#defended another small child you were about to fucking murder

[alwritey-aphrodite]

Truly believe that the only way anyone is Team Green is because they think the actors are more attractive

[sourcherryandsprinkles]

How about Aegon and twin sister after death of jaehaeryss he needs to ahve another heir but he doesn't want to have one with heleana. he wants you

Request: Aegon and twin sister being in love but he married Helaena instead and wants YOU to have his babiess and be the next conqueror

Warning: mention of pregnancy, mention of child death,

my taglists are here + you can send requests here at any time

—

After the murder of Jaehaerys, things changed inside the keep. Aegon enforced the security and diminished the number of people who were allowed inside Maegor's Holdfast. His family lived there, he didn't want a repeat of what happened to his little son. And he didn't let you, his darling twin sister, although capable of defending yourself, go anywhere without your sworn protector. 

Aegon was in pain by the death of his little son, and he was hurting for Heleana who had to witness such a horrific act, but if these rat catchers would have come to your chambers, if they would have harmed you, Aegon would have gone completely mad. 

There was nothing in the world that Aegon cared more about, loved more, than you. You were his other half, a part of him. You grew together in the same womb. 

If you had married Aegon instead of Helaena, he would have had no difficulty performing his duties. You would possibly have many children by now. You were the right choice, his darling twin sister. You were the one he wanted to warm his bed at night. You were the one he wanted to stand beside when he would get crowned.

But your grandsire, Otto, didn’t allow the betrothal. He pressed to the King for Helaena, claiming she was more suitable and would balance his depravity. It was all bullshit. Otto wanted her on the throne because she was more malleable and manipulable than you. Unlike Helaena, you could see through his webs and plottings. 

You were fresh out of your bath when you received a knock on your door. The hour was late, making you wonder who it could be. You tightened your robe, making sure it covered your body as modestly as it could, and allowed the servant to come in. 

‘’What is it, Dyana?’’ you asked, hissing as your handmaiden brushed through a knot in your hair. Could she be more delicate?

She stepped in, dressed in her red dress and earth colored apron. ‘’The King is requesting your presence in his chamber, Princess.’’ 

You tried your best to conceal your confusion. 

Tonight, per the small council’s request, Aegon was supposed to summon Helaena to his chamber and impregnate her with a new heir. Two moons had passed since he lost his heir…and another was needed. Aegon had informed you of the duty in the afternoon after meeting with his small council. He was not happy about it, preferring to bed you, but Helaena was the one he was wed to.

Ser Aeron followed you to the King’s chambers, taking place beside Aegon’s guard standing outside the door after you stepped inside, as they have been doing for the past two months. Assigning a sworn protector at your door wasn’t enough for Aegon, he also requested you sleep in his bed, refusing to close his eyes unless he could feel you next to him.  

You stepped into the solar with careful steps and alert eyes, not wishing to walk in on your sister and Aegon having sex. You understood and respected that it was part of their duties, but you could not be a spectator. 

‘’She’s not here,’’ Aegon’s voice echoed through the large space. He came into view, his breeches half unlaced and his tunic untucked. ‘’I sent Helaena back to her chambers.’’

That was fast, you couldn’t help but think. 

‘’We didn’t fuck,’’ he said bluntly, pouring wine into a cup, then a second — for you. 

‘’What do you mean?’’ 

Aegon handed you the other cup while taking a sip of his own. ‘’I didn’t put my cock in her cu—’’

You shot him a look, cutting him off. It was not what you meant. ‘’What of your royal duties? Your small council is demanding a new heir.’’ 

‘’I’ll give them one.’’ Aegon pulled you closer and pressed his palm over your empty stomach, right where a babe should grow. ‘’We’ll give them one.’’ 

The sincere look in his violet eyes told you he was not jesting. He would never jest about having children with you, he’s dreamed of it for so long. To see you beautiful and swollen with his babe. 

Your mother would be furious. She knew of your and Aegon’s adventures behind closed doors and warned you about the consequences of not taking moon tea after he spilled his seed inside you. The shame it would bring upon the family.  

‘’Aegon, we can’t—’’

‘’We can. I’m the King, I take the decisions now.’’ He caressed your stomach, imagining a babe inside. ‘’No more tea,’’ he murmured, pressing his forehead against you, repeating himself. ‘’No more moon tea.’’

‘’What of Helaena?’’ you asked, fighting the smile that was trying to curl on your lips.

Although Aegon didn’t share any romantic love for his younger sister — and neither did she —, to the eyes of the Sevens, she was still his wife. 

His lips turned into a grin. ‘’The Conqueror had two wives. I wear his crown, don’t I? I can too.’’

—

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[loveharlow]

SEVEN [SEASON 2] - 001

PAIRING ‧₊˚ JJ Maybank x Fem!Reader

SYNOPSIS‧₊˚[10.9k] A whole month after John B and Sarah vanish at sea and the remaining four pogues are in for a jaw-dropping surprise that flips their world upside down (or right side up?) and it looks like they might be finding a way to the Bahamas

WARNING(S)‧₊˚ swearing, mentions of death, mentions of firearms, graphic depictions of drowning, unestablished relationship

NOW PLAYING‧₊˚

A/N‧₊˚ woohoo season two!!

˗ˏˋ series masterlist ˎˊ˗

IT’S BEEN A MONTH SINCE JOHN B AND SARAH WERE LOST AT SEA. Nothing had been easy. At all. You hadn’t seen your mother since that night and you doubted she’d be eager to get you back home. You, Marley, and JJ had been holed up at The Chateau, honoring it for John B. 

You and JJ have been bussing tables down at The Beach Club to keep the lights on and the water running, making a return to Pogue life actually offered you some odd kind of comfort. It had to have been around half past nine when the two of you arrived at work, getting yelled at for simply walking in late, aprons thrown at your chests.

Serving rich folks wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Well, at least when those rich folks weren’t talking about your two deceased - presumably deceased friends. 

JJ was serving one half of the outdoor dining area as you tended to the other, both of you making your best efforts to keep your heads down as the guests badmouthed your friends.

“Of course it was a Pogue. Did you expect anything less?”

“He’s a murderer.”

“I’m glad he’s dead.”

Ever since John B and Sarah vanished, dealing with the pricks of Figure Eight had given you a much shorter fuse. Every other day — an argument with a customer here, a borderline fist fight there. It was as if all someone had to do was say or do the wrong thing at the wrong time and boom. 

And today was one of those days.

You took a deep breath, approaching Topper’s table with your notepad in hand ready to take their orders when the girl at the left edge spoke, voice laced with disgust for a boy she never knew. 

“You should be glad.” She directed at Topper. “John B got what was coming to him. And it saved them the expense of a trial…” She shrugged, sipping her mimosa as if the words that tumbled from her lips were casual. And they were. Casually cruel. “John B’s going to hell for what he did to Peterkin.”

Your notepad slapped against your thigh as you let your arms fall, head rolling to the side. Topper’s mouth opened immediately, noting your expression of annoyance as the table you were waiting on continued to converse as if you weren’t there or as if they had no idea who you were. “Guys, they’re still investigating…” He tried, laughing nervously.

“John B didn’t kill Peterkin.” You spat, eyes glued to the girl who took another sip of her drink, eyes fleeting before they came back to you, looking you up and down. She chuckled, stirring the small black straw around the circumference of her glass.

“There’s no need to defend a dead guy, sweetie.” She taunted you as if you were a child. “We all know your friend was a murderer.”

“You wanna see a real murderer?” You interrupted, leaning forward and planting your palms down in the wood of the table. “Take your Corvette down to Tannyhill and you’ll find two.”

Topper scooted his chair closer to you, laying a palm on top of yours. “C’mon, just…walk away.” You stood back up to your full height, snatching your hand from up under his with a look of pure disgust written on your face.

“Get the fuck off me, Topper.” You spat, the table rattling underneath your swift movements.

“Is everything alright over here?” JJ’s voice came from over your shoulder. You made no moves to look back at him, still glaring at the three assholes crowding the table.

“Your girl’s over here losing her shit.” Kelce chipped, always looking to pick a fight where he could. “Might wanna look into a leash. Maybe a muzzle, too-”

“The fuck’d you say?” JJ challenged, stepping out from behind you as Kelce rose from his seat. The two were toe to toe at this point.

“Now is not the time…” Topper tried, standing from his own seat but you blocked his path.

“Why don’t you sit down, Top?” You said, less of a question, more of a warning. The boy didn’t respond, simply looking down at you as he prodded the inside of his cheek with his tongue. As you two stared each other down, the other two boys got even more heated.

“Do something, JJ. Be a Pogue, man. That’s what got your friend killed, maybe you’ll get lucky-” Kelce’s words were cut off when JJ took a pitcher of water and threw it in his face, Kelce grabbing the blonde up by his collar as Topper went around you and attempted to intervene.

Within seconds, some of the older male guests pulled the young men apart. Raz, the manager, wasting no time in yelling both you and JJ’s names. The older, dark-haired man stood feet away watching the interaction occur. But he was never one to scold his high paying guests. 

You and JJ both nodded in his direction in silent agreement, reaching around yourselves to untie the aprons and shove them into the manager's chest. 

“You ready?” JJ directed at you. You simply grimaced and nodded, shrugging your shoulders.

“Let’s go.” 

With that, you both walked out of The Beach Club and into the parking lot where JJ’s motorcycle was parked. Halfway there, JJ’s heavy breathing stopped you in your tracks, looking to your left to see the blonde with a hand pressed against his chest.

He’d suffered from panic attacks here and there after everything that had happened. You’d been helping him through them to the best of your ability. He refused to tell Kie or Pope about them, you suggesting he do so in case they happened when you weren’t around, something you weren’t completely on board with. But it was JJ’s decision.

Setting a hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking, you rounded to stand in front of him. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah….” He breathed out, hand still on his chest as he shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s fine.”

“JJ.” You tried to ground him, stepping a bit closer. “Fuck those assholes in there, okay? They don’t know shit.”

“I know.” He nodded, gulping in whatever air he could gather in his lungs, shaking himself out of the oncoming panic attack. 

“Alright?” You asked, needing to affirm that he was okay. He responded nonverbally with a strong nod before motioning for the both of you to continue walking. Reaching the bike, JJ handed you the helmet he’d bought you, letting you mount the back of the bike as he slipped his own helmet on and threw himself in front of you.

You wound your arms around his waist as he started up the motorcycle, the vehicle jumping to life underneath you both as he sped off, not before letting the back tire dig a hole into the soil of the plants decorating the Club’s parking lot.

RETURNING TO KILDARE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL WASN’T EXACTLY ONE OF YOUR TOP PRIORITIES AT THE MOMENT. You didn’t exactly know what to expect when walking through the doors but you figured it couldn’t be that bad…

You figured wrong. 

You and JJ had just pulled up behind Kie’s SUV in your newly revived Ford Bronco, car doors slamming almost simultaneously as you all got out. Nothing had felt the same in the past few weeks. And you meant nothing. Walking into school used to be no big deal. Now it felt like a task to keep your head down.

Kie and Pope had been a few times since everything went down, so the kids were more focused on you and JJ.

The students gawked at the two of you like escaped zoo animals, pointing and whispering. Some not making any effort to conceal their gossip.

“I wasn’t sure they’d ever show up.”

“I heard they got arrested.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me.”

You heard Kie sigh heavily, trying to keep looking ahead. But looking ahead only made things worse. 

The school had this big rock that sat in the middle of the front yard. It was blank before, maybe save for some graffiti here and there. Now, it was covered with pictures of John B and all sorts of memorabilia. For kids who all thought he was some kind of murderer, they were quick to write his name in spray paint and take pictures next to a glamorized rock. 

“Think they had something to do with it?”

“They had to.”

Even now, the whispers and staring eyes were such a slap in the face. John B was everything to all of you and the audacity of all these kids who’d been going to school with you all for years to think you had something to do with anything that happened to him or what they were trying to say he did…

It made you so angry. 

“Fuck this.” You spat, hiking your backpack further up your shoulder. “I’m not staying here for this shit.” You declared, ready to turn on your heels and leave. You didn’t have to stay here and be these kids' mascot for the day. You’d take summer school over this. You hadn’t even taken a full step away before a hand on your shoulder was pulling you back.

You looked up to see JJ, glaring at him with squinted eyes and a hard expression “Don’t leave.” He pleaded, looking you in the eyes. “Six hours.” He said. “Okay, you just have to sit through it for six hours and we can leave, go back to The Chateau, make noodles and watch that reality show you love so much.” 

You stood there for a moment, not saying anything until Kie piped up. “He’s right. We gotta stick together.” You figured they were right. The four of you had already lost one friend. Better not to abandon who’s left.

You sighed. “...Okay.” You huffed. They all smiled smally. None of you had really smiled much anymore. But it gave you the smallest piece of hope that maybe one day everything would feel normal again. 

“...AND THE SLAVE BECOMES THE NEW RULER.” Mr.Sunn read aloud, back facing the class as you took notes, trying to avoid the frequent fleeting eyes of your classmates made it a lot easier to do your schoolwork than you thought. You could still feel the stares, but as long as you didn’t see them, you couldn’t get upset, which means you didn’t do anything “impulsive” as Pope put it. “Now, Diocletian splits the sprawling Roman Empire-” The teacher’s words were cut off by a chorus of phones going off at once, the chimes all similar to yours, Kie’s, Pope’s, and JJ’s. You knew for sure that one of them was yours, the desk vibrating underneath your hand. “-Into four separate kingdoms.” He finished, now facing the class, eyes scanning the room. “...Whose phone was that?” 

You remained silent, stealthily sliding the device off the desk as you sat your face in your free palm. “...Nobody?” The educator continued to press. “You will be tested on this.” He warned before nodding, turning back around to the chalkboard. “Now, who was Diocletian? An ex-slave who became the ruler of the Roman Empire…”

You leaned back in your chair as the man continued teaching, opening your phone to reveal a notification. 

Unknown Number

1 iMessage

You looked up at your friends, Kie the closest to you whispering. “Did you get it?” She asked all of you. You nodded in her direction. Who’d be group texting the four of you only? Sure, you had your fair share of trolls since everything went down, but nobody had said much recently. 

You and JJ shared looks, being the farthest two across the room, you both got out of your seats and crept quietly over to Pope and Kie, crouching in between the two. You all opened the text simultaneously, an image being the first thing to pop up. 

It made your heart stop. It was a picture of Sarah and John B. A picture you’d never seen before.

“Oh my God…” Kie whispered, straightening in her seat. You and JJ shared a look, being the first two to practically bolt out of the classroom, Kie and Pope lagging behind. You darted out into the hall, almost bum rushing a janitor.

“There’s no way it’s real, right?” You panted, trying to keep with the blonde as the other two caught up. “Right?” You asked again as the four of you burst through the doors to the courtyard.

“I mean, is that even possible?” Kiara added, skipping down the steps. “Shoupe said that they didn’t make it. That’s what he said.” She worried, throwing her school bag down on the nearest table. There were only two people out here, a couple minding their own a handful of feet away. 

You sat on the table top as you all crowded around one another, phones still in hand. “Maybe we’re overreacting right now ‘cause we can’t rule out the possibility that this could all be some kind of sick joke.” Pope said as he and JJ sat on a table across from you and Kie.

“What if it’s actually him, though?” JJ proposed, leaning his elbows on his thighs. 

“We'll never know unless we ask.” You said with finality in your voice, opening up the text thread and typing. 

You

Is this really you?

Moments of silence went by before you saw those three dots start to bounce on the screen. “He’s typing.” You perked up, eyes looking up from the screen for a moment when you heard the reply come in. 

Unknown

Is JJ there?

Your brows furrowed, looking up from your phone and instead at the blonde looking down at his own. You saw him typing with a serious expression written across his face.

JJ

I’m here Bree

Moments went by once more as the person on the other end typed, it felt like you were all waiting for a bomb to go off when your phones chimed once more.

Unknown

Did you pimp my shortboard?

Silence went by for a few seconds before you all chuckled, one after the other. The saddest yet relieved chuckles you had let out in the last month.

“It’s him.” You tearfully laughed out, throwing your head back to look at the sky gratefully for a brief moment. You could feel tears in your eyes but they weren’t enough to fall down. Bringing your head back down, you looked over at Kie, both of you sharing bright smiles and throwing yourselves into a hug. 

You released one another to go over to the guys. JJ had stood at some point and you couldn’t stop yourself from jumping on the blonde, wrapping your legs around his waist and arms around his neck as he held you tightly and spun you around, cheering. 

You couldn’t contain your watery laughter, still latching to the boy when one of your arms reached out to dap up Pope. You unwound yourself from JJ, the Maybank boy setting you down gently. Your noses brushed against one another as he let you slide down the length of his body, your breathing hitching for a moment before you backed away.

Your phones chimed again, another message coming through.

Unknown

Laying super low in Nassau

“How the hell did they get to the Bahamas?” Kiara inquired, browns pinched together as she stared at the text on screen. 

JJ just shrugged, a lazy smile on his features. “Can’t kill a pogue, dude.” He said gleefully, you and Pope laughing along. He had a point. Shoupe made it seem like John B and Sarah had zero chances of making it in that storm. But you figured his word was never to be trusted. Your thoughts were interrupted when your phone buzzed again.

Unknown

Can you clear my name? Wanna come home

You couldn’t do anything but roll your eyes, a sassy smile on your face. “Duh, we’ll clear his name. Is he joking?” You proclaimed. You’d torch the Sheriff’s Station if it meant John B could come home.

Unknown

Be in touch. P4L.

The four of you looked at the boy’s last text with smiles, JJ being the first to cheer. “P4L, man. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” He cheered, snatching the baseball cap off of his head. The blonde jumped up on the empty table, the three of you laughing at his display of excitement. “P4L, baby!”

THE FOUR OF YOU HAD DECIDED TO DITCH THE REST OF THE SCHOOL DAY,  going to the docks behind The Wreck. You were still kind of reeling. You don’t know how to describe the feeling of having someone you love basically come back from the dead, even if the dead part was only really in your mind.

“So, we goin’ to the Bahamas or what?” JJ asked, throwing his bag on the wooden bench as Pope and Kie sat down. 

The brown-haired girl scoffed, leaning back on her hands. “There’s absolutely no way we’re getting to the Bahamas.” She dismissed the blonde, shaking her head. 

“Well, John B is gonna get cuffed sooner rather than later.” You chipped in, standing with your arms crossed and eyes squinted from the harsh sun, the wind blowing your hair. “If we’re gonna clear his name, we have to do it, like, now.”

“I’ll tell you how we can do it.” JJ said, leaning over the wooden railing.

“Oh, you have it all planned out?” Pope poked, eyeing the blonde with a usual amount of skepticism.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” JJ stood up straight, in front of the three of you as if he was presenting. His usual level of theatrics returning in full swing. The thought made you smile a bit. “We kidnap Rafe.” That made your smile fall. 

“I’m sorry.” You waved your hands in front of you, a look of bewilderment written across your face. "What?”

“We kidnap Rafe, tie him up and stick the gun in his mouth,” He reiterated, using his hands to mimic a gun. “And just wait ‘til he starts squawking.”

“Y’know, under other circumstances, I’d be fully on board with that.” You shrugged, looking at the other two who looked at you just as shocked as they were looking at JJ. “What? What’d I do?” You asked, to which they simply shook their heads.

“You know, torture’s a war crime.” Kie informed, eyes locked on you and JJ specifically.  

“Yeah,” Pope added, agreeing with her. “So, how exactly do you plan to clear John B’s name from a prison cell? Because that’s a felony.” 

“Okay, well, what ideas do you two have?” You asked, shifting your weight and giving the two opposers the floor. 

“All we need is a material witness.” Pope put on the table. “We saw Ward’s plane fly right above our heads with the gold inside of it. He didn’t fly it. If somebody else flew, they were there on the tarmac. They saw Peterkin get murdered.” He explained, you and JJ both taking a seat as he continued on. “We just have to find whoever that was and get them to confess on record.”

Kie shrugged from her spot, her brown eyes on Pope. “How are we supposed to do that?”

Pope pondered on the question for a moment, head bobbing as he did so. “...A little light espionage.”

JJ smiled from his place next to you, sliding the baseball cap over his mess of blonde strands. “A little ghost recon.”

KIE TOOK IT UPON HERSELF TO DRIVE THE FOUR OF YOU DOWN TO THE PILOT’S HOUSE. It didn’t take much to figure out who he was — some middle aged white-man named Gavin, lived a couple miles out in a small house with his wife. You were all still on the road, still a good twenty minutes from your destination. 

“If this guy flew planes for Ward, he'd be pretty tight-lipped.” Pope said from the passenger seat, Kiara driving with you and JJ in the back. There was still a lingering cloud over you two but nothing that hindered the friendship. Or whatever it was now.

“So, then direct approach gets my vote.” JJ said simply, cocking back the gun you didn’t even know he’d brought with him. Although, you weren’t surprised.

“JJ, no.” Pope scolded him like a child. “Put the gun down, man.”

“We gotta keep this simple or else we’ll never get John B off.” 

“I agree.” You shrugged, eyes staring out the window as the trees passed by. 

“Not helping.” Pope reprimanded you as well. 

“Wasn’t trying to.”

“No guns, no violence. We’ll just simply tickle the wire.” Pope informed you all, holding an airpod between his fingers. “I plant my phone in his car, and then we listen in on your AirPods.”

Kie shrugged as she drove, both hands on the wheel. “Sounds like a solid plan to me.” The car pulling to a slow stop in front of the house. It was a decent sized home — two stories, a backyard, a garage, not any neighbors within walking distance. It seemed Ward had to have been paying this man well.

“I think this is his house.” Pope peeked out of Kie’s window to get a good look at the house, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Alright, uh, honk or yell or something if you see something suspicious.” He said, opening the passenger side door and getting out, crouching through the greenery to get around the house.

The car went silent as you all watched him disappear around the side of the house, JJ leaning back before speaking, his words directed at Kie. He wasn’t a fan of silence — no matter how awkward or comfortable. You’d noticed that over the years. “How’s it been goin’, Kie? Y’know, with Pope and all?”

“It’s good.” The girl replied shortly, not really able to see her face as she continued staring out of her own window.

“It’s good? All right…” JJ trailed off, tapping his fingers. You knew that meant another question was coming, a small smile making its way on your face. “In the bedroom, is he like, kinda freaky, ‘cause it’s Pope, y’know?”

At that, Kie turned around, looking between annoyance and disgust on her face that made you hold back a laugh. “Why are you asking?”

JJ just shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “I dunno. Just curious. Just spitballin’ here.” The girl simply turned back around in her seat.

“You don’t need to spitball.” She said, shoulders square. “We could sit in silence.” She suggested, staring back out the window once again. “Or we could talk about you two, since we’re spitballing.” Kiara threw out, the odd suggestion making you reel your neck back.

“What do you mean ‘talk about us’?” You asked, eyes fleeting towards JJ whose eyes were on you, the blonde taking a gulp and looking out of the window. You doubted he’d told Kie or Pope anything about what happened. But maybe he did?

Kiara just chuckled humorlessly from the driver’s seat. “Nevermind.”

You’d noticed Kiara’s odd behavior a few weeks ago. She kept dropping passive-aggressive comments as if she knew something but you’d chalked it up to John B and Sarah’s disappearance taking a toll on her. But there really was no excuse now. You’d wondered if you’d done something, but you kept drawing blanks. 

Just then, Pope jumped back into the vehicle, the atmosphere having shifted in energy. “Okay, phase one complete.” He panted breathlessly with a smile, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. Nobody replied or responded, causing the boy to look around the car awkwardly. “...We all good?”

THE SUN HAD GONE DOWN ODDLY FAST IN THE TIME YOU’D BEEN WAITING TO “TICKLE THE WIRE”. Pope figured it was best not to do it right away in case someone had seen him sneaking around the house. But almost an hour had passed and he was giving the green light.

“So, whose tickling?” The dark-skinned boy asked. “‘Cause I planted the wire so, someone else has to volunteer as tribute.”

“I drove.” Kie threw her hands in surrender, both pairs of eyes turning to you and JJ in the back. You rolled your eyes and grabbed the phone.

“I’ll do it.” You said, to which the blonde pouted and shifted in his seat.

“What if I wanted to do it?”

Your face twisted in a ‘are you serious?’ kind of manner before speaking. “Because you always try to disguise your voice as a woman and you end up sounding like a recovering female nicotine addict.”

“That is not true-”

“It is true-”

“I have a very lovely, feminine voice-”

“Guys!” Kiara shouted, eyes darting between the both of you. “Can we please focus?” You sighed and pressed call. The phone rang four times before it was picked up.

“Hello?”

“Uh- Hello?” You attempted in a deep, masculine voice that came out nothing like one. You decided to ditch the cover up and use your real voice. Clearing your throat, you spoke again in your regular voice. “Is this Gavin?”

“...This is Gavin. Who’s this?”

You looked around at the three people in the car with you, a second of hesitation. “I know what happened on the tarmac.”

The man on the other end let out a nervous chuckle, perhaps he was around people. “...Who is this?”

The first step was done — get him rattled. Now you had to let him know about the leverage, without letting him onto who you were. “I know it was Rafe Cameron who killed Sheriff Peterkin. And I know you knew about it and lied to the police.”

“Okay, who the hell is this? I’m not kidding around.”

“I have proof.”

“You’re gonna tell me who this is right now, or I swear-”

“You could’ve saved Peterkin, Gavin, and you didn’t. You chose not to. And you’re not getting away with it.”

“Listen to me!”

“None of you are.”

“Who is this?! Who-” The man’s yelling was cut off when you ended the call, heart pounding wildly against your ribcage. You sat the phone down on the center console, leaning back into your seat.

“Was that okay?” You asked, an air of uncertainty to your tone, hoping you didn’t say too much.

“Yeah, that was perfect.” Pope assured, JJ giving you a high five. “All right, we tickled the wire. Phase two complete. Now, we wait and listen…” He explained, pulling out the airpods. He was about to put both in when you stopped him.

“Give me one.” You said with your hand out, palm up. “I tickled the wire so I should get to listen, it's only fair.” Pope shrugged, seeing no flaw in your logic as he gave up an airpod. Gavin’s headlights shone through the bushes just as you put the airpod in.

“All right, here he comes. Stay down.” Pope whispered, all four of you sliding down in your seats. Gavin’s car drove by, all of you straightening back up as his car disappeared behind  Kie’s. 

“He didn’t see us. Hit it.” JJ declared, Kie putting the car into drive and following Gavin as stealthily as possible, but close enough that the bluetooth would work. Within a few minutes, you and Pope could hear from the inside of Gavin’s vehicle.

“Call Ward Cameron.” His voice boomed through the earbud, phone ringing echoing out next. 

“What’s happening?” Kie asked, head whipping between Pope and the road, JJ’s eyes were glued to you.

“He’s calling Ward.” Pope said shortly, trying to focus on listening. The audio was muffled and borderline inaudible, you were only able to make out a few words.

“The audio is bad. Kie, you need to get closer.” You said, hand on the back of the driver’s seat.

“I’m trying.” The girl assured, accelerating the vehicle in the slightest. The closer she got, the clearer the audio came in. 

“I need to be paid more, alright?”

“You need to stop and think very carefully about what you’re about to say here, okay,” Ward’s voice emerged. “Because I have treated you very well. And I can’t figure out why I should give you one more damn penny-”

“I’ve got something that could put you away for life, Ward!” 

“What are you talking about?”

“I…I’ve got the gun, Ward, that your son used. I have it. I know you told me to get rid of it but I know how you work. So, I kept it.” You and Pope shared a look of astonishment, not going unnoticed by the blonde next to you.

“What? What is it?” You turned your attention to him.

“Gavin has the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin.” You told him, voice low as you continued listening.

“Somebody called me, okay?” Gavin continued, frantic and talking a mile a minute. “People are onto me. Somebody knows what’s going on.”

“Gavin’s trying to use the gun as leverage to get more money out of Ward.” Pope concluded.

“Nobody is onto you. There’s nobody that knows anything. Somebody is just screwing around with you, you just gotta calm down.” Ward tried to coax the man. 

“I want triple and I want the plane.” Gavin told Ward, conviction in his voice. 

“I can’t do that.”

“I don’t care.” Gavin cut him off. “You have to figure it out, I’ve got the gun!”

“Shit, he’s pulling over.” Kiara panicked, the SUV slowing in its movements. “Do I pull behind him? What do I do?!” 

“Just go around the block.” You commanded quickly with little thought, hopefully you'd still be able to catch most of the conversation.

“I want the money, now. You need to meet me tonight.” As Kie passed Gavin’s truck and made the first turn around the corner, the airpods went static, no more audio passing through.

“I can’t hear anything. I’m losing the signal.” Pope warned, tapping the earbud as if that would make it work. And as if things couldn’t get worse, Kie’s car pulled up to a ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign, rendering you unable to go around the block as planned.

“What the hell is this?” Pope exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat.

“I’ll just back up and turn around.” Kie stuttered, putting the car in reverse right before a construction truck blocked the path behind the car. Luck was not on your side tonight, you guessed.

“Fuck it.” You muttered before jumping out of the backseat and booking it through the grass, JJ calling your name the loudest as the sound of another car door slamming was heard in the distance, Kiara then calling out for Pope. 

You booked it through some poor family’s backyard, triggering their motion sensor lights as you hopped the fence into the next. This time, interrupting some kid’s idea of a pool party. 

“Hey, Y/N!” A girl’s voice called, you looking to the side to see a brunette girl — Samantha from your history class. You gave her a quick smile and wave, nearly tripping over your feet as you did so. You could hear audio again right as the squad of kids disappeared from your sight, stopping in the middle of an unclaimed patch of grass as Pope skirted to a stop next to you, sliding.

“Gavin, you can meet me now at the construction site near that surf shop. Do you understand?” Ward’s voice crackled through. “You bring the gun, I will bring you your money. And then we’re done.”

“Yes, okay. I’ll, um, I’ll see you there.” Then the call was ending and Gavin’s truck was driving off. You took the airpod out of your ear just as Kie and JJ caught up to the two of you, both out of breath.

“What?” JJ said, throwing his hands out and stepping closer. “What’s that look?”

“He’s meeting Ward like, right now.” You told them enthusiastically. “We gotta go. Now.” You instructed, walking up to him and patting his shoulder before running back in the direction you came. “Now!”

THE FOUR YOU FOLLOWED GAVIN TO THE MEETUP SPOT WITH WARD. Some old surf shop off an old street, fairly unoccupied considering a lot of the buildings were being renovated. It was pouring cats and dogs and Pope had some old-timey camera he was using to look at things from afar.

“Nice camera, where’d you dig up that relic?” JJ jabbed, raindrops making his hair stick to his forehead, despite the baseball cap on his head. “Why not just use your phone?”

“Well, first of all, I like my antique electronics.” He sassed back at the blonde, face concealed by the black and blue plaid hood he had over his head. “Secondly, this is a telephoto. It allows me to get a close image from far away.”

“Lord of The Dorks.” Kiara joked.

You shrugged, tugging your own hoodie farther over your head. “Gotta hand it to him. It’s comin’ in hella handy now.” Just then you spotted the unmistakable figure of Ward Cameron running down the road in the rain, large bag in hand. “There he is.” You pointed out to the others.

“Yo, get down.” JJ whispered, the four of you ducking further below the wooden fence you were hiding behind. “There’s Gavin.” JJ pointed just as the man in question came jogging in from the opposite direction, both men entering the empty construction site. 

Pope stood his full height again, peeping through the camera. “Where are you going?...” He said to no one in particular as the two men disappeared within the building. “No, no, shit. I’m losing them.” He scolded, retracting the camera from his face. “We need to get higher.”

“I think I saw a fire escape back down the alley. Think it could get us to the roof?” You informed, licking the rainwater from your lips. 

“Better than nothing.” Pope replied, the three of you scurrying to follow your lead to the rickety fire escape you’d spotted minutes ago. As you expected, it got you high enough to see more clearly within the unfinished structure, a clear outline of two shadows from where you stood.

Pope wasted no time in kneeling behind the wall, camera to eye as you all waited for him to say something. “Okay, I can see them.” The anticipation was killing you, nothing but the sounds of rain and thunder while you waited for Pope to notice anything, anything he could take a picture of and give to the police.

Even though, admittedly, you weren’t sure the cops were on your side after everything that happened. Shoupe considered Ward a good friend, so whatever you gave him better be damn good, or at least good enough for him to look into Ward himself.

“I wish we could hear.” You threw out, still waiting for Pope to say something. 

“Ward just handed Gavin something. I think it’s the duffel bag he had with him.” The boy finally spoke. 

“Guys, I think this a payoff.” JJ voiced his thoughts. You simply scoffed.

“Of course, it’s a payoff. But do we really think Ward is just going to give into blackmail? He has to have something up his sleeve…” You suggested.

“...Gavin doesn’t look happy about something.” Pope perked up, zooming the lens in even further. “He’s yelling at Ward.” You could see the silhouette of the men, the larger one pointing harshly at the other. Within seconds, it looked like the two men were fighting. “Shit…”

“What’s going on?” Kiara demanded to know.

“I dunno,” Pope replied frantically trying to steady the camera with their rapid movements. “It looks like they’re fighting over something. Ward’s kickin’ the shit out of Gavin…”

“What is it?” JJ asked, the question on the tip of your own tongue.

“Can you see what they’re fighting over?” You piped up.

“No, I…” Pope stuttered over his words, watching the men continue to fight like dogs before the smaller shadow, who you guessed to be Ward, threw Gavin into some kind of structure, his body hunched over in pain, it seemed. “Holy shit. Ward’s got a gun, he just took it off Gavin.”

“Probably the one Rafe used to shoot Peterkin.” You concluded, crouching closer to the edge as rain obscured your vision. Silence filled the rooftop, watching the two men from afar. It looked Ward was walking off until he stopped in his tracks, his figure turning around in one swift motion and shooting Gavin point blank. You audibly gasped, crouching behind the wall completely as the others followed suit, Pope letting the camera fall from his face in shock.

“Oh my God!” Kie whisper-yelled. “That did not just happen.”

“Pope…” JJ croaked, recovering from his shock as Pope edged back up the wall, putting the camera back in front of his vision. “Tell me you just got that.”

Pope nodded. “Enough to put this asshole away for life.” He said, still looking through the lens. Ward’s figure suddenly stepped out of the structure, looking straight and nearly catching the four of you before you all ducked. It looked like he was looking for something. The thought of him seeing you didn’t instill as much fear as you thought it would, almost like you wanted him to.

“I think we should go now.” JJ suggested, the four of you getting up before Pope spoke again.

“Hold on, he’s coming out now.” He told you all, watching Ward’s figure roam the flooded streets. “I think he’s looking for the gun.” He said curiously, the remaining three of you watching with naked eyes as Ward crouched over a sewage drain. “I think the gun just went down the drain. He’s trying to get it…”

“Hold this,” Kie threw her bag in you and JJ’s direction, the pair exchanging a glance as she stood up on the edge, cupping her hands over her mouth. “Murderer!” Your eyes went wide as you and JJ attempted to pull the girl down back behind the wall. What was she thinking? “What is wrong with you?! Killer!” You and JJ managed to successfully pull her down, the girl shrugging both of you off.

“The fuck’s wrong with you? That doesn’t solve anything or help us, at all.” You scolded, angry at the girl's impulsiveness. Lord knows what could’ve happened if he saw you all. And who's to say he didn’t?

“I don’t care if he hears me. He’s a murderer.” She spat back.

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure the murderer knows that he’s a murderer, Kiara. And I don’t think he really cares.” You retorted. “What? You want him to murder us next?”

“Guys…” Pope straightened, removing the lens from his vision once more.”He sees us!” He whisper-yelled. 

“Are you serious?” JJ said, shooting a brief annoyed look at the brown-haired girl. “C’mon, we gotta go.” He instructed, Pope being the first to run down the fire escape, followed by you, JJ, then Kie. You don’t know what happened but, somehow, on the way down, JJ bumped into your back, which caused you to nearly fall on top of Pope, which caused the boy to drop the camera — the device taking at least a ten-foot tumble to the ground. 

“No, no, no…” Pope cried, bolting down the last flight of stairs, picking up the camera out of the mud, which was now in pieces.

“Are you kidding? You fumbled it?” JJ threw his hands out, the boy with the broken camera in his hands whipping around to face you. 

“Y/N pushed me!”

“I didn’t push you!” You argued back, annoyed. “JJ bumped me!”

“Kiara was rushing me down the steps!” JJ defended himself, the three of you turning the girl in question.

“I was trying to hurry!” Was her excuse. Just then, you saw a figure coming down the alley, still too far to be able to see any of you. Hopefully. Instinctively, you grabbed JJ’s wrist and dragged him as you ran.

“He’s coming!” You warned, the four of you jumping over a brick wall and running to where Kie had parked, wasting no time in jumping into the SUV. Sodden clothes sticking to the seats, an unwelcome chill coming over your soaked bodies. 

“Can someone fill me in on what the fuck just happened?” JJ nearly screamed, Pope letting out an angry groan. “Holy shit, I can’t believe it. Wait, what were they fighting over?” The blonde asked, leaning over the passenger seat to look over at the camera in Pope’s hands.

“It was a gun, the one Rafe used. Gavin kept it.” Pope muttered, attempting to get the camera to work again.

“God, pick up, pick up, pick up…” Kie cried from the driver’s seat, all heads turning to her.

“Who are you calling?” JJ asked, face twisting. 

“Who do you think?!” The girl spat back tearfully, thumbs pressing incessantly at the screen.

“The cops?” You asked incredulously.

“Who else am I supposed to call?!” She yelled towards you and JJ in the backseat.

“Why would you call the police? That’s Ward!-” JJ reminded her.

“He has the entire Sheriff’s department in his back pocket! What makes you think that’s a good idea?-” You reprimanded her. 

“Shut up!” She basically screamed at the both of you as an operator picked up. All you could do was sigh. What makes Kiara think she can make decisions for the whole group? Especially with something like this. As if the police didn’t help to run John B into a storm that got you all into this mess in the first place… “Hi, hello? Someone’s been shot at the Grand Street construction site! You guys need to hurry ‘cause he’s dying, I don’t know if he’s already dead or not!”

You just sighed, sliding a palm down your face as she practically screamed at the operator before ending the call. “Okay, well, we can’t just stay here. We’re sitting ducks!” JJ pointed out.

“What do you want me to do?” Kiara cried, looking around the car. 

“Just drive!” Pope told her, the girl changing gears and speeding away from the crime scene.

 

“LOOK, IT WAS RIGHT HERE. THIS IS WHERE THAT MANIAC CLAIMED HIS NEXT VICTIM.” Kiara tried to explain to Shoupe, who’d of course been the one to respond to her 911 call. He’d insisted on taking us to where the “alleged incident happened.”. You simply leaned against a wooden post, letting her rant about crime to a man who would never believe the four of you until the day pigs flew. 

“Right…” Shoupe dragged on, eyes peering at the four of you individually. “And how long ago did you say this happened?”

“Like, forty-five minutes ago.” Kiara estimated, throwing her arms out in confusion. 

“‘Kay…” Shoupe nodded, writing something down in his notepad before looking back up at you all. “And so, Ward Cameron just popped one off and shot him? Execution style?”

“I mean, not exactly execution style,” You jumped after not saying much of anything the entire time, shrugging. “But I digress.”

“And he cleaned it all up in forty-five minutes?” Shoupe asked, a look of disbelief shining through his eyes.

“Yes.” Kiara insisted. “We filmed the entire thing.”

This made the Sheriff perk up. “You filmed it?” He inquired. 

“Yes,” Kiara sighed. “But we can’t show it to you because I rushed JJ down the steps and he bumped into Y/N and she fell into Pope then Pope dropped the camera and it…broke.”

“But we, we were there and we’re witnesses-”

“So, the dog ate your homework?” Shoupe sighed, planting a hand on his hip. 

“No, Shoupe, I know how it sounds-” Kiara pleaded, looking up as she spoke.

“Look, I don’t know what you kids expect me to do with this!” Shoupe scoffed, shaking his head at the four of you. 

“Your job, maybe.” You sassed from your place against the wooden beam. “But I, for one, barely expected you to do that.”

“You four dragged me out here in the middle of the night for nothin’.”

“No, it’s not nothing!” Kiara continued to fight.

“Except for some crazy stories about how Ward Cameron’s out on a random killin’ spree!” He explained.

���We’re not makin’ this up!” JJ jumped in. 

“It’s not a random killing spree.” Pope backed him up. “Gavin was his pilot. He was paying him hush money because he was on the tarmac the day Peterkin was killed, he saw everything.”

“Gavin was blackmailing Ward because Gavin kept the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin.” Kiara added on, using her hands for emphasis.

“He called him here and tried to pay him off but it wasn’t enough so, he shot him. With the murder weapon.” JJ concluded, Shoupe listening to each of their testimonies. You, on the other hand, figured it was pointless. The police would never help out pogues, even if it came at no cost. Ward had Shoupe wrapped around his murderous little fingers.

“...How do you know that?” Shoupe asked the teens.

“Pope did this thing with his phone, he put it in his car and-” Kiara was cut off when Pope explained for himself.

“We heard their whole conversation,” He motioned between himself and you. Shoupe then pointed between you and Pope.

“Y’all wiretapped him?” He interrogated. 

You simply shrugged, looking at Pope then back at Shoupe. “Is that bad or?” Shoupe simply held up his palm.

“Stop. Just stop.” He warned, pointing at all of you. “I’ve had enough.” He concluded, eyeing you all once more before walking off. You let a humorless laugh, pushing yourself off the wall. You expected nothing less. Or anything more.

“You’re just gonna look the other way again?” You shouted after the older man, the four of you trailing after his figure that was going down the steps.

“Why would we make this up?” Kiara whined, trailing behind you. 

“Why can’t you believe us for once?” JJ shouted, heavy combat boots making the most noise against the unfinished wooden steps. 

“All right, there’s nothin’ up there!” Shoupe told his guys as he exited the construction site, the extra deputies and officers piling back into their squad cars and turning their lights off. “False alarm, let’s all go home.” He said, walking towards his own police vehicle, the four of you still hot on his tail.

“What’re you gonna do when his wife comes looking for him? Huh, Shoupe?” You pressed the officer, watching as his hand touched his car door before he turned to you all, a cautious hand outstretched in front of him to keep you all at bay.

“Hey,” he said in a warning tone. “I know you’re upset and I know you think your friend was innocent-”

“He is innocent.” You said with finality, lowering your gaze.

“-But you weren’t there.” He said. “The only actual witnesses who are above ground say the exact opposite. And both of them have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you, right now.” His eyes drifted towards Kiara. “I saw your little art project on Ward’s wall.” He told her. “Do not do that again. Gonna make things a lot harder for both of us...” He advised, opening his car door and getting in. “Go home.” He waved the four of you off as he shut his door and drove off. 

“I told you this would happen.” JJ scolded Kiara, snatching the baseball cap off of his head as you and Pope walked in front of the two. “Like, you’re the one that had to drop the camera.” He turned his attention to Pope, who paid him no mind. Kiara, however, did.

“It was your fault!” She told the blonde, turning to face him.

“That was my fault?” He asked, unbelievably. “Why do you always take his side?”

“Oh, the same way you always take hers?!” Kiara spat back, prompting you to turn on your heels. 

“What do I have to do with this?” You asked, pointing towards yourself. “You’re the reason the camera's broken!” You threw at Kie. 

“Guys...” Pope tried to no avail.

“And of course you come to his defense! I wasn’t even talking to you!” Kiara retorted, throwing her arms out at her sides.

“I was coming to my own defense, thank you.” You sassed back.

“Guys!” Pope tried once more, all of your angry eyes snapping towards the boy. “We’re not out of this yet.” He told you three, turning back and looking down at the sewage drain in front of his feet. “We can still go get the gun.”

“WELL, IT’S NOT IN THE TRASH, SO…” JJ breathed out, throwing the last trash bag from the drain onto the ground. It was the next morning and the four of you didn’t waste a second of sunlight before heading for the creek where the drain let out. The boys had spent the last hour pulling trash bags out of the drain while you and Kie searched them with no luck. 

“It’s gotta be in the storm drain, then.” Pope concluded, taking deep breaths with his hands clasped on top of his head. 

“Of course it is.” Kiara scoffed, shaking the messy bun on top of her head. “So, what’re we gonna do? Play rock, paper, scissors?” She suggested, throwing her arms out to her sides. JJ retrieved a crowbar from his bag that he’d insisted on bringing before the two of you left The Chateau. He and Pope pried the crate over the drain open as Kie continued talking while you fanned yourself, the Outer Banks sun making you sweat bullets. “Or, like, oldest goes first?”

The boys groaned as the crate opened wide enough for one of you to fit through, standing up straight and panting, JJ spoke. “There’s this worm down there — it gets into your blood and has to come out through your pecker. So, that would be a hard pass for me.” He declared his stance, eyes squinting from the sun as he adjusted the cap on his head. 

“That’s gonna be a no from me, too.” Pope raised his hand with the other on his hip, staring down at his feet. 

“No, I get it,” Kie smiled mischievously. “You guys are scared.” She mocked.

“Okay, why don’t you go in, then?” Pope threw out. Kiara just shrugged, looking away from the group.

“I just spent an hour digging through trash, so,” She informed, pursing her lips as her eyes drifted to you, the other two pairs of eyes following her lead. You immediately threw your hands out, letting them slap your thighs.

“For the record, we both spent the last hour digging through trash,” You retorted, squinting your eyes at them. “But since you’re all a bunch of pussies…” You taunted, holding your hands up in surrender as you walked to the entrance of the drain, the three of them protesting behind you.

“Woah, now…”

“I just don’t want pecker worms.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Wouldn’t want y’all getting pecker worms, right?” You assured, getting on your knees as they hit the little puddle of water seeping from the drain, the dark tunnel staring you back in the face. The smell of the drain was already wafting up your nose. “Gross…” You muttered, shaking it off.

You didn’t waste any time crawling forward on your hands and knees, water splashing after each step. “And hey,” JJ’s voice sounded behind you before you got too far, looking back to find his face. “Just, uh, be careful. Alright?”

You looked the boy up and down for a moment, not judgmentally just observantly. You never noticed how blue his eyes actually were before now, or how his eyes resembled those of a puppy when he was genuinely worried. Realizing you’d just been staring, you swallowed and nodded, “Got it. Can’t lose any more pogues, right?” You joked, sending the blonde a wink before turning back around and continuing your crawl into the drain.

The drain smelled of rust and something reminiscent of stale cannabis. Although your frame was small enough to fit through, it was still pretty tight. You made your way further in, inch by inch, loose change and sticks scraping at your arms and legs. You’d had to have been crawling for a couple minutes by now.

“See anything?” Pope’s voice echoed into the pipe.

“Nothing yet.” You called back, coming up on the catch basin. You dragged yourself out of the tunnel, now sitting in at least six inches of rancid drain water. Above you was another sewer crate, allowing the sun to give you some light.

The water wasn’t exactly clear enough to see through, especially with all the soda cans and plastic floating around on the surface. Using your hands, you felt around the bottom of the basin — everybody knows a gun when they feel one. But all you felt was what seemed like rocks, pennies, and lost keys. 

Some long, twine-like structure started to wrap itself around your fingers and your face twisted, lifting your hands to find someone's hair intertwined between your hands. “Ew, ew, ew…” You shook off the hair into a different section of the basin, shaking the disgust off and resuming your search.

All of sudden, you felt something large and hard, grabbing it in both hands. “I think I found something!” You called, lifting the object from the water, but it was no gun. 

“Is it the gun?” Came Pope’s voice but you were too busy inspecting the object — it was heavy, smelly, hairy, and… bloody. Extremely bloody, you couldn’t contain your yelp that came out more like a scream. 

“Oh my- ah, fuck!” You exclaimed, letting the thing fall from your hands back under the water. 

“Are you okay?” JJ’s voice traveled through the drain. “What is it?!”

“There’s something dead down here!” You yelled back, now backed up against the ladder that led up to the drain exit. 

“Don’t touch it, that’s how you get worms!”

“It’s a little too late, J!” You called back, hands slapping against the water in annoyance as you regained your composure. You were about to put your hands back under when your shoe slipped against something in the water. Your brows furrowed, kicking the object around for a moment. “Dear Jesus…” You prayed before reaching your hand back down and picking up the object from under the water — revealing a gun, dripping with water.

You let out a breath of relief, a small smile on your face as you twirled the object around in your hand. You could only hope it was the right gun. Something told you to inspect it — A Colt Rail Gun, serial number starting with 18J.

“Did you find the gun?” Kiara asked. “Y/N, did you find the gun? Is it Gavin’s?” You gathered your breath to respond when something in the way the water moved changed. The water startled to gurgle, the waves moving rapidly — someone was flushing the storm drain.

“Shit,” You cursed, the water getting warmer and more aggressive the more it came your way and you knew it was only a matter of time before it started to rise and you knew you didn’t have nearly enough time to crawl back the way you came. “Guys, the water!” You warned in a panic.

“Dammit! Y/N, get out of there, now!” JJ’s voice boomed over the gurgling of the water. 

“I can’t, there’s no way out!” You told him, you figured your best bet was the sewer opening above you. You hoped by some grace of God that it’d be loose enough for you to push it up. So, you tucked the gun into the waist of your shorts before climbing up the ladder, the water attempting to push your body back through the exit. 

You swore you could hear your friends calling out for you but there was nothing you could do but try and get them to where you were. Reaching the top of the ladder, you pushed and pushed to no avail. The metal wouldn’t budge.

Out of pure frustration, you started banging on the metal grate, the water below you rising by the second. “Help! Guys!” You screamed at the top of your lungs before fitting your fingers through the openings in the grate, wiggling them in the hopes that someone would see or hear you. “JJ! Guys, I’m over here!”

The water was at your chest when you saw what looked like three figures hovering above the sewage grate, a familiar set of fingers brushing against yours just as the water touched the base of your neck. “We’re gonna get you out!” JJ told you, all three of their fingers going through the opening as they attempted to pull as you pushed.

Your arms ached as you used all of your strength, the water touching your chin as you tried to keep your face as close as possible to the opening. “The water’s coming up, guys, come on!” You wailed right before the water went over your head, submerging you underneath as it came up through the grate. You held your breath and continued pushing before you felt the grate open, wasting no time in basically jumping out of the sewer and landing on the street.

You coughed up water, laying on your stomach before pushing yourself up to sit on your knees. You felt two strong yet lanky arms wrap themselves around your shoulders, pulling you into someone’s chest as you caught your breath. “You alright, princess?” JJ’s voice asked next to your ear. You couldn’t help but chuckle through a cough, pushing him off of you playfully, even though one of his hands remained on your shoulder.

Looking up, you didn’t miss the looks of suspicion on Kie and Pope’s faces but you ignored them, leaning back on your arms. Reaching around to the back of your shorts, you pulled out the gun, holding it up like a trophy. “Look what I found.” You taunted with a breathless giggle, wiggling the firearm around in the air. 

Pope and Kiara cheered, smiles on their faces. “Oh my God! Holy shit!” JJ exclaimed, a boyish grin on his face as he pulled a bandana from his pocket and grabbed the gun from your hand gently. 

“You actually did it!” Pope praised, dapping you up. Kiara outstretched a hand to help you up that you accepted, swaying on your feet slightly from dizziness. JJ must’ve noticed, planting a palm on the base of your back to hold you steady.

“Let’s get this baby to Shoupe.” He instructed, still giddy as he threw an arm over your shoulder, pulling you into his side as the four of you walked back to the car. 

“Y’ALL ARE TELLIN’ ME THAT THIS IS THE FIREARM RAFE CAMERON KILLED PETERKIN WITH?” Shoupe inquired, leaning back in his desk chair. You and Kiara sat in the two chairs across from him while Pope and JJ stood on either side of you. JJ had presented the gun to Shoupe — the firearm sitting clean and dry on the man’s desk.

“That’s exactly what we’re saying, Shoupe.” JJ started.

“And it’s the exact same firearm that Ward just used to kill Gavin.” Pope told the man, slamming his hand on the wood of the desk.

Shoupe stuttered over his next words, letting out a sigh before speaking. “And where’s that body again?” 

“Didn’t you check?” Kiara asked, an air of pity in her voice.

“I checked the hospital. I went by his house. He was out.” Shoupe nodded as he spoke, almost as he was trying to get himself to believe something.

“Well, of course he was out, Shoupe.” You piped up, still cold and damp from the sewer water. “He’s dead.”

“Just because he’s not in his damn house does not mean he was the victim of a homicide.” The officer told the four of you, lips curling in frustration. 

“You gotta be kidding.” JJ scoffed, shaking his head and he snatched the hat off of his head. 

“Are you even gonna send it in for ballistics ‘n shit?” You asked, leaning forward in your chair. “Or are you just gonna sit on your ass and continue to pin a murder on a kid who you know didn’t do it?” You pressed, voice biting.

“He’ll sit there and wax that mustache.” JJ taunted, throwing a hand out in the man’s direction. 

“I’ll wax your-” Shoupe stood up from his seat, chair scraping against the floor as he pointed in JJ’s direction before Pope and Kie chipped in, in sync.

“Shut up, JJ!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt his feelings?” JJ mocked as Shoupe made his way over to the door of his office, swinging it open.

“Get out. I got work to do.” The Sheriff ordered, motioning his hand outwards for the four of you to leave. “And y’all are smellin’ up my office.” 

Kiara was the first to leave, pushing herself up from her chair and approaching the man at the door. “Did Ward pay you? This doesn’t make any sense…” She said sadly before leaving the office and walking out of the precinct. 

“We brought you the murder weapon,” Pope spoke, walking towards the door. “There’s no logical reason for you not to turn it in.” He suggested and warned at the same time before leaving, leaving just you and JJ left.

You stood up from your seat, scoffing as you and JJ walked towards the man. “Protect and serve, my ass.” You spat, looking the man up and down as you walked out, JJ right behind you.

“You ain’t gonna do shit.” JJ taunted, walking closely behind you as you both left. 

“Out!” Was the last thing Shoupe shouted behind the pair of you as you exited the precinct. 

YOU CAME OUT OF THE BATHROOM AT THE CHATEAU FEELING A LOT CLEANER THAN WHEN YOU WENT IN. You had on an oversized shirt of JJ’s that you’d stolen some weeks ago, a towel wrapped around your head to keep your wet strands from dripping onto your shoulders. Marley greeted you warmly within seconds.

“I know you aren’t actually happy to see me again,” You told the animal, scratching behind her ears as she pawed at your thighs. “You liked it better when I smelled like sewer water.” 

The retriever just panted, mouth open as she cuddled into your legs, appreciating the scratches. You looked up to find JJ sat on the worn couch in the living, eyes on the pair of you. You made your way towards him, Marley following close behind as the nails on her paws scratched against the wood. She hadn’t been properly groomed since you left home — you brushed and bathed her as you could here and there, but you were too cautious to go near her with a pair of clippers and razor for fear of hurting her on accident.

Taking a seat next to JJ, who’d taken a shower before you, you noticed the look of frustration on his face. Kie and Pope had ventured off after taking the two of you home. You nudged the blonde’s shoulder with your own, gaining his attention with a cocked eyebrow.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” You asked, unraveling the towel from your hair. You tried to remain casual. It hadn’t been hard to communicate with JJ after what happened between you both, but it was definitely different.

“We’re running out of options.” JJ sighed, running his fingers through his messy blonde strands of hair. He was shirtless, only in a pair of shorts he slept in regularly. “If we can’t clear Bree’s name-”

“We will.” You affirmed, the boy's eyes connecting with yours. “You know, I don’t know if you remember,” You started, fiddling with your hands in your lap, a small smile on your face as you spoke. “But my dad, he was a really, I don’t know…spiritual guy, I guess. He was really big on karma.” You explained. “He always believed that even if we couldn’t give people what they deserved that the universe would. That’s how he taught me to never lie as a kid, made me believe that his punishment couldn’t be worse than the one the universe would inflict upon me. That if I didn't take accountability for my mistakes on my own, the universe would find a way to hold me accountable. His form of punishment was just yelling and then ice cream anyway, but still,” You told him, both of you laughing softly.

“...All I’m saying is that even if we can’t clear John B’s name, Ward and his psychotic son will get what they deserve.” You said with finality in your voice. At that, JJ smiled.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess that makes sense.” He lightly agreed. 

One glance at your phone had you realizing how late it’d gotten. Gathering your towel and phone, you stood from the couch, JJ’s eyes following your frame. “I should probably get some sleep. You, too.” You yawned.

“See you in the morning?” 

You nodded, about to turn and head for the guest room that was technically his when something urged you to stop. Turning around, you took two swift steps and leaned down to peck the blonde on the cheek softly. “See in the morning, J.” You didn’t stick around long enough to catch his reaction, whistling for Marley to follow behind you, but you could’ve sworn his cheeks were bright red. 

next chapter>

feedback is appreciated! thanks for reading.

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©loveharlow.

[captainx-camino]

I'm about to be the Internet's most hated person again but, uhhhh...I'm a chronic over analyzer, so, deal with it.

So, Jeremy - and here me out on this - wasn't the cold-blooded murder kid the movie wants you to believe he is.

*insert shocked and horrified reaction here*

Yeah, that one will do....

Anyway...

Okay, so first of all: Jeremy's parents are AWFUL.

His father is clearly an abusive drunk and his mother is clearly a traumatized beaten wife who makes excuses for her husband's abuse.

Jeremy wasn't lying about what his parents were - we can see that through their behavior when they're shown and by small clues in the background of the shot.

His father probably became abusive due to feeling he could no longer fulfill his role in the household and succumbed to drinking to patch his depression.

His mother probably took the brunt of this, causing her to fall into fawning and do the only thing she could do to keep the household together. A very common response to domestic violence is to dote on the child in an aggressively overbearing way - which we see her do.

Additionally, the only person we learn of the incident from is the 'Karen' of the town - who states the boy was bad news. But was he really? Or was he a troubled child dealing with severe abuse at home and escaping into himself?

Was he a 'bad kid'? Or was he just different?

(There are some other points but I have like 10 min to write this so you get what you get.)

Personally, one of the things that really drove home for me that Jeremy wasn't the monster he was made out to be is how he died:

You want to tell me that this "cold-blooded killer" went to his treehouse to hide from the cops after committing his awful crimes? That doesn't sound like some crazed murderer to me - that sounds like a scared child running away to the one place he felt secure.

Which he still does, by the way. As a fucking ghost who has now been trapped in his living nightmare with the two people who probably abused him for 20-some-odd years.

With the given evidence, I shall construct you a possible alternative series of events that makes far more sense than his simply killing his parents...

-Jeremy comes home from school, his dad is already in a mood.

-Mom is baking in the kitchen in an attempt to forget the throbbing in her right eye

-Someone, possibly Jeremy, makes an offhanded remark that unintentionally triggers his father.

-The situation escalates with Jeremy becoming the target of his father's aggression this time.

-the father, already several sheets to the wind, goes after Jeremy in a fit of rage.

-the altercation continues, eventually ending up with Jeremy and his father tussling in the garage.

-Jeremy grabs at his father's abandoned tools in an attempt to protect himself and lands a hit, killing his father.

-Jeremy's mother, a victim of abuse herself, is too traumatized to react appropriately to the situation.

-Because her coping mechanism is to fawn, she reacts negatively towards Jeremy.

-Her first reaction is to scream and panic, asking Jeremy what he has done and believing that he has ruined their family that she has worked so hard to keep intact.

-Her defensiveness causes her to lash out at Jeremy and attack him.

-Jeremy is once again forced to defend himself, knowing no other way of fending her off.

-this altercation also ends in a defensive strike towards his assailant with another convenient item within the room the attack took place.

-After the incident, Jeremy, a child, quickly realizes that he is going to be in trouble.

-Jeremy's first instinct upon hearing the approaching police sirens is not to flee custody, but to hide in his childhood treehouse.

-When authorities inevitably find him and coax him down, he slips, breaking his neck instantly.

-This untimely demise causes him to be stuck in the world of the living with no other contact besides the people who neglected and abused him, causing him to become desperate for escape.

-That desperation was answered by the single person who was able to see him in 20+ years and Astrid just got caught in that crossfire.

I'm gonna say it now because I know how y'all are: This post is not to justify what he did to either of his parents or Astrid. It is simply what I have gathered ACTUALLY happened leading up to Jeremy's death and his possible true motivation to return to the world of the living outside of "ooooOOOOOOoooo so he can KILL AGAIN~" which is frankly just boring.

You don't have to believe it. I am not saying this interpretation is canon.

It's just what I picked up on watching the film.

Do with that what you do.

[angel-of-the-moons]

The Ghost and The Relic

Merc!Ghost x Fem!Soul Survivor!Reader

TW/CW: Chem usage, raiders, slavers, murder, executions, child death.

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: Depending on how much I like this or how many people like this I might continue this but god I need to get this out of my head lmao.

☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀

It'd been four years since he took up this kind of work. Three since he'd joined up with the old man.

It was his idea, really, to form their little "Task Force" and roam the Wasteland, performing jobs here or there for settlements, providing temporary security and escort details for caravans...

But Simon "Ghost" Riley had a thought. Several, actually. But they all muddled together after a while, especially around his "team".

Their whole team, a rag-tag group of "soldiers" from all the way in the Mojave to managing, by sheer dumb luck to come ashore with their families from another goddamn country.

Ghost's family was one such case; they'd apparently immigrated 75 years after the Great War from someplace called London. He didn't care much about it, or his family, given how shit a hand he'd been dealt.

His father, the abusive sadistic bastard that he was, had fucked up his younger brother so badly that he himself turned to chems and booze, almost killing himself in the process.

Ghost had rejected that path, convinced his mother to leave his father, and they took his recovering brother and moved into a new shack he and a few of the other residents of their small farming settlement had built and they settled in there. Ghost took up a job in the local militia, defending their homes and settlements; and he became a terrifyingly good shot.

His little brother got clean, stayed sober, and married the girl from a neighboring farm. She was a good match for him and they both loved each other immensely. And it was to their small unit's great joy when they mentioned they were going to have a baby.

A baby boy. Joseph. Their mother was thrilled.

But it all came crashing down, eventually.

Thanks to the old rat bastard.

Raiders slipped right through their defenses during the changing of the watch, in the dead of night when the farmers were all tucked inside their homes.

They'd taken Ghost's farm first, nabbed him on the way down the dirt path to their shack and drug him to their camp, locked him in an old shipping crate.

He didn't know how long he'd been there, or how long he had been tortured... all he knew was that when he finally got free, their settlement was almost razed to the ground, the majority of the militia dead, women taken for sport.

And his family?

Dead. Well. His mother, brother, and sister-in-law anyways. There was still hope for little Joseph.

When he'd gotten to the meeting hall (or what was left of it) he found his father bound and beaten by the settlers, so tweaked out on jet and psycho he didn't even feel any of the pain.

He'd ratted them all out for some fucking chems, like the narcissistic, sociopathic junkie he was.

Ghost had suited up in the best scrap armor they had, bagged provisions, packed loaded weapons and plenty of homemade throwing knives, and set off to find Joseph and the others that had been taken as slaves.

He didn't even look back when he heard the gunshot from inside the hall.

He tracked them for days, maybe longer. He wasn't sure. All he felt was an all-consuming drive to get his nephew back, to save his former neighbors.

But he was too late. He found Joseph's crumpled little body beneath that of a partially nude woman, one he faintly recognized from the settlement, but not enough to recall her name as the haze settled in over his skin.

All he saw was red. Red, like the blood covering that poor, tiny, fragile body.

He moved in the dead of night, creeping like a spectre as he executed every raider and slaver he came across. He shot some, stabbed or slit the throats of others. One he left with his voice box slashed, another with their liver hanging out, both still alive as they bled to death in their dingy tents.

It took him less than an hour. A bunch of jet-addicted starved fools was nothing against Simon Riley and the black rage that swallowed him up.

He'd killed them all.

He led the surviving captives back to their settlement, along with the dead they could recognize, and then burned the camp.

Ghost cradled Joseph against him, swaddled tight in a ratty, blood-stained blanket.

The whole trek home, all his mind would think about was how tiny Joseph was. How he'd carried him like this multiple times back to his own bed after he'd curled up at their fireplace with their pet dog. How he carried him as a baby, and a toddler...

And now, he had to bury him alongside his parents and grandmother, and their beloved pet.

Simon Riley wasn't... he wasn't dead. But he wasn't alive either.

He was like a walking corpse.

A Ghost.

And his name became apt when he'd assumed that moniker (mostly due in part to the skull balaclavas he'd wear. The most intimidating one being the one with the actual skull attached to it...).

He moved like a Ghost, wandering aimlessly, performing jobs.

Then, he met the old man.

John Price, former NCR ranger, before he decided to retire early and leave. Well, more like he went AWOL.

Price was convincing in bringing Ghost into his makeshift military outfit.

There was Alex Keller, a former Great Khan that Price had picked up after his splinter tribe had been killed by his own former allies, the New California Republic.

Then there was Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, a Brotherhood of Steel scribe who became a soldier over a mission that went FUBAR, and left his chapter to travel with Price and his growing "unit".

Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, a rather peculiar man with a fondness for explosives who somehow managed to get close enough to Ghost to actually be considered a friend. He had been a Gunner, but left them shortly after he realized that he wanted to do good, not just work for caps.

And finally, there was Kate Laswell. Part of a small surviving group of something called the "Enclave" Price had explained what their group was at some point, but none of them particularly cared.

For the first time in what felt like a lifetime Ghost was... Content. He had a purpose, no longer wandering aimlessly, part of a unit. A task force. "Task Force 141" Price named it. Apparently it was a nod to the unit he originally was assigned to as a young recruit for the NCR.

Very few of them focused on their past lives, they'd lost so much in their travels, in the shit order they'd been born in. There was no reason to think about all that, now.

After all, past is the past, is it not?

Not entirely, as Ghost came to find out.

Once they'd gotten through the remains of what used to be "New York City" back before the Great War (now it's simply called New Necropolis, given it's dessicated state, and it was strung tight with "death zones".

It wasn't until they moved a bit East that Ghost suggested they set up a permanent base of ops.

He suggested Boston, Massachusetts. It seemed like a good idea, supposedly riddled with Vaults they could repurpose, military checkpoints they could loot for scavenged gear...

Price surprisingly agreed to send him alone, like he asked. Ghost didn't want to risk the other members of his "family" on a possibility he may be wrong.

But... Ghost was rarely wrong these days.

Especially about the past staying in the past...

☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀☢️💀

He'd managed to trek to a ruined neighborhood surrounded by creeks and a river, by the looks of it, emptying out into a large lake with several other tributaries connecting.

Sanctuary Hills, the old, overgrown sign told him it was. Yeah, maybe 200 years ago, it was a sanctuary. But then again, maybe it could be again. A lot of the houses were still intact. Plenty of scrap metal, wood, etcetera.

Put up some reinforcements on the remaining structures by cannibalizing parts from the ruined structures, build some fences, plant a few crops for provisions, stockpile weapons in the cellar behind that one house...

What he hadn't anticipated on was a Pre-War Mr Handy, still futilely standing watch over his previous owner's house.

He took offense when Ghost set up his sleeping bag in the yellow house across from his master's, citing that it was "impolite" to assume the house was uninhabited.

Judging by the dusty skeletons lying in the back bedroom, yeah. It was uninhabited, save for the radroaches and bloatflies that took a liking to the "idyllic" neighborhood.

That damned robot harped non-stop, although the water it purified for him was something he was grateful for, his yammering certainly got on his nerves.

"Oh, you should have met Sir, he was a soldier too, you know! A rather polite chap, loved the Missus and their baby boy! Oh, how I miss them." The robot sighed, sounding almost wistful.

Could robots feel emotions? He'd yet to meet one that did.

But then again how long had this robot been alone, exactly?

Apparently, he remembered when the bombs were dropped. So, a very very long time. Ghost tried telling him his masters were probably dead by now, even in the safety of their "Vault" he couldn't get into. It's been 200 years.

"Look, bot..." Ghost sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose through his mask, setting his hammer down on the table.

He'd been trying to fix up the yellow house for a few weeks. He'd managed some work, namely the roof and larger holes, obviously. Codsworth had even been kind enough to help with the cutting and the welding, just glad to be of service to someone who didn't shoot at him.

"I'm a little busy, here. So if you want to get nostalgic, save it for when I--"

His eyes went wide and he went deathly silent when he heard some kind of alarm blaring across the hills. Very faint, but it was a completely alien sound from the ones he memorized from the area.

He'd grabbed his pistol, and immediately started for the trail leading to Vault 111.

Which... is where he met you.

Dressed only in your blue vault suit, with a Pip-Boy secured to your wrist, you stumbled down, blinded by the sunlight and delirious from being down there for... well.

You'd collapsed against him and Ghost grunted, deciding to carry you over his shoulders back down to Sanctuary.

He noticed a glare in the distance, like the glint from a pair of binoculars, but he paid it no mind.

The moment Codsworth had laid eyes on you, the robot would not. Shut. Up.

He kept chattering on, almost blubbering, actually.

"Oh! Oh, it's the Missus!" He'd declared, obviously confusing you for his owner, long dead...

"Oh, but where is Sir and young Shaun! Oh, why is she alone! Where are the others?" Codsworth lamented dramatically.

Ghost waved him off, checking your vitals and looking at you for any injuries.

You had none. In fact, you were perfect. Your skin was clean, spotless and pristine, unmarred by radiation or scars.

He'd been silently looking over you when you awoke in the dead of night, Codsworth busy purifying excess amounts of water, apparently finding an intact bathtub to fill, so you could have one when you awoke. Or for cooking, or drinking... he didn't really care.

He was so lost in his curiosity of the one thing he'd never seen before: you. A Vault-Dweller, that he didn't register your eyes opening, long, clean lashes fluttering as you blinked, adjusting to the dimly lit room, only illuminated by a single oil lamp.

He'd set up his spare sleeping bag for you to use, while you were unconscious.

He was honestly taken by surprise when you screamed at him; scrambling back in the opposite direction.

Oh. Right.

The mask.

Yeah, it made sense why you were freaked out. Not a lot of Vault-Dwellers were probably rocking skull masks as the latest fall fashion craze...

"Listen." He'd growled out, fixing you with a soft, yet stern glare. Ghost was not without his mercy, and he understood that this new world must have been terrifying for you.

"My name's Ghost. Not gonna hurt ya. What's your name?" He said, sticking his hands up in a non-threatening manner.

When you'd uttered your name, his eyes widened visibly. It was the same name that Codsworth had said. Could be a coincidence.

That is... Until you told him about being frozen. For 200 years.

"I... I woke up, when..." You said, your voice breaking apart to cough, your mouth unreasonably dry.

Ghost had moved to kneel in front of you, handing you his old, dented canteen to drink down in a few gulps before wiping your face with the back of your hand.

"Oh god." You cried softly. "They killed him! They took my baby!"

Ghost's ears instantly perked up, and his own past flashed in the back of his mind before he pushed it aside.

"Who did?" He pressed.

"I don't know. Some... Some guy. A guy with a scar, and a gun, he... There was a woman in a radiation suit, then the man... Nate, he..." Your voice broke off in a choked sob.

He felt pity and sympathy for you after you'd given him bits of information.

And when Codsworth came doddering in to investigate your screams, Ghost knew you were legit.

You were his owner.

And you'd been frozen for 200 years inside an ice box; your family ripped away from you by some cruel force.

After a tearful reunion and the viewing of a highly emotional holotape, Ghost watched as you silently walked back into what used to be your home.

He gave you your privacy to acclimate (kind of) into your new "life", until he decided that some things needed to be said. You couldn't be emotional in the wasteland, that got people killed.

It could get you killed.

So Ghost decided to follow after you, where he found you on your knees in front of your baby son, Shaun's, crib, clinging to a slightly rotted rocketship that was once connected to the mobile that dangled above.

You clutched it to your heart as you sobbed quietly at the horror of it all.

What had the world become? How could you, a former lawyer, survive this?

Ghost cleared his throat and straightened his posture in the doorway, looking at you in the dark. The moon was full, casting dim cool shadows through the holes in the structure.

"I know this 's hard for you." His gravelly voice dragged out with each slow, deliberate step he took towards you.

He had to take it slow, like you were a wounded animal.

'Hnh. Not that far off, actually.' He thought.

"But you got'ta understand. You need to learn how to survive here, now. If you don't, you're as good as dead."

"What's the point?!" You snap, standing to your feet and tossing the plastic rocket at him.

It bounced harmlessly off his barreled chest and clattered to the floor.

"I don't have my son, I don't have my husband, I don't have my family!" You said through fresh, hot tears as your anger and grief rose to the surface.

And just like that, the flames died, and you flickered out, deflating into more quiet cries as you stood, defeated.

"I have nothing."

"Not true." Ghost said, shaking his head. He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "You got a bot out there that's been making water for you for bloody hours, now just so you can take a bath. He's still here, and he's been waiting for you all this time."

You looked at him, eyes glassy and oh-so hurt, but you let him continue.

"And you have your little boy. Somebody stole him." His eyes flashed in the darkness of the room, a glint only illuminated by the moon's light, taking more steps to you until he was face-to-face with you, looking down at you.

God, this man was terrifying.

"And you're going to get him back."

"What...? But--but how? I'm just... me! I was a lawyer, for God's sake!" You blathered.

"First thing's first: you learn to survive." Ghost told you bluntly. "Then..."

He reached into the holster on his chest and slapped a pistol into your hands, the weight almost as hefty as the one you felt settle onto your shoulders, and into your heart.

"You learn to defend yourself. You need to learn to shoot."

He turned to walk away, gesturing for you to follow with a jerk of his head.

"C'mon, then. Let's get to it." He grunted.

"Right now?" You stumbled as you followed him out into the ruined street. "It's past midnight!"

"No time like the present."

You couldn't tell, but you were certain this man was smirking at you behind his mask.

"Hey... what's your name?" You asked him as he began to line up old cans and bottles against a rusted car.

"Name's Ghost, like I said. Now, lift the gun and aim down sights. Don't pull the trigger. Squeeze it."

"What does that even mean?" You asked, taking aim as he stood beside you, still as a statue.

'Still as death.' You thought sardonically.

He grunted again, his voice coming out an annoyed growl:

"If you want to survive, you'll learn what it means. Now, keep both eyes open..."

[papakhan]

I think it would be weird if Boone didn't view the faction who enslaved his wife as a problem lol. Not an NCR defender by any means but I genuinely think you're just willfully ignoring a bunch of stuff just because you hate Boone

First off, why are you even here? I'm the Khan blog of course I hate Boone. If you don't like that, don't be here. It's not hard. This is your free invitation to block me.

Second. You're taking me in bad faith if you think what I said was "I want Boone to be okay with the Legion" like of course I fucking don't. Please bare in mind that the post you're responding to literally said "obviously doesn't justify the things they do but its worth thinking about" yknow. I'm saying these are things WORTH THINKING ABOUT in a narrative.

Here's what I was getting at: Boone's Biggest character flaw is how he's completely unable to view his enemy as people. This is something that has been drilled into him by the NCR and is the reason why his biggest ~trauma~ besides murdering his own wife is murdering dozens of children and unarmed civilians. He even says himself that all Khans are dangerous and that doesn't matter if they're kids. He has completely dehumanised them in his mind and made it so in his head it's okay to kill them because of that.

So yeah of course I'm pissed that there's no way to challenge this mindset in him. And then after sitting through his sob story I have to watch him do it to another group of people.

The soldiers in the Legion are all victims of the Legion, they're all slaves, and they were all once child soldiers. No, this doesn't absolve them of the heinous shit they've done. Of course it doesn't I'm not a fucking moron. But the Legion's victims go on to create more victims, it's a cycle.

The "we're just a couple of problem solvers" is just glossing over how siccing him on the Legion camp like a rabid dog is just enabling his worst trait, which is killing indiscriminately. We SEE small children in Legion soldier gear running around the Fort. They have CHILD SOLDIERS actually IN THE FORT. THAT YOU SEND BOONE TO MURDER. and I'm sorry but I cannot imagine a universe where he doesn't just blow their fucking brains out because LEGION UNIFORM BLAM BLAM

Again, this is just in a narrative bubble. I know that it's just a silly video game thing to go kill everyone at the Fort but maybe I like thinking about things as a narrative rather than a video game? I don't know?

[sailorsenshishitposter]

Main MGR cast as parents

This started off as a shitpost but by the end I realize I kind of just made it realistic and probably started venting. Not saying which but some of these are based off real events.

I would like to say "You're fucked." on all of them but that would be cheating so I guess this will be best to worst.

Raiden: He already is a father so that puts him way ahead of everyone else. You probably won't see him around much due to "work". Seems like the kind of guy to feel bad about it and then spoil you when he returns. You don't know why he's so secretive but you grow up thinking that he's a spy.

Samuel: His father was murdered while he was young and he hasn't moved on from it. Would probably keep thinking he's going to fuck everything up and worries about you being able to defend yourself. He trains you the same way his family has done for generations and makes sure that you become a skilled fighter. Would tell constant dad jokes.

Armstrong: You'll rarely ever see him and when you do then it will most likely be your family being together in a televised event. Expect to grow up with many security precautions like needing guards while travelling (should he become president) and you'll probably be expected to try out for collage football. At least he makes the mother of all omletes though.

Mistral: She has extra arms that would be helpful with caring for a baby (feeding, changing, rocking etc.). She killed the guys that murdered her parents so she'll probably kill anyone that tries to get close to you. You don't get to complain about not visiting grandma's like everyone else or she hands you a knife and makes you learn how to stab a swarm of dwarf gekkos.

And we have a tie for worst. Sundowner and Monsoon.

In no particular order

Sundowner: Let's be honest. You were probably adopted because let's face it. Who's going near this man and surviving? He picks you out of the rest because he sees all your anger issues and thinks it will be like having his own mini me around. He will encourage you to fight and get bloody even if it's from something as small as squashing a bug to shanking another child on the school yard with a pencil. It doesn't matter to him. After all kids are cruel and he wants a worthy successor that he can mold.

Monsoon: How the he'll did this guy end up becoming a father? You aren't really sure how you ended up existing but that doesn't really matter. It's a similar situation to Raiden but worse. This guy used to work for the mafia so expect to grow up with body guards so that you aren't kidnapped or killed. He'll take his limbs apart and put body parts in your pocket and then complain about a toddler being afraid of him. "Why are kids so weak?" Will be serious one moment probably disociating and then make a joke about memes. Fails to realized that trauma is also passed down genetically meaning you're pretty much fucked.

[devflamme]

BRUTUS.

Summary: Simply, young Nicholas Scratch fucking around and finding out.” (that's literally what I wrote on the google doc.)

Warnings: Religious themes, child abuse, talks about parenting, Agatha being fucked up, literal murder and then resurrection, violence, the normal™

Word count: 1,6k+

Note: I wrote this purely based on a leak from the Agatha series that will release next year. This is not canon, never will be, if it ever is canon, I want credits for it /J. Also based on the song Brutus by The Buttress, as I am obsessed with this song for so many years now. By the way, I haven't started reading the comics yet, I only know Nicholas Scratch by what I've read on his wiki and Agatha's. Another thing: English is not my first language, if you see any typos, please tell me and I'll fix it!

On AO3: 🔮

The boy could feel his mother's eyes on him. Piercing through him, hurting his feelings, hurting his heart — his little boy, going through her things like a little rascal. Has she not educated him enough? She was gripping his ear scoldingly, her long and curly black hair swishing around his forehead while all the things the little boy could see and hear was her blue eyes, shining with that purple aura he always were afraid of, and her voice - booming through his ears and making him cry and whimper like a lost puppy.

"I'm sorry, mother! I'm sorry!" He would scream. He would wail. He would plead.

"You're not sorry. Nicholas, you're not sorry." She would grit through her teeth, her smile scary and making little Nicholas Scratch shiver in fear. His mother was strict, the strictest of them all, while mama was so loving. Mama was sweet. He was a mama's boy, as mother would call him. The biggest mama's boy — pathetic and weak, as Rio would just defend him for anything wrong he did when he looked at her with those big eyes and pathetic pout. He wasn't strong enough. He never will be strong enough in Agatha Harkness' eyes. "Why did you touch that damned book? What's wrong with your head?"

"I was curious, mother!" Nicholas wailed, tears going down his face in angry streaks. Agatha was carrying him through the wood cabin, towards Rio, who was at the basement mixing up potions. Another weakling. Too much interested in potions and nature to be strong and able; the Darkhold used to whisper to Agatha about how her wife was pathetic. About how her son was pathetic. "I was just curious. The book... The book was calling out to me... I h-heard my name..."

Agatha stops in her tracks, almost dropping the boy down to the hardwood floor. She looks at Nicholas, who was still crying profusely, his face red and face puffy, some snot in his nose. "What? What did you say?"

No. That shouldn't be possible. He wasn't- He couldn't. He was her son, obviously — But... How? How could he be worthy? At such a young age?

"I heard my name... I thought you or m-mama were calling me... So I searched for you." Nicholas answers, his voice small and broken, hiccuping through his sentences. Nicholas dries his tears with the back of his chubby hand, looking up at his mother and looking for some softness in her eyes. He didn't find any. "I went into the- The library. I thought- I thought you were there. But it was only that book you told me n-not to read... I only touched it once! I'm sorry, mother!"

"We can't have that. I told you to not touch it. I told you to not even look at it." Agatha rasps out, her eyes closed and her breath uneven, as if she was controlling herself to not do anything she would regret afterwards. She felt like God, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from Heaven. "Why did you disobey me?"

"I'm sorry! Please, mother, forgive me." Nicholas whispers, gripping Agatha's dark robes and hugging Agatha, his tears staining Agatha's linen clothes. She looks down at Nicholas, her eyes shining with her purple magic, but she could also feel another thing. Darkness. The darkness from the Darkhold's magic — the thing holding her from committing one of the biggest mistakes in her life.

"Nicholas, can you come with me? I want to show a place to you."

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Agatha didn't want this.

She didn't want to be a mother - that was Rio's dream, not hers. Her dream was to get even more powerful, to find ways to decipher that one damned book, and to just conquer everything. She didn't have time for this. For a child.

The first time she saw Nicholas, she knew he wasn't going to be the best kid. The most intelligent. The most powerful. He was just a normal kid, with his eyes green and curious like Rio's, his curls rebellious like Agatha's, and his chubby hands that loved to play with the wet dirt in the forest next to the family's cabin. He was, most of all, curious and nosy. Nicholas loved to snoop on Agatha's things, to watch while Rio brewed her potions and made her rituals in the cabin's basement — he wanted to learn, but he wasn't going to learn anything. Agatha created a futile heir, so futile that she didn't want her surname, Harkness, powerful and almighty, to be related to that child. Nicholas Scratch it is — only a scratch of what Agatha wanted him to be.

As they went into the dark forest, hand in hand, Agatha was growing tired of hearing Nicholas' sobs, pained as Agatha squeezed his tiny hands in hers, her own boney and scarred and most of all, corrupted. Corrupted by the very thing that was convincing her to do that — to sacrifice her own... creation. Her own vessel. To get stronger. To finally achieve what she wanted.

Power.

"M-mother, where are we going?"

Agatha didn't answer. She threw Nicholas on the wet grass, next to a big boulder that was covered in mud and moss. She flicked her wrist, taking out the Darkhold of the pocket dimension she created to store it in. As Agatha pulled the Darkhold, in a cloud of dark purple and black magic, Nicholas started to cry louder, his weeping making the birds on the trees fly away to somewhere they knew they wouldn't be hurt by the monster in the woods.

O mihi potestatem. Propitius esto, et intende conatus meos ut hoc tibi do.

Agatha would whisper, her eyes closed and sparkling purple through her eyelids. She lifts her wrist, her whole body sparkling purple, the noise and Nicholas' pained screams echoing by the until now silent forest. She looks down at the body in front of her, now lifeless and cold, dry and dead — just like that one damned day in 1693, where she looked down at the dead bodies of her coven members and coven leader. She couldn't call Evanora her mother - a mother wouldn't do what she did with Agatha. Her own daughter. Her own blood.

No mother would.

Brutus betrayed him.

Brutus killed him.

Brutus sacrificed him.

As he got up and looked around, he saw a forest covered by snow and darkness. How much time passed, he couldn't say. He didn't know what date it was — and yet, he knew exactly where to go. With his body full of hatred, Nicholas Scratch got up, feet weak and unsure, as he got used to the bigger body he now had. He was now an adult — what his mother's magic did to him, he didn't know. Only thing he noticed was now he had an adult body and the mind of a troubled kid who wanted nothing but to avenge what was done to him many, many years ago.

His hair was long just like his mother's. Curly and unruly, getting past his lower back in a mess of black and some white strands — he was literally a portrait of the one who betrayed him. Nicholas had nothing in common with his mama, the one that really loved him for what he was; only the troubled green in his eyes that contrasted with the weak green from the leaves that were not covered by the thick snow. Nicholas couldn't even feel the cold, piercing through his body. He was blind. Blind by hatred, sadness and by the desire of revenge.

As he marched through the forest, his feet unsure, he pulled strands and strands of his hair, hissing through his teeth. He didn't want this. He wanted to rip every part of his body that reminded him of Agatha Harkness. He could cut his head off, then give it to some wild bear to eat, together with his own body and skin and meat and soul.

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

He ripped a tuft of hair from his head, looking at it being held by his trembling hand. Nicholas growls, throwing the tuft out in the woods and running — running in bare feet as he gets out of the woods. He could see an old cabin, full of moss and broken, the wood chopped and glass shattered. His family's old cabin.

Nicholas runs even faster, getting to the door and just throwing his body against it, the door falling on the other side of the cabin in a loud thud. He gets up from the floor, looking around in an exasperated manner, his eyes crazed and twitching. The state of the cabin was chaotic — things on the floor, dust in the air. He could still smell the darkness and electricity from Agatha's magic, contrasting with the familiar scent from Rio's magic, calming and misty. He knew that the magic that stayed in the cabin wasn't recent - if it was recent, there would be the magic aura mixing together, purple and green. There was nothing.

"Mama?" Nicholas rasps out, his voice gravelly and throaty. He walks through the cabin, going straight to the stairs that went to the bewitched basement below him. He jumps to the last step, his feet almost failing and throwing him to the ground as he holds himself on the wall. Nicholas enters the basement, the basement looking even messier than the rest of the cabin. Nicholas could see some dried blood stains on the walls - that made him almost puke, thinking about what Agatha did to Rio.

Mama can't be dead. She can't. She can't. She can't. She can't. Nicholas would chant, his hands holding his own head while he walked around the basement, looking for anything that could be proof that Rio was okay. Anything.

Nicholas screamed his mother's name, hatred dripping from his tongue, his voice echoing through the walls.

© devflamme.

[xtinyslip]

"THAT WE HAVE. WE HAVE INDEED." nodding her head. the peace that they actually wanted may not have been within their reach yet but they'd make do. they'd take their stolen moments and they'd persevere this was something so small but she was actually looking forward to it. the two of them having this little piece of the day just for each other. "… he's doing it again." it may not have been to her but just having to hear and repeat those words out loud. frankly, it made her skin crawl. they couldn't sit back and allow this to happen to another kid. "gideon be more murderous than me?" she shouldn't have chuckled but with their past? really? besides, better to comment on what she could chuckle at than how the idea of being REPLACED was still a crushing feeling. regardless of whether she wanted anything to do with her father again or not. it still was but that was a weakness this situation wouldn't tolerate and so she pushed it aside. "gideon wants to help us. we need to give him the correct incentive in order for him to do so." was she going to pick now to tell parker that she had BONDED with her brother? that she spoken in great depths with him? well, from the tension building because yes, she knew her husband… she was deciding that might not be the best idea right now. "you threatened to burn his house down with his child inside? i wish i had been there to see the look on his face. bet it was something, hm?" oh, she could argue back. in fact, she was more than capable of giving as good as she got but… did she want too? with him? not particularly. "it was time to act and why would i have ANY interest in not telling you this? i'm aware of what STATE i have been in. i wanted to share when i knew i actually had something to contribute." cecilia felt like she'd done FUCK ALL in the last few months and yes, perhaps that's because she was constantly recovering but she kept telling herself ; she should have pushed through it harder. she should have made this happen quicker. oh, that made her rise from her chair. angry more at herself than him, not that she was sure that it showed in the moment. the keeping shit from me, like you did before. it was that comment, that comment was what had made her rise from that chair and because -- FUCK. was she really still that same shitty person? "that wasn't what it looked like to me at the time. i was always going to tell you, i wanted it to come from me. not fucking cory. I AM SORRY." it was hard to say and not because she didn't mean it, but because she wanted to lash out straight back to defend herself. "i saw them. his meetings with edgar." the ones that were supposed to be private. she held no loyalty to cory but even her voice was quieter with that. she wished she could have said she enjoyed them but no, it had actually been… fucking disturbing. "it's going to take more than some made up magic pills from my father to set that right." the state cory had been in after finn had murdered his family? she wanted to believe that slate didn't get wiped clean because finn said sorry. "i trusted the only person who can get this done, how i want it done. how we need it done." simply. cecilia was stubborn, she wasn't going to give him space because frankly ; they'd had enough space and she didn't want too. moving next to where he was standing, her back resting against the balcony so that she was facing him. "it's coming whether we wanted it or not. it was always coming. he's going to find out and i need to be in CONTROL of how that happens." because there was a part of her that was fucking terrified, terrified and she hated herself for it. "i didn't mean to be a self absorbed bitch about it. i should have told you, i really am sorry." reaching out, hand moving to his arm,.. @fcdcdmcmories

".. AND SOME GOOD WINE OR A BEER OR TWO OR SOME OTHER GOOD DRINK, BUT.. YOU DID MARRY A VERY GOOD FORMER BARTENDER, SO.. I CAN HANDLE THAT MUCH. JUST US, THIS VIEW AND SOME PEACE. WE'VE EARNED THAT, HAVEN'T WE?" it felt as if they hadn't done anything except fight and be separated from one another or run from pederson and he was ... so tired of it and it seemed as if it wasn't going to be stopping anytime soon. but then again .. what were they, if not used to stealing these small moments with one another? a sad thing to admit, but .. for years, that had been all that they had HAD. hadn't they? shaking his head. "he's doing it again. in his sick, fucked up and twisted mind, he thinks that he's getting back at you by replacing you completely with a shinier, brand new, more likely to be as murderous as he is VERSION," he knew pederson's way of thinking like the palm of his hand at this point and the man had always been as petty as he was fucking messed up. right? he was doing it to get back at her, as if what he had done already wasn't enough. "can you? because if he didn't kill edgar himself, he saw and knows who did. HE GOES TO COURT? THAT'S IT. YOUR FATHER WINS. FOR GOOD." didn't she see that they had to do whatever they could in order to make sure that did not happen? ".. to scare the little fucker shitless, in a if you don't help us, i'm going to burn your house down with your kid inside of it way, but apparently, i shouldn't have bothered, considering you were doing something else entirely? OH, AND HE WAS ALL TOO HAPPY TO SHARE WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A WELL KEPT SECRET, BUT.. HEY. JOKES ON ME FOR BEING THE FUCKING IDIOT ONCE AGAIN." he took two steps backwards and away from her for a second and.. yes, he knew that he couldn't mask the hurt on his face. "WILL TOLD YOU? BEFORE HE GOT ARRESTED? YOU MEAN... WEEKS AGO? you-- all this time, you knew something this big and you didn't tell me? so we're back to this, then? GODDAMN IT, CECILIA. the secrets? the lying? the keeping shit from me, like you did before? what happened to we do this together? was that something only i got or..?" hurt? yes, he was, because.. he hated that his mind had gone to that place again. the one it hadn't been in for so long. the one that left him wondering WHAT ELSE was she keeping from him now? what else was he about to get told by someone else? ".. he doesn't know. if he did, we would have known. he would have done something. torn that cemetery apart. he'd want to see it for himself. AND NOW? NOW, YOU JUST HANDED HIM THAT INFORMATION ON A SILVER PLATTER, BECAUSE.. GUESS WHAT? if you had told me? i could have told you that he and your father have never been closer, because apparently, he saved his life. he's alive because of his little magic pills, so.. you trusted the wrong person, it seems." he took the bottle of wine that had been left abandoned and took a very long sip. he couldn't LOOK at her right now and so, he moved to lean against the balcony, looking off into the city. what could he even say to any of this? didn't she trust him? was that it? "as before, i was the last. he won't do it. he's a coward and he did what cowards do -- HE RAN. he'll gladly watch us all die just to save his own skin. hasn't he walked out on you enough times? what makes you think you can TRUST a man like that?" @xtinyslip

[xsarcasticwriterx]

Wonderwall- part 9

TSummary: bucky learns of what truly happened the night of Tony's party.

Warning: Angst to all fuck, mild fluff at some parts but pretty much angst

Pairings: Stucky x reader, Tony x reader

Notes: heeeey im back againnn

Masterlist

The world felt as if all time stopped. As if all oxygen had been removed from the plane of existence. You were so far gone you couldn't even process the yelling around you. "y/n!" you finally snapped at the yelling of your name. Bucky stared daggers at you. "what happened when you talked to tony at the party?!" he yelled. you opened your mouth which felt as if someone stuffed cotton in your mouth. "I demanded he tell me why he wouldn't talk to me. He said you'd kill him-" you were cut off. "damn right i am" and bucky launched towards tony, steve being the hero he is jumped straight into action pulling bucky back. "buck! buck! calm down" he said trying to keep bucky back. "you told her not to tell me?!" he yelled at tony. tony shook his head "no i simply said you'd kill me but after that i told her and left i never said she couldn't tell you" tony defended. you shot daggers at tony "I was trying to save you from this!" you yelled at him. "This is only happening because you kept it from me!" bucky snapped at you.

"You said you didn't love her!" bucky yelled at tony "I didn't at the time! At least not that i had addressed i don't know maybe i did, fuck bucky i'm having a child with her!" well shit tony that isn't going to help. "no really?! I thought that my girl had my baby not the asshole who seems to backstab me at any chance!" bucky yelled trying to escape Steve's arms again. "says the one who murdered my fucking parents!" tony yelled back. with that...silence. bucky had stilled until he suddenly shoved steve back causing steve to fall. bucky ran shoving tony to the floor getting a few hits before anyone could process what happened and go to grab him. steve finally pulled him away. shoving him towards steves room blocking him from getting back to tony. "Bucky barnes be a father? he can't even have a conversation without going all winter soldier" tony spat as bucky walked away. everyone looked at tony but you looked at bucky who seemed more hurt than angered. he turned walking with steve more willingly. you turned and slapped tony so hard he fell back to the ground. "yknow what tony. I thought you were better than using someone's past against them. fucking asshole!" you yelled and

started walking to steve's room. before you could you felt a hand on your shoulder. turning you saw vision. "vis not now please" you looked at him. "just....love and jealousy do crazy things. Anger usually comes from hurt remember bucky isn't the only one hurt by this event" he said looking at your stomach talking more about the pregnancy rather than this fight. you nodded "thanks vis" you gave him a small smile before continuing to steve's room. knocking you heard a few sniffles released before the door cracked slightly. steve sighed. "y/n..i don't know if you should be here right now." he said. "steve let me talk to him" you begged. steve looked behind him and then turned back to you with an apologetic look "im sorry, love" he said softly. you nodded "i love you bucky" you said at the floor. "I love you steve" you said at him. he gave a small smile "i love you too y/n and he loves you too just...give him space" he said before closing the door.

you felt tears fall from your face. you headed back to your room before hearing another door open. turning you saw tony who looked like he'd been to hell and back with blood dripping from his nose and cuts on his face along with bruises. "y/n-" he spoke. you shook your head "not yet tony" you started to walk off. you heard an angered breath "y'know this is why i didn't want to fucking tell you!" tony yelled at you. you stopped turning back to him "no this is why you dont be fucking selfish and let your feelings ruin everything" you yelled. "selfish?! selfish?! fuck you for trying to not ruin your life and instead staying away reminder you came into my room last night i was doing fine staying away!" he yelled. "how can you claim to be able to be a father and be around for this pregnancy and for me if you cant handle a fucking team meeting with us?!" you yelled.

"....why were you in his room" bucky asked softly. looking up you saw a disheveled bucky. fuck cant he make noise when he walks?! you make a mental note to make every door squeak so you know when to shut up. "buck-" you started before bucky turned back into the room as steve had started to exit. he looked up at you with a sympathetic look. you closed your eyes taking a breath. looking at tony you simply felt all that anger rush back into you. you stormed off into your room. you flopped on your bed screaming into your pillow.

tears flooded the pillow. you rolled over letting your sobs out. that went as horribly as it could and you in turn lost everyone. well maybe not steve but who knows really. you wanted to scream again and again until your voice was gone. you fell back on your bed staring up at your bed. you knew a place you could escape to. you stood up walking out your room. "where are you going?" you heard steve asked. you couldn't face him. "top of a hill where i can scream" you said honestly. "can i come?" he asked. you finally round to face him. he looked as bad as you. "bucky?" you asked. "fell asleep few minutes ago"

you nodded "and us?" you were afraid of the answer. "y/n i knew tony loved you long before he even knew. the second word was out you were pregnant i knew that he couldn't stop himself from falling hell he probably started falling after you two...y'know" he said looking at the floor. "point is, I would never leave you because of how he feels and while i have questions i know you'd never cheat...well...y'know what i mean." he said awkwardly. you nodded. "steve" you said softly. he looked up at you. "thank you." you said walking to him and hugging him. he gave a light laugh "no need to thank me, love. Now let's get out of here" he said squeezing you before letting you go. You two got into the car music softly playing in the back as steve drove. Yall remained in silence with so many questions and words left unsaid. You could feel the tension, so thick you could cut it with a knife, and yet you did nothing but remain silent on the ride except to direct steve on where to go. Soon you saw the thick forest full of trees of various kinds. as steve drove up the hill you saw the field of flowers approaching. steve parked the car and looked over at you. you looked at steve and sighed opening your mouth ready to speak steve cut you off. "we'll talk later" he said getting out of the car. you nodded and exited the car. you walked to the edge of the hill, looking out at the long field of flowers flowing down the slope. you inhaled deeply thinking of the last few months of your life, hell the last few hours of your life. you thought of how you almost died how you were stranded out in space accepting you'd never see any of your friends again and now you were here, pregnant with tony's kids and bucky angry at you and not even talking to tony and steve has so many questions that you can feel him pondering what exactly your keeping from him and bucky. you feel anger souring through you.

How could you have almost died and yet somehow everyone still blames you for something you thought would never occur blames you as if you even thought you would live to see them again, blames you asking you what you were thinking when the truth was you weren't thinking because you thought you were as good as dead. why is this the way things went. you felt your lungs fill with air and your fist curl up. you scream louder than you ever have. you feel energy sour through you feeling the air shift and hearing the trees behind you creaking. "uhm y/n?" you hear steve. you feel tears stream down your face and your throat tighten. you gasp for air as you fall to your knees. you hear steve running to you. "y/n" he says putting a hand on your shoulder as he kneels next to you. you look up at him and see the concern on his face. you look around seeing branches have fallen from the trees and flowers have broken. you hear car sirens going off. "i'm sorry" you whisper. steve wipes your tears "its ok" he says holding you. "It's all ok" he says stroking your cheek of your still falling tears. "I never meant for any of this" you choke out. "I know, I know, everyone just needs time" steve's voice remains soft and gentle. silence soon falls and again you can feel steve's brain spiraling. "ask me" you whisper. "hm?" steve hums. "ask me whatever it is just ask" you say pulling out of Steve's grip. "No-" you cut steve off "ask. ask and get it done with" you say.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked softly. "I didn't want you to have to lie to bucky" you say stroking Steve's cheek. "but I could've helped you tell bucky" he said. "I know, but i need to handle this myself at some point and i thought i could know until..." you trail off. steve nods "give bucky time he will come around and tony....that's up to you" he shrugs. your not sure where you stand with tony but what you do know is you will never deprive your kid of a father and if tony and can still be that than who are you to stop it not matter what your personal feelings to him may be. you sigh and look at steve "thank you" you say. steve smiles "no need to thank me" he says kissing your forehead. "how'd you find this place?" he ask. "When the memories got bad and fury was pushing too much id go on a walk, one day i found this place it was peaceful and once i had broken down here and realized no one could hear me and my powers could spiral here and break things without hurting anyone it just became my area for a good bit." you said finally being able to think properly.

steve hummed and held you simply sitting in what was now a peaceful silence. soon time got to you two and you knew you must go. "come on,love" steve said slowly standing. you sighed following after. the car ride steve held your hand and the silence was no longer filled with unanswered questions and betrayel. you sat in the car outside the avengers building feeling anxiety fill you. steve could feel your grip on his hand tighten. "love?" he asked rubbing yout hand. "They all hate me" you whispered. "no they dont bucky is upset and tony is well tony but everyone knows you and knows you would never purposely hurt anyone and that bucky is simply feeling betrayed." steve said softly. you nodded. you released steves hand exiting the car. you walked into the building a silent empty house as everyone was hiding away from any argument that may arise. sighing you walked to steves room.

peaking in you saw bucky still asleep curled into steves pillow. you walked closer seeing his hair a mess and his body seemed so tired. you brushed his hair out of his face sitting by him on the bed. you heard footsteps looking up to see steve. he gave you a soft smile before walking off. you felt tears fall again. you felt horrible for what you did to the man you love. He has been through hell and back and been alive for far longer than he probably even wishes and now you've only hurt him more. You have tried to help him process his past and yet you've caused him so much pain in these past few months you haven't even stopped to think how he may feel about having to raise someone else's son, only concerned if tony would raise his own kid as if you didn't two of the best men in the world right in front of you handing themselves to you. you pushed his hair out of his face. you sae bucky start to stir and stood up. sighing, you nodded and left the room. You walked to your room and laid on your bed feeling your tears stream down your face. You needed to fix this. Need to fix your relationships with those in your life. Need to fix all of it. That's what you would do.

Taglist (yea my bad y'all waited months again)

@solielsfanfics @vicmc624 @mylifeispainandiloveit @frostay @cjand10

[navree]

you know, the one big thing that some of these time jumps really messed up is that, if you think about it for more than five seconds, aemond has the restraint of a saint for not being on the constant edge of murder. 

aemond, at the age of, at maximum, ten, gets set upon by four other people who are angry at him for no reason (“aemond stole vhagar!” the fuck he did, the only reason you should have to actually think that is if you too are a grieving eight year old, anyone else on the planet knows that vhagar chose aemond we literally saw her do it be serious). he doesn’t start this conflict or is the first to escalate it to violence, despite getting a bit too harsh verbally, and after defending himself and getting pissed off, loses an eye. a full eye. in a pseudo medieval society where we have to see him get stitched up with zero anesthetic at all, and where the entire meeting to talk about the fact that he lost a full eye devolves into how the real crime here was a throwaway insult, while he’s standing here without an eye and the only person who seems to care is just his mom (let’s not even touch on the fact that a thirty year old woman starts demanding the ten year old be “questioned sharply” which is basically westerosi euphemism for tortured or at least threatened to be tortured after having lost an eye as if no one else was able to decipher the magic of big b little b)

that’s what we have in canon. and it’s really not that hard to deduce that in the near decade after that, life got really, really hard for aemond. for one, this is a pseudo medieval society where the king has basically been publicly dying a death by a thousand badly treated cuts for multiple years, that cut took a long time to heal and it didn’t do so painlessly, and the fact that aemond didn’t get any infection and die or turn into a mini viserys is a miracle, but also a had to be a very long process. for two, aemond now has to deal with getting his ability to fucking see slashed in half, and likely having to relearn a lot of the way he was just living life in order to function. that’s something that would be hard to do nowadays, if you were dealt with partial blindness or lost vision in an eye in an accident, given that this is a pseudo medieval society, aemond had to do all of that in much more difficult circumstances. how much of life was spent with this kid in pain, frustrated, scared, resentful? for how long did this child have to struggle before he found some semblance of normalcy, at least physically if not mentally, before trying to make up for this sudden shortcoming? 

and having this time jump where the first time we see him after having lost a full eye is him being badass and cool and calm and snide (and weirdly horny for daemon but that’s a story for another time) means that a lot of audience members are going to miss that it is perfectly natural for aemond to be seething with bitterness about what happened, about the injuries and the difficulties that followed and the toll it must have taken on him and the way he was treated throughout the immediate aftermath. of course aemond flew into a rage and nearly hacked out lucerys’s eye himself, if you were bottling up that much pain and anger about having been dealt a lifelong disability for no reason, wouldn’t you be too? of course aemond decided he wanted to scare lucerys and make him feel small and afraid, how many nights did aemond spend terrified that he’d get some sort of blood poisoning or infection and die, or even just scared about the quality of life he’d have in a society that’s already just kinda shitty even if you’re able bodied? 

wanting to do all of their twenty years of set up in a ten episode season screwed this show in a lot of ways, most notably in how the frequent time jumps prevented us from spending any time getting to know a characters who weren’t rhaenyra, alicent, daemon, and viserys (like, i’ve said this a lot, but name me three character traits of lucerys that aren’t “momma’s boy”, how am i meant to care about vhagar full on eating him when the writers haven’t been able to put any effort in making me care about him as a person before that point). but it feels a wee bit galling when it prevents us from understanding the nuances of a character that are kind of important to fully understand the choices he makes that are going to have huge repercussions on everyone in the story. 

[bonsai62]

I just realized something... I was talking to this person one time on a post before and as I was typing that’s when i realized something:

This is for my fellow Nobamaki & Itafushi shippers! If you guys don’t ship it then it’s okay! This is just like a small analysis in my eyes and the way I read things! I can be wrong or just love reaching on a shit ton of things but this is all for fun and I love sharing with you guys!

Let’s get started! Also, this contains spoilers!

Do you guys realize that Nobamaki/Itafushi actually parallel to each other? Let me explain in shitty English and basic grammar and vocabulary lol:

As I watch and read Jujutsu Kaisen I see a lot of parallels between characters; Gojo with Megumi or Yuji, Getou with Megumi and Yuji or Nobara and Maki... but what I want to parallel between characters is:

Yuji & Maki

1. Raw strength:

Both are hella fucking strong and for people who don’t have cursed techniques, they know how to kick fucking ass. What made me realize that both of them are the same is honestly during the baseball game. I like how we were able to see Maki and Yuji making a home run... okay well Momo fucked up Maki’s groove! Haha! But during the Tokyo vs Kyoto event, Maki and Yuji go ham on their enemy.

Yes, Maki used weapons but still, we can’t deny she got good speed and strength that is similar to Yuji’s. That’s why I wish I can see them both doing a bad ass duo fight together.

I have a small headcanon that Yuji actually enjoys training with Maki the most because I feel like he can understand someone who shares similarity in natural raw strength and speed. And Maki feels the same way and it’s a good excuse to bully Yuji as a joke. I would honestly love to see that! Lol!

2. Their story:

Yuji and Maki honestly have it bad. Yuji loosing his only family member (his abuelo) and becoming Sukuna’s vessel which leads him to a future execution. For Maki is the fact that her family treated her like garbage and having to leave her sister behind and eventually her sister dying.

Both Maki and Yuji share that same pain when it comes to loosing someone. We saw Yuji with Junpei and in the Shibuya Arc with Nanamin and Noabra. Again, Maki the same with Mai.

I think what made me even realize it MORE on how alike and how they parallel with each other are these images right here and how they worded their final saying:

In the Shibuya Arc, Yuji lost it. He lost it with Nanamin and Nobara (but luckily for Todo, he was able to pick his feet back up).

If I was Yuji, I would’ve reacted the same way because imagine having the idea you want to save people no matter what but people keeps dying around you or by you? It’s tiring and I would’ve had a mental breakdown too.

After kicking Mahito’s ass, Yuji says there is no reason anymore. For me, when Maki’s arc came it really reminded me of this:

When Mai died and was killed by her own dad. Her dad took away someone who was precious to Maki no matter how much they didn’t get along. Maki really wanted to create the Zenin clan just for Mai to be safe and free.

Again, same with Maki, I would’ve killed the whole clan too because of how in general the Zenin clan is and how they treat people.

3. Having a “curse”:

Nanamin to Yuji: “You’ve got it from here”

Mai to Maki: “destroy everything”

I don’t necessarily mean a curse curse but it’s more like final words that someone important to them said before dying.

For Yuji, he won’t die because Nanamin believes that Yuji can move forward and save the world.

As for Maki, Mai tells her to destroy everything in order for things to change (I might be wrong). It’s for the Zenin clan to start fresh. That is another way I kinda Interpreted (again, I can be wrong). Maki still isn’t done with destroying things plus she is going to move forward just like Yuji. 

I have a thing that if the higher ups find out about Maki, she would be on the verge of being executed as well. So imagine both Maki and Yuji together being executed.

Now on to the next pair!

Megumi & Nobara

Again, this is just me analyzing. But if you ship Itafushi and Nobamaki, you can actually see another pair that parallels to each other but so far I haven’t seen anyone compare them yet, or it’s just me lol!

1. No rivalries:

I think what I love about these ships so damn much is that there is NO RIVALRIES. Even if you don’t ship them you have to admit it is amazing seeing a m/m or f/f getting along without being damn rivals. I’m glad Gege decided not to do that especially towards the women because it does get so tiring that two women don’t like each other for no damn reason or fighting over the main guy or other main guy. At least when Nobara didn’t like Mai or Momo, she had a reason for not liking them.

And don’t get me started with Megumi and Yuji. I was so happy to finally see two boys be friends instead of the usual, boring rivalries. I’m a be honest with you, I was pretty shocked that Gege was able to make Megumi and Yuji be so close and trust each other as friends. It’s a breath of fresh air for the two ships like omg I was happy not seeing the basic shonen bullshit with the f/f and m/m relationship.

2. Hyping up their pairs:

What I mean by hyping them up, I’m talking about the potential that Maki and Yuji has that Nobara and Megumi sees from them. Nobara since the start acknowledge that Maki is strong and vice versa with Megumi with Yuji. What made me see that Nobara knows that Maki is just amazing and strong was during the baseball when Maki was able to hit almost a home run. Nobara just knew that Maki would be able to make that home run but again Momo ruined her moment! Lol!

As for Megumi, we see while the Tokyo students came up with a strategy to win against the Kyoto students, we see him saying that Yuji can actually beat all their asses without curse energy or energy(one of those). Megumi reassures to people that Yuji can take care of himself and is very useful. Another time Megumi reassured that Yuji is strong is when he was in his bed healing from Hanami’s attacks and when they fought tiger against that one dude (forgot his name)

3. Thinking about them/defending them:

Now… this is really what made me think why Nobara and Megumi parallel with each other

It’s becasue I feel like they’re the ones who are more attached and over protective with Yuji and Maki than how Maki and Yuji are with them.

Now, I’m not saying it’s vice verse with Maki and Yuji. But I’m talking about how Nobara and Megumi expresses it. Let me explain:

While reading and watching JJK, we see how Nobara is with Maki compared to anyone else. And no, I’m not saying that Nobara isn’t overprotective with Megumi or Yuji but just the way she is towards Maki. I would honest love to see how these girls got along and how they became close!

Ever since Maki and Nobara had that deep conversation about why Maki choose to be a sorcerer, that is when I actually started shipping them because of how much respect Nobara has towards Maki and it continues to develop more and more with the two of them. We saw how Nobara got super defensive when she fought against Mai (First time) and started dissing Mai. The second time was with Momo, when she was straight up talking shit about Maki.

I love how when Nobara was talking about Maki and Yuji when fighting against Momo. However, I felt a different vibe towards it as well. What I mean by that is that I got more of a “big sister vibe” toward Yuji and a “I love and respect Maki”

But again, I feel like Nobara had some sort of feeling and attachment toward Maki ever since that fight with Momo and more than anyone else too. However, that is just me though! You do t have to agree with my reaching!

For Megumi and Yuji… First of all… Megumi would not hesitate to pull a trigger if anyone is trying to harm Yuji. What made me see that was against Kamo and the Kyoto students. I swear that day Megumi was literally about to commit murder.

Yeah, Nobara got pissed but she went easy on them, but Megumi didn’t. Oh no, he was about to commit a felony. He wanted all the smoke. He wanted that curse. I swear I even felt how pissed he was. I just feel like every time and separates, shit goes down the wrong way and everything goes wrong.

For me, shipping Megumi and Yuji is a whole ass different post but I won’t do that lmao same with Nobamaki because I can write a whole ass essay why I love how compatibly/perfect for each other lol

Bonus:

But guess what… during the Kyoto and Tokyo event, same shit happened with Megumi like Nobara: Megumi was thinking of Tsumiki and Yuji. And again, I felt like it was still different when Megumi was thinking of Tsumiki and Yuji. I find it crazy how Nobara and Megumi were thinking about two people during that event:

Nobara: Maki & Yuji Megumi: Yuji & Tsumiki

This is my personal favorite image of Nobara and Megumi. *wink wink* it’s basically the same image on who is important to to them.

Again, for Nobara and Yuji’s relationship, I just love the way it is. She gives me “big sister” energy towards Yuji and vice verse. Yuji and Nobara are those chaotic siblings that are the hyper ones while Megumi and Maki are the chill ones that can actually keep them down. There has been one occasion where both Megumi and Maki calms Yuji and Nobara down because of how they were acting and I’m not gonna lie it’s kinda cute lmao:

4. Not leaving them:

During the Shibuya Arc, Maki and Nobara separates but at one panel, Nanamin was telling Nobara and Nitta that he was going to join the Zenins. Nobara quickly picked her head up and suggested that she wanted to join him in order for her to be with Maki (this is a stretch but hey Iike being dramatic) however, Nanamin quickly declines her and tells her that it’s too dangerous. I think she was disappointed that she couldn’t go, but hey, Nanamin is a gentleman and he knows when a child is gonna end up getting hurt. I thought it was cute that she was super worried about Maki and just doesn’t care and wanting to join her.

Now, up the recent chapters, Megumi really shows us that he doesn’t want Yuji leaving him or he wants to stay by his side. Those few chapters really made my heart feel some type of way because it just the way Megumi is for Yuji and I can honestly feel how much he cares for him. As I mentioned above, I feel like everything goes to shit when those two aren’t together and I hope that they develop more and more. There has been two more occasions where Fushi doesn’t want Yuji to be left behind; one during when they were in prison and the second during the fight against Hanamin. The eyes that Fushiguro gives Yuji is full of trauma and careness.

In conclusion, I can’t wait for Nobamaki and Itafushi to develop more and more in future chapters. Again, you guys don’t have to agree with me on this. This is just for fun and sharing is fun too! If I’m overreaching then I’m sorry I just can’t help it :(!!

I hope you guys enjoyed my lil analysis! I’m sorry for the bad writing, I’m not very good at translating my feelings as I’m typing because my brain goes all over the place lol! But please, feel free to comment or give me an ask! I’ll be happy to elaborate more for you guys!

Stay safe y’all! And good night or morning!

[robininthelabyrinth]

Nie Mingjue/Jiang Yanli/Qin Su - either woman/woman's family approaching him about a possible match

ao3

“I’m sorry,” Nie Mingjue said blankly. “What?”

“Marriage,” Jiang Yanli said, as if the only reason for his reaction was because he hadn’t heard them.

“With us,” Qin Su said, nodding, as if she agreed.

Nie Mingjue had actually heard them just fine the first time, actually.

“You’re already married,” he said.

“My husband is dead,” Jiang Yanli said.

This was true.

“My husband is my brother,” Qin Su said.

“You mean he’s my brother,” Nie Mingjue corrected her. “Sworn brother, that is.”

“No,” she said. “That’s not what I mean.”

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth to ask her what she did mean, then abruptly thought Jin bastards and blanched. “Does he – know?”

“Yes.”

Awkward, Nie Mingjue thought, especially with her belly heavy with what must be their child. Still, she wasn’t wrong that a revelation of incest would automatically nullify her marriage.

Wait, no. He was not considering this.

“Why me?” he asked instead of refusing outright, and cursed himself in his thoughts.

“Our children are Sect Leader Jin’s grandchildren,” Jiang Yanli said, and Nie Mingjue thought of Jin Ling as he’d last seen him, small and red-faced like all babies. “He won’t let me return to my brother’s home – he’s told me that much already – and Qin Su…he wouldn’t react well if he knew.”

No. No, he wouldn’t.

He’d probably just have both her and the child killed.

“You’re the only sect leader who can stand up to him,” Qin Su said.

“I can’t just steal you away,” Nie Mingjue protested, even though, well, he could.

The Jin sect had the money and they wanted power, but they didn’t have it, not yet. Nie Mingjue, though…everyone knew who’d won the Sunshot Campaign, and it wasn’t Wei Wuxian with his demonic cultivation or Lan Xichen descending from unexpected corners wielding his flute and sword, and it wasn’t even the now-dubbed Jin Guangyao who had given Wen Ruohan the final blow.

(There were rumors going around that that was a lie that Nie Mingjue had concocted for Meng Yao’s benefit, giving him the credit of the final kill so that his former deputy could win a place in Lanling Jin, since after all there was no one to say otherwise. He’d rebutted those rumors as harshly as he could, because they weren’t true, and had even tried to be as harsh to him in public as possible - not hard, given his mixed feelings about him - to suggest a lack of collusion, but he wasn’t good at that sort of thing, and the whispers persisted despite everything.)

No, Nie Mingjue was the one everyone respected. His was a reputation as bright and clear and unbreakable as diamond – he could probably murder a man in broad daylight and everyone would automatically assume the man had deserved it.

There was a reason he mostly tried to stay home these days.

“There’s a tradition in the Jiang sect of bride stealing,” Jiang Yanli murmured. “Especially when a debt is owed.”

It was a Jin sect tradition, too – they’d always been close, the Jin and Jiang, similar to the way that the Nie and Lan automatically cleaved together. Their ties together dated back to the days of their ancestors, before they were gentry, the days they both liked to forget when the Jiang were water pirates and the Jin the merchants that sold their stolen goods; they’d developed all sorts of traditions together, and just like the Lan and their unchanging rules, carved into stone, those traditions, while out of favor, had never been officially revoked.

There wouldn’t be much of a life in Lanling for Jiang Yanli, the widow of the heir that was no longer present – little more than a living memory of the son Jin Guangshan had treasured in the palm of his hand, and worse, the woman who had defended as her brother the man that killed him. And for Qin Sun, it was, if anything, even worse; she had willingly married the son Jin Guangshan despised, and there wouldn’t be much life for her once she was known to have committed incest, even inadvertent.

If she was known.

Nie Mingjue didn’t like lying, but surely Jin Guangyao, now that he knew about the relationship, would be desperate to find a way out of his predicament in a way that did not hurt the woman Nie Mingjue was sure that he loved – after all, he couldn’t stay married to her, not knowing what he knew, but divorcing her and sending her back to her father’s home with his son in her belly would be cruel; she would never be able to marry again, and the child would be reviled as a bastard.

(Jin Guangyao knew, and he was ruthless like his father, but he hadn’t killed Qin Su in favor of another, better, cleaner bride, not even upon discovering the truth. Surely that meant he wasn’t as bad as Nie Mingjue sometimes feared he was..?)

They were right. There was no life for them in Lanling, but they had Jin Guangshan’s grandsons, and so he would never willingly let them go even as they suffered.

Nie Mingjue – did not like to see people suffer.

Fuck.

“Qinghe doesn’t have that tradition,” he said, because he was too stubborn to just give in.

“We will make it clear that we encouraged it,” Qin Su said. “That we came to you for shelter.”

That would help, he supposed – he didn’t especially want to get known for stealing his sworn brother’s bride, although he suspected, helplessly, that most people wouldn’t blame him or her and would in fact praise Qin Su for trading upwards. But they could concoct some sort of story: some private tragedy that meant that she could no longer live with Jin Guangyao, that he in his desperation had asked his sworn brother to take her in rather than send her to her father’s house…most ‘bride stealing’ was really that sort of rough trade, women being shuttled around as appropriate to avoid trouble or increase gain.

“I could give you shelter without marrying you.”

“Us, but not our children,” Jiang Yanli said simply, and fuck everything, she was right. “Without you as their adopted father, they would fall back to Sect Leader Jin. We know what we’re asking of you, Sect Leader Nie. If you had someone else in mind, we would be fine marrying in as secondary wives –”

“I don’t,” he said, cutting her off. “I don’t have anyone in mind. My sect will go to my brother after me.”

They both seemed surprised by that, which was fairly normal. Most people were.

“Even if I have children,” he clarified, because that was always the next question people asked: whether he’d suffered some sort of embarrassing accident that made children impossible, which of course he hadn’t. He wanted his brother to inherit. “I would be happy to take your sons as my own and – give you more, if you wished. But they would be a branch family at most, not the direct heirs of Qinghe Nie.”

“That’s fine,” Qin Su said, and Jiang Yanli nodded.

“I know that marrying you might cause Sect Leader Jin to disinherit my son from Lanling Jin,” she said. “I do not mind it. Jin Ling...my son deserves to grow up happy and loved, and that is more important to me than all the gold in the world.”

Nie Mingjue couldn’t disagree with that.

“Very well,” he said, then frowned. “What about Wei Wuxian? After your husband’s death, Sect Leader Jin has been calling for his head, though I understand he agreed to compromise by only giving up the Ghost General and his sister…”

The two women exchanged looks, as if there was something they were holding back, unwilling to say.

Nie Mingjue felt the start of a headache. “None of that,” he said firmly. “Do you want to marry me or do you want to use me? Give me at least enough respect not to keep secrets right before my face.”

Another exchange of looks, but more surprised and even, he thought, pleased.

“Very well,” Qin Su said, and smiled at him – they both smiled at him. “About that – we have some concerns…”

[dysphoricsanity]

People saying Historia's pregnancy is the plot of the final arc needs to shut the fuck up and stop reading with their ass bc that plot was never a big deal in the first place. EHs and dudebros said Isayama has been dragging that plot for too long needs to understand that it was explained ever since it was introduced. The father has always been the farmer. She did it to protect herself. She followed what Ymir advised her to do. Live for herself and not for anyone else. She had herself pregnant to save herself and Paradis. Regarding Eren, the reasonS why he doesn't want to sacrifice Historia is exactly as what he said, the cycle of breeding like a livestock needs to stop. He would have defended literally anyone of his friends if they were in Historia's position. This is just like in the cart scene when he said he doesn't want anyone of his friends to inherit the attack titan because he wants them to live a long life. He said this over and over again. And in chapter 121, he specifically thanked Zeke that BECAUSE of him, they were able to have the moments that happened in paths, meaning if Zeke were to be eaten by Historia, it wouldn't happen. He used Zeke to gain access to Grisha's memory. You might ask why Zeke and not Historia since they r both royal, well again they needed to see what had happened in Grisha's memories because it will explain what Eren saw in chapter 90. It makes total sense for Eren and Zeke's characters to explore that and Zeke had a closure with Grisha as well. Regarding their conversation in the barn, Eren relayed the MPs plans as well as the rumbling to her. Eren said he will not let the MPs have Zeke be eaten by her just so they can use her for their own gain. This is the same conversation as that infamous mistranslation "I wanna make babies with you". The real translation of what Historia said is "what do you think about me having a child?". This is obviously the plan Historia or Yelena came up in order to avoid the Zeke's situation. He asked Eren that because they are looking for another plan to avoid the situation. That's why Historia said there's no need to run or fight anymore. In this conversation, Eren also relayed his rumbling plan to Historia and literally guilt tripped and manipulated her using her own words to stay silent about it. How are people finding this romantic? Worse, how are people speculating that they had barn seggs after this conversation? Sick in the head. Eren also relayed this plan to Floch because he needed someone with his nature and anger towards getting revenge against the marleyans and the world, Floch is the perfect soldier for that. But again, he was used. I don't understand how people are still asking for explanation about that very small memory shard of Floch (where EHs concluded that they had secret wedding) the head canon is insane. And also the fact that your basis to your ship is a fucking unofficial music video? It has always been subtly implied that Eren and Mikasa's relationship is canon. How would you explain a 9 year old child who's never won against his bully murder 2 grown adults for someone he has never met if he wasn't guided by his adult self? Chapter 50's promise. Chapter 123's question. Chapter 130/131 asking his brother about a girl. Chapter 1 and chapter 138 being directly connected. blush scenes. Mikasa always being included at the symbolism of his home and vice versa. And finally, chapter 139. but EHs and Dudebros who wanted to have a cold blooded murderer as an MC purposely close their eyes at these facts. It's subtle because this isn't a story about romance but I'm sorry I think the reason why in chapter 139, Eren had to flat out say that shit is because Isayama is getting tired of stupid WESTERN readers that he had to make Eren break down and say possessive shit like that because the dream in chapter 138 is NOT ENOUGH for y'all. That's it. End of rant.

[thr-333]

Just Another Class Trip :)  Part 3

You know getting dragged through a multi billion dollar corporations building to try and avoid your illegitimate father, a normal monday for most I’m sure.

First< Previous >Next

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

It’s official, I hate Adrien

Marinette groans, having been practically dragged out of bed for breakfast. Adrien was wisely backed up as far as he could in the elevator. She yawns, making it loud as possible and looking Adrien right in the eye.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have stayed out so late,” Tikki giggles, hidden in her scarf.

Yeah it turns out that ‘just need to help out one person’ turned into a it is now 3am and I am halfway across the city beating up a gang.

“At least the box was safe,” Marinette whispers back, she had crashed in Adrien's room, no matter how mad Lila would be, or because of it who knows.

And indeed Lila was mad. The second they step foot into the hotel restaurant the entire class turns to stare at them. Crowded around a smug looking Lila with tears rolling down her cheeks. Marinette just turns a sharp left to the coffee. It isn’t until she has downed half a cup and refilled it that she tries to look for her friends.

Chloe looks just as dead as her, so she sits next to her. Let the morning people talk, they were ready to pass out together.

“Kagami?”

“Yep, Adrien?”

“Yep,”

“Morning people,” They both sneer.

“Were you planning on sleeping all morning?” Kagami asks, eating breakfast like a normal person, what a jerk.

“Were you planning on watching me all morning?” Chloe half heartedly retorts.

“You are adorable when you’re sleeping,”

“Fuck you, I’m adorable all the time,”

“Chlo, language, please,” Marinette implores, nursing her giant cup.

“Shut up Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe snaps, face planting back into the table.

“She’s not that cute actually,” Kagami whispers to Adrien, “Wore a face mask she got green all over the bed,”

“I’ll get green all over you,” Chloe mumbles absentmindedly.

"Marinette,"

"Ah the storm is coming,took them long enough" She takes a gulp of burning coffee, "Yes Alya?"

"You cant just say that to a person," Alya tries to explain, as if talking down to a child, "Lila was up all night crying,"

"She probably just put on a recording and went soundly to sleep," Chloe scoffs, sleepily looking up from the table.

"I was with her all night!" Alya turns to Chloe, seething rage coming to the surface.

"Thats some impressive endurance," Marinette mutters, downing more coffee.

"You think she's been practicing?" Chloe smirks.

"This isn't-"

"Make sure she get's plenty of water," Marinette turns away, hoping the conversation would be over.

"Marinette!" Alya looks down at her the way Marinette often looks at her, the look at a dear friend who changed, "Can't you see you're hurting Lila?"

"Can't you see she's hurting me?" She covers that honestly by gulping down more coffee, she has not had enough for this conversation.

"You used to be so nice Marinette," Alya dodges the question, pointing to Chloe and Kagami instead, "Then you started spending time with these two, and, and you changed!"

"Believe what you want Alya," Marinette motions for her friends to stay calm, "But they stand by me when no one else will, especially you,"

"Thats because!- Marinette if you had just gotten to know Lila instead of being jealous this would have never happened," Alya looks down at her sadly, Marinette was sure Paris would have been up in flames somehow if she had ever trusted Lila, "If you just didn't spend time around these bullies everything could be the same, you wouldn't have become a bully too,"

"So what?" She spits bitterly, looking over at the table watching them, Lila looking disgruntled it wasn't an all out fight, "If I got up and joined that table right now, would everything go back to the way it was?"

"... No,"

Marinette’s pocket buzzes in a familiar sequence. Akuma alert.

"Ok then, not much point in arguing about it, I'm going to stay with my friends, the ones I can actually trust," Marinette quickly shuts down Alya's protest, "Now go get Lila some water,"

Alya walks off back to the table, everyone crowding around her. Marinette waits for the door to be clear, she has to leave before Alya finishes or the whole class will be breathing down her neck.

“Forgot something in my room,” Marinette slings on her back pack, “Be back soon,”

She was not back soon, she was not back soon at all. Luckily she should only be three minutes late for the bus-and nope they left, great. She’ll just have to catch up with the tour later.

Well, I had stuff to do anyways

She talks with the receptionist; her assistant should have sent her a prepared motorcycle to the hotel the day before. It’s a quick drive to the location she had selected specifically to be close to the hotel.

She puts on a simple domino mask before entering the building, she didn’t want anyone to leak her identity after all. Walking in she’s glad to see everything is not in disarray.

“MDC,” Her assistant, Liam walks up to her.

Liam was someone she met through Penny. He’s older than her and also acted as her guardian on most of her trips as MDC. He does know her civilian identity, which she trusted him completely to keep. She likes him because-

“Is that mine?” She snatches the cup of coffee as he passes it to her.

“Figured you needed it,” Liam smiles, wincing as she downs the burning liquid, it's fine she has a strong healing factor, “You said your bag was stolen? This should replace it, it’s most of what you had plus more,”

He rolls forward a pre packed suitcase.

“I would die without,” Marinette says in all seriousness, “So what's the damage?”

“No major problems so far, the security we hired is enough to scare away the smaller thugs,” Liam nods to some security personnel guarding each door, “They won't be enough if any super villains try to attack the actual show,”

“Mm, give them instructions on the night of the show they are only allowed to intercept small time, anything bigger they are not allowed to engage,” Marinette studies the room, there's great places to hide, friend or foe, “If they see anything they are simply to report it directly to me,”

“They can’t engage?” Liam looks around, trying to see what she is.

“They won't be able to stop them anyway, and there is no reason for them to die,”

“If you say so,” Liam leads her through the room where lights are being set up and walls are being painted, “So what's the plan if we do get attacked?”

“I’m sure Batman is going to have his eye on any big events,” Marinette approves of the color of the back wall, it looking even better in person, “Besides I’m planning on trying to intercept before any violence,”

“In other words you're going to make my job a lot more stressful,” Liam sighs, making a note or rather on his tablet.

“Not if I can help it,”

“You can’t,” Liam sighs again at her grin, “Didn’t you have a tour with your class today?”

“They left me,” Liam seems equally unsurprised, “But I should probably head for Wayne tower anyway,”

“Don’t get into trouble,”

“I never get into trouble,” Marinette smirks from the door, “Trouble drags me into it kicking and screaming,”

“More like keen and skipping,” Liam closes the door in her face.

Marinette strolls into the Wayne tower an hour late with Starbucks, she sees is her class, being a nuisance arguing with a tour guide.

“You cannot just leave a student alone in Gotham,” The tour guide all but yells at Madame Bustier.

“Marinette is very responsible, she can handle herself,” Madame Bustier more defends herself than Marinette.

“I don’t care how responsible your student is, that won't stop them from getting shot!” This time he does yell, “You need to go back and pray to god she’s alright and hasn't gotten lost for some murder to find!”

Alright time to break the tension

“Hey, what did I miss?” Marinette asks casually, Already sipping at her straw when all eyes turn to her.

“Marinette! How did you get here?” Madame bustier demands.

“I-”

“I think you mean ‘are you alright, I’m so sorry for leaving you behind,” The tour guide glowers, apparently threatening enough that Madame Bustier actually repeats him.

“I’m fine, I borrowed a bike from my friend in Gotham,”

“You don’t have a licence in Gotham,” Lila sneers triumphantly.

Oh look who actually did some research, how much digging did you do when I learnt how to ride a motorcycle

“I didn’t say it was a motorcycle,” That shut’s Lila up, “But yeah it is a motorcycle,

Worth it for that face

“Also I got my licence approved in America before I came,”

So worth that face

Lila opens her mouth, better than the flood gates, when the tour guide interrupts.

“Now that everyone is here,” He sends a smile to Marinette and a glare to Madame Bustier somehow at the same time, she gets the tinglily feeling of  miraculous holder, or maybe its just the caffeine, “We can start, my name is Dick I will be your tour guide today.

They follow Dick through the tour Marinette's group right behind Dick. She scribbled designs and took notes as he talked, asking her own questions. This got her dubbed Dicks favourite, and easy title to gain as the rest of the class lagged behind. Most were listening to Lila, only Max and Alix were straining to hear Dick over the chatter. Marinette would occasionally pick up a mention of the Wayne's and knew it wasn't related to the tour. She'd have to guess Lila was lying about either dating someone or saving their life, or because it's Lila probably both. A gutsy move in the Wayne tower she had to admit. Marinette could tell Dick was listening and would probably have that rumour make it back to the Wayne's themselves. Would the wrath of some of the richest and most powerful people be enough to stop her? not likely.

They split up for lunch at the cafeteria in the building. She saw the coffee machine and was about to make a bee line to it when Kagami pulled her back to eat some 'real food' whatever that is. She makes a break for it after eating the so called 'real food', right before the tour was about to restart. She reaches it as a familiar figure is also waiting.

"Hi Tim," She greets, getting him to actually jump, "You work here?"

"Hi! um-yeah," He looks over to her, "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" She takes the biggest travel cup they have available.

"Sn-nothing," Tim still looks uneasy, then his eyes lock onto the cup, "tired?"

"Was up till three am last night, plus jet lag?" She yawns, "Yeah I'm tired,"

"Then you'll want to put that cup back,"

"Hm why?"

he gets her answer when Tim ducks down, opening a hidden cupboard full of travel cups at least twice the size of her current one,

"Tim I love you," She fills up the giant cup, "You're my favourite person in Gotham as of right now,"

"Not Dick?"

"Eh, his puns are lacklustre," She shrugs, Tim spits out his drink, "You know Dick?"

"Yep, give him a hard time for me!" Tim calls over his shoulder, walking away.

"You got it!" She hurries in the opposite direction, late for the tour once again.

“Did you get another coffee?” Dick asks as they enter the PR department.

“They were serving them at lunch,” Marinette could almost laugh at how quickly he had begun to fret over her during the tour.

“I know, that was my brothers idea, or rather demand,” Dick sighs, someone else approaching the group to direct the tour.

“Your brother works here?”

“Sure does,”

“But you don’t”

This makes Dick pause, looking down at her as she sips at the coffee.

“What?”

“I mean you don’t work this job at least,” She shrugs, it wasn't hard to figure out.

“Why's that?”

“You seem uncomfortable, your charismatic but still lack the smoothness of a rehearsed tour, plus you seem offended that they are in the back chatting,” Marinette nods towards Lila and her posse, “Regular tour guides would be used to that,”

“You found me out,” Dick chuckles, “I’m just taking over for today,”

“Well I think you picked a bad class to do that for,” She looks over at most her class ignoring the speaker trying to get their attention.

“I think I picked the right one,” Dick says cryptically, then walks off to help herd the class.

“Alright you have to give me the recipe,” Marinette overhears from a nearby desk.

Someone is sitting on it eating a cookie, while the other taps away at her computer.

“Sorry no can do,” She shrugs, “I don’t know it,”

“How can you not know it, you baked them right?” He asks, trying to steal another one and getting his hand slapped away.

“Nope, new vigilante came in, beat up someone robbing my house and baked me cookies,”

“This is Gotham so I believe the first two,” He looks between her and the container, “But cookies?”

“They also gave me free therapy,” She shrugs, before tapping on the container,“And do you really believe I could make these?”

“Touche,” He smirks leaning back on the desk, “So who’s the new guy? With the Batclan?”

“No they said they were just passing through,” She doesn't look up from her computer, focusing intently on the screen, “Names Starling,”

“Never heard of them,”

“Neither, and I tried looking them up,” She sighs, pushing back from the computer in defeat, “Found someone, but it’s not them, actually couldn't find anything on them,”

“Weird,” He gets up from the desk, “Can’t imagine Batman is going to take kindly to a new vigilante running around,”

“Unless he adopts them,”

“That… yeah he probably will,”

"Oh no-CLAIRE" The speaker trying to wrangle her class stops, "We have a problem!"

"Sorry to cut this short," Claire doesn't look sorry at all, "Seems we have important matters to tend to,"

She follows Dick out of the department, ushering her class as she goes. Claire looks over at her like she has two heads, a mixture of impressed and pity, and perhaps a bit of jealously.

They get to go further up the building, to the higher floors. They reach a space that is mostly meeting rooms. He class decide to take advantage of Dick declaring they are completely sound proof, or maybe they took it as a challenge. Marinette is walking past a hall when someone leaning against the wall catches her eye.

“Auntie Selina?!”

They look around, only spotting Marinette seconds before they collide into a hug, she feels the tingling buzz of a true holder.

“Mari!” Selina picks her up and spins her around, no different from when she was five, “Oh, my love it’s so good to see you, when did you arrive in Gotham?”

Marinette watches as her smile morphs into horror.

“Wait, what are you doing in Gotham!?”

“It’s a class trip and- hey where are we going?” Her Auntie grabs her arm pulling her down the hall.

“Marinette!” Dick calls, walking around the corner, Selina makes a sharp turn down another corridor, “Wait!”

Selina is two steps away from running as she pulls Marinette through the maze of hallways.

“Auntie where are we going?”

“Down here,” She opens the door leading to a staircase, too narrow to be a fire exit.

“That’s not really what I was asking,”

Selina inputs a key code, the door swinging open as she is pulled into the room.

“Wait!” She gets pulled through another door just as quick “Was that wall full of weapons?”

“Just a picture sweetie,” She says sweetly, “Down these stairs,”

“Aunt Selina what are we running from?” They are running now, floor after floor.

“We’re not running from anything sweetie,” Selina speeds up, “I just wanted to show you a cool spot in Gotham,”

“Right,” Marinette raises an eyebrow, “I was actually with the class so maybe we could go later?”

“It closes in five minutes,”

“Like you wouldn’t just break in if we were going somewhere,”

“I promise I will take you somewhere nice,” She smiles back at Marinette, they reach the end of the stairs, coming to a garage of sorts, “If you promise to hurry up,”

“Sure-” She does a double take, of the room, “Hold up are those costumes?”

“Collectors stuff, you know,” They are surrounded by bat themed... everything, “Rich people,”

“Right and how do you know this?”

“I-” She hesitates, eyes drifting, “Hey look, the exit!”

They all out sprint towards the exit. Selina reaches out to open the door a second after it swings open.

“Selina,” The man smiles at Selina as she runs into him.

“Hey Bruce,” Selina jumps back, trying to hide Marinette behind her.

“Where are you going?” Bruce looks behind her at Marinette, who gives a little wave.

“Out! Got to hurry!” She grabs Marinette's arm again, trying to pull her around Bruce.

“Is something wrong?” Bruce grabs Selina's shoulders to keep her still and looking at him.

“Nope nothings wrong,” She wriggles out of his grasp, trying again to pull Marinette away.

“Ok then,” Bruce still looks worried but turns to Marinette instead, “Hello I’m Bruce Wayne, Selina finance,”

“YOU’RE HER WHAT!?”

“Snitch,” He Auntie spits out venomously.

“Why didn’t you tell me!?” Marinette asks her with the biggest grin.

“Surprise,” Selina gives half heated jazz hands.

“Wait! Whens the wedding? Do You have a dress? I’ll make one!” She deicides, brining out her sketchbook, drawing different designs, “What's the theme? Never mind tell me on the way to the fabric store, I’ll sketch up some designs,”

“Darling, please-” Selina is now getting pulled along.

“Oh! I’ll call Papa! I’m sure he’ll want to make your cake! We have to hurry, come on lets go!” They're already out the door, Marinette waves turning back to Bruce, “Nice meeting you!”

“What just happened?” Bruce asks Dick as he runs up next to him.

“She kidnapped one of the students on tour,”

“Who is now making her wedding dress,” Bruce nods, not understanding anything

“Did I miss something?”

I think we all did

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

Taglist:

@smolplantmum @flufflepuffle296 @dawnwave16  @caffeinetheory   @g-arya   @Maribat-2k20   @ladybug-182    @Actual-disaster-human    @fusser90   @messrs-weasley   @soap-lady  @paintedhope7   @zeneralla    @mochegato     @random-nerd-3 @clumsy-owl-4178  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen   @too0bsessedformyowngood @certifiedbidisaster  @Purplegeekypanda @awkward0ghostfan @theymakeupfairies @tikki-marinette @insane-fangirl-of-everything @elmokingkong @inarachi02 @slytherinhquinn @moongoddesskiana @dast218 @buginetye @redscarlet95

[kaistarus]

Haikyuu Among Us

Pairs: Nishinoya X Reader

Words: 2.8K

Summary: You're playing Among Us with the Karasuno gang. When you get selected to be the Imposter you're not above doing what it takes to win.

Notes: This is a completely self-indulgent fic for Nishinoya's b-day

Masterlist

"There are too many options. What do you think?”

Nishinoya’s yellow character stood motionless beside the lobby’s computer as he selected between several hats. Your animated crewmate ran circles around him while waiting for him to finish his customizations and for the rest of your friends to load into the game.

“I think the post-it is the most accurate, but the egg is the cutest.” You said mindlessly, smiling when Hinata’s bright orange character hopped off one of the benches at the top of the screen. You left Nishinoya so you could chase around Hinata instead, running circles around each other in excitement over your matching stemmed helmets.

Nishinoya grumbled as he selected the raw-egg to cover his helmet. “Should I buy a child?”

“Are you ready for that?” You asked as more people finally started loading onto the ship. “It’s a lot of responsibility and what if we both die?”

“Oh, you’re right. I’m not ready to be a single father.” Nishinoya left the computer and came to run in the circle with you and Hinata in the center of the lobby.

“You guys are disgusting,” Tsukishima’s condescending voice filtered into your headset. You rolled your eyes and glared at his black spacesuit with the devil horns. So rude.

“Let people be happy, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said while his dark green character joined your dance circle. You couldn’t explain it, but the wet floor sign felt extremely fitting for his character.

“I’ll help you raise your child if (Y/N) dies Noya!” Hinata said brightly into your headset.

“Thanks, Shoyo!”

“No, I want to help him raise the child!” Tanaka yelled into the mic causing you to jump in your chair. You quickly opened your audio settings to turn his volume down. “I deserve it. I’ve known them the longest.”

“No way, I already called dibs!”

“Guys, you can both help me! The more parents the better!”

“There is no child.” You said, pinching the bridge of your nose,” and stop planning for me to die.”

“Sorry.” They all said in unison.

“But one day…” Hinata added ominously. You blinked at the screen confused and opened your mouth to respond before deciding it better to write that off entirely.

“All right, I’m starting the game,” Yachi said before the countdown appeared at the bottom of the screen.

“Wait, is Kageyama AFK? He hasn’t said anything.” Hinata asked, concerned.

“I just don’t want to talk to you, idiot.”

“Ouch.” Nishinoya snorted.

You muted your mic after a small giggle. The red crewmate appeared to shush everyone and you couldn’t help the wicked grin that crossed your face when ‘Imposter’ appeared in red letters afterward. Beside your character stood your partner in crime, Hinata, his name also bled red for the violence to ensue. You nodded to yourself confidently. Hinata wasn’t the best imposter, but you two were pretty in sync so you weren’t too concerned.

The airship loaded and everyone appeared around the center lunch table in cafeteria. You debated what you should do… maybe hang out with Hinata and attempt a double kill? You two could pull that off. Maybe just try some fun vent kills like you’d seen streamers do recently. Too bad Nishinoya ran over to you and began dancing beside you, clearly trying to get you to follow him to the right side of the map. It would probably be cruel if you slowly garnered his trust to use him as an alibi…

You followed him out of cafeteria. He began a wire task so you pretended to watch the bar go up until he excitedly danced beside you when he was finished, happy he’d cleared himself as an innocent crewmate-not that you hadn’t known that already. You went to fake asteroids, standing beside the chair while hoping to all that was good the green bar would move on time, when it did you leaned your forehead on your desk with a heavy sigh. Nishinoya’s character ran circles around you, likely thrilled that you were both crewmates, before continuing down the gray halls to the oxygen room. You took a moment to feel guilty before shaking it off.

While Nishinoya went to do another task in O2 you noticed Tsukishima running down the hall, alone, so you briefly separated and went to follow him. Unfortunately, Tsukishima decided to go to navigation all alone which left you with absolutely no choice. You strolled up to him and pressed the lit up ‘KILL’ button in the bottom corner of your screen. The animation had you snapping his character in half which you were a little too satisfied with-you could practically hear him raging from across town.

Once complete, his little half body flopped over and you snickered to yourself in your room. Then you remembered Nishinoya probably heading this way and you quickly self-reported the body.

“Naviga--.”

“Somebody killed Tsukki!?” Yamaguchi yelled so loud you had to lift your headphones up.

“Oh no,” Kageyama said, sarcastically. “What a loss.”

“You don’t sound upset…” Yachi pointed out.

“Should I?”

“Yes! He’s our friend and he’s dead!” Yamaguchi yelled.

“He’s not actually dead Yams.” You smirked, propping your elbow onto your desk and leaning into the palm of your hand.

“Sometimes I still hear his voice…” Nishinoya sniffled into his mic and you rolled your eyes fondly.

“Where was it?” Hinata asked.

“Navigation.” You said calmly. “Me and Nishinoya were doing tasks. I saw him go down to nav and I wanted to see if he died in the murder zone and he did.”

“Makes sense,” Nishinoya said casually. “So, who else is there that killed him?”

“Makes sense? She literally said she followed him to the murder zone.” Tanaka pointed out. You purse your lips because you did kind of say that, yeah. You should probably phrase things better.

“I saw her do asteroids though and she saw me do other tasks so we’re good.” Nishinoya scoffed at Tanaka’s accusation. “She couldn’t possibly have murdered Tsukishima if she did asteroids.”

“Okay… but what if she faked it?” Tanaka suggested.

“Are you suggesting my girlfriend would lie to me?” Noya said, gasping dramatically. “How could you dude?”

“The absolute disrespect.” You said, narrowing your eyes at Tanaka’s brown character. He knew too much.

“What if they’re both the imposter?” Yachi suggested.

“No way. If Noya was imposter half of us would be dead already.” Hinata said, with a chorus of agreeance following him.

“Well, who else is around here?” You asked.

“I’m almost there,” Kageyama said.

“Almost there or running from the crime?” You asked, excited to bring someone new into suspicion.

“Dun dun dun,” Hinata shouted.

“I don’t know if this means anything, but Hinata was at card swipe for a really long time…” Yachi added quietly.

“I just failed it like ten times, okay?” Hinata said sadly.

“Yeah, that checks out.” Kageyama snorted. “This idiot would fail a card swipe.”

“Let’s just skip, but Kageyama and (Y/N) I’m watching you,” Tanaka said.

“Good,” Kageyama responded.

The round ended with no one being ejected, thankfully, but you were a little concerned about the amount of suspicion being thrown at you. Hopefully, Hinata would keep Kageyama alive, and if the opportunity presents itself Tanaka would be your next target. Until then, you ran around the table to Nishinoya and danced beside him until he was ready to move. It was most important that Nishinoya believed you were innocent. You needed a strong ally, especially now.

As you waited patiently for him to complete another download task you kept the sabotage map open contemplatively before Hinata decided to shut off the lights for you. You tried to stay close enough to Nishinoya that he would see you in his limited visual area while you run to electrical, that is, until you saw Yamaguchi trailing behind you. Once you all entered cafeteria you pulled a quick u-turn under the cover of darkness and stabbed Yamaguchi’s poor unsuspecting crewmate body several times in the back before returning to Nishinoya and helping fix the lights. As if nothing had ever happened.

After fixing lights like the innocent, fake crewmate you were an air horn went off in your ear to signal Yamaguchi’s body being reported. You fell back in your chair with a whine before unmuting your mic.

“All right, this is good,” Tanaka said, a few muffled smacks heard as he excitedly smacked his desk.

“Disrespectful, dude. What did Yams or Yachi ever do to you?” Nishinoya asked. You raised an eyebrow because you hadn’t even noticed Yachi’s crossed off character. “They’re the two nicest people on earth.”

“Yeah, that’s sus.” You said with a smirk.

“Super sus.” Nishinoya agreed.

“What? No. I mean, I was on my way to the button because I literally watched Hinata jump into a vent when I found Yam’s body. Which means we have two pieces of evidence now.”

You cursed internally and glared at Hinata’s bright orange character. He would get caught venting.

“Dude, seriously?” Nishinoya laughed.

“What? I didn’t vent.”

“I watched you.”

“Oh yeah? How can I vent when I’m not even the imposter?” Hinata said confidently. You rolled your eyes.

“Damn, he’s got you there dude.” Nishinoya snorted. “Solid defense Shoyo.”

“Thanks, man!”

“Don’t defend him!” Tanaka yelled. “Unless you really are the second imposter!”

“What? No! Where’s your evidence? Give me proof!”

“Yeah, give him the proof!” Hinata added.

“Where were you when Yamaguchi was killed?”

“How the fuck would I know?” Nishinoya asked, astonished. “We were only in cafeteria when the lights were off and I didn’t see a body.”

“We?” Tanaka sounded deep in thought. “When the lights were off…”

“Are we just forgetting about mister thank god Tsukishima is dead?” You said, pulling attention toward Kageyama. “And last I checked only Noya and I fixed the lights.”

“Oh yeah, where were you, Kageyama?” Nishinoya asked.

“I’m where the boxes are.”

“You gotta learn the room names, man.” Hinata sighed.

“Maybe this is a tactic!” Tanaka shouted.

“Oh, and self-reporting isn’t Tanaka?” You asked.

“I don’t know. Tell me about the last round?” He responded confidently. Oh shit.

“Hang on, we gotta vote. We have like 15 seconds.” Nishinoya pointed out.

“Vote Hinata. He vented.” Tanaka said, repeatedly.

Everyone voted quickly and Nishinoya even apologized to Hinata, so you sighed before going with the majority. You had officially lost your partner. On the bright side, if you could take out Tanaka you could probably convince Nishinoya that Kageyama was the last imposter. You just had to play this last bit safe.

You waited a bit before going in the direction Tanaka had run after, but your last few rounds backfired when Nishinoya trailed after you. You needed to get away from him long enough so you could kill Tanaka without him seeing. You broke away from him for a moment and hopped into the nearest vent, jumping around until you found an area close to where you thought Tanaka had last been running around. When you popped out fear immediately shot into your heart when Kageyama’s dark blue character peaked into the top of the screen.

You weren't sure if he saw you or not, but you couldn’t risk it. He had to die.

You chased after him toward cafeteria and just barely got close enough to hit the kill button when he entered the room. You let out a breath of relief when the kill animation popped onto your screen and you watched your character repeatedly stab Kageyama in the back. You thought you were safe, so when the air horn for a meeting played you shot up in your chair. Apparently, in your tunnel vision, you hadn’t noticed Tanaka lurking nearby.

“It was Tanaka. I watched him kill Kageyama!” You shouted the moment your mic unmuted.

“Wait, what the fuck?” Nishinoya’s voice was filled with genuine confusion and you almost felt guilty. Almost. Maybe after you won.

“No. She chased him down, sawed him in half, then tossed him away like it was nothing. I saw it all.” Tanaka shouted.

“You can’t even saw people.” You rolled your eyes.

“I’m so confused,” Nishinoya whined. “It’s not Kageyama? But (Y/N) was with me like the entire game.”

“Exactly, so how could I have killed anyone?” You said excitedly. Nishinoya had no suspicion of you which was perfect. You could definitely win this.

“You were at every place where the bodies were found.” Tanaka pointed out. “She couldn’t have been with you the entire time. Like when she self-reported the first body?”

“I didn’t self-report.”

“Or when the lights went out?”

“I guess not.” Nishinoya said. You hit your desk lightly in stress. “She also wasn’t with me this whole last round...”

“Exactly!” Tanaka shouted. “And she was really adamant about putting suspicion on Kageyama.”

“Cause he was suspicious!” You threw your hands up. Since when was Tanaka so good at this game?

The line was quiet for a moment. “(Y/N) he’s making a lot of sense.”

“Okay, but he also reported Yams' body,” you countered. “Easily could’ve been a self-report there too.”

“That’s true…”

“Dude, why would I have tried so hard to get Hinata out if I was an imposter?” Tanaka asked, exasperated. “It makes no sense. It has to be her.”

“He could’ve lied about seeing Hinata vent!” You shouted, deciding to throw hail mary’s in your moment of demise.

“Why would I do that?”

“My head hurts,” Nishinoya whined. “(Y/N) I don’t know...”

“Okay. You should vote for Tanaka because...” You said while racking your brain for a solid defense. “I… love you.”

Nishinoya blew air into the mic. “Fuck dude, that’s a good defense.”

“No it’s not you--” Tanaka groaned. “Dude, for like five seconds I need you to stop being a simp and just big brain with me here.”

“But she’s saying nice things to me,” Nishinoya whined.

“Dude, c’mon you know who it is.”

Nishinoya groaned into the mic. “Okay, (Y/N) you’d never lie to me, right?”

“Never.”

“Are you imposter?”

“...I love you so much and I’m so happy you’re in my life and--”

“She just fucking admitted to it!” Tanaka screamed in the mic. “Don’t let her get into your brain. You’re better than this.”

After a brief silence, Nishinoya finally voted and you stood out of your chair when it revealed Nishinoya and you beneath Tanaka’s brown character. The mixed shouting in your headset went completely ignored by your own excitement while you celebrated, thanking Nishinoya with loving words.

“You fucking simp!” Tanaka yelled. “I can’t believe you. I trusted you!”

“I’m sorry,” Nishinoya’s groan came muffled in your ears. “I just couldn’t do it.”

“Good job (Y/N)!” Hinata cheered. “I never win as an imposter.”

“Cause you vent in front of people,” Tsukishima said.

“It was an accident! I meant to sabotage doors and I misclicked.”

“Oh well, we still got a victory.” You said proudly while spinning in your chair.

“You used me,” Nishinoya said, disappointed. “For personal gain.”

“I’m sorry, Noya,” you smirked as your characters all slowly hopped off the chairs in the main lobby. You danced around his yellow character as everyone loaded in. “I’ll make it up to you, promise.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

When the second game began, you let out a sigh of relief when the light blue confirmed you as merely a crewmate. This time you could legitimately just goof off with Nishinoya and complete tasks together while hopefully avoiding death.

After the map loaded you once again made your way to navigation together, keeping guard while the other was busy, and dancing circles every time you completed a task. When you eventually had entered the murder zone you trusted him to watch your back while you did your last task on the right side of the ship. Your first mistake apparently. You audibly gasped when the kill animation appeared on the screen. Nishinoya’s yellow character snapping your poor little crewmate’s neck in plain sight, leaving its little half body lying there for all to see. It’s poor singular bone popped out and bare.

You stared blankly at the screen while Nishinoya danced around your body for a moment, knowing that your ghost was hovering over it before he went down and hopped into the vent. You flopped back into your chair watching as Tanaka’s character ran into the room, stared at your body, and ran out. You could picture him cackling at the situation from here.

When a meeting was finally called, not even for you but Kageyama, Nishinoya pretended to be upset that “someone dares to kill you” and other bull shit. You crossed your arms and glared at his stupid yellow imposter self.

You supposed you deserved being used as a cover-up from the grave.

He better at least win.