away... let yourself be well rested for tomorrow. We such great need of you... and you're doing so good for us~" 

Alt slumps against the ground and actually makes a purr like sound. He watches the now started fire, entranced and totally relaxed. Magnificent giggles and leans back, pleased with how that went. 

"Never one for that," Aneirin mutters, glancing at Magnificent and Alt. He's not really talking to anyone else. More to himself, reflecting on how intimacy of any sort never really appealed to him. It was no great loss to lose the sense of touch for so long. But... did it make him seem less human to others? Maybe if he pretended, less people would be inclined to see him as a figure to rebel against.

Mag looks to Aneirin and shrugs, "I'm not usually one for it either- when it comes to humans at least. Cats however..." He chuckles. "This must be leftover conditioning from another spell I've done on our lovely knight~ not too long ago, I had him believing he was an actual animal, a pet of mine." He then sighs loudly and digs his claws into the ground with a suppressed snarl. "It was going so well until his idiotic friends came along... but, nice to know there's still a bit of Blitz in there~"

Aneirin blinks. "Ah. Yes, I can see how that would be helpful." In fact, wasn't Magnificent planning on turning him into a cat last time he visited? When he thought he'd finally gotten the King under control. Though he technically did, being able to put Aodhan under his spell, but not loosen Aneirin's control on the body. "Your panthers in the other world. The ones we are trying to reach by finding the doorway. They are something similar, then." He chuckles. "Maybe you could build up their ranks while here. Big cats are not native to the island. They will certainly take the rebels off guard. Along with the... what did you call them? Remnants, or such?"

"hmmm... my panthers are similar but very different," Magnificent hums, "My panthers are merely street cats I fit into my mold. They can change size but they aren't useful past that. Good for spying though. My vestiges however~!" He grins madly, "That was what Alt was going to become... My vestiges are carefully made~ former magicians turned into loyal pets through dark magic. All giving me magic I can't normally access!" He sighs and flips his hand. "They take months of careful conditioning to make however, and a proper ritual as well. So, I only have a few now." He smiles then looks at Aneirin with glowing eyes that shine with madness. "..however... If we leave some of the rebels alive... I could make good use of them... maybe that pathetic other-me from this world~!" He giggles.

"Marvin Tinechroí is certainly pathetic compared to you, dear Magnificent." Aneirin chuckles. "Honestly, he's not even as powerful as his sister. But he has quite a bit of magical knowledge in that head of his, so before you do, we have to be sure to get that all out, in case there's something useful. " Aneirin tilts his head. "I wonder if any magic-wielders could be transformed into a vestige. Or would it be limited to wizards...? Well, something to find out, I suppose.“ 

Magnificent chuckles, "I'm sure it could- though magicians are all similar in my world, even if their specific magics differ." 

“I only ask that we spare Jameson Jairsolas from that fate. He has use as an oracle, and I must admit, I've gotten attached to him and the work I've done." Aneirin’s  eyes flick to Alt. "Which I'm sure you understand."

Mag tilts his head at Aneirin admitting he's grown attached to Jameson. He hums and looks down at Alt, a strange feeling in his chest. "...yes... i suppose I do." He then shakes out of his thoughts and waves a hand, "Not sure a seer would make a good vestige anyways." 

"I think it'd be interesting to try, but you know the process better than I do, so I'll defer to your judgement." The King shrugs. He looks up at the stars in the sky and frowns. "We waste so much time by resting," he mutters. "If you ever find a way to get around that, let me know. It'd be most helpful. But until then, we should get some sleep."

"I mean.... I don't know how compatible our power is... But i could always lend you mine." He shrugs, "I don't need much to keep the spell on Alt and all the magic around us keeps me sustained. We could try it in the morning, perhaps?" He pouts, "Because unfortunately sleeping is the one thing I have to do..." 

Alt has already fallen asleep in front of Mag, breathing softly.

Aneirin raises an eyebrow. "I didn't realize you could lend power as well as steal it. Though... I suppose it makes sense." He nods. "So we'll sleep, then. And if any farmspeople find us in the night, we make them forget." He stretches and lies down on the grass, staring up at the moon. "Good night, then."

Magnificent shrugs, "Eh- don't do it that often. Only for people I like~" He winks at the King then chuckles, going to curl up in the grass. "Good night."

The King smiles faintly. For once, he can't say if the smile is self-satisfaction... or genuine affection. It better not be the second. That just leads to danger. Sighing, he closes his eyes, though he doesn't sleep for a while longer.

[katsukikitten]

Absolutely indeedy it's the dark brotherhood quests!! Super glad you let Cicero live, he's my demented fave and I catch so much shit from my friends for being perhaps a little too into him 💀

Also, lowkey not worth it to return the skeleton key cuz it's an unbreakable lockpick and like yeah the lockpick skill goes up slower if you're using the key but like come on. You can't give us a super op item like that and then immediately tell us to give it back to mommy nocturnal forever so we can't use it anymore

As for literally every daedra wanting a piece of the dragonborn's ass, it is so funny to me to imagine the player character finally dying for good sometime in their twilight years and leaving behind the most complicated yet admirable legacy and they get to the void, or shor's hall, or aetherium, or the hunting grounds, or whichever afterlife they believe in or are pledged to, and suddenly a bunch of fuckers like old uncle sanguine and clavicus and nocturnal and whoever show up like "ahem excuse me your soul is mine actually" "no it's mine" "nuh uh it's mine" and then just like. A bunch of daedric princes have to get in this eternal custody battle over this one person who just Did Too Much while they were alive lmao

-Skyrim anon

Skyrim anon you fucking get it 😂 no be into him I can see why he's so bat shit and the dancing 😂 and he's just a poor wet meow meow he needs love

Omg yes like they're all there to collect and it's like haha sorry 😅 just so many of you wanted me or FORCED ME to do this for the sake of my quest and I see it through! NO SOUL FOR ANYONE Lmfao!!!

Yea I felt really bad for him 🥺 like he was left all alone with the corpse of a woman he idolizes like of course he wants to be the listener 😭 and then when you investigate his room and he's got like five journals 😂 girl gave us the tea didn't he. And he didn't technically kill anyone in the brother hood so like I let him live cause I felt bad and if he came to kill me later I'd be ready. Him coming back joking about killing you and then being like jkjk I'm joking bestie is so fucking funny I love him.

My lock picking is 100 and tbh if it took longer to get there because of the key I couldn't tell you. I LOVE lock picking and I won't lie every time I pickpocket someone I would take the gold and the picklock. Still do! I made the thieves guild my first big quest because I just really love the idea of them! I had played a little bit before and watch boyfriend play seldomly when it first came back so playing it now and still not knowing much about the game has been so fun! I've done a lot but none of the main quest 😂 I feel really bad about killing the dragons and taking their souls so they can't come back 😭 and I'm waiting to fight another dragon (since I sneak everywhere, even walking because idk I just do ?? I'm so weird 😂) before I use the summon ghost dragon guy from the spiritual realm

OH but back to the brotherhood anon, when the emperor asked you to humor his dying wish did you kill Motierre 👀

I did. And I killed the Capitan cause I cannot lie finding Festus pinned to the tree like that outside of the sanctuary made me so upset 😭 and I couldn't even find out lizard friend but seeing Gabriella and Arnbjorn 😭 I was like girl if I find Astrid she's DYING I was DISTRAUGHT OVER BABETTE AND NAZIR SO RELIEVED when they turned out okay but again why did I have to climb into that damn coffin again 😭 the mother needs lotion and a face mask 😭

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread] Night 13: Magician of World Creation

I should, once again, go the fuck to sleep, but, like. One more chapter.

You're a lazy, spoiled piece of shit of a person who believes that just because you're rich or whatever-the-fuck-else, then suddenly the world owes you something.

Oh my sweet summer child. (Also, trying to recognize Aladdin's silhouette).

Rest in pieces.

Ok, but can we, like, fucking talk for a second that ALIBABA FUCKING DODGED MORGIANA'S KICK. Like, how fast was that kick. Was she, like, going a bit slower, because she didn't want to kill him? Because, like, we know she doesn't, but also holy shit. What are these reflexes, Alibaba. Fr tho, she definitely wasn't going all out, but still.

Oh, drop that smile, asshole. You did literally nothing.

Also, I lowkey recall something about Ohtaka saying that Morgiana wears no underwear, and I am incapable of not thinking about it seeing this pose.

An attempt is being made.

Ok, Alibaba can pull tricks here and there, but he looks genuine here, and I actually believe that he is. Like, Balbadd was notably that one country (sans Sindria) where slavery was illegal, so for Alibaba slavery wasn't an everyday thing until he had to run from Balbadd. Like, don't get me wrong, he's absolutely trying to appeal to Morgiana, because she's dangerous, but he means it when he says that she should fight for her freedom, and we know he wouldn't use her, period. He tried to use Aladdin, and look what happened - total failure, because he just isn't the type of person that's capable of using others.

You tried, gold star.

Damn, Alibaba is just never living his best life. Also, you ever think how most Households don't like or are a literal danger to their Kings?

Also, now I'm kind of wondering, cuz I don't recall whether Morgiana's ever apologized for it. Like, don't get me wrong, I don't blame her, and I know neither would Alibaba, he's ridiculously forgiving, but, like, I wonder if she felt bad later on. Probably? To both Alibaba and Aladdin, honestly, though Aladdin, too, definitely doesn't blame her. But, like, I just wonder.

Can somebody, please, punch Jamil 2.0.

Man, I could use some Alibaba Angst rn, but, sadly, I'd have to write it myself. But oh well. But also, damn, that's a lot of blood.

Also, no, he doesn't think he can use her, because he has no intention of using her, fuck off.

Is Alibaba's blood literally splattering here

Congrats, you literally kicked a guy who was already down - no thanks to you, might I add.

I really wish Morgiana's trauma had a bit more focus, ngl.

Everybody's lives are sad as shit. But goddammit.

The boy has awoken.

Fuck the both of you, actually - Aladdin, probably.

Alibaba, after being thrown onto a stone pillar by a Fanalis, and then kicked several times by that one asshole, to the point of splattering his blood on the guy's face: I'm ok, you be careful :) (I love him)

Morgiana still processing what happened (fair). And Alibaba, that is the definition of not being ok.

Birbs.

Also, no, seriously, I legit need some fanfic of the three of them kinda processing what happened there, but, like, in hindsight. When it was happening it was all scary and very tense and all that, but once things are calmer, just kinda looking back at the shit that happened there.

More birds, and also Alibaba, you are NOT ok.

Firs of all, Jamil's about to be fucking surprsied. Second of all, damn, Alibaba, you were hit damn hard.

It's been several pages & bro still can't stand up. Which makes perfect sense, but damn.

Hell yeah, fuck his shit up.

What can I say except !!!!!!!!!!

The fuck do you mean photo limit. I had to delete two photos to fit the remaining ones.

Ok, but Aladdin looks like a badass here.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[manasurge]

GW2 30 Day Challenge

6. Favourite Elite spec?

(I couldn't find any fancy pics of my own to use, so instead have a couple angles of mirage cloak glitching out and turning the Mirage into an eternal swirling and glowing vortex. These are old screenshots before the Aurene mounts were released as well since I use those for my main) It's... Mirage!! (surprising to absolutely no one who knows me). I just LOVE being invulnerable and hard to hit, plus all the mobility that comes with the spec and the SUPER fast gameplay (I love very fast inputs and reactions, which makes playing slower classes difficult for me bc I'm impatient and spam click abilities lkdjflsf). Being able to jaunt/blink everywhere, shadowstep, clone+phantasm distractions, and evasion hax dodging (mirage cloak my beloved) made dodging part of my rotation, making me really dumb with a lot of other classes bc I instinctively want to dodge all the time due to muscle memory. Also fun fact: Mirage/Mesmer was the first spec that I used a 80-boost on, and I was able to learn it just fine! (and even became my favourite!) so boosting a class to learn it is totally okay in my opinion!! Just do cozy open world map comp to ease your way into it and it'll be cherry!

Granted I also don't exactly play the class as intended. While I have 3 builds for her (guess I should say my main, Vespaura), I tend to just use her power build (since Mirage is moreso meant for Condi and boons or w/e, which I have builds for and also never use lol). I think this build I like to use was originally made for the Labyrinth (tagging everything with GS), but I tweaked it a bit with other preferences since it has pretty good survivability and is an absolute monster when I attack huge groups of mobs (Greatsword lasers are the best invention and it NEVER gets old. Also the amount of laser ricochet gets me pretty high damage and looks absolutely bonkers on my side (what a lightshow!), plus my lasers are HOMING lasers, which means they will automatically hit any enemies in the vicinity around me and helps out if I don't notice them from a different angle, allowing me to re-orient myself. I also don't have to worry too too much about aim bc of this too! (oh yeah, and especially with relics being a thing now. Mabon relic has been pretty neat so far cuz I can take advantage of that boost being used to hit all those targets!). Though power GS does fall a bit against single targets, but that's fine! (I sort of have the daggers for that at least!). I also play with a trackpad, which is a funny thing to tell ppl, especially when playing a class like Mirage, lol. I just hate using a mouse and only have it for certain games that force me to use it. I just don't want carpel tunnel and my wrist is more relaxed this way (never had problems! so far at least). I just love playing at ranged with non-ranged weapons (Greatswords, daggers. Mine actually has all 3 types of blades (very lesbian of her) bc she has a sword as well. I literally gave her both of Caithe's weapons askjflfj. I'm so glad that I can give my Mirage daggers now!! much more fun than another sword/axe!). It's just so much fun, and I CAN'T WAIT to see what rifle is gonna be like!! I just love ranged classes bc stacking ALWAYS gets me killed constantly... so yeah I'm the annoying person who doesn't like stacking bc I'd rather not be dead!!!!! (I'm sorry I just HATE stacking. I can't see SHIT and it's just so much visual noise for me!! let me breathe!!) and plus I revive everyone in fights thanks to invulnerabilities allowing me to rez through attacks. You're welcome!!! (I rez so many people during metas and other fights) I also just love Mesmer in a class in general bc it's unique in comparison to a lot of other fantasy classes, and I just adore the concept and the aesthetics (flamboyant fancy dramatic magic user? HELL YEAH. Literally the gayest magic user ever and I'm eating it up). I also love the ability to make clones and all the pretty butterflies, and phantasms and all that! I know a lot of ppl don't like clones/phantasms, but they save my ass every time and I appreciate them very much.

[the-firebird69]

Giants Go To The Gym

I keep getting very very huge humongous you should see how big I am like 9 ft I must wait a ton my feet are killing me I'm surprised I didn't break any bones if I can feel the pressure it's too much weight now people want to study me but only for a like an hour or two then I start shrinking rapidly very fast. It is a matter of at least 45 minutes and back to 6 ft and and half the way to less I still look like a muscle man I've never seen anything like this in myself ever never seen it pretty sure it's my body I'm actually eating regular food a lot of it is raw beef and milk and stuff I don't know why the hell this works and he's a little bit surprised because he didn't know what I was doing he's asking me if I'm juicing using spice and things like that if it's a problem and when I say is I'm using juice it's not the moulin rouge and it's not spiced from the dunes they're calling it spice because well that's the answer it's nice will have you grow real fast it's not from outside creatures with Billy is not that great doesn't do it is happening to you ever and I agree it's a lot slower but he says that the particular spice I'm using doesn't seem to concentrate on bone and I'm going to remain with huge muscles and the bone will lag behind and even though he thinks it's like leatherback or something I heard about that but it could be from Kong and that might be what it is and it says it's not really spice okay he's the dinosaur and you're harming more or less they're not ancestors but they're related in their heirlooms and valuable if that's what's going on so I'm hated because I'm messing with them it says yeah probably and I need an alternative but what you're saying is I'm going to be killed because I'm doing that and I should not be over there bothering them they're just big I'm just going to break my ankle and get beat up I stopped doing it no but doesn't seem worth while he says first off it's an endangered species and he says my people are probably being butchered because of it and they are and they say stop doing it to it says he pointed one out we know where it is it's around here and usually there is a line of spice and it's really apocalypse no but they can turn into apocalypse apocalypse is one form is azog but he is mammalian there's another form that's humanoid and it's called a celestial I believe that's the actual apocalypse. Okay so there's a kju either one of those too but really it'll be hard pressed to find apocalypse if you did he's probably pretty big or she and I get that the other back would do the bone and leather back would do the bone and the muscle. So I'm going to look for that cuz I'm just getting really huge and real small and kind of beat on a lot

Garth

You can't remember anything I was sitting there pointing to it and telling him that's where it is you want bone and muscle I didn't really know that but that stuff works better and leather back has gigantic bones the bigger than the kraken and heavier and I didn't know that okay

Chlorine

They're not twice as big but they're fairly thick probably 25% thicker and he's a very mean creature when humans dope with his blood when he come extremely aggressive and hateful a lot of Mac proper are doing it and they're wrong in their approach and we're going to teach them a lot of them are stupid but yeah that stuff does the right thing and Garth would become big very quickly if you put it into a bean formula or did it the same time it could be 12 ft and 20 minutes with big muscles and they would have some strength but we're tired of that little boy it is flipping mouth I'm going to break him in half on my knee it looks like I do with a team

Gu me too we're going to break them in half both of them are huge wise asses and big mouths and we can't stand them

Oya

We conclude this by saying we're going to help out and help them get them where they belong

Olympus

[dankqueef]

I went to go clean the locker room and I ended up looking thru the locker and found a lot of cool stuff. I dont rememeber what was in brock Sampson's locker but like 3 of the lockers w er re loaded with pokemon games. I dont remember what was happening before the locker th im ng but I left and everyone was gone. And I was like wtf I was in there for 11 minutes. And then there were magic zombies and apparently time went slower in the locker room and I met some survivor friends who assumed I bit the dust somewhere. Idk we all used swords and so did the zombies and the zombies had drops and one really strong one showed up and had a sword called "The Flame Sword" but it was a big sword decayed like a flaming racecar. Also I knew the name somehow and also that it was a really strong weapon. I did like flips and pulled out like a rebar sword which was like, how rafters or the ifle towers have a bunch of bars connecting them together but it was still more like just a club or a stick. Anyways I killed it and the ome other survivor I cant remember his name who could really fight was there but didnt really help cuz he was scared.

[potentialguybodyswaps]

Jockifacation

Being one of the smartest nerds in school sometimes had it perks, I mean sure most of the nerds got bullied and treated like shit by a lot of the school, especially the sports teams, but there were a few of us that were able to escape from the public humiliation that comes with being a nerd

Us top tier nerds, as I like to call us, we’re the ones that the Dean had picked to help tutor some of the more important students, like the ones who parents had made large Contributions, and the sports team, that all he really cared about, the people that really mattered.

As usual, the dean gave us nerds a heads up that a pop quiz was coming in some of the different classes we all shared with the assigned person that we’re in charge of making sure pass

The guy I was in charge of was one of the basketball players, his name was jake

He wasn’t the dumbest jock in the school, and thank god for that, I feel bad for the guy that had Brad, bro might have retard strength but also the intelligence of one.

atleast I can work with jake, might be annoying with his slow ability to grasp concepts and the constant side stories about the team, his latest conquest, how All this school work is pointless cause he’s gonna be a professional some day… etc

Jake was from a small red neck town and Texas and you could tell, he kinda stood out here in California with his accent and very little understanding of basic algebra, I guess they didn’t teach that were he’s from

it was probably around midnight when I finally got him to remember and be able to apply The Quadratic Formula, now Hopfully he can maintain it for 12 hours

“Aye bro thanks for helping me out with all this math shit, if you ever need anything partner just let me know” he said getting up to stretch

I got up to stretch too and crack my back

“I mean not unless you can make it so I don’t have to stay up late night tutoring members of the team because the dean demands it haha” i said laughing and smiling a sleepy smile at him

“Shiiiiit cuz, I got you just put this hat on” he said taking his hat off and handing it to me

“I mean thanks for the symbolic gesture but I don’t think a hat will do much” i said staring at it in my hands

“Just put it on bro, and you’ll be a part of the team” he said reaching over to guide it and place it on my head

“So is that it? Am I part of the team now haha?”

“Nah bruh, you gotta turn it backwards to start the uh, process”

“Start what process? some sort of initiati-“

I said as I felt it start

“Initiation? initially? Initials? No bro, initiation, god dam I had a brain fart for a minute there bruh haha…” I said stumbling on my words

“Bro? Bruh? What’s happening I don’t use those words!?” I thought to myself as my eyes started to glaze over

“There you go cuz, it’s starting, don’t worry, you should be a full fledged member in a few minutes, then you’ll never have to worry about tutoring again haha, the process kills quite a bit of brain cells” he said sitting back down smiling as he slowly closed his eyes

I tried to get up and take the hat off but I could barely move as I felt my mind weakening and my body was in too much pain as it reshaped it’s self to move

I could feel my thoughts get slower as my body changed more and more

“Mhmmmm b-b-bro h-help” I was able to mumble out, able to hear my voice getting lower

“Just let it take its course” Jake said not budging

My long shaggy hair got shorter and receded back into my scalp until it was short enough to fit inside the cap

My acne disappeared until my face was smooth and I could feel my face reorganizing itself, wholes appearing in my ears for some new giant fake earrings

Next was my sweatshirt I wore to hide my skinny frame dissolved into my skin as it looked like I gained 25 pounds of muscles as my arms became swole and my chest became hard with 6 pack abs from years of working out

“No that’s not right, I never spent years working out, going to the gym, I read books all the time and prepared for tests, played dnd with my nerd friends”

“Nerd friends? I don’t have those, I might skip leg day and not be on any teams but they always considered me a honorary member right?”

Next most of my jeans dissolved into my legs as my calf’s gain muscles from practicing in the gym and on the court with my fellow team mates

“Nah bruh, something about this isn’t right bro” I said standing up suddenly realizing I can move again

“But uh bruh I can’t remember what” I said taking the cap off to scratch my head

Jake looked over and jumped up looking concerned and walked over grabbing the cap

“It’s fine bro, we was just getting ready to go to a party, but the bitch hosting it sent out a text saying not to come for another hour, there was an issue getting the alcohol, we all know how much you like to drink cuz haha”

“Oh ok” I said setting down on the couch… some small part of me was screaming not to wear the cap but it was kinda stupid cause let’s be honest, I look hot wearing this cap

I put the cap back on and closed my eyes for a few seconds

I hadn’t noticed how weird I looked since my jeans weren’t exactly gone but were now Jean shorts

Didn’t matter tho cause my jeans morphed into some white shorts with a red strip to match my cap, right after that my underwear morphed into some tight American eagle pair as I felt my dick grow from 2 inches soft, to 4 soft.

“I can’t wait to go the party ima fuck so many bitches tonight” I thought to myself giggling like a dummy

Wait that isn’t right? I don’t get any bitches on my dick, no one wants to be with a small dick nerd, a 4 inch hard on is pathetic.

“Man what was that thought? I’m not a nerd! I’m a fucking jock bruh! And 4 inches being pathetic? Maybe hard, but that’s me just soft, I’m atleast 6 inches hard. never really cared to measure, chicks always seemed to love it when I fucked them, and if they think I’m small, their just fucking loose pussy bitches!” I thought to myself as I started getting hard pitching a tent

I opened my eyes to see Jake smiling at me

“Wtf you looking at bro? You gay or someshit? I mean that’s fine but just don’t try no shit with me bro” I said mean mugging him

“Nah bro, looks like you got some business to take care of, I’ll uh, be in the bathroom for a bit cuz” Jake said getting up to go to the bathroom

A small voice in my head was telling me something’s wrong, take the cap off, who wears hats inside?

But I decided there was something more pressing, and it’s in my pants

I pulled my shorts down to see my dick straining against my underwear, I pulled them down to let my dick flap out

I grabbed it to feel emence pleasure

I could feel something inside of me traveling down to my balls but I didn’t care, the pleasures were to much, felt like I’ve never jerked off before…

It only took me a few minutes for me to cum my brains out, figuratively and literally unbeknownst to my new jock brain, losing what little remains of my nerd personality, and 55 iq points, taking me down from 145 to 90.

“Fuck bro that felt great haha, i don’t know why I came so fast, must just be a fluke or something” I said to myself

Just then jake walked back outside

“Ya that happens to everyone at first when they go though the process of becoming a jock” he said smirking

“What you mean becoming a jock? I’ve always been one dude” I said a bit offended he didn’t think I’m a jock, I’ve hung out with jake for years now!

“Bro, we’re are we right now?!” Jake said throwing his hands up and looking around dramatically

“Uh my room” i said

“Ya and look at it, it’s a room for a nerd” he said looking at me with a look of annoyance on his face.

“Oh god, your right, I gotta change this shit bro, babes aren’t gonna find this attractive” i said looking horrified of my nerdy room

“Dam straight cuz, it’s ok, you just went from a nerd to a jock boy after all haha, it’s to be expected, especially with memory loss of your old life” he said with a smile on his face

“Now let’s go to a late night party” he said walking towards me throwing a arm around my shoulder and walking us towards the door

“Wait, so you’re saying I use to be a nerd? Ew what the fuck bro… is there anyway that I’m gonna turn back into a faggy ass nerd?” I said concerned

“Nah bruh, once you cum after the transformation it’s permanent, your one of us now dude, I hope you like it haha” he said laughing

“Ya I don’t really remember being a nerd but I bet that shit sucked ass compared to being a jock that can pull bitches haha, and good, I wouldn’t ever wanna go back despite what that voice in my head was crying about” i said laughing

“Oh that voice? Don’t worry about it, just like your chance to go back to your old life, it disappeared when you cummed” he said laughing smacking me on the back

[thatgirlinskullz]

random SPOILER thoughts on The Book of Boba Fett S1 Finale... ****SPOILERSS****

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that was... STAR WARS. 💖💖💖

that was.... everything....

that was SO FKIN AWESOME I CANNOT PUT INTO WORDS... 💖💖

yeah, it didn't make me emotional like seeing Ahsoka interact with Luke.. but goddamn was it a fkin exciting, incredibly well done episode!!

seeing everyone come together.. everyone play a part.. it was just... *chef's kiss

i honestly love how it's so apparent that Boba's not young anymore... they show it with the amount of times he falls XD and his movements are slower, there was no way he could have beaten Cad Bane in a western-style duel... BUT that doesn't mean he can't kick some ass, and boy did he!

the Boba+Mando teamup shootout was definitely a highlight, and thinking of Robert Rodriguez's background with the Mexico trilogy, it just makes sense it was so fun and well done. the teamwork, how they covered each other, every bit of it was just fun and creative and looked good as hell. plus both of them using the jetpacks was the icing on the cake. 💖

a minor issue i had was Grogu just showing up, not actually seeing him make the decision. and you know.. i kiiinda wanted him to stay with Luke a bit longer.. idk. i'm conflicted.. but i do love that R2 brought him. and every scene with Grogu is a showstealer.. i mean come on, he is adorable. and even more powerful than before..

the way he takes the droid apart?! the way he calms down the Rancor?! it's just.. mm soo GOOD! the fact that he already has this connection to animals is amazing. and it just reinforces the idea that jedi could connect to various creatures through the force.. and i LOVE that bit so fkin much.

Grogu curling up next to the Rancor was the single cutest thing i've seen in Star Wars (anytime recently), i was just soo cute!! 😭😭😭💖

also, the Rancor was fkin awesome to watch throughout. i was calling them "baby" because i did not want to see them hurt. i did not want to see the one and only Rancor we have die! what would happen to space Machete if he lost his baby Rancor?! but also, i love Rancor, i think they're fkin amazing creatures...

the bit with the Rancor climbing the tower, all King Kong style was both hilarious and a very welcome nod to Kong. i loved it. the way it held Mando was just funny cuz he was being the damsel in distress XD

also, BOBA RIDING THE RANCOR!!!?!!! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, HELLOO?!!! did not think we'd get to see it, but here we are! 😭💖

speaking of Boba, his standoff with Cad Bane.. wow.. there's so much there... i know Bane doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself but damn i had a feeling that he might actually like Boba and not want to kill him? like he was hesitating a bit, battling with their past together, since they did work together, he did know Jango.. there's a LOT of history there. so i kinda felt like Bane had juuust a teeeny bit of humanity in him this time?! maybe?! idk.. but damn the way it ended.. Boba using his Tusken staff to end it... just SO GOOD!!! also... did not think we would actually have Bane die.. idk, he's like a cockroach, always makes it out, you know? tho.. the thingy did beep on his chest, does that mean he's still alive? did it signal to Todo to come and help him?! what does it mean?!!! i cannot believe he died.. (yes i know he was impaled in the chest but come on... )

AND the best part about this entire episode?! THE PYKES FINALLY HAD THEIR ASSES HANDED TO THEM!!! they've been such a vile presence in the Galaxy for so damn long, and FINALLY they got what they deserve! (well... a small portion of it). damn, i loved seeing them all fall, especially their "leader" -- cuz let's face it, that's not the leader-leader.. it was just the leader on Tatooine.. so yeah the Pykes are not fully gone, thy are still a menace on the Galaxy, and i hate them with every fibre of my being. so it was so goddamn good seeing them fall for once..

thank you Fennec Shand for doing the dirty work and getting rid of both the Pyke leader and the fkin traitors of Tatooine. thank you. you are majestic and beautiful and i love you! 💖

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honestly, that was a perfect finale for me, for what The Book of Boba Fett was, it was perfectly fitting. every storyline and character came together (except Cobb Vanth 😅, but he's recovering so it's okay), and they managed to conclude the story, and tie it up in a little bow. and i loved it.

and there IS still potential for a s2 with Boba ruling Tatooine, doing odd jobs, maybe finding some Tusken survivors..maybe a surviving clone here or there? maaaaybe a family reunion with Omega? or these characters can just show up in later Mando-related properties and i am very happy with either of those options.

i am very biased, but i loved The Book of Boba Fett! and i am very happy it exists.

i love Star Wars... and i cannot wait to see what's next.

[r0ck29]

This is just a continuation of my last post but with the Dekusquad.

Includes: Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki, Tenya Iida, Ochaco Uraraka, and Tsuyu Asui

Warnings: fluff, kissing, suggestive stuff, and Todoroki being Todoroki

MHA as Stoners

Continued

Izuku Midoriya

Izuku doesn't usually smoke by himself, he will only do it in a large group of people if they are all doing it.

He is a big cougher

Will take the smallest hits

Not because he doesn't want to

But because that's all he can handle

(God he's so precious)☺️

Eventually, he will get up there, though it takes a while

He is usually shy and VERY awkward around girls that he likes

Especially you

But when he is he turns into a whole new person

He is SUPER confident and will make moves on you till the night's end

He is super grabby

Don't worry he's still a respectful gentleman so if you tell him to knock it off he will (as he should)😌

Likes to brag about how you are all his

He is also super goofy

He will also be super affectionate 💕

———————————

“Izuku if you don't stop right now, ” your sentence was cut off by your outburst of laughter. Your hand tried to muffle the giggles and snorts resigning from your mouth. Izuku continued in his goofy manner of wiggling his eyebrows at you. His face moved from side to side until it was in front of yours. He stopped and just stared at you.

“What are you doing?” you asked, lifting your brow at him. He then raised his eyebrows once more, squinted his eyes, and pulled his lower lip under his teeth. You covered your mouth again in an effort not to laugh. He eyed you up and down and released his lip.

“Damn baby girl, did you sit in sugar, cuz you got a pretty sweet ass, ” he smirked at you waiting for your response. You began to laugh again and put your hand on his chest.

“You're too much Izuku.”

Shoto Todoroki

He really likes dab pens

He has one of his own (can you blame him?)

He doesn't share much as it is or show much emotion and is usually awkward in social encounters

And he still is even when high

He doesn't change much while smoking, except for maybe talking a bit more

He will have actual conversations with you

If you're alone with him he will talk to you about anything

He is a lot softer

Doesn't pick up on social cues until like ten minutes later

He is a lot slower though, in his smarts

Will say the most random shit like

“My dad is a piece if shit”💩

“We know Todoroki” 💁‍♀️

Or he will ask personal things that he shouldn't without realizing

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Shoto hit his one and placed it down in his lap. It rested gently in his hand, as he let out the puff of smoke he stared down at it. A million thoughts crossed his mind in a second. Then out of the blue he remembered something he overheard Kaminari saying to Mineta earlier that he did not understand.

“Wath she hot?” mineta clenched his hands and practically shook while waiting for Kaminari’s answer.

“Dude she was a total MILF!” Kaminari said, almost a little too excited.

What the hell did that mean? And why do I care?

At the time Shoto shrugged his shoulders and forgot about it. But as of now, stoned to the bone, he was curious. And who better to ask than his closest friends.

“Hey guys, ” he looked up at his friends who were all now focusing their attention to him awaiting his question.

“What is a MILF?” he said oh so nonchalantly. The rest of the group all began to start laughing and clutching their stomachs in pain.

“I just heard Kaminari say it earlier and I wanted to know, ” he shrugged again and glanced around the now hysterically laughing teenagers.

“Uh, Todoroki it's not that appropriate to talk about, ” Midoryia scratched the back of his neck, his face entirely red from the situation.

“Oh,” he plainly replied.

Tenya Iida

We all know he isn't one for breaking rules, let alone the law

(though he literally almost committed murder👀)

He doesn't smoke very often but when he does he gets very paranoid😒

He always thinks that he and his friends will get caught

Honestly it's kind of a buzz kill

No one likes someone freaking out the whole time you are trying to chill

Be tries to cover any smells with WAY to much cologne

(it smells good though)

And is always chewing gum so you can't smell it on his breath

Eventually he will relax but only to an extent

He will make sure you're okay every five minutes and offer to get you anything

Like you're sick

But honestly he just cares and he can't help it

He likes to go for walks though🚶‍♂️

———————————

“You guys Mr. Aizawa will smell it!” Iida's hand flew through the air as he addressed the smell now filling the room. Iida frantically picked up the cologne sitting on the desk next to the best and began sporadically spraying it around the room and on everything.

“Iida, calm down it's going to be okay just come sit down, ” Tsu said from her corner, her finger pressed up against her lip, as usual. He turned to look at her.

“But I don't want to disgrace our school and have our homeroom teacher discover that we are smoking drugs in here, ” he sat down unwillingly as everyone choked on the cologne he sprayed and sighed.

“Fine, ” he looked over to you to see how you were doing. You smiled at the boy who was now flushed.

“Hey Tenya, would a walk outside calm you down?” you suggested grabbing his hand and interlaced your fingers with his. He looked down at your now intertwined hands and back up to you the flush beginning to grow deeper.

“I would love too, ” he grinned back.

Ochaco Uraraka

This girl can't afford her own 🌿 so she's gotta mooch off of her friends

Not that they mind

She's a giggly stoner

She really enjoys getting high, in fact she does whenever she can

She also loves to get stoned around you

Because she loves to see you smiling and can't help but laugh at everything you say

You could literally as the dumbest shit and she will laugh💀

She doesn't like other people cuddling you and will tell anyone off if they do

They should know that she likes you

She might make a move on you if she's feeling brave

———————————

“Stop y/n, you're killing me!” Ochaco wrapped her arms around her stomach as she continued to laugh until she almost threw up. Gosh, she's so queasy. All you did was make a joke about how deku always breaks his bones while he's using his quirk. This left her giggling uncontrollably and deku as red as ever.

“I can't help it, man, I'm just too funny, ” you shrugged and watched the girl laugh.

Eventually, when you got tired and wanted to go to bed Ochaco offered to walk you to your room, which you accepted. Once you reached your door you said good night and reached to open it.

“Wait, y/n, there is something I've been meaning to tell you, but I just havent had the courage to say it, ” she grabbed your hand and looked at the ground. She squeezed your fingers ever so slightly and returned her gaze to yours. Her face made her way to yours and she planted a ever so soft kiss on your lips and instantly pulled away.

“I like you, ” she said grabbing your other hand. You stood there in shock, and looked at her. Suddenly, you kissed an unexpecting Ochaco right back. You kicked open your door, lips still attached, and pulled her into your room sealing the exit behind her.

Tsuyu Asui

This girl is hard to read but I know if she likes to smoke, she would like bongs

She likes the bubbling sound it makes

She is very blunt as is and even more so when stoned

However if you can get her to laugh, she will not stop

She is also very funny, and will try her darn hardest to get you to start laughing uncontrollably

This girl is also apart of the alphabet mafia🏳️‍🌈

Try and change my mind😤

Will have the biggest crush on you but won't do anything about it

Will wait for you to tell her

Bottom energy

Definitely loves to shotgun with you

May lead to more things later

———————————

Tsu took a hit off of the long and passed it onto the next person. She turned to you, still holding the smoke in her lungs. You simply nodded at her and slowly leaned in towards her. Her eyes fluttered closed and she parted her mouth every so slightly. Your lips just barely touched hers, sending shock waves through your body and hers. But as much as Tsu wanted to kiss you she couldn't. She then released the smoke out of her mouth, sending it straight into yours. You inhale as much as you could and open your eyes to look at the girl in front of you. The smoke then was exhaled as you both held eye contact, lips still touching.

“Uhhh, ” The moment ended once the other teens began to speak.

You both looked around at the confused teenagers, who were apparently staring at you both the whole time you were doing what you were doing.

“Sorry guys I don't know what happened, ” Tsu tried laughing it off but you knew better, and you continue to stare at her.

She continued to talk to her friends story and change the subject. And in that moment you never wanted to kiss her more than right now.

Let me know if you want more!!❤️ thank you for reading!!

[thefatedthoughtofyou]

Do you think you could write a fic where Bucky finds out Sam and Sharon went out on a date and he’s super jealously and shady towards Sharon. Sam questions his behavior and he has to admit his feelings..

?

{{{ I LOVED THIS PROMPT SO MUCH AAAHHH! okay so there's not a lot of Sharon cuz i didn't wanna make her like? Idk, i didnt wanna have to go into the whole, she's the power broker thing in here cuz i knew if i put more of her i would NOT be able to stop myself, which is good cuz this got longer than i meant anyway!!! BUUUUUUUT THE TENSION IN HERE!! I was shaking as i wrote it THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING IT INNNN!!!! ENJOY GUYS! 💖💖💖💖💖 }}}

Ao3

Shattered Glass

She's touching him.

Again.

They'd been working with Sharon off and on for a few months. She, apparently, had some intell on some pretty bad guys, courtesy of her time in Madrapoor. Sam and Bucky had been helping her track them down. Sam and Sharon working together most of the time. Her and Bucky didn't exactly get along. They didn't work well together. And this was only making it worse.

He'd noticed it about a week in. The touching. It was so... casual. She would just reach out and touch him. When she was talking, she'd reach out and touch his wrist, or his arm, her finger tips brushing his skin as she spoke. Bucky bit his lip, forcing something down, he wasn't even sure what, didn't want to examine that right now.

The longer they worked together the more she seemed to touch him. She still reached out to him when she talked. But now she'd touch him when she passed him, a hand on his arm, moving across his shoulders as she walked past him as he worked on the couch. Something angry and... violent, stirred inside Bucky, everytime he watched her reach out to him.

It wasn't fair. That she could just do that. Just reach out and touch him. Like it was nothing. Like it was okay. Like he was hers. Bucky started leaving. He couldn't just sit around waiting for leads and watching her touch Sam. It made his skin itch.

He watched her walk past the couch again, her hand moving across Sam's shoulders slowly, her eyes on Bucky, he clenched his jaw and looked away, his stomach turning, filling a glass with whiskey and taking a long swig. The liquid burned on the way down and did nothing to stop that itch under his skin.

"Ya know Sam?" Sharon's voice carried, Bucky turned, just a fraction, just enough to see her fingers tugging on the hem of Sam's shirt sleeve.

"Hmm?" Sam hummed, not looking at her.

"We should really try another date. Don't you think? It's been awhile." She asked, her lips curved in a smile, her palm pressing to Sam's arm. His head jerked to look at her at the same time Bucky's fingers clenched around the class in his hand, shattering it. He felt his hand burn and looked down, a jagged red line cut across his palm, he blinked and his hand was covered in blood.

"Buck?" Sam's voice now. He blinked hard, swallowing around the scream in his throat, and moved his eyes back to the couch. Sharon was still sitting, her chin resting on her hand on the back of the couch as she looked at Bucky. Sam was standing, also looking at him, concern in his eyes. Bucky cleared his throat and shook his head. He grabbed a towel from behind the bar and wrapped his hand, his feet moving him toward the door.

"Are you okay?" Sam again. His voice closer now.

"I'm fine Sam. I'll see you at-" he stopped himself from saying 'home', his eyes catching Sharon's smirk.

"I'll see you later." He grumbled, opening the door carefully, doing his best not to rip it off the hinges, and walked out.

~

He was washing his hand in the bathroom when it hit him. The rage. He balled his bleeding hand into a fist and slammed it into the mirror above the sink, four times, screaming as he did. His chest rising and falling rapidly when the wave of emotion passed. He looked at the shattered mirror, the glass in the sink, and sighed, his shoulders drooping.

He cleaned up the glass, and took what was left of the mirror off the wall, his hand only getting more cuts as he did. He tossed the shattered mirror in the dumpster out back and went back inside, once again washing the blood off his hand. He grimaced as the water ran over the cuts, the jagged line across his palm already looking smaller. He pressed his metal thumb to the cut, hard, making it bleed again, biting his lip with a snarl. And then he heard the front door open and close, his back straightening as he listened.

"Bucky?" Sam called, and Bucky heard his footsteps, moving toward him, the apartment they shared now was small, and Bucky had long since memorized Sam's sounds. He could tell where he was in the apartment at the smallest noise. He looked down at his hand, the blood in the sink, on his fingers.

"Fuck." He whispered to himself, and heard Sam stop in the hall. Bucky had one second, one small, heart stopping second, to realize he hadn't closed the bathroom door. He reached for the door, and then Sam was standing in the doorway.

Bucky just stood there, trying to remember to breathe as he watched Sam's eyes move over the scene. The cut... cuts, on his hand. The blood in the sink. On his fingers. The missing mirror and the glass in the small trashcan. He watched Sam take it all in, the crease between his brows deepening with each new thing he saw. Eventually his eyes landed on Bucky's face, they were full of concern again, and as soon as they met his Bucky looked away. Down at his hand, and then at the floor.

"Where's the mirror?" Sam asked softly, not acusing, Bucky knew he was trying to make a joke, but his heart wasn't in it and he sounded sad.

"It's in the dumpster. I'll buy a new one." Bucky explained, using the least amount of words possible. And then,

"I'm sorry." It was an after thought, but it felt important.

"Buck." Sam sighed his name, breathed it quietly in the space between them. Bucky kept his eyes on the floor.

He watched Sam's feet walk into veiw. Watched Sam's hands lift from his sides. Watched them reach for Bucky's bleeding hand, before cradling it gently. Bucky's eyes fluttered but he forced them to stay open. Sam's hands moved his between them, turning it over to see Bucky's bruised and bloodied knuckles. Bucky heard him sigh as he turned his hand back over, his fingers circling Bucky's wrist as he looked at the cut in his palm.

"What happened?" Sam asked, his voice still quiet. Bucky's brow furrowed.

"I broke the glass. And then I killed the mirror." Bucky explained, talking slowly, like he was explaining things to a child, Sam was observant, he figured he'd put it together. He heard Sam huff a laugh, his finger moving gently over the healing cut in Bucky's palm.

"I mean," he paused, ducking down low enough that Bucky couldn't help meet his eyes and raise his head a little.

"You've been acting strange... More strange." Sam said, his head tilting to the side, a small smile on his lips. Bucky swallowed, trying hard to keep looking at Sam, and failing. His eyes dropped to his hand again, fixing on Sam's hands holding his.

"I'm just worried about you." Sam said, his fingers gripping Bucky's wrist a little tighter. Bucky closed his eyes, swallowing again, his throat feeling tight. He cleared it, and looked up at Sam again.

"I told you. I'm fine." He said, hearing how unconvincing he sounded as the words left his mouth. Sam looked at him, that look of concern deepening even more, his beautiful eyes locked on Bucky like he couldn't look away. Bucky frowned, feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny, and pulled his hand out of Sam's grip. He moved it hard, yanking it away from Sam, holding it to his stomach instead before turning back to the sink, away from Sam.

"You're fine." Sam said, repeating his words back to him, sounding unconvinced. Bucky nodded, turning the water back on and running his hand under it, scrubbing too hard at the healing cut, the middle bleeding again as he pressed his fingers against the skin with a grimace.

"Bucky stop." Sam's voice was firm, but Bucky ignored him, biting his lip and pressing his fingers down again. A small bubble of blood blooming and then washing away.

"I said stop, damn it!" Sam said, grabbing Bucky's wrist again, yanking Bucky's hand out of his own grasp as he turned Bucky back toward him. He grabbed the hand towel from the wall and pressed it to Bucky's palm instead, his palm pressed warmly to the back of Bucky's hand. Bucky frowned down at their hands, his heart beating fast as Sam leaned closer to turn off the running water, swaying into his space and then back out again.

"What the fuck is going on with-"

"You went on a date?" Bucky asks, cutting off the question, because he doesn't wanna talk about it. Doesn't wanna talk about all the feelings scratching and biting at each other inside himself.

"Wait, what?" Sam asked, Bucky's eyes jump to his face. He looks confused. Probably thinks he didn't hear him right.

"You. And ...her. You went on a date?" Bucky says, slowly, not sure if all the effort he was putting into keeping his voice calm was working. Sam's confused frown melted into something else, a different look, maybe three separate different looks, Bucky couldn't  be sure. Sam was hard to read on a good day, and this was decidedly not a good fucking day.

"We..." Sam sighed.

"I mean yeah. We did." He shrugged. Bucky took a deep breath, taking his hand away from Sam's again, slowly this time. He pressed his tongue into his cheek and nodded.

"Yeah." He said, and turned back to the sink, sitting the towel on the edge of it, inspecting the cut on his palm as Sam stood silently by the door, staring at him. The edges of the cut had closed now, the middle healing slower, probably because Bucky kept fucking shoving his fingers into it. He turned his hand over, looking at the bruising on his knuckles, the were healing too, looking at least a day old already.

"It was before the blip." Sam said, breaking the silence. Bucky took a deep breath, bit his lip and rested his hands on the sink, leaning on it, his head down.

"It was before the blip. It was one date. And that's it. Nothing else. Nothing happened." Sam said, his voice insistent. Bucky felt him move closer, taking a step into the small room. His heart was pounding in his ears. His mind a film of all the times he'd watched her touch him over the last few months, he shook his head slowly. He heard Sam take a deep breath.

"Buck-"

"The way she touches you." Bucky said, his voice small, his chest aching, that familiar burning in his throat and eyes, pressure trying to escape. He looked at Sam then, turning his head, only his head, to face him. His eyes were wide, and locked on Bucky. Bucky shook his head again.

"The way she touches you." He repeated, to make sure Sam was hearing him.

"She does it all the time. And it's easy. For her. Every time she's near you she's touching you. Your arm. Your wrist. Your shoulder. Your back. She's always fucking touching you." Bucky grits out, his jaw nearly locking from the tension inside him. Sam's shoulders droop as he sighs, his face softening as he looks at Bucky.

"It's not-"

"It is!" Bucky says, voice rising, turning fully to Sam now, his hands shaking at his sides.

"It is. All the fucking time. Any time she wants. And she's doing it on purpose! Keeps fucking looking at me when she touches you cuz she knows that I-" he inhales sharply, his chest tightening as his eyes go wide. His hands clenching, middle finger digging into the shrinking cut on his palm. And the way Sam was looking at him. Fuck. He should have kept his fucking mouth shut.

"That you what?" Sam asks, he's whispering now. Bucky stares at him, his chest rising and falling like he'd just been running a fucking a race. His stomach turns again as he looks at Sam, looking at him. He opens his mouth, he could tell Sam, right now. Just say the words. He listens to his own heart beat like a drum in his ears and closes his mouth, shaking his head instead, his brow furrowed, he bites his lip.

Sam takes another step closer, and there's nowhere for Bucky to go, unless he wants to climb into the fucking tub, but that would look like he's running. And he wasn't going to run from Sam fucking Wilson in their own fucking house. He presses back against the sink instead, the porcelain cold against his ass and thighs. Sam takes another fucking step. Bucky digs his teeth into his lip, frowning deeper, pressing back more, trying to keep a little space between them. His eyes are on the floor, or Sam's shoes, there's not enough floor between them now.

"That you what?" Sam says again, his voice still a whisper. Bucky chances a glance at him and almost bolts. His eyes. They're looking at Bucky and he can see it. He can see that Sam knows. Knows what he was going to say. And he's staring at Bucky now. Waiting. But he's still here. He knows what Bucky was going to stay and he didn't leave. He moved closer. Bucky licks his lips, and looks up at Sam, keeping eye contact now.

"She knows that I'm jealous." Bucky breathes, feeling his chest flutter and release the tension he'd been holding. Sam's eyes widen once, quickly, and he nods, once.

"Knows that I-" he takes a deep breath, looking away again because it's too much. The look Sam's giving him is too much.

"I wish it was me. That I could do that. Just reach out and touch you the way that she does. But I-" he takes a shaky breath, his head hanging, his hands shaking again as he flexes them at his sides.

"Bucky." Sam breathes, and then he takes another step, his foot settling between Bucky's boots now he's so close.

"Touch me." Sam breathes, Bucky feels his breath on his skin and snaps his head up to look at him. There's a soft smile on his lips and his eyes are warm, moving over Bucky's face like he's trying to memorize it.

"Wha-"

"You can touch me." He says, nodding slowly as his eyes continue to map Bucky's face.

"I-" Bucky tries, his words getting stuck in his throat, his brow furrowing. Sam moves slowly, reaching out, his fingers curling around Bucky's wrists gently and moving his hands up, settling them agaisnt his own chest. Bucky's nearly panting now, swears he is, his heart beat so loud it's making his ears ring, but Sam's hands are so warm, his chest so firm and sturdy under Bucky's palms, his fingers around Bucky's wrists grounding him.

"Touch me." Sam says again, his smile curling his lips as he moves his thumb over Bucky's metal wrist. Bucky stares at Sam, his eyes lingering on his lips and that soft smile there, and he does as he's told.

He moves his hand out of Sam's grip, lifting his arm until he can press his fingertips to the lines on Sam's forehead, he presses his skin to Sam's and sighs. He moves his fingers over Sam's face slowly, tracing touches down the side of his face, trailing his finger over the bridge of Sam's nose, moving his thumb across his high cheekbones before moving down. He takes a deep breath and moves his thumb slowly over Sam's bottom lip, licking his own lips as he does. Sam presses a kiss to his thumb, a barely there pressure that has Bucky's knees shaking.

Sam's thumb is still moving agaisnt his metal arm and the sentions mixing together are making his head swim. He moves his hand down, rests it on Sam's shoulder, palm pressed against his neck. He feels Sam shiver and looks up at him. Sam is still smiling, that soft look still in his eyes. Bucky blinks at him, slowly.

"Hi." He says, his own lips curling to smile back.

"Hey." Sam says, his smile growing the longer Bucky looks at him. Sam moves his free hand to Bucky's cheek, making him shiver now as he moves his thumb across his cheek.

"How's your hand?" Sam asks, voice low. Bucky takes a deep breath, lifts his palm away from Sam's neck a little, there's a bright pink line across his palm, but no more blood. He moves his hand back, pressing his fingers into Sam's neck, making him shiver again, and nods.

"It's good. Healing." Bucky says. Sighing when Sam presses closer, resting himself agaisnt Bucky.

"And the bruises?" Sam asks, leaning forward until their noses are almost touching. Bucky glances toward Sam's neck, where his hand is resting, his knuckles a collage of purples, greens, and yellows. He nods again, slowly, his eyes moving back to Sam's face, lingering on his mouth. Sam's lips twitch, a smile flickering there. Bucky watches him, sees him press closer as he looks at Bucky's lips. Bucky moves back, his hand on Sam's chest pressing down. Sam frowns at him.

"I'm sorry about the mirror." Bucky says, frowning himself. He hated breaking things. Hated giving in to that anger inside him. That violence. Sam's frown melted as he moved both his hands to Bucky face, cradling his head, holding him.

"I know you are. It's okay." He moved forward again, pressing his lips gently to Bucky's before pulling back again, Bucky's skin burning from his touch.

"It's okay." He whispered, nodding, looking into Bucky's eyes. And Bucky knew he wasn't talking about the mirror anymore, not completely. He opened his mouth, letting Sam in as he pulled him closer, Bucky grabbing at his hips, fingers digging into Sam's skin, making him moan into Bucky's mouth. He swallowed it greedily and moved his hands up Sam's back, pulling him closer as their tongues pressed together.

Bucky was shaking, his skin tingling with heat as Sam wrapped his arms around his shoulders, and kissed down his neck, his lips leaving a trail of fire in their wake. Bucky whined when Sam rolled his hips against him, smirking into his shoulder. He did it again and Bucky had to grab at Sam's arms to stay upright. Sam moved his hands to Bucky's thighs and lifted him, sitting him on the sink. Bucky gasped and blinked rapidly when Sam looked at him, the beautiful toothy grin on his face.

"I've got you." Sam said with a nod, his thumb moving over Bucky's bottom lip. Bucky pressed his lips to it, mirroring Sam's motions from before. Sam sighed happily and moved forward again, pressing his forehead to Bucky's.

"I know." Bucky sighed, his hand tangling in the front of Sam's shirt before he pulled him into another kiss.

Sam held him, hands on his waist, as Bucky's hands moved over his body. Bucky grabbed and pulled and soothed, his hands touching as much of him as he could reach. Touching his hands. His arms. His shoulders. His hips. His back. Sam kissed him, deep and soft, as he touched him. He moaned into the kisses, and Sam's firm grip. And his hands kept moving. Finding new things to touch. He smiled into Sam's kiss, his head somehow rushing with thoughts, and singularly focused on one thing.

Sam.

He was touching Sam. His heart pounding in his chest as his hands moved. His skin burning, head swimming as he and Sam smiled agaisnt each other, their teeth clicking, as Bucky touched him.

And touched him.

And touched him.

And touched him.

[tastyykpop]

𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛-ρ† 2

Pairings: enemy, student, barista!jaemin x student, barista!reader, (very small) taemin x reader

Suggestive, slight angst (you have to squint), fluff

<previous- next>

Warnings: dom!jaemin, brat!reader, brat taming kinda, possessiveness, degradation, praise, thigh riding, choking a lot, pet names, jealousy

a/n : here we go again👨‍🦯

"Is it true? Her and jaemin?" Students whispered amongst themselves and thats all you heard today, wondering why they were even talking about you and him. It was strange really, jaemin was nicer and there were very little pranks and even then, they weren't as bad as what they used to be.

"Y/n! Oh my god I can't believe it!" Yeri jumped with a smile plastered on her face, "Are you and jaemin together?"

You twisted your face in confusion. Is that what people think? "What!? No! Where did you even get that from?" You questioned.

Yeri smirked and leaned closer, "I heard from jeno that you both fucked." She leaned back, "is that true?"

"I- well thats not entirely wrong but what does that have to do with him and I dating?"

"Jaemins been nicer with you and there's rarely ever pranks. I mean, anyone with a brain could tell that something is up." Yeri pointed out. She raised an eyebrow as you glanced around, making sure no one can hear you.

"Okay yes me and jaemin did have sex, but seriously we aren't dating. And I'm just as shocked as you about the way he's acting." You whisper-yelled at your friend. She mouth fell into an 'o' shape as she nodded, then attempted to walk away until you grabbed and brought her back, "wait im missing something." You squinted, "please dont tell me everyone in the school knows."

"Okay I wont." She shrugged and tried to walk away again but your hand gripped her arm tighter, "Ow, did you get stronger?"

"Yeri I'm serious! No one was supposed to know and now everyone knows!" You slowly let go of her and stared at the ground, "i swear Im gonna kill that boy!"

Yeri snickered and patted your shoulder, "Dont you mean fuck him?"

"YERI!!"

Order after order, customer after customer, you began to wear down after a hard days work. Irene stayed for a bit at yours and jaemins station to help since it was so busy. And it still wasn't fast enough for all the orders that just kept coming. It felt like you weren't going to finish and the shop closed at 8:30, it was currently 8:17.

"Ugh why is there so many orders at this time?" Irene groaned from exhaustion, jaemin snickered.

"Just be happy we get payed after this." He said and you all agreed.

Everything seemed to suddenly slow down at the cafe as it was beginning to close. Only a few orders were actually left and after that, you could close.

Irene and jaemin cleaned up the stations. Of course Irene left first afterwards, and you counted the money at the register. And since youve been working here for almost 2 years, counting money was just as easy as walking. But since its been super busy today, it took you a while to count some of the coins. Only once while you counted did you mess up, but you brushed it away and started again.

"Can you be any slower?" Jaemin commented, having just finished his part.

Putting the money away after counting, you put your hands on your hips like a mom scolding her child, "Whats the hurry all of a sudden?"

He only giggled and ruffled your already messy hair, "I wanna spend time with my baby."

You tried your hardest not to blush.

"No way." You swatted his hand off your head.

"And why not?" He quirked an eyebrow as you and him walked to an empty table in the cafe.

"Cuz you told jeno what we did last night and now the whole school knows. I'm kinda mad at you right now." Groaning, you hid your head in your arms trying to avoid his gaze.

You couldnt see him, but you heard the sigh and knew he was pouting at you, buy you didn't bother looking up.

"Why can't I brag about how good you were?" Jaemin questions, leaving you to groan louder.

"This isnt what I wanted..."

The boy shifted in his seat and pulled your head out your arms, his hands holding the side of your cheeks, "then what did you want?"

Your cheeks puffed as you tried to find the right words, "...to not have done what we did last night."

"So you regret it?"

You shrugged.

Jaemin leaned back and stared at you with a cold face. He has a hint as to why youre now suddenly saying this, not only because of him telling his friends, but also because of his past with you. If he wasnt pranking you, he was making fun of you, if it wasn't that, he'd make you flustered with his words or actions. Jaemin was annoying, yes, but your reactions were priceless to him. You got annoyed by jaemin and you hated him. He didnt blame you even after all this.

"I guess im not really mad at you telling him, just more confused on why you had sex with me." You started playing with a strand of fallen hair and waited for his answer.

"I did what I wanted to do from the beginning; fucking you dumb. If you think there's another reason, there isn't." Jaemin crossed his arms with a half smile.

You stopped playing with your hair and glared at him, "No no there has to be more! You're way to nice to me now for that to be it!"

"Do you think I like you?" He suddenly leaned forward. You didnt bother saying anything and sat back in the chair, "Why would I like you?"

Its been a week since your last interaction with jaemin. Literally. Theres been no pranking or anything. It was odd, but you couldn't stop thinking back to what he said when you both were alone in the cafe. Something about that kind of stung. You dont know why but, you thought maybe, just maybe, he'd actually like you. And maybe, jimin was right about about you liking him.

"Hey how was work?" Jimin asked getting up from the couch. You noticed taemin was here too and it wasn't surprising anymore as he's been coming over recently this past week.

"It was a bit busy actually." You smiled, nodding your head in taemins direction to acknowledge him and he smiled in return. Cute.

Jimin came back to his seat on the couch and handed you and taemin a clas of iced tea, "Jaemin didnt do anything again huh?"

You shook your head, "You don't understand how weird this is. Like he completely stopped interacting with me." You sighed taking a sip and seat next to taemin before ranting again, "Wait...oh my god! Did I get played? Was he really just trying to fuck me this whole time?"

"Fu- what?" Taemin zipped his head at you.

"Its a long story-"

"No its not," jimin cut you off, "basically hes kind of a bully to her and hes always doing pranks and saying some provocative things, but magically," he started flailing his hands, "jaemin started being nice, said he wanted to 'fuck her dumb' and then she was in his bed."

"....so you just...let your bully fuck you??" Taemin squinted his eyes at you and you nodded slowly. "Interesting. "

"I dont even know why. Like it just happened." You stuck out your bottom lip and laid you head on taemins shoulder, "I can't believe I did that..."

"It was bound to happen." Jimin sipped his tea.

You lifted your head slightly off of taemins shoulder and stuck your tongue out, "You know what fuck you!"

"You both are like kids." Taemin said, moving to get up.

"Hm?" Jimin looked up from his iced tea, completely obvious to what taemin said and taemin shook his head.

"I need to get back home. Jimin don't stay up too late." Jimin whined at his friend as taemin got up, "y/n, be good." You gave him a thumbs up and watched as the black haired man left.

"Jimin hes cute." You frowned.

Jimin rolled his eyes, "tell him that next time then."

You rolled over so now you were laying on jimins lap and he gave you a look of disgust, but you ignored it, "Mans is too cute for someone like me to say something."

"Dude he literally called you cute the first day he met you." Jimin said a matter of factly.

"How do you know he wasnt lying?"

Jimin scoffed, "Taemin lying? Thats like me and you dating. It just doesn't go together."

"I dont know if i should be offended or happy." You glared.

"The latter." He averted his eyes from yours and continued watching the show on t.v.

2 classes in and your were already tired. If you hadn't had stayed up so late with jimin, crying over some k-drama, maybe you wouldve gotten a good night sleep. But because of that you looked dead. You didn't even try to look your best this morning, only throwing on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and brushing your hair back. You thought you looked okay to some extent at least. Maybe not your normal self but at least you were presentable.

There's was only so much you could handle in your class right now too. Trigonometry was definitely not your strong suit and you wondered how you even got in this class.

People were hunched over doing their work and you were struggling with question one. It was a bit embarrassing. You looked to your right for answers but they were just as lost as you, so your left was your next move.

"I dont appreciate you cheating off my paper y/n." Jaemin whispered, making sure the professor didn't hear him.

"Sorry I'm just confused.." you grumbled, placing your pencil down, jaemin gave you a look.

"Maybe if you used your head you'd get it."

"Im not dumb jaemin."

He exhaled and rubbed his face with his hands, "Come over later ill help you."

You looked at jaemins partially completed paper then back at your blank one. You needed this if you wanted to pass but you also didn't want to be with jaemin at the moment and you weren't too sure what tricks the boy had up his sleeve.

"I dont think-"

"It wasnt a question." Jaemin then went back to his work, ignoring whatever protest you had as you were about to open your mouth.

It was at this point you even planned on not going later. The only thing is he really didn't like being disobeyed and you found him a bit scary when mad. It wouldnt be right to miss out on him tutoring you anyway because jaemin was a smart guy. With his help you should be able to pass easily given a few months.

The professor ended class a few minutes early. Jaemin and you both headed to your next class when someone tapped on your shoulder, making you curiously turn around.

"TAEMIN!" you leaped up and hugged the guy around his neck as he giggled with full cheeks. "What are you doing here?"

"I changed colleges since it was closer to where I was living, but I didnt realize you were here too!" He beamed.

Jaemin stood watching you both converse and giggle over small things. He wanted so badly to drag you away from taemin but he knew you weren't going to like him very much after that. But something about the two of you laughing and subtly flirting didnt sit right with him and he didnt know why. It wasnt jealousy because why would he be jealous with you? He didn't care about you in that way. So why was this making him angry?

"Y/n lets go to class." Jaemin interrupted the two of you.

"You can go ill be in shortly." You brushed him off as if he was nothing and began talking with taemin again. Jaemin despised it but listened to you and walked away.

You were happy taemin came to this school because now it gave you a chance to get closer with him. It was definitely the small crush that grew over the week that made you feel like a 14 year old girl whenever he said something remotely sweet.

Taemin and you stood just outside of the classroom door and you gave him a quick hug and good bye before heading into the room with a big smile.

Jaemin stared at you as you walked up the steps to your seat that was a few feet away from him. The smile plastered on your face made jaemin see how much of an impact taemin really had on you.

Seulgi and sana kept glancing back at you, snickering here and there. Something your not fazed by it anymore. Probably them planning another prank or something. You also felt another set of eyes behind you and looked back to see jaemin glaring at the back of your head. Wondering why he was doing that, you crooked your head to the side then faced the front again after not receiving any response from him.

Ten minutes passed and the professor never came. Students were still all around the room talking to each other and the room was noisy. You decided to just ignore everyone and focus on any work you could, everything other than trig. You were saving that for jaemin.

"Hey nana," jaemin looked away from you and gazed up at seulgi who was now standing in front of him, "theres a party later at Wendy's and joys house. You coming?"

You put the pencil down and started biting your nails, wondering what he would actually say, not that he would ditch on you, but still.

"Im working later." He simply said, seulgi rolled her eyes playfully.

"Ill come pick you up after just bring clothes."

Jaemin raised a brow, "ill be too tired to go."

He was starting to get on seulgis nerves as she grit her teeth, "Then ill come over after school."

You scoffed and rolled your eyes wondering why she was trying so hard. Clearly the boy didn't want to go, or at least go with her. You didnt understand how she couldn't see that.

"Can't im helping someone with trig after."

She leaned over his desk, jaemin not really fazed by anything as she kept coming closer, "I have a feeling you're lying nana."

"Why would I lie?" He replied stoic. "Y/n is coming over for help."

Its the way that literally everyone in the room looked back at jaemin and you. Such a weird pair. Now they really would be questioning the two of you.

You anxiously looked back at him, seulgi was up in his face, nose flared, jaemin remained still and not intimidated by her or the class. But you were ready for someone to say something.

"Whats with you and y/n all of a sudden?" Seulgi asked. You could tell she didn't want you to go over his house, that was pretty obvious, but its not like she could stop you.

"Nothing, she just needs help in trig."

The class was still silent, even after a good 30 seconds. Now you just wanted the professor come in and talk about some WW2 stuff so people would ignore this. But your were pretty sure your professor just didn't want to teach and stayed home for the day.

"You dont need to help her." She faked a smile when she glanced back at you. "Shes a smart girl."

Jaemin was just about ready to get up and walk away, "I want to help her pass, now I do believe your seat is over there." he pointed over to the middle row of seats, just a few before yours. Seulgi actually took the hint and walked away. Her eyes were trained on yours and she looked as if ready to say something but decided against it.

God, now you just wanted to leave.

Jaemin placed a notebook and an open textbook on trig in front of you. His eyes watched as you hesitated to do your homework. You would get ready to write then lean back in confusion. For you, something was just not clicking with the whole trigonometry thing. You even started to wonder why you were taking it.

"Look this is what you have to do." Jaemin sat up and took the pencil out of your hand and went through the steps. Despite him being shockingly good at explaining and teaching, you found yourself lost at his words and just started staring at his side profile. Admittedly, you had to say he was pretty. And his lips as he was talking made you hypnotized. They looked soft and you wondered if you'll ever be able to feel them again.

"Repeat what I had just said."

You snapped out of your thoughts and hesitated, looking back at the paper then slowly began going over what you remembered until you started stumbling over your words and then stopped when he placed his hand on your thigh.

Jaemin exhaled loudly, sounding very disappointed in you and the only thing you could do was wait for whatever he had to say, "Why aren't you paying attention to nana?" His voice remained the same, but his nickname was a complete contrast.

"Im sorry I was distracted..."

"Distracted." Jaemin raised an eyebrow, "Theres nothing here to distract you."

Although you wanted to say he's been distracting you, you most certainly didn't and spared yourself the embarrassment.

"Y/n whats distracting you?" Jaemin set aside the pencil and gave you his full attention. Yet you remained silent and let him figure it out himself. But he knew, you were pretty easy to read. This is why he tapped your thigh, trying to get an answer out of you.

"You already know. Why do I have to say it?"

"I wanna hear it come out of your mouth." Jaemin shrugged.

"Jaemin..." you mumbled staring at your blank notebook, "Can we just move on?"

"Say it first." Consequently jaemin only made things worse by moving his hand up and down on your thigh in a taunting manner. One way or another he'll make you flustered.

"Youre clearly the distraction now can we please move on. We only have an hour and a half until work." You blushed.

A playful smirk found its way to his lips as he hummed in agreement. His hand still rested on your thigh and he once again tried explaining the problem in front of you. Granted, your phone went off in the middle of his second attempt of explaining.

"Taemin texted me hold on." You reached to grab your phone but jaemin was faster. He took your phone and threw it on the bed behind him.

"Pay attention." Jaemin had said. But you decided to be a bit stubborn and decided to get up and grab your phone, but jaemin had other plans. Hence why now you were stuck in a death grip on his lap with a hand to your neck. You couldn't see his face, but you knew it was cold. Jaemin didn't like to be disobeyed even for a second. "You only listen to me when I make a move, so do I have to keep you in this position for you to do your work?" You quickly shook your head and tried to wiggle out of his strong grip, but jaemin wouldn't let you go. Particularly because he figured you'd try and grab your phone again, which in that case, wasn't going to happen. If you so desperately wanted to pass, hes going to make you pass. Jaemin doesn't care even if he has to go as far as disciplining you either. As long as you pass, he'll be fine.

"You dont want to disappoint nana right?" You shook your head again. "You have a voice, use it."

"N-no.."

Jaemin hummed and let go of your neck, still keeping you on his lap. "Now be a good girl and listen. This is the last time I'll repeat myself."

So then you listened. Certainly because jaemin would not hesitate in making you regret any decisions you had.

After his third explanation, you understood the whole process a bit more and began doing your work. Jaemin was happy to see you do the problems, only pointing out a few mistakes, but praising you after for getting them right. You'd try your best not to smile or blush by putting your head down or looking away. Jaemin found it cute and couldn't help but smile himself.

"Lets get ready for work." Jaemin tapped your thigh for you to get up then he made his way to the closet to find clothes.

"Do you have a white t-shirt I can use?" You asked and jaemin threw you a shirt. Luckily for you the dress code was white on top, black on bottom so you didn't need to worry about the pants.

The both of you changed swiftly, not really caring about each others presence as you've already seen each other naked.

Without warning, jaemin dragged you out the his car, not bothering to give you a chance to say you wanted to drive yours. And you both were off.

It was a silent car ride besides the soft music playing on the radio. Jaemin kept you occupied with a hand resting on your thigh. He had a nice hand, you weren't gonna lie, but besides you gawking at his hand, it really did keep your mind focused. Not even the streets filled with so much activity could make you stop staring. It came to the point where you ended up grabbing his hand and played with his fingers.

"If you like my hands so much maybe I should use them on you again." Jaemin said, your breathing stopped for a second and you faced him.

"I just... find your hands nice thats all. Nothing sexual nana." You emphasized his nickname with a mocking tone. But in reality it was a very lowkey sexual desire to have him feel you up again, or even finger you. Whatever it was, you didn't want to admit it.

Parking the car, you and jaemin went inside the cafe to find it was again very busy. Irene was at the register helping a customer with their order and when she glanced up, you could've sworn she saw a ghost.

She finished the order and looked between you two, "Am I missing something?" She asked, pointing a finger at you guys as if accusing you, "you never come in together nor even walk inches next to each other."

"Y/n was at my house because I was tutoring her for school, so I drove her here too." Jaemin responded and you nodded in agreement. Still, irene found this crazy.

"Okay...just get to work then..." she squinted her eyes. Jaemin was the first to get to the stations, followed by you who made sure to look at the orders on screen.

After a while of making coffees, teas, and such you decided it was time for a break, so you asked irene if you can just take a seat for a bit to which she said yes.

Only a few tables remained empty, you took one near a window so you could see what was happening outside. Nothing different. Some teenagers fooling around on the sidewalk, couples passing by, and people rushing to get to their jobs. Meanwhile you never noticed someone sitting in front of you until they blew into your ear.

"Ahhh, what the fuck taemin!" Frowning at the sudden intusion, taemin laughed at your shocked face and sputtered many apologies. Many of which you knew he didnt mean.

"How long have you been sitting there?" You leaned over the table asking.

Taemin naturally leaned over too, getting closer to your face, "Just got here." He smiled, "I texted you that I was coming but you never replied."

You pouted in realization that that was when jaemin decided to discard your phone on his bed and not allow you to get it back. "Sorry I was being tutored for trig."

"Its fine." He pinched your cheeks, the smile never left his face once he finally saw a shade of red on your cheeks. Moreover, the two of you kept conversing for about 5 more minutes. Taemin talked about how jimin was bored all day from not seeing you at home so he went over to comfort him. You chuckled at the thought of jimin sadly laying against his friend and playing video games, trying not to feel bored. It made you happy that you had that kind of impact on him, knowing damn well no matter how much he said he said you weren't fun, that was a lie.

"I have to go. I'll make sure to come by later." With that taemin and you stood up and gave each other a hug. What surprised you was the lips on your cheek, giving you a bunch of butterflies in your stomach. "Bye y/n." Taemin winked and walked out the cafe.

Alarmed and flustered by what happened, you steadily walked back to the counter and just stopped there.

One might consider that to be a cute thing to see in a cute little cafe but jaemin thought otherwise and he was quite literally done with this.

"Come here." Jaemin made a finger motion to you and took you to the back of the cafe, away from the bustling people. "Whats with you and that taemin dude?"

"Why do you care?" You tilted your head up at him with a smirk. If you can manage to successfully push jaemins buttons and walk away with it, this would be the best day ever.

Jaemin took your chin in his index and thumb, bringing your face closer, "I asked you a question. I expect an answer."

"I dont have to answer if I dont want to." You tried swatting his hand away from your chin but he only moved down to your neck, causing you to gasp at the sudden squeeze. Basically, jaemin was choking you out of jealousy. "H-hes just m-my friend." You stuttered as you told the truth expecting jaemin to now let go, but he only softened his grip.

"I hate him."

"You dont know him." You mocked back and jaemin lazily rolled his eyes.

"I dont care if I dont know him I hate the fact that hes with you." Jaemin growled, letting your neck go.

You took the chance to let out a laugh at his frustrated face. This was entertaining to you and for once you had the upper hand, "so youre saying you're jealous?"

Roughly, jaemin slammed your back against the building with his face only mere centimeters from yours. You could smell the scent of mint in his breath too. "Maybe I am." Jaemin pushed a knee between your legs. "Shouldnt mess with my girl. And you shouldn't have let him kiss your cheek." Jaemins lips hovered over your lips. His hands harshly gripped your hips, moving you them over his thigh. Hearing the sound of you moaning out in shock, jaemin captured your lips in a kiss, a rough one at that.

His anger was through the roof and he showed that. "Youre mine and only mine. I'm the only one who can touch you like this, kiss you like this." Jaemin kissed down your jaw, still grinding your core on his thigh. You tried silencing your whimpers by biting your hand, but jaemin was quick to stick his fingers in your mouth, causing you to gag and choke.

Without a moments hesitation, jaemin pulled away from your neck to watch you suck around his fingers and he laughed through an angry aura, "If only taemin could see how much of a slut you are for me, maybe he would back off." You whined around his fingers and he pushed deeper down your throat. Your hips stuttered a bit, but kept moving forward, trying to get more friction.

"Such a stupid little girl for nana." Jaemin ruthlessly began fucking your throat with his fingers, "Are you gonna cum out here? What if somebody walks out and sees?" Your eyes rolled back and jaemin hummed still keeping the pace with his fingers and helping you move your hips. "Aww but I bet you wouldn't care. Since your so eager to cum and all." You gripped his wrist becoming more and more desperate to reach your high. Indeed you were so close that you started seeing stars, but jaemin pulled his thigh and fingers away.

"Were you about to cum?" He laughed in your face sadisticly. Your face heated up in embarrassment. "Stupid girl."

Cooing at your red face, jaemin brought you into another kiss, much softer than before but enough to know who's in charge.

"Lets get back to work, yeah?" Jaemin tapped your cheek with his two fingers and walked away leaving you hot and bothered.

Naturally you wouldve followed but you literally almost came in your pants just outside of your work. What were you thinking letting jaemin do that to you? And why did he have such an affect on you to the point that you forgot about what happened with taemin. You couldn't stand out here any longer and went inside. Jaemin was calm as if you didn't almost just get off on his thigh and sucked his fingers off. God this boy was doing something to you and you couldn't take it!

Working next to him seemed even more difficult. You were a hot mess, plus you were horny and honestly jaemins existence wasn't helping. And now, especially now, you realized that lasting until 8:30 was going to be a train wreck.

The school day was normal, yeri was hyper as always and cracking jokes making you spit out your banana milk. And her constant teasing about jaemin was nothing different. Of course you told her what happened the other day, she's your best friend, and she was blown away. Yeri wasn't expecting such news to be dropped on her like that and you couldnt blame her, only shrugging your shoulders and sipping your banana milk.

Stopping mid sip, you saw the boy you were subtly looking for; jaemin. Your reason? Well even you didn't know but your for sure were going to come up with something.

For the past few days jaemin never left your mind. Even when you saw him he always lingered. You could say you missed him. Besides that, taemin was never on your mind anymore. Just jaemin. It was like your mind needed him.

So you got up from your seat, yeri looked up confused and watched as your legs took you to your destination. Your heart was beating rapidly and you weren't even sure how this would go. Either you'll die from embarrassment or be the happiest girl alive. It was the anticipation.

You sucked in a deep breath once you got to him, jaemin peered up at you with curiosity, some other students even found your boldness interesting, until you spoke, "Wanna go out with me?"

[jungshook69]

Love is a myth :: 04 (Finale)

DISCLAIMER: This doesn’t represent the members’ actions or the army’s actions in any manner it’s pure fiction. This is an original work, do not copy. The taglist is open if you want. Taglist is now closed.

WORD COUNT: 4.8K words (it’s the finale y’all don’t look at me like that)

MAIN PAIRING:  musician! Yoongi X waitress! female reader

SIDE PAIRING/S: Jungkook X female reader ; Taehyung X female reader

GENRE: FWB! au ; Strangers to lovers! au

WARNINGS: Implied smut (Forgive me cuz I suck at writing it, no puns intended) ; Mentions of alcohol and smoking (I do not condone smoking) ; Profanity ; Mentions of infidelity ; Heavy angst ; Self loathing (Namjoon’s about to wack me in the head with his slipper) ; I apologize in advance if there’s any spelling errors.

SUMMARY: "You covered your bare form with the silk sheets beneath you, as you watched him walk out your door without a word." // "Love is a myth. All that existed between you two was pure lust." // "The last rule was if anyone of the two of you caught feelings for the other, the deal would be off."

SERIES MASTERLIST: Trailer » Meet the cast » Chapter #1 » Chapter #2 » Chapter #3 » Chapter #4

STATUS: Complete

You were even more motivated than ever to get ready for that blind date. Your fight with Yoongi from 4 hours ago was still fresh in your mind. You needed to get your mind off of things, and this date provided the perfect escape. You looked down at your phone that flashed with a new message.

 New message from ‘Michael “Jackie”-son’(2):

‘Dress in something fancy’

‘Address: XXX, 47th street’

 After ripping through every dress in your closet, you finally settled on going for a sleek, deep wine-coloured, silk gown that hugged your curves, but also loosely flowed to your feet. A slit ran down your left thigh up to your ankles through which your black lingerie stocking was sticking out. Yes, you’d chosen black lingerie for the night. It was the one you felt most confident in. Your hair was pinned into a simple, elegant, low bun, some loose strands of hair framing your face. You wore a simple chain choker, some elegant bracelets, shiny black pumps, and tiny pearls on your ears. Your lips were tinted in a gorgeous wine-shade, and your eyes were lined with a black liner. You knew your bear arms would feel cold, but you felt confident in your looks for once. But sadly this much reminded you of how your mother would dress. You pushed all these thoughts aside and grabbed your clutch, before you could make a tardy first impression.

 You stood before the building, drinking in the beauty of the exterior. You weren’t too surprised as you had worked at a 5-star restaurant for the majority of your life, but you were fairly nervous as you had never been on the receiving end of such ambience, ever since you had run away from your family’s wealth when you were 16.

 You walked in and were immediately greeted, “Good evening ma’am, how may I help you?”

 “Ummm… I have a reservation for two under the name Mr. Kim?”

 “Okay, I’ll check that for you.”

 You looked around and observed the luxurious decor of the place while the hostess went through the registry. She finally cleared her throat and spoke up, “Yes ma’am, Mr. Kim has been here for 2 minutes already, if you follow me, I shall take you to your seat.” She said smiling.

 Your palms start sweating as you follow the hostess to your table. Why were you so nervous? Was it because he was rich? Was it because he’d treated you to such a fancy place just for a blind date? Was it because you were afraid to break it to him how you were only expecting to have a good time, and not a committed relationship?

 Your brain most definitely started malfunctioning when you saw the hostess motion you towards a man sitting at what you presumed was your table. You took small strides as you made your way over to the intimidating man. He pulled back your chair for you and seated himself in front of you.

 And when your friends said this man was devilishly handsome, they weren’t exaggerating. His skin was clear and almost glowing. He was dressed in a fitted black blazer and trousers to match, along with a classic white button down underneath. His eyes were deep and intriguing, making you want to sit and stare into them all day. His lips were perfectly curved and looked inviting. You noticed two cute moles, one below his lip, and the other below his nose. His hair was a gorgeous jet black and was gelled back. A single strand cascaded on his forehead making him look even more suave. His poise held confidence, his shoulders held high, which seemed intimidating enough to you.

 “Good evening Miss. Y/N.”

 You thought his looks had attacked you enough. But that wasn’t the end of it. It’s when he spoke that you melted. His voice made goosebumps travel down your spine. What had you gotten yourself into? There’s no way this man was going to give you just a night of fun! What was Jackie thinking?

 “G-Good evening Mr. Kim.” You said trying to cope with his formalism.

 “Can we drop the act?” he asks, your eyes widening in surprise.

 “Pardon?”

 “I meant I know I’m intimidating, but like this is a bit much isn’t it?”

 “Wha… but you…”

 “Jackie said, and I quote, ‘You got money right? Flaunt it!’.” He says smiling.

 “Oh god.” You say trying to hold back a smile and failing.

 “Sometimes I wonder how Mark tolerates her.” He says giggling.

 “They do love each other a lot.” You say sighing.

 “Hey ummm… Y/N?” he says.

 “Yeah?”

 “Wanna get out of here?” he asks, eyes shining.

 //

 You were sweating and panting as you held onto his shoulders.

 “Taehyung, go slower, you’re killing me!” you yell out.

 “Jeez what are you? 60?” he scoffs.

 “Ayy you try walking in my heels!” you roll your eyes.

 You were both currently walking up the stairs to an old skating rink that overlooked the entire city. Taehyung held a takeout bag with 2 simple diner style burgers in them, while his other hand was clasping yours, helping you get up the last flight of stairs. You finally reached the spot he told you about and gasped at the sight you saw. You could see the entire skyline from here and it was a gorgeous sight to enjoy while eating the perfect comfort food.

 You both sat down and Taehyung handed you your dinner. “I much prefer these burgers than some expensive ass Pacific Bluefin tuna.” He says with a mouthful of food.

 “I’m surprised at how humble you are.” You say sincerely.

 “Yeah, the key is to never forget your roots.”

 “Sometimes people need to forget their roots…” you whisper unconsciously.

 “What?” he asks.

 “Uhh… the burgers are delicious.”

 “I know right? Mark doesn’t like them.”

 “Well Mark can go jump off a cliff.”

 “I couldn’t agree more.” He said smiling wide, as you admire his beautiful smile.

 “To be honest I never thought you’d be such a breath of fresh air when I first saw you.”

 “I tend to leave such a first impression.”

 “Umm… actually… I just wanted to clarify.” You say as you finish your burgers. “I don’t wanna lead you on. I’m not looking for anything serious.”

 “Well you’re lucky, because I’m not either. I tend to travel a lot. And I tend to fool around here and there and not stay emotionally grounded with anyone.” He says shrugging.

 “I hate commitment too. I just like to have a fun time.” You murmur.

 “Want me to show you a fun time?” he asks smirking.

 //

 30 minutes later, you were back against the wall of your apartment, as your lips were engulfed by Taehyung’s. His tongue felt hot, clashing against the walls of your mouth, as you shamelessly moaned into the kiss. His blazer had long been discarded on your floor, and your hands were tangled in his soft black hair. His hands roamed on your body rather daringly. His hands travelled up the length of your leg, causing goosebumps across the skin of your exposed thigh. His long fingers gripped around the meat of your thighs before he lifted you up. You wrapped your legs around his waist and gripped onto his shoulders to balance yourself.

 The kiss was sloppy and heated with none of you willing to stop for breath. His hands undid your hair and let your curls fall around your shoulders. His fingers thread through your long locks and he pulled on your hair, biting your lip as he broke the kiss. “You’re gorgeous.” He murmured shakily. You gave him a sly smirk and pulled his neck, connecting your lips again. He broke apart again, and stared into your eyes. His deep brown orbs were completely blown out, drowning in lust, and you were sure you matched it with the same darkness in your eyes. His voice was breathless as he said, “Why is the god damn zipper so tiny?”

 You couldn’t help but giggle at his urgency. “What’re you laughing about?” he asks furrowing his eyebrows.

 “It’s just you sound like those guys who struggle with a bra clasp and end up giving up in frustration.” You laugh out loud.

 “Oh I’m not giving up. You best believe I’m getting that god damn dress off of you.” He says, his voice husky.

 He turned you around and dropped you on your bed. He climbed over you, his leg landing between your thighs, his hands working on taking off your dress. He devoured your lips with an almost animalistic hunger when he’d finally exposed your lingerie to him.

 //

 Your chest was heaving as you stared up at the white ceiling fan. You had a déjà vu from about 2 weeks ago, from one of the many nights with Yoongi, where you had watched him leave after satisfying both your needs. You turned your head to see Taehyung’s angelic face next to you, as you catch his eyes already on you.

 “Why’re you staring at me like that?” you ask smiling.

 “I’ve slept with a lot of people ‘for fun’. But trust me when I say I’ve never wanted to stay back and cuddle as much as I do with you.” He says sighing.

 “Don’t fall in love with me Kim.” You say rolling your eyes.

 “It’s next to impossible, but I’ll try.” He says sarcastically, receiving a playful nudge from you in response.

 “Pillow talk has never been part of my routine…” you speak out, sincerity lacing your tone.

 “Me too…” he whispers and what he does next shocks you. He places his head on your chest, his face burying into the crook of your neck, and his arms wrap around your waist, sending shivers across your bare skin.

 “W-What’re you doing?”

 “Don’t think about it too much, just relax.” He huffs out, his breath running against your warm neck.

 You relax under his touch and involuntarily find your hands wrapping around his head as you nuzzle him closer. You let out a shaky breath as this reminds you too much of your college boyfriend. “Do you have to leave tomorrow?” you ask in a daze.

 “Sorry but yes… but I have a feeling I’m not gonna lose contact with you like I do with other people I sleep with…” he said smiling.

 “Me too…” you say letting your tired eyes flutter shut.

 //

 You wake up to a different sound everyday it seems. Today you woke up to the sound of what sounded like empty plastic bottles falling. Your eyes met with Taehyung’s, who came stumbling out of the washroom. “Sorry if I woke you up, I accidently dropped the shampoo bottles on your counter.”

 “No it’s okay.” You say smiling as you got up and put on your robe onto your naked form.

 You watched Taehyung, as he was folding the sleeves of his white button down to his elbows. His hair cascaded over his forehead in a messy, but still intimidating manner. He looked up at you as he grabbed his coat. “Well I should get going, my driver’s downstairs.”

 “Oh okay…” you murmur softly.

 He walks up to you and lifts up your chin ever so lightly. You meet his warm smile and you instantly melt. He leans in and lands a soft kiss against your lips. “I left my number on a note on the night stand. Promise me, we’ll stay in touch.”

 “Sure.” You say sighing, with a sad smile.

 “Hey, I meant to be friends, not for just hooking up again…” he says chuckling lightly.

 “Oh…” your eyes were wide.

 “Well I have to go now, bye Y/N I had a great time…” he says walking away, his hand slipping from your hold.

 You watched as he left your place, and you went to take a shower. Somehow this time when you heard the familiar click of the door, you didn’t feel hurt. Even though Taehyung was gone, you didn’t feel sad. Did it have anything to do with the affection he had shown you, besides the lustful sin you had committed?

 //

 Yoongi walked up the stairs of your building. His hair was a mess, his eyes were swollen from not getting enough sleep. He didn’t like the way he had yelled at you yesterday. He wasn’t in the right mind and he was just angered when you had told him that the memories he held dearest to his heart were a mistake. He finally reached your floor at 9 am in the morning, hoping he could resolve a few unspoken issues. Confrontation was always Yoongi’s go-to method.

 But Yoongi stopped in his tracks when he saw a man with tussled dark hair close the door to your apartment. He could only assume the worst by the sight in front of him. The man passed by Yoongi, bowing out of courtesy on his way to the stairs. All his obsessive thoughts started coming back to him. Maybe you didn’t want to go back to being friends. Maybe you should stick to the deal you had made. The slight bit of confidence Yoongi had when he was making his way to meet you was wiped away as he turned on his heel and made his way towards the exit.

 He needed some time. You needed some time. Alone.

 //

 The next whole week had gone by in a blur. Yoongi was procrastinating on whether or not to talk to you, ultimately deciding against it. You had continued to ignore Yoongi’s presence in your workplace the whole time. He didn’t walk you home every night since. You had also begun texting Taehyung from time to time, and you both had settled on being just friends, since you learned you both much enjoyed each other’s goofy side. Your life was in a constant loop, going to work, ignoring Yoongi, reaching home, and sleeping, only to repeat the same schedule every other day of the week.

 But today was a bit different. It was a Saturday night, and tonight was important for you, and every other employee. Tonight, all the heads and managers of the other branches of this ambiguous chain of luxury restaurants, were here to dine. Along with the CEO of this chain. You knew you were a waitress, but you had assisted in cooking tons of times before. Tonight they had all the experienced heads, like you assist in cooking, while they assigned the newly trained rookies as hosts and hostesses. You were all told to be super attentive and to make your nerves worse, you were being supervised by your head chef and manager Kim Seokjin.

 But the timing was completely wrong. Today your thoughts about your personal life were unnecessarily heightened. Seeing Yoongi working his fingers across the monochrome keys of the sleek black piano, he himself being dressed in an all-black suit and shirt tailored to be strained across his firm chest, was extremely distracting. You tossed the meat into the pan, aware of the powerful gaze of Seokjin standing in the corner of the kitchen.

 You tried to vaporize the alcohol by doing a simple flambé. You had done it tons of times before. You tilted the pan so the fire could catch the alcohol and a flame could erupt in your pan. But your mind being lost elsewhere you were shocked when the flame came on, and failed to move out of the way in time, burning your exposed forearm in the process. You yelped in surprise and pain as Maya took the pan from you for relief.

 “Chef, focus! This is no time to slack!” Seokjin’s voice rang through the loud kitchen.

 You huffed in annoyance and took the pan back from Maya explaining to her you’re okay, and began tossing the meat, ignoring the searing pain in your arm and the mark that was beginning to darken. As soon as all the dishes were made, you were given a 5 minute breather, till you waited for new customers to arrive. You stood in the corner, your hands cupping the burn on your hand in pain. You looked up in surprise when you heard a slam on the table in front of you. You watched Seokjin walk away, as you looked down at the ice pack he had left for you on the table. You couldn’t help but land a small smile as you iced the burn on your arm.

 It wasn’t 10 minutes later, and you were already pan frying zucchinis and slicing cherry tomatoes. Your break had barely lasted 2 minutes, before you had been called in to make a very important dish for the CEO’s family which had just arrived. “Move it! Move it! We don’t want to keep Mr. Kang waiting!” you heard Seokjin clap his palms together.

 What didn’t help your sense of urgency and added to the pressure was Yoongi entering the kitchen, as he stood in the corner having a chat with Seokjin. You knew that they were close, but you never knew Yoongi was close enough to lay a hand on Seokjin’s shoulder like that. You immediately placed the dish onto the counter, your mind distracted by Yoongi’s presence.

 Before you knew it there was a sharp call of your name leaving Seokjin’s lips. “CHEF Y/N?!”

 You rushed towards the counter, scared out of your wits. You watched as Yoongi’s eyes met yours in a sense of panic. “Y-Yes Mr. Kim?”

 “DID YOU DROWN THIS SALMON IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND PLACE IT ON THE CEO’S PLATE?”

 “N-No sir…”

 “IT’S SALTIER THAN THE BOTTOM OF THE PACIFIC! YOU KNOW WHAT COULD’VE HAPPENED IF WE SEND THIS PLATE OUT? YOUR HEAD IS NOT IN THE GAME CHEF! WE DON’T HAVE ROOM FOR AMATEURS IN THIS ESTABLISHED CHAIN!”

 “I-I’m sorry sir…” you said trying not to let the humiliation get to you.

 “You are one of my trusted employees so this is a warning, but if this happens again, I’m gonna have to let you go, you understand that chef?” Seokjin finally calms down and says.

 “Y-Yes sir…” you feel everyone’s eyes on you.

 “Retire for the night chef. You’re too distracted. We’ll fill in with someone else. You can leave.” Seokjin announces before leaving the kitchen. You take off your apron and before any of the others can ask you any questions, you stride out the back door. You sit down on your heels in the dark alley and hold your head and pull on your hair in frustration.

 Damn you Min Yoongi.

 Your cheeks stained with long gone tears, you held a cigarette up to your lips, as you tried to calm yourself down. You heard the door to the kitchen creak open.

 “Don’t try to ask me if I’m okay Jackie because frankly I’m n—” you speak out without looking.

 “The name’s Yoongi, Min Yoongi. Not Jackie.” A low voice echoes down the walls of the alley.

 All you can do is let out a huff of frustration and crush your cigarette under your shoe. “What do you want from me?”

 “I don’t want anything from you… just wanted to check on you…”

 “Since when do you care about my feelings?” you ask rhetorically, not expecting an answer.

 “Since last month I suppose, since when we walked to your apartment that night.” His straight forward answer surprises you.

 “What are we doing Yoongi?! What the hell is going on with us?!” you ask frustration lacing your tone. “We’re supposed to be fuck buddies. And we haven’t even had sex in 2 weeks! And before I know it, we’re sharing deep secrets with each other and talking to each other like we’ve known each other for years, and kissing each other like we’re in love—”

 “Because I am in love.”

 //

 Yoongi stops your little rant and shocks you with his words. You weren’t expecting such a direct answer to leave his mouth. You stood up, brushing out your skirt and muttered softly. “W-What?”

 “You heard me. I’m in love.” He enunciates.

 “But why?” you ask, oblivious. “I’m damaged goods. I’m toxic. We both are in a toxic relationship.”

 “But I’m willing to work to fix that.” Yoongi says with soft eyes. “I want to fix that gaping hole that the bastard left in your heart 6 years ago.”

 “Listen I really like you too, but I don’t want to… hurt you…”

 “You would never intentionally do that…”

 “I-I’m not ready…”

 “I’ll be here for you when you’re ready. This is new to me too! We can work through it together, please Y/N just trust me.”

 You sigh loudly. Before you could think you grabbed his collar and landed a kiss on his lips. He stumbled, but eventually his arms snaked around your waist, holding you so tight, afraid to let you go. You broke the kiss and looked into his beautiful deep brown orbs. “You really wanna do this?”

 “Yes.” He smiles and lands a small peck on your cheek.

 You smack his chest playfully and say, “You’re creeping me out, what happened to the Yoongi who could never even give me a straight compliment?”

 “Well I’m afraid someone changed him…” Yoongi says after thinking.

 “Oh really? Who may that special someone be?” you smirk playfully.

 “This woman at work. I’ve known her for 4 years, but never got around to talking to her until about 2 months ago.” He says chuckling.

 “Wow what a coward.” You scoff.

 “Well I don’t care, because I proudly simp for her now.” He says, his precious gummy smile making a rare appearance.

 You tug his collar, and smile as you look into his eyes. You lean in painfully slow, your breath ghosting his lips, but never coming close enough to touch them. “Quit playing me like that.” Yoongi whines making you giggle.

 “Well maybe I should—”

 “Miss. Y/N— oh sorry, please meet me inside, I need to have a word with you chef.” Seokjin says from behind the door.

 You immediately shove Yoongi away and walk back into the restaurant, your cheeks on fire. “Yes sir?” you say once you’re inside facing him.

 “I’d expect you to be a bit more professional. I didn’t peg you as the type of person to have a romantic rendezvous behind your workplace, but go off I guess.” He sighs. “Well getting to the point, I just wanted to say that, please maintain your work ethic. Your professionalism is something I’ve always respected, and something that made you stand out in this field. And I’d love to keep you in this kitchen, so please focus on your job.”

 “Yes sir.” You say softly, feeling a bit relieved.

 “And… I apologize for over reacting a while ago. I was not in the right head space. It’s just the CEO never stops pestering me on the tiniest details, and I wanted to prove him wrong, and show him that I can run this place. So if he received an overly salted plate, he would hold that against me my whole life.”

 “I understand sir. You don’t need to apologize. I’ll be sure to maintain my work ethic and never make a careless mistake like that again.” You say smiling.

 “Great. Well have a good night chef.” He says before bowing in courtesy and exiting the empty kitchen. You noticed that all the dishes had been done, so you went back to grab your coat and exited the restaurant to your new life waiting for you in the dark alley.

 //

 You were pretty sure you made the cab driver uncomfortable, but it’s nothing he hadn’t seen before. You both had long forgotten the sweet kisses and passionate hugs you guys had given each other merely 30 minutes ago, when you confronted each other, and now you were busy devouring each other’s lips, your tongues twisted in a feverish make out session.

 You stumbled into a familiar apartment, not yours, but in fact Yoongi’s. It had been 3 weeks since you’d last been here. You wasted absolutely no time as you both hurriedly discarded all your clothes onto the floor. Yoongi gripped your hip, with enough force to bruise it, as he lifted your form across the house and dropped you onto his bed. You drank in the familiar scent of Yoongi’s sheets around you, and the sight of a hovering Yoongi above you. His eyes mirrored yours, drowning in lust. His hair was disheveled and he looked at you with hunger. His lips landed on your neck, as you tilted your head the other way to make room for him to explore as much as he could. His hands ran along your sides as your hands raked his back. Your eyes fluttered shut, as you let out an uncontrollable moan, when you felt his teeth nip into the skin at your collarbone. You felt his warm tongue lick the mark he had made on you, as he continued his way down your torso.

 “You sure you wanna do this?”

 “Bitch, we’ve fucked 15 times before!” you laugh out loud.

 “Jeez woman, I’m out here trying to make it romantic, and you just rail me like that?”

 “Just shut up and do it. I need you right now.” You whine, which seems to turn him on.

 //

 Your eyes flutter open and you’re surprised that you aren’t woken up by any displeasing noises. The sunlight partially blocked by the semi see-through blinds, cast a dim light in the room. You found your head resting on Yoongi’s chest, a soft rhythmic breath leaving his chest, sounding like music to your ears. Your hand laid across his naked chest, while his hand was wrapped around you, his palm laying across your bare back. You yawned and suddenly flinched when you felt Yoongi’s lips on your forehead.

 “Good morning.” He said, his voice raspy and gruff.

 “Good morning.” You reply smiling.

 “I’ve never wanted to wake up next to someone this badly…” he sighs.

 “Why’re you so cheesy? What happened to Yoongi? Who are you?”

 “I don’t know Y/N… but I’m open to change.” He says smiling, looking down to meet your eyes.

 You chuckle in response. You watch as his fingers run across your hand which is laying on his chest. His fingers brush your knuckles and he looks as though he’s in deep thought. “Where’s your ring?” he asks unconsciously.

 “I took it off last night. It’s on your night stand.” You say smiling.

 “Oh… well I hate to break it to you, and I know it’s a Sunday, but I booked us a brunch reservation at a nice café down the street.”

 “You really didn’t have to…”

 “But I did. We’ve been sleeping with each other for 2 months, and I haven’t taken you out on a proper date, like ever!”

 “Well food does sound like a good idea, I’m starving.”

 “Well then get your tiny tushie outta bed.” He says playfully pinching your cheek, and jumping out of bed to freshen up.

 After you both had showered and gotten your clothes on, you were wearing your heels by the door, when Yoongi walked out of his bedroom, “You forgot this!” he says handing you your silver ring. His curious eyes watched, as you took the ring from him, and slipped it into your purse instead of putting it on your finger. “Come on let’s go.” You said grabbing his hand, unaware of the wide smile your bare hand had brought onto Yoongi’s face.

 //

 Brunch was delicious. And so was the dinner date you had a week later. 2 weeks had gone by, smooth sailing for your new relationship. Your fingers remained naked, no ring in trace, in the entirety of the last 2 weeks. It was a cold Friday night, and you were now sitting at the piano bench, in an empty restaurant. You glanced over your shoulder to see Yoongi’s eyes, focused on the keys in front of him. For once in a long time you could truly say you were happy. Your life was blissful.

 “Y/N…?” Yoongi says interrupting your thoughts.

“Yeah?”

 “Could you sing…?”

 “Sure.” You said smiling, as you already knew which song he wanted you to sing. You cleared your throat as you begun the first verse of ‘My Heart Will Go On’.

 There you both were, all alone, doing the things you loved, with the person you loved beside you, and you couldn’t have asked for more. No more did you feel lost. No more did you think of love as a myth. You had finally found someone to keep your heart safe, in this cruel world. And you couldn’t be happier, that your savior was Min Yoongi.

��Previous :: Masterlist 

A/N: Y’all I still can’t believe I wrote a whole ass series. I’m usually one to write really long oneshots or two shots, but I decided to turn this into a chapter wise series. Anyways, I hope you guys really liked it, and stay tuned for more works from me, in the near future :)

Don’t forget to follow @jungshook69​ for more content:) You can check out more works of mine here. Have a great day:)

TAGLIST: @kookieebangtan​

[palettepainter]

Facts on Uncle Dangan

More facts on Higari’s uncle cuz out of Komori and Chrome he’s the one with the least development 

-Dangan was born in Australia and does have a bit of an accent. He spent most of his time in the bush (a natural undeveloped area), just doing snake things. Since there are dangerous snakes in Australia Dangan was often called “dangerous” and “scary” and as a kid it did affect him, so he’d spend most of his time by himself. 

-He was an orphan, most kids with snake or spider related quirks where discriminated the most in Austrlia and so most children with those types of quirks ended up with either bad living situations or where orphaned. Dangan was orphaned a few days after his birthday when his snake quirk activated, lack of parents combined with the teasing and bullying he experienced he grew up as a troubled kiddo. In his teen years he actually got into a lot of trouble, sometimes with the police

-He eventually moved into the country side in Japan for a change of pace when he was old enough to afford the travel. In the beginning he didn’t start of too well, his temper got him into trouble and more often then not he’d end up starting some sort of fight. With his bad repuation streak not many places where willing to offer him a job, so he’d often sleep outside. It sucks - not to mention with how much colder it was, Dangan had gotten so used to the hot weather in Australia that the sudden shift was shocking. Just when he’s about to throw in the towel and move back to his home town Magakure approaches him - she finds him shivering from the cold (his snake quirk makes him more affected by the cold due to snakes being cold blooded. He himself isn’t cold blooded but his quirk definitely adds to his dislike for colder weather), grumpy and looking..rather sorry for himself. She doesn’t take any of his snark and bluntly offers him a job, she’d seen him round town before and had grown tired of him causing a ruckus in her town, figured offering him a job would give him stability and cause less trouble on the towns part.

-His job was to simply maintain the sheep Magakure had. I mentioned in an old post that Magakure owned sheep at one point, she used their wool to help make her furniture. Dangan at first hates the job, it’s just so boring...but he’s getting paid and it’s nice to have some actual money, being able to afford a bed at a BnB is also nice. Over the years the two begin to form a friendship, they’re both equal amounts of snark and smug so the two actually became friends very quickly. When Dangan had been working for Magakure for a few years he eventually left for a job at a demolition site, starting off as a worker before eventually becoming head manager.

-Dangan is kind mean to Kaigo when he first shows up, he laughs at Kaigo’s faliure to do simple work with furniture but one day when Kaigo was feeling particularly home sick Dagan treats him to a drink - but only cuz he pitted him. Dangan begins to take the teasing a bit more lightly, he’s no longer being mean to Kaigo, he’ll crack a light chuckle before he eventually steps in to offer a hand when he isn’t busy with his own job. Their friendship is a much more slower build but by the time Kaigo marries Magakure they’re pratically best bros 

-He barked out laughing the day Magakure and Kaigo asked him to be an uncle to their kids, only to then see they weren’t laughing and he had an ”Oh wait you’re serious” moment. Dangan wasn’t too fond of kids, mostly cuz he’d experienced an unhappy childhood himself so children had left a sour taste in his mouth. He does take care of their kids, but only cuz they asked him too, not out of the goodness of his heart. He’s the type of laid back Uncle, he’ll let Magakure’s kids do what they want as long as they ain’t killing each other (though he did nearly have a heart attack when baby Higari found his unoccupied can of beer and tried to drink it-). He’s still kinda blunt and to the point with them and does put his foot down when needed. It was when Kaigo was starting to get worse with his sickness did he actually start putting in an effort to be a more caring Uncle

-He’s especially close with Hono, whom gave Hono his leather coat and gave him a job at his demolition company.

-His nickname for Higari is “lil’ weasel”, now that he’s older he often just calls him by Higari or just weasel, but every now and then when Dangan is feeling especially teasing he’ll call Higari lil weasle 

-He stinks of cigarettes but ever since Higari and his siblings came into the pitcure he was kinda forced to keep inside smoking to a minimum 

-With how troubled his teen years where Dangan has a lot of scars from fights he got into, he often likes to retell the stories of how he got the scars in gruesome over-exaggerated detail 

-He hates winter. Having a snake quirk he’s more affected by the cold then normal people so he often spends his time inside during winter and Christmas

-The type of Uncle to send Haiya and Riley pet spiders in the mail 

-With Kaigo gone Dangan is..protective of his kids. So when he first met Ecto he wasn’t at all subtle. It took Higari telling him to cut it out for him to back off, which he did, but Dangan made it clear he wouldn’t hesitate to go back to his more troublesome ways if Ecto wanted to cause trouble, may have used some colorful language. Basically calls Ecto an arse wipe (an idiot)..buuuuttt for the sake of his nephew he keeps himself in line

[prompt-master]

Shuichi doesn’t have flaws, he gets over his shitty self esteem the moment you shill and praise him. His backstory and legacy a Gary Stu development. He solves one case with luck and gets his talent handed to him on silver platter. If it’s fake, then why should a tv company and audience listen to a brat that willingly signed up to the show in the first place? It makes Shuichi sound arrogant. Also everyone loves Shuichi, even Miu, Tenko and Kokichi want him. So yeah he is perfect. (Con)

(Con) Shuichi’s arc isn’t different either, he took Komaru’s “believe in yourself”, beloved by everyone like Makoto, but less and has Hajime’s pessimism. Also the difference between Kaede and Makoto. Kaede would be willing to vote Junko to her death, while Makoto would want Tsumugi alive. Kaede has her gray morals and people call her out on her behavior. At least until her death where Kodaka stops seeing her as a person, but Shuichi’s dead waifu and has no impact on anyone. (Con)

(Con) Besides if Shuichi and Kaede were the opposite gender. People call Fem Shuichi a Mary Sue, because they love ripping apart female characters. Then again if they were the opposite gender, Kodaka would kill Fem Shuichi, because “she’s too smart” for the killing game and give male Kaede a compelling character arc, because he views female characters as disposable. That’s he what sees them as.

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

I think i’m gonna have to use bullets for this cuz there's a lot to talk about here.

1. I think you might have misunderstood what I meant when I said that Akamatsu is the “perfect protag” and Saihara is not. I did not mean that Akamatsu has no flaws (she def does, one even got her killed), I meant that she suits the role of a danganronpa protagonist almost perfectly.  She's not a perfect person or even a perfect character, but being the protagonist works for her.

2. I don’t think calling Saihara a gary stu is really a valid argument because in all honestly I could call all the protags that. I could call Akamatsu a mary sue if I wished and I’m sure some people would agree. It’s too broad a definition and a mary sue archetype does not mean they are a bad character.  Everyone's definition of Mary Sue is different, so it's impossible to know what any given person MEANS by it, the colloquial term encompasses everything from physical warping of the universe to fit them in such a way the character is unaware that it's happening- to just a character that could be considered a little bit over powered or "lacking the flaws necessary to have that much power.

3. I can understand why would see Saihara as a bad protagonist or at least a boring one. I think that there’s a lot of conflict in the writing and Saihara’s character development. It goes back and forth a lot (usually in and out of trials and such) on his confidence. One second he’s doing fine in trial, the next he’s in his bed with suicidal thoughts. Saihara himself doesn’t even want to be a protag, let alone a detective, but the game requires him to be an active participant which means his arc comes off really weak. I personally think that Saihara got confident too fast! He needed a slower build up, but the danganronpa formula does not allow for that. Because like I said Saihara is not SUITED to be a protagonist. 

4. You say that Saihara has no flaws but then I think you listed some flaws! Saihara has major attachment issues, he gets attached to people really quickly. Akamatsu and Momota are the big obvious examples of this. Like I mentioned Saihara also has depression, anxiety, he still has self esteem issues afterwards (it just feels weird because of the games in and out perspective on it). Saihara is a good character with a good arc who was done injustice by the gameplay. It makes his character and his arc seem weak. 

5. I don’t think the “female saihara” argument really has much to do with this topic. Again it just kinda sounds like you hate Saihara and wish Akamatsu was the protag (again, this is likely because Akamatsu is the “perfect protag” but Saihara is not designed in a way that the protag role can lend well to him)

6. I agree that Akamatsu would send Enoshima to her death. But that doesn’t neglect my point at all. I had said that should Akamatsu stay the protagonist she would not end the full game cycle and would just end this particular game. Saihara’s goal was not “kill the mastermind” his goal was “screw this game. This is bs. No more participating” which lends to ending the cycle ITSELF. I think the way they showed this (the whole yelling at people to log off) was weak and illogical, but his goal is still vastly different.

7. You say that Saihara is an arrogant brat for wanting to end the game when he signed up for it but...then wouldn’t everyone be an arrogant brat? Akamatsu and Amami had ending the game be their very first goal. Ouma also worked to end the game. Everyone wanted it to end despite signing up for it. There’s also the fact that this doesn’t really matter when they don’t HAVE the memories of signing up. Even when shown he did, why should Saihara CARE? He’s a different person with different memories now. And don’t forget about Gonta. 

8. I don’t think Hinata is a pessimist. He seems to be a strong realist. Even in chapter 6 when he is depressed, he still seems to hold a rather realist perspective. The protags mentality follow the themes of the game. THH is optimistic like Naegi, SDR2 is realist like Hinata, and V3 is pessimistic like Saihara. So yes, his arc IS different at its core, whether it was well written or not. There is also the fact that the protags all ease into their trauma over time (even Hinata as he doesn’t remember his until later) while Saihara has trauma from the beginning and is traumatized again and again. This itself is a different format. 

9. Everyone loving Saihara is not necessarily a GOOD thing. You see this the best in ch4, and it’s a shame they didn’t go anywhere with it. But everyone aside from Ouma becomes insanely reliant on Saihara and his talent. A talent Saihara doesn’t even WANT. Saihara is under a lot of pressure to use his talent to save everyone, and they all see this and think less for themselves as a result of it.  the characters, even momota and harukawa at times, begin to see him less and less as Saihara and more as "the ultimate detective"

10. Also you say Akamatsu’s death has no impact on anyone when I would say its a major impact on EVERYONE. I could say a lot for this, but Akamatsu’s last wish hit everyone really hard. This leaves them later more susceptible to Momota’s toxic trust system, and leaves them more willing to be overly reliant on Saihara as he was the source of her last wish. 

It’s fine to hate Saihara and just not vibe well with him! It’s fine to think he was boring and badly written! It’s fine to just...not vibe well with a character. I’m not giving you these reasons to say you have to love him, but rather why I think your reasons for doing so are a bit misguided.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Debuff Zane Build

i am tired of not seeing this build in all the zane build videos i watch so im sharing it here because its stupid fun bc u run fast and kill faster. it’s not meta, but its fun as fuck and u have a lot of damage and survivability with it. I’ve completed M4 Slaughter Shaft with it- haven’t tried on M10 yet but i have faith. p.s its 4 am pls have mercy if there’s spelling mistakes.

what ur gonna need is a band of sitorak, zheitseiv’s eruption, a seein’ dead, and the piss grenade. everything else is fair game, whatever u want. try to get it to have the sntl cryo anoint bc good. but u must have the 4 main items for this to work perfectly (it also somewhat works with a low level Frozen Heart bc best shield in the game but you will die a lot more)

also i need a fucking name for this build help

oh god oh fuck i forgot i was playing through the handsome jackpot dlc again

oki im ready to party

this is my current loadout

sometimes i switch the reg Q-System for a kaoson or a nighthawkin if i need ammo (OP QSystem is... OP but not as fun as a tracking grenade QSystem so i don’t care for it) and maybe the brainstormer for a reflux if many shielded enemies (i prefer the brainstormer over the reflux atm. so try for a brainstormer!!)

3rd slot, that’s a monarch which used to be a dictator b4 it got a straight upgrade. I actually don’t use the bipod unless im in a boss fight and don’t need to move fast. usually violent momentum and violent violence cover the dps loss

ur first 3 gun slots honestly don’t matter much. I have my reasons for using them, but you can use whatever u want i think, so long as its a strong weapon (bc unfortunately a lot of weapons are not scaled for m10). u dont HAVE to use the monarch or the Q system or the brainstormer. I recommend them, cuz theyre fun, but u don’t gotta if u wanna swap em out for a a kaoson or a yellowcake or a sandhawk or smth

the last gun is my zheitsev’s eruption. This bad boy, when u reload, shoots out homing balls of debuffery. So every enemy that gets hit with these gets a debuff. I have tried this with the needler but I prefer Zheitsev’s bc it can hit more enemies and once and takes less time. this gun only goes to Blane (ur clone). 

for the skill trees we have no points in under cover even tho brainfreeze is the best skill in the gaaaaame

explanations: 

really the hitman tree is p self explanatory, u wanna go fast as fuck boiii. My band of sitorak does not have the +15 movespeed while zoomer is active anoint (it has the break shield amp anoint, which is p okay. want movespeed, but a nice human from the reddit gave me this sitorak so i didn’t have to farm). u want drone delivery bc Blane will NOT be throwing grenades. If you try to make him throw grenades with the seein’ dead he will ONLY throw grenades and never fire his gun, meaning he’ll never reload. it’s a nightmare. anyway. u want the piss grenade (ideally with the +25% damage on thrown anoint). im not looking forward to regrinding this when they finally mayhem buff grenades.

we put one point into playing dirty because we want those extra shots and honestly with the amount of times seein’ dead can proc ur kill skills you’ll have it more often than not

we also have points in good misfortune for that sweet sweet uptime (which btw can be infinite using the brainstormer/reflux bc it is essentially a redistributor without the need for ur barrier) the monarch/dictator also does it justice

for Blane u DON’T WANT praemuntis. we want blane reloading as often as gotdamn possible. now unfortunately my seein’ dead gave me a +weapon mag size roll (im actually not sure if this affects blane, but im assuming it does) but it does have the amazing +5 donnybrook so I’m taking it anyway. I am so not looking forward to regrinding a good class mod when they finally release action skill buffs for them. i cri. i actually hear 3 points in donnybrook and 2 in violent violence is p good (or 1 in violent violence 1 in playin dirty) so maybe grinding won’t be so bad. maybe i’ll finally get a +weapon damage roll

u can grab 1 point in ducttape mod and put 4 points into borrowed time if you want. it doesn’t really matter. i current have 5 in borrowed time and 3 in pocket full of grenades (for some reason??? usually i only put 2 in.). U can do that and use those extra points for either ducttape mod or more points in playing dirty. 

u NEED quick breather. This skill has a STUPID interaction with the band of sitorak shield because of how quickly it recharges. I’m talking, the instant you swap with Blane, you have full shields and so does he. It’s dumb, I love it. Use it to get out of trouble.

so im probably gonna need to explain why i have 3 points in trick of the light: im a cryo slut. That’s it. put those wherever you want, just make sure you can get Double Barrel. i’ve seen builds where people actually go for brainfreeze, i might try that next time i respec.

Double barrel will make it so blane can use the zheitsev’s eruption and debuff your enemies for you. it’s worth it.

so the augments u want are these:

SCHADENFREUDE. because band of sitorak has such a tiny capacity, ur shield is constantly up. If its not, it’s constantly breaking from full capacity. this does have a fun effect with the amp shield break anoint, but mainly i like it for the 25% damage buff whenever it breaks. its a tradeoff for damage, ur constantly swapping between max shields and more damage, so its actually p constant survivability and damage over the long run.

i grab doppelbanger bc blane sometimes gets stuck in the floor and/or i don’t feel like running all the way back. i wouldn’t recommend getting which one’s real or digital distribution only bc u want him alive as much as possible. u can also get binary system instead of doppelbanger, its up to you

for Zoomer u want bad dose for the movement speed and (sometimes) static field (only if the enemies have shields). this is so if blane goes down or he isn’t taking damage, zoomer can refill ur shields. if the enemies won’t have shields usually i grab winter’s drone or boomsday depending on how i feel.

im actually gonna try to see if i can’t grab brain freeze. hang on. i know trick of the light is frowned upon for most people so lemme just respec. (im sorry i just love the vibes it gives me it’s like HAHA you thought that was me? no!!! boop. and then they’re ice sculptures and man i love h2o i wish emma had frozen more people the only people she really freezes are Greg and Miriam and honestly she doesn’t even kill Greg smh. (Greg is dr denman’s assistant. greg is highkey god.) I do like what she did to Mirami, the fucking implications that YES these teenage girls ARE powerful enough to instakill people, they just don’t out of the kindness of their hearts. Rikki was badass that episode too. actually i love the episode where rikki almost boils a dude alive for making a fool of her with ILLEGAL F I S H and burns people using steam from a pipe. rikki is my favorite mermaid- she knew what was u p. I wish mako mermaids was as badass as h2o was. and the cartoon. god imagine the cartoon violence. sigh. let them use their op superpowers to be SUPERHEROES. like in h2o au i have baron flynt puppeteer people to their deaths from Thor bc he has cleo’s powers like why couldn’t she do that to someone. Like dr denman “lmao bye bitch” or even charlotte (who imho wasn’t bad until cleo started being rude to her. cleo was 100% at fault that season). it wouldn’t have killed her!!! ... instantly. probably. ive never seen avatar in full but i did watch the blood bending episode as a child and as i understand it that’s frowned upon but hey. CAN BELLA TURN PEOPLE INTO JELLY?? harry potter 🅱oneless arms... my god.)

anyway, respeccing. 

there goes all my money. rip.

so i think im gonna have to live with the slower reload speed (sob) but yes u can in fact get brain freeze with this build. lemme show...

so ye in the event u just can’t live without freezing people (i know the feeling) feel free to do this. imma play with this for a bit and see if i can live with slower reload. I actually depend on the 100% cryo with zoomer active for all my cryo damage. i also use an ice breaker so they freeze fairly easy (but only on mobs. on bosses u want the snowdrift or something else)

this build isn’t really meta and u might have trouble doing a solo run of true takedown on m10... bc its true takedown on m10, but honestly it’s fun as F U C K. you CAN do it, but it’s not no thoughts head empty like barrier-redistrubutor/yellowcake zane can be so u gotta be on TOP of ur SHIT. i love it. running around killing stuff. it’s fun. i also love teleporting. it’s my FAVORITE THING. I STILL GET GIDDY OVER IT BECAUSE IT’S SO FUN. ask my friends, they will tell you, sometimes i’ll just start gushing over how much fun it is to teleport even though i’ve played zane since release. just. GFDGHKJGDFK so much fun. i just... b o o p. god i love this game. i took a break to play assassin’s creed odyssey (fun sneaky beaky game, pretty awful dialogue) so DAMN i missed this. 

here’s a link to a video I took on athenas (my favorite area to run. it’s this game’s bloodshot stronghold!) this is the playlist i listen to while playing Zane. i keep swapping songs during play bc sometimes they don’t fit my vibe or i get tired of them lol (spotify control is hooked to my 4th and 5th mouse buttons so i don’t have to stop playing) i forgot where my shock sandhawk was in my inventory, is what i use to demolish traunt. i was so scared i threw it in my bank earlier on sanc-iii lol (also yes i still slap blane’s ass. it’s to encourage him to kill)

and here’s a link to the save + everything I had on me at the moment (including the stuff i picked up in the vid in case u want it lol) cuz im lazy and don’t feel like clearing out my inventory. some of these are only m4-9. which ones? it is a mystery. you’ll know when the new update releases ;) (no but actually im so hype for mayhem level on the item cards. finally. FINALLY!!!)

why is this video taking so long to upload. hynnnggggg

oh god is that the sun

[pendulum-sonata]

Zarcray

Oh this is gonna be fun~

General:

Rate the Ship -  Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? - Man, I wanna say they last long but since they both are walking disasters when it comes to emotions, I feel they have this thing when they break off and get together over and over until maturity finally hits them.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - Zarc would fall pretty fast and act on it pretty quickly too, Ray would be a bit slower but in denial so... yeah :P

How was their first kiss? - It probably came as at a point when they were like arguing or taunting each other and the UST was just too much and it wasn’t much of a kiss and more like a mesh of lips.

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Zarc, all the way.

Who is the best man/men? - Ray probably talked Reiji into doing it, maybe Yuya could be a pageboy

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Man, I can’t think of anyone, maybe Asuka?

Who did the most planning? - Them? planning? You’re gonna make me laugh.

Who stressed the most? - They don’t do stress, at least not about this, since they probably left the planning to Reiji.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big. It was probably something  outdorrs, which was an imporvement, in fact if it wasn’t for Reiji and maybe Leo looming over them for a proper ceremony they would have eloped to las vegas or something.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Dunno, probably no papparazi’s of crazy fans :P

Sex:

Who is on top? - I think they switch, but Ray gets to be on top more often.

Who is the one to instigate things? - Zarc, because he get needy more often.

How healthy is their sex life? -Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? -Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? - I think they have a wide range of “timing” they do depending on the mood.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - I dare say sometimes they make it a competion? Because they do.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? -No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - If we take the route of they’re the parents of the dimensional counterparts, then they have 8, sets of quadruplets but wow.

How many children will they adopt? - One in Reira

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - they probably take turns, because on one side, Ray was a bit too spoiled and Zarc being an oprhan doesn’t know a thing either.

Who is the stricter parent? - Probably Ray ends up being stricter.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Zarc would, because unlike most parents he knows how badly a stunt gone wrong can hurt.

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - No one, they have post it notes on the fridge to remind them.

Who is the more loved parent? - Maybe Zarc for virtue of being the less strict.

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? They would rather not go, but Zarc goes because Ray once punched another mom.

Who cried the most at graduation? - Zarc, hands down.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - They both give me the vibe of “letting the child stay in jail for the weekend to learn their lesson”

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - I feel Zarc is more self-sufficient, even if it’s probably instant food.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Ray.

Who does the grocery shopping? - Zarc is an expert on groceries, coupons and the like.

How often do they bake desserts? - With 8 kids, probably a lot.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - They’re both meat lovers.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Zarc lives for surprises.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Zarc again, he gets bored easily.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Ray.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Zarc, maybe?

Who is really against chores? - Ray can’t for her life do chores until the phisically stop her of going around her day.

Who cleans up after the pets? - Pets? With 8 children? Do you wanna kill them of exhaustation?

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Ray does.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Both do, because they know how easily things can go wrong.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Zarc constantly finds spare change that Ray leaves around the house, in her clothes and even the bathroom.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Ray, cuz I see Zarc as an expert on efficient showers.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - No dogs, but when the kids hit the terrible 2, they had to get the leash for them, and they take turns.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Zarc goes all the way with Halloween, but other than that I think they do normal.

What are their goals for the relationship? - Goals require planning so, yeah?

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Both do.

Who plays the most pranks? - Zarc does.