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goodlucktai · 2 months ago

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9, raph and leo?

dialogue prompts

9. “I know, I know it hurts.”

When Raph was eight years old, the twins decided they needed their own bedrooms and, like with all other things they had ever decided, they made it everyone else’s problem. As a united front, the two of them had the capacity to wear down a squad of Navy Seals in a manner of days, let alone one overtired single father.

The campaign for separate bedrooms turned out to be a long con. Donnie had been denied an evil science laboratory by Splinter multiple times, on the grounds of it being dangerous, and Donnie being seven, and evil being bad. But a room of his own could be whatever he wanted, and he wanted a lab.

It took most of a week for Splinter to discover that the twins were still doubled up in the room that was ostensibly Leo’s while Donnie’s was being used for nefarious purposes, but by then Donnie had installed an electronic lock on the door that he built out of components gutted from old kitchen appliances and was fully ready to die on that hill.

While Pops and Donnie were locked in a contest of wills that would ultimately go in Donnie’s favor (because Splinter’s achilles heel back then—and even now—was that he thought little turtles at their most sulky and unreasonable were just adorable) Raphie had looked at Leo with a confused frown on his face.

“How come you went along with it, Lee? You didn’t even get your own room.”

Leo shrugged, bright gold eyes shining with interest as he watched his twin and his father argue back and forth. He was following it carefully, probably ready to join in if it looked like Donnie was going to lose—more engaged than he ever was playing video games or flipping through comics.

At the time, all Leo said was, “Just wanted to see if I could.”

Raph thought it was because he was a troublemaker, and he maintained that idea up until Mikey—intuitive beyond his years, even as a sweet little six year old—said he figured it was just that Leo’s head went as crazy fast as Donnie’s did, only in ways that didn’t involve breaking and building things.

A full decade later, Raph knows Mikey was right on the money. Looking back, he sees a kid who was wickedly smart and terribly understimulated. Leo didn’t create trouble for the heck of it, he just liked having problems to solve. He wanted conversations and tricks and puzzles, he needed hoops to jump through like dolphins did on TV, or else he’d get cranky and sneaky.

Their world became a much simpler, more peaceful place once Leo got his first phone and discovered an online chess app with a leaderboard.

All this to say, Leo has had a mind for strategy since before he could talk in full sentences. He’s a natural-born leader, and after the failed Krang invasion, he really stepped up and took it seriously. Raph is so proud of him he doesn’t have words big enough to contain the size and shape of it all. It isn’t as hard as he had imagined it would be to let go of the reins and give Leo the room he needs to shine.

Some days are better than others. For the most part, Leo says jump and his brothers don’t even ask how high, they just shoot for the rafters. Their teamwork is cohesive, as solid as it was when they initially realized their ninpo, and Raph thinks he’d feel sorry for the Shredder if that guy showed his face in their town again.

But there are also days like today, when Leo says something that Raph’s big brother meter pings as Leo being silly, stirring shit up for lack of better thing to do, and he doesn’t linger on it past that initial knee-jerk impression.

They’re working with a group of mutants out of Hell’s Kitchen, mutants who are walking the line between vigilantism and outright crime. They’re rough around the edges, but good-natured for the most part. The turtles kept bumping into that other group as they crisscrossed around the city until finally their leader, Old Hob, said, “Why don’t we just get on the same program instead of stepping on each other’s heels?” and a tentative partnership was formed.

It’s been a week since then, and in that time Raph and his brothers have been firmly adopted by the grown-up mutants, who ask pointed questions about what time they went to bed the night before and whether or not they had a decent breakfast and how their online classes are going.

“This must be what having overbearing aunties is like,” Donnie said to April on the phone none-too-quietly, and Sally, feline mutant and aforementioned overbearing auntie, knocked her knuckles on his battleshell reprovingly. But that about summed it up.

There was one spanner in the works, and that was Liam.

——

“Anyone else getting bad vibes from that guy by the way?” Leo says one day.

There’s something performative about it, his usual pomp and charisma with a plastic edge. Mikey tilts his head like a service dog who just caught the scent of a potential medical emergency. Donnie looks up from his phone, eyes keen the way they only are when he and his twin are about to communicate with the telepathy they’ll deny they have.

But Raph is having a bad pain day, and his well of patience for shenanigans is much shallower than it normally is.

“Leon, don’t start,” he says, rubbing the slider’s head playfully to take any sting out of the dismissal. “If I have to put up with any middle child nonsense today I’m gonna scream.”

There’s a beat, his second-youngest brother visibly hesitating on a mental fork in the road. He’s gotten so good about being forthcoming but his first impulse is still to play along, deny, conceal-don’t-feel. He still has this idea in his head of what a good leader is supposed to be, and he’s still willing to whittle parts of himself away that don’t fit that mold.

To his credit, Leo tries again. “I don’t like him,” he says with less certainty.

“You don’t have to be best friends with the guy,” Raph replies. There’s enough warning in his tone that Leo knows to drop it. “Just get along until we go home.”

He works his shoulder, trying to do something about the solid ache it’s become, and Leo’s eyes drop to the mass of scarring there and then flit away. He starts to outline the route their patrol is going to take, reaching into his belt bag for the jar of Tiger Balm he’s taken to carrying with him and handing it over to Raph as he talks.

Raph smiles, the warmth in his chest ballooning up to swallow the impending impatience and annoyance brought out by pain. That warmth stays with him through their whole run, even as Donnie video-calls April and deadpans “POV you’re tailing some guy who didn’t get the memo that armed robbery is cringe as hell,” even as Mikey goes out of his way to jump and tumble off a fire escape in time to give Mondo a high-five as he skates by in the opposite direction, even as Leo progressively gets quieter the closer they get to their two AM check-in at the Mutanimals’ railyard base.

Looking back, Raph can count all the red flags he missed and hates himself a little more for each one. Leo sometimes causes problems for fun, and he likes to see what trouble he can get away with or get himself out of, and he is a downright menace to society when he’s bored—but he’s good. He’s sweet, and charming, and wants to help. He wouldn’t have raised an issue with the other group of mutants, potentially cutting ties with useful allies, unless he had a decent reason to.

And that reason, Raph discovers that night—after information has been exchanged and all that's left is to hang out at the base watching TV and playing table tennis until Splinter inevitably texts to remind his sons of their curfew—is Liam.

He doubles back into the meeting room where he left his phone and sees the goose mutant has put himself between Leo and the only exit, head lowered on a serpentine neck, beak open to show a flash of sharp teeth in a display that Raph’s animal hindbrain reads clearly as threat.

His grip on the doorframe causes it to crack.

“Leo,” he says in a voice he doesn’t recognize.

His little brother’s head jerks up, half-hopeful, half-disbelieving. Later, Raph will hate himself for putting even a sliver of doubt in Leo’s mind, for unknowingly invalidating his feelings. Leo should never be surprised that his big brother showed up for him. He should never have been left to fend for himself in a situation that made him uncomfortable, especially after he found the courage to be upfront about it.

“C’mere,” Raph says, lifting an arm—a little turtle’s cue to tuck themselves safely against Raph’s side.

Whatever his expression is doing, it’s caused dead silence to blanket the room like a foot of packed snow. Liam looks markedly unhappy to see Raphael standing there, but Leo runs to meet him.

A strategist, a faceman, a leader, and barely seventeen years old.

“We were just talking,” Liam says with a lightness that rings as false.

“Next time I find out you and my brother were just talking, I’ll wring your skinny neck,” Raph replies, matching his tone. Liam may be twice Raph’s age, but he’s half Raph’s size, and Raph has gone head-to-head with the Krang general and the Shredder and walked it off each time. Raph is fully prepared, in this moment, to murder this fucking goose.

Leo taps on Raph’s carapace, just as one of his violent inner voices is lifting its head in the back of his brain and considering making an appearance. On Leo’s end, a warning that someone else is coming from down the hall. On Raph’s end, a reminder that his first priority is the one he’s holding.

He turns, keeping Leo beside him, in time to see Hob appear around the corner. The cat mutant stops dead in his tracks, slitted eyes moving from Raph, down to Leo, to the doorway beside them, and back again.

“Problem?”

“We’re going home,” Raph says, a rumble in his voice he wouldn’t know how to temper even if he wanted to. “And we’re not coming back. Don’t call us unless someone’s dying or there’s another alien invasion.”

“Knock on wood,” Leo mumbles near-silently.

Old Hob doesn’t answer right away. It’s impossible to tell what the older mutant is thinking on a good day, outwardly recalcitrant and unfriendly, even though he has never snapped at Mikey’s cheerful rambling or Leo’s wheedling attempts to goad him into yet another chess match or even Donnie’s accidental ninpo-related shortage of every appliance in the Mutanimals’ kitchen. He and Sally and Ray and Herman all go out of their way to make their base comfortable and accessible to the turtles and Mondo and Pete, like it really matters to them that the younger mutants have a safe place tucked away that they can fall back on.

And Raph had appreciated that, up until now. Up until they proved it wasn’t safe, actually. Up until he’d seen a grown man leering meanly at his baby brother, just because he thought he could keep getting away with it.

When Hob does speak, all he says is, “Get home safe, boys.”

Raph shoulders around him, and collects Donnie and Mikey from the main room immediately. Mikey says, “Woah, are you guys okay?” and Donnie shoots a poisonous look behind them, like if he glares hard enough he can see back in time to what happened to put those expressions on Leo and Raph’s faces.

“We’re peachy, Miguelito,” Leo says, disquietingly convincing. “Just had a difference of opinion with our hosts is all.”

“Stay out of Hell’s Kitchen from now on until I say so,” Raph adds sternly.

Raph tells dad about Liam when they get home, because there is no universe where that doesn’t happen, and Leo immediately gets hauled into Splinter’s room for what sounds like a very serious conversation. Raph, Donnie and Mikey cluster shamelessly outside the door to eavesdrop, and some frightened thing in Raph’s heart lets out the breath it’s been holding when Leo says, “Nothing happened, papa, I promise. He was just weird.”

“Let him be weird to my Baby Blue one more time and I will show him exactly why your father was the undisputed Battle Nexus champion,” Splinter says. He cups Leo’s face and rubs his thumb over a striped cheek, as if he’d like to keep his son right there where no one had the capacity to hurt him. “Thank you for telling us. I’m so proud of you. I will actually kill him if he looks at you again.”

Leonardo smiles brightly, daddy’s boy of the family and glutton for attention that he is, those leftover dregs of anxiety in his eyes finally melting away.

“I think we should let dad kill him,” Donnie announces, eyes icy, tone flat.

“Nah,” Mikey says, disingenuously cheerful. “Next time we run into Liam I’m setting him the fuck on fire!”

“Language,” Raph scolds by rote, but his heart isn’t in it.

He can’t get that scene he walked in on back at the railyard out of his head. He can’t help thinking what if something worse had happened because I didn’t listen?

It feels like there’s a ghost in his chest, rattling his heart. He’s haunted by the what if.

——

After dinner, Leo looks at Raph meaningfully and points at the infirmary. Doctor Leo’s orders supersede all others, 100% of the time, so Raphael sighs and surrenders his controller to Mikey’s grabby hands without bothering to make the token argument. He keeps driving Princess Peach off the track anyway.

“Have you been stretching?” Leo says, feeling along Raph’s upper arm, where the muscles are visibly knotted. Even his careful touch hurts—that whole side of his body is tender with pain. Raph can’t help but flinch when his shoulder spasms and Leo hisses. “Shit, sorry, I know, I know it hurts. God, Raphie, you gotta say something before it gets this bad. I’m not afraid to bench you, big guy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Raph says, amused by his little brother’s no-nonsense tone, warmed by the care Leo always takes with his family when they’re sitting in his infirmary and putting their hurts in his hands.

There’s nothing performative about him here. It’s just Leo, stripped of every false layer.

“Let’s try to massage it out,” Leo says, all his attention bent to the task. “Then we’ll apply heat.”

Raph hums, watching him work. His arm radiates pain, and he has to grit his teeth as Leo goes to work on the knots and the ache flares close to unbearable and wanes to a dull throb and then flares again.

“Hey,” Raph says before he can overthink it any more. “What would you have done if I didn’t see you and Liam?”

Leo pauses, but only for a split-second. He’s as good as cornered here, because there’s no way he’ll leave Raph when he’s in pain, and there’s nowhere to hide. Thankfully for Raph’s sanity, he doesn’t try to pretend he doesn’t know what they’re talking about, even if he takes a long moment to finally answer.

“Would’ve made Angie make me a Portal Promise to never be alone with him,” Leo admits. Flushing slightly, he mumbles, “It’s, uh, a thing we do—we both make portals, you know, so—it just means we have to keep that promise no matter what happens or what rules we have to break, and we won’t get in trouble later as long as we’re honest.”

Raph’s heart hurts. His little brothers are so sweet, and people exist in the world who would hurt them, and he has no idea how to reconcile that. He hates that both things could be true at the same time.

“Tello doesn’t need to be encouraged to stay away from people, and I’m pretty sure he can read my mind? But I would’ve told him anyway,” Leo goes on. “I tell him everything. I’d try to word it so he didn’t get angry enough to do something drastic, like, cut the brake lines on Liam’s Toyota Corolla. And I’d have to make it sound like you and I were on the same page, otherwise he’d go to you about it, and you’d—uh, be annoyed that I didn’t drop it, I guess.”

Getting impaled by the Krang hurt less than this, Raph thinks. He feels sick.

“Leo—”

“I know,” Leo says quickly, a little too loud. “I know that I don’t always take stuff seriously. It’s not your fault for thinking—you know. You didn’t do anything wrong, Raphie. I just gotta grow up.”

This kid, who—like the rest of them—has already matured well past his age, well before he should have had to. Who’s terrified of letting his family down, who has so much he thinks he needs to live up to. Any perceived failure weighs on him like the death penalty, and Raph knows he had a hand in that.

He needs to listen. Even when he’s aching and short-tempered. Even when Leo is talking around something that scares him. Maybe especially then.

“Can we make a deal?” Raph says, reaching up to hold Leo’s hands still under one of his own. Leo is staring hard at Raph’s plastron and doesn’t seem willing to lift his eyes for love or money, but he jerks his head in a nod. “Next time I’m not hearing you, and it’s something serious like today was serious, tell me, and I’ll stop.”

Leo’s mouth twists a bit. If it were for anyone else’s sake, he’d get in Raph’s face and make himself heard no problemo, but it’s an entirely different story when it’s his own safety in question. That part of Leo that wants to always rely on his brothers is constantly at war with the part that believes he’s not supposed to need anyone’s help anymore.

It would be impossible for him to plant himself like a tree and refuse to be budged and demand Raph’s attention if he thought for one second that it would make Raph angry at him.

“What if we came up with a code word?” Raph offers, squeezing Leo’s hands. “If I’m being a stubborn punk, you can tell me the code word, and I’ll listen, and I won’t get mad. Even if it turns out to be a mistake or a misunderstanding. Okay?”

He finally gets a peek of gold as Leo dares to make eye contact. He looks embarrassed, like they’ve made a huge deal out of this for no good reason, and hiding inside his shell until everyone promises to pretend like nothing happened is looking more tempting by the second.

But he’s Leo, their fearless leader. He stared down that portal into the prison dimension without flinching. If he can do that, he can do anything.

“What word?” he finally says.

“You pick,” Raph tells him.

A smile creeps onto Leo’s face, picking its way carefully across shaky ground.

“‘Goose’,” he suggests.

"‘Goose’ it is," Raph replies firmly, committing it to memory.

He lifts his good arm and drags his little brother into a solid hug, ignoring the twinge in his back and side. Leonardo scrambles to return the embrace, shoving his face against Raph’s unscarred shoulder and clinging for all he’s worth. Which is a lot. He’s worth so much.

Later, when Raph’s got the electric heating pad on his arm and he and Leo are watching TikTok compilations to pass the time, Mikey comes through the infirmary door at top speed, waving his phone above his head like a maniac.

“Look what Mondo sent me!” he shouts at full volume. “I put it in the group chat!”

The video shared in the Mad Dogz chat shows Liam being kicked out of the railyard, his bags tossed into the road. Sally is going off at him at the top of her lungs, and Hob is standing by with his arms folded like he’s fully ready to let her maul the guy, and the rest of the grown-up mutants are making it pretty clear with their body language that the goose isn’t welcome anymore.

“Dunno what they saw on the security cam, but they effin’ hated it,” Mondo says in the recording, unbothered by the absolute chaos unfolding in front of him. “Good riddance, Liam sucks. Oh, Mikester, Hob wants to know if you guys’ll be back in the Kitchen for Herman’s D&D oneshot on Saturday so he knows how much food to order. He said you should bring your dad around this time—as if we need another boring old man in the group, ugh. Anyway, let me know and I’ll pass it along, dude!”

A weight Raph hadn’t even realized he was still carrying melts off his shoulders. Leo huffs under his breath, a disbelieving little laugh.

“Can we go, Raphie?” Mikey asks with wide eyes. “Don worked so hard on all our character sheets. He even 3D-printed custom figurines.”

“My bard is going to carry this team,” Donnie says loudly from the next room, because he’s never met a private conversation he wouldn’t shamelessly listen in on.

It’s so important to the Mutanimals that their young friends feel safe with them, and here’s proof of that in Mikey’s hands. Raph doesn’t fully understand why they care, but he’s grateful that they do. It didn’t hit him until now how much it hurt to have the railyard taken away—and how relieved he is that they can go back, after all.

He squeezes the arm he still has around Leo’s shoulders, prompting his brother to look up at him.

“What do you say, Fearless?” he says warmly. “Your call.”

Raph’s listening this time.

#rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #hamato raphael #hamato leonardo #a team #my writing #tmnt fic #prompt #magicalspacedragon #this kind of went all over the place but im super out of it tonight unforch :(

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angstydisaster02 · 2 years ago

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Another analysis of Bakudeku’s relationship! (Shout out to Syd for helping me) - Manga spoilers

——-

If Horikoshi planned to make them holding hands in a life or death situation, aka an important situation…imagine for the manga and how important it’ll be

It’s different from the movie for sure but still…If his first idea was them to help each other in the most unexpected situation and where they NEEDED it to survive, it’ll be more impacting in the manga

When he never saw him in this state before, for him it was the first time he truly saw his childhood friend died in front of him. The same childhood friend with how he wouldn’t imagine a world. And seeing him *dead* in front of his eyes might awaken something in his chest because the idea of losing him was hard, but they caught him right in time the last time at Kamino…this time, no one was here to save him, and Izuku might blame himself because now he’s considered dead.

It’s like imagining one of your closest friends (even your best friend you’ve known since childhood or years, it doe matter, as long as you know you both had a strong bond) dead, and damn...I think no word would be enough to describe the pain Izuku might have felt at that moment, so instead, his emotions spoke for himself and me, the fear deku we have now is the traumatized and the real Izuku, the one unable to control his feeling- see what I mean with the Izuku stuff?

How the Izuku was seen until now was the « fake » one, and the feral one who entered into craziness after seeing Katsuki dead is the « real » one, almost as if his feelings were personalized in one person, and it’ll be the current Izuku.

I love the symbolism of “holding hands.” Until now, all the people who held someone else’s hand were important to them, so it’s not just an “I’m saving you” thing, it’s more like an “I’m saving you because I TRUST YOU” thing.

The notion of trust is really important, and it depends on the relationship. For example, in season 6, when Tenya held Izuku’s hands, it was because he trusted him.

During the Kamino accident, Izuku WANTED to be the one to save Katsuki (in a part of his mind) because HE TRUSTED HIM. At this period, he was afraid because he didn’t know if it was mutual, so he let Kirishima do it.

Today we have heroes rising where, in a life or death situation, Katsuki AGREED to hold Izuku’s hands and accept his help because he TRUSTED him. He always did, and it was complicated during the deku vs. kacchan two fight when he refused and rejected izuku’s help. Because Katsuki was TRUSTING izuku, and he always did, but he was afraid and lost in himself.

The beauty of their relationship (bkdk) is how Izuku knows that Katsuki is not okay, and he gives him time. Instead of forcing him, he would rather let his childhood friend discover things by himself and be here by his side when this happens. When Izuku always knew about how HE trusted Katsuki, like an obvious thing for him….it took more time for Katsuki to admit it.

Admiring it means being vulnerable, and until now, the only moments when he was vulnerable were around Izuku, and, even if they didn’t solve their problems at first, it helped Katsuki to build this trust and the idea of “Izuku is here when I’m vulnerable, so this means he’s trusting me” (or something like that) so yeah, the most interesting part of their relationship is how they grew up.

When Katuski fully realizes it’s okay, and they trust each other, he’ll be more open, and their bond will be stronger. It’s the prettiest thing about their dynamic.

——-

(Credit to Syd for this part !)

If it was izuku who had his hand out for Katsuki instead of kirishima, but I’m glad it was him because izuku wanted to be the one to save him, but honestly, I don’t think he would’ve taken his hand. (Since he rejected 3 times when izuku offered, but you know katsuki too stubborn) and so we get to where I love the hand-holding bc katsuki is now accepting izuku and wants to make things right between them.

Katsuki character i think is very unique. Izuku is just a beautiful character overall.

The relationship between them is something that I never really seen before (i mean I’ve seen stuff with enemies to friends or enemies to lovers) but this is a little different and that’s what I love about it.

——

Let’s be real, we always wished it was Izuku because it’s our comfort ship, but seeing this story as external spectators….this won’t work.

Katsuki would’ve to reject Izuku because he didn’t “trust” him (aka accepting how his feelings were valid too and it shouldn’t be scary to accept Izuku’s help), and they’ll put his life in danger even more. It was a question of second, let’s be real (again) Izuku might be hurt by the fact that Katsuki wouldn’t accept his help and see someone else doing it or “taking his place” FOR THE FIRST TIME.

It was new, and I’m sure he suffered, but then deku vs. kacchan 2 happened, and they solved things. It was a difficult phase in their relationship, but it made it more realistic. That’s why I love them and how detailed it is. In the current manga they had to live in the same situation about saving each other they will. Katsuki would accept Izuku’s hands because they worked on it for months (in the manga Timelapse).

It’s different and well done, this makes them more attached and humans. They made mistakes, apologized, and agreed to give each other a “second chance” to start better, which is beautiful. They both complete each other most unexpectedly, and it’s the craziest thing about their relationship, how it feels natural.

I’m truly glad about how their relationship turned and their development <3

Thanks for reading and take care of yourself ! (Sorry for the mistakes)

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pinkvaquita · 7 months ago

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Sooooo @thelittleblubie and @peppermintstarsonamintyway and anyone else that wanted to see this thing

I HAVE FINISHED :D

This shit is long, hold tight.

scrub. scrub. scrub.

The sound of the soap and the sponge was surprisingly loud for only being some simple cleaning objects. Maybe the silence was helping it, the only thing similar to noise filling that empty space was that alongside the grunts and irregular breathing. Or who knows, maybe the sound was only loud on Grape Ade’s head. Her attention was completely fixated on those gloves after all.

scrub. scrub. scrub.

yeah. That was the thing ringing in her ears right now, never stopping or slowing down. The foam and water was splashing everywhere, even making small puddles on the floor under the sink. And even if that made the red mess under her boots only bigger, her eyes didn’t even care to look down. But how could she? How could she even start to care about the problem going around her, if she couldn’t solve the one that was already (and literally) between her hands?

scrub. scrub. scrub.

“fuck…” She cursed in a whisper as she finally let go of the gloves. It wasn’t because of how much pain her knuckles felt from how hard she was gripping them, nor from the fact she erratically moved the sponge. It was because those stains refused to disappear.

scrub. scrub. scrub.

She already grabbed every soap, detergent, cleaning supply and even the fucking dishwasher. Sometimes the thought that letting it rest could help the situation crossed her mind, and she waited for what it felt like ages (which in reality was only two minutes if she was able to contain herself.) before returning to impulsively try once again.

scrub. scrub. scrub.

Yet it remained. Jam was surprisingly easy to spot in black cloth (it wasn’t). And it also was surprisingly difficult to get rid of. Could it be that destiny made it like that, so you couldn’t escape from the reasons it was there, even if you tried?

scrub. scrub. scrub.

Maybe this was the price to pay for what she did?

It felt already like enough torture dealing with cleaning some simple gloves. With the reddish water, the foam everywhere, the soap almost already dissolved on her hands. And Grape Ade was already going crazy by thinking how was she gonna manage with the rest of things she was supposed to do.

What was she gonna do? What was she gonna fucking do?

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

“Please come off. Please. Please, fucking come off already.” Her voice was still in whispers that got mixed with all the other sounds. She didn’t realize how ridiculous she looked, as if begging to the nothing would help her get out of the consequences of her actions.

“Please.”

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

Begging and scrubbing. What an interesting combination of sounds that slipped through the door, leaking in direction to the hallways and dying there. Soft, yet loud enough to be caught by the curious ears of someone that was walking close by.

The sound of the door opening made her dough cold, almost hypothermic. She was really hoping it was just some breeze.

“Grape?”

That defenetly wasn't a fucking breeze.

• • •

Butter roll was slightly tired from staying more than he should in the lab, but his five senses were still functioning well and fast.

That was clear for him. If he were walking half-asleep to his dorm, he wouldn't have caught the distant sound of a distressed distant voice alongside of hands moving desperately in what he could only imagine was water.

That was… odd. If the clock he checked before heading out was correct, it was 2 AM. Why was someone washing clothes at this hour? And why did they sound so distressed and unsettled?

Maybe it is someone from the other Cookies of Darkness doing something for Dark Enchantress. Maybe it was that half-baked cookie planning something again. Or maybe the lack of sleep was finally getting to him. There were many reasons he should have just brushed it up and went to his dorm.

But he was a curious cookie. A curious man that couldn’t stop a nagging feeling on his chest that was telling him to go where the sound was coming.

He didn’t know what to expect as his steps led him closer to the laundry room. But it definitely wasn’t the picture he found when he slowly opened that door, adding unintentionally more tetricness to what anyone would catalog out of a horror movie or a true crime documentary.

“...Grape Ade?”

The biggest reason for that was Grape Ade cookie herself.

The way she was standing in the middle of crimson puddles. How the stains of jam were slightly visible on her clothes and even leaving the tips of her hair with the characteristic red color of that liquid.

When she turned to look at him (with the same expression a wet cat would have if it was caught by a dog in an alleyway), he also was able to see some drops were still on the corners of her face. Mostly on her right cheek, detail he didn’t catch at the instant he saw her thanks to being opposite to where he was standing.

“B-butter Roll…” The carbonated cookie said his name in a trembling whisper. While the feeling of freezing in panic quickly starts affecting her.

As her now also shaking hands dropped the soap and gloves in an instant, some half-thinked excuses started to escape from her. “I can explain it-, I swear. I can explain it!”

She couldn't. She didn't had any idea of how to explain this in a reasonable way. And seeing Butter roll walk closer to her didn't help at all in making something out of the mess her mind was.

His steps were firm even if he stepped on slippery floors thanks to the puddles. Surprising because his eyes looked at her and not a second down. Grape didn’t had a second to think about how impressive his balance and walking was because of how soon he was now standing in front of her. Taking a better look at her face and her despair filled eyes as he suddenly grabs her by the sides of her head and lifts off her face. A simple action that was only his way to study her emotions, but for her, it felt like she was judging her with every hatred a cookie as sweet as him could hide.

The tangled words and attempts to make an excuse didn’t stop at all, “I-, Butter roll I-”. It was so out of character to see her like this, with nothing to say to cover herself. He never thought he would see her in a state even similar to this. She was shaking, begging, stuttering…

“It was an accident, a f-fucking accident… I swear!”

The view of the first tears peeking from the corners of her eyes was enough to make Grape Ade start to crumble in his hands. And for him to take action.

Suddenly, a smell of buttery dough invades her nostrils. In one blink of an eye, he made a swift move and now got her closer to him, resting some of her weight on his chest. Yet her hands remain firm on her cheeks

“Shhh… Hey, don't cry… “ He softly says, his fingers slowly clean her tears as they fall, with a touch more careful that nothing she could think of. Not even in her dreams she could have guessed his hands, as much hard-work they endure, were going to be so soft.

The stuttering from Grape Ade stops, as same as the turmoil on her mind, the thousands of thoughts crying and going insane in worry about what is gonna be of her quiet down as soon as her face looks up at him. To his eyes that because of being always cheerful and full of optimism, were a thing that could captivate her in any circumstance. But seeing that now he was worried? For her? Showing the most tiny bit of worry to her alongside his “everything is going to be fine” attitude?

Oh, that was enough to make a soft sizzling and bubbling from her hair start to be heard. A signal for both of them that the beating of her heart was turning quicker and quicker. Signal that Grape Ade ignored this time out of being too mentally and emotionally overwhelmed. And Butter roll because he kept thinking that this woman was someone that blushed with the most simple things.

“It w-wasn't on purpose“ She said.

“it wasn't on purpose “ He assured, his voice was a whisper the same as hers

“I s-swear it wasn't on purpose… “.

Even if the tears no longer were coming out and left only sobs, his hands continued to caress her cheeks. Butter roll kept going his soft sushing words as he tried to calm down the emotional breakdown that she was going through.

For several minutes they stayed like this. Butter roll didn't care that she was getting jam on him, he even decided to hug her so she could ground herself with the warmth of his body. One hand going to her hair, slightly brushing it with his fingers. The other on her back, rubbing in circles since he supposed that would help her.

How could he be mad at her for some little stains? It wasn't the first time he had to wash something like this at all. Not to mention that even if he was worried about if she was hurt or too shocked to talk, a part of him couldn't stop thinking that if it wasn't for her scared expression her face with jam stains was a really… interesting view.

“You are a bit more calm now?” The softness in his voice was clear in the way he asked. As returned one hand again, to softly raise her face by the chin. Letting her nod to him.

He did the same gesture of nodding. And step back so Grape Ade could have her personal space again. The cold air hit her body more hard than usual, maybe because it was already missing being held by his strong arms.

A silence prevailed for some seconds. As he made in his mind a plan of what to do, Grape Ade nervously pulled a strand of her hair because of finally noticing she had been letting that bubbling sound exist during the whole hug.

“Go take a shower.” Butter roll finally said. As he looked down to his hand and finally noticed the little reddish spots on it left from holding her face.* “I think you need it.”

“...but what about-?”

“It's fine, I’m gonna help you.” He didn't even let her protest or stutter. His kindness was more strong than her nerves and he knew it.

Grape Ade took a deep breath. Knowing this too.

• • •

The shower indeed helped her have the final push to calm down . A warm shower at three in the morning was something she didn't expect to feel so comforting. It couldn't compared to how it felt to being hugged and consoled by the director, but she could call it a decent replacement.

Decent, but not good. A good one would have made her follow his advice and go to bed after that.

Or maybe not even a good one would have been enough. Butter roll himself told her to not worry about it when he accompanied her to her room, so he could take her jammy clothes and boots, and yet, there she was.

“Hey… “ She didn't try to hide as she entered the laundry room. Her voice wasn't as strong as how she naturally acts, but it was better than the last time he saw her.

And the laundry room also looked better. The disaster on the floor titles was gone, she correctly supposed Butter rollos took in his hands to also clean that mess from her.

“Hey, “ Butter roll turned to look at her, now in a clean lab coat. A gentle smile on his mouth as her presence seemed more calm, like he hoped to be.

She carefully walked close to him. Face down but not from shame, just checking how clean everything looks. From not so far she could hear a washing machine working.

“You sure are fast… How did you even manage to clean everything?”

“Oh you know. Experimenting sometimes is messy and things with similar results as this can happen.” His answer was calm. For him it wasn't weird admitting he has dealt with disasters like this one.

And for Grape, it wasn't that much weird at this point. After all, his knowledge about questionable stuff was something usual in him, and also helpful in this situstions.

“Honestly I wanted to teach you how to do this by yourself,” Butter roll said. As his mind remembered that he still didn't clean those gloves just for that idea.

But it was the middle of the night. And even if he could hold himself together a bit longer, he knew Grape Ade needed to sleep. She usually was already sleeping two hours ago, and missing that by too far made her cranky in the mornings. (No need to question why he knows the exact hour she goes to sleep.)

He didn't pointed out that he knew she was here because of being scared. Neither guilt her about it. “You think you are going to be able to sleep now?”

“I guess… Fuck, sorry, I should have listen to you.” She grumbled. The stress wearing down and the lack of rest was getting to her finally.

When she turned around to walk out, Butter roll stared to walk with her. Probably trying to make small talk and have an excuse to be closer to her one more minute. For the sake of ressuring her more, of course. “Is alright.”

“The first time is always scary after all”

#I actually did this omg #Idk. Im nervios about this #But either way #LANDLFNFMDMSNDLSDKSKLSDMMSSMSM #grape ade cookie #crk x oc #crk oc #cookie run oc x canon #crk ocs #cookie run oc

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helenbagheera · 7 months ago

Text

Another What If?

Hello guys!

You know, before I continue with the main story, I would like to share one more thing. There is a legend that on Christmas Eve the souls of loved ones who passed away come to visit us. My grandma alaways used to leave some food on the table for them as long as I remember. What if those ghosts visited Levi, Mikasa, Reiner, Armin, Jean, Connie, Falco and Gabi? This is how I imagine this possible meeting.

(You can also find the story in AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/52510798)

P.S. I nearly cried my eyes out

*24th of December, after the Rumbling*

"Kids, did you seriously bring THIS into the house??? " Levi stared in horror at Falco and Gabi, who were trying to get a...Christmas tree into the house. A fucking real Christmas tree. Everyone has gone crazy with this...holiday thing. Why would one bring a tree into the house?

"It's an old tradition!" Gaby replied cheerfully, putting her arm around his shoulders. "Falco had picked this one himself."

"By the way, parents said hello, they will come later.”

"Captain, let the children be happy. They need it," Yelena came into the room, shaking snow off her short blonde hair. Yeah, you're the one to talk about damn holiday.

"As if there was something to celebrate," the Captain muttered. "Don't talk about this day as if this Christmas of yours were anything more than an ordinary day that some individuals had turned into another excuse to get as drunk as shit."

"Captain, there're kids in here!"

"These two?" Levi looked skeptically at Falco and Gaby. "Those two must be familiar with a vocabulary that would make your ears curl, they just pretend to be sweet and innocent."

"Hello everyone!" several bodies wrapped in warm clothes piled into the room, among which Ackerman recognized Jean, Connie, Armin, Mikasa, Pieck, Reiner, and Annie. Even she was here. A great celebration. The cold from the bodies that had just come inside from the street felt so distinct that Levi wrinkled his nose.

"Hello, brats. Please don't tell me you believe in this whole nonsense of... Fuck-what-knows-stmas?" said the man, eyeing his charges from the one hundred and fourth. Of course, he called them that rather because of an old habit: even the once tiny Connie had managed to become taller than him, and the Survey Corps itself was now...left to live only in their memories. Like those they had lost in the war with the Titans and the rest of the world.

It's been almost a year. Almost a year had passed since that fateful day. The twenty percent of humanity that had miraculously survived had just begun to recover. Cities and towns began to be built. Political ties between the survivors began to build anew. In small steps, tentatively and timidly, but the world began to come back to life, bringing back what had been trampled under the feet of hundreds of colossal titans.

More than once, and more than twice, Levi asked himself a single question. Why? Why had Eren committed genocide after all? Did the little brat really only see this version of the future? A future in which the only option to save Paradis was to destroy all of humanity? Or did he not even try to find another way to solve the problem? Surely it must have existed! Surely there had to be a way to solve the problem, in which now his brats would not have to become ambassadors of peace, and he himself would not live in the hell knows how many kilometers from his native land with the eternal coddling of these two brats, that sometimes do not even make a step away from him. And even if every survivor tells him that, Levi will never believe that they had no choice. There was, is, and will always be choice. And it's only when you face the consequences that you can understand if your decision was the right one. And the consequences of Eren's choices are now being handled by them. And it was certainly not the right choice if it had caused billions of innocent people to suffer and de... At the thought of Hanji's memory, something stabbed at his heart painfully. After all, it was he who had agreed to make Eren the part of the Scouts after the battle for Trost. It was he who had taken responsibility for his future actions and...upbringing. And it was he who had made the grave mistakes that had led the younger Yeager to the decision to destroy all the people beyond the Walls of Paradis...

"Captain, are you with us?" Connie's voice brought him out of his reverie.

"Huh?" Levi asked, a little confused.

"Yelena said that the tree should be decorated with toys, and then we should prepare a festive table."

"Do I look like a clown to you?" Levi immediately interrupted him. "If Yelena's the one who started this bacchanal, she's the one who's going to decorate the corpse you dragged in here."

"And we don't want to do it without you," Armin said in an insistent tone. "And... And that's an order. An order from the Commander. You are my subordinate. And I'm ordering you to spend Christmas with us, decorating this stupid tree. We're not going to let you sit alone in your room while the house and table are being prepared. Who knows when else we'll all get together like this?"

"Yeah," Ackerman grimaced, blinking a healthy eye. Somewhat, though, the brat was right about one thing: he was really glad to see those naughty kids again. The surviving soldiers of his squad, Falco, Gabi... That was all he had left. A bunch of knuckleheads who gave his life the slightest bit of meaning. Ackerman shook his head, trying to push away the bad thoughts that had been on his mind too often lately.

"The titan smote me, all of this? Right up a tree?" Jean stared in surprise at the several boxes that stood at Yelena's feet. Inside were some balls of almost all colors and sizes, some huge star, something remotely resembling snowflakes, and a bunch of wires, the purpose of which only the Founding Fucking Titan knew.

"Oh, Yelena, I have to admit, you're a very thoughtful woman. Did you bring me the noose in advance so I wouldn't bother looking for something I can hang myself with?" Levi asked sarcastically, holding something that looked like a spruce branch in his hand.

"The assumption is wrong, Captain," the blonde replied. "It's called a rainstorm. It is being hung...

"Hung. Nice."

"It is not you who hangs someone with it, it is the decoration that is being hung. On this very tree."

"That is, on this Christmas of yours, not with the help of a noose a man is turned into a corpse, but the ready-made corpse of a tree is being hung with nooses. Art goes to a new level," Ackerman replied, but still hung a bright red ball on the tree, realizing that otherwise he would not be left in peace. Work began to speed up: Jean and Connie began to argue about whether to hang the bright star on top, Falco and Gabi jumped up and down around Ackerman, trying to put a bright shitty tinsel around his neck. After much resistance, the strongest warrior of mankind sighed doomfully and, to the cheers of the others, let the children do what they wanted.

"Here, Gaby, one mini-Jean to hang here, too," Connie said, handing the horse figurine to the girl. Almost everyone in the room burst out laughing as Springer hid behind a tree from the fist that was about to hit him.

"Look what we've got!" Falco pulled some red hats from the last box, handing out one to each of them.

"Oh no..."

"Oh yes..." Mikasa and Armin, smiling, put a red hat with a white brim and some stupid balloon on the tip on Levi's head.

"Either you take THIS off my head, or I'm going to strangle you both right now. Believe me, three fingers and one eye will be enough for that," Levi said in a threatening tone.

"Not for any money in the universe!"

"Resistance is futile, Levi," Reiner said. "Shit, I have to take a picture of that, or no one will believe us!"

"Bastards..." Levi replied in a threatening tone.

"You're such a sweet Santa!" Gaby looked up at Levi, wrapping her palms around her face.

"I'm still waiting for my noose," replied Levi.

"Well, it's almost done here," Jean said, looking at the tree appraisingly.

"What about someone telling any Christmas story? I wonder if there are some Christmas legends."

"A long time ago, my father once told me one," Pieck said, helping Gaby hang the figure of a funny old man with a beard in a red suit on the tree. "They say that on this night the spirits of the dead come down to visit their loved ones."

"What?" all the people of Paradis stared at the girl in surprise. Mikasa's hand froze in the air instead of hanging up another toy. An awkward silence filled the room. The girl, clearly not expecting such a reaction, lowered her head down in embarrassment, tucking a strand of messy hair behind her ear.

"After dinner, Dad and I always left food on the table for Mom, too," the brunette added.

“That's...a very beautiful legend," Connie said with a sad smile.

"Is it...is it really possible?" Mikasa asked with a trembling voice.

"How I wish I could see you one last time, Eren..."

"If...if only it were possible..."

"It's all just a legend. A fairy tale. Such a thing is impossible. The dead must be let go, moving on..."

"Why do people believe in such fairy tales? It's too cruel to give a man hope for something that can never happen..."

"I never dared tell you what I should have told you, did I?... And now you're gone forever. Just like everyone else..."

"Well, we never saw her, but then... ghosts aren't supposed to be seen, right?" The girl answered.

"It's because they're all just legends," Levi said, handing Gaby the toy that was in his hands and headed for the exit, leaning on a stick. His injured leg ached: the doctors had recommended that he sit in a wheelchair, eliminating all movement, but he'd rather die than let that happen. Stopping at the door, he turned around for a second. "Not a single idiotic holiday would bring back those who had died."

"He's right," Annie said after the door closed. Sitting down in the chair, the girl wrapped her arms around her knees. Armin carefully sat down next to her.

"We'll go after him," Gabi ran to the door, but she was stopped by Mikasa.

"Not now, Gaby. We will come for him later," she answered and left the room as well.

***

A blizzard was blowing outside, so Mikasa wrapped herself tightly in her red scarf. A few snowflakes fell on the tip of her nose. Although this residence was relatively far from the main street, her keen hearing picked up the sounds of singing. Mikasa crouched on the porch of the house.

"I miss you, Eren," she whispered, trying to push the tears away. "If it's possible, please come to me tonight. Just for one night... I don't need anything else... That night, you asked me who you were to me... Why couldn't I tell you the truth... I'm such a coward...."

"He died because of me," not expecting anyone to follow her, Ackerman's hand abruptly reached for her belt where her weapon had always been before. In response to her action, Reiner only furrowed his eyebrows and sat down next to her on the porch.

"It's cold out here," the brunette only replied, turning her gaze away. "You shouldn't be sitting out here without your warm clothes on."

"Neither should you," Brown said. "Or don't you Ackermans mind the cold?"

"We do," Mikasa said. "Did you... talk about Berthold?

"After Marcel was eaten by Ymir, he and Annie wanted to cancel the mission and return to Marlia. But I was the one who insisted we go ahead and infiltrate the Walls. Things would have been different if I had agreed to their proposal then. Maybe now Eren would still be alive instead of being... well, what he'd turned into. I could say that a thousand times. Too bad it can't rewrite the past."

"You were on a mission. And it's not your fault you were born as an Eldian and wanted your parents to be proud of you."

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Reiner said in response. Mikasa looked away. Now, noone is going to see her tears, especially Reiner. "I have to admit that even I miss that asshole sometimes. Hey, Eren, Berthold, if you can hear us, you should know that we miss you here!" He added louder, looking up at the sky.

"I don't think they can hear you," Mikasa said. There was the sound of a door opening.

"Hey, how long are you going to sit there?" It was Yelena. "It's time to make dinner, let's go to the kitchen."

After Levi, Mikasa, and Rainer had left, Yelena and Pieck decided to start cooking, and the kids went to get wood for the fireplace. Annie and Armin, and Connie and Jean were the only ones who remained in the living room.

"Jean..." Connie said. "Let's cook her some potatoes. I think she'd like it."

"Potatoes?" Jean answered. "You know...let's cook it. And lots of seafood. I remember one of Nicolo's recipes. She almost bit off my fingers back then when I asked her to share. I even have marks left."

"Are you guys with us?"

"We'll be there soon," Armin replied. Loudly discussing the paella recipe, the guys left for the kitchen. Annie continued to sit with her arm around her knees, and the Arlert threw a plaid over her shoulders.

"Do you think... Will he ever be able to forgive me? No matter how many times we agree not to remember the past or blame each other, he'll always remember," Annie said.

"You mean the captain?"

"That was his crew, wasn't it? In those woods. Trying to catch Eren, I killed all his men. I still remember... The crunch of bones, the body slamming into a tree trunk at high speed... I remember everyone now. Everyone who died by my hand..."

"Annie..."

"I had no choice," a tear rolled down the blonde's cheeks, her voice sounding as distant as if she were talking to herself. "Erwin had practically driven me to a dead end. If you'd managed to take me alive, I'd never have been able to come back."

"Now I understand why."

"He's right," Annie's voice was extremely quiet. "He hates me for a reason. There is no forgiveness for what I've done."

"Then let's go to Hell together," Armin, gathering his courage, covered the other's palm with his own. "We're all already doomed."

�� The girl's head rested gently on his shoulder. The fire crackled cozily in the fireplace, lulling her to sleep with its melody.

***

Slamming the door of the room shut, Levi tossed the stupid hat off his head. His leg ached in protest as he sat down in the chair, covering his face with his hands.

His eyes glazed over, his hands treacherously trembled, and something inside burned like hellfire. What's the matter with you, Ackerman? Is your age catching up with you? Why do you feel so lame? It's not like you're not used to everyone around you ending up dead. It's not like you're not used to the fact that living in isolation has always been the only defense, the only defense for everyone, even for yourself. And yet, the stubborn feelings won't go away. Maybe it's because you're just a human being? People are supposed to feel love, fear, hatred... Have you experienced all these emotions? Have you always lived with a stone in your chest, or have you hidden your true feelings under a mask of indifference? Ah, Levi, what do you think? Why did you let Erwin die? Let him rest? That's what you've been telling yourself all along. Maybe your decision was wrong then, too. It could have been completely different now. Did you let Hange die because she wanted to die too? Did she really deserve to be burned alive? They call you the strongest warrior in the world, but you didn't have the courage to tell her the truth, you didn't have the courage to stop that madwoman from dying... Why do I remember you now, Stupid Four Eyes? All of you?

"I wish the Titans ate your stupid Christmas," Levi muttered. Someone knocked. Mikasa came in.

"Captain," she said. "We're cooking dinner, come with us."

"Is there any tea?" Levi asked. The corners of the girl's lips turned upward slightly.

***

Dinner was indeed a festive affair: boiled potatoes, turkey, paella, baked cod, carrot cake, broccoli soup, meatloaf, appetizers... The table seemed to be filled to the top. A luxury that few people could afford nowadays. Falco and Gabi's parents arrived just in time for the evening. Marlians and Eldians, dining at the same table without even trying to kill each other. What the dead would have to say about that? What would it be like for the soldiers who had given their lives to defend the Walls to learn that the Walls were long gone, and that they were all now living in the very country that had been trying to destroy them? Would Erwin have supported the idea of this strange Union? The idea of working with them in the future? Perhaps they won't know that until they themselves die. At least being around those brats was much more pleasant than living side by side with Yeagerists.

***

During the night, all sounds had practically subsided. After the family dinner, the town went into hibernation. The house was large enough, so all the former scouts had decided to stay here for the night, and were probably sleeping peacefully in their rooms. Truth be told, Levi tried to sleep himself, but sleep stubbornly eluded him. His body wasn't known for its ability to fall into the eight-hour sleep that was an integral part of a normal person's life, but now it was almost a miracle to get an hour of sleep in three days. And even that sleep was constantly interrupted by visions of the past. Tonight was no exception, so having brewed a mug of strong black tea, Ackerman sat in a chair, silently observing the sleeping city. The clock on the wall beat a smooth rhythm, counting down the mercilessly running seconds.

"And when will my moment come?" he suddenly asked himself. Great, you're already talking to yourself. It won't take long to get to a mental institution.

A sharp gust of wind blew open the window. Suddenly Levi had the sensation of someone's presence in the room.

"Your time has not come yet," said a woman's voice.

The cup fell to the floor with a clatter, probably shattering into dozens of small pieces.

He... He knows that voice... Her voice...

No... No, this can't be...

It's just not possible...

A small hand gently touched his shoulder, making his whole body shiver. How is this possible? No, Levi, you're just crazy, you're imagining it, it can't be, purely physically...

The same hand gently touched his hair.

"I'm so proud of you," she was really standing right in front of him. Looking exactly the way she did before the disease that took her away....

"Mom... But how..." he whispered. The warmth of that hand, the gentle touch, the feeling of warm skin on his cheek was more than real! "Am I crazy? Did one of the dishes turn out to be poisoned and I died?"

"No," Kuchel replied. "You couldn't see it, but I always came to you. Always. After the power of the Titans left - something changed, and now we can interact."

"So, it's..." Levi immediately remembered that stupid story from Pieck. "That legend wasn't stupid at all..."

"I wish I could take all your pain away. The pain that you try to hide so hard and stubbornly. Your path has always been very difficult," a tear must have welled up in the corner of his healthy eye.

"No one ever promised it would be easy," he replied. A crippled hand clasped his mother's body tightly, realizing he wouldn't get another chance like this. "I wish we had more time together."

"And yet that time was the best one I'd ever had. My happiest day was when you came into this world. On this very night. They don't even know it's your Birthday, do they?"

At that moment, Levi realized another thing that made his heart beat frantically. So strange, because he thought that everything had died there long ago.

"Are they...are they here too?" Levi asked. As if to confirm his predictions, these words were followed by a noise in the living room. Levi immediately rushed out of the room as fast as his crippled leg would let him. Once...One more time...He wouldn't get another chance like this for sure...Why did this fucking hallway seem so long right now? His leg whined protestingly, but he ignored it. Probably not the best idea. When it was a few steps to the stairs, a sharp pain already pierced his whole body. Staggering as if he had just been grabbed by a titan, Levi collapsed to the floor and would surely have rolled down the stairs, counting all the steps with his teeth, if a strong hand hadn't grabbed him. Levi froze, breathing hard.

"And he's the one who's always telling me I am reckless," came the cheerful voice of his rescuer. Warm brown eyes sparkled merrily behind her glasses.

***

"Hey, sleepyhead," Springer only covered his head with the blanket in reply.

"Let me sleep, Jean," the man muttered. In response to the request, the blanket fell safely to the floor.

"What the hell is wrong with you, horse-face?" shouted Connie, exasperated. "Go eat some oats if you're hungry, why bother me!"

Lifting the blanket, Connie was surprised to see Jean sitting on his bed, staring in shock at someone behind him.

"Connie..." he whispered in a voice full of surprise. All the curses that had been ready to come out of his mouth at Kirshtein evaporated when he saw... Sasha.

"Seems like even titans won't wake you up," she said.

"I'm completely crazy..."

"Me too..."

"Hey, take it easy, guys," Sasha carefully took a step towards Connie, who still couldn't even move in surprise.

"We are here just for a short visit today," Sasha continued. "Look at this, this place is soo messed up, just like both of you without me. How did Levi even let this happen?"

"So it's true..." Jean was the first to regain the ability to speak. "That legend about the spirits... Sasha..."

Connie, tears streaming down his cheeks, jumped off the bed and hugged his friend tightly.

"Hi, potato girl..." he whispered. "We cooked something for you... Only without you it's not so delicious....."

"I know," Sasha replied. "When you come here, we'll cook together."

"When, Sasha?"

Falco and Gaby came running into the living room, both looking like they'd just seen a ghost.

"They're here!" Falco shouted. "We just saw them... All of them... Udo, Zofia..."

"It's... " Gabi looked at Sasha with tears. "You..."

"Oh my... So you... You're just a girl..." Sasha studied the girl who had taken her life intently. "You're not even fifteen, are you?"

"I...I..." Falco looked at her friend's face with surprise, her eyes filled with regret. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Now... Now I realized a lot... If I could go back in time, I would have knocked myself on the head, I was such an asshole..."

"I was angry with you at first," Sasha moved closer to the girl. "But just like you, I realized a lot of things. I came to your town, helped kill your friends. It was normal for you to be angry with all of us. There's no way of fixing the past. But I'm glad we both realized the same thing: we're all the same people who just happen to be on different sides of the Wall."

"It's a shame we realized that after Eren had committed genocide," Jean added, his head down.

"What's done can't be undone," Sasha said. "Just try to keep an eye on each other. And now let's talk about something more pleasant, Connie, we're here for a dinner, actually..."

***

"What's all this noise," Reiner muttered as he stepped out into the corridor. "Everyone has gone to bed, who is the fucking fan of late parties ...?

"Reiner..." the man froze on the spot when he saw... Berthold, Marcel and Galliard. Quite real and alive... What's going on?

"Wh... what's going on? How..." the man fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around his head. "It's... it's..."

"This was made possible after Titans' power disappeared," Berthold explained.

"Now we'll be coming to you on every Christmas Eve."

"So don't think you'll ever get away," Galliard added.

"Reiner," Marcel helped his comrade stand up. "Don't be a fool: try to let go of the past, you can't change it. Live for all of us. Start a family. Don't miss the chance you've been given."

"Otherwise, the next time we come back, we'll kick your ass," Berthold added. "The universe needs you for a reason. Also, keep an eye on Annie. No matter how much that punk loves her, she needs you, too."

"I... I promise..."

***

Mikasa was woken up by a flash of light outside. How strange... The last time she'd seen such a light she'd only seen it when the shifter transformed. Could it be... Walking over to the window, she desperately peered out into the darkness. So far, nothing was happening. Still, her heart screamed desperately: he was here. He was here, somewhere very close by. Mikasa jumped outside in just a sweatshirt and pants, not thinking about the very real threat of catching pneumonia.

"Did you...did you really hear me?"

A few meters away from the house, by the apple tree, she noticed a figure standing alone. The figure of a man she would recognize among a million others.

"Eren!!!" Her throat choked with sudden tears. He turned his head toward her. The same turquoise-sky eyes, in which the tear had flashed, were looking at her fondly.

"Mikasa..." came a whisper. Lifting her off the ground, he pulled her against him so tightly as if those arms could hide her inside his heart for eternity...

"Eren..." Eren's light-colored shirt was soaked with her tears, but he seemed to pay no attention to it, hiding his face in her dark hair, as if it gave him a sense of... comfort.

"Why aren't you wearing a jacket? It's cold in here," he said with a note of concern in his voice. Eren covered the girl, whose head rested on his chest, with his cloak.

"You heard me..." Ackerman whispered. "You heard me... Eren, I miss you..."

"I will always hear you," Eren replied, stroking her cheek gently. "I always see you, always follow you whenever you go. Mikasa, I'm sorry. I acted like a complete asshole with you, never daring to tell you the truth. To tell you that..."

"Eren, I never could tell you either," her voice was unusually quiet. "Then, when you asked me... Who you are to me. I told you that you were my family, but I never dared to tell you that...."

"I love you," Eren suddenly blurted out. "I've always loved you. I'm just realizing it now. You were always there for me, always willing to protect me with your life, and I never appreciated it. I'm a real idiot."

"I love you too..."

The tears made the kiss a little salty, but at the same time, so long-awaited and warming. Strong hands gently stroked her shoulders, which shuddered with sobs every now and then. They held each other until their lungs began to protest, demanding air.

"I will come to you. This night, every year," Eren whispered, rubbing his nose against the dark top of her head again. "And you promise to take care of yourself and try to be happy. You hear me?"

"I'll... I'll try," Mikasa replied.

"EREN??? EREN!" Armin and Annie were standing on the porch of the house. Seeing his best friend, he rushed forward.

"Armin," whispered Eren, hugging his best friend.

"How... How is it possible... Are you the one who did all of this magic?"

"We just saw Armin's parents," said an equally shocked Annie. "And his grandfather too... And now..."

"Hi, Annie," Eren said, turning his attention to his friend's companion.

"You... How did you do that?" asked the still shocked Armin.

"The souls of the dead always came to visit relatives at Christmas Eve. Only now, after the Power of the Titans is gone, you can see us. This connection only works today. Guys... Thanks for stopping me back then. I'm glad you did it. It was necessary. I'm happy to have had you in my life. Please take care of yourselves," Eren's figure began to slowly dissolve into the air, turning into silvery dust.

"See you later, Eren," Armin whispered his farewell.

***

"Hanji..." Levi whispered, looking at the face in front of him. She smiled back, to which Levi clutched her tightly to him.

"If it isn't my bro Levi!!!" Levi only had time to notice the redhead flash before he was swept off his feet and squeezed in a tight hug.

"Isabel," the man whispered in amazement. She was as perky and smiling as she had been that fateful day. Levi hugged his friend back. "Hello there, girl..."

"Look at that old grouch," Furlan hugged his friend just as tightly. "He hasn't grown an inch since the last time I saw him."

"It's chronic and untreatable," Hanji teased, helping Levi up. "And I don't mean his height, I mean his grumpiness."

"It didn't stop him from being one of my best soldiers," Erwin's voice came out, and he, like the others, put his arm around his friend. "Hello, Captain."

"Erwin... So... So, you're all here..." Levi said in surprise.

“We never abandoned you, Captain,” came the voice of Petra. Next to her Levi saw his entire squad. Ackerman was never known for his displays of emotion, but at this moment he didn't care at all that he might look like a snotty little boy. Now, just in front of him were all people he had once lost; everyone he would like to see again; everyone with whom he wanted to spend at least one more day... And if this became possible thanks to shitty Christmas... Then this will be the best holiday of his life…

“The life never spared you, did it?” Furlan said, looking at the scars. Levi just grinned in response.

“The job has some disadvantages,” Ackerman answered, but then another attack of pain pierced his leg. Levi managed to hold back a cry, but Zoë immediately noticed how his face had turned pale and grabbed him. Erwin grabbed him from the other side.

“You’re such a stubborn old goat,” she grumbled, helping him downstairs. “Why don’t you listen to doctors and follow recommendations? You were practically forbidden to walk, why aren’t you in a wheelchair?”

“Getting Levi to calm down his spirits is the same as trying to calm a mad monkey. Not only will it not work, but it will also tear off your fingers, right, Levi?” Moblit could not restrain himself.

The team walked into the living room, where the rest of the scouts and Eldians from Marley had already gathered. Well, brat...thank you. For such a chance...Levi thought, watching how the people most dear to him chatted among themselves, sitting at the festive table. Yes, this night will be only one and very soon they will all disappear, but even these short moments revived something what had long been lying somewhere deep inside, not showing any signs of life.

“Captain,” Gunther turned to him, “Before we go, I want to ask you one thing.”

“About what?”

“Annie. She did what she was forced to do, back then in the forest. Don't hold a grudge. It won't bring you anything good.”

“That doesn’t mean I can forget what she did to you,” Ackerman answered gloomily.

“Levi,” Erwin probably heard this part of the conversation. “He is right. You always have to move forward. You can't change what happened. But you must draw conclusions and leave the past in the past. Promise me that you will do this.”

The ringing of the city's huge clock interrupted the quiets chats. Erwin looked towards the window and closed his eyes for a second.

“Well, soldiers,” he said, getting up from his seat. “Our time has come.”

Why so fast?

Hanji, who was sitting next to Levi, smiled sadly. It's now or never, coward.

“Oi, four eyes,” Levi grabbed her hand, turning her towards him. “I... I really wish we could have stayed in that forest... Perhaps even with the little brats. Our brats. ”

Hanji's hand gently touched his face and Levi closed his eye, feeling a tear roll down his cheek.

“I would be a horrible mother...”

“Well, we somehow raised this bunch of brats,” Levi tried to joke. “I can’t make it without you. Everything sucks when you are not here. ”

“I’ll come to you again. We will all come to you,” she answered in a whisper.

“Then I will have a reason to somehow survive the remaining three hundred and sixty-four days...” Levi said. Taking a deep breath, he pulled her close to him. For some reason, it always seemed to him that these lips tasted like something bitter and sour, with the smell of laboratory samples. In reality, Hanji’s lips reminded him a tender ripe peach.

“By all the saints, it took him more than ten years to gather his courage!” Moblit exclaimed, watching the kiss. “I always knew there was some chemistry between these two!”

Erwin smiled mysteriously and put his hand to his heart.

“Farewell, Levi,” he said, disappearing into thin air with the last stroke of the clock.

“I’ll wait for you,” Levi whispered as Hanji’s face gradually turned to dust in his hand. The peach scent was still on his lips. Soon only a few teens with eyes full of tears stayed around him. The room was unusually quiet, but this time the silence did not press on chests like a huge boulder.

“Next year we’ll prepare more dishes,” said Ackerman, slowly rising to his side, clutching a pair of glasses in his hand. “And... Merry Christmas, brats.”

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pocketramblr · 1 year ago

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StrayGods!Anon here, and first of, Congrats on The Offspring!! ❤❤❤ I wanted to say thank you for answering and that "finding compassion" and "forcing our side to do better" are very much possible in ST:TRM and that the kiddos changing together is very much the point of the Freddie Lives storyline, so I think you may enjoy them. And also, I honestly wasn't gonna ramble about my very specific OCs but honestly that's the best excuse ever to rec a few fics which I think every MHA fan deserves to experience at least once so, yeah, rambling it is. Hope that's ok.

I haven't been keeping up with BHNA in a while so I may be misremembering but I'm pretty sure at one point is mentioned there was a Third World War which, as a plot point, it is a great way to explain how technology may have mostly stagnated but they can still have crazy support tech and can send holograms in acceptance letters. But, last I checked, it wasn't a plot point that got explored and keeping the ST:TRM's take on Aphrodite would allow for that exploration and for just the right context to plop this OC on. Besides, it's a much more interesting (and heartbreaking) version of her than that of PJO and the themes of her storyline are heavy enough to make the seriousness of their situation impossible to ignore. /AKA: If you check nothing else about ST:TRM please let that be "Stray Gods 鈥� The Ritual 鈥� Red Path".

The OC I'm talking about was always meant to be an Aphrodite kid who was very disenchanted with his mother and demi siblings, someone who seemed just as untouchable as All Might from a distance but was just as flawed and vulnerable once you got close (if in different ways), and he was always meant to die. He was inspired by a bunch of different things and while I hadn't considered him for an BNHA AU before but he fits like a glove here. I kinda themed him around The Golden Apple of Discord, which got reflected in his appearance, personality, the sheer amount of plot hooks he could generate, and his last name being linked to an apple variety. He got the name Prospero Fortunato Worcester (aka Lucky) because just around the time his dad realized who the mother was he also realized his boy was gonna need all the luck he could get, and he wasn't wrong. Just like many other Aphrodite kids, this boy had a lot of unwanted attention sent his way and it was what messed him so badly in the end. I sort of envisioned him as having golden brown skin, reddish hair and the kind of eyes that make think of firebenders, but what really made him stand out wasn't his good looks but his charm and hard-earned skills.

Personality-wise I want you to imagine what would happen if a pan version of the very gnc Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel was a deceptively angry couples' therapist who isn't so much interested in helping you solve your problems but in judging/punishing you for not treating your partner as they deserve. He's totally the kind of person who during a quest would have at one point have to make a choice between chucks and stilettos and may've actually chosen the chucks 'cuz practicality... unless someone questioned his ability to *use* stilettos. Then not only he'd have chosen those but he'd make a point of use them as improvised weapons as much as possible regardless of impracticality. If some asshole ever tried taking off a ring before flirting with him he'd flirt back... and then use the distraction to steal said asshole's ring, wallet and maybe even car. After all, even tho he didn't get involved in many quests, he was on the road a lot and would definitely be more *appreciative* of what he gets.

His reason for being always on the road was inspired on a really interesting fic I unfortunately don't remember the name of. The premise of the fic being an investigation of where did the kids of the less easy-to-turn-kid-friendly gods went and what their powers may be. Some of those kids were the children of Eros, and while I have trouble imagining PJO Eros having kids outside his marriage I can easily see it coming from ST:TRM Eros, whose wife doesn't seem to be in the picture anymore. The power/curse of these kids was in their allure and I couldn't stop worrying about the kind of mundane monsters some defenseless kids who don't understand their heritage could attract outside the safety of the camps. Considering satyrs are the children of the god of Lust, Mischief, and Wild Things, they may not have been the best match to ferry those kids to safety... and that's were Lucky comes in. His life was basically those first 4 seasons of spn that were a constant road-trip of killing monsters to save people.

As for why he had sucha distinct role, well... that's tragic backstory territory. Baby Lucky was a charming little boy born as the oldest kid and only boy from a loving family so mixed they lost track of ancestry and a very MLK reverend who made sure to pass down the right values onto his children. Y'know, someone who was very much about equality and social justice but with a dash of God Is Love And Love Is Life that would have appealed even to ST:TRM Aphrodite despite the different religious background. The only reason they were ok with letting him start camp young was because they hoped it would give him the best chance at safety; they were wrong. He never quite fit with his Aphrodite siblings, only partly because that whole "completing" someone that Piper stuck them with reeked of codependency instead of anything his family taught him about love. But other than that he had no problems making friends *without* Charmspeak. Yes, he did have it but consent was a thing he cared about too so he only used it when absolutely necessary. And he was so talented and eager to learn that he got skilled fast; maybe too fast, who knows how his life would've gone if he hadn't gone on a quest so soon.

Regardless, on his very first quest this Angel Dust met his Valentino. A very magically powerful being took a liking to our lovely Lucky boy and did *not* took rejection well. They cursed him with a suitably heroic fate whereupon everyone he loves would be fated to die, except themselves of course. Now that would be a terrible fate for everyone but for a kid from the Godess of Love... yeah, our boy was wrecked. And of course the camp couldn't turn its back on him, especially since it was obvious to everybody that Aphrodite could have lifted the curse if she bothered so, evidently he was on his own to fix things. Therefore he pretty much cut ties with basically everybody, including his mortal family, and dedicated himself to finding a way to reversing the curse or, failing that, to perma-kill the bastard who cast it. In order to do so he got closer to the Hecate kids while still keeping his self-imposed distance as best as possible. It helped than one of his best friends from before then was a very respected Hecate kid that was as understanding as possible of his situation and wanted to see him go back to his old self. And he was granted his new role as a way to help him train and research while keeping himself and others safe as much as possible since life on the road shouldn't allow for many deep interpersonal connections.

A more self-imposed social distancing attempt was his habit of calling people just by nicknames and having them call him by his own; no learning of names. Although perhaps the fact that everyone but his godly siblings got a personalized nickname defeated the purpose of that. As for the other children of Aphrodite they all just got called Dove; which was cute enough so long as you didn't know he called *actual* doves winged rats. Or that he would unfailingly take hairspray and lighter to any suspiciously gathered flock of the things for being enemy birds. He resented his mother treatment of him and the general parental neglect from Gods but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. So he dove right into magic and used it to take that old God Is Love And Love Is Life to the extreme of being able to use his godly powers to either heal, inflict seemingly unending emotional torment on monster and human alike, or even siphon the life-force from anything living through direct contact and use it to empower/heal himself and add it to the strength of his attacks. And he complemented this already OP arsenal with any and all magical trinkets he could carry, plus amazing fighting/weapon skills of his own. Maybe he was trying to distance himself from her mother's perceived legacy but if anything he was the son to most closely resemble her, at least in her Aphrodite Areia and Venus Genetrix aspects. She may've been proud... had she bothered to be part of his life.

Despite this he was never assigned nor invited to any quests after that first one (and would likely have declined any invites anyways) since quests are bound to forge strong bonds between people. That is until a new prophecy demanded it and kinda hinted he'd face the bastard who cursed him then. The way I envisioned his plotline he'd join the MC in their quest and have plenty of chances to show off his badassery and protectiveness in indispensable ways, right alongside his charm and self-destructiveness. Needless to say it wouldn't have taken him long to touch everyone's hearts despite his best efforts. And at some point the confrontation with his Valentino came to pass but no one managed to catch more than the tail end of it where a conversation seemed to have taken place and our Lucky boy started laughing before perma-killing the bastard. The actual objective of the quest got fulfilled as well and for a while everything seemed more than ok. Our boy dropped most of his more self-destructive habits and seemed to have gone back to who he was as much as it was possible for someone who'd changed so much. He reconnected with all the family and friends who'd have him back and seemed to revel in their company. But soon enough the contents of that fateful conversation came to light and not by choice. He'd never claimed the curse had been lifted but as it turns out, it got reversed. In an attempt to save himself the bastard threatened to make so that if he were to be killed by Lucky and he dared to love anyone afterwards then he'd be signing his own death sentence. So now his former quest partners are on a self-imposed quest to reverse *that*. Lucky himself couldn't care less but tags along 'cuz he doesn't want his idiots to get killed in his behalf. Everyone else gives it their all. They still fail. Just as Lucky thought they would and never blamed them for.

In this DOZI/ST:TRM AU I think he should be death since well before Izuku was offered OFA but that his presence should still be felt. And, I'm just spitballing her but, since this Izuku never developed a hero-worship for Bakugou, can you imagine how that offer would've been affected by Lucky filling up that role for Izuku instead? If this boy had already seen one of his imperfect but amazing and seemingly untouchable heroes die before meeting an All Might that's obviously holding by a thread he'd jump at the chance of keeping him from a tragic fate. After both the eidolon and daddy dearest he wouldn't even question quirks being transferable but he may have questions about whether or not anything besides power is passed down with OFA. Also, this Izuku would probably have some very conflicted feelings towards The Godess Of Love.

With that essay over, I just wanna say that looking back I found a really answer you gave about what you'd like to explore if you were to DOZI and it being either amazing crack or thoughtful dive into heavy themes and since I've always been a "Why not both?" kinda gal I'm gonna get straight to reccing those fics I mentioned. First off, I think having had Lucky in his life would鈥檝e made Izuku a lot less tolerant of Mineta and therefore far faster in helping the girls pull the Fury level power play they threw down at the creep in "Mineta's No Good Very Bad Vibes (or: where enough is enough)" by hannahbal. But also that ask about everything about the funky bean being contagious reminded me of "don't you just want to go apeshit?" by kkachis, MargaritaDaemonelix, which is an amazing read for anyone who has yet to see the potential of memes as a tool of psychological warfare. And lastly, the "god Izuku needs a nap" series by Universal_stoat has the Vestiges pulling some UA Unsolved bs that ends up convincing a bunch of people of Izuku's godhood which, kinda fitting for any Greek Gods AU.

Anyways thank you for putting up with this ramble if you've read it till the end and sorry for the lenght. Have an amazing life ❤❤❤

"I named you Good Luck Good Luck, cuz you're going to need it, kid" <- guy who tragically isn't the god of naming things and doesn't have power to actually imbue luck

Lucky sounds like a very fun oc, and I agree it would definitely fit for Izuku to really look up and admire some older campers, which means statistically... Well you know their life expectancy. It would be a fun aspect to consider with Izuku's looking up to All Might in another but similar way

#pocket talks to people #anon #long ask #long post

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harrison-abbott · 1 year ago

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Clouds in my Head

He slammed the door after him. And it caught my pinkie finger … when he slammed it, I mean.

I mean, my little finger was lying in the gap between the doorway and door. And the door crushed the finger.

The pain was actually valuable in a way because it detracted from what’d just happened. I was on the floor in the first place because he’d just punched me in the face, hard enough to knock me over. My boyfriend. Yet I expected, as I heard him thunder downstairs, that he wouldn’t be with me much longer.

Did he know what he’d done to the pinkie? I suppose it was in second-effort to the fist blow, in terms of dramatic insult.

For a while I stayed there on the floor and held my crushed finger with the other hand. Then I sat up. And thought I was going to be sick and this dizziness made clouds in my head – so I waited for them to pass over and my wits to go clear. Then brought my other hand away.

The nail had come off from the little finger and it bled like … oh, like if you’d imagine a red ink Biro pen exploding. If that’s a good enough simile?

I gulped and the first thing I thought of was to take out a tissue from my back pocket. I’ve always been fond of tissues. They seem to bring a certain aspect of comfort, or homeliness, don’t they? For they have so many functions, aside from nose blows; they can wipe up spills when you muck up; can deal with any grimy stuff that you’d rather not deal with with your own skin.

Upwards, I stood. It was real quiet in the house and I paused and listened as if expecting a sound to give me the next cue.

Nothing happened and so I went downstairs. I locked the door. In case he came back.

Then I went into the toilet and opened the tap onto my bashed finger. As if the water might heal it with its elixir fluid. It’s crazy when something brutal happens to your body, physically: it tends to shun out everything else in terms of problems. Whether it’s money or relationships or family, etc. When you’re injured you revert to animalistic terms.

There was an A & E a mile away from my house.

I didn’t have work today. Didn’t have anything to do; so I put my coat on and left for the hospital.

Outside it was a lovely pretty birdsong filled day.

I saw one of my neighbours walking his dog at the end of the road. Luckily he had his back to me and was forty yards off, so I didn’t have to go near him: and then I took the side path off and away from him so he wouldn’t see me.

This new path was up next to the supermarket. On any normal day I’d go in there and get the newspaper. For today, a place like the supermarket gave me a vaccination for going to the A & E; the mass public panic, the widespread unease.

But, I’d have to deal with it.

Got to the motorway and the buses were filled with depressed people and cars with who knows what mood.

I walked through the next district with the tenement flats and the fields underneath them which must’ve given plenty hope and eventual failure to many young kids kicking balls about. There was nobody on the grass as I passed. And the goalposts had an eerie gesture, rather like dock piers in early morning, or market squares at night.

When I got to the hospital I didn’t quite know where to go.

I’d seen the building many many times because it was hard to miss on any city horizon; this mammoth complex.

There was a man inside an idle ambulance nearby, and I knocked on his window. He scrolled his screen down.

“Can I go into that entrance,” I asked, pointing, “if I have an injury?”

“Yes, you can.” His expression was genuine and concerned and was what belonged to one of the good people on the planet. That’s who I needed to meet right now and I was grateful to him.

When I walked into the hospital atrium there were around 300 people already there, 5% filled with nurses and paramedics and 95% with civilians with all kinds of intense problems needing solved. I waited in the queue leading up to the reception for fifteen minutes. And when I got there there was a lady receptionist.

“I have damage to one of my fingers,” I said. And showed her the wad of tissue. This was a mistake because I didn’t realise how bloody it’d become by now. She frowned when she saw it.

“How did that happen?”

“I was pulling the window down at home and shut it on my finger. I just did it too fast. It was stupid, I know.”

Just by the way she gazed at me I knew she knew that I was lying but she didn’t ask for any more details aside from my date of birth and my full name and then told me to go and sit somewhere in the atrium of three hundred people and remain there until somebody else called my name.

There was a little boy next to me. With his mama. He had breathing difficulties – as if his throat was on fire. I really wished I had the power to help him. And hoped that he would be seen before me.

He was. Some nurse came out of the sliding doors of the interior and called the family name and then the mother lifted up and took him away to her … and he buried his face in her upper bosom.

And a long time later somebody came and called my name too.

It was another female nurse.

“What happened to your face?” she said.

That’s what she asked after I lied about the pinkie injury.

“Nothing.”

“Your cheek is swollen and your lip is all discoloured.”

“That’s … No. I just. No.”

“Did you get beaten up?”

“I just …”

“You just what?”

“I want to get my finger healed up. Please. And that’s all.”

#writeblr #creative writing #short story #prose #fiction

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cemetery14 · 10 months ago

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It's so craaazy

I personally think that after his defeat he did a whole 180 on how he treated himself and really started to put HIM first before every thing, even his father

It's so crazy that everyone's problems got solved cause they where pretty much all basketball related, EXCEPT for akashi who still has to go home to his father and his real life that was the cause of his mental health issues to begin with

I think he's at the rakuzan dorms? So maybe he didn't have to face his father right away but like,,,,, that mustve been a conversation

I think he's still working through it he's just REALLY good at pushing it down and pretending everything's fine for other people

I would've loved a conversation between all of them about it but I think everyone just looked at each other and decided to just have fun

Imagine watching a guy threaten to carve out his own eye over a basket ball game, than a month later he shows up at your friend's birthday party and starts making polite conversation with you 💀💀

Furihatas so real for his reaction

#kuroko no basket #kurokos basketball #knb #akashi seijuro

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waddlesmom · 2 years ago

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𝑀𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 𝒫𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈 ;; 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀

Bisexual ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Twenty-Three

Occupation ;; Student & Mystery Shack Employee

♫ Currently Playing ♫ ;; Chaise Lounge by Wet Leg

☀ Virgo ☾ Taurus ↑ Capricorn

Being born a twin was the best according to Mabel because then you always had a built in best friend and Dipper was hers. From a young age she knew exactly what she loved and exactly why she loved it. That included things like unicorns, glitter, sweaters, crafts, and no one was going to change that. Not that their hometown wasn’t interesting but compared to Echo Isle it most certainly was. They were thirteen the summer it happened. They’d gone to Grunkle Stan’s again and it was supposed to just be a normal summer. Then Dipper found this book blah, blah, blah. Little crazy stuff here, little crazy stuff there, and her teenage brain was blown. Sure she was already imaginative but then they’d discovered a world so much bigger than that. Then they started to go back every summer and it turns out Dipper kind of is a genius and was able to figure a lot of it out. Of course she was there for lots of moral support and a glass of orange juice. After graduating it was an obvious choice for them to move there, it had felt more like home then home ever did any way. Not to mention Mabel wasn’t quite ready to not be with her twin yet and they both had the same idea. Now that she is enrolled in school she is trying her best to narrow down exactly what she wants to do first, that is. She has all these dreams she wants to achieve but right now she’s just focusing on one.

Living with their Grunkle is fun or so she thinks so. She gets to live with her favorite people

Mabel lives every day enjoying the ride and she can find the bright side of just about every situation. How can something be bad if you draw a smiley face on it?

Sometimes she knows she can be a little much but that’s just how she is. It’s not like Mabel doesn’t have the best intentions it’s just not that everyone appreciates it. People didn’t always think it was ‘cool’ to still like unicorns and wear funky sweaters. She was able to shake it off, continuing to sing off-key to the tune of her own drum.

Mabel is unforgivably herself. Sometimes it can get her poked fun at (usually by Pacifica) but she tries to make the best of it. You never know when just a smile could make someone’s day better, after all!

She is currently studying art in school. The thing that has always seemed to come the easiest to her was art, it started with a lot of glitter and still does to this day.

There are lots of different things she wants to become, of course most of all would be the first female president but she tries not to get too ahead of herself. Right now she’ll stick to just getting through college.

Mabel’s most prized possessions in the world are Waddles her pet pig and her sweater collection. She’s been slowly building it for years. Between making her own, thrifting some, occasionally buying one she absolutely had to have.

Sometimes she struggles without Dipper. She can get lonely when he always wants to go off and solve all his mysteries. It isn’t like she doesn’t love Soos, Candy, or Gretchen but he’s her other half. Not that she isn’t happy he’s busy solving something, she just wishes he’d take her with him, afraid to be left behind.

She wants to find love, as cliche as it is. All she’s ever read about are these epic romances and that’s exactly what she wants or maybe a meet cute. Sometimes she worries that no one is ever going to like her the way she is. Mabel knows she’s different but she hopes at least someone will think it’s cool.

There’s a lot of insecurities she doesn’t really talk about. She doesn’t want it to show but Dipper can usually see right through her. Mabel isn’t always sure if she’s good enough. She has these big goals for herself and sometimes if she thinks about it too long she gets scared of reaching them. As much as she tries to keep her chin up she can sometimes get down but tries to never let anyone see it when she is.

As ready as she is to feel like a grownup she is scared about what they means for her and her brother. Mabel is glad they aren’t separated but is worries it’s a matter of time until they will be.

#✨ 🐷 🎀 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 🎀 🐷 ✨ ( about. )

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miekasa · 4 years ago

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fluff alphabet: levi ackerman

↯ pairing: levi ackerman x (fem) reader

↯ genres and warnings: modern au, fluff…. obviously, no real warnings i don’t think, oh spoilers for his ova?

↯ word count: 3k lol don’t ask me how

↯ notes: i was going to take requests for this for valentine’s day, but i figured i’d just do them all in one post lolol. i feel like i haven’t posted for levi in a while, so here we go

Activities — What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

If you ask Levi to do something, there’s a good chance he’ll try it at least once for you. Unless it’s something he’s said he explicitly dislikes or doesn’t want to partake in, he’d gladly try it out with you.

He strikes me as the kind of person to like trying new restaurants. Not necessarily the trendy or popular or exclusive ones; but local places with good recommendations or reviews.

Down for late night drives, but you have to be the one driving. He’ll drive if you become too tired, but he prefers to sit in the passenger seat and just let you take him wherever. He doesn’t mind, and it’s a sign he trusts you.

I also think museum dates would be some thing he enjoys. Not history museums—I feel like the concept of stolen artifacts on display would piss him off more than anything lol—but art museums. That’s not to say he’s extremely into art, but I think something about a museum environment is somewhat calming to him. He doesn’t mind.

One more activity I would say suits him is watching movies or shows together. Levi’s the kind of guy that catches you watching a series and expresses how it looks stupid or boring at first, but still hovers around and backseat watches it anyway. After a while, he just gives up and starts actively watching it with you and becomes invested. He just won’t admit it.

Beauty — What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

In the least cheesy way possible, everything. Levi sees people, and his s/o in particular, as a whole person, rather than the sum of their parts. He understands that everything about you—physical, emotional, or otherwise—contributes to the person he loves. There’s something to appreciate about all of it at different times.

He’d probably admire and/or find little habits you have beautiful in some way or another. Probably things you might not even notice about yourself unless he pointed them out to you.

Personality wise, he’d admire it if his s/o were blunt and/or the kind of person to stick up for themselves or their friends. A little bit assertive; not going out of your way to make other people feel small or be rude, but simply refusing to shrink to make room for others.

Physically, again, I don’t think he has a preference for most anything, but if I had to pick, I’d say he’s a thigh/ass guy.

Comfort — How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack, etc.?

Levi is observant, so he would be able to tell when you’re struggling perhaps before you’re ready to realize it yourself, and long before you’re about to burst.

However, he would ask you how he can help. For as observant as he is, he’s also not a mind reader, and if there’s something specific he can get you, he would want to know, even if it’s seemingly small or superficial.

He would be pretty proactive about it, too. The second he figures out how he can help, he’s on it. You need a new desk to work from home? He’ll have it built by that weekend. You’re feeling overwhelmed and behind on your tasks? He’s already doing the ones he can do without your help.

He does his best to try and help you relax if the issue is a stressor, and if he could, he would eradicate the root of the stress from your life completely. Unfortunately, in the real world, that’s not always possible, but it’s nice to know that he’s willing.

The other obvious answer is tea, but allow me to expand it more generally to food. Going along with the theme of acts of service being his love language, Levi would try to provide the basic necessities for you in order to allow to focus on solving your problems and/or feeling better. If not worrying about dinner is one thing that can help you, Levi’s happy to cook for you.

Dreams — How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Simple, but fulfilled. Levi just wants to be happy—to have someone to care for, and to have someone who will care for him.

Truthfully, I don’t think he’d mind children later down the road, and I think he would be a good parent. It might not be something he talks about outright at first, but as time progresses, and perhaps the timing becomes right, it’d be something he would want to consider.

Equal — Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

It’s equal. Levi doesn’t want to have more power, nor does he want to be passive. However, there are things he doesn’t mind handing over to you, and conversely, responsibilities he doesn’t mind taking on himself.

Compromise would be a big part in the relationship—not for the sake of compromising on your dreams or ambitions, but rather, to reach a middle ground if there’s any kind of argument.

I think it’s a give and take with him. And I don’t think he would want it to be any other way. He doesn’t strike me as someone who’s on either polar end.

Fight — Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

When you do fight, it’s a lot of pointed frustration. He doesn’t raise his voice, but he can get snippy, and a little closed off—speaking in clipped sentences, using underhanded phrases, focusing on past points. What drives him crazy is the aftermath of the fight, and if you give him the silent treatment, he’s bound to crack much sooner than later.

He’s quite easy to forgive. Canonically, he doesn’t like to fight with his friends or the people he cares about, and he would rather reach a solution as quickly as possible.

We saw that with Isabel and Farlan, despite the way he was firm on his decision for them to stay behind, they were able to break his resolve pretty quickly. He cares a lot about the people in his life, and I don’t think he’d like to go long with a riff between him and you. Especially if he thinks he might regret not talking to you about it sooner.

He’s one to keep a promise, but not to hold a grudge. That is to say, he understands that forgiveness goes both ways, and to work in a healthy relationship, both parties have to forgive themselves and each other at some point.

Gratitude — How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Yes and no. It might take a minute for Levi to understand the depth of your actions—especially the ones that appear more mundane or are not as explicitly romantic.

Once he does, he is very aware of them, and as such, if very grateful. He didn’t every really think he’d be able to create and be apart of the kind of loving relationship the two of you have. He really cherishes it.

Honesty — Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

He has secrets by way of omission. He doesn’t lie to keep things hidden from you, but sometimes he doesn’t tell everything about himself, especially towards the start of your relationship.

It’s not always with malicious or even self-protective intent. He just doesn’t share because he doesn’t think it’s important, or that you might care. If you pry long enough or insist that you want to know just to know and because you care, then he’s happy to share.

As previously mentioned, it might take him a while to realize just how much you care about him, and his past and interests by extension.

Inspiration — Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

As your relationship progresses Levi comes to learn that you genuinely find him attractive not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically. That you actually want to know him and that he’s worth knowing.

So, his biggest change is in the way he approaches his thoughts about himself and his self worth. But he also begins to pick up on your habits, your interests, and tries to understand your general approach to life, too.

He would probably change you in some ways, too. Most notably in the way you organize and clean your space, probably. He’s not sorry about it.

Jealousy — Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

No, he doesn’t. To him, jealously would imply that someone has something he wants. Firstly, you’re not an object to him, and secondly, he has you. There’s nothing more to it.

He’s not childish, nor is he out of check with his emotions, so he wouldn’t lash out on you, especially if it’s not your fault. In his small momentary slips, you wouldn’t even have noticed he was jealous at all.

He wouldn’t like it if someone was repeatedly making advances on you, especially if you’ve explicitly told them off/they were making you uncomfortable. In situations like that, he would simply try to get the both of you out of there/away from the person as quickly as possible.

There’s also an element of trust to this with Levi. He wouldn’t expect you to try and make him jealous out of spite; and he would trust that you wouldn’t play on the advances of other people if you notice them.

Kiss — Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

He is a good kisser. Mainly because he’s very perceptive to what you want and how to give it you.

The first kiss was sweet. Knowing Levi, there was probably quite the build up to it, so even if it was sweet and innocent, there was a layer of tension and a crash of emotions coming forward in the moment. It was memorable, to say the least.

Love Confession — How would they confess to their s/o?

I have imagined this time and time again… and I think it really depends on the foundation of your relationship/friendship with him before.

In the most generic scenario, it would probably be a little backwards—you would have, intentionally or not, gone on some dates before he realized what his feelings really were, and then take it from there.

If you were friends for a while before hand, it can probably go the implicit dating route—that is you’re both exclusively emotionally invested in each other, and basically involved in most relationship aspects without having realized it or put a label on it. You kind of naturally morph into a relationship, and it probably takes a verbal confession or kiss or two to solidify it.

It can also go the sexual tension route, and one day one of you finally snaps and makes a move. The verbal confession would come in the aftermath, but your actions will have solidified and expressed your feelings long before that.

Marriage — Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Again, yes and no. Without taking into account the legal aspects, the actual concept of marriage is that juxtaposition of sweet and powerful that Levi likes; the idea of devoting yourself to someone and receiving a special kind of love for the rest of your life.

And while all of that is beautiful to him, there are the unfortunate cultural norms or marriage, especially in a modern au. The legality of it all, especially the financial defaults, would be a headache. Not to mention all the fluff and grandeur and gender expectations about it. He thinks all of that fucking sucks.

Above all, he doesn’t get why people expect him to pay for what’s basically an expensive document that tells the federal government he lives with you and loves you. He could do that without them in his business.

If you want to get married, then the proposal is sweet. Intimate, and probably a call back to something in your relationship, or a significant date/event for the both of you. He wouldn’t dare do it in public or even involve anybody else, other than maybe asking a friend or two.

Marriage with Levi is much like being in a long-term relationship with him. The way he acts in marriage isn’t exponentially different than the way he had been acting as your boyfriend. It’s all still very quiet, very sweet, very domestic.

Nicknames — What do they call their s/o?

He calls you by your name, unless you ask him to call you by something else. He might call you by an actual nickname, that is a shortened version of your name, if that’s the name you usually go by.

He’s not big on pet names and they slip out from time to time, but not in place of your actual name on an every day basis. If anything, he calls your name with a very unique tone to his voice. He rarely calls for anybody else with the same tone and/or emotion.

On Cloud Nine — What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

It’s not… not obvious to his friends, but he doesn’t look like he’s been shot by cupids arrow or anything. If you know Levi, you might pick up on the fact that he seems a bit happier, less stressed, has taken up new hobbies/habits, etc. But there’s not he’s not shitting rainbows and sunshine all of a sudden.

Love is very personal and intimate for him. He would do his best to express to you that he loves you and loves the love he receives from you, but he doesn’t feel that everyone else needs to know.

So, it’s somehow simultaneously noticeable and unnoticeable when you’re together in the presence of other people.

PDA — Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss when others are watching?

Levi isn’t big on PDA. He’s not hiding your relationship, but he doesn’t care to boast it to every person he meets, either. If somebody asks him, he’ll happily say that he’s in a relationship, but he doesn’t bring it forward himself.

He’s not hiding it or shy, but he doesn’t feel the need to be all over you in public. He doesn’t anything to prove to anybody. Besides, nobody wants to see that shit. He knows he wouldn’t.

There are some displays of affection, though. Hand holding isn’t abnormal, though likely not in a casual space with your friends or family. He’ll brush is hand along your arm when he’s walking past you, might ruffle your hair if the occasion calls for it, squeeze your thigh under the table.

Quirk — Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

He’s canonically good at math. This comes in handy when you’re at restaurants and trying to calculate a tip quickly. Somehow, he knows how to figure out 18% of your bill in 3 seconds flat.

It also comes in handy when you’re trying to organize things. Along with math comes a pretty good understanding of spatial reasoning. Somehow Levi is always able to put away your left overs using the smallest and least amount of tupperware possible. It’s kind of ridiculous, he might be a wizard.

Romance — How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

In the traditional sense, he might not appear romantic, but he’s the kind of person to say or do or gift little things that would take a much deeper romantic understanding of his partner than some grand, generic act like buying a thousand roses.

His romance is tailored to you and your relationship, not general expectations of what it means to be “romantic.”

Support — Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Levi is very devoted to you, so if you ask for his help, or he can help without stepping on your toes, he will. He wants you to not only succeed, but feel fulfilled through your achievements, and he’s happy to help you get there.

He believes in you wholeheartedly. If it’s something you really want, Levi wouldn’t dare doubt that you could achieve it.

Thrill — Do they need to try out new things to spice up your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

He doesn’t feel the need to try out new things based on expectations, but if you want to try something, or if he wants to try something, you can have a conversation about it, and eventually try it out.

There’s a sort of established routine in a domestic sense; a sharing of a mutual space and the behaviors associated with that. But there’s not, like, established date nights or “week-a-versaries.”

In that sense, he can be pretty spontaneous; bringing up new places to go or activities to try when the idea strikes him. But I suppose it’s never something… too adventurous? Not dangerous, at least lololol, he’s not going to randomly suggest you go skydiving as a bonding exercise.

Understanding — How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Very well. Levi kind of makes you his business—in the most non-intrusive way possible. He’s perceptive and picks up on things about you with relative ease, and genuine interest.

He can predict how you might respond in a situation with pretty good accuracy, can guess what you might pick off the menu at a new restaurant, if given a choice has a good sense of which option you’ll choose. Very much a “I knew you would say that/do that, I don’t know why I even asked,” kind of person once he gets to know you.

He can be pretty empathetic, and I think he would be in a relationship.

Value — How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Your relationship is pretty damn important to Levi, and he devotes a significant amount of time and attention to it. Not in the place of giving time for himself, his friends, family or interests; but he is very much devoted to you.

However, he’s not the type to give up solid opportunities (ex: financial, for his family/mom, career-wise) for the sake of a relationship, especially if he’s not in the position to do so; and he wouldn’t want you to give up exceptional opportunities that align with your goals for him either.

Everything is relative in that sense, I suppose. He cares for you, deeply, and knows that you do, too. That, contrary to popular belief, is what enables you both to be strong enough to bend and not break.

Wild Card — A random fluff head canon.

I’ll give you a few :)

If you want him to, Levi will do your hair for you, and he’s pretty fucking good at it, too; hair type or texture be damned, he’ll take his time with it, and do it well for you.

When he’s alone, Levi hums himself to sleep. Usually singing/humming his mother’s favorite songs and/or songs he remembers hearing as a child.

He always gives you the lighter bags when you take your groceries upstairs/into your house. He doesn’t tell you, but he knows you don’t like to ‘make’ him do all the work.

He always makes dinner if he gets home before you.

He’s a pretty good artist, and has even drawn you once. He’s never told you or shown you, but he keeps the picture folded up in his wallet. Or behind his phone case.

XOXO — Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Affectionate in private, yes. He doesn’t mind it if you’re all over him, and truthfully, has his moments where he’s shamelessly all over you, too. Especially in the morning, he’s a cuddle bug.

Kisses are always good, he would never oppose them. He’s quite easy to persuade with kisses, actually. And most physical touches; he doesn’t get them often, so he kind of melts when he does.

Cuddles, too. Again, all of this is private and in the comfort of your own home. His favorite way to cuddle is to either have you completely on top of him, or to lay his head in your lap. Because he loves the feeling of you playing with his hair.

Yearning — How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Levi will take part in things you like or things you’ve claimed in your shared space.

For example, he might find himself eating your favorite foods more often, sitting on the spot on the couch your sit in most often, rolling over to your side of the bed in his sleep.

He also likes to look back on pictures of the two of you. He doesn’t particularly like to be photographed, but he likes having these physical memories of your relationship, so he’ll indulge you when you want to take a picture together. And they come in real handy during times like this.

Zeal — Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Levi will definitely put up a fight for you, so long as it’s mutual. He wouldn’t pour his effort into someone or a relationship in which he feels like he’s not receiving the same.

I’m not sure what great lengths there would be to go to in a modern au, but he definitely believes that relationships are hard work, and as such, is prepared to put in the work when things get hard. He’s not a quitter, and he knows that love is foundation and requires time and energy.

He cares about you too much to let you go without reason.

#aot x reader #snk x reader #levi x reader #levi ackerman x reader #levi x you #aot imagines #snk imagines #levi fluff #levi smut #eren x reader

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freewilllife · 5 months ago

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Lol imagine nitpicking the author's words to only see what you want to see. She literally adds the words 'wouldn't be too much dispute between them.' It possibly could not be that maybe Lwj excels in virtue or WWX in character, or that both of them have highly idealistic traits to have, no? Just because she tells us to be like Lwj in virtue does not mean WWX lacks virtue, that's your own incorrect assumption.

Look if an author makes a certain distinction, you can bet that she or he thought something about it, because a good author, like MXTX, knows how to use words. It is that easy. And if she merely pointed to Lang Wangji regarding his virtue and not Wei Wuxian, you can bet that there was reason behind it.

Run, where exactly? Literally where could he have run where he would be safe, and live in hiding for the rest of his life? Like a coward?What would running away have solved? The Wens would still be killed, with the added knowledge that WWX abandoned them to their fate. Nothing would have changed for the better. WWX did everything he could to peacefully protect the Wens and himself, that's the point, peace was no longer an option. There was nothing else he could do.

So you think murdering people and dying was the better alternative? Wei Wuxian was lucky that somebody wanted to use him and brought him back. Or else he would have stayed dead. Wei Wuxian could have lived and found out more about the situation. Living is always better than giving up.

When he came back, he literally hid from the world until he could no longer deny who he was. It is not that Wei Wuxian is beyond such measures. I mean he is the person who had fun pretending to be crazy.

Wei Wuxian most likely did not think very deeply about his situation then and reacted before he knew it. And so he killed a great bunch of people.

I can assure you that he would have rather killed himself than hurting his sister, a person he deeply loved.

No, WWX did not destroy the seal because he felt he was wrong. He destroyed it because he realised that it was too dangerous a thing for those bloodthirsty sects to have, too much power for one person, and it was mostly likely to fall in their hands after his death, which would certainly be a disaster. As evidenced by how half of it ended up in XY's hands and the Jin clan was all too eager to pardon his numerous crimes so that he could fully restore it for them to use.

Wei Wuxian certainly felt he was wrong in the moment his sister died because of his reaction. You do not make sense...if it was right for him to use it, why was it too much power for one person?

Please show me the scene where Wei Wuxian proclaims he felt he did nothing wrong here. I am quite excited to read it.

True, Jiang Yanli dies but how is that his fault? He did not deliberately kill her, first it was her choice to run out to an open battlefield without any support, and then sacrifice her life for him. Her death was a tragic accident. Also I couldn't help noticing that she sees the thousands of these cultivators attacking a single man, and asks that man to stop defending himself. Smh.

It is astonishing that you proclaim that Wei Wuxian did nothing wrong, even here. Yes, she wanted to protect him, but if he had not started it, she would be still alive. That from the person to tells his nephew that "thank you" and " I am sorry" are very important. One of his journeys goals was to come to terms with his later deeds. Sure Wei Wuxian was treated unfairly by others, but he himself also is not without fault. He himself also killed people. Even in some cases where he did not intend to kill them, it doesn´t matter, because the person is still dead. Jing Ling has unfortunately nothing from an explanation like this.

So you really do think that killing people senselessly like Wei Wuxian did here, is justice?

He did not take revenge, as the real culprits were still alive and stayed unharmed.

It was also not a develish plan of him, but rather a reaction from a person that was already at a very dark place.

'He merely escalated the situation-' even if that's true he still played a major role in the kingdom's downfall. It was entirely his fault, not XL's. He even goes out of his way to hinder XL's efforts to provide relief for his people, multiple times in increasingly drastic ways.

You do not make sense here. If he merely escalated the situation, then the situation was already bad to begin with and might have also come to a certain point without his intervention. There were occurences, where Jun Wu did not need to intervene.

Xie Lian could do nothing against the drought as a martial god. The people of Yong´an would have come either way. They were refugees that needed help, but the king of Xianle did not know, how to solve this issue, though there would have been some measures.

There was still much corruption in this country that hindered actual help for the people of Yong´an.

The people of Xianle would have still considered the people of Yong´an beneath them.

Jian Lan would have been still kidnapped and raped by one man of Yong´an without Jun Wu. Jian Lan lead protests against the people of Yong´an for them to be exiled.

All Jun Wu did in the beginning was using three puppets for the last spark that turned the already bad situation in an open revolt against the royalty of Xianle.

Lan Ying , whose son died, would have also existed, that would later acquire the "aura of a king".

The other countries that helped the rebels would have been also around.

The rebels were problematic for Xie Lian, as he understood them, that is the reason he did not kill Lan Ying, when he should have done it. The "aura of a king" prevented even a god, to harm Lang Ying later. The uncertainty was already in Xie Lian back then, all Jun Wu had to do, was taking care that Xie Lian was driven mad.

So the human face disease came along and Jun Wu used people that already existed for this...when I remember Xie Lian discovered that Lang Ying intervened here as well. There was probably a curse put on the corpse of his son. Jun Wu tested Xie Lian if he rescued his own people and committed a great sin for this: the genocide of the people of Yong´an. He did not and Xianle fell.

Xie Lian´s self-confidence was damaged severly.

Even if Jun Wu had not intervened, the problems would have still persisted. Desperate people take desperate measures. It is funny, if the author literally let some people spill that out in another account, when the ill people suffering from human-face disease burned the faces of the disease from their body parts.

Another instance that desperate people take desperate measures and a revolt would have happnened eventually:

A revolt might have still happened and then Xie Lian would have been forced to beat down people that were actually just desperate. Xie Lian would have also not wished to extinguish them and then the rage hidden inside of the people of Yong´an would have still lasted as even now the gods are against their wellbeing. Another revolt would have been just occured after some time.

Xie Lian learnt during this time enormously, how much he did not know about people and his own country. The former Crownprince and now god had actually made assumptions that did not hold true at all, later. And that would have been still the case even without Jun Wu.

"It began with a natural disaster, but was deteriorated by human actions."

The family was merely a catalyst...not the only cause of the revolt.

The matters they had to think about was a lil bit more complicated than Xie Lian had previously thought.

What use was that help? It was that XL's intentions matter here, not his actions. Take a look at this passage

Good intentions are nice, but idealism alone doesn´t save anybody. People need bread, water or help as long as they live. As they are people of flesh and blood.

In fact as the state preceptor states here...good intentions can even be harmful.

Because it was a failure...Even if we count in Jun Wu´s intervention in the matters of Xianle, Xie Lian did not understand much about the worldly affairs and did help both sides, even though it was clear that they would have never shaken hands afterwards.

At least he should have exterminated Yong´an´s people if he wanted to save Xianle or let the natural decline of Xianle occur. Gods aren´t almighty beings and neither is Xie Lian.

I think one can even make the argument, that the state preceptor, even though he soon guessed that Jun Wu was "his prince", was correct here. Xie Lian caught Jun Wu´´s attention due to his actions and words...and it provoked the evil part of him to bring Xie Lian down. Surely it was unintentional by Xie Lian, but nevertheless the outcome is the same.

That is why the tale with the "second cup"...third option...is a fairy tale...a part of this fiction that demonstrates how utterly naive Xie Lian was in the past. Good intentions are not enough.

Xie Lian realized again and again...that gods cannot give " a second cup"...a third option...they are not almighty.

He realized it, when he cut the food of that man that once gave him an umbrella in order to save him...

Here it is even directly in the texte. Xie Lian has no other option, even though he is a god.

Xie Lian realized it when he could no longer kill Lang Ying...he had hesistated too long.

Yes, it's true that FX and MQ are highly incompatible but again it doesn't fall to Xie Lian to make them get along. He still tries though, because he's good at it. He's able to calm FX down before he jumps to accusing MQ of something and ask him to first listen to what MQ has to say when he will not speak up, as well as remind MQ that FX is not capable of scheming against him as he will just silently brood in his head about him conspiring against him. They would truly not be friends without XL.

I disagree, he is very well responsible as he chose them as his servants, so he was also responsible for make it work. You literally complained of them arguing, so you are aware that it did not work out.

In fact Feng Xin always declined everything Mu Qing suggested, sometimes really diminshed him. Even if Mu Qing meant well, like he often did in the past - in contrast his later god form. Xie Lian had no better concept than distracting them, but he had no longer the strength to do so after the fall of Xianle.

'Did not want to eat the food offered to him-' ah I see you're the type of person who takes the characters words at face value and ignores their actions and what the narrative is saying. What does this passage say? That Xie Lian had only been in a mortal body again after a long time and forgotten that he needed to eat to sustain it? And not that he was being picky about food, or going on a starving spree to throw a tantrum about poor food? But we see how MQ here assumes the worst of XL as he often does all throughout the novel, because of his own resentment towards XL? There are many such examples in the book.

I´d wish you would actually look at the texte and understand the meaning.

He is still picky about food, if even his mother told us so, but I at least give you this, that he might be not used to the experience.

Xie Lian finally understood being picky about food after months of having barely food, was not a good thing. That realisation came to him directly before he tried to rob people. That means he must have been picky before, or that passage here would be senseless.

No, Mu Qing just had most likely less patient with Xie Lian as they lived literally a miserable life and he was the one caring for everybody else, doing chores and work with the other two on top of it. He had more workload than anybody else and nobody considered to help him.

It is not that hard to imagine that Mu Qing is overworked having double the amount of work as the other two.

He is losing it, when they lose their money, after the other two joined in a fight due to people making fun of the statue of Xie Lian.

They turned everything of his suggestions down to make their precarious situation better, he had double the work than anybody else and it just got worse and worse. Honestly, they should have ignored these people and just forget Xie Lian´s pride that was still far too important. I understand that a Crownprince still needed to adapt, but it happened unfortunately far too late.

After the fight, Mu Qing must have felt so at the end of his wits, that he just saw one possibility: to leave...I am not sure, if he had really intended to go back, but I do understand, why he left. It is important here, that Mu Qing left directly after they lost money again and Xie Lian said nothing and Feng Xin didn´t want to face the truth.

I also do think his reasons to leave were reasonable: He had cared for his mother since he was a child and he could see no other way.

Even the way Mu Qing left is a great example of the servant-master relationship between Mu Qing and Xie Lian.

Xie Lian commands "enough"..Mu Qing bowed deeply and walked away.

Sadly, Xie Lian could not imagine, that maybe they could have made his life a lil easier by sharing Mu Qing´s responsibilities or maybe showing him that they all worked to get better...But by refusing to actually address their problematic situation, nothing would be solved.

The crux is that neither Mu Qing, nor Feng Xin were his friends. They were his servants. So Xie Lian is departing reality here and bad living conditions are even a reason for couples to break up. I mean Xie Lian is refering to fairy tales here.

Here is another instant that makes it painfully clear, that Xie Lian is only fooling himself about the truth of their relationship: Feng Xin and Mu Qing were his servants, not his friends. The former master and Crownprince wonders, what Feng Xin thought about his treatment.

Xie Lian was afraid the last of his remaining servants would leave him too.

Unfortunately Feng Xin was completely unaware of Xie Lian´s feelings and expressed what he thought.

Xie Lian is then "paying" Feng Xin in order for him to stay...It is an expression of their master-servant relationship, but also of Xie Lian´s fear to be left behind.

Don´t misunderstand me: Xie Lian is a kind person, but he certainly had too much pride after the fall of Xianle and did make mistakes, like everybody else. And he was also idealistic and kind..that´s a difficult thing to be, if you are poor.

Bit by bit, the realisation how dire their situation was, came slowly. After months they finally basked, like Mu Qing suggested. If they had done so months before, there would have been likely three people and not just two.

Really tired of constantly seeing posts declaring that everyone in MXTX novels is complicated and 'morally grey' and that's what makes her works wonderfully written, and that everyone else who doesn't see that is stupid, or is 'demonising' characters and bashing them for rightfully criticising their shitty, very much unjustified actions.

And ironically it seems so simplistic to just declare that, because yes her stories are wonderfully written and complex, but not for that reason. You're clearly not reading her works and only spouting what you think her stories say. There are many morally grey characters in morally complex stories out there, but MDZS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

NONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS (i.e protagonists and their male leads except for LBH maybe) ARE MORALLY GREY OR MORALLY COMPLEX.

THEY ARE ALL MORALLY RIGHTEOUS.

Just take a closer look at their actions compared to the actions of literally everyone else around them, it's not that hard to see.

Not to mention that MXTX herself literally says that WWX and LWJ are both morally ideal and that ahe hopes her readers can be like them, but people seem to have no respect for the word of authors in the name of their self projection onto the characters being contradicted nowadays 😒

(also saw someone dismissively say that HC may think that the world revolves around XL or whatever, but others don't and they're right??

First of all, did you even read the novel? HC made his judgement based on how others treated him versus how XL did when he was a CHILD. And how XL continues to treat others to this day. He is well within his rights to think the world of XL, especially since XL suffered more than every other person and still doesn't succumb to evil, despite having every right to do so, miles more than others. He all but regards XL as his moral compass, because he's proof that truly good people do exist in this world, and not ONE other person in the novel is shown to be as good as him.)

One of the reasons why I really don't like the Xianle Trio is this; neither FX nor MQ seem to regard XL as his own person with his own agency, who is capable of making his own decisions initially as HC does, and only near the end of the novel do they let up a bit when their asses had to be saved by XL multiple times. (especially considering what fools they made of themselves in that spiderweb cave lmao)

Both of them try to enforce XL ALL THE TIME ("Your Highness don't do this or don't do that or don't say this or don't go there or don't talk to him"), as if XL has not survived perfectly well on his own without them FOR 800 YEARS.

The difference between them and HC is clearly spelled out when FC asks HC about why he is not stopping XL, and HC replies that while he may not agree with some of XL's decisions, he would never force him to do what he thinks is correct, something both MQ and FX are CONSTANTLY shown to try to do.

Like please. Xianle Trio who? More like suffering XL and his pair of nuisances who think themselves to be his babysitters. And most of the time he's the one babysitting them.

Another thing that irks me is that their frequent arguments are often played off for laughs, but XL is truly a saint, because if my friends were constantly bickering over petty things all throughout our dangerous journey and giving me nothing but headaches, especially in survival situations, I'd given them the boot a long time ago.

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makeste · 3 years ago

Text

BnHA 326: What’s up Kids, It’s Me, Your Old Pal Stain

Previously on BnHA: Ochako shamed the U.A. Clown Mob into letting Deku go back inside his own fucking school by giving them an hour-long speech about how not to be humongous dickheads. Kouta and Gigantic Fox Lady saved the manga by being the only ones brave enough to give Deku a hug. Shouto was all “man, all this togetherness sure does remind me of that promise you made that we would handle Touya together which you immediately bailed on, doesn’t it, Dad.” Aizawa was all, “for the one and a half people out there who thought that my losing an eye and a leg might actually make me less sexy, I’m very happy to prove you wrong.” All Might was all, “[standing outside the U.A. fortress alone in the rain talking to someone or something??].” Like seriously, what was up with that though.

Today on BnHA: All Might is all “here I am in Kamino having a belated mid-life crisis because Deku abandoned me and I’m a terrible mentor and everything sucks and I hate myself.” Stain is all, “don’t make me come over there and give you a ten page speech about why you’re still the goat while menacingly holding you at swordpoint the entire time” because idk if you knew this guys, but Stain is pretty crazy actually. Anyway so he does that, and then All Might gets all emotional, and then the lady from chapter 92 shows up and gives All Might’s statue an encouraging pep talk, and then Horikoshi is all “and it even stopped raining lol can you believe this shit I’m not even a little bit subtle,” and he really isn’t. But I still got emotional anyway, because seeing people reassure All Might that everything he’s struggled for his entire life hasn’t been in vain just got to me okay. Horikoshi knows I am weak to the All Might feels and he just goes for the jugular every time, that bastard.

lmao. “in the neverending downpour, All Might is...” yeah, thank you, glad we’re getting right to that then

“All Might is driving 95 mph in his busted ass car in the pouring rain, is what he’s doing.” huh

so basically a day or two after his adopted child refused to accept the handmade bento that he packed with love, my man is out here acting like he’s got nothing to live for anymore. this sure bodes well for certain prophecies on which the clock is still ominously ticking down

his fucking face though omg. is it weird that I’m kind of hoping more people ambush him just because I think it’d be funny to see them get their asses kicked like the last bunch

(ETA: or maybe he will just stand there openly not giving a fuck and basically daring them to stab him!! get it together please All Might.)

side note, “anti-hero supporters” is such a strange way of saying “people who hate heroes”, which I’m assuming is what they actually wanted to say?? this makes it sound like it’s a group that really loves antiheroes. “these Hannibal stans have been a real menace lately. time to go deal with them”

ha ha ha, fucking ouch

are you really gonna do it Horikoshi you bastard. are you really going to let that be the final encounter between the two characters whose relationship you once described as the vertical axis of the entire fucking story. are you really gonna?? huh??

huh

you’re telling me you were driving 112 mph and you still didn’t get there in time. you’re losing your touch old man. lol Todo’s ice is almost fully melted already, how late were you

(ETA: so apparently this is taking place after the end of chapter 325, meaning he went to U.A., hung out for a bit, saw the kids come back with his bedraggled half-dead protégé in tow, watched as they shamed the civilians into some long-overdue character development, and then was all “welp, time to go argue with the hero-hating faction or something because I’m feeling useless.” and Edge just let him go, just like that. though to be fair I have to imagine it’s pretty hard to say no to All Fucking Might.)

also belated lol at the fact that the kids were all “yeahhhhhhh we are definitely not gonna touch that thing, let’s just leave it here, he doesn’t need it anyway.” probably the right call to make since they couldn’t get a hazmat team on such short notice

fuck. ha ha ha fucking ouch part two

All Might please put that thing down before you get gangrene. also yeah, you dropped the ball, good for you to acknowledge it. nobody’s perfect and you did your best. but yeah you could have handled a lot of things completely differently. but I still love you

is Horikoshi really putting this flashback here. are you serious. what kind of fucking sadist

look, I swear I’m not one of those people that runs up and down the street shouting “DEATH FLAG!!” at every third panel lol. but this shit screamed Death Flag when we originally got it, and it’s screaming DEATH FLAG!!! even more now. like with the capital letters and exclamation marks and all. and that’s just a fact. I don’t like it but that’s how it is

ffkdjslk

“DID YOU READ THE SIGN??!” Horikoshi asks while zooming in maniacally because he thinks we’re blind or something. lol what

-- though actually, it only just occurred to me that this sign is actually written in English. I never really paid attention up until now and had been assuming it was written in Japanese and translated by the scanlators, but the writing here is clearly part of the original image. anyway so maybe that’s why he’s zooming in?? just to make sure everybody pays attention lol

okay fuck this

see, this is the whole problem right here. once again All Might is all on his own. Deku’s self-destructive angst spiral was fortunately brought to a grinding halt because he actually has support from his friends and family and teachers and classmates. but All Might never had that same kind of support, and it’s made all the difference between the two of them, and not in a good way. Katsuki wasn’t wrong when he said All Might and Deku were both cut from the same cloth. but now when it’s All Might’s turn to go all “I WALK A LONELY ROAD~~” once again, there’s nobody in sight

just, after forty plus years of him carrying this torch, I just wish someone would finally come along to let him know he doesn’t have to. all those things that he wanted to say to Deku are also things that he needs and deserves to hear himself. Aizawa was making a little progress there, but now he’s got his sad zombie cloud boyfriend situation to deal with, and we can’t expect him and his perfect hair to solve all our problems. someone else has gotta step up

oh my god

“you rang?” never mind I take it all back sob

omg why am I laughing. shit

this man truly has the best PR game in the series. we were truly convinced he was gonna suddenly become a good guy and defend All Might against the other villains or some nonsense. as if this wasn’t the same man who decided on a whim that Iida Tensei deserved to be paralyzed, and that his fifteen-year-old brother deserved to die for daring to be upset about it

lol even All Might is all “I genuinely never saw this coming” lmao

just want to say, for the record, I have always harbored a very sensible hatred toward Stain. feeling very vindicated right now. good job Past Me

adsfklwkfsdwgkj

ffffwefjslkg. ghsdlkg. dsfkkkslkjldwkjrg

STAIN: heard you talking shit old man

ME: smh that’s what I thought you’d say you dumb fucking Stain

STAIN: how dare you talk about All Might that way

ME: gljfljgk

(ETA: in hindsight I have no idea how I didn’t clue in sooner that he didn’t recognize him -- or, well, ~didn’t recognize~ him, to be more accurate lol. I think it was the whole “is that a slight against the heroes?” thing that threw me. Viz’s translation makes it much clearer that he’s offended on behalf of All Might specifically, not heroes in general. anyways.)

sob. so All Might is all “yeah I don’t blame you for not recognizing me in this sweet leather jacket”

good thing he still knows how to do this party trick

A+ reflexes on Stain’s part presumably pulling the sword back a few inches to keep this dumbass from impaling himself with his whole pufferfish routine. can you imagine if that was the gruesome death Nighteye foresaw. and he was just too embarrassed to say anything

lol anyways guess I was wrong about Stain everyone

way to fucking go, Past Me. you really biffed this one

oh wait

Stain sure is one wacky rollercoaster ride

oh fuck me lol I forgot how much I did not miss this

(ETA: “this here is the sacred ground where All Might gave up the last of his power and turned into a shriveled old man!! please ignore the part where I admit to knowing all about that, and yet pretend not to recognize said man when he’s standing two feet in front of me.”)

Past Me, I know we’ve had our ups and downs these past ninety seconds, but I’m really starting to think you were on to something. this dude has always been kind of insufferable. always acting like his high horse is a fucking giraffe when it’s actually a Shetland pony

dammit now he’s got All Might going off on a depressed monologue

oh my god my heart

shit

why the fuck does that hit so hard. he became a hero because he couldn’t bear to just sit back and let bad things happen to people who didn’t deserve it. I mean that’s basically the same as every hero ever, right? so why does it still hit so fucking hard every single time though. what is it about seeing someone so determined to stand up for other people and fight on their behalf. it just never loses its impact no matter how many times I see that determination mirrored in so many of my favorite characters

“I wanted to make the world a better place.” omg. but you did, though. like seriously, I feel like people are always dogging on him for not being 100% perfect, and fandom really doesn’t give him enough credit for everything he still managed to accomplish. this man came of age at a time when Japan was by all accounts a total shitshow, and singlehandedly managed to bring about an era of peace that lasted for four fucking decades. can you imagine having peace for that long?? that’s longer than I’ve been alive. shit

and he gave people hope. he inspired them and protected them and made them feel safe. and no, he couldn’t save everyone, because he’s only one fucking dude (and also because the whole time AFO was also out there desperately working to undermine him so that he could keep preaching his narrative of “heroes are bad actually”). but you know what he did do, is inspire multiple new generations of heroes who, if they can all manage to work together, will finally be able to accomplish everything he never could

so yeah. forty years of peace, and inspired the “that’s how we all became the greatest heroes” generation -- that’s a fucking win in my book. talk about having a net positive impact on the world. lol anyways now I’m all fired up and ready to fight anyone who tries to talk any shit about you, All Might

“but what if I talk shit about myself” okay listen up All Might I’m gonna need you to try just a little bit harder to work with me here okay. please calm down and stop blaming yourself for every single bad thing that’s ever happened in the world. do you remember that time Bakugou was blaming himself for Kamino, and you gave him a hug and told him it wasn’t his fault, and that he was only a boy, and that even though he was strong, even strong people can struggle with the burdens they place on themselves, and that you were sorry for not seeing that earlier? do you remember all of that? that’s what I want someone to tell you too, dammit. anyway please stop breaking my heart please and thanks

wtf

are you dead All Might

I don’t even have the slightest idea what’s happening lol

oh snap did he grab him so they could hide??

hold the fucking phone. don’t tell me this person in the background with the umbrella is here to actually do something decent??

oh my godddd

and here come the feels. oh boy. okay don’t mind me, I’m just gonna sit here sobbing over this fictional lady and her simple act of kindness in this weekly shounen manga that I care about way too much

FUCKING DAMMIT AND HERE’S A SECOND HELPING

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST GETTING DISPROPORTIONATELY EMOTIONAL OVER THIS WOMAN’S DETERMINATION TO HONOR A MAN WHO SACRIFICED EVERYTHING TO SAVE HER AND COUNTLESS OTHERS. I’M JUST HAVING SOME FEELS OVER HERE ABOUT HER HEARTFELT, DOESN’T-EVEN-KNOW-ANYONE-ELSE-IS-WATCHING FEELINGS OF GRATITUDE THAT COMPELLED HER TO COME OUT HERE AND MAKE THIS SMALL BUT POWERFUL GESTURE. I’M JUST OUT HERE GETTING ALL PROFOUNDLY WORKED UP ABOUT STATUE MAINTENANCE AND THE HUMAN RACE. NEVER MIND. JUST IGNORE ME AND CARRY ON

holy shit. I was not even remotely prepared. you can’t just do that to me. you can’t just leave all these death flags on my lawn and then suddenly shift gears to show me the best of humanity in a chapter where I was expecting the worst. that fucks a person up lol

OH ARE WE STILL GOING

my heart. you see that, All Might. your legacy is so much more powerful and meaningful than you think

...has. has Stain actually been giving All Might a pep talk this entire time

I give up lol. this dude is a fucking enigma

YAYYY

it may just be a metaphor panel, but I’ll take it lol. I missed them. nice to see the traffic light trio front and off-center. I know the whole “this is the story of how we all became the greatest heroes” thing had left some questioning whether certain characters would continue to play a central role in the narrative, and hopefully this will help to ease those concerns just a bit

anyway, so idk if it’s getting a bit chilly down there in hell, but damned if Stain didn’t just give an actual decent fucking speech

I have to say, earlier when I was whining about All Might not having a support squad, I really was not expecting Stain to be the one to come over and pat his head and reassure him that he made the world a better place

-- okay LISTEN

YOU CAN’T JUST COME INTO MY HOUSE AND HIT ME WITH THOSE ALL MIGHT TEARS AGAIN GODDAMMIT THIS ISN’T FAIR. my god. first 317 and now this

holy fucking shit

“I’m just gonna pretend like I haven’t been stalking him for two days and didn’t see the entire Deku bentogate thing go down, and then I’ll give him the whole big speech that I rehearsed, and then I’ll turn around and be all ‘BUT IF YOU’RE A TRUE HERO’, and then I’ll toss him the super-secret AFO wifi password that I stole from Tartarus. god I’m such a badass. fucking give myself chills”

so basically what you’re telling me is that this whole time my “what’s up kids” characterization of Stain from this shitpost has actually been 100% accurate. just want to make sure I’m understanding this right. okay then

“and then I’ll dramatically spin around and be all NOW COME KILL ME BITCH”

it must be so much fun to write Stain. drawing this coked-out maniac who talks like a chatbot that was trained to speak by reading Alan Moore monologues. that must be a trip

anyway so All Might is still crying, the awesome lady from chapter 92 is admiring her handiwork totally oblivious to the batshit insanity going on fifty meters to her right, and it’s finally stopped raining lol

“THE RAIN WAS A METAPHOR YOU SEE” yes, yes, we got it lol. thanks for that Horikoshi. don’t think we needed any help putting the pieces together on that one but I appreciate the effort

so that’s the end! and as I mentioned in another post, I had the count off by one chapter, but next week should be cliffhanger week! so break out your U.A. Traitor bingo cards, friends and fiends. either that or something else happens that I’m completely not expecting at all. which, based on my success rate with Stain predictions, I’d say is more than likely lol

mmm but anyway, so now that the Hug Deku 2021 campaign has finally come to an end, what’s it gonna take to get a hug for my struggling bento-preparing jacket-rocking world-weary death-flag-waving husband who is the worthiest man to ever live and deserves the fucking world, goddammit

#bnha 326 #all might #yagi toshinori #stain (bnha)#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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messers-moony · 3 years ago

Text

Serene | F.H

Paring: Five Hargreeves X Fem!Reader

Summary: Five’s wife has a room in their apartment for her own safe keeping. But Diego’s daughter accidentally reveals her biggest secret.

Her scent was heavenly—a beautiful desired mix of coffee, chocolate, and old books. Waking up beside her was like waking up in a coffee shop during sunrise. Her scent resembled her nature and her personality to a tea.

She was calm, collective, resourceful, and quiet. Much different than he himself. Number Five was just as innovative as her. But he found himself more different than similar. He often acted upon impulse and unable to rest. To his siblings, they were bewildered at how the two of them spent a multitude of years together in an apocalypse.

Nevertheless, opposites attract.

Regardless, she didn’t speak up. Instead, she hid in a corner with a book agreeing with the other person instead of saying her point of view. She hated conflict more than anything. Five, on the other hand, would only make conflict when necessary. He always stood up for himself and his opinions.

It was a communication issue they both had to solve. While in the apocalypse, she didn’t speak for the first month. He was lucky if he even got some form of communication other than a nod or a shake of the head. Eventually, he learned her name was Y/n. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. She looked like her name.

She moved so delicately and smoothly it drove Five crazy. This woman he met was so opposite to him it drove him up the wall. The conflict between the two usually ended up in her quietly leaving the shared apartment and returning later than expected. Which left Five to pull at the tuffs of his brown hair in frustration.

Five overthought everything. This woman was the light of his life, but she couldn’t deal with conflict to save her life, and it made him wonder. Maybe she went through a dark time before the apocalypse. Perhaps the scars on her arms weren’t from accidental burns on the fire. He paced in their main room for hours. It seemed before a knock on the door caught his attention.

The boy opened the door to see his brother, “ Hey, Diego. “

“ Um, hey, Five. “ Regardless of Diego’s nervous greeting, Five gave a reassuring smile, “ Artemis wanted to know if she could stay here for the time being while I’m at work. “

The little girl was Y/n’s pride and joy. The two were so highly similar. Even Artemis found herself cowering at Five sometimes. Five was just a ticking time bomb no one ever knew when it would explode, and it made people nervous. Henceforth Diego was hoping Y/n would answer the door with her soothing nature.

“ Yeah, she can stay here for as long as she wants. “ Five replied softly, looking at the ten-year-old girl, “ Is Y/n here? “ Diego queried.

Five shook his head, “ She went out. I’m sure she’ll be back later. “

“ Alright, well, thank you for taking care of her. “ Diego sighed as Artemis went inside Five’s apartment, “ It’s no problem. “

Diego gave another nervous smile and walked away. The brunet male shut the door and locked it afterward. The little girl never really got along with Five. He didn’t know what to do. Children didn’t mix well with Five, especially an introverted, antisocial ten-year-old girl.

Artemis was gorgeous for her age. Long brown hair that resembled Vanya’s at her age with bangs across her forehead. Striking blue eyes like no other. A pale complexion compared to Diego’s naturally tan one. Her name was almost a contradiction to who she was. This little girl was no independent, strong, brave goddess. Instead, she was intelligent, quiet, and careful.

There was one room in the apartment Y/n didn’t really let anyone into. It was the ‘spare’ bedroom that wasn’t really a bedroom anymore. Five had only been in there a handful of times. It was known as her safe space, so Five respected that. But Artemis seemed to walk right inside. To say it made Five uneasy was an understatement. He didn’t know if she was allowed inside or not.

Five walked into the room and was greeted with bookshelves. It looked much different than the last time he saw it. The room wasn’t huge, maybe the average size of a square bedroom. Black bookshelves covered the walls with a desk sitting in the middle of the room planted on a rug. The only wall space not covered was a window with a tiny navy blue couch placed in front of it.

That’s where Artemis sat with a book in hand; she giggled at her uncle’s lost complexion, “ You haven’t been in here before, have you? “

“ I- I haven’t been in here a lot. “ Five replied in awe of the room, “ Aunt Y/n says she doesn’t let a lot of people in here. “ Artemis’ voice was soft and serene.

“ Yeah, it’s been a couple of months since I’ve been allowed in this room. “ He reminisced, “ Is this where you two talk? “

Artemis nodded, “ We talk a lot in here. This is where she works, and she shows me all her drafts. “

“ She works in here? “ Five queried, completely baffled, “ Mhm! You didn’t know? “ The young girl asked.

“ No, I- I didn’t know. “ He muttered, “ She’s not just an English teacher. She writes books in her spare time. “ Artemis smiled.

“ She does? “ Five spoke, “ Like how Vanya wrote her autobiography? “

“ Kind of. “ Artemis answered, “ She writes fiction novels. “

Five spun around the room, “ Can you show me? “

The young girl didn’t reply. Instead, she looked at Y/n’s desk sitting in the middle of the room. Under the rug laid a key which she picked up. Carefully she unlocked the bottom drawer on the left side of the desk, which held multiple different notebooks full of drafts and notes.

Artemis picked up a navy blue-bound notebook and handed it to him, “ This is her most recent stuff. “

Shocked and astonished at what his wife was hiding from him, he took the navy blue book. He took a spot on the rug sitting next to the open drawer while Artemis went back to reading on the couch. Her handwriting was elegant cursive that she taught herself how to do. The notebook was as messy as Five’s lesson plans for his college students. Nonetheless, he read on.

Life is a journey and full of different surprises. People from all around the world meet in the center for one leading cause. What occurs when tomorrow doesn’t happen? What is indeed on the other side? People tend to believe there’s an afterlife. Others think that it’s game over.

Brooklyn James takes a path into the unknown. A scared adolescent. She takes a brave step to find the answers for everyone. But at what cost? Prophecies advise and warn. People intrigued and fascinated.

When happens when both ends meet?

Five sat on the floor, entranced in her writing. He couldn’t believe his eyes. How has he never seen this before? How was she doing this without him noticing? Eventually, he closed the book and looked inside the drawer. Inside was an envelope with his name on it. Curiosity peaked, he took the envelope and opened it. Inside he found more writings, but all addressed to him. It even went back to the apocalypse.

It’s been about a month now. I was able to find some parchment and ink in an old book store. I can imagine they were selling for the aesthetic of old ways of writing. Thankfully I learned how to write with a quill, or perhaps this note would look like one big black blob. Five seems to be adjusting to me better. I’m scared of him. He’s terrifying.

We’re so different it hurts. He likes to express everything, and I don’t know how to feel about it. My entire life, I’ve been shut down to the point where talking feels like a fruitless effort. Maybe talking to him will help me. But I’m scared. What if he shuts me out as everyone else did.

This is so surreal. We’re stuck in an apocalyptic future—stupid healing powers. I wish I never healed myself sometimes. I didn’t know that after climbing out of my burnt house, this is what the world would look like. Five’s been a great help, though. Sometimes he takes my mind off things. At night he’ll ramble about the constellations, and I like learning about them.

Maybe he thinks I’m asleep or not listening because I don’t talk much, but I’ve learned a lot from him. He makes me want to be a teacher, step out of my comfort zone. I hope he becomes a teacher. He’d be a fantastic math professor.

He continued to read through until a voice made him jump, “ So, you’ve found my locked drawer. “

“ I- I didn’t- I didn’t mean- “ Five suddenly became a stuttering mess, “ I showed him. “ Artemis admitted.

Although Y/n wasn’t mad, Artemis cowered with her head, looking at the floor. Y/n’s voice never held anger, even when she was angry. Her voice was calming, soothing, and laced with honey. It was one of the reasons Five fell so in love with her.

“ Artemis, can you step out to the living room, please? “ She knelt before the girl giving her a tiny smile, “ You aren’t in trouble, my princess. I just want to talk to Five, okay? “

“ I’m- I'm sorry. “ The girl whimpered, and Y/n kissed her cheek gently, “ It’s okay, you aren’t in trouble. I’m not mad. I just need you to sit in the living room for a moment. “ Five stared in wonder at his wife comforting the tiny girl.

The young girl got the message and padded to the living room. Y/n stood up from her spot and stared at her guilty husband. His green eyes looked everywhere except for her e/c ones. He wanted her to yell or be angry with him, but she never was. No matter what, he couldn’t ever make her mad. Her patience were infinite.

“ I suppose you found what I’ve been working on. “ She stated, and Five nodded, “ And you saw my parchment from the apocalypse. “

“ I really didn’t mean to. “ He murmured, and she chuckled, “ You were going to have to find out sooner rather than later. “ Y/n replied.

Without warning, he was embraced. Her arms were wrapped around his torso while her head rested on his heart. The scent of her shampoo reached his nose, a glorious mix of honey and coconut he couldn’t ever get enough of. His arms gently wrapped themselves around her shorter frame while his chin perched on top of her head.

He kissed her hair gently, “ I didn’t mean to snoop. I’m sorry, love. “

“ Well, do you like it? “ She asked, “ Like what? “

“ My drafts, my room, my notes? “ Y/n listed, “ I love it because it’s who you are. “ Five replied softly.

He pulled away to meet her soft e/c eyes, “ This room is who you are as a person. If I had to describe you in one room, it’d be something along these lines. “

“ You aren’t mad I didn’t tell you? “ She whispered, and he shook his head, “ Never. We spent forty-five years together with no privacy because we didn’t have that. When you said you wanted this room to yourself, I didn’t hesitate to agree with you. “ His voice was soft like silk.

His green eyes glittered like gems, “ This is your private room, your safe place, and I shouldn’t be mad at you for wanting privacy. “

She kissed his cheek gratefully, “ Thank you. “

“ Anytime, darling. Anytime. “

#five hargreeves x y/n #five fluff #five fanfiction #five x y/n #five hargreeves fluff #five hargreeves x reader #five hargreeves #five x reader #number five x reader #number five #five hargreeves x you #tua #tua fanfic #tua au #tua x reader #tua five #the umbrella academy #the sparrow academy

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yandere-sins · 4 years ago

Note

i just binged-read all of your BNHA works and omg... 🥲 you don’t understand the rollercoaster of emotions i just went through! can i please request a story of Kirishima noticing that Bakugou has a crush on his darling. then when Kirishima confronts Bakugou about it, things get heated/physical? keep up the good work, i love your writings! 🥰💗

Thank you so much for reading through them, I am so glad you enjoyed them! :D And thanks for requesting ♥

»»———————— ♡ ————————««

“I don’t fucking know either!”

Loud. Terribly loud were the two voices shouting at each other in your room, the little bit of safe haven you owned, entirely disrupted by the two men arguing. It was only made worse by the fact that they were arguing about you rather than anything else, their attention involuntarily always coming back to you after every sentence.

You had long ducked away, slipped into the area between the wall and your bed, the only place you had claimed as yours ever since you were forced to live here. It was barely spacious enough for you to breathe in, but it was too small to force you out of as well, which you always appreciated. On most days, Kirishima would treat you kindly and with a strange understanding despite the situation and relationship you two had.

But just as quickly did his mood change, his tendencies to demand more than you were willing to give being a constant point of stress between you two. Hiding yourself back here was the closest to some privacy you had, and now than ever, you just wanted to disappear from this pitiful existence. You didn’t even want to hear about what they were talking, let alone witness how the conversation would go.

“Fuck,” Bakugou groaned loudly, rubbing his hands over his face. “Of all the people...”

“Yes. Of all the people, it just had to be my partner you fell in love with,” Kirishima hissed back, equally angered. You couldn’t even pinpoint for how long the two had been discussing this topic, but it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, as it seemed. Sighing quietly as to not draw more attention to you, you buried your head in your knees.

For the longest time, you had believed those two were good people. Sure, Bakugou was a hot-headed bastard sometimes, but together with Kirishima, who shone with his kindness, you three always had a lot of fun. When Kiri confessed to you, you had been so happy! What you thought was love probably was more like a deep friendship, but you didn’t say ‘no’ and went out with him.

But then the craziness started. It was subtle at first, and you confided in Bakugou, who told you, you were just imagining things. No one seemed to notice how Kirishima started to polarize your time constantly, how, when he wanted cuddles, he simply pulled you into an embrace even if you didn’t want to. How every problem was solved with ‘Just don’t go there anymore, you can stay here! I’ll take care of everything!’

You very quickly found out you had been wrong both with him being a good person and you being in love with him. But then, of all people, he still allowed Bakugou to come over! Where he kept you locked in his apartment all day while he played hero outside, he still allowed your friend to visit whenever. Seeing that Bakugou was not going to help you, no matter how much you pleaded with him to save you, broke your heart. It completely shattered you.

Honestly, you wanted to believe that you three had been friends once, but whatever happened to make the two into what they were now, it scared you. It frightened you so much that you barely slept at night, rarely managed to eat more than two spoons of your food, and rendered you unable to focus on anything if not ensuring you were safe when things got too much to bear. And now, your body shaking more than ever, you had to witness how even Bakugou seemed to have changed sides, and that scared you even more.

You thought he was just loyal to his friend by refusing to help you, but by god, he was the same as that maniac Kirishima.

“Look, I didn’t choose that either! But you knew I liked them way before you confessed!”

At that, Kirishima only clicked his tongue, unable to say anything in return to counter this claim. So it was right, Bakugou had liked you all along. All these things about Kirishima’s and your love life must have been so painful for him to listen to in this case. However, right then, as you overheard their conversation unwillingly, you didn’t feel bad for him even a second.

“I wish it was anyone else, but it’s them!”

“Well, are you sure?” Kirishima grumbled, and you kind of understood Bakugou’s frustration as his friend didn’t seem to want to hear the truth. “Yes, I am damn sure!”

“If that’s the case...” Kirishima sighed before you heard steps drawing closer. “[Name]? Can you come out? You know it’s rude not to show your cute face to our guest.”

Even if he spoke his words in a sugary voice, nothing about Kirishima could calm you. Slowly looking up at him again, you saw him reach his hand out to you, knowing fully well that he couldn’t get you out of that gap even if he probably wanted. The mood in the room was tense and full of heated tempers. Their back and forth had only made everything more awkward and uncomfortable as it already was for you.

Inwardly, you wanted nothing more than to stay in your hideout, hoping it would all quickly pass, but crossing Bakugou’s gaze briefly, you saw his brows only furrow more, and you wagered if taking Kirishima’s offer was better as long as he still asked nicely before either of them would lose their patience with you, too.

Slipping out of the space without taking his help, it wasn’t long before Kirishima picked you up anyway. The man had as much understanding about boundaries as you had about what even was wrong with him. He sat you down in his lap on the couch, waving Bakugou over, who reluctantly took a seat on the furthest armrest from you.

“Tell him, [Name]. You love me, right? You want to be with me, right?”

Opening your mouth, you wanted to protest, but Bakugou stole the words from you before you could talk.

“Bullshit! They’ve always been complaining because you suck at being a boyfriend! They could do so much better and be with me, right [Name]? Tell that idiot!”

You felt like a dog, with both owners screaming at their furbaby to chose them and go to the one it likes more.

Their back-and-forth continued, Kirishima swearing his love to you up and down while Bakugou praised his abilities to be better in... every way. Kirishima liked to remind you how much ‘fun’ you two had together and how much he did and would do for you in the future. Bakugou liked to argue with his friend, using insults and belittling comments about his plans. Neither made a very good impression, and their voices rose to a volume again, making you wish you had earplugs to drown out at least a little bit of their shouting.

Instead, you lifted your hands to your ears, cupping them as to drown out the sounds, hoping it was over soon. Why couldn’t they both leave you alone? Why did you have to end up in this situation, not once, but twice? Why did the two best friends you had turned out to be this crazy? Crazy about you?

There still were so many questions to be answered, and you curled into yourself as you spiraled down into overthinking everything that happened. From regrets you had, to disbelieve you still harbored, to the despair you felt as you couldn’t pinpoint when this nightmare would end.

You were so inside your own head, you didn’t notice how their voices slowly calmed down, their hearts breaking as they saw you so overwhelmed by the situation. Kirishima and Bakugou exchanged a few glances, and even in Bakugou’s serious and furious expression, there were hints of worries to find that only his friends could discern.

“How about you move in with us... and maybe they can make a decision then. Not that I’d just give them to you, but I can’t watch them being sad about us fighting. You always meant a lot to us.”

Huffing, Bakugou turned his head away, hiding the flustered red spreading on his cheeks. “I won’t share with you, you Dumbass! They’re mine. They love me much more than you freak!”

“Doubt it,” Kirishima chuckled as he brought his hand to your head, brushing over it comfortingly. He had never been afraid to say his opinion openly, a trait you had always found remarkable and remarkable stupid at the same time. “Whatever,” Bakugou grunted, standing up before storming out of the door without another word of goodbye, Kirishima sighing before he pulled you close.

“I hope this makes you happy,” he mumbled, not even knowing you weren’t listening anymore. “I’d do anything if it makes you happy.”

By the evening, a new roommate was sharing the apartment with you and Kirishima. They didn’t talk, neither at dinner nor before or after that. You didn’t mind the silence, but you did mind having to hold one hand of each as they decided to watch a movie, ever so often squeezing to gain your attention and giving you grins when you looked at them. As if that equaled making a decision which you liked better, just because they had a few seconds of your attention.

But even worse were the changes. The first thing Bakugou did was move the bed. Your hideout was no longer as he decided you didn’t need it. And where you had struggled to keep Kiri from you, you now were too scared to shove away Bakugou. Perhaps, you really had it nice with Kirishima. You pondered about it all night as you were squeezed between them, their arguing going deep into the early hours before they fell asleep, snoring away into your ears.

Would it have been easier if you had just chosen one of them?

Or would it be fatal to ever choose between them?

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taeescript · 3 years ago

Text

29+1 (Part One)

𝔰𝔶𝔫𝔬𝔭𝔰𝔦𝔰: In which Seokjin is the Devil from The Devil Wears Prada, Taehyung is your work Jesus and Jimin is your handsome successful brother.

𝔭𝔞𝔦𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰: seokjin x reader (taehyung x reader if you squint real hard)

𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔯𝔢: slice of life; ceo!seokjin (diva!seokjin)

𝔴𝔠: 3.6k

𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰: heavy use of alcohol as a coping mechanism, a plethora of sarcasm (please don’t be offended) and a sprinkle of softness (is that a warning?).

𝔞/𝔫: this sat in my unwritten folder since 2017 no lie. I wrote the premise and a singular paragraph at that time, then just gave up. I opened it a few days ago, got inspired again and this word vomit came out (heavily influenced by a midnight Zoom call with my friends). Ngl this was so much fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. This will probably be in three parts. 𝔡𝔦𝔰𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔯: I did not know that DailyHive is an actual online news source when writing. This work is purely fictional and has absolutely nothing to do with the real DailyHive.

part two

Your friends have a saying: After 29, nobody shares their age until they’ve accomplished something.

In the past, you didn’t understand it. What’s so bad about saying you’re 30 or you’re 32? That’s still a young age! Sure, you’re not exactly in your prime anymore but you’re not old, right?

So, you continue in your own wondrous world of naïveté until that fateful day at your class reunion. You had simply been walking around, minding your own business when you had been stopped by an old colleague.

“Hey, Y/N, right?” she waves you down.

You smile kindly, not even bothering to try and remember her name (you sucked at names, what could you say).

“Hey…you!” you chuckle lightly, “How have you been doing?”

An everyday question leading to catastrophic effects.

“Oh you know,” she says and rolls her eyes as if you truly did know, “I’ve just been out and about. Did I tell you though? I got married last year!” She holds out her hand in which a giant diamond adorns her finger. “Wow!” you gasp, feigning interest. It’s not that you aren’t happy for her, but you are reminded of just how single you are currently. When was the last time you felt another human’s touch? Does kissing come back as easily as riding a bicycle? “Hey!” she says suddenly, “I’m actually meeting with a couple of friends from our class. You should come join! I’m sure they’d be happy to see you again!” You want to wave her off, but against your better judgment, you find yourself following in her footsteps and listening to her speak about wedding venues and honeymoon destinations.

“Oh my god!” another female voice filters in.

The “couple of friends” this old classmate had mentioned is in fact a fairly impressive size of twenty. This is also the third time the wedding announcement has been made.

“Last year?” the female continues, “Weren’t you young?”

Yes, you want to respond. Yes she was young. A full 365 days younger than she is now.

Your classmate, Sooyoung (or Kiko as she insists going by now) titters in front of you. “I mean, you can sort of say I’m a late bloomer. I got married when I was 31.”

Her words unintentionally cut into you. Here you are at 29 without a beau in sight. You take a fast swig of your beer and end up hitting the empty glass with a clink to your teeth. Nobody notices.

“Enough about me, however, how about you?”

“I started my own business actually. It’s been doing really well and it’s been a crazy mind. Imagine me, my own boss at only 33!”

You nervously join them when they suddenly laugh together.

“Hi, can I get another pint please? Actually add a tequila shot to that,” you whisper the last part to the waitress you had just stopped.

And that was how the rest of the night went. People asking one another what they had accomplished. Any moment in time after 30 would not be mentioned until somebody travelled to Uganda to build houses at 31 or another gave birth at the same age. Below 30, anything would be attributed to luck or in your case…

“What are you doing currently?” somebody asks you, “The little baby of our class.”

Swallowing your third tequila shot of the night, you wonder for the umpteenth time how you had become a part of this giant sharing circle. You wonder if it’s a blessing or a curse that you had graduated a little early and thus was younger than most of your peers.

“Well,” you start, “I’m currently working at DailyHive.”

“Ohh!” a man gushes. You recognize him as the once-upon-a-time science partner you used to cheat notes off of. “I use DailyHive nearly as much as Instagram these days. You guys cover everything from news to sports to fashion.”

You shrug. “Yeah. It’s, uh… it’s a pretty big company!”

“What are you doing there?”

Kiko-ex-Sooyoung hits the man teasingly on the shoulder. “Y/N is probably the Director of Marketing or something. Remember how she used to spend all class doodling in her notebook?”

“Or sleeping!” someone quips.

You don’t join in when they all laugh.

“I’m…an intern,” you say with as much pride as you can in a group of established professionals ranging from dermatologists to that one guy who had flown around the world as a TedTalk guest speaker.

A hushed silence befalls everyone.

“That’s…cool!” the same man encourages you, “Interns are totally rad! Everyone wants an intern spot these days.”

His girlfriend pats your arm, almost empathetically. “Yeah. I know a bunch of people who first start off as interns and then they shoot up the ladder quick enough. As long as you’re no longer an intern at 30, you’re golden!”

Once again, the entire group laughs as if she has said the most hilarious of jokes.

She composes herself and says to you, “Because after that, you should have accomplished something.”

Her words still ring in your ears as you sit at your desk this morning.

Yeah…something. All you need to do is accomplish something in the next three months before you are officially, 29 + 1.

Your fingers tap against your thighs silently while you observe the current debate that is occurring in the conference room. You barely have time to sweep the falling hair back behind your ear as your fingers ferociously fly across the keyboard to keep in track with the meeting.

Fei is arguing that the implement of a new search word system would boost users while Daniel says that it is a waste of resources. Instead, everything should be put into updating the entire system as a whole. You have long since lost track of their words as neither pertain to what you do as an intern.

“Enough,” the CEO of DailyHive holds up a hand. His one word causes the entire room to hush over – truly, the words of a god.

And that might as well be what he is. With his hair swept back and a lone tendril curling perfectly above his brow, Kim Seokjin is legitimately a walking god. Off his broad shoulders hang an expensive white linen suit bought with his pocket change and your yearly salary. A pair of sunglasses hangs in the V of the collared shirt dipping low enough to blur the lines between being fashionably professional and just downright sexy.

The snap of his fingers brings you back to the present.

He dramatically rolls his eyes and accepts that you are an incompetent minute-taker.

“I have to remember that the world just doesn’t move as fast as I do.”

- Quote: Rolling Stones 2019 Kim Seokjin.

Now if only he’d remember he had once said that.

He points at each of them with one finger, then swipes to the left. “Both of you, solve this outside. I don’t want to hear your voices any longer. You two from the marketing team, Ungroomed Stache and Acne Chin, create me a report if we are to implement Ms. Song’s idea. The two of you from…” he takes a pause here clearly having forgotten who his employees are, “The two of you do the same thing but for Mr. Hwang.”

The pair from accounting open their mouth to protest that they are in charge of only numbers, but they are ignored.

“All of you out now. Except you,” he points his finger directly at you, “Stay.”

Nobody utters a single word until they have all left and you are left alone with him. Standing before him with your hands folded nicely in front of you, you blink and wait.

He stares right back at you, picks up his coffee mug and drops it. The clatter of ceramic smashing against the ground causes a pause in the loud buzz outside the room. You know everybody’s focus has been shifted into the room.

“Do you want to kill me?” he drawls.

You take a long inhale. “No,” you say.

“No?” he repeats the word, “Well I think you do. Did you check this coffee before you brought it to me? I tasted cinnamon in it. You know how I’m allergic to cinnamon. Get me a new cup. And this mess, get somebody to clean it. I don’t want the smell of coffee in this room when I have my next meeting here in twenty. I’m taking a smoke a break.”

He stands up and brushes past you without saying anything else.

Nobody can be allergic to cinnamon. Besides if he had actually tasted cinnamon and was that sensitive, he would be dead. And good riddance to that.

Of course, you say none of this and wordlessly begin to pick up the broken ceramic pieces of the dead mug. The bustling outside the meeting room has returned back to its normal state of chaos. Seeing the ugly stain of coffee on the once pristine carpet causes you to swear beneath your breath.

“Who the fuck is allergic to cinnamon?” a new voice says, sliding up beside you.

The second god in DailyHive; the much nicer and evidently preferred Kim; Taehyung takes the mug pieces from you and drops it into the garbage bin.

Blessed with not only intelligence but devilishly model-like features, he is your desk buddy in the small space allotted for interns and your sole friend in the company.

“Tae,” you sigh with exasperation upon seeing your lifesaver, “What am I going to do about this stain? He’s going to return in fifteen and there’s no way I can get a coffee stain out of this expensive-ass carpet.”

Taehyung taps a long finger to his lips, leaves the room briefly, and returns with a roll of Bounty sheets and a can of Febreze. He promptly blots as much of the coffee off from the carpet then proceeds to pull the meeting table.

“C’mon, Y/N, don’t just stand there. Help me! Time is of the essence!”

You laugh and join him in moving the table so that one of the legs cover the stain 80% of the way. Once he is satisfied, he takes the Febreze and sprays until the whole room smells like “Hawaiian Aloha”.

“You’re welcome.” He gives an extravagant bow, the motion popping open the top button of his shirt to expose a surprisingly chiseled chest.

Fei returns back into the room holding a phone to her ear and a clipboard in her left hand. “What the hell? It smells like a Bath & Body Works in here. Intern, aren’t you supposed to be filing or something? Stop standing around and be useful.” She grips Taehyung’s arm and drags him out of the room. “Button up. This is a professional workplace.”

You give him a tiny wave as Taehyung is steered away by his girlfriend and back to the cubicles.

Taehyung may be your saviour at work, but outside, it cannot be denied that your brother is the true Fountain of Life.

A week has passed since the coffee incident (you suspect a cleaning personnel had found the stain and cleaned up after your improv as aforementioned stain can no longer be found), but Jimin still brings it up.

“I still can’t believe that he said he was allergic to cinnamon. I’ve never heard of such bullshit before,” your brother says over the phone. You can practically hear his eyeroll from across the world.

As a renowned ophthalmologist, you have not seen Jimin for close to a year as he has been initiating his new clinic, a flying eye hospital.

“You should hear his Starbucks order. I always feel like I’m ready to launch my next EP whenever I’m at the counter,” you say.

Jimin laughs. There is the muffled sounds of voices as his never-ending flow of patients have arrived for the day.

“I shouldn’t keep you,” you say upon hearing that, “You’re probably really busy.”

“No,” he says, “I’ve got a few minutes if you’ve got a few. I miss talking to my baby sister.”

“I’m not a baby anymore, Jiminie,” you say using the nickname he hated.

“Oh that’s right. Your birthday’s in a little under three months, right? My baby sister is turning the big three-oh.”

“God, don’t remind me.”

“Want me to come visit you?”

You contemplate the idea once, having not seen Jimin in quite a while.

“Only if you have time. But I feel like Mom and Dad would probably want to see you more. Speaking of which, um… How are Mom and Dad?”

“They’re good. I hear Dad is finally going to retire this year. He’s giving his practice to Kibum, you remember him? Mom will probably start pestering us about what to do for his retirement party.”

There is a pause.

“You know, it wouldn’t hurt to say hi to them once in a while.”

You sigh. “And say what? Hey, it’s me. The child that ran away from home at 18? Yeah, I’m not a doctor like everybody else in the family but a 29 year old intern at a popular app company. Whassuuup?”

“Y/N, that’s not what I – ”

“It’s okay, Jimin. I’ve come to accept that not everybody is cut out to be a doctor. I just wish Mom and Dad could realize that.”

Jimin sighs on your behalf. There is the sound of a crying child coming through the earphone. “Well, your contract expires a few weeks after your birthday, right? Who knows, you might be the next Mark Zuckerberg.”

He has never explicitly inquired about your life plan and you know this is as much as he is willing to push without asking, “What’s next after this intern hiccup?” At least he had the decency to compare you to a controversial Internet entrepreneur.

The child is crying much louder now.

“Again with my birthday. But I’ll let you know,” is the only reply you can come up with at the moment. “Okay, brother, go forth and heal the blind. I bless thee in the name of the Holy Spirit, Son and Ghost.”

There is true laughter that rings from Jimin as he ends the call. “It’s Father, Son and Holy Ghost you dweeb. I love you sis.”

“You too.” You hang up first before he can add anything else.

With that, you enter into the 7am Starbucks queue and prepare yourself in running the first single of your long overdue EP.

Seokjin leans back in his chair, watching you from inside his office. Today he has chosen a black turtleneck and a brazen maroon-nearly purple suit jacket to complete the outfit. For once, there is an empty mug of coffee beside him and his morning headache has been appeased.

He knew he had given you an impossible task.

“Compile all the troubleshooting errors we have received since the launch of DailyHive. Organize it in a manner that allows me to identify the most prominent problem. Run it through whomever you please before giving it to me. I don’t need to waste my time correcting your mistakes.”

There is an amused smile that bubbles beneath his otherwise stoic features. He cannot deny that there is, might he dare say, a cute quality about you as you manually scan through the received concerns on your laptop dating back to the initial beta tests – the ones that were lost in a data crash and only backed up with unintelligible scribblings of previous interns.

The moment you had been introduced as the new intern, you had caught his eye. You are exquisitely mundane, and perhaps the reason you had even caught him the first time was due to solely to the fact that you were older than most interns – himself even. Nevertheless, you continue to present him small surprises in your tenacity and capability to tackle challenges.

“Mr. Kim.”

His intercom comes alive with the voice of his secretary.

Seokjin’s eyes do not leave you as he answers.

“Mr. Hwang is on line two. Would you like me to defer him to a later time if you are currently busy?”

Seokjin cannot help but sigh. Hwang Junho, his co-founder, while a genius in international business is also a notorious chatterbox and gossip. There is seldom a reason for Junho to call him except to relay the cover titles of E!Magazine.

“Did he mention a reason for calling?” Seokjin inquires.

His secretary seems to be reading from a note. “He says it’s to do with the company. Something he read from Cosmopolitan this morning.”

So not E! but another sister celebrity gossip blog. He checks his watch and duly notes that he certainly has no meetings scheduled until later in the afternoon where your report would be needed to run a preliminary analysis.

“Sir?”

“Yes, put him through. But tell him I’ve got only five minutes, so he’s better give me the Cliffnotes version,” Seokjin sighs again.

Before he can be connected, Seokjin quickly says, “What’s the name of that intern again?”

“Who?” his secretary asks, “We’ve hired four since the beginning of the year.”

“The one who keeps wanting to poison me.”

“I’m sorry, Sir?” she sounds concerned.

“The one who keeps forgetting that I despise cinnamon.”

There is no response.

“The older one. Spilled coffee a while ago but still has enough coordination to pull together a decent report.”

“Ah,” she says.

He waits patiently as she searches through the database, eventually giving him your name. He gives a slight pause and then says, “Good. Now patch me with Junho.”

There is a momentary buzz as the call becomes connected in which Seokjin turns over the syllables of your name wordlessly.

“Mr. Kim. The man of the hour. How are you, my brother?” Junho’s baritone fills the office in a manner of seconds.

Despite the little annoying quirks, Seokjin cannot help but smile when hearing the voice of his best friend.

“You’ve got three minutes, Junho.”

Junho grumbles. “That’s not my fault. You were the one still on the line with your secretary. Is it still Yerin? ‘Cuz I won’t blame you if that’s the case. Did I catch you doing some naughty phone sex during office hours?”

“Two.”

“Holy hell. Fine. It’s always business with you. That’s why the tabloids are always writing you as an uptight asshole.”

This shifts Seokjin’s attention to the phone. His name is seldomly mentioned except for the features in business columns. He prefers to stay out of the limelight.

“What?”

“Put your name on Google.”

Seokjin does as he is told.

There are millions of results, but the first few pages share the same headline. He clicks on the first one with a grimace.

“Kim Seokjin. Mr. Worldwide Handsome as noted by his fans, has recently sparked Internet outrage.”

A quick skim of the otherwise trashy article brought to the surface a summary: his last dating scandal had ended badly and the repercussions of blowing off a famous celebrity’s daughter had finally caught up with him. The Internet was calling him arrogant, narrow-minded, and even greedy. “The young Chief Executive Officer of booming social media app DailyHive has been accused of using his relationship with actress XYZ to further his own business. Once he gained recognition from aforementioned relationship, he has cold-heartedly cast her away to pursue his next.” “You’re calling me for this bullshit?” Seokjin scoffs. Junho tuts his tongue loudly. “This is not bullshit. It’s affecting the image of your company. Do you think people want to download and support an app that is run by somebody who is being called cruel and dishonest? You’ve got to address this soon before it gets out of control. You’re lucky I have alerts set for these type of things. I caught it for you just in the nick of time.” Seokjin inhales deeply. “You’re also lucky that I’ve got the perfect solution in mind.” “That is?” “The Silver Gala,” Junho references the prestigious event. The Silver Gala is hosted annually and attended by the largest celebrities as well as other wealthy investors and guests. Those in the social circle shared between Seokjin and Junho often yearned for tickets to attend events such as this, as they serve as excellent networking opportunities. Besides the above, such events are circled by reporters and writers of gossip columns to get the exclusive scoop on any eyebrow-raising rumours. “The solution lies in such an event,” Junho continues, “You know how many people will be there. All you’ve got to do is show up with your average girl-next-door type and it’ll show how you’re actually really humble and down to earth. Kim Seokjin is perfectly capable of dating like any regular human being. He doesn’t use “love” or whatever to further his business. Love is the connection between two souls; two individuals who – ” “Beep. Your time has run out Junho. I’ve got another meeting scheduled right this moment,” Seokjin interrupts. “Dude, seriously. Think about it. You could bring Yerin. Everbody loves a good CEO and his secretary affair. And if that’s too juicy for you, I can introduce you to some girls. Or maybe we could go back to our university days and hit a bar, y’know?” Junho tries his best to persuade. “Fuck!” you swear beneath your breath right as you walk into Kim Seokjin’s office. His door had been open and, in your excitement to show your completed report, you had dropped all the loose papers on the ground. Four hours of organization gone, just like that. You hope that at least Seokjin hasn’t heard or noticed you as he had been engrossed in his phone call. Seokjin had in fact noticed you. He can’t help himself but follow the curvature of your bare shoulder as your bangs escape the hold of your scrunchie and sweep across your skin. “Don’t worry, Junho, I’ve just thought about it,” he says with a smile.

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