#here is the lore to this AU I completely make up in my head
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GIRL. can you do some Modern Mizu headcanons when shes on her period??? I JUST WANT TO HUG HERđđ
grumpy girlfriend ââËïœĄâ
modern!mizu headcanons on her period
tags: fluff, taigen being an ass, sweet mizu, snuggle bug modern mizu, mood swings, competitive mizu bc taigen wont shut up, cuddling, taigen hunger games fan confirmed???
a/n: im suffering on mine while starting my quarter and my teachers alreadyyyy be pmo!! cant wait for s2 to come already (and so will i).
modern!mizu would have light periods
with the exception of the second day.
ive stated this in my reader gets periods hc post BUT
just bc theyre light doesnât mean sheâs off the hook
all she rlly needs to buy is the pink ones (iykyk)
basically she needs the thin ones most of the time
(idk what the colors are outside the US sorry international readers)
howeverâŠ
modern!mizu âs second day: hell. on. earth.
if sheâs raising hell in the show, sheâs going thru that hell in this modern!AU
the worst lower back pains when she wakes up
i fear her stomach will do a whole somersault and multiple olympic level flips throughout the second day
the amount of fatigue hits her one day and then is completely manageable afterwards
and yes she will bitch and moan ab this when she wakes up
You feel Mizu stir awake beside you, her eyebrows furrowing into the pillow.
âGood morningâ, you whisper close to her ear, gently kissing down from her cheek to her neck.
âMmfm⊠morningâŠâ, Mizu groans, stretching awake, her eyes fluttering open to a brand new day.
You look up to meet her eyes as the morning sun peaked through the curtains.
âYou feel okay?â
She shook her head no, grumbling about sleeping in more. She attempts to stretch her back. However, you find her face twist into discomfort and fatigue, groaning once again from the shooting pains in her back.
âFucking hellâ, she mumbles, âIâm going to kill my back.â
âI think that would kill you first.â, you answer back. âIâll go get tea and aspirin for you, wait here.â
modern!mizuâs mood is usually stable, except that calm she tries to maintain slips away on her period
she gets more competitive than irritated on her bad days
taigen pisses her off a little bit A LOT MORE more than usual
one time he wanted to play a match of archery against mizu
mind you, both of them had little to no experience with a bow and arrow
taigen thought it would be fun for shits and giggle because he saw katniss everdeen do it and thought she was sick asf
yes hes watched the whole hunger games series bc he whole heartedly believes he can win the 74th games⊠iâd love to see him try to survive too.
(anyways side lore over)
and guess who ends up getting wrapped up in it⊠our girl mizu
âTaigen, for the last time, Iâm not playing make believe Hunger Games with you.â, Mizu grumbled, continuing to solve her homework.
âItâs not make believe, itâs archery. Just because it was in Hunger Games doesnât mean its not real.â, Taigen claimed. âCan you get that through your thick skull or do I have to stick an arrow in your head first?â
Mizuâs head lifted up, her eyes squinting in annoyance. In her head, an imaginary arrow struck him at the very moment.
âYou think youâre so good at everything, huh.â, Mizu scoffs, placing down her pencil.
âI just know youâll be an easy target.â, Taigen declares, his face smug with confidence.
Mizu challenges him. âAnd I know youâll be an even easier one.â
they both end up bothering akemi, begging her to borrow her bows and arrows for this competition
of course, she complies with one request: allowing an audience (you, her, and ringo) to watch and fairly judge each oneâs skills
all judged fairly, with taigen as the winner by one point ahead
and mizu demanding a rematch
to this day, sheâs still bitter ab that competition
modern!mizu enjoys getting a little special treatment from time to time
yes she does spoil you quite a lot with her actions
but small things such as prepping the snacks before binge watching or making the tea for her or letting her be a small spoon when cuddling warms her heart
acts of service warms her heart
âNooo, donât leave yet.â, Mizu grudges, playfully pulling at your arm as you escape her grasp.
âThen youâre not getting your tea.â, you jest.
You walk to the counter, pouring the hot water into your mugs. Coming back to the couch with herbal teas in hand, you smile and hand one to Mizu first.
âSee, Iâm back. And I have a surprise for you too.â
You come close to Mizu, planting a soft, gentle kiss on her lips. Mizu, now delighted by the tea, thanks you with another sweet kiss, grinning from ear to ear.
when itâs only you and modern!mizu, she becomes a snuggle bug
when youâre watching a show or before falling asleep, she will steathily and silently find herself much closer to you
sneaking an arm around you
and find yourself wrapped up in her arms while she enjoys the labors of her fruit
(sorry i donât make the rules i just follow them)
she lovessss to wrap her arms around you at night and be a big spoon so she can hug you all night
or be a little spoon with your palms facing her lower stomach, totally not providing her with a makeshift heating pad
You wake up in the middle of the night, finding Mizu on her side, her arms away from you reaching out to the darkness. You shift over, wrapping her closer to yours with gentle pull. A small hum erupts from the sleeping Mizu, as her arm reaches behind, lazily tugging your arm.
âYes?â, you ask, wondering what her next move was.
She drops your arm over her stomach. A tug pulls your wrist under her baggy shirt, your palm making contact with her lower stomach. You hear a delighted sigh, as Mizu let go of your wrist.
You patiently waited what would follow this move. But all you felt was the slight rise and fall of her breath.
In the morning, you question if she recalled what she did.
âHey baby?â
âYeah?â
You looked up at her.
âDid you ever wake up in the middle of the night?â
Mizu shook her head no.
âDid something happen?â, she asked, slightly concerned.
âNo, not really.â, you lied.
The cuddling was cute already. Her doing it unknowingly? Even cuter.
âI just thought I heard something.â
âOk schizo.â, she teased, smiling before taking another sip of her morning tea.
âHey!â
if you thought she was competitive on her own, ohhhh goodness her mood swings make her more merciless
modern!mizu would get irritated over the littlest things, especially if they build up throughout the day and thereâs no time to release that pent up energy
you end up with a grumpy mizu
the best remedy for this? telling her sheâll get surprise if she does something for you
it takes her mind off of her worries/complaints from the day
and even if the surprise was a big olâ hug and loving kisses, it would relieve some of the stress mizu was holding onto
âWelcome back.â, you greet her, giving her a peck on the cheek. âThank you for getting the ingredients.â
Mizu placed the grocery bags on the counter.
âSo what was my surprise?â, she questioned, curious of whatâs to come.
âJust this.â, you answer, wrapping your arms around her neck, pulling her close for a loving kiss.
As you pull away, you see her eyes light up, a much different set than her annoyed, gloomy self before going on a grocery trip. Her arms wrap around your waist, pulling you close once again.
âJust that?â, she says, mimicking the sweetness in your voice before going in for another kiss.
âBesides dinner, it would also be a few more kisses.â
You answer, smiling before going in for another.
âI like the sound of that.â
#mizu blue eye samurai#modern au mizu#ËË°âą*ââ· reqs for bini#blue eye samurai#modern mizu#mizu headcanons#modern mizu blurb#mizu x y/n#mizu wants cuddles and i cri
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(I saw this, went "how the fuck did I miss this" and got very excited someone asked for reasons you shall see below in the next paragraph had a bunch of idea, did some stuff, had a bunch of cool ideas, wrote the first paragraph of this, then took a hot bath and had a bunch of really cool and in depth ideas of how to explain this while in it, so now it's time to see how much of the shit I wanted to say that i actually remember).
Decided to make the links blue for visibility, I should have gotten all of them if not sorry.
She does actually, so does the son. Diana and Mirian Curze respectively. But their names might be changed. "Mirian" was no joke based on some "Mirian" and "mink" and a mink theme I mentioned here (<- central post to the lore btw, check out the farm au tag) that was since completely abandoned (everything else in that post is still canon) but he's been mentally named "Miran" in my head so long it stuck and I have thought of some others but they never clicked, even if I kinda hate it. That's why he's currently tagged as "the curzeling" because I have no idea wtf to refer to him as. And "Diana" is up there with "Rose" and "Maria" as cliche names for kind gentle characters female characters who tend to be dead moms or shadow the hedgehogs maria (No, Diana here does not die) alongside just not sounding very warhammery. Her maiden name is currently Diana Ignis but I can't decide if it's cringe. The reason I haven't talked more about them is that I am ironically the kind of person who hates ocs. As in, filter the original character tag out when searching on ao3 hates ocs. Though I tend to tolerate them sometimes. So it's a mixture of having cultivated an audience of x reader fans and the like, insecurity of while I know others do like OC content I wanted to create something that some hypothetical other person who thinks like me would have clicked on in the first place. Though I cope by telling myself I tend to tolerate them more when they fulfil some sort of function, eg, "what if this character met this kind of person" rather than just "canon character x oc" which tends to make me do a U-turn. and I sorta hope I would appeal to some other version of myself with that. You should also really check out the "core" tag on this blog if you haven't already as it deals with stuff that is "canon" to this narrative (Once I start posting about other ocs I'm not actually sure if they should share the tag too, maybe I should rename it then, oh well.)
Now before we progress further some meta knowledge is required: The farm post summer last year was sort of the genesis point of this au and actually it was really a now deleted response to that from a deleted blog where it started but this is the original ask. All of this stuff originated from hurt comfort and me initially rping stuff with chatbots then mentally adding way more lore onto it (hence the farm post) I actually have/had issues with Dianas characterization. I read a bit of the fic messages for dad (in which Konrad is paired with a woman named Julia) and I also have an oc for Dorns wife named Falke, (whose name also needs to be changed because "Falke" is a default name I use for myself as self insert characters and she grew a plot, but that's besides the point) and I straight up think messages for dad's Julia and my Dorn wife (of all people lol) were more interesting characters to pair Konrad with than the initial creation of Diana was (but she got better). This right here is ironically fanwork to the messages for dad fanfic but it perfectly describes why I love Julia as a wife for Konrad, and without spoiling too much my Dorn wife (who herself is in an "opposites attract" style relationship with Rogal) is someone with an anarchistic streak, immense curiosity and who is neither pro imperium nor pro chaos. Something which would sync really well with the nightlords (Konrad is canonically very curios. and Magnus and Perturabo are actually friends in canon and also bonded over curiosity). Both of these women are people who relate to Konrad "as a person" if it makes sense. His actual personality beyond just the insanity and trauma. Diana was a generic moeblob created to synergize with Konrard when he was broken (Oh the tragic irony that would be someone helping Konrad heal only for the man who came out on the other side be someone who they did not feel attracted to or someone who did not feel attracted to them. But that makes me sad so it won't happen here because I'm a sap. Diana and Konrad love each other forever in the au where they're together.). Genereic precious cinnamon roll generic ray of sunshine x edgelord. I am once again reminded of Shadow the hedgehog and Maria. So I am desperately trying to give her more personality and actually make her more compatible with Konrad long term without making her a Falke clone. I complained about this half a year to a year ago, I think it's improved. Though the cliche is still there.
Now moving on to the questions.
I'm gonna change the order a bit and start with the last one because I think the answer to it is the funniest.
- favorite places (planets and spots on Nostramo since I'd guess she is from there):
Nope. She's actually from Ultramar. Not Macragge itself but some random agri world in the Ultramar sector. Point is she lived a very comfortable and safe life. Upper middleclass. Spoiled sweet, not rotten.
- the relationship between her and the Night Lords:
None. She's scared of them since they would attack indiscriminately and Konrad protects her from them.
- more on her backstory and orgin:
Again see farm post and this whole ramble.
- their first meeting:
Won't be revealed here because it's planned to be revealed in an actually serious post / fic in list format similar to these two that will come out once I feel able to write properly. Though it will only be mentioned very briefly. Working title is "Justice", alt titles might be snowball or avalanche, but it will likely be called justice. Don't overhype it, it will probably be about half a page. But it will explore their relationship. I can spoil that it is after he is found by the Emperor but before he gets onboard Elvers ship.
- her interests and hobbies:
I mentioned before she used to rescue animals. Biggest sap you've ever seen. Brain slides out of her ass when she finds something cute. Mother hen instincts towards everything. All of these relate to getting with Konrad lmfao.
- her live outside of the Night Lords and curze:
Needs work actually. Unless the above is good characterization lol.
Besides supposedly looking frightning, Konrad Curze's pale complexion means that him blushing would be VERY visible.
He should be reminded of this, often.
#I put this in word for spell check and it registered it as âenglish: Jamaicanâ before removing typos and I'm not sure how to feel about that#konrad curze x oc#konrad curze#night lords#primarch#primarch x oc#warhammer 40000#warhammer 40k#wh40k#40k#meta#holy fuck
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since Iâm drawing more of them, here is a bit of background for my x2 Prowler PunkFlower AU (mix of comic and animated canon and my own delulu):
- Hobart started out in a life of crime because he felt trapped by his circumstances (this follows the comic canon, he is the youngest of 9 siblings, but his dad left early, mom was an alcoholic, and eventually even his big brother left. Even though he was a tech genius, he struggled to make a living). Then after his right hand was injured after a job for Kingpin, he was saved by Peter (letâs say in Earth 42 Peter is not Spiderman, instead he runs a company.. which is also comic canon at one point).
Parker Industry gave him a prosthetic and provided a healthier environment for Hobart to grow, they sponsor him to be a kind of vigilante to keep the city safe (again, this is a bit based on the comic canon, but in the comics he was paralyzed from the waist down for a while, he also worked for Parker Industry for some time).
- For Miles G. after his father died, there was a time when he lost his direction in life. He was haunted by the fact that he could not protect Jeff. Earth 42 is already chaotic, he doesnât know how to protect his mother (since Uncle Aaron also has his own business and canât stay with them all the time).
- One night when he was walking back home, Miles was stopped by a robber, normally he could protect himself, but that day his mind was spiraling so badly and before he knew it, he was cornered. That's when Prowler saved him.
- Hobart was just on duty, the alley was dark so he couldn't see the other boy very well, he just turned his back to tie up the robber and told Miles to go home, it's very dangerous here.
- At that time, the Prowler symbol on the back of Hobartâs jacket seemed to engrave itself in the back of Milesâ eyelids - a call to fight, a call to protect. He made a decision then.
- Miles immediately ran to Uncle Aaron and told him of his intention to be a vigilante. Aaron was hesitant at first, but Miles said that if he didn't train him, he would go find the Prowler himself and ask him for help. Aaron was worried that Miles would be taken advantage of by others, so he accepted to train and help him create tech.
- After a while, the two of them started blowing things up left and right in Brooklyn with Miles as the new Prowler, that was when Hobart realized that there was another guy running around in his symbol (there is a whole theme in the comics where Hobieâs Prowler gears keep being stolen by other ppl to impersonate him đ)
- He thought about telling the boy to stop, but seeing Miles punching criminals, confronting villains who are many times bigger than him yet was still not afraid, Hobart became⊠curious? Want to know who that person is, why do they do this.
- Of course, when they meet, Hobart still asked Miles to not to carry his logo around, but Miles stubbornly argued that anyone can be a symbol, and he would not dishonour this one.
- In general, Hobart was impressed with Miles, but it took some time for both of them to gradually trust each other. After more than half a year, Hobart took the initiative to tell Miles his true identity, Miles then also took him to meet his uncle.
- After the two became closer, Miles began to help Hobart repair and maintain his prosthetic. Hobart also began to doubt his future in Parker Industry. He had never liked to be confined to a system, and although Peter helped him a lot, he still wanted to be his own person, fought for his own ideals. So as soon as Miles and Hobart were able to fix his prosthetic on their own, Hobart left Parker Industry and moved in with Miles.
- They started dating after 2 years of knowing each other (Aaron thanked heaven and earth that his nephew finally stopped blue-ball that Hobart boy, his head hurt every time he has to witness their awkward flirting đđ), when Miles G. met Miles 1610, he and Hobart had been officially dating for a few months.
So basic timeline: first meeting Miles G. was 13 / Hobart was 15 -> worked together as Prowlers team at 14 / 16 -> Hobart left Parker Industry / they started dating when Miles is 15 and Hobart is 17 -> meet Miles 1610.
Well thatâs all for now, so when I draw that AU itâs based on that groundwork. Cheers!
#*pull up a whole bulletin board*#here is the lore to this AU I completely make up in my head#punkflower#x2 prowler au
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Dear My Dear -
an @forgettable-au fan-slideshow
At the end of their journey, Sans has remembered everything. And theres only one question on his mind nowâŠ
*now what?
Its lore time. omg theres so much-
The way ill organize thisâŠlIll start with the GENERAL thing, before getting more spesific, and explain each slide in way too much detail.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
This is the hypothetical end to their journey. Sans and Papyrus remember what happened, and this is how Sans is handling it. A letter to Wingdings.
I was hesitant to make this at first for obvious reasons- we dont know how its gonna end!!! But I took this more as a âwhat if ?â scenario. IF they ever remember anything, how would Sans specifically, react? I mean thats gotta be tough.
Because of that though, lot of what happened to lead up to this is kept vague.
ill explain in way more detail how Sans got to the point of writing this letter, and how he feels in the end when I explain each slide individually. But the reason why, the MAIN ISSUE isâŠ
Over the years, hes put so much effort into enjoying what he has. And- nothings even changed!!! So why does he feel so much has? Now that he remembers what he lostâŠWHO he lost. He cant help but have this voice in the back of his head that says âwould it have been better if that never happened? if Papyrus never existed?â and of course he absolutely hates to think that! but the voice gets louder. Writing this letter, is an act of closure. Of laying to rest someone he never got to. Someone he never even really got to do much with.
(Excuse the shitty quality of the images- I promise theyâre better. WATCH THE VIDEO)
my dear wingdings,)
Sans says âwingdingsâ here instead of âbrotherâ. thatâs important. Also its on a white void, showing a sorta âheavenly imageryâ with the mention of Wingdings. Also Gaster is in a BLACK void, but hes talking about WD here, so, contradictions.
you never came back, and nowâŠafter remembering everything everything clearly i understand why.)
Sans and Papyrus are sitting by a fire at night. They are both sorta lost in their own worlds at the moment, but are more or less leaning on one another for comfort and support. They both need each other right now despite each other being the whole reason why they feel the way they do right now-
Papyrus is notably no longer wearing the white coat that somewhat resembles a lab coat. Symbolism! Growth!
(art note: I drew Sans as a lefty in this- cherish it. It was so hard to draw these hands at these angles- CHERISH IT.)
i donât imagine youâll receive this letter, but i, nonetheless, must send it. wingdingsâŠ.oh âdingsâŠ)
the first part is somewhat of a self aware/sarcastic joke. Sans is writing this letter for himself- he doesnât imagine Wingdings, the dead man, will ever see it. Nor would Gaster care to read it. Thats another important thing, this is NOT a letter for Gaster. This is a letter for Wingdings. which is for Sans
The star in the sky symbolizes a few different things- the main one being Wingdings ofc. But also Papyrusâ expectations of himself- which mainly come from who he was. Heâs looking at it, reflecting, thinking of what Wingdings did, and what Papyrus has done. Who he is NOW, and if he ever was Wingdings.
Or if Wingdings just became him.
A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isnât a square type thing.
i was just starting to dream the silliest- the softest of dreams. i miss you. and i will always miss you.)
2 contradictions, what Sans used to think, vs what he knows now. The memories were fuzzy- he couldnât remember The Royal Scientist, he just feels like he remembers some nice times. Before now knowing everything clearly. And he still misses it- slightly.
The reflections are blacked out at first, before showing their future selves. Before, there was no connection to the present because it wasnt true. It felt like/was 2 completely different things
but i cannot live like that.)
Sans can still tell, even without the rose tinted glasses view he used to have, he cant live missing the past and not living in the present. He always knew that, but repeating it here makes him feel better.
Pictured is Sans and Papyrus hiking up the mountain next to the city as the sun sets. Papyrus is in full view of the light, but is facing away in order to help Sans see it too. Symbolism!
and it seems you cannot live any other way.)
another reference to the fact that Wingdings cant live⊠at all now. But also an awareness that part of him lives on in Gaster. The thing that killed him.
I doubt hes going to change in any way by the end of the comics, heâs far to obsessive about angels and the player for childish stuff like âgrowthâ and âchanging for the better as a human beingâ
when i was with you, the world made sense. but now that we are apart, i see clearly that your world is not a world from which one can escape.)
When they were together, they knew what they wanted to be. They wanted to be scientists. But after being apart so long and experiencing so much uncertainty, Sans finds that mindset is unhealthy. Again, a lot of this is stuff he already knew, but is repeating to himself because after remembering everything, he feels as if hes back at square one.
As kids they would test echo flowers, for science purposes! We donât know yet if WDs voice comes through on them, but I imagine not⊠maybe. But for this weâre gonna say no. Their speech bubbles are trying so hard to be circles- the scribbles also somewhat resemble stars because I thought thatâd be fun.
But the last slide has it shown that he dug them out, also for science purposes!
He took the echo flowers from their roots, much later on in his lab career. That in itself isnt that bad, but it symbolizes that he doesnât care much for taking things slow. He wants to test with echo flowers? **TAKES EVERY SINGLE ONE WITHIN A 100 MILE RADIUS**
Also the empty holes reflects sort of what happened after he died. All of the underground was left with holes to fill. Sans, a childhood/brother. Alphys, the royal scientist. Those are the main ones but he was THE ROYAL SCIENTIST im sure there were more (smaller) holes that may or may not have been filled.
Ok and the last thing the flowers being taken out represent- he took the ones specifically from when they were kids, and abandoned what was left for the grass to grow tall and the entire area to be, in general, a lot flatter. In his quest to basically never grow up and continue being the thing he KNEW he wanted to be since kindergarten- heâs taken everything and left the rest in the dust. Heâs The Royal Scientist now, he âdoesnât need anything else.â
iâm so sorry. for everything. for everything long ago, and for starting up that machine again.
Sans knows he could have been better. He could have done things differently, and that thought messes with him, even before he remembered.
The 2nd image is Sans at Grillbys after another failed attempt to get Wingdings outside. Despite the fact that he could have done things differently, theres no real reason to be âsorryâ But still, he cant help but feel like he should be. He could have done things differently- could have tried harder, and gotten Wingdings out more often- or at all.
Im not sure where the machine in Sansâ lab comes into play in this AU, but it worked for the purposes of this audio.
theres a good man within you, wingdings. but he is wrestling with a giant. and the giant WINS time and again.)
Before everything, there was still a good man inside Wingdings that Sans saw. But now that heâs Gaster he just cant see him ever changing... and yknow what hes probably right. Like Papyrus says! Anyone can be a good person if they just try!âŠGaster just isnt trying
âWinsâ being emphasized here, I enjoy, since its sorta a video gamey term. The giant hes wrestling is that/the player, after all. Also probably his ego
I also had fun with kid Wingdings and what heâs drawing. Ofc its all him and Sans plus silly little stars, but him being finished drawing Sans, but not yet finished drawing himself, symbolizes the fact that at that age he still didnât really know what he wanted to be, I feel like Wingdings kinda remembers the past wrong. Sure he definitely had science on the mind, but younger kids are often filled with questions, he questions if thats truly where heâd be the happiest.
Thats the good man within him
youâve broken my soul again, and i fear i have broken yours. and for that i will never forgive myself, but i need to let you go now.)
the star represents, again, Wingdings. And the moon represents Sans, which shines only under the Suns (Papyrusâ) light.
The sun is beginning to rise, and Sans and Papyrus are beginning to leave. Sans puts out the fire, closing this chapter of his life.
Because of every reason he needed to relearn/re-reflect on listed here, hes ready to let Wingdings go now. Sans is the one to put out the fire here, and not Papyrus, cause this is from the perspective of how SANS handles putting this issue to rest. Papyrus can have his own fire to put out later
Another thing about putting out the fire, thats just kinda common knowledge to do especially at a public camping spot. Yknow what else is common knowledge to do so you dont disrupt the community?? NOT REPLANTING FLOWERS-
Its not that deepâŠbut still-
i send you the radio you made many years ago when we were kids. not because i dont want it, but⊠because i care for it far too much and it reminds me too much of you.)
CALL BACK!!!!!!
Sans leaves this last memento to Wingdings, the last thing they have that has nothing to do with Papyrus. Because at this point theres no reason to keep it, in Sansâ mind at least. Thereâs also no reason to destroy it- Like he says, hes not leaving it out of malice, theres just no good that will come from keeping it and holding onto the past.
As the sun rises, here we see the brothers leaving. in contrast to before, Sans is helping Papyrus down. Helping him down from the spotlight, the expectations heâs set upon himself. Another kick that Papyrus still has much more to reflect on and think about, heâs still looking back at that light, at a shooting star, at everything he thought he wanted to be.
i hope one day you will find some kind people who with appreciate you. for it kept me thinking of you all these years.)
GASTER FOLLOWERS!!!
Despite everything, Sans still wants whats left of Wingdings, Gaster, to be happy and find something, anyone, that will give him true happiness. Itâs left ambiguous however if they truly do, do that for him. If itâs at all healthy.
cause frankly i have no idea how theyll be included. but just like everything- i cant wait to find out
EDIT: something important (and really wordy-) I just remembered and forgot to mention: the wording change âi hope you will find some kind people who will appreciate youâ. I chose this because I think itâs the thing Wingdings and Papyrus just want the most. To be appreciated- to be loved for who they are. Sans is/has been so happy that Papyrus has found those people in Undyne, Toriel, Asgore, andïżœïżœhopefullllyyy Alphys? And now that Sans remembers Wingdings, and remembers how badly he wanted that, and how he never did. Sans cant help but feel horrible for him, and in turn, Gaster. Sans forgives Wingdings, and loves PapyrusâŠandâŠ.he just wants the best for Gaster. He hopes he can find true happiness in that twisted mind of hisâŠ
and i hope by returning it to you, i can finally be free. goodbye.
- your brother
As the sun rises, the star gets smaller and smaller and eventually the sun replaces it. Remember when I said Papyrus represents the sun? SYMBOLISM!!!
Also about that, the star shines brighter than anything, but the Sun is among a lot of clouds, depicting how isolated Wingdings is/was despite shining the brightest, vs Papyrus who also does indeed shine! but isnât isolated whatsoever.
Now, remember when I said Sans saying âmy dear wingdingsâ instead of âmy dear brotherâ was important? well, he acknowledges that he is still Wingdingsâ brother, despite everything. So he signs off as âyour brotherâ but⊠Heâll always try to remember Wingdings fondlyâŠbutâŠheâs unsure if he considers Wingdings his brother anymore- just because of how much theyâve changed. Thats why the whole thing is called Dear My Dear.
the radio + letter remains there in the end. I briefly played with the idea of having them disappear as the sun came out, implying that Gaster took the radio and reas the letter, but that was before I realized it was much better for this to be for Wingdings specifically, not Gaster/Wingdings/whatever.
FINALE!!! PLUS SOME BEHIND THE SCENES INFO!!!
weeps pitifully this was probably the most fun iâve had with a project/the most happy iâve come out of one. Learned lots about my processâ and what works! so thats awesome It took a while to make, so theres a lot of stuff I changed or ideas I scrapped that I find interesting, so im gonna show some of that on my side/shitpost account, @o-sunny-day
also isnt this so awesome???? I got a computer so I got to post more images than just 10, THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!
Have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Heres to being a bigger, better, and different person this year! except not really because despite everything its still you.
un-unless youâŠgot shattered across time and spaceâŠ. then youâre-
well I mean that-âŠ.. hmâŠ
does thatâŠ? hmm, wellâŠ.
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on my bike
PAIRINGÂ ïżœïżœ ghost rider!lee jeno x fem!reader (feat. yu jimin/karina)
TAGS ⏠fluff, action, romance, angst, hidden feelings, best friends to lovers au, marvel au, ghost rider au, superhero au, antihero jeno potentially, reader is actually a mutant named surge, but she doesn't know it yet, karina is basically emma frost, this is NOT canon to actual marvel lore lol, more inspired by comics than the movies, jeno is a mix between johnny blaze and danny ketch, wrote the word 'venegance' so many times im starting to believe jeno is batman actually
WARNINGS ⏠mentions of alcohol and drug abuse, jeno crashing out, stunts going wrong, and a fight scene
SUMMARY ⏠after a brutal attack, stunt motorcyclist lee jeno stumbles upon a cursed bike and becomes the ghost rider. now bound to the spirit of vengeance, he fights to control his hellish powers while you, his childhood best friend, fall under the influence of a powerful telepath. as your own abilities awaken and tensions ignite, one question remains: will you save each other or burn together?
WORD COUNT ⏠14.7k words
AUTHORâS NOTE ⏠for @sungbeam's action figures collab!!!!! tysm for letting me join, this was literally the first time i've ever participated in a collab... and it was so fun. definitely challenged myself here, i'm not used to writing super hero or such action-packed scenes so if it's bad i apologize lol. anyways title is inspired by purple kiss i am in love with them now actually.
PLAYLIST ⏠no roots - alice merton; on my bike - purple kiss; nightmare - halsey; highway to hell - ac/dc; play with fire - sam tinnesz, yacht money; bang bang bang - bigbang; million dollar baby - ava max; mad head love - kenshi yonezu; wanted dead or alive - bon jovi; the chain - fleetwood mac; house of memories - panic at the disco; hymn for the weekend - coldplay
âLEE JENO.â
you muttered under your breath, watching as the sound of a roaring motorcycle echoed through the streets of your city, a blur of black and chrome weaving recklessly through traffic. âOf course.â
The bell above the door jingled as Jeno strolled in, helmet in hand, his trademark smirk plastered across his annoyingly perfect face. His leather jacket was scuffed from what you could only assume was another unnecessary stunt, and his bleached white hair stuck to his forehead with sweat.
âGuess who just broke his own jump record,â he announced, sliding into the booth across from you.
âYou mean guess who just almost got himself killed,â you retorted, narrowing your eyes at him.
Jeno raised his hands in mock surrender. âRelax, Y/N. Itâs not like I landed on someoneâs house or anything.â
âNot this time,â you snapped, folding your arms. âSeriously, Jeno, you canât keep pulling this shit. Youâre going to hurt yourself. Or someone else.â
He rolled his eyes and leaned back, draping one arm casually over the seat. âWhatâs life without a little risk?â
âLife without you being the industryâs walking insurance liability?â you shot back. âSounds nice.â
For a second, his smirk faltered, but he quickly bounced back, leaning forward to snag a fry off your plate. âYou worry too much. Itâs cute, but unnecessary.â
âDonât call me cute,â you muttered, snatching your plate away before he could grab another fry. âAnd I wouldnât have to worry if you didnât make it your mission to stress me out every single day.â
âHey, if it makes you feel better, Iâm perfectly fine right now,â he said, his voice light but tinged with something defensive.
You gave him a pointed look, gesturing toward the fresh scrape on his arm. âWhat about that, then? Donât tell me thatâs from cooking. You never cook.â
Jeno glanced down at the scrape, shrugged, and smiled sheepishly. âFine, maybe Iâm a little scratched up.â
âScratched up doesnât even begin to cover it,â you muttered, your voice softening. âI donât know how much longer I can keep watching you do this to yourself, Jeno.â
His smile faded completely now. He suddenly shifted uncomfortably in his seat and grabbed his helmet. âLook, Y/N, I get it, okay? But this is who I am. You donât have to like it, but you donât have to stick around either.â
âThatâs not fair, and you know it,â you said, your voice cracking slightly. âYouâre my best friend. Iâm always going to stick around. But that doesnât mean Iâm just going to sit here and watch you destroy yourself.â
Jeno hesitated, the weight of your words settling in the space between you. âIâm fine,â he said, but the words lacked conviction. âYou donât have to worry about me.â
âYeah, well, too bad,â you replied, standing up and grabbing your jacket. âBecause I do. And one day, your luckâs going to run out, Jeno.â
The crowd at the high-stakes stunt show was massive. Rows of bleachers packed with spectators buzzed with anticipation. You sat near the front, hands gripping the edge of your seat, your stomach twisting in knots. Except it wasnât from excitement, but from anxiety.
Jeno was notorious for taking unnecessary risks, but tonight felt different. This wasnât just a local showcase; this was a high-profile event with reporters and big-shot sponsors. The stakes were higher, and so was the pressure.
Heâd even sworn he was âclean this time,â but you werenât convinced.
âLadies and gentlemen, get ready for the highlight of the evening!â the announcer boomed, his voice carrying over the speakers. âThe one, the onlyâLee Jeno!â
The roar of the crowd was deafening as Jeno rode into the arena, his sleek black motorcycle displayed under the spotlights. He raised one hand in acknowledgment of the cheers before revving up his engine, the rumble vibrating through the stands.
You exhaled sharply, muttering to yourself, âHe better not screw this up.â
âY/N!â Jenoâs voice rang out through his helmetâs mic, directly out of the speakers. He pointed at you, earning a cheer from the crowd. âThis oneâs for you!â
You rolled your eyes, your face heating up as you pulled your hands over your eyes. The spectators around you erupted into laughter and applause. âGreat,â you muttered. âNow Iâm part of the show.â
The announcer continued hyping up the crowd. âJeno will attempt a daring backflip over not one, not two, but three flaming trucks! A feat no rider has dared before!â
Your stomach sank. Flaming trucks? Three? You shot Jeno a warning glare as he revved the bike again, giving you a wink in response.
Oh weâre so fucked.
Unbeknownst to you or Jeno, a group of shadowy figures loitered near the equipment trucks at the edge of the arena. But they werenât here for the show. Instead, they were here for revenge. One of the men, a burly figure with a scar slicing through his brow, tightened his grip on a wrench.
âShowoff thinks he can cheat us and walk away?â he growled, âLetâs see him jump when his bike doesnât even make it halfway.â
The group moved swiftly, one of them sneaking into the mechanicsâ pit to tamper with Jenoâs ramp. Another slipped toward his bike, loosening key components. They didnât care about the collateral damage. This was to send a message.
Jeno revved his engine once more, signaling to the crew that he was ready. The crowd roared as he sped toward the first ramp, flames rippled against the sides of the trucks he was about to clear.
You leaned forward in your seat, heart pounding. âPlease donât die. Please donât die,â you muttered under your breath.
Jeno hit the ramp with precision, the bike soaring into the air like a black comet. The first flip was smooth, flawless even, and the crowd erupted in cheers.
But something went wrong on the descent.
The bike wobbled midair, tilting dangerously to the side. Jeno fought for control, but the tampered suspension buckled on impact with the second ramp. The motorcycle skidded, sparks flying as Jeno tumbled, his helmeted head slamming into the ground with a sickening thud.
The crowd gasped in unison, the cheers turning to horrified murmurs. You were on your feet in an instant, heart in your throat.
âJENO!â you screamed, scrambling down the bleachers toward the arena floor.
Before you could reach him, the saboteursâ plan spiraled even further out of control. The flames from the trucks flared, spreading to the hay bales that lined the arena. As you sprinted toward Jenoâs crumpled form, one of the burning bales exploded, sending debris flying.
You didnât even have time to react as a sharp piece of metal tore through the air, striking you across the side. Pain bloomed in your ribs, and you crumpled to the ground.
Dazed but conscious, Jeno pushed himself to his hands and knees, shaking off the stars in his vision. When his gaze landed on you lying motionless on the dirt, blood seeping into your shirt, something inside him snapped.
âNo, no, noâŠâ he muttered, dragging himself to his feet. His bike was destroyed, the flames were spreading, and you. You were hurt because of him.
Ignoring the chaos and his own injuries, Jeno stumbled toward you, scooping you into his arms. âStay with me, Y/N,â he whispered, his voice cracking. âPlease.â
He didnât know where to go, only that he had to get you help. Cradling your limp body, Jeno ran blindly, the roaring flames and chaos fading into the background. His arms ached from carrying you, your weight heavy but nothing compared to the crushing guilt that clawed at his chest. He glanced down at you, your face pale, a streak of blood running from your temple.
âYouâre gonna be fine. You hear me? Just fine.â he whispered hoarsely, his voice trembling.Â
The junkyard loomed ahead, its twisted silhouettes of rusted cars and mangled scrap metal casting long shadows under the moonlight. The attackers had scattered once the chaos at the arena spiraled out of control, but Jeno wasnât about to risk being found. Not with you like this.
He stumbled into the junkyard, his knees nearly buckling as he reached what looked like the remnants of an old garage. The air was thick with the metallic tang of rust and oil. He carefully laid you down on an old tarp, brushing a strand of hair from your face with shaking fingers.
âOkay, okayâŠâ Jeno muttered, looking around frantically. âThink, Jeno. Think. I need toâneed to stop the bleeding.â
He tore a strip from his tattered shirt and pressed it against the wound on your side, and watched as your chest slightly rose up and down. Relief flickered in his chest. This meant you were still alive.Â
The makeshift bandage was quickly soaked through. âDammit,â he hissed, running a hand through his hair, smearing grease and sweat across his face. He needed help, but there was no one here. No one exceptâ
The motorcycle.
It caught his eye in the far corner of the garage, half-buried under a pile of scrap. Its frame was unlike anything heâd ever seen, sleek yet ancient, with intricate carvings etched into the metal. It seemed almost alive, faintly glowing with an otherworldly orange light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
âWhat theâŠ?â Jeno muttered, taking an unsteady step toward it. He couldnât explain it, but something about the bike drew him in. The air around it felt heavier, charged with an unnatural energy that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
He glanced back at you, lying unconscious, and then at the motorcycle. Desperation clouded his judgment. Maybe. Just maybe? It could help. He didnât know how or why, but the pull was undeniable.
Jeno reached out, his fingers hovering over the handlebars. The metal was warm, almost hot to the touch, and the glow intensified as if reacting to his presence.
âThis is insane,â he muttered, but his hand closed around the grip anyway.
The second his skin made contact, a searing pain shot through his arm, up his spine, and into his skull. He screamed, his knees giving out as an overwhelming heat consumed him. Flames erupted from the motorcycle, engulfing him in a fiery inferno that didnât burn but felt like it was tearing him apart from the inside.
Memories flashed before his eyes. Every reckless decision, every lie, every failure. The faces of those heâd hurt, including yours, swam in his vision. And then, a voice echoed in his head.
âLee Jeno.â
Jenoâs body convulsed as the fire intensified, his skin crawling with molten energy. When the flames subsided, he was no longer the same. His hands burned with chains of fire, and his eyes glowed a fierce, demonic orange. He looked down at himself, his reflection faintly visible in the bikeâs chrome. His face was a skull, wreathed in flames. The Spirit of Vengeance had awakened. Jeno was its vessel.
âMy new Ghost Rider. Your sins are heavy. But your vengeance will be greater.â
âNo,â Jeno whispered, his voice distorted, sounding like something almost inhuman. âWhatâŠwhat did you do to me?â
And then, Jeno heard the shouts of the attackers. They had followed him, closing in to finish what they started.
But they werenât ready for what they found.
Jeno stood, the chains in his hands igniting with blistering heat. The Spirit of Vengeance surged within him, and with it came a single, overpowering urge: punish the guilty.
The attackers froze as he stepped forward, his skeletal face illuminated by the flickering flames. âYou came for me,â Jeno growled, his voice echoing unnaturally. âNow youâll burn for it.â
He lashed out with the chains, each strike searing through metal and flesh alike. The air was filled with screams as the flames consumed the saboteurs, leaving them scorched and broken. Vehicles erupted in explosions, sending shards of scrap flying through the air as the hellfire spread uncontrollably.
When the last of the attackers fell, Jeno stood motionless amidst the chaos, the flames dancing across his body slowly beginning to recede. The roar of the Spirit dimmed, leaving an oppressive silence in its wake.
And then he saw you.
The sight of your unconscious form lying so still on the ground sent a jolt through him. The fire in his chest flickered, replaced by an overwhelming horror. He dropped the chains and stumbled to your side, his skeletal hands trembling as he reached for you.
âY/N,â he whispered, his voice raw and human once more. The flames that had raged across his body faded completely, leaving him kneeling in the dirt, cradling you as his normal face returned.
Tears stung his eyes as he pulled you close, his arms wrapping protectively around your limp body. The junkyard was silent again, save for the faint crackle of dying embers.
âWhat have I done?â Jeno whispered, his voice breaking as he pressed his forehead to yours. Even as the Rider, his mind. his heart. It all was still his. He couldnât lose you.
The sound of distant sirens jolted him from his thoughts. He knew that if he stayed the two of you would be questioned. He gently lifted you onto the back of the fiery motorcycle, the flames reaching your body but leaving you unharmed. The bike seemed to growl beneath him, its power thrumming in his veins, and for the first time, Jeno felt a strange sense of control over the chaos.
With a sharp kick, the motorcycle roared forward, flames streaking behind it as Jeno sped off into the night.Â
The steady beep of a heart monitor was the first thing you heard as you drifted back into consciousness. It was followed by the faint hum of fluorescent lights and the sterile, antiseptic smell of a hospital room. Your body felt heavy, and when you tried to shift, a sharp pain lanced through your side.
âEasy,â a soft voice said.
Your eyes fluttered open to find Jeno sitting beside your bed, looking utterly wrecked. His black hoodie was rumpled, his knuckles bruised and scraped. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his normally cocky demeanor was nowhere to be found. Instead, he looked worried for once in his life, like he was afraid you might disappear if he blinked.
âJeno.â you rasped, your throat dry.Â
Relief flooded his face as he leaned forward, his hands gripping the edge of the bed. âYouâre okay,â he breathed. âYouâre okay.â
âJeno.â you repeated again, your voice stronger now.Â
He hesitated, guilt flickering across his face. âThere was an accident at the show,â he began cautiously. âYouâŠyou got hurt. But youâre safe now. I got you out of there.â
The memories suddenly came rushing back. The flaming trucks, the explosion, the searing pain in your side. And thenâŠnothing.
Your heart rate monitor began to beep faster as anger bubbled to the surface. âThe show,â you said bitterly. âOf course. Because you just had to pull another one of your stunts.â
âY/N, it wasnâtââ
âDonât,â you cut him off, your voice sharp. âDonât you dare try to defend yourself right now. I almost died, Jeno.â
His shoulders sagged, his gaze dropping to the floor. âI know,â he said quietly. âAnd Iâm so sorry. If I could take it backââ
âBut you canât, can you?â you snapped, your hands pointed at him accusedly. âYou canât take it back, Jeno. Because this is what you do. You push and you push until someone gets hurt, and this time, that someone was me.â
âI didnât mean for this to happen,â he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
âThatâs the problem,â you shot back. âYou never mean for it to happen, but it always does. And Iâm the one who has to pick up the broken pieces.â
Jeno flinched, like your words had physically struck him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
You shook your head, tears stinging your eyes. âI canât do this anymore, Jeno. I canât keep watching you destroy yourself with drugs and alcohol, while dragging everyone else down with you.â
âIâm trying to change,â he said desperately, leaning forward. âI swear, Y/N. Iâm done with all of it, theâŠeverything. Iâll stop.â
âYou always say that,â you muttered bitterly, turning your head away. âBut nothing ever changes.â
The room fell into a heavy silence, broken only by the faint beep of the heart monitor.
âIâll make it right,â Jeno said after a long pause, his voice trembling. âI donât know how yet, but I will. I promise.â
You didnât respond. You couldnât. The pain in your side was nothing compared to the ache in your chest. You couldnât even bring yourself to look at him as he slowly stood and stepped back.
âIâll let you rest,â he said quietly. âButâŠIâm not giving up on us, Y/N. Iâll prove to you that I can be better.â
The door clicked shut behind him, leaving you alone in the sterile, too-quiet room.
Sometimes Jenoâs promises were often just as hollow as the man who made them.
The roar of the motorcycle echoed through the empty streets as it skidded to a halt in the middle of an empty alley. Jeno ripped off his helmet, his chest heaving as he stumbled away from the bike. The orange glow of his eyes dimmed, leaving him in the dim light of a flickering street lamp.
âWhat the hell is happening to me?â he muttered, running a hand through his damp hair. His reflection stared back at him in a cracked windowâhuman again, but the memory of his skeletal visage haunted him.
This wasnât the first night heâd changed. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt itâthe fire in his veins, the overwhelming urge to hunt, to punish. It wasnât just a feeling; it was a presence. Some demon was inside him, whispering in his mind, urging him to give in.
âThey deserve to burn.â
The voice was deep and guttural. It slithered through his thoughts like a venomous snake, tightening its hold every time he tried to ignore it.
âIâm not listening to you,â Jeno growled, gripping his head as the voice chuckled darkly.
âYou canât silence me, Jeno. Youâre mine now. Weâre one.â
The demon never introduced itself. It didnât need to. Jeno already knew as soon as he touched that damn motorcycle. Zarathos. The Spirit of Vengeance. The demon that had bound itself to his soul, using his body as a vessel.
Jeno clenched his fists, the faint glow of hellfire flickering across his knuckles. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. âI didnât ask for this,â he said through gritted teeth. âIâm not a killer.â
âBut you are a sinner,â Zarathos hissed. âAnd sinners punish sinners. The world is full of filth, and we will cleanse it.â
âNo,â Jeno snapped, his voice echoing in the empty alley. âIâm not your executioner.â
The demonâs laughter rang in his head, low and mocking. âYou say that now. But you felt it, didnât you? The thrill? The power? The fire in your blood when you burned them? You enjoyed it.â
Jenoâs stomach churned at the memory of the attackers writhing in agony, the fire consuming them. He hadnât wanted to hurt themâat least, not like that. But Zarathos was right about one thing: the power was intoxicating. And that terrified him.
He slammed his fist into the brick wall, leaving a charred dent in the crumbling stone. âYouâre not in control,â he growled. âI am.â
âFor now.â
By day, Jeno tried to maintain some semblance of normalcy. He performed his stunts, practiced at the arena, and plastered on a smile for his fans. But every time he climbed onto a bike, the fire inside him stirred, eager to be unleashed.
It was always worse at night.
Jeno stood on the rooftop of a dilapidated building, the city sprawled out below him like a labyrinth of shadows and flickering lights. The Spirit of Vengeance buzzed in his chest, pulling him toward something or someone.
He saw the scene before he heard it: a man in an alleyway, grabbing a young woman by the wrist. She screamed, struggling to pull away as the man loomed over her, a knife glinting in his hand.
Jenoâs vision blurred, his body moving on autopilot. The flames ignited before he even touched the bike, and when the Ghost Rider landed in the alley, the ground cracked beneath the weight of his fiery presence.
The man froze, his eyes wide with terror as the skeletal figure loomed over him.Â
âYou,â Jeno growled, his voice layered with Zarathosâ demonic timbre. âYou prey on the innocent. What do you think you deserve?â
The man dropped the knife, stumbling backward. âIâI didnât mean toâplease, donât hurt me!â
But the Spirit of Vengeance didnât care for apologies. The chains in Jenoâs hands ignited, wrapping around the man and lifting him off the ground.
âStop,â Jeno muttered, his human voice fighting to break through. âHeâs not worth it.â
âHeâs guilty,â Zarathos snarled. âAnd guilt demands punishment.â
The man screamed as the chains tightened, the hellfire scorching his skin. Jenoâs hands trembled, his skull burning brighter as he fought to regain control.
âHeâs human,â Jeno argued. âI wonât kill him.â
The demon roared in frustration but relented, the chains loosening just enough to drop the man to the ground. The would-be attacker scrambled to his feet and ran, his screams fading into the distance.
Jeno stood in the alley, the flames around him slowly fading. He turned to the woman, who was staring at him with equal parts fear and gratitude.
âGo home,â he said gruffly, his voice still tinged with the Riderâs growl.
She nodded quickly, thanking him and disappearing into the night.
When the alley was silent again, Jeno collapsed against the wall, his human form returning. He buried his face in his hands, his body trembling.
âYou see?â Zarathos sneered. âYou canât stop me forever. And soon, you wonât want to.â
Jeno closed his eyes, the weight of the demonâs presence pressing down on him. He didnât know how long he could keep fighting. But for now, he had to try.
The neon glow of the gas station sign flickered in and out, bathing the parking lot in harsh, artificial light. Jeno leaned against his motorcycle, a half-empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. His hoodie was pulled low over his face, but anyone who looked close enough would see the cracks in his façadeâthe trembling hands, the bloodshot eyes, the faint glow that threatened to seep from his skin if he let his guard down.
The whiskey burned his throat, but not nearly as much as the fire that roared in his chest every night. Zarathos was relentless, clawing at the edges of his sanity, and the only way Jeno could silence him was by drowning himself in the haze of alcohol and pills.
âJust a little longer,â he muttered to himself, taking another swig. âJust until I figure this out.â
The lie tasted bitter, but it was easier to believe than the truth. He was losing control.
The next morning, you found him slumped over in his garage, reeking of smoke and booze. You hadnât heard from him since you were discharged from the hospital, so you wanted to at least check in on him. But you werenât pleased with what you saw. So much for promising change.Â
âJeno,â you said sharply, crossing your arms as you stood in the doorway.
He stirred, groaning as he lifted his head. âY/N? What are you doing here?â
âI should be asking you that,â you shot back. âWhy arenât you at practice? Or, I donât know, trying to clean up your mess for once?â
He winced at your words, sitting up and rubbing his temples. âNot now, okay? Iâve got a headache that makes me want to kill myself right now.â
You scoffed, stepping closer and yanking the bottle out of his hand. âAre you serious right now? This is what youâre doing with your time? Drinking yourself into oblivion while Iâm out here trying to recover from almost dying?â
âIâm trying to deal with it!â Jeno snapped, his voice louder than he intended. He stood, swaying slightly, his eyes bloodshot and tired. âYou think this is easy for me? You think I donât hate myself for what happened to you?â
âThen stop making it worse!â you shot back, your voice rising to match his. âYouâre spiraling, Jeno, and youâre not fighting this addiction at all.â
âI didnât ask for this!â he shouted, his voice cracking.Â
The raw emotion in his tone caught you off guard, and for a moment, neither of you spoke.
Jeno exhaled shakily, running a hand through his messy hair. âI didnât ask for any of this,â he said quietly. âBut Iâm trying. I swear Iâm trying.â
You shook your head, your anger softening but not disappearing. âIf this is your idea of trying, Jeno, then youâre failing.â
As you turned to leave, something stopped you. A memory from the news. Whispers of a âfiery skeletonâ that had been spotted taking down criminals in the dead of night. You hesitated, glancing over your shoulder.
âJeno,â you said cautiously. âYouâve been out a lot at night. You wouldnât happen to know or run into that âfire guyâ people are talking about, would you?â
His entire body stiffened, his back turned to you. He didnât answer right away, but the silence was damning. â...No.â
âJeno,â you pressed, stepping closer. âWhatâs going on? What arenât you telling me?â
âItâs nothing,â he muttered, his voice strained. âJustâŠforget about it, okay?â
But you didnât believe him. Not for a second.
âJeno,â you said again, your voice soft but firm. âLook at me.â
He didnât move.
âJeno, look at me,â you repeated, more insistent this time.
Finally, he turned, and for the briefest moment, you swore you saw itâa faint glow in his eyes, like embers dying out. Your stomach twisted, a mix of fear and concern swirling in your chest.
âWhat happened to you?â you whispered, your voice barely audible.
Jeno shook his head, stepping back. âYou donât want to know,â he said quietly.
âYes, I do,â you insisted. âIâve known you my whole life, Jeno. Iâve stood by you through everything. Donât shut me out now.â
But he just shook his head again, grabbing his helmet and heading for the door. âI canât,â he said, his voice hollow. âIâm sorry, Y/N.â
And with that, he was gone, leaving you alone in the dimly lit garage, more confused and worried than ever before.
So you needed a change of pace. If Jeno wanted to shut you out, then maybe you could use your time to focus on yourself more.Â
You found yourself in your favorite cafe. The snug little store was warm, the scent of roasted coffee beans wrapping around you like a comforting hug. You were halfway through your drink, scrolling aimlessly on your phone, when the chair across from you was pulled out.
âMind if I join you?â
You looked up, startled, to see a strikingly beautiful woman with an air of effortless confidence. Platinum blonde hair framed her sharp, elegant features, and her icy blue eyes sparkled with curiosity. Her tailored white coat and knee-high boots screamed sophistication, making you suddenly self-conscious of the oversized hoodie and jeans youâd thrown on.
âUhâŠsure?â you replied hesitantly, gesturing to the chair.
She smiled, setting down her drink with precision. âI hope Iâm not intruding. You looked like you could use some company.â
You raised an eyebrow. âDo I?â
She tilted her head, studying you like you were an interesting puzzle. âCall it intuition.â
âI guess youâre not wrong,â you admitted, leaning back in your chair. âItâs beenâŠa rough few weeks.â
âIâm Karina,â she said smoothly, extending a hand.
âY/N,â you replied, shaking it. Her grip was cool and firm, her smile almost too perfect.
âSo, Y/N,â Karina said, resting her chin on her hand. âWhatâs been weighing on you? Iâm a great listener.â
You hesitated. Something about her was disarming, almost magnetic. Before you could stop yourself, the words started spilling out. âItâsâŠcomplicated. Letâs just say someone I care about is making it really hard to keep caring about them.â
Karina nodded sympathetically, her expression never wavering. âThe burden of loyalty. Itâs a heavy one, isnât it? Is this about a man?â
âYeah,â you said, surprised by how much her words resonated. âIâve known him forever, but latelyâŠI donât even recognize him anymore. Heâs hiding something, and itâs tearing us apart.â
Karina sipped her drink, her gaze never leaving yours. âSometimes, people hide because theyâre afraid. Afraid of being judged, or rejected. But that doesnât excuse them from the hurt they cause.â
You blinked, caught off guard by how accurately sheâd summed up your feelings. âExactly,â you said quietly.
âI know itâs not my place,â Karina continued, her tone gentle, âbut maybe you need to take a step back. Focus on yourself for a while. You canât save someone who doesnât want to be saved.â
Her harsh words settled over you, surprised at her directness. But it was comforting to hear such honesty for once.
âI was thinking of it, but I donât want to lose him either.â you admitted.
Karinaâs smile widened just a fraction. âWell, if you ever need someone to talk to, other than him, Iâm here.â She slid a sleek, white business card across the table. âCall me anytime.â
You picked up the card, turning it over in your hands. There was no title, no addressâjust her name and a number embossed in silver.
âThanks,â you said, tucking it into your pocket.
âDonât mention it,â Karina said, standing gracefully. âTake care of yourself, Y/N. You deserve it.â
Over the next few days, Karina became a fixture in your life. Sheâd text you to check in, send little messages of encouragement, and even invite you out for coffee or dinner.
At first, you were wary. People didnât just waltz into your life like this without a reason. But Karina was warm, attentive, and had an uncanny ability to say exactly what you needed to hear. Plus, she was looking for friends in the city too since she had just moved here.Â
âSo, whatâs the full deal with this guy?â she asked one evening over dinner, sipping a glass of wine. âThe one whoâs been giving you all this grief.â
âHis name is Lee Jeno,â you said reluctantly. âHeâs myâŠwell, weâve been friends since we were kids. But heâs got issues. Big ones.â
âOh damn. The stunt biker guy.â Karina raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. âIssues like âhe forgot your birthday,â or issues like âheâs a raging alcoholic or drug addict or some other addictionâ?â
You laughed, though it was tinged with unease. âCloser to the second one, honestly. Well, heâs always struggled with it. Yet, heâs been acting so weird lately. Disappearing at night, avoiding my questions. And sometimes, when I look at him, itâs like heâs not even Jeno anymore.â
Karina leaned forward, her expression unreadable. âAnd youâre sure itâs just him trying to hide his addiction? NothingâŠbigger going on?â
The question caught you off guard. âWhat do you mean?â
âOh, nothing,â Karina said breezily, waving a hand. âJust that sometimes, people go through changes. Big changes. Ones they donât know how to explain. And sometimes, it takes someone else to help them see their true potential.â
You frowned, her words stirring something deep inside you. âI donât know. Jenoâs not exactly the âask for helpâ type.â
Karinaâs smile turned enigmatic, her blue eyes practically glowing. âMaybe not. But some people just need the right nudge. And who better to do that than you?â
There was something in her tone, something that made your skin prickle. But before you could dwell on it, Karina raised her glass in a toast.
âTo new beginnings,â she said, her voice smooth as silk.
You hesitated, then clinked your glass against hers. âTo new beginnings.â
As you drank, you couldnât shake the feeling that Karina knew more about your life and Jenoâs than maybe she was letting on.
The opulent room was bathed in shadows, the flickering light of a chandelier casting jagged shapes on the polished mahogany walls. Karina stood at the center of the large, round table, her white ensemble a stark contrast against the roomâs dark and decadent decor. Around her sat the upper echelon of the Hellfire Club, an underground organization of mutants with a reputation for ruthlessness and manipulation.
âKarina,â a deep, commanding voice said, breaking the silence. It belonged to the Black King, the leader of the group, whose piercing gaze bore into her. âMy dearest White Queen. Youâve been unusually proactive lately. Care to share whatâs captured your attention?â
Karina smiled coolly, folding her hands in front of her. âIâve found somethingâor rather, someoneâof immense potential.â
The Black Queen, a woman with sharp features and an even sharper tongue, leaned forward with an arched brow. âDo tell. Potential isnât exactly rare these days. Why is this someone worth our time?â
Karina stepped closer to the table, her heels clicking against the marble floor. âHer name is Y/N. Sheâs a baseline human. Or so she thinks. Sheâs yet to manifest her mutant abilities.â
She paused, letting the words sink in before continuing. âHer energy isâŠraw, untapped, but powerful. Iâve felt it. Itâs dormant now, but when it awakens, it will rival even the strongest of us. Iâm surprised itâs taking her so long to manifest, but thatâs what makes it so powerful.â
The Black King steepled his fingers, his expression unreadable. âAnd what makes you so certain sheâs worth the effort? If her powers havenât manifested yet, thereâs no guarantee they ever will.â
Karina tilted her head, a hint of amusement in her smile. âOh, they will. Iâve already seen the signsâsubtle as they are. Her emotions are volatile, and sheâs drawn to chaos like a moth to flame. Itâs only a matter of time before the spark ignites.â
The Black Queenâs lips curved into a smirk. âInteresting. And what do you propose we do with her once this âsparkâ ignites?â
Karinaâs smile turned predatory, her blue eyes gleaming. âWe guide her. Shape her. Iâm sensing some crazy electrical forces. Imagine what we could accomplish with her power under our control.â
âAnd if she refuses?â the Black King asked, his tone cold and measured.
Karinaâs expression didnât falter. âThen we ensure she has no choice. After all, loyalty is just another form of control. And Iâve already begun earning hers.â
A murmur rippled through the room as the other members exchanged intrigued glances.
The Black King leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing. âYouâre playing a dangerous game, Karina. But if you can deliver on your promises, the rewards will be worth the risk.â
âI always deliver,â Karina said smoothly.
The Black Queen raised her glass, the golden liquid catching the light. âThen hereâs to your little pet project. Letâs hope sheâs everything you claim she is.â
Karina raised her own glass in return, her smile never wavering.Â
âOh, she will be.â
Jeno stood outside the cafĂ©, arms crossed and jaw tight as he watched through the window. There you were, sitting across from Karina again, laughing at something sheâd said. The way you leaned in, the way she smiled that calculated, flawless smileâit all set his teeth on edge.
He clenched his fists, the faint flicker of flames threatening to ignite beneath his skin. Zarathos stirred in the back of his mind, growling low like an animal sensing danger.
âSheâs not who she seems,â the demon whispered, its voice grating like embers crackling.
Jeno didnât need Zarathos to tell him that. Heâd felt it the moment heâd laid eyes on Karina. Something about her was too perfect, too polished. And the way sheâd latched onto you so quickly? It wasnât right.
He waited until Karina had left before stepping inside. You looked up, surprised to see him, but your expression quickly shifted to irritation.
âWhat are you doing here?â you asked, your tone defensive.
Jeno didnât answer right away, pulling up a chair and sitting across from you. His leather jacket creaked as he leaned forward, his dark eyes searching yours. âWe need to talk.â
You sighed, already bracing yourself. âIf this is about Karinaââ
âIt is about her,â he cut in, his voice firm. âY/N, you donât know her. Not really.â
âAnd you do?â you shot back, crossing your arms.
âI donât need to,â he said, his tone rising. âSomething about her is off. I can feel it.â
You rolled your eyes, exasperated. âOh, great. Now weâre relying on your âfeelingsâ to judge people? Like your intuition ever worked in the first place. Iâm lucky to be alive right now.â
Jenoâs jaw tightened. âIâm serious, Y/N. Sheâs not who she says she is. People donât just waltz into your life and start playing therapist out of the goodness of their hearts.â
âMaybe she actually cares,â you snapped. âUnlike someone who disappears for days at a time without a word and comes back smelling like smoke and regret.â
Jeno flinched at your words, but he pushed forward. âIâm not perfect, okay? But I know when someoneâs trouble. And Karina? Sheâs got âtroubleâ written all over her.â
âWhy do you even care?â you demanded, your voice rising. âYou donât get to swoop in and play the hero after everything thatâs happened. I donât need your permission to make new friends.â
Jeno looked at you, his expression a mix of frustration and something softerâhurt, maybe. âI care because I donât want you to get hurt. Again.â
For a moment, you almost softened. Almost.
But then you thought about Karina. How she listened, how she didnât judge you, how she made you feel seen in a way Jeno hadnât in months.
âYou donât get to tell me who I can and canât trust,â you said coldly. âKarinaâs been more of a friend to me lately than you have.â
Jeno stared at you, his lips pressed into a thin line. âYouâre making a mistake,â he said quietly.
âThen itâs my mistake to make,â you shot back.
He stood, his chair scraping against the floor as he shoved it back. âFine,â he muttered, turning to leave. âBut donât say I didnât warn you.â
Later that evening, you met Karina at her apartment. A sleek, modern space with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city. God, you were poor as hell. She greeted you with a warm smile, handing you a glass of wine as you settled onto her plush couch.
âYou seem tense,â she noted, sitting gracefully across from you.
âJust had another fight with Jeno,â you admitted, swirling the wine in your glass. âHeâs convinced youâre some kind ofâŠvillain or something.â
Karina chuckled, the sound light and melodic. âHe doesnât trust me?â
âNot even a little,â you said, shaking your head. âItâs like heâs looking for reasons to push me away.â
Karina reached out, placing a hand over yours. Her touch was cool and comforting. âSometimes people lash out because theyâre afraid. Fear can make them see threats where there are none.â
You sighed, leaning back. âI just donât get it. Why canât he see that youâre trying to help me?â
Karinaâs expression softened, but there was a flicker of something behind her eyesâsomething calculated. âItâs because he doesnât understand you the way I do. Youâre special, Y/N. More than you realize.â
You frowned, her words catching you off guard. âSpecial? What do you mean?â
Karina smiled enigmatically, her fingers brushing against yours. âYouâll see. In time.â
Her words left a lingering unease in your chest, but you pushed it aside. Karina had been nothing but kind to you. Jeno didnât know what he was talking about.
Jeno leaned against the wall of his garage, staring blankly at the ground. Zarathos growled in the back of his mind, restless and impatient.
âYou should have burned her,â the demon hissed.
Jeno closed his eyes, his hands balling into fists. âShut up.â
âSheâs manipulating her. The girl you care for. Canât you feel it?â
Jenoâs jaw clenched. He didnât need Zarathos to tell him that. But what could he do? You werenât listening to him, and every time he tried to warn you, it only pushed you further away.
âThen stop warning her,â Zarathos said, his voice low and menacing. âAnd show her what that woman truly is.â
Jeno opened his eyes, the flames flickering faintly in his irises. For once, he found himself agreeing with the demon.Â
âYouâre finally listening,â Zarathos hissed, its voice echoing in Jenoâs head.
âDonât get used to it,â Jeno muttered, gripping the handlebars of the bike. âI didnât ask for you, and Iâm not letting you run the show.â
The Spirit of Vengeance laughed, a dark, grating sound that sent chills down Jenoâs spine. âYou think you can control me, boy? Youâre nothing without me.â
Jeno scowled, the flames creeping up his arms flaring brighter in response to his frustration. âYou donât get it, do you? Iâm not doing this for you. Iâm doing this for her.â
âAh, the girl,â Zarathos sneered. âYou think sheâll forgive you? That sheâll see you as anything but a monster?â
âShe will,â Jeno said firmly, his voice steady despite the doubt gnawing at him. âBut first, I need to figure out how to use thisâŠwhatever this is.â
Zarathos growled. âVengeance isnât a tool, boy. Itâs a purpose. A fire that consumes everything in its path.â
âYeah, well, Iâm not here to burn the world down,â Jeno snapped. âIâm here to protect it.â
The Spirit laughed again, its voice dripping with disdain. âWeâll see how long that lasts.â
Determined to understand his new abilities, Jeno spent every spare moment testing the limits of his powers. He discovered that the flames responded to his emotions, roaring to life when he was angry or scared and flickering out when he calmed himself.
One night, he stood in the middle of an abandoned road, the cursed motorcycle idling beside him. He took a deep breath, focusing on the growing warmth in his chest, and held out his hand. A whip of fire erupted from his palm, coiling and snapping like a living thing.
âNot bad,â he muttered to himself, extinguishing the whip with a flick of his wrist.
But every small victory was overshadowed by the constant presence of Zarathos. The Spiritâs voice was a relentless whisper in his mind, urging him to give in, to embrace the fire and let it consume him.
âWhy fight it?â Zarathos taunted. âYouâve felt it, havenât you? The power. The thrill.â
Jeno ignored the voice, climbing onto the motorcycle and revving the engine. The flames along its frame flared to life, illuminating the darkness around him.
âIâm not your puppet,â he muttered, tightening his grip on the handlebars.
âWeâll see,â the Spirit replied, its laughter echoing in his ears as he sped down the road.
One evening, while patrolling the outskirts of town, Jeno stumbled upon a group of men mugging an elderly woman in an alley. His first instinct was to intervene, but as the flames began to crawl up his arms, Zarathosâ voice returned, stronger than ever.
âPunish them,â it hissed. âMake them suffer.â
Jeno hesitated, his heart pounding. The men turned to face him, their eyes widening in fear as they took in his glowing eyes and the flames licking at his jacket.
âHey, man, we donât want any trouble,â one of them stammered, backing away.
Jeno clenched his fists, the fire burning hotter. Zarathos was screaming in his mind now, urging him to unleash his fury.
âThey deserve it!â the Spirit roared. âTheyâre guilty!â
But as Jeno looked at the terrified men, he saw something elseâfear. Regret. They werenât innocent, but they werenât beyond saving, either.
âNo,â Jeno said aloud, his voice steady. âNot like this.â
He extinguished the flames, stepping forward and forcing the men to flee with nothing more than his presence. The elderly woman thanked him tearfully, but as he walked away, the weight of Zarathosâ disapproval settled over him like a storm cloud.
âYouâre weak,â the Spirit snarled. âOne day, youâll see. Mercy has no place in vengeance.â
âMaybe not,â Jeno muttered, mounting his motorcycle. âBut Iâm not just vengeance. Iâm also me.â
The more Jeno used his powers, the more he began to notice strange connectionsâpatterns he couldnât ignore. The criminals he encountered often mentioned a name in hushed tones: Karina.
One night, he followed a lead to an abandoned warehouse, where he found a cache of high-tech weapons and equipment. The markings on the crates were unmistakable. This wasnât ordinary crime.
âSheâs not just some innocent bystander,â Jeno muttered, running a hand through his hair.
âYouâre finally catching on,â Zarathos sneered. âSheâs more dangerous than you know. And she has her sights set on your girl.â
Jenoâs heart sank. He didnât want to believe it, but the evidence was piling up. Karina wasnât who she seemed, and if she was connected to you, that meant you were in more danger than you realized.
He revved his motorcycle, the flames roaring to life. âNot on my watch,â he muttered, speeding off into the night.
The fire burned hotter now, fueled by a new determination. Jeno wasnât just fighting to control the Spirit of Vengeance anymore. He was fighting to save you.
You sat in Karinaâs sleek, modern apartment, the dim lighting casting long shadows on the pristine walls. A strange tension filled the room. Karinaâs usually serene demeanor had shifted; there was an intensity in her gaze, something calculating behind her sharp blue eyes.
âYouâve felt it, havenât you?â Karina asked, her voice soft yet commanding.
âFelt what?â you asked, frowning as you set your cup of tea on the table.
âThat spark,â she said, leaning forward, her fingers steepled beneath her chin. âThe moments when your emotions run highâfear, anger, painâand something stirs inside you. Something you canât explain.â
You blinked, your pulse quickening. You had felt somethingâfleeting moments of electric energy coursing through your body, like static building up but never quite releasing. But youâd written it off as stress or adrenaline.
âHow do you know about that?â you asked warily.
Karina smiled, a knowing, almost maternal expression crossing her face. âBecause Iâve seen it before. I know what you are, Y/N.â
Your throat tightened. âWhat I am? You make it sound like Iâm not a human.â
âYouâre not just human,â she said, her tone dripping with certainty. âYouâre a mutant.â
The word hung in the air, heavy and charged. You stared at her, the weight of her statement pressing down on you. âThatâs not⊠Iâm notâŠâ
âYou are,â Karina interrupted gently. âItâs why youâve always felt different, why strange things happen around you when youâre upset. Itâs your gift, Y/N. Your power.â
Your mind raced, flashes of unexplained incidents from your past bubbling to the surface: the lights flickering during arguments, the faint hum of electricity in your veins when you were scared.Â
A mutant? But mutants were both feared and loved by society. Oh god, what would Jeno think?
âI⊠I donât know what to say,â you admitted, your voice barely above a whisper.
Karina reached out, placing a hand on yours. âYou donât have to say anything. I know how overwhelming this must be, but youâre not alone. You donât have to go through this by yourself.â
You looked up at her, tears pricking your eyes. âWhat am I supposed to do? I donât even know how to control it.â
âThatâs where I come in,â Karina said smoothly. âI can help you. Iâve been where you are, Y/N. I know what itâs like to feel lost, to feel like the world doesnât understand you. But I do.â
Her words were like a lifeline, and for a moment, you felt a flicker of hope. But then a small voice in the back of your mindâJenoâs voiceâechoed faintly: Sheâs not who she says she is.
You shook your head, brushing the thought away. Karina had been nothing but kind to you. Jeno didnât understand.
Karina led you into a hidden room within her apartment, the walls lined with advanced tech and holographic screens displaying maps, dossiers, and data that you couldnât begin to comprehend.
âWhat is all this?â you asked, glancing around in awe.
âThis,â Karina said, gesturing to the room with a flourish, âis part of something much bigger. A movement, if you will. The Hellfire Club.â
You turned to her, confusion etched across your face. âThe Hellfire Club? What is that?â
âWeâre an organization dedicated to ensuring mutantkind rises to its rightful place in the world,â Karina explained, her voice laced with passion. âFor too long, mutants have been oppressed, hunted, and treated as less than human. But weâre done hiding. Weâre done being afraid.â
Her words stirred something in youâa mix of fear and curiosity. âWhat does this have to do with me?â
Karina stepped closer, her gaze piercing. âEverything. Your powers, Y/Nâtheyâre extraordinary. Once theyâre fully awakened, youâll be capable of things most mutants can only dream of. But you need guidance. Training. And thatâs what Iâm offering you.â
You swallowed hard, your mind spinning. âI donât know if I can do this. I didnât ask for any of this.â
âNone of us did,â Karina said, her voice softening. âBut we donât get to choose what we are. We can only choose how we use it. And you, Y/N, have the potential to change everything.â
She paused, letting her words sink in before adding, âBut to do that, you have to let go of your fear. You have to embrace who you are. And you have to trust me.â
There was something magnetic about her, something that made you want to believe every word she said. But deep down, a seed of doubt began to take root.
âWhatâs the catch?â you asked, your voice trembling slightly.
Karina smiled, her expression unreadable. âNo catch, my dear. Only the promise of a future where you can be freeâwhere we can all be free.â
You hesitated, torn between the comfort of her words and the nagging feeling in your gut. âI need time to think.â
âOf course,â Karina said smoothly. âTake all the time you need. But remember, Y/N. Your power is a gift. Donât let anyone convince you otherwise.â
As you left her apartment that night, your mind was a whirlwind of emotions. You wanted to believe her, to trust her, but something about her intensity unsettled you.
And as you walked into the cool night air, you couldnât shake the feeling that you were standing at the edge of something much larger and much more dangerous than youâd ever imagined.
Jeno sat on the curb outside your apartment, his head in his hands, shoulders slumped under the weight of exhaustion and regret. His jacket was torn, his knuckles bloodied from a fight he barely remembered, and the faint smell of whiskey lingered on his breath. He stared blankly at the empty bottle in his lap, the flames of his inner turmoil simmering just beneath the surface. The night was quiet, the kind of stillness that made his thoughts louder, more unbearable.
When you stepped outside, startled to find him there in the dead of night, his eyes met yours. They were glassy, but not from the alcohol. There was something raw and vulnerable in them, something you hadnât seen in a long time. For a moment, you hesitated, unsure whether to approach him or turn back inside. But the sight of himâbroken, disheveled, and so unlike the confident Jeno youâd always knownâpulled you forward.
âJeno?â you said cautiously, stepping closer. The cold night air bit at your skin, but the tension between you was far more chilling.
He looked up, his eyes hollow yet filled with a desperation that made your chest tighten. âY/N,â he croaked, his voice hoarse. He stood, swaying slightly, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on him. âIâI needed to see you.â
Your heart clenched at the sight of him. He looked like a ghost of the man you once knew, his charm buried beneath layers of pain and self-destruction. âItâs the middle of the night,â you said, crossing your arms, trying to shield yourself from the emotions threatening to spill over. âYou canât just show up like this.â
âI know,â he said, running a hand through his disheveled hair. âI know Iâm a mess. But Iââ He paused, his voice cracking. âI donât know what to do anymore.â
You frowned, torn between frustration and concern. âWhat do you mean?â
Jenoâs hands trembled as he gripped the bottle tighter, then hurled it across the street. It shattered against the pavement, the sound cutting through the stillness like a scream. âThis!â he shouted, gesturing wildly to himself. âIâm losing control, Y/N! Of everything. Of my powers. Of⊠of me.â
You stepped back, startled by the outburst. âJeno, calm downââ
âI canât!â he yelled, his voice breaking. âIâve tried. God, Iâve tried. But itâs like Iâm fighting this thing inside me, and I donât know how much longer I can keep it at bay.â
His hands ignited for a split second, flames licking at his skin before fizzling out. You froze, your breath catching in your throat. The sight of the fireâreal, tangible fireâcoming from his hands was impossible to process. Your mind raced, trying to make sense of what youâd just seen. âJeno⊠what was that?â you whispered, your voice trembling.
He clenched his fists, shaking his head as if trying to push the Spiritâs voice out of his mind. âItâs me,â he said bitterly. âOr⊠itâs not me. I donât even know anymore.â He looked at you, his eyes filled with a mix of fear and shame. âIâm not just some messed-up stunt rider, Y/N. Iâm⊠Iâm the Ghost Rider.â
The words hung in the air, heavy and surreal. Your mind reeled, struggling to reconcile the Jeno you knew with the stories youâd heard about the fiery vigilante haunting the city. âThe Ghost Rider?â you repeated, your voice barely above a whisper. âThatâs⊠thatâs impossible.â
âI wish it was,â he said, his voice hollow. âBut itâs real. The flames, the power, the voice in my headâitâs all real. And itâs killing me, Y/N. Every time I transform, it feels like Iâm burning from the inside out. And the things Iâve done⊠the people Iâve hurtâŠâ He trailed off, his hands shaking as he ran them through his hair again. âIâm a monster.â
Your heart ached at the pain in his voice, but the shock of his confession kept you rooted to the spot. âWhy didnât you tell me?â you asked, your voice rising. âAll this time, youâve been dealing with this alone, and you didnât think to tell me?â
âBecause I didnât want you to see me like this!â he shouted, his voice cracking. âI didnât want you to look at me and see a monster. Youâre the one person who still sees something good in me, and I couldnât risk losing that.â
Tears welled in your eyes as his words hit you. âJeno, you donât have to do this alone. You donât have to carry this by yourself.â
âAnd then thereâs you,â he said, his voice softer now, filled with anguish. âYouâre the one thing. The only thing that makes me want to be better. But Iâm screwing that up too, arenât I?â
âJenoâŠâ You didnât know what to say, the weight of his words leaving you stunned. Your mind was a whirlwind of emotions. Shock, fear, anger, and an overwhelming sadness for the man standing in front of you.
He stepped closer, his eyes searching yours desperately. âI canât stand the thought of losing you. Not to her. Not to Karina.â
You stiffened at the mention of her name. âThis again? Jeno, I told youâKarinaïżœïżœïżœs helping me. She understands me in a way you donât. Sheââ
âSheâs using you!â Jeno snapped, his voice rising. âYou think she cares about you? Sheâs manipulating you, Y/N. Iâve seen it. I feel it.â
âYou donât know her,â you shot back, anger flaring in your chest. âYou donât know what Iâve been through or what itâs like to feel so out of control. Karina does.â
âAnd I donât?â Jeno asked bitterly. âIâve been out of control my whole damn life. But Iâm trying, Y/N. Iâm trying because of you.â
His voice cracked on the last word, and he ran a hand down his face, his composure crumbling. âI love you,â he said finally, his words barely audible. âIâve loved you for as long as I can remember. And Iâve been too much of a coward to say it until now.â
The confession hung in the air, heavy and charged. Your breath caught, your heart pounding in your chest. âJeno⊠you canât.â you began, your voice faltering. âThatâs so unfair. You canât fucking drop that on me?âÂ
He grabbed your hands, his touch warm despite the cold night air. âPlease,â he whispered, his voice trembling. âPlease donât trust her. Donât let her pull you into whatever sheâs planning. I canât lose you to her.â
You pulled your hands away, your heart twisting painfully in your chest. âYou donât understand, Jeno. Iâm finally starting to figure out who I am, and Karina is helping me. I canât just walk away from that.â
âAnd what about me?â he asked, his voice breaking. âWhat about us?â
âI donât know,â you admitted, tears welling in your eyes. âI donât know what I feel anymore.â
Jeno stared at you, his expression a mix of heartbreak and resignation. âYouâve already chosen her, havenât you?â
You couldnât answer. The silence between you was deafening, and when Jeno finally turned and walked away, the flames that had always surrounded him seemed smaller, dimmer.
The air inside the abandoned factory was thick with tension, the kind that made your skin prickle and your breath catch in your throat. The dim, flickering lights overhead cast long shadows across the rusted machinery and crumbling walls, creating an eerie backdrop for the confrontation you knew was coming. You stood frozen at the edge of the room, your heart pounding as you tried to steady your breathing. Your hands trembled at your sides, tiny sparks of electricity dancing between your fingers. You clenched your fists, trying to suppress the energy surging through you, but it was like holding back a tidal wave.
Karina stood at the center of the room, her white suit pristine despite the grime of the factory. Her diamond-shaped earrings caught the faint light, glinting like shards of ice. She watched you with a calculating gaze, her lips curled into a faint smirk. âYou feel it, donât you?â she said, her voice smooth and unnervingly calm. âThe power inside you, begging to be unleashed. You donât have to fight it, Y/N. Let it out.â
âStop. Get out of my head.â you snapped, your voice shaking with a mix of fear and anger.Â
Her smirk widened. âDarling, you can barely control your own abilities. Iâm just helping you clear your mind. To help you relax. â
Before you could respond, a deafening roar tore through the silence. The factory doors exploded inward, shards of metal and wood scattering across the floor. Flames erupted in the doorway, and through the inferno, Jeno emerged on his motorcycle, the Ghost Rider in full form. His flaming skull cast an ominous glow across the room, and his chain dragged behind him, leaving scorch marks in its wake.
âKarina!â Jenoâs voice was a guttural growl, distorted by the Spirit of Vengeance. âStep away from her.â
Karina turned toward him, her smirk never faltering. âWell, well,â she said, her tone dripping with mockery. âThe Spirit of Vengeance finally decided to crash the party. How⊠predictable.â
You took a step forward, panic rising in your chest. âJeno, donât do this!â
He glanced at you briefly, his fiery gaze softening for just a moment. âGet out of here, Y/N. I donât want you to see this.â
Karina laughed, a cold, melodic sound that sent a chill down your spine. âOh, sheâs not going anywhere. Not when sheâs finally starting to understand her potential.â
Jenoâs flames roared brighter, his chain snapping taut in his hands. âYouâre not laying a finger on her.â
Karinaâs eyes glowed with a faint silver hue, her telepathic powers flaring to life. âI donât need to lay a finger on her to destroy you, Jeno.â
The telepathic assault hit Jeno like a freight train. His flames flickered, dimming as he staggered back, clutching his skull. The Ghost Riderâs growl turned into a pained roar as Karinaâs voice echoed in his mind, sharp and venomous.
âYouâre a failure, Lee Jeno,â she hissed, her words cutting deeper than any physical blow. âA coward. A junkie. You think you can protect her? You couldnât even protect yourself.â
Jeno dropped to his knees, his chain clattering to the ground. His fiery skull dimmed further, revealing glimpses of his human face beneath, twisted in agony. âNo,â he muttered, his voice trembling. âNo, Iââ
Karina stepped closer, her voice dripping with venom. âYou left her to die, Jeno. Youâre the reason she almost bled out in that junkyard. And now you think you can save her from me? Youâre pathetic.â
âStop it!â you screamed, stepping forward. But an invisible barrier, a telekinetic shield, held you back. You slammed your fists against it, sparks of electricity crackling against the force field. âLet him go!â
Karina didnât even glance at you, her focus entirely on Jeno. âYouâre nothing without the Spirit of Vengeance. Just a broken man with nothing to offer.â
Jenoâs flames sputtered, his body trembling as he fought against her mental assault. But then, something snapped.
A surge of electricity exploded from your body, shattering Karinaâs barrier and sending a shockwave through the room. The force of it knocked Karina back, her telepathic hold on Jeno breaking as she stumbled. Sparks danced along your skin, and the lights in the factory flickered wildly, casting the room in a chaotic strobe of light and shadow.
Karinaâs calm façade cracked for the first time, her eyes narrowing as she stared at you. âWhatâŠ?â she muttered, her voice tinged with disbelief.
You looked down at your hands, electricity arcing between your fingers. The buzzing energy in your veins was overwhelming but exhilarating, like you were finally alive for the first time. âI donât know what you did to me,â you said, your voice trembling but firm. âBut Iâm done letting you manipulate me.â
Jeno rose to his feet, his flames roaring back to life as the Spirit of Vengeance surged within him. He turned to you, his fiery gaze filled with both awe and concern. âY/N⊠your powersâŠâ
You met his gaze, a flicker of resolve igniting in your chest. âWeâll figure it out later. Right now, we stop her. Together.â
Karinaâs lips twisted into a scowl. âYou think you can stop me? Both of you are just scared little children playing with powers you donât understand.â
Her eyes glowed again as she prepared to strike, but this time, you were ready. Electricity coursed through your body as you raised your hand, sending a bolt of lightning toward her. Jenoâs chain ignited in flames as he lashed out, the Ghost Rider and your newfound powers colliding in a chaotic, electrified storm of fire and fury.
Sparks flew as your electricity surged wildly, ricocheting off metal beams and machinery, while flames from Jenoâs Ghost Rider form scorched the ground. The air was thick with smoke and the acrid smell of burning metal, the heat of the battle pressing down on you like a suffocating blanket. Karina narrowly avoided both attacks.
You stood in the middle of it all, suddenly trembling as the power in your veins pulsed out of control, the air around you crackling with raw energy. Every breath felt like fire in your lungs, every heartbeat a thunderous drum in your ears.
âJeno, stop!â you shouted, your voice breaking through the storm of noise. âI canâtâ I canât control it!â
âY/N, get out of here!â Jeno growled, the hellfire in his skull burning brightly as he dodged a telepathic assault from Karina. His chain lashed out, the flames leaving a trail of fire as it whipped through the air. âIâll handle her!â
âYou canât handle me, Rider,â Karina sneered, her diamond-covered hand catching the flames of Jenoâs chain and deflecting them with ease. The impact sent a shower of sparks cascading to the ground, illuminating her cold, calculating smirk. She twisted her body back to flesh, her eyes glowing as she aimed a telepathic blast toward you. âAnd neither can she.â
The attack hit you like a freight train, sending you stumbling backward. Your head throbbed as Karinaâs voice echoed in your mind, sharp and venomous. Youâre a danger to everyone around you, Y/N. Look at him. Heâs already breaking because of you.
âNo!â you shouted, gripping your head as electricity sparked uncontrollably from your body, burning holes in the ground. The pain was unbearable, a searing heat that threatened to consume you. âGet out of my head!â
Jeno roared, swinging his flaming chain toward Karina with a ferocity that shook the room. âLeave her alone!â
Karina turned to diamond just in time, the chain clashing against her hardened form with a deafening clang. The force of the impact sent a shockwave through the factory, shattering nearby windows and sending shards of glass raining down. Jeno pulled back and lashed out again, but the attacks only glanced off her unyielding body, leaving faint scorch marks on her diamond skin.
âYouâre predictable,â Karina taunted, reverting back to her human form. Her voice dripped with malice as she stepped closer, her heels clicking against the cracked concrete. âAnd reckless.â Her eyes narrowed, her telepathic powers flaring as she struck again, this time targeting Jeno. Which is why youâll never be enough for her.
Jeno froze, his flames flickering as the words hit him like a punch to the gut. The Ghost Riderâs growl faltered, his fiery skull dimming as Karinaâs mental assault dug into his deepest insecurities. âI⊠IâŠâ he stammered, his voice trembling.
Seeing her opening, Karina lunged, her diamond form shimmering into existence as she aimed a devastating punch at Jenoâs chest. The blow landed with a sickening crunch, sending him flying into a stack of metal crates. He hit the ground hard, the flames around him sputtering as he struggled to rise.
âJeno!â you screamed, your voice raw with panic. Electricity surged through you, the power building to a dangerous level as your fear and anger took over. You raised your hands, the energy crackling wildly as you unleashed a massive bolt of lightning toward Karina.
She shifted to diamond just in time, the electricity ricocheting off her hardened form and striking a nearby generator. The explosion sent a wave of heat and debris crashing through the factory, the force of it knocking you off your feet. You hit the ground hard, the breath driven from your lungs as pain shot through your ribs.
Karina emerged from the smoke, her diamond form flickering as she reverted to flesh. A thin trail of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, her once-pristine suit now torn and scorched. âYouâre meddling in things you donât understand, Y/N,â she hissed, her voice laced with frustration.
âAnd whose fault is that?â you shot back, electricity arcing dangerously around you. Your body ached, your vision blurred, but you forced yourself to stand. âYou lied to me. You used me.â
âI gave you purpose!â Karina snapped, shifting back to her human form as she tried to invade your mind again. But you were ready this time.
The moment her telepathic influence touched you, your electricity surged outward in a massive wave, cutting off her connection. The lights in the factory exploded, plunging the room into flickering darkness lit only by Jenoâs flames and the electric blue glow of your powers. The air buzzed with energy, the tension so thick it felt like the room itself was holding its breath.
Jeno took advantage of the distraction, his chain wrapping around Karinaâs leg and yanking her off her feet. She hit the ground with a sharp thud, immediately shifting to diamond to avoid his next attack. Jenoâs flames roared brighter as he swung his chain again, the fiery links crashing against her diamond form with enough force to send her skidding across the floor.
âYouâre out of tricks, Karina!â Jeno snarled, his skull blazing with hellfire.
Karina smirked, standing slowly. âAm I?â
With a wave of her hand, she sent shards of diamond-like energy hurtling toward you. Jenoâs flames flared brighter as he leapt in front of you, the shards disintegrating against his burning form. But the force of the attack sent him staggering, his flames flickering as he struggled to stay upright.
âY/N, focus!â he shouted, glancing over his shoulder at you. Blood dripped from a gash on his forehead, his human form flickering beneath the Ghost Riderâs flames. âYouâve got this. I know you do.â
You swallowed hard, your heart racing. The chaos of the battle overwhelmed you, but Jenoâs words anchored you, giving you the strength to push past the fear. Electricity sparked and crackled around you as you raised your hands, channeling the power into a focused current. The energy shot forward, slamming into Karina with enough force to send her flying into a pile of crates.
She staggered to her feet, her diamond form flickering as she struggled to maintain it. For the first time, she looked rattled, her breathing ragged and her movements slower, more deliberate.
âThis isnât over,â she hissed, her voice dripping with venom.
âWeâll see about that,â Jeno growled, flames flaring as he stepped forward.
You steadied yourself, your hands still sparking, ready for whatever came next. For the first time, you felt a glimmer of control over your powers. With Jeno by your side, you knew you wouldnât back down.
Karina straightened, her diamond form flickering as she reverted to flesh. She held up a hand, her expression unreadable. âEnough,â she said, her voice quieter now, almost resigned. âI canât keep this up forever.â
Jeno growled, his chain igniting in fiery protest as the Spirit of Vengeance pushed him to finish the fight. âYou donât get to walk away, Karina.â
But you stepped forward, placing a hand on his burning shoulder. âJeno, wait,â you said, your voice firm but calm. âLet me handle this.â
Jenoâs skull turned slightly toward you, the flames in his sockets flickering with hesitation, but he relented, lowering his chain. âFine. But donât trust her.â
You turned to Karina, your chest heaving as you fought to steady the overwhelming power coursing through you. âWhy are you doing this?â you asked, your voice tremblingânot with fear, but with exhaustion and hurt. âYou said you were helping me. Was it all a lie?â
Karinaâs diamond form flickered briefly before she reverted fully to flesh and blood. For the first time, you saw something human in her eyesâregret, perhaps, or maybe doubt. She wiped a smudge of dirt from her cheek, straightening her posture.
âI didnât lie,â she said, her voice softer now. âNot about everything. You do have incredible potential, Y/N. More than you realize. But⊠I didnât approach you purely out of kindness.â
âThen why?â you demanded, the electricity around you sparking dangerously.
Karina hesitated, her lips pressing into a thin line. âBecause I needed you. Your powers. For the Hellfire Clubâs plans. You were⊠a means to an end.â
Your chest tightened at her words, but before the anger could take hold, she continued.
âBut,â she said, glancing away, âit wasnât all manipulation. Iââ She paused, the unflappable Karina momentarily at a loss for words. âI enjoyed spending time with you, Y/N. Youâre smart, kind⊠and you made me see things differently.â
âDifferently?â you asked, your voice tinged with disbelief.
Karina met your gaze, her icy composure softening. âIâve spent so much of my life doing what I thought was necessaryâmaking hard decisions for the âgreater good.â But being around you⊠it reminded me of who I used to be, before all of this. Before I became... this.â
Jeno stepped closer, his flames dimming but still present. âIf youâre having second thoughts, prove it. Walk away.â
Karina looked between you and Jeno, her expression conflicted. For a moment, you thought she might lash out again, but instead, she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of sleek, metallic gauntlets.
âHere,â she said, tossing them to you. You caught them instinctively, the cool metal humming faintly in your hands. âTheyâll help you control your powers. Keep you from accidentally frying someone. I was supposed to give them to you after you joined us.â
You stared at the gauntlets, then back at her. âThen why are you giving me these now?â
Karina smiled faintly, a flicker of genuine warmth breaking through her usual cool demeanor. âBecause I donât want you to make the same mistakes I did. Power without control... itâll destroy you. And Iâd rather not see that happen.â
Jeno crossed his arms, his fiery gaze narrowing. âThis doesnât absolve you of everything youâve done.â
âI know,â Karina said, her voice quiet. She turned to you, her expression serious. âIf things get worse. Like if the Hellfire Club comes after you. Call me. Iâll help you.â
âWhy?â you asked, the question slipping out before you could stop it.
Karina gave you a small, almost sad smile. âBecause despite everything, I care about you, Y/N. More than I expected to.â
With that, she turned on her heel and began walking toward the factoryâs exit.
âYouâll never stop looking over your shoulder if you go back to them,â Jeno called after her, his voice hard.
Karina paused at the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder. âMaybe,â she admitted. âBut we donât all get to ride off into the sunset with a gorgeous woman who can manipulate electricity by our side, do we, Rider?â
And then she was gone, disappearing into the night like a ghost.
You stood there, clutching the gauntlets tightly, your heart a storm of emotions. Jeno stepped closer, his flames dimming until they extinguished completely, leaving him in his human form.
âYou okay?â he asked, his voice softer now.
You nodded, though you werenât entirely sure if it was true. âI think so. For now.â
He gave you a small, tentative smile. âWeâll figure this out. Together.â
The factory was a wreck. The floors were scorched, the walls cracked from the battles you fought, and the lingering scent of burnt rubber and ozone filled the air. You and Jeno both stood in the aftermath, looking like a pair of survivors who had just stumbled out of a warzoneâexcept, in your case, the war was against a woman who could turn into a diamond. And, you know, manipulate minds. No big deal.
You winced as you flexed your wrist, the burn from a stray blast still making your skin tingle. Glancing at Jeno, you noticed his own set of injuries: deep cuts across his arms and a nasty gash on his forehead, not to mention his previously pristine jacket now reduced to ash and scorched fabric. Classic Jeno, always wearing the most expensive thing in a junkyard brawl.
âHey, soâŠâ you began, shifting uncomfortably as you tried to ignore the awkward silence hanging between you two. âAbout all the⊠revelations tonight.â
Jeno shot you a sideways glance, and you could see the weight of everything that had happened sinking in. The Spirit of Vengeance had left him, so at least he wasnât looking like a flaming skull for now, but you could still see the lingering guilt in his eyes. The man was a walking metaphor for a storm. Wild, unpredictable, and, apparently, in need of a good therapist.
âYeah, you donât say,â he muttered, rubbing his head. âSo, uh, what now? Do we pretend that didnât happen? Or is the whole âelectricity-generating mutantâ thing a forever deal?â
You crossed your arms, raising an eyebrow. âYou think I just woke up one day and thought, âHey, Iâll be a walking lightning rod for the rest of my lifeâ?â
Jeno winced as he straightened up, his movements stiff. âNo, I didnât, but... you know. Seems like thatâs exactly whatâs happening.â
âGreat. Iâll add it to my âWhat I Did Wrong Todayâ list,â you muttered, feeling the familiar surge of frustration rise in you. But it wasnât just at your powers. It was at the one thing you couldnât quite shake off: Jeno.
You narrowed your eyes at him, your tone suddenly more serious. âAnd what about you, huh? Still think popping pills and riding a bike through fire is a good coping mechanism? Especially since youâre apparently made of fire now?â
Jeno flinched, and for a moment, it felt like the old Jeno was retreating back into his shellâthe one he built to protect himself from all the things he couldnât face. He kicked the ground, looking at his scuffed boots. âI didnâtâ Itâs justâŠâ He sighed, unable to finish the sentence.
âJeno,â you said, voice softer now. You placed a hand on his shoulder, though he didnât meet your eyes. âIâm serious. If you want to stay in my life. If you really care about me at all. You need to get help. You canât keep doing this to yourself.â
Jeno glanced up at you, his usually cocky demeanor replaced with something a little more vulnerable. âI know,â he said quietly. âI know Iâve messed up. And I promised you Iâd get better. Butââ He hesitated, searching for the right words. âYouâre right. I donât want to be that person anymore. I donât want to lose you.â
You took a deep breath, your frustration dissipating just slightly. The old, familiar bond you shared was still there, tangled in with the new, raw emotions. You nodded, but added with a small, teasing smirk, âIf you ever try to pop a pill in front of me again, Iâll use you as a lightning rod. Got it?â
Jeno gave a half-laugh, a lopsided grin tugging at his lips. âGot it. No more pills. Just the occasional dramatic motorcycle crash for old timeâs sake.â
âOh, yeah, thatâs so much better,â you deadpanned. âBut seriously, Jeno, I canât help you if you donât help yourself first. I wonât watch you burn up from the inside out.â
He met your gaze, the flicker of sincerity in his eyes making you pause. âIâll try, Y/N. I swear. Iâm tired of hurting myselfâand you.â
You nodded again, feeling the weight of the conversation settle into your bones. âGood. And, uh, while weâre on the subjectâif you ever want to not be on fire for five seconds, Iâve got these new gauntlets that could help with the whole âliteral fire hazardâ thing. Maybe we should figure out how to duplicate them.â
Jenoâs eyes flicked to the gauntlets you were still holding, raising an eyebrow. âYou think those are going to keep me from turning into a human torch?â
âWell, they wonât stop you from being a hot mess,â you quipped, âbut they might help with the literal hot mess part. Try them on. See if they can cool you off. But give them back, I donât wanna electrocute you later.â
Jeno chuckled, shaking his head. âYouâre something else.â He pulled the gauntlets on with a shrug. They fit perfectly, âBetter than getting burned alive, I guess.â
âThatâs the spirit,â you said with a small smile. âSee? Weâre making progress.â
He gave a small, half-smile in return. âOne step at a time.â
The first few days after the chaos in the factory felt like the world had hit the pause button. You were still grappling with the full weight of what had happenedâthe fight, Karinaâs departure, and the truth about your powers. But more than that, you were trying to figure out how to not burn down the nearest building while you practiced controlling your mutant abilities.
Your bedroom had turned into an impromptu testing ground for your electrical powers, and you were starting to actually feel like a walking lightning rod now. The first time you accidentally zapped the toaster, you almost burned down the kitchen. Itâs fine, you told yourself. Iâll just keep a fire extinguisher in every room.
"Okay, just breathe," you muttered, staring at the lamp in front of you. Your hands crackled with electrical energy. "Focus. Youâre not going to fry this lamp into oblivion. Youâve got this."
The lamp flickered. Then, with a sudden snap, it exploded in a burst of light.
"Okay, maybe not. Plan B: Try not to set anything on fire this time," you groaned, rubbing your forehead. You glanced at the charred remnants of your lamp. Great. Iâm a walking disaster.
Meanwhile, in the next room, Jeno was wrestling with his own set of issues. His recovery wasnât as simple as just kicking a habit. It was as if his very soul had to unlearn years of reckless behavior and self-destruction. And while he was committed to getting better, you had a sneaking suspicion that his journey would involve more than a few missteps along the way.
You walked into the living room, where Jeno was sitting on the couch, staring at a glass of water like it held the answers to all of lifeâs problems.
"Howâs it going, big guy?" you asked, leaning in the doorway.
Jeno glanced up and sighed dramatically. "Iâm just sitting here, contemplating the universe. You know, the usual."
"Right. The deep, soul-searching kind of contemplation." You gave him a pointed look. "Or are you trying to convince yourself that water canât be addictive?"
He shot you a dry look. "Very funny. But no, Iâm actually just trying to make sure I donât relapse into firing up my bike for no reason."
You raised an eyebrow. "And thatâs going well, I assume?"
"Actually," he said, holding up his hands in mock surrender, "Iâm being good. No fire, no bike stunts, just... boring old rehab."
"Donât worry, Iâm sure youâll find a way to be extra dramatic about it. Itâs your brand."
Jeno smirked, the hint of his old self shining through. "Yeah, well, Iâm trying to unbrand myself."
You chuckled. "Good luck with that. Iâm pretty sure the Ghost Rider brand is hard to shake."
Jeno exhaled through his nose, rubbing his forehead. "I hate that name."
You threw your hands up. "What? Itâs catchy!"
"Catchy? It sounds like Iâm auditioning for a cheesy horror movie," he grumbled.
"But the cool demon guy gave you it."
Jeno gave you a playful glare. "And he wants me to exterminate every sinful person in this world, so is he really âcoolâ?"
You shrugged, smiling. "Iâm just trying to make sure you donât fall into your bad habits again. Humor is the only thing that gets me through this madness."
Jeno stared at you, a mix of amusement and sincerity on his face. "Thanks, Y/N. Really. I... I donât know what Iâd do without you."
You softened, though you couldnât resist throwing in a final jab. "Probably set something on fire, knowing you."
"Donât tempt me," Jeno warned with a grin.
"Okay, okay," you relented, holding up your hands. "Iâll stop. But hey, how about we both try and figure this out without burning anything down, deal?"
Jeno looked at you, a little more serious now. "Deal."
And so, you began this new chapter, with a growing sense of purpose. You and Jeno were both trying to reclaim control over your lives, and though it wasnât easy, it was at least a little bit more bearable with each otherâs help.
As for you, well, you still had a lot to learn about controlling your powers. But you figured you could start small, maybe with not blowing up your appliances. After all, if you could survive your own chaotic life, maybe saving the world wasnât that far out of reach.
The night was cool, but the air still carried the buzz of the dayâs chaos. The city sprawled out before you, lights flickering in the distance, the world oblivious to the storm that had just passed through. You and Jeno stood side by side in the parking lot, where the remnants of your battle and struggles were already fading into the distance.
Jenoâs bike sat next to you, the engine idling with that low growl that had always gotten your heart racingâbefore you knew all the trouble it would bring. You felt the familiar charge in the air as your hands crackled with electric energy, but it was different now. Controlled.
âWell, this is... weird,â you said, tapping the side of your gauntlets and watching the sparks dance around your fingertips.
Jeno shot you a sidelong glance, a mischievous smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, you being the dangerous one now. Whatâs next? Youâre gonna start taking over the world?"
You rolled your eyes. âWorld domination? Please. Iâll start with not burning down my apartment.â
Jeno gave you a knowing look. âOne step at a time, right?â
He mounted his bike and revved the engine, the sound echoing through the empty streets. You followed suit, stepping onto the back of his bike with a practiced ease that only came from years of friendshipâand more than a few questionable decisions.Â
As Jeno revved the engine again, you looked at the skyline one last time, feeling the electric hum of your powers simmer beneath your skin.
"You know," Jeno said, breaking the silence as his hand gripped the handlebars tighter, "I think Iâve got a name for you."
You raised an eyebrow. "Oh, no. Iâm not falling for this again."
"No, seriously. You need a name," he insisted, glancing at you with that same cocky grin. "Surge. It fits. Youâve got the whole âelectricityâ vibe going on."
You stared at him for a moment, and thenâafter a deep, soul-searching pauseâlet out a dramatic sigh. âSurge? Seriously?â
âYeah, itâs perfect,â he said with a shrug, clearly pleased with himself. "Itâs got that âsuperheroâ ring to it."
You immediately shoved him lightly, making him almost lose his balance. "Shut up, Jeno. Thatâs the worst name Iâve ever heard."
âCome on, itâs not that bad!â he protested, his laughter echoing in the night. "Alright, alright, weâll work on it. But you canât deny itâSurge has a nice ring to it."
You shook your head, a smile tugging at your lips despite yourself. âJust drive, Jeno. Youâre lucky Iâm not zapping you off this bike right now.â
âOkay, okay, you win.â Jeno started the bike and, with a final glance toward the horizon, sped off into the night, the flames of his chain lighting up the road ahead.
The wind whipped through your hair, the flames of Ghost Rider and the crackling electricity of your powers illuminating the streets as you rode side by side. The world still had its dangers, but right now, the night felt endless.Â
âLike would our ship name be Surge Rider or Ghurââ
âShut the fuck up and drive.â
TAGLIST ⏠@lyvhie @aquaphoenixz @galacticnct @yizhrt @polarisjisung @multifandomania @spacejip @peterm4rker @viasdreams @mango-bear
#actionfigurescollab#jeno#jeno fluff#nct dream jeno#jeno imagines#nct dream imagines#nct jeno#nct dream#jeno lee#nct#nct jeno imagines#jeno fic#jeno x reader#lee jeno#jeno nct#jeno angst#lee jeno x reader#nct dream x reader#nct fics#nct dream fics#nct x reader#jeno fanfic#biker jeno
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Penny for your ghosts; chapter 1
Pairing: OT7!BTS x f!reader
Genre: hybrid au, supernatural au, ghost hunting au (based on Lockwood&Co lore), found family, fluff and humour, some angst, eventual smut
Chapter summary: Hoping for a new beginning, you make a decision and end up at Bangtan Inc. looking for a chance. And somehow unbeknownst to you make a life-defining choice.
Chapter word count: 10k
Next part | Series masterlist
Warnings: not much really - a lot of exposition and some spooky stuff happening, sad ghost backstory, jimin is a little shit, yoongi being effortlessly waaaay too hot while also being adorable and sweet
A/N: here we go folks, the first chapter of our sweet autumnal spooky story! i had such a blast writing this, it's been so amazing to work with the Lockwood&Co universe (it made me reread the first book, again), and this story satisfies something in me that yearns for comfort and coziness, so enjoy! as always, i'd love any kind of feedback or response, so don't be shy and comment, reblog, send me an ask!
divider by the amazing @saradika-graphics
Standing face to face with the old-timey mansion, I didnât really know how to feel.
It looked fairly inconspicuous in the daylight â just another old expensive house built on this street. It was half hidden behind a stone wall, the wrought iron gate giving me a little peek into the bleary autumnal garden slowly getting covered up with fallen leaves.
There was an iron sign nailed to the wall that read âBANGTAN INC., paranormal investigationsâ and I gave it a long look.
A new beginning, hopefully, was waiting for me beyond this gate, and I gulped, steeling myself into finally ringing the bell instead of just endlessly shuffling around on the street like a weirdo. I felt the pressure of the paper on which Iâd written down the address burning through my pocket. It was just a job interview, and yet it felt like a pivotal moment in my life. It was this or back home, to the cold god-forgotten mountains and that prick Lee. Heâd have a field day with me if I crawled back, and thatâs why I had to ace this.
âI wouldnât go in there,â a deep voice from somewhere behind me uttered, a touch of amusement to his words. I jerked around, too consumed by my own thoughts to take notice of my surroundings, even with my heightened senses.
A hybrid stood there, a mischievous expression painting his face. He was pretty tall and built, hair cut fairly short and swept off of his face with two black rounded ears standing in attention amidst those spiky waves. His face was rounded and soft. When my eyes slid down towards his hips, there was no tail. He was most probably a bear.
âIâm sorry?â I asked him, subtly trying to search the air for any noticeable scents, but the air was a little too crisp to carry anything. The man only giggled and stepped a little closer.
âI said,â he replied, âI wouldnât go in there. Heard the house is haunted.â He brought up his hand to wiggle his fingers in a spooky gesture, trying his hardest to sell the scare, but losing to his own amused snickers.
âHauntings only manifest after sun-down,â I cited monotonal, subconsciously turning my head to check the greyish blue sky. It was still early afternoon and even though autumn was coming, it wouldnât start getting dark for another few hours.
The hybrid pouted, sad that he couldnât scare me, and I wondered what exactly was he trying to do here.
âTaehyung, stop messing with everyone walking by,â a firm voice from my left suddenly appeared, softly chiding the still pouting hybrid, âI told you a thousand times.â
Another hybrid appeared suddenly from my periphery and I couldnât believe I completely missed his presence on the empty street. He must have been walking over and I just didnât hear him. Or maybe he came from the neighbouring house?
He was of similar height, broad-shouldered but slim. His attractive face was pulled into an amicable polite smile and the brown rounded ears flicked towards me in interest as he took me in. Another bear.
âHello, dear,â he said towards me, tone much kinder in that âIâm talking to a strangerâ sort of way, âAre you a client? Do you need help with a haunting?â There was something undeniably eager in his voice and it gave me a little pause. They were Bangtan Inc.
Caught red-handed loitering in front of their house, I panicked and did something very stupid.
âY-yeah,â I stuttered out maybe a little too fast, lying through my teeth â but the men didnât notice, no. Their faces immediately brightened, postures straightening.Â
âAmazing!â the newcomer exclaimed, hands clapping together. He almost threw himself towards the gate, fumbling with the lock for a few seconds before it creaked open and he invited me to step in with a wide gesture, a tinge of nervousness to him like he was afraid Iâd turn around and run.
I didnât. Instead I offered my own hopefully easy smile and nervously fiddled with my wool hat, hoping it still effectively covered my ears, as I accepted and slowly started on the walk over to the main entrance of the house. The giggley from before quickly slipped in as well, shuffling cutely by the broad-shouldered manâs side.
I had just stepped on the first stone stair of the veranda when the door flew open and I startled, foot slipping on the damp surface. Before I even had the time to yelp, there was a hand on my lower back supporting me.
âOh my! Be careful!â
âHyung!â
A few shouts rang out at the same time, but I barely even listened. My hand shot out, almost slapping myself in my own face, trying to keep the headwear in place. I felt my ears twitching underneath it, but it stayed firmly on.
âThank you,â I muttered, righting myself again and looking towards the third hybrid, âsorry for the inconvenience.â
âNo no no, none at all,â the handsome hybrid said, âit was Hoseokieâs fault, he should have been more careful with the door.â
The new hybrid standing in the door was looking at me sheepishly, an embarrassed blush painting his face pink.
âIâm sorry,â he said plainly, red fox ears twitching in his curly hair, âI didnât mean to scare you.â
âHoseokie, please bring our new client inside and into the sitting room,â there was an understanding that ran through them at the word client, and immediately the fox, Hoseok, turned all professional and beckoned me inside with a practiced friendly smile.
Giggley said nothing since the other bearâs arrival, only hung around in the back of the group, watching me with a strange kind of excitement.
âPlease, please, through here,â I found myself pulled through the door and the main hall, under a pretty arch with wooden beams carved into branches with leaves and into what I presumed must have been the aforementioned sitting room.
I wasnât even sure what that was, must have been a rich people house thing.
The happy fox was flitting around me, fussing with my light coat and assuring me I can step inside with my shoes on. After a barrage of questions about refreshments he danced out of the room, presumably into the kitchen to fetch the promised tea and biscuits.
There was no trace of the other two hybrids, but I heard movement through the house â someone calling a name I couldnât fully decipher, heavy steady footsteps through a hall, a distant buzz of conversation. Signs of living.
The house smelt happy, lived in. I wanted to go find giggley and argue with him â this house wasnât haunted; it was a home.
Shuffling a little on the armchair, I felt nervousness sink in. Now that I was here in this situation, I had no idea how to get out of it. The scent suppressant I sprayed on in the morning was going to protect me for a little while more, but if someone really tried I would no doubt be sniffed out without a problem. My ears started to hurt from how I pressed them down in order to not have a suspiciously twitchy hat and no matter how I tried to manoeuvre myself onto the chair, I couldnât avoid sitting on my tail that was tucked and hidden into the long skirt I wore and protectively curled around my thigh.
I wasnât even trying to fool them â I wanted the job they offered on the dingy website and for that I had to be a hybrid, but it was easier travelling through the city while pretending to be human â people stared less, whispered less about ghosts and death. It kind of just snowballed from when they assumed I was a client. No other reason for a human to be hanging about a paranormal investigations agency.
I shouldnât have agreed, but then a strange fear choked me â I wasnât ready to go in and ask for a chance. It seemed like a great idea to just scope them out, but now it was painfully obvious to me from their joy that not many clients walked through that gate and now I didnât know how to tell them I wasnât one.
Before I could spiral further, two hybrids walked into the room â Hoseok and one I havenât met yet. He was tall, even taller than the two bears, and muscled. Strength radiated off of him, an aura of power that shocked me into silence as I eyed him with something suspiciously close to awe. Something about him was pressing onto my instincts, blanketing my brain with a layer of rightness, safeness. I fought myself not to submit then and there and embarrassment flooded through me.
But at least I wasnât the only one â from where my eyes caught onto his greyish wolf ears I saw them twitch nervously and then I realised he was actually blushing under my stare, to which I burst into flames even further and politely shifted my eyes to the little table in front of me.
I heard Hosoekâs snickers, but from his relaxed stance I deduced I probably wasnât the first to get caught into the lure of this hybridâs aura. It would surprise me if I was.
He cleared his throat, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot and still a little pink, before he regained a little bit of his professionality back.
âGood afternoon, Miss,â he recited smoothly, deep voice like honey, and I blushed a little more, pointedly avoiding Hoseokâs amused eyes, âthank you for choosing our agency to help with your little problem. O-or not little, I mean, it could be a big problem. We can definitely handle anything though, you donât have to worry.â He stuttered through his little speech miserably, shooting a shy glance towards his companion who was watching with fond eyes.
âOh Joon,â the little sigh came from behind me and I twirled around to once again come face to face with the brown bear, the man still smiling kindly, âDonât worry dear, he always gets stuttered up like that.â
He stepped into the room and stuck out his hand in an offered handshake. I quickly fumbled to get on my feet, alleviating the pressure on my poor tail and stumbling in the process, but this time I righted myself before any of the men could. I grabbed his hand with cheeks still red, but with a shy smile back.
âIâm Kim Seokjin,â he introduced himself and then gestured towards the wolf, âand that is Kim Namjoon. He is the owner and the director of Bangtan Inc.â I moved along, offering my hand to the blushing man as well and he took it eagerly yet gently.
I was so distracted by the soft calming grip of his hand that I didnât even notice the way the wolf sniffed the air and froze, smile melting off into a frown. Namjoon took a step back and his hand got torn out of my hold, and I looked up in alarm worried something happened.
And something did. The man was watching me with apprehension, no trace of the smiling shy man â in his place stood a powerful hybrid sensing a threat. And I immediately understood what happened.
âW-wait!â I exclaimed, âI can explain, I promise!â
The other two hybrids in the room also took a cautious step back, following the directorâs lead and I realised â they must have been a pack and he must have been their alpha. That would explain the reaction of my body I was faced with upon seeing him for the first time.
âWhy are you trying to sneak into my house?â the question came out a lot unfriendlier than I was used from these hybrids, but I couldnât blame him â I had unknowingly tried to cheat the alpha of the house and that was a big offense between hybrids, especially since I was a stranger to his pack.
âIâm sorry, I didnât mean to,â I whispered, also slowly backing away from the man now that he was so high-strung about my proximity. His packmates watched us with confusion, but I saw the realisation slowly sink into their faces, so I decided to stop the farce and reached for the hat, yanking it off. It was impolite to keep headwear on inside anyway, and I know that wasnât lost on Hoseok since he tried to take it off for me even though I insisted on keeping it.
Their gasps were less shocked by now, both of them anticipating something like that to be the revelation, but I was sure it was more a reaction to opening a whole new level of information about me. The ears were undeniably feline, even though I wouldnât blame them for not recognising them, and now that I finally unfurled my tail, it started peeking out from the bottom of my long skirt â that was the one cons about it â it was very long, impractically so.
I saw their eyes trained on the fluffy tip of the appendage, their faces written with their attempts to guess what kind of feline I was.
Not Namjoon though, the wolf was staring me down, eyes shining bronze and posture tense, tail ram-rod straight in a show of dominance. I crumpled into myself a little, showing him I wasnât a threat even though I entered his territory under false pretences.
âIâm sorry, I didnât mean to offend you, alpha,â the name slipped out of my mouth quite naturally, even though Iâve never lived with wolves before â this man just made it easy to submit. He did relax slightly then, but his senses were still alert, no doubt driving him insane because he couldnât fully smell me.
âI saw the job offer and I came to ask about it, but when I got surprised at the gate by the bears, I panicked and agreed to come in as a client,â I quickly explained, hoping this wouldnât end up with me kicked out and no prospects of a future employment, âIt was stupid of me, I should have thought more carefully about entering a strangerâs territory while pretending to be human.â
That seemed to have diffused the situation completely and I finally sighed out in relief when Namjoon moved, shoulders relaxed a smidge more and only a trace of mistrust on his face. I was proper ashamed though, and watching the floor with burning face, ears pressed into my head so hard it hurt.
Then I sensed Seokjin moving closer before he gently laid a hand on my shoulder, leading me back into the armchair just as Hoseok shook out of his stupor and started serving the tea and biscuits he brought over. Namjoon still stood still on the opposite side, by the dark brown sofa, but he didnât seem as hostile anymore.
âYou little dummy,â Seokjin teased, and had it been said by anyone else with a different intonation, I would have been mad, but his words only made me blush more, shy and embarrassed. Then he looked over at his packmate and tsked gently.
âCome on Joon, cut her some slack,â he chided, âshe was caught off guard because Taehyung started teasing her with the whole âthe house is hauntedâ thing he does.â That had the man relaxing completely and he finally sunk down into the sofa, Hoseok joining him shortly and making himself comfortable in the huge pillows.
There was a light disapproving tint to his expression, but mostly he just looked fondly exasperated, shaking his head slightly and chuckling under his breath.
âI told him a thousand times to stop doing that, it makes people nervous and then they donât ring the doorbell,â he muttered much the same words as Seokjin had before on the street, and the fight drained out of my body when I realised I really wasnât going to get kicked out.
âIâm still sorry,â I piped up carefully, gathering the hot mug into my hands and cuddling up to it on instinct before I stopped myself. Iâve embarrassed myself enough for one afternoon.
âSo youâre interested in the job, then?â Namjoon changed the subject smoothly, fully settling into his director persona. I nodded eagerly and watched Seokjin walk over to the sofa and sit down elegantly, direct opposite of the lounging fox that now sat with a pillow squished into his arms.
âI got interested because it mentioned you are a hybrid run agency without human supervision,â I told him and the effect of my words was clear.
Human supervision was a concept as old as PI (paranormal investigations) agencies themselves, hybrids werenât even allowed to own and run them up until like fifty years ago, and even after human supervision was a standard occurrence.
Even though humans had no affinity for the paranormal (some were a little more sensitive to it then others, especially when it came to children) it still ingrained itself as some sort of a staple of quality of agencies â those that didnât have human supervisors were often ostracised and disadvantaged, there were quite strong smear campaigns against them and people still held mistrust towards them.
If investigators made mistakes that cost lives or destroyed property at an agency with human supervision, nobody thought anything of it, but if the same happened in agencies without, they were often dragged through the mud and sometimes even shut down after âthorough investigationsâ. It was more than unfair â it was discrimination. Most humans still saw us as animals and therefore incapable of having the same judgements and freedoms as humans did. They didnât trust the hybrids that risked their lives to make their homes safe again, they rather turned to the humans that accompanied them in and did nothing.
Most human supervisors were older, still very much in the mindset that hybrids werenât supposed to have their own opinions, and they were absolutely useless in the face of the paranormal â they were a bunch of pricks drunk on their own power, barking orders they didnât fully understand, putting investigators into difficult spots and overriding their decisions according to a manual that was outdated and unflexible.
But even though you truly couldnât find a single hybrid that was happy about this still being a thing, due to the industry pressure they still rather chose to work with them â because working against them was virtually impossible and most of those little stubborn groups usually ended up bankrupt pretty fast. The biggest names were still big corporations that built their traditions on the humans in charge of the operations, and if you wanted to have a successful career or even to be able to make a living, you still had to grovel at their feet and beg for an opportunity.
The dark shadows that overtook the three hybridsâ faces at the mention of human supervision perfectly reflected the grim reality of PI industry.
âNo, no humans here,â the wolf stated firmly, âwe are fully operated by hybrids. We donât allow any kind of outside intervention, during the investigations everything is fully in the hands of the operatives.â I nodded, satisfied.
âThatâs good to hear,â I said, but didnât elaborate any further. Most hybrids had bad experiences with their supervisors, so I imagine they must have understood pretty clearly where I was coming from.
âDo you have a resume?â Seokjin asked, bringing the attention back onto the topic at hand. I fumbled with my bag, fighting to pull out the slightly crumpled piece of paper that was pitifully empty, and I flushed under his inquisitive eyes when he caught sight of the free spaces.
I had pretty standard qualifications â I did have all of them, I finished all of my education, but it was nothing special. Everyone that successfully graduated from high school and finished their courses had the same ones (and there was a lot of us). There was some experience from practical education, a part-time job as a graveyard guard and a brief stint at the local office of Black Guard Corp., one of the three giants in the PI industry.
It really didnât take a long time for the three men to skim through it, it actually felt embarrassingly fast before their gazes shifted back to me, appraising me and searching for at least a sliver of talent.
âOh, youâre from all the way up north,â Hoseok exclaimed, âGot tired of the mountains?â I chuckled somewhat humourlessly.
âYeah, something like that,â I muttered. A lot of reclusive communities up in the north â a lot of stigma and not much to do, so it wasnât that strange that young people moved towards bigger cities searching for modernity and understanding.
âOne of our packmates is also from the area,â Hoseok said emphatically, smiling my way, âhe moved down as soon as he hit eighteen.â A noise of understanding clawed out of my throat completely unbidden and I awkwardly coughed.
âYeah, itâs fairly normal,â I replied, âI was one of the few young people left in our village.â Silence barely settled over us when Namjoon broke it again.
âYou wrote Hearing and Touch as your strongest senses,â the wolf asked, tapping at the paper where presumably those words were written, âcan you elaborate on that a little?â
Those hybrids that had talent (meaning a sense for the paranormal) all mostly had a little bit of everything when it came to the three main senses â sight, smell and hearing. Even if sight wasnât your strongest sense, you still saw just not as clearly as others. If sight was your strongest sense, you still were able to smell or hear to a certain extent. But usually every investigator had a sense that was stronger than others.
Of course there were levels â someoneâs strongest sense could still be weak compared to another person, but it was what he relied upon the most when it came to gathering information about the haunting. Those who had exceptionally strong senses could manifest rare gifts tied to their talents â like those with extremely strong sight could be able to see energy traces, or those with a superior sense of hearing could actually communicate with some of the ghosts.
Touch was a bit of a wild card. It was a considerably rare gift â not that it was super hard to find someone with the capability, but that usually it was very weak. A lot of people who manifested this already rare gift couldnât actually do much with it and mostly just caught echoes. It was also a gift that only tacked onto a heightened sense of hearing or smell, as that made it stronger.
Touch allowed for the investigator to strike up a connection between themselves and an object closely related to the ghost, it showed them visions â of the ghostâs memories, of their life. Sometimes it shed light onto their motivations to stay behind, sometimes the visions more showed what kind of person they were. Most of the times it made you go through the worst moments of their life â and their death.
It was a dangerous ability that consumed you from within, left you vulnerable. Those with particularly strong Touch often went mad through the years of endless investigations and ended up shells of their former selves.
And mine was â it was on its way there too. It was my greatest pride and my biggest weakness, all at once.
âDo you have anyone else with Touch?â I asked instead of answering at first. The trio on the couch showed their interest was definitely piqued but they let me get away with the small distraction.
Hoseok nodded at the same time as Seokjin said âyesâ, and they looked at each other before the fox gestured for the bear to continue.
âWe do, we have two,â he replied with a gentle smile, âJiminie has the same set as you, but his touch isnât particularly strong. Taehyungie, you met him outside, has smell and touch. His are a little stronger, but he mostly just complains that all he gets are terrible scents.â I chuckled at that.
âI can imagine. I used to know this ferret with the same combination and she always whined that it just makes the smells worse,â the anecdote made me relax even more as I thought back to the few good people I met through my old agency and remembered the reasons for why I stayed there for such a long time. Well, if a few months could be considered a long time. Then I took a deep breath.
âWell, both of my senses are quite⊠pronounced,â I admitted. People with Touch had to be careful about their talents â either it made you vulnerable to exploitation or you were seen as an emotional wreck and a liability. It was hard to say what peopleâs reaction would be â thatâs why I always asked about their own operatives first.
âAre you getting full visions?â Namjoon asked, and his voice was carefully neutral to make me more at ease. I nodded.
âYeah. My hearing is pretty strong too, usually I was one of the most alert ones in my team,â I told him, wringing my hands in my lap as I recalled my earlier job, âmy touch was what I excelled in though. Full visions, manifestations of emotions, the whole shebang.â The men seemed a little troubled but mostly I recognised worry for my health in those gazes, and while it was one of the pitfalls, I was at least glad they didnât seem to be strangely excited about my talents. Sometimes we could be seen as an easy way to fame and money, and Iâd rather starve than work for a company like that.
âHave you ever successfully carried out a conversation with an apparition?â this time it was Seokjin who asked, and I nodded quickly.
âOnce, but she was really confused,â I replied eagerly, âI wasnât able to get much out of her, it was like she drifted in and out of awareness.â Sometimes the hearing ability worked both ways â when ghosts were weak or low levels according to the manuals, they werenât really capable of communicating. Maybe they said something here or there, but they werenât fully conscious and aware. The stronger the apparition, the higher the level, the bigger the chance that they would hear you and answer â but just as there was a barrier that allowed only some to hear them, the barrier carried over certain voice better than others. Therefore if you were skilled at hearing, you also had a higher chance of being heard by the ghost.
The strongest apparitions could freely hold a conversation and hear everyone, even if others couldnât hear them. From what I read, they were usually quite the pieces of work and annoying to talk to.
âThat does happen quite often,â Seokjin sighed, folding himself back into the settee, âMost of the conversations with the dead are quite frustrating. Either because they donât hear you or because they do and you wish they didnât.â It sounded like he truly spoke from experience, and I did have to agree with him, even though I havenât bumped into a fully aware ghost yet. I thought it quite safe to assume Seokjinâs affinity was also hearing, then.
âWell, let me quickly introduce you to the offered position,â Namjoon hijacked the conversation again, leaning forward to look a little more professional, âThereâs seven of us in total and we usually work in teams of three or four, depending on the danger level. We try to take turns, but often we found ourselves in situations where we didnât have time both for business and for basic upkeep of the house and such.â I nodded in understanding.
âPeople in the summer usually feel emboldened by the long days,â the wolf continued, âso we had a slow period, but with the start of autumn and winter the fear will set in again and theyâll be desperate enough to go even to a small hybrid run agency, so we usually get busier, especially here in the local area. We need a helper. I think the offer said an assistant and a junior operative. Basically someone who will fill in the blank spaces â keep the house tidy when everyone is either busy with investigations, resting or researching. Tag along when we could use a helping hand out in the field. Make sure weâre fully stocked up, double check we have all the supplies in our bags and belts. Help out Hoseok with taking calls, caring for customers when they come here. A little bit of everything to make it easier for us, so we can fully focus on our other tasks.â I hummed again and gestured for him to continue.
âIn return we offer lodging here in the house, help with training and gaining more experience with both field and off-field work, like researching, orienting yourself in libraries, archives, what you have the authorisation to do and to ask for, such things. We offer full gear â a new rapier, salt bombs, magnesium bombs, shoes, coats, protective glasses â anything you might need or ask for. Weâd take you with us to investigations, show you the ropes, train you to be a full operative.â There Namjoon stopped and wavered a little, hesitation creeping into his face.
I assumed that this was where it usually all fell apart for him, so I straightened in the armchair and waited with bated breath what would follow.
âI know it seems a lot, but it could be a good opportunity,â the wolf smiled at me, the shyness and kindness he displayed earlier before I was found out shining through once more, âOf course⊠it wonât pay as much as if you worked for Black Guard or the Iron Sword, but itâs still a good pay, more than enough to live comfortably. And as I said, you can live here so that will lower living costs as wellâŠâ I released a big huff in relief. I see, so he was worried about money.
The trio of hybrids didnât seem to know how to interpret my reaction, so I gave them a huge toothy grin, a real one, that channelled just how interested I was in the position. It was perfect for me and I could use the community, the variety and the opportunity to learn.
âNo, that sounds perfect,â I told him, and I meant every word of it. That put blinding smiles on their faces as well, and suddenly Hoseok was jumping to his feet and clapping his hands, once again scaring the living shit out of me.
This time he looked a lot less sheepish and a lot more amused as he said sorry, and then he was beckoning me to follow him out of the sitting room. The other two men chuckled fondly, but followed after him, nodding at me to come with them.
âWeâre going to test you a little,â Namjoon explained, eyes searching the sky outside through a window in the hall, âI hope itâs not too early for a little ghostly activity.â
The sitting room was the first room youâd see when you stepped inside the house, but there was actually a similar room to the other side of the entrance hall, only stylised into a darker green instead of the browns and beiges of the one we were sitting at.
The entrance hall then opened into a huge room dominated by an old staircase leading to a little corridor that disappeared on both ends deeper into the house. The backdrop of the corridor though was an absolutely massive window made of stained glass that painted together a flowering meadow with a forest on the horizon. It was a little faded, the colours a little dull, but obviously well-loved and cared for, and it stole my breath away.
On the ground floor the room opened to corridors on the sides that similarly disappeared deeper, but on the left side there had to be a kitchen, because the corridor carried to me absolutely delicious smells, and sounds of a knife hitting a cutting board in a steady rhythm. I almost salivated upon smelling that, and wished I could weasel myself into staying for dinner, but instead I followed the men to the right, away from the tantalising scents.
We passed two sets of double doors made from dark polished wood. One was cracked open and I clearly heard giggles and a hushed conversation coming from there, recognising one of those voices as the deep baritone of the black bear that was trying to scare me outside. He was the one of the two with touch, and if I managed to get this job, I couldnât wait to talk to them about their gift. Up in the north there was only one other girl with touch â the ferret hybrid that had smell as her other sense, but since her touch wasnât as strong, our experiences with it were completely different.
But thatâs not where we were going â the three hybrids continued to the end of the hall where another set of dark-wood doors sat firmly closed. Namjoon fished out a bundle of keys from his pants, and I couldnât believe the chunky ball of iron fit into his trousers without bulging out uncomfortably.
There were two locks on the door and I promptly realised where he was taking me.
Every agency had a storage room â a place where all the dangerous things sat properly handled and out of reach to anyone that didnât know how to work with them and could get hurt. That meant everything from spare rapiers and magnesium bombs to active artefacts â ghost sources with their apparitions still attached to them.
A source could be anything that bound a ghost to the place of haunting and allowed them to come back â objects that were loved during their life, objects that were tied to their death or quite straightforwardly, their remains. Sometimes the ghosts were tied to a certain space, and those cases were the most annoying, because there wasnât much you could do about it â especially if it was a random spot in the middle of a forest or an actively lived-in house.
Operativeâs job was to investigate the haunting, find the source and handle it â with salt, iron or silver, depending on the strength of the ghost. Those materials acted as a buffer and eliminated all chances of the ghost slipping through into our world again â it locked the door, one could say. Some ghosts could be chased away with a little bit of salt or a sprinkle of iron filings, but some had to have their sources wrapped in silver and destroyed in fire â those were the most dangerous ones.
Certain artefacts were allowed to be kept as trophies, even though no one really kept an eye on that. The black market was very profitable and unfortunately a lot of people that were supposed to be regulators themselves dabbled in it and collected strong active sources. So the rule of thumb was that regular sources were disposed of in the furnaces while the ones tied to famous cases were kept â people didnât really care for grandpa Smithâs old walking stick, but they sure were interested in the remains of blood-thirsty ghosts that terrorised and killed until they were swiftly handled by an agency â getting rid of an artefact like that could be a huge PR hit for companies, and they were usually safely showed off in their headquarters to forever burn into peopleâs memories that they were the ones closing that case.
I assumed Namjoon was taking me to a similar trophy case to gauge the strength and depth of my senses.
Unlike the showy glass buildings of big corporations, Bangtanâs headquarters were situated in the basement under their house â it was mostly one big spacious room with walls made of red bricks and a floor of stone tiles. There were three tables there, covered in paperwork, and one wall was lined with filing cabinets, which must have been filled with old, closed cases.
A little light shined in through small oblong windows near the ceiling, so I was grateful when someone flicked a switch and artificial lights came on with a low hum.
And then I saw it â deeper into the space where two smaller rooms, cutting the space unevenly in half â and the wall facing us currently still standing by the door was covered with luminescent shelves.
It wasnât the shelves themselves that shined â it was their contents.
There werenât many artefacts, in fact most of the shelves were completely empty, but they made up for it with their brightness. Usually the brighter the source was, the stronger the ghost tied to it â and these were some potent sources.
I made a little panicked noise at the back of my throat, ears flattening to my head and tail flicking with agitation. I pointed towards the wall and then looked to the men with wide scared eyes.
âYou canât open those, look how bright they are even in the middle of the day!â I exclaimed and the men laughed lightly.
Namjoon leisurely made his way over towards the wall, and in my panic I followed him, heart beating out of my throat. But once there, he didnât reach towards any of the sources encased in glass tubes infused with silver and iron for safe-keeping, he actually turned toward one of the shelves I previously thought was empty.
Only, when I came closer I realised it was lined with passive sources â ones that used to be tied to a ghost who was either destroyed and left their source behind or chose to move on, or just simply were charged with energy of a haunting and not the apparition itself. They were no longer dangerous and mostly deserted of any activity.
The wolf whispered around with the fox for a little while, hands lingering on certain objects as they deliberated on which they wanted to give me as a test. Seokjin stood to the other side of me, eyes glued to the active sources as if he looked for something specific.
I waited with bated breath to see when his eyes lit up with recognition, eager to know what it was, but I was interrupted by Namjoonâs deep voice as he beckoned me closer.
I looked to them and saw that both he and Hoseok had an object in their hands, having chosen their favourite. Namjoon carefully cradled an intricately carved wooden comb â it was absolutely beautiful and it looked very old and frail, with some of its teeth broken or missing.
He nudged his hands to me, motioning for me to pick it up.
âTell me this combâs story, Y/N,â he said, and the sudden appearance of my name shocked me enough to flinch in surprise. I realised I never actually introduced myself to them, the whole clusterfuck of a situation derailing the usual pleasantries â he had to have read it on my resume.
With blushing cheeks I rushed to grab it, careful to give it the same gentle consideration as the wolf did. The last thing I wanted was to break it.
At first I felt nothing. I heard the menâs breathing, the wild beating of all our hearts as the anticipation gripped us. I heard the faint clanks coming from the kitchen on the floor above. I felt my ears twitch as they tried to focus on the echoes of things long gone instead of the very present and very alive hybrids.
Anxiety spilled through me and I squirmed. Slowly I felt myself sink into panic, brain running its mouth telling me that I was useless and couldnât even feel the object, that theyâd laugh at me, theyâd hate me. Theyâd kick me out and Iâd have to go back home, embarrassed and defeated. I wouldnât be able to impress them, I was a sham, a phony. I had nothing to offer anyone. I was worthless. Maybe I should just-
The thought startled me into a more present grounded mindset, and I ashamedly realised that due to me being nervous about the test I hadnât noticed when I slipped into my ability. Those werenât my thoughts, but whoever once owned this comb had a really bad time.
Shakily I dropped the comb back into Namjoonâs waiting hands, noting the concern on his face at my queasy expression. Hoseok was standing next to him still holding his own item, but his eyes were wide and a little scared.
âAre you okay dear?â Seokjin suddenly asked me, hands settling on my shoulders as he spun me around, âYou suddenly got really pale.â I nodded hurriedly, using the sleeve of my sweater to dry off some of the accumulated sweat on my face.
âNo, yeah, Iâm fine, sorry,â I stuttered out, turning back to Namjoon and looking straight into his worried eyes, âThe woman who wore this comb killed herself, didnât she? She felt worthless â someone had left her. Maybe the very person who gave her the comb.â The devastation hit the wolfâs face as soon as I was finished speaking.
âI am so sorry, Y/N. Iâve never met anyone with touch as strong as yours, I didnât realise youâd feel it so intensely,â he said, comb long forgotten discarded haphazardly on the shelf.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement â the genuine remorse at putting me through an experience like that, even unknowingly â it was enough to make me blush under his brown gentle eyes.
âItâs okay, itâs my ability and Iâve learnt to deal with it,â I told him softly, âI just got a little surprised, I wasnât paying enough attention and let it suck me in a little.â He looked like he saved my words into memory for later use, like he wanted to make sure to help me along the way to not slip into the memories as easily again, and I flushed again, warmth spreading through my chest.
Iâd never met anyone so invested in the well-being of their operatives. Which was quite sad, thinking about it.
âWas I right, though?â I enquired, and he shook out of his stupor, looking at me, then at the comb, then back at me and then as if everything caught up with him he nodded quickly.
âYeah, her actual source were her remains â they got stuck deep in the mud in the river she drowned herself in, but the comb was in her hands and carried over the aura of her haunting,â the wolf explained eagerly, âshe was mostly just sitting around on the bank, scaring off some of the local children who felt unsafe there due to her aura. She wasnât dangerous at all, just really sad.â I felt a pained pang in my heart, some of the unsettled feelings and thoughts from her last moments still lingering in the corners of my soul.
âThatâs incredibly heart-breaking,â I whispered, eyes glued to the beautiful accessory.
Before I could spiral any deeper into those thoughts, Hoseok awkwardly cleared his throat, hands hanging in the air between us unsure of whether he should offer the artefact or not. Everybodyâs attention was drawn to him and Namjoon was just about to open his mouth to protest, when I beat him to it by grabbing the little thingy.
It was a really fancy pen, felt and looked new, like it would still write if I tried it on a piece of paper, and its ghostly traces were incredibly weak. This time I was more cautious as I examined it, rolling it around in my hands, eyes closed and fingers trying to feel every ridge, every scratch.
There wasnât much. Almost nothing actually. I caught some waves, but they fizzled out as quickly as they appeared, leaving me with little fragments here and there. I tried again to make sure, but came to the conclusion that this item couldnât have been tied to a haunting. It felt more like they just took it from the deceasedâs house than anything else.
âUmm, are you sure this is what you wanted me to touch?â I asked hesitantly, âItâs just that thereâs not much here. I feel mostly just stress from it, but itâs very fragmented.â At my words everyone in the room chuckled, Hoseokâs face heating up until he was as red as a tomato.
âGood job,â Namjoon said, snickering in amusement and looking towards the embarrassed fox, âthis isnât an actual haunted item or an artefact. Itâs one of those fancy pens they advertise to ghost hunters because it has an outer layer of silver on it. Well, Hoseokie-hyung here bought it as a joke and it ended up saving his life. But turns out that the energy of coming into contact with ghost plasm holds onto it well and itâs kind of cursed now.â That definitely caught my attention and I looked at the hybrid who was shooting daggers into the wolf.
âHe was being a big old dummy and while handling the sources marked for destruction he dropped one and the case broke,â Seokjin jumped in to continue the story, âhe had nothing but the pen in hand and he had to fend off a very angry and a very confused apparition. We heard him screaming and all ran here as fast as we could to see him running around the basement waving around a silver pen and hysterically yelling at a ghost.â At this point I was giggling along with the men, the fox laughing along too as if he saw the visual his mate was painting as well.
âIt was the best day of my life,â Namjoon sighed through snickers, âI almost didnât want to help him because it was too funny.â
âI love to hear that youâd let me die for your entertainment, Joonie,â the man in question grumbled, but it was all in good nature, that much was obvious through their fond looks they threw each other.
As the laughter died down, a more serious expression settled onto Seokjinâs face and he gazed back onto the shelves with active sources, this time eyes immediately locking onto a specific case that glowed strongly with cold, steely blue light.
The other two men quietened the second they recognised what the bear was looking at, ears flinching and flattening to their heads.
âI was curious about what youâd tell us about an item we have here,â Seokjin started explaining, a far-away look in his eyes, âbut seeing how strong of a reaction you had to the comb, I think we better not.â I looked towards the case, head tilted in consideration.
It was obvious there was something different, something strange, about that specific artefact â and judging by their nervous stances it wasnât anything good.
âI can try,â I said easily, moving towards the shelf. Seokjin made an aborted panicked sounds, hands shooting up to stop me, but ultimately he let me walk past him and do what I wanted. I turned back, looking at the men watching me with scared but curious expressions, I steeled myself and looked at it properly.
It was fairly small â a single skeleton finger with a bejewelled ring stuck onto it. I wasnât sure what they exactly expected from that. I clearly couldnât take it out as the apparition would no doubt immediately manifest, and you really couldnât feel through the glass.
But oh how quickly I realised I was wrong about that. I raised my hand, hearing the gasps of the three hybrids, reached for it and promptly stopped. I felt almost paralysed with the wave of dark resentful energy rolling off of it in thick waves, so thick that I was almost choking on them.
Whoever that ghost was, he was strong, angry and dangerous enough for his energy to manifest even through protective silver casing. Panic gripped me, just blind fear that this shouldnât be here â this shouldnât be anywhere. Suddenly I was stumbling back, tripping over my own feet to put distance between me and whatever that thing was.
My wild terrified eyes found Namjoonâs own worried ones and I couldnât hold back a whimper clawing its way out of my throat.
âWhat the fuck,â I gritted through my teeth, âis that? Why the fuck is that here?â The alpha seemed to be fighting off his instincts, my palpable fear and the whimper must have put him in for a spin to try and calm me down, but we didnât know each other at all for any attempts to be appropriate.
I realised I was shaking, the hand with which I almost grabbed the artefact cold and frozen to the bone.
âIt was one of our biggest cases,â Seokjin whispered, voice gentle and monotone as he slowly started moving towards me trying not to scare me more, âa nasty piece of shit, a killer in life and a killer in death. Jimin refuses to get any closer to it, says it gives him the creeps even through the glass. Heâs been telling us it has an aura even through the protection case and here or there tries to persuade us to get rid of it. None of us can feel much, just that it has bad energy, so I got curious⊠Iâm glad you didnât touch it. Those are some memories you donât want to see.â
The bear hybrid managed to get all the way to me, his soft grip to my shoulder grounding me into the present and finally breathing some warmth back into my frozen scared body. I relaxed enough to let him start dragging me back towards the stairs, the two other hybrids guiltily tagging along.
âJimin has a fucking point,â I replied, âThat thing should be destroyed.â There was still a slight tremble to my hands, and I realised for the first time that day I was feeling extremely cold. I mechanically forced my feet to carry me a stair after a stair, yearning for the cosy vibe of the sitting room and the delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
âTold you,â a new voice joined us from up the stairs and I jerked to look up, coming face to face with a pretty boy with big eyes and plump lips. White ears stuck out excitedly from a mop of black silky hair, but I couldnât gauge what kind of hybrid he was.
âJimin,â Seokjin sighed, pulling me closer to his side, âplease go start up a fire in the green room.â The boy said nothing more, only winked at me good-naturedly and then disappeared back into the house.
When we made it into the green room â which was the sitting room across the one we were in before â there indeed was a fireplace and an excited hybrid loading it with wood. I looked at his snow-white fluffy tail, the shape of it flaring out a little towards the end, and realised he was another fox, an arctic one. He must have been the hybrid Hoseok was talking about before, the one that moved down here from up north.
âAfter that Iâm afraid I must insist you stay for dinner,â Seokjin spoke again, voice firm and leaving no space for objections. And it was the polite thing to do, to object and pretend like I wasnât dying to sit down by the fire and eat, but just that afternoon I wouldnât â I was too tired and too shaken. I wanted that damn food and Iâd take it.
âThank you so much,â I whispered only, letting the man fuss over me with a blanket. Shortly after he ushered Namjoon and Hoseok away with him, muttering something about guests and Yoongi, which I didnât fully comprehend.
Jimin still sat down by the fireplace, kindling the little fire and feeding it paper, but then he turned to me and watched me with interested curious eyes for a moment.
âYou got the touch?â he asked finally, and I simply nodded. Another moment of silence.
âDid you touch the finger?â this question came a little quieter. I saw the warring emotions in his eyes â excitement over meeting someone with the same gift, apprehension of the cursed object and a worry over my well-being. I was grateful to him, to his easy friendliness that put me at ease.
âNo⊠I couldnât,â I whispered the reply, but he understood, he did all too well. He gave me an empathetic smile, which quickly melted into a smirk.
âMaybe now Joonie-hyung will finally listen to me and do something about that awful thing,â he teased, giggling and pulling me along with him.
I was just about to open my mouth with my own smart remark when a new face stormed into the room, immediately stopping in his tracks upon seeing me bundled up in the blankets in an armchair by the fire.
He was small, noticeably so once Seokjin arrived as well and stood next to him, but his form was obviously strong and lean, a quite typical build for a classically trained operative. He must have been a terror with rapiers, it was written all over him.
âAish, I leave you three alone for an hour and this is what you do?â he scolded the guiltily looking trio, âLook at that poor kid, you totally traumatised her!â Jimin on the ground was giggling, watching their pulled back ears with delight, but I just sheepishly sunk further into the chair, cheeks pink over how strongly the unknown hybrid defended me.
Movement by his legs caught my eye and I finally noticed the kind of hybrid he was â that was definitely a white tiger tail swishing wildly behind him! I physically felt my ears perk up as my back straightened and my own tail raised in interest, which brought even more colour to my cheeks and stuttered up the black-haired man in the middle of his spiel.
Soon he was blushing too, and I realised he was reading my body language and Iâve just given myself away, quite spectacularly.
I felt the intense need to explain myself but there wasnât really much to say â I was excited to meet another feline hybrid, one that wasnât of my own community â because Iâve never met another cat outside the ones I grew up with, and those werenât exactly great. But I just looked like I totally had the hots for him (which I totally didnât).
âN-no- I mean- I just- Iâve never met a tiger hybrid,â I finally pushed out, ignoring Jiminâs teasing shit-eating grin where he sat by my feet next to the fireplace. Namjoon, Hoseok and Seokjin were watching me with open fascination, which was definitely better than the anger I was imagining they would feel over me obviously being into their mate (which I wasnât!!! It was a misunderstanding, nothing more!!!).
The tiger in question shifted on his feet, hand going to scratch behind the striped ear, his own characteristics now betraying a curiosity and interest on his part. His gaze swept over my features, passive but warm.
âYouâre a snow leopard, aren't you?â he asked and where Namjoonâs voice was deep and smooth, Taehyungâs voice was deep and sweet, this hybridâs voice was deep and raspy, sending me into a whole new spiral at hearing it.
I barely even managed to nod, embarrassedly pulling my tail and pushing it into my lap before it divulged even more of my secrets. Jimin was smirking at me as if he knew exactly what I was going through, and I kind of wanted to kick him a little.
âI suppose you came down here fairly recently then? Your folk only mostly only lives up in the mountains and theyâre pretty reclusiveâŠâ he asked some more, angling more towards me and I felt my treacherous tail twitch in my hands.
âYeah, it was a pretty tight community,â I told him easily, âTheyâre not exactly⊠forward and⊠open-minded.â It felt weird to be sharing such a private information with people Iâd just met a few hours ago, but apart from the fact that this was something mostly all hybrids kind of knew, in those hours they managed to make me trust their judgement and believe that even if I wouldnât end up getting employed by them, they still cared for my comfort.
But subverting all my expectations, the hybrid who up until now stayed fairly neutral even with a soft blush to his cheeks suddenly smirked at me, taking in my wide-eyes and flushed face before saying: âWell, itâs an honour for me to be your first tiger.â and walking out nonchalantly.
The trio that he originally came in here while scolding them stood there wordlessly, eyes flitting between my embarrassed form, a little too amused Jimin and the empty space where the tiger used to stand. Then Hoseok made a non-descript delighted noise in the back of the throat, launching into a sprint while screaming at the top of his lungs: âJungkookie, you have competition!â
I was very much confused, but judging from Namjoonâs embarrassed blush and Jiminâs outright evil snickers, I probably didnât want to know.
Seokjin smiled blindingly and then walked away again, while Namjoon slowly slinked into the room and made himself comfortable at the other armchair, still watching me glare at the laughing Jimin with wide eyes.
âWell, I certainly didnât expect this outcome when you sneaked in today,â the wolf muttered, but there was a grin gently pulling at his lips. I was too embarrassed to banter and the attempt at a smile came out more as a grimace, so I just sunk deeper into the armchair and stubbornly looked on into the fire, ignoring the two giggling men.
âIâm sorry though,â Namjoon said quietly suddenly. I looked at him confused and I was surprised by the guilty expression on his face. âIâm sure this wasnât the most pleasant of first meetings,â the hybrid muttered sheepishly, a bit of shame settled into his features.
âNamjoon-ssi, I made the decision to touch the source,â I told him firmly, hoping to alleviate some of his worry, âSeokjin-ssi was clear that I probably shouldnât, but I wanted to try. You did nothing wrong.â The wolf didnât seem much appeased, but he at least eased up a little, a little bit of determination creeping into his eyes.
âIâm going to get a bigger case and put it as a second barrier,â he proudly stated, more to himself than to us, and me and Jimin shared a glance before promptly bursting out into a fit of giggles. A sort of warmth settled into me, especially as distinctly recognisable voice of the brown bear shouted from somewhere that dinner will be ready shortly.
âWould be foolish to hope youâd like to accept the offer?â the question came out of nowhere, even Namjoon himself looking a little shy though he was the one who said it. I froze. Jimin stopped laughing. The happy chatter flowing in from the kitchen died down and everything settled into a buzz of anticipation.
The house was suddenly plunged into silence that I hadnât heard since I stepped in, and the longer I was shocked at his words, the more I could see the alpha spiral that Iâd inevitably reject him.
âI wasnât aware you were waiting for my answer,â I uttered, teasing cheekiness creeping into my voice, and Jiminâs face once more morphed into a beautiful smile, âBut Iâd love to accept.â Namjoon smiled in relief, but both of our attentions were snatched by giggles coming from the artic fox.
âOf course she accepts hyung,â Jimin reiterated, âshe wants to keep her first tiger.â
Iâd never wished for the ground to swallow me so hard as I did in that moment.
Thank you for reading <3
Taglist (open): @borahaetelevision @socksfirst1 @shakespeare-in-the-park7 @iwishiwasrichasfuck @authorpj
@bangatanily @sassy-snassy @booksintheheart00-blog @bangbangcon @kiki-zb
@luvian-art @ldysmfrst @jinsleftairpod
#bts fic#bts fluff#bts angst#bts smut#bts x reader#ot7 x reader#bts ot7#bts poly au#bts hybrid au#pfyg series
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âą james potter x fem!reader
âą summary: modern restaurant au; you and james complete side work at the end of your shift . Ęâ âč . ĘË . Ę2.1k
âą warnings/tags: coworker!james, coworker!marauders, anxious!reader, not rlly proofread
⹠the new hire masterlist ⥠main masterlist
note: dropping lore in this part ig
"I don't think this restaurant is fancy enough for this to be necessary," you huff, polishing what seems like your millionth spoon.
You're sitting at the rickety break room table, polishing silverware and rolling sets of them into cloths. James is across from you, looking at his reflection in a butter knife.
"No one who eats here is going to care if there are a few water stains on their spoons," you grumble. You're in a bit of a bad mood, this task being the only thing keeping you from going home.
"Nate wants this place to be fancier than it is. Always has," James replies, neatly arranging his knife with the other utensils on the cloth in front of him.
"Always, huh?" you wonder, "Has he always been the manager?"
"As long as I've been here."
"And how long is that?"
"Ah," James pauses in the middle of rolling his napkin, counting in his head, "Technically five years."
You stop in the middle of polishing a fork, looking up to meet James' gaze. "What? Really?" you ask.
James shrugs as if it's nothing, responding, "Started as a busser when I was seventeen. The only person who's been here longer is Remus."
You don't understand the relevance of the comparison, pointing out, "Well, he's older."
James looks at you puzzled, "Remus and I are the same age."
You put the fork down entirely, gaping at James. "Remus is twenty-two?" you ask, your tone conveying your shock.
"Yeah," James says slowly, furrowing his brows, "You didn't know that?"
"No. He looks at least a few years older."
James tilts his head side to side, pondering your comment. "Maybe a little," he admits. "That kitchen wears him down."
You look puzzled as you straighten out the fork you had dropped down on the table, thinking about the revelation that still doesn't quite add up to you.
"If he's our age how in the world is he already a head chef?"
James looks as if he's trying to recall the answer, but comes up short.
"You'd have to ask him. He was hired before me and I guess I never thought to ask that."
"He was a head chef at seventeen?" you ask, eyes widening as your shock doubles.
"No! No, he just worked in the kitchen. Think he was head chef by twenty, though."
"Oh..." you trail off, thinking that makes much more sense than your initial impression. But not by very much. "Still, wow. What about everyone else?"
James' eyebrows raise curiously as he starts polishing yet another spoon.
"What do you mean?"
"They've been here how long?" you clarify.
"Ah. Sirius started about a month after I did. Did you know he started as a server?" James shares the details like it's hot gossip.
To you, it basically is. You can't imagine Sirius doing anything besides bartending at this restaurant.
"Really?"
James smiles at the way your eyes light up in surprise and slight amusement. "Yeah," he confirms. "He absolutely hated it, but doing that he got to train with the bartender before him."
You nod understandingly. It makes sense, you suppose. Bartenders don't just appear out of thin air. You either have to work your way up the ranks or receive formal training, and if you had ever given it any thought, you would have assumed the former.
It dawns on you that you haven't given much thought to your other coworkers at all. Besides what you've naturally found out over the handful of weeks that you've worked here, you don't know much about anyone besides James.
"And the others?"
James blows out some air, thinking, and he takes two rolls of silverware and begins using them as drumsticks against the table. You smile a little at the action.
"Whenever I became a server I recommended Pete for my old busser job. That was probably four years ago."
James had told you stories about him and Peter before, but you wonder how long they've actually known each other.
"How did you know Peter?"
"Known him since primary school."
"Huh," you express your surprise quietly, and James continues on.
"The next hire was Marlene," James smirks as he recalls something. "Actually, she's the reason Lily and Mary were hired."
"Did she recommend them too?"
James chuckles, shaking his head as he explains, "No, Marlene was always complaining about too much testosterone in this place. I think five.. six months after she started, she told Nate that a customer said that they thought management must be sexist because of the lack of girl hires."
"Did someone actually say that?" you ask skeptically.
"No," James laughs, "He totally bought it though cause he hired Lily and Mary a week later. Worked out great for them in the end. You know they go to uni in the city? Theyâre both here to support themselves through it.â
Your bottom lip finds itself between your teeth as you think about how long everyone has worked here. Theyâve all had years to get to know each other. You have already been feeling like an outsider, so learning this just amplifies that tenfold.
James puts his makeshift drumsticks away when he notices you getting lost in thought.
âWhatâs on your mind?â
Your eyes flash to him, startled out of your train of thought. Shrugging, you try to brush it off and return to your duties to the silverware.
âCâmon, I always know when youâre getting lost in that head of yours,â James says with a teasing yet affectionate tone.
You purse your lips, knowing the chances of James letting this go are slim.
"I just⊠I don't really know much about them at all I guess. Do they..." you trail off, apprehensive to admit your insecurities.
"What?" James probes gently, softening at your hesitation.
"Iâm worried they don't like me,â you admit.
"What!? Why? Youâre great! Why wouldnât anyone like you?â James says it earnestly without a hint of hesitation, and that alone makes you feel a bit better.
You keep your hands busy with the silverware, your eyes focusing intently on the water stains you polish away so that you donât have to face James as you explain.
âI feel like I havenât made much of an effort to get to know them. I was nervous, I guess, to talk to new people. Now Iâm even more nervous because itâs been so long and I havenât even tried. Theyâre going to thinkââ
âHey, hey, hey,â James stops you from snowballing into a self-deprecating ramble, placing a hand over yours across the table, also stopping the way youâre polishing a spoon to death.
He dips his head down to try to meet your eyes, which are trained intently on the table. âNo one thinks anything,â he says patiently. âActually, you know what Iâve heard? Iâve heard them say that youâre kind. Maybe a tad shy, but thatâs not a bad thing!â The last few words tumble out in a rush, James being worried that youâd take it negatively when he really finds your timid nature so endearing.
Your gaze slowly shifts to meet his eyes. âItâs hard for me to warm up to new people,â you admit, your voice low.
James absentmindedly strokes the back of your hand with his thumb, âYou got on with me just fine.â
âYouâre different,â you say before you can give it much thought. You wouldâve bit your tongue if you had.
âHow am I different?â he asks, his eyes twinkling with something you canât quite place.
âI-I donât know you just are.â
Itâs true, youâre not sure why but after your first day you were already comfortable with James, more than comfortable if youâre being honest. He quickly became your favorite part about this job.
He simply accepts your answer. Normally, heâd say something witty or teasing, but he finds himself at a loss for words.
The conversation fades into silence, neither of you knowing how to proceed, both overwhelmed with confusing feelings.
James canât stop looking at where his hand rests over yours, not knowing how to retract it. Not wanting to.
Meanwhile, you search your brain for something to say, something that would change the subject. You donât feel the need to keep talking about this anyway. Although, youâre not sure if you feel better about the situation with your other coworkers or if youâve just been distracted from it.
âSo, five years, huh?â you start.
"Technically," he emphasizes. He slowly retracts his hand as the conversation takes on a more casual tone.
You had barely even noticed his hand there with how natural it felt, but now that itâs gone your hand almost feels cold. You distract yourself by rolling more silverware.
"What does that mean?" you ask.
"I, er, pursued other things for a little while. Didn't work out, so I ended up back here."
You canât help but wonder what he means, so you ask, "What things?"
James stammers, him now the apprehensive one.
"Sorry,â you say quickly, âI don't mean to pry."
"No, it's okay,â James waves off your worries, âI was playing rugby."
âWhat, like, professionally?â you ask, not expecting him to say yes.
âEr, yeah," he admits, twirling a butter knife in between his fingers.
You freeze. âWait. Seriously?â
âYes,â he chuckles airily.
He notices how your mouth is slightly agape, twitching as it forms the shape of words which never leave your lips. He can tell youâre wondering what happened, but youâre too polite to ask.
âI hurt my knee,â he continues, purposefully avoiding the specifics, âso ended up back here.â
Your face crumples in sympathy. "Oh. Oh, I-I'm sorry," you say, genuine compassion in your tone.
âItâs fine. Iâve come to terms with it," James says honestly. His career was briefâ barely even got a chance to startâ and while he'll always wonder what could've been, he's not angry about the way his life is turning out.
"So what about you? What would you be doing if you didn't work here?" James suddenly asks you.
"I never went to uni," you say, thinking of Lily and Maryâ your age and likely almost done with their studies. "I would've liked to. I don't even know what for."
"You still could."
"Yeah, maybe," you say tentatively, rolling you're last set of cutlery. "That's all my side work. Want me to help with yours?"
"No, you get out of here, I'll be alright," James assures, not wanting to put extra work on your plate, recalling how annoyed you've been with this task.
You nod, standing from the table to collect your things from your locker. You bid him goodbye as you sling your bag over your shoulder.
"I'll see you tomorrow, James."
"Bye, love," he says fondly, waving with a fork in his hand as you go.
On your way out, you pass Sirius, giving him a small wave and a barely audible "goodnight" as he joins James in the break room.
"Night, doll," he calls down the hall as he turns into the room.
Sirius has a wide, knowing smirk on his face when he locks eyes with James.
"Rolling silverware?" Sirius asks, his tone dripping with his amusement.
James shrugs, "Yeah, so?"
Sirius tilts his head, chuckling, "I thought your side work was to prep garnishes today."
"Ah," James fumbles with some silverware as he responds, "I finished that ages ago. So, I offered to do Lily's side work."
"Oh, did you?" Sirius says with mock surprise.
"Yup. Just doing a favor for a friend," James grins innocently.
"Or trying to get some alone time with that work crush of yours."
"I do not have a work crush!" James quickly defends, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. He almost feels guilty, Sirius is at least right about the alone time part. James still misses having you by his side as a trainee, but after you're conversation today he feels bad about stealing you away from your other coworkers.
Sirius raises his hands in the air, "Alright, mate. Whatever you say."
"You're a prat. Why don't you come help me with this?"
Sirius looks incredulous at the suggestion, "I'm not the one who volunteered to do extra work!"
James rolls his eyes, picking up one of the many forks he has left. But truth be told, he didn't quite mind having to do the extra workâ spending time with you made it well worth it.
Sirius snorts at the sudden lovesick look on James' face when he gets lost in his thoughts, and makes a mental note to wager a bet with Remus tomorrow on how long James will last.
#james potter x reader#james potter x fem!reader#the new hire#james potter fic#james potter fanfic#james potter fanfiction#coworker!james potter x reader#james potter x anxious!reader#coworker!james potter#coworker!james#coworker!marauders#coworker!sirius#server!james potter#server!james#james potter fluff#james potter#sirius black#marauders#marauders fanfic#marauders fic#marauders era#marauders era fanfic#restaurant au#muggle au#bartender!sirius black#waiter!james potter#marauders era fanfiction#marauders imagine#lily evans#marlene mckinnon
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So, you know that ISAT au I mentioned in my yass-girlboss King post??
HHHHHEEEERE WE GO .... info below keep reading!!! lots of words!!!! In Stars And Time FULL spoilers!!!!!
(Note: The Reset AU will be posted on @slowlysoluminary but i will be reblogging from my main)
There are some really interesting Siffrin-Meets-The-King-First aus that float around. I see them sometime! they're great! But I, as an adoring King fan, had to sit down and ask myself:
"So, uhh, like why?"
AND I DID SOME THINKING!!!!!
The King notices you're looping in Act 3. That's great! Not for Siffrin, but great narratively. If he notices it in that loop specifically, I feel like he would notice in other loops, too.
So, Act 5. The King notices how much of a formidable opponent siffrin is (among other things), acknowledges he's from the same country, recognizes wish craft, yadda yadda yadda.
He wants Siffrin to understand and resonate with his reasons for trapping an entire country in time, and while Siffrin is busy in his mind space fighting Mal Du Pays, the King makes a wish. AND HE LOOPS!!!!!??????
... Uhh, kind of? Not really. It resets the timeline all the way back to when the country was erased, but instead of the King having full memory, they're more like... vague snippets that hint at what he once was.
So, um! The first part of the AU is about the King's 10-year-long descent into madness. It's heavily condensed but it's there!! there's lore there!! I'm a king fan he needs a backstory.
"His name is Lazare" HE HAD TO HAVE A NAME BEFORE HIS KING DAYS... it's heavily implied the King wasn't his original name, and my headcanon helpfully supplied that he underwent a Change inside the house during his rise to power. I think there's like, a Head Defender? And the King was Head Defender, with full access to all libraries inside the house, when he started going crazy.
At 22 he loses all his memory while travelling in Vaugarde. Nobody knows his name so he comes up with one! He meets Siffrin 4 years later and they both travel Vaugarde together.
He becomes a defender at 29 because we see firsthand how INVESTED this dude is in Vaugarde. He wants, NEEDS this country to be safe!! he has a lot of patriotism!!! He's not actively searching for what happened to him or his country, he's just accepted it and is building himself up as a person.
oh boy .. when he turns 31 he becomes Head Defender.... And when he starts reading higher-access books throughout the house documenting a disappearing country? He gets MORBIDLY curious. And... well... this fixation leads him down the rabbit hole that got him where he is today! Except, this time, with Siffrin on his side...?
Yup! Siffrin is here! They've been here the whole time! Siffrin watches a man he's grown to love and adore fall into the Deep End. And he would find the strength to be mad about what he's doing if it weren't for the fact he was super sympathetic!!! ugh!!! sympathy!!!
Siffrin agrees with the King... but not really? He agrees with his reasons but completely disagrees with the way he's going about it. The change from Lazare to King was gradual, but towards the end he treats Siffrin more like an object of study than a friend.
The King takes his cloak and hat to study the stitching, the King won't let him cut or dye his hair again because he wants (NEEDS) this still image of his culture, etc.
Siffrin pretends his behavior doesn't bother him (because the King goes full Mansplain Manipulate Malewife on him if he voices his dissent) and keeps sneaking away from the King using his hat-less/cloak-less disguise.
In doing so, he meets a wild Mirabelle! It becomes a habit to visit her and the villagers under this "disguise" (it's only convincing in the way that Clark Kent is convincing) and he's feeling that same friendship with them that he used to back when the King was Lazarus.
... Until the House gets frozen? And the king starts Freezing People In Time For Real? No warning? Siffrin is HORRIFIED, rightfully, and also super upset. Partly because Mirabelle "got frozen" (she did not get frozen) and partly because the king has TOTALLY LOST HIS MIND NOW. no trace or remnant of who he used to be. but siffrin wants to hold on.
and then Siffrin gets stuck in a time loop! Whoops! Honest mistake!
"How does he get stuck in a Time Loop if there's no party to stick with?" ok so. of course he's going to learn Wish Craft from the King, duh. The King tells him literally everything about rhe country as he discovers it (albeit, in incoherent rambles.). And he also has his own muscle memory to draw from!
In desperation, he makes a wish: Save Vaugarde/Sav the King.
"Which one of those two is it?" Idk! That's what he spends the timeloops finding out!
Oh, wait, now that I've talked about the time loops, I CAN TALK ABOUT LOOP!!! LOOP IS NEW AND DIFFERENT!!!
^^ This was the initial ref sheet i made while brainstorming for this au (and also the sheet that birthed King In Magical Girl Poses)
"So what's loop's deal?" yeah, um, that's the thing? Loop doesn't know either!
Loop is not hiding their identity! Much like King, they domn't remember anything until afterthe Reset. They're Siffrin, yes, but not Siffrin from SASASA:AP. They're Siffrin from In Stars and Time. They're THE Siffrin that the King's wish Reset!
Thus, Loop looks very different!!!! And acts a little bit different!!! Siffrin is the only one who can see Loop, for the time being, and they follow him throughout the loops instead of staying stagnant under the Favor Tree.
They don't like the idea of not knowing who they are, or where they're from. Siffrin sympathizes with the star, initially thinking that they just... had the same thing happen to them that happened to the king? But the reason Loop follows Siffrin through the house is because they NEED to know who they used to be, and what in the Universe happened to them. Certain things trigger certain memories, and... it certainly doesn't help that the party enters the fray.
"So was the King's wish not important?" THE KING'S WISH WAS VERY IMPORTANT.
Not only did it CAUSE the reset, but it gave King the precise tools to get a timeline that fulfilled his wish (It's not the Universe's fault he lost himself and his only chance).
BUT ALSO!! ALSOOOOOOO!!!! THE KING'S WISH CORRUPTED THE WHOLE TIMELINE.
Loops are meant to reset to the day before, with no one"s memory remaining except for Siffrin's.
This loop completely Reset the timeline.
The King kept hints of his memories from the past.
The party gets dejå vƫ from the moment they meet to the moment they step foot in the house. They feel like something is missing.
Loop shouldn't be here. Loop should be... Loop. Loop didn't wish to be here - it's a direct violaton of his initial wish to stay with his friends, but it's a wish that technically got overwritten when the Reset happened?
Ironically, Siffrin is the only one Out Of The Loop (hehe)
,,,,,,,,,
"okay so what's the stuff IN the timeloop?" you see. you seeeeee. I've been worldbuilding so that I can figure that out. And I still don't know..... I'm setting it up with this post so I can elaborate on anything later (asks are appreciated)
"You should write/draw about this" I am! Ao3 is llilyrose but idk if I'll end up posting anything there. Of course, my tumblr is llilyrose, too....
"You stole this from user llilyrose on ISAT discord!" um, look at my url again. thx
"What if I have questions about the worldbuilding/characters/etc." send an ask, fool.... I'd really appreciate it .....
#isat king#isat loop#isat siffrin#isat au#isat fanart#in stars and time#isat reset au#op#my writing#to reset a kingpin
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Hi đ I have a few technical questions for the self aware au for HOTD, if you wouldnât mind me asking.
Does the world just⊠stop if we pause the tv? If I rewind a scene bc of whatever reason would that give then motion sickness? Back on pausing the show, does the world stop but the character donât? Like if I paused the tv and started talking to someone about whatever, is Aemond crossing his arms and tapping his shoes while pouting? WOULD MUTING THEM ACTUALLY MAKE THEM MUTE??
Are the dragons jealous if we talk about dragons from other forms of media? I have loyalty to Paarthurnax for best dragon đ
ooo what If we had a Skyrim tattoo? Imagine comparing lore?
And lastly, how would they react if we had started watching game of thrones? I like to try to rewatch stuff in chronological order if prequels or branching media gets made, I like to see the chain of events you know? Would the self awareness spread to more of that verse bc of that? Can we pull John Snow?
Sorry for the wall of text and rambling, I love LOVE self aware aus and love learning more about them
Let me retrieve my sacred lore scroll.
retrieves it.
For every rule I lay down hereâthey can be broken under one circumstance: if the character is completely self-aware. None of the characters I have written so far have gotten to that point. Complete self-awareness may drive any of them to insanity.
(1) Does the world stop if we pause the tv?
That version of the world stops. So that canon timeline is still there, but other things are happening off screen. They are subconsciously led back to the plot when the television is unpaused again.
(2) If I rewind a scene because of whatever reasonâwould that give then motion sickness?
It erases their memory and gives them a sense of deja vu. They prod inside of their mind but it's like a wall has been put up inside of their minds.
If the character is already predisposed to motion borne illnesses then they would get motion sickness.
Example. If Aegon II was incredibly drunk and you rewinded a part he was in it'd make him feel like he was going to throw up. However, he wouldn't actually throw up because he wasn't as drunk/or drunk at all (depending on how much your rewound) at that time.
(3) Would muting them actually make them mute?
Yes, it would. They would be talking in their world and wouldn't be able to understand how you aren't listening.
If they found out how to work the volume then you'd be screwed. Some may be able to do this unintentionally, while others would have to be more self-aware to unlock the ability.
Dreamers are more likely to be self-aware due to their inante abilities. So Helaena would it without even realizing it.
(4) Are the dragons jealous if we talk about dragons from other forms of media? âImagine comparing lore.
Yes and no. It depends on the dragon's personality. If you were head over heels for another dragon in another form of media then any one of them would be jealous. If you just enjoy the dragons in that verse then some of them are okay with it.
Example(s). Vhagar would be okay with you liking other dragons as long as you liked her the most. Vermithor goes into a rage anytime you so much as mention another dragon in a positive context.
(5) How would they react if we had started watching game of thrones?
Confused at first. Since hotd is the prequel to got they'd be very puzzled. Then they'd be curious. If it took up all of your time then they'd be angry. There would already be an undercurrent of jealousy, but there's also a superiority complex there.
"We were here before them."
"Without us they wouldn't exist."
Them meaning got characters.
(6) Would the self awareness spread to more of that verse because of that?
When consuming any form of their media it is like a portal is being opened up into their world. That's the crux of what helps them become self aware. There's usually a moment in their lives that spurs that on.
With the hotd characters already being insanely jealous that interference between the two media's would cause the self awareness to spread.
(7) The most important questionâCan we pull Jon Snow?
Yes.
The shit that dude has been through? He has plenty of opportunities to become self aware. Having someone there for him, even passively, would cause him to become obsessive. Possibly a bit bitter because you aren't helping him until he realizes that you are physically unable to.
Don't đ be đ sorry. đ I love giving lore.
#lore#au lore#au#alternate universe#thanks anon!#self aware au#self awareness#asoiaf#hotd#a song of ice and fire#house of the dragon#dance of the dragons#jon snow
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Hello I was wondering if you have more stuff on the TMNT Spliced Au and how the comic is going?
Ah thank you for your interest! Iâve got so much but also literally nothing haha. End of last year was particularly rough for me so I had to take a break from working on it. Love TMNT GS but I wonât lie and say itâs not emotionally draining, wish I could beam it into all of your heads! Hereâs a huge dump of random assortments I have from developing it.
COMIC UPDATES - peep the sketch for the cover, cool right?
I finished thumbnailing the first 34 pages of #1, but only one page has been fully completed. â°ïž Iâve never made a comic before, so Iâm doing a lot of learning with this. Most of the delay just comes from the fact that I love to design and Iâm very crazy about details so that means Iâm easily getting caught up in reading books, building little 3D sets, designing props n vehicles, ect.
I get so caught up in the visual worldbuilding cause its my favorite thing to do lol. I feel really bad when I stop working on pages in because my brain is like OK WAIT I NEED TO DESIGN THE GUNS, THE LABS, AND STOCKMANS CAR KEYS. Its really silly. I do wanna keep chipping at the comic, but at this point I've written and planned so much of the lore I kinda just wanna make it all public so I can talk about it. I'm constantly torn about it cause its like oof whats the point of making the comic if I'm just gonna talk about all the spoilers. With how this years going, I'm starting to lean into more of lemme just be free and do whatever I want!
Table of contents from the lore bible I'm still chipping away at. I'd love to just drop updates for it if that's something people would be interested in.
Alternatively, the idea of just releasing scripts for it has crossed my mind. #1 has a general outline, but I'd actually would just love to go back and detail, refine it, and drop that for now until the visuals of the comic are done.
I'm actually going to test the waters now and link a script for a scene from The Farmhouse arc I wrote a couple of months ago. If that's something people would be interested in, I'd love to know!
ART DUMP MOMENT -
Various other little development sketches and a new character or two omg
OK I KNOW THAT WAS A BIT OF A RAMBLE, FORGIVE ME! But yup thats it! TDLR; GS is in development hell and I'm waiting for ya'll to give me the greenlight to just start talking crazy. I've got multiple seasons/arcs to gush about.
#tmnt#teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmnt au#tmnt fan iteration#tmnt gs#gene spliced au#i wonder who Not Leo is?
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I have this one Life series/Rats SMP theory that's been spinning in my head for a few weeks now, I talked about it on Twitter but my reach there is basically 0. So I'm gonna bring it here to haunt you all with it. It's also gonna reference my personal Life series AU, but only because it was the thing that brought me to this conclusion.
Tl;dr: The idea is that Mratyn was a participant of one of the hundreds or thousands of alternate Life series and this is how he lost his eye.
I've been thinking about this clip of Mratyn revealing how he lost his eye for too long. The idea that he's an ex lab rat and his eye was taken by the humans for whatever reason. But was it really taken by them?
If you know my AU (Preservers AU/WLK!AU/The ones who watch, the ones who listen, the ones who kill AU), here's a funfact for you - it would never kick off if it wasn't for Rats 2 Martyn. I just saw the design, saw the eyepatch and immediately thought "Yep, this is that my guy needs". Spoilers for the AU, but after he won Limited Life, his eye was ripped out by the Watchers and replaced with a Watcher eye (and later completely removed). So, if you enjoy this AU, say thank you to Mratyn.
Anyway, why do I bring this up? Because at first, it wasn't confirmed (at least as far as I can remember) whether Mratyn was actually missing an eye. He could technically wear an eyepatch for aesthetic or pragmatic reasons. But that clip not only confirms that he does in fact that he does only have one eye, but also confirms that the 'humans' took it by experiementing on him like on other rats.
But why do I bring this up?
At some point in his endless loring (I think it was a lore stream but I'm not exactly sure) Martyn introduced the idea that there are actual;y hundreds and thousands of iterations of Life series - the ones we watch are just a little piece of them. That not only makes every fan series somewhat canon, every AU somewhat canon - it also gave me the idea that in not every Life series, players were actually humans.
My idea? One of the series' participants were rats, who percieved Watchers as humans. Mratyn was one of them, and these 'experiements' (aka the games) caused him to lose an eye. Were the other rats participants of these games? Maybe, but it's hard to tell. Not everyone is as obsessed with lore as Mr Littlewood himself lol
Anyway I hope you like this theory, the lore literally has me in a clutch and I needed to burden others with this knowledge (even if it's wrong)
#life series#trafficblr#wild life smp#lifeseries#limited life#double life#3rd life#last life#secret life#rats smp#rats smp 2#rats in paris#martyn inthelittlewood#inthelittlewood#itlw#eyesandearsau#mratyn nibblewood#watcher lore#watchers#watchers and listeners#life series smp#traffic smp#traffic series#traffic life series
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ââ PURSUIT // ONE
Series Synopsis: When your cousin goes missing right before he can challenge the Champion of your region, you must embark on a journey of your own in the hopes that one day, you might finally find him â wherever he may be.
Chapter Synopsis: You decide to embark on a journey. However, when you release the PokĂ©mon that Shoei gave you before he left, you realize that youâve met her once already.
Series Masterlist
Pairing(s): Nagi x Reader, Barou & Reader
Chapter Word Count: 6.3k
Content Warnings: pokĂ©mon au except i make the world emo and infest it with blue lockers, angst, character death, familial bonds, found families, male-female FRIENDSHIPS, a slow burn so insane the main love interest isnât even in a solid amount of chapters, itâs my world i do what i want which means liberties are taken, near death experiences, this story is long bro literally everything happens in it the amount of arcs i have planned is insane, original characters because reader will NOT be the only girl i refuse to write in conditions like that, this is being written as if gen vi is the last generation to come out because i cba to catch up on new pokĂ©mon lore
A/N: okay so hereâs the ACTUAL first chapter of pursuit (there is a prologue though so please read that if you havenât yet) LSKDFJSD tbh i was expecting to get further in the story with this one than i actually did but oh well!! anyways the first of readerâs traveling companions will be introduced next chapter so feel free to guess who it is hehe (hint: it is a blue locker)
tag list (send an ask to be added): @sharkissm @koffeekat @noble-17
âYouâre a trainer, arenât you?â the police officer said. She was squinting at your license, which displayed your name and status. You furrowed your brow at her, wondering how that was even relevant, and then slowly, you nodded.
âYes, I am. One PokĂ©mon,â you said.
âWhat kind?â she said. The Gogoat by her desk sighed, getting up and spinning in a circle, adjusting its position so that it could lay its head on her lap instead of atop its hooves. You took your PokĂ©ball off of your belt, setting it on the desk in front of you and shrugging.
âNo idea. Shoei gave it to me before he left,â you said. âHe told me itâs the destructive type, so I shouldnât release it until Iâm ready to go on a journey of my own.â
She wrinkled her nose, muttering something under her breath that you couldnât quite make out but which probably referred to how you were taking advantage of the leagueâs goodwill, and then she handed your license back to you.
âYouâve been coming and asking us to look for your cousin, Shoei Barou, for the past couple of years,â she said. âAnd you get the same answer every time, correct?â
âYes, butââ you began. She cut you off before you could continue, her expression severe, her fingers resting atop your PokĂ©ball in impatience. They were painted, and the sparkling navy winked in the harshness of the overhead lights.
âLike we previously discussed, youâre a trainer,â she said. âWhy donât you begin your own journey and look for him yourself?â
You had considered the idea before. You had a Pokémon, though you knew not which sort it was, and thanks to Shoei, your registration was already completed, so when it came to legality, there was nothing stopping you.
âI donât know,â you said. âI donât know anything about training or battling or â or any of that. And weâre so far from Lumiose that itâs not like I can go to the professor for help.â
âYouâre in secondary school, and all they do over there is study. You probably know much more than an average trainer, especially starting out,â she said.
âItâs all theory, though,â you said. âNothing to do with actual fieldwork.â
She rolled the ball towards you. You caught it before it could fall off the edge of the desk, clipping it back to your belt with a murmured apology.
âMost trainers donât even have that, but they manage, donât they? This really is your best option, Miss L/N. Regardless, this station will no longer hear your complaints,â she said. âThe so-called case of Shoei Barou isnât one that we are interested in investigating. There are actualdisappearances and crimes that warrant our attention.â
âI see,â you said. âWell. Thank you for your time.â
The Gogoat huffed as it watched you leave, and you gave it one final backwards glance before the door to the small office shut and you were left standing by yourself in the lobby.
Coumarine City felt smaller nowadays. When you were younger, it had seemed so vast as to be unknowable, but now, you could count the steps between the PokĂ©mon Center, the Gym, the school, and your house without batting an eye. You had changed, Shoei had left, and yet the old footpaths were still exactly the same. It felt incongruous, disingenuous even. You thought that there shouldâve been some great marker of the shift, some expansion of the bustling place, but there never was.
âMother, father,â you said that night when you were all eating dinner together. Your motherâs Espurr was watching you with her wide lavender eyes, though the glare of your fatherâs Heliolisk was enough to dissuade her from any thievery, and you sat across from your parents, your knife clinking against the edge of your plate when you set it down. âIâm thinking of becoming a trainer.â
âYou already are a trainer,â your father said, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin.
âI mean, going on a journey and all. Like a proper trainer,â you said. The napkin fluttered out of your fatherâs grasp, and your motherâs eyes widened against her will. They, like Shoeiâs parents, did not yet believe that his disappearance was out of the ordinary, but there it was a sort of wishful thinking. None of them considered it to be strange because they did not want it to be. Because that meant that he might be in the kind of trouble that they were powerless to rescue him from, and that powerlessness was something that they were not ready to accept.
âA journey?â your mother said, her voice breaking for a moment. You knew what she was saying, though she did not speak it aloud: that going on a journey was what took Shoei from you all, and that she could not survive it if you vanished, too. You understood. It was why you had delayed for so long â your parents, your dear parents, how could you leave them when you were so ill-prepared, when you did not even have a great desire to do so in the first place?
âYes,â you said. Your PokĂ©ball, which was still on your belt, warmed again, and you wondered if your PokĂ©mon could understand what you were saying. Was she curious at the prospect of going on such an adventure? Did she long to battle? Or were you simply reading into things too much? The warmth could mean a million things, or it could mean nothing at all, and youâd be none the wiser. âThe police department recommended it.â
âWhy would they do that?â your father said.
âThey told me itâs the only route I have left for finding Shoei,â you said.
âY/N, you knowââ
âNo, I donât!â you burst out before your mother could finish. She frowned at you, clearly taken aback, and you ducked your head. âIâm sorry, but I canât agree. This isnât just some run-of-the-mill training jaunt heâs on, and we all know that. If nobody else will do anything, then what choice do I have? He gave me a PokĂ©mon. Itâs about time I use her, anyways.â
This time, the ball grew hot enough to almost scald your skin through the fabric of your pants, and that was how you knew for a fact that it wasnât a figment of your imagination. She was trying to say something, and you had an inkling that it was related to this half-baked plan of yours.
Your parents exchanged looks. Sometimes you thought that they must be able to communicate with their eyes alone, because neither of them said a word, yet within seconds, they were turning towards you in unison, both a peculiar mix of exasperated and concerned and, if you really read into it, proud.
âIf you think itâs best, then we canât exactly stop you,â your mother said.
âWe havenât been able to stop you since Shoei made you a trainer,â your father added, smiling ruefully. âThat reckless cousin of yours. Iâm sure he had good intentions with it, but he couldâve at least asked first!â
At this you could only chuckle, because all of you knew as well as each other that Shoei wasnât really the type to ever ask for permission. Not once in his life had he ever done such a thing, and even imagining him doing so felt like you were going against his character.
âIâll leave soon,â you said. âOnce I settle my affairs with the school. Theyâll probably be happy to see me go. Iâve never really fit in with the rest of my classmates.â
It didnât matter that you were one of the best students there. All that your teachers and peers and principal saw was the PokĂ©ball on your belt, which glowed like a beacon, alerting them all to how you were different. You werenât like the others. You relied on your trainerâs stipend to pay for your tuition, and your PokĂ©mon was the battling sort instead of a docile companion occasionally employed to defend you from a wilder PokĂ©monâs aggression.
People placed bets about what kind of PokĂ©mon you must have. They never told you, but you were aware of it anyways. Some of them were kinder, presuming that it was an Espurr like your motherâs, or perhaps a Helioptile, the pre-evolution of your fatherâs Heliolisk. Those who liked you very much â or very little, if they meant it in a mocking way â claimed it must be one of those more elegant types. Perhaps the rainbow serpent Milotic, or a pale, iridescent-winged Butterfree. Others, who found great pleasure in looking down on you, assured their friends that it was a small, mousy Rattata, purple and fat and nervous, with quivering ears and overgrown teeth.
Even you did not know. Shoei had not bothered to tell you before he had left, and you had not yet released her, so whenever people slyly asked you which battle-partner rested on your hip, you could only shrug and tell them that you werenât certain. This was almost always met with disdain, for if they had braved asking you, then they had the kind of curiosity which couldnât be sated with such a noncommittal and vague answer.
When you got to school the next day, you rubbed your Gogoat companion on its soft cheek. It cocked its head at you, obviously confused â it didnât know that this was the last time it would see you, though when you smiled at it sadly and murmured goodbye, its ears drooped, and you thought that it must understand in its own way.
Instead of going to class, you went directly to the principalâs office. She was a tall woman with a face like a Geodudeâs, permanently set in a severe frown that was only exacerbated by the slicked-back knot she kept her thinning hair in, and she had never once said a kind word to you. You didnât know if she was incapable or if it was just that you did not pay enough money to draw it out of her.
âMiss L/N,â she said when you walked in without knocking. She was hunched over a stack of papers, and she did not look up when you entered. In the corner, her black-and-violet Grumpig looked at you, its beady eyes the same shade as the dark pearls on its head and chest, its pink snout twitching in the same distaste it always showed you. âYou should be in class.â
âIâm leaving,â you said. You knew it was abrupt even as you said it, but there was no point in delicacy at this late stage. Your mind was made up, and there was little chance that the woman before you would try to stop you, so what cause did you have for tiptoeing around the matter?
âLeaving?â she said. That piqued her interest enough that she looked up at you, her glasses sliding down her nose. Pushing them back up, she narrowed her eyes. âOn a journey, I presume?â
âThatâs correct,â you said. She didnât ask you why, only pressing her lips into a thin line, white around the wrinkled edges from the force of it.
âItâs about time,â she said.
âYes,â you said.
âWe at the school wish you luck. Communications will be sent out regarding the reimbursement of your tuition for the rest of the semester,â she said, rattling it off in a robotic, trained voice that almost put you to sleep.
âThank you,â you replied, just as mechanically. âIf that is all?â
âI would suggest you visit the PokĂ©mart before leaving,â she said.
âI was already planning on it,â you said. âBut I appreciate your counsel.â
You turned to the door, your fingers resting on the polished handle as you prepared to open it. Before you could push it down, however, the principal cleared her throat, motioning with her hand for you to stop. Her Grumpigâs ears swiveled in distress, which was odd coming from such a self-assured species, and her own expression was a similar blend of anxious and intrigued.
âHold on,â she said. âRelease your PokĂ©mon first. I wish to see it.â
âNew policy?â you said, raising an eyebrow at her. As far as you knew, school officials had no right to demand you release your PokĂ©mon for them, especially given that you were leaving the institution, but it wasnât like you read the code of conduct regularly or anything like that.
To your surprise, she shook her head. âPersonal curiosity.â
The principalâs office wasnât exactly the place you had dreamed of releasing your partner for the first time, but then again it was just as good as any other location, so why delay? Plus, at least this way the Grumpig was there to corral any unruliness should it manifest â some kinds of PokĂ©mon enjoyed testing their trainers, and though you didnât think Shoei would have given you one of those sorts on purpose, it remained that the dispositions which agreed with him werenât always the sort that the general populace found tolerable.
âAlright,â you said. Unclipping the ball from your belt, you pressed the seal once to enlarge it, rolling it in your palm while you waited for the principal to give you some kind of signal. She nodded, and you tossed the PokĂ©ball in the air, triggering the mechanism which would release its contents from stasis and allow her to reform in the real world.
Even before your Pokémon had fully coalesced, the Grumpig was squealing in fright, crashing backwards into the wall, the whites of its eyes showing, its breaths shallow as its chest heaved. You frowned, because there was no reason that it should be so frightened of a relatively low-level Pokémon such as yours, but then an eerie howl stabbed into your eardrums and you understood at once.
Your Pokémon came up to just below your waist, and she had short black fur, pointed ears, and a red muzzle. Bony ridges criss-crossed her back, her ankles, and her forehead, giving her a menacing appearance that was only furthered by the knife-sharp fangs peeking out of her mouth and the growl rumbling in the back of her throat.
âHoundour?â you said. At the sound of her name, she shifted towards you, and immediately her tail began wagging, her mouth opening as she panted happily. A lump formed in your throat the longer you stared at her, and then you crouched, wrapping your arms around her muscular shoulders. She smelled spicy and hot but also sweet, the way pepper jelly or cinnamon tasted, and her nose was cold when she pressed it to your cheek in a fond greeting.
âYour PokĂ©mon is a Houndour?â the principal said. Houndour cocked her head at the principal, one ear still turned towards the Grumpig in the corner, the other pricked forwards at the woman.
âNot just any Houndour,â you said, straightening but still keeping a hand atop Houndourâs head. âShoeiâs Houndourâs sister.â
The principal was wary now, she had been ever since you had released Houndour, and for good reason â the species had an ominous reputation, and most people thought that they and their evolutionary counterpart, Houndoom, were beasts sent to drag humans to hell for any perceived wrongdoings. To make things worse, any sense of comfort that her Grumpig mightâve afforded her was vanished, because it could do nothing against Houndour, who as a dark type was immune to psychic attacks.
âHow do you know?â she said.
âI know,â you said. Houndour sighed, the exasperated exhale releasing a wisp of smoke that curled and dissipated into the air above her. âWell, thatâll quell the bets. I guess nobody managed to guess correctly.â
âNobody wouldâve!â the principal burst out, taking out a PokĂ©ball of her own and returning the Grumpig before putting the ball in her desk drawer. âWho in their right mind would give a dark type to a beginning trainer?â
âNot all of them are like that,â you said. âYouâd know that if you ever read the material that all of your students are forced to sit through. Of course, no one in their right mind would give someone without any other PokĂ©mon a Sneasel or a Purrloin, but as a general rule, you wonât find a PokĂ©mon more loyal to their trainer than a Houndour. Anyways, this one is special.â
It wasnât her place to question you further, so whistling for Houndour to follow you, you slipped out of the office and left the school behind for good.
As you walked to the Pokémart, you noticed that people gave you a wide berth, eyeing the Pokémon trotting along at your side with no small amount of suspicion. Houndour paid them no mind, though, and so neither did you, humming to yourself, entirely relieved that Shoei knew you well enough to give you her.
âYouâre a first-time trainer?â the cashier at the PokĂ©mart said, peering over the counter at Houndour, who blinked back at him innocently. âOkayâŠI suppose youâll need potions and some basic PokĂ©balls, then. Twenty of each should last you until you can make it to the next town, Iâd say, if not further.â
âThat sounds good,â you said.
âDo you want to pay for those on account or in cash?â he said.
âWhat does on account mean?â you said.
âItâs a way for trainers to get necessary supplies even if theyâre lacking the immediate funds. Basically, everybody who buys from a PokĂ©mart gets an account created for them, and they can choose to put their purchases on that account and pay them off at a later date,â he said.
âThat sounds easily exploitable by someone who doesnât mean to ever pay back,â you said.
âBalances are due every month, the day after stipends are released. Youâll accrue interest on them after that, and if itâs been too long, your account will be frozen and authorities will be contacted,â he said with a shrug. âIt really is meant to help people out, but the choice is yours.â
âI donât think Iâll be able to come back here in a monthâs time regardless, so it doesnât matter,â you said.
âNo, no, they can be paid off at any official PokĂ©mart,â he said. âOf course they took that into consideration.â
âI see,â you said. âThen put it all on my account, if thatâs alright.â
âPerfectly fine by me,â he said, typing something into his computer, fingers flying over the keyboard.
Your stipend for the month had gone into your tuition, and until you got your reimbursements figured out, youâd rather not waste any more money unless it was an emergency. Besides, if the option was there, you supposed you might as well familiarize yourself with it.
âIs that everything, do you think?â you said.
âUnless you want an item for your PokĂ©mon to hold in battle,â he said.
âAn item?â you said. Although you knew so much about PokĂ©mon biology and various scientific theories regarding them, you hardly had a clue about even these most basic concepts of battle. They werenât considered important for those of you at the school to learn; after all, besides you, no one was even registered to be a trainer, so why would they waste the time?
The cashier snorted. âI guess you really are a first-time trainer.â
âObviously,â you said. âWhy would I lie about that?â
âPokĂ©mon can hold items â according to league rules, itâs a maximum of one, though itâs also fine if you donât give them any â thatâll aid them in battle. Some trainers will give them berries thatâll negate side effects from various moves, and others will give them stones to hold thatâll boost their stats. Itâs up to you, though. Plenty of people donât give them any items at all. Youâll have to get rid of the one your Houndour already has if you want to use one while battling, though,â he said.
âWhat do you mean? She doesnât have any items,â you said. He clicked his tongue, pointing at Houndourâs neck.
âThat counts, even if it doesnât do anything,â he said. You followed the line of his index finger, furrowing your brow when you realized he was referencing the silky red collar tied in a bow at her scruff. There was a stone embedded in it that sparkled at her throat, and even before the cashier could say something, you were shaking your head.
âNo, that stays,â you said. âItâs important. Maybe not for battle, but for me.â
âAlright,â the cashier said, clearly unaffected. âItâs your decision. Here are the potions and PokĂ©balls you asked for.â
He slid the assortment of things across the counter, and you swept them into your bag, which had already been emptied of your books and the rest of your school supplies. Waving at him, you exited the Pokémart, making your way to your house for what would probably be the last time in a while.
âYouâre quite a bit bigger than the last time I saw you,â you said to Houndour as you walked, scratching her under the chin idly when you reached the road and had to wait for a car to pass by. âWhenâd Shoei get around to capturing you, too, huh?â
Your father had taken off of work to wish you farewell, and your mother was at home as she always was, so you did not even have to call out their names when you entered the house. They were waiting in the foyer, Heliolisk and Espurr by their sides, though when Houndour padded in behind you, Espurr hissed, darting to hide behind your motherâs leg.
âA Houndour?â your father said, raising his eyebrows. Houndour barked at him; you couldnât quite tell what the bark meant, but it was a harsh enough sound that your father winced at it. âWhat was Shoei thinking?â
âI know her,â you said. âThatâs probably it.â
âWhat do you mean?â your mother said. âSince when?â
âUh, itâll probably make you angry,â you said.
âHuh?â your father said. âItâs not like we can do anything about it now.â
âYouâve got us curious,â your mother added.
âItâs kind of a long story,â you admitted. âBut as with most things, it begins and ends with Shoei.â
Your cousin lived on the very edge of Coumarine City, on the outskirts right by the winding road to the cliffs and the coast, and so whenever your family visited his, the two of you would sneak off to the beach to play. It was dangerous, because neither of you had Pokémon, but with your youth came this notion of impunity, and since nothing had happened thus far, both of you believed that it would continue in that way until the end of time.
âIâm going to be a trainer one day,â Shoei told you, helping you down from the narrow ledge that you had to leap from to make it to the sand of the shore. You were still too frightened to jump by yourself, and he was patient enough that he did not tease you for it, only taking your hand and letting you clutch his arm for balance.
âOf course,â you said. âI will, too. Itâs not uncommon.â
âNot for the stipend,â he said. âIâm going to be a proper trainer, with a full team and everything. Youâll see. Iâll do the league challenge and join the conference once I have all of my badges, and then after that Iâll beat the Elite Four and Mr. Mikage. Then Iâll be Champion. The best trainer in all of Kalos. Thatâs what I mean.â
âHow, though? Neither of your parents have battling PokĂ©mon, so you canât use their partners to catch your own, and weâre way too far for you to go to the professorâs lab in Lumiose and get one of the official starters from there,â you said.
âI donât know,â Shoei said. âBut Iâll figure it out.â
âOkay,â you said.
âDo you think I can do it?â he said.
âYou can do anything,â you said. His chest puffed out a bit at that, and he grinned at you. He hardly ever smiled, so you took it as a treat, beaming back at him.
âThatâs right,â he said. âI can do anything.â
âOoh, look at these!â you said, stopping in your tracks and bending over to dig around in the sand, pulling out two twin stones with a flourish.
It was your favorite hobby, finding shells and pretty things to admire before you tossed them back into the sea, but there was something different about these two. There were clouds in the air, and yet they shone as brightly as if the sunâs rays were concentrated on them, a soft pink shade like dawn, cut through with a streak of black as dark as a shadow. Weathered by the tides, they were slick in your hand, and you dropped them into Shoeiâs pocket for safekeeping.
âYou want to take those home? Normally you throw shards of sea glass back into the ocean,â Shoei said.
âTheyâre nicer than normal,â you said. âYou can keep them, if you want. Like a present.â
He scoffed. âIâll probably just throw them away.â
You pouted. âIf thatâs what you prefer.â
He could only maintain his gruff expression for a moment before softening and ruffling your hair. âI was only joking. Iâll put them on my bookshelf and think of you every time I see them.â
Immediately, you brightened, because back then your moodâs rise and fell was almost entirely dependent on him. He noticed, but he only wrinkled his nose at you, grabbing you by the back of the shirt before you could fall into a tide pool.
âWatch where youâre going,â he said, holding you in place as you craned your neck in wonder. The water was so clear you could see every little plant and shell growing in its depths; at the bottom, there were even a Krabby scuttling about, though when it noticed you, it dashed back to hide amongst the stones, too shy to provoke you even though you had no PokĂ©mon of your own.
âItâs so pretty, Shoei,â you said. âCan we look for more?â
âSure,â he said. âOur parents wonât be expecting us for a bit, so as long as we donât go too far and remember the way back home, it shouldnât be an issue.â
âYay!â you said, tugging on his sleeve. âLetâs go that way! Or, wait, no. That way!â
He poked you in the side as you tried to make up your mind. âHow about both? Just choose one to start with, and then we can head in the other direction afterwards.â
âGood idea,â you said, picking at random and setting off with Shoei in tow.
The two of you spent the rest of the afternoon wandering up and down along the line of pebbly sand where the waves broke, pointing out bits of shells and smaller Pokémon to one another when you saw them. It was dangerous, no doubt about it, but the danger added a certain thrill to the otherwise innocuous activity, and so neither of you minded too much.
Some hours passed â was it two or three? You didnât know â before you heard a bone-chilling sound, one which wasnât supposed to be heard around Coumarine City but which was engraved into both of your brains from various horror films regardless.
âWas that a Houndour?â you said, pressing closer to Shoei. âI thought that they were only found around Geosenge Town, though?â
You were suddenly hyper-aware of the sun setting in the distance, as well as the fact that we had somehow managed to travel far enough from your typical spot that it would take you ages to find your way home. The Houndour howled again, and Shoei scowled deeply, the lines of it etched into his forehead.
âLetâs investigate,â he said.
âWhat? Shouldnât we be running away from it?â you said, yelping and following as he charged towards the source of the sound.
âEither itâs a trainerâs PokĂ©mon, in which case I want their advice about going on a journey, or itâs somewhere itâs not supposed to be, in which caseâŠâ he trailed off, a determined set to his mouth as the two of you ran. âWe just need to be quick so we can get home in time.â
It was a few minutes later that you skidded to a stop in front of a small cave with a Houndour sitting in front of it, howling and howling. Now that you were faced with the Pokémon, you realized it was not as large and intimidating as the movies and its reputation made it sound; for some reason, its cry, too, felt more mournful than anything.
When it noticed you and Shoei, it flattened its ears and tucked its tail, rocking back on its haunches and baring its teeth with a warning growl. Shoei held out a hand, averting his eyes and speaking in a soft whisper so unlike his typical rough tone.
âWe only want to help you,â he said. âHowâd you end up here, anyways?â
The Houndour stared at him for a heart-stopping instant. You were as still as you could be â even if the PokĂ©mon didnât seem as demonic as it did in the movies, it remained that it was considerably more powerful than a Krabby could ever hope to be, and furthermore had a famously more aggressive temperament than the skittish denizens of the tide pools.
Flames coated the Houndourâs mouth, and you cringed away from it, but Shoei was still, not gazing at it directly but refusing to back down, either. The Houndour took him in before abruptly extinguishing the fire, tilting its head towards the mouth of the cave and then whining at you entreatingly.
âSounds like he wants us to follow him,â Shoei said, ducking so he could enter the cave. You crept in behind him, narrowing your eyes against the darkness; although you did not complain, the Houndour mustâve sensed your discomfort, because with a rumbling from deep within its stomach, it formed an ember, holding it in its mouth instead of spitting it out so that it could light the path forward.
When you reached the hollowed out main room of the cave, the Houndour stopped, barking and pawing at the stone. Shoei brushed the sand off of the Houndourâs back and then knelt so that he could inspect what the PokĂ©mon had brought you to see: another Houndour, this one lying limply on the cold, stony floor.
âThereâs two of them?â you said.
âIf I had to guess, they got separated from their pack during that storm we had a few days ago. The rain wouldâve washed away all of the scents they found familiar, so their best option was trying to find some kind of shelter,â Shoei said. âThat must be how she got hurt.â
The smaller Houndourâs paw was matted and sticky with blood, hence why she could not get up, though she did lift her head a little, wagging her tail at you when she noticed you were there.
âTheyâve come so far,â you said. âWhy didnât they stop at Shalour? Thatâs in between here and Geosenge.â
âWith all of those birds hanging around there? They wouldâve been Mandibuzz food in a heartbeat, especially the injured one,â he said.
âI see,â you said. Mandibuzz werenât native to the Kalos region, but the gym leader of Shalour City specialized in flying types, so he was always introducing new species to the area. âWhat should we do?â
âThe woundâs old. If we can clean it off, itâll heal on its own. She probably has Flash Fire for an ability, so a burn wonât do her any harm, which means the brother can cauterize it without an issue,â he said, scooping the Houndour up without much ceremony. Normally, itâd be impossible, but she was small for her kind, and Shoei had always been stronger than most his age.
The older Houndour lit the way as you emerged onto the beach, where Shoei found a nearby tide pool, using the briny water to rinse the blood from the wound. The female Houndour was trembling, no doubt because the water was an unpleasant feeling for a fire type such as herself, but there was nothing to be done about it besides working quickly, and admirably, she did not make a sound the entire time Shoei was working.
âThis is the kind of thing you have to deal with as a trainer,â he said once the paw was cleaned and the pink gash was exposed to the sun. âOf course, a potion would cure this in a minute, but we donât have any on hand, so itâll have to wait. Hey, you. Can you use Ember on her injury?â
The older Houndour seemed uncertain, but to your surprise, he did not protest, only creeping forward and nudging his sister in apology before breathing a fire the size of your palm directly onto the wound. Curiously, she did not react beyond glancing at the light it gave off, and Shoei scratched behind her ears.
âIs that the effect of Flash Fire?â you said.
âYup,â he said, waiting for the flame to die out and then lifting the Houndour in his arms again. âItâs common amongst Houndour.â
âWhat does it do, exactly?â you said.
âGives them immunity to fire-based attacks,â he said. âAll in all, it makes sense, given that they hunt in tandem. It wouldnât do for the pack to injure its own members while chasing after prey, yeah? In fact, fire only boosts their special attacks.â
âSpecial attacks?â you said.
âAh, itâs a league term for non-physical attacks,â he said. âThey needed a way to differentiate it for bettors, since most PokĂ©mon are only good in one area or the other.â
âI get it now,â you said. âSo, like, being hit with an Ember would make her own Ember stronger?â
âExactly,â he said, setting the Houndour down where you had found her and patting you on the head. âGood job. Youâll make a great trainer yourself someday. Maybe almost as good as me.â
âI donât want to be a trainer,â you said. âI just want to live at home with everyone and go to school and be happy.â
âIs that so?â he said. âThen thatâs what you should do.â
Arranging the Houndour into a more comfortable position, he turned to the older one, a serious expression on his face. The Houndour was still, his tail held straight in the air â alert, wary, but not distressed. You knew that much about PokĂ©mon behavior from your early-level classes.
âIs there an easier way to our house from here?â he said to the Houndour. âTake us to it if there is.â
âHow would it even know where we live?â you said.
âThereâs very few PokĂ©mon with a better sense of smell than the Houndoom line,â he said. âGo on, then, Houndour. Take us home. Sheâll be alright for the few minutes youâre gone.â
The older Houndour gave his sister a worried look, but he mustâve felt as though he owed Shoei a debt, for he slunk out of the cave with his nose against the ground, nostrils flared as he tried to pick out a trail. You and Shoei watched for a few minutes before the Houndour suddenly froze, raising one of his front paws and extending his muzzle forward.
âWhatâs he doing?â you said.
âPointing,â Shoei said, a tinge of disbelief in his voice. âI knew the Growlithe in the police force are trained to do it, but I didnât realize that Houndour do it naturally.â
âI bet Houndour would be a great police PokĂ©mon if people werenât so scared of it,â you said, your sentiments towards the species far more charitable now, as the two of you followed the Houndour up a winding path that you had never even known existed.
Before the sun had even finished setting â which was miraculous, given how close to the horizon it had been when you had set out â the Houndour had led you to Shoeiâs backyard. You could hear your parents talking and laughing with one another, contemplating calling you both back for dinner, and you were about to run inside when you realized Shoei was still lingering back.
Pausing in your tracks, though you doubted he noticed that you were listening to his conversation, you tried to quiet your breathing so that you could hear what he was saying to the Houndour, which was as motionless then as it had been when the two of you had first found it.
âMeet me here in a couple of days,â he said. âIâll get a potion by then and use it on your sisterâs paw so she doesnât have any lasting side effects from the injury.â
The Houndour sneezed at Shoei, which you supposed was his way of assenting. Shoei laughed, which was a rare sound and also a wonderful one; then, out of the corner of your eye, you saw him move to offer the back of his hand to the small Pokémon, who sniffed it cautiously.
âHey, Houndour. Iâm going to be a trainer one day â a Champion, in fact,â he said. âSo donât go home, okay? Even once your sister is better, donât go home. Find me again, and come with me.â
The Houndour did not make any moves of agreement nor dissent; instead, he just disappeared into the lengthening shadows of the night, leaving you and Shoei behind in the trimmed grass of the lawn, where no wild Pokémon would ever dare to tread.
A few moments later, though, the night was split with a howl, high and sinister and uncanny, and once more Shoei laughed, because that was all the answer that he needed.
#nagi x reader#nagi x y/n#nagi x you#nagi seishiro#barou shoei#bllk x reader#bllk#blue lock#reader insert#pokémon au#pursuit#m1ckeyb3rry writes
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âšïžmy favorite hitachiincest momentsâšïž
these ridiculous homos (affectionate) are living rent free in my head and i *need* to rant abt them, so without further ado, here are my favorite hitachiincest moments, in episode order! ohshc spoilers abound, etc., etc.
warning for a LOT of yap about my favorite brother kissers below the cut
ep. 4
the fucking. the basketball AU scene. THE BASKETBALL AU SCENE. they took an extremely homoeroticized genre of anime and plopped the twins into it with immense amounts of romantic tension and i'm just supposed to be, like. completely fine???? well i am not fine. i am in fact writing basketball player! hitachiin twins hitachiincest fanfic in my head as i type this.
ep. 5
THE ADMISSION THAT THEY SLEEP IN THE SAME BED. THESE BOYS ARE, WHAT? 15, 16ISH YEARS OLD? AND HIKARU IS TALKING ABT HOW KAORU SLIPS INTO BED W/ HIM EVERY NIGHT BC NEITHER ONE LIKES SLEEPING ALONE. Y'ALL. *Y'ALL*.
THE FACT THEY WERE FAKING THEIR WHOLE FIGHT. honey mentions he's known them since pre-school and they've never fought, and once they actually do, THE FIGHT ISN'T EVEN REAL.
the fact that they do the whole "brotherly love" bit when they apologize abt what they said to each other when they were "fighting" but there are literally NO guests around. like. these boys absolutely just enjoy the ridiculousness and performativity of making their relationship look like that lmao
ep. 7
no hitachiincest moments here for me, but i am putting an honorable mention for honey and mori. like. this was so their episode, guys. (i ship them too, which should be a surprise to absolutely no one)
ep. 12
again, no hitachiincest here bc the universe hates me ig, but another honorable mention for honey and mori. like. *them*. *their dynamic*. aughhhh akdrjwgwusjags *THEM*
ep. 14
this episode has what is singlehandedly my favorite "brotherly love" moment in the entire anime. like. that shot of kaoru's neck as hikaru tilts his chin up will live rent-free in my mind forever.
ep. 15
the start of this episode. oh my god. THE START OF THIS EPISODE. sleepy kaoru in bed with hikaru trying to wake him up. both of them in bed shirtless. kaoru DRAPING HIMSELF OVER HIKARU AS HIKARU ANSWERS THE PHONE. i- dear lord they starved us hitachiincest shippers for a bit but by GOD did they make up for it
"i guess you guys really are always together" "always" HIKARU. HIKARU YOU CAN'T BE DOING THIS TO ME.
hikaru's reaction after kaoru gets hurt!! it's just a minor scrape but hikaru is so worried abt him!! the "don't scare me like that"! HIKARU'S HEAD RESTING ON KAORU'S CHEST!
the scene after that, where they're alone in their room in the bed and breakfast and hikaru is actively SHAKING because he's so scared abt what could've happened to kaoru, and kaoru reassures him that he's fine, and everything's okay. like. my god. i love them sm
ep. 20
i love this episode if only bc we get twin lore. like. i love their lore sm. ALSO. the usage of the word "twisted" in regards to them meaning both "wrapped together/entwined" AND "abnormal"? like YES. they ARE twisted and i'm obsessed with it!!
ep. 21
when hikaru and haruhi get trapped together and hikaru's first thought after complaining about them being trapped was "where's kaoru, i *have* to find him", freaking out enough about where he was to literally immediately start trying to escape the net so he could go find him!!! like!! we're in the middle of the codependency arc and this man STILL cannot stop. (and i love him for it)
them reuniting!! kaoru blushing the second he sees hikaru!! the hug!! the fact that hikaru was so worried abt finding kaoru he LOST HARUHI?? like!! no one will ever be as important as kaoru to him and that đ is đ a đ fact đ
KAORU'S FACE WHEN HE REALIZES THAT HIKARU SPED OFF TO FIND HIM. LIKE. THAT MAN IS *THINKING*. HE HAS SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS.
KAORU'S LINE ABOUT HOW "EVERYTHING'S FINE" BECAUSE HIKARU RAN TO HIM. HE'S STARTING TO REALIZE HE DOESN'T WANT TO LOSE HIKARU TO HARUHI. THAT HE STILL CARES ABOUT HIM IN THE SAME WAY AS ALWAYS AND CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE HIM.
kaoru's face when he sees hikaru walk off with haruhi. that is not the face of someone who is happy or likes what's happening!! he's upset!! he doesn't want to do this!! but he's sacrificing himself and his feelings so that maybe, just maybe, hikaru can be happy without him one day!
how kaoru says himself he's not sure what he'll do once hikaru realizes he wants to do things alone!! he doesn't know what'll become of him without his brother!! maybe he doesn't *want* to know, because he's scared of losing hikaru! he wants things to stay the same, but he also wants so desperately for hikaru to have someone other than him, and a life outside of their little bubble! he's self-sacrificing for hikaru!!!
ep. 25
i am probably looking too deeply into this but. i believe that comment from kaoru abt how just because he and hikaru are twins doesn't mean they'd both be good drivers is like. the first time in the whole show he acknowledges, AROUND/TO HIKARU, that they're different people. like. guys. guys CHARACTER GROWTH
aaandddd...
that's everything!
if u made it this far, ty for listening to my rant abt my favorite gay twins of all time <3
expect more hikakao from me bc i will never get over these two
#really living up to my username with this one#i love these two so much it's not even funny#proship#proshipper#op is a proshipper#proud proshipper#proshipper safe#darkshipper#op is a darkshipper#darkship#darkshipping#shipcest#twince$t#hikakao#hitachiincest
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Can I get more of the Angle and devil on the shoulder AU with Steve and Eddie oneshot but a little smutty like maybe y/n gets embarrassed that theyâre probably seen her getting off(and if this could be a series that would be amazing but you donât have too youâre the writer)
A/N: ah yes! the devil and the ANGLE ⥠(sorry, I had to tease. we've all made that spelling error and it's always hilarious)
and I realise this one is more of just some lore and warm up, hardcore smut is yet to come, though a thing I am DROOLING to write. if anyone has any ideas (they can be kinda darkish because I'm honestly feeling that vibe for this au) then please send them my way!
⌠gentle reminder that feedback, but especially reblogs are the way you support writers on here âœ
masterlist |Â join my taglist |Â devil & angel AU masterlist |Â join my 2k celebration!
âCan you just like go away?â
âThatâs not really how it works, sweetheart,â Steve explained to you, âif we go, then you wonât notice it at all. When we arenât on the job, when we go back, itâs on a different dimension than this one, and time there, um, it works differently, itâs kinda weird and isnât connected to here where you are at all. Does that make sense?â he cocked his head slightly and gazed upon you as if you were the most adorable child he had ever seen.Â
âBut you canât even just turn around?â you kept on asking, your brows still stubbornly furrowed, âjust for a bit? Just like while Iâm in the shower or something? Or even stand on the other side of the door?â
âWhy?â Eddie chimed in from his leisurely position at the foot of your bed, âis it really so bad having an audience? Because itâs nothing new, youâve had it all your lifeâŠâ propping himself up onto his elbows and caught your eye as he spoke, âevery moment, every second, weâve seen everythingâŠâ smirking at your flustered reaction. Eddieâs eyes then flickered down over your form, taking in even the tiniest little twitch your body made under his observation. Keeping his voice low, he asked teasingly, âyou wanna be alone right now, honey?â
Breathing out a nervous chuckle, you averted your gaze, âwhat makes you think that?â
âYou forget that we know you,â his tongue poked the side of his cheek and he slowly moved in closer to where you were seated, âyour breathing pattern, your flushed cheeks, your bitten lip, how tightly youâre crossing your legs right now and, oh, your nipples poking through your shirt, saying hello,â you let out a small gasp as he grazed a hooked knuckle over one of them, his cold rings just shyly missing your goosebump ridden skin, âyou wanna be alone right now or am I wrong?â
âI-âŠâ you breathed as you looked back at his challenging gaze, âI donât know what youâre talking aboutâŠâ you tried to look away, but your vision never strayed for too long.
âOh, I think you do,â he teased, leaning in closer, âitâs okay, sweetheart. You donât have to be shy with us,â your breath got caught in your throat as he bowed down to be right by your neck, never truly touching, just grazing faintly against your skin like a ghost, âlike I said, weâve already seen everythingâŠâÂ
Feeling his soft lips press against your skin, your eyes fluttered a moment, coming to a complete close, before focusing in on the man still leaning against your dresser, anticipating for him to interject, but he didnât, Steve just stood there, arms casually crossed and watched with a gentle smile upon his lip as the sly devil in front of you slowly kissed his way up your neck.Â
© 2023 thyme-in-a-bubble
#2k celebration#leaâs writing#steve harrington x reader#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson imagine#steve harrington imagine#stranger things imagine#steddie x reader#steddie x you#steddie x y/n#steddie imagine#steddie fanfiction#steddie fic#steddie x fem!reader#steve harrington x fem!reader#eddie munson x fem!reader#eddie munson smut#steve harrington smut#steddie smut#steddie x reader smut#stranger things smut#steve harrington#steve harrington hc#eddie munson hc#eddie munson headcanon#eddie munson fanfic#eddie munson x you#perv!eddie#angel & devil steddie#perv!eddie munson
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I mean this in the best way possible: If i looked up the word "spaghetti" in the dictionary i would find your art style.
On another note, i request bnha wing au lore, such as how similar their diets are to their specific bird species and birds in general as well as how cities look like, and a picture of Northern Goshawk Sero (because apparently they're the most acrobatic birds according to google.)
i don't even like spaghetti all that much if im being honest hjbghjfb it hurts my stomach and tomato makes me break out yet here i am eating pizza
anyway Sero is actully a sparrow because the pun was too good for me to pass it.
original colors and one i blasted with filters because i like doing that jvkgf hcj
i didn't want him being a hawk cause in their society Hawks are viewed as the "better" birds (by better i mean like Hawks though raptors are viewed as stronger, more successful, beautiful/handsome ect they are so this and so that) Sero's quirk compared to Bakugo influences my choice of making Bakugo a Hawk and Sero a common bird - a sparrow. there was another reason but i forgot what it was
Now as for your other questions.
-How similar are their diets to their specific bird species and birds in general
I mean, i wouldn't say somebody is eating another person, but it's not severely uncommon in their world that a person would eat another person if they were starving enough and there was nothing else around. Raptors would sooner eat a rat before another person they'd have to be severely pushed into eating another person and it's only raptors/predators cases that have eaten other bird persons but that hasn't happened in a long time (at least that they know about) It's frowned upon to eat people jfknvbghfj
They do eat seeds, they grow vegetables, they eat roots, they grow fruits, bugs that aren't sentient, they eat other little critters that aren't sentient, they eat rats that aren't sentient - they have some form of non-sentient cattle cause if rabbit people like Mirko exist that means rat people exist, i don't think sentient cow or pug people exist but bugs and lizards aren't off the table there are sentient bugs and lizards cause bug people are incorporated in wing society.
-how do cities look like?
I actually have this written out. Ok so in this AU for somereason i never explained but the planets flora grew to like massive height so giant trees that reach the clouds exist, flowers that are big as houses exist, plants making people look like bugs even if they are a bird exist but normal size land, plants and trees exist as well.
living arrangements
Bird people
they typically nest in tree houses or live in hollowed-out trees that serve as single-family homes or communal living spaces almost that of hotels.
Higher branches are reserved for the rich or successful - safety and status all that noise.
Mid-level branches have platforms and hanging structures it's middle-class neighborhoods. The poor/under paid live in shrubs where bugs live or smaller trees closer to the ground floor but still elevated enough that they aren't touching the complete ground.
Houses include perches and structures robust enough to support winged living. Regular furniture but adapted for wings and tails. Beds that provide space for wings i imagine their round?
People do still do nest-building - i think my friend said Deku's mom owns a nest. -it's an older generation thing, i assume they integrate natural materials into their living spaces either inside normal homes or in custom-built house.
i think the bird houses are my favorite thing in this AU cause i sit here and think about how their houses look alot
I think of balconies, roof gardens, open spaces it's really cool in my head think of skyloft from skyward sword but without the clouds kinda? i had skyloft in mind when i was making this AU
Bat people
They prefer caves or cave-like structures that can be built into cliffs or large trees. Wealthy bats love spacious caverns higher up, lots of privacy and security from predators
Middle-class bats may have communal roosts on ledges or hollowed parts of large trees, while the less fortunate find shelter in smaller crevices and overhangs closer to the ground but still vertical enough for their needs.
Bug people
those with butterfly or moth wings build around massive flowers and tall vegetation.
The rich live high in canopys but i think bugs are the lowest ranking species here.
some might dwell on large leaves or within the stems of tall plants, lots of vibrant communities akin suburban life. it's silly jhtbgfhj
Some individuals may resort to makeshift accommodations among thickets or low-lying plants, some elevation to facilitate their flight-based movement.
There are no streets; travel is facilitated by flight between different areas. There are lots of glades and clearings that serve as social and trading hubs for interaction between different species and economic classes.
i have other things about this AU but i wanna save it for it's own post i just wanted to answer your question.
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đĄ Au idea Ramble! đĄ
Why did I just think of a au of Binary Star Hero, being a sorta like Bendy and the ink machine/Poppy playtime type universe.
Iâve thought of it for quite awhile.
Ok! Hereâs how I pictured it.
Ray was works with a big shot company, that has like both brand for kids, and sorta tv show type stuff. So when looking for a voice actor for their new release (that being Binary Star) he was told heâd be a temporary cast for the character, only for him to be the official voice actor/employee for the company.
The Mc, worked for the company up until it shut down, due to unknown circumstances. I would think him and Mc would met during one of the other projects for the company, soon turning into a friendship to work crush for the both of them. (Any of you guys watch Fall Guy? A movie about a stunt man?) So when he is given a permanent job as the voice actor for Binary Star, heâd complain about being nagged for certain lines werenât more âenthusiasticâ or âconfidentâ enough. Ray would jokingly play a part for the Mc to make them laugh, distracting them from a rough day, or just to joke around about his part for the âprojectâ. So heâd soon plan some coffee dates with the Mc, and just outings. So when one day he doesnât show up. Mc starts to worry, because he usually isnât late unless he calls or texts that something has come up. So to completely ghost themâŠ. Is considered odd.
Now letâs cut to the chase, what am I getting at?
RayâŠ. Dies due to being pushed down a stairwell. Itâs a long one to. His head cracked open, but someone rushed him somewhere. His shady boss took the chance to not only âhealâ him⊠but to turn him into something else.
See where Iâm going?
He became Binary Star
So to say he was horrified was an understatement, he didnât consider this normal, his boss was pleased with the results. However he was not, (I meanâŠ. Who would?) He would be observed, and experimented till the day the company officially shut down. So on the day things went down, he was still in containment. It was only thanks to a mysterious person that let him out after a long time.
âWhat would he be used for?â
đ Keep up!
Remember when I said poppy playtime and Bendy and the Ink machine? Remember the large spaces they had even though the surface looked way smaller? Yeeeeaaah! There was obviously an orphanage! Full of children. Ray would be forced to look after some if not all of them along with the others đ (Iâm saying others to give ideas.) soon eventually seeing one kid odded out from the rest for something they couldnât help. đ A disability. đ I know it seems cruel, but letâs be honest, this is the real world. So when he grows a connection with the kid, he had no idea how far his Boss was going to go, for his âPassion Projectsâ. His boss would threaten the kid if he didnât obey, not wanting an innocent child, a defenseless child to die because of him. He obeys. Only for the kid to have all checks for a future âPassion Projectâ. (Iâm not spilling.)
Ok, ok. Enough rambling. You guys are probably askingâŠ.
âSage! How does the story take off?â
Well, I kinda Mixed both Bendy and Poppy Playtime together. Except the letter says this.
-
Mc, there is something you donât know. [Insert company] has secrets you have yet to uncover.
He is alive.
If you want to know the truth, come to the company where heros come alive.
-[Smugged Name]
-
So instead of some random ass person sending weird letters, itâs more upfront in saying.
âHey, I need help uncovering some of this, and I know youâre the right person to help.â
Because the Mc would see and meet Ray but in a different way, and would eventually stumble upon the anonymous person, and uncover the truth. Despite many who have kept silent over the years.
Why did they keep silent?
Are they apart of this?
Who is anonymous?
Who pushed Ray?
What.
Is.
This.
Mystery?
Bro Iâve been making lore for this Au nonstop. Writing it down here since I know I will not remember. My memory is total shit.
However, what you guy think about this au, is up to you guys. I can keep up with the auâs just like you guys.
đ You guys underestimate my powerâŠ. đ
Hope you enjoyed the idea. (Donât know if I should make a fanfic about it.)
Hope you guys enjoyed my rambles haha!
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