#i had 0 clue what to do with the prompts so ended up with this

[greglow03]

Day 05.05. - VanWeek Art👱‍♀️

SUNRISE!!🌄 Hope you guys like it!! It's my only contribution to the VanWeek😔, but it was fun seeing others' creations!!😄

@vanweek2024

[starry-night-author]

HEHE i got so giggly and hyped to see you write #19!!! 🥺 I LOOOVE how you depicted suoervillain, gg!!!

AAAA TSYM!!!! Here's the second part :0-

Prompt #19 (Pt. 2)

(Part 1)

The team of heroes spent the entire day searching the stretch of city, and were unable to find a single thing that could be any clue to Supervillain's specific whereabouts. They spent hours wandering through streets and alleys, and they were all exhausted and sore by the day's end.

"They probably left as soon as they saw us coming," Other Hero grumbled. "Who says we go home?"

Part of Hero wanted to believe Supervillain had stayed, maybe so they could finally talk. Maybe once they'd seen Hero and Other Hero together again, they'd want to come out of hiding and explain what was going on.

No such luck yet.

Another hero in their team checked their watch. "If we don't find them, we can't go back for another thirty minutes."

"And what are we supposed to do until then?" Other Hero snapped. They'd been irritable all day, and Hero couldn't blame them.

"...Search?" Said another Hero.

"We've looked everywhere." Argued a third.

"We haven't if we haven't found them!" Someone else pointed out. Their tone was cheery, trying to keep spirits up. "Come on, let's just search this last group of buildings, then we can go back."

With various sighs and grumbles- most of them coming from Other Hero- the team continued through the more unkempt part of town. Hardly anyone lived here, it was mostly full of abandoned buildings and unused and dirty parks.

Their search brought them to a narrow alley, they had to go three at a time in order to fit. Water dripped from moldy pipes, pooling on the cobblestone floor in rancid puddles. Hero stuck close to Other Hero, their hand tightly gripped in theirs.

They were nearly to the end of the alley when Hero spotted something. A small, odd vent in the brick wall of one of the buildings, spray painted over.

Which wasn't very unusual, there was graffiti all over everything around here, but Hero still drew up short.

"Hero?" Other Hero asked, looking back at them. "What is it?"

"That's them," Hero said quietly, nodding at the vent.

"How do you know?" Another hero asked from behind them.

Hero didn't answer, looking up at Other Hero, noting the recognition in their eyes. Other Hero saw it too.

Spray painted on the vent was the image of a light green hummingbird. Outside Hero's favorite animal, and their favorite color.

"It's them." Other Hero said decisively. "Who wants to go down there first?"

Other Hero set up a system, sending two heroes down into the vent first, crawling through to see what they could find. Two more heroes would be positioned at the mouth of the vent in case they needed help, and two more- Hero and Other Hero- would stay on either side of the vent, just in case Supervillain wasn't home and came back while they were searching.

The first two heroes entered the vent, it was just wide enough for them to crawl side by side. There came various exclimations of disgust about how gross the vent was, but they still continued, rounding a corner.

Then there came the sound of screams that abruptly cut off.

The four heroes in the alley all shared a terrified glance.

"Hello?" One of the other heroes called back in. "Are you guys alright?"

Nothing.

Hero was shaking.

Supervillain wouldn't have hurt them, would they? They were old coworkers, friends, they wouldn't turn to the evil side so completely, right?

Or was the Outside Hero that Hero had known completely gone?

"S-should we go check on them?" Another of the other heroes asked. "Or should we call the agency?"

"Given the agency's patterns I doubt they'll help." Other Hero grumbled. "Last week's debacle is an example if there ever was one. You two go help, Hero and I can see if we can get in contact."

The heroes nodded, and disappeared into the vent.

As before, they rounded the corner, screamed, and vanished.

Hero was really panicking now, crouching in front of the vent and watching for any sign of what'd happened to them. But it was no use, they couldn't see around the corner.

"What do we do?" Hero asked shakily, looking up at Other Hero.

Other Hero was frustratedly pressing buttons on their phone the agency had issued them. "There's no signal," they grumbled. "I can't get a message back."

"Well we can't just leave them!" Hero exclaimed.

"I know, I know." Other Hero looked at them. "Here's what we'll do. I'll go down there to see what I can figure out, you go back to headquarters a-"

"No!" Hero jumped to their feet. "You said you wouldn't leave me!"

"I'm not, Hero." Other Hero took a step towards them. "I promise I'm not. But in case things go wrong we need someone-"

"I'm not leaving you here." Hero stood their ground, their arms tight at their sides. "If- if something happens, I can't lose you too."

They couldn't bear losing Other Hero, and they couldn't bear the thought that perhaps Outside Hero would be the cause of their death. That their best friend could turn on them like that so completely.

Other Hero gave a deep sigh. "Fine. But stay behind me. Promise?"

"Promise," Hero nodded.

Other Hero dropped to their knees, wasting no time to crawl into the vent. Though it was wide enough for the two of them to fit together, Hero followed what Other Hero had said and stayed just behind them.

The vent was gross, and within seconds Hero's hands and knees were coated in dark grime. Wrinkling their nose, they tried their hardest not to breathe too deeply as the vent stunk as well.

"If this is the entrance to their lair wouldn't there be better upkeep on it?" Hero asked, momentarily pausing to inspect their already filthy palms.

"Who knows," Other Hero shrugged. "Now stay here, I'm going to go around the bend."

Hero nodded, sitting back slightly on their shins. "Be careful."

"I will." Other Hero glanced back at them over their shoulder. "I'll see you in a moment."

With that they cautiously crawled around the corner, carefully placing their hands and knees. Hero could see how tense they were, ready to flight or flee at any given second.

The moment the last of them had disappeared around the corner, Hero heard them scream.

The sound cut off seconds later, and rather abruptly.

"Other Hero!" Hero shouted, starting forward. Rounding the corner, they saw that the vent in front of them was completely empty.

There was no sign of where Other Hero had gone, nor that they'd been there in the first place.

"O-Other Hero?" Hero called, their voice shaky. They leaned forward on their knees, waving their arm out into the passage ahead and quickly retreating it.

No trap was triggered.

"Other Hero!" Hero shouted again, slowly and cautiously moving forward. Gingerly placing one hand, then a knee, then the other hand, and the other knee, slowly slowly moving forward. "Other Hero!"

Still nothing. Where were they?

Swallowing down the panic, Hero continued down the vent. They were shaking so badly they could barely keep themself up, placing one trembling hand after another.

They hadn't made it very far when the floor suddenly dropped out from beneath them.

Hero screamed as they plummeted, looking up just in time to see the panel of the vent that had broken beneath them now closing up above them. They were in the air for hardly a second before they landed heavily on something soft.

Hero clutched to it for a second, eyes wide as they caught their breath.

Well, that explained why everyone had disappeared suddenly. There was a trap door in the vent.

But where were they now?

"Hero!"

Hero yelped as someone called their name, and there was a hand on their chest, someone pressing close. They started upwards, only to see that it was Other Hero, clinging tightly to them. "Hero, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Hero said shakily, letting Other Hero help them sit up. "I think so. Where- where are we?"

"Supervillain's lair, I suppose." Other Hero sat next to them, glancing around. "No sign of anyone else, however. I don't know where they are."

They room they'd dropped into was rather large, but not very well-lit. There were a few lights set into the ceiling around the vent above them, but they did little to illuminate the large space. The room stretched far off into the darkness, and Hero could see the outlines of half-built mechs and other projects stacked around them.

"Do you think-"

Hero broke off abruptly as a high soft laugh, almost a giggle, echoed around the large room.

"Who's there?!" Other Hero demanded, leaping up from the large, beanbag-like squishy object that'd been placed there to break their fall. "Show yourself!"

A voice replied, a soft one that seemed to echo from everywhere. Bouncing off the many projects scattered around the large room. "My my, another set of heroes! There've been so many here today."

Other Hero glanced back at Hero, helping them up. Hero swallowed, scanning the darkness for any sign of Supervillain. "O-Outside Hero?"

It took the voice a moment to respond. "No no, I haven't seen them lately."

"Shut up, Outside Hero." Other Hero took another step forward. "What are you doing? What is all of this?"

This time there didn't come an answer, rather the sound of something hitting the ground softly in front of them. Hero and Other Hero glanced up, squinting into the darkness.

A dark obscure shape slowly stepped from it, not entirely moving into the circle of light. "I-I think you must be mistaken, I'm-"

Hero took a step forward, daring to pull away from the comfort of Other Hero. "We know who you are, Outside Hero."

The form across from them took a few more hesitant steps, pausing just on the outskirts of the light. Finally they took one more step forward, and Hero gasped.

Now, standing only fifteen feet from them, there was no denying it.

There, beneath the makeup and capes and dark yet flashy clothes, stood Outside Hero.

"So it really is you," Hero whispered, taking a step back to stand next to Other Hero. "Outside Hero, what is going on?"

Immediately all attempt at their Supervillain persona was dropped as Outside Hero approached. "Look, I'm so sorry you two, I should have-"

"You should have what?!" Other Hero demanded, striding to meet them. Outside Hero stopped abruptly, and began taking a few steps back as Other Hero stormed down on them. "You should've given us some warning? An explanation? Literally any sign of what happened to you, and not leave us to speculate? Not come back as some kind of Supervillain, leaving us both miserable without you and overworked by the agency?"

"I-I'm sorry, but I'm doing this so-"

"It's too late for explanations!" Other Hero shouted, and Hero flinched. "You should've been considerate enough to tell us earlier, instead of making us hunt you down! Hero has been inconsolable since you left, you left us both without considering what that would do to us!"

Outside Hero momentarily met eyes with Hero over Other Hero's shoulder, and Hero was quick to glance away. "I did, it's just-"

"So you didn't care?" Other Hero spat. "You know what it would do to us and you didn't care?!"

"N-no, I-"

But Other Hero had had enough. They launched themself at Outside Hero, their former feelings towards their best friend completely forgotten in their anger. Outside Hero yelped and jumped backwards, boosters firing on under their shoes and launching themself up in the air.

Other Hero leapt up after them, snagging their cape and dragging them back down to the ground, completely throwing off their balance.

Outside Hero landed heavily on their side, crying out as they caught their fall with their wrist and knee.

“Other Hero, stop!” Hero shouted after them, taking a step forward to intervene. “This isn’t the way to-“

They broke off as Outside Hero scrambled to their feet, holding their hands out submissively. “Other Hero listen-“

“Why would I listen to you?!” Other Hero shouted, advancing on them. "Why would I, when you're only bothering to explain after we hunted you down?"

"I didn't know how to-"

But they were forced to break off as Other Hero leapt at them again, and Hero watched in shock as the two fought.

The three of them had been close for years. Other Hero was their best friend, Outside Hero was their partner. The two were close friends as well, even just a month ago none of them would ever dream of anything like this happening.

This felt like the part where they fell over the edge. First Outside Hero going missing, then Supervillain's relentless attacks on the agency, and now two of the most important people in Hero's life fighting.

They didn't try to intervene anymore. They couldn't. All they could do was watch the fight in shock.

And at last, Other Hero fell. With a blow to the head that left them reeling, they fell to the ground, unconscious.

Outside Hero immediately crouched down next to them, checking their pulse and their injuries. A few moments later they stood, striding over to Hero. "Hero please, I'm so sorry-"

"Y-you hurt them." Hero's voice was small, they didn't look up at Outside Hero. They stared in horror at Other Hero's limp body.

"They'll be okay, it was nothing serious. I-"

"You hurt them," it was all Hero could process in the moment.

"They were attacking me! It was self defense! They'll be fine, I promise, can you-"

Hero pulled away as Outside Hero reached for them, looking up at them with wild, panicked eyes. "We- we were all friends and you-"

"H-Hero, look. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know how to do this. But something had to stop." Outside Hero reached for their hand, holding it gently in their palm. "The agency is awful. Mistreating the heroes, and only caring about stopping criminals. If they really cared about the people, they'd focus more on the destruction fighting like that causes, on helping the people who've lost homes and cars and jobs because some villain decided to put up a fight in there general area. Or fixing the justice system so there's less villains in the first place."

They held Hero's hand tighter, their other hand reaching out to wipe the tears from Hero's face. "This is the only way I know how to bring them down. I have to do something about it."

Hero blinked rapidly, trying to clear the tears from their vision. "You didn't recognize us when we came in."

Outside Hero let out a breath. "I pretended not to, I hoped you wouldn't recognize me."

"You hurt Other Hero."

"I-I just had to get them to stop so I could explain-"

Hero pulled away from them, their tears flowing faster. "You left us. You- you left us without any warning of what you were going to do, I-"

"I didn't know what else to do!" Outside Hero exclaimed, reaching for them. But Hero continued backing away. "I had to get out, and-"

"You're not the same." Hero came to a standstill, and Outside Hero hesitated.

"What?"

"You're not the same person anymore." Hero looked them up and down with disgust. "You left us, you pretended not to know us, you've hurt Other Hero, you've hurt me. You have all of this-" they waved at Outside Hero's outfit. The makeup. The hair. The cape. The boots. "-you're not the same."

"Please, Hero, I am, I-" they reached out, grabbing Hero's wrist.

"Let go of me, Supervillain," Hero hissed.

Outside Hero froze. Eyes wide, they stared at Hero. "Hero, please-"

Hero yanked their hand away, falling into a defensive stance. "Leave me alone."

Supervillain took a shaking step back, and Hero moved past them, running to fall next to Other Hero, rolling them on to their side and checking on them.

They were still breathing, and their pulse was steady. Their nose was bleeding and their head was bruised, but otherwise they appeared to be okay.

Hero was just hauling them up to carry them away when Supervillain approached, their voice soft. "There's a door over there that leads to stairs up to the building next the alley." They didn't meet Hero's gaze. "The other heroes are all there, they should be okay."

"Should be," Hero grumbled, and turned and marched off to the wall Supervillain had nodded to.

Supervillain watched them go, wincing when the door slammed.

Then they turned and retreated back into the darkness of their lair.

[cheriboms]

BTTF Year-End Tag Game!

Thank you to both @bttf-dork and @future-boi for tagging me in this ;w; also pika ur comments about my art WAHHHH ILYSM <33 oTL

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Since I only hopped on this time train towards the final third of the year lol: fully all the way through, at least 4! Otherwise I've jumped around a lot while looking for clips and references and stuff. So if I stitch all those together, then we'll say approx 5ish :) The first movie is my favorite one!

Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what?

Noooo, I don't really have any merch for things I like, actually... it gives me too much anxiety to publicly show my interests ;w;

How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

None LOL I don't really drink soda to begin with, but if I do, I prefer white (lemon lime) soda anyway :P

What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

I'm going to be honest, I... don't read fanfic very much. 🫣 I usually end up creating my own stuff (art/writing) when I have free time vs looking at other people's, which ik I need to get better at T_T So I don't have a loooot to rec... that being said I MUST shout out "Emmett's first weather expirement." by @alex-a-fans !!! <3 It is my greatest treasure of the year <333

I also really liked "incredible" by @penny-anna, which I read before I officially entered le fandom ;w; lone pine doc and baby marty my beloveds !!!!!

Finally, like basically all of the Doctober prompts from @doctorbrown *O* Days 8, 22, and 30 are some of my favorites, but I really recommend them all oTL theyre SOOO GOOOOOD !!!!!

A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

See: everything I reblogged. Jk but fr, everyone is so so talented it's really hard to choose :'0 Here's a bunch of some of my faves in no particular order!!

[x] from @hearts-for-winona | [x] from @maxintime | [x] from @future-boi | [x] from @bttf-dork | [x] from @synthsays and @daryfromthefuture | [x] from @therobotwig | [x] from @22194isbestboy | [x] from @mythical-bookworm | [x] from @mkayeatsspaghetii | [x] from @tobytost / @tobytost-star

Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

Yes I did !!! It is actually the most fan content I've ever made for a fandom since I was in... maybe junior high? So like YUH. Tbh, it's very difficult for me to find what you would call 'pride' in my art so ehh >_>; that being said, I do think that I had a lot of good IDEAS for Doctober (esp days 19 and 28), but my execution wasnt really the best. I would have liked to draw days 17 and 24 (+ time travel day) a little more properly too; like, I'm not as disappointed at how they turned out, but I still wish they were better and/or I could have given them more time. The ones I most actually-tried-and-dont-mind are days 7, 9, and 21 + under the sea dance day. (So many links was probably cheating but tbf I've kinda bent the rules for the past few questions so... whatevs lol). I've ALSOOO still been working on my godforsaken essay, it is 40 pages rn but even tho it's not done, I'm INSANELY proud of it Q_Q

How many times were you late for school this year?

None! B) For one thing I'm graduated lol, but also I'm typically early gang. I'm that person who'd sit in the classroom by myself for like 5 minutes before everyone else would show up LMBO ^^;

Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

Yess I did!! A... lot actually :0 Most of them were by chance/pre bttf era, but still :P Here is my list as well as I could find, sorry it is soooo long, but what are ya gonna do:

Star Wars/The Mandalorian; The Addams Family (1991); The Tale of Desperaux (2008); Cyberchase; & Clue (1985) -- Christopher Lloyd, havent rewatched the latter 3 since I was a kid and literally went :0 to learn he apparently was in them. Also Kings Quest (2015) which isn't a movie/show but I think it counts uwu

Stuart Little (1999) -- Michael J. Fox, which also rocked my world to discover O_O like hearing it now I'm like "yeah thats him alright" but as a kid I would never have been able to tell you that was the same guy from that time travel movie, despite watching both way too much LMBO

Elf (2003) & Last Vegas (2013) -- Mary Steenburgen, nothing much to say except that she slayed ^_^

Love at the Christmas Table (2012) -- Lea Thompson, I didn't care for it and was shouting "LEA GET OUT OF THIS MOVIE, UR BETTER THAN THIS" like the whole time lol.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) & Curious George (2006) -- apparently these have Donald Fullilove (Goldie Wilson) in them? Same w Jason Scott Lee (Whitey) in Lilo & Stitch (2002)??? And Star Wars/Kenobi show apparently had Flea (Needles)????? ...HUH.

I binged both the entirety of Law and Order: SVU as well as Seinfeld this year w my sister; apparently Mary Steenburgen, Lea Thompson, & Casey Siemaszko (3-D) are in at least one episode of the former, while Elsa Raven (Clocktower Lady) and Ricky Dean Logan (Data) are apparently in a random episode of Seinfeld each. So like, technically I saw them, tho I don't distinctly remember it :'D Also, I have been making my way through Little House on the Prairie recently, which has Matt Clark (Chester the Bartender) in a few episodes !

Finally finally finally, I watched I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017), as well as the LOTR trilogy like. Twice? And they all have Elijah Wood of course >:3c

Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

None in the wild, no :P But I did end up being in the top 0.1% of listeners for Huey Lewis this year... so UHHHHH take that as u will LMBO

How many times did you fall down this year?

Hmmm idk?? Probably at least 1 I would think ???

Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like!

Nooo, I didn't even know it existed until like October !!! It looks super fun but atm/last I checked it doesn't come to where I live so :( I should listen to the soundtrack soon!

How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

At least three times, and then probably a few times I'm forgetting :P

If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

The year in general is definitely "Oh great, the atrocity channel!" LMBO (but when hasn't it been since like... 2020? 2016???). For me personally, I think it's either "I don't know if I could take that kind of rejection." or "Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything." ^^;

⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

I think I'm going to try to post more of the things I make, like my art and especially my writing ;w; Most of the time I'm quite George-ish and am too scared to put any of my stuff out there, for fear that no one will like it, so... I need to get better about that. Also I'd LIKE to get a full-time job and my own place some time next year, but we will see !!!

Idrk who to tag :0 ik @brinkle-brackle @mythical-bookworm and @alex-a-fans have already been tagged but havent technically done it yet... maybe also @backintime @tobytost @ectojester @stillpreoccupiedwith1985 @itsthemorph @doctorbrown @knickynoo and @fourth-dimensional-thinker :) but no pressure to do it, just didnt catch if youd been tagged or not!

[guesst]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @bloustorm and @aobawilliams thank you for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

15!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

71,186 :0

3. What fandoms do you write for?

m!ik and bnha

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

all for you, 'uwu' - 897 the road to heaven is paved with bad intentions - 615 anonymous fic :) - 507 to find your heart a home - 251 a case of purposeful grandchild acquisition - 223

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

usually yes! i like getting replies from authors when i comment and also all commenters should know how insane i go about their thoughts. there are some fics i forgot to reply though and atp i feel a bit awkward replying cus its been like. a year

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

'what happens after your clown father rejects your clownery for his younger more clownish son?' - its a crack fic but it does have an unhappy ending so

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

'my friend kira', or 'the frog and the prince', or 'the thing'. they all have very happy/hopeful endings

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nope!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i enjoy reading them! but ive never written one. i have a crossover prompt thats been sitting in my inbox for like 2 years though.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope! unless they did it without me knowing

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes! 'fish in a birdcage' - i wrote it with @raccoonwithacoffeeproblem for a prompt challenge, it was great

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

idk voldemort x harry potter probably

okay in all seriousness i have no clue i dont really have a shi-- KIRIO/IRUMA ACTUALLY (but make it dubiously platonic)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

i have a vague hope that i will finish all of them...... one day........... well i guess afuwu is one im sad about cus i made a vow to finish it and everything and i have not

16. What are your writing strengths?

DIALOGUE! well idk if its a strength but its one of my favourite parts of writing

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i am slow as FUCK

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

hummm not if the whole conversation ends up being in another language and you have to translate in the end notes. but if i got a foreign character i think tossing in idioms and little exclamations here and there is fun

19. First fandom you wrote for?

i guess on ao3 it's bnha but i know theres a pjo fic in a childhood diary somewhere

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

this is a mean question because every fic i write is my favourite fic at the point of writing it. but i guess... i really like 'how to commit accidental grandson acquisition' just because of how much ive thought about the worldbuilding. also the soulmate au 'to find your heart a home' and ------- im going to end up naming all my m!ik fics jsjdfhg

umm now i will tag @raccoonwithacoffeeproblem and @syanara and @seeesame (hello sesme its been a while)

[benthelastskywalker]

Can you elaborate more on your last post on how Ben solo fell to the dark side? :0

Certainly! The sequels do a very poor job on the subject, unfortunately, as most of the information regarding his turn is only discussed in supplemental material, not the movies themselves and this is my biggest pet peeve with the ST.

In the TFA novelization it is revealed that Snoke (or really Palpatine through Snoke as in TROS we find out Snoke was created by Palps and was just his puppet) had been manipulating Ben to the Dark Side since before he was born. Just think about that for a moment. Imagine having some evil guy inside your head. Whispering things to you, trying to convince you to abandon your family and follow him? Imagine not even having your own thoughts to yourself, this evil guy knowing everything you think and feel. It would be hard enough to deal with as an adult, but like Ben wasn't even born yet when this started. He had no idea what was happening. No way to understand or explain, to get help.

Now keep in mind that Leia, Luke, and Han all believed that Palpatine was dead and had never heard of Snoke at that point. So they had no clue what was really going on. Leia sensed something was off, but didn't realize where the real problem lay. This means that they were unable to help Ben throughout his childhood. They thought his temper tantrums where just coming from him, not him reacting to what was going on. Han was ill equipped to deal with a Force sensitive child in the first place, but one being mentally assaulted everyday? I can't imagine. He was often gone as he was still a smuggler. And Leia was busy trying to help run the galaxy.

Yet, despite all of this Ben still managed to stay in the Light for twenty-three years. Twenty-three years of Palpatine inside his head with no support from his family and he didn't turn. Unbelievable. He really doesn't get enough credit for this. Which is why, I don't doubt, Palpatine ended up going as far as he did.

We know in TLJ that Luke almost killed Ben, but The Rise of Kylo Ren comics, reveal that there was much more going on. In TLJ, Luke tells Rey that he saw inside Ben's head and that was what, briefly, prompted him to consider killing Ben, but according to the comics, he wasn't actually seeing inside Ben's head. He was seeing inside Palpatine's. Palpatine purposefully let Luke get a glimpse of him, but manipulated him into thinking he was seeing Ben's mind. Then Palps nudged Ben awake just at the right moment to see Luke standing over him with a light saber and react.

When Ben gets out of the hut, a "freak lightning storm" (I think we can all agree it was summoned by Palps), hit the Jedi temple, catching it on fire. That's right. Palps burned down the temple, not Ben. In fact, Ben was horrified and tried to help rescue the students trapped inside, but failed. It was then that three of the students who had been away, returned and accused Ben of murdering Luke and the other students and wouldn't believe him when he told them what had happened. Ben ran and they pursued. All three were eventually killed, but it was pretty much self-defense. Ben went to join the Knights of Ren after that and then went to Snoke, believing that he could never turn to his parents, believing that they wouldn't believe him (I can hardly blame him for feeling that way). It was only then that he started calling himself Kylo Ren.

Ben didn't murdered Luke's students as Luke and Han and everyone else in the movies believed. He was framed. But the sad thing is, even Ben himself seemed to believe that he was responsible. He probably thought that he had unconsciously summoned the lighting that burned the temple down, much like Rey in TROS.

So, you see, Ben's "fall" to the Dark Side wasn't so simple as something as making the choice to jump into a swimming pool. That's why I described it as a game of Tug of War where Ben is the rope, though really, it was Palpatine pulling at Ben, slowly inch, by inch, though Ben resisted as long as he could. Ben didn't choose the Dark Side. The Dark Side choose him and sank its nasty claw into him and refused to let go. Yet, as we see in TROS, Ben was still able to come back to the Light. He really is when of the strongest characters in SW if not the strongest.

[thedamageofherdays]

This week's [23-08-2021 - 29-08-2021] reading log is here! I read a lot again this week and I feel like it's a lovely variety of fics. Most fics are Stucky like usual, but there's at least one other ship. I am constantly amazed by the talent people have in this fandom! There was one fic I read on Tumblr that I can't seem to find unfortunately, but when I do I'll make sure to reblog and rec it 💕

Favourites are marked with a 🌻

When life gives you lemons by moonthejedi394 @moonythejedi394 [Stucky, 40k words, Mature] (12/15 chapters available)

Or 13 Terrible Things to Do With Lemons Other Than Making Lemonade

Steve Rogers is a home health nurse. He works for an agency, which assigned him to the aging Winifred Barnes, the one and only Silent Era Hollywood darling. As her needs increased, she requested the agency assign Steve to her full-time. She could pay for it, so she got it. Steve then moved in with her, becoming her caregiver; he cooked, he cleaned, he managed her medications, he made sure she was comfortable.

Winifred's children treated him less than ideally. He was the help, after all. And then Steve had the audacity to go and turn out to be eldest son James Barnes's soulmate. No one saw that coming.

The Masseur and the Assassin by buckybarnesdeservestobehappy @buckybarnesdeservestobehappy [Stucky, 17k words, Explicit]

Bucky Barnes needed a vacation from his job. What he found was a happy ending.

The Words Breathe by buckbarnesdeservestobehappy [Stucky, 1k words, Mature]

All Steve has to do is keep his promise. When he doesn’t, Bucky gets mouthy.

Soft by this_wayward_life @wayward-lives [Stucky, 2k words, Explicit]

The last time he'd seen Bucky he'd looked unhealthy, with pallid skin and greasy, lanky hair. Now, Bucky shone; his hair was thick and silky, his skin a deep bronze from spending so much time outside. He was softer, too; the hard muscle that used to cover him was now replaced by soft fat, his body still strong, but in a more mundane way. His thighs were thicker, his ass plumper, and when he'd pulled Steve into the river Steve had noticed the pudge on his stomach.

Seeing Bucky so happy, well-fed and shining, was a bit of a kick in the face. For all the years they'd known each other, he'd never seen Bucky so... care-free. Now that Bucky was putting on weight, his middle soft and his body malleable, it sent a bolt of arousal through Steve every time he noticed the curves of Bucky's body.

Or: Bucky put on a bit of weight in Wakanda, and Steve is Not Coping.

🌻 Revive Another Side of Me by dontcallmebree @iamthe-wo-manwhocan [Stucky, 1k words, Mature]

Steve’s never lived in a world without Bucky, and he’s not living now. It takes them a while, much too long, to get that awaited rest, a little slice of peace after the dust has settled.Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are inseparable, history remembers. But they’re not men of the past quite yet.

🌻 imagine being loved by me by spacebuck @spacebuck [Stucky, 20k words, Explicit]

Just after 1am - a few hours after he posted today’s photo - he hears the tell-tale sound of a twitter message. Bucky grabs his phone, not checking who it’s from as he opens it because it’s probably one of his mutuals yelling at him as per usual. When he actually looks at his phone, though, it’s not Natasha

The ‘verified’ check stares back at him for a long moment before he can even bring himself to process the name on his screen. Steve Rogers is messaging him. Or, he reasons, a very good fake. The handle looks right though, not that Bucky knows. Not that Bucky has Captain’s America’s tweets set up as notifications, or that Bucky’s own display name is set to captain america’s bitch. Not at all.

Hey, the first message says. It’s Steve.

🌻 JB’s Complete Lube Services by dixons_mama @dixons-mama [Stucky, 3k words, Explicit]

People just didn’t approach Captain America and proposition him. Although, sometimes Steve wished they would; even the pinnacle of virtue and justice needed to get dicked down from time to time.

Or, the one where Steve has the hots for a mechanic and decides to be proactive in getting that dick.

If it had to be someone by rainbow_nerds [Stucky, 1k words, Mature]

Bucky had known since he was a child that he didn’t have a choice in who he married, but he’d thought he had more time before the day arrived.

Miscalculations by christywantspizza @christywantspizza [Ransom Drysdale/Reader, 6k words, Explicit]

Ransom tries to get you to sleep with him by less than honorable means. You give him what he wants, just not how he wants it.

How to Seduce a Writer by obsessivereader [Stucky, 2k words, Teen]

What's a determined master strategist going to do when the oblivious writer he's trying to woo keeps missing all the clues?

He doesn’t think it’s because he hadn’t signaled his own interest to Bucky. He’s pretty much done everything short of hitting Bucky over the head with semaphore flags by this point. There’s no way Bucky could’ve missed them. Unless… There’d been that one link he’d stumbled upon when he’d googled ‘how to talk to a writer’. It’d been written by a writer, who’d been candid about how oblivious writers could be, and how someone could go about seducing one. An idea starts to form. It’s ridiculous, but at this point, he’s willing to go with ridiculous, since subtle wasn’t getting him anywhere.

🌻 Pod Bless America by Deisderium @deisderium [Stucky, 6k words, Teen]

Bucky can't believe his favorite podficcer recorded his newest fanfic AU of the show Commandos. He's even more surprised when the customer who busts him listening to fic while he's working in the office supply store turns out to be that podficcer.

* The guy—maybe bi_shield?—took his phone, looked down at the screen, and smiled. "Yeah, that one's mine," he said with no evidence of embarrassment. "It was a good one." He handed the phone back to Bucky.

"I wrote it," Bucky croaked.

take a bite by wearing_tearing [Stucky, 7k words, Mature]

"I’d never let anyone freeze to death.” Steve gives a big sigh and flutters his lashes. “All that blood gone to waste.”

Bucky’s lips turn down and his nose scrunches up a little. “I want to be grossed out, but…”

“But you get it.” Steve gives him a pointed look. “Vampires aren’t the only ones who can appreciate how juicy blood is.”

*

Or: Vampire Steve saves newly-turned werewolf Bucky from a snowstorm.

Leaving the Shield Behind by BuckyAboveEverything [Stucky, 6k words, Teen]

“So, on one hand, we have Steve Rogers - hunk, genius, animal lover. Buys you waffles and overpriced coffee. 100% wholesome all-American boy.”

“And, on the other hand, we have Capsicle – twink, smart-ass, fanboy. Reads your stories and sends you fanart. Possibly a pervert or a serial killer.”

Bucky groaned.

“I am 100% certain I am 0% sure of what to do."

Bucky Barnes, full-time copywriter and free-time fanfic writer, struggles to choose between two equally-attractive suitors, only to find that he doesn’t have to after all.

* Based on a true story *

Cap's Book Corner by Neche [Stucky, 2k words, Teen]

Recluse Author Bucky Barns stumbles into fanboy Steve Rogers bookstore one day...

Cat Nap by galwednesday @galwednesday [Stucky, 8k words, Teen]

Objectively, losing the Bucharest safehouse and its contents was the least of Bucky’s problems. The balding agent he’d seen directing the raid was apparently affiliated with SHIELD, which was a shadowy government agency that made representatives from other shadowy government agencies suddenly remember urgent appointments when Bucky tried to bribe, threaten, and otherwise shake them down for information on what the hell SHIELD might want with a former brainwashed assassin. Dodging SHIELD should be his number one priority.

Subjectively, he wanted his fucking cat back.

at any given moment by honeypuffed [Stucky, 1k words, Teen]

Steve and Bucky find out that everyone thinks they're sleeping together.

Brought to Brightness by eyres [Stucky, 10k words, Teen]

Army veteran Bucky Barnes has fallen in love with Steve, a guy he met online a few months after he returned from Afghanistan. Only problem is, he doesn't know Steve's last name or even what he looks like.

When his sister helps him send his story into MTV's Catfish, he's hoping they can help him meet Steve or, at least, let him move on with his life if Steve isn't real. Little does he know, Steve and Captain America have more in common than just a first name.

🌻 Nokken Wood by leveragehunters @leveragehunters [Stucky, 10k words, Teen]

When Sam's friend needs a house-sitter for his place in the country, Steve jumps at the chance. Six months rent-free to do nothing but draw and paint and wander the countryside, looking for inspiration? It was like a dream. But when he gets lost in a storm and nearly falls into a pond he starts to rethink the whole like a dream aspect of life in the country. And when a red-eyed, sharp-clawed, silver-fanged creature rises out of the darkness, Steve is one hundred percent certain the dream's morphed into a nightmare.

...until it gives him a cup of tea.

(Inspired partly by this prompt a supernatural creature is supposed to scare you but instead it gives you a cup of tea and a blanket because you're having a bad day and you keep coming back and partly by this painting.)

Professional Pride by galwednesday [Stucky, 700 words, Teen]

Bucky is having a very good day, until he turns around and finds himself face-to-face with Captain America.

“Oh shit,” he blurts before he can stop himself, and Captain America blinks at him. “Hey, hi, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Here, at New York’s Pride parade, surrounded by thousands of happy screaming people wearing rainbows and sometimes not much else. What is he doing here? Is he on guard duty or something? Was he just on a mission and happened to be passing by on his way back?

He’s in uniform but with the cowl loose around his neck, so when he rubs the back of his head it fluffs up his matted hair. “I, uh. I saw one of your–temporary tattoos?” Captain fucking America says, like it’s a question.

The A-bridged Guide to Trolling by galwednesday [Stucky, 1k words, Teen]

“I don’t have any money.”

Oh no, now the girl looked upset. Her eyes were huge and her lip was wobbling. Bucky tried to think fast despite the oh shit oh shit oh shit looping through his head.

“That’s okay,” Bucky said gently. “I don’t need money. We can figure out another kind of toll.”

The girl frowned at him. “Like what?”

Bucky scratched his head, trying to think of something a kid was certain to have on hand. “Do you know any jokes?”

(Fantasy AU in which Steve is a hedge witch with a green thumb, Bucky is a bridge troll who's new in town, and knock-knock jokes are a viable form of currency.)

It's a bittersweet ending (if you know what I mean) by relenafanel [Stucky, 1k words, Teen]

“I’ll see you around, Steve,” Bucky answers with a smirk, moving away from the counter with a wink.

Steve watches him go. Bucky’s wearing a pair of skinny jeans coated in something to give the appearance of leather. It’s impossible to not watch him go.

stuck on you by wearing_tearing [Stucky, 5k words, Teen]

“Bucky? You don’t look so hot.”

Bucky makes a tiny little sound in the back of his throat, only to start coughing. Of course he doesn’t look hot. He’s sick and he’s dying and Steve obviously isn’t attracted to him.

Decision-Making in Relationships (Paid Research Opportunity!) by castiowl [Stucky, 8k words, Teen]

Clint looked thoughtfully at the flyer. “I guess your actual roommate wouldn’t be down with it?”

Bucky frowned. “Have you met Steve Rogers?”

no way out but through by hollimichele [Stucky, 9k words, Teen]

Steve never sees it coming.

you got blood on your hands (and i know it's mine) by nighimpossible [Stucky, 3k words, Teen]

Bucky refuses to see Steve after his deprogramming.

Like What You See by daisymondays [Stucky, 8k words, Teen]

For all the time Bucky’s spent fantasizing about meeting Captain America, he’d never imagined it would be while posing nude in front of a drawing class.

🌻 A Real Boy by itsnotbleak [Stucky, 5k words, Teen]

It took the Winter Soldier three weeks to remember that human beings needed to sleep and eat.

It took Steve far too long to realise the Winter Soldier was sleeping in his bed.

Amapola by chaya [Stucky, 830 words, Teen]

Total fluff. Bucky's recovering nicely. Steve's oblivious. Sometimes it's best to set aside subtlety for action.

Knocking Boots With Sugar by buckybarnesdeservestobehappy [Stucky, 4k words, Explicit]

In between summers at college, Steve Rogers wants a new adventure beyond his lonely life in Brooklyn. He ends up in West Texas working on a dude ranch where Bucky Barnes is a long-time employee. When Bucky offers to buy Steve a drink, they end up drunk on tequila and making out in public. For the rest of the summer, they're inseparable. As the summer draws to a close, Steve realizes he doesn't want to leave.

Rogers and Associate by roe87 @jro616 [Stucky, 7k words, Teen]

When they first meet, Bucky is a hooker and Steve is a cop. She's been arrested, but Steve lets her off.

Years pass and they maintain a casual friendship, seeing each other out on the streets most nights.

Though he later makes detective, Steve loses faith in the system and quits his job.

He wants to set up as a private investigator, and he asks Bucky if she'd be his assistant.

Just in time by rainbow_nerds [Stucky, 1k words, Mature]

Bucky knew the apartment he was renting was old fashioned, but walking in the front door and finding himself transported back to 1938 was not on the list of things he had prepared himself for.

🌻 You Like What's in My Head by dontcallmebree [Stucky, 15k words, Explicit] (with art by @kocuria)

Bucky can’t decide if Steve’s a tough nut to crack or incredibly easy. The timbre of his voice, a low and almost amused, “Sure, kid,” when Bucky asks for a drink feels like something gripping him on the back of his neck.

He thinks this might be one of those moments in life he’ll pinpoint in the future and either curse at for dooming himself, or remember fondly with pride.

He’s right. Bucky Barnes blunders through falling in love with Commander Rogers and tries to find a deeper meaning behind the expensive gifts and thorough fucking.

Can I Sit Here? by BuckyFrickenBarnes [Stucky, 962 words, General]

Bucky has unusual methods for getting rid of his writer's block.

Or, Bucky needs that table.

Workplace Romance by BuckyFricken Barnes [Stucky, 1k words, General]

Bucky is under the impression that his boss hates him.

Or,

Steve needs to get better at dealing with his feelings.

🌻 1-800-MAYTAG by Miss Plum @misspluckyplum [Stucky, 1k words, Explicit]

Bucky just wants to get some housework done. It gets out of hand fast. Silly little fluff and smut romp with snarky stucky boys.

Eyes of the Forest by Lordelannette [Stucky, 7k words, Explicit] (2/8 chapters available)

When Omega Bucky Barnes comes to Eagle Lake, it was in search of wolves, a creature that had not been seen in the area for decades.

What he finds instead is Steve Rogers, a handsome, though quiet Alpha who seems to be everywhere in the forest.

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being Tony Stark’s Daughter (The Early Years)

Tony Stark x daughter!reader

warnings:

a/n: i’d like to think y/n was born around the year of 2000 in this, so around 8 when the first iron man took place, i guess this takes place all the way until right before avengers 1

prompt: y/n is tony’s daugher, takes place from about ages 0-12

The Teenage Years (2) The Intense Years (3) The Aftermath (4) Continued (5)

let’s face it: tony has no damn clue what he’s doing

your mom just kind of dropped you off at his house and left

“sir, the probability of that child being yours is very high”

“yeah, thanks for that, JARVIS”

pepper and happy being confused as hell because nobody knows what to do with you

obadiah stane was even a little bit skeptical of the whole thing

“well, we can’t just get rid of her”

“maybe we should get a dna test?”

yep, you were tony’s

although he didn’t know a thing about fatherhood, he decided this was a chance to be better than his dad

NOTHING in his house got baby-proofed

pepper and happy became reluctant babysitters at odd hours

but they grew to love you

quality time with dad

“is she holding a screwdriver?!” -pepper

“yeah, uh, she’s having a lot of fun with it” -tony

as you got older, you’d randomly wander into his shop and scare the bejesus out of him

“woah! how’d you get down here, kiddo?”

tony had to get JARVIS to keep an eye on you because if there’s trouble, you’ll find it

your first word was happy

“oh, my god, she said my name! did you hear that?”

“she meant happy like the emotion”

“really? you’re gonna tell me what she meant? it’s my name, end of discussion”

JARVIS taught you how to count and your ABC’s and yes you were homeschooled by an AI and your genius father

missing your dad during his parties

but he’d take you to meetings and dress you up all nice

there are a lot of paparazzi pictures of you looking your cutest for the camera

uncle rhodey

rhodey honestly thinks you’re adorable

“tell your dad that i’m cooler than him, got it?” *fist bump*

“uncle rhodey says he’s cooler than you.”

“he said what?!”

he covers your ears when he swears

but you still hear it and you giggle

tony turned you into a hard rock fan early on

ac/dc, black sabbath, guns n roses, led zeppelin and all that

you are mini him

“y/n, i got you a present!”

“lemme see, lemme see!”

“matching black sabbath shirts! now, can you tell me who sings in black sabbath?”

“OZZYYYYYY!!!” (cue you doing the sign of the horns with ur tiny hands 🤘🤘)

he’s never been prouder

you always pick out the goofiest ties for presents and he always gets so happy opening them

“for me? you shouldn’t have.” *opens gift*

“do you like it?”

*trying not to cry at the tie with his face on it* “i LoVe It”

he wears it to meetings and brags about you

you apprentice with him in the shop

your first creation was a tiny robot that’s only purpose was to roll around and say “boo” at random

when he disappeared you didn’t exactly understand what was going on because no one would tell you

they just said he was on a business trip

their hearts broke every time you asked “where’s dad?”

the man sobbed when he came back, you were just super happy to see him

burger king run

he let you see the iron man suit

you thought it was awesome

“i want one, too!”

“maybe one day, sweetheart”

the sports car that tony wrecked was your favorite and he promised he’d give it to you when you could drive but...it’s crushed now so...

yeah so tony started getting a bit more protective over you after the iron man suit was built and made happy watch over you while he kicked some ass

(fast forward to iron man 2)

meeting natalie rushman (natasha romanoff) and watching her take down happy in half a second

“can she teach me that?”

“no.” -tony, pepper, happy

“yes.” -natalie

spectating the insanity of monaco

basically getting into your own type of trouble to “help”

maybe not the best idea to throw rocks at a bad guy

insisting on getting your own suit

“nope. no way. not gonna happen, kid.”

you flipped justin hammer the bird and earned a high five from tony

going to uncle rhodey to tell him you want to be a superhero “just like him and dad”

🥺 <- rhodey after you called him a superhero

“follow your dreams, kiddo”

you built half a suit before anyone noticed

“what did i tell you about making a suit? i said ‘no.’ god, i can’t even be mad it looks awesome, my daughter’s a genius! but you’re grounded.”

that’s all i’ve got for now

[jadespadegames]

5 and/or 7 for the writer ask?? :0

Cass bless you for asking aaa

(Fic ask game)

5: Share a snippet that you’re proud of from an upcoming fic/chapter.

DAMN CASS YOU REALLY WANT A THV PREVIEW SNIPPET HUH

(For those who don't know, I am rebooting my fanfic, more info in my pinned post.)

PLEASE DON'T COUNT ON THIS SCENE STAYING THE SAME IN THE FINAL PRODUCT BUT ANYWAY CRINGE PARAGRAPHS FROM MY FAIL WRITING

MonoWither backed away from the throne as three ghostly vexes, which looked like smaller versions of Yingzhe with dragon wings, flew in front of them.

"Careful there!!!" MonoWither cried out as the vexes pointed sharp swords at them. "Remember the rule about no violence against the show's hosts?! You're getting really close to breaking it!"

"I DON'T CARE!!!" Yingzhe glared up at the machine, burning hatred in his eyes.

7: Were there any ideas you had for [insert fic] that you couldn’t make work? What were they?

I'm just gonna answer this for Withering Hope, but there were so many scrapped ideas that I can't possibly remember them all. However, I am happy to say that I have actually figured out how to write some of the ideas that I previously gave up on into THV!

(Withering Hope/The Hopeless Void spoilers in the Read More)

I had a lot of ideas for the third case to try and make things more complicated. I originally had Ashley be the one they found unconscious in the cello case instead of Jordan (she knocked herself out to seem innocent), but I couldn't figure out how to actually make that work. I also wanted Ashley to frame Annie for her crime, but that didn't end up happening partly because I forgot about that idea until later but also because I couldn't figure out how Ashley would be able to do that.

I wanted Ashley to have a flashback to her childhood with Bodil where they played in the snow, prompting her to start deliriously making snow angels until the avalanche buries her, but since the story was strictly told from Seto's POV for the most part I had to scrap it. In hindsight though, I feel like her canon final moments where she just stared up at the avalanche coming her way were a lot more realistic, so I don't really regret having to scrap this one.

I thought I would use the incinerator more in the cases (especially the third one), but I ended up not really needing it past the first case.

CODIE was going to just straight up die in the fifth part, but then in the sixth part I realized that I still needed that boi for clues so I had to bring him back 😭

Later on in the story, I had a lot of second thoughts about killing off Jason. I guess I got a lot more attached to him than I thought I would? It might be because in the very beginning, back when I didn't really have a good grasp of the characters, I had considered him to be more of an asshole after Husky died. (Or at least, not as likable as he ended up being.) Ultimately, I stuck to my guns and killed him off. Wish he could've lived, but I have a story to write and I can't afford to show mercy-

At some point, I wanted a scene where Seto saves someone from an execution??? I definitely wasn't able to fit that anywhere in the plot though lmao

There have been so many scrapped ideas for the ending of WH, but I can't describe any of them because obvious spoilers. Even now, I'm still reworking stuff for THV's ending. Endings are so hard jesus

The original epilogue that I wrote very early on was ultimately scrapped. I might rework elements of it into THV's ending, but we'll see. It makes me sad because I really liked it, but I made a lot of changes to the ending that rendered said scene unable to occur.

ONE ending that I briefly considered in my writing midlife crisis was this really stupid ending where it turns out that everyone was just brainwashed into believing the Minecraft VR they were trapped in was their reality 😭 Can you imagine if that actually was canon I think that would be the dumbest thing in eternity holy shit

In Part 04, I wanted Bart and Dave to actually hide the evidence that showed Steven was the killer. Ultimately I scrapped this because I didn't need them to do this, nor was there much evidence for them to hide in the actual murder anyway.

Everyone other than Tyler and Seto was going to have badass fighting moments against the robots when they all went to rescue the two, but I got way too lazy in the end. Plus, it would've probably ruined the pacing. (That's what I'm telling myself, at least.)

Thought about having Tyler kiss Seto in Part 05 before Seto went to spy on the Puppetmaster. Ultimately I thought that was way too cheesy and would distract from the moment.

I swear Sky's amulet was supposed to show up a lot more, but I kept forgetting about it. That probably describes a lot of scrapped ideas that I'm not recalling.

There were... a lot of YouTubers that I wanted to have in WH. I am so glad that some of them didn't make the cut because of shit that was uncovered about them-

Uhhh I can't think of anything else. This ended up being a lot longer than I expected, god I love to ramble I'm so sorry

Finally, here are two more scrapped ideas, but they need a suicide trigger warning. You don't need to keep reading if you don't want to. (If you did read this far, thanks so much hghhgkdgmd).

(Suicide tw ahead)

Had an idea where Bodil would try to kill himself in Part 04 but proceed to fail and Yingzhe would save him??? It ultimately didn't fit the pacing/tone I was going for so I tossed that one.

Jordan was also going to attempt suicide by jumping off a ledge, only for Steven to grab his arm. However, Steven wouldn't be able to pull Jordan up, resulting in him accidentally letting go and "killing" Jordan. Scrapped this one because how tf was MonoWither supposed to manipulate that specific scenario into happening for sure??? It was also a lot harder to connect that back to Steven being a spy.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 14, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

This morning, the team of Democratic senators working on a voting rights measure that could meet the demands of conservative Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin released their bill. The 592-page document is described as a bill “to expand Americans’ access to the ballot box and reduce the influence of big money in politics, and for other purposes.” Led by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the senators have called their effort the “Freedom to Vote Act.”

This new measure is a pared-down version of the For the People Act passed by the House earlier this year before being blocked by Republicans in the Senate. It makes it easier to vote, allowing for automatic voter registration and mail-in voting. It protects the voting rights of minorities and establishes what forms of identification can be required for voter IDs. It makes Election Day a federal holiday and protects election workers from partisan pressure. The bill also tries to slow the flood of “dark money” from undisclosed sources into campaigns and bans partisan gerrymandering.

Senate Democrats could not pass the measure without significant changes to make it acceptable to Manchin, and he has worked to craft this new measure that he has argued—without public evidence—will attract Republican votes. His hope is to pass the bill with the ten Republican votes necessary to override a filibuster. If those votes are not forthcoming, he and the rest of the Democrats will have to confront the reality that they must preserve either the right of Americans to vote—the centerpiece of our democracy—or the filibuster.

After the bill was released, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promptly announced that Republicans would not support It. He says there’s no reason for the federal government to be “taking over how we conduct elections in this country.” This prompted Princeton historian Kevin Kruse to note that the Senate renewed the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2006 by a vote of 98–0, and to suggest that Republicans have significantly revised their definition of federal overreach in the last 15 years.

The protection of voting rights seems more vital than ever today, as excerpts from a new book by veteran journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa revealed just how precarious the last days of the Trump presidency were. The portrait they reveal is of a man so desperate to retain his hold on the presidency that those around him thought he was mentally unhinged, while they also tried to do what he wanted so they wouldn’t upset him.

Trump tried hard to convince then–Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the electoral college votes from the states. Pence tried to oblige him, eventually turning to former Vice President Dan Quayle, who had served in the George H. W. Bush administration, to see if there was any way he could do what Trump asked. According to Woodward and Costa, Pence repeatedly asked Quayle if there was anything he could do. Quayle answered: “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away.”

But Trump didn’t want to take no for an answer. When Pence refused, Trump allegedly told him: “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” He later told the vice president: “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”

The account casts Pence’s role in the January 6 insurrection in a new light.

The book also says that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, was so worried that Trump’s mental state around the time of the election would lead him to attack China that twice Milley called his Chinese counterpart Li Zuocheng secretly to assure him that the U.S. would not launch a surprise attack. Milley was not the only one worried about the president: when Trump refused to concede the election, CIA Director Gina Haspel allegedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum.” Haspel worried Trump might attack Iran.

Milley also allegedly told top military commanders that they should involve him if then-president Trump ordered a nuclear strike. That conversation was in part a reaction to a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), two days after the assault on the Capitol, in which the Speaker demanded to know: “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?”

When Milley tried to reassure her, she continued: "What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?"

“He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy,” Pelosi said, according to a transcript of the call Woodward and Costa saw. “He’s crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness.” Milley replied to the House Speaker: “I agree with you on everything.”

The picture the book excerpts paint of Trump is of an unhinged man screaming obscenities at his advisers, unwilling to accept limits to his power. The book also highlights the role of Steve Bannon, who urged Trump to fight the January 6 counting of the ballots.

We also learned today that Trump’s own senior advisers were warning as early as February 2020 that the nation was dangerously unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, even as Trump was publicly saying the administration’s response to the crisis had been “pretty amazing.” A House committee is discovering information about that response from messages retrieved from the personal email accounts the advisers used.  

The revelations about the former president, along with the efforts of administration and military leaders to either support or thwart him, highlight just how close the nation came to a disaster, and that the danger continues. But preventing that danger was never Milley’s responsibility alone. The Constitution provides two safeguards against an unstable leader who might, for example, launch a war simply to keep himself in power. One is the 25th Amendment, which provides an emergency mechanism for removing a dangerous president, but while there was talk of using that amendment to remove Trump after January 6, the amendment’s reliance on presidential appointees to trigger it meant that this particular president would not be threatened with removal in that way.

The other safeguard is the power of impeachment and removal from office upon conviction. Democrats did try to impeach and remove Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in early 2020 over the Ukraine scandal, only to have Senate Republicans stand firmly behind their president and vote to acquit.

The party’s association with Trump and his ilk did not help it in today’s recall election in California. As of 11:00 pm California time, voters rejected the recall of Democratic governor Gavin Newsom by more than 66%. In thanking his supporters, Newsom claimed his victory showed that voters said yes to science, vaccines, “ending this pandemic,” “people’s right to vote without fear,” a woman’s “fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body”; yes to diversity, inclusion, pluralism, economic justice, social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice. Californians—and Americans, Newsom said—are making choices.

Newsom’s Republican challenger has already claimed his loss was due to voter fraud.

That claim highlights the crucial difference between voter fraud and election fraud. Republicans are using the claim of voter fraud—the idea of individual corrupt voters—to launch election fraud, the overturning of a free and fair election. While voter fraud is vanishingly rare, the voter suppression measures passed by Republican-dominated states mean that election fraud is looming and likely... unless Congress passes the Freedom to Vote Act.

--

Notes:

Kevin M. Kruse @KevinMKruseWhen the Voting Rights Act came up for renewal in 2006, the Senate passed it 98-0. Someone should ask McConnell: if that *massive* voting measure with significant federal oversight wasn’t an unconscionable “takeover” of the election process, why is this one? McConnell throws a bucket of cold water on the revised voting rights bill that Senate Democrats (including Manchin) released today, says there’s no reason for the federal government to be “taking over how we conduct elections in this country.” “We will not be supporting it.”

Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur

1,116 Retweets4,161 Likes

September 15th 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/revised-democratic-voting-bill-drops-controversial-provisions-tweaks-others-as-pressure-for-action-mounts/2021/09/14/6c59def8-150a-11ec-9589-31ac3173c2e5_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/14/woodward-costa-pence-jan-6-committee/

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/did-milley-think-trump-would-go-berserk

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/14/peril-woodward-costa-trump-milley-china/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/14/politics/woodward-book-trump-nuclear/index.html\

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09/14/trump-advisers-pandemic-warning/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/14/all-this-keep-trump-getting-upset/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/newsom-governor-california-recall.html

​​https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/14/how-much-damage-will-joe-manchin-do-new-voting-rights-push-offers-clue/

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/pass-freedom-vote-act

https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e/4/e448657f-914b-43a3-9153-05cabfb31c76/68440D88BF5EF1F90133FCB5AD2865D9.freedom-to-vote-act-text.pdf

Charlotte Clymer 🏳️‍🌈 @cmclymerThis is an absolutely perfect response from Gov. Gavin Newson to the results in CA tonight. It could not have been written better.

540 Retweets2,626 Likes

September 15th 2021

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mldrgrl]

prompt: Mulder and Scully being competitive with each other over silly things - Jeopardy? solving the case before the end of an episode of some sort of forensic crime show? how many slices of pizza they can eat? a board game? etc.

Loved this one, Anon, thank you so much.  And I was in the mood to whip up something humorous.  Went to sleep last night thinking about it.

Half and Half

by: mldrgrl Rating: PG

“I’m dying to get out of this suit,” Scully says.  “Give me ten minutes and then we can go through the report?”

“I’ll leave the connecting door unlocked,” Mulder says as they exit their rental car and head to the doors to their rooms.  “Come over when you’re done and we’ll order in.”

She sighs in relief as she kicks off her heels at the door.  She tosses her blazer to the side, unbuttons her shirt, and loosens her skirt.  She clips her hair back, washes her face, and changes into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt.

File folders under her arm, she taps lightly on the connecting door before she pushes it open.  Mulder is sitting at the edge of the bed, tie off and buttons undone at the neck.  His shirtsleeves are rolled up and he’s yelling at the TV.

“What is Mork & Mindy!” he yells.  “Mork and Mindy, you idiots.  Everyone knows ‘nanu nanu.’”

“We were looking for, ‘What is Mork & Mindy?’” Alex Trebeck says.

“Obviously,” Mulder says.  “How did you people even get on the show?”

“What are you doing?” Scully asks.

“Playing Jeopardy.”

“TV Catchphrases for $400, Alex.”

“Book ‘em, Danno.”

“What is Hawaii 5-0,” Mulder yells, just as Scully says, “Hawaii 5-0.”

Mulder makes the sound of a buzzer.  “You have to answer in the form of a question, Scully, or it doesn’t count.”

“I still knew the answer.”

“You mean, the question.”

“Do you want to debate the semantics of Jeopardy or go over the reports?”

“Sure, sure.”

“Let’s try Shakespeare Who Said it? for $200.”

“Double double, toil and trouble.”

“Who are the witches?” Mulder answers.

“Who are the three witches of Macbeth,” Scully says at the same time.

“Who is Macbeth?” answers the first contestant to ring in.

“Oh, come on,” Scully says.  “You can’t be that dumb.”

“Right?”

“Not quite what we’re looking for,” Alex answers.  Finally, the second contestant answers correctly.

“Shakespeare Who Said It for $300.”

“I prithee daughter do not make me mad.”

“Baptista, maybe,” Mulder answers.  “Who is Baptista?”

“No, who is King Lear?” Scully disagrees.

“Who is King Lear?”

“Who is, King Lear.  Act 2, scene 4, referring to Goneril.  And that will lead us to our first commercial break.  More to come after these words from our sponsors.”

“I should’ve known that one,” Mulder says, scooting over to make room for Scully on the bed.  “$600 to $500, I’m winning.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You lost Hawaii 5-0 to incorrect phrasing.”

“You didn’t establish the rules.  $600 to $900, I’m winning.”

“I didn’t have to establish anything, those are the inherent rules of Jeopardy.  Everybody knows that.”

“Mulder, I’m here to go over these reports,” Scully answers, holding up the file folders that have been tucked under her arm the whole time.  She is still standing.

“How about a little wager?”

“On what?”

“Winner orders the pizza of their choice, loser pays.”

“Come on, Mulder.”

“You don’t think you can beat me?”

“No, I know I can beat you.  I just want to get this review done so I can go to bed.”

“Scully, it’s 7 o’clock.  The review can wait.  Unless you’re just chicken.”

“Very mature.”

“Triple dog dare you?”

Scully held her hand out as though to shake Mulder’s.  “We start with a clean slate going in from the commercial and we make our own wagers on Double Jeopardy questions.”

“I’ll keep score!”  Mulder leaves Scully’s handshake hanging in the breeze and jumps up to grab the complimentary pad of paper and pen on the motel desk, which she snatches from him as soon as he comes back to sit down.

“I’ll keep score,” she says.

“You are the math geek.”

They sit through contestant bios and Alex Trebek’s vaguely sarcastic comments on the tidbits they’ve chosen to share with the audience.  When the game starts back up again, there are two answers left in Shakespeare Who Said It? and every answer available in Civil War Nicknames, The Old West, and American Folklore.

Unsurprisingly, Mulder dominates the folklore category, but they tie for two answers.  They both struggle with The Old West more than Civil War Nicknames, but the answers there are easier to decipher within the clues.  Mulder is up $700 when the first Daily Double comes up in The Old West.

“$200,” Scully says.  “I already don’t even want to know the answer.”

“$500,” Mulder answers.  

“Suffering from tuberculosis and alcoholism, this dentist turned gunslinger died in a sanitarium at the age of 36.”

“Who is Doc Holliday,” Scully answers.

“Who is Bat Master..dammit!” Mulder replies just a beat behind her.

“You should’ve known that one.”

“It was the first thing that popped into my head.  What’s the damage?”

“We’re tied.”

“All right, next round, it’s getting serious.”

“Prepare to pay for a large vegetarian with extra olives.”

“Ugh, vegetables on pizza is the antithesis to the point of pizza.”

“And what is the point of pizza?”

“All the pepperoni you can handle and then add in some sausage for good measure.”

“You’re a heart attack waiting to happen, Mulder.  When was the last time you had your cholesterol checked?”

“In May, actually.  Fit as a fiddle.  Here we go, round 2.”

“...categories are: Before & After, Science, Word Origins, Potpourri, The Body Human, and finally, Astronomy. ”

The contestants seem fixated on Potpourri and Before & After, to Mulder’s relief.  He isn’t ready for Scully to completely smoke him in the Science and The Body Human categories.  He figures if he can do well enough in the first two, he might be able to hold firm and maybe they might get to Astronomy where he can make a comeback.  Sure enough, she responds so quickly in the first two Science answers he can’t even get a word out.

“Born this year, a sheep named this introduced the world to cloning.”

“Dolly!” Mulder yells, too excited about knowing a Science question he forgets to phrase it properly.

“Who is Dolly,” Scully corrects.

“Dammit!”

“Your rules.”

“I know, I know.  Still, dammit.”

Blessedly, the contestants leave Science and migrate to Astronomy and since the first answer is the planet nicknamed The Red Planet, a Jeopardy equivalent of low-hanging fruit, they stick with it.  The first Daily Double of the 2nd round hits them at the $800 question in Astronomy.

“I’m up by $1,600,” Scully says.  “You have $3,900.”

“I’m going to make it a true Daily Double.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“$600,” Scully says, after a few moments hesitation.

Mulder worries his bottom lip with his teeth and waits for the answer to come.

“This spiral galaxy is named for an Ethiopian princess in Greek Mythology.”

“What is Andromeda!” They both yell.

Mulder realizes he’s sweating after the last question and even though it paid off, he vows not to make that kind of gamble again.  Scully berates herself for not being more confident in her astronomy knowledge as she now trails Mulder by $1,700, which may or may not be easy to recover from.

Time runs out before all the clues are revealed and the 2nd Daily Double is never found.  By final Jeopardy, they’re nearly neck and neck, with Mulder at $9,100 and Scully at $8,500.

“The final category is: Computers.”

“Good thing The Gunmen aren’t here,” Mulder says.  “Gimme one of those sheets of paper and we can write our wagers and guesses like the others.”

Scully rips off a piece of paper and they both take nearly all of the commercial break to come up with their wagers.  Scully folds her paper in half with the wager face down.  Mulder turns his over and places it on the bed.

“And here we go with the final answer.  Born in 1815, this daughter of a famous poet published an algorithm for a mechanical calculator and is believed by some to be the first ever computer programmer.”

Mulder writes his answer immediately and Scully taps her pen against her teeth as the final Jeopardy music winds down.  She finally picks up her paper and memorializes her guess before the final note.

“Whatcha got?” Mulder asks.

“I want to see their answers first,” Scully replies.

Mulder bounces his knee in anticipation.  The contestant in 3rd place answers incorrectly with Dora Wordsworth, but only wagered $1.

“I hate when they do that,” Scully says.  “It’s not The Price is Right.”

“Listen, if the category was Nuclear Physics, I might only be waging $1 as well.”

“Too bad it wasn’t.”

The contestant in 2nd place also answers incorrectly with “Who is ____?” and ends up with $4500.  Mulder shakes his head.

“At least put something,” he says.

“Seriously,” Scully agrees.

“And now Judith, our three day champion, currently in the lead with $13,800.  What did she guess?  Who is Ada Lovelace?  Daughter of Lord Byron, known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, August Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, or Ada Lovelace.  And how much did Judith wager?  $7,000, bringing her three day total to $65,941.”

“Alright, Scully, moment of truth.”

“Count of three?” she asks.

“Is that one, two, reveal?  Or one, two, three, reveal?”

“One, two, reveal.”

“Okay.  One, two…”  

They both turn their papers around.  Both answered Who is Ada Lovelace?  They both grin.

“Frohike would be so tickled with your familiarity with the mother of computer programming,” Mulder says.  

“Yeah?  How does he feel about your familiarity with her?”

“Pretty jealous, actually.”

“What was your wager?”

Mulder turns over the paper again to show her.  “$3,000.  You?”

Scully bites her lip a little and then flips the fold of her paper for Mulder to see.  “$8,000.”

“$8,000!”

“Go big or go home, right?”

“Damn, Scully.  You’re a monster.  In a good way, obviously.  But, damn.  So, I guess that vegetarian is on me.”

“Extra olives.”

“With extra olives.”  He grimaces and gets up to grab the Yellow Pages in the nightstand.  

Scully opens up her file folders and begins sorting the reports for review across the end of Mulder’s bed as he searches for a pizza parlor.  He’s on the phone fairly quickly after browsing the phone book.

“Yes, I’d like to place an order for delivery,” Mulder says.  “A large.  Vegetarian.”

“Half vegetarian,” Scully interrupts without looking up.  “Half pepperoni and sausage.”

“Sorry, half vegetarian, half pepperoni and sausage.  Extra olives on the vegetarian side, please.  Yeah, I’ll hold.”  Mulder drops the phone to his shoulder while hold music plays and smiles slightly.  “Scully, you interested in a rematch tomorrow night?”

“Depends on how interested you are in buying another pizza.”

The End

[goldenhemmings]

The Unforgettable Inning - A Stealing Second Extra | Baseball!Shawn

This is easily the quickest I’ve ever cranked out one of these extras; got the request today, knocked it out today. Don’t know what came over me. I’d recommend watching this before you read, it’ll help you understand the context of why the game referenced in the piece was so important. It was an elimination playoff game, it was being stolen from Toronto by horrible calls, and the fans were so on edge to the point where they were throwing things onto the field in protest. Then, Bautista. His home run released all the tension in every fan in the stadium. It was absolutely electrifying, and resulted in the most iconic bat flip of all time. One of the best moments in Blue Jays history. Anyways, here’s 1.9k words of Y/N trying to make Shawn feel better about baseball season being postponed. Enjoy!!

Baseball season should be a month in by now. 

You and Shawn both knew it, and the two of you were slowly starting to go crazy. It wasn’t that you didn’t understand why the season had to be postponed, because you did. There were more important things right now than sports. But baseball was your entire life, and to say you and Shawn were going stir-crazy stuck inside the apartment with nothing to do all day was a massive understatement. 

While you were upset yourself, you felt worse for Shawn. You, at least, still had a bit of work to do on a daily basis for your position with the team, but without a season, Shawn and the other players had nothing. He was trying to act like he was coping well, but you knew him too closely to believe him when he said he was doing fine. 

He’d thrown himself into training, trying to maintain his baseball-season form so he’d be ready as soon as the league said it was able to resume play. The gym in your apartment complex wasn’t anything like the one he had access to at the stadium, but it was better than nothing, and he was taking advantage of what he had available.

With the extra time you now had on your hands, you wanted to do something for Shawn that would take his mind away from the stress of feeling trapped, which you knew he did. You had a plan in place, but you were waiting for him to leave to put it into action.

As you sat cross-legged on the couch, your computer in your lap, you watched Shawn come out of your bedroom dressed to workout and clutching a water bottle.

You looked up from your laptop, trying to remain nonchalant. “Have a good workout,” you said, and he leaned over to quickly kiss your forehead. 

“Thanks, honey. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

As soon as you heard the front door swing shut behind him, you closed your laptop and tossed it to the side. You knew his workout wouldn’t be more than an hour, so you had to move quickly. 

The first thing you did was call in a pizza, one half with everything but the kitchen sink on it for Shawn, because you knew he’d want the calories after a workout, and the other side plain cheese for you. 

You then moved into your room and dragged the comforter off of your bed, doubling back to grab as many pillows and extra blankets as you could hold in your arms. You tossed it all down on the couch before pushing the coffee table sideways and out of the way to the side of the room. 

You laid the blankets and comforter out on the floor in front of the couch until it made a comfortable enough cushion, arranging the pillows into a pile to rest against the bottom of the couch until you were satisfied with the way it looked.

When the pizza came you set the box on the coffee table, stacking two plates on top of it in preparation, then leaned over to plug in the fairy lights you’d finally convinced Shawn to let you put up in that corner of the apartment and dimmed the rest of the lights.

Once everything was set up to your satisfaction, you grabbed the remote to the TV and tapped it against your chin as you tried to decide what to watch, but you quickly got an idea that was better than any movie could’ve been. You switched over to YouTube, knowing exactly what to type in.

2015 ALDS Game 5 - Rangers vs. Blue Jays. You just about cried with happiness when you found the full game on YouTube. It was perfect. 

It wasn’t long after you had everything ready that you heard Shawn’s key jiggling the lock on the door. Your head snapped up from where it was bowed over your computer in the same position you’d been in when he left, and as soon as he came through the door you could make out a furrow in his brow through the now-dimmed lighting of the apartment. 

“What’s all this?” he asked, a smile grabbing at his lips even though he was clearly confused. He set his keys down on the table in the foyer, making his way over to you.

“Well,” you started, unable to keep yourself from grinning back at him, “I know you’ve been going crazy without baseball, and I have been, too, so I thought we could hang out and watch an old game or something.”

“Which one?”

“Hm,” you sighed, trying to think of a clue that wouldn’t give it away too easily. “It’s a good one, but I’m gonna make you guess it.”

He laughed. “Try me.”

“One of the most iconic Blue Jays games in this decade.”

“So it’s not from either of the World Series’ then,” he mused, “because that was the 90s.” You nodded, prompting him to continue. 

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Can I get one more hint?”

You made a show of rolling your eyes. “Fine,” you sighed out playfully. “I really expected more from you, though.”

“Shut up,” he laughed. 

“Okay. The unforgettable inning.”

“2015?” he guessed immediately, and you smiled. 

“Warmer.”

“ALDS game 5. Too easy.”

“Good job,” you teased. “I found the whole game online. I thought it’d be fun for us to watch it. I got pizza, too.”

He stared back at you with a small smile, and his silence elicited a nervous laugh from you. “What? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“This is just really thoughtful of you,” he said, leaning in to kiss you.

But you pressed a finger to his chest to keep him at a distance, to which he frowned. “What?”

“Shower first,” you teased. “You look like you just crawled out of a swamp.”

“You’re really lucky that you just did all this nice stuff for me, because otherwise I’d chase you around until you were covered in sweat like this, too, just for that comment.”

“Well that would be pointless anyways, because girls don’t sweat.”

“I hate you,” he laughed, but he allowed you to shove him off in the direction of the bathroom. 

“Make it quick,” you called after him. “I’m bored already!”

After about 15 minutes he came back out, his hair damp and a pair of black athletic shorts hanging low on his hips. 

“Do you want to get me a glass of wine before you sit down?” you asked, batting your eyes at him.

“No,” he said, but he went into the kitchen to get it anyway. 

“I love you,” you called out jokingly, and you could visualize the way his eyes were rolling.

“I love me, too,” he said back. You just laughed. Such a shithead.

He came back over and handed you your wine glass, stepping over you to grab the box of pizza, the plates disregarded. 

“Plates!” you whined, but Shawn didn’t care.

“Just don’t make a mess,” he answered matter-of-factly. “I don’t want to do dishes.”

“You mean you don’t want to sit on your ass while I do dishes?” you jabbed, but he wasn’t bothered because he knew it was an exaggeration. 

“Yeah, exactly,” he answered sarcastically. “Get a piece so we can start the game.”

As soon as the 6th inning had ended, you felt a chill go down your back in anticipation of the excitement that was about to come.

“What?” Shawn asked, his chest shaking with a slight laugh. You were halfway lying on him, so he’d surely felt you shake. 

You giggled. “I got the shivers. The 7th inning gives me goosebumps.”

“It hasn’t even started yet,” he teased, jabbing a finger into your side to make you jump.

“But I know what happens!” you laughed. You grabbed his forearm so he couldn’t poke at you anymore, which ended in a power struggle to see who could grab hold of whose wrists longer.

“If you make me miss a single pitch of this inning I will make you sleep on the couch tonight,” you threatened, but it didn’t sound very menacing when you were forcing the sentence out through giggles.

He sighed. “Fine.”

You sat up and scooted out of his reach as soon as he took his hands off of you, and you could instantly feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of your head. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t trust you!” you laughed. “I wanna actually watch this.”

“Truce,” he replied, holding his arms up in surrender. “I promise. Just come back.”

“So needy,” you teased, but you crawled back over to lie down on him again anyways.

When Bautista came up to bat after Toronto had tied it 3-3, you sat up and leaned slightly forward; you could not lie down and relax when you knew what was going to happen, especially considering the fact that you were already pretty fired up from the inning’s happenings thus far. 

“Here it comes,” Shawn said.

“No, it’s the pitch after this one,” you replied, negating him without tearing your focus away from the screen.

“I thought it was on the 0-1 pitch?”

“Nope. It’s the 1-1. Just watch.”

“But I--” Shawn started, but was cut off when the second pitch of the at-bat came in as a ball. 

“Told you,” you bragged triumphantly. “It’s this pitch.”

Shawn sat up with you, both of you waiting intently. As soon as Bautista sent the ball flying into left field and flipped his bat, you yelled like it was your first time seeing the hit. The cameras were shaking from how loud it was in the Rogers Centre, all the tension the fans had been feeling released with one crack of the bat. Your cheering turned into a jittery, excited laughter you couldn’t control as Bautista rounded third, and Shawn quickly joined in.

“‘You can only play with fire for so long, and it’s gonna burn ya,’” you giggled, quoting the announcer. You’d seen the play so many times you had the commentary memorized by now. “I fucking love baseball.”

“Maybe I should flip my bat like that the next time I hit a home run.”

“You couldn’t pull it off,” you retorted. 

Shawn sighed. “Yeah, I know. Bautista is way cooler than me.”

You laughed, crawling back on top of him. “Plus it was the playoffs, which makes it even better. Easily the most iconic bat flip of all time.”

“Easily,” he echoed, beginning to calm down from the hype of the hit. “I miss it so much.”

You sighed, grabbing his hand and squeezing it lightly. “I know. But this is the best we can do right now.”

“Thank you for doing this, honey,” he said softly. “You’re the best.”

“I know,” you sassed. He swatted at you playfully. “There are plenty of classic games on the MLB YouTube channel so we can watch more whenever you want. You know I’m down for that.”

“I know you are,” he replied. “Because my girlfriend loves baseball more than the average baseball player.”

You laughed. “That’s not true, but I’ll take it.”

“Mmm, I think it’s pretty true.”

“Whatever you say, rookie,” you breathed out, burying your head in the crook of his neck. He instinctively wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “Now let me finish watching this game.”

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[kuriboo]

Hugsaku 2021

Day 5 - Awkward Hugs | Dueling But The Final Blow Is A Hug 

I’ve been writing a continuous story with prompts for Yusaku. This part is getting close to the end of the story. If you’d like to read the whole thing, you can read my previous posts or read the whole thing on ao3; I’ll link the ao3 in the notes. The general story is this: Yusaku finds himself in Heartland with no memory of how he got there, and Yuma decides to help Yusaku figure out how to get home.

As you can guess by the prompts I used, there’s a duel in this one. Probably most of this is actually the duel, and the duel made this pretty long compared to the other days I wrote. I probably actually spent two or three weeks working on just this part because of the duel. I’ve held onto 40 different screenshots to plan out this duel, I had to watch a specific episode of Zexal twice and track down part of an episode of Vrains that I rewatched a bunch of times. I also had to rewrite this duel probably around twice because I used the wrong cards and misread card effects. All the work paid off, though. The duel should all be correct now, and this was one of my favorite parts to write.

⁂

The four of them were doing research together in a park when another one appeared.

It was Tori who had taken the books out from the library. Given she was the biggest reader out of herself, Bronk, and Yuma, she was the only one with a library card. She brought the books to the park and the three of them, alongside Yusaku, read through them.

All the books looked like they discussed the idea that other worlds existed out there somewhere. Their hope was that they discussed how to get to those worlds so they could find a clue.

To help Astral remember his past. To help Yusaku get home.

A lot of books on the subject weren’t really intended for a younger audience. Yusaku seemed to be having an easier time reading through his book than everyone else was. Everyone else other than maybe Yuma, who was cheating and having Astral read his book for him. It wasn’t that Yusaku was overly interested in the subject, Astral was definitely more interested than he was. But Yusaku had read through lengthier, more complicated material to learn the knowledge he needed to see his revenge through. He was used to this.

The book was deep in an explanation of the possibility of other dimensions and what they could be like when they all heard the commotion.

That’s when they chased after its source, and that’s when they found another Number.

Yuma took the Number on, of course. His opponent didn’t take long to summon the Number. Rank 2, 100 Attack. This Number didn’t seem that threatening on the surface, but Yusaku knew better. XYZ Monsters were always more than just their stats. That’s what they had Overlay Units for, and this Number still had all of its own.

Yuma summoned Utopia on his next turn. Immediately after, he entered the battle phase. His victory seemed assured in his eyes, but Yusaku wasn’t so sure about that.

Neither were Yuma’s friends. Bronk, Tori, and Astral each yelled out their own warnings, but Yuma ignored them all. He declared an attack with Utopia against the other Number and…

The monster was destroyed, the other duelist’s life points dropped to 0, and the duel was over.

Yusaku blinked. Surely that Number had an effect. An effect that probably could’ve saved it, he guessed. Why didn’t the other duelist activate it? Why did they let themself lose?

Bronk confronted Yuma about his reckless play, but Yuma didn’t want to hear it. Apparently, as long as he won, he didn’t care about the possibility that his plan went horribly wrong. Yusaku sucked in a deep breath. He was definitely on Bronk’s side on this one, but he also still had to live with Yuma. Joining the argument would just make life more annoying. 

Eventually, Yuma and Bronk’s yelling reached a boiling point. The two of them turned around and left in opposite directions, leaving Tori and Yusaku by themselves.

“I don’t know how he doesn’t understand how dangerous that move was,” Yusaku muttered.

“Yuma never thinks things through like that. I mean, he focuses more on the victory he sees in front of him than the possible obstacles in the way. It helps boost his confidence; if he worried about the roadblocks too much, he’d give up every time. Plus, if that Number used an effect, Yuma could’ve saved himself with Utopia’s ability to negate the attack. Anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore. The duel’s over. We can’t let their friendship end like this,” Tori fretted. “Bronk and Yuma have been best friends for a long time. I don’t know if we can get them to see eye to eye on this, but we have to do something…”

‘We’. Right. Yusaku wasn’t one to care about friendship and friends, but after everything Tori, Yuma, and Bronk had been doing to try to help him, he owed them. Besides, Yuma wasn’t like Yusaku. Yuma deserved to have good friends. But what could Yusaku do about it? It wasn’t like he had much experience with this kind of thing. 

What would Kolter do if Yusaku was stubborn like this? The two of them had a different kind of relationship than Bronk and Yuma, but… 

“You try to talk to Bronk. I’ll try to talk to Yuma. If their friendship should be stronger than this one argument, we’ll try to remind them of that. You know Yuma better than I do, so maybe you can get Bronk to see where Yuma’s coming from.” Yusaku had a feeling that would go better than him trying to convince Yuma to see Bronk’s point of view. “Maybe we can get them to talk after they’ve cooled down a bit.”

If it didn’t work out, though, then it didn’t work out. If they were determined to be mad at each other, Yusaku didn’t know if he could stop them.

“Yeah…” Tori nodded. “I know they can work it out if we can get them to talk. Thanks, Yusaku.”

Yusaku shrugged. He didn’t feel like he was really doing much.

Tori ran after Bronk, while Yusaku headed back to Yuma’s house. Yuma had gone off in that direction, and Yusaku didn’t know where else he might go. If Yuma wasn't home, though, he’d have to go home eventually. Yusaku would be able to talk to him either way.

Luckily for him, though, Yuma was already at his home. As soon as Yusaku walked through the door, Yuma pulled Yusaku into his room to rant to him.

“Who cares if my attack in that duel didn’t work? It did, and that’s all that matters!” Yuma was still really worked up about this. “I know Bronk’s better at dueling me, but that doesn’t mean he has to put down my successes as much as my failures! I’m trying to get better, and he knows it because he’s been trying to help me. Doing a pretty lousy job of it right now, though.”

“Maybe you both have different dueling strategies,” Yusaku suggested. He was having trouble figuring out what to say, but he thought back to Tori’s words. “Sometimes it’s better to declare a reckless attack than to never do anything because you’re afraid of what could happen.” Yusaku knew from experience that that line of thinking would definitely lose you the duel. 

“Exactly! I have to attack if I want my opponent to lose life points! If you were in my situation, what would you have done?”

“I would’ve been thinking about what that Number’s special ability could be. I would’ve felt safer with Utopia than most other monsters in that situation, since Utopia can negate the attack if it looks like it’s going to go back. But it’s always possible the opponent had an effect that would’ve prevented Utopia from using its effect, so I would’ve been cautious. I definitely would’ve wanted a Spell or Trap card backing me up. There’s a possibility I could’ve declared an attack, but I’m not sure.”

“It’s not as black and white as Bronk made it seem, anyway. He doesn’t need to be so high and mighty about it!”

“I don’t think it’s that,” Yusaku said. Not fully, anyway, he didn’t know Bronk that well. But Bronk knew Yuma better than Yusaku did, which meant Bronk probably had stronger feelings about this than Yusaku. At the very least, Yusaku had Kolter’s reactions to help him out on this, whenever Yusaku’s grades slipped or he skipped a class or he skipped meals for Playmaker business. He’d already had this discussion with Kolter multiple times. Yusaku’s relationship with Kolter was still different from Yuma’s relationship with Bronk, though. “I won’t say I know how he’s thinking without any doubts, but…he’s pointing it out because he cares about you. He was worried about you. Not because he thinks you’ll give up if you lose, but these duels involving Numbers are different from duels against your friends. You want to get all the Numbers to help Astral, and Bronk wants you to succeed because he cares about you so… He wanted you to win, and he was afraid you might not. He’s afraid that this could happen again and not work out for you. Or, uh, something like that, I think.”

“He’s not just trying to be mean?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t think friends are like that.”

Yuma sighed. “I was feeling the flow in that duel. Felt like I could do anything and it couldn’t go wrong. All I could think about was how I was gonna win. When I feel like that, sometimes it feels bad when everyone around me’s not supporting me.”

“You don’t always think ahead as much as other people tend to do. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can be good to be in the moment and to enjoy the moment while you’re in it.” At the very least, Yusaku did miss that.

“I don’t wanna lose Bronk, but I don’t know what to do…”

“Talk to him. Communication is important in any kind of relationship working out. Figure out where you’re going from here. He probably doesn’t want to lose you, either.”

Yuma agreed to it, and later Bronk agreed to it, and they met up again after school. Tori went with them, while Yusaku met the group there. 

However, it didn’t go well. The meeting turned into more fighting and arguing, and Bronk pushed Yusaku away from him. When he did so, he accidentally disconnected the key hanging around Yuma’s neck from its rope. The key went flying, landing near Yusaku. Yusaku bent down and picked the key up, not sure what else to do in this situation.

Astral was present for this meeting, floating silently next to Yuma. Since the most recent duel against the Number, he’d kept to himself and stayed fairly quiet. But now he was staring at the ground next to him, no longer absorbed in his thoughts. “Yuma, what is that?”

Yuma looked down as well and yelped when he saw it. Black slime was creating a puddle around Yuma, oozing around his shoes. Yusaku looked around the slime for its source; it appeared to be dripping out of Yuma’s deck. That was strange, considering Yuma did not coat his cards in black slime. Everyone else noticed this at the same time as Yuma before focusing their attention back to the slime on the ground. Now it was flowing towards Astral. Astral screamed in pain as it began to envelope him.

“Astral!!” Yuma reached a hand towards Astral, but didn’t make contact.

“Number 96… It is trying to take control of me!” Astral’s body started to turn dark as more of the slime reached him. He opened his eyes and looked towards Yuma. “Yuma… give Yusaku… card…”

Yuma blinked. “What card? Why?”

“Just do it!”

Yuma reached into his deck and pulled out a couple of cards. Briefly, he looked at them as if deciding which one to pick. Then he tossed them to Yusaku, who caught them easily.

Yusaku glanced over the cards Yuma had just given him. One of them he recognized as Utopia. Another he recognized as.... the card he’d found when he first arrived in Heartland…

Were these the cards Astral wanted Yuma to give him? Why did Astral want Yusaku to have these?

Then Yusaku heard laughter, and he looked up from his cards. Astral had been completely overtaken by whatever that darkness was; even his eye that was normally all white was now all black. His lower body turned into long tentacles that curled around Yuma’s arms and torso. Yuma was lifted in the air. 

Yums screamed. “Who are you? Let me go! Let Astral go!!!”

“I am the strongest Number of them all. When you dropped your key, you allowed me to escape.” Not-Astral was smiling coldly. The strongest Number? Astral had mentioned a Number when this started happening. Was this Number 96? “Now onto step two: acquiring Number 39, Utopia!” He glared at Yusaku. Yusaku took a step back. 96 already knew Yusaku had Utopia, then? “You will give him back to me.”

96 stretched his arm forward towards Yusaku, intending to grab the card out of his hand. Yusaku held the cards close to him to make them harder to grasp. 96’s hand came closer but something stopped it before his hand could get close enough. As if an invisible wall was protecting Yusaku. Yuma’s key, still in Yusaku’s other hand, glinted in the light. Did the key protect him?

This all started when the key was separated from Yuma… Was that how 96 had been able to gain control of Astral?

“No matter.” 96 pulled his arm back until it was at its normal length. “If I can’t get it back by force, then I’ll get it back with a duel. All this is is delayed satisfaction.”

Yusaku snorted. Bold of this Number to assume Yusaku would lose. “I’ll take you on to free Astral and Yuma.” Yusaku only dueled when he had to, so luckily for 96, his hand had already been forced. He glanced over at Bronk and Tori. “Stay out of this. I’ll get them back.” 

Thankfully Yusaku was able to keep cool under the pressure. Link Vrains had given him experience dealing with people who seemed menacing and talked a big game. Tori and Bronk weren’t so lucky. They were both clearly worried and panicked. The two of them nodded and moved to be more on the sidelines. Their eyes barely left Yuma, still trapped in the air.

“Excellent.” Number 96 lowered Yuma to the ground. Yuma then proceeded to put on his duel gazer and draw his starting hand. “Oh, and by the way… Yuma will be dueling for me. Not his mind, but his body, so be careful..”

Yuma stared at Yusaku. Yuma was definitely scared, Yusaku could tell, but he knew Yuma wouldn’t lose his determination, either. “Can you duel?” Yuma asked. “You don’t even have a duel gazer…”

“I can duel without it.” Yusaku drew his starting hand as well, after sliding his cards from Yuma into his extra deck. It wasn’t like he could use his Link Monsters, anyway. “I have my deck, and that’s all I need.”

It’s all he ever needed. All the other students at his school had fancier duel disks and everything, but this duel disk that Yusaku had had for years still worked fine. The rest of his apartment had older tech anyway, from his phone to his kitchen appliances. It fit the aesthetic, as if that mattered.

“I’ll go first,” Yusaku announced before looking down at his hand. When he did, he could feel his stomach drop.

Maybe he should’ve asked to borrow Bronk’s deck, or something like that. For just a moment, he’d managed to forget the way his deck was built. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t use Link Monsters. A lot of his cards worked well with Link Monsters, many of them even having effects that required him to have one on his field. He wouldn’t be able to use some of his cards at all. He could win like this, right?

“What’s wrong? Ready to give up already?” Number 96 taunted.

Yusaku shook himself out of it. He could still win. Of course he could win. He couldn’t lose. Especially not now. “Because I have no monsters on my field, I can special summon Linkslayer from my hand.” He normally could start to pull combos in his first turn, but these conditions made it more difficult. “I place two cards face-down and end my turn.”

“A weak start.” Number 96 chuckled. “My turn now.” Yuma drew a card, grimacing. “First, I will place two cards face-down. Next, I am summoning Acorno. I can summon this card by sending one card in my hand to the graveyard. And, you see, since the card I sent to the grave is Pinecono, it sprouts back up right on the field. Next I summon forth Darklon. And now, since Darklon was summoned, all my monsters increase their level by 1. But, I am not done yet. Next, I am overlaying these 3 level 2s to XYZ summon a copy of myself. Number 96: Dark Mist!”

A Number card already? 96 didn’t like to waste time. 

“Wait, how is that thing Dark Mist?” Tori asked. “It’s completely different from before.”

Yusaku didn’t notice any difference, but that was because he couldn’t see Dark Mist at all without the Augmented Reality system. That seemed to be working in his favor right now: Bronk, Tori, and Yuma seemed far more intimidated than him by the newly summoned monster.

“That is because this is Dark Mist’s true appearance. And now, Dark Mist, attack Linkslayer!”

Yusaku frowned. Dark Mist only had 100 Attack, but 96 was still declaring battle. 96 must have something up his sleeve; Yusaku knew there was more to Dark Mist than first appeared.

“I activate Dark Mist’s special ability. By using 1 overlay unit, Dark Mist can steal half of your monster’s Attack points in order to power itself up.”

“So as long as Dark Mist has overlay units, it’ll always be stronger than any of my monsters.” Yusaku grit his teeth. This wasn’t good.

“You catch on quickly!” 96 grinned back at Yusaku. “Now, let him have it.”

Dark Mist started to unleash its attack on Linkslayer, but luckily Yusaku was prepared for an attack, even if he wasn’t sure how. “I activate my trap: Three Strikes Barrier. Linkslayer isn’t destroyed.”

“But you still take the damage! Now, I end my turn,” 96 finished. 

Yusaku drew his next card. “Since Linkslayer’s Attack is different from its original Attack, I play Cyberse Cache and draw 2 cards.” Perfect. “Now I activate Linkslayer’s special ability. By sending two cards to the graveyard, I destroy your two face-downs.” Destroying the cards themselves wasn’t too important to Yusaku’s plan, but it was a bonus. “I summon ROM Cloudia. ROM Cloudia allows me to add Latency to my hand from my graveyard. And since Latency was added to my hand from my graveyard, I can summon it right away.” Latency went to the field on defense. 

Yusaku stared at the cards on his field. Dark Mist should have 1100 attack right now. Linkslayer couldn’t beat that, but ROM Cloudia was a different story. “Now, ROM Cloudia attacks Dark Mist.”

“I use another overlay unit to use Dark Mist’s attack again!” 96 smirked at Yusaku.

“So you can use that effect during my turn as well,” Yusaku mused.

96 laughed. “Perhaps now you see. For every move you make, I can make one better.”

At least Yusaku knew for sure now. “From my hand, I activate Security Block. Neither of us take damage, and ROM Cloudia isn’t destroyed.”

Dark Mist should now be up to 2000 Attack. This wasn’t looking good, but Yusaku could work with that. “I place one card face-down and end my turn.”

“Stay tough, you hear me?” Yuma called out to Yusaku. 

Yusaku nodded. He had a plan in mind by now, since he was sure how Dark Mist’s ability worked. He wasn’t coming out of this duel with anything but a win. 

Now it was 96’s turn. He looked over the card he drew, and smiled. “Let’s have a do-over. Black Mist, attack ROM Cloudia. Black Mist’s ability activates once again!”

That brought Black Mist up to 2450, if Yusaku’s math was correct. Yusaku frowned. Why was Number 96 so fixated on ROM Cloudia? He couldn’t save ROM Cloudia this time, but he’d already…

96 laughed. “It’s pointless to keep fighting.” He turned to Yuma. “Do you have any insights into what he’s planning?”

“I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew, but I’ve never seen Yusaku duel.” Yuma shrugged. “I’ve never seen his cards, either. It’s all as new to me as it is to you. I’m on the edge of my seat, I can’t wait to see how Yusaku pulls off a victory!”

“He won’t. Not like this,” 96 muttered.

Yusaku looked over his cards. He could make this work. Everything was coming together. “I summon Draconnet. And using its ability, I can summon Dotscaper from my deck.”

“I hope you’re planning something with all these monsters,” Bronk commented.

“I always have a plan.” Normally, it’d be a Link Summon, but this time Yusaku had something different up his sleeve. “I overlay level 1 Latency and Dotscaper.” Yusaku held both his hands out, palms forward, and crossed them over each other. The number 13 appeared, glowing, on his right palm. “Appear, Rank 1, Number 13: Embodiment of Crime!”

As the Embodiment of Crime took the field, Yusaku felt the same feeling he did when he first picked up this card when he arrived in Heartland. Revenge. An overwhelming desire to lash out, get revenge against the people that hurt Yusaku and the people he cared about. It threatened to consume him, just as before. But this time he could direct it. Number 96 had hurt Yuma, taken him hostage, and like this Yusaku could clearly see how much he cared about Yuma. He could direct it at 96 and still do exactly what he intended to do before he had been given any Numbers.

Yusaku had been fueled by his revenge before, and now once more he would direct it to achieve his goals. He still felt that strong desire, but it stopped trying to overtake him as he committed himself. 

Number 96’s eyes widened. “That’s not Rank 4… That’s not… Utopia… What is this?”

“You thought I was trying to summon Utopia?” Yusaku rolled his eyes. Did he look like Yuma, always trying to win his duels with Utopia? “If it was convenient, maybe. But I’m not done. Embodiment of Chaos uses one overlay unit to change all your monsters to Attack mode.”

“Black Mist is already in Attack mode,” 96 pointed out. “I’m starting to wonder if you should have placed your hopes in someone else, Yuma. Someone whose deck you were familiar with and you knew could win, perhaps?”

“I know Yusaku can win. I don’t need to know his deck to know that.”

“And I’m still not finished. Since Dotscaper was the overlay unit I used, its ability activates, allowing me to Special Summon it,” Yusaku went on. “Next, I play Cynet Defrag. I Special Summon Protron from my graveyard. Once again, I overlay both my level 1 monsters to XYZ Summon Number 31: Embodiment of Punishment!” 

This time, during Yusaku’s XYZ Summon, the number 31 glowed on his left palm. 

“Another Rank 1 monster with only a seemingly worthless ability to help you,” Number 96 mused. “If you want to win, your next move better be good.”

“I end my turn,” Yusaku said.

“You pulled off two XYZ Summons and you aren’t even gonna attack?” Yuma puffed his cheeks.

“Why would he? Check you math, Yuma, Embodiments of Crime and Punishment both have only 500 Attack,” Tori pointed out.

“Why summon monsters with almost no Attack??”

As confused as Yuma was, Yusaku wasn’t going to explain anything. Not until Number 96 entered the Battle Phase, anyway. 96 was cautious about the new Number, but Yuma wasn’t about to let him get away without battling.

“I use one overlay unit to activate Embodiment of Punishment’s effect. Dark Mist is forced to attack Embodiment of Punishment. As long as Embodiment of Crime is on the field, Embodiment of Punishment isn’t destroyed as long as it still has one overlay unit, and you take the damage I would take!”

“I do not like this,” 96 said. Even if Black Mist had an overlay unit left, it would only make the situation worse for him.

“Well, you’re going to positively hate what’s coming next. Do you feel it, Yusaku? I sure do!” Yuma yelled.

Black Mist had 2,450 Attack. Embodiment of Punishment had 500, leaving 96 to take 1,950 points of damage, and all the monsters on Yusaku’s field had enough Attack to take out the rest of 96’s Life Points.

96 scowled. “I suppose I have no choice but to end my turn.”

From there, the duel was practically over. All he needed was Cyberse Wizard’s effect, and his monsters took care of the rest.

And as they attacked, he ran forward. He ran towards Yuma. Once he was within reach, Yusaku threw his arms around Yuma. After a moment, Yuma hugged him back. And while they stood there and hugged, Yusaku tied the key’s rope together around Yuma’s neck, allowing him to wear the key just like he had before. 

The hug had started out awkward. Yusaku couldn’t remember the last time he gave a hug, he only ever remembered receiving them, and the way he’d wrapped his arms around Yuma definitely didn’t seem how it felt whenever Yuma had hugged him. Not to mention the difference in their heights. But Yuma did hug him back. And hugged him back. He didn’t let Yusaku go for what seemed like a long time. From behind him, Yusaku could hear Tori and Bronk running towards them as well. Resigning himself to his fate, Yusaku braced himself for a group hug. 

Once the key was securely around Yuma’s neck once more, Astral reappeared beside them. He reabsorbed Number 96, and obtained Black Mist once more.

“Only friends so close fight so much...” Astral mused to himself.

Only seconds later, Yusaku could feel himself being hugged by three people at once, and he was starting to regret some of his decisions.

Bronk and Yuma immediately started apologizing to each other for everything.

“I’m so glad everyone’s getting along again,” Tori sighed. “Of course, we have Yusaku to thank for that!”

“Yeah, that was awesome! I know you said you could duel, but you did so many cool moves, and you totally had a plan the whole time that you made work no matter what, and you saved me and Astral, and I wish I could watch you duel again!”

“Not interested.”

[queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm]

Daminette December Day 4: Gaming

——————————————————————————

Everyone on twitch knew, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a beast at every game she played. From multiplayer ones like Ultimate Mecha Strike III to indie ones such as “Hollow Knight” she was a goddess. Her KD ratio on “Call of Duty Modern Warfare” was 100:0.

She played under an alias, Ladybug. Not once did she show her face. All of her viewers told her to go pro, make some real money playing the games that she loved so much. But everytime she saw someone suggest that, she’d wave it off saying, “Gaming is a hobby for me. If you really want to support me, buy merch or commission me for some clothes. For those who don’t know, I run a website called ‘Miss Fortune’ and it would greatly support me and my dreams if you would check it out!”

It was true Marinette loved gaming, but her passion would always be fashion. Once her website was announced, Marinette received so many commissions from her followers, that she no longer had the time to do the free labor her class would always ask if her. She was busy and was making her dream come true they should be happy for her... right?

Wrong.

“Mariiii,” Alya elongated her nickname, “Could you babysit my sisters and Chris, please?”

Marinette sighed, “I’m sorry Alya, I just have too much on my plate right now. I’m working on a comission that will pay me a lot! It needs to be done by Monday, or I won’t be able to get it to the buyer in time for their party. Maybe next time?”

Alya would have said that it was fine, if Lila didn’t open her mouth right when Marinette finished, “Wow! Marinette would place money over her supposed ‘Best Friend?’ As Alya’s second best friend, I’ll take over the duty,” Lila then whispered lowly to Marinette, “because that’s what friends do.”

“Yeah, Girl! Why are you being so selfish?” Alya asked a little annoyed.

“W-what?” Marinette physically took a step back, “S-selfish? But I’ve done nothing but do whatever it is you ask of me?!? The one time I decline a demand from you I’M the selfish one? I have a job, a client, and my pride as a designer on the line. This is much deeper then money, but you,” she pointed an accusing finger at Lila, “wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”

Neither Lila or Alya expected, soft, timid, Marinette to explode the way she did. As the class excluded Marinette from things, she dove farther into her twitch personality. Ladybug, one of the best gamers in the word (according to some), was confident, collected, and focused. Marinette embraced that side of her and slowly grew into her own skin. Lila broke into the fakest crocodile tears she could conjure, “W-why are you so m-mean? I-I just wanted Alya to k-know she could l-lean on me!”

“Bullshit,” Marinette cursed and rolled her eyes, “You know exactly what you were trying to do. And Lila next time, take some acting lessons. Maybe then I’ll even pretend to be sorry. You cry wolf so often that I’ve become desensitized by yours and everyone else’s treatment of me. So if you want to play ball, I just want you to know: I play to win. And I never lose, especially to noobs who don’t even know the mechanics yet.”

After saying that, Marinette left the classroom stunned to slience. Lila tried to call after her, but she was already long gone. Classes had ended right before the confrontation, so Marinette couldn’t be bothered to deal with peasants that lost at games of manipulation. She had much better and productive things she could be doing with her life.

As Marinette made her way home, she had wanted to stream a bit before working on the commission. ‘What to do,’ Marinette had thought to herself, ‘A vlog? Maybe?’

20 minutes of an internal debate later, she had decided to do a vlog (in silhouette of course). The light on the camera signaled it was recording, “What is up my Macaroons? How is everybody doing today?” She stops to read the chat, “Good? I’m glad! Um.... how am I doing? I didn’t have a good day, but now that I’m talking to all of you I’m feeling much better!”

Marinette winked at the camera. She wanted to keep her mind off of the event of earlier, “I got into a fight with one of my ‘best friends’” her fingers curled into quotes, “Turns out she wasn’t worth my time.”

She continued to stream for another 45 minutes before signing off. The second it ended, Marinette began to work on her commission. The piece was for a Tim Drake. When she had first received the request, Marinette assumed the person was asking under a pseudonym. There ways no way THE Tim Drake would want her work... right?

Wrong... again.

Two for two times Marinette wa wrong lately. Unbeknownst to her the Wayne boys had grown a fondness for the goddess behind the screen on Twitch. Tim being the fan boy of the four, commissioned her for the next gala. He wouldn’t shut up about it to the rest, “I’m getting a ‘Miss Fortune’ original!” He would announce loudly to the manor, “She actually took my request!”

“And here I though Ladybug would ignore you, I thought she would’ve thought it to be a prank. Timmy boy lucked out,” Jason released a long breath.

“Can things one and two, shut up while I place an order?” Dick huffed in annoyance. He would try to commission Ladybug for business causal.

None of the boys were into fashion, (besides Damian but they don’t know that) but if it was to support their favorite streamer they would sell their kidney. No one knew the face of Ladybug, however, everyone knew of their skill.

Damian felt an eyebrow twitch at his brothers antics. Damian had been commissioning Ladybug since before she had mentioned it in that video. Admittedly he had no idea who the designer was, Damian always preferred practicality over looks and Miss Fortune had just what he was looking for. Eventually he’d learn just who Ladybug was, after months of commissioning her work she had enough trust in him to allow him the privilege of her name. Marinette. That was what he got. No last name, just Marinette.

Ladybug trusted him enough with a first name, but handing your last name to a stranger on the internet isn’t the best idea. But Damian was on a war path to sniff out just who exactly is Ladybug.

Her twitch channel was pretty popular, she was confident, and always stayed talking to her followers whenever they were sad or upset. Her last stream left him unsettled. Damian didn’t think such an angel could ever be upset at anyone, but guess there was a first time for everything.

A fire was lit under Damian and it would rage until he remedied whatever would distress his angel. This would become a game of “Clue” and Damian never lost anything. To the challenge of finding Marinette he’d say, “Game on!”

——————————————————————————

A/N: I plan on continuing this into tomorrow’s prompt of fire. I hope that’s okay with you guys. Thank you for all the sweet comments, likes and reblogs. All of those things make me motivated to continue, thank you all so much!

@daminette-december2019 @persephonebutkore

[ezraeuropium]

SAINT BERNARD [𝙴𝙿𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙳𝙴 𝙾𝙽𝙴 — ❝𝙷𝙰𝚆𝙺𝚂❞] (one-shot series)

ACCESS MASTERLIST [HERE] 

note before you read; this is basically a compilation series of one-shots that i’ll write. some requests will be from wattpad as well as here. there will be no one-shot that end up into two-shots, etc (those will be posted outside of this series). requests are open [0/10] slot are currently taken up (meaning there open), so feel free to request a character. i do have a list of prompts on my profile if you cannot think of any. i also write in second person / gender neutral reader to include everyone! enjoy!

word count: 2001 warnings: hawks commits cannibalism. 

[NAME] MARRIED AN IDIOT.

it became crystal clear as they stood on the street, watching their husband bounce up and down in undeniable excitement. the two were supposed to be patrolling through their assigned district, but hawks had become distracted by one thing — chicken nuggets. one of the men that lived in the area had a different meat every day of the week, and today had been chicken nugget day.

and hawks insisted to stop.

usually [NAME] avoided going on patrol with hawks. it proved to be distracting and a liability. however, this was the rare chance that they were ever assigned the same area as their husband — they could count how many times they patrolled with one hand.

"hawks," [NAME] stressed, their eyebrow twitching in slight annoyance. "we're supposed to be working!"

their husband turned to them with a playful pout, and a mischievous look dancing in his eyes. "oh, it's just a few minutes, sweetheart!"

"it's cannibalism," they retorted, crossing their arms over their chest. "you're eating a fellow bird, and people need help." one thing [NAME] was not going to do was fall into the man's charm. "or maybe the chickens need help since it seems that's all you seem to eat."

hawks grinned, "one, it's not cannibalism unless you make it cannibalism. two, you diet does not only consist of chicken— you're on it." the blond-haired man sent a went their way.

[NAME] tried not to gang. years ago, his ridiculous flirting might have worked on them, but now it was so common it was disgusting (even though sometimes hawks had his moments). now, however, was not a good moment for their husband to reference their sex life. any other time would have been fine, but they were on the clock, and [NAME] was ready to drag the man away from the shitty meat stand. hawks could get chicken nuggets from wacdonald's on the way back home.

"i'm making it cannibalism," they pushed once more. "come on. i'm tired and do not want to deal with your childish bullshit right now."

to anyone else, this might have seemed harsh. hawks had known [NAME] since middle school, however, and knew that they were a serious person, at least when it came to work. if work wasn't in the way, [NAME] easily reminded hawks of one particular yuuei student — kaminari denki. hawks knew that his lover was one of the biggest idiots he knew, maybe more so than himself. [NAME] had — somehow — managed to light a banana on fire during breakfast one morning, and claimed that it was magic (same person did not have a fire quirk). it was easy for hawks not to take most of what his lover said to heart. he was glad that they were at least serious about being a hero.

"go work then," hawks smiled, bumping his hip playfully against theirs. "you don't need to babysit me."

[EYE COLOR] eyes stared at hawks for a solid minute before a hum of acknowledgment left [NAME]. it was true, they didn't have to babysit hawks, but rather, they didn't want to leave him for their own well-being. having an offensive quirk was not something they were lucky to have. instead, [NAME] had a defensive quirk and they worked better when paired off with someone. the quirk was called hack. it allowed [NAME] to worm themselves into anything electronic. they could see every security camera in the city with the blink of their eyes, or rather, messing with the wavelengths that they could see in the air. bigger cities in japan always held a lot of wavelengths, and luckily for [NAME], they managed to successfully prevent having a headache with activating their quirk and seeing the instant flash of different color wavelengths. it did make them sick to the stomach after a while of activation.  

"don't get distracted," [NAME] reminded their husband. they leaned forward, giving the man a rare — for work — kiss on the cheek. hawks sent them a blistering white smile, and [NAME] could remember being weak for it when they were both scouted for personal hero educations. times had been hard then, especially when [NAME] started becoming interested in things that shouldn't have been important. romance was one thing they shouldn't have been focused on, and it wasn't. at least, not until they read some american woman's magazine and it sparked curiosity in their mind. it was a day of instant regret and resolution.

turning away from hawks, [NAME] made their way down the street, watching as the world around them moved in peace. peace was such a fragile word, especially when chaos could erupt at any second, or if one's mind wondered to what was happened else where in the world, then things were never at peace. the false ideology made them force a smile on their face, or at least while they were doing work. all might did things with a smile, so that was what [NAME] was going to do.

there was a small cry, and [NAME] turned their head to look for the sound. a frown was on staining their [SKIN COLOR] face, and they made their way towards the noise; the cries grew louder with every step. children were something that [NAME] did not specialize in, even if they dealt with children on a regular basis. children were so small and easy to damage, and the fear of seeing one hurt never sat well with them. so, seeing a small child sitting in the corner of a street, tucked in a ball with a pair of elegant white wings protecting them, made [NAME] worried.

walking up to the child, the pro-hero knelt down beside the kid. [NAME] put a soft, comforting smile on their face before they spoke up, careful not to scare the child. "hey, sweetie. i'm the pro-hero anon," they introduced. the child startled slightly, peaking her head out from the wings, staring at [NAME] with watery eyes. "do you know where your guardian is?" the hero pushed gently. [NAME] was careful not to say parents. there were several children who's parents have passed or abandoned them, and it was easier to use guardian as it didn't hold tight bonds, but enough so the child was in the care of another.

"nah. . . no," the smaller girl mumbled. "mama was with me, but. . . but now she's not!"

[NAME] gave a nodding of understanding. it was common for children to be separated from their guardians — sad to say. bigger cities meant bigger population, which caused a bit of discord on the streets that never seemed to stop moving. "well, how about we go find her? i'm sure she's looking for you too! you're her little angel after all, yeah?"

"mama calls me that! how'd you know!" the girl said, brightening up. [NAME] nearly laughed, amused. children were easily distracted, but the pro-hero was just glad to have the girl to stop crying. if there had been any more tears, well, [NAME] wouldn't have known what to do. as a child, [NAME] had been a bit of an overly sensitive child, but somehow, learning to care for others and their own tears was lost.

"it was a lucky guess!" really, it would have been a surprise if no one say the girl as a tiny angel. she had small wings that would grow as she did. her hair was in bouncy brown curls, and her eyes were glistening with a wet universe. the girl would breathtaking when she was older, and [NAME] wondered what greatness was in store for the small girl.

[NAME] opened up their arms for the girl to come to them. it would be easier to walk around holding the child, especially since the child would spot her mother easily if she was in [NAME]'s arms. the girl hesitated for a moment, and the pro-hero was about to put their arms down. they weren't going to make the child uncomfortable. [NAME] might have been a hero, but to the child, they were nothing but a stranger. however, the child had founder herself in the pro-hero's arms. carefully, [NAME] stood up, adjusting the tiny angel to their hip.

"can you see?"

"mhm! you're tall like mama!" so, the child's mom was tall, that helped a little bit. the woman would be around [NAME]'s height, if the child indicated a hint towards her mother's height, even if it was unintentional.

[NAME] looked through the crowd of people, before their gaze fell on the girl. "what does mama look like?"

the girl's nose scrunched up. "she's really, really pretty! she's got blond hair like a pom pom! and, and she had big black wings! mama said i got uncle's wings! they're big and white too!"

that. . . that made things a lot more easier than [NAME] thought. the large black wings helped clue her in. there weren't many people who had bird like quirks. [NAME] had only know hawks and tokoyami to have one, but that was personally. besides that, it was always people in passing, and there weren't a lot.

"wow, you're mama sounds amazing! just like you!" [NAME] cooed, their [EYE COLOR] orbs scanning the crowd. their teeth nibbled on their lower lip, before a small sequel escaped the child. "anon! anon! there's mama! she's with a man with wings, but their red! i want red wings!"

[NAME] turned around and snorted. there was a small panicked look on hawks face, but that was because the girl's mom look like since was in hysterics, which was not funny. they weaved their way through the people, [NAME] making sure to have a good grip on the girl.

"um, ma'am! is this your daughter?" the pro-hero exclaimed as they closed in on hawks and the woman. [NAME] didn't bother to take note of the to-go box in hawks hand, which was no doubt filled with chicken nuggets.

the woman let out a cry of relief. "yes! oh, adami, my little angel!"

the girl wiggled in [NAME]'s arms, and they didn't waste a moment by handing the child to her mother. the woman looked toward's name with a glossy eyed smile and thanked them. [NAME] simply waved it off, saying it was only natural that they'd help.

hawks watched the interaction for a moment before silently moving on with his lover. "i didn't know you were so good with kids."

[NAME] let out a laugh, rolling their eyes. they pulled their phone out checking the time. they had enough time to go clock out, even if hawks wasted part of this shift on chicken nuggets. "i'm not any good with them."

"so, you don't want any?"

there was a pregnant pause, and [NAME] looked at their husband. "do you?"

hawks gave a shrug, a small smile on his face. "i wouldn't mind one."

[NAME] frowned. there was one thing they couldn't do and that was produced a child. they were infertile and deleted all options of even having a child with their dna in it. "you know i can't, even if i wouldn't mind."

"[NAME]. . . we can always adopt, and it doesn't have to be now. it can be in a week, a year, or even a decade, or never. i'll stand by your choice."

their throat felt dry, and they reached to hold hawks hand. "keigo — I want to have a family, but — soon, i promise." hawks — no, keigo — leaned over and kissed his lover on the forehead, and [NAME] knew they had all the time in the world, and the ring on their finger was enough to prove that. if only keigo would stop eating his own species that is.

[vinylhazza]

28 w/ e 💖💖💖

prompt list

28. they ask you to pretend to be their date at a bar to prevent an ex from talking to them. 

being dragged to a bar was the one thing you wanted to happen after a long day at work. granted, it was a friday and it was a day most people chose to ‘go out on the town’ or let loose - but all you desired at the moment was a nice glass of your favorite pear red wine,  your newest book you’d purchased at the local bookstore, and your sweet kitty egypt. she must have been so worried when you didn’t come home. that thought alone made you want to ditch the uncomfortable heels and fake smile you wore. 

you’d left work, drove directly to your good friends house, and begrudgingly gotten ready in front of her tiny bathroom mirror. you’d stuffed a black dress into your purse before leaving the house that morning, knowing something ridiculous like this would happen, but hoping it wouldn’t. thankfully she had makeup and a curling iron she let you use so you weren’t walking into a bar with a bun similar to a librarian (you know the one). it was all you had to work with - so you would be surprised if you didn’t look like the total train wreck you felt like.  

the bar well, it was packed. you’d stumbled in with linked arms, your friend trotting off somewhere into the sea of dancing bodies promises she’d “be right back.” fat chance. you’d shot up some conversation with a mutual friend, something about an ex who knew a guy that could possibly get her a new car, something that you weren’t interested in in the slightest. but of course, because the kind person you were, you watched your friend disappear into the crowd and off to discuss the details of their little financial exchange - leaving you to your own lonely devices.

with a pout you make your way over to the bar, making sure to not make any unwaranted eye contact with any of the other people that had the same idea as you - hoisting yourself up into a tall barstool that feels like a feat in itself to get into, but in no time you’re seated firmly on the stiff maroon cushion - browsing the rows and rows boose behind the counter. you weren’t much of a “whiskey on the rocks” type of girl - really a mixed drink type of gal. the simplest drink you’d get is a Manhattan - which sounded best right now. if you’re going to be alone for a while, the least you could do is make sure you’re relaxed - which you definitely weren’t at the moment.

“just a Manhattan please,” you tell the middle aged bartender, not quite sure if you’re using the right word for what you want, but he nods without hesitation, turning to the shelves of alcohol on the back wall - taking down a bottle and a clear drinking glass. a sigh ripples through your chest and oozes out of your mouth.

why did i think this was a good idea? you wine to yourself, all alone in a bar on the opposite side of town. somewhere you didn’t want to be, never would want to be, and only made your appearance because of your friend that is off somewhere with a friend probably much more outgoing than you. you envisioned her as a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of person - something you envied.

but instead of sulking to yourself, you decided you’d simply enjoy your drink. that’s all you had to do, look at the light at the end of the very shitty tunnel that was your day. yeah, you’d been yelled at by a customer for something that was not and would never be your fault. yes, you’d shed a tear or two in the back room because your grandma of 92 years of age buttdialed you on break thinking in was your grandma that died two years ago. yes, your feet were blistering from the heels you bought from a website that swore on everything they had the comfiest shoes around. yes, your day was shit. it was utter shit - but it had to get better right?

just as the bartender slides the glass across the slick wooden counter - a dashing boy with a head full of dark hair is leaning over you with a frazzled expression, nervousness seeping from his every nerve. he was...very attractive. it took your breath away for a moment, if you’re being honest. his hand rests on the counter right by your own that stopped the glass at the last minute - thanking the good Lord above you didn’t have to hassle with a mess of alcohol on the floor.

“please tell me you’re not here with a date or something,” the boy states, baritone voice melodic over the loud music. it was more of a plead than anything.

after your initial shock of being bothered after your attempt at being invisible, you’re shaking your head nervously, glancing around you to see who he’s watching out for all worried and anxious - just to be on the lookout so you don’t get yourself into a dangerous situation - you were scared you’re teetering that line right now anyhow.

“uh no no, no date but my friend is just over there-“ your finger points off in the general direction where she disappeared into the crowd earlier in the night, hoping she was at least in the same general area.

“then do me a favor and act like i said something funny,” he interjects quickly, scraping another barstool across the floor to sit right beside you, his arm leaning on the counter with a forced grin - visibly trying to prove something to someone.

but you give in. of course you do, who are you to mess up someone’s desperately thrown together plan of looking put together when they’re actually falling apart? you take a sip from your drink with a nod, setting it neatly on the counter before you’re laughing. and oh my gosh were you laughing - just really putting on a show.

it’s something that floods from you, like a river raging through you and you don’t even know where the water came from. he’s a stranger, you don’t owe him any favors - not a one. yet you find yourself complying to sudden request to laugh - that’s all. that’s all he’d asked of you.

the devilishly attractive boy is watching you close, with this playful glint in his eye that just keeps growing as the laughter bubbles from you - your hand raising to grab at his arm to seal the deal. you hope that whoever is watching, whatever relation he may have to them, that they believe your little facade. you have 0 clue why you are laughing with a handsome stranger in a bar after a fucked day while drinking a cocktail you don’t even care about anymore - but it felt good to laugh. even if it was fake and you looked crazy to the lingering eyes around you.

“what am i laughing at exactly?...” you stutter with a sigh and a tired smile, wiping a fake tear from your eye in an attempt to look the most joyful you’ve been in a while.

“ethan - uh ethan dolan,” he offers up his name. such a lovely name. very fitting for him as well, “and it’s just eh...you see that girl over there in the red?” he bends over to talk by your ear, not wanting whoever it is to see him being so polite with someone he’s meant to look close with.

glancing over your shoulder seemed like the worst idea in history, there were so many options for how it could go: lock eyes like the suspect, look around and find her to be a godess among men and women - totally out of your league, or simply mistake her for the wrong person. but when your head does turn, just the slightest bit, you see her. in a knee-length sundress fit for a bar - sort of on the skimpy side but still modest enough to not look too desperate. you approved. she looked like a lovely girl. that is, until her head of blonde hair whips to your direction, a glare shooting straight from her glasses framed eyes.

you snap your gaze away just as quickly, knowing it’s a fight you didn’t want any part of. you had no interest in being “the other woman.”

you’re nodding back at him with a frown, not sure why you feel this strange vibe eminating from that girl across the bar - but you don’t like it.

but - oh. oh. he’s looking at you still, observing you watch his evil ex try to seduce him back with her swaying hips across some mans bulge. but here he is, having all eyes for you. stop looking at me. wait don’t stop.

let’s just say it’s been...a while since a man has looked in your direction. you were of course not the shy type exactly - but right on the cusp. you observed the room. you made yourself noticeable that in case anyone would talk to you, you’d be the one they’d lean over to, to make their comment. but you could also make yourself as invisible as you pleased - and you’d thougt you’d done a good job tonight. but obviously with ethan sitting here looking at you, you didn’t succeed.

it’s spilling from your mouth before you could stop it, “she doesn’t really seem like your type.”

and you think for a moment , from the raising of his right eyebrow, that he’s angry. that you’d pressed a button somewhere under his dashing exterior. but then - he’s laughing. really laughing. it’s like a zap of lightening inside you, stirring up something that hasn’t been touched for years.

“and what do you think ‘my type’ is?” ethan firing back with a low tone, smiling so deviously. is he flirting?

“i’m not sure, but i know it isn’t her.” and it’s bold - to say such a thing about a person you don’t even know. maybe it’s the night you’ve had, or the fact that he’s already made you feel a sense of comfort, but you find yourself being the most honest in the moment.

he gives a nod, a simple bob of his head while still keeping those gorgeous eyes plastered on your face - waiting for something - you’re not sure what until he runs a hand through his hair and finally lets his thoughts spill out in a nervous jumble of words.

“she doesn’t give up easy that’s for sure. she’s been harassing me for a couple weeks and i can’t get her to stop and...” he’s thinking carefully, “...i uh...was hoping maybe you would be willing to maybe act like this is something like a date? just so she won’t try anything.”

“you don’t have your friends with you? you’re here alone?” you make it a point before you agree, just confused why he’s asking something so random and so elaborate. if you don’t look the part, she won’t believe a thing. girls are observant that way.

“my brother is here somewhere - i’m not sure i lost him but - are you in or not?”

and you think for a minute, lookin back over your shoulder to the door, wondering if you left right now - just grabbed your friend and went home like you had planned all day - how much you would regret it. it was simple really. in or out?

his leg bounces under the table, anxious with every minute that passes, feeling her eyes searing through his skin across the room - waiting for her moment to pounce. please say yes please just say yes.

it’s not that big of a deal right? pretend and you won’t see him again and you can go back to your normal, boring excuse of a life right? just this once?

“okay,” you smile brightly, tilting your head back and downing the last bit of your drink, setting the glass on the counter firmly with a smack, “i’m in.”

and you don’t know it - after what seemed like minutes but was actually close to an hour and half sitting there leaning into him, engaged in this little game of yours - that the same girl you’re putting on a show for had left that bar. got in her car, admitted defeat , and left. you’d been so caught up in talking to ethan about nonsense: laughing, talking, singing ridiculous songs that played over the speakers - that you hardly remembered it was fake.

it was only when you’re friend came up to tap your arm that you were pulled back down to reality. you’d been floating somewhere off in space with this high happiness that washed over you just talking to someone so freely. ethan was easy to talk to. even when you’re yelling over loud music.

and it shocked you to your core that as you got up from your seat, tripping just a bit to try and follow your friend, that ethan grabbed at your arm - a nervous expression crossing his face at the sight of you leaving. he was just having so much fun for once, never having felt so comfortable and safe with a girl he just met before.

“look uh, i know this is really random but uh...would it be okay for me to see you again?” he’s fumbling, hand still on your arm - so warm.

he’s standing now, and you realize just how tall he is. and your friend, still confused, but smirking behind you, nudges at your back with your silence. you wanted that. of course you did. but what would change if you said yes? what kind of trust would you have to put in him for just a chance at something wonderful?

before you can think too hard of the outcome of something that hasn’t even happened yet, your hand dives into the black abyss of your purse - pulling out a ripped piece of paper and a pen - jotting down seven digits that he would soon use to talk to you for hours upon hours - the same number he would call one lazy sunday afternoon, missing you, just to tell you how much he loves you. you write down those numbers and leave a little heart at the end. handing it to him felt like freedom. something inside you screamed that you shouldn’t be afraid - that you didn’t have to be afraid of ethan. even if it was terrifying to start again, start over, try to let yourself be vulnerable - you had a feeling this was a good idea.

“don’t wait to long,” you leaned in to tell him, placing the sweetest of kisses right to the apple of his blushing cheek, all while tucking the frayed piece of paper into his hand securely. his heart was racing - oh God was it racing and - what was he worried about his ex for? he watched you saunter away from him, smile lighting up your face, hips swaying just the right way, your arm linked with your friend. he doesn’t even jump when a plastered grayson slaps his hand onto his shoulder - where he stares at the door you disappeared in and out to the night - off and ready to steal his heart. he didn’t flinch when graysons sour attitude tried to interrupt the weird high he felt after your lips landed on his skin. he didn’t let it bother him because fuck - he was totally enamored by you.

don’t wait too long don’t wait too long don’t wait too long

and you better believe when i tell you he didn’t.

[mdelpin]

In Search of a Dream - Chapter 2

Slayers Week 2020 Prompt: Magic / Adventure Pairing: Gray x Natsu AO3 | Prev: Ch 1

Like many others, I’m not a huge fan of the Daphne arc, so I figured while I was messing with canon (yes, I know it’s anime only), I might as well change this up a bit.

Summary: Gray goes off in search of Igneel. After several months of chasing leads that get him nowhere, he happens upon a girl who claims she’s seen a dragon.

0-0

Gray figured the best way to start his search was to go to the place where Natsu had been found by Gramps all those years ago. Taking advantage of the fact that the dragon slayer had left on a job with Lucy and Happy, Gray had cornered the guild master and plied him with drinks.

He hadn’t missed the curious way Gramps had stared at him once he’d understood what Gray wanted, his brow furrowing as he tried to figure out what Gray was up to and how it tied into his never-ending rivalry with Natsu. Eventually, he recounted everything he remembered and even marked the spot on a map.

Having acquired all the information he needed, Gray decided to leave the next morning. It had been a while since he’d gone off on his own, and he was looking forward to it — the promise of a new adventure exciting him as it always did.

It took him three days of walking to find the forest Gramps had marked on the map. He examined his surroundings, but nothing really caught his attention, it looked like any number of forests he’d visited over the years. Gray explored as much of it as he could, trying to find anything that could be considered a clue to how Natsu had ended up there by himself so many years earlier.

He decided to camp for the night, carefully lighting a fire to cook his food. He found himself staring into the flames, his thoughts straying to Natsu. What must it have felt like for him to find himself here all alone? Had he been scared?

Gramps had mentioned that Natsu had refused to leave this spot, determined that Igneel would return at any moment, even though by his own admission, the dragon slayer had already been waiting for weeks.

He couldn’t help but be glad that the old man had worked his usual magic, convincing the stubborn boy to give guild life a chance. Gray didn’t even want to imagine how different his life would have been if Natsu hadn’t been a part of Fairy Tail, how different he would be if the annoying fire-breather hadn’t been there to challenge him at every opportunity.

Gray thought that was part of what his need to find Igneel was, Natsu had done so much for him over the years, and he’d never been able to repay him in any way that mattered.

He put out the fire, encasing himself in a dome of ice for protection while he slept. In the morning, he got ready to leave. On a whim, he used his ice to lift himself up in the air and look around, hoping to find something that maybe Gramps had missed, but there was nothing but trees everywhere he looked.

Disappointed that the forest had been a bust, he decided to walk to the next town to see if anyone remembered anything from when Natsu had been found or had heard about any dragons in the area.

He traveled to town after town, visiting libraries, searching official records, and talking to anyone he could find, following any lead that came his way regardless of how insignificant it seemed. But no matter how much he searched or how hard he tried, everything turned out to be a dead-end, or easily explained away.

Gray was beginning to understand Natsu’s frustration. Everywhere he went, he was ridiculed for his questions. It had only been a few months since he’d started his journey, but the constant disappointment was already getting to him.

Maybe the real question wasn’t whether Natsu should give up or not, but rather how he’d been able to continue his search for so long. More than ever, Gray wanted to find Igneel for his friend, but he was running out of ideas, and there hadn’t been a lead to follow in days.

He was currently in the city of Malba, eating lunch at a local cafe and considering his options. He wanted to keep going, but the truth was that he was almost out of jewels. He’d have to go home soon.

He also hadn’t exactly told anyone what he was doing or where he was going. Knowing Fairy Tail, they’d be sending out a search party soon, and he could just imagine who would be on it. As much as he wanted to see Natsu again, he was determined to have something to tell him first. Anything that would return that fire back into Natsu’s eyes.

Frustrated by his lack of progress, he decided to walk around and explore the city for a while. The idea of giving up didn’t sit well with him, but Gray didn’t know what else to do. He was surprised to find a magic shop tucked away in an area of the city that had clearly seen better days.

Gray had never really been to a magic shop before. He was a caster mage, and from what he’d understood, these places mostly sold magical items. With nothing better to do and welcoming a distraction, he decided to enter. If nothing else, maybe he could find Natsu a present for his birthday, which was coming up in about two weeks.

As he’d suspected, there were a lot of charms and magic potions, devices that could change your clothes or hair color, but outside of some prime prank material for Natsu, there wasn’t really much there to hold his interest.

Until he came across an area of the shop that seemed to thrum with magical energy. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he pushed the curtains aside and walked through. This room was much more interesting. Even though it was dimly lit, Gray could feel the power emanating from some of the objects encased in the display cases. The man who stood behind the counter nodded at him as he entered, but he was already deep in conversation with a woman.

Gray continued to explore the small room, fascinated by the displays. The case he was currently examining contained many trinkets - rings and lockets, masks that seemed to pulsate with dark energy - as well as different items that purported to be from mythical creatures. A feather from a phoenix, a horn from a unicorn, a stinger from the tail of a manticore, and many others that Gray had never even heard of.

“Daphne, we’ve been through this before, I can’t buy that from you,” the shopkeeper’s voice was laced with irritation, but he seemed to be trying to keep it in check.

“But it’s a dragon scale!” Daphne protested, “It must have some value. They were one of the strongest magical creatures, weren’t they?”

“There hasn’t been a confirmed dragon sighting in hundreds of years, I’m sorry for what happened to your city, but I can’t just buy an item I know is fake.”

“But I’ve seen it with my own eyes!”

“You saw a dragon?” Gray interrupted, excited by the prospect of another lead, “When was this?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Daphne turned to him, her eyes alive with excitement, “It was-”

“No, she didn’t,” the shopkeeper interrupted, “If you’re looking for magical items, I’m sure I can help you find something here that will suit your needs.”

Gray ignored him in favor of examining the woman. She looked to be about his age, with medium length black hair and big brown eyes that hid behind glasses. He couldn’t sense any magic power coming from her, but more importantly, he didn’t get the sense that she was lying.

“Can I see the scale?”

Daphne handed it to him, and Gray could barely contain his excitement. It was a large white scale that looked and felt incredibly similar to those that made up Natsu’s scarf.

“It was red at first,” she informed him, “but it lost all it’s coloring soon after.”

Gray could hear the shopkeeper muttering behind them and made a quick decision. “Can you take me to where you found this?”

” Yeah, sure.”

0-0

They left the magic store behind, then the city, walking towards the field where Daphne claimed to have seen a dragon in the sky some years earlier. Along the way she told Gray a story that he had trouble believing, but made more sense than anything else he’d heard during the last few months.

Daphne claimed she had been playing by herself in the field when she’d heard a loud noise coming from above. Surprised, she’d looked up only to see a large creature flying overhead. It had seemed ghostly, but she’d had no trouble identifying it as a dragon nonetheless.

The extraordinary thing was that she claimed that the dragon seemed to be trying to ram into something. Its terrifying roars rang louder with every failed attempt until suddenly it just disappeared from sight. She’d found several scales in the grass and had grabbed them to show her family, but when she’d arrived home, everyone in the city had disappeared. Well, everyone with magic anyway, Daphne had none.

She’d run to the next town to ask for help, but they hadn’t believed her. Everyone she’d told had made fun of her, calling her crazy and suggesting that maybe everyone in the city had left to get away from her.

Regardless, no one could explain what had happened to the people in her city, and soon it was nicknamed the City Without Sound. People would come to explore it, fascinated by the idea of a ghost town in modern times. Daphne had been left with nothing but the dragon scales, surviving on the jewels she got from selling items she found in the empty houses.

“Are you sure this is where you saw it?” Gray asked, not sensing anything out of the ordinary about the field.

“Of course, I’m sure!” Daphne snapped, “Do you really think I’d forget after what happened?”

“Right, sorry,” Gray excused himself, then he had a thought. “Do you remember what date it was?”

“July 7th of 778,” Daphne replied, peering at him curiously, “Why does it matter?”

Gray startled at the date, it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, could it? Natsu had been abandoned on that same day a year earlier. He held the dragon scale in his hand and stared at it. It had to mean something, it just had to.

“I have a friend who was raised by a dragon. He was abandoned on that same day in 777, he’s been looking for his dragon ever since,” Gray admitted, handing the scale back. “I’m trying to help him find it.”

“I’ve seen it more than once,” Daphne suddenly admitted.

“What?! Why didn’t you say so before?”

“People already think I’m crazy,” Daphne shrugged, lying down on the grass and staring up at the clouds. “The first year after it happened, I came back here every day, but I never saw anything. When July 7th came around again, I was determined the dragon would show up. I managed to convince a few people to come so I could prove I wasn’t crazy, but when it didn’t show, things got worse for me. But I knew I would see it again, and I was right. The following year I heard the same sound and looked up to see the dragon once again. Everything was the same as before.”

“I raced home, hoping that everyone had returned, but - uhm, they were still gone,” Daphne’s pained chuckle tore at Gray’s heart.

He felt a strange kinship with this girl, he’d lost everyone in the blink of an eye too, and it had been horrible, but at least he’d known what had happened. Whatever took place here on that day had caused her to lose everyone without any explanation, which had to be worse. Still, there was something about what she had said that nagged at him.

And that’s when it hit him, she’d said everyone in the village had had magic, except for her. That was unusual. In general, only about ten percent of people on Earthland had magic.

“Take me to your village,” Gray demanded, determined that there had to be something there that would have caused this to happen.

Daphne considered him for a moment and then got up, shaking off the dirt from her clothes, “What is it you expect to find?”

“I don’t know yet,” Gray admitted, “but I get the feeling I’ll recognize it when I see it.”

“Do you think you can help me get them back?” The hope in her eyes made him pause, he didn’t want to make things worse for her if there was nothing he could do, but he could feel it in his bones. He was on to something.

0-0

He was right.

Even before reaching the city entrance, he could feel it. There was an enormous concentration of ethernano in the air surrounding them, more than what could be considered normal. His magic was buzzing inside him, begging to be let out.

“Daphne, do you think I could have one of those scales to show my friend?”

“I have no idea what’s going on, but you believed me when no one else did, and for that, you may have one with my thanks,” she handed him one of the scales. She looked down at the floor, her voice quivering as she asked, “Do you think they’ll ever come back?”

He didn’t want to give her any false hope, but he knew that if there was one person who knew a lot about dragons, it was Natsu Dragneel, and when they both set their minds to something, nothing ever stood in their way.

The dragon had first been sighted in 778, and Daphne had said that it returned every other year, which meant that if she was telling the truth - and Gray was convinced that she was - it was scheduled to return in a little over a week’s time.

And when it did, he and Natsu would be waiting.

@ao3feed-gratsu​