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todoscript · 3 years

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how he would ask you out

request: pls some headcanons of how the boys (shinsou/tamaki/shouto) would ask the girl they like out 🥺

characters: shinsou hitoshi, amajiki tamaki, todoroki shouto

genre: fluff

word count: 3.3k+ total, 900-1200 per character

tags: pining, confessions, fem!reader

author’s notes: sorry if this sounds rushed?? i can’t write

SHINSOU HITOSHI

two years after his enrollment into the hero course, shinsou had finally came to terms with the feelings he’s been holding for you for quite some time now.

what began as just friendly encounters and kind gestures felt like something more to him. after all, you were one of the key people that led him to transition smoothly into the class, with your helpful demeanor and coming to his aid whenever he was stressed and troubled by the new environment.

you went out of your way to organize study sessions and small arrangements to mingle and get to know the other students better.

you reiterated to him that if he ever had any questions about anything, he could always come to you.

initially, shinsou thought he was being a burden—that he was just heavy baggage that tied you down.

however, you assured he was anything but, and stated that you were more than happy to help him, even going to say you enjoyed spending time and getting to learn more about him.

at your response, shinsou was appalled at how genuine you were.

appalled… but also very grateful.

eventually, there came a point when he realized there was no mistaking the affection he felt for you—not when he subconsciously noted every one of your habits and intricacies, able to tell whatever emotions were running through you at a simple glance, or when he would stop to admire the way you decided to style your hair differently or changed your look, thinking you seemed even more charming that day by the confidence you exude.

no, at that point, he’s sure it was painfully obvious. so obvious, in fact, that kaminari and mina had chosen to skip today’s group study session in favor of letting the two of you have your “alone time”. whatever that could mean.

shinsou had grimaced over their excuse of “being too busy that day” when you had told him the reasoning they gave you over text, despite knowing their next exam was only a couple days away. recalling just how nosy and enthusiastic they could get when involved in these kinds of affairs, he had an inkling of what exactly those two were planning. you, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to their schemes.

however, what did latch onto your mind was the thought of spending the day with only shinsou, in his very room, sitting across from each other with your textbooks open in front of you. though you should be more attentive to your studies, you couldn’t help the palpitations beating loudly in your chest and your wandering eyes that snuck glances at him after every question you answered.

unbeknownst to you, shinsou mirrored your actions all the same, reciprocating the flustered behavior, albeit a bit more subtly.

keep calm, hitoshi. why are you getting all worked up? he would say to himself, putting on his usual facade.

although he came off as relatively calm and collected on the outside, it’s difficult to keep his emotions in check when actions never lie.

that was especially true as he reached his hand out for the eraser you two were sharing between each other. with his eyes continuing to gander down at his notes, he hadn’t noticed that you were lunging for the same thing—not until your fingers had suddenly touched and you both pulled away at a speed equivalent to making contact with fire.

his stare unfaltering, shinsou was surprised to discern the embarrassed look on your face that immediately fixed itself as you rummaged through your pencil pouch. a second later, you pulled out another eraser, one that was notably smaller than the one you were sharing.

“um.. i’ll just use this,” you offered, and shinsou rubbed the back of his neck, the whole situation more awkward than it needed to be considering you never had any trouble sharing your supplies with each other before.

through some examination of your demeanor, shinsou had made a… bold enough claim, thinking that maybe—just maybe—you held the same kind of affections for him as he did for you.

it’s like he recalled earlier—actions never lie—and shinsou didn’t let the quiver of your lips or the intense concentration at your work to avoid meeting his gaze go past his head. that’s what spurred him to finally act on his desires.

without warning, he leaned forward on his seat to lay his hand over yours that caught your attention. you met his eyes, astonished to say the least, but more so concerned by how your eyes widened before you were about to open your mouth to ask him what was wrong.

the violet-haired male beats you to your words, voice resonating firmly, “y/n.”

you blinked. “y-yeah..?”

“i know this might be a bit late coming from me, but,” you could feel his hand tighten atop yours, “after exams, do you want to catch a movie together? just the two of us?”

shinsou fought the urge to look away, bashful at how he made his declaration for your time. the warmth surging under his skin was alleviated at the smile that slowly curled on your lips as you rotate your wrist, your palm touching his. the expression washing over your features told him you’ve been waiting for him to ask you this for a while now.

“i’d love to.”

AMAJIKI TAMAKI

ever a shy and introverted individual, tamaki has never had the heart to ask you out despite years of harboring a crush on you.

every time the thought had crossed his mind, he’d reason poorly with himself that you wouldn’t be interested in him in that way.

it didn’t help that his low self-esteem only deepened that thought that had now rooted itself in his brain.

at such a prestigious school like u.a., you were bound to find someone far more compelling than him—someone with guts, confidence, and great social skills. not a guy like him who conjures the image of potatoes at every anxiety-inducing encounter he comes across.

he was relieved enough to settle himself comfortably as just your friend—a title that allowed him to stay close and keep within your circle, all the while subjecting him to simply admiring you from afar.

but his eyes that held a hidden longing for more weren’t overlooked by a fellow student of his. or to be precise, the ever curious and free-spirited, hadou nejire.

always aware of his surroundings, it was hard not to notice that peculiar stare she’d aim at him during moments where he might’ve just finished speaking to you, or when you’d pass by and his head would naturally drift in your direction.

it was like she was picking apart every detail laid on him and it made tamaki absolutely restless.

tamaki’s suspicions and anxiety were later raised during one instance at the lunch table. he was at his usual seat next to his other big three companions, mirio and the aforementioned nejire, who was eyeing him with a gleam in her eye.

even with his self-consciousness, tamaki did his best not to pay any mind to the undesired attention and munched on his plate of takoyaki—the octopus nestled in the batter sure to come in handy later in training that day.

to his dismay, you passed by their table with your tray of food in hand, and nejire did not waste any time calling you over in that cheery tone of hers.

she invited you to sit down with them. you gave her invitation some thought before ultimately placing yourself in the free spot next to mirio, with nejire and tamaki already seated across from you.

the girl was all smiles and hums while tamaki was in a state of distress, both at his friend’s odd behavior, which was starting to spell trouble, to having you pulled into all of this. mirio was just being mirio, welcoming as always.

you greeted everyone at the table, making eye contact with mirio and nejire, but tamaki evaded your line of sight. he simply waved his reply without breaking away from his balls of takoyaki.

luckily for him, you didn’t give his lack of words much thought and started digging into your own lunch. it was then that nejire found it appropriate to start up a conversation.

“y’know, y/n, i’ve been meaning to ask you this, from one girl to another,” she mused, finger waving around playfully, “are you interested in anyone here?”

upon hearing her question, tamaki almost choked on his bonito flakes, his cheeks puffed and eyes blown. meanwhile, your chewing slowed as you gave your answer some thought.

“uh… well–”

“i’d say fujita from class d is quite the looker! think you’d be interested in them?”

after swallowing the food in his mouth, tamaki began to subconsciously listen in on the conversation. he paid close attention to your responses with bated breath, a small part of him anticipating your answer highly.

“fujita’s nice and all, but i don’t think we’d really get along as a couple.”

tamaki mentally sighed, relief evident all over his face. it was then that mirio had started fitting the pieces together after watching his close friend’s brow wrinkle throughout the entire exchange before finally relaxing at your words. crossing his eyes with nejire’s only confirmed his suspicions as the girl sent him a wink.

as a friend, mirio wasn’t about to let nejire’s operations fall flat. getting up from his seat, he motioned tamaki to come with him.

“i heard they have extra yakisoba bread right now! we should go check it out!” he said as a guise to give the other two time to themselves, free from tamaki’s prying ears.

unaware that mirio had caught on so quickly, tamaki didn’t object to tagging along with him. mostly because he thought of this as an opportunity to get some fresh air and calm his racing heart, finally feeling the effects of the blood rushing to his face.

with tamaki supposedly out of earshot, nejire was free to go about her questions however she wanted.

“okay then, if not fujita, then who? there has to be someone, right?” the girl scooted further in her seat out of pure curiosity. “tell me, is it perhaps someone in our class?”

it was your turn to be stricken by her boldness. you tried picking at your food, stuffing it into your mouth to avoid answering, but nejire’s tenacity outmatched you.

finishing your lunch, you opened your mouth to speak, “actually, the person i’m interested in is pretty close to you…”

nejire feigned ignorance, innocently placing a finger under her chin. “who? mirio?”

“ah no, it’s tamaki, alright?!” you ended up blurting, voice hushed but frantic.

bingo. hearing exactly what she wanted, nejire returned to her original position, a triumphant grin plastered on her lips. replaying what you said out loud in your head, you buried your warm face in your hands.

unbeknownst to you, tamaki had ended up hearing the whole exchange around the corner coming back to their table as mirio lightly snickered at his revelation of an expression.

the blond patted his shoulder. “go on then, you know what to do.” he threw tamaki an encouraging thumbs-up.

the boy gulped in response before inhaling a deep breath of air to prepare himself for what would arguably be the most important yet stress-inducing moment of his life so far.

noticing you getting up to discard your tray, tamaki—through a final push from mirio—went to make his move.

hearing him suddenly call out to you, you were caught off-guard. after admitting to your crush on tamaki to nejire, you felt your cheeks get hot just seeing his face right afterward.

“oh hey, did you get your hands on those yakisoba breads?” you scraped up a way to start the conversation.

“right... that… mirio managed to get the last one in the cafeteria,” he answered. then he brought his hand to rub his elbow, fidgeting in his spot as he found it difficult to look you in the eyes again.

“tamaki? something wrong? are you upset that he got the last yakisoba bread?”

he shook his head. “no, i… it’s just… i’ve been meaning to ask you this for a long time now, but never had the courage to say it to you because i didn’t think you ever liked me that way. but…” he finally mustered the determination to face you head-on. “would you go out with me, y/n?”

at first, you were speechless—absent of words as you relayed his request in your mind over and over again. then, your eyes softened, lips easing into a smile as you reached out for his hand.

“i thought you’d never ask.”

TODOROKI SHOUTO

it’s no surprise to many that when it came to asking someone out, todoroki didn’t exactly know the first thing to do.

mostly because he’s never asked anyone out to begin with.

you were the first person he’s ever felt these kinds of emotions for, and to be frank, he wasn’t sure what to make of everything that had been going through him when that root of infatuation had started to bloom inside him.

rather than sulk or contemplate on his thoughts for too long, he surmised it was best to simply come clean and ask for advice.

but when he confessed to what had been on his mind lately, he wasn’t expecting such a vigorous response from his friends.

“i’ve been thinking about asking y/n out.”

there was a layer of uncomfortable silence amongst the group before all hell eventually broke loose.

midoriya, uraraka, and iida immediately sprung from their seats in the common room, yelling “what?!” in unison. tsuyu and her frog-like mannerisms were more idle, but still surprised nonetheless.

todoroki was unfazed by their reactions, actually expecting it to go that way considering he’s never brought up any topics of that nature before. at the very least, he’s thankful he decided to say this when it was just the five of them. compared to what the whole class’s reaction would have been like, this was incredibly tame.

todoroki was used to always listening to what others had to say and never being the subject of the conversation when it came to dating.

but now things were different. he was openly admitting to them that he was regarding someone romantically. that he possibly sought a relationship with this someone—wanting to be committed to them and become the very best person he could be right next to them. to the four, this was coming completely out of left field.

after everyone simmered down and let the news sink in, the dual-haired boy resumed his thought,

“but i’m not sure how to do it.”

though the entirety of the group never had any experiences when it came to dating, they knew enough from media and pop culture to get an idea on how to help him. more than todoroki could imagine on his own anyway.

“i know! how about we go with the romantic and suave approach!” uraraka suggested. the rest asked her to elaborate.

“it’s simple! it starts by you leaving a note on her desk right before class, saying to meet you on the rooftop of the school! before the designated time, you should wait there for her with a bouquet of flowers, and then when she arrives, confess your feelings and ask her out!”

midoriya rubbed a finger against his cheek, skeptical. “i don’t think that sounds as simple as you’re making it out to be.”

tsuyu chimed in beside him. “those kinds of ideas usually only work well in books, ochako.”

pursing her lips, uraraka gave her plan a once-over, and realized it did seem a bit more involved and out of character than what todoroki was used to.

despite sharing a few more ideas with one another, they couldn’t narrow it down to any perfect one.

that was when iida clapped his hand, bringing everyone’s attention to him.

“alright, i think we’re starting to blow this whole ‘operation’ way out of proportion,” he said.

“if you’re honest about the way you feel about her and show it sincerely, i’m sure she’ll consider your feelings. you don’t have to do anything extravagant when it comes to asking someone out.”

listening throughout every word, todoroki nodded. meanwhile the other three were astonished that their class representative could be so whimsical when it came to romance, which in turn, iida was conflicted by. however, at the very least he was glad they could help out a friend. and so, todoroki went about his day with their discussion in mind.

he found that in many occurrences, whenever he crossed by you and thought of it as a chance to ask you out, there would always be someone to come in and take your time away. leaving him to stand there awkwardly before dismissing the fated question for later.

eventually, the sky dimmed and evening arrived, and by then, the whole class was already back at their dormitory and about to have dinner.

through some rather convenient circumstances, you two were actually assigned on kitchen duty that night.

“it’s been getting pretty cold lately so i was thinking we should cook up a hot pot for everyone.” you gave your idea to him as you pulled out some ingredients from the fridge, waiting for his reply, but it came a few seconds later than you were expecting.

“right. sounds like a good idea,” todoroki answered a tad late. upon realizing it was only going to be the two of you making dinner tonight, his mind was occupied by what he and his friends spoke about earlier.

that was when he started overthinking the situation and absentmindedly half-assed his work.

“todoroki, the cut on the tofu is slightly uneven.” you reviewed his cutting board. looking down, he saw the inconsistent slices of tofu limp in front of him. if bakugou were the executive chef for the evening, he would’ve had to hear an earful from him.

“sorry…” he apologized quietly, reaching out for another cube of tofu to cut.

“is everything okay? i know you’re still learning how to cook, but i’ve seen you show some significant improvement on your knife skills recently.” you voiced your concern for him.

the white and red-haired boy stared at the white bean curd while hearing your worried tone and couldn’t find it within himself to continue the task. it was now or never he thought. he laid the knife flat on the cutting board.

“actually, i wanted to ask you something.” he turned toward you. “do you… want to go out with me?”

nothing but the sound of the fire running on the stove could be heard in the kitchen. todoroki didn’t move his eyes away from you, watching you nearly drop the plate of siu choy and shiitake mushrooms out of shock as your mouth was hanging open.

when you caught onto your bearings, you let out a small laugh. “oh… i… wasn’t expecting that,” you admitted honestly, placing the ingredients on the counter safely.

the boy furrowed his brows. “is that a no?”

“n-no! i mean that isn’t my answer! i–” you fumbled with your words, cheeks warming up now that his confession had finally sunk in. in the meantime, todoroki found your reaction quite amusing. the corner of his lip quirked into a grin.

“what i mean to say is that yes, i’d love to go out with you.” you accepted the offer wholeheartedly. todoroki would be lying if his heart wasn’t throbbing from anticipation. he’s glad he’s able to rest and put that aside.

“now let’s continue making this hot pot together!” you cheered, smiling widely and he found comfort in your words before resuming slicing the tofu.

#bnha x reader #bnha imagine #bnha headcanons #shinsou x reader #shinso x reader #tamaki x reader #todoroki x reader #mha x reader #bnha scenarios #mha headcanons #shinsou hitoshi x reader #tamaki amajiki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki shoto x reader #bnha x y/n

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notnctu · 4 years

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haechan: the cocky | vol 1

━ welcome home to housemating smut series :)

☆ click the link above to read background info about this housemate!

☆ GENRE: smut, pwp ☆ DETAILS: fem!reader, college!au, housemate!au ☆ WARNINGS: oral, voyeurism, explicit language ☆ WC: 2,659 ☆ SYNOPSIS: on this sunny afternoon, you’re home alone while everyone else is in class... or so you thought. as haechan’s name spills from your lustful mouth, he mindlessly comes in thinking that you’re calling for him. instead, he walks in to see you fingers deep and in need of some assistance, again.

☆ AUTHORS NOTE: happy halloween everyone!! pls read the background info before proceeding with the fic!! absolutely pwp, there is no real plot here besides smut LOL and yes there will be a part two ! maybe multiple parts idk yet lol depends on my story building

Tossing your backpack into the corner of your room, you pounce on your bed as quickly as possible. There was something about Haechan’s outfit choice today: baggy relaxed pants and an oversized plain white tshirt that only he could pull off. Something about his cool, carefree attitude riles up an inexplicable part of you. And though you didn’t have much time to drool over his incredibly impressive outfit before dashing for your 10 AM, it is all that’s been running through your head.

And truthfully if you had been caught staring for even a millisecond, you wouldn’t hear the end of it from him. You’ve seen this guy go two days straight sitting in his boxers and wrinkled old tee as he yells profanities at his computer monitor. Yet, in some egotistical world, Haechan still manages to be the cockiest person in the whole house.

Haechan has pulled quite a fair share of girls, but nothing in comparison to Jaehyun or Johnny. The reason behind his sly smirks and obvious traveling eyes could possibly be that he’s pulled you, quite a number of times.

Haechan never really peaked your interest until he became the one you spent the most time alone with. He is not the type to boast about his sexual encounters, so you really had to squeeze it out of him. Long talks of his cunnilingus tactics had you wet by the end of it all, not expecting that this gamer boy had such an eager passion for seeing girls squirm from his tongue.

Eager and strong enough passion to ask if he could get a taste of you, then proceeded to bring up all the moments that he has passed by your room to see you sprawled across your bed naked and rubbing one out. You had a poor habit of not closing your door all the way.

However strangely enough, you didn’t feel embarrassed that Haechan was the one who saw you. In fact, if anyone in the house did catch you masturbating, you’d hope it was him. Your relationship is comfortable to the point of seeing the worst sides of each other, you could be your true self around him because he wasn’t some playboy to impress. He is and always will be, Lee Haechan, the boy that sucks at arm wrestling.

So as you check your housemates’ locations and thinking that the coast is clear, you begin to peel off your bottoms and panties. Every naughty thought of Haechan rolls into your lustful mind. Tugging at his fluffy hair. His plushy tongue against your clit. His light spanks against your ass. His needy hands gripping your thighs. His low throaty moans.

You get into your favorite position --- ass up, on your knees and legs spread open, with your face buried in a pillow. Your hand tries to mimic his touch: gently teasing your nipples, trailing down your stomach until you reach your sensitive bud. Your fingers gather your slick and automatically, Haechan’s name escapes your lips. Closing your eyes, you recall all the times he’s eaten you out until you’ve seen stars.

Now if Haechan wasn’t so forgetful, he wouldn’t have to drive all the way back home to grab his notebook for lecture. When the boy enters the house, he takes note of your scattered shoes at the door and the faint sound of your voice. Curiously, he walks up the stairs to the rooms and hears you calling for him and concludes that you probably heard him come home.

When he approaches your slightly opened door, he sees an image that immediately halts him in his tracks. Through the rather large slit, he has the clearest view of your dripping pussy and quick fingers rubbing at your clit. And he registers your calls for moans. You were moaning his name, not calling for him.

He glances around at the other open rooms to check if anyone else is home, but that is probably why you thought it would be completely fine to not close your door, again. When he returns to the incredibly sexy scene of you masturbating to the thought of him, you’re so lost in your own pleasure that you don’t even hear his heavy breathing.

A tent forms in his pants as he feels all his blood rushing to his shaft. He’s beyond turned on, like come on, it’s him you’re thinking about. This does nothing, but fuel his already large ego. Haechan enters your room and clears his throat, “you should really learn to close your door, baby.”

Your momentum breaks at the sheer fear of someone else’s voice. Panic settles and the first thing you see when you look up is Haechan’s small smirk. He leans against the frame of your door, arms crossed and eyes never leaving your figure.

“Why are you home?!” You throw a pillow at him, very well annoyed at his presence and for ruining your private time. Sitting up on your knees, you try covering your lower half with your blanket. Haechan is quick to stop you, while simultaneously shutting your bedroom door.

“I forgot my notebook.” He leans in, lips inches away from yours and his hand pulling the sheets off your body. “I have twenty minutes to spare, so let’s make this quick, mmh? Seems like you’re in need of my assistance... again.” His eyes are dark, and the sunlight that seeps through your shades shines so beautifully against his melanin. The faint smell of his cologne messes with your mind and god, you want him so bad and you hate that he can tell.

“Get back into your previous position and show me how you touch yourself.” He leaves a quick peck on the corners of your lips before standing at the end of your bed.

“What if I don’t want to?” You’re not usually bratty with other partners, but Haechan’s assertiveness and overall aura draws it out of you so naturally.

He pokes his tongue at the inside of his mouth, protruding his cheek and tilts his head at your bratty attitude. Staring you down with hungry eyes and a raised eyebrow, he says in a serious tone, “no time for games right now. You want me or not?”

“Yes, please.” You nod with urgency once you realize that Haechan still had class to get to. Turning back around, you rest comfortably on your elbows with your knees firm on the mattress. Your hand travels down to circle your clit again, resuming your previous lustful actions before Haechan interrupted you.

Every jolt runs down your legs as a pumping surge of electricity, all the way down to your toes. Haechan palms himself watching you get back into the mood, biting his bottom lip at the delicious sight of your glistening, pretty pussy on display for him. It doesn’t take much before he hurries to get under you and in between your legs.

He lays back flat on the bed as you hover over him, your hand still rubbing intensively at your bud and your juices collecting in your palm. Taking your wrist, he guides your wet fingers into his mouth. You moan knowing your fingers are being cleaned by Haechan, him sucking your taste off of you.

“Fuck, you taste so good.” He groans, bringing your hips closer to his face. Without another second of hesitation, he licks a long strip across your clit.

“Hyuck..” It has been established between the two of you that you have special rights to use his government name. He loves how hot it sounds coming from you, like it is meant to be spoken only by you. “..I’m.. already.. going to burst.”

He kisses your inner thighs, then encapsulates your bud in his mouth. Your legs give out at the mind blowing pleasure that comes with Haechan’s plushy licks. His tongue doesn’t leave your clit for more than a second, suckling and rubbing it like his life depended on it.

When you peer down at him, his face is entirely pressed up against your body: nose digging into your skin and mouth latching on for a taste. He gives your ass a little spank, then grabbing a handful to squeeze. The tinge of pain turns into pleasure as the feeling of static runs throughout your lower half.

Haechan tries to free himself from his pants, growing painfully hard that it began to feel strained. One hand unzips and tugs down hastily at his bottoms, his cock springing up and slapping against his stomach. He lifts his shirt up as far as it can go, not once breaking his attention on making you feel good.

You yelp when his two fingers enter your hole abruptly, gathering enough of your slick to cover his own dick. With your wetness, he strokes his tip with his thumb and the vibrations from his moans sends shivers down your spine. But Haechan is more than skilled at multitasking, jerking himself off while he eats you out.

“Fuck, are you touching yourself?” Your head turns enough to see movement in your peripheral vision. You can infer two things: Haechan is half naked and fucking his hand so fast that it shakes the bed a bit.

“Of course I am. You’re fucking hot, baby.” He only pulls away briefly to speak, his soft tongue flicking rapidly harder against you now. Haechan knows you’re close, without you needing to say much. Your toes curl at the intensity, your moans become louder, and you’re gripping onto his hair as tightly as possible.

The peak of your mountain is at the tip of your lips, your legs are about to give out at any moment, but Haechan is showing no mercy to slow down. “Just like that, shit.” Your hips mindlessly grind with his fast-paced rhythm.

Haechan can feel his own release coming just as quick, his own grip growing tighter around his shaft as his hips have no caution to stop. “Give it to me, (Y/N).” His low grunts solely push you to your edge, as you announce your orgasm.

Your shaking legs uncontrollably twitch around his head as the euphoric feeling fills your blood stream. Like a knot coming undone, it’s the most rewarding feeling you’ve ever felt. You try to catch your breath as Haechan unlatches from your swollen clit, and his moans replace yours.

“(Y/N),” He barely manages to speak and you look down in between your legs to see him biting his bottom lip hard and eyes closed. “--I’m going to fuck you until you can’t walk... when I get back..” and with that, he cums all over his lower stomach, short strings of white landing across his body.

You roll off of him, grabbing tissues from your nightstand to clean him up. “Are you still going to make it?” A hoarse laugh rumbles your chest as Haechan remembers the lecture he has to attend.

“I’ll just show up late.” Wiping the last bit off of him, he gets up to hurriedly zip himself up. “Why are you suddenly so needy?” He jokes, partially. A smug grin appears reminding you of his haughty personality.

You scoff at his remark, “I am more than capable of taking care of myself.”

“Yeah, but why do that when I clearly give you the best orgasms of your life.” He shrugs, his tone being quite matter of fact. He chuckles mischievously at your displeased expression, running out your room before you can chase him out.

“Okay, I’m leaving!” He yells from the hall, hurrying down the stairs to catch the last half of his lecture.

“Bye, thank you... I guess..” You pull your panties up, your voice trailing off when you step out of your room to the top of the stairs to watch him leave.

He stops to peer up at your obvious fucked out appearance, admiring you all in your glory. “Any time, baby. What are housemates for?” Haechan winks flirtatiously before he shuts the front door.

The rhetorical question repeats in your head, what are housemates for?

As everyone floods back home later in the day, you and Haechan act as if nothing happened. That’s the thing about you two, Haechan never really feels the need to brag to the others, only if provoked.

You two can live in this house with the other three not expecting a single thing, not knowing that there is courage behind Haechan’s bold statements. Not even the way Haechan stares at you sometimes can give anything away. This man is too slick, too quick on his feet to ever be caught.

“You make it to all your classes today, Haechan?” Johnny asks as the three of you devour the dinner Doyoung made, Jaemin once again not being home.

“Yes, dad.” Haechan answers sarcastically and stuffs his mouth full of dinner rolls. “I had a midterm that I totally aced.” He smiles proudly, but your ears catch onto the first half of his sentence and immediate guilt settles.

“You had a midterm?” The tone of your question raises a few eyebrows at the table, the rest of the boys wondering why you sounded so worried.

Nevertheless, Haechan doesn’t lose his cool. He simply bids you his sugary sweet smile and says, “not for that one.”

“No flirty eyes at the table.” Doyoung scowls as Haechan’s corner lip twitches into another infamous smirk. He somewhat enjoys the thrill of almost getting caught, you make it all too easy for the others to find out.

You gulp your food harshly and shy away from Haechan’s dark gaze, not knowing the right words to recover your slip up. Jaehyun acknowledges the confusion in the room, laughing nervously at your sudden bashfulness, “why did (Y/N) sound so worried?”

Your food gets stuck in your throat, waiting to hear what Haechan has to say to your nosy housemates. “I had to come home to grab my notebook and missed the beginning of class. She’s just looking out for me, it’s cute.”

And your eyes make the most dramatic roll, “I should’ve just let you to suffer the consequences.”

“But you’re a good girl.” Haechan barely lets you finish, his sharp-witted tongue almost cutting you off.

“(Y/N) is the best girl.” Johnny ruffles your hair and picks up your chin, being oblivious to the sexual tension between you and Haechan. “Now, did my best girl go to all her classes today?”

You push his large hand off of you, grumbling lowly, “yes, Johnny.” Mindful to not say dad as it would steer him with too much satisfaction, “unlike you delinquents, I actually go to class and stay for the whole thing.”

“I do too.” Doyoung bickers.

In response, you pinch his cheek harshly. “I know and I’m always proud of you, my bunny.”

Haechan clears his throat obnoxiously, “I’m going to play games, hop on when you all are done.” He takes a few more dinner rolls as he starts heading up the stairs with his plate of food.

“Can’t, I have someone coming over in a few.” Jaehyun stuffs his cheeks full of deliciousness.

“Me too.” Johnny chimes and you’re repulsed that more than half of the house is going to be having sex at the same time.

“In that case, that is my cue to leave and put on noise canceling headphones.” Doyoung gathers his plate to rush out of the scene.

Jaehyun and Johnny finish their dinners at an impressive speed, “don’t be too loud, Haechan!” Johnny loudly proclaims and though you can’t see Haechan’s face, you can imagine his devilish smile through the cadence of his voice.

“Oh, trust me. I won’t be the loud one tonight.” Your phone lights up from incoming texts. As your eyes register the messages, you almost choke on your food at the implications.

housemate haechan: come to my room when you’re done

housemate haechan: and don’t expect to walk tomorrow:)

And you’re finishing your dinner as fast as everyone else is, shamefully excited to make your way upstairs.

What are housemates for?

#neowritingsnet #nct-writers #kpopscape #neothestars #nct scenarios #nct smut #haechan #lee haechan #haechan smut #nct imagines

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beauregardlionett · 3 years

Text

healing hands

Healing magic only did so much, especially when the wounds were deep.

There was a distinct...she wouldn’t say touch, but something to each caster’s magic. Like most of the arcane and divine, it took time to attune to the intricacies of the individual, to find those subtle and unique cues in the weave. By now, Beau could pin point how stretched Jester’s magic was by how intense the zing was through her veins. She knew Caduceus needed to rest by how deeply the warm curl of his magic traveled through her muscles. And if she didn’t sense it in the moment, she knew by how much she ached afterward.

A fair amount of healing meant sore muscles - like she had done a vigorous workout the day before. The best healing Beau got meant any lingering trace of stiffness was long gone by the time she finished her morning stretches.

This time though, a full day later, she sat up in her bed and winced. Her shoulder was tighter than it had been in a while. The joint stubbornly refused to move through her full range of motion without some kind of protest.

Beau raised her arm again, forcing herself to breathe as she did. Despite her best attempts, something pulled and protested and she dropped her arm again with a strangled curse. She couldn’t even put her fucking hair up. It seemed a miracle Beau got dressed this morning. But now she sat on the edge of her bed, frustrated at her inability to do this one simple task.

If she couldn’t even put her own hair up, what was she going to do if the group encountered hostiles in their travels? Without full mobility and use of her arm, Beau might as well be dead weight. The group would have to compensate and carry her weight, and what if they decided she wasn’t worth the effort? They had come a long way since Trostenwald, sure; but how far were they willing to go? Beau understood little about healing magic other than how it felt, but she figured it did little for old injuries. This one had been healed over with minimal magic and a night’s rest. Would magic even matter?

A knock on her door.

“Beau? Are you up?”

Yasha.

Beau debated staying silent, but that would likely only incite further concern and she couldn’t have that.

“Yeah,” she called back. “Just getting ready.”

“Okay,” Yasha said through the door. “Everyone is heading to breakfast. Do you mind if I come in?”

There was no reason to say no. Beau had stated that she was getting ready, so her unfinished appearance would not be unusual. Even if she pretended to be half dressed, the entire group had literally seen every one of them naked and soaking in a hot tub. Modesty did not exist between them.

“Yeah,” Beau answered without too much pause. “Come on in!”

She could not see the door to her tower bedroom from the edge of her bed, but she heard it open, then shut. The soft pad of Yasha’s boots against her floor followed, growing louder as she got closer. Beau tried for a normal expression and knew she fell painfully short when Yasha stopped in front of her and cocked an eyebrow.

“You look tense,” Yasha said without preamble. “Are you okay?”

Useless.

Beau bit her lip and tried for a grin, knowing before the expression even finished setting that she convinced no one. She held her limbs like she was in pain, like she might bolt with one wrong move. (Both of which were true.)

But what was she going to say? That she got hurt and was therefore useless to their day’s plans? That when they put the tower away after breakfast, Beau feared being left behind? They hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet. It felt far too early to confess such massive insecurities.

Her silence must have been more telling than she meant it to be, because Yasha knelt in front of her and placed her big, warm hands on Beau’s knees. Her mismatched eyes were twin pools of gentle concern. One thumb rubbed back and forth over the uneven ridge of Beau’s kneecap. Every line of Yasha’s posture denoted attentiveness to Beau’s condition, a willing participant in her struggle. It was something Beau still struggled to comprehend.

Sometimes she wished she knew how to lie to Yasha.

Except she didn’t.

The thought alone left a foul taste in Beau’s mouth. Yasha had only ever been honest with Beau, and she did the same in return.

They had come a long way since Trostenwald.

Beau deflated with a heavy exhale, fingers picking at a hangnail.

“My shoulder hurts,” she muttered. Something aged and defensive curled with an unpleasant roil beneath Beau’s sternum. “I don’t think it healed all the way after that fight the other day. I can’t even raise my arm to do my hair.”

Yasha’s eyes tracked to Beau’s shoulder, something shuttering over her expression for a moment as if she remembered the nasty wound that had sat there. Her fingers tightened for a moment over Beau’s knees before Yasha smoothed over her ragged edges with a steady breath.

“You’re scared.” Not a question.

Beau nodded, finding her voice failing her.

“Would you like my help?”

This was why Beau could never lie to Yasha. Even after months and months of travel and trial together - there was never any assumption. She always asked, and she always took the word ‘no’ without question. Yasha was obvious in her desire to be close to Beau, but she still remembered to leave room for permission. She also held Beau’s fears with all the care she afforded her flowers, and promptly banished them with ease.

“Please?”

Yasha’s smile unfurled the way a summer storm came on. First, a shadow. Then, a slow, steady trickle of what was to come before it completely unleashed - full and inescapable.

She stood from in front of Beau and climbed up onto the bed behind her. There was a moment of shuffling, of rumpled sheets against shifting legs before Yasha’s fingers were in her hair. Her fingers combed through Beau’s tangles, working to unwind knots as tension unspooled from Beau’s shoulders. Her blunt nails against Beau’s scalp felt like permission to cease existing for however long Yasha would let her.

Beau became so lost in the repetitive, soothing sensation of Yasha’s fingers in her hair that she failed to process when Yasha finished. Her hair was neat and spun up into a braided bun, secured with her hair ribbon like always. Beau only realized Yasha’s hands had worked down her neck and over to her shoulder when a flare of pain pulled Beau sharply back into focus.

“Sorry,” Yasha murmured, her fingers lightening their pressure. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done this.”

“Done what?” Beau managed as the pain faded to a dull throbbing.

“This,” Yasha repeated, applying less pressure than before. “We did not have many healers in my tribe, so we all learned the basics. If it hurts too much, I can stop.”

“No,” Beau said, perhaps a little too quick. “No, it’s okay. It just took me by surprise.”

“Are you sure?”

Beau twisted enough to find Yasha’s eyes over her shoulder.

“I’m sure.”

With Beau’s permission, Yasha continued her work, tentative at first. Her fingers worked with more expertise than Beau realized she had, applying pressure to knots and spots of tension. She held her fingers in certain places, adding more weight in slow increments behind the press, rubbing to soothe the spot when it finally released. It ached, of course, but by the time Yasha had given attention to all of Beau’s shoulder, she was a limp, loose puddle of content.

Yasha cupped her hands over Beau’s shoulder, moving it in careful circles, testing the mobility. Her hands grew warmer, glowing in Beau’s peripheral.

Of course. How could she have forgotten?

Where Jester’s sang like an electric zest, a sugar rush, and Caduceus curled like sunshine and a warm drink, there was also Yasha’s healing magic. Yasha, who was not a healer by trade. Who raged quietly in battle and personified a storm. Her magic spread like the buzz of static electricity over Beau’s skin, but sunk into her muscles and her veins with the gentle heat of summer rain.

She was so caught in the familiar fever of Yasha’s balm that she offered no resistance when Yasha lifted Beau’s arm all the way above her head.

“That seems better,” Yasha said, voice soft.

Oh.

Beau blinked and looked up at Yasha and her arm.

“Much,” Beau agreed, voice hoarse. “Thanks.”

Yasha grinned, clearly pleased with herself. As she shuffled off the bed, Beau tried not to mourn the loss of her warm hands. But then Yasha stooped to press a quick kiss to Beau’s forehead as she grabbed her hand, tugging Beau to her feet.

“Breakfast?”

There were a million other things Beau would rather do than eat breakfast right now - every one of them involving Yasha’s hands staying on her. Perhaps they could explore all that later, when Beau’s brain remembered how to form a full sentence and Yasha wasn’t looking at her like that.

“Sure,” Beau croaked. “I could eat.”

She didn’t let go of Yasha’s hand for most of the morning.

#cr #critical role #beauyasha #writing #my writing #beauregard lionett #yasha #idk just a small thing because i thought about yasha doing beau's hair

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kimageddon · 3 years

Text

Star Wars Fics - Part 2

Wow I got a lot of love for that first part. I didn't even have a solid plan for it, it just sort of happened. But as requested, there is indeed a part 2 so here you go!

Tech x f!Reader

Part 1

The Reception

So far so good. The wedding ceremony was done and all you had to do was keep an eye out during the reception. You and the boys… all dolled up and looking for bad guys. Yep… that’s all it was. Just work. Just… work. You were handed a glass of bubbling clear liquid and from the first sip you knew there was alcohol in it. Now… on the job was not for drinking. But even as you tried to pretend, one sip became two. Became three… became half a glass… and then you had a second glass. It was just part of the act of course. No other reason. You took another sip.

“Might want to slow down on those, Feisty.” Echo muttered beside you, making you jump slightly.

“I don’t know what you mean.” You replied as you cleared your throat. “If I didn’t have a sip occasionally people might get suspicious.”

“Occasional sip huh? Is that your fourth glass?” He smirked, scanning the guests carefully. Currently Hunter was by the bar, Crosshair had claimed a particularly comfortable spot of wall to lean on, Wrecker and Omega were walking around the outside perimeter… and Tech… you were painfully aware of the presence of the last member of your crew. He was behind you. You were thankful for that at least, that way you didn’t have to make more awkward eye contact.

“It’s only my second.” You huff in reply. “I’m… not a fan of weddings.” No need to explain everything, in all honesty the boys didn’t know much about you, your past, your choices.

“Could have fooled me.” Echo let out a deep chuckle, leaning a little closer. You slowly turned to look at him, your brow twitching slightly.

“And what do you mean by that?” You ask quietly.

“Oh I don't know… you just seemed a little distracted earlier…” You can feel him smirking without looking at him.

“You’re as bad as Hunter. There is nothing wrong with me, I am not distracted. Let’s just get this mission done and go home. Then I can drink as much as I want without you judging me.” You huff and Echo just laughs.

“If you say so, Feisty.” He pets your shoulder as he turns away. You bristle, you know Echo is looking out for you but… oh what does he know? Gathering as much grace as you can muster, you sweep past the dancefloor and out onto the balcony. Its growing late, and you are itching to head back to Ord Mantell, grab some Mantell Mix with Wrecker and Omega maybe, they’d allowed you to join them the last few times so you hoped they’d let you tag along again. You leant on the railing overlooking a wide garden, the place was stunning of course, but that didn’t mean the danger was gone. It was hard to feel battle ready in a dress like this, the entire back to the waist was transparent mesh, a line of buttons up your spine. A jewelled detail in the centre between your breasts and sweeping purple fabric trailed down to your toes. Your hair was curled and hung over one shoulder, a far cry from the usual updo you kept when you had to hide it under your helm. The sun was setting in the distance, and while you paid it little attention, the man now standing behind you was drinking in the way the golden light reflected off your hair.

“I--” He began but got nowhere before you turned. Your eyes widen suddenly. You’d recognised the voice even before you moved but instinct had taken hold. There was Tech, a few feet from you, looking ever so dashing in his suit and eyes that felt like they looked right through you.

“Oh… is-is there an update?” You stammer pathetically, you hadn’t been expecting to talk to him so soon. He blinked before seeming to snap back to attention.

“Erm… oh, yes.” He nodded and looked back to the comm device in his hand. He’d kept it in his coat this whole time, you guessed and came out to check without anyone noticing. “The signals have been rather steady through the evening, I am not picking up any disturbances along the outer perimeter.” He stepped over, now focused on the screen. Of course, there was no way that he wasn’t totally focused on the mission. As you ought to be as well. He had just been surprised you were out here. Your eyes were drawn to the screen as he pointed out the signal and a fluctuation he had been worried about, though it turned out to be a false alarm. You chuckled lightly and you saw him look up at you out of the corner of your eye.

“You always have everything under control, don’t you?” You murmur. How did he always seem so calm, so unaffected by everything? You tried to be like that, but your emotions slipped out too often.

“Not… everything.” He confessed. You looked up and instantly regretted it. You hadn’t realised how close you’d gotten when looking at the screen and now Tech and his stunning eyes the colour of warm leather were right there. Inches away from your face.

“Wha-what do you mean?” You ask. Your eyes wander his face, he looks flushed, and his lip is trembling. Your concern grows and you stand up fully, stepping in front of him with a slight frown, both hands come up to cup his cheeks. “Tech, are you okay?” You ask, mostly concerned for him, you hadn’t seen him like this before.

“Of-of course-of course I am.” You leaned in closer, your eyes full of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Feisty…” Now he sounded out of breath.

“You know I would be terribly upset if something happened to you.” There was a slight pause as he raised his free hand to yours against his face, a little bashful smile on his lips as he avoided eye contact.

“And I, you.” He replied. Your heart ached. He was so sweet. Your eyes lingered on him, the way he nervously flicked his gaze over you, the way his lip twitched slightly as though trying to suppress a smile. His skin was warm and though he was still flushed, he didn’t seem like he was in any pain or anything. Maybe he’d had a sip of the wine too?

Before you knew what was happening, the gap between the two of you grew smaller, your lashes fluttered against his cheek as your eyes closed, and your lips pressed to his slowly, gently. A kiss full of admiration and affection. His hand gripped yours a little firmer and you felt your stomach tighten. Heat bloomed in the touch and it was like there was some music playing that only you could hear as his mouth moved against yours. You’d heard about fireworks when lovers kissed but you’d never felt it before… until now.

Suddenly a loud cheer from inside the ballroom startled the two of you apart. Apparently the wedding guests were partaking in another toast. Thats right. The wedding. The mission. You were meant to be paying attention. Not out here kissing one of your squadmates. Wait. Oh no. You kissed Tech. You kissed Tech! No no no! This was unprofessional! This was wrong! You weren’t supposed to do this with colleagues, it was dangerous to get involved. Not only that, Tech never asked for this, probably didn’t want this. He stood there with wide eyes, looking as horrified as you felt. All these thoughts slammed through your mind in a second before you tore yourself away.

“I’m sorry…!” You gasped, it was a weak apology. You felt a little dirty, there was no way he would have wanted that, not really. You just surprised him. No no no! This was not how things were supposed to happen!

A quick stop to the refresher to make sure you didn’t look dishevelled or out of place and you were back to work. You buried the awkward encounter and decided to pretend it never happened. This was going to be a long night.

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

Just a quick question, dou you guys prefer 'reader' interactions or OC's? I am not used to writing in the second person, and I am more used to chreating a character and the backstory etc. I can easily write it as 'she' and 'her' and give her an appearance etc. Anyway let me know your thoughts on that.

If you want more or want to be tagged in this series or my other works, lmk in comments.

Tag list: @eyecandyeoz @fallenrepublick @ashotofspotchka @sunipostsstuff @shuttlelauncher81 @1fineslytherin @cosmicsierra

#tbb fanfiction #tech x reader #tech x you #tbb tech #tech fluff #tag a tech simp #i didn't see this coming #who are you crazy people liking my writing #omg #but i love you #seriously i am overwhelmed

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angelanimedesaray · 4 years

Text

Wings in the Dark Chapter 1: Encounter

AN: All right...we’re flipping the script with this series, hehehe. Also, I’m doing MOSTLY similar vampire rules to the Investment series, but there’s gonna be some key differences to make things more...interesting. hehehe.

Listen, I’ve honestly had this idea for over a year, and it’s finally coming to fruition, I’m gonna be excited.

Tell me if you want tagged!

Characters: Levi, Vampire!Reader, Numerous BG Characters

Pairing: (Eventual) Levi x Reader

Warnings: Language...don’t really have anything else for this chapter

Word Count: 5616

Masterlist Next Chapter---->

*Reader’s POV*

The sound of new recruits in the midst of combat training filled the air, a cacophony of moving feet, cries of attack, sounds of pain, accelerated heartbeats and the occasional shouted order from a supervisor. The wind was strong enough to blow hair about your face, but not enough to be cutting, the sun beating down from above warm enough to drive away any chill from the wind. The occasional sliding foot kicked dust up into the air, making it hard not to sneeze as your sensitive nose became agitated from all the dust in the air. Your arms were held up in an at the ready stance, but your mind wasn’t entirely on the training that was happening in front of you.

The Survey Corps. At long last, you managed to make it past your training in the Cadet Corps and choose your branch of the military to go into. Despite the high death rate and the negative publicity the Survey Corps got, it had been your clear goal since day one. It was the only place you felt you could go where you might feel useful, where these abilities of yours could finally be put to good use.

Of course, you weren’t through with the training phase quite yet. The Scouts had their own tests to put the new recruits through, unique maneuvers and combat preparation that would also help determine where you were going to go within the regiment. You still had to get past this sorting period, so you didn’t let yourself get celebratory yet.

But still, two years of hard work in the Cadet Corps, learning to readjust, learning your limits, refining mannerisms, careful planning and consideration into your every move.

Of course, that wasn’t what it looked like to your classmates. To them, you were well aware that you were the cold and aloof antisocial bitch that would knock everyone to the ground like they were nothing in the combat training, and always kept everyone at a distance.

It wasn’t that you were hateful, far from it. You just didn’t want to risk anyone getting too close to you while you were in the Cadets. And it wasn’t your fault if the training came too easily for you--you couldn’t help your nature. Hell, most of your focus had gone into holding back and restraining yourself since day one. While you wanted to make an impression and prove your skill and worth in combat, you didn’t want to stand out too much and draw unwanted attention. It had taken ridiculous amounts of concentration and effort, carefully planned throws on tests and combat evaluations, in order to purposely place at sixth in the top ten. Skilled, but not a shining star that would get full attention.

But that first place spot could have easily been yours, if you didn’t have to be so careful about how you presented yourself.

As important as it was to do well in these tests to get properly placed somewhere you and your abilities could be of use, you still had to maintain the front of someone who ranked sixth, not suddenly display all the skill and strength that belonged to someone easily top of the class. Not to mention, you were on a time limit for something far more important to your stay in the cadets for the long run.

This was your grace period to figure out what you needed to do in order to blend in with everyone else. And not just in skill. Your main concern was your food source.

Back in the cadets, in had started as a painful struggle, having to find ways to sneak out without anyone noticing so you could get a proper bite that would last you at least half a month. The cadets had also been your trial by fire to see how well you could handle freshly spilled blood in front of you, though you were painfully aware that particular test was only going to get more difficult when you went out into the field and Titans started eating people.

Right now at the Scouts, though, you didn’t even have escape routes, predetermined, best routes to sneak out and get a drink without anyone noticing. You hadn’t pinned down sleeping schedules for everyone yet, either, so you could figure out who you needed to be wary of when you were trying to sneak out. If you couldn’t find good times to sneak out and the best ways to leave and return undetected, then your time with the Scouts would prove to be painfully short, for your own safety.

And you wanted to stay here as long as possible, for reasons that had taken root deep in your heart.

Of course, you still had to worry about the training and some basic parts of being a Scout, as well. You were still frustrated with yourself for forgetting one of the simplest things--the horses. Of course, you got a painful reminder when you entered the stables and the majority of the horses got nervous and skittish while the rest went wild.

Not everything was easy to you. You now had to find and befriend a horse that you could hopefully keep with you that wouldn’t be afraid of the predator it could sense in you. It was going to take time, and you were certain this oddity about you had already been noticed, but hopefully when you befriended one of the horses, any sparked suspicions would go away.

Then there was the ODM gear. Obviously you could operate it, you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t. The problem was that your instincts and reflexes could happen faster than the gear could operate. It made it difficult to slow down and operate it properly when you were running on instinct, and even after two years in the Cadets you were still trying to temper your natural instincts to slow down to something the gear could keep up with. Though you had managed in your personal training time to also craft some maneuvers of your own that was more forgiving to your sharp reflexes and instincts, maneuvers that actually required more physical movement and less dependability on the cables. The less you tried to do with the gear and more you did with your own body, the less of a chance you had to screw up a maneuver by going too fast for the gear to execute at a costly moment.

But out of everything in this grace period that was going to be the most difficult, it was the social aspect. You always kept everyone at a distance because you didn’t want anyone to get close enough to find out what you were, or to risk them getting hurt. As such, you usually came off as antisocial or rude, when really it was maddeningly lonely for you. But what else were you supposed to do? You didn’t even want to think of what kind of a disaster could unfold if you allowed yourself to get close to someone, they found out what you were, reacted negatively and then...and then what? What were you supposed to do with a threat to your safety when it was someone you’d grown close to?

You shuddered at the thought every time it wandered into your mind. This was one of your greatest concerns with being around people again, but now, you were in a situation where you were going to have to do the balancing act flawlessly anyway. One thing you had learned watching the Scouts so far was that there was a degree of trust and closeness in the community. Privacy was still a thing, obviously, and you didn’t have to be best friends with everyone...but people had to know you could be trusted, that you would have their backs out in the field. You had to be amicable at the very least with people--you couldn’t keep them all pushed far away or give them a reason to think you might be hiding something. You were going to have to start making friends with your comrades despite your reservations, but you couldn’t quite figure out how to start.

This was what you got for being a hermit living by herself for oh so long before coming back to the surface, back into daylight, back around people--

Your sparring partner shifted, and your eyes refocused slightly on the match in front of you. It seemed he was going to be one of the many who had seen the glazed over look in your eyes and assumed they could get the drop on you because you weren’t paying attention.

Just like everyone else, he was about to find out how wrong he was.

As he charged you, you reacted rather instinctively, grabbing at his arm and sweeping his leg out from under him before sending him to the ground on his own momentum.

“How?” he fumed. “You weren’t even paying attention!”

“You probably shouldn’t assume that of your opponent,” you returned calmly. Just because you’d been lost in your own thoughts didn’t mean you weren’t paying attention.

Your partner wilted slightly, looking dejected, and you had to stop and do some mental math to figure out how long the two of you had been sparring. It was probably best if you let him win this next one. Both so you could break this perfect streak and so he could get a bit of his pride and confidence back. Plus, you’d get to rotate to a new partner, and the cycle would start fresh. He could probably use some time matched more evenly against someone anyway. It wasn’t fair to anyone who got matched with you, even if they didn’t know it.

What were they supposed to do against someone they thought was human, that was anything but?

You fell back into your at-the-ready stance, watching him closely this time to make sure you knew exactly what he was going to do. He came at you again, his feet planted firmly, form practically perfect--

--you shifted one of your feet so that you were standing just a little too wide--

--and this time as he tackled you, he was able to easily knock you off your feet. Not too easily, you made sure there was enough resistance he found it believable, but for the most part, you let him knock you to the ground.

“Yes!” he cried successfully as he sprang back to his feet, the elation of finally receiving a victory causing his blood to rush in your ears. You closed your eyes and took your time getting calmly to your feet, brushing yourself off as you regained control of yourself.

You’d had a brief spike of hunger with his blood pumping so close to you. Thankfully, you had some practice controlling your thirst in these kinds of situations after so long in the Cadets.

While you were getting up, one of your overseers called for a switch in partners now that he had finally won a bought against you. You got to your feet as your partner scurried away in relief, brushing hair from your face as you waited expectantly to see who would be matched up with you this time.

Unfortunately, it seemed someone had caught your throw this time.

Instead of another new recruit stepping in front of you, a well maintained shock of raven hair and sharp pale blue eyes entered your vision as Captain Levi himself approached, his gaze centered solely on you.

You’d known he was helping supervise the new recruits--all the squad leaders and section commanders were rotating through so they could get a feel for the new recruits and see if there was anyone specifically they wanted with them. You hadn’t realized, however, that you’d caught his attention. But instead of looking pleased, he seemed a little irked.

Quickly, you snapped to a salute, body tense for a few moments as you waited to see what he was going to say. You already knew it wasn’t going to be praise.

“Throwing matches doesn’t help anyone,” Levi said bluntly, his sharp gaze fixated on you.

Fuck, he’d noticed that? You supposed anyone paying close enough attention could catch it, but you’d hoped you were being subtle enough your throws would go undetected.

Then again, this was an entirely different field from the Cadets. You were among the true elite, if you were going to put a bit of your bias in there, and if anyone was going to catch on…

You needed to be more careful.

“I felt he would benefit more from a different sparring partner, sir,” you said stiffly. It wasn’t a lie--hell, anyone would do better if they were paired with someone other than you. You didn’t mean for that to sound cocky, but it was the truth. You were naturally designed to outmatch humans.

“You don’t seem to be putting much effort into this training, either. Do you feel it’s beneath you, cadet?” Levi asked, his voice low. Some of your old classmates that had come to the Scouts as well were letting their eyes wander to the scene in the middle of the training field, most likely looking forward to the frigid ‘slacker’ finally get what was coming to her.

“Quite the opposite, sir. Titans aren’t the only threat in the world--you never know when you’ll need training like this,” you countered, meeting his gaze as you gave a reason that you’d once uttered to shut down the dismissal of other cadets for these person on person combat training exercises. You had your own demons these kinds of moves could be used against, but there were also plenty of...unpleasant...people in the world. You never knew when your life would be threatened by another person, and it was in those moments when you would want this kind of training.

Of course, with your reflexes and strength, it was easier to execute them. Your learning process went into learning the techniques, and once you had that down, you really didn’t have much to worry about.

There was a spark of curiosity in Captain Levi’s eyes at your answer--apparently it hadn’t been a wrong one. You recognized the training’s value instead of brushing it off like most people. And most people who did realize its value usually didn’t state it openly like you just had. Maybe you should have cut that last part out.

He still didn’t look pleased, though, which was understandable if his observations had led him to believe you weren’t taking this training as seriously as it should, that you were brushing it off.

“Then you wouldn’t mind showing me what you’ve learned. I’ll expect perfection with that attitude of yours,” Levi said in a flat voice, taking a few more steps until he was standing opposite you. There was a dangerous note in his voice, and you had the feeling he intended to make you take this sparring seriously, with full attention.

“Sir?”

Levi didn’t answer. He fell into an at the ready position across from you, and you realized he wasn’t going to give you time to ask any more questions. He was about to attack, and you had better be ready for it.

You finally dropped the salute that had loosened during your brief conversation, falling back into a similar at the ready position and feeling your attention start to sharpen. Around you, people were turning their attention away from their training to see Captain Levi give the careless newbie a lesson.

A small part of you whispered that perhaps you should let him take you down right out of the gates, have him teach you the lesson and then move on, deal with the fact you’d made a poor impression on the captain of the Elite Squad.

You let out a slow breath, the world snapping into attention as you honed in on your opponent, Humanity’s Strongest.

Something inside you refused to lay down and take it. You were going to at least show him that you had potential. This was your moment to prove that it wasn’t all bravado and charades. You had skill to back it up, you were capable, and you were not some slacker that wasn’t taking any of this seriously. You were here to fight, to help in the push against the Titans,, no matter what anyone thought from their first impression of you. You were here to stay.

Levi’s eyes flashed, and your body instinctively tensed for the oncoming attack as he darted forward with an almost inhuman speed. You clamped down on your instinct to use your truly inhuman speed to step out of the way, instead choosing to block or at least re-direct the blow with his foot with your arm as you went low, ducking under the kick and coming up on his side. Levi was already turning when you were halfway up, and his fist connected with your side, causing you to take a few steps back.

Shit, that hurt. He really was going to teach you a lesson to take this seriously, wasn’t he? If you didn’t want to end up beat to hell, you better be ready to show him you were learning.

And after the strength of that blow and the speed of his attack, you were going to have to put some actual effort into this.

Levi was already coming in again with another attack, fist cutting through the space between the two of you. You turned your body aside to avoid it, knee coming up to try and get him in the gut. He knocked it aside with his other arm as you blocked the one that had tried to punch you from coming at you again, grabbing onto his forearm and bringing yourself into his space. You threw a punch of your own, still holding back to avoid seriously hurting him, but he blocked it just as quickly, the two of you grappling up close with a series of punches, blocks, and shifted feet before you decided to break away, fists still up and ready for a pursuit. He kept using his small stature to get under your defenses and go after your weak spots, using momentum and your own weight against you. But you were able to return in kind, upping the effort you put into your offense and defense with every block or failed hit.

You could hear his heart, which had started so steady and calm, starting to pick up from effort and exertion as well--so you weren’t the only one who had started to put effort into this fight. You were both two combatants that rarely found someone on their level to fight, and now here you were.

A voice in the back of your mind screamed to stop and throw the fight before you gave away too much, but you couldn’t stop yourself, your own heart pounding with excitement. When was the last time someone could actually challenge you? Which one of you was actually capable of winning this fight?

Hell, you’d never thought someone human could stand toe to toe with you in basic hand to hand without bringing some dirty tricks to the match, but here you were. As exciting as it was, there was also something strangely...relieving, about it. Reassuring.

Levi’s knee flashed through your vision, and you had to lean back, hands coming down to meet it and stop the assault before it could connect with your chin.

Reflection could come later, right now...well, you should really be throwing this fight, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. You kept meeting his attacks and coming in with your own, no matter how much reason screamed at you to stop.

Suddenly, Levi switched tactics, and instead of coming in to hit you, he grappled you to the ground, the two of you now caught in a tussle to see who could pin the other and end this fight. His arm started to snake around your throat, and you quickly placed an arm against your throat to break the incoming hold, dropping your shoulder with hands wrapped around his forearm to throw him over you. He managed to keep his grip for the most part, but he was no longer in the position to choke you out from behind.

His heartbeat, as well as your own, continued to pound in your ears, telling you just how much you both were fighting. This had rapidly changed from a lesson to be taught into a straight up match at some point, both of you fighting for dominance, with not a single peep from the onlookers as both of you started throwing in dirty tactics that looked more like skills learned on the streets than something taught in military training.

He’d landed some solid hits on you, easily bruising your body where he connected, but so had you. Of course, you were still trying to be careful and not hurt him, but the longer this fight went on, the less restraint you showed, because all the while you were testing his limits, seeing how far you could safely go, and you had yet to see a sign that it had been to far.

At this rate, I wouldn’t mind this being a regular thing. This is exhilarating.

In the scuffle, Levi ended up below you in the middle of a roll, and you took advantage of the position, leg planted firmly behind him near his head, arm grasping his and pulling it up, about to trap him in a position where he wouldn’t be able to move without breaking a limb.

You felt a tingle on the back of your neck as your eyes met.

Levi’s eyes widened in surprise.

Your ears perked at the first sign of whispers among your spectators.

“Is she...gonna beat Captain Levi?”

“I thought he was Humanity’s Strongest?”

“Some random cadet is gonna beat Levi?”

Your heart froze, even as your body kept moving.

He couldn’t hear the whispers, not that you felt he cared much about such a moniker, but you could hear, and you did care. Levi knew he was about to be beat, you could see the flicker of realization in his eyes. And right now, with both of you putting effort into this fight and no attempts to throw from you so far, he might pounce on an opening without seeing it for the throw it was.

Maybe.

Whether that was true or not, this fight had to end, and it had to end one way.

Your grip shifted slightly on his arm, your foot slid slightly to the side, and you changed your weight distribution, giving him a split second window he could still get out of this. And just as you’d hoped, he took full advantage, breaking your grip on his arm and knocking you off balance with your now unsecure stance and uneven weight distribution. As quickly as you’d started to pin him, Levi suddenly leapt on top, his arm pressed hard against your chest as you found yourself flat on your back, wind knocked out of you abruptly by the fast move.

In the brief second before Levi pulled away, you saw disappointment in his eyes.

Right.

This all started because he realized you were throwing fights. And now you’d just thrown the fight with him. Whether or not he knew why was up for debate, but what matters was he knew you threw it at the last second.

Levi got to his feet, brushing dirt off himself with distaste before he stared down at you with a face that looked perfectly controlled, though those eyes of his were gazing at you with a thousand thoughtful emotions that made you uneasy as you sat up.

“Put that effort into sparring with your comrades, and they might learn something,” he said dismissively, then turned and left the field, most likely to go clean himself up.

You got to your feet, expression hidden by hair that had fallen loose in the match. Now that it was over, you were able to think more clearly, and you were chastising yourself thoroughly on the inside for such a stupid move.

Who cared if it had felt exhilarating to spar with someone on even ground? Who cared if you hadn’t wanted to give him the wrong impression of you on what might have been his first time seeing you? Who cared if the feeling of realizing there was someone out there that wasn’t what you were, that could fight you like that, was akin to not feeling so alone for the briefest second?

You shouldn’t have done that. You weren’t supposed to be drawing that kind of attention to yourself. It was sloppy and stupid and you could only see it resulting in trouble. You should have thrown the match far earlier than when you had, you shouldn’t have given everyone the impression that you could take Levi’s title from him.

Because even if it could, even if you were able to best him in a fight, you shouldn’t. Not in public, anyway, where word could spread and people started calling you the strongest instead. It wasn’t right, and the thought made you feel dirty and ashamed.

A vampire shouldn’t have the title of Humanity’s Strongest.

*Levi’s POV*

Coming out of the bath with damp hair still hanging on his face and shirt not buttoned up yet, Levi let out a soft sigh and leaned against the wall beside his office window, hand brushing thoughtfully over a nasty bruise he’d gotten in that sparring match from the cadet, his mind lost in thought even as he started carefully buttoning up the shirt.

That...had not turned out like he’d expected it to.

When he saw her throw that match so cleverly after watching her act with such clear distance during the training, he’d been irritated at the thought that she wasn’t taking the training seriously. Or that she might think throwing the fight helped her opponent somehow by making him think they’d won on their own merit. They weren’t going to learn if they were allowed to win. If anything, such a move hurt their progress more than it helped, so he’d intended to put a stop to that thinking before it got too far. Besides, with how carefully she timed and planned that throw, she had to have some kind of real skill she was hiding.

What he couldn’t understand was why she would hold back. Especially now, at the stage where the aptitude shown decided where each recruit would be tasked.

No matter what the reason behind it all, he’d felt a push was necessary to make her step it up and start trying. Seeing her standing there appearing not to take any of it seriously had been irksome, and he wasn’t going to let it happen while he was on the training grounds.

As he’d thought, she’d sharpened up when he challenged her. There was no far away glaze in her eyes when he stepped up to spar her, just unbridled focus and determination, perhaps even a bit of excitement. For a moment, he’d despised it because he thought it was because she was one of those, so hell bent on impressing him, everything else be damned. The kind of attitude that got people killed out in the field because they were too busy trying to impress instead of actually learn, that showed people to be nothing more than squabbling children who weren’t taking any of this seriously.

As the fight progressed and she started to show her true strength, though, it started to make more sense.

He could still vividly picture the shift in her demeanor, the glint in her eyes the second before their spar began. How at that moment, he knew he was about to see if she was sitting on true potential and was paying attention, or was just blowing smoke up people’s asses and blowing it all off.

He’d been fully ready to knock her into the dirt in that first strike to knock reality back into her, but that wasn’t what happened. He’d been genuinely surprised when she managed to block and keep up with him, even more with how well she was able to return what he gave her. Quickly he’d abandoned the thoughts of teaching an arrogant cadet a lesson and instead started to prod at her capabilities, intrigued and impressed with what he found. Being able to spar with someone on such even ground was a rarity, and he’d found the experience rather...exhilarating.

She was faster and stronger than she appeared, just like him. She was also quite clever--predictably, considering the care she’d put into throwing her matches--and had clearly been paying attention to the taught techniques. However, when he’d thrown something street learned and not taught by the military, she hadn’t flinched, and pulled a few underhanded street fighting techniques of her own.

Which gave him a peek at her background, as well. If he was to look, he would bet his salary that he would find that she got into some kind of trouble in the past--the illegal kind.

Several of her blows had, clearly, hurt, which told him she wasn’t holding back anymore--at least not as much. A part of him could tell, through their whole fight, that there was still something she was holding back with, just like he was. He hadn’t tapped into that strange power of his, not fully, and she had also kept herself from using her full potential--something tipped off by the fact her attacks had been getting progressively faster and harder. Of course, in a spar, you weren’t supposed to go all out--for example, neither of them were trying to do anything lethal. But even then, she was sitting on something.

Now he was fairly confident the reason she’d been holding back on the others had been to avoid hurting a comrade by accident. That he couldn’t fault her for, but she still shouldn’t have been throwing the fights. They needed to learn, and making them think they’d won didn’t help them.

Of course, there was also the glaring fact of how she’d ended that fight.

He had definitely been shocked the moment he’d realized she was about to pin him. Of course it hadn’t been anywhere in his mind that a younger rookie would beat him in a spar--before today he would have thought that kind of suggestion was madness. But she’d done it, and for the briefest moment, just before she would have pinned him, he saw the faintest red glimmer in her eyes.

Then some kind of realization hit her, she seemed to register she was about to win as well, and she’d shifted. At first, he’d thought she’d simply hesitated, that her unbalance had come from getting inside her own head in the middle of the fight, and he had pounced on that opportunity. There was another part of that moment that was worrisome to him, though.

For some reason, he’d reacted off a survival instinct, even though he was well aware that it was a spar. It hadn’t been a mere moment of ‘I want to win this fight,’ but a split second where he felt like an eagle pinned down by a horned owl, where natural instinct told him if he didn’t break free…

But of course...it had just been a spar, no matter what the novel moment had made him feel for a split second.

Of course, once he had her pinned beneath him, he realized how easy the motion had been--to easy for someone who was a hair’s breath away from being pinned and the fight being over. And he could tell from the look in her eyes, the dulling of that sharp gaze and the distance in her posture, that she’d thrown the fight.

Again.

Of course he was disappointed. The entire spar had started because she’d been throwing matches with her fellow recruits, and at the last second, when she would have pinned even him and proven what she was capable of, she backed off. She held back.

The only two who knew she really won that fight was him, and her.

He knew she’d been holding back the whole time. That she threw at the end. That there was a dangerous edge to her. That even if he went all out, there was a chance she could take him.

Levi looked out his office window, which overlooked the training grounds that were now empty after combat training had finished. Why did she do it? Why did she throw the fight? Why was she hiding her potential instead of showing what she was truly capable of? What did she want to hide, and why was she trying to hide it?

Who was she?

Did she have a power similar to his own?

Did he want her on his squad? That question he was far more unsure about, because while her raw skill alone tempted him to recruit her to the Elite Squad, something stirred uneasily in his gut about her. From the look in her eyes, that glint, that moment of survival instincts kicking in, all the unknowns...

There were too many questions and too many unknowns about her right now. He wasn’t about to act hastily. First, he needed to learn what he could about this new recruit, ask around and keep an eye on her from a distance. Once his questions were answered…

Well, that all depended on what he would find after some digging.

Next Chapter---->

Levi Tags: @humanitys-hottestsoldier @clary-quinn @sunny-flo @whalerus

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pinkchanelbag · 3 years

Text

— there’s no one else; chapter two.

a jean kirstein x reader mafia au.

last | masterlist | next

series summary: a boy caught in a web with his survival depending on balancing niceties between his predators. a prim girl on thin ice that leads down the path of least resistance. no one too close and no one too far, no allegiance unquestioned, and no child whose value and future goes without evaluation like a playing card that determines their worth. to be destined for big things is more like being doomed to them, but that’s the way it goes. it’s just family matter.

chapter summary: the party begins.

wc: 1.9k.

cw: still nothing lol

note: putting this out short notice cause it’s JEANBOYS BIRTHDAYYY BABYYY anyway enjoy heeheee and my apologies for the slow plot thus far i swear it picks up trust me bro.

the venue is obnoxiously grand. the garden is more akin to a football field than anything else. there is no central lighting, but rather pure white string lights everywhere, everywhere. tucked behind and underneath tables and wrapped around trees and laying in the overhead greenery and in the bushes that act as walls. wherever you look, your eyes are strained, and you’re sure the dining hall can be seen from the moon.

speaking of the dining hall, the organizers cleverly blocked off the front entrance to the building so that one is forced to walk the expanse of the entire garden—surely to ooh and aah at its elegant taste—in order to get inside through the back door entrance. in other words, having to greet every single member of the family before so much as putting your clutch down.

you apply a friendly, attentive expression to your face each time pieck stops to greet someone new, having mastered the art of being engaged but not so engaged it’s troublesome, while in reality being completely disengaged in any way. as pieck converses with a bulky man drinking wine and you pick apart the key points (“we don’t got the ammo to make deals with top contractors—legal team in shambles—not good to have a weak spot”), really you are letting your eyes wander over the shrubbery which has been trimmed to perfection. yes, the lights are a pain and the band is too loud so early in the event, and there is not enough walking space between the bushes so people squeeze together to reach the large clearing of the garden. a perfectly obnoxious party, except you can’t help but appreciate the greenery. somehow, it is the only thing about this evening that doesn’t seem ridiculous. or maybe you’re just unusually irritated tonight.

your eyebrows knit so slightly at this realization. why are you being so disagreeable? impatience and intolerance seem to grow in your chest for no particular reason. you make a note to identify the source of your mood, and quickly resolve it. there’s work to be done.

karina braun is a kind, opinionated sheep of a woman. she is liked by all, and not because she’s particularly easy to like, but rather because she’s hard to hate. stuck in her times and not having much intellectual value, she is possibly the most important woman in all the families. being the mother of reiner braun and the head of the braun-galliard family, gives her luxury without responsibility. you’ve only met her once before, and she possessed the kind of ignorance many privileged older women have. but still she’s kind, so you can’t justify how she makes you weary.

her birthday, funnily enough, constitutes one of the very few gatherings that frowns upon trying to discuss family matter during the events, unlike a young girl’s birthday. it has to do with respect, you suppose.

you spend your first half-hour at the party hovering around pieck as she makes small talk with associates, becoming increasingly nervous at your lack of breakthrough in communication with the family. you know the most important thing is your encounter with karina, and that will open up further talks with others, but you stall to approach her, imperceptibly steering pieck further away from the centre table where the older woman sits. not yet.

“are you going to keep leading me through the same semi-circle, or are you just going to go talk to her?” pieck asks calmly. you curse her intelligence in your mind.

“i’m just nervous,” you murmur, smiling politely at a group of men at a distance that eyes you like the business deal you are.

“you should be, but that doesn’t change that you have to do it.” your eyes flick to look at the woman beside you for a moment. her expression is not encouraging or consoling, nor is it unsettling. it’s fitting. what you and pieck have is less than friendship but more than acquaintanceship. often you feel as thought she’s reading your emotions like an open book, which can be scary considering how many of them you really hide. but if and when she sees them, she doesn’t seem to care, whether they’re incriminating or worthy of sympathy. she sees you, and that is all. it’s not a comfort, nor a curse.

“what are you waiting for?” she says, but it’s a genuine question rather than a push to complete the task at hand. you realize you’re waiting for porco. you want porco at your side. you want his strength and his jagged-edged ambition, and the forcefulness that makes you do the things your heart has no energy for.

“i just think it would be better if the boys were here,” you breathe. again, pieck sees your meaning, and your fright, and leaves it be.

for the next eternity, you drink champagne and stretch back your memory to know if all parties are this boring once you become an adult, or if the braun family has a particular talent for making you crave the sight of paint drying. the closest thing to entertainment—and not the hired folk who attempt to call themselves singers—is gabi’s voice, which can be heard no matter where in the garden you stand. she tells stories, strikes up arguments, and gathers food and drink with her friends, all at top volume. for some reason, you don’t find amusement in this either, and really start to worry about this attitude problem you’ve got this night. to add on, porco’s meeting seems to stretch painfully long. it was a short-notice meeting, which either meant something very very good or very very bad—more so when he told you he was being picked up for it by reiner, colt, and annie. some of the most important family members gathering for an emergency meeting means trouble. your anxiety bubbles in your stomach, and you worry that your not approaching the woman of the hour is reaching a point where it might be seen as—rude.

the guests are alerted that dinner is ready. it’s not long before each person has situated themselves along the tables that line the large garden. the seating plan is loosely maintained, but you have nowhere near the entitlement to mingle among other tables. you find yours and stay at it, and it’s only then that you get an idea of just how many people are at this event. each table is packed, holding roughly six people, and there are too many to count in the chaos, but they create a semi-rectangle in three respective rows. you make out countless bodies but few faces, just an endless sea of tuxedos and lovely dresses. at the front of the garden is the head table, where karina sits alone save gabi’s bouncing body going back and forth. your table is is only a few feet from hers, but you take a seat that puts your back to her front so you don’t make the unforgivable mistake of accidental eye contact. you’re to sit with porco, and his table—the galliard table—is the one closest in importance to the braun table. you are the only one at the table, further reminder of porco’s tardiness. the longer you fiddle with the white cloth on the surface, the more you worry about what exactly the meeting could mean.

and then pieck comes and sits across from you without a word. as always, you know it’s only family matter—the concern that you look out of place—motivating her and not your obvious discomfort, but you’re grateful nonetheless.

as the servers stream into the garden like white-clad troops armed with dome platters, a champagne glass’s unmistakeable ding ding ding catches the attention of the guests. a table near karina’s opposite side, not quite flanking her but near enough to display some importance. a man stands with his glass raised, looking unfitting for the position with the way his arm hesitantly dips and re-straightens. bertholdt, yet another notable name in braun-galliard (and it’s your job to know all the names), seems to be the only person around able to give the welcome speech. it’s easy to listen only selectively to the announcements and shoutouts, disregarding all the thank yous and remember whens and listening in for honored guests (who are honored because they’ve proven themselves useful). luckily for you, bertholdt’s clumsy speech has a clear distinction between the two categories, his eyes downturned to cards in which he lists off important guests and whatever thing they did to end up on he list before him.

“a special welcome to general theo magath of the mexican military, who has been so generous to the family’s trade routes…” bertholdt’s words are careful, partly because of the nature of the things he is sharing, but also because all his actions have been careful since his fall from grace. formerly one of the most reliable heavy men in the family, bertholdt’s reputation was shot to hell when an important—very important—family member was killed on his watch. despite having happened years and years ago now, it took extensive efforts to just convince the higher-ups that he wasn’t in bed with the killer. it’s common knowledge that bertholdt’s incident was the first and last time someone “had it easy” from braun-galliard due to his close friendship with reiner himself.

“an especially relieving guest to see here tonight—“

and—finally—the stragglers stalk into the clearing. like most others, you hear of their arrival from the ripple of murmurs long before you see them, seeing as their whereabouts are blocked off by tables and bushes. a few people stand up, but are quickly beckoned to sit down again and redirect their attention to the speaker, who clears his throat nervously.

“carry on, bertholdt,” reiner’s affecting voice breaks through the space, and it’s enough to settle the audience, or at least have them pretend to pay attention while the late-comers shuffle through the outskirts of the tables to find their seats. bertholdt proceeds slowly.

“…a person i’m sure we will all come to rely on during this chaotic time…”

you catch the first glimpse of porco as he turns the final corner of the rectangle, reiner walking before him and colt and annie just behind. reiner is the first to arrive to his table, the invitees seeming to hold their chests a little taller for the family’s true head—in every way except on paper—as he slides into his seat and presses a kiss to his mother’s cheek.

“…a great legacy behind him and a bright career ahead, and we’re surely glad he’s kicked it off in our company…” bertholdt goes on. you and porco’s eyes meet, and immediately you know something is the matter; you’re just not sure if it’s fury or ecstasy in his gleam.

colt and annie find their seats in the table just after yours, and finally porco is near enough to see—and ignore—the look of alarmed curiosity on your face. he arrives to the table, giving pieck a look of “we’ll talk later,” and briefly stopping behind your chair. his calloused hands are on your arms for a moment, running up and down comfortingly.

“—a happy welcome to—“

“hey, doll.”

“—jean kirstein.”

and your eyes flick away from porco’s and into the crowd of faceless bodies, and the anxieties that kept your brain buzzing with life halt and collapse to the floor of your mind like dead flies.

jean?

#nia.tne #nia.jean #nia.txt #jean kirstein #jean kirschtein x reader #jean kirschtein imagine #jean kirschtein headcanons #jean kirschstein #aot x reader #aot #attack on titan #snk #porco galliard x reader #porco galliard #pieck finger

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supernaturallyobsessedchic · 4 years

Text

Goner

[Gif credited to original poster, @zombiepenguin334 , it just shows the dominance Dean would have in the bedroom.]

Warnings: Fluff, Pranks (including fake damage to a certain 67 Chevy Impala), some attempt at crack or comedy, language, kind of/sort of smut (Oral, orgasm denial, plus a daddy kink), rest is implied smut.

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Summary: Sam pranks Dean, but Dean thinks the reader did it. But something tells Dean, she needs to be punished for her actions.

Word Count: 1,761

Mobile Masterlist

A/N: I started out smutty but then lost my smuttiness, don’t think I have it in me to make it explicitly smutty. Hopefully it was good enough.

a/n #2: All I can say is, think of the Simpson’s “I’m in Danger” meme it’ll be italics.

a/n #3: Named it after a song, lyrics are at the end. It’s just a few lines, I swear.

For @supernatural-jackles Bi-Weekly Writing Challenge

Prompts: “I’m laughing because you’re angry. I swear I didn’t do it!”, such a needy little thing, aren’t ya?, “I bet the neighbors know my name.”

“Perfect.” Sam mutters, applying another sticker on his brothers Impala.

To be fair, Dean started it with dying Sam’s hair neon pink by adding the die to his shampoo. Poor Sam had to go to a salon to remove it by dying his hair back to a reasonable color close to his original hair color. Now Sam has resorted to buying stickers, that you can easily remove, to make it look like his car was shot at and scratched. And it looked rather convincing.

Dean was going to be pissed. And pissed might be an understatement.

“Hey Sam,” Y/N says, entering the garage where Sam was adding flare by grabbing a knife and gun from the trunk and heading towards the unsuspecting Y/N. “Something just pinged, it sounds like the darkness but I’m not one hundred on – why are you handing me these?” she asks, as Sam hands her the items and runs.

“Sam!” she calls out after him but continues into the garage to investigate what the younger Winchester was up to. And sees the devastation done to Dean’s car.

“Sam,” she could hear Dean enter the garage.

“Oh shit, oh fuck,” she mutters under her breath, as she scrambles to get rid of the knife and gun.

But when she turned and she sees the older Winchester enter, but hasn’t seen the catastrophe. Not until he’s right at his car.

“What the fuck?” she heard him say. “SAM!” He shouts. Tearing his throat up.

He turns and sees her holding a knife and gun, completely ignoring her shocked expression which, for some reason, turned into fearful laughter.

“I know what you’re thinking, but Dean, trust me, I didn’t do it.” she says, heart pounding in her chest.

“Why the, what the, you did this!?” he stammers. Veins bulge out of his head, clearly angry. She laughs even more.

“This isn’t funny, look at my car!” he yells.

“I know, I’m sorry, it wasn’t me I swear!” she laughs, sounding a lot like she’s crying.

“Quit laughing!” he shouts.

“I’m laughing because you are angry, I swear I didn’t do it!” she shouts. “Oh god, I’m in danger!” she adds, laughing harder.

Her laughter, caused tears streaming down her cheeks, her cheeks burned as the blood flow continued to rise, even her ears felt warm.

Confused he could just look at her, then back at the car. Then back at her.

Since Y/N joined the Winchester’s, it was at first just a protection duty. A horde of werewolves from a pack Y/N’s family nearly wiped out was out for revenge. So, the boys protected her, even hunted down a good number of the members of the pack. Even the wolves, and the brothers learned that though her family continued to hunt, she doesn’t.

She went to school, became a freelancing graphic designer and writer. She had a life, a normal apple pie life.

Then she heard her parents died on a hunt, a witch hunt, when an unusual spell took hold of her dad, taking him out slow and painful, her mom was poisoned by the witch.

She never believed in revenge, but when she learned of this, the thought of following her parents lingered. Then the brothers came. Rescued her, the werewolves and her came to a truce, and an agreement. No hunting humans, or her, they’ll live all happily ever after. Sam even recommended them Garth, and added reinforcement, called Garth up to be on the look out to help them out.

Ever since that odd encounter, the brothers and Y/N have been really close. Especially with Dean. She was exactly like him. More ways than some. She keeps him in check. And he’s her rock.

But something about the way she’s looking, the way she’s dressed, is effecting him.

Her short ripped jean shorts, showing her perfectly toned legs and thighs, a black fitted t-shirt sporting YouTube entertainment. Her favorite gaming channel being Achievement hunter. And wearing his many flannels. His black and white flannel. He remembered when he knew he lost it to her.

After a hunt, the boys were gone a week longer than planned, she was scared out of her wits about them. He found her sleeping in his bed with his flannel on. He didn’t fight it, argue it, nothing. Not when he saw the fresh wetness on her cheeks when he returned. He slept with her close to him, even he needed to be reminded she was there.

“You know,” Dean’s voice was low, a different kind of low. It made Y/N stop laughing dead in her tracks. “That wasn’t cool, maybe you need to be punished, little girl.” He says.

“Huh?” she breathes. Out of breath from laughing.

“Does, a certain, naughty little girl need a, hard, and heavy, pounding.” He continues.

Her pussy clenches around nothing at his words. Causing a breathy moan to escape.

“Oh fucking destroy me daddy.” She mutters.

“Car. Now.” He demanded.

She walks over to the front of the impala, trips over her feet a bit before making it to the car.

“As punishment, you don’t get to touch any of this.” He says, grabbing his dick, rubbing it even through the rough denim material. Causing her to whine.

“Lean back.” He demands.

Her ass on the hood, she sets her hands back to keep her upright as she leaned back further away from Dean. But Dean kept close to her.

He lightly brushes her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. She squirms at his touch.

He slowly leans it, painfully slow. She can feel his hot breath on her lips. And his lips just barely touch when she found herself leaning in, needy. He places a gentle hand on her shoulder stopping her.

“Nah, uh, uh.” He says playfully. “Little girl’s being punished, remember.”

“But,” she says.

“You’ll get some, in time.” He says. His hands roam her body, slipping off the flannel. He tosses it aimlessly aside.

His hands go under her shirt. She can feel his warm, gentle touch on her stomach and sides as he guides the shirt up and over her head, and off her arms.

He lets in a deep breath, but comes out a growl when he exhales.

“Bedroom, now.” He growls.

Without hesitation she leads the way to Dean’s bedroom. Dean slams the door shut.

“Bed.” He orders. She lays her back on the bed, crawling back towards the head of the bed where her back is on the headboard.

His lips didn’t hesitate to make their way to hers in a needy kiss. His tongue teasing it’s way in, when her lips part enough his tongue claims hers, lips not leaving as their love is being poured ounce by ounce in the kiss.

His hands take hers, placing them over her head. He pulls away from the kiss.

“Keep them there.” He pants.

“Dean,” she whines. Squirming under him.

He works his belt off of his jeans, tying them around her wrists in away so he could have it tied above her head, unable to touch him.

His lips are back on hers in an instant, as he undresses her.

“So, fucking gorgeous.” He says in the kiss. She moans into his mouth.

He smirks. “Someone likes being praised.” He says. Making her smile as he pulls out of the kiss, pulling her shorts and panties away in one swoop.

His mouth is watering at the sight of her, and wastes no time. One flick of his tongue at her aching core, a strangled moan escapes her throat.

He knows when she’s close when her hips find a rhythm and she tries to get more friction with each thrust. Causing him to stop. This happens a few times.

“Dean, I fucking swear,” she growls, pleasure building in a state she’s never experienced before. “If you don’t fucking fuck me stupid, I’m not baking you anymore of my famous berry pie.” She threatens.

“Damn, such a needy little thing, aren’t ya?” Dean asks, with a smirk.

“I mean it, if you deny me an orgasm I’ll fucking murder you.” She growls.

“Sure you will.” He taunts.

“Watch me.” She adds.

Dean sheds his shirt before he continues his torture.

Hot and sweaty under the sheets, they pant, still catching their breath after what seems like a pornographic marathon. But really it was just really intense orgasm after orgasm.

“Okay, who knew orgasm denial would grant me one killer orgasm.” She says. “I mean, I blacked out for a second there, it was that good.” She comments.

“Glad I was able to make you feel good.” Dean says, keeping his arm around her, holding her close. Feeling her place a gentle kiss on his chest.

The pair hear a groan out in the hall. Causing them to laugh.

“Something tells me he knows we did some things.” Dean says.

“Well yeah Dean, I bet the neighbors know my name now.” She says grinning. Making Dean laugh.

“Sweetheart, I bet everyone in China knows your name now.” He adds. Earning a cackle laugh in agreement.

After a longing pause, she sighs.

“Still with me sweetheart?” he asks.

“We did a thing, didn’t we? We’re now a thing?” she asked.

“I’m sure we can stop with the sneaking around, hiding and just admit that we have a thing for each other.” He says.

“Yeah, I was starting to wonder if we’d ever fess up?” she says.

“I’m sure we would have.” He said. “It’d either me doing something stupid, or us doing this. It would have been one of two ways.” He adds.

“Yep.” She says.

A yawn escaping her. “What do you wanna do tomorrow?” she slurs, as sleep is coming knocking.

“How about I take you out to dinner? And even another one of these nights just not so…”

“Pornographic.” She adds. Earning a chuckle from Dean.

“Yeah, that.” He says.

He places a loving kiss on her forehead, as he lets sleep take him in.

“Goodnight sweetheart.” He says.

“G’night Dean,” she says, yawning again. “Love you.” She adds.

He smiles, with a light chuckle so as to not jostle her. “Love you to baby.” He whispers.

As he brings her in tighter, she even helps by snuggling in more into his chest, as sleep takes them in.

I can’t stop now, there’s no way out, I’m a goner. I’m falling fast, I’m gonna crash, I’m a goner. I am captivated by your treasure, and it’ll be this way now, forever. I’m a goner.

Dean tag list:

@pandazombie69

@luci-in-trenchcoats

@supernatural-jackles

@becs-bunker

@mlovesstories

@winchesters-favorite-girl

Copying and reposting someone else’s content is plagiarism and illegal. This work is property of supernaturallyobsessedchic. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher. An electronic reference link to the original posted work may be provided for purposes of promotion or assistance of publication by the readers discretion, if proper credits are given to the author in the re-post. 09/30/2020

#spn #supernatural #spn smut #dean x reader #dean x reader smut #supernatural fan fic #supernatural fan fiction #spn fan fic #spn fan fiction #spn fanfic #spn fanfiction #supernatural-jackles bi-weekly writing challenge #jen's bi-weekly writing challenge #writing challenge #bi-weekly writing challenge #deanxreader #dean winchester #dean winchester fic

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Wonder Woman 1984 Review “The Monkey’s Paw Wish of Superhero Movies”

Before we dig in, I just want to properly frame how much of a fucking disapointment this film was to me. It was thanks to the first film that I became the massive Wonder Woman fan I am today. Thanks to that movie and it’s accompanying sale, as Comixology likes to put sales on to tie into things as you’d expect, I tried Greg Rucka’s run on the title.. and quickly bought the second volume and will buy the third which didn’t exist yet at some point, as it’s easily one of my faviorite comics of all time, one i’ll undoubtly cover, and one that throughly sold me on the amazon princess, and throughly defined what she is to me: a compasionate warrior. Someone who WILL fight, who will take on the bad guys without hesitation, and who WILL kill if she has to.. but also someone whose compationate. Who will genuinely try to reform foes, who only kills as a last resort and not as a first option like some adaptations and the new 52 seem to think. She’s someone who in said run went out of her way to help her old friend and currently brainwashed foe Vanessa Kapetlis get cured of being the silver swan. She’s someone whose wholhe purpose for writing a book wasn’t money but simply to spread her people and her gods teachings. Someone whose , kind, noble, badass, smart and easily every bit the pure soul superman is. The run sold me on the character throughly and made me a fan to this day, one currently pouring thorugh both Rucka’s second run, and George Perez’ equally good run and one who hopes the upcoming dc relaunch means she’ll stop swapping writers every few months and get the run she deserves. I just wanted to sell how much I treasured the character now thanks to the first movie and thus how hyped beyond hype I was for this movie. It had a great cast, a great setting, cool trailers.. sure they didn’t show off the plot but it had to be good right? This couldn’t be say.. a giant, overly long mess of tangled plots, padding, terrible pacing, unfortunate implications and pedro pascal devouring the scenery in a manner galactus would be proud of right?

Well that’s what we got. After a year of hoping it’d come out some way this year, after having it delayed and after a year where MANY projects I loved were necessarily delayed due to covid... I got what I wanted. I got the movie i’d been hoping to see for months and months and months... and just like the wishes in the movie itself... it went horribly, horribly wrong. What I expected was something great as the other recent DC Movies.. what I got was a huge disapointing mess capping off a huge disapointing mess of a year. So while i’m a bit late due to contracting Covid and all the “FUN” that comes with that, I still felt like tearing into this film to figure out why I didn’t like it, what good parts it did have, and what the hell went wrong here. Spoilers and full review after the cut.

The Plot: Unlike my usual summaries I do, i’m keeping this one short and susicnt for those who haven’t seen the film: After a cold open flashback to diana’s childhood that was an omen of the boring padding to come, we get our main plot: It’s 1984 and Diana is acting in semi secret and helping out where she can. After some artifact thefts she takes a job at a museum and meets meek nerdy nerdy and office punching bag Barbra Minerva. The two strike up a kind of friendship, with Barbra wishing she could be as cool as diana especially after Diana saves her from being assaulted by a creepy random asshole.

Diana hasn’t moved on from Steve Trevor’s death in the previous film, and thus when encountering a mysterious stone wishes for him to come back. Barbra likewise wishes fto be just like diana. Meanwhile Maxwell Lord, a conman who has sold a bunch of bogus oil plots, plots to steal the stone himself and does so by seducing Barbra, and instead of wishing for more wishes, wishes to GRANT THEM instead, thus overnight making his buisness a sucess and using the inevitible monkey’s paw consequences of said wishes to benifit himself. Meanwhile Diana is reunited with Steve who for some reason has hyjacked someone elses body, and even has sex with Diana in it which is all kinds of creepy and wrong that we’ll get into soon enough. Meanwhile everyone now notices Barbara.. and she’s also gaining Diana’s powers but slowly loosing her empathy. Diana eventually finds out with Barba’s help that the stone is dangerous and it’s wishes backfire horribly, while Max continues to gain power with his as Diana chases after him, slowly loosing her own power as her consequence for the wish. You know instead of the fact her lover took someone elses body and life and they have to live with that. Eventually Max gets the power of a soverign nation and the satilte codes off the president, and plans to broadcast himslef the the world to offset his own wish consequence, his body slowly failing, by taking other people’s health. Steve urges Diana to renounce her wish and give him up to get her power back, she reluctnantly and painfully does so, and then goes after Max. Barbra however has sided with max and has him give her even more power turning her into a cat person as you’d expect. Wonder woman and the now fully cat Cheetah battle, it’s really cool looking, but Diana barely wins. We do get a decent climax with Diana not fighting max, not that she can with how powerful she’s become, but using the lasso of truth to get him to see the damage he’s done, give up and go back to his son. The world is saved Diana is moving on and also Linda Carter is there for some reason.

So now you have general idea of what happens, I can dig into the films faults, and it’s one or two strengths, one at a time, ONE AT A TIME. First off the film’s biggest issue by far and one that wouldn’t come through in the recap Padding and Pacing: THIS FILM DID NOT NEED TO BE 2 hrs 41 min

I said it once before but it bears repeating now:

THIS FILM DID NOT NEED TO BE 2 HOURS AND 41 MINUTES LONG

I am a firm belivier a film should be as long or short as it needs to be. If it’s under the standard 90 minutes, that’s cool, if it’s say three hours like avengers endgame that’s cool too. After the theater it’s easy enough to watch it in chunks, and sometimes a film just NEEDS that space and scope.

This film.. did not need that. This is not the cumilation of 10 years of storytelling, as slapdashidly planned as it was till phase 3, this is a film that feels painfully long to watch due to how padded it is. You could’ve cut those 40 mintues from this film EASILY and while you wouldn’t of had a good film, sadly, you would’ve had a way more enjoyable cheesy superhero movie. I”m tackling this one first because it just.. oozes all over the film. For every great and memorable bit in the movie and every questionable one we’ll get to, for every gloriously so bad it’s good moment... there’s about 10 minutes of scene that did not need to be there. It slows down the film to a crawl and given the original had pitch perfect pacing I do not get how Patty Jenkins screwed this up.

I do think Patty Jenkins is a good director. I did like the first movie, I do think a lions share of the credit goes to her writing and direction for that one. And a LOT of the sequences in this film are utterly goregously shot and fun to watch. I also, even if I don’t like this film, am extastic she forced the stuido to pay her more money to work on the film, as she deserves as much as any male director, it’s bullshit they tried to short change her, and again she was the reason the first film was so good. She deserved equal fucking pay for making Warner money hand over fist.

But I also say this because i’m disapointed in HER. She CAN do better, she already did the first time and the only real down spot, the spotty cgi climax, was not her fault. And hell here she did get the climax she wanted, and wrote one hell of one. I”ll go into it more later but the finale of this movie from the pitch perfect fight with cheetah, dodgy face work nonwithstanding, to the final speech to the world is just gorgeous to watch. Even in this mess of a film there are some really good really tightly shot sequences that i’ll get to.. but their broken up by padding and padding nad more padding. This film is bloated, it needed to be edited down but she clearly REFUSED TO, gunshy after the whole Ares thing last time... and thus shot herself in the foot repeadtly. I sitll have some hope for the next movie and Rogue Squadron, but Jenkins rightfully lost any blind faith I had in her this film would be good just as the directors of it chapter 2 lost it by.. making a terrible sequel to a great movie. Given this happened in the span of a year you’d THINK i’d of prepared myself for that.. but no. Sadly.. no.

But back to the point of this section: the film is just really padded. A lot of it is just scenes going on longer than they need to but there are some specific bits, some recurring others all in one go, that just really get tedious and pad things out. Let’s rattle em off shall we? The Opening: Now the opening is gorgeously shot, and it is nice to see Thymesicra again.. but the sequence is twiece as long as it needed to be, often just devolves into frantic shots of running.. and really dosen’t need to be here. I love Thymesicra, I love Hipolita, I love this damn beautiful island.. but we did not need it for this one. I THOUGHT it was there because the climax would be Max and Barbra invading the island or something.. but no. It has nothing to do with the main plot other than selling the film’s message “Nothing good comes from lies and shortcuts” which is a good message.. but the film already conveys that well. For all it’s flaws it well conveys the fact that the easy way to get what you want ALWAYS comes with a cost. That you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need. So we didn’t need 10 minutes of amazons running around just to make a point that the film already makes and it wreaks of Warner wanting to put the amazons in the film because “that’s what people expect.”

Steve Trevor Dinking Around for 20 Minutes: I will admit as dumb as it was.. I really loved the Steve Trevor 80′s fashion show. Oh it was dumb.. beyond belieif.. but it’s REALLY hard to hate a good 5 minutes of chris pine putting on stupid 80′s outfits. I do think like a lot of this film it was longer than it needed to be and it defintely needed a good catchy 80′s tune alongside it, just go full bollocks if your doing this, but otherwise it’s just hard not to joy, even if in a so bad it’s good kind of way, this kind of lunacy in a major stuido film

That goodwill died quckily as the next 15 goddamn minutes, 5 for the fashion show which while i liked it did not need to be in the film as long as it was, were just steve getting used to the new world of the 80′s. While I like the idea of Steve now in Diana’s roll as stranger in a strange land, instead of using it cleverly or having him ruminate over all his friends being dead Captain America style or .. a billion other things we could’ve used this time for if you really needed it, we instead just get Steve and Diana farting around for 20 minutes and Chris Pine making stupid faces. Chris Pine deserved better than this. He seems to be a steerling person in his personal life and I seriously doubt he’s done any movie bad enough to have earned this.. I mean he did do Star Trek: Into Darkness but NONE of those films problems were his fault. It’s just really, REALLY terrible, and even more boring in padded in places than this film but without the good bits or the haminess of pedro pascal to make it even remotely watchable. Point is i’m doing a blind look, and this is blind I just came up with tihs bit while I was writing and have not looked at chris pine’s filmography before, to see if there’s anything really bad enough to justify him being put through this buffonery.

Turns out .. yeah yeah he did. Two films in fact are just bad enough that he did in fact sign on to something bad enough to justify this. There were one or two other contenders but Princess Diaries 2 was earlier in his career, Into The Woods much like Into Darkness was not his fault and honestly if I were offered a part in a glitzy hollywood adaptation of a beloved musical i’d sign on too without heistation, and while Wrinke in Time is kind of a mess, Chris Pine is easily one of the best parts of it. No the two films that make him DESERVE the goofy terrible fish out of water stuff are this means war, a film I saw throughly savaged by Matthew “Film Brain” Buck, which is about two douchey cia agents competing over a woman without thinking that MAYBE the choice is hers, and also setting up CONSTNAT SURVILENCE over her and basically stalking her to sabatoge each others dates. And while I did mention that review, because it did give context.. even from the trailer I could tell this was sexist, bro douchey, and stupid and wanted no part of it. So yeah signing on this this, post star trek’s success where he had his pick of projects and was at the hight of his fame.. is inexcusable. The other is just... the kind of embarassing dtv film a person does before they get famous but is so horrendously premised that I still can’t give it to him. Like I get needing work, I do comissions 10 for movies now and 5 for tv show episodes and issues of comics if you were curious, so I understand that.. but even at his most desperate... why would you possibly take... this?

.. wait is that Stephen Tobowsky in the credits? Good god his career is depressing some time.. but at least unlike chris I GET him being in this as he needs money and despite his long and storied career, has to take what he can get. Wheras Chris was a promsing young star who while needing a break, CAN’T of thought this would be remotely sucessful and can’t of paid that well. But since the poster might not convey the premise.. the premise is Chris is a Blind Man looking for love set up on BLIND DATES.

It sounds like a fucking Adam Sandler film premise. I’m honestly suprised he hasn’t remade this film with himself, david spade, or rob schinder, whose apparently on good terms with him again, god help us all. And DON’T. TELL. HIM. He still hasn’t made that worst film imaginable he promised for getting Snubbed for Uncut Gems. Yes I know, Hubie Halloween came out but that was in production long before the promise and not that bad. Not great, pretty average, but not terrible. Point is do not tempt Adam Sandler to remake this film. He still owes us the worst film he can muster INTENTIONALLY, as Pixels, Rediculous Six, That’s My Boy? That was all him trying to make GOOD movie. Be afraid be VERY afraid. The other point is this premise is just really bad, REALLY offensive to blind people to make being blind into a stupid punchline, and I.. will probably watch this at some point because i’m bafflingly curious about this terrible terrible thing Chris Pine probably wanted us all to forget about, but will now never have that luxury as long as I live. The Fireworks Scene: This one is just..really dumb. Like really dumb. Every bit of this scene was dumb and we could’ve just.. had them get on a plane to egypt like normal people or steal a jet off screen. So to get to Egypt, Diana and Steve steal a jet which Steve can somehow fly despite decades of progress in how planes work at this point and him not knowing what radar is. He also gets shot ot at because Diana FORGOT, somehow, that radar exists and didn’t tell him. They also steal a jet instead of just taking an airliner or her calling in a favor since while it’s been a good few decades and Etta is sadly long dead, the candy family probably knows and loves her well enough and probably still has some military personal who could pull some strings and bring a jet over from london. It’s a stretch.. but not much more than “let’s steal a plane and hope we don’t die. “

Why this is in the padding section is because we then get a way too long bit of the two flying through a field of fireworks.. which also apparently existed LONG before steve was even born, so I donn’t quite get why he’s so shocked. And while i’ts not a bad CONCEPT for a scene the fact the two are being persued by the military for stealing a jet AND have to get to egypt so urgently they had to steal the jet in the first place lest Max do something horrible, which he ends up doing anyway... to take 10 minutes to gaze at the pretty fireworks. It’s just.. a waste of time in a movie that wasted already too much time.

Some of the barbra scenes: We’ll dive more into Barbra in a bit, and this is easily the least offesnive on this list, but a lot of the scnees of her discovering her new power could’ve been compressed. There are seperate scenes of her discovering she dosen’t need glasses anymore and picking up a ton of weight at the gym, while in 80′s workout clothes because of course she is. Both of those could’ve been one, either having her pick up something heavy like nothing casually or just having her glasses fall and break at the gym, have some cute guy help her up to help sell the wish making her feel noticed, and realize she don’t need em. It’s minor in comparison, but a good chunk of her plot badly needed to be streamlined.

And those are just the main offenders. The film’s pacing in general is just attrocious. It takes half an hour for the plot to move along most of the time.. there’ ssome good character stufff but they could’ve better weaved it into the plot and in some Barbra scenes and most of Max’s they DID. It’s just for the most part there’s a lot of repttition of stuff we already knew and figured out and it takes forever for the plot to move to the next phase until the last half hour. And by then my niece was already in the kitchen playing with her new slime having enitrely checked out, my mom was asleep and my brother just wanted this film over already and both of us were only hanging in out of obligation. This film blows most of what little potetial it has taking too damn long to get to the point. As I said it’s fine for a film to be long.. but while Endgame had laggy sections and some of it’s own problems.. it USED the huge runtime effectivey, using the first hour to both show our heroes had truly lost, then to set up the post-time skip world and just what had become of our heroes and their arcs for the movies. The second hour is mostly the time heist, a fun tour through the mcu’s history that also helps progress arcs and the final act is basically one MASSIVE glorious battle featuring every single hero who hadn’t suffered a non-snap related death in one of the best big action scnenes i’ve ever seen. It was well crafted and it’s slower moments were for character stuff and not because they felt the film needed to feel as long as the rest of the year had felt. But while it was the film’s main flaw and the main reason i’ts bad instead of mediocre..there’s one other massive flaw that utterly sinks the damn film and robs of it of a lot of it’s emotional weight The Character Assassination of Diana Prince:

Now we get to the part that really pisses me off one that was already kinda bad while watching but just got worse the more I thought about it: Diana’s Charcterization here. Despite being flawless in the first film.. here it’s just bad. It’s bad and it should feel bad. I can’t fathom how Jenkins lost touch so badly with the character, and I don’t think the Co-Writer Remotley helped. The Co-Writer for this film was Geoff Johns, a dc wunderkind whose reinvented the flash, green lantern, the justice society of america and aquaman, all brilliantly. The last one was even largely the basis for his damn fun movie. I have a lot of respect for the man... but like a lot of creators he’s not immune to screwing up and has made a LOT of mistakes, the biggest being forcing Cyborg away from the titans and into the justice league not for diversity’s sake like he probably claims.. but really because he didn’t want to use John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan, who he has an odd obession with i’ve never gotten, something the incoming writer of Green Lantern, Geoffry Throne, turns out to have complained about for years, as well as apparnetly giving out about Jordan SO MANY TIMES, that an entire artcle was made revealing this... and I’m perfectly fine with that as it should be clear I don’t like Hal Jordan all that much and while he’s been in some good runs, the other earth lanterns are FAR more intersting than him and far more unique. Thankfully the new series seems to be focusing on multiple of them and while hal seems to be getting some focus, Simon and Jessica are the main stars of modern day. So hell yeah to that. Let’s get back to the actual point.

The point being that one of his weaknesses as a writer.. is he really dosen’t get Wonder Woman. He just dosen’t. During Justice League he wrote her as a violent warrior and during Infinite Crisis, as expertly pointed out by LInkara during his review of it a few years back, he had her “not understand what being human is” .. despite this being at the SAME TIME as that Greg Rucka run I mentioned, meaning at the time of Inifnite Crisis, she had her own embassy for her people set up, had written a book, and had just spent a good chunk of that run trying to free an old friend who’d been brainwashed into a psychotic killing machine from her mechanical inhancments killing her and driving her insane. She willingly blinded herself with fucking snake venom to save the world from Medusa’s gaze and avenge a child THEN went on a long and arduous quest for the gods simiply to ressurect said child, with no intent of getting her sight back and only getting it back because Athena willingly gave hers up for being so noble. She is someone who is compatsionate, empathetic and noble. Not a kill happy warrior who loves fighting and blood. She fights because she has to, she does not hesitate and she does kill when needed.. but she is not some weird enigma to humanity. She’s throughly human despite being made of clay and not raised among regular humans. She’s a person, and Geoff just dosen’t get that. He get Superman, the flash, batman, other heroes just fine. He redefined aquaman well like I said. But for some damn reason he just dosen’t get Diana and can’t get a good grasp on her and while a good choice of co writer for practically any other dc movie and a good choice to right the ship for the dceu, he was the second possible worst choice to handle this character and likely is at least partially responsible for her character taking such a nosedive. By the way just in case you think better of him for only being second worst.. this is the worst.

Yes that actually happened.. thankfully not in the main canon and likely because Frank Miller really REALLY needs to get some help.

Point is he was a bad choice and while I still give Patty Jenkins some discredit for helping with this, I do feel Geoff easily could’ve agreed with or came up with some of the worse ideas here without really thinking them through because this simply isn’t a character he cares about what happens to her or knows that well. Things START fine: in present day we get a pretty fun action sequence in a mall with what my brother called Dollar Store Micheal Keaton.. but because Max was already perfectly cast, there wasn’t room for this screen legend. Plus he was probably busy shooting Morbius for.. whatever his role is there. I hope it’s the vulture. My point is DSMK is delightfully hammy and weird and helps kick up an already fun mall sequence.. while I was apparnetly the ONLY one who enjoyed this cheesy but awesome sequence in my family aside from my niece, she hadn’t rightfully checked out at this point, I still love it. It does bring up the slight problem of Diana being active years before... but given The Suicide Squad with it’s vast colorful cast of supervillians and the fact the freaking Justice Society are getting introdcued and given their gimmick even if WWII isn’t involed this time they had to have been active for some time before they presumibly vanished. My point is the whole Zack Snyder thing of “Metahumans are new and you should fear them” has been quitely retconned out and this will all likely be explained with the whole flashpoint thing... (Shudders).. not the retcon the DCEU needs a good coat of paint and unlike the XCU I dont think their going to waste a second chance, I just want a flash film that’s actually about barry and not another adaptation of a storyline few people liked ot start with. Point is that’s not really a huge issue and I prefer DIana being active than the implication she did nothing and her doing small bits of heroisim, like saving a woman from getting hit by a car or resucing pets and bigger ones like the mall just .. fell like Diana. It’s all downhill from there though. For starters there’s Barbra. It starts well: Diana is the only person to not only notice Barbra but treat her nice, and the two strike up a friendship.. which I honeslty wish was more as there was a lot of potetial there and both have great chemistry, not to mention showing Diana’s bisexuality on screen would be a really damn good move forward for representation, but that’s more on me and given how homophobic big companies can be, i’m unsuprised Warner wouldn’t let Patty take that route.

Point is it starts well enough.. but instead of the two actually having a deep freindship and possible relationship that is heartbreaking when it’s broken.. Diana just sort of forgets about her except when she needs her for the plot, and thus what should’ve been an emotionally breaking subplot leading to an utterly heartbreaking fight at the climax.. was just Diana being a dick, taking advantage of someone, and then getting a bit self righteous when the person you basically abandoned and didn’t notice made a wish till it was too late wants to keep the one thing that’s ever made her feel special.

It dosen’t help the comics did this whole thing better and is likely where Jenkins got the inspiration: During Rebirth Barbara Minvera was converted from a vicious ruthless bitch and a half, if still a brilliant character, to a tragic figure: one who while a bit cold and standofish, was genuinely diana’s friend, tricked into thinking she was abandoned, then became the bride of a horrifying god who punsiheed her for the “crime”.. of not being a virgin. While removing the whole cat god thing is understandable.. they removed pretty much everything that made that intresting and Rucka worked hard to make for a cliche “Nerd becomes evil” plot that’s been done a milion times nad makes dsiana look horrible. But while this is bad.. it PALES in comparisoin to the elephant in the room here.

No no elephant sweetie not wild pig. No.. it’s once Diana makes her wish on the magical wishing stone form the trickster god.. and brings steve back. See her bringing him back only for her to have to give him up to save the world.. that’s not bad. It’s a great way to bring chris pine back, ratchet up tension and ultimately give her proper closure for steve so she can move on. The problem.. is HOW steve comes back and how the movie handles that. Steve comes back.. by possesing some random guy. That itself is not a bad idea, as while it’s weird, A) I’m a weirdo and proud of it so i’mf ine with weird and B) it gives us a price to the wish like the other wishes: steve comes back.. but he has to take someone else’s life to do so. Diana has to sacrifice an innocent man she dosen’t know anything about in order to get her happy ending. That could’ve lead to some great drama, with Diana realizing how wrong this is and forcing herself to give him up with Steve’s blessing, as Steve would likewise not feel right about this. He could’ve had family or a girlfriend or something that were jeaporadzied if Diana kept Steve. The problem.. is they handled it horribly. really horribly. Diana and Steve.. almost NEVER mention the fact that he’s basically taken a life. They don’t ask if the guy is dead, they don’t ask who he was and they don’t try to find a way to get him a new body or a dying one or some other ghost can’t do it style shenanigan. And the fact i’m comparing this subplot to ghost can’t do it should tell you this is very bad. And it gets worse as the two have sex.. and whiel I dind’t think about it while watching the movie... afterwords? Yeah.. that’s.. that’s rape. The guy didn’t consent to letting them use his body. Now granted if Steve could leave the body at willand the guy was like “Sure why not” then that’d be fine.. but he has no way of consenting. Sure STEVE did.. but this ain’t his property. This isn’t his body to decide who he fucks. It’s random guy whose body he stole. Hell they didn’t even stop to consider if this guy might be gay which given Diana is bisexual makes no goddamn sense. So that’s another possible layer of wrong on this sundae of what the actual hell. I mean.. how do you bungle writing so bad your main character ends up as a rapist? That’s a special kind of incompetence in 2020 I tell you.

It just turns Diana from a kind noble woman who looks out for everyone.. into a creepy asshole who willingly sacrifices some guy she dosen’t know, something a well written Diana would NEVER do, to get what she wants. This is not diana prince. This is “out of the way sperm bank” levels of charactera assasination” and the fact steve has to talk her into letting him go just makes it worst. Diana here is selifhs, unsympathetic and terrible and it brings the whole film down despite Gal Godot’s best efforts to try and make this work. She fails.. but it’s not on her as an actress, she’s terrific, but on the writing for Diana being so bad. She just comes off as selfish and irredemible and i’ts horrifying to see. As one last note Steve is reduced to more of a cutout this time, so any possible emotinal weight not already destroyed by the rape is entirley missing. Just good god they did Diana dirty for this one. And it dosen’t help her villians.. are done much better. Speaking of..

Barbra: A Mixed Cat Out of a Mixed Bag As the title should make clear Barbra is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand.. Kristin Wiig is fantastic. Like holy crap I had some small doubts about her being cast in the role but she nailed both the sweet put upon nerd at the start and the ruthless individual desperate to stay special at the end really well and the reason her scenes aren’t as draggy despite a lot being padding are Wiig just really sells the transformation, going from being giddy at a sudden influx of attention to feeling powerful.. to feeling dangerous and being deseprate to do whatever it takes to hold onto her power and being furious when she looses it. The problem is.. it’s all in the acting. Writing wise the story is horribly cliche. It’s why her having feelings for Diana was a suggestion that popped into my head: that’s actually intresting. A put upon nerd who envy’s a hero but ends up instead resenting them and wanting to kill them isn’t new. Amazing Spider-Man 2, which I thankfully haven’t seen but has that plot, Incredibles, and the one that the movie steals from the most.. Batman Returns. While wanting to kill the hero wasn’t part of that one, the whole “blonde whose still attractive even before the makeover has some supernatural thing happen to her and turns into an extrovert with a cat motif who is determined to take what she wants despite the cost.” While i’ts not 1 for 1, mostly becasue Catwoman actually had a romantic relationship with the hero, it’s REALLY hard to ignore just how much it seems to curb from Returns. And I haven’t even seen the movie the whole way through, just about half, really need to, not the point. Point is, it just feels like a rehash of a better done version of the plot. And the sad part is the comics GAVE Patty and Geoff two much better versions that could’ve followed the same path. Pre-Rebirth/Flashpoint, she was a ruthless woman from the getgo and simply could’ve been that, being friends with Diana.. but being too selfish and envious to truly let her in and thus relishing in her new power and showing off who she really was. The other, and better option for the narrative is the previously mentioned rebirth one: A sarcastic and hard but likeable woman who has had to scrape and claw to do what she loves, which is archelogy, despite her father being vastly against it because he’s a dick. Someone who through tragic misunderstanding becomes a tragic monster. That latter version would’ve fit in perfectly, having her like diana and just want to be her.. but a combination of her own inseucrites and the stone strip away her empathy and increase her jealousy and Diana neglecting her could’ve been a concious choice: Diana being too busy with steve and stopping max to see what was happening and thus be heartbroken to fight her true friend. Instead we just get.. catwoman but less good. Wiig tries her best and often succeeds but even she can’t really fix this. It also dosen’t help that selfishness aside.. Barbra is far more sympathetic. She’s contantly put upon and ignored by her cowowkres nad even her boss, who oftne forgets she works there, and finally meets someone who seems to care.. onlyf or that person to ignore her and go off and have adventures and really horribly implicated sex. So she wishes to be like this person, to be confident and loved and able to walk in heels and strong and gets it and slowly looses who she was to it. Hell the moment where she apparently CROSSES THE LINE by possibly killing some guy.. is entirely ruined by picking the wrong target. Instead of it being her boss or one of her co workers who mockeda nd humilated her.. i’ts the same guy who tried to assault her out for revenge. She’s beating up.. a bad person. She’s doing what Diana would do in a good way..

Sure she does take a turn for the evil, after hearing about the wishing stone destroying civilizations.. she sides with max.. but she’s still more sympathetic. Her resintment of Diana which should just be the meta commentary Jenkins intended on relationships between women where it becomes competitive due to societal bullshit, instead comes off justifed. Diana abandoned her, Diana is also being selfish with her wish, diana raped a man, Diana wants Max to stop.. but has to be TALKED into letting her wish go. While Diana is trying to save the world you can’t fault Barbra for not trusting her. For someone who preaches honesty, all Diana is to Barbra is a liar. While she does side with Max who earlier manipualted her by seducing her and stealing the stone... she KNOWS he’s not a great person, and this time instead of being the used, she’s the user. She knows he can make her even STRONGER, knows he can let her keep being who she wants to be if not BETTER, and knows he needs someone on his side.. and knows he won’t screw her over with her wish since he needs Diana off his back to become powerful enough to face her. Barbra comes off as cunning, manipulative and way more likeable than the hero, instead of the tragic villian she was inteded as. If nothing else, if she shows up in the sequel I will watch it even after this one was pretty damn bad and hopefully sh’ell be better written next time to match Wiig’s hard work. Now.. i’ve saved the best for last as while i’ve compalined a lot.. there is ONE aspect of the film that is genuinely good and while I get not everyone liked it.. Is urea s hell did

Maxwell Lord: Perdo Pascal Saves this film by eating the set whole like galactus.

Maxwell Lord.. is the best part of this movie. Easily. Unlike the other main characters, he’s written well, acted well if hammy as all hell, and is true to the comics. Part of this I freely admit is that when I heard Max was a villian here I expected none of his JLI version to survivie. I should explain.. in the comics Max is defined by two diffrent phases of how he was written; The first was in Giffen and Demattis run on justice league, which was more of an action comedy with emphasis on the comedy> There was still serious stuff and villians to face, it’s just our heroes were a bunch of likeable misfits and b-list heroes doing their best while cracking jokes and disfunctionally clashing with one another. It’s good stuff. Max was the heart of that: a selfish manipulative buisness man who grew to like the league and rebelled against the robot intellegence that got him that far, earning him a fair spot on the team. Sure he was a sleazy, shady 80′s buisness man, but he has a good heart underneath the opprotunsitic nature.

Come the run up to infinite crisis despite being a metahuman, he started irationally hating metahumans, claimed to have always hated them, and set up a vast conspriacty to kill em all. He also hyjacked superman, which lead to Wonder Woman being forced to snap his neck and being booed for it by superman despite the fact you know.. she was trying to stop him from killing batman and had no other cohice. The rest of the world got the clip out of context.. but even then she’d already killed months ago for the medusa thing I mentioned before, and despite Medusa only speeking ancient greek, the world, which tihs was broadcast too hence the danger of medusa killing trillions of viewers watching at home, they got the context that Wonder Woman was the good guy and was killing for good reason. It was just.. kind of stupid even if Rucka did his best with it is what i’m saying.

Point is there were two maxes: the sleazy and manipulative but well meaning buisness man and semi-con man and the manipulative but well intentioned master mind. So the movie.. combined both beautifully. He’s a manipulator as always, having set up a ponzi scheme and getitng called out on it by what turned out to be Simon Stagg.. who for some reason is the virtious if assholish buisness man here despite in the comcis being an utterly corrupt asshole constnatly ttrying to prevent his daughter from marrying this guy

This is Metamorpho, the element man, archelogist Rex Mason who thanks to the orb of Ra turned into this guy, an embodiment of the elments who can transmute his body into anything on the perodic table. Why HE hasn’t been in a movie yet his nemisis now has been is beyond me and there are better dc businessmen to have used.

Point is this Max is shady, ambitious and sleazy.. and badly failing his scheme falling around him. But his reason for wanting to be a rich, powerful man after growing up a poor immigrant.. is utterly symapthetic. He has a son in this adaptation and wants to make him proud. I’ts CLEARLY not his only motivation, he also just wants to be proud and the finale reveals hsi father was abusive, and his classmmates alienated him for being an immigrant. He has a chip on his shoulder due to having a rough life and just wanting his moment in the sun. It makes Max relatable: His actions are NOT okay but we get why he merges with the wishing stone: because this is his shot. And most of the people he fucks over with his wishes.. are bad people. he cons some good people sure but Stagg is an asshole and the prince he cons wants to kick foreigners out of his homeland. Max, like Barbra, while not a GOOD person still is more likeable than diana. He just.. feels like Max. He’s what Max could’ve been if he gave into the power instead of fighting against it. If he'd teamed up with the alien robot thing to take over the world instead of resiting it. So while he’s a bad guy like he’s been sadly turned into in the comics.. he feels like a CONVINCING version of Max as a bad guy. Like he genuinely turned evil of his own will and his own ambition.

It also helps he’s written compitently. Unlike Diana, whose entirely miswritten to a point NO amount of good acting and no amount of Gal Godot’s talents could save, and Barbra, whose great but only because her character had too little to be great but just enough to give Kristin Wiig room to work with Gal simply did not have. Seriously I feel terrible for Gal Godot, she’s a genuinely talented actress and a genuinely kind and great person whose a LOT like Diana herself when written properly. But Pedro Pascal? Since his character isn’t too badly written, and he has room to work.. he’s allowed to just be awesome. Since I haven’t watched the Mandolorian yet, I know, I KNOW, trust me.. I KNOWWW. But since I hadn’t this was my first proper exposure to Pedro Pascal..and his talent speaks for himself. In a weak movie, he is the shining star. He’s also hammy as shit, but it WORKS because the film is redicouls. The Wishin Rock plot line and Max merging with it.. it’s bonkers. But he has just the right mix of bonkers hammy acting that’s fun to watch, and actual character work in the ham. He’s eating the scenery hand over fist, utterly devouring it.. but it fits the character as while Max was more of a subtle ham, a guy who just radiated smug and who more got into histornics when things went tits up like the time Blue Beetle and Booster Gold took the JLU’s funds to build an island resort on an island that turned out to be sentient and didn’t like that much and yes, all of that happened and it was as funny as it sounds. Point is being a showman whose always on, always talking and always got a plan.. that’s Maxwell Fucking Lord, and Pascal’s over the top acting fits that kind of character like a glove.

It also fits the film well: the film comes off more like a 2000′s superhero film, one that takes itself super seriously.. but is really, REALLY goofy in places. It honest to god feels like one of the Sam rami spider-man films, ones I REALLY need to revisit and the results of that you’ll likely see, but without the self awarness rami had.. for the first two I mean by the third with the whole saturday night fever sequence, he’d really lost it. Love the guy though, still need to watch Army of Darkness and yes you may boo me. Point is the film is bonkers and cheesy and dosne’t realize it but Pascal does so he just.. has fun with it. His haminess when asking someone for a wish, his great ways of reversing those wishes so he benifits from the consequences, taking them off the board while furthring his own goals. Max is just.. awesome, and so is pascal. He got a life long fan in me from this performance. And of all people he took his inspriation from Nick Cage which is a perfect fit as Cage is fucking great at acting absolutely batshit while still acting his ass off. Pascal really deserves full credit for this film for more than just being lovingly over the top. He’s genuinely good.

And that shines through greatly in the climax. First off the final fight between Cheetah and Wonder Woman is awesome.. just one of the best superhero fights i’ve seen on film and i’ve seen some whoppers. Great back and forth, great coreography and brutal intensitiy the whole way through with Diana being forced to possibly kill Barbra despite not wanting to hurt her. Just a hell of one. But the real centerpice is the wish vortex. Pascal just drops all pretense and goes ultra instinct ham, just letting it all hang out as he ascneds to god hood... but how he’s beaten.. is easily the most brilliant part of the film and one of the few times Gal Godot genuinely gets to show off her talent in this one: Wonder Woman defeats the bad guy not with brute force, not that she can, or some cool fight.. though we did get the cool fight too so that’s nice.. she simply uses her head and her heart. She uses her head by taking advantage of the fact max is broadcasting to the world, as villians tend to, and giving his bogus offers to whoevers listneting. So Diana counters this.. by simply speakking from the heart, enrouging those watching not to give in and to renounce the wish.. so the consequences can be renounced too. Even if it’s hard, even if it costs you.. what your doing will cost others so much more. And she finsihses this by using the Lasso of Truth on max, making him tear down his delusions about himself and see that his actions, which have caused world war III by the way as he maniupated the president.. who for some reason was not Regan. While Regan was a bastard.. that’s exactly the reason I wanted hi mthere as this film would’ve been better had one of the parts of the climax been Diana fighting a 50 foot tall rouge ronald regan. Admit it you’d see that in theaters if it was safe to go.

POint is max sees he’s only HURTING his son, that this is for HIM not for his boy.. and that if he dosen’t let this power go, if he dosen’t just accept a peaceful life and let the world spin the way it’s supposed to and not emplode jus tso he can be a god... his son will be gone. So he gives it up and goes back to his boy in a touching moment. Though for some reason his son somehow got from Max’s office to the middle of a fucking highway. How is he not dead? I dunno we’re almost done here. Point is max is easily the highlight of the film and the reason it’s not ALL horrible along with Barbra. Final Thoughts: Wonder Woman 1984.. is a disapointment. What I thought would be an easy film of the year contender.. instead ended up being an ungodly mess with unfortunate implications, a messy slapped together plot and WAYYYYY too much filler. As I said it had it’ sbright spots especially max and barbra.. but hte ultimate product is WAYYYY less than Patty Jenkins is capable of and since a third film is apparently inevitible, I can only hope next time she learns from this and does better. Also get Pedro Pascal his own Justice League international series as Max’s grandson or something YESTERDAY. Seriously even people who didn’t like this film would love it and it’s not like he can’t do this between seasons of Mando. He did We Can Be Heroes for god’s sake.. which was somehow a better film than this one. I guess 2020 had to disapoint me one last time huh? Well we’re in a new year now... and hopefully the Suicide Squad won’t also be a huge diapointment. If you enjoyed this lnog rant on a movie from a week or two ago, follow me for more. I’m currently doing retrospectives on the life and times of scrooge mcduck, scott pilgrim, grant morrisons new x-men, and i’m soon going to finish up a Darkwing Duck one focusing on Just us Justice ducks. And once they come back this year I plan on reguarlly covering Ducktales, Loud House, Owl House, Amphibia, and Final Space. So keep an eye out for that and until then, Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye.

#wonder woman #wonder woman 1984 #pedro pascal #gal godot #kristin wiig #chris pine #diana prince #cheetah #barbra minerva #maxwell lord #justice league international #dc comics #dc extended universe #hbo max #patty jenkins #steve trevor

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glacecakes · 4 years

Text

Alchemy Lullaby (1/?)

Of all the changes that came with living in the castle, becoming a father was not one he anticipated. When Eugene encounters a small child suffering like he did, he gives them the opportunity to grow up the way he never did... helping them both heal. (AU where Varian is 4 and gets adopted by Eugene)

I've been thinkin about this for a lil bit, and then I met Saad who encouraged my dadgene desires and well, here we are. Also shoutout to @finnoky for an ADORABLE baby Varian design that I'm imagining in this scenario lol. Be warned there's brief child abuse, only like 2 sentences of it though. And while there will be angst in this fic that's likely gonna be the only outright abuse.

I'll be honest I have an idea for an overarching plot but this may just end up being a bunch of baby Varian dad Eugene oneshots. Whatever I'm feeling. We'll see.

Eugene grumbled, muttering to himself as he walked through the streets of Corona. That’s not to say that he didn’t enjoy it here, quiiiiite the opposite. Life with Rapunzel in the castle was a dream. In the past six months Eugene hasn’t needed nor wanted anything but only Rapunzel’s happiness. If she was happy, so was he. Unfortunately, that was something he had in common with Cassandra. It was the only thing they seemed to have in common, because he refused to relate himself to that ice queen any further.

The reason why he was muttering was because he had misplaced his favorite brush (though he suspected Cassandra stole it to mess with him), and hey, Eugene, since you’re going into town, can you run a few errands for me? Don’t worry it won’t take you long, just a few dozen shops to visit while me and Rapunzel have a nice relaxing day.

Cassandra totally stole it just to get him to do her chores. Total jerk move.

He’d managed to get most of the things on her list, the only thing left was food for the animals. Apples for Max, mostly. The horse was like a chainsaw, ripping through apples like an axe through wood. It was terrifying and intriguing at the same time.

Thankfully, Cassandra supplied him with the funds and a cart in order to buy all of this stuff.

“Two crates of apples, please.” Eugene mumbled, not looking directly at the seller, as he was deep in thought, mostly cursing Cassandra. The woman, short with wild red hair, easily hauled the apples into his cart without a word. He paid her, eyes trained on the cart, when he saw it.

The crate rumbled, apples moving ever so slightly. He was a seasoned thief, he knew what that meant.

In any other situation, Eugene probably wouldn’t have cared. It was likely only a few apples. But he was cranky, and he didn’t want to be here, and also had he really gotten that sloppy? He used to be Flynn Rider, now thieves were stealing from right under his nose! It was a matter of pride, more than anything else.

“Oi!” He called. He couldn’t see the thief, but he heard the telltale squeak of a guilty ruffian, and the pattering of footsteps.

“Watch my stuff?” He asked, and before he could get an answer, he bolted after the thief. His boots thundered against the pavement, following the sound of the footsteps. They were faint, whoever this thief was must be light on their feet and damn good at going unnoticed. He weaved through the crowd, unable to catch a proper glimpse. All Eugene could see was that the figure was small, or maybe they were crouching? And they were damn fast. Eugene nearly tripped over himself on multiple occasions trying to follow them. He was getting rusty. If Cassandra was here she’d laugh her ass off.

They turned into a narrow alleyway, and Eugene followed shortly after.

The walls were tall and imposing, casting a shadow on the otherwise sunny day. This part of the capital was on the poorer side, with rundown houses and boarded windows. He hasn’t been in here in a while, now that he lived in the castle. But he’d used this general area as a hideout in his youth. He knew this road was a deadend.

“Got you,” he muttered, stalking down the road. “And just who do you think you are, stealing from… me?”

His voice trailed off, and he stared at the scene in shock.

Standing before him was a child. An incredibly tiny, incredibly scared child.

The small boy backed up in fear, practically huddled in the corner. His gangly limbs trembled like a leaf in the wind. His wide blue eyes were misting with crocodile tears, a few dripping onto his tattered clothes. He reached up to brush his hair out of his face, revealing a single shock of blue hair amongst the jet black.

Eugene took a step forward, and the boy took a step back. He whimpered. The ex-convict held up his arms in surrender. “It’s ok,” He breathed, slowly kneeling down. The child regarded him with terror and a hint of intrigue. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” He picked up the apple, brushing the dirt off. It’s red sheen caught the kid’s attention. With how small the child was, he must be malnourished. Eugene’s hand opened, and the fruit slowly rolled back over to the boy. He eyed it before snatching it up and holding it close. He looked over at Eugene, an unspoken question glinting in his eyes. Eugene nodded, and the boy dug into the apple like a feral racoon. Juice spilled onto the dusty ground as he ate.

“Woah!” Eugene chuckled. “Slow down before you choke!” The little boy giggled.

That seemed to do the trick, as the fear slowly trickled from his eyes, being replaced with a childish joy. Eugene offered him a small smile, and he got a buck-toothed grin back.

“What’s your name, kid?”

The small child wiped his mouth with a tattered sleeve. “I’m Varian,” He said.

“Nice to meet you, Varian. How old are you?”

“I’m four and a half!”

Eugene raised an eyebrow, his smile dropping down to a concerned frown. Four and a half!? That was way too young to be by himself in the streets. He and Lance didn’t leave the orphanage until they were 12! Even that was too young! And before they left, they were definitely fed more than this. The boy was a stick! Why was he out here, left to the streets to survive or die? What pushed this child to steal to survive?

He cleared his throat. If he hadn’t, he probably would have started to cry. “It’s nice to meet you, Varian. Where... where’s your parents?”

Varian shrugged, digging his bare feet into the dirt. He was completely oblivious to Eugene’s mounting concern. “Dunno. Momma told me to wait here.”

Oh thank god, he just got separated from his mom. “When was that?” If it wasn’t too long ago, maybe his mom was among the crowd?

Varian hummed, deep in thought. “Uhh... the big lantern party.”

Never mind.

Eugene blinked, trying to comprehend. “The… the lantern festival. The one that was 6 months ago. That one?” Varian nodded. Eugene fell silent, completely shell-shocked by that revelation. Taking the silence as an invitation, Varian toddled over to Eugene.

“Sorry for taking an apple, I was just really hungry…” His r’s were slightly slurred, sounding more like a w. It was painfully cute. What kind of monster would ever abandon such a cute child? Big blue eyes gazed up at Eugene. “Are you mad?” he asked.

“Mad? Why would I be mad?”

Varian frowned, fear refilling his eyes. “Momma didn’t like it when I took the apples... I was just so hungry, and she had a buncha em in a big box, but she yelled at me.” His lips wobbled, lost in the memory.

Eugene grabbed his shoulders gently. “Hey hey,” he coaxed. “You shouldn’t take without asking, but if you’re hungry, all you gotta do is ask, ok?” He bit his lip. A small part of him really wanted to believe that he’d just gotten separated from his mom, that whoever he was, he was looking for Varian, but realistically… This poor kid was in the same boat as him. Thrown out into the world and told to get used to being alone.

What should he do? He can’t exactly take Varian back to the castle, can he?

...Can he?

No, he was still new to living in the castle. Maybe if he and Rapunzel were engaged, he could have gotten away with it. But Rapunzel wasn’t ready for marriage, so there was no doubt she wasn’t ready for this, either. Even if every atom in his body screamed to not let another child fall through the cracks like he did.

He sighed. “Varian,” the little boy looked up at him. “I….” how was he supposed to tell Varian? “Can I take you somewhere safe?”

Varian cocked his head, confused.

“You… you can’t stay here on the street, you need to be cared for, fed properly.” He added the last part to entice the kid. It did the trick, as Varian nodded.

“Will you be there?” He asked.

“N… no, but I can visit?” That soothed the screaming in his mind. He held out a hand for Varian to take.

Varian pondered his offer. “Do you promise?”

“Sure kid, I promise.”

A tiny hand slipped into his. Eugene couldn’t help but marvel at the size difference.

The two entered back into the crowded streets of Corona, and it was like a switch had flipped. Instead of only speaking a few words when asked, Varian babbled happily about anything and everything he could, from why he thought the sky was blue to a raccoon he saw the other day. He was a little chatterbox, even with his cheeks stuffed with the rest of the apple. Eugene wiped up the spare juice that fell from his lips, earning him a giggle. Even the people around them cooed at how adorable he was. How adorable they were together, as a family. It pained Eugene how nice that sounded.

At some point Eugene had lifted Varian onto his shoulders, letting him see everything Corona had to offer. The excited kicks to the face were worth it.

“I was listenin’ in on one of the schools, through the window,” Varian babbled. “Did you know the clouds are made of water? They’re made of puddles! After it rains, the puddles disappear back into the sky and then come back down again!”

“Oh really?”

“Yea! The mol...molecools…” The word was stuck on his tongue. The fact that he even knew the word was impressive, what else did the kid pick up? Orphanages don’t have the best education, he knew that first hand, all that intelligence would die there…

No, stop it Eugene. You cannot take him to the castle. Even if he is adorable, and smart, and just like him…

Suddenly, he felt violent smacks to the top of his head. Varian was bouncing up and down, practically screaming in excitement.

“Momma!” He yelled, squirming off of Eugene’s shoulders before he had the ability to process what just happened.

Eugene chased after him, bumping through the shoulders of passersby, until he finally spotted Varian tugging at the pant legs of the apple seller. Varian mentioned his mom had a lot of apples… oh no.

He raced up to the stand. His cart had, thankfully, been left untouched.

“Momma, Momma, Momma, I missed you!” Varian sang. “I waited for a while, but you never came back, and I had to take food, but I know you don’t like that, I just was suuupeer hungry…” He continued his excited babbling, completely unaware of the mounting dread Eugene felt.

The woman looked down on Varian, eyes narrowing. She seemed agitated, almost furious and even… disgusted. Eugene’s heart fractured and fell deep into the pits of his stomach.

Oh no. Please, no.

Those fractures lit on fire when she saw the woman kick Varian away. The small child slid into the street with a cry, and the woman turned back up to staring into the crowd as if nothing had happened.

As if she hadn’t just kicked her son.

Eugene moved to intervene, when little Varian, undeterred, waddled back up to his mother’s side. “I’m sorry, momma,” he mumbled. For what, Eugene had no idea. The man paid the child no mind. He didn’t even blink.

“Momma?” Varian tried again. “Momma, I’m sorry I made daddy go bye bye. Can we go home?”

Eugene’s fire was extinguished almost instantly, frost curling inside of him, up his throat. He was speechless.

So was Varian’s mother. She continued to ignore her son. Varian’s lip wobbled, and a single tear fell onto the dusty path. That was followed by more, and soon Varian was letting out hiccupping sobs.

That snapped Eugene into action. He walked up to the stand, acting completely nonchalant. He didn’t thank the woman for watching his cart, he’d never forgive a mother who abandoned her son. Wordlessly, he pushed the cart forward, scooping Varian up as he moved. Varian made no effort to fight back or protest, he simply curled into the man’s arms and cried.

“I’m so sorry,” Eugene whispered, leaning down and placing a kiss into inky black hair. Varian gripped onto Eugene ever so tighter.

To hell with what Rapunzel or Cassandra, or anyone else said. He would not let the same fate that befell him repeat.

Varian had a home, starting today.

#tangled #tangled the series #tts #tts varian #varian #tangled eugene #eugene fitzherbert #team awesome #tts eugene

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misssunflowersandsangria · 4 years

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Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Naruto Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Temari Characters: Nara Shikamaru, Temari (Naruto), Yamanaka Ino, Sai (Naruto), Akimichi Chouji, Karui (Naruto), Nara Clan Additional Tags: Mafia AU, Romance, Eventual Smut, BAMF Nara Shikamaru, Explicit Language, Smut

Hello deers! I absolutely love Mafia AU's so I got inspired to write one for ShikaTema. It gets pretty steamy from the beginning and this theme will pretty much carry through the whole story. Still, I hope that you enjoy it!

I’m going to be updating this post as I add new chapters. :D

Summary:

Money, power, and women were all at Shikamaru's fingertips as the head of the Nara Crime Family. He had all that he could wish for as he ruled his empire with an iron fist. An encounter with a troublesome blonde was enough for him to risk it all on one night.

Chapter 1: Opening Move

Chapter 2: Queen’s Gambit

Chapter 3: Luck

Chapter 4: Castling

Chapter 5: Protecting the Queen

Chapter 6: Deflection

Chapter 7: En Passant

Chapter 8: Capture

Chapter 9: Checkmate

Shikamaru’s midnight eyes surveyed the crash of sweaty bodies moving and pulsating to a heavy beat. He took a long drag of his cigarette overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and heavy bass. It wasn’t often that he made the trek out here. Typically depending on his associates to check on their businesses. His father told him though that it was important for the king to be seen by his people.

For so long his family had to operate in the shadows. That was no longer the case. The Naras, Akimichis, and Yamanakas ruled this area. Government officials, police officers, “powerful” people were all on their payroll. Very few things happened in this city without them knowing. Everyone knew who they were and they no longer tried to hide it.

When he was younger he’d complained constantly that this was a drag. He never wanted to become the head of the Nara crime family. It wasn’t his choice, it was his destiny. Still, he grew into the role and had accomplished more than they’d ever dreamed. Their empire was now strong and vast. Power and money were his. And yet there was an emptiness in his chest.

He didn’t delight in the benefits of being an infamous crime boss. The club was far too loud. The women who threw themselves at him were too troublesome. A lot of strings and losses came with power. And it was all becoming far too tiresome.

His eyes continued to scan the room before they fell upon one person in the crowd. His heart began to beat wildly and an excited shiver ran through him. From where he stood he could tell she was a striking blonde but there was something different. Like a beacon drawing him in. A feeling unlike he’d ever experienced before.

He studied her for a while. She was clearly a good worker never taking a minute to rest between drinks. He typically didn’t involve himself in the day to day operations of their various businesses. He trusted his associates to do thorough background checks and to hire the best. Once he got a name he’d have to check through her file.

Shikamaru became increasingly frustrated as she flirted and smiled at the club patrons. They didn’t deserve her attention especially when all of his was on her. His hands clutched painfully around the balcony railing as he tried to keep his anger in check.

Shikamaru called his security detail over.

“The blonde bartender, bring her to my office.”

“Yes sir.”

Shikamaru continued to stare as she gazed up towards him with a confused glare. Part of him hoped that when they met she would bore him like the rest. She’d be good for a quick fuck and then he could send her on her way. The intellectual side of him knew that wouldn’t be the case.

Temari took a deep breath as she followed the large man down the dimly lit hall.

She’d only started working at the club for a few weeks now. It was an easy enough job. She was able to make a pretty decent amount of money, especially from tips. It was amazing how easily these men opened up their wallets when a pretty girl smiled at them.

She couldn’t imagine what she had done in such a short time to gain the interests of the Nara clan head.

When she applied for the job she had already been well aware of who actually owned it. Their family owned everything in this town. She wasn’t worried though. What interest could they have in a regular bartender? As far as she knew it was just a popular club with lines out the door on most nights. It was a veritable pot of gold. She needed the money for herself and her brothers. So whatever reason that Nara had for summoning her she knew that she needed to play nice.

This was despite her natural inclinations. She had to remain calm and quiet lest she enrages the infamous mob boss. Their reign and crimes had been known far and wide and she didn’t want to be a victim of his anger.

The room was small but well furnished. Despite the fear in her bones it was warm and inviting.

Temari looked up, finding him sitting in a large chair with a cigarette pressed between his lips. She’d never known what he actually looked like but he was undeniably handsome. Sharp features with a hint of darkness around him. His hair was pulled back away from his face as his deep eyes studied her. The expensive well-fitting suit framed him perfectly. He seemed to be younger than her but his eyes held a lifetime of painful memories.

The Nara wasn’t what she expected at all. She’d imagine some sort of large overweight cartoonish figure that wore an obnoxious outfit. This dark and dangerous man was like something out of her fantasy.

A delighted shiver ran through her. Unlike the fear she had experienced before there was a tinge of excitement and want.

He placed his cigarette down in favor of leaning forward to stare at her, his chin resting against steepled fingers. She could see dark swirls of a tattoo peeking from beneath the shirt cuffs.

“Your name?” Even his cool voice was making her wet.

“Temari, sir.” Surprising her he grinned.

“I have enough yes men in my life. You are allowed to speak freely here, on my honor you will not be harmed for anything you say.”

“You mean your honor as a criminal-” She bit her lip feeling her stomach drop. Her father always told her that her mouth would get her in trouble.

Surprising her yet again he chuckled in response. “I have no shame in what I do or what my family has done. Criminal might be an overestimation. Your elected officials, police officers, those who are meant to uphold the law. They are all under my command, so who is the greater criminal? The one who knows the crimes that they commit or the ones that believe themselves to be above them?”

“I doubt that you came here to discuss ethics.”

He smirked at the response, this interaction so different from what he was familiar with. He strode over, his shadow falling over her. “Are you not afraid of me?”

There was now hardly any space between them and the once warm room felt far too hot. He was too close and she could smell the cigarette on his breath. “If you were going to kill me, it would have been done already.” She replied breathlessly but instantly regretted it.

Despite his promise, she knew that she should still watch her words. The self-preservation part of her was too slow to stop her mouth. Or perhaps she was becoming drunk off his intoxicating scent of pine trees and smoke. She took a deep inhale wanting to commit the smell to memory.

“You’re sharp.” Temari breathed a sigh of relief that he seemed to be amused by her.

“You have to be growing up the way that I did. If you don’t mind, I am on the clock and the time that I am wasting here I could be making money.” She needed to get away. This devastatingly attractive man was doing something to her and she wouldn’t be able to take care of it till she got home.

“How much do you typically make a night here?”

“On a good night $300.”

He pulled out a stack of bills from his pocket before placing it in her hand. “Here, there’s at least a grand. Is it enough to stop you from trying to leave?”

Despite needing the money her arms crossed. “I’m not some hired whore.”

“I never said that you were. Seeing that I am technically your boss, I am just paying you for any lost wages.”

“Do you always have something to say?”

His lips curved into a grin. “My mother always told me that my mouth would get me in trouble.” For some reason imagining that this larger than life man had a nagging mother made him seem...normal.

“So, why am I here?” She prayed that it was for the same reason that she wanted.

“I don’t quite know myself. I saw you there and something just made me want to meet you.” His fingers casually trailed over the length of her throat along to her shoulder. Traveling over the skin her dress left exposed. Goosebumps erupted where his hands moved. He’d barely touched her and she was already soaked.

“Why?” She breathed as his hand came to take a possessive grip on her waist. “I’m no one.”

“I highly doubt that. Even speaking with you for just 5 minutes has shown me that you are really something quite special and I've learned to read people quite well.” He replied as his face buried itself into her hair as he took a deep breath. She smelled like an ocean breeze and it was disorienting.

“Do you do this to all the women who work for you?” Temari demanded trying to keep her wits about her.

“Jealous?” He asked as his fingers trailed beneath the hem of her dress.

“Of course not.” She replied sharply trying to fight back a moan at his warm hands traveled to grab the swell of her ass.

“Good, because you’re wrong. This is the first time someone has ever interested me in this way.” Flutters erupted in her stomach at the idea that she could have captured the attention of someone in his position.

Taking her own chance, her hands moved up his chest to cross behind his head, her fingers playing with the stray hairs at his neck. Lust and want were pushing her. How long had it been since anyone had made her feel this way? Had anyone even come close?

“So what now…”

His lips traced along her throat as he pulled her flush against his chest delighting in her gasp of shock. She was surprised to feel how hard he was and had to still her hips from moving against him.

“It’s up to you.” His voice was hot and desperate against her skin. “Because of the position that I am in I don't get to imagine tomorrows. So all I ask is just for one night.”

“Just a night” She panted as he continued to layer kisses along her skin from her shoulder towards her exposed cleavage.

His tongue and lips left a wet trail along her skin.

“That’s all. No strings, no expectations, just us. Whatever your conditions are is fine. I need to fuck you and It’s pretty obvious that you want me too.” She felt his smug smile between her breasts. His thumbs rubbed the tight nubs. She held her breath as his hands massaged and manipulated her sensitive tits.

In spite of herself, she couldn’t help the moan that fell from her lips.

“Fuck, you don’t know what that sound does to me Trouble.”

“More, please.” She begged thoughtlessly and his hands made quick work of pulling her dress down below her tits.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He breathed before his mouth descended over her. She cried out as he bit and sucked at her heavy chest. She arched up chasing that delicious feeling.

Despite what she actually wanted she managed to ground out. “Wait.”

Shikamaru immediately released her, taking a step back. “Sorry, Temari-”

She shook her head before pulling him back. “No trust me that was perfect and I do want you.” At the admission, he returned to worshiping her heavy mounds.

She had to bite back a moan to get her point out. “But if this is really just going to be a one-night thing let’s make it interesting.”

“How so?”

“Let’s go out, get something to eat.” Temari couldn’t believe what she was asking for. Yes, a quick fuck would be more than enough. For whatever reason though, she didn’t want the night to end.

He was in shock and just a bit of awe at the situation. Most women easily spread their legs if he showed any interest. Why did he relish in challenges? Why was he entertaining the idea?

“I don’t just go out or go on dates. I’m not a good man. I could easily take what I want from you. Why can’t I?” He groaned against her flushed chest.

“You tell me. You seem to have an answer for everything. Here’s what I think. When I asked you to wait you did. You’re a criminal but you’re not a monster.” She told him with a soft smile with her fingers in his hair. That smile could bring him to his knees.

“You think much too highly of me. Trouble.” He replied taking deep inhales in her hair.

“I don’t think that I do.”

“A date.”

If he was right and they did only have one night together Temari was going to make it last.

“That's what I want to do. And you said that any of my conditions were fine with you. Maybe get to know each other just a little bit first.”

His finger slowly grazed her face before drawing her gaze back up. It was like those teal eyes could see right through him. “You might not like what you find.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” He met the challenge in her eyes with his own steely glare. She was so damn troublesome and it would be much easier to find some other willing woman to help him get off. That person wouldn’t be Temari though.

“Fine Trouble if that’s what you want. We will go out but if you think that this silly attempt at keeping me from what I want is going to stop me you’re mistaken.”

She made a show of fixing her dress before drawing him into a kiss. His lips were hot and demanding against hers but she responded in kind. Aggressive and lustful, her tongue slid against his. She felt him walk them back. Her back hitting the door so he could put his full weight against her.

Shikamaru very rarely kissed his conquests. Fucking could be emotionless and raw. Kissing felt far too intimate. Kissing Temari though he couldn’t help but crave. She was so soft and pliant against him. It had been so long since he’d had anything so sweet.

“Are you just used to getting what you want immediately?” She teased him, her lips still against his. He hiked her leg around his waist grounding his erection against her overheated pussy.

“Most people know better than to push me.” He groaned, taking quick bites along her neck. His cock was already so hard in his pants and this troublesome blonde was only making it worse.

“Don’t be a cry baby about it. Maybe waiting will make it that much sweeter.”

“I can’t imagine your pussy being any sweeter than it already is.” He replied with a grin as his fingers moved up her thigh and towards her wet cunt teasing her hard clit. Wanting to draw out those sweet cries from her.

“We don’t have to go out to eat. I can eat your pussy right here.”

She pulled him back into a demanding kiss. It wasn’t a bad idea but she’d already made her move. “Fuck, your mouth won’t get you in trouble. That tongue will.” She cried, throwing her head back.

His thumb rubbed against her kiss swollen lips. “And that’s exactly where I’ll expect it to be later on tonight.”

“Come on, let’s go.” After a few more heated kisses Temari was able to pull back wanting to see her request through. Needing just a little space. This man was far too disarming.

“Well you’ve sucked my tits and felt me up, I think that I deserve a first name Nara.”

He threw his jacket over her shoulders before leading her back down that dimly lit hallway. His arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

“It’s Shikamaru.”

“Shikamaru.” She repeated back and the sound of his name on her lips sent a shudder through him.

This Temari was dangerous. He knew that she couldn’t actually physically hurt him but the damage could be much worse. Still, when she looked at him with that all too charming grin and excitement in her teal eyes he couldn’t help but want to take the risk.

Once they reached the streets she stopped him to pull him into another kiss. It was far more gentle than the lust-fueled ones that they’d shared. A genuine smile crossed his lips when she looked up at him.

“Be careful, a date with me can be quite a drag.”

I was going to write this and keep it to myself but I loved it too much and I hope that you do too!! I have another story for Sai/Ino and one in the works for Chouji/Karui that will all happen in this same universe. It's going to go fast because I have no patience or energy for a slow burn. There will be some twists and turns though! Thanks for reading! Love, love you all!

Update: I have a Stalemate/ShikaTema playlist on spotify but is there a way to share it but it’s not associated with my personal account? Hmmm either way if I decide to share it I’ll add a link here.

#shikatema #shikatem #shikamaru x temari #mafia au #mafia romance #naruto fanfiction #naruto fanfic #naruto #sangriaslips #sunflowerstalks #complete #omg i cant believe i finished it #im updating this while on a work meeting #thanks babes for all your support #this one was tough but its done so I hope that you all enjoy it

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one-leaf-grimoire · 4 years

Text

“triad”

Chapter 22: the child of the devil

AAAAAAAAAAA THINGS ARE ESCALATING STRAP IN JFSDKL

There is a major reveal this chapter... I would love to know if anyone predicted it.

AO3 LINK

Two minutes remain

I sit there, for what feels like an hour. I know it’s not, but at this point, time doesn’t even exist. At least, it shouldn’t, for all intents and purposes.

Time…

What is it? Supposedly, the nature of my magic. No… not magic. I didn’t make this magic my own… I assimilated it. I forced it inside myself and appropriated something beautiful, something that belonged to someone beautiful.

I’m out of time…

I feel like a vase, filled with enough water to crest over my top lip. The only thing keeping it together is surface tension, stretched farther and farther as more and more pressure mounts upon me. At any moment, it will snap, and my life will bleed out of me and be lost in the winds of time itself.

But time is useless.

I couldn’t use it to win.

I couldn’t use it to save them.

All it did was act as a fertilizer for the Tree of Qliphoth, accelerating its growth until it passed the point of no return.

This isn’t how it was supposed to be…

What was my purpose here?

I am a Simulcian. The enemy of the Devil.

But in the end… I couldn’t do what Simulcia managed to do. And now, I’m not so sure she even existed.

That’s right… there is no God. There is no Simulcia. There is only Hell, and now I’ve brought that Hell to our own Earth.

There are footsteps drawing closer. My hands lay limp by my sides, unable to even twitch to defend myself.

Maybe… now…

Part of me wants to jump to my feet, to turn around and take out my anger on those approaching me. Then, I want to fly right home, and defend Adeline, Marx, and Joy for as long as I can from the horrors that have been unleashed.

… but it’s all useless.

I already know in my heart.

The footsteps stop. Slowly, I finally move, twisting only slightly to stare back at the man behind me.

No… not a man.

It’s Dante Zogratis, but he isn’t alone. His body is almost limp, zombie-like, and his shadow raises behind him like a horrible black wave. Four horns grow from the shadow’s head, with two red eyes, and a grinning, dagger-filled mouth. It’s…

A devil… with the gates all open, it must be able to manifest now.

With every passing second, it becomes more and more solid, its body huge and thick. It gives off the most oppressive magic I’ve ever felt, something grotesque and unearthly the likes of which no one on this earth has ever encountered. This Devil… In any other situation, I would have been shocked, but there isn’t enough energy left in my body to bring myself to blink. … it’s the King of Devils, the one Nacht mentioned before…

Lucifero…

For a moment, an image of Nacht passes through my head. How cruel he seemed back at the meeting. He knew something about me, he knew that I was a monster. He knew that I was dying. Did he learn that from Spade? What more do they know about me, then?

Not that it matters… they have me cornered.

“I see that you’ve given up.”

His voice is low. It holds no malice that I can tell, despite the fact that it oozed from Dante’s.

“And rightfully so… you’ve lost. At this moment, Devils are making their way into this world. In mere minutes, they will overrun your Kingdom. All those not strong enough to escape will die.”

… Adeline and Joy… Marx-

At the thought, emotion sparks in my heart.

No… it’s too late. I can’t save them… I can’t save anyone.

“But… you shouldn’t be so sad.”

Lucifero’s next words pull me out of that thought and back to the present. I look back up at him, not sure when I had lowered my gaze back to the ground.

Not… sad?

In what world would I not be sad?

His grin widens, bloodlust finally leaking through his expression.

“I’m surprised… the pieces were all there for you. Didn’t you look back through the Simulcian consciousness?”

I blink slowly, only hearing him slightly.

Simulcian consciousness? How does he know about that? What do Simulcians have to do with this?

His chuckle grows louder.

“I thought you would have seen the truth… but perhaps not. Your so-called Goddess, Simulcia… do you know what her Will really was?”

I don’t do him the pleasure of answering, but my heart starts to pound.

Her Will?

Lucifero’s eyes narrow at my lack of reaction, but he finally goes on.

“Her will… was to control this world.”

Control?

Recognition flickers in my mind.

Mikael… my uncle Mikael wanted to control the world through our species. But… that was just him, right? Does that have something to do with Simulcia’s will?

“Through you and your species… Simulcians are nothing but a vessel, meant to unite and carry her rotten soul forward into the future, so she may one day rule this world. But… she failed. She would have been much better off following the original plan.”

…

What? What original plan?

For the first time, I react. My eyes widen as a horrible conclusion blossoms in my mind.

… no… there’s no way-

“Simulcia came to this Earth when the Qliphoth was opened for the first time, thousands of years ago. But she destroyed it, locking us all back in the underworld so she could enjoy it all herself.”

No… NO- Please, God, not this-

“She was a Devil who wanted to destroy the world… and Simulcians are her children.”

My blood freezes, and suddenly everything makes sense.

My pain, my loathing, my wrath for this world, Mikael’s actions, the existence of Simulcians, our shared consciousness… it’s nothing but a vessel for a Devil.

That’s right… that’s why it was so hard for me to think that a human could truly be evil.

Because… Simulcians are evil. We are nothing but a failed plan to unite the world under Simulcia’s rule.

For some strange reason, that truth settles within me easier than I thought. Lucifero’s brow furrows as I turn away again, my shoulders slumping as my body relaxes.

I… I can’t feel… anything right now.

Sitting here, with the world caving in, with the bodies of my best friends before me, and with the knowledge that I am a child of the devil, I can’t even bring myself to feel sad.

In the end… it doesn’t matter what my identity truly is. Because it’s something I lost long ago.

Lucifero sighs, then takes a step forward. “I see we have nothing left to say to each other… so I’ll put you out of your-”

His words cease as I suddenly move. Slowly, painfully, I stand up.

Nothing matters… absolutely nothing.

I’ve ruined everything. Yet I’m the only one who can fix it.

Everyone… please forgive me.

“Sealing Magic… release.”

Maybe I’m lucky. Lucifero and I are alone. There’s no one to back him up. And I just lost anything that I had to lose.

Power flows through me, like a flood finally free of a dam that contained it for centuries. But along with it, my very life is torn apart. And not just my life; whatever I had left of my humanity is extinguished. My mark glows black, and suddenly, two sharp tracks of black streak down my cheeks, as if my face itself were cracking. Two spots on my head start to heat up, and there’s something thin and fibrous growing from them.

I guess that makes sense… Simulcians who use forbidden magic will be marked with the same horns as their origin.

I finally turn around to look at Lucifero, my face and mind still blank. I know that my life could end at any minute, but not before I am done with him and the rest of this god forsaken world.

“Lucifero… thank you.”

He sees the markings on my face and the two antennae on my head, and recognition flashes through his eyes. Maybe long ago, he faced Simulcia as she fought the other Devils, locking them away in Hell once again. I am not Simulcia, but her Will courses through my veins. Her Will to destroy the world now controls my every move.

“Thank you for giving me a reason to be selfish.”

I spread my arms as Gravity crashes down on me from all sides.

Shit! She’s going to try something- Lucifero took a step back as he activated his spell, hoping to crush me under the weight. But it doesn’t matter! Her time magic will never reach me! Because time is slowed by gravity-

However, it’s not time that I send towards him.

Time may be slowed… but the speed of Light is constant, no matter what the gravity is.

Spears of light appear everywhere around the Devil, and pierce him from all sides. Lucifero lets out an angry roar, caught completely off guard in that moment. What? She surprised me there, sure, but-

In an instant, the light clears, but he’s still stunned from the brightness.

No matter- next time, I’ll finish her-

It’s too late. In the moment that he released his spell, I lunged at him.

Neither of us react. My face is devoid of all emotion; just two, empty black eyes set in a sunken face, inches from death.

I reach towards Dante, to which Lucifero is attacked, my hands dragging my face up to his.

One minute remains

Blinding light emanated from the room, right as none other than Zenon is running back to it. Unlike Dante and Vanica, for whatever reason his Devil did not take full control of his body. He wasn’t surprised; he was smarter about his contract than the two of them. But that’s not the issue right now; the problem was that something big was happening. Without a second thought, he bursts into the cavern, and freezes in place.

Lucifero’s growing body is gone, once again completely contained within Dante. The poor man twitches but mostly hangs limp as my hands clench his head, harder than a human skull should probably withstand. But I have him… my mark is emblazoned on his forehead, shining bright in the darkness. Lucifero’s mark burns on my chest as I stand there, slowly but surely sucking away his power and assimilating it into my own.

Zenon stands there, shocked, as he looks upon the newly formed Triad. Both my power and Julius’s tugs and tugs at Lucifero’s magic. Dante’s horns are slowly growing on my own head, and my antennae wrap around the black material and glow even brighter.

I look over at the man, my eyes glowing.

“... You’re too late.”

I clench my hand tighter, drawing out more energy.

This is what I was made for… to steal. To assimilate. All for Simulcia.

But now, I’m doing this for myself. To finally create the world I longed for. A perfect world…

“Lucifero’s power is mine.”

The mighty devil was no match for the power of his oldest foe.

“I now contain a magic formed from both Gravity and Time… with this, I will create a singularity that consumes the fabric of spacetime. Through brute force, I will destroy time up until a point that I see fit. I will destroy any chance that you had to win, Zenon.”

There’s no joy on my face as I tell him this.

“You’ve lost.”

Zenon stands there, still, for just a few more moments. Then, his face hardens.

“No… I haven’t given up. You haven’t won!”

His bones are forming around him, in a last ditch effort to defeat me. With a desperate yell, he sends them flying at me.

I simply raise my hand, and it all comes crashing down on him. Zenon gasps in pain, flying back to the ground as gravity pins him there.

My skull throbs.

I don’t have much time.

“Goodbye… Zenon.”

The transfer is complete. Lucifero is trapped, his magic in my grasp.

DON’T YOU DARE!

I hear his voice echoing in our heads.

Shut up, Devil.

I close my eyes, and prepare to use my new spell.

…

But…

…

A moment passes. Then another.

They drag on and on.

...n-no…

…

Is this… really how it is?

My hands are shaking as I grasp Dante’s head, but he’s slipping away. My control over Lucifero is slipping away.

All of this… was for nothing, because in the end…

I can’t do it.

The strength to destroy the world… it’s something I never had within me.

I can’t do it.

Next time: the Joy of Death. Sometimes you just have to know when to give up. Will Lisa go through with her time travel plan? Or is she not strong enough to abandon an entire world? We’ll see tomorrow...

#triad #fic #oc: lisa

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frostsinth · 4 years

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The Bard’s Bounty - Pt. 8

Hey friends. Graphic warnings here. Hinting at past forced encounters and abuse, and potential rape. You have been warned, please read with caution. This story took a darker turn than I intended.

Apologies for the slow follow-up. Work life got busy and I didn’t have time to finish this part. I’ve already almost finished the next two, so I should be able to update more regularly until the end (which will be Part 10).

Parts 1|2|3|4|5|6|7

Iara’s off to face the Bounty Hunter’s Guild and rescue Balam. But will she get there in time to save him?

It was midday by the time I reached the Guild headquarters, and I pulled my stolen mount up short. The large mansion nestled in the center of the thriving port town seemed very still compared to the bustling streets around it. I gritted my teeth, ducking my head lower into the cowl of my borrowed cloak. There was a time when the sight of the mansion filled me with entirely different emotions. Now I wasn’t sure what to feel.

I didn’t have much time, I knew. I had already wasted so much just getting here. Waking up alone in the forest, drenched in blood. My own blood, at least. There was no sign of a struggle. No sign that they had decided to take Balam’s head after all. But I was still filled with a cold dread. Who knew what had happened in the hours I was knocked out. What if I was already too late?

I prayed that the dumb orc had managed to babble his way into a stay of execution. Just for a little while longer at least. Long enough for me to do what needed to be done.

I left the stolen horse in the stables beside the old blacksmith, patting his big flank gently. He was a big, quiet gelding with a calm temperament. And just one more notch on the long stick of my questionable career. I didn’t even pay it much thought. In fact, I added another as I snuck into the forge and grabbed the nearest pair of serviceable weapons. A rough set of freshly sharpened daggers.

I knew Goda would be in the stables adjacent to the mansion. It wouldn’t be hard to get her out; I doubt anyone in the Guild thought I would be stupid enough to come back for what they thought was just another horse. And no outsider would be brazen enough to steal from the Guild. No, she wouldn’t be guarded or tethered. Likely they had to drag her there by force and were more than eager to pen her for a while. I looked off towards the stables briefly, my heart racing. First though, I had to find Warrick.

On light feet, I made my way swiftly from shadow to shadow. The sun was high overhead, and didn’t leave much room for hiding. But I knew this place like the back of my hand. I knew how to avoid being seen. And a hot, numbing rage spurned me on.

Next, I moved with a small troupe of merchants, who’s carts drifted close to the outer walls of the compound. I stood close to one, unnoticed, until we passed beneath the hickory tree whose long branches hung down over the wall. Quick as a flash, I sprinted out, jumped, and caught the top of the wall with the balls of my fingertips. With a grunt, I pulled myself up and over. All before the cart had passed more than three feet away. Its rattling wares and distracting colors drew any errant eye and covered my ascent.

Ducking behind the tree’s slim trunk, I reached one hand up to my newly dressed side. It stung, but whatever magic Warrick had used on me seemed to have had a strange side effect on it. The wound’s edges were burned through, and it no longer openly bled whenever I twisted or moved. Still hurt like the dickens, but I could work with that.

I heard footsteps and dropped low, watching some green recruits walking past, chattering quietly between themselves. I used the sound of their soft laughter muffled beneath their palms to cover my quick dash over to the side of the mansion itself. Overhead, a window, just a few feet above me. I glanced around, then jumped, catching my foot on the corner of the building and launching myself up.

I managed to hook my forearm, and pulled myself in. My ears rang and I twitched with each little sound. There was a grim, ironic pang in the pit of my stomach as I recognized that the only reason I had gotten as far as I had was because of Warrick’s training. I was the best Bounty Hunter in the damn place, and he made sure of that. My mouth went dry at the thought of the Guildmaster, but I shook off the prickling of my skin and crept down the hall.

Up the stairs, past the bunk rooms. It sounded like the majority of the Guild was downstairs in the basement taproom; at least those who were home. Luckily enough for my purposes, the Hunters rarely stayed at the Guildhouse for long. Just long enough to tally their scores and pick up the next bounty assignment.

The sharp creak of a floorboard had me scrambling backwards haphazardly, shouldering open the nearest door and ducking in. I spun, pressing my eye to the crack just in time to watch Varius stomp down the hallway. The half-elf looked mad; his brow was furrowed and he was muttering to himself under his breath. So caught up in himself, he didn’t seem to sense my eyes watching him.

For a moment, I felt my hand go to my belt. I thumbed the dagger, longing to shove it between the bastard’s shoulder blades. There was a long history between us, and its memory burned me. But I quelled my anger, and let him pass. Next time, I promised myself.

Glancing over to be certain my cover was not blown, I snuck back out into the hall. Down the way that Varius had come. Towards the Guildmaster’s private office.

I didn’t hesitate, aside from a quick glance over my shoulder to be certain we were still alone. Despite the danger. Despite everything inside me screaming for fear of the memory of this place. I pushed open the door, then quickly and quietly closed it behind me.

Warrick’s back was to me, one gloved hand tucked in the small of his spine, the other holding up some papers. There was a desk between myself and him, but not much else. And I felt the hot rage growing in me again. Burning away at the hollow numbness that had filled me just a moment before. How many times had I been in this room? Standing right where I stood now?

None of them were happy memories.

He didn’t flinch at the sound of the door opening, simply sighing and shaking his head.

“Varius, the matter is settled,” He intoned, sounding bored, “Go sulk in the taproom-” I could see a smirk dancing in the corner of his lips- “Perhaps I’ll come find you later-”

He stopped short as the deadbolt thumped into place. Slowly, without turning, he lowered his papers, staring directly ahead out the window before him. I didn’t wait for him to move first; my daggers already drawn, creeping forward on the balls of my feet. Perhaps if I could just manage to catch him off guard. Even the slightest amount. Perhaps then this might not be the suicide mission I knew it was, born of absolute desperation. I watched the hand behind his back slowly clench.

“Honestly, Iara,” He said coldly, finally turning his head slightly to consider me out of the corner of his eye, “I thought you above such foolishness.”

“Where is he?” I hissed, moving ever closer.

A deep sigh was my response, and the Guildmaster shook his head, turning to face me fully. I knew better than to let my guard down. Warrick was at least ten years my senior, and along with being an accomplished mage, he had trained almost all of the Guild members himself. He was not going to be beaten easily. But in that moment, I didn’t care. A wild mirage of emotions swirled around in my chest.

“How disappointing,” He tsked, shaking his head, “You showed such… vigor in your upbringing.”

“Where. Is. He?” I pressed, restlessly spinning the dagger in my hand.

A wicked pointed incisor showed as the Guildmaster’s lip curled back. “You would throw everything you’ve worked for here… for a man? An orc of all things? How unlike you.”

“Shut up and answer me,” I growled back, clenching my teeth, “Where is he?”

Warrick offered a short, quick laugh, wrinkling his nose as he looked down it at me, now barely an arm’s length away.

“Well, which is it, my dear?” He purred, dark eyes narrowing, “‘Shut up’ or ‘answer me’? I can hardly do both now, can I?”

Hot white rage filled me to the brim, and I launched forward with my right dagger leading. Fast as a snake, his gloved hand shot out, catching my wrist. He twisted, pulling me in close and knocking away my other strike as easily as one might an irksome fly. Sending the dagger spinning across the surface of the desk. Then he yanked my arm back, pulling it behind me and up. I gasped in pain, and he used his knee to deftly spin me, and slam me face first into the desktop. Books and papers scattered everywhere from the force, and I mouthed at the air uselessly for a moment.

I felt his hot breath on the back of my neck as he leaned over me, pressing me painfully into the surface with his weight.

“Tell me, my sweet,” He breathed in my ear, and it sent a shiver of revulsion down my spine, “What made you turn away from me?” I struggled, but he easily subdued my vain attempt to dislodge him. “... Is his cock bigger? Is that what it was?” His lips dragged against my skin as he spoke. “Did he fuck you absolutely senseless?”

I felt him pressing his hips against my ass, and wriggled again, fighting to free one of my trapped hands. To get some semblance of a good angle to attack him again. I found I forgot everything I had ever learned in that moment. He was stronger than me. Older. More experienced. And I couldn’t find any purchase in my mind to begin to think how to fight him. I panted, my heart pounding in my ears. I swore I could hear him smirk, and I rolled my eyes back to look at him as best I could from where my face was still smashed into the desk.

“I always knew you liked it rough… perhaps I just need to step up my game, hmm?”

He kneed my legs apart, and I felt him adjusting himself. At first, I panicked. I felt numb all over. The same weak helplessness. The same shame and terror that had threatened to choke the life out of me every time the bastard had touched me. I felt myself pulling back. Recoiling into myself. Trying desperately to disconnect before it was too late.

“I warned you not to come back. Warned you what would happen…. One more lesson for you then, yes? But don’t worry, my sweet little Iara,” He purred into my ear. He released one of my limp hands, confident I wouldn’t fight back, and moved to slide his hand up the back of my thigh. “Your precious bard is probably already dead. Or wishes he was.”

His words brought up a memory. Just a quick flash of a sweet, lopsided grin. And a soft hum, like the buzzing of honeybees.

I wasn’t fully conscious of the movement. All I felt was cold steel in my palm, and the sudden tightening of my muscles. The painful twist of my arm and the resistance it met as I stabbed the dagger with every last ounce of my strength.

I heard a gargled sound, like water bubbling from a pipe. The Guildmaster’s weight lifted, and I quickly spun. Shoving hard with all my might. Forcing him backward until his shoulders hit the wall and his head snapped back against it from the force of his impact.

Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, which hung open in dumbfounded confusion. His dark eyes were wide, and he looked between my rage filled face and the dagger protruding from between his fourth and fifth ribs. I took hold of the handle, meeting his gaze as I slowly twisted it deeper. His mouth opened wider, and that same strangled sound came from his throat.

“I’ll ask you one more time;” I hissed, my words squeezed through the narrow slit that was my throat, constricted with anger, “Where. Is. He.”

He opened and closed his mouth, like a suffocating fish. Then sputtered, gasping in one labored breath.

“The Sheriff… Collected-” another gasp- “Ridgepeak Manor-”

I smiled wickedly. “Thank you, Guildmaster,” I pushed the dagger in a little deeper, “You’ve been so helpful.”

I turned, grabbing my other dagger from where it had been left on the desk. His hands flailed at me weakly, but as his blood pooled at his feet, I knew there was nothing he could do. For a moment, I felt wonderful. Powerful beyond all measure. Grateful and free. I turned back to him, considering leaving him to drown in his own blood. The bastard didn’t deserve a quick death, I reasoned.

Then he bared his teeth at me, stained scarlet. His smile was twisted, perverse. And even as he sunk to his knees, his grin sent shivers down my spine.

“I knew you…. were just like me…” He gasped, his voice shaking and thin. His eyes rolled up to look at me. “You…are my most… prized possession… my greatest… legacy...”

I stared at him, grinning like a fool with his own life slipping between his fingers. I knew exactly what he would have done in this moment, had the roles been reversed. Exactly what I had been about to do... I clenched my jaw, squeezing my eyes shut, and shook my head. Making up my mind.

Then I crouched down, drawing the dagger with a quick yank from his side. He gasped, but then I saw the flood of confusion as his blood gushed out faster. As his pain ebbed away. I steeled my nerve and drew in close, bracing his face with one blood soaked hand.

“You don’t own me.” I breathed, then slowly slipped the dagger into the base of his skull.

He shivered once, a sensation that rippled through his entire body. Then the light in his eyes went out, and his body slumped to the floor.

I swallowed hard, walking over to the open window and cleaning the blades on the curtain. There was a knock at the office door, and a muffled voice. I glanced over my shoulder as the knocking became louder and more insistent.

I leapt over the window sill and dropped the few feet to the lip of the roof below. I moved quickly now. It didn’t matter if I was seen. It mattered only that I got out.

I covered the entire length of the mansion in a few minutes, sprinting as fast as I could. I whistled sharply as I approached the stables, and heard the responding whinny from within. Leaping over a very confused street urchin passing by, I tucked into a roll. The sound of smashing wood was quickly overridden by the pounding of hooves against dirt.

As Goda swept out of the stables with a squeal of delight, I straightened and reached out an arm to hook it around her thick neck. Swinging up onto her back and settling myself behind her whithers.

“Come on, girl,” I murmured as she cantered down the street, vendors diving out of the way, “Let’s go get Balam.”

....

UPDATED: Part Nine HERE

#orc #orc boyfriend #orc bard #The bard's bounty #OC #update #exophilia #tw: blood #tw: suggestive #monster boyfriend #enemies to lovers #terato

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kimageddon · 3 years

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Star Wars Fics - (OC edition) - The Reception

Part 2 of the OC edition of the Tech story, again it's mostly the same just with more description and

Part 1 - The Wedding

Part 3 - The Honeymoon

Tech x Reader Edition

The Reception

So far so good. The wedding ceremony was done and all Ameidith had to do was keep an eye out during the reception. She and the boys… all dolled up and looking for bad guys. Yep… that’s all it was. Just work. Just… work. She was handed a glass of bubbling clear liquid and from the first sip she knew there was alcohol in it. Now… on the job was not a time for drinking. But even as she tried to pretend, one sip became two. Became three… became half a glass… and then she had a second glass. It was just part of the act of course. No other reason. She took another sip.

“Might want to slow down on those, Feisty.” Echo muttered beside her, making her jump slightly.

“I don’t know what you mean.” She replied as she cleared her throat. “If I didn’t have a sip occasionally people might get suspicious.”

“Occasional sip huh? Is that your fourth glass?” He smirked, scanning the guests carefully. Currently Hunter was by the bar, Crosshair had claimed a particularly comfortable spot of wall to lean on, Wrecker and Omega were walking around the outside perimeter… and Tech… she was painfully aware of the presence of the last member of the crew. He was behind her. She was thankful for that at least, that way she didn’t have to make more awkward eye contact.

“It’s only my second.” She huffed in reply. “I’m… not a fan of weddings.” No need to explain everything, in all honesty the boys didn’t know much about her, her past, her choices. They didn’t know why she became a bounty hunter at all, and hadn’t cared to ask. Though she knew they wondered, she’d seen the curious looks… no, it wasn’t that they didn’t dare to ask. They respected her enough not to. Maybe she’d tell them… about Lothal, about her home, her sister. But not today.

“Could have fooled me.” Echo let out a deep chuckle, leaning a little closer. she slowly turned to look at him, her brow twitching slightly.

“And what do you mean by that?” She asked quietly.

“Oh I don't know… she just seemed a little distracted earlier…” The red head felt him smirking without looking at him.

“You’re as bad as Hunter. There is nothing wrong with me, I am not distracted. Let’s just get this mission done and go home. Then I can drink as much as I want without you judging me.” She huffed and Echo just laughed.

“If you say so, Feisty.” He petted her shoulder as he turned away. Ameidith bristled, she knew Echo was looking out for her but… oh what would he know? She wasn’t staring during the ceremony. At anyone. Certainly not the gorgeous member of their crew in goggles. Nope. She wasn’t.

Gathering as much grace as she could muster, she swept past the dancefloor and out onto the balcony for some fresh air. It was growing late, and she was itching to head back to Ord Mantell, grab some Mantell Mix with Wrecker and Omega maybe. They’d allowed the red-headed bounty hunter to join them the last few times so she hoped they’d let her tag along again. She leant on the railing overlooking a wide garden, the place was stunning of course, but that didn’t mean the danger was gone. It was hard to feel battle ready in a dress like this, the entire back to the waist was transparent mesh, a line of buttons up her spine. A jewelled detail in the centre between her breasts and sweeping purple fabric trailed down to the toes of her heeled pumps. Her usually untameable red curls were pinned to one side of her head and hung over one shoulder, a far cry from the usual attempted updo she kept when she had to hide it under her helmet.

The sun was setting in the distance, and while she paid it little attention, the man now standing behind her was drinking in the way the golden light reflected off her hair. The way it set her hair aflame and kissed her freckled skin, with a warm touch he could only envy. The way the dress was cut to accentuate curves that were usually hidden under armour. The way the buttons trailed down her back like a path he yearned to follow.

“I--” He began but got nowhere before she turned. Her eyes widened suddenly. she’d recognised the voice even before she moved but instinct had taken hold. There was Tech, a few feet from her, looking ever so dashing in his suit and eyes that felt like they looked right through her. When did he get there? What was with that look on his face? She didn’t quite understand it.

“Oh… is-is there an update?” She stammered pathetically, she hadn’t been expecting to talk to him so soon. He blinked before seeming to snap back to attention.

“Erm… oh, yes.” He nodded and looked back to the comm device in his hand. He’d kept it in his coat this whole time, she guessed and came out to check without anyone noticing. “The signals have been rather steady through the evening, I am not picking up any disturbances along the outer perimeter.” He stepped over, now focused on the screen. Of course, there was no way that he wasn’t totally focused on the mission. As she ought to be as well. He had just been surprised she was out here. Her eyes were drawn to the screen as he pointed out the signal and a fluctuation he had been worried about, though it turned out to be a false alarm. She chuckled lightly and she saw him look up at her out of the corner of her eye.

“You always have everything under control, don’t you?” Ameidith murmured. How did he always seem so calm, so unaffected by everything? She tried to be like that, but her emotions slipped out too often.

“Not… everything.” He confessed. She looked up and instantly regretted it. The red head hadn’t realised how close she’d gotten when looking at the screen and now Tech and his stunning eyes the colour of warm leather were right there. Inches away from her soft freckled face.

“Wha-what do you mean?” She asked. Her eyes wandered his face, he looked flushed, and his lip was trembling. Her concern grew and she stood up fully, to step in front of him with a slight frown, both hands came up to cup his cheeks, he didn’t feel clammy. “Tech, are you okay?” She asked, green eyes flashing out of concern for him, she hadn’t seen him like this before. Was he ill?

“Of-of course-of course I am.” She leaned in closer, her eyes full of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Meidi…” Now he sounded out of breath.

“You know I would be terribly upset if something happened to you.” There was a slight pause as he raised his free hand to hers against his face, a little bashful smile on his lips as he avoided eye contact.

“And I, you.” He replied. Her heart ached. He was so sweet. Her eyes lingered on him, the way he nervously flicked his gaze over her, the way his lip twitched slightly as though trying to suppress a smile. His skin was warm and though he was still flushed, he didn’t seem like he was in any pain or anything. Maybe he’d had a sip of the wine too?

Before she knew what was happening, the gap between the two of them grew smaller, her lashes fluttered against his cheek as her eyes closed, and her lips pressed to his slowly, gently. A kiss full of admiration and affection. His hand gripped hers a little more firmly and she felt her stomach tighten. Heat bloomed in the touch and it was like there was some music playing that only she could hear as his mouth moved against hers. She’d heard about fireworks when lovers kissed but she’d never felt it before… until now.

Suddenly a loud cheer from inside the ballroom startled the two of them apart. Apparently the wedding guests were partaking in another toast. That's right. The wedding. The mission. She was meant to be paying attention. Not out here kissing one of her squadmates. Wait. Oh no. She kissed Tech. She kissed Tech! No no no! This was unprofessional! This was wrong! She wasn't supposed to do this with colleagues, it was dangerous to get involved. Not only that, Tech never asked for this, probably didn’t want this. He stood there with wide eyes, looking as horrified as she felt. All these thoughts slammed through her mind in a second before she tore sherself away.

“I’m sorry…!” She gasped, it was a weak apology. She felt a little dirty, there was no way he would have wanted that, not really. She’d just surprised him before he had the chance to push her away. No no no! This was not how things were supposed to happen!

A quick stop to the refresher to make sure she didn’t look dishevelled or out of place and she was back to work. She buried the awkward encounter and decided to pretend it never happened. This was going to be a long night.

Tags:@stupidbitchesenterprise @eyecandyeoz @fallenrepublick @belladonnaeyes @theroguesully @1fineslytherin @ashotofspotchka @sunipostsstuff @shuttlelauncher81 @cosmicsierra @two-black-leviathans

Join the taglist here, and lmk if you do not wanna be tagged. Love ya!

#tech fluff #tag a tech simp #clone tech #clone wars #tbb fluff #tbb tech #the bad batch #tech x oc #star wars fan fiction #tbb fanfiction

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magnolia-penn · 4 years

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A Helping Hand

Noriaki Kakyoin x Reader

A totally late self comfort fic that I wrote to help cope with terrible parents

WARNINGS: Just some Part 3 spoilers. Nothing that you wouldn't know after watching the fist few episodes. Other than that, there's none. Just self indulgent fluff.

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Dealing with Jotaro Kujo isn’t the easiest of tasks for anybody unless you’re his mother. He’s cold, abrasive, and a bit of dick. He detests people who can’t take care of themselves and hates covering anyone’s ass.

Not a good situation for you.

You had only developed your stand, Magenta Sunset, ten days ago. A week before your meeting with the StarDust Crusaders. It happened during a business trip to Cairo that you attended with your father.

The night it manifested, you were approached by a man named DIO. He used sweet words and promises to help you better understand this strange new power you had received, as long as you helped him when he needed it.

You naively agreed.

He took your hand and whisked you across Cairo’s rooftops to his mansion, the wind and his deep voice almost drowning out the screams of your father.

True to his word, he taught you about Stands and how to control yours, by inserting a flesh bud into your forehead and giving you your orders to eliminate the Joestars.

You encountered the Crusaders in a small desert town, and you launched your attack. The battle only lasted about fifteen minutes, and you shouted your apologies the entire time.

After being apprehended by purple and green tendrils, it was the redhead’s idea to have you join them, stating that your circumstances were no different from him. The old man agreed and ordered the teen dressed in all black to remove the flesh bud, and you were put under the care of the redhead, now known as Noriaki Kakyoin.

It soon became glaringly apparent that without the flesh bud dictating your movement, you were at an infant level with your stand. After some deliberation, the old man, Joseph Joestar, and the Egyptian, Muhammud Avdol, chalked it up to inexperience. Everyone had theirs for quite possibly years, while you only had yours for a mere couple of days.

With introductions and backstories out of the way, it was time to get back on the road. You took every opportunity to practice with your stand, and everyone agreed to help, except Jotaro, which was to be expected.

Kakyoin was your sparring partner more often than not. Under his guidance, you improved significantly, but you still faltered in defense. You always struggled to keep an eye on your surroundings and were slow to block.

The others would offer words of encouragement, but Jotaro would only scoff and throw an insult. His words hurt because you knew he was right. He was the strongest member of your team, and the team is only as strong as the weakest link. AKA, You. You started pushing yourself too far beyond your limits, to the point of exhaustion, and it was beginning to show. Your performance would drop, and Jotaro would degrade you more.

Kakyoin was always quick to rub salve on the wound, though. Every word he spoke lifted your spirits and inspired you to keep pushing. This might sound cliche to say, but you thought you might be falling for him.

Sadly, good things never last, and it all came crashing down after an actual battle. In a last-ditch effort, some C rated thug, who probably wasn’t even one of DIO's minions, launched a full-powered attack straight at you. Even the almighty Jotaro wasn’t prepared for it, and he just barely managed to pull you out of the way by the back of your shirt. He let you fall to the ground and quickly finished the thug off. He turned back to you and glared while looking you up and down. After a few tense seconds, he turned and walked away. He didn’t say anything. Not even a “Yare yare daze.”

That hurt worse than anything he could possibly say.

The other members of the group quickly came to your aid, gently pulling you to your feet and checking for injuries. You brushed them off with a smile and a wave. Kakyoin lingered longer than the rest, eyes filled with fear and pure relief at your safety. He embraced you in a giant hug, and you quickly returned it. Kakyoin pretended not to notice the way your body quaked in fear and how you clung to him like your life depended on it.

He knew Jotaro was harsh, but he didn’t expect it to affect you so severely. He worked with you every day, and none of his criticism ever got under your skin. But after seeing the sheer despair in your eyes after Jotaro turned his back to you solidified his belief that you cared about how Jotaro saw you.

His mind was telling him that it was only logical that you wanted Jotaro’s approval. He was the strongest of the group, and Jotaro’s harshness was a way of showing he cared. Still, Kakyoin’s heart overrode the system, and he couldn’t help but get angered at Jotaro’s lack of sympathy for you.

Later, out of the prying eyes of anybody else, he talked to Jotaro. It took some will power to keep his voice even as he tried to explain your side of things. Eventually, Jotaro acquiesced, promising to apologize to you.

That night, after everyone fell asleep, you snuck out over a sand dune to get some practice in. Every kick, every punch, every block seemed slow and sluggish as all of your pent up emotions chiseled away at the wall you put up. Letting out a frustrated groan, you dropped to your knees and cradled your head in your hands.

Large tears threatened to spill as you tried to suppress a sniffle. You knew it was useless to cry, but that didn’t stop the tears from falling

You were so wrapped up in your own emotions that you didn’t hear someone come up from behind and sit beside you.

“Messed up that badly today, huh?”

You jumped and quickly manifested your stand, ready to attack. Before you could, Emerald coils wrapped around your arms and pinned them to your sides.

“Hey, hey. Calm down. It’s just me.”

It was Kakyoin. Honestly, as much as you cared for him, he was the last person you wanted to see. He put too much time and effort into your training to see you on your knees, sobbing like a baby.

“It is just you. What do you want?” You managed to push Hierophant's coils off and sat up, pulling your legs to your chest.

“A reason to why you’re in the desert trying not to cry? A moment of your time? Penny for your thoughts?”

You let out a half-hearted scoff and played with the hem of your shirt.

Kakyoin chuckled. “A nickel?” No reaction. “A dime?”

Your face broke out into a smile against your will. “How about a quarter?”

Kakyoin rooted around in his pocket for a bit. “Aha! One quarter. You’re thoughts, M’Lady?”

You took the quarter and sighed, setting it between you as a time filler as you figured out what to say. You always admired Kakyoin. His stand is well-rounded, and he was so strong. He never walked out into the desert to lose control of his emotions. You knew it would be hard to explain everything you felt in a way he would understand.

“I’m weak.” You finally say after a long pause.

Kakyoin blinked in surprise. “You’re not weak.”

“Yes! I am! I can’t block attacks, and I’m painfully unaware of what’s happening around me! Anybody and their mother could sneak up on me! You did! I have to rely on everybody else to protect me, and there’s nothing I can do to get better!”

You threw your arms around Kakyoin and buried your face into his chest to hide your shame. He sputtered on air, and he prayed that you couldn’t feel the way his heart sped up.

He wrapped his arms around you and said, “That still doesn’t mean you’re weak.”

“How so?” You asked teary-eyed.

“Y/N. You are one of the strongest offense fighters on our team. Magenta Sunset might have lower defense, but you really make up for it in offense and improvisation. The others only wish they could come up with crazy ideas that just might work on the fly like you.”

Your ears twinged pink at his kind words. “Even you?”

“Especially me.” Kakyoin moved his hands to cup your face, forcing you to look at him. “ Look, you’d never be able to guess it, but Hierophant is actually kind of terrible at offense. Sure it has the Emerald Splash, but it works better out of the spotlight. And every time I see you and Sunset spring into the thrall without a moment’s hesitation, I get so jealous because I could never just jump in guns blazing. Hierophant works better in enclosed spaces, but Sunset works great just about anywhere.”

Kakyoin suddenly caught himself.

“Sorry. I was rambling again. But you get the idea, you are so amazing and so far from weak. I know I’ve only known you for a couple of days, but I really like you, Y/N.” He accidentally confessed.

Your eyes widened in surprise at the redhead’s words. You never imagined that anybody thought of you like that, not even Polnareff. When you didn’t respond, Kakyoin’s face lit up in a fiery scarlet.

“I.. I mean-I mean! I look up t-”

“I have an idea.” Your words cut off any excuses in his throat. “It’s crazy, but it just might work.”

“Yeah?”

“Hierophant sucks at offense,” You said as you pulled yourself off of Kakyoin.

“You don’t have to put it so bluntly.”

“Sunset sucks at defense.” You twirled a lock of hair while deep in concentration.

“I’m not sure where you’re going with this.” Kakyoin gently pulled his curl from your fingers.

“We both like each other, and we will spend a lot of time together now, since you confessed,” You took his hand in yours.

“Naturally. Wait, what?”

“Why don’t we partner up and give each other a helping hand.”

Kakyoin was going to ask about what you meant, but the realization of how great an idea that was hit Kakyoin like a truck. “Oh my God, that’s a great idea!”

Kakyoin pulled you to your feet and pressed a quick kiss to your forehead. He went on a tangent about how great of an idea that was, and you couldn’t help but to laugh and go along, shushing him to keep his voice down.

As the two of you lost yourselves in tactics and techniques, you didn’t notice a tall figure stand some distance away.

“Yare yare. I guess I’ll apologize tomorrow. Lovebirds are having too much fun.”

#stardust crusaders #jojo no kimyou na bouken #noriaki kakyoin #kakyoin x reader #jjba x reader #jjba #jojo's bizzare adventure stardust crusaders #jojo's bizarre adventure

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