#guy made the decision to not go to jail it would seem | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fictionismyreality3 · 2 months ago

Note

Hi first off just wanted to say I absolutely love your work! But please remember to take care of yourself and have plenty of water and Food and please remember to take breaks 🫶

Anyways I was wondering if I could req a fic where Jason finds out his s/o is an Ex-Criminal who's trying really hard not to fall back into old habits but is struggling because these guys keep harrasing them to become a criminal again

Mm just gonna take this :D -🎧

Better off Before You

Jason Todd x Reader

Tags: boyfriend!jason todd, ex-criminal!reader, established relationship, kinda controlling!jason todd idk, angst but it gets resolved at the end

Warnings: romance and everything that comes with it, violence, crime, drugs, weapons like knives and guns, arson, sexual assault 🤨

Notes: I gagged writing this 😩 sorry to all the Jefferey’s out there I just think Jeff is a creepy name. Kinda put a spin on the req hope that’s okay ☺️

34 stitches, 18 hours, and 1 bullet.

That’s what you’d scarified to get the life you had now. You’d done your time, and spent the hours necessary to detach yourself from your previous life and associates.

You had a lot to be grateful for and you knew that. It wasn’t like you were waking up everyday selfishly forgetting where you came from. That seemed impossible with the way the bullet was still lodged under the skin of your hip. But you were happy. You had a good life now and you were happy.

When you met Jay, you used to go by a different name, and when you thought about it, you were really a different person. But he pushed you. He wasn’t like those other self righteous hero’s you so often found yourself running from. He told it like it was, and he didn’t care if he hurt your feelings when he spoke. And back then, that’s something you needed desperately.

“You look like shit.”

Rolling your eyes, you wiped your lips, spitting the blood that had pooled in your mouth onto the gum covered pavement.

“You’re not exactly looking your best either, Red.” You drawled, eying the tall form of Jason Todd as he stalked down the alley towards you. “Yeah, well, it’s been one of those days.” He shrugged.

“Cortez?” Jason threw out there as he tucked his pistols away and got ready for a fist fight.

“No, Romero this time. You know what the buyers are like.”

Rain fell around you as you struck Jason in the stomach, his body expertly maneuvering to the side so he could grab your leg when you tried to throw a kick at him. Soon you were on your back, hitting at the inside of his elbow to push him off you. A well timed bite to shoulder and kick in the nuts let you escape.

That was 2 years ago.

Some days you almost wished you’d lost that fight, it would have made getting out from under your bosses thumb a lot easier had you been thrown in jail. You ended up having to do it the hard way. First breaking things off with Cortez, he was a squealer, especially when you pulled a few fingernails to reinforce he wouldn’t come after you.

Romero was harder. The man had a good few hundred men and women working for him. He practically ran the entire drug scene on the east end of Gotham. You used to be one of his best. It was a slightly demeaning work, being the person whose sole job was to ensure rich, high society people got their pill fix for the week, but it payed well. The only way you managed to get out was by knocking off his men one by one till you got to the top.

To him.

But Jay helped you, and you did it, even if it did leaving you with a permanent reminder in the flesh of your hip. There was no immediate way for Romero build back his little empire, and you allowed yourself to relax over the years, even getting to the point where Jason and you would run missions for Bruce.

Which is why this had to be a one time thing.

“Eh, c’mon pretty. Let’s not keep the boss waiting.”

How you found yourself back on the radar of the man you were trying so hard to distance yourself from seemed to be a sick joke from the universe. All it took was one wrong decision and you’d slipped right back into your old life like you’d never left. It wasn’t that you wanted to, but at this point, you didn’t have a choice.

You were sloppy. Normally you made sure to never take any jobs related to the underground drug rings so as to avoid spotted. But you didn’t do your research, and one bust got you noticed by one of Romero’s men who got away. That was all it took for him to go ratting back to his boss, who now held a massive grudge against you for how long it took him to regain power.

You fought hard when they found you again. The skin of your attackers still sat underneath your fingernails.

But you weren’t a super, you didn’t have powers or years of extreme training like Jay. You were just a girl who grew up on the wrong side of town, and chloroform wasn’t exactly easily avoided.

Scanning your surroundings, you tried to memorize the route of winding hallways you were being dragged through. The smell of gasoline and booze hung in the air, making your nose scrunch in disgust. Being pushed through a set of heavy metal doors, you found yourself face to face with the beady eyes of Jefferey Romero.

“You know, I’ve thought a lot about what I would say,” he began, standing up from the crusty folding chair he was sitting in. “When I saw you again.” Two men came and held your arms behind your back, their grip tight despite your struggling. “But all I can think about is how pathetic you look.”

One grubby hand reached up to clutch your chin, his fingers digging into your skin while he surveyed your face. The other reached down and squeezed at your ass.

“Fuck you.” You spat.

Driving your knee up, you kicked him as hard as you could in the dick, relishing the whiny noise of pain he made as he fell to his knees. Deciding to use the opportunity, you spat on him, but by then more of his men came to hold you still.

“You’re just as feisty as I remember too.” He coughed and brushed himself off. Getting back up, with a slight limp he came to stand in front of you. “You cost me a lot of money, you know.” Romero licked his lips. “It took me years to get it back.” He thread his fingers through your hair, yanking your head harshly to the side. “That’s why you’re gonna do me a little favour, bitch.”

You scoffed, wanting nothing more than to wrap your hands around his neck and choke him to death. “I’m not doing jack shit for you.” Romero let out a sneering laugh.

“Oh, but you will. Because I have this.”

As he held out his hand, your eyes darted down to the little enamel pin resting in his palm.

Your tongue was heavy in your mouth.

“What do you need?”

Jason wasn’t a great boyfriend when it came to his protectiveness. Knowing the life you’d came from, and how you two literally met when you were running from the cops, he was constantly worried about keeping you safe. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust you, he just wanted you to have the life you deserved.

Because he knew you deserved so much.

Fiddling with the string of his hoodie, he tried to stay focused on whatever random ass tv show was on. Pressing the material to his nose, he took a deep breath. Your perfume filled his lungs and he felt dizzy and relieved at the same time. It had only been a few hours since you left to go get some groceries, but the time away was killing him.

Clingy was a word he liked to pretend didn’t exist, but with the way you’d been acting for the last few weeks, he was getting more and more reluctant to let you out of his sight. Bruises that you’d brush off as you being clumsy, scrapes lining your knees, even the way your eyes were seemingly darting around to look for a threat that wasn’t there. All of it was beginning to leave a sour taste in Jason’s mouth.

Normally, he would never do anything to invade your privacy, but the nagging feeling in the back of his head wouldn’t let him drop it. Rustling through drawer after drawer, Jason searched from the objects that would confirm his suspicions. Cursing under his breath, he mumbled a few prayers that this wasn’t what he thought it was as he moved to your half of the closet.

Pushing the clothes to the side, his eyes got stuck on the red dress he’d bought you, and he had to clench his fists from punching the wall when he saw what was lying in the shoebox behind it.

Your knives.

The same knives he’d taken from you when you first started to change the way you were living. The same knives he’d hidden from you to help you transition. The same knives that were sitting there, clearly having been recently polish, laughing at him as they glinted in the light. The sound of the front door ripped him from his stupor.

“Hey, Jay. I got those chips you like-” Your words died on your tongue as you came face to face with a very angry Jason Todd, standing in the living room, holding a reminder of your past.

“What the fuck is this, huh?” He ground out, holding knives out with a shaking hand. “I promise, it’s not what it looks like.” You began quickly. Letting out a huff of tightly contained anger, Jason stormed up to you, grabbing you by the wrists and sending your shopping bags to the floor.

“Not what it looks like?” He scoffed. “No, I-”

“Because to me, it sure fucking looks like you’re working again.”

Your breath caught in your throat, and you stared up into the now swirling blue-green eyes of the one man who never left. “You don’t understand.” You tried to plead. Throwing the knives to the floor, Jason backed you up against the front door, his hands caging you against the wood. “I don’t understand?” He hissed. “I risked my ass when I asked Bruce to cover your bail.”

The pressure of your rapidly beating heart was barely being held in by your ribcage. “Jay, you can’t understand.”

Jason swore he felt a tooth crack with how hard he was clenching his jaw. There hadn’t been a lot of instances where he’d felt truly hurt in his life, not before you. He always kept himself too closed off for that. But now? Now the small sliver of worth you had given him felt like it was being doused in salt and vodka.

“Then make me understand, baby.” Jay pleaded. “I can’t let you do this to yourself.” He hated the way his voice cracked.

All at once you were overcome with the urge to tell him everything, to fall into his arms and cry to him about how Romero had found where your sister went to university, and how you might not have talked to her in years but you still couldn’t let her die.

But your mouth didn’t open.

And Jason could only drop his hands to his sides and take a step back from you.

“Where the fuck having you been goin’ for the last 3 weeks?” He said disbelieving. “I don’t even know who you are anymore!” Wiping the tear you didn’t realize was forming, took a deep breath and steeled yourself.

“I’ll tell you when it’s over.”

All his years of experience, the instincts and reaction times he’d had trained into him, seemed to vanish as he watched you turn on your heel and leave. Standing frozen for a moment, Jason stared at the handle of the door, as if his gaze would somehow cause it to turn and you to come back.

“Fuck.” He snarled, whipping around to leave a fist sized hole in the wall.

One more job.

One more job and then this would all be over.

That’s what you kept telling yourself. The words got repeated over and over again in your mind as you stepped out into the streets of Gotham and began walking towards where you were stashing your things. The words echoed into the foggy air as you mumbled to yourself, changing into your district clothes and heading to the target Romero sent you.

They acted as a sort of prayer to who ever was listening. A plea, for all of this mess to somehow how straighten itself out, and for you to be forgiven as you hurled the bottle of alcohol and flames at the cargo truck you’d been ordered to destroy.

The fire danced across the surface of the truck until the whole thing burst into a ball of heat. You don’t know what was in it or why Romero wanted it gone, and you didn’t ask. You didn’t want to know. All you felt like doing was crumbling into the pavement and disappearing into one of the cities many potholes so you never had to show your face again.

It was nearly impossible for Jason to keep from destroying the apartment. Every item of furniture you’d picked out together sat like a reminder. He’d been the one to get you off the streets. He’d been the one to show you that there were people who cared about more than their next hit or how to get money. He’d been the one to help you get free.

And now he had failed you.

Jason sat on the couch, slumped forward with his head in his hands. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Really, everything was wrong, but something about the way you left felt odd. There was this look in your eye, the same one he saw the first time you’d met when he cornered you after the police slacked off at their jobs. A look of fear.

Not towards him. He could still remember it plain as day. It was more a look of dread, like you were worried about the consequences of getting caught and not the scary guy in the red mask who caught you. Like you were dreading someone finding out. Just thinking about it made his stomach churn. Although he was absolutely livid, he couldn’t stand seeing you in fear because he loved you.

He loved you.

“What the fuck am I doin’ just sitting here?”

When you got back to the seedy building near the docks, you were let in instantly by two of Romero’s men. The winding hallways of his new building had reluctantly become a familiar sight after spending the last 3 weeks running errands for him. But now your debt was paid, and you could get to tell Jay everything.

The same set of heavy metal doors that seemed to unlock a world you tried so desperately to forget opened once more, and you were once again standing in front of the man who used you. Putting out his cigarette, Jeffery Romero sauntered his way over to you.

“It’s done. The truck’s gone.” You spoke first. “I did my half of the bargain, so don’t you dare touch my sister.” With a thoughtful look that was clearly exaggerated, he looked you over, walking a circle around you. “I’ll admit, you weren’t as useless as I remembered.” The beady-eyed man snickered. Your hands were clenching, fingernails digging into your palms. “I might even take you back to work for me.”

“I’d never fucking work for you.”

His eyes narrowed, a dark smile curling across his lips. “That’s a shame,” He said nonchalantly. “Because you know too much now to be kept alive.”

As if waiting for their cue, the men who’d been leaning against the walls or playing poker and pretending not to listen pounced on you. Hands were tugging you in every which way, some tearing at your clothes as they shoved you to your knees. With a surge of adrenaline, you went down kicking and screaming, biting and pushing back against anyone who touched you. All the while Romero sat and watched, lighting another cigarette.

Glass shattered as the windows got kicked in. People were screaming. A gun went off. Again. And then again. And slowly, working through the shock, your mind caught up to process the image of Jason blowing the heads off of everyone around you, their brains splattering onto the walls and floor.

Letting out a practically feral noise, you lunged at Romero, shoving him to the ground and pounding your fists down into his face over and over again. Your vision was blurry, partly from your tears and partly from the blood that was spraying onto your face every time you brought your hand down. But you couldn’t stop. You busted his lip for your sister. You shattered his nose for the peace you’d fought for.

And you broke his jaw just for you.

Two strong arms were tugging you off the now lifeless body, and your face was pressed into a broad chest. Taking the first breath you’d been able to in 3 weeks, you got a lungful of Jason and you sobbed like a little baby. The hiss of his mask coming off barely registered in your mind.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, hey you’re- fuck, princess it’s okay.” He cooed and ran his gloved fingers through your hair. “It’s over. It’s over.”

“I should have-” You tried to speak but all that came out was a strangled gasping noise. Jason was wiping the blood off your face, pressing kisses to your forehead, your cheeks, your nose. “I should have told you.” You blubbered, clutching at the leather of his jacket. He didn’t even know what you were talking about, or how you got dragged into all this mess, but right now, he didn’t care. “M’not going anywhere, sweetheart. You’re stuck with me.”

“I’m always gonna stay.”

#oneshot #jason todd #jason todd x fem!reader #jason todd x y/n #jason todd x you #jason todd x reader #red hood x you #red hood x reader #red hood x fem!reader #red hood x y/n

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girlleon · 2 months ago

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BUSY BOY

fuckboy!leon x fem reader

warnings: suicide jokes, some slight secondhand embarrassment, unwanted advances, drinking. lots and lots of pining. everyone left fboy leon alone but I’m still here unfortunately. title taken from busy boy by chloe x halle.

Bright sunlight filtering through the blinds of someone’s unfamiliar dorm room wakes you up, red coloring your eyelids. Oh, fuck. You hit the vodka and rum and wine coolers a little too hard last night.

God, you should just bar yourself up in your room whenever you drink. You always make bad decisions when you’re blasted.

One time, you woke up in a ditch wearing someone else’s clothes.

Another time, you got arrested for biking home blasted out of your mind because that apparently counts as drunk driving.

This is the stupidest of all the decisions you made.

Leon snores in the bed next to you, one arm extended over his head and the other across his freckled chest.

He’s kinda cute when he’s not fucking with you, pink mouth parted and bangs falling into his eyes.

Like when you guys were in the same communications-slash-effective speech class and he made a persuasive presentation on why you should go out with him as part of one of the units. You don’t know how, but he actually got a good grade on it.

Maybe that criminal justice major is a perfect fit for him.

You, however, knew better, and made sure to keep away from him. Two words: community dick. Until yesterday.

Last night flashes through your mind—

Dancing. Grinding. Bright lights. Vodka. Making out so messy spit drips down your chin. Stumbling into his dorm room. Your back hits the door, then he hauls you into his arms and throws you onto the bed. More kissing. Oral. Sex three different ways before you both pass out.

—and you groan before you can stop yourself.

He shifts next to you, his snoring stopping.

You freeze and go deathly quiet, hoping against hope that he’ll stay asleep, changing a glance backwards.

Your prayers are answered because he goes right back to sawing logs, nearly crowding you out of bed because he starfishes when he sleeps. Fuckin’ figures. You know he’s not a selfish lover, but he’s gotta make up for it in other ways.

Fuck.

You gather up your clothes—all except your underwear, you couldn’t find that without turning his room upside down and waking him up.

Whatever, going commando’s better for you or some other hippie bullshit your mom texts you about.

You manage to make it out of his dorm without waking him up and hightail it to your own a couple minutes away, exchanging your clothes after a quick shower and brushing your teeth.

On your way to class—that you have with him somehow—you snag an energy drink and down half of it in the three minute walk to your class.

You look like you got dragged backward through a row of hedges, but at least you’re on time.

Leon, king of hearts, shows up five minutes late with a wave to the professor and parks his happy hungover ass on the other side of the room from you.

Good, you were hoping this would be one and done.

Class ends after an hour and you grab your things, getting up to flee before he has a chance to talk to you.

It’s too late, he’d already sauntered up to you while you were putting your notes away.

“Think you forgot something.” Leon says nonchalantly, then digs into his pocket and dangles your underwear from a finger, tongue poked between his teeth with a smile.

You might just hit him. You’re gonna knock his ass out and go to jail.

You snag the underwear from him with a scowl and he huffs a laugh, tucking his hands back into his sweatpant pockets as you shove your underwear into your own pockets.

Never mind, you might have to find a hole and crawl in it and never come out. Actually, campus has a pond that you could reasonably try to drown in like some sort of dark academia aesthetic post that’s a little too on the nose. But it seems like it’d be painful and take a long while.

You stomp out of the classroom and don’t look anyone in the eye, stopping to refill your water bottle and to find a corner to catch up on your work in, trying to put your embarrassing hookup out of your mind.

You fucking feel like everyone’s eyes are on you. Logically, you know they’re not. You know that they’re not and that people are too damn busy to stare at you.

You groan, rubbing your eyes after throwing down your pencil on your work.

Leon slides into the seat next to you. “Been avoiding me?” He asks, muscled arm sneaking over the back of your chair.

“We only had one class together.” You reply measuredly, a headache building in your temples and pressure behind your eyes.

“Two, since we count the speech class.” He replies easily, setting the back of his knee on the opposite foot.

“You’re such a fucking lawyer.” You mutter, picking up your homework pointedly. There’s no point, you’re no good at math, but hopefully, it irritates him that your attention isn’t on him.

Leon gives you a catlike smile, head tilting to the side. “That’s what I pay tuition for. I’d say it serves me well, since I got that A in the persuasive speech about why you should go out with me.”

Your eyes roll to the ceiling, an annoyed and unamused look on your face. “What the hell do you want?”

“To fuck you again.”

You actually look around when he says that, your face heating up. It’s ten in the morning, mind you. Thankfully, nobody gives a shit. His laugh catches your attention and you glare at him.

“Jesus. You’re acting like it’s such a big thing.” Leon rubs the back of his neck, then looks around disinterestedly. Since when has he had that tattoo of a lion? That’s a little on the nose.

“Shut the fuck up.”

He kisses his teeth, unable to fight a grin. “Harsh words.” He remains grinning when you smack him on the arm. “Ouch, that really hurt. Can you kiss it better?”

“Ew.” You enunciate each syllable in the word, brows raising as you lean slightly forward for emphasis.

That grin of his is implacable. Unstoppable force (your irritation) meets immovable object (his smile).

“You know you want me.”

Scratch that. Unstoppable force (your irritation) meets immovable object (his self-confidence).

When you only stare at him, Leon leans forward, pushing hair behind your ear, a far softer look in his eye than you’ve seen on him before.

Any stomach fluttering you may have felt is immediately undone by him smirking at you, that smug perma-smile on his face again. “I knew it.”

“No, you fucking didn’t.” You reply incredulously, that same feeling written all over your face. Your face heats all the way up, rivaling the sun itself, compounding your embarrassment.

“Mm-mm.” He pokes your cheek, leaning back in his seat, one corded forearm settling on the shared armchair.

He needs his ass beat, preferably by someone bigger than both of you so you can have the satisfaction of seeing him black and blue.

You get your wish a few days afterward, watching him waltz into class with a bruise on his cheek and split knuckles. This time, you walk up to him afterward. “You look like someone dragged you backward through a bush.” You say bluntly, sipping your coffee.

Leon smiles, pulling his bag over his shoulder and stepping away from the desk. “You’re a ray of sunshine this early in the morning.”

You take a step back so he can get out of the row. “Just saying. What’d you do?”

He shrugs blithely, pushing a hand into his pocket. “Barfight.”

Your eyebrow twitches up. “You lost?”

His head tilts to the side, a sly smile pulling at his mouth as he blatantly stares at your mouth. “You should see the other guy.”

Jesus Christ. Yeah, okay, now you kinda see why he pulls as many bitches as he does.

He steps a little closer. “Were you worried about me?”

Other kids filter into the classroom, so you walk away. This time, Leon follows you. “Remind me why you don’t want us to hook up again?” He says casually, grinning when you scowl at him.

You roll your eyes. “Because I don’t.”

“Disappointed?” He asks innocently, following you into the library building.

“No.” You say quickly, then scowl. “Yes.” Trick question, either way he’s going to try and argue that into his favor. Fucking lawyers.

He hisses through his teeth, that implacable grin on his face again. “Ouch. How can I make it up to you?”

“By leaving me alone.”

He pouts at you and you almost laugh. That’s probably what he wants, he wants you to laugh so he can worm his way into your good graces. He’s not a bad looking guy—and probably not so bad a guy—you just think he’s a hoe. Good for him, but he’s not for you.

He shrugs after staring at you for a bit, then walks away, whistling tunelessly.

That’s it?

That was not fucking it.

Since your little mishap with Leon, you’ve made it your mission to go for a party once every business month.

You had a good streak of not seeing him until you went to his frat. You figured, ‘Hey, what are the odds? The place will be packed. Needle in a haystack odds of seeing him.’

No such luck. He’s going shot for shot with a brother of his, face pleasantly flushed and blond hair tousled, an impish grin across his face and dimples out in full force.

You immediately turn the other way to avoid him, wandering back to your friends and dancing with them, going back in for shots whenever your drinks are too low.

What happens next is about Shakespearean levels of drama. The beginning scene is this: your friend has a guy grinding on her even though she’s told him to stop and is currently trying to get the hell away from him, you and your other mutual friend trying to bodily block him.

He calls her a stupid, ungrateful bitch, trying to step up to her as if he doesn’t have a head and at least thirty pounds on her.

She calls him a cunt and that makes everything worse.

“Bro.” Leon says, tapping his brother on the shoulder from the side. “Leave her alone, man,” He hiccups mid-sentence, turning his head away and hiccuping into the back of his hand. “she said no.”

Said brother slaps Leon’s hand away, a sneer on his face. “Fuck off, Leon.”

Leon shrugs and seems like he’s about to walk away until he bodily blocks the brother from your friend when he tries to step up again. “Dude, leave her alone. Go find some other girl.” He sounds a little like he’s sobering up.

The brother shoves Leon away, sending him back a step. Leon responds by clocking him in the jaw and knocking his ass to the floor, shaking out his hand and jumping headfirst into the scuffle less than a second later.

They break apart in about five minutes, Leon sporting a bloody lip and a butterfly bruise on his jaw and the brother with a lot more wear and tear.

Leon keeps himself between the brother and your cluster of girls until the brother spits at his feet and storms off to lick his wounds.

“Are you fucking stupid?” you ask immediately, silently amazed that he’s not more hurt. You saw the other guy he got in a bar fight with about a month ago and he looked like he lost a fight with a deer, so you should maybe not be so surprised.

He chuckles, wiping a streak of blood from his lip on the meaty side of his thumb. “I’m drunk.”

You look at him as if he grew two heads. “Yeah?” Obviously, you mean.

You never would’ve taken him for a bloodthirsty son of a bitch. He just seems so unassuming, frat boy antics aside. Maybe that’s his cover. Maybe all his criminal justice classes taught him how to be a better criminal.

The fight somehow didn’t sour the night, everyone as they were once Leon’s frat brother walks away to cool off, bass shaking the floor.

When Leon goes to the kitchen, you follow him and stop him from taking a swig of gin straight from the bottle and using it as antiseptic.

When you look around, you realize there’s no rubbing alcohol or peroxide or anything. That’s what you get for assuming the best in a group of men brought together by binge drinking and pack behavior.

Leon smirks at you, then takes a swig of straight gin, making sure to get his split lip soaked in it and grimacing when he’s done. “Damn.” He swipes his tongue over his lower lip and watches you pretend like you weren’t watching him.

“That’s the least of what you get.” You grumble, turning his face this way and that to assess the damage.

“It’s cute that you’re worried for me.” He licks a little blood off his teeth and takes another swig of gin.

“What if you get arrested? What happens then?” You prod at a bruise to see him wince. “Does it look good for a prospective law enforcer to be dinged with a drunk and disorderly?”

“A few d’n’ds aren’t enough to get me kicked from the program.” He muses, rubbing at the furrow between your brows with his thumb. “I think it’ll make me more relatable, personally.”

“So you’re going to be a defense attorney.”

That pulls a genuine laugh from him, surprisingly.

Maybe the vodka you’ve had is making you feel a little too warm. You take one step back.

“Thanks for stepping in.” You say after a stilted moment, looking around the rather unpopulated kitchen.

“That guy’s an asshole.” He sounds a little tipsy again, blame the gin and lack of rubbing alcohol. “Nobody—nobody wants him around, he’s such a little bitch.”

You watch amusedly as he gestures a little as he talks, one hand cutting through the air. “It’s like, the third time he’s done that, I’m gonna—g’na talk to the president to… about kicking his sorry ass out. You can’t do that to girls, man, it’s not cool.”

“What if he tries to jump you?” You lean a hip against the counter, folding your arms over your chest and watching his eyes wander. Damn, you were right to peg him for a spring coloring, that alcohol blush makes his eyes pop.

Leon laughs, taking another swig of gin. “He can try.”

This time, Leon wakes up before you do, morning sun in his eyes this time around. He rolls over, pressing his face against the back of your neck and snaking a corded forearm around your waist, pulling you closer to him.

He hopes you stay this time, you’re not so bad when you’re pretending like you’re immune to his charms.

#leon kennedy x reader #mine #leon kennedy x you #resident evil #leon s kennedy x reader

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 1 year ago

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HCs: Ken meeting a Human!Fem!Reader who owns a ranch

Wanted to write something for this movie bc it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past two days. So enjoy, lovelies!

I’m taking requests for this movie so don’t be shy <3

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

...........

After going back to the Real World to find a purpose for himself, Ken runs into you, a country girl who left the Mattel company to take care of your ranch.

You just stopped in the city to find new outfits..and instead found him rollerblading through the park, immediately recognizing him as a Ken.

You may not be in the company anymore but you just knew (especially with his vibrant outfit giving it away).

You two hit it off right away and eventually you go shopping together.

He gets a new cowboy outfit and is bashful when you pay for it (to which you reply that you..really didn’t have a choice in the matter, as he had no money).

He’s like “ohh that happened before when I was with Barbie..we got arrested for the second time that day :D”

You’re very concerned and decide that he should stick with you from now on (not that anyone at Mattel would ever care about a Ken running around to begin with...you just didn’t wanna have to bail him out of jail).

On the truck ride back to your home, you mentioned owning a ranch and Ken’s in a w e

You tell him more about it, and he’s so intrigued and can’t stop staring at you the entire time, especially as you go on about how a lot of women in your world are cowgirls and how they aren’t represented enough.

He bluntly states that he once believed “patriarchy” was all about the horses and you nearly laughed, but he seemed sad about it, so you assure him if he wanted to see horses, he made the right decision coming with you.

You introduce him to one of your favorite steeds and he’s SO overjoyed to actually see one in person. Like petting its mane and asking dozens of questions like an excited kid.

“Are you sure Barbieland didn’t have any horses of their own?”

“No, we just have the ones on sticks and our imaginations.” He pouts, mimicking the way he rode invisible horses with his hands. “But this? This is WAY cooler!!”

He tries mounting your horse, envisioning himself riding off into the sunset, free as a bird while shouting “yeehaw” at the top of his lungs-

Only for it to rear its head up and nearly stomp on his foot, with you having to calm it down as he snaps back to reality, looking utterly distraught and stressed over upsetting it.

“Alrighty. Ken. If you wanna ride a horse..the first step is earning its respect. Thought you would’ve learned about that in those books....but if you’ll let me, I’ll show you how to properly mount one. Luckily this one here’s accustomed to double riders.”

His face lights up and he listens to every instruction you give him, from placing the saddle on its back to climbing on, and finally how to control the direction he wants it to go.

For this one time, however, you take the reins and let him sit behind you, hugging you a bit too tightly for your liking, but you allow it as you show him around the rest of your ranch.

He just likes the closeness fr and you.

By the time the day’s over, your horse got better acquainted with Ken and let him ride around for a little while before you gotta put it in the stable for the night.

Before he could worry about where he was gonna go, you tell him he can stay with you as long as he wants.

He’s so happy he just,,,,breaks down ugly crying into your arms.

Though he quickly apologizes, admitting he’s still getting used to crying freely and being more emotional and-

“It’s okay, Ken.” You reassure him. “We need more guys like that around here who ain’t afraid to shed a tear or two.”

“Th-Thanks...Barbie told me it’s an amazing feeling. And honestly..it kinda is.”

After that small heart-to-heart talk, he gifts you his horseshoe necklace as a sign of his appreciation, that dopey grin returning to his face when you take it and wear it right away.

Yeah, you’ve only met each other for a day and he’s smitten the moment you started treated him as an equal. You let him have his own room, bed, wardrobe, etc. (and in time he'll have his own horse too).

All you ask is that he helps you manage the ranch, but at this point he’s willing to do anything for you now.

Finally, he realizes this was his dream all along.

One that Barbieland couldn't provide, but that was alright.

Patriarchy is overrated, anyways. This was all he wanted.

#barbie #barbie movie #barbie 2023 #barbie spoilers #barbie x reader #ken x reader #female reader #headcanons #fluff #just ken #barbie ken

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1d1195 · 4 months ago

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Protection Extra IV

Read Protection here | ~1.8k words

From me: I really got to thinking about this idea from 🎶-ask. It is short, but hopefully it's enough. I've missed them loads. This is back within the first year of their official dating. I mentioned I would be jumping time frames a bit with these extras, so here it is.

Warnings: a little angsty. But fluffy overtones. Harry's just a protective guy. Also, the tiniest bit of smut but you have to squint and read between the lines. Mostly heavy making out and a little bit of touching.

Summary: Harry might not work for DSS anymore in the same way he used to. He doesn't guard her life because it's his job. He guards it because it's his life; her entire being is his and he would lose his mind (worse) if something happened to her.

She does not care to the same capacity as him. (But she does feel bad about it at least.)

“You said I could,” he frowned. The little scrunch between his eyebrows appeared when he concentrated. She loved it endlessly. Even if what he was asking was ridiculous. So as much as she loved that little furrow between his eyebrows, she was not going to cave. Instead, she smoothed her fingers on the bunch of skin and cupped his cheek with her hand. He turned into her hand and kissed her palm.

“Like as a joke, Harry,” she rolled her eyes she dropped her hand and returned to her previous position. She couldn’t see his face. But it didn’t matter. She already knew what faces he made any time she annoyed him anyway.

It was insane they were even having this conversation. Harry broached it so casually too. They were snuggled on the sofa, her body resting in his embrace. His knees bent around either side of her body and she laid across his torso. She fit so warmly against him it was hard to believe he was even asking her such a thing because the idea she would ever leave the circle of his arms was ridiculous.

“Okay,” he sighed. It was obvious he was frustrated by the decision. Her head was close enough to his mouth that he could kiss the top of her hair, so he did. He ran one hand up and down her arm sitting in the quiet while he held her safely in his arms. It was his favorite part of the day, holding her close to him where he knew nothing bad was going to happen. He wouldn’t let it.

Obviously, she took his silence as plotting to convince her. Which he could never. He knew that. He knew he would have an easier time convincing a fish to walk than telling her what to do. “I literally have my phone on me all the time and now you know about my shoe trick.”

He sighed. “But y’didn't have y'phone,” he reminded her. “No shoes either.”

There was that; she would allow him that much. “Well, there's no more threat, so I don't need—”

"Kitten," he sighed rubbing a hand over his face. He was exasperated. “I don’t want t’talk ‘bout this anymore,” he mumbled.

She frowned feeling bad she upset him. But he was thinking way too far over the top. “No one is even going to remember me anymore,” she whispered quietly. “He’s in jail for a really long time,” she reminded him. He didn’t answer her. “Harry,” she whispered. “Talk to me.”

“I already said I don’t want t’talk ‘bout it anymore.”

Her frown deepened and she sighed; feeling like the worst girlfriend in the world because she wouldn’t put a tracking device in her arm. “I have the scrunchie, too; for when you’re away,” she reminded him. He nodded, still silent. “Harry,” she sat up on her knees, so she could look at him. He was so pretty, all soft skin and angular. He was so handsome it made her swoon on a regular basis, and he was all hers. But she had to stand her ground.

His eyes looked sad, tired. Too sad. “M’not trying t’be controlling.”

“Of course not, Harry. I know—”

“Honey,” he interrupted.

Her heart skipped a beat because for whatever reason, when he called her honey, it made her lose all rational thought. It seemed like the conversation was far more serious than when he called her kitten, love, or even Miss Wildflower. She felt like she was nothing more than a container of the very sweet goop he called her. “I talked ‘bout this with m’therapist and we... I know m’being... crazy,” he frowned. He cupped the side of her face as he spoke so softly. Like all of this was a secret. “But... I was insanely lucky,” he reminded her. “Y’were brilliant,” he complimented. “I told you ‘bout a fail safe in passing and y’had been planning all along. I was completely blindsided by y’departure. Every step you had planned was perfect. But if y’didn’t have an AirTag, I wouldn’t have found you,” he admitted. She didn’t speak because his compliment was too nice. She didn’t think about it all that much. Mainly because she didn’t like thinking about betraying Harry the way she did. It was nearly a year ago and he was still worried. It probably killed him to admit that out loud. Because it was his job at the time, and he wouldn’t have been able to find her. But it wasn’t just his job. He loved her so completely.

If something happened to her, she really believed Harry wouldn’t survive the guilt. He barely forgave himself for her injured leg and she wasn’t convinced he fully forgave himself for that either.

She turned toward his palm in the same way he had and kissed his hand softly. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “You don’t need t’apologize, kitten. Y’didn’t do anything wrong.”

She took a deep breath. She had her own therapist and they had also discussed a lot about her hyper-independence. Even with someone like Harry to rely on because she could, and he wouldn’t ever judge her. “I’m not...” she swallowed. “I had people follow me around for years, Harry,” she reminded him.

“I know—”

She pressed a finger to his lips gently. “I couldn’t do what I wanted ninety percent of my life, Harry,” she reminded him. “Do you know what it’s like to want to go to the mall to get new jeans because yours ripped and someone tells you that you can’t? Or that you want to go to a new frozen yogurt place with friends, but you’re not allowed to? If I forgot a vegetable for dinner, I couldn’t run to the store and back without it being a production,” he didn’t know what any of that felt like; not really. He only knew it from the end of production. The part of it all she didn’t like. So, he stayed quiet. “If you texted me every five minutes for the rest of our lives, asking where I was, I would tell you every. Single. Time,” she assured him locking her gaze with his. He felt it in his stomach, the way she looked at him. She meant every word she spoke. “If you put a tracking device in me it’ll... it’ll just feel like the rest of my life. Unable to make decisions on my own. Unable to live freely,” she told him. “You have my location through my phone. I am more than willing to have that scrunchie on my wrist and in my hair when you’re not within a couple hours of me,” she promised thinking about the weekend he spent with his mom. She wondered how long he stared at the little blipping dot that told him she was safe and in her house for most of the time he was gone. “Those AirTags saved my life because you told me I needed a failsafe, Harry. You saved me.”

His gaze dropped from hers and they were quiet. Harry didn’t like the compliment. He felt like he didn’t do a good job because she nearly drowned and had a scar on her thigh that made him want to smack his head on the wall for letting those things happen to her. Silently, she settled back into his arms, her ear resting so she had the perfect sound of his heart thudding against her.

“Harry?” She whispered.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

He smiled, kissed the top of her head. “I love you, too,” his head dropped back against the arm of the sofa and he squeezed her. He thought of all those days she studied on the ground and how they were always this close to snuggling this way. “M’sorry m’so nervous,” he mumbled. “I know you’re capable of taking care of yourself,” he pressed his nose just behind her ear, like he was tracing the outline of her hair behind it.

“I think if I had a tracking device, you wouldn’t enjoy your life. Wouldn’t take your eyes off it.”

He thought of visiting his mother back in March and how the anxiety built and fell over and over as he looked at the little blip telling him where her scrunchie was. She was right. He would have it on every screen he owned if he knew her exact location. “You’re right.”

“Oh, that had to have hurt,” she giggled and kissed his throat.

He rolled his eyes. “You’re a genius, kitten. M’happy t’say you’re right.” It was embarrassing how those words turned her on. A shiver rippled through her. No one loved her as much as Harry. No one trusted her instinct, her intelligence, or judgement as much as he did. But it was more than that. Because Harry knew people didn’t believe her for years. People misjudged her abilities because of her father and circumstance. They didn’t believe in her. So it was like he had complimented how pretty she looked (which she did) when he said she was right. It wasn’t an ego thing. “Did y’like that, honey?” He hummed his lips nipping at her earlobe as he spoke.

Harry knew exactly how much she liked that.

“Off,” she ordered shoving his shirt up his torso. It didn’t matter than she had seen him without a shirt hundreds of times since the day they warmed up in his car after the icy dip in the water when he saved her life a second time in one week. She liked to feel the hard ripples of his stomach and he had promised she could look as much as she wanted once she was warm.

Well now she was warm. “Yes, ma’am,” he pulled it off the rest of the way and pulled her in to kiss her as deeply as he could before he pushed her back to the opposite end of the couch and settled between her legs. “Say it,” he whispered, not quite begging. But he wanted to hear it. Because it made him feel better. It made him worry less about all the thoughts they had discussed in the last hour. He carefully shifted her leg as if he was worried it was the very same day she nearly bled out. He slipped his hand between their bodies feeling her through her leggings.

She moaned softly while he kissed the length of her throat and brushed his lips against the swell of her chest as she tried to maintain enough air to speak before she was lost in Harry and all his perfection.

She had no problem saying it. Because it was true. Truer than most anything she believed in her life. Harry was hers and he was going to protect her in any way he could even if she wasn't willing to put a tracking device in her body. “I’m all yours,” she promised breathlessly.

general taglist: @justlemmeadoreyou @daydreamingofmatilda @sunshinemoonsposts @loving-hazz @likeapplejuicenpeach

@straightontilmornin @freedomfireflies @littlenatilda @kathb59 @babegoals

@angel-upon @lilfreakjez @mleestiles @ameliaalvarez06 @canyonmoondreams

@summertime-pills @daphnesutton @l4rrysh0use @perfectywrong @foreverxholland

@lovrave @st-ev-ie @pandeebearstyles @toosarcastic03 @luvonstyles

@tenaciousperfectionunknown @classychalamet @love-letters-to-uranus @emmaawbr @crossyourpeter

@kissitnhekitchen @kittenhere @stylesfever @indierockgirrl @michellekstyles

@just-another-reader1098 @hermionelove @tiredinwinter @whimsy-willows @hannah9921

@fangirl7060 @triski73 @vikiii07 @prettygurl-2009 @madstyles3204

@angeldavis777

Protection taglist: @youcouldstartacult @walkingintheheartbreaksatellite @luxiorchive @ameerakane20 @be-with-me-so-happily

@cherryshouse @samanddeaninatrenchcoat @cherrystyle @kaiohnsa @snwells

I'm sorry if I missed anyone in the taglist. Please let me know if you'd like to join, if it didn't work, if you no longer want to be included, etc. :)

If you like this, check out my masterlist for more of my writing.

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arainywriter · 7 months ago

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this is going to probably be the longest post of my life, and i HATE getting into fandom discourse which is why i don't usually write anything about fandom discourse, but i just want to address some things about our favorite rat grinders so if you want to read, click below

as someone who loves the rat grinders as nuanced antagonists who are also teenagers, i think the rat grinders before they ever joined in on porter and jace's plan were assholes.

i think they were the quiet bullies, the mean people who you never notice until they are mean to you, the ones who seem nice and respectable up close, but talk shit about you the minute you're gone.

i think most of them (kipperlilly in particular) were looking for a reason to be bad. and i know we might not ever get this confirmation, but based off kipperlilly's file and other moments with the trg, i think it's possible this is correct.

they were assholes who needed a reason to be even bigger, more dangerous assholes and most of them took it. and yes, it was either that or be dead, but i want you to know that sometimes that's not even a question. sometimes you don't even care about the other option, you just want to rage.

i think the one time all of them or maybe some of them even thought that what they were doing could be was when lucy died. and that's when i feel bad for them. they had to lock in right there because they all had made a decision, and they all needed to continue it. that's the manipulation.

i know they are kids. they are just teenagers. i work with teens, and guys, let me tell you, some teenagers are assholes. and i don't mean say a funny mean joke asshole, i mean literally going to grow up and be a shitty person asshole. i think some of the rat grinders were those kind of teens.

did they deserve to be redeemed? i think some of them do. i think buddy has a big shot at being redeemed, and i genuinely hated that he died in the last stand and had to make that decision. i think ally is going to try if they can. i think mary ann might be redeemed.

but also, you guys have to remember that this is dnd. i don't think many of you have played dnd before, or if you have you're just really conscientious about everything you do. because as a dm who has played dnd and has made nuanced antagonists, your players are gonna straight up kill them.

brennan knows that. i'm 100% sure he knows that. this isn't scripted. the intrepid heroes aren't thinking about what the fans want every time they play. in dnd, ESPECIALLY in brennan's dnd, it's kill or be killed.

the rat grinder's weren't going to use non-lethal attacks. they were going to kill the bad kids, and they were going to be UNNATURALLY happy throughout it all. they were going to spit in their faces and roast marshmallows on their bodies. they were going to not feel guilty.

sound familiar?

i think the bad kids have been nice to the rat grinders since day one. not kind, nice. they've been polite and nice to them, not going all in until this fight. if this fight happened before the finale, i think the rat grinders would have had more time to be redeemed (ex. see Ragh in season 1 who def would have died in the finale battle if the bad kids hadn't fought him earlier). but the bad kids are stressed and done.

there is no time to be polite and nice when the world is going to end.

i know you liked these characters. i did too. i'm sad to see them go, but even when someone is nuanced and could be redeemed, the person they were a piece of shit to doesn't have to be the one to redeem them. they don't have to be the one to keep them alive and make sure they only get taken the police instead of dead. cause trg would have gone to jail.

aelwyn did. so would they.

people you've wronged don't owe you forgiveness or redemption. trg didn't wrong tbk that bad, but they made them angry, they tried to kill them, and they're probably almost close to ending the world.

i'll miss you rat grinders. you guys were perfect narrative foils, but it was always going to end like this.

now stop being absolute assholes to the intrepid heroes just cause they didn't play how you wanted.

love this fandom, and yeah, d20 get shit wrong sometimes. always make sure to critique your favorite piece of media.

but at the end of the day, this isn't your table to play dnd at. this is theirs and they are having fun. why don't you go and play as the rat grinders in your home game and give them the ending they deserve, or make fanfiction about it?

put your anger into that.

#dimension 20 #d20 #fantasy high #the rat grinders #i hope i was as middle ground as i could be #i was more sad about buddy dying in the last stand than i think i would be here #idk #anyway going back to only posting funny shit about d20 #SEE YOU IN THE STARS

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sugoi-writes · 8 months ago

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Scream Machine - Part 2 - An Alastor x Reader Fanfic

A/N: Soooo, here's part 2! Horny brain went into overdrive and cranked this bad boy out. I do apologize if there are mistakes. I hope you enjoy!

Keep in mind I'm still keeping the reader/their parts/and such all neutral: the only thing is you are in a dress. But otherwise, that's it!

Mentions of grinding, light choking, some manhandling, biting, making out, tidbits of French, and generally... lots of clothed smut.

Catch yall in horny jail tonight 👈😎👈 Bring a sweater

❤️🎙❤️

The weather, despite the hellscape, was... perfect? Your stroll was casual, slow... and you felt like you were either being paraded around, or made claim on. It make your throat tighten as you continued walking with the radio demon.

You glanced upward, instantly regretting your decision. You caught the glint in his eye as your face heated.

"So, have you always been a musician, dear? In your time alive, I mean." You blinked at the question, nodding.

"On and off while alive. Music class here, trying new instruments there... but when I came to hell, something just... called to me. And I've been doing jazz band since I've gotten the hang of trumpet." You were surprised by the pleasant conversation, the ulterior motive becoming harder to crack.

"Do you play? With your broadcast and all, I'd assume you play too..." Alastor hums, positively delighted by your questioning.

"Indeedy! My Mother taught me everything I know. I'm a piano man, myself... never took up an interested in brass or percussion." Your eyes widened a little bit. How odd for an overlord to comment on... his mortal mother.

"I assume she was a good player..." The smile on Alastor's face faltered for a beat, before it quickly bounced back," Oh yes... she saved as much money as she could for lessons, as well. Whatever she couldn't do, she made sure I learned it elsewhere. You'd be hard-fetched to find a tune I can't play." You found yourself returning his smile as he looked down to you. Most of what you hear about Alastor is how terrifying he is... how dangerous he was... What a rare treat it was to hear about how he was just a child once, like you.

"And... I would assume you could keep up with demand, yourself," Alastor quipped," You must have a pretty good ear and lots of darling little fans.

You were going to confirm that yes, you made a name for yourself... but you remembered why you got here. Be humble.

You were shrugging shortly after," Y-You could say that, I guess. I wouldn't say I'm perfect by a long shot, but--"

You nearly fell on your face as Alastor rounded the corner suddenly. You grip at his arm tightly as your train of thought buffered. You didnt see the look on Alastor's... the look of satisfaction. He has you right where he wants you... Before you could continue walking, you felt your body become incoporal again, before materializing in the alleyway. Your breath hitches, Alastor now standing before you.

"Tell me... is music your only source of income?" Alastor asks, his voice taking on a nearly creamy quality. A shiver hits you again. That damned voice...

You scoff, laughing bitterly," Of course not... you should know that, with your hotel side project..." You seethe, immediately catching yourself. Don't lose your cool...not with this guy. His voice is already dangerous, a voice you typically fell asleep to... don't let him crawl further into your head.

Alastor's grin seemed to double, as he lowered himself to your level. A dangerous glint glided across his eyes," ...what if I told you it could be?"

You take a step back, your hand brushing against the wall of the alleyway. You were nearly pushed all the way to your back as Alastor loomed over you," I dont... quite follow I'm afraid, Alastor, sir..."

Sir. Ohh, he did like the sound of that. Your pulse picking up was music to Alastor's ears... His hand slammed into the wall next to your head, making you gasp and jolt. You looked to your right for your escape, but your head was tilted back and up towards the Radio Demon, his damned microphone forcing you to look his way.

"Well, with being the hotelier, and having my own... passion projects... I have been looking for people to delegate to. 'Many hands make the work lighter', and the like...," Alastor cooed, his voice sickeningly sweet as opposed to his demented face.

"And with this hotel... there is not shortage of entertainment, nor opportunities for employment..."

You swallowed hard, having heard of the hotel. You've seen the standoff that was brought about the most recent extermination. The things you saw made your skin crawl, as if infested with maggots. The princess of hell, Charlie, and her insane powers... the King of Hell himself, who was short a spouse, but not a punch... and the Great Alastor, who many had thought was gone; perished. But alas, how wrong you all were....

"Look, I-- I appreciate the offer. But redemption isn't what I need. I earned my ticket here, and I'd like to earn my keep to stay. This life-- this style--... I don't imagine heaven is very keen on wild jazz musicians up there." You grinned up at the Radio Demon, some of your fire bubbling back up from below," You have a lot of gals and boys just itching to get in... why me?"

Alastor's eyebrows raised, impressed," My friend, if there is anything that hotel and its residents lack, it's class... and what better way to fake it than with quality entertainment? Additionally, the more they partake... the more they adapt; and the more that YOU--"

A large pile of money vaporized out of thin air, it's bills fanning your face," ...stand to earn~"

You swallowed hard. The amount of money that was in his hand was... transformative. It was regal amounts of money. You could do so much with it. Pay debts, secure land... You'd be able to get out of the barrel of shit you'd been trapped in.

You glanced between the money and Alastor, your eyebrows knitting," ... well, what do you want out of all of this? Surely you're expecting something on your end, Mr. Overlord..."

Alastor sighs, tsking as his cane drops your chin, allowing you to relax," If you're worried for your soul, I'm afraid I have no interest in it." Alastor waves off your worry dismissively, still grinning maniacally," No, no... all I want is to become your patron. You supply entertainment for the hotel and its guests, and I supply you with cash... in the meantime, I can make any alterations and requests to your 'sets' at will." You blink, surprised as you process the words spoken to you. This man ALWAYS dealt with souls... and he had no use for yours? You huffed, almost offended. Of course... why would he have a use for a useless sinner like you?

You crossed your arms across your chest, your golden dress ridding up your thighs," So... let's say I were to agree to your little arrangement. Would I still be able to do my other music gigs? I'm still making a name for myself..."

"That would be quite alright, dear."

"And if I have a conflicting event...?" Alastor's silent smile sends the message. No calling out sick... got it. You nodded to the cash in Alastor's hand, eyes narrowed. You needed to play this up, see how much you could squeeze out of this...

"And that? Is that my weekly pay?" Alastor shakes his head, the money still gripped in hand like a bear trap. One that you were about to fall for...

"My my, you must take me as a sham... this is just the sign on bonus! I can assure you, you'll be making SO much more, once you start..." You gulped down the air around you like a fish out of water, gapping. Yep. That's all that you needed to hear.

"I... I dont..." Your mind was racing. Would you really be able to live with yourself by taking this? Would you really be able to accept a bribery like this from one of the most sadistic fucks in hell? ...of course you would.

You hold your hand our to Alastor, hellbent on making it official," Alright, Radiostar... let's make that deal." Alastor is quick to chuckle, his tone dark and rich as he closes the gap. The firm, resolute shake that was shared between you lit a spark in him, literally and physically, with an ominous green light. He had to keep getting more... MORE of you. More of your time.

Alastor backs you into the wall once more, your eyes doubling from panic. And there was your pulse, aching to be bit into... Alastor stoops down to your height, hands slowly raking down the walls of the alley. It their wake, he was leaving deep, wide rivets.

"Dear, I have to ask...," Alastor rasps out, his eyes threatening to flicker to dials. His voice drops an octave, making your legs squeeze together. Alastor's eyes move to them, taking note. So you were his little fan...

"...how is your stamina?" You didn't have time to ask, before Alastor crashes into your lips, tilting your chin up. You were breathless, hands instantly coming up and beating on Alastor's chest. This was so sudden! This was in public!!! This... this was pretty hot, honestly.

You weren't sure if it was the lack of oxygen, or how good his kiss had become... but Alastor was making you question your resolve. You felt Alastor's tongue, thin and keen on entering your mouth. You hesitated, before you felt two large hands grip you under your thighs. As you were hoisted up, you groaned, giving Alastor easy entry. The moment his tongue met yours, you were practically melting. Alastor was famous for his silver tongue, but you had no idea he could do this with it.

Your head was reeling from the quick, heated emotions you felt. Once or twice, you had pondered what it would be like to be endeared to the Radio Demon... but only that: pondered.

And yet today, you seemed to be having your lucky day. A fast paced, VERY lucky day.

When Alastor finally pulled away, you were panting, much harder than you did inside of the speakeasy. A strap to your golden dress had fallen down shoulder, only for Alastor's hands to move it back into place. A gentleman, despite everything.... and despite the mouthwatering sight of your dress riding further up your thighs. Alastor had to admit the display made him feel... carnal desires that he hadnt felt in such a long time.

"It's a shame... I figured the taste of metal would still be on your lips... but no matter. You taste just as sweet..." Alastor nearly purred, making you sigh shakily in his grasp. You fisted his blazer, eyes hazy as Alastor began to kiss your cheeks, then down your neck. You could punch, kick, scream... but this was playing out in sucj a delicious way... would a part of you really want to see this go any other way? You moaned into the crisp, hellish air.

You thought not.

You let your head fall back against the wall, eyes fluttering as you felt his hot tongue in all of his open-mouthed kisses. His breath set you on fire, and you were kicking yourself mentally, realizing this demon was getting you much too heated.

"S-Slow down! I-- ahh-- W-We're in public! Nnngh--" Your pitiful words were useless as Alastor suckled on the junction between your neck and shoulder, making your head feel even lighter. Your legs strained and buckled, and you could just tell that if Alastor touched you between your legs, you would be drenched with your own arousal.

"Aren't most performances live, mon cher~?" Alastor chuckled darkly, his nonchalant attitude making your breath hitch again. A broken, disjointed moan was the only thing you allowed to come out. With your head still thrown back, you couldn't see the way he drinked in your appearance. Alastor relished and memorized how your throat tightened and bobbled with each noise you made... Arguably, this was much better to watch than your strife at the speakeasy.

Alastor lapped at your shoulder lecherously, before sinking his teeth in. You nearly screamed, the pain soon replaced by pleasure as Alastor suckled at the wound. You let out a pleased hiss when Alastor's hands moved higher, gripping you by your hips. Then, you felt his knee come between your legs, anchoring you in place. To your horror, Alastor could indeed feel JUST how excited you've gotten.

Due to you dangling in the air, gravity was already threatening to pull you down. And with his knee the only obstacle, you felt the friction at your core... Worriedly: a place where you weren't sure if you wanted stimulated in an alleyway. But, the deeper parts of your psyche ached for the display to contiue... to see how much the Radio Demon would do.

Your toes curled as you let out a high pitched yelp, your hips involuntarily grinding into Alastor's knee. The deer Demon's ears perked up. Not only had your heart fluttered, but your voice had changed... so scandalous! He wasn't one to engage in this behavior before Hell... but with how far your dress had ridden up, clothed privates gyrating against his knee... he felt the need to indulge.

Experimentally, he pressed his knee further into you, forcing a whine as you ground down again. It looks as though you bit off more than you could chew... but you couldn't help but revel in the feeling. Alastor smiled mischievously, practically groaning himself.

"Oh darling, you taste absolutely Heavenly...," Alastor exaggerated," And your little cries... THIS is a performance I'd like to see~" Alastor nipped at your skin again, making you quake and grind. Your mouth hung open as Alastor hungrily licked a stripe from your collarbone to your ear. He shifted his tone to a gravelly, baritone inflection that made you clench around nothing. With the confidence of a succubus, he whispered in your ear.

"Should we see it to its conclusion?"

Your head rolled to the side, allowing Alastor more access as you panted below him. The fire in your belly beckoned your answer.

"Pl-Please... I-- I can't-- I cant...! n-not without...," you bite your lip," I-Internal stimulation." Alastor chuckled, sultry eyes gazing back to you through half lids. How quick you are to switch sides... how quick you were to be putty in his hands. Perhaps you would be willing to engage in other deals...

"You doubt my abilities? You wound me~" He ground his leg into your heat again, sending sparks up your spine," Then you'll have to work for it..."

You whined as Alastor leaned in to kiss you again, his hands holding your waist firmly," You may use me to meet your peak, love...," Alastor huffed, bringing you higher with just his knee. You found yourself unable to think, your body moving on its own to situate yourself.

"And when you climax, I want to look at me. And only me."

You panted like a dog in heat as your hips moved on their own, Alastor's grip rather unnecessary. Though, if he let go, he would be scared of losing this moment.

Your hair clung to your forehead as your voice hit a crescendo, eyes threatening to roll back. He wasn't kidding. With all of this wording, foreplay, and tension... you may just come from grinding on his leg afterall.

You felt a hot, girthy tendril come up to your lips, swiping your drool across your bottom lip. Alastor was lowering himself, kissing the hem of your top. You shuddered as you felt the heat of his face ghosting your skin.

"Thats it... keep going. I promise I will give you something much more fulfilling soon~"

You whined as your mouth fell open, Alastor's tentacle pushing past your lips. The promise had to demanding more. On command, you sucked on his tentacle, hollowing your cheeks as you felt it wiggle and explore your mouth. He had also managed to quiet you down... effectively: he killed two birds with one stone.

In his case... something had been hardening in his trousers, straining against its confines. Damn it all, he was losing his restraint.

Alastor's hands guided your hips, rocking you quicker against his leg. He would ensure that you met your high before he pushed you too far. Your hands flew up to steady yourself, grasping his lapels tightly. Alastor chuckled in amusement as he watched you bounce against him, eyes rolled fully back into your skull as you took his tentacle and his teasing. Alastor rewarded you with a well placed kiss, landing on top of your clothed nipple. You nearly shrieked as Alastor suckled there, a new tentacle coming up to tweak and fondle the other. What a perfectly flushed and scandalous display!

You were putty in his hands, about to come completely undone. You looked towards Alastor, signaling to him that you were getting close. The Radio Demon grinned, removing his tentacle almost immediately. It instead looped around your neck, pulling you close to his face.

Your head spun as what little oxygen you had was knocked from your windpipe, it's grip around you loose. And yet, it was sensual enough to spike the feeling in your gut twofold. You let out a garbled whine, your lips forming the words "Close! Cl-Close!!!"

Alastor brusher your nose with his own, his voice low and demanding," You can cum now, dear... let me see your grand finale."

Your entire body convulsed, the suddeness of your orgasm shocking you. Your hands shook as your nearly screamed, Alastor's lips silencing your pleas. He helped your ride out your pleasure, magma coursing through you as you started to return to your senses. You panted, breath ragged as Alastor returned your gaze, catching his breath at the same time. You looked down between the two of you, eyes widening when you realized what had happened.

Alastor's pants now had a very evident wet spot... but not just from you.

You looked to meet Alastor's gaze, eyes wide in awe as he gave you a toothy, blissful grin.

"You'll have to excuse me, dearest. I am not used to this form of... entanglement. Though I can assure you that we can work on that stamina... together."

Alastor lowered you to your feet, before catching you hastily. Your legs wobbled and gave out, too unstable to keep you upright. You smiled back, eyes still glossy with lust.

"I-- I have to hand it to you, Alastor... that... that was a show alright."

Alastor laughs breathlessly, snapping his fingers. With a quick flourish, the both of you were wearing new outfits. You were now dressed in a deep red gown, while Alastor was fitted in a black and red pinstriped suit. Evidence of your mingling was gone, his sweaty, slick hair had now back to its voluminous, pristine look. You questioned if you looked just as fair...

"As I said! It was a performance I was most invested in... and one of many, I would hope." Alastor pats your cheek, stepping back once he knew you could stand.

"Unfortunately, my dear, I am out of time. Business to attend to. But... whenever you are free... you may come straight to the hotel for check in."

"Ch-Check in...?," you reply," But... I wasn't so keen on redemption, remember?"

Alastor laughs, a familiar laughing track echoing through his vocal frequency," You jest! Surely you know all staff are to stay within the hotel, dont you? Free room and board! What could be a better perk?" You smile sheepishly, wiping your hands down your sides, as if they were dirty from your exploits.

"Well... I guess after a freebie and getting my hair blown back, it'd be rude to refuse... I assume I'll have my own room?" Alastor nods, taking your hand.

"I'll ensure that it's taken care of. Of course... if you'd like, I could give you priority on where you'd like to be placed...?" You swallowed the lump forming in your throat, suddenly nervous after having been given the ride of your life by a near stranger.

"Well... if I could be next to your room... it may make... 'practice'... a little easier?" Alastor smiled wickedly, pulling your hand to his lips. You held back a mewl as he kisses your delicate knuckles.

"Consider it done... I'll send some help to collect your things." Alastor backs up a few more paces, and double taps the ground with his staff," Check in is before 8PM... don't be late~"

And with that, the Radio Demon disappears, leaving your head reeling and face flushed. You sighed, placing a hand over your still racing heart. You had a lot of work ahead of you...

You begin your awkward, wobbly way towards you apartment. The possibilities and the future were looking all too promising...

Indeed, you were about to be a much richer, much more satisfied sinner. And you were a-okay with that.

#alastor x y/n #alastor x reader #alastor hazbin hotel #radio demon x reader #radio demon x y/n

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mychemicalrachel · 5 months ago

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THE LONGEST NIGHT

Part One.

Much to Adam’s dismay, jail cells in real life were pretty much the same as they showed on TV. The old iron bars, warm under his sweaty palms, and the uncomfortable bench seat screwed to the brick wall, and the single dirty toilet, currently occupied in the corner.

He couldn’t believe this. He’d always been a believer in making his own luck– fate didn’t have any place in a realist's life– but this…

This was nothing but bad fucking luck.

He didn’t belong here, he didn’t deserve this. Sure, Adam had made bad decisions in his life; he was human after all. But nothing on the long trek to DC had warranted this kind of torture.

The man on the toilet grunted and a smell like rotten sewage filled the tiny cell.

No. Adam did not belong here.

He adjusted his argyle sweater vest, an old thing he’d picked up at Goodwill when he was still in high school and at least two sizes smaller. The collar felt suffocating against his throat.

“Excuse me,” Adam tried again for the umpteenth time, and then louder, “Excuse me. Officer. There’s been a mistake. I don’t belong here. If you could just–”

“Christ on a cracker,” someone swore behind him. “Please, for the love of God, would you just shut the fuck up?”

It took Adam a slow second to place the voice and when he did, he grimaced. He’d been here since before Adam was brought in– long legs stretched out across the bench like he was paying rent, dark jeans and a ripped muscle shirt, black boots big enough to squash Adam like a bug. A long time ago, he would have intimidated Adam. Now, Adam just frowned. This was the sort of guy who definitely belonged here.

His tattooed arm lifted only enough so he could peek at Adam from underneath.

“Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“And some of us,” Adam said pointedly, “are trying to go home.”

The man sighed and his arm fell back to shield his gaze. “Give it up, dude. They’re not letting you out tonight.”

He was probably right, but Adam was not prepared to admit defeat so soon. If only he could call someone– but who? Adam was alone. He’d been alone for a long time.

“I shouldn’t be here,” Adam said again. His persistence was all he had. If he could convince himself, perhaps he could convince everyone else here, too.

“Hmm,” the handsome stranger said– and absently Adam wondered when he’d decided the stranger was handsome. “But the rest of us belong here?”

“Probably,” Adam admitted. “Maybe. It depends on what you did to get locked up.”

“Locked up,” he snorted. “You almost sound like a real criminal.” Apparently giving up on his nap, the man sat up. The crowded bench immediately became less crowded now that he was only taking up enough space for his ass instead of all six plus feet of his lean frame. His blue eyes appraised Adam as he patted the vacated space beside him.

Adam pretended to consider it for a second, then sat down.

Up close, the stranger smelled like beer and cigarettes. The snakeskin tattoo covering his arm brushed against Adam’s, making his skin crawl, goosebumps arising beneath the sleeves of his button-down.

“So?” he asked.

“So…?” Adam repeated.

“So,” he said again, “how did a guy like you end up stuck in here with all us delinquents?”

Adam squirmed. “Solicitation.”

There was a pause and then the man was grinning. His eyes crinkled, laugh lines appearing around his pink lips. “Bullshit,” he said. “You’re wearing a sweater vest. You’re not a prostitute.”

“No,” Adam said, “I’m not. But hey, maybe you can tell Deputy Dumbass since he doesn’t seem to believe me.” The deputy in question leaned back at his desk, attention caught by the black and white western playing on an old television that was probably older than Adam. His frustration flared again. “My car died a few miles back. I was trying to hitch a ride and apparently I picked the wrong car. Officer Shitbag thought I was propositioning him and next thing I know, I’m being read my rights and carted off to–”

Fuck. This wasn’t DC, that was for damn sure, but Adam didn’t even know what city he was in. Did it really matter?

The handsome stranger laughed again, a sound that managed to be both mocking and sympathetic, as brusque as it was bewitching. Adam liked it.

“So?” Adam bumped the man’s shoulder, earning another lopsided grin. It felt dangerous, like gliding on the edge of a knife. It was almost enough to take this night from bad to better. “Your turn,” he said. “What did you do to end up here?”

#ronan lynch #pynch #adam parrish #choose your own adventure #help me write a one shot

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thegeminisage · 1 month ago

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star trek update time. normally this is the section where i list what episodes we did on what day and it's actually been so long i almost couldn't remember. last tuesday we did voy's "nothing human" and "thirty days," thursday we did voy's "counterpoint" and ds9's "prodigal daughter," friday we did voy's "latent image" and "bridge of chaotica," sunday we did ds9's "the emperor's new cloak" and voy's "gravity," monday we did ds9's "field of fire" and voy's "bliss," and last night we did ds9's "chimera" and "badda-bing, badda-bang." whew! yes, it defeats the purpose if i do them after the fact. SORRRRRY i got out of the habit during the helene power outage. some of these, as a result, will be shorter than normal.

nothing human (voy):

THIS ONE FUCKED. it was like getting to watch ds9 in my voyager

my main problem here was that if the episode is About the doctor, then why is janeway making the call on whether or not to use the cardassian guy for the operation? on the flipside, if the hard calls are left to janeway, why make the doctor choose whether to delete the hologram or not?either she's got to make both decisions or he does. it wasn't a great look for her

i wish also we'd had more time to spend on b'elanna's anger at janeway...it seemed almost like an afterthought to have it be a single scene, and it also makes janeway look like an even bigger asshole to have her go "too bad don't care" rather than like. talk about how much she fought with herself over it and how much they all need b'elanna to get home

the moment where the cardassian was cutting into that holographic bug without caring if it felt pain...mwah. voyager could have said "not all cardassians" but yes, in fact, ALL cardassians.

like he was so nice at first he condemned the occupation but then when he said he had to experiment with what he had...you just Know. anyway, 10/10

thirty days (voy):

this one sucked. i get really annoyed with the prime directive in 90s trek because they only bring it up when it's convenient and sometimes they care a lot about sticking to it to the point where picard will watch an entire planet blow up and be like "thots and prayers :(" and sometimes they don't care at all like when picard saved wesley from getting executed by nudists bc if he didn't his gf would be mad. i'm using tng examples here because it would be DIFFERENT in voyager if janeway was lax on it all around given their circumstances but instead she locks tom in solitary for a really dumb reason even though solitary is cruel and unusual punishment even by today's standards AND she knows being in jail is like his trauma or whatever. dumb.

i don't even remember what else happened in this episode because i was too busy being mad about the idea of janeway actually imposing solitary on tom. i don't even care about tom i care that it makes her look like an asshole twice in a row. water planet was cool i guess

counterpoint (voy):

AAAUUUUR MY GOD

CAPTAIN JANEWAY...MA'AM

idk what she was on in this episode but i have never been more attracted to her. let her peg.

what a journey this one took us on. at first you think the inspector guy is lying, and then he starts acting nice and he and janeway get close, and you're like okay he's on their side but he's also a dipshit, like he just confessed to killing kids WHYYYY is she kissing him when she has a boyfriend and a girlfriend already

AND THEN HE BETRAYS HER. AFTER WE LET OUR GUARD DOWN. and it's like oh NO she's gonna be SAD

WRONG. SHE GOT HIS ASS. like

the fact that he tricked us but also SHE tricks us. and him. at the same time. is so unbelievably hot. it's HER BRIDGE, bitch!!!

prodigal daughter (ds9):

i don't want to talk about it.

gender jokes good though

latent image (voy):

THIS ONE MADE ME CRY......................

ethical dilemma GOOD!!! voyager has been coming for my LIFE in season 5

aside from being an EXCELLENT episode for the EMH, it's also a fantastic episode for janeway and seven, and janeway/seven. "how long before you abandon me too?" seven came for her LIFE. almost as good was janeway showing up in seven's little cargo bay to watch her sleep and then wake her with "im struggling with the nature of individuality" in the gayest reverse uno this show has had yet............

i think also it's such a kind touch to have the thing that gets the doctor out of his funk be janeway being under the weather. like, he's a healer. you know?

the poem at the end. waahhhhh

bride of chaotica (voy):

i was afraid for my life when this episode started but it was actually fine. not my favorite, because the 1930s superhero setting means nothing to me, but i like how everyone kind of m,ade fun of the setting and then lovingly bullied janeway into playing the bride. like, that wasn't nothing

like, tuvok's EXTREMELY wry and bitchy jokes at tom paris's expense for example. seven being judgy at harry. that sort of thing.

the emperor's new cloak (ds9):

also feared for my life during this one because i HATE nagus episodes. i didn't realize it would also be mirrorverse

90s mirrorverse is fucking insane to me, by the way. it's just edgelord territory instyead of like, Saying Stuff about the characters the way tos's mirrorverse did. like, i'm fine with that, but also, what the fuck?

ANYWAY, LESBIAN KISS. TEN OUT OF TEN. i'm so fucking mad she couldn't do that with jadzia >:(

also important: in this episode i realized brunt and weyoun were played by the same guy because mirror brunt talks differently. yes, it really took this long, but my ear won eventually

gravity (voy):

TUVOK'S OPEN SHIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was never worried he would cheat on his wife. i know they had like a memo somewhere. and he's not that kind of guy

the lady is in free willy! i watched the fuck out of those movies as a kid.

as previously noted, it is hilarious that they invented new kinds of shirts for the sheer purpose of gradually undressing tuvok as the episode went on

to be stuck on a desert planet for two months with only tom paris as company: a fate worse than death

young tuvok!!!! i really loved those sections. he was such a little guy you know

this ep more than any other highlights how different tuvok and spock are...like obviously tim ross is copying leonard nimoy's homework re: The Eyebrow and other mannerisms because every vulcan on star trek does that, but tuvok is very at peace with the way he experiences love and what his relationship with his wife means to him, in a way that is very different from how spock finds peace living WITH his emotions in the tos films. like yeah i can see now why spock had trouble on vulcan and was noticeably different than everyone else. you know?

and while spock found it impossible to be exactly the same as the vulcans around him, and while his inability to do that hurt him greatly, you can see too that it isn't necessarily a BAD way to live or a harmful culture in and of itself. and it's nice to see that side of it! it's just sad that spock could never see that side of it.

anyway, great time, tuvok is my bestie

field of fire (ds9):

this one sucked again. lotta duds in ds9 lately. wild

firstly, there is no reason ezri should be able to deduce the guy is the killer just from standing next to him in the elevator for 5 seconds, joran or not. secondly, the vulcan's motive makes no goddamn sense. he's a VULCAN.

the one part of this episode i did really enjoy was ezri's very quiet conversation with worf. he's usually so uncertain about how to interact with her, his simple "you are dax" hit really hard. i wish it had been in a better episode, because while i'm still lukewarm on ezri, her greatest potential is as this shade of jadzia. it's a really interesting dynamic and they nailed the atmosphere in that scene

that said, what he did was essentially accidentally talk her into letting a psycho loose in her head, so like...pretty invalidating. and overall the episode sucked bad. but still!

bliss (voy):

BANGER AFTER BANGER FOR VOYAGER SEASON 5. holy shit have we come a long way!!

i love when they give seven a baby, first of all, so jot that down

i was really rooting for tuvok to see through the illusion and that he DIDN'T made it such a big deal when seven ultimately did

i loved also this captain ahab guy. in case we didn't know what literary work they were refercing they even gave him a vaguely pirate-like accent. he was fun though so i forgive him

as a side note, also, i LOVED how absolutely fucking skeptical janeway was when first hearing about this wormhole. we have GENUINELY come such a long way from season 1 where they got their hopes up all the time

chimera (ds9):

me during this episode: this rules! > this sucks! > this rules! etcetc.

fun to have odo meet another changeling. fun to have this guy be martok, also. i caught that shit. my ear never fails me. fun to have odo trying to balance his changeling life and human life

less fun when they did the shady melding. kira has every right to feel bad about this bc the last time he was doing it was with his mommy shifter who almost got him on her side

apparently this episode was meant to show us odo still struggles with his being a changeling and wanting to be with people, and it's too easy of a choice if all his people are evil. the problem with this is that this guy is also an asshole. evil, no, but he has the same superiority complex that the other changelings do. if they had made him like, "yeah humanoids are fine but we gotta find the rest of the hundred!" i would have been way more invested in odo being torn. they never really SHOW us odo wants to go back anyway, they TELL us. thats all this was. odo like wah i want to go to the link :( and it's that conflict which initially made him so interesting to me, too, and him choosing kira over his own people is a lot of what draws me to that ship. so it's a shame that the excution fell so flat in some places

also lol the reminder that the changelings are dying out...bro i literally forgot

THAT SAID. the arc where KIRA is the one who feels inadequate for ODO vs HIM feeling inadequate for HER (like when she mentioned wanting kids in a different episode) is a nice twist, and i LOVED the bit at the end where he went goop with her 😭😭😭

like, i wish the episode had been about THAT instead of like. what if the other changelings were also assholes

or like this guy could be an asshole and give odo a different kind of crisis. like if they're all bad and only i am different will i also be like that one day? will i not be that but always be alone? but they didn't do any of that.

also WHAT was with quark's random racism speech. hello???

at the end of this episode cathy asked me "are you sure odo is your favorite character?" bc every time he and kira have a problem i side with her. and. what if kira IS my favorite???? kira might be my favorite??????? #feminism

badda-bang, badda-bang (ds9):

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIGH.

vic is fine. but he'd be better as a non holodeck character

NONE of the holodeck logistics in this made ANY sense. they spent ten minutes trying to justify this stupid holodeck heist because they KNEW it didn't make sense. why not just do a regular heist episode!!! let's watch leverage!!!!!!

furthermore, the side plot about how sisko didn't like the 1960s setting because it magically forgot racism is maybe the only valid reason he had to be a wet blanket about that, but if we're going out of our way to engage with that kind of thing, why is the 1960s setting still sexist? also, why was odo staring at those stripper babes? HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE HUMANOIDS. he's just cuckoo crazy bananas over kira

also, how does vic get INJURED and need time to HEAL? do they not control the fucking simulation enough to even heal up a bruise???

actually wait also WHY ARE JULIAN AND MILES INVITING VIC TO GO TO THE ALAMO? that poor little murder victim asked and he couldn't go but they're ASKING the hologram to go with them?? what the fuck???

i did like that guy calling odo stretch. that was pretty funny.

also, asheville north carolina mention. shoutout to everyone who lives in or has ever lived in asheville north carolina.

TONIGHT: voy's "dark frontier," parts i & ii.

#personal #star trek blogging #voy lb #ds9 lb #whew! may i never let them build up like that EVER again

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been-taking-muay-thai-classes · 2 years ago

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I Can't Heal What's Broken (All I Need Is A Change)

This was supposed to come out like a week ago but then I kept having ideas for things that could happen during Rollo’s first day at nrc and then I kept second guessing if the guys were in character and long story short it’s 12k words again, whoops.

We don’t really have too much to go off of given how little time Rollo has had so far (yes I totally expect him to come back I am booboo the fool 🤡) and then there’s the language barrier, but hopefully the guys feel accurate enough.

Also, I allude to the Prefect being a somewhat good painter because I noticed there’s a canvas on the room in-game and I thought ‘hey if I or anyone painted regularly for a few months we’d probably get good at it, right?’ Also because I thought it made for some nice interaction with Rollo.

Trigger Warning: descriptions of anxiety attacks.

The Prefect was trembling slightly, whether from cold or nerves they weren’t sure. Probably a combination of both.

In just a few minutes Rollo would arrive and change everything about how Ramshackle operated. They felt excited yet anxious, what if they didn’t get along? It’d be miserable to share a living space with just one other person and not get along. But worse it’d be if Rollo couldn’t adapt to life in NRC.

‘Quit shaking henchman! You’re making me dizzy!’ Grim complained from his spot in the Prefect’s arms. They let out a quiet apology and let him down as they saw Crowley approach with someone in tow, Rollo.

The Prefect gulped down their nerves. There was no more time to overthink this, the decision was made. Time to show Rollo the determination and friendliness they were known for here at NRC.

‘Grim, please behave today, we don’t want to make Rollo’s first night here anymore difficult than it already is’ By the way Grim opened his mouth and furrowed his brow, he wanted to retort something but soon chose to shut up and scamper off back to the dorm muttering something about counting how many snacks he had before anyone tried to steal from him.

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

Rollo was perplexed. Two months after the symposium, when he admitted in front of the student council what he had done during the symposium- no, why he had suggested the symposium in the first place, he expected looks of disgust and betrayal, words of anger and demands of punishment, to be kicked out of the school and thrown in jail. Sure, the other students had looked betrayed, and they had also risen in anger to demand answers but ultimately they didn’t punish him as harshly as he had expected, as he had hoped.

‘Presid- Rollo, please…please tell us this is a joke’ The desperation in Yeshua’s voice was palpable, they all knew Rollo was not one to joke around ‘There has to be an explanation, a reason why you did that? Please just tell us’ Tristan was noticeably quiet, staring at the floor in deep thought.

Rollo didn’t feel like explaining, not after the way those Night Rave students reacted, like their anger had been tempered by sympathy. Rollo didn’t need sympathy, he needed to atone so that this guilt would finally go away.

So he remained quiet, just looking at Yeshua with a blank stare.

‘The gargoyles said that you were troubled’ Ah, so they talked to other people besides himself ‘That maybe we would manage to reach out to you since we are made of flesh and blood, but it seems you’re not ready yet Rollo’ Tristan’s hand felt warm on his shoulder, reassuring almost.

His eyes told him he was hurt, utterly heartbroken but also ashamed, as if the depth of his fear and sorrow was something they should have been able to know.

Rollo’s stomach twisted and turned, he felt his lungs battle to get the air in, his head spun and suddenly the room was too tiny. He had to get out, now.

He rushed outside, breathing madly in and out, saliva coating the corners of his mouth as he tried to calm himself. The world kept spinning so he closed his eyes, took a deep breath in and tried to remind himself that he was fine, he just had to get this over with so the guilt would disappear. Soon he’d be in jail and all thought of his plans, of his time in this school and of his talks with the people of the city would be erased by time.

He turned around when he heard the click of the door and saw his classmates standing there with troubled looks. Clearly still processing what he said. Rollo hoped they would decide something already.

Instead, Yeshua and Tristan brought the situation to the Headmage who quickly tried to make sense of everything. Naturally he couldn’t just tell the authorities about the Crimson Flowers, it could damage the school’s reputation and in turn the other student’s prospects for the future. There was also the fact that Rollo was a model student, dutiful, serious and responsible and Headmage Tirmont had to also admit that being able to bring a flower back from extinction was a most impressive feat, even if the flower itself was dangerous. Truly Rollo could do great things in the future! But for that he had to have a future.

He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. What to do? In the following weeks he consulted with the rest of the student council, to see the perspective of the students who would be most affected by this going public.

While heartbroken, they agreed that Rollo had done much too good for their school to just be labeled a criminal for the rest of his life, and they also hoped that he could be reformed since nobody had been permanently hurt in the chaos the flowers wrought. Surely if he had confessed it was because he knew in his heart that he did wrong and wanted to make amends.

The Headmage then sent letters to a few other schools, hoping to find one that would give him advice on this peculiar situation. It was then that Rollo pointed out that the students from Night Raven College were aware of his actions and chose to not turn him in at the time so they could enjoy the ball. He asked the Headmage to send a letter to their Headmage so they would convince Tirmont that he deserved to be imprisoned.

Yeshua and Tristan once again argued, saying that he didn’t deserve such a severe punishment but he was certain they only said that because they admired him for years, until he let them down.

When all the letters had been sent, Headmage Tirmont admitted that he considered expelling Rollo, much to the chagrin of his classmates. He almost smiled but then the Headmage explained ‘There have been many overblots in Night Raven College this year, and yet all the students who’ve overblotted have reintegrated classes just fine. I think that whatever the reason, Crowley has the key to ensure mister Flamme can atone without ruining his future’ At this, Yeshua smiled brightly and Tristan yelled in elation.

Rollo was…touched, even if his face showed displeasure. Yet, a part of him still wished for proper punishment. He hated being eaten by guilt every time he cleaned the Bell of Salvation or whenever a student complimented him for his dedication to the school or when the people from the city smiled brightly at him for his help after the disaster. He had done so much in the days after the symposium hoping to quell the guilt growing in his heart, hoping that he would not have to face justice… but he was a Noble Bell student, the student council president in fact, and one does not study here without wanting to emulate the Fair Judge at least in some aspect.

No, Rollo could not live with himself unless he admitted his crime and faced proper punishment for it, it was only fair.

This was not fair.

Getting expelled from Noble Bell College extra-officially only to be sent to Night Raven College so he could finish his studies seemed like a slap on the wrist to him. The Headmage assured him that it’d be punishment enough but Rollo kept arguing for more. Deep down he didn’t want to have to face the Night Raven College students again, after the way they stopped his plan and made him face his own demons, it left him feeling worse than guilty, it made him feel vulnerable.

‘Rollo, you are a great student, ask anyone at Noble Bell College and they will say so. You have done so much since your enrollment, and twice as much since the symposium I assume because you wanted to repent somehow. And even if you weren’t such a reliable student, there was no permanent damage, nobody lost their magic and nobody got seriously injured, so to punish you the way you wish to would be disproportionate, it’d be unfair’

The Headmage’s words were pushing through his carefully placed barriers. Rollo couldn’t voice it but he did want a second chance, the opportunity to regain his classmates' trust and hold his head high when visiting the city. Maybe he should listen to what the Headmage wanted to propose.

‘See my boy, I contacted some other Headmages in hopes of sending you to finish your studies in a different school, because I firmly believe that you must graduate and use your talents for good, but I also think you can’t stay here’ Rollo was no fool, he understood perfectly why that would be best for him but it still hurt ‘Between how the students would feel having you here everyday and how much you love our city, I believe this must be part of your punishment: once you leave for your new school you may not return until we believe you have atoned properly. To that end, the city council and I will grant you an audience on this day five years from now to see how far along you have come. Until then, you are banned from entering the City of Flowers’ Rollo tried to suppress his emotions but…well he wasn’t made of stone, unlike the noisy gargoyles. His face showed the shock and hurt coursing through his heart. He grit his teeth and tried to swallow the knot forming in his throat, for as much as he hated to say it this was what he had wanted when he confessed his crime, a fair punishment.

So why? Why did he feel like this? Why did he feel like hiding under his bed to cry?

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The day had finally come. Rollo’s bags were packed and he stood solemnly in the front gates of Noble Bell College, wearing casual clothing instead of his uniform. The Headmage had given him a few indications to reach Night Raven College safely as well as his tickets to Sage’s Island. He warned him that the trip would be long so he should try to use it to prepare mentally for his new life.

Throughout his whole explanation, Rollo’s eyes were empty. As much as he knew this was a much better outcome than what he deserved, he still felt awful. To leave his beloved City of Flowers for so long…maybe forever if his guilt remained as strong as it was now. And he didn’t even want to think of what would await him in Night Raven College.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heels clicking on the cobblestone. The rest of the student council. They looked conflicted to be here, still grappling with someone they respected so much doing something so awful and yet wanting the best for him. Rollo was surprised to see them seeing how early it was, and half expected them to start crying waterfalls amidst their goodbyes. Once again they surprised him. ‘Ex president Rollo…we have come to bid you goodbye’ Yeshua stepped forward with a solemn expression and soon the rest followed ‘We hope that in Night Raven College you may find redemption, not just from others but from yourself. We all agreed to give you this second chance because we believe there is still good in you and we want to see you become that dependable man again, so please do your best’ They all gave a small reverence and Rollo felt guilty all over again. As foolish as they were for being so kind, he still saw in them some of the best students Noble Bell had to offer…and he almost ruined their futures…

‘I will return when I am worthy’ Rollo was never good at goodbyes, or at greetings or at conversations. He wasn’t the most social person but he could make do when it was required of him. Still, the boys in front of him knew him better than most and knew he meant every word. If he didn’t feel worthy of the city, of the Bell’s forgiveness, even if the council deemed him fit he would not return. With that, he entered the carriage and looked one last time at the city that saw him and his brother grow… he saw the stores selling their goods, he smelled the freshly baked croissants and he heard the goats bleating happily and a single tear trailed down his cheek.

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Arriving at Night Raven College had proven to be quite the long trip. Once at the airport he had to take a train, then transfer to a bus, board a ferry, transfer to ANOTHER ferry and once he finally was at Sage’s Island he took another bus to finally reach the imposing gates of the prestigious College. During the long journey, Rollo made use of the Headmage’s advice and thought of what might await him.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. Rollo fully expected to be received by a group of students still mad at what he had done, ready to lynch him. Instead it was only one man standing imposingly at the front gate. His semblance was grim, with unblinking eyes hidden behind a pointed mask, the feathers on his coat swayed with the wind and for a moment he swore he felt that same breeze run a nail across his cheek. Rollo shook his head to clear his mind and stood as straight as he could. ‘Headmage Crowley, thank you for accepting me amongst your students despite my conduct, I will not waste the opportunity you have given me’

Crowley remained unblinking but the movement of his eyes told him he was being studied thoroughly. Naturally Rollo tried to stand taller, to appear more confident and ordered than he was. Finally, the man spoke ‘Why yes! Of course I am happy to give such a bright student a second chance, for I am ever so kind! I’m sure you will fit right in with the students of Night Raven College, mister Flamme. Do follow me now to your new dorm’ With an arrogant smile that hid his previously threatening aura, the man turned around and opened the gate.

The creaking of the metal made a chill run down his spine. For some reason, Rollo felt as if crossing that threshold were an end, to what though? His life? In a way, yes. Once he walked into the campus he would officially be a student of Night Raven College, and while the thought itself wasn’t fastidious, it didn’t feel right. So he took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. This was his punishment, so he had to take it in stride if he ever wanted to return home.

Rollo followed Crowley silently, his steps barely making a sound. Just a few meters away from the gate, the man spoke again ‘Headmage Tirmont tells me you are banned from returning to the City of Flowers until further notice, so I can’t allow you to use the Dark Mirror to visit but if you find yourself wanting to visit some other locations, I’ll be so kind as to open a pathway for you’ He acknowledged his words with a simple thank you and a nod.

Reaching a crossing, the Headmage turned right and proceeded to explain what some of the buildings were. ‘Opposite of where we’re going is the Coliseum, where the Spelldrive matches are played. Over here is Mister S’ Mystery Shop, where you can restock on almost anything really, Sam always has a good selection of anything you may need’ Rollo glanced in the direction of the shop and noted it’s location in case he ever needed something, but other than that didn’t pay much attention to the details. He would do that come morning.

‘Over there is the Hall of Mirrors, it is the only way to reach the other dormitories as they exist in pocket dimensions. In theory students can come and go as they please but some dorms are more welcoming of visitors than others, so I advise that you use it with discretion’ A small nod was his only answer until he realized they were not going towards the hall but rather around it. Wasn’t he going to live in one of the famed seven dorms? Come to think of it, he didn’t undergo the Mirror Ceremony he has heard about, so where are they going? ‘Headmage, may I ask where will I be staying?’

‘Oh don’t worry about it, we’re almost there. Anyways over here we have the Alchemy Workshop and over there is the Botanical Garden’ The Headmage just kept talking in his chipper tone as if Rollo had never made a question, which irritated the boy a little ‘You are free to visit them on your own time, plenty of students like to maintain a variety of plants both innocuous and dangerous in the Botanical Garden, although I must warn you that everything there is communal so as much as you can make use of plants grown by someone else, they may make use of the plants you grow’ There was a certain glint in his eyes that made Rollo embarrassed. He was teasing him for what he had done with the Crimson Flowers. No matter, spreading the flowers here would be a monumental task and he would rather focus on his studies.

As they kept walking in silence, they approached what seemed to be some abandoned woods in the back of the school. Then, he noticed the building in the distance. Ah, that must be the Ramshackle dorm the Prefect had spoken so fondly about, although it didn’t seem nearly as dilapidated as they had described it. All their effort fixing it up must be paying off, it looked beautiful. Rollo couldn’t help but smile, while they hadn’t talked as much as he wished during their visit, he appreciated how hardworking the Prefect was. The fact that they had to do everything without magic simply added to his admiration.

‘Well, here we are, your new residence: Ramshackle dorm’ Crowley made a grand gesture towards the gate while the Prefect walked down the staircase smiling all the way.

Rollo hadn’t forgotten how they looked, but his memory certainly didn’t do them justice.

‘Hi Rollo, welcome to Ramshackle, I hope we can be friends’ Their smile was warm and inviting and Rollo desperately wanted to smile at them too, but he held back, giving instead a polite nod and a handshake that lingered for just a second more than was strictly necessary.

‘Are you certain that you are okay with me staying here? I would understand it if you would rather I stay somewhere else’ Rollo had to make sure, he didn’t want to impose on them after what he put them through. ‘It’s fine, I’m actually looking forward to sharing the dorm with someone’ He couldn’t tell if they were being sincere or just nice, but whatever the case he had to accept the answer. He wanted to believe they were being sincere.

‘Well then, mister Flamme, I leave you in the very capable hands of the Prefect. If you need anything please don’t be afraid to ask them. Behave’ The threat went unheard by the Prefect but not by its intended target. The swing between the chipper, arrogant Headmage and the powerful, threatening sorcerer was baffling to Rollo…and a little bit intimidating.

It occurred to him that maybe living so far away from the rest of the buildings on campus meant he could easily be disposed of if he angered the wrong people.

The Prefect seemed to sense his worry for they spoke in a calming manner ‘Ignore him, Crowley tends to not be a very attentive Headmage. In fact, most of the time I’m the one doing his job for him. Anyways, your bags are already inside, I can show you around so you can pick a room to settle for the night’ They led the way to the dorm, making amicable talk on the way. Mostly the Prefect asked about his trip, how he shouldn’t be afraid if he heard odd sounds since it was probably just the dorm’s ghosts playing some prank and how they would help him if he needed anything.

Rollo felt awkward, while he appreciated the Prefect’s kindness, he couldn’t help but feel much like he did back home: filthy and undeserving of their warmth, guilty.

It wasn’t fair.

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Rollo’s first night in Ramshackle was…….interesting, to put it mildly. First there was the loud familiar who kept demanding he bow to him “as the boss of the dorm” and whom the Prefect seemed to entertain. He considered bowing a little but quickly discarded the idea with a noticeable blush. He would feel ridiculous bowing to a familiar like that but he still chose to entertain the little creature to maintain some peace among them and also because the Prefect seemed fond of him.

So, Rollo crouched a little, looked Grim in the eyes intensely for a few seconds and then patted his head tenderly. The monster-cat didn’t wait a second to make his displeasure known, yelling ‘Ngyaaa! What’re you doing?! I am the Great Grim, you must treat me with respect! Not like some common cat!’ Rollo ignored him and kept petting him, hearing the purring underneath all the yelling and sensing the familiar moving his head closer to his hand. The Prefect stifled their giggling at the sight and rolled their eyes, probably used to this behavior by now.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Rollo smiled earnestly, basking in the warmth that spread in his heart.

If only the night had continued like that, maybe he would have been able to sleep. Instead, the Prefect showed him around, explaining that while most of the first floor and some of the second floor bedrooms were clean and ready to use, the dorm still needed quite some fixing.

‘The plumbing’s working though, so don’t worry about the water running cold. Heh I used to have to rush when I first got here because the hot water would come and go at random’ The Prefect shuddered for dramatic effect in an attempt to make him laugh and Rollo only felt pity. Stranded in this strange new and dangerous world, and the Headmage hadn’t seen fit to at least give them decent living accommodations? Dreadful. At least while he stays here, Rollo should try and help with the cleaning and repairing of the dorm, it’s the least he could do to reciprocate the Prefect’s kindness.

This thought remained in his mind until he finished showering and prepared to go to bed. Sitting on top of the comforter and staring at his hands, there was not a sound to be heard in the whole dorm, not even the creaking of the floors.

Rollo had avoided thinking too much about…well anything really, since his travel began. Yes he had grown used to the idea of studying in Night Raven but that didn’t really strain him much. No, what he had avoided thinking about was everything else.

His brother, playing with his magic and showing him all the tricks he had learned recently. ‘Look! I can make the light change colors!’ ‘Don’t worry, I can get the fruit from the top of the tree with a breeze! Watch out!’ ‘Please Rollo, tell me that story again. I love the way you tell it’

Yeshua running behind him, talking with Tristan and asking for his opinion of everything, be it student council related or not. ‘Should we remind the students that they need to talk with the teachers themselves if they will leave on vacations early?’ ‘Do you think the blue compliments my eyes? Or maybe I should go with the cerulean?’ ‘We were searching for a place to go eat with the rest of the student council, would you join us?’

The people of the city, welcoming him with big smiles and relying on him like a trusted friend. ‘Ah, Rollo! I saved you some croissants, I know they’re your favorite’ ‘There you are Rollo, I just received this package for Laurent, can you give it to him? He said he can’t visit the city until he’s done with his homework’ ‘Dear, would you lend me a hand? My feet are killing me and these bags are much too heavy for these weary old hands’

His breathing quickened with every memory, he felt as if his chest was constricted, heavy. It was impossible to get air into his lungs. He stood up and walked to the bathroom, still trying to control his breathing. He splashed water on his face and when that wasn’t enough he did it again and again and again.

He stared at his reflection in the mirror, a mess of tears and ragged breathing desperate for respite. He filled the sink with water and, taking one last look at himself, dunk his head in.

He remained there for as long as he could. Around ten seconds later he rose up and dove back in, this time remaining for a good twenty five seconds. He repeated the process until he was sure his breathing was back to normal.

He sat down on the cold tile floor and grabbed his head. These bouts of fear were becoming increasingly common and he didn’t know how to fix it, could barely contain them when they happened. Maybe he should stop thinking about the past. Seven know he won’t be getting anything good from reliving his failures.

After drying his face, he sat back on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to catch some sleep, or at least allow his eyes to rest some.

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Rollo’s first day of class was full of…how to put it? Exciting happenings.

First thing in the morning he was met with the Ramshackle ghosts the Prefect had mentioned the night prior.

They haunted some of his things to make noise and wake him with a jump but since he was warned of their little pranks, he sort of expected it. It didn’t help their attempt to prank him that he was already awake when they began haunting his furniture and bags.

As he stood there, toothbrush in his mouth, staring at them unimpressed, the ghosts semi-stopped their shenanigans and introduced themselves.

Rollo could tell by the tone of their voice that they were disappointed they couldn’t scare him and he felt slightly bad for them. Sure they were ghosts, and from what the Prefect had told him they were also prone to these sorts of tricks, but they had also said the ghosts cared for them a lot since they had given them so much support during their most uncertain times living here. So he relented a little and pretended to faint to make it seem like he had been processing the sight of actual ghosts.

They yelled in happiness, praising each other for their welcoming prank on the boy and then asked him about himself.

They reminded him of the gargoyles back in the belltower, annoyingly nosy and sentimental… he smiled as they told him to come to them if he ever needed someone to talk to. So similar…

The Bell was shining beautifully today, after Rollo’s careful cleaning. Just below, he could hear the gargoyles moving around, probably trying to predict when he’d come down so they could hound him with their incessant questions about his day, attempts to prank him and offers of games and idle chat.

Rollo had no time to entertain their childish conversation, he had to prepare study guides for the freshmen, discuss the schedules of the physical exams with the teachers for the students who had to leave early on holidays and he had to talk with the club leaders to see if there was anything they may need for the upcoming semester that may be harder to get into the budget.

‘Rollo! We were just thinking about how great it’d be if you joined us for a game!’ The gargoyles hopped around him, trying to show him the board game they had acquired -he had gotten it for them at their insistence- and which was their recent obsession seeing how little they had to do around the belltower.

‘I am afraid I have much to do right now, perhaps next time I can join you’ It was a blatant excuse, and one the gargoyles had heard a few times by now so they responded differently this once ‘But Rollo, you always say you’re busy and then you come back at night just to sit and stare pensive at the horizon. Why not play with us instead? Then maybe you won’t feel so overwhelmed at night’ … Since when were the gargoyles this perceptive?

Rollo sighed as he allowed the gargoyles to lead him to his seat. He already knew the game, it was the classic Life but with locations specific to the Shaftlands. Still, he said nothing as the gargoyles explained the rules and set the board.

They were so excited for a simple game they kind of reminded him of someone dear to him……… Sighing, Rollo threw the dice and moved his piece. He picked a card and again moved his piece.

The game continued like this, with the gargoyles trying to make him open up and him avoiding it with simple comments about his school life.

He could sense his defenses weakening, at some point once the board was all purchased and only three players remained, Rollo caught himself almost confessing to having trouble sleeping due to the guilt. Luckily he managed to shut up before the gargoyles could hear him, who knows what kind of sentimental talk they would give him if they knew he was feeling troubled.

Once the game was over he dusted his clothes, gave a small bow and thanked them for the game. Serious as ever, he made to leave when the gargoyle spoke ‘Rollo, I know you don’t think we can be of much help because we are made of stone and live here on the belltower, but sometimes all you need is someone to listen and we excel at listening, so please don’t forget we are here for you. And if you really don’t want us to listen, at least remember that there’s always someone who cares’

Rollo stood there for a few seconds and for a moment the gargoyles thought he would stay and share his burden with them, but soon that fantasy was shattered by his steps growing farther. Rollo would never admit it to the gargoyles directly but their words had given him something to think about.

When he heard the ghost’s laughter disappear down the stairs as they told the Prefect how much they liked this new student and the Prefect responded happy that they were getting along, he knew he made the right decision. Even if it cost him dirtying his clean shirt.

Going downstairs to meet with the Prefect and Grim, he noticed them staring at him while Grim eyed the uncooked food. Ah right, back during the symposium he was wearing the Noble Bell uniform, today he wore only the school pants and a white shirt since he hadn’t found the school jacket provided by the Headmage. Even so, Rollo felt a little self conscious, was his appearance that different without his robe? The Prefect kept glancing down to his torso and back to his face as if to make sure it was really him and he started to feel like covering up. He steeled his nerves and tried to match the Prefect’s stare. Soon their eyes were locked in a sort of unblinking game.

When their game lasted for a few seconds too long and Grim heard them giggle slightly, he yelled ‘Hey, henchman! You’re supposed to give him the jacked! Stop playing around! Hyeee!’ The monster-cat grabbed the jacket from their hands, startling them with the volume of the yell, and Rollo saw a little flush on their face. He didn’t have time to notice anything else as Grim handed him the jacked and demanded praise for being such a thoughtful boss.

Rollo looked at the cat, then at the Prefect who simply shrugged, and then back at Grim. With a little embarrassment, Rollo scratched Grim’s ears while muttering a small ‘Thank you, Grim sir’ that made the cat purr, although he pretended to be indignant at being treated like a cat. The Prefect once again commented how happy they were to see them all get along so well and Rollo felt proud at exceeding their expectations.

After sharing a nice breakfast with the Prefect and Grim, consisting of an egg omelet, accompanied by some toast, fruit and coffee, they were on their way to class.

On the way to the main building, the Prefect made good on their word of showing him around the campus so he could actually recognize the buildings he’d have to use for the rest of the year.

Rollo was impressed with the size of the campus now that he could appreciate it in its entirety.

He could understand why Night Raven College was considered such a prestigious school, seeing the quality of its infrastructure and knowing firsthand the proficiency of its students.

‘Anyways… uh… we have different classes since I’m a freshman and you’re a third year but if you need help getting to your next class, come find me. I have potionology with professor Crewel’ The Prefect gave him the directions to their classroom since Rollo didn’t have a phone to contact them in case they wanted to meet up. He repeated the instructions perfectly and headed to his classroom before the bell rang, bidding them a good day.

The class itself was easy enough, history of magic was a subject he didn’t struggle with (not that there was any subject he struggled with) and thankfully there were no group assignments for the time being. Still, he couldn’t help but feel…observed. While the teacher turned around to write on the board, Rollo made a quick survey of the room to try and figure out who was staring at him. Sure enough, he found him sitting just a few rows back.

Rook Hunt, one of the guests for the symposium. Rollo remembered him well enough, what with his extravagant speeches, cheerful disposition and that awful nickname he gave him. He wasn’t sure what to make of him underneath all of that, but he got the feeling he was more dangerous than he seemed, especially with the way his gleaming eyes didn't match his smile.

Rollo gulped, worrying that he would get in trouble so soon. He could endure the rejection and even hatred he may get from the students here, after all he didn’t really have any attachments to them, but he would rather not make more enemies if that would cause trouble for the Prefect as well.

When class ended, Rollo grabbed his things and left to find the Prefect immediately, not wanting to risk a conversation with the blonde.

He found the Prefect laughing at a heated argument between two boys about who’s fault it was that their potion took so long to work.

‘I’m telling ya it was all Juice’s fault! He kept stirring way too slow!’ The redhead boy signaled to a blue-haired one who seemed to take issue with his statement.

‘I was stirring at the right speed! You just told me to stir in the wrong direction because you never read the instructions Ace!’ Rollo realized then that these must be the Prefect’s friends, Ace and… Juice? He couldn’t quite remember what his name was but he felt somewhat certain that it wasn’t Juice, maybe it was a nickname? The people of Night Rave College seem to be rather fond of those.

‘Boy ‘m I glad that I don’ have to partner up with either of them’ The Felmier boy said crossing his arms behind his head. The Prefect nodded in agreement and then noticed him standing there, awkwardly.

‘Rollo! Do you need help getting to your next class?’ The Prefect’s voice cut the chatter and at once all eyes were on him. The air grew tense once the boys realized he was here.

Ace and Deuce exchanged looks while Epel took a step in front of the Prefect. They all looked ready to fight, he better diffuse the situation before something bad happens to them ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt but I do not know where the classroom for my’ He checked his schedule ‘“Ancient Curses” class is located’

‘Oh, Leona and Rook have the same schedule I think, come on I know where it is’ They tried to tell their friends to go ahead to class without them but the trio refused, claiming that they wanted to keep talking. Rollo knew they were keeping an eye on him.

Good, at least they cared for their friend.

Once the second class was over, the bell rang and Rollo made his way to the cafeteria as per the Prefect’s instructions. He should thank them, their instructions were very clear and succinct so he could remember them easily.

As he entered the cafeteria, he started looking around for the Prefect, not wanting to share a table with some unknown person or worse, a known person.

After scanning the place for a couple of minutes, he saw them enter the cafeteria with several friends from the other side and took long strides to reach them before they picked a table. With any luck, they could sit by a window in a far away corner.

‘Rollo! Good to see you didn’t get lost, I was a bit worried my instructions were confusing’ The Prefect scratched the back of their head and their friend, Ace, imitated them in a mocking manner. A big muscular boy rolled his eyes at his antics and the other boy, Zigvolt, ignored them both in favor of staring at him.

‘Not at all, in fact your instructions were clear enough that I got here earlier than my classmates’ He motioned for them to sit on a nearby table, away from the others and the group of freshmen complied without fuss though still with some tension in the air.

As Rollo sat beside the Prefect, the other boys picked their places around the table. Spade, Felmier and Zigvolt sat together across from him while the wolfman and Ace sat on the other side of the Prefect. Grim took the Prefect’s lap as expected.

‘We better get some food, yo Prefect, come with me Juice is too prone to mess up the orders with his indecision’ Ace grabbed the Prefect by the arm and forced them to go along before they could even answer.

Sitting in front of him, Juice? Spade muttered ‘That happened once’ in an annoyed voice.

Rollo had known these kids for all of ten minutes combined and already he could gather what their group dynamic was.

‘So…how’re you liking your classes? I hear you had professor Trein for first period’ Spade made the first move and Rollo was thankful he chose such a neutral subject.

‘It was quite enriching. Professor Trein has vast knowledge and a commanding presence so paying attention to him was no problem’ Both Spade and Felmier looked at him like he had grown two heads, well that couldn’t be good ‘Did I say something wrong?’

The question seemed to awaken them as Felmier spoke up ‘Ah no it’s just- normally people complain that Trein’s classes are boring but they can’t sleep through them because he likes calling out misbehaving students. I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised though, you seem like the studious type’ While Rollo took it as a compliment, he felt slightly offended by the arrogant smile the boy was giving him.

‘Really it’s just them, most people go to class hoping to learn but these two and Ace like to cause trouble, so take whatever they say about the professors with a grain of salt’ The wolfman spoke so suddenly Rollo had almost forgotten he was there since unlike Zigvolt he wasn’t staring at him like he wanted to murder him.

‘Wha- Jack, that’s not true! We pay attention to class, it’s just hard because Trein speaks very slowly and Lucius makes so much noise too it makes it hard to pay attention’ Spade clearly didn’t like being called unattentive by his friend, meanwhile Felmier added in ‘And we aren’t as troublesome as Ace! If anything, you’re talking about Grim! Those two are the real troublemakers of this group’ He seemed to fully stand by his words with how he puffed out his chest.

He deflated as soon as he noticed Ace had returned with the trays of food and was threatening to not give him his unless he apologized for blaming him for their shenanigans.

‘I don’t cause trouble! It’s you two and Grim who can’t keep up with me and my awesome ideas! If you did, then all my plans would work just fine and nobody’d get in trouble’

Naturally the boys began arguing on whether he was right or wrong, with Felmier and Spade mostly defending that he was the major contributor to the chaos amongst them ‘And what do you mean we can’t keep up?! We got our Unique Magic before you, if anything it’s you who can’t keep up at all!’ They kept arguing for a little longer until the Prefect finally spoke ‘GUYS!’ They all looked baffled at them ‘Please quiet down, we’re gonna get in trouble and I really want to make Rollo’s first day here better than mine’ They gave Spade and Ace a look which made them blush brightly as they stuttered shut.

Once Felmier and Spade relented, Ace plopped down next to the Prefect and gave him a curious look ‘Say, I heard from Juice and the others that you were a big deal back in your old school, so how come you didn’t enroll here to begin with?’ His bluntness was surprisingly refreshing after all the strange looks and veiled intentions he had gotten so far.

‘I chose Noble Bell College because of its history. While you all may be proud to be students here, I was proud to be there. The City of Flowers is- was my home, and I was honored to be accepted there. I can only guess it was that disposition that made me ineligible for Night Raven College since the election process is a mystery to all but the Headmage’ Rollo started slicing the steak the Prefect had gotten for him and noticed the rest of the table’s attention was still on him so he tried to say something else so they would go back to their conversations ‘Also I wasn’t a big deal, anyone can become the student council president with enough dedication since the position is for those willing to be responsible and dutiful to the school and its students’ To his dismay, his words had the opposite effect.

‘That’s right! You were the student council president! So that means you probably were an honors student, right? Can you tell me about that? I want to be an honors student myself’ Spade raised his fist in determination and Rollo didn’t know how to answer. He just wanted to eat his steak in silence and pretend he was back at the belltower.

He looked at Spade, trying to figure if he was being polite in asking more things or if he was honest in his goals. Feeling the rest of the boys awaiting for his answer, he spoke ‘Um…well…uh…studying is the hard part I suppose, but if you can pay attention during class then reviewing your notes becomes much easier’ Both Spade and Felmier scooted a bit closer to hear him better in the growing noise of the cafeteria.

‘Some people will tell you to highlight the important information but that’s futile if you think everything is important. Instead you should rewrite your notes in a way you understand and then make a brief summary of the things you struggle to understand so you can ask your classmates or teachers about it’ The way he launched into his helpful senior student self was like a switch had been flipped, so used he was to aiding his own classmates with their studies and questions.

By the time the cafeteria was clearing out a bit, Epel, Deuce and even Sebek were happily telling him about some of their own tips for studying their favorite subjects. Ace looked at the Prefect confused while they simply shrugged and kept cutting pieces of their meal before Grim swallowed their unattended tray.

As it was, lunch would have been perfect if those were the only noteworthy events of the evening, but of course the animated table was interrupted by someone joining out of nowhere.

‘Roi du Mouchoir! I am so glad to finally find you! And with Monsieur Pommette of all people!’ Rook Hunt was standing right behind the Prefect, looking at him with a big smile and an unsaid threat in his eyes. At once Rollo felt his temperature drop but remained impassive as the Prefect welcomed the blonde to join them on the table.

‘Why were you looking for Rollo, Rook?’ Epel asked in between bites of his steak. Hunt sat beside him and praised his poise while eating, much to the boy’s dismay or was it embarrassment?

‘Oh I simply wanted to talk, see I noticed him during our history of magic class and tried to approach him when it ended but he left so fast I couldn’t catch up’ He gave a small pout that fooled absolutely no one here, they all knew if he wanted to catch someone like Rollo he was perfectly capable of doing so even if he disappeared from his sight.

‘I needed the Prefect to help me with something. At any rate, whatever you wanted to talk about, I hope you don’t mind the Prefect and their friends listening now’ Rollo wasn’t sure what to expect from this boy. On the one hand he was clearly well trained and powerful enough to be a vice housewarden, on the other hand he seemed to be friendly back when they first met and now too the Prefect wasn’t giving any indication that they worried about this interaction. Maybe he was just assessing him?

‘Oh! Just wanted to see how you are adapting to the school, I know when I transferred from Savanaclaw to Pomefiore I experienced such a noticeable change in atmosphere and that was within the same school, I can only imagine how different things are here compared to Noble Bell College’ Rollo was right, he was assessing him. Hunt kept looking at him with a friendly face but he could feel the faintest aura of danger emanating from the eccentric boy.

‘So far everything is good, professor Trein gave a wonderful class and I think I learned quite a bit in Ancient Curses. The students haven’t given me any trouble either…yet, and I hope it remains that way. I have no desire to make enemies nor cause any problems for the Prefect with my issues’ The Prefect tried to say that it was no problem but everybody at the table silenced them by saying some form of ‘You already have enough on your plate’. Heh, it was cute how they all cared so aggressively for each other.

Rollo and Hunt maintained eye contact, unblinking. But unlike with the Prefect that morning, this wasn’t lighthearted, oh no, this was a test. Rollo couldn’t look away or Hunt would think him suspicious or insincere. They kept staring without saying a word until the freshmen realized what was going on.

‘Rook…I think you should leave this to us’ Felmier spoke softly to his dormmate ‘We actually have been talking to Rollo and…um I think he’s alright. Even Sebek has been giving him a chance and we’ve learned some neat things from him. So please don’t be so hard on him, let’s give him a chance to show us how he’s changed’ His words made Hunt look at him in surprise.

‘Oh Monsieur Pommette! Your words are so full of kindness and wisdom! I am so proud of you and I’m sure fair Vil will be as well!’ His laughter made the boy blush with a queasy smile, probably happy to make his senior proud ‘Very well, I will leave you alone for now, but Roi du Mouchoir’ Rollo was getting dizzy from all these sudden mood changes, so he just looked at Hunt with a raised brow ‘Please, do talk to me in class, I will be more than glad to partner up with you in any group projects’ Once again Rollo felt a vague threat emanating from the blonde’s high yet dry tone. Was everybody at this school so weird?

The last period confirmed that indeed, everyone at this school was very weird.

They were to have lab class with the students from class E, which on paper seemed alright, more students meant he was less likely to be paired with Hunt. But then he was actually paired with Trey Clover and all his hopes of having any semblance of a quiet, normal school year went out the window.

At first he introduced himself politely, shaking his hand and welcoming him to Night Raven College, and Rollo felt nothing wrong with this. His attention at first had been grabbed by the intense staring he felt from somewhere in the room.

He turned around to find Hunt working happily with some student from…Octavinelle? So he kept searching but the presence disappeared. Strange.

‘Are you alright? If you need to see the nurse I can take you’ Clover seemed reliable enough so Rollo apologized and got to work on the potion as per the chalkboard’s instructions.

While they worked, Trey made polite conversation to get to know him better. It felt utterly fake, like he would rather be partnered with anyone else but him, but Rollo understood the feeling so he didn’t hold it against him.

Then he felt it again. That stare. He turned around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but he could still feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing. Who was staring at him so intently?

He must have said it out loud because Clover actually answered ‘Sometimes Lilia likes staring at people, I swear he can be even sneakier than Rook’ Lilia? As in Lilia Vanrouge, the vice housewarden of Malleus Draconia? Well, that would explain two things.

‘I see, he must not be happy having me here after what happened’ Rollo still wasn’t sure how much people knew about his actions but he would rather play it safe, no use in exposing himself like that on his first day.

‘Don’t be silly, I am very happy I can meet the boy who helped my boys grow a stronger bond’ When did he get here?! Rollo jumped back with the spoon on his hands, completely startled by the short boy standing upside down beside him.

‘Lilia please don’t do that, he could’ve ruined our potion and this mixture is very volatile’ Clover’s chiding tone was very gentle, like a parent explaining to a toddler why they can’t bite something dangerous. How could someone so normal handle such bizarre situations so easily? Was this just a side effect of studying here, developing mechanisms to deal with the strange?

‘Kee hee, sorry Trey. I just wanted to see the new student Malleus spoke so passionately about. He had a lot of opinions about you transferring here you know’ Of that Rollo had no doubt, but so far he had managed to avoid Draconia and he hoped he would keep it that way for the next few days or weeks if he could ‘But don’t worry, the Prefect made him promise he’d be nice so long as you’re nice’ The boy disappeared and reappeared beside him, standing on the ground this time.

He was handing him his hand to shake, Rollo took it tentatively. ‘Oh ho, don’t be so shy now. I feel like we know each other so well already! Me with all these stories I hear about your doings during the symposium and you with all the hits you took from my boys~ Oh and the singing! I hope you liked the song. I showed it to Malleus so they could sing it as a present’ His smile was childish but his voice and demeanor betrayed his experience. Rollo wasn’t sure where Night Raven got all these walking contradictions but he supposed the Headmage must have a knack for selecting students similar to himself in that regard.

Rollo was half tempted to retort something smart back to the odd little man but just as quickly as he had come, he went back to his station. Sigh he better focus on the potion before it explodes. He really doesn’t want to get detention on his first day here, the day has been exhausting as is.

He followed Clover’s advice for a while until he noticed the potion changed color, it shouldn’t do that yet. He checked the ingredients they had added and sure enough, they had added a couple in the wrong order. Nothing too terrible for this potion but precision was important in alchemy for a reason: plenty of potions did change drastically if the ingredients weren't added in a certain order.

He was about to signal to Clover to come over so they would start stirring slower to account for this change when he saw the ghost of a smug smile on his face. Was this another test? Why was he smiling like that? Did he do something wrong or right? Rollo felt a headache incoming from all the overthinking he had done today. Class couldn’t be over soon enough.

‘Ah, Clover we are ready to start stirring, although we seem to have added some ingredients in the wrong order, so we should start slowly to account for that lest the potion explodes’ Clover’s eyes crinkled happily and Rollo knew then that indeed, this was a test. Great. Even the normal students had something suspicious about them. Now he almost feels offended at the Headmage saying he’d fit right in.

They finished the potion without fuss and the professor acknowledged their clean work, allowing them to leave early so long as they cleaned their space. With the practiced hand he acquired from helping maintain the school grounds and the belltower in Noble Bell, Rollo was done in a few moments. Clover didn’t have time to be impressed as just a second later, Rollo left for Ramshackle.

He needed a quick bite, a shower and to sleep for a thousand nights.

Once again night came and with it Rollo’s ugly thoughts came chasing him in his dreams. He couldn’t run fast enough, he couldn’t leap far enough. No matter what he did, there was no way of reaching his brother.

The flames engulfed everything, from the floor to the ceiling. Rollo tried to crawl through them, he knew he could he just had to use his Unique Magic. ‘Crimson flower, scorch my soul-’ It was futile, he couldn't feel the well of magic within. He was empty, completely devoid of magic.

There was no way to save him. But he had to try. Rollo kept crawling closer, the flames growing hotter every second. Soon he would feel the same pain his brother felt, at least this time he wouldn't abandon him.

‘ROLLO!’ He was jerked awake by the warm hand of the Prefect. Rollo looked at them perplexed, it was a dream? He scrubbed the sleep from his eyes and with it the tears that had fallen in his sleep. Oh. He must have made the Prefect worry if they could tell he was having a nightmare.

‘I’m sorry for waking you, Prefect. Please don’t worry about me, you should go back to sleep’ He tried to sound convincing but his voice had that tremor it did whenever he was about to panic. The Prefect sat by the end of his bed hesitatingly, afraid they may be imposing.

‘When I told you I was here for you, I meant it, not just for the academic stuff’ Their voice was soft and quiet but carried so much weight in the silent space between them he felt compelled to scoot closer. ‘If there’s anything you need to talk about, chances are I can help you…I’ve been through my fair share of bad times myself…’ They left him a choice. He could run like he had done for these past few months- no, for the better part of his life since his brother died. Or he could confide in the Prefect

‘There's always someone who cares’ The gargoyle’s resigned voice rang behind his head.

‘Maybe we would manage to reach out to you... it seems you’re not ready yet Rollo’ Yeshua and Tristan whispered at each side of him, eyes pleading for an opening.

‘It’s not your brother or the world you want to save...it’s just yourself’ Idia Shroud’s voice echoed loudest, dispassionate yet truthful, heavy with the sentence of someone who understands far better than anyone should be able to.

‘I just- I don’t know what’s happening to me’ For the first time in forever, Rollo allowed himself to be vulnerable without putting up a fight. All these years he had built his carefully placed walls, hoping to keep the pain outside. Instead all he had done was lock himself in with all of it and no way to ask for help. It was time to stop.

The Prefect cradled him on their chest carefully, rubbing his back in soothing circles and whispering reassurances that he could speak whenever he felt ready. He was crying uncontrollably and he hadn’t even noticed until he felt the dampened shirt of his dormmate.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours until Rollo could not cry anymore. He felt lighter if a bit embarrassed. Sniffing, he pulled back and looked at them with a thankful nod. He needed a second to recollect himself.

‘.........I feel guilty that I couldn’t save my brother. I was the older brother and it was my duty to protect him……if only I had gotten my magic sooner-’ ‘Don’t do that’ The interruption took him by surprise ‘Blaming yourself like that, that’s a sure way of driving yourself crazy’ They grabbed his hand and made him stand up.

Near the window, Rollo saw the dim light of the moon ‘We can’t change what’s in the past, but we can choose how those events affect us into the future…how we remember the people we lost’ Their hand squeezed his reassuringly when it trembled ‘You have to decide: do you want to remember him as he was on his last moments? Scared and in pain? Or as he was the rest of the time? As the person you loved so dearly?’ Their words sounded so much like Shroud’s, not just in what they meant but in how their voice had this faint tremor, some barely contained emotion. The Prefect knew what he was feeling, they had lost someone too. Slowly he turned his head to look at them and sure enough they were crying too now.

What a sight they must be, two newly dormmates crying in a dark room in the earliest hours of a saturday morning. Instinctively he draped his arms around their shoulders and pulled them against his chest like they had done earlier, tucking their head under his chin. ‘Thank you’ His breathing was calm, the calmest it had been since the symposium. Equally the Prefect’s breathing slowed down until it evened out completely. Rollo looked down to see them dozing off.

He held his chuckle and brought them to his bed. He tucked them in and sat next to them on top of the covers, waiting for sleep to claim him.

Come morning he would wake up to the Prefect hugging him like a stuffed bear and Grim complaining about him stealing his minion, but for now he enjoyed a good night’s sleep before the chaos of another day at Night Raven College.

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It was nearing the end of Rollo’s first week on Ramshackle and things admittedly seemed far better than he expected at first. In just these few days he had ‘squirmed his way in’ into the Prefect’s friend group (according to Ace) by inadvertently joining them on their shenanigans, he got to assist the Prefect in cooking during the weekend and enjoyed exploring the grounds along with the freshmen. He even got to work with Hunt for a class project which gave them great results. All in all, his week had been full of excitement.

Yes, some students had been naturally suspicious of him upon meeting him (the housewardens in particular had been prone to interrupting his time with the Prefect for the most random reasons), but he supposed those feelings came from the retellings of what happened during the symposium. And even if they didn’t know, he couldn’t exactly blame them, what with how unapproachable he seemed (or so the Prefect told him on a few occasions) and the strangeness of his transfer.

There was the difficulty of how different the schools were, for sure. Noble Bell was full of tradition, with the students following it dutifully and gladly, while Night Raven College was more…innovative. There was tradition as well, certainly but in general the students seemed eager to break the mold and stand out in their uniqueness. Rollo wasn’t used to that.

But in all, his assessment of the school was positive. Maybe Headmage Tirmont had been right in sending him here.

These thoughts occupied his mind as he tossed and turned around on his bed. The clock of his room indicated the hour to be 2 AM. He turned around on his bed again and tried to close his eyes, to force himself to sleep but no matter how long he kept them shut, it didn’t work. For some reason tonight he couldn’t drift into unconsciousness. He blamed the heat wave and the dorm’s poor insulation.

Deciding to not waste his time getting annoyed at his lack of sleep, and fearing another bout of anxiety if he remained stirring in his thoughts, he got up and wandered out to go grab a glass of water. Maybe that would cool him enough to get some restless sleep at least.

Walking on the hallway to the first floor, he noticed a faint light coming from one of the unused rooms. Odd.

Curiosity piqued, he grabbed the knob and silently opened the door. While he expected the ghosts to be doing something here, he was instead met by the Prefect, shrimp-pajamas covered by a white coat, painting on a big canvas. Far bigger than the one in their room.

They hadn’t noticed him yet, so he debated for a second whether to let them be or approach and inquire about the unknown flower in the canvas. He took a look at the Prefect’s hands stained in purplish-blue and white paint, their clothes equally colorful and a second later he caught the sound of humming. A song.

As it was more and more common for him, Rollo felt like in a trance as he walked closer until the Prefect noticed his presence.

‘Oh! I’m sorry, did I wake you?’ Ever caring, they were more worried about his comfort than their own. How cute.

Rollo didn’t reply, instead bringing a thumb to their cheek and smearing some of the purplish-blue paint on it as he tried to clean them. Their eyes widened while his intense stare remained on their face and from this close he could notice so much more about his dormmate than he had in the days prior. The way their breath caught making the smallest gasping sound, the way their mouth opened just a little bit as if unsure of what to say, the way their face heated up to the tip of their ears.

Wait what

‘Prefect, you’re warm. Are you alright?’ That seemed to raise their temperature even more, to the point where he placed his hand on their forehead to make sure they didn’t have a fever. The Prefect squealed and quickly turned around. ‘I’m fine! I’m fine! Just forgot to open the windows!’ Rollo looked around the room and noticed that indeed the windows were closed and with how hot it was tonight, that just wouldn’t do.

He gave them some space while he went to open the two windows in the room before returning his attention to the Prefect.

‘What is the name of the song you were humming? If I may ask. It didn’t sound familiar’ Rollo had learned in these past few days that while the Prefect could make people open up surprisingly easily, they themselves didn’t share much about their own life. Probably to avoid growing nostalgic for their home, so he didn’t know exactly what the boundaries were for asking personal questions yet. He still felt as if the moment they shared the other night had been a dream, knowing something about them that no one else knew made him feel special.

‘Uh, it's a song from a movie I used to watch, the song is called “my favorite things”, it was very popular to sing it for kids on certain holidays’ They eyed their supplies searching for something or maybe deciding how to proceed with the painting. Rollo didn’t know too much about painting, but he knew this one was coming out beautiful.

Once they picked a smaller brush and dipped it in paint, Rollo walked closer trying to see if he could recognize the flowers from this distance. He couldn’t.

‘Are those flowers from your world too?’ His voice came out soft and subdued, barely hearable but they answered anyways ‘Oh yeah, they’re called jacarandas. I haven’t seen any of them here, even in the books from the library, so I figured maybe they don’t exist here? So I chose to paint them before I forget what they looked like. What do you think?’ Their voice was happy on the surface but Rollo detected something under that, a tinge of sadness that stroke his heart.

‘I think they are beautiful’ His eyes traced every line, every petal and trunk and came to the conclusion that, if the Prefect’s painting was a fraction of accurate to the real thing then the flowers must be a sight to behold.

‘I think so too, there are some in pink and white that also are very pretty but I prefer these purple ones’ Their smile grew just the littlest bit and Rollo could tell that the sadness was subsiding. Good, Rollo wasn’t opposed to consoling the Prefect but he much rather preferred to make sure they don’t cry to begin with.

‘Anyways, I’m sorry I woke you up Rollo, I didn’t think my humming and painting would make that much noise. I guess since Grim is such a heavy sleeper and the ghosts have never mentioned this, I assumed I was in the clear’ Rollo saw them clean the brushes as if to finish painting for the night. He didn’t know why but he wanted to keep watching, to keep talking about their world and bask in this quiet moment of intimacy and trust just between the two of them.

‘Please don’t stop on my behalf. I couldn’t sleep on account of my room being so hot so I wandered here for a glass of water. In fact, I am sorry for intruding on you like this’ The Prefect stopped their movements and looked at him, a little taken aback by his apology. They let out a snort that confused Rollo. Usually that reaction was directed at Grim or the freshmen.

‘Oh don’t worry about it, if I wanted to keep my painting private I would’ve locked the door. But it’s good to know I didn’t wake you’ They smiled again, their hand hovering over the brushes hesitantly. Rollo wondered if he could make them smile again. ‘Do you mind if I keep painting then? You don’t have to stay-’

‘I would love to’ Soon as he realized how fast he spoke, his face grew red with embarrassment while the Prefect tried, and failed, to suppress their laughter. Well, it's good to know that his embarrassment can make them smile at least, not that he hadn’t realized that by now with how thoroughly Ace and Epel liked to tease him.

‘Would you consider teaching me how to paint, Prefect?’ Rollo’s question clearly took them by surprise seeing how they almost dropped their brush and did a double take. ‘I have seen some of the paintings in your room, sceneries and people I don’t recognize, I presume they are from your world’ They nodded their head, still looking at him shocked ‘I would like to try that…to paint my home so that I may keep it with me’

The Prefect gave him a look of understanding, they both looked to the floor in thought. They both missed home, and while Rollo knew that he could go back one day, the reality was that neither knew what tomorrow would bring. Crowley may never find a way back home for the Prefect, Rollo may die before he sets foot on the City of Flowers again…

Before any dark thoughts took over their minds, the Prefect spoke again ‘I myself am not the greatest artist out there, but if that’s alright with you then I’d love to teach you what I know’

Rollo smiled genuinely at them and they returned it twice as bright.

The Prefect kept painting and making idle chat for a few more minutes until they came to a relaxing silence. It was nice, having a moment of quiet not be interrupted by talking cats, loud freshmen or paranoid housewardens. Rollo allowed himself to enjoy the moment like he had began to enjoy his stay at Night Raven, remembering how even in Noble Bell he often felt something else under the happiness or relaxation, always some underlying anger at the magic around him, some hatred for his classmates’ carefree use of magic, guilt at himself for depending on it just the littlest bit, always something to rot those memories.

Now, standing here with the Prefect, all he could feel was calm and happy. Sure he missed his home, he missed his family and he missed his classmates, but the Prefect had made such an effort to make him feel welcome here, and even their noisy friends were doing their best to include him in their shenanigans, much to his despair.

In the quiet of the night, accompanied only by the sound of the brush against the canvas and each other’s breathing, Rollo realized that they could choose to make home here. The Prefect had made a family with Grim, the ghosts and the freshmen, always making each other laugh, studying together, causing problems for each other and then trying to solve them as a team… Rollo felt like maybe, just maybe, he could also join that little family. He wanted to have a family again.

He opened his mouth to say as much when the ghosts decided now was the perfect time to annoy them ‘Ohhhh look at this~ Rollo and the Prefect are having a little night date~’ ‘Oh ho ho Rollo~ and here I thought you were a gentleman, how scandalous!’ ‘You better treat them right, Rollo. Or we will haunt you every night until you graduate hehehe’ The Prefect and Rollo looked at each other, faces flushed from their teasing, and upon realizing how close they were they jumped apart several meters.

‘Awww look at how red they are! We were just trying to tease you but maybe we’re right, hmm? Do you have something to tell us Rollo? Hee hee hee’ As the ghosts flew around them, making more teasing comments, Rollo covered his face with his hand and the Prefect grabbed his other hand to drag him back to the dorms. Once there, they let go and gave him one last look, still flushed, and wished him a good night with a peck on the cheek.

Rollo, stunned from the affection, remained there completely unmoving even as the ghosts came back to tease him some more and made joking threats of telling about this to the freshmen, who would no doubt tease him about it too.

Needless to say, he was in no way getting any sleep soon, but at least now he knew. Transferring to Night Raven College, to Ramshackle Dorm, was the best decision Headmage Tirmont could have made for him.

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dwobbitfromtheshire · 10 months ago

Text

Stuck Between a Jock and a Metalhead

Summary: Nancy, on a whim, decides to visit Steve at Scoops Ahoy, which leads to her overhearing confessions from Steve that leads her to think about the decisions she's made. A few days later, she decides to come back. She finds him being hit on by the town freak. What's a girl to do? Oh, get stuck in a freezer with the both of them.

Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three - Chapter Four - Chapter Five - Chapter Six - Chapter Seven - Chapter Eight - Chapter Nine - Chapter Ten - Chapter Eleven - Chapter Twelve - Chapter Thirteen - Chapter Fourteen - Chapter Fifteen - Chapter Sixteen - Chapter Seventeen - Chapter Eighteen - Chapter Nineteen - Chapter Twenty - Chapter Twenty-One - Chapter Twenty-Two - Chapter Twenty-Three - Chapter Twenty-Four - Chapter Twenty-Five - Chapter Twenty-Six - Chapter Twenty-Seven

@nightmareglitter

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nancy walked through the door and was immediately pulled into her mother's arms. Wayne and Claudia were in the living room, saying their goodbyes and talking to the Sinclairs. She had hoped that they would be gone by the time they got back to her parents' house. She knew that Wayne was going to freak out about what Eddie had done for her. It seems odd that it was only this morning that they had gotten pulled into the Upside Down. It seemed much longer than that and now it looked like Tommy Hagan as well as his boyfriend had been pulled into all of this.

"Oh my God, your face," Karen sobbed.

"Mom, I'm fine. Steve has it worse," Nancy said, and Karen gasped before going over to Steve. "Mom, gently."

She smiled as Karen pulled Steve into a hug before hugging Eddie as well. Ted came over to Nancy and pulled her into a hug. He cradled the back of her head and kissed her hair.

"I'm fine, daddy," Nancy said.

"You may be fine, but I am not," Ted replied.

Suddenly, Holly bounded down the stairs with a bag and her doll in her arms.

"I'm ready to go, mommy," Holly said.

"What's happening?" Nancy asked.

"I'm going on a special trip with Aunt Claudia and Uncle Wayne," Holly said. "I love Uncle Wayne! He's funny!"

"He sure is," Eddie grinned.

"And I'll be taking Erica to Sue's parents," Charles said.

"That's bullshit, why does Lucas get to stay?" Erica asked.

"I can't drag him away from Max nor do I want to," Sue sighed. "I just need to know that one of my children is absolutely safe. It's bad enough that I have to worry about Steve and Lucas."

Nancy watched Erica study her mother for a moment before accepting the fact that her mother needed to depend on her to stay safe. Erica sighed.

"Alright, fine, but I'm going to complain the entire time," Erica said.

"I except nothing less," Sue said pinching her cheek and hugging her. "Thanks, baby, I know how hard you're trying to hide the fact that you're worried too. We're going to fight like hell to make sure we come back to you."

Erica hugged her mother tightly, sniffingly. She hugged everyone else before she went off with her father. Nancy had noticed that she had lingered a bit longer with Lucas and Max.

"You're both staying?" Nancy asked her parents.

"We argued about it and debated with ourselves, but we just can't leave you guys, especially with Mike somewhere out there," Karen said. "We trust Wayne and Claudia to look after Holly."

"May I ask why Tommy Hagan is here?" Ted asked.

"Jason and his crew got out of jail. They came after us at the hospital," Nancy replied. "They would have killed us if Tommy and Lily hadn't showed up in time. They had guns and they were ready to kill Eddie."

"Now, where did they get the guns from?" Ted asked.

"Probably from the War Zone," Eddie said. "Just outside of Hawkins. I've been there before."

"Let me guess, with Al?" Wayne asked, and Eddie looked guilty for a moment.

"Anyway, they saved our lives and Eddie's. Lily caught them up on the way over here," Nancy said. "I think they're still in the disbelief stage."

Walter was a man of few words, a shy man who saved his words for the people who were important to him. Tommy had said so many times in his phone calls and letters sent to the apartment. He was even more silent than Tommy had described, not even leaning to whisper in Tommy's ear. Tommy was just as silent as they both thought about what Lily had told them. To be honest, as much as it would have pissed her off before about people not believing them, Nancy realized now that it was a normal reaction when people heard shit like this. You really couldn't believe it until you saw it, and even then, your brain tries its very best to make shit up in order to protect you from the trauma.

"You okay, son?" Wayne asked Eddie.

"I'm fine, Uncle Wayne," Eddie said.

"Do you need me to - "

"No, you need to get Aunt Claudia and Holly out of here," Eddie said. "They need you more."

Wayne pulled Eddie into a tight hug before doing the same with Dustin and Steve. Claudia burst into tears before pulling Eddie into her own arms and giving him kisses before moving on to the others. Claudia hugged Nancy tightly.

"Keep them safe," Claudia said as she kissed her cheek. "And yourself too, dear."

"I promise," Nancy said.

"Bye, Nancy," Holly said.

Tearfully, Nancy scooped her little sister into her arms, wondering when or if she was ever going to see her again. Eddie and Steve thought the same thing, too, because they suddenly joined in on the hug. She eventually had to let her go, though, and set her back down.

"Stay safe," Nancy said tearfully.

"Don't worry, Nancy, I'll protect Uncle Wayne and Aunt Claudia," Holly said.

"We don't doubt that you will, darling," Wayne chuckled as he took her hand.

Claudia's eyes twinkled at the sight of them, and Nancy smiled. She was definitely picturing them having a little girl. Eddie smiled and rested his head on top of Nancy's as they watched them leave.

"I definitely feel better now that I know that they're in good hands," Eddie said.

Once they all left, Nancy took a mental headcount of everyone in the living room. Lily and Agent Stinson were leaning near the door. Tommy and his boyfriend were sitting on the fireplace. Robin was once again wedged between her parents, but she wasn't complaining this time. Ted had one arm wrapped around his wife as she stood behind the recliner that Dustin was sitting in. Sue was sitting on the other couch with her son, Max, and Susan. Fourteen. Add Nancy, Steve, and Eddie that made seventeen. Nancy moved to the middle of the room and cleared her throat. Everyone's attention was now on her.

"We have to go back to the Upside Down," Nancy said.

Like she thought they would, everyone exploded into anger and confusion. It was mostly the parents. Nancy rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and waited for them to calm down. She shared a pleading look with Steve. He walked over to her and stood by her side. He whistled loudly and clapped to get their attention. Everyone quieted down.

"Everyone should listen to what Nancy has to say before yelling," Steve said.

"Thank you, baby," Nancy said. "Look, I know we don't like it, but Vecna needs to be defeated before he gets to Max. This isn't just about her anymore. This is about the entire town, the world. There isn't a choice here if we all want to continue to live. He has to be stopped. I know right now we don't have the power, but we have to at least try, right? If we don't do everything that we can to stop him then there's a greater chance that he wins."

"Okay, but how would we even get one chance to stop him? He's going to see us coming," Robin said.

"Unless he doesn't see us coming," Dustin said.

"How would that happen?" Steve asked.

"Well, if he's like El then there's a chance that he has the same weakness, right? When El remote travels, she's in the same weakened state as Vecna," Dustin said. "We go after him then."

"How would we know when he does that?" Robert asked.

Max stood up, drawing everyone's attention. Susan looked at her daughter curiously.

"We draw him out," Max asked.

"And how would we do that?" Susan asked, guessing what Max was going to say next.

"We use me as bait," Max said.

"NO!" Susan yelled out and stood up.

"You don't get a say in my decision, mom. I'm sorry but you don't. No one does. This is my choice, and this is our only chance without El to save the world," Max said.

"It shouldn't be you," Susan said, tears welling in her eyes. "It should be me."

"None of this should be happening. This is going to work and when we do make it out of this, we're going to have plenty of time for you to make it up to me," Max said.

"I love you so much," Susan said and hugged her.

"I love you too," Max said.

"We're going to need a lot of weapons," Nancy said.

"Well, Eddie mentioned the War Zone," Ted sighed. "And we have plenty of vehicles."

"I let Wayne take my car, and he gave us the keys to his truck," Karen said.

"The War Zone it is," Nancy said, and her eyes widened as everyone stood up. "I guess everyone's going with."

The War Zone was exactly what Nancy expected it to look like, a perfect place for rednecks and survivalists. It was exactly what they need, and she hoped that since the jocks had already stopped there, that they wouldn't run into them again. They were piling things into the cart when Steve's eyes spotted something, and his eyes lit up. He grinned as he held up a bullet belt.

"I don't think I'm going to pull that off," Nancy said.

"No, for Eddie," Steve said. "They would look great on his hips."

"What's for me?" Eddie said as he walked away from Dustin and Lucas.

"This. I'd be so metal," Steve said.

"God, I love it when you talk metal to me," Eddie said. "Do it again."

"The first time you started playing Master of Puppets, I couldn't look away from your hands. The way you played. . .it was so hot. . .so metal," Steve said, biting his lip as they moved closer. "James Hetfield's got nothing on you."

"Woah, I was totally into it until you said that," Eddie said. "I've got nothing on James Hetfield."

"Well, it's a good thing that he said that. You guys do realize that this is the most conservative place in Indiana?" Nancy asked. "As hot as that was. Steve's right, that bullet belt is going to look totally hot on you."

"Like I'm your very own Eddie doll," he cooed at them. "I have to get this now."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Steve blushed.

"It's a must," Eddie grinned. "It's going to go great with my pink fuzzy pajama pants. Ooh, Steve!"

He grabbed a brown leather jacket and shared a look with Nancy.

"For you?" Steve asked.

"For you," Nancy and Eddie grinned.

"Alright," Steve said and pulled it on. "What do you think?"

"Oooh."

"Very hot," Nancy said.

Suddenly, Robin came up to them wearing a red beret. She plopped a matching one on Nancy's head.

"I got one to match with my sister," Robin said and bumped her hip with Nancy's.

"Are we playing dress up here? I thought we were getting weapons," Ted said as he passed them by.

"Dad!" Nancy exclaimed, but she was grinning.

"Busted," Eddie said, cackling.

"No, but he's right. We should focus," Nancy said.

She looked over to find Robin and Steve striking a pose with each other like they were models. They finished by standing back to back with their arms crossed. Eddie wolf whistled while Nancy giggled. Idiots. They continued with their original goal, Eddie leaning on the cart with Nancy's arm through his while Steve and Robin discussed their potential future in modeling.

"And here I thought he was going to reopen Otis's salon," Eddie said.

"He still is, and he could do both if he wanted to," Nancy said.

"That's true. You know, Jerry's talked about selling the music store one day. I mean not now, but one day, and I think if I started to really save up, then it could be mine one day," Eddie said.

"That's nice. Maybe I'll take over the Hawkins Post, make it more balanced," Nancy said.

"Me owning the music store, you owning the Hawkins Post, and Steve owning the salon. . .hell, I think we can work together to make this town a little less conservative. . .through the power of love!" Eddie grinned.

Suddenly, Steve popped his head in between them.

"Then, one day, we get an RV, pile up the kiddos, and take them anywhere. Maybe up the coast to California, and we can teach them how to surf," Steve said. "Kind of had that dream when I was little, I was hoping to share that with someone I loved someday."

"It sounds very nice," Nancy said.

"And very doable," Eddie said.

"God, I want that," Nancy said.

"Me too," Eddie said.

Once they bought the weapons, ammo, and gear, they packed it all up before heading back to her parents' house. They quickly got to work to plan and make the preparations that they would all need to head into the Upside Down. They gathered ammo, loaded guns, and made spears and shields. The spears and shield would be for Eddie, Dustin, and Agent Stinson. Steve would be wielding his bat as well as an axe. Robin and her parents would also carry a spear as well as handle the bag with the Molotov's. Ted had his own rifle and a machete. Tommy would be continuing to wield the bat and carrying some Molotov's. Walter also had a shield and a machete, but they also had several bottles of hairspray along with several lighters. Everyone was dressed in thick vests with hoods and hats to protect their faces as Nancy started going over the plan again.

"Okay. Phase one: we meet Lucas as the playground. He'll signal Max, Sue, and Susan when we're ready. Phase two: Max baits Vecna. He'll go after her which'll put him in his trance," Nancy said.

"Phase Three? Me, Eddie, Agent Stinson, Tommy, and Walter draw the bats away," Dustin said.

"Four," Robin said. "Ted, Karen, Steve, Lily, Nancy, my parents and I head into Vecna's newly bat-free lair, and . . . flambe."

"Nobody moves onto the next phase until we've all copied," Nancy said. "Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?"

"I don't know why you're looking at me, sweetheart," Eddie said. "You know me, I'm no hero."

"Your dream, remember?" Nancy said. "I think we're getting closer to it. I think it's here."

"I won't be a hero, I promise, I'll do everything that I can to get back to you as long as you do the same. The both of you," Eddie said taking her hand and Steve's. "If anyone's more likely to make the sacrificial play, it's you two. Isn't that right, General Nancy?"

"I can't believe my dad told you that nickname," Nancy groaned and glared at Ted.

"It's cute. You were his little general," Eddie grinned.

"Let's move out," Nancy said.

"Yes, sir!" Steve and Eddie saluted.

"Idiots," she said affectionately.

Nancy, Eddie, Robin, Steve, Dustin, and Robin's parents took Nancy's car. Steve let Susan, Sue, Lucas, and Max to take his car. Everyone else would be following Nancy to the Hendersons'. By the time that they had moved out, night had fallen which felt ominous to Nancy. Steve was in the seat next to her while Eddie sat in the back with Dustin while Robin was once again wedged between her parents. As much as Robin had complained about it, Nancy knew that Robin was really grateful for their presence. As they drove to Dustin's, Nancy couldn't help but think of Mike and Holly. She hoped they were safe. They were doing this for them. . .for all of them.

Here we stand

Worlds apart, hearts broken in two, two, two

Sleepless nights

Losing ground, I'm reaching for you, you, you

Chapter Twenty-Nine

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no-gram · 3 months ago

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VOICE DRAMA　非人間と宇宙人

Ai: Hi, Jun.

Jun: Hi. Admin.

Ai: ...... huh.

Jun: You seem to be at a loss for words, didn't you come here with a script?

Ai: I wonder if Tsuguha told you about that...

Jun: Well, yeah.

Ai: It's true that I've been thinking about what to ask, just in case. I was, however, amused. You were hostile at first, but you're surprisingly cooperative, aren't you?

Jun: Are you kidding me? If it looks that way, you're wrong. If anything, I'm just not going to put up a pointless resistance. You're not our enemy either, even though you ended up in that role.

Ai: Right.

Jun: I gave you an answer, but you're not going to like it if you act like that.

Ai: Thanks for the advice. I'm sorry, but I don't really know what that feels like.

Jun: Oh, I see.

Ai: Well, introduce yourself.

Jun: Jun, that's all.

Ai: Didn't you say you don't interfere with business?

Jun: That's your broad interpretation, one, I didn't say I wouldn't interfere, and two, I introduced myself. That's all.

Ai: Don't you introduce yourself too?

Jun: Hmmm, I see. Did Tsugu say the same thing? Well, that's what I meant.

Ai: This job isn't easy either...I'm going to change the way I ask. What did you do before you came here?

Jun: Nothing special. Just the usual. Go to school, go home. Eat and sleep.

Ai: ...How is life here?

Jun: Nothing too good, nothing too bad.

Ai: Really? You seem to get along well with Tsuduri.

Jun: Hmm, I won't deny it. There are a lot of weirdos out there, so it's only logical to approach the one who seems the most normal.

Ai: Wow, you think that way. So, if there is someone more decent than Tsuduri, would you hang out with him?

Jun: Hmmm, sorry, I can't say that I would. I guess it would be more correct to say that I am where I am supposed to be.

Ai: I don't really know...

Jun: You don't have to understand, I didn't ask you to.

Ai: No, I didn't mean it the way I said it.

Jun: What?

Ai: I understand your point of view. I mean, you are where you are because you are comfortable with your role, right?

Jun: Well, that's what it comes down to.

Ai: As I told you earlier, I don't understand you because you are so cooperative instead of complaining about this jail. If you want to sabotage me, you don't have to answer my questions, do you?

Jun: You've made your decision. I'm just comfortable in my role. Sabotage is pointless.

Ai: Why do you feel that interference is pointless?

Jun: I kind of know what I'm going to do. To put it plainly, I could hit Anta here and sabotage her, but that would be played by the system, right? It's the same thing.

Ai: Didn't you say you were falsely accused at first? Why are you giving up so much?

Jun: I think it's a false accusation. But that's for you to decide, isn't it? It doesn't matter if you try. Life is complicated because you try to cover it up. If you are honest, your life will be easier.

Ai: ...What if I judge you to be evil?

Jun: What will you do...? I don't know. You won't know until the time comes. I don't want you to judge my life in the first place.

Ai: I hope I didn't give you a hard time.

Jun: Don't feel sorry for me, it's creepy.

Ai: I'm not trying to antagonize you guys. Besides, I think I've learned a lot about compassion for others after talking with Tsuguha.

Jun: ...I'm sorry Tsuguha, but I'll teach you for your own good.

Ai: Jun?

Jun: It is indeed difficult to survive without compassion. As a human being. But you shouldn't live by caring sincerely. Instead of caring sincerely, you should care in order to use, otherwise it is you who will be used.

Ai: Well...

Jun: You don't understand, do you? It's knowledge that you will eventually need. If it's unnecessary for you, that's okay.

Ai: Oh, thank you? I wonder if it's okay to...

Jun: Giving up, you know, is my salvation. Expectations are feelings of betrayal and loss. Life can be mundane. Just because it's Sunday doesn't mean it's good, and tomorrow I have to go to school.

Ai: For you, is it painful to go to school tomorrow?

Jun: At least it's not fun. There are a lot of humans there, right?

Ai: You are human too, right?

Jun: ...I don't know. Maybe I'm just a looker, maybe I'm not a person.

Ai: Are you the type to be surprisingly spiritual?

Jun: No? See, some people are very human, and some are outcasts.

Ai: I know what you mean. What is the difference between the two for you?

Jun: Difference? Difference, yeah. If a person was down and you were the only one there, what would you do first?

Ai: What? In practical terms, I would call an ambulance to help him.

Jun: If you were a human being, of course you would do that, right?

Ai: Of course.

Jun: That's naive. There are people in the world who think about the benefits of helping first. There are people who would help a fallen person if they can get a reward for it.

Ai: Worst case scenario...but there are definitely people like that.

Jun: I think such a person is not a human being.

Ai: So, what you mean by ''not human'' is...

Jun: You can figure out the rest on your own.

Ai: Yes. Non-human.

Jun: Hmm, I like that way of calling you that. But I would call myself an alien. And you are the non-human.

Ai: I guess you're right, now I'm...

Jun: But you should remain pure and innocent and believe in your own values. Don't be influenced by anyone.

Ai: Can I ask you something else that I don't understand?

Jun: Sure.

Ai: Why do you care so much?

Jun: I don't care. It's a role.

Ai: That's a kind role.

Jun: No matter what you say to an alien, you won't reach him because he doesn't have a heart.

[bell tolling]

Ai: Come on, alien, the interrogation is over. Do you have anything left to say?

Jun: Nothing left to say. I'll leave it up to you to decide, but you've got to be a good judge of character.

Ai: You say disturbing things.

Jun: I have an alien intuition. No, it's a lie. Maybe it's telepathy between aliens.

Ai: It's a roundabout warning.

Jun: That's what it's supposed to do. Don't let someone like me kill you.

Ai: Yeah. I never really knew much about yourself.

Jun: Only now. I'm just one way or the other.

Ai: Well, then, let me retrace the steps that led to your resignation.

#nogram #ocgram #t1 #002 #voice drama

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xxyarsiaxx · 4 months ago

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POV Jasmine and Leon see Franklin again

It had been a long time since Jasmine had spoken to Franklin. He had ended up in jail, and she had made the decision to move away, seeking distance from the chaos that had consumed their lives. What brought her back to this neighborhood now? She didn't have a clear answer.

As she continued to walk, lost in thought, she eventually came to a stop in front of Franklin's old house. The memories of their childhood friendship lingered, and she couldn't help but feel a pang of curiosity about what had happened here in her absence.

But before she could dwell on it further, she was abruptly interrupted by a group of guys who approached her. One of them questioned, "Aye, who you wit?" Jasmine turned to face them, her curiosity mingling with a hint of apprehension. "Uh, I used to live here. Do you know if someone lives here now?" she inquired, pointing towards the house.

One of the guys responded, "Uh, yeah, someone in there." Another member of the group chimed in with a smirk, "I wouldn't call that shit living," causing the others to chuckle. Jasmine looked at them in confusion before turning her attention back to the house. "Um, thank you," she said politely and continued walking toward the house.

However, as she got closer, it became painfully clear that the house had fallen into disrepair. It looked as though a hurricane had torn through it, a stark contrast to the home filled with memories from her past.

As Jasmine approached the door, a whirlwind of emotions swirled within her. What would she say to Franklin after all these years? What could be said?

Pushing these thoughts aside, she finally mustered the courage to knock on the door. At first, she was met with silence. Her heart raced as she knocked again, and the silence persisted. Growing impatient, she knocked louder this time.

Before she could knock for a third time, a voice from behind startled her. "Visiting him too, huh?" The voice made Jasmine turn around, and there stood Leon. She couldn't help but break into a warm smile. "Leon," she said with a hint of relief in her voice, and they embraced.

As they separated from the hug, Jasmine turned back to the door and knocked once more. With a slight quiver in her voice, she spoke, "Um, Franklin, hey, it's me... Jasmine. A-and Leon is here too." She pressed her ear to the door, listening intently. "Open the door, please!" she implored.

A few suspenseful seconds passed before Jasmine let out a sigh and turned to Leon. But before she could express her disappointment, Franklin finally opened the door, revealing his tattered attire. "Come in, come in," Franklin welcomed them, his arms reaching out to usher them inside. Seeing him in such a state tugged at Jasmine's heartstrings, making her ache for the friend she once knew.

"Franklin looked at his two friends with a sense of caution. "Anybody else outside, watching the house?" he asked, his eyes filled with a mix of curiosity and concern. Leon seemed a bit puzzled and inquired, "Anybody like who?"

"From the city, nіggɑ, who else?" Franklin replied, settling down on the couch. Jasmine, who had joined in, answered, "No, we just saw the notice on the door about the unpaid property tax."

Franklin sighed. "Hell, Um...Five years. You know. Five years I should get... But they on some bullshit. And they're messing with me, 'cause they know who the fսck I am. But it's all good."

He got up, and Jasmine and Leon followed him as he made his way to the kitchen. "What we gonna do is...We gonna go through the back. 'Cause they don't watch the alley. Well, come on, then, nіggɑ! sh¡t," Franklin said before letting out a chuckle.

However, his humor couldn't hide the grim reality of the situation, and it weighed heavily on Jasmine. She couldn't help but shed a tear as Franklin's words sank in. Before anyone could notice, she quickly wiped away her tear and quietly left the house, overwhelmed by the emotions of revisiting a place that had once held so many memories.

Franklin turned to Leon, his laughter ringing out in the room. "So, when you get back?" he asked.

"A little while ago," Leon responded, which only made Franklin laugh harder. "Leon, Leon. Go to Africa, come back, go to Africa, come back again. I'm-a start calling you Yo-Yo, nіggɑ," Franklin joked, his laughter contagious and even bringing a smile to Jasmine's face. "Yo-Yo! That's actually a better nickname than Lil Lee. You gonna be Yo-Yo, mοthеrfսckеr. So, you find what you were looking for out there?"

As they walked back from the backyard, Leon answered, "Yeah."

"Yeah. That's good. Sure as sh¡t ain't gonna find it here," Franklin commented with a tinge of resignation.

Noticing that Jasmine hadn't said much, he turned to her. "What about you, Jazzy?" Franklin referred to her with the special nickname he had given her when they were growing up, and only he was allowed to use it. It was their unique connection.

Jasmine looked at her friends and nodded. "Um, I am finally a nurse. I graduated college, I got my associate's degree and bachelor's," she said, her voice trembling slightly with a mix of pride and hesitation.

Franklin's response was heartwarming. "That's good. That's real good. Shit, now when I get hurt, you can help me," he said, making Jasmine nod in agreement.

As they reached the alleyway, their conversation was interrupted by the sight of a girl using drugs.

Franklin's irritation flared as he confronted the woman. "Tch, what the fսck are you doing?" he snapped, blocking her path. "What? Y'all better not be taking no fսck¡ng sh¡ts back here. Get the fսck gone. I live here," he asserted, causing the woman to flee in a hurry.

With an air of frustration, he turned back to his friends. "See what I mean? shit, last year, two mοthеrfսckеr broke into my house, tried to jack me. Look at that sh¡t. Look at that. I will say, they got the worst of it, though, fսck¡ng with me. sh¡t, that's why Cissy, she-she let me stay in the house. That's... She knew. She's a tricky little b¡tch, that lady."

Jasmine, still curious, pressed further. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Saw her? You hear what the fսck I just said? Goddamn," he retorted, causing Jasmine to look away, her mind racing with questions and doubts. As they walked, Leon asked, "Where are we going?"

Franklin, ever the tease, couldn't resist poking fun at Leon's relationship. "Sup with Wanda? She finally leave your ass? She go back to her first love?" he quipped.

Leon, with a hint of resignation, replied, "It's a long story."

"She doing great, though. Trying to get into the music business," Leon answered, looking at Franklin.

Franklin, seemingly incredulous, teased back, "You fսcking with me right now."

"No. No," Leon affirmed, causing Franklin to burst into laughter. "Damn. Ah. Everybody got to have a dream," Franklin mused.

"Yeah. One thing I will say, marriage ain't easy," Leon sighed, earning a chuckle from Jasmine.

Franklin couldn't help but share his own relationship woes. "I'll tell you what ain't easy. That bitch Veronique. mοthеrfսckеr bounced like a bad check as soon as the money was gone. She called me once, if you can believe that shit. She ain't tell me where she was, but she did say I had a son. Said she was gonna raise him right. Best schools, better life. Away from America... Break the curse. Said I should take some solace in that. That's what she said: 'Take some solace.' I said, 'b¡tch, I'd take a few days to see my fսck¡ng son.' I don't get it, yall... Women? I don't get it. Sexy chocolate nіggɑ like me... can't keep a b¡tch," he quipped, eliciting laughter from Leon and a sigh from Jasmine.

"I'm sure you'll find someone, Frank," Jasmine offered a reassuring comment. Reflecting on his past actions, Franklin couldn't help but express his guilt. "You know... I should've just stayed with you... I mean, shіt, you were there for everything until I guess I left you for that bіtch." Jasmine didn't know how to respond, so she stayed quiet. Franklin and jasmine were best friends before they were lovers. Though he left her for Veronique she still had love for him. Even now...she still loves him.

Their conversation came to a stop as they encountered a crowd of people with filming equipment. "What the fսck? What the fսck is going on here?" Franklin exclaimed.

Leon informed them, "Heard they're shooting a movie."

Franklin, unimpressed, scoffed, "Oh? Damn. Movie business, huh? Bad fսck¡ng business." He couldn't resist a parting jab, addressing the crew, "Come on. Y'all ain't gonna win no Oscar," before chuckling with his friends.

"Leon's revelation brought a flicker of hope into their conversation. "Hey, so I explored my options, and, um... I started a free legal clinic," he shared, and Jasmine offered him a weak smile.

"Oh, really?" Franklin asked, intrigued.

Leon elaborated, "Yeah. With LAPD arresting folks left and right, and... public defenders being all backed up and sh¡t. First step to giving people freedom is to make sure they literally free, you know?"

Franklin nodded, understanding the importance of their cause. "Uh-huh." Leon continued, "I was wrong, about how bad that Len Bias Law was gonna be for Black folks. It was way worse."

Jasmine couldn't help but shake her head in disappointment, "Yeah, it's like Jim Crow all over again." Franklin chimed in with a cynical perspective, "Yeah, you the nіggɑ trying to help niggas that ain't trying to help themselves."

Jasmine empathized, adding, "I mean, people are going through it."

"I actually came to see you because I could use an extra hand, you too, Jasmine." Leon says extending the offer to his friends. Franklin responded with a nonchalant, "Uh-huh."

"If you want to come by and help, that would be great," Leon suggested as they reached the store. Instead of answering Franklin looks away. "Ah..."

Before going into the store , Franklin turns to his friends." look uh You got like 10 dollars?" Franklin asks makingjasmine dig in her purse and hands him a 20. "A 20? Andrew Jackson oh you are the best." Franklin says happily. "You don't want anything, do you?" Franklin asks.

Jasmine shook her head, and Franklin headed into the store. As he disappeared inside, Jasmine couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Leon, sensing her distress, offered her a comforting hug, as they both shared the pain of seeing Franklin in his current condition, a painful reminder of how their lives had changed.

"I know..." Leon mumbled softly as he continued to embrace her.

#wattpad #wattpad fanfiction #franklin saint #black love #black tumblr #damson idris #franklin saint x reader #Leon Simmons #80s #franklinsaintxblackoc!

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trojanteapot · 2 years ago

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Alrighty folks buckle up because I'm gonna rant

Just feel like some of you out here just don't really understand nuance? And it's like what was I expecting because it's social media nuance is dead.

Anyway so all three of you out there who follow me that aren't bots, or people that I know IRL, know that my favourite character in Infinity Train is Simon Laurent, the French incel bastard man. And yeah I know he's terrible but also I must ask the eternal question: Is he actually though??????

Hear me out. Because look I know dude is a murderer and a hypocrite and a whiny little bitch but also consider the facts:

he's a teenager

he got trapped on some nightmare train when he was only ten. TEN!

his denizen was THE CAT, who from his POV manipulated him and then abandoned him!

Now I know what some of you already saying at this point:

-"uh that doesn't justify all the murdering!!!" -"he's an egotistical jackass!" -"he's not a child he's 18! he would go to adult jail in real life!" -"he died in the narrative thus justifying my hatred!" Okay well consider this: it's pretty much canonical that Grace did exactly the same amount of murdering as Simon but y'all are so ready to embrace and forgive her because she had a change of heart?

And which one of you when you were 18 made completely rational not emotion-driven decisions based on pure facts and logic??? Which one of you are capable of doing this now????

And he didn't have a normal childhood to develop his brain in a normal way, again he boarded the Train at age ten!!!! And finally which one of you was a teenager who wasn't a little egotistical???

If Simon was egotistical then what does that make Grace, the leader of the Apex who made a throne for herself???? What does that make Amelia who rejected the Train's attempts to help her move on and instead tried to recreate her dead fiance to the point that there are just renegade failed clones of that person just running around????

Also, I feel like it's important to mention that Amelia probably did more crimes than both Grace and Simon combined but she just didn't get her face eaten by Ghoms just because she was an adult at the time and could outsmart the Train. You guys are willing to forgive her and all the stuff she did... as an ADULT, but not Simon, a teenager, because... reasons???!!!

And other stuff I feel like should be mentioned here:

I think it's important to consider why episode 4 of season 3, came right before episode 5, you know the one where he kills Tuba. Episode 4 was when we learn a ton of info about Simon. Notably that the Cat was his denizen and we all know how the Cat is!

I'm pretty sure we were supposed to draw several conclusions from that episode namely:

- Cat is a schemey little shit - he was a kid when he knew the Cat - he seems to claim she was fake and manipulating him - that seems believable from what we know of the cat - ep 5 hits, Tuba and Simon have heart to heart - Simon then kills Tuba

So why did Simon kill Tuba? IT'S BECAUSE SIMON THINKS TUBA IS MANIPULATING HIM LIKE THE CAT WAS

And my friend brought up a good point where if you think about it, the Train was using Tuba to manipulate him, and using Hazel to manipulate Grace.

The Train we've seen just runs on pure algorithms and doesn't give a shit about the passengers. The Train just sees them as a number that increases or decreases. It just calculated that if Hazel & Tuba met Grace & Simon then it would have the maximum likelihood that those denizen + passenger combos could get their numbers down the most efficiently. It of course did not account for the fact that the Cat went on vacation and then ran into Simon, thus reminding him to not trust denizens.

Simon had as much of a likelihood to do a change of heart like Grace did! But hey, spanner in the works and all that.

Some of you just like hating on him because he's a white guy and coded cishet and it really shows.

I'm sure y'all are gonna say I'm defending the patriarchy or whatever for defending cishet white guy colonizer man Simon Laurent as a queer femme POC but also fuck off with that bullshit and just look at the actual text of the narrative presented to us instead of reading bad takes on Twitter.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#infinity train #simon laurent #grace monroe #samantha the cat #the cat infinity train #tuba infinity train #hazel infinity train #infinity train book 3 #rant #in defense of simon #im showing my whole ass i know #i am going to hell #and idgaf

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hasufin · 4 months ago

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Hope for awful reasons

So, I'm gonna sorta be an optimist here.

I think Harris is going to win.

I think our Media Overlords - the same ones who ratfucked Biden - want her to win. They do not want a repeat of 2016.

Lemme explain.

Okay, first, I honestly believe that yes, Biden was ratfucked. (It's a good verb, and describes the situation).

We had two candidates who were old white men. One is a lifetime politician. He's boring, but he does the job well. The other is a loudmouth racist populist who hates, is bad at the job, and is literally threatening to jail anyone who disagrees with him.

Both of these candidates are old men, who sound like old men. One is your elderly grandfather, the other is your racist great uncle who is off his meds.

If the media reporting were fair, this would not be a difficult decision: Boring old man is running against a crazy old man who wants to be a dictator. Honestly, Trump's rants have been getting boring: he's a nutjob, but he's not an original nutjob. With fair reporting, you'd have low voter engagement, but Biden would have won in a landslide.

Can't have that. Low engagement for a Presidential election???

So, they want to inject drama. They needed people tuning in. Trump has been campaigning since he lost in 2020; Biden was occupied with the whole "actually being POTUS and doing his job" thing. Everyone predicted he'd kick it into high gear with the sole debate (we used to have multiple debates. For reasons which should be obvious.)

Biden faltered. He didn't seem any less coherent than his opponent. He seemed - because he was - tired. Having trouble articulating his thoughts. This is normal. He did, I will readily acknowledge, underestimate his opponent. But he didn't do as well as expected.

The media had its story. Biden is old. Too old.

They intended to milk this out. Keep it a close race. Is Biden too old, or is Trump too crazy? Tune in for this episode of "2024 Presidential Election!"

Now, I want to specify something about "The Media". I don't imagine this was some kind of coherent conspiracy, with cigar-smoking men who look vaguely like J. Jonah Jameson colluding "It's settled, then, in July we run about how Biden is too old, come August we talk up how Presidential he is, September we do a bit of focus on his family and mainly on Hunter, and in October we talk about Trump's crimes to settle it down a little."

What I mean is, media is an entertainment industry, but it's one where every network is broadcasting the same shows. They're constantly chasing viewers, and they each need to make it more sensational. Which means if one of them runs a story about how old Biden is, the others can't really say "Nah, we looked into it, decided there's not much substance." So there's this big echo chamber - if a story gets traction, they all talk about it, then they talk about talking about it, then they talk about talking about talking about it. And gods forbid if they decide it had damned well better get traction, They can skip straight to "talking about talking about it" without it having originally been a thing, and everyone tails along, because they all want ratings.

My point is, they kinda all decided they wanted to have a story other than "old calm politician is a tangibly better POTUS than old crazy guy". So they ran with it.

And I don't think they seriously thought Biden would drop out. Their goal was to create a contentious, close race where there shouldn't have been one.

And let's be honest, they are thinking of 2016, where they kept fucking running Hillary's emails story, even though there was never any substance behind it, because it made her weaker and Trump stronger, and they got all the viewership... but then the crazy racist old guy won, which nobody expected. And even for them, four years under Trump was bad.

So I think Biden called their bluff. He dropped out, and now they've got a big ratings hit because Kamala Harris is interesting and this is Big News, and they definitely don't want Trump again they just want ratings. So, at least for now, it looks like they're very positive on Harris and supporting her, and I think will be so long as she keeps drawing in viewers.

And I HATE that an election, whose outcome will decide the freedom and lives of millions of people, is being decided like a phone-in poll for an 80s soap opera.

#politics

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alias-sam · 6 months ago

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Pierced by a Golden Soul

Chapter 44. Stand Users Assemble

Platonic Jojo's x Reader

Summary: Fate is a bizarre concept with countless more bizarre implications. In life sometimes such extraordinary events happen that the only reasoning left must be fate. The tragedies that constantly befall the Joestar bloodline for example may be the unluckiest series of cards drawn in human history, or perhaps the work of a greater power. There is no way to tell for sure. Had Dio Brando or Jonathan Joestar moved slightly on a divergent path the world itself would be left very different. The fate or luck of the noble Joestar bloodline has led to destruction of evil likes of the Pillar Men and DIO. This story is of a similar caliber to that of the other Joestars (as I am sure you are familiar with them). This is a story of lost souls, compassion, hope, and above all fate.

Word Count: 2,218

(Crosspost from Wattpad, full fic is already posted there.)

"It's too late Mr. Jotaro!" You yelled dodging the man's attack. It was surprising how fast you learned the ropes of self defense, at this point your movements were much less clumsy than before. Your punches had more power and calculation behind them. All thanks to the man you were now trying to land a hit on. "I'm not letting you win this time!" The two of you were using stands this time, a single hit from either of you could be decisive in a one on one fight. You hadn't told Jotaro about the extent of your ability, and for now, you decided to keep it a secret. Just as you had gotten close enough to beneficially use your stand, you heard Jotaro activate Star Platinum.

"Star Finger!"

You barely had a moment to process what was said before having the wind knocked out of you.

Something made hard contact with your throat. You fell to the ground, barely understanding what happened. After a minute straight of coughing you looked up to see Star Platinum's fingers retracting to their normal length.

"What in the ever-loving FUCK was that?!" You yelled the second you had the breath for it.

"You weren't keeping your enemy in mind." Jotaro replied plainly.

"How was I supposed to know you had...." You looked at Star Platinum's fingers pensively. "Whatever the hell that was?!" Before you could stand up and slap the indifference off your mentor's stone-cold face a cane slapped against his arm.

"Go easy on them Jotaro." Mr. Joestar scolded. "What kind of a grown man beats up on a high schooler? Be a gentleman!" You sighed; glad the old man was so much more tolerable than his grandson.

"Sometimes I think you only offered to train me so you could make me a punching bag." You remarked, getting back on your feet

"I only turn people who really piss me off into punching bags." Jotaro clarified coldly before turning away from you.

"I'm surprised you haven't been to jail yet with a philosophy like that." You mumbled.

The old man laughed lightly and Jotaro looked away. You paused, letting their reactions sink in. "I was joking, you've been to jail!?" You were flabbergasted to say the least. Jotaro seemed like such a quiet guy, a little detached, but not a delinquent or anything. He was a marine biologist for Christ sake!

"That's a story for another time kiddo." Mr. Joestar gave you a pat on the shoulder before heading back to his chair in the nearby shade.

"Yare Yare."

"Y/n!" Vita's voice called over to you excitedly. "We're here!" At his side stood Tim, who looked nothing short of exasperated.

"Indeed." Tim said, pushing up his glasses.

"Get this Jojo! Timster here took forever this morning! I was waiting outside his house for like- thirty minutes!" Vita threw an arm around Tim.

"I still have no idea how you figured out where I live." Tim mumbled, cautiously peeling Vita's hand from his shoulder.

"You smell nice." Vita whispered with wide eyes and a head tilt.

"What?" Tim asked turning to Vita with a raised brow.

"What?" Vita echoed before walking off towards the water. You watched as your eccentric friend skipped off and offered Tim an apologetic look. Based on the skeptical look Tim returned, you had a lot of explaining to do after all of this.

"Thanks for coming. I couldn't have called everyone here without your help." You sighed. It was true. After deciding to have this little congregation, you needed someone to help get everyone to the beach. Thankfully Tim was a reliable guy.

"You owe me so much more than a thank you after making me guide that miscreant to this meeting spot!" Tim responded irately. "Not to mention its Saturday and I'm sacrificing my normal weekend sleep."

"V isn't that bad." Glancing back, you saw Vita was standing in the water with a few fish floating lifelessly around his angles. You laughed nervously. "Besides, you barely know the guy."

"Oh you have no idea..." Tim said with an eye-roll before heading over to talk with Jotaro.

"I wonder where-" You stopped when you saw a familiar head of long platinum blonde hair approaching from further down the beach.

"Jojo." He greeted.

"Julius." You nodded. "Calmer than the last time we talked I see."

"Still a little shaken up." Julius sighed. "But Jaya explained most of what's going on."

"Speaking of your sister," you looked around curiously. "Where is she?"

"Dad had the day off and decided to take her to hamon train in a remote place an hour or so out of town." Julius explained dryly. "She was pretty relieved to hear you were safe."

"Oh... well, tell her I hope she's doing okay." You replied awkwardly. "It's been awhile since I've seen her."

"Y/n?" You and Julius jumped at Vita's sudden interjection. "Shouldn't we get to the point of this meeting?"

"Right." You took a deep breath, steadying yourself for the meeting ahead. The other stand users and yourself met in the shaded area Joseph was sitting earlier. All of them awaited patently as you took your place as the center of attention. Even if you knew everyone present, you felt uneasy. You weren't used to being a leader, let alone a coordinator. After a few moments of awkward silence among the present stand users you cleared your throat, deciding to push down the uneasy feeling in your stomach. "Since we don't know how many more enemy stand users are in this town, I thought it best we get to know who our allies are. We also need to share what we know about everything going on, I figured all of us gathering to compare notes would be helpful to prevent misinformation." You glanced around at your fellow stand users. Their eyes were all on you. Despite the uneasiness you were feeling, your voice came out strong and decisive. "Since I've been at the center of most of this bizarre activity. I'll start." You fished through your pocket, taking out a small plastic bag. "This piece of metal is from the weapon we're assuming turned Tim and Julius here into stand users. We still don't know why anybody would do this, but given I've been almost killed every time I so much as stumble on a member of the group involved, I can only assume the worst."

"Given their leader Keicho Nijimura hasn't made any moves against us directly." Tim stated, mostly thinking aloud. "It's highly likely he doesn't know the extent of our organization."

"As of right now, Vita is our biggest asset." You continued, motioning over to the boy.

"Wait, what?" Vita pointed at himself. "Me...?"

"Y/n's right." Tim nodded. "Since you were born a stand user there's no way the enemy knows you exist."

"Or that you're working with us." Joseph chimed in.

"Then again..." You sighed, head sinking to the ground.

"Jojo?" Vita murmured.

"They have been able to spy on me without me noticing." You grimaced. "Who knows what other tricks they have up their sleeves?" Blaze Martez was stalking you before he attacked with Quiet Riot. Blake not so subtly admitted just yesterday to breaking in to your house. "For your own safety, keep an eye out."

"As for Julius, using the surprise of what your ability is will be to our advantage." Joseph commented.

"You should all be as careful as possible." Jotaro added. "We can't afford to let the enemy see any more of our cards."

"Any questions?" You looked over to Vita who had a raised hand. "Yes Vita?"

"Wanna get smoothies after this?"

"Any relevant questions?" Tim asked with an irked expression. There was a short silence.

"If anyone gets in any trouble, you know to call me, or the Joestars." You said decisively. There was no denying you were a center for the stand activity. Even if you were tempted to leave all of the leadership on Jotaro and Joseph's capable shoulders, you just couldn't. Tim, Vita, and Julius knew you, trusted you. Tim was distrusting of new people in general, let alone these strange adults you claimed you just ran into. Vita, despite his nonchalant and carefree exterior, was clinging to you for support in this new environment. Julius was less reliant on you than the other two, but since Jaya thought so highly of you, so would he. It was only logical for you to take a leading role in this group.

As the group started disbanding, you glanced over at Jotaro. Something seemed off with him the entirety of your meeting today. Under his stone cold exterior, you got the feeling he was upset with you somehow. Even when you were training just a little while ago it felt like he actually meant it when he hit you. A few of your thoughts brought you back to the conversation you overheard between Jotaro and his grandfather. "Hey Jotaro, I was wondering if we could talk about-"

"I have some business to attend to." He interrupted, turning to leave. Jotaro only got so far before noticing the absence of Joseph at his side. "Jiji?"

"You go ahead Jotaro." The older man said, looking off towards the boardwalk. "It's a beautiful day, it would be a shame not to enjoy it. I have been staying in this town for nearly a month, and I still haven't seen most of it!"

It didn't take much to notice Jotaro's apprehensiveness. Joseph was a man nearing his eighties, the last thing he needed was to overexert himself. The possibility of the old man getting lost was pretty high, especially since he hadn't seen most of the town. Jotaro didn't want to tell his grandpa no though. Both Joestar men were stubborn, but Jotaro knew Joseph didn't want to slow down, even in his old age. Despite the creak in his bones, and weak knees, Joseph's sense of adventure was as insatiable as ever.

"Why don't I show you around?" You offered walking over to the two men. "I've lived in this area my whole life, I know a thing or two about getting around tourists."

"What a lovely idea!" Joseph smiled. "Try to keep up!" He said, hobbling on ahead.

"I'll take good care of him." You whispered over to Jotaro.

"You better." Jotaro murmured, looking at you warningly. He glanced at his grandpa and back at you. "Good luck."

He didn't say it comfortingly. You couldn't help but feel like you signed up for babysitting as you sped up to match pace with the old man. Offering to look after him couldn't be that bad. Right?

"So, where to first?"

"Hey Y/n! Wait up!" You and Mr. Joestar briefly paused to let Vita catch up.

"What's up?" You asked, watching the boy catch his breath.

"I have something for you." He quickly reached into his pocket and took out a small black box. You hesitantly took it, only to find what looked like a necklace inside.

"What is this?" You asked, lifting it up. It had a gold-plated chain and a pendant that was shaped like a beetle.

"It's a locket." Vita explained. "I figured keeping the shard in a locket would be much safer than a plastic bag."

"Vita, I really can't take this." You sputtered, trying to hand the box back. "Where did you even get it?" You weren't an expert, but the necklace looked like it was made from real gold. Vita's expression fell as he sighed deeply.

"Its one of the only things my biological father left for me. I'm not much of a jewelry person, and to be honest? I want nothing to do with the womanizing prick who ran off on my mom in Egypt." Vita looked up at you with a smile. "I have no bad feelings about parting with it." You could only look at Vita's expectant expression for so long before relenting.

"Fine, I'll take it." You sighed. "But as soon as this is all over, I'm giving this back." Vita watched as you transferred the arrow shard into the beetle pendant. He had been looking for a reason to ditch the thing for ages, and giving it to you just felt like less of a waste than throwing it into the awaiting ocean like he was originally planning. Vita didn't remember anything about his father, but he hoped giving away the cretin's only gift to him was a perfect act of spite. You carefully placed the gold chain around your neck and tucked the pendant under your shirt collar. "Thanks V." You smiled.

"Are you two coming?" Mr. Joestar called from a few feet away.

"Oh! Sorry Mr. Joestar!" You sputtered, getting back on track. "I got a little distracted." The man glanced between you and Vita strangely before shrugging. "Where to first?"

"Smoothies!" Vita cheered excitedly. With an okay from the old man, the three of you headed towards the smoothie shop Jaya showed you not too long ago.

.......................

A shadow glided over the sand, watching carefully as the stand assembly disbanded. The man was drawn to the grouping upon noticing the familiar face of the tallest man.

"So there are other stand users in this town..." The man growled as he watched Jotaro walk away. There was no way he could take on Star Platinum, not after last time. His hateful gaze shifted to the two teens escorting a familiar old man towards the boardwalk. He grinned maliciously as he watched you tuck a necklace under your shirt, exposing a star shaped birthmark on your shoulder for just a second. "Joestar...."

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