#hangman’s noose

[artblooger19moon]

Mark Hoffman

SAW

[lulunothulu]

“A Bullseye to the Heart” (Ch. 2)

Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Latina Reader

Blurb: You’re with Phoenix trying to forget what happened at the bar but you’re stuck in your mind after having an anxiety attack. Being hit brought you back into the mindset of being in the past with the traumatic experience that happened a few years ago. Now, you’re starting to open up to Natasha, but you can’t tell her everything… no matter how close you two are.

Catch up here: Chapter 1

Contents: mentions of anxiety, domestic violence (mentioned!), trauma, some fluff, mental health/flashbacks (some)

Word count: 1,370

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who loved the first part. I’ve always wanted to write fan fiction on here and I’m so glad you all have welcomed me with open arms 🥹 enjoy chapter 2!

-Lulu

Chapter 2

As you walk to Phoenix’s car, you can’t help but feel that rush of relief wash over you. It’s like what happened at the bar had freed you from Nick and instantly you can feel the tears coming. You have to stop in the middle of the parking lot to breathe them away.

“Y/N?” You hear Phoenix but her voice is muffled, so far away you feel like she’s miles away.

Your body starts to feel like you’ve been hit by a truck, everything around you turns to black. You slowly feel yourself fall back into that dark mindset you fought so hard to get out of. Flashes of men over you, knives and wicked smiles aimed at you and your body. Another flash of your body, broken and battered in the mirror of the hospital the people who found you brough you to. Your face was bruised, hardly recognizable and yet, still you.

Oh God. Please take me out of this. Don’t let me fall into–

You feel hands on your shoulders, lightly shaking you.

“Y/N!” 

You blink and as quickly as it started, it ends. Phoenix stands before you, eyes wide and breathing as rapidly as you are. 

“What happened?” You ask. 

“You were having a panic attack or something,” Phoenix tells you. She rubs your arms lightly before asking, “What was that about? Are you okay?”

“I must’ve been triggered by everything,” You tell her. It’s true, you know for a fact that you were triggered especially because Nick hit you. 

This episode, however, felt different. It felt like when you first came back. When you wouldn’t let anyone but Rooster and Phoenix touch you. When you couldn’t sit in the box and let the canopy close shut because you felt like you were being closed in that dark, secluded room again.

“Let’s get to my place and we can talk about it,” Phoenix says, wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

“If you don’t mind,” You start. “I’d rather not talk about this.”

“You have to talk about it with someone.” Phoenix leads you to her car, looking around the parking lot.

“That’s what my therapist is for,” You joke. 

Phoenix shakes her head, a small smile on her lips. “You’re impossible.”

“You love it!”

Later that night, you’re tossing and turning in bed next to Natasha. You can’t stop thinking–and dreaming–about what happened at the bar. The dream then somehow circulates to dreams about laying in the grass, body bloodied and bruised.

You don’t like to talk about it—let alone think and dream about it—but you know you have to tell someone. Maybe you’ll tell Nat when she wakes up but then again, you don’t want to burden her with the details.

Instead, you get out of bed and walk into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, you grab a bottle of water and begin to drink it while you look at the pictures on Nat’s fridge. 

There’s a few of her and Rooster smiling into the camera, arms wrapped around each other, another of the whole gang smiling together with Pete on the tarmac. But the one that makes you freeze is one with you, Phoenix, and Rooster the day before your jet went down and you went missing.

You remember that day distinctly. You played it over and over in your mind.

You weren't worried about the mission. All you had to do was bomb a weapon’s shelter and then get out of there. 

Easy work. You could do it with yoru eyes closed.

That night, Rooster and Phoenix took you out to dinner at one of your favorite restaurants and you all finished the night at Hard Deck. You were happy, excited even. When the morning came around, you felt something deep in your gut. Something was going to happen and you didn’t know if it was good or bad. Either way, this mission was an open and shut kind of case. And because the mission was so easy, they sent you alone.

Shaking the memories of that day out of your mind, you walk back into Phoenix’s room to find her already sitting up and waiting for you.

“You wanna talk about why you’ve been tossing and turning?” She asks. 

“Not really,” You start. “But I assume you’re going to keep asking so I’ll just tell you.”

You climb into her bed and get comfortable, knowing that she’s watching you intensely. “I keep having dreams about what happened at the bar.”

“And?”

“Jesus Nat. I forgot how much you can read me,” you chuckle. Then turning serious you add, “I keep seeing myself how I was when they found me.”

“How was that?” Natasha whispers.

Your voice catches on your throat and you feel the sob wanting to escape. Instead, you swallow it down and make yourself say, “I was bloodied, bruised. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t—”

You can’t bring yourself to finish that sentence. You squeeze your eyes shut before feeling Nat grab your hand.

“You don’t have to tell me all of the details. Not yet at least,” she starts. “When you’re ready, you can come to me.”

“I haven’t had those types of dreams in more than three months,” You croak. “It’s just something about whenever Nick gets violent that sets me off.”

“This has happened before?” You look up from your hands to see Natasha’s eyes hard in anger.

“Yeah,” you respond. “It started a month after coming back.”

“Oh, Y/N.”

“Remember that day Rooster had to carry me out of the F14?” You don’t wait for her to respond, you know she remembers. “There were bruises all over my back and legs.”

You snicker coldly before adding, “He’s very good at hurting me where no one can see it.”

“He’s in the navy too, right? Why didn’t you report him?” She asks. 

“I couldn’t,” you whisper.

“What does he have on you?” 

You shake your head, looking back down at your hands before you feel the tears fall. Your shoulder slump and begin to shake as you start to cry. You never told anyone that Nick was hurting you not to protect him but because deep down, you felt like you deserved it. You deserved to be hurt. You failed the mission and that was your punishment. You were caught and you deserved to hurt as much as you did for those four months you were kept and missing to the world.

You can feel Nat scoot closer to you, wrapping her arms around you and bringing you both down into the pillows.

You let her. 

You let her hold you. You let her softly tell you it’s okay. You let her squeeze you tight and wipe your eyes dry. 

Even when you’ve stopped crying, Natasha doesn’t let you go. You’re sniffing when she says, “We need to tell Bradley.”

“No,” you tell her. “He’ll make things worse and besides, Nick should be out of my apartment by the morning.”

“You need to get a restraining order too,” she tells you. “Can’t hurt, right?”

“I’d have to tell his commanding officer and honestly, I think he’ll leave me alone. Especially with you guys around,” you tell her. 

“Okay,” she says. “Can we go back to sleep? Rooster wanted to go for a run tomorrow morning. Well, today should I say.”

“Sure.”

An hour later, you’re still awake. You stare up at the ceiling and let Nat cuddle you in her sleep. You secretly like it, though. Hugs and cuddles from Phoenix are rare so you take whatever she’ll give you.

You check your phone to see some texts from Nick–begging you to forgive him like he always does–and another couple from Rooster and surprisingly, Bob. You click on the one from Bob and smile when you see two pictures of Fanboy, Coyote, Payback, Rooster, Bob, and Hangman–Jake–smiling at the camera. The second one consists of them making weird faces and captioned, “We hope this makes you smile, Y/N.”

You quickly type back a response, save the pictures to your camera roll, and close the messages app, tossing your phone onto the bed beside you and sighing to yourself.

What a weird day.

Next part

tags: @akilatwt @russopalette

[noosebeard]

Ready lad? It's time.

[orange-catsidy]

"juice has been doing the quarters thing already" he should have dropped it for this feud. the optics are horrible and aew deserves all the blowback they're getting

[saggernooseai]

full arch

[hangedtogether]

[bloodycowboyclub]

[inksandpensblog]

I owe a big thank-you to @nostalgiajesterz for taking on my request, I never could've done this myself. Here's their commission page!

[emabatis]

The second "Scotch Tape and Paperclips" zine: "Second Fiddle" is here!! This time it's all about games and the games we play to better understand them. Also spaghetti. Get the printable version for free on my itch.io!

If you perchance make something of these games, I'd love to see it!

[dicebound]

Day 20 - Amazing Adventure

I've mentioned a lot of fun adventures in this series, but I'm gonna highlight one more.

It's been many years now since I've played Pathfinder 1e, but I absolutely loved and still love the Hangman's Noose. It's an excellent closed space mystery adventure with fun twists and a spooky premise. The players are trapped inside this a crumbling courthouse with an angry spirit of a wrongfully condemned man. One of the people trapped with them is responsible, and its up to the party to uncover who - or hang. Play it. It's great. My only recommendation is to prehaps, not have the two NPCs that come in half way through arrive so late and just have them with the group from the beginning.

[bizlybebo]

WAIT I DIDNT KNOW IT WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU'RE VERY COOL

UAAAHH THANK YOU ROWANNN <33 !!! HEHE

[bloodybosom]

(Source?)

[saggernooseai]

[hangedtogether]

[bloodycowboyclub]

[lookhearmeout]

I call this one “things are going well..”

an unfinished ASimko original… 101723. To be continued..