#have to keep sacrificing clipboards to the baby

[pandadrake]

I said that designing a werewolf AU Miguel would be easy and I was right.

[bestiesenpai]

Area 51 - Nanami Kento

This is for @natsuonii’s creature feature collab! :) It’s got alien!reader, scientist Nanami and a whole lot of weird shit I’d say. Femme reader...there’s alien pussy lol 9.8K words

link to the collab!

Content warnings: sex pollen, alien heat, reverse knot, daddy kink, blood + needle(it’s brief I promise) and random medical terms and fake science shit lol don’t look too deeply at it

“This...this is the best scientific breakthrough we’ve ever had.” Nanami was at a loss for words, watching as decked out military men brought in case after case of wreckage from a shot down spacecraft. Working at a highly secure government facility sure did have it’s perks, and being one of the first people to know about all this was certainly the biggest one.

Nanami had spent so much of his life studying and clawing his way to the job he was at now. He’d sacrificed so much in the name of science, in the pursuit of finding extraterrestrial life forms no matter how small and insignificant, and it was finally paying off.

“Doctor, we’ll take the embryos to your lab.” One of the men said, quickly walking away tailed by people holding glowing blue cases. He hadn’t really been briefed on what all was coming in and what exactly happened to get it here, but he was sure he would find out soon enough.

“Careful!” Another person shouted and he was pushed out of the way. Coming in through the large steel doors was what looked like a four armed monster strapped face down to a flatbed. Markings went up and down his face and body and there were an extra set of eyes staring at everyone as it was wheeled by.

“What is that creature?” Nanami mumbled, clutching his clipboard tightly. The creature was breathing hard through its nose, nostrils flaring dangerously wide and a light growl rumbled from its chest.

“It appears to be the leader of the spacecraft, we could only get the creature's name, nothing else: Sukuna.” Someone answered him, but Nanami didn’t acknowledge, he was unable to take his eyes off Sukuna.

“Incredible.” His mouth hung open like a fool, unblinking as he watched Sukuna be wheeled past him and to the elevator shaft. “How far down are they taking him?”

“I heard the chief say as far as they could. He’s highly dangerous, it was a miracle the team was able to get the upper hand.”

“I’ll have to pay him a visit soon.” Nanami had enough security clearance to go anywhere in the building, but something was telling him he’d have to ask for a lot of permissions first before making contact with Sukuna. Nanami learned quite early on that the deeper underground you went, the more power you needed to be there.

Once the final bits and pieces were brought into the facility, Nanami peeled himself off the wall and made the way to his own lab. With his badge hung proudly from his shirt pocket, Nanami made the descent and as the elevator went floor after floor and the numbers got higher and higher, he let some excited exhales out.

Going down the metal corridor, he came to his lab to see it teeming with people. Nanami often worked alone on things and to see so many people milling about in his space made him a little nervous.

“Tell me about the embryos.” Was the first thing he said when he entered, donning the white lab coat he’d left hanging by the door. Walking over to the giant test tubes lining the back wall, he peered into one of the open cases.

Nestled inside atop a pile of hay were glowing blue orbs, some too bright to look at directly. They had a light blue smoke coming off, gradually spilling out the sides of the case and if he looked hard enough Nanami could just barely see the outline of a creature inside.

“They were on the spaceship Sukuna came in on. He was hellbent on protecting them, killing five of our people right off the bat.” The military man he’d spoken to earlier was here, answering right away.

“Were they in a case like this?” Donning a pair of gloves, Nanami picked one up. It was cool to the touch and quite heavy, making the muscles in his arm work harder than expected to stay upright.

“No, he had them suspended in some type of thick goop, like clear maple syrup.”

“How scientific, thank you.” He snorted, setting the embryo back down. “Do you have any of this ‘goop’ left?”

“Only this, sir.” Holding up a capped beaker filled halfway with the fluid, the man let out a defeated sigh. “Sukuna actually swallowed most of it, I guess trying to keep the embryos from us any way possible. This stuff is crazy acidic though, it’s melted almost everything it comes in contact with.”

“This should be enough…” Already making calculations in his head, Nanami took the beaker and walked to the control panel of the test tubes. “Load up the embryos and I’ll try to mimic the solution they were in. In the meantime, I’ll put one in that should be similar enough to keep them alive for a while.”

Pressing a few buttons on the panel, the test tubes began to fill with a murky pink liquid, filling the air with a pungent aroma. The embryos were loaded in quickly and the tubes sealed off. Watching them as he walked over to a table full of supplies, Nanami grinned slightly at watching them float.

It took him little time to come up with the properties of the amniotic fluid the embryos had been in. Making slight adjustments to the formula, he watched the liquid go from murky to clear, with only a light pink tinge left.

As the days wore on, Nanami studied the embryos intensely, opting to sleep in his lab instead of the barracks provided so he wouldn’t miss a single change should any occur. Going days without sleep, a week went by without any significant change.

A soft tapping on glass roused Nanami from an impromptu nap. Drawing his head up from where it was nestled in his arms on the metal table he was slumped over, he rubbed his face roughly and looked around.

“Who is it?” He called, assuming it was someone at the door. But when no answer came and the door wasn’t opened, he fully sat up and looked around. “Where the hell-” Cutting himself off as he looked at the test tubes, Nanami almost fell out of his stool.

In the seven test tubes lining the wall, there were three embryos that had come to term. He knew some would fail, resigning himself to the possibility that all of them would, but to see three newborn aliens was beyond his wildest expectations.

“Oh my god.” Snatching his clipboard off the table, Nanami rushed to the test tubes. He was writing furiously, capturing every single detail he saw about them and even making quick sketches of what they looked like.

There were little nubs right above their behinds, what looked to be the beginnings of a tail. All of them had two sets of eyes, unopened and tiny on their infantile faces, faces that were beginning to bear the same marks Sukuna had.

The tapping on the glass, Nanami quickly found out, was from them floating freely in the tubes, softly knocking against the glass as they hung suspended in the fluid. Nanami couldn’t see any kind of umbilical cord or method to get them the possible nutrients they needed to stay alive. So he just had to hope that they woke up soon to tell him what they needed.

The babies rapidly took shape after coming to term, morphing into a human-like form right before Nanami’s eyes. It seemed that with every couple of hours that passed they grew more and more. Fingers, webbed toes, tufts of hair and tails all appeared.

“So when do you think they’ll be able to come out?” His supervisor asked, nearly a month after the first encounter. The aliens under Nanami’s care looked like full fledged adults, ones that you could see out in public and - despite a few glaring differences - not pay any mind to.

“I don’t know, ma’am. I don’t know if they can survive out here.” In the month that passed, the facility wasn’t able to get any intel from Sukuna about the embryos or why he chose to come to Earth. All he did was snarl and growl, slurring a few death threats when he could.

“Take one out and see.”

“What?” Gasping loudly, Nanami’s eyes went wide. Surely his boss didn’t mean for him to sacrifice one of them? They were too precious of an asset to possibly let die like that and Nanami was ready to put his foot down.

“Don’t worry, doctor, Sukuna’s told us a bunch of times that more of his people will be coming, and I’m willing to bet they’ll have more embryos for us to study.” Giving him a swift pat on the back, his boss turned on her heel and started to walk away. “The usual assistants will be here to help you should you need anything and don’t feel bad if they all die, that’s just how these things go.”

The parting words were less than heartwarming. Letting out a rough sigh, Nanami turned to the team of people behind him. They worked with him before, most of them idolizing him with a gleam in their eyes.

“We’ll wheel in the examining table and take them out one by one. If there’s any adverse reactions, I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it. Get the usual supplies ready, we’ll start in ten.” Giving the group a curt nod, Nanami turned back to the test tubes. Pressing his hand onto the glass of one, he closed his eyes. “God, I really hope you all don’t die.”

In ten minutes, Nanami was dressed in full hazmat gear and so was his team. The crinkling of plastic suits was loud in the otherwise deathly silent room as everyone held their breath. Draining the fluid of the first tube, Nanami swung open the door.

“Let’s take a look.” Nanami said as the body was lifted onto the table. It had no external sex organs to speak of, not even a hole for a cloaca. Cool to the touch, Nanami waited for it to show any signs of life.

“It’s not moving.” Someone called out after five minutes, scribbling it down on the notes. They’d tried everything, strapping an oxygen mask over the face, chest compressions and returning the body back to the fluid it had previously been in, but it was no use.

“Take that away to Getou’s lab, he’ll dissect it.” Waving the first body away, Nanami looked up at the second. “We need to instill a gradual change in environment or else the same thing will happen.”

“Should we try to set up a feeding tube or an IV?”

“IV, yes.”

The second attempt went marginally better than the first. Slowly shifting the fluid to one of a normal human amniotic fluid seemed to work. The alien twitched and rocked side to side, seemingly waking up from its slumber.

Drawing it out from the tube, it appeared to be just fine. Gasping for air, fluttering eyelids and squirming limbs - all things Nanami wanted to see. What he didn’t want though, was for the creature to lash out with unexpectedly sharp claws, cutting through the sleeve of his suit and drawing blood.

“Holy shit!” Stumbling back, Nanami watched in horror as the creature licked the blood from its nails. Smacking its lips together, the creature pointed at him. It was rapidly losing the color in its cheeks, struggling to form whatever words it needed.

“Blood? Do you need human blood to survive on this planet?” Nanami shouted, scrambling away from the table he’d flung himself onto and holding out his arm. “Take it! Quickly!”

“Doctor no!” A few of his assistants tried to yank him away from the examining table. They didn’t want to see the blood get drained from his body or him possibly get eaten by the creature.

“Stop it, let me do this!” Struggling with them, Nanami watched in rapt horror as the creature nodded slowly before fully collapsing on the table, drawing it’s last shaky inhale before falling limp entirely. “You fucking idiots, we just lost another one!” Pushing the people away, Nanami banged his fist angrily on the table.

“Doctor, we couldn’t let you do something so dangerous! You’re the most valuable scientist here, we can’t lose you!”

“Bullshit! I don’t care if the next one wants to swallow me whole, you let it!” Glaring at all the people in the room, Nanami began to rip his gear off. “And if it dies for any reason, I’m going to make sure none of you ever find work again.”

With the threat hanging heavily in the air, Nanami stormed over to the control panel one last time, punching in the codes needed to change the fluid on the remaining test tube. His arm was slowly leaking blood and he could feel the warmth drip down to his hand.

“Get me an IV, I’m going to give this last one a blood transfusion.”

“Doctor, are you sure you-”

“If you question me one more time I’ll cut your tongue out. Now do as I say.” Pulling up a chair, Nanami sat down and leaned his head against the cold glass of the tube. None of this was going as he wanted; Nanami didn’t plan to lose two out of three creatures, nor to give blood to the last one.

Hooking up an IV, Nanami watched the blood drain from his arm, flowing up and into the top of the test tube where there was a needle inserted into the last alien. Trying not to get too woozy as he was drained of blood, Nanami pressed his forehead to the glass and squeezed his eyes shut.

“I don’t believe in you but God if you’re out there, please make this work.”

“Doctor?” He wasn’t sure when he passed out, but when Nanami came to, he had a crowd of people gawking at him.

“Yes? What?” The IV was out of his arm and there was a blanket over him and as he tried to get out of his chair he nearly fell.

“L-look behind you.” Pointing with a shaking finger, the assistant that woke him up turned him to face the test tube.

“Why do you all look so-” Turning around, Nanami stumbled back, for once grateful to have someone else in the lab to catch him. “Scared?” Whispering out the last word in a high pitched voice, Nanami couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The once nondescript alien in the tube was now a fully fledged human being. With complete and fairly dark markings on their face, breasts and a vagina, the creature before him could be mistaken for any other adult.

And the thing that was most shocking was the way all four eyes honed in on Nanami, tracking his every move. Pressing it’s forehead and hands to the glass, the creature turned as Nanami walked side to side.

“It’s been watching you since you passed out.”

“How long has it been like that?” He asked, getting closer to the test tube.

“It just suddenly changed shortly after you lost consciousness. A flash of light went off and poof, it looked like that.” Pressing his hand to the glass, Nanami let out a breathless laugh as the creature scurried back only to return in mere seconds.

“Open the tube, we have to let it out.” Unable to take his eyes off the creature, Nanami could hardly wait for all the fluid to be drained before opening up the test tube and helping the creature out. Surprisingly steady on its feet, Nanami barely had to help it stand upright.

“Hello.” He smiled, shrugging off his lab coat and placing it over its shoulders. “Welcome to Earth.”

“Hello.” You said back, attempting to smile as well. “Welcome to Earth.”

When Nanami first got the embryos, he wasn’t expecting anything to come out of them. The most he thought would happen was possible growth but never any of them coming to term and certainly never of them to actually be able to communicate.

It appears you were destined to prove him wrong, however. Nearly the moment you stepped out of the test tube, dripping in fluid and with a long tail you couldn’t quite control, you exceeded all of Nanami’s expectations - not that he even had any to begin with, especially not when it came to taking you out of the tube.

The first hour, you were sitting perfectly still while the team ran tests on you. Pressing a cold stethoscope to your chest, a few of them got a giggle out of the way you gasped and squirmed. Nanami watched it all happen, taking calculated notes and even doing some of the tests himself.

“What’s your name?” He questioned after another hour of hearing you repeat the phrases around you. Staring at him from the stool you were perched on, you tilted your head. It was only you and him left in the lab now, he sent everyone else away, wanting a chance to study you on his own.

“What’s your name?” You parroted back, mimicking the way Nanami had his arms crossed over his chest.

“My name is Nanami Kento. What’s yours?”

“Nanami Kento.” He made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, rolling his eyes at the giggle you let out. He understood he was dealing with an alien, one that might never be able to fully communicate the way he desired, but he wanted to get somewhere.

“What’ll it take for you to stop copying me?”

“Reading a book.” He’d meant it as a rhetorical question, and hearing your voice form a stilted sentence all on it’s own was a big surprise. Nodding curtly, Nanami walked over to a set of bookcases and grabbed a thick dictionary and a thesaurus, placing them onto the table next to you. Flipping open the first page of the dictionary, Nanami pointed at the words.

“Can you read these?”

“Mhmm!” Leaning over, your eyes scanned the script.

“Good, read all of it and tell me when you’re done.” Setting up a chair on the other side of the table, Nanami fixed a pile of notes and other documents he needed to work over. He could take time to catch up his reports while you-

“Done!” Slamming the dictionary closed, you picked up the thesaurus. “I have to read this too?”

“Y-yes.” Nanami’s mouth hung open slightly as he watched you speed through the second book. He expected this whole process to take an hour at least but you were done with both books in just a few minutes.

“All finished.” You were still a little unsure of forming sentences, lifting your voice in slight question at the end.

“How did you do that so fast?”

“When Mother made us, she gave us all the information she could on this planet, including rudimentary language. I just needed a way to conceptualize actually speaking on my own.”

“Who’s Mother?” Grabbing his pen, Nanami began to scribble down what you were saying.

“Mother is the one that made us. All of us, me, my companions, and Sukuna too.”

“Right…” Nanami’s hand hesitated at the mention of Sukuna, drawing inky swirls in place of words. “Then Mother is the one who sent you here with him?”

“Yes! She said that to take over this planet, we would need to assimilate to the environment and that we’d need a strong warrior to protect us.” You had a dreamy look in your eyes, no doubt thinking about Sukuna. “So far I like this-”

“Hold on, take over the planet?”

“It’s what my people do: we come to a planet, impregnate the population and take over.” He was sure there was more to it than that but for his own peace of mind Nanami didn’t question it further. For now, he wanted to focus on the positives, mainly the one of you finally speaking on your own.

“So…” Nanami struggled to find the next topic of conversation.

“Oh, I remember my name now! It’s (Y/N).”

“Did Mother also give you that name?”

“She did!” You truly looked overjoyed to be talking about all this. The smile on your face led to Nanami being able to see the sharp canine teeth in your mouth, akin to a set of teeth he’d find in a vampire movie.

“So (Y/N), I have a question. I gave you my blood so you’d be able to live on this planet.” He paused to make sure you were following along. “I want to know why you’re a female when you received male donor blood.”

“Mother determined which gender would be useful for me to have on this planet, so all I needed was your DNA to complete the transformation and become a human.”

“Mother thinks humans have those extra eyes and a tail?” Nanami snorted at that, there were too many things to give away your unhuman origins that couldn’t be ignored.

“Sukuna is supposed to teach us how to hide them until we need them.” Your shoulders visibly slumped and you looked around. “Where is he? He was supposed to be here when we woke up.”

“He’s somewhere else-”

“Where? Where is he?” Putting both palms flat on the table, you leaned forward. You seemed desperate, your brows scrunching together as you worried your lip. “I can tell he’s close, but where is he exactly?”

Nanami heard what you said. He knew exactly the words that were spoken and their meaning. But he was having a hard time thinking of anything as he suddenly became aware again of the fact that you were still naked, the lab coat you had on falling open to reveal your breasts.

“How about we talk about that while you get dressed in something more appropriate?” Clearing his throat roughly, Nanami pushed away from the table. His cheeks were getting a bit warm and he didn’t want you to see.

“No, tell me where Sukuna is!” Slapping your hands loudly on the table, you glared sharply at Nanami when he tried to come closer. “I don’t want to be alone any longer! My companions didn’t make it, he’s all I have!”

“(Y/N)...” Sighing softly, Nanami didn’t know what to do. If he tried to raise his hand, you growled at him, flexing your fingers as if you were going to strike him. He couldn’t tell you where Sukuna was, no matter what. “You’re- you’re not alone.”

“What do you mean?” Your face softened just a fraction, and you leaned back as Nanami lifted his hand slowly, placing it on the table near your own hand.

“You have me.” Nanami felt something odd twisting his stomach, something that told him this simultaneously was a good and bad idea. It wasn’t wise to say this to you, to try and build some kind of relationship beyond a scientist and his test subject, but what did he have to lose? You were the first alien he’d ever come in contact with, there were bound to be some risks he’d have to take to keep you happy.

“Really?” Relaxing your body, you let your hand get closer to Nanami’s.

“Really.” Fully grabbing your hand now, Nanami tugged you from the stool, craning his head away to avoid looking at your open chest. “Now follow me, I think there’s some scrubs in one of these drawers.”

“Nanami, I’m hungry.” After finding you a set of clothes buried in a drawer and cutting a hole in the bottoms for your tail, Nanami was greeted with the sound of your growling stomach.

“What do you eat?”

“Whatever you eat.” Taking up residence on the singular fold out couch Nanami used to sleep on, you watched him pick up the phone on his desk.

“Let’s have some pasta then.”

While Nanami preferred to cook his food himself rather than ordering it from upstairs, he didn’t have the heart to tell you that the cafeteria food was less than ideal. You seemed to love the dish he gave you, eating it with no hesitation and a smile on your face.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about your kind?” Picking over his food, Nanami watched you finish eating in record time and pushed his plate over to you.

“Like what?” Tilting your head to the side, you gladly took his food.

“Anything that comes to mind like cultural things, maybe you celebrate holidays?”

“We do! I was created to leave the planet, but others get to stay and cultivate life there. We have something close to what you call Christmas and others for things you wouldn’t understand.”

“Really? You’ll have to write them down for me later.” Nodding to himself, he made the mental note to teach you how to write. Glancing down at the two now empty plates before you, Nanami flicked his head toward the phone. “Fancy some more?”

As it reached midnight, Nanami became starkly aware of the fact there was only one place for the both of you to sleep. He wasn’t sure how much sleep you actually needed or if you needed any at all for that matter, but he knew for sure that sleeping on the same fold out mattress with you would be crossing a line he wasn’t ready for. It was already too short to hold his entire frame, and putting two bodies side by side wouldn’t be a good idea.

“(Y/N), are you tired?” Standing up from the couch, he motioned for you to stand as well.

“Yes.” Your voice was chipper as ever, not a hint of exhaustion heard. You watched with rapt interest as Nanami unfolded the mattress and set it on the ground.

“Alright, well you’ll be sleeping here and I’ll be sleeping in the barracks.”

“I’m going to be alone?”

“Is that a problem?” Quirking a brow, Nanami glanced at you.

“Well not necessarily but I- I don’t want to be alone. Not on my first night, at least.” Curling your tail on the ground, you worried your fingers, claws clicking together as you did. Nanami could feel his resolve wearing down, the nervous look you tried to hide made his fingers flex; he felt an overarching urge to protect you.

“I’ll grab another couch from the lab next door.” Turning on his heel, Nanami took deep breaths as he left the room. Forcing his head to get clear, he drug another couch into his lab, setting it up across from the first one.

“Is this what you call a sleepover?” You asked, watching Nanami set up both couches with blankets and pillows.

“You could say that, yes.” A strange giggle left your mouth and it made Nanami pause and look at you. “What was that sound?”

“A laugh?” Dropping your face in confusion, you looked him straight in the eye. “Is something wrong?”

“No no it’s just-” clearing his throat loudly, Nanami rushed out the next words, “That was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.” At his admittance, you giggled again and he had to bite his lip hard from audibly swooning.

“Mother made it special for me, she makes all her children special.” Mimicking the way Nanami climbed into bed, you laid down and stared at the dark ceiling. “Only some of us can laugh like that, and others have pheromones and what not to attract the native people on a new planet.”

“(Y/N), do you have special pheromones too?” Your casual mention of impregnating and taking over the whole planet flashed in his head.

“I think I do, why else would you have agreed to stay here with me?”

“Good to know.” Nanami would have to install a high tech air filter later, he didn’t like the idea of slowly succumbing to your desires. Fully laying down in bed, he drew the blankets up to his chin and tried not to think of it anymore. “Good night.”

For a month Nanami studied you nonstop. Gathering medical information, he discovered you had three stomachs and two hearts. Through plenty of trial and error you learned how to keep the swinging of your tail under control and not trip him anymore. He even learned your favorite foods and the relative location of your home planet in the galaxy.

When Nanami had to step out for meetings, he begrudgingly let fellow scientist Gojo watch over you. The best in his field and horribly obnoxious about it, Nanami tried to limit the time you two spent together. He didn’t need Gojo influencing you too much and ruining the work Nanami had put into acclimating you to society in an appropriate way.

“You’re back!” It was like he was coming home from work whenever you greeted him like that. You bounded over to the door from wherever you were and bounced on your toes, eager to talk to him about what he’d done while away.

“Mhmm. How’s it been with Gojo?” Nanami glanced up at said man, not liking the fact that he was lounging on the couch with his laptop perched precariously on his thigh.

“It’s great! He showed me something really interesting.” A shy giggle left your lips and you avoided further eye contact with Nanami.

“What is it?” Narrowing his eyes, Nanami began to glower at Gojo, who started to shrink under his gaze.

“(Y/N), don’t you have something to say first?” Gojo smirked, barely hiding a chuckle behind his hand.

“Oh, you’re right!” Squaring your shoulders at Nanami, you took a deep breath. “Welcome back, daddy!” Taking a brief glance at Gojo, you cupped your cheeks and stuck your tongue out, crossing your eyes for extra measure.

“W-what the fuck!” Scrambling back in shock, Nanami glared sharply at Gojo as a harsh red flush coated his cheeks. He was ashamed to admit he’d seen that face before, late at night when he was too restless to sleep and needed something to help soothe his mind.

“What’s wrong, Kento? Do you not like what (Y/N)’s doin’?” The dark chuckle behind Gojo’s words had Nanami wanting to throttle him. Of course he liked it, he was a grown man wasn’t he? Not to mention Nanami couldn’t remember the last time he’d laid down with another warm body like that and the face you were making was bringing several repressed thoughts to the surface.

Unable to form the proper words, Nanami side stepped you and went to his desk, placing files down that needed to be typed out later and trying to still his rapid heartbeat. The way you said that sentence so enthusiastically, saliva making your tongue glisten in the light - it was too much for him to deal with so abruptly.

“Why’d you teach her that shit?” Nanami growled, covering the lower half of his face with his trembling hand.

“(Y/N) deserves to know all aspects of human life, wouldn’t you agree?” Closing his laptop, Gojo stood up and walked to the door. “Besides Kento, I know you get lonely at night.” Smiling sweetly at you, Gojo left the room without any further comment.

“(Y/N).” With his back still facing you, Nanami heaved a sigh.

“Yes?” You said slowly, relaxing your body. The tension rolled off Nanami in waves, making the air thick and uncomfortable. It was hard to read whether he was angry or not.

“What has Gojo been teaching you?” The subtle sag in his shoulders isn’t missed by you, making you scramble to the desk and face him.

“I don’t know! He said there were some interesting things you’d yet to show me and he pulled up some websites and- and-” A bit of fear spiked in your head. You’d only gone along with what Gojo said was right, Nanami had entrusted you to his care after all and your whole reason for being on the planet was to assimilate. “Are you mad at me?” Rubbing at your four eyes to stem a sudden wave of anxious tears, you looked at Nanami, waiting nervously for his answer.

“Not at you. Him.” Sensing your oncoming distraught, Nanami shook his head and cleared his throat. “I want you to learn all the good things of human life and well-”

“Sex isn’t a good thing?” You gasped, leaning your hands on the desk.

“Did he teach you about sex?” Nanami nearly yelled back.

“He did! We read a lot of medical journals about it, it releases so many good chemicals into the human brain! And then Gojo went to this website called PornHub and-”

“He what?!” A heart attack. Nanami was going to have a heart attack.

“Let me finish! He showed me humans having sex and it looked like they were having a great time!” Your breath was coming out short and Nanami could hear the drag of your tail on the ground as you got worked up. “But it didn’t do anything to me, I haven’t reached that point yet!” He didn’t understand what you meant and while the urge to drown himself in the bottle of dark liquor he kept hidden away tugged at him, his pursuit for knowledge was greater.

“What do you mean you ‘haven’t reached that point yet’?” Collapsing into the desk chair, Nanami was more worked up than he thought. The shock of hearing you call him daddy, learning that you discovered what sex was and now he was going to know when you would begin to show interest in such a thing.

“Sexual maturity, I’m not there yet, so seeing that stuff didn’t do anything to me.”

“When will you be?” He pressed, grabbing a pen and getting ready to write down whatever you said on the corner of a file.

“It’s been a month since I’ve transformed, so in about a week or two.”

“That fast?” Nanami blanched, mind spinning at how he was going to deal with that. “Humans take years, though, shouldn’t my blood affect that?”

“No, my DNA only takes what it needs from yours. My base mechanics like lifespan and in this case sexual maturity are all hardwired by Mother. They won’t change just because a few drops of your blood mix in.”

“So...so what does that mean for you? Do you need some kind of special uh- a special thing or-?” His cheeks and ears burned fiercely and Nanami cleared his throat in the middle of the sentence. He knew exactly what he meant by ‘a special thing’ but he couldn’t bring himself to say it in front of you.

“I don’t know, actually.” Shrugging your shoulders, you sat on the edge of his desk. “Sukuna is supposed to tell me what happens and what to do after we pick out a suitable mate for me.”

There was that mention of Sukuna again. The creature buried so far underground some people wondered if he was passing the Earth's mantle. He’d settled down in the month since your arrival, seemingly knowing that you had emerged from the embryo and survived. He still refused to give any answers and you hadn’t mentioned him in nearly three weeks.

“You don’t need him. We can figure it out once it gets here.” Shaking his head, Nanami could feel himself getting a little high off your pheromones with you sitting so close. The air filter he put into the room could only do so much when your scent rolled off in such thick waves.

“Okay.” Sighing the word, you resigned yourself to playing with your fingers. Silence washed over the room, less tense than before but still tainted with an edge to it. Both of you were flushed from talking about this subject and Nanami was glad you had your back to him.

“(Y/N), I have another question.” A few minutes later, Nanami couldn’t hold back the question burning in his mind. You let out a hum of acknowledgement but didn’t face him. “What would be a suitable mate for you? What kind of human?”

He blamed it on your pheromones, he blamed every last less than professional thought in his head on your pheromones and what you did to him and he especially blamed Gojo for forcing this topic of conversation to come up. Nanami tried to reason with himself, put the narrative in his head that he wanted to know for science, but in the dark recesses of his mind Nanami wanted to know who your type was if you even had one.

“Well actually, a human like you is perfect.” Your back curved just a little to keep your face hidden as you spoke. The words hung in the air, leaving Nanami’s mouth hanging slightly open and his mind bouncing to a hundred different places at once.

“Like me?” He whispered, barely registering the words coming out of his mouth.

“Exactly like you.” This time you looked over your shoulder at him, your eyes narrowing as you took in his reaction. His shock seemed to be enough for you, your secondary eyes pinching closed as you smiled, and you turned back to face forward. “Nanami, I’m hungry.”

Having grown accustomed to your new home, you slid off the desk and to the couch that was yours. Nanami’s eyes were glued to your back, watching the way your tail moved on the ground as you walked. His throat was suddenly thick, there were plenty of things he wanted to say, things that would definitely violate his code of ethics.

“Nanami.” Your voice snapped him out of his thoughts, back to reality where you were far away from arms reach. The weight of your eyes bore right back into him and Nanami knew he’d been caught staring.

“Yes?” He forced the word out, his tongue feeling heavy and foreign in his mouth.

“Should we have pasta tonight?”

Nanami hardly slept at all that night, plagued with ideas of what you thought about him and less than savory images of you and your body. Shame settled over him like a second blanket as he tossed and turned throughout the night, trying to rid his mind of such things to no avail.

In the morning, Nanami got rid of the second couch and made the decision to sleep in the barracks when he needed to. While nothing inherently sexual had occurred, he still felt like he betrayed some sort of trust between you two, sullied the pure relationship you had together.

Ignoring your whines and protests, he also made the decision to get rid of Gojo as your babysitter. He didn’t want or need your mind filled with things he didn’t deem appropriate and Gojo was the main perpetrator of such things, and he was confident enough that he could leave you alone for a few hours and nothing bad would happen.

It almost hurts to leave you alone at night, the old ritual of slowly nudging you along your night time routine and laying down on adjacent mattresses was now replaced by getting you ready for bed but then leaving shortly after you were all tucked in. Sometimes you whined and wanted him to stay, claiming that you didn’t sleep as well without him there, and sometimes Nanami hesitated at the door before steeling his resolve and leaving.

He doubts he’ll ever tell you that he stopped sleeping as well too.

An abrupt evening meeting three weeks later called him away from you sooner than either of you would have liked. You’d developed a cough and a bit of a rash over the course of time and while Nanami was sure this meant you were reaching sexual maturity, he was still hell bent on finding some medicine to help you, not wanting to go to this meeting about another potential UFO sighting.

“(Y/N), I’m back and I-” Nanami all but ran back to his laboratory with some medicine he’d swiped from Gojo. He was worried for you, not just as a scientist but as a friend. Throwing open the door and locking it quickly to contain any possible airborne particles, Nanami was assaulted with the harsh smell of something sweetly floral.

“N-nanami!” His eyes immediately find you, writhing in what looks like agony on the mattress he’d pulled out for you before leaving. Walking quickly over to you, every inhale he made felt like he was breathing in a thick fog.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Coughing and putting a hand over his face, he looked over you. It was normal for you to just wear a long, oversized t-shirt Gojo got you from a local thrift store to sleep and right now it was clinging tightly to your body from the sweat pouring out of you.

“Nanami!” Shaking your head side to side, he could see the tears leaking out of your eyes. Against his better judgement, Nanami crouched down on one knee and put a hand on your forehead.

“Shit, you’re burning up.” Pulling his fingers away, there was a light yellow powdery film left on them. “(Y/N) what is this? Has it started?” The substance tingled on his fingers, making them go slightly numb.

There was a pitiful noise from you as a response and a limp nod, and Nanami rushed to the sink to wash off his hands. The scent in the room was overwhelming, almost choking him with every inhale he made. Turning the ventilation system on as high as it could go did nothing and there was still pollen visibly floating in the air.

“I have to go, I can’t be here.”

“No!” You cried, falling out of bed with a loud thump and crawling toward Nanami. “D-don’t leave!”

“I have to, this stuff isn’t good for me.” Nanami kept his back to you, hastily trying to grab some things from his desk. His cock was already beginning to stiffen painfully and the sounds you were making were echoing inside his head.

“Wait!” Tugging on his pant leg, you dug your claws into it.

“(Y/N), let go.” He tried to shake you off, staunchly avoiding eye contact. The heat on his skin was rising and if Nanami were to look in a mirror he would see how red he was. You refused to let go, sitting up on weak knees and pushing your hand further up his leg.

“D-daddy, please! Help me!”

That was it. That was the moment that broke Nanami Kento. He knows Gojo has told you that he likes to be called that in bed, among other things. He knows that the pollen in the air is what’s making his head impossibly foggy with only one thing able to be focused on. Nanami knows that if he stays here any longer, he’ll do something that he won’t regret, but that might cost him his job.

“Daddy…” Emboldened by unbridled desperation, you force Nanami to face you with strength he didn’t know you possessed. Eye to eye with his cock straining against his slacks, you shove your face right into it.

“(Y/N)!” Your name comes out as a rough groan from his lips and Nanami’s hands fly to grab the back of your head. As he grips your head, Nanami makes no move to pull you away and doesn’t stop you from rubbing your face along his clothed cock.

“Please please please, just this once! I need to do this-” The pleading you're doing is muffled by your mouth running along fabric, words slurred and barely coming out properly. Just from this stimulation alone Nanami can feel his balls tighten like he’s about to cum.

“Sto-stop, stop this.” Nanami’s own sense of morals, his will to do anything besides being in this room with you was going to be torn to shreds the longer you touched him. And it was, as he came in his pants, rutting his hips like a pathetic teenager into your face.

He came but his cock was still as hard as before, maybe even more so. There was no reprieve from the painful need to be stimulated, to feel you touch him again and again and again. With a mangled groan, he shoves your head away and grabs his waistband.

Swatting your hands away that still rest on his hips, Nanami undoes his belt and shoves his pants and underwear down to the ground. His cock slaps against his dress shirt, glistening from the previous load of cum and leaking more like he’s never seen before.

“What did you do to me?” He asks under his breath, feeling sweat pooling on his skin despite being half naked. As he takes off his remaining clothes, Nanami can feel the tingle from the pollen settling all over him, sticking to his hair and to every crevice of his body.

“D’ya like it, daddy? That’s what M-mother chose for me, it’s a new- a new evolution we got from a previous planet.” It’s amazing that you can stand on your own feet despite the way your legs shake violently. Nanami can tell you’re in a sorry state, so he lets you lead him to the mattress and fall back onto it.

“Mother made you pollen? How interesting.” Somewhere far back in his head, he really did find it genuinely interesting. But right now he was merely making conversation, settling on the bed as you climbed on top of him and took your wet shirt off.

The rash that had been on your skin was now turning into powdery pollen before his very eyes, falling off and into the air like a flower's pollen would. Laying down on Nanami, pressing your breasts against his chest, you fell into a kiss with him.

Even though it was your first kiss, Nanami was the one left feeling inexperienced as you slotted your mouths together and slid your tongue past his lips. Even your saliva was sweet as it dripped it into his mouth and down the sides. Nanami’s hands roamed your body, pinching into your sides and squeezing your ass painfully tight. Surprisingly, your tail didn’t get in the way, just languidly swaying side to side and sometimes tickling his shins.

“Daddy, please- I want more!” You whined loudly, breaking the kiss to trail your lips along his neck and chest and nip at the skin every so often.

“Tell me. Tell- tell daddy what you want.” There was the slightest hesitation, a tiny tinge of shame for doing this with you that got washed away as quickly as it came up by your wet cunt sliding against his cock.

“I want you inside me.” Wrapping your fingers around his cock, you stroked it slowly, unable to focus on putting it in and kissing him at the same time. Giving up with a grunt, you settled for rubbing your cunt along his shaft.

“Shit, roll over.” Flipping you with ease, Nanami grabs onto your thighs and holds them apart. Staring down at your cunt, it looks just like any other human sex organ, giving Nanami some peace of mind that he wouldn’t need to do anything too complicated to make you feel good.

You whine again when he doesn’t immediately push himself balls deep into you, instead laying on his stomach and giving your inner thighs kisses. Nanami grabs your hands, silently telling you to hold your legs apart as he delves in deeper.

One lick up your slit and you fall apart so easily, gushing around his mouth so much Nanami is sure you just had an orgasm. Greedily drinking it up, Nanami can attest that this is the best thing he’s ever tasted. Burying his face into your heat, he can’t keep his tongue in one place for too long, torn between pushing it deep inside you and licking at your swollen clit.

You’ve given up holding your legs open a while ago. As Nanami sucked on your clit, your thighs clamped down around his head and your fingers threaded through his hair. The feeling of his mouth on you was the best you’d ever experienced in your short time being alive and it was one you’d think about forever.

“Oh my- daddy, I-” Your eyes were closed so tightly you were seeing stars and you were sure Nanami couldn’t breathe anymore from how tightly you squeezed him as you came. His head thrashed side to side, tongue swiping all along your sex and inner thighs to catch all of your release.

“This is the best scientific breakthrough we’ve ever had.” Wrenching his head away before he passed out, Nanami laid limply on the bed. As the words left his mouth he remembered all those weeks ago now when you first came to him as just a tiny, glowing embryo. He never would have been able to imagine that you’d be here, turning him to lay on his back and crawling between his legs.

Grabbing the base of his cock firmly, you gave one lick to the tip before engulfing it fully in your mouth. Nanami’s back arched high off the bed in shock, surprised at the lack of hesitation from you and how easily he hit the back of your throat.

“S-slow down a little.” He panted, trying to cup your face and get you to look at him. Swatting his hand away, you let your tongue loll in your mouth as you sucked him off, easily planting your nose on his lower stomach and swallowing around him.

It must have been the pollen in the air to make him cum so quickly, Nanami reasoned with a harsh blush on his face. That was the only explanation for why he was currently spilling a thick load of cum down your throat in less than two minutes of you sucking him off.

“You taste so good, daddy.” Pulling off his cock, you licked the sides and down to his balls, gently sucking one into your mouth and looking up at him. Despite just cumming, Nanami felt another orgasm wash over him and another wave of cum came out, dribbling down the sides of his cock and onto your face.

Slapping a hand over his face, Nanami let out a few moans he’d been holding back. There was no way he would ever be able to look at you the same way after seeing your face covered in his seed.

“C’mere.” Stopping you from your current ministrations, he pulled you to lay over top of him again. Grabbing your sweaty shirt from the ground, he wiped the cum off your face, kissing your skin after he wiped it clean.

“Daddy, will you put it in already?” You cried, smacking your ass against his thighs angrily.

“Be patient, baby.” Petting down your back, Nanami shushed you, giving your ass a quick pinch before gripping the base of his cock. Keeping a hand on your hip to keep you steady, he helped you sink down on his cock, easily all the way to the hilt.

Digging your claws into his chest, you let out a loud howl. Finally you were getting what you really needed, the feeling of Nanami’s cock hugged tightly by your cunt spreading a warm feeling throughout your body.

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” He hissed as you dragged your hips upward and back down again. Sure he’d been with other women before but none like this. Your cunt squeezed him incredibly tight, making it impossible for him to do anything other than lay back and let you move however you saw fit.

You weren’t shy in your motions either, riding his cock with a dizzying confidence and nearly fumbling down into a heap of loud moans on more than one occasion. Even with all the prep before your arrival to the planet and research you’d done about sex and the human experience, nothing could have prepared you for how good it actually felt during your heat.

Nanami was sure everyone within the compound could hear what was going on in the room, your noises were as loud as they’d ever been. The sound was as beautiful as when you laughed, hypnotizing him further into compliance.

“Shit!” He cursed harshly, nails digging into the flesh of your hips as he came. As his orgasm came over him, Nanami got no break from the pleasurable waves washing over him because you refused to stop.

“More, more!” You panted, working even harder to get him to cum again. With the added vigor, more pollen released into the air and Nanami breathed in a deep mouthful. Snaking an arm around your back, Nanami rolled you over, acting on pure instinct as he pushed and pulled your body into a mating press.

“You’re so- so demanding, baby.” The pet name came without thinking, not that Nanami was doing a whole lot as he pounded the full length of his cock into you. He wasn’t sure you could hear him, even while being face to face like this. There were too many sounds in the room, the moans that left both of you freely, the wet slapping of skin against skin and the creak of the old mattress springs.

“Please, give it all to me!” Throwing your head back, your cunt spasmed around Nanami’s cock for the umpteenth time, making another gush of your release coat everything within its reach.

Nanami was sure you’d have bruises later from how hard he gripped you but right now he couldn’t find it in him to care. The only thing on his mind was fucking you so hard you stopped babbling and crying like a baby for more of him. He wanted to give you all that he had and more until he himself collapsed as well.

Pushing a hand between your bodies, when he touched your clit Nanami briefly went deaf, unprepared for the incredibly high pitched moan that left your lips. His ears were ringing fiercely but he kept going, refusing to take his eyes off the way your mouth fell open as he rubbed your clit in quick circles.

“H-how many- how many times have you cum?” He gasped, feeling the very beginnings of a burn in his thighs.

“Not enough, it’s not enough.” Thrashing your head against the mattress, you wound your arms around his shoulders. “I need more, daddy.”

“I don’t have any more.” Nanami spoke around the smothering kisses you gave him.

“You do! Just- just a few more!” He wasn’t really in a position to argue with you, you were holding onto him with far more strength than he could ever hope to possess, and while the pollen on your skin had started to diminish there was still a lot in the air that refused to let him truly come to a stop.

As if on command, Nanami felt his balls tighten up and he came again. The arms holding him up broke down and he fell on top of you, burrowing his face into your neck and holding your hips up with his hands.

“Fuck, baby-” With his eyes squeezed shut, Nanami lost track of where he actually was. Nothing mattered except for the feeling of your body underneath him and your cunt holding him in a vice grip. There wasn’t any reason to keep track of how many times he’d emptied a load inside you, so when he did it again so soon after the other one, Nanami paid it no mind.

“It’s coming!” You gasped suddenly, cradling the back of Nanami’s head as your body suddenly came to a stop. Unable to stammer out a question as to what was coming, Nanami was met with the harsh shock of your cunt getting so tight he couldn’t move any further.

Raking your fingers through his hair, you sobbed openly, words slurring together. Nanami was only able to catch something about a ‘seal’ and how you were making Mother so proud for your first heat cycle on Earth.

“Baby, what’s going on?” Craning his head down, Nanami was just barely able to see the swollen flesh of your sex encompassing his cock.

“Y-you humans would call this a knot, right?” Shifting your hips a little, you slowly unwind your legs from around Nanami and let them lay on the bed. “I have to keep you inside for a while.”

“You’re going to get pregnant though.” With his mind still in disarray, Nanami found that he didn’t actually care. He knew that was why you came to the planet and he was willing to help you fulfill your mission.

“Not this first time, I’m only keeping it for later.”

“Of course an alien has sperm storage.” Mumbling to himself, Nanami felt the aches in his body finally starting to settle in as the rest of the pollen was cleared out of the air and the world around him returned to normal. Laying down as gently as possible, Nanami rolled you onto your side and hooked your leg over him. “How long will we be like this?”

“At least another five minutes.” Snuggling closer to him, you tucked your head under his chin. Taking a deep breath, Nanami felt around for the blanket you used that had managed to stay on the bed during all the moving. Throwing it over the two of you, he let out a sigh.

“I can wait five minutes.” No doubt there was going to be a lot of explaining to do on his part, and he could possibly get fired, but Nanami refused to think about that right now. He was far too tired, and the way you cuddled into him had not an ounce of regret or shame going through him. He would do it all again in a heartbeat.

“Nanami?” You whispered, fighting through sleep.

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

Did you know what love truly was? Did you have the capacity to love him like any other human, or were you thinking of a different emotion that you wanted to convey? Maybe you loved him in a way that he couldn’t understand and never would, or perhaps you were lying to further your agenda.

“I love you too.” Kissing the top of your head, Nanami pushed all other thoughts out of his head that could lead him to a negative outcome. Focusing on the sound of your breathing, he knew you had fallen asleep, and he kissed you again. “Yeah...I love you too.”

[in-tua-deep]

Are you into my hero academia? What about an AU or crossover with tua?

UHHHH I am technically, like, peripherally? I watched some seasons of the show like two or three years ago and since then have simply absorbed all content through osmosis, reading fanfiction that has canon events, and my sister telling me about the arcs of her fav characters lmao

so a crossover hmmm

First of all you'd have to like, establish whether bnha is an alternate universe or just The Future If No Apocalypse with quirks being traced back to the descendants of the kids born without mothers

So let's say it's that - the glowing baby was the "first quirk" but the truth is people had powers before that. But - well, the Umbrella Academy was obviously a marketing gimmick to those in the future! There were even comics based on them

In the future, you might find some of those comics in museum exhibits dedicated to depictions of powers in the pre-quirk era, but they're just fun depictions and much less popular than, oh, DC or MCU comics which are also in the exhibits!

End of s2 doesn't happen I guess in this au?? No sparrow academy at least lmao. So, the Umbrella Academy stop the apocalypse (again) and the Commission threat is? Neutralized? Whatever. They decide to jump back to the future

Five warns them that time travel is a crapshoot, that he has no fucking idea when they'll land beyond some nebulous "future" because Five can at least control the direction if not exactly how long

Also, Five is like. Super tired. Incredibly tired. Homeboy still has a healing gut wound, time traveled twice, has been jumping all over the place, gotten even more injured, experienced paradox psychosis, and managed to undo time all in the space of like, two weeks. There actually more than that but we don't have time to get into how fucking tired Five is from his ~Month of Hell

Like genuinely this is like putting someone almost delirious from lack of sleep in the driver's seat of a car and expecting to get to your destination in one piece

But hey, the siblings are like "do it uwu" and Five has sacrificed everything for them already so why not get behind the wheel again

So Five jumps them, and of course something goes wrong because Five has pushed his powers like a great big rubber band and honestly it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip and it snapped back to hit him

So here be the umbrella academy: spilled out into the future like a cup of bad coffee.

Five probably isn't in too good of shape tbh, like they're hundreds of years in the future (but hey at least confirmation of no apocalypse am I right) in a world full of superpowers and Five is like. bleeding from his ears and nose probably idk

Let's handwave a little bit - Reginald made them all polyglots so the squad all speak varying levels of Japanese. Allison is the best at it, Five is second best but tends to use more archaic words bc he had missions in Japan back when he was with the commission, and Klaus is third best.

(Ben is the worst bc he decided when he was 16-and-dead that he didn't have to do anything regarding lessons and maintenance and hasn't given a shit since - but also he's dead so)

So you have a bunch of weird adults with a bleeding child in like, an alley who have appeared from nowhere

so of course heroes get involved

Anyway, the squad get taken in and Five is conscious but like, barely? And he's not going to let himself get separated from his siblings again fuck-you-officer and there is a lot of confusion

anyway detective tsukauchi ends up getting involved and ends up having to hear this batshit story and be like "...truth." which sends all kinds of people scrambling because fucking time travel? Like yeah, it's been theorized to be a possible quirk but there's no recorded cases of any sort of time travel that is for more than 24 hours let alone hundreds of years

"I'm an adult." Five says sourly, "I just happened to be returned to my 13 year old body when I time traveled one time."

"True." Tsukauchi says, feeling his soul leave his body, but like. absently. the way he does when he's called in at 2am after getting off of work at midnight.

"I'm 58." Five says.

"Lie." Tsukauchi says, because this is a headcanon hill I will die on.

"I'm probably 58, but it was hard to keep track. I'm at least 50." Five corrects.

"True." Tsukauchi sighs like these six (seven? they keep referring to another sibling and Klaus said 'ghost' like that was fine and it registered as true and Tsukauchi is not nearly paid enough for this) are not giving him a migraine by just existing

on the bright side there's like, probably protocols in place for individuals who are Legally Chronologically Adults but thanks to quirks are Not Physically Or Not Mentally Adults with tests to determine if the individual needs a guardian or not

though i'm gonna be honest idk if Five would pass the test bc he literally cannot take care of himself at all, has never paid taxes or understands how to exist legally, and also his emotional maturity is stunted as all hell. also like. we don't actually know how much being in his thirteen-year-old body affects his mental state but yeAH Five is vibing

anyway Tsukauchi probably phones a friend on this bullshit because Time Travel Child alone is probably enough for the Hero Commission to be like "find a way to control and use it or nuke it from orbit" and that's not even touching whatever the fuck Klaus is doing (shit gets real once 'dead men tell no tales' stops being true) let ALONE Allison's whole deal

on the bright side like, at least Vanya isn't getting side-eyed that much bc Big Destructive Quirks aren't exactly unknown? if vanya wanted to i guess quirk suppressors exist for that until extensive training on how to control a super powerful quirk happens

Tsukauchi in the group chat: Aizawa please I am literally begging you to take this bullshit on

Aizawa: in this economy? with my class?

RatGod: lol we'll take them ;3c

Aizawa: no

Anyway they probably end up having to live at UA while Five insists on trying to get them home still and everyone else is like "oh hey we used to be child soldiers as well! (:" and Aizawa is like "i hate everything about this and everything about all of you but also like nedzu is making me interact with you so :/"

nedzu is out here vibing like "lol i just don't want the hero commission to get their little paws on these time traveling fuckers, i think you should make then teaching assistants or something"

honestly the siblings are probably like. figuring out how to function in the bnha universe and getting like, legally registered and stuff while Five ferally refuses bc that's like saying he's giving up on getting them home and he can do this

Recovery girl tries to heal him a little when he arrives and he passes out for two weeks like, immediately bc homeboy is running on fumes and spite at this point

also i think on principle it would be REALLY FUNNY if the squad got to tag along with the class bc like. Five is thirteen and the class are all 15. this does not sound like a large age gap. anyone who has interacted with teenagers know that the class would squint at Five and be like "who is this sassy lost middle schooler."

I feel like when I was a sophomore we were still like "freshman... babie" even though we were literally only one year older.

i think the difference between the umbrella academy and school kids would be pretty funny like. objectively the bnha kids are lowkey child soldiers?? like they're 15 and fighting villains but like, there's all this red tape and laws and stuff but,,, deku still be breaking his limbs in a child fighting ring against equally superpowered children for like. entertainment and sponsorships sooo

but also like Five would be like "oh cool when is the experimentation class"

"the what"

"you know, when your powers are pushed real hard by putting you in different terrible situations while your dad and sibling stand by with clipboards writing down the exact voltage it takes before you can't use your powers anymore when being electrocuted"

"hound dog's office is right there. therapy is available to you at any time. i need you to know this."

all might calls Luther "my boy" like one (1) time and Luther just breaks down crying probably because he is starved for positive attention

klaus and midnight get along like a literal house on fire, aizawa tried his best to keep them apart for as long as possible but god damn

(klaus: your name is shimura nana??

all might: immediately dies choking on blood)

i feel it absolutely necessary to point out that aizawa, present mic, and midnight are all like, 30? and the umbrella academy are all between 29-early 30s? they are PEERS but like. the umbrella academy are more chaotic due to childhood trauma

the umbrella academy probably get offered to like. also train to be heroes. i mean,, there HAS to be some sort of track for people who change careers right?? you don't have to cement your future as a hero when you're 15 i'm sure there must be something and the squad already have experience if they want to go be legal heroes

diego probably does at least?? diego just vibes honestly. diego gets momo to make knives during a team exercise and they just go feral on everyone else and it ends with diego highfiving momo and someone getting way to close to being stabbed for comfort

Five might just be. legally enrolled as an Actual Student? But also i think it's funny to picture the entire squad just. all in the back of the classroom with luther trying to fit into a high school desk as they take notes on the laws of The Future surrounding heroics

every word out of the umbrella academy's mouths just make everyone more concerned on principal but like, five and klaus are probably the worst offenders. Klaus just says whatever comes to mind with no filter and Five doesn't get what people would consider to be abnormal anymore like

Five: yeah our dad bought us when we were babies and experimented on us throughout our childhood in order to make an elite team of child soldiers superheroes, it happens

Todoroki: ...have you heard of quirk marriages?

izuku probably has an aneurism bc he's is the only person who might recognize them from the comics because you know ya boy extensively researched the idea of heroics in pre-quirk eras (batman was an inspiration alright???) and might dredge up a memory of a less popular comic series

Five: I can time travel but it is very hard, which is why we are hundreds of years in the future. And why I look like a child.

Kaminari: so are you a kid or not?

Five, serenely: whatever is most convenient for me at any given moment

Mina: hell yeah game the system

they have a brief lesson on astronomy and Luther raises his hand like "ooh! i was isolated on the moon for four years and did SO MUCH research" and then just gets up and starts infodumping like way too much information on the moon

Izuku sitting there like "damn if quirks hadn't popped up we could have achieved so much in terms of space travel. please tell me more giant man who lived in pre-quirk era."

Vanya finds out about the quirkless and is like "oh mood that genuinely sounds like my childhood, being ordinary in a house full of extraordinary people, and then i found out that i did have powers but only much later in life after i had already been emotionally scarred by the experience"

deku: vanya we have so much in common

iida and uraraka: concerned noises

aizawa: hound dog. therapy with hound dog for all of you.

there's probably some conflict with like, the hero commission wanting to get their hands on the time travelers?? but probably especially five and klaus as a) time travel and b) ghosts (the hc def has bodies they would like to stay buried)

five has a pavlovian reaction to anything with 'commission' in the name and hates them on site, probably plays into his age in order to become a ward of UA or something to protect him from the commission a little bit.

(this makes nedzu Five's legal guardian. aizawa has his resignation papers all prepped in a drawer marked 'in case of emergency' but let's be real, if nedzu wants to take over the world aizawa should probably be on the rat-bear's side of things :/)

five: ah, i do recall the inhumane experimentation that we were subjected to

nedzu, who was experimented on: haha same hat! want me to dig up the location of reginald hargreeves's remains so you can spit on them?

klaus: nah no worries we dumped them out in the courtyard unceremoniously like, a while back. how long ago varies for each of us because of time travel!

luther: you said hound dog's office was down the hall and to the right?

on the bright side, Luther probably feels like. way less self conscious about his body, partially bc of his fighting and all that in the 60s but also bc !! now he genuinely doesn't feel like a freak. no one even gives him a second glance. one of the teachers looks like a slab of cement with a face. gang orca looks Like That. there is literally a student with an entire bird head and goth aesthetic. Luther does not stick out at all

allison and shinso bond over having "villainous" voice-based quirks

allison and shinso having worn muzzles at some point in their youth as punishment 🤝

aizawa probably helps train vanya as well with the whole, being able to erase a world ending quirk safely thing he's got going on which makes for a very nice safety net

i don't think vanya would want to be a hero at the end of things though. maybe the assistant teacher in the music class or something?? all vanya wants is to be able to not end the world

i feel like as time goes by, five brings up trying to get home less and less. part of that is because like,,, genuinely what do they have to go back to?? Allison has Claire, but like. I'm 100% sure the first thing she did in the future was try track down Claire's records and found out Claire was like. fine. became an adult, had a family, probably became the ancestor of the first "quirked" kids who officially popped up after light baby. had a good life, died at an old age etc. etc.

they start settling into the bnha world with like, "we can always hop aboard the five express into where the fuck ever" as a plan Z if things go completely pear shaped (again)

i'mma be real, five himself doesn't give a fuck as long as there is a) no apocalypse and b) his family is alive. Like that's it. His bar is so incredibly low and yet his life keeps fucking trying to limbo under it

i just think it would be funny to have like, Five trying to get along with his "peers" and make friends while the siblings do the same but like, in the staff room

also think it would be funny for five to just walk into the staff room and get coffee occasionally.

a teacher: why is a student in here -

Five, sipping coffee: i'm an adult

nedzu like "what kind of guardian would i be if i didn't teach my new son all the tunnels around ua so he can pop out wherever"

five like "hey new dad can i put stashes of supplies all around ua of weapons, money, food, and other assorted things that might be useful if one needed to fight or make a run for it" and nedzu is like "haha just put your list of what supplies you want in your go bags on my desk and i'll critique it later!"

anyway a bnha/tua crossover would be incredibly chaotic but probably very funny

[moonlightreal]

Fate episode 5

Welcome back to Elemental Academy!  When we left, the three adults had fallen prey to inescapable Plot of being adults in a YA franchise and decided “we must hide the truth and manipulate our students, for their own good.” Words cannot convey how sad this makes me.  The three of them having their moments as competent, experienced residents of a magical world was the neatest thing in this show.  

But first, we just got a backstory bomb courtesy of Beatrix!  Let’s give it a closer look before we dive into episode 5.

So Beatrix’s story is that a peaceful town called Aster Dell was surrounded by Burned Ones and the powers that be decided to nuke the place, sacrificing the humans to take out the Burned Ones.  And that decision was made by our three adults, Miss Dowling, Silva and Harvey, and Rosalind, and Queen Luna.  But Rosalind had an attack of conscience and turned against the others, and managed to save two babies from the town, Bloom and Beatrix.  She left Beatrix with a friend and dumped Bloom in the human world.  The three Alfea adults captured Rosalind and stuck her under the school, and Queen Luna cast an illusion over the ruins of Aster Dell to… erase the event from history in a world where Instagram exists?  How does THAT work?  That was apparently the last stand of the Burned Ones because they all vanished until just now.

It certainly paints our adults in a bad light!  But is it true?  I mean we did hear it from Beatrix!  She not only… is Beatrix… she wasn’t there at the time.  Maybe the Burned Ones had already killed everyone before the town was nuked.  Maybe the adults thought the townsfolk were already dead and nuked the place on bad intel.  Maybe Queen Luna nuked the town and the three teachers were just helping clean up after.  Maybe Luna ordered them to do it, she is QUEEN after all.  Maybe the adults knew that nuking this one town would end the Burned One threat forever and were willing to sacrifice hundreds to save millions.  I mean, there’s not really a GOOD excuse to nuke a town, but there’s better and worse reasons.

Gee, it’d help if we knew what Burned Ones actually were and where they come from!  

...Hang on, how sure are we that Sky’s father is actually dead?  Because he hung out with all these adults and he’s a “he.”  And he’s in a photo therefor there’s an actor to play him.  If he’s the friend who raised Beatrix then B would have grown up knowing only his and Rosalind’s side of the story, not any circumstances that might make the Alfea adults look non-awful.  Then Beatrix wouldn’t even have to be lying.  Of course that raises the question of why Andreas would be raising Beatrix instead of his actual son, a weird parenting choice.  Maybe he just would’ve rather have a daughter!  Sky seems to have turned out all right with Silva as foster-dad.  

So, anybody wanna lay bets?  Is reappearing dead dad more or less likely than a master Burned One hiding in a cave?  (and yes I know most of you have already seen the last episode and are laughing at me trying to guess, and that makes me happy.)

Ok, let’s hit episode 5!

We open at night, some guards stand stoically outside while we torture Beatrix!  She’s shrieking and rolling around with the antimagic cuffs biting into her wrists while Dowling tries to read her mind. Silva expresses worry that they’re hurting the girl and Dowling says, ‘I’m pushing through her mental defenses, it’s painless. This is an act.”  

And it probably is, because Beatrix sits up and starts on, “Nobody will believe you, I have the better story.  Everyone will whisper that you’re torturing poor fragile me.”

Dowling asks questions about where she went with Bloom, why kill Callan, is Bloom in on it with you, do you have anything to do with the Burned Ones… Dowling, you look a little pathetic not knowing all those things!

Beatrix is being creepy as blazes, 10/10 for her actress narrating the rumors that will spread about her own torture.  ‘Her screams echoed through the school… then one day, they stopped.  No one knows what happened to the poor girl, but everyone knows who did it.”  this is marvelously delivered.  I wonder if Beatrix is planning her own death to make it look like Dowling killed her.  How obsessed with her idea of revenge is she?

And Beatrix wins!  Her description drives Dowling from the room and Silva after an uncomfortable look back and forth, follows her out.  The two specialists standing guard continue stoic.  they’re outside the big doors from the last episode, inside is a big cage with a bed and stuff for keeping prisoners in semi-comfort. But the walls are paper thin and apparently this has been going on for a week!  I think B just screamed a lot all week and only now spilled her plans.

Alfea has stone dungeons with thick walls, why aren’t we using one of those?  Or why haven’t the police come take her away to charge her with murder?  Are the Alfea teachers the entire justice system of Solaria?  I think the teachers are going under the table and Beatrix played them.

With a week of torture added, we’re now 3-4 weeks into the school year.

Bloom is outside, hiding behind a car, watching the adults leave the cell. She starts texting when Dane comes up behind her.  He says he knows what she’s doing and Bloom does the most badly-acted little grin when she says she’s not doing anything.  But Dane says he’s on guard duty tomorrow night and he’ll help her get in to talk to Beatrix.

Interesting that it’s Dane and Bloom, not Dane and Riven, or just Riven.  

Opening!

We jump to Bloom and Sky fighting a Burned One in a hedge maze!  But it’s only an illusion training dummy, it turns into one of those big glass gemstones.  

Sky has a little cut on his face and Bloom closes it with magic.  Just cauterizes it I assume, unless she has healing magic and we weren’t told.  Healing is usually under the water or earth element in these sorts of systems.

Bloom: “I just wish they’d tell us how to fight these things.”

Yes, fighting teachers should do that.  Kind of the point of having teachers.  

Everybody else is fighting too!  The fairies seem to have joined the specialists on their mats.  Another girl throws fire, so Bloom’s not the only fire fairy here.  Riven shows off his stick-fighting skill.  Dowling and Silva watch, with Aisha taking notes on a clipboard as Dowling’s new assistant.  Terra shows off her vines grabbing… is that a new adult?  We don’t get a good look but it looks like a man in specialist gear.  Bloom and Sky’s voiceover says, “It’s like they’ve gone full wargames.” and “Well they were soldiers before they were teachers so it’s on-brand for Alfea faculty.”

Harvey arrives in the hedge maze and Sky asks for a hint.  This is the only exercise he and Bloom can’t pass.  

Subtitles (thanks for the suggest, january-summers!) say Harvey’s first name is Ben.  And he’s gonna lay some info on us!  ‘Inside each burned One is a magical core called a cinder, and with time and finesse you can use your magic to destroy it.”  That… seems like a factoid that should’ve been shared in the “all about Burned Ones” lecture that should have happened at the beginning of this martial push?  Just sayin?

He also explains how fairy-and-specialist fighting works.  The fairy must trust her specialist to protect her so that she can “channel controlled magic” without freaking out and lighting the woods on fire when a monster comes at her.  And he must trust her to destroy the thing.  Ok, that makes sense.  That works.  So is it normal for fairies and specialists to team up in pairs?  Is that what they do in the army too?  Were Dowling and Silva one such pair?  Maybe Harvey and his unseen wife were and she’s unseen because she died in the war.  Now I’m imagining Mrs. Harvey was a badass specialist.

Bloom flirtatiously asks if she can trust Sky and he more sensibly asks if he can trust her.  He thinks Bloom was being awfully teachers-pet to Harvey.  Bloom says since the outing with Beatrix everyone’s been watching her like a hawk, wondering if she’s Beatrix’s evil henchwoman.  They joke about Bond villains and Sky has seen several James Bonds.  Then they go back for another try against the illusory Burned One.

But they are being watched!  In fact Bloom is being watched by Sky, who gets a very meaningful look from Silva as he goes past.  Dowling eyeballs Bloom, who smiles innocently back.  The teachers are walking with Aisha and Musa, And Musa is reading Bloom and Sky to see if they’re tired yet.  She does say “I know they know I’m doing it, but it still feels invasive.”  Musa would rather use magic on a real enemy!  But Dowling says mind reading is support magic and that’s just as important.  ‘Your magic can help us assess fragile states of mind or uncover hidden enemies.’

Aisha asks, ‘like Beatrix?” and Musa asks how B is doing and if they found out why she killed Callan.  But Dowling just says, ‘let’s keep focused.” which, I can see why she’s not telling them everything but she is playing right into Beatrix’s hands.

Terra’s getting a drink of water on break between sparring.  A girl specialist with a great hairdo, buns up the back of her head, compliments Terra on her vine restraint move.  Terra says, ‘thanks, it’s all bout the tensile strength of the cellulose.”

Riven comes and sits down by Terra and says, “Tensile strength.  Hot.” Terra, not sure what to make of that either but knowing Riven, pointedly ignores him.  But Riven is having one of his likeable moments and says, ‘She’s right you know.  you’re a force out there.”

Wanna comment on two things.  First, Freddy Thorpe who plays Riven is great.  He keeps making me want to like his objectively awful character.  And he’s a fine lookin’ dude, the grin, the scruffy stubble… I hope he goes far as an actor.  And second, the leather sword vests the specialists wear are really neat.  Swords attach to the back somehow, Riven’s got a couple of potion bottles in pockets—which I hope they’re plastic and empty, glass bottles and fighting do not mix!  And I’m not sure if it’s a vest or a vest and shoulder scabbard and separate belt.  But all the specialists have them, and we know this show doesn’t spend much on props… I wonder if I can find the source?  

Not immediately, it turns out.  Anybody better with renfaire gear know where to get these things?  Or what they’re called?

Polite Terra says, “You too.”  but Riven wasn’t.  He was garbage at fighting.  Terra kindly says, ‘It’s been a weird week.” and “I know you and Beatrix were… close, so it must be really hard.” Terra is sweet.  You can see her kinds thinking it would be kind to say those things even though she’s not keen on Riven.

Dane walks by and says, “Sweet moves Riv, I’ve never seen anybody die so many ways so quickly.  You should go for Alfea’s Got Talent.” heh.

Riven says that was a burn from ‘the first-year monster I created.  Or Beatrix created.”  he says Dane still has a thing for Beatrix… ok HE says “A hard-on for her.  A weird, gay hard-on.  Is he even gay? I don’t know anything anymore.”  and I chuckled because Riven is so delightful when he’s not being a terrible person.  Terra just sits there with that Terra expression like she doesn’t know what to say to that, and now she’s probably worried that by dumping Dane last episode she drove him to the dark side.

Indoors, Sky catches Silva and calls him out on pairing them together so he can spy on Bloom.  Silva says since they’re both strong in their roles nobody questioned it.  But Sky is not feeling great about the whole situation.  The more he talks to Bloom the more convinced he is of her basic innocence, and-- “Stella’s gone, Riven’s a mess, and the person I’m spending the most time with I’m spying on.”

Silva gives him a pep talk, that this matters and it may be lonely but it’s to keep the Otherworld safe.  And this is honor.  Sky hesitates, sighs, then nods and keeps walking.

Silva is drawn back into his memories!  First of being grievously injured and falling down, then I think to another earlier memory recovering after a fight in the forest side by side with Sky’s father.  Who has a serious beard!  Andreas gently mocks his friend for not being tough enough and says Sky might be more useful.  Sky who’s presumable a little kid at the time.  Younger Silva calls him on it, asking when he last even saw his son.  Andreas turns away.

The gang’s all here in flashback, Younger Dowling looks on while Harvey’s dissecting the dead Burned One saying ‘we still have a lot to learn about them.”  Andreas spits on it and Harvey says, ‘Or we could contaminate it.  Ok!”  Heh.  And here comes Rosalind congratulating the four of them on taking it down in under three minutes but saying next time they should shoot for under two.

Back in the present the adults are watching video of the students sparring on a tablet in Dowling’s office.  Dowling is unhappy none of them took down an illusion Burned One, most of them just gave up!  Silva says that’s why they’re in training, they’re not ready yet.

Do these three know about the Burned One Aisha pinned to a tree?  The girls plus Sky have taken out two so far, which isn’t a lot but is more than zero.

Badass Marco comes in and he’s in trouble!  He and his partner whose name turns out to be Noura took out a Burned One near the school—but it wasn’t alone!  Now Marco has been poisoned!  Harvey rushes for the medicine.  Marco says “we were taught that Burned Ones are solitary hunters, but two of them traveling together..?”

Dowling says, ‘It’s rare but it happens.” and I don’t know if that’s true or she’s just saying it to look like she’s on top of the situation.

Silva says they should warn “the Solarians” and Marco says he tried, they’re not answering!  And they pulled their troops from the battalion. Dowling says Queen Luna has been “distant” since she pulled Stella out of school.  Marco says they’re low on manpower and “if the Solarians abandon us we’re in serious trouble.”

But isn’t Alfea IN Solaria?  It was on the globe.  They have separate armies?  Maybe the Solarian army is their actual army and the specialist/fairy pairs trained at Alfea are a separate thing?  Maybe Alfea trains elite magical troubleshooters and the Solarian army is made up of trained mundanes?  But wouldn’t the government of the country want to be in control of all armies in that country so there’s no extra armies rattling around getting into trouble?  And Dowling is Luna’s subject so... How does this WORK, show?

Be nice to know what the ratio of magic users to mundanes in the Otherworld is, too.

Over in the girls’ suite, Aisha pensively braids her hair and Terra happily moves her plants around.  The lights are on and there’s sunlight coming through the curtains but the room is still dark, reminding us we’re supposed to be in a grimdark show.  9_9  Batman could’ve just paid his electric bill, then he wouldn’t have to be the DARK knight… sorry, sorry, I actually like grimdark I just have no patience for literally dark when it makes no sense.

Musa gets texts from  Sam.  Musa and Terra have a cute chat about how Musa’s dating Sam.  terra’s happy about it.  Terra is also moving her hundred plants into Stella’s empty room so it “won’t feel so ghostly in there.”

Terra: “and it’s been a week.  We have to accept she’s not coming back.  No matter how much we wonder how she’s doing, call or text...” and she lists every EARTH social media platform she’s checked Stella on.  Musa asks if she misses Stella and Terra immediately says, “No! She was mean and insulting and left without saying goodbye, which was actually the meanest thing...”  Musa asks if her insults would be a good substitute.  Heh.

Terra made her outfit!  She fishes for a Stellaish insult from Musa by mentioning that.  Wow, Terra, you get cooler every time!  Sewing is hard!  I have trouble with just doll clothes!

A pot falls and breaks in Stella’s empty room.  An omen!

Bloom is watching her phone like a hawk as she pretends to study.  Aisha comes in to offer the, “I know you feel like you can’t trust Dowling, but you can talk to me.  I wouldn’t tell.” but Bloom gets a text that Dane is starting his shift and hops up to go do her own investigation.  On the way out Bloom gets a call from her folks. She doesn’t answer.

Aisha goes to the others, “We need to talk about Bloom.  She’s been single-minded about her birth parents and Rosalind for weeks.  And now it seems like she doesn’t care at all.  Are we meant to believe she’s just over it?  I know she’s keeping something from us.” And the girls put the pieces together!  She was texting Dane, Terra heard that “Dane is still team Beatruix”  

And Dane has knocked out his fellow guard with a sedative!  Boy is that a bad idea!  Bloom gapes.  Dane says, “She’s waiting.” in the most doomful way.

And there’s B sitting on her bed in her dark room, fiddling with the magic cuffs.  they’re like barbed wire and are messing up her wrists.  She greets Bloom with, “Took your sweet time!”  Bloom immediately wants to know if the murder thing is true, and B cops to it.  Callan was also there to break Rosalind out, which we knew and now Bloom does.  B says, ‘bit more complicated than evil beatrix kills hapless assistant.”

Bloom: “Dowling, Silva and Harvey haven’t told me the truth about a lot of things but that doesn’t mean you have.”  Yay Bloom! Skepticism!  But Bloom is determined to find out what really happened and Beatrix knows where Rosalind is.  But only if Bloom gets her out of the cage.  Beatrix says Bloom shouldn’t trust her, the faculty, her friends, anybody but Rosalind.

That’s interestingly hero-worshipy of B.  She’s never MET Rosalind, how does she know Rosalind is a good guy?  Or, y’know, whatever Beatrix thinks of as a good guy.

And Bloom’s along for the ride.  Dane gives her a magic thingamabo she can charge up that’ll get the cuffs off Beatrix and then they can go to town.  On the way out Bloom asks Dane why he’s helping her. Even if they were friends, hello, murder!  Dane says, “She’s the only person here who ever made me feel like being different was a good thing.”  And Bloom says she’s helping because “Beatrix is the only one who’s giving me answers.”

Because the adults are caught in Plot!  And we can see where this Plot is going.  Bloom releases Rosalind, who turns out to be master of the Burned Ones and they attack Alfea.  Great job, teachers, what a dumb Plot you are caught in!

What Dane gave Bloom was another big leatherbound book called Ancient Geometry.  Not usually an evil art, but she hides the book in her bag the next morning.  It looks like she’s awake before Aisha but when she leaves Aisha’s eyes immediately open.  She was pretending to be asleep to spy on Bloom!

More outdoor specialist training.  they’ve got some gear, Riven’s doing that arm exercise where you wave two hoses up and down.  Musa picks up a staff and twirls it expertly.  Riven comes over to flirt. Musa says she used to be a dancer, that’s where she got the moves. And she misses being physical.  Riven I think is venting about something else when he says, “Well too bad.  You’re a fairy, they don’t care what you wanna be in this place only what they want you to be.”  Musa reads his mind and gets all of Riven’s hate for Alfea.  Which, yeah, they locked his girl in a cage.

Also is it even true?  Are fairies not allowed to study martial arts? Martial arts is great for emotional control and confidence which would be great for magical control.  I mean it certainly could be that Alfea forces people into roles, but I haven’t seen evidence.

Then Sam comes by and he and Musa head back to the suite where she jumps on him for a makeout session!  Sam puts the brakes on asking if Musa’s upset about something and yeah, she’s angry that mind fairies are support type, they’re “powerless when things actually go wrong.’

Which… true, since Musa can only receive.  She might be able to know the location of every enemy and ally making her super valuable in battle, but if she could project emotion just for a second, jolt an opponent mid attack… but she can’t.  I see her point.

But we get a character building hint!  “A long time ago, family stuff...”  And that’s all.  She says it’s nothing, that she’s just frustrated, and suggests Sam take advantage of that frustration. Which he is happy to do!  Musa shoves him down on the bed, hops on top and takes her shirt off!  Behind this increasingly steamy scene we see one of Terra’s potted plants revolve… then it crashes to the ground, breaking the pot and the mood.  Sam yelps in surprise.

Sam: “Please don’t judge me on my completely legitimate and masculine fear of ghosts which are legitimately creepy...”  Hah!  I like you, Sam.

So… do ghosts actually exist in the Otherworld or are they just seen a lot but not proven same as in ours?

But the moment is gone and Musa says she should find the girls.  She puts her shirt back on and Sam leaves, both of them happily looking forward to their next chance at sexytimes.

Alone and with her shirt back on, Musa scans the room and detects another person!  

Stella appears!  

Stella’s here!  She snuck back a few days ago, and has been hiding invisibly in her room!  

But before we can hear the details we go to Bloom at the stone circle. She’s got the geometry book and a round metal doohicky that she has to charge up to free Beatrix.  She puts it down and channels magic into it, lighting up some jewels on it.  I can’t immediately identify this thing, it’s too big to be jewelry, palm-sized.  

Sky turns up and Bloom tries to hide the book.  Sky can tell she’s doing it, and he’s tired of all the sneaking.  So he comes out and says that Silva has him spying on Bloom—and that he knows Bloom’s not up to anything.  But it was an order.  Bloom is naturally pretty pissed off!  She says quite sensibly, ‘He used you, used our friendship—but I’m the bad guy right?”

I wonder how much of this is because Bloom’s from Earth.  If she’d grown up in the Otherworld would she be less surprised at specialists following orders?  Would she have heard of the adults’ great deeds in the war and been more inclined to trust them?

Anyway Bloom goes to hide the book again and Sky grabs it.  He asks what the magic thingamabob is and Bloom looks away super-guilty.  Sky: “I’m trying to be on your side here but you’re making it really difficult.”

Which is just how I feel about this show quite often!

Sky says Bloom can trust him, Bloom says she’s not sure she can and starts to tell him about Aster Dell.  

Back in Stella’s room poor Stella is telling Musa about her mother.

And her mother, in hologram form, is in Dowling’s office while Dowling asks why she withdrew her troops, when two Burned Ones have been seen together which hasn’t happened in a long time.  The show cuts back and forth between the two scenes.

...Stella says the army’s all out looking for HER!  That’s why.  But Luna won’t look at Alfea, ‘To do that she’ll have to admit she lost control of something, and that’ll never happen.”

Luna: But you’re training the students to fight.  isn’t that supposed to be what you’re teaching my daughter?”

Stella: ‘Project strength and power.  that’s all she cares about.  And I’m an extension of her strength”

Dowling: ‘Is this some sort of punishment?  For not rehabilitating Stella in the way you wanted?”

Stella: “My magic has to be powerful at any cost.  that’s what she taught me”

Luna pooh-poohs the idea that it’s punishment, “but you might consider updating your methods.  Given the threats we face.”

...Evil queen wants to turn Alfea to the ways of the Sith?  THAT’S the plot we’re going for here?  Ok, solid plot, I guess.  Could be worse. But Luna is a bargain basement evil queen if ever I saw one, she wears suits! And too much foundation!  Where’s the spiky crown and overabundance of eyeshadow?  Maybe they were going for an Umbridge kinda character.

Stella: ‘My mum treated me growing up… when positive emotions didn’t work she went right to the negative.  Hard.”

Dowling: “My methods are effective.  And they don’t cause students to lose control and blind their friends!”

Stella: ‘My magic is erratic because of her.”  And Luna disappears and we get to hear the rest of Stella’s story.  Blinding Ricki was an accident, as we could guess, but Stella would rather be seen as a “raging bitch” than weak.  It was safer with her mom.  Stella does know how messed up this is, and when she got home her mom immediately started abusing her again.  No mention of stella having a dad, but Queen Luna’s clearly the ruling party.

Musa says Stella doesn’t have to hide, all the girls will help her. Stella says, ”Are you kidding?  Do you know how judgmental; they are?”

I think the mind reader would know better than you, Stella!  So there’s Stella’s sad story.  And we don’t have to go to the palace of Solaria to rescue her like I was hoping we would.

From that heavy scene we jump to the cafeteria, where bad-boy music plays as Dane gets his lunch.  he’s smoking a cigarette!  And Terra is literally hiding behind a pillar in her homemade dress waiting for him.  He lights up and Terra pounces!

They talk, Dane says rather sensibly, ‘I do one bad thing and you cut me off” and “Beatrix never made me feel this bad.’ and Terra says also sensibly, ‘but murder.” and Dane tries to flee and Terra vine-grabs his ankle and Dane takes a pull on his cigarette and Aisha water-guns it out and the two of them interrogate him on what he’s up to with Bloom.  Dane has no chance.

Over to Bloom and Sky.  Bloom must’ve finished her story since Sky is telling his while Bloom charges the thingy.  He’s lived at Alfea his entire life, with Silva as his foster father.  Bloom brings up some of the things I thought of, that Silva might be part of a massacre if he believed it was for the greater good.  Bloom doesn’t think the adults are evil but she thinks they’re hiding the truth to protect themselves, too.  Bloom says at least Sky grew up hearing stories of his parents from people who knew them.

It looks cold and Sky offers Bloom his jacket.  And Sky is wearing a bright blue shirt and darker blue jacket, almost like a Red Fountain uniform.  I wonder if that’s a holdover from a stage when this was going to be a Winx show.  But Bloom just summons fire in all the braziers to keep warm.

Sky says, ‘Don’t need anyone do you?” and bloom says he’s “a fixer” and she doesn’t need to be fixed.  Sky talks about his father the “great Andreas” the war hero who he’s heard so many stories about, “It’s almost like he’s still alive.  But he’s not.  he’s an ideal.  Do you have any idea how hard that is to live up to?  Even Silva, it’s like he’s playing some role out of a sense of duty.  When all I really want..” poor Sky.  He says he’s a fixer because he’s broken and everyone is.

Anyway it ends with them kissing.

Then the magic thingy is charged.  Bloom says she does trust Sky, but if she told him he’d stop her.

Then Sky faints!

Bloom doped him with the sedative!  It was in her water bottle that she shared with Sky.  Wow, Bloom, dosing your own water bottle just in case you meet someone?  That is impressively scary thinking ahead!

Bloom is clearly really guilty, but she still leaves Sky facedown on the ground in the circle!  Hope no Burned Ones come along while he’s all passed out!

We go to the greenhouse where Harvey is doctoring Badass Marco who took a hit from a Burned One.  Silva is hanging around and Marco, between grunts of pain, asks if he’s handling the pain better than Silva did.  Harvey says the first Burned One poisoning is always the worst, it’s almost a rite of passage-- which suggests lots of people survive such injuries which is not the vibe we were getting a few episodes ago!

Marco asks about Andreas’ son helping take down the Burned One and if he inherited any of Andreas’ “less ideal qualities?  His bloodlust?”

Ok, I’m callin’ it, dead surprisingly evil dad it is!

Silva just says Sky is his own man.

Marco is hurt but he’s not worried.  He’ll survive weeks or months with the medicine, plenty of time for Noura and the battalion to get the Burned One.  There’s Noura on the phone now!  But… oh no!  Noura is grievously injured and everyone else is dead!  She’s out in the woods hurt and surrounded by lots of Burned Ones!  We see on video call as poor Noura tries to run, goes down, and is taken out.  Her phone lies on the ground sending a video of the trees—and fully half a dozen Burned Ones run past it!

Too bad.  I expected Noura and Marco were for the chop, just because in these sorts of stories the trained adults have to be gotten out of the way so the teenage heroines can shine.  But they were the interesting characters!  They were professionals in a magical world.  I wanted to learn more about them.

Bloom, like an amateur, heads to break Beatrix out but Dane isn’t there. Terra and Aisha are.  Bloom sounds positively paranoid as she says, ‘Everyone here is lying to me!  You don’t know what I know!” but they do, Dane spilled all the beans. Terra sounds about to cry as she says her dad would never do something like that.  Bloom sounds super paranoid as she says to herself, ‘You’re his daughter and you’re Dowling’s little helper, I’m not gonna convince either of you, just like Sky.”

Aisha pushes back; she’s been spying on Dowling!  For Bloom!  And all she’s seen is how hard Dowling’s been trying to keep everyone safe.

Bloom says they lied about Rosalind being alive, lied about a war crime, “i get that you guys want to believe in them but they’re destructive maybe dangerous!”

Terra: “Bloom, listen to yourself, you literally sound like a crazy person.”

Aisha says they haven’t told the adults yet, but if Bloom tries to bust Beatrix out they will.

Bloom faces them like a cornered animal.  Her eyes flame up.  Terra and Aisha back away and Terra almost sobs, ‘We’re your friends, Bloom!”

Bloom stops and thinks.  Friendship music plays.  She gets the magic thingy out of her bag and gives it to Aisha.  But when Aisha starts, ‘I know how hard...” Bloom says, “You don’t.  None of you do.”

...why am I thinking about Higurashi right now?  Maybe because everyone’s spying, nobody’s reaching out to their friends for help… y’all gonna get the bad ending!  Hmmf.  I prefer Oyashiro-sama’s curse over the YA Plot curse we’re laboring under.  Characters I liked already died and as a father figure type Silva is likely next to meet a sticky end.  I’m ANNOYED with this show right now.

And back in the suite Stella is saying she “can’t believe everyone’s listening to Aisha like she knows anything” and that the suite has gone to shit without her.  And Stella’s been pushing plants over whenever she gets annoyed since she doesn’t want to appear.  “I have opinions.  If I can’t express them verbally, I’m not above poltergeisting.”  just like Riven, Stella makes me absolutely hate her one second and then says a line that makes me smile.  I dunno what to do with these two.  Marvelous actors both of them, for playing such two-ways-at-once characters and making it work!

Then Stella gets invisible again and Aisha and Terra come in.  They stopped Bloom but they think she’s losing her marbles.  Which, yep, seems so.  Aisha thinks they kinda need to tell Dowling, even though they said they wouldn’t.  A pot wobbles.  Musa decides to shut that down real quick and just tells the others Stella’s here, so as not to have to clean up any more broken pots!  Heh!

Stella appears.

Stella’s opinion: “Everyone in this suite is so damn black and white.  Bloom is a pain in the ass but she deserves to know who she is, not the stories the faculty is telling her.  We can worry about being right or we can help our friend.  Which is it?”

Friend since when, Stella?  Also, maybe protect your friend from being instrumental in the downfall of the school?

Dowling in her dark office.  She gets a text from Silva: five or six Burned Ones.  “Suit up, we’re going hunting.”

Sad music plays.  Dowling opens up a chest and reveals, I think, the olive colored costume her younger self wore in the flashback.

And in my head an alternate Dowling smiles as her heart picks up speed at the thought of getting back in the saddle.  The opposite of what we see on screen.

Then Bloom storms in, breaking this tragic headmistress moment.  Having lost the magic thingy, bloom goes for the direct approach and demands to see Rosalind.  Poor Dowling doesn’t have time for this, she’s got a Burned One hunt!  But Bloom busts out, “I’m from Aster Dell!  that’s where I was born, that’s where my birth parents lived, until you all destroyed it.”

Good direct approach, Bloom!  Except you only know that from #1 untrustworthy source Beatrix, remember!

Dowling, shocked and horrified, turns away.  It’s true.  But, “You think we did it on purpose?”

Bloom: ‘That’s what Beatrix said.  That Rosalind had a crisis of conscience and you did it anyways.”

Dowling: “Rosalind!  Still manipulating people after all these years.”  

Flashback to the five of them!  Rosalind was the most powerful fairy at Alfea, and Dowling’s mentor.  Feared but respected, never questioned.

We’re up on the high plains, I think the same place we saw Silva being grievously wounded in a flashback before.  Dowling, rosalind and Harvey are up on a high knoll above Aster Dell, too far away to get a good look at what’s happening in the town.

Rosalind taught them to combine their magic, something nobody had known was possible.  They call down lightning and yeah, basically nuke the town.  But!  Rosalind said she made sure the humans were evacuated and only Burned Ones were in there!  They didn’t question their commanding officer, and they didn’t know until they walked into town and saw the bodies.  Past dowling puts her hand to her mouth in horror.

Present Dowling has tears in her eyes.  ‘if Aster Dell is where you’re from… there are no words I can say to make right the damage I’ve caused you.”

But Bloom shakes her head slightly.  “Why would she do that?”

Dowling thinks it’s because Rosalind was a zealot who “Wanted every Burned One dead no matter the cost” and who lied because she knew her team wouldn’t have gone along with it if they knew there were civilians in the town.

Bloom demands, ‘What about me?  Why did she put me in the human world?” But Dowling doesn’t know.  Bloom again demands to see Rosalind, getting up in Dowling’s face.  I feel like Bloom is somewhat enjoying this revenge, being able to back Dowling into a corner and shut her up.

Dowling grabs Bloom’s shoulders and says, “Whatever she has to give you is not worth unleashing her into the world again.” and the thing I wish she’d said a few episodes ago, “I’ll help you get the answers you need.  You have my word.”

...and Bloom believed her and they all worked together and got the good ending!

But bad-ending music plays and Silva comes to get Dowling to come take down the Burned Ones and the look on Bloom’s face is definitely a gonna-get-the-bad-ending look.

In her cage Beatrix whimpers and cries out in pain as she tries to get the cuffs off her wrists.

In the stone circle Sky wakes up from his drugged slumber.

In gorgeous Ireland Bloom sits on a bench pondering her next choices. Musa and Terra come up and give her the magic key.  They don’t want to be more people who are hiding things from Bloom.  Aisha can’t quite get on board with breaking a murderer out, but Musa and Terra are up for it!  And so is Stella, who appears beside the bench. Smiles all round.  I love the bonding, but wish they could maybe be teaming up for something that’s not so obviously a bad idea.  Just because y’all the main characters who won’t die doesn’t mean OTHER characters can’t die!

The real Stella never learned invisibility because why should she want to hide her awesome clothes?  But for this Stella, it’s a pretty handy trick!

The adults are packing their gear for war into the black SUVs and heading out.  The sun is low so it must be evening.  It occurs to me though—I’ve been in England in May, many Mays ago, and it stays light until like nine at night because the UK is super-North.  Maybe the difference in day length is why I keep getting tripped up about what time it is.  

Sky has staggered back into the school where Riven finds him.  Sky is relieved to learn that Beatrix is still locked up, but they have bigger fish to fry.  Looks like the specialists are joining the hunt!

Bloom brings Beatrix the magic key and Beatrix frees herself!

It is definitely-night and definitely cold at the barrier where the three adults with half a dozen other soldiers stand just inside the barrier.  Dowling uses her magic to amplify the sounds of the forest—that’d be air fairy stuff, so Dowling is mind and air at least.  I wonder how usual it is for fairies to learn more than one element.

Sky and the specialists arrive, late, to the sound of snarling Burned Ones.  Aisha’s here too.  Silva says this is no time for extra credit, but Aisha isn’t looking for extra credit, ‘I’m here because you need to know what’s happening.”

In Dowling’s office Beatrix is planning to toss Dane through the trap just like she did with Callan!  

Then Stella appears behind her and shoves HER through!  Ha ha ha!  Beatrix goes down, lips blue, breathing out frost.  It must just be a freezing trap, nonlethal.  Not that I would mind terribly if Beatrix weren’t in season 2; she has some charming moments and Sadie is a top class evil actress, but let’s ditch the slutty villainess trope maybe?

Stella: “Break out the villain to get what Bloom wants, then trap her again.  Simple.  My ideas rock.”

The girls go down the tunnel.  Stella holds a ball of rainbow light above her hand.  

Terra’s feeling troubled about what they’re doing.  she’s always trusted her dad to lead her right, but ‘I don’t know if he’d lead me down here.”

Stella: “Even the best parents are doing what they think is best for us. At some point we have to take over for ourselves.”  Truth, Stella. I’m just questioning if this is the right point or not.  Then Stella plucks a bit of light from her light and sends it to float by Terra.  ‘By the way, that outfit...’   She smiles and Terra smiles back.

Then we jump to Bloom, having a destiny-ridden moment.  “Everything I’ve been looking for is right through that door.”

No Bloom, Rosalind is through that door and how do you know she’s going to tell you any more truth than anybody else?  But through the door she goes.

And there’s the glowy barrier with Rosalind inside.  She opens her eyes and uses mind magic to say, “Hello, Bloom.”

...y’all gonna get the bad ending.

[lunasxsol]

Love Like This

Bill Skarsgård x Reader

Word Count: 2194

Warnings: Abortion

(A/N: If you do not believe a woman should have a choice on her body then you can fuck off thank you vm. On another note I hope you enjoy this angsty fic. I just had this idea lingering in my mind so it’s here now..)

As I sat in the waiting room dreading my name being called, I looked at the other women that look terrified to go into one of the rooms. Some of them came alone as myself and others came with their significant others or friends. A nurse had brought over a clipboard with some paper I had to sign. I was so nervous I couldn't keep my hands from shaking, I felt like I was going to pass out. Someone took my hand in theirs, I look up to see my best friend Maia. She took me in her arms as I silently cried.

"It's okay, I'm here."

"I thought I was gonna have to go through this alone."

She shook her head taking the clipboard from me, "I would never let you do this alone. Now you sit and calm down and I'll fill this for you okay?" I nodded taking a drink from my water.

Once she finished filling out the forms she handed them back to the nurse and we waited to be called over.

"Y/n L/n"

I got up quickly as did Maia, "You'll be alright, I'll wait here." She gave me a hug and a quick kiss on the head."

"Alright hun lets get you prepped." The nurse said as she took me to one of the operating rooms.

After 15 mins the procedure was finally done, they took me to the recovery room where Maia sat on the couch waiting for me. The nurse, Stella, handed me a cup of water and some pain meds before she went back to her office.

"You okay?" I nodded laying on the bed, Maia took my hand in hers. "He called." I stayed quiet not carrying what he had to say. "He called me too, I didn't pick up."

"Maia, I don't care anymore. I needed him here more than anything and he left me." My eyes started watering once again. "We'd been together for two years and he couldn't respect my one difficult decision. He can go to hell for all I care."

We stayed quiet for a while until the doctor came back and discharged me. Maia took drove us home, I thanked her for being there for me, "I'm going to sleep early today, goodnight Maia." She nodded.

I went into my room shutting the door quickly, taking a seat on my bed and letting myself cry. Maybe if we had gone through this conversation differently then maybe he would've respected my decision.

[Flashback]

I looked at the pregnancy test that read PREGNANT in its bold letters. What the hell was I gonna do? I'm only 19, I'm still enrolled in the uni. I have so much ahead of me. I can't put it aside, I've worked too hard for it.

"Hey babe!" Bill spoke as he walked into my room. "So my parents are having a celebratory dinner for Alexander- hey what's wrong?" He turned me around and I handed him the test. "Hey its alright, we'll figure this out."

I shook my head, "I'm not ready."

He pulled me into a hug sighing, "Neither am I but we can do this. You have me.. till the end."

"No you don't understand.. I'm not ready, I can't have a baby right now, Bill."

"So what you're going to give it up?" I nodded. "You're kidding right?"

"Bill, we aren't ready. Do you not get it?" I threw the pregancy test in the trash brushing past him and taking a seat on my bed. "Your body isn't going to go through the entire change. I am not you. You get to walk around and continue to do your shit while I go to class carrying the child and getting called a whore for opening my legs at a young age. So yes I am going to give it up because I'm too fucking young to have a child."

"Fuck them, you shouldn't give a fuck of what other people say about you. God knows I don't so neither should you."

I chuckled, "My parents sacrificed so much so they can send me here to study at the uni of my choice, I'm not messing it up because of our fuck up."

"So what our child is a fuck up now?" He was red with anger.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way but if you loved me you would respect my decision."

"I love you (Y/n but I'm sorry, I don't agree with it. So whatever you're thinking of doing to our 'fuck up' you can do it alone." He left slamming the door loudly leaving me completely alone.

[End of flashback]

I sat up turning the tv on to have some sort of background noise. There was a knock at my door I groaned not wanting to see Maia or anyone at the moment. "Maia I'm okay, I just want to sleep."

The door was opened and a tall figure had walked in.

"Hey."

"Get out."

"I'm sorry."

"Get the fuck out." He didn't listen and instead kept coming closer. "Bill seriously get the fuck out."

"I need to talk to you."

I chuckled, "Well if it's to try and change my mind you can kindly fuck off cause the procedures done and so are we."

"I know it's done and I should've been there." I finally looked up at him his eyes sunken and red. "I'm sorry, I should have respected your decision because it's your body. I was just happy that we were gonna have a baby. I thought you wanted one."

"I did, I do, just not now. Not till I was settled." He nodded both our eyes brimming with tears. "Bill I need a break, a really long break. You fucked up and I-I don't know anymore. Look I'm 19 you're 26, I don't want kids till I'm like 30 or maybe never I don't know. And well with the way you reacted it's evident you want kids now. I knew this relationship wasn't gonna last."

"Hey, hey, I do want kids but I can wait. Just don't-don't leave, please." He took my hand in his but I quickly moved it away.

I sighed now full on crying, "I'm sorry Bill but this isn't gonna work out. You can find someone your age that you can settle down with now. I still have years before I'll even remotely be sure if I want kids. By then you'll be in your mid 30s, which is besides the point but what if I don't want kids what will you do then?" He shrugged his shoulders crying silently. "I love you Bill but we can't be together anymore."

He got up pressing a lingering kiss on my forehead, "I'm sorry."

***

3 years later

Today was finally moving day. I had finished my studies in New York and I was moving back down to LA. My parents were a bit against it since we had lived there years ago but they hated it there but I loved it. I was moving down by the beach areas. Maia was staying here with her fiancé.

"Well Ms. those are the last of your boxes." I handed the movers a decent tip and they went on their way.

I turned to Maia as she was already getting emotional, "Hey no crying, it's bad for the baby."

She chuckled pulling me in for a tight hug, "Hey me and Rosalie are gonna miss you."

I pulled away immediately in shock, "it's a girl?" She nodded causing me to shriek in excitement. Tyler came into the room and I jumped on him. "Congrats!"

"We were actually wondering if you would like to organize the baby shower for us." Tyler spoke.

"Yes of course!"

"We wanted to do it in 4 months. Closer to her due date."

"Once I get everything situated in LA I'll get things prepped and fly back here to organize everything!"

There was a honk outside of our house.

"Well guys I will see you in 4 months!" I hugged them both goodbye and grabbed my suitcase getting into the taxi.

***

2 weeks later

I was finally getting the finishing touches to my new house down. I still had a bit of work left but everything was mostly good to go. Now I currently sat in my living room going through a couple of designs for tomorrow's meeting. With the help of one of my close celebrity friends he got me a job with Leah Valderia a famous singer from London. She wanted help with her house and of course I said yes. This could be a great opportunity for my interior design career.

It was getting late and I decided to call it a night. I would show her the designs I had and maybe go shopping with her for some of the things.

The next morning I made sure to wake up early. I took a quick shower to calm my nerves. For my outfit I decided on a corduroy skirt that was a creamy chocolate color and a black turtle neck that fit perfectly. I also went with a dark grey oversized blazer that was just an inch longer than my skirt, for shoes I went with some heeled ankle boots. I did some light makeup and left my hair in its regular straight style. I added just some thin gold necklaces just to bring the whole outfit together. I looked at the time and grabbed my purse and work folders quickly heading out of my house. Before leaving the lot I sent a quick text to Leah letting her know I was on my way.

The traffic to her mansion was horrible to say the least. Luckily I made it on time, I parked my car on the curb and jogged to her door. "Great you're here, please come in!"

Looking around I could definitely see some potential for this beautiful home, "So Y/n I'm so excited you're here. I'm hoping you can bring my vision to life!" We took a seat in her office and she opened her laptop sliding it towards me. She had quite the vision. "I will sure try."

We were in her office for two hours, let's just say she is completely indecisive about what she wants to do with this place. So beautiful and so much potential only her vision was nothing like mine. "So we can definitely do what you want to do and we can also add some color maybe open up these curtains here as well just to get some light and more open space."

"Great! Let me show you the nursery so you can kind of get an idea of what we can with it. This baby will be here in 3 months need to have it done before anything else."

"What are you having?"

"A girl! I'm so excited, I hope one day you get to experience how beautiful it is to carry a life."

I smiled not really knowing what to say I just nodded, "Hey honey, I'm home, brought the- Y/n?"

"Bill?"

"You guys know each other?"

"We-"

"I-"

"We dated years ago."

"Oh?" Leah looked down. "Is she?" Bill only nodded.

"I'm sorry, I'm gonna go. I can send you an email of other designers if-"

Leah shook her head, "No I love your work, that's why I called in for you. This thing you and Bill had is in the past so I would still like to work with you if that's alright."

I nodded, "Well I'll email you some of the ideas I have then we can get started immediately. I'll be back in a week?"

"Perfect."

"Well I'll see you Leah, beautiful house you have here."

Bill set his things down, "I'll walk her out." Leah only nodded.

My car was only a block away but as we walked it felt like it was miles away. "Congratulations." I broke the silence.

"Thank you." He smiled.

"I told you, you would find someone to make you happy. Look at you, you're gonna have a baby."

"Yeah, I'm really happy, but I'm still really sorry about what happened between you and I. I'm sorry we didn't work out and I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me the most. I should have been there for you."

I sighed trying not to cry, "It was a bit traumatizing, having the procedure done is weird and horrible but it had to be done. I don't think I would've been happy if we went through with the pregnancy. I never want to be resentful towards a kid that wasn't at fault you know." He nodded. "I went to therapy after we broke up, got back on my feet and now I'm okay with it. I'm happy for you and happy that you're with someone that can give you the life you deserve."

He pulled me in for a hug giving me a kiss on the forehead, "I love you Bill Skarsgård."

"I love you too Y/n L/n and I wish you nothing but the best."

[today-only-happens-once]

With Great Power - Chapter 6

Title: With Great Power – Chapter 6

Catch Up/Read on AO3 here!

Word Count: 3382

Fic summary: Thomas Sanders is just a regular social media personality. But when he gets bit by a spider during filming one of his YouTube videos, his whole life is about to turn upside down—whether he (or the aspects of his personality) want it to or not. Platonic LAMP/CALM + Character!Thomas. Spider-Man AU.

Chapter warnings: cursing, moral dilemmas, guns, mention of prayer, violence/fighting, police mention, bank robbery attempt. Please let me know if I forgot anything.

A/N: It’s been forever. I have mixed feelings about this chapter, but I hope you all at least enjoy it. Sorry for the wait! Thanks for the patience. <3

Tags: @captain-loki-xavier, @human-dictionary, @the-peculiar-bi-tch, @mining-pup, @band-be-boss-blog, @asexual-trashbag, @samathekittycat, @why-should-i-tell-youu2, @theobsessor1, @changeling-ash, @logical-princey, @crimsonshadow323, @flickering-raven, @smokeyrutilequartz, @dontbugmeimantisocial, @liz-a-bell, @black-king-white-knight, @soijusthavetoask, @analogical-mess, @marvelfangeek09, @dolphidragon, @thelowlysatsuma, @approximately12lbs-of-ducks, @princelogical

…

Thomas drums his fingers on the steering wheel as he rolls his car to a lazy stop at a red light a couple of days later.

They’d just released the newest Cartoon Therapy after a few days of non-stop editing. The response had been overwhelmingly positive and incredibly sweet, though it had only been released about two hours ago. Thomas had met at the office with the entire team involved—at least those who were still in town—and hosted a watch party. It had been fun. Needed.

He’d also been managing to spend at least a couple of hours in the evening at the warehouse. Logan continued to take notes on a clipboard, making suggestions to test out just how much Thomas was able to do. They’d learned two days ago, for example, that Thomas had a much higher vertical jump than the average human being. Roman made suggestions of his own, many of which either Logan or Virgil refute when he suggested something that was maybe a little too risky. Patton had, as always, been a welcome tension relief with puns and humor whenever one of them started to get frustrated.

And Thomas had definitely been getting frustrated.

The light turns green and Thomas eases onto the gas. He has the windows rolled down, and the cool night air runs through Thomas’s hair as he flicks a turn signal and merges lanes.

Thomas couldn’t seem to get a handle on sticking to surfaces. Either he stuck more than he wanted to, or he couldn’t get purchase on anything and would be sent careening towards the concrete. Patton reminded him nearly every night that, in fact, he was improving. And Logan would support that, reminding Thomas that this ability is far outside his usual realm of capability and therefore it made sense that it would be a challenge for Thomas to gain mastery of it.

“If you look at the evidence,” Logan had told him yesterday, “you are showing steady improvement with regards to your manipulation of this… sticking ability. Your ratio of attempt to failure has dropped nearly 25% since you first began.”

It had been nice to hear. Thomas just wasn’t sure where the uneasy feeling in his stomach was coming from. Neither Virgil nor Roman would look at Logan, and they both sunk out before Thomas could ask them about it. He supposes he could have called them back, but Thomas had really just wanted to take the small victory. A 25% improvement wasn’t nothing, right?

Although, when he really thought about it… he wasn’t even sure what he was training for. Originally, it had been to better understand what he was capable of doing because not knowing his own ability had been stressing Virgil—and by extension, Thomas—out. But Thomas didn’t really feel any better about it. He was faster, stronger, could take more hits than a normal person, and could stick to walls. But he didn’t understand—

“To those of you driving down Whester Street, stay clear of the intersection with Route 4.” Thomas frowns as the radio DJ breaks into his thoughts at the next red light. He’s less than a mile from that location. “Police are currently on their way, but reports indicate some kind of hostage situation at Spears Bank. Suspect is armed and dangerous according to preliminary reports.”

Thomas flexes his hands around the wheel. He nearly jumps when he sees Patton sitting in the passenger seat beside him.

“Thomas. You have to go help.”

Thomas releases a long, slow breath in the hopes that it might calm his suddenly racing heart. It doesn’t surprise him in the slightest when he glances in the rearview mirror and sees Virgil’s wide eyes staring back at him.

“Are you kidding?” Virgil leans forward. “The police are on their way, Thomas. You heard the DJ; the dude is armed. He has a gun or something. We could get hurt.”

The host turns right onto Whester and nudges the gas. “Patton’s right,” Thomas says with a certainty that surprises even himself. “I have the chance to do something to help, Virge. I have to try.” His gaze flickers up to the rearview mirror to lock eyes with his Anxiety for a fleeting moment. “You know I can’t just do nothing here.”

“You don’t know the first thing about something like this. You could get somebody else killed.”

“If Thomas doesn’t intervene when he could have,” Patton says, quiet and measured, “he runs that same risk.”

“Virgil,” Thomas says, his grip around the wheel tightening as he sees the bank come into view. “Look, it’d be different if this was happening three weeks ago. But I have these… abilities now. And I don’t know why, but… I feel like they have to mean something, right? Why would I get them if I wasn’t supposed to use them for something good?”

“Tell Roman to cool it with the ego,” Virgil growls, a hint of double vocalization leaking in to his voice. Thomas feels a flare of frustration before he glances at Virgil through the reflection again. The Anxious Side had pulled his hood up and he was curling into his hoodie. Thomas can’t see his eyes anymore, and it suddenly makes sense.

Virgil’s afraid.

“Kiddo…” Patton turns to look at Virgil in the backseat as Thomas pulls into the parking lot of the building adjacent to the bank. He can hear sirens in the distance. Patton reaches back and places a hand on Virgil’s knee as Thomas puts the car into park. “I know you’re scared. But… this is the right thing to do.”

Thomas shuts the car off, listening closely to Patton’s words in the sudden silence.

“We can’t keep Thomas from doing the right thing.” Patton’s patient, gentle voice soothes Thomas’s racing heart. He glances at Virgil once again through the mirror and sees him scowl a little.

“Fine.”

Thomas smiles a little. Suddenly a pile of cloth lands in his lap. He unfurls it and realizes it’s the same sweatshirt he’d been wearing when he’d helped Mikey. He looks at Virgil over his shoulder in confusion. The Anxious Side lifts a shoulder.

“There’s gonna be cameras and police around. You’ve gotta protect your identity somehow.”

…

A couple of minutes later, Thomas finds himself crouched low with his back against the wall of a hallway that leads directly out to the bank foyer. He’d managed to find an open side door that led into an empty office. From there, he’d mostly followed the sound of shouting until he found himself just around the corner of the lobby.

He hasn’t looked yet, uncertain if he’d be likely to be seen by doing so. So Thomas had stayed put, listening closely to the footsteps and occasional demand to “shut up” or “hurry up” in a gruff but oddly detached voice.  It felt like he’d been here for minutes. He’s pretty sure it’s only been a few seconds.

Thomas glances across the way to the window at the opposite end of the lobby. In the glass, Thomas can see a teenage girl with an older woman cowering on the floor. Strands of the girl’s hair is falling in small wisps from her hijab. Her eyes are wide and afraid. The older woman is mouthing something in a kind of rhythm, and Thomas thinks it might be a prayer.

It makes his chest twist. He has to help.

“Just give me the fucking money,” the guy shouts. Thomas has still only heard one voice, and he’s pretty sure it’s only been one set of footsteps.

Thomas bounces a little on the balls of his feet underneath him. He tugs the cloth around his face and his hood both up a little as if to reassure himself that they’re secure. He breathes in. Don’t do anything stupid, Thomas, a voice—unmistakably Virgil—warns in his head. He breathes out.

He peeks around the corner.

There’s an older gentleman laying face down on the floor with his hands up by his head. A couple sit on the floor in the opposite corner, one of whom has a bundle of blankets in her arms. They sit with two bank workers. A third stands behind the counter before the gunman. She looks young. Maybe a few years younger than Thomas.

The gunman, on the other hand, looks like he might be in his forties. He has a blonde, receding hairline and a wide jaw. He’s tall, too—at least 6 foot, by Thomas’s guess, and heavier than the internet personality. His blue eyes look slightly gray. He’s waving a pistol around as if it’s an extension of his hand with a flippant dismissal of its danger.

The baby fusses and the mom urgently shushes it, rocking slightly. Even across the room, Thomas can see how badly she’s shaking. The man—the father, Thomas assumes—shifts slightly as if in an attempt to position himself between the gunman and the baby. His eyes haven’t left the weapon in the man’s hands.

Thomas leans back around the corner and deftly stands up. Think, Thomas, he urges himself. Come on, brain, think of something.

Thomas glances in the reflection of the glass again. If he can get the guy’s attention, it would at least divert it from everyone else. The problem then is that Thomas has sacrificed his element of surprise, and he’s still at a disadvantage because the other man would still have a gun.

No matter how fast your reflexes may have improved, he can hear Logan saying in his head, your reflexes are not faster than a bullet, Thomas. Choose carefully.

Thomas glances around the hallway, then out to the part of the lobby he could see from where he was hiding. His eyes flit up towards the ceiling, then arcs an eyebrow. Well that’s an idea…

Thomas ignores the sudden churning in his stomach as he takes in a deep breath and releases it slowly and quietly. Then he presses his hands against the wall of the hallway, nodding once to himself when they stick. He brings one foot up, then the other. Just like the warehouse, Thomas. Nothing you haven’t done before, he tells himself.

He tries to not think about how many times he hit the concrete when he did this before.

Thomas instead focuses on climbing up the wall. The ceilings are pretty high in this building, but it only takes him a few seconds to reach it. He takes a breath, relieved when his hands pull effortlessly off the walls. His weight wobbles as his feet stay stuck and gravity works against him. Then he presses his hands to the ceiling in front of him.

“If you don’t hurry up, I’m gonna start shooting.”

Thomas climbs along the paneled ceiling around the corner of the hallway into the lobby. It’s disorienting, to see everything upside down. But he scales the ceiling on his hands and the balls of his feet slowly, inching closer to the gunman and the teller on the other side of the desk. If he can get closer, and drop at the right moment, maybe he can knock the gun out of his hands and have a shot—no pun intended—at a fair fight.

Thomas inches closer. He’s maybe a few inches from being directly above him.

The ceiling panel creaks.

Shit.

Time seems to slow for a moment. Thomas sees the gunman’s gaze flicker up towards the ceiling instinctually, followed by the almost comedic double-take he does when he sees Thomas on the ceiling. Thomas meets his bewildered gaze with a wide one of his own. Let go let go let go let go—

“I’m just… dropping in,” Thomas says, right before his feet kick loose and he uses the momentum to his advantage. His hands detach as he swings his feet into the gunman’s face, dropping Thomas from the ceiling. The bulk of Thomas’s weight is driven into the kick and it sends the gunman sprawling.

Thomas lands on top of him and immediately reaches for the gun.

“What the f—” Blood is pouring out of the man’s nose. Thomas rolls off him on instinct, narrowly missing a wide swing from him.

“Get out of here!” Thomas manages to yell to the people surrounding them. Thomas hears shuffling and shouting and the sound of doors opening. There’s movement in his peripheral.

THOMAS. ON YOUR RIGHT. That’s definitely Virgil’s voice.

Thomas throws up an arm and lets it take the brunt of a hard swing. There’s a flash of black in the hand he blocked and Thomas wrenches the arm down, grabbing the gun out of the man’s hand.

It’s heavier than he expected.

He also doesn’t know the first thing about handling it.

He hears the man growl as Thomas tries to scramble out of dodge. It’s an entanglement of limbs and a few sharp jabs to his ribs. Thomas slides the gun across the floor staggers back, sending the weapon clear across the room, scraping against the tile. A quick glance around the lobby tells him that everyone seems to have gotten out okay.

That only left this guy.

“You don’t have to do this,” Thomas tells him right before the guy charges at him.

He could dive out of the way, but then Thomas wouldn’t be between him and the weapon anymore. So Thomas braces for the impact, grunting a little as the man slams into him.  Thomas stays standing, gritting his teeth as he braces his arms against the man still pushing into him. He looks up, startled slightly by just how… empty the man’s blue-gray eyes look.

He snarls, his hand grabbing for the sweatshirt tied around Thomas’s face.

“Nope,” Thomas says quickly, panicked. He reaches a hand up and grabs the man’s wrist. “Can’t do that.”

The room is filled suddenly with flashes of red and blue. Thomas drives a knee up into the man’s stomach, shoving him off. He staggers back with a cough. His face contorts in something like a glare, but there’s no edge in his eyes. There’s no anything.

The sudden flood of red and blue also means that the police are here, and that they are likely to break through the front door really any moment. Thomas knows he has to end the fight. Now.

Thomas sees the gun on the floor in his peripheral, but it’s an immediate dismissal. He doesn’t want to kill this man, and he doesn’t even know how to use it in the first place. He has to either knock him unconscious or find some way to tie him up. And Thomas doesn’t really have any way to do the latter.

“I’m sorry,” Thomas says apologetically, the man starts to advance again. Thomas turns and kicks sharply, his foot connecting right below the jaw. The man sprawls to the floor. He doesn’t move.

What if you killed him?

The question makes panic clutch at Thomas’s throat. He rushes to the gunman’s side, relieved to see the rise and fall of his chest. He releases a breath. He’s alive. Just unconscious, with maybe a dislocated jaw. Thomas sees movement against the red and blue lights streaming in through the windows. He knows he has to leave before the police get in here.

He’s just about stand up and run when he sees something on the floor slightly underneath the man that makes him stop. A black rectangle of cardstock. Thomas picks it up, his brows creasing together in curiosity. He flips it over. In neat white print, the other side reads one word.

E K K O

Thomas hears shouting from outside and slips the card into his pocket, ducking back into the hallway and breaking out of the emergency exit just as he hears the front doors of the bank open. Thomas doesn’t stop running until he gets to his car.

…

Thomas’s hands are shaking when he jumps back into the driver’s seat. He pulls harshly at the sweatshirt wrapped around his mouth and nose until it’s in a loose heap around his neck. He takes a breath.

“Thomas.” Logan is sitting in the middle of the backseat, leaning forward intently. “You are not injured. Everybody made it out safely. Even the gunman was hurt only enough to render him unconscious. Breathe.”

Thomas nods. “I can’t believe I did that,” he replies, panting for breath.

“I don’t understand.”

“That was crazy!” Thomas doesn’t know at this point of it’s adrenaline or panic that’s coursing through his system but his nerves are buzzing and his heart is racing. Thomas feels more alert and awake than he can ever remember feeling.

Roman’s voice pipes up from the passenger seat beside Thomas. “We just actually faced a guy with a gun, Logan. And Thomas knocked him unconcious.” Even in the dark, Thomas can see something bright and excited shining in Roman’s eyes.

Thomas looks over his shoulder to his Logical Side. Logan shrugs, his lips pursed in thought. “It makes sense. Your increased agility, reflexes, and strength capabilities would improve your precision and power behind your attacks. I cannot say I’m surprised that you were able to do what you did tonight.”

“You were a hero again, Thomas.” Roman sounds exhilarated. “You saved people tonight.”

Thomas hears a familiar whooshing sound. The host glances in the rearview mirror to see Virgil sitting beside Logan, his hands shoved in the pocket of his hoodie. He looks… exhausted. Thomas opens his mouth to ask him if he’s okay, but Virgil cuts him off with an annoyed glare at Roman.

“Sure, but he risked a lot, too.” His gaze flickers over to Thomas, who twists around to look at Virgil directly. “What if you hadn’t been fast enough to stop him when he tried to pull the sweatshirt down and he knew who you were? What if you hadn’t been close enough to tackle him before he saw you?”

The questions are sobering. Thomas can feel the initial adrenaline start to drain out of him and he nods. For a moment, nobody says anything. Thomas glances at Roman, who’s crossed his arms over his chest and is resolutely staring out the window. Thomas can’t see his expression. A quick glance in the rearview mirror tells Thomas that Logan’s brow is furrowed together in thought, as if he was trying to figure out some unseen puzzle.

He hears another whoosh and doesn’t have to look to know it’s Patton.  

“Virgil might have a point, kiddo, but… I’m proud of you for what you did tonight.”

Thomas’s mouth quirks faintly. “Thanks, Patton.” He takes a deep breath, willing some of the lingering tension to ease a little. He can feel Virgil’s gaze on him, all too aware that nobody had any real answers to his questions.

Speaking of questions…

Thomas slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out the black cardstock with EKKO written in white. He flips it over a few times in his hands, squinting in the dark. He clicks one of the interior lights of the car on quickly, turning it over again. Nothing. Thomas turns the light off.

“Ekko,” Thomas reads aloud. “Why does that sound familiar?”

“It’s the same name of a video that Joan insisted you don’t watch,” Logan replies without missing a beat. “The unusual spelling does match what your fans had been using in the livestream comments regarding the subject matter as well.”

“That’s…. weird,” Thomas says. Weird sounds like an understatement. The spelling. The timing. Joan’s reaction. That it had seemingly fallen from the man Thomas had fought tonight.

“Indeed,” Logan says. “There are many things regarding the current circumstance that seem… suspicious.”

Thomas sighs again and leans his head against the steering wheel. The longer he sat still, the faster the stale adrenaline was giving way to sleepiness. He needed to drive home before he fell asleep in the parking lot. But he can feel Logan’s curious energy buzzing in the back of his mind, mixing with Virgil’s lingering anxiety over it all into a cocktail that sits uncomfortable in Thomas’s stomach.

“We should look into it,” Thomas agrees. “Tomorrow.”

Logan pauses, then nods and sits back. “Satisfactory.”

[anonil88]

Loyal Lines, Loyal Stunts (wayhaught college au) : Chapter 3

Ch 3

Rated: M

Notes: this chapter may feel a bit shorter if anyone out there is reading I’m gonna try and make the next a little longer or keep them all this length.

The rest of rush week felt like hell week for Waverly. She was drowning in a million tasks and chants rotated in her head all day. Whether it was cheer or a sigma gamma chi song they all muddled together playing over and over. Then on top of that several of her professors decides to have lectures that dragged on for too long. Waverly knew she was pretty smart but, she was failing to grasp important information for two upcoming exams. Somehow she made it to the follwing monday with only lights bags under her eyes. On top of this there was a new unsettling vibe to the campus that Waverly felt in her every bone.

It started when the automated mass text alerts were sent to her and everyone on campus on saturday night. She was at a party with a few sorority sisters when some people started to murmur looking at their phones. Pulling out her own she tapped the message bubble that read:

WHU SECU. ALERT:_ Students have reported a motorcade of individual circling the streets surrounding our campus. These individuals are seen wearing matching insignia and verbally harassing bystanders. We have contacted the authorities  please be aware of your surroundings and stay safe. If you or someone else is in distress contact the security offices or your local authority. OFFICER LUCADO _WHU SECU. 

Waverly had a bad feeling about this but told herself that campus was safe at least. She did notice an uptick in officers patrolling the dorm complexes that night. It didnt dismiss the pit in her stomach, but it made it less unnerving. That monday she knew she xould not study in her room and packed her bag for a long study session in the library. Sh had to be ready for her exam the next day and prepare a new routine for the girls for wednesday practice. The omly way she could do both and remain sane was a change of scenery. Making her way into the library in an oversized niagra falls hoodie and leggings, she found a study room and went into crunch mode.

Phone on silent she worked endlessly on her assignments and studying habits. When she'd finally absorbed all the information she felt she could she checked her phone. It was super late, Waverly was thankful that the library didn't close until 3am. The phone had several missed calls from wynonna, a few text from her friends, and a group chat spilling over with information. Going to the group chat first she scrolled through a plethora of "OMG that is crazy", shock face emojis, and accusations of townspeople being assholes. She didn't fully understand what was going on until she scrolles all the way up. There were images of a few bikers creating burn marks with their bikes on the WHU soccer field. She noticed the symbol on the jacket of one of the men and her eyes went wide. She immediately checked wynonnas voice mail messages. At first they were calm but by the last one wynonna was frantic, "Waverly god damn earp i saw the news and if you dont answer your phone i am going to hurt you." But, before she could redial her older sisters number the library intercom rang out. "The library will be closing in 30 minutes, and the next shuttle will be arriving in 10 minutes." There was a crackle and waverly began to quickly pack her book bag and pull her headphones out.

After darting down the stairs, saying goodbye to a fellow late night studier, and running out of the front doors of the library she saw the shuttle pull up into the parking lot. She was still trying to call wynonna who was not answering when she opened the  door of the cherry and forest green van and instinctively hopped into the front passenger seat. The driver stayed silent and she was sent to voicemail again. "Dammit wynonna," she cursed out loud. 

Finally the driver spoke up as they took the van out of break and pulled out of the lot. "Do you want to talk? And Joie hall right?" 

Nicole looked over at waverly and was met with a look of embarrassment. Waverly breathlessly rambles, "Yea i live in joie, did chrissy tell you? And im sorry for that im trying to call my sister and she isnt picking up. The soccer field thing has everyone going crazy on twitter and im doing too much to really care. Also why are you driving the shuttle tonight?" A dimpled side smirk if sent waverlys way and she feels her body ease from the tension she was holding. Nicole had managed to slow her brain down with just a dimple and that feels nice to waverly.

"I will start backwards, we are having officers rotate some extra shuttle runs to ensure students are getting to where they need to safely, because of those at the soccer field. I drove the shuttle a few times when i was still a student and just remembered that a lot of sigmas live in joie. Is your sister okay do you think....are you okay waverly?" Nicole resonded to everything the brunette had asked while navigating the road to get to the large dormitory. Waverly stayed silent for a minute before breaking out of her thought, "is there a stop after me?" 

Nicole slowed to the stop sign and glanced at the clipboard on the center console. "No you are the last stop before i head back to the station, did you want me to take you somewhere else?" Nicole looked at waverly knowing it would n't be advised normally, but with the way students seemed on edge it wouldnt be frowned upon either. Waverly shook her head no and dipped her head and smiled with sadness in her eyes but opened her mouth to respond.

"Can you walk me to my door Nicole...i mean officer haught," she corrected herself noting the outfit and the setting and the walkie talkie system on nicole and in the van. She was inclined then to tell someone who was essentially a stranger everything. She felt almost as safe in that van with Nicole as she did leaving the town of purgatory. But, Wynonna’s voice and an image echoed in her memories. 

"Don’t ever talk about this or say that name...her name, to anyone ever again waves, promise me." Wynonna was stuffing a long barrel pistol into the glovebox of the red jeep. They had made their way across the border into the unknown future. Waverly was grateful for everything Gus and Wy had sacrificed for the two of them to make a new start, but she was sometimes too loyal.

Nicole parked the van in the parking lot of the dorm and radioed in that she was performing an on foot escort before turning her radio off. She figured no one else needed to hear what waverly might or might not say as she walked her towards and into the building. They walked slow side by side, nicole stealking glances. Their eyes met a few times but it was kept formal. Waverly took the time to ask nicole a few questions about what her plans were, how the security was managing the vandalizers and she managed to slip in an are you single. Nicole could only slide her tongue to her lips instinctively as she sighed yes. Waverly noticed that and her stomach fluttered a little. They were almost at her door when she stilled her movement. Turning to Nicole she bit her lip before fiddling with her phone to add a new contact. 

Nicole handled the phone typing in ger number she did want to look overly enthused so she opted for a joke, "You know I’m not so sure this is allowed, we are like the Capulets and the Montagues y’know." She referenced the Shakespearean families having a hunch that Waverly would already know who they were. She didn’t miss the way Waverly bit her bottom lip when looking at her. Her eyes darted down to her lips but she leveled her vision tapping the cop emoji after her own name.

Waverly chuckled nervously and reached back for her phone. "Actually i just wanted your number in case i need another escort or yaknow someone to," she hesitated, "talk to." She had started to inch them towards the corner that led to her door again. She knew if they dragged this conversation out any longer that Nicole would risk being reprimanded or worse fired. She would never jeopardize that risk for her own selfish comfort.

Nicole nodded, "That makes sense, well i am open ears and arms if you need me." They both turned the corner and were met by the site of a long wavy haired brunette back pressed against the wall her gaze cold covered in a leather jacket. Waverly smiled with relief.

 "Wynonna."

Nicole released a small sigh of relief and nodded at wynonna who was now standing up. She placed a hand on the shoulder of waverly and said her goodbyes, tacking the steps she had taken with the smaller girl at her side.

***

Waverly launched at wynonna wrapping her arms around her struggling older sister. Wynonna wriggled her arms out of her sisters grasp and pushed waverly towards the door so that she would open the dorm room door. Waverly slightly jumped seeing her roommate Vanessa sitting on her own bed. She was never there, but this time she was there and she wasn’t alone. A taller tan woman was standing and staring at both of them. “Uhh hi waves i am gonna leave and this is my cousin, Valdez,” Vanessa quickly started to throw things into her bag and push her cousin out the door. Valdez and Wynonnas eyes followed each other as they pushed past each other it he narrow entrance.

“Valdez..that’s hot,” Wynonna mumbled before kipping up,” and where the hell were you Waves.” Waverly was clearing space on her bed and on the floor for her sister to sit and to not appear unkept. Wynonna plopped beside her starting at her younger sister with concern.

Waverly started to tell her how she was studying and how Nicole had escorted her back to her room safely. She tripped over the name a few times trying switch between Officer Haught and Nicole. Her cheeks warmed as her mind recalled the number in her phone that she sill had to text. Wynonna grinned at the thought that her baby sister had a crush that was written all over her face. At the same time she grimaced that Waverly was interested in the college feds.

“Are we going to talk about the revenant jackets and bikes circling this city now or do i have to hear you babble about your girlfriend,” Wynonna groaned. Waverly slapped her arm.

“She isn’t my girlfriend and I’m not...she’s not my girlfriend.” Waverly nervously bit her lip and then her face fell seeing her sisters phone screen. It was a photo of their older sister Willa on Instagram lazily wrapped around the giant Welcome to Regina sign, from a city north of where the campus resided. “Fuck,” she whispered when she looked at the time stamp, 4 hours ago.

“This town is fucked is right babygirl,” Wynonna chuckled hopping off the bed to raid Waverly’s room for a drop of alcohol.

***

Nicole finished her shift by checking in the van, clocking out, and driving her car home aimlessly. By the time she had showered and laid in her bed the sounds of night still lingered. Nicole groaned reaching for her phone on the nightstand and woke the screen. Her eyes widened and a smile krept on her face when she unlocked the message waiting for her.

Unknown Number

Hi, Waverly here, sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye. Thank you.

P.S here is a contact photo.

The photo attached looked like it was from a arty because Waverly’s nose was covered in blue icing and a large smile glimmered through the camera. Nicole smiled so hard her dimples started to hurt and she responded with a photo she’d taken of herself in one of her dads old Stetson cowboy hats last year. All she attached was sleepily typed i enjoyed your company before she passed out phone still in hand and Waverly’s picture still on the screen.

[yourxartxmattersx]

“Love is watching someone die.” - Death Cab For Cutie.

Your hand was lying to me. The warmth of your skin seeped into my fingertips, begging me to believe that to have faith in you. I never have seen someone look so peaceful in their nearly lifeless state. No brain function, they had told me. A vegetable. I’m hit with the sudden memory of when we used to watch Uptown Girls all the time, remember that? We watched it so many times that I silently dialogue throughout the whole movie because I can remember every single word. Dakota Fanning calling her dad a “vegetable” and when I was a little girl, I used to think that phrase meant he turned into a carrot or something. The concept of somebody dying still felt so far away to me nonetheless, watching somebody waste away. How silly to think about it now, but yet I yearned for the innocence. Because watching you die was something I always tried to prepare for, but here I am, wishing I could curl up in that hospital bed and have you hold me, just one last time. My eyes try to process the wires that connected your body to the machines. Everything that made you, you, was gone. Your heart had to depend on the machines to keep it beating, to keep you breathing. I wanted to scream. I wanted to break something. But still, here I am, staring at the hands that nobody else has.

The impending question loomed over my head like a gray cloud as I tried to remember who you used to be. But to be honest, the memories blur together and I’m wondering what made you, you? Looking back on it all, were you ever sober? The pills made you into someone that was unrecognizable and the further you followed the darkness, the more you sacrificed your family. My dad then my big brother… then my little sister... then my baby brother. For the longest time, there was burning anger that loomed around my soul, and it used to keep me awake at night hating you. Needing you. Wanting you. I needed you to help me pick out a prom dress and do my hair, or when I cried the first time I ever I had my heartbroken. That being said, you were my first heartbreak, so the point would’ve been redundant. All those times you told me you were getting sober, begged me to believe in you, me laying in bed at night praying that this time you meant it, and every time the drugs won. All of the birthdays you missed. All those times, I gave you ultimatums and I was always on the side you didn’t choose.

But, here I am, standing at your death bed, calling your bluff that you would live forever. Do you remember telling me that, mom? We were dancing to Journey outside, our shadows illuminating by the streetlights against the pale siding on the house, and you told me you always dreamed of being a dancer. To hear the crowd cheering your name and the adoring fans jealous of your beauty. You always were so vain. Where is that spirit now though? Death is finally calling your name, isn’t Mom? How does it feel to be normal like the rest of us? No.

I can’t be angry. This isn’t the time to be angry. I’ve felt anger my entire life and this is the time where you need my compassion and understanding. Hating you isn’t going to bring you back, though neither is my love. Neither of which ever swayed you into trying to be my mom. God. Mom, why does it have to be like this?

I felt a stab in my chest, thinking of all those times I blew you off. How embarrassed I was of you at my graduation when you showed up looking hung over and sad. There are days, I still feel like that little girl that you forgot at school because you were too high. Looking down at your hand, I run my fingertips along with yours and notice how your nails had chipped nail polish on them and I remember how you used to get manicures that matched the season. Orange nails for Halloween. Green and red for Christmas. I remember when you used to care about the way you look and I mean, really cared and thats when I’m stuck with the realization that I’m not here for the mother that disappoints but for the mom that used to be there every day. That loved me the best she could. Suddenly, a nurse walks in to check on me. I’m supposed to make a decision but “no rush”. I look up at her, tears threatening to expose themselves. Taking a deep breath, my voice strong and my guard let down, I ask if she has any nail polish and a brush. She looked as if I was crazy. Most likely thinking to herself ‘why would she want nail polish at a time like this?’ But she nods and tells me she has some. I explain to her how much my mother loved to feel beautiful and right now, I could tell that she hadn���t cared for herself much. Before her final breath, I’d like to make her beautiful one last time. The nurse nodded and I could tell she was holding back tears when she left. 

When she returned, she asked if I needed help and I shook my head, telling her it’s best I do it on my own. Once she left, I picked up the brush and stood up, and pulled your hair up behind your head then began to brush your hair as gently as I could. As if I was trying not to wake you up even though there was no hope you ever would. It was tough, I’ll admit. The tangles in your hair made it tough to brush it all out but I took my time. I needed the mom I want to remember. The mother that made me conquer my fear of storms when I was 10 years old; the one that used to put makeup on me and my friends and be the judge for our fashion shows. Not this shell that you succumbed to be. Your hair kept breaking and finally, the tears spilled over, causing me to collapse onto your lap and sob violently. Oh, how I cried for my big brother and wished he could be here with me. For him to hold me and understand that although our mother was incredibly flawed, that we still loved her so. I stay like that for a while until the nurse comes back in and clears her throat. “I’m sorry, we really need your decision soon...” I look up at her and I see it in her eyes. The darkness that she was trying to hide from me because she had seen too many days end like this. Death all around her, and she had to be the deliverer of bad news. 

I stand up and take the clipboard from her hands and sign it, handing it back to her without looking at her face. Before she begins to turn off the machines, she looks at me and asks me again if I need to call anyone. No. I’m the only one. I look at my mother, and wonder if there was an afterlife and if there was, where would she be? Would she reunite with Ryan? The one person she loved with everything she had in her, so much so that it killed him. Where do people like my mother go? 

The nurse unplugs the monitor, and she begins to take the tube out. I don’t realize it, but I’m holding my breath the whole as she does this. I watch my mother’s chest rise and fall one last time. I imagine her soul leaving as she exhaled her last breath, and I find myself exhaling with her. She’s gone and I’m here.