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notyourramona · 1 year ago

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The Stages of Me

This timeline takes place somewhere in between the previous works: Settling with the Stars and Cellar Door.

Our main character is learning to live a life where her past no longer has to burden them as it once did and what that means for them. The challenges of learning to how to exist outside of a cycle you were born into against your will and what it means to really have strength. While also featuring some of the Crimson Fleet storyline.

Word Count: 4,621

Chapter: 1/4

No real tag warnings at the moment but as the chapters update, I will add them.

Please enjoy!

Ghoul stood on the edge of the launch pad with her hands on her hips in pride. The mammoth size victory that stood in front of her was almost overwhelming and she was just about to jump for joy. A new ship that was referred to as, Longsword, was now officially hers and she could not be happier for the extra space and equipment it was going to hold. The majestic ship had a pointed shape, large thrusters, and painted in a sleek metallic black that was of her choice. Ghoul even had extra credits to request some slight modifications on the damn thing. She heard the footsteps of her two companions walk up behind her and she heard an appraising whistle from Sam.

“Doesn’t it look great?” Ghoul turned to see their first initial reactions to their new home away from home. They had spent three month all cramped in the Frontier and after all that time it was becoming very difficult not to step on each other’s toes. This was especially true since there was only one bed and four humans who needed sleep at some point or another. There were many times where Ghoul found herself sleeping in her captain chair or if she needed sleep, she had even slept in the cargo hold. She only got to sleep in the quiet cargo hold once because as soon as Sam and Andreja finally found her there neither of them where very pleased with her risky choice.

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong I am more than excited for the extra space but this ship is twice the size of the Frontier. Mobility will be a concern if we get in a tight spot.” Sam furrowed his brows a bit as he tried to pick his words carefully not to spoil the mood.

“I made sure to upgrade the missile and laser systems from the original model of this ship so we could have at least another advantage. I figured if we weren’t going to be able to practice our sharp twirls in space anymore, I could at least strengthen our offense.” Ghoul had a huge smile on her face nevertheless. It was one of the many smiles she found easily on her face as of lately. Traveling with Sam, Andreja, and even little Corra was probably the best of times she had in a very long time, if at all.

“I think it is something to celebrate. I, for one, was getting tired of being in a cramped vessel full of other bodies.” Andreja chimed in with her sharp accent and she also looked very pleased. “Plus, the color choices are great for camouflage.”

“Corra is going to be excited.” Sam added as he held his chin in one hand and eyed down the ship. It seemed Sam was going to need some time to warm up to this new ship but Ghoul was sure it would grow on him. “Should I even ask how you got this?” The question made Ghoul slip a guilty look that she tried to desperately cover up by looking around.

“Where…where is Corra?” Ghoul made her tone sound concerned even though she knew very well Corra was with Sarah as Sarah prepared to take The Frontier back to New Atlantis. The town they were at was Gagarin Landing and even though there wasn’t much here they had a package they delivered in The Frontier. While the other’s checked out the dull town and got something to eat, Ghoul had set up with the local Ship technician to have their new ship delivered here. Corra had caught Ghoul in the act of setting up this new delivery so it was no longer a secret for the sneaky kid but Ghoul cut a deal that she got to pick her bed first if she didn’t spill the beans to everyone else. Thankfully the tiny Coe agreed but added the fact that she also needed to say her goodbyes to the Frontier and it amused Ghoul how attached Corra got to ships just like her father did.

“That wasn’t really an answer.” Sam pointed out and his eyebrow raised as he looked at Ghoul suspiciously. Ghoul avoided eye contact with the cowboy because he had a habit of slipping her the same look, he would give Corra when she was in trouble and it always made it her tell on herself. “Andreja?”

“It is not my story to tell.” Andreja said with amusement as she placed her hand on Ghoul’s shoulder. “All I will say is that perhaps sleeping in that cargo hold was the least risky thing our Captain has done in the last 30 days.” Ghoul shrugged Andreja’s hand off her shoulder and held her own hand to her chest as she gasped in disbelief.

“I beg to differ. You were the one who decided to break the man’s hand and we both know they could have very well had ordered a firing squad on us after that.” Ghoul contested with Andreja as she tried to play innocent as if she wasn’t the one who sat with Ghoul during that game of cards on The Key.

“He was obviously cheating and someone had to stop him.” Andreja’s accent came out a little thicker followed by a hearty chuckle and Ghoul saw her cheeks flush a little. Sam was standing there trying to keep up and put the pieces together to get the answer to his question but he was getting just as frustrated with how Ghoul was dancing around it.

“What the hell are the two of you talking about?” Sam asked with a strained voice and it was becoming clear in his body language that his patience was coming to an end. Ghoul nervously laughed and pushed her hand through her crimson bangs to push them out of her face. At her recent trip to Enhance she dyed her hair an extremely bright red and it complemented her golden eyes. Ghoul noticed when she played with her hair like that it was like a nervous tick of hers.

“You have to promise not to get mad.” Ghoul gave him a semi pleading look because she knew how much he hated when she agreed to do Crimson Fleet errands for the UC SysDef. The first time she got cornered by SysDef Marines Sam was with her and he was absolutely not on board with helping the UC with a job ‘they obviously have the man power for already’. However, they did catch Ghoul after she had stolen a very expensive item from a Trade Authority ship, she was invited on so she didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. Sam’s arms were crossed and he was already tapping his foot in anticipation. He knew whenever Ghoul asked for him not to be mad it was normally something extremely asinine and dangerous.

“So, remember Corra’s birthday a couple weeks ago? And I got you guy’s tickets to see that movie and a room at the Stoneroot Inn to spend the weekend celebrating? Cause that’s where that book shop in Akila is that she really likes?” Ghoul was starting to ramble a bit at this point to stall. Andreja already had waved goodbye to leave her alone to explain the situation to Sam, mostly because Andreja never felt the need to explain her actions to anyone.

“Yes.” He stood there patiently waiting for Ghoul to get to the point.

“So, I had an errand to run that Andreja said she would help me with. We ended up spending one of the nights on The Key.” Ghoul said the location very softly trying to judge his reaction but Sam just continued to wait patiently to hear the rest. “They have grown to like me there so I was asked to join a round of poker with Delgado…and Andreja is very good at cards, surprisingly. So good in fact we both won enough to get a new ship and Andreja may or may not have broken one of his Captain’s hands because she caught him cheating. I’ll admit Delgado was ready to kill us on spot but we were a few bottles of Bayu’s Private Reserve in and well he laughed it off. It was really easy to distract him and win even more credits plus it was nice seeing Andreja of all people let lose. So yeah, I won some credits and now we got a new ship!” Ghoul ended her quickly spoken rant with spreading her leg stance and raising her arms in the direction of the ship to emphasize how awesome the new ship was. She was hoping her positive and laugh it off attitude would soothe over the fact that she had spent time with someone who was the opposite of her friend’s moral beliefs. Sam covered his hand with his face for a moment and let out a big breath of frustration before he focused his blue stern eyes back on Ghoul.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to associate with them unless it was for the UC SysDef? What was going on to make you want to play cards with…him of all people?” Sam had taken a step toward Ghoul so he could connect with her more as he spoke. He was not happy and it showed but it wasn’t rage on his face. It was disappointment and the stern tone he gave her made her stomach tighten into a ball. “I understand wanting to enjoy yourself but you got to look out for yourself. We didn’t need a new ship if it meant you were putting yourself in danger again.”

“I had it under control.” Ghoul said getting defensive and crossing her arms. She even took a step back so Sam was no longer within her reach and made a point to not look him in the eyes. This was one of the reasons she didn’t even want him to know what she did that night and she originally planned to not even tell him.

“You may think you have had it under control but you don’t.” Sam’s voice was gravelly at the end of his statement. “What would have happened if Andreja and you had gotten a bounty on your heads from the Crimson Fleet after that? I can’t have that kind of behavior around Corra it’s-.”

“It’s what? You and Corra weren’t even around when it happened!” Ghoul interrupted his lecture with throwing her hands in the air. “I would never put Corra in danger and you of all people should know that by now.” She pointed her finger at him offended at where this conversation was going. Ghoul was now trying to keep herself composed but the way he looked at her with those eyes made her burn inside with growing rage.

“I’m not saying you are putting her in danger. I am saying that I understand that…lifestyle. It’s hard to break but it’s possible and if you need help, I am always...”

“No, no.” Ghoul interrupted him again this time her voice raising in pitch and volume. “You of all people don’t give me that shit. I didn’t go on a fucking aurora binge and stay up all weekend fucking who knows what.” As soon the words came out, she immediately regretted it but her pride just had her pursed her lips instead of taking it back immediately. Sam’s face flushed red with anger and his blue eyes grew dark but his tone remained the same calm gravelly tone.

“That’s not fair and I know you know that. I don’t think I can talk to you right now. Not like this.” He turned his way towards the new ship and Ghoul could see the tension in his shoulders as he huffed silently away. Ghoul was still angry herself and immaturely decided to get the last word in.

“Good thing I got us a bigger ship so you don’t even have to when we leave this fucking planet!” She yelled at him but he continued to saunter off without turning. Ghoul turned the opposite direction and walked towards the metal made town. She was frustrated with herself and with him for always feeling the need to address how she lived her life. She wasn’t the one chained down with a kid in fact quite the opposite. The Constellation had fixed the bounty originally on her head by Ryujin Industries and for the first time in her life she was free to do whatever the fuck she wanted without worrying about looking back. ‘That kind of behavior’ his voice repeated in her head as Ghoul continued the opposite direction. She wasn’t paying attention to where she was going till, she heard Sarah Morgan in the distance.

“Ghoul! Where are you going?” Sarah was standing there in a baby blue dress and her red leather jacket. Corra was with her in some cargo pants and a purple shirt that had Corra’s favorite animated character on it. Ghoul took a deep breath in through her mouth and then let it slowly fade out her nose to calm herself down so neither of them would notice her shift in mood. There was no reason for them to get involved with Sam’s and Ghoul’s silly squabble.

“I was looking for you two!” Ghoul smiled at them as big as she could and in a subtle motion rolled her shoulder blades to release any lingering tension as she approached them. “The ship is here and ready for the most part. Did you get to say your personal farewell, kiddo?”

“Yes, and I left one of my favorite books there so it will keep it safe.” Corra said excitedly and Ghoul ruffled her hair.

“I will fly The Frontier back to New Atlantis. Are you all coming back to the Lodge or do you still have tasks to do?” Sarah led them forward as they all headed towards the ship. Ghoul hesitated for a short moment because a part of her wanted more time to cool down but she followed them anyway.

“There is still much to do. In the past three months we’ve only retrieved two out of the five Artifacts we need to gather. I also have been pulled in several directions the past month so it has slowed us down a bit.” Ghoul reported to the Chair of Constellation. They were not always on the best of terms but they were both at a point now where they could appreciate each other’s directness.

“Go on ahead Corra. I am sure your father is missing you already.” Sarah said now that they were within eyeshot of the new space traveling vessel Ghoul owned. Corra nodded and gave Sarah a hug before running with all her might to the ship. The one thing Ghoul could never wrap her head around was the amount of energy that child always had. They both watched Corra run off before Sarah’s voice broke the silence. “How have you been as of late? I heard the UC SysDef has had you undercover.”

“I’m assuming Sam told you that.” Ghoul said under her breath a bit sounding irate.

“No, actually Commander John Tuala an old friend of mine, did when I spoke to him the other day.” Sarah looked at Ghoul with a puzzled look. She could see on Sarah’s face that there were other questions she now wanted to ask but decided it was for the best to not meddle. “I am only asking because being undercover can be high stakes pressure and with having to gather these Artifacts across the universe I am worried you aren’t allowing yourself any rest.”

“I’m fine, promise.” Ghoul tried to reassure Sarah but she didn’t look very convinced.

“Don’t stress yourself too thin, allow time for rest and recuperation. It will help you go a long way.” Sarah said softly and she leaned in to give Ghoul a hug. Ghoul was stiff for a moment but ultimately leaned into it as well to not come off as rude.

“I will make sure to rest.”

“Good cause you look like absolute shit.” Sarah laughed and Ghoul gave her a look of surprise in jest before laughing as well.

“I am going to report you to the HR department if you keep insulting me like that.” Ghoul laughed again with Sarah and then she found herself looking at her new ship, the Longsword with a twinge of regret but pride too.

“I told you the day you joined our little family that it did not matter what you did or how you got here as long as you didn’t have the UC knocking on our front door.” Sarah said softly and her eyes looked fiercely at Ghoul. “Don’t lose yourself out there, Ghoul. Remember at the end of the day no matter where you are, you carry the honor of the Constellation with you wherever you go.”

“Yes.” Ghoul agreed with her. “I try to remind myself that every day.”

“Good.” Sarah then in a loving gesture patted Ghoul’s back. “Check in sometimes. I worry about the four of you being out there for so long.” Ghoul nodded her head and watched the blonde bombshell walk off to her side of the space port to head back to the Lodge. Ghoul took a large and deep breath to fill her lungs to the brim of the planet’s oxygen and then slowly released it and focused on grounding her body to the now.

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The inside of the ship was absolutely brilliant looking and Ghoul tried very hard to keep her jaw from falling in shock. There was a whole crew station with four beds, a kitchenette, plenty of storage and even more space to add more furniture if she wanted. The table in the crew station was also rather long like the table at the Lodge and had about five chairs. The cargo hold was bigger than the other ships and even had more shelving for organizing and straps to lock the cargo in better. There was an entire room full of workbenches, research labs, and a couple desks to mange projects on. Ghoul really couldn’t believe it was nicer than she thought it was going to be. Everyone was already settling in with there personal and items and in the workspace room Ghoul caught Corra stacking some of her books on a free shelf. Corra was extremely focused on her task and it brought a smile to Ghoul’s face to see that she was finally getting to have her own little library. Ghoul walked towards the cockpit to go to the captain’s locker. She had planned to put some of her own personal items inside of there for safe keeping along with slates that stated the whereabouts and information of some of the Crimson Fleet members. Last thing Ghoul wanted was for Corra to find out someone she looked up to was working for pirates even if it was undercover. It was the one thing Sam had requested of Ghoul that she agreed with. When she arrived to the locker, she saw Sam was sitting in the captain’s chair analyzing where the different engage switches and console control buttons were situated. Ghoul was finally feeling comfortable flying a Class B ship and she knew he was well aware on how to fly up to Class C.

“Do the controls look like they are in comfortable positions?” She asked him not fully expecting an answer but was at least attempting to be civil. Ghoul heard a faint grunt under his breath and she looked at him from her peripheral to see if he was in one of his sassy moods. She couldn’t blame him for what she said to him but he also needed to learn when to draw the line with telling her how to act or live her life. She was fine and she knew she had things under control because it was rare now in days that she didn’t.

“It won’t be hard to adjust too.” He finally responded to her after a few moments of silence but he didn’t dare look at her just yet. His body language was still a little rigid but by his tone she could tell he was at least not as angry as he was before.

“Good.” She huffed a bit as she shoved the last object into the captain’s locker. It was a Galacticcat that she did not like to advertise and always did her best to keep out of sight because it was an embarrassing object she held onto dearly. She never had anything like it as a child and for some reason now as an adult she couldn’t get rid of it after finding it in an abandoned lab station. Once she stuffed it into the locker it made its little galactic noises and she quickly closed the locker, locking it immediately. Ghoul turned to make sure Sam wasn’t looking but there were his blue eyes staring at her in curiosity and she could see a faint curl in his lips.

“No, you may not ask and no I am not going to tell you.” Ghoul said drastically and he gave no motion on whether he was going to press or not. She was ready to change the nonexistent subject.

“Put coordinates in for Cydonia.” She commanded with a bit of aggression, still slightly annoyed with his face but then she paused herself. “Please.”

“Can I ask why we are going there at least?” His voice was unamused and the question sounded rhetorical.

“I got orders to meet a man there for an item.” Ghoul kept it vague because she didn’t want to have the same argument they had been having on and off for a month now about her agreeing to be undercover.

“Orders? So, another task for the Crimson Fleet.” Sam gritted his teeth as he turned back to the console board and begun to flip the engage switches to power the engines with a passiveness that was extremely obvious to anyone who watched him.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answer’s too.” Ghoul muttered with the same annoyance she had towards him earlier. She was tired of them butting heads so much and it took a lot of effort for her not to let Corra or Andreja notice. A part of her felt extremely guilty for the quarrels because it would just remind her of the arguments, she had heard him have on the phone with Cora’s mom and that was the last person she wanted to ever be compared to.

“Dully noted.” He said with temporary surrender. Ghoul no longer wanted to be within close proximity of him anymore and just left the cockpit without saying anything else. There was currently not enough space on this ship for the both of their stubborn attitudes. She found her way to the back where the crew living quarters were and enjoyed to see that everyone had already claimed their preferred shelves, beds, and storage crates. Corra had already gone around and labeled things with the label gun that had glittery print that Ghoul had got her for her birthday. It was heart warming to see it was put to good use. The last bed available was below Andreja’s which was no surprise to Ghoul. She threw herself onto the bed feeling the weight of her stress crush her further into the soft bed.

“I am assuming it went as well as you thought it would.” Andreja had come into the room and was leaning over Ghoul with her arm resting on the top bunk. Her stature was relaxed and her thick thighs held her in place along with the arm that rested on the bunk above her. Andreja was a site to behold sometimes and Ghoul always wondered how she managed to keep her build like that. She was like an Old Earth’s Amazon warrior, they were described in a history book Corra had lent her once and it was interesting to read of whole cities who were led by a matriarchy.

“Bingo.” Ghoul said as she put her arms behind her head and looking solemnly at the bottom of the bunk above her. “I am getting exhausted repeating myself and I don’t know what to say at this point.”

“Some things require time. We have been cramped on top of each other for several months now.” Andreja said with disdain and Ghoul understood why. Andreja had confided in her in the past about her anxiety of being in cramped small spaces and she knew it was probably a living hell for the first couple weeks getting use to them all being together on The Frontier.

“Yeah, well now we are on top of each other with some extra space.” Ghoul said sarcastically.

“Carmilla, you are always so quick to deflect things when you know you should be honest with your feelings.” Andreja said softly and she leaned in when she said it so only the two of them would hear. Andreja was crouched in front of Ghoul and her hand was placed softly in Ghoul’s hand. Ghoul’s cheeks flushed from the intimacy of hearing her parent given name come out of Andreja’s lips. It was something she shared with Andreja months ago when Andreja told her about her family’s past. Ghoul thought it was only fair after she had shared that part of herself with her that Andreja would know a part of her no one else knew as well.

“It is not that easy.” Ghoul spoke softly back carrying on the closeness of the conversation. Their relationship had grown closer along their travels and it seemed like Sam and Ghoul’s were growing apart the further they traveled. It hurt to an extent but ultimately, she knew it was her fault for not pursuing him after that night at the Lodge.

“We of all people know life isn’t easy but that hasn’t stopped either of us beforehand. You need to talk to him because the tension is starting to become more obvious.” Andreja sounded soothing at first but her encouragement looked like a command towards the end and the transition made Ghoul laugh.

“I will eventually.” She sat up and her face was now very close to Andreja’s. “I have to grab information on Cydonia for Delgado. Will you come with me?”

“Is it going to be anything like the last time?”

“Are you going to go breaking people’s hands?”

“I cannot promise-.”

“You do not have to, not if you enjoyed yourself y’know.” Ghoul wasn’t sure why they continued to whisper but something told her it was better to keep it this way. This conversation was just for the both of them anyway. Andreja laughed at Ghoul’s bold statement.

“Are you telling me I can go around breaking bones as long as I find it ‘fun’? That doesn’t sound ethical.”

“You know what I meant. Miss, I never have fun. Why else do you think I insist you try to do risky things?” Ghoul teased her with a light punch in the shoulder. “I will admit it has been nice to have a friend to enjoy myself with.”

“Perhaps you just wanted to have an excuse to let go from the burdens of your past.” Andreja said with her other worldly wisdom but then her brown eyes darted to the hallway. She spoke her next sentence louder than they had been talking as she stood up. “I think that course of action is the safest.” Ghoul was looking at her puzzled till she heard and then saw the leather boots come down the hall.

“Sound’s good, Andreja.” She mirrored the volume Andreja spoke at to make it sound like they were carrying on a normal conversation that wasn’t whispered. “Wake me up when we arrive. Sarah ordered me to rest.”

#starfield #starfield fanfiction #sam coe #Andreja #ao3fic #fanfic #you can read dont eat chunx #sam coe x spacefarer

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hoggleswart · 2 years ago

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💐 & 📚 & ⚙️ for emma !

OC EMOJI ASKS . . . ( not accepting. )

CREATE A BOUQET FOR THEM! WHAT DO THOSE FLOWERS MEAN? ARE ANY OF THE FLOWERS THEIR PARTICULAR FAVOURITE?

Emma is not . . . overly fond of flowers in general, especially not as a gift. She isn’t a naturally sentimental person. Possibly not a sentimental person at all actually. Instead, she prides herself in practicality. She likes to be given things she can use . . . Quidditch supplies, dark objects, or something with a story that fascinates. For this reason, I don’t think she has a favourite flower of any kind, but if I were to put one together for her? It could consist of black lilies ( to represent elegance & mystery ), Queen of the Night tulips ( to represent being drawn to the darker sides of life ) & Bat Orchids ( to represent the dark of the night soul / deepest fears and obsessions. )

HOW WERE THEY AT SCHOOL? WHAT IS THEIR BEST SUBJECT? WHAT IS THEIR WORST SUBJECT? DO THEY HAVE A FAVOURITE SUBJECT?

Emma has always been, even as a child / teenager, meticulous. Everything she does is careful & precise and school was no different. To the professors? She was a model student! Good grades, even better Quidditch results. Never tardy or messy. To the students? A bit of a Queen B! As Quidditch Captain and prefect, she held a lot of power and her popularity only helped. Great if you were her friend. Terrible if you were anything else. Best subject was, first & foremost, Flying, followed by Defence Against The Dark Arts. Worst subject was Herbology . . . not enough that she failed, but enough that the class frustrated her!

WHAT ARE YOUR OCS THOUGHTS ON SCIENCE & ART? WHICH DO THEY GIVE MORE IMPORTANCE TO? HOW MUCH VALUE DO THEY PLACE ON EACH?

I don’t think either hold much value to her in general, but Emma can occasionally be seen frequenting art galleries, paying particularly close interest to the more unique pieces that others might overlook or under - appreciated.

#჻ 𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃. : EMMA MAI VANITY.

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dianapocalypse · 3 years ago

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so I’m having a very interesting (for me) mass effect legendary edition playthru and i wanna talk about it even tho no one but me will be interested so UNDER THE CUT WE GO!

this probably isn’t interesting to anyone but me but I wanted to write it down for posterity lol

so this time around, I spent a LONG TIME staring at the character creator, not even making anything. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make my ‘main’ Shepard, play Jane just for the new model in ME1, or make a new Shep entirely. and if I did the last one, did I want to play differently this time??

i ended up making a shepard that was PRETTY similar to my main one. they’re both vanguards (didn’t want to learn a new kit bc my ability to hold a controller is pretty limited these days), both earthborn, same haircut but different overall appearances. this time I went war hero instead of sole survivor, since I’ve played those sidequests so many times at this point. I hit start and named her Kieran, not really knowing what I was going for with this shep and expecting I’d mostly make the same choices, romance garrus, etc

so the first few hours of the game I played p much like I always do. more paragon options than usual, but I attribute that more to me changing than character choices. I also started picking the middle options I always ignore just to see what they are. grabbed Liara, did bring down the sky, nothing new or unusual until I start talking to garrus.

is it just me, or does garrus.... kinda hit different in 2021? don’t get me wrong, still one of my favorite fictonal characters of all time, but also... garrus is a loose canon police officer who thinks regulations that, presumably, are in place to protect peoples’ rights, should be ignored for what he deems is the greater good. while we as players know garrus’s morals are in the right place, uh... if I met someone like that in real life I’d expect them to be a complete jackass. im also american so that contributes to my ill feelings towards police officers, and c-sec in the games is generally portrayed as being a much less awful organization than the american police state, but I’ve definitely gone from always supporting Garrus when he thinks a fucker needs to die to being like... garrus rules are there for a reason, people have RIGHTS

and then like. kieran shepard is earthborn, she was in gangs. she... probably doesn’t like cops either? my last shep was, too, but tbh I didn’t think about it all that much. for the first time I’m playing a shepard that does not trust garrus and that’s WILD.

so then I’m doing sidequests on the citadel, and earthborns get a gang member from their past who tries to blackmail shep into busting one of their members out of prison. for the first time ever, I actually didn’t have the paragon or renegade points necessary to resolve the situation in a ‘good’ way for me. I got to the end of it, and my only options were to bribe him to leave me alone, or shoot him.

i’ll say in my defense, I thought shoot him would be more ‘shoot him in the leg to show him i meant business’, but shep straight up killed him, and I was like, woah. I’m gonna have to figure out how to make THAT work with this character arc!

and the turian cop who he wants you to talk to, he’s right there, and says “wow, I guess maybe the first human spectre will get things done!’ or something, indicating like. that was the Right Thing To Do by his standards. just kill a dude in public for threatening blackmail.

so in role playing games, i try to justify decisions my characters make, even if it’s a decision that I didn’t make on purpose--it’s more fun for me to try to gather these disparate character choices and cohere them into a character than to try to get it ‘right’ for the character i’m playing, if that makes sense. so here, even tho I was definitely not intending to kill that dude, I wanted to find a way to make it work for Kieran Shepard. and it’s kinda ended up shaping the whole way I’m playing her, and it’s cool and interesting bc this is a shepard unlike any I’ve played before! i’m always so focused on min/maxing my character, especially their paragon/renegade points to get the ‘best’ outcomes, that ive never been faced with something like that.

so I think this is where I’ve landed:

Kieran Shepard grows up on the streets, she does not trust authority. all she has is her crew, and herself, more importantly. she does some bad shit, she gets into trouble, she’s strong-headed and stubborn. later in life, she gets recruited to the alliance military. frankly, I think she keeps a lot of the same attitude and distrust of authority, but this is a paycheck, and I think since the Tenth Street Reds are getting really human supremacist and xenophobic, she gets out and needs to go Somewhere that her past won’t follow her--space. off earth.

mostly she’s a shithead at first. gets into trouble with the brass all the time. but she’s got a really good head for tactics. she knows how to think like a merc gang, she thinks of strategies in simulations that higher ups wouldn’t ever consider. think like. star trek 2009 captain kirk basically lmao.

and then anderson gets a hold of her. for the first time in her life, she has like, a Parental Figure, someone who knows she can do better and expects her to. and she FLOURISHES. suddenly she’s got motivation, she’s straightening up. she’s positioned on elysium and the skyllian blitz starts, and one thing she knows how to do, something she’s always been good at, it surviving, and rallying people around her to fight, not roll over and die. her skills from her life as a gangster marry with her skills as a soldier and she rallies the colonists to beat back the invasion. with her STREET SMARTS!

now she’s a war hero, and she’s starting to feel the impostor syndrome set in. she gets a medal, she gets accolades, promotions--she’s just a scrappy former criminal and she doesn’t deserve this. she doesn’t deserve any of it, or anderson’s regard. she starts spending her time trying to be The Perfect Soldier to make up for her past. for the first time, it’s a point of embarrassment to her, not a point of pride. it’s public record, sure, but she needs her entire existence to refute it. she needs to be Commander Shepard now, she needs to be The First Human Spectre, she needs to be PERFECT.

and then Finch shows up, and he’s threatening her, he wants to drag her back into the Life and he’ll blackmail her if she doesn’t comply. she knows if she bribes him he’ll be back in a month for more, he’ll never stop. so she panics. she shoots this guy, kills him in cold blood, in public. old habits die hard. and the cop practically CONGRATULATES her for it.

kieran, now, is in full blown panic mode about Who She Is. she is very much not a fan of the ‘law and order’ of C-Sec, but she’s also not a fan of the spectres and how they operate, but now she’s becoming the thing she as a teen would have hated the most. and she’s being congratulated for it. can she be trusted with this kind of responsibility?? can anyone???

anyway that’s the last thing I did but I think... honestly? the only character that could help her sort out these feelings? is kaidan alenko.

so. i think this is it. this is the playthru i finally romance kaidan.

#mass effect #mass effect legendary edition #kaidan alenko #this post is long as fuck but i promise he's in there #kieran shepard tag

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anigodd · 4 years ago

Text

The Deal

Here it is, the crossover I said I would do like 3 weeks ago. Sorry about that. anyway, first and foremost, I’m a Captainsparklez stan, so he is the main character. Also, if you don’t know anything about Mianite, this aint for you, sorry.

Let’s get started! It’s super long, but enjoy!

Summary:

Jordan would not consider himself a cruel man, but when he saw that children, especially Tubbo, were being forced to fight in a war? Well, if he made a seemingly harmless deal with JSchlatt in order to...persuade him to end the war, then that was his own decision to justify. After all, what was a war without a little bit of psychological torture?

Most of the time, people forget that Jordan, better known as Captainsparklez or just The Captain, was old. I don’t mean in his 40s or 50s, I mean thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years old. He’s fought for balance for as long as his lady had accepted him as her Champion millennia ago. Most don’t know simply because they don’t ask.

Most of the time, people forget that he is not entirely human. He’s immortal—it come with the job description—and has spent so much time in the End that it was bound to affect him eventually. His Lady, ever the one to always worry about him, changed him ever so slightly so that he was not susceptible to most human weaknesses: he didn’t need to sleep as much, better stamina, strength, etc. He complained that she did not have to do that, to save her power for something more important than him, but she stared him straight in his eyes and said with such conviction and with such sadness in her eyes that he was stunned,

“You are the most important thing to me, Jordan. Please, never forget that.”

He never did.

Most of the time, people forget that Jordan was dangerous. You don’t remain the Champion of the Goddess of Balance without having a few perks, nor do you simply kill a god and not absorb some of their power. In his dreams, he could see snippets of the future, not like his Lady, but just enough to influence his actions in wars or in everyday life to help maintain balance. Jordan could feel a deep ache in his soul when balance was disrupted. He can travel to and fro from the end without the need for a portal—he teleported like an enderman (he wouldn’t stop scaring Tom with this new-found power for days). He knew how to use a bit of magic, some was taught to him by the Ianite in Ruxomar. Just simple spells, such as small barriers or being able to communicate with endermen. He really had to hone his magic at some point. What was most interesting was his control over some of the Darkness’ domain. He never figured that he gained a little bit of something from killing World Historian all those years ago, he just thought he was mentally prepared for the next years to come.

Turns out he was wrong again.

The Darkness, before their final battle, had brought this to his attention. The deity would always poke into his head and whisper to him, but Jordan would push him out of his head when it got too much for him. After a few times, the Darkness said that Jordan had more power over his mind than he thought. The deity’s voice sounded intrigued by this development and soon worked harder to get Jordan on his side to no avail. However, what the Darkness said lingered in the back of his mind until one day, after the war, his Lady brought it up.

They were quietly sitting in her temple in the End when she spoke.

“Captain, I don’t want to pry, but I know that you’ve been thinking about what the Darkness told you and, if you wanted, I could help you control it?” She hesitantly offered. Jordan froze.

The Darkness told him a lot of things. He promised him weapons of infinite power, nights of peaceful rest, a break from the voices in his mind—a break from fighting. He promised him a peaceful life if he joined him. The Captain composed himself but stopped.

‘Control what?’ he thought. Now he was confused. It must have shown on his face because a smile blossomed on Ianite’s face.

“I wanted to teach you how to control your mind. The Darkness noticed you were able to block him from your mind. That does not come from years of experience, Captain. It’s more of a gift...or perhaps a curse. This power is why, when I was being influenced, I was unable to communicate with you,” she explained.

“Unable to talk to me? Why? I never intentionally pushed you away,” Jordan questioned. He would never ignore his Lady, even if she wasn’t really herself.

She chuckled. “I know you wouldn’t, Jordan. Thank you for that. What I mean is that you subconsciously blocked out all influences if the Darkness, including me.”

She watched as his eyes widened, but he nodded slowly in understanding. He waited for her to continue before he asked his questions; she could feel his curiosity.

“I could either help you control and develop this power, or you could leave it as a sort of unconscious barrier for your mind. There are many aspects that come with this gift, not just protection for yourself. If you wish, we could start immediately?” Ianite inquired.

She hoped he accepted. The Captain was like a son to her and it would mean the world to Ianite if she could finally teach him something as a mother would teach her son to ride a bike. She wanted to see him grow into his power and watch with pride as he mastered magic. Yes, she hoped he would accept.

Ianite watched as he thought about it. He stared at her. She could see his burning curiosity and the look of hope on her face. The truth was, the Captain craved knowledge more than power. He wanted to know anything and everything that he could, and this was something he wanted to learn. It may come in handy in the future.

He nodded. “When do you want to start, M’lady?” he asked with a smile.

She grinned. “We can start immediately.”

Oh, she couldn’t wait to see what he would become. No matter what, she would be proud.

—————— Nobody knew the extent of Jordan’s power or what he was trained to do. Rumors spread of the great hero who learned how to harness old magic from the teachings of the Goddess herself. Others say he went mad with power and tormented her with visions of destruction. Some say he does not look human anymore. Some say he guards her temple in the End and is still loyal to her thousands of years later. Others say he got to live his life in peace after training.

Some of those rumors are true. After all, all myths come from a seed of truth. Nowadays, though, The Captain does live in relative peace. He gets to participate in tournaments, such as the newest one called Minecraft Championship, where he really just plays for fun. He never got to make friends or have fun for his years under the gods, but the Universe has calmed down and his Lady wanted to see him have fun and socialize.

Most of them recognized him or had heard of him. He was always so uncomfortable with attention or praise but thankfully—THANKFULLY—their starry-eyed looks stopped after a while. Unless, of course, he said something that they recognized as one of his catchphrases all hell broke loose but...well...it was pretty funny to watch them yell and laugh good-naturedly when he said something like that.

Some asked him a million questions about his life or his adventures, especially this...child? His name was Tubbo and, apparently, Jordan was his role-model. He was flattered and a bit flustered. Most people that came up to him were older than 16 and usually asked about his fighting tactics or the wars he fought in. But this kid asked about none of those. Tubbo was the nicest kid he had ever met and tried to give him the best answers that he could, even if the were a little vague at some points—he didn’t want to scar the boy.

Tubbo didn’t seem to care. He always stared at him with the most excited smile and genuinely interested expression that he nearly cries thinking about it. Only a few people look at him so kindly it hurts. Tubbo is always bursting with questions and the Captain is always happy to answer. It became a thing for Tubbo to follow him around, prompting Jordan to call him ‘duckling’ in his mind.

He has started to become a bit worried about Tubbo and his loud friend, Tommy, though. The two are usually so boisterous and loud that it was hard to miss them. Nowadays, when he sees them, the two teens are more subdued and they look....exhausted. He’s seen that look. He knows they are fighting a war they cannot win.

Jordan knows he has to put an end to the fighting. If not for Tubbo, then for his own peace of mind. He finds Jschlatt on his own private server and strikes a sort of a deal with the man.

His smile is ice and his eyes are as dark as the Void when they shake hands. Purple tendrils and sparks emerge from their handshake, giving Jordan access to Jschlatt’s every move. The magic let Schlatt know that there was no backing out of this deal.

Their souls were intertwined until the deal was done. —————— Nobody knew that Jordan was a deal maker. Not that he did it much in the first place—there wasn’t anything that he wanted from others and he hated exercising his power over others.

This time, however, was an exception.

He knew what Schlatt had done to Tubbo and the others on Dream’s SMP. He knew that they were hurting. He hated seeing families torn apart and children being forced to grow up and fight. They should’ve had a childhood. They shouldn’t have to be forced into a war, and for what? Power? Glory? Honor? No honorable soldier would endorse using children to fight. No honorable leader or nation would do so either.

He noticed the shadows on the walls growing and harmful magic beginning to swarm around him.

Jordan heaved a sigh. He had to calm down before he did anything he would regret. He looked back at Schlatt from where he was hidden in the shadows. The hybrid was sat at his desk in the White House, languidly drinking from a glass as if there was no war going on; as if he isn’t responsible for the suffering going on in his lands.

He gave Schlatt two weeks to fulfill his end of the deal before Jordan fulfilled his end, but it doesn’t seem like Schlatt was even slightly worried about their agreement.

The Captain watched as he filled out paperwork and discarded peace treaties or ideas for that may improve Manburg. The lack of care for his nation made Jordan’s blood boil.

How careless.

How cruel.

How sickening. —————

Most know that Jordan, at his core, is kind-hearted and humble. He would never attack without a reason, but even before then, he would try to negotiate. It’s why he has been the Champion of Balance for so long: it’s in his nature.

That being said, Jordan is not a cruel or sadistic man. But to him, this deal was important to him. It would bring peace and protection to those in Dream’s land. They have been fighting for too long and are beginning to lose themselves. It had to be stopped.

As another few days went by, and soon, with 5 days left for Schlatt to fulfill his end of the deal, Jordan knew he had to give a bit of an....incentive to Schlatt.

He smiled. While he hated using his powers over the mind, now looked like a good time for some practice. The Captain waited until Schlatt was asleep to enter his mind. Since their souls were intertwined because of the deal, his plan was much simpler. His eyes glowed a deep purple.

After all, what was a little bit of psychological torture on one person if it benefitted the masses?

The Captain left the man to sleep. He had a feeling he’s be hearing from Schlatt in the next few days. And maybe, if Schlatt heard clocks ticking a bit louder than normal and seemed to echo in his mind, well, that was for Jordan to know, wasn’t it? ————————

Schlatt woke up with a killer headache and an unsettling feeling. The hairs on the back if his neck stood up and his shoulders tensed. Was he being watched? He looked around his room with a steady gaze. The room was quiet save for the birds outside and his clock. Had it always been that loud?

No matter. He couldn’t see anyone but that didn’t mean he was safe. Maybe he should have Tubbo stay by his side for the day until his paranoia passed?

Something caught his eye. He could have sworn he saw the shadows grow in his room after that thought. He shrugged to himself. He definitely needed more sleep if he was starting to see shadow demons.

Ha.

He took a deep breath and began to get ready for the day. He had paperwork to do and meetings to plan. If Manburg were to be under his rule, there had to be a few new....rules put into place.

‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘New regulations wouldn’t hurt anybody.’

He walked down the hallways of the White House quicker than he usually does. Why does he feel like someone was watching him? Was Pogtopia planning an attack? The thought made him snort.

‘Right, like they could plan a decent attack,’ he thought.

When he looked outside to where the seats in front of the podium were located, he didn’t see a nice grassy field with a peaceful waterfall. Instead, he saw ashes falling from the sky like snow, a red haze filling the air, and fires burning with. The birds chirping distorted into echoed screams of agony. The podium was blown to bits and Tubbo...oh god....—

He blinked and the scenery reverted to normal.

“Sir?” a small voice asked from behind him.

Schlatt jumped and tried to control his breathing. When did he begin to hyperventilate? Why was he shaking?

He stared into the concerned and slightly wary eyes of Tubbo. Jesus, the kid was quiet.

He let out a breath and put his hand on his chest.

“Christ, Tubbo, you’re gonna give this old man a heart attack one day,” he tried to joke.

Tubbo cracked a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Are you alright, Schlatt? You were staring out at the lawn like someone died.” Tubbo said.

Schlatt froze. He did see someone dead. But it wasn’t a memory, what was it?

He looked at Tubbo and put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. Geez, he was just a kid, wasn’t he.

“Whatever happens, Tubbo, just know that it’s not your fault,” is all he said before walking into his office and closing the door. Tubbo was so confused, but Schlatt has done weirder and so he let it go. He wanted to see Tommy.

The clock in Schlatt’s office echoed in his mind as he worked. ——————

The one thing that Jordan hated was being mistaken for a kind-hearted fool.

He watched as Schlatt worked for another 3 days while enduring the visions of what may become of Manburg.

He watched as Schlatt ignored the shadows on the walls and the ticking of his clock.

He watched as Schlatt jumped in his seat when the whispers of the End began to echo in his ears.

He watched as Schlatt could not sleep for the rest of the 5 days.

He watched as the man slowly broke down. The visions kept him awake, the clocks were too loud, the whispers were in a language he couldn’t understand and the feeling of being watched drove him to the brink of insanity.

The others began to notice his quickly deteriorating health.

Schlatt had dark bags under his eyes that nearly looked like bruises. He was constantly looking over his shoulder and nearly broke all of the clocks in the White House. While talking to someone, his eyes always darted to the corners of the rooms. Most worryingly, he would just stare at something that looked normal, say an open field, and nearly put himself into a panic attack. The residents may not like him but they hated seeing anyone reduced to shambles. They tried to help him but all they get is incoherent mumbles or snippets of what may be Schlatt’s imagination.

Whatever it was, it had to stop.

The first time Wilbur heard of Schlatt’s health, he laughed. He laughed so hard he cried and couldn’t breath for at least 5 minutes. Tommy and Tubbo joined in, though their laughter was much weaker. The times after hearing about it, though, something changed in Wilbur. He could see how it was scaring Tubbo and at the rare times Niki visited, she expressed her genuine concerns over Schlatt.

“We may not like him too much, Wilbur, but you haven’t seen him. The poor man looks like he’s gonna run himself to his grave. We’re all worried about him,” is what she said to him when he asked why they were so concerned about him.

Wilbur wanted to see how Schlatt was fairing. Techno didn’t seem to care too much but he seemed interested in what happened to Schlatt.

“I’ll go along only because I wanna see what he looks like when he walks,” was Techno’s justification to visiting the White House. Okay then, Techno.

Tommy was coming along as well. He was practically dying from curiosity, but he also wanted to see Tubbo. Wilbur didn’t question his logic either.

However, they didn’t have to sneak into Manburg like they had planned to. They received an invitation to an SMP meeting in the community center in 3 hours. Everyone on the server had to attend, including Dream. This surprised Wilbur as he held the letter in his hands. Why would Dream have to attend if Schlatt was calling this meeting?

“Kinda sus of him, not gonna lie,” Techno said from behind him.

Wilbur hummed and turned around.

“Do you think we should go?”

Techno looked at him, practically expressionless. Wilbur stared back--- he was used to waiting for an answer.

“Tommy will complain for days if we don’t go, so yeah, we’re going,” is what Techno said eventually.

Wilbur sighed and crumpled the letter. He looked back at Techno, who was starting to head to the entrance of their ravine.

“Can you wait for Tommy and I before you go off and commit war crimes?” He joked.

Techno stopped.

“BruuUhhhH.”

Wilbur just laughed and went to fetch the blond gremlin from his room.

He just hoped this meeting didn’t go to shit. ———————— Schlatt felt like shit. He didn’t know what was happening to him or why but he just wanted it to stop.

Every corner he turned there was some depiction of an explosion or a massacre in that area. Quiet rooms were too loud with the whispers and the clocks. He kept the lights on at all times.

What was breaking him down the most was the constant feeling of being watched. Even with multiple people in the room, it was like a predator was watching its prey from afar. Waiting to pounce. He was at his wits end, but finally, hours before he called the SMP meeting, he got answers.

He was trying to do paperwork but was really just staring at the same paragraph for an hour. His mind was muddled and he couldn’t form a coherent thought.

He was so tired but every time he closed his eyes, it was another scene of death and destruction. He hands shook so badly that he had to put his pen down and place his head in his hands.

“You seem to be struggling, Schlatt,” a voice said from behind him. That feeling of being watched increased tenfold, causing Schlatt to tense and look behind him.

The Captain was standing in the corner of the room. The shadows obscured most of his figure but he could see his eyes—what happened to his eyes?—and his unnerving smile.

Schlatt tired to summon some of his dignity.

“Captain! Long time, no see. How’ve you been?”

Jordan’s expression didn’t change, but the room darkened a bit. Schlatt noticed.

“Have you been doing that? It’s been driving me nuts!” he angrily exclaimed.

Jordan cocked his head to the side.

“Have you forgotten about our deal, Schlatt?” Is all he asked. Why was his voice suddenly deeper? It rumbled in his ears and was vaguely threatening. His heart rate picked up and he had a feeling that Jordan was not just some guy he made a deal with.

He steeled his nerves. There is no way that Jordan is anything but human. He looked towards the Captain who was impossibly still with his creepy smile.

“No, I didn’t forget about it. I just....had better things to do,” was his defense. That apparently was the wrong answer.

Jordan was suddenly right in front of him, smile gone and eyes staring straight into him. Schlatt’s instincts immediately screamed ‘danger!’ and ‘run!’ but something was keeping him in place. He felt his heart pounding in his chest but he still couldn't move away. Purple eyes bored into his own.

Jordan placed a deceptively gentle hand on his cheek.

“I don’t like being mistaken for a fool, Schlatt. We made this deal to benefit both of us, yet you exploit my charity,” he patronized. The power radiating from those words nearly had Schlatt tumbling to his knees but he stood firm.

“I’ll give you 24 hours, but,” his hand suddenly gripped his face tightly and forced Schlatt to look at him. What he saw terrified him.

“If you continue to fail to uphold your end of the deal, then, well,” he released his hold on Schlatt, “I hope you’ll be able to get used to the way your currently living,” he threatened. The Captain straightened and gave him yet another unnerving smile.

Out of nowhere, he summoned an intricate clock and began to wind it. It was a beautiful black with purple and gold accents. The outer design of the clock resembled...scales? At the center, there was an ender eye. The numbers weren’t exactly numbers but looked like writing one would find in an enchantment table. How in the hell did Jordan get a clock like this?

He finished winding the clock and Schlatt thought he was going to place it down on his desk. He was wrong once again. A deep purple aura surrounded the clock and it disappeared with a burst of particles. Unfortunately, he could still hear it ticking next to his ear.

“This should remind you of the limited time that you have,” he began to back away before he stopped and turned around with a thoughtful look on his face.

“I’m not a cruel man, JSchlatt. But I do believe in an eye for an eye. I hope you make the right decision,” he said, and he was gone in a flash of purple.

Schlatt shakily sat down—when had he stood up?—and began to draft a peace treaty for Manburg. The writing was shaky and nearly illegible, but it would have to do. Then, he called a meeting for all of SMP to attend.

He sat for 3 hours listening to the incessant ticking. It was becoming more and more distorted in his mind as the hours ticked by. ——————— Once everyone was seated at a round table in the community house, they all looked towards Schlatt for an explanation.

The atmosphere was tense, mainly from Wilbur and Tommy, while the rest tried to sit as comfortably as they could. Dream was practically lounging in his chair.

“So, Schlatt,” Wilbur practically spat his name, “what did you call this oh so important meeting for?” he asked and crossed his arms.

It was his first time seeing Schlatt since his exile and he felt...just a little bit of pity for him. His clothes were rumpled as if he had slept in them, his eyes were red—he looked about ready to fall asleep but always jerked awake at the last second. His eyes were darting to the corners of the room. Wilbur looked around but found nothing out of the ordinary. He could see the others glancing around the room as well, unnerved by Schlatt’s paranoia.

Schlatt, even though he was incredibly shaky and oh so tired, stood up. He was still the President, damn it. All eyes were on him as he cleared his throat.

“I have called this meeting to.....to....” he was having second thoughts. Did he really want to give up his power over Pogtopia and Manburg? He enjoyed the chaos and having control over everything. He wasn’t ready to give this up yet.

He saw the shadows move and the Captain manifested from the shadows. The ticking was nearly deafening. Jordan’s eyes were deadly, his smile nowhere to be found. He looked non-human without his glasses on.

Schlatt was so focused on his appearance that he missed when the Captain drew his sword—a near black blade that looked wickedly sharp. The handle was intricately carved with ancient spells and magic seals. Schlatt noticed too late that Jordan had heard his thoughts.

The Captain rushed at him with his sword raised and cold eyes boring into his soul. HIs smile was nearly feral as he charged. Schlatt shrieked and stumbled backwards into the wall and raised his hands to defend himself from the blows-

But nothing came.

He shakily looked around and noticed that the room was giving him nervous looks. Quakity and Niki were nearly out of their seats while Dream was sitting straight in his chair. Schlatt shakily let out a breath and began to stand.

“Schlatt...” Tubbo began but Schlatt waved him off.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just my imagination,” he easily lied.

Those in attendance saw right through this lie, but decided that once he begins talking, they may get an explanation.

Schlatt took a breath and tried to calm his racing heart. He was so tired. His whole body shook with adrenaline and exhaustion and, god, he just wanted to sleep but he couldn’t. Not with the state he was in now. The Captain’s words echoed in his mind: ‘I hope you can get used to this.’

Schlatt decided that he couldn’t live like this and made his decision. He sat down and took out the drafts of the peace treaty and set them on the table.

“The fuck’s all this?” Tommy quietly mutters while picking up a paper and scrutinizing it. But of course, Tommy’s version of quiet is still decently loud.

“It’s a peace treaty. If you read through this and sign, Manburg and Pogtopia will cease their fighting and hold another election. This time, however, two partied cannot combine their votes,” Schlatt explained. He saw the room looking at him with mixed reactions.

Some looked relieved that the fighting would be over, others were skeptical, and some looked elated at the chance to live peacefully again. Wilbur, however, was not convinced. He was looking at Schlatt skeptically while reading the treaty silently.

‘He’s looking for a loophole,’ was whispered in his ear. It took all of Schlatt’s willpower not to look to his left in fear of what he may see. He could hear the smile on the Captain’s face.

Finally, Wilbur spoke.

“And why should we believe that you would peacefully give up your power? We know that you love the fighting, the wars, the power,” his voice rose as he continued, “why should we trust anything you say?” he finished with a shout.

Wilbur was breathing heavily and glaring at Schlatt. The atmosphere became almost unbearably tense until Jordan finally decided to step in.

He had been silently watching from the shadows, making sure Schlatt stayed in check but also to make sure that the deal was completed. There was mistrust in the air, and to be honest, he was getting impatient. Jordan really wanted to get the treaty over with and go home, take a nap, and preferably not get up for three days.

“Schlatt’s telling the truth,” he says before he steps out of the shadows. He nearly chuckles at the bewildered looks he gets as he steps into view.

A very eager Tubbo is soon clinging to his waist and looking up at him with such relief that he does not regret even the smallest bit of what he’s done to Schlatt. He noticed the boy looked close to tears and was starting to bury his face into his coat.

Jordan placed a gentle hand on Tubbo’s head and he flinched. Oh, he was about to murder whoever hurt his boy. His Lady’s influence reminded him that no, no matter how much it would have been justified, he could not kill someone in this land. He took a deep breath and looked up.

“Does anyone have any questions or will you sign the contract?” he said more as a statement than a question. Tubbo’s arms tightened around his waist. Jordan should really ask him what’s been going on; he wanted to help him and Tommy in any way he could.

Dream, however, had a question.

“How did you get into my server? You’re not whitelisted and I know for a fact that Tubbo doesn’t have the admin power to invite you” Dream said, though he sounded a tad accusatory.

Did he not see what was going on in his server? Did he not care that people were being traumatized? Did he not care that they were losing hope?

The Captain chuckled. The sound caused everyone to shiver and for Schlatt to shrink in his seat. He noticed the clock had stopped ticking and his heart sunk. Fuck, was he too late?

“Dream,” the Captain took off his glasses and his whole visage changed.

His warm brown eyes were now a deep purple that held a small glow to them. His hair was impossibly dark—it looked like of you were put put your hand on it, it would sink right in like a shadow. The outside around his eyes were veins of crying obsidian, a stark contrast to his skin. His clothes floated almost as if he were in water and the pure power of magic that radiated from him was nearly stifling.

“I don’t need your permission to enter your lands when I feel that ethical and moral laws are being broken. I knew something was wrong when Tubbo stopped talking passionately about anything and everything. I knew something was wrong when those from here flinched and loud noises. And I knew something was wrong when you didn’t seem to care,” he spat.

He gently pulled Tubbo from around his waist and walked next to Schlatt. The air around him rippled like water and the shadows grew.

“Now,” he purred. “Schlatt and I made a bit of a deal. A peace treaty that stopped the fighting on these lands that also prohibited future wars in exchange for books on basic magic,” he explained.

The room listened intently.

“But,” he dramatically sighed and Schlatt tried to make himself as small as possible.

“Schlatt here didn’t feel like adhering to our deal very much, so I gave him a bit of incentive,” he stopped there and looked at the room as if that explained everything.

“What does that have to do with my lands?” Dream asked.

Jordan paused. How could he say this as delicately as possible? He sighed and cleaned his glasses in his coat.

“You have to understand that I’m not a cruel man, but I hate being mistaken for a fool. I told Schlatt this when he had five days remaining to complete his end of the deal. If you remember, he may have started acting a bit...differently?” he began.

Niki gasped.

“You were doing that to him? Making him go nearly insane?!” she exclaimed. While she may not like Schlatt, that was cruel of him.

“Yeah, we were really worried for him. What did you do to him, man?” Quakity asked. He was really not liking this side of the Captain.

“I think it was perfectly reasonable, especially when the lives of children were on the line. Honestly, you all should be ashamed of yourselves. Making children fight—who does that?!” he angrily exclaimed.

“They wanted to fight!” Wilbur defended.

Jordan’s dark eyes rounded on him and while he would never admit it, Wilbur was terrified. There was such resentment and disgust in his expression that he almost regretted the war. Almost.

“Have you ever once asked then what they wanted? You’re living in a hole for my goddesses’ sake! Tommy looks like he hasn’t eaten in days and Tubbo is on the brink of tears! Are you so blinded by greed that you can’t see you’re hurting them?” his voice rose as he pointed out the obvious states of the teens.

Tommy was so conflicted. He wanted to defend himself and Wilbur, but he was intimidated by the Captain. He usually never cared for being weaker than other people, but he felt if he used his usual snark he’d be vaporized or something. He looked to Tubbo. His best friend was struggling to keep his emotions in check ever since the Captain arrived, but he knew Tubbo adored the man to high heaven. If Tubbo trusted the Captain’s judgement, then so would he.

Wilbur hadn’t spoken yet, so he did.

“Wil,” he began quietly.

Wilbur turned towards the blond. He hoped he wouldn’t say anything that would confirm what Jordan said.

“Yes, Tommy?” wilbur sounded near accusatory.

The teen but his lip and looked towards Techno, who sat next to him. The pink haired man gave him a subtle nod to continue.

Tommy let put a deep breath. Techno was always right, wasn’t he.

“I.....I want to go home,” he admitted.

Wilbur was shocked. Go home? Why? They were fighting for their country back and Tommy wanted to go home?

“Why would you want to go home, Tommy? I’m so close to getting L’manburg back! If we could just-“

“I don’t want to fight anymore!” he cried. The room went silent.

“I don’t want to fight, Wil....” he said again in a small voice.

Wilbur didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t tell if he was angry or heartbroken at Tommy’s admission. He didn’t want to fight?

“We can go home if you want, Tommy. Just let me call Phil and we can head over once the meeting is done,” Techno said softly.

Tommy nearly cried in relief. He would get to see Phil again and sleep in a proper bed in a comfy house. He hugged Techno tightly, not caring if it ruined his alpha male reputation.

“Thanks, Techno,” he shakily said.

Tommy looked towards Tubbo.

“Do you want to come along, Big T?” he asked with a small smile.

Tubbo hesitated. He wanted to go with Tommy, he really did, but he just felt...safer with the Captain. Jordan must have sensed his conflict because he immediately changed the conversation.

“So,” he drawled and garnered everyone’s attention, “will you sign or subject Schlatt to some more mind games for the rest of his life?” he asked. It wasn’t a threat, but they knew a promise when they saw one.

“How do we know that you’ll continue to pester Schlatt and not just leave him be?” Quakity asked.

“Please, no, just sign the treaty! He’s legit, he’ll keep going!” Schlatt begged.

He was right, Jordan would have to keep this up if the deal wasn’t finished.

“He’s right. The deal wasn’t just a simple handshake. Our souls are temporarily connected until the deal is completed. Until then, I have power over him,” he revealed.

Quakity’s mouth formed an ‘O’ and immediately signed the treaty. Schlatt nearly sobbed in relief. He knew there was a reason Quakity was in his cabinet.

He passed the treaty to his left and it soon traveled all around the table until it got to Wilbur. He glared at the treaty, then at Schlatt.

“If this is a joke, I’ll kill you myself,” he warned.

Schlatt gave a shaky smile.

“Believe me, I’m really not joking about this.”

Wilbur stared at him a bit longer before signing and passing the paper on. It finally reached Schlatt.

He was about to sign when a pen was in front of his face. He looked at the Captain in confusion.

“This pen will help end the deal. It’s all magicy and stuff, pretty swick,” he explained with a less menacing smile.

Schlatt instantly took the pen and signed his name. The ink glowed red and blue before fading. Schlatt slumped in his seat, unconscious. Some panicked and went to check on him but Jordan stopped them.

“He’s fine, just overtired. He’ll wake up in a day or two with a completely restored mindset,” he soothed.

They nodded but still picked him up and took him to a room with a bed so he could at least rest comfortably.

Jordan clapped his hands together and smile happily.

“Welp, I think that settles everything for today! Unless you have any questions, you guys are good to leave,” he cheerily said.

Some immediately left while others took their time leaving. Niki hugged Tubbo and Tommy before leaving while Techno left to wait outside for Tommy. Wilbur, Tubbo, Tommy, and Jordan were the only ones left in the room.

It seemed like nobody would talk first, so Jordan took a seat next to Tubbo.

“You can go with Tommy, if you want Tubbo. I won’t be offended,” he softly offered.

Tubbo glanced unsurely between Tommy and Jordan.

“Could I...speak with Tommy in private? Please?” he asked.

Jordan nodded and motioned for Wilbur to follow him outside. The brunet hesitated, but with a stern glance he was leaving the room.

Tommy and Tubbo sat in tense silence before they spoke.

“Tommy-“

“Tubbo-“

The tension broke as they laughed with each other. Tommy began before Tubbo could say anything.

“Do you not want to come with me and Phil?” he hesitantly asked. There was an undertone of hurt but Tommy was trying to understand. This was Tubbo, and he trusted Tubbo.

Said best friend looked away as he fidgeted with his fingers and sighed. Tommy felt his chest tighten.

“Come on, just say what you want. I’m a man!” he joked, but it fell a little flat.

Tubbo looked at him.

“It’s nothing against you, Tommy, or-or even Techno or Phil, but, I just....I dunno, I feel....safer? I guess? With the Captain cuz he’s just great and he listens really well and you know how I get sometimes but-“

“Big T you don’t have to defend him,” Tommy cuts him off. It’s not often that Tommy is serious, but he was now.

“I want you to be happy, Tubbo. If you feel safer with the Captain than with us, I guess that’s ok. Just don’t forget about me, yeah? I’ll fucking kill ya, bitch,” he admitted.

Tubbo felt incredibly guilty for leaving his best friend, but he wasn’t staying with the Captain for weeks! Maybe just a few days. He said none of those though and settled for a hug. He buried his face into his friend’s neck and felt Tommy clutch at his shirt.

“Thank you, Tommy, for understanding,” he quietly said.

“No problem, Big T.”

They stayed like that until there was knocking at the door. Jordan popped in with an apologetic look.

“Just wanted to check in. Techno is getting antsy and Wilbur looks ready to demonetize something,” he said to the teens.

Tommy and Tubbo got up from their seats and headed to the door when Jordan stopped them. They looked at the man questioningly but he held no malice on his face. Instead, he was looking at them with some form of understanding.

“Tubbo, whenever you want to visit Tommy, just tell me and I’ll make a portal to Phil’s place. I know you’ll miss him,” he said softly.

Tubbo’s eyes widened and he looked towards Tommy with the biggest smile that the blond couldn’t help but smile back. Tubbo tackled Jordan in a hug.

“Thank you, Captain! Thank you so much!” he exclaimed.

Tommy rubbed the back of his neck and stood a bit awkwardly, “Yeah, thanks.”

Jordan smiled. “Of course.”

There was shouting from outside.

“I think Phil is finally here,” Jordan said.

They peeked outside the room and saw Phil hitting Wilbur with his sandal and the desperate attempts to deflect by Wilbur. Techno was cackling while taking screenshots.

Jordan turned to Tommy.

“I think they’re ready to take you home. Take care, kid,” he said as he nudged Tommy towards the group.

Tommy looked towards Tubbo and they shook hands.

“See you in a few, Big T.”

“As always, Tommy.”

They watched as he ran towards Techno and began to take screenshots as well with a growing smile on his face. His signature loud laugh seemed to brighten the area. Tubbo watched fondly for a bit before Jordan’s hand was on his shoulder. He looked up at Jordan who stared at him with a soft smile.

“Let’s go home, Tubbo. M’lady is eager to meet you,” he said.

Tubbo immediately lit up.

“Does she like bees?! Could you teach me how to do cool magic stuff too?!” he excitedly asked.

Jordan laughed as he made a portal and stepped through with Tubbo.

-----------

There are many rumors surrounding the legendary Captain, but there are a few things for certain.

Even the most kind-hearted people can be cruel, and they can enjoy their own cruelty.

#mianite #jordan maron #captainsparklez #mianitian isles #dream smp #jschlatt #bamf jordan #i made him go a little feral i just love mind games he kinda drives Schlatt to insanity

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captainrexisboo · 4 years ago

Text

Dumb Luck #3

Note: Heyoooooo two updates in one weekend, whaaaaat? No, actually a fun fact, this was started out as my part 2, but i liked my other idea of building the tension with Sweets seeing Rex with his helmet off for the first time better. There will be a part four, it just wont come as quick! I’m gonna have several more parts to this, I have plans y’all. This chapter has ~slight angst~ if you squint hard enough. Again, I’m open to criticism or Hot Takes TM, I’m still a novice writer! Both my asks and messages are open to everyone! Also... y’all, Jesse is a bro. He’s great.

a link to part two- https://captianrexisboo.tumblr.com/post/623995723815452672/dumb-luck-2

Warnings: suggestive language (the usual)

Tags: @persaloodles @starflyer-104 @imalovernotahater @holamor @000ayfh

“Hey, Sweets-“

“Not now, busy,” she threw over her shoulder, not even bothering to look at who was walking up to her corner of the hangar.

Y/N was greatly enjoying herself as an assistant to the head mechanic aboard the flagship. She quickly learned about not only the venator-class destroyer, but also about gunships, shuttles, frigates, landers, even more about her beloved droids, and her absolute favorite to work on, the starfighters. If she were alone in the hangars, she would walk over to the rows of starfighters and just study them, marvelling at every screw, panel, and wire and how it built something so amazing. And right now, she was actually able to work on one of these beautiful machines, and she’d be damned if she let anyone stop her workflow.

Rex lifted a brow at her mannerisms as he watched her dive elbow deep into a much older fighter model, one that hadn’t ever been repainted and typically was the last to be boarded and flown out by shinies who didn’t know any better. She was squatting low to the ground, a panel gone from the ship while she tinkered with its insides, hair barely secure, strands falling out of the haphazardly tied bun she had kept in place with only a single stylus. He was still conflicted at her presence on the ship. She had proven to be smart, quick witted, and of course was an absolute stunner, but she was also stubborn as hell, distracting, and always there. Always a mere moment away, in the hangar, in the generator room, in the mess, the repair bay, the armory- and he hasn’t known peace since.

Let’s be honest, he hasn’t known peace since he met General Skywalker, but he was able to have an illusion of what it was like whenever he was alone with his thoughts. Now he didn’t even have that, his internal narrative shaping into her curves before too long, even in his solitude. Things were different with her here, they were more on edge, like he was tiptoeing around her in a delicate dance to avoid a situation where either of them could build onto their practically visible tension. Kix had told him, ever the blunt medic, that he could cut their tension straight through the air with a scalpel it was so obvious. But he was a Captain, and had a job to do, so when he heard that she had been seen speeding down the halls to the hangars with her tools despite all the ships passing inspection just a few hours ago, he knew he had to be sure she wasn’t doing anything out of protocol. He had grabbed Jesse before making his way to the hangar, in case a mediator was needed, and was now grinding his teeth at the woman concentrating so intensely she didn’t even care to look who else was in the room. He shared a flat look with Jesse before clearing his throat to make his presence known, “You might want to take a break, Y/N.”

She paused what she was doing, her shoulders tightening. Only Rex ever used her actual name, especially when he was in one of his damn moods. This was weird, though, him seeking her out. Recently it seemed as if he had been avoiding her, or making sure they weren’t alone if they had to be in the same room. Try as she could to get his attention, get him all flustered, he’d always just be slightly out of reach, and she was getting increasingly frustrated. She rolled her eyes, summoning her signature bravado before she smoothly stood up to turn around, jutting a hip out and giving a lazy salute, “Ahoy, Captain.”

Jesse tried to mask his giggles under a cough, watching the two interact was his favorite pastime. Rex took note for later to ask a different intermediary for the next strife, before pointing his head to the ship, “What are you doing to that fighter?”

“Exactly what it looks like,” she smiled brightly, almost prideful, wiping her grease slicked hands on the pant leg of her GAR jumpsuit, “Messing with this lovely hunk of junk.”

“Messing with it?” Rex questioned, barely hiding his glance at the handprint now crudely placed on her thigh.

“Gave myself a project to work on,” she explained sauntering towards the pair of troopers with an arm outstretched to the ship, “Boys, meet my baby.”

“Your baby?” Rex slowly tore his gaze off her to look over the fighter blandly, “What a miracle of science.”

“Is Artoo the dad?” Jesse snickered, before receiving a light smack on the arm from the woman. She still chuckled at the quip, showing good humor to him. Despite being absolutely infuriating, Jesse was quickly becoming a good friend to her, like a brother she never wanted.

“Did you get permission before completely gutting the engine, at least?” Rex asked, looking around at the parts that lay on the floor, surrounding her workspace.

She sighed, “Yes, I did, just a bit ago. Ask Caine, he was the final sign off on it. Went through all the proper channels.”

Rex's jaw twitched, stiffening the hand holding his helmet, “It didn’t come through on my end.”

“Maybe it didn’t need to,” she shot, eyes narrowing as she crossed her arms, “I’m sure there are some things on this ship that don’t require your approval, sir.”

There it is. The way she said that word got him all riled up. It was one little word, one he got called by from every trooper on every hour of every rotation, but it was her honey-coated voice saying it that drove him to his limit. Every time she spoke the word to him it was like a challenge, daring him to expose his desirous aggression toward her, taunting his mask of composure. Every time she spoke, with a demanding storm in her glare and candy pink lips being teasingly assaulted by her own teeth, it stirred a fire in him he didn’t quite know how to quell. It was maddening, and got worse and burned deeper with every encounter. Before he could dig himself deeper into her trap, he simply pulled on his helmet with a slight growl, and turned on his heel to stalk away from the conversation, barely grumbling out a gruff, “I’m going to talk to Caine.”

“What crawled up his ass and died?” Y/N felt herself wilt a bit as she watched him go, taken aback by the retreat, and admittedly a little disappointed. Usually he’d last longer.

Jesse let out a stale bark of laughter, “Same thing that crawled up yours.”

“Jesse,” she warned, cold eyes coming up to focus on him, drawing out his name as she placed her hands on her hips.

“Sweets,” he mimicked her tone and stance, chuckling low, “Why don’t you just go after him? He’s all pent-up and frustrated, I don’t think the troops can take another feral sparring session. Hell, I don’t think I can take it. Think of the poor shinies.”

She shrugged at him, rolling her eyes as her head lolled to the side, “What can I say, I’m a self-destructive mess that likes to delay my own happiness and ultimate satisfaction.”

“Bantha shit,” Jesse rolled his own amber-hazel eyes at her, “I think you're just a brat.”

She laughed lowly, batting her lashes at him, “Same thing, trooper.”

She turned around, intent on continuing her work before she felt a gloved hand wrap itself around her elbow, turning her back to face the ARC, “I’m serious. Why are you dragging this out, adding to the pressure? If you keep this up, one of you will explode before too long, and then- whether it’s a good explosion, or a bad one- there’s gonna be one hell of a mess to clean up in its wake.”

She lifted a brow at his wording, “Was that innuendo literal, or-”

“Ew,” Jesse blanched, letting go of her arm and scrunching his face at the mental image., “That’s my ori’vod!”

Y/N threw her hands up in a mock surrender with a devilish smirk on her lips, “Look, you’re the one who said it.”

“Just answer the question, maker!”

She was silent for a minute, pursing her lips as she gathered her thoughts together. Jesse was staring intently at her, crossing his arms as he waited for her. Her eyes narrowed into thin slits in her focused state, and she exhaled slowly through her mouth, “I...I don’t know if he actually likes me or not. Sure, we banter, and I flirt, but I don’t know if he legitimately thinks of me the same way. I mean, today he just walked away from our conversation, and it made me feel kind of dejected. He seemed...I don’t know. Exasperated. Like he’s tired of me.”

Jesse had never seen her so vulnerable, so small. Sure, she was easily more than a head shorter than them, but her confidence and charisma always made her seem like she was eight feet tall. She twirled a lock of stray hair around her fingers, looking anywhere but Jesse as she continued, “His responses always vary, so I can’t pin down his exact feelings! He can either be cold and dismissive like today, or he can be actively matching my turn of phrase, there's no in between. So I always just...well, I tease him, you’ve seen it. I’m just testing the waters, seeing if he’s interested.”

“Sweets-“ Jesse cut himself off as he let a heavy hand fall onto her lithe shoulder, “Y/N, look at me.”

At the sound of her name, she blinked up at him, biting her lip to keep from pouting. Jesse was about to continue, barely opening his mouth to begin, when there was a greeting from behind them.

“There she is, right where you left her, Captain!”

Rex had come back, face unreadable as he looked between Jesse and Y/N. An older, brown man walked next to him, tall and lean with a salt and pepper fade, his smile as wide as his stride, “Sweets, lass! Making headway on that pile of scrap, huh?”

“Yes sir, Caine,” she greeted, standing upright and saluting him properly before turning offhandedly to Rex and crossing her arms, “Captain.”

Rex felt his jaw twitch at the sudden chill coming off of her, his brow furrowing at the sudden switch in her demeanor. Caine continued waving his arms, animatedly gesturing to the fighter, “This ship will run better than the day it was bought when you’re through with it, I know it. But, our most thorough Captain here has made it known to me that we did skip a step in approving your request.”

She looked Rex up and down, crossed arms tightening over her ribcage, “Oh really? And what step would that be?”

“Admiral Wulff Yularen,” Rex answered, tone even and cool to match her own, “You’re right in that it wouldn’t pass over my desk, however these are still Republic owned ships. He needs to approve...whatever you’re doing before you continue.”

She bit her lip and tightly squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deep through her nose, before responding, “Fine. I’ll clean up my station. Is there a time I can meet with the Admiral to discuss my mistake?”

Rex began to respond, before Jesse stepped in, “I’ll go explain the situation to him. Caine, would you mind tagging along?”

“Let’s stop by my office to get her approval request forms. Anything that makes this take longer, it gets me away from the repair reports,” Caine guffawed as he walked away with Jesse, leaving the Captain and mechanic on their own. He shifted as her burning stare held onto him for an extended moment after the two had left.

“What?” he growled out, growing aggravated at the silent attitude she was giving him.

“You’re a fucking tattle tale,” she spat out before turning on her heel to begin picking up her tools and various discarded parts of the fighter, “Going to my boss because a form didn’t come your way.”

“What are you, a youngling?” he shot back, but striding over to help her out, “I’m doing you a favor! If Admiral Yularen had found out one of his ships had been tampered with, without his permission, he’d blacklist you from the GAR and put you in a ship to drop you on that same dirt ball we found you on.”

Admiral Yularen was much more empathetic than that, and would not go as far as that for a punishment. But she didn’t need to know that right now.

“I’m not tampering with it- don’t touch my tools,” she looked over to see him dropping her wrenches and welders unceremoniously into her box, “I’m not tampering, I’m fixing. I’m a mechanic, it’s what I kriffin do, I’m sure he’d understand.”

He continued to pick up her scattered tools as she turned back to the disorganized pieces of metal with a roll of his eyes, “That may be so, but the GAR has a very strict way of doing things, and unfortunately the line of command doesn’t just stop at Caine for you. In fact-“

“I said don’t touch my tools!”

“Y/N, I’m trying to help you!” he nearly yelled at her, his voice booming in the high ceilings of the hangar, “Anything I’ve done today, is to help you!”

She scoffed, unmoved by his commanding demeanor, “Sure, help me. You didn’t even want me on this ship to begin with!”

“That’s-“

“You still don’t like me, do you? Is that why you don’t respond to my advances?” she was stalking toward him now, her mess and tools pushed to the farthest corner of her mind until they got this discussion over with. He stood his ground as she got closer, standing at his full height but looking her directly in the eyes nonetheless.

“Y/N-“

“I flirt and tease you all damn day and you just ignore me! Or worse, you respond and then leave when you realize you might’ve reacted a little too positively. I’d at least like a solid no from you, make yourself clear, please!”

“Hey!” he laid two strong hands on her shoulders, giving her a slight squeeze, “Shut. Up.”

She glared at him, but complied, pulling her bottom lip in between her teeth as she stood defiantly to him, as tall as she could under his grip. He allowed himself a slow breath, inhale through his nose, hold, exhale through his mouth. He softened his hold, and let his deep honey eyes search her stormy glare, delving into the depths of her soul to make sure she understood, “I think I like you, Y/N. More than I ought to.”

He let that sink in, his cheeks flushing at his own sudden boldness but keeping a lock on her gaze. She raised her brows in surprise, eyes going wide as her agitation subsided, being replaced with something more delicate before sputtering out, “Oh. Okay. Uh, great. So...why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

He let out a dark chuckle, letting his eyelids get heavy, “Always one for tact.”

She shrugged under his grasp, a slight grin gracing her features at his amused expression, “Would you expect anything less?”

He shook his head, letting his lips twitch upwards as his thumbs absentmindedly rubbed circles into her shoulders, before clearing his throat, “If you had let me finish earlier, your chain of command doesn’t stop at Caine. It includes Yularen, Skywalker, and me. If I’m seen to be ‘romantically involved’ with a crewmember, I could be court martialed. And then you’d be-“

“Sent back to that rock you picked me up from,” she finished for him, letting a hand come up to rub gently at his right wrist, before sighing, “Maker, I hate it when you’re right.”

“It’s a miracle you still like me, then,” he let a cheeky smile pull through his face, causing her to let out a soft giggle. Somewhere between their dispute and his confession, his voice had shifted to a low, coarse whisper that made her want to hang onto every word. He let a hand off her shoulder, gripping her chin lightly between his thumb and forefinger, “Do you understand, cyar’ika?”

Her breath was stolen from her as she watched his eyes glance down to her lips, his thumb gently pulling at her skin to have her bottom lip pop out of it’s sharp hold. She shuddered, a pleasant quiver going down her spine as she nodded at him. She fluttered her lashes at him as he chuckled low at her response, “What does that mean?”

“Promise not to get mad?” he smirked at her, as a matching blush sweeping over both their cheeks.

“Rex,” she quirked a brow at him playfully, drawling out his name almost musically. He smiled wide at her, practically spellbound with how his name sounded on her lips.

“It’s Mando’a,” he paused for effect, looking around to make sure no out of place soldiers were looking over before dipping low, his lips brushing the shell of her ear, “for sweetheart.”

She laughed, the sound warm and full, splaying a hand over his armored heart, the plastoid cool underneath her palm, “Fine. But only you are allowed to call me that.”

She pushed him lightly, having him let go of her shoulders. They stood there, smiling at each other, skin burning where the other’s hands had been, gazes soft with mutual ache. Y/N sighed, “So, what does this mean? For us.”

Rex thought for a minute, walking around her to continue where they had left off cleaning. After she had joined him, he hummed in response, “I think it’s a promise.”

“A promise?” she repeated, finishing up putting all the spares and discarded parts in an unlabelled crate next to the fighter. She leaned against the crate, arms crossing as she grinned at him, “What kind of a promise?”

“After the war is done,” Rex explained, tone surprisingly optimistic, “we can travel the galaxy together. No enemies to be on lookout for, not having to worry about getting caught by my nosy men-”

“Does it have to wait till after the war?” she whined, but still watching him as if he were hanging the stars as opposed to just picking up her tool box. He handed her the plasteel case, latching it closed with one deft hand.

“We can discuss that later,” he sent her a sly wink. She rolled her eyes, righting herself off the crate and looking up at him with the familiar teasing glint in her eyes that he’s come to find very charming.

“Just because you’ve finally confessed, don’t think this means I’ll stop toying with you, sir.”

All he could do was let his smile grow, just thinking about all the alluring ways she’ll drive him crazy, “I never wanted you to stop.”

#captain rex #captain rex x reader #captain rex imagine #star wars #star wars the clone wars #clone troopers #ct 7567 #501st #female!reader #mechanic!reader #tcw fic #my writing #part 3 #clone trooper jesse #ct 5597 #we're not smooching yet but we'll get there #slow and steady boys

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bella-spil · 4 years ago

Text

The Announcement

The time has come for you and Bucky to announce your new status (follow up to the arrival)

Bucky x fem reader, fem reader x avengers

Warnings: cursing, fluff, talking about virginity.

Word Count: 2.1k

The rest of the day flew by in a haze. The closer dinner got, the more anxious you and Bucky got. But Peter was trying his best to help. He kept reassuring the two of you that everything would work out for the best and everyone would be happy for you no matter what. But Bucky wasn’t anxious about that. He was anxious because he was the one announcing it and he didn’t want to say something stupid.

At around 6:30, dinner was ready and Tony was calling everyone back to eat. On the table was cheeseburgers, fries, and everything in between. There were drinks of every kind, from juice boxes to wine and champagne. It all looked like something from a cookbook.

As everyone eyed the food and licked their lips, they all took their seats. At the heads of the table were Steve and Tony. On the right of Steve was Bucky and on his left was Sam. Vision was on Tony’s right while Clint was on the left. Wanda sat next to Vision and Nat sat next to Sam. When Nat sat next to Sam, he raised his eyebrows in satisfaction, but she was too quick and saw the subtle movement. She hit him in the air and Sam quickly shut up. Next to Clint was Peter and you were right in between Bucky and Peter. You needed to be next to Bucky for support and Peter was there to help in case anything happened.

As everyone was getting their food, Tony proposed a toast.

“Everyone, I just wanted to say I’m so happy not to be in a Wakandan jungle right now. I bet I speak for everyone that was on the mission,” as Tony said, everyone that was on the mission nodded in agreement and chuckled.

“Also, I want to congratulate Steve and Nat for their work on their recent mission,” Tony continued. Everyone clapped in approval.

“And I wanted to say that I have missed cheeseburgers, so before I dive in, does anyone else have anything that they want to say?”

You nudge Bucky in the arm so he gets the memo. He does and clears his throat.

“Uh, yeah I do,” Bucky said. Everyone stared at each other in disbelief. Bucky never spoke during dinner, he was too busy eating. And he barely spoke that much in general. The looks everyone gave each other were starting to scare Bucky and he looked to you for support.

You have never seen Bucky so nervous before. He was the Winter Soldier, confidence was his thing. He could walk into H.Y.D.R.A. buildings filled with soldiers like it was nothing. But this was a whole other ball game for him. As he looked at you, you could see the fear in his eyes. You looked at him with pride and nodded as he continued.

“Um,” Bucky mumbled.

“Hey, Manchurian Candidate, are you going to tell us what’s up or can we eat?” Tony asked, clearly hungry and impatient.

“Me and Y/N are dating.” You and him both smile cheesy. Your smiles looked like one from a yearbook. You and Bucky blushed in embarrassment as you could hear a pin drop. You were expecting someone to say something, not this much silence. Just as you and Bucky were wondering if this was the wrong thing to do, you hear a loud clap. And it’s coming from Tony himself.

“I knew it!” he shouted. “I knew it! I knew you had the hots for him Y/N. I’ve said that from the beginning, rig-”

Then unexpectedly, he gets cut off. Normally if you cut off Tony Stark, that would mean you’re done. But only two people cut off Tony and get away with it: Pepper and F.R.I.D.A.Y. And it was F.R.I.D.A.Y. herself that cut him off.

“Sir, when Y/N arrived, you shipped her with Mr. Parker.” Everyone started laughing in shock. Peter and you stare at each other in disbelief. You thought as if you would like Peter. You and him were too good of friends to have it for each other. Meanwhile, as everyone was laughing, Tony stood there embarrassed.

“No I didn’t,” he said a little too quickly.

“Yes you did sir,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. rebuttaled. “Would you like me to share th-”

She gets cut off by a distraught Tony.

“No, who did I think she would end up with next?”

“You shipped her with Mr. Wilson, sir.” At this point everyone was laughing so hard they had a hard time breathing, except for Tony. As everyone was laughing, you and Bucky stared at one another in shock. Then you catch Sam looking at you, astounded.

“Really?” Sam said, appalled. Then a sly look settled on his face. “I’m getting shipped with all the hot girls.”

Everyone can’t contain themselves as they are leaning on each other for support. The death glare Bucky sent Sam was unmatched. You knew Bucky had a good death glare, but this one beat all the others by a mile.

“You’re dead.” Bucky said, pissed off.

“You wish,” Sam snapped back.

“Ok, stop bickering,” Tony snapped. “Fine, I didn’t think you would end up with Barnes, Y/N. In fact, he was the last person I would expect.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Bucky said, sarcastically.

“Welcome, Barnes,” Tony replied. “But, I’m happy for you guys. If you need anything, especially money, you’re covered.”

“Thanks, Tony,” you answer.

“I’m glad you guys are happy together,” Clint chimed in. “You have my support.”

“Yes, I agree,” Vision added. “I’m utterly overjoyed seeing you two together.”

“Thanks guys,” you said, so happy at the approval you were getting. Bucky was overjoyed as well. He held your hand under the table where nobody would see, especially Sam.

But then, Sam started looking at you and Bucky quite weirdly. He looked over to Steve and Nat. They didn’t seem too shocked that you and Bucky were together. In fact, they looked like they knew, and that pissed him off. He was friends with Bucky, so why wouldn’t the Winter Soldier tell him?

“So, how long has this thing been going on?” Sam asked, trying to pry information out of you.

“About a month,” you answer, unaware of Sam’s intentions.

“Did you tell anybody?”

“No Sam, what’s your point?” Bucky lied.

“You obviously did because Steve, Nat and Spider ling haven’t said peep.” Sam said with a glare to Steve, Nat and Peter.

“Ok,” Bucky said, rolling his eyes. “So what if we told them?”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” Sam shrieked.

Bucky smirked at Sam, clearly getting the reaction he wanted. He loved getting Sam pissed off, it was his favorite pastime. He smiled at you and wrapped his arm around you, and you let out a quiet chuckle.

You loved getting Sam annoyed too, and the way his face was right now could make you laugh for days. But, trying to be polite, you just covered your face with your napkin so nobody could see the joy leaving you.

“Why do you think I didn’t tell you?” Bucky questioned with a smirk. Sam’s face was turning red, a big red flag for a fight about to start. Before that could happen you intervened.

“Nothing Sam,” you interrupted. “It’s nothing.” Bucky looked at you. He looked like a kid about to go in timeout. His baby blues looked so sad, it was enough to make you cry.

“Why did you do that doll?” Bucky whispered in your ear. “I was having fun.” Sam was flipping you both off from across the table, and Bucky did it back without breaking eye contact from you.

“You know why,” you said, since it was so obvious. You rolled your eyes and smirked. You took his hand underneath the table and gave it a little squeeze. Bucky smiled at you and brushed his hair out of his face. As you and everyone else resumed eating, Tony had something on his mind.

“So have you two fucked yet?” Tony asked with a smirk.

You and Bucky spit out the food in your mouth while everyone was laughing their asses off. You and Bucky sat there, embarrassed as hell.

“What?” Tony asked, unaware that he did anything. “Isn’t that the question on everyone's mind?”

“It certainly wasn’t on mine,” Steve chimed in with a chuckle.

“Oh well your Captain America,” Tony said. “You can never have dirty thoughts. You have to be a role model for every child in the world.”

Everyone couldn’t help but look at one another and nod, knowing this was true. But then Tony looked at you and Peter, for help.

“Psst,” Tony whispered. “Kids, what was that rumor about Capsicle that you showed me a few months ago?”

You and Peter look at each other, trying so hard not to giggle like five year olds. You both knew exactly which one he meant.

Since you were the youngest members on the team, you spent a lot of time on the internet. A lot. One day while on YouTube, Peter found a video explaining a pretty reasonable rumor about Steve. It had something to do with how Steve got his powers, but instead of explaining how he actually got his powers, the video showed a different way. Peter showed it to you and it was the funniest thing on the planet.

After Peter showed you, you and him both showed it to Tony. Tony thought it was the best thing he had ever seen and awarded both of you. He let you both come on a mission to London that you guys were begging to go on for months. He told you that he was going to find the right time to use it against Steve, and now was that time.

“Oh, cmon kids!” Tony pleaded. “Explain the theory!”

“Peter?” you look at him to make him explain. He knew there was no arguing with you, so he took a deep breath and started explaining.

“Well, there’s a theory online saying that you didn’t get your powers from the Super Soldier Serum, but from something else.” Peter said.

“And that would be?” Steve asked, confused. Peter started laughing, and you couldn’t help it and joined Peter. All the adults were looking at you confused, but Tony sat there with a smile.

Peter snickers to control his laughter before he speaks.

“You get your powers from being a 99 year old virgin!” he says before cackling like a witch. You cackled too and you didn’t care. Everyone’s faces dropped and started laughing as well. Steve sat there, disappointed. He was shaking his head and let out a long, dramatic sigh.

“Just when I thought I was having a good day, it turns to shit.” Steve sighed. Everyone stopped laughing except for Sam and Bucky. They thought it was the funniest thing ever and they had to lean back on their chairs.

“Oh my god, that’s amazing,” Sam sighed, wiping a tear off his face.

“I didn’t know you were still a virgin, Steve” Bucky chuckled.

“Yeah,” Clint said. “I thought you lost it to Peggy Carter.”

“Nope, I still have my V-Card.” Steve smiled while blushing. You roll your eyes as he said V-Card.

“Ok, for clarification, who still is a virgin?” Tony asked. Everyone in the room wanted to know as well.

Three hands went into the air. You and Peter obviously raise your hands. You were still young and Peter told you he was waiting till he was engaged. That was the plan for you too, but that wasn’t going to be the case soon. Steve also raised his hand. Steve being a virgin was just too funny, and everyone started laughing.

Bucky, however, remained quiet, smiling at you. He was filled with a sense of pride. He loved that you haven’t given yourself up to anyone yet and he was glad that it would soon be him.

“Oh well for the kids, that makes sense. But for you that’s just sad.” Tony said to Steve.

“Thanks Tony for your concern,” Steve sighed.

“Anytime Capsicle.” Tony replied with a smug tone.

“Thanks everyone for supporting me and Bucky. I have no clue how this conversation went from me and Bucky being together to virginity, but we both are so happy that you guys support us.” you said.

“Don’t worry about it guys,” Wanda said.

“We will always have you back,” Nat said. What she said was supposed to be for both of you, but since she said “back” it confused everyone, especially Vision.

“I believe the correct term is ‘backs,’ Natasha.” Vision corrected. Nat threw a dirty look at him while everyone else chuckled.

“So, before we all call it a night, wanna play a game?” Peter asked.

#bucky x y/n #bucky fic #bucky fucking barnes #bucky barnes #peter parker #avengers #fandom #fanfic #marvel #natasha romanoff #steve rogers #tony stank #tony stark #clint barton #sam wilson #wanda maximov #vision

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homenum-revelio-hq · 4 years ago

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Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Erin!

You have been accepted for the role of LUCINDA TALKALOT with the facelaim change of Alisha Boe! We are thrilled to have Lucinda on the dash! We’re so excited to see what you bring to her, especially with her being thrown into this whole new world. We can’t wait to see her come into her own! Welcome to the roleplay!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME & PRONOUNS: Erin she/her

AGE: 26. Yeesh.

TIMEZONE: EST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I never work later than 6 on the weekdays and I’m always off on the weekends, so I should definitely be able to meet the minimum! My hope is to be active for a little bit every day, but knowing that life gets in the way, my realistic expectations is a session about three times a week.

ANYTHING ELSE: I’ve done a few Tumblr rps, but it’s been a bit since my last one. For an idea, I go all the way back to the Hogwarts Extreme days. Yeah. I’m old.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Lucinda Moira Talkalot

AGE: 19 years old as of the current timeline (February 27)

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cisgender female, she/her, and, as of now, she identifies as heterosexual.

BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin

ANY CHANGES: I’d love to use Alisha Boe!

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

Lucinda Talkalot had always enjoyed radio dramas. Everything felt so dramatic and over the top and so unlike life. It was all pretty hilarious, the overblown dialogue and long, meandering monologues. Personally, although she thought it was all very cute, she was very happy she lived in reality, away from all the melodrama. Life wasn’t a radio play. If it was, Lucinda would happily play Dry, Sarcastic British Girl #132. And that was only if there weren’t any tree roles leftover. No one could quite put their finger on what came over the Sorting Hat to place her in Slytherin, least of all Lucinda. She took great pride in Just Being Lucinda, and was shocked to find herself suddenly sharing a room with multi-galleonaires. Not that it wasn’t neat. It was pretty neat. Like when Maribel Sparksley accidentally received her sister’s invitation to Reginald Wishwell’s Spring Cotillion on last week’s radio program. But, they all had this… oomph. No other sound effect to describe it. They had it, and she just… didn’t. She’d tried. Well, within reason. There were just some things that definitely weren’t her. Most often, they were simply too… much? She was okay with Just Being Lucinda, and most people in her life agreed. Happy with the occasional withering comment, good for a chuckle, practicing her potion-making (which she was just okay at, but that was fine with her,) happy to be who. she. was. Except for two people, both wonderful but uncomfortably pushy. First: her Quidditch captain. Lucinda had joined up because she thought it would be a fun way to pass some time, and she wound up as captain by the end of her career. All because she’d made a few quick adjustments when the chips were down. It had been a struggle for her, but dear old captain had convinced her that Just Being Lucinda was enough. Captaining a Quidditch team wasn’t as “too much” as it seemed, and the responsibilities were fewer than she thought. But, the idea of going any further than that was just completely out of the question. That adventure was plenty for her, and she was content with what she’d accomplished. Gave her something to do besides training with Uncle Maxim for when she’d inevitably go to work at (the aptly named) Maxim’s, her uncle’s long-standing apothecary, focused on “beautifying” potions. Not exactly her cup of tea, but it was a guaranteed job out of Hogwarts. But, beyond her tenacious Quidditch captain, the last pushy individual in her life was her fifth year Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (buggers never seemed to last very long.) They were beginning their study of dueling spells and techniques, and Lucinda was visibly uncomfortable. Defense Against the Dark Arts had always been her least favorite class. It just felt very unnecessary to focus on all this doom and gloom and darkness. It’s not like Reginald Wishwell was going to burst in and attack them for crashing his party. It’s all pretty nonsensical. But, all thoughts if nonsense went out of her head when she first flicked her wand and watched her target crumble before her. From somewhere deep inside she felt something stir, almost like a want, or, more troubling, like a need. Some stray passing thought vaguely pondered if it might be that “oomph” she’d been looking for. And, when she looked down the line of targets, she saw hers was the only one so shattered. Her professor couldn’t help but whoop out a “Good show, Talkalot!” while the thrill in Lucinda’s gut gave way to a sort of pain. The same sort of distant pain she’d felt when dear old captain had handed her the reins for the Slytherin team. It went on like this for the next few weeks. They’d learn a new skill and Lucinda stood out while her insides vanished. She’d have a good-hearted laugh with her classmates afterwards, ever the joker, ever the obfuscator. It was all so silly. As if they’d ever use any if this. Then, came dueling day. Lucinda had been dreading it. They were paired up and professor gave the signal and off they went. Her opponent tumbled out of play after only one shot from her. One! She’d indicated what she was about to do as hard as she could, and yet they didn’t make one move to stop her! There were other opponents that were more difficult, but Lucinda couldn’t seem to turn it off, though part of her wanted to. It went from pairs vs pairs to the class vs Lucinda. Professor’s allegiance became embarrassingly apparent, as she couldn’t help but smile enthusiastically whenever Lucinda was crowned victorious. By the end of class, no one had beaten her. She was just too quick. And, all of them had been so easy to spot, their wand movements so languid and apparent, how could she not have guessed which spell was coming? It wasn’t a big deal. She was Just Being Lucinda. When she went to pack her things and meet up with her friends for their usual session to take the mick out of the class, professor stopped her, that enthusiastic grin still plastered on her face. “Have you ever considered joining the Dueling Club?” Lucinda nearly snorted, but managed to catch herself. She tried to imagine it, but the image was so hilarious she couldn’t picture it for long. A dueling club? Of course, she’d heard of it, but the idea of it was just as funny as the idea of her participating in it. What, was she going to be an auror or something? Ridiculous. Lucinda allowed herself a small, good-natured chuckle and politely declined. Thanks, but no thanks. But, she was persistent, and Lucinda had to dodge her until she was inevitably replaced. The rest of her career at Hogwarts was mercifully average, even considering her career as captain. Her potion-making was good enough to earn her that job at Maxim’s, and she was content, so long as she avoided her uncle’s attempts to talk politics with her. He had always been the alarmist of the family, and he didn’t need anyone feeding into his paranoia. But, Lucinda started to take notice of some strange orders coming into Maxim’s. She didn’t make the potions herself, just assisted her uncle and the other major potioneers, but there was something… off. She didn’t always recognize what they were for, though she wasn’t a particularly skilled potioneer. Not to mention, she found the general subject deathly boring and learned only the bare minimum required. Then, came the attack. It was as if everything until then in Lucinda’s life had been playing in monochrome and it all burst to sudden, grotesque, horrendous technicolor. The sharp definition of it all made her sick, and the illusion she’d never known she was spinning shattered. Suddenly, she was on the wrong side of the word “pointless." Everything would be different now. Except that she’d been right. Life wasn’t like a radio play.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

The Talkalot family is your average mixed-house heritage clan. Dad’s a Hufflepuff, Mum’s a Ravenclaw, and they were both shocked but thrilled to hear Luci had been sorted into Slytherin, just like Uncle Maxim! Most importantly, they found some peace hearing that Lucinda would be amongst Slytherins, hoping some of that aforementioned "oomph” would rub off on her. That she’d finally commit to something, for Merlin’s sake. But, Lucinda’s sorting into Slytherin solidified her choice to follow in her uncle’s path, which was somewhat disappointing to them. Well, at least she’d be taken care of. Uncle Maxim was a good role model, an exemplary business-oriented Slytherin, keeping his head to the grindstone. She’d be in good hands.

OCCUPATION:

Lucinda previously worked in her uncle’s shop as an assistant, but, obviously, that’s no longer possible. For now, she’s not thinking too far ahead and has decided to focus her time on the Order, telling her parents she’s found a new job.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Lucinda’s decision to join up was almost done on autopilot: She’d barely believed she’d done it until it was already done. But, what else was there to do? She couldn’t just stare down the Dark Mark, the actual-bloody-Dark-Mark-holy-hell, and not do… something! When it came time to offer up her talents, her vibrato faltered. Just Being Lucinda probably wasn’t going to cut it in the Order but, without thinking, she offered up her talents as a potioneer’s assistant, while mentioning she’d played some Quidditch back in Hogwarts. Of course, the actual talents she’s scared of still linger under the surface, her quick thinking, level-head, and, of course, her raw, natural dueling skills. If she could be convinced that risking the fall is worth the leap, she’d finally be able to let herself enjoy being out on the frontlines where she belongs.

SURVIVAL:

The Talkalots, in general, are nobodies. No fortune to speak of, but not destitute, either. Both of Lucinda’s parents work as office clerks for the Ministry, and not even in the fanciful departments. So, Lucinda has been and still lives at home,, content to get started at life once she was good and ready. Uncle Maxim was the only one who’d apparently kicked up some sort of minor stir. Whether Lucinda will ultimately find his actions foolish or necessary is yet to be seen.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Lucinda was fairly popular amongst her housemates, but she was no superstar, either. She was well-known for her somewhat deadpan sense of humor, and was considered generally unoffensive as a person. The person she was most shocked to consider her friend was Emma Vanity. Yes, that Emma Vanity. Emma was definitely the most interesting to talk to out of the girls, since her life was something right out of Lucinda’s radio plays. She was most shocked to find out how accurate a lot of it was, all that bowing and kow-towing. Also, Lucinda never thought she’d personally know someone in an arranged marriage, and she definitely never thought she’d be 16 and faced with giving condolences to one of her friends for the death of her fiancee. There were rumblings about what caused it, but, in classic Lucinda fashion, she considered the implications far too extreme and cancelled them out. Calling someone the “d” word (Death Eater) without concrete evidence was a bit much, especially since their friend was going to marry him. But, ever so practical Lucinda would eventually become less chivalrous towards Emma. Listen. One month is one thing. Two is another. Three is when it starts to be a bit much. The other girls started whispering when Emma wasn’t around about how pathetic it all was becoming, and at first Lucinda disagreed, inside her own head, of course. But, after a while, Emma brought with her that same doom and gloom she encountered in Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was a constant reminder of all those things Lucinda found so foreign, and she couldn’t help but turn a blind eye as Emma was slowly “uninvited” from the group. The mood lifted and the jokes were landing again, but Lucinda did occasionally feel a small twinge of guilt when she thought about it. Another on th list of unexpected acquaintances was Regulus Black. Again. Yes. THAT Regulus Black. She remembered walking into the Quidditch pitch for her first practice and seeing him, hanging around as though it was the most natural thing in the world. He wasn’t much like what most people thought of him. He wasn’t someone you’d call to liven up a party, but he also wasn’t unwelcoming. They actually shared plenty of conversations, though they never got particularly close. She’d heard about his love for Divination and knew it would be better to keep a safe distance. She’d rather not mess with that sort of stuff. Less she knows about that the better. His death was probably the biggest shock in her life before the attack. She’d never absolutely personally known a person that had died before. Antonin was one thing, but Regulus had been a full, three dimensional person in her daily life for a few years. It was surreal. Then, there was Daisy Hookum. Thankfully, they’d never been very close. She was a complete nuisance. Way too in-your-face and took things far too seriously all the time. Her thing with the muggles was just way too over the top. What was so interesting about them anyway? They're muggles. She was so pleased when she was gone, and it had only been one year. Nothing worse than a person who takes something like being a half-blood and turning it into their entire personality. Otherwise, her Uncle Maxim had really become her best friend since she’d started working with him.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS:

As with most people, I ship Lucinda with chemistry, but I get this feeling off of her that she might enjoy someone older, maybe quite a bit older. It would place her well out of her comfort zone (which needs to happen) and I happen to think they work very well when done right. But, ultimately, I’m for anything that feels appropriate, and would never actually try to break up any established ships. (Though I won’t promise Lucinda won’t crush on anyone she ultimately can’t have. Lol!)

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Lucinda, more than anything, has the privilege of doubt. She has room and time to waste doubting her own abilities, doubting other people’s perceptions, questioning their methods and her own until they’ve all talked themselves into a frenzy while claiming this simply makes her rational. She’s also allergic to bad news, even after her recent bout with some downright terrible news. She’d rather not know, though she might be more likely to brace herself and hear it. So long as you get it over with fast. Lol. All in all, Lucinda is what an inverted classical Slytherin personality would look like. Her “I don’t take anything seriously” persona was cultivated to protect herself from her own competitive perfectionist nature. To try is to risk failure or looking stupid, so better not to try. To believe anything is to risk being wrong and looking dumb, so doubt everything. There is a strange perfectionism in her cultivated “laidback” attitude, leading to her remaining “laidback” through two deaths and her friend getting put out because of one. Because, to care for even one moment could lead to, well, the mental state we’ll find Lucinda in after the attack. Frazzled, all nerves, shell-shocked. Regarding blood purity, if you’re wixen, you’re wixen. She has no opinions on the nitty gritty of who’s “worthiest” amongst wix. But, muggles are a bit of another story. If you asked her, she’d say she liked them, but that’s about as far as it goes. She tepidly “likes” them, but has little interest in them or their affairs. They’re just muggles. Whatever.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

I’m really excited to work through this plot as a collaborative piece! Having everyone all on the same side is a brilliant idea and helps with offering up parameters to encourage creativity.

PLOT DROP IDEAS (OPTIONAL): Other than a reason for Lucinda to pull out her wand and own it, nothing!

ANYTHING ELSE? Nope!

#homenumaccepted

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where-s-all-blue · 4 years ago

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Self Insert AU for your chaotic crack fic needs

When you get transported into the One Piece Universe, you can't choose where you end up in nor in which time. Even your age might be jumbled up.

Depending on where you end up, your memories of your old life will disappear until the crew or group you are in is featured in canon.

If you make a joke about something, it's very likely that the universe will make it happen just to fuck you up. For reference, see C and R making up a lost island that sunk into the sea only for it to re-emergence randomly in the New World right in front of their eyes.

No matter what you do, you can't change the canon plot.

You don't have a plot armour.

Mod specific headcanons under the cut.

Onto the specific headcanons of C and R:

C ends up in the same town where Luffy meets Zoro, only days before it happens, hence her memories aren't that jumbled up, but she can't remember her real life friends. She pretty much joins them there and then.

C has the habit of saying cryptic things and accidentally revealing things beforehand, like when someone important is about to join the Strawhats whom she has joined. The crew thinks that she can see into the future.

She also tends to start crying when she meets people who are good but have tragic pasts. Luffy starts to use this as an indicator for people being nice.

During the timeskip, C ended up eating a devilfruit, her devilfruit was Neko Neko Mi, Model: Toyger ver Dwarf. This means that she is essentially a Toyger breed of a regular housecat, who happens to have dwarfism and thus will never grow up bigger than a kitten.

C uses her devilfruit to sneak around, get out of trouble and to get a free lift from her crew members. R uses his fruit power to intimidate people and to fight, he also uses it to go unnoticed while he naps in the dark corners.

The majority of people assume that she is max 14 years old due to her petite form and mischievous nature. However, when reaching Wano, she’s actually 18.

C’s outfit is modeled after a cow; she adores them as she finds them cute. She wears tiny horns on her head and a dotted over dress on top of her blue dress. Her cat form also keeps the horns on it.

Her fighting style includes using these horns to inflict damage. She also has learned how to use armament haki during her training.

She spent three months stuck in her cat form due to not knowing how to control it. She has managed to awaken her fruit powers, which doesn’t really help her much aside from giving her extra speed and durability.

During one of the early calls between C and R, they joked about her having the will of D. Later on she learned that she infact DOES have that secret name and she actually carries the will of Portgas D. Rouge. She also resembles Rouge by her looks and sometimes says things that especially got the attention of Garp as he’d last heard the woman herself say them.

C made up an island just to avoid suspicion, claiming that it sunk to the bottom of the ocean only to find out that the island did infact exist.

She also claimed that R and her are childhood friends before her family moved to the East Blue from the North Blue.

In Wano, she learns about the backstory of herself and is left speechless.

She’s actively trying to set Law and R up for her own amusement, even going as far as claiming that he suffers from chronic anxiety which can be cured by slow socialisation (to earn his trust) and cuddles, but the latter must be done by someone the red head respects. Law accepted this as a fact until his mind caught onto it about a week later.

Her favourite colours are purple and green, she often wears brown and blue.

The fake Strawhats had two sets of her; a feral kitten and a giant hulking man with cat ears. Upon seeing this, C immediately called out how they got her motif wrong.

C often takes selfies in the most inconvenient places like right in front of Katakuri, Oven and Daifuku, which she then sends over to R. She also likes to avoid fighting in favour of watching the plot unfold itself.

R ends up 10 years into the past, into the office of the Revolutionary Army where he was found by Ivankov and Dragon. He is also now a child. Until he turns 19, he doesn't have any memory problems.

Ivan looks for a cure for R's memory loss, but she doesn't have much time as she's supposed to infiltrate a prison. She quite literally drops him into the hands of Trafalgar Law, explains the situation and leaves without allowing him to protest.

Due to R's shyness, he spends the next half a year silent, making the crew think that he might be actually mute only to later on burst into a song in an attempt to soothe someone. The crew never realises this though as they're used to hearing weird sounds in the submarine.

R uses in total three names in this universe: Ren (Revolutionary Army), Eli (Heart Pirates) and Nao (C, later on the Strawhats). They joke that he has just very long name and those are parts of it.The joke later on turns into reality making R's name be Reneli Nao much to his embarrassment.

During Ivan’s search for a doctor who could cure him, R ended up accidentally eating a devil fruit. The fruit was Zoan type, Neko Neko Mi, Model: Black Jaguar. However for convenience, he refers to it as panther fruit as that way nobody can tell for sure if it was leopard, snow leopard, tiger, lion or a jaguar (Panther is the class name of each of these large cats).

R has two bounties, one as Ren and other as Eli, the latter being his "pet" bounty. Whenever the marines see him in his human form, they refer to him as revolutionary army member rather than as a pirate. Somehow they never put together the fact that Eli and Ren are the same entity.

His bounty as Eli is only around 100 beries due to the marines assuming that the black jaguar form is his real form, and thus believing that he’s a pet.

Before the timeskip, R uses black sunglasses to block out the light as he is very light sensitive, post timeskip he's seen using a cap.

During a call, C joked about him being the illegitimate son of Shanks, in Wano this is confirmed to be the case and the duo swear to never joke again.

He too claimed to be from an island which sunk, only for it to turn up on old maps.

R is an awakened Zoan user, which grands him higher speed and durability.

He also has the habit of switching into another language unconsciously when he curses or insults people. He most often calls them fools in Hebrew, which the rest of the crew assumes having been the native language of the island he’s from.

Law is the only one who knows what he is saying, which makes situations where someone assumes that they’ve earned his trust because he’s “giving them a nickname” even funnier.

He knows how to use both rapier and a katana, his old sword was a rapier which he called Shoshannah after his mother (this means lily or a rose), his current sword is named after his real life brother’s cat, Mito, which in Japanese means serene water while in Italian it can mean myth.

During Zou, the only reason why he got hurt was because of his fruit powers suddenly activated making him loose his balance.

He calls Ivankov “mom” on multiple occasions.

His denden mushi was a gift from Ivankov, however, he just can’t bring himself to decorate it claiming that he’s waiting for the moment he’ll be able to pinpoint just what would reflect him and his personality accessory wise.

His trademark colours are orange, blue and purple, which you can find from his hat and the scarf he wears around his waist to help him carry his katana.

R is a terrible liar which he tries to make up for by turning conversations overly philosophical. Most often he ends up accidentally blurting warnings to his captain and crew.

He often challenges his captain without even realising it by asking questions like “Are you sure about that?” or calling something the stupidest thing he’s ever heard right to his face.

He seems to be immune to feeling intimidated by people to the point where it’s thought that he simply doesn’t have any self preservation instinct. Despite of this, R is very careful and plans his moves to ridiculous detail, trying to take in any possible threats and any potential change in the environment.

Law has a theory that R is the reincarnation of Corazon because he seems to know things that only Corazon would know. This theory was debunked once he learned that R is only 3 years younger than he is.

Other

C and R meet one another in Sabaody, where they both start to regain their lost memories. While they're running from the marines, they quickly catch up and exchange numbers so they can keep in touch.

C and R call regularly, but have trouble when someone else picks up, they both are very shy after all. This leads to moments where C asks Usopp to ask whoever had picked up if Nao was available and vice versa.

Penguin and Shachi have a stash of photos from the time R was stuck as a jaguar cub (when they thought that he was a lot younger and that the devil fruit was just a black cat). They tend to show them to C out of spite towards R, who still doesn’t talk that much.

There’s a third person (let’s call them K), who’s sailing with Boa Hancock, C and K haven’t met one another in the OPverse, but R has made sure that the two also manage to talk by giving them each other’s denden numbers.

K likes to mess with R and Law by referring to them as brothers or “cat men”.

R reunited with K when his captain was taking care of Luffy. The latter found R’s situation hilarious.

The denden mushi of C has purple and green stripes and tiny horns, K’s radiates G A Y because of glitter. K’s denden also holds a tiny pride flag.

#self insert au #crack au #one piece au #one piece #one piece self insert #C #R #K

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selfindulgentpoorlywritten · 5 years ago

Text

Only You (Sidney Crosby Imagine)

The text got deleted for some godforsaken reason, so I’m hoping this fixes it.

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Sidney Crosby/Fem!Reader

Words: 3462

Warnings: NSFW

Requested: yes / no

Summary/Request: hi! are you still taking requests? bc i wanted to know if i could get some sidney smut but like with a girl that's like way shorter than him

(AKA established relationship Sid smut with a super short reader)

No one would say you’re particularly good at dancing, but damn if you didn’t love it. You were always dancing by the end of every party, to whatever was playing over the speakers, whether it was intended to be a soundtrack or not. Today is no exception. At clubs you tended to get lost in the crowd, but since it was only yourself and a few of the other WAGs, you’re still visible from the outside. Visible to Sidney from his seat on the patio, where he’s stopped bothering to pretend to be invested in the conversation taking place around him.

He loves to dance as well-- especially when he’s got a few drinks in him-- but he’s always loved your dancing. He can’t help but watch every time you take the floor, mesmerized by the way you move. By the way you sway just a tad awkwardly, the way you don’t even care. The freedom of it. But more than that, he’s captivated by how stunning you are. His favorite thing to do is remind you of how gorgeous he thinks you are, with quick comments and long nights, depending on how much he gets to see you.

Before you ever met him, you’d already felt short enough. Dating a professional hockey player and spending time with his friends only made you more acutely aware of your height. Considering the entire team is at least as tall as Sidney, who has more height on you than you’d like to acknowledge, you felt like you were Jack after climbing the beanstalk, surrounded by giants. That’s bad enough, though you’d expected the guys to make you feel small and were prepared for it; what you weren’t prepared for was the WAGs. They were all tall and long-legged and blonde and graceful and dazzling. You were the shortest by far, not even reaching Sidney’s chin, and most of them had half a foot or more on you. It rarely bothered you, but when you’re surrounded by literal models all the time, it’s difficult not to feel self-conscious on occasion.

The party is winding down alongside the sunset, and the small group of you retire from dancing to help Tanger and Catherine start cleaning up. You gather some used plates and cups that had been abandoned on tables around the yard, depositing them in the trash bag Kelsey is walking around with. The serving dishes for the food need to be brought inside, but you notice that-- aside from Tanger-- the guys are still sitting around shooting the shit while the girls do the work. On your way inside with a casserole dish, you smack Sidney on the arm and scold the lot of them. They hang their heads and stand to join in with the tidying-up effort, adequately chastised.

Sid keeps shooting you looks, the kind of looks that make your face heat and your heart skip beats. Anticipation coils in your gut. You’d been having a great time dancing and talking with everyone, but you’re suddenly eager for this to be over.

The downside of Sid being Captain is that he can’t beg off team events early unless it’s a legitimate emergency, so you’re stuck cleaning and talking for what feels like an eternity. The party was a “team bonding” event to welcome the newcomers to Pittsburgh, and Tanev, Galchenyuk, and Kahun seemed to appreciate it, at least. You would appreciate if everyone would leave, so you can go home and fully enjoy the promise of the heated once-overs Sidney has been so generously giving you all evening.

You try to appreciate the time with everyone and be present in the conversations going on, but Sid has taken every free moment to shoot you glance after glance, like he can’t keep his eyes off of you. It’s not as if you haven’t been zoning out of various discussions to look at him too, though, so glass houses and all that. The guys slowly trickle out with their better halves over time, until Geno and Anna are the only ones left. It takes you a moment to notice, since you’ve been a bit transfixed by Sidney’s hands for a few minutes, because he’s definitely showing them off, knowing your weakness for them.

Momentarily, you meet eyes with Geno, who looks knowing and smug, before he turns his gaze to Sid. That’s probably going to be embarrassing later, but right now you don’t really care if anyone knows your plans. Despite being an asshole, Geno is actually a good guy, so he excuses himself and Anna not long after. They say their goodbyes, giving out hugs and cheek-kisses and back-slaps before leaving, both giving you a wink on the way out. They really are perfect for each other, huh?

More importantly, you’re now free to go. You make some polite conversation with Catherine quickly, just thanking her for hosting and wishing her luck with the children, offering to babysit if she ever needs a break. Sid switches with you, giving Catherine a hug and thanking her succinctly. It takes a handful of minutes for you to say goodbye to Kris, and you swear you can feel Sid’s frustration at having to wait. Typically, he wouldn’t care about waiting for you, but he’s been clearly turned on for at least an hour and probably desperate to get you alone. You’re definitely on the same page. Unfortunately: societal niceties.

The instant you’ve finished with Kris, Sidney has a hand on your lower back, guiding you toward the door and out with a final farewell thrown over your shoulder. Kris and Catherine stand in the doorway to see you out, making sure you get into the car and start up safely. Luckily, you can justify Sid’s potentially-inappropriate handle on you as coincidence, considering the fact that his hand naturally rests at the same level as your lower back, more or less. It’s just incidental, or a happy accident, or whatever. When he has to remove his hand so you can both load into his car, you immediately miss the contact.

You return the Letangs’ friendly wave as Sid backs out of the driveway. Even if he didn’t have the C, you’d never be able to leave events early because he always parks in the driveway and gets blocked in. Or maybe he lets himself get blocked in because the C means he’s trapped anyway? Not important. What is important is the big hand he lays heavily on your thigh, too high up for polite company and so, so warm. He keeps his eyes solely on the road as he drives, despite clearly holding onto the last of his composure by threads.

“The worst part is that you don’t even mean to do it,” he says, voice far deeper than when he spoke to Tanger. It sends a shiver down your spine, your entire body tensing in a barely-visible wave at the familiar sound. You have no idea what he means, and your confusion definitely shows on your face. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to want a response, because he just takes a beat and continues.

“You just dance, like there’s no one watching, like you wouldn’t even care if there were,” he says, voice conveying a thousand things; arousal, possession, awe, “And everybody watches you, but you only look at me.” His hands squeeze the steering wheel and your thigh in equal measure. You’re not proud of the sharp inhale you take in response, but you’re also not really thinking of your pride right now, or anything other than the heat and pressure just close enough to tease. Your brain is stuck on a loop of only you only you only you, but you don’t say it, not willing to give him the satisfaction of your devotion yet. Also, if you did give in and say it now, the two of you would probably end up with a ticket for public indecency. You can talk your way out of it once, but twice would probably be pushing it.

You don’t say a word the entire ride home, and his grip on you and the wheel eventually loosens. Though he does periodically tighten his fingers back around you, just sporadically enough to keep you on edge, keep you wanting. And god, did you want. Sid was the most beautiful man in the world on a normal day, so when he’s all focused and deliberate, almost ready to succumb to lust? Truly Athena herself couldn’t keep chaste in his presence.

Pulling up the driveway with his hand tight on the skin bared by your now bunched up skirt-- easily pushed out of the way by Sid’s searching fingers-- has your heart rate skyrocketing. He doesn’t spare you a peep before he cuts the ignition and exits the car, not needing to say a word for you to scramble to follow him, grabbing your bag and climbing out of the car so quickly you almost end up tumbling face-first onto the concrete. By time you get to the mud room, he’s already removed one shoe and is working on the other. He hadn’t worn a jacket, since it’s one of those rare September days where the world forgets it’s supposed to be transitioning into fall, so it’s 91° and 8-fuck-thousand percent humidity, so he doesn’t have to bother taking it off. Good. Less time wasted. As for you, you kick off your shoes and place them in their usual place a little less carefully than usual. Sid definitely has some level of OCD, but that won’t bother him. Probably. Maybe.

Clearly it doesn’t bother him right now, because he walks through the second door into the living room, still without a word. You follow behind, but staunchly refuse to compare yourself to an eager puppy despite the similarity. He leads the way to the bedroom, which seems way too far right now, in your opinion, but that’s not your brain talking. At least you get a nice view of Sid’s ass in his black swim trunks, close-fitting enough to accentuate his figure rather than hide it.

What you expect to happen once you reach the bedroom, is for him to immediately push you up against the door and kiss you senseless. What you do not expect, is for him to slowly crowd into your space, cupping your jaw with one hand and stroking your cheek gently with his thumb. The other hand comes to rest on the side of your ribcage, squeezing gently once as he looks down into your eyes. There’s so much adoration in his gaze that you feel like the swelling affection inside you is going to make you burst.

“I love you,” he says. His expression turns a bit bittersweet, like he knows he doesn’t say it enough, but appreciates you understanding it anyway. You cradle his face in both hands and kiss him once, almost chaste. A far cry from what you anticipated.

“I love you too,” you reply. You know you maybe say it too much, often enough that he gets flustered sometimes, or thinks it’s said out of habit and not sincerity. But you mean it every time, with all your heart. Again his expression changes, this time from bittersweet certainty to overt devotion. He looks at you as if you’re the most extraordinary person in the world, like he can’t believe he gets to have you, like you’re the exceptional one in this relationship. All you can do is kiss him again, longer this time, harder.

This is where the passion you’d expected comes in, where he starts kissing you like he can’t bear to part from you even for the necessity of breath. Where his hands run down your sides to sneak under your shirt, so they can skim back up your stomach to cup your breasts. Your bathing suit suddenly feels like far too much material between his hands and your skin, and you itch to take it off. To take all of it off, to bare yourself to him in a way that never felt so right with anyone before.

With your diminutive stature, he has to bend at the waist to kiss you while standing, and you know it sometimes gives him a crick in his neck. Which is totally the reason you’re eager to get to the bed, obviously. Not because his hands are warm even through your top and his lips are soft and damp against yours and the small needy sounds he makes into your mouth drive you wild. You’re just being considerate. Yup.

Whatever ulterior motives you may or may not have, you nudge him backward, guiding him toward the bed even as he continues to dip down to kiss you between looking back to make sure he doesn’t trip. When the backs of his knees hit the mattress, he doesn’t fall, just stops. He strips off his shirt with an unrestricted urgency he never shows anyone but you, throwing it toward the hamper. You follow suit, shucking off both tops, and pushing down your coverup skirt for good measure. He pauses, brushing his big hands over your shoulders and down your chest, admiring your figure so brazenly you feel yourself blush.

“You just gonna look?” you ask rhetorically, still a tad breathless, but feeling a bit bold yourself. In return, you’re graced with that beautiful crooked smile and a look far too dark to match-- under normal circumstances, at least. He squats down to grab you around the waist, tossing you onto the bed in a feat of strength that’s more than a little sexy. The noise you make is decidedly less sexy, but he just smiles wider, shoving off his trunks like an afterthought before joining you on the bed. You wriggle out of your suit bottoms, not getting a chance to throw them off the bed before he’s on top of you.

Sid is so intense this way, laser focus directed solely on you, fixated on the best way to take you apart. For the most part, you go with the flow. You’re more than willing to follow his lead, knowing from experience that he’ll make this more than exceptional.

With your body bared to him, he looms over you, eyes roaming your upper body. His thick thighs are solid and warm against your own legs, closer to your knees than you might expect of a more proportional couple; though all you can think of is how the scratch of his wiry body hair drives you a bit crazy. He kisses you again, only momentarily, before moving to your jaw, your neck, your shoulders. There will definitely be some dark spots that Malin and Kelsey will tease you about next time they see you, but the pressure and tinge of pain feel so good that you don’t much care.

Before Sid, you had assumed that your breasts simply weren’t that sensitive. Since the first time you’d slept together, however, you’d learned that maybe you just hadn’t had competent partners before. He sucks more hickeys into the thin skin of your breasts, mouthing and teasing at your nipples until you’re arching into his lips as you make sounds a bit too desperate for your liking. It’s just so good.

Occasionally, he’ll ask you to sit on his face. He knows it’s not easy for you, because your height means you have to rest a bit higher on your knees, which stresses your thighs. But he loves it so dearly that you do it from time to time. This evening, however, he seems far too frantic to eat you out as per usual. Instead, he abandons your chest to recapture your mouth. After so long, he knows exactly how to move, to lick, to press, to drive you crazy. Crazy enough that his fingers dipping into your folds make you gasp into his mouth in surprise.

Your focus shuttles between his fingers stretching you meticulously and the way he’s kissing the soul out of you. Your brain simply refuses to focus on one thing, jumping from his lips to his fingers to his thighs on your knees to his dick occasionally brushing your thigh. It’s all so much, his body the perfect complement to yours, no matter how counterintuitive that may seem.. He’s so big and warm, enveloping you in smooth skin and pounding pulse, completely encompassing you.

Once he deems you adequately stretched, he kisses you once again, slow and wet and deep. He asks you for the umpeenth time if you’re ready, if you’re okay with this, and you’re too much of a goner for him to do much more than kiss him and shimmy your hips closer to his own.

You’ll never get used to the first push inward. Sid’s not particularly long, but he’s thick, stretching you wide and hitting all the right spots you never even knew existed before him. His back is curled in a deep arch so he can bury his face in your chest for the initial stretch, like if he looks at you, he’ll lose it. Not that you would know, really, with how you throw your head back into the bottom edge of the pillow. All you can do is make a small “ah” sound, rocking your hips back and forth in an attempt to adjust to his size. Once bottomed out, Sid stays still as long as you need, no matter how the involuntary rolling of your pelvis makes him dig blunt nails into your hips.

“Come on,” you say, finally, hips reduced to tiny twitches, “Fuck me, Sid.” The phrasing draws a broken moan from his throat. He doesn’t bother wasting time with slow, dragging thrusts; just goes straight to fucking you into the mattress with as much speed and force as he can manage. Your ankles barely meet behind his back with how broad his torso is, so you dig fingertips into his shoulders to avoid being driven up the mattress.

No matter how single-minded he may seem as he shoves in and drags out, he still kisses you so sweetly. Whispering endearments and reassurances against your lips (though he still has to crane his head to do so, so maybe avoiding neck pain wasn’t your only motive for getting him into bed), he steadily fucks you into oblivion. By time he sucks a mark just under your jaw that’s sure to last, you’re gone, floating somewhere above yourself. When he comes, he bites into your collar bone, groaning out his pleasure as he fills you. You reply with a groan of your own, acutely aware of the warmth filling you, his cock still spreading you wide.

“Maybe I should dance more often,” you quip, once your breathing settles to something manageable. Sid huffs a laugh into the pillow, rolling to the side to avoid crushing you any more than he already has.

“As long as you’re not looking at any other guys,” he replies, letting his head flop to the side to smile at you.

“You know it’s only ever you, Sid,” you can feel your smile grow into something halfway between giddy and sentimental, “Only you.” He groans dramatically and throws an arm over his face, in a gesture you know means that he wishes he was 18 again so he could go twice in a row. All you can do is laugh and turn toward him, peeling his arm away and giving him a soft, lingering kiss.

“Just make sure you stay on the edge of the crowd so I can actually see you,” he says against your lips, grinning even as you gasp and smack his shoulder.

Over time, you’ve learned that aftercare is important to Sid. He likes to pamper you, to guide you into the shower so he can soap you up and wash you down. He loves to carefully towel you off, pressing gentle kisses to the places he bruised with his mouth and fingers. To cover you with his clothing, a t-shirt that reaches past the mid-point of your thighs and shorts that may as well be capris. To settle you into the bed once the duvet has been tossed toward the hamper, wrapping you in the sheets and comforter, tight against himself. Taking care of you has always been his favorite thing, the way you look up at him with drooping eyes and sleepy voice to thank him for everything. For the reassurance, for helping clean you, for your vaguely sore lower body and the way it makes you feel such deep satisfaction, for loving you, for making you feel loved, for making you believe you are loved. Believe you are loved, are cared for, are worth his love and care. Only you.

#sidney crosby imagine #nhl imagines #RI #andis coping mechanism #nws #scrosby

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sarah-wants-to-write · 4 years ago

Text

Searching My Dreams for a Lifetime; Chapter Two (Criminal Minds)

“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” -Abraham Lincoln

◊

“She did WHAT?” Rossi asked, surprise written all over his face.

“Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself,” Derek replied, folding his arms over his chest “just popped it right back in place like it was nothing.”

“Well it makes sense,” Reid declared, turning to see Shira talking to one of the detectives “people with EDS have problems keeping their joints in place all the time. Makes sense she’d know how to put them back where they need to be without medical help.”

“What was weirder was how much Hotch knew of her condition,” Emily added, voice quiet “rare enough that it doesn’t seem like something he’d need to know off-hand.”

“Maybe researching genetic conditions when Hayley was pregnant,” Rossi mused “and it stuck.”

“Well, no matter how you look at it, Hotch definitely gained her respect with showing he knew about it,” Derek said “starting to look more like you might be right, Rossi.”

Shira was tucked into her own corner of the conference room, where the team was set up to work. Sketching out the crime scene, with the sigils, and the distances, Shira couldn’t figure out what was going on. To the untrained eye, it seemed like a complex ritual layered with meaning. Yet to Shira, who had done her masters dissertation on ancient blood rituals with a focus on the Norse, she was just confused.

They didn’t mean anything. Not in context. Though the arrangement was definitely familiar.

Ehwaz, Othala, Ansuz, Gebo.

“Loyalty, home, communication, gift,” she muttered “nothing to do with…wait…”

She knew those positions anywhere. How hadn’t she seen it right away?

Getting up, she made her way to the white board, quickly mapping out the scene with the runes and positions.

“Make a connection there, doctor?” Rossi asked, watching her “what’s the meaning behind the symbols?”

“I still can’t figure out the one that’s directly ahead,” Shira replied “but the others I recognize. Looking at them by themselves, their meaning is totally unrelated, but together? It’s one of the interpretations of the runed Helm of Awe.”

“A Norse symbol that serves like a compass,” Reid added, looking at the board “not much is known about it.”

“In mythology, it’s also been known as a symbol of protection, for those who cause chaos,” Shira continued “in the Poetic Edda, the dragon Fafnir gave the Helm credit for his seemingly being invincible. 'The Helm of Awe I wore before the sons of men in defense of my treasure; amongst all, I alone was strong, I thought to myself, for I found no power a match for my own'.”

“So, he’s basing the staging off something that gives power to those who cause chaos,” Hotch mused “he’s declaring himself invincible to our efforts. Getting off on the torture and the lack of progress from the officials.”

“He likes watching the police squirm,” Shira muttered “hopefully you’ll find a pattern with the victims before the next abduction.”

“That’s something we needed to speak with you about,” Rossi declared, earning cautious attention from her “all the victims; they’re women in their early thirties, with dark brown hair and blue eyes.”

“You fit the victimology to the letter,” Hotch added “and with your involvement in the case, that makes you more of a prime target. Needless to say, if you’re leaving the station, it won’t be without one of us or a detective.”

“You’re telling me this like I didn’t make the connection already,” Shira told them, smiling to reassure, though the glint in her eyes was a bit cheeky “a woman sees six of her near-doppelgangers dead, she connects the dots.”

“This could also mean that you might be the intended target,” Hotch continued, watching her “if it comes to that, we’ll have to interview you, and ask you to step away from the case.”

“Then I best do as much as I can, shouldn’t I?” she countered “give you all the help I can. After all, he isn’t gonna wait. Though if my presence hasn’t been made public or obvious, then that might buy some time, or it might make him angry. Either way, he might slip up.”

Watching the two talk, Rossi was both impressed and amused. Shira didn’t seem at all fazed that she might be a target. More that it seemed like fuel for her work. With her knowledge of profiling, as well, she almost sounded just like Hotch when she was talking. A quiet authority that had people listening whenever she spoke.

“I’ll bet you’re a favorite among students,” Rossi declared, earning a pleasantly surprised smile from Shira “direct and personable. How quick do your classes fill up?”

“Don’t even make it to the end of the first day of enrollment,” she replied, straightening up in pride “most students love having a younger teacher, and I like to think that I’m quite good at what I do.”

Rossi smiled at that, catching a quick glance at Hotch as Shira spoke. The slight smile on the younger agent’s face was a surprise, gone just as quick as it was seen, but Rossi was certain he saw it.

Already Rossi knew one thing for sure, about those two; Hotch was doomed, in the best way.

It was late, and the team was taking a break for dinner before calling it a night. Still at the police station, in case a call came in, Chinese food and small talk were the order of the night, as a reprieve from the work throughout the day.

Most of the talk was directed at Shira, the team wanting to get to know their consultant better.

“One of the youngest professors at the University, huh?” Morgan huffed, smirking a bit “starting to give pretty-boy here a run for his money.”

“Ah, I couldn’t measure up to the famous Doctor Reid,” Shira laughed “not many people who could! I was lucky to be granted one PHD.”

“Those committees are vicious,” Reid agreed, laughing “makes staring down an unsub look like nothing, sometimes. Takes guts to stand in front of people and have them question everything about your work. Give yourself credit, Doctor Amell.”

Shira laughed at that, dipping her head a bit in thanks at the compliment.

“And how about your personal life?” Emily asked “any pets?”

“One, a dog, though I definitely want more,” Shira replied “his name’s Michael. He’s a retired MWD.”

“Adopted a military working dog?” Rossi mused “good on you. They’re loyal and incredibly smart. Malinois?”

“German Shepard,” she answered “poor thing’s still skittish sometimes, but it makes sense. Most loyal man in my life, being the only one.”

“No soul mate yet?” Morgan wondered, noticing Hotch starting to watch her more closely “someone as smart and pretty as you should have found him by now.”

“Been busy,” Shira replied “master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation, books, teaching, and guest lectures. I noticeably value and show my intelligence. Most men are intimidated by that, and even if they aren’t…”

She trailed off for a moment, sitting up and rolling her shoulder a bit, before it audibly popped. Her smile was sad as she looked to Morgan.

“Even if they aren’t,” she continued “who would want to be saddled with all this?”

She gestured to herself, her joints, and shrugged. Looking down as she continued eating, she missed the surprise on most everyone’s face, including Hotch.

How much had she been through?

It was early morning, and the team was preparing to leave the hotel and go back to the station. Wanting to get in some quiet time to eat and think, Hotch made his way down to the dining room for some breakfast. Not many people were there, and he knew it wouldn’t be that way for long. Going to the coffee pots and water kettles, Hotch poured himself a mug, as someone came up beside him. Glancing over, he saw the person was in a sling, and was forced to do a double-take when he realized who it was.

“Doctor Amell?” Hotch felt his eyebrows go into his hairline, seeing her turn to him with a confused look “your arm?”

“It’s my shoulder, actually,” she replied, smiling sheepishly “won’t stay in easily, and it hurts. Afraid I won’t be doing any hiking today.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” he mused “I imagine it must hurt quite a bit.”

“Nothing more than I’m used to,” she promised, reaching with her left hand for a mug “though it sucks that it’s my right, being right-handed and all.”

Hotch watched as she grabbed the mug, reaching for a hot kettle as she picked out a tea bag. When she had the package open, and bag in the mug, he went and filled her mug for her.

“Oh, thank you,” Shira declared, smiling, as he finished “my arm definitely couldn’t support that for long.”

“Least I can do,” he replied “we should eat while we can, before the rest of the team wakes up.”

The way he said ‘rest of the team’ was something she definitely noticed, yet she didn't get her hopes up. Clearly, he was referring to his relationship with the team, and not her.

“Are you always up before the rest of them?” She asked “burden of leadership, I imagine, getting ahead of everyone so you can stay on top of your game.”

“Doesn't help that I don't sleep much,” Hotch replied, taking her mug as they went to a table “hard to sleep in new places.”

“Yet you're used to it, from how you're handling this,” she mused, smiling “not all professional experience, I think. Kids?”

“Pity you weren't able to join the Bureau,” he declared, amused “just one. My son, Jack.”

“You fight for justice and come home to your son,” Shira grinned, sitting and taking her mug with a grateful nod “a family man. Regular Captain America.”

“Just a man raising his son on his own, trying to make the world safer for him,” Hotch countered, sitting across from her “hardly have time for much superhero work.”

“Says the one who's basically a superhero,” she teased, smile widening as she saw him smile “your son has a wonderful role model to look up to, with you.”

“Thank you,” he replied, dipping his head slightly “it’s been tough, especially after his mother passed, but we have a good support network.”

“I’m sorry to hear she’s gone,” Shira declared, eyebrows knitting together as her heart went out to him “was she your…”

“No,” Hotch shook his head “but we both didn’t think our marks were the be all, end all. Love is love and can last a lifetime no matter what, or so we thought.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” she reassured him “I’m sure she’d be happy, when you do find the one.”

The silence wasn’t as tense as Shira expected, and she was surprised when Hotch straightened up and looked her in the eye.

“Doctor Amell,” he started “I wanted to apologize for my behavior back at Quantico, and on the plane. You’re here to help us, and I was disrespectful.”

“Believe it or not, I figured it might have been out of character for you,” she replied, smiling to try and comfort him “though I had chalked it up to how bad this case is. Besides, you came around eventually. In my mind, there’s nothing to forgive, but I know it helps to hear it, so I’ll say it; I forgive you, Agent Hotchner.”

Shira watched as his eyes softened, and a small smile came back to his face. A soft, vulnerable, almost happy glance that showed more than she was sure any of the team saw on a normal basis.

“And please,” she continued, smiling as a twinkle came to her eye “you can call me Shira. If you want to, that is.”

“And you can call me Hotch,” he replied, giving the smallest chuckle “the rest of the team does.”

“The way you keep saying that,” Shira mused, slightly hesitant “it’s a bit strange…”

“Because you feel like you’re not part of the team,” Hotch mused “that I’m just referring to their connection to me, but it’s entirely the opposite. It’s temporary and new, but you’re doing just as much work to solve this as we are. We brought you in. You’re just as much a part of the team.”

The way her heart fluttered made Shira blush, and she smiled for him.

“That’s sweet of you to say,” she replied “thank you, Hotch. We should probably eat something, before we head into the station. Don’t know about you, but a muffin of any kind sounds great.”

Hotch smiled, turning to look at the tray that he could see she’d been eyeing. Going over and grabbing two, he brought them back to their table. Shira smiled wider when she saw the flavor that he brought for her.

“Blueberry?” she asked, immediately taking the top off so she could enjoy it last.

“Fruit tends to go better with black tea, in my opinion,” he answered, watching her closely “balances it out.”

“Only someone who enjoys tea could come to that conclusion,” Shira laughed between bites, grinning “blueberry’s one of my favorites.”

When he came down for breakfast, Rossi was distracted by thinking on the case. Yet when he heard familiar voices engaged in conversation, he was jolted to clarity. Looking around, he saw Hotch and Shira tucked into a corner, deep in conversation. The smile on Hotch’s face brought one to Rossi’s, seeing the way that the two were relaxed around each other.

“Is that Hotch…smiling? And eating?”

Rossi turned to see Morgan and Reid behind him, both looking equally shocked.

“This whole case just got more interesting,” Rossi chuckled “but we’ve got work to focus on.”

As the rest of the team came down, and everyone was able to eat something, they were getting ready to head in before Hotch got a call. Watching as he took it, expression falling, they knew it was bad news.

“Unsub’s taken another woman,” he told them “let’s get going. We have work to do.”

◊

“A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.” – Shannon L. Alder

∞

#criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #soul mark au #aaron hotchner fanfic #hotch fanfiction #searching my dreams for a lifetime

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cakesunflower · 5 years ago

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Liability [Peaky Blinders!Calum AU] Part 2

Previous Part: Part 1

Part 2

“That is a profoundly stupid fucking idea which is only going to get us killed.”

Had it been anyone else who spoke to him like that, Calum wouldn’t have hesitated in delivering a punch in the face of whoever was skeptical of his orders. But instead he kept to shooting Luke a flat expression, loud and clear about his lack of interest in what the blonde had to say before returning his attention to the papers laid out in front of him—particularly the Export License that they’d recently acquired. It had been a moment teeming with pride, showing off that license to the people who stood by his side, to the men and women he trusted with his life. This was what they had been waiting for and it was finally there.

Calum put the books on top of the license, data from the latest race open for him to see. He wasn’t as concerned with his decision the way Luke seemed to be, hunched over the books and going over the week’s recordings.

As he took in the impressive profits the last of the horses, Oakley, earned them during the week, Calum inquired in an uncaringly airy tone, “D’you think I don’t know what I’m doin’, Luke?”

The blonde sighed, running his fingers through his curls. The last thing he wanted to do was disrespect his best friend and leader, but the unease and concern still ate at Luke from the moment Calum had announced his plan to him, Ashton, and Michael. “You know I haven’t an issue following your orders, but this. . . This is dangerous territory, Calum. She’s the Police Captain’s daughter.”

“If she had views similar to that of her father’s, then she never would’ve stepped foot into the Garrison,” Calum pointed out. His tone, as usual, was all-knowing, because he knew Karina. She was a curious one, he could tell, and while he expected her to reject his offer the second he suggested it, Calum knew she would eventually come around to the concept.

Granted, it was possibly a risky move on his part, but Calum stood by what he said; Karina wasn’t her father. Reading people was one of Calum’s strong suits, practically hearing their thoughts in the way they carried themselves. Every time he ran into Captain Garner, Calum knew the policeman was looking for any solid reason to put him behind bars—or, to the captain’s preference, be hanged. But that night at the Garrison, Calum saw no inkling of the same train of thought from his daughter—didn’t see much of it from Sean Garner either, if he was being honest.

It seemed to Calum that Captain Garner’s aversion to the leader of the Peaky Blinders wasn’t one his children shared.

Perhaps Calum was playing with fire with the idea he was concocting in his mind since running into Karina again after so many years. It surprised him how she seemed to be stuck in his head since that night at the Garrison.

She was an independent one, it was easy to realize. Averting from her father’s views, especially when it came to Calum himself, wanting to be a working woman, being damn near abrasive where her dead husband was concerned. Calum wasn’t going to lie—seeing Karina within the walls of his pub had felt like a breath of fresh air, and speaking to her had only served to peak his interest in the woman who once had been his schoolmate.

“It’s still a dangerous bet,” Luke spoke with a shake of his head, a resigned sigh escaping him. He knew there was no talking Calum out of this, so why bother trying?

The smirk returned to Calum’s face, leaning back in his chair, with his hands splayed on the desk in front of him. “When have I ever backed away from one?”

*****

“Come on, Karina—Ed doesn’t mind giving you a ride home. Do you, Ed?” Joyce hummed, looking over her shoulder towards her fiancé, who sat in the driver’s seat of his Ford Model T, the engine rattling lowly as he waited for Joyce to get in.

“’Course not,” Ed returned with a friendly smile, leaning to his left to get a proper look at the two women still standing on the sidewalk. “More than happy to.”

Karina smiled, ready to comply. Getting a lift from her friends was far better than walking home by herself at this time of night, especially with many of the factory employees getting out of work around this time. But just as Karina’s lips parted to accept the offer, the soft rumble of an engine cut her off, her gaze sliding to the right to catch sight of an expensive, shining black Bentley driving towards them, stopping in front of Ed’s car, yet not blocking it.

She felt her heart drop, noticed the way Ed’s eyes widened and Joyce tensed up when the elbow resting on the sill of the car door was accompanied by a head leaning out of the window. Calum Hood’s dark eyes found Karina’s greener ones, looking far too casual and relaxed as he sat in his car and said to her, “Jump in, Miss Garner.”

Of course, Karina remained still where she stood, gaping at the man who had just arrived out of nowhere and all but demanded for her to get in his car. For a moment, all Karina was capable of hearing was the distant sound of the factory lines, the clanking of metal and the occasional burst of fire and smoke. Karina felt her heart beginning to pick up its pace, beating wildly in her chest as she took in the expectant expression on Calum’s face, as if he knew that she wasn’t going to reject his offer and wished she would just hurry up.

The completely rational part of her was screaming to oppose, as if no was a word Calum Hood often heard. But the insatiable curiosity picked at her brain, whispering for her to get into the vehicle, to see what he wanted. Karina could hear herself trying to rationalize that she would be alright, that despite Calum being a dangerous criminal to be feared, he wouldn’t bring her any harm. Perhaps she had gone insane.

He watched her, eerily calm and observant, and Karina’s throat remained dry with hesitance of not being entirely sure what to say. Briefly, she could hear her father’s voice in her head, telling her to run the other way, to get as far away from the gangster as possible. But, oh dear, she couldn’t bring herself to look away from the dark of his brown eyes, at the way he was looking at her, like he knew what her answer was going to be before she could even consider anything else.

Karina swallowed the nervously excited lump that had formed in her throat, knowing she was going to regret this eventually as she met Joyce’s gaze and told her friend reassuringly, “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

Joyce, who had been more or less thrilled when she’d noticed Karina chatting Calum up at the Garrison the other night yet now looked tensely nervous in his presence, widened her eyes at Karina. Quietly, she asked, “Are you sure?”

Feeling Calum’s heated gaze burning into her skin, Karina nodded at Joyce before forcing a smile to her lips. God, what was she doing? Looking at Joyce and Ed, she bid, “Get home safe.”

Joyce hesitated for a moment, but eventually climbed into Ed’s car as Karina took a breath and walked around the front of Calum’s. It was difficult to ignore the weight of his gaze, eyes tracking her movements as she approached the door, stopping when Calum leaned over to open it from the inside before sitting straight. Ed and Joyce drove off as Karina gripped the front of her dress, lifting it ever so slightly as to not trip on it as she stepped up on the running board so she could slip into the car, free hand gripping the door to keep her balance.

Karina’s breath stilled in her lungs as she settled in the car, the scent leathery and expensive as she shut the door, the metal creaking before it slammed. The gentle vibration of the running engine did little to calm her as she sat in the car, looking out the windows of the mostly deserted street. It wasn’t too late at night, but not many people were wandering about, and in that moment Karina was beginning to regret agreeing to get in a car with Calum Hood.

Honestly, what was she thinking? She didn’t expect Calum to pick up his hat that sat in between them, or pull out a gun, and use either on her. But there was a reason why the man to her right was feared, why he drew panic and unease and had people moving out of his way. Calum was a force to be reckoned with, a killer and a protector rolled into one, unpredictable like a storm. How could Karina ever hope to be calm in the presence of someone so arbitrary? And why had she willingly put herself in a situation that had her stomach churning uneasily and had her picking at her nails? A bit of a masochist she was, wasn’t she?

Licking her lips after a few moments of silence that ate away at her, Karina said, “My flat’s on—”

“Delaney Street, I know,” Calum finished, never taking his eyes off the road, though Karina had a feeling he still noted the way she blinked at him in surprise over his knowledge of her residence. He kept his gaze straight ahead, though Calum lifted his chin and allowed the shadows provided by the streetlamps to accentuate the cut of his jaw as he mused, “Nothing goes on in this city without my knowledge, Miss Garner.”

Her throat tightened at the casual rasp of his tone, the knots in her stomach only intensifying. For the first time, Karina second guessed her decision to move into her own place, away from her family, now that Calum Hood seemingly knew exactly where she resided. She rolled her lips into her mouth, looking straight ahead and allowing any words die on her tongue as they drove on in silence.

Karina fiddled with the soft fabric of her dress, watching as shop owners closed up and began their journey home, how those walking by caught sight of the man driving past them and gave a tip of their hat or a polite call to the leader of the Blinders. It fascinated Karina how respected Calum was, even if it was born out of fear—though she had a feeling that it didn’t matter to him. So long as no one got in his way, she figured.

“Your friends didn’t look particularly fond of you getting in my car.” Karina bit the inside of her lower lip at the sound of Calum’s voice, conversational and smooth. His eyes remained on the road ahead as he added, “You didn’t seem to share their hesitance.”

Her gaze dropped to her lap, watching as she twisted a thin ring on her middle finger as she answered in reluctant honesty, “To be frank, I didn’t think I had much of a choice.”

Calum hummed disapprovingly, their bodies gently jolting as the car drove down the cobblestoned street while he made a turn to Karina’s neighborhood. “Everyone’s got a choice. And it’s imperative for me to know you’re able to make sound decisions.”

The car came to a stop in front of Karina’s building, but she was too busy staring at Calum with a puzzled furrow between her eyebrows, not entirely understanding what he meant. It was imperative for him? What in the bloody hell was he on about?

Before she could even question him, Calum spoke up to answer her silent inquiries.

“I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout what you told me the other night, Miss Garner, ’bout how you wish to work.” His eyes met hers, relaxed against her own curious ones. “I just so happen to have an openin’ for a secretary position.”

Karina paused, blinking at Calum, wondering if she’d misheard him. But he sat perfectly poised, right elbow propped on the car door sill as he met her gaze. The dull street lamps not providing much light, and Karina realized that Calum Hood, unsurprisingly, looked all the more intimidating when the shadows of the night sharpened the line of his jaw. Karina found it chilling how he looked fearsome whether the peak of his cap was covering his eyes or if he was granting her the opportunity to gaze at the dark irises.

His words registered in her mind and bewilderment flooded Karina easily. He was offering her a job? Calum must be aware of how ridiculous a notion that was—she was the daughter of the Police Captain; she couldn’t possibly work for the leader of the Peaky Blinders. Granted, Karina didn’t care much for what people said about or thought of her, but she just knew the mere thought of her accepting this job would have her father preferring to receive a gunshot wound instead. It was unrealistic for her to work for Calum, to vehemently go against everything her father believed in and stood for just for Karina to spit in his face by accepting such an offer. It went without saying that there was no relation between the Peaky Blinders and Karina’s family other than hostility—at least where her father was concerned.

“I—” Karina paused, pressing her lips together and furrowing her eyebrows. Many befuddled emotions were running through her, but the strongest one was utter bewilderment. Never did she expect for this to happen to her. Did Calum himself understand what he was asking of her? Begrudgingly, Karina realized that Calum Hood didn’t seem like a person who said things without meaning them. “You. . . Understand how complicated your offer is, right?” she asked, careful in choosing her words. She may not be one to conform to a man, but Karina wasn’t dumb enough to go around disrespecting a man such as him.

“I do.” The car was stopped, Karina absently realizing they were in front of her building, though she was too busy trying to register what was happening. He didn’t at all look like he regretted what he said, cool gaze stuck on her. Karina tried her hardest not to bristle in her seat under the weight of his stare. “But it’d be worth it, I reckon. ’specially the pay.” Karina couldn’t help the curious quirk of her eyebrow, subtle and almost involuntary. But Calum admired her interest despite her attempts of not wanting to appear so. He wasn’t surprised; the world ran on money. “Nine pounds and four shillings a month.”

For someone who prided herself in keeping herself in check, Karina lost every sense of self control the second she registered the gangster’s words. Her eyes grew wide, staring at him in a greater sense of disbelief, lips parting with an incredulous scoff because that was quite the pay he was willing to give her. Truthfully, Karina wasn’t sure if she would make that kind of money anywhere else and the amount in itself was enough for her to want to accept the offer. But she mustn’t. She couldn’t.

Watching as Calum pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his lips, the lighter sparking as he placed the flame at the end of the stick, Karina tried to control her stutter as she began, “Mr. Hood—”

“Calum,” he interrupted, uttering his name past a puff of smoke that filtered past his lips. His dark eyes were on her, cigarette between two fingers as he added, “Call me Calum.”

Karina briefly bit the inside of her cheek before continuing on carefully, “The offer is generous but. . . It would be unwise for me to accept.”

He didn’t look disappointed, nor affronted at her rejection. Instead, Calum kept that collected expression on his face, gaze never leaving hers, and Karina hated how the dark of his eyes seemed to freeze her in place. Like the look he was giving was enough to still someone of all their actions. “I thought you didn’t care for living by your father’s orders.”

Of course he’d unapologetically use her own words against her. Karina wasn’t surprised at that, nor was she surprised that he understood exactly why she didn’t want to accept the offer—it was quite obvious. “It isn’t about what my father wants—it’s about how he would feel if I started working for you,” Karina responded truthfully.

“Your father’s a grown man, Karina.” Calum spoke with a calmness in his voice that only kept Karina’s body tense. There was nothing more dangerous than a calm criminal. “I’m sure he’ll be able to handle it.”

Even if it didn’t show on his face, Karina could hear the smug smirk in Calum’s voice as he spoke those words, well aware of how her father would react should she accept the offer. Despite knowing better of it, Karina found herself scoffing, “Because you know everything, yes?”

She hadn’t meant for the condescending tone her voice had taken, matching the challenging raise of her eyebrows towards a man no one dared provoke. Karina would never, either, save for in this moment where she was seemingly experiencing a lack of judgment. Having control of her mouth wasn’t something Karina particularly excelled at, and she wondered if it would get her in trouble one of these days.

To her fortune, Calum didn’t look displeased at her rebuttal. “That I do,” he replied easily.

His calmness in all of this had Karina’s nerves jumping—though most of it had to do with his mere presence in general, she knew. Still, it didn’t stop her from giving a gentle shake of her head before asking, “Why me?” Her gaze wandered as she shrugged. “I’m sure you can find anyone willing to fill that position—so why ask the daughter of the one man trying to arrest you?”

He flicked the cigarette out the window and, before Karina could comprehend it, leaned towards her. Her breath stalled in her throat, neck tensing as he unapologetically invaded her personal space, dark eyes gazing into her own green ones, and suddenly all she could hope to smell were the scents of cigarettes and Calum’s distinguished combination of pine and smoke. Karina’s lips parted, eyes never daring to leave his, entranced by the glimmer dancing in his irises and while the logical part of her knew it was merely a reflection of the outside light, a part of her was admiring how it derived from the mischief and danger he was known to possess.

Calum’s left elbow propped up on the top of their bench style seat, Karina having no choice but to watch him watch her, and a shock of something coursed through her body at their proximity. Her initial thought labeled it as fear, but she instinctively realized it was something completely different. He was so close as he tilted his chin up, still watching her. “You’d be an asset to my business, Miss Garner,” Calum spoke smoothly. “A well educated woman from a respectable family working for me only puts my business at an advantage.”

She swallowed, throat feeling dry and her fingers only tightening around the fabric of her dress. He seemed so honest, but Karina knew better than to trust him right off the bat. Surprising herself by keeping her gaze locked with his, she prodded, “It doesn’t hurt that you’d be gloating to my father should I accept your offer, does it?”

He raised an eyebrow, far too elegant and poised as he looked at her. “For someone who wants nothing more than to gain her independence from her father, you’ve got quite the habit of bringing him up, love.”

Heat flushed across Karina’s cheeks, ridiculously feeling like a hypocrite. She was embarrassed and flustered as she shifted, gaze dropping briefly. “Forgive me, but this situation is—”

“Complicated, so you’ve said,” Calum finished knowingly, prompting Karina to press her lips together. He clicked his tongue, leaning back, and Karina ignored the dull thud in her chest that seemed eerily akin to disappointment. “It’d all be clean, if that’s one of your main concerns—other than the obvious. You’d only be looking over my day-to-day meetings, and adjusting the books if your maths is as excellent as I remember.”

The last bit had the warmth in Karina’s face only intensifying, finding it a bit hard to believe that he remembered one of the things she was good at since they were in school together.

“Forget about your father and his reaction for a second, yeah?” Calum’s voice had Karina looking at him again, noting the way he raised his eyebrows. He was about to try and convince her to take his offer, and Karina realized in that moment that he was quite the patient man—and that he must really want her to work for him. The knowledge of that was both thrilling and nerve wracking at the same time. “If you accept my offer, Miss Garner, it’d be advantageous for both of us.” He gestured between them with ring clad fingers as he finished, “You’d be helping my business keep its legitimacy, and you’d be paid a hefty sum for your work. And, let’s be honest—”

He was leaning in close, and suddenly it was like a switch had been flipped and Karina’s stomach churned at the smirk that was tilting at his lips. She remained still where she sat, eyes widening ever so slightly at their closeness, at the heat radiating off his body and the scent intoxicating her so easily. It didn’t bloody help when Calum’s dark eyes flickered down briefly, landing on her lips before he looked at her with eyes far too alluring for this situation.

His voice was low, a dangerous rasp that sent shivers down her spine when he added, “You crave to see how the other side lives—something you’ll never get from any other painfully numbing job.” It suddenly felt hot in the car. “Break a few rules, love. Allow me to give you what you need.”

It was a wonder Karina could even speak through how tightened her throat became, Calum’s words filled with double meaning boiling her blood and making her body grow rigid. She couldn’t help the way her own gaze fluttered to his lips, full and far too inviting, voice almost a whisper as she asked almost dazedly, “What is it that I need?”

“Independence,” Calum murmured, promising and confident. Karina wondered when the world outside of the car stopped existing. When all she could focus on was the man sitting so close to her, offering her things no one else ever had, dangerously alluring. “Adventure. I can give you both. And more.”

It was almost embarrassing how fast her mind had been made up.

*****

Karina wondered if she should have thought this through some more, if she should have stopped to consider all the elements and consequences of her decision to agree to Calum’s job offer. Of course, it had been running through her mind since she had accepted it that night in the car, through a semi-clear mind that wasn’t entirely dazed by the gangster. But now the second-guessing was far too loud in her mind as she walked through the office floor, feeling the lingering gazes of the working men and few women as Michael led her to Calum’s office in the back.

She looked around as they went, easily realizing how much of a legitimate business had been set up here. It was filled with chatter and the clicking of typewriters and rustling papers, employees discussing with one another or focusing on the paperwork on their desks. There weren’t that many people there, honestly, and Karina didn’t recognize many of them as known gang members. The only Peaky Blinder she saw here was Michael. Maybe they really were serious about this being licit.

“Hey, Cal,” Michael called once they stopped in front of wooden double doors, knocking on it with two knuckles. “I’ve got Miss Garner out here,” he added, green eyes meeting her own darker ones as he offered a small smile.

From inside, Calum’s voice sounded, “Send her in.”

Michael gestured towards the door, an unexpectedly polite, “Good luck.”

She returned the sentiment with a close mouthed smile, facing the door as Michael walked away. Karina gave herself a brief moment to take a breath, looking at the sleek wood of the door before licking her lips. Nervous butterflies fluttered around her stomach, as they had been for two days and only intensified last night and this morning as she made her way to the office. And it wasn’t like Karina could talk to anyone about this—agreeing to this job was an incredulous move on her part, and she didn’t entirely expect her family or friends to understand. Not the way Calum seemed to.

There was a need for something that Karina knew she desired, something more than what her life had so far given her. Something, she had a feeling, could be given to her if she accepted the job.

So she turned the door handle and took a step into the spacious room, the door clicking shut behind her as she allowed her gaze to wander around the room. Windows were on either side of the room, the walls and floor paneled with sleek mahogany wood. A couch with plush red cushions was on the left, a glass table in front with an ashtray and some books, a cart in the left corner with a few decanters filled with whiskey or bourbon or the like and some glasses.

And then there was Calum. Sitting behind an oak desk decorated with papers and books, a cigarette familiarly between his fingers, and dark curls free from the confines of the signature hat. He sat back, relaxed, the jacket from his three piece suit hanging on a stand off to the right, and Karina tried not to think of how devastatingly handsome he looked. It was a bit ridiculous, how a man as dangerous as him was just as good looking.

She didn’t think twice of the large painting of horses on the wall behind him, unsurprised at the sight of it given Calum’s known fascination with them and the conspicuous dealings the Blinders have whenever there’s a race. It was a sight to be seen, Karina took a moment to appreciate; him sitting behind a desk under that painting, nursing a cigarette like he always did, looking just like the powerful, fearful man everyone knew him to be.

“Good morning, Miss Garner,” Calum’s raspy voice greeted once she entered, leaned back comfortably in the chair with his right elbow propped on the armrest, the smoke curling out from the end of the cigarette. He gestured to the chairs on the other side of his desk, “Have a seat.”

The soft click of her kitten heels sounded as though they were echoing in the room as Karina made her way over, hoping to maintain the confident and first-day-ready facade she’d been keeping up since she left her flat. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t somewhat excited for this new job, but understandably, the nerves were swirling in her stomach anxiously. Karina had a feeling after today, her life would change. Whether it’d be for better or worse, that was yet to be determined.

She sat down, cautious and poised with the dress of her skirt straightened and hands on her lap because she didn’t know what else to do with them. Her eyes took in her surroundings, as if they hadn’t the first time, looking at everything but the man sitting directly opposite of her.

“You seem nervous.”

Karina was a bit surprised that she didn’t jump in her seat, though she also prided herself in not looking like the fool she knew she wasn’t in front of Calum. She realized she didn’t entirely feel like herself when she was around him—she was jumpy, anxious, tense under his gaze and while that was understandable given who he was, Karina was growing tired of it. She’d never been one to shy away from anyone, much less a man, and it felt entirely out of character when she found herself unable to even look at Calum in the eye. It was ridiculous and, frankly, embarrassing. She was more of a woman than that.

“First day jitters, I suppose,” Karina responded with a quick smile, finally bringing herself to meet his gaze, dark eyes steady and focused as always.

Calum raised a lazy eyebrow, watching her, gesturing to the cart with the cigarette. “Whiskey?”

While she could hold her liquor and it would be calming, Karina wasn’t particularly inclined to start her first day at her new job with alcohol buzzing through her system. “I’m alright,” she politely declined, offering a smile with a gentle raise of her shoulders as she added, “Just eager to get started.”

He eyed her for a moment and Karina was proud of herself for not bristling under his gaze, fighting against the initial need to do so. Instead, she kept his gaze, showing him the honesty and drive behind her words, and Karina could’ve sworn she saw the ghost of a smirk tilt at his lips before his expression remained a practiced blank.

“What I do here is quite simple, Miss Garner,” he began and Karina listened to his words, choosing to ignore the jolt she felt in her veins every time he referred to her as what he did. “We’ve recently acquired an export license from Mr. Churchill which allows us to transport manufactured goods from here to the Poplar Docks before being set off to their final destination.”

Karina nodded slowly at the brief explanation, finding herself asking, “What kind of manufactured goods?” She at least wanted to know what the business she was about to get involved in was transporting.

If she blinked, she would’ve missed the ghost of a smirk that quirked at the corner of Calum’s lips at her question as he took a drag of the cigarette. The smoke curled out of his mouth as he responded, “Crates of motorcar spares.”

Nothing illegal then, Karina was relieved to realize. Though, she figured if Calum was as serious of a businessman as he was showing himself to be, it made sense for him to want this company of his to be clean. And despite him being the man her father hated, a known criminal that was allowed to set up his own business—with the help of Mr. Winston Churchill himself (even though it itched at Karina’s curiosity how someone like Calum managed to pull that off)—Karina found herself to be excited about being a part of this. Dealing with her family’s reactions could be saved for later. For now, she truly wanted to get started in whatever it was Calum needed for her to do.

It was like he saw a spark in her brown eyes as that thought crossed her mind, and the man on the other side of the table sat up coolly. Calum then propped his fingers on a sheet of paper resting on his desk, sliding it forward towards her. “These are some businessmen I need to meet with during this week. You’ll find their contact information and the appropriate stationary already on your desk outside my office. My week is so far clear so set up the meetings. Knock when you’ve finished.”

Karina’s gaze dropped to the sheet as she picked it up gingerly, eyes taking in the scribbles of Calum’s handwriting decorating the page; sharp and precise like him. With a nod, Karina stood up, the small heels of her shoes clicking as she made her way towards the door, feeling the heat of his stare burn her back through the material of her dress.

She’d only grasped the door handle when Calum’s voice stopped her. “Ms. Garner?” Karina looked at him over her shoulder, throat working at the sight of him; a businessman laid back in his chair, elbow propped up on the arm rest and a tendril of smoke curling out of the cigarette he was nursing, dark eyes glued to her. For a brief moment, Karina let herself admire the sight of him; every bit as poised and powerful as she knew him to be, seated under the large painting in an elegant office. Calum tilted his chin up a little before finishing, “Don’t take no for an answer.”

Karina wanted to laugh. As if anyone could say no to Calum Hood. She certainly hadn’t been able to.

The office door clicked shut behind her, and Karina ignored the few gazes that weighed on her as she settled on the desk by Calum’s office door. She huffed out a gentle breath through her nose, smoothing the skirt of her dress as she draped the strap of her purse on the back of the chair. Karina’s eyes dropped to the black notebook on the desk, a container of pens available for her to use as well as a typewriter. She took a few minutes to acquaint herself with the stationary, taking note of the sheets of paper for the typewriter in the bottom drawer, her own personal telephone to make the calls, and a smaller black notebook in the top drawer that she realized, while flipping through it, had the contacts Calum wanted her to get in touch with.

The book wasn’t full by any means, only taking up a few pages scribbled with names of business owners and the like along with their phone numbers, plus what they did next to their names. Some ran certain docks at the harbor, others owned warehouses or chartered shipping boats. No doubt Calum needed these men for the storage and deliveries for his own business’s dealings, and once Karina found the information for the first name on the list Calum had given her, she reached for the candlestick phone and started her first day of work.

She minded her own business, ignoring the few looks she was receiving from the people around her, holding the receiver to her ear and speaking into the transmitter as she set up appointments for Calum and jotted down the dates and times. It wasn’t a difficult task, Karina knew, but she couldn’t help the satisfaction that surged through her each time she appointed a meeting. Some of the men had outright agreed upon hearing that she was calling from Calum Hood’s office, his reputation almost threatening the men into agreeing to meet with him, but there were also some that hesitated.

Apparently not everyone was jumping at the opportunity to be involved with Calum Hood or his business, and while Karina understood their reluctance to even meet with him, she was determined to complete the first task Calum had given her. She was going to get him every single one of the meetings he asked for. Like Calum had said. . . Karina wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“I understand you’re a busy man, Mr. Finch,” she mused, knowing full well the warehouse owner was spitting fruitless excuses to deny the meeting. Karina leaned back in the chair, crossing her right leg over her left knee as she gazed out the window to her left. The occasional person walked by, Karina’s eyes absently following them until they disappeared from sight, as she continued breezily, “But as a businessman you should be able to see a lucrative offer such as this one. Refusing to meet with Mr. Hood without hearing what he has to offer to you and your business may just end up with you regretting a missed opportunity. Not quite a wise decision, innit?”

The man on the other end of the line sputtered at her baiting words, obviously taking offense as he huffed, “Miss Garner, I’ve a reputation to uphold and I don’t believe getting involved with a known gangster would be a wise decision. I’m surprised you haven’t come to the same conclusion.”

Karina rolled her eyes, biting back the urge to remind the man he owned warehouses for a living, which she doubted added any such points to his so called reputation. Not to mention his own jab at her choice of working for Calum. She truly didn’t care for what others thought of her agreeing to Calum’s offer, and she had half a mind to tell Mr. Finch just that. But she still needed him to agree to a meeting because Calum needed him to, so she fought the desire to potentially insult the man as she moved the mouthpiece away from her to let out an exasperated breath Mr. Finch wouldn’t be privy to before bringing the piece back and speaking up once more.

“My choice in getting involved with Mr. Hood comes from knowing full well he has the means to build something worthwhile,” Karina responded easily, using Mr. Finch’s reasoning against him. “I would imagine you would want to at least get a glimpse of that same kind of future for yourself, Mr. Finch. And your business. Agreeing to meet does not an automatic deal make. Hearing what Mr. Hood has to offer you from himself does not cost you anything. I promise you, it will be worth your time.”

And hopefully not your life, her dry thoughts echoed in her head, though Karina kept the chilling words to herself. She liked to naively think Calum wouldn’t be one to threaten someone into a business deal, thought she wouldn’t entirely put it past him. Perhaps his desire for wanting to keep this legal business of his clean would prevent him from doing so. At least, that’s what Karina hoped as she pursed her lips and waited for Mr. Finch’s answer.

He was silent for a few moments as Karina kept her gaze towards the window, sunlight seeping through the glass and warming her lap where it touched as she watched those outside go about their day. She nibbled on the corner of her lips, waiting for Mr. Finch’s answer, hoping she somehow got through to him.

The receiver crackled as he let out a sigh. “Alright. I can meet with him this coming Thursday at noon.”

Karina grinned, the satisfaction once again lifting her as she praised, “Excellent. You wouldn’t want to be the first to say no to Mr. Hood.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Mr. Finch grumbled in response before providing her with the address of where he could meet Calum, and Karina ended the call before reaching for her pen and jotting down the information.

“Did you just threaten a potential business partner, Miss Garner?”

Karina froze momentarily at the familiarly smooth voice, sitting up as she glanced to see Calum standing right beside her chair. He peered down at her, raising an eyebrow, expression practically unreadable save for the hint of amusement dancing in his eyes, hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. She hadn’t heard him leave his office, most certainly hadn’t detected his presence beside her, and Karina twirled the pen between her fingers absently as she found her tongue. “Of course not,” she hummed, surprising herself with the cool tone she adopted while looking up at Calum. “I was just stating a true fact to Mr. Finch. How he interprets it is entirely up to him.”

The amusement Karina had seen a hint of in Calum’s dark eyes seemed to flare up a bit, more present, as a breath of a chuckle escaped him at her words. Then his gaze flickered to the notebook where she’d written down the information Mr. Finch had given us and he nodded in approval. His eyes met Karina’s as he added, “Good work,” before turning and heading back into his office.

The door shut behind him, and Karina leaned back in her seat as she failed to fight off the smile that had tilted upon her lips. Not even the few looks she was being given could keep the grin off.

*****

The knock that sounded on the door didn’t lift Calum’s gaze from the paper he was reading. It was a gentle rap of knuckles, instantly informing the gangster who was on the other side as he called a gruff, “Come in.”

He heard the subtle creak of the door as it opened, followed by the click of heels against the slick floor and if he inhaled deeply enough, Calum was sure he’d smell the fruity fragrance that he’d come to associate with Karina Garner. He’d only been around her a few times, and yet Calum had familiarized himself with the appealing perfume that stuck to her skin. Or maybe it was just her.

Keeping his eyes on the paper held in front of him, Calum noticed Karina come to a stop in front of his desk from his peripherals as he asked, “Did you get the meetings?”

“Every one of them, yes,” Karina answered, giving a tap to her notebook with the pen she held. “I doubt anyone’s eager to say no to someone like you.”

Her comment, despite his efforts, tempted a smirk to tilt at Calum’s lips as he kept his gaze on the paper for a few more moments. Calum didn’t need Karina to tell him something he already knew, except that hearing her acknowledge his reputation, his power, as if it was a well known fact—even if it was—filled him with a sense of pride that he hadn’t seen coming. Of course, Calum pushed it away, reminded himself as to why he brought Karina on to his operation in the first place, and kept the smirk at bay.

Still, he couldn’t help but play with her a bit. “Someone like me?” He lowered the paper, cool expression complete with the quirk of an eyebrow. Calum tilted his head, all signs of amusement purposefully wiped from his face as he gazed at his newest employee.

Karina’s lips parted slightly when she noticed him gaze at her, inquisitive and wondering, and Calum kept his face professionally blank when he noticed her neck tense that preceded the blush he knew was warming her cheeks. He wondered if he could fluster her, wondered if she would react to it—to him.

She surprised him pleasantly when she lifted her chin after her throat worked. “Powerful,” she responded, her tone even, lips pursing briefly. If he was someone else, he would’ve thought he’d imagined the way her brown eyes so subtly raked over him. But Calum knew he saw what he did. “Capable.”

His jaw worked at that, at the way she said it so surely and the look in her honey colored eyes had the muscles in Calum’s body tightening without his meaning to. His fingers curled into his palm, elbow propped on the armrest of his chair, unable to keep his eyes off the woman standing in front of him. He couldn’t put a finger on it, which was frustrating all on its own, but the way Karina said those two simple words had him clenching his teeth as a way of keeping himself grounded to something. If Calum didn’t know any better, judging by the way Karina was watching him, he’d say she was already coming out of the shell that surrounded her. Whether it was one she built herself or her father did, that was still up for question.

Either way, Calum was going to enjoy breaking it down.

tags: @irwinkitten @glitterprincelu @sweetcherrymike @meetashthere @valentinelrh @softforcal @astroashtonio @hereforlukescruff @novacanecalum @captain-what-is-going-on @angelbbycal @singt0mecalum @hopelessxcynic @lfwallscouldtalk @bodhi-black @findingliam-o @softlrh @calntynes @calumsmermaid @dammitbands @erikamarie41 @quintodosuniversos @longlastingdaydream @babylon-corgis @lukehemmingsunflower @spideyseavey @imfuckin10plybud @pastelpapermoons @conquerwhatliesahead92 @rotten-kandy @metangi @neigcthood @old-zeppelin-shirt @5sos-and-hessa @trustmeimawhalebiologist @vxlentinecal @pettybassists @vaporshawn @lu-my-golden-boi @buggy-blogs @visualm3nte @isabella-mae13 @dontjinx-it @lifeakaharry @neonweeknds @antisocialbandmate @ixcantxdecidexwhosxmyxfave @calpalbby @grreatgooglymoogly @gorgeouslygrace @sunnysideblogs @cocktail-calum @miahelizaaabeth @madelynerin @dramallamawithsparkles @aulxna @theagenderwhocriedwolf @kaytiebug14 @hoodskillerqueen @bitchinbabylon @empathycth @xhaileyreneex @inlovehoodx @calistheloml @aestheticrelated @bloodlinecal @sublimehood @madbomb @raabiac @britnicole11 @outofmylimitcal

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ftaramintas · 5 years ago

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hi friends ! i’m koa and every time you see miss jennie kim on your dash , then you’ll be greeted with the strong presence that is araminta park ! you are absolutely correct if you know i got her name from the beautiful araminta lee from crazy rich asians , and that’s that on that .

i use emojis way too much in conversations , specifically my favorites exhibit a. 🥺 , b. 🥴 , c. 🤠 , and d. 🤪 . i talk too much sometimes and i don’t find that to be a bad thing , but right now i’m listening to itzy’s new album on loop , so make sure you’re streaming wannabe or we’re gonna fight ! i’m just kidding , but without further ado , here’s everything you need to know about araminta !

statistics .

FULL NAME : araminta josephine park .

NICKNAME(S) : ari , minta , and minnie ( by her parents only ) .

BIRTHDATE / AGE : july 25th , 1997 / 23 .

ZODIAC : leo .

HOMETOWN : manhattan , new york .

GENDER : cis female .

NATIONALITY : korean - american .

ETHNICITY : korean .

HEIGHT : 5′4″ .

LABEL(S) : the queen bee , the studious , and the opulent .

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : biromantic .

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual .

OCCUPATION : architecture student at steinhardt university .

HOUSING : perry hall .

LANGUAGES SPOKEN : korean , english , french , and learning portuguese .

POSITIVES : bewitching , regiment , decorous , methodical , and distinguished .

NEGATIVES : unvarnished , zealous , cavalier , hard - hearted , and priggish .

background .

araminta’s story begins with the fateful meeting of her parents , kim seo - yeon and park dong - wook , on a cold winter’s day . they found themselves at the tender ages of 20 and 22 , attending a boring christmas gala with their parents when they would have preferred to do anything else in the world . seo - yeon was a women who knew what she wanted the moment her eyes landed upon it , so when she made brief eye contact with dong - wook , she purposefully spilled a glass of champagne onto his expensive tom ford suit and made a big deal of it . this sparked their whirlwind romance , and six months later they found themselves announcing their engagement to korean media outlets .

despite how quickly they were engaged , their parents saw this as mutually beneficial . seo - yeon is the youngest daughter of the wealthy kim family , owners of the kq group conglomerate that was worth billions in its own right . dong - wook was the only child of his parents , and came from park family lineage where their hotels and resorts were the cause of their fortune . the families were soon to be one , and the couple was the chaebol heirs that others envied . following their lavish wedding , seo - yeon and dong - wook decided that they were going to head off to manhattan to make a life for themselves . so , they transferred to columbia university , finished their schooling , and shortly after seo - yeon’s graduation from the financial economics program , the couple discovered that they were expecting .

it was a sticky summer day when seo - yeon unexpectedly gave birth to their daughter , who decided not to allow her parents time to get to the hospital . araminta was born in the bathtub of her parents’ luxury bathroom , and right into the arms of her slightly panicked but overjoyed father . from the time that she was a toddler , araminta was a very precocious child , picking up on skills quite quickly and speaking in few short sentences by the time she was eleven months old . as she grew older , araminta’s parents remained hands on despite their busy schedules , and decided that they would see what their daughter would have the most interest in . when she was four , her parents began piano lessons , and it was evident that she had a natural gift for the instrument .

years continued to pass , and araminta was always a top student in both academics and her extracurriculars . as she attended the very best schools in new york city , araminta was usually the first to answer questions , the first to sign up , and the first to complete her tests . she was the recipient of various awards throughout the years , whether it be honor roll or due to her participation in various student organizations . by the time she reaches high school , araminta is on the fast track to attending the college of her choice . this is also the time where she discovers her love for both dance and volleyball . honestly , she tried out for the dance team at her high school on a whim , and immediately fell in love with it . volleyball is her main love , and she keeps up with dance because she gets to have fun and it helps to keep her in shape .

araminta was accepted into steinhardt university during her junior year because she was absolutely the girl who took her sat during sophomore year because she wanted to get it out of the way ! so , she went through her last two years of high school not stressing over college ( and honestly i think about that scene from mean girls where everyone’s freaking out because of the burn book and regina is just standing there JNFDFHD ) . during the first semester of college at steinhardt , though , araminta was dealt a heavy blow when she discovered that her parents were separating .

they weren’t arguing a lot or anything , but they simply didn’t want to be married anymore / the relationship lost its spark , so they figured it’d be best to end their relationship . during that time , it was really hard for araminta to understand because she didn’t want her family to be broken , but as the years passed , she began to understand why they decided to end their relationship . at steinhardt , araminta is an architecture major and it’s entirely due to the fact that she wants to someday take over her father’s position as ceo of the hotel / resort company that his family owns . she’s the captain of the dance team and the right side hitter on the volleyball team !

headcanons .

definitely plans on going to graduate school once she’s graduated , and more than likely will get a degree in business !

as mentioned , she currently resides in perry hall . when it comes to the decor of her room , i’d say it’s pretty minimal with muted tones , but there’s definitely some soft pinks scattered about ! really likes having gold as an accent color ( cannot stand the marble trend ) and everything has a place !

she never leaves her dorm without making the bed or putting away dishes from breakfast / lunch . it’s mostly because she usually gets back home really late so the last thing she wants to do is have to clean before bed .

studies a lot , studies late , and studies hard . if she were to have a studygram ( yes , that’s absolutely a thing ) it would be the most aesthetically pleasing instagram on the planet . probably only uses these heavy gold pens modeled after the ones her father uses with her name engraved on it .

araminta is full on the girl who does not show up to class in sweatpants and a hoodie . i draw a lot of her style inspiration from itsyuyan on instagram and jennie’s own style . the only time she’ll ever be casual is during those trips to the library or when she’s lounging at home , and even then she’s probably wearing jeans and a tee / sweater or a coordinated pajama set .

i know jennie has since cut her hair , but araminta’s hair is long ! specifically , her hair is waist length . she drives a white mercedes glc where she’s usually taking selfies lmao but her parents got her that car because it’s #safe and honestly she barely even drives the thing unless she’s going grocery shopping or making the trip back home .

personality .

oh boys , where do i even begin with this brat !

to quote that tik tok song : i’m a bitch , i’m a boss . araminta works very hard despite misconceptions that she has everything handed to her because of her family’s wealth . she can be very prideful of all of her accomplishments at times , but definitely will let them do the talking instead of being the type to bring them up in every conversation .

she’s nice to who she wants to be nice to , and sometimes she’ll be the very opposite of nice . she can complain a lot sometimes , especially when she’s doing something that she wasn’t want to .

will respond to attitudes with the same energy and she will take no prisoners .

she is and will remain as #1 in her program ( valedictorian ) and will do whatever it takes to remain in such spot . she’s wildly ambitious mostly stemming from her father being the same way , so she’ll step on toes and sink her nails in in order to get what she believes is hers .

crazy charming , and usually it only takes her flashing a smile in order to get what she wants . however since she’s pretty full of herself that can be a real turn off to others who don’t care about the luxuries that can afford .

desired relations .

i would love to have almost any and everything . first , some basics that i’d love to have are as follows : former roommates , best friends , academic rivals , friends with benefits , confidant(s) , frenemies , good / bad influence , one night stand(s) , flirtationship , enemies with benefits , and a current or ex fling !

i’ve been drinking my women loving women juice recently and i’d love for her to have an ex gf ? i really feel that they ended on good terms like they might have simply drifted apart , but they remain really good friends ? there’s probably even a sprinkle of them being confidants to one another , but give me this or give me death .

i would die for literally any form of angst that you could possibly think of ? angsty friends , angsty exes , angsty anything . i love to put myself through misery so honestly ... bury me six feet under and i will literally thank you .

all aboard the heartbreak train ! this ties back into my love for angst , but some form of an ex or maybe even someone who she go close to but it didn’t really work out ? maybe even a will they won’t they ? but essentially , clearly these two have feelings but for some reason things didn’t work out for them and now they’re probably in a limbo or trying to determine where they’re headed but they absolutely refuse to talk about it ! all of their friends notice but they blow them off and ok let me relax and actually allow us to plot , but just some potential ideas !

i will have a desired relations tag that i’ll be updating as frequently as i can , but if none of these work for you or if you have something you see araminta filling , then please let me know ! we can totally brainstorm or if you want , then we can work on chemistry !

#steinhardt:intro #this is really long even without her bio i'm CRYING

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lost-stargazer-girl · 5 years ago

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|| A Step at a Time||

Fandom: Haikyuu

Pairing: eventual!OCxOikawa

Word Count for this Chapter: 2054

*Author’s note and other chapters listed at the end*

Chapter 3: Shadow’s Mark

She is always hiding. Not in the conventional sense of course, though many often ponder what “conventional” could mean in this day and age where the impossible can become reality. The girl learns the importance of masks, their necessity for her survival in a world where many often see through children instead of at them and their suffering. She, in turn, allows herself to melt into the background and observe. “Children are like sponges,” as the saying goes. The girl embraces this, lives by it, and becomes it.

Babies, the girl learns, are the only true things in the world. They express themselves freely, never hesitating to scream and cry or laugh and smile. She envies them. The girl, Akane, doesn’t remember ever being that carefree. Was there a time when she didn’t have to worry about appearances? Expectations? She doesn’t remember and so, she moves on.

Children, Akane muses, are brats. Most don’t know how to control or identify their emotions. Well, most. Akane is five when she witnesses a child having a tantrum in the toy section of her grocery store. She is shopping for her family while her parents are preoccupied at work. She’s never been in the toy section and doesn’t really see the appeal, to be completely honest. She would rather spend that money on food and snacks, her parents never let her have snacks or candy like most kids get.

Teenagers, she grates within her mind, are some of the most arrogant and aggravating stains in the world. Akane is playing tag in the park with the olive-eyed boy, Hajime, when two pretentious teenagers trip her to the floor as she is running. “Oh?” one of the boys mockingly muse, “the little princess tripped! Her poor appearance is ruined now!” The boys start to laugh at her as she rises from the ground and dusts herself off. She gazes at them for a moment, long enough for them to stop laughing and smirk at her as their eyebrows raise in a challenge. Akane only flashes blindingly white teeth in a disarming smile as she kicks both of the boys in their jewels and walks away as the boys crash to the ground to groan and yell. She has better things to do, she thought, as she catches a glimpse of brown, spiky hair running toward her.

Adults, young and old, are confusing. So many say one thing but do another, she notes. With a steady crimson gaze, Akane watches the various behaviors of those in the park. Hajime is not there to play with her but that’s okay, she can keep herself busy. Adults are more controlled, she realizes. But that makes their tells all the more obvious to her. She observes smiles and eyes and eyebrows and the entire facial and body expressions of each and every adult she could in the park. She discerns fake smiles from real smiles, a flash of joy in the eyes to the flash of anger, and so on until she is able to completely read whoever she sees. It’ll come in handy for her, she knows.

…

Oikawa Tooru feels annoyance buzz through him as if it were a second skin. While he still flounces through the halls with his million dollar smile and greets his fangirls with the usual amount of enthusiasm and encouragement, he boils from within. There are very few things that Oikawa lets bother him to this extent, and this situation is a big one.

As he bounds to his homeroom class, Oikawa passes by Iwa-chan. “IWA-CHAN,” he pouts, “why didn’t you wait for me today so we could walk to school like we usually do? Where were you at practice yesterday and this morning? You know as my vice-captain, now that our third years are graduating, we need to show our dedication to the sport and be good role models to our kohai!” The brunette finishes his rant and takes a deep breath. He places his hands on his hips and stares imploringly at his best friend, the source of his current distress.

Iwa-chan only stares at Oikawa with a deathly calm stare. “Get out of my way,” he grunts and walks past the gaping brunette, making sure to hit Oikawa’s shoulder with his own. The setter could only stare after his best friend’s back in complete confusion. He hadn’t done anything to evoke such a response from Iwa-chan. The olive-eyed boy may have a gruff and rude manner towards him, but he’s never been dismissive. Iwa-chan knows Oikawa hates nothing more, not even Kageyama or Ushiwaka, than to be dismissed.

Clenching his hands into fists, Oikawa struts off to his homeroom. Fine, he thinks bitterly, if Iwa-chan wants to be that way, then so be it. His irritation had not lessened throughout the day, only increasing with the rumors of that girl still going around and the absence of his best friend.

The last bell of the day rang. Oikawa stays in his seat until the rest of his class leaves, waving and shouting words of farewell to the appropriate people. With the classroom now empty, the setter allows himself a sigh of aggravation as he slumps in his seat and crosses his arms irritably. He needs to get a grip before practice. As captain and the “goofball” of the Seijou volleyball club, he needs to be able to maintain his cheerful attitude. Oikawa takes a few deep breaths before slapping his face with his hands and smiles. He collects his items and bounds off for the changing rooms.

…

Akane Kagami grimaces slightly at the broad back of one Iwaizumi Hajime. She trails after him on her crutches slowly, knowing he would notice if she tries to escape. The view of the gym becomes closer and closer, along with Kagami's growing anxiety. The black haired girl timidly taps her friend's back, "Haji, do I really have to come? I can just wait for you at the bench by the entrance gate, it's fine with me." The girl is frantically attempting to convince the male that this whole event is completely.

Hajime stops and turns to Kagami, he regards her for a moment before quirking up an unimpressed brow, "You and I both know I'm not dragging you to my practice just because it's convenient. I would've just walked you home and walked back here, it doesn't bother me one bit. But the thing between you and Shittykawa has got to stop." Kagami watches as he turns back around and resumes striding towards the gym. It's a little funny how much more ominous the building becomes to her. "And plus," he continues gruffly, "I promised to take care of you, I'm not gonna let my asshole of a best friend bully and demean you. You do enough of that to yourself anyway."

The girls stops abruptly and stares after Hajime as he continues on his way to the gym, still processing his words. She squeaks suddenly before blushing a bright shade of crimson, nearly matching her intense eye color, and stumbles off to catch up to the boy as best she could on crutches. Hajime stops walking when he reaches the entrance door of the gym, having already changed before meeting up with the red eyed girl, and waits for Kagami to catch up. She does so, huffing irritably up at him.

“Can you walk without those yet,” he questions, eyes going towards the instruments of pain holding her up. “It won’t really be a problem, but I don’t want you to slip on the gym floors.”

Kagami rolls her eyes and hisses, “I told you I can walk without them for short distances, you just won’t let me.” Crutches are a pain, especially when one doesn’t fix them by adding cushions and such like Kagami. She hates her crutches in every way possible, even if they do help with her upper body strength. She likes being able to help herself, having others do things for her is a blow to her pride. Kagami only relies on herself and a very small amount of people, including Hajime.

Flashes of a small room filled with shadows and a small, lonely girl looking in a mirror make her wince. Kagami shakes her head desperately to ward the images from her mind as a callused hand gently grabs her scarred one and squeezes in reassurance. Her eyes shoot up to meet the steady ones of Hajime. She idly notices how a small beam of sunlight manages to shine in his eyes for a split second before he blinks at the sudden brightness. It is only for a second, but Kagami is left in awe at the kaleidoscope of colors the olive eyes hold. Shades of forest, mint, chocolate, and gold are revealed in that split second and leaves her breathless. She squeezes back and drops his hand, gesturing towards the door with a swipe of her palm and a determined gaze. Hajime grins wickedly at her before confidently pushing the gym door.

The bright lights of the gym blind Kagami for a moment, causing the girl to blink rapidly before placing both crutches in one hand and limping inside. She has her black gym shoes with gold highlights on, she rarely ever has a chance to use them since moving back to Miyagi from Tokyo. The nostalgic sounds of volleyballs being spiked and shoes squeaking on the gym floors hit Kagami and causes a smile to light up her normally disinterested features. As Hajime enters before her, calls of his family name begin to ring out in greeting along with the sounds of volleyball practice. However, as she steps inside, the sounds stop.

Kagami’s palms begin to shake as her nerves get the better of her. While she’s a fairly confident person now compared to her childhood years, she still has problems being the center of so many gazes. Especially when those gazes belong to giants that could possibly cause her arms to break off if she tries receiving their spikes. Quickly scanning the boys with a practiced eye, the girl shakes off her distress and bows in front of them with her hands crossed on her legs respectfully. “Pardon the intrusion,” she exclaims. “Please continue your practice and disregard my presence!” Silence reigns after her introduction as Kagami continues to bow.

“Oi,” Kagami glances up as she hears Hajime irritably huff at the gawking boys. “Stop slacking off and get to work already, we’ve got to be ready for the Inter-High in couple of months and for any incoming first years!” The girls releases a sigh of relief as the comforting sound of practice resumes around her, that was pretty awkward. She straightens and sends a small smile towards Hajime as the boys turns to look at her from his protective stance a few steps in front of the girl. He grins back in response and sends her a thumbs up.

“Well, well, well, Iwa-chan,” a silken voice purrs behind Hajime. “You’re not one to bring girls to practice, what a surprise.” Kagami watches in fascination as irritation extinguishes the fondness in her friend’s eyes and a vein begins to show its appearance. She glances down and yeup, Hajime’s hands are clenched so harshly that his fists have whitened. “Well, Iwa-chan? Aren’t ya going to introduce me to your girl-- ITAI!~” Hajime whirls so fast that the other boy has no time to dodge the fist coming his way. “Mean, Iwa-chan,” the boy exclaims as he grips his head soothingly. The boy, tears building in his eyes, sniffs pretentiously at Hajime before tilting his head slightly to look at the girl. Kagami, already knowing who the boy is, stiffens in response and waits for it. It takes a second for Oikawa Tooru to realize just who he is gazing at, but Kagami sees the shine of recognition gradually enter his eyes. Along with the rage. “What is this,” he seethes, whirling towards Hajime with flashing eyes and a gritted smile.

Kagami winces at both the vehement tone and the sound of her friend’s fist finding its home on the top of Oikawa-senpai’s head. “This,” Hajime responds with matching venom, digging his knuckles more harshly into the brunette’s head as if he could smash manners into it, “is Akane Kagami, Shittykawa. A close childhood friend of mine, so you better damn well treat her nicely.”

*Author’s Note*

AHHHHH~ Sorry this chapter took so long to be posted *prayer hands* I hope you guys enjoy reading it as it is my longest chapter yet. Some of it may seem like it’s pretty unnecessary but I thought they were pretty relevant to knowing more about Kagami’s character hehe!

P.S. Can y’all let me know if I’m linking the chapter’s right? It looks right but idk *shrugging motion*

~ Prologue ~ Chapter 1 ~ Chapter 2 ~

#oc #haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#oikawa tōru #haikyuu oikawa #haikyuu iwaizumi #iwaizumi hajime #oikawa x reader #oikawa x oc #aoba johsai #aoba jōsai

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in-tua-deep · 6 years ago

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My dude, my buddy, my guy, my gal, my pal. Please yeet more of this daemon AU at me, I'm super interested in this whole idea and would love to hear more, how do all of the daemons interact with each other?? What are the little quirks shared between daemon and human?? Did any of them have a phase where they couldn't stand their daemon?? Did Vanya's owl claw out Leonard's eyes when the truth came out?? How exactly would they find out that Five's daemon didn't settle?? I'm living for this AU now

oh i am SO ready for more daemon au are you kidding here we go starting with some NAMES because all good ocs need names and while the first post was mainly for just saying what animal is what now i can develop it into a full au and no one can stop me

So the kids and their daemons share a name for most of their lives, they’re both just,, one or two and so on. But when they get names they run into the roadblock of “do our daemons get the same names as us??” and realize that their one (1) example of a human/daemon relationship is their dad he his daemon doesn’t share his name so… probably not. But he only ordered Grace to give the human in the relationship a name so it’s up to their what their daemons names will be

I’m thinking Luther probably gave his daemon a space themed name because he’s my good space boy so I’m going to name his daemon Andromeda after the galaxy !! I think she would have wanted a somewhat regal sounding name because she tries really hard to model herself after Reggie’s daemon, who is the very definition of regal. Luther calls her Dromeda or Drom for short occasionally

Diego’s daemon HMMM i’m gonna say Valencia, Val for short because that means brave and I think it would be important to Diego to have a defender of some kind and they both would want so desperately to be brave bless their hearts

oh man i am absolutely naming Allison’s daemon Amraphel which means “one that speaks of secrets” and Allison calls him Raph for short and he’s still lazy and I still love him a whole lot

Klaus’s daemon i’m admittedly a bit stuck on but i’m gonna call them Rowan because it’s a tree that symbolizes life and courage and as some very fearful kids with death powers I think they’d appreciate it. Rowan is nonbinary btw (”are you a girl or a boy” “i’m made of fucking dust why does it matter”)

I named Five’s daemon Pancha because I like it and I feel like naming her Quinque, which is Five in Latin, would be way obvious because if you think Reggie didn’t make these kids learn an archaic dead language because he’s a pretentious ass then you’re probably wrong so yes Pancha it is and when the kids figure out it’s literally the number five in another language they’re going to throw a fit

Ben’s daemon is named Tamaya which means in the center literally just because they’re in the middle of two planes of existence and one is full of monsters and also because i like the name Tama as well so this is really two birds with one stone and no one can stop me

and finally Vanya’s daemon is named Pollux for exactly no reason other than because I say so and it sounds like it could be a name for a daemons from the books which i was trying very hard for the aesthetic with all the names but it’s been so long since i’ve read them oops

ALRIGHT with that over with i can actually yell about them which i’m putting under the cut because this is going to be long as FUCK

so how the daemons interact with each other… I’m probably going to leave out Tamaya for most just bc most of them don’t know that she survived Ben’s death for like,, a really long time in the fic i have half planned in my head

SO i already mentioned Andromeda is kind of a stick in the mud and unimpressed with her siblings shenanigans. She tries really hard to emulate their dad/their dad’s daemon but doesn’t have the control on her temper that she should. She’s blunt and says what she’s thinking, she doesn’t really care about the fact that daemons don’t usually speak to people that aren’t their own and she’ll boss everyone around given the chance tbh

She doesn’t get along with Val at all and there’s a lot of posturing between the two especially after they both settle. Generally she’s dismissive but occasionally she taunts Val with the fact that she settled as something that protects against wolves, and that clearly Val is too wild to ever amount to much. Val hits right back calling her and Luther “Dad’s obedient little dogs” and just generally when you have Luther and Diego going at one another Drom and Val are only half a step behind them

She gets along well with Raph and often carries him around when Allison calls him lazy and refuses to do it. Despite that thought Raph is like,, super muscular and strong and he’s a bigass snake, Drom used to carry him into position during missions and let’s just say they were a solid interrogation team with Drom’s teeth and Raph literally squeezing information out of people when necessary (though he can always rumor people just like Allison, he’s not fond of doing it and calls it cheating because he’s a contrary bastard). He tends to help immobilizing people and their daemons and is used as a restraint a lot until their people with thumbs can come along with rope or something

Andromeda and Rowan do NOT get along, mainly because Rowan is pretty vocal about the fact that their dad fucked them up and has no respect. Some of it also comes from the fact that Andromeda is a little jealous of Rowan’s grace as a cat because their dad’s fox daemon is exceptionally graceful and regal. But generally Andromeda ignores Rowan or growls at him, she’s never physically laid a paw on him outside of sparring until that scene with drunk and depressed Luther though

Andromeda,, also doesn’t really get along with Pancha either. It has a lot to do with the fact that as kids Pancha was constantly shifting where Drom would keep a form and stick to it. She would often tell Pancha that one day she’d settle well lmao jokes on her. Pancha used to frequently insults Drom’s intelligence and has called her a “dumb mutt” before but upon return those insults have been conspicuously absent for ALL the siblings. Five still has a fairly venomous tongue, but Pancha keeps her silence.

Andromeda and Pollux don’t have a relationship, simple as that. She ignores Pollux’s existence, even when the other daemon attempts to interact with her. She basically assumes their father is correct in Vanya’s uselessness and as such doesn’t care all that much about either of them. To be fair Pollux has learned from their childhood and doesn’t interact with Andromeda much either, and even when Vanya attempts to like,, call Luther out Pollux keeps his silence.

Val doesn’t like Andromeda and isn’t afraid to show it, bristling and snarling. Val actually settled first of the two of them (a point of pride), and some part of her is a little hurt that Drom turned into a dog that protects a pack from wolves and took it personally as Luther’s literal soul saying that he didn’t see Diego and her as part of the pack.

Her and Raph don’t really talk a lot but they have a lot of relatable sibling-eye-contact moments over their family being dumb shits and whenever Andromeda wasn’t available it was Val who would carry Raph so they’re actually closer to one another than their people are. Raph firmly refuses to get between any argument of Drom and Val’s and would 100% rumor them apart when they were all kids because Raph was Sick Of Their Shit™ despite his general distaste for rumoring

Val and Rowan get along pretty well actually, Rowan frequently hops up to ride on her back like they’re the captain of a furry wolf shaped ship and Val allows it even though she thinks they’re a little shit. Rowan used to hide behind Val from Reggie and his daemon and Val might still have a lot of protective pack instincts that she showers on them because they allow it. Val may or may not be 90% of the reason that Diego just sighs and lets Klaus tag along whenever, though Diego and Val often disagree on how to handle the Klaus/Rowan situation since Val wants to kidnap them both and keep them safe in their boiler room while Diego is of the firm belief that Klaus is a big boy now and they aren’t responsible for him.

Val thought Pancha was a mischievous little shit when they were kids as the other daemon would frequently jump wherever she pleased. Val isn’t surprised when Pancha “settles” as a hare since they’re associated with tricksters and are more solitary and independent and tougher than their rabbit counterparts. She’s super worried about Pancha when she arrived back with Five though, since the other daemon is far more withdrawn and look daemons are representations of someone’s soul they can’t lie - Five can put on a tough act all he likes but Pancha’s behavior is pretty clearly off and she looks at all of them like she’s seeing ghosts. Val is the one to carry Pancha back after the shrapnel incident, swearing because she knew she should have been suspicious that Five was carrying Pancha when she’d always hated being carried when they were kids

Val doesn’t particularly care for Pollux and is actually mildly uneasy around him. There’s just something… off about the other daemon. It raises Val’s hackles even if she doesn’t know why, and she doesn’t figure it out until after the fact that the reason she was wary of Pollux is literally because on some level she recognized the chains on him via the medication and was repulsed even though it wasn’t Pollux’s fault. She’s trying to be better after the fact with him.

I’m making myself so sad about Pollux right now tbh he deserves so much better than what he’s got but moving on

Raph is honestly the chillest daemon with everyone else’s daemon. No one has beef with Raph. Like, they might have beef with Allison, but not with Raph which might be why Allison and Raph are probably the least in sync out of the siblings with their daemon actually outside of Vanya. Raph loves Andromeda who carries him places and doesn’t mind him winding up on her because she’s warm.

Raph considers Val to be his bitchface pal and they bond over their people being stupid. Honestly Raph just wants to sleep for the most part. But legit though Allison and Raph need an intervention for them never being on the same page I think Raph might resent Allison leaving to become a star and he’s the one that dislikes using their power and constantly advised against using it so he might, on some level, blame Allison for them losing Claire (and Allison wonders if the stereotype against snake daemons played a role and sort of blames him) and honestly their relationship is a fucking mess

Raph and Rowan are chill, they’re bros, they know what they’re about. Raph thinks Rowan’s sense of humor is fucking hilarious and they’re both sleepy bitches (Rowan is a cat they knows what they’re about regarding catnaps) so they napped together a lot when everyone was under the same roof. They’re at an unspoken truce regarding the drug issue because unlike the rest of the family Raph actually listens when Rowan explains about their power being the fucking worst and having to numb it down after Raph offers to rumor them to get clean. But yeah like Allison and Klaus don’t hang out much but Raph and Rowan are bros.

I said Raph gets along with p much everyone but he’s not super close with Pancha simply because she was constantly on the move and shifting every other minute as kids back when everyone was unsettled like she was constantly itching to get out of her own skin. Like, Pancha’s thing is moving and being quick and honestly Raph is a little surprised she didn’t settle as a bird daemon the way she flits about. Raph being lazy, they didn’t see much of one another but he was always up for a conversation when Pancha calmed down enough or exhausted herself. He likes her, he just thinks she’s exhausting. He’s much more concerned for her after she gets back from the apocalypse though.

Raph and Pollux kind of,, also don’t have a big relationship tbh. There’s just something about Pollux that makes Raph uneasy, but he’s a chill dude and is probably one of the closest to Pollux after Pancha. Sometimes when Raph would be going slithering through the house, Pollux would sit upon his back and chill as they both went to whatever destination. Raph does think it’s a little weird that Pollux doesn’t fly considering he’s, you know, a bird, but he doesn’t press the issue (which he regrets, later). But overall he’s not nearly as interested in mending bridges with Vanya as Allison is since there’s still that something that prevents him from fully liking Pollux. But as the plot progresses he warms up to the idea more and more without realizing that the reason he’s warming is because they stopped taking the drugs hmm

Rowan doesn’t get along with Andromeda but they’re pretty chill with everyone else’s daemons. They get surprisingly protective of their siblings and even though Klaus isn’t great in a fight pre-Vietnam, Rowan isn’t afraid to flash their claws when necessary. The biggest reason they got kidnapped is because Hazel’s daemon didn’t come to the firefight in the manor and they weren’t willing to break the taboo on touching a human when it seemed like the primary objective was to take Klaus not to kill him. They ended up regretting it for the torture scene though oof.

Rowan loves Val a whole lot and likes trying to groom her and they 100% climb up on Val’s back when they feel like being lazy. Rowan is a self proclaimed dog person though they often say that there are always exceptions and eye Andromeda but this comes up again with Dave and his australian cattle dog daemon where, when they meet, Rowan blurts out that they’re a dog person and Dave’s daemon snorts in laughter considering that Klaus’s daemon is literally a cat. He is the personification of ‘cat person’ his soul is a cAT.

I already yelled about Rowan and Raph being nap buds, they like Raph because he’s never judged them and just accepts that they know their powers well enough to know what does and doesn’t work

Rowan and Pancha actually get along weirdly well?? Like, Rowan can be off the walls crazy at times as you know cats get that simply zest for life and just go fucking nuts for a while before going back to sleep?? so Rowan is actually one of the few of the siblings daemons who could keep up with her when they were kids and Pancha was the last of them unsettled. There was a minor freak out where they didn’t see Pancha at first when Five popped out of the portal which prompted the whole “does anyone else see little number five” comment bc ghosts don’t have daemons but then Pancha popped up and Rowan was so fuCKING RELIEVED and continuously prodded at Klaus to follow either Diego or Five because they want to hang out with Val and Pancha

The only one of the siblings daemons who knows that Tamaya is still alive. She doesn’t speak almost at all, only rarely talking to Klaus but she talks a little more to Rowan. Tamaya is usually curled up in Klaus’s pockets or general clothing but there have been a few occasions where she rides on Rowan’s shoulders or goes off on her own for a little while (those are the occasions where Ben’s ghost also goes off for a little while, neither Klaus nor Rowan question where they go). Tamaya also occasions hides in Klaus’s room instead of accompanying them places. During the kidnapping she nibbles through Klaus’s restraints and allows him to escape a little more easily since no one expects an unaccompanied daemon, haven’t decided yet how this impacts the whole Patch dying situation

Rowan doesn’t really talk to Pollux and Pollux doesn’t talk to them, though Rowan does care about Pollux. Rowan is the most easygoing with Pollux because honestly being high means that they don’t notice Pollux’s strangeness on the same level as the others and will often direct comments towards the owl daemon. Pollux rarely responds, however.

Pancha time!! I love Pancha she’s a ball of nervous energy and can’t sit still half the time. As a kid she was constantly shifting between animals like she would run across a room and be five different animals in the time it took her to get to the other end, just always restless. She and Five kept each other sane in the apocalypse - I haven’t decided whether Dolores exists in this au and if she does would she get a stuffed animal daemon?? Decisions decisions. She’s changed a LOT from the Pancha that the others remember and is noticeably a lot more quiet and standoffish, but also she fades into the background where as a kid she was constantly bursting to the foreground and demanding attention. She looks at them all like they’re ghosts and will flinch when addressed sometimes even by other daemons. The others can sense there’s something just a little bit off about her but attribute that to the trauma (eventually though it comes out that Pancha is still unsettled and that explains it)

Pancha never got along with Andromeda and they butted heads a lot before Pancha left. Pancha’s a smartass daemon alongside her person so would frequently insult Andromeda’s intelligence or go off plan because she thought of something better and would frequently yell for Andromeda to ‘adapt!’ because that was her biggest criticism. Her fluidly changing from one form to another depending on the situation was her calling card for adapting and Andromeda would always growl that one day Pancha would have to settle and Pancha would shrug it off. As adults they still don’t really see eye to eye though Pancha has noticeably softened towards Andromeda. She doesn’t call the other daemon a dumb mutt anymore and in fact doesn’t insult any of the others at all.

Pancha liked irritating Val when they were kids but still got along reasonably well with her. Now that they’re back, Val is noticeably more protective of her family and Pancha is included with that. There are a couple of moments where Val bores holes into Pancha’s head to try and telepathically ask if the hare is okay that Pancha doesn’t respond to. When Five and Pancha are drunk off their asses, Val is the one who carries Pancha even though Luther is carrying Five. She insisted. She also carried Pancha home after the shrapnel injury and curled around her on the bed absolutely FURIOUS that someone dared to hurt her sibling. Pancha says some things while drunk that break Val’s heart, and Pancha never protests the coddling unlike Five. She doesn’t lean into it, but she doesn’t protest it.

Pancha and Raph aren’t close but Pancha likes the other daemon regardless because he never did pry into her business and showed her how to do cool tricks as a snake after he settled and she didn’t. Raph never made comments about her being the last to settle unlike most of the others (even though Ben and Vanya only ever mentioned it kindly).

Pancha and Rowan are bros though Pancha disapproves of Rowan drugging themself to keep the powers at bay and always expresses that they have faith that Rowan will learn to control them one day. Honestly Rowan finds it kind of nice even if Pancha disapproves because at least she disapproves because she 100% believes in them instead of being disapproving for disapproval’s sake. Pancha expresses that even drugged Rowan is one of the most observant of their siblings. Rowan worries about her after she comes back and keeps trying to convince Klaus to go after Five, but Five has a very venomous tongue and Klaus is delicate no matter how much Rowan figures it’s just a defense mechanism since Pancha doesn’t echo the sentiments. Rowan is worried about Five as well. Rowan is just worried :(

Pancha is the only one in the family who loves Pollux and actively seeks the other daemon out. She knows something isn’t right, but instead of being repulsed finds herself delighted at the mystery and assumes that the ‘wrongness’ is why Pollux doesn’t fly. Before Pancha jumped to the apocalypse, she kept trying to teach Pollux how to fly by shifting into various birds but it never did stick.

Yeah though Pollux is a daemon that really unnerves other daemons because they can tell something is terribly wrong even if they can’t quite put their finger on what. Pollux and Vanya don’t really communicate either and get second place in the “our human/daemon relationship is super messed up” after Allison and Raph.

Pollux doesn’t really speak. To anyone. Especially after Five and Pancha vanish. He’s just,, not really all the way there to be honest. He goes where Vanya does but does precious little, often standing as still as a statue on his perch until moved again. Sometimes he’ll interact with other daemons but not usually by speaking - he’s sat on Raph’s back or tugged at Andromeda’s fur to get her attention or silently stood in someone’s way but seriously for the most part he’s somewhat catatonic.

After they go off the meds he starts perking up again and speaks for the first time in years to Leonard/Harold and his skua daemon. He actually does have a personality, but he’s been suppressed for so long that he’s still figuring himself out alongside Vanya tbh

As the White Violin his colors switch and instead of being brown with white spots as a spotted owl he becomes white with brown spots. He also is constantly flying while they’re using their powers, flapping and keeping himself aloft roughly above Vanya’s head, half suspended by their own power. As they figure out control, they eventually realize that it’s Pollux who can direct their sound based attacks with his wings and if Vanya tries to go alone it’s uncontrolled like the attack on the trucker dudes without the focus of her violin. They have to work together to control Vanya’s powers, and it’s difficult because they genuinely don’t really have much of a relationship or know each other very well since they’ve been sedated since Vanya was like, four years old

this post is already so so long so i’ll cut it off here probably but yeAH there’s probably a scene where Pollux attacks Leonard/Harold’s daemon and claws her eye out and there’s a translated wound on Leonard because that’s how daemons work and then they both get fucked up by Vanya and Pollux’s powers/knife storm thing

(Pollux isn’t as angry as Vanya is, truthfully. He’s just… tired. He’s so tired. Vanya wants to end the world in her fury. Pollux wants to end it just so everything… stops.)

but yes please keep asking me questions about this au i’m living for it i love these dumb idiots and their daemons

(still need to come up names for the background character daemons, there’s a part of my mind whispering don’t you fucking dare name reginald’s daemon regina soul i swear to fuck so that’s a thing - i’ll also take suggestions for background character daemon names as well!! it was hard enough coming up with these losers)

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autunno101 · 5 years ago

Text

Takoda

Writing-prompt-s: A villain kidnaps the hero’s sidekick, only to realize the hero has been badly mistreating them, and decides to take the sidekick under their wing.

He looked a little pale, but that could be just the light. However, his thinness and obvious fragility under the baggy clothes - looked more like hand-me-downs - could not be so easily explained away. He had only just arrived...

"Where'd he get the black eye?" Of course, his men were not expected to be gentle with the sidekick, but the condition was alarming.

"We grabbed him from the back of the station, nursing it with an ice pack." At the villain's nod, he continued, "didn't really struggle too much. I don't think we even bruised him..." The man cleared his throat. "Those other bruises weren't from us."

Other?!

The villain opened the door, no longer interested in only peeking through the tiny window. His sudden and intimidating appearance had the young man cowering in his corner.

Yellow bruises lined his arms, several looking suspiciously like handprints and none of them fresh enough to be the cause of his men. Face-to-face, he could see sickly bones protruding from sunken flesh.

The sidekick shook under the villain's presence.

In an attempt to calm him, he waved his security out of the room and they waited just outside the still open door. Near, but out of view.

Krisztian Simon, known under the name Hydra - Agent Hydra when employed under Sidero. Recently, the media had taken a liking to the name 'Guta'. A Hungarian demon. His number of victims had increased greatly in the past six months, though that may be due to the sudden and huge losses he sustained, and most landed underground. The name became suitable.

If Takoda recalled correctly, Sidero had been his first official victim after breaking off as a solo villain. Killing her after a supposedly large fight over the direction they should take.

Both had been powerful water manipulators. Sidero preferring to kill her victims by drowning and Hydra - or Guta - physically sucking the water from their bodies. Either gruesome to watch.

Now a highly wanted, international criminal responsible for stealing and selling military weapons and plans to either terrorists, villain organizations, or warring countries.

"Forgive me for not knowing your name, at least, how to pronounce it, Takoda." He squatted down to be eye level. "You're a healer... sidekick to Lady Vienna."

Her real name was Bernita Mora.

Bernita had been a real-life superman, towering over the average man with the strength to easily lift a semi-truck and fly at a max of Mach 3. The world loved her and from her heroic acts, ranging from her home in Costa Rica to Japan she loved the world.

"It's Pejihuta Witshasha." Krisztian could barely hear him.

"An easier name would have been better. The press simply call you 'The Healer'. Though, I haven't seen you since your... what? Third live appearance? You were a lot heavier then too..." He intended to poke his stomach in jest, but Takoda flinched away from him. "What does it mean? You're little sidekick name."

"Healer." Again, Krisztian strained to hear.

"Alright..." Seemed stupid to him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Hydra..."

"The press like 'Guta' nowadays." He stood and carefully helped the young healer to his feet. "You can heal yourself, can't you?" Only a trembling nod in response. "Why haven't you?"

The change came suddenly. And a bit violently.

Takoda squirmed out of his hold, scratching even to break free of Krisztian's light hold. He dashed back into his corner, his trembling increased and he hid his gaunt face in the crook of his elbows.

The subordinates outside the door shrugged at their boss's questioning brow.

"Takoda." Sternly, he pulled the kid to his feet and lead him out the door with a bit more force than before. "Let's talk."

After a shower, some ointment for the bruises he refused to heal - there was something to that and Krisztian planned to figure it out - and dinner, Lady Vienna wasn't so kind after all. At least, not to the criticism magnet her sidekick turned out to be.

Takoda, Krisztian admitted, wasn't fat. Not like how the media relentlessly teased. A little chunky with no real strength or stamina, but otherwise a healthy kid. Someone who sought to help those in need. Lady Vienna, of course, found his abilities useful. Bullets could still hurt her after all.

The press were quick to point out the adorableness of their obvious different builds. Their view changed rapidly to poking fun and degrading.

A fan of his native heritage, Takoda sought to make his family proud with his choice of name. Unfortunately, while Lady Vienna had no issues with one being proud of one's heritage, the media disagreed, finding more ammo to use in their taunts. Criticism was one thing the superhero would not stand for, especially when she felt heat because of her certain young man by her side.

If the press didn't appreciate his lack of build or the "excessive" pride in being Sioux, then neither did Lady Vienna.

"You know, Guta is a demon in Hungarian myth." They had been silent for a bit after dinner and Krisztian sought to end the silence. Takoda had been much too afraid to engage in small talk. "Your translate more accurately to a Sioux healer, correct? Medicine man?"

His men had been diligent in their search during dinner including finding Lady Vienna's excuses for her sidekick's public absences after fights.

Too weak at the moment.

Because you were starving him.

Badly injured.

Because you beat him every time the media sneered at you.

Shy.

More like afraid.

Unavailable...

Takoda had only been 17 when first meeting Lady Vienna. Standing proudly at 5'5" and used to be over 175 lbs.

Now, at 19 years old, he stood around 100 lbs.

"Yeah..." His hesitancy to answer made Krisztian cringe.

"I prefer Guta because it sort of reflects my own heritage. And my reputation." The confession sparked curiosity in Takoda.

"Really?" The villain nodded, laughing at the excitement.

"Yes, really. Much better than Hydra." Venom laced his tone at the former name. "Stupid Sidero. Always so arrogant," he grumbled but didn't elaborate.

Takoda had nothing to say to that.

"Tell me, Sioux Healer," once more, the 19-year-old perked up, "do you think she will come for you?"

Half a world away, the sunset lit the sky a somber orange, chased by indigo. Twinkling lights off a city in the valley shone so brightly, it blocked the stars, despite the stronghold's superior altitude in the mountain's side.

"Yes."

"But, not because she has to."

"No."

For such a scared child, Krisztian noted that Takoda had not once stuttered. Mumbled. Whispered. Never stuttered.

"You could always stay here. Though, I'm sure you haven't seen you're family in a long time... Would you work for me?" He expected a flat out no.

"I don't want to hurt anyone." He was happy with the answer he received, even if not a definite yes.

"You don't have to." Guta stood, beckoning the younger man to follow. "I hope you understand I will you use you as evidence to display her cruelty. To ruin her."

"I guessed..."

He continued, unfazed, "good. There are always other heroes and non-heroes alike that oppose me and my operations." Hopefully, a small reassurance. "After a few photographs, I'll send you home, okay?"

Takoda nodded glumly.

Once home, Takoda took his time recovering, staying removed from the public as Lady Vienna came under fire. Many still supported her, but with Takoda "missing" and his family not speaking out per his wishes, the debate remained one of the biggest unsolved superhero issues.

About a month later, Takoda found a package, addressed to him, sitting on his porch. He hadn't heard a knock or the doorbell ring.

A neat note sat on top of a pile of clothes and other items.

Takoda,

I hope you've gained some much-needed weight since we last met. From what I understand, Lady Vienna and others believe you are still under my care. My accusations have only angered her, but I'm dealing with the blowback pretty well.

I know you had a goal of helping people. Take this card and use it as you wish. I'm sure you'll go where you feel as you needed. Your culture is important to you, but perhaps a different name would suit you and be better for the public's sake. Perhaps a role model's name?

-K. Simon

P.S.: If you know Captain Thunder, he sends his regards, as well as his young sidekick, Boo. I did tell them I sent you home and they haven't publically announced it - I don't think they were the only ones suspicious.

Takoda inspected the black card, surprised it was real. He had never had one before. Perhaps before meeting Lady Vienna, he had thought about it, with the prospects of a new job.

It had his full name in silver on the front.

"Woah..."

The clothes were nice too. Cotton t-shirts, jeans, formal button-ups, and slacks. A few silk ties. A brand new Rolex watch with dusted gold and diamonds. Several pairs of sneakers and loafers.

Krisztian had no reservation about spending money apparently. But, when you're a villain with supposedly a billion corporation you had money to spend.

The young healer hadn't met Captain Thunder, a loud, but pretty cool Canadian hero that manipulated sound waves. Boo was a ten year old from Chad with the ability to turn invisible. Her powers extended beyond just herself and she could turn objects she touched invisible as well. Often, she liked to spook the reporters, much to the Captain's amusement.

Perhaps he would meet them one day.

Re-reading the note, Takoda suddenly had an idea and raced to his bookshelf where he had kept a lot of books relating to the Lakota, his mother's people. In particular, he had several relating to the Black Elk, a medicine man, and participant in the Wounded Knee Massacre.

While his mother had disagreed with several of the books, written mainly by non-natives, he found some quotes comforting.

It wasn't easy growing up with his abilities, especially when he was younger. He never lived on a reservation, though he knew relatives that did, and his father, a non-native, graduate engineer from Chicago, didn't agree with his maternal family's interpretation of his abilities or the sudden pressure laid on his shoulders.

When he was seven, his parents moved away to Iowa, which was equally easier and difficult. His biracial status didn't mix well with his black relatives, but they at least were kept from knowing about his powers.

One quote in particular was "...I cured with the power that came through me."

Takoda had questioned whether Black Elk had actually said it as his mother's doubts and criticisms of the book echoed through him time and time again. But, he had decided a while ago that it didn't matter. In context, out of context, real or fake; it brought him comfort.

Krisztian was right. "The Healer" was what he did, but not who he particularly was. "Pejihuta Witshasha" was too difficult for the press - as much as that insulted him.

Guta described Krisztian based on reputation, but not necessarily ability...

Lady Vienna chose her name as more of a nickname.

Captain Thunder... well, Takoda had no idea where he got the name from and Boo got hers because that's what she always said scaring reporters.

Takoda wanted to reach those in need, but such a task would take him all over the globe. Many cultures had their own view on healing and with it, he wanted to adapt to it.

Why be one if he could be many?

Early in this process, he decided to stick to the shadows. Avoiding heroes and villains alike for his own safety. As such, black or navy would need to become a part of his attire.

Guta was surprised, pleasantly so, at how quickly the "Black Bear" and "Black Stag" appeared throughout North America over the span of two months only to disappear.

The media speculated if the appearances were individuals or the same person while others claimed it to be the work of some type of cryptid. However, the collective terms "Black Healer" and "Black Healer Society" were often used.

Shortly afterward, the "Black Hummingbird" began to spread its wings over South America. It took a while and after heavy debate that remained mainly unresolved, the public believed the figure to be some kind of bird. The hummingbird becoming more likely due to the images of a unique long beak that extended from the face and colorful reflectors of a sort that made use of the moonlight and city lights to produce a beautiful metallic look.

Guta quickly checked the card he had given the healer, noting only a few charges here and there. Mainly flights and bus rides back and forth across the countries. Still, Takoda must have been using a lot of his personal money.

It took a bit, especially since Takoda moved quickly and almost at random. Useful for hiding from those seeking him out. Nonetheless, Krisztian found him.

A small Haitian village. Dressed in dark, casual clothes with a cloak. No animal symbolism.

"No animal this time?" The healer jumped at the familiar voice.

"Gu-... uh, I mean Mr. Krisztian..." As awkward as ever, Takoda glanced around them. Of course, the famous Guta wouldn't travel without some degree of protection hence the number of armed men surrounding them.

"I see you haven't finalized your outfit yet or was that what you were going for?" Krisztian nudged Takoda along to the jeep not far from the small alley.

"I... uh... wanted to use animal symbolism, but the internet hadn't been very cooperative with me." The older man hummed thoughtfully.

"One symbol should be enough."

Takoda shook his head but didn't elaborate until they reached a resort. Apparently, the villain preferred to stay in luxury.

"I wanted it to be significant to them..." He continued to follow the villain, uncomfortable with his shabby appearance contrasting against the upper-class finesse.

"The bear represents healing, the stag... I don't quite-"

"It varies but I was aiming for longevity and gentleness."

"Alright, and the hummingbird was optimism, yes?" Krisztian gestured to a secluded booth from the other guests.

"Basically... why am I here?" While the security gave them space, the atmosphere remained heavy and intimidating.

"To catch up, of course." Krisztian tapped the menu before sliding it his way. "Wine and food all on me."

"I don't drink..."

"Soda, water, whatever you'd like." He waved his hand in the air, unconcerned. "I expected a bit more weight on you."

Takoda had removed his cloak, revealing the still oversized clothes he wore underneath.

"Oh... uh..."

Krisztian shook his head in disapproval.

"The card was for you to use to your heart's content. Including feeding yourself and putting a roof over your head during your travels." With that, Krisztian waved over a waiter and they placed their orders.

After spending the night, Takoda was booked a flight home. He needed more time to think.

The mysterious healer or healers disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Months rolled by without an appearance.

Then, as winter rolled through, photos surfaced from Ethiopia. A hunched black shadow wandered almost empty streets with horns upon its head.

Press, blog sites, and cryptid believers were quick to tear the photos apart. The assumed horns were really antlers. Bear claws covered the hands. An assumed stag head covered the face. It took a while, but another managed to find more photos of it traveling along the African east coast. Most notable were the ones under the full moon where the light reflected a familiar, colorful pattern across the arms to the back.

A mash of the three healers before.

Because of the animal symbolism and the communities most believed theories, the public took the liberty of calling the healer "Shaman". Many referred to the healer as a cryptid rather than a man and most notable suspected it to be capable of shapeshifting between four forms.

In a public announcement by several heroes including Captain Thunder, Guta had reassured them he would not lay a hand against the Sioux Healer - as was a concern considering the healer's sudden travels into the villain's prominent domain. A domain that traveled from Somalia, up the coast, across the Arabian Peninsula and into Jammu and Kashmir.

His statement seemed to confirm the theory of the healer's native origin and spun new debates.

However, as if to keep people on their toes, the healer would vanish only to reappear as a bear, stag, or hummingbird or as the entangled embodiment. Its work remained seemingly random to the public and continued to be uncaught by the press or heroes.

Lady Vienna expressed great public interest in meeting the Shaman. Despite her attempts, Takoda managed to stay out of her grasp and eventually feeling unsafe, he abandoned everything. Abandoned his outfit. His personal items. The credit card from Krisztian. His mission down the east coast of Africa.

She came much to close and in a moment of panic, he disappeared into the Kenyan savannahs. Thankfully, commotions began to appear globally, including South Africa, and she was forced to stop her pursuit.

Hiding away, he accepted the kindness of strangers when offered and stayed off every beaten path. He continued south.

Takoda crossed the path of many heroes, local and foreign as they aimed to take down several terrorizing organizations. He kept his distance.

Starving, he entered a city despite the war zone it had become. Perhaps there would be food and clothes abandoned for him to have. His had been torn from the travel, the ambushes, and predators.

Here, his powers were limited to an almost unfair level. His exhaustion and hunger only hindered him further. Still, he tried to comfort those dying by easing their pain, unable to extend their lives.

A little girl laid under some rubble and all he could do was close her eyes.

"You shouldn't be here, Sioux Healer." He froze at the unfamiliar voice.

A large man stood behind him, bloodied from the fighting. From his black combat boots to the jockey straps and cut to fit shirt, he bled a fighter. Not local however by his white skin and dirty blonde-ish hair.

Takoda's eyes widened at the trademark hat that hid his cropped hair. One that had a logo of a maple leaf overlapped by a military jet surrounded by a blue circle.

The Canadian hero, Captain Thunder.

"Takoda, Lady Vienna is here. You need to go." With a hand signal, Boo appeared by his side in a fine, colorful, and decorative dress with a matching head-ware that hid most of her hair. Takoda assumed traditional clothing for her people. "Boo will help you out of the city."

The Captain took off without much of a word, heading to the thickest fights in the city.

"He doesn't want me to join anyway." Boo sounded a bit dejected, but took Takoda's hand and led him away.

"He cares for you."

"Like Lady Vienna should have for you?" Her bluntness hit him hard. "Sorry." Apparently, she noticed.

Wishing to change the subject, he asked, "how many languages do you speak?" It was well known her first appearance with the hero had been to help translate for him.

"Including dialects... seven fluently." It had been debated before, but the numbers were impressive. And she only counted what she was fluent in.

"That's impressive."

"Thank you. My parents are big advocates for education in Chad. I spend more time with them and doing school work than with Captain Thunder." That also bummed her out. Before Takoda could ask, she answered, "I only get to hang around for reporters and small crimes. Me being here was an accident."

"Things like this can be dangerous."

"I know..." With that, Boo quickly hushed him and they ducked out of view as people passed by.

She kept them invisible as they moved past fights, survivors, and emergency personnel.

At the very edge of the city limits, Krisztian waited. Angry at Takoda's starved appearance.

"I believe I told you to gain weight, not lose it." Krisztian grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him to the guarded helicopter.

Takoda limply let him shove him inside and deflated as he offered a kind hand to Boo.

Takoda folded him into himself, keeping silent as they headed to a small, private airport. On the plane, Boo sat beside him as Krisztian talked with others outside.

Alone, she patted his hand, "if it helps, Captain gets depressed too. I think its because the ratio of people he saves is small compared to how many he couldn't."

The thought was depressing. Captain Thunder had such a loud, joyous, and respectful persona that made it hard to believe. But it made sense.

"Thanks, Boo." Takoda smiled her way, grateful, but that wasn't the problem.

"Krisztian, for a villain, is exceptionally caring. Captain was surprised too." Boo didn't elaborate as said villain returned.

Boo left first, her parents already awaiting her return. Krisztian remained on the plane, hidden away lest they know who dropped her off. Afterward, they headed for the stronghold in the east.

Takoda did his best to avoid the villain, staying closed off and curt in his answers. When they landed and Krisztian went to guide the kid by the shoulder down the ramp, he noticed him flinch. Takoda nearly tripped over his own feet to get away.

"Takoda..." His words were soft and his touch gentle as he helped the healer regain his balance. "I'm not going to hit you. Come on. You need a full meal, not just snacks." Even though Takoda had received fresh clothes, Krisztian removed his jacket and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Inside, Takoda feasted on everything they gave him. His father would have been upset at his behavior, to say the least. He had always been big on manners.

Krisztian watched, disgusted, but never uttered a sound of protest. Let the kid eat.

Takoda, finally feeling full in months, became over consciously aware of his surroundings and took a napkin to wipe his hands and mouth.

"Sorry..."

"Don't be. More?" He began to wave over a servant, but Takoda stopped him.

"No, I'm... I'm good." Taking a gulp of water, he cleared his throat. "Can I ask you something?"

Krisztian quirked a brow at that, "sure."

"When did you and Captain Thunder become friends?"

Krisztian laughed, "oh no. We're not. The only thing we have in common is you."

That came as a surprise.

"Me?"

"I think I told you before that he had suspected something going on. I did end up telling him and he, thankfully, kept that to himself."

A servant interrupted them, bringing Takoda a decent slice of chocolate cake.

Krisztian encouraged him to eat, pouring a glass of wine for himself. He came to sit next to Takoda, sipping his 1990 Grand Cru.

They intermittently had small chit chat. Both put thoughts of heroes and villains aside. Here, they were merely friends. Passing the time until they grew tired and while Takoda would remain under 24/7 watch, Krisztian had work the next morning.

Takoda remained at the stronghold, trying hard not to think about what Krisztian's job entailed. A villain's job.. is well, he supposed a villain's job.

Krisztian returned a couple of weeks later, bandages covering his torso and hands. While he had Takoda informed of his return, he did not summon him to his side. He had always healed naturally. No need to put the kid to work.

However, Takoda ventured to the upper floors on his own. He ignored the caution servants threw his way.

The Guta does not wish to be disturbed.

This is not wise. Return to your chambers.

Please, sir, return downstairs.

He moved around them, not even registering their words. Nudging open the doors, he stepped inside the bedroom.

Krisztian had his bedside lamp on and the windows open with a view of a dark sky over a dry desert. He held a small, leather worn book in his hands.

"Takoda?" He set the book aside.

The healer came, pulling up a chair, and sat beside him.

"You should have called me. I can heal you." Setting to work, he first unwrapped the man's hands. It had always been easier to heal if he could see the wound.

"I'm a villain. An international criminal. A terrorist to some." Krisztian watched on. Amused at the scene before him. Impressed as the light green glow faded and rather than bloody and torn fingers, they were sore and barely scarred.

"You helped me. You fund me..." His words felt like a half-ass excuse.

"I make people into raisins."

"I've managed to heal over two thousand people and that number is going to continue to grow. This past year is really the only time I've been practicing my powers. Dealing with different people, different wounds. I'm growing stronger." As if proving his point, Takoda healed Krisztian's torso - easily in worse condition than his hands - with ease.

Takoda continued, "I couldn't have done that as quickly before. I'd have barely started and already would be sweating. Broken bones took at least 15 minutes without any breaks and I usually would need a long break afterward." He looked Guta in the eyes, seeing a friend rather than a demon. "I've grown a lot. I'm healing faster. Leaving fewer scars each time. Actually able to help with healing diseases and illnesses rather than just the symptoms."

Krisztian nodded, chuckling at the enthusiasm.

"Alright. I helped you out a little."

Takoda wasn't quite finished.

"Besides, I've never known you to be that cruel, not even to Sidero and the media seemed to make it out like you guys loathed each other." He raised a questioning brow at that, so Takoda continued, "Gamez, from a couple of years back, sold out one of your operations and you suffered some pretty severe causalities. However, Hana's betrayal happened a few months later. She sold out your smuggling operation in Taiwan, but you never turned her into... a... uh, a raisin."

Krisztian remained silent. Partially in awe of the kid's observance which reminded him a bit of Boo. Mainly to hide his laughter at Takoda's hesitancy to use the word 'raisin'.

Krisztian settled for scoffing.

"You're a bit too observant, aren't you?" Takoda stiffened as if he had been slapped. "It's impressive. Don't get me wrong." Thankfully, he relaxed at the villain's praise. "But that doesn't make me good."

"No, but..." Krisztian watched, heart heavy and light, as Takoda balled his hands into fists. Frustrated. He wasn't prepared to back down as he finally shot back, "it's better than no reason at all or just for fun. You have reasons and motives that may be... exaggerated or unethical-"

"I suppose." Krisztian surrendered the fight. The last thing he wanted was to work Takoda up.

He patted the empty space next to him on the bed, moving pillows out of the way. Takoda put the chair back before taking the invitation. Krisztian picked his book back up, secretly flexing his fingers in delight. The pain was gone.

"Heard of the book called 'Embers'?" At the shake of his friend's head, Krisztian nodded, already figuring that was the case. "You might like it..."

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I tried really hard with this and it was only meant to be like a couple of pages long, not ten. Anyway, I’m sorry if I messed up.

#heros #villains #sidekicks #i'm sorry #i tried #prompt based #abuse #healing #writing prompt #fiction #writing #takoda #Krisztian

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