#i only have 2 pictures of H on my computer

[scary-grace]

Enough to Go By (Chapter 18) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Your best friend vanished on the same night his family was murdered, and even though the world forgot about him, you never did. When a chance encounter brings you back into contact with Shimura Tenko, you'll do anything to make sure you don't lose him again. Keep his secrets? Sure. Aid the League of Villains? Of course. Sacrifice everything? You would - but as the battle between the League of Villains and hero society unfolds, it becomes clear that everything is far more than you or anyone else imagined it would be. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Chapter 18

You store your backpack in the lockers provided for the purpose, then step into the line for the metal detector. You looked up what to expect when you visit somebody in jail, and so far everything checks out. It’s a long line. You wait your turn, step through the metal detector with no incident, and make your way up to the check-in desk. The officer behind it gives you a cursory glance. “Name?”

You give it, along with your birthdate, and she types it into her computer. A moment later her expression relaxes. She’s just seen that you’re quirkless, which means she can let you in without any special accommodations or extra guards. “Who are you here to see?”

“Aiba Manami,” you say. “My cousin.”

You haven’t been reading the news very much. You wouldn’t have known that Manami and the villain she works with had been arrested if Isuzu hadn’t texted you in all caps, asking if you’d seen the news and dropping the link when you said you hadn’t. And sure enough, there was Manami’s picture, right next to her villain crush’s at the top of the article – only they didn’t call her Aiba Manami. They called her La Brava, the name her villain gave her.

Isuzu was scandalized when you asked if anyone in the family had gone to visit her. You knew that meant no, so on your next three-day gap, you made plans to go see her. And here you are, hanging out in a visitation room, waiting for the guards to bring her in. You’re the only one in this particular room, and you know why. Manami’s quirk is useless without her villain nearby, and they’ve almost certainly separated them. And you don’t have a quirk, so you're useless overall. It’s safe. Enough.

When the guards bring Manami in, it’s clear that she’s been crying. A lot. Her eyes are red, and her permanent dark circles are augmented by bruises from rubbing them. She looks shocked to see you at first, but it’s not long before her eyes fill with tears again. “I didn’t think anyone would come. The family is so mad –”

“Fuck the family,” you say. Tomura and the others must be rubbing off on you. You never used to swear this much, as evidenced by the fact that Manami’s jaw drops and a startled, nervous laugh sneaks out. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I’ve been kind of keeping my head down.”

Manami’s gaze sharpens. “Why?”

“Um – no reason. Not really.” You need to be more careful. There’s nothing you’ve said so far that doesn’t sound suspicious. “Should we sit down?”

Manami sits down on the table, and you sit down in a chair. She’s so tiny that even the height boost from the table doesn’t put her at eye level with you. “How are you doing?” you ask, before she can ask you anything. “I don’t know all of what happened, obviously, but I – um –”

“Gentle fought Midoriya, and he lost.” Manami sniffles, while you try to conceal your shock. Midoriya Izuku really gets around. “My love wasn’t strong enough.”

“I bet that’s not it,” you say at once. “That kid’s just berserk. Nobody who runs into him gets away clean.”

Manami picks her head up out of her hands to give you a weird look. You look back, trying not to panic. Your brain-dead civilian act won’t work on Manami – she’s known you your whole life, and she knows the kind of tricks you play to fly under the radar. Then her gaze slides away from yours, and her eyes fill with tears again. “If I had just loved him more –”

“Did he say that? Your – uh, Gentle?” If he did, you and he are going to have words at some point. You might not be very intimidating, but your friends are terrifying, and you’ve picked up a few tricks from them.

“No.” Manami wipes her eyes again. “Of course not. Gentle loves me. He would never. Have you – have you seen him? I don’t even know where he’s being held.”

You shake your head. “I can find out if you want.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful! I haven’t seen him in so long!” Manami’s expression transforms. You really hope that’s not what you look like when you think about Tenko. “You should meet him. He’s the most handsome man in the world, and he’s so refined and elegant – and honorable – and tall! Tall boys always thought I was too short, but he can carry me around all day if he wants to.”

You absorb that image with some difficulty. “Nobody in here understands,” Manami continues. “They say I’m too nice to have ended up a villain, but they’re only saying that now that it’s too late. Everyone was cruel to me before. None of them cared. Except him.”

She looks back at you, her eyes bright. “Our charges aren’t that bad. They can’t keep us here forever. I know we’ll be together again once we’re out.”

You envy her confidence, and the fact that she’s right. If Tenko gets captured, he’s never getting out of prison. The only way you’ll be together is if he wins. “I’ll find out where Gentle is,” you promise, and Manami smiles. It shouldn’t be hard to do. Kazuo could probably find out without even touching his quirk. “I’d like to meet him sometime. I’m glad there’s somebody who makes you this happy.”

“Really?” Manami looks surprised. “My mom called me and yelled at me about him. And my dad. Everybody.”

“Fuck them,” you say patiently. The sooner Manami picks up that attitude about your whole stupid family, the better. “If he treats you well and makes you happy, that’s what I care about. Even if he likes tea a little too much.”

“Ugh, that’s how we got caught!” Manami flops backwards onto the table. “Midoriya Izuku ran into us and Gentle had to say something about him ruining the aftertaste of the special tea – and then Midoriya knew about the tea – so then Gentle had to talk to him about it –”

This sounds like a train wreck. “I didn’t know tea could do that.”

“Me. Either.” Manami sighs. “He was so excited that somebody else might like the weird stuff he likes. I can’t be mad at him for loving stuff. Even if he was dumb about it.”

She glances at you. “What would you do if your boyfriend was doing something dumb?”

“Drag him out of there.” That’s basically what you did that night in the convenience store, and you and Tenko weren’t even dating. “But I’m taller than you. It works a little better.”

“I knew it!” Manami crows, and you jump. “I knew you had a boyfriend! You didn’t even deny it.”

Manami’s sneaky. You forgot about that. “I was being hypothetical.”

“No you weren’t. You aren’t very good at makeup,” Manami says. You freeze. “Maybe you could fool a boy, but any girl could see that hickey from space.”

You clap your hand over the side of your neck, but it’s already way too late, and Manami laughs so hard she starts crying again. Maybe you’re bad at makeup, but you’re going to blame this one on Tenko – Tenko, who missed being crushed to death by inches seven times during the last fight cycle, and was so strung out on adrenaline that you could barely get him to focus long enough to try to fuck him to sleep. If he couldn’t focus on that, there was no way he could focus on not being loud, and he bit down hard on you to muffle himself so the others wouldn’t figure out what was going on.

There wasn’t time for you to grab a condom, so your first errand of the next fight cycle was the morning-after pill, followed by drugstore-brand makeup to cover up the bite mark. Apparently you did a bad job. A really bad job. “How do I fix it?”

“Tell me about the boy first.” Manami wipes her eyes. “Do you have a picture?”

You do. It’s old, and it’s in a locket around your neck, and your hand twitches upwards to it before you can stop yourself. Manami’s eyes track the motion. “Let me see.”

You hesitate. There’s a chance that Manami will be able to recognize Tenko – she went to your fifth and sixth birthday parties, and he was at both of them – but even if she recognizes him as a kid, she probably won’t be able to match his face to Tomura’s as an adult. You unclasp the locket and hand it over. “This is him as a kid. I don’t have a recent one.”

“Oh, he’s cute.” Manami tilts her head, studying the photo – and then her eyes widen. Her voice goes whisper-quiet, so much that you have to lean in to hear. “He’s alive?”

You nod. “He’s who I think he is,” Manami says, and you nod again. Of course she guessed. She’s a villain, and you know for a fact that villains keep track of each other’s press clippings. You should have thought of that, but you didn’t. Maybe you wanted her to know. “How?”

“They took him.” You’re not sure how else to phrase it subtly. Manami closes the locket and hands it back to you. Her hand is shaky. Yours is steady. “I’m lucky I found him again.”

“Lucky?” Manami shakes her head. “No.”

“What do you mean, no? Look at your boyfriend.”

“My boyfriend is a gentleman thief. He’s refined and elegant and he wants to write his name into history by making things better.” Manami’s proud of him, proud in a way you can’t be proud of Tenko, and your stomach twists with guilt. “Yours did – that.”

She’s pointing at the bite mark on your neck, the one she was teasing you over a few minutes ago. Now it’s something evil, just because of who left it there. “I could be into that,” you say, and she gives you a frustrated look. “It’s not any different than you.”

“It is. Look at me.” Manami gestures to herself, her eyes brightening with tears again. “Me and Gentle don’t hurt anyone. Gentle wants to help people and show them another way. What does your boyfriend want?”

To tear the world down, so something better can be built by people who know what needs to be fixed – but he has to tear it down first, and that will come with casualties. Lots of them. You’re slow to answer, trying to package it in a way that doesn’t sound insane and terrifying, and Manami takes your hesitation for what it is. “You don’t have to do this,” she says. “You’re not like I was. You have friends. You have a real job you like, and you’re normal. I mean, quirkless, but normal.”

Not quirkless, but that doesn’t matter. You stare her down, daring her to say what she actually means. To her credit, she does. “You don’t have a reason to do this,” Manami says, and she talks right over you when you protest that you do. “That means you have a choice. It doesn’t have to be him.

“I don’t have a choice,” you say. If she’d just let you talk, you could have explained, but you don’t need that many words to do it. “I –”

You’re trying to say you love him. If you can’t say you love him – to your cousin, who knows all about love that ruins you – who can you say it to? You try again. “I don’t have a choice. I – I lo – I do. I lo –”

Manami’s hand clamps down over your mouth. “Don’t,” she orders. “You have to save it.”

“What?” Your voice is muffled. “I can’t say it. I’m trying. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Why can’t I say –”

“You can. You have to save it for when it counts.” The door to the visitation room opens, and over Manami’s shoulder, you see a guard step through. Two guards. No, three. “You’ll find Gentle, won’t you? You promised –”

“I’ll find him,” you say. You grasp Manami’s hand, hold it tight. “And I’ll be back to visit you. I promise.”

“Please think about what I said,” Manami says. She looks worried – worried, and sad, and even when the guards come to collect her, she hesitates long enough to try one more time. “It’s not too late. You don’t have to be like me.”

You thought you and Manami would be on the same page about things, since you’re both in love with villains, but apparently not. Apparently Manami sees the League as much worse than Gentle Criminal, just like the League sees Overhaul as worse than they are – and she’s worried about you. Yoshimi’s worried about you, according to Mitsuko and Ryuhei, but Manami’s worry worries you more. And then there was what she said while you were stuttering and panicking around the admission that you love someone you’ve loved in one way and another for almost your entire life. Save it for when it counts. What does that mean?

“Wait.” A guard stops you as you try to walk out through the metal detector and you nearly jump out of your skin. “Take that off.”

He’s pointing at your locket, and your hand flies up to cover it. “Yeah, that,” the guard says. “Take it off before you walk through.”

“It was fine before,” you say. Your nerves are jangling. “Why do I have to take it off now?”

“The prisoner touched it.”

“So you think her quirk works on a locket?” You can’t be combative right now. You can’t make waves – but you’re angry with yourself, angry with Manami, and you don’t want to hide it. “She touched my hand, too. Are you going to make me take that off?”

“Take it off or I’ll detain you,” the officer says. If you’re detained, they’ll search your backpack, and if it comes down to them looking at a baby photo of Tenko or checking out the gun in your backpack, you know which one you prefer. You take off the locket and drop it into the guard’s palm. “Thanks for your cooperation.”

You stand there, seething, as he pries open the locket and studies the photo inside. It occurs to you that the guards were watching you and Manami, that they saw her reaction when she opened it. Of course they’d want to take a look. But the guard never met Tenko, doesn’t know what to look for, and after a moment, he hands the locket back. “Was that so hard?”

“No,” you admit. You look down, bite your lip, the picture of quirkless contrition. “Sorry. It just means a lot to me.”

“Of course,” the guard says magnanimously. They’re all magnanimous once somebody gives in. “Go on.”

You walk through the metal detector again, retrieve your backpack and your phone, and step out of the jail. It’s a sunny day, but it’s cold, and you wish you’d brought a heavier coat. Or a scarf. It’s not hard to imagine that the bite mark is beaming like a searchlight from your neck, letting everybody know just how bad your boyfriend is at keeping quiet. You alter your priorities. You’ll get a scarf first. The firing range will still be there after you’ve covered up.

This far into the fight against Gigantomachia, and your errands during each fight cycle have taken on a new pattern. Food and sleep first – as guilty as you feel for eating hot food and sleeping in a bed when Tenko can’t, you’d feel guiltier if you made a mistake because you were too hungry and sleep-deprived to keep a clear head. Once you’ve gotten that out of the way, you do a few things to maintain the ruse that you’re on a leave of absence from work, then check up on the others.

Usually that means corralling Toga, or finding Compress before he can fence whatever he’s stolen. He’s recognizable enough that it’s safer for you to fence it yourself. You worry less about Spinner. Spinner tends to stick close. If he’s not shadowing Tomura or passed out and snoring, he’s usually following you. Once you’ve checked up on them, made sure they’re eating and sleeping in addition to whatever else, you run an errand of your own. You’ve got a gun now. You need to make sure you can use it.

You go to at least one firing range every fight cycle, sometimes more. You’ve learned how to tense yourself against the recoil from a shot, how to load and reload quickly, how to clean the gun, disassemble it, and fix any problems with it before they get work. The main thing, the most important thing, is shot selection and accuracy. Your accuracy is decent – not quite as decent as it is in Call of Duty, but above average. It got a lot better once you stopped trying to aim for the head.

You don’t need to aim for the head. You don’t want to kill somebody. What you need to do is slow them down long enough for you or your friends to get away, and that means hitting somewhere in the center mass. The fact that gunshots to the center mass can kill somebody just as easily as shots to the head is something you try not to think about. You’ve got a lot of practice not thinking about stuff by now. Enough that you can almost forget about the casualties that will result from tearing everything down, and forget basically everything Manami said except her stories about her villain boyfriend and your twin promises to visit her again and find out where he is.

You text Kazuo to ask if he knows where Gentle Criminal is being held, telling him specifically not to use his quirk to find out, and put your phone away. Then you step into your booth at the firing range.

You’re good enough at it now – barely – that you can practice firing one-handed, firing from positions other than square-on in front of your target. You’re also practicing using the gun for something other than shooting people. One of the guys at the firing range in Nagoya, an ex-cop who took a shine to you in a way that made you deeply uncomfortable, told you that a gun’s not helpful at a distance of less than twenty feet. Somebody with a knife can close that distance faster than you can fire. Dodging a knife strike and clocking somebody in the side of the head is a better bet, so today you’re practicing that, too. You’re as useless with a latent quirk as you were without one, so finding another way to be useful in a fight is your top priority. A stupid latent quirk is the same thing as no quirk at all.

But even as you practice firing one-handed, firing from a crouched position, firing from the floor, you can’t shake off what Manami said. Her hand covering your mouth, her order to save it for when it counts. Save what? The I love you? Sure – you should probably tell Tenko before you tell anybody else, as soon as you figure out how to get the words out of your mouth. What was weird was how intense Manami was about it, but Manami’s always been intense about love. Intense enough to cover your mouth about it? Maybe. Maybe she just wanted you to shut up about how much you love Shigaraki Tomura, aspiring of the supervillains, while you’re in the visiting room at a jail. She’s been at this longer than you have. She’s better at it.

She’s the second person to point out that Tenko’s hurt you, and she and Mitsuko had the same reaction. You’d be worried about it if you didn’t know the whole story, but you can’t explain that your boyfriend bit you because he’s loud in bed or that he hates letting even you see him cry. You also can’t explain that you don’t hate the bitemark, that you don’t want people to see it but aren’t mad that it’s there. You definitely can’t explain that you’re trying to build a new world, and you’re terrified of the thought that he won’t be in it with you.

And there’s no possible way to explain that you’ve weighed the world against the idea of losing Tenko again and decided that keeping him was more important. Not without sounding insane and selfish and awful. Not without sounding like a villain.

You stay at the firing range, drilling over and over again until the time you’ve paid for runs out, and then you check your timer. Four hours before the end of the next fight cycle, and the new base camp is two and a half hours away. That’s plenty of time for you to get there before Tenko does.

Or at least that’s what you think. There’s a disruption in the train service, courtesy of some villain, somewhere, and you wait as ten minutes, forty-five minutes, an hour and a half tick by. There’s no way you’re going to make it there by the end of the fight cycle, and you might miss the break entirely. You have to be there. You need to see Tenko and make sure he eats and sleeps, so that the next fight cycle doesn’t end with him being killed. This far in, he’s barely alive. You don’t know how he’s keeping it together. You don’t know how anyone is.

Another twenty minutes slip past with agonizing slowness. You’re getting desperate. If Kurogiri was here, you’d have options, but he was captured months ago, and you don’t know anyone else who has a –

Yes, you do. You dig the earpiece the doctor gave you out of your backpack and activate it, jamming it into your ear. The doctor’s already on the other end of the line, and that strikes you as weird, but you don’t have a chance to think about it any more before he speaks. “I was just about to reach out to you, Saintess. There’s been a development.”

Your blood turns to ice. Tenko can’t be dead. He’d have told you first if Tenko was dead. If Tenko was dead, you’d know. “What is it?”

“Shigaraki Tomura has devised a plan to destroy both of his enemies at once – the Metal Liberation Army, which has challenged him to a battle, and Gigantomachia, whom he has yet to defeat.” The doctor doesn’t explain who the MLA is, but he doesn’t need to. You’re quirkless. You know all about the people who want to make society’s might-makes-right thing explicit instead of poorly concealed. “I’ve just transported he and the others to the outskirts of the battlefield. He gave me explicit instructions to keep you away from the fight.”

“No,” you say at once. “I’m the medic. They need me. I have to be there.”

“My thoughts exactly,” the doctor says. Oh. “I believe you could be very useful indeed. Stand by for transport.”

You hold still. The doctor heaves a dramatic sigh. “That means get out of sight, dear.”

You’re an idiot. You duck into the bathroom at the train station and lean back against the door, blocking anyone from coming in. “I’m out of sight.”

“Excellent,” the doctor says. A moment later, your mouth fills with black sludge.

When you get to the edge of the city that must be the battleground, the fight’s already in full swing. You can tell by the clouds of dust that are rising, the flashes of blue flame appearing and vanishing just as quickly. Tomura must have called for Dabi. Dabi, but not you. Dabi can fight.

“Allow me to provide the lay of the land,” the doctor says. “The Meta Liberation Army has a hundred thousand members in this city alone. Shigaraki’s objective is to hold them off, without drastically reducing their numbers, long enough for Gigantomachia to awaken and pursue him here – where he will theoretically clash with the MLA and incur enough damage to allow Shigaraki to defeat him.”

It’s brilliant. Tomura’s plans these days usually are. But when you check your phone for the time, your heart sinks. “They’ve still got an hour left. That’s too long.”

“That’s where you come in, my dear. The MLA left you out of their calculations entirely due to your perceived quirklessness.” The doctor sounds smug as all hell. “I’ll direct you where you’re needed. With that gun of yours, the amount of ammunition you’re carrying, and the practice you’ve been putting in, you should be quite effective in thinning the MLA’s ranks – assuming, of course, that you’re willing to get your hands dirty.”

You made that decision a while ago. You put on your veil and crown. It’ll complicate your vision, but you couldn’t practice with it on. “I’ll do what needs to be done to keep Tomura safe.”

“Let’s hope he proves worthy of your devotion. Descend into the city. Avoid the main avenues and work your way towards the tower in the center.

It’s a distance down to the city, and the doctor put you on a rocky slope. There’s probably a defined path down, but you don’t want to waste time looking for it, and you roll and slide and tumble your way down to level ground, the doctor tsking in your ear the entire time. You ignore him and choose a deserted side street, working your way towards the chaos in the center of the city. The doctor gives you periodic updates. “Toga has neutralized her opponents, but she was injured – no, no, my dear, your objective is Shigaraki.”

“I’m the medic. If Toga is hurt –”

“Twice is on his way to assist her, and her injuries aren’t immediately life-threatening.” The doctor’s voice takes on a bite of impatience. “You’ll be able to aid her later, assuming Shigaraki’s plan succeeds – which it may not do if you waste time here.”

Helping Toga isn��t wasting time. But there’s a bigger picture here, and you know it. You pick up the pace again, jogging through the streets, until the doctor tells you to stop. “Dabi and Compress are near. Dabi’s opponent could stand to be distracted. Avoid being seen.”

So you can’t help Toga, but you can help Dabi? The doctor’s priorities are pissing you off. You creep closer, pivoting down a small alley and climbing into a building, peering out a broken window for a better view. There’s Dabi, and Compress. And there’s his opponent, some guy with white hair in a blue coat, who’s doing his best to crush Dabi and Compress under a hail of ice.

Strategy isn’t your strongest suit, but this one is easy. Dabi is the League’s only ranged combatant – other than you, and you barely count. If Dabi loses this fight and switches to chasing Tomura, it’s over. Ice Guy is moving around a lot. You take out your gun, make sure it’s loaded, make sure there’s a round in the chamber. You can’t stay here long. You have to get out fast, so you give yourself three shots to get the job done. You peer up over the window frame, steady yourself, flip off the safety, and hook your finger around the trigger. Ice Guy is holding still for once, bantering about something with Dabi. Perfect.

You fire all three shots in a tight burst, but you aren’t solid at this distance, or this angle. You miss with all three, and you cringe in embarrassment. Ice Guy falters for a second, looking around wildly for the source of the gunfire. You drop to the floor and belly-crawl out of sight, gritting your teeth at the amused note in the doctor’s voice. “Obviously it would have been better if you’d hit him, but he’s unsettled enough to hand Dabi a momentary advantage. All Dabi must do is make use of it.”

You make your way into the building’s back lot, then through a gate onto a quieter street. This one is lined with piles of dust. Big piles of dust, and two sets of footprints through them. “Tomura was here. And Spinner?”

“Yes, although Spinner’s unable to compensate for Shigaraki’s near-incapacitation.” The doctor gives you a new direction to run in and keeps talking. “I admire your efforts to keep him healthy, but they’re ultimately futile. The exhaustion will kill him sooner rather than later.”

“Later,” you correct. He can die of exhaustion when you’re both ninety. “Where are they?”

“Continue straight, then turn left at the next major intersection.” There’s an edge in the doctor’s voice now. “If I were you, I’d hurry.”

You pick up the pace, furious with yourself for not being able to move faster. Training with a weapon clearly wasn’t enough – on your days off, you should have been improving your physical fitness, enough that scrambling from house to house as cover on a street parallel to the one Tomura and Spinner are traveling on would be nothing to you. You turn left at the next intersection and you’re bolting down the street when the doctor orders you to hide, his voice loud and sharp. You dive into the shelter of the nearest fenced yard just in time to see a horde of figures dressed in black and white stampede down the street Tomura and Spinner are apparently on. It looks like Twice. Twice, but hundreds of him.

You thought his quirk would only let him make two copies, and he never copies himself. What happened? “It appears his quirk has awakened,” the doctor says, and you realize you’ve spoken aloud. “If only the same thing would happen to you.”

“If I could do that, I’d know.” You poke your head up over the fence to see if it’s clear, and one of the Twice clones spots you. Shit. You duck down out of sight, but you know he’s coming. “What should I do?”

You hate yourself for asking, and the doctor doesn’t answer. At least not in a way that’s helpful. “Your objective is to aid Shigaraki. Proceed with that in mind.”

Before you can even begin to parse that, the Twice clone reaches over the fence and grabs your arm, pulling you upright. “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here! Shigaraki said to keep you away!”

“I’m supposed to be here. I’m the medic.” You struggle to pull your arm free, but he’s stronger than you. “Let go. I have to help him –”

“We’re helping him.” The clone’s chest puffs with pride. “Don’t worry, sister. Your boyfriend’s in good hands!”

You need to get away from Twice. You need to get away from him right now. What’s the chance that this is the real Twice? Next to none – you can’t imagine the real Twice leaving Toga’s side if she’s hurt. With that in mind, what you’re about to do should have no consequences whatsoever. “I’m sorry,” you say to the clone, and you strike him so hard in the side of the head with the barrel of your gun that he collapses instantly into sludge.

“Wonderful. It seems you weren’t lying – your devotion to Shigaraki does extend to getting your hands dirty.” The doctor sounds pleased. You don’t feel like anything at all. “Continue your pursuit course. Shigaraki has pulled ahead of Spinner, but you shouldn’t have trouble catching him.”

You decide against using the main streets, opting instead to hop fences and cut through backyards and alleyways. You don’t want to have to kill any more Twice clones. You don’t have the greatest view, but you’re sure the doctor will tell you if you need to speed up. Tomura might be in the midst of a battle, high on adrenaline, but you’ve eaten and slept in the last three days, so you must have the advantage in speed. You’ll catch him soon. You have to.

You hear the screech of tires, followed by the sound of hundreds of feet on the road – and then a voice, booming out through a megaphone. The voice that responds is quiet and thin in comparison, but you recognize it. It’s Spinner’s voice. Is Tomura with him? No, the doctor would have told you to change course, and he’s said nothing of the kind. Out of everyone in the League, Spinner’s the most loyal to Tomura, second only to you. He wouldn’t leave Tomura for anything. You break the back window of one of the houses, climb in, and pick your way through until you’re peering through the front window. There are too many people in the way. You head for the stairs.

Once you’ve got the elevation, it’s obvious – Spinner’s trapped in the middle of an angry mob. There’s a news van blocking his way, and a guy standing on top of it. He’s calling Spinner by what must be Spinner’s real name and saying the kind of things that make you see red. Spinner shouts back, owning it – owning weakness, owning a lack of vision, owning unimportance except as a follower to better people. That’s not all he is. You don’t let anybody talk to your friends like that, your friends included.

You need to do something. “No,” the doctor hisses in your ear. “Pursue Shigaraki. Leave him.”

“No,” you say. The doctor makes a scathing, offended sound into the phone. “That’s not who I am.”

You don’t have enough bullets in your gun or your backpack to take out the entire crowd, but you can handle the guy in charge, and the resulting chaos might be enough of a distraction that you can yank Spinner out unnoticed. Forget this only-three-shots nonsense – you extract another clip from your backpack and set it down beside you, at the ready once you empty this one. You break the window you’ve been peering through, trusting that the mob’s own noise will cover the sound, and screw the silencer onto the end of your gun. You haven’t practiced with it much, or at all, so you don’t know how it’ll disrupt your shot, but between the gun and the clip you have nine shots to get the job done. At least one of them will have to hit.

The man on top of the van has just donned a mask. Probably a support item rather than a shield, but you were never aiming for his head. Your first shot strikes him in the shoulder. He staggers, turning halfway just in time for you to empty the clip, sending two bullets tearing laterally through his torso. You eject the empty clip and load the next, and in the time that takes, your target collapses. His blood is pooling on top of the van, running down the sides. He’s not moving. Unless somebody in the crowd has a serious healing quirk, he’s dead.

You turn away from the window and race back down the stairs, keeping the gun hidden at your side. Most of the mob’s forgotten Spinner in their efforts to help the leader, and Spinner’s crawled through them, heading towards you. He must have guessed who was shooting. He’s the only one in the League who knows about the gun.

You race out of the house to help him up, drag him out of sight. One person notices the two of you, and you shoot them without thinking twice. Not fatally. It won’t be fatal if they get some help soon.

Spinner needs help right now. He’s bleeding, and while you can see the puncture wounds in his shirt, you can’t tell how deep they are. “You’re wasting time,” the doctor hisses in your ear.

You ignore him, but Spinner unknowingly echoes him a moment later. “Don’t worry about me,” he says, grimacing in pain. “Get to Shigaraki. He needs you.”

“I’ll patch you up and we can both go.”

“No, you need to –”

There’s a colossal explosion from somewhere in the distance. At least, you think it’s an explosion. You don’t know what else to call it, except that it’s the loudest sound you’ve ever heard, and it makes the ground rattle beneath your feet. You and Spinner both freeze. “What was that?”

“Change of plans, my dear. Get as far from here as possible.” The doctor’s voice is in your ear again – and in Spinner’s, based on the way Spinner startled. “Shigaraki has engaged the leader of the Liberation Army, and his chances won’t be improved if he’s distracted by your presence.”

“What if I just shoot him?” you ask. Spinner stares at you. “The leader of the Liberation Army. Could I get a clear shot?”

“He’s the size of a house,” the doctor says, and your stomach clenches tight with fear. “You could hit him from the moon if your weapon had the range. But you don’t, and he’ll see you coming, so –”

“He wouldn’t care about me. You said it yourself. I’m quirkless, so I don’t factor in.” You help Spinner straighten up. “I’m Tomura’s sidekick. I can’t let him fight alone.”

“You can if doing it will get you flattened.” Spinner stumbles as the ground shakes again. “Give me the gun. I can do it.”

“You won’t be able to get clear in time.” Get clear in time for what? At the kind of range you’ll need to be effective with a gun this small, you won’t be able to get clear, either. The ground rattles again. “I have to do this.”

“Yes, I believe you must.” The doctor’s voice is crisp and abrupt, almost as abrupt as his change of tune. “I’m quite impressed with Shigaraki’s fortitude. I’ll be sending another gift to assist him in this fight, in addition to you. Spinner, make for the outskirts. I’ll direct you to Toga and Twice. Saintess, head for the center. Stay out of sight as long as you can.”

There’s no time for you to patch Spinner up. The two of you trade a glance and a nod, and then you split up. Spinner books it in the opposite direction of the disaster that’s unfolding at the center of the city, and you run towards it.

What you see there in the midst of the destruction horrifies you. You’ve only caught glimpses of Tomura’s battles with Gigantomachia, but you’ve heard stories from the others, and in spite of the fact that the giant he’s fighting this time is smaller, you can tell from a single glance that his odds are worse. He was tired going into this fight, and he’s already injured beyond what you or anyone else could fix. And unlike Gigantomachia, this giant can talk.

He wants to know what Tomura’s going to do with the world, if he survives. “Is the pursuit of destruction your only worth as a human? The world you wish to create will be as empty as you are.”

“It’s not my world.” Tomura’s face is smeared with blood. One of his legs is twisted at a terrible angle, broken so badly you can’t believe it’s bearing his weight. His left hand is mangled, missing two fingers at least. He can’t fight like this. How could he? “It’s for them. They can choose what’s in it.”

It’s for him, too. If he gives you the chance to build a new world, you’re going to make it worth living in. “They can choose?” The giant scoffs. “Your pack of outcasts and delinquents don’t have that kind of vision. None of you can see beyond your own petty desires and think of the greater good!”

“I don’t need to see it.” Tomura stumbles sideways to avoid a strike, then loses his footing and falls. “She can.”

He’s talking about you. You get set, raise the gun, and fire.

The giant is too bulky for your bullets to make much of an impact. You’d have to hit him in the eyes or the mouth, and you’d have to get closer for that. He reacts to the shot like you’d react to a mosquito bite, mere annoyance and temporary distraction, and Tomura struggles back to his feet long enough to exploit the opening. For a split second you’re drawn back to the games the two of you played as children – facing some terrible villain, distracting them so Tenko could land a decisive blow. The same game as always. Now it’s real.

Even with the giant distracted, Tomura’s injuries are slowing him down. It’s not just that he’s limping. You come closer, unable to stop yourself, and you see how badly he’s favoring his other side. He’s only got one hand, his quirk at half the strength it used to be, and even as your empty the remainder of your clip into the giant’s torso, load another, and fire again, you know you can’t do enough to make this fight one Tomura can win. If you’ve really got a quirk, if there’s something you can do, now’s the time.

But there’s nothing. Why would there be anything? If you had anything more you could do, you’d do it. if running into the middle of things and getting killed to save him would mean he’d win, you’d do it in a heartbeat.

You wouldn’t hesitate, but you won’t get the chance to choose. The giant’s spotted you. He swats Tomura aside with one hand and turns his attention to you. “So you came to join us after all,” he says. You hold your ground. If he comes close enough, you’ll have a clear shot at his eyes. “It’s a shame to say so, Saintess, but there’s no place for your kind in our future. I’ll put you out of your misery.”

You shoot him. It glances off his cheek, and his footsteps rattle the ground, jarring your next shot into thin air. “You’re only resisting the inevitable,” he continues. “Is this truly a world you want to live in? A world where meta abilities are used freely, where your kind are left to occupy the lowest rung of society while the rest of us wait for evolution to wipe you out?”

You’ve heard people with quirks say some truly out-of-touch things, but that might be the worst. You open your mouth for a retort, but instead of a snappy comeback or heartfelt appeal to humanity, laughter pours out. You can’t make it stop, and the giant stares at you, puzzled. Behind him, you see Tomura rising from the dirt, all his weight on his knees and his mangled hand. It only takes a split second’s thought to understand why he’s putting pressure on his injured hand instead of the good one, but it’ll all be for nothing if you can’t give him time. You need the giant to keep looking at you.

He hasn’t looked away. Your semi-hysterical cackling is keeping all his attention. “Is something funny?”

“This world you want,” you start. You have to pause to suck down air, aware that he’s coming closer to you, aware that you can’t let him look back at Tomura. “It’s the same world we have right now. I’ve lived in your perfect world my whole life.”

Tomura steadies himself. You see him steady his right arm with what remains of his left hand before the giant’s bulk fills your vision. You look up at him, holding his gaze even as he raises his hand to crush you to a bloody paste on the ground, and you smile, even though your veil hides your face. “It’s our world now.”

The giant’s fist comes down towards you. You hear a distant scream. A split second later, the ground falls out from beneath you.

You can’t decide if you’re dead or not. You’re falling through a haze of dust and ash, listening to screams that fall abruptly silent, flinching as buildings crack and crumble around you. Above it all there’s a sound you’ve never heard before – half howl of rage, half insane laughter, all rough and painful, as though it’s tearing apart the throat it’s issuing from. Tenko’s still alive. You can’t die yet. You have to get to him.

Maybe your quirk is some kind of willpower, because even though the impact with the ground is agonizing, you’re on your feet within seconds of the hit. You find yourself standing on the edge of a massive crater, one that’s swallowed half the city. You’re not the only one at its edge. You see Spinner, Dabi, Compress, Twice – about a billion clones of Twice, holding as many clones of Toga, and Giran off to one side with a clumsy bandage wrapped around his hand. The League of Villains made it through.

A few members of the Meta Liberation Army made it through, too. They’re staring down into the crater, sheer horror on their faces, as they look at what’s left of their leader.

He amputated his legs to avoid getting caught in the wave of Decay Tomura unleashed, and the part of you that’s a nurse and not a murderer notes that those wounds will need to be cauterized soon if he wants to avoid bleeding out. But the leader of the Meta Liberation army is a footnote, an afterthought. Tomura’s down there, too. Tomura’s on his feet. His hair’s gone pure white, and his right arm’s been torn to shreds.

He and the Liberation Army’s leader are talking. You can’t hear what they’re saying, at least not at first. Not until the leader announces his unconditional surrender and orders his soldiers to lay down their arms – or rather, to turn them over to Shigaraki Tomura, the new leader of the Meta Liberation Army. Tomura’s won, and it’s not just the MLA who’s submitted to him. When you glance at the far side of the crater, you see Gigantomachia crouched there, calm and awaiting orders. It’s a mark of just how focused you are on Tomura that you didn’t even notice.

The enemy leader’s still talking, but Tomura’s not paying attention. He’s looking up, around the edges of the crater, his eyes lingering on each member of the League. Twice and Giran to Twice and Toga, Dabi to Compress to Spinner, and finally to you. You hold his gaze, unsure of whether to take down your veil and smile, not certain if he needs reassurance that you’re okay or if he’s just making sure you’re alive. Then his face goes pale beneath the mask of blood. You see his eyes roll up in his head, and before you can make a move to help him, he pitches sideways, unconscious.

The enemy leader is the one who catches him, and something snaps in your head. You hop the edge of the crater and skid down the slope, racing towards them. You’re not the only one on the move – Spinner and about fifty Twice clones are doing the same thing, and the enemy leader is shouting for help. Somebody with a healing quirk, maybe. Or transport to a hospital. You can’t think. All you can think about is getting Tomura away from the person who was trying to kill him five minutes ago. A person whose soldiers will kill you all without him to lead them.

You pry Tomura out of his grip, slide your backpack off your shoulders, and start giving orders. “Twice, take the sterile pads and start packing them onto his legs.”

“Whose?”

You gesture one-handed at the giant, who’s not so giant anymore. “Re-Destro,” he introduces himself.

“Yeah, him.” Once the Twice clones are in motion, you unwrap the scarf you bought earlier today and shove it into Spinner’s hands. “Use that as a tourniquet for one of his legs. Find something else for the other one.”

Spinner doesn’t question it. You wonder if he’s made the same calculation as you have, figured out that your survival is tied to Re-Destro’s for right now, but now that you’ve got people helping him, you can focus on Tomura. And Tomura is – is –

The rise and fall of his ribcage is lopsided. He’s got a punctured lung. His shirt’s been torn away, and most of his torso is turning a strange mottled color, one you remember all too well from the victims at Kamino. Internal bleeding. His left hand’s down to three fingers. His right arm’s all but flayed. His leg’s broken so badly that you can see pieces of his femur protruding through his skin. The only thing that’s still working properly seems to be his heart. He still has a pulse, but he needs more help than you can give him. You can’t tourniquet internal bleeding. You can’t stitch wounds inside his body. As much as you want to save him, this is out of your skill set by a hundred kilometers.

You hear a helicopter approaching, and when you look up, you see a cross painted on its side. Medevac, but they’re here for Re-Destro, not for Tomura. When he sees the medics approaching, Re-Destro shakes his head. “Take him. I can wait.”

You’re terrified that they won’t listen, but Re-Destro’s minions are loyal. They come to Tomura’s side instead, load him onto a stretcher, and rush him to the helicopter with you chasing after them. One medic turns to tell you to back off and you shout in her face. “I’m a nurse! I can help!”

You’re not sure if she believes you, or if she just believes that you’ll throw yourself in anyway and spend the entire flight clinging to the landing gear if she says no. Whatever her reasons are, she steps aside, and you scramble onto the helicopter alongside Tomura’s stretcher.

You’ve never been inside any helicopter before, and you have a feeling that most of them aren’t this nice. They have actual gear, actual scanners, and while you get pressed into service trying to secure Tomura’s broken leg, then promptly kicked out to deal with his right arm, the medic who let you in runs a scanner over his torso. The image pops up on a screen attached to the cockpit divider, and when you glance up at it, your heart plummets a thousand meters, all the way back to earth.

Internal bleeding, just like you thought. Massive internal injuries, the kind a person can’t come back from, and the medic who ran the scan shakes her head. “Even if we had the blood to transfuse him, we can’t waste resources. This is ATC, and with those injuries – he’s not going to make it to the hospital.”

“No.” Your voice comes out watery and weak. “There’s something you can do. There has to be. I know –”

“You’re a nurse. You should know.” The medic gives you a look. “He’s got minutes. Say your goodbyes.”

It feels unreal. It can’t be real. This can’t be happening. Not like this, not after everything the two of you have been through, not after he’s won. How could you have let this happen to him? You look back up at the scan, hoping desperately that something’s changed and finding nothing. The medic is right. You’re a nurse, and you should know – a patient with injuries this severe isn’t someone who can be saved. No matter how many surgeons could work on them, no matter how many units of blood they might be transfused, there’s no way to hammer life back into a body this damaged. It’s cruel to try.

You lift his right hand, careful to avoid making contact with all his fingers at once. You can’t kiss it, but you bow your head over it all the same, fighting back tears. You can’t face the thought of never hearing his voice again, never linking little fingers with him again, never kissing him or making him laugh or playing another game. You swore you’d follow him through the end of the old world and into the new one. You can’t lose him again. If you could take his place, you would.

“Tenko,” you whisper, even though he can’t hear you, even though everything that matters is already beyond your reach. Maybe that’s why it’s easy to say, why the words are lighter than air on your tongue. “Tenko, I love you.”

You curl over his hand, eyes shut, head bowed. You can’t watch the light leave his face. Feeling his hand go limp and cold will be horrible enough. You stay still and wait as seconds tick past. Seconds, then minutes. The medic said he had minutes. How many minutes did she mean? A spark of hope catches in your chest and you smother it without mercy. He’s gone. You can’t have him back this time. He’s gone.

You hear the medic’s voice, but nothing she says makes sense. “Scan him again.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

You stay where you are until someone nudges you aside, but you don’t open your eyes, and you don’t let go of Tenko’s hand. The scanner hums as it runs over his limp, nearly lifeless body, then emits an excruciatingly loud beep. Even with your eyes shut, you see the flash of the screen coming to life. The medic’s voice is hesitant, stunned. “Holy hell.”

“That’s not possible,” the other medic says. “It isn’t! Not without –”

Both of them stop talking. If they’re not going to explain, you should look up and see for yourself. You open your eyes, and sit up, and that’s when you see the second scan, side-by-side with the first. And they’re – different. The first scan is apocalyptic, unsurvivable. Even someone with no medical training could tell. The second scan is bad, too, but it’s better. Better enough to change his status from black-tagged to red-tagged in the medics’ opinion, because they get back to work, working around you rather than telling you to move.

It’s weird, because you’re definitely in the way. You’d ask you to move, if you were them. Do they need you to help? You ask, and the other medic lets out a cracked, uncomfortable laugh. “You’re more useful where you are.”

“What?” you say blankly. “I don’t understand.”

“I do,” the doctor says in your ear. You’d forgotten he was there. “Tell me what you see.”

You describe the first scan, then the second. “Hm. It sounds to me as if Shigaraki’s body is repairing itself,” the doctor says. “Small repairs, obviously – he still requires major surgery and quite a bit of luck – but even such repairs take hours, days, or even weeks to occur naturally. And here they’ve occurred within the space of a few minutes. My dear Saintess – it seems you have a quirk after all.”

The doctor keeps talking, about how he and All For One are never wrong, how you were so silly to doubt him, how he knew your quirk would awaken if the right circumstances were met, and you ignore him. It’s easy to do, just like it’s easy to ignore the medics as they pivot around you, easy to ignore the pilots’ discussion of which MLA-controlled hospital to make for, easy to ignore the fresh scan that pops up on the screen, revealing even more improvement – impossibly slight, but enough. You focus on holding Tenko’s hand, keeping it safe between yours for the landing on the hospital’s roof, the race down to the operating theater, the hours and hours of surgery that leave you dead-on-your-feet tired, interrupted only by orders to move this way or that.

You’re still holding his hand as they wheel him out of surgery, into the recovery unit off the ICU. Still not thinking. Still ignoring everything but his hand, warm and wrapped in bandages, a pulse still beating in his wrist. He stirs slightly in his sleep, eyelids fluttering half-open with no awareness behind them, and you wonder if he’s in pain, if you can call someone to medicate him so he’ll get a good night’s sleep for the first time in months. Your hands are stiff and frozen around his, locked into position for hours on end, and you force yourself to let go. You might need your hands to help him. You’re still a medic, still a nurse. He might need more from you than this.

You leave your little finger linked with his, though. It’s tradition by now, and tradition, too, to tighten your grip just a little bit, letting him know you’re here. “I love you,” you say, in case he’s listening. It still feels easy to say.

Tenko doesn’t stir, doesn’t open his eyes. But his breathing is even, his heartbeat steady, and his finger hooks a little tighter around yours. He’s all the way under. It’s just a reflex, but you’ll take it as proof: In spite of everything, he’s here, too.

[marsxcutie]

Fixation│Jonathan Crane x Reader

Fixation - Part 2

Fixation Masterlist

A/N: Part two babey, some more plot development. Reader's appearance is pretty specific, let me know if a more general profile is preferred! Storyline is based in a more modern-ish setting. (There's computers and social media and stuff) This story is definitely going to be a longer series!! But trust, the stuff ya'll came for will be written hehe

Pairing: Jonathan Crane x Female Reader

Synopsis: (Y/N) is Arkham's new lead psychologist in the developing acute pediatric unit. Dr. Crane soon becomes fixated on the pretty young doctor. Is she just as fixated on him?

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: patient being creepy and slightly aggressive towards reader but that's about it for this part

Jonathan’s POV

“Come in.” I responded to the swift knock at my door. The door opened and I looked up from my paperwork to see Rick standing in my doorway. “The new gal’s here, her temporary office is right next door actually.” I gave him a nod. Rick turned to leave but stopped, “Oh and I should mention, she’s quite the looker.” Rick chuckled and closed the door behind him, not waiting for a response from me. 

I sighed and closed the file I was working on. I opened my desk drawer and tucked it under the false bottom, not wanting the new girl, or anyone for that matter to see the contents. If anyone found out about these unorthodox methods, it would be trouble for me.

I made the short walk to her office door, giving a hard knock, not waiting for a response and opening the door. Her long (H/C) swung over her shoulder as she quickly turned her head towards me, a light floral smell hit my nose. Her reaction to me was not subtle in the slightest, her glossy lips parted slightly and her eyes went wide. I tried my best not to smirk at her schoolgirl reaction. Instead, I gave her a soft smile and extended my hand. 

She stuttered out a greeting and reached out a perfectly manicured hand, her grasp very gentle. Her voice was soft and her face was slightly flushed. She was very beautiful, a very pretty face, I noted in my head. Soft skin, her makeup was subtle but complimented her features, long silky (H/C) hair, and a petite hourglass figure. Even with her heels on she had to look up at me. She looked far too young to be a doctor, but her seemingly gentle nature made sense for a pediatric doctor. 

“We can start your training in my office.” I turned and beckoned her to follow me. 

Dr. Crane’s office was pretty bare, only a few diplomas and awards in frames hung from the walls. No pictures of family or loved ones were to be seen. His desk was neat, everything seemed to have its own designated spot. He pulled up a chair from in front of his desk to the side, close to his chair. He gestured for you to take a seat. You smoothed your pencil skirt over your bottom before sitting down, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. 

“Alright, so I’ll just be showing you how to do proper documentation for intakes today.” Dr. Crane pulled out a file and put it between the two of you. He scooted closer to you, the sudden proximity making your face flush again. 

You two spent the next two hours watching and listening to Dr. Crane go over paperwork. His serious demeanor and his almost condescending tone made you feel small. He wasn’t exactly mean but he also wasn’t friendly towards you. You caught yourself frequently staring at his hands, they were veiny and his fingers were long and slender. You silently scolded the dirty thoughts out of your head. Crushing on your colleague two hours into your first day was probably not a great idea. 

Dr. Crane looked up at the clock and sighed. “I do actually have a session scheduled with a patient in about 10 minutes, would you like to sit in?” He turned to face you, “Obviously a session with a child will look a lot different but it would still be a good learning experience.” 

You nodded, “I would love to sit in and shadow.” 

Dr. Crane led you further into the building into a small intake room. “Do you not usually meet with patients in your office?” He didn’t look up from his file but answered, “It’s a personal preference for me to not meet with them in my office.” He grabbed a chair and drug it to the corner of the room, “This patient can be a little…aggressive, I’d prefer if you sat over here for your own safety.” Jonathan looked over at you expectantly. “That makes sense.” You made your way over to the chair, taking a seat and crossing your legs. Jonathan went back to the table in the middle of the room and took a seat, going over the file once more. 

The door swung open and a guard entered with a tall lanky man. The patient's eyes immediately darted to you. The patient stopped in his tracks and grinned widely, opening his mouth to say something but was cut off by Dr. Crane, "May I remind you that if you cannot behave we will have to meet at another time." Dr. Crane's tone was stern and he hadn't even bothered to turn and face the patient. The tall lanky man scoffed and continued his walk to the chair opposite of Dr. Crane.

"How have you been, Elias?" Dr. Crane still hadn't looked up from the file.

"Who's the babe in the corner doc? Is she going to be taking over fo-"

"Ms. (L/N) will not be working with any of the patients in this wing and quite frankly it's none of your business. I will continue as your doctor until further notice." Dr. Crane finally had looked up from the file, his back was facing you so you couldn't see his facial expression but his tone sent a chill up your spine.

The patient seemed excited at Dr. Crane's reaction, "That's a damn shame. One session with her and aaaaaall my problems would be fixed." He shifted his gaze to you and winked, keeping a creepy grin plastered on his face.

Dr. Crane motioned to the guard.

"Hey, hey, hey alright alright doc I'll behave." Elias threw his hands up in feign surrender.

Dr. Crane nodded to the guard and spoke again, "Last week we increased your dose of fluoxetine to 40mg, do you notice any difference."

Elias sighed dramatically, tilting his head back. "Well doc. I'm still having fantasies about butchering women." He suddenly put his forearms on the table and leaned closer to Dr. Crane, "Especially the pretty ones." He grinned wide and flashed his gaze over to you.

Dr. Crane gave him no reaction, knowing that's what he wanted. "That's unfortunate to hear Elias, I think I'll increase your dose t-"

Elias slammed his hands on the table. making you jump and press your back into your chair. "I don't need anymore damn meds!" His voice was raised and his eyes went wide. This must have been tame behavior for this man because neither Dr. Crane or the guard had a reaction to his behavior. Elias had seemed to forget about you, his crazed eyes trained on Dr. Crane, challenging him.

Dr. Crane was silent for several moments, simply maintaining eye contact with Elias. This must have been an effective method as Elias eventually sat back in his chair, his face going back to a neutral expression.

The rest of the session went pretty peacefully. Elias would occasionally dart his eyes to you and give you that same creepy grin but no more inappropriate comments were made. At the end of the session, the guard escorted Elias back towards the door. He gave you one last grin as he left, "I'll see you later, beautiful."

You let out a big breath you didn't realize you were holding in. "Are you alright?" Dr. Crane was now in front of you, offering you his hand. You took his hand and nodded. He helped you out of your chair, as if you weren't stable enough to do so, "I'm sure you could handle yourself but I am quite relieved you won't be working with men like Elias."

You nodded and let out a small laugh, "I think I will get along with the children better."

Jonathan's POV

I guided (Y/N) back to my office. It didn't show but the session with Elias had vexed me. His behavior towards (Y/N) angered me, knowing what awful things he was fantasizing about. His comment about butchering women wasn't just to scare her, it was completely true. I felt a tinge of guilt knowing that (Y/N) is now probably at the forefront of his sick fantasies.

A sense of protectiveness washed over me once I saw how pale she had gone, the worried look on her face. Someone like her needed protection. She was fragile, gentle, good.

She needed me.

Part 3

[ytremia]

Process - Sunakawa Cake 🎂

A little breakdown of how I made my 3D recreation of the "thank you sunakawa" cake from Ore Monogatari ~

1. Collecting reference

Aside from referencing stills from the anime, I came across the official cake sketch from Madhouse's website! It was really helpful in identifying all the toppings on the cake and other details.

Next was collecting real-life references of all the ingredients I needed to make and taking notes of the shapes, textures and variety.

2. Modelling & Texturing

I go back and forth between modelling and texturing, and jump all over the place so I'll break things down based on the toppings/elements:

A. Macaron

I referenced Canosie Lab's macaron tutorial here, tweaking the process a little bit; using one mesh instead of two and using particles to distribute the boolean meshes. I ended up with LOTS of vertices, so I made a lower poly version of the macaron and used those to avoid bogging down the computer. As for the texture, I used Blender's procedural nodes, utilizing mostly the noise texture node.

Above: The first row are the lower poly versions of the macaron and the second row are the original meshes with around 200,000 vertices each o_o

B. Cookies

There's not much to it here; I just modeled the cookies and used procedural textures I've made for a previous project (I'll post that project soon!!!)

The icing is made using bezier curves with some bevel depth. I used the draw tool to draw on the cookies. I did the same for the writings on the cake.

C. Strawberries

I've previously made strawberries for another project so I just used those but baked them to a lower poly mesh first. I used Canosie Labs' strawberry tutorial as reference :) I initially used a scaled down version of the regular-sized strawbs, but decided to make a proper mini strawberry 🍓

Left: with scaled down regular strawberries, Right: proper mini strawberries.

I made them super shiny with lots of subsurface scattering to make them look juicy and gummy-like -- not the most realistic but I think they look cuter like this :>

D. Orange slices

The orange slices were the most challenging to make! Did a lot of trial and error to get that pulpy texture oranges have but I managed using a combination of voronoi nodes :") If you look at the pictures below, you can see how the orange looked in the beginning vs. at the end after I refined it some more.

They look fine from a distance but a little janky up close; maybe I'll do a breakdown one day once I figure out a proper node setup.

Above: before & after

Left to right: rendered, colour only, B/W

E. Orange peel

A simple plane with a solidify and curve modifier. What's most important here is the texture! I used two different shaders (one for the pith another for the peel) combined using a mask.

F. Jelly beans & choco marbles

A tweaked subdivided square for the jelly beans and subdivided icosphere for the choco marbles. The two use pretty much the same shaders but the jelly beans have more subsurface scattering.

H. Cake

After placing all the toppings, I sculpted the cake (using the multires modifier) a little bit to model the cream that's displaced.

[hswriting]

The Moment I Knew - Part 2

[Image Alt ID: a four picture collage with a light brown background. The top left picture is a cup of coffee and a muffin in a brown takeout box. The top right picture is a couch with blankets on it in front of a fireplace. Around the fireplace is decorated with candles and a lamp. The bottom left picture is of Harry Styles in a headband with a green microphone. This picture shows his arm tattoos. The bottom right picture is of a leather bound notebook with a brown ribbon. On the cover of the book is a butterfly. End Alt ID]

- - -

Masterlist Series Part 1 Part 3

- - -

3.4k words

- - -

Millie is going over to Harry’s house to burn her ex’s stuff he left behind.

I went to bed feeling drained last night, and while I’m still upset, I feel a bit better knowing I have Harry in my corner.

We never talked much before but we aren’t strangers. I would stay at Kellen’s a lot before, but it had since fizzled down to only once a week or so. When Kellen would have friends over at his place, Harry was always one of the first ones to arrive. He always brought food or a gift. He isn’t one of the loud, rambunctious ones of the group. He would sometimes even come to hang out with Kellen alone, but wasn’t feeling up to games or anything too high energy. I remember him being upset one time and Kellen was comforting him. Harry said he didn’t want to be alone, but he didn’t feel like doing anything. So he came over to hang out and write in his leather bound journal while Kellen and him talked. I didn’t listen in after that. I figured it was private. I went to his bedroom and played on his computer.

He definitely isn’t a stranger but I wish I knew more about him since he wants to help me through this. He said he’s been through this hurt before. Someone has taken his heart and shattered it like glass. Someone has betrayed him in the worst way. If he felt anything like I do, he has felt worthless and defeated. Not ever knowing how he will recover from it. Hopeless. And for that I am so sorry.

This is the worst kind of hurt.

I pull into the driveway of the address Harry sent me and the house is huge. It’s a beautiful two story, white brick house.

I grab the gift bag I brought him, as well as the duffle of Kellen’s stuff and the bag of snacks.

I ring the doorbell and hear footsteps. The door unlocks and opens to see Harry in some black sweat pants and a football T-shirt. His hair is not neatly done like normal, but is instead a mess of curls lying on his head.

“Millie, come in, it’s freezing out there.” He said stepping aside. I walk in and take off my heavy coat to reveal my comfort clothes. I didn’t have the energy to actually get dressed today. Just grey leggings and a plain black crop top.

“I’m sorry I look like a bum. I wasn’t really feeling it today.”

“You don’t look like a bum. You look good Millie.” He says, looking at my clothes. I remove my boots and set everything down in the living room where he has a movie on the tv and a small gift on the table.

“I brought you something too.” I tell him and hand him the bag. We unpack everything before we unwrap our small housewarming gifts. He pours out the wine I brought as I unwrap the small box on the table. It’s a small bottle of pink perfume. I spritz it and it smells wonderful. “Thank you Harry. You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I like getting my friends gifts. And besides, you brought me one too.”

“It’s nothing. You’re helping through a really hard time. You deserve it.” I say as he unwraps his. He pulls out a new leather journal with a small H stamped on it, and a package of nice ink pens.

“I love this Millie. You have no idea.”

“I remember you used to come over and journal and write while talking to Kellen. I figured you could use a new one, if the other one is getting full. I wasn’t sure.”

“It’s wonderful Millie. I really appreciate it.” He says with a smile painted across his face. He can’t stop running his hands over the cover. He eventually does put it down to take a sip of the wine. He sits down and looks at the pile of pictures and clothes by the fireplace. I take a long sip of wine. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He asks. I nod.

“He betrayed me in the worst way. I hate him for it. Let it burn.” I say, raising my glass.

“Let it burn.” He says. I slowly pad over and pick up our first picture together. With a single tear running down my face, I toss it in the flames. It crackles and pops before dissolving to ash.

“Do you want to do one?” I ask him. He shakes his head.

“This is for you.” He says. I finish off my glass of wine and throw another picture in. Another tear rolls.

Over the next few minutes, the pictures are burned. Harry does help me cut up the clothes so they burn easier. I cry a lot, but Harry doesn’t mention it. I sit in front of the fire and watch it burn.

“What about that?” Harry says pointing. I look down at my locket and place my hand around it. “Did you want to keep it?” I open it in my hand and see our pictures. “You don’t have to throw it in if you don’t want to. I just remember the night before he gave it to you. I remember how much he said you would like it.”

“It is my favorite thing. Well, was.” I say. “But he was too. So fuck him.” I say snapping the chain off. I threw it in the fire with my eyes closed. I sit there hugging my knees. I don’t know how long I’m there but I hear Harry sit down beside me. He doesn’t touch me. He doesn’t speak for a minute, but it’s nice to know he’s there.

“I had to burn my favorite journal. My ex, she hated that I had a journal that I didn’t want anyone to read. Not even her. She made me either read it or stick it in the fire. But it was so deeply personal. It had a lot of stuff in there. That’s my therapy. But I burned it. Not because it was even about her, but because I was going to share those things when I was ready. I wasn’t going to be forced. Turns out she was paranoid that I was writing about her cheating. She thought that’s what it was. Some sort of evidence collection.” He said sorrowfully.

“I’m really sorry. That’s so awful and mean. I couldn’t imagine.” I tell him.

“It’s okay. I know what was in there. I’m working on writing it out again, while still journaling about other things.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“I know. I’m not making excuses for her. But I really appreciate the journal you got me. It’s really good quality and has lots of pages. It was such an amazing and thoughtful gift. I didn’t even know you remembered me coming over.”

“I don’t know what you guys talked about. I tried to give you privacy by playing games in another room.” I tell him and he gives me a small smile.

“It was a really hard time of my life, and I’m glad I had Kellen to lean on. It sucks losing your best friend, but I’ll be okay. It’s not worth being friends with someone who thinks that’s okay.”

“You really didn’t have to do that for me Harry.”

“I know, but it was such a shitty thing to do. Having been in your position before I knew you probably needed someone after what feels like your whole world falling apart. I know you have Jason’s girlfriend Rachel, but we both know how she is. No offense.”

“None taken. She is great. She can be hard to talk to about stuff like this though. You should have seen us at prom. My girlfriend dumped me the night before and I was such a mess. Rachel was worried about how I was making her look instead of my feelings. She only cares at some surface level. Never deeply.”

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. Didn’t we go to the same school?”

“She wasn’t out yet, and I was only out as bi to Rachel. We were going to come out by dancing together at prom. But she called me the night before and said she had to break it off with me. Her parents found out. She had to take care of that, and I understand. She had a shitty home life. It is what it is. 18 seems so distant to me now.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. She’s happy now. We ran into each other at the store the other day. She’s married to a really wonderful woman. Her parents finally came around.”

“Well, that’s good. Not everyone has that kind of luck.” He says. He takes a look at his watch. I see it’s close to 9.

“I’m sorry if I’ve stayed over too long. It’s just nice to have a friend.”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t have to work until late tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. He nods.

“It’s no problem. But you have had a couple of glasses of wine. I know you’re not drunk, but I don’t know how safe you feel to drive.”

“It’s probably best that I don’t. I can walk back. I don’t live super far.

“Millie you’ll freeze to death out there. Let me take you. I’ve only had one glass. I can pick you up tomorrow to come and get your car before I go to work.” He says and I take a minute to think. I nod my head. I put my things in my purse and tell Harry he can keep the wine. I have more at home. I put my coat and boots back on. He walks me to the car and opens my door for me. “Do you have anything specific you want to listen to?”

“Whatever you want to listen to is okay with me.” I say and he types something in his phone.

“This band is my favorite of all time.”

“Good to know.” I tell him with a small smile and he gives me a chuckle in return. It’s a short ride, but he opens my door for me again and helps me to the door. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me Harry. You’re a good friend. I hope we can hang out again.”

“Me too. Thank you again for the journal Millie.”

“It’s no problem. Text me when you make it back home?”

“Of course. Have a good night.” He says. He waits for me to get inside and shut the door and then gets back in his car. He drives away. I take off my coat and boots and climb straight into bed. I put on a movie and get comfortable. I see Harry text me while choosing a movie that he made it home. And with that, I fall asleep.

- - -

I wake up to a knock on my door. I get up out of bed and quickly try to make my hair look decent. I’m still in the same clothes as yesterday. I run to the door and open it to see Harry in a big, black, winter coat. He is holding two coffees in his hand. I invite him in.

“I didn’t know how you took your coffee, so I guessed on the sugar and cream. You’ll have to let me know how I did.” He said. “Also, good morning.”

“Good morning.” I say, still rubbing sleep from my eyes.

“How are you feeling?” He asks.

“So tired.” I tell him before I take a sip of the coffee. “Also, this is perfect.” I compliment.

“Good. I didn’t know if you were awake yet so I can come back if you want to get your car after you eat or what you want to do.”

“Have you eaten? I don’t really feel like cooking but we could go somewhere if you want?” I suggest.

“Sounds good to me.” He says. I go back to my room to get dressed, taking the precious coffee with me.

When I come out in just some jeans and a sweater I see Harry look me up and down.

“Doesn’t look okay? I just threw it together.”

“You look good Millie.” He says.

“Are you sure? This is an old sweater.”

“I’m sure.” He says with a smile. I tie my hair up with a scrunchie and put on my ear muffs and coat. Harry opens the door and helps me outside. He makes sure I don’t slip on the ice as we make our way to his car. He opens the door again for me. He climbs in and we are off.

“What time do you have to be at work?” I ask him.

“Noon.”

“Where do you work again?”

“I work for the animal shelter in town, but on weekends when I’m off work I’m do shows at some of the local bars and stuff.”

“Shows?”

“I write music.” He says.

“That’s so cool! I didn’t know you did that.”

“I wish I could do that full time but the money isn’t there.”

“Maybe one day it will be though.” I tell him.

“Yeah. I hope. I love writing music and getting to perform. I have a YouTube channel too. Just trying to get myself out there.”

“You got plans to travel around the world one day with your music?”

“That would be the dream.” He says as we pull into the breakfast place he chose. I beat him to opening my door and we laugh. He grabs our table for us and the waitress brings some menus. He orders some banana pancakes and I get strawberry cream filled crepes.

“Got a bit of a sweet tooth?” He asks with a smile.

“Maybe.” I joke with him.

“Now that you’re more awake, how are you?”

“I’m doing okay. I still am hurting about it, but I’m okay considering.”

“Has he tried to message you at all?”

“I blocked him that night. So I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh. Good. Probably for the best.”

“Has he been bothering you and the rest of the group?” I ask and he hesitates. “What?”

“He called me after I got home from dropping you off last night.” He finally says.

“What did he want?”

“He wanted me to get ahold of you. He wants to talk to you. Apologize. Try and fix things. He said he wasn’t the nicest person on the phone with you.” He told me and the ache in my chest that has shrunk a bit has grown back and is even bigger now.

“Yeah. He called me crazy. He blamed me for everything. I’m sorry he called you.”

“I’m sorry he said those things to you. I told him that if you wanted to speak to him to hear him out, you would, but it isn’t my job to force you to talk to him.”

“I don’t want him to apologize because even if he does, there is no fixing what he’s done. He made me feel horrible. I still feel horrible in that way. Like I wasn’t good enough for him, so I’m probably not good enough for anyone. I did my best and it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.” I told Harry and he looked sad. “I’m sorry if I’m ruining your morning.”

“You could never ruin my morning. And he’s a dick for making you feel that way.” He says as he rests his hand on my hand in the table. “You are enough. You are good enough. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“Thanks Harry.” I tell him. I glance over to our hands touching in the table. He takes it away when he notices me looking.

“I’m sorry if that was weird. I didn’t mean it to come off like that. I’m not that kind of person who-“

“It’s okay. I didn’t think it was weird. You’re just being supportive.” I tell him. It was a surprise, but it wasn’t weird. It’s was actually kind of nice. After feeling like crap the past few days any kind of touch is nice. A hug would be even better. A hug so tight that it would push the broken pieces of me back into place.

“Still, I don’t want you to think I’m trying to take advantage of your situation.”

“I didn’t think that. It was actually really nice.” I tell him and he doesn’t say anything in return. He just looks at me. He reaches down into his bag and pulls out another gift. “Harry.”

“I’m not trying to spoil you.” He says. “I like to give gifts. But I know it can make some people uncomfortable. If it does please tell me, but I thought you could use one of these too.” He says. He passes me a box. I open it to find a journal with my name printed on the front. I open it up and see a note inside.

Millie,

I hope you are able to confide in this book the deepest parts of yourself that you can’t tell anyone else. Everyone deserves that outlet. But most of all I hope that when you spill those deepest parts of yourself, you have someone, someday that you can trust enough to tell, and they love you anyways.

From H.

I feel myself tear up at the sweet words on the page. It reminds me that this hurt is temporary. I will be loved again. I will love again. This one little note helps the ache that I’ve carried for days lighten so much, that’s it’s hardly even noticeable in this moment.

“Is this okay?”

“Yes. Thank you Harry. But we are gonna have to slow down on the gifts. My wallet can’t keep up.”

“I don’t expect anything in return.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Okay. I’ll slow down, but do you like the journal?”

“I love it.” I tell him.

“Do you want to stay here and write? Or are you ready to go get your car and go home?”

“I think I’ll get my car. I really do appreciate this Harry.”

“It’s no problem.” He says. He pays the bill and I tell him that wasn’t necessary. He says it’s fine and walks me back to the car. He makes sure to beat me to my door so he can open it.

We take our time to get back to his house, just listening to music on the way there and talking about little things. Little details that help us know each other better. He doesn’t like mustard or skateboarding. He wants to get more tattoos. Music is his whole life.

I feel a bit sad when we do arrive at my car and I have to go, but he says we can hangout whenever, just to text and see when he’s free. I climb in my car and drive away, looking for music to play.

I find his YouTube channel and start listening to his songs. So deeply personal and so heartfelt. I can tell he puts his soul into his music. I find myself sitting in my car even when I’ve arrived back home. I do eventually have to get out because it’s freezing outside. But he has such a beautiful voice. He sounds like a professional. I can’t seem to turn his music off.

When I get settled inside, music still playing, I sit down at my dining room table and open the journal. I find a pen and go to the second page.

I’ve never been one to write. But Harry is right. There are some things so deep and personal that you can’t tell anyone else. Not until you know it’s safe. Harry has been in my life a little over a year now, but we haven’t really talked until this week. Not only is he the only person I really can talk to, he is the safest person I’ve ever met. I don’t have to fake anything. He is so honest. And his music speaks to my heart in a language I’ve never heard before but I understand. And it’s heartbreak. I’ve been hurt before, but not in the way Kellen has hurt me. Bur thought it all, I know I’ll be okay.

I continue to write when I get a notification on my phone.

New music from Harry Styles: Always Been You Somehow

I click on it and a video starts to play. It must have been recorded a few days ago, because his outfit is different.

- - -

Masterlist Series Part 1 Part 3

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Hellooo, sorry to bother you for this and maybe you've already said this but djskjs

Since you are posting all this link click musical content, do you have a weibo account? When you're looking for the content, do you use the app or the website? Cause I don't have an account and I've been looking through it on the browser but I only really find a few posts, meanwhile you seem to have an entire mine 😂 I wonder if there's really a difference or if there's something else I'm unaware of...

I don't wanna miss a single video 😂

But anyways thank you for sharing all the content and the info 🙏🏻❤️

Ayy it's okay, I'm happy to share ^^

No, I don't have a weibo account. I use a website (computer is more optimal for managing files). As for the rest I may have some tips ✨

1. Basic navigating tips (I've learnt it like a lab monkey, by pushing buttons, idk chinese): #音乐剧时光代理人# is the tag for LC musical. 2 last tabs on a left matter the most. The play button is tab with videos, first filter (the orange one) is for most popular, the other is for most recent.

The one below play button, a photo, is for pictures. They show from the most recent ones and I think you can scroll through them freely.

*For more convenient browsing and a chance to find extra photos that weren't properly tagged I recommend visiting profiles that posted the pics.

*second tab, the speech bubble one, is for discussion I think, it's sometimes useful for audience reviews etc.

2. If you don't have an acc weibo limits your access to older videos (message belows tells you to sign in to see more)

So I visit this tab just to check if anything interesting happened in the most recent play.

3. Bilibili doesn't seem to limit your access to older content, so for browsing videos use the #音乐剧时光代理人# on Bilibili. You can google translate the website to figure out the layout options, then go back to chinese ver (you must view original ver for clips to show up) and explore from there.

*Tbh I don't keep up with the videos much bc it's all the encore from different days. If anything big happens I learn about it from the photos, then look for the clips from that particular performance.

4. Check @接着奏乐接着舞Musicals (official profile of the musical's company). They post summary clips and photos from the play as well as cast announcements.

5. Check the actors' weibo accounts. A post where I tag and link to all of main trio actors. THIS IS IMPORTANT (my secret of having 200+ pics of LG & CXS actors). I'll use Cai Qi's acc as an example:

a) Go on their weibo.

b) Copy and paste their weibo tag into the search bar.

c) Look for a post with photos of them (can be from other play, doesn't matter)

d) THIS! We're looking for this diamond-shaped tag symbol 🔍

e) Click it and you're home 😌:

f) (ok I have no idea what IS this diamond tag) BUT it looks like a verified vip account, that not all people can tag. I suspect it's something like 'pay to tag your idol'/'highlight my post to a tagged person' twitter subscription kind of thing idk. Edit: It's a person-specific tag, like #, not direct @. What matters is that it has ALL hardcore stans in one place, posting videos, fancams and photos of that one specific actor in chronological from most recent order. Sadly it also limits non-users to newer posts only.

g) For clips with the actor go to the second tab on the top.

h) Third tab is for images. You can browse through the minatures but won't be able to enlarge them without the acc. So go back to the first tab, scroll, find yourself a batch that you haven't seen before, like here and visit OP's profile. It's the most probable to stumble upon a theatre kid who's already been to the LC musical, so you can find more content on there.

i) Scroll until you find the post with photos, click one of them, and then the highlighted option to access the highest quality image aand there you have it ✨

j) If you scroll and reach a user-only limit without finding the post you saw under the vip tag, there's a roundabout way to this >>

k) Scroll back up, and go to the last tab. It's the image albums tab. Look for the album with the theatre/actor photos. It seems the albums have no recency limit, you can see older posts without weibo acc.

(I feel kinda creepy for digging through people's profiles, but I swear weibo seems public like twitter and I have a tunnel vision to find LC content only)

So that was probably a core difference by the way I look for these things ><' Hopefully I explained it well enough. The biggest disadvanages of this method is you're still able to access only the most recent posts. That's why I made bookmarks to check them everyday.

Another thing is that not all actors in LC musical cast have a well established stan community who would post in the vip tag. They mostly do, but actors like Du Guangyi, Cai Qi, Teng Chunpeng, Zhang Jiahao, Wu Yihan or Wang Minhui tend to overshadow the rest by a sheer amount of fan pictures :'>

Hope it was a comprehensible read, and thanks for asking 💝

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

(Ok ladies....all this Evan in a strip club and sexy dances for him talk has me in heat, so I had to....🤭)

I pick up my phone and hit the green button next to Evan's name. He said he would be home 2 hours ago and I haven't heard from him. I'm not necessarily irritated, but hoping he's ok. His friends tend to be reckless sometimes. On the 4th ring, the phone picks up. I hear loud background noise and a couple different male voices that sound like they are yelling at each other. Then there is obnoxious, high pitched laughter and then a person that is clearly not Evan saying hello. I immediately recognize that it's his friend Jeff and I'm not thrilled that he's out with them. He sounds super drunk and immediately annoying.

"Heeeeeyaa there....Evan isssaa little indisposed at the moment" his slurred speech mixed with the loud music makes it hard to decipher his words. I faintly hear Evan yelling at him to give him his phone back, but it's met with more obnoxious laughter.

"Jeff!! Where the fuck are you guys? I can barely hear you" I say grumpily into the phone.

"Ssshhhhh don't tell yourself, but we're at 'LEGS', BABY!!!! and your boyfriend heres acting like a scared little rabbit."

I can hear Evan again, louder and super pissed. "Dammit Jeff, what the fuck??"

I can hear the noise lessening and a door close. I assume Evan stepped outside.

"Hey, sweetie. Is everything ok?" Sheepishly. Sugary sweet.

"Uh, yea. Just concerned you might be dead in a ditch cause you are 2 hours late with no text, but instead I guess you and your lovely friends are getting boobs bounced in your faces."

"Listen, babe... They dragged me here. I promise I am just having drinks and sitting here. Nothing else is happening. Please don't be mad."

"Yea? Well keep your phone away from your douchebag friends" I hang up.

I quickly go upstairs and rummage through my drawers. I'm looking for something sexy to wear. I forgot I had this cropped sweater that comes down far enough to cover my nipples, but my breasts peek out the bottom and a cheetah print thong. I stand in front of the mirror and snap a picture of my mid section showing only my rounded breasts peeking and the undies. If that doesn't make him come home, we have bigger issues.

I send him the picture with a text saying "I think we need to have a discussion."

His reply text just says "Oh, shit. Be home soon."

When he comes in the door I hear him yell that he's home. And he's running up the stairs. I'm standing in our room next to a computer chair and I'm holding restraints in my hands.

"Baby, what is all this?" He asks cautiously

"Strip." Is all I say

"What?"

"You fucking heard me. All your clothes off. Now."

He undresses. I can see his face trying to figure out if I'm mad. When he's finished I tell him to sit. When he does, I use the restraints to tie his arms to the armrests on the chair.

"So, did you like the strip club? Are you turned on by all those beautiful, topless women?" I ask, my voice monotone.

"Baby, no. I promise, I did not want to go"

"Here's the thing though, you could have left at any time. I'm afraid I'm going to have to show you what you could have had instead."

His breathing quickens "Are you really mad?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But I kinda want to punish you"

He's starting to sweat. He's semi-hard. Covered in goosebumps. "H-how are you going to do that?" His eyes are wide.

I walk up to him and I start running my hands up his thighs. Gently grazing them. I lean into his face like I'm going to kiss him and whisper "shut up and find out" and pull away as his mouth lunges for mine. I can hear his heartbeat across the room.

I grab a bottle of lotion off my dresser and he smirks. He thinks it's for him. His dick is hard and red.

I pump some lotion into my hands and rub them together. I put my foot up on the bed and he whines as I start putting lotion on my leg. As he's watching me, I do the opposite leg.

I come closer to him with the bottle. He's hopeful again. But, his face contorts as I start rubbing lotion on my stomach. Then, he lets out a moan that sounds like a cry when I pull my cropped sweater up over my breasts and start rubbing the lotion on my breasts and my nipples. Making sure I let my head fall back and moan at the sensation. I'm standing right in reaching distance, but he can't touch me. I take a minute to look at this beautiful man in front of me. He's a fucking mess. He's sweaty. I can smell the alcohol on him. His eyes are sleepy like he's in a sexual trance. He's balling his fists and the vein in his neck is protruding. His dick has gone from an angry red to a purple that almost makes me feel bad for the guy. Almost.

I leave my shirt pulled up and I put my boobs in his face, close enough for him to inch closer to them. He tries to use his mouth but I keep pulling away. He whimpers. I turn around and start swinging my hips. I inch them closer to his crotch and slightly let his dick graze my butt cheek. The begging starts.

"Please baby, I'll be a good boy from now on. I won't go to the strip club anymore. Please, let me touch you. You're so beautiful" he looks like he might start sobbing.

I turn to face him again. I kneel down on my knees, my breasts touching his rock hard member. I guide one breast with my hand and rub my nipples on his shaft. He moans and his dick twitches. I lower my face and I let the tip of my tongue barely slide over the tip of his cock. The precum coating him tastes salty. As I pull away, some drips onto my stomach. I look up at him. "You're dick is leaking"

"It's fucking crying"

"Yea? Well, just wait."

He begs again. His eyes are welling up "Please touch me. It hurts. It's on fire. Please, I'm begging. I'll do anything"

I get on my knees again and I blow my hot breath on a the tip on his cock and just hover there. "How bad do you want it?" I ask seductively.

He starts trying to thrust it up into my mouth.

"That's not asking nicely, is it now"

"Please, I'm sorry!" His face is pleading

I decide to let him have a little relief. I plunge his dick into my mouth and right back out again, sucking up his pre-cum on my way. I stand up and plunge my tongue into his mouth so he can taste it. Then I get back on my knees and start blowing him. He's moaning so loud. Pain and pleasure mixing together. He starts to get shifty and all he says is a quick "ohfuck" and I stop and pull my mouth away.

"Nonono, please no..come back"

"Bad boys don't get to cum unless I say so"

I go to my nightstand and open it

"What are you doing?" He knows damn well what I'm doing. A tear falls down his cheek.

"Don't think I'm gonna let you get off that easy"

I turn on my vibrator and sit right on the bed. I start using it on myself. I get lost in it and my reactions are natural. My moans, my face. I use it on my nipples and Evan whimpers loudly.

I look him right in the eye as I reach my climax. Making myself cum with my little machine.

His face goes from pleading and submissive to stoic and dominant. He's trying a new approach.

"Sit on my fucking dick"

I laugh "No"

"Yes! Right fucking now! I'm gonna fucking make you my little whore"

As I approach him, nothing could prepare me for what happens next. He fucking spits on his own dick. "Sit. On. My. Dick. Now." He's fed up.

I'm standing there about to say something sarcastic when he slips his hands free, grabs my hips spins me around, slides my thong down and pulls me down on to him reverse cowgirl. I cry out as he plunges into me. I refuse to move, giving him a run for his money. He starts thrusting upward. An animalistic grunt leaving his mouth each time. His long fingers digging into my hips. I'm making him work for it. It doesn't take long until he's literally screaming. I can hear his voice straining. No words. Just loud cries. Hot cum is hitting my walls so hard I can almost feel it splash. He's wailing as he comes down from his high. His whole body is shaking. His legs quivering. He can't speak. I look behind me and say

"fuck around and find out"

i love when the writers become inspired.

[sherlockianscholar]

part 1 (1985-1990): the saga of jeremy brett through the scuttlebutt archives

go here for part two!

since 1971, sherlockian and baker st irregular, peter blau has published a small "gossip" sheet for all sherlock holmes news under publication of the "scuttlebutt from the spermaceti press." after the advent of computers, peter started digitizing all his sheets from 1985 onward.

i went through blau's archives to look for any tidbits on jeremy brett. what i found tells jeremy's saga as granada's sherlock holmes. some of the entries are very straightforward. some of them require reading through the lines. some of them are just fun background bits of granada. but all of them paint jeremy's story through little snippets of news.

March 1985: granada premieres in america! vincent price quoted edgar w. smith, one of the foremost sherlockians in history :)

July 1985: the beginning of the closing chapter of his life

for some reason these are the only pictures i can find of joan and jeremy together, but they are absolutely adorable

August 1985 #1

August 1985 #2: jeremy's flightiness around the role trickles to the press. though he'll never say why.

"'and then i hang my pipes up,'" he said with a smile." his feelings regarding holmes were dangerous before joan's death and only got worse.

to quote producer june wyndham-davies, "when his depression was upon him, and he suffered from depression of the worst kind, he was a different person entirely. i've never known anyone whose personality could change so much. he would become aggressive and not want to continue. i had so many conversations with jeremy about not wanting to continue as sherlock holmes. he felt that sherlock holmes had turned him into a monster. jeremy brett was like that before he ever came to sherlock holmes, but it wasn't his fault and it certainly wasn't sherlock holmes fault."

December 1987: i didn't know he commissioned the play, the secret of sherlock holmes! and helped write it!!

February 1988: damn, that's audacious

May 1988: i can only imagine how much more would've been created and executed if jeremy hadn't gotten sick

okay but, the dog in the hound of the baskervilles is named khan. the movie is literally the wrath of khan.

June 1988: i can't pinpoint the timeline for when jeremy's mental illness became public knowledge and published by the media. however, from this short news clipping, it doesn't seem like they knew the real reason jeremy's hair was cut short. and almost certainly not that he chopped it off himself.

"jeremy just got into one of his manic states—you know, i hate sherlock holmes etc., and one day he cut his hair. in front of the mirror, he lopped bits off. i remember the first time I saw him after he had done it. we were both appearing in an 80th birthday tribute to sir laurence olivier at the national. he turned up at the theatre and i said, 'god, what have you done to your hair?' it was patently obvious it had not been cut by a barber—there were bits sticking up all over." -edward hardwicke

July 1988: the age of jeremy brett! forget the victorian era, this is the jeremerian? brettian? era

October 1988 #1

October 1988 #2: jeremy's insecurities shine through more. high praise for daniel day-lewis. "don't worry you haven't heard or seen the last of him!" congrats to jeremy for introducing lewis to america LOL. yay for play success! (also what does he mean by saying the private life of sherlock holmes is a "damaged film?" robert stephens was one of jeremy's life long best friends--stephens died exactly 2 months after jeremy. coincidentally, jeremy's ex-boyfriend, paul shenar, died exactly one month after jeremy.)

October 1988 #3: L O L

November 1988 #1: jeremy's opinion matters!

November 1988 #2: in my opinion, "bending the willow" is the most important part of jeremy's interpretation of holmes

August 1989: michael cox (the cornerstone of creating and shaping the first half of granada's run) begins to make his (very forced) exit. jeremy's physical health problems are becoming apparent, but they are brushed away by the actor, attributing his breathing issues and weight gain to heavy smoking. and once again, jeremy tries to cast off holmes, without revealing his true reasons.

according to granada's page on the arthur conan doyle encyclopedia, this is what was really happening:

"the performances were probably cathartic for him, but required excessive physical effort from a man with a worsening heart condition who, due to the enormous water retention caused by the lithium, found it difficult to breathe and move. he was forced to leave the theatre and go to hospital, where he stayed for a fortnight and had more than twelve litres of water removed from his body. by 1989 brett and hardwicke, who had supported him with boundless patience, were on their knees. brett took a short holiday but had to be rushed home and hospitalized: the treatments for his bipolar disorder and his heart condition had clashed."

i strongly recommend reading edward's later comments of his difficulties with jeremy during the show: link here

October 1989: two months later, jeremy has yet again changed his mind on continuing as sherlock holmes

November 1989: philip purser how d a r e you say that about my beloved watson. of course, it's from the daily mail, so his opinion doesn't matter.

December 1989: granada undergoes major changes. the conservative government was actively attacking the british media and coming after their budgets. after ousting all of the original leaders of granada's sherlock holmes, the new priorites were based off of ratings and profitability. "you must always remember that your business is to form the market as well as to supply it, [otherwise] your career will have succeeded only in restraining the arts, tarnishing the virtues, and throwing confusion into the manners of your contemporaries." -a granada staffer to the new leaders of the show

January 1990: jeremy finally feels stable in the role, but i think without that dance with "the dark side of the moon" he felt like he lost a key element in his portrayal of holmes. even though he had always been terrified of that instabiity.

end of part 1, so here's part two!

[sammyloomis]

2023 completions

welcome to the 2023 edition of my ramblings about video games i completed this year!! including even more unwanted opinions and even less coherency

total games: 37

09/01 - Sam & Max Save the World - 8/10

sam and max, freelance police, begin a long string of investigations involving hypnotised celebrities, sentient computers, and conspiracies that go all the way to the TOP, baby

startin the year off good game wise then!! tbh i started this one in 2022 but it didnt make that list cause i just.. wasnt in a game playin mood towards the end i guess fghj but anyway!! really liked this one, ive seen a few mutuals who like this series so i was excited to play it and it was a lot of fun :] defo an old school point and click game and i rly liked the main characters themselves and the supporting cast!! glad theres another remaster i can jump into right after this one

11/01 - Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me - 8/10

the crew of lonnit entertainment are invited to a recreation of the infamous murder house, the stomping grounds of americans first serial killer, h h holmes. they are hoping the location will help save their documentary, but will you be able to save... THEIR LIVES??

i feel like every dark pictures game becomes my fave dark pictures game as they come out, but this one really was Very Good. i can confidently say this is probably the most scared ive been while playing a supermassive game Ever. the characters, while dysfunctional, grew on me a lot over the course of the game which made keeping them alive even more nailbiting :’] speaking of, the deaths in this one were Particularly gruesome imo, just from a concept standpoint, so big kudos for that too!! my only gripe is that i think the new “features” such as puzzle solving and traversal mechanics just artificially prolonged the runtime without actually adding anything to the experience

15/01 - Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space - 7/10

even more weird shit is afoot in the second sam and max game, this time our duo facing off against T-H-E-M, the bermuda triangle, and satan himself!! ... or was it santa??

2 sam and max games in one month, this may have detrimental effects on my brain :’] but really, i liked this one too!! not as much as the first, but i still liked the characters and overall story, i liked how it all connected to both the previous game and the events through this one. i found some of the puzzles a bit more difficult and obtuse, but they were still fun. another fun point and click game (tho somewhat dated in some cases fghjk)

18/01 - Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments - 5/10

the game preceeding sherlock holmes: the devils daughter, which i completed last year, follows the titular character once more, solving 6 of his cases along with his partner dr john watson

eh, not much to say about this one. i certainly prefered the devils daughter, but that one was also kinda meh fghjk. with this one being an older game, the graphics and gameplay were a bit more janky, and i guess theyd changed voice actors for sherlock since this game cause i didnt like his voice in this one tbh. that being said, mystery wise id say its abt on par with the devils daughter. yeah, again, not much to say really :’]

24/01 - Psychonauts 2 - 10/10

a mole in headquarters, an evil from the past is rising again, and even MORE figments hidden in really obscure places... another day at the psychonauts office :V raz once again must delve into various brains to figure out what the Fuck is goin on

okay this game was literally so fkn good in every aspect. visually stunning, amazing story, brilliant characters both new and returning... GOD!!! what the first game did well, this one blew it CLEAN out of the water, i loved it a lot!! like idk what else to even say, it was just such a solid game i cant think of much to critisise :’]

04/02 - AI: The Somnium Files - 3/10

kaname date works for the police force for a department unknown to the general public, using groundbreaking technology, he delves into the minds of suspects and uncovers clues using their own memories. when a body shows up resembling a victim of a serial killer from a cold case, he begins his investigation

... man... spike chunsoft rly just know how to make characters that grate on me fghjk for starters ill praise the original concept and interesting story (when it finally got around to being revealed), but i disliked/was uninterested in most of the characters and thought the tropes they kept using were annoying and just plain weird. im not fully sure Why this game was a branching path type game since it never really plays into the plot and the main story could have easily been told with a single storyline. overall, didnt rly enjoy this one, but what can ya do they cant all be winners :’]

13/02 - Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus - 5/10

sly cooper, youngest descendent of the illustrious cooper thief clan, had his familys secrets stolen when he was just a lad. now he sets out to retrive what was taken from him and beat up some bad guys as he does

i gotta commend this game for the humour and the creativity with it, and im defo lookin forward to playing the rest of these games based off this one, but i think this first entry suffers from a lot of Jank that made it quite frustrating to play :’] also, there wasnt any way to mute anything except the music or adjust the volume so it would routinely blow the FUCK out of my eardrums. that bein said tho, still fun, very quick game, but im keepin it a low rating cause im expecting to like the later ones better :’]

26/02 - Hidden Agenda - 2/10

the infamous “trapper” killer makes a final confession while counting down the days on death row, claims he never killed anyone and he can help lead the police to exactly who did. detective becky marney must investige this case one more time and decide if hes lying, or if the killer is still afoot

im so so SO sorry to my friends who like this game but besties.... why fghj for starters i was locked out of playing it for almost 2 years when the app you are REQUIRED to use in order to play this thing just stopped working, and when i finally did start playing the jank didnt stop with just the app. the whole game seems to be a broken mess with textures flickering in and out, characters walking thru solid objects, its MADNESS. the story and characters are so.... not interesting :[ it takes only 2 hours to do a full runthru of the story so i never rly grew to care abt them and theyre so flat anyway that i didnt Want to. if it wasnt so clearly rushed i think itd be good, and some of the acting is actually rly stellar, but overall...... its a no from me

04/03 - Minecraft - minecraft/10

its minecraft

technically i already got the plat ages ago but this year i finally got the coveted 100% so.... yeah ;w; i mean we all know what minecraft is so like...... idk what to say abt it guys, u already know how good it is (tho the console version is Vasty inferior to pc)

05/03 - Death Stranding - 8/10

after a world ending catastrophe dubbed the death stranding wiped out modern life as we know it, humanity is scattered across america. its up to sam porter bridges, post apocalyptic delivery man, to travel across the country and unite those that remain

depsite how confusing this game was, and how slow it was paced, and how fkn damn weird it was half the time, i still had a lot of fun playing it :’] i enjoyed the characters, tho wish certain ones had more limelight, i enjoyed the actual gameplay, tho by the end game i was finding it a bit Too repetetive, and i found the story rly interesting, when i could understand what was going on fghj so basically for every good thing i liked, it was countered by something, tho they are fairly small things. also the ending cutscene is an hour n a half long and i was fkn 3 am when i was finally allowed to exit the damn game so, u know, beware of that

10/03 - Ratchet & Clank - 7/10

young mechanic ratchet, with his new buddy clank, join the galactic rangers in stopping the blargs from destroying countless planets in order to build their own

another game thats been on my backlog for ages, im glad to have this one done and dusted :’] i certainly had fun playing it, but i feel like it was a bit Too kiddy in some places for my personal taste (dialogue and humour wise that is, but since this was also made by insomniac of spiderman fame, it makes sense) and after a certain point the game becomes piss easy with all the upgrades u get, but i still enjoyed it

03/04 - Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves - 5/10

sly and his pals return to their thieving ways after learning that the infamous klaw gang have begun reassembling parts for slys arch nemesis; clockwork. they travel across the globe to stop them

man my descriptions are getting worse fghj but anyway, as with the first game, i rly enjoyed the characters!! and the music, and... thats pretty much it. i really dont know what it is about these sly games that i just cant seem to enjoy the gameplay but i Really Really dont have fun while playing them :[ which is a shame cause, like i say, great characters that id like to spend more time with. if this was supposed to be the best in the series, i think im gonna give the 3rd and 4th games a miss for now, but maybe ill come back to them in the future

29/04 - Last Day of June - 7/10

a short game depicting a young couple named carl and june, and the tragedy surrounding their relationship

this game doesnt actually have a plat, which is something im trying not to be too picky about going forward in terms of playing games, but even tho this game was super short i really liked it!! the story is rly simple but incredibly sad, and even though theres a lack of “voice acting” in the traditional sense, there was still a lot of great emotive acting in this. that being said, the fact some of the voices sounded so odd detracted from the seriousness of the plot sometimes, and the actual gameplay was kinda boring, but still a solid short game :]

29/04 - Predator Hunting Grounds - 1/10

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

OH THE AGONY OH THE PAIN OH THE HOURS OH THE WASTED YEARS THE WASTED YOUTH THE PRETTY LIES THE UGLY TRUTH

and i dont like it >:[

03/05 - Linger in Shadows - 1/10

this... isnt even a game apparently

i had it on my list of things to check out while i had the ps plus premium thinking it Was a game, but its not. its a strange kind of “art” thing according to the guide i used. i didnt rly know what was going on fghj. certainly a unique experience i suppose but nothing id recommend u go out of ur way to do, even if it takes literally 10 minutes to get all the trophies (no plat either)

08/05 - Kurushi - 2/10

ps1 puzzle game, another one from the ps plus catalogue

not much to say abt this one again fghj seems like these last few games have been kinda duds huh :’] ah well, theres certainly better games on the horizon i suppose. as said, this is just some puzzle game from the ps1, janky controls and all. the music is surprisingly good, sounds almost like disney instrumentals :’] not that fun without assisstance tbh

09/05 - The Gardens Between - 6/10

a very short puzzle game following 2 friends exploring a strange series of islands that tell the story of their friendship

when i say short i Mean short. like even without a guide i got this completely done in 2 1/2 hours, and that included me leaving the game on while i went to get something to eat from the kitchen. that being said, its a very cute game!! i enjoyed the puzzles, the style is nice and Capital-I-Indie, the musics nice and relaxing. the story was also nice, if sad, (can i say nice a few more times??? nice nice nice nice) but i just think this game is Wayyyy too short dfghj i think a lot more could have been done with it :’] glad i didnt pay the full £15 for this as it would have been a bit of a rip off

09/05 - Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent - 8/10

fbi agent tethers is sent out to the minnesotan town of scoggins to investigate the local eraser factory shutting down

damn we’re just flying thru em now huh! ive actually played and 100%’d this game before on steam, as well as its sequel so i suppose im a little biased :’] but i rly like this game!! another short one, and another puzzle one, but i rly love the art style and story, as well as the puzzles being fairly simple but still fun!! its a shame the second game never made it to ps or id complete that one too but yeah, fun and simple puzzle game, defo recommend :] like most games like this tho, i wish it were longer

11/05 - ABZU - 6/10

you are a diver on a journey through the ocean, discovering the creatures that inhabit the waters

short n sweet indie game (anotha one) and this one was pleasant!! i rly liked the style and music, the story was simple but told fairly well, and just overall a nice game :] beyond that, not much to say tho fghj defo a very pretty game, and id recommend if you have an interest in marine life n such, but beyond that its pretty bog standard indie game

11/05 - The Pedestrian - 5/10

a short puzzle game where you traverse various signs as the tiny person within them

pretty straight forward puzzle game with a Weird ending that i dont quite understand fghj but overall it was enjoyable :’] most of these quicker games ive been playing lately have been super quick puzzle games so i might be getting burnt out on them, but even then i can appreciate the creativity of this one. its also another game with no plat which, considering it came out not 3 years ago, is kind of annoying

14/05 - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - 4/10

two brothers venture on a quest to find medicine for their sick father

another short puzzle game, with a pretty interesting feature!! you control each brother with an analogue stick each, which can make coordination in some parts quite tricky if ur me fghj overall a pretty decent game, the story was kinda meh for me but i thought the gameplay was interesting, not much else tho

20/05 - Bloodborne - 6/10

the town of yharnam is crawling with beasts and hunters alike. fight through the corrupted streets and discover the fetid depths of this city and all the inhabitants trying super duper hard to kill you

im editing this from when i first wrote it after immediately finishing the game because i was cranky and frustrated because i cant in good faith give this game a score lower than 5 (mainly because i know the fromsoft fans would dox and kill me). this game is visually very nice, in the sense that it looks Horrible, which fits the vibe. the gothic style along with the monsters are really unique and detailed to the point where some of them are hard to look at. that being said, i personally didnt like this game. at all. i know on a “technical” level its very good, but i struggled for a Long Time to “git gud” as it were and surprisingly, dying a million times because you cant dodge within a 1/2 second window before being stun locked to death GREATLY decreased my enjoyment of this game. and thats all im gonna say about it :V

21/05 - Black Mirror - 4/10

following the suicide of his father, david gordon returns to scotland from india to inherit his familys estate. however, there are strange mysteries surrounding this house and the family who occupy it

pretty short horror/puzzle game that was pretty light on both the horror and puzzles fghj tho this game had a surprising amount of animation that looks fairly good which was a nice surprise. the characters were fine, and the story started out quite interesting but just felt a bit... weird. especially the ending, the final climax is basically just a bunch of qtes that ends really abruptly with little push back from the villain :’] for a free game i guess i cant complain too much

23/05 - Vampyr - 8/10

dr johnathan reid, recently turned vampire, has just returned home to london after serving as a field medic during the war. the streets are crawling with rogue vampires, and an epidemic is spreading quickly through the city, all while johnathan is searching for his maker

FINALLY A GAME I ENJOYED. GOD. okay so this was surprising because ive heard a lot of people call this game p mid, and maybe id think the same if it wasnt preceded by a whole bunch of Crap ive recently played, but here we are!! i really loved the chracters, i thought they were all fun and interesting, even the ones we dont meet for too long, and i also found the story super compelling!! the game Does have a bit of jank to it, with weirdly long loading times (even on the ps5) and the occassional graphical error, but otherwise i rly enjoyed this one :]

31/05 - Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - 9/10

seperated after dr nefarious begins ripping holes into other dimensions, ratchet and clank must team up with another lombax named rivet and stop the universes from collapsing altogether

man this game was so fun!! i got the whole thing done and dusted over the course of 2 days :’] the writing was still a bit cheesy for me, and as implied the play time is Outrageously low for the steep price (which i thankfully avoided cause ps plus), but the gameplay itselt was Incredibly fun and engaging!! defo a huge step up from the first game in this reboot series. i also rly loved rivet so that certainly helped :’]

02/06 - Lake - 5/10

meredith weiss, a successful programmer, moves back to her childhood town of providence oaks to fill in her her dad at his post office job. deliver mail to the residents of this lakeside town and decide how meredith wants to end her 2 week stint

pretty cute indie game i got through ps plus, i kinda wish the whole thing Was just a post delivery simulator :’] the characters are okay, the storys okay if a little eh.... i wanna say Loose?? like the plot beats (if u can call them that) feel kinda boring n half arsed. theres also a random romance option in this which feels?? out of place and doesnt actully impact anything that much. overall its an okay game, like i say the thing i found the most fun was driving around delivering post but maybe thats just my autism showing :V

13/06 - PowerWash Simulator - 10/10

i mean... kinda does what it says on the tin guys

is a 10 a bit generous?? maybe. do i particularly care?? absolutely not. this game is a 10 if ever there was one. i truly dont know how else to sell this if the idea of cleaning stuff with a powerwasher isnt immeditely appealing to you like, maybe You’re the problem :V this game also has a weird amount of lore?? which is also v fun fghj so do with that info what you will

19/06 - LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - 7/10

a lego retelling of all 4 pirate movies, with all the usual lego bells and whistles

pretty typical lego game, so the gameplay and stuff is p fun!! ive actually never seen these movies so i didnt rly know what was goin on half the time, especially because this is an Older lego game so theres zero voice acting in this. i also had quite a few crashes and bugs while playing where i had to restart either the level or the whole game, which got annoying during the cleanup grind. overall tho, cant go wrong with a lego game tbh

17/08 - Chicory: A Colorful Tale - 9/10

after all the colour in the world disappears out of nowhere, you must go on a quest across the picnic province to restore it using a magic paintbrush

you may notice the significant time gap between the last game and this one and uhhhh ngl folks i was Not Gamin dfghj i was Tired n a lil Sad but eh what can ya do, but this was a great game to come back with!! absolutely loved this one, super adorable art style and gameplay that reminded me a LOT of toem, very similar vibes but this game is much longer imo. id give it a perfect 10 if the collectibles weren’t so horrid to find fghjk but other than that cant recommend this one enough!!

29/08 - Observation - 7/10

dr emma fisher wakes up after the space station on which she resides undergos a catastrophic failure. take control ships ai, S.A.M., and attempt to reboot the systems and find the crew, who have all mysteriously disappeared...

rly quite liked this one!! the fact u control the ships ai is a pretty interesting feature and made the interface really cool and sci-fi lookin, defo alien inspired on that front. i liked the story, even if it Did get a bit confusing, and the voice acting was also pretty stellar!! gotta dock points for some classic indie game Jank, and the fact that there isnt a whole lot goin on gameplay wise (p much entirely minigames that arent that well explained to you that u only end up doing once) but the story and overall eerie atmosphere rly saved it for me

31/08 - OMNO - 5/10

short indie game where u travel through a mystical world, solve puzzles, and meet extraordinary animals

theres indie games and then theres Indie Games, u know?? this is the latter. and thats not a bad thing!! it just means its kinda... predictable. usual fare of no voice acting, gorgeous music, simple but stylised graphics etc etc. it was pretty cute and the puzzles were fun, but some of the controls felt a bit clunky and like i say, a little boring story wise imo (but maybe ive just played too many of these types of games). perfectly middle of the road :’]

03/09 - Tacoma - 7/10

you have been sent on a mission to retrieve the ai from a ship where all the crew have seemingly vanished (sounds a bit familiar huh?? all sci fi is the same (affectionately)). explore the ship and piece together what happened to everyone

anotha one, anotha sci fi indie game :’] rly liked the story of this one!! and it was an interesting mechanic to be able to view scenes of the crew via an AR system, and then also view their files and such. despite their limited appearances, all the crew members were interesting and unique, and no spoilers but it made the ending and its lead up a lot more exciting and intense. gotta dock points for how Glitchy this game was, it crashed at one point and started stuttering so bad i had to restart it manually, and also for how short it is. still, good story, good characters

06/09 - Chicken Police: Paint it RED! - 8/10

a gritty noir point and click detective game where u play as the infamous sonny featherland, one half of the crime fighting duo, chicken police. after a nervous dame shows up on his doorstep about her mistress recieving vague threats, he realises hes gotta take just one last case

anthropamorphic detective chickens..... played TOTALLY straight, mind you. like i was actually totally blown away by this game fghjk its Completely voice acted for one, and its Pretty Fuckin Good voice acting too, the story and mystery is Really interesting, the world its set in is super gritty and deep despite how little its kinda touched on through the story, i was very surprised!! i think the ending and reveal were a bit uhh.... abelist, not to get too into spoilers, but for a noir story i guess its par for the course. still, enjoyed this one!!

08/09 - The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - 5/10

a mutilated bishop, a deadly poison, and some other shady bullshit, its another sherlock holmes game

this is actually the oldest game in the series thats avilable on ps, ive kinda gone about playing these in the exact wrong order :’] that being said, i do think this is my Least favourite of the 3 ive played thus far. like crimes & punishment, this game also has plenty of jank, and the voice acting is a lil ehhh stiff for my taste. the puzzles were fine, the story was fine, overall just Fine. this game follows 1 case rather than multiple like its sequels do

10/09 - Garfield Kart: Furious Racing - 4/10

basically a mario kart clone but with garfield :]

now i am not one who loves racing games. in fact i suck quite badly at them. so u may wonder why i have a racing game in this list and well?? im ngl i bought this game as a meme and it ended up being so hard i had to put it down for a while dfghj BUT i came back to it and after hours of sweatin and gamer rage i DID IT!!! but at what cost. the game is fun, it looks nice, tho the only real garfield references it Has are its racers, the courses are kinda bland and generic. also the trophies...... my GOD the trophies..... not even a plat btw hhhh anyway if u like racing games check it out but if u Dont then DONT

17/09 - The Last of Us: Part 1 - 8/10

in the fungusy zombie apocalypse, smuggler joel is tasked with taking an immune girl, ellie, to a group of freedom fighters to create a cure. a remake of a remake :’]

obviously its good. i mean cmon. i remember watching a playthru of the OG og game wayyy back when so i kinda knew all the plot beats, but playing it myself in this beautiful 4k ps5 remake was Glorious (dont get me wrong, i think it was totally unnessesary to remake it AGAIN but it do look pretty). i can certaily see why this game has such a cult following and got the reception it did. maybe a Tad overhyped?? maybe a tad. but still good!! gameplay is solid, story is solid, characters are solid, whats not to like?? docking points for the frankly OBSCENE price point (luckily i got mine Mega cheap but go-LLY)

03/10 - The Last of Us: Part 2 - 10/10

after a devastating loss, ellie begins a gruelling quest for revenge and runs the risk of not only losing the ones she loves, but herself as well

i mean. fuck me guys. fuck ME. if the first game is good then this one is straight up glorious. the story is Vastly improved, so much tension and grey morality and Bone Deep Agony, emotionally and physically. its just such a hugely better game, both story and gameplay wise with a Bunch of new features and they arent afraid to take you to Extremely dark places with characters we already love and brand new ones too. this games going to be sitting with me for a long time i feel

and thats it for 2023!!

kinda fell off the gaming wagon in the final few months of this year due to a variety of reasons, but lets hope i can keep gettin games off the ol’ backlog in the new year :]

[godteri-takk]

I hate that i cant remember names of other peeps oc SORRY

But u have coral? It think so

To them 2, 6, 9, 18, 37, 43

And to Kation: 12, 15, 18, 24,

Anddd to u

Coral: A, B, J

Kation A, B, J as well

Oh wow this is a LOT! This'll be so fun to answer thank you :D theres art too! Image:desc in ALT

Coral (she/he)

2: How easy is it for them to laugh?

Laughter doesn't always come easy to him, and for long he was ashamed of her laughter. It's a snorty laugh in short quick puffs, I think it's really cute! She feels comfortable laughing around close friends tho, especially late at night after a long hang-out with candy and music :)

6: Do they consider laws flexible or immovable?

She want to be rebellious but in his heart, he thinks they're immovable.

9: Do they swear? First swear word?

He started swearing only after he'd Fallen, and the first one was shit xD

18: What embarrasses them?

Being wrong, wearing clothes he's not comfortable with, not having control over his body, showing people his vent-art, stuttering, being judged, being messy, a lot of things honestly.

37: Do they have a system to remember things?

She ties the thing she need to remember to a visual picture. For example, if needing to remember how to spell the word "carpet" she'll imagine a little kitty in a car. Car-pet.

43: how would they explain their sexuality?

Ooooh that could've been a post on its own tbh. No! I'll keep it brief! Coral is objectum. He's aroace when it comes to people. His beloved objects, his partners, are Boy! the bunny plushie, Rey the computer, Sugar the flip-phone and Stellar the chain. They're depicted in both the ref-sheets :) So the main type of objects he's attracted to are plushies, technology, chains and sometimes buildings :) But you know, just as with other sexualities, she's not attracted to EVERY object tn these categories, just as lesbians aren't attracted to ALL girls.

Kation (hen/she/it)

12: How do they deal with a itch in a spot they can't reach? (Thats so spesific what XD)

Can only imagine that being its back. Use a stick or rub its back against something like a corner, a tree, the couch, anything

15: How do they speak?

She talks on the spot and use a lot of slang and some swear-words, she's quite outspoken and its emotions affect their tone a lot. Its voice is kinda deep and rough/ragged, with a growl hiding just under the surface of the voice.

18: what embarrasses them?

Failing in things hen thought hen was good at, sharing vulnerable feelings, admitting flaws, being considered weak or mean

24: Are they comfortable talking about sex? With whom?

Kation is very confident in its sexuality and is comfortable with talking about it with anyone who wants to! It's just a casual topic to her.

To Me!

A: What am I excited about these characters?

About Kation I love its design and powers and personality, I love to draw hen and Imagine hen in all kinds of scenarios, how hen interact with others, anything. Designing outfits for both Kation and Coral is super fun, about Coral i love his emotional life, her facial expressions, that she's objectum, his past, his inner conflicts and problems and worries.

B: what inspired me to create them?

Kation was created because I needed a main character in my comic. Hen is a fat, nonbinary demon cus those are all things i think we should see more in media. Well... mostly the first 2, there's a lot of demons lol. But i think those 3 things is a great combo! Coral, as first depicted here, I just drew him cus I wanted to redraw the album photo for Replicas Redux by Gary Numan (with Are 'Friends' Electric? in mind). But I didn't want to draw the guy himself so i just switched him out w a demon i designed on a whim. I liked her design a lot and decided to add her to the lore of the comic i made, and make him Kations best friend, soon with lore of his own!

Question J was only for fandom OCs it seems so ... yeah :)

Wow this was fun!!! Thank you so much I hope it was interesting, either way i now have a cool post with lots of OC lore n stuff!

[elamarth-calmagol]

I posted 4,067 times in 2022

That's 1,054 more posts than 2021!

93 posts created (2%)

3,974 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@arofili

@i-was-once-a-flower

@ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2

@animate-mush

I tagged 4,052 of my posts in 2022

#lotr - 1,525 posts

#funny - 1,239 posts

#fanart - 1,190 posts

#art - 308 posts

#analysis - 298 posts

#pride - 268 posts

#nature - 211 posts

#cute - 177 posts

#history - 171 posts

#politics - 154 posts

Longest Tag: 131 characters

#for some reason i have nightmares about having ten books checked out that i'm supposed to be reading to give the librarian feedback

I sent 1 gift in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Iceland, forgot which lake.

I tried to take these picture to show fellow drop-off-fearer @plaguedocboi the slope here, but you can't really see it. Also, it was only about 45 degrees, that's just a lot by my standards. Sinkholes are common where I live, but I guess they're easier to flatten out into a shallow lake than volcanic calderas are.

The slope starts at my toes and continues at the sane grade.

See the full post

22 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

#4

I just want to be able to breathe through my nose again. I want to be able to cuddle my ferrets. I want to go back to work on Monday. I'm beyond ready to be done with this.

Sad ferrets:

26 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

#3

Fun moment today: I was looking up older third gender pronouns (specifically ones coined in or before Tolkien's day) to use in a fic, and I ran into a problem. Several sites say that ae/aer was created in a 1920s science fiction novel, but all the sites I found ultimately traced their information back to a Psychology Today article that doesn't even provide a quote of how the pronoun was used in the book.

So, being slightly obsessive once I get an idea in my head, I borrowed the ebook version from my public library, opened it in a browser window, and searched "ae" until I found the definition of the pronoun.

(Surprisingly many words have the letter sequence "ae" in them.)

Here it is! A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsey, first published 1920, ebook published 2012 by Duke Classics. And no, you can't make me write a formal citation.

I'll add an image description when i get to my computer tomorrow, unless someone else wants to do it.

29 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

#2

Have we ever figured out why Orome was the one to discover that the Elves had awakened, not Namo (Mandos)?  There must have been plenty of dead Elves in the few thousand years they were awake before he found them.  Morgoth’s forces were already attacking them, and they literally had to learn how to hunt, forage, and make fires entirely by themselves.  Because of the Sleep of Yavannah, they wouldn’t have many food options and wouldn’t even have many animals that they could watch for ideas on what to eat.  And Tolkien says that they were a lot more like Men in those days, so they probably couldn’t survive for long periods of time without food or survive food poisoning.  So I can’t imagine a scenario where no elves had died yet.

Were their souls not going to Mandos?  Maybe Namo didn’t start calling for them until he knew they existed.  That makes it unfair that Tolkien says that Elves who stay in Middle Earth after their death are “marred” or evil.  (I mean, I think it’s unfair anyway, but even more unfair.)  Maybe once Namo became aware of Elves, those who had already died were allowed to go to him?  But I seem to remember Tolkien saying that Elves in those days really wanted to get away from Morgoth and wanted to go to Mandos to be safe.  So... when did that happen?

So were the souls of Elves going to Mandos, but Namo just didn’t tell anyone?  If any of the Valar would keep their mouths shut about that, it would be him.  But I’m not sure why he would want to keep that a secret.

Or maybe he just built his halls and then didn’t visit them again for thousands of years, and came back to find them full of Elvish souls who had no idea where they were, just that there wasn’t anything evil here.  Now that’s a scenario I’d like to read a fanfic about.  @galadhremmin maybe?

72 notes - Posted March 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

OK, so you guys know I’m not happy about the Amazon show, but I’m going to defend politically ambitious Elrond here.  People are saying that it doesn’t make sense because he was a healer and refused to be high king.  But that’s after the Last Alliance.  After Gil-Galad dies, and Elendil, and probably hundreds of people he knows.  After he established Imladris as a home for refugees.  After he experiences what it’s like to be second in command to the high king.  It’s called character development, y’all.  Let him have his politically ambitious phase.

130 notes - Posted February 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[otunnicliffe]

Chloe + Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

'Minerva, my dear, would you like to read the next chapter?' Dumbledore asks, handing her the book before she could actually answer. 

McGonagall huffed in what seemed to be her answer before clearing her throat and started to read:

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursley's had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens 

'Yawn!' Bellatrix announced, rolling her eyes.

and lit up the brass number four on the Dursley's front door; it crept into their living room which was almost exactly the same as the night when Mr Dursley had seen the fateful news report about the owls. 

'I think the worser news that night was that we had died, but apparently not to them,' James says to Gwendolyn with a huff. 

Only the photographs on the mantlepiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different coloured bobble hats

'I bet that's Dudley,' Arabella remarked to Gwendolyn with a sinister grin plastered on her face. 

but Dudley Dursley

The room erupted into laughter at the description. 

'Called it!' Arabella announced, looking smug with herself.

'Like it was hard to guess?' Lucius muttered to Narcissa and Bellatrix. 

was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. 

'No mention of either Chloe or Harry,' Molly points out. 

The room had no sign at all that another two children lived in the house, too. 

'Merlin, even I didn't think your sister could be that horrible!' Arabella said to Gwendolyn, rubbing her leg comfortingly as she looked even more upset, while James pulled in a little bit closer. 

'They definitely kept them though, right?' Kimberly asks, suddenly. McGonagall nods, and most people in the room breathe a small sigh of relief. 

Yet, both Chloe and Harry Potter were still there, asleep for the moment but not for long. Their Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day. 

'At least her horrible voice didn't change,' Arabella says. 

'Up! Get Up! Now!' 

Chloe and Harry both woke with a start. Their aunt rapped on the door again. 

'Up!' She screeched. Chloe and Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. While Chloe tried to wake herself up more, Harry rolled on to his back.

'H, come on get up,' Chloe mutters softly, her voice thick with sleep.

'Shush,' he says, his voice sounding nearly the same 'I'm trying to remember my dream.'

'What did you dream about this time?' Chloe asks.

'It had a flying motorbike in it,' He says.

'I think I've had a dream like that before,' Chloe ponders, now joining her twin brother as she laid back down.

'Yeah, I've got a funny feeling I've had it before'.

'Hagrid's bike from ten years ago?' Amos asks, but with no response from either teacher. 

'I think you'll find Diggory, that it was my bike first,' Sirius spoke up, proudly. 

Their aunt was back outside the door. 

'Are you up yet?' She demanded. 

'Nearly,' The twins said in unison.

'What have I told you about speaking like that!' She hissed, and the twins could almost hear the shudder she surely let out. 'Get a move on, I want you two to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything to be perfect on Duddy's birthday.'

'Duddy is the worst nickname ever,' Pandora announces. 

'To be fair, the main problem here is naming him Dudley in the first place,' Remus says, and everyone agrees.

Harry groaned. 

'What did you say?' His aunt snapped through the door. 

'Nothing, nothing,' Harry proclaimed. 

Dudley's birthday- how could they have forgotten. They both slowly got out of their beds and Chloe brushed her hair while Harry started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed.

'C, get the spider of!' He announced, fear hinting through his voice. 

Chloe huffed, amused, and carefully took the spider off his sock before placing it somewhere else.

'Aww, Gwen, she's an animal fan like you!' Kimberly said.

'Seriously, H, you'd think that you'd be used to spiders by now, you know, with living in a cupboard and all'

'WHAT!' Gwendolyn and James shouted. Arabella, Sirius, Remus and Kimberly joined in the shouts.

'They sleep in a bloody cupboard?!' Gwendolyn says, astonishment covering her face. 

'I don't care what you say Dumbledore,' Sirius announces, 'There is no way that the twins living with me or Moony or Bella or Kim would be worse than that!'

'Mr Black, with time you will find out why,' Dumbledore said, calm as ever.

'Can I continue?' McGonagall asked, in a certain tone of voice that shut everyone up. 

When they were both dressed, they went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all of Dudley's birthday presents. 

'Spoiled brat,' Andromeda hissed. 

It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

Arthur wrote 'computer', 'television' and 'racing bike' on his list.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to both Chloe and Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise- unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley favourite punching bag was the twins

'He hits my kids!' James shouts.

'He hits a girl?' Amos says, 'Weak.'

'Can we agree that Gwendolyn and James are not reading a chapter?' Regulus says, and everyone agrees. 

but he often couldn't catch the pair. The twins didn't look it, but they were both very fast.

Perhaps it was something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but both Chloe and Harry had been small and skinny for their age. Harry especially looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Chloe, had second hand clothes that Petunia had managed to scarper from her younger years and charity shops. Chloe, however, was still unconventionally pretty, often referred to as Snow White as the quote goes 'Even rags could not hide her beauty'.

'Sounds like she is gonna look like you, Gwen!' Pandora coos.

She had platinum blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes, oceanic in their depth. She was smaller than her twin brother, but not by much. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright green eyes.

'A mini Gwen and a mini James!' Molly cooed. 

'A little us, James,' Gwendolyn says, turning to the boy next to her, a blush dotted on her cheeks. James could only smile, the brightest smile Gwendolyn thought she'd ever seen.

He wore round glasses

'Merlin Prongs, you even passed onto the kid your bad eyesight!' Sirius barks, laughing after. 

'Stuff it you git,' James says, but with no real malice behind it.

held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all times that Dudley had punched him on the nose.

'She won't even buy him new glasses?' Alice asks.

The only thing Harry really liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, identically shown on the same place on Chloe's forehead. 

'Geez, they've still got the scars?' Arthur says.

They both have had it as long as the two of them could remember and the first question they could remember asking their Aunt Petunia was how they had got it.

'In the car crash when you parents died;

'But we didn't die in a car crash?' James asks.

'So she didn't tell the twins what you wrote in the letter? Gwendolyn asks, huffing when Dumbledore shakes his head. 'What did James and I tell you!

she had said. 'And don't ask questions.'

Don't ask questions- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursley's.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon and Chloe was finishing up setting the table. 

'Comb your hair!' He barked to Harry, by way of a morning greeting, failing to even acknowledge the other Potter twin in the room. 

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that the twins (but especially Harry) needed haircuts. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way- all over the place.

'Deffo a mini Prongs, then!' Remus joked, ruffing James's hair, as James protested.

Chloe was frying eggs while Harry was finishing off the bacon by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on this thick, fat head.

'Bet he pulls all the girls,' Narcissa remarks.

-Chloe often told Harry that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

The room erupted into laughter.

'All the sass, I love it!' Arabella says, through giggles. 

Chloe and Harry put all the plates of egg and bacon onto the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile was counting his presents. His face fell. 

'Thirty-six,' he said, looking up at his mother and father. 'That's two less than last year.'

'Oh for Merlin's sake!' Arabella groaned, 'That Dudley is really getting on my nerves!'

'As if he sat there and literally counted out all of his presents instead of just wanting to open them!" Remus said, looking equally as annoyed as Arabella. 

'Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy'.

'All right, thirty-seven then,' said Dudley going red in the face. Chloe and Harry, who could both see see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, took a look at each other and they both began wolfing down bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

'The boy clearly has no manners,' Regulus remarked to Barty, 'Even in pureblood families we wouldn't dare do anything like that.'

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, 'And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?'

'No it is not alright!' James said. 'You neglect my children, but will indulge your selfish child!'

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.

Everyone chuckled at that.

Finally he said slowly, 'So I'll have thirty... thirty...'

'Thirty-nine, sweetums, said Aunt Petunia.

'Oh.' Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. 'All right then.'

Uncle Vernon chuckled. 'Little tyke wants his money's worth,  just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!' He ruffled Dudley's hair.

'You shouldn't be encouraging the behaviour!' Molly said sternly, 'That child will never realise that he is selfish!'

Chloe and Harry exchanged a look of annoyance to each other.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Chloe, Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote-control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder.

Arthur wrote 'cine-camera', 'remote-control', 'aeroplane' and 'computer games' on his list.

He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.

'Bad news, Vernon,' she said. 'Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them.' She jerked her head in the twins' direction.

'She can't even say their names,' Kimberly said. 'She needs to get a grip'.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but both Chloe's and Harry's hearts gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Chloe and Harry were left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry in particular hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made them both look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. 

'What a fun way to spend a day,' Xenophilius remarked, 'Staring at cats.

'Now what?' said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at the twins as if they had planned this.

'How could they have planned it!' Narcissa remarked. 'That woman is beyond silly!'

Chloe and Harry knew they ought to feel sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy for Harry as reminded himself that it would be a whole year before they both had to look at Tibbies, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again.

'In terms of names to call your cats those names are rubbish,' Alice remarked, Frank nodded in agreemnt alongside her.

'We could phone Marge,' Uncle Vernon suggested. 

'Don't be silly Vernon, she hates them.'

The Dursley's often spoke about Chloe and Harry like this, as thought they weren't there- or rather, as though they were something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a pair of slugs.

'My children are not slugs!' James proclaimed angrily.

'What about what's-her-name, your friend- Yvonne?

'On holiday in Majorca,' snapped Aunt Petunia. 

'You could just leave us here,' Harry put in hopefully (he and Chloe would be able to watch what they wanted on television for a change and Harry might even have a go on Dudley's computer).

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

'She looks like that anyway!' Gwendolyn said, making Kimberly and Arabella chuckle in agreeance. 

'And come back and find the house in ruins?' she snarled. 

'We won't blow up the house,' said Chloe, but they weren't listening. 

'I suppose we could take them to the zoo,' said Aunt Petunia slowly '...and leave them in the car...'

'The car's new, they're not sitting in it by themselves...'

'Just let them go to the zoo!' Frank said, and voices of agreement arose. 

 Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, nut he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

'Spoiled brat!' Narcissa scorns.

'Dinky Duddydums-

Everyone burst into laughter at the ridiculous nickname.

'-don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!' she cried, flinging her arms around him.

'I... don't... want... them... t-t-to come!' Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. 'They always sp-spoil everything!' He shot Chloe and Harry a nasty grin through his mothers arms.

'I really hate that boy,' Alice remarked. Molly gave her a nod in agreement.

Just then, the doorbell rang-- 'Oh good Lord, they're here!' said Aunt Petunia frantically-- and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held peoples arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once, while Chloe quietly hid behind Harry. Piers fancied Chloe and it wasn't in a nice way.

'He better not do anything to her!' James threatened angrily.

Half an hour later, the twins, who both couldn't believe their luck, were sitting squashed together in the back of the Dursley's car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in their lives. 

'We'd take them to the zoo wouldn't we?' James said to Gwendolyn , a bittersweet smile on his face.

Gwendolyn smiled 'Definitely.'

Their aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd all left, Uncle Vernon had taken the pair of them aside. 

'I'm warning you both,' he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to theirs. 'I'm warning you both now-- any funny business, anything at all-- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.' 

'Surely abuse cannot be better than him living with one of us?' Kimberly aska, but receives no response.

'But we're not going to do anything', said Harry, 'honestly.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around the twins and it was just no good telling the Dursley's that they didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left to 'hide that horrible scar.'

'That's abuse!' Kimberly said again to Remus who agreed with her.

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night with Chloe beside him trying her best to comfort him while he was imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and tapes glasses, and Chloe for her clothes always being second hand. Next morning, however, the twins had woken up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in the cupboard for this,

'How was that his fault?' Sirius asks. 'That's unfair!'

even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force Chloe into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puffs)

'Now that IS revolting,' Narcissa remarked, her nose crinkling in disgust at the mental image.

- The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly not Chloe. Aunt Petunia decided it must have shrunk in the wash, and, to her great relief, Chloe wasn't punished.

On the other hand, they'd both gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing them as usual

'So horrible!' Molly reiterated.

when, to the twins' surprise as anyone else's, there they were sat on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from the twins' Headmistress telling them that Chloe and Harry had been climbing school buildings. 

'But I'll bet she didn't care about the bulling that was happening!' Gwendolyn stated, anger painted all over her face.

But all they'd tried to do (as Harry shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the bid trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed the wind must have caught them both in mid-jump.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong.

'I have a very bad feeling that that statement will be proved false,' Alice said.

It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, their shared cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things:

'I can believe that!' James huffs.

people at work, Chloe, Harry, the council, Chloe, Harry, the bank, and Chloe and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

'...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums'

'He does give me the vibe of the kinds of guy to refer to people as hoodlums' Arabella jeered.

he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

'I had a dream about a motorcycle,' said Harry, remembering suddenly. 'It was flying.'

Chloe looked at him like he was crazy, and put her fingers to her lips quickly. But it was in vain, Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache 

Everyone snicked at this.

'MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!'

'Well have I got news for you!' Sirius remarked, a large grin on his face.

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

'He knows that,' Chloe piped up quickly, trying her best to diffuse this before they got into anymore trouble.

'It was only a dream,' Harry added.

But he wished he hadn't said anything, and he knew that Chloe would probably agree with that. Of there was one thing the Dursley's hated more than asking questions, it was the pair of them talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon- they seemed to think they might get dangerous ideas. Chloe had learned the lesson quickly, alongside a few black eyes courtesy of her uncle.

'That asshole,' James says, clenching his hand in his fists. McGonagall decides to quickly read on before another situation brewed.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked the twins what they wanted before they could hurry them away, 

'They didn't even want to buy the twins ice cream!' Alice said.

'Thankfully the lady spotted them!' Molly adds.

they bought them a cheap lemon ice pop each. 

'It's not half bad,' Harry remarked to his sister, as they both licked them while watching a gorilla scratching its head. 'That gorilla looks like Dudley, you know!'

The room erupted into laughter again.

'Funny guy,' Xenophilius remarked.

Chloe giggled. 'True, if it was blonde they would be twins!'

Both Chloe and Harry had the best morning they'd had in a long time. They were both careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursley's so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored of the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting them, and Piers creeping Chloe out. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum-

'Shocker,' Lucius remarks coldly.

because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top

'What a stupid thing to throw a temper tantrum about!' Molly scolds.

Uncle Vernon bought him another one and the twins were allowed to finish the first.

Both Chloe and Harry felt, afterward, that they should have known it was all too good to last.

'Knew it,' Alice says sadly.

'It wasn't very hard to guess,' Lucius says snidely.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there , with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice round Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can- but at the moment it didn't look in the mood, it was fast asleep. 

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at  the glistening brown coils.

'That snake is lucky that it is asleep,' Alice whispered to Molly, who giggled.

'Make it move,' he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. 

'Do it again,' Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smarty with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

'Poor snake,' Gwendolyn muttered empathetically, 'it only wanted a nap!'

'Its asleep!' Chloe said, feeling bad for the snake.

'Like mother like daughter right there!' Pandora remarked. 

'This is boring,' Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. 

Chloe and Harry moved themselves in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. 

'I wouldn't be surprised if the snake dies of boredom itself,' Harry remarked. 

'Poor thing, no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass to disturb it all day long,' Chloe remarked sympathetically, eyes not leaving the snake. 'That must be worse than the cupboard, even with Aunt Petunia at lease we get to see the rest of the house.' 

'Bless them, they're so kind,' Molly says.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with the twins.

It winked.

This caught everyone's attention, even Bellatrix's.

Chloe stared at the snake. Harry looked around quickly to see if anyone else was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake, and in sync with his twin sister, winked back. 

The snake jerked it's head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave the twins a look that said plainly: I get that all the time. 

'I know,' Harry muttered through the glass, even though neither him nor Chloe knew if the snake could hear him. 

'It must be really annoying,' Chloe added

The snake nodded vigourously.

'Wait- they can talk to snakes?' Gwendolyn asks, her face draining of colour momentarily. Even a muggle born such as herself knew talking parseltongue was not a good sign.

'That's really uncommon, only a few people know how to, including the one who they killed,' Bellatrix asks, looking interested for the first time in the evening. 

'That's no good, no good at all,' James adds, looking at Gwendolyn worriedly. 

'Where do you come from anyway?' Harry asked. 

Chloe jabs him and and points at the sign, 'It says he's from Brazil.'

'Was it nice there?' Harry asks. 

'Harry look again,' Chloe instructs him. Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. 

'Oh, I see- so you've never been to Brazil?'

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.

'DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT ITS DOING!'

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. 

'Out of my way, you two,' he said punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard into Chloe and the pair of them fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next, nobody really saw how it happened-

Everyone was listening in, either with fear or with genuine interest. 

one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

'Why?' Gwendolyn muttered to James, fearing for her currently unborn children. 

The twins sat up and gasped; the glass in front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.

'How?' Amos asks. 

'Magic obviously,' Barty says, rolling his eyes. 

The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. 

As the snake slid swiftly past him, both of the twins could have sworn a low, hissing voice said: 'Brazil, here I come... thankss amigos.'

'Yeah they can definitely talk to snakes,' Regulus says, looking slightly fearful.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

'But the glass,' he kept saying, 'where did the glass go?'

'Stupid muggle,' Bellatrix scorned. 

'It not his fault, imagine that happening and not knowing about magic,' Andromeda interjected.

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as the twins had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling how it had nearly bitten off its leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. 

'Such dramatics,' Snape scorned. 

But worst of it all, for the twins at least, was Piers calming down enough to say 'Chloe and Harry were talking to it, weren't you two?'

'Oh dear,' Arabella hissed, knowing that this wouldn't end well for the twins.

'No,' Chloe said quickly. 'Snakes can't talk to us or us to them.'

'That was probably in vain,' Kimberly said.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Chloe and Harry. 

James clenched his fist, anger upon his face.

He was so angry he couldn't speak. He managed to say 'Go-cupboard-stay-no meals-' as he grabbed Chloe's hair and shoved Harry and Chloe into the cupboard, before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. 

'I really don't like him' James says angrily. 

Chloe and Harry lay in their cupboard much later, wishing that one of them had a watch. 

'Do you know what time it is?' Harry asked.

Chloe shook her head, before saying 'I haven't heard them go to bed yet. When they go, lets steal some food.'

'Do you ever think of our parents?' Harry asked.

Chloe turned around and looked at him softly 'Everyday.'

Gwendolyn eyes flood with tears again. 

'Sometimes I'm mad at them for getting in that car crash and dying,' Harry says. 'I don't think we were in the car though. Sometimes when I strain my memory long enough I have a strange vision-'

Chloe stops him and says 'Do you see a big green flash and then your forehead starts to hurt?'

Harry sits up, 'Exactly! You have it too?'

'Yes,' Chloe says. 'I suppose the light could be from the crash, but I don't know why it would be green.'

'The green light would have been You-Know-Who,' Sirius whispers to Peter, who was looking confused. 

'How can they remember that?' Molly asks Kimberly, who merely shrugs her shoulders in response. 

'Can you remember our parents at all? I can't for the life of me,' Harry asks his twin.

'No, I wish I could though. And it's not even like our Aunt or Uncle talk about them, I literally have no idea what they are like,' Chloe says, sadness laced in her voice. 

'And no photos either,' Harry adds, also sad. 

'You know, when I was younger I used to dream and dream of someone coming, some unknown relation I guess, and they'd be here to take us away from here,' Chloe sighs. 'But these are the only family we've got.'

Gwendolyn quietly starts crying slightly at this.

'Do you remember those people who stopped us in the streets?' Harry says, remembering suddenly.

Chloe chuckles, a grin forming on her face at this. 'Yeah, the strange strangers. Like that man in the violet top hat that bowed at us.'

'Yeah and when we said we didn't know the man, Aunt Petunia hauled us out of that shop so quickly,' Harry remembers, smiling at the memory. 

'Then there was the wild-looking woman in green that waved to us merrily on a bus,' Chloe adds. 

'And the bald man in the super long purple coat that shook our hands!' At this both of the twins chuckled at the memory. 

'And then he just walked off... its strange that the people just seemed to disappear after these incidents though...' Chloe sais thoughtfully. 

'I'm just glad I have you,' Harry says, looking at his sister with love. 

Gwendolyn lets out a sob at this, no one really blaming her. 

'Yeah?' Chloe says, moving closer to her brother. 

'Yeah. If I didn't have you, it would be so much worse,' Harry says, putting an arm around his sister gently. 

'At least we have each other,' Chloe says, hugging her brother tightly. 

'And that's the end of Chapter 2,' McGonagall announces.

'I'm just so glad they have each other,' Gwendolyn says, the crying seeming to calm down. 

'Me too Gwen,' James tells her tenderly, hugging her tightly. 

[cantquitu]

Harry with Michael Mayren at Alexa Chung’s 30th birthday party, November 2013

[faetaiity]

I have a few things to say, 1, your writing is really cool!! 2, I thought your profile said "gay, autistic frog" 3, I was wondering if you'd be interested in writing about dark au! donnie with a spider mutant s/o, I think their dynamic would be really interesting considering rise!donnie is scared of spiders

OKAY SO I MADE SOME CHANGES AS I THINK IT WOULD BE EASIER TO WRITE THIS BUT, BIG MAMA'S KID, YOU ARE HER KID, SO UR A YOKAI INSTEAD OF A MUTANT (Also you didn't specify GN or Male, but I WENT WITH MALE FOR SELF INDULGENCE)

Also btw, I am going to be gone from tomorrow thru to Halloween, I most likely won't make any fics during that because I will be at my relative's house and won't have my computer. CW: there's a link with a reference picture to what kind of Spider Y/N is, also mentions of Dark! Big Mama being a shitty parent lmao ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was that time of year again where Big Mama hosted a Party for her allies (The Turtles, Splinter, Draxum, and the Foot Clan.)

It almost always ended poorly, but Donnie hated the entire day

It was a non-stop 8-12 hours of dealing with a Huge yokai that was his most feared animal, a Spider.

Of course, his brothers hated it too, being around that many people, ANNOYING people at that, they hated Big Mama's phrases and accent, they despise Cassandra, even Mikey calls her "TOO GODDAMN MUCH"

The only people they even remotely tolerate there is Draxum and Splinter, even then, they get on their nerves sometimes, they would NEVER say that though, that will guarantee a night in the dungeon.

The party was interesting if they took everyone else away though, it was always a party at Big Mama's special area at the Battle Nexus, fighting and blood was always present, and that was the ONLY good part.

However, this year was different, you were there.

Big Mama paraded you around as his Gorgeous Son, you had a different genus of Spider compared to Big Mama, you were a Gooty Sapphire Ornamental

Donnie, even though he is afraid of Spiders, would be lying if he didn't say you were Gorgeous, just like Big Mama said

He did notice that you seemed to HATE the attention, He couldn't blame you, it was a room full of Manipulative, Smartass, Traitorous assholes, hell, he and his brothers could be put under that category, it sure as hell wasn't inaccurate.

Once he noticed you leave the area, He followed you, you were walking into your room, he hesitated before following you in

Your room was gorgeous, it was covered in a light blue silk, there were Technological systems, making it seem like you enjoyed Robotics

The floorboard creaked under Donnie's feet, making you snap your head towards the noise

You both stared at each other for a second, you looked alarmed before you recognized him from the party

"Come to try and get on Big Mama's good side through me?" your voice seemed soft, but accusatory

"No." Donnie replied bluntly, "I just thought you were just like your Mother said."

You squinted at him, all eight eyes narrowing, you scoffed before saying (More like hissing) out "You know she only says that when guests are around, it Inflates her ego when they agree, she doesn't mean it, she's told me so."

He looked stunned before you kept going on "She just wants to use me to Strengthen her Ties with either you turtles or the foot clan, she's tried it before with Previous clans."

"But" you said softly, "I appreciate you complimenting me like a normal person, your brothers kept making sexual innuendos." your face contorted into an uncomfortable grimace at the reminder of what they said

He seemed to laugh "Doesn't sound like Raph, but DEFINITELY like Mikey and Leo", you smiled at that.

"My Name's Y/N."

"Donatello" he responded gruffly

You two ended up bitching about Big Mama and talking about science, robotics, engineering, and experiments up until he had to leave

You ended up exchanging phone numbers with the purple turtle, you knew how evil he was, and what he does (Reader doesn't support hurting humans in this fic), but oddly enough, you couldn't help but find him cute, douchebag and all.

[perhaps-in-anotherdream]

[CN] Victor’s New Year’s Prayer Date (Eng Translation)

⌚Warning⌚ This post contains detailed spoilers for a date, 祈岁之约 , that is yet to be released in the global server! ♡

[ Translation under the cut ]

┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈

[Note]: This date in a sense is a rejuvenation of Victor’s “Rainy Date”, so I would recommend giving it a read when it’s convenient for you, since this date makes multiple references to “Rainy Date.” ♡

–

✧ [Section 1] ✧

Shop owner: The longer the threads of the cakes are drawn, the more blessings will be steamed for the coming year~

Shop owner: The cake-making activity will start in the small store within half an hour. Tourists who want to experience it for themselves, please wait over here!

Passerby: Darling, let’s go get our prayer slip after we’ve participated in this activity. I heard that it’s super effective!

MC: Excuse me, coming through....

On the New Year’s, the ancient town of Mengshan County is unusually bustling with noise and excitement. As soon as I’ve set my first foot in, I’m caught up in the restless crowd.

Through the layer upon layer colored silks and lanterns, the familiar landscape is faintly visible.

–

••• ┈┈ [FLASHBACK STARTS] ┈┈ •••

MC: “....The New Year’s Day celebration at the ancient town of Mengshan County, where you can personally experience the folk customs for yourself such as making glutinous rice cakes, blowing sugar people.

MC: All the visitors can also receive the prayer slip to add to the blessings of the new year.”

–

[Note]: “糖人 (táng rén)”– “Sugar people” is a traditional Chinese form of folk art. It uses hot and liquid sugar to create 3D figures! :>

–

MC: Victor, isn’t this event very interesting, and it’s not far from where we are either! 

MC: It will only take approximately an hour for me to get there now. And for you.... it will roughly be less than two hours.

I bring the pamphlet closer to my computer and shake it before Victor on the other end of the video.

Our respective business trips have finally come to an end. This morning, Victor and I at long last have some time to start planning our day off.

Victor: You said earlier that you wanted to find a quiet resort, to get some good sleep for several days.

MC: It’s New Year’s! I think we still have to go some place lively.

MC: It’s been quite a while since we last visited the ancient town of Mengshan County. It’s also very meaningful to take this opportunity to “revive the memories”, isn’t it!

Victor: A certain someone is always pretty creative in the aspect of giving “meaning” to things.

Victor’s gaze flits across my hair as he turns over a page of the document.

Victor: ....for example, this hairband has also been specially dug out for this purpose.

MC: You’ve noticed!

MC: I have barely worn this hairband on several occasions since I bought it back from the ancient town.

MC: I’m wearing it on New Year’s to revive the memories. It’s very fitting for the occasion, and the colors have the ambience of New Year’s too. 

Victor: I can tell that you indeed are greatly looking forward to this “trip down the memory lane”.

Being met with Victor’s teasing gaze, I turn a blind eye to it and lean closer to the screen for him to get a clearer picture.

MC: How is it? Do you think it looks pretty?

Goldman: CEO, the marketing department has passed on the ad hoc presentation....

Goldman’s voice abruptly comes from off-screen.

Victor: Hmm.

MC: Is it me or Goldman you’re replying to, huh?

Victor: [laughs softly]  What do you think?

An imperceptible smile plays across the corners of Victor’s lips. He closes the document in his hand.

Victor: Let’s meet at the center of the ancient town. I’ve still got some works I have to settle.

Victor: A certain person can set off early, and go take a look at the sceneries of the New Year’s.

••• ┈┈ [FLASHBACK ENDS] ┈┈ •••

–

┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈

✧ [Section 2] ✧

As I walk through the quaint landscape, my mood also becomes lively unconsciously. I lift my hand to take pictures.

MC: If Victor was in the shot, the pictures would have been even more perfect.

Imagining the scene of him saying “boring” while taking pictures with me at the same time, I smile secretly and walk into the center of the ancient town following the streams of people.

During the festive season, lanterns are hoisted at the entrance of every small store, and the sound of solicitation falls incessantly on the ear.

While passing by a jewelry shop, I inadvertently sweep my glance over the display window, my pace coming to a halt.

MC: ?!

A little startled, I lean closer to the glass, looking at the empty space in my hair which originally should have been wrapped around with a ribbon at the moment.

MC: ....where’s the hairband? It didn’t get knocked off in the crowd just now, did it?

I hurriedly look down to search for it. But in my haste, I’m hit by someone, and my phone drops to the ground.

The saying “losing things on New Year’s is a bad omen” pops into my head as I touch the shattered screen with distress.

MC: This bad luck is coming a little too soon....

I shake my head promptly, trying to toss these wild imaginations behind me. At the same time, the phone rings.

Victor (on the call): I’m here. Where are you?

MC: I’m in the center of the ancient town. Just....

I stop talking subconsciously. After a moment of hesitation, I divert the subject of our conversation.

MC: I came across a New Year’s painting store, and was looking around for a while. Wait for me, I’ll be there immediately.

I hear a helpless chuckle coming from the other end of the phone.

Victor (on the call): You stay where you are, I’m coming to you.

After hanging up the phone, I sigh softly, and pat my cheeks to console myself.

MC: Forget it, it was just a minor blip. There is no need to let your mood be affected for this purpose.

To my surprise, soon after, a slender figure emerges at the other end of the long street.

Perhaps to cater to the relaxed atmosphere of the New Year’s, Victor has changed into a casual overcoat.

Amid the bustling tide of people, his tall and straight figure is exceptionally eye-catching.

As though our two hearts beat as one, Victor’s eyes land exactly on me. Then he walks up straight through the tide of people.

I walk over in his direction in brisk steps. Smiling, I hug his arm.

MC: ’thought you’d be coming a bit later.

Victor: You are not the only one who wants to see the other a bit earlier.

Victor pats the top of my head, his gaze halting over my hair.

Victor: Where’s your meticulously paired hairband?

After a moment’s hesitation, I pretend to speak with a sense of poise.

MC: That, umm, probably the ancient town also thought it was very pretty. So it has secretly kept it in a corner of some street when I was passing by.

MC: Today if we pass by that store from last time, I will buy another one!

Announcement: Dear tourists and friends, the folk customs events have officially begun for you to experience! The venues consist of the New Year’s glutinous rice cakes stall, the New Year’s painting store, the fortune tangerine house....

Suddenly, the sound of broadcasting can be heard. I seize this opportunity to change the subject, pointing towards the New Year’s painting store nearby.

MC: Let’s not worry about these trivial matters. The event has already started, so let’s get in line~

Victor shoots a glance towards the corners of my lips that have been forced to lift upward, and nods. I inwardly heave a sigh of relief, walking towards the New Year’s painting store with him– hand in hand.

–

┈┈ ���•☾ ┈┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈

✧ [Section 3] ✧

The number of people wanting to engrave the inscription of New Year’s paintings is far more than expected, and the queue is also a bit of a mishmash.

Twenty minutes later, Victor and I finally sit down in front of the long table for painting.

MC: I already have an idea of how to design this New Year’s painting.

MC: Willow leaves, carp, cornucopia.... it should look nice hanging in your office.

Victor raises his eyebrows slightly.

Victor: A certain someone has already left plenty of masterpieces in my office, so why don’t you just hang it at [MC’s company name]?

MC: I heard it. You’re disliking my idea! But you can never go wrong with the combination of this sort of classic elements~

Victor: I shall wait and see then.

Victor: I just hope that after seeing the results, you don’t get impatient to “exchange works” with me again.

As he is talking, the shop owner on the side approaches us with a guilt-ridden expression written across his whole face.

Shop owner: I’m really sorry. We’ve run out of paints for the New Year’s painting and it will take an hour to restock. Why don’t you two go somewhere else first?

Victor raises his eyes hearing these words, and his brows seem to be frowning. My smile unconsciously restrains a bit as well.

Thinking that this sightseeing has barely even begun, I purse my lips and tug on Victor’s sleeve, pretending that I don’t mind.

MC: Victor, let’s go somewhere else first and it will be the same thing when we come back later. Let’s not waste this hour~

Victor lowers his head, looking at me with a pensive look on his face.

Victor: You’re very good at relieving yourself from anxieties today.

MC: ....after all, it’s a new year, and we all grow up to some extent.

MC: We will just make up for the regrets of this place in the next one!

I don’t know whether it’s for the explanation or to pump myself up, I raise the notes of my voice. Fortunately, Victor seems to accept my pretext and doesn’t ask any more questions.

Originally, I thought that this would be the end of the accidents. But to my surprise, the rest of the event doesn’t go smoothly at all either.

While making the glutinous rice cake, amid the chef’s wishing of “the longer the threads are drawn, the more prosperous the blessing is”, our glutinous rice cake breaks halfway through the pulling.

MC: ....

Victor: ....

I breathe in softly, and raise a somewhat prominently stiff smile at Victor, swaying the glutinous rice cake in my hand.

MC: ....this doesn’t matter, really.

MC: Essentially speaking, making long and sticky glutinous rice cakes is a test of craftsmanship.

MC: It happened just when I’m hungry, too. Let’s just “get rid of the corpse and destroy all the traces”, and directly go to the next stop!

When we come out of the fortune tangerine house, Victor and I both have a bright red paper bag in our hands.

After opening it, I can’t help but heave a sigh of relief seeing the big and red tangerine inside the bag.

Victor: Are you a little spooked because of the past experiences?

MC: Because we have indeed encountered many bumps in the road so far.

Victor: Don’t let your imagination run wild.

Victor: In a competent event, so many accidents will not occur at the same time.

Victor opens the paper bag as he speaks, sweeps a glance inside while lowering his head, and suddenly sinks into silence.

Curious, I lean forward, and what greets my eyes is a small and shriveled tangerine instead.

MC: ....

Standing in the queue for receiving the prayer slip, I involuntarily let out a sigh as I reflect on the incidents of today.

Victor: What weird things are you thinking about again?

MC: ....nothing, just thinking about what I’m going to write later.

MC: Although the experiences of the event have been bumpy, but at least we are going to get out prayer slips!

I step over the door threshold as I speak, only to see the staff member looking up at Victor and me with an apologetic smile on his face.

Staff member: I’m sorry, there is only one last prayer slip left....

I freeze for a moment, my shoulders slumping down unconsciously as I blurt out the “it’s fine”, which I don’t know how many times I have repeated today.

Overhearing our conversation, the tourists behind us begin to complain.

Tourists: How come this kind of situation happens again.... how many times has this happened....

Tourists: That’s right, people are waiting in the queue for so long in vain. Why can’t you tell the people at the back in advance?

Amid the roar of lamentations, several staff members hurriedly rush forward to appease the mood of the crowd.

Victor takes the prayer slip and opens his mouth with a cold expression.

Victor: Thank you.

Victor: However, some of the problems that have occurred in this event.... could have been reasonably circumvented.

His voice reveals a hint of authority as he speaks. I subconsciously tug at his sleeve.

MC: Victor, for....

Victor: Haven’t you said “forget it” a little too many times today?

Sweeping his gaze over the slightly pursed corners of my lips, Victor holds my hand back and stands in front of me, facing the staff member.

Staff member: We are really sorry, that’s why we have prepared some gifts as compensation....

Victor: I believe, compared with making amends, what the visitors want more is a high-quality experience of the sightseeing.

Victor: As a year-end celebration, it is necessary to reasonably estimate the number of tourists and to ensure that the materials required for the event are provided in an orderly manner.

Victor: Whether it’s an item like the fortune tangerine or the paint needed for the New Year’s painting.

Victor: All these require more dedicated efforts at the early stage to ensure quality by inspecting and filtering the qualifications of suppliers.

Victor: It’s good that there is a desire to create a tourist attraction that allows the visitors to experience the full flavor of the New Year, but I hope that the organizers can pay more attention to these details.

The warm palm of this man in front of me, pressing against mine, seems to embrace all my trivial emotions. I look at his back and gently hook his pinky finger with mine.

Victor’s voice reveals an imperceptible hint of much softer notes.

Victor: ....all visitors, after all, want to create beautiful memories here with someone important.

From the exchange point, on the way to the marriage tree at the Taoist Temple, I can’t restrain myself from poking Victor’s arm.

MC: Indeed as expected of CEO Victor, you can get into the workaholic mode at any given moment.

MC: For a few moments just now, I thought I was listening to a presentation in the conference room at LFG.

Victor grunts softly, and glances at me lightly, not saying anything in reply.

MC: Anyway, listening to what you said, I also find that this event does have a lot of loopholes....

MC: If only more care had been taken in the planning, these obviously could have been avoided.

MC: In fact, on this business trip, I spent a very long time with my business partner to finalize a really small detail in the proposal.

MC: Extremely exhausted, when I went back to the hotel that day, I was being skeptical about whether it was really worth spending so much energy.

MC: But now, I won’t waver anymore.

I look into Victor’s eyes, who is gazing at me quietly, his eyes fully focused and tender.

MC: Your great efforts will never fail to live up to the expectations. Every effort you put into your work, whether it’s intended or not, will all be reflected in the results.

MC: Both the organizers and I should properly memorize this free teaching from CEO Victor, and recall it from time to time while taking on new tasks~

Victor: Eloquent speech and sophistry, it seems you are in a good mood.

I smile and nod, winding the tassel of the prayer slip.

MC: Mm, it doesn’t matter even if there is only one. At the very least, we have caught the tail end of fortune.

Victor holds onto my hand, which is rising in revolt, putting the prayer slip straight into my palm.

Victor: You still haven’t told me what your New Year’s wishes are.

MC: My New Year’s wishes....

The weight in my hand seems like some kind of trust he has entrusted me with. I close my eyes and begin to mumble the words.

MC: I wish that the coming days will bring good fortune.... if a miracle happens, that’s even better!

Victor: What miracle do you want?

Victor smoothens out the ends of my hair, and speaks suddenly. I ponder for a while, continuing to press my both palms against each other.

MC: For example, let the fortune tangerine in your bag become big and red, or perhaps the hairband that vanished all of a sudden in the early morning may come back to my head....

I mumble in a low voice. Suddenly, I hear a helpless, soft sigh landing in my ears.

Victor: [sighs deeeeply]  ....dummy.

I lift my head somewhat in confusion, but a pair of hands envelopes my horizon.

Victor: Don’t open your eyes yet.

–

[T/N: I swear if this covering her eyes action didn’t remind of the S2 CH 25 scene.... ಥ_ಥ]

–

┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈

✧ [Section 4] ✧

Even with my eyes closed, I vaguely sense that Victor is leaning towards me, screening off the somewhat dazzling light.

In the next second, my head is lifted slightly, and his fingers pass through my hair.

Victor: The number of people who can lose even their hairbands must be very rare.

The voice landing in my ears seems to carry a hint of helpless complaining. But the movements of the fingertips, though not very skillful, are exceptionally tender.

Victor: ....even more so, you are the only one who can be depressed about this matter all day long.

Along with the sound of these words, my hair tightens slightly. I suddenly think of something, my eyelashes fluttering a little.

Accompanied by the clear and bright afternoon sunlight, Victor’s clean and handsome side profile just leaps into my field of vision. His eyes are downcast with concentration, his slender fingers twisting around the hairband.

MC: Where did you pick it up?!

Victor ties the final knot, then raises his eyes.

Victor: I found it on the corner of the street when I was looking for you.

Victor: If I hadn’t heard your “wish”, I would have thought you really didn’t take it to heart.

MC: In comparison with today’s event, this really doesn’t count as a big deal.

As I stroke my hair, I suddenly think of something and move closer to Victor with a deadly earnest expression on my face.

MC: I didn’t bring a mirror with me, so let’s just borrow CEO Victor’s eyes to look at the reflection for a while~

Victor: Can you see it clearly this way?

Victor raises an eyebrow, moves his face even closer to mine, and suddenly speaks.

Victor: [WHISPERS SO GODDAMN SOFTLY, AMPLIFYING THE RANGE OF MY SCREAMING BY SEVERAL DEGREES]  Very beautiful indeed.

As though in response to his words, the red papers and the prayer slips filling the tree also sway gently, producing a rustling sound.

The tips of my ears are faintly somewhat burning hot. I withdraw my gaze, raising the prayer slip in my hand.

MC: When we tied the red paper the last time, I wrote down both of our names together on it.

–

[Tidbits]: MC is referring to the red paper they tied on the marriage tree in the “Rainy Date”, writing her and Victor’s name on it with a heart shape, praying for her fate of marriage~ ♡

–

MC: Why don’t we split the space in half and half this time, and write down our New Year’s wishes for each other?

MC: When the marriage tree sees our sincerity, perhaps it’d be even more effective!

Victor raises an eyebrow, leaning against the tree in a relaxed manner.

MC: Then let’s start with you.

My mouth becomes dry in response. I still immerse the tip of my brush completely into the ink, but I’m too late to be able to drop my first brush stroke.

I hope Victor will face fewer troubles, I hope that everything goes smoothly for him....

I struggle for a very long time. Then I solemnly write down “be victorious and worry-free.”

Victor: Done?

Victor looks at the expectation I’ve written down for a moment, then calmly lifts the writing brush.

I incline my head to look at it and read it out, word by word.

MC: everything.... remains.... constant.... as.... always....?

Thinking that I’ve misread something, my eyes widen slightly and I step forward to take the prayer slip from his hand, only to be squeezed by the wrist in a smooth motion.

Victor: Very surprised?

I nod and speak with a little bewilderment.

MC: Of course, I was thinking that you would have written something like, “move one more step forward”....

Victor: You don’t need to.

Victor clasps my hand slightly tighter, his voice revealing a certainty.

Victor: You are very good as you are now. You don’t need to force yourself to change.

Victor: If you blindly pursue “steadiness” and become a person who only keeps things bottled up in her heart, I will feel a headache instead.

Victor lowers his voice, casting me a knowing and meaningful glance.

Thinking of all the things I have been thinking previously, I can’t help but turn red in the face.

MC: I thought you wouldn’t pay attention to such trivial things.... you even looked careless in the morning.

Victor hands me his overcoat, and looks at me with a helpless expression while hanging the prayer slip on the tree.

Victor: When have I ever not paid attention to the matters concerning you?

Boom——

The New Year’s gun salute suddenly rings out, gliding in an arc across the azure sky and spreading out.

A flurry of colored ribbons falls from the sky, just like a never-ending rain of scarlet, landing on the cheeks and neckline, producing a hint of a tickling sensation.

I fumble to brush them aside and prop up Victor’s overcoat.

Victor: You do know how to find a place.

MC: You said it, “everything may remain constant as always”, so I have no scruples!

Victor takes my hand in his and stretches out his overcoat higher. He then lowers his head to look at me.

Victor: Lean a little further in.

Secure in the knowledge that I have backing, I shrink into his arms again and gaze towards the direction of the marriage tree through the heavy fluttering colored ribbons.

The winter sunlight sprinkles on the prayer slips, gilding them with a soft, crystalline glaze.

My name and Victor’s which are written on the top is also coated with a layer of tender color and luster.

Encased in the familiar and reassuring breath, I close my eyes and meditate devotedly in my heart.

I hope that in the new year, we will be victorious, be worry-free, and everything will remain constant as always.

—

┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈┈ ♡•☾ ┈┈

[harveywritings92]

BNHA scenario: you sleepwalk/sleep talk.

Summary: You have a tendency to talk or walk in your sleep, it never really bothered your boyfriend, if you wandered off in your sleep he'd just follow you to make you don't get harmed and take you back to bed, or if you talk in your he'd humor you as he found it hilarious! but tonight was different... this night you seemed to channeled something paranormal and it scares you boyfriend shitless.  

--------------------

Shigaraki: It was around three am when Shigaraki was woken up by you sitting up in bed, he sighed tiredly assuming you were gonna stand up and walk around for couple minutes then wander back to bed, or you were gonna leave the room and he'll have to go make sure you don't hurt yourself and bring you back himself. After five minutes of you not moving Tomura turned around to look at you...

And was very confused you were obviously still asleep, but you were kind of glaring at something? Shigaraki curiously looked over his shoulder and surveyed his dark bedroom confused at what could be holding your attention and was more so stumped when you slowly lifted up your hand and pointed at the large antique mirror, he had set up near his computer; with this almost frustrated expression. "He won't stop starring..." you deadpanned causing your boyfriend to jump from you suddenly talking... 

"W-who won't stop starring?"

"Him, the man in the mirror!

"There's no one in the mirror, y/n"

"The man with no face he's right there...."

You huffed annoyed before laying back down, while Tomura was sitting there looking between you and the mirror shitting brinks! *Wake the fuck up! you think you can just go back to sleep and just leave me on edge like this!* He mentally hissed the froze when he heard a weird scrapping noise coming from the mirror's direction, his red eyes slowly turned to look at the mirror and nearly pissed himself when he saw it the mirror was swaying on the wall right to left, only to stop he made a move like he was gonna get up and check.

"Oh fuck to the no..."  he hissed before laying back down hugging you close, Shigaraki nearly smothered you to death with how tight he was holding onto you! 

The next day you were confused when you came back to the base to find what looked like a box of glitter and rotten woodchips in the dumpster out back, you went to Shigaraki's room and found the mirror gone! in it's place was a random poster and a shelf filled with video-games, comic books and random liquor bottles, Also you noticed that Shigaraki seemed to be avoiding playing any horror videogames involving ghosts for a while; opting instead to play Animal crossing or Pokémon.

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{Note: Ayane is the default name for the Dabi's daughter reader in the dad scenarios]

Dabi: He was coming in late from a mission, he sat down on his bed taking his boots off and nearly shat himself when he saw a figure standing up in the corner of the room, he quickly turned the lights on to find you just standing there staring dead ahead, he let sigh expecting you to burst out laughing any second now. "Y/n you scared the crap out o-..." You weren't reacting. "Y/n? Fairy?"  he stood up and waved his hand in front of your face and noticed your steady breathing, and realized you were sleeping... 

Dabi was going to grab your hand when you caused him to jump back, your eyes snapped up to look at him then pointed at the hallway, just in time for Dabi hear giggling and saw what he though was his 2 year old daughter running passed the door. "Ayane?" he called out as he sat you down on the bed and went to get the kid before she hurt herself. "Firefly what are you doing out of-...what the hell?" Dabi trailed off when he saw Ayane peeking out from behind a door, a door that was deadbolted shut, there was no possible way for her to reach the locks let alone open it!  

Before Dabi could take another step despite his instinct screaming at him not to, a faint voice whispered in his ear "You not supposed to follow when they call..." Dabi cussed and turned around to see you standing behind him still sleep walking! then you both heard the door "Ayane" was hiding behind slam shut then lock! Scaring the crap out of your husband and waking you and your daughter up, who started crying for you both as she could. "Touya? why am I in the hall-..." You husband didn't answer he just rushed to Ayane's room like bat out of hell!

"Put your shoes and coat on! we're getting the hell outta here!" he hissed at you while carrying Ayane, you did as you were told but kept asking what was going on? "Now!" he barked making you jump from shock, you've never seen him this shaken up before! "I knew this house was too cheap for a reason!" he growled as he strapped your daughter into her car seat, He told you what happened in the car after driving to a gas station a few blocks away, needless to say the three of you spent the night in a roadside motel and the next morning Dabi was looking for the landlord and some priests! 

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Izuku: He was woken up by the feeling of being stared at... Izuku woke up and rolled over to see a woman standing over him! He yelped nearly pissed himself before he realized it was you! "Y/n? why are..." his eyes adjusted and he saw the glazed over look in your eyes and realized you were asleep! "What did you have another nightmare again?" he asked getting up holding his hand out to you, but you didn't budge... 

His brows furrowed before deciding to try to take you back to your room and got up and went get the door but was shocked to it locked! but if he locked his door then how did you..." Izuku felt his blood go cold as he turned around ready for a fight! only to find...Nothing?  but no... Your were just here! he saw you! hell, he felt his hand brush against yours when he got up! he checked his closet, under his bed under his desk, you really weren't there! 

Izuku was rightly freaking out as he left his room and went to your room; He started knocking on your door as quietly as possible and waited a few seconds, before he heard you shuffling around as you opened the door rubbing the sleep from your eyes. "Izuku?...that's trippy." You yawned as your boyfriend looked at you confused. "w-what do you mean?" he stammered you were looking mighty creeped out!

"I just had a dream I was in your room and you were staring at me not saying anything, not matter how many times I called your name."

"*goes white as a sheet* h-huh.."

"What? what I say?"

"You...what- I just coming over here to tell you I saw the same thing! Except you were one staring! what the crap?!"

You both started freaking out about the whole situation, before Mr. Aizawa found you both out after curfew; giving you a real reason to be scared!

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Hawks: Hawks was up late finishing up reports when he saw his phone light up, Keigo checked and saw it was a photo of you sleeping... he hummed not really thinking about it, assuming you sent it sleepwalking, it wouldn't be the first time this occurred... and he was going to keep working when the blond froze. *if you were sleeping, who the hell took that photo?!* Something was wrong!? Keigo rushed out of his office and made it to your house out of breath.

Landing in your backyard he approached the back door he saw you cat Mr. Pants sitting outside refusing to go inside even when he saw Keigo, he very carefully opened the backdoor door and was about to hit the lights, when something in his head told him that was bad idea! that's when the smell hit him...Gas! the winged man cussed under his breath and made his way to your room, finding you passed out on the bed, phone resting on the nightstand, he grabbed you and ran out of the house; without even checking to see if someone else was there!

He laid you out on ground outside checking to see if you were breathing... to his relief you were! but barely! Keigo called the fire department and ambulance, while he feathers opened some of the windows in your house to air it out! the fire department determined that the cause for the gas leak was your new stove, one of the hoses wasn't properly installed.

Keigo asked if anyone else was in the house? The firemen looked at each other befuddled. "Sir, Your lady friend there was the only one in the house." the blonds brows furrowed as he looked down at his phone to look at the photo only to find it gone! in fact there was no history of you ever contacting him! Hawks thought he was going insane!

The next morning when he went to the hospital to check on you, he told you about the photo and asked who was at your house. "No one, It was just me and Mr. Pants!" you insisted but then remembered something. "Y-yeah I had a freaky dream, I thought I was sleepwalking around the house, but when I got to my room I saw myself passed out on my bed! I thought it was soo weird I grabbed my phone and...took...a" Hawks finished your sentence. " A picture." Both of you were pretty shaken up by this whole situation and decided not to say anything about it, unless someone brings up the topic of "creepiest thing that ever happened to you?" and the ghost selfie is your go to story!

[arkhamsrevenge]

That's Why

You find Jason kidnapped by the 2 Jokers from the 3 Jokers story line. One Joker is already dead.

“Barbra...please call Y/N.” nodded. Barbra nodded, not telling him she’d already called Y/N, AKA The Reaper. The woman who was trained by Zatanna, now passed onto Constantine. The witch who didn’t need spells, only relied on chaos magic.

“Already done, Bruce.” She stared at the phone.

You.

“Thank you for being here.” Alfred greeted me at the door. I smiled slightly.

“Well, it’s rare you get a summons from a bat.” Alfred smiled slightly.

“Maybe we have, in any case I shall take your bags, he’s in the cave.” Alfred said, searching for them.

“They are already at the hotel. I’m all set. But thank you as always.” His eyes drooped. I felt a bit bad, but I was not going to stay in the manor.

“Of course. I will take you to him then.” Alfred beckoned me to follow, and I obeyed. Going down to the Batcave was when the anxiety started to bubble. I stepped off the last pair of stone stairs when,

“N/N?” I turned to see Barbra Gordan, Batgirl. I was not ready for this.

“Hi.” I said softly.

“Thank you for coming. There is something we need to discuss.” Bruce’s voice boomed empty throughout the cave.

“I only came here because Barbra sent as S.O.S, if it was you, I'd still be in Starr City. Just making that clear.” I snarled lowly. Barbra flinched slightly Bruce did not. Both cowls were down indicating I was indeed talking to Bruce and Barbra not Batman and Batgirl.

“I... understand. I wouldn’t have asked Barbra to call you if this wasn’t serious.” Bruce’s voice echoed throughout the cave. “Jason shot one of the Jokers.” Bruce started to type on the Bat computer. Bringing up the picture of the Clown. I parted my lips, not prepared to hear that. But I felt a smirk forming.

“About damn time he sent that demon back to hell.” I sneered.

“Y/N!” Barbra gasped. My eyes flickered to her then returned to Bruce. His face was stone cold as usual.

“He went to a warehouse to kill the other two Jokers. He won’t listen to us, but he might listen to you.” Bruce said, turning to me. I finally registered that his cowl was down as was Barbra's. I folded my arms.

“And you want me to talk him out of killing two insane murderous monsters who get off on torturing and maiming others?” I smiled, a joyless one. “Did I get that about right?” Bruce then put on his cowl, now I was talking to Batman.

“If we do the same thing he, does we are no-”

“Better than him?” I interrupted, raising my voice. “He killed Jason. He paralyzed Barbra, tortured Tim into thinking he was the son of the Joker AND SO MUCH MORE! SO DON’T LECTURE ME ABOUT WHERE WE DRAW THE LINE BRUCE.” My anger was rising dangerously fast, I started to see objects starting to float. “YOU WANNA TRY TO STOP HIM? GET ARKHAM UNDER CONTROL FIRST! GET THAT REVOLVING DOOR TO STOP. KEEP THE CRIMINALS LOCKED UP AND GET STAFF THAT ARE QUALIFIED TO H E L P.” I croaked getting horse from screaming. I felt a hand on my shoulder. As soon as I saw the gloved hand, I knew who it was, the only other person in the room. Barbra. I honestly forgot she was there for a minute. I took a deep breath and watched as the objects returned to their places.

“Look, I know you and Bruce aren’t on great terms right now, but we need your help with Jason. Please.” I swallowed thickly.

“Where is he?” I whispered.

“At a warehouse...looking for the 2 other Jokers.” Barbra softly said sending me the location. And with that, I raised my hand and allowed the green light to consume me. Finally, I was standing in front of the warehouse. The smell of blood and piss hung in the air. Figures the Jokers would pick this place. The lock on the door was already broken, Jason was already inside. I licked my lips and proceeded in, I flicked my hand, and the doors bursts open. Inside, a pit full of floating jokers stretched to the other side. The chemicals were glowing, brighter than ever and the people inside the toxic bath? Still alive. I shivered slightly until I heard a loud commotion coming from further down, behind the rusty metals' doors on the other side of the room. To avoid making noise I kicked off the ground and flew up to the ceiling beams above. I slunk across the beams to get a better view of what was happening. The closer I came, the sicker I felt. There was Jason, naked and tied up with one of the Jokers beating him with a crowbar. It was The Criminal and The Comedian, though he seemed to be taking a back seat to this...like he was just observing. My chest tightened. No. NO. Not again. The Criminal raised his hand to strike again, I couldn’t let him, I wouldn’t.

“NOOOO!” I shrieked jumping down from the beam. I landed in front of Jason, my forearms raised to block the blow. I used up so much energy today I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make a shield for a few seconds. This was going to hurt. And hurt it did. The metal crowbars weight finally contacted my arms. A CRACK rang out. The Criminal paused confused for a second. My breathing was heavy as I tried to get enough energy to do what I needed to do. I need more time, but time is not an option right now. As if struck himself, The Criminal snapped out of his confusion quickly and raised the crowbar above his head.

“Fine. You wanna play Superman? Let’s see how durable you are.” I held my breath as the next CRACK was heard. Pain burst through my arms, then they started to pulse in pain. “That one looked like it hurt worse than the first one.” I exhaled, trying to calm my breathing, but I couldn’t focus that well, the pain was becoming too much. “I broke at least one if not both those arms. Though you’re lasting longer than Hoodie over here.” My eyes widened. Oh no. The anger started to bubble in me again, I felt it swelling toward the surface. My arms opened at the veins and a green glow peaked out of them. The Criminal raised the crowbar again, “Magic tricks don’t scare me.” He sneered, preparing to hit me again when I screamed. But this scream wasn’t a painful one. It was a rage filled one. The scream sends the Jokers flying back, my arms weren’t broken anymore but were still bruised very badly. I could move them, that’s all I care about. The Comedian stood up first.

“I always wanted to meet The Reaper.” He said with a laugh. “I didn’t know if I’d be scared or not ya know? I’ve always heard not the fear the Reaper. HA HA GET IT? Don’t Fear the Reaper?” The Comedian's smile of amusement was met with my unamused face. All my veins were still glowing as the glistening of a shield dancing in front of me. “Not even a laugh? Oh well, tough crowd, and it will be getting bigger soon! Better scram before Bats comes. Tahtah darling! Till we meet again.” The Comedian hissed as he and the Criminal raced towards the exit. Once I sensed they were gone I dropped the shield and fell to the ground on my knees crawling over to Jason.

“Jay?” I said softly. He wasn't moving, blood was all around him in splatters. I could see his eye that was exposed for the shattered mask glazed over. I untied his wrists and ankles, noticing the red marks that were left. Then I heard the metal doors open again, I prepared for another round when I saw Batgirl enter. “He’s hurt come on!” I called. Both headed towards me. I turned to see Jason now crawling away from my mumble about the Red Hood. “Jason? Are you OK?” Batman asked, reaching for him. Suddenly, Jason spun around ripping the helmet off.

“AM I OK? WHAT DO YOU THINK BRUCE? YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU STARTED ME ON THIS PATH! THIS IS YOUR FAULT.” Jason screamed throwing his shattered helmet at Bruce, who caught it no problem. Jason then sank to the ground, I carefully put my arm around his bruised back. “What do you want?” He whispered.

“Right now, I want to get you somewhere safe.” I whispered back.

A little while later, Jason was in my apartment, under the covers in my bed resting, only a bandage on his nose was visible. The other wounds he didn’t want to bandage up. He passed out from exhaustion shortly after. I was cleaning up the supplies when I overheard Batgirl and Batman's conversation. “Jason needs you right now, Bruce.”

“I need to find the other 2 Jokers before they cause any more trouble.”

“I’ll go, you stay here.” “Absolutely not. You stay here and help take care of Jason. I will go-”

“For the love of God, both of you please go.” I spoke up. They both shut their mouths and turned to me looking almost ashamed of their spat. “I can take care of Jason. Go try to find the other two.” I said, waving them outside the door. Batgirl nodded and headed towards the exit. “And Batman?” I called. He turned to look at me. “This is your last chance, because after tonight, I’m sending the Reaper after them.” Batman didn’t say or do anything except continue his way to the exit. I shut and double locked the door then sealed it with a protection spell just in case. I walked back to my bedroom to check on Jason when I saw the bed empty. Jason then emerged from the bathroom in a towel.

“I..uh figured you didn’t mind if I used your bathroom.” He mumbled. I shook my head.

“Not at all...how...” I wanted to ask him how he was feeling but stopped myself after remembering the last time someone asked him that. Obviously, he’s not OK.

“Better. Thanks, Doll face.” The corner of my lip pulled slightly upon hearing my old nickname.

“Good to hear it Jaybird.” Jason huffed out a laugh. “Do you want some tea or something to eat?” Heading out of the room. I put the tea kettle on waiting for him to answer. When it didn’t come, I turned back around to ask him again only to find him towering over me still in a towel. He wasn’t looking at me though he was looking down...at my arms. He caught the bruises that were still forming. Horrible looking crowbar marks that were still raw, red and irritated. I opened my mouth to say something when Jason reached behind me to turn the stove light. Illuminating us more, and the marks. He then took both my hands and brought them slowly up for him to inspect. Jason’s face was hard to read. His thumbs were gliding over the marks slowly, gently like they were creaked porcelain, about to break at any moment. “They aren't broken.” I whispered. Jason finally looked me in the eyes.

“Is that supposed to make this better, Y/N?” I pulled my arms away from him and walked past him to get tea bags.

“I don’t know. Just felt like the right thing to say. That or I was going to say, “not your fault Jason.” I said reaching from the cabinet that held the tea bags.

“What were you thinking anyway?” Jason asked quietly. I paused again.

“Huh?” Jason shook his head and strutted past me, back towards the bedroom and shut the door. I exhaled feeling the tension leave the room. Finally, I was able to put the tea together. I also made a sandwich for Jason. I devoured mine the minute I finished making it. I heard the bedroom door click open. Jason strutted out in his Red Hood uniform. I gestured to the tea and sandwich. Jason opened his mouth, “I already ate. I promise.” I said quickly. He shut his mouth and made his way over to the island I was leaning on and sat down to eat. He inhaled his sandwich. Leaving only the tea left, as a bus load of awkward silence. I could sense he wanted to talk but didn’t know how to start. I took a sip of cold tea while I tried to think about something we could talk about. “Th-”

“What were you thinking Y/N?” I shut my mouth instantly, confused yet again why he asked that. “Why did you do it.” I furrowed my brow; Jason’s eyes were piercing though me.

“You would have done the same for me, right?” I whispered. Jason nodded.

“But why did you do it?” He said in a low voice.

“Why would you have?” I turned back towards the sink and dumped my tea down the drain. I heard the scrap of the chair Jason was sitting on as he made his way to me, he reaches around me dropping his cup in the sink next to mine. Jason lingered for a second, his breath hot on my cheek, faking courage I turned to him, we stared at each other for a second before I broke eye contact and turned around fully facing him. His hands were on either side of mine which rested on the sink. Jason leaned forward a bit.

“Why,” He whispered, “did you do it?” My heart was beating so fast, I felt it shake my body. There is no way Jason didn’t notice. He knew why I did it but needed confirmation. So, I gave it to him. I kissed him. Right there, at that moment. His lips were dry against mine, but I didn't care. The feeling was something I couldn’t describe. Jason pulled me closer, holding me to his body. I broke off the kiss after an eternity.

“That’s why.”