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ofaprilflowers · 4 years ago

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- part 2: home? -

warnings: descriptions of injuries, not too detailed.

tags: shout out to my first-ever requested tags, @sista7-7 @softieus and @marrambles yay! Thank you for reading and sorry for the late update TT. Hope you guys enjoy :)

disclaimers: I am not a medical professional, this is all part of my imagination and totally made-up therefore is in no way accurate. If you find any part I could improve on, do tell. I would appreciate the feedback. Other than that, enjoy! <3

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It took another week for me to finally be discharged. A week of rehabilitation and physiotherapy (which Dr. Hwang said would be continued after my discharge TT). I had lost strength in my extremities and also my sense of balance. This, I found out after almost falling down right on my face when I attempted to climb out of bed for the first time. Almost, well because thankfully, he was there.

My parents had arrived the night I woke up. My mother immediately cupping my face, tears brimming in her eyes while my father just took my hand in his and smiled every time I looked his way.

It felt surreal, honestly. My family and I were close. But we were not exactly the type to be crying and holding each other, or professing our love for each other. We were the laugh-at-each-other’s-life-problems-cuz-I-had-it-worse-than-you type of family. Then again, for me it felt like I was waking up from a long nap, while for them, they didn’t know whether I would make it or not so, fair enough.

Turns out, the accident was pretty bad. My head had to be stitched up and so now there was a nasty gash above my left eye (it was definitely gonna scar but let’s not think about that right now). My arms where full of cuts and scrapes from the broken windshield. My legs and chest, badly bruised. Dr. Hwang said they had healed fairly well in the past two weeks, but I still cringed at how ugly they looked every time I caught a glimpse. He also mentioned that I was lucky not to have sustained any other serious injuries other than my head trauma. I was grateful of course, but losing my memory was deleterious enough.

I woke up every morning feeling confused as to why the heck I was at a hospital and it took a few groggy minutes to remember. Sometimes it took seeing Jaehyun- either curled up asleep on the armchair or standing next to the window with a cup of coffee in hand- for me to come crashing back into reality.

I learnt through my mother- who had attempted to fit the past 2 weeks of my unconsciousness along with the last 6 years into a 2 day crash-course- that Jaehyun was the only one who stayed at the hospital every day and night. My mother had stayed the first week, as my condition stabilised however, she opted to visiting daily. That also depended on whether my father was available to drive her 45 minutes to the hospital from home. You see, my parents were rational people, but I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of hurt. I mean I was laying unconscious on a hospital bed yet there were still other important stuff to be handled. Well, as they say, life goes on, right? Kind of made me think if I had just hallucinated the tears brimming in her eyes the other day.

While my mother would babble on about looking on the bright side and starting my life again, Jaehyun’s presence was like having a burden be lifted. I know I’ve lived most of our “acquaintence-ship” hating him, but I made a mental note to properly thank him for this in particular. On every occasion that my head felt like it was about to burst from the overwhelming information my mother was flooding me with, he’d interject, naturally bringing her focus to something other than trying to piece me back together. Often times he’d ask her to join him for a cup of coffee, or show her things he was currently working on. I’d close my eyes then and pretend to fall asleep.

“So, you’re saying, I should continue my life ‘as normal as possible’. Meaning?” We (the doctor and I) were currently in his office. By tomorrow morning I was finally leaving. Goodbye to the sanitary, boring hospital, hello to......well, life?

The doctor had explained all the procedures and follow-up appointments that were to come. Both to Jaehyun and I. Then, we talked about going home and that’s when I realised, home had changed. I don’t know how we had avoided addressing it, or maybe I was the only one in denial of it. I mean throughout the week after regaining consciousness, although Jaehyun was there, we barely talked. Mostly because I became a selective mute, and he, well I guess he was respecting my space?

Dr. Hwang had noticed the awkward silence that had passed after he mentioned about going home and quickly changed the subject, calling in a nurse to guide Jaehyun in signing my discharge papers or something. After he left, the doctor didn’t hesitate in putting on what I call his “uncle-face”.

“As normal as possible, meaning that it’s better if you return to your daily routines prior to the accident,” he explained for the nth time.

I fidgeted in my seat. “But, wouldn’t that cause me more distress? It’s a life a barely know.” “Astrid,” he began, straightening his back. “I understand how hard it my be for you to wrap you head around all this. 6 years is a lot. But it is your life. Your experiences and memories throughout that period were real, and you deserve to remember them. You need to give your life a chance.”

Well, damn. He had a point. He should’ve been a therapist instead.

“And, what if my memories don’t come back?” I prodded.

“Well then, at least maybe you’ll learn more about yourself.” Okay, then. Here we go, Astrid.

We live in a loft?!?!

Pretty sure my eyes were bulging out of my head but wow.

Eyes wandering around the space, I tried to take in everything at once. This was certainly NOT what I had expected. This can’t be real right? I must absolutely be dreaming.

“Welcome...home?” Jaehyun said.

My head snapped in his direction, mouth agape. He smiled sheepishly, his infamous dimples popping out, his hands tucked into his jean pockets, his shoulders lifted briefly. He looked like a child, shyly presenting to the world his greatest creation. I almost smiled. Almost.

“You like it?” he asked.

I scoffed. “For real?”

My eyes turned back to the space he had referred to as home. Well, it didn’t feel like home (yet. Remember Astrid we’re giving this a chance), but yes, I absolutely love it!

I took in my surroundings again and this time, couldn’t help the smile that crept up my cheeks.

The space was gorgeous. It was big, but not huge. It was small, but not tiny. It was spacious enough to have everything and more. There was an L-shaped sofa that could probably fit 5 or maybe even 7 people if squeezed in together. There were even 2 more smaller ones in front of it. Perfect for a small gathering. Opposite the living room was a kitchen, with a small kitchen island. God, I’ve always dreamed of having an island. There was another floor and at the stairs leading up to it were ceiling-high windows with a bumped-out seat, all set with pillows on one end and potted plants on the other. It looked like the perfect spot to read or stargaze at night. I walked into the living room, the brick walls were covered in framed movie posters and artwork, some smaller frames containing pictures which I guessed were probably a collection of memories.

I stepped closer and caught a glimpse of some familiar faces in unfamiliar settings. One photo caught my eye. It was a photo I remember, taken earlier this ye- I mean well, early 2017, right after graduation. I was sandwiched between Jungwoo and Ten, holding up a peace sign to the camera. Jaehyun on Jungwoo’s other side, hand around the latter’s shoulders. Others in the picture smiling widely, so many poses, so many expressions. Literally, it felt like yesterday.

“You remember that?” Jaehyun probed.

I smiled. “Yeah, just a couple weeks before Taeil’s birthday bash, right?”

Then, something flickered in my mind. Of Jaehyun, smirking at a table with his friends, of them exchanging words and laughter, of me hearing something I probably shouldn’t have. Jaehyun had many circles of friends, being the typical extroverted, super-friendly campus sweetheart. This circle was one I wasn’t quite familiar with, least to say I didn’t really like them. I felt my cheeks heat up as my blood boiled at the thought of that memory.

“You wanna see upstairs?” Jaehyun’s voice pulled me back into reality. I turned to look at him. He was standing right next to me, looking almost exactly the same as the Jaehyun I knew. The Jaehyun that I couldn’t stand being in the same room with. The Jaehyun that always had a competitive, mischievous glint in his eye. The Jaehyun that would take every chance he got to argue with everything I said. The Jaehyun that made me feel like I had to defend everything I had.

There was a slight difference, though. The competitive, mischievous glint was somehow...softer. It made me confused, because I was angry, but looking at him now, I don’t know who to be angrier at. Me, or him?

“Ummm, I think, I just- I just wanna lie down,” I tore my eyes away from him and took a step back, putting just a little more distance between him and I.

I saw his fists clench and unclench a bit at his sides. A moment passed until he said, “Yeah. Sure,” walking back towards the doors he picked up my hospital bag and gestured towards a room behind him.

“This is actually, um, our bedroom, but don’t worry, I’ve moved most of my stuff upstairs so this space is all yours,” dropping the bags on the bed, he stepped aside to allow me in. It was a beautiful room, with slanted windows, decorated with some more plants.

“So, feel free to look around, get used to the place and all. Oh yeah, um, this is the bathroom,” he opened a door on the left of the room, then gestured toward a closet in front of the bed, “Your pyjamas are in the top drawer and, uh, well, um, everything else is-”

“I’ll take a look,” I smiled at him briefly.

His eyes landed on mine for a moment, then quickly looked away.

“Yeah, okay, so um, I’ll be outside, if you need anything just, um,” his hands, one scratching at the back of his neck, the other gesturing undecidedly, “yeah.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay,” he replied. He stood there for a second, then turned to leave the room.

“Jeahyun?”

“Hmm?” he snapped his head towards me, eyebrows lifted in question.

“Thank you,” I breathed.

I saw a bit of tension leave his body. “You don’t need to thank me, Astrid,” he replied softly. “This is- this is your home too.” With a tight-lipped smile, he closed the door behind him.

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ironwoman359 · 4 years ago

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Is it bad to like Deceit/Roman and Logan/Deceit? I started a blog for it but I've gotten nothing but people telling my to go kms and that the ships are toxic and I'm a toxic person. I just think they are kinda cute together. I just entered the fandom through the most recent video so I know everything isn't perfect but is the ship really that bad? Also, what is rem/rom (?) I see a lot of people hating on it but I don't know what it is.

Okay...so I’m gonna answer your second question first because it’s easier to explain and is more cut and dried.

Remrom is the ship name for Remus/Roman. A lot of people don’t like it because, since canon presents them as *brothers, they see the ship as incest, which triggers and/or squicks a lot of people. If this is the case for you, the best way to handle that is to just blog those tags and not interact with those blogs. Harrassing people online over a ship never did anything positive or productive.

Which seques into your first question, is it bad to like Roceit (Roman/Deceit) or Loceit (Logan/Deciet)? Of course not. I see loads of people ship it all over the fandom, especially Roceit. Here’s the thing, if you’re new to the fandom you won’t have heard about this, but there used to be a hUGE debate in the fandom about Deceit and whether or not liking him/shipping him with other characters was “toxic” or not. I thought that had all died out by this point, since there are more episdoes with Deceit in them (especially with where his character was left at the end of Putting Others First) but apparently those comments are still around and just lurking in the shadows more.

But here’s the thing. One, those fears about Deceit are, in my opinion, very unfounded, especially with the current state of the character, and two, it’s fanfiction. NONE of the ships will be canon, cuz that’s not the type of show this is, and in fanfiction, we get to not only explore the dynamics that characters do have in canon, but the dynamics that they could have if things were different. If this WAS the type of show where a ship was possible in canon, would I see Roceit as plausible (or even healthy) ship with where the characters are at in the show right now? Absolutely not, they’re way too at odds with each other, Deceit’s motives are still shady at best, and BOTH of them need to make reparations with each other before their relationship can improve.

But none of that matters in fanfiction. Because they are cute together, and there’s a lot of potential between those characters. Now, someone else may disagree for whatever reason. They might not like the character dynamic, maybe they can’t see past the tense state of their canon relationship, maybe Roman or Deceit or both just aren’t their favorite character. That’s all totally fine too, people are going to engage with content in different ways. But that doesn’t give people the right to come into your inbox and hurl insults and death threats. In fact, NOTHING gives people the right to treat you that way, on the internet or in real life. Keep on shipping Roceit and Loceit and whatever else you want to ship, and block people who try to harrass you over it. Here’s a tutorial on how to block anons (since most of the time people sending that kind of crap aren’t brave enough to send it off anon). If you’re getting hate anons over a ship or character, you are not the one with the problem, the hate anons are.

Also, if you’re following blogs that post a lot of stuff you don’t like, be it ships you don’t care for or negative posts about ships and/or characters you like, you can unfollow them, scott free! Carefully cultivate your own online experience, and suddenly fandom becomes a wonderful thing. Welcome to the fanders, I hope you have a lot of fun! Check out the roceit and loceit tags, there’s loads of good content there to enjoy! And if anyone else out there reading this thinks it’s okay to send hate over a ship, then you can kindly leave this blog, because this isn’t gonna be the place for you!

*Arguments can be made surrounding this, such as A) since they’re all figments of Thomas’s mind, they aren’t really brothers so it’s not really incest, or B) since they’re all figments of Thomas’s mind, ALL the ships are incest and/or selfcest. There will be people who feel either way, and as far as I’m concerned those feelings are valid, but they’re both minority opinions as far as I can tell. Either way it doesn’t matter, everyone will have their own interpretation of the material and how they engage with it is ultimately their business.

#discourse #fandom discourse #remrom mention #fanders #taylor talks #advice #asks and answers

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anna-mator · 5 years ago

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How to Draw a Toon - (In-Progress) Fandom: Warner Bros, Looney Tunes, Disney, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Animaniacs, Rating: M Categories: M/M Relationships: (eventual) Bugs/Daffy Warnings: Language, moderate violence, cartoon violence, racism, Additional tags: friends to lovers, mystery, adventure

<< FIRST CHAPTER |

When the Warner’s alarm went off, it was always a race between the two brothers to see who’d turn it off first. If Yakko got lucky, he’d be the one to turn it off first. Otherwise, Wakko would simply use his trusty mallet. This morning, Yakko was able to jolt awake just in time to stop Wakko’s mallet from hammering down onto the alarm. He tossed it aside and then hit the snooze button.

Yakko sat up slowly, disturbing his younger siblings only slightly. Being between the two, he managed to worm his way out of their sleepy grasps and slide off of the bed. He smiled to himself, deciding to let them sleep in just a little longer.

After his morning-care routine, Yakko headed downstairs. Unsurprisingly, Bugs was already up and hovering over the stove. Knowing how jumpy Bugs was, Yakko announced himself. “Mornin’ Bugs...” he chimed.

Bugs turned around and gave Yakko a nod. “Good morning. You get your sibs up yet?” He asked.

“Eehh… I thought I’d let ‘em sleep in.” Yakko told him before moving to make himself a bowl of cereal.

“You spoil ‘em more than I do.” Bugs chuckled, turning back to the hot meal on the stove.

“I’m their big brother. I’m allowed.” Yakko said it before he could really stop it.

The two went deadly silent. It had been a year since he had taken them in, and Bugs still had no idea where he stood. Was he simply an acting mentor? Was he some kind of parental guardian? No one who was involved really knew. At some point in Bugs’ life, he remembered having decided against having kids. And yet, he took in the three without any hesitation.

Once Yakko made his cereal, he carried it over and sat down on a barstool chair under the kitchen island. He ate and watched Bugs prepare breakfast for the rest of them. Finally, Bugs broke the silence.

“Daffy is stayin’ wit’ us.” He mentioned.

Yakko swallowed, “Oh really? Why here? Couldn’t find himself a private island off the coast of Malibu?” He asked.

“Dat, I’m sure.” Bugs chuckled, “Also, I thought it’d be easier for us to work on school stuff. Dat and I figured it’d be nice to have some help around the house.”

“Oh right, your school.” Yakko remembered, “You sure you really want to hire Daffy as a teacher?” He asked.

“Why is everyone askin’ me dat?” Bugs felt slightly annoyed, “I brought Daffy on because he’s my friend. He’s great with kids and he’s been in this business for as long as I have. Longer, if you can believe it.” He defended.

Yakko wasn’t entirely convinced, still he nodded. “If you say so.” He said.

“You three were invited to the ribbon cuttin’ ceremony yesterday, by the way.” Bugs mentioned, shooting a glare at Yakko.

“Ooh… was that yesterday?” Yakko asked, pushing away his now empty cereal bowl. “Well, you know how it is sometimes. We all get so carried away on set and we end up home later than usual.”

“Uh-huh.” Bugs said, not quite sure he believed Yakko, “Ya mind waking up your kin? This is almost ready.” He said.

“I’m on it.” Yakko said, hopping down from his chair and making his way back upstairs.

When Yakko reached their bedroom, he saw Dot fully ready to go. Wakko, however, was still sound asleep and had taken over as much as he could of the California king-sized bed. After a solid few minutes of Yakko working to peel his sibling off of the bed, Wakko was up and able to start his routine.

Once they were all ready, the three came downstairs to see the kitchen table full of food. Dot eagerly sat down in a seat Bugs pulled out for her. Wakko raced to his seat at the table and began to pile his plate with the assortments of food. Once Yakko and Bugs sat down, Bugs turned to Wakko and Dot.

“I wanted to let you both know I invited Daffy to stay wit’ us.” Bugs told them, taking a bite of his breakfast.

At that, the two of them looked super pleased. “Hooray!” Wakko cheered before chowing down.

“That’s great! And for how long?” Dot asked curiously.

After hearing that, it only just occurred to Bugs that he had absolutely no long-term ideas concerning Daffy. Was he going to help him hunt for another estate? Daffy made it clear last night that the rent was ‘so damn high’, Bugs wasn’t sure Daffy was looking for a permanent stay. If he wanted to continue being a teacher, it was clear he would have to come up with some kind of living arrangement. While he was thinking along those lines, why did Daffy even agree to a teacher’s salary? Surely after all their royalty checks, he didn’t exactly need the extra income. Daffy’s motives were obviously very unclear to Bugs.

Bugs swallowed his food, “Eeehh… We’ll see.” He said carefully.

As if on cue, the three siblings caught sight of Daffy floating mid-air down the hallway, past the living room and into the closest seat at the kitchen table. Bugs had watched him and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. He took the act as a high compliment in regards to his cooking.

Daffy gave a smile and a small sigh when he opened his eyes to the plethora of food at his disposal. Immediately, he began to eat. “Oh man, I could get used to this.” Daffy said more to himself than anyone.

After a moment, Bugs’ cleared his throat slightly. “Eh, Daff… I was hopin’ to go over some stuff about the school today.” He said.

“Today? No can do.” Daffy said, pulling out a cellphone from behind his back, “I have about five different interviews, three of them are public appearances and I have just about fifteen different emails asking for article interviews.” He said.

Bugs’ felt his ear twitch in annoyance. “Didn’t you just fly in yesterday?” He asked.

“What does that have to do with anything? I’m Daffy Duck. Soon to be Professor Daffy Duck!”

“Not if I decide I don’t like what you’re gonna be teachin’ at my school.”

Watching the two banter was like watching a tennis match for the siblings. Especially considering the two were at separate ends of the kitchen table.

Daffy glared right back at Bugs with no fear. “Then why don’t you come up with whatever I’ll be teaching, huh?” He asked.

“Daff, I’m the principal of the only school in Toon Town. There’s no official district to tell us what we should be teachin’. I jus’ wanna make sure we’ll be doin’ this right.” Bugs told him. After a moment, he realized Daffy wasn’t going to budge so Bugs rolled his eyes. “Fine. How’s about this? You go an’ make your way around L.A., do all your lil interviews, and once you get back ‘ere we go over school stuff... If not tonight, then tomorrow... Capiche?”

“Fine.” Daffy said simply, though it didn’t seem like he was too happy about it.

Once the two were done arguing, Yakko decided to speak up. “Well, we better get goin’...”

The siblings took that as a cue to stand up from their places, with Wakko being the last as he shoveled in the rest of his food as quickly as he could. Daffy watched curiously when Bugs stood up and walked to the kitchen, pulling out three paper bags from the fridge. “Y’all have your studio passes?” He asked.

“I have the studio passes, this time.” Yakko said, presenting the three lanyards for Bugs to see. “Cuz we all know what happened to Wakko’s last week.”

“I got hungry…” Wakko said with a small pout.

“When are you not hungry, Wakko?” Dot asked, to which Wakko only answered with a giggle.

Bugs began to hand over their premade lunches when they were at the door, “Remember, you run into any problems on set you call me… alright?” He asked. Bugs was satisfied when he saw them nod in agreement.

“Eehhh… could you venmo a couple bucks for the Uber?” Yakko asked.

“Your account should have a hundred smackaroons already…” Bugs said, looking suspiciously at Yakko.

“What can I say? I leave ‘em great tips.” Yakko said with a smile.

“...You’re on dish duty when you get home, Yakko.” Bugs said, pulling out his phone.

Yakko rolled his eyes, took the three lunches Bugs had provided and walked through the door. Dot hugged Bugs before she turned away, “Bye, Bugs!” She chirped.

Bugs gave her a wave and looked on as Wakko gave his own wave, “See ya, Dad!” And saw a mixture of amusement and horror spread across his black and white face.

The word felt like something had hit Bugs’ chest and knocked the air out of him. As if to soften this blow, Bugs immediately returned with a rushed sounding, “GoodbyeWakko!!” and slammed the door shut.

When the three got in their designated car, Wakko looked at Yakko. “Did I mess up?” He asked, with a small blush on his white cheeks.

Yakko sighed slightly, “No kiddo, you didn’t mess up. I’m sure Bugs is taking it in stride.” He said. “It’d probably be best to try and not to say it again until he gives the okay though, alright?”

In the house, Bugs had hoped Daffy hadn’t heard the exchange. He had hoped he wouldn’t read into the deep blush that had bloomed across his fluffy cheeks. But as soon as Bugs looked up and down the hall, he saw a smug look plastered on Daffy’s face.

Bugs almost wanted to run away, but he couldn’t. Instead he sat up and walked over to Daffy. “Why are you givin’ me dat look?” He asked.

“So much for the biggest Bachelor of Toon Town. You realize once the paparazzi get in on this, you’re rep is gonna take a whole ‘nother turn.” Daffy said.

“Unlike you, I don’t care what anyone else thinks of me or what I do with my life.” Bugs snapped.

“If you say so.” Daffy said, his smug look never going away, “Personally, I think fatherhood suits you.” He told Bugs. “And who knows what could happen if this household had a more womanly touch?”

After hearing that, Bugs knew what Daffy was trying to say. He shook his head, “Oh I see, you like to think Lola suits me… Cuz you and nearly half of da world thinks she and I were made for each other.” He said.

“Bugs… She was literally created for you.” Daffy said.

“No! She was a Toon created for one movie in the nineties, to be cast in the role of my love interest. Nothin’ more.” Bugs corrected. Do you know what that does to a Toon’s psyche? He nearly asked, but kept it to himself.

“But you two were together, eventually. And I distinctly remember that the only reason you two broke it off was because you told me you didn’t want kids, and she did.” Daffy pointed out.

Bugs felt his cheeks ignite once more, “Believe you me, dat wasn’t the only reason.” He said.

Daffy hovered over Bugs as he began to clear up the kitchen table. “Oh really? Pray tell, what else was there? Did she snore? Was she draining your wallet? Did she have an annoying laugh? Did she cheat on ya?” He interrogated.

“What’s it to ya, Duck?” Bugs asked, continuing to ignore his friend’s line of questioning.

“Look, any Toon with half a brain would give their left foot to have a perfectly drawn counterpart like that. To get a fraction of what every iconic Toon couple has.” Daffy told Bugs, “Like Donald and Daisy, like Popeye and Olive Oyl, like Spiderman and whatever her name is.”

“Mary-Jane…” Bugs finished for him.

“That’s what I said.” Daffy said immediately. Bugs rolled his eyes and carried a stack of empty dishes to the kitchen sink.

Years before Daffy had moved to his private island, he remembered Bugs and Lola being the hottest couple in Toon Town. The two were featured on tabloids and TV shows, and their joint merchandise sold like crazy. They had been happy and nearly inseparable. Now, Daffy couldn’t even find a single picture of Lola inside Bugs’ house.

“What happened to you two?” Daffy asked.

“Don’t you have interviews to get to?” Bugs asked loudly as he turned on the faucet and began to rinse off his dishes. “I thought your day was soo busy!”

Daffy looked offended, “You don’t wanna tell your best friend about your previous relationship when he asks, then fine!” He exclaimed.

Bugs stopped what he was doing and shut off the sink immediately. “You wanna pull that card, eh?” He asked dangerously. “Last time I checked, best friends didn’t leave one anoda high and dry in a mansion off the coast of Central America!” He shouted back.

“Hey! Communication is a two-way street, bub! You coulda called or visited me any time!”

“Yeah sure Daff, lemme just hop on my private jet to my private yacht and snorkel my way to your front door when I need you most.” Bugs felt and swallowed a small lump that formed in his throat after saying that.

“Why would you swim to shore when I have a perfectly good runway for the private jet?” Daffy asked, more confused than anything.

“Missin’ the point, as usual.” Bugs said, disappointingly. He felt a headache coming on when he turned the water back on in the sink, “Maybe invitin’ you to stay wasn’t such a good idea.”

“Are you throwing me out?” Daffy asked.

“I jus’ might, if you don’t leave for those interviews soon.” Bugs said, throwing Daffy a harsh glare over his shoulder.

Daffy turned away and threw his arms into the air. “Fine! I’ll go, I’ll go…” He said with a low grumble.

Minutes later, without another word between them, Daffy was in the backseat of a hired car and driving away from Bugs’ house. He pulled out his phone and rang up his agent. It was clear to Daffy that he had missed out on a lot of Bugs’ life. He was going to make it his mission to bring himself up to speed. As soon as he heard the other line pick up Daffy didn’t hesitate, “Cancel Conan, I’m making dinner plans with a certain pig.” He said.

“Are you sure, sir? Conan is a big gig. He’s really curious about Bugs’ school.” His agent asked.

“Then tell ‘im to get Bugs on his damn show.” Daffy said lamely before hanging up.

Once that was cleared up he dialed another number, “H- h- ah- hello?” The other end asked.

“Porky! My ol’ pal! I’m sure you’ve heard about it already, but I’m in town--”

“N- n- nuh- uh, no.” Porky stammered.

“--and I thought we’d play a little bit of catch-up! Whaddya say?” Daffy asked.

“W- w- well I’m uh- I’m a lil busy…” The other Toon started to say.

“Nonsense! Let’s do tonight at seven. I’ll send you the address.” Daffy said and then quickly hung up.

Hours later, Daffy walked up to the restaurant to claim his reservation for two. The place was dark, seemingly only lit by fairy lights, therefore making it a little difficult to see for most. Luckily, Toons were created to see in low light situations. Once he had reached his tall wooden booth, Daffy began to order. Not too long after, he saw Porky Pig approach his table and sit down.

“Okay Porky, I’m gonna need a rundown of every major life event I’ve missed in Bugs’ life since I’ve been gone.” Daffy said, without exchanging any sort of pleasantries.

Porky sat across from Daffy with a blank stare. “You- you uh think I’m his chronicler? He- he- his secretary? Why w- why do you wanna know this all of a sudden?” He asked.

“I’m staying with him. And since I’ve been with him I’ve learned that he’s been watching the Warners, started a Toon school, cut out Lola from his life and looks terrible after all of that. You and I are his only friends in this life—“

“Ab ab- We’re definitely not his only friends.” Porky tried to interject.

“—and if we don’t find out what’s eating him up inside soon, it could be too late!” Daffy proclaimed dramatically.

“D- d- does he owe you something?” Porky asked curiously.

“Porky, I’m trying to do something decent for my best friend: find out the stressors in his life and stop them.” Daffy said, crossing his arms.

“I d- don’t understand why you don’t just ask him.”

“We had an argument.” Daffy mentioned, “Plus, you know how secretive Bugs can get.”

Porky sighed, realizing he wasn’t going to get out of this no matter what. He had learned by now that when either Bugs or Daffy had their mind on something, they would see it through.

“Listen… all I- all I know is that shortly after The Looney Tunes Show was cancelled, Lola and Bugs broke up.” Porky said.

“But how? They were the jewels of Toon Town! They were inseparable. They did all sorts of mushy couple stuff. Even before the show, Bugs helped get her athletic career going. And Lola went to every sleazy bar and fancy casino Bugs could gig at when he was trying to get into stand up during the late 90s. You remember that, right?” Daffy asked.

The phrase that had haunted Porky for years finally slipped out, “S- she changed. That’s what he said, anyway.” He said. He had heard it from the drunken lips of Bugs Bunny himself. To this day, he didn’t know exactly what it meant, but the way he said it still unnerved him.

Daffy sat in silence for a long time. “Changed… what? How? When?” He asked, feeling even more confused than ever.

Porky shook his head. “I d- I d- I don’t know. My best guess has been that they just grew ah, grew apart.” He said.

Daffy wasn’t fully convinced. “There’s gotta be more to it. You sure he didn’t tell you anything else?”

“No.” He said quickly, “Bu- bu- but I will say. Ever since he’s had this idea for a Toon school, he’s been becoming more paranoid and stressed.” Porky pointed out. Immediately, Daffy thought back to last night where Bugs nearly caved his skull in with a bat. “And- and I don’t think raising those rambunctious kids on his own is doing much good. So, if you can, try to stay on his goo- goo- uh, good side and help him out.”

Daffy gave a small huff in Porky’s direction. “Yeah okay…”

Back at Bugs’ place, he had spent all day working from home. Brainstorming different classes, sending follow up emails to potential teachers and over all trying to think about his school. He knew that a lot of people, especially Toons, were expecting a lot from him. So he wanted to make sure things were coming together.

Later on, he received a text from Porky Pig that read, “Your feathery guest came to talk to me. It seems like he has good intentions, but I never know when it comes to him.”

Bugs rolled his eyes and replied back, “I’ll take care of it. Thanks for letting me know.”

After all of that, Bugs had found himself spending quite some time sitting on the couch staring at his cellphone. Every twenty minutes or so he’d remember the number was sitting undialed on his keypad. And every time he thought about calling it, he’d circle the room. After a long while, he finally took in a deep breath and dialed the number.

“Allison… I think I’m ready.” Bugs said when he heard the line being answered.

There was a pause, “... For…?” She questioned.

“Operation, Dad.”

“Oh!! Oh I’ll get the paperwork to you straight away Mr. Bunny! I’ll also get another interview appointment for you set up soon, y’know, adoption agency stuff. I’m sure they’ll be properly in your custody in no time! Well... as soon as everything is signed and approved, anyway. I’m so happy for you all!” Allison chimed.

“About the paperwork, I’d like to make a special request…” Bugs said.

Over the course of the next hour or so, Bugs and Allison spoke about what was next in the process in terms of adopting the Warners. Technically, in human years, they were full-fledged adults and would have been well out of the system. The three were created in 1991, after all. But there were a couple of rules in place for Toons which simply states that because of their child-like nature, they were still recognized as children. So Bugs still had to go through the same process as though he were adopting children. Even if that wasn’t the case, Bugs would most certainly find the means to adopt them.

Once Bugs hung up, he felt better about things. This meant they all still had time to talk things over. Bugs still wasn’t entirely sure about each of their feelings on the subject matter, but he was even more determined to find out now more than ever. Bugs couldn’t help but think back to when Wakko had called him ‘Dad’ earlier. So much pride and happiness swelled in Bugs’ chest, he began to softly cry. He loved them so much, he wasn’t sure what to do with himself if they didn’t want this.

To keep himself from thinking about things too hard, he wiped away his tears and decided to start making dinner. Cooking was a source of comfort to Bugs. It helped him keep his hands and mind busy. By now, Bugs had learned to cook meals for six or more, to accommodate for Wakko’s monstrous appetite. In truth, Toons had a larger stomach than the average human, a fact that was commonly exploited. For some reason or another, Wakko’s stomach and appetite was two times that size.

Bugs’ ears perked at the sound of the front door opening. He peaked around the corner with a smile, only to have it melt into a frown when he saw Daffy walk through the door. He had returned to his cooking by the time Daffy made his way into the kitchen. The two sat in a long silence, Daffy watching Bugs’ every move.

Finally, Bugs broke the silence, “You eat?” He asked.

“Yes, I had dinner with a friend.” Daffy said.

“You feel like sayin’ anythin’ to me?” Bugs asked.

Again, there was a long and agonizing silence between them. Bugs couldn’t help but smile slightly. He knew it was incredibly hard for Daffy to apologize. To admit wrongdoing would be admitting failure, and failure was less-than perfect, which was the opposite of what Daffy strived for.

“I was jus’—“ He started. Daffy immediately stopped that line when he saw Bugs’ ear twitch. “I want to help.” He tried.

“Well then, you can start by apologizin’ for pryin’.” Bugs said.

Daffy groaned out like he was in physical pain, “Auugghhh! Alright! I’m sorry.” He admitted. “I just feel like I missed so much.” He said, just before he noticed Bugs’ tail wiggle slightly. Daffy wondered since when did he find that kind of adorable? He tried not to let his eyes linger there for long; instead, focusing up on Bugs’ gloved hands while he prepared his food.

“Well if you really feel dat way, you can always just talk to me.” Bugs said simply.

“You’ve always been so closed off! And stand-offish! And you wouldn’t tell me that one thing.” Daffy huffed, crossing his arms.

“Daff, I opened my home to you. I answered most of your questions and I’ve been very patient. As far as things concernin’ Lola, all I’m asking is dat you leave it alone. You don’t wanna go down this rabbit hole.” Bugs warned.

Hearing him say that only made Daffy more insanely curious. Still, he filed away these feelings for later. “Fine.” Daffy said with a small pout.

Bugs looked over at Daffy with a kind smile, appreciating the fact that he was respecting this boundary. Something that, if had been brought up in the past, would have been trampled all over. “Y’know, I have a coupla questions myself.” Bugs admitted.

“Oh?” Daffy asked.

“Yeah. Like, why’d you wanna come back to teach at a school? It can’t be for da money.” Bugs said.

“You know what I’m about, Bugsy.” Daffy told him, leaning on the kitchen island, “I want fame, recognition and fortune. Owning a legacy comes with that. I want to be remembered in history books. Being apart of the first Toon school? That’s history right there.”

“Well, I can’t argue with dat.” Bugs said with a shrug.

Soon, Daffy took the barstool and they continued to talk. And just like that, it seemed like they were right where they had left off all those years ago. Daffy wasn’t sure if it was the content of their conversations, or if that was just the effect Bugs had on others. He was always such a smooth-talker and it always felt like he had control of the conversation. Daffy interjected when he could (it was in both their nature to be the center of attention, after all) and most importantly they shared stories.

From what Daffy understood, the Warners brought a lot of joy and excitement in his life. Even if it had only been a little over a year. Ultimately, Daffy was proud of Bugs. “So when are you gonna adopt ‘em?” Daffy asked.

Hearing that, Bugs nearly dropped a dish he was pulling out of the oven. Luckily he had been close enough to the kitchen island that the dish simply landed on it a little harder than if he’d normally place it down. “Eeh.. well, I uh. I talked to the adoption agency today, actually. There just needs to be a few more interviews and some paperwork.” He said.

“Of course. Wouldn’t wanna rush into somethin’ like this.” Daffy said.

“I… still don’t know if I’m ready, Daff.” Bugs admitted, looking down at his casserole. “I don’t know if dat’s really what they want.”

“Are you kiddin’ me?” Daffy exclaimed, “All you’re missing are family portraits to put in your wallet. You’re perfect dad material. If they can’t see that, it’s their loss.”

“Who’s loss?” A nasally voice asked.

Bugs and Daffy turned simultaneously and saw the Warners peeking around the corner by height. Wakko sniffed the air and gave a small sigh. “It smells so good.” He commented.

Internally, Bugs was screaming. He wasn’t sure just how much the Warners had heard of their conversation until Dot spoke. “So when are we getting those family portraits?” She asked with a grin.

“I guess we could all use some new headshots.” Yakko joked with her.

Bugs took in a deep breath, “They’re sendin’ Allison over for anoda coupla home interviews.” He announced.

“Oh won’t that be nice? I was starting to miss her.” Dot chimed. “Can you believe it took them ten interviewers before they found her?” She asked Daffy.

“She’s put up with a lot of our shenanigans.” Wakko said.

“Eehh… What are we gonna tell ‘er about the duck?” Yakko asked, pointing his thumb in Daffy’s direction. Daffy looked a little annoyed, but didn’t say a word.

“Oh! What if we tell ‘er he’s our second cousin twice removed?” Wakko proposed.

“We ain’t lyin’.” Bugs said quickly, “He’s here temporarily, and that’s what we tell ‘em.” He said.

Daffy shrugged and got up to start walking out of the room. “Well it’s obvious you’ve got some things to talk about. I’ll see myself out.”

With that, the four began to set the table with what Bugs had cooked for them. Once the table was set and food was served, Bugs spoke up. “About the adoption… I don’t need answers from you guys yet. The process is long to begin with. Just… think about things for me, alright?” He asked.

“You got it, Bugs.” Yakko said with a smile and a small wink.

After hearing that, Bugs felt like he was on top of the world. Things were falling into place more smoothly than he could have ever imagined.

----

Huzzah!! This chapter is more relationship establishing stuff. Overall, I’m satisfied with it. Hope y’all enjoyed it!

#looney tunes #baffy #htdat #my fanfiction

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unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

Note

i was gonna send an ask like "have you considered: 'anger is a type of geography' + 4x11" and then i checked and you actually had! but if you feel like considering it More then here's a free space

oh thanks for these Layers of Allyship re: humoring my repeated [anger geography sign tapping] and checking for things and then sending me asks about it all to invite yet more Consideration.........yeah i feel like i mentioned it at least once in tags or smthing lol??? but here comes yet more consideration / giving it an In The Text post if that doesn’t exist already yet either

the Anger Is A Type Of Geography Quote From Hanif Abdurraqib in question for everyone’s reference:

anger is a type of geography. the ways out of it expand the more you love a person. the more forgiveness you might be willing to afford each other opens up new and unexpected roads. and so, for some, staying angry at someone you love is a reasonable option. to stay angry at someone you know will forgive your anger is a type of love, or at least it is a type of familiarity that can feel like love.

like, yeah sure what with winston originally talking to lauren and mafee about this and taylor Happening to walk in on it, he probably wasn’t necessarily planning to go off on his Indignant Monologue to taylor right then and there, but the fact remains that he was willing to do so, and i definitely think that that wouldn’t be the case if he didn’t have this Respect for them and think that they have respect for him in turn, and if he didn’t also think that that mutual respect is holding hands with mutually valuing each other. like, he wouldn’t say it if he didn’t think taylor might actually listen / consider what he says, and he wouldn’t even Want to say it if he didn’t give a shit about them, because he’s not just complaining about “um i simply ask for more money,” it’s about the fact he Feels Disrespected by the implied deprioritization of tmc employees and that the way this (false lol) choice is presented to them being Unfair and disingenuous. like, you could (and im sure most viewers do) interpret the other stuff he says as just him backing up his “Pay Me” argument when all he really cares about is the Pay Me part, but a) that’s not how We roll and b) doesn’t make sense with winston being just as happy as anyone else in 4x12with taylor Apologizing re: many of these 4x11 points, despite them not saying they were gonna change the Bonus situation lol, and c) it Does make sense to think that the Mutual Respect between taylor and winston matters to him due to [see: the rest of this post]

well wait lol first of all yeah sure the money Must matter to him b/c nobody could possibly be in the world of High Finance as a passion project (except for taylor apparently lmao cuz i mean we know that the Real reason they are determined to stick with hedge fundery (and involved in the first place) is b/c they are the best part of the show and elevate all the other Lesser Elements of it as well) and also we can figure that this was probably winston’s first year working a Big Time Official Job and he doesn’t have the savings that other ppl might when they’ve been in the business multiple years, and this seems to be backed up by lauren referring to him as they guy who’d be the First One Smothered by either taking a bonus cut by 40% or not getting that bonus at all until a whole other year, which, like he seems to also imply, is also Unhelpful in that surely these investment finance people turn around and invest their own finances, and Bonus Now is better than Bonus Then b/c.....interest....Long Shares.......and also just like tfw you want your job to pay you.......but anyways Seriously [next paragraph]

cuz winston *must* be working at Taylor Mason Capital b/c he really values working with taylor more than, say, wanting a job that will make him the most money, or will necessarily look the best on a resumé if he’s just looking to up his stats, b/c yeah, this is sure an unlikely opportunity for him where this is what we’re assuming is his First Fancy Job and he’s getting to be the Top Quant right out of the gate, but he must also know that like, it’s still like “oh so you were head quant at a brand new fund :/” and also he must know that there’s a Risk with said fund and he might even end up having been head quant at a new fund that burned out really quick, super impressive........and, we Know that winston *knows* how good he is at what he does, even though he keeps getting dunked on for that like he’s sooo conceited lol like. he IS that good, sorry!!!! why should he downplay it, we don’t actually see him being one of these shitheads with a fragile ego trying to prove themselves Superior or whatever.....ANYWAYS yeah the point being that, winston claiming to have a lot of offers already in the interview might very well Not be any kind of bluff, and he’d surely know that he could rise through the Quant Ranks quickly enough at some other fund even if he started out as anything but Our Main Quant at those places.......and if Getting Tf Paid Top Dollar was really his primary concern, “go with the brand new hedge fund which doesn’t have Established History / Experience / Clout and has the one big investor but who knows what’ll come next and any business that Just opened is not your safest bet even if you trust in your own skill and in that of your ceo and you Know that even if you’re not immediately destroyed, funds will be tighter / of a Lesser Amount than at a bigger established fund”.........the now-dramatic-irony of him talking about how those Tech Firms Out West pay guarantees, not bonuses.........like, when he was trying to get onboard with axe cap, he was obvs interested in trying to leverage to get Paid more, which is like, not necessarily winston wanting to be a trillionaire but also just how stupidly everyone’s supposed to like Play The Game of negotiating / leveraging / calling your employer’s bluff to get a certain starting salary / get a raise or whatever, dumb as hell baked-in Requirement........discuss your wages with coworkers gang!!! anyways. and but Also winston makes it clear when interviewing for axe cap that Working With Taylor Mason has appeal, even if he’s flippant about it, cuz he’s flippant about all of it cuz that’s his shtick here.....

like, when it’s Taylor Alone who calls him back eventually, he’s fine with meeting up with Just Them, and later on meeting up with Just Them (and the other quants, rip) again, and agrees to work in this lil basement evidently Not on axe cap premises b/c he’d been at axe cap’s offices and this is Not That Place......and yeah him talking about taylor selling axe on using his algorithm in kompenso sure implies that winston has this whole time Assumed that all of this was still ultimately in the service of axe cap.......and he was apparently fine with reporting to Taylor Alone and not getting to rub elbows with any other higher-ups, and he’s obviously pleased well enough with a “good work :)” from taylor and isn’t like “hey be sure to tell axe & co i did this singlehandedly etc” or anything, and he’s not really complaining about the whole “work in this lil basement Not at axe cap hq with taylor mason dropping in at least once to check on you and that’s about it” situation, which obviously is hardly that “You’re A Valued Axe Cap Employee” treatment one might expect if they wanted that.....winston’s glad that taylor called him, he’s trying to appeal to them and what *they* want to see rather than how he tried to go for what he thinks [a place like axe cap] would wanna see like he did in the interview, he’s showing up at this weird basement rendezvous to be on a 3 person quant team of taylor’s, he’s fine to not only do this on his own but also accept those increased demands that make it a [fifty(? or 15, either way) phds would work on this]-Level task, and then he’s glad just to have taylor’s approval at the end of the day.......they Wouldn’t have been able to promise him any leverage of “please do your best work on this” with like, promotions / clout within axe cap or axe-cap-levels of Lots Of Payment b/c like, well taylor wouldn’t outright lie anyways but also Especially wouldn’t if they wanted to keep this quant around for tmc, so winston must never have been asking about that kind of thing

and then, bless your Missing Scene fic but there’s zero canon content re: “uh how/when did taylor break it to winston that this algorithm was for their own fund actually and btw do you want to work for that fund instead,” but presumably it went smoothly enough, he was already happy to Effectively work for them alone apparently even if he still thought that yeah, he was working for taylor who was working for axe........just Yeah altogether it’s evident that “Working With Taylor Mason” must matter more to him than “working with any Other big name financiers” or “getting paid as much as he can get” or “raking in that clout asap to leverage with Other jobs or just like, in general.”

and then of course you have the fact that taylor is Recognizing his ability by calling him back and offering him this job, going “despite your demeanor your skills are superior” and “those other two were sweet, but you’re more talented, i need you,” [praying hands emoji], and giving him this Second Chance and entrusting him with this Solo re: building this algorithm which, unbeknownst at the time to him, is really this linchpin of their hopes & dreams of launching their own secret fund here, and really they must’ve been planning from the start to keep him around if he succeeded b/c it’s not like the algorithm and their whole planned Quant Department wouldn’t continue to be integral to the fund’s success, it wouldn’t really be ideal to have this guy be the one to build an algorithm to reel in an investor who’s working in.....wait for it......billions of dollars here, and then be like, okay bye dude. they must Know how good he is same as winston knows how good he is, and him being Head Quant from the very start was surely never just about mase cap having precious few employees at the very start of things....they could’ve like given him that Lead Position temporarily or whatever, they’re ceo. but they really do value him as like, maybe he doesn’t have the ideal ~personality~ for what fucking ever, either for being Properly Assertive and Impressively Flashy like axe cap might want, or just easy to work with, which taylor would care more about than axe cap would lol, but yknow, they value his Abilities and surely they must also value his efforts re: I Promise To Try and re: his really singlehandedly making that brilliant amazing algorithm which evidently did the trick as they hoped it would

and then......dare i get to the Emotional part of things, the Interpersonal....the anger and the love...............

i mean already when winnie n tay are having their post-math-meetup meetup, aka the first time they’re meeting After their disastrous really-first meeting aka the Interview, you have winston taking a way more grounded approach to this “yeah i want to work for you please accept me” process which is obviously in response to what he thinks Taylor wants from him based on the mess of the interview, evident thanks to winston telling them that he’s been thinking about all of that.......and i mean, part of taylor’s whole thing is they have that grounded approach pretty much always lol, (or try to....Want to...), but they sure seem to Also be bringing this effort to Accommodate him based on the hot mess of the interview, wherein yeah they wouldn’t’ve expected to have to ever interact again with this person they were dunking into the trash (and of course from that Meta Perspective, the scene when originally written was meant to be winston’s only appearance ever), but they really seem to also be bringing a more dialed down approach, letting him talk first and going along with his “you ever done math meetup” intro until he’s the one who changes the subject, and i really see that Head Tilt as a sympathetic one lol, not necessarily like “awww :’0″ levels lmao but still like. they Know he’s likely to have some [emotional vulnerability] re: what last went down between them since they weren’t especially gentle with him then, and they like, demonstrably give a shit about that fact lol. they’re also not just wholly swinging in the other direction to make up for it or anything lol but they’re Also making it clear that, yknow, they’re willing to work with him For Real, not just in this “are you willing to work for me, y/n, okay great” way, but in this way of [winston making an effort to make things easier on taylor] and [taylor making an effort to make things easier on winston] which is already playing out here between them.

and the whole matter of winston’s seemingly genuine Dismay at messing up even part of this exchange, i.e. the “[wince-ston] damn it, sorry,” like, sure maybe he just really wants the job, but [see: everything above about how he Must primarily want to work with taylor re: wanting any of these jobs lol] and, after all, he “oh shit, sorry”s @ them when he’s well-established as their Head Quant in ep 4x08 and generally shows this directed-at-self displeasure at thinking he’s messed something up even without some clear “your (potential) job is on the line” element......he just Doesn’t Want To Disappoint Taylor Themself, doesn’t need some particular fear of further repercussion behind that.

and speaking of Lack Of Fear, you Know we love to point out how kompenso (and really winston’s :/ + “sure, why not :\”ness at the end of 3x09 lol) demonstrates that winston isn’t afraid of taylor either as an [intense and unusually-demeanor'd person who Does apparently strike people as Scary(tm) sometimes lol] or as this Esteemed Rising Star Axe Cap Higher-Up or simply as his de facto boss.........he’s not raring to tell them that the other quants bailed b/c of his own disapproval lol, but he’s honest as soon as they deduce as much, the tone of “fine, yes, big time” + his standing up to get even closer to them instead of just shaking in his desk chair like :c pls forgive me obviously does Not convey that he’s terrified of them, and then the rest of that interaction jsut being like, ugh god so fucking essential, they’re both able to stand face to face and be like I Am Looking Directly At It / I Do See It re: each other, both of them just continuing to be Honest and Direct with each other, God.....taylor might’ve swatted his metaphor away but he was not all that put out, and then they’re Using His Own Language by bringing it back three seconds later, like, yeah sure at this point they have a vested interest in this individual quant (the only one left lol) accepting this Demanding Task, but a) they’re not exactly playing it cool on that front, they Just said “i need You,” it’s unlikely that this is just some all manipulative tactic here by encouraging his metaphor after all lol and that’s hardly their style anyways even if they Can be strategic(tm) about things, and b) they’ve Just Previously adopted his own words lol with winston having said “as for not being a dick” and taylor saying “you backslid into being a dick” (combining His Phrasing with Theirs aka “if you promise not to backslide”....god!!!!!!)

and so then yeah to top it all off winston even ~pushes his luck~ lol by being a lil deliberately rude re: his ex-coworkers lmaoo, and you get taylor’s Reaction to being sort of tested here to be Closing Off Their Expression (speaking of....their tiny lil Eyebrow Twitch when winston infers that he’s making something to pitch to an investor.....god!!!!!! a) winnie n tay and b) emmy) and making it clear that their interest in him acting Easy To Work With was a practical matter......winston watching them go up the stairs, taylor looking back at him as they Ascend and he gets back to his desk.....jesus

the point being!!! they vibe with each other so well by Kompenso already and just *get* how the other operates and communicates and Neither Of Them are offput by the other, Neither Of Them are unwilling or uninterested in meeting each other where they’re at, and each exerting this effort to really work with each other........and how winston is Not intimidated by taylor as either someone who’s so ~weird~ and can be so Intense, or as someone who is his boss lol........which yknow we always also point out as Important re: tayston developing from this point, where taylor would be careful in how they approach winston about fwbship but would feel like it was even reasonable to consider it in the first place thanks to not having to feel like oh he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable being honest if he wanted to say no / wasn’t sure

also Yeah It’s Billions but winston freely swearing with the F-word when they’re assessing the completed algorithm, which taylor has no reaction to lol.......the both of them being Hyped about this algorithm lol, like, Of Course they’d both be, but it’s fun :)

and then 4x03, with winston not acting terrified about there being potential Algorithm Problems, and taylor making sure to be like “don’t you dare blame latency” lol like which obv he May Have been planning to mention lol since he’s intending to give this technical answer rather than throwing out his Front Running / Interference Theory like mafee then does.....fun little moment too anyways.......taylor Allowing winston’s tangent about being cassandra and emails and “it’s pronounced owned,” like, they’re not raring to Interrupt / cut him off even if it’s Not obvious what he has to say is absolutely crucial and considered relevant by everyone else, and they’re not telling him he’s a stupid idiot and wasting their time or anything else before sending him away.......imagine. and just think about the beauty of winston very intently / earnestly saying his “i’m cassandra: Always Seeing The Future” right to taylor.

and in 4x08 they build on his metaphor Again after having just Validated him despite everyone else really wanting to do the opposite lol......i “lol” but would everyone else lay off a little Lol......his self-reproach upon Registering that disapproval / oh-no-i’ve-messed-upness again.......then despite winston Standing Right Beside and then Sitting Right Behind taylor they don’t really interact l o l .....we have taylor being all “why is He so happy” and silently observing his Solo “i won” moment, rip, but also congrats.....and then i suppose that covers the Prior To 4x11 stuff lol

just......even re: the relative little we’ve Seen between them up to that point, winston might not have intended to talk to taylor right then, and he might or might not have intended to eventually talk to them in front of anyone else, but You Know He Knows that taylor listens to him, and that he doesn’t have to like, say things in what other people think is The Right And Effective Way to talk (even by billions’s fucking off the shits standards on that front lol), because taylor Does care about what he actually means and what his actual intentions are, not just “oh that very direct/honest thing you said Seemed rude whether you intended it or not”.......the “sad” after his yngwie malmsteen metaphor was the only time they’ve critiqued something like that lol and they then used that metaphor, So, and they’ve copied him calling himself a dick lol, and they built on his Sword metaphor, and they’ve just always been interested in Understanding him and communicating effectively with him, not in trying to get him to communicate differently or just making sure he knows He Should Feel Bad about how he Does communicate, though god knows the latter is something that everyone else seems to be somewhat #about. god knows some axe capper would have that “are you finished?” simply be the Purely Rhetorical intro to their barrage of Dunking-Upon insults, although it sure seems possible that that could’ve been sort of gently dismissive enough anyways to Encourage winston to not be finished even if maybe he would’ve stopped there otherwise.....but everyone else follows taylor’s lead in Not Actually Interrupting Him at any point, despite all the 9_9 and >:| as it were, and like, even though taylor then lets this whole thing end just with mafee going tf off on winston and bullying him into deferring and would-be deference, b/c winston might have this amount of moxie and he might be honest and he might not be scared of taylor (or anyone else here really) but he’s obviously not that assertive and definitely not that aggressive, he’s self-loathing, he’s easily put out, and all of this just bolsters how much it means that he communicates so well with taylor, b/c they’re Not interested in anything that would be counterproductive to actual effective communication but which might be “productive” if they had a goal of wanting to twist his arm about anything or pressure him into acting a certain way or just fueling their own ego or sense of superiority, axe cap style. they Value all his actual input and they have this respect for him where they don’t Want to bully him even if it’s not that difficult, like, yeah mafee was being mean to him for sure and trying to insult him into simply shutting tf up rather than like, actually responding to any of his points or doing anything but reinforcing them, but also winston has been Put Out by milder [negative responses] too, it’s of course more than just “i respect you too much to like, yell at you and try to diminish you”

and Frankly Winston Was Right and he may have been Indignant and he may not have been ~polite~ about it (though like, relative to how he is generally this Direct And Honest, there’s also not all that much evidence he’s deliberately trying to add some extra servings of Rudeness or anything) but once again like with the “as for not being a dick, i can’t absolute guarantee it” moment and the “fine, yes, big time” moment, and the “im sure it’ll go faster without the dead weight; Whoops ;)” moment, and the [talking about the algorithm problems] moment, and him freely jumping in with the “this plan might get us killed (not literally)” and “it’s b/c it sucks that they had to decapitate their dad, also not literally lol....although...” remarks, he’s just like, never afraid to tell taylor something that sure might not be the most pleasant for them to hear, and sure might not be something they Want to hear. and what’s Honest is that he’s Angry about this, and they won’t want to hear that and that they will even less want to hear his Honest Thoughts about why this is unfair, but he’s willing to say that to them, and even though we were like “haha boy winston if this isn’t fixed big time you might wanna quit :/” it’s also like, he must’ve trusted them to not wanna just fire him for lack of reverence to his ceo, and we can Juxtapose this with a) the scene that we’re set up to juxtapose it with, wherein a group of axe cappers carefully tell axe he’s being dumb as hell and might fuck all of them over, and axe tells them all to shut the fuck up b/c He Is Their Sun and he can do what he wants and get the fuck out of here, and we can also juxtapose it with b) winston being jumped on immediately in The Interview for ~lack of reverence~ to the potential employer, putting on this cocksure hotshot act (trying to..) and daring to express confidence in himself and be like “i should be interviewing you” / you should be selling to Me lol......jump to 4x11 and winston is caught off guard, he’s not putting on any kind of act, he’s not trying to appeal to anyone, sure mafee might turn it around on his [last we checked, the quant hates himself]ness, but this wasn’t about Winston Lashing Out b/c he’s angry at himself, he’s angry at Them for not valuing him, for what he perceives as them not even *really* giving them the option of the 60% Now approach, which sure seems to be justified seeing as apparently nobody but lauren goes for it and after winston invokes the Peer Pressure / pressure to seem Loyal / Committed by deferring, mafee immediately uses that [social pressure] to crush his dissent........where was i. right like. winston’s truly just Mad At Someone Else this time, he wouldn’t be here if his self-esteem was so low that he was immediately ready to just accept and absorb this treatment, and he Knows that taylor will actually listen to him which is their fuckin Mutual Respect thing and who tf else does that for him all the time, and he knows that taylor doesn’t value their own ego above everything else Unlike Some People, and he knows that he can be honest and get an honest reaction and that their honest reaction to his honesty is not “ugh you’re stupid / annoying / rude / etc,” b/c he’s Not, and that might be everyone else’s idea of him to some degree, but taylor Gets him better than that

and then you don’t quite have taylor being obviously Angry back, but they’re not exactly thrilled, and letting mafee go off on winston / effectively telling him they expect him to consider That the response and in turn respond back to that, can sure be interpreted as an expression of something a little short of pure goodwill and best intentions towards him here lol......again, i lol through the pain.......winston only has further reason to be angry, his Complaints weren’t resolved in the least and he came in all “i feel disrespected” and surely that’s only been doubled down on, b/c this isn’t Just “pay me goddamnit,” it’s really also just about the fundamental respect itself, which he figured that taylor cares about too, and so this would be something he could appeal to / expect them to earnestly.....he feels like none of them are being valued more than this feud with axe cap, he (maybe) feels like said feud is causing the quants’ work to be deprioritized in favor of more elaborate schemes based on “what will screw axe over specifically,” he feels like he’s not being valued as a Very Important Employee, he feels like this False Choice thanks to Social Pressure is insult to injury, like they’re not supposed to get a real chance to question this. boy i’m really just going off talking about any and all aspects of this huh, where’s the Anger Geography core here

well here it is: winston doesn’t ever talk to taylor in any more Filtered way due to them being his boss / him feeling a need to be more careful around them, if anything, they’re the one person he can be Least filtered around, b/c they care about What He Actually Means and aren’t all hung up on whether his communication style seems gratingly weird / wrong / offputting. winston isn’t bringing any particular leverage to this situation, yeah sure he pointed out He’s Valuable but he also did that in the interview with even less leverage and in the basement when he thought he was just working on some weird side project for axe cap in this remote quant dungeon - he’s counting on them to just Listen To Him and care about what he means, same as he always does and like they’ve done thus far. and he’s Temporarily Burned by this, which is tragic, but then 4x12 happens, and who knows if taylor and winston talked between these scenes at all cuz billions sure won’t say at all, but either way winston sure seems to pick up on the fact that taylor is responding to his Complaints here, the implication they were taking a too-axe-esque approach to them now answered by taylor deliberately differentiating themself from axe, and asserting that they Do value their employees and their contributions, and that taylor has this responsibility to them, and maybe Had gone astray there with the revenge jag but aren’t actually interested in that being the core of everything.........winston is Validated and we realize it and he seems to realize it lol, he definitely Was listened to, and he sure wasn’t like fired or anything, he Could Be Angry with them and that wasn’t going to lead to taylor wanting to sever even the Professional relationship or anything like that. sure seems to be no grudge held between them during the “q is for quantitative, babey” scene there lol and yeah it’s billions and shit moves fast / people will roll with A Lot of mistreatment apparently (see: winston also does not seem to harbor any grudge against mafee here lol but who knows) but the Fact Is, here they are, having found A Way Out Of [Anger], after having had this altercation which wouldn’t even have been possible if Winston hadn’t felt it was possible for them to interact like this, for him to be mad and be honest about that anger and the hows and whys of it and for that Not to be a dead end between them or something that could shatter the relationship entirely. and he was Validated!!!!

and guess who i also love to quote and paraphrase lol i also think of mariame kaba talking about interpersonal Conflict being possible Opportunities in a relationship, because working through said conflict can allow the relationship to grow / deepen / strengthen. which sure seems to Hold Hands with this idea: that you can Be Angry with someone because you already know that won’t break the relationship, and that even if you don’t already know that, going through that experience / process of Being Angry with someone and coming out the other side together will show that the relationship can handle that / will have involved gaining tools to be able to handle that going forward. and really like, we’ve seen winston Forgive taylor’s anger at him right off, and that may not be the sweeping heights of love but it came from Understanding (and....low self-es steam probably lol) but no really, he Shows that he understands why they reacted like that by behaving in this way that he figures is more in line with what they actually want, just talking and being direct with no boxes or [wags] or standard boring interview questions or posturing, showing he’s willing to work with them in the “please hire me” and “i’ll try to Behave” ways lol........and taylor is offering their own patience and sympathy and restraint and Understanding and willingness to bend.......things are happening on an emotional plane between them here.

and then after winston chooses to be on board with mase cap, and after he’s worked for them so long that it’s comp time baby, and after these few Sample Interactions we’ve seen in which taylor doesn’t cut winston down or show contempt for him and they continue to directly or indirectly validate him, winston can be Angry with them and taylor can (definitely Sorta) be Angry back, and winston surely even Stayed Angry after that scene in 4x11, and he didn’t quit, and was that [terrible self-esteem actually lol] or was it him believing that there could be a way out of this state of anger between him and taylor? both?? we get to decide!! b/c he’s sure not Validated and Vindicated until later lol.....what does he sit there on that couch alone in that room and Think in those moments...........and then once things Are better resolved, they have this whole [episode of conflict] in their history, and like is the whole Point of all of this, that’s hardly necessarily just some awful and unfortunate thing.......their relationship can survive something like that, and the conflict sure sparked this kind of Genuine Interaction between them which couldn’t have happened if winston just shied away from all this / kept it to himself because he didn’t think taylor would Listen or Care or Understand.

and it’s Not Just About The Money, and even when he expresses that he’s upset about this perceived disrespect / not being valued as an employee, we Know that he’s not someone who’s got this need to feel superior to everybody else / like he’s always Winning, and we know he’s not after Maximum Clout, but he does want to Work With taylor and he evidently wants to feel valued By Them, who does happen to be his boss and does have this avenue to potentially treat any employees unfairly. and we know that winston *knows* in this objective way how good his work is, and both winston and taylor have acknowledged that yeah, His Work / professional quantly ablities have value, so winston Knows he should expect for that to be valued in the form of “your quantributions are important and you’re getting paid to reflect that”........and that he feels like he’s for once not being Allowed Honesty re: everyone supposedly being pressured into deferring is like..........what do he and taylor have if not earnest, open communication b/c they both value and respect what the other Really Has To Say!!!!!! that’s winnie n tay and it’s also tayston.

which, speaking of which, Sidenote: when it comes to tayston hcs we generally have this as a “they’re not currently doing Their Thing at this point anyways, and maybe the fact that that’s been ended (and they Haven’t been talking through this particular conflict yet) is adding to the tension / anger / feeling of not being valued hahaha rip” deal lol, but also if they Were still currently in their fwb/[???]ship like obviously this would spill over and probably require an at-least-temporary halt to give everyone some space seeing as it’d be a little impossible to truly completely Set That Aside in the recent aftermath l o l ......but despite the lingering tension / awkwardness that would be present whenever they Do next meetup [imagine: an I Was On The Phone With You, Sweetheart phonecall prior to 4x12′s scene?? wrow] the layers to that ensuing sex lol......reunion sex? makeup sex? not-hate-sex-but-maybe-still-needing-to-vent-a-lil-Emotional-frustration-maybe sex? maybe all of the above and more

ANYWAYS even i don’t know why this is so long, and also it’s 7am. i definitely think that winston trusted taylor and the Relationship between them to be able to handle Anger (his, for once, lol) and for that Anger to even potentially be something Constructive. and he was right. and in 4x12 he’s there with them at the very end, wearing the tmc logo, standing behind them in the hellhole which is axe cap hq, knowing that taylor is the one person (here, certainly) who definitely Gets and who’s Got him, who’s asserted this loyalty and commitment to him after he’s certainly done that re: them, and once again winston definitely has this Choice to be here with them just like he must’ve had that choice to join up with their fund in the first place, he’s never been trapped with them or forced into alliance with them, and we just Know that he’s not choosing to be here just for Linkedin reasons / what’s best for career advancement and/or for raking it in as best as he can manage and/or for gaining clout and status or whatever, and we sure never see him reaping some kind of deluxe treatment/benefits just for being closely associated with taylor / having their approval. everything we see points to winston caring most about what happens between him and taylor and that he gets to work with them and that he’s here because of that mutual respect and value for each other.

and really, the show also repeatedly tells us that winston Does basically have these world-class abilities and *is* that valuable, and we know that winston Knows how good he is, and he must’ve legitimately had all those offers and known that he’s really good enough that these places Should compete for him. he must’ve known that he has this Potential here and all of these options laid out in front of him, and he takes taylor’s call and shows up in a basement for them and singlehandedly writes an algorithm good enough to found their fund upon and he follows them there when now he’s got this Proof of just how incredible his work is and could’ve leveraged that anywhere else. but his relationship with taylor has always had this personal aspect to it and the fact is that, even with his choice of Paths laid out in front of him, he chose and keeps choosing the geography of winnie n tay. Love. thank you and goodnight

#time to attempt a nap!!!! Them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#winston billions #tayston #nothingunrealistic1

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darnellbebop · 4 years ago

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Decided I’d write up the story of my experience with that catfish. Don’t know if anyone cares but it’s under the cut if you do:

So back in November a friend mentioned meeting someone on Facebook Dating. My first thought was “That’s kind of dumb” but then I figured since your profile for that is linked directly to your Facebook, I wouldn’t see as many spam profiles and I may have also took the possibility of catfish into mind. Not sure. But if I did, talk about ironic. Within the first couple days I matched a pretty girl and messaged her about Hogwarts houses since Harry Potter was on her profile.We hit it off pretty well and exchanged numbers and things seemed to be going well. She worked two jobs (Lush and PF Chang’s at a couple different malls in the area). She even mentioned that she’d seen me before at my job a couple months prior. A lot of very realistic shit. Nothing to be suspicious of.

Since she worked two jobs, she worked pretty much 7 days a week. We planned dates a couple times and she always ended up backing out for one reason or another. There were also a couple times we got into disagreements where she would refuse to talk to me for a day and basically have me beg for forgiveness when she decided to “give me another chance”. (That’s a toxic trait even in a real relationship; especially since she expected me to always talk to her even though she could decide “I’m not talking to you because I’m mad”).

Anyway, about a month or so in, we still hadn’t met up and she asked about sexting so we gave that a go around Thanksgiving. This is when I first got suspicious. We had sexted one night and then the following morning and in the morning I was alarmed to notice that the video taken in the morning was in a different room than the stuff she had sent the previous night. They were both bedrooms. And they both neck down only so I immediately thought “These are not the same person” and said I wasn’t comfortable sexting anymore. This got her mad and she wouldn’t talk to me. During this time I tried digging up proof that the girl was real. Googled her name, her phone number, checked her Facebook and IG. Honestly I came across so much proof that I should have cut her out at this point but I didn’t:

All of her Instagram pics only have comments from guys. No comments from other girls. Kind of weird that none of her friends ever decided to go “Yes girl!!!” on any of her selfies. And on the couple where she was with a friend, she didn’t have them tagged. Additionally, the only photos she was tagged in were from an account belonging to her “brother”. Her Facebook was similar. I forget what brought this up, but I came across a guy’s name who lived in the same town she gave me at some point during all my research and thought “Maybe he’s the catfish” (He definitely is).

Now there were things that felt like “Well why is this a thing if she’s not real?” too. The biggest one was that on Facebook I came across a guy, a real person (he actually interacts with numerous people in his posts and seemed as real as possible) who claimed he had been dating her at one point. An ex boyfriend felt like proof to me. And then the amount of effort that went into this fake girl also felt insane (Facebook and Instagram accounts that were a few years old and a PSN account).

When she answered me again she chewed me out for not trusting her. Completely flipped the script on the fact that I found her out and instead made me out to be the bad guy and had me thinking I was just being paranoid for nothing. This is what really makes me mad about the whole situation. Instead of ghosting or apologizing and letting me move on with my life, this dude doubled down on his lie and sunk his claws in deeper.

Since the holidays were coming up, both of our jobs were getting busier so it was understandable that we weren’t able to meet up. I think part of me was still suspicious at this point. When I got her Christmas presents, I got her things that I would still enjoy for myself that I didn’t own just in case she wasn’t real (thank you subconscious me). I get suspicious occasionally when I notice something not quite right but don’t want to be accused of “not trusting her” if I bring it up and do question if I’m maybe being paranoid. Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation.

Fastforward a bit to late February and she sends me a video compilation of some plays she made in Overwatch. After I watch it, I decide to check out the rest of her channel because that’s just something I naturally do after I watch a friend’s video. In the “About” section, a guy’s Instagram is linked. What guy? The one I came across months ago. That was the smoking gun so to be speak. Now maybe it’s possible she’s friends with this guy and just has him upload them to her channel or they share a channel. No reason to jump to conclusions like a paranoid crazy person (See how manipulative this asshole was?).

By this point, the combination of us having never met up or even FaceTimed had me thinking even if she is real, this is taking forever to get started and I decided I would pursue other girls in the mean time and if nothing happened by the end of the month with her, I’d cut her loose. Then COVID happened and quarantine bought her time since there was an actual excuse for her to not meet up. Thankfully though, she also slowly drifted away from me during quarantine. She texted less and less. One day she finally addressed it and was like “Sorry, for being distant” and I said it was okay and that the boring quarantine routine was probably to blame. Though at the same time I was a bit relieved cuz her disappearing would be fine since I know she’s not real.

One thing that also stood out to me that I feel like I should have caught on to as a sign was that a lot of her reaction images and pics she’d send me were Black Twitter memes. This was a white girl with an uncomfortable level of Black reaction images. The guy however, is Black. So it makes sense. Then a bit into me watching her play Overwatch one day, she asks me to add her “brother’s account” cuz she’s gonna play on that one instead of her own. Interesting, right? Looking back at it, the “brother” profile on PSN looks very similar to the guy’s IG profile.

I haven’t attempted to talk to her in over a week. Sent a meme. Didn’t get a reply. Didn’t try again. I’m fine with that. Plus when I checked the dude’s Twitter, I found one of his Youtube video links and watched it and the person playing is whoever’s on the PSN account belonging to “her brother”. AKA it’s his and he was just some manipulative asshole piece of shit who can go fuck himself. He’s probably moved on to someone else. Or multiple someone elses. Who knows. I did notice that both profiles have been using “Share Play” for Overwatch without me so I take it, those are sessions with my replacement.

So yeah. That sucked. I wasted way too long on a piece of shit catfish. I know I did but I also sort of felt like I didn’t have other options at the time. It wasn’t until I actively started looking that I realized, I have other options and don’t need to put up with a catfish or a girl that plays so many games. Also gonna trust my gut unless I’m given solid proof that it’s wrong cuz my gut was right.

#personal #long #catfished

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could-have-beens · 5 years ago

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Tradition (Chapter 1)

I’m just gonna go and shamelessly tag this as part of the @hansannafortheholidays event even though it’s really, really late. Written for Day 10: Mistletoe.

Also posted on ff.net and ao3. Please tell me what you guys think and I hope you like it!

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Hans keeps finding himself caught under the mistletoe. Somehow, it’s always Anna’s fault.

Or, alternatively, seven kisses Hans and Anna share under the mistletoe. Childhood friends AU.

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To think, just a few weeks ago, Hans had been so excited when he had learned of his betrothal. The last of his thirteen brothers, he had been resigned to waiting for each of his older siblings to be paired off with wives before even hoping for a match of his own. And he would have waited a long time, if his brother Lars hadn't intervened.

Only Lars would give more than a passing glance at the small kingdom of Arendelle, and only he would see the opportunity in its two young and eligible princesses. Only Lars would care about his youngest brother enough to make him a match, and only Lars would have the charisma and wits to pull it off.

And what a match it was. A crown princess. A future queen.

No one but Lars, Hans' sole ally in his entire family, would have thought of it. Not even their father would have cared enough to think of Hans' future. If it were up to him, Hans would have never been paired with anyone, even if everyone else had already been married off. Or, worse, he would have been sent to the Brotherhood of Isles, forced to take a vow of silence.

But no. Thanks to Lars, that wasn't his fate anymore, and at eleven years old, Hans was already on his way to a brighter, better future than any of his brothers could ever hope to achieve. The trip to Arendelle was just icing on the cake, and Hans had been thrilled to spend the winter season away from his family.

If only Anna wasn't in the picture.

Anna, the second and youngest princess of Arendelle. A spare, just like him.

His eagerness to spend the holidays in his future home, to meet his future in-laws, to get to know his future wife, had been dampened thanks to her. Unlike Elsa — who was quiet and reserved, who was poised and graceful, whom Hans had barely even seen since his arrival in Arendelle — Anna was a tornado with pigtails. She ran around the palace without care, always with reckless abandon, always with a grin, and always with something to say.

She was just so talky. And annoying. And wouldn't leave him alone. Everywhere he went, she was always one step behind, yammering in his ear about some story or another. There was no avoiding her — and boy, did he try — and Hans had no choice but to grin and bear it. Especially, as Lars liked to laughingly remind him, if Hans wanted to get in the King and Queen's good graces.

So here he was, acting like the princess' glorified keeper, as Anna pouted and knocked incessantly at her sister's door.

"Elsa!" Anna was saying, and the sound of her relentless knocking made his head pound. "Do you want to build a snowman? We could do it with Hans! I bet Hans wants to build a snowman with us. Don't you, Hans?"

She turned to him expectantly, and Hans gave her a strained smile. "Sure," he said through gritted teeth. "I'd love nothing more."

The sarcasm was lost on her, and she beamed at him before turning back to the door, knocking again. "You hear that, Elsa? Hans wants to play with us! Elsa? Elsa, I know you're in there! Elsaaaaaaa."

Not for the first time that day, Hans bit back a sigh. Elsa was probably trying to enjoy the silence — the sweet, blissful, blessed silence — before coming out to deal with her little sister. Maybe with Elsa with them, Anna would be easier to deal with, and Hans could have an actual conversation with his betrothed.

But the longer he and Anna stood there, waiting, the more it became clear that Elsa had no intention of opening her door. Hans watched as Anna's large grin faltered with each passing second.

In spite of himself, he couldn't help but frown. Since he arrived, he had only seen Elsa a handful of times, mostly during meals where her presence was required. Even then, she hardly said a word, speaking only when spoken to, each reply short but polite. Hans supposed she must be shy around strangers, and he could understand her need to keep to herself, but was it really necessary to lock herself in her room like this? To hide herself away?

Hans knew all about hiding, after all. He just couldn't understand why Elsa would need to. Anna, as draining and irritating as she was, was nothing like his brothers. The King and Queen of Arendelle were nothing like his parents. So why was Elsa not opening her door? Why wasn't she answering at all?

Anna seemed to have given up on Elsa replying. Her shoulders had visibly drooped, and her bright eyes had dimmed as she cast her gaze downward.

"Oh, well," she said hesitantly. "You're probably busy with — uh — the usual stuff, I guess. Maybe next time?"

There was no answer, but Anna didn't wait for one before dropping on her knees and elbows, peeking through the crack under the door.

"Anna," Hans began, "what are you —"

She slipped the drawing — the one she had been so proud of, the one she made while she insisted he tell her about every single detail of his castle in the Southern Isles, about what each of his brothers looked like, about his entire voyage to Arendelle — under the door and got back to her feet, grabbed his hand, then tugged him away like a ragdoll.

"C'mon!" she said excitedly, beaming again. "Let's go to the library! It's got load and loads of books and Papa said they're from all around the world — isn't that awesome? I bet you've got a library in the Southern Isles too, huh? I bet you've —"

"Wait," he interrupted, mind reeling. "That drawing. Your drawing. You gave it to Elsa."

She nodded, not pausing in her steps. "I did! You think she'd like it?"

"Why?"

"Why would she like it?"

Again, Hans wanted to sigh. "I mean, why did you give it to her?"

"Oh. That." She took a deep breath, then, without pausing, went on, "Well, I dunno, I just thought she'd like to see what the Southern Isles looked like, 'cuz, you know, she didn't get to hear any of your stories at all, 'cuz she left so quickly after dinner and everything. And I bet she really wanted to hear 'em too, because she's in her room all day and she never gets to hear the best stories. I bet she's really bored, staying in bed all the time, and I bet she really wanted to hear all about your castles and your ships and your horses and stuff, but she didn't 'cuz — I dunno, 'cuz she's Elsa like that — anyway. I didn't want her to miss out on all the fun, so I made her those drawings so she gets to see 'em even if she wasn't there!"

It took Hans a moment to make sense of her rambling, but when he did, all he could say was, "You've never seen them either."

"Yeah, but I've got you to tell me all the stories! Elsa doesn't have a storyteller like you so maybe we can make her drawings instead. Like in the storybooks." Anna brightened, and he could almost imagine a candle over her head, lighting up with an idea. "Oh, oh, oh! We should make her a storybook, all about your adventures! I bet she'll like that. Do you think she'll like that?"

Hans fell quiet, feeling something stir in his chest at her words. He couldn't imagine any of his brothers doing something like what Anna did and wanted to do for Elsa. If it were his family, they wouldn't even notice his absence, or would have thought of him at all, let alone care enough to make handmade presents and slip it under his door. Sure, there was Lars, and Hans was definitely grateful he wasn't like the rest of his brothers, but Lars wasn't exactly the affectionate, sentimental sort, and he was always too caught up in his books and research to think of much else.

"Yes, I think she will," Hans said after a while.

Anna squealed. "We should get started! I've got all my crayons and pencils and everything and — oh! We should do it in the library! Elsa never goes to the library — well, she never goes anywhere really — but I don't think I've ever seen her in the library. It's the perfect place — I bet she'll be so surprised —"

She went on and on, talking a mile a minute. Hans let himself be dragged along, half-listening, but he couldn't help but smile and nod as he followed. The princess was annoying, certainly, but she was harmless and easily amused. He supposed there were worse ways to spend the holidays than acting like her royal babysitter.

I won't be bored, at least, he thought.

Anna stopped abruptly when they reached the library. Hans had already passed by the doorway, but Anna was staring at the decorations overhead, gasping, an awed look on her face.

"Mistletoe," she whispered, sounding almost reverent.

Sure enough, there it was, hanging above her, almost hidden behind all the other holiday ornaments. Squinting, Hans could see the mistletoe was still full of berries, and they seemed to gleam, almost tauntingly, amid the glittering decorations.

Hans grimaced. "C'mon, Anna," he said. "I thought you wanted to get started on your storybook —"

"Not before we kiss!"

He sighed. "We don't have to, Anna. It's just a plant."

She looked up at him with a horrified gasp, looking so appalled like he'd just done something terribly unforgivable. Like kicked a puppy or destroyed her snowman, or whatever it was that could be considered unforgivable for six-year-olds. "But it's tradition," she said, reproachful.

Hans resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Technically, he could probably just carry her over his shoulder, bring her inside the library, and be done with it, but no doubt Anna would throw a fuss and start kicking and screaming. It wouldn't be worth it.

So, resigned to the lesser evil, he stifled another sigh and bent down to press a soft kiss on her forehead. When he straightened and stepped back, Anna was gaping at him, with wide eyes and pink cheeks, before the stunned look quickly melted into a glare.

"You missed!" she whined. "That's not a real kiss!"

Hans could feel the beginnings of a smile curling at the corner of his lips, but he smothered it with a smirk. "Of course it is."

"Nu-uh!"

"And how do you know what a real kiss is supposed to be like?"

Anna lowered her voice, glancing about her furtively like she was about to tell a secret. "It's s'pposed to go on the lips, over here," she whispered, pointing to her lips for good measure, as if he needed the reminder. "Like Mama and Papa do. Like in the fairytales."

"Fairytales aren't real, Anna."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Shows what you know! 'Course they are!"

This time he didn't bother to hide his annoyance as he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I still say it's a real kiss. The mistletoe tradition never said the kiss had to be on the lips."

She wasn't convinced. "How'd you know?"

"I read it. In a book."

"What book?"

"From the library."

Her brows furrowed, and she looked like she was in deep concentration, as though she was debating with herself, trying to fit what she knew with this new information. Then she nodded, self-assured and seemingly satisfied. "Okay, I guess," she said, a bit reluctantly. "But next time you have to give me a real kiss — not a stupid one on the forehead! A kiss like True Love."

"Like in the fairytales?"

"Exactly!"

"You're a bit young for True Love's kiss, aren't you?"

Anna tsked impatiently, grabbing his hand and tugging him inside the library. He was beginning to get used to it. "Then do it when I'm bigger, duh. You have to promise."

Hans wanted to laugh, but she was glaring at him so fiercely, so intensely, that he knew nothing less than an affirmative would sway her.

"Okay," he said, smiling. "I promise."

ii.

Kai had been with the royal family long enough to remember the days when the princesses were as thick as thieves, practically attached at hip. Back then, it was almost impossible to see one princess without the other trailing just a few steps behind.

But when the King and Queen decided to place the princesses in separate rooms, when they decided to close the gates, it was like the whole castle had changed overnight. Gone were the joyous, childish screams and giggling, and what were once two sets of footsteps, running to and fro the hallways, had turned to one. It made the palace seem too big, too empty, too cold, and the day Princess Elsa decided to spend her waking hours in the confines of her room, was the day Kai felt as though a light had been snuffed out in the kingdom, leaving only dimmed smiles and shrouding not just the royal family, but everyone else within the castle, in lonely shadows.

Now, Kai had some rather unfavorable opinions about certain practices that were common among the nobility. It wasn't his place to question Their Majesties, of course, but he certainly hadn't approved when he had learned of the engagement between Princess Elsa and a prince of the Southern Isles. Politics-wise, Kai agreed it was a good match, but for heaven's sake, they were only children.

Still, he remembered how Princess Anna's face lit up when she had first learned that Prince Hans was to spend the winters in Arendelle, and how Princess Elsa would wander more and more outside of her room as the prince's annual visits went on. Kai had to admit that some good had come out of the arrangement, as Her Highnesses had ended up with a playmate and a friend — or, in Princess Elsa's case, someone who was on his way to becoming one, if nothing else. Though she still insisted on staying in her room, she would come out to engage in small talk with him, and Kai had noticed that the prince was the only person she would approach and talk to at royal functions, on the rare times that she did initiate conversations.

Which was Kai felt a bit miffed on the princess' behalf, when he caught sight of Prince Hans slipping away from the ball, carrying a platter of what looked suspiciously like krumkakes. From what Kai could tell, no one but himself and the princess had noticed the prince's absence, and he saw her looking around the room, searching the crowd from her place on the dais.

Why, the nerve of him! Kai thought, affronted. Leaving the princess alone . . . why I never!

Once Kai was certain his presence was no longer needed, he too left the ballroom in search of the wayward prince. The boy needed a stern talking to. He was seventeen now, almost of age, and the ball was supposed to be held in his and his brother's honor — surely he had to know better by now, surely he was aware of how rude it was, to leave the party just like that.

It didn't take long to find the prince in the gardens, but what surprised Kai was that he wasn't alone.

"The whole thing?"

"Yeah, the whole thing! You got it."

Kai felt his eyebrows rise to his hairline at the sound of Princess Anna's voice. Peeking behind the hedges, he found the two royals, giggling over a platter of krumkakes. Prince Hans was without his coat, and it was instead draped over the princess' shoulders, big enough to hide the nightgown she wore underneath.

Kai stepped back in the shadows to give them a bit of privacy, remembering then that it wasn't just Elsa who sought the prince's company during his visits. He recalled how fond of the prince Princess Anna was, always so delighted when he visited and despondent when he left. Kai remembered too how she had moped for weeks when the King and Queen informed her she was too young to attend the welcome ball.

Oh well. . . .

Kai could give them a few moments to catch up, he supposed, before he revealed himself. It wasn't as though the prince's presence was that pressing of a matter, surely. . . .

"So what's it like?" the princess was saying.

"The ball?"

"Duh."

"All right, I suppose. A bit boring."

"Boring?" she echoed, sounding aghast to hear such a thing. "How can it be boring? I mean there's dancing and all those people and there's so much chocolate and food —"

The prince laughed. "It really is, Anna. There's hardly any people my age to dance with, and everyone else is busy talking about trade routes and politics."

"But Elsa's there." There was a pause, and the hesitation in her tone was clear when she continued, "Was she — was she having fun?"

"I don't think she was. She didn't even dance."

"Not even once?"

"Well, one dance. With me. It . . . could've been better."

The princess giggled. "Aww, how romantic."

"It wasn't," the prince said, sighing. "She kept stepping on my toes."

"Elsa? She would never!"

"You don't believe me?"

"You've seen her! She's so . . . graceful and perfect. I don't think she's even physically capable of being bad at anything."

"Clearly, you've never seen her dance."

Another pause, longer than the first, and Kai was just about to step forward to see what was wrong, when the prince spoke again.

"Anna?" he said worriedly.

"Nothing," and Kai could hear the sadness in her voice. "It's just — you're right. I've never seen her dance. She — uh — she never wanted to practice. With me, I mean."

"Oh." Prince Hans cleared his throat. Sounding rather awkward, he went on, "None of my brothers did either. I suppose . . . it's not completely outside the realm of possibility that I . . . may have tripped a couple of times myself."

This made the princess laugh again. "I knew it!" she crowed. "And . . . outside the realm of possibility? Sheesh, Hans, do you always have to be so formal and proper?"

"Someone has to."

"Hey, I can be formal and proper!"

"Sure, Anna."

"Oh, just you wait, when I'm old enough to attend those stupid balls, I'll — I'll be so proper and sophisticated and graceful that you won't even recognize me, and the look on your face will be so —"

The princess stopped so suddenly that Kai couldn't resist sneaking another glance from his hiding place. Prince Hans had placed a chaste peck on her forehead, and was now pulling back to pluck a berry off the mistletoe hanging in the archway.

"Oh," Princess Anna said, turning as red as her hair.

The prince merely chuckled. "Tradition, remember?" he said lightly. "At least it got you to shut up."

She gaped at him. "Why you —"

Kai took that as his cue. He cleared his throat, stepping away from the shadows. "Your Highnesses," he said, bowing.

"Kai!" the princess exclaimed, delighted to see him. And then her face fell, realizing why he was here, and she said, much more dismally, "Kai."

"Now, my lady," he said reproachfully. "I believe it is time I escort you back to your chambers."

"But Kai," she said in whining tones, eyes large and imploring in the way Kai knew well.

"It is past your bedtime, Your Highness."

Next to her, Prince Hans snickered, and she shot him a glare, hitting him on the shoulder hard enough that Kai caught him wincing. Kai turned his attention to the prince then, who gave him an easy, charming smile.

"I take it no one has noticed my absence?" he said, sounding certain.

"I believe the princess has, Your Highness." The prince looked stunned by this. Trying to inject a hint of humor in his tone, Kai added, "That, and the absence of a certain platter of dessert."

"Ah," was all Prince Hans said, his cheeks slightly tinged pink.

It was the princess' turn to snicker, which turned Kai's attention back to her. She made a face, giving a most unladylike groan.

"I know, I know," she grumbled under her breath. "Back to my rooms."

"Indeed." Kai nodded reprovingly. Turning to the prince, he said, "I trust you know the way back to the ballroom, Your Highness?"

"Yes, thank you, Kai," Prince Hans said somberly, looking contrite and properly chided.

And if Kai caught the prince slipping one last krumkake in the princess' hand as she was led away — well, he supposed he could turn a blind eye, just this once.

#hansanna #hansanna fic #prince hans #hans #princess anna #anna #hansannafortheholidays #hansannafortheholidays2019 #my fic #fic: tradition

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ice-cream-nekogirl · 6 years ago

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Tag, You’re It!: Shinsou x Witch!Reader

Summary: After training and working tirelessly thanks to Aizawa, you, Reader-chan, missing Robichaux, have had enough with all the work and decide it's time to give yourself and your beloved classmates a damn break! And you suggest playing a game to your best friends Shinsou, Midoriya and Todoroki, in hopes to have fun and teach Todoroki how to have 'fun'. So you present a game you call 'Quirk Tag' where it's a version of Tag that lets your classmates and friends use their quirks to tag and run away from whoever is 'it'. At first nobody is on board, especially not Bakugou, but you manage to use your witchy ways to persuade them and when the game is on, it's SO on.

There’s some teasing between you Todoroki and Bakugou but this is definitely more of a Shinsou x Reader.

Part of my BNHA x Witch!Reader series:https://chocolatekitsune.tumblr.com/post/180883516269/bnha-x-witchreader

Part 1: You’re It!

“Ugh. I’m bored… someone do something, ANYTHING even remotely interesting!” You exclaimed, currently in your hero costume with the rest of your classmates spread out to train and work on their quirks and to practice with saving people or something at the Ground Beta. But the only ones close in your vicinity were your best friend Shinsou, your ‘other best friend’ Midoriya, and Todoroki, who you decided was your official 'third best friend’ because Madison proved to be a shitty third best friend and was now your 'fourth best friend'.

Speaking of which, she was thankfully busy (reluctantly) helping Cordelia and Zoe with ‘witch matters’ somewhere at the Miyagi Prefecture. And you had to admit, you were enjoying almost every moment apart from her, but at the same time… she made things interesting at times. Her bitchiness made things fun… but unfortunately, none of your classmates and especially neither Aizawa or Shinsou could say the same. They hated her.

“We’re training.” Surprisingly, Todoroki was the first one to respond to you, and you replied with a gasp of faked shock at his very simple, blatant response.

“WHAAAAAAT?! What are we doing Todoroki?!”

“We’re training…” He repeated himself, and the somewhat muddled look on his face made it seem as if he thought you seriously didn’t hear what he had said.

“Sarcasm is a foreign language to you isn’t it?” You asked calmly, before suddenly shouting at the top of your lungs, “I KNOW we’re training dude! I’m not an idiot!” Todoroki wasn’t surprised by the way you yelled, since you were the second loudest student of Class 1-A behind Bakugou. However, he did give you a subtle, yet stoic look of annoyance with how you raised your voice at him and so randomly, just to get your point across.

On the other hand, Shinsou sighed at your behavior. It wasn’t unexpected though, he’s known you since grade school and you were always like that, but at times it got a little bit grating.

“Still so loud… you really haven’t changed at all haven’t you?” He kind of teased you even with his casual lazy tone, and you could practically feel his smirk as he you narrowed your eyes slightly at him. “Hey watch it Toshi or I’ll feed you cat food…” Gently, you warned him, but his smirk didn’t go away. He knew it was always an empty threat since neither one of you would ever truly hurt each other, if anything the two of you would just play harmless pranks on each other and that was it.

“Um… (Y/N), sorry but… we are training, and I’m sure Mr. Aizawa wouldn’t want us to fool around when we’re supposed to be improving on our quirks.” Midoriya said to you politely, but of course, you didn’t want to hear it. And that crazy look in your eye was making him tremble.

“You need to stop talking Greenie or I’m gonna gut-punch you.” You lightly threatened him, even holding up your fist as he flinched in shock and held his hands up in defense, and immediately started protesting before you just patted him on the head. “Just kidding… but seriously… don’t talk to me about ‘training’. Let me be bored! We’ve been training ever since we got in this damn school… even Hitoshi and he just recently got transferred into our class so now he’s stuck training constantly with us too…” You muttered in annoyance.

“When I trained at Robichaux’s we actually had FUN when we trained and enjoyed ourselves because we could express ourselves and show off our powers, and not to mention the girls at least had more interesting things to talk about… and on top of that Ms. Cordelia never slept while we were training like Mr. Aizawa's doing right now…” As you talked, it made Midoriya a little nervous even though everyone knew how brutally honest and sharp you could be when it came to expressing your opinions about people. And he was also scared that with how loud you were being that you would wake Aizawa from his nap, since he had been looking more tired than normal after endless working and training. The last thing they needed was a grouchy Aizawa, which is why Midoriya REALLY hoped you weren't planning anything crazy.

“So... you’re saying that you’re bored of this school.” Shinsou deducted, his tone a little bit blunt even though secretly he could understand your boredom. It got a little tedious at times until the ‘fun’ stuff was taught.

“Little bit.” You replied, just as bluntly which made Midoriya flinch a little bit. He relished nearly every moment here at UA, to hear you become so bored of it honestly surprised him. Though it made him wonder what it was like at Robichaux, which apparently had nothing but other witches there with similar gifts not unlike quirks. He nearly shuddered at the thought, given that the only witches he knew were you, Cordelia and Madison Montgomery. And the three of you were powerful and downright terrifying when you wanted to be.

Placing your hands together mischievously, you smirked deviously at Shinsou, Midoriya and Todoroki. “Let’s play a game with the class…”

It was such a sudden suggestion, and it confused the three boys in front of you. “A game?” Midoriya asked you in bewilderment, did you really suggest that?

“You’re not serious (L/N).” Todoroki knew you could be childish at times, but he was really hoping you weren’t serious.

“Yes she is.” Shinsou quickly stated that for you to the two-toned boy as you snickered and nodded, “Hahahahaha~ Yes… yes I am he is RIGHT~.” Your snickers turned into a cackle that was beginning to scare Midoriya, “She’s doing that laugh…” Midoriya mumbled fearfully to the two other boys, because that cackle almost never implied anything good…

“HAHAHAHAHAHA~!” You threw your hands in the air, letting out your evil laugh before clasping them together. “Let’s play ‘Tag’.” Quickly you suggested that game, but only Todoroki didn’t seem to know what you meant.

“Tag?” He asked. Todoroki has certainly heard of the game before, but because his father forced him to train and never allowed him to play with other children growing up, he never actually played any games of the sort.

“You don’t know what Tag is?” However, you were shocked that Todoroki DIDN’T know the game, and he shook his head calmly in response, which made you groan, “UGH! Toto you’re killin’ me! You’re mysterious enough but don’t be boring too! You can be mysterious all you want, but you can’t be mysterious AND boring, because those two things just don’t go together!” Once again, you raised your voice slightly at your third best friend, and once again managing to annoy him.

“I have heard of it. I just, never played it before.” He made sure to remain calm with you, which was amusing to Shinsou since he’s put up with your behavior for the longest time and it was fun seeing everyone else have to do the same. Midoriya however, was just too kind and polite to really talk back to you and was always tolerant of people with outspoken personalities.

“Well it’s fun. See you just touch someone.” You put your hand on Shinsou’s shoulder as an example, “And then you say ‘TAG! You’re it!’ and then you run away…” It was so simple, but you didn’t remove your hand from your best friend’s shoulder.

“That’s it?” Todoroki didn’t sound enthralled nor entertained by the idea, because that sounded like such a basic set of rules. And you pouted when it clearly didn’t amuse him.

Nervously, Midoriya chuckled, “It’s a simple game but… a lot of kids play it because admittedly… it was fun to play. I played it a lot with Kacchan… he would always tag me if he saw me. And I played it with (Y/N) once, she was really good at it… those were fun times.” He tried to back you up, even though his statement about how ‘a lot of kids’ played it didn’t help. It was time to up the anti.

“Yeah it’s fun! Cuz the thing is you gotta get away from whoever is ‘It’, when you get tagged you gotta find someone else to ‘tag’ and just stay away until the time is up! It’s fun! Cuz you don’t know who you can trust, and you gotta haul ass when you see the one who’s ‘it’ coming after ya cuz they wanna come getcha. But it’s fun being ‘it’ too when you freak the others out and determine who you want to be ‘it’ and just get em!” You explained it a bit more, but of course Todoroki remained unyielding and looked almost less amused now. Shinsou was though despite the lack of emotion on his face, and he secretly enjoyed feeling your hand on his shoulder even as you tightened it a little bit when you got enthusiastic about the game.

“It sounds childish.” And Todoroki’s icy cold blunt spear stabbed you in the chest, and that kind of annoyed you.

“It’s called having FUN you walking Pepsi can!” Came your loud reply as you stuck your tongue at him. “You should try it sometime.” Shinsou decided to back you up by making that smart-aleck remark to Todoroki, much to his hidden annoyance and Midoriya's slowly growing anxiety since he knew Todoroki didn't care for your name-calling.

“And you’re going to.” Grinning at the IcyHot boy, you raised your arms as to signal the entire class.

“HEY! HEY BITCHES!” You suddenly called everyone with a big smile on your face, especially when you saw some irritated looks from Iida, Bakugou, Yaoyorozu and Jirou, as they did NOT appreciate being called ‘bitches’, but they still looked at you, wondering what you wanted THIS time. Everyone else began to huddle up to hear you out.

“I’m bored as hell. We gotta do something a little less dull. And I have a proposition… that we play Tag!” Cheerfully you clapped your hands at the thought, and you were given some hella confused and baffled murmurs from your classmates.

“Wait… you mean Tag? As in ‘Tag You’re It’? Really?” Kaminari sounded amused, yet that didn’t sound like a terrible idea.

“Is she serious…?” Jirou asked the girls, but only Mina and Hagakure appeared excited.

“I love that game! It was so fun to run around so you wouldn’t be ‘it’!” Mina’s excitement made you giddy, at least SOMEONE liked the idea. “I miss it! I’m with her on that!” Hagakure then exclaimed, and you had to wonder if SHE was ever it… she could easily beat everyone at Tag with her invisibility…

“I’ve only ever seen the other children play that game… but… unfortunately I’ve never really played it myself.” Yaoyorozu’s statement reminded you of Todoroki’s, and you pouted a bit. Figures that the rich girl probably never participated (or got to) in ‘common children’s games’. “You’re suggesting that we play a game that children play?” And you really didn’t like that question.

“Last time I checked we’re still children girl… say what you want but dammit I wanna play a game!” You exclaimed but proved her point by coming off as somewhat childish.

“Technically that’s true, we are still minors, but at this age we are expected to act more mature than that. Playing a game of tag, while it is fun, isn’t exactly what people would consider mature, especially not when kids our age are playing it, ribbit.” Tsuyu pointed out, and of course she had a point, but you didn’t want to admit that she had that point.

“It does sound like a fun idea though! I mean I wouldn’t mind playing, it’s been a long time since we got to have fun together as a class after all.” Uraraka chirped and smiled, and you gave her a thumbs-up, “YES! That’s it! Way to go Rara! Backing me up!”

“Wow… I haven’t played that since 3rd grade…” Kirishima nearly snickered, even though you were serious about it and he wouldn’t lie, tag WAS a pretty fun game. He actually kind of wanted to play it now.

“You can’t be fucking serious. What are you a goddamn 5-year-old?” Bakugou growled, looking extra irked that you had interrupted his training time just to suggest a fucking game of TAG.

“YOU’RE a goddamn 5-year-old!” Was your immediate response as you pointed at him. Turning his insults on him was often your go-to move, and it never failed to piss off your explosive frenemy.

“I’m not the dumbass who suggested a fucking game of tag Witch Bitch!” He yelled at you fast, and to shut him up you used Concilium, taking control over his mind a little bit as you made him cover his own mouth with his hand.

“MMMM!? HMM! MMM!!MMMMMFFF!!” Bakugou’s eyes were wide and wild as his screams and shouts became muffled by his own hand that he couldn’t remove even if he tried thanks to your mental hold on him.

“Kacchan! (Y-Y/N)!” Midoriya got worried for his ‘best friend’ as he gave you a pleading look, but you just scoffed and rolled your eyes, obviously not going to let him go anytime soon.

“W-Whoa! Hey (Y/N) maybe uh… maybe you don’t need to go that far?” Kirishima asked you politely and nervously, because he was worried about his friend too with you using your powers on him like that.

“S’T UHH D’KU! S'TTY H’R!!” You could hear Bakugou yell ‘Shut up’ at the two, but you didn’t listen to NEITHER of them.

“Thank you for your consideration Bakugou but please, don’t talk with your mouth full it’s gross.” You smiled at him as his screams somehow got louder even with his hand blocking his voice. He was tough… you almost lost your hold on him because he was clearly trying to break your hold with his strong will. “Hey chill out dude… the longer you fight it, the more it’ll hurt you. I can easily cook your brains into fried pork if I wanted to, but I DON’T, I don’t wanna turn your brains into fried pork, so kindly… chill out.” You threatened him to make him calm down, but all he did was glare and snarl at you, reluctantly forcing himself to NOT attack you as you let him go and he was able to move his hand again and take it away from his mouth.

And you succeeded in scaring your classmates again (sans Bakugou). They’ve seen you use Concilium before and they compared it to Shinsou’s Brainwashing, but unlike Brainwashing, you could pretty much make someone do WHATEVER you wanted them to do with no limitations, and you could harm people mentally through breaking their will or fatally injuring their brains if they refused. Also, Concilium could either put someone in a trance or keep them aware depending on how you used it. It seemed villainous, the way you used it but they didn’t dare say that to your face.

But your mood flipped from threatening to excited in a matter of seconds.

“Okay~ So yeah! C’mon guys let’s play Tag! But it’ll be different! It’ll be something I call ‘Quirk Tag’! We can each use our quirks to help us tag each other! It’ll be more fun that way! And yes I can play because I’m the one who suggested it. Yes I technically DON’T have a quirk but I’m a bad witch with powers so I can totally play.” As you explained your idea, everyone didn’t look on board since it sounded weird, the way you said it.

“(L/N)! This is our time to be training! We can’t just stop what we’re doing just to play a game as elementary school as Tag…” Iida asserted his authority as class rep by politely turning down your suggestion, but…

“Okay… so we’re in agreement here, we’re gonna play the game.” You deliberately disregarded the class rep’s words as always.

“What? No! We are most certainly not in agreement at all! You just ignored everything I said!” Iida said, completely annoyed because you always did this, and for some reason he could never win these arguments because of how persistent you were.

“Right, that means we’re in an agreement.” Smirking, you patted him on the back and chuckled in amusement, and then you shot a somewhat sinister grin at your classmates, and they didn’t like it…

“Yes. We are.” Shinsou knew better though and stood by your side even if your suggestion was kind of stupid and childish. But you ALWAYS made sure to do what you wanted, because when you set your mind to something… there was no stopping you.

“(Y/N)… exactly what is the purpose of this game you want us to play?” Todoroki asked you, making sure to be polite despite being clearly skeptical.

“Oh right, sorry Toto I forgot you don’t know how to have fun.” You chuckled, and that remark did make Todoroki frown a little bit indignantly.

“Tag’s just for fun, but since I’m talking to a bunch of busy-bodies, instead just think of this game as a test of our evasion skills, dodging villain attacks and onslaughts are super important, aren’t they? Plus, it’ll also enable us to improve on our sneak attacks. I know heroes are big on honor but I’m a witch, bitches.” You smiled wide, much to the annoyance of the rest of Class 1-A because of how you kind of insulted them called them ‘bitches’ again.

“We’re sneaky and occasionally manipulative, I’m sure you’ve all picked that up.” The sounds of agreement and annoyance indicated that yes, your classmates were all very aware of your penchant for manipulation, deception and sneak attacks, which admittedly they initially viewed as too ruthless or underhanded, but your acts of heroism and compassion made them see that you were, at your core, a decent person aspiring to be a hero.

“So yeah, this will help you guys with sneaking and evading. Which will come in PRETTY useful when you’re going after a villain trying to make a get-away, plus if you want to get strategic you can sneak and come up with a battle plan to get em.” As you spoke, you walked closer to Bakugou, whose fierce eyes burned into your visage with how close you’d gotten.

“Look we need a goddamn break, and a little bit of fun never hurt anyone don’t you think?” This time you sounded softer, even giving Bakugou a smile that wasn’t one of your casual, mischievous ones.

“Tch… yeah right... you’re such an idiot (Y/N)…” He averted your gaze and scoffed at your dumb suggestion since his main priority was to get stronger. Even though he’d never admit it, but he kinda-sorta respected you because you were so strong in terms of power and personality. Of course, that also meant that he still wanted to fight you since you were one of his rivals besides Midoriya and Todoroki.

Right now, though, he found it in him to look at you again, and you locked your smile with his scowl. For once you shared a calm moment with the angry blonde who looked somewhat awkward…

But that moment was shot to hell once you made your next sudden move by placing your hand on his shoulder.

“TAG! You’re it!!”

Like the wind, you teleported fast away from a very surprised Bakugou, his red eyes going wide as you took off running once you were away from him, “HEY! What the fuck Witch Bitch?! What the hell did you do?!”

“NO TAG BACKS!! TWENTY MINUTES! LAST ONE WHO’S IT WHEN THE TIME’S UP IS THE LOSER!! RUUUUUUUUN~!” You shouted, the rest of the class looking just as wide-eyed and surprised now that you officially started the game. “C’mon Hitoshi!” However, you quickly went back to grab Shinsou by the hand and ran away, well actually you just dragged him because he just sighed, feeling annoyed as he lazily kept up with you until you teleported him and yourself away from everyone else.

“What?! Run?!” Midoriya was baffled and in shock with how you just disappeared after starting the game and based on everyone else’s shock, they found themselves trapped in the game.

“Huh?! So, we’re playing for real?!” Kaminari exclaimed and looked quite excited as the adrenaline kicked in, and he couldn't help but take off running in your direction, and after many dubious looks they all decided to follow.

“I think so! Aww man Bakugou's it! We gotta go guys!” Kirishima warned everyone, since Bakugou WAS it, and although many appeared unsure, the more rambunctious ones took off running as fast as they could, and then the more serious ones, even the ever-so-stoic Todoroki and Tokoyami started following, since they had no choice now that everyone else had started running away from Bakugou.

The game was on.

“C’mon Let’s Go!”

“Oh it’s on now!”

"Good Grief..."

"Oh boy..."

*sigh*

“LET’S HURRY UP!”

“Ribbit!”

“A game that brings out the darkness within us…”

“Classmates! Stop! Stop running away this instant! We can’t just-!” Iida tried to regain control over the situation, but everyone already took off running. Frustrated, he let out a small shout as he reluctantly ran after some to try and get them to STOP.

“YOU IDIOTS! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL GOING?! GET YOUR ASSES BACK OVER HERE!! Growling and shouting in frustration, Bakugou trembled with a fiery rage now that he was stuck in this stupid game as he looked in every direction, fists clenched and practically ready to kill the first person who came to his visage. “DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!!”

He couldn’t believe he let you trick him like that! He was SO going to kill you…

However, amidst the chaos remained Midoriya because everyone had moved so fast and so suddenly that he just couldn’t run away fast enough, and he was left standing and trembling as soon as Bakugou spotted him.

“K-Kacchan…” Midoriya shook like a leaf and before he could even attempt to get away, the blonde relentlessly came after him and slapped him on the back with a small (but painful) explosion to knock him off his feet as the green-haired boy shouted in the pain that came with the blow.

“TAG! YOU’RE FUCKING IT DEKU!!” And Bakugou took off sprinting away from the smaller boy, “I’m coming for you next Witch Bitch! You hear me?! I’LL KILL YOU!!” He then shouted for you, wherever you were at, as Midoriya grunted and whimpered in mild pain where he lied…

Once you had gotten far away enough from Bakugou and the rest of your other classmates, you took Shinsou to hide with you behind one of the many buildings, giggling hard as you tried to quell your laughter with both hands, feeling the excitement you had been looking for, especially now that Bakugou was it. It felt like your childhood all over again whenever you pissed him off on purpose and got him to chase you…

“So... is this the rush you were looking for?” Shinsou asked you, standing right next to you as you snickered so hard your shoulders were shaking. “Yes! It’s working Hitoshi! People are ACTUALLY playing now! Finally~!”

“You know that Mr. Aizawa’s going to be pissed right?” He asked you with a small smirk, crossing his arms since the man had been sleeping while you guys trained because he expected Iida to keep everyone in check. However, as long as you were in the class, you would never let Iida keep you in check.

“Yup. But it’s worth it… he’s always pissed at what I do, but he’ll forgive me cuz he loves me and would do anything for me.” You said confidently about your dad-figure. But boy… Aizawa WAS going to be SO pissed after this. “And if I wanted to I can just always tell Ms. Cordelia on him…” You added with a shrug of your shoulders and a smirk, since your mom-figure knew how to get Aizawa to take it easy on you, even if it annoyed him sometimes with how she defended you, the ‘child’.

Shinsou chuckled lightly in amusement, “Whatever you say (Y/N)… but I’m not going to help you or bail you out if you get in trouble.” He said to you, and you pouted a bit.

“Aww Toshi… boo~. Fine, then I’m not gonna invite you to watch The Aristocats with me in my room tonight.” You threatened, but then you quickly hugged his arm. “Just kidding I will~.” Giggling you nuzzled his shoulder affectionately since nobody was around to see (not that you cared, but Shinsou did), and you snickered when you saw a bit of redness creeping up on his pale cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck with his free arm, feeling awkward as he suddenly lost the ability to look you in the eyes when a rare bit of bashfulness came in.

You were so annoying when you wanted to be, and yet he was still so marveled by you because you were his best friend and you were always there for him during his most insecure days during middle school. He never told anyone, even though he knew his parents knew, but it broke his heart when you left to Robichaux three years ago, and he felt more alone than ever without you. Sure, he still texted you and called you, but deep down, he wanted you there with him. Nobody would ever be able to tell, but ever since you came back to Japan, he was overjoyed to have you back in his life. If there was one person in the world Shinsou trusted the most and valued the most, it was you. It was your smiles and dumb jokes that melted the steel of his guarded heart. You knew him so well. You KNEW he loved that movie because you knew he loved cats, especially Marie.

“(Y/N)…“ He wanted to tell you something, but unfortunately his opportunity was foiled once someone else’s oncoming footsteps distracted you and made you gasp and widen your eyes.

“Oh look there’s Todoroki! PSSST! TOTO!!” You whisper-yelled and vigorously waved once you saw Todoroki run past the building you were hiding behind, and once he heard you, he was quick to make his way over as discreetly as possible. Even though the game was stupid, he found himself forced into it and having to keep away from whoever was ‘it’.

“Don’t just call him to our spot when we’re trying to stay hidden…” Shinsou mildly scolded you, feeling irritated now that he was no longer alone with you, and on top of that it just had to be Todoroki who you had to call. Hoping to calm your bestie, you nervously smiled and giggled.

“Sorry… but he’s an ally.” You weakly defended, even though Shinsou knew that Todoroki was YOUR friend, and not his. If anything, he and Todoroki tolerated each other at best because they were both friends with you.

“Having fun~?” You asked your third best friend happily, but his serious demeanor gave you your answer.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this training… it seems pointless, and juvenile based on what Midoriya and Yaoyorozu said.” He bluntly said. Not that you could tell, but Todoroki was exasperated with the fact that everyone was playing now, and he knew he shouldn’t have even participated but nobody gave him a choice. And he didn’t see the point other since it was basically just running away.

“Training?! Dude forget about that shit for just a little bit, this is just for fun~! It’s all about the thrill of the chase and trying to sneak up on someone and catch ‘em!” You laughed and playfully, but lightly smacked his shoulder.

“Fun…” He repeated what you had said and thought about your earlier remark when you said he ‘didn’t know how to have fun’. For a moment, he was almost determined to prove you wrong as you kept laughing. Todoroki had to admit. You were contagious, ever since he fought you at the Sports Festival and became his friend right after Midoriya, you were so full of spirit and took nobody’s nonsense. Yet compassionate and… fun.

“HAHAHA~! C’mon Toto let’s go! We can’t stay here forever!” You got away from the corner, taking the half-and-half user by the hand, pulling him away from the building and into the light to take off running. Todoroki grunted as he was pulled and touched, a bit surprised with the way your fingers felt on his colder ones, but to avoid getting distracted he followed you, “Toshi! You too c’mon, c’mon!” Your best friend felt dubious but he complied and quickly followed you and Todoroki, whom he exchanged glances with before they both started running and following you. And although he hid his envy well, Shinsou made sure to remain closer to you, giving Todoroki a few dour looks as the latter returned the favor with a solemn expression.

As you ran with your two friends, you saw Kaminari running with Sero. “Kaminari! Sero!” You waved to the cheerful boys. “Hey! (Y/N)!” Kaminari grinned as he waved at you.

“Do ya’ll know whose it now?!”

“Last I heard it was Midoriya!” Sero answered you first, and you nearly perked up, along with Todoroki.

“As soon as Bakugou saw him he was the first one he tagged!” Kaminari added, and you sighed in annoyance before it quickly became sympathy for your poor second best friend.

“Aww man Greenie..." You shook your head, “Well! Stay away from Izuku guys! He’s it!” You shouted for anyone else in the vicinity, many of whom started to run or hide away.

“This is where we hide or run!” You enthusiastically instructed Todoroki, who understood now that he knew that Midoriya was currently ‘it’ and probably looking for someone to supposedly ‘tag’. “So Midoriya’s it.” Todoroki sighed, feeling bad for the poor guy since apparently Bakugou tagged him immediately. “Now I have to evade him.” His tone clearly showed that he felt bad for having to run away from his friend, but that just made you laugh.

“Hey he's still our friend but in this game you gotta run or keep up bro. See you!” You grinned and winked at him before taking Shinsou’s hand and teleporting him and yourself away somewhere else, earning yet another look of mild surprise from Todoroki and a small smirk from Shinsou.

However, Todoroki took a moment to himself and smiled a little bit. “So it’s like that…” He seemed to get it now, even though he still planned on taking this game seriously.

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sundaynightnovels · 6 years ago

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11/11/11 Tag Game (again!)

aaaand i’ve also been tagged by @fluffythewritingplant for a different set of questions!!! you have a lot of questions huh HAHA but they sound fun so thanks for tagging me in this! <3 1. What is your favorite part of writing? characters! characters interacting!! characters doing things! character dialogues!! characters characters characters! 2. Do you prefer reading or writing? HA i haven’t read a novel in a while. but yea i like them both but... yknow. how bout reading my own writing. i’m narcissistic like that 3. How many people have read your stuff? since the next question is specifically about irl, i’m assuming this is about online??? well, i guess all of yall on tumblr have seen my snippets and excerpts right heh (blatant advertising here) (also in case yall don’t know how i differentiate them, snippets are drabbles that i write outside of my main wip and excerpts come directly from the wip draft itself heh) so yea, all of you!! <3 (i guess?????) 4. How many people irl have read your stuff? kinda mentioned this in my previous 11/11/11 tag, but not much. if it’s school stuff then yea, but if it’s my own personal stuff, not really. maybe like a handful in the past, but right now in the present? no one has read my current wip as of yet. 5. Are there any books or movies that inspired your writing? hmmMMMm. in general i guess studio ghibli (in how they make the mundane little everyday stuff magical, i love that), percy jackson (humour lol), mmmm... i actually really don’t know. i’ve been writing for a long time, so i think everything probably just accumulated and it just culminates in this mess that i call my own brand of writing. my friends (who have read my work in the past) say that i actually have a style -- i’m not sure how true that is HAHA but that’s good to know, but i really have no idea what in particular inspired it. 6. How many WIPs do you have? One (or is it two??? but they are of the same... universe-thing.) OKAY like i’ve finished my first draft of my main novel called like all things out of season, and now i’m working (well, barely) on the companion novel so yea. floating in my head are about three vague forms of ideas though. one of which i have tried numerous times to write but never finished, another is something that i’m like ooooo i’ll write it right after i finish my current one (guess that ain’t happening), and the last is the most vague, most formless one that i just kinda have a feel on but not rly. 7. What are some ideas you had to throw away because you just didn’t have the time to work on them? i’m sure i’ve lost a lot over the years, especially because my memory sucks. also, since my memory sucks... do you expect me to remember these lost ideas??? 8. Have you ever written any poetry? Wanna show some of your stuff? the first time i ever touched poetry was two years ago for a creative writing class. they all kinda suck... do i want to show my stuff??? hmmmmm.... let me take a peek at what i’ve written then well it is pretty cringe but if you wanna read it (scroll through if you don’t want a cringe fest)

(1. don’t ask me about the formatting, idk why i did it this way 2. i think the assignment was... okay who am i kidding, idk what the assignment was about. but i think i just thought it’d be interesting to do a poem using like chinese mythology or something like that. speaking of which, the AU that i wanna write of my novel is kinda also about chinese mythology hmmm... did i say too much) 9. What’s your favorite line/scene you’ve ever written (several are possible of course)? i don’t have a favourite line, but for a scene... i’ve mentioned this somewhere else before (in response to an ask i think), but there was this really important scene that i knew, even before starting my novel, that i had to write and it was simply about this man telling them a story. and i had no idea what i’d write, how it’ was going to play out and everything, but then it came out so beautifully and evocative even though while writing i had no idea what i was doing and i actually felt what i was meant to feel in that story and i just lkjkdlfkjsdlfkd i have a lot of feelings to that and i can’t show it to yall cuz it’s like, the first main turning point of the story. right after that scene was this kinda sleepover-ish scene with Shou and Jun and i loved writing that too because shou was adorable and excited and jun was understandably not impressed and yknow, it was kinda important too in the whole state of things. OF COURSE before that i enjoyed writing the scene where almost all of them (except the female yu) converged together in the noisies’ place and just had a whole lot of mess and fun yeah that entire portion was great because they all happened kinda altogether at once. 10. What’s your favorite quote i don’t think i have one 11. What’s your favorite quote by someone you know? well it’s not my favourite, but it’s the most iconic one that i can remember right now. we were predrinking before going to a club and one of my friends bought vodka, which yknow tastes like nail varnish and is just terrible (i mean... even if you like vodka... you gotta admit, it feels like it can melt your throat off) while others bought like ~~ wine~~ and stuff and she was like “well we just wanna get drunk right so might as well jump straight into it” and that line stuck with me ever since. girl’s got her priorities straight. (if this makes me seem like i like drinking, i really don’t. and i hate wine HAHA) 12. What’s your favorite book? you are a devil. also. no, ain’t answering that. thank you, next. 13. Which book do you regret reading? i had a bunch of them when i was younger, but... i don’t really remember right now. really 14. Is there something you regret writing? when i was younger i once wrote something in the pov of a cat. do i regret it? no. it was really stupid though. 15. If your OC’s were actual people in your life, what would your relationship be like? oh ho ho. zhen would be the laziest friend ever and i’d probably be really annoyed at her because it’ll be impossible to go out and hang out with her, but yknow what? i’m basically the same.

shou would be annoying in a different way, he’ll be so overly-excited and energetic that i’ll just be like... stop. and he’s the sort who’ll go around talking to random strangers on the street and as a massive unsociable introvert, i’ll be drowning there in my shyness and inability to talk as he goes out yammering and yammering about who knos what (true story, i have a friend as sociable as him. even when we’re talking to mutual acquaintances, i’m just there. a statue, meant to decorate the setting in which she’s in) i can’t communicate with kids, so i’ll probably be really really awkward with lu. like really. maybe i’ll talk to him a little bit, but i can foresee it to be a very uncomfortable interaction, at least on my part. lol yu(f). i don’t think i can talk to her either. she’s too stressed out and working too hard and i don’t like to bother people like that, especially if we aren’t friends yet. ren would be really easy to talk to, he’s just so laidback and chill and nice, like he’s probably the kind of classmate you’ll just end up casually talking to when you meet on the way to class or on the way out from class. i don’t know if we’ll actually become friends, but we’ll end up being at least friendly acquaintances. i think i’d probably avoid teng in real life. he’s way too loud and dramatic and remember, i’m an introverted girl who doesn’t like to have attention on herself... and with him, yknow you’re gonna get all the attention. likewise with jun, you’re gonna get so much attention with him. but i think i could be friends with him tbh. he acts aloof and is pretty snarky and prickly but once i get past that (if i ever do, which to be frank i might not), i think we could be friends. i probably won’t be friends with yu (m) because he’s that strong silent type and unless i’m made to sit with him in class, i probably won’t ever start up a conversation with him. i most likely wouldn’t be friends with jia because she’s the really attractive, popular type yknow? she’s a nice person and i’d probably be friends with her IF we ever spoke to one another, but considering chances of that are low, i don’t think we’d end up friends. i’m reusing the above questions ^ and tagging a few more people @insearchof-solace (sorry tagging you back just because i want to know your answer for the last one HAHA) @usuallydecentwriter @sunnydaysarealwaysgrey @farrradays

#personal tag #personal #writeblr #my wips #my OCs #not sure if i should tag this to my OC tags but #hmm #probably not

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damijon-supersons · 7 years ago

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Damijon Week Day 1:Slice of life? Very poor choice of words… - A DamiJon Fic

Notes:

Heyo! So DamiJon week is here and here’s my meager contribution. So this is gonna be an entire week and imma do my best to write for every day...cuz this fic right here is the first chapter of a series I’m making that follows the prompts for each day of the week. This one is the middleschool au prompt (er, not so au anymore cuz the comics are doing it, but in my version, Damian and Jon are classmates :p) and I’ll continue this with the next prompts and days as much as I can. So yeah, I hope you guys like it, and help support the week by submitting and tagging content! ( Jondamiweek2018, or Damijonweek2018)

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

“Mr. Wayne,” Mr Tomas called out firmly. His tone wasn’t overly pissed as all hell, but it was definitely in the range of ‘you-are-in such-deep-trouble’.

Jon winced as he glanced back two rows to his left. Although it wasn’t his name that was getting called out for a grade-A chewing-out, he couldn’t help but cringe as he watched Damian stand defiantly, meeting the teacher’s glare with a steely look of his own.

“What have I told you about giving unsolicited comments to your classmates?” the elderly man snapped.

“That you discourage my efforts to take over your job,” Damian quipped coolly.

Jon could see a vein throbbing on the side of Mr. Tomas’ head. The young Kent buried his face in his hands as he felt what can only be explained as shame on behalf of his friend.

“I said,” the teacher declared with an even louder voice, “that you leave the teaching to me. Your preferred method of teaching doesn’t conform to our school’s…standards of decency.”

“I was under the impression that I was doing Gino a favor by correcting his mistake with a succinct explanation,” Damian countered smoothly. There was no doubt that he could match the older man’s stiff formality, albeit with a hint of insolence.

“You wrote on his test paper,” Mr. Tomas raised the sheet in front of him and adjusted his glasses, “only an idiot would confuse Steinbeck’s symbolism for the pearl as anything other than greed and avarice. How stupid can you be?” He looked daggers at Damian, who merely shrugged in reply.

“I’m not wrong,” Damian insisted.

“Mr. Wayne,” Mr. Tomas sighed deeply and heavily as if he was regretting his choices in life, “I’ll need to have a word with your father for this…”

“And I wish you the best of luck with that…sir.” Damian added the epithet as a lazy afterthought. “My father is very busy with his work and if you can grab his attention with something as trivial as this, you deserve a medal.”

Mr. Tomas gritted his teeth. Jon knew that his teacher was just itching to give Damian a harsher punishment, but couldn’t because Damian was the son of the school’s largest donor and honorary chairman, Bruce Wayne.

Damian sat back down with a satisfied look on his face. If Damian were anyone else, the class might have laughed appreciatively. But Jon could see how the other boys and girls either glared at Damian or inched away from him. It was almost like Damian was surrounded by an invisible force field of suck.

***

Jon had been extremely excited when he’d found out that he and Damian were going to the same school. He’d fantasized about being locker buddies with Damian, eating lunch with him, doing homework, doing phys ed…everything, really. It was like Jon’s best dream come true. Everything was going to be fun, amazing, and infinitely awesome. But whatever giddiness he’d had back then had been replaced by a dull painful ache inside his stomach, one that would tug at his insides whenever Damian did…well…anything.

They’ve been enrolled at West-Reeve School for two weeks. Two Weeks. But for Jon, it felt like forever as he witnessed Damian’s not-so-simple adjustment period.

On the first day, Damian had been late, and someone had already taken the seat Jon that had saved for him. He’d been looking forward to being seatmates with Damian, too… When he’d asked Damian what the reason was for his tardiness, Damian had said that he’d gone out on patrol and ‘enjoyed’ himself before he was ‘shackled down to the education system’.

On the second day, they were grouped up in social studies to present in class. Damian had loudly protested that he should have been the leader of their group, because he was smarter than any of his groupmates. He had been voted out of the group, and the teacher had let him do the presentation alone. He’d still gotten the highest marks.

On the fourth day, some would-be bullies—some 8th graders—started to put the moves on Damian. It was nothing serious, really. They’d just started crowding around Damian and kind of coerced him to strike a conversation with them, because he was the ‘famous secret son of Bruce Wayne’. Then they’d made unflattering remarks about the fact that Damian’s mom had never been publicly identified. They’d left Damian after that, but the next day, the student body was abuzz about three 8th grade boys who’d had to be rushed to the hospital for broken limbs.

Three days ago, during an experiment in science, Damian had…almost assaulted their classmate Ben Percy. Damian had thrown a metal stirrer at the beaker Ben had been holding, shattering it, and staining Ben’s clothes with its contents. Damian had argued that Ben was about to ‘stupidly’ inhale the acrid vapor coming from the concoction like ‘an idiot’, which could have corroded his nostrils, so he’d taken action. Damian had narrowly avoided trouble because Ben hadn’t denied it, but he also argued that Damian could have used less violent methods.

Jon couldn’t do anything but wring his hands in exasperation, as Damian failed to realize that most middle-schoolers couldn’t throw objects with deadly accuracy like say, a batarang. That, and Damian’s little stunt was definitely in the list of ‘things that will make it obvious we’re actually superheroes’, which included, among other things, using their powers—Jon’s powers, mostly—for anything while in school.

He’d talked to Damian about that during one lunch period, but Damian had given him his usual stubborn replies. Today, he tried again.

“Damian,” Jon began as he bit into his sandwich and swallowed, “could you at least try to not be a jerk to the other kids?”

“Not my fault if they’re too slow to keep up with me,” Damian grunted in-between sips of orange juice. “Besides, I don’t see why they should have an issue with my attitude…I mean, you can take it.”

The pair sat on the school’s roof deck with their backs pressed against the wall of a maintenance closet. Ever since day one, Damian had refused point-blank to eat at the cafeteria with the other kids. This is how Jon found himself up the roof with Damian, eating their lunch, even though no one was allowed there. Damian had assured him that nothing will happen to them, because his dad practically owned the school—which wasn’t wrong.

“Damian,” Jon sighed wearily. “I’m used to you. We’re friends and we’ve known each other for a long time now. Our classmates didn’t have that time. You gotta be a little patient with them...just…play ball, y’know? How can you be a student in school if you make all the students in the school hate you?”

“I’ve infiltrated a school before…” Damian grumbled.

“You’re not pretending to be a student, dummy!” Jon chided. “You are one! This is real! We’re students! And you really should try better to be one…”

Damian stood up with a frustrated look. “You can’t imagine how irritated I am with all of this!” Damian snapped at him. Jon dropped his sandwich in surprise.

“When I was a toddler I was already taught resourcefulness and independence, to get what I need by myself. Under my father, he taught me the same, but also ingenuity, and not a small measure of willpower! Now, these…children,” Damian spat the last word out. “They expect their hands to be held at every turn. And they’re praised for it! Even you consent to it!”

Jon knew Damian wasn’t really angry at him. Damian directed his fury to the sky, the floor, and the horizon, as if he blamed the whole world for its shortcomings. Damian wanted Jon there to listen…and that’s exactly what he knew Damian needed.

“Damian…” Jon stood up beside Damian and joined him in staring at the landscape below them. They could see the school parking lot and the main road leading back to downtown Metropolis. Students milled around the grounds and some of the younger kids ran around chasing each other.

“You know, the whole point of school is to hold hands…” Jon began. He grabbed Damian’s hand until their fingers intertwined, and then raised it in front of them.

“W—what are you on about?” Damian asked. If Jon hadn’t known any better, he could’ve sworn that Damian gulped.

“Sure, school teaches us…stuff…” Jon said with a cheerful tone. “But even you’d say that all the things they teach us in class are stuff you can look up online—or read in books,” Jon hastily added after seeing Damian’s disapproving look.

“But the whole point of being in a place with all these other kids learning the same things is that, you also get to see and learn stuff books will never tell you.”

“And pray tell, what are those?” Damian scoffed, his hand still clasped in Jon’s and growing warmer.

“It’s hard to explain…” Jon mused as he stuck his tongue out in thought. “But it’s a lot like our hands, see? We both have the same hands, but when we put them together…”

“We have two hands. Amazing,” Damian said flatly.

“No, dummy!” Jon insisted, shaking their combined hands emphatically. “It’s bigger together, is my point! Learning together with others is better than learning alone because you get a lot more learning done by seeing how everyone else gets it.”

“What…?” Damian asked, completely confused.

Jon stuck his tongue out again. “You get to see how what you learn is important to other people by how they learn it. Like say, Pete? His family has a farm like we used to before, so when we learned about proteins and stuff in science the other day, remember he said that they grow crops with that? Now with Gene, he’s in the track and field team, so he could be interested in that because remember, they gotta have a diet in the team.”

“Okay…?” Damian replied slowly.

“Damian…what’s the point of knowing a lot of things?” Jon asked patiently

“Knowledge is power…an advantage over your enemies,” Damian said confidently.

“No…knowledge isn’t just a sword you swing at bad guys Damian…the things you learn only matter if you know how they matter to other people. And if you know what matters to other people, only then can you help them,” Jon finished and then looked straight into Damian’s eyes.

Damian tried to hold his gaze, but something in his eyes—and frankly his gut—made him feel awkward and he chose to stare at the floor instead.

“You sound like your dad,” Damian said simply.

“It took me a while to understand that when he talked to me, to be honest,” Jon said with a grin. “I asked him why I still have to go to school when he’s Superman and I’m Superboy anyway. So he gave me this whole lecture, and I just gave it to you.”

“So…” Damian started to say, “when you study, you try to see how it’ll be useful when it comes to helping people?”

“I guess…?” Jon replied, wondering where this was leading.

“Did you study me?” Damian asked in a small voice. “Is this what you’ve learned? How to help me? Because I’ll have you know that I don’t—!”

Jon gripped Damian’s hand tighter and placed it on his chest. It promptly shut Damian up.

“You’re my friend, Damian,” Jon said with a fond smile. “You can’t stop me from wanting to help you. And I always will even if you think you don’t need it.”

“Is holding my hand really part of helping me?” Damian said finally.

“Did it help?” Jon asked.

“Yeah…it did.”

#Damijonweek2018 #JonDamiweek2018 #Damijon #super sons #Damian wayne #jonathan kent #jonathan samuel kent #fic #fanfic #robin #superboy

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hardwarevent · 8 years ago

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To know or not to know?

So a topic that's come up lately with me is knowledge, and the effect it has. When I was growing up, I recognized the power of knowledge, of knowing things no one else did, so I became an information kleptomaniac. In high school, your computer login username was the first letter of your first name and all of your last name, and your password was a 6 digit pin that not only was easy to see when typed in, but also was the same pin one types in at lunch to pay for lunches using a prepaid account. The result: you could log on as different people and access their files. At the end of high school I had login credentials for like, 30 people. I even logged in as other people sometimes. One time, I logged into the account of my then-crush, and found a text file that she and her then-boyfriend was using to talk to each other and leave messages. I assume he had her login too. Reading that stuff bummed me out more than anything. That's around the time I realized that knowledge is a double-edged sword; knowledge is power, but sometimes, to keep your psyche healthy, there are things you're just not worth knowing or shouldn't know. I had all these logins, but actually using them ended up garnering knowledge that depressed me and didn't accomplish much else. Knowledge is only really power if you can use it, but sometimes using the power of that knowledge is a risk to yourself as well. Fast forward to present day, and I need to think of questions to ask the HR guy for my upcoming interview. One question I was thinking of asking was "what is the percentage of people who get a job offer, given they get to this round?" Well, after thinking about what that knowledge gets me, it definitely wasn't worth asking. You see, I have a pretty fragile psyche, it's one of my weaknesses. I'm pretty easily tilted, and I'm really sensitive to "momentum" in games, as in if I'm about to win but see my opponents making a comeback, I can almost feel my focus fade and lose hope. So here's why that's important: if I hear that the chances of getting an offer are low, I may psyche myself out and believe I don't have a chance and not even try. If I hear the chances are very high, then I may let my guard down. Leaving that information unknown let's me focus on doing the best I can, and brings my focus away from the likely conclusion and more to my power to change it in my favor. Careful consideration needs to be made before you open that schrodingers box. For the record, I got a roundabout answer to the HR guy that actually helped me a little, and that's from what he saw, all my scorecard results were positive, and if I go in with the same attitude I interacted with him with, and if he were to bet, it'd be 95% on me getting an offer. So the answer is I can get it, but only if I focus and bring my "A" game a second time. So I wandered into C's room the other day, and they had their TweetDeck up, and it happened to be resting on the notifications for their AD Twitter. I read some snippets on how they have a crush on their crush i had the best fap the other day and blah blah blah and there was one like "if I were to have sex I would want it to be really really...." and the rest was cut off. I felt... relieved? I didn't want to know. Even though I was reading this stuff willingly, I don't want to know. And not knowing made me happier. I don't need that information. That information gives me nothing but bad emotions. That's another example of where not knowing is better. And like, right now, C is at a party at their crushes place, and it looks like they're sleeping over because they're not home and it's like 1am. And you know what? I don't know what's going on, and I don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss. So the next time you get a chance to look at your exes AD Twitter or think of asking a question that will fuck you up regardless of the answer, maybe you shouldn't know. Don't look if you don't need to know. I'm kind of a masochist when it comes to this stuff, cuz I like GOTTA LOOK, you know? It's a bad compulsion. But knowing how much something might do nothing but hurt me is enough to make me step back now. Like, I locked myself out of C's AD Twitter because every time I looked I read something that fucked me up, and i was done beating myself up. Beating yourself up doesn't do any good. You know what does good? Moving on. Focusing on yourself. Cuz yourself is the only person you got. Anyway. I saw in the discord for one of my co-workers that someone tagged him and gave a link to the job site of the place I'm interviewing at on Monday. I shouldn't let this throw off my game, cuz I feel it gnawing at me now like "raaa you're gonna fail and he's gonna succeed and you're gonna be inferior to him forever" and I have to learn to fight that. I have to believe in myself. I have to be confident. You know what I do when I feel inadequate? I think of all the people who believe in me. My parents, my friends... when packing up shit yesterday, I saw this card that my grandparents gave me on my masters graduation/ birthday, talking about how they believe in me and are proud of me and will always love me and it always steels my resolve. There are people out there who know I can do anything that i put my mind to, and are 100% in my court. I know some of them are my parents, and it's like they "gotta be" or whatever, but reminders like that really focus me and steel me and remind me that I can't and won't let these people down. I'm a raging hurricane. I'm intelligent, charismatic, and skilled for this job. I want it, I'm qualified for it, Im a great for for it, I deserve it, and I'm gonna get it. I have a day left to prepare, and I'm going to make sure I'm as prepared as I can be. Look out world. Here I come. ... My coworkers a pushover and a loser on the inside anyway, and a compulsive liar to boot, I'm pretty sure. A totally unworthy opponent. Lol. Wish me luck.

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omgnsfwisnsfw-blog · 6 years ago

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NSFW #09: Showcase

Big Mike’s was closing up for the night. Cheerfully, Kerrigan McGuire gave a wave to the last straggling customer who shuffled out the door with his gym bag, turned the lock, and went about cleaning up- sweeping, wiping things down, tossing a couple bins’ worth of towels into bags to take home and wash. One would think he’d hire someone to do this for him, but Kerry liked being a minimalist operation. Finally, after a good amount of cleaning, he was about to go home to his wife, but he paused, and then laughed a hearty chuckle, shaking his head. He’d almost forgotten to do something very important. Striding over to the photograph wall, he smiles at a certain frame that’d been empty for ages. Producing a large manila envelope, he slides a glossy photo from it and into the frame. His daughter and her partner, one arm around each other and the other each holding up a title belt. Bloody, bruised, sweaty… and victorious. Kerry took a few moments to admire the photo, beaming with pride, before shutting off the last few lights and slipping out, locking the door behind him. The camera feed opened up with a close up on one half of the EWC tag-team champions. Mike McGuire looked rather happy- not surprising, considering they’d spent a week in her hometown already with the added bonus on being the newly crowned champions. She had her belt over one shoulder- she’d made a habit of carrying it with her practically everywhere. “Say hey, EWC faithful! It’s ya boys- and ya NEWWWWWWW EWC Tag Team Champions- NSFW! Holy shit. Did you all see Rumble in the Bronx? Did ya? Do it if you haven’t. Watch it on EWC TV. Or YouTube that shit if you’re cheap. It was fuckin’ A from start to finish. Mucho Grande beat the fucking shit out of us, but hey. We made a promise. We’ve said from day one that we were gonna be champions, and here we are.” She patted the belt, a calloused up hand slapping against the central golden plate. “Now, just so you know, we plan on being fighting champs. We got our eyes on the repositioning of the division, seeing who’s gonna rise up and try to take these from us. But in the meantime? We’re gonna keep fucking pounding. We ain’t just gonna sit on our laurels stuffing our faces or something.” Camera panned to the left. Bishop Church was in the middle of popping a neatly cut forkful of pizza into his mouth. The shot sat on him for a few awkward moments as he refused to talk with his mouth full. He finished the bite, and then took a sip from a glass of ice water. “Uh, that’s right.” The shot pulled out a bit to reveal NSFW was actually sitting at a table in front of Juliana’s, one of the best pizza joints in Brooklyn. Two pies sit in front of them- one pepperoni, the other a peculiar affair festooned with garlic, sausage, and broccoli. The place was fairly busy, considering the locals and tourists were taking advantage of the last stretch of summer-ish weather before it started cooling off. Some pedestrians passing by noticed the champs sitting on the porch and gave a cheerful holler, to which Mike would holler back. Bishop forgoed the hollering but did wave in return politely. For his part, Bishop looked the most obviously like he’d been in a major fight- dark bruises ringed under his eyes, and the bridge of his nose was still black and blue. This didn’t seem to put much of a damper on his mood, though. He seemed quite content with his dinner, cutting each oversized slice into small pieces, removing the sausage, and eating it nibble by nibble, much to the consternation of his partner, who in a more traditional manner was folding her slices in half before scarfing them down. “You’re supposed to fold it, y’know. That’s how you do it here. The slices are big so you can fold ‘em, it holds the toppings in all nice, and you can eat ‘em with one hand.” “I don’t like directly touching my food if I can help it.” “Okay, fair enough. Hey, where’s your belt, though? I mean, looks kinda weird for me to be carrying mine around without yours to match it and stuff.” John dabbed a cloth napkin at the corner of his mouth and shook his head. “Didn’t want to get grease all over the leather.” “...you are the most logical fuckin’ person in the whole world, y’know that? But I like that. Makes up for me never thinking anything through.” Mike laughed, and regarded the camera again. “See folks, said it before, said it again. This is why we’re an awesome fucking team, and this is why we’re champions. Our positives make up for each other’s negatives and together, we’re un-fuckin-stoppable. But that don’t mean we ain’t gonna welcome people trying. That’s why we didn’t wanna take a week off for some goofy coronation ceremony or whatever. Those things are corny and stupid as shit.” “Imagine the pomp and circumstance.” John paused, and as much as default expression would allow, some wonder creeped into his tone. “There could be dancing.” “Usually ain’t. I mean, if we WERE doing one there could be I guess. But I dunno about you, but I’d rather have a match. We’re fighters. Not lovers, like our opponents this week.” John’s fork clattered against his plate. “Los Amantes.” “That’s ‘The Lovers’ en espanol, compadre.” “Yes. Modern day Lotharios.” “I got it! I got that fuckin’ reference! Can’t fuckin’ stand guys like that though. They’re usually the type to see women as fuckin’ trophies and not, y’know. People and shit.” “Character flaws aside, what’s there to know? New team. Old friends. Mike, you know what that means?” “I absolutely do.” “Not to be taken lightly.” “Yep. Cuz even if they’re new here, they probably know each other really damn well. Which as we can tell you? Makes for a pretty fuckin’ awesome team.” Mike paused, polishing off her slice before picking up and folding another. John, used to the voracity of her appetite, watched nonplussed and then picked up the thread. “And so we aren’t going to take into account a number of things here. You haven’t teamed before? We all start somewhere. Liam Mason not being able to get any momentum going? Maybe Romeo joining him stateside is just the shot in the arm he needs. You’ve got our undivided attention. Our first appearance as this division’s champions will be a showcase event. A statement to any potential challengers.” “We may be the good guys, but we sure’s fuck ain’t softies. Actually… let me speak on that for a sec. See, we’ve come to the realization that some people around here think ‘good guy’ means you’re soft, fluffy, squishable, and roll over when somebody pokes you. Somewhere along the line, moral quality got equated to being a fuckin’ pushover.” John had finished his meal. As Mike spoke, he set the plate aside and watched her speak intently. He waited until she almost instinctively threw over to him. “That narrative is controlled by those in power. And this company is a microcosm of the world and all that it contains. Including that eternal struggle. History has repeatedly shown that those that crush people underfoot are also the ones who call for civility when their tyranny is resisted. I’ve seen it here. And NSFW will stamp it out. With extreme prejudice.” “See if there’s one thing we both can’t stand? It’s an unfair fuckin’ power balance. We don’t play that shit. We don’t fit in boxes, we tear boxes up. We don’t stand by while other people do or say horrible crap, we shut that shit down. That’s the sort of fuckin’ intensity we bring every time we step in the ring. Now, Los Amantes, you’ve been through thick and thin, but can you step up to that?” The penultimate slice of pepperoni was bitten into like aggressive punctuation. “This ain’t no battle royale, there ain’t no Muppets to goof around with, and this ain’t the bush leagues, kiddos. You are stepping in the ring on EWC’s flagship show with NSFW, the goddamn kings of this fucking division.” “We did what we said we would do and that was take what was ours. But we aren’t like Rob Garcia. We aren't going to hide in the bank while things sort themselves out. You two will put a good fight. We expect no less. But Los Amantes will not make their name off of our backs.” “Nobody will. Least of all you. We worked too damn hard and fought too damn long and payed too damn much in blood for anybody to bring us down, much less this fucking soon. Our match against Mucho Grande was close, but I won’t have nobody saying it was a goddamn fluke. We fought a long road of teams to get to this point- we’ll fight a longer road to show just how much we fuckin’ deserved it. You two just happen to be the first mile marker.” Mike finished off the entire pepperoni pie, and flagged down a passing waiter, ordering a dessert to split before turning her full attention back to her partner. “Don’t take that as a dismissal. As I said, Los Amantes has our full attention. Our critics say that we go out of our way to disparage the others in the division. No, we would never do that. We do however hold you to higher expectations. The days of being a tag team as something to fall back on when there just isn’t anything else going on - are over.” “Tag teaming is a fucking art form. Anybody joining the division hoping to coast by is gonna hit a brick wall really fucking fast, because we won’t allow it.” “And don’t think any of the others will either. The Limit? Vile. But a force of destruction.” “Freaks and Geeks Presents: The Foxy Ladies of Dream Sound Revolution, Live From Mr. Biggs’ Limo? A fuckin’ mouthful and a half to say, but a fuckin’ awesome pairing that just might wind up taking these belts from us one day.” “Mucho Grande! After last Monday, we know for a fact that they are the team they say they are. So Los Amantes? Will you join our esteemed ranks? Or will you be another Bulletproof?” The question was emphatically deadpan which was stretching pretty far for John’s range. Something about them, something he knew, irked his partner and so that dislike was shared in kind. “Oh fucking God, I don’t think anybody here is another goddamn Bulletproof. Are you? I sure’s fuck think better of you than that.” The waiter dropped briefly by the table, bringing the bill, a take-home box for Bishop’s uneaten pizza, and a slice of New York cheesecake with two clean forks. Mike handed one fork to Bishop and her card over to the waiter along with the bill, and the two oblige him a quick selfie before he heads off. “Los Amantes, we want you to step the fuck up. Give us a Nice Sweet Fucking Workout. Don’t disappoint us.”

#archive

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