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zeyris-daydreams · 2 years ago

Text

Three times the charm ! 🐳

[Childe x reader]

In which Childe hunts his highschool sweetheart. Or in which you unknowingly were held captive by a harbinger.

Warnings: mentions of past sex, kidnapping, stalking, threats of murder, no actual murder, use of name Ajax, manipulation

[-------♡-------]

That wasn't the Ajax you used to know, you were certain. The dead sea in his eyes betrayed way more than his words ever could. You knew he changed, it was clearer than any of the expensive crystals he got for you.

Despite his calm tone the tension in the air grew, pushing against your lungs. Suffocating. As if you were drowning in these dead, ocean blue eyes of his, the pressure forcing you to hold in your breath. His face was mere inches away before your brain started to register his words. You knew he looked at you with a look of superiority. He always did, you didn't even have to see it.

"Repeat it. Again."

"I- I said that- that this just.. won't work-"

After he joined the fatui, or rather after he went missing for a few days, he was a completely different person. The shy, quiet boy you knew and liked wasn't there anymore. All that was left was an empty shell of abandoned humanity. It took you too long to realise this man would only get worse. And yet you clung to the idea that, if given enough care, you could have your sweet Ajax back.

Additionally his new.. line of work was only making him more inhumane. It was as if the violence of it all only sparked this insanity further, setting it alight.

"Oh it will!" It was scary whenever he suddenly grinned like that, as if dismissing the situation. Completely belittling you and your worries. "If you're not willing to work with me, I will simply do it mysel!."

His fingers suddenly tightened on your shoulder, his hair covering half of his face as he thought. Before you could reply Ajax already dragged you back into the room, shoving you inside before he shut the doors.

Scrambling to your feet you leaned against the wood, trying to pry it open, only to notice the sound of a metal click. The lock. "Ajax this- isn't funny. You can't keep me here-"

It was never good to try and be firm with him, because you got no reply, only hearing his footsteps as he walked away.

It would've been fine; you thought. You didn't even know where you went wrong in the first place, sliding down the wooden surface. You should've listened to your gut, you should've known not to ignore all these red flags. But it was hard to suddenly regard him as a monster, having known him all your life.

Or most of it. Even your families were friends, so when the news of him missing arrived to you, you truly were in despair. And now here you are, in the similar despair as you were five years ago, your chest feeling tight. You gave him a chance right before he was sent off to the fatui, you should've simply broken up right then.

You should've gone away without telling him about your intentions first, as he kept you in one room because of that, locking it each time. It was hilarious really, if you thought about it too much. No matter your scrambling or whining he just wouldn't let you leave. At first he was rather calm, telling you that hey, it's fine. It's a new stage of your relationship, to make things better.

Surely you only wanted to break it off cause you met someone you deemed.. better? So then, you won't see them!

You won't see anyone but him to be able to appreciate just how good he is. He's the best, one and only for you!

All that self praise of his had you sick each time, the Ajax who always helped everyone now turned into a self centered asshat. Each time you just had to look away and sigh, the situation continued regardless.

Not much has changed aside from the fact that now he had you abducted. Against your will, sure, but he has to show you just how great he is, doesn't he?

With his hands either on your neck whenever you tried to escape, or inside you, he'd always have a way to convince you that you don't really want to leave. If you do then why are you letting him do this?

It didn't help that with his constant disappearing you had more and more time to plot and brainstorm, how to get out you pondered each day. The news of him being a harbinger didn't come to you, given he was mostly kept away from Snezhnaya by no one but his own superiors.

A war machine that could hardly visit his Darling, he had no choice but to make a plan of his own. Ajax was smart, the way you'd cozy up to him, return his affection. All that was to lower his guard, and all it did was make him aware of your plans. Such a silly girl, he always thought. Nonetheless he played it safe and didn't show any sign of suspicion.

More often than not, when he was back in Snezhnaya that is, he'd bring you things. It was hard to remember that Ajax wasn't.. your childhood friend anymore. That monster now always wanted something in exchange for anything he did, so when you were as much as happy about something he gave you, he'd be just as happy to have you repay him.

Of course there were various ways he'd twist his gifts to have you. And whenever he was rougher after getting his "gift" from you, the memory of what he said never left.

His hand was on your throat, suffocating, letting go and squeezing again. It was as if he was trying to brainwash you, murmuring sweet nothings of how he will murder anyone you get close to.

With every single thrust giving you more ideas of how he'd slay any man you kept contact with behind his back. That you were his and he was sufficient for you.

And each time he'd thrust particularly hard he'd emphasize the importance of never leaving this place. Or him.

"H-nHha.. ffu-fuck-" he'd groan, the sign of him being close. And whenever he did he'd make sure to put his mouth close to your ear. "you're mm-mine- got it? Let anyone- Hhha I mmEan anyone be close to you and I'll- shit.." and then he'd slow, just to pick the pace up again, your legs sore.

He was always going to exhaustion, disgracefully like a rabbit. Back and back at it. How could he help himself if he didn't see you for such a long time? "I'll ffucking.. gut them alive- hn.."

He was a sick bastard. You knew well Ajax was getting off to that idea. "Right in front of you- I'll slit their throat sso you kNow I'm the best for you-"

You came to realise this was some personal issue of his as well. Trying to convince himself he was the best for you, all awhile trying to get you to believe it.

With how much he went at it, it was nearly impossible not to come. And then he'd always turn the shame on you, tell you just how filthy you are from coming, just because of what he said.

It was disgusting each time. At some point you really tried to claw his eyes out, but Ajax was stronger, with ease holding your wrists down. It made you feel.. pathetic.

At least he didn't do it that often anymore, as you noticed over the year of your captivity that he often was gone. And more often than not he was only back for a few days before being gone again.

At that point he was better off throwing you away and finding someone he'd travel with, you felt like a collectible doll. Kept on a shelf only to be checked on, but the moment it moved, even without the collector's presence, all the alarms would go off. It was infuriating.

Ajax simply expected you to stay where you were, without trying to get out to contact your family. Even if he said they know, you found yourself not believing it. There was no way your family would let this happen.

Maybe there was, you were too busy thinking of your grand escape. Today it's been a whole year since he officially kidnapped you. You were together before, sure, but that didn't change a thing.

He had no right to do any of this, and you were thankful enough he didn't care about the anniversaries.

One way or another you sneaked past the fatui near the house, in the snow, in the shoes that were too big for you and one of the thick coats. You made sure it was one that Ajax didn't wear often, after all you weren't allowed outside clothes. So when you were finally out the window, running through the forest, you managed to get near the more civilized side of the Snezhnaya.

Forests here were grand, beautiful and eternal. Neverending snow, forever freezing the life and death within itself: it hurt to know your homeland became your prison, so the moment you managed to get in contact with someone you knew way before any of this happened, you were sent off somewhere better.

Somewhere warmer; that place was Liyue. It was weird to go by a transport vehicle all the way there, but you were soon stationed near one of the beaches.

The process was way too stressful for your mind to keep, so the only thing you remembered was your friend, making you promise you won't come back. And so your life in Liyue started, it was like a rebirth. All the memories of Ajax fading each time you looked at the beautiful beaches, or picked starconches. Even the worst ones, where the fear made you want to do nothing but die; it felt.. calm.

And maybe that was what initially set off your panic. After a year of living in survival mode this calmness that went on for a month was worrying. No one came to look for you.

No one asked, no one followed you, no one looked at you weird. Even the girl who was the head of that rather odd funeral parlor took you as a friend. She was an odd one, but it gave you hope.

That all continued for a while, you working for Hu Tao as the errand girl. It wasn't that serious of a job, but it sustained you just enough: Liyue felt like home. A new home.

You met people, you grew, you learned things. Getting used to the culture was difficult, Snezhnaya wasn't known for the spiciest food after all. Xiangling was kind enough to offer you a second job for the weekends at her dad's place.

Admittedly it was weird how fast you took the liking to the man. Barely six months in Liyue, maybe these were your daddy issues speaking. Maybe you were bored. Maybe the man seemed genuinely attractive, the care he had for Xiangling. For people. The passion whenever he explained the ingredients. Maybe your mind looked for trouble, or maybe, just maybe, you were starting to have a normal life.

Of course the man didn't take your advances seriously, he was aware it was simply because of your circumstances. So he treated you kindly like he did Xiangling regardless, and you decided to put your love life aside for the current moment.

You were also fortunate enough to meet Mrs. Zhongli, having been introduced on a random day by your director.

"From Snezhnaya.. I see, this truly is wonderful news. Liyue is a place for anyone, I'm convinced that Morax himself is proud of how strong of a nation he founded."

And so more time passed. Friends, places, it all grew into you. The beaches, the cliffs, the stories of how Liyue was made. Your nation was ruled by a cold blooded tyrant, that's what you regarded her as, and now, Liyue having an archon present like that?

Then again all good things come to an end in your life. Whether it was in your childhood or now, you should've learned happiness isn't destined for fools like you.

Hu Tao was kind enough to send you on an errand one day or another, and while having to deliver a special package to one of the locals, - Hu Tao's special two for one bonus - you noticed something.

Peeking from behind the pillar you saw the familiar colour of ginger locks. The awful laugh and the shake of the hand. And near them stood a blonde haired person, then a floating.. fairy thing?

You completely ignored the other person, sliding behind one of the pillars.

"..let's take it somewhere private. In Liyue walls have ears, you know?"

You were sure the sound of the two people was fading away, peeking out for a moment to notice them walking further. You wanted to feel at ease that he didn't spot you, but the dread overcame you.

Sliding down the stone structure you felt your heart race. He's here, he knows. He must have come here after you and is now discussing your capture to one of the famous travelers. Fatui in Liyue, you shouldn't have put your guard down.

He caught you. Before you knew it your breathing was heavy, and despite that you felt you couldn't get air into your lungs. The feeling of suffocation that Ajax left in you was always present it seemed, fingers shaking as your vision spun.

He was there and he'd catch you. He'd drag you back. You tried to stand to hide somewhere but your legs gave out right after, eyes wide. You looked around and yet saw nothing, the distorted voice of one of the guards barely registering.

The man picked you up to lean you, but you tried to move away, swatting him with your hands to step back. It was over. He had you.

Before you knew it your vision went blank, and just as fast as you passed out you woke up in an unfamiliar room.

A green haired man sat next to you, hand on your forehead before you knew it. Near you stood Hu Tao, arms crossed over her chest.

"Got me worried there! Don't die on me like that without buying the premium service first, please"

She had a humour, but you couldn't bring yourself to laugh this time. You do recall her and the doctor from this area not getting along well. Did she learn what happened and came here?

He paid her to keep an eye on you.

Were you just paranoid? Was it the truth?

"Miss (y/n) seemed to have passed out due to exhaustion. I checked her levels and saw nothing wrong though"

Only then did you see the snake that seemed to nudge the doctor. "I'm Baizhu, you're at the bubu pharmacy."

You really wanted to reply, but your mouth simply hung open, eyes darkened. You couldn't murmur a word.

On Archons. If he knew, he'd kill them. Or were they paid? They were hired, you were sure.

The faint memory of Ajax resurfacing when you saw the worry on Baizhu's face.

"Don't try anything. I'll find you. I will always find you."

With how unresponsive you were, Hu Tao just sighed, sitting on the bed, right near you. "I know we don't usually talk on personal terms, but.. if there's anything that bothers you, I sure hope you trust me enough to share it. Who knows, whatever bothers you may just find itself sent on the other side!"

She was so sweet sometimes, but you just looked down. "I haven't slept that well for a couple of days, I'm sorry for worrying both of you, but I'm fine" then you smiled. They were paid, and if not? And if they weren't?

What if they were people who genuinely worried about your well being? If you worried them and caused them to snoop, then- he'd kill them. He'd slit their throats, he'd hang them, he'd torture them to prove his sick po- "I do not see that to be the case, as a doctor I can see this is no result of lack of sleep" he didn't seem convinced. But Baizhu wasn't allowed to pry further. "If this happens again feel free to come by again. I'm sure we have some herbs that may help."

You simply groaned. After he checked your temperature and state he finally let you leave, and Hu Tao insisted on walking you home. And so you allowed her to, noticing how she just had a reason to chat through the whole way. Whether it were the new clients or the.. fatui in Liyue.

"I honestly think it's kind of creepy how the fatui keeps digging it's filthy claws in here." She started. "They even sent a harbinger over, you believe that?" For whatever reason, the young director seemed displeased. "is that so?" The harbinger was of no concern to you. You only needed to avoid his subordinate.

"Yeah! It's the youngest one, the eleventh. Childe, funny isn't it? Childe. Child. Cause you know, he's.. a child in comparison. I hope he doesn't bring me more clients than I can handle!"

She.. still had a weird sense of humour. But you knew she meant well, trying to cheer you up with these jokes.

"Childe? That sounds so goofy"

You tried to laugh. But your chest felt tight. The panic never left you. It would never leave.

"Yeah, not only that he's…" she leaned over to your ear as if saying some secret. "Ginger."

At that you went silent, your steps coming to a complete halt as your eyes widened. There he was, at the very far end of the road. Dark clothes, the ginger locks, the cape. That wasn't the outfit he usually wore.

Hu Tao took this as a sign the joke set in. "Gi-ginger?"

"I know right? Like please, a ginger guy can hardly be intimi- oh, that's him actually!"

And so she pointed right at the person you wished you never saw again.

Ajax. The one and only.

It was like time had stopped. Your abductor was a harbinger.

Ajax was a harbinger.

Ajax was.. Childe.

Now all of this made sense, all the times he was gone more and more. The violent impulse- his delusion, one he locked away from you whenever he came over: his vision.

Hu Tao noticed that you really were out of it, fingers snapping in front of your face. "He's not that scary, really. Actually he often plays in the theater here in Liyue, for some reason he seems to enjoy that kinda stuff. "

Before she added more you turned on your heel to sprint away, completely ignoring whatever else she said, her confused expression.

And so you ran straight to the suburban part of Liyue, body feeling faint again. It didn't have to be necessarily true that he knew you were there.

And yet the paranoia set in, and now each turn you made you looked left and right to see if anyone was there. Even the agents that usually walked down the roads looked unsafe. Each step was a struggle for life, you couldn't faint here.

They'd get you and drag you back to your homeland.

"I'll always find you"

The branch you stepped on broke, your house in the distance.

"I'll slit their throat right in front of you"

You ran faster, basically slamming into the doors to open them. The key almost fell from your hand.

"You belong to me, and I take what is mine."

When the doors opened everything went quiet, you slammed them shut, walking in shakily. Straight to your room, almost collapsing by the time you reached it. There was some sort of object on the bed.

Not knowing what it was, your legs already bent, knees feeling soft as you struggled to the furniture, managing to lean against the soft mattress. A picture.

Of you.

In Wangsheng funeral parlor.

You practically fell face flat on the bed, the built up tears finally rolling.

Second time you lost everything.

You couldn't stay here, you were in danger. You brought nothing but demise to anyone who helped you, and after half a minute you finally regained the senses.

Crying was for later. Right then you only began to stuff all your belongings into a suitcase, your adrenaline driven mind not caring about the little things like flowers or pictures, or souvenirs. You only took a necklace with you, the cash you saved.

The dark of the night was too scary, if they snatched you then, no one would see. That's why you set out through the backdoor before the sun could hide away..

You didn't have time to think about the recklessness and impulsiveness of this decision, it being clear your paranoid mind could not come up with a better plan. The run back to Liyue harbour was exhausting, and the moment you crossed the gates, you looked around.

Each step you took towards the center of it all was filled with dread and fear. You didn't feel as scared before, but your mind still suppressed this.. realisation. You would feel way worse later, lucky enough to drag yourself to the port. You briefly explained your last minute booking, of course making an entirely different reason up. But you wouldn't go to Sumeru. That was too predictable.

You took one that was headed to Fontaine, getting aboard to not be seen in Liyue again.

Of course the whole ride was tremendous, the knowledge you were in Liyue for only a year before it went down makes you anxious. If you were in Fontaine surely your chances of survival would be better?

You didn't have the time to think, all you thought of was newfound knowledge you received.

And you couldn't sleep either, safeguarding your belongings, thinking.

The one who kept you a prisoner was.. a harbinger. And knowing how far harbingers go to pursue their goals, how much intel he had- it made you sick.

You didn't necessarily know for sure if someone observed you, but you were too anxious to care. All you wanted to do was to go back to how things were, be with your family.

It was impossible though. And so you landed in Fontaine, this time around having a way harder time adjusting.

Would seem citizens really did dislike outsiders, the atmosphere of Fontaine not something you.. imagined. In a way you considered going to Natlan instead, but given you already had to find some occupation, your money was quickly spent. You were stuck helping with packaging parcels and sending them off.

A Monotonous job with a pay that hardly let you live.

During days like these you truly sat in a chair and cried over Liyue, over what you had. Over what that bastard took from you with these lifeless, cold hands of his.

Over all the friends you lost again, you were tired. Having to start over from scratch, you didn't bother with friends anymore. You were sure he'd find you again, so you already prepared to move further away. Either to Natlan, maybe Monstadt. City of freedom. You were sure if you explained yourself you'd find a shelter, Knights of that area had quite a reputation after all. You were already crying over your life, now to that you cried over the stupid choice of being here. Monstadt was too close to Liyue, but still.

Maybe you'd make it work.

In Liyue you grew used to everything within weeks. In Fontaine it took you too long to adjust to everything, over half a year passing by before you finally befriended a single person. Even so, your days were filled with loneliness, self exploration. You tried to heal a little; taking walks, trying to ignore how ugly the city seemed to you. Even if you were far from the city of Fontaine itself, the surroundings weren't as good as in Liyue.

For some reason the nation made you feel heavy hearted. Sure, you were promoted to putting things inside parcels instead of just wrapping them, but that was hardly enough to be able to afford your life, and to save money.

It was an unfortunate situation, but you didn't dwell in self pity. Now no one was in danger because of you, and given how you heard that the.. harbinger usually stayed in Liyue, you were safe.

Monotonous days passed, monotonous nights followed. The mechanic appeal of Fontaine would never look good. But you learned to cope, learned to adapt; you had to adapt.

Adaptation was what allowed one to survive, and so even when you suddenly found more taxes by your door, more bills to pay, you tried to think well.

All this was means to an end, even if by then you were too short on money to have anything left for another trip to another nation. It was.. unfortunate. And yet, quite convenient for someone that wasn't you.

It was truly your bad luck that the nation had a problem with their Archon who turned to the Fatui for help, and before you knew it, the words of a Harbinger who came to deal with the issue spread. Childe.

Again, Childe this. Childe that. You were sure this time that he really came to deal with the issue of this God, but the more you heard, the more you realised this wasn't the case.

During the first months of this problem you stayed hidden, but even after it ended, the Fatui didn't.. leave.

The amount of agents lessened whenever you took a walk, but you couldn't keep living in fear. Maybe that part was the one that you screwed up. Cicins hardly anywhere to be found either; they were really moving out.

A part of you felt happy, still preparing to leave though. You'd come to Monstadt this time around, enjoying the evening view as you grabbed the herbs from the ground, quickly putting them into the bag, not wanting to stay outside longer than necessary.

Fontaine was really developed, the air hardly ever feeling fresh. That's why it was so hard for you to get your hands on anything fresh, eyes closing for a moment.

It's been a year and the sight of Liyue never left your mind. You stared in an unknowing bliss at one of the bushes, reminiscing. Of how Xiangling and you would gather things for her new dishes.

Or how you'd run errands to get things for Hu Tao's send off rituals. The smell of the food, the homely atmosphere.

Before you knew it, it was dark, your thoughts occupying you for a while. Getting from the ground you gathered the items you've picked, finally heading back home. The path you always took, the sights you always looked at whenever you went over your evening routine. It wasn't that hard to remember the overall terrain here, and once you approached the doors to your home, you took the key to put it into the lock.

Weirdly enough you couldn't turn it, only then noticing the doors opened. You must've left them unlocked, but even when you warily made your way in, you heard nothing.

It was only when you were in the kitchen did you turn the light on, pupils fast to look at the person sitting near the table.

He held a knife in his hand, and a picture, seemingly staring at it as he leaned back in the chair.

"Y/n, y/n, y/n. Fate we are in the same place again, is it not?"

Seeing Ajax made you feel sick, a grin forming on his face. You took a step back. You wished you could say something instead of wanting to take a run for it. But he already stood, his clearly taller frame headed towards you.

"As if destiny itself willed us to meet again" giving him a frown you reached back for your hunting knife, taking in deep breaths. In and out, like you taught yourself to suppress the panic. You're fine.

"It was more something along the lines of you breaking into my house, asshole-" before he was too close the knife was pointed at his chest.

Ajax was like an animal. The moment you showed fear, you lost. That was something that you didn't take too long to learn.

Childe sneered, frowning at you instead. "That's such a wrong way to put it, I merely made myself present."

Maybe it wasn't the right move to show him the knife, as he already snatched it from your hand in a way that was too fast for you to comprehend, it suddenly slammed right next to your skull into the wall. You heard it crack in displeasure and protest, the sharp part of the blade touching your ear.

Only then you realised you had a reason for fear, lips pressed together. It was all too clear that he was annoyed. "you're pathetic if you think I don't know about your endeavours in Liyue."

"So you knew?"

"Of course I did. An idiot like you hardly got out of Snezhnaya, which I also knew about before you could even set off." He scoffed, hand suddenly on your neck. It was dangerous to play that game with him, so you didn't even try to move. He wouldn't kill you, that was for certain by now.

If he did, it would be a waste of time to chase after you earlier.

"I thought, maybe if you have some glimpse of other things that may be sufficient for you. That you, I don't fucking know, might stop being childish about us"

His grip on the knife was tight. You didn't say more. You didn't want to cause further anger.

"But you didn't, of course I also predicted you'd leave Liyue at some point. It wasn't hard to follow your track, honestly you'd be quite naive if you thought you could get away"

It seemed he really was aware of everything, fingers squeezing your throat more so. With his hand on his neck, Ajax made you look up at him, brow raised before he chuckled. "You silly girl. We can do it both ways, alright?"

That condescending tone infuriated you, finger tapping at the skin on your neck. It felt as if he could snap it within moments, Childe was obviously doing this on purpose. Intimidate you into submission.

"You come back with me, willingly, and maybe.. maybe I'll make the punishment a little less severe"

He saw your mouth open in protest, his thumb ending on your bottom lip. "ah, ah, ah. You don't interrupt when I'm speaking. Otherwise I might have to make you come back with me, by force. And the outcome will not be pleasant, hm?"

To you that just sounded like he'd lock you up and leave you without food for maximum a day. Or some physical sort of torture, but instead he gave you a knowing look. "Of course that includes me getting rid of all the people who could look for you. I really don't like people in my business, I hope you understand how troublesome that would be for me. All the issues you caused with these.. useless friendships you made, yeah?"

You were ready to protest truly, but upon hearing that your blood went cold, the feeling made you feel hot actually. Boiling, not from fear, but from anger. Newfound anger, that he quickly took a notice off. "don't give me that look.."

It was scary, how he looked when he enjoyed your intense emotions. Fear, frustration. All the emotions you couldn't express, the helplessness, oh he loved it, eyes closing so he could lean to your face, kissing you. A kiss that wasn't returned, as you passively let yourself be pushed into the wall further. Then again Childe didn't mind if it was one sided, instead kissing you with more intensity, in a way that made you feel out of breath. As if he was purposefully trying to suffocate you and you hardly managed to shove yourself to the side to breathe. Having minimum space between you two, you tried to get out from between him in the wall, only to be grabbed by your waist. "Oh, no you don't"

He said it with some sort of sick cheerfulness, pulling you into another, weakening kiss. It was nowhere near gentle, only dominating and tiring. Weakening, deafening. You were sure you'd pass out by the time he pulled back, a faint smirk visible on his face. The threat set in, you would come back, or he'd drag you there and kill your friends anyway. There was no winning. "So?"

You were silent. The lack of answer made Childe sigh, clicking his tongue as if you were the one who gave him no choice. "Looks like you need more convincing"

"Ffuckingg hell n-no- I'll go- I'll.. I'll go-"

In the end your life was singular in comparison to the lives of many people you met.

You weren't worth enough to let them be killed out of your own pride after all.

Childe grinned sickly. You wanted to puke. "Three times the charm, isn't it? You won't get away this time."

#childe x reader #yandere childe #childe #tartaglia x reader #yandere tartaglia #yandere tartaglia smut #yandere tartaglia x reader #ajax x reader #yandere ajax x reader #childe smut #Tartaglia smut

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ryutarotakedown · 1 year ago

Note

susato for the character ask game! if she’s already been sent in then olive/viridian :^)

AAAAAAAH THANK YOU!!! im doing both because i feel like i say everything i think abt susato immediately on here lmao so i probably have more olive thoughts than anything

headcanon A: realistic

susato is autistic. sososo autistic. and as a result she learned most of her Way of Speaking (and english in general) from the herlock sholmes zine serials, which i think is actually pseudo-canon according to an interview with the localizer janet hsu? but anyway at one point she says something like “it is a great joy to know what emotions lie behind that cold mask” with the utmost politeness to, like, maria or somebody, and iris is like. ohh susie! i think i know where you got that from! ^-^ and susato has the delayed realization that half of her prepared lines were written by a ten year old

also susato has really good sea legs considering she's spent like [thinks] eight whole months at sea by the time she arrives in japan post-canon

i really like that one fanart with the headcanon that olive needs glasses!! i also think that she had severe anxiety as a teenager (and still does, it just manifests in a different way now) such that she had trouble speaking at all at times (selective mutism) which is how she got to be so fast at painting arrows on her palette thing. it's lessened a bit by the time we meet her but she likes doing it for emphasis anyway

headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

i cannot find the fanart for the life of me but please know i am always constantly thinking about that one comic where susato flies away with her hair loops flapping like a bird's wings. i am haunted by it.

on a more original note i think susato should consensually steal iris's smoke gun so she can go try to shoot her initials into the walls of the mikotoba mansion again. "the problem with the Real gun, naruhodou-sama, was the recoil! but this one should do the trick :)!" she succeeds and also dyes her father's hair blue in the process. hey at least he matches with sholmes-of-two-months-ago now

oh god let's see, do i have any good olive headcanons? i think her middle name is viridian and the difference between her original and localization counterparts is that viridian hates the color olive and olive hates the color viridian. they're both so glad their parents gave them two options.

headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

maybe i should have put this one in "realistic" but: consider the fact that susato arrives to london early the second time because she didn't get on the same boat as her father. consider that after they find out about him, both ryuunosuke and susato think it's possible that yuujin knew kazuma wasn't dead (even though this is disproved immediately after they tell him about it). consider susato running away from ryuunosuke after telling him she has to leave in 1-5. anyway i think avoidance is susato's main coping mechanism and she chose to spend 2 more months alone on a ship with no one she knew because she couldn't bear to look at her father for more than three seconds without making herself sick with wondering what he was hiding

i thought for so long about olive but the thing is. i genuinely don't think i could make her story more tragic than it already is without making it just, horrifically dark, you know? i thought a bit about whether she would be executed for attempted murder but i do think the system of tgaa is more lenient on that than the actual modern ace attorney universe, so. let's see — canon says she has parents and that she and duncan were waiting to graduate before telling them about their engagement, so i think they tried to talk to her after she dropped out but the selective mutism kicked in for like. a very long period of time. while she went to briar road every day, pretending not to hear them calling after her that this wasn't healthy. she heard them talk about possibly institutionalizing her behind her back and figured, what's another straitjacket. after she gets placed in prison they do come visit her and try to hide that they're horrified that she would ever go so far as to poison someone for that ross boy who they never did approve of that much, but she can tell. she doesn't speak much to them. they still visit every week.

headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

i have said this probably a million times already but susato should have Exploded in 2-5!!! she should have blown up!!!! she should have had a meltdown!!!! why don't we have a susato breakdown sprite other than her trying to chuck her book into the ocean!!!!!!!!!! also she spills everything to haori once she gets back and they kiss about it.

ALSO also this isn't "unrealistic" exactly but it is unbelievable to me that susato & haori are not canonically childhood best friends so i am just. going to canonize that. one extra word. there

while in prison olive keeps drawing anywhere and everywhere and more and more people join in until it's a whole underground movement thing, and 200 years later textbooks will say that the term and practice of "art therapy" originated from a felon convicted of attempted murder whose name has sadly been lost to the annals of history (her signature was stylized in all-lowercase like "olive green" so as to be Emo, and so they thought she was just making a statement about color theory)

#tgaa spoilers #tgaa2 spoilers #tgaa 2 spoilers #dgs spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #dgs 2 spoilers #jules.txt #g: ace attorney #annoyingloudmicrowavecultist #mail #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK I LOVE GETTING OPPORTUNITIES TO BRAINSTORM #i am completely sold on selectively mute olive now. im not sure why i wasnt before #caps

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project1939 · 2 years ago

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Day 55- Film: Penny Princess

Release date: August 25th, 1952.

Studio: Conquest Productions

Genre: Come

Director: Val Guest

Producer: Earl St. John, Frank Godwin

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Yolande Donlan, Reginald Beckwith

Plot Summary: The European microstate Lampidorra, situated between France, Switzerland, and Italy, is about to go broke. A wealthy American businessman offers to buy the whole country, but just when all the papers are signed, he drops dead. After a long search for any of his heirs, they settle upon Lindy Smith, a Macy's shop-girl who sells potato peelers. Now she must fly to Lampidorra to save the country.

My Rating (out of five stars): ***½- ****

For pure enjoyment, this film is worthy of four stars for me. I realize that might be a little generous, though. But I honestly loved this film- it’s just a simple absurdist comedy, and at that it is very successful. I giggled the whole way through.

The Good:

Yolande Donlan as Lindy Smith. I liked her- she was really the perfect lead for this kind of film. She’s definitely pretty, but her voice and delivery make her a great comic lead. She’d probably just be the funny side-kick in most films.

Dick Bogarde as Tony Craig. He was also perfectly cast for me- he's adorable and charming.

All the townsfolk. They were colorfully silly, and there was a lot of hilarious dry delivery in them. They had a lot of little asides and throwaway lines that cracked me up.

The whole ridiculous concept of the film.

Every time I thought things were already at peak silliness, something else would come along that made me laugh even more. There were a lot of running jokes that I got a kick out of. Even minor things like “two thousand true and solid citizens,” etc.

The way we find out that Lampidorra’s entire economy is smuggling. These sweet-seeming people are so firm and matter-of-fact about it, even that made me laugh.

The schneeze. When that element was introduced into the plot, it killed me. It’s an example of another one of those moments of “Can this movie get any more ridiculous? YES. Yes, it can.” (But in a good way!)

The way the romance between Lindy and Tony was handled. If they tried to get too traditionally romantic, it wouldn’t have worked inside such a crazy little film. I thought they found a good happy medium, so we saw how much they cared about each other, but it wasn't overly expressed.

Some of the location shooting. I guess some of this was shot in Catalonia, and you definitely got a rural European vibe from it. It generally did not look like it was shot on a backlot.

The Technicolor. This film would not have worked nearly as well if it was in black and white. It needed the vivid candy-box color of Technicolor to add to the fairytale aspect of it all.

This was exactly the kind of movie I needed today. I’ve been basically sick in bed half the day, so this kind of gentle goofy humor was medicine.

The Bad:

I don’t know that I felt totally satisfied with the ending. (Spoilers!) I was kind of sad that Lindy and Tony just rushed off away from Lampidorra at the end.

Who designed that movie poster? It doesn't capture the feeling of the film at all. It's so bland, and it tries to make Donlan into a cheesecake girl.

#project1952 #1952 #project1952 day 55 #100 films of 1952 #200 films of 1952 #200 films of 1952 film 54

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demigod-shenanigans · 7 months ago

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First of all cannot overstate how much I appreciate you always engaging with these posts, it genuinely means a lot.

Also!! I’m a sickfic person (I blame my own health issues lol). I love sick day stuff. This was a delightful to read.

Currently thinking fondly of Leo and Piper getting sick at the same time in Wilderness and both of their first instinct being to play it off/hide it (for Leo because he’s used to not having anyone who cares, for Piper because it just brings back memories of how much her dad would fuss whenever she got sick as a kid and remembering now knowing he’ll be too busy to even drop by/call to check on her is just painful) until they realize they’re both sick. Then they’re just whining at each other about which one of them is to blame (the meteor shower and them sleeping on the roof is probably the reason honestly) and will not be separated anymore.

And due to the whole memory shenanigans they don’t remember it being like that obviously but whenever it happens again at CHB they’re just as unbearable about it. They just don’t know how it started anymore.

Temperature of 126 is even more hilarious to me because I’m European and briefly forgot about Fahrenheit being a thing. Normal body temperature in Celsius is like, 37°C. I cannot begin to imagine how dead you’d be at 126°C (for my fellow Europeans, 126 F is ≈ 52°C. Which is still way too high for regular human body temperatures but not above boiling water temperature LOL). Actually temperature measurement confusion is conceptually potentially usable for a tiny British Thalia fic (either with baby Jason or with Luke and Annabeth) but that’s kind of beside the point, I’m getting off-topic XD

Anyway yeah Leo just runs hotter than most people even when he's healthy and it's worse when he's sick but as much as it freaks Jason out, it's not going to kill Leo. I think Jason has decent training when it comes to dressing injuries due to his training in Camp Jupiter, but that doesn't really translate super well to sick boyfriend care and he's really frustrated about it. Jason is also terrible at cooking which he feels really guilty about especially when Leo isn't feeling well (this also ties into Leo anxiety cooking a lot when Jason is sick I feel like. It's one of Leo's default aspects of sick person care and Jason feels like him being bad at it means he's failing at his job). Leo doesn't really care. Mostly he just wants cuddles. He just wants Jason to be there because there have been so many times in the past when no one was.

Currently being hit with the hilarious image of Piper all but begging Reyna to use speech to text because it's taking her so long to type out the entire movie title (and Reyna will type the entire movie title before hitting search, even if objectively half of it would be more than enough). Cue Reyna taking even longer trying to get speech to text to work because it always gets some part wrong while Piper is halfway between a laugh and a coughing fit the whole time. Also since Reyna sharing her feelings is her whole power, I’m getting the vibes of either Reyna intentionally trying to make herself feel relaxed so she can make Piper feel better or her being very stressed and anxious to the point where it spills over and Piper is like “sit down/come cuddle, I can’t sleep when you’re feeling like that”.

I feel like much like Reyna Jason also isn’t sick. Stupid stubborn hero leader types who are of the opinion that they never need breaks smh. But after the whole “Jason almost died/died and got resurrected”-deal Leo has a lot of anxiety re: Jason’s health and pays a lot of attention to it. Jason sneezes once and good luck getting Leo to let him do anything else for the whole week lmao he’s a fucking nightmare about it. He’s not risking his fragile perpetually concussed boyfriend/husband ever again thank you <3

Jason isn’t used to people taking care of him (he’s the hero and the leader and whatever he’s supposed to be the one making sure everyone else is alright) so he’s not entirely sure how to handle it and at first he feels guilty about how nice it feels to be cared for like that. He gets better about it with time, and it’s nice to be given an excuse to have some actual downtime because Jason is terrible at letting himself have downtime at all.

Reyna is worse than Jason, mostly because he’s got a bit of a head start in the “it’s okay to let other people in and let yourself be comforted”-department because he’s known Leo and Piper longer. She’s also a terminal workaholic. Piper has had to charmspeak her into letting herself take a fucking nap at least once because Reyna was insisting she could totally still go to work despite the fact that she was about to collapse. She’s also 100% more likely to still try and get some work done in bed than Jason is. Piper shakes her head about it and tells her if it’s necessary she will sit there and watch all day to make sure Reyna actually lets herself rest XD

For all of Reyna’s protests she does really like falling asleep with her head in Piper’s lap.

Having another Day, so, you guys know the drill by now. Any headcanons and fluff thoughts appreciated. Some hurt/comfort with emphasis on the comfort would be especially nice right now but I’m not picky. Thank you.

#once again just taking your concepts and running with them hahaha I hope that’s okay #valgrace #pipeyna #leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #reyna avila ramirez arellano

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sunlightnmoonshine · 4 years ago

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In the end (pt. 1)

It feels a little surreal that the show is over and I will no longer have anything to look forward to because the devil judge set such a high bar in terms of writing and character exploration that I will always hold dear to my heart. Given that its actually done, I found myself drowning in the realisation that we will never see these characters again and how I feel about where the show left them off. So this is me coming to terms with it:

1. Min Jung Ho - Snake lol. Something I admired about the writing was how they didn't try to make him all out some evil piece of shit but rather someone that had a very strong misguided belief off some strange frustrations against Yohan who was changing the legal system more radically but effectively. Which he could not come to terms with. In the end he villanised Yohan and ignored the actual problems that persisted and inevitably contributed to the problem all in a sense of self righteousness, ah sorry, hypocrisy is the better word. The show leaves him looking oh so pathetic, he can't even raise his head to meet Gaon, the boy he betrayed severely and he'll rot for the rest of his life going down in history as a hypocrite who did nothing to actually fix the system he claimed he would be the arm of justice for. Its a fitting end.

2. Heo Joong Se: Clown. The show really said he's a spoilt, stubborn arrogant joke until the end. Down to the way he insulted everyone but specifically insulted women. The way all he did in that court room was scream his head off without an ounce of remorse somehow still deluded by the fact that he's doing this for the country? But knowing fully well he's a businessman through and through and that was all he will be. I can not stress how phenomenal it is that it is Jung Sun Ah that shoots him dead. Its clear he's had it coming from her hand ever since she tried to suffocate him during the massage but it's just how randomly she does it. She's sick of him, she's aware she's going to be targeted, she's aware he's done too much behind her back and never once respected her and its in the midst of one of his screaming fits particularly screaming "I am the King" that the bullet goes through and there's silence. Perfection.

3. The rest of the clowns of the SRF : idle bystanders that turned an eye away from inherent evil and repeatedly benefitted off of their actions without an ounce of remorse yet again. But hilarious nevertheless because they really became jesters on that stage in a desperate fit to live, threw themselves away to get out a door. It's noteworthy that they spent most of their time trying to stop the other from leaving instead of quietly watching and just getting out. None of them of are capable of that, they only know to take from others. Crumbling under the systematic stage they built? Poignant. I don't really care what anyone says they deserved to die point in tow with HJS who saw human life as so unworthy of it wasn't their own. There's a reason why human trafficking is considered one of the worst of crimes, human experimentation falls closely next to it. All because they were poorer than them. Guess their greed really out did them. Tried to put on a show in a court house which was anyway all just a staged facade and ultimately they died on that stage with their masks out for everyone to see. For their people to see them throw each other away to live. If they were going to throw each other away - their own kind- what wouldn't they do to the lower class? Oof the show gave them what they deserved- humiliation.

4. Jung Sunah - I still struggle to come to terms with how she's gone and how painful everything about her was until the last minute. It's clear Sunah has been breaking for a few episodes now. She's so close to the top and she's realised how truly alone she is and she's realised Yohan will never want her the way she wants him to. She's realised every person she used to get to where she was, ended up being wasted stepping stones because she doesn't have what she wants all the way at the top and never will. The way the show has her quietly go to the experimentation centre and weep over the girl she saw herself in but someone she initially turned away from because she's not part of her bigger plan. The child she left to fall prey to the people Sunah has inevitably helped secure positions in her attempt to secure her own position. The way the show focuses on how the child has been repeatedly pierced with needles something Sunah hates the most and how she realises this is also her fault. She probably thought hey I'll get to the top and do things my way but as Yohan pointed out, ruling over trash isn't it, it'll never be worth it and she's essentially walking with a target on her back and she'll never be free because the weight of her sins will catch up to her and the rich will always be after her because she's not the same as them. She would be living on the edge forever. And she knows this.

Something I found very interesting was how she wasnt roped in on the crimes of the Dream House Project. Yohan only highlighted her crime as having killed K and Soohyun and its the frustration she feels in that moment that really gets me. It's also why I think she could never get out of the show because she killed innocent people which is highlighted repeatedly and at the time never showed remorse for it. BUT I love how the show somehow saves her from humiliation, until the end they paint her with regality and power because that is who Sunah is. Frankly she could have walked right out of the door while they were throwing a fit and Yohan would have let her because that was the terms of the game but he'd have come after her at some point and even if he didn't Gaon most certainly would have.

But it's the way the show brought it all back to how she feels about Yohan since he's the other half of what she's always wanted, the way she's happy he's alive, how she goes and stands in front of him and she's got her hand on the trigger of the gun while Yohan on the button of detonator. I believe, if Sunah had shot him Yohan would have detonated the bomb and died with them and I also believe deep down Sunah knew Yohan would somehow get out of this even if she didn't shoot him, so she really gave him the chance to get out and back to Elijah. I am not sure if Sunah couldn't shoot Yohan or if she didn't want to, and I lean towards the latter because she really liked him, it might have been ill placed desire but if things were different if she hadn't sided with the SRF in hopes of getting to the top she and Yohan might have worked things out and they would both be healing. If she only hadn't killed the innocent people to make a point... But at the end of it Sunah took her fate into her hands and I appreciate that the show gave her the agency over it, to decide not to shoot Yohan because she's finally letting go ( I stand by this but if Yohan had died Sunah would have lost - she never wanted him to die), because she won't do what the rest of the SRF scum want of her and because she's fine with going on her own terms.

That doesn't mean it didn't hurt though... I cry thinking about it because the show tried really hard to show how unfair everything was to Sunah and how if circumstances had been different, if the world had cared a bit more how she might have turned out differently. Her final moments the flashback to the one act of kindness she had needed in her life, the way Yohan really must have sparkled in her eyes, and how much she valued that moment all the way to her death because no matter what, in his own loneliness and difficulty he was kind to her. Jeez it hurts.

Ideally I'd have wanted her to live but I don't know how that would have worked out. At the end of it not all villains are evil. Some are products of the ills of the system that left them alone and let them become monsters but behind a monster there can also be a victim.

#the devil judge #kdrama #I was going to add my feels on everyone else's end #But this is already too long #and Sunah has me feeling sad

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theclockworkmonk · 4 years ago

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Out of the Mouths of Babes — Chapter 2

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Chapter 1 on Tumblr

Prompt: “Uncle Ron said something about Harry knocking Ginny up, but I don’t know what he means,” Teddy said.

************

"They can't be serious…." Harry muttered in disbelief as he stared down at the very official-looking letter.

"Who's serious about what?" asked Ginny, stepping into their living room.

Harry jumped and quickly tried to hide the letter behind his back. "Nothing!" he squeaked.

He should have known better. Ginny got a mischievous glint in her eye and darted around him, trying to get at the letter. They spent a minute chasing around each other, but eventually Ginny faked him out into tripping over the coffee table, and she quickly snatched the letter out of his hand with a triumphant laugh, making Harry once again wonder if she wouldn't be even better at Seeker.

"Ooooo," Ginny sang dramatically as she saw the emblem at the top of the parchment, "an official statement from the Wizengamot! Have they come up with a new award to bestow on you?"

"No, it's even worse," mumbled Harry.

"Oh, well now I'm very interested," Ginny teased, "am I worthy to take a peek at such official correspondence between such important people?"

"Well, it actually concerns you too, Missy," said Harry, crossing his arms, "so go ahead."

"Hold on, let's see if I can get the right tone." Ginny cleared her throat, pointed her nose in the air, and continued in her haughtiest tone,

"To the esteemed Harry James Potter,

After consideration of your actions to serve and protect the Wizarding World of Great Britain, as well as the recent discovery of your lineage to the Ancient and Noble House of Peverell, previously thought to be lost, it is with great honor and pleasure that we offer to restore your line to its former status by bestowing upon you one of the vacant Lordships!?"

Ginny dropped her character and her mouth gaped open in disbelief. "Along with the accompanying seat on the Wizengamot!" she finished quickly.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, and her face split into a wicked grin and Harry knew he would never hear the end of this.

Harry snatched the parchment back.

"Yeah, so in other words," he began before she could start getting her jokes in, "they're embarrassed by how many of their seats are still empty after half their members were thrown in prison or fled the country for being Death Eater collaborators, so they're once again trying to use me as their poster boy so they can look like they've turned over a new leaf. Except they clearly haven't, since they only deemed me 'worthy' after they found out which dead pure-bloods I'm descended from, so they're still the same navel-gazing, inbred aristocrats they've always been!"

By the time he was finished, he was shouting and he panted to catch his breath.

Ginny, however, still found the whole thing hilarious.

"Oh, it breaks my heart to see Lord Potter so displeased," she bowed low to him with a flourish of her hand. "Let me know if there's anything a lowly peasant like me can do to serve you."

"Yeah, yuck it up, Weasley," said Harry dryly, "Like I said, this affects you too."

She looked back up at him with a sardonic look. "How does your having to sit through long parliamentary bullshit have to do with me?"

"Well," said Harry, stepping toward her, "if I'm a Lord, that means that, if I ever get married one day—"

"Hypothetically speaking," said Ginny.

"Yes, then that hypothetical girl — whoever she might be — would become a Lady."

"Hmmm," hummed Ginny thoughtfully. She wrapped her hands around his neck and he snaked his arms around her waist. "So you think this is relevant to me because you're hoping to make me your Lady? That's mighty presumptive of you, Lord Potter."

"Well, I wouldn't say hoping," lied Harry. "It's just a logical possibility to consider, strictly because you're pure-blood, of course. But I'm still keeping my options open. After all, you know how much of a ladies man I am."

"Yes, of course. But you know…" said Ginny thoughtfully, tracing circles over Harry's chest with her finger, "'Lady Ginevra Potter….does have kind of a nice ring to it."

"Oh, but things would be expected of you, m'Lady," said Harry, "and you would definitely have to stop all that Quidditch nonsense. Such a vulgar and violent activity is beneath a woman of your standing."

"Oh, well, I guess that's settled, we have to break up," Ginny sighed, "We're just a part of two different worlds."

"I'll always remember you," said Harry romantically, "but alas, I must kiss you goodbye."

He bent down and gave her a kiss, then they broke apart as they cracked up into laughter.

"Come on, I'm not going to let anyone call me a Lord," said Harry, rolling his eyes, "and obviously I'm not actually going to sit on the bloody Wizengamot. Those seats are transferable, so I can give it to someone who will actually know what they're doing. My first instinct is your dad, but he probably won't want it either, and they'll do anything to get him off again. Andromeda would probably feel at home there, but could do some good. Or maybe McGonagall."

Ginny groaned. "You can be so boring sometimes, you know that? You have a chance to put Luna in a position of power, that would drive them insane! Oh, or how about Aberforth, that would be hilarious!"

Harry laughed. "We're not all agents of chaos like you, Gin. I swear, sometimes I think you're Eris in disguise."

"Oh, you think I'm a goddess?" Ginny flirted, "then I guess you better worship me."

"Hmmm," Harry kissed her again, but then sighed and pulled back. "Sadly, there's no time for that, we're already running late for dinner at the Burrow."

"Alright, should we go together or do you want to keep up the pretense that we're actually living in different flats?" she asked him pointedly.

He gave a weak, embarrassed smile. "I know it's ridiculous, and I might be a coward, I've just managed to escape your mother's disapproving stare so far in my life, I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible."

Ginny rolled her eyes but led him by the hand out the door of their flat, past the wards they had put up. Harry wrapped an arm around her waist, and turned on the spot, feeling the squeeze of Disapparition.

*********************

"Come on!" urged Ron, "I'm hungry!"

"What else is new?" laughed Hermione, as she finished a letter she needed to send and tied it to Pig. After she sent the little owl on his way, she turned around to see her fiance standing by the fireplace, bouncing on his feet like a child on Christmas morning.

"Honestly Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head, "one would think you haven't eaten in a week, and there's no way that your mother even has dinner ready yet."

"Yes, but her pre-dinner scones should be coming out of the oven right now!" said Ron cleverly, "And I might as well have not eaten in a week, don't pretend like I'm the only one who's sick of our sad attempts at cooking."

"Alright, alright!" said Hermione. She joined him by the fireplace, threw some floo powder into the grate, and together they stepped into the green flames.

"THE BURROW!" Ron shouted clearly, and after the spinning sensation and flashes of various fireplaces, they stumbled into the sitting room of Ron's childhood home.

Ron's excited smile faltered when they saw the sitting room completely empty, with no one there to greet them. He recognized the overlapping voices of his family instead coming from the kitchen, and with a rush of horror he feared that his precious scones were already being eaten by an army of Weasleys. He led Hermione by the hand across the room towards the kitchen, and he started to make out individual voices.

"I just don't understand why they haven't told us!" said his mother.

"He probably knows what we're likely to do to him," grumbled Charlie.

"You've been away too long, brother mine," chuckled George, "I guarantee you she's the one keeping it under wraps."

"In any case, we know that pushing the issue will do nothing but make things worse," said Ron's dad gently, "We just have to—"

"Scones ready?" asked Ron loudly as he and Hermione entered the kitchen, and Hermione had to resist the urge to swat him. The conversation he had interrupted seemed interesting, and her suspicions were confirmed (and her curiosity inflamed) when all talk instantly ceased the moment they walked into the room. Six heads snapped towards the arriving couple as Molly, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and George widened their eyes in surprise and fear, like they were caught discussing something covert. Hermione also noticed how a few of them (mainly Ron's two oldest brothers) then narrowed their eyes venomously at her and her boyfriend.

While the kitchen of the Burrow was usually one of the warmest, most welcoming rooms in the world to Hermione, she noticed a distinctly cool, tense atmosphere this time. She looked sideways and saw that even Ron had clearly noticed, his eager smile slipping from his face.

There were several seconds of silence as the older family members' eyes all flittered between each other, holding a silent conversation that Ron and Hermione didn't know how to join. Then the loud ding of the kitchen timer made them all jerk suddenly.

"Wow, do I have great timing or what?" said Ron proudly, trying to ease some of the tension in the room, but some of his laughter died in his throat. His stomach didn't let him dwell on it, however, as Molly bent down to take the scones out of the oven, and the sweet, fresh smell filled the kitchen.

After she put the plate of scones on the table, Ron casually flicked a cooling charm over them before grabbing one greedily. The other Weasley men took their own, but they looked more like it was just something to do with their hands. While Ron hummed as he took a big bite, they chewed theirs thoughtfully.

"I should check on the washing," said Molly quietly, without looking at anyone. She grabbed a laundry basket and headed outside towards the clothesline.

"I'll help!" said Hermione cheerfully. She was always happy to help with the chores at the Burrow, but she also wanted to get one of the Weasleys alone to figure out what they had been talking about.

Molly didn't answer and continued outside with Hermione behind her.

"How have you and Arthur been?" asked Hermione pleasantly.

"Well, my days are still dreary, with no children left in the house," Molly sighed. "I knew that children don't stay children forever, but I certainly wasn't expecting my younger ones to hit so many milestones so quickly….and in the wrong order." She finished more quietly

Hermione frowned. Did Molly think she and Ron were getting married too soon? She had never expressed that before, she was overjoyed when they had announced their engagement.

"Er….well, Ron recently got promoted from Junior Auror," said Hermione uncertainly as she began helping Molly take garments off the clothesline and put them in the basket. "He'll be taking more serious cases now." So his career is well on track, if that's what you're worried about.

"I'm touched that you and Ron are willing to indulge that to me!" said Molly sharply

Hermione pursed her lips. Her patience was running out.

She stepped towards her soon-to-be mother-in-law and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Molly…"

For the first time, Molly turned to look at Hermione and the younger woman flinched back at the cold distrust and disapproval she saw in her eyes. Hermione felt a rush of deja vu, and after a short moment she realized where she had seen that look before: it was the same look she had received from Molly her fourth year, when the older witch had believed Rita Skeeter and was under the impression that Hermione was Harry's manipulative girlfriend, breaking his heart by messing around with Viktor.

"Mrs. Weasley...have I done something wrong?" asked Hermione weakly.

Seeing the hurt on Hermione's face, Molly's own harsh expression softened and was replaced with a wave of guilt. Her eyes got watery and her lip trembled, and before Hermione could say anything else she suddenly found herself being hugged tightly.

"No dear, you haven't done anything wrong," said Molly in a choked voice, as Hermione awkwardly patted her back, thoroughly confused. "I'm just being silly. I understand you're not choosing sides, you're just being a good friend."

Molly pulled back, and was smiling weakly at Hermione.

"Er...thank you," said Hermione, more bewildered than ever. "I don't mean to be rude, Molly, but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh no, of course not," Molly winked dramatically, "There's nothing to tell, I'll drop it. Come on, dinner is just about ready."

Before Hermione could insist more strongly that Molly explain what the hell was going on, Molly picked up the now-full laundry basket and returned to the house, leaving Hermione blinking dumbly behind her.

******************************

As Hermione followed his mother outside, Ron continued to chew into the warm, buttery scone, barely looking at his surrounding family members, the earlier tension all but forgotten to him.

"So….little Ronnie doesn't come around for dinner as much as he used to," Bill pointed out.

"He and Harry have been burning the candle at both ends at the Ministry," said Percy.

"Hmm-hmm," Ron nodded, engrossed in his scone, not looking up to see the stern looks on his brothers' faces. "More than we need to be, honestly. But because of Harry's saving-people-thing, he's always sure that the next case will end in disaster if the dark wizard isn't caught right now, and of course he would be lost without me, so whenever he's working overtime I am too." He shrugged.

"Oh yes, I think we're all well aware how loyal you are to Harry," Charlie said darkly, "Even over other, older loyalties, as a matter of fact."

"Charlie…." began their dad warningly.

Ron looked back up, and grew uncomfortable again when he saw that all of his family members were looking directly at him. Earlier, he had assumed that the awkward tension in the room was because he and Hermione had interrupted an important conversation, but it seemed to go beyond that, like they were pissed directly at him for something he had done.

"What's going—"

He was interrupted by his mother re-entering the house, holding the laundry with one hand and wiping tears from her eyes with the other. Hermione followed in shortly behind her, and Ron looked pointedly at his mother and gave his fiance a quizzical look, but Hermione just returned a confused, helpless shrug.

"The roast should be almost done now," said Molly happily, and waved her want to send a flurry of plates and cutlery flying to settle in front of where each of the Weasley men were sitting.

"And I'm such a terrible mother, I neglected something," chuckled Molly, and bent down to kiss the crown of Ron's head. "We all missed you, dear."

"Mum…" Ron grumbled awkwardly, but he saw his brothers look at each other with slightly guilty expressions, and as they followed their mother's lead, the atmosphere of the room became friendlier.

Charlie drew in a deep breath and sighed. "I need a drink."

"Excellent idea!" pipped George. He waved his wand and summoned a large bottle of firewhiskey from the cabinet along with several glasses, which zoomed right past Molly's face, causing her to jump and shriek.

"For the last time, only the cook can summon in the kitchen!" Molly scolded him, "I won't have this room devolve in complete chaos of flying objects until someone gets a concussion!"

"And I know you don't always act like it, but you are all of age," said Arthur, raising his eyebrows at George pouring several glasses of whiskey, "so I see no reason why you can't bring your own drinking supplies instead of raiding mine."

Molly huffed. "Well maybe it will be best if we stopped keeping that poison in the house—"

She stopped abruptly as they heard a faint pop from outside, coming from down the pathway, and Ron knew that Harry and Ginny must have arrived. Instead of beaming and rushing out into the garden to greet her two favorite children, however, Ron saw his mother gasp and a bit of the color drain from her face. His family members all looked at each other with that same expression he first saw when he came into the room.

Charlie gave a low growl and picked up a glass. "Yup. Definitely need a drink."

#hinny ficfest #hinny fanfiction #hinny fluff #romione #hinny #hinny fanfic #ron x hermione #ron and hermione #harry and ginny #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #romione fanfic #harry x ginny #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic

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coffeewithheroes · 5 years ago

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Hiya, nice to meet you V! Do you know the Tiktok trend that goes like, “why can’t friends just kiss each other?” If you do, would you mind doing some headcanons about how Iwaizumi and other characters of your choosing would react? tysm!!💕

a/n: nice to meet you anon! i’ve seen that trend before and omg i love it so much! i just love the friends to lovers troupe in general :) never be able to get over it i swear🤧

really went all out on my first answered request, hehe!

“why can’t friends just kiss each other?” ⪼ haikyuu hcs

IWAIZUMI

💌 Iwaizumi would probably already know about the trend, seeing as he’s got tiktok obsessed oikawa as a best friend.

💌 oikawa would probs tease Iwa about how you might use it on him one day, which earns him a good wack.

💌 luv you tooru get well soon

💌 might secretly hope that you make a move on him, but doesn’t get his hopes too high. there’s a chance that you’re not even interested in Tiktok impossible, or you’d rather confess to him the traditional way, OR, you might not even like him. again, impossible

💌 lucky for him, you LIVE for trends like these :)

💌 you’ll probably be at his house or something, thanking the stars above that Iwaizumi has finally granted you a break from studying, as well as the opportunity to make your move!

💌 you pull out your phone, and search for the sound, heart beat so loud you hope he can’t hear.

💌 remember to breathe, baby. because it’s go time.

💌 you press play.

💌 at this point, Iwa looks up from his own device, and has that “wait, what?” look on his face.

💌 you’re laughing at him to hide the sudden waves of embarrassment.

💌 not to worry dear, your efforts were not in vain.

💌 Iwaizumi is honestly so frigging happy that you did this. he can’t help but think about how cute you are.

💌 “you’re so stupid, you know that?” and yet, the opposite comes out of his mouth.

💌 but again, must i remind you not to worry?

💌 the next few moments are absolute heaven - Iwaizumi pulls your face towards his, and kisses you hard.

💌 damn, he’s been waiting for this.

OSAMU

💌 this would be something neither of you are expecting-

💌 it’s actually atsumu who set up the entire thing lmaooo

💌 the three of you usually walk home together after volleyball practice, but atsumu had faked being sick and went home early, leaving just osamu and yourself.

💌 whilst walking, you get a message from atsumu, a video.

💌 and you play it out loud of course, not expecting it to be something like this:

💌 “why can’t friends just kiss each other?”

💌 cue the awkward stares and silent curses of atsumu‘s name.

💌 you want to think of something, anything to say that will get osamu’s mind away from the words he just heard.

💌 but unlucky for us, our brains always run out on us when we need ‘em most, right?

💌 in the end, it’s osamu who breaks the silence.

💌 “well, why can’t we?”

💌 “there’s no rule against it...”

💌 “should we...”

💌 “I’m okay with it if you are?”

💌 the kiss is one of those which start off as simple pecks, but get all crazy after that 😳

💌 you know you can’t get too carried away though, being in the middle of the street and all.

💌 osamu takes you to his house instead of dropping you home, and atsumu can’t help but smirk victoriously at the sight of your bruised lips.

💌 looks like you got a lil’ bit carried away after all

💌 instead of thanking his matchmaker brother, you opt for giving him the finger.

💌 osamu’s pretty content with that solution too, so it’s all good!

TSUKISHIMA

💌 your mind immediately wanders to Tsukishima the moment you discover this Tiktok sound.

💌 things will either go really well, or really bad. and of course, you’re hoping for the latter.

💌 tsukishima’s a smart dude, and will immediately notice something is up the moment you pull out your phone and start grinning ear to ear.

💌 “what are you doing?” he really doesn’t waste time.

💌 “hey, do a tiktok with me.”

💌 “absolutely not.”

💌 but he doesn’t stop you when you set up your camera and press the three second countdown.

💌 when the question pops up, tsukishima is lowkey shocked

💌 like, what did i just hear? 👁👄👁

💌 you’re laughing your ass off at his reaction, but tsukishima wouldn’t be tsukishima if he allowed others to openly laugh at him in his presence or at all for that matter

💌 he gives you one of those “shut up” kisses :)

💌 and suddenly, the tables have turned, and he’s the one who’s making fun of your reaction!

BOKUTO

💌 bokuto’s actually the one who introduces you to the trend

💌 the hilarious thing is, he didn’t even mean it as a confession, he just wanted to show you one video which he found particularly cute!

💌 he’s super excited about it, so while he’s taking a break during practice, he whips out his phone from his bag, and shows you the video.

💌 it gets your heart pumping QUICKLY fr-

💌 you’re not actually sure how to react tbh. you know that there’s a chance bokuto was just showing it to you because he thought it was cute, not because he was indirecting the fact that the two of you should actually kiss.

💌 but my guy akaashi has got your back :D

💌 “bokuto-san, does that mean you would like to kiss y/n as well, seeing as she’s your friend?”

💌 “...hey, hey, hey! dude, you’re right!”

💌 bokuto does not hesitate-

💌 pulls you towards him, then tilts his head just right so that he can kiss you.

💌 it’s over in an instant, there’s literally no time to react.

💌 he isn’t trying even a little bit to hide the smile on his face.

💌 “i’ll give you more later, i have to go back to practice now, yeah?”

HOSHIUMI

💌 another one who knows his way around Tiktok - chances are, he found the trend before you did.

💌 hoping that you’ll understand why he’s calling it his new favourite trend, and get the hint that likes you and wants you to confess that way!!

💌 spoiler alert: you’re going to do it.

💌 the whole thing goes down during one of your weekend sleepovers.

💌 it’s three am, both of you are dead tired, and you’ve decided that you want a kiss before you head to sleep.

💌 loud enough for him to hear, not loud enough for his parents to wake up, you play the sound.

💌 “what? you— y/n!!”

💌 this cutie can’t even form words, he’s that happy!

💌 does not waste any more time trying to speak - he’s sure that you’d rather be kissing him.

💌 and you would :)

💌 hoshiumi starts off by placing kisses all over your face and neck, purposely avoiding your lips.

💌 because that’s his final prize, of course!

💌 it feels like forever has passed, before your lips finally touch his.

💌 it’s amazing, it’s sweet, it’s heartwarming, it’s all the synonyms which you can possibly come up with for those three words.

💌 the two of you fall asleep, legs tangled and all.

💌 his parents most likely have at least heard of tiktok. don’t know the trend specifically, but know that their son has finally managed to get himself a beautiful girlfriend! ❤️

KUROO

💌 here we go,,

💌 this whole situation is like a total accident.

💌 you were just scrolling through your for you page like we all do, when you came across the original video.

💌 “why can’t friends just kiss?”

💌 kuroo’s head turns so fast when he hears it.

💌 hasn’t seen the trend himself, but thank you to the man who made it, you’ve given kuroo an opportunity to kiss his crush 🙏

💌 “you know, that man is talking sense.”

💌 he’s smirking, he’s wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, and you’re trying to keep it together.

💌 don’t freak out, don’t freak out, don’t freak out

💌 “maybe we should kiss. like right now, and prove that friends are indeed allowed to kiss?”

💌 you’d like that, wouldn’t you? :))

💌 and so, when he leans in, you do absolutely nothing to stop him!

OIKAWA

💌 flipping heck, he’s so pretty

💌 soo...

💌 do 👏 this 👏 trend 👏 with 👏 him 👏 please 👏 and 👏 thank you............👏

💌 oikawa absolutely adores Tiktok, so you can bet your ass he knows about it.

💌 of course, doing something like this takes GUTS. confessing to anyone is a pretty difficult thing to do, especially with a good friend!

💌 you decide to confide in Iwaizumi in the matter, you know you can trust him not to say anything until after the big day.

💌 someone you can’t trust with a secret as big as this, is Matsukawa.

💌 accidentally overheard the convo between you and Iwaizumi, and thought it would be hilarious to accidentally spill the tea to his majesty.

💌 who is absolutely excited, by the way.

💌 when the big day arrives, you’re nervous as hell, and so is he.

💌 things go wrong, oh so wrong.

💌 oikawa’s sitting beside you on the couch. as soon as you take your eyes away from the tv and start paying attention to your phone, he starts watching.

💌 you don’t actually notice, too busy trying to calm yourself down.

💌 and then...

💌 before you even get to press play on the sound, oikawa is turning your head and pressing his lips against yours.

💌 it’s one of those simple, yet expertly executed kisses, the kind which makes you unable to open your eyes for a few seconds.

💌 “you uh...didn’t play the sound.”

💌 “you didn’t give me a chance to, idiot.”

💌 he’s just silly like that but i think i speak for everything when i say we wuv him sm 🥺

USHIJIMA

💌 Ushijima takes volleyball seriously, and he takes his studies seriously too.

💌 he’s been tutoring you for about one and a half hours now, and what the hell you’re so tired.

💌 but according to waka-baby, you haven’t done enough to deserve a break!

💌 (it’s true, you’ve only done about 3 questions since the topic is so boring lol)

💌 BUT THAT IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT THE POINT!

💌 begging and grovelling doesn’t work on Ushijima. and that’s when you think - what about Tiktoks?

💌 specifically the trend which has friends becoming lovers through a kiss after a single question.

💌 when Ushijima goes up to the counter to ask for more coffee, you take out your phone and quickly search for the sound.

💌 he’s not impressed by your choice to do this, but he forgets about that once he hears those sweet, sweet words.

💌 stays silent at first, as if in deep thought.

💌 “if i agree to this, will you get some work done?”

💌 “how about you agree to this, because you like me?”

💌 you used confidence! it was super effective!

💌 ushijima allows you to kiss him, and to him, your smile is brighter than the freaking sun.

💌 “lets get back to work.”

💌 but you and him both know that neither of you will be able to concentrate now :)

ATSUMU

💌 osamu’s the one who shows you the Tiktok. passed it on through kita, who’s just knowledgeable about everything??

💌 but are you sure you want to do this?

💌 h e c k y e s ☐ f r i c k n o ☒

💌 just kidding!!

💌 after showing you the video, osamu, the better twin, enlightened you about the fact that atsumu was planning to do the trend on you!

💌 cute, awh 🥺

💌 unlucky for him, you beat him to it! sorry not sorry

💌 you make your move the day before he wanted to make his.

💌 you play the sound, lowkey excited to see atsumu’s look of surprise.

💌 but...there isn’t one?

💌 what’s? going?? on???

💌 “‘you got played baby girl. ‘samu showed you the trend on purpose, and lied about me wanting to do the trend. all so that you’d be the first to admit that you like me.”

💌 he’s a little kid stuck in a teenager’s body, please forgive him.

💌 gives you one kiss for the sake of the video, and about twenty for messing around with you :))

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jupitermelichios · 4 years ago

Text

On a more possitive note, I’ve started watching Sword Art Online. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen (and the last film I saw in cinemas was Cats to give you context for the scale i’m working on here) and I kind of adore it in much the same way I love garbage like Smallville or Twilight. It’s so stupid on so many levels. You could challenge someone to write the worst anime, and it would almost certainly be better than SAO. It’s almost hypnotic how terrible it is.

No one should watch this terrible terrible show so I therefore don’t feel at all bad that I’m about the spoil absolutely everything, but honestly if you do also hate-watch this please come talk to me about how terrible it is. I don’t know anyone else who watches it.

Highlights of Season 1 include:

everyone is trapped in an MMO, and if you die in the MMO you die IRL. but if you were a beta-tester you’re probably fine because they just let them keep all their levels and items from the testing, so they’re all massively OP and everyone just accepts this as a normal and non-game-breaking thing

it’s a fantasy MMO but there’s no races, no magic system, no weapons except swords and maces, and not even an option to dual wield - literally all you can do in this fucking game is stand in front of an enemy and mash the attack button. I’m pretty sure they’re trapped there because the devs realised no one would play this post launch-day otherwise because it’s boring as shit

when the villain traps everyone he also just changs all their avatars to look like they do IRL for absolutely no reason, like actually none, he doesn’t even say he thinks it would be funny, he just does it and no one questions it and it is literally never mentioned again because this is the worst TV show ever animated.

in the second episode the main character deliberately witholds information about how to defeat a boss, indirectly causing multiple deaths. there is absolutely no reason for him to withhold it, he was just being a jerk because he doesn’t like people

in the third episode they reset his entire personality and he’s now a selfless hero pretending to be a lower level than he really is so people will find him more relateable and be his friend because all he wants is to help people. this is not a consequence of episode 2, they just decided they didnt like the character as he’d previously been written.

he makes some new friends who are all objectively terrible people who have decided for no season that the twelve year old who doesn’t really know how to play and keeps having anxiety attacks about the very real possibility of death has to be the guild tank. the MC is high enough level to be functionally immortal in like half the levels, but doesn’t tell anyone this he just lets them go on bullying this child

none of his friends survive that episode, in the game or IRL. which is also a christmas epsiode. a child dies in battle because she’s a terrible tank and then a man commits suicide out of guilt, so then the main character murders santa to try and bring them back from the actual dead but it doesn’t work because again, this is a video game and they are dead IRL, so then he walks off into the snow alone. Christmas!

we meet the best character in the entire show in episode 4, Rosalia, who has gone evil and started just straight murdering people because she’s sick of being an attractive adult woman who can’t get a date because she’s surrounded by lolicons who are only interested in the preteen characters (not a joke, that comes up, the show is firmly on the side of the lolicons)

in the same episode we get an extended bra and panty sequence staring an actual fucking child, like canonically this character is maybe 13 at best. this is one of only 2 occaisions when they feel the need to undress a character and it’s the fucking 12 year old, it’s so gross it reads like a parody of itself

literally every single named female character aged over 8 who talks to the MC falls in love with him after like 5 minutes (and in season 2 this includes his actual sister). he shows absolutely no interest in any of them (including his sister, thank god) until...

the main character gets engaged to a girl he only knows from an MMO after a virtual single date (he doesn’t actually win her in a PVP match but only because he looses the match, he 100% canonically tries to win her in a match, which she is apparently fine with). he then doesn’t bother to ask for her real name until the final episode, he just calls her by her screen name

(that’s okay though becuase it turns out that this moron of a love interest used her real name, on a local server, in a game where your character looks like you do IRL, because apparently getting doxxed is her hobby)

they then get in-game married off screen. there’s not even like a still of a wedding photo. nothing. the main character proposes and then the show immediately jumps to the honeymoon, it’s fucking bizarre.

they find a creepy child dressed all in white with no memory alone in the woods a week into their honeymoon who starts calling them mommy and daddy literally seconds after they first meet her, and they don’t suspect anything suss is going on and adopt her

for hilarity bear in mind the main character may only be 15 at this point (he says he’s only just turned 16 in the last epsiode, but his actual birthday is never mentioned), and his virtual wifu is 16, but no one ever questions the marriage or the adoption, even though ‘hey marriage in a video game is as important and meaningful as marriage in real life’ is an actual conversation people have multiple times. also they think the child they adopt is an actual IRL 8 year old who thinks these randos she met in an MMO are her mum and dad and everyone just goes with that like it’s a totally normal thing

a character called ‘Thinker’ agrees to meet an enemy faction leader for peace talks. the “peace talks” take place in a high level dungeon and he is told to come alone with no weapons and no fast travel. he does this. no one ever comments that his name is ironic, and in fact they seem to think that being betrayed and trapped in a dungeon with a boss is a totally unexpected turn of events Thinker could never have planned for

they take their new baby into the dungeon to rescue thinker, because they went to the jean grey school of baby rearing, and she imediately reveals that she’s actually a magical maggufin with infinite power, murders the grim reaper, and then dies. In literally the second episode she’s in

after she dies the MC hacks the admin account of the game, converts her corpse into an in game item, and saves to the local storage on his console, with the intention of bringing her back to life as a robot once they’re saved from the game. I’m not joking, that’s an actual thing that happens.

the fact that the main character can just access the main admin account and make massive game-breaking changes isn’t used again in that game and he never thinks to try and use it to force log people out or give himself infinite life so he can just rush the game and free everyone. nope, convert a corpse into an item and then never think about it again.

there’s an entire episode where all they do is go fishing. its the only filler episode in the season, and it immediately follows the death of a small child. it’s the most tone-deaf beach episode in writing history

it turns out this game, this game where they didn’t bother coding in any difference races, weapons, or any kind of magic system, was intended to have fully sentient AI therapists, because why the fuck not at this point honestly

oh also the game has PVP and you can trick the game into thinking a sleeping player is in PVP with you in order to actually murder a real person without it flagging in-game as a murder making the crime impossible for the real life legal system to investigate even though you just murdered a person. and they expect us to believe this game had actual beta testers. at least cyberpunk wasn’t played on microwaves you connected straight to your brain (also not a joke, the VR consoles canonically work by sending microwave radiation into your brain, no wonder VR never caught on)

the set up for the show is that they have to reach level 100 of a dungeon in order to win. At level 75, the writers got bored and the show just ends.

it turns out the power of love allows you to just break the fucking game and the main villain literally has a line about how ‘love allows you to remove debuffs, huh, we didn’t think to plan for that’ because again, there’s no metaphors in this show, everything is 100% literal including the fact that falling in love with another player means you’re immune to the paralysis status effect

power of love also allows you to very briefly become a poltergeist after being killed, but only for like 2 seconds. again not a joke or a metaphor, main character is killed but then gets to hang around as a ghost for a little bit to enable him to defeat the boss. he also doesn’t die in real life despite that being the entire fucking premise of the show, again because power of love.

the bad guy literally has no plan, he’s just doing shit for the sake of having something to do. His actions directly cause the deaths of more than 4,000 people, and it’s not even in aid of anything. they ask him why he trapped 10,000 people in an MMO and allowed them to slowly die, and he’s just like ‘huh, i forgot i did that, random’ and then just fucking peaces out

the fact that he committed one of the largest mass killings outside of war never really comes up again, as far as we know he doesn’t even go to jail. i think the show actually kind of thinks he’s a good guy, which is a fucking WILD moral stance to take on the deaths of 4000 completely innocent people for absolutely no reason

If this sounds hilari-bad but you don’t want to invest the time to watch a show which is objectively garbage, it has an abridged series which is famously better than the show it’s parodying (i’m dead serious, people have character arcs, the getting married after one date thing is properly addressed, the mc has to deal with PTSD because of all his friends dying in epsidode 3, they don’t immediately follow the death of a child with an extended fishing montage, the villain has an actual plan). It’s mostly actually pretty good, but this is the internet and it’s an abridged series, so while there are a lot fewer yikes moments than most it still has enough that I’m not comfortable recommending it without the caveat. that said I still enjoyed it a lot, although possibly not at much as pointing and laughing at the garbage that is the actual show.

#sao bashing #kirito bashing #sao abridged #good bad shows #i love this garbage show so much #it's one of the funniest things i've watched all year #and none of that is intentional #sword art online bashing #if you also love hate this show please come talk to me about how terrible it is

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occasionaloneshots · 4 years ago

Text

Ring- zNation

younger brother! 10K, wife! Georgia, female reader

CW: Mentions death, explosions (all canon related) some-what angst, minor swearing

In which she only knew he was her brother when he recognized an old ring and she didn’t truly recognize him until weeks later.

Word Count: 1644

The urgent steps of the short haired woman quickly caught the attention of her wife, leather jacket flying up behind her slightly as she walks. The other woman’s eyes follow her, eyes lifting from the speech she was editing. “Georgie?” She jumps up from her seat, “What’s wrong?” “Talkers at the welcome center. They’re hungry and the center doesn’t have any bizcuits.” The dark haired woman blows a kiss to her wife as she speeds out of the building. Sliding the pencil and speech into her pocket (Y/N) stands up from the table, heading for the double doors that her wife ran out of moments before. A new set of arrivals wasn’t something new for Altura, this happens pretty often, and (Y/N) has desperate hope every single time one does.

Head of Pacifica security heads over to the quarantine station of the bigger outpost. She knew it was a slim chance, yet every time there was new arrivals she had the need to check for the boy. Twisting the ring on her right finger, the woman waited patiently for the truckload to return her wife and bring in a new shipment of dirty, tired faces. Her nervous eyes search the area around her, a few welcome committee members give her a gentle smile, others shaking their head in exhaustion. Eight years of apocalypse couldn’t shake her belief that her family is out there. Anyone other than Dante and Georgia would call her hopeless for still believing but (Y/N)’s intuition had never failed them. If her gut told her they were still out there, the two would believe her until the end.

Nervous summersaults enter the girl’s stomach as a vehicle comes into her sight line. “Don’t get your hopes up,” the woman whispers to herself, toying with the piece of metal on her finger. A kind voice speaks to a doctor, telling him that he and his friends had to go through quarantine before gaining citizenship. (Y/N)’s eyes search the group, one face catching her eye. He was too far for her to tell for sure, but the woman swore she recognized him. Georgia leaves the group, making her way to the woman. “One day playing with your ring like that is going to make it get stuck,” she chuckles, kissing the worried woman on her forehead. Shaking her head, (Y/N) leans into her lover’s side, “I’m just nervous.” Rubbing a hand up the soft material of her wife’s sweater Georgia frowns, “Did the feeling go away?” “No, no, I’m still sure someone is out there,” she bites her lip, “I just, feel like I know that guy, the dark haired one you just brought in. I can’t place him though like it’s been years since I passed him in a crowd or something.”

“After he gets through quarantine, you and I can go talk to him together okay?” “That would be great,” she pulls the speech out of her pocket, handing it and the pencil to the woman on her side, “You need an opener, a joke or something to get people’s attention.” “You are an angel,” George laughs, pressing another kiss to her forehead. “I try,” she teases, smiling over at the woman. “His name is Ten Thousand, if that helps.” “That’s a number, not a name. What was he before the apocalypse? A government experiment?”

(Y/N) waiting patiently for the quarantine process to end on the new arrivals, it felt like someone had their eyes on her the whole time. The feeling made her stomach feel like it was churning, the nerves killing her. George’s hand on her back lead her over to the group. She learned that the doctor Georgia was speaking to wasn’t a doctor but more of a therapist turned drug dealer from a small conversation. The short woman with him, Sargent Muller was a sweet girl, a fellow marine from before the world fell apart. The whole time she spoke to them, she twirled the ring, cutting eyes at the boy. He was glaring at her hands watching the metal and gems spin.

“Where the hell did you get that,” it was the first thing he said and it felt as if he spit it at her. “Pardon?” The girl tucked herself into her wife’s side, the voice made him even more familiar but the anger in his tone was something she didn’t expect. “Where did you get that ring? You steal it off a corpse or something?” His face was full of disgust as he snatched her hand up. The stranger stared at the silver flower, eying the center gems. 4, his birthstone, his ma’s. his pa’s, and (Y/N)’s. “It was a gift from my mother, thank you,” She scoffs, yanking her hand back. For the first time she took a good look at his face. She knew those eyes anywhere, they were her mother’s, the scar in his eyebrow from where he got hit by a hunter’s knife as it slipped from her hand. And suddenly, she didn’t have to trust the feeling anymore, her brother was most definitely alive. George moves to step between the two, not liking the way the stranger roughly snapped her wife’s hand up. She’s shocked to feel the other woman shove her to the side, hugging the man suddenly, “Tomcat!” The male’s body jolts at the impact, pushing her off slightly, “(Y/N)?” She slumps her shoulders, affected by the rejected hug from her once clingy brother, “Yeah, it’s good to see you.”

-----

(Y/n)’s back is pressed against the side of the building, trying to ignore everything happening in the building. She feels guilt already building in her stomach for being out in the grass while the woman she loves gives a speech she promised to be there for, but being in there feels impossible. Hot tears burn her eyes as she stares into the distance, eyes unfocused. “Hey,” the voice catches her attention, her eyes refocusing on the frame that appeared before her, “You missed an amazing speech you know.” “Yeah, she’s good at them, you should hear her when she has to give a speech on the spot,” her voice is slightly hoarse as she looks up at him. “So uh,” he waves to the ground beside her, “Mind if I join you?” “Go ahead, 10k,” she lets out a half-assed chuckle.

Hearing his chosen name in her voice stung like venom as he sits down beside her. “You know, in fourteen years of living with you, I don’t think I can ever remember you crying, (Y/n/n).” She sniffles, smiling at the old nickname, “Well, you were the clingy family softy back then and I was the heartless one, remember?” “You were never heartless.” “Fourteen year old you felt different. You know the last thing I said to you was ‘the world won’t end while I’m gone’. It’s almost hilarious the way the world works like that,” she toys with the hem of her shirt as she talks. “Yeah, and I told you eight months might as well been eight years, look where we are now.” She laughs, leaning into his side, “What the hell happened to us?” “The real question is, why are you out here? I don’t know much about Georgia, but she seems pretty good to you.”

“She’s amazing, too good to everyone sometimes if we’re all honest. All about trust and second chances. Georgia can really give you insight into your own humanity you know? I lost mine for a while, then there was her.” He nods, “Yeah I think we all lost ours a some point.” “Not her though, and I’m so proud of her, but the idea of walking back into that room made me feel sick.” “You know he can’t hurt her again, right?” She nods, her head falling back, “I know, but last time I was in there I was laughing with Dante, we were planning a double date to celebrate that the vote went through until he had to leave. Now he and Marge are dead, my wife has a black eye and a busted lip, and I couldn’t protect either of them, or you.” “My hand wasn’t your fault, you weren’t here. You didn’t kill Dante, or torture George. That’s not your fault.” “No, Ten, how long were you alone out there before your team found you? You lost Ma and Pa and I was with Lieutenant Dante looking for his wife states away. I should have gone looking for you the moment the apocalypse started, fuck my orders.”

“You knew Dante a long time?” “I did, he was my Lieutenant until we got separated in Colorado four years ago. I just headed North from there, found Georgia, and trusted my gut that I would run into you instead of looking for you.” “Stop blaming yourself for me being alone, I grew up (Y/N). And we found each other eventually.” She fought a laugh, the person she knew as her brother was lost, she would have to find comfort in the new person who occupied his body. She never expected him to be the kid she left alone years before but she never imagined he’d be like this now. “I guess we did, Tomcat.” The dark haired male laughs, standing up and offering her his hand, “Now, let’s get you to your wife. You need to properly introduce me to my sister in law.” She laughs, taking his hand, “Thanks for being cool about that by the way. Pa would have lost it the moment he saw us together.” “We always had each other’s backs, it was the ruling of not getting in trouble with Pa,” the boy laughs, pulling her up from the ground. And for that moment, he was Tommy.

#z nation #10k #10kimagine #georgia st. claire #znation imagines #George st. Claire #sibling imagine #apocolypse

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jemfisch · 4 years ago

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03. JEREMY FISCHMAN II

▷ jem’s bops.

Jem’s been packing all morning. He’s used to this over the years, hardly thinks twice about the color combination of shirts and mismatched socks that he tosses into his duffel. He feels like he and his mom do this because it’s routine at this point, not because they actually expect to find anything. It’s not like he has any other big summer plans, and Noah’s pretty preoccupied with all things Caden...and when she’s not with Caden, she wants to talk about him, and Jem’s also pretty sick of that because he still thinks the guy is a tool.

He doesn’t hear a sound from his mom’s room, it’s weird because usually she’d be packing and making a huge ruckus at this hour. Still, he shrugs his shoulders and makes his way out to the porch to roll a joint.

The neighborhood is usually pretty busy at this hour. It’s a small working-class suburb, and everyone’s up by nine for jobs to commute to, cars rushing by hitting the potholes in the road that the city will never fix. It feels so normal to him, and he can hardly look back at his last semester at Gallagher and believe that was his life after years of public school locker combinations, bonfires in the backyard, cutting box tops off cereal boxes. He finishes the joint, winds up sitting on the porch for a while longer watching a trail of ants do their thing for who knows how long. It’s nice how they just follow the motions, do the same thing year after year without having to overthink it.

It reminds him of him and his mom, getting in the same van every year, going through the motions.

The earliest trip he can remember is when he was six years old, sitting in the back at a rest stop. He’s looking through his mom’s wallet, because she sent him inside to buy sodas while she went to the bathroom and it’s the first time he’s gotten to use a credit card. The cashier thought it was hilarious, but still let him sign for the drinks.

“Dad’s in here,” he says when his mother gets back to the car.

“What?” Ellen’s head lifts.

“In the wallet. You’ve got a picture of him.”

“Oh, yep. That’s him. Isn’t he handsome? Looks just like you,” she grins at Jem and he grins back, a wide, toothy grin because he’s at the age where he doesn’t know how to control a smile.

“How’d you meet him?” Jem asks, sliding into the passenger seat. He’s not supposed to sit there, but he’s crafty at six and hopes he’s distracted his mom by asking about his dad. He thinks it’s working, because she takes the car out of park as she speaks. “Oh, I can hardly remember. I was your age. His parents used to pack him apples, but he hated to eat anything healthy. I’d always trade, give him my Pringles and eat his apple just to talk to him. Didn’t like Granny Smith that much as a kid, but now it’s my favorite.”

Ellen starts pulling out of the parking lot before she puts on the breaks. “Hey!” she exclaims, “Get in the back. Carseat, mister.” He cracks up laughing as he climbs under the console and she clicks her tongue at him. “You think you’re so slick.”

And that’s the first summer he remembers.

It’s probably almost 10:30 by the time he gets up from the porch. Jem wonders why his mom hasn’t come to yell at him to start packing up the car. He knocks on her door.

“Mom, can I come in?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

Jem opens the door and looks at her, looks at the state of the room. He furrows his brow a moment, assessing the situation. “You haven’t packed yet, have you?” This isn’t the routine.

“Ah, no, I figured...you don’t want to catch up with your friends? It’s alright if you have plans,” she says.

“I don’t have plans,” Jem answers flatly. “Because we usually leave today. And we talked about it, it’s the third Monday.”

Ellen Fischman heaves a sigh before looking up at her son. She sits on the edge of her queen bed, tucking her blonde hair back behind her ears before she pats the seat next to her.

“Seriously?” he laughs, because this is always how she acts when they have to talk about something serious. She laughs back because her son is always so good at reading her, she doesn’t know why she deliberates or tries to hide things. He rolls his eyes dramatically before he sits down beside her.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t think we should go this year,” she sighs.

“What do you mean?” he sounds appalled, and he’s way more upset than he thought he would be, surprised by the outrage in his voice. His mom looks surprised too – he’s always the one complaining that it’s getting pointless.

“What? Jem, I thought you’d be relieved. You always seemed so tired of it, this was always my...my journey, and I know you were a good sport, humoring me through it all. I could tell how you really felt,” she says. Jem always thought that he knew how he felt too : that none of this was going to bring his father back, so what was the point? Still, when she says the trips are ending, he feels a bit hollow inside. He can remember stopping along the highway, photos at the strangest attractions like the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, breakfast at the crack of dawn at some shitty diner, long talks as they watched the sun go down, a map in his hands with all of their favorite rest stops marked in red ink. These are some of the best memories of his life, and being on the road with his mom every summer is such a core part of who he is. He does feel sad that it’s over.

“I...I don’t know how I feel,” he admits. He pauses for a moment, not sure how to ask his next question. “Are you really ready to let him go?”

“No and yes,” Ellen says. “He was the love of my life, my happily ever after. I’m a lucky woman to have gotten that, we had an amazing adventure together – and we had you, Jem. I’m very happy with that, and...well, I still feel a connection with him, after all this time. I’m okay with that.”

“You know, I wouldn’t have a problem with...if you wanted to…” he trails off. His mom’s never dated anyone else, no parade of shitty guys for him to judge have ever come through those doors, it’s always been him, her, and a photograph of his late father on the mantle. And Jem’s not the only guy he knows with a single mom, but he’s the only guy he knows with a single mom like his, one that is perfectly fine with her one great love story.

“I know,” Ellen smiles appreciatively before standing up. “I need to show you something.” She goes over to the drawer at her bedside table and passes her son a file of paperwork. “I found this. A couple years ago.”

“What is it?” Jem asks as he starts to flip through the pages. His eyes open wide, reading the names and dates on the file – this is from NASA itself, the files from the project his father had been working on before he died. “Mom,” the singular word rings out as he looks up at her, jaw going slack.

“I know I should have told you, but...I didn’t want it to be true, I...I spent so long being sure that there was a deeper meaning behind his death, some conspiracy to uncover, I didn’t want to think that this could just be it, but...I think it is. This is all there is to find. And I’m like you, I didn’t want our summers to end, but at some point, I think they have to. I have to let go, it’s not my job to keep searching for parts of him that aren’t there.”

Ellen had thought that if she continued looking, that there would be part of her story with Jeremy that hadn’t come to a close yet, that she could still get to know him and that made her feel like he was still with her. At some point, she had to come to the realization that she might be holding herself back, and that she was holding Jem along with her.

“You could have told me,” he says.

“I know, I just...I wasn’t ready to let go, I’m–” Ellen cuts herself off, getting choked up. Most parents try not to cry in front of their kids, but Ellen’s been breaking that rule since Jem was born, she’s not going to stop now. Jem leans forward and wraps his arms around her, taking care of his mother is instinct to him at this point, and this is no different. “I’m still not quite ready. But this feels like the first step. Let’s not go this year.”

Jem nods, hugging her tight. He can feel the tears that roll down his own cheeks, overwhelmed for a sort of emotion. It’s not for a man he’s never met, a man that he would’ve liked to know. That has something that has stuck with him his whole life, the fact that he doesn’t know half of himself and how different things might be if he had gotten to know his father. However, these tears are more happy than sad, because he’s so proud of his mom for coming this far. He’s spent his entire life looking after her, wondering if she was going to be okay, trying to be everything she’s needed. It feels so good to hear her take this step, to let go just a little bit of the dead end case that consumed her life for as long as he’s known her. Crying with her right now doesn’t feel like mourning – it feels like a new start.

#*#last one for tonight i am going to bed!

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darylwillfightnatureforcarol · 4 years ago

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Just finished watching the rest of the episodes. Obviously, there will be spoilers for all of the bonus episodes, including Here's Negan. Here's my thoughts. WARNING for some negativity:

Home Sweet Home:

Kind of a blah episode. Half of it seemed to be a 'walking in the woods simulator'. Don't have any eagerness for another rival group. I'm sick of the people vs people storylines. We should go back to basics for a while, just fighting the dead. This is just recycling the same storylines.

Enjoyed Maggie and Daryl's chat in the container (though I just know it ignited crack shippers). Was it just me or was Lauren Cohan's accent weird? Like, is it because she's been away from the show that she can't remember how to do it the way she used to? It just sounded off the whole time to me, like she was trying to sound more country than Maggie has in the past.

Liked Daryl seeing Hershel, though I wish the scene had been longer. It looks like we're continuing the trend of having 'legacy' kids around without giving them a personality like they do with RJ.

Liked Daryl and Kelly's interactions in this episode. It did annoy me how they wrote Kelly running off on her own in the woods. Like, you guys literally wrote her getting lost and losing her hearing not even a handful of episodes ago. Why would she risk doing that, knowing there was a chance it could happen again? Sure she wants to find her sister, but I don't think anyone in the group--Daryl especially--would have opposed to going with her. Annoying writing again.

By the way, I can't not point out that the spoilers for this were so anti-Carol. The way it sounded through spoilers made it sound as if Maggie was pissed at Carol for letting Negan out when it was clear that she understood Carol's decision (she was just irritated that Negan was out at all).

Find Me:

I won't go into a full rant about this episode. You can find that on my page. I'll just discuss a few things.

First of all, I really liked the banter between Caryl at the start. It was the kind of content we've been wanting for a while.

We probably all saw it this way but Leah was a Carol replacement. No doubt about it. Carol was 'happy' so Daryl tried to move on with the next best thing (well, according to him at least).

Shipping aside, the relationship and build up to it between Daryl and Leah was so bland and generic. The woman literally seemed to have no personality apart from 'I live in the woods and I lost my son'. I actually rolled my eyes when she started explaining about not having a good family growing up. It was like watching Mary Sue fanfic play out on screen.

I don't want to rant too much but I have to say again, you can't just have a relationship blossom that generically with a character who has clearly struggled with intimacy for a good chunk of his life. It was literally inserting Daryl into the plot of any other cheesy boy meets girl romance. If you are going to do something like this, you need to do it realistically. There should have been more of a struggle there for Daryl. For pete's sake, Daryl's love life (or lack thereof) has been a point of discussion for so many years. You can't just rewrite that lore with some half assed meet-cute storyline.

Oh and I can't forget to say another big fuck you to the end of this episode. Seriously, fuck the shit Daryl spouted at Carol. That shit would have worked for S2 Daryl but not this one.

Okay I'll stop myself there or I'll just keep going. Seriously, I don't think I'll run out of things to bitch about for this episode.

One more:

This episode was okay. I'm not a fan of Gabriel, so I didn't really enjoy the focus being on him. I do like Aaron though, so that was a saving point.

No offense if you're a Gabriel fan but I found this episode kind of pointless. The message was relevant of course but the whole thing seemed a bit hoky to me. Especially the whole 'talking at the bad guy until they have a change of heart'. I can see that this was an important turning point for Gabriel but honestly, I just don't care enough about his character to appreciate it. Felt bad for Aaron though. You can tell he's trying so hard to hold onto humanity.

Splinter:

Probably gonna upset people with this but I'm not really a Princess fan (though Paola Lazaro is great). The episode had an interesting concept and I know it was to try to set up for the Commonwealth or the CRM etc. I just found the way they went about it to be too dragged out without much substance. Even the twist with finding out that the others were figments of her imagination didn't save it for me. I like the concept of seeing things through Princess' mindset and it could have worked well but we just didn't really get any storyline there. I think the only thing I enjoyed was when she talked about her family (she should chat to Daryl. There would certainly be some common ground). Gotta admit though, Ezekiel and his Walker posse was kind of hilarious.

Diverged:

Loved it for the most part. Who knew we needed Carol vs a rat? I certainly didn't but I'm glad I got it. Also Carol smashing that wall to pieces was so badass and kind of hot. Anyone else feel like that? No? Okay...

I enjoyed the comedic moments in this episode. Loved Carol hanging out with Dog and Dog being a menace. Appreciated seeing more of Daryl's room (Why did he have a pirate book though? There had to be a point, right? WAIT, I just realised as I was typing this what it is. It's a reference to when Carol invited him to go out on the boat with her and they would be 'pirates' 😢)

Daryl certainly got a collection of multitools, didn't he? Seriously though, that scene where he was just walking away from the walkers was hilarious. It's literally what people have been saying for years--that the walkers are too slow.

Okay, now let's get to the bad parts I didn't like. Hated the start. They were so stilted and awkward and the fact that Daryl didn't apologize pissed me off. I don't care what Carol said, she didn't deserve any of that shit he said in Find Me. He knows better than anyone why she has done what she has done.

This storyline they seem to be running with for Carol is starting to piss me off. It's obvious they're trying to go for a redemption arc for her when she shouldn't need to be redeemed. She didn't do anything wrong. Yes, she made mistakes but think about how you would be if you had lost so much.

Maggie is being lorded as a hero but remember, she behaved pretty much the same as Carol did in S7,8,9. But no one labelled her as a villain or a nuisance. No, Maggie was strong and a leader for stepping up and making a stand.

I'm really dreading the last season. It's obvious they're planning for Daryl and Carol's rift in their relationship to be a main arc. We probably won't see them reconcile until the end of the season where Daryl'll be like 'Alright, I don't hate you anymore, let's go to New Mexico.' That will annoy the shit out of me.

Here's Negan:

Mixed feelings about this one. I enjoyed seeing Negans backstory. Also props to the makeup team. They did a great job making JDM look younger. The thing I didn't like was the flashbacks within flashbacks. It made it hard to follow at times. Still, JDM and Hilary Burton Morgan had great onscreen chemistry (which they should, of course). I was surprised to see Laura pop up. I never thought she would have been one of the first Saviours.

Can't not mention how good Carol's hair looked in this episode. Please let us have this wig more often. It's so cute compared to the other frizzy one.

Also, I really don't give a shit about the drama between Maggie and Negan. There can't be a peaceful solution to it. There's no way Maggie will ever be okay with Negan being alive. Carol's right. If he stays, Maggie will (try) to kill him. If they have them come to an understanding next season, it will be super out of character. Same as when they kept pushing the Daryl/Negan team up. No way, no how, can either Maggie or Daryl look past what happened to Glenn.

Well, there are my thoughts on the episodes. I seriously battled against my anxiety to even sit and watch these. I was dreading watching Find Me especially for obvious reasons. It was awful but not as bad as I expected. I still wanted to throw my laptop out the window though.

#caryl #carol peletier #carylers #daryl and carol #carol and daryl #daryl dixon #daryl x carol

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chat-noir-always-here · 4 years ago

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“Hey Arnold!” and “Miraculous!” parallels

Ever have an idea for a post that you take forever to get around to because 2020 is

actively

trying

to kill you?!

Welp, that’s me. I mean, uh, this is that post.

Long post is long and I don’t like cuts cuz I’ve lost a few posts in the past using them. Please filter the tag “long post” I use it for walls of text like these.

So there’s this show from my childhood called Hey Arnold!

Having been on air before I had cable (I and my unsupervised brothers and sisters spent our childhood watching Jerry Springer and Maury because there was literally nothing else on our cheap little TV. How hilarious is that?) I didn’t really have much of an experience with Hey Arnold! aside from brief little glances at it when i visited a friends home or the rare occasion where they showed cartoons at school. By the time I got satellite, the show was no longer on the air save for some late night reruns and the Christmas special which aired in December along with other Nickelodeon Christmas episodes (THE best Christmas episode EVER btw).

Really I couldn’t remember much about it until hearing about the Jungle Movie finally getting a release date (a total flop but at least its no cliff hanger) and decided to re-watch the entire series in preparation for said movie.

By which point I had discovered another show—Miraculous.

At first glance the two shows have absolutely nothing in common. Miraculous being a French-born mahou shoujo-esque CGI superhero TV series about a couple of middle schoolers who regularly battle a walking peppermint-frappucino-looking psychopath. Hey Arnold! being a more realistic children’s sitcom about a young football-headed boy who deals out humanitarian aid in the form of advice and simple good deeds to his neighbors, classmates and friends.

In terms of setting, logic, and animation the two series are as different as night and day.

So imagine my pleasant surprise to discover a whole post’s worth of parallels shared between the two shows???

And here they are in no particular order:

1)Arnold’s Parents/Adrien’s mom

Prior to the start of Miraculous, Emilie Agreste disappeared under mysterious circumstances leaving her family behind. Later on it was revealed that she was in fact sleeping (dead?) in a glass coffin beneath the Agreste mansion--unbeknownst to Adrien, or anyone else in Paris save for Gabriel and Nathalie.

In a similar fashion, Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, also disappeared prior to the start of Hey Arnold! and like Emilie were always referred to as “missing” rather than “dead.”

The Jungle Movie later revealed Miles and Stella weren’t dead, but like Emilie appears to be doing in her coffin, they were sleeping. Having caught a bout of sleeping sickness (apparently they do not need to be hooked up to IVs or other medical devices while in a comatose state cuz fuck logic) they simply needed their orphaned son to come and cure them with the help of the magical golden heart Helga provided him with.

Perhaps Mari holds the key to waking Emilie? That would be nice to see.

Not the miraculous of course--but some other key.

Although personally I’m hoping for a hardcore, devastating ending like Emilie dying, Gabriel going to prison where he belongs, and Adrien leaving the country for a bit until the second Hawk Moth shows up because I just like devastating cliffhangers and angst and being in utter turmoil over fictional people. But that’s just me.

2) Their best friends are dating

Smol parallel here: Arnold’s best friend Gerald and Helga’s Best friend Phoebe wind up together in The Jungle Movie after being imprisoned together by Lasombra. Similar to how Nino and Alya ended up together after being imprisoned by Ladybug (for their protection, of course).

3) The Bag of Money Episode/ The Ladybug episode

OOh boy both of these episodes make me rage.

Some context about the Bag of Money episode: Arnold and his friends Gerald and Sid find a random bag of money containing almost $4000. Sid is ecstatic and wants to split the money evenly between the three boys, but Arnold worries it could just be lost and convinces them to let him, Arnold, take the money to the police station. On the way he accidentally switches the bag with another one that is identical and contains a bunch of useless junk, and when he tries to explain what happened to his friends they don’t believe him because their bag of money was accidentally taken by an “old lady with pink hair and a peg leg.”

Arnold’s a good boy and he’s telling the truth--but the truth sounds crazy, even to my ears. Sid accuses Arnold of stealing the money and spreads lies to their classmates, whom Arnold has spent the ENTIRE SERIES helping in some form or fashion. Despite everything he’s done for them though, the vast majority of the class come to believe Arnold is a thief. Even Gerald, Arnold’s closest friend, nearly believes Sid over Arnold but eventually comes to Arnold’s defense. The other kids (save for Helga who doesn’t really make an appearance this episode) gang up on Arnold, but thankfully the old lady with pink hair and a peg leg shows up with an officer and together they explain the bag of money is now at the lost and found where it will remain and if gone unclaimed will be returned to Arnold, Gerald and Sid.

Pretty much everything is resolved and things return to normal between the kids.

But I hate this episode. I hate this episode so, so much. Arnold has spent the entire series helping these people out in some form or fashion. Literally thats the entire show. And after everything he’s done for them they’re so. Quick. To. Turn. On. Him.

Sound familiar???

4) Hidden Personality vs. Surface Personality

I do not refer to the cruddy “true selves” thing half the Miraculous fandom believes in. Depending on one’s individual circumstances, environment and how comfortable they are, said person’s behavior can fluctuate or even do a complete 180. This can be kinda frustrating when dealing on one’s own--”Who am I anyway? Is that me or is this me???”

It’s all you, fam.

Arnold and Helga are themselves too, no matter what metaphorical/actual mask they put on. There’s the side that everyone sees and then there’s the side almost no one sees. The hidden personality isn’t hidden due to a lack of trust, necessarily, but rather it is the result of retreating to their respective “shells”--ones which both Arnold and Helga were kinda punched, kicked, and shoved into.

Helga’s surface personality: Class bully, puts up a tough front, constantly torments Arnold because she can’t stand him and his niceness

Helga’s hidden personality: Poetic, abused and isolated, is in love with Arnold to the point of being obsessed with him and bullies him via surface personality in order to hide that fact

Of course Adrien is no bully--his reasons for not being the “cunning, funny, ultra-charming Chat Noir” 24/7 DOES have a lot to do with his toxic household, his dad, and the overwhelming expectations which are constantly smothering him as Adrien.

Adrien is a bug under a magnifying glass (or so he feels)

Chat Noir is a chance for a freedom.

Adrien’s surface personality was molded by his dad.

Helga’s is the result of her entire family. Her father is brash and loud, her mother is a confirmed alcoholic, her sister is a gifted prodigy, well-rounded and spends most of the series at university or elsewhere. Although her sister, Olga, has been shown to genuinely care for Helga, Olga is kinda the reason their parents neglect Helga. With their first daughter being the genius and prodigy she is, Helga’s parents poured all of their pride and affection and parental devotion onto her. Meanwhile Helga had to walk to pre-school alone. At four years old. In the rain. Not for the last time.

Which leads me to the next parallel.

5) Umbrella in the Rain

squeals in delight over this parallel<3<3<3

If you’ve never seen Hey Arnold! do yourselves a favor and watch this short little clip over how Helga and Arnold first met. If you have seen it, watch it anyway because it is the most adorable clip in the entire show.

youtube

Dr. Bliss: “So nobody’s ever noticed you?”

Helga: “...There was someone.”

The soft way Helga confesses that--you can actually hear how grateful she is to have such a tender memory from such a painful time.

In a similar manner, Adrien offered his umbrella to Marinette. Of course Adrien did it because Mari had to walk home in the rain and Arnold did it as a simple gesture of kindness (seeing as they were already at the school)--one of the many kind acts he displays throughout the series.

But just like Adrien needed unconditional love coming from somewhere, so did Helga. They were both denied this one common necessity which everyone else around them had. It’s not a lot to ask for, and they should’ve already had it coming from their families--but they didn’t.

And then, one rainy day, there it was--the unconditional love they needed.

6) Clinginess

What happens when you take someone, specifically a love-starved abused child from an unstable home environment--deprived of the one thing most crucial to their mental well-being--and miraculously provide them with that very necessity?

Clinginess.

I can’t really think of the correct word to describe this. “Clinginess” is pretty close to what I’m trying to describe, if not on point, so let’s go with that.

What I mean is Helga and Adrien both need Arnold and Ladybug respectively. That’s not a bad thing--it’s okay to need somebody else. What’s bad is hinging your entire being on this one connection. For if either kiddo were to be left behind they wouldn’t handle it very well.

It can’t really be helped with either Helga or Adrien. They didn’t really have the option to learn certain things and went deprived of unconditional love for such a long time. They’re kids--nine and fourteen/fifteen respectively. They’re not perfect and they’re traumatized for life. Being denied love from your family--the very people designed to love you--would do that to a person. Naturally they would cling to the first people to show up and provide them with the love they needed.

The Hey Arnold! wiki says this about Helga and Arnold’s relationship

Due to her unstable family upbringing where both her mother and father constantly neglect [Helga] and shower all of their attention onto Olga, leaving her deprived of the love and attention she needed growing up. On her way to preschool, Arnold helped her by keeping the rain off her with an umbrella and even complimented her on her hairbow. He even later gave her crackers during their snack time. Arnold's kindness and being the first person to notice her quickly caused Helga to transfer all of her love and attention to Arnold.

Of course Adrien’s tunnel vision isn’t quite as bad as Helga’s.

He treats his friends better.

He does love his father--

Even though his father is THE.

WORST.

PARENT.

EVER!!!

--because he’s Adrien and he’s just too precious a cinnamon roll and that’s still his dad even if the man does belong behind bars.

7) Unhealthy Obsession

I--

I...

Ugh. I am not going to delve too far into this. You’re just going to have to take my word for it. Helga’s creepy stalker behavior is a thousand times worse than Marinette’s. That pic up there of Helga hiding out in Arnold’s room watching him is pretty decent evidence to back up my argument, but it’s hardly the only example or even the worst incident.

Honestly I’m amazed at what Nicktoons were able to get away with in the late nineties/early 2000s.

But yes, Helga’s obsession with Arnold is rather unhealthy in the most extreme moments leading her to display behavior which is more often than not disturbing and concerning.

The Hey Arnold! wiki has this to say about Helga’s obsession with Arnold

Helga is possessive of her love for Arnold and thinks non-stop about him to the point of obsession. This is evidenced throughout the series by the many shrines and poems she makes of Arnold and of her frequent dramatic soliloquies about her love for Arnold.

Again--Mari isn’t as bad as all that. She’s a sweet girl with many healthy relationships in her life. She has ambition, creativity, and drive. But yeah she can be rather possessive of Adrien too, and that needs to stop. Like right now. Adrien doesn’t need another girl being possessive of him and thinking he’s perfect--he needs someone who acknowledges him as a flawed person and loves him despite that.

As for Helga and Arnold--show creator Craig Bartlett confirmed they are “made for each other” and wind up married with three kids, so I’m guessing Helga grew out of some of these bad habits? Or at least I hope so...

8) Helper/Humanitarian tendencies

As mentioned before, the plot of Hey Arnold! is more or less about Arnold helping people. As stated by Gerald in The Jungle Movie, “He’s a humanitarian! Like his parents!” Of course not every episode is about Arnold helping people. There are episodes devoted to supporting characters and they’re just as enjoyable and satisfying.

But as he is the titular character he spends a lot of time in the spotlight.

Remember that “best christmas special EVER” episode I mentioned before?

The reason it’s the best special, in my less than humble opinion, is due to a few things.

The special is not about Santa Claws. In fact, I don’t think he’s even mentioned, let alone shown and treated like an actual living character.

The focus on the entire episode is again on Arnold helping someone, but he doesn’t succeed. Not really.

The one who succeeded in helping someone was Helga, who accomplished the goal Arnold had set out to do.

The episode deals with some rather dark subject matter and is actually quite heartwarming as the “perfect present” Arnold was trying to provide someone with wasn’t something you can buy in the store

It’s also one of the episodes where Helga’s love for Arnold leaves her to do good and as her love for him is a secret, she expects nothing in return. She’s just happy to help him.

Kinda similar to Mari who is, as Adrien puts it in Mayura, “Our every day Ladybug.” Her kindness and devotion to helping others is what drives her as Ladybug and Marinette. It’s what brought Ivan and Mylene together. Is the reason Nathaniel and Mark now have a comic book together. And at the end of the day, that’s the reason for her strange behavior around Adrien--she wants to help him. Even if it’s just as a “good friend.”

9) There are two main characters

Although Hey Arnold! is technically a show about Arnold, one could argue it is just as much Helga’s story.

Similarly, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is named thusly in order to convey the fact that Adrien is just as much a main character as Marinette is.

Although I must say Hey Arnold! did a much better job of giving it’s co-character their dues. GIVE. ME. MORE. CHAT NOIR. FOCUSED. EPISODES. DAMMIT.

But, yes, in terms of screen time, Helga gets about as much as Arnold does. Her story and struggles were given just as much importance as Arnold’s and many people have even come to believe that the show is really about Helga. I’d say its about both of them.

10) Constantly bumping into each other

Granted this happens between Arnold and Helga more often than it does to the love square dorks.

But yes the two people meant to be together keep knocking into each other in their respective universes.

I forget who, but I remember reading that someone a while back theorized that this was the universe’s way of trying to push Arnold and Helga together. Kinda like the “Now kiss!” meme

Perhaps it’s the same for Adrien and Marinette?

;)

#long post #adriennette #shortaki #hey arnold #miraculous ladybug #love square #nicktoons #zag toons

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werezmastarbucks · 5 years ago

Text

honeymoon landing

honeymoon masterlist

word count: 3236

music: blood on the leaves by kanye west

warnings: choking

author’s notes: OUT OF SPITE, I want you to know this is a rewritten chapter. the first variant was ANNIHILATED by tumblr which is whatever. this story is the background/prequel to my three-part shot more like honeymoon. the idea of the prison world simply didn’t let go of me.

again, shoutout to my partner in crime @stfudipz who gets me and Kai like nobody else

As soon as you landed, it landed on you. The realization.

Sometimes it dawns after a while, sometimes it creeps up gradually like a snake, but that time you knew what you’ve done a second after the ethereal white glow of the portal ceased.

Transportation was painless and didn’t feel like anything. Not a buzz in your fingers, no lightness in your limbs. You wouldn’t get motion sickness. Another type of sickness settled, when you felt Kai wiggle away from under your arm.

You were startled, and at the same time, your head was absolutely clear, which was not true about the sky.

First of all, it was cast.

Second of all, you were shocked Damon did that. It hurt you way more than a lot of things could hurt you now. Damon, your friend, your past crush, your protector, your drinking buddy, your safe guy, looked at you the way he has never done before. Like you’ve gone completely mad, and he didn’t recognize you anymore.

Maybe you have.

Third of all, you’d been holding Kai, who was flying with you almost feet first, and now he sprinted away from your arms to stand up, and was frozen, silently, looking up like he suddenly got distracted.

Fourth of all, you were now in the prison world with Kai Parker.

And you understood it well.

You looked at him from the grass, and you didn’t breathe. Run? Stay? Curl and roll? Attack? Play dead?

What made you jump in front of him, was it his face when he realized he’s outpowered, almost gutted, betrayed, and about to be sent to the place he was terrified of? It was the fucker’s face. It was his face when you danced at the Grill, making the history out of one single date you’ve had before you decided he was worth it. He said, how don’t you crawl up the wall with the Boring Faces? and you found it hilarious, and bang, next thing you knew, his tongue was so deep in your throat he could almost tickle your lungs. You had never experienced anything quite like that before. The touch was electric. It was meant to be. You saw it in his eyes, too, he was amazed at how warm the hug was, when everybody stopped dancing and moved away from each other, you wouldn’t let go. The feeling of his arm around your waist, his fives on your back, just touching, was one of the most fulfilling things you’ve experienced in your life. In your romantic mind, perhaps, you thought he was the one, and maybe it wasn’t the love at first sight, but something like the realization at second touch.

He was your own, you knew that, but couldn’t explain. It was knowledge absurd and intimate enough not to share with anyone, and to take quietly, and just let it be. You knew it like you knew the rain falls from up there and down here.

You just couldn’t figure out why you had to have this mass murderer. This unhinged psychopath. This hurt killer who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. This chatty nightmare. On the date, he wouldn’t stop talking about himself, telling you the whole life story, and somehow you still lacked something, still wanted to know more. His hand on your lap felt so natural you enjoyed it like it was the familiar palm of your husband, and it was supposed to be there, and has been, for the last forty years. They way you touched, it felt like you already knew everything about each other.

Why wouldn’t you go with him?

Kai now looked down on you, lying on the ground, and his eyes were crazy mad. You knew he wasn’t all here, and you didn’t even get angry when he asked,

“How could you do that to me?”

“I didn’t send you in, Kai”.

“Your friends”, he whispered. You could see his white knuckles tightening. If he had glass in his hands, he’d cut his palms through.

“Your friends...”

“You’re not alone this time”.

“They did it because of you, Damon had told me to stay away from you...”

“He did it because you’ve been going around beheading people, Kai”.

He didn’t hear you. You got up, completely sober about what is going to be happening right now. Your mind was clear. Only there somewhere, in the back of your mind, queueing, was the horror.

I can’t run away from him here. It is his world. He will completely lose it.

There was sadness standing in line behind fear,

and I can’t have my own because he’s as good as gone.

You got up and ran towards the house, the dark mass here in the night, hoping that back in ‘94, the door was in the same place. You ran towards the entrance, feeling unfamiliar pebble road under your feet. You heard Kai running after you, and before you could think how scary it is, you crashed into something.

The collision was so violent you fell completely black for a moment. You got blinded, although there was not much to see anyway, since the moon was hidden behind the clouds, and the mansion stood lightless. It felt like a giant baseball bat hit you with a swing, violently, and tears of pain sprayed out of your eyes. Dumbfounded, you lay on the ground, slowly realizing you ran into a tree. That would not make it into the future. Perhaps Stefan tore it out with the roots in a fit of rage in 1999 or maybe the very 1995. Who knew; your head was spinning. Long, dull sound filled your brain.

Kai picked you up and took you by the hair as you waved your hands, trying to regain the sense of space. You touched your face with one hand and grabbed his fingers with the other; your face was wet with blood.

“Let me go”.

“Running away already? You think I’m gonna let you?”

You’ve never been dragged by your hair before. It was carrying all your weight on the strings of it. It was painful. You took his hand and pulled on it, pulling your legs up, and tried to stop him.

“Kai, stop! Stop where you are!”

He let go of you like you were hurting him. You rolled on the grass, and caught your breath, expecting a punch, but it never came.

Instead, you were left alone on the ground. You rolled onto your back and looked at the sky again. All was quiet.

You sat up, taking in the thick, dense air. It felt like it was going to rain. You got your heavy self up, and, as your eyes finally got used to the night, you walked on towards the house.

The porch, the heavy posh door, the wide hall, all was the same. Salvatore house was older than 90s drama after all. On your left, you felt for the light, and sighed, turning it on.

Then it dawned on you again, although you thought you were already mentally prepared. You were in the 94, and the house was what it used to be back then, and there was no escape from it.

You knew he’d return. Or maybe he wouldn’t. He mentioned it’s quite impossible to die here, so you didn’t worry about him killing himself.

You looked at the big round clock (surprisingly ugly; who was living there at that point? which of the Salvatore nephews?) in the kitchen and saw it was about half past eleven.

Then the silence made you shiver.

The wind outside was still, lying on the ground like a dead serpent. There were no crickets and no mice in between the walls, no bark beetles that used to shuffle cozily at night as you slept here many times.

There was nothing in this world except you, him, and this dark cast sky.

You limped towards the kitchen counter, observing things. A row of mugs was hanging above the sink, and you took one to make yourself some tea or coffee. Who needs so many mugs? There were no less than twenty of them. There were millions of millions of mugs in the world, and exactly half of them, just like half of everything else on this planet, belonged to you.

Think, think think. There was nothing to think about. There is a thing that’s called three foot world, and you were living in it. Right now, your aim was tea to soothe your aching head, and shower. Your body hurt, and you could feel your hair hurt, too. You sobbed a little, out of anger, and because it hurt so much. Part of feeling alive is feeling pain. You frowned, and groaned, and wiped away the tears, cursing under your breath at Kai and the kettle you couldn’t find.

Kettle finally came round, but the boy didn’t.

As you stood over the stove, listening to the water slowly heat, you tried to calm down the buzzing inside your skull.

Damn psycho. Why him.

Jerk

What an asshole, what a miserable selfish douche

You turned around to look over the kitchen, and find the ten differences between then and now. Kai reappeared like a shadow, like a silhouette out of a nightmare. His face changed, his posture - everything. He was a broken man now. He was stooping like a boar, piercing you with his eyes, and you thought for a second that he looked and felt more like a demon rather than a mortal. You haven’t heard him creep up on you, and you could barely see the trace of human in his impedning demeanor as he condemned you silently.

Kai attacked so quickly you barely managed to put out your fists to set them between you and him; he didn’t seem to feel pain, since he has felt it all; he didn’t seem to hear you wail as his hands clutched your shoulders, then crawled up to your neck. You dug your nails into the milk skin of his throat, and he didn’t flinch. You could feel the cage-like muscles of his neck under your fingers as you tried to inflict pain, still uncertain to go for the eyes; but as he started to choke you, you decided that it was either you or him after all.

You completely forgot at that moment that nobody dies in the prison world.

He pushed you towards the stove, nearly leaning you over the heating kettle and the open fire, and you twisted your arm, trying to get it.

“This torture”, he was whispering, as if he was communicating with the demonic spirits piloting whatever he was doing, in his head. Psychopaths. Fucking strong.

“I can’t subject you, too, to that. I am used to this place, but you have no idea...”

You opened your mouth like a fish, your throat squeezed in his palms, and your eyes rolling. Your hand got burned on the red-hot surface of the kettle, and your body twitched. Kai closed his eyes hard, and then opened them.

“The things I will do to you”, he moaned, as if it hurt him more than in hurt you. Anger was rising in you, and probably that’s why you wrapped your palm around the kettle. “If I just keep you dead...”

Swinging your arm back, you crashed it on his head, and Parker released you, yelping in pain and jumping away. You put hands to your face not to let boiling water spill into your eyes. Half-awake, you stooped, fell, rolled and was out of the kitchen.

The forest was useless. It was just a big mass of darkness, with trees everywhere, and as soon as you lost the sight of the house, you lost your senses, too. You had no idea which way was the road. And what did it matter? Not like you could run into the city, it’s too far away on foot, when you’re so incredibly hurt. First five minutes here, and you are in such ridiculous amount of pain you’re surprised how you’re still moving. Your arms are burnt, your throat is all but squashed, your ribs are hurting, your head is aching and spinning, your face is bleeding and your nose feels like it’s broken.

Is that how it’s going to be here? Kai chasing you and torturing you to no end? While having a panic attack? Was he trying to spare you? It looked like he almost cried, it looked like he was trying to suffocate you in spite of him, and in his mind, that could be mercy.

You wanted to groan, but was to weak. The silence was driving you mad: all around, not a spider sigh, no rustle, no bats, no owls, nothing. Windless, lightless hell, dense night, and the moon hiding somewhere.

You leaned on a tree to breathe a little, thinking, he’s going to find you. It’s his reign. He knows every inch of this land. He can walk with his eyes closed and sense you still.

“Y/N”, the distant call finally ended deafening quiet, and you raised your head like a deer.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me!”

Of course you don’t know, you incredible lunatic!

You expected no less of him. Fake aggressor remorse. Mercy my ass. He was just trying to cope with terror.

You moved on, trying to jog, but in the dark, it was almost impossible. Crooking roots in the earth, not much different than what they were back in the future, caught your feet. You stumbled through the thickets, understanding that you’re wandering in only to piss him off, just to do something.

“Y/N!” he sounded closer. Much closer, in fact, like he was spinting, or teleporting. You stood and tried to see with your skin. With your ears. But all there was - the ringing in your brain.

“Y/N!”

“Fuck off!” you shouted before you could slap yourself on the mouth. It just came out, so sincere.

You went again, but you could feel he was close.

“Please, don’t go! Hey, wait!”

There was no other explanation as to how he navigated here, in the dark, burnt with the boiling water, except that he was an actual spirit from hell, assigned to make your life miserable. Why did you go? Why did you go, oh, you had no fucking clue. What made you think inserting yourself into this would be a good idea.

I just didn’t want him to be alone, well, cry me a river, this fucker was about to turn your whole existence into one prolonged bite in the ass. There was a reason he was sent here in the first place after all.

You heard his footsteps too late, but it’s not like you could catch them before. He manifested himself, tap tap tap, like he jumped off a tree, and you bumped right into his open arms.

“No!”

Your hands flew up as you tried to scratch his face, forgetting completely that you had two good knees.

“Wait, wait, stop, no!”

This clusterfuck of a hug was spinning in place until Kai has had enough, and his restricting grasp turned into a desperate embrace of a drowning man.

He put his face right to the back of your head, and you could feel his body, leaning towards yours, as he shivered as if he was crying. All your fighting instincts were put on hold as you listened.

“Please, don’t go. Don’t leave me here. I can’t stay here alone”, he whispered, trying to conjure something in you.

There he was again, the boy who made you question everything. His arms tightened around you, because he was afraid. Anger boiled in you.

“Let go of me”, your voice was hoarse.

“No, I can’t”.

“I won’t run, Kai!” you snapped, and it sounded more like a bark. He shuddered like you slapped him on the face, and complied.

You were rubbing your face feverishly, almost whimpering with how much the burnt skin stung. The nose was killing you.

“I don’t know who you think I am, Parker”, you panted. You could see his eyes glow faintly in the dark. You had no idea where the light came from.

“But I’m not your fucking family. I’m not leaving”.

He could do this thing with his face, that made him look like he was a seventeen years old boy puppy, which would break just about anyone, except, maybe, Damon. Kai was so full of shit.

“Stay with me”, he said quietly like he didn’t hear you. You went on,

“But if you wanna pull your murderous shit on me, you gotta know one thing. Once I bounce back, I’m gonna give you as much hell as you give me, you got it?”

He nodded, although he certainly didn’t get it.

“Seriously, if you hurt me, I’ll retaliate so hard you’ll be wishing you were here alone”.

“Nothing is as bad as being here alone”, he said seriously.

You felt the air painfully clogging in your lungs. You opened your mouth to say something and was cut off, by the weirdest sensation, like you were stung with a needle full of drug all of a sudden.

You blinked, not understanding what’s happening.

Kai was looking at you, perplexed and careful, like he was ready to charge if you run again. You touched your face, made fists and undid them. Suddenly, your head was clear again, and you felt completely full of energy, like you really could run to the very Mystic Falls.

“What the hell?”

“It must be midnight”.

You touched the back of your head, where he pulled your hair, and it didn’t hurt anymore, either.

“Your body reset”.

“And yours?”

“Mine, too”.

“Y/N...”

“Wait a minute. It’s going to be happening every night?”

“There’s no every night”, he moaned, “there’s only tonight. Again and again. That’s why I tried to kill you, I guess. I don’t really... I don’t know why, by the way”, he started pacing, rubbing the hard tree skin like it could help him, “I don’t want you to go through this. You don’t know what it’s like here”.

You blinked with your dry eyes. You were still mad.

“Which way is the house?”

He pointed behind your back.

“Suck it up, Parker”, you said. “You’re a powerful coven leader now, aren’t you? You’re gonna find the way out of here”.

You walked back slowy, feeling your way around in the twilight, until you were back on the Salvatore yard. You didn’t hear his footsteps, like he was a bloody ghost, but Kai was following you all the way down, defeated, which didn’t bring you much pleasure. Stepping into the house, you looked back at him.

“If you touch me while I sleep...”

“I know, you’ll scratch my eyes out”, he said. Parker regained his composure and was straight and menacing as usual, like nothing happened. He bounced back quickly, too. He kept gazing at you, standing in the doorframe, a symbol of unwanted intervention, like a vampire.

“What?” you finally asked.

“Just wondering why Damon would send you here, while he knows what I’m capable of. Do you think he cares about you at all?”

You licked your lips.

“You should be thanking him. I’m the only one who cares about you”.

He was taken aback.

Yeah, take that, villain boy. Pretty soon he’ll learn what it feels like, to be taken care of. That’ll show him.

#kai parker #kai parker imagine #kai parker x reader #vampire diaries imagine #vampire diaries #tvd imagine

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musicfeedsmysoul12 · 5 years ago

Text

Plague Rat Chapter 3

Three months later…

“Hello and welcome to Channel Eight! I’m Erica, bringing you the news!”

“Today we are speaking of what is now called ‘the Plague of Truth’, brought upon us by the Akuma Plague Rat.

Due to the Akuma’s powers of infecting people with a deadly virus resembling the Black Plague but targeting liars, many secrets came about. And many consequences have occurred. The most high profile ones are the former mayor, his wife and a dozen city officials who are now closing ranks and trying to-“ Marinette turned off the TV and closed her eyes.

After she had been purified, the girl had been horrified at her actions, feeling ill and disgusted. She had done that? She had attacked people? She had nearly…

Luckily there was a therapist employed by the hospital that sat with her and spoke with her. He was open and honest and she had a lot off issues she usually kept locked up.

He helped her speak of them and confront them. Helped her understand her issues. Helped her realize how many were people putting things on her and expecting things if her when they shouldn’t.

She still didn’t feel okay. Knowing what she did made her feel sick, but her classmates where there. Alix spoke with her softly, the girl knowing she had killed one. Kim spoke of rewatching his actions and feeling horrified. Rose shuddered at what she had done.

It helped.

More so, honestly, it helped knowing that her actions had exposed Lila and a lot of corruption. Not only had she hit the mayor, she’d hit the commissioner, Audrey, Nadja and a bunch of others.

Andre had been removed from office and was now facing trial for his crimes. The commissioner had been removed from office along with Roger being fired and were also facing charges. Rumors said they would probably get ten years at least.

Audrey was going away for child abuse, corruption and the abuse of her staff. She had admitted everything and Chloe had been removed from their care in a second, being placed with an aunt on the other side of Paris who hadn’t spoken to her sister in years and had never cared to. The aunt had agreed to take Chloe in but had warned the girl she would not put up with any of her actions.

Marinette hadn’t heard anything since as Chloe had been expelled by the new principal that had replaced Damocles when the fact he was being bribed came out. Bustier had also been replaced. Marinette wasn’t sad to see them go- even if it was only recently she could go back to school after the shock to her system becoming an Akuma had been. It wrecked her metabolism again and she’d been stuck in a bed for months.

Luckily, there was a friendly nurse around who was happy to take over for Akumas. Marinette has the best time hearing her rant about magic and how stupid it was she couldn’t tell who Ladybug was when she was in the hosptial. Often right in front of her door.

Tikki found it hilarious to.

But she had finally left the hospital and Tikki said she could go back to fighting, something she was glad about. She missed it, not that she’d admit it.

But before that, there was a trial to be had.

-0-

“So you willingly did it-“

“I did.” Alya interrupted the lawyer. “I willingly exposed her to sick children but that was at the urging of Lila who said she had to be lying. I believe the videos I’ve given show that.” Alya felt like a bug as everyone in the courtroom stared at her. She kept her chin up though. She would not be cowed by this lawyer Lila’s father got her. Apparently Lila’s nasty habits came from someone and that was her father. Her mother had been furious to know she was in contact with him and was not pleased by the lawyer but agreed to it.

She didn’t want her baby in jail either.

He was a good lawyer, knew how to come at things from all angles.

But Alya had been Rena Rouge. The Fox Miraculous left marks deep in her soul, which made her slippery and sly. She had forgotten and gotten caught in lies herself, but she remembered now.

And she would not yield.

“I wonder, if anyone actually knows that the reason she wants Marinette dead is because she called her out on her lies in college.” Snapped Alya, suddenly latching onto the thought. The lawyer blinked. “Didn’t know that? Lila is just angry that Marinette didn’t follow her around. That Marinette called her out.” The lawyer actually stepped back and turned to look at Lila who couldn’t hide her furious face fast enough. Alya smiled at her while the lawyer said he had to dismiss himself from the case now, his clients had been lying to him.

Alya hadn’t been a good person for a while. She had followed a liar and had blinded herself to truth for a long time. But she had once been a hero, once been a good person.

She was going to start again.

-0-

“So you thought it was like tabloids?” Dr. Shaw asked Adrien who sighed.

“Yeah I mean…” Adrien shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe if I hadn’t known the truth I’d have believed hem but when I did I saw how stupid they were and they reminded me of the tabloids. I thought they’d figure it out themselves. I didn’t think she was hurting anyone.”

“But she did. Her actions almost caused many of them to miss out on incredibly important opportunities for their futures. It was lucky your friend Marientte managed to convince them it was a good way to show case their skills to the supposed contacts Lila had.” The doctor said and Adrien winced.

“I… I didn’t want her Akumatized again.”

“And yet Marientte was.” Adrien looked down. “Adrien, if I can be very blunt- you despise conflict and prefer a passive approach to it. While disliking conflict is fine, and I encourage you not to seek it out, not confronting people who you know are in the wrong isn’t always the best idea.”

“...” Adrien didn’t want to think about it anymore. But he had to. His father had made him go to therapy and Plagg had told him it was a good idea for him to do so. He needed to get over this. “It’s easier when it’s not me.” Adrien blurted our. “Online I mean.” He quickly covered. It was easy to confront people as Chat Noir.

“Then pretend you’re not Adrien when you confront people.” The therapist offered and…

That was really good advice.

Two months later…

“Hello and welcome to the new Ladyblog!” Alya grinned on the screen Marientte was watching. “As you know due to certain circumstances I left this blog for the last few months. This is due to Lila and her actions towards my classmate and my own actions. However, this is a new start. First and foremost- this blog will now only contain facts. I have three people to check over anything I post that’s an article and needed to be researched who will do so. I spoke with Ladybug and she’s agreed to an interview with all heroes providing they agree-“ that was the only small crack, a shadow of sadness. After Miracle Queen everyone know she’d been a hero, and seeing a new fox must hurt.

Marientte though was just amused that Alya was such a good actor. Sure she no longer used the fox but she fit the Turtle very well. And Nino was a fine Dragon, while Luka was a great Fox and Kagami was an amazing Bee.

It hadn’t been to hard to manage to have an interview with them- though all separate. It was enough to show Paris they were human to.

Marinette smiled, watching as Alya continued her speech.

Things had changed since she’d become Plague Rat. Lila was now in jail back in Italy. Youth jail but still. She would spend two years there before being released on parole for either ten years or for the rest of her life depending on her actions. While she had lost her first lawyer they had been assigned a second one who had managed to get a psychiatrist in to look at her.

The man said she was either a psychopath or a sociopath. They had tried to say that meant she was allowed to be free but that was ended when the doctor pointed out she knew what she was doing was wrong. She just didn’t care.

She wasn’t allowed back in France and apparently other countries had also banned her. She was forever stuck in Italy.

The former mayor was also in jail. Five years, chance of parole in two and a half, maybe less depending on behaviour. Nadja had lost custody of Manon after it got out she routinely used the girl to gather info and had put her in risk multiple times. Audrey was in jail, Roger had lost his job and was on probation.

Paris had experienced a revolution after Plague Rat. The new mayor was a woman who took no shit and was a hardass who was happily funding the police to find Hawkmoth, and bring him down. The new commissioner had fired all corrupt cops- Roger had been part of this sweep- and now Paris was thriving.

Adrien as well seemed to have changed. He had formally apologized to her for his inaction and he was taking steps to be able to confront people. He’d already had a fight with his father about being a model and had leaked to the press how Gabriel treated him. Gabriel was in therapy now and Adrien had a social worker doing random checks on him.

“I guess even Akumatized I’m a hero.” She remarked to Tikki who chuckled.

“Perhaps. But I like you as you.”

“Same.” She still has nightmares about what she’d done. She still freaked out about the hospital. Hell she was still recovering months later from the stress of being Akumatized while suffering from sickness and a horrible immune system.

But she was doing better. She was moving forward.

And that was all she could do.

Tagged: @anastasian-dreamer @magicalfirebird @kibastray @thesunanditsangel @virgil-is-a-cutie @marinettepotterandplagg @heaven428 @sofmimis @so-freaking-done-with-people @moonystars14 @slytherinhquinn @spartanxhunterx

#ml au #plague rat #akumanette #end of story.

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ashdumpsterpile · 5 years ago

Text

ao3

It’s a sexy, sexy day when Beckett gets her promotion to the Cerritos.

She’s been a lower decks officer on the USS Vulker for six slutty years and it’s been the closest thing to paradise that she’s experienced since that time Marvin tried to snort Dorito dust and ended up summoning an ancient wish giving god when he sneezed it out on an alien substance Dr. L’Vertiss was analyzing as a possible cure for the parasites that were infecting the Academy.

Being a lower decks officer meant three things: contraband, causal hookups and constant disrespect of Starfleet Protocol. Everything Beckett wanted in a career. Fortunately, the Vulker was the bottom of the barrel when it came to starships, so they weren’t exactly looking too close to her record. Which was fine by Beckett, who was trying to fly under the radar ever since her mother had demoted her so hard, she’d ended up on a whole other ship, quadrants away from the Cerritos.

Thanks Mom.

So anyway, it’s a sexy, sexy day when her mother calls her, mainly because she’d just gotten out of alien jail and gotten a cool tat out of the deal, but also because she hasn’t heard for her mother in a while and, okay, maybe she misses her just a little bit. Even if she’s probably calling for Not Good Reasons.

Beckett flips her comm open and steels herself to get yelled at for whatever.

“I’m retiring,” are not the words Beckett is expecting. She squints suspiciously at her comm, vaguely concerned that a shapeshifter has replaced her mom.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re not.”

“Beckett—”

“You love being Captain and sitting in the chair and telling Ransom to stop giving himself sexy eyes in every reflective surface! Why would you retire?”

Her mom pinches the bridge of her nose, looking tired. “This is why I wanted to tell you in person—”

“Tell me what in person—”

“—Shaxs is dead.”

Beckett stops walking. Blinks down at her comm. Once. Twice. “What.”

“So is half the crew. This is less of me retiring and more of me…cutting my losses before Starfleet officially demotes my ass.”

Beckett’s day is slowly turning into an unsexy day. “And you’re just letting them!? You’ve been a Captain for what—”

“Beck—”

“Fifteen years and a Starfleet Officer for even longer! They can’t demote you—”

“They can and they will. Look,” Mom sighs. “They’re putting together a new crew as soon as the Cerritos is given the clear. There’s barely anyone left from the main crew who even wants to stay after this mess.”

“What happened?”

“That’s classified,” Mom says, which Beckett takes to mean hack my official report if you want to know. “And don’t go digging for it,” she adds.

Beckett resists pouting, only because the situation is so. Weirdly serious.

“I’m not calling you because of that, however. Ransom is being transferred to the Titan. It’s only thanks to his initiative and Officer Boimler’s quick thinking that we’re even alive right now.”

The sound of the warp core, buzzing in the background, seems too loud, all of the sudden. Beckett swallows, feeling sick.

“Officer Boimler is being promoted to Captain. I’ve recommended you as his First Officer.”

Beckett doesn’t realize she’s laughing until she starts choking from it. A group of ensigns, clustered at the end of the hallway she’s standing in, give her weird looks before quickly vacating the area.

“That,” she says, once she’s caught her breath, “is the dumbest fucking idea I’ve ever heard.”

Mom gives Beckett her Captain™ face.

“I’m an ensign. Lower decks. Bottom of the barrel.” Beckett continues, grinning. “Not officer material.”

“Top of your class. Present in the Dominion War. Only gets demoted because she cares more about people than rules.” Mom gives a smug smile. “Perfect match for the Cerritos.”

There’s a weird, hot pressure in the corner of Beckett’s eyes. “Mom.”

“Boimler has a stick up his ass, he could use someone who loosens him up a little. Pays less attention to protocol,” Mom adds.

Beckett shakes her head, smiling. “I’d give him a heart attack a week in.”

“I’m counting on it. At least think about it, will you? And for god’s sake, go shower. I can see the filth on you, light years away.”

Beckett laughs, but this time it’s real. “Yeah Mom, I will.” Then, “I’m glad you like. Didn’t die or whatever.”

Mom rolls her eyes. “Thank you, problem child. So am I. I’ll take to you later.”

The connection blacks out, leaving Beckett staring at her own dim reflection in the screen.

She does look like shit. Maybe a shower isn’t a bad idea after all.

_____

The letter stays in her inbox for six unslutty days before she finally clicks on it. Turns out, even though Mom is no longer a Captain, her recommendation must’ve meant something because there it is, a nice, shiny, transfer request.

It’s signed Captain Brad Boimler and that is where Beckett draws the line because she is not working for someone named Brad.

Maybe if you had been on the Cerritos, Shaxs wouldn’t have died, a snide voice sounds in her brain. Beckett immediately shuts that voice down because that’s fucked up and she didn’t go through four years of Starfleet mandated therapy to still be fucked up.

(She’s still kinda fucked up, but that’s okay.)

Dad finally starts spamming her inbox—and she really wants to know how Mom got him on her side, they’ve barely spoken since the divorce—so Beckett, with great reluctance, reviews the transfer request again.

It’s bullshit.

“This is bullshit,” she tells Dad.

“I know, but if I have to get one more message from your mother, demanding why you haven’t taken the position—”

“Okay, fine I’ll do it, but only because I want to see why Mom promoted Brad to Captain.”

_____

Mom either promoted Brad to Captain because he was that good of a suck up or because his hair is super distracting. Either way, Beckett is two seconds away from saying fuck this shit and demoting her own ass back to the Vulker.

He walked through the door like a minute ago and she’s already had him pegged. His clothes are neatly pressed, hair perfectly coiffed, and his hands nervously flutter around, as if he’s unsure what he should be doing with them. He can’t have been an officer longer than a few months before he was promoted Captain, that’s for sure. Beckett literally has no idea what Mom was thinking when she gave him the chair.

She waves him down toward her table.

Brad takes one look at her unbuttoned collar, nonregulation boots, and unkempt hair and sighs. “Captain Freeman recommended you?” his voice is disbelieving.

“That’s the word, my dude.” Beckett leans back, eyeing him over the half empty glass of whiskey she’s been nursing. “Captain Brad, take a seat,” she says, in her Serious voice.

Captain Brad sits across from her. “It’s Captain Boimler, actually.”

“Brad’s fine.”

His eye twitches. “Officer Mariner—”

“Ensign,” she interrupts, cheerfully.

Brad pauses. Blinks. She gestures to the single pin in her collar.

“Oh. Wait. What?”

“Yeah, I was lower decks on the Vulker before Captain Freeman emotionally blackmailed me into meeting with you.”

She snaps her fingers at the bartender and gestures toward Brad while she waits for the man in question to process the fact that a lower decks ensign was being offered a First Officer promotion.

It, surprisingly, takes only a few seconds before he bounces back. “I didn’t have time to look at your file,” he admits, sounding a bit frustrated. “I’m usually more on top of my work but—”

“Don’t sweat it, Bradthaniel. If you’d read my file, I seriously doubt you’d have agreed to meet with me.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You kill an Admiral or something?”

“Or something,” she agrees, mind flashing back to all of the redacted and classified sections of her file. The bartender places a glass of purple liquid in front of Brad and refills Beckett’s drink. Beckett salutes him lazily with her glass. “I’m more interested in you. How’d you land a captaincy at, what, twenty-six?”

“Twenty-nine,” he grits out, as if that still isn’t weirdly young to be that high in the chain of command. “How’d you get Freeman to recommend you?”

“Oh, I didn’t,” she flips her ponytail obnoxiously. “She called me.”

“Sure.”

“What, am I not ‘First Officer Material?’” she mocks, wrapping finger-quotes around her words.

He rolls his eyes. “No offense—”

“Complete offense already taken—”

“But you are the least promotable person I’ve ever met.”

Beckett grins. “Now you’re getting it. We got a Bridge Crew yet?”

“I—” he blinks at her for a moment. “I’m still trying to put the rest of the Bridge Crew together, but it’s been insane lining up schedules and—”

“Leave it to me.”

“Wait, what?”

“That’s my job. You manage me, I manage the crew. I’m basically a glorified secretary now.”

Brad looks like he’s seeing an error screen in front of his eyes. “So, you’re taking the job,” he concludes, voice hilariously defeated.

“Someone needs to make sure my M—uh, Captain Freeman’s ship doesn’t blow up.”

“I handled it fine the first time.” He rolls his eyes carelessly, which kind of pisses her off.

She gives him a smile. Knows it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Tell that to the 567 casualties.”

His face goes very pale. An incredible feat considering his already milky complexion. She can’t tell if he’s angry or about to cry. “Shut up. You weren’t even there, how would you know—"

“Yeah, you were there, so why the fuck didn’t you do something?” she hisses. All she can see is Shaxs’ scarred face in the back her head. She’d been a pain in the Bridge Crew’s asses, but most of them had been genuinely upset when she’d been transferred.

“You’re a pain in my ass, but you’ve got guts,” Shaxs had admitted once, looking impressed, which was his way of saying you’re fucking adopted go do 200 pushups.

Beckett has seen a lot of death in her 26 years, but this one hurts because this is her Mom’s family. Half of them are dead and she wasn’t there and fucking Brad was.

Fucking Brad is still staring at her, eyes unreadable, mouth set in a hard line. He snatches up the file and flips it open, fingers deftly shuffling through the printed-out paper documents she’d complied last night. “I’m overseeing ship repairs tomorrow. 0500 hours. Be there.”

“Wait what?” Beckett hears herself say, aware that she’s gaping at him.

“I’ll have to run these through background checks before I can approve them for transfer, and I’d like to meet with them in person before I make any decisions.”

“Dude.”

“What,” he snaps, eyes meeting hers defiantly.

“You’re seriously approving my transfer?”

“Do you not want me to?” his brow furrows in confusion.

“You called me the ‘least promotable person’ like ever! I just like insulted the fuck out of you!” she whisper-shrieks. “You’re supposed to get mad and tell me to fuck off back to whatever corner of the galaxy Freeman dragged my ass out of, not make me your First Fucking Officer.”

“Well I’m not. Congratulations First Officer Mariner, you’re expected to report for duty—”

“Oh fuck you—”

“On the Cerritos three weeks from now during her relaunch.”

Beckett is on the verge of stabbing this bastard in the eye with his own stylus. “But why?”

Brad pauses, halfway out of his seat, hands still clenched tightly around the file. “Why what?”

“Don’t be fucking coy, why are you approving my transfer, you absolute nugget,” she hisses.

“Captain Freeman recommended you.”

“Are you seriously that much of a suck up—”

“The Cerritos isn’t that great of a starship, but Captain Freeman is a good captain,” Brad interrupts. “We went through some real shit together. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. The least I can do is honor her last request.”

And with that, Brad stands up and sweeps out of the bar.

“Dramatic exits are my thing!” she shouts after him.

_____

She’s pissed, mostly because Brad had the actual audacity to approve her transfer, but also because how fucking dare he be an actual nice person?

Okay, maybe not a nice person, she decides, as she crawls out of bed at 4 fucking thirty am. Morning people are hell spawn, but he’s a decent person.

Whatever, it’s not as if she’s going to start liking him or trying to be his friend or whatever.

“If it doesn’t work out, I can get myself demoted in like two days,” she decides, out loud, tying her hair out of her eyes. Her reflection stares back at her, tired.

So of course, Brad is annoyingly awake.

“Of course you’re a fucking morning person,” she mutters, falling into step behind him.

“Haven’t had your coffee yet?” he snips back, eyes glued to his data padd.

She glares at his back, but makes no comment.

By the time Beckett is fully awake and functioning, she’s already dissociated three separate times and had a mini panic attack twice.

The ship is FUCKED.

The primary hull has been completely ripped apart, like something took a large bite out of the side, and both propulsion units are missing. Beckett peaks over Brad’s shoulder and gets a good look at the interior damage.

“You guys ejected the warp core?” she shrieks in his ear. “Dude that is so badass.”

Brad jumps and pushes her off him. “Wha—get off me, what are you doing—”

Beckett snatches the padd away from him and begins to rapidly scan through the damage reports. “Shit, it’s going to take weeks before we’re back in space. What’s the ETA on getting a new core in? Oooh, we should also add reflective panels, I hear the Enterprise is so bright, nothing ever gets done on there.”

Brad snatches his padd back. “Yeah, I think we can pass on that one.”

“You’re no fun.”

“Being a Starfleet Officer isn’t supposed to be fun—although I do find enjoyment in managing and organizing information—”

“Oh yawn, you’re a pencil pusher.”

“Did you just say ‘yawn’ out loud?”

“Do you need your hearing checked, Captain Brad?”

“It’s Boimler,” he hisses.

“Captain Boimler Brad,” she corrects, easily.

He stomps off, all huffy, but whatever. It’s not her fault Captain Brad doesn’t have a sense of humor.

_____

It takes about a month for the Cerritos to get back into working condition. Beckett would be impressed with how quickly Starfleet is able to get her back in commission, except for the fact that, well. It’s Starfleet. They’re great at what they do, even if what they do isn’t so great.

By then she’s already sent her Dad over seventeen furious voicemails and threatened her mother with six different kinds of legal action if she doesn’t “pick up her goddamn fucking comm.”

Mom does pick up her call and she does agree to meet with her.

“This is bullshit,” she says, after hugging the ever-living shit out of her favorite parent. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”

Mom rolls her eyes. It’s like looking in a mirror. “Kiddo, I’ve never been able to make you do anything.”

This was probably true, but Beckett needs someone to blame. “He’s worse than you. Or Dad. Mom he likes paperwork. He’s a morning person. Yesterday he asked me my opinion on the Oxford comma.”

Mom makes a complicated face. Beckett suspects she’s trying not to laugh. “That does sound like Boimler,” she admits, sighing. “Please tell me you’re playing nice.”

Beckett decides not to tell her about the whole “I was a bitch to him because I have no idea how to grieve” deal. “Hey, I can be nice.”

“Hmm.”

“Okay, maybe I’m giving him a hard time, but come on! You could have chosen anyone to promote. Hell, you should have picked Ransom, not transferred him!”

“Ransom doesn’t have the head to make tough calls.”

“And Brad does?”

Mom gives her a look that says she knows something Beckett doesn’t. Beckett hates that look. “I think he knows what he’s doing when he forgets he’s in charge.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means give him a chance before you decided to drop him in a wormhole,” is the dry response she’s given.

Beckett makes no promises.

_____

The Cerritos leaves Starbase 375 on an uneventful day. About eighty percent of the original crew has been completely replaced, most notably, the Bridge Crew. Senior staff is now complied of Officer’s Captain Freeman had promoted before her resignation, but there’s are a few that Beckett herself has recommended. Seems like Brad had actually taken a look at the file.

Beckett takes her seat next to Captain Brad and prepares herself for the madness that’s going to commence from being First Officer on the lamest ship in Starfleet.

The Cerritos has been in deep space for three boring, uneventful weeks.

The only fun Beckett has found in any of it is by torturing Brad. And she’s not even trying! Beckett just has one of those personalities that rubs well-organized people the wrong way. Yes, sometimes she thrives off chaos, and yeah she does things in her own time, but it’s just who she is.

Brad doesn’t seem to appreciate any of her suggestions, calling most of them illegal and dangerous and being all shouty about it.

He’s also a huge stickler for regulations and shit. It’s way, way worse than working with Mom. Beckett’s about to start climbing walls from the sheer boredom of being a First Officer. The only thing she does anymore is sleep, paperwork and fight with Brad, rinse, repeat.

And then she meets Lieutenant D’Vana Tendi.

The first thing Beckett thinks when she runs into the hyperactive Orion is that if Dr. T’Ana had retired along with the rest of the senior crew, Tendi could have easily picked up the mantle. The girl’s a fucking prodigy, mad scientist level of genius.

The second thing Beckett thinks when she meets Tendi is I am way gayer than I thought I was.

“Hey, you’re Mariner!” Tendi chirps, excitedly bouncing up to her. Dr. T’Ana, who had been discussing something medical and boring with the Orion, groans and stomps off the minute she lays eyes on Beckett. Which, rude. Beckett didn’t want to talk to her anyway.

“Oh nice, my reputation proceeds me,” Beckett grins, brushing off her hurt. “As does yours, Lieutenant Tendi.”

Tendi’s cheeks turn a little blue.

There’s an amused snort behind her. “Already flirting with the locals, Mariner?” a familiar voice dryly asks.

Beckett’s mouth drops open. “Rutherford?”

Rutherford, who was messing anxiously with a cyber implant over his eye that he definitely did not have three years ago, grins at her. “Long time, no see!”

Tendi whirls around. “You know Mariner?”

“She used to be lower decks with me,” he explains.

“Yeah, back in the day,” Beckett agrees, examining her nails. “It was pretty badass.”

Rutherford snorts and gives her a look which clearly conveys I know why you were transferred dumbass. Beckett gives him a look back and hopes it communicates to shut the fuck up.

“You driving Boimler crazy yet?” Rutherford asks, instead of spilling her dirty secrets.

Tendi does this cute snort/giggle thing behind her Padd. “Like you haven’t been present for his ‘daily complain about Marin—‘”

Rutherford lightly kicks Tendi who quite promptly shuts up.

Beckett frowns suspiciously at them.

“Anyway, it’s great to see you Mariner!” Rutherford continues. “Congrats on making First Officer by the way,” he adds in a tone of voice that implies that she will be telling him exactly how she had landed the position later.

“I guess my record speaks for itself.” Beckett smirks.

“Uh hu,” he eyes her disbelievingly. “See you at the bar after our shifts?”

Beckett sighs. “I’ll have to pass. Brad gave me so much fucking paperwork to do that I’ll never get a day off again.”

“Look at you following the rules!” Rutherford punches the air. “I knew you had it in you. I guess I’ll see you around!” He hops off the bio-bed and heads off toward Engineering.

Tendi frowns after him. “At least he still sounds like himself, right?”

That’s a weird thing to say. “Huh?”

The Orion blinks up at her, startled. “Oh, you don’t know? He was in an accident. Full year of his memory completely wiped. He remembers Brad, and you, I guess, but.” She looks down, defeated.

“Oh.” Beckett feels squeamish at the sudden emotion present in the conversation. “That, uh, that really sucks.”

“Yeah.” Tendi shakes herself. “Well, enough buffer time, I’d better get back to work. It was great meeting you, Mariner!”

“Likewise, Lieutenant Tendi,” Beckett flashes her most charming grin. “See you on the Bridge?”

Tendi glances back at Dr. T’Ana, who’s impatiently glaring at them. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

_____

The next few weeks go by in rapid succession. It’s either very very boring and leaves Mariner missing her life as a lower decks officer or it’s incredibly fast pace with weird shit that leaves her chasing the next adrenaline rush.

But of course most days it’s just Brad yelling at her.

“If you could have your report for Second Contact with the Diququeue’s by tomorrow morning, that would be great.”

“Uh huh.”

“Also, I need you to stop trying to pet J’viv, his culture finds it offensive.”

“Sure thing.”

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?!

_____

“Officer Mariner could you—what the fuck are you wearing.”

“Oh yeah, the Padroiques gave me this cool jacket.”

“I don’t even—what—Mariner, go take it off!”

“But it’s pink!”

“It’s putting hair all over my Bridge!”

“That’s not hair it’s—”

“Oh my god just get rid of it.”

_____

“What the fuck was that!”

“That was me. Doing my job. First Officer stuff.”

“That was you practically starting a war with the Gorgonvians. Again.”

“Dude, their government is super corrupt!”

“That’s their problem! Stop antagonizing alien Ambassadors!”

_____

“Why would you tell them to go fuck themselves?!”

“They pissed me off!”

“I actually can’t handle you right now. Get off my Bridge and go irritate someone else.”

“Fine!”

_____

“This isn’t working,” she tells Rutherford, snatching at his drink. He gives it up with a sigh and wearily watches her down the purple liquid.

“Maybe start listening to him for once? He is the captain.”

“And that isn’t weird to you? Dude, didn’t he start out lower decks?”

This gets an eye roll out of her usually positive friend. “We all started lower decks. That’s how Starfleet works.”

Beckett decides not to mention that it was definitely not how it worked for her, as that explanation would include revealing that she’s. Well. A Starfleet brat.

“Besides, he’s been a Lieutenant for about a year now and he really handled the Parkled crisis really well. Not that I remember,” he adds, looking a little downcast.

Beckett wrinkles her nose. “Wait, the Cerritos was taken down by Parkleds? No fucking way.” She pulls her data padd out and began tapping away.

“Please don’t hack any mission re—”

“Too late.”

“—ports. Oh shit.” Rutherford rubs at his human eye with one hand. “See this? This is why you’re driving Boimler up a wall.”

Beckett glares at him. “Brad needs to chill out.”

“You need to chill out,” he corrects and then winces. “Sorry, that came out mean. I mean, maybe just try being nice to him? Like what’s the worst that could happen?”

Beckett’s eyes narrow.

_____

“Here, Jen made coffee.”

“If you’re trying to poison me—”

“Why would I poison you?!”

Brad gives her a deadpan stare.

“With coffee!” she adds, for good measure. “I would never defile the gods’ nectar!”

“Ugh, fine,” he snatches at the mug. “Just please stop shouting.”

_____

“I don’t get it!” Beckett rants to Tendi, who’s frowning down at her data padd like it holds the secrets of the universe. “I’m being like super chill for once and he’s still mad!”

Rutherford, who’s doing something cool and science-y to the transporter pad, glances up. “Your version of chill involves way more stabbing than most peoples.”

Tendi nods, eyes still glued to her padd. “Maybe try not challenging Klingons to duels and Boimler will calm down.”

“Uh, he challenged me and then was a sore loser. Not my fault. And I bought Brad a milkshake afterwards to make up for it!”

“Boimler did say that it was unfairly delicious,” Tendi says, pensively.

“I don’t think that was a milkshake,” Rutherford mumbles.

“Point is, why doesn’t he like me yet! Everyone likes me except lame people!”

“So, you don’t think Boimler is lame anymore,” Tendi inquires, grinning at her.

“Shut up, he’s the lamest.”

Rutherford and Tendi share a conspiring look. “Sure.”

_____

So, Brad almost dies. And so do Tendi and Rutherford, because it seems that even though Brad is captain now, apparently the three of them are a tight little trio who’ve been getting up to no good the whole time Beckett was on the Vulker.

That explains a lot actually.

Anyway, there’s some Away Mission nonsense and Beckett just happens to be on the Cerritos because Brad claims that she’s too high strung and that he hasn’t had enough coffee to handle her.

Whatever.

Some shit goes down—again, Beckett isn’t there and doesn’t bother to find out the exact details until much much later—that involves Rutherford and Brad getting infected by some alien disease and suddenly Tendi is dealing with an outright war between the local Camisitites and the Federation and by the time Beckett gets their asses beamed back onto the Cerritos, it’s almost too late.

Rutherford is going to be fine, thanks to his cyborg implants but Brad isn’t looking too hot which means Beckett is Acting Captain.

Fucking great.

It takes her maybe two, three days tops to settle everything out with the irate Camisitite nation and find a cure, but it all works out in the end.

“If you want a Missions Report you can have it after I’ve taken a shower,” she informs a groggy Brad. He blinks up at her from his bio-bed, taking in her disheveled hair, bloodstained shirt, and exhausted expression.

“…cool,” he mutters. “Go away.”

She scoffs at him, dragging a seat up. “I’m good here, actually.”

Brad wakes himself up enough to give her a half-hearted scowl. “Do you ever do as you’re told?”

“Not really, no.” She examines her nails. “Your fault for signing my transfer.”

“So this has all been punishment? Because a good person talked you into a nice, well paying job that I signed off on. I don’t get you.”

“I don’t get you,” she retorts. “Command fucking sucks. It was way cooler when I was an ensign.”

“But you’re really good at it,” he says, surprised. “You’re smart and badass and like way better at everything than everyone else.”

“Wait what?”

“You could have everything! And you’re just wasting it? Do you want me to kick you off ship?”

“Maybe!”

“Well I’m not going to!”

“Why not?!”

He glares at her sullenly. “Figure it out yourself, if you’re so smart.”

_____

“I can’t figure it out!” she snaps, resuming her wild pacing.

Rutherford, who looks like his unending patience is finally, for once, running out, sighs.

(People seem to be doing that a lot around her recently.)

“Figure what out, Mariner?”

“Why did the bastard make me his First Officer?”

“Maybe he’s hot for you,” Tendi suggests, eyebrows wiggling up and down. Beckett shoves her face away.

“Shut up, no way.”

“Just ask him?” Rutherford suggests.

“I did! Like twice! First time he gave me stupid answer and second time he deflected.”

“He gave it to you because he likes you, dummy,” Rutherford says, giving her a friendly shove. “Not like that,” he adds, as Tendi began make kissy faces. “But like. He thinks you’re cool.”

“He thinks I’m cool,” Beckett parrots, unimpressed.

“You are pretty cool,” Tendi agrees. “You like kick everyone’s ass and are super smart and you have street cred.”

“Street cred,” Beckett repeats, trying not to laugh. “Yeah, we’ll go with that.”

“Point is,” Rutherford went on. “He thinks you’re cool. And you know what? I think you think he’s pretty cool.”

Beckett makes a face. “I do not, take that back.”

“You think it’s impressive that Freeman promoted him and it has you all pissy because she threw you off the ship, but you secretly think he’s smart and you think it’s funny that he gets all tied up in knots over protocol,” Rutherford summarizes.

“What are you, my therapist?” Beckett snaps.

“I’m you’re friend. And I think you could be his too if you tried?”

Beckett groans, dropping her face into Tendi’s shoulder. “Fine maybe you’re a little bit right. He hates me though.”

“Trust me, he doesn’t hate you,” Rutherford says, grin in her voice. “You annoy the fuck out of him, sure. But he likes you plenty or he’d have gotten rid of you already.”

“So what do I do?” she mumbles into Tendi’s uniform.

“Go apologize, dumbass,” Tendi advises, shrugging her off her shoulder.

“Ugh.”

_____

She finds him laying on one of the Observation Deck floors, a half-drained bottle of blue substance beside him. Before she can change her mind, she flops down into a seated position next to him. They’re drifting through hyperspace, creating that weird blue effect as their ship speeds past distant stars.

Beckett takes a swig of his contraband, grimacing at the bitter taste.

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” he says, staring blankly out into space.

Beckett feels surprise at his admission—yeah, this man is a bit of a wreck, but he seemed to the type of guy whose contingency plans had contingency plans—but decides not to show it.

“Congrats dumbass, neither to the rest of us.”

Brad frowns. “You always know what you’re doing.”

This actually coaxes a surprised laugh out of her. She collapses backward, laying on the cold deck beside him. “That’s where you’re definitely wrong, dude. I never know what I’m going to do until I do it. Could be committing arson today, could adopt one of those turtle-puppies we saw on Karklon III last week, the list goes on. We’re Starfleet Officers, we have to be flexible about shit,” she adds, turning her head look at him.

He continues to stare straight ahead of him. “I think you make a better Captain.”

Okay, so he’s in a brutally honest mood. She can chill with that.

“I think I’d get us killed in a week,” she counters, truthfully. “I’m way too impulsive to be in charge. For every badass rule breaker, we need pencil pushing stickler, ya know?”

“So what,” Brad turns his head to the side, squints at her skeptically. “Now you want to work together?”

She drops her chin into the palm of her hand, leaning on her elbow. “I’m just saying, maybe I could get myself demoted back to the fucking Vulkner again and maybe you resign your position and become one of those sad sad researchers that get eaten by their own plants and Starfleet discovers your remains six years later when they have to find a cure for a face-eating parasite or whatever. Or,” she continues, before he can interrupt, all pissy, “maybe you need to loosen up, and maybe I need to suck up to command a bit more.”

It’s the closest to an apology as he’s going to get from her.

(He’s been kind of a bitch too, and they both know it.)

Brad turns back to the window—if you can call the entire wall being made of glass a window—and sighs.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot,” he muses—his version of an apology as well, she notes—and then adds, “I can always demote you.”

“Ha! You couldn’t last a day in the chair without me and you know it,” she replies, smugly. “You pretend like you want constant order and everything to be perfectly organized and on schedule, but I know the truth.”

“Really now?” he dryly says. “And what’s that.”

She grins, leaning in. “You’re secretly a rebel.”

“Fuck off.”

“Pffft, I saw your eye twitching during our report to Admiral Travional. You were practically begging me to spill my coffee on him.”

“Okay, I did not tell you to do that—”

“Oh, and that sexy, sexy moment when Tendi punched Captain Lohnersen out? You never once wrote her up for—”

“He was harassing her, I wasn’t going to write her up when he clearly was disrespecting—”

Beckett dangles the bottle of ale in front of him. “Why Captain Brad. Is this. Gasp! Contraband?!”

Brad laughs, snatching the bottle away from her. “I found it in your quarters.”

“And just what were you doing in my quarters, my good sir?”

“I’ll have you know I was dropping off paperwork. That you still haven’t done. From three weeks ago.”

“And you just swiped it off my desk. Tsk, tsk.”

“Confiscated it,” he corrects, still grinning up at her. “For research purposes, of course.”

“Of course.” Beckett grabs the bottle again. Takes another swig. “Surprised you’re still conscious. This shit can blind you, ya know.”

“Yeah, I know.” He grabs the bottle back. “So maybe slow down.”

She rolls her eyes because she has clearly proven numerous times that she can hold her liquor but decides not the start anything. It’s weird, getting along with Brad, but not…unpleasant.

“Hey,” she says, poking his shoulder. “I’m glad you didn’t die.”

His face looks pinched. “Thanks for not letting me die,” he replies, suddenly wary.

She scoffs. “Like I’d let anyone die under my watch.”

Brad sits up. “You mean like I did.”

“Oh.” Beckett blinks at him. “Oh shit. Dude, I was just being an asshole then, I didn’t mean it.”

“But you weren’t wrong. If I had been smarter or—”

“Dude, you cannot think like that,” Beckett grabs his shoulders and makes uncomfortably steady eye-contact. “Even if I had been on the Cerritos when shit went down, I don’t think I could have saved him. You guys were on a time crunch with no backup and I’m surprised Rutherford survived the explosion.”

Brad’s eyebrows furrow. “Wha—did you read Freeman’s Mission Report? I told you to stop—”

She waves him off. “Doesn’t matter. Point is, stop beating yourself up over it. And stop letting assholes like me make you feel bad,” she adds, as an afterthought.

“Only if you stop challenging people to duels in the Jefferies Tubes,” he counters.

“Deal,” she lies. “You should get in on some of those duels, though. You seem like a sword guy.”

“I can’t even tell if that’s a euphemism or not,” he mumbles. “Are we cool?”

“The coolest,” she confirms. “At least until you see my Missions Report.”

Brad sighs deeply and flops back down. “I’m not even worrying about that right now.”

“Good, because I definitely broke like every protocol ever.”

“Of course you did.”

“And I told the Camisitite’s to call me Captain Mariner, First of her Name.”

“Oh my god—”

“And I challenged their leader to a duel.”

“Mariner what the fuck.”

#reblog for the non ao3 users #tumblr reblog #my fanfiction #star trek lower decks #beckett mariner #brad boimler #d'vana tendi #sam rutherford #carol freeman #marinler #first officer au #star trek

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