#i was going through the security checkpoint and the lady behind me had a big fluffy ginger cat in one of those soft carriers

[muppetsnoopy]

theres a cat LOOSE in the AIRPORT

[son1c]

festival time :3c

falling stars fic masterpost

The construction zone was long and winding. Sonic and Shadow's race took them all the way through it, and the farther in they got, the more metallic their surroundings became. Green steel dominated everything, and hazards were abundant. Whatever they were building here was still far from finished.

The motobug swerved around cones and barriers, and even weaved in and out of stray beams whenever it felt like Sonic could fit. They had lost sight of Shadow awhile ago, but his dusty footprints were illuminated by the tall street lights lining their path, so they knew he wasn't far ahead.

After leaping over a small gap in the lattice floor, Sonic spotted something crumpled on the ground up ahead, and made sure to snatch it as the motobug drove past. It was a poster.

Eventually, the construction zone came to an end. Shadow was waiting for them at the foot of a flashing billboard. In big, shimmering letters, it read: WELCOME TO STARLIGHT, THE CITY THAT SHINES IN THE DARK.

"You certainly took your time," Shadow said, his smirk from before still on his face.

"Hey! Not my fault Buggy wanted to do a little sightseeing." Sonic stuck his tongue out at Shadow, teasing him. The race had put him in a good mood, even though he had lost.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Blaming the robot for your defeat, hedgehog?" His smirk faded, and his attention fell to the poster in Sonic's hands. Then, he asked, "You picked up a souvenir?"

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, it's not much. Just figured it shouldn't be left around as litter." He smoothed out the poster, looking it over curiously. When he read through it, a smile appeared on his face. "Looks like we showed up right on time! These guys are having a festival right now!"

"Let me see that," Shadow said. Sonic handed him the poster, and then Shadow confirmed the blue hedgehog's statement. "The Starfall Festival?" he murmured. It didn't ring a bell, but according to the advertisement, this would be the 100th annual celebration.

"Can't go wrong with a festival," Sonic said. "There's always food, drinks, and fun! Sounds like a real bash to me--we should totally check it out!"

Shadow rubbed his thumb thoughtfully over the poster. Sure, it sounded like fun. However, "Fun isn't my priority," he said. "I'm more concerned with the truth. About myself--and about you, as well."

Sonic considered this. The motobug beeped, also considering. Sonic reached down and scratched its cheek, causing the motobug to beep again, happier this time.

"Well," Sonic began, "if there's one thing I know about parties, it's that most people like 'em. So, there's bound to be a bunch of people at the festival, 'specially one as big as this. Maybe someone there will know something about what happened to us?"

Shadow was satisfied with that answer. He figured that Starlight City wasn't too far from where they had originally woken up, and so the likelihood of them encountering someone who had information about their situation was non-zero. At the very least, that crater they had found themselves in and the damaged forest that surrounded it was sure to have made a lot of noise. Enough noise to have been heard from the next city over, if they were lucky.

But first, they would need to get inside the city. And that proved to be a problem when, after walking up to the security checkpoint, the lady at the counter paled at the sight of them. She pointed a shaking finger at the robot Sonic was riding on, and said, "No, no! I won't allow it!"

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. The motobug chirped nervously.

"You got a problem with robots?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.

The security officer reeled back. Only her eyes were visible now, peeking out from over the top of the counter she was hiding behind. She seemed unwilling to take her eyes off the motobug. "Yes! Yes, when they're… those robots."

Sonic made a face. Then, he looked down at the motobug. The robot looked back up at him with its wide electronic eyes.

After giving the little robot a reassuring pat, Sonic asked the lady, "What's wrong with them?"

The security officer's nostrils flared. Her fear retreated to make room for anger, and she stood up to her full height--though she remained behind the safety of the counter. "Those little beasties are the reason why I can't sleep at night!" she spat. "They're like locusts! If they'd never come to our town, I wouldn't have to deal with all the jackhammers trying to rebuild everything!"

Shadow remembered his reservations from earlier. He frowned at the motobug before turning to the lady and asking, "Your town was destroyed by robots like this one?"

The lady's eyes flashed. Her wool, which was already very puffy, puffed up even more at the question. "Destroyed?" she repeated, her voice dripping with hatred. But then she sighed, and her death grip on her clipboard loosened slightly. "No, no," she said, sounding tired now. "Not destroyed… but almost. Pest control took care of it--or so I thought. Guess they missed one."

Shadow's eyebrows furrowed. That would explain why they had found the robot alone, deserted in the middle of the construction zone. And why it had been terrified at the sight of them. It was probably thinking they were there to finish the job, and exterminate it.

The motobug tapped its claws together anxiously. Shadow saw this, saw Sonic still riding on its back and as such, able to rest his broken leg, and decided to drop whatever reservations he still had about the little robot.

"It won't do you any harm now," Shadow said seriously. "We will make sure of that."

Sonic flashed the lady a thumbs up. "If you guys can rebuild, so can this little guy. Turning over a new leaf starts with being given a second chance, right?"

Pressing her lips into a hard line, the security officer looked down at the motobug. It spun its antennas in a slow circle, its eyes pointed at the floor. It looked so different now from how she remembered it--all caught up in a swarm of hundreds, thousands of them, their sharp metal pincers smashing through windows and breaking down doors.

They had almost ruined the festival. Almost.

"You hedgies better not make me regret this," she muttered. Then, she set down her clipboard, and pulled out a big yellow sticker from a drawer behind the counter. It was in the shape of a star. "Put this on it," she said, holding out the sticker to Sonic. "It's a pass. For the Starfall Festival."

Sonic grinned. He took the sticker from her eagerly. "Thanks!" he said.

Shadow watched as Sonic peeled the sticker off the sheet, and then stuck it on the motobug's forehead. The little robot looked up at it curiously, and to itself, it wondered what Eggman would think of the sparkly new decal. But it was best to reserve its meager processing power for the blue hedgehog, so it quickly stopped wondering.

Gesturing towards the city, the security officer said, "Head to Main Street for the directory, we've got a few extra events this year for the anniversary. There's a bulletin posted around somewhere too. Oh, and"--she cast a cold glance at the motobug--"if I hear anything about your beastie, I'll get pest control on the phone before you can say 'vermin.'"

With that threat in mind, the motobug drove Sonic to Main Street with Shadow walking alongside them. The city unfolded in front of them, big and bright and exciting. There were twinkling lights strung up on every corner, guard rail, and street lamp. More than that, there were people everywhere; some of them were holding sparklers, some of them were enjoying a yummy treat from one of the festival's many vendors, and some of them were painting murals of the night sky on the ground.

It was a welcome change from the oppressive emptiness of the ghost town. Even though the abundance of noise set Shadow on edge, it felt good to be heading towards a goal again. This time, the goal was a vendor, and the hedgehogs had the straightforward mission of finally getting some food.

The directory in the middle of Main Street showed them the way. And after turning a corner, they found themselves in the middle of a grassy pavilion.

The pavilion was filled with games, rides, and most importantly, food. Sonic urged the motobug towards the closest one, a chilidog vendor. The smell wafting from the cart enamored Sonic and made his empty stomach growl loudly.

The vendor chuckled at this, his blotchy red cheeks softening with a smile. "Enjoy," he said as he handed Sonic a fresh chilidog. He didn't ask for payment--the festival goodies were always free.

The gooey cheese, the tall stack of chili, the perfectly toasted bun… it all came together to create the most beautiful work of art that Sonic had ever seen. He was sure that it would've tasted amazing even if he wasn't starving, but his empty stomach cranked up the deliciousness factor to 11. He barely held himself back from eating it all in one bite--but he knew it would be really embarrassing if he choked on it. So, he ate it in two instead.

"Stripes, you gotta try this!" Sonic said, his eyes sparkling like a hundred million diamonds. Yes, he was really that excited about it.

Shadow looked uncertainly at the chilidog the vendor was holding out to him. He wasn't smitten with it like Sonic was. He was finally starting to get a little hungry, though. So, he took it, and took a single mousy bite. Sonic waited intently for his reaction, and was somewhat disappointed when all he could say about it was, "It's edible."

Sonic's disappointment was forgotten, however, when Shadow handed him the chilidog.

"I must admit," Shadow said, the tiniest hint of amusement in his voice, "I wasn't expecting to uncover a truth about your past so soon."

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?" Sonic asked, already done eating the second chilidog and looking happier than ever. His face was a disaster, his cheeks covered in cheese and chili.

Shadow grabbed a napkin and dropped it on Sonic's head. "You're a mess."

Sonic snorted. "I was hungry!" came his indignant reply. He still took the napkin, though.

They continued on through the pavilion. There was a vendor for everything from spaghetti to ice cream to spaghetti ice cream, but none of them appealed all that much to Shadow. That was, however, until they came across a stand selling cakes. The irony was not lost on him, but when he cut into the slice of coffee cake and saw no green slime pour out, he figured the joke ended there. And it did--the cake had a bitter edge, and he found he liked the taste.

Meanwhile, Sonic tried his own slice of coffee cake and hated it. He had better luck with the more savory cheesecake.

By now, a few people in the pavilion had started staring at the motobug that Sonic was using as a scooter, and so Shadow quickly threw his plate away and ushered his companions out of the pavilion. The street they stepped onto was tighter than the wide open pavilion, with booths set up on both sides of the street. Festival goers had to squeeze past each other to get to the more popular booths.

It was when they passed by an unpopular booth that Shadow's ears perked up. He heard the woman at the table mention something about real shooting stars. He motioned for the motobug to stop, and it did, parking itself in front of the woman's ornate golden table.

The woman flashed a dazzling smile. "That's odd," she said, her big glasses catching the festival lights like a kaleidoscope. "I know everyone, but I don't know you. Are you folks new in town?"

"Brand new," Sonic replied. "Gotta say, I wasn't expecting all this fanfare, but I'd never flake on my own welcome party!"

"Ha!" The woman leaned forward, her eyes glittering. "Funny guy. I like you." She slid over a photo album from where it was sitting on the other end of the table. Then, she pushed it forward, in front of Sonic and Shadow. "This festival has a lot more history than you might think. See for yourself."

Shadow flipped open the album. Inside, there was an old black and white photograph of the night sky. Although it was grainy, the focal point of the photo was clearly the white smudge in the middle--a shooting star? When Shadow turned more pages, he saw that every page had a similar photo, one for every year from the past 100 years.

And the one from this year…

"Weird, right?" the woman said. "Every year we've seen a falling star, but this year we saw two."

Sonic and Shadow looked at the picture. It was in full glossy color, so the details were easy to pick out, like how the two stars seemed tangled together. Their twin tails streaked across the sky in an array of colorful fire, plummeting down to the forest below.

The two hedgehogs shared a look. Then, Shadow asked the woman, "When was this taken?"

With a long, bejewelled fingernail, the woman tapped her chin. "That one? Hmm… Three days ago, maybe four." She sighed wistfully. "It's a shame you folks didn't get here sooner. It was quite the sight to see! And right after that hubbub with the moon, too."

Sonic's ear twitched. He looked up at the clear night sky, and stared at the broken moon. It stared back at him silently.

"The sky's been a busy place recently," the woman continued. "First the moon, then the space station, and finally that pair of falling stars. It makes me wonder if that little planet will pay us a visit soon, too. I guess only time will tell!"

Shadow was quiet. He was thinking about what the woman had said. It caused one of the echoes to get louder in his brain, bouncing down the empty hallways of his mind until it was all he could hear. The space station… he knew it. He could picture it. See himself, pressing his hand up against the window. Looking down at the pale blue planet below.

Gently, Sonic nudged Shadow's shoulder.

The dark hedgehog snapped out of the memory instantly. "What happened to the space station?" he asked.

The woman blinked. "Oh, I'm not sure. I think it's still up there somewhere." The strange look on Shadow's face gave her pause. Then, she added, "They've been talking about it on the news for awhile. I just don't care to listen, since most of the reports are sponsored by G.U.N."

Shadow frowned. That uncomfortable acronym again…

The woman placed a small sack on the table. "Well," she said, "thanks for listening to an old crow squawk. In honor of the centennial celebration, please take this."

Sonic grabbed the sack with interest. Inside were two golden earrings shaped like stars. Grinning, he clipped one on immediately. Then, he held the other one out to Shadow. Shadow, however, wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about the jewellery, and was about to say as much, when Sonic asked slyly, "What's the matter? Afraid of a little bling?"

Scowling, Shadow snatched the earring from him and clipped it on with a huff. "Of course not," he said. "Don't be ridiculous, Blue."

Then, Sonic waved goodbye to the woman at the booth, and the two hedgehogs continued down the crowded street. They were now headed towards the tallest building in the city, the one with the bulletin board posted on it. They could see the screen glowing bright white as they approached it, but it wasn't until they were directly under it that they could read what was on it.

Make a wish for the hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. Late, but never slow.

There was a blurry photo under the text. It was of a hedgehog, but his features were unclear thanks to the low quality of the picture. Shadow couldn't help but wonder why they chose that one. Maybe every photo of the guy was a blur of motion?

Sonic turned to Shadow. Then, he looked back at the bulletin board. "Hey, Stripes," he said slowly, "that guy looks kinda like you."

[itslocsdiggs]

On Your Worst Behavior

~1k+

Author’s Note: On AO3 there was a fic called The Ladies Love a Man Who’s Good with Kids. This is the remix. I love that [CompulsiveBowlers] used Rafa’s daughter’s name from a fic I previously wrote. Then one day it disappeared. So I decided to write a version inspired :) This fic brings the petty! I hope that you love it. The largest slice of triple decker fluffy and cute with petty syrup drizzle. Okay time to read, love you byeeee :)

T/W: if you see any let me know. Black! reader, but everyone is welcome!

Tags: @iknowthekoolaidflavor @ramp-it-up @einfachniemand @royallyprincesslilly @ryjo-92 @lizzzaaaaaaaaaaa @a-hopeless-fan @honeysucklechocolatedrippin @imatyoursurrvicesurr @braidedchallah (let me know if you wanna be tagged!)

When you got to the resort, you knew you'd need a relaxing massage or some peace and quiet🤫. You were on your way to a Disney World adventure to celebrate your son Daron who was turning three. You and your husband spent most of the morning and the night before packing suitcases and making sure both of your little ones had their plush animals. The morning went smoothly except for one little mishap with your independent daughter Lydia getting tangled in her shirt.

Somehow you got the kids in their shoes and in their car seats on schedule. A miracle really. Except you couldn't have your morning tea. It sat abandoned on the marble countertop. Rafael did a last sweep through the house for anything you might need then locked the doors. He had left it behind because he knew you wouldn't finish it before you arrived at the security checkpoint.

As Rafa drove to the airport, you watched for your babies in the rearview mirror. Lydia was napping as usual and Daron was mischievously quiet. You thought Lydia's nap wouldn't last long.

Arriving to the airport terminal, you put down your purse, and Rafa set Lydia down to continue sleeping on a bench. Sweet littleDaron wriggled out of your grasp, and started waddling around. He looked out the large windows and told everyone he was a "big boy."

Rafa laughed and picked him up kissing his forehead. He whispered, "big boys sit and watch YouTube. And have some juice." He reached into his backpack, and came up empty handed. Then he turned with a frown, and mouthed at you. No snacks?

You checked your bag, and mirrored his look, "guess not."

Daron was so into the brightly colored characters that he forgot about his father's promise. Lydia, who had resumed her nap squirmed and snuggled into her father's lap. You took that as a sign.

"Honey, I'm gonna take a walk." Standing up you grabbed your purse and made a mental note of where your family sat.

He took your hand and rubbed it. "Rest first, I've got it." He maneuvered the small girl until she was laying down comfortably. Then he stood up.

You sighed and stretched before sitting back down with your kids, covering up with your sweater and taking a little nap. Rafa walked away towards a kiosk. He returned in record time with his hands full with bags of snacks, hot beverages for two, and a woman's lingering gaze.

"Do you need anything else?" you heard her say. Then you blinked to clear your vision when you realized she was holding one of the bags. You sat there covered by your sweater watching what she planned to do.

"There you go, sugar," she fluttered her lashes and grazed his back.

“Are these your little siblings?”

Rafa smiled and took the bag from her. She stayed and incessantly prattled on, not so subtly trying to figure out if he was single. He was just trying to feed his kids. You watched the drama unfold. Rafa unwrapped Lydia's bagel while the woman had the nerve to prepare the juice boxes. She patted your son on the head. 

Under his breath, he muttered, “Damn, lady keep it moving.”

Rafa quickly retrieved the boxes from her hands and cursed under his breath. It was far too early for this. He silently willed you to wake up from your nap. Your husband had no idea that you were watching the whole exchange.

Rafa exhaled softly and coolly replied, "We're good now. Make sure you don't miss your flight."

She scoffed playfully, "I have plenty of time. Just want to make sure you're settled. I don't want you to be all alone with these lovely kiddos." 

Her voice was sickeningly ignorant and you wanted to gag. You tugged the woven fabric of your sweatshirt between your teeth to keep yourself from laughing. You poked your head out and waved at her. Then you rested the palm of your hand against his hip, bunching the hem of his red t-shirt between your fingers and flashing a sparkling gemstone against your coffee brown skin.

"Oh, I didn't know you had help."

You rolled your eyes. The woman's eyes narrowed, staring daggers as she backed away until you couldn't see anymore than her fluttering lashes. Her pink neon sneakers squeaked as she tried to leave quietly. She turned around with an unfortunate look on her face to see you kiss him full and he spun you around to face the views beyond the tarmac, and brought his arms tight around your waist. He leaned in and whispered in your ear, “hey, hey, take it easy. She’s no threat to you, love.”

You looked up at him with innocent eyes, saw that she was still watching, and raised your voice a little. “I don’t know what you mean. Can’t I kiss my husband indecently in a public place?”

Rafa grinned at you, but remained oblivious as he pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“Sure,” he countered and stepped back. When you sat down, he handed you a hot cup of tea. Beaming up at him, you savored the smell.

Rafael finally sat down and put his arm around you. Looking up you saw the woman walking back down the corridor. You snuggled in to his arm, awake now, eyes bright with laughter, "What did you mean by don't miss your flight? She's not going to Disney?"

You did a sidesweep on the blond next to you, waiting for his answer,  and checking him out for the first time that day. Rafa appreciated your gaze. He looked a little tired, but bright and ready for the trip in a red t-shirt, track pants, and sneakers. In a grey hoodie, he was also cozy. 

"No, he exhaled, “her girlfriends sent her over to shoot her shot. The only kiosk open was all the way at Gate 27."

You remembered seeing Gate 27 listed for somewhere in Mexico. You smiled wryly staring at the bright LED sign for Gate 5. She would have to be on her worst behavior.

You laughed for the first time since the encounter.

"She comes all the way to gate five to find a happy family, not her new fling." Rafa grinned wide.

 Daron climbed onto your lap and you held him close, kissing his head. "One last question, you let her follow you the way down here?"

"Hah! I let her pay too- And that means she just lost a grip on airport food. And I got more to spend on you and the kids.”

Tilting the coffee cup in cheers you quipped, "That'll teach her to go after someone else's man."

Rafa laughed and downed the rest of his coffee.

[sheerfreesia007]

She Came To Enjoy Herself

Title: She Came To Enjoy Herself

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Author: @sheerfreesia007​​

Words: 5,137

Warnings: Fluff

Permanent Tag List: @paintballkid711​, @fioccodineveautunnale​

Author Notes: This was inspired by this post. I saw the post and immediately my brain went to Steve. So I’m branching out into different fandoms. Little nervous not gonna lie so any feedback is appreciated and welcome! Thank you for reading!

Gif Credit: Google and @marciabrady​

         You were late. Again. This would be the third time this month that you were late for your 7 a.m. shift and you knew Riley was going to chew your ass for it. He might even discipline you for the tardiness. But could you help it when the subways were delayed again? You knew Riley wasn’t going to listen to you though, so you hiked your messenger bag up onto your shoulder and picked up the pace of your jog into a run as you rounded the street corner.

         The loud horn blasts of New York traffic blared around in the air around you as you dodged other pedestrians. You were trying to get there as quickly as you could and you really didn’t care for your appearance at this point. You just needed to get there as soon as possible. Luckily you had a change of clothes in the office if it came down to it.

         Just then you saw your building and you felt your breath catch slightly in relief. You were nearing the building quickly and slowed your run slightly so that you didn’t run into anyone. Even with your precautionary move you didn’t see the large pack of dogs walking around the corner right into your path. Throwing your hands up your legs continued on forward and you found yourself getting wrapped up in the leashes as the dog walker shouted in surprise. The barks of the dogs shouted out in the air and your tried to disentangle yourself quickly apologizing as you went.

         You finally made it out the tangle of dog leashes and apologized one last time to the dog walker before you turned to your building and began walking towards the front door. You felt something wrap around your ankle and suddenly your face was kissing the pavement harshly with your body’s momentum and gravity fighting against you. Moaning lowly you felt your palms skid across the pavement as you turned your face and scraped your left cheek against the hard surface. Pain coursed through you and you hissed.

         “Geeze lady, you alright?” came the shocked call from the dog walker as he bent over to help you unwrap the lone leash from your ankle.

         “Just peachy. Thanks.” You said sarcastically before you stood back up and brushed off your knees. There were some snickers heard around you and you huffed softly as you straightened out your polo shirt. You lifted your head in the air and walked straight for the front doors hissing as you walked feeling your knee protest in pain.

         “You alright Data?” came the kind voice of Scott the security guard. You grimaced over at him as you heard your nickname that seemed to stick as soon as you started working for the technology development company. “Looked like a hard fall.” He said looking over you with concerned eyes.

         “Nah, I’m fine Scott.” You said unconvincingly as you waved your hand at him.

         “Let me know if you need any first aid alright?” he said nodding at you. You smiled at him and nodded your head as you moved through the security checkpoint.

         “Will do Scott. Thanks!” you called over your shoulder as you moved quickly to the elevators to go down to your lab.

         Sighing softly as you made it into the elevator without any trouble you let yourself lean back against the elevator wall. You let your head fall forward in defeat, today couldn’t go any worse hopefully.

           Finally making it down to the lab you tried to inconspicuously make it past Riley’s office. You huffed out a soft breath when you passed his door without him calling out your name thinking you were in the clear. Just as you began to book it to your office you heard Riley’s angry tone shout out from his office.

         “DATA!” he bellowed angrily. You flinched at his tone and turned around with a crushed sigh. Figuring you would just get it out of the way you walked back to Riley’s office and entered it shutting the door behind you. “Jesus Data, what happened to your face?” Riley asked with a scoff.

         “I ran into a pack of rabid canines.” You said sarcastically as you crossed your arms over your chest in a defensive move.

         “What? Rabid canines? Do you mean dogs? Jesus Data I don’t have time for this this morning.” He said irritated as he ran a hand through his hair and paced behind his desk. “You’re late again. This is the third time this month that’s three strikes. This is going to be your last warning before I’m going to have to discipline you.” Riley said as he threw his arms out wide.

         “I get it Riley I do, but I can’t control the subways. I’m even leaving my apartment a half hour earlier to get here on time. It’s out of my control.” You tried to reason with him.

         “Then get a car.” Riley said with a hand wave and you scoffed at him.

         “Get a car? Riley this is New York City are you serious?” you asked with a sneer. Riley wasn’t a native New Yorker so you guessed you had to give him the benefit of the doubt since he didn’t get it like a New Yorker would. You don’t drive in New York, that would be ten times worse on your tardiness.

         “I don’t really Data. Figure something else out because if you’re late again I’m going to have to take action.” Riley said harshly to you and you sighed nodding your head. “Go get changed into something else you’re coming with the group to Stark Tower today.” He said before dismissing you.

         “Stark Tower? Why are we going there?” you asked curiously and turned back to him from his office door.

         “We have been selected to tour Stark Tower today. A few employees from each department were selected by HR and you were one of the lucky ones though I don’t think you deserve it.” Riley said candidly. You had turned from Riley with an awed look on your face not bothering to stick around to hear him berate you some more. You were going to Stark Tower. Suddenly you felt like on cloud nine and today had gotten a thousand times better.

           “So Riley said he would have to take action if you were late again?” asked Morgan as she walked with you on your left side. You nodded your head as you looked over at Lydia who scoffed softly from your right side.

         “He’s turned into such a dick ever since he got the management job.” Lydia said with disgust on her face. The three of you were walking towards the back of the group that was on their way to Stark Tower. “Anyway can we please talk about where we are going?!” Lydia squealed as she reached out and grabbed onto your forearm. She seemed to vibrate with excitement and you laughed softly at her antics knowing that you were feeling the same way. “I wonder if the Avengers are going to be there! Can you imagine meeting them?!”

         “Oh come on you just want to see if you can catch one of their eyes.” Morgan said knowingly as she smirked over at Lydia.

         “Whatever so do you!” Lydia quipped back with a scowl making both you and Morgan laugh brightly.

         “Alright, alright you two. Cool it, we gotta make a good impression for the company.” You said peacefully as you tried to calm your two friends down. You smiled as you spotted the tall building and you felt your excitement begin to grow inside of you. While your friends were psyched to meet the avengers you were more intrigued to get into Stark Tower and learn the tech that Tony Stark had developed. If you could only get a look at some of his designs you felt that you could draw inspiration from it.

         “Yeah and you’re going to really give them an impression with that outfit.” Morgan sniggered softly to you and your head whipped over to her with a dismayed look on your face. You had changed into your spare work outfit that you had left in your office but to your dismay you had forgotten that the outfit you had left at the office had grown a little tighter in certain areas. The dark purple button up shirt you had to don was much tighter in the chest area to the point that the buttons were straining against your chest, so to ease your anxiety and insecurity you had kept your black tank top on underneath and just kept the straining buttons unbuttoned. And the black work slacks that you had left in your office had grown a little tighter around your hips than you were comfortable with but the khakis you had originally worn to work were bloodied from you meet up with the pavement this morning.

         “She means you look professional and gorgeous.” Lydia quickly supplied trying to ease your rising insecurity.

         “I look like a mess but Riley said I had to go so I improvised. I’ll just stand at the back and not talk to anyone we meet. It’s not big deal besides no one really pays attention to me as it is so it’ll be fine. Right?” you began to ramble to your friends and your hands came up to gesticulate in front of your body.

         “Yeah totally fine.” Both Morgan and Lydia said simultaneously as they linked their arms around yours.

           “Tony I don’t understand why I have to give this tour with you.” Steve complained softly as he stood with Tony in the main lobby of Stark Tower. “You’re the better host and you’re going to be on the tour as well.” Steve watched as Tony looked over to him with a bored look.

         “Because you’re the only other avenger in this tower at this moment and the tour groups go smoother when we host them. Besides Pepper said that because of your last stunt in the field you’re stuck and need to pay her back for all the paperwork she had file.” Tony hissed at him before he turned back towards the glass front doors.

         Steve huffed softly and rolled his eyes as he turned back to the front doors and slid his arms behind his back to rest on his lower back. He stood there surveying the whole lobby wondering when the tour group would finally get here, hoping to get this done quickly.

         “Ah there you all are!” Tony called and Steve looked over to see him holding his arms open wide in greeting as a group of at least fifteen came walking through the doors. Steve stayed standing where he was as Tony moved to the group and silently watched each one. His eyes caught on a trio of women towards the back of the group and he felt his breath escape him as he noticed the woman in the middle of the trio. She stood there staring around her in awe in a dark purple button up shirt and black undershirt peeking through the top of the shirt and black snug work slacks. Her hair was pulled up and away from her face and then cascaded down her back in soft waves. She was stunning and completely distracting, if it was anything to go off by Tony’s loud exclamation. “Steve are you alright? Sorry folks he’s getting up there in age we gotta keep a close eye on him.” Tony said jovially as he came to stand next to Steve at the front of the group.

         “Tony.” Steve said warning as he flashed a wide smile to the tour group. “Sorry about that I was lost in thought.” He said kindly as he nodded his head to the group. His eyes easily sought out the woman again at the back of the group. She wasn’t paying attention as she looked around the lobby with wide eyes. She may not have been paying attention but her friends certainly were as Steve watched the two women on either side of her simpered at him.

         The one on the right of the woman was fluttering her eyelashes at him and there was a dark seductive look in her eyes as she stared at him. Steve felt instantly uncomfortable at the woman’s forward attitude as her eyes raked up and down his body. He felt almost violated and wanted to cover up his body with his hands. But the one on the left was watching him meticulously with an almost shrewdness that instantly put him on guard. She gave off the air of knowing more than most in any situation. Steve felt himself cringe away from the women’s attention and his eyes slid to the woman in the middle again. She was finally looking forward and her attention was completely focused on Tony as he began explaining where they would be touring in the Tower. Steve smiled softly as he watched the woman’s eyes widen as Tony mentioned the lab and her lips pulled into an excited smile.

         Steve allows Tony to take the lead at the front of the group show boating and putting on a show for the group as he meanders with the back of the group keeping quiet and just taking everything in. Smiling politely he talks to some of the people in the group still keeping an eye out for you as you moved along with the tour.

         “So Captain what’s it been like since you got out of the ice?” asked a man dressed in a nicely pressed suit. Steve heard soft snickering behind him and he turned his head to see your friends trying to hide their laughter behind their hands as they watched the man next to Steve. You weren’t paying attention as you walked around the hallways staring in awe at the building listening idly to what Tony was saying.

         “Oh it’s been an adjustment. I’ve had to learn as I go and everything is so new it’s a lot to get used to.” Steve said politely as he walked along the hallway.

         “Do you get a lot of women throwing themselves at you since you’re an avenger?” asked the man with a leer that made Steve uncomfortable.

         “Well yes I suppose so. I mean I do get quite a lot of attention from women now. It’s much different than it was back in the 40’s. Things were way more conservative back then.” Steve explains and the man nods his head knowingly. Just then a noise of surprise and delight rises from behind him and suddenly Steve feels a soft hand planted on his bicep. Steve looks down and sees you smiling up at him as your eyes dart ahead.

         “Excuse me sorry.” You say politely as you move around him and Steve lets you feeling his chest tighten at your soft touch and courteous words. He watches slightly stunned as you walk ahead to get closer to Tony and begin to ask him some questions.

         “Sorry about that. Data gets a little too into the technology.” Says the man next to Steve making him turn back to the conversation.

         “Data?” Steve asks curiously as his eyes dart over to you and sees you animatedly talking to Tony about something. He smiles as he sees your hands begin to flutter in between you and Tony as you talk, he finds it endearing that you talk with your hands as well as words.

         “Oh that’s her nickname at the office. She’s a bit socially awkward in certain situations but she’s the best technological minded employee that we have. Very innovative and forward thinking. Sometimes a little too forward thinking when it comes to technology.” The man explains as he nods his head over to you.

         “Sounds like someone I know.” Steve says softly as he watches Tony’s eyes light up at your conversation and then the two of you are talking back and forth bouncing ideas off of each other. Talking about something that is so completely over Steve’s head but he finds that he likes watching how passionate you are when you talk about something that’s important to you.

           The tour has been going for much longer than most normal tours go on for, and oddly enough Steve is thankful for it even if he hasn’t actually talked to you directly yet. He has gathered quite some intel on you though from your boss Riley and your two friends. Both sources were quick to offer up any information that Steve implied he was keen to learn. He also found that your friend Morgan was more perceptive to Steve’s intention to gather information on you.

         “You know if you go over and talk to her it’d be much easier to get information on her.” Morgan says lowly to him and Steve looks over at her. You’re up at the front of the group again talking with Tony about another technological advance that he’s made.

         “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Steve says automatically and groans internally. He was never good at lying.

         “You’re a horrible liar.” Morgan laughs softly and nods her head over to you. “I’m going to help you.” she says lowly before calling out to you. “Hey Data!” Steve instantly flushes as he snaps his head from Morgan over to where you were last to see you walking over to the two of them with a bright smile.

         “Hey Morgan.” You greet warmly and Steve feels himself flush even more. Your eyes are bright and shining with excitement as your lips are parted softly and Steve thinks that you look beautiful in your passion.

         “Data, I’d like to introduce you to Steve Rogers, Captain America.” Morgan says as she presents Steve and he smiles awkwardly down at you. “Steve this is Data.” Morgan introduces you and instantly you’re smiling up at him while holding your hand out to him.

         “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” You say easily and Steve flushes slightly as he grips your hand in his. Your hand is so much smaller than his that Steve feels as if you’re made of glass. Your skin slides against his like silk making Steve worry that his hands are too weathered.

         “It’s nice to meet you miss. I’ve learned a lot about you while on this tour.” He says conversationally and then instantly feels the needs to smack himself. Why would he say that? You’re going to think he was fishing for information for you. He watches as your eyes widen and a blush rises up your neck to dust across your cheeks.

         “Oh! Well I hope they told you just the good things about me.” You say shyly with a smile as your eyes dart over to Morgan who smirks at you.

         “All of it was good.” Steve says without thinking and feels embarrassment creep up on him quickly. “I’m so sorry I should stop talking.” Steve says dejectedly and you laugh softly as you place a hand on his forearm gently. He looks over to you and sees your blushing cheeks as your eyes shine with mirth.

         “Nonsense. It’s a nice change, I’m usually the one wanting to eat my words.” You say kindly and Steve grins lopsided at you with a hopeful look in his eyes. “Well now that we’ve been introduced do you mind if I ask you some questions?” you asked earnestly and Steve feels his stomach drop figuring that you would want to ask him questions about being Captain America. He notices as Morgan steps away from the two of you and he wants to drag her back to curb the dread forming in your stomach.

         “Of course.” Steve answers as the two of you move down the hallway with the group.

         “If you could change one thing about the technology that you use on a day to day basis what would it be?” you asked tilting your head towards him. Steve’s shocked but he supposes he shouldn’t be. With how passionate you are about this topic he really shouldn’t be shocked. Though he does find it curious that you aren’t asking him about being an Avenger.

         “Well I do like how convenient it has made my life but I also see that as a downside. It makes things a little too convenient.” He says as he thinks about his answer. You’re nodding your head along to his answer as you walk. “I am so used to things back in the 40’s that it’s a bit to wrap my head around with all the things that I’ve missed.” He explains.

         “Oh that’s understandable. I’m sure all of this might be a bit over your head. If you need any help with it I’d be happy to explain things to you. It’s kinda my thing.” You say easily to him offering to help him. Steve finds that commendable of you and smiles down at you.

         “That would be great actually. You could give me a crash course.” He said nodding his head. You grinned up at him and nodded your head too. The two of you then continue on your tour easily falling into conversation with each other.

           Tony crosses his arms over his chest as he surveys the tour group. He’s growing annoyed now as this tour has gone on for far too long but he can’t help the pleasure he gets at being the center of attention. He surveys the group as they all come over to stand in front of the labs finally, the last stop of the tour. His eyes travel across the group looking for the young woman who was excited to see the labs earlier. When he spots you he’s surprised to see you smiling up at Rogers as you drag the Avenger closer to the glass walls of the lab.

         Tony throws his arms wide to present the lab and tells a few things about what the employees do down here. He watches silently as you eagerly point out to Steve the employees in the lab and what they are doing. He’s shocked when he sees Steve nod his head as if he’s following anything that you’re saying. And then he sees it. The blush across the Captain’s face is undeniable as he watches you with a sparkle in his eye. Tony smirks softly, Captain’s got crush.

         Sidling up to your side Tony can now hear how in awe you are of the lab and the employees within. You’re rattling off techniques that you can see the employees using and you’re gushing over the equipment that they have.

         “So I take it you approve?” Tony asks teasingly and both you and Steve snap your heads to look at him. Steve gives him a wary look while you’re staring at him like he hung the moon.

         “Oh I more than approve. I would kill to work here.” You gush animatedly as you gesture your hands to the employees in the lab.

         “Well who am I to turn a woman homicidal. What would you say if I offered you a job here?” Tony says in a teasing manner. He sees your eyes widen and Steve’s narrow as he tries to figure out what Tony’s game is.

         “When do I start?” you asked sarcastically with a side smirk and Tony nods his head.

         “In two weeks. Gotta leave your current company on good terms.” Tony says seriously and he sees the instant that you figure out that he means what he says.

         “You’re serious?” you ask him incredulously.

         “Deadly. You’re a smart woman Data. And you’re so forward thinking and see the big picture. I could use someone like you in there working for me.” He responds nodding his head. You gasp softly and reach down to grab Steve’s hand in your surprise. Tony smirks softly as he sees Steve’s blush bloom on his cheeks.

         “Yes!” you say instantly and start nodding your head eagerly.

         “Alright then that’s settled. I will have our HR reach out to you via email with a career position offer. Now let’s wrap this tour up!” Tony says with a loud clap of his hands as he turns back to the others and begins letting them know that this is the end of the tour.

           Steve is sad to see your group go. He had a lot of fun talking with you about everything and anything. He even didn’t mind when you teased him for his lack knowledge of pop culture. Especially since you had offered to help him out with that too.

         But now as the two of you move to the elevators he’s nervous. He would love to spend more time with you and though you had offered to help reacquaint himself with the 21st century he doesn’t know if you actually meant it or if you were just being nice to him.

         He notices as your group starts to board the elevator and you make a move to get on as well but Steve reaches out and lightly cups your elbow. You turn to him with concerned eyes and he tugs you back to him slightly.

         “Steve? Are you okay?” you ask kindly and over your shoulder Steve can see Tony nodding at him as he boards the elevator with your group and loudly exclaims that they’re going down before the elevator doors close.

         “I’m fine I just wanted to spend a little more time with you alone, if that’s alright.” He says bashfully and you smile kindly up at him.

         “Of course that’s okay. I can’t believe today actually happened.” You gush out and Steve chuckles as he watches you do a little dance in place grinning as you do.

         “What do you mean?” he asks curiously and watches as you stop to look up at him.

         “Oh today started out horrible. I woke up thirty minutes early just to get to work on time but the subways were delayed so much that I was still late. And then just as I was getting into the office I ran into a group of dogs that were being walked and face planted into the sidewalk. Skinned my knees, my hands and my cheek.” You explained softly as you waved your hand to red patch on your cheek. Steve had noticed it but didn’t want to pry and it never came up in conversation. “Then when I was told that I was picked to go on this tour I had to change into these clothes since my over outfit was ruined from my fall. And these clothes have gotten a little tighter since the last time I wore them.” You admitted softly as you tugged on your button up blouse.

         Steve stares at you with slightly widened eyes as he watches your shirt pull across your chest and he quickly looks down to your pants that seem to hug your body like a second skin. Feeling another blush race up his neck he coughs and quickly turns his head away from you.

         “But then taking the tour and then being offered a job here by the Tony Stark. It’s probably the best thing to have happened to me today.” You continued explaining as you gestured with your hands in delight. Steve looks up at your words and frowns softly.

         “The only best thing that happened to you today?” Steve asks quietly and he suddenly feels downtrodden. But then you turn to him and place your hand on his forearm softly.

         “Well no. I mean the other best thing that happened today was that I met you and got to spend time getting to know you. But I didn’t want to sound weird by saying that.” You begin to ramble and Steve chuckles softly in understanding. You were just as affected as he was by whatever this was that was growing between the two of you. He stepped up closer to you and grabbed onto your flailing hands softly causing you to look up at him with wide eyes.

         “Good because that was the best thing that happened to me today.” He said softly with a crooked boyish smile directed at you. He watched as your eyes widened and your lips part in a silent gasp.

         “Oh.” You said softly and then again. “Oh.” This time it was said with understanding and you bashfully looked down at your hands in his with a blush coloring the back of your neck.

         “I had a great time with you today Data.” Steve said softly to you and you grinned looking up at him. Now or never. “I’d actually like to take you out to dinner or coffee if you’re up to it?” He asked grimacing slightly as he waited for the rejection.

         “I don’t drink coffee but I’d love to go to dinner with you.” You responded grinning widely. Steve huffed out a breath he had been holding in and smiled with relief.

         “Then it’s a date.” He said in a rush and the two of you grinned at each other easily.

         “It’s a date.” You repeated and Steve nodded his head. Just then the elevators opened and Tony stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

         “Oh good there you are. Did Capsicle finally grow the balls to ask you out?” Tony asked out teasingly and you chuckled softly as Steve frowned over at him.

         “Tony.” Steve warned lowly and you patted his forearm softly in reassurance.

         “Do you have your phone Steve?” you ask turning to him quickly while holding one finger up to Tony. Steve nodded and dug his phone out of his pocket. He handed it to you and watched as you quickly typed away on it. “How do you still have this ancient thing?” you griped softly as you ducked your head down to see his phone. Tony barked out a laugh and Steve shook his head at you while you blushed and grimaced over to him. “Sorry.”

         “You’re lucky I’m not making you write it in my little book.” Steve said to you teasing as he leaned closer.

         “Like a little black book?” you asked teasing him right back. Tony chuckled at the two of you as you handed Steve back his phone. “There all done. Now you’ve got my number so you can call me to set up a time and place.” Steve stared at you in awe and Tony chuckled appreciatively at you. “I’ll see you later Steve.” You said kindly and waved as you walked onto the elevator with Tony.

         It took Steve a minute but then he nodded at you as he smiled warmly. The elevator doors closed silently then and Steve grinned widely. He had a date. 

[chickennoodlesoupfortae]

BACKSTAGE LOVE

TAEHYUNG (V) x Reader

Word count; 2.6 k

Warnings: absolutely none pure fluff

brief summary: You go to a BTS concert with your friend who is super into them and get pulled for a security check and end up being mistaken for an intern and meet Taehyung.

A/N: Ok go easy on me this is my first one shot on a member so it’s trash but bear with me.

Summary: You get invited to see BTS at their concert in your city by a friend. In a turn of events, you end up being rushed backstage mistaken for a crew member that is where you meet Taehyung. Major angst eventual fluff.

   Concerts they weren’t your thing, it wasn’t that you hated them it was just they were so loud and filled with adoring fans that became a little too excited. The whole thing really gave you anxiety but your friend (y/b/f/n) had invited you to come with her months ago so here you were in her car on the way to the stadium.

“You know we can always turn back around and sell our tickets,”  you said half-jokingly.

“Come on (y/n) it’ll be a lot of fun plus I got us pretty good tickets,” she gave you a sly smile that had your stomach turning “actually I wasn’t gonna tell you cause I knew you wouldn’t have agreed to come if I did, but they were just so cheap and you know how much I love them…” Her sentence began to trail off.

“What? Just say it,” you exclaimed already scared of what she was gonna say.

“Just keep in mind that I love you and you love me so you can’t be mad. I got us floor tickets, they aren’t the closest ones but they’re pretty good.” she smiled as she pulled out tickets and handed them to you.

“(y/b/f/n)  I told you I didn’t want to be on the floor, you know how wild it gets and I don’t even really know the chants what if the people get mad and…”

“Oh, hush (y/n) you know how many people would kill for these seats? Save the pity party for later.” you looked out of the window as the stadium came into view.

You had known your friend for a really long time and she was your favourite person in the whole world and you loved her and all and sometimes she could be a little pushy and disregard your comfort zones. This was one of those times.

“Okay, it’s okay. I am going to go to this concert with you and I am going to have fun and not get scared.” you looked over at your friend as you tried to calm yourself down. “I love you, even though you can be a bitch sometimes” you both laughed as she parked the car. You stepped outside into the typical weather of your hometown. You took a deep breathe as you saw the hordes of people waiting to get inside. “That’s a lot of people…”

“Don’t worry (y/n) our entrance is around the corner there will definitely be fewer people”

You both began to walk around the crowds until you saw a checkpoint. “Look there are at least two hundred people there ugh” you sighed as you made your way over to the security checkpoint.

“Hello miss do you have any bags on you?” the security guard was at least six inches taller than you and gave you a warm smile.

“Oh, no sir we didn’t bring any bags” you looked down at the ground

“Okay ma’am walk through the metal detector and you’re all set.” He motioned for your friend to go first and she walked through waiting for you on the other side. You walked through the detector and it started to beep. Immediately a couple of guards were alerted. You were panicking, you didn’t have anything illegal on you and then you remembered your necklace.

“I’m so sorry sir I forgot that I had my necklace on” you pulled it out from under your shirt looking up to show him.

“I’m sorry ma’am but we have to take you to get searched before you can enter the venue, it’s just protocol.” This was exactly what you feared, things like this always happened to you. You sighed and followed the guard as he led you to the security booth.

“(y/n) here’s your ticket I’ll meet you inside.” your friend handed it to you from behind and before you could ask her to wait she was gone.

A lady came and escorted you to another location within the stadium. “First time coming here?” she asked you in a sweet tone as she began to pat you down

You stumbled for words “umm no, but it’s my first time seating on the floor for a concert.” she gave a thumbs up to a guard about a hundred feet away and then looked at you.

“Okay miss I think we’re all good here you can go head to your seat have a great time.”

You began to walk away from trying to head in the direction of where you had entered but you had been to disorientated earlier to see. You let out a groan as you failed to find the entrance. “Ugh where am I?” you thought out loud but before you could think someone grabbed your shoulder.

“You’re the new intern.” before you could say anything the lady answered for you. “Next show you need to be here on time okay? I will not tolerate this more than once. Here what’s your name? Oh, wait  I have it here, ms. miller.” she talked so fast you couldn’t get a word in. I’ll call you by your first name but you shall address me as Ma’am okay Anna? Okay, follow me” you didn’t know what to do, she started talking again as she speed walked through people and grabbed a pass. “Here A, I’ll call you A for short, you’ll need this at all times in order to get backstage or you’ll get kicked out. You’ll be working for me and I work for the guys and they work for both of our bosses so whatever they say goes. Got it? Of course, you got it now go in here and fetch seven water bottles and come in here when you’re done” She slammed the door to a room and you instantly heard clapping a light laughs.

You needed to get out and quick before you got into any sorta trouble or got even further into this situation. You were soon pushed into a storage room. “Here are the waters” another employee informed you. You were lost and scared so all you did was do as the boss had told you and grabbed seven water bottles, you could hear the roar of the show.

“Oh my lord what time is it?” you quickly looked down at your watch. It was seven minutes till the show began “(y/b/f/n) is gonna be so mad “ you whispered under your breath as you found the room the lady had walked into. As you opened the door you were shocked to find that it was at least triple the size you had thought “um here ma’am are your water bottles” her eyes went wide

“A, those” she looked behind her to the seven other people in the room, you had hardly noticed them until now. “They are for them, A” she let out a weak laugh. You didn’t even work for the lady and she scared you.

“It’s fine here let me take them” a soft voice from behind responded to your silence

“Ohh I’m sorry here” you began to walk towards the person.

He was tall and had soft eyes and a boxy smile, he was gorgeous. You felt your face get warm and then got emmbarsed which made it worse. “Here sir sorry” your voice came out weak and a bit broken, you were scolding yourself in your mind you usually weren’t that affected by guys let alone a stranger.

“It’s fine no need to worry sweetie” he grabbed all the water bottles.

“That’ll be all A. You can go wait for me outside” the boss motioned you out of the room.

What were you doing you wondered to yourself? This was a bad situation you needed to get out quick before the real intern came. You began to walk to another employee hoping to ask them where you could exit when your phone rang.

“(y/n) where are you the shows starting” your best friend yelled into her phone half because of the noise on her end and anger.

“Sorryyy (y/b/f/n). I’m lost I’m trying to get to you just stay where you are I’ll ask someone for directions” you hung up the phone before she could say anything. You felt someone tap your shoulder and spun around. “Hey wh-” before you could finish your sentence you saw the guy from inside the practice room, he was a little too close for comfort. “I’m so-”

“Are you lost?” he had obviously heard your conversation.

“Umm yeah actually I am.” you were trying to think of a story. “I need to get to the crowd sorry”

“What’s your name,” He asked you ignoring your question. His eyes peered into your soul, he was at least a couple of inches taller than you and was looking down.

“its-umm-(y/n)” you responded

“I’m taehyung, you can call me tae though,” he told you in a sweet tone. You realized who you were talking too and were trying not to freak out. “You said you needed to get to the crowd…”

“Yeah, I need to meet someone in these seats” you rummaged through your pockets and grabbed your ticket. “Here. I just need to find my way out of here.” he looked at the tickets and started walking.

“Come follow me (y/n) these are kinda far away I’m sure I can get better ones for you. So where are you from what brings you here to the internship on our tour?” you were thinking of what to respond it wasn’t like you could just say you weren’t supposed to be here it might scare him. He could think you snuck in.

“I’m from (your hometown) born and raised. I wanted to experience a little of what the entertainment industry is like for idols” you weren't lying the k pop lifestyle had always intrigued you since you weren’t from Korea and grew up in a different culture. You were walking pretty slow just following his pace.

“What about the industry intrigued you y/n” he gave you a look that made your heart skip a beat.

“Well I mean the whole process and the international scale at which the fandoms are. It’s different than a lot of other countries music industries. For example, American artist work very hard and usually are able to sell out medium size venues overseas but idol groups can sell out entire stadiums in countries that don’t even understand most of the music. I mean I don’t know.” you were kicking yourself for going on too long he probably was just being polite.

“I get what you’re saying. I’ve been doing this for a long time now and it’s still hard to understand why we’ve become such a phenomenon. I would probably be in Korea farming now if I hadn't signed into Big Hit It’s really humbling to see people care so much about our group. You’re gonna be here for a while I’d be happy to help give you a deeper view into the life of the group.” he sounded like he was finding a reason to talk to you more.

“Yeah thanks, I’d like that.” you looked at him giving him a soft smile.

“Here walk through that door and there should be a guard who helps the staff I have to head back I’ve already been gone too long and hoseok will have my head if I miss the last dance run through. But first, give me your number, I’d like to talk again soon” he gave you his heart-shaped smile. You grabbed his phone and put your name in. “tell them that tae said to get you better seats and they’ll work it out. It was nice meeting you (y/n) I’ll text you soon” he turned away as you waved goodbye.

You walked through the doors and allowed yourself to come to terms with what had just happened. You walked to the security guard and asked to be escorted and told her what tae told you to say. She took notice of your badge and pointed you to a manager of the venue who brought you out to get your friend. When you walked out you were shocked at how many people were there. You made eye contact with your friend and her mouth dropped open when she saw your badge and the worker escorting you through the people. You came up to her and whispered in her ear “don’t say anything I’ll tell you in a second.” you both were brought up to two seats near the catwalk part of the stage.

“Here miss (y/l/n) enjoy the show. They must have forgotten to give you these” She handed you an earpiece to block out noise and pager with a mini headset. “Click here to turn on here to mute and hear to turn off” you immediately put the pager on mute so no one would hear you and turned it off.

“ what in the actual hell happened (y/n) you put on the earpiece to hear what was going on backstage. You leaned forward to whisper and so you could hear each other.

“I don’t even know they checked me and I got lost and then some lady said I must be the intern gave me a badge and then I meet him and he said to get better tickets and here we are.”

“Wait who did you meet. I swear if you’re stealing my bias. You will catch these hands.” you laughed

“No trust, jimin is safe from me I didn’t see him. I just talked to tae.” you were going to go on until you heard a final roll call for the show to start. “It’s starting to shush” The background music to their first song started.

The next few songs played and your friend died when jimin came near your end and greeted her. The entire time you were looking at tae as he did his dance. The next song was his solo.

He walked from side to side doing the choreo and singing his heart out. Your friend leaned in closer. “I can’t believe you got to meet Jesus on the low” you started laughing

“Jesus asked for my number too” your friend died she pushed you and started laughing

“How could you not lead with that (y/n)” he started walking towards your side

“Shut up (y/b/f/n) act cool for once” The song ended as tae bent down to talk to an army next to you asking them how they were. He then looked at you.

“(y/n) I see they treated you well” he smiled “Is this who you had to meet?” Your friend jumped in

“Hi my name is (y/b/f/n).” he smiled and then looked back at you.

“Enjoy the show (y/n) I’ll see you after the show” he stood up

“Yeah bye” he walked away

“Wow (y/n) he is whipped for you let me just say I am jealous period.”

A/N=this is part one I hope you liked it!

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Psycho-Pass, Day 2, Episodes 7-11

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, the game is afoot! In which the big bad finally becomes an enemy worth facing, Ginoza’s assholery gains some critical shades of nuance, and I complain about the show’s increasingly apparent sexism, because at this point what else did you expect from me?

Makishima and Self-Determination

Okay, I accept defeat on this one. Last time, I said that the silver-haired prick Makishima, the guy who killed Kogami’s friend back in the day and is behind this recent string of murders, wasn’t really interesting, and urged the show to make him interesting real soon. These five episodes are basically an extended build-up, watching Makushima lurk in the background and drive the lesser villain’s actions until the plot machinations finally bring him and Akane into each other’s lines of fire. And damn if they didn’t deliver, because once the pieces are in place and Makishima finally gets his moment in the spotlight, he becomes a legitimately terrifying villain. And what makes him so terrifying is that Makishima’s philosophy is basically a realization of all my previous criticisms of this society, the Resistance(tm) if the moral brakes were turned off.

In the broadest strokes, Makishima believes in the force of personal will as the true nature of humanity. He detests the Sybil System for essentially pushing people through their lives one pre-ordained checkpoint at a time, leaving them no room to decide for themselves what they want out of their lives. We’ve already seen plenty of evidence to agree with him on that point, but the show gives us more still with the idea that in this world, self-care and security had become so omnipresent that some people just lose the will to really live and spend their days in an almost vegetative state, lacking the stressors that inspire one to take action. Makishima gravitates towards those with the intense strength of will to act on their own, no matter how destructive they may be. A high school girl who continues her father’s work of painting the grotesque to shock society out of its comfort zone, a man who made himself entirely cybernetic as a means of living forever and finds passion in old-fashioned hunting... these are the pawns in his game of chess. he takes pleasure in observing their actions, giving them the tools necessary to carve their individuality into this city’s scalp. Once they are no longer willing to act on that passion, they are discarded, replaced. No one and nothing matters but his desire to see humanity exert its independent will.

And what’s freaky is that “unorthodox” methods aside, he’s completely right. I’ve talked a lot before about how fucked up this society is, how it doesn’t make sense to mark out people on exploitable algorithms and determine whether they live or die from that. And Makishima proves this by beating the system: he doesn’t register a high Crime Coefficient on Sybil’s system, so the Dominator guns won’t shoot him. He exists in the same tactile world of the displays of dismembered school girls and grizzly hunts he orchestrates through his benefactors. The system this whole society has built its life around can’t touch him. Which means he’s free to leave whatever scars he so wishes upon it. And with no basic human empathy to stop him, anyone in his path is a potential target. Even Akane’s classmate.

In every Urobuchi project I’ve watched, there’s been a moment where I go from interested to utterly absorbed. In Madoka, it was Homura’s first tearful breakdown in episode 8. In Fate/Zero, it was the epic two-episode battle that kicked off season two. And in Psycho-Pass, it seems like it will be Akane unable to save her friend, forced to reckon with the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to save her from a system that inadvertently condemned her to death. The die is cast. The battle has begun. And we’ve got one hell of a mastermind to take down. Kogami, Akane, everyone else, I wish you luck. You’re gonna need it.

Ginoza’s Struggle

In other news, we’ve gotten to know Ginoza a little better, placing his stubborn refusal to buck the system in a dark new light. It’s seeming less like a refusal to change and more like a defense mechanism. In the time before Enforcers were a thing, it was common for detectives to be so affected by the stress of their jobs that the system registered them as latent criminals. And that’s what happened to Ginoza’s dad. First his father, then his partner. Two people he cared about lost to this fucking awful system. And unlike Akane, he doesn’t try to fight it. He just tries to survive it. That’s why he’s so defensive about Akane hanging out with the Enforcers; he’s lost too many people close to him to trust she won’t fall into the same trap.

Ginoza may be an asshole, but he’s an understandable asshole, driven to his assholery by pain and self-preservation. That doesn’t make the moment where Akane chews him out for trying to step over her any less cathartic, nor the moment when Masaoka does the same. He’s still wrong, and if people are going to stop getting hurt by this broken system, it’ll be because someone has the balls to break it, not by everyone just trying to be a perfect little sheep and weather the storm. But maybe he’s starting to learn; he apologized to Kogami for doubting him about Makishima’s return, recognizing the wisdom in his former friend. Maybe he’ll get there eventually.

The Girls Are Not Alright

And now, we come to the annual TABW tradition of complaining about how the show he’s watching lets its women down. Only this time, my frustrations take a slightly different form. See, Psycho-Pass doesn’t really have fanservice in the way a lot of other anime do; the Buch is smart enough to recognize that such juvenile nonsense would make a mockery of his otherwise extremely dark and serious story. But the way it treats and frames women still carries sexist attitudes of a much different, yet no less insidious stripe. This is the edgy, more detective-noir specific kind of sexism, where the darkness and cruelty of the world at large is reinforced with as many artfully constructed depictions of sexual menace and assault as it can possibly fit in.

There were shades of this in earlier episodes as well; hell, the first episode was focused on a random, nameless woman being completely powerless against a would-be rapist. But it becomes pretty damn inescapable here. The hacked-up school girls are framed with bosoms glistening in the fresh blood, hips artfully curved to hide vagina lines. The murderer herself gets a scene where she’s nude in bed, a similarly nude corpse by her side, her breasts barely hidden by the covers while she opines on why she does the things she does. Akane’s friend is forced to strip down to her panties by a potential criminal who doesn’t even bother explaining why until after the fact, and when Makishima later captures her and hangs her life in the balance to taunt Akane, he yanks her shirt down to expose as much naked back as he can, as well ensure that her cleavage is even more prominently visible against her low-cut night shirt. It’s not fanservice in the sense that you’re supposed to want to masturbate to it, but it still disempowers its female characters and presents their sexuality as something for our (meaning guys) consumption, masking its leering, predatory eye under the guise of gritty realism. It tries to make it “okay” to exploit these women’s sexual humiliation from as many angles as possible by pretending there’s a point behind it that couldn’t be made with less ugly, outdated signifiers.

Sorry, but I don’t buy that. Trivializing such a traumatic real-world thing for cheap shortcuts to genuine darkness is juvenile in the extreme. Psycho-Pass has done a fantastic job of organically building a bleak, uncomfortable world with its themes and ideas; it doesn’t need to fall back on this lazy, offensive trope to compensate for anything. Do better, show. Please.

Odds and Ends

-That said, Akane’s obvious thirst for Kogami’s glorious abs legitimately had me chuckling.

-Some dialogue moments in this stretch felt a liiiittle too over-explainy, like the first season of Fate/Zero often struggled with. Hopefully this won’t become a trend.

-You know, I don’t think that’s quite what feminism wanted, Oryo. Like, I appreciate the criticism of the system that impresses “chastity” and “purity” onto girls to make them perfect subservient wives, but generally the desired outcome should be less dead women, yes?

So max security doubles as a gas chamber that can kill all the super-latents if things get out of hand. Got it. Cool. This society is fucked up.

-Geez, that’s a body canvass alright.

-aksjdhaskjda Akane you are so bad at explaining things

-HI DEMON DOGS GET AWAY PLEASE

-So, how the fuck do those Holo clothes work? Like, is it a base clothing that the images are projected onto, or is everyone really just walking around naked with images surrounding them?

-God that cyborg man is fucking freaky. Well done on so expertly capturing the uncanny valley, animators.

-Also, your love for Ode to Joy seriously creeps me out, dude.

-That’s an interesting idea. We already rely so much on electronics for our daily lives, so who’s to say we’re not cyborgs already?

-Why the fuck would you make a pipe out your victim’s bones what the everlasting fuck

-That is one big-ass mousetrap.

-I do like the harsh primary color contrasts in the subway fight.

And that’s all for tonight. See you all next time as the next battle of the war begins!

[incomplete-nano-stash]

Welcome to Technasia Ch 19

              Princess Guerrania settled into her seat, tapping her fingertips on the table. “My friends, I appreciate that you made it to this meeting at such short notice, but I do apologize that it comes under such dire straits.”

              This got everyone on the edge of their seats immediately. Princess Hanna, uncharacteristically, was the first one to speak. “How dire are we talking, Your Majesty?”

              “Dire as in our security is at immediate risk, Hanna.” The Queen held up a missive. “This came from the official Litigian information bureau. Our neighbor to the south has a new King, and unfortunately that new ruler is Guent Halder.”

              Princess Jayne stroked her chin. “Why is that unfortunate?”

              “King, ah, Guent is known to be, ah, quite violent and, ah, impulsive,” Princess Anyia responded. “He has been, ah, known to use, ah, assassination and threats of violence to, ah, pass policy on, ah, his father’s behalf.”

              “On top of that,” the Queen continued, “I’ve faced him in war before. As a fifteen year old, Guent bullied his way into commanding a Litigian regiment during our last conflict. The tactics he used on the battlefield were no less than barbaric. He believes in scorched earth strategy, leave no man behind to tell the tale, total conquest, that sort of thing. Knowing what Litigia has in their arsenal, this is a highly dangerous situation with Guent on the throne.”

              Princess Hanna raised her hand shyly. “What about Thaylen? Would he be able to have an influence, maybe calm Guent down?”

              “Hardly,” Queen Guerrania responded. “When he and Lord Moethran asked for asylum, he specifically cited threats to his life by his brother as a reason for his wanting to flee. I think with his brother on the throne, it would only be a matter of time before Thaylen was humiliated, exposed, and killed, simply for his crime of being older than Guent.”

              Princess Anyia opened her archive. “King Guent is, ah, similar to a previous, ah, monarch Litigia has had, his, ah, grandfather Undric. Very, ah, similar in terms of, ah, their ferocity within, ah, their own borders and, ah, in warfare.”

              Queen Guerrania nodded. “I recall history lessons about the damage we took at the hands of Undric Halder.” The Queen folded the missive. “This is complicating everything going on within the nation, not the least of which being the investigation of the assassination attempts in the last week. And unfortunately, we can’t hear any progress on that from the Princess Law, since Ramia has taken Tuck and our Litigian guests with her on some kind of fact-finding mission.”

              The younger Princesses looked around at the others at the table. “I wish they were here. I found something at the docks, there were Litigian weapons being smuggled in on a ship that we confiscated earlier today.”

              The Queen stood up suddenly. “How many?”

              “Hard to say.” Princess Jayne pulled the bill of lading from the suspect vessel out of her pocket and laid it out on the table. “According to the waybill the ship was carrying six crates supplied by Poe Industries, which I was asked to watch out for by Princess Imogen.”

              Princess Anyia felt a shiver. “What, ah, did those, ah, crates contain, ah, Jayne?”               “I only broke open one, and the contents themselves broke when they hit the deck of the ship, but there were enough loose parts to build maybe four of those mini-ballistas like the one you guys had me carry into Tuck’s room.”

              Queen Guerrania nodded. “Understood.” She clapped twice, calling for one of her attendants, who came rushing up to the table. “Send an urgent missive to all border checkpoints. We will be increasing the manpower at the border, by at least two regiments at each checkpoint. Also, I need to institute a conscription order, we’ll need more troops if we’re going to defend against Guent’s brand of insanity.”

              “As you wish, Your Majesty.” The attendant bowed and left.

              “Is that really necessary?” Princess Hanna shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

              “I’m, ah, afraid so, ah, Hanna,” Princess Anyia responded before the Queen could. “Since we, ah, don’t keep our, ah, standing army numbers at, ah, Litigian levels we have to, ah, issue conscriptions when, ah, we anticipate a time of war.”

              “Don’t worry about what I’m doing,” Queen Guerrania interrupted. “Worry about your own corners of the nation. Anyia, you keep working your books. Jayne, keep working your docks.” The Queen turned completely to face Princess Hanna. “And Hanna, your job is twofold. First, you keep working your plants. Second, you find some way to get in touch with your sister and find out where the hell she is, why she took Tuck and the Litigians with her, and when they’re planning on getting back here. For all we know, we won’t be able to get them back depending on where they are.”

              The three Princesses nodded, rising from the table as their Queen did. “You have our, ah, loyalty,” Princess Anyia assured her Queen.

              “Good,” Queen Guerrania responded. “Let’s save our nation before things get too violent.”

                Their guide was surefooted through the brush and felled trees, but Tuck and Princess Ramia were not quite so while following him. The same was magnified for Firnian and Thaylen, who straggled far behind. The group had been working its way through the forest for what seemed like an hour, on the promise that they were headed for a village, although how they were going to carry any supplies back to their caravan was getting to be more and more of a quandary.

              “We’re almost there,” the guide assured the group. “Can’t miss it, look for the houses.”

              Tuck used her prosthesis to clear branches out from her way, finally looking up. Above the treeline, she spotted the peak of a roof. “Look, there! We really are almost there.”

              Princess Ramia looked up with the younger Princess. “Good, I need to clear my boots.” With renewed vigor, the group fought their way through the underbrush, finally emerging upon, to their surprise, a paved street. The house Tuck had spotted was the largest one on the street, although every house seemed fairly large, and all of them were in a state of disrepair. The center of the street had been converted to a meeting square, complete with a bonfire pit.

              What struck Firnian the hardest as she emerged helping Thaylen through were the people. All of them appeared to be ragged, many bore the scars of disease or violence. Even the children, what few there were, were haggard. One child in particular took an interest in Firnian and came up to her, handing her a ball.

              She crouched down to eye level with the child, a girl of no more than six years of age, with no hair and only half of her nose remaining. Her flesh was the same angry red, scarred with disease just like their guide’s. Firnian took the ball from the girl. “For me?”

              The girl smiled and nodded. “You’re so pretty. Are you a Princess, like Lady Giana?”

              Firnian chuckled. “I’m sorry, no, but thank you.” She looked up and saw three other children. “Here, you take this, and play with your friends.”

              The child blushed as she took the ball back from Firnian, bouncing it along as she ran back over to her friends, continuing their ballgame. As Firnian stood back up, Thaylen put his hand on her shoulder.

              “What?”

              “Have you ever considered motherhood?” Thaylen asked playfully.

              “Oh shut up,” Firnian scolded. “She came up to me, I just was being friendly.”

              “That was downright maternal,” Thaylen chuckled as he spoke. “Come on, let’s catch up with the others.”

              Firnian nodded, walking quicker alongside her lover to catch up with the two Princesses. As they caught up, they caught Princess Ramia’s question.

              “… you’re saying that everyone here recovered from the decade plague?”

              The guide nodded. “All of us were afflicted with it, and while we would recover and get better, others would get the plague, it would kill one or two, then go dormant and arise again.” The guide cleared his throat softly. “Princess Giana brought a younger one with her, really good with plants, and they developed a way to force the plague to go permanently dormant.”

              Tuck raised an eyebrow. “The younger one … good with plants … that was Princess Hanna, wasn’t it?”

              The guide nodded. “She always told me she didn’t want anyone to know she was on these missions. Said her sister would disapprove.”

              Princess Ramia harrumphed. “I wouldn’t have disapproved if she had just told me about it.”

              The guide raised what was left of his eyebrows. “You’re the sister?”

              “You’re damn right,” Princess Ramia retorted. “What was the big deal about keeping this secret?”

              “Because plaguebearers still hold a stigma, even in your enlightened nation,” a gruff voice interrupted. Everyone in the group turned their attention to the newcomer, a much older man, powerfully built, walking with a cane because most of his left foot was missing. He considered the group through long, white eyebrows grown out to nearly cover his eyes, his entire face drooping. “Stupid people, you can’t solve intolerance just by putting the women in charge, there’s always something for people to hate and be intolerant of no matter what. It just shifts.” The older man shuffled closer to the group. He came face-to-face with Tuck, chuffing breath in her face, his breath carrying the odor of not-quite-healed disease.

              Tuck coughed. “I’m sorry you feel that way, sir.”

              “It’s the truth though,” the old man barked. He approached Firnian, considered her, then came over to Thaylen. The old man peered deeply into the former Prince’s face, considering it for a long time. “You’re a Halder, aren’t you?”

              Thaylen swallowed hard “Um … yes I am? Or was, anyway?”

              The old man started chuckling, a high pitched warble that turned into full-throated laughter. He suddenly wrapped his arms around Thaylen, nearly picking him up off of the ground. Thaylen wriggled, trying to get free of the unwanted embrace.

              “Do … do you know this guy?” Firnian asked Thaylen finally.

              “I don’t think I do,” he responded.

              “But I know a Halder when I see one,” the old man responded. “I know family.” He turned back to the Princesses. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself, I am the premier of this village.” He extended his hand to Princess Ramia. “Your Highnesses, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Undric Halder.”

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

The Heaven We Didn’t Choose, Chapter 11: In Which Dinner is Delivered

...To a very hungry and very confused ambassador.

First: Chapter 1: In Which a Child Makes a Friend

Previous: Chapter 10: The Trouble With Letting Go

Next: Chapter 12: In Which Leaves are Crunched

Click here for the story overview.

Sans scrubbed at his bowl, giving a little grin when the cheese sauce came off without too much fuss.  That had been his mistake the first time they made mac ‘n cheese: he’d left the dishes for later, and had wound up getting in trouble with Boss when the sauce took too long to scrub off.

As long as he didn’t think about how much work he was doing it wasn’t too bad, really.  Attie usually followed him around everywhere and insisted on helping, so he didn’t have to do everything himself, either.

“Dry,” he said, handing the bowl off to his helper.  She took it from him, tongue between her teeth, and carefully rubbed a dry dish towel over it.

“Done!” she declared, placing it with over-exaggerated care on top of a small stack of other dishes.  “Can I wash the silverware?”

“Sure,” he said.  He peeled off his rubber gloves (he’d found out the hard way that food, water, and bones don’t mix well) and handed them over.  Attie swapped her towel for the gloves and carefully put them on, stretching her tiny fingers as far as she could into them.

The gloves went up to her elbows and were far too big for her hands, but there wasn’t much she could do to hurt the silverware.  She awkwardly fished a pair of spoons out of the dishwater, rubbed a dishcloth over them until the cheese sauce was gone, and tried to hand them to Sans.

“Rinse ‘em off,” he reminded her.

“Oh!  Right!”  She turned on the water and rinsed them off before handing them back to him for drying.

The little girl bounced impatiently on her toes, splattering tiny droplets of soap water across the kitchen, as Sans put the dry dishes away.  He looked at her for a long moment, tilting his head from one side to the other and tapping his jawbone.

“Ooookay.  I guess we’re done.”

“YAY!!!” The gloves flew off and landed on the floor halfway across the kitchen.  He retrieved them and tossed them back into the sink, listening for the telltale pitter-patter of feet that announced Attie’s presence.

She slid precariously into the dining room and scrambled onto the chair she’d claimed as hers, phone clutched in both hands.  “I can call Mommy now, right?”

“Sure.  But only for a few minutes; you’ve got more homework to do.”

“But it’s Friiiiiday!”

“Yeah, ‘n that means it’s the last day of school for the week.  But remember what Undie said: if you don’t finish on Friiiiiday, you have to do schoolwork on Saaaaaturday.”

Attie groaned in a way Sans knew wasn’t truly serious and dialled.  Her little feet kicked back and forth as she waited.

Her entire body crumpled after a moment, and Sans felt his own mood sink as well.  “She’s not picking up,” Attie said.

“She’s probably asleep again.  She needs lots of rest, remember?”

“Yeah.  But she was awake and talking to me earlier!”

“She sure was, but she might be tired again.  Remember when you woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago?  You went back to sleep after, right?”

“Yeah, but that was the middle of the night .  It’s the middle of the day right now.  Why is Mommy sleeping so much in the middle of the day?”

“You tell me.”

She sighed.  “Because she’s still sick after what the assassin lady did and she needs to sleep so she can heal up all nice and healthy.  That’s what you told me.  I still think she would heal faster if she was awake, though.”

“Do ya, now.”

“Yes.  Also, then I could go see her.”

“Well, let’s finish up the last bit o’ this schoolwork.  I’ll text her like always so she doesn’t worry; I’m sure she’ll text or call or somethin’ when she wakes up.  Okay?”

“Okaaaaay.”

The rest of the school day dragged by for Sans.  It wasn’t so much that the schoolwork was boring (at least, not any more than usual), but that Attie seemed to be entirely unable to focus.  Sans could empathize.  It seemed like a small eternity before she dragged out her paper and pencils and began to half-heartedly scribble some kind of picture for her art project.

Then Sans’s phone vibrated.

“Is it Mommy?”  Attie asked, nearly tripping over her chair in her mad dash for Sans’s seat at the table.

“Woah - hang on there, kid!  Gimme a sec.”  They both stared intently at the phone as the messaging app loaded.  Sure enough, the screen read:

Frisky Dreamer 4:45 PM Sorry I fell asleep.  Didn’t realize I was so tired.

The noise Attie made had his skull ringing.  “Okay, okay, settle down, alright?”

“MY MOMMY’S AWAKE!!!”

“Yeah.  Now do you wanna text her back or should I?”

“We both can!”

Sans sighed.

You 4:49 PM No problem I know the feeling

Frisky Dreamer 4:51 PM Is Attie there?  Is she okay? Oh.  Never mind.  She just texted me.

“Mommy wants to know if we’re both okay!”  Attie said.  “Can I take a picture of you?”

Sans hesitated.  He was absolutely certain that Frisk didn’t want anything to do with him.  “Uh, why don’t I just take a picture of you and send it to her?”

The kid rolled her eyes.  “Because she asked about both of us.  That means we have to send a picture of both of us.”

“Well, you’re outta luck; my phone doesn’t have one of those little cameras on the front.”

“That’s okay!  Mine does!”  She began scrambling up onto Sans’s chair, hampered by the fact that she couldn’t do much to move the skeleton currently sitting in it.

With a low grumble, Sans scooted away from the table far enough to lift Attie into his lap.  “There ya go.  Oh, wait a sec.”  The kid’s pigtails were looking a little lopsided.  He took the hair ties out and carefully re-gathered her hair, making sure not to pull to hard or get the fine strands caught in his phalanges.  “There.  Now you’re extra cute.  Happy?”

“Not yet; I still need to take the picture.  Smile and say ‘cheese!’”

“‘M always smiling, kid.”

She laughed.  “I mean a real smile.”

“You think you can tell the difference?”

“I know I can.  So smile really big like you’re happy, okay?”

He let his mouth fall into his default wide grin as the flash went off.  Attie hummed and examined the picture, frowning.

“That’s not a real smile, Mr. Sans.  We have to try again.”

She did try again.  Several times, in fact.  Finally, she came up with a picture that she declared “okay, but not great” and scooted off his lap to send it to her mother.

Sans caught a glimpse of it and felt his face growing a little red.  He really wasn’t photogenic, being a literal skeleton and all.  He wasn’t even sure what was going on with his mouth in that picture; it looked like he was scowling as much as smiling.

Frisky Dreamer 5:00 PM Not a fan of the camera?

You 5:00 PM SO Can we come visit today or r u 2 tired?

Frisky Dreamer 5:02 PM You can come.  Might want to check with the guards, though. Oh, and why do you use textspeak only half the time?  I know you can text in full sentences.

You 5:07 2 much werk Work

Frisky Dreamer 5:09 PM ...Right. By the way, can I ask a favor?

You 5:11 PM Whats it worth 2 u?

Frisky Dreamer 5:12 PM Add it to my tab. Can you bring some food in? Probably need to sneak it in; the docs don’t like outside food.

You 5:15 PM Uh sure Whaddaya want?

Frisky Dreamer 5:17 PM Something not too rich or smelly.  I’d go for plain bread at this rate.

You 5:19 PM I’ll see what i can do

He looked through the cupboards.  Undyne and Boss had gone on a competitive shopping trip a few days ago so there were groceries, but once again it was an eclectic mix of gourmet noodles and random ingredients he was pretty sure they had selected for the packaging more than the contents.  With a grin on his face, he grabbed a few things from the cupboard and a leftover container from the fridge, then stuck them in his inventory.

“Hey, kid, wanna head out?”

There was a pause, then Attie looked up from her phone. “What?”

“Wanna go see your mom?”

“YES!”  She dashed off to get ready.

A few minutes later they appeared outside Ebott Medical Pavilion, hand in hand.  Attie had adapted well to teleporting over the past week; she barely seemed to notice it anymore.

“You remember the way to your mom’s room?”

She thought for a moment.  “I think so?”

“Go ahead and take us there.”

“But what if I get lost?”

“I’ll be right here; I can ‘port us back outside if we get really stuck.  Okay?”

“...Okay.”

She did pretty well, all things considered.  She went down the wrong hallway after leaving the elevator (it was confusing; the hallways really did all look the same) but she was resourceful enough to correct herself after realizing that the room numbers were wrong.  Finally, they arrived at the new and improved security checkpoint outside Frisk’s room.

“I did it!” she said, bouncing on her toes.

“Yeah.  Great job.”

“Can I give your ID to Mr. Lesser Dog?”

Sans eyed the aforementioned canine, who was wagging his tail hard enough to knock them both over.  “Uh, sure.  Just watch for the-”

Thump.

“...You okay there?”

Attie picked herself back up and dusted off the knees of her jeans.  “I’m fine!”

Lesser Dog whined and leaned over, realizing that he’d hurt one of the few humans he liked.  Attie smiled and reached up on her tiptoes to give him a brief and gentle scratch behind the ears.

Beside him, Doggo shifted in what looked like a nicotine deprivation dance, but Sans knew better.

“Can I pet you too, Mr. Doggo?” the kid asked.

He thought it over for a moment, then leaned over with a long sigh.  Attie giggled.  Sans knew that Doggo wanted to be pet just as much as Lesser Dog did, he just would rather give up dog treats for life than admit it.

Literally.  The question had, actually, come up once or twice.

*Bone friend and little pup good boys,* Lesser Dog woofed, handing Sans back his ID.  *Can go in to see sick momma puppy.*

“Thanks, LD,” Sans said, giving the dog a scratch under his chin.  He snorted when the dog’s neck extended a little.  “You keep a good watch, yeah?”

*Lesser Dog and packmate Doggo will watch very good!  Dogs are good boys!  Won’t let anyone smelly past!  More pets?*

“Maybe on the way out, pal,” he said, steering a giggling Attie into the hospital room.  He didn’t want a repeat of what happened the last time they’d seen Lesser Dog on duty; it had taken hours to get his neck back to a reasonable length, and he’d been growling and snapping at everyone in sight the whole time.

Frisk, thankfully, was still awake.  “Made it past the attack dogs?” she asked with a smirk.

“Yyyup!”  Attie said, bouncing on her toes.

“C’mere, you.”

Attie ran at her mother, skidding to a stop just short of the hospital bed before gingerly crawling onto it to give her a hug.  “I missed you,” she mumbled into Frisk's shoulder.

“I missed you too, baby boo.”

They sat like that for a moment, and Sans shifted awkwardly.  He felt like he was intruding.

There was a funny rumbling noise, and Frisk’s face started to turn pink.  Sans grinned; after living with a little human shadow for a week and a half, he knew that sound.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Maybe.  A little.”

Sans dug into his inventory and, with an elaborate flourish, pulled out a plastic fork and…

“...Tuna?”  Frisk’s voice was almost a full octave higher than normal.  She looked a little sick.  “I ask for something bland and low-profile, and you bring me...a can of tuna.”

“I cod not pass up the opportunaty."

Attie wiggled off the bed and stomped over to her babysitter.  “Mr. Sans, stop being silly with my mommy!”

“Heh.  Sorry, kid.”  He patted her right between her pigtails, then put the can back in his inventory.  After a moment of poking around, he withdrew the leftover container.  “Wanna show your mom what you made?”

“Yes!”  She grabbed the container and the fork he offered her and presented them both to her mother.  “We made macncheese, like I told you.  I think this is our best one yet!  We had to go to the store last night for extra cheese because Mr. Boss doesn’t like to buy cheese, so it’s suuuper fresh!”

“The only bread we had in the house was hot dog buns,” he explained, shrugging.

Frisk gave him a long look, carefully opened the container, and grinned.  “It looks great, Attie.  Thank you so much!”

“You’re so welcome!  Mr. Sans helped, too.  You should say ‘thank you so much’ to him, too.”

Sans opened his mouth to say that it really wasn’t necessary, but-

“Thank you so much, Sans.”

“Heh.  It’s nothin’.”

“I mean it.  Thank you, Sans.  Thank you for everything.  Including, of course, the mac and cheese.”

His eye sockets met hers, and he felt a jolt of...something.  Surprise, definitely.  Frisk...she hated him, right?  Heck, he deserved it!  But..she looked really, genuinely grateful.  When was the last time someone (besides Attie) had thanked him?  “I...uh, you’re welcome.”

They both looked away at the same time.

“Mommy?”  Attie piped up.  “Why is your face all pink like you’re embarrassed?”

“Um…”

“Oh!  Do you wanna kiss Mr. Sans?”

“ATLAS HOPE DREEMURR!”

Sans pulled the hood of his jacket up, knowing full well it wasn’t nearly as effective as he hoped.  This kid…

“Is that a ‘no?’  Undie says the blushing thing means you’re embarrassed or you want to kiss someone.”

Frisk gave a noise that sounded like a growl and took a few quick bites of the mac ‘n cheese.  “This is really great,” she said, a touch too loudly.  “You’ve gotten really good at this, Attie.”

The kid gave a devious little smile.  “Thanks,” she said, patting her mother’s hand.  “It’s okay.  You don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready.”

Sans coughed.  “Attie, listen to yer mom.”

“But she didn’t tell me to do anything!”

“Didn’t you ask me not to tease ‘er?  She’s still sick.  Stop bein’ so…” he waved a hand in the general direction of the woman he was not looking at.  “...silly.”

Attie sighed.  “Okay.  Sorry, Mommy, for embarrassing you.  Sorry to you also, Mr. Sans.”

“‘Tsokay.”

“You’re forgiven.”  Frisk dug into the mac ‘n cheese with the air of someone desperately hungry, but wanting to make her food last.

“We can make more,” Attie said, watching her mother closely.  “I didn’t know your tummy was so empty or we could have made some more before we left.  Right, Mr. Sans?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“But we didn’t know.  Mr. Sans said they would probably give you some sugar ‘n stuff through the bag thingies, and that you would get enough water that way, but I don’t think that counts as eating for real.”

Frisk hummed.  “I agree.  This is much more pleasant.”

Sans coughed into his hand.  “So why’d you want us to bring ya food?  Don’t they feed you here?”

“Well...yes.  It’s just...hmm.”  She took a few more bites, eyes narrowed in thought.  “Do you know my doctor?  Dr. Ray?”

“Yeah...I’ve met ‘im.”

“What’s your opinion?”

He looked at her, not sure where this was going.  Why was she being so...friendly?  Was this a trap?  Frisk could switch from friendly to aggressive very quickly when she wanted to.  “I.  Uh.  He’s a doctor?”

“Your honest opinion.  I think...well, I want to hear what you think of him.”

He sighed.  “I think the guy’s an asshole.  He doesn’t think much’ve other folks; doesn’t seem like it’s aimed at monsters particularly, though.  He just doesn’t like people he thinks are...hmm.  Lesser than him?  ‘M not sure how he decides that - education level, maybe? - but if you don’t fit his criteria, he thinks you’re basically worthless.

“He might not be aware of it.  He certainly thinks he’s right all - or at least most - of the time, and being aware of such a huge character flaw would puncture his ego.  He probably just thinks that he knows better than other people, and they should listen to him because he’s a doctor.  He seems alright at his job for all that; it’s probably a point of pride to do well.”

Frisk nodded.  “Do you think he’s a liar?  What reason would someone like him have to lie?”

“Depends on the lie.”  He studied her face.  She looked...wary.  What did all this have to do with food?  Had someone threatened her?  At least she could defend herself, probably better than he could...now that she was conscious, anyways.  “He might lie to protect himself or his job.  If he made a mistake, he might want to cover it up.  Doesn’t strike me as the type to lie for someone else, though, unless it suited his purposes or helped him somehow.”

“So you don’t think he’s malicious.”

“Not unless you’re a threat to him.  What he’d do if he thought you were tryin’ to hurt his reputation or upstage him…’m not sure.  But in general?  Like I said, guy’s an asshole.  ‘Course, I haven’t had any huge soul-searching conversations with the guy.  Could be completely wrong ‘bout him.”

“I don’t think so.”  She laid her fork into the empty container firmly.  “Sans, I haven’t given you enough credit.  You really are a lot more observant than you think.  I appreciate your input on this.”

He shuffled his feet a little.  It wasn’t...it was just how he was, how he’d survived so long on his own with a little brother to look after, not anything special.  “Tch…’ts nothin’.  What’s all this about?  And what’s it got to do with food?”

“Dr. Ray was acting strangely when I first woke up this afternoon.  I pressed the call button and he walked in instead of one of the nurses.  He told me that I’d been unconscious due to an accidental overdose.  He followed that up by being weirdly insistent that I eat, and...call me paranoid, but I didn’t trust him not to ‘accidentally’ add something extra to my food.”

His grip on his magic slid a little, and he felt his eye burn.  An accident?  Attie had been separated from her mother, unsure of whether she’d live or die...and the doctor was calling it an accident??

He couldn’t believe it.  And from the look on Frisk’s face, she didn’t believe it either.

“Calm down,” she said.  “There’s nothing we can do now.  He said that the matter was being handled, and that it wouldn’t happen again.  Of course, then he tried to take my phone.”

“What?  Why would he do that?”

“Consider this.  If you’re right, and he was trying to protect himself - his reputation, his job, whatever - he wouldn’t want me communicating with people who knew the truth, at least until he could run damage control.  Make sure he got his story straight. I assume someone does know the truth?”

“Uh, yeah.  Attie ‘n I were just leavin’ when you were...attacked.”

“Wait, so I was attacked?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No!”

Attie gave a wet sniffle.  “It was really scary.  There was an assassin lady and somehow she got past the dogs, but she was wearing the nurse clothes.  Sponges?”

“Scrubs,” he corrected.

“Right.  She was wearing the nurse scrubs, but she was on your bed and you were trying to get her off of you and she put some kind of poison medicine into your bags.  Then she started fighting Mr. Sans even though you told him not to fight her, but I think that’s okay because he didn’t let me get hurt.  Not even a little bit!”

Frisk looked at her daughter for a long moment, gripping her arms like she wasn’t sure the kid was really in one piece.  Then she looked over at Sans.  “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

He did.  He explained how he’d tried to contact Frisk on the day of the incident, but how she’d been unresponsive most of the day and asleep when they’d arrived.  He told her how they’d been kicked out of the room by the nurse.  He considered telling her that the nurse had made him uneasy, but...he didn’t want to make it sound like he was some kind of hero.

Instead, he played up Attie’s concerns: how she’d been worried, and had insisted they go back to the room.  The actual fight he described as factually as he could: the order of events, what he knew of the nurse’s movements, and the arrival of the dogs.

Frisk nodded along, looking a little overwhelmed.  “I...don’t remember any of that,” she said, finally.  “I remembered weird flashes of emotion, but nothing detailed or reliable.  I mostly just recall...burning?”  She rubbed her arm above where the needles were taped to her arm.

“I believe it.  Alphys ‘n some of the human doctors are still tryin’ to figure out everything that was in that bag the nurse hooked you up to.  They think she may’ve dosed you with something over time as well, but gotten impatient when it didn’t work as fast as she wanted.”

“She was a nurse, then.”

“Yeah.  ‘M kinda out of the loop, but I did a little digging on my own.  She was employed by the hospital as of three weeks ago, at least.”

“How do you know?”

“The local paper ran a story about the hospital and she was one of the nurses interviewed.  Gave her name as Graciela Lira, though I heard rumors that might not be her real name.  ‘Ts hard to tell; she apparently was a foster kid at some point, so her paper trail’s a bit hard to follow.  No one expected her to go after you, though.”

“Interesting.  Let me guess: she’s a monster specialist.”

“Worse.  Monster pediatric specialist.”

Frisk gripped Attie a little tighter.  “And...they still let her practice here?”

“Well, not right now.  Attie ‘n I saw the whole thing, as did Alphys’s security cameras; whatever the hospital told Undyne, she pushed back hard with evidence.  She’s got the nurse - whatever her name is - in custody.”

“Good.  I wouldn’t want someone like that around children.”

This was definitely outside Sans’s comfort zone.  It was almost like they were allies or something.  Granted, Frisk was probably still high on painkillers, but she wasn’t being nearly as aggressive as she usually was, even after his little joke earlier with the can of tuna.

Was this how Ambassador Frisk Dreemurr treated people she could actually stand to be around?  If so, he wanted to-

-DEFINITELY not do anything, especially after Attie’s stupid comments earlier.

He coughed.  “Well, hopefully you, uh, don’t go through that again.  The Guard’ll hold her until you feel better so you can interrogate her yourself.”

“...The human government is just letting this happen?”

“Yeah, not sure why.  My guess is they want something from us; your mom’s been in meetings all day, every day.”

It was traditional among monsters for the victim of an attack (or, in the case of a child, the victim’s guardian) to be the chief interrogator when bringing the attacker to justice.  The human government tended to frown on the practice, what with the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing they believed in, but they had been strangely accommodating in this case.  Either there was something about this lady that would’ve been dragged to light in a human court system or they were using her as a bargaining chip to get what they wanted out of Tori.  The Queen of Monsters was notoriously vindictive towards anyone who harmed her family, to the point where it clouded her judgement.

“...Sans?”

“Hmm?  Sorry.  Just...thinkin’.”

“Anything important?”

It still sat oddly with him that Frisk - of all people - was asking for his input.  “Just...theories.  Can’t prove anything.  It just...nothing about this seems right.  The timing of the attack, the way it was planned, the person who carried it out...and now what that doctor told you; it doesn’t add up.”

“If it was planned, it was done quickly.  Very quickly.  Either that, or…well.”

Or she didn’t really have appendicitis.  It was unlikely, from what he read, but still.  Either situation was worrying. Was it easier to induce a medical condition or to organize an assassination attempt in a matter of days?

“Are you done with grown-up talk?”  Attie asked, wiggling impatiently on the bed.

Frisk laughed.  “For now.  Sorry.”

“Can I show you my pictures?  I made you a whole lot while you were sleeping.”

“Sure!  Show me what you’ve got.”

It took almost a full hour for Attie to go through all the pictures she’d made.  Most of them, to Sans’s eternal embarrassment, featured him in some way.  And of course, each one had a story.

“This is Mr. Sans when he accidentally put his shirt on inside out and backwards because he was so sleepy.  You can see the tag on the front.  Oh!  And this is when we went to the park with Undie, and Mr. Sans tried to swing and fell off.  That’s why he’s on the ground.  I thought he was hurt, but he wasn’t.  This one is Mr. Sans and I drinking our juice after training.  It tastes reeeeeally bad…”

And so on.

“All of them look wonderful,” Frisk said after Attie had arranged the pictures back into a stack.  “I’m glad you’re doing well.”

“Me too.  I was worried I’d miss you a lot, and I did, but it was also fun doing schoolwork with Mr. Sans.  He knows a lot ‘bout science!  Do you think he can help me with my science sometimes after you’re better?”

Sans tensed.  As busy as he’d been, he’d almost forgotten that Attie wasn’t going to be in his life forever.  Frisk was going to heal, then she’d take her daughter home.  And he’d probably never see either of them again outside official functions.  After all, he’d seen Attie only two or three times in seven years, not including the time she’d been living with him.

All Frisk said was, “We’ll see.”

Which, in his experience, pretty much meant “no.”

It didn’t matter, he told himself as Attie chattered on about something.  He hadn’t even wanted to watch the kid in the first place.  He’d be glad when she was gone.

Well, he amended, not glad.  A week ago he would’ve been happy to see her go; but after so many nights of worry and nightmares, and so many days of tutoring and kitchen accidents, he’d maybe gotten a little...attached.

That really wasn���t good, under the circumstances.

A knock on the door interrupted Attie’s story of something Undyne had done the other morning.  He knew the routine well enough to know who it was.  “Time to go,” he said, collecting the empty container from dinner.  “Say good-bye to your mom.”

Attie sighed.  “Good-bye, Mommy.”

“Good-bye, Attie,” her mother responded.  “I’ll miss you.”

“I know.  But I’ll be back tomorrow!”

There was a strange look on Frisk’s face when they left; something resigned and a little sad.  She hid it well, but Sans was a master of reading expressions.

He just didn’t know what to make of it.

[sad-trash-writing]

Who’s The Hero of Your Story?, Ch. 10

AO3 Link

The next day, Jemma headed back to the coffee shop. She had mixed up the compound she made from Raina’s sample with some general antiseptics and moisturizers and made a cream out if it to give to Daisy. Whatever got into the wound from Raina would hopefully be blocked by it and allow the scratches to heal. 

Daisy’s scratches looked even worse today. Hopefully this worked. 

Without a word, Jemma held the tiny jar out to Daisy. 

“Thank you,” Daisy said, taking the jar with a smile, “What exactly is it?” 

Jemma shrugged. “Just a little something I came up with in the lab.”

Daisy snorted. “So you’re getting a PhD in making face cream?”

“Biochemistry, actually. Mostly focusing on the various uses of genetically altered plants,” Jemma replied. 

“Huh,” Daisy muttered inspecting the jar, “How do I know your lab experiment won’t kill me?”

“I guess you just have to trust me.”

Daisy smirked. “Alright, I’ll give it a try. I know where to find you if I suddenly start sprouting leaves.”

Jemma blanched. “I’m sorry?”

Daisy waved the little jar in the air. “This has mutant plants in it, right? If I turn green, I’m gonna be annoyed.”

Jemma huffed out a nervous laugh. “Right, well, that shouldn’t happen. I, uh, have to meet with someone in the lab. Bye!”

Jemma scurried out the front door and took a few deep breaths. She thought for a moment she had blown her cover and Daisy figured out who she was. Telling Daisy about her research was probably a bad idea. She would be able to figure out who was behind the super villain who had a mutant plant attached to themselves if she really thought about it. 

Jemma’s phone dinged with a new email. It was from Raina, requesting a meeting in two days to discuss 'her next extracurricular project.' Jemma took another deep breath. She could only hope that they had changed their minds about killing Quake and this would be a meeting about a symposium for her to attend. 

Jemma rolled her eyes at herself. As if her life could ever be that normal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma checked back in with Daisy the day of her meeting. She made sure to go in the lull between the morning rush and the lunch rush so she would have time to grill Daisy on the compound she gave her. That was definitely the only reason she was checking in today. Not because every time she talked to Daisy, her chest felt fluttery and her vines started doing a weird, wiggly dance. 

Still, Jemma had to wait in line behind a lady with an expression like she had just bit into something sour berate the manager while Daisy stood next to him and texted, looking thoroughly unimpressed. 

When the lady was finally satisfied with her yelling and moved on, Jemma sidled up to the counter.

“Well, you’re looking much better,” she commented, noting Daisy’s scratches. In the two days since she had been in, the red, inflamed cuts had faded into tiny pink lines across Daisy’s cheekbone. They probably wouldn’t even scar at this point. 

“Yeah, whatever you gave me was magic,” Daisy replied. “What was in that, by the way?”

Jemma shrugged. “Just a bit of general antiseptic and some experimental extracts. Nothing too mysterious.” 

“Huh. Strange.”

Jemma frowned. “Why?”

“Well, at first I thought I was having a bad reaction to it, because it felt really weird and tingly.  And then for awhile I couldn’t use my…arms. They just kind of felt weird, but it wore off pretty quickly,” Daisy said with a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Then, Jemma saw the purplish bruises up Daisy’s arms and gasped. “What happened? That didn’t happen after you used the compound I gave you, did it?”

“What? No!” Daisy tugged her sleeves down over her hand. “Well, yes technically, but it didn’t cause it. I, uh, took a kickboxing class the other night and got my ass handed to me.”

Jemma eyed Daisy. Maybe the compound blocked her powers as well as whatever got into her scratches from Raina. Maybe the blocking of Daisy’s powers directed them back into herself as opposed to out, causing the bruises. 

“Well, at least your cuts are healed, so you don’t need to use it anymore. I didn’t realize there would be such strong side effects,” Jemma muttered. 

“Hey, it worked. I can’t complain about the side effects too much,” Daisy said. “Maybe you’ll let me buy you a drink sometime as a thank you.”

Jemma smiled, in spite of everything inside her saying don’t encourage her. “I—“

Her phone chirped a reminder about her meeting with her advisors in ten minutes. And she was an eight minute walk from the campus. 

“Shoot, I’m going to be late for my meeting. I—I have to go, I’m sorry. I’ll talk to you later?” Jemma called on her way out the door. She didn’t pause for Daisy’s reply. It was probably best she didn’t see Daisy’s expression because she was sure Daisy would just think Jemma was blowing her off. 

Unfortunately, she would have to worry about Daisy later, because, if she was late, her advisors were going to kill her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma skidded into Raina’s office with two minutes to spare. She got a raised eyebrow from Quinn, since normally, Jemma was a solid five and a half minutes early. Since Garrett still wasn’t there, no one commented, though. 

Garrett sauntered in three minutes late, earning him a glare from Raina and an exasperated eye roll from Quinn. Great, so everyone’s in a good mood already.

“Now that everyone has elected to show up—” Raina shot another glare at Garrett, who seemed unperturbed, “—we have another issue to attend to: Quake is still alive.”

“You don’t have to remind me of that,” Garrett grumbled. Jemma noticed then that he had a black eye and bandages wrapped around the half of his arm that hadn't been amputated. 

Jemma fidgeted in her seat, before she realized that none of them were looking at her. 

“Apparently, our initial try has failed somehow, so we’re back to the drawing board,” Raina growled. 

Jemma frowned. “I’m sorry, but what was the initial attempt?” She knew she wasn’t included in all the trio’s plans, but since she was originally given this task, she figured they would have let her know if there was a change of plans.

Raina sighed. “One of the only good things to come out of my thorns is that they’re tipped with a low-potency venom. Anything I scratch, within a few days, will burn, itch, and eventually, shrivel up and die. Somehow, Quake got scratched, but didn’t get affected, as Garrett learned last night.”

Jemma’s stomach sank as Garrett recounted his latest altercation with Quake. She didn’t realize that those infected scratches were part of a conscious attempt on Daisy’s life. When she thought of Daisy’s bright smile every morning, Jemma found it hard to feel guilty about interfering. Unfortunately, they weren’t having this meeting just to talk about one failed attempt. 

“Simmons,” Raina spoke up, interrupting Garrett’s graphic story. “You know what this means?”

Jemma gulped. She had a feeling that she did. 

“Good. You’re Option Two and we’re running out of time for more options. We’ve got big plans coming up and we can’t have Quake getting in the way before we’ve gotten started,” Raina finished. 

Jemma was tempted to ask about the 'big plans,' but her throat felt like it was closed up and her mind was reeling with what they were asking her to do. 

Quinn spoke up. “You have one week.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apparently, her advisors didn’t trust her to come up with a plan in a week, since, two days later, Jemma got a notice of another meeting. Also, a 6-inch long dagger mysterious appeared in the lab with a holster that would snap perfectly onto the belt Fitz built in to her bodysuit. 

Jemma quickly tucked it into a drawer and tried to forget it was there. The next day, she went up to Quinn’s office. The whole trio was present, but Raina was, unusually, sitting off to the side with Quinn, giving Garrett the run of this meeting. Garrett laid out a blueprint of a government building downtown that would be their (Jemma’s) stage. 

With a marker, he drew X’s all over the building’s access points and security checkpoints, as well as where valuable documents were stored. She wasn’t actually going in to take anything; she was just causing enough panic and noise to summon Quake. 

“—And then, once you barricade the door, she’ll Supergirl her way to the roof and BAM!” Garrett slapped the table dramatically causing Jemma to nearly fall out of her seat. “If you’re lucky, maybe a news chopper will be there at that point to catch the finishing blow on camera. Then, no one will ever mess with us again.”

Jemma felt sick. Like she was about to be physically ill. She was sure if she looked in a mirror right now, she wouldn't be able to distinguish the color of her face from her vines. 

To disguise this fact, she just nodded along to what Garrett said without a word. Her mind raced through thousands of possibilities of ways to get out of this whole arrangement. All of them ended in death: hers, Fitz’s, her family’s, hundred of stranger’s. 

Quake’s. 

She couldn’t. But she also had to. 

This was the point of no return. So far, she had only robbed a few people and caused some destruction of property. But murder? That was something she could never come back from once done. She would be a super villain now and always. 

She eyed the framed diplomas on Quinn’s wall. Was it worth this? Jemma knew if she backed out of this and somehow didn’t end up dead, there was no way she could start another doctorate anywhere else. She would be blacklisted from every school in the world. How would she continue to do her research, to solve problems? 

To make the world a better place. 

That was why she wanted to go to this school in the first place. She wanted to solve problems in the world in whatever way she could. Her research was supposed to minimize bad things in this world. How could she do that if she was working for people who aimed to create so much bad?

“We’re really counting on you for this, Simmons,” Raina piped up. “We’ve got big things in the works and we can’t put them off anymore.”

This was the second time Raina had brought up their 'big plans.' If Jemma wasn’t already staring at the blueprint of the most abhorrent thing she could think of, she would be inclined to ask what her role would be in those plans. As it was, she couldn’t stomach knowing who else was getting hurt or robbed or killed while she sat back and did nothing. 

She thought of Fitz down in their private lab, pounding out as many projects as he could. She thought of the burly security guards that led them to the lab the first day and knew, despite Garrett’s assurance, that they could access the lab whenever they wanted and do whatever they wanted with no witnesses. 

She thought of Daisy. A virtual stranger to Jemma, but another good-hearted person just trying to make the world slightly less evil. 

She didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Jemma suddenly realized that she was sitting in the lowest chair in the room. Garrett towered over the desk in front of her. Raina was now leaning against the doorframe. Quinn was hovering by the windows.

All eyes were on Jemma and all exits were blocked. She was physically and metaphorically trapped. 

“So?”

“I’ll do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The designated day finally showed up. Jemma spent the day frantically testing and retesting her plants, hoping that maybe they wouldn’t actually be ready and The Plan would have to be postponed. 

Unfortunately, the one time she wanted failure, Jemma got success. Her plants were responding perfectly to everything she wanted them to do. She wondered if she could get away with lighting them on fire and pretending it was an accident. 

That afternoon, the two plants were carefully transferred to nondescript containers and transported to the roof of the building Jemma was supposed to infiltrate. 

She spent the rest of the day avoiding contact with anyone. She didn’t want to see Fitz because he would ask for updates on Jemma’s super villain activities and Jemma didn’t think she could manage lying to him right now. 

She briefly considered making a stop at the coffee shop, but that thought was quickly thrown out. She knew if she had to make polite conversation with Da— with her target— the last bit of her resolve would crumble.

Jemma camped out in her apartment until it was nearing dusk and then suited up. She slid the dagger out of the sock drawer she had moved it to once the plan came together and snapped it onto her belt. It wasn't overly large, but the weight of it suddenly felt like it would drag Jemma into the ground. 

She tugged on a hoodie and sweatpants over her suit and slid out the fire escape toward the roof. 

Right on time, Quinn’s helicopter appeared and hovered low enough that she could grab on and pull herself up. 

The first of many horrible plans of this evening happened right away. As soon as they approached the building, Quinn handed her a rope that was tethered to one of the handles in the interior of the helicopter and given a three-second countdown. 

On three, she jumped. 

Keep your feet straight out as soon as you jump. If the rest of your body hits the window first it’s gonna hurt, Garrett’s voice echoed in her mind.  

She clung to the rope with all her might as she swung through the air. In the split second before she hit the window, she looked toward the ground a dozen stories below her. She didn’t have time to worry about the height before her feet were crashing through the nearest window. 

Entering the building on one of the middle floors will limit the amount of security you have to bypass and shorten the distance you have to cross to get to the roof. 

Jemma let the rope slip out of her hands as she tumbled through the window. Jemma hissed as she felt a sharp sting in her hands. A thin cut stretched across her palm from landing on all the broken glass. She was pretty sure she felt a matching one on her cheek. This was one of the many ways Jemma could tell this plan was entirely concocted by Garrett; he was more concerned with style than what was considered practical. Yet another reason why this was the worst plan Jemma had ever been involved in. 

Outside the window, Quinn’s helicopter sped away. At the other end of the hall, Jemma heard panicked voices and the thunder of footsteps rounding the corner. 

Before they made it into her line of sight, Jemma pulled out a device stolen from Fitz and slapped it on the keypad on the nearest door. It whirred angrily until the keypad flashed red and the floor’s alarm sounded. That ought to attract some attention. 

The first group of guards was small, only having three. Jemma lunged towards them, landing a punch to the first one’s nose and knocked him back a few paces. The other two spread out as much as they could in the narrow hallway. The second tried to grab her wrist, but she slipped out of his grasp and kicked him in the knee. The third managed to get behind Jemma and loop his arms under hers to try to immobilize her. One of her vines snapped around his neck and squeezed just tight enough that he panicked and released her to try to claw it off. Once free, she ducked down and flung him into the second guard and knocked them both out cold. 

The first guard made a lunge for Jemma again. She jumped over the unconscious forms of the other two guards and snapped a vine around the first’s wrist before he could move. 

Quake monitors police dispatch in her free time. That’s how she always knows where to find us.

“Change your radio to the frequency of the police dispatchers,” Jemma commanded. The guard’s eyes went blank and he reached for his radio. “Now, call for backup.”

“This is Officer Jones of the Federal Building, requesting immediate backup—“

“Sound a little more distressed,” Jemma whispered. His voice was rather deadpan and didn’t sound too urgent. 

“—requesting immediate backup.” the guard’s voice kicked up an octave. “There is a powered intruder, repeat: powered intruder.”

Once the call went out, Jemma pulled off the guard and he fell to the ground. She found the stairs to the next floor up and sprinted up them. 

She only had one more floor to ascend before reaching the roof and this one had a larger guard presence. Still, Jemma’s intense training with Scarlotti seemed to be holding out and she managed to disarm them long enough to slip into the next stairwell. It helped that she had around 20 limbs to work with. She barricaded the stairwell doors and headed to the roof. There was only one access point to the roof and it was through this door, so she shouldn’t have any unwelcome intruders. 

Once she passed through the door to the roof, she snapped another one of Fitz’s devices to it to instantly weld the door shut, like it had at the bank. Now, all she could do was wait. 

The sun was just setting on the western horizon, casting everything in a purple and orange glow. The clouds shifted slowly, giving the impression of a watercolor painting coming to life. She could see the entire city and even some of the outlying suburbs. Jemma would have admired the view if she wasn’t focused completely on what she came here to do. 

She saw plants 3.1 and 3.2 tucked into boxes the same color and shape of the vents on the roof. If she didn’t know what to look for, she would have been none the wiser that they were even out of place. 

Jemma fished out the tiny electrodes she designed and stuck them to her temples. She concentrated on experimentally moving the vines of the plants across the roof from her. It was much more difficult than moving the ones on her back, which acted more like an extra set of limbs. These new ones were more like moving puppets with strings made out of slinkys. 

When she was confident they were obeying her thoughts, Jemma tucked them back away and waited. 

The distant sound of police sirens was all Jemma could hear from this height. All the security guards were still stuck a floor below her, so she couldn’t hear what they were doing to try to break down the door. Jemma hoped that maybe Daisy would be taking a night off from being Quake and wouldn’t show up. It wouldn’t be Jemma’s fault if she couldn’t complete her mission then. Unfortunately, fate was not on Jemma’s side and she saw a shadow streak up the side of the building. The roof trembled as Quake slowed her descent. She landed and her eyes found Jemma straightaway. 

Quake frowned slightly, more in confusion than anger. “Really? You graduated from jewel thief to, what, stealing people’s mortgages?” 

Jemma rolled her eyes. Just a few more feet. 

“So, where are the rest of your cronies? I thought you were all in this together?” Quake teased. She strolled a few steps forward. Just a little closer. 

“They’re taking the night off,” Jemma replied. “This job is only for me.”

“Really? Surprised they trust you that much. They don’t seem to give you anything important to do. It’s almost like they don’t treat you as part of the team,” Quake said. 

That much was true. Except in this instance. Quake took a few more steps. Perfect. 

“So, what are you really here for?” Quake asked, sounding bored. 

Jemma locked eyes with Quake. “You.”

Plants 3.1 and 3.2 snapped to life. Vines coiled around Quake’s elbows. Next, they wrapped around her knees, locking them together and forcing Quake to her knees. A sick part of Jemma’s mind thought she liked Daisy in this position, but she pushed it away. 

“Impressive,” Quake murmured. She scrunched up her face in concentration and then hissed in pain. She flexed her hands and glared in confusion. 

“They’re coated with a compound that temporarily blocks your powers. I wouldn’t try to use them or you’ll just hurt yourself,” Jemma informed her. She was hoping to sound aloof and in charge, but she genuinely didn’t want to cause Daisy any pain. She would be doing enough of that shortly, anyway. 

Quake suddenly looked concerned. “Okay, that’s new. At least this gives me time to talk to you without having to beat you up first.”

Jemma narrowed her eyes and sauntered across the roof towards Quake. A distant boom drew both Quake’s and Jemma’s attention. A few blocks away, a cloud of smoke was clearing from another skyscraper. Police cars swarmed the area below it and, above, Jemma recognized the Quinn helicopter that dropped her off dangling a rope down for the forms of Raina and Garrett to climb. Garrett appeared to have a large bag of something tucked under his arm. Jemma could practically hear his maniacal cackling from here. 

Jemma frowned. They hadn’t mentioned doing another job tonight. They said they would be on standby to come swoop in early in case anything went south for Jemma. Instead, they were using her as a distraction, to both temporarily and permanently get rid of their nemesis. 

Daisy growled and squirmed against the vines restraining her. She snorted when she saw Jemma’s face. “Wow, must be rough to not be included in the big plans. They’ve really got you in the minor leagues still.” 

Jemma glared. Daisy continued when Jemma didn’t stop her. “Listen, if you’re trapped or you don’t want to work with those guys, you don’t have to. I work with an organization that helps people like you and me. They can help you and protect you from whatever you’re caught up in. You have a choice.”

Jemma paused. That was surprising. She always pegged Quake as the solo vigilante-type who never needed help from anyone. Though this ‘organization’ she mentioned could just as easily be the police. 

Something nudged Jemma’s hand, but she ignored it, wanting to hear more of what Quake had to say. Quake very obviously noticed it, though, and her eyes went wide. 

Jemma looked down. One of her vines had retrieved the dagger from its holster and was helpfully trying to press it into her hand. Jemma rolled it into her palm and stared at it. 

Quake noticed the glint of the metal now in Jemma’s hands and started struggling harder. 

“Okay, seriously, you don’t have to do this,” Quake pleaded. “I can help you. We can help. You can use your powers to do something good.”

Jemma took a few steps closer to Quake. She had to do it. She couldn’t go back now. Her advisors would go after her family, her friends, anyone she loved. She had to do this one thing for them and then could worry about squirming out of their grasp. 

Quake was visibly panicked. Jemma didn’t think she had ever seen so much fear in her eyes. “Okay, I know you said I don’t know what kind of person you are, but I know you’re not a bad person. I can see it in you. You haven’t hurt anyone yet, and that’s not an accident. Quinn, Raina, Garrett. They’ve hurt hundreds of people, but not you! Because you’re a good person!” 

Quake--no, Daisy was practically begging at Jemma’s feet. Jemma tried to tune out her words. It was only making it harder for what she had to do. 

Logically, it was so easy. Aim for the heart, the guts, the throat. Jemma knew the human body like the back of her hand. It would be so easy.

Emotionally, Jemma couldn’t separate herself from the person in front of her. Quake was trapped and at her mercy, but all Jemma could see was the friendly barista who flirted with her and gave her free snacks. Beyond that, Jemma could see the superhero, whose only crime was trying to make things a little less dark and to help people. Even people who had a knife pointed at her. 

Jemma gripped the dagger a little tighter and glanced towards the building her advisors had just robbed. The helicopter had disappeared into the distance and not reappeared. Quinn was supposed to circle back and pick Jemma up once ‘the job’ was done, but it appeared she was on her own. 

She looked back at Daisy. She had given up trying to squirm free and was staring at Jemma with wide, pleading eyes. 

Jemma wondered if Daisy was right. Was she a good person? Does a good person compromise their entire moral compass for the approval of three terrible people? 

Does a good person use their scientific mind and research to commit terrible crimes?

Jemma’s eyes fell on her plants, the ones she worked tirelessly to create for months. They were still tightly squeezing Daisy’s arms together. Was this really their intended purpose?

Jemma felt her resolve crumble into dust. This wasn’t her. No degree or fancy lab equipment or even a lifetime of charity work could make this go away if she went through with it. 

The dagger slid out of her hands and clattered against the roof. 

She turned and ran. Jemma sprinted towards the back side of the building and jumped. 

There were no police cars on this side, as expected. The city’s police department really needed to work on their siege tactics. 

But there was a gutter. Jemma shot out a vine and wrapped it around the gutter. She yanked herself closer to it and grabbed it tighter with her hands and all her vines to slow her descent. 

Her hands burned from the friction, but she held on as tight as she could. She hit the ground just slightly too hard to be comfortable, but immediately jumped to her feet and scanned the back alley. Her eyes found a sewer cover. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do for now. 

She hoisted the cover, slipped into the sewer, and swung herself onto the concrete ledge. 

Jemma slid to the ground and tried to catch her breath. Her hands were still shaking and, once her weight was off them, her knees felt wobbly too. She peeled the electrodes off her temples and tossed them into the scummy water rushing by. Hopefully, the plants would relax now and Daisy could get out of there before the police broke through to the roof. 

Jemma buried her face in her hands and tried to breathe deeply. She was so screwed.

[thegnasticious]

Going Postal

History is something I have always had trouble understanding. Not just connecting the events with the dates, people, and circumstances. What I can’t understand is how if history truly exists than how is the infallible nature of dysfunction and destruction a constant interjection? 

When I was younger all I wanted to be was a demolisher. I imagined myself sitting at the cab of the wrecking ball, knocking down anything I could be paid for. The sound of the swing of the wrecking ball as it cascaded bricks down street side like rain. 

Not too much longer in life, where those same bricks would have fallen, stands a much older version of me, still contemplating my function in life. In my hands I twirl the business card of my Uncle’s advertising agency, “WKRP”. At this point, i was heading down Wells st., contemplating an offer from them. They needed a part-time intern who if chosen for the job, could make it to a full-time status. The catch 22 was that I was not to tell anyone I had no experience whatsoever. 

All of this seemed simple and after the first meeting with the Agency’s representatives, I felt the weight of responsibility beginning to lift. Sitting in the confine’s of a nice Greek restaurant nearby, I discussed my potential with them. It was 2 reps who met with me and also the finest looking women they had at the agency, I assume to coerce my opinion. The thing that was odd about the interview was that it was highly personal, they asked more questions about me and less questions about what I do professionally. I didn’t know to be surprised or dissuaded by this, but I answered the questions diligently. 

At one point in the interview, I decided to ask, that for the position I was interning for, was I replacing someone? Despite it being a relatively simple question, their response was puzzling. The woman conducting the questions seemed to freeze on this, smiled and said “if there was, why would we need you?”, and that was the last of that. I brought up my discrepancy in experience and they seemed to ignore the inquiry altogether as if I said nothing at all. It was this point they started asking about my drug history. I responded by asking what relevance does it have and the older lady started explaining that she took these ‘special’ pills to control her ‘drug’ urges throughout the day at the agency. She also hinted that the best way in, was to take one of these. At the end of the interview she slipped me a bright Red pill in a napkin and said, “if you want to see us again, you know what to do”.

I went home that night to my little apartment. All I had was television and no roommates. It was all I needed really. As I sat on my couch, I twirled the pill around in my hand, wondering what kind of magic it might hold. I also couldn’t help thinking of it possibly being a backdoor into my mind, laced with Chinese brainwashing chemicals. For all I know, they never got rid of their last tech, and now they were wiring me to feed into his server database somewhere. Hell, I might be working more for that guy than the business then. The more I thought of the possibilities, I realized that even if the doubts were true, I had little choice but to take this pill. It was my test and I was going to pass it no matter what. I went to the sink and filled a glass of water, immediately taking the pill. It went down easy, I sank back into my couch moments later. Ten or so minutes in and nothing was happening. As I watched a newscast, I started noticing peculiar updates in the ticker headline below. The first read, “Man shoots police officer in old town, turns self in with gun”. The second read, “Monster in post office basement, trying to talk to people through fictional mail from nonexistent people”. I shook my head and the ticker returned to normal; War in Iraq, New videos from Al Qaeda. I started to doze off and as I did, I dropped the remote control, switching the channel. A loud noise came from the television, just as I felt that falling feeling into the chasm of sleep. I focused on the image being displayed, on the screen was a slow motion reverse of a horrible car accident. The focus was on a Woman’s face as it impacted the windshield. Little details refigured themselves as she drifted back from the glass, You could see she was quite beautiful before the start of the video. It was quite graphic for an advertisement and I found myself waiting for an Insurance company’s slogan or spokesperson. None was found, instead at the point she was safe back in her seat, it went to another person’s accident. This time a tire flew through the windshield and into the body of a 300 or so pound man, starting in a plume of a crimson gash from where it impacted. This video looked oddly real as well and extremely well shot. 

After about 5 of these, I started feeling really nauseous. I went to the bathroom and puked up this odd neon yellow puke, it must of been the pill I thought. When I returned to my living room, A man sat in the chair across the sofa, wearing a rounded type top-hat and a thick mustache. As I sat down, he seemed to pay no attention to me, repeatedly checking an old watch fixed to his coat. There was a coldness all around him, and an odd familiarity. He pulled out a book and began to read aloud,

“I watched you, I followed you. In health and in death. You like me, have led multiple lives and have been accused of the devil. I like you, have been alone and in the corner of a beast. In cell, or self we can find the means of freedom or unless solitude”.

He then vanished in to thin air, and the book appeared in my hands before me as if I just read that passage. I immediately shut the book, turned off the TV, 

and made the room blacker than night so I couldn’t even see my hand in front of me. 

The next morning, that odd cold still lingered as the sun rose. Even though I rested most of the night, I felt as if I got no sleep. Something would tug the blanket off of me, or a random noise would alert me awake. I never saw the full body of the Tophat man again, but I felt him in the room and I could still hear his voice. It was odd because when he spoke, it sounded as if a bigger and  meaner man was hiding behind his shoulder doubling his voice, but none was to be found. He also seemed out of place with time, not just by his watch piece, but his demeanor, something about him was lost, I could also tell he was a ghost and unfortunately not a hallucination. 

The reason I knew this, was because I had seem him before under much different circumstances. Before I moved from my hometown, I used to work many jobs, making money anywhere I could find it. As I got on a roll and made nearly enough money to get out of town, I noticed this strange man following me to and from jobs. He wouldn’t wear the Tophat as I had seen that night, or the old suit. He would have standard people’s clothes, but that same face and mustache. He never addressed me, but I got a vibe that he was watching me and as he got better and better at somehow finding me, I would find myself quitting the jobs to avoid his glare. I somehow knew his intent, even then was not in my favor.

Now that I recognized the man as he was, a relic seemingly, I began to wonder if he might of had something to do with my connection in the agency. I had been documenting this particular visage for years before and that it was coincidence that he was here now, did not seem likely.  

That was when the phone rang, on the other side of the line was my Uncle’s voice,

“We need to meet immediately. There is something I would like to talk to you about”, he said. 

It was a short L ride to the office. The entrance had a short security checkpoint, and I was able to get in. A lady at a check-in desk asked me who I was. Upon telling her, she instructed me with a maze-like list of turns and stairs that concluded in, “then you will be at the head executive office of your Uncle”. 

The building was very fancy looking, metal everything, with thick stone and crystal countertops about. There was a plastic smell to the place. People rushed to an there, with files and ideas. You could feel the synergy happening within. I navigated through the chaos and up 3-4 sets of stairs, where I finally found a calmer hallway, with only the names on the outside of doors. At the head of this hallway was my Uncle’s office. 

I knocked on his door.

A voice sounded from inside,

“Come in”, it said.

I entered through the big wooden door, to a very ornate and well set office. In one corner was a sand trap with a comb, it was perfectly groomed. The main light was a looming orb on the ceiling, looking more like something from a space craft than an office. Underneath it sat my Uncle in a Black suit, as I entered he tightened his collar and readjusted his files on his desk, paying particular attention to my shoes, which that day were nothing remarkable. 

“Sit down, stay a while”, he said pointing at the chair across.

I took a seat and waited for instructions.

“You might be wondering why we, I called you here today. I’ve been watching you for a while, and I know you have a particular set of talents most people would kill for. ‘We’ being an agency, wants to make it easier for ‘you’ to find the eye for your talents. This doesn’t happen overnight though and we need you to do the things we don’t want to, getting coffee, cleaning up for clientele, etcetera, etcetera. If you earn our respect, me might get a full time position for you, how does that sound?”, he said.

“That sounds great, sir.”, I said.

That night I could hardly sleep in anticipation of my job the next day. It was the first job I was excited for, not just for the payoff either. I found myself sleepless and anytime I dozed off some strange interruptions awoke me. I maybe slept for an hour and found myself half dozed off on the L to the office. It was odd, as soon as I left the apartment, the tiredness hit me like a ton of bricks. I almost slept through my stop, but something shook me awake on the train right as we neared the station. 

My first day was simple, they understood because of my history of insomnia, that it was an early start and they weren’t going to make that anymore complicated than it already was. I ran coffees, messages between leads of the company, and even helping with minor creative ideas here and there. Most of the people adored me, I couldn’t tell if it was legitimate or because they just wanted to appease my Uncle, who seemed to be both the leader and the shadow of the company, leading and looming over it’s every operation like a dark cloud.

The second and third days were still followed by sleepless nights. I began to wonder if I should try to contact the spirit that woke me up that night, if it was awakening me to try to talk again. Something about the haze of that pill seemed to break the barrier now impeding on the supposed visage. I didn’t understand how a pill could be producing hallucinations rather than inventing them so to speak. 

No full bodied apparition appeared again and I kept an eye out at the office for strange visitors in case he followed me around the job again. Many just took my odd behaviors because of it as paranoia of agency work; looking for spies from other companies and what not. The explanations to the various investigations seemed to still be fleeting.

I continued doing my tasks around the office, attempting to keep my mind off the Tophat man as much as possible in hopes that his presence might reduce. As I worked on broken printers, defunct computers and saw them work with the touch of my hand, I also started to wonder just how do things naturally break without direct negligence of function? Then my mind started to wander back to the Topcoat’s man old watch. It worked well, not because it was made that entirely, but because he made it work well I imagined. The more I thought about it, the more I thought what was he truly making sure of? A visage caught out of place with his time is only as much as that, whatever he was now, he was surely a ghost. What would a clock matter? 

With these thoughts, usually more problems presented themselves. Coincidental technical malfunctions that when sourced were problems no more than where things were placed, like the building had numerous dead zones. The more I tried to come up with theoretical explanations, the more I found myself going further down the rabbit hole; looking further at a consistent malfunction. It felt paradoxical some days; the solutions were bluntly simple. To me I could see the unpent energy leaking into their technology; their denial. Even my Uncle adorned a cross on his neck, under his tie, but it didn’t explain one thing we both saw. Kept hidden from me was a set of files on a server he had set up from the get-go, only accessible by him. In these files was numerous security reports of a Mustached maintenance man coming in and making inquiries on the buildings layout and businesses, but never doing subsequent work. He never let me know about this, in fact, he kept me completely unaware.

One of the things that bothered me the most was that strange Car accident commercial thing I kept seeing that night. I had this fear when I was younger of this thing called ‘Crash Test Dummies’. It was a cartoon that was literally about talking crash test dummies. There was short runs of action figures and promotions for it but most of it mysteriously dissolved with the company’s departure over lawsuits. It was peculiar though because the appeal wasn't particularly safety, in a way it was trying to make being a crash test dummy look cool, which in reality, dying in a car accident for scientific experiment is really not cool and painful for a mortal. Maybe I take things too literally, but that imagery reminded me of the underlying images that fueled my child-like fear of ‘Crash Test Dummies’.

Most of my nights were still sleepless, I couldn’t stop the numerous happenings. Lights would turn themselves on and of, I would find myself waking in up in strange places with no recollection of how or when I got there about the apartment. The wake up time for work was always early and I was always sleepless; I was burning the candle at both ends. Co-workers and even my Uncle started to notice so he cut back on my tasks, letting me leave early to get rest. I began to worry that my interest in the company was diminishing, and worse yet, when I was organizing a server structure the other day, based off an old folder set, I found evidence of an intern there before and possibly still doing work. Were they planning on replacing me? Why would they ever of hired me at all if he was still an active employee?

To make matters worse, winter was coming. In the city this meant soggy socks, shit seats, standing all the time and financial crunches like one could never imagine. My Uncle never was one for the winter and in the midst of this one he planned a trip to the beaches Florida. This left me in a higher position as most would be coming to me with their inquiries and many of the solutions I would have to formulate myself or at least I thought. When I arrived for the first day without him at the office, I was greeted by the Older woman whom I met in the interview. She was cleaning and organizing the main lobby and proceeded to tell me that she would be organizing my activities that day. With the days tasks, she left and other pill and a cryptic note, reading “take it or leave it”. 

Amongst these tasks and the arguably most important one was delivering the companies checks to be mailed out. Under special instructions from Etta, as she called herself outside of work, I was to mail these checks at a particular post office in the southernmost section of town. Doing most of my work on bike those days, I found this particular ride to be dangerous. The route was fraught with hot corners and red light districts, it wasn’t atypical to find gangsters patrolling those blocks as well. My bike was a fairly nice one and as I veered past groups of passerby’s I could see people eyeing it’s value and my awareness. The checks were rolled up in a sealed cardboard tube I had bundled in my messenger bag. I couldn’t help but think that myself, bike and checks was possibly totaling to a value over the apartment I returned to later. I disregarded my fears and focused on the path ahead. Potholes and open doors were my main obstacles those days, not to mention unaware city drivers. I would listen to the local radio to tune out the chaos around, sometimes it worked, sometimes it made it worse, depended on the broadcaster that day.  I recall that day that “Signed, sealed, delivered”, was playing as I neared that old post office. Something about the post office made me worried upon approach. It wasn’t the building itself, but a feeling I got from the area. I couldn't quite describe it but it felt a bit like reality went sideways there. Before this, things had been going quite well besides the visits from the Tophat man. I kept my supernatural concerns far from professional, besides the occasional personal suspicion of some strange coincidences. In the back of my mind, it was driving me quite nuts though, the possibility that this man was following me around, worried me. What was he looking for? Was he looking to expose faults in my pursuits? As I entered the Post office lobby, I overheard a distraught customer,

“Why won’t you let me in the basement?”, he said

“Sir, that’s for employees only, we keep extra mail in the main corridor”, the attendant responded. 

The man balled his fist and slammed it on the post office table.

“I just want to get down there”, he yelled.

“Not without this”, the attendant said and flashed a key.

The man grimaced and turned around muttering something to himself. 

I tried not to make eye contact.

As I approached the attendant she said,

“7th time today with that man and he’s not the only one. Crazies thinking they are talking to some sort of monster that lives downstairs”.

She proceeded to shake her head and continued,

“People these days, lord have mercy”.

“Just what exactly do they think is down there?”, I inquired.

“Some kind of beast, something to do with the Devil I hear. I don’t know if I believe much in it. I’ll tell you what though, some days when it’s awfully dark in here, you start to see the shadows dance on the walls, like there is some sort of gathering and the reason I take everyone’s shifts is because I’m getting Cataracts so I couldn’t know if it was shadows or my old eyes playing tricks on me. The others can’t stand it though, the one thing that gets to me. Is sometimes when I’m all alone, this old type of music starts echoing from the basement vents, as it’s all one system. Just this old melody I’ve never heard before, but for some reason I have, and it haunts me. If you don’t mind, I’d like to stop talking about this”, she answered. 

I handed her the tube and explained it was extremely important and had to be shipped as soon as possible. She proceeded to take the key she had pointed out earlier and brought the mail down to the basement, though there was a stack of to-be sent letters right next to her desk.

She seemed to be gone for an abnormally long amount of time. I turned around to see a Tophat and overcoat, hung up on a rack at the southern end of the room. I could swear it wasn’t there when I entered. I turned back to her desk, and tried to shake it off. She still hadn’t returned and I couldn't even hear steps from the basement. I turned around and briefly the overcoat hung as if a man running toward the exit filled it’s inside, then it dropped as if it was stagnant again. I left out the doors as fast as I could, not asking for a receipt. 

This in many ways was the coup that killed my internship. Those checks were the company’s Christmas checks and basically everyone was gossiping that I possibly stole there Christmas income when a ripped up cardboard tube was sent back to the office. Something or someone had taken and routed the money out of country and due to the culprit being what was a monster in the post office basement, nobody believed I didn’t have a part in taking both their hard earned money and bonus for the holidays. Without the CEO in office, much of the issue was compounding and caused a brief shutdown. In this time my Uncle was said to have started talks about taking me out of office for good, based on my current mental state. I began to wonder if the pills were helping me see this apparent evil, or had he deceived me into believing lies.

Upon return I was fit to train a group of interns and for some reason, when we had drinks afterwards, I let them know I was a fraud with basically no experience besides family relation. They could hardly believe me, that I would be trusted with such responsibility. It just slipped, after a man I saw with a rounded Tophat snuck in and out of the same bar, near undetected amongst the crowd. I could of been working on whim, but I felt this man was not a coincidence anymore. 

It wasn’t long before I was called into a sit down lunch with my Uncle where he explained my work with them would be coming to an abrupt close. He likened me to a criminal on a spree, explaining that he felt most of my talent and creativity was stolen from better represented sources. It was a blow to my personal ethics I still have yet to recover from today, coming from a man I respected enough to assist. I also had to wonder knowing what he knew about the man following me, did he know this Tophat man as well? Something about their behaviors mirrored each other but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was the executive responsibilities of a major company mirrored aspects of the Devil, the greed, the amount of money being deposited on ideas whilst people died for far less outside the walls surrounding. 

I was let off with a slim amount of money to continue on and I wasn’t surprised to find in the next month, right as I spent my last dollar from the company, to find some grim news about my Uncle.

The news reached me as I was purchasing a newspaper, it was right on the headlines. “Local CEO dead in head on collision”, and underneath it read an article all about a man they called the Devil of the city. Supposedly the first Serial Killer to be recorded, he confessed to much of his misdoing before his execution on an Edison cylinder. He was also dubbed the Christmas Killer, and the Tophat man, he had a very widely remarked Mustache as well. The resemblance between him and the man who had been following me was uncanny, stories of how he threw away letters trying to be sent from children he murdered. The coldness of the man was signature as well, he was a perfect representation of what came to pass at the turn of the century and maybe why progression was such threat to him, was because he knew deep down he was a threat to progression. 

To this day I can’t look at a malfunctioning clock, or a misinterpreting computer and not think, 

is that you Holmes?

[baby-yeol-blog1]

Codename M.O.N.S.T.E.R discarded stuff

Aka the first version of the prologue that I wrote and then changed because it was too long and not really necessary. It shows in more detail how a M.O.N.S.T.E.R game could go, so in case you want to read here you have it :D

Chanyeol had never liked fog.

Vision was all, when you did what he did. It was not about being faster, or even stronger, but about knowing where the enemy was. You could be gone in seconds if a wild creature decided to attack you. You could lose a fight if  you had practically won if your enemy stabbed in the back - and Chanyeol had learnt that the bad way. Battles could be turned around if you knew the environment better than your rivals, if you played it to your advantage and used it to control, to secure and destroy.

It was the most important thing to remember in a place like M.O.N.S.T.E.R, where literally everything was out to kill you.

“Team,” he whispered. “Are your positions secure?”

He could see them all, in the red, holographic map in the corner of his eye. Kai, who had been practically destroyed by the enemy in their last attack, in the same disadvantageous battle where Suho had finally fallen. Sehun, his vital constants stable as he walked through a tunnel parallel to his own. It was cold in that place, colder than the streets at the Dome, more gelid than any other M.O.N.S.T.E.R location he had ever been in. His breath came out in puffs, warm against his lips until it melted into the white fog, and the rail tracks under his boots had been slippery the only time he had made the mistake to directly step on them. He was walking beside them now, between the tracks and the wall, in almost absolute darkness. There never was a sky over their heads, but he wouldn’t have minded to be sent to a place a little bit less… claustrophobic, for a change.

“I’m okay,” Kai said, his voice weak in Chanyeol’s headset. “Mostly disabled but fine. I don’t think I’ll be able to help you much in a team fight, but at least I am alive.”

“Is he useful like that?” Sehun’s question came next, louder, and Chanyeol feared for a moment that the enemy could hear it in the utter silence of the tunnel, although he knew very well that they could not. He sounded a little bit annoyed, like every time he knew his team was losing the fight. “We need to get to the last checkpoint before the bad guys do, and we are technically two men and a half against three.”

“Which means we can do this,” replied Chanyeol. “They only have half a man more.”

“That’s more than enough. Isn’t it?”

“This is Junmyeon’s last mission,” whispered Chanyeol. “Do it for him.”

“As if. You’re not even in full health.” Sehun scoffed, but went silent, and the other boy sighed and moved forward; silent, determined, with one hand barely millimeters away from the stone wall and the fingers of the other firmly closed around his gun. It was true that he had been hurt by the enemy team before, and that he could feel the pain and exhaustion in his muscles and bones, so real it was almost scary, but even if their enemies were stronger, he had made sure to be the one with most control of the area. Even if the fog didn’t let him see what was two meters away from his nose, he knew that he was almost at the end of the tunnel and that the final checkpoint was just below, in the bigger room where his and Sehun’s roads converged.

There hadn’t been monsters there before, when he had warded the place, and the enemy team could only come from below and from behind. He was as safe as one could ever be, trapped in the core of M.O.N.S.T.E.R just before the climax leading to their final stage. He had to do it for Junmyeon, he had to do it for his team. Just one step after the other, his body alert and his mind focused, the dull throb of his own heartbeat over his ear. ‘You are the battle, Park. And the battle is you.’

And then there was light, as it always was at the end of the tunnel - faint at first, then brighter, making the thick, white fog dissolve into translucent curls at his feet and leading Chanyeol into the big, open room just beyond.

“Wow,” a voice said behind him. Chanyeol didn’t have to turn around to recognize Sehun. He had seen him coming already: a red, throbbing circle in the holomap in the corner of his eye, walking towards the end of their secured zone and stopping at the end of it, just like he was. “More impressive that I’d thought it’d be.”

M.O.N.S.T.E.R drank upon what it already existed to create worlds anew, and that place was no exception. There had never been surface train stations in the Dome but Chanyeol had seen pictures of them before, surfing through the Network as well as printed in his old high-school textbooks, and the enormous room before them looked exactly like the ruins of one. White stone walls, stained green with vines and mold and ivy, cracked paved floor and a high ceiling of metal and broken glass, spread out like a crystal and copper cobweb over their heads. Chanyeol kept his mind focused as he advanced, using some rusty maintenance stairs to climb from the tunnel to one of the deserted platforms. He could feel it all; the cold air on his skin and the soft cry of the wind outside, the rustle of the ivy leaves and the heavy blackness beyond the ruined ceiling. There was no sky at the other side of the glass vault. There never was a sky.

“Careful here,” he said. “I didn’t have time to set vision wards in this zone. From now on, we’re map blind.”

Sehun shook his head, looking as unimpressed as he did in general. “We won’t win this thing by being cautious, and I am the best marksman there is.”

“OhSniper.” Chanyeol snorted.

“It’s still better than your nickname,” replied Sehun. “Mr. Ace.”

Chanyeol would have laughed it off, but they didn’t have the time, much less the privilege. They had no time limit, but they were so damn close to the last checkpoint and everything was just too silent. All the pros, Sehun more than anyone, knew there was no silence when it came to M.O.N.S.T.E.R; no peace, only the calm before the storm.

And that one, ladies and gentlemen, was going to be one hell of a gale.

“Cover me, will you?” Chanyeol whispered. “I can take a couple of hits, you know, but don’t let them end me before I have reached the checkpoint. Look at it, you see it? Atop of that old locomotive, Platform Five.”

“Open spot. You know the bad guys are gonna be there. They’ll shoot you in the face as soon as you’re out.”

“Not if you’re there to kill them first.”

“I hope you realize they are waiting for us to make our move.”

“So we’ll give our move to them, no?” Chanyeol whispered, gripping his gun tighter. Energy blaster, heavy damage dealer. Not as much as Sehun’s sniper rifle, but it would have to do. He was faster after all, was more resistant.

“Do you want me to go over there?” came Jongin’s voice then, on the other end of Chanyeol’s headset. “I still can try to cover you up.”

“Uh-uh, no. Stay where you are. The most important thing for us right now is for you to stay alive. Or well, second most important, after that checkpoint.”

Jongin grunted in agreement, and then the communication line went dead and Chanyeol found himself facing the danger once more, with Sehun retreating behind him, looking for a safe place to shoot from, and the checkpoint in Platform Five just beyond, so close it all seemed even too easy.

He was standing on Platform Seven. He could do it. He was going to do it.

So he took a step, then another; prepared himself to go all out and at full speed, filling his lungs with moist, chilly air before he lurched forward.

Then there was a scream, and a loud, inhuman screech, and the silence broke into noise as the floor trembled under his feet and the world set into motion.

“Park, beware!” Sehun called out, but Chanyeol didn’t need to be told. He was a natural at all that, and his body reacted before he could think of anything else, dodging an energy blast by a matter of centimetres. He had expected their enemies to appear as soon as he moved and there they were, the three remaining members of the enemy team, two females and one male, blinking red dots in the holographic map in the corner of his eye. They were their rivals, their main threat when it came to securing the checkpoint, but they also were the simple variable there, the easiest one to calculate when it came to fighting in M.O.N.S.T.E.R. They were human, after all, just like he was, and humans were predictable.

It was the rest of the world around them that was not.

Here it comes.

Chanyeol could feel the shift before it happened - a ripple in the cold air around him, a rumble in the trembling floor under his boots. There was still noise, what sounded like the cawing of a murder of crows coming from above, but the most immediate threat was not there, but below. And so, he breathed in and jumped, over the track gap between Platforms Seven and Six, straight into his human enemies.

He saw one of them raise her gun and aim at him, almost in slow motion. He was aware of the bolt of energy making its ways towards him through the air before feeling it colliding against his skin. He felt the pain, yes, a shock of electricity in his brain that almost seemed real, and heard Sehun scream in surprise.

The next thing he knew was that he ground around them was changing. Trembling and shaking. Folding around them like an accordion while the ceiling of metal and broken glass twisted around them, the coppery beams that held the crystal structure in its place moving like their almost were a living thing, closing like giant, skeletal fingers around them, pushing them towards the middle like rats in a mouse-trap.

Chanyeol cursed when his body hit the floor, feeling the air leave his lungs and his head spin because of the impact. A red, annoying warning signal started to blink just above his holographic map, half covering the figure of the enemy girl rushing towards him, gun in hand. NO SWEARING ALLOWED, it said. NO SWEARING ALLOWED.

“Oh, come on,” he groaned. He could almost envision how headlines on the Network newspapers the following day would be: Park “Ace” Chanyeol, shot to death in the middle of his mission because M.O.N.S.T.E.R administrators decided that cursing was not okay.

The girl was almost on him, and he struggled to stand up. He had taken a hit already, he couldn’t afford to waste health or time at stupid admin messages. He was about to shoot her, even if he had to do it blindly, when his enemy screamed and fell. “One enemy down”, a robotic voice announced in his headset. “Two more left. Checkpoint twenty meters away”.

“What are you doing, man?” Sehun’s came just after, crystal clear over the noise. “She was about to get you!”

“I got an admin warning!” Chanyeol replied, looking around him and starting to move again. He couldn’t stay still. Stillness meant death when literally everything around you was out to destroy you. “It’s gone now! Cover me, will you?”

“What do you you think I am do--”

Sehun’s voice trembled, only to be suddenly cut into white noise. Chanyeol looked over his shoulder just in time to see one of the remaining enemy team members, running towards his friend, weapon in hand. Sehun was cornered, too vulnerable. He wouldn’t last long, not without a bigger team to back him up.

Chanyeol shook his head and ran towards the gap separating Platforms Six and Five, his gaze travelling from the remaining human enemy just before him to the twisted metal columns just over his head. There was something coming in through the broken window remains - something enormous, and black, and feathered. Crows, the biggest he had ever seen, descending towards them in a chaos of black feathers and claws while the old train station all but crumbled around them.

“Ally ‘OhSniper’ down”, the metallic voice said in his ear, the same exact moment the first bird fell upon him, beak open and eyes glowing red. Chanyeol rose his gun and shot without thinking, still moving forward when a second and then a third bird followed, fast and deadly.

Shit, he thought. Shit, shit, shit. With Sehun gone and Jongin out of the fight he was by himself against two people, a murder of crows, and the world itself; air humid and heavy, glass and metal and stone trembling and twisting above, below him, all around him, like the body parts of some kind of gigantic predator about to swallow him whole.

The gap between Platforms Six and Five was just in front of his feet, and Chanyeol clenched his teeth and jumped. He thought he wouldn’t make it but he did, lading on his two feet, stumbling for a couple of steps before regaining his balance and then running. Once more, faster and faster, without exhaustion, or pain, or fear, towards the old locomotive that was just in front of him. So close that it hurt.

“Hey, Ace!” someone called to him then. Chanyeol was able to dodge the first bullet, but he got hit by the second in full, straight in the chest by a blast of energy so strong that it made his head spin. He turned his head to the right, breath ragged, to see one of the two remaining members of the enemy team barely ten steps away from where he was, surrounded by birds and metal and wind and smirking at him. “We win the game. Just one more shoot and you’re gone.”

[verbballetstaipei-blog]

Day 1555555- Time Travel☸️ *Warning, this is a long post, as it was a very long day. But it is my last post, so enjoy!

Wowwww. I know time travel technically doesn’t exist but boy do I feel like Verb Ballets has accomplished it today. 28 hours ago, on Monday morning, we left our hotel in Taipei, and now we’re all finally home on a Monday evening! My body is so confused right now but hey, we made it! Most of us tried to stay up really late on our last night in Taipei to help us sleep on the plane the next day and flip our 12 hour time difference. I only slept for 2 hours so I think I was pretty successful–I’ve been tired all day! I got up at 5:45am, threw on my comfy flying clothes and set out for one last morning walk around the hotel. I grabbed coffee from 7/11 and sipped it while walking around Peace Park. I’m going to miss that enchanting place. The group met at 6:45am to say goodbye to Ming and Ping (they woke up so early to bid us farewell–so thoughtful!) and taxi to the airport. On our way out, we enjoyed the beautifully gloomy vistas of the industrially advanced city and surrounding picturesque mountains. Taipei sure does know how to look pretty. At the luggage checkpoint, I confirmed that the reason I had so much difficulty cramming everything into my suitcases was because I literally had too much stuff. My bag was several kilograms over the maximum, which meant that Michael and Kelly were each the lucky foster parents of a bag of Kate souvenirs. AKA their suitcases got even heavier thanks to me😬 Have I mentioned that I love both Michael and Kelly?  Thanks guys for saving me and all of my stuff! We made it through security mostly successfully (Kelly had to get her play sand she bought as a gift tested for illegal substances😧) and then we all went our separate ways to wait out the few hours before the flight took off. Unlike US airports, which are essentially expensive shopping malls, the strong sense of cultural pride is evident in Taiwanese airports, which I found out have mini history and art exhibitions in addition to shops and restaurants. I actually learned quite a bit about the various aboriginal groups in Taiwan while waiting for the plane. What a great use of airport waiting time! Another great use of waiting in an airpot time? Food! I went out in search of something savory and vegetarian for under $200 NTD (because that’s all I had left!) and had some trouble. Adorable pastries were everywhere, but I needed something of substance. The only option I could find was lasagna, so I decided to have my first ever breakfast lasagna. Unlike in the states, there was no to-go option (even though it was from a kiosk style cafe) so I had to wait 10 minutes. I had time to kill, so Lieneke and I sat down and chatted about growing up and learning more about yourself traveling and other philosophical things. It was quite the fulfilling pre-lasagna discussion🙃 The food came in a very hot casserole dish, so I let it cool down a bit. I was joking with Lieneke that it was my first meal in Taiwan served with a fork, and that it would have been difficult to eat lasagna with chopsticks. I had only finished about 2 bites when Lieneke said “Oh my gosh! They texted us to hurry back. They must have started boarding early!!” I didn’t want to leave my beautiful breakfast lasagna that I had spent my last NTDs on and waited a whole 10 minutes for, but I didn’t want to miss my flight back to America! I told Lieneke to run ahead and that I would be right there. I ran over to the lady at the kiosk and if she had a paper plate. She said she didn’t because they didn’t have a to-go option (us Americans and our obsession with eating food on the go). Losing hope, I started looking around but didn’t see any other cafes that had to-go options either. Then I saw paper cups behind the counter. “Could I use a cup?” I asked. The lady looked at me like I was seriously crazy as I scraped the lasagna from the casserole dish into the paper cup, repeatedly burning myself in the process. Then I took off running. Right as I was about to get to the gate, I saw Lieneke running towards me. For a split second I thought she was going to say that the plane left, but then I saw her smile. “Everyone is still there, they just told us to hurry back so that the group could move to a sitting area closer to the gate,” she said. We both broke down laughing with the ridiculousness of the situation–having lasagna for breakfast in Taiwan then Olympic sprinting through the airport with it sloppily shoved in a cup. The best part? I ended up having to eat the cup lasagna with chopsticks because I couldn’t find a plastic fork. That had to be one of the funniest breakfasts of my life! Also one of the most accomplished…I finished the whole veggie lasagna with chopsticks! Then came the longggg flight. Ugh. Verb Ballets had survived Taiwan successfully, but as soon as the plan crossed to international waters fecal matter started hitting the fan quickly (if ya know what I’m sayin’). Poor Stephaen spent the majority of the flight throwing up into shoddily designed puke bags that often did not do their job holding puke. So we all donated our blankets to the cause of containing said puke. That poor guy felt terrible the whole trip. Christina also had to deal with a minor cross-contamination flair-up with her egg allergy. Though it was a “minor” reaction (someone must have touched an egg then touched her food, so she didn’t actually eat egg) she was still doubled over in discomfort for the majority of our travels. The flight didn’t have working outlets or internet again, customs didn’t open for a half hour until after we landed, and the aircraft only had one working door to deplane, so we got to sit in our seats for a longgg time after landing from our delightful flight feeling especially wonderful😖 When we finally got off, we had to cross back through a passport checkpoint, customs, baggage claim, and security again before getting to our next gate en route to Denver. Needless to say, our suffering company members really had to dig deep to stand in the endless lines with all of their luggage. Lieneke was trying to be helpful and carry some of Stephaen’s things, but then she also felt dizzy and had to lie down. For those of you who know Lieneke, this lady has amazon strength so if she’s lying down you know she’s really not doing well. However, we all eventually got to the gate and had several hours to recuperate before our next flight. Unfortunately, Nathanael then realized that someone had gotten ahold of his credit card information while we were overseas, so he had to deal with all of that fun stuff during the layover. Wooo man! Verb Ballets was on a serious struggle bus! I felt slightly guilty that I wasn’t dealing with severe physical discomfort or financial distress, so I did my best to help those who were suffering however I could. Once everyone was relatively stable in a recovery position balled up or lying down, I decided to take an airport walk to relieve my swollen tight muscles. During my stroll, I discovered that the San Francisco airport has a yoga room free for all to use! I felt much better after stretching and rolling out in the yoga room. Every airport should jump on that yoga room bandwagon. Our next 2 flights went more smoothly. We had a fairly quick turnaround from Denver to Cleveland, and luckily no new problems arose. I slept through most of those flights, which will probably complicate my jet lag recovery later, but I was happy to sleep. I was exhausted! By a minor miracle, we all made it back to Cleveland conscious and upright (in a precarious mental state, but that’s beside the point😜) with all of our luggage. If it weren’t for some serious teamwork and a lot of nice flight attendants, we might have never made it back to the beloved “Mistake on the Lake” that we call home. Delirious but happy, we bused back to Verb so we could drive back to our respective apartments. I blasted out of the parking lot in hopes of making it to Whole Foods before they closed at 10. I had been craving a big crunchy salad with cottage cheese for weeks! And my apartment was foodless! Some very kind employees took pity on me and let me scurry to the salad bar at 10:01. Thank you so much Whole Foods on Cedar! You made a happy ending to a very very very long day (a 29+ hour day to be precise!). My big suitcase filled with dirty laundry was so heavy I could’t even get it up the stairs, so I decided to throw a bunch of laundry in the washer before even making it up to my apartment (my machines are in the basement). I can’t explain how excited I am to have clean laundry! I currently have a washed face, an empty bladder, and I am enjoying a crunchy Whole Foods salad. Life is great🤗. You really notice the little things after traveling for hours on end. It was a challenging day, but I’ll take that in exchange for a truly amazing tour. Thanks to everyone who followed me along on Verb’s travels! We all feel deeply humbled to have had this experience, and want to thank everyone who made it possible. Cleveland Foundation–You rock (even more than the Rock Hall…shhh!). None of this would have been possible without you. All donors who contributed–thank you thank you thank you! BodyEDT–well you know we are obsessed with you and absolutely can’t wait to have you come to our neck of the globe starting next week. Your company’s futuristic vision and generous heart inspired us the whole trip. I am so looking forward to performing with you again in a few short weeks at Cleveland Public Theater! On that note, the travel blog ends here. Time for me to return to real life of dancing all day and teaching all night! If you have enjoyed learning more about Verb and Body EDT, I recommend that you follow our Facebook pages to keep tabs on our future adventures. -Verb’s FB page is: https://www.facebook.com/verbballets/?ref=br_rs -And BodyEDT’s FB page is: https://www.facebook.com/BodyEDT/ If you ever have to the chance to go to Taipei, definitely do it! It is a marvelous place with some even more fabulous people. I will leave you with a list of things I will miss from Taiwan, and also a list of things I look forward to having again back home. Xièxiè, zàijiàn! 💖Kate Things I’ll miss about Taiwan:

-Chopsticks -Cute dogs and their even cuter haircuts -The happy, clean, efficient MRT and its calming music -Cartoons for everything -Guavas guavas everywhere -All dem oolong teas! -The young people–they’re so enthusiastic yet well behaved (I feel like an old lady saying that but it’s true guys!) -The hardworking and respectful culture. No room for “too cool for school” here -The emphasis on collectivism and benefitting the community over the individual -Bowing my head (I do get how that physically manifests respect) -Peace signin’ it up in pictures -Street dancing   -The wide variety and accessibility of fake meats -Having time to explore and stumble across new adventures -All of their exciting new flavors (taro mung bean pastry anyone?) -Affordable yet nutritious food -The endlessly generous, hardworking, and affectionate Taiwanese people Things I’m looking forward to in America:

-Consistent toilet paper and sitting toilets (squatty potties can get increasingly complicated if anything is going on beyond your basic pee) -Cottage cheese and Greek yogurt -Fresh veggies that I can clean and eat raw and crunchayyy! Nommm (their veggies were deliciously prepared but often with lotso oil) -Being in the same time zone as my friends and family -Literacy -Having the ability to express myself articulately and not feeling guilty for my horrifically pronounced Mandarin -A diverse looking poppulation -Peanut butter -My back massage chair -My bed -Seeing everyone I’ve missed! Kate Over and Out👋 

[miraculouspaon]

Where Have All The Heroes Gone And Where Are All The Gods?

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Emma

AO3

“What are you doing?” Emma asked, poking her head into the safe room.

Jonathan looked up. “You’re back,” he said, surprised. “That was fast, you just-” he glanced at the time on his phone. “Oh. Never mind, I just lost track of the time. How’d it go?”

Emma walked up to her uncle’s desk and sat on the edge of it, looking at his work. “Great,” she said. “Turns out locking up the Chief of Defense in a prison camp for months and then offering him the chance to help liberate it is a recipe for an amazing Champion. He kind of took a lot out of Dani, actually. She’s sleeping it off now. And Louis wanted to get started on scouting for potential successors to Mom and Dad, so he’s out.” Emma leaned over. “What are you doing?” she repeated. “I thought you were sure you couldn’t get anything more out of working on the spell that grabbed Mom and Dad.”

“This is the other spell,” her uncle replied. “The barrier spell that’s keeping the rest of the world from coming to help.” He scowled at it. “How the hell are they still powering it over four months later?” He sighed. “I don’t know why I’m bothering, I have much less to work with than I did for the other spell. I’m not going to figure out where the power source is. I just… can’t think of anything else to do with myself after four months of this, I guess.” Jonathan closed his book and leaned back in his chair. “So when does the Resistance take back the city?”

Emma shrugged. “Everyone from the camp is still getting settled. I think Aunt Alya wants to start strategizing first thing tomorrow morning.” Jonathan nodded. “You want to be there?”

Jonathan hesitated. “Just remind her that I’m a magic consultant and she can call me if she needs one,” he said. “I don’t want to oversell my usefulness here. I can maybe give some insight into dealing with magical defenses, but the Order is unpredictable. I never know when they’re going to be brilliant and when they’re going to be completely incompetent.”

Emma frowned. “How do you mean?”

“Well,” Jonathan gestured behind himself to the spell printouts taped to the wall, “these are a work of genius, and I’m not just saying that because I can’t crack them. Original, ruthless, elegant, efficient. As horrifying as they are in application, they’re a masterpiece of spellcraft. But on the other hand, the Order seem totally incapable of predicting big picture level issues.”

“Like what?” Emma asked.

“For starters,” Jonathan said, “did they really think the people of Europe wouldn’t resist, just because our militaries were caught off guard and we lost our superheroes? What, we were all going to just go along with living in a fascist regime that intentionally cut us off from the rest of the world?” Emma shrugged. “And that’s another thing,” Jonathan continued, “the superheroes. The Order was completely blindsided by the superheroes that arose post-occupation. They clearly had no plan in place for dealing with them. In Paris the Order has only just started figuring out how to fight you kids effectively, and it doesn’t sound like they’ve been doing much better in other cities, either.”

“To be fair,” Emma said, “there’s been almost thirty new ones in only a few months. It’s unprecedented.”

“Unprecedented, yes, but it’s still predictable. What did they think was going to happen when they took all the current superheroes out of circulation, that there just wouldn’t be superheroes anymore? Magic abhors a vacuum, and for better or worse superheroes are currently a natural part of… I don’t know, whatever the magical equivalent of an ecosystem is. You can’t just get rid of them and not expect any backlash.”

Before Emma could think of a response, she heard her grandmother shouting her name. With a quick wave to her uncle, Emma hopped off the desk and rushed out of the room, following the sound of her grandmother’s voice. She eventually found both grandparents down the east wing, in the room containing all the main controls for the security system.

“What’s wrong?”

Adele and Gabriel were both frowning at the feed of a security camera. “Maybe nothing,” Adele said cautiously. She pointed to the screen. “There’s somebody at the country manor.”

Emma leaned forward, studying the footage. Now that she was looking closely, Emma recognized the front door. She didn’t, however, recognize the middle-aged man standing in front of it, ringing the doorbell repeatedly and trying to look through the drawn curtains of the front windows.

“Is he Order?” Emma asked nervously.

“Unlikely,” her grandfather replied, scowling. “If the Order had traced the Resistance back to that address, we’d all be in custody right now. They wouldn’t send a lone agent to walk right up to the front door and ring the bell.”

“Our best guess is that he got the address from someone you smuggled out of Paris,” Adele said.

“But we never let anyone know where the manor was,” Emma said. “I just teleported people in and out of the room in the basement.”

“Someone must have violated our clearly stated protocol and left a cell phone on with GPS tracking,” Gabriel replied, his scowl deepening.

“He must need to get in touch with the Resistance,” Adele said. “It could be terribly important, Gabriel.”

“It couldn’t be as important as the measures we take to ensure the children’s anonymity,” her husband replied angrily. “This idiot may very well be endangering the lives of Adrien’s children.”

“Well,” Adele said, “if that’s so, we’ll deal with it. It’s already done. We might as well see what he wants.” She looked at Emma expectantly.

“Right,” Emma said, trying not to feel too apprehensive. “Rajji, feathers out.”

~~~

The man at the door had turned around and started to head back to his truck by the time Gabriel opened the door. “Can I help you?” Gabriel asked, his voice ice cold.

The man turned around, surprised. “Oh!” he said brightly. “Gosh, I could’ve sworn this place was abandoned. The lights are out, there’s no car, the-”

“If you thought there was no one here, why did you ring the doorbell?” Gabriel interrupted impatiently.

“Oh, just putting off disappointing the lady, I suppose,” the man said easily. “She seemed like she’d been through a lot, I wasn’t really looking forward to waking her up and telling her-”

“What lady?”

“Well, I didn’t ask her name and frankly I don’t want to know it,” the man replied, his tone still friendly. “I’m not really looking to join the Resistance or anything, you understand? But when I run right into someone that needs my help, well,” he shrugged, “what else is a guy supposed to do?”

Gabriel glanced over at the man’s truck. Emma did her best to follow his gaze, but both her grandparents were blocking the doorway and keeping her behind them rather insistently, so she couldn’t get a good look. “And this woman who needed your help, she asked you to bring her here?” Gabriel asked.

“Well at first she said Paris, but I told her getting in there would be impossible, what with the checkpoints and her obviously being an escapee from one of those resistance prison camps. I mean nobody’s supposed to know where they are, of course, but I’d heard a rumor there’s one somewhere near where I picked her up. Anyway I explained, so she asked if I couldn’t bring her here, instead. And it was only an hour out of my way so I-”

“Would you mind trying that again?” Adele interrupted harshly, crossing her arms. “I’m very good at telling when people are lying to me, and I don’t appreciate it.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Okay, you caught me, it was more like five hours. But don’t tell her that, I don’t want her to feel like she’s a bother or anything, you know? Girl’s in rough shape, and I might not be Resistance material but I’m happy to help a patriot however I can. I was happy to drive her here, even if she did fall asleep five minutes after I picked her up.”

Gabriel sighed and turned to Adele, dropping his voice so the man couldn’t overhear. “No deception?”

“No,” Adele replied. “But we’d still better find out if the woman told him anything else dangerous.” She looked back at the man and raised her voice. “Did this woman say anything else?” she asked him. “How she knew about this house, perhaps?”

The man looked confused. “She said it belonged to her mother-in-law,” he told Adele. “I assume that’s you?”

For a second, all three Agrestes stared at the man in complete and utter shock. It was Emma who snapped out of it first, shoving forcefully past her grandparents and running for the parked truck as fast as she could.

After four months of teleportation, the ten seconds it took Emma to reach the passenger side door of the truck felt like an agonizing eternity. Every frantic footfall felt to Emma like she was taking it through molasses, and she could feel each quarter of second distinctly. Finally, finally she reached the door, colliding into it with a loud bang. Marinette’s eyes flew open as Emma flung the door open.

“Mom!”

There was a half-second of disorientation before Marinette woke up fully. “Emma! Oh, sweetheart!” Marinette threw her arms around her daughter and hugged her tightly. “You’re safe? You’re okay?”

Emma nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

“And Dani? Louis?”

“We’re fine, everyone’s fine, we just-Oh, Mama, we missed you so much, we were so worried! We tried so hard to figure out where you were but we couldn’t, and-” Emma stopped mid-sentence, practically gulping air, trying desperately not to trip over her words through the tears.

“Shh, baby, it’s okay,” Marinette said, pressing her daughter’s head to her chest and stroking her hair gently. “It’s all going to be okay now.”

Emma nodded, and took a few seconds to slow her breathing down to a normal rate. “Dad?” she finally asked, in a nervous whisper.

Her mother sighed. “He’s alive,” she told Emma, who sighed in relief. “We couldn’t both make it out, though.” Marinette glanced over towards the manor, where the man who’d picked her up was watching them, along with Emma’s grandparents. She looked back at Emma. “I’ll tell you everything once we’re inside, okay?”

Nodding, Emma stepped back to allow her mother to exit the car. Marinette swayed as she stood, and Emma immediately put a supporting arm around her mother’s waist. “Sorry, sweetie,” Marinette said, leaning on her daughter. “I… the last few days have been rough, I guess they took more out of me than I realized.”

“It’s okay,” Emma said, trying not to think about how light her mother felt as they both walked back to the manor.

~~~

The second they were all safely back in the manor, there was a high-pitched squeal of excitement and a small blue figure launching itself at Marinette, landing squarely on her nose. “You’re back, you’re back!”

“Rajji!” Emma snapped, annoyed.

Gabriel reached over and calmly pulled the kwami off his daughter-in-law’s face. “Rajji, we just got the woman back, it would be a shame if you suffocated her now,” he said dryly.

Marinette smiled. “It’s alright,” she said. “It’s nice to see you again, Rajji.” Rajji beamed at her from Gabriel’s grasp.

“Adrien?” Adele asked. “Is he-”

“He helped me escape,” Marinette said, leaning against the door. “Adele, Gabriel, I’m so sorry, if there’d been any way we could have both gotten out-”

“Oh!” Adele covered her mouth with her hand and she started crying. It took Emma a second to realize the tears were happy ones. “Our son is alive,” she whispered. “Gabriel, our son is alive.” Gabriel put an arm around his wife, and he didn’t cry or even smile but the relief on his face was obvious.

“So if Rajji’s here,” Marinette said slowly, “I’m guessing you’ve all just come from Paris, and Dani and Louis are back there waiting?” She looked at Gabriel. “Why did you bring Emma?” she asked.

“Ah.” Gabriel glanced at his granddaughter, then looked back at Marinette. “I’m afraid it would be inaccurate to say that I brought Emma.”

Marinette blinked in confusion for a moment, and then her expression fell as she looked at her daughter. “Oh,” she said softly. “I see.”

“I’m sorry,” Emma said immediately, without thinking. Marinette’s eyes widened.

“Oh, no, baby,” she said quickly, hugging Emma, “I’m sorry, that wasn’t-I should have reacted better, don’t think I’m disappointed, I couldn’t be prouder, honest, I did hope you’d get one, I just-oh, I wanted to keep you safe first! Until you were an adult, not until after you’d had a normal childhood, that’s all.”

Sighing, Emma hugged her mother back. “I understand,” she said. “But Dani and Louis might take it personally, so maybe get your disappointment out of your system first, before I take us all back.”

“Don’t worry, sweetie, I can hide it,” Marinette told Emma.

“Um. Well, no, actually, you can’t,” Emma said. “Not from Dani, anyway. Not anymore.”

There was a pause. “I think maybe I’d better sit down for a second,” Marinette finally said.

“You know, I would have brought them if I’d known it was you,” Emma said as her mother eased herself onto a nearby chair, “but the security camera only faced the door, so we didn’t realize-and Dani’s exhausted from her last Champion, and Louis-” Emma gasped. “Shoot, Louis! I’d better-” she pulled her phone out of her pocket and frantically texted her brother.

“Don’t say anything about-”

“No kidding,” Emma interrupted her grandmother impatiently. “I’m just telling him to come back to the mansion, that’s all.” Emma noticed her mother’s look of confusion. “The Order reads everything,” Emma explained. “We have a warded burner phone for communicating with the Resistance, but if we warded our phones and the Order wasn’t able to read our messages they’d get suspicious, so we just let them and don’t send anything incriminating.”

Marinette nodded slowly. “And… and the Order is…?”

“Oh,” Emma said. “Right. They’re, um, the guys who kidnapped all the superheroes. They’re kind of, uh, running everything at the moment. Like… government-wise.”

“I see.” Marinette took a breath and let it out slowly. “What’s your brother doing?”

“Uh. Well, actually, he’s kind of out scouting for your replacement,” Emma said apologetically.

Marinette frowned. “Why?”

“We didn’t exactly know you’d be breaking out, dear,” Adele said. “Things have gotten a bit more urgent lately, and we thought an inferior Ladybug might still be better than none at all.”

“No,” Marinette said slowly, “I mean why is Louis out scouting?”

There was a moment of hesitation, and then Gabriel sighed. “Because managing the Miraculouses and selecting holders is now one of his many responsibilities,” he said.

Marinette closed her eyes and took another deep breath. “Where’s Fu?” she asked, her tone overly controlled.

“Nobody’s seen him,” Adele said, annoyed. “The kids found their boxes in your kitchen the day you and Adrien disappeared.”

“Unbelievable,” Marinette muttered. She opened her eyes and looked up at her daughter. “I can only imagine how much more there is to tell me,” she said, “but let’s go home first, okay?”

~~~

“Dani!” Emma shook her sister roughly.

Still half asleep, Dani groaned and swatted her sister away. “Quit it,” she mumbled.

“Dani!”

Dani finally woke up enough to register her sister’s emotional state, and then she sat up immediately. “What? What is it?” She frowned at her sister. “Why are you transformed?”

Instead of answering, Emma grabbed her sister’s hand and teleported them both downstairs, to where their mother was waiting. Marinette jumped a little, but stayed seated on the couch. “Hi, Danielle,” she said. “I’m sorry, I’d get up, but since the escape I’ve been running on adrenaline for the past few days and it’s all kind of catching up to-” she stopped talking as Dani launched herself at her mother, hugging her and sobbing wordlessly. Marinette hugged Dani tightly and closed her eyes as she kissed her daughter’s forehead.

“How,” Dani finally managed to say, “How did you…”

Before Marinette could answer, they heard the front door open. “Guys?” Louis called from the foyer.

“In here!” Emma shouted.

“What’s going on?” he shouted back, his voice getting closer. “What’s so important that you-” Louis stopped talking abruptly as he entered the room and saw his mother.

“Hi, Louis,” Marinette said. For a long moment, Louis just stared at his mother, frozen, as though he were looking at a ghost. “Are you okay, sweetie?” she asked gently.

Slowly, Louis nodded. He walked towards her as Dani wiped the tears from her face and pulled away to give Louis space. He bent down and hugged his mother tightly.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Marinette murmured, kissing Louis’ cheek, “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too, Mom,” Louis whispered back. He scrunched up his face and a few tears escaped his eyes. “And I’m really, really sorry about this.”

Marinette frowned. “Sorry about-”

Before she could finish the question, Louis had touched his mother’s temple. Her eyes closed as she fell back onto the couch, unconscious.

[streamingthruamerica]

California stopped us right in our tracks. We had just crossed the Oregon state-line, only to be unexpectedly diverted to a border patrol checkpoint.

“What could we have possibly smuggled into California from Oregon that would need further inspection? Maybe they’re looking for the coyote who’s been running Canadians into the States?” I posed.

“More likely, there’s a bounty or some kind of quota for captured Mexicans,” Leah contributed.

Ahead of us, the RV from Nevada was being questioned. He pulled away, and then it was our turn.

Waiving us forward, “Wow,” the California agent exclaimed. “You guys are all the way from New Jersey?”

I’m almost certain his eyes lit up behind his dark glasses. “Do you know anything about gypsy moths?” he asked.

“We are, and I do,” I responded to both questions.

“Well then, since you won’t be needing this brochure about gypsy moths, would you do me the favor of pulling up to those cones over there,” he indicated, “and I’ll have an officer come by to check things out in a jiffy. We won’t keep you very long.”

“Are we really getting checked for moths?” I asked rhetorically, as I crept to the cones.

“I don’t know,” Leah admitted, “but I can see two guys in my mirror, and they’re coming up to the Airstream, and one of them is carrying something big, but I can’t make it out.”

“I suppose it makes sense, considering the importance of protecting America’s timber land,” I stated. “In fact, what this country needs is a net. The United States government should cast a tremendous net over America’s airspace to protect us from immigrant leaf-eaters that only mean to do us harm. These are very bad bugs–the worst you’ll ever find anywhere–and these bugs have to be stopped before they threaten the security of this great country. Believe me. Thank you very much.” I campaigned.

“And this net…are you gonna get the bugs to pay for it?” Leah mused.

The inspector set the car dolly on the ground and crab-walked around the Airstream undercarriage while on his back, poking around with his fingers and a flashlight. He started on the left side of the Airstream, and I followed him as he scooted under the tail to the other side for more of the same.

After completing the circle, he stood and declared, “All clean. These campers are completely sealed. Those guys do a good job.”

“And made in America!” I chimed in.

He stamped my official Certificate of Inspection, and bid us safe travels.

Certified predator-free, we were now permitted to resume our journey throughout California, with Redwood National Park as our first stop.

Redwood National Park is a splinter of a park that hugs the rocky northern coast, and reaches across the Yurok Reservation and reciprocating California State Park affiliates.

Because Redwood is not a traditional National Park, it can easily get under your skin. Navigating through the blurred lines of park boundaries always had me wondering if we were “in” the park or not, as we rode Redwood Highway through forests and meadows to beaches and towns.

Unlike other parks, there is no entrance fee, but then again, there’s also no practical way of collecting a fee when the road is open to all traffic.

We set up camp on the bank of the Klamath River,

and explored in earnest the following day when we followed the river to the estuary,

where a family of barking sea lions,

  and humans…

…frolicked in the sea spray and sea foam.

We continued our hike along the Coastal Trail, with views north…

…and south of High Bluff overlook.

“I miss the ocean,” I confessed to Leah. “There’s something serene about staring into the surf.”

Although three months had passed since visiting the Jersey shore, I was immediately transported back to a familiar scene of waves rhythmically crashing against the rocks.

“Let’s go find some redwoods,” Leah advocated, pulling me out of my trance.

We branched out to a deeper part of the jigsawn park, and settled on a grove of giants dedicated to the beatification efforts of Lady Bird Johnson by Richard Nixon.

With ancient redwoods as old as 2500 years and reaching upwards of 380 feet, the notion of something bigger than oneself becomes more than a literal interpretation.

How fortunate we felt to be bathed in streaming shafts of light–dancing between feathered limbs, and flickering in the balmy breeze.

There’s much to learn from trees that have survived the dinosaur. Redwoods are a family of trees that share root ancestry to keep them anchored. They propagate by seed or by sprout, and are known to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the younger and stronger sibling.

The redwood’s bark may grow to two feet in thickness to protect itself from fire damage. However, repeated fires can eventually penetrate through the bark, leaving the tree to rot out from the core,

and yet…it may still survive.

Even in death, there is a twisted beauty to be found in its decomposition.

At the dedication ceremony to honor Lady Bird Johnson, President Nixon intoned,

…to stand here in this grove of redwoods, to realize what a few moments of solitude in this magnificent place can mean, what it can mean to a man who is President, what it can mean to any man or any woman who needs time to get away from whatever may be the burdens of all of our tasks, and then that renewal that comes from it…

As I strolled through the grove surrounded by God’s fingers, oh, how I prayed that Donald Trump could take Nixon’s advice, and listen to the trees’ whispers for just “a few moments”.

Redwoods and Blue Seas California stopped us right in our tracks. We had just crossed the Oregon state-line, only to be unexpectedly diverted to a border patrol checkpoint.

[fishphobic]

Dynasty Warriors 9 - 65 Hours Thoughts

It’s time to lay down thoughts on this game after 65 hours, trying in and out as many things as possible without being rushy. Overall impression to begin this thoughts, I enjoyed the 65 hours I have had with DW9 and am still looking forward to play the game again. So far I’ve finished two stories (Sun Jian and Sun Ce) with Chaos difficulty activated and currently sitting in Chapter 5.

1. Story

I no longer care about story in video games because that’s not what I’m looking for when playing a game. But this game managed catch my attention to the story although the quality of the conversation scene is using a very simple Japanese RPG-esque method. One thing that catched my attention is how the three factions didn’t just being all about them from the beginning to end. They instead have relationship with each other. They were able to relate to one another before slowly cracking apart. Not only that, just like in real life, there is always a conflict, disagreement, suspicions inside a company. The characters feel more natural because of this.

2. How the Tale Blends into the Missions 

While the story is enjoyable, some of the missions can be awkward. I think it can be as awkward as DW4. Sometimes when I look at the map and see the positioning, I can’t help to think: “But why…?”. For example in The Pursuit in Chang Ban, Zhang Fei is already holding off Zhang Liao and Xiahou Dun at Chang Ban bridge while Liu Bei and the rest are still trying to run from the opposing army. What were Xiahou Dun and Zhang Liao chasing at that point if Liu Bei’s fellows were behind them? Another example in the same mission, Zhuge Liang would be standing by somewhere far behind after helping some peasants crossing the river. In Coalition Army mission, the story says that going directly to Luoyang is dangerous due to tight security. But the Wu generals in fact standing by there already instead of going through the famous gates. Other than this, I wouldn’t bring up tale altering stuff as this is normal to happen in DW, such as Zhang Fei blocking the bridge with shields instead of destroying it (I think it’s just technical difficulty) or Guan Yu didn’t come using the backup army ship.

Outside of those, some story side missions can be nice and covering short story, such as Liao Hua’s and Zhang Liao sending a letter from Cao Cao. When I played Chang Ban mission with Zhao Yun, wandering around in rushy manner behind everybody else completing side missions point to point to rescue friends felt as awesome as I would read in his tales.

Overall in my opinion, some missions may need a time constraint to push the thrill of the lore. There is also the need to have either force/individual based side missions as well. Of course, side missions are optional and can be used to have fun altering the game lore that instead of X doing A, Y does it. But perhaps there can be a list of ‘Important Mission’ for the character to have a focus on while still can choose to take the lore-breaking side missions. I had my fun beating doped-up Lu Bu at Hulao Gate with Sun Jian, but I would love to have my Sun Jian his own specific tasks in that battle.

3. Range of Weapon and Their Movesets

The kinds of weapon offered in this game brings back to the nuance of PS2-era DW feel. Many moves have been re-done and/or added in the respect of the humbled-down moveset design. Some of my favorites are Spear and General’s Sword. A lot of movesets are cloned/shared, although there are unique ones to a certain extent, but I guess this time I could exempt it at the expense of a more beautiful animation. Even though gimmick is gone, thanks to the moveset and its less exaggerated attack range and suck-in effect, some weapons are more suitable to fight against crowd while some others are more towards lesser enemy. 

Speaking of animation, clone and unique ones, it’s a bit of double-edged in my eyes. At one side, the shared animations are more of a generic-esque, making the weapon switch feature to work in a more neutral sense without any feel of making a character turning into another with a chopped-off moveset. Equipping Yue Ying with a Sword/Dao or General’s Sword didn’t make her acting like Sima Zhao or Cao Cao or Xu Shu. She looks like she knows how to use said weapons in a more common knowledge style. And so we can see on the flip side, these movesets are sadly also done and shared by the owners, although more in a DW5 manner.

There are unique moves sprinkled around the characters. But there is no fixed standard on the number it. Some characters may have less for whatever reason.

So in one hand, I personally feel this game has the best weapon switch experience for not forcing you to do it and doesn’t make characters behaving like the owner of the weapon. On the other hand, the moveset would be better if it was fully personalized. They have proven that they can with the existing unique moves. I also wish for a generic version of a Special Attack and Musou attack when using another weapon and also a different set of generic moves for every weapon types.

4. State Combo and Combat

The most flexible and fluid combo system so far. Essentially similar to (older) Samurai Warriors’ Charge system with the first Triangles in a charged attack string being the Trigger Attacks and the follow up Triangles being the follow up Flow Attacks, with basic Square string being the basic Flow Attack. Long story short: Same thing, different buttons, more combo friendly with the ability to smoothly override previous moves with Trigger Attack and/or Reactive Attack which would change accordingly up to seven different situations.

By playing in Chaos, I am expected to learn the combat quickly. Trigger Attacks and Reactive Attacks are needed to manipulate the enemy as tight as possible before they get back at you with unflinching armor as well as dodging their punishing attacks. I find Trigger Attack plays a big role in my Chaos fights. Charging it is needed at times to flinch an enemy, though doing it recklessly my cause them to find an open spot on you instead. No doubt DW9 provides me an intense combat I’ve never felt before in DW or SW.

I think State Combo system is alright for crowd fight, but more awesome for one-on-one fight, which coincidentally brings back duel to the table.

5. AI

Even after 60 hours, I still can’t tell what makes what with the AI. The AI is very bipolar. The enemy sometimes would vigorously fight, even when that means ganking on you like in older Warriors game, with enemy soldiers interrupt you now and then. At the same time, sometimes they can just stand there and dodge roll.

So far I can tell is that there are many grades to the enemy AI with titled enemies such as Captains are the type that are easier to manipulate and counter, while unique generals are the real deal fighters who would move fast, have a lot of defense, power, and agility. Generic named generals sometimes can be in between from these two. From my experience, the ally’s AI would be the most awful sight to see although at the same time, they could fight in a very chaotic manner, while also can be as bad as standing and letting enemy goes.

6. World and Content

I love open world games and I love travelling in the open world. But that doesn’t mean open world games always wins my heart. DW9′s open world however wins mine, or should I say better than some famous action open world games out there. 

For example, when I ride my horse to do the next task, I will run into streaks of raw material that will automatically obtained by running over it. And in the travel, I may run into a pack of feral or docile animals; or sometimes bandit group, which I can decide to kill them for some quality rewards. Continuing the travel, I will see the army are marching. I will see captured and contested checkpoints, bases, towns, etc. Should my character be injured after a random fight or mission, coming across a village/town/city and meet a vendor-and-craft-lady to patch me up is a big blessing. Or maybe stop at a bonfire or decide to fish for some luck getting expensive junks to sell or ingredients to cook for buffs before taking on some side quests from the army or civilians and many more..

To put it in another words, the world gives me something to do that everything leads back to my progress and development in the game. I don’t go around collecting hundreds of crap just for the sake of collection. Everything is linked to something that helps me improvise to accomplish the core part of the game, which is to fight and win in the war itself.

Overall above all the complaints I have for this game, I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. This is absolutely the DW that I used to know; it’s hated, it brings fun, and this time it’s like it just brushed its teeth with mint toothpaste - it’s fresh!